Upton Sinclair self-published a book called The Brass Check in 1919, 13 years after The Jungle. The brass check was the coin used in whorehouses. The customer went up to see the madam and he would pay his two bucks—this was long before inflation—and receive a brass check, which he would give to the girl. And at the end of… return to article
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Reader Comments (54)Page 1 of 1 pages1- Nobody reported Byrd’s rantings b/c he’s an idiot. Former Klansman and he even used the “N” word in an interview last year. I don’t have time for people from the KKK.
2- Blaming Oprah for Arnold’s victory is ridiculous. The state with the most Democrats in elected office now has the most problems in the entire union. The people of California overwhemingly rejected liberalism and instituted commonsense moderation. In contrast, Colorado has, quite arguably, the least amount of difficulties right now. Want to guess who’s been running that state?
3- Name one abuse- one specific American- that has been harmed under the Patriot Act. Not “this could happen” - but “John Doe had this done to him”. Weigh that against the increased security we have from expanded federal powers to stop terrorists from murdering innocent Americans.
4- “almost liberation dayî? For who? Certainly not the desperate Iraqi people with Saddam’s boot on their necks. Liberation?! You’re rooting for continuing despair, rape rooms, and no civil rights whatsoever for the Iraqi people.
You’re right, we do need to turn the country around. In California we have seen the effects of lefties- and what we can do to make a positive change.
Posted by Ted on Oct 22, 2003 at 12:34 PM I’m going to forward this article all over the place.
Posted by George Stroebel on Oct 22, 2003 at 1:00 PM Dean is a trojan horse for the progressive movement...his crime is worse for the same reasons that this article condemns the “mainstream” media harder than the rightwing media....Dean is almost exactly the same as Lieberman except Lieberman is honest about his stances…
If Dean gets nomination I VOTE GREEN !!! voting for someone like Dean is like going down without a fight…
Posted by tony nemil on Oct 22, 2003 at 1:17 PM Dear Mr. Terkel,
I am glad I read your article today. I, too, like Dennis Kucinich best of all the candidates. Thanks for the well-put ideas, once again. You are right. Ashcroft is 300 years old. When will we ever learn? The media and the government have been bought and sold by persons known as corporations, abetted by persons who are human and should be better citizens. I am almost at despair, except the people I know are good at heart, but lack facts of any kind.
Posted by Carol Christen on Oct 22, 2003 at 2:21 PM Mr. Turkel is correct in going beyond the question, “What must be done”, that is the conventional question asked when the stinking underbelly of reality is suddenly and cripplingly revealed and it’s proponents try to force it down a free peoples’ collective throat. The quesation should be, “How can it be done?”, because the, “what”, is, or should be alreready abundantly apparent to anyone who doesn’t live in fantasyland or isn’t part of the problem. What is to be done is to first wake up and confront the truth of the present zeitgeist. Once awakened, the awakened must forget about enslaving paradigms such as political parties and vote for the candidate who clearly and truthfully, without circumvention, answers to the issues and dilemmas crippling our society. This can be accomplished by first of all shutting off the mainstream media and to begin looking for the truth elsewhere, i.e., the internet. Then begins the process of elimination which is simplified by the awareness of any candidate’s inability to answer specific questions with forthright, specific and substantial replies. Then it falls upon all citizens to honor and fight for that which they are personally responsibe as individuals. to wit: to assure, by stringent vigilance and intense education that the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and all it’s amendments are upheld by anyone seeking a representative authority as stewards trusted in faith to act in accordance to those miraculous, unprecedented documents: The Constitution and Bill Of Rights of The United States Of America!
Posted by Dom Mastroserio on Oct 22, 2003 at 2:25 PM Studs Turkel is correct. History is so important and relevant.
I cannot recall reading any comment that FDR or his Vice President ever made that instilled fear or used fear as a tactic to achieve political or personal objectives.
I cannot recall reading any comment that Abraham Lincoln made that fostered fear in the young republic.
I do recall these Presidents along with JFK asking for sacrifice and committment on the part of all Americans.
I do recall that the world observed the United States as a beacon of hope leading the fight for democratic principles.
