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March
7, 2002
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Bumper
Crop: The Politics
of Afghan Opium
March
6, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
A
Beautiful Mind:
Another Dangerous Lie?
Tom Turnipseed
War
Is Wrong
David
Vest
Billy
Graham and Nixon:
Tangled Up in Tape
Patrick
Cockburn
The
Bombings That
Made Putin a Hero
CounterPunch
Wire
Berezovsky
Fingers Putin
in Bombings
Edward
Said
Thoughts
About America
March
5, 2002
CounterPunch
Wire
Ann
Coulter At It Again:
Race-Baiting Norm Mineta
Bill Christison
A
Former CIA Officer
Explains Why the War
on Terror Won't Work
Delkhasteh and Wright
What
Should We be Fighting For? An Open Letter
to Pro-War Academics
Mariya
Tsvekova
Putin's
Georgian Gambit
March
4, 2002
Ralph
Nader
Dick
Cheney: A Dinosaur
in the Age of Mammals
Uri Avnery
How
Israel Will Torpedo
the Saudi Peace Plan
Southern
/ Kubrick
Stangelove
Scenario
for Shadow Govt. Bunker
David
Vest
Grammy's
of Constant Sorrow
March
3, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
War
on Terrorism for Dummies
Paul Cox
Boycott
Mel Gibson's
"We Were Soldiers"
Frederick
Hudson
Toward
a Nonviolent Africa:
Bill Sutherland's Quest
Eric Schaeffer
Dear
Christie Whitman:
Take This Job and Shove It
John Chuckman
Why
the Rest of Planet is Unnerved by America
March
2, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Sweat,
Sex, Feet and
the Working Class
March
1, 2002
Brendan
Sexton III
What's
Wrong With Black Hawk Down: an Actor Speaks Out
David
Krieger
Nuclear
Terrorism
and US Nuclear Policy
February
28, 2002
James
T. Phillips
Baghdad,
Spring 1992
Gideon
Samet
Sharon
Must Go
Rep. Ron
Paul
Before
We Bomb Iraq
M. Shahid
Alam
Samuel
Huntington:
Peddling Civilizational Wars
St. Clair
/ Cockburn
Rumble
from the Jungle:
Ecuadorian Farmers Fight
DynCorp's ChemWar
February
27, 2002
Eric Hobsbawm
The
Future of War and Peace
John Troyer
About
that WTC Memorial
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Wired
for Democracy
or Business?
Alexander
Cockburn
Daniel
Pearl: Should His
Editors Have Sent Him There?
February
26, 2002
Jonathan
Steele
Kabul's
Loss
Vasily
Streltsov
The
Pentagon in
the Transcaucusas
CounterPunch
Wire
How
Corporations Use Shadowy "527" Groups to Influence
Politicians
Lt. Col.
Robert Bowman
ABM
Treaty: Alive or Dead?
Rep. Dennis
Kucinich
A
Prayer for America
February
25, 2002
John Clarke
Interrogated
at US Border
Blankfort,
Poirier, Zeltzer
ADL
Blinks, Settles Spying Case
Alex Lynch
Naked
from Sin:
The Ordeal of Nahla
and Sami Al-Arian
John Chuckman
Ashcroft
Speaks in Tongues
February
24, 2002
David
Vest
Skate
Date
February
23, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Axis
of Evil and
Media Monopolies
Bahour/Dahan
Cracks
in the Occupation
February
22, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
Axel
of Evil: Sex Crimes
and the Constitution
February
21, 2002
Gary Leupp
The
Philippines: Second Front in US's Global War
David
Vest
Reagan
Clone Project?
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Chicago
School and Corporate America: Rotten to the Core
February
20, 2002
Bernard
Weiner
The
Shallow Throat Document
Kay Lee
The
Prison Guard Who Never Owned Up to His Crimes
February
19, 2002
David
Orr
Waylon
Jennings, the Duke,
and the Navajo
John Chuckman
The
Devil and Georgie Bush
Prudence
Crowther
Giblet
Gravitas
Ramzi
Kysia
Caught
in the Iraq DMZ
February
18, 2002
Ron Jacobs
The
US and Iran
George
Lewandowski
Empire
in Declline
Lenni
Brenner
Life
and Death of a Folk Hero
February
17, 2002
Robert
Fisk
Lost
in a Pit of Desperation
February
16, 2002
Phillip
Cryan
Colombia
in War Time
February
15, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
From
New York to Porto Alegre
Robert
O'Brien
The
View from Porto Alegre
Mokhiber/Weissman
Resisting
the Assassins
February
14, 2002
Levy and
Easton
Ante
Pavelic
Real Butcher of the Balkans
Joan Claybrook
Dear
Jeb Bush,
About You and Enron
John Chuckman
Time
for a Woman Prez
Alexander
Cockburn
Banning
the Koran
February
13, 2002
Sen. Russ
Feingold
War
Powers and
the War on Terror
Tom Turnipseed
Bush's
Folly
George
Monbiot
American
Imperialism
February
12, 2002
Uri Avnery
The
Great Game:
Oil, Sharon and Iran
Tommy
Ates
Black
Land Loss
February
11, 2002
Walt Brasch
The
Synergizing of America
John Troyer
Enron's
Deep Throat?
