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2001 Opinion News History Archives
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2001 Opinion Archive:

20011210

"Leter from Ralph Nader and James Love to Judge J. Frederick Motz on the Proposed Settlement of the Microsoft Antitrust Case."

-CPTech.org

20011205

"What Recession? Why the media is underplaying America’s economic slump." -By Robert J. Samuelson

-MSNBC/Newsweek

20010906

"LETTING PUBLIC LIBRARIES DOWN: The Recent Copyright Office Report Misses A Chance To Support A Digital First Sale Doctrine For Libraries" -By Julie Hilden

- FindLaw >LegalNews >Writ

20010904

"Stephen Hawking: Humans will fall behind AI: Renowned British scientist Stephen Hawking has claimed that humans should be genetically engineered if they are to compete with the phenomenal growth of artificial intelligence." -By Wendy McAuliffe

-ZDNet>News

20010830

"Bush's integrity deficit rivals Condit's: The shocking sellout of national energy policy to the oil-and-gas industry harms the country more than Condit's stonewalling about Chandra Levy." -By Arianna Huffington via

-Salon/-news

20010331

Rick Berman

Corporate

Media

Marketing

Food

Safety

Animals

Workers

Consumers

Health

Science

Politics

Law

Enforcement

"Berman & Co.: "Nonprofit" Hustlers for the Food & Booze Biz." ... "Restaurant-industry lobbyist Rick Berman says there are two things that set his firm, Berman & Co., apart from others in the trade. The first is that "we always have a knife in our teeth." The other is that "we don't chase the smaller issues. . . . Our work is restricted to and focused on issues that affect shareholder value. These big issues include labor costs as they relate to health insurance and the minimum wage, achieving operator sales increases, and tax rates as they are affected in particular by payroll and excise taxes."" ... "Based in Washington, DC, Berman speaks for hotels, beer distributors, taverns, and restaurant chains such as Cracker Barrel, Hooters, International House of Pancakes, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Steak & Ale, TGI Friday's, Uno Restaurants, and Wendy's. His strategy for helping these chains maximize "shareholder value" is aimed at two goals: minimizing wages for restaurant employees, while driving up sales of his client's high-markup products--in particular, booze, soda pop, fatty foods, and cigarettes." ... ""Other groups drive consumer behavior on meat, alcohol, fat, sugar, tobacco and caffeine with outrageous quotes, exaggeration, junk science and even violent acts," Berman said in a 1999 interview with the Chain Leader, a trade publication for restaurant chains. "Our offensive strategy is to shoot the messenger," Berman went on. "Given the activists' plans to alarm beyond all reason, we've got to attack their credibility as spokepersons."" ... "By way of disclaimer, we should note that our attention was first drawn to Berman & Co. when our 1997 book, Mad Cow USA, was attacked recently by one of Berman's front groups--the "Guest Choice Network," whose stated mission is to expose what it calls "the Nanny Culture -- the growing fraternity of food cops, health care enforcers, anti-meat activists, and meddling bureaucrats who 'know what's best for you.'"" ... "According to the Guest Choice Network, Mad Cow USA "set new standards for food scare tactics." Guest Choice has even produced a report, titled "Mad Cow: A New American Scare Campaign," which insinuates that we are the masterminds behind recent headline stories about mad cow disease that have appeared in places as far apart as Agence Press France, ABC World News Tonight, and the Wall Street Journal. The report includes sinister-looking charts and arrows alleging hidden conspiratorial ties between us and groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Center for Food Safety, Consumers Union, Fenton Communications, the Organic Consumers Association, Dr. Tom Pringle (who until recently managed a website about mad cow disease, at www.mad-cow.org), and CJD Voice (an internet-based discussion and support group for people who have lost family members to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a mad cow-like disease in humans)." ... "Guest Choice claims that all of these groups and individuals are part of a massive "junk-science smear campaign" to "ignite a U.S. panic" so that anti-meat "food police" can "frighten us all into eating only what bears their imprimatur."" ... "It is a curious honor, of course, to be accused of "junk science" by a flack for junk food. Given some of the garbage that Berman's clients feed to an unsuspecting public, it's hardly surprising that he would see a need to "attack our credibility as spokespersons."" ... "But what about Berman & Co. itself? How much credibility should anyone give a restaurant industry spokesperson who brags of having "a knife in his teeth"? The sad fact is that the news media has given him plenty. " -By Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

-PRWatch.org

19990609

Richard Shelby

Money

Politics

Federal

Transit

Construction

Alabama

California

New York

"Richard Shelby Is No Robin Hood." ... "Shortly before the Memorial Day recess, [Alabama Republican] Senator Richard Shelby started to pick the pockets of both California and New York State. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted overwhelmingly to impose the Alabama Senator's 12.5 percent ceiling on what any one state can receive of the annual total of Federal rapid-transit aid. That would siphon off some $200 million to $300 million that would ordinarily go to New York or California in fiscal 2000 and redistribute it in equal shares to the other 48 states for mass transit." ... "Without these subways, commuter rail lines, light rail systems and buses, major metropolitan areas in both states would choke on highway congestion." ... "Mr. Shelby's Transit Equity Provision pretends to champion fairness even as it steals money from overburdened transit systems and distributes it to states that may not have matching funds or projects ready to carry out. But ''fairness'' cuts many ways. In fiscal 1997, by one analysis, New York delivered $14.2 billion more in taxes to Washington [DC, United States Capital] than it received in aid, and California delivered $11.8 billion more. Mr. Shelby's Alabama, on the other hand, was the beneficiary of $6.9 billion more in aid than it gave Washington in taxes. Is it ''fair'' to make these imbalances even greater?"

-NYTimes

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