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thedrifter
07-15-03, 06:56 PM
Teacher's anti-war playing cards flying off bookstore shelves


By Kim Curtis
ASSOCIATED PRESS
12:35 a.m., July 15, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO – A high school teacher, fed up with the Bush administration's popular playing cards featuring Saddam Hussein, "Chemical Ali" and other most-wanted Iraqis, is now selling her own deck, "Operation Hidden Agenda."

Kathy Eder's 55 playing cards show pictures of President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others along with quotes, mostly from journalists, questioning the rationale for the U.S.-led war. The backs feature a 1983 photograph of Rumsfeld shaking Sadaam Hussein's hand.

Eder said she first decided to create her own plastic-coated propaganda in March as a comeback to the "messages of hate" contained in the cards the Department of Defense issued to help U.S. troops identify suspected war criminals.

Her "Hidden Agenda" cards, are "not hateful. They're factual," she said.

In Eder's version, Bush is the ace of spades with the title, "Dictator of the World," and the ace of clubs depicts Rumsfeld above the caption, "Donald Goes to Bagdad" – with the Iraqi city misspelled. The jokers carry quotes from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Eder used free, public domain DOD photographs (several of the same ones show up repeatedly) and collected the quotes from newspapers and magazines. She hired a designer willing to work for $15 an hour and 5 percent of the profits. But only one of the about 30 publishers she contacted responded at all, and it said it couldn't get to the cards for at least a year.

"I knew this was something that had to happen immediately," said Eder, 42, who teaches social justice and morality at Bellarmine College Preparatory School in San Jose.

She decided to self-publish, but then couldn't find a printer willing to do the job.

Eventually, Texas-based Liberty Playing Cards, one of the companies that prints the government's "Most Wanted" cards, agreed.

Once the product became available online and at a few bookstores, Eder said she sold 3,000 decks in three weeks. She's already placed a second order for 5,000 decks.

At Bookshop Santa Cruz, people lined up outside the store the morning the cards went on sale, according to Don Gardner, who works at the store. With about half of the purchasers buying more than one deck, the store has sold about 1,100 copies of "Hidden Agenda," which "may be running neck-and-neck" with the latest Harry Potter book, Gardner said.

"She imitated some of the best marketing minds in the country," Gardner said, referring to the U.S. government. "I don't think it's her intention to make a million bucks. I don't think it's her intention to attack individuals, but to expose the record of American leadership."

But many retailers have refused to sell the cards and Eder said she's received angry e-mails and a death threat.

She's not deterred.

"My taxes paid for this war," she said. "I have an obligation to do something."

Eder has pledged to donate half her profits to five nonprofit organizations that promote nonviolence and provide aide to Gulf War veterans and Iraqis.

Eder said her mission is peaceful, not unpatriotic. She said she visited the site of the World Trade Center in New York last year.

"I felt such a connection with the U.S.," she said. "This year, when we chose to go to war and cut off our relations with other countries, it seemed like such a tragedy that we had broken that sense of unity we felt around the world. I hope we can reunite around peace."


On the Net:

www.operationhiddenagenda.com

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20030715-0035-ca-anti-warcards.html


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

Lock-n-Load
07-15-03, 07:42 PM
I hope President GW Bush adds a 56th card to his deck with Eder's kisser plastered on it!!:marine: :marine:

greensideout
07-15-03, 10:01 PM
Guess I'll have to do a little review here and inject some thought.

"We have broken that sense of unity".---It seems that other countries cut and ran on us.

"My taxes paid for this war". Wow, she must have some really high taxes!

"She imitated some of the best marketing minds in the country".---Duh, not a quantum leap!

"Teaches Social Justice and Morality". ---As she sees it?

"At Book Shop Santa Cruz, people lined up".--- Not the people you want next door!

"I knew this was something that had to happen immediately".--- Or I would'nt make any money?

What is HER "Hidden Agenda?

MillRatUSMC
07-15-03, 10:45 PM
Let's place Kathy Eder's face on the web.

http://www.dailystar.com/star/today/sp3071519.jpg

So there won't be a "Hidden Face" to go alone with her "Hiden Agenda".

The oath we swore, gives that right to question the agenda of the Federal Government.

But it also gives the right to question her "Hidden Agenda" or making the "Hidden Agenda" cards.

Semper Fidelis
Ricardo

firstsgtmike
07-16-03, 02:59 AM
For those who don't know it, Santa Cruz was once considered the fruitcake capitol of the world, edging out both Berkley and UC Davis for top honors.

Lock-n-Load
07-16-03, 06:08 AM
:marine: It's bad enough to listen to complaints about the greatest place on earth...the United States of America...but your agenda at slander with an avarice of greed...premeditated...to make a buck at it...is unscrupulous, devious and cunning on your weak sense of morality ...you phoney SOB...you are all about the dirtbags mouthing off; yet living large, thanks to all the Marines in here who fought, bled, died, so you could p*** on our parade...count your 13 pieces of silver, you s***head, and mark my words Eder, they will come to bite you in your big fat ass, that you are!!...Any more complaints, Eder???...then, "Tell it to the Marines"...Semper Fi, Mac :marine:

richgitz
07-16-03, 08:07 AM
I got to thinking on this one. In todays society the only thing that
people want most is MONEY. And thats what this A**HOLE is after
and to get her big ulgy kisser on TV and in the papers. Who knows, maybe she might run for Vice President on Hillery's ticket.
She also said she was going to give SOME of the money to char=
ity. The one that got me is Iraqis, which side is going to get the
money. I'll tell whos going to get it, NOBODY. To HELL with her and every other anti=american S.O.B. I need a beer!:mad: :no: :thumbdown

Kelsey
07-16-03, 08:15 AM
I can only imagine what is taught in a "Social Justice and Morality" class in California.

SSgtOfMarines
07-16-03, 09:16 PM
fvckin cvnt

lurchenstein
07-17-03, 01:15 AM
For those who don't know it, Santa Cruz was once considered the fruitcake capitol of the world, edging out both Berkley and UC Davis for top honors.
Seems like pretty much the whole state now. The "special" and individual interests here are trying to redefine morality, justice, ethics, etc. to suit their own "special" needs.