February
9, 2002
John Blair
Criticize
Cheney, Go to Jail
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
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About 9/11
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CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
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Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The New Crusade:
America's War on Terrorism
By Rahul Mahajan
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
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March 7, 2002
Insurance Scams
Who Are The Scofflaws?
By John Jonik
The
mayor of Philly is going to "crack down" on unregistered,
uninsured drivers.
This campaign, as usual, is packaged
as if it's about "cutting costs" and "safety".
It's about neither. If one can or cannot afford to patronize
private, for-profit insurers, these compulsory insurance laws
offer many grounds to call for rejecting the system. This is
privatization, at its worst, of a public interest area, that
creates endless nightmares, dangers and costs for the people
while illegitimately benefiting one private industry...big insurance.
It's no small concern to also consider that the idea of a business-linked
government compelling a large segment of the public to hand over
profits to a business is a very ominous precedent that ought
not be tolerated. It's not that big a step, now that the public
has been conned into accepting it, to the idea of compulsory
private health insurance, for all. This isn't fantasy-land. Sen.
Bill Bradley actually promoted just such a policy before the
last national elections.
Here's a collection of problem areas
with the Philadelphia car insurance situation.
* Unless City Council did a sneak law
change somewhere along the line, it is the CITY which is the
scofflaw by tolerating the use of the Parking Authority for non-parking-related
matters...such as this registration/ insurance thing. The Authority's
tow trucks and lots will be used for impoundments. The Authority's
establishing ordinance doesn't just ignore this to let officials
fill in the blanks as they please...the ordinance specifically
FORBIDS use of the Authority for things not directly related
to parking and the free flow of traffic etc. The Parking Authority's
establishing ordinance does not authorize it to be a Revenue
Enhancement operation either...but that's another topic.
* The real and virtual lies used to sell
this vicious campaign indicate that it is invalid and that officials
know this, but do it anyway. Lie Number One has been somewhat
addressed in a March 2 Inquirer article...the parts about how
"rates will come down" etc. Often officials sound like
they're advertising Snake Oil by saying things like "we
HOPE that rates MAY come down" etc., but notice...there
is NEVER any guarantee demanded from the insurers. Who's in charge
anyway? Also, Philly's invaluable CEPA...Consumer Education and
Protection Assn., confirms that nowhere in the country has it
been found that rates came down no matter HOW much compliance
increased. Insurers can always find an excuse to maintain or
raise rates, and officials let them. Lie Number Two, often heard,
is that it's about "SAFETY". This is patently preposterous.
A piece of paper in the glove compartment does nothing to increase
safety. The absurd cost of this insurance means that low income
people will keep older and less-safe cars on the road and will
avoid getting new tires and brakes etc., AND...if one had to
pay for their OWN repairs and doctor bills (if not covered elsewhere),
one would tend to drive more safely. So...this insurance thing
COULD be actually LESS safe.
* Viciousness abounds. It's a big part
of the War on The Poor. What's the average income level of those
400,000 uninsured drivers? As Welfare Cuts kick in for real,
along comes the City, not to HELP...but to impound what may be
a vehicle that's necessary for jobs. As public transit rates
go up and as routes and schedules are cut, along comes the City
to make it even MORE impossible for many to go to school or work
or to medical care or relatives or shopping or the works.
* It is not hyperbole to note that this
program reeks of classic, dictionary-definition and even Mussolini-definition
fascism. It is the merger of private business and Public Governing,
as the POLICE are used as tools to compel drivers to purchase
a PRIVATE commercial service... and, of course, to contribute
profits to one of the wealthiest corporate entities in the land,
AND to fork over investment money for the insurers to increase
holdings in god-knows-what all industries...like cigarette manufacturing,
weapons, cigarette ingredients, pesticides, nuke plants, prison
industries and the works. Though one may say the insurers can
do what they want with their money...it's not funny that drivers
do not have this luxury. This isn't a Free Market...it's a compulsory
market.
* Some say...well, no one's forcing you
to drive and...it's a "privilege", not a right. Swell.
