DATELINE–The Circular File

———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 96 03:42:33 -0800
From: c|rude marketing
To: John_Valdez@SttF.org (or current legal resident)
Subject: Pre-Thanksgiving Holiday SALE!

The South to the Future Pre-Thanksgiving Holiday SALE!

Our hearts and our information coffers are chock full of holiday values. This e-mail is filled with special Web technology offers so you can beat the December gift rush!

—–clip & save——-

BUY $5 WORTH OF MERCHANDISE AT ANY PARTICIPATING TACO BELL™ AND GET $10 OFF ANY MICROSOFT™ PRODUCT.

Soft drinks, soft tacos and software, three great tastes that go great together, can now be consumed in truly American portions. Now, more than ever, sugar water, fake ethnic food and watered down programs are the real thing, right now! Remember: Crazy Eduardo’s counting on you to heighten the barrier between his barrio and your fantasy world of computers! CASH IN NOW! Because of the volume of our business, our purchasing power is AWESOME. That means wall-to-wall information at rock bottom prices! WE MIGHT BE SOLD OUT BUT WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD! Hurry down now!

—–clip & save——-

Hey Soccer Moms™! Have you ever wanted to alphabetize the roster of your carpool? Ever dreamed of having the safest route to the gym pre-chosen for you, au-to-matically? Ever needed to track down that Land’s End™ package as it travels across the country while you, Prozac-ed out, pace in circles around your living room? You’ve heard of self-service gas, self-help books, and self-induced trances, but did you ever imagine that the next generation of computer-enhanced products could help you help even more people other than yourself – and!!! without the inconvenient intervention of the service class? Cut the middleman off at the knees, and Get ready to reach out and touch someone without speaking to anyone at all! No down payments. No monthly payments. No returns.

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Hey Portable Office-rs! Rat Race got you down? Want to share some of that frustrated testosterone-driven confusion with the only people who still consider you human? Why not work at home? Spread the wealth: make your family into your interns while alienating yourself even more from your fellow co-workers! Watercooler? Who needs that paid time socializing with your colleagues? Trust the phone company’s advertisements: Nirvana IS getting a cellular call from middle-management in your own bathroom!

—–clip & save——-

Hey all you NETIZENS™! How are those IMMEDIATE and UNMEDIATED flows of PURE – UNCENSORED! – INFORMATION helping you sort out the St. Petersburg RIOTS? St. Petersburg F-L-O-R-I-D-A! You had two chances to catch it: Once when the (white) cop shot the black motorist, and Once again when the local DA decided shooting an unarmed motorist WAS NOT MURDER. Ring a bell? Ding-a-ling? Oh, did we INTERRUPT your conversation about LIBERTARIANISM and the future of NO RACE™ relations in CYBERSPACE? TWENTY FOUR HOURS IN CYBERSPACE OUR ASS! TWENTY FOUR MILLION DUPES IN CYBERSPACE IS MORE LIKE IT! Come on down to South to the Future to register to win a new set of Political Principles™. Some assembly required.

This concludes our commercial presentation.
South to the Future respectfully requests
that you git back to “work” and shut yer trap.
Remember: making a livin’ ain’t about life.
It’s the preparation for death
we Americans call “Retirement."(sm)

Ya’ll come back now, ya here.

DATELINE–Washington

A high-tech, heavily armed force descends on a small city in the Pacific Northwest. Its mission: to clean up a chemical spill at an energy research lab. But these are no weekend eco-warriors, they’re Marines. Welcome to the U.S. military circa 2010.

Military brass are banking on a series of commercials portraying scenarios such as the one above to woo a new generation to a career in uniform. Dangling the prospect of an “alternative” Army, recruiters are setting their sights on high school-age activists, environmentalists, and other freethinking rabble-rousers.

The U.S. military is having a hard time attracting recruits, and retention of current personnel has reached an all-time low. At the same time the military is scrambling to find a new mission in a post-Cold War global economic age. Retired Marine Gen. P.R. Farrell envisions the military of the future as a network of small, issue-oriented armed forces. “Without a radical reorganization of resources and personnel, the military cannot survive in the next century,” the former strategist says. Such a reorganization, Farrell predicts, would include special divisions that would respond to environmental crises and economic catastrophes.

