Saturday, November 05, 2005
La iglesia de Bush exhorta a los soldados estadounidenses a retirarse
Maria: Hola. De parte de "Democracy Now!" once cosas que vale hacer notar este fin de semana. Paz.
La iglesia de Bush exhorta a los soldados estadounidenses a retirarse
El Presidente Bush y Dick Cheney afrontan más oposición a la guerra de Irak, esta vez de su propia iglesia. La semana pasada la Iglesia Metodista Unida aprobó una resolución que pedía el retiro de los soldados de Irak. Una parte de la resolución decía: "Como personas de fe, alzamos nuestras voces para protestar contra la tragedia de la injusta guerra en Irak. Se perdieron miles de vidas y cientos de miles de millones de dólares se desperdiciaron en una guerra que Estados Unidos inició y nunca debió comenzar". La junta de la iglesia también le pidió al Congreso que creara una comisión independiente y bipartidista para investigar el trato de Estados Unidos a los detenidos en el extranjero.
Octubre es el cuarto mes con más bajas estadounidenses en Irak
Las bajas estadounidenses en Irak siguen en aumento. Siete soldados estadounidenses murieron el lunes, elevando a 92 el número de muertes de este mes. Esto provocó que octubre fuera el cuarto mes con más bajas de soldados estadounidenses en la guerra.
Senadores demócratas impusieron una sesión cerrada sobre información previa a la Guerra
El martes en Capitol Hill, los demócratas obligaron a los senadores republicanos a realizar una sesión a puertas cerradas para cuestionar la información utilizada por el gobierno de Bush para justificar la invasión a Irak. En un procedimiento inusual, se pidió al público que se retirara, se cerraron las puertas y se atenuó la iluminación de la cámara del Senado. La información detrás de la invasión estadounidense a Irak sigue siendo un asunto clave tras la acusación la semana pasada de Lewis Libby, jefe de personal del Vicepresidente Cheney, con relación al caso de filtración de que Valerie Plame era una agente encubierta de la CIA. Poco antes de imponer la sesión a puertas cerradas, el líder demócrata de la minoría del Senado, Harry Reid, dijo: "La acusación de Libby permite ver de qué se trata esto realmente, como este gobierno fabricó y manipuló información para "vender" la guerra de Irak e intentó destruir a aquellos que se atrevieran a cuestionar sus acciones". Los republicanos desestimaron la sesión cerrada alegando que era una maniobra política. Sin embargo, acordaron realizar una revisión bipartidista de la investigación de la Comisión de Inteligencia del Senado sobre la información previa a la guerra. Los demócratas dijeron que esta investigación era inadecuada.
Libby renunció luego que se presentaran cinco acusaciones en su contra por el caso de filtración de la CIA
Por primera vez en 130 años, un funcionario de la Casa Blanca ha sido acusado de crímenes cometidos en el desempeño de su cargo. El viernes, Lewis "Scooter" Libby fue acusado de cinco cargos de obstrucción de la justicia, perjurio a un gran jurado y de realizar falsas declaraciones a agentes del FBI durante la investigación de la filtración de la CIA. Si es declarado culpable, Libby afronta hasta 30 años en prisión y 1,25 millones de dólares en multas. Hasta el viernes, Libby era una figura central en la Casa Blanca donde desempeñaba tres altos cargos: jefe de personal del Vicepresidente Cheney, asesor de seguridad nacional del Vicepresidente y colaborador del presidente. El fiscal especial Patrick Fitzgerald anunció que daría curso a la acusación el viernes. El asesor principal del Presidente Bush, Karl Rove, hasta el momento no ha sido acusado por su participación en la filtración de que Valerie Plame, esposa del embajador Joseph Wilson, era una agente encubierta de la CIA. Pero Rove sigue siendo investigado. El domingo, líder de la minoría del Senado, Harry Reid, exhortó a Bush a disculparse y a Rove a renunciar. Bush y Cheney elogiaron a Libby por su desempeño. El principal candidato para reemplazar a Libby es David Addington, quien actualmente es el asesor jurídico del Vicepresidente. Hace tres años Addington escribió un documento que afirmaba que la guerra contra el terrorismo dejaba sin efecto las limitaciones de interrogar a los detenidos de la Convención de Ginebra. El embajador Wilson acusó a Libby y a la Casa Blanca de revelar que su esposa, Valerie Plame, era una agente encubierta. Wilson dijo: "Funcionarios de alto rango del gobierno utilizaron el poder de la Casa Blanca para convertir nuestras vidas en un infierno en los últimos 27 meses. Pero lo que es aún más importante, lo hicieron en un intento por cubrir las mentiras y desinformación utilizadas para justificar la invasión a Irak. Ese es el principal crimen".
Índice de aprobación de Bush sigue cayendo
Nuevas encuestas indican que la confianza de la población en el gobierno de Bush sigue en descenso. Una nueva encuesta de ABC News/Washington Post indica que el índice de aprobación de Bush es de 39 por ciento, el más bajo en toda su presidencia. Mientras tanto, el 46 por ciento de la población encuestada asegura que el nivel de honestidad y ética del gobierno ha decaído bajo el mandato de Bush. Sólo el 15 por ciento considera que Bush ha reestablecido la honestidad y ética al gobierno. Esta noticia surge tras lo que la revista Time describió como la peor semana de la presidencia de Bush. En un período de cuatro días, el número de estadounidenses muertos en Irak superó los 2.000, Harriet Miers renunció a su candidatura a la Corte Suprema y se presentaron cargos contra Lewis "Scooter" Libby, quien renunció. Time lo describió como "la semana infernal" de Bush.
Italia advirtió a Estados Unidos sobre documentos de la vinculación entre Irak y Níger
Mientras tanto, el gobierno italiano dice que advirtió al gobierno de Bush que los documentos que indicaban que Irak intentaba comprar uranio a Níger eran falsos. El Senador italiano Massimo Brutti dijo que la advertencia fue realizada en el mismo período en que Bush afirmó que Irak intentaba comprar uranio a Níger en su discurso de Estado de la Unión en enero de 2003. Más adelante Brutti exhortó a Associated Press que retirara su afirmación. La afirmación acerca de Níger jugó un papel clave en el intento del gobierno de Bush de justificar la guerra de Irak. La información de que Valerie Plame era una agente encubierta de la CIA fue revelada luego de que su esposo, el ex embajador estadounidense Joseph Wilson, cuestionara la vinculación de Irak con Níger.
La Cruz Roja pide tener acceso a detenidos en prisiones secretas
El Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja solicitó tener acceso a los prisioneros detenidos en las prisiones secretas de la CIA en Europa del Este. La existencia de los establecimientos no identificados fueron reveladas en la edición del miércoles del Washington Post. Mientras tanto, la Unión Europea anunció que investigará las denuncias realizadas por Human Rights Watch de que en Polonia y Rumania posiblemente haya prisiones secretas. Ambos países negaron las acusaciones.
Funeral de Rosa Parks en Detroit
El miércoles en Detroit más de 4.000 personas asistieron al funeral de la pionera de los derechos civiles Rosa Parks. El funeral duró más de siete horas, tres horas más de lo que estaba previsto. Entre los invitados se encontraba el Reverendo Jesse Jackson, el ex Presidente Bill Clinton, y la cantante Aretha Franklin. Parks falleció el 24 de octubre, a los 92 años de edad.
Maria: In English, here are eleven stories fom Democracy Now! Remember that the headlines are provided daily in English and Spanish and please pass on to your friends. Peace.
Bush's Church Calls for U.S. Troop Withdrawal
President Bush and Dick Cheney are facing more opposition about the war in Iraq - this time from their own church. Last week the United Methodist Church passed a resolution calling for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq. The resolution read in part "As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq. Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never have fought." The church board also called on Congress to create and independent, bipartisan commission to investigate U.S. treatment of detainees overseas.
October Marks Fourth Deadliest Month for U.S. In Iraq
And U.S. losses in Iraq continue to rise. Seven U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday bringing the monthly death toll to 92. This made October the fourth deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.
Senate Democrats Force Closed Session on Pre-War Intelligence
On Capital Hill Tuesday, Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into closed session to question intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq. In the rare move, public spectators were cleared out, the doors were closed and the lights were dimmed in the Senate chamber. The intelligence behind the US invasion of Iraq remains a key issue with last week’s indictment of Vice President Cheney chief of staff Lewis Libby over the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Shortly before forcing the closed session, Democratic Senate Minority leader Harry Reid said: "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions." Republican leaders dismissed the closed session as a political stunt. However, they agreed to a bi-partisan review of a Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into pre-war intelligence. Democrats have called the investigation inadequate.
Libby Resigns After Five Count Indictment in CIA Leak Case
For the first time in 130 years, a White House staff member has been indicted for crimes committed in the office. On Friday, Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted on five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents during the CIA leak investigation. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines. Until Friday Libby was a central figure in the Bush White House holding three top positions: chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, national security adviser to the vice president and assistant to the president. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced the indictment on Friday. President Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove has so far escaped indictment for his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. But Rove remains under investigation. On Sunday Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on Bush to apologize and for Rove to resign. Bush and Cheney have both praised Libby for his service. The top candidate to replace Libby is David Addington who currently works as the vice president's legal counsel. Three years ago he wrote a memo that asserted the war on terrorism renders obsolete the Geneva Convention's limitations of questioning detainees. Ambassador Wilson accused Libby and the White House of outing his wife, Valerie Plame. He said, "Senior administration officials used the power of the White House to make our lives hell for the last 27 months. But more important, they did it as part of a clear effort to cover up the lies and disinformation used to justify the invasion of Iraq. That is the ultimate crime."
After "Week From Hell" Bush's Approval Rating Drops
New polls show that the public trust in the Bush administration has reached a new low. A new ABC News/Washington Post Poll has found Bush's approval rating to be just 39 percent - the lowest of his presidency. Meanwhile 46 percent of the country says the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined under Bush. Only 15 percent of the country feel Bush has restored honesty and ethics to the government. This comes after what Time Magazine described as the worst week of Bush's presidency. Within a span of four days the U.S. death toll in Iraq topped 2,000, Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court and Lewis Scooter Libby was indicted and resigned. Time described it as Bush's QUOTE "Week from Hell."
Italy Warned US On Iraq-Niger Documents
Meanwhile, the Italian government says it warned the Bush administration documents purporting to show an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger were fakes. Italian Senator Massimo Brutti said the warning was issued around the same time President Bush made the claim in his State of the Union speech of January 2003. Brutti later called the Associated Press to retract the statement. The claim played a key part in the Bush administration’s attempts to justify the war on Iraq. CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was leaked after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, questioned the Iraq-Niger connection.
HRW Identifies Poland or Romania as Location of Secret CIA Prison
The Bush administration is refusing to confirm or a deny a Washington Post account that the CIA is using a secret, Soviet-era prison run in Eastern Europe to hold prisoners. The prison is apparently a part of global network of CIA-run prisons in several countries. At the request of US officials. the Post did not reveal the location of the facilities. Human Rights Watch has identified Poland and Romania as likely locations, citing flight records of CIA aircraft transporting detainees from Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the Polish defense ministry denied the allegations to the Financial Times. A Romanian spokesperson declined comment. Agence France Presse is reporting Czech Republic Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan says his country recently turned down a US request to set up a detention center on its territory.
Red Cross Calls for Access to Detainees in Secret Prisons
The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for access to detainees held in secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. The unidentified facilities were revealed in Wednesday's Washington Post. Meanwhile, the European Union announced it would be looking into allegations made by Human Rights Watch that Poland and Romania are the likely sites of the prisons. Both countries have denied the allegations.
Historian: NSA Falsified Gulf of Tonkin Evidence
The New York Times is reporting new evidence has emerged about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that precipitated the escalation of the Vietnam War. A National Security Agency historian has determined officers at the agency knowingly falsified intelligence in order to make it look as if North Vietnam had attacked U.S. destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf. Following the alleged attack, Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese targets and used the event to persuade Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which led to the escalation of the war. The NSA’s historian determined the intelligence may have been falsified not for political reasons but to cover up earlier mistakes made by intelligence officers. However, the Times reports there has also been a cover up of the historian’s account, which was first published in a classified in-house journal of the National Security Agency in 2001. The historian’s article remains classified. According to the Times, policymakers at the NSA feared the release of the historical study might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.
Riots Intensify in Paris Suburbs
In France, clashes intensified as rioting in several Paris suburbs entered its eight day. The violence started October 27 following the deaths of two teenagers in the poor area of Clichy-sous-Bois. The two teens were electrocuted in a power grid while fleeing from police. One of the child’s parents has filed a complaint with local authorities. The suburbs are home to a large North African community and plagued by chronic unemployment and poverty. Unrest has now spread to at least 20 towns. Police say they’ve made over 140 arrests. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has drawn criticism for calling the suburban youths "scum," and pledging a "war without mercy" on them.
Funeral Service Held For Rosa Parks in Detroit
In Detroit Wednesday, over 4,000 mourners attended a funeral service for civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. The service lasted over seven hours, three hours past its scheduled time. Guests included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former President Bill Clinton, and singer Aretha Franklin. Parks died on October 24th at the age of 92.
democracy now
La iglesia de Bush exhorta a los soldados estadounidenses a retirarse
El Presidente Bush y Dick Cheney afrontan más oposición a la guerra de Irak, esta vez de su propia iglesia. La semana pasada la Iglesia Metodista Unida aprobó una resolución que pedía el retiro de los soldados de Irak. Una parte de la resolución decía: "Como personas de fe, alzamos nuestras voces para protestar contra la tragedia de la injusta guerra en Irak. Se perdieron miles de vidas y cientos de miles de millones de dólares se desperdiciaron en una guerra que Estados Unidos inició y nunca debió comenzar". La junta de la iglesia también le pidió al Congreso que creara una comisión independiente y bipartidista para investigar el trato de Estados Unidos a los detenidos en el extranjero.
Octubre es el cuarto mes con más bajas estadounidenses en Irak
Las bajas estadounidenses en Irak siguen en aumento. Siete soldados estadounidenses murieron el lunes, elevando a 92 el número de muertes de este mes. Esto provocó que octubre fuera el cuarto mes con más bajas de soldados estadounidenses en la guerra.
Senadores demócratas impusieron una sesión cerrada sobre información previa a la Guerra
El martes en Capitol Hill, los demócratas obligaron a los senadores republicanos a realizar una sesión a puertas cerradas para cuestionar la información utilizada por el gobierno de Bush para justificar la invasión a Irak. En un procedimiento inusual, se pidió al público que se retirara, se cerraron las puertas y se atenuó la iluminación de la cámara del Senado. La información detrás de la invasión estadounidense a Irak sigue siendo un asunto clave tras la acusación la semana pasada de Lewis Libby, jefe de personal del Vicepresidente Cheney, con relación al caso de filtración de que Valerie Plame era una agente encubierta de la CIA. Poco antes de imponer la sesión a puertas cerradas, el líder demócrata de la minoría del Senado, Harry Reid, dijo: "La acusación de Libby permite ver de qué se trata esto realmente, como este gobierno fabricó y manipuló información para "vender" la guerra de Irak e intentó destruir a aquellos que se atrevieran a cuestionar sus acciones". Los republicanos desestimaron la sesión cerrada alegando que era una maniobra política. Sin embargo, acordaron realizar una revisión bipartidista de la investigación de la Comisión de Inteligencia del Senado sobre la información previa a la guerra. Los demócratas dijeron que esta investigación era inadecuada.
Libby renunció luego que se presentaran cinco acusaciones en su contra por el caso de filtración de la CIA
Por primera vez en 130 años, un funcionario de la Casa Blanca ha sido acusado de crímenes cometidos en el desempeño de su cargo. El viernes, Lewis "Scooter" Libby fue acusado de cinco cargos de obstrucción de la justicia, perjurio a un gran jurado y de realizar falsas declaraciones a agentes del FBI durante la investigación de la filtración de la CIA. Si es declarado culpable, Libby afronta hasta 30 años en prisión y 1,25 millones de dólares en multas. Hasta el viernes, Libby era una figura central en la Casa Blanca donde desempeñaba tres altos cargos: jefe de personal del Vicepresidente Cheney, asesor de seguridad nacional del Vicepresidente y colaborador del presidente. El fiscal especial Patrick Fitzgerald anunció que daría curso a la acusación el viernes. El asesor principal del Presidente Bush, Karl Rove, hasta el momento no ha sido acusado por su participación en la filtración de que Valerie Plame, esposa del embajador Joseph Wilson, era una agente encubierta de la CIA. Pero Rove sigue siendo investigado. El domingo, líder de la minoría del Senado, Harry Reid, exhortó a Bush a disculparse y a Rove a renunciar. Bush y Cheney elogiaron a Libby por su desempeño. El principal candidato para reemplazar a Libby es David Addington, quien actualmente es el asesor jurídico del Vicepresidente. Hace tres años Addington escribió un documento que afirmaba que la guerra contra el terrorismo dejaba sin efecto las limitaciones de interrogar a los detenidos de la Convención de Ginebra. El embajador Wilson acusó a Libby y a la Casa Blanca de revelar que su esposa, Valerie Plame, era una agente encubierta. Wilson dijo: "Funcionarios de alto rango del gobierno utilizaron el poder de la Casa Blanca para convertir nuestras vidas en un infierno en los últimos 27 meses. Pero lo que es aún más importante, lo hicieron en un intento por cubrir las mentiras y desinformación utilizadas para justificar la invasión a Irak. Ese es el principal crimen".
Índice de aprobación de Bush sigue cayendo
Nuevas encuestas indican que la confianza de la población en el gobierno de Bush sigue en descenso. Una nueva encuesta de ABC News/Washington Post indica que el índice de aprobación de Bush es de 39 por ciento, el más bajo en toda su presidencia. Mientras tanto, el 46 por ciento de la población encuestada asegura que el nivel de honestidad y ética del gobierno ha decaído bajo el mandato de Bush. Sólo el 15 por ciento considera que Bush ha reestablecido la honestidad y ética al gobierno. Esta noticia surge tras lo que la revista Time describió como la peor semana de la presidencia de Bush. En un período de cuatro días, el número de estadounidenses muertos en Irak superó los 2.000, Harriet Miers renunció a su candidatura a la Corte Suprema y se presentaron cargos contra Lewis "Scooter" Libby, quien renunció. Time lo describió como "la semana infernal" de Bush.
Italia advirtió a Estados Unidos sobre documentos de la vinculación entre Irak y Níger
Mientras tanto, el gobierno italiano dice que advirtió al gobierno de Bush que los documentos que indicaban que Irak intentaba comprar uranio a Níger eran falsos. El Senador italiano Massimo Brutti dijo que la advertencia fue realizada en el mismo período en que Bush afirmó que Irak intentaba comprar uranio a Níger en su discurso de Estado de la Unión en enero de 2003. Más adelante Brutti exhortó a Associated Press que retirara su afirmación. La afirmación acerca de Níger jugó un papel clave en el intento del gobierno de Bush de justificar la guerra de Irak. La información de que Valerie Plame era una agente encubierta de la CIA fue revelada luego de que su esposo, el ex embajador estadounidense Joseph Wilson, cuestionara la vinculación de Irak con Níger.
