Bad Haircut E-Zine #12

[goforth@xxxxxxxxxxx]

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"Overweening economic power in the hands of one limits freedom
for the other.  A more egalitarian distribution of power and
influence within the economic realm increases freedom there, in
the same way that universal and equal suffrage did in the
political realm."
                  Ernst Wigforss



                    BAD HAIRCUT E-Zine #12
                      February 20, 1996
                         Kim Goforth
                         Ray Goforth


Welcome to the latest issue of Bad Haircut.  B.H. was a zine for
several years and now it has been reanimated as an electronic
magazine (e-zine) for free distribution through the internet.
Feel free to make copies and share with friends (or enemies).

Those wishing to be added to the subscription list (or
conversely, those who want off the list) should write to us at:
goforth@xxxxxxxxxxx

Some of our other projects:

Progressive Web Site:  http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/2915
Feminist Web Site:  http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/2995
Ray's Personal Site:  http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/2115

For those who have inquired:  We (Kim and Ray Goforth) spent
several years doing progressive political organizing work in
southern California.  We moved to Seattle, Washington, USA in
1988 where we took positions with different social service
agencies. In 1995, we both completed undergraduate degrees in
political-economy.  We are currently law students.  Kim's area of
interest is women's and children's advocacy.  Ray's is
sustainable development and human rights.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

1) AN ESSAY IN EXPLICIT VIOLATION OF THE COMMUNICATIONS DECENCY
   ACT OF 1996

2) NAFTA UPDATE: UNITED STATES NOW IMPORTING PCB'S

3) HOTEL WORKERS IN PORTLAND FORCED TO USE REPRODUCTIVE TOXINS

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Dear Readers,

   In times of social crisis, governments can react in spasms of
cannibalistic fury.  The crisis at hand is the transformation and
transmogrification from the industrial to the post-industrial
economy.  Our era is as profound a period of social
reorganization as that brought about by the industrial
revolution.  The instinct to blame THE OTHER has recently
manifested itself in American society in the form of the
Communications Decency Act of 1996.
   Among other things, the CDA prohibits the transmission over
the internet the discussion of abortion, pornography, and other
"indecent" and "patently offensive" materials.  We at Bad Haircut
feel that open dialog unfettered by government censorship is a
prerequisite to a democratic society.  Moreover, we feel it is
the duty of individuals to oppose government efforts to silence
unpopular minorities.
   It is in this milieu that we choose to print the following
piece by Steve Russell.  If you find descriptions of sexual and
excretory functions too offensive to read, please delete this
issue.  We do not derive some prurient pleasure from the
distribution of words and expressions many would find offensive.
However, we find intolerable that in a free society the
government should decide which words and expressions ARE
EXPRESSIBLE.  Therefore, the original writing and reproduction of
the essay herein constitute acts of civil disobedience.  We have
sent a copy to President Clinton.  The transmission of this issue
of Bad Haircut could theoretically bring down the weight of the
United States government upon us.  We could be fined, jailed or
both.  Nonetheless, there are times when honest, thoughtful
people must refuse to cooperate with illegitimate authority.
That time is upon us.
                          Ray Goforth
                          Kim Goforth
                          Editors/Publishers



(Steve Russell, retired after 16 years as a trial judge in Texas,
is Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of
Texas at San Antonio.)



   THE X-ON CONGRESS:  INDECENT COMMENT ON AN INDECENT SUBJECT
                            by Steve Russell
                     American Reporter Correspondent
                            February 8, 1996

   SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- You motherfuckers in Congress have
dropped over the edge of the earth this time.  I understand that
very few of the swarm of high dollar lobbyists around the
Telecommunications Bill had any interest in content regulation --
they were just trying to get their clients an opportunity to dip
their buckets in the money stream that cyberspace may become --
but the public interest sometimes needs a little attention.
Keeping your eyes on what big money wants, you have sold out
the First Amendment.
   First, some basics.  If your children walked by a public park
and heard some angry sumbitches referring to Congress as "the
sorriest bunch of cocksuckers ever to sell out the First
Amendment" or suggesting that "the only reason to run for
Congress these days is to suck the lobbyists' dicks and fuck the
people who sent you there," no law would be violated (assuming no
violation of noise ordinances or incitement to breach the
peace).  If your children did not wish to hear that language,
they could only walk away.  Thanks to your heads-up-your-ass
dereliction of duty, if they read the same words in cyberspace,
they could call the FBI!
   Cyberspace is the village green for the whole world.  It is
the same as the village green our Founders knew as the place to
rouse the rabble who became Americans, but it is also different.
Your blind acceptance of the dubious -- make that dogass dumb --
idea that children are harmed by hearing so-called dirty words
has created some pretty stupid regulations without shutting down
public debate, but those stupid regulations will not import to
cyberspace without consequences that even the public relations
whores in Congress should find unacceptable.
   In cyberspace, there is no time.  A posted message stays
posted until it is wiped.  Therefore, there is no way to indulge
the fiction that children do not stay up late or cannot program a
VCR.
   In cyberspace, there is no place.  The "community standards"
are those of the whole world.  An upload from Amsterdam can
become a download in Idaho.  By trying to regulate obscenity and
indecency on the Internet, you have reduced the level of
expression allowed consenting adults to that of the most anal
retentive blueballed fuckhead U.S. attorney in the country.  The
Internet is everywhere you can plug in a modem.  Call
Senator Exon an "ignorant motherfucker" in Lincoln, Nebraska and
find yourself prosecuted in Bibleburg, Mississippi.
   In cyberspace, you cannot require the convenience store to
sell Hustler in a white sleeve.  The functional equivalent is
gatekeeper software, to which no civil libertarian has voiced any
objection. Gatekeeper software cannot be made foolproof, but can
you pandering pissants not see that any kid smart enough to hack
into a Website is also smart enough to get his hands on a hard
copy of Hustler if he really wants one?
   In cyberspace, there is the illusion of anonymity but no real
privacy.  It is theoretically possible for any Internet server to
seine through all messages for key words (although it seems
likely the resulting slowdown would be noticeable).  Perhaps some
of you read about America On Line's attempt to keep children from
reading the word "breast?"  An apparently unforeseen consequence
was the shutdown of a discussion group of breast cancer
survivors.  Don't you think more kids are aware of "teat"
(pronounced "tit") than of "breast?" Can skirts on piano legs,
er, limbs be far behind?
   But silly shit like this is just a pimple on the ass of the
long-term consequences for politics, art and education.  You have
passed a law that will get less respect than the 55 m.p.h. speed
limit dead bang in the middle of the First Amendment.  Indecency
is nothing but a matter of fashion; obscenity is the same but on
a longer timeline.  This generation freely reads James Joyce and
Henry Miller and the Republic still stands.  The home of the late
alleged pornographer D. H. Lawrence is now a beautiful writers'
retreat in the mountains above Taos, managed by the
University of New Mexico.
   Universities all have Internet servers, and every English
Department has at least one scholar who can read Chaucer's
English -- but not on the Internet anymore.  Comparative
literature classes might read Boccaccio -- but not on the
Internet anymore.  What if some U. S. Attorney hears about
Othello and Desdemona "making the beast with two backs" -- is
interracial sex no longer indecent anywhere in the country,
or is Shakespeare off the Internet?
   Did you know you can download video and sound from the
Internet?  Yes, that means you can watch other people having sex
if that is interesting to you, live or on tape.  Technology can
make such things hard to retrieve, but probably not impossible.
And since you have swept right past obscenity and into indecency,
the baby boomers had better keep their old rock 'n roll tapes off
the Internet.
   When the Jefferson Airplane sang "her heels rise for me," they
were not referring to a dance step.  And if some Brit explains
the line about "finger pie" in Penny Lane, the Beatles will be
gone.  All of those school boards that used to ban "The Catcher
in the Rye" over cussing and spreading the foul lie that kids
masturbate can now go to federal court and get that nasty book
kept out of cyberspace.
   But enough about the past.  What about rap music?  No, I do
not care much for it either -- any more than I care for the
language you shitheads have forced me to use in this essay -- but
can you not see the immediate differential impact of this law by
class and race?  What is your defense -- that there are no
African-Americans on the Internet, since they are too busy
pimping and dealing crack?  If our educational establishment
has any sense at all, they will be trying to see more teens of
all colors on the Internet, because there is a lot to be learned
in cyberspace that has nothing to do with sex.
   There are plenty of young people in this country who have
legitimate political complaints.  When you dickheads get done
with Social Security, they will be lucky if the retirement age is
still in double digits.  But thanks to the wonderful job the
public schools have done keeping sex and violence out, we have a
lot of intelligent kids who cannot express themselves without
indecent language. I have watched lawyers in open court digging
their young clients in the ribs every time the word "fuck"
slipped out.
   Let's talk about this fucking indecent language bullshit.  Joe
Shea, my editor, does not want it in his newspaper, and I respect
that position.  He might even be almost as upset about publishing
this as I a about writing it.  I do use salty language in my
writing, but sparingly, only as a big hammer.  Use the fucking
shit too fucking much and it loses its fucking impact -- see what
I mean?  Fiction follows different rules, and if you confine your
fiction writing to how the swell people want to see themselves
using language, you not only preclude literary depiction of
most people but you are probably false to the people you purport
to depict.
   Do you remember how real language used by real people got on
the air and in the newspapers?  Richard Nixon, while he was
president, speaking in the White House about official matters.  A
law professor and a nominee for Supreme Court Justice arguing
about pubic hairs and porno movies during Senate hearings.  Are
these matters now too indecent for the Internet?  How much
cleansing will be required of the online news services?  Answer:
Enough cleansing to meet the standard of what is appropriate for
a child in the most restrictive federal judicial district.
   This is bullshit -- unconstitutional bullshit and also bad
policy bullshit.  To violate your ban on indecency, I have been
forced to use and overuse so-called indecent language.  But if I
called you a bunch of goddam motherfucking cocksucking
cunt-eating blue-balled bastards with the morals of muggers and
the intelligence of pond scum, that would be nothing compared to
this indictment, to wit: you have sold the First Amendment,
your birthright and that of your children.  The Founders turn in
their graves.  You have spit on the grave of every warrior who
fought under the Stars and Stripes.
   And what mess of pottage have you acquired in exchange for the
rights of a free people?  Have you cleansed the Internet of even
the rawest pornography?  No, because it is a worldwide system.
You have, however, handed the government a powerful new tool to
harass its critics:  a prosecution for indecent commentary in any
district in the country.
   Have you protected one child from reading dirty words?
Probably not, if you understand what the economists call
"substitution" -- but you have leveled the standards of political
debate to a point where a history buff would not dare to upload
some of the Federalist v. Anti-Federalist election rhetoric to a
Website.
   Since the lobby reporting requirements were not law when the
censorship discussion was happening, I hope you got some
substantial reward for what you gave up.  Thirty pieces of silver
doesn't go far these days.