Unfortunately, we have a couple of generations that witnessed the attack on government by “Leaders” like Nixon, Reagan and Bush that use simple phrases that are divisive to the whole.
It was Big Government that saved Capitalism and it will be Big Government that will save the disparity caused by the former Presidents that resulted in a divisive wedge in this country between the haves and the have nots....
We lost a wonderful opportunity (and a lot of money because of this war) to restore the financial footing of social security for the elderly and to create a legitimate health care system for all Americans. Unfortunately, we are suckered once again by a deficit spending leadership whose only purpose is to shrink government for their own greedy interests. While at the same time calling the Democrats a tax and spend party. Well the taxes are required after the party is over because of the few that overindulged.
My friends it is time the true patriots stand up and be counted. Studs Turkel is right. We need to listen to the “extreme” elements to bring us back to the center. Clearly we cannot continue to spend spend spend on toys for war that prove beyond a doubt the irrelevance of such weapons in a time when the instruments of peace far out weigh the instruments of war.
We have to challenge this government and ourselves and find leaders like Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Phillip Hart, Paul Douglas and the Paul Wellstones committed to the proposition that a healthy tide raises all boats secure in the thought that we will sail on to a society rich from want and hopeful in preserving the true ideals that our forefathers created over two centuries ago. We have a long journey but let us in this time and this generation take the first steps necessary to get the job done by voting these guys out of office.
Thank you Mr. Turkel for your thought provoking article.
Posted by Mike McIntyre on Oct 22, 2003 at 2:42 PM Great story! I don’t know a whole lot about Mr. Terkel, but I sure do like the way he thinks. And, judging by the comments, I am glad to see a lot of others do too.
Posted by Sue on Oct 22, 2003 at 3:17 PM The comments of our right wing friend Ted (below) are a wonderful example of the way folks on the right think.
1. Byrd had a checkered past to be sure. But from the man’s politics, it is quite evident that throughout his career, we have seen a real growth of character. Opposing the nazification of America (Patriot Acts 1&2;) is a good indicator. I’ll take your word for KKK membership however. After all, Jessie Helms, David Duke, and every sheet wearing pinhead seem to also be GOP members.
2. Yes Ted, the state of California is strongly democratic. However, many of the economic problems they have had are the result of legislation and removal of regulation supported by the right. The de-regulation of California’s energy market allowed Enron Kenny and a host of other pirates screw the people of California out of BILLIONS. Studs comments were directed at the cult of celebrity that the media worships at the expense of real news. The fact that you don’t seem to be aware of the negative effect of deregulation makes me think Studs made an excellent point.
3. Jose Padilla. The guy is rotting in a DoD brig without access to legal council. The liberal media isn’t real good at giving us names of the others who have been ‘disappeared’ by field marshall Ashcroft. There have been many other reports of abuses by Immigration, the FBI, and state and local police as well. Again, that darn liberal media doesn’t seem to be helping to inform you much. Still, you only asked for one name and I’ve given that to you.
4. Those desperate Iraqi people you reference don’t seem to feel very liberated do they? As a matter of fact, they seem to deeply resent having the US in their country. The chosen man (by the US) Chalabi is a wanted man in Jordan (embezzled $22M) and faces 30 years in prison if he returns there. Something tells me that he and his friends in the Bush administration are the last people to secure ANYONE’S civil rights.Always good to hear from an intelligent and well informed guy though. Thanks for sharing.
Hey to Rush.
Posted by Tim Ferguson on Oct 22, 2003 at 3:57 PM Mr. Terkel: I have more than a dozen brass checks (that I did not actually earn, you understand) and would be happy to send you one that would also be good for a “bath and beans.” As for the election(s) ... I think it is time to turn around the process and put party before personalities. Where’s a good old “smoke-filled room” when we need one, with party people who know what they are doing? Primaries have become nothing more than beauty pageants! And, the one with the most money wins. What’s wrong with this picture?? Everything.
Posted by Gerrie Blum on Oct 22, 2003 at 4:26 PM It appears Democrats can’t get behind one candidate and support him/her.
That, and a whole lot of money is what’s needed to win.
Better get started, you’re running out of time.