While planners in war-college classrooms and think-tank outposts continue to hash out the most likely threats of the next century, officials in the U.S. Marine Corps have hit the ground running with a politically correct recruitment and training campaign. Drawing on a long-standing tradition of emphasizing personnel over technology, the Marines Corp is the first service branch to court enlistees with a pro-environment, pro-economic justice message.

A series of cutting-edge commercials set to air on select cable networks in January portrays the Marines as futuristic guerrilla fighters engaged in battles to save the planet from global polluters, political bullies, and even sweatshop operators. The “I could do this every day” ad campaign, created by Foote, Cone & Belding, features the music of contemporary artists Rage Against the Machine and Queen Latifah.

As an additional incentive, Marines are staging special training camps in Costa Rica and the Himalayas to prepare recruits for deployment in environmental and political hot spots. Training scenarios in these exotic locations include media warfare, public health sorties, and agricultural relief.

In the boot camp of tomorrow buzz cuts may still be the rule, but recruits are given much more leeway in terms of personal expression. Eighteen-year-old Clay Thompson plans to devote three years “to his conscience” (and the Marines) before attending college on the GI Bill. Thompson still considers himself a rebel, and says the transition to military life hasn’t been as difficult as he expected.

“I used to have a bumper sticker that said ‘Free Tibet,’” he boasts. “Now I might get to do it.”

DATELINE–SOuth of the MAson-dixon line

Before the madness of MULTIMEDIA, before the sighting of SILICON in the valley, before even the rush towards the GOLD in them thar hills, cotton, yes COTTON, caught the fancy of a landed aristocracy seeking the Good Life in a hospitable clime. Why yes, there was in our recent history a long, long time when citizens were citizens and class rule was the law of the land rather than a sneaking suspicion of guilt-ridden intellectuals and the underlings who brought them coffee. As for the rest, well, batten down the chattel, it looks like a rough shod ride over fin de siecle seas.

THIS JUST GIN: The human interest story we are working on for the late 20th Century news, dates back to the waning years of the 1700s, when a migration from New England to the Lower South was prompted not by physical hardship, not because of religious persecution nor in the search for tillable land. No, the demigods in this graphic shift south towards their future were concerned with neither life nor liberty, nor even the right to own property. Rather, impelled by the desire to jump-start their social and economic status, these young Yankees headed SOuth of the MAson-dixon line to join the royal court of King Cotton. Prior to the debut of Solid Gold, predating the first edition of My Multimedia, the Lower South played host to the express elevator that rocketed from ground zero of a new american dream to the Live/Live lofty life of the supposedly wealthy plantation owner.

They were on the make, these white, bright migrant planters, these coddled masses yearning to get rich quick and stay that way at any social cost. This unique challenge was an awesome responsibility for a generation so young, so greedy, so clueless: To make the South their future entailed inventing a society of the immediate future. And once the shape and form of this great society could be agreed upon by their fellow upstarts, well, from the peak of such a bright and shining historical moment they would ravish her and take her for all that she was worth.

But who made Cotton King so soon after the War of Independents expelled the monarchists from the newly federalized states of Vespucci’s America? A former mechanic–a mechanical engineer if you will–and alumnus of Yale College traveled south to Savannah in search of his fortune. Failing to secure a job, he took up semi-permanent guest status on a plantation, capitalizing on a wealthy widow’s good will. Here, he was educated about the beneficences and vicissitudes of “The Crop.” Cotton was the content of this crop, the very fabric of white southerners’ lives. And cotton was harvested all along the Lower South from the long-lint varieties of the islands to the short-lint strain growing upland. Cotton, COTTON was everywhere but nary an engine to separate the wheat from the chaff, the men from the boys, the masters from all they surveyed. Indeed if cotton were to rule as the killer crop of this new southern kingdom, a machine or gin was necessary to separate the valued fiber from its closely held seed.

