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 

    
    

    

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