What follows are the chronological exchange of e-mails written at the end of my participation HBO's documentary series “Candidate 2012”.

As the only Green Party candidate on the Pro-Hemp/Anti-War platform, my only real surprise was that I had made it to the "Top 12" in the first place. I was not surprised that HBO scrapped the show soon after they realized it wasn’t about Hookers.

One of the people who did move on to the "Top 4" was Pepper Bryars, a spokesman for conservative Alabama Gov. Bob Riley.

As you read the responses by Mr. Bryars, a typical young Republican, you might want to compare them to President Bush's first response to any question: Play Dumb, and Attack the Questioner.

As these messages show, the immaturity and fear that guides the actions of the people "who run this country" are just as prevalent in the minds of wannabe TV politicians as they are in the minds of real "elected" politicians. Facts are few and far between, but fear and paranoid derision from the under-informed fills the airwaves like napalm in the morning.

Whether these people actually believe what they say, or are simply protecting their jobs and establishing an alibi, is for future congressional investigations to decide. But, in the mean time, the following letters are an interesting portrait of a neo-conservative mouthpiece (and unfulfilled artist) who once told me all he really wanted to do was “write novels.”

If only somebody had said, “Hey Hitler. Nice painting.”

Candidate 2012
(Original HBO Press Release)

--------------------------------------------------------

5/13/02 - 8:41 PM
Welcome to The Machine. . .
From: Zed B. Starkovich

Thank you for your support, but it's official:
I will NOT be your President in 2012.

The Network people have decided to go another direction: "More Hookers, Less Iran-Contra." (In HBO's case, I guess that means continuing in the same direction.)

For those of you who thought "The People of America" might still have a voice in our government, I suggest you buy some sun-tan lotion and kiss your ass goodbye, because it's going to be a long, hot summer (whether the Bush people believe in Global Warming or not).

Who knows, maybe someday between the car chases and Bikini Waxing tips the "Liberal Media" will begin to tell us the ugly truth.

Then again, maybe not.

Personally, I'm looking for a nice shack on the beach where I can watch the world burn. So, if anybody has an apartment in Amsterdam, please let me know.

Yours etc,
Zed B. Starkovich,
Freelance carpenter and ex-philosopher


Ps. Have a Coke and a Smile. :)

--------------------------------------------------------

5/15/02 - 7:01 AM
Re: Welcome to the Machine. . .
From: Pepper Bryars

Zed, isn't there a village out there you're depriving
of its idiot?

Just kidding, my friend, just kidding.

But I really hope you're right about the global
warming deal . . . I can't stand cold weather.

Think of it: if we didn't have long cold winters, then
we wouldn't need all that nasty coal and dirty oil for
heating, and all those baby seals, minks and foxes
wouldn't need to be clubbed in the head to make
jackets for all those rich Republicans and famous
Democrats.

We could all live like y'all do in sunny Southern
California, which, in a geopolitical sense, should
make the rest of the country as enlightened as y'all
Californians, right? I mean, since the cities out
there are so clean, and the air is so breathable,
don't we cavemen in Alabama have a lot to learn from
our advanced brothers on the Left Coast? Surely
Alabama's air is too clean and our water to drinkable,
which makes us poor souls think in the backward
fashion that we do, but maybe the Bush-Cheney Energy
Plan can change that . . . maybe some good old
fashioned California pollution could give us stupid
conservatives a taste of polluted water and dirty air
so our intellect will be on par with all those sissy
college professors in New England and the know-it-all
mystics in California.

But, I digress.

Zed, I would have watched the show just to see how
long it took before you got your ass beat (just
kidding, again).

But if HBO wanted a really interesting show, they
should have locked you and me in an elevator and had
us debate the issues until one of us killed the other.
But, to be fair, I would have insisted that half my
brain and one of my arms be tied behind my back so it
wouldn't end too quickly.

Oh, by the way, Amsterdam sucks. If it weren't for a
bunch of good 'ol fashioned ass-whipping Americans,
all those pot-smoking sissies in The Netherlands would
be speaking German. How much fun would that place be
then?

Nuff said.

The Green Party lives!!!!! Yoda for President in
2012!!!

Peace out!

~ Pep
Freelance freedom fighter and part-time ceramics instructor

--------------------------------------------------------

5/16/02 - 5:14 AM
What would Jesus do?
From: Zed B. Starkovich

Pepper,

Thank you for proving my point. I see that you have learned well from your
conservative teachers-of-rhetoric. Instead of working to unite people with
our common goals, you have been taught to recoil in fear from the truth, and
separate the people you don't understand from your cozy little world on The
Hill.

Instead of discussing the facts and doing a little research about the world
we live in and how to make it a better place for our children, the
politicians of today are more interested in wasting our time with irrelevant
personal attacks that make good TV, but ignore the root problems of our
society. They offer inane sound bites instead of serious solutions. They
don’t discuss the facts, they point their finger and declare: "He's one of
THEM and must be ignored."

Instead of discussing the known facts and how they affect the people of
America, well-trained conservatives react with fear-induced derision ("If we
ignore global warming and laugh at the Hippies than everything will be
fine.”) Personally, I don't think the ice caps breaking into chunks the size
of Rhode Island is a laughing matter, but I'm glad you do. Didn’t somebody
once say Ignorance is bliss? (Or was that Ignorance Is Strength?)

I'm sure the idea of a spherical planet was hilarious to the people who
thought the Earth was flat and huddled in their huts for fear of falling
over the edge and being eaten by monsters.