Posted by mcpat on Oct 22, 2003 at 6:42 PM thanks--for the saying “hope dies last---everything is possible
Posted by marian gonzales on Oct 22, 2003 at 10:01 PM After rereading my post I do feel that it was, well, a bit harsh. I always read what Studs says b/c I know that the best writer that ever lived - Mike Royko - completely respected him.
Anyway, to reply again in my drivel-
1-David Duke is an idiot that has no post, no power, no respect. Byrd is the “dean of the Senate”. Worshipped for his knowledge by Democrats. Too bad he hates Jews and Blacks.
2- Do the math on California and Enron. How can that even possibly come close to over 1K of dept for every single person living in the state?! That’s utterly ridiculous.
3-I knew Jose would be the go to guy on that one. Fine. I’ll grant you victory on that. Oh wait. Was he held before Patriot? Does Patriot have anything to do with enemy combatants? How about, just for the sake of it- 1 more person? An actual, harmed person?
4-Kurds don’t feel liberated?! Marsh Arabs not liberated?! Women raped (or would be) by Qusai and Oday not liberated?! I guess we should all follow KKK Byrd and not care about those of a different skin color on this planet. Let’s not spend money, let’s be intimidated by attacks from a tiny minority of Islamic fundamentalists, let’s just care about ourselves.
Posted by Ted on Oct 22, 2003 at 10:05 PM Great article Studs, you are da man. I have run into so many people who say they love DJK (a.k.a. Dennis J. Kucinich, wonderboy of the new millenium) and then they say he’ll never get elected. I met Bob Baugh, big wig union guy in D.C. who said a big group of them even wanted to vote for Dennis. If the ballot read Bush or Kucinich, everyone would vote for Kucinich. It kills me how people complain how corrupt our whole society is and how Dennis totally has they right ideas, then they are too scared to vote for him. Wake up people, and take a stand. There are no other safe bets in the Democratic Party. Bless you Studs Terkel.
Posted by Robin Mayo on Oct 22, 2003 at 11:05 PM It’s guys like Studs that keep hope alive in a guy like me. We need more who are willing to fight for the ordinary wokring people.
Posted by Ho ward Scott on Oct 23, 2003 at 8:53 AM It is the people who vote not the polls. Dennis Kucinich can WIN.
GO DENNIS
Posted by Greg Wiley on Oct 23, 2003 at 1:16 PM 1-um, what? could you explain that one?
2- I said “Colorado has the least amount of difficulties"- not that it’s eden. Sorry to hear your fireman had to take a paycut but we are in a recession right now. You have the lowest budget deficit, well ranked schools (again proving education is not only about money), less poverty than other communities, etc. etc.
3- I didn’t say “Padilla” b/c it was just so staggeringly obvious. “Arny”? Why don’t you do the research on him- you must need to if you don’t know his last name.
4- The Republican who most represents me got stomped?! Did you see the election results? Arnold- the moderate Republican just like me- absoltely obliterated the Democrats. Way to go California! Your Trojan Horse theory is interesting in that...uh, sorry. That’s just pretty silly.
Thanks for the lecture in the end. I had no idea it was o.k. to disagree or that we would have a lot in common. Just no idea. And I’m just so tightly wound. But I am soooo cool too.
Posted by Ted on Oct 23, 2003 at 1:27 PM Hey Ted.... How about you take a nice drink of shut the hell up?
Moron. Yeah, let’s go steal all the rest of the oil in the world for our SUVS.
Studs- You rule. And love the name!
Posted by Kolbs on Oct 23, 2003 at 2:28 PM C.J. and Ted- 1 posting per! You sound like children.
Great article! Will definitely pass this on.
Posted by Jordan on Oct 23, 2003 at 4:42 PM Good article, but you’re dreamiing if you think Bush’s handlers would ever let him go up against any Democratic candidate in a debate!
Posted by Carol W. on Oct 23, 2003 at 5:25 PM Arnold got free press that the other candidates didn’t get—and that’s a FACT. And it sounds like someone below is watching too much of the right-winged mainstream media. Not surprised. They are the most misinformed about the real story of WHY we went into Iraq. They keep kidding themselves because then they don’t have to do anything about it. It’s a lazy cop-out.
