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COLUMN EIGHTY, DECEMBER 1, 2002
(Copyright © 2002 The Blacklisted Journalist)

FOR RALPH HASELMANN JR.

Subject: thank you
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 12:27:56 EDT
From: Marciagoodman@aol.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com
 

Dear Mr. Haselmann,
I just wanted to thank you for your mention and review of my short story in the first issue of Box of Rocks.  Also, thanks for reminding me of Bill Moyers' collection The Language of Life.  I'm in the middle of writing an intro. to poetry book for struggling community college readers----his host of interviews will be really helpful.  I'd seen it but forgotten about how in-depth his interviews were.
All the best,
Marcia Renee Goodman  ##  

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FOR AMIRI BARAKA

Subject: Somebody Blew up Amer.
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 14:12:46 -0400
From: "Mjett" mjett@cinci.rr.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com

Dear Sir,

I have read your Poem, Somebody Blew Up America, and I found it to contain so much truth, Yeah Who!  I also saw you on the Connie Chung Show before I read the poem, and I am glad that you are not going to let the haters of truth make you step down as New Jersey's Poet.  I can't even imagine, a great thinker and master of truth being intimidated by those that can't stand to face reality.  I find your work fascinating.  

Sincerely Mjett
Cincinnati, Ohio  ##  

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ANOTHER OPINION OF AMIRI'S POEM

Subject: Baraka
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 12:44:53 -0400
From: Scruffdaddy1@aol.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com

Hi Al--

I just read Baraka's response to the controversy over his poem "Somebody Blew Up America" (which I actually read on your site, and kudos to you for not publicizing that fact all over the Web as many others would have done) and I just had to add my 2 cents.  As a firm believer in our First Amendment rights, I believe that all of us, poet laureates included, have the inalienable right (at least for the time being) to free expression. That's to say Baraka's poem, while it is indeed disturbing, should be protected as a form of artistic expression regardless of whether it's based on fact, or whether the reader (or the ADL or the governor of New Jersey or various state senators) agrees with its content.  

However, Baraka's "defense" of his poem is not art or protected speech, and essentially amounts to the largest steaming heap of bullshit this side of Pamplona. I don't have the time or the inclination to refute all of Baraka's many specious citations and accusations (although sadly, I find myself agreeing with him about Iraq), but what I found particularly galling is his insistence that the insidious lie about 4,000 Israelis not showing up for work at the World Trade Center on 9/11 is somehow based in reality.  Baraka cites such sources as "Ha?aretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper), "Manar? -TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK."  In fact, this story was thoroughly debunked almost as soon as it appeared (see links:
http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/israel.htm;
http://www.palmspringslife.com/cheap/internet.html; http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/60II/printable520768.shtml), and it turns out the one and only source of this tale was al-Manar TV, the self-described "Channel of Arabs and Muslims," a propaganda mill that is
owned and operated by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.

 Ditto his claims about Zim American-Israeli Shipping moving out of the WTC days before the attacks (the only source I could find for this was the more-than-dubious AmericanFreePress.Net), and the bogus report of the five Israelis videotaping the attacks (al-Manar again).  Baraka also cites other legitimate sources, such as the New York Times, The Star-Ledger, Reuters, Der Spiegel, but conveniently omits dates or links for cross-referencing?--and this from a man who uses "op. cit." in his everyday speech.

Baraka's anti-Semitism is old news, and too bad for the dickweeds in Trenton who didn't do their homework before making him the poet laureate of New Jersey  ("We're shocked?--shocked!---to discover he has a problem with Jewish people.  And he's a Communist, too?!").  But Baraka is not merely an anti-Semite.  He's a coward (not to mention a zealot, a propagandist, and more than a bit of a hypocrite). Although he's not the first Jew-hater whose literary work I could appreciate---the names Pound, Eliot, and Kerouac immediately spring to mind---he is alone in his attempts to justify and rationalize his hatred (in writing, no less) by citing the caliber of "facts? that would make the Nazis proud.  That he tries to hide behind such fallacies, rather than acknowledge his own racist leanings, proves his cowardice.

Indeed, the only thing I found surprising about Baraka's poem was his reference to Jews dying in Nazi ovens, as I would have expected him to be among those who maintain the Holocaust never happened.

I know Baraka is a friend of yours, Al.  But I'm still a bit surprised that you gave him the space for this rant.  I'm assuming you read it before posting it on your Web site.  If so, as a journalist, you should have checked the references he cites before giving him a license to spew forth such utter garbage.

Best always,

--Steve  ##

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THREE CHEERS FOR US!

