Friday, November 25, 2005

Other Items

The European Union's diplomatic representatives in East Jerusalem and Ramallah have sharply criticized Israel's policies in East Jerusalem, saying they "are reducing the possibility of reaching a final-status agreement on Jerusalem that any Palestinian could accept."
In an unpublished report presented to European Union foreign ministers, the representatives recommend a more aggressive European stance toward Israeli policies in East Jerusalem, whose annexation by Israel has not been recognized by the European Union or the United States.

The above is from Steven Erlanger's "Europeans Rebuke Israeli Jerusalem Policy" which Kara e-mailed to note.

Brad notes the Associated Press' "Nixon Was Torn by Prospect of Nuclear War, Papers Show:"

The picture was pieced together by William Burr, a researcher at the National Security Archive at George Washington University, from papers released by the National Archives as well as documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
The documents reveal Mr. Kissinger's chilling insight that government budget-crunchers would prefer complete nuclear warfare because it was already planned for and would be cheaper than recasting American capabilities to permit limited strikes.
"They believe in assured destruction because it guarantees the smallest expenditure," he said in August 1973 at a National Security Council meeting in the White House Situation Room. "To have the only option that of killing 80 million people is the height of immorality."
The papers show Mr. Kissinger struggling with a reluctant military and intelligence apparatus to sell them on the idea of limited nuclear strikes. Many doubted that the Soviet Union would settle for a tidy little nuclear war. They feared that a conflagration would quickly follow, devouring cities and killing millions.

The selections in this entry and the previous one are based on members' e-mails and it truly is a case of the early bird. Elaine wants to watch The Apartment (I prefer Some Like It Hot) and it's so late as it is. She sold me on the idea of truly sleeping late by doing the posts early. So there's no critique of the Times here. There are excerpts members provided to stories they noted. After staying up all night on Wednesday (to cook) and having only an hour nap Thursday, I'll grab the chance to sleep in. (While also grabbing the chance to enjoy time with a lifelong friend I rarely get to see.)

If any member is bothered by this, there's no plan to make this a regular routine. But to not have to get up at the crack of dawn is too tempting to me. (So is eating popcorn and laughing at the movie with Elaine.) There may be more in the paper. If there's anything major, I'll try to note it in an entry much, much later today. (Though I may also take a break and just avoid it since member's have covered it, my opinion, this morning.)

My argument for not doing this was what about the heads up to Democracy Now! But Elaine pointed out that we already knew it was Yip Harburg. This is an episode I think you'll enjoy. (I'll be listening again.) With Harold Arlen he wrote (among other things) the songs to The Wizard of Oz. It's arts, it's politics (the blacklist is addressed) and it's a wonderful program so please check it out today. (I listen, you can also watch it on TV or watch, listen, or read online at Democracy Now!) (You'll also get to hear various versions of "Brother Can You Spare A Dime." My favorite is Judy Collins. Listen -- or watch -- and you can decide which is your favorite.)

Be sure to check out Marcia's highlight, Steven C. Day's "Embedding and the Road to Disgrace: The Bob and Judy Show" (Pop Politics):

When the Pentagon first announced its plan to "embed" reporters into military units, back in those heady days shortly before the beginning of the War in Iraq, when visions of weapons of mass destruction and flower throwing Iraqis were still dancing in Neocon heads, the idea was widely described in the press as a major innovation; it wasn't, of course. It was merely the next logical step in a process that had long since become standard operating procedure in the Bush Administration’s relationship with the media.
Judith Miller, for example, became embedded in the Bush Administration's war machine beginning almost immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Bob Woodward signed on somewhat later. From its inception, the relationship between the White House and these two Alpha journalists was a symbiotic one: To the aging media luminaries, the relationship offered the insider access that is the most coveted of all prizes in today’s lazier-than-a-pig-wallowing-in-mud-non-investigative-journalism. And with access came goodies: Front page stories in The Times for Miller; rich book deals for Woodward.
To constitute true symbiosis, of course, a relationship should be beneficial for both sides, and Bush & Co. received more than a fair exchange for the access it granted, as these two powerful journalists assumed the role of largely unquestioning pamphleteers for the administration line.
And now that this chummy engagement has gone South for both Miller and Woodward (except for the money part, of course), all I can say is that I wish they had talked to me about it before getting in too deep. Because I could have told them what was coming; I've seen it happen scores of times in a different context.
It has to do with embedding.