Human Rights Watch identifica a Polonia o Rumania como ubicación de las prisiones secretas de la CIA
El gobierno de Bush se niega a confirmar o desmentir el informe del Washington Post de que la CIA está utilizando una prisión secreta de la era soviética en Europa del Este para mantener cautivos a prisioneros. La cárcel es aparentemente parte de una red mundial de prisiones administradas por la CIA en varios países. A pedido de funcionarios estadounidenses, el Post no reveló la ubicación de las instalaciones. Human Rights Watch identificó a Polonia y Rumania como posibles ubicaciones, tomando en cuenta los registros de vuelos de aviones de la CIA que transportaban detenidos desde Afganistán. Un portavoz del Ministerio de Defensa de Polonia negó las acusaciones al Financial Times. Un portavoz rumano se negó a hacer comentarios. La agencia de noticias France Presse informa que el Ministro del Interior de la República Checa, Frantisek Bublan, dice que recientemente rechazó un pedido de Estados Unidos para establecer un centro de detención en su territorio.
La Cruz Roja pide tener acceso a detenidos en prisiones secretas
El Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja solicitó tener acceso a los prisioneros detenidos en las prisiones secretas de la CIA en Europa del Este. La existencia de los establecimientos no identificados fueron reveladas en la edición del miércoles del Washington Post. Mientras tanto, la Unión Europea anunció que investigará las denuncias realizadas por Human Rights Watch de que en Polonia y Rumania posiblemente haya prisiones secretas. Ambos países negaron las acusaciones.
Historiador: Agencia de Seguridad Nacional falsificó pruebas del incidente del Golfo de Tonkin
El New York Times informa que surgieron nuevas pruebas acerca del incidente del Golfo de Tonkin en 1964 que precipitó el inicio de la Guerra de Vietnam. Un historiador de la Agencia de Seguridad Nacional (NSA, por sus siglas en inglés) determinó que funcionarios de la agencia falsificaron documentos intencionalmente para que pareciera que Vietnam del Norte había atacado buques destructores estadounidenses en el Golfo de Tonkin. Tras el supuesto ataque, el entonces presidente Johnson ordenó responder con ataques aéreos en blancos de Vietnam del Norte, y utilizó el incidente para persuadir al Congreso de que aprobara la resolución del Golfo de Tonkin, que provocó el inicio de la guerra. El historiador de la NSA determinó que la información puede haber sido falsificada por funcionarios de inteligencia, no por motivos políticos sino para cubrir errores anteriores cometidos por funcionarios de inteligencia. Sin embargo, el Times informa que también se encubrió la explicación del historiador, que fue publicada por primera vez en una revista interna confidencial de la Agencia de Seguridad Nacional en 2001. El artículo del historiador permanece en confidencialidad. Según el Times, quienes hacen las políticas en la NSA temieron que la publicación del estudio histórico podría provocar comparaciones incómodas con la información falsa utilizada para justificar la guerra en Irak.
Se intensifican disturbios en los suburbios de Paris
Funeral de Rosa Parks en Detroit
El miércoles en Detroit más de 4.000 personas asistieron al funeral de la pionera de los derechos civiles Rosa Parks. El funeral duró más de siete horas, tres horas más de lo que estaba previsto. Entre los invitados se encontraba el Reverendo Jesse Jackson, el ex Presidente Bill Clinton, y la cantante Aretha Franklin. Parks falleció el 24 de octubre, a los 92 años de edad.
Maria: In English, here are eleven stories fom Democracy Now! Remember that the headlines are provided daily in English and Spanish and please pass on to your friends. Peace.
Bush's Church Calls for U.S. Troop Withdrawal
President Bush and Dick Cheney are facing more opposition about the war in Iraq - this time from their own church. Last week the United Methodist Church passed a resolution calling for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq. The resolution read in part "As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq. Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never have fought." The church board also called on Congress to create and independent, bipartisan commission to investigate U.S. treatment of detainees overseas.
October Marks Fourth Deadliest Month for U.S. In Iraq
And U.S. losses in Iraq continue to rise. Seven U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday bringing the monthly death toll to 92. This made October the fourth deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.
Senate Democrats Force Closed Session on Pre-War Intelligence
On Capital Hill Tuesday, Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into closed session to question intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq. In the rare move, public spectators were cleared out, the doors were closed and the lights were dimmed in the Senate chamber. The intelligence behind the US invasion of Iraq remains a key issue with last week’s indictment of Vice President Cheney chief of staff Lewis Libby over the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Shortly before forcing the closed session, Democratic Senate Minority leader Harry Reid said: "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions." Republican leaders dismissed the closed session as a political stunt. However, they agreed to a bi-partisan review of a Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into pre-war intelligence. Democrats have called the investigation inadequate.
Libby Resigns After Five Count Indictment in CIA Leak Case
For the first time in 130 years, a White House staff member has been indicted for crimes committed in the office. On Friday, Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted on five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents during the CIA leak investigation. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines. Until Friday Libby was a central figure in the Bush White House holding three top positions: chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, national security adviser to the vice president and assistant to the president. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced the indictment on Friday. President Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove has so far escaped indictment for his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. But Rove remains under investigation. On Sunday Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on Bush to apologize and for Rove to resign. Bush and Cheney have both praised Libby for his service. The top candidate to replace Libby is David Addington who currently works as the vice president's legal counsel. Three years ago he wrote a memo that asserted the war on terrorism renders obsolete the Geneva Convention's limitations of questioning detainees. Ambassador Wilson accused Libby and the White House of outing his wife, Valerie Plame. He said, "Senior administration officials used the power of the White House to make our lives hell for the last 27 months. But more important, they did it as part of a clear effort to cover up the lies and disinformation used to justify the invasion of Iraq. That is the ultimate crime."
After "Week From Hell" Bush's Approval Rating Drops
New polls show that the public trust in the Bush administration has reached a new low. A new ABC News/Washington Post Poll has found Bush's approval rating to be just 39 percent - the lowest of his presidency. Meanwhile 46 percent of the country says the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined under Bush. Only 15 percent of the country feel Bush has restored honesty and ethics to the government. This comes after what Time Magazine described as the worst week of Bush's presidency. Within a span of four days the U.S. death toll in Iraq topped 2,000, Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court and Lewis Scooter Libby was indicted and resigned. Time described it as Bush's QUOTE "Week from Hell."
Italy Warned US On Iraq-Niger Documents
Meanwhile, the Italian government says it warned the Bush administration documents purporting to show an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger were fakes. Italian Senator Massimo Brutti said the warning was issued around the same time President Bush made the claim in his State of the Union speech of January 2003. Brutti later called the Associated Press to retract the statement. The claim played a key part in the Bush administration’s attempts to justify the war on Iraq. CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was leaked after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, questioned the Iraq-Niger connection.
HRW Identifies Poland or Romania as Location of Secret CIA Prison
The Bush administration is refusing to confirm or a deny a Washington Post account that the CIA is using a secret, Soviet-era prison run in Eastern Europe to hold prisoners. The prison is apparently a part of global network of CIA-run prisons in several countries. At the request of US officials. the Post did not reveal the location of the facilities. Human Rights Watch has identified Poland and Romania as likely locations, citing flight records of CIA aircraft transporting detainees from Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the Polish defense ministry denied the allegations to the Financial Times. A Romanian spokesperson declined comment. Agence France Presse is reporting Czech Republic Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan says his country recently turned down a US request to set up a detention center on its territory.
Red Cross Calls for Access to Detainees in Secret Prisons
The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for access to detainees held in secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. The unidentified facilities were revealed in Wednesday's Washington Post. Meanwhile, the European Union announced it would be looking into allegations made by Human Rights Watch that Poland and Romania are the likely sites of the prisons. Both countries have denied the allegations.
Historian: NSA Falsified Gulf of Tonkin Evidence
The New York Times is reporting new evidence has emerged about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that precipitated the escalation of the Vietnam War. A National Security Agency historian has determined officers at the agency knowingly falsified intelligence in order to make it look as if North Vietnam had attacked U.S. destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf. Following the alleged attack, Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese targets and used the event to persuade Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which led to the escalation of the war. The NSA’s historian determined the intelligence may have been falsified not for political reasons but to cover up earlier mistakes made by intelligence officers. However, the Times reports there has also been a cover up of the historian’s account, which was first published in a classified in-house journal of the National Security Agency in 2001. The historian’s article remains classified. According to the Times, policymakers at the NSA feared the release of the historical study might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.
Riots Intensify in Paris Suburbs
In France, clashes intensified as rioting in several Paris suburbs entered its eight day. The violence started October 27 following the deaths of two teenagers in the poor area of Clichy-sous-Bois. The two teens were electrocuted in a power grid while fleeing from police. One of the child’s parents has filed a complaint with local authorities. The suburbs are home to a large North African community and plagued by chronic unemployment and poverty. Unrest has now spread to at least 20 towns. Police say they’ve made over 140 arrests. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has drawn criticism for calling the suburban youths "scum," and pledging a "war without mercy" on them.
Funeral Service Held For Rosa Parks in Detroit
In Detroit Wednesday, over 4,000 mourners attended a funeral service for civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. The service lasted over seven hours, three hours past its scheduled time. Guests included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former President Bill Clinton, and singer Aretha Franklin. Parks died on October 24th at the age of 92.
democracy now
The Laura Flanders Show live from Jackson, Mississippi looking at the responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
Kat here filling in for C.I. I like doing the posts on The Laura Flanders Show because Laura Flanders is smart. She's the good kind of smart, which is important. There are some people who are smart and bore the hell out of you. They just want to recite their little prepared speeches. Flanders wants to share with you. You can tell that by her interviews and by the phone calls she takes. She's not screaming at callers, she's listening to them. In a better world,
The Laura Flanders Show would be on CNN each night instead of Larry King hollering "for the hour!" about whichever parent of a kidnapped blonde he managed to book.
But we're not living in a better world these days. We can make it a better world and one way is to listen to The Laura Flanders Show. I swear I don't know Flanders or anyone on her staff, nor do I get free merchandise for these plugs!
Laura's doing another remote broadcast. She was in DC in September when people were standing up and being counted and tonight she's in Mississippi:
Laura's broadcasting live from Jackson, Mississippi with members of the Gulf Coast Tour
On the two month anniversary of Katrina, the Tour's met with scores of Mississippians and Louisianans who are still without homes, healthcare, or any means of support. Many are facing illegal evictions, denial of work and wholesale destruction of their historic neighborhoods, but community groups locally and regionally are responding.
We'll hear from local people affected by hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and talk to ANGELA WHITNEY BOWMAN of The People's Institute in New Orleans and EMERY WRIGHT of Project South.
Then, health hazards and environmental devastation dominate the scene: ANSJE MILLER of the Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative and MANNY PINO of the Indigenous People's Network talk about the impact.
In our last hour, PETER KNOWLTON of the United Electrical Workers and Rev. AUDREY HOLLIS of Jobs with Justice have some serious questions about how reconstruction work is getting done. And to close out the show, AMY STAPLETON of United Methodists for Social Action and TUFARA WALLER of The Highlander Center talk about turning grief to action for social change.
Tomorrow, we'll be live from New Orleans.
Don't Forget - You can listen to past broadcasts of the Laura Flanders Show: Download archived shows HERE or Subscribe to the Free PODCAST through the iTunes Music Store
Go to the Laura Flanders Blog
This will be three hours of truth so you should be listening.
B-b-b-but Kat, this radio program, how do I listen to it?
Besides the PODCAST above, you can listen to it over broadcast radio (check there to see if there's a station in your area), over XM Satellite Radio (channel 167) or you can listen online.
It starts in the east at 7 p.m. and goes off at 10 pm. If you listen online, you'll hear it then. If you're listening over broadcast radio, you'll need to consult the schedules for air time.
Remember it airs on Saturdays and Sundays. Sundays is not a repeat, Laura's in New Orleans tomorrow. So arm yourself with knowledge and if you haven't listened you'll quickly realize there's nothing stuffy about this show. Laura knows how to kick off her shoes and let her hair down.
So Shirley won't rag on my ass, the e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. And thank you, Martha for forwarding the e-mail on tonight's show.
the laura flanders show
laura flanders
radio
kats korner
the common ills
tufara waller
amy stapleton
rev. audrey hollis
peter knowlton
manny pino
ansje miller
emery wright
angela whitney bowman
hurricane rita
hurricane katrina
gulf coast tour
The Laura Flanders Show would be on CNN each night instead of Larry King hollering "for the hour!" about whichever parent of a kidnapped blonde he managed to book.
But we're not living in a better world these days. We can make it a better world and one way is to listen to The Laura Flanders Show. I swear I don't know Flanders or anyone on her staff, nor do I get free merchandise for these plugs!
Laura's doing another remote broadcast. She was in DC in September when people were standing up and being counted and tonight she's in Mississippi:
Laura's broadcasting live from Jackson, Mississippi with members of the Gulf Coast Tour
On the two month anniversary of Katrina, the Tour's met with scores of Mississippians and Louisianans who are still without homes, healthcare, or any means of support. Many are facing illegal evictions, denial of work and wholesale destruction of their historic neighborhoods, but community groups locally and regionally are responding.
We'll hear from local people affected by hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and talk to ANGELA WHITNEY BOWMAN of The People's Institute in New Orleans and EMERY WRIGHT of Project South.
Then, health hazards and environmental devastation dominate the scene: ANSJE MILLER of the Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative and MANNY PINO of the Indigenous People's Network talk about the impact.
In our last hour, PETER KNOWLTON of the United Electrical Workers and Rev. AUDREY HOLLIS of Jobs with Justice have some serious questions about how reconstruction work is getting done. And to close out the show, AMY STAPLETON of United Methodists for Social Action and TUFARA WALLER of The Highlander Center talk about turning grief to action for social change.
Tomorrow, we'll be live from New Orleans.
Don't Forget - You can listen to past broadcasts of the Laura Flanders Show: Download archived shows HERE or Subscribe to the Free PODCAST through the iTunes Music Store
Go to the Laura Flanders Blog
This will be three hours of truth so you should be listening.
B-b-b-but Kat, this radio program, how do I listen to it?
Besides the PODCAST above, you can listen to it over broadcast radio (check there to see if there's a station in your area), over XM Satellite Radio (channel 167) or you can listen online.
It starts in the east at 7 p.m. and goes off at 10 pm. If you listen online, you'll hear it then. If you're listening over broadcast radio, you'll need to consult the schedules for air time.
Remember it airs on Saturdays and Sundays. Sundays is not a repeat, Laura's in New Orleans tomorrow. So arm yourself with knowledge and if you haven't listened you'll quickly realize there's nothing stuffy about this show. Laura knows how to kick off her shoes and let her hair down.
So Shirley won't rag on my ass, the e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. And thank you, Martha for forwarding the e-mail on tonight's show.
the laura flanders show
laura flanders
radio
kats korner
the common ills
tufara waller
amy stapleton
rev. audrey hollis
peter knowlton
manny pino
ansje miller
emery wright
angela whitney bowman
hurricane rita
hurricane katrina
gulf coast tour
NYT trips back on the front page
We are all outlaws in the eyes of America
In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge fred hide and deal
We are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young
But we should be together
Come on all you people standing around
Our life's too fine to let it die and
We can be together
All your private property is
Target for your enemy
And your enemy is
We
I'm not sure whether it's the times that are trippin' back to the sixties this morning, or it's just the New York Times trippin' back. But as you grab the paper, light the incense. You'll need it (maybe more?) as you note Che Guevara on the front page of the Times. (There actually should be an exclamation point at the end of that since, during his life, the Times played down Che.)
Like the truth refusing to be hidden and come back to haunt the paper of record, Che's face prominently displayed on banners in Mar Del Plata suggests things are far less "grey" than the Grey Lady would like them to be.
Larry Rohter and Elisabeth Bumiller explain the photo in "Protesters Riot As Bush Attends 34-Nation Talks: Hundreds Battle Police: Venezuelan Chief Leads Peaceful Rally Against Bush in Argentina" which seems to cover all the bases for our two Dolly Maes.
Come on Dolly Mae, there's no time to stall
But now you're telling me...
I think we better wait till tomorrow
Hey, yeah, hey (I think we better wait till tomorrow)
Girl, what 'chu talkin' 'bout ?
(I think we better wait till tomorrow)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Got to make sure it's right, so until tomorrow, goodnight.
Oh, what a drag.
Dolly Mae Rohter and Dolly Mae Bumiller tell us that Bully Boy's "troubles trailed him" like ugly skid marks (okay, I added that part) "to an international summit meeting here on Friday as . . . protesters turned violent just blocks from the gathering site, and Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's fiery populist leader, rallied a soccer stadium filled with at least 25,000 people against the" Bully Boy.
(The Dolly Maes need to inflame the average cautious Times reader so they say "the United States." They are wrong. And you can be damn sure neither Dolly Mae interviewed any protester.)
Bully Boy works in a joke and the Dolly Maes jot it down -- Bully Boy on the prospect of meeting Hugo Chavez by chance: "I will, of course, be polite. That's what the American people expect their president to do, is to be a polite person." Big Babs must have taught the children that flipping the bird was just a quicker, non-verbal way of saying "Thank you."
If, as your eyes adjust to the front page, you're searching for your stash, pray that you don't share a home with a headline writer for the Times -- the one responsible for "Iraq's Lethal Traffic: Warning! Anarchy Ahead" has already smoked your stash. The author of the article (though not the headline), Sabrina Tavernise, attempts to write something, anything, on the topic of road rage . . . in Iraq. (Well, in Baghdad.) (Well, in the Green Zone.) Speaking to anyone not intimidated by the bodyguards sporting the black t-shirts that read "NEW YORK TIMES," Tavernise finds Riyad Hadi Hassan who says, coming off like anyone forced to venture once too often down Van Nuys Blvd., "If someone tries to speak to me, maybe I'll kill him."