For the rest of us who truly care our the state we live and our country AND the world, we WILL keep active. We owe it to ourselves and our country. Mr. Terkel is 100% right.
We can’t let the criminal mentality of the media control our beautiful country and hand it over to the thugs on the right.
Posted by Diane on Oct 23, 2003 at 7:20 PM C.J.- nice intellectual reply. Way to reply to the issues.
Yeah, and you definitely have me on the run. You sound frustrated, but I don’t think you even understand the half of it.
Soft money bill passed (against Republican wishes by the way). We’re now raising 2X what the Dems can do.
K street moving wholesale to conservative lobbyists.
FOX news #1 rated news outlet.
At least 2 Supreme court positions will be filled with young conservatives. There is no way you’ll get that bench liberal in the next 25 years.
Your left-wing primary voters will undoubtedly put up somebody too far to the left to plausibly beat George. Besides, checked his fundraising yet?
I can definitely promise you this CJ. Conservatives ain’t on the run- and won’t be for awhile.
Take it easy-Ted
Posted by Ted on Oct 24, 2003 at 8:16 AM Great artical, thank you Studs.
Voting at the ballot may or may not work anymore given the new move to computerise the election process. One thing is certian however, We can and do vote with our dollars. Boycott Walmart, run biodiese in your car, by slow fodd thus lessoning the power of the oil barrons In short. Think!
This country is a reflection of the dreams we particpate in. Dream a new dream and be willing to sacrifice a little to follow that dream.
Posted by sparrow on Oct 24, 2003 at 1:15 PM “Now is the time to act, and, thus, become what we were born to beóthinking, active citizens of a democratic society.”
Well said!
PS - Whether or not the claims about Robert Byrd are factual, one thing is for sure: He was the only one that had the juice to stand up to that odious document known as the Patriot Act - when the rest of our elected representatives were letting Ashcroft shred the Bill of Rights on the floor, and anyone who questioned the judgement of the President was being called a traitor - an opposing point of view is what we were paying the people of congress to represent. Byrd was the only one that stood up to this unconsitutional piece of garbage, a document that basically shits on the freedoms that so many Americans have fought and died for! Their sacrifices have been dishonored by an AWOL President - and a GOP one, to make the irony almost too much to bear. . .
Here’s a thought: Don’t believe in the freedom to make a private phone call, write a private letter or watch TV in the privacy of your own home? What about getting rid of a free press and the right to protest? Then go to Cuba, Russia or China. People who stood against freedom used to be called, “commies.”
So here’s what I say to people who want to America to lose her freedoms under the facade of some rediculous label like the “Patriot Act”: Love it or leave it, you commie pinko scumbags. . . And leave America to the real Americans who appreciate her freedoms.
Posted by Ed Mellon on Oct 24, 2003 at 6:15 PM hey studs- are you too busy cashing in your brass checks to report on the fact that dennis and dean will get us crushed?
wes clark is a tough smart dude that can beat the snots out of dubya. general, foreign policy guy, education guy, no history of bad votes etc. that can be looked up.
we need this election bad. whadda say we actually win it?
Posted by ralpho on Oct 25, 2003 at 11:03 AM this is to let you know how much
i love you
with my whole heart and my whole
soul and you will never be forgotten
the truth always prevails and you
are the truth.
Posted by toni maione on Oct 25, 2003 at 3:15 PM Capitalism, once it pompously, and with impunity, cast the Smithsonian, (Adam, that is), system aside using the Industrial Revolution and now the Technological Revolution as excuses for it’s, “big fish swallows small fry” M.O. model...became anathemical to democracy. The two cannot co-exist for they are not compatable in their most basic agendas, (Mussolini used the terms, Corporatism and Fascism as interchangable synonyms). Adam Smith envisioned a system wherein corporations were obligated to contribute a major portion of their profits to the community in which and from which they received labor, land, and the privilege to remain if they were deemd worthy by that community upon review by that community’s Citizen Oversight Committee. If, and only if the corporation in their midst had abided by the strict social contracts between it and the community could they EARN again the PRIVILEGE to continue conducting their business. In fact, however, we have steadily, since the latter half of the ninteeth century, been deceived into the beginning of the long downhill slippery slope of corporate governmental takeover. Our state is in reality run by a coterie of ever elusive and ruthless individuals whose sole aim in life is eventual world domination. That’s how it is. We bought all the lies and propaganda. Some of us are still smacking each other upside the head both physically and intellecually over political ideologies. That among other falsely concocted and divisive schemes to keep us at each other’s throats while they concretize and consolidate into an ever more powerful elite IS, as Michael Moore would say, “The Awful Truth”. Picking the best candidate is not enough because every leader who’s tried to serve all the people, (remember the sixties’ political assassinations, Watergate, Irangate, Read my lips-gate, Monicagate, et alia), has paid the ultimate price. If we can’t understand this we’re doomed to fail before we’ve begun.