Since you brought up California, I should mention that we were doing just
fine until Enron decided to rape us with the blessing of their frat buddies
in the White House and the typical corporate conservative doublespeak of
deregulation.

The right-wing mantra is always the same: They preach small government then
take everything they can grab. They say the same thing over and over again
in ever more blustery voices: Hemp - Bad, Guns - Good. Welfare Mothers –
Bad. Corporate Welfare - Good. School Lunches - Bad, Chemical Weapons -
Good.

This fear-induced corporate ideology encourages division instead of
cooperation. We have been taught that there aren’t enough natural resources
for everyone on this planet, so some people have to die and its better THEM
than ME. This paralyzing fear of the unknown keeps people huddled in their
homes praying that somebody will protect them. Meanwhile, we the people are
told to stand aside and let the professionals take care of things.

Unfortunately, today’s "professional politicians" protect our "National
Security" the same way they always have: They sell weapons to right-wing
dictators who protect corporate profits from poor Communists. This conscious
decision to fight Socialism by embracing Fascism is at the heart of today’s
anti-American right-wing rhetoric. Project Paperclip, and the CIA’s
well-documented history of protecting Nazis is just one of many disturbing
examples.

A popular right-wing extremist once declared: “If you say something loud
enough and long enough, people will believe you.” Pretending that Hitler was
just a good public speaker ignores his murderous rise to political power,
and the fact that he was financially backed from the beginning by the
military/industrial giants of the world who thought Fascism and slave labor
were great ways to control the population and keep down the costs of
production.

While we’re on the subject of Oil-based Geo-Politics and ignorance, you
might want to do a little research into the history of the Bush family,
their business partners, and the CIA, in propping up right-wing terrorists
like Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Noriega, Pinochet, and Hitler (to name a
few).

Maybe then we can begin to talk honestly about Prescott Bush, the Dulles
brothers, and how they helped the giants of American industry rebuild and
rearm the Nazi war machine through business deals with IG Farben: Before,
during, and after World War II. Let’s talk about George Bush Sr. arming
Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, and being business partners in the Unocal
pipeline with the Bin Laden family through The Carlyle Group (which also
makes the Crusader Tank system, and is represented internationally by George
Bush Sr. and James Baker).

Does anybody remember The Iran-Contra scandal? “Of course not,” you gasp,
“What does trading weapons for drugs to fight Communists have to do with the
price of oil in Afghanistan?”

Those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. Since before World War
II, American foreign policy has been based primarily on protecting
multi-national oil interests by giving weapons and training to right-wing
terrorists who protect the business interests of the worlds richest 1% by
keeping the local populations desperate and starving, by whatever means
available.

What has this cycle of violence brought us? Pearl Harbor, the Sept. 11th
attacks, and a permanent war economy. Are we from terrorist attacks? Of
course not, we are the constant victims of the insatiable greed of their
business partners. We work their factories for slave wages and wave flags
while they send our children around the world to die for oil we don’t need.

Is that the Free and Democratic America you believe in?

I could go on for months about the not-so-secret history of US Covert
Operations to control the Middle East and South America, but before I could
say “Operation Condor” your eyes would glaze over and you’d mumble the
typical Forest Gump-esq reply that "If I ain't seen it on TV than it must be
a lie".

So I beg you: PLEASE DON’T BELIEVE ME.

LOOK IT UP FOR YOURSELF! Do your own research! Ask your own questions! Find
the answers for yourself instead of regurgitating the lies you’ve been
taught by well-financed corporate “lobbyists”.

Only then can you truly understand and rationally discuss the consequences
of Geo-Politics. Everything else is meaningless until you understand the
real history of the corporate-greed driven war against the poor and huddled
masses yearning to be free. It’s not a secret conspiracy of oppression, its
just good business . . . Enron-Style. Like the Savings and Loan Scandal,
which was also brought to you by the Bush family. How much did that glowing
example of conservative deregulation cost us?

Despite the predictable blowback of illegal Covert Operations and Shadow
Politics, we STILL buy oil from Iraq and Saudi Arabia while they laugh in
our faces and kill our families and friends. Do you really think oil is
worth the lives of the people who died on Sept. 11th? And the people who
continue to die for the Unocal pipeline in Afghanistan? Or the hundreds of
thousands of children who have died in our embargo of Iraq while US
corporations continue to pour money into the Iraqi war machine and our
military prepares Desert Storm: 2?

When John McCain was asked when we will stop buying oil from the Saudi
regime that continues to protect and train right-wing terrorists, he
answered honestly: "When we are no longer dependant on Saudi oil."

Is the Ideology of Oil so ingrained in your brain that you refuse to even
look for a better way? Why are you and your fellow “conservative”
politicians so willing to freely sacrifice our future for oil without the
slightest question or second thought? Don’t you have the slightest twinge of
doubt when the oil industry experts declare that: “America needs oil to
survive, and without it we will all die!”

Unfortunately, it’s a lie, and as Frank Zappa said: “Our children our
victims of the lies we believe.”

It all comes down to Hemp: The most versatile renewable natural resource
know to man for more than 12,000 years. Hemp, grown by American farmers and
processed by local workers, could supply us with all the food, clothing,
shelter, and fuel we need to survive and thrive as a nation. Hemp is also
cheaper, cleaner, stronger, and safer than the petrochemical products forced
on us by the same industrial giants that you and your congressmen now
obediently protect.

Amid the cries of National Security, and plans for our future of “limited
civil rights”, have any of the Bush people suggested ending our dependence
on Saudi oil? Of course not, they have investments in multinational oil
companies to protect (with our blood and money).

