departments?

Hey-belly up to the bar, Bub, and put your money down-Sacramento is

for sale, lock, stock, and underwear. Winning bidders get exclusive marketing rights and

the imprimatur of official city approval-even if the corporate sponsors are polluters,

make their products in sweatshops, and are known to rip off consumers.

This is Jim Hightower saying . . .The profiteers will take over your

town next, if you don’t stop them.

"City for Sale" by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman.

Focus on the Corporation: February 17, 1999.

PRESIDENTIAL SALE-A-THON

Hi, "Crazy Jim" Hightower here,

saying: Have I got a deal for you? Come on down to "Crazy Jim’s" for the deal of

a lifetime. It’s all part of our [reverb] "1999 Pre-Election Presidential Candidate

Sale-a-Thon!"

Shop til you drop here at our Presidential Showroom on the magic

mile-we’ve got your Democrats and Republicans, new and used, ranging the whole gamut from

social conservative to corporate conservative, or both! The general public won’t be able

to buy any of these beauties until the year 2000, but "Crazy Jim" gives YOU the

chance to buy-in right now. Here’s our souped-up Democratic, "GORE2000" model,

for example. Or maybe you’d like something a little on the slower side, like the

"Bushamatic SUV." Both the GORE2000 and the Bushamatic have been fully-tested

and approved by a certified panel of Wall Street analysts. So we can guarantee that

neither will cause any trouble for Wall Street.

Let me give you a rundown of some of these Presidential models, so

you know who stands behind them. The aforementioned GORE2000 has been fully checked out by

such Wall Street mechanics as Steve Rattner of the investment banking firm Lazard Freres,

and Jon Corzine of Goldman Sachs. As a result, I can guarantee you that Gore is one

Democrat who won’t veer from the middle of the corporate road. And if you think that his

Democratic challenger, Bill Bradley is likely to push him left, not to worry, because he’s

backed by such solid corporate agents as the CEOs of Chase Manhattan Bank, Sara Lee,

Barnes & Noble, and Starbucks.

Likewise, the Bushamatic has the seal of approval from such major

corporate lobbyists as Haley Barbour and Wayne Berman. It’s always good to know that these

Washington fixers stand 100-percent behind their product, isn’t it?

This is "Crazy Jim" Hightower saying . . . If you want

your vote to count, don’t wait on the fools who’ll cast their ballots in 2000-you can vote

today by writing a big check. It’s a great deal, b ecause candidates who don’t get your

money in 1999, won’t have a chance in 2000. Think about it.

"Fund-raising race is also part of presidential primary"

by Phil Kuntz. Wall Street Journal: March 11, 1999.

CHARITY BEGINS IN THE HOUSE

There’s a new charity that I know so many of

you are going to want to help.

This is not a charity to help impoverished war orphans in some

faraway land, yet I know you’re going to be touched in a way you never have been once you

hear their plight. These are people who are having an awful hard time making ends meet

these days. It’s a group that’s not had a payraise in more than . . . well, a year.

If you could only see them, as I have-their needy little faces not

only would touch your hearts, but make you want to reach for your wallets and do all you

can to stop their pain. They look up at you with their big, round, sad eyes and say:

"COLA."

Not Coca Cola. C.O.L.A., as in Cost of Living Adjustment. This

struggling group is the U.S. House of Representatives, and they’re pleading for a

cost-of-living increase in their pay-which, as you know, is now a pathetically low

$136,700 a year.

Won’t you help? The COLA that’s presently on the table for them

would provide about a $5,000 annual increase. No, it’s not much, but every little bit

helps when you’re at that level. Plus, these people are working hard! This year alone,

they are expected to put in four days a week for up to 40 weeks! Imagine if you had to do

that . . . and for only $137,000 a year.

Luckily, the House leadership feels their pain and supports their

$5,000 raise. Dennis Hastert, the new Republican leader, put it so eloquently when he

said: "I am not crying crocodile tears, but they need to be able to have a life and

provide for their families. They need to have a modest increase in their salary."

This is Jim Hightower asking . . . Don’t you agree? Don’t you want

to help Dennis give a taxpayer’s contribution of $5,000 each to our members of Congress?

Call Speaker Hastert and tell him exactly how you feel about charity for the poor people

in Congress. Operators are standing by: 202-225-0600.

"Majority in House Likely to Favor COLA" by Jim VandeHei.

Roll Call: March 22, 1999.

"Hastert, Gephardt want COLA" by Jim VandeHei. Roll Call:

March 15, 1999.

"Per diems in house may be good, but a vote on them isn’t"

by David Rosenbaum. New York Times: March 18, 1999.

"Diverse groups want Hastert, Gephardt to reject Congressional

pay raise" by Gary Ruskin. Congressional Reform Briefings: March 15, 1999.

"Groups criticize plans for $25,000 pay and benefits hike for

US House of Representatives" by Gary Ruskin. Congressional Briefings: March 17, 1999.

"Rep. Thomas urges tax-free per diem" by A.B. Stoddard.

The Hill: March 17, 1999. "Court weighs the meaning of ‘gratuity’ by Linda

Greenhouse. New York Times: March 22, 1999.

FORCE FEEDING BEEF TO EUROPE

What’s the beef about European consumers

wanting their burgers and steaks to be free of artificial growth hormones?

Believe it or not, Washington is putting us into another trade war

that is even whackier than the banana battle that we’ve been having with the Europeans. In

this meaty case, a handful of powerful beef processors and exporters like IBP and Cargill

are in a deep pout. It seems European nations are saying "no thanks" to our beef

exports when they contain doses of estrogen and other sex hormones. These companies

routinely inject the hormones into the cattle to make them fatten-up in an unnatural

hurry.

There is scientific evidence that these hormones injected into the

cattle also stay in the steaks or burgers, and then go right into the children who eat

them. Is it so irrational, then, that European consumers would not want such contaminated

meat?

"Don’t talk rationality," cry the exporters, "make

them take our beefed-up beef!" The Clinton Administration is going along with this

forced-marketing disaster, whining to the World Trade Organization that the Europeans are

restraining free trade by wanting meat without hormones.

Hello? Aren’t we supposed to be the nation of free enterprise, the

can-do marketers to the world? Here’s a crazy idea: If our millions of European customers

want beef without the artificial bloat of sex hormones . . . how about we sell it to them?

We have beaucoup clean beef in America. In fact, most of the cattle you see on the range

as you drive America’s highways have had no shots-it’s only the corporate feedlots that

force this growth-drug into the herds. So let’s sell from the ranchers, the co-ops, and

the independent feedlots of America who’ll provide the product the customer wants-instead

of trying to force-feed them something they don’t want.

This is Jim Hightower saying . . . I tell ya, it’s pathetic to see

these phony and incompetent free enterprisers go running to Uncle Sam and the WTO to try

to shove their contaminated products down the throats of our nation’s customers.

"Imports face higher tariffs on beef tissue" by David

Sanger. New York Times: March 23, 1999.

"US-EU lock horns over beef" by James Cox. USA Today:

March 23, 1999.

"US lists EU Products that face duties if ban persists on

hormone-treated beef" by John Simons. Wall Street Journal: March 23, 1999.