Posted by Dom Mastroserio on Oct 25, 2003 at 9:53 PM If the return of the Third Reich is possible it is occuring under the Bush administration. They can call it what they want but the patriot act has its roots in Nazi doctrine, control of the people by the state.
Terrorism has little or nothing to do with the patriot act. It was written long before 911. This act has everything to do with empire building and control of the world’s oil supply. We need someone who isn’t going to lead us down the same road that Rome, Berlin, et.al. have traveled.
The only viable candidate in this election is Dennis Kucinich. He is the only man that represents anything except the interests of the wealthy and powerful.
Our 30 second sound bite memory will be our undoing as this nation is only two hundred years old and already people are ready to give it up for a false sense of security.
Benjamin Franklin once said “those willing to give up liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security”. Is this what our nation has come to, a poplulation so fraid that we are willing to give up our freedom for a false sense of security? I pray that we wake up before its to late because if we are not willing to risk our lives by living free then we truly do not deserve freedom.
Posted by Jim Freeman on Oct 25, 2003 at 11:20 PM Dear Mr. Studds Terkel: Sinclair Lewis really speaks to why you should take a serious and deep look at why Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., Democratic Presidential candidate for 2004 election, located at www.larouchein2004.com It’s clear that the neo-con Leo Straussians, i.e. Dick Cheney & Ashcroft& et al., are making McCarthy-Trumanism appear tame in comparison to what’s being done today. Agreed! Shareholder values of pleasure and consumption, have taking over, what Ben Franklin meant Journalists to be. Sincerely, Mrs. Sheila Anne Jones, good friend of Dr. Robert Moon, as well as our beloved Dr. William Warfield.
Posted by sheila a. jones on Oct 27, 2003 at 1:58 PM Dear Mr. Terkel, you know me as being the leader of the LaRouche movement in Chicago, Illinois. I ran for Mayor, governor , as well as the U.S. House of Representatives. Okay! What I wanted to bring into my earlier comments on Mr. LaRouche’s Presidential campaign, but more on his work, is to cause you to think back to what the FDR was handling, following 1933’s Reichstag Fire, and think about Sept. 11, 2001, and ask the question “cui bono”? Okay, since 2001, I’ve thrown myself into studying every think Sinclair Lewis has written, starting with “Babbit”, and the trilogy, of Sam Dosworth and Annie Vickers. Why? Mr. LaRouche has been really hitting the cultural-paradigm shift of his generation (he just turned 81) and that of their children, “Baby-Boomers” , and the shocks absorbed by the Boomers, from the dropping of the two boms on Hiroshia and Nagasaki, then, the McCarthy-Truman witchhunts, then the Cuban Missile crisis and the the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, and then Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy later that year of 1968. Okay, I’ve been studying “Hard Times” endured by the world’s population from the economic-financial crash, and find that Mr. LaRouche is correct, in his prognosis, that “Pragmatism and Sophistry” KILL! Or put better, “vox populi”, ala Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, or Coriolanis. I don’t know whether you read these things, but what I do know is this nation could sure a lot less Pragmatism, i.e. Cowardice, in the face of “fear for personal survival.” Mr. LaRouche IS a candidate, and at this time one of the top three: Howard Dean, Kerry and LaRouche. So far, only he and Dean have been certified by the FEC for Matching Funds. So, how’s about some real coverage of this, otherwise boring, embarrassing, media-sterilized Democratic Presidential campaign.
