Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Other Items

The story credited to Douglas Jehl (and Tim Golden in an "end credit") is substandard and whomever's responsible should be embarrassed. This New York Times article is entitled "In Cheney's New Chief, a Bureaucratic Master" and here's the tenth paragraph (check my math):

According to current and former officials who worked with him closely, he was a primary author of the Nov. 13, 2001, presidential order that established the military's sweeping powers to detain terror suspects and try them before military commissions. Mr. Addington has also played a central role in efforts to expand the legal authority of clandestine intelligence officers to detain and interrogate suspects in terrorism investigations, those officials said. Among other efforts, they said, he helped to shape an August 2002 opinion from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel that said torture might be justified in some cases. In an unusual step, the White House formally repudiated the memorandum after it became public last year.

We have to wade through nonsense, nine paragraphs of it, to get to that. Nine paragraphs of puffery and glad handing. If you've forgotten (though I doubt anyone has) the Times was still pimping Bernie while all the other NY papers were writing about the "love nest." The Times kisses anyone's ass that gets nominated which is why they so often end up looking embarrassed.
Don't hand Scott Shane the mop for this mess, Jehl (and Golden) is (are) smart enough to clean up after himself (themselves). (Though the article bearing their names doesn't indicate that this morning.)

Gardiner Harris tries to get ahold of fluff from Bully in "Bush Announces Plan to Prepare for Flu Epidemic." Massive spending! And a Court nominee!

The Times can't follow up on any story because they're so scared of being left out that they'll gladly be led around (by their noses). It's as though Rickie Lee Jones wrote "Lap Dog" for them:


lap dog lap dog where you gonna go?
if i put you out in the rain and snow
if i put you out in the rain and snow
where the sun dont shine and the cold wind blow

["Lap dog" can be found on Rickie Lee Jones' The Evening of My Best Day. See last item.]


Can you imagine if someone in the Clinton administration had been indicted? Can you imagine the press moving on? Wouldn't happen. (Check Rebecca for her comments on Ted Koppel -- who can't leave ABC soon enough. Entry's entitled "ted koppel go away already." )

Matthew Rothschild nails the reality of what's going on here in "Bush Does Penance with Alito" (This Just In, The Progressive) (which Lloyd e-mailed to noted):

Bush didn't waste any time, did he?
He barely had rolled out of bed Monday morning when he rushed in front of the cameras to nominate Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
I've heard of changing the subject, but that's got to be an indoor record.
Fortunately, Scooter's indictment is not going to vanish in thin air, Fitzgerald's investigation continues, and Cheney is finally feeling some heat.
But Bush did what he could, and then genuflected to the anti-abortion zealots by giving them just what they wanted: a judge hostile to abortion rights.
As Senator Ted Kennedy put it, "President Bush has picked a nominee whom he hopes will stop the massive hemorrhaging of support on his right wing."

Tori e-mails to note Rita J. King's "Rule 21" (Ruminations on America):

The Republicans call the Democrats weak and ineffectual and the Democrats perceive that the Republicans led this nation to war on lies. Much like the optical illusion that looks like a young girl from one angle and an old crone from another, the two parties are mirages grown from the same corporate shackles preventing the American media from achieving the freedom it can attain. This is not a depressing fiasco, as many who have been caught off guard by the revelations might believe, but rather a golden opportunity to emerge from the sleepy apathy too many Americans have been indulging in and shape up for the fight ahead.
Last Saturday night, I saw Joan Baez perform for a full house at the Paramount Center for the Arts in Peekskill, New York. A friend of mine who was also in attendance said he saw Joan Baez in the early 1960's, when she introduced Bob Dylan at a concert in Forest Hills.
"I would have liked to see more young people present...proof that the torch is being carried on," said my friend later, of the Paramount concert. "But that was the case in the sixties, too. It was the media that paid attention to the protest movement and caused it to build. Today with the media in the hands of big business protest coverage is sharply limited as are other points of view. Car bombs and suicide bombers replace peace marchers which can only perpetuate the violence and fuel greater and greater hatred. It is all too easy to fire up hatred."

Rod gives us a heads up to the scheduled topics for today's Democracy Now!:

* Attorney Joshua Colangelo-Bryan speaks about his recent trip to Guantanamo where one of his clients attempted to commit suicide in his presence.
* Juan Gonzalez examines how the New York City mayoral race is a watershed battle for workers and the progressive movement in Urban America.

Remember (this is tonight):

* Amy Goodman in Cortland, NY:
Wed, Nov 2
*TIME: 6 PM
SUNY college at Cortland
Brown Auditorium
Event is free and open to the public

And speaking of free and open to the public, this was passed on with the belief that it's today:

FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT Rickie will be performing tomorrow in an outdoor concert sponsored by KPFK radio in Los Angeles. The concert will take place in front of the Westood Federal Building on the corners of Wilshire Boulevard and Veteran. Time: 5:00 p.m.

Click on the link and call KPFK to confirm (there's nothing currently on their website). I can't confirm it. Remember, today is World Can't Wait. The e-mail on Rickie Lee Jones' concert swears it's today (and her website also says "today," but no date given -- so it could be a "today" when last updated; however, RLJ is among the participants in World Can't Wait which is today and there is a meetup planned in that location at 5:00 pm). If this isn't correct, my apologies.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.












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