Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Democracy Now: John (Rick) MacArthur & Jim Naureckas; Bob Somerby, Ruth Conniff, David Sirota and Katrina vanden Heuvel

Democracy Now! ("always worth watching," as Marcia says)
 
Headlines for June 28, 2005

- Court Rules on Ten Commandments & Internet Cases
- Iraq's Oldest Parliament Member Killed in Bombing
- Bush To Declare There is a "Clear Path to Victory" in Iraq
- U.S. To Spend $50 Million on New Prisons in Iraq
- Poll: 57% Feel Bush "Intentionally Misled" Nation on Iraq
- California Nat'l Guard Intel Unit Monitors Anti-War Protest
- CPB Monitored Diane Rehm and Tavis Smiley Shows
- Carpenters Union Joins In Challenge of AFL-CIO
- Iowa to Give Felons Right to Vote
 
Protecting Whistleblowers or Shielding Government Wrongdoing? Supreme Court on Journalists and Anonymous Sources

The Supreme Court rejected appeals from two journalists - Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine - who may face jail time for refusing to reveal sources in the leak of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. We take a look at anonymous sources and how journalists used them to sell the war in Iraq. [includes rush transcript]
 
Eminent Domain Ruling: Justices Uphold Taking Property for Private Development

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Thursday that cities may seize and demolish private homes - even in non-blighted areas -- to make way for shopping malls and other private development. We host a debate with the attorney who argued the case before the Supreme Court on behalf of the homeowners and a spokesperson for the association of cities and towns in the Connecticut.
 
Supreme Court Rules to Hold Internet File-Sharing Companies Liable

The Supreme Court ruled that file sharing companies, like Grokster and StreamCast, could be held liable if their product encouraged computer users to illegally share copyrighted material. We speak with an intellectual property lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. [includes rush transcript]
 
Supreme Court Rules Cable Companies Not Required to Share Broadband Lines

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that cable companies are not required to share their high-speed Internet broadband networks with rivals. The decision will likely have a major impact on how consumers get their Internet access. We host a debate.
 
Supreme Court Delivers Split Verdict on Ten Commandments Displays

The Supreme Court ruled a Ten Commandments monument could remain on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol but that framed wall displays in two Kentucky courthouses violated the First Amendment because officials put them there for religious reasons.
 
 
 
At The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby is dealing with a number of issues, we'll focus on the Downing Street Memo section:
 
 
DEARLOVE MEETS DARLING CONDI: In today's Post, Glenn Frankel presents a front-page report about the secret British documents now known as the "Downing Street memos." At one point, Frankel sheds light on the Washington meetings described in the most famous such document, the July 23 DSM:
FRANKEL (6/28/05): On July 23, officials gathered at Blair's office. Among them were Straw; Manning; Richard Dearlove, chief of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency; Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon; Attorney General Peter Goldsmith; and Adm. Michael Boyce, chief of the Defense Staff.

Dearlove, a veteran intelligence operative with a reputation for being hard-nosed and ambitious, had just returned from a visit to Washington, where officials say he met with Rice and CIA Director George J. Tenet.

According to the July 23 memo, Dearlove reported "a perceptible shift in attitude" in Washington. "Military action was now seen as inevitable," the memo said, adding that the president's National Security Council "had no patience with the U.N. route." Dearlove also included the observation that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

According to Frankel, Dearlove had met with both Rice and Tenet. He was reporting on impressions he gathered at meetings with those high officials. This helps us see how absurd it was when Michael Kinsley argued that Dearlove may just have been reporting what he had heard in the American press, or from "the usual freelance chatterboxes" (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 6/13/05). What did Dearlove tell Blair about the "fixing of intelligence?" Whatever he said, he had gained his impressions from Rice and Tenet, not from reading the Washington Post while he eavesdropped at Starbucks.

For the record, Frankel writes poorly in that last quoted paragraph. Most likely, readers will think that he's quoting Dearlove. In fact, he is quoting a summary of Dearlove's report--minutes taken by Matthew Rycroft. (There is no transcript of what Dearlove said.) But Frankel helps us see the sheer absurdity of Kinsley's attempt to wish this memo away. Dearlove had met with Tenet and Rice, not with a group of the usual chatterboxes. Remember when Kinsley used to be the brightest such chat-box in town?

 

Somerby's also addressing Karl Rove and PBS's NewsHour which contained a "debate" that was questionable (and that's being kind).   (And yes, that's the article that Billie e-mailed on this morning.)

Lloyd e-mails to note Ruth Conniff's "What's Next, Medical Experiments?" (The Progressive):

At least the psychiatrists-of-evil story generated a raft of letters to the editor from medical professionals who recoiled at this gross breach of medical ethics. On the Times letters page Monday, several psychiatrists cut through the obfuscating Pentagon claims that gave doctors special consultant status to help with torture techniques as if not seeing the patients in an office and torturing them on the couch preserved their professional integrity. "One does not need a legalistic ethics code to know that psychologists refuse to lend their professional skill and expertise to the torture of fellow human beings. It is simply wrong," wrote Jay S. Kwawer, director of clinical education at the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, and Psychology in New York.

Brenda e-mails to note David Sirota's "On Lies, Airport & Corporate Abuse."

Brenda: I think this is an issue worth noting, the way the consumer is screwed over by the corporation but I also really enjoyed reading it and I think if you've ever been screwed over by the airline industry, you'll be able to relate.

From the entry:

The story is pretty brutal in its own sad, mundane, "it's disgusting this stuff happens everyday" sort of way. My connecting Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis to Helena got delayed. We then sat on the tarmac for 2 hours. Just before takeoff, the pilot came on and said the radar had unexpectedly died, and the flight was cancelled. Yet, when we got off plane, the corporate manager of Northwest at Minneapolis airport changed the code to say our flight was cancelled because of weather - a deliberate move to make sure Northwest doesn't have to foot the bill for a hotel...no problem anyway - all hotels are booked. Meanwhile, the folks at the Northwest desk told my wife and I with a straight face that the earliest they can get us into Helena is Thursday night (yes, tonight is Monday night).

 
Tina e-mails to note Katrina vanden Heuvel's "Rove on the Couch:"
As you all have heard, Karl Rove said liberals wanted to offer the terrorists therapy after 9/11. I know a lot of liberals. None of them were talking about counseling Osama bin Laden in that terrible time. But there is one person liberals would like to see in therapy: Karl Rove. How else to understand the enemy?

I'd like to know what terrible childhood trauma caused an Episcopalian from Utah to believe establishing a permanent Republican majority was his life's calling. Was he abused by a homeless man? Did feminists burn his American flag notebook at a pro-choice rally? Was he humiliated by a member of the liberal elite during graduate studies at the University of Texas?

 

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