Sincerely, Mrs. Sheila Jones (773) 456-2492 (cell phone)
Posted by sheila a. jones on Oct 27, 2003 at 2:11 PM Dear Studs,
Geez Dude, I thought You were lost to the ages, however I see that you are very much alive.
Our city rag (The Sun) doesn’t print much of you anymore, a goddamned shame, since you seem to have the balls to call a spade a spade.
More Power to you.
John Hyatt
Posted by John Hyatt on Oct 27, 2003 at 5:13 PM Sheila-
If you’re going to represent a candidate I have some advice.
You need to be concise, lucent, and intelligble.
Oh, and don’t ever- ever- give out your personal cell phone #.
Best- Jo
Posted by Jo B......... on Oct 27, 2003 at 5:14 PM What a joy to see Studs Terkel still writing! He’s one of the great unsung heroes of this nation, for all his outspoken honesty - and for always identifying the good fight.with great clarity and creativity. Studs, - Hang in there and remain the inspiration you’ve always been!
Fight the good fight online every weekday: TVNL radio Live - call in.
http://radio.tvnewslies.org
Posted by Reg on Oct 28, 2003 at 10:49 AM thanks for running such a well thought-out artiicle by Studs Terkel.
It’s easy to agree with him, because I like Dennis, but am working hard for Howard - It would be nice if the working press and Congress and the Senate start telling their real views on things, instead of being scared to death of such organizations as the Carlyle Group.
Posted by Peggy Midling on Oct 28, 2003 at 8:57 PM A wonderful reminder of why Studs Terkel is one of the great intellects and brilliant wits of our time. I left the U.S. two years ago and I’ll not return until the Bush is booted from office. He is fear-monger, thug, liar, and scares me far more than any terrorist. But to get him out will take an informed and educated General Public, one that is not looking behind every bush for another terrorist (no pun intended). We lose nearly as many in car accidents every month as we did on 9/11 and I don’t see the nation pissing all over itself about drinking and driving. I’ll likely die in Mexico before the American public wakes up, and that will be fine. I like it here and I guess the only place I differ from Studs is in attitude: I am not optimistic.
Posted by Jim Karger on Oct 29, 2003 at 9:56 PM Thank you, great stuff. I agree about Kucinich, too bad since he’s a proper decent Democrat, a breed fast being buried by “renegade” Republicans.
Now will you please please please go after the potential for election fraud? There’s not much point in getting us all to vote if the new machines are (and I think this is very likely) going to be used dishonestly. (Newsweek this week at least touched this, finally.) There were several suspicious items in the Republican midterm landslide and of course Florida which was manipulated in many more ways than made the mainstream press. Until this is covered everywhere, people will think their vote is going to be counted. Please please please pursue this!
Posted by Susan Anderson on Oct 30, 2003 at 12:21 AM I subscribed to ITT way back when (still have the old issues) Mr. Terkel, for all his travel among the ‘little people’ has a huge blind spot. There is a massive alternative media awaiting you alll, that has been attempting with a far more open mind than the “mainstrewam alternative” (i.e."liberals" have heard about it) ever demonstrates. We await you over here where ‘left-right,’ ‘racial tensions,’ political parties etc., are seen for the dangerous, divisive dialectic they are. Get a short wave radio, Studs, then call the shows when they set you off, I assure you the true alyernative media is populated with people who will listen and want only to get at the truth. As for voting for ANYONE, get a grip. We need a revolution, you will NOT solve anything short of sweeping the federal government off the continent. That, by the way, is what you can call a “conservative” position. Orwell, anyone?
Posted by Cliff Jones on Oct 30, 2003 at 7:41 AM How coincidental that Mr. Terkel mentioned national Alzheimer’s disease, the condition from which Americans suffer.
He may have been speaking with tongue in cheek, but I am not when I say that I am convinced that the something that is very wrong with our president may well be what has become known as “early onset Alzheimer’s.” I spend part of every day with Alzheimer’s patients, one of whom is my mother. Some of these people are only in their 50s. Their condition is a tragedy for them and for their families, but at least none of them is pretending to run our country.