How did Ashcroft and the Bush administration decide to best protect our
future? They declared Hempseed a dangerous substance, then threw out our
constitution and declared that all those gun laws just aren’t fair to them
nice folks who like guns and give money to conservative politicians.

We begin World War III and what’s at the top of their National Security To
Do List:

1) Ban health food.
2) Put more guns on the street.

Frankly, I don’t care how many guns a person owns. They’re more likely to
shoot themselves or someone in their family than me. So, I say stock up and
blow your socks off!

However, while you’re sandbagging the doors and loading your shotguns with
buckshot to fight off Communists, Terrorists, and the invading King of
England, ask yourself why the seeds of the most versatile natural resource
known to man would be banned in a “Free Country, where every vote counts!”

Everyday, one family after another is destroyed in our $50 Billion Drug War
simply because they are in possession of a dried flower. That is not a war
on drugs; it’s a war on the people of America.

In quiet whispers throughout the country, we all agree that hemp would be an
economic boom to every state in this nation and every continent on the
planet, so why is it still illegal in our perfect democracy? Simply put,
because our government is filled with corrupt corporate lawyers who are paid
to protect the profits of their business partners instead of the American
people. Do any of us really believe that our smiling, oil-soaked politicians
are doing everything they can to protect the future of our children?

For pointing out these self-evident truths, conservative pundits declare
that I am nothing but a Village Idiot.

Somebody once said: Ignorance of the truth is sad; being proud of your
ignorance is simply stupid.

Jesus said: "For those who have ears to hear, let them hear." Jesus also
wore hemp clothing and read his Bible in the light of a hemp-oil lamp.

What would Jesus do if he were here today preaching against the hypocrisy of
greed and oppression like he did two thousand years ago?

He would be nailed to the tallest available TV antenna and denounced as a
fool, just like he was two thousand years ago.

I guess some things never change.

For me, "Candidate 2012" was never about the delusions of personal grandeur.
I was only interested in generating an honest debate about the world we live
in, and finding the best way to help as many people as possible. When we
look down and see the brink to which this narrow band of "mainstream
political debate" and “spectator politics” has brought us, any sane person
has to ask if another step in the same direction is really the best way to
go.

Whoever ends up on the show, my only hope is that they offer more than
mindless patter about how “things were better once upon a time” and a photo
op from the parking lot of “America’s Oldest McDonald’s”. I hope the show
goes into the by-ways of America’s forgotten towns to see the hopeless and
ignored people of America who live each day in the desperate hope that the
cost of living will go down so they can feed their children and then send
them to a decent school.

I hope the viewers of HBO are allowed to see the crumbling schools packed
with thousands of children force fed Ritalin and Prozac being taught to sit
down, shut up and stop asking questions. Maybe then the people of America
will begin to understand that the trickle-down theory of conservative
economics is turning us into a third world country with thriving class
warfare, a puppet dictator, and a government subsidized military-industrial
system that works us to death, drops our bodies on the side of the road,
then stuffs a fresh factory-slave into the Industrial Machine.

Democracy is based on the consent of an educated public, not the ceremonial
casting of an uncounted vote for the lesser of two evils.

The only important question is how to bring the people of America together
and build a better future. Do we do that by arming more terrorists and
bombing more children to perpetuate our dependence on Saudi Arabian Oil?

Or, do we open our eyes and take the path of enlightenment?

Only the truth can set us free.

Peace through Hemp,
Zed B. Starkovich
HempFarm.org


* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A Few Books for Further Reading (NOT burning):

Borkin, Joseph. The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben. New York: Barnes &
Noble Books, 1997.

Bowen, Russell S. The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed.
Carson City, NV: American West Publishers, 1991.

Brewton, Pete. The Mafia, CIA & George Bush. New York: S.P.I. Books, 1992.

Brock, David. Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative.
New York: Crown Publishers, 2002.

Beckett, Samuel. Waiting for Godot. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1992.

Chomsky, Noam. Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order. New York:
Seven Stories Press, 1999.

Chomsky, Noam. Secrets, Lies, an Democracy. Monroe, Maine: Common Courage
Press, 1994.

Chomsky, Noam. 9-11. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2001.

Cockburn, Alexander and Jeffrey St. Clair. Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the
Press. New York: Verso, 1998.

Conrad, Chris. Hemp: Lifeline to the Future. California: Creative Xpressions
Publications, 1993.

Engler, Robert. The Politics of Oil: Private Power & Democratic Directions.
Chicago: Phoenix Books, The University of Chicago Press, 1967.

Hatfield, J. H. Fortunate Son. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2000.

Herer, Jack. The Emperor Wears no Clothes. Van Nuys, Ca: AH HA Publishing,
1998.

Higham, Charles. Trading With the Enemy: The Nazi American Money Plot. New
York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1995.

Hopsicker, Daniel. Barry and 'The Boys'. Eugene, Oregon: Mad Cow Press,
2002.

Loftus, John and Mark Aarons. The secret War against the Jews. NewYork: St.
Martin'sGriffin, 1997.

Loftus, John and Mark Aarons. Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, the Nazis, and
the Swiss Banks. NewYork: St. Martin's Griffin, 1998.

Lisagor, Nancy and Frank Lipsius. A Law Unto Itself. New York: Paragon
House, 1989.

Nader. Ralph. Cutting Corporate Welfare. New York: Seven Stories Press,
2000.

Nader, Ralph. Crashing the Party. New York: St. Martins Press, 2002.

Marcheti, Victor and John D. Marks. The CIA and the cult of intelligence.
New York: Dell Books, 1975.

