With tears and heavy heart I dedicate this issue to the late Pfc. Lori Piestewa of Tuba City. HOW MUCH MORE KADDISH KAN AMERIKA MAKE??? ELIJAH, WHAT'S TAKING YOU SO LONG?!? _ _ | |_ (_) _ __ ___ ___ | _| | | | ' \ / -_) (_-< \__| |_| |_|_|_| \___| /__/ This week I give over my Publisher's Column to journalist Brenda Norrell. I think I've done this before. Enjoy this phenomenal analysis: BIG MOUNTAIN TO BAGHDAD: Bush's Coal and Oil Contributors Pave the Way By Brenda Norrell [ Originally pubbed in Navajo Times ] BIG MOUNTAIN, Ariz. -- The road from Big Mountain to Baghdad is short, it goes right through the White House. What makes Big Mountain and Baghdad sister cities? The oil and coal companies that contributed to President Bush's campaign. The proof is in the nation's energy plan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the Navajo Nation in the Peabody coal royalty case and the corporate friends of Bush in line to profit from the rebuilding of Iraq and oil development after the war. As bombs fell on Iraq, American Indian activist Renee Still Day in Pueblo, Colo., pointed out that Bush has already lined up corporations who would benefit from billions of dollars in contracts. The corporations include Halliburton Company, where Vice President Dick Cheney served as CEO for five years. "This could have been solved diplomatically but that was never an option with this 'selected' leader of our country. The fact is he has already opened the door to Halliburton and other 'old buds' with contracts," Still Day said. The five firms tentatively chosen for the rebuilding effort contributed $2.8 million in campaign contributions over the past three years, most going to Republicans. Those companies include Kellogg, Brown and Root, whose parent company is Halliburton. Bechtel, who helped rebuild Kuwait after the Gulf War and allegedly supplied weapons to Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, and Flour. While heading Halliburton, an oil supply and development company, Cheney received $36 million in income in 2000. Those who contributed to Bush and Cheney's campaigns and careers are in line for contracts to rebuild roads, schools and hospitals and develop oil in Iraq. Iraq's oil reserve, estimated at 110 billion barrels, is the second largest in the world, exceeded only by Saudi Arabia. Follow the money From Big Mountain to Baghdad, from the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to sacred sites throughout Indian country, the Bush-Cheney national energy plan focuses on increasing oil, coal and nuclear plants. From the beginning, Cheney's task force on energy development included those who contributed to his political campaign, including Peabody Coal. Cheney has refused to release the task force documents to the General Accounting Office, Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times report. Before gaining access to Cheney's energy task force, Peabody Coal, the largest coal company in the world, and its affiliates have given more than $900,000 to the Bush campaign. When Cheney's final energy report was released May 16, 2001, it called for additional coal production. Five days later Peabody issued a public stock offering, raising $60 million more than expected. Clean air standards for power plant emissions were rolled back; Bush reneged on a campaign pledge to restrict power plant emissions. Irl Engelhardt, chairman of Peabody, was a major contributor to the Bush-Cheney transition team, as Peabody lobbied for Bush to lower standards of arsenic levels in water. Peabody contributed $100,000 for the inauguration and $25,000 for a party honoring Bush May 21, 2002. Navajos have been resisting forced relocation at Big Mountain and elsewhere on Black Mesa, where Peabody uses the only source of drinking water to slurry coal. Meanwhile, Navajo live without runnning water and electricity in the area. "The president is friendly to energy, and so is the vice president, and thank God," said Fred Palmer, a vice president at Peabody Energy. Even before the Navajo Nation lawyers went before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue their case against Peabody Coal this year, the Bush administration took the unusual step of persuading the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against the Navajo Nation's $600 million case against Peabody. The Navajo Nation alleged that a conspiracy between energy companies -- including Peabody and the Salt River Project -- and the Interior led to the Navajo Nation being denied a fair royalty rate for its coal. The Department of Justice urged the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against the tribe, saying the U.S. government could face "adverse consequences." "The decision below will encourage the filing of damages against the United States for breach of trust," Solicito General Ted Olsen wrote March 15, 2002. "At a minimum, such a development will subject the United States to costly litigation." The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that it was irrelevant that former Interior Secretary Donald Hodel met behind closed doors with officials of Peabody Energy as he was deciding the royalty rate issue. The Supreme Court ruling against the Navajo Nation and in favor of Peabody in March came less than three weeks before war was launched in oil-rich Iraq. American Indians point to oil, treaties and losses in trust On Rosebud tribal land in South Dakota, Andrew Catt-Iron Shell, Sicangu Lakota and Eastern Cherokee, said large numbers of American Indians fight wars with little recognition or honor from the United States government who continues to dishonor their treaties. "How do they thank us? By ignoring treaty obligations mandated by the United States Constitution and perpetuating an atmosphere of animosity between our two sovereign governments," Iron Shell said. "It is really a sad world that the white man has created." Iron Shell said he is in full support of the soldiers who have chosen to serve the United States. His own grandfather served in the Armed Services before he was accepted as a