But as you're reading along singing "Nathan Le Frameer:"
The cars and buses bustled thru the bedlam of the day
I looked thru window-glass at streets and Nathan grumbled at the grey
I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons
The city grated thru chrome-plate
The clock struck slowly half-past-noon
Thru the tunnel tiled and turning
Into daylight once again I am escaping
Once again goodbye
To symphonies and dirty trees
With parks and plastic clothes
The ghostly garden grows
you suddenly stop as Tavernise attempts pith: "And while in other capitals a traffic jam may cause you to miss a meeting, in Baghdad it may get you kidnapped or even killed." Tavernise follows that with a few statistic (body count for Iraqis, low estimate 26,797, and fatality count for American troops, 2046, aren't among Tavernise's statistics). But ugly realities, even mild ones, can't intrude for too long in the Times' press releases from the Green Zone so, before you know it (ninth paragraph), Tavernise is slapping a happy face sticker on it all:
But for all the frustration they cause, the seas of idling cars are also a sign of progress [C.I. note: at the barrel of a gun]. Salaries have jumped from a few dollars a month under Saddam Hussein to a few hundred now [C.I. note: the cost of living has also jumped], turning Iraqis into consumers overnight [C.I. question: And they were what exactly before?], buying up air-conditioners, jewelry and, of course, cars. [C.I. note: Apparently Brina doesn't think any purchases were made under Saddam].
You quickly realize that the song to sing to Tavernise is "Cactus Tree:"
There's a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store
There's a drummer and a dreamer
And you know there may be more
She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree
Stephan Labaton's singing "The Fool on the Hill" in "Spending Inquiry For Top Official On Broadcasting" which charts the continued downfall of cycle hog Kenny Y. Tomlinson. E-mails have been seized by the State Dept. during this investigation. Before you start thinking, "Condi is actually trying to help" . . . don't. The e-mails include ones exchanged between Kenny and Karl Rove. Weirdness, like rust, never sleeps -- is anyone not getting "Threats for the Day" from Karl? Maybe those in his e-mail circle could just use the button to report him for "spam" and Yahoo could do what Fitzgerald seems afraid to, shut Karl down. So the inspector general is attempting to figure out how much Kenny disgraced himself and what laws, if any, were broken.
Of the seized e-mails, State Department investigators . . . have shared some material with the inspector general at the corporation . . ." Why some? And why is the State Dept. interfering with an ongoing investigation? Does Bully Boy know? He's still parroting that he can't even make a statement in an ongoing investigation.
Labaton, noting Voice of America, gets off a howler:
The board [Broadcasting Board of Governors] has been troubled lately over deep internal divisions and criticism of its Middle East broadcasts. Members of the Arab news media have said its broadcasts are American propaganda.
Now why is Labaton playing the he-said/she-said card there? Why is Voice of America not allowed to broadcast in this country? Because it is propaganda. "Members of the Arab news media" are correct. This isn't a claim, it's a fact.
Day after day alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Labaton's singing that song to Kenny but, considering Labaton's own howlers, he's also serenading himself.
The US government has been eye balling Iraq while singing:
Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team.
Money, get back.
I'm all right jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it's a hit.
Don't give me that do goody good bullsh*t
But James Glanz tells us the good times may be coming to an end in "U.S. Should Repay Millions to Iraq, A U.N. Audit Finds." How much are we talking? "An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended Friday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary."
Which brings us to the story with a smaller photo on the front page (a car on fire), Craig S. Smith's "Rioting by Immigrants Embroils Paris Suburbs." As numerous e-mails continue to note, Ty addresses this last Sunday at The Third Estate Sunday Review. The Times has only recently discovered the story. Was Craig S. Smith free-manning-in-Paris-ing it? Or did the Times just not realize that this was a story (for days and days and days)? It is a story and Smith's a bit more even handed then in earlier accounts (or in yesterday's editorial which demonstrated that the editorial board has apparently never visisted the Paris suburbs or cared much about them). Smith's more even handed than his past reporting on this, call it an improvement but don't call it good reporting. Does any reporter at the Times ever think to ask non-elected officials what they think or do the orders for that need to come from up above?
The reliance on "official sources" comes from above so the reporters may just be playing it safe when they build whole articles around statements from them without ever actually exploring an area or speaking to people from the area. But it makes for bad reporting. (This may be, Smither's report, the best that the Times can do on a topic like this.)
The Times has never been an investigative paper. It's always relied far too much on what unnamed sources wanted passed on. Smith's article may be the best one can hope for from the paper of record which's print stance can best be summed up as:
And the rain beats on my roof
Look through my window to the street below
See the people hurryin' by
With someone to meet, some place to go
And I know I should let go
Two final points on the Times. First, Elisabeth Bumiller's "" should have been front paged. (Apparently traffic reports are more important than indictments -- guess the Times thinks it's casual Saturday?) Second, I'm going by the print edition and dictating this entry over the phone (thank you to ___ for taking this down) and I'm told that the Times has a report online by Douglas Jehl. It's not in the international section of the print edition before me. (And we're going by print headlines if you see a different headline online.) From Douglas Jehl's "Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions:"
A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.
The document, an intelligence report from February 2002, said it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for Al Qaeda's work with illicit weapons.
The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility. Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as "credible" evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.
Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that "we've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases."
This is probably an article that will run in Sunday's print edition. Lastly, we're going to note Gareth Porter's "Witnesses Describe Ballot Fraud in Nineveh" (IPS):
The accounts collected by the U.S. military in reports dated Oct. 15-19 were made available to IPS on condition that they would not be quoted directly and that the U.S. military unit forwarding them would not be identified.
The first-person accounts gathered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Nineveh were obtained and translated by Michael Youash, executive director of the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project in Washington. The names of the NGOs were not provided in the document given to IPS because of fears of reprisals.
None of the accounts reported by the military are from Sunnis. All of the sources quoted in those reports are either Kurds or trusted Assyrian Christians who have been advisors to the U.S. military on local developments and are generally favourable to the constitution. Thus they represent the view from those in the province least likely to have a political motive for depicting the referendum as rigged.
The reports compiled by the U.S. military include an account of the voting in Mosul by an Assyrian Christian source which observes that Kurds voted for the constitution but represent only a small percentage of the estimated 1.7 million people in the capital -- which holds roughly two-thirds the population of the province. That account contradicts both widely reported explanations for the alleged failure of the Sunnis to achieve a two-thirds majority against the constitution in Nineveh -- that the Sunnis in Mosul were divided over the constitution, and that Kurds represent a very large proportion of the population of the city.
The final official vote total for Nineveh was 395,000 "no" and 323,000 "yes". However the IECI in Nineveh had told the media on Oct. 16 and again on Oct. 17 that 327,000 people had voted for the constitution and only 90,000 against, with only 25 out of the 300 polling stations in the province remaining to be counted. Thus, between the two counts, 5,000 yes votes had apparently disappeared and 295,000 no votes had mysteriously materialised -- all from only 25 polling places.
No explanation has ever been provided by election authorities for those contradictory data. The U.S. military's informant supports the view that Kurdish and Sunni vote totals in Mosul were significantly altered.
The Times has yet to note Porter's article. (Probably won't.) So make sure you're aware of it.
I am on the road speaking this weekend so a) members use the private e-mail address which I will be checking regularly and b) entries will be delayed today but they will go up. (The usual Saturday ones.) The e-mail address for this site (public) is common_ills@yahoo.com.
[Songs, from the top, Jefferson Airplane's "We Can Be Together" (Volunteers); Jimi Hendrix's "Wait Until Tomorrow" (Axis Bold As Love); Joni Mitchell's "Nathan La Franeer" and "Cactus Tree" (Song to a Seagull); the Beatles "Fool on the Hill" (Magical Mystery Tour); Pink Floyd's "Money" (Dark Side of the Moon); the Mamas and the Papas "Look Through My Window" (Deliver).]
gareth porter
iraq elections
iraq
karl rove
scooter libby
plamegate
valerie plame
ballot fraud
elections
the new york times
the third estate sunday review
the common ills
douglas jehl
craig s. smith
paris riots
jefferson airplane
jimi hendrix
joni+mitchell
pink floyd
the beatles
the mamas and the papas
elisabeth bumiller
sabrina tavernise
In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge fred hide and deal
We are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young
But we should be together
Come on all you people standing around
Our life's too fine to let it die and
We can be together
All your private property is
Target for your enemy
And your enemy is
We
I'm not sure whether it's the times that are trippin' back to the sixties this morning, or it's just the New York Times trippin' back. But as you grab the paper, light the incense. You'll need it (maybe more?) as you note Che Guevara on the front page of the Times. (There actually should be an exclamation point at the end of that since, during his life, the Times played down Che.)
Like the truth refusing to be hidden and come back to haunt the paper of record, Che's face prominently displayed on banners in Mar Del Plata suggests things are far less "grey" than the Grey Lady would like them to be.
Larry Rohter and Elisabeth Bumiller explain the photo in "Protesters Riot As Bush Attends 34-Nation Talks: Hundreds Battle Police: Venezuelan Chief Leads Peaceful Rally Against Bush in Argentina" which seems to cover all the bases for our two Dolly Maes.
Come on Dolly Mae, there's no time to stall
But now you're telling me...
I think we better wait till tomorrow
Hey, yeah, hey (I think we better wait till tomorrow)
Girl, what 'chu talkin' 'bout ?
(I think we better wait till tomorrow)
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Got to make sure it's right, so until tomorrow, goodnight.
Oh, what a drag.
Dolly Mae Rohter and Dolly Mae Bumiller tell us that Bully Boy's "troubles trailed him" like ugly skid marks (okay, I added that part) "to an international summit meeting here on Friday as . . . protesters turned violent just blocks from the gathering site, and Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's fiery populist leader, rallied a soccer stadium filled with at least 25,000 people against the" Bully Boy.
(The Dolly Maes need to inflame the average cautious Times reader so they say "the United States." They are wrong. And you can be damn sure neither Dolly Mae interviewed any protester.)
Bully Boy works in a joke and the Dolly Maes jot it down -- Bully Boy on the prospect of meeting Hugo Chavez by chance: "I will, of course, be polite. That's what the American people expect their president to do, is to be a polite person." Big Babs must have taught the children that flipping the bird was just a quicker, non-verbal way of saying "Thank you."
If, as your eyes adjust to the front page, you're searching for your stash, pray that you don't share a home with a headline writer for the Times -- the one responsible for "Iraq's Lethal Traffic: Warning! Anarchy Ahead" has already smoked your stash. The author of the article (though not the headline), Sabrina Tavernise, attempts to write something, anything, on the topic of road rage . . . in Iraq. (Well, in Baghdad.) (Well, in the Green Zone.) Speaking to anyone not intimidated by the bodyguards sporting the black t-shirts that read "NEW YORK TIMES," Tavernise finds Riyad Hadi Hassan who says, coming off like anyone forced to venture once too often down Van Nuys Blvd., "If someone tries to speak to me, maybe I'll kill him."
But as you're reading along singing "Nathan Le Frameer:"
The cars and buses bustled thru the bedlam of the day
I looked thru window-glass at streets and Nathan grumbled at the grey
I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons
The city grated thru chrome-plate
The clock struck slowly half-past-noon
Thru the tunnel tiled and turning
Into daylight once again I am escaping
Once again goodbye
To symphonies and dirty trees
With parks and plastic clothes
The ghostly garden grows
you suddenly stop as Tavernise attempts pith: "And while in other capitals a traffic jam may cause you to miss a meeting, in Baghdad it may get you kidnapped or even killed." Tavernise follows that with a few statistic (body count for Iraqis, low estimate 26,797, and fatality count for American troops, 2046, aren't among Tavernise's statistics). But ugly realities, even mild ones, can't intrude for too long in the Times' press releases from the Green Zone so, before you know it (ninth paragraph), Tavernise is slapping a happy face sticker on it all:
But for all the frustration they cause, the seas of idling cars are also a sign of progress [C.I. note: at the barrel of a gun]. Salaries have jumped from a few dollars a month under Saddam Hussein to a few hundred now [C.I. note: the cost of living has also jumped], turning Iraqis into consumers overnight [C.I. question: And they were what exactly before?], buying up air-conditioners, jewelry and, of course, cars. [C.I. note: Apparently Brina doesn't think any purchases were made under Saddam].
You quickly realize that the song to sing to Tavernise is "Cactus Tree:"
There's a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store
There's a drummer and a dreamer
And you know there may be more
She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree
Stephan Labaton's singing "The Fool on the Hill" in "Spending Inquiry For Top Official On Broadcasting" which charts the continued downfall of cycle hog Kenny Y. Tomlinson. E-mails have been seized by the State Dept. during this investigation. Before you start thinking, "Condi is actually trying to help" . . . don't. The e-mails include ones exchanged between Kenny and Karl Rove. Weirdness, like rust, never sleeps -- is anyone not getting "Threats for the Day" from Karl? Maybe those in his e-mail circle could just use the button to report him for "spam" and Yahoo could do what Fitzgerald seems afraid to, shut Karl down. So the inspector general is attempting to figure out how much Kenny disgraced himself and what laws, if any, were broken.
Of the seized e-mails, State Department investigators . . . have shared some material with the inspector general at the corporation . . ." Why some? And why is the State Dept. interfering with an ongoing investigation? Does Bully Boy know? He's still parroting that he can't even make a statement in an ongoing investigation.
Labaton, noting Voice of America, gets off a howler:
The board [Broadcasting Board of Governors] has been troubled lately over deep internal divisions and criticism of its Middle East broadcasts. Members of the Arab news media have said its broadcasts are American propaganda.
Now why is Labaton playing the he-said/she-said card there? Why is Voice of America not allowed to broadcast in this country? Because it is propaganda. "Members of the Arab news media" are correct. This isn't a claim, it's a fact.
Day after day alone on the hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Labaton's singing that song to Kenny but, considering Labaton's own howlers, he's also serenading himself.
The US government has been eye balling Iraq while singing:
Money, it's a gas.
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
New car, caviar, four star daydream,
Think I'll buy me a football team.
Money, get back.
I'm all right jack keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it's a hit.
Don't give me that do goody good bullsh*t
But James Glanz tells us the good times may be coming to an end in "U.S. Should Repay Millions to Iraq, A U.N. Audit Finds." How much are we talking? "An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended Friday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary."
Which brings us to the story with a smaller photo on the front page (a car on fire), Craig S. Smith's "Rioting by Immigrants Embroils Paris Suburbs." As numerous e-mails continue to note, Ty addresses this last Sunday at The Third Estate Sunday Review. The Times has only recently discovered the story. Was Craig S. Smith free-manning-in-Paris-ing it? Or did the Times just not realize that this was a story (for days and days and days)? It is a story and Smith's a bit more even handed then in earlier accounts (or in yesterday's editorial which demonstrated that the editorial board has apparently never visisted the Paris suburbs or cared much about them). Smith's more even handed than his past reporting on this, call it an improvement but don't call it good reporting. Does any reporter at the Times ever think to ask non-elected officials what they think or do the orders for that need to come from up above?
The reliance on "official sources" comes from above so the reporters may just be playing it safe when they build whole articles around statements from them without ever actually exploring an area or speaking to people from the area. But it makes for bad reporting. (This may be, Smither's report, the best that the Times can do on a topic like this.)
The Times has never been an investigative paper. It's always relied far too much on what unnamed sources wanted passed on. Smith's article may be the best one can hope for from the paper of record which's print stance can best be summed up as:
And the rain beats on my roof
Look through my window to the street below
See the people hurryin' by
With someone to meet, some place to go
And I know I should let go
Two final points on the Times. First, Elisabeth Bumiller's "" should have been front paged. (Apparently traffic reports are more important than indictments -- guess the Times thinks it's casual Saturday?) Second, I'm going by the print edition and dictating this entry over the phone (thank you to ___ for taking this down) and I'm told that the Times has a report online by Douglas Jehl. It's not in the international section of the print edition before me. (And we're going by print headlines if you see a different headline online.) From Douglas Jehl's "Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions:"
A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.
The document, an intelligence report from February 2002, said it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for Al Qaeda's work with illicit weapons.
The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility. Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as "credible" evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.
Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that "we've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases."
This is probably an article that will run in Sunday's print edition. Lastly, we're going to note Gareth Porter's "Witnesses Describe Ballot Fraud in Nineveh" (IPS):
The accounts collected by the U.S. military in reports dated Oct. 15-19 were made available to IPS on condition that they would not be quoted directly and that the U.S. military unit forwarding them would not be identified.
The first-person accounts gathered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Nineveh were obtained and translated by Michael Youash, executive director of the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project in Washington. The names of the NGOs were not provided in the document given to IPS because of fears of reprisals.
None of the accounts reported by the military are from Sunnis. All of the sources quoted in those reports are either Kurds or trusted Assyrian Christians who have been advisors to the U.S. military on local developments and are generally favourable to the constitution. Thus they represent the view from those in the province least likely to have a political motive for depicting the referendum as rigged.
The reports compiled by the U.S. military include an account of the voting in Mosul by an Assyrian Christian source which observes that Kurds voted for the constitution but represent only a small percentage of the estimated 1.7 million people in the capital -- which holds roughly two-thirds the population of the province. That account contradicts both widely reported explanations for the alleged failure of the Sunnis to achieve a two-thirds majority against the constitution in Nineveh -- that the Sunnis in Mosul were divided over the constitution, and that Kurds represent a very large proportion of the population of the city.
The final official vote total for Nineveh was 395,000 "no" and 323,000 "yes". However the IECI in Nineveh had told the media on Oct. 16 and again on Oct. 17 that 327,000 people had voted for the constitution and only 90,000 against, with only 25 out of the 300 polling stations in the province remaining to be counted. Thus, between the two counts, 5,000 yes votes had apparently disappeared and 295,000 no votes had mysteriously materialised -- all from only 25 polling places.
No explanation has ever been provided by election authorities for those contradictory data. The U.S. military's informant supports the view that Kurdish and Sunni vote totals in Mosul were significantly altered.
The Times has yet to note Porter's article. (Probably won't.) So make sure you're aware of it.
I am on the road speaking this weekend so a) members use the private e-mail address which I will be checking regularly and b) entries will be delayed today but they will go up. (The usual Saturday ones.) The e-mail address for this site (public) is common_ills@yahoo.com.
[Songs, from the top, Jefferson Airplane's "We Can Be Together" (Volunteers); Jimi Hendrix's "Wait Until Tomorrow" (Axis Bold As Love); Joni Mitchell's "Nathan La Franeer" and "Cactus Tree" (Song to a Seagull); the Beatles "Fool on the Hill" (Magical Mystery Tour); Pink Floyd's "Money" (Dark Side of the Moon); the Mamas and the Papas "Look Through My Window" (Deliver).]
gareth porter
iraq elections
iraq
karl rove
scooter libby
plamegate
valerie plame
ballot fraud
elections
the new york times
the third estate sunday review
the common ills
douglas jehl
craig s. smith
paris riots
jefferson airplane
jimi hendrix
joni+mitchell
pink floyd
the beatles
the mamas and the papas
elisabeth bumiller
sabrina tavernise
Friday, November 04, 2005
Sunday Chat & Chews
Sunday Chat & Chews ay-yi-yi.
Remember when Jon Stewart rightly decried Crossfire (and helped get it cancelled)?
The patty-cakes playing acting had gotten old. Sadly, few notice the same thing about the Sunday Chat & Chews with their same topics, same guests, same pretense as presenting a wide ranging discussion from a wide range of views.