Owing to his entrusted status, the young Yale-educated mechanic found himself with a considerable amount of spare time on his hands. He amused himself and his host by constructing a cotton gin. A revolving, wire-studded cylinder brushed against a screen pulling cotton fibers through the screen’s slats, but leaving the seeds, too large to pass, behind. When the wires became clogged with clean cotton, a second set of cylinders equipped with brushes freed the wires from the accumulation of lint.

PASS THE GIN. Cotton is ordained King. The south rises and falls and then rises again. But do not look for parallels just yet, gentle reader, for this soul train has not come to a complete stop. We must also note the carriage of King Cotton’s court lest there be a secret message for us in their peculiar deportment. For these were po’ or’nary folk suddenly rewarded with the fabulous sum of a million (crucified black) bodies’ labor. Even a dog has an excuse for planting a bone and these folk were in desperate search of just that: a holy order, a reason, a technique and a logic. Could their fabulously theatrical (i.e., simulated) wealth, based, in large part, on the relative classlessness of the invisible servants who were worked to anonymous deaths in the back fields, have some degree of significance in deciphering this particular bend of the Southern Spirit?

Yes and no. Status symbols alone will not keep a man-made society running, well-oiled and in tip-top condition. For lasting Control and Focus, one requires the services of a machine. Only a machine such as the Cotton Gin could have rendered both permanent and transparent the ruthlessly arbitrary authority of the plantation owners; transferring the unbearable weight of a savage, inhuman slavery atop the silent, iron shoulders of Technology.

Technology to this day remains the plantation owner’s mute heir, the (web) master’s automatic salvation and ultimate, if forever klandestine, justification.

And that’s the way it happened folks. Let us go forth and witness this history lest we all be led unwittingly to repeat it.

DATELINE–The Natural World

HBO. Nintendo. Doritos. Bonita Bananas. IBM.

A late-breaking wave of Computer Generated Advertisements (CGA’s) feature nothing less than a planet filled with singing Apes.

The dream of a thousand Adams before him is finally realized in the whimsical hit-or-miss tactics of the modern day Marketing Executive. Tarzan in a power tie, the V.P. thinks naught of what he does though nature will remember.

Odwalla will not recall this wacky head-on collision between simians and Silicon Graphics workstations. But nature will remember this turning point wherein the boundaries between humans and their surroundings became petrified, immobile, just as their vision of the world feigned a degree of transparency previously reserved for gods. Walls of glass, frames of silicon, windows of stone.

But nature has no memory, you respond, glibly. On the contrary, gentle reader, nature’s memory is Read Only and it is written into the ground with a freehand of fossils, ash and blood.

The talking monkey is a wild card, the gratuitous Joker of the pack. When it has finally risen to the top of the deck, it will not be man who (or which) has the last laugh. For the cages we build weigh us down deeper into the ground, tethered to an artificially fixed place in the food chain by means of animal skins, bones and monkey brains feverish with the next Prozac, Xanax, Zoloft.

Go ahead, naked chalk boys, make the monkeys sing and laugh and sell your crappy products. The best baseball players come from Latin America. The natives always have their turn at bat.

DATELINE–California Ballot Addendum

——— Forwarded message ———-
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 96 10:59:45 -0800
From: msnbc@endpolitics.com
To: John_Valdez@SttF.org

THE CALIFORNIA CIVIL WAR INITIATIVE:
The Ben Bradley Memorial Polling/Voting Discretion Amendment

Proposition 902.10: Text of the Proposed Law

This initiative measure is submitted to the people in accordance with the provisions of Article II, Section 8 of the Constitution.

This initiative measure expressly amends the Constitution by adding a section thereto.

PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE I

Section 31 is added to Article I of the California Constitution as follows:

(a) The state shall not solicit or require any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin to impersonate citizens in the operation of such civic acts as voting, public speech, and deliberating the welfare of fellow citizens.

(b) This section shall apply only to action taken after the section’s effective date.

© Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as prohibiting the orderly adoption of hysterical mob rule in lieu of a conscientious citizenship; _e pluribus unum_, one that is based upon respect for sincere public deliberation and the undue burden of both saying what one means and honestly meaning good unto others.