McCoy, Alfred W. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug
Trade. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991.

Phillips, Peter and Project Censored. CENSORED: The news that didn't make
the news. New York: Seven Stories Press, published yearly.

Prouty, L. Fletcher. JFK. New York: Citadel Press 1996.

Prouty, L. Fletcher. The Secret Team.

Robinson, Rowen. The Hemp Manifesto: 101 Ways Hemp Can Save Our World.
Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 1997.

Roulac, John W. Hemp Horizons: The Comeback of the Worlds Most Promising
Plant. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1997.

Sausly, Richard. IG Farben. New York: Boni & Gaer, 1947.

Sloman, Larry. Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana. New York: St.
Martin's Griffin, 1998.

Spence, Gerry. From Freedom to Slavery: The Rebirth of Tyranny in America.
New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1993.

Stinnett, Robert B. Day of Deceit: The Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor. New
York: The Free Press, 2000.

Stitch, Rodney. Defrauding America. Alamo, CA: Diablo Western Press, 1998.

Sutton, Antony. Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler. England: Bloomfield
Books, 1976.

Tarpley, Webster G. and Anton Chaitkin. George Bush: The Unauthorized
Biography. Out of print. Available on the Internet.

Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and the Crack Cocaine
Explosion. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1998.

Wiener, Jon. Gimmie Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files. University of
California Press, 1999.

Zinn, Howard. The Twentieth Century: A Peoples History. New York: Harper
Perennial, 1998.

Zinn, Howard. The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy. New
York: Seven Stories Press, 1997.



--------------------------------------------------------

5/16/02 - 7:10 AM
Re: What would Jesus do?
From: Pepper Bryars

Zed baby,

Why do I feel that the closest you'll ever come to the
Presidency is trying to assassinate one?

I wish you could see how much you just cracked me up.
That was the funniest shit I've read in ages!

I don't know whether to forward this uni-bomber-esque
hemp vs. Hitler manifesto to my buddies at the Comedy
Channel or my friends at the CIA. You should
certainly appear on some kinda government watch list,
'cause Zed, you're one crazy mother fucker.

But seriously, I don't know whether to laugh at you or
lock you up. Hell, I was just kidding with ya. I can
usually get people all rowled up, but you take the
cake. It must be exhausting to live in your world.
Try and relax every now and then.

I think HBO's decision not to cast you in the show was
a blessing, because you would have gotten you ass beat
about three times a day if you went around the country
talking that nonsense.

I mean, what did you write "It all comes down to
hemp." Geeze, brother, you're smoking too much of
that shit.

Peace out,
~ P to the E back to the P

--------------------------------------------------------

5/16/02 - 9:05 AM
Re: What would Jesus do?
From: Pepper Bryars

Zed and "P" iza to the "E"za to the "P"iza-ziza,

Zed, what you accomplished in your last informative letter--well copied and
pasted my friend--is exactly the kind of people/party bashing that has
brought debates and innovation to a halt. You can not seek compromise or
that feeling of "spreading the love" through declaring that everyone who
came before you and who now holds office should be locked up in mental
health facilities or visited by the plague for their corrupt Nazi terrorist
activities--or those of their fathers and mothers. And there are no
solutions in aggrandizing the plight of the down trodden as it only
reinforces a stereotype in the first place and in some ways removes blame
form liberals and conservatives as they can back out saying they must deal
with things "the way they are." Maybe it is not the way people perceive it
to be? All of this rhetoric--and it is rhetoric even as much as pep's
u-know-yer-a-redneck-when-speech--only reinforces the image that liberals
are high level pulpit bashers with no plan for change. This is also not the
way it is. Plenty of liberals have a spine--they just seem to be in a
pattern of de-evolution from what used to be considered full blown
libertarianism or liberalism. We will get onto hemp...and you should know I
am wearing a hemp shirt today.

Pep, well butter my butt and call me a biscuit you hi-flyn' redneck! If
your emails get any phunnier I may have to hire someone to help me enjoy
them. Although I am busier than a cat covering crap on a marble floor I
wanted to let you know that sometimes your emails make it sound like you
fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Listen you
yoda-lover, my cow died last night so I don't need your bull. I mean
seriously, you can't sit up there and pee down my back and tell me it's
raining my brother--especially after you ate asparagus for diner last night!
You are better than that. And when you have been called out on the mat for
the heavyweight fight to discuss what you would do to make things better how
far will your "gooder'n than grits" platform take you? Watching that would
be worse than seeing a one legged man compete in an ass-kicking contest.
Pep, you've got more to say than "y'all" even though your emails make you
seem so stuck up you would die in a rainstorm. You also freely admit that
William Jefferson Clinton was the best president your party ever brought to
office so follow your leader.

General Note:
Corruption is a form of hypocrisy and ALL PEOPLE ARE HYPOCRITES. It should
not be shocking to read of Bill Clinton's lies or the secret life of Papa
Bush and Baby Bush. It is shocking that we spend more time talking about
those issues rather than real change. This is not meant to sound doomsday so
read on. Some people are low level hypocrites of the "little lies" order and
some excel and make it into an institutionalized art form. But people are
hypocrites because they are striving to be more than they are now--they want
to appear to be able to do more and make everyone happy even when they can
not. Where do you think tragic flaws come from? This type of corruption
exists in both--gulp-"major" parties and the Green party because they are
all run by people. Other than Ed Bagley Junior, I am not sure if anyone can
say they are a true member of the Green party. And other than Baby Bush, I
am not sure if anyone can say their idol is Kim-Jong-Il--who is the only
true republican out there--oh and W. also said he liked Jesus too right? SO
GET OVER THE PARTY POLITICS. Or don't and I will run as an independent and
escort you all to the door.