The Sonny & Cher of the Chat & Chews should have driven the lack of diversity home long ago. Sadly Meet the Press may not be able to trot out Mary Matalin and James Carville to sing "I Make You Bored" this sweeps month. Is Carville making nice with David Geffen and suing Mary Matalin for involuntary servitude? Sadly no.
Arianna Huffington gives us the lowdown in "Why the Dems Need James Carville to Take a Long, Long Vacation" (The Huffington Post; sent in by Cindy):
During a week when Harry Reid and the Dems finally found their spines and their voices on Plamegate and the war, it was deeply disturbing to see James Carville parading his tired, old, and utterly clueless act all over the TV -- supposedly offering up the Democratic point of view.
Can somebody please, please, please shut Carville up -- especially about Plamegate. His takes on the scandal are utterly compromised by his marriage to Mary Matalin.This isn't like the weird-but-fun old days when they were a sitcom come to life -- running opposing campaigns during the day and sharing pillow talk at night while creating a cottage industry as "the Donny and Marie of politics."That's all in the past. Now, as one of Dick Cheney's most trusted first-term advisors, one of eight founding members of the White House Iraq Group, a witness in front of the Plamegate grand jury, and a close friend of Scooter Libby ("The man you pray you get seated next to at a dinner party," she recently cooed), Matalin is a central player in all this.
[. . .]
I'll never forget sitting in Lawrence Bender's living room 12 days before the 2004 election, listening to Carville predict that the election was in the bag.
"If we can't win this damn election," he said, "with a Democratic Party more unified than ever before, with us having raised as much money as the Republicans, with 55% of the country believing we're heading in the wrong direction, with our candidate having won all three debates, and with our side being more passionate about the outcome than theirs -- if we can't win this one, then we can't win shit! And we need to completely rethink the Democratic Party."
But, instead of rethinking, the party is returning to the bone dry Carville advice well. He's one of the guiding forces behind the influential Democracy Corps, which recently released a report [PDF] calling for the Democrats to run on a 2006 agenda focused on "health care, education and energy, followed by top end tax cut repeal and homeland security." Thud (that's the sound of Democratic chances dropping). James Carville hasn't had a fresh idea since The War Room stopped filming. It's time for him to take a long, long vacation from the spotlight. And he should take his Cheney/Libby-apologist, WHIG-war-salesman-wife with him.
Wonder why the latter day Dylan attacks Arianna so? He can kiss and make up with the terminally useless and clueless David Broder (among others) but he has a real beef with Arianna (despite the claim of liking her more than most).
Arianna doesn't make nice about his friends Matalin and Carville.
Our latter day Dylan, so supposedly brave, so supposedly worried about the discourse and clowning has never taken on the ugly reality that is the Sonny & Cher Show appearing regularly on Meet the Press. What's it been? Eight years? All that time and never has he taken them to task for their useless dog & pony show or for making a mockery of real issues. Should an issue come up, something resembling an actual one, it's all about their own personalities in their responses. We're supposed to find it "cute" and "endearing."
God forbid we ever get anything to actually think about on the Chat & Chews.
Let's start with ABC's This Week. And let's start with the roundtable:
At the roundtable: Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the house; Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International; ABC News' Linda Douglass; and George Will join me to discuss Karl Rove's uncertain future at the White House, Judge Alito's reception on Capitol Hill, the senate confrontation over Iraq intelligence, and next Tuesday's gubernatorial races and special elections.
See the problem?
Karl Rove, Bully Boy's nominee, Iraq . . .
The "guests" include George Will. Will, Gingrich and Fareed (in pearls as a tribute to Cokie) all on the right. Linda Douglass will presumably playing the role of journalist in the midst of the right wing lion's den.
If you make it to that part, you've already seen ABC suck up to Bill Gates and heard from Chuck Hagel and Joe Biden.
Over at NBC's Meet the Press, Karl Rove's phone buddy Tubby Russert apparently heard that last Saturday Nina Totenberg wasted the public airwaves and tax payer monies plugging Rush Limbaugh ("I do listen!") and just knew Tote Bag was his type of gal which is why she's roundtabling again. Pledge drives can be iffy, the Tote Bag knows, but suck up to the right and you can coast through life. Joining her, fresh from his catfight with the Times Richard W. Stevenson over Scotty McClellan ("Paws off, Richie," Stretch snarled, "I saw him first!") is David Gregory. And the Crockett to Tubby's Tubbs, Ron Brownstein. The non-roundtable guests are Ted Kennedy and Tom Coburn.
Which brings us to Face. CBS's Face The Nation. Give them points for not having Thomas Friedman on. (Jan Crawford Greenburg is back.) That's all they get credit for. Three politicians as guests: Patty-cakes Roberts ("I always planned hearings on the adminstration's use of intel, I just wanted to let it marinate for twelve plus months!"), lone Democrat Dick Durbin and Old Hatchet face. Why is Orrin Hatch even on? Did he play golf with Bob last month?
Check your local listings for air times (all air Sunday). Hopefully you'll check in order to avoid them but if you're a brave (or misguided) soul, good luck to you.
Lastly, I'm out of town and tomorrow's schedule may lead to posts at intervals. Tags require . . .
Backing up. When an entry's done, I click on "publish." Then I have the option of clicking on "Republish index" or "Republish entire blog." "RI" takes no more than three minutes. I usually use multiple screens, hit "RI" after hitting "publish" and do the entires one after another. At the end of which I do "Republish entire . . ." which can take five to ten minutes (though it can take even longer).
The tags that Rebecca's asking us all to do change things. If I dodn't hit "Republish entire . . ." after an entry, it won't show up at Technocrati. I probably won't have time to post all the entries at once tomorrow morning as a result. So we'll have our Times entry (possibly two) and we'll have Ruth's Morning Edition Report as well as the thing on Laura Flanders. But it may not all go up at once. (It probably won't.)
So that's the heads up on that.
I wasn't planning on speaking this weekend. As a result of this last minute change in my personal schedule, we'll delay the entry re: Danny Schechter until Sunday. It will be done Sunday evening even if that means doing only one "roundup" post.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
arianna huffington
sunday chat and chews
sonny and cher
Remember when Jon Stewart rightly decried Crossfire (and helped get it cancelled)?
The patty-cakes playing acting had gotten old. Sadly, few notice the same thing about the Sunday Chat & Chews with their same topics, same guests, same pretense as presenting a wide ranging discussion from a wide range of views.
The Sonny & Cher of the Chat & Chews should have driven the lack of diversity home long ago. Sadly Meet the Press may not be able to trot out Mary Matalin and James Carville to sing "I Make You Bored" this sweeps month. Is Carville making nice with David Geffen and suing Mary Matalin for involuntary servitude? Sadly no.
Arianna Huffington gives us the lowdown in "Why the Dems Need James Carville to Take a Long, Long Vacation" (The Huffington Post; sent in by Cindy):
During a week when Harry Reid and the Dems finally found their spines and their voices on Plamegate and the war, it was deeply disturbing to see James Carville parading his tired, old, and utterly clueless act all over the TV -- supposedly offering up the Democratic point of view.
Can somebody please, please, please shut Carville up -- especially about Plamegate. His takes on the scandal are utterly compromised by his marriage to Mary Matalin.This isn't like the weird-but-fun old days when they were a sitcom come to life -- running opposing campaigns during the day and sharing pillow talk at night while creating a cottage industry as "the Donny and Marie of politics."That's all in the past. Now, as one of Dick Cheney's most trusted first-term advisors, one of eight founding members of the White House Iraq Group, a witness in front of the Plamegate grand jury, and a close friend of Scooter Libby ("The man you pray you get seated next to at a dinner party," she recently cooed), Matalin is a central player in all this.
[. . .]
I'll never forget sitting in Lawrence Bender's living room 12 days before the 2004 election, listening to Carville predict that the election was in the bag.
"If we can't win this damn election," he said, "with a Democratic Party more unified than ever before, with us having raised as much money as the Republicans, with 55% of the country believing we're heading in the wrong direction, with our candidate having won all three debates, and with our side being more passionate about the outcome than theirs -- if we can't win this one, then we can't win shit! And we need to completely rethink the Democratic Party."
But, instead of rethinking, the party is returning to the bone dry Carville advice well. He's one of the guiding forces behind the influential Democracy Corps, which recently released a report [PDF] calling for the Democrats to run on a 2006 agenda focused on "health care, education and energy, followed by top end tax cut repeal and homeland security." Thud (that's the sound of Democratic chances dropping). James Carville hasn't had a fresh idea since The War Room stopped filming. It's time for him to take a long, long vacation from the spotlight. And he should take his Cheney/Libby-apologist, WHIG-war-salesman-wife with him.
Wonder why the latter day Dylan attacks Arianna so? He can kiss and make up with the terminally useless and clueless David Broder (among others) but he has a real beef with Arianna (despite the claim of liking her more than most).
Arianna doesn't make nice about his friends Matalin and Carville.
Our latter day Dylan, so supposedly brave, so supposedly worried about the discourse and clowning has never taken on the ugly reality that is the Sonny & Cher Show appearing regularly on Meet the Press. What's it been? Eight years? All that time and never has he taken them to task for their useless dog & pony show or for making a mockery of real issues. Should an issue come up, something resembling an actual one, it's all about their own personalities in their responses. We're supposed to find it "cute" and "endearing."
God forbid we ever get anything to actually think about on the Chat & Chews.
Let's start with ABC's This Week. And let's start with the roundtable:
At the roundtable: Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the house; Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International; ABC News' Linda Douglass; and George Will join me to discuss Karl Rove's uncertain future at the White House, Judge Alito's reception on Capitol Hill, the senate confrontation over Iraq intelligence, and next Tuesday's gubernatorial races and special elections.
See the problem?
Karl Rove, Bully Boy's nominee, Iraq . . .
The "guests" include George Will. Will, Gingrich and Fareed (in pearls as a tribute to Cokie) all on the right. Linda Douglass will presumably playing the role of journalist in the midst of the right wing lion's den.
If you make it to that part, you've already seen ABC suck up to Bill Gates and heard from Chuck Hagel and Joe Biden.
Over at NBC's Meet the Press, Karl Rove's phone buddy Tubby Russert apparently heard that last Saturday Nina Totenberg wasted the public airwaves and tax payer monies plugging Rush Limbaugh ("I do listen!") and just knew Tote Bag was his type of gal which is why she's roundtabling again. Pledge drives can be iffy, the Tote Bag knows, but suck up to the right and you can coast through life. Joining her, fresh from his catfight with the Times Richard W. Stevenson over Scotty McClellan ("Paws off, Richie," Stretch snarled, "I saw him first!") is David Gregory. And the Crockett to Tubby's Tubbs, Ron Brownstein. The non-roundtable guests are Ted Kennedy and Tom Coburn.
Which brings us to Face. CBS's Face The Nation. Give them points for not having Thomas Friedman on. (Jan Crawford Greenburg is back.) That's all they get credit for. Three politicians as guests: Patty-cakes Roberts ("I always planned hearings on the adminstration's use of intel, I just wanted to let it marinate for twelve plus months!"), lone Democrat Dick Durbin and Old Hatchet face. Why is Orrin Hatch even on? Did he play golf with Bob last month?
Check your local listings for air times (all air Sunday). Hopefully you'll check in order to avoid them but if you're a brave (or misguided) soul, good luck to you.
Lastly, I'm out of town and tomorrow's schedule may lead to posts at intervals. Tags require . . .
Backing up. When an entry's done, I click on "publish." Then I have the option of clicking on "Republish index" or "Republish entire blog." "RI" takes no more than three minutes. I usually use multiple screens, hit "RI" after hitting "publish" and do the entires one after another. At the end of which I do "Republish entire . . ." which can take five to ten minutes (though it can take even longer).
The tags that Rebecca's asking us all to do change things. If I dodn't hit "Republish entire . . ." after an entry, it won't show up at Technocrati. I probably won't have time to post all the entries at once tomorrow morning as a result. So we'll have our Times entry (possibly two) and we'll have Ruth's Morning Edition Report as well as the thing on Laura Flanders. But it may not all go up at once. (It probably won't.)
So that's the heads up on that.
I wasn't planning on speaking this weekend. As a result of this last minute change in my personal schedule, we'll delay the entry re: Danny Schechter until Sunday. It will be done Sunday evening even if that means doing only one "roundup" post.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
arianna huffington
sunday chat and chews
sonny and cher
Gareth Porter tells you what happened in Iraq and Bully Boy's
So about that Iraqi charter election . . .
The one that Dexter Filkins trumpeted in the Times . . .
Dexy trumpeted it even when a recount was underweigh due to reports of fraud . . .
Gareth Porter's "Witnesses Describe Ballot Fraud in Nineveh" (IPS) tells you what the Times hasn't:
The accounts collected by the U.S. military in reports dated Oct. 15-19 were made available to IPS on condition that they would not be quoted directly and that the U.S. military unit forwarding them would not be identified.
The first-person accounts gathered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Nineveh were obtained and translated by Michael Youash, executive director of the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project in Washington. The names of the NGOs were not provided in the document given to IPS because of fears of reprisals. None of the accounts reported by the military are from Sunnis.
All of the sources quoted in those reports are either Kurds or trusted Assyrian Christians who have been advisors to the U.S. military on local developments and are generally favourable to the constitution. Thus they represent the view from those in the province least likely to have a political motive for depicting the referendum as rigged.
The reports compiled by the U.S. military include an account of the voting in Mosul by an Assyrian Christian source which observes that Kurds voted for the constitution but represent only a small percentage of the estimated 1.7 million people in the capital -- which holds roughly two-thirds the population of the province. That account contradicts both widely reported explanations for the alleged failure of the Sunnis to achieve a two-thirds majority against the constitution in Nineveh -- that the Sunnis in Mosul were divided over the constitution, and that Kurds represent a very large proportion of the population of the city. The final official vote total for Nineveh was 395,000 "no" and 323,000 "yes".
However the IECI in Nineveh had told the media on Oct. 16 and again on Oct. 17 that 327,000 people had voted for the constitution and only 90,000 against, with only 25 out of the 300 polling stations in the province remaining to be counted. Thus, between the two counts, 5,000 yes votes had apparently disappeared and 295,000 no votes had mysteriously materialised -- all from only 25 polling places.
No explanation has ever been provided by election authorities for those contradictory data. The U.S. military's informant supports the view that Kurdish and Sunni vote totals in Mosul were significantly altered.
In other news from the reality based world, we'll note Deb Riechmann's "Bush Sidesteps Questions About CIA Leak" (Associated Press):
President Bush batted away questions about the CIA leak investigation Friday, unable at an Americas summit thousands of miles from Washington to escape the controversy that has ensnared a top White House official and weakened his own popularity.
Taking questions for the first time since the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Bush declined to answer calls from Democrats and some Republicans that he apologize for any administration official's involvement in the case.
Bush also wouldn't say if staff changes were in the works. He sidestepped a question about whether Karl Rove, his top political adviser who remains under investigation in the CIA leak case, should stay on the job. And the president wouldn't comment on whether Rove told him the truth about his role in the events that led up the investigation.
We'll be noting the Inter Press Service article by Gareth Porter again this weekend. And we'll note this credit: "Gareth Porter is an independent historian and foreign policy analyst. He is the author of 'The Third Option in Iraq: A Responsible Exit Strategy' in the Fall issue of Middle East Policy. "
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
gareth porter
iraq elections
iraq
karl rove
scooter libby
plamegate
valerie plame
ballot fraud
elections
The one that Dexter Filkins trumpeted in the Times . . .
Dexy trumpeted it even when a recount was underweigh due to reports of fraud . . .
Gareth Porter's "Witnesses Describe Ballot Fraud in Nineveh" (IPS) tells you what the Times hasn't:
The accounts collected by the U.S. military in reports dated Oct. 15-19 were made available to IPS on condition that they would not be quoted directly and that the U.S. military unit forwarding them would not be identified.
The first-person accounts gathered by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Nineveh were obtained and translated by Michael Youash, executive director of the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project in Washington. The names of the NGOs were not provided in the document given to IPS because of fears of reprisals. None of the accounts reported by the military are from Sunnis.
All of the sources quoted in those reports are either Kurds or trusted Assyrian Christians who have been advisors to the U.S. military on local developments and are generally favourable to the constitution. Thus they represent the view from those in the province least likely to have a political motive for depicting the referendum as rigged.
The reports compiled by the U.S. military include an account of the voting in Mosul by an Assyrian Christian source which observes that Kurds voted for the constitution but represent only a small percentage of the estimated 1.7 million people in the capital -- which holds roughly two-thirds the population of the province. That account contradicts both widely reported explanations for the alleged failure of the Sunnis to achieve a two-thirds majority against the constitution in Nineveh -- that the Sunnis in Mosul were divided over the constitution, and that Kurds represent a very large proportion of the population of the city. The final official vote total for Nineveh was 395,000 "no" and 323,000 "yes".
However the IECI in Nineveh had told the media on Oct. 16 and again on Oct. 17 that 327,000 people had voted for the constitution and only 90,000 against, with only 25 out of the 300 polling stations in the province remaining to be counted. Thus, between the two counts, 5,000 yes votes had apparently disappeared and 295,000 no votes had mysteriously materialised -- all from only 25 polling places.
No explanation has ever been provided by election authorities for those contradictory data. The U.S. military's informant supports the view that Kurdish and Sunni vote totals in Mosul were significantly altered.
In other news from the reality based world, we'll note Deb Riechmann's "Bush Sidesteps Questions About CIA Leak" (Associated Press):
President Bush batted away questions about the CIA leak investigation Friday, unable at an Americas summit thousands of miles from Washington to escape the controversy that has ensnared a top White House official and weakened his own popularity.
Taking questions for the first time since the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Bush declined to answer calls from Democrats and some Republicans that he apologize for any administration official's involvement in the case.
Bush also wouldn't say if staff changes were in the works. He sidestepped a question about whether Karl Rove, his top political adviser who remains under investigation in the CIA leak case, should stay on the job. And the president wouldn't comment on whether Rove told him the truth about his role in the events that led up the investigation.
We'll be noting the Inter Press Service article by Gareth Porter again this weekend. And we'll note this credit: "Gareth Porter is an independent historian and foreign policy analyst. He is the author of 'The Third Option in Iraq: A Responsible Exit Strategy' in the Fall issue of Middle East Policy. "
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
gareth porter
iraq elections
iraq
karl rove
scooter libby
plamegate
valerie plame
ballot fraud
elections
Democracy Now: Mark Crispin Miller, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, James Petras, Elsa Montero; Cynthia McKinney, Naomi Klein ...
Red Cross Calls for Access to Detainees in Secret Prisons
The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for access to detainees held in secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. The unidentified facilities were revealed in Wednesday's Washington Post. Meanwhile, the European Union announced it would be looking into allegations made by Human Rights Watch that Poland and Romania are the likely sites of the prisons. Both countries have denied the allegations.