(d) Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as invalidating any court order or consent decree which is in force as of the effective date of this section.

(e) Nothing in this section shall be interpreted as prohibiting action which must be taken to oppose the federal constitution, where continuing inaction would result in a hypocritical allegiance to a tradition of governance based on the general goodwill of the body politic and the disuse of purposely misleading legislation either promoted or enacted by democratically elected officials.

(f) For the purposes of this section, “state” shall include, but not necessarily be limited to, the state itself, any city, county, corporation, small business, public university system, including the University of California, community college district, school district, special district, or any other political subdivision or governmental instrumentality of or within the state, not to exclude private citizens grandstanding their unresolved guilt about the failures of the Civil Rights movement and/or hysterical fears and anxieties regarding the extant state of racial inequality in America under the guise of a) Civil Rights, b) Martin King Luther King Jr.’s “Dream"™ c) African American or willful immigrant heritage d) denying their private, i.e., not public, concern of “equal” access to public yet prestigious California universities for the spoiled children of upper “middle” class families who now wish to deny the inordinate opportunities and privileges afforded to them by virtue of their affluence in direct relation to that exponentially-growing segment of the American populace which can no longer afford adequate housing, health care, police protection, or food, let alone a college education.

(g) The remedies available for violations of this section shall be the same, regardless of the injured party’s race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin, as are otherwise available for violations of then-existing colonial practices whereby loyal citizens of England shall abide by Her Majesty’s writ instructions to maintain the Western territories free of disciplined political activity or any such seditious talk of government by the people, of the people, and, we stress, for the people.

(h) This section shall be self-executing. If any part or parts of this section are found to be in conflict with federal law or the United State Constitution, the section shall be implemented to the maximum extent that federal law and the United States Constitution permit. Any provision held invalid shall be severable from the remaining portions of this section.

Paid for by the California Civil War Initiative –
A Project of Californians Against Democracy and Civic Responsibility ID #902-10

©1996-97 California Civil War Initiative All Rights Reserved

DATELINE–Southern California Will Rise Again

———- Forwarded message ———-
Date: Thu, 07 Nov 96 10:58:33 -0800
From: msnbc@endpolitics.com
To: John_Valdez@SttF.org

THE CALIFORNIA CIVIL WAR INITIATIVE:
The Ben Bradley Memorial Polling/Voting Discretion Amendment

Dear Friend,

Welcome to the mailing list for the California Civil War Initiative.

CCWI is an historic initiative that will end government-mandated voting protocols in California and usher in a new era of equal opportunity for all of the people of this state. It will end the fundamentally un-American practice of straightforward legislation and the unfair expectation that citizens will privately vote in accordance to their publicly-stated positions or beliefs; the very practices and expectations that are dividing our people along racial and gender lines. The sanctity of the voting booth is the deepest, darkest closet of American politics. The hypocrisy engendered by the tradition of secrecy and discretion can only be unmasked by the inevitable progression towards the democracy of the future, mob rule.

Many democratic processes were established with the best of intentions. But today, these traditions have instead resulted in rigid double-standards which subjugate private citizens to unreasonable moral and political principles, imposing the very discrimination and oppression that the War of Independence movement was supposed to end. These discriminatory preferences only serve to pit American against American, and group against group. We can no longer ignore the harm it is doing by dividing our state and nation.

I am dedicated to the principle of fairness and equality before the law, and I am convinced that the California Civil War Initiative is the best way to end state-sponsored dissimulation and send a clear message to the rest of the country that California is leading the way in uniting our people in the fight against the unwarranted and unduly burdensome presumption that life in a democracy is based on honesty, good intentions and a disinterested brand of civic duty.

In a single sentence, this initiative captures the spirit of fairness and equal opportunity that is at the heart of the American Dream:

“The state shall not solicit or require any individual
or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or
national origin to impersonate citizens in the operation
of such civic acts as voting, public speech, and
deliberating the welfare of fellow citizens.”