United States citizen. American Indians were among the first U.S. military to leave for Iraq. "Many of our young Native men and women were again some of the very first to volunteer for duty in these challenging times," Iron Shell said. "It's very ironic to me personally, that we have been fighting the terrorism that has been bestowed upon our Indigenous Tribal Nations since 1492 but yet we still are the first to react to threats against our homeland now called America. "When Congress and the George W. Bush look at who sends the most warriors to battle to protect our Nation, I hope they realize that Indian Country has more volunteers to the Armed Services per our specific population than any other race in this country." In Pueblo, Colo., Still Day said in this war, for the first time since its war of genocide against American Indians, "The United States is the aggressor, the bully, the warmonger. "No one supports Saddam Hussein, he is an abomination and a horrible person, but who made Bush God? "That we could defeat Saddam was a foregone conclusion, this was not even a question in anyone's mind. But we should never forget that the actual weapons that Bush claimed Saddam had, came directly from Bush the first, Donald Rumsfeld and the whole band of renegades that now attack him." Still Day said we now live in a police state where an attorney in New Mexico was arrested for speaking out against Bush and demonstrators are arrested for wearing peace shirts. "The government is now talking about those who placed themselves as human shields in Iraq to protect the civilians, suggesting that they be prosecuted at traitors. These were nuns, Medal of Honor winners, decorated war veterans and people of conscience, who went there unarmed to protect the innocent. "Now they will be labeled at traitors? What next?" Still Day said Bush has set a dangerous precedence. "If a country doesn't like another country's leader, this action says, "it is now acceptable to take them out." "With all the enemies Bush has made across the world and the danger that he poses to them, he has set himself up as the possible next target." Still Day points out that American Indians know too well what it means to place oil in trust. "The oil of Iraq will now be placed 'in trust' for the people of Iraq, according to Colin Powell. Anyone living in Indian Country already knows how that will work, it won't! "This war was for oil, for the Bush cronies and damned what the rest of this country or the rest of this world believed. Calling for impeachment, Still Day said, "I support the impeachment of Bush and all his cronies for war crimes and the rejection of our Constitution." Danny Zapata, a supporter of the struggle at Big Mountain who lives in Europe, said the real machinery behind the war in Iraq is oil, not human rights. "When our peoples' hear and remember these words from Bush saying we're there in Iraq to fight for their freedoms, their human rights to self-determination, sovereignty and to liberate them from oppression, hey great! When can we start that in America? "It's hard to have any remorse for bullies, whether they are Saddam Hussein or this sawed-off version of a trigger happy Texan cowboy." On the Northwest coast, Victoria Redstarr, Nez Perce and descendant of Chief Joseph, said the war will expose America at its root. "The forces that started this war are the same forces that went against us, as a people. In some strange sense, this war is showing the world how evil those forces really are. "The divide it is creating throughout our country and the world is very telling. Very essential. We mustn't back down from the challenge to get even stronger spiritually -- together. "We can't be afraid!" Meanwhile, on Interstate 20, driving through West Texas, the plumes of smoke rising over the oil and gas refineries of west Texas -- where the legacy of "Bush and friends oil" began mirrors the smoke rising from the bombing of Baghdad. On a lonely dirt road, a flock of large, black and shining vultures, one by one, picks over the corpse of a dead animal as the bombs of the United States and allies fall on Iraq. Crossing west Texas as the bombs fall on Iraq, in truck stops and on talk radio, there are racial slurs about Arabs and Moslems. One radio host, aired in Odessa, says Northern Korea should also be bombed because North Koreans have bad attitudes. But not everyone is in favor of the war, even in Bush country. And now, the numbers: http://skippy.com http://www.xiph.org http://www.tldp.org http://whitehouse.org http://www.cokewatch.org http://www.imnotready.com http://www.onlinejournal.com http://www.protest-records.com http://www.rationalanarchism.org http://www.justpeacecoalition.org http://www.thethursdayshow.com/peace http://www.skeptictank.org/flist018.htm http://electroniciraq.net/news/488.shtml http://members.aol.com/drovics/cokel.htm http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/recommends http://www.michaelkelly.fsnet.co.uk/aaron.htm http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff04032003.html http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=308385 http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=303 http://www.petertatchell.net/international/kissinger2.htm http://www.quechuanetwork.org/news_template.cfm?news_id=672&lang=s http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0404missingsoldiers-ON.html http://www.bubblemonkey.org/cheesencrackers/txt/005-crackheadz.txt http://chefmoz.org/United_States/AZ/Tuba_City/Tuba_City_Truck_Stop_Cafe983937662.html AIRPLAY 101 ----------------- By Bryan Farrish Payola (part 5 of 5), What You Can Do 1) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati334.txt 2) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati341.txt 3) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati344.txt 4) http://www.etext.org/Zines/ASCII/ATI/ati349.txt A lot of what small indies can do is covered by the previous fifty Airplay 101 articles. These articles are, after all, designed to show you how you can push your own record to radio, using your own phone