Riots Intensify in Paris Suburbs
In France, clashes intensified as rioting in several Paris suburbs entered its eight day. The violence started October 27 following the deaths of two teenagers in the poor area of Clichy-sous-Bois. The two teens were electrocuted in a power grid while fleeing from police. One of the child's parents has filed a complaint with local authorities. The suburbs are home to a large North African community and plagued by chronic unemployment and poverty. Unrest has now spread to at least 20 towns. Police say they've made over 140 arrests. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has drawn criticism for calling the suburban youths "scum," and pledging a "war without mercy" on them.
Alito Advocated Firing HIV-Positive Employees
This news on the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito the Washington Post has revealed Alito co-authored a 1986 Justice Department opinion that said employers should be able to legally fire HIV-positive employees. The opinion stated "fear of contagion, whether reasonable or not," was a sufficient reason for firing an HIV-positive worker. Alito later said : "We certainly did not want to encourage irrational discrimination, but we had to interpret the law as it stands." Meanwhile the Senate Judiciary Committee announced confirmation hearings for Alito will begin January 9th. President Bush had pushed for a confirmation vote by year's end.
The above three items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and were selected by Juan, Brady and Marcia. Democracy Now! ("always worth watching," as Marcia says):
Headlines for November 4, 2005
- Libby Pleads Not Guilty at Arraignment
- Red Cross Calls for Access to Detainees in Secret Prisons
- Riots Intensify in Paris Suburbs
- UN Warns of Ethiopia-Eritrea War
- Senate, House Approve Food Stamp, Health Care Cuts
- Alito Advocated Firing HIV-Positive Employees
- Brown Complained, Discussed Wardrobe as Katrina Hit
Was the 2004 Election Stolen?: A Debate on Ohio One Year After Bush's Victory
A year later, questions remain over the outcome of the Ohio election and whether George W. Bush fairly won the state and the presidency. We explore some of these questions with a debate between Mark Crispin Miller and Mark Hertsgaard. [includes rush transcript]
Mark Crispin Miller: "Kerry Told Me He Now Thinks the Election Was Stolen"
New York University professor and author Mark Crispin Miller says in an interview on Democracy Now!: "[Kerry] told me he now thinks the election was stolen. He says he doesn't believe he is the person that can be out in front because of the sour grapes question. But he said he believes it was stolen. He says he argues with his democratic colleagues on the hill. He said he had a fight with Christopher Dodd because he said there's questions about the voting machines and Dodd was angry."
Thousands Protest Bush in Argentina, People's Summit Counters Free Trade Talks
In the wake of the Summit of the Americas and President Bush's arrival in Argentina, a People's Summit is also being organized as a counter protest and thousands have gathered to hear Venezuelan President Chavez speak at a rally. We hear from Nobel Peace prize winner Adolfo Perez Esquivel in Argentina and others.
Lonnie e-mails to note Cynthia McKinney's "An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge" (CounterPunch):
City of Gretna police chief Arthur Lawson is equally impressive. His justification for trapping Katrina survivors in New Orleans is, he is reported to have said, "If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged."
Eyewitnesses report that before they were close enough to speak, officers began firing their weapons over the heads of the New Orleans survivors. Other officers are reported to have said that they wanted "no Superdomes in their city."
The world got a chance to see what too many of us here in this country already know: that racism is alive and well in America.
Could it be that the police chief and the sheriff are guilty of a hate crime? How can federally funded roads be blocked by local officials at a time of emergency? Where was the Federal Government that should have been ensuring the lives of all Katrina survivors?
Didn't the New Orleans survivors have the right to life? And civil rights?
And where's the outrage?
I've personally learned that many people black and white are outraged about what happened. But you wouldn't know that by the response up here on Capitol Hill, where one of my colleagues is reported to have said to a group of lobbyists: We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
No one has asked for his resignation, no one has even suggested that he could have chosen less offensive language-no one has suggested that they were offended at all by what he said. And so we are left with what too many New Orleans residents quietly suffered for years:
the soft underbelly of American racism.
The Justice Department should investigate this very sad incident.
We'll note this from NOW:
NOW and Progressive Allies Announce New Orleans March
NOW President Kim Gandy today joins the Hip Hop Caucus, Rep. Cynthia McKinney, New Orleans organizers and other civil rights allies in announcing a Nov. 7 march across the bridge to Gretna, LA.
Info:
Who:
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.)
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus
and other progressive allies
What:
When:
11:00 am - 12:00 noon
Where:
Reminder, November 7th is this Monday.
I'm almost caught up on the e-mails* and one was from Sarita noting a story worth reading but also approriate in context of the above, Mike Davis and Anthony Fontenot's "Hurricane Gumbo" (The Nation):
While Edna was saving the living, his brother-in-law, a police detective from another city, was engaged in the grueling, macabre work of retrieving bodies. "Vincent" (his real name can't be used) went out each night in a Fisheries boat with a scuba diver and an M-16-toting National Guard escort.
"I wore a [hazmat] space suit and piloted the boat. I was chosen because I'm trained in forensics, and since I am a Cajun the higher powers assumed I was a water baby. We worked at night because of the heat and to avoid the goddamn news helicopters that hover like vultures during the daytime. We didn't want some poor son of a bitch seeing his grandma covered with ants or crabs on the 6 o'clock news."
Ants and crabs? "Hey, this is Louisiana. The minute New Orleans flooded it became swamp again. The ecosystem returns. Ants float and they build big colonies on floating bodies the same as they would upon a cypress log. And the crabs eat carrion. We'd pulled the crabs off, but the goddamn ants were a real problem."
Vincent described the exhausting, gruesome work of hauling bloated bodies aboard the boat and then zipping them into body bags. (FEMA neglected water, food rations and medicine, but did fly thousands of body bags into Louis Armstrong Airport.) Although Vincent was supposed to tag the bags, few victims had any identification. Some didn't have faces.
One of us asks about the demographics of death. "We pulled seventy-seven bodies out of the water. Half were little kids. It was tough--no one died with their eyes closed, and all had fought like hell, some slowly drowning in their attics.
"I deal with crime scenes and human remains all the time and usually keep a professional distance. You have to, if you want to continue to do your job. But sometimes a case really gets to you. We found the corpse of a woman clutching a young baby. Mother or sister, I don't know. I couldn't pry the infant out of the woman's grasp without breaking her fingers. After finally separating them, the baby left a perfect outline imprinted across the lady's chest. That will really haunt me. And so will the goddamn cries of the people we left behind.
We'll be doing something on Danny Schechter's "Tell the Truth About the War" program. There were a lot of e-mails and Ava, Jess, Shirley, Martha and I have gone through them. If it's okay, due to the volume on this topic, I'd like to do a summary. I don't know how else, to get anything up on that. I'm running way behind as a result of being sick but if anyone has a problem with a summary, please e-mail the private address and I'll attempt to figure out another way to handle it.
We'll close with Naomi Klein's "The Threat of Hope in Latin America." You can find the article both at The Nation, here, and at No Logo (Klein's site) where it's currently the top item:
When Manuel Rozental got home one night last month, friends told him two strange men had been asking questions about him. In this close-knit indigenous community in southwestern Colombia ringed by soldiers, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas, strangers asking questions about you is never a good thing.
The Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, which leads a political movement that is autonomous from all those armed forces, held an emergency meeting. They decided that Rozental, their communications coordinator, who had been instrumental in campaigns for agrarian reform and against a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, had to get out of the country--fast.
They were certain that those strangers had been sent to kill Rozental--the only question was, by whom? The US-backed national government, which notoriously uses right-wing paramilitaries to do its dirty work? Or was it the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), Latin America's oldest Marxist guerrilla army, which does its dirty work all on its own? Oddly, both were distinct possibilities. Despite being on opposing sides of a forty-one-year civil war, the Uribe government and the FARC wholeheartedly agree that life would be infinitely simpler without Caucas increasingly powerful indigenous movement.
We'll also note that in a recent poll (20,000 voters) determing the "top intellectual," Naomi Klein was the highest ranked woman on the list (at number eleven).
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. *Thanks to Jess and Ava for all their help with the e-mails.
the third estate sunday review
mark crispin miller
the new york times
democracy now
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amy goodman
danny schechter
naomi klein
now
cynthia mckinney
kim gandy
mike davis
athony fontenot
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Kat's Korner: A Time To Dance
Kat's Korner "A Time To Dance"
Diana Ross and I parted ways over Working Overtime. I could go with the new look (smudged make up, torn jeans) and could even take the jerky title track. What I couldn't take was an album that felt repeating a bromide over and over qualified for lyrics (and "meaning"). As high priestess of love, Diana didn't cut it. Apparently she's passed the robes to Stevie. They don't fit him any better than they did her.
I say that to say: Put on Stevie Wonder's A Time To Love to shake your ass.
Make that your priority and you can't go wrong.
I rushed to Tower the day A Time to Love came out and snapped up my copy. I went home and listened and was despondent to the point of contemplating if I should draw up a will? Then I threw a party and one of the albums playing was A Time to Love.
You can dance to this album.
That's no easy trick. With all the "beats" and name producers, the Disney Kids' hollow product still can't keep you dancing for an entire CD. Stevie is still the "Master Blaster." That's worth noting.
"So Kat, how come you ain't real high on the album?"
Well, for one thing, I've never been fond of romantic duets between father and daughter. Frank and Nancy Sinatra's "Something Stupid" was dubbed "the incest song." Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole carried on the tradition thanks to the "miracle" of techonology. "Unforgettable" stormed the charts but it was creepy as hell and played less like a tribute and more like a struggling artist's attempt to get a hit. (No, I don't mean Nat King Cole.)
On A Time To Love, "How Will I Know" carries on the creepy tradition. It's not a remake of the Whitney Houston hit which might make sense -- the father (Stevie) advising his daughter (Aisha Morris) to "trust your heart." Instead, they trade lines like "How will I know he loves me" and "How will I know she cares" which will creep you out unless you're from an extreme let-it-all-hang-out family.
Before the next parent-child duo contemplates recording a love duet, a bit of advice: DON'T!
That's not the only problem. "From The Bottom Of My Heart" attempts to build a song over a single musical hook. The problem with that is most of us already know "I Just Called To Say I Love You." If we want to hear that song, we'll listen to it.
At six minutes plus, "If Your Love Cannot Be Moved" tests your will if you're just listening. If you're dancing, you can get into the music and ignore the fact that Stevie's tossing off sentences the way INXS tosses flashcards in their video for "New Sensation" (which cribbed from Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" film footage). It adds up to nothing so move that rear and those feet but don't think.
You're better off not thinking throughout the album or you'll be depressed that, as Stevie Wonder runs through another decade as a recording artist, he has nothing to say lyrically.
Tuesday, I learned that a friend had joined the latest version of EST (you all probably know exactly what program I'm referring to). She was full of "You don't know what you don't know" and other drippy sayings that most of us burned out of our systems over bong hits in our teenage years.
I was with Maggie and Toni and we tried to show enthusiasm; however, as the woman continued saying the most trite things as though they possed levels and levels of meanings, Maggie began to giggle, then Toni, and finally I burst out laughing.
"You just don't get it!" the woman shouted storming off.
Yeah, we got it. Self-education for self-interest for the self-focused. Really juvenile. Most of us outgrow it. We look for connections via activism or religion or sex or some combination of the three. We don't sit in a room for hours with no bathroom breaks passing off trite as a journey.
Stevie may not have signed up for those courses but he could certainly teach them. "Love is all that matters" seems to be the theme of this album. It was a pretty good Diane Warren song. But for a man of Stevie Wonder's talents, and presumed wisdom, we expect a little more than greeting cards. There's no "Living for the City" here. There's no "Pastime Paradise" (though the music gets ripped off). The lyrics are the most basic, most banal you could imagine.
Look it, we do need more love today, no question. C.I. and I were at the same World Can't Wait rally and we were doing riffs on "World Can't Wait" ("She needs love"). But Stevie seems to use love in the most generic sense (and most obvious) while expecting the listeners to add their own meaning. Since the album comes with no Lyrics Helper, he's asking a lot.
By the last track on the album, the title song, you get the idea that maybe he should have taken a few more years on this album. The first song tries to say something, the last song is working towards something. It's about love for one another and our interconnectedness. But in the midst of these fifteen songs, Stevie wants to take a long, side trip into bland love celebrated by bland lyrics. (It's as though Stevie's been possed by Paul McCartney.)
"So Kat, you're saying stay away from this album?"
No. I'm saying get it for the music. This isn't sterile music. The lyrics are, but the music is full blooded, breathing. "Moon Blue" is probably the most effective marriage of lyrics and music but if you can ignore the other lyrics and focus on the music, you can really get into this album. Stevie's vocals are strong. He seems to have lost some of his soaring high notes (or is reluctant to use them) but there's a bottom to the voice that's firmer than anything you're probably used to from him.
Shake your ass and appreciate the fact that Stevie knows how to write music and knows how it should be performed.
Maybe after "As," "Supersition," "Pastime Paradise," "Isn't She Lovely," "Overjoyed," "Higher Ground," "That Girl" and assorted others, Stevie's said all he can lyrically?
Bruce Springsteen, though I love him, is not a singer like Stevie Wonder. He can't hide a clunker (such as when he sings one of his favorite phrases -- "wee wee hours"). One of the great joys of The Cowboy Junkies Early 21st Century Blues is hearing things in the lyrics to "Brothers Under The Bridge" and "You're Missing" that you didn't hear before. Margo Timmins haunting vocals add something to those songs. And I have to wonder what A Time To Love would have been like if Stevie had recorded one of those songs or Dylan's "License to Kill"? Or, for that matter, if he reteamed with Syreeta and let her provide some lyrics?
It'll make you sad if you start thinking about it too much (provided you're a Stevie Wonder fan -- I am), about how we've got two wars waging and we've got an administration and a Congress that seems completely uninterested in renewing the Voting Rights Act, a social net that's been brutalized and letting so many slip through, a war built upon lies, and all the fifty-five year old Stevie Wonder wants to write about is "You lift me to the sky/ When I'm flat on the ground" ("Tell Your Heart I Love You") and "Every time I thought I found you/ I was oh so wrong" ("True Love"). If a sixteen-year-old Debbie Gibson turned out these lyrics, you'd be embarrassed for her. Maybe the lyrical well's run dry, maybe he's a master teacher in the latest version of EST, or maybe he's suffering from a midlife crisis?
Whatever it is, the lyrics aren't worth your time. But if you pump up the bass, ignore the words and shake that ass, you can find hours of enjoyment in this album.
stevie wonder
a time to love
the cowboy junkies
cowboy junkies
diana ross
bruce springsteen
early 21st century blues
bob dylan
inxs
the third estate sunday review
kats korner
the common ills
Diana Ross and I parted ways over Working Overtime. I could go with the new look (smudged make up, torn jeans) and could even take the jerky title track. What I couldn't take was an album that felt repeating a bromide over and over qualified for lyrics (and "meaning"). As high priestess of love, Diana didn't cut it. Apparently she's passed the robes to Stevie. They don't fit him any better than they did her.
I say that to say: Put on Stevie Wonder's A Time To Love to shake your ass.
Make that your priority and you can't go wrong.
I rushed to Tower the day A Time to Love came out and snapped up my copy. I went home and listened and was despondent to the point of contemplating if I should draw up a will? Then I threw a party and one of the albums playing was A Time to Love.
You can dance to this album.
That's no easy trick. With all the "beats" and name producers, the Disney Kids' hollow product still can't keep you dancing for an entire CD. Stevie is still the "Master Blaster." That's worth noting.
"So Kat, how come you ain't real high on the album?"
Well, for one thing, I've never been fond of romantic duets between father and daughter. Frank and Nancy Sinatra's "Something Stupid" was dubbed "the incest song." Natalie Cole and Nat King Cole carried on the tradition thanks to the "miracle" of techonology. "Unforgettable" stormed the charts but it was creepy as hell and played less like a tribute and more like a struggling artist's attempt to get a hit. (No, I don't mean Nat King Cole.)
On A Time To Love, "How Will I Know" carries on the creepy tradition. It's not a remake of the Whitney Houston hit which might make sense -- the father (Stevie) advising his daughter (Aisha Morris) to "trust your heart." Instead, they trade lines like "How will I know he loves me" and "How will I know she cares" which will creep you out unless you're from an extreme let-it-all-hang-out family.
Before the next parent-child duo contemplates recording a love duet, a bit of advice: DON'T!
That's not the only problem. "From The Bottom Of My Heart" attempts to build a song over a single musical hook. The problem with that is most of us already know "I Just Called To Say I Love You." If we want to hear that song, we'll listen to it.
At six minutes plus, "If Your Love Cannot Be Moved" tests your will if you're just listening. If you're dancing, you can get into the music and ignore the fact that Stevie's tossing off sentences the way INXS tosses flashcards in their video for "New Sensation" (which cribbed from Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" film footage). It adds up to nothing so move that rear and those feet but don't think.
You're better off not thinking throughout the album or you'll be depressed that, as Stevie Wonder runs through another decade as a recording artist, he has nothing to say lyrically.
Tuesday, I learned that a friend had joined the latest version of EST (you all probably know exactly what program I'm referring to). She was full of "You don't know what you don't know" and other drippy sayings that most of us burned out of our systems over bong hits in our teenage years.
I was with Maggie and Toni and we tried to show enthusiasm; however, as the woman continued saying the most trite things as though they possed levels and levels of meanings, Maggie began to giggle, then Toni, and finally I burst out laughing.
"You just don't get it!" the woman shouted storming off.
Yeah, we got it. Self-education for self-interest for the self-focused. Really juvenile. Most of us outgrow it. We look for connections via activism or religion or sex or some combination of the three. We don't sit in a room for hours with no bathroom breaks passing off trite as a journey.
Stevie may not have signed up for those courses but he could certainly teach them. "Love is all that matters" seems to be the theme of this album. It was a pretty good Diane Warren song. But for a man of Stevie Wonder's talents, and presumed wisdom, we expect a little more than greeting cards. There's no "Living for the City" here. There's no "Pastime Paradise" (though the music gets ripped off). The lyrics are the most basic, most banal you could imagine.
Look it, we do need more love today, no question. C.I. and I were at the same World Can't Wait rally and we were doing riffs on "World Can't Wait" ("She needs love"). But Stevie seems to use love in the most generic sense (and most obvious) while expecting the listeners to add their own meaning. Since the album comes with no Lyrics Helper, he's asking a lot.
By the last track on the album, the title song, you get the idea that maybe he should have taken a few more years on this album. The first song tries to say something, the last song is working towards something. It's about love for one another and our interconnectedness. But in the midst of these fifteen songs, Stevie wants to take a long, side trip into bland love celebrated by bland lyrics. (It's as though Stevie's been possed by Paul McCartney.)
"So Kat, you're saying stay away from this album?"
