An Activist’s Life, by Thomas Leavitt

Namebase, a cumulative index of books and clippings from Public Information Research, Inc.
Citations to names of individuals and groups involving:
assassinations, organized crime, and scandals
Wall Street and transnational corporations
foreign policy and media establishments
political elites from the Right and Left
Cold War history and intelligence
Poke around a bit - you’ll find […]

“Top Down Policymaking” by Thomas R. Dye
PR Blurb excerpt: In this eye-opening work, Dye explodes the myth that public policy represents the “demands of people,” and that the making of public policy flows upward from the masses. In reality, Dye argues, public policy in America, as in all nations, reflects the values, interests, and preferences […]

One Percent: the elite and social engineering by L. Kurt Engelhart … also check out his index of essays, at Pioneering in Philosophy

“The people at the top of a society almost always feel themselves to be genuinely superior to the rest, not just luckily born, and to have earned their place.” - Nicholas Lehmann, author of “The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy”
I’m reading “The Irony Of Democracy”, by Thomas R. Dye and Harmon […]

There was nothing in the Clipper chip proposal that would have stopped
anyone from using their own encryption as well. The Clipper chip would
have meant that everyone was using encryption. As it turns out, because it
was blocked, no one is.
The only way to have a universal encryption system is with a […]

Seeing The Forest - Clipper Chip
I posted the following as a comment/follow up to a discussion IssuesGuy had with a reader. Basically, my buddy contends that the Republicans blocked Clipper as part of a nefarious scheme to enable a later (presumably Republican) administration to monitor all Internet traffic. As my post below documents, that’s far […]

Thomas Leavitt
P.O. Box 7095
Santa Cruz, CA
95061-7095
thomasleavitt@thomasleavitt.org
408-591-3342
http://www.thomasleavitt.org/
December 28th, 2002
Dawn Tarnofsky-Ostroff
President, Entertainment (CEO)
United Paramount Network
11800 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Dear Ms. Tarnofsky-Ostroff,
According to Fireflyfans.net, your network is considering picking up “Firefly”, the science fiction show put together by Joss Whedon.
Simply put, I would very much like to see this show […]

John,
According to the Wall St. Journal (see below), if a school in California goes for an extended period without meeting the threshold of participation required to receive an API rating, it could be taken over by the state. As a parent who opposes the ongoing testing craze, and who desires to see his children […]

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/schrag/story/5688966p-6662395c.html
… it’s a thought. Imagine what we could do if we recaptured the resources now sent to Washington ($17-40 billion)? Even the most conservative estimates say that the budget deficet in Sacramento would be halved. Beyond that, I’d say California’s policy priorities would be substantially different - enough so, that we’d be able to more […]

Sung to the tune of “If You’re Happy And You Know It Clap Your
Hands”)
If we cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets hurt your Mama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are all Saudi
And the bank takes back your Audi
And the TV shows are bawdy,
Bomb Iraq.
If the corporate scandals growin’, bomb Iraq.
And your ties to them […]

[Note: Declan later distributed this note to the politech list, which generated a couple of interesting emails in response. -Thomas]
Declan,
On October 19th, 2002 a message calling for “an explicit and direct attack upon the war machine” involving monkey wrenching type activities and/or disruptive “civil disobedience” aimed at various corporate institutions) and potentially Department of […]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/12.18G.krug.faith.htm
The quotes below say it all. The American Taliban has assumed control of our government. Is this man fit to serve in office? Can he be expected to treat Muslims, Jews, others, and even Christians not of his particular persuasion with equal respect? What do these statements say about his commitment to the fundamental principle […]

Editor:
“Drug dealers should have no rights or no mercy. They should not have their freedom, any civil rights, any assets or any sympathy.”
So says Dr. Richter. It is truly frightening that we have come to the point where a significant proportion of our citizenry is apparently willing to sacrifice every basic constitutional principle on the […]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59577-2002Dec15.html
As the Bush administration draws up plans to simplify the tax system, it is also refining arguments for why it may be necessary to shift more of the tax load onto lower-income workers.
[…]
The efforts would thrust the administration into a debate that until now has lingered on the fringes of economic policy: Are too few […]