Zed, there is no excuse for the energy policy of the US federal government.
It is covered in the type of high level hypocrisy I mentioned above. To
turn away any natural resource or to hinder the innovation of any renewable
source of energy is inexcusable. Clinton was the first president in over 12
years to NOT demand a raise in the fuel efficiency of vehicles which paved
the way for Bush to continue to do as little as possible to stay below
radar. The Land Rover vehicles I have been involved with were designed in
1948 to run on vegetable oil and food oil or even old and used "chippy" oil.
The design for cleaner engines dates back to the first Fords. We have it
--why don't we use it? I know the standard answers--but what do we actually
do about it? Hemp and other organic foods can be one answer to a very large
energy/geo-political independence problem. And hemp can also make a really
great shirt. I think smoking it leads to some long term problems--see
Kentucky.

I think we all hope the HBO show goes to new places and into hard situations
and tries to give viewers a look at a young person struggling to find
answers to seemingly insurmountable issues. Schools, race, crime, drugs,
food, energy, poverty. What makes a nation truly advanced? What makes a
civilization better for all people? How do we as a group of young people who
met in LA make a difference? I think we will each find a way.

There is nothing as heart warming as seeing a dismissive intelligent
conservative and a cynical intelligent hemp grower on the same email page.
Thanks for the messages guys.

Nate

REGISTER INDEPENDENT:
"the common & continual mischiefs of the spirit of Party are sufficient to
make it the interest and the duty of a wise People to discourage and
restrain it." George Washington

PS Pep, did you guys ever figure out how to get Helen Keller her place of
honor without the daughters of the confederacy raising Gen. Lee from the
dead to march on Washington?

--------------------------------------------------------

5/16/02 - 10:10 AM
Re: What would Jesus do?
From: Pepper Bryars

Awe shucks, Nate, don't ya be a pickin' on me, ya
hear? Or me and my kin folk er' gonna load up the
wagon and come on up dar to the big city.

Seriously, I never knew you had it in you. Well said.
Well said.

I just think everybody ought to lighten' the Hell up
every now and then and laugh. Y'all are all full of
shit anywa

=====
~ Pepper Bryars

--------------------------------------------------------

5/16/02 - 11:12 AM
RE: What would Jesus do?
From: Pepper Bryars

Holy Shit!!! I was checking reading Zed-head's reading
list at the bottom of that e-mail, and I have one of
those books on my bedside table.

It's the one by Geery Spence, titled "From Freedom to
Slavery: The Rebirth of Tyranny in America."

I'm going home right now to boil it in my gumbo pot.

Thanks for the warning Zed, I was just about to read
that.

Whew! What a close call.

~ Pepper Bryars

Thank you again or proving my point, Pepper. Predictably, you have chosen to
attack the messenger and ignore the message. I hate to use the same quote
twice, but since you missed it the first time: "Ignorance of the truth is
sad, being proud of your ignorance is just stupid."

So, while Pepper is wallowing in his ignorance, this one goes out to Nate:

First of all, let me just say that I do my own research and can think and
write for myself, but if it helps you sleep at night to say that I’ve
plagiarized everything, knock yourself out. As I said, I'm interested in
talking honestly about the truth, not wasting time with pointless character
assassination to make myself feel better.

More importantly Nate, I agree with most of what you said. I don't think all
politicians are corrupt anymore than I believe that all corporations are
corrupt. I'm just against the corporations that kill people for profit and
the politicians who help them do it. Greed transcends party politics.
Everybody knows that nothing will change until we begin to speak honestly
about the history and behavior of the people behind the current unelected
Bush administration. I ask you, Pepper: Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Truth?

Is that enough to put me on your Un-American Activities list?

You might want to add a few other advocates of Democracy like: Thomas Paine,
Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Lennon,
Abraham Lincoln, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and George Washington (who said:
"Make the most of hemp and sow it everywhere.") Not to mention Jesus, who
would have been called before your Neo-HUAC Committee and forced to denounce
the Apostles as Communists.

I'm glad Nate mentioned Diesel engines, which I'm sure you know, were
invented over 100 year ago in 1895 to be run specifically on organic fuels.
Every Diesel engine on the road today could run on cheaper, cleaner, safer
plant-based fuel, instead of today’s petroleum based Diesel fuel (but that
wouldn't go over too well with all your rich oil buddies like Bush and
Cheney, would it?).

More to the point, in 1941 Henry Ford built a car "grown from the soil" that
ran on organic methanol fuel and had a body made from hemp-based plastic
that was 10 times stronger than steel. Ford also helped pioneer the lost
science of Chemurgy, which used plant-based carbohydrates as its primary
resource, instead of expensive and toxic petroleum-based hydrocarbons. They
knew in the 1930s that everything done with petrochemicals could be done
better, cheaper, cleaner, and stronger with natural alternatives. (See:
"New Billion Dollar Crop" Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1938, Pg. 238. Available
on-line at: http://www.HempFarm.org/BillionDollarCrop.html)

If hemp based organic products were grown and processed in America the cost
of supplying food, clothing, shelter, and fuel to the people of America
would be drastically reduced, along with our bloated petroleum-dependant
cost of living. With an abundance of renewable resources and natural
products, we wouldn't have to sell weapons to oppressive dictatorships to
protect our oil pipelines, or train right-wing extremists to rig elections
and blow up our Airplanes (and buildings, and foreign oil refineries).