By joining me and the almost five million Californians who lent their votes in support of the California Civil Rights Initiative, you can now strike a blow against the principles of democratic representation; arcane and outdated principles whereby citizens are forced to participate in government singly, and by secret ballot, rather than by the more fair and progressive practice of voting under the duress of fear, mistrust and intimidation.

On December 7, 1996, vote YES on Proposition 902.10, the California Civil War Initiative.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,
Pete Wilson, Governor
State of California

Paid for by the California Civil War Initiative – A Project of Californians Against Democracy and Civic Responsibility ID #902-10

©1996-97 California Civil War Initiative All Rights Reserved

DATELINE–The SttF California Slate

South to the Future won't be voting for Bill Klinton or Bob Dole. When a
Republican runs against a Republican, a Republican will win every time.

	
“THE POLITICS OF FAILURE HAVE FAILED. WE MUST MAKE THEM WORK AGAIN"*
	
SttF endorses Ralph Nader/Winona Laduke for President/Vice President.
	
< -----------------------print and vote----------------------------->
        Pres./Vice Pres.
        NADER/LADUKE
	
        California State Propositions
        Prop. 204       NO WAY
        Prop. 205       NO WAY
        Prop. 206       NO WAY
        Prop. 207       WHY NOT?
        Prop. 208       MIGHT AS WELL
        Prop. 209       NO WAY IN HELL.
        Prop. 210       YES
        Prop. 211       WHY NOT?
        Prop. 212       YES
        Prop. 213       NO WAY IN HELL
        Prop. 214       MIGHT AS WELL
        Prop. 215       YES
        Prop. 216       MIGHT AS WELL
        Prop. 217       WOULDN’T HURT
        Prop. 218       NO WAY
	
< -----------------------print and vote----------------------------->
	
PROP 204 - SAFE, CLEAN RELIABLE WATER SUPPLY ACT
Safe, Clean, Reliable Water Supply … for AGRIBUSINESS. As per usual,
Sacramento didn’t forget to throw in a couple of enviro-bones to green the
measure.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
The Man                                 SOUTH TO THE FUTURE
Agribusiness                            The Little People
Chambers of Commerce                    Greens for Real Change
Enviro Yuppies for Klinton              Anti-Fluoridation League
	
PROP. 205 - MORE MONEY FOR JAILS
White flight redux: 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, white folk
nostalgic for the daze of segregation reconstruct the other side of the
tracks on the inside of the penal system. Say what?
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
Dan “The Man” Lungren                   SOUTH TO THE FUTURE
Boss Hogg                               The Black Guerrilla Family
Concerned White Folk                    The Neo-Abolitionists
	
PROP. 206 - VETERANS’ BOND ACT
You want us to finance housing purchases for war-time veterans? What about
combatants in the war on drugs, the war on minorities, the war on the poor?
Hold out for equal rights for veterans of domestic combat!
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
The Man                                 SOUTH TO THE FUTURE
The U.S. Military                       Draft Dodgers everywhere
Real Estate Developers                  (but the White House)
                                        Po’ Folks dissed by Klinton’s
	
PROP. 207 - ATTORNEYS FEES
Avoid caps on the amount of fees attorneys can collect, by volunteering for
negligible regulations that will be self-policed anyway. Gosh, lawyers are
smart. Let ‘em collect all the money they can, because as much as we hate
lawyers, we hate big corporations more. Let them face their comeuppance in
the end times, but until them, let them suck the corporate fat cats dry.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     The Man
Lawyers                                 Corporate Welfare Kings
Consumers                               Non-lawyer Republicans
	
PROP 208 - CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AND SPENDING LIMITS
A feint. Campaign Finance Reform for pussies and politicians. Yes on Prop. 212.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
League of Society Lady Voters           SOUTH TO THE FUTURE
Incumbents                              Ralph Nader
Lobbyists afraid of Prop. 212           Those annoying PIRGers
	