calls, for a minimal cost. At a higher level, however, the articles also show you how to work with a radio promoter(s) who will do it for you. Specifically, however, regarding paying money to stations, here is what small indies can do. Keep in mind that this is high-level stuff for small indies, and it is not cheap; it should be used only after ALL your other basic promotion, booking, and PR has been taking care of. This means that, only after you have set up the budget for standard PR for 6 months ($6000 to $20,000), along with standard radio promo for 3 months ($3000 to $20,000), and, you also have a full-time person who handles booking (in-house or agent,) you then can consider some of the options below. Retail promotion and marketing is not mentioned here, because it is just not a feasible area for a new label/artist who is putting out their very first release, with no experience; your sales should instead be at your gigs, only. BUYING ADS: Do this before you do a show in each station's market. You are probably trying to get to the late-night crowd, so ask the stations for a one-week flight with a frequency of 3 or 4 in 7p-mid. This will run you about $300 per station in small markets, and $1000 to $5000 per station for medium markets. You would do well to leave major markets alone. GIVE-AWAYS: If you have cheap access to merchandise or trips, then give them to the station for use as on-air give-aways, in return for "tagging" the artist's name as the provider of the items. Talk to the PD about this, not the salespeople. Good merch would be DVD's, TV's, computers, etc., and they should be available in quantity for each station. MARKETING PIECES: If you are in any way capable of helping a station get it's name out to the public, you can trade this for free commercials or other things. Can you print 10,000 of their bumper stickers for them (per station)? Can you print 10,000 flyers of one of their upcoming events, and distribute the flyers to 200 places around town (per station)? Can you put up street signage at 100 places around town (per station) if the stations provide you with the signs? Can you get 500 to 1000 new people to sign up to the station's email list? Can you promote the station's site so that it shows up in the top 5 of whatever search they tell you to do? Can you call 500 people on the phone and invite them to come out to the station's next remote? Whatever you are good at, or whatever you have the time to do, talk to the PD and see about a trade. Don't plan on putting your artist-info on any of the printed marketing pieces, however. STREET PROMOTIONS: If you are good at organizing people who are spread out around the country, then set up an organized campaign, and convince people to contact each station's promotion director in order to volunteer to help with street promotions in their local towns. You'll probably have to run paid ads in the local papers to get the volunteers, and, you'll need to keep in contact with them in order to keep them motivated. VEHICLES: If you can get good deals on used vans, trucks or SUV's, then you can get one for each station, (again) in trade for commercials or some other promotion. If you can arrange for the vehicles to come pre-wrapped with the station's logo, all the better. Don't expect to be able to put your artist info on it, however. Vehicles are good because as long as they are running, the stations will remember who provided them. Conclusion: Paying stations is not a tool for a small indie to get airplay. The alternate options presented above are for individuals who have the money, who have already hired PR, radio, and booking personnel, and who are looking to build consumer awareness in smaller markets so they can ink a reasonable distribution deal and book more and bigger gigs. ------------------------------------------------------ Bryan Farrish Radio Promotion is an independent radio airplay promotion company. http://www.radio-media.com. ------------------------------------------------------ _ _ __ _ | |_ (_) / _` | | __| | | | (_| | | |_ | | \__,_| \__| |_| Poetry ends the week out: Grief: The Knife by BMC You bought me a knife for Christmas, standard Army and Navy issue. There was a compass in the top, but it never pointed the right direction. Still, it was perfect for cutting the twine on hay bales. Square bales, second cut, waterlogged. At minus twenty, frozen. About 40 pounds each. We carried one in each hand and forced our bodies forward. Down in the dugout we fed the cows. Fresh snow had covered the trampled bedding, so we grabbed new straw. Fifteen bales, thirty red strings. Like villains we hacked and hewed, kicking each blonde pile free of its binding. The knife was so sharp I could cut off the dead cow's frozen ears and sew them into a mitten for my sister. Before spreading out the straw, we flopped down in the pile and smoked a couple of hand-rolled cigarettes pulled from an empty pack of Acklands bolts. The paper cracked with fire and we thought maybe the whole universe was one big cigarette and we were just a shred of tobacco that would eventually be smoked. Later, when you attacked me in the tractor barn, I said I'd kill you with your own knife, right in that same spot where they found you five years later. _ _ _ _ __ _ ___ | |_ (_) __ __ (_) ___ | |_ / _` | / __| | __| | | \ \ / / | | / __| | __| | (_| | | (__ | |_ | | \ V / | | \__ \ | |_ \__,_| \___| \__| |_| \_/ |_| |___/ \__| _ _ | |_ (_) _ __ ___ ___ ___ | __| | | | '_ ` _ \ / _ \ / __| | |_ | | | | | | | | | __/ \__ \ \__| |_| |_| |_| |_| \___| |___/ PROVERBIAL PROVERB Pride Goeth Before The Drink "COCA-COLA AND THE CONTOUR BOTTLE DEVICE ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THE COCA-COLA COMPANY." Send lettuce to the edifice to: ati@etext.org Go to our never-official website at: http://flag.blackened.net/ati/infomaniack.html or http://flag.blackened.net/ati/zine/infomaniack.html Get back issues at: http://www.angelfire.com/wi/kokopeli/cygnus.html And sign up for the once a week publication at our listserver. We'll let YOU FIND THAT ONE on your own.