Pages
B-1 and B-3, AMERICAN
FREE PRESS * March
1,
2010 * Issue 9 AMERICAN FREE PRESS
2010 TRAFICANT TOWN HALL EVENT
Traficant -- a dynamic speaker and highly charismatic
individual -- gives his signature bear hug to AFP Deputy
Editor Mark Anderson. |
AFP's Peter Papaheraklis (left in photo) and
Michael Collins Piper teamed upto introduce Traficant.
Piper's book Target: Traficant is the only book in print
giving the truth about Traficant's frame-up. |
Attendees
Brave Winter Weather to Meet `Jimbo'
What's Next on the Agenda
for Gutsy Ex-Congressman?
By Michael Collins Piper
 |
. Washington,
D.C. was reeling under the impact of two consecutive
blizzards — the worst storm to hit the nation’s
capital in recorded history — and another
storm was predicted.
 Yet,
some 150 people still crowded into the lecture
hall at the Capitol Skyline Hotel on Capitol Hill
to welcome former Congressman Jim Traficant —
now a weekly columnist for AMERICAN
FREE PRESS
— back to Washington where he once reigned
as perhaps the most colorful (and certainly the
most outspoken) figure in Congress during the
17 years he served in the House of Representatives.
The
numbers in attendance were remarkable, considering
the wintry weather, but made even more so by the
fact that some 45 people who had registered to
attend did not arrive, most likely deterred by
the weather.
And
carefully note too that it wasn’t just a
“local” audience. In fact, there were
enthusiastic attendees from as far away as Washington
State, California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin,
North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Florida, Kentucky, Illinois and Michigan.
The
young audience was demographically diverse but
united in one thing: a concern — shared
with Jim Traficant — about the future course
of America and its position in the world.
"Traficant
was in full form, a combination of the
wry wit and the friendly banter, coupled
with his serious concern about the issues."
|
The
bottom line is that the big turnout confirmed
something the staff of AMERICAN FREE PRESS knew
instinctively: that Traficant — out of circulation
for more than seven years and having been subjected
to a barrage of vicious smears in the mainstream
media — still remained a popular figure,
respected for his no-nonsense approach to the
big issues of the day.
Traficant’s
appearance was a big splash with those who never
before had the opportunity to meet the one man
who, year after year, was voted in polls of the
congressional staff-at-large as “the friendliest”
and “the most likeable”member of Congress
— a position it must be said, frankly, with
which Traficant was not ranked by powerful special
interest groups, foreign lobbies, and thugs from
government agencies that objected to Traficant’s
fervent opposition to federal tyranny.
While
prison breaks many a man, it did not break Traficant,
as his overwhelming presence in Washington made
clear. However, Traficant was first to admit,
in his remarks, that more than seven years in
prison were rough on him in many ways. But despite
this, Traficant has come back tougher and really,
in some ways, more outspoken than never. Back
in Washington, Traficant was in full form, a combination
of the wry wit and the friendly banter, coupled
with his serious concern about (and intellectual
insights into) so many issues that face the American
republic.
Traficant
said some have warned him that being associated
with a “controversial” newspaper such
as AMERICAN FREE
PRESS could be injurious
to any future political ambitions he might have,
but, at the same time, he said, AFP was a newspaper
that dared to express its views (right or wrong)
and that, under no circumstances, should any American
be afraid to express their views on any issue,
no matter how controversial. The situation in
America today, said Traficant, calls for candor
and all points of view must be heard and none
suppressed.
The
most glaring absence from the event was that of
the self-styled “mainstream” news
media, particularly C-SPAN, the national cable
network. C-SPAN’s absence was especially
notable since C-SPAN not only helped make Jim
Traficant a nationally-known name (among a congressional
contingent of 535 largely unknown faces, with
only a few exceptions) but also, in turn, gained
many new viewers from people across the country
who tuned in hoping to view Traficant’s
regular colorful verbal rampages against government
corruption and mismanagement.
Although
C-SPAN told AFP’s coordinator for the event,
Pete Papaheraklis, that they intended to cover
Traficant’s speech, they pulled out at the
last moment. It was obvious the word had come
down “from the top” that a black-out
on Traficant’s return to Washington was
the order of the day.
Although
it was a slow news day in snow-gridlocked Washington
over a holiday weekend, C-SPAN boycotted the Traficant
event.
Lest
this be dismissed as a “conspiracy theory,”
note that even the august New York Times,
which declares itself the arbiter of “all
the news that’s fit to print,” recently
went out of its way to publish an editorial condemning
Traficant’s potential comeback in the electoral
arena.
Although
the Times and other media voices —
which have never been friendly to Traficant in
any way — have been quick to assure folks
that Traficant is old news and going nowhere,
the Times — perhaps a bit schizophrenically
— still felt the need to slam Traficant
and throw more mud (and lies) in his direction,
just to make sure that no “nice” people
who follow the Times’ lead and
direction might look favorably toward Traficant.
All
told, Traficant’s return trip speaking engagement
in the city where, in many ways, he made history,
was a memorable event for those who did attend.
The big question now, as Traficant himself will
concur, is what will come out of it. Was this
the beginning of a return to Congress for Traficant
or will something even bigger emerge, perhaps
the launching of an independent national political
movement with Traficant as its leader? Time will
tell soon enough.
* * * * * * *
. . ..Michael Collins Piper can be heard every week day night live on the Internet at republicbroadcasting.org. He is
the author of Final Judgment, the controversial “underground bestseller”
documenting the collaboration of Israeli intelligence in the assassination
of John F. Kennedy. He is also the author of The High Priests of War, The
New Jerusalem: Zionist Power in America , The Judas Goats: The Enemy Within, Dirty Secrets: Crime, Conspiracy & Cover-Up in the 20th Century, The GOLEM: Israel's Hell Bomb, and Target: Traficant. These works can be found at America First Books and FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS: 1-888-699-NEWS. He has lectured
on suppressed topics in places as diverse as Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Russia
and Abu Dhabi. |
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(Issue #9, March 1, 2010, AMERICAN
FREE PRESS)
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