As Nate said: "We have it --why don't we use it? I know the standard
answers--but what do we actually do about it?"

I see hemp as the catalyst for a national paradigm-shift and a way to reduce
the oppressive cost of living that holds the American people in a death
grip. As the cost of living goes down, we would all be able to work less,
spend more time with our families, and still have time to do the things that
make life worth living as individual human beings. All of us would have
enough time and money to feed our families and explore the creative urges
that makes us human beings, instead of just working ourselves to death for
slave wages then having a heart attack at 43. (Just think, Pepper, with all
that free time on you hands you could write those two novels you told me
about).

Nate summed it up best: We need to work together toward our common goals.

We have to demand the truth from our elected officials and then stand back
and watch closely as the Petrochemical Propaganda starts to fly. Once you
have their attention, ask the question again: "If an alternative to oil has
been available to us since before World War II, why does our government
force us to perpetuate our dependence on toxic products that we don't need?"

If the majority of our elected representatives are actually trying their
best to help us, and honestly don't know that an alternative to oil has been
available for 100 years, shouldn’t somebody stand up and tell them?

But what do we do if they know the truth and don't give a damn?

Am I the only one who thinks continuing to sell weapons to terrorists is a
bad idea? Am I the only one who thinks protecting Nazi murders and spying on
"Dangerous Left Wingers" like John Lennon and Martin Luther King might not
be the best way to "protect our freedom"? Am I “un-American” for simply
asking these questions?

I've managed to live my life without selling weapons to murders and bombing
children, why can't George Bush and his business partners do the same?

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Pepper agreed with me face to face (in
a hushed voice) that hemp "would indeed help the people of his state," but
when it came to taking a stand in public, he was more interested in toeing
the conservative party line and calling me a "crazy motherfucker" and an
"assassin". It's always fun to hear people who promote carpet-bombing yell
"Murderer!" at the people who promote peace. I have no doubt that Pepper
will have a long life in the Grand Political Game: "Say whatever you have to
say to get elected, then screw everybody who didn't give you money."

Its funny that you should tell me to relax, because as I'm sure you've seen
on TV, if there’s one thing us wacky Hollywood types know how to do, its
party.

Unfortunately, when I try to get a little peace and quiet these days all I
see is my bills piling up and my friends fighting for work. I see people
working 18 hours a day for shit pay who still can’t afford health insurance.

I see parents fighting to put their children through school, and I see my
grandparents dying in the hands of a pathetic healthcare system.

I also see my mother getting robbed by a corrupt banking system and blowing
her head off because she couldn't afford to pay for her medication.

And to top it off everyday on TV I see my best friend's mother explode in a
ball of flame and rubble on all over Manhattan's west side.

Then I see ignorant good 'ol boys smiling wide as they continue to poison
children, piss on the constitution, and give our hard earned money to
malignant corporate criminals like Enron.

Spare me your simplistic, TV friendly view of the world, Pepper. Books are
more than paperweights and props. If you want to learn something you
actually have to read them.

As Methodman said: "Fuck the President, he don't represent the ghetto
resident."

Yours forever,
Zed

You take yourself way too seriously, Zed. Maybe you
need to smoke some more pot, mellow out, and learn to
take a joke. Can't you see that I'm just fucking with
you? I'm with you on a few issues, but instead of
agreeing, it's much more entertaining to type a few
lines, send it out into cyberspace, and then read how
you rant and raved about it.

And of course hemp would help farmers in my state if
it were made legal. I never said hemp wasn't a good
cash crop, I just don't think it's the solution to
every problem facing the human race.

And if hemp will solve the energy crisis, then what's
too worry? If we have a fuel that can grow inside of
a season, then we're all fine. Once we get through
sucking the oil from underneath all our national
forrests and such, then, when it's all gone, the
president can appont Zed to be our Secretary of Energy
and there'll be no more road rage cause we'll all be
high from the fumes and, as that crackhead PCP freak
Rodney King hoped, "all getting along."

See Zed, there's always hope.

~ Pepper Bryars

Zed,

Thanks for the message. Although you are making a myriad of points, I am
focused--for now-- on the energy policies of the US. I figured you may be
more up to date than I am on any congressional petitions or proposed
legislation language that would put renewable energy and alternative fuels
on the table. I know about the bill that was around this year for more
research on the subject, but I think there must be more. Is there anything?
Are there any representatives that have taken this issue on as a goal?

If you have a moment, let me know. I have found nothing/no one, but I also
thought I might be looking in the wrong places.

The reason I am asking is because if something exisits it needs more
attention and if nothing exisits then it is time to call local congressional
leaders out of hiding on this issue.

Thanks,
Nate

--------------------------------------------------------

5/21/02 - 11:17 AM
Re: War Is Peace. Etc.
From: Zed B. Starkovich

Hallelujah brother, I couldn't agree more with your last message.

Unfortunately, the federal government isn't just ignoring the issue of hemp, they are actively stopping the states from researching the facts for themselves. Even when the state farmers get together and convince the universities and local politicians to support a simple investigation of the food, fiber, and medicinal uses of hemp, they are met with a tidal wave of ignorant derision from people who think that things are just fine the way they are. Seven states have stood up with voter-led initiatives on the hemp and medical marijuana issue but they have all been blocked by the DEA or some other misguided federal agency.

From the beginning, the war on drugs has been motivated my racist businessmen who wanted to protect their profits by turning the public against the one natural resource that could replace their petrochemical products.

