PART II AMY GOODMAN:Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places: They Have Stolen Our Country and it’s Time To Take It Back. We'll be back with him live in our studio in a minute.AMY GOODMAN:Here on Democracy Now! I am Amy Goodman, joined by Jim Hightower. His latest book Thieves in High Places: They Have Stolen Our Country and it’s Time To Take It Back. Welcome, Jim.JIM HIGHTOWER:Thank you so much, Amy, great to be with you on this wonderful Democracy Now! program that helps to take America back by spreading this voice all across the country. Everywhere I go folks are tuned in.AMY GOODMAN:Well, Jim--speaking of the media--in our headlines as you were coming in this morning hearing that the F.C.C. chair Michael Powell has now admitted, “Congress should write the rules. There is a sentiment being expressed by the American public, a concern about the media, a concern about big media.” It looks like his two top aides are resigning and there's been questions about whether he is, too.JIM HIGHTOWER:It is a clear example of the guy who got taken to the woodshed by we the people. This is a tremendous victory. Unfortunately it is a negative victory. It doesn’t mean we've taken our public airwaves back, but it is very significant and it was done by the people and through community radio, largely, and Internet opposition, but folks through community radio. You know the establishment media, which was pushing this Powell program, the establishment media was not covering this.It came from…AMY GOODMAN: They were busy filing with the F.C.C. supporting the deregulation.JIM HIGHTOWER:Absolutely. To have that 400 to 20 vote in the House of Representatives was one of our better days in a long time.Amy Goodman: Then we have the Bush Administration demanding the World Trade Organization force the European Union to lift its ban on new genetically modified food.JIM HIGHTOWER:Well, Lilly Tomlin said, “No matter how cynical you get it's almost impossible to keep up.” This is a clear example. We are saying to Europeans, “ No, you cannot decide what is in your food. Only corporations can decide that.” AMY GOODMAN: It sounds like Cancun is going to be very interesting at the level of protest that is going to be there.JIM HIGHTOWER:Yes, at the Seattle level, I think. They're going to have a lot of uninvited guests who once again are in the streets because we're not inside. And inside they're doing such absurd things as dictating what people have in their food. You know, the interesting part about that appeal to the W.T.O. is that it's going to raise people's consciousness in this country--say, wait a minute, what is in our food. You're telling us that there's this altered organism in our food, which again the media has not been reporting on, the establishment side. So it's going to raise two things, I think. The fact that corporations are doing that and secondly, who the hell is the W.T.O. to make these decisions.AMY GOODMAN: Jim, what is happening in your state? I see that Tom DeLay says the state legislature in Texas has to redistrict and is now going after the democrats who left for Oklahoma, not wanting to vote on this.JIM HIGHTOWER:Tom DeLay got up and had another big old bowl of “Fruit Loops”, I think, swallowed a few too many of them and decided that he didn't have enough to do in Washington so he would begin to interfere with the state legislature's responsibility to redistrict, which state legislatures did in 2001. Now in Texas, the 2001 legislature redistricting plan was blocked by the republicans, not by the democrats but by the republicans. Then they threw it to a bipartisan panel of judges and the judges did the redistricting that now DeLay says has got to be redone. And why does he say that? Because we’re not electing enough republicans. Therefore we have to rig the system so it automatically produces more republicans. He's talking about six different congressional districts that have republican majority but democrats are elected there. Well, go beat the democrats. If you can't beat 'em, that's not the voter's fault. That's your fault. You're not putting forth good enough candidates. He wants to re-rig the system even tighter, drawing these folks out of suburban areas so that rural areas in the state would have no control over their own members of Congress. They would be represented by somebody 250 miles away in a Dallas suburb.AMY GOODMAN: Jim, you are traveling through many states of this country right now on a whirlwind tour. You're rolling thunder.JIM HIGHTOWER:We’re barn storming all over. I'm off right now on a thirty-something city tour that is talking about this message of thieves in high places and more importantly of how we can take the country back. I'm bringing a message of hope because the media establishment would suggest to us, “Oh, well, it's a conservative country. You people don't have a chance. So, don't even fight back.” Hog wash and horse hockey. People are fighting back and winning terrific victories all over this great country. So, I'm going out and celebrating with these people and also to help raise some money and do rallies and all of that. So we can indeed take America back. We can do it.AMY GOODMAN:Jim Hightower, thank you for being with us. Former Agriculture Commissioner of Texas who now has written a number of books, his latest, Thieves in High Places: They Have Stolen Our Country and it’s Time To Take It Back. You can find out more about him at Jimhightower.com and his newsletter The Hightower Lowdown.Thank you.JIM HIGHTOWER:Thank you, Amy "The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." - Albert Einstein "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead "When the government fears the people, you have liberty. When the people fear the government, you have tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~