[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13474]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   REGARDING YESTERDAY'S FCC DECISION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor today to make a 
public service announcement. Yesterday was an extremely important day 
in this country's history.

                              {time}  1115

  The FCC voted to allow increased consolidation of the media. They are 
tightening the noose on the neck of the First Amendment.
  The NRA is opposed to what happened yesterday, and so is Jim 
McDermott, so you know how damning what happened yesterday really is. 
If you can get people as far apart as the NRA and me on the same issue, 
you have got a real problem in this country.
  Now, my public service announcement is this: Stop watching the U.S. 
press. Stop watching the television. It is the opiate of the masses. 
They are using it to put you to sleep. You should cancel your 
subscription and buy a subscription to a foreign newspaper, maybe the 
Financial Times of London, or the Guardian, or the Scotsman from 
Edinburgh or the Sunday Herald from Sidney, Australia.
  Why do I say this? Because you have to read the foreign press to find 
out what is going on in this country. The Financial Times of London was 
the one that reported that the President hid, or, excuse me, I should 
not mention the President, it was the administration that hid the 
report that says we are going to be $44 trillion in debt because of 
these tax cuts. To put that in perspective, that means every single 
American, every man, woman and child, everything they earn for 4 years, 
that is what $44 trillion is. And the President and his folks did not 
want us to know about it, so they left it out. But the London Times 
found it.
  Reuters came up with a story about the chaos in Iraq. You think the 
Iraq war is all over and there is no more problem. According to our 
press, the only thing that matters is this guy that blew up a bomb in 
Atlanta about 6 years ago. They have suddenly forgotten Iraq.
  But if you listen to what happened, Reuters says they interviewed one 
of the chiefs in Baghdad who said the entire Iraqi people is a time 
bomb that will blow up in the Americans' face if they do not end this 
occupation. ``The Iraqi people did not fight the Americans during the 
war. Only Saddam's people did. But if the people decide to fight them 
now, they are in big trouble.''
  One man said, ``All of us will become suicide bombers. I will turn my 
six daughters into bombs to kill the Americans.''
  That is what we have created over there, and we are glossing over it 
now. But if you read Reuters, you will find that out. If you do not 
read Reuters, you will never get it out of our paper.
  Then we come to the next issue. You have got to read the Scotland 
paper, the Edinburgh Scotsman. What do they say? They say regime change 
in Iran is starting a countdown. That is the editorial headline. Regime 
change has not been in any of the speaking so far, but you start to see 
that the phrase has found its way into a bunch of briefings. And now, 
it is not a done deal, there is a big fight between the war department 
and the State Department. The war department is the one that took us 
into Afghanistan, they took us into Iraq, and they are over there ready 
to go again. It sounds sort of familiar. It is the same way the 
drumbeat started in this country in September when I said that the 
President would lie to take us to war. People were outraged. How could 
you say such a thing?
  Well, where are the weapons of mass destruction? Please tell me. I am 
looking. Mr. Blair is going to have an investigation of him.


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Schrock). Members must avoid personally 
offensive references to the President.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I thank you for that reminder.
  Mr. Blair is going to be under investigation in the British House of 
Commons. One member said it is worse than Watergate, what has gone on 
in Great Britain.
  But in this country, do we expect the Republican Party to come out 
and investigate the President of the United States, misleading us, or 
the administration misleading us, excuse me? The administration misled 
us, these nameless, faceless people they put out there, sent out there 
to tell what they wanted said.
  That is what you have to get. You will get this if you read the 
Scotsman. If you do not read the Scotsman, you will not know where we 
are going next.
  You know, last night another American soldier died, another American 
soldier died in Iraq, shot in an ambush. Now, every one of those 
soldiers is important. When I was a psychiatrist during the Vietnam War 
and I dealt with these kids coming back, they were all important, and 
that kid that was killed last night was important. But you will not 
hear anything about it in our media, because you are not reading the 
right stuff.
  Get rid of the paper. It is the opiate of the masses.

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