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U.S. Now Importing PCB's
from Greenpeace's Hazardous Waste Trade Usenet Group
Jan 18, 1996

      As a result of NAFTA the U.S. last November allowed the
importation of PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls) for the purpose
of incineration. The fifteen year ban was lifted November 22 for
imports from Canada and January 1 for imports from Mexico. The
Canadian PCB's will be shipped to S.D.Meyers' Tallmadge, Ohio
"decontamination" plant. S.D.Meyers expects to make $100 million
a year from this enterprise alone. The lifting of the 15 year ban
was due to pressure exerted by the Ohio Congressional delegation
led by John Glenn and Tom Sawyer. Canada's minister of
environment -  Shiela Copps - was called to task by the Clinton
administration and informed that her government's ban created an
unfair barrier to free trade. The Canadian government duly caved
in. There are an estimated 20,000 tons of PCB's on the Mexico
side ready for shipment. When informed of the lifting of the ban,
PCB environmental expert, Dr. Paul Connett stated that this
has "effectively destroyed" the Toxic Substances Control Act.

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Hotel Workers Organizing Committee HWOC <hwoc@xxxxxxxxxxx>

Dear friends,

   We are sending you information on an important environmental
justice struggle impacting many women of color and which is now
happening in Portland, Oregon.


An Open Letter to Paul Allen
February 1, 1996

Mr. Paul Allen, Owner
Trail Blazers, Inc. / Red Lion Coliseum Inn
110 110th Ave NE, Suite 533
Bellevue, WA  98004
          Re: Reproductive Toxins in the Red Lion Coliseum Inn


Dear Mr. Allen,
   Last year, workers in the housekeeping department at
your hotel, the Red Lion Coliseum, expressed concerns to
the company about the toxic cleaning products they were
made to use, harassment on the job, and poverty level
wages. Rather than resolve these problems, Red Lion has
continued to run the hotel on fear.
   The majority of the housekeeping workers asked for
our organization to assist them in attaining safer working
conditions and respect for their human rights.
   Previously a pregnant room attendant with abdominal
pain had asked to leave work early to see a doctor, but was
told she had to finish her work. After her shift, her she was
rushed to the hospital where she miscarried. Doctors said her
baby could have been saved with quicker medical attention.
She kept silent about the incident for fear of retaliation. More
recently, another pregnant worker was afflicted with anemia
and toxemia, and gave birth to a child two months
premature.
   Workers have experienced other health problems
related to the cleaning products. While cleaning rooms, their
eyes and noses would burn. Some experienced dizziness,
nausea and headaches after using the cleaning products.
After a while, workers' hands cracked and bled, while
others broke out in rashes.
   These problems are caused by the cleaning agents
used at the hotel, some of which contain butylene based
glycol ethers and other dangerous toxins. Studies reveal that
ethylene and butylene based glycol ethers are powerful
reproductive toxins and cause other terrible health problems.
Intel has banned the use of these chemicals in their company
because they are reproductive toxins.
   The only safe and feasible solution to the glycol ether
problem is to substitute safer products.
   We have offered to donate safer cleaning products on
a trial basis in order to demonstrate to Red Lion the
feasibility of using safe alternatives. The company has
ignored our offer.
   I am urging you to cease the use of glycol ethers in
the hotel.
   I also request that you implement the principles of the
Workers' Bill of Rights, adopted by the Portland
Metropolitan Human Rights Commission, which calls for
freedom from unhealthy workplace exposure to toxics,
freedom from discrimination on the job, and a livable wage.
   Thank you for your attention to this situation. I
would be happy to discuss this matter with you at any time. I
look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Director, Workers Organizing Committee [WOC]


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