PROP. 209 - CIVIL RIGHTS FOR WHITES INITIATIVE.
Nostalgic for the days of segregation (if not slavery itself), Prop. 209
supporters are already dancing on the grave of the Civil Rights Movement.
Have “minorities” taken your job, your home, your women? Find solace,
superiority and the empty promise of a white nation in the passage of Prop.
209.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
David Duke                              SOUTH TO THE FUTURE
Pete Wilson                             General Colin Powell
Bob Dole                                Sadly, not many voting Californians
	
PROP. 210 - MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE
So we’ll raise the minimum wage in California this year from $4.75 an hour
to $5.00 an hour. Big whoop. Vote for it to piss Republicans off, but don’t
pat yourselves on the back. Like Travis Tritt says, “hey po’ folks–here’s
a quarter, call someone who cares.”
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     Owners of Divisidero Touchless Car Wash
Organized labor                         Leona Helmsley
Democrats who feel guilty               The Chamber of Commerce
about the welfare bill
	
PROP. 211 - CONSUMER PROTECTION AGAINST SECURITIES FRAUD
The stock market itself is a security fraud. But since most people won’t
buy that, why not make it easier to file and win lawsuits against brokers
and business executives? To make it more warm and fuzzy, let’s even
increase the penalties when the money at stake comes from a retirement
fund.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     Corporate types
Old people                              Charles Keating
Lawyers                                 Silicon Valley billionaire wannabes
	
PROP. 212 - CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS AND SPENDING LIMITS
Prop. 212 is the campaign finance reform legislation that politicians hate
the most. If we can’t build a democracy or hope for proportional
representation, we can at least piss off career politicians and even send a
few back to selling stereos and personal computers.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     Incumbents
Ralph Nader                             Lobbyists
Those annoying PIRGers                  People with political “influence”
	
PROP. 213 - LIMIT RECOVERY TO BAD GUYS
Legislate Judeo-Christian values by withholding monetary damages in car
accidents to “unworthy” citizens like drunk drivers, convicted felons and
people without insurance.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
Insurance Companies                     SOUTH TO THE FUTURE
Puritans                                Poor people
The police                              Buddhists
	
PROP. 214 - HEALTH CARE CONSUMER PROTECTION
Should be called extra safeguards for people who already have pretty good
health care benefits. Reform, we think not. Go ahead and vote for Prop. 214
or the more stringent 216. It’s 6 in one, a dozen the other.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     HMOs
People who watch ER                     People who invest in HMOs
People with HMO coverage                Insurance companies
who hate accountants
	
PROP. 215 - MEDICAL USE OF MARIJUANA
Only Puritans and Dan Lundgren would deny seriously and terminally ill
patients access to appropriate and effective medication.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     Dan Lundgren
Doctors                                 Puritans
Stoners                                 D.A.R.E.
	
PROP. 216 - HEALTH CARE CONSUMER PROTECTION.
	
Like Prop. 214, Prop. 216 should be called extra safeguards for people who
already have pretty good health care benefits. Reform, we think not. Go
ahead and vote for it, but don’t feel particularly good about it.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     HMOs
People who watch ER                     People who invest in HMOs
People with HMO coverage                Insurance companies
who hate accountants
	
PROP. 217 - REINSTATE TAX ON TOP INCOME BRACKETS
During California’s recession in the early 1990s Pete Wilson stole a bunch
of money from local coffers to balance the state budget. Local governments
want that money back. It’s not a progressive tax by any means, but why not
say yes?
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
SOUTH TO THE FUTURE                     Rich folks
People with good guvmint jobs           Republicans
People with kids in public school       People who don’t use county roads,
                                        sidewalks, or sewage systems.
	
PROP. 218 - VOTER APPROVAL FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT TAXES, LIMITATIONS ON FEES.
Only people or corporations who own property should vote on
property-related taxes and assessments? Knock, knock California “republic,”
the lights are on but nobody’s home.
	
Fer it                                  Agin’ it
The Landed Gentry                       SOUTH TO THE FUTURE
Kalifornians for the Poll Tax           the serf class
Representation without Taxation         tenants
Commission
	

*Citizen Kang, The Simpsons, 1996 Halloween Special, FOX TV Network.