Posted by elc on Oct 30, 2003 at 9:33 AM Studs,
Thanks. Keep pushing us, we need to be reawakened to action.
Rollie
Posted by Rollie Hicks on Oct 30, 2003 at 9:39 AM Great analogy between Ashcroft and Rev. Samuel Parris. Wish the Crucible would be performed more by High School drama departments, where it could do some formative good.
Also agree that Byrd’s speeches over the last year have been among the most eloquent in living memory. I don’t care what the provenance of the artist is--it’s the art that counts.
Disagree with everything you say about Kucinich. He hasn’t learned a thing about economics in 30 years of public life--still thinks “profit” is an unmixed evil. Simply childish.
Kucinich says, for instance, that profit must be removed from health care to lower its costs. Dean says No, that’s how you get less health care, not more. You lower costs by having more in-home health care, for instance, and you get better home health care by unionizing those workers, assuring them of higher pay, decent benefits and dignity. You can’t pay decent wages without decent margins, the margins that Kucinich sees as hallmarks of greed.
Posted by Robert H. on Oct 30, 2003 at 10:22 AM Well, Ted, it’s always comforting to have one’s suspicions confirmed: I suspected that right-wingers (I won’t dignify them with the title “conservative") were thinking-impaired and every word you type shows me I’m right. Saying that Fox unNews is No. 1. as though that disproved Studs’ point is like saying that McDonald’s billions sold certify them as good nutrition.
Studs, I had the honor to interview you ages (is it 28 years already?) ago in George Whitman’s study above the bookshop in Paris. You had the flu and I was about 22 years old and overawed. I’ve continued to admire your gritty style and grassroots truthmongering. Thanks for all your work, past and present.
As a journalist, I am horrified by the tripe that passes for reportage in the mainstream media, and the muddled pathetic mess it creates in the minds of those who consume it (i.e. Ted). However, it is a comfort to me to note that the readership of US alternative media sources and of good foreign reporting (the UK Guardian and Independent stand out) has shot up in the last year. I also love Dennis (and, having actually lived in places with universal, nonprofit health care, I must say I disagree totally that his plan is unworkable. It’s working now for millions in every other industrialized country in the world. Don’t knock what you haven’t any experience with.) And I also grieve that, the under-educated and mass-media deluded American voter being what s/he is, we can’t have him. Still, it’s important for those of us who believe in Dennis’s platform to support him, loudly, with money, as long as possible because it sends a message to the Democratic leadership as to WHO THEIR BASE REALLY IS. Who I will end up voting for, I can’t imagine, but I will vote Democratic this time even if I have to hold my nose to do so. Bush is primarily an annoying little jerk but we need Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Wolfowitz, Condi, and the rest of those vampires OUT.
Posted by JC on Oct 30, 2003 at 11:14 AM I recently read in the newspaper,not sure where now but will find it, about the Patriot Act being used against drug dealers and other criminals in this country.
Only a truly un-patriot American could support this damnnable act.
Posted by Leonard Smith on Oct 30, 2003 at 11:42 AM I heartily agree with your discription of the media , they have prostituted themselves. I wonder, though, how much of it has to do with the ownership of the mainstream media. In my opinion, corporate America(owners of the media) is bedded with government. Especially the right wing.I also agree with your assesment of trivia trumping everything else. How else can one explain how the most powerful, high tech country in the world has a “leader” with a vocabulary of an 8th grade dropout, and California electing an “actor” as governor.