The examples are endless, but the best is William Randolph Hearst who owned millions of acres of timberland that was worth around a billion dollars, but ONLY if the public remained dependant on timber for paper. When the US Department of Agriculture released a report (Bulletin 404, in 1916) on the benefits of using hemp for paper, Hearst went on the offensive. He filled the country with newspaper stories that declared: "Marijuana is the most violence causing drug known to man" and that "It causes Mexicans and negroes to rape white women." The politicians soon followed this media onslaught by reading the headlines in congress and banning hemp as "the demon weed marijuana" in virtual secrecy, and against protests by the AMA and America's thriving hemp industry."

By the early 1970s when Nixon declared that marijuana was an evil plot by the Communists and Jewish Psychiatrists, things hadn't changed much. He proudly intensified America's Drug War by banning universities and independent laboratories from doing ANY research into cannabis AT ALL.

Since clamping down on the freedom to find the truth for ourselves, anybody who even mentions the word hemp is declared a crackpot and Communist by people like Pepper, who refuse to question what they have been told by their leaders.

Frankly, I don't give a damn what they think, I just wish that they'd leave the rest of us alone so we can live our lives in peace and quiet, safely away from their shrill screams.

As you've found, people interested in doing something about the truth are out there, but they're hard to find because they're not on TV. Spreading the truth takes a lot longer when all you can do is stand in the street and yell at traffic.

You should get the book: The Emperor Wears No Clothes, by Jack Herer. It is THE place to begin looking into the 12,000 year history of hemp as a medicine and natural resource. It's also on-line at: http://www.jackherer.com/

There are many people trying to fight for this issue, but the future is bleak. On the one hand, its inevitable that the future will eventually be powered by carbohydrates instead of hydrocarbons because there is no other way, I just don't know how many more people will die in the meantime. Frankly, I don't like the odds. "Liars do not fear the truth if there are enough liars."

The answer might just be to hunker down, and tell your kids campfire stories about the good old days as we wait for Armageddon on CNN. Maybe not. But things don't seem very likely to change anytime soon with oilmen like Bush and Cheney in control who like things just the way they are.

Good luck fighting the good fight,
Zed

--------------------------------------------------------

7/3/02 - 1:49 PM
Hey Patriots
From: Elizabeth [The Casting Director]

Have a wonderful 4th of July. I hope you are well and not sweltering in too
much heat...

Best,
Elizabeth

E-Beth,

What's happenin'? Good to hear from you.

Let me guess: They're still casting the show, but they've decided to focus on South American politics because it's less controversial?

How about a new show: "Hooker's on the Hill: A behind the scenes expose about the hookers who fuck the congressmen that are screwing us."

We could watch Enron and Unocal executives smoking opium and screwing Afghan hookers in the Lincoln bedroom, while our intrepid "President" continues to trade weapons for oil with oppressive right-wing dictatorships like Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and blame all of our problems on "Eco-terrorists".

Unfortunately, that might raise the question of who, exactly, is getting fucked: The hookers, or The People of America. . .

And we all know that the last thing anyone wants to do on TV is make people think. . . that's just plain bad for business.

Happy Freedom Day folks! Better enjoy it while we can.

Zed B. Starkovich
The HempFarm.org


"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
- George W. Bush, during a photo-op with Congressional leaders on 12/18/2000. As broadcast on CNN and available in transcript on their web site.

10/9/02 - 1:20 PM
Amiri Baraka's "Someboy Blew Up America"
From: Tara Scott

Read this...

Hey ALL:)

This is a poem read at a festival earlier this month by Amiri Baraka. He is
currently being asked to resign from his post as Poet Laureate by New Jersey
Governor Jim McGreevey. Baraka refuses to apologize. The entire story can be
found at this website: www.blackamericaweb.com. Check out the story and also
read the poem.

-Tara Scott

SOMEBODY BLEW UP AMERICA

They say its some terrorist,

some barbaric

A Rab,

in Afghanistan

It wasn't our American terrorists

It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads

Or the them that blows up nigger

Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row

It wasn't Trent Lott

Or David Duke or Giuliani

Or Schundler, Helms retiring

It wasn't

The gonorrhea in costume

The white sheet diseases

That have murdered black people

Terrorized reason and sanity

Most of humanity, as they pleases

They say (who say?)

Who do the saying

Who is them paying

Who tell the lies

Who in disguise

Who had the slaves

Who got the bux out the Bucks

Who got fat from plantations

Who genocided Indians

Tried to waste the Black nation

Who live on Wall Street

The first plantation

Who cut your nuts off

Who rape your ma

Who lynched your pa

Who got the tar, who got the feathers

Who had the match, who set the fires

Who killed and hired

Who say they God & still be the Devil

Who the biggest only

Who the most goodest

Who do Jesus resemble

Who created everything

Who the smartest

Who the greatest

Who the richest

Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest

Who define art

Who define science

Who made the bombs

Who made the guns

Who bought the slaves, who sold them

Who called you them names

Who say Dahmer wasn't insane

Who? Who? Who?

Who stole Puerto Rico

Who stole the Indies, the Philipines, Manhattan

Australia & The Hebrides

Who forced opium on the Chinese

Who own them buildings

Who got the money

Who think you funny

Who locked you up

Who own the papers

Who owned the slave ship

Who run the army

Who the fake president

Who the ruler

Who the banker

Who? Who? Who?