No. I'm saying get it for the music. This isn't sterile music. The lyrics are, but the music is full blooded, breathing. "Moon Blue" is probably the most effective marriage of lyrics and music but if you can ignore the other lyrics and focus on the music, you can really get into this album. Stevie's vocals are strong. He seems to have lost some of his soaring high notes (or is reluctant to use them) but there's a bottom to the voice that's firmer than anything you're probably used to from him.
Shake your ass and appreciate the fact that Stevie knows how to write music and knows how it should be performed.
Maybe after "As," "Supersition," "Pastime Paradise," "Isn't She Lovely," "Overjoyed," "Higher Ground," "That Girl" and assorted others, Stevie's said all he can lyrically?
Bruce Springsteen, though I love him, is not a singer like Stevie Wonder. He can't hide a clunker (such as when he sings one of his favorite phrases -- "wee wee hours"). One of the great joys of The Cowboy Junkies Early 21st Century Blues is hearing things in the lyrics to "Brothers Under The Bridge" and "You're Missing" that you didn't hear before. Margo Timmins haunting vocals add something to those songs. And I have to wonder what A Time To Love would have been like if Stevie had recorded one of those songs or Dylan's "License to Kill"? Or, for that matter, if he reteamed with Syreeta and let her provide some lyrics?
It'll make you sad if you start thinking about it too much (provided you're a Stevie Wonder fan -- I am), about how we've got two wars waging and we've got an administration and a Congress that seems completely uninterested in renewing the Voting Rights Act, a social net that's been brutalized and letting so many slip through, a war built upon lies, and all the fifty-five year old Stevie Wonder wants to write about is "You lift me to the sky/ When I'm flat on the ground" ("Tell Your Heart I Love You") and "Every time I thought I found you/ I was oh so wrong" ("True Love"). If a sixteen-year-old Debbie Gibson turned out these lyrics, you'd be embarrassed for her. Maybe the lyrical well's run dry, maybe he's a master teacher in the latest version of EST, or maybe he's suffering from a midlife crisis?
Whatever it is, the lyrics aren't worth your time. But if you pump up the bass, ignore the words and shake that ass, you can find hours of enjoyment in this album.
stevie wonder
a time to love
the cowboy junkies
cowboy junkies
diana ross
bruce springsteen
early 21st century blues
bob dylan
inxs
the third estate sunday review
kats korner
the common ills
Other Items
Wynann e-mails to note Stephen Labaton's "Broadcasting Ex-Chairman Is Removed From Board" in the New York Times about Kenny Tomlinson being forced of the CPB board:
The move came after the board began reviewing a confidential report by the inspector general of the corporation into accusations about Mr. Tomlinson's use of corporation money to promote more conservative programming.
They included Mr. Tomlinson's decision to hire a researcher to monitor the political leanings of guests on the public policy program "Now" with Bill Moyers; his use of a White House official to set up an ombudsman's office to scrutinize programs for political balance; and secret payments approved by Mr. Tomlinson to two Republican lobbyists.
The move - and a statement by the corporation - strongly suggested that the inspector general discovered significant problems under Mr. Tomlinson, but officials at the corporation declined to discuss those findings. Board members who had copies of the report declined to discuss it, citing confidentiality agreements.
The statement said the board did not believe that Mr. Tomlinson "acted maliciously or with any intent to harm C.P.B. or public broadcasting." The statement also said Mr. Tomlinson "strongly disputes the findings" in the report.
If he wasn't attempting to harm it and he was acting maliciously, his behavior may be explained by the fact that he's "appalling inappropriate" and a "jerk" (to quote the Times' Deborah Solomon -- July/August 2005, CJR, "Turning The Tables On The Q&A Queen" by Kathy Gilsinan).
Cory e-mails to note Philip Shenon's "DeLay Asked Lobbyist to Raise Money Through Charity:"
Representative Tom DeLay asked the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through a private charity controlled by Mr. Abramoff, an unusual request that led the lobbyist to try to gather at least $150,000 from his Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations, according to newly disclosed e-mail from the lobbyist's files.
The electronic messages from 2002, which refer to "Tom" and "Tom's requests," appear to be the clearest evidence to date of an effort by Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, to pressure Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying partners to raise money for him. The e-mail messages do not specify why Mr. DeLay wanted the money, how it was to be used or why he would want money raised through the auspices of a private charity.
"Did you get the message from the guys that Tom wants us to raise some bucks from Capital Athletic Foundation?" Mr. Abramoff asked a colleague in a message on June 6, 2002, referring to the charity. "I have six clients in for $25K. I recommend we hit everyone who cares about Tom's requests. I have another few to hit still."
Lloyd e-mails to note Matthew Rothschild's "Rosa Parks, Hillary Clinton, and Iraq" (This Just In, The Progressive):
When Hillary Clinton strode to the podium at Rosa Parks’s funeral, she was greeted as the Presidential heir apparent.
But she hasn’t earned that role, and she pales in any comparison between her and Rosa Parks.
On the pivotal issue of her day, Rosa Parks rose to the challenge.
On the pivotal issue of our day, Hillary Clinton has shrunk from it.
That issue, of course, is the Iraq War, which Hillary voted for in the first place. And unlike John Kerry and some other Senators who have since come to their senses, Hillary is still in favor of the Iraq War, 2,000 dead U.S. soldiers later,15,000 wounded U.S. soldiers later, and maybe 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians later.
How many lives is she willing to sacrifice on the altar of her ambition?
Unlike Rosa Parks, Hillary is not taking a courageous stand on principle. She is engaging in a narrow, opportunistic calculus of political advantage.
I think her math is off.
I believe a Democrat with guts to oppose this war can win in 2008.
But Hillary is under the sway of the same hypnotic triangulators who trained her husband.
These are the ideologues of the immoral middle.
Rachel e-mails to note Tom Engelhardt's "'Hotel Journalism' Not the Essence of What's Happening in Iraq" (Common Dreams):
Increasingly, the fixers and translators have morphed into journalists -- and brave ones at that -- while services like Knight Ridder (whose coverage of Iraq has been outstanding) and Reuters have been hiring Iraqi reporters. Some of these reporters have then found themselves in American jails for covering the Iraqi insurgents; and almost 40 of them have died (without much note in our press) reporting the occupation and the insurgency -- as well as one, Yasser Salihee, evidently killed by an American sniper while driving to get gas on his day off in the low-level war zone that is much of Iraq. Some of them, like photographer and reporter Ghaith Abdul Ahad, given a chance to write under their own names in major papers, have done extraordinary and daring work.
With rare exceptions -- including the Washington Post's remarkable Anthony Shadid (now in Syria), whose dramatic book on his time in Iraq, Night Draws Near, reflects his superb reporting -- American reporters may be almost as crippled by not being Arabic-speakers as by the dangers of Iraq. It remains an amazing fact that an American occupation which began largely without Arabic-speakers -- it was going to be too easy to stock up on people who actually spoke the language -- has since been covered in our press mainly by reporters who can't communicate directly with the people they're covering (unless, of course, they happen to speak English).
Still, there can be little question that in Iraq (and possibly elsewhere) the nature of war reporting is undergoing some kind of sea change. Iraq is a war in which correspondents disappear into detention or die not because they are covering dangerous events and happen to be caught in a crossfire, but because they are often prime targets themselves -- of guerrillas and terrorists, of gangs of for-profit kidnappers, or of the American military. As a result, the war (and the Iraq) we see in our newspapers, and especially on our television sets, is a distinctly constricted one, often hardly wider than the nearest giant American military base or Baghdad's well-fortified Green Zone. Perhaps reporters, bearded or not, slipping by as anonymously as possible or in heavily armed security convoys, embedded with American or even Iraqi troops, can make it to spots around Baghdad, or, on rare occasions, elsewhere in the country (as part of military operations), but even for the bravest Western journalists, this has to be a desperately limiting situation.
Rod e-mails to note the scheduled topics for today's Democracy Now!:
* Was the 2004 Election Stolen? A discussion with Mark Crispin Miller (author of the new book "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too") and investigative reporterMark Hertsgaard.
* President Bush heads to Argentina where he is expected to be met by massive protests against U.S. trade policy.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
tom engelhardt
matthew rothschild
stephen labaton
mark crispin miller
The move came after the board began reviewing a confidential report by the inspector general of the corporation into accusations about Mr. Tomlinson's use of corporation money to promote more conservative programming.
They included Mr. Tomlinson's decision to hire a researcher to monitor the political leanings of guests on the public policy program "Now" with Bill Moyers; his use of a White House official to set up an ombudsman's office to scrutinize programs for political balance; and secret payments approved by Mr. Tomlinson to two Republican lobbyists.
The move - and a statement by the corporation - strongly suggested that the inspector general discovered significant problems under Mr. Tomlinson, but officials at the corporation declined to discuss those findings. Board members who had copies of the report declined to discuss it, citing confidentiality agreements.
The statement said the board did not believe that Mr. Tomlinson "acted maliciously or with any intent to harm C.P.B. or public broadcasting." The statement also said Mr. Tomlinson "strongly disputes the findings" in the report.
If he wasn't attempting to harm it and he was acting maliciously, his behavior may be explained by the fact that he's "appalling inappropriate" and a "jerk" (to quote the Times' Deborah Solomon -- July/August 2005, CJR, "Turning The Tables On The Q&A Queen" by Kathy Gilsinan).
Cory e-mails to note Philip Shenon's "DeLay Asked Lobbyist to Raise Money Through Charity:"
Representative Tom DeLay asked the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through a private charity controlled by Mr. Abramoff, an unusual request that led the lobbyist to try to gather at least $150,000 from his Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations, according to newly disclosed e-mail from the lobbyist's files.
The electronic messages from 2002, which refer to "Tom" and "Tom's requests," appear to be the clearest evidence to date of an effort by Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, to pressure Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying partners to raise money for him. The e-mail messages do not specify why Mr. DeLay wanted the money, how it was to be used or why he would want money raised through the auspices of a private charity.
"Did you get the message from the guys that Tom wants us to raise some bucks from Capital Athletic Foundation?" Mr. Abramoff asked a colleague in a message on June 6, 2002, referring to the charity. "I have six clients in for $25K. I recommend we hit everyone who cares about Tom's requests. I have another few to hit still."
Lloyd e-mails to note Matthew Rothschild's "Rosa Parks, Hillary Clinton, and Iraq" (This Just In, The Progressive):
When Hillary Clinton strode to the podium at Rosa Parks’s funeral, she was greeted as the Presidential heir apparent.
But she hasn’t earned that role, and she pales in any comparison between her and Rosa Parks.
On the pivotal issue of her day, Rosa Parks rose to the challenge.
On the pivotal issue of our day, Hillary Clinton has shrunk from it.
That issue, of course, is the Iraq War, which Hillary voted for in the first place. And unlike John Kerry and some other Senators who have since come to their senses, Hillary is still in favor of the Iraq War, 2,000 dead U.S. soldiers later,15,000 wounded U.S. soldiers later, and maybe 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians later.
How many lives is she willing to sacrifice on the altar of her ambition?
Unlike Rosa Parks, Hillary is not taking a courageous stand on principle. She is engaging in a narrow, opportunistic calculus of political advantage.
I think her math is off.
I believe a Democrat with guts to oppose this war can win in 2008.
But Hillary is under the sway of the same hypnotic triangulators who trained her husband.
These are the ideologues of the immoral middle.
Rachel e-mails to note Tom Engelhardt's "'Hotel Journalism' Not the Essence of What's Happening in Iraq" (Common Dreams):
Increasingly, the fixers and translators have morphed into journalists -- and brave ones at that -- while services like Knight Ridder (whose coverage of Iraq has been outstanding) and Reuters have been hiring Iraqi reporters. Some of these reporters have then found themselves in American jails for covering the Iraqi insurgents; and almost 40 of them have died (without much note in our press) reporting the occupation and the insurgency -- as well as one, Yasser Salihee, evidently killed by an American sniper while driving to get gas on his day off in the low-level war zone that is much of Iraq. Some of them, like photographer and reporter Ghaith Abdul Ahad, given a chance to write under their own names in major papers, have done extraordinary and daring work.
With rare exceptions -- including the Washington Post's remarkable Anthony Shadid (now in Syria), whose dramatic book on his time in Iraq, Night Draws Near, reflects his superb reporting -- American reporters may be almost as crippled by not being Arabic-speakers as by the dangers of Iraq. It remains an amazing fact that an American occupation which began largely without Arabic-speakers -- it was going to be too easy to stock up on people who actually spoke the language -- has since been covered in our press mainly by reporters who can't communicate directly with the people they're covering (unless, of course, they happen to speak English).
Still, there can be little question that in Iraq (and possibly elsewhere) the nature of war reporting is undergoing some kind of sea change. Iraq is a war in which correspondents disappear into detention or die not because they are covering dangerous events and happen to be caught in a crossfire, but because they are often prime targets themselves -- of guerrillas and terrorists, of gangs of for-profit kidnappers, or of the American military. As a result, the war (and the Iraq) we see in our newspapers, and especially on our television sets, is a distinctly constricted one, often hardly wider than the nearest giant American military base or Baghdad's well-fortified Green Zone. Perhaps reporters, bearded or not, slipping by as anonymously as possible or in heavily armed security convoys, embedded with American or even Iraqi troops, can make it to spots around Baghdad, or, on rare occasions, elsewhere in the country (as part of military operations), but even for the bravest Western journalists, this has to be a desperately limiting situation.
Rod e-mails to note the scheduled topics for today's Democracy Now!:
* Was the 2004 Election Stolen? A discussion with Mark Crispin Miller (author of the new book "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too") and investigative reporterMark Hertsgaard.
* President Bush heads to Argentina where he is expected to be met by massive protests against U.S. trade policy.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
tom engelhardt
matthew rothschild
stephen labaton
mark crispin miller
NYT: "Former Cheney Aide Enters Not-Guilty Plea in Leak Charges" (Eric Lichtblau)
Lawyers for Mr. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, signaled at his arraignment on a five-count indictment that they would also seek to raise First Amendment issues in his defense.
The lawyers would not expand on their strategy, but legal analysts said the defense might be planning to seek access to reporters' notes regarding the leaking of a C.I.A. officer's identity. That would set the stage for another round of confrontations with journalists who have proved central to the investigation.
Complicating the case still further is what the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, told the judge on Thursday was a "voluminous" amount of classified material related to the investigation. The process of declassifying that material, blacking out especially secret material, and granting Mr. Libby's new defense lawyers security clearance to review it is likely to take months, lawyers said.
The day's events dampened hopes among some Republicans for a quick resolution to a case that has already cast a long shadow over the White House. Immediately after the arraignment, Mr. Libby's lawyers sought to quell any speculation about a possible plea deal to resolve the politically volatile case.
The above is from Eric Lichtblau's "Former Cheney Aide Enters Not-Guilty Plea in Leak Charges" in this morning's New York Times. Charlie e-mails to note it as his pick for the best article in the paper this morning.
The worst?
It's always a crowded field. But this morning, let's go with Elaine Sciolino's "Italy's Top Spy Names Freelance Agent as Source of Forged Niger-Iraq Uranium Documents:"
Italy's spymaster identified an Italian occasional spy named Rocco Martino on Thursday as the disseminator of forged documents that described efforts by Iraq to buy uranium ore from Niger for a nuclear weapons program, three lawmakers said Thursday.
The spymaster, Gen. Nicolò Pollari, director of the Italian military intelligence agency known as Sismi, disclosed that Mr. Martino was the source of the forged documents in closed-door testimony to a parliamentary committee that oversees secret services, the lawmakers said.
Sciolino has a curious summary of the three part series in La Republicca. It's not the way I read the series. Granted, it's been many years since I studied the romance languages. But the series
mentions Judith Miller. Where is Judith Miller mentioned in Sciolino's article?
The series mentions Miller (and Michael Gordon) New York Times' article on the aluminum tubes and puts that (false) story into perspective. The Times article today doesn't. And what of the vast details on Larry Franklin and fellow AEI buddy Michael Ledeen as well as Harold Rhode? Was Sciolino's article butchered in the editing stage? Did she cover her bases? Why does the Times think it's okay to crib from La Repubblica yet omit key details (including comments on the Times)? Is it a mistake or is it the Times yet again trying to soft pedal a story and play the readers for idiots?
I thought the new tone, coming from Keller, was to seriously address the problems with Miller's reporting. Here Sciolino has the perfect opportunity to correct one false story (aluminum tubes) the Times (and Miller and Gordon) ran with -- and she can couch it with another paper. So why is it absent from Sciolino's article?
We'll note Rory O'Connor's "Mr. Inside Goes to Washington" (Rory O'Connor's Media Is Plural, Media Channel):
Here's a quick quiz for all you Plamegame experts: What actually are the Justice Department regulations regarding the appointment of 'special' prosecutors such as Patrick Fitzgerald?
Here's a hint: DOJ's own rules were ignored in December, 2003 by then Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey when (acting on behalf of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who recused himself owing to past ties with presidential adviser Karl Rove) Comey gave the special counsel job to his old pal Fitzgerald.
Still stumped? Okay, let me tell you. Federal rules (namely Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 600.3) require the appointment of a prosecutor "selected from outside the United States government." As United States Attorney in Chicago - one of the Bush Administration's top Justice representatives in the Midwest - Fitzgerald hardly qualifies.
Comey was obviously aware of what he was doing when he ignored the rules to appoint Fitzgerald. In fact, when asked by Fitzgerald for clarification, Comey wrote in February 2004 that his conferral to Fitzgerald of the title Special Counsel "should not be misunderstood to suggest that your position and authorities are defined and limited" by the relevant regulation.
Since that regulation stipulates that the ranks of federal prosecutors (like Fitzgerald) should be the last place to look for a special prosecutor, one must wonder: Why was Fitzgerald chosen? After all, the regulations were put in place, and prosecutors like Fitzgerald disqualified, so as to avoid any potential or perceived conflict of interest that might be created by having a member of any given presidential administration investigate that same administration.
Yet those rules were ignored by the Bush Justice Department, and the Bush Administration thus ended up with its own 'inside' man running the investigation. To date, that investigation has yielded only the minimum that would forestall a firestorm of criticism - the indictment of Scooter Libby on charges of covering up a crime that apparently never happened. No Karl Rove, no Dick Cheney, not even any answers to the most basic questions underlying the entire affair -- who revealed Valerie Plame's secret identity, and was that in itself a criminal act?
Terrance e-mails to note William Greider's "All the King's Media" (The Nation):
We are witnessing, I suspect, something more momentous than the disgrace of another American President. Watergate was red hot, but always about Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon. This convergence of scandal and failure seems more systemic, less personal. The new political force for change is not the squeamish opposition party called the Democrats but a common disgust and anger at the sordidness embedded in our dysfunctional democracy. The wake from that disgust may prove broader than Watergate's (when democracy was supposedly restored by Nixon's exit), because the anger is also splashing over once-trusted elements of the establishment.