Posted by Rudy Llanes on Oct 30, 2003 at 7:38 PM Studs complains that the press is not reporting Kucinich or Byrd or much else. But under the corporatocracy that now controls America, the job of the press is to present a managed, sanitized “news” devoid of all real information. The press functions like the denial mechanism in the alcoholic’s left brain. “Problem? What problem?” it says, as it drinks its blood alcohol past 0.35. People, our nation is like a dissociated trauma victim. And we are trauma victims. The nation was traumatized by Vietnam and before that Korea and WWII. War is the business of America. It is the only profitable business we have. Our export is missiles, WMDs, death, destruction, and Depleted Uranium. The press prevents citizens from knowing a truth that would disgust them. The press serves the social function of dissociating the atrocities America commits out of awareness. People like this list’s Ted are part of the insanity. The nation watches Tarantino’s neo-samurai dismemberments in “Kill Bill” but the same corporatocracy that owns the movie company also owns the television company and prevents us from seeing the real dismemberments of children that Wolfowitz and Bush and Perle and Cheney have perpetrated on Iraq. And Ayatollah Ashcroft hides it all behind the Patriot Act-eviscerated Constitution that he swore false oath to uphold. Insane nation, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Kucinich promises recovery. Kucinich promises a Department of Peace. I’m promoting a party of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Posted by Shaman Omaha on Oct 30, 2003 at 11:46 PM Words words words… USA has become the more ridiculous, corrupted, murderer country in the world and all you are able to do is always speaking as if you were in a democracy. No one worldwide can respect what you are saying or thinking. It’s time for US people to kick the ass of >Bush and gang before it’s too late
Posted by neymare on Oct 31, 2003 at 1:04 PM Ted really is an idiot. One of the things about the PATRIOT Act is that court proceedings under it are secret. There are actually about a dozen court cases working their way through that have not been reported AT ALL and everyone connected with them is forbidden to discuss them. One of them only came to light because of a mistake in filing some court forms.
So Ted, I’d like to name one specific American, but the names are secret. But… what a giveaway. “One specific American” - of course, non-US citizens have no rights whatever under this act, and it’s unthinking people like you, (for whom every non-American is by definition a second-class citizen) who support this fascist nonsense.
The police state is here, let’s hope it’s not here to stay. Face it, Bush has torn up the constitution.
As for the Iraqis, I’m sure they’re SO grateful that their country has been trashed, that their oil has been stolen (US $4bn looted from the Iraq Development Corporation, according to a Christian Aid report this week), that they will have to pay the highest penny for the total privatisation of their economy, that the oil for food programme - which was keeping many of the poorest fed - is to be scrapped… and last but not least that Baghdad is now awash with highly toxic depleted uranium from all our nice new bombs, which will cause a massive rise in birth defects, leukaemia, and cancers, as it has already in Vieqes, Kosovo… and Southern Iraq, where it dates from Gulf War I.
And California has seen the effects, not of ‘lefties’, but of Enron. Arnie MET WITH KEN LAY, MICHAEL MILKEN (of junk bond fame) and many others before announcing his candidacy. Cruz Bustamente and Gray Davis are trying to sue Enron for overcharging the state, and Arnie, just you watch, is going to make that lawsuit go away. And the article didn’t blame Oprah for Arnold’s victory. The article merely alerted the otherwise sleepy viewers that there was media bias occurring: having Schwartzie on to promote a film is one thing, but to promote an election campaign, quite another, in a democracy that takes its reporting responsibilities seriously.
Posted by fred on Nov 1, 2003 at 2:37 AM Loved the story! I have a brass token from Honolulu where they are sold as key chains. I now treasure it.
Posted by Harold Flagg on Nov 1, 2003 at 11:26 AM I thank Studs Terkel for proving that growing old has its benefits. This man has learned a thing or two about a thing or two and he’s generous enough to share his insights with us. Where would we be without people like him? I raise my glass to Studs Terkel...and Noam Chomsky...and Howard Zinn. May we all grow old as gracefully....
Posted by Andrew Marsh on Nov 2, 2003 at 6:21 AM Mr. Terkel,
Thank you for your life’s work. No one can say you shoveled shit in Louisianna during the fight for democracy.
I have a question. If you will go to this post ...and please scroll down about half way in the comments to the Newt Davis’s posts. (there are a few of them)
Why is that not discussed in publc? On TV? Any guesses?
Thanks Studs, you’re the best.
btw here’s the link to Mr. Terkel’s excellent interview on Democracy Now.
Posted by a Wind blowing through on Nov 4, 2003 at 11:51 PM Mr. Terkel: I don’t know which is worse: watching or reading the drivel mainstream American media puts out everyday, or finding the truth in alternative media which I find on the internet. I go around the world to find out the truth and what people are thinking. The only way to go as I see it.
Posted by Ken on Jan 6, 2004 at 2:03 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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