Who own the mine

Who twist your mind

Who got bread

Who need peace

Who you think need war

Who own the oil

Who do no toil

Who own the soil

Who is not a nigger

Who is so great ain't nobody bigger

Who own this city

Who own the air

Who own the water

Who own your crib

Who rob and steal and cheat and murder

and make lies the truth

Who call you uncouth

Who live in the biggest house

Who do the biggest crime

Who go on vacation anytime

Who killed the most niggers

Who killed the most Jews

Who killed the most Italians

Who killed the most Irish

Who killed the most Africans

Who killed the most Japanese

Who killed the most Latinos

Who? Who? Who?

Who own the ocean

Who own the airplanes

Who own the malls

Who own television

Who own radio

Who own what ain't even known to be owned

Who own the owners that ain't the real owners

Who own the suburbs

Who suck the cities

Who make the laws

Who made Bush president

Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying

Who talk about democracy and be lying

Who the Beast in Revelations

Who 666

Who know who decide

Jesus get crucified

Who the Devil on the real side

Who got rich from Armenian genocide

Who the biggest terrorist

Who change the bible

Who killed the most people

Who do the most evil

Who don't worry about survival

Who have the colonies

Who stole the most land

Who rule the world

Who say they good but only do evil

Who the biggest executioner

Who? Who? Who?

Who own the oil

Who want more oil

Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie

Who? Who? Who?

Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan

Who pay the CIA,

Who knew the bomb was gonna blow

Who know why the terrorists

Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego

Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion

And cracking they sides at the notion

Who need fossil fuel when the sun ain't goin' nowhere

Who make the credit cards

Who get the biggest tax cut

Who walked out of the Conference

Against Racism

Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother

Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing?

Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln?

Who invaded Grenada

Who made money from apartheid

Who keep the Irish a colony

Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later

Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani,

the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral,

Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino,

Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane,

Betty Shabazz, Die, Princess Di, Ralph Featherstone,

Little Bobby

Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo,

Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton

Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton,

Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney,

Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel

Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed

Who put a price on Lenin's head

Who put the Jews in ovens,

and who helped them do it

Who said "America First"

and ok'd the yellow stars

Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt

Who murdered the Rosenbergs

And all the good people iced,

tortured, assassinated, vanished

Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti,

Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon,

Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine,

Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo

Who invented Aids

Who put the germs

In the Indians' blankets

Who thought up "The Trail of Tears"

Who blew up the Maine

& started the Spanish American War

Who got Sharon back in Power

Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo,

Chiang kai Chek

Who decided Affirmative Action had to go

Reconstruction, The New Deal,

The New Frontier, The Great Society,

Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for

Who doo doo come out the Colon's mouth

Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza

Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro

Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus

Subsidere

Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop,

Who poison Robeson,

who try to put DuBois in Jail

Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs,

Garvey,

The Scottsboro Boys,

The Hollywood Ten

Who set the Reichstag Fire

Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed

Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers

To stay home that day

Why did Sharon stay away?

Who? Who? Who?

Explosion of Owl the newspaper say

The devil face cd be seen

Who make money from war

Who make dough from fear and lies

Who want the world like it is

Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national

oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty.

Who is the ruler of Hell?

Who is the most powerful

Who you know ever

Seen God?

But everybody seen

The Devil

Like an Owl exploding

In your life in your brain in your self

Like an Owl who know the devil

All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl

Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise

In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog

Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell

Who and Who and WHO who who

Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo!

Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka. All Rights Reserve

Murdoch is playing with democracy
September 23, 2002
BY ROGER EBERT

I am both intrigued and alarmed by the notion of a TV game show designed to create a third-party presidential candidate. On the one hand, the show could elevate the level of political debate in America. On the other hand, it could wreak havoc with our electoral system, and result in yet another minority president.

"American Candidate" is a proposed weekly "reality" program from FX cable, a division of Fox. In January 2003, it will begin with 100 candidates who want to run for president, and eliminate a few every week, as on "American Idol."

According to Variety, shows will be telecast from locations such as Mt. Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty. "The final episode," Variety says, "will be an 'American Candidate' convention, held on the National Mall in Washington around July 4, 2004--about the same time the Republicans and Democrats will be prepping their conventions."

The winner would then decide whether or not to actually run for office. Variety was unclear about whether Fox would subsidize the campaign; probably not, since if there is a shred of sanity left in our election laws, that would be illegal.

If the Green Party indeed elected George W. Bush in 2000, as many think it did by drawing votes away from Al Gore, what effect would an American Candidate Party have? The show's candidate, by the time he (or she!) is chosen, will have had more TV exposure, in a more entertaining format, than either of the major party candidates. Answering to no party or electorate, groomed to be slick, selected as most popular, packaged as entertainment, quite possibly female, perhaps "ethnic," could this AC candidate tilt an American election? Of course. If you doubt it, I have two words for you: Jesse Ventura.

By timing the climactic show to compete with the national political conventions, FX and Fox will distract from the real debate, at a time when America desperately needs to pay serious attention to politics. If the American Candidate qualifies as a legal nominee, would he or she expect to join the presidential debates? Inevitably. And if the Democrats and Republicans refuse, will they risk offending the AC candidate's . . . fans?

Who stands to lose most--apart from the American citizenry, of course? I suspect it would be George W. Bush, the presumptive 2004 GOP nominee. The Fox channels skew to the right. They feature conservative commentators and attract conservative viewers, who are likely to flood the phone lines for the most attractive conservative on "American Candidate."

This game show winner, saying many of the same things as George W. Bush but inevitably in a more articulate way, is likely to take more votes from the Republicans than the Democrats.

My guess, however, is that "American Candidate" will never air a single episode. It is dangerous mischief. Rupert Murdoch, who owns FX and quickly ascertains which way the wind is blowing, will bring it down with a thunderous oath, probably later this week.


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