The Hightower Report

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MESSING WITH VENEZUELA

The Bushites seem to enjoy the fun game of Pre-emptive Regime Change in which they shout "weapons of mass destruction" before attacking a country with the full might of the U.S. military, tossing out the old leaders, installing some new ones, occupying the country, and calling this democracy.

Now, however, they are saying that regime change need not be limited to nations that might pose some military threat to our country. For the past couple of years, these messianic global manipulators have quietly been out to topple Hugo Chavez, the duly elected president of Venezuela. What threat does Chavez pose to us? None. Zero. Zip. What's his "crime"? He's too "lefty," not beholden to the oil giants operating in Venezuela, not properly obedient to U.S. power, and, worst of all, the Bushies just don't like him.

So, they've been scheming with Venezuelan elites to oust him. They exulted in 2002 when an armed coup overthrew Chavez's elected government, but White House elation turned to sour grapes only two days later when the coup turned out to be a Keystone Kops effort and the people of Venezuela rallied to put their man Chavez back in his presidency.

But this didn't stop the White House. Reams of internal documents have now surfaced showing a startling effort by the Bushites to undermine the legitimate government of Venezuela – a blatantly anti-democratic effort that, ironically, they rationalize by asserting that Chavez is not democratic enough to suit them. Last year alone, they funneled a million of our tax dollars into opposition groups seeking to overthrow Chavez and install Venezuela's moneyed class in power.

One of the Bushites' documents claims that the future of Venezuelan democracy "depends on the rebuilding of healthy and responsive political parties that can effectively channel citizen demands."

Hey, let's try to accomplish that here! If our own government reflected citizen demands, it wouldn't be messing with Venezuela.

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THE MENDOCINO REBELLION

Mendocino County has declared itself free of GMOs!

GMOs are the Frankenfoods of Monsanto and other global biotech giants that have been merrily messing with the very DNA of life, splicing drugs, pesticides, sex hormones, animal genes, and who knows what else into our tomatoes, potatoes, corn, soybeans, and other foodstuffs. Since the long-term effects of these genetically modified organisms on our health and environment have not been tested, many nations have banned them.

Our own happy-go-lucky corporate government in Washington, however, has hugged the GMO-makers like family, showing no interest in protecting We the People from these we-don't-give-a-damn corporations, so it's up to We the People to protect ourselves.

The good folks of Mendocino County, Calif., took the lead, proposing a March 2 ballot initiative, Measure H, to ban all GMO crops and animals from being raised in their county. It was supported not only by consumers and environmentalists but also by local merchants, farmers, and wineries.

The pro-Frankenfood forces were led by the bucolic-sounding CropLife America. Who? It's a lobbying and political front funded by (I'm sure you've guessed) Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, Bayer, and the other multibillion-dollar biotechies. These outsiders dumped half a million bucks into their campaign – which is a ton of cash in a county with only 47,000 people. The corporate opponents also resorted to all sorts of campaign nastiness, including sending their lawyers to try to censor the ballot language, disguising the source of their funding, and using negative push polls. CropLife outspent the local proponents of Measure H by 7-to-1.

But, as campaign spearhead Els Cooperrider put it, "They had the money, we had the people." And the people poured it on, winning by a sweeping 12-point margin.

Now other counties all across the country are following Mendocino's lead. To join the rebellion, call 218/226-4164.