Heroic truth-tellers in the Watergate saga, the established media are now in disrepute, scandalized by unreliable "news" and over-intimate attachments to powerful court insiders. The major media stood too close to the throne, deferred too eagerly to the king's twisted version of reality and his lust for war. The institutions of "news" failed democracy on monumental matters. In fact, the contemporary system looks a lot more like the ancien régime than its practitioners realize. Control is top-down and centralized. Information is shaped (and tainted) by the proximity of leading news-gatherers to the royal court and by their great distance from people and ordinary experience.
People do find ways to inform themselves, as best they can, when the regular "news" is not reliable. In prerevolutionary France, independent newspapers were illegal--forbidden by the king--and books and pamphlets, rigorously censored by the government. Yet people developed a complex shadow system by which they learned what was really going on--the news that did not appear in official court pronouncements and privileged publications. Cultural historian Robert Darnton, in brilliantly original works like The Literary Underground of the Old Regime, has mapped the informal but politically potent news system by which Parisians of high and low status circulated court secrets or consumed the scandalous books known as libelles, along with subversive songs, poems and gossip, often leaked from within the king's own circle. News traveled in widening circles. Parisians gathered in favored cafes, designated park benches or exclusive salons, where the forbidden information was read aloud and copied by others to pass along. Parisians could choose for themselves which reality they believed. The power of the French throne was effectively finished, one might say, once the king lost control of the news. (It was his successor, Louis XVI, who lost his head.)
Rod e-mails to note today's scheduled topics for Democracy Now!:
* Was the 2004 Election Stolen? A discussion with Mark Crispin Miller (author of the new book "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too") and investigative reporter Mark Hertsgaard.
* President Bush heads to Argentina where he is expected to be met by massive protests against U.S. trade policy.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
rory o/'connor
rory oconnor
william greider
eric lichtblau
judith miller
elaine sciolino
mark crispin miller
The lawyers would not expand on their strategy, but legal analysts said the defense might be planning to seek access to reporters' notes regarding the leaking of a C.I.A. officer's identity. That would set the stage for another round of confrontations with journalists who have proved central to the investigation.
Complicating the case still further is what the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, told the judge on Thursday was a "voluminous" amount of classified material related to the investigation. The process of declassifying that material, blacking out especially secret material, and granting Mr. Libby's new defense lawyers security clearance to review it is likely to take months, lawyers said.
The day's events dampened hopes among some Republicans for a quick resolution to a case that has already cast a long shadow over the White House. Immediately after the arraignment, Mr. Libby's lawyers sought to quell any speculation about a possible plea deal to resolve the politically volatile case.
The above is from Eric Lichtblau's "Former Cheney Aide Enters Not-Guilty Plea in Leak Charges" in this morning's New York Times. Charlie e-mails to note it as his pick for the best article in the paper this morning.
The worst?
It's always a crowded field. But this morning, let's go with Elaine Sciolino's "Italy's Top Spy Names Freelance Agent as Source of Forged Niger-Iraq Uranium Documents:"
Italy's spymaster identified an Italian occasional spy named Rocco Martino on Thursday as the disseminator of forged documents that described efforts by Iraq to buy uranium ore from Niger for a nuclear weapons program, three lawmakers said Thursday.
The spymaster, Gen. Nicolò Pollari, director of the Italian military intelligence agency known as Sismi, disclosed that Mr. Martino was the source of the forged documents in closed-door testimony to a parliamentary committee that oversees secret services, the lawmakers said.
Sciolino has a curious summary of the three part series in La Republicca. It's not the way I read the series. Granted, it's been many years since I studied the romance languages. But the series
mentions Judith Miller. Where is Judith Miller mentioned in Sciolino's article?
The series mentions Miller (and Michael Gordon) New York Times' article on the aluminum tubes and puts that (false) story into perspective. The Times article today doesn't. And what of the vast details on Larry Franklin and fellow AEI buddy Michael Ledeen as well as Harold Rhode? Was Sciolino's article butchered in the editing stage? Did she cover her bases? Why does the Times think it's okay to crib from La Repubblica yet omit key details (including comments on the Times)? Is it a mistake or is it the Times yet again trying to soft pedal a story and play the readers for idiots?
I thought the new tone, coming from Keller, was to seriously address the problems with Miller's reporting. Here Sciolino has the perfect opportunity to correct one false story (aluminum tubes) the Times (and Miller and Gordon) ran with -- and she can couch it with another paper. So why is it absent from Sciolino's article?
We'll note Rory O'Connor's "Mr. Inside Goes to Washington" (Rory O'Connor's Media Is Plural, Media Channel):
Here's a quick quiz for all you Plamegame experts: What actually are the Justice Department regulations regarding the appointment of 'special' prosecutors such as Patrick Fitzgerald?
Here's a hint: DOJ's own rules were ignored in December, 2003 by then Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey when (acting on behalf of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who recused himself owing to past ties with presidential adviser Karl Rove) Comey gave the special counsel job to his old pal Fitzgerald.
Still stumped? Okay, let me tell you. Federal rules (namely Title 28 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 600.3) require the appointment of a prosecutor "selected from outside the United States government." As United States Attorney in Chicago - one of the Bush Administration's top Justice representatives in the Midwest - Fitzgerald hardly qualifies.
Comey was obviously aware of what he was doing when he ignored the rules to appoint Fitzgerald. In fact, when asked by Fitzgerald for clarification, Comey wrote in February 2004 that his conferral to Fitzgerald of the title Special Counsel "should not be misunderstood to suggest that your position and authorities are defined and limited" by the relevant regulation.
Since that regulation stipulates that the ranks of federal prosecutors (like Fitzgerald) should be the last place to look for a special prosecutor, one must wonder: Why was Fitzgerald chosen? After all, the regulations were put in place, and prosecutors like Fitzgerald disqualified, so as to avoid any potential or perceived conflict of interest that might be created by having a member of any given presidential administration investigate that same administration.
Yet those rules were ignored by the Bush Justice Department, and the Bush Administration thus ended up with its own 'inside' man running the investigation. To date, that investigation has yielded only the minimum that would forestall a firestorm of criticism - the indictment of Scooter Libby on charges of covering up a crime that apparently never happened. No Karl Rove, no Dick Cheney, not even any answers to the most basic questions underlying the entire affair -- who revealed Valerie Plame's secret identity, and was that in itself a criminal act?
Terrance e-mails to note William Greider's "All the King's Media" (The Nation):
We are witnessing, I suspect, something more momentous than the disgrace of another American President. Watergate was red hot, but always about Richard Nixon, Richard Nixon. This convergence of scandal and failure seems more systemic, less personal. The new political force for change is not the squeamish opposition party called the Democrats but a common disgust and anger at the sordidness embedded in our dysfunctional democracy. The wake from that disgust may prove broader than Watergate's (when democracy was supposedly restored by Nixon's exit), because the anger is also splashing over once-trusted elements of the establishment.
Heroic truth-tellers in the Watergate saga, the established media are now in disrepute, scandalized by unreliable "news" and over-intimate attachments to powerful court insiders. The major media stood too close to the throne, deferred too eagerly to the king's twisted version of reality and his lust for war. The institutions of "news" failed democracy on monumental matters. In fact, the contemporary system looks a lot more like the ancien régime than its practitioners realize. Control is top-down and centralized. Information is shaped (and tainted) by the proximity of leading news-gatherers to the royal court and by their great distance from people and ordinary experience.
People do find ways to inform themselves, as best they can, when the regular "news" is not reliable. In prerevolutionary France, independent newspapers were illegal--forbidden by the king--and books and pamphlets, rigorously censored by the government. Yet people developed a complex shadow system by which they learned what was really going on--the news that did not appear in official court pronouncements and privileged publications. Cultural historian Robert Darnton, in brilliantly original works like The Literary Underground of the Old Regime, has mapped the informal but politically potent news system by which Parisians of high and low status circulated court secrets or consumed the scandalous books known as libelles, along with subversive songs, poems and gossip, often leaked from within the king's own circle. News traveled in widening circles. Parisians gathered in favored cafes, designated park benches or exclusive salons, where the forbidden information was read aloud and copied by others to pass along. Parisians could choose for themselves which reality they believed. The power of the French throne was effectively finished, one might say, once the king lost control of the news. (It was his successor, Louis XVI, who lost his head.)
Rod e-mails to note today's scheduled topics for Democracy Now!:
* Was the 2004 Election Stolen? A discussion with Mark Crispin Miller (author of the new book "Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election & Why They'll Steal the Next One Too") and investigative reporter Mark Hertsgaard.
* President Bush heads to Argentina where he is expected to be met by massive protests against U.S. trade policy.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
rory o/'connor
rory oconnor
william greider
eric lichtblau
judith miller
elaine sciolino
mark crispin miller
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Indymedia roundup
On November 8, the voters of New York City will elect a new mayor. Incumbent Republican Michael Bloomberg is being challenged by Democrat Fernando Ferrer. Also on the ballot are a half dozen minor party candidates, including Thomas Ognibene of the Conservative Party and Tony Gronowicz of the Green Party. By the time the race is over, Bloomberg, a billionaire media mogul, will have spent more than $100 million from his personal fortune, shattering all spending records for any elected office in the United States other than president. Ferrer, a veteran politician from one of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, is running a shoestring campaign in which he has been outspent by Bloomberg by an astounding 17-to-1.
Bloomberg's television and radio commercials have blanketed the airwaves for months in more than a half-dozen languages, so it should come as no surprise that public opinion polls show the mayor with a commanding lead.
A Ferrer victory would make him the first Latino mayor in New York history, and coming on the heels of Antonio Villaraigosa's successful run for mayor of Los Angeles earlier this year it would signal that the nation's exploding Latino population has begun to redefine and realign political power in urban America.
Throughout this long campaign, however, many progressive and liberal activists in the city, even in the African American and Latino communities, have sat on the sidelines or shown little enthusiasm for the Democratic challenger. Those progressives -- in an echo of Bloomberg's own campaign -- claim that Ferrer is a lackluster candidate and political hack. They view the current mayor as a political moderate who is a Republican in name only, who is more conciliatory to the city's Black, Brown and poor communities than his predecessor Rudy Giuliani, and thus they regard Bloomberg's re-election as acceptable, and largely inevitable, outcome. Most of the city's organized labor leaders have backed the Republican mayor, except for a handful of the most militant unions, such as the transit workers, the huge Local 1199, and the Professional Staff Congress, which are doggedly fighting to elect Ferrer.
To a large number of progressives there is no fundamental difference between Ferrer and Bloomberg.
That viewpoint, in my opinion, is profoundly mistaken.
I believe the New York mayoral race of 2005 -- a contest to control a government that employs some 300,000 workers and dispenses an annual budget of more than $50 billion -- is a pivotal battle for the city's workers and its middle class, for the nation's 40 million Latinos and for the future of all urban America.
Many well-meaning progressives, unfortunately, have yet to grasp the stakes in this race, and that failure is rooted in two persistent weaknesses of the progressive movement.
1. Class and racial divisions among progressives themselves;
2. Lack of any rigorous analysis of the economic and political forces that are rapidly
transforming everyday life in metropolitan America to the point that the the poor, racial minorities and sections of the working class are being systematically driven out of the central cities.
I do not say these things lightly.
As a journalist who has chronicled big city politics in this country for decades, as a Puerto Rican with long experience in movements for racial and ethnic equality, and as a labor activist who has consistently fought to revive the American trade union movement, I learned long ago that outward appearances are often deceiving, that the surface manifestations of any political process often mask powerful currents swirling below.
Yet I have been amazed at the virtual absence of dispassionate and comprehensive analysis about this election; an analysis grounded in facts, one that places the conflict in the context of broader historical patterns, that consistently asks: what is in the best interest of working people and the marginalized or oppressed groups of New York City? Once you begin to look at the mayoral race from that deeper perspective, you begin to realize that there have been few times in recent memory when an urban electorate faced such a clear class choice -- in the personalities of the candidates, their stands on the issues, and the forces they represent.
Jonah e-mails to note Juan Gonzalez's "Where Have All The Fighters Gone? An Analysis of New York City Mayoral Race of 2005" (NYC Indymedia). Thursday nights, indymedia roundup. And to listen, watch or read a transcript of more on this topic, refer to Amy Goodman's interview with Juan Gonzalez from Democracy Now! entitled "Where Have All the Fighters Gone? Juan Gonzalez Analyzes the New York City Mayoral Race."
Maria e-mails to note Steven T. Jones and Tim Redmond's "Party down: The GOP is in free fall, and it's time to take the country back" (San Francisco Bay Guardian News):
BASEBALL METAPHORS CAN be taken way too far. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald demonstrated that during the press conference he held on the criminal indictment of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide. In a long and drawn-out analogy involving a pitcher and a hit batter, Fitzgerald likened himself to an umpire who had "dust thrown in his eyes," claiming Libby's lies had made it hard for him to determine who should be indicted for the vengeful outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent.
So we hate to even mention that particular sport again. But prominent media critic Robert McChesney offered us a way of describing the prospects of the indictment that seems to capture this moment in history rather well. It addresses the question of whether the political system and mainstream media will seize on the information in Fitzgerald's 22-page indictment to finally hold the Bush administration responsible for the deliberate lies that got this country into the quagmire in Iraq.
"This is a slow fastball right over the heart of the plate," he said.
McChesney's latest book, coauthored with John Nichols, is called Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy. It's an insightful diagnosis of why the news media helped the Bush administration trick the country into going to war.
And McChesney isn't hopeful that journalists have their eyes on the ball, particularly after watching the media miss similar opportunities to show the people how they'd been lied to, including Richard Clarke's insider revelations of ulterior motives for invading Iraq, the Downing Street Memo's proof that biased intelligence on Iraq was being fabricated, and the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq.
"They've had plenty of opportunities to hit it out of the park," McChesney told us.
And once again this past week, we've seen an awful lot of newspapers and broadcast outlets swinging at air.
• • •
Let's be clear about what's in this indictment, something Fitzgerald couldn't say for legal reasons but that should be clear to journalists with open eyes and minds. The document cites sworn testimony that Libby, Cheney, "a senior official in the White House ['Official A']" – who recent press revelations indicate is almost certainly Karl Rove – and at least four other administration officials actively conspired to out Plame as an undercover CIA agent.
That conspiracy was born of a desire to discredit and punish her husband, Joseph Wilson, for exposing President George W. Bush as knowingly lying about Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear materials during his 2003 State of the Union speech.
Liang e-mails to note Quincey Jonez's "Campus Antiwar Network UC-Berkeley 2-Day Conference" (SF Indymedia):
On Saturday and Sunday (October 22 – 23) The University of California Berkeley hosted a two-day conference titled "On the Frontlines: Opinions for Youth in Times of War", which was co-sponsored by the Campus Antiwar Network and Military Out of Our Schools -- Bay Area. The scheduled activities for Saturday included workshop sessions, morning and afternoon plenary meetings as well as a Youth Concert. After arriving on campus, persons registered with the Conference and were given a schedule of events to attend during the course of the day’s events. One session titled "How to Counter Military Recruitment in High Schools" focused on a basic introduction about how the military recruits in public high schools, as well as strategies for counter recruitment given by several high school student activists. They described their attempts, successes and failures in mobilizing / educating their communities to resist temptations that the military promises new recruits. Kevin Ramirez of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO) outlined the 5 methods used by the military to recruit high school students on campus and how to combat them:
• The ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), a.k.a Military Eligibility Test, measures military occupation specialty or, which branch of the armed services the student is most applicable in. For the most part, this test is not explained to students before they take it, but is generally defined as a "career exploration program". Ramirez explained that a student can check Option 8 on the test, which will not send the student’s results to recruiters. He also said that students can refuse to take the test outright; but overall, more education about this test needs to get out to teachers, parents and students.
• JRTOC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Core) programs are nationwide, numbering over 3500 units. These programs bring students into the daily life of officers; learning tactics and military protocol. Local communities need to be opposed to these programs and learn as much about them as possible.
• The No Child Left Behind Act, specifically Section 9528 rule which forces schools to give student contact information to military recruiters or risk losing federal funding.. Since school funding is directly effected in regard to their compliance with the NCLB program, checking the "Opt Out" option can restrict a student's results from going to recruiters.
• Armed Services Recruiting Tables (Tabling) takes place in high schools and colleges nationwide. These Tabling groups are frequent and cover most campuses; the primary way to counter Tabling is to find out when they are coming to school. Setting up a counter-protest on those specific dates is the most potent way to combat Tabling. Equal Action Laws are required by law to provide students with facts on both sides of the issues. http://www.objector.org/moos/equal-access.html
• Recruit Support Battalions (RSBs) are new-wave techniques used by recruiters to provide hands-on activities to high school students. Some examples are portable rock-climbing walls and adventure vans, a.k.a. War Simulators that demonstrate how to use a M1 assault rifle. Again, the main way to counter these activities is to find out when and where these RSBs will be con campus.
After the CCCO presentation, high school students told their own stories about combating recruiters at their respective schools. One student from Rochester NY, Jerry, described how he and a group of students handed out flyers on campus and asked other kids how they felt about recruiter efforts at their school. They efforts were fairly successful because by teaching students about the "Opt-In / Opt-Out" policy in the No Child Left Behind Act, many students decided to "Opt-Out" of the program once they heard the truths behind the lies.
Another student, junior Rico Chenyek from Berkeley High School, described his own efforts. He organized a Social Action Committee which focused on social justice by having teach-ins on campus, educating the student body about the lies and truths of army recruiters. Once word-of-mouth spread, the turn outs became so large that his school scheduled a daylong event which included a graphic slideshow of the horrors of War.
Ruby Butler from the Youth Empowerment School described efforts to educate young people about military recruitment by creating a Jeopardy style game that included categories: Drafting & Conscientious Objectors, Recruitment Ploys, and Money for Soldiers. By dividing the group into two teams, the children were able to interact with each other when answering questions posed to them. This type of game was played at YMCAs and schools in Oakland.
Pru's items for Sunday were waiting for tonight but she found two things she'd rather highlight.
From The Socialist Worker, Charlie Kimber's "David Blunkett's resignation and arrogance of the Blair set:"
The resignation of work and pensions secretary David Blunkett is a further sign of the decay of the Blair regime. Almost daily there is a sense that this rotten government is being run from an embattled bunker where all but the most faithful have departed and even the previously loyal acolytes have slunk away or engaged in self-destructive behaviour.
It is the Iraq war which, above all else, has sunk Blair. As the wound of the war refuses to heal, his government becomes more bizarrely out of touch over everything.
Blunkett embodies the arrogance of the Blair set. He revelled in his reputation for standing with the police and harrying asylum seekers. Most recently he declared that the benefit system was "crackers" and that incapacity claimants should stop watching daytime television.