As Marcia points out, Pop Politics is a wonderfully eclectic site and you never know what you'll find there. It's also the site where you can find Christine's writing. (A number of members have written to say that they miss Ms. Musing. I do as well.) You'll find provocative writing on every topic you can imagine, TV shows, sports, politics, you name it. We've highlighted Bernie, Jaclyn and (of course) Christine, but if you haven't checked it out, please do.

Betsy asks if we've already highlighted Matthew Rothschild's "Bush Targets Al Jazeera? CNN Head Should Get Job Back" (This Just In, The Progressive) and I don't believe we have:

Remember Eason Jordan, the CNN news chief who was forced to resign back in February because he dared to say, at a private conference, that theUnited States had killed about a dozen journalists in Iraq?
Well, he's looking a lot better today, one day after the Daily Mirror reported that George W. Bush wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera headquarters in Doha, the capital city of Qatar. "He was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair," the Daily Mirror said.
The paper said it had a new "top secret" Downing Street Memo that contains a transcript of the Bush-Blair conversation of April 16, 2004.
It has the ring of truth to it.
After all, Donald Rumsfeld has harped on Al Jazeera in none too subtle ways. "We are dealing with people who are willing to lie to the world to make their case," Rumsfeld said. (He's one to talk.) And he said Al Jazeera is "Johnny-on-the-spot a little too often for my taste."
The Daily Mirror story also has the ring of truth to it because the United States bombarded Al Jazeera's Baghdad office when the war started. Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub died in that assault.

If we've have highlighted it already, I'm too sleep deprived to remember. But it's worth noting.
(Lloyd usually highlight Matthew Rothschild before anyone else can grab the time to. The date on Rothschild's piece is November 23rd and Lloyd was already traveling at that point. I know that because he wanted to participate in the roundtable for the latest gina & krista round-robin but couldn't due to the time -- he was on a plane. However, Jim, Dona and Ty of The Third Estate Sunday Review, Wally of The Daily Jot, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Keesha, Liang, Jonah, Beth, Charlie, myself and Gina and Krista -- of course -- were able to participate. Which is a long way of saying, remember to check your inboxes this morning if you're signed up for the gina & krista round-robin. I haven't seen a drawing Isaiah's done for them yet but Gina says it's hilarious and you also have a poem from Shirley and an interview with Micah. As well as Beth's latest ombudsperson column and Gina and Krista's activism alerts and writings.)

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. I'll also note that I'm not in the mood for tags. (See Elaine's entry.) By not including a wealth of them, I'm saving a huge amount of time. I also won't be publishing and republishing and repeatedly "pinging" Technorati. You can e-mail me if you enjoy the tags (or take the issue to Beth -- who will curse me for suggesting that, it's a holiday weekend, so if you do want tags, leave Beth alone on this topic until next week at least). I did them to help raise the profile of other sites. They're a pain in the butt and I don't like them. (I've stated that here before.) Since Technorati isn't reading all sites (and everyone's manually pinging them although, according to Technorati's directions, they shouldn't have to do that since they've set up for Blogger to ping them) in the community, I'm really in no mood for tags. I'm also tired of wasting time on it. (It's nonsense if the tags aren't read.)










And Elaine just reminded me I haven't noted Mike's motto: "The Common Ills community is important and the Common Ills community is important to me. So I'll do my part for the Common Ills community." Let me add tags for Mike and Rebecca now.


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