The same people who created the driving necessity and who did
all possible to make public transit as expensive and limited
as possible now say drivers have to purchase private insurance.
* Radio news about this said that the
program would not be about racial profiling. That's nice. Imagine
them saying otherwise. The racism is, conveniently, Built-In...since
most of the worst poverty in the city is in the African American
and Latina/o communities...for all the well-known historical
and current reasons. These are people who are not asked to pay
a PERCENT of their income or car value to insurance (as would
be the case if the program was Tax Based); they are asked to
pay the SAME as, or MORE (!!!) than, the richest drivers in Chestnut
Hill! Annual insurance may cost a day's wages (or interest earnings)
or LESS for one person, but may be two month's income or more
for another. Money to come out of kid's mouths, medical care,
clothes budgets and all the rest.
If the impoundment program, instead of
forcing great compliance, simply makes it impossible for low
income minorities to drive, we have taken a step towards increased
ghettoization. Absolutely despicable.
* Insurance would be easily affordable
for almost EVERYONE if it was tax based...on blue book car value,
tax on gas at the pump (to also get input from out-of-staters
who DO no less contribute to accidents) and from some part of
registration fee. Other countries manage such plans quite well.
If the gov't believes it is a Public Interest thing to do, IT
must provide the system. Whatever happened to complaints about
"unfunded mandates"?...or is that only when the mandate
is on a business?
* This vicious system is yet another
example (like drug laws, most famously) of The Law causing more
crime and danger than would exist otherwise. It's the LAW that
caused 400,000 cars (they say), in just One City, to be unregistered
and uninsured...and ALSO UN-INSPECTED! That's SAFETY inspections
remember. So...whereas we could have had ALL of those cars safety
inspected via a public system, now we got 400,000 actually or
potentially UNSAFE cars running around in Philadelphia alone.
State-wide figures must be breathtaking. The LAW created a public
endangerment of vast scale.
* And...it has proven exceedingly difficult
to get official rules or statements about the safety of impounded
cars and contents. Do, or will, cops do an inventory of contents
at time of impoundment to make sure things don't get stolen?
Will cops do check of car condition (like they do at some car
rentals) so that City will be liable for damages later? Or is
it "tough cookies"...the apparent Motto of The City?
If car is destroyed...where do all the fluids go? There's battery
acid, steering fluid, oil, gasoline, anti-freeze and who-knows-what
a car may be carrying besides. How much just drains into the
ground and then water table? I've seen one impoundment lot. It
was a toxic swamp.
* INJUSTICE. Impoundment of car is a
huge penalty for a violation that harms no one and, unless car
is a danger, threatens no one. This may mean loss of one's job
or dropping out of school. It may impact entire families, innocents,
in every way imaginable.
* Arbitrariness and cruelty will reign,
unavoidably. Cops will pick and choose, guaranteed, who they
will leave out on highways during what weather conditions or
times of day...and who they will not. What ARE the guidelines
re/ elderly or handicapped or children passengers, or pets? Will
they be stuck on the roadside in strange neighborhoods in the
rain at night? Will the cops take drivers and passengers to the
police stations? Will cops wait til people are picked up by friends
or a cab?...IF they have friends or money for a cab. (Can this
all be done in the 15 minutes per stop that the mayor mentions?)
Will people be able to remove their work equipment from vehicles?
Some cops WILL be maybe less zealous and cruel to those who have
those FOP stickers or U.S. flags waving...or to folks who are
the right racial type, etc. They might just let them go altogether
or not run a check in the first place. Others... a different
story.
* What is the expected effect as over
400,000 people (add the affected family members) come to fear,
hate and avoid police? And...with such a Draconian penalty awaiting
someone, what's the incentive for a driver to stop at even a
minor accident? Add that to the huge economic and immobilization
incentive to hit-and-run, with the dangers to ALL that represents.
* I fully believe that this program is
NOT about safety or cutting costs for drivers...but is about
REVENUE enchantment for the City...to fill the void left by corporate
interests which do not pay anything NEAR their fair share of
taxes...or which even GET public money for their various business
pursuits. Also, of course, it's about officials doing favors
for campaign contributors, to increase their own economic holdings
or those of their immediate family, AND to increase future job
prospects.
Clearly the people (hundreds of THOUSANDS!)
ARE scoffing at a law that deserves the greatest scoffing for
a host of reasons, as noted above. Officials who enact such stuff
are scoffing at the very idea of justice, democracy and humanitarianism...not
to mention free-market business principles. If the Parking Authority
ordinance has not been changed, officials may themselves be scofflaws
here, as so many are in the Billboard situation.
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