Hightower Lowdown

We've gotten ahold of a recent letter from Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington State, to President Clinton, and it's filled with such breathtaking ignorance and arrogance, that we want to share it with the world.

Her subject is the big meeting of the World Trade Organization to be held in Seattle this November. Clinton, other heads of state, WTO officials, and corporate executives are gathering to prepare a new round of globaloney to shove down our throats, writing more worldwide rules banning local economic initiatives or labor or environmental protections, which they term "barriers to free trade." But consumer groups, unions, farmers, activists, environmentalists, and other uninvited guests also are planning on attending to protest the WTO's anti-democratic agenda of corporate supremacy.

Apparently, Senator Murray is worried "about security and confrontations with various demonstrators," and wants Clinton to do two things: First, explain to the nation that "The WTO is the indispensable rule making, enforcement body . . . for all countries." Hello, Patty, remember the Constitution? When did we replace our own self-government with the WTO? Second, she wants Clinton to call-in those pesky protesting groups and discourage "disruptive and damaging actions distracting the media and the public from your important goals." Right on! We can't have citizens assembling in the streets and speaking out like this was some kind of a democracy—and we certainly can't allow the people's voices to distract the media from Bill Clinton's "important goals."

Read the whole letter at www.jimhightower.com.