Subject: BRAVO!!!
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 13:16:13 -0400
From: "Chuck Moses" <moses@firepowr.com>
To: <info@blacklistedjournalist.com>
 

Three cheers for the wag the dog article!!! Keep writing!
MOSES  ##  

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NAT DIDN'T LIKE COLUMN SEVENTY-NINE

Subject: Re: [AGALIST] COLUMN SEVENTY-NINE
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 15:34:50 -0400
From: Nat <refuseinc@earthlink.net>
To: AGALIST-owner@yahoogroups.com

wonderful another puff piece about a celebrity just what the world needs...who changed his diapers how 'bout another piece about your pal leroy jones.,kike?or corporate censorship ...yahooboy?  ##

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ANOTHER NADERITE WHO STILL DOESN'T GET IT

Subject: Re: [AGALIST] COLUMN SEVENTY-EIGHT
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 00:22:44 -0500
From: Lew Rosenbaum rosetree@mindspring.com
To: AGALIST-owner@yahoogroups.com

I know you have a grudge here, but don't you think it's time to get off your sectarian nonsense and recognize finally that Gore beat Gore, with help from the Supreme Court.  For god's sake, if he'd won his own state, or if Clinton had carried Arkansas for him even, do you think Bush would be King now? Why fall into the Florida trap over and over again? (Yeah, I know; it's because jazz musicians can improvise . . .)

--

Please Note E-Mail Addresses: reply to Lew Rosenbaum: rosetree@mindspring.com  reply to  Diana Berek: phoebemoon@mindspring.com  ##

  * * *

Subject: Re: [AGALIST] COLUMN SEVENTY-EIGHT
Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 00:32:37 -0500
From: Lew Rosenbaum <rosetree@mindspring.com>
To: al aronowitz <info@blacklistedjournalist.com>

AL --

I haven't the time to waste on speculating what might have been if Gore were president now.  I do know two things. I don't tolerate red-baiting; and there was no "movement" of which Nader was a leader in the last campaign.

The Cheney-Rumsfeld-Powell-Wolfowitz-Bush axis has now been granted war powers to complement their grip on homeland security, with the collusion of the Democrats.  This is the resurgence of the plan for world domination developed 10 and more years ago.  And it is not merely a subjective phenomenon that the environment within which this axis is operating gives them their biggest opportunity (Sept. 11) and their greatest need (the economic depression what was evident even to the Economist in August 2001).

Lew  ##  

* * *

ANYBODY KNOW SOPHIE ARIE IN BUENOS AIRES?

Subject: sophie arie
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 10:11:28 -0600
From: office office@phudson.com
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com

I am trying to contact Sophie Arie in Buenos Aires do you have an email or telephone #.

thanks

Patrick Hudson  ##

* * *

GOD CREATED HEALTH AND WHAT DID SATAN CREATE?

Subject: FW: God's Diet Plan
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 22:31:23 -0700
From: "venire" <venire@znet.com>
To: blaclj@bigmagic.com

God's Diet Plan

.......And God populated the earth with broccoli and cauliflower and spinach and green and yellow vegetables of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

And Satan created McDonald's. And McDonald's brought forth the 99-cent double-cheeseburger. And Satan said to Man, "You want fries with that?"

And Man said, "Super size them." And Man gained pounds.

And God created the healthful yogurt, that woman might keep her figure that man found so fair.

And Satan froze the yogurt, and he brought forth chocolate, nuts and brightly colored sprinkle candy to put on the yogurt. And woman gained pounds.

And God said, "Try my crispy fresh salad."

And Satan brought forth creamy dressings, bacon bits, and shredded cheese.

And there was ice cream for dessert. And woman gained pounds.

And God said, "I have sent your heart healthy vegetables and olive oil with which to cook them."

And Satan brought forth chicken-fried steak from Cracker Barrel so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained pounds, and his bad cholesterol went through the roof.

And God brought forth running shoes, and Man resolved to lose those extra pounds.

And Satan brought forth cable TV with remote control so Man would not have to toil to change channels between ESPN and ESPN2. And Man gained pounds.

And God said, "You're running up the score, Devil." And God brought forth the potato, a vegetable naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition.

And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fat fried them. And he created sour cream dip also.

And Man clutched his remote control and ate the potato chips swaddled in cholesterol. And Satan saw and said, "It is good."

And Man went into cardiac arrest.

And God sighed, and created quadruple bypass surgery, angioplasties, and stints . . . . .

And Satan created HMO's...  ## 

* * *

PLUGGING WAYLON'S WEBSITE

Subject: El Rancho Waylon
Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 23:46:14 -050
From: "Hawk and Marsha" <cwaylon@1starnet.com>
To: info@blacklistedjournalist.com

Please visit our Waylon Tribute Website. Let us know what ya think. Guestpage at bottom of main page, or by email.

Waylon Fans, Hawk & Marsha

Waylon Music, It's A Way Of Life! Don't just read the saying ..... "LIVE IT"

Click link below to visit;

http://elranchowaylon.tripod.com/

or go to www.google.com/

& enter www.elranchowaylon.com/

TOO MUCH WAYLON AIN'T NEVER ENOUGH!
Multi-lingual? No, Just Luv 2 Speak "WAYLONEESE"  ##

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