If one event sums-up his attitude it was in 2002 when 80 Asians in Bradford were convicted for daring to defend their community from Nazi-inspired attacks. Then home secretary Blunkett described those jailed as "maniacs" who should stop "whining" about their sentences and attacked the "bleeding heart liberals" who questioned the length of the prison terms.
Just like Peter Mandelson's demise in British politics, Blunkett's fall is an indication of the way New Labour ministers have fallen in love with the lifestyles of the rich. It is nothing new for Labour leaders to crawl to the wealthy and beg invitations to their parties and their villas.
But New Labour has taken this to a new height. An openly pro-business party can brazenly consort with those who used to be regarded as the party's enemies.
Blunkett, with his relationship with the publisher of right-wing magazine The Spectator and his honorary membership of Annabel's club, fell in with a rich set. But to live like then he needed far more than his ministerial salary of £130,347, and it was disaster when he was reduced to a backbencher on just £57,500.
Within weeks of being forced to resign from the cabinet he picked up a slew of jobs, consultancies and after-dinner speaking engagements which together paid £70,000.
His first employer, Indepen, tells privatised utility firms how to deal with government regulators. Blunkett was paid over £15,000 for seminars on "his perspective on government and how government works".
Then just before the election, he was hired by DNA Structures Ltd, a firm that trades as DNA Bioscience and markets paternity test kits. He bought 12 shares in the firm for £15,000 which, according to some financial experts, would have been worth £500,000 if the company had won the contracts which enabled it to be floated as a public company.
He didn’t even bother to follow the code which says he should declare such jobs, with their potential conflict of interest.
Now his failures have caught up with him. The end of the Blair regime cannot come soon enough.
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Pru also notes Anindya Bhattacharyya's "Guilty men are in the White House: Warmongers trapped by Iraq lies" (The Socialist Worker):
George Bush's tower of lies over Iraq is threatening to come crashing down around his ears.
A senior White House official -- Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- was indicted on five counts on Friday of last week by a US special investigator.
Libby was a key architect of the war in Iraq and, as the New York Times wrote last week, "had the exalted position of being a full member of president Bush's inner circle, holding three pivotal jobs at once -- assistant to the president, chief of staff to the vice president and Dick Cheney's national security adviser".
He now faces charges of perjury, obstruction and making false statements -- which could land him in jail for 30 years.
The fall of Libby was the heaviest of a series of blows that rocked the White House. On Tuesday of last week, two and a half years after the invasion of Iraq began, it was announced that the total number of US troops killed in Iraq had reached the 2,000 mark. The 2,000th GI fell in Vietnam in 1965, six years after the first two Americans were killed in a guerrilla attack.
Libby’s indictment stems from the lies spread by the Bush administration — with Tony Blair’s connivance -- in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. He used forged documents to claim Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy nuclear material from Niger, and then conspired to destroy those who revealed his lies.
The US media is speculating over whether the scandal will spread to implicate Karl Rove, Bush's right hand man, and even the president himself.
And polls now show that 54 percent of Americans believe Bush was wrong to invade Iraq -- up from 24 percent in March 2003.
Meanwhile the White House is desperately trying to rescue Bush's reputation.
That's what is behind his cronies' attempts to distract attention by recycling discredited allegations against George Galloway.
But with Bush in trouble, campaigners are stepping up the pressure to get the troops out of Iraq.
sign up for INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCESaturday 10 December, 10amWith delegates from Iraq & USRoyal Horticultural Hall80 Vincent Square,
London SW1for more info go to www.stopwar.org.uk
For more on anti-war campaigning go to 'Let's keep fighting to get our boys home'
© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.
If you found this article useful please help us maintain SW by supporting our » appeal.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
democracy now
juan gonzalez
amy goodman
indymedia
nyc indymedia
the socialist worker
quincey jonez
steven t. jones
tim redmond
charlie kimber
anindya bhattacharyya
Bloomberg's television and radio commercials have blanketed the airwaves for months in more than a half-dozen languages, so it should come as no surprise that public opinion polls show the mayor with a commanding lead.
A Ferrer victory would make him the first Latino mayor in New York history, and coming on the heels of Antonio Villaraigosa's successful run for mayor of Los Angeles earlier this year it would signal that the nation's exploding Latino population has begun to redefine and realign political power in urban America.
Throughout this long campaign, however, many progressive and liberal activists in the city, even in the African American and Latino communities, have sat on the sidelines or shown little enthusiasm for the Democratic challenger. Those progressives -- in an echo of Bloomberg's own campaign -- claim that Ferrer is a lackluster candidate and political hack. They view the current mayor as a political moderate who is a Republican in name only, who is more conciliatory to the city's Black, Brown and poor communities than his predecessor Rudy Giuliani, and thus they regard Bloomberg's re-election as acceptable, and largely inevitable, outcome. Most of the city's organized labor leaders have backed the Republican mayor, except for a handful of the most militant unions, such as the transit workers, the huge Local 1199, and the Professional Staff Congress, which are doggedly fighting to elect Ferrer.
To a large number of progressives there is no fundamental difference between Ferrer and Bloomberg.
That viewpoint, in my opinion, is profoundly mistaken.
I believe the New York mayoral race of 2005 -- a contest to control a government that employs some 300,000 workers and dispenses an annual budget of more than $50 billion -- is a pivotal battle for the city's workers and its middle class, for the nation's 40 million Latinos and for the future of all urban America.
Many well-meaning progressives, unfortunately, have yet to grasp the stakes in this race, and that failure is rooted in two persistent weaknesses of the progressive movement.
1. Class and racial divisions among progressives themselves;
2. Lack of any rigorous analysis of the economic and political forces that are rapidly
transforming everyday life in metropolitan America to the point that the the poor, racial minorities and sections of the working class are being systematically driven out of the central cities.
I do not say these things lightly.
As a journalist who has chronicled big city politics in this country for decades, as a Puerto Rican with long experience in movements for racial and ethnic equality, and as a labor activist who has consistently fought to revive the American trade union movement, I learned long ago that outward appearances are often deceiving, that the surface manifestations of any political process often mask powerful currents swirling below.
Yet I have been amazed at the virtual absence of dispassionate and comprehensive analysis about this election; an analysis grounded in facts, one that places the conflict in the context of broader historical patterns, that consistently asks: what is in the best interest of working people and the marginalized or oppressed groups of New York City? Once you begin to look at the mayoral race from that deeper perspective, you begin to realize that there have been few times in recent memory when an urban electorate faced such a clear class choice -- in the personalities of the candidates, their stands on the issues, and the forces they represent.
Jonah e-mails to note Juan Gonzalez's "Where Have All The Fighters Gone? An Analysis of New York City Mayoral Race of 2005" (NYC Indymedia). Thursday nights, indymedia roundup. And to listen, watch or read a transcript of more on this topic, refer to Amy Goodman's interview with Juan Gonzalez from Democracy Now! entitled "Where Have All the Fighters Gone? Juan Gonzalez Analyzes the New York City Mayoral Race."
Maria e-mails to note Steven T. Jones and Tim Redmond's "Party down: The GOP is in free fall, and it's time to take the country back" (San Francisco Bay Guardian News):
BASEBALL METAPHORS CAN be taken way too far. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald demonstrated that during the press conference he held on the criminal indictment of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide. In a long and drawn-out analogy involving a pitcher and a hit batter, Fitzgerald likened himself to an umpire who had "dust thrown in his eyes," claiming Libby's lies had made it hard for him to determine who should be indicted for the vengeful outing of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent.
So we hate to even mention that particular sport again. But prominent media critic Robert McChesney offered us a way of describing the prospects of the indictment that seems to capture this moment in history rather well. It addresses the question of whether the political system and mainstream media will seize on the information in Fitzgerald's 22-page indictment to finally hold the Bush administration responsible for the deliberate lies that got this country into the quagmire in Iraq.
"This is a slow fastball right over the heart of the plate," he said.
McChesney's latest book, coauthored with John Nichols, is called Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy. It's an insightful diagnosis of why the news media helped the Bush administration trick the country into going to war.
And McChesney isn't hopeful that journalists have their eyes on the ball, particularly after watching the media miss similar opportunities to show the people how they'd been lied to, including Richard Clarke's insider revelations of ulterior motives for invading Iraq, the Downing Street Memo's proof that biased intelligence on Iraq was being fabricated, and the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq.
"They've had plenty of opportunities to hit it out of the park," McChesney told us.
And once again this past week, we've seen an awful lot of newspapers and broadcast outlets swinging at air.
• • •
Let's be clear about what's in this indictment, something Fitzgerald couldn't say for legal reasons but that should be clear to journalists with open eyes and minds. The document cites sworn testimony that Libby, Cheney, "a senior official in the White House ['Official A']" – who recent press revelations indicate is almost certainly Karl Rove – and at least four other administration officials actively conspired to out Plame as an undercover CIA agent.
That conspiracy was born of a desire to discredit and punish her husband, Joseph Wilson, for exposing President George W. Bush as knowingly lying about Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear materials during his 2003 State of the Union speech.
Liang e-mails to note Quincey Jonez's "Campus Antiwar Network UC-Berkeley 2-Day Conference" (SF Indymedia):
On Saturday and Sunday (October 22 – 23) The University of California Berkeley hosted a two-day conference titled "On the Frontlines: Opinions for Youth in Times of War", which was co-sponsored by the Campus Antiwar Network and Military Out of Our Schools -- Bay Area. The scheduled activities for Saturday included workshop sessions, morning and afternoon plenary meetings as well as a Youth Concert. After arriving on campus, persons registered with the Conference and were given a schedule of events to attend during the course of the day’s events. One session titled "How to Counter Military Recruitment in High Schools" focused on a basic introduction about how the military recruits in public high schools, as well as strategies for counter recruitment given by several high school student activists. They described their attempts, successes and failures in mobilizing / educating their communities to resist temptations that the military promises new recruits. Kevin Ramirez of the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO) outlined the 5 methods used by the military to recruit high school students on campus and how to combat them:
• The ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery), a.k.a Military Eligibility Test, measures military occupation specialty or, which branch of the armed services the student is most applicable in. For the most part, this test is not explained to students before they take it, but is generally defined as a "career exploration program". Ramirez explained that a student can check Option 8 on the test, which will not send the student’s results to recruiters. He also said that students can refuse to take the test outright; but overall, more education about this test needs to get out to teachers, parents and students.
• JRTOC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Core) programs are nationwide, numbering over 3500 units. These programs bring students into the daily life of officers; learning tactics and military protocol. Local communities need to be opposed to these programs and learn as much about them as possible.
• The No Child Left Behind Act, specifically Section 9528 rule which forces schools to give student contact information to military recruiters or risk losing federal funding.. Since school funding is directly effected in regard to their compliance with the NCLB program, checking the "Opt Out" option can restrict a student's results from going to recruiters.
• Armed Services Recruiting Tables (Tabling) takes place in high schools and colleges nationwide. These Tabling groups are frequent and cover most campuses; the primary way to counter Tabling is to find out when they are coming to school. Setting up a counter-protest on those specific dates is the most potent way to combat Tabling. Equal Action Laws are required by law to provide students with facts on both sides of the issues. http://www.objector.org/moos/equal-access.html
• Recruit Support Battalions (RSBs) are new-wave techniques used by recruiters to provide hands-on activities to high school students. Some examples are portable rock-climbing walls and adventure vans, a.k.a. War Simulators that demonstrate how to use a M1 assault rifle. Again, the main way to counter these activities is to find out when and where these RSBs will be con campus.
After the CCCO presentation, high school students told their own stories about combating recruiters at their respective schools. One student from Rochester NY, Jerry, described how he and a group of students handed out flyers on campus and asked other kids how they felt about recruiter efforts at their school. They efforts were fairly successful because by teaching students about the "Opt-In / Opt-Out" policy in the No Child Left Behind Act, many students decided to "Opt-Out" of the program once they heard the truths behind the lies.
Another student, junior Rico Chenyek from Berkeley High School, described his own efforts. He organized a Social Action Committee which focused on social justice by having teach-ins on campus, educating the student body about the lies and truths of army recruiters. Once word-of-mouth spread, the turn outs became so large that his school scheduled a daylong event which included a graphic slideshow of the horrors of War.
Ruby Butler from the Youth Empowerment School described efforts to educate young people about military recruitment by creating a Jeopardy style game that included categories: Drafting & Conscientious Objectors, Recruitment Ploys, and Money for Soldiers. By dividing the group into two teams, the children were able to interact with each other when answering questions posed to them. This type of game was played at YMCAs and schools in Oakland.
Pru's items for Sunday were waiting for tonight but she found two things she'd rather highlight.
From The Socialist Worker, Charlie Kimber's "David Blunkett's resignation and arrogance of the Blair set:"
The resignation of work and pensions secretary David Blunkett is a further sign of the decay of the Blair regime. Almost daily there is a sense that this rotten government is being run from an embattled bunker where all but the most faithful have departed and even the previously loyal acolytes have slunk away or engaged in self-destructive behaviour.
It is the Iraq war which, above all else, has sunk Blair. As the wound of the war refuses to heal, his government becomes more bizarrely out of touch over everything.
Blunkett embodies the arrogance of the Blair set. He revelled in his reputation for standing with the police and harrying asylum seekers. Most recently he declared that the benefit system was "crackers" and that incapacity claimants should stop watching daytime television.
If one event sums-up his attitude it was in 2002 when 80 Asians in Bradford were convicted for daring to defend their community from Nazi-inspired attacks. Then home secretary Blunkett described those jailed as "maniacs" who should stop "whining" about their sentences and attacked the "bleeding heart liberals" who questioned the length of the prison terms.
Just like Peter Mandelson's demise in British politics, Blunkett's fall is an indication of the way New Labour ministers have fallen in love with the lifestyles of the rich. It is nothing new for Labour leaders to crawl to the wealthy and beg invitations to their parties and their villas.
But New Labour has taken this to a new height. An openly pro-business party can brazenly consort with those who used to be regarded as the party's enemies.
Blunkett, with his relationship with the publisher of right-wing magazine The Spectator and his honorary membership of Annabel's club, fell in with a rich set. But to live like then he needed far more than his ministerial salary of £130,347, and it was disaster when he was reduced to a backbencher on just £57,500.
Within weeks of being forced to resign from the cabinet he picked up a slew of jobs, consultancies and after-dinner speaking engagements which together paid £70,000.
His first employer, Indepen, tells privatised utility firms how to deal with government regulators. Blunkett was paid over £15,000 for seminars on "his perspective on government and how government works".
Then just before the election, he was hired by DNA Structures Ltd, a firm that trades as DNA Bioscience and markets paternity test kits. He bought 12 shares in the firm for £15,000 which, according to some financial experts, would have been worth £500,000 if the company had won the contracts which enabled it to be floated as a public company.
He didn’t even bother to follow the code which says he should declare such jobs, with their potential conflict of interest.
Now his failures have caught up with him. The end of the Blair regime cannot come soon enough.
© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.
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Pru also notes Anindya Bhattacharyya's "Guilty men are in the White House: Warmongers trapped by Iraq lies" (The Socialist Worker):
George Bush's tower of lies over Iraq is threatening to come crashing down around his ears.
A senior White House official -- Lewis "Scooter" Libby -- was indicted on five counts on Friday of last week by a US special investigator.
Libby was a key architect of the war in Iraq and, as the New York Times wrote last week, "had the exalted position of being a full member of president Bush's inner circle, holding three pivotal jobs at once -- assistant to the president, chief of staff to the vice president and Dick Cheney's national security adviser".
He now faces charges of perjury, obstruction and making false statements -- which could land him in jail for 30 years.
The fall of Libby was the heaviest of a series of blows that rocked the White House. On Tuesday of last week, two and a half years after the invasion of Iraq began, it was announced that the total number of US troops killed in Iraq had reached the 2,000 mark. The 2,000th GI fell in Vietnam in 1965, six years after the first two Americans were killed in a guerrilla attack.
Libby’s indictment stems from the lies spread by the Bush administration — with Tony Blair’s connivance -- in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. He used forged documents to claim Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy nuclear material from Niger, and then conspired to destroy those who revealed his lies.
The US media is speculating over whether the scandal will spread to implicate Karl Rove, Bush's right hand man, and even the president himself.
And polls now show that 54 percent of Americans believe Bush was wrong to invade Iraq -- up from 24 percent in March 2003.
Meanwhile the White House is desperately trying to rescue Bush's reputation.
That's what is behind his cronies' attempts to distract attention by recycling discredited allegations against George Galloway.
But with Bush in trouble, campaigners are stepping up the pressure to get the troops out of Iraq.
sign up for INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCESaturday 10 December, 10amWith delegates from Iraq & USRoyal Horticultural Hall80 Vincent Square,
London SW1for more info go to www.stopwar.org.uk
For more on anti-war campaigning go to 'Let's keep fighting to get our boys home'
© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.
If you found this article useful please help us maintain SW by supporting our » appeal.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
democracy now
juan gonzalez
amy goodman
indymedia
nyc indymedia
the socialist worker
quincey jonez
steven t. jones
tim redmond
charlie kimber
anindya bhattacharyya
Indymedia Roundup World Can't Wait
Mini-demonstrations of about a hundred persons each were organized at eight points along Wilshire Blvd. starting at noon today. These demonstrations are building to a mass rally and march today at 5pm at Westwood and Wilshire Blvds. These pictures were taken at Wilshire and Fairfax around 1pm today. Aside from that site, noon demonstrations were held along Wilshire at Figueroa, Alvarado, Vermont, Normandie, Crenshaw, Westwood and the 3rd Street Promenade. The critical mass bicyclists are riding the entire length of Wilshire to knit the demonstrations together and sweep them into Westwood for the major gathering at 5pm. A short clip of them as they passed Fairfax is included in this report.
The above is from Not Waiting's "World Can't Wait Pre-Demos All Along Wilshire Building to Mass Demo at 5pm Today" (LA Indymedia) and was sent in by Cindy. It's Thursday and we're doing the Indymedia roundup (we have one mainstream in this entry) and the focus here is The World Can't Wait events from Wednesday.
Cindy also notes Felix Prosser's "URGENT! World Can't Wait--High School student suspended for organizing" (LA Indymedia):
This is an urgent update Sara Escudero, a high school student who's been part of organizing the most vibrant student movement since the 1994 Prop-187 walkouts was suspended for two days by the principal of Reside High, for passing out leaflets without his permission. This bully then told her they're going to try to expel her, and threatened to arrest her because some stickers made their way onto a police car and she had stickers.
Students like Sara have been putting themselves on the line for the future -- of humanity! We've got to have their backs. Call Reseda High to protest. Join the massive protest in the streets, along Wilshire, beginning at noon.
Marlene e-mails to note "Report From Los Angeles" (The World Can't Wait):
Determined to Drive out the Bush Regime, thousands of high school students walked out of schools all over L.A. county today and made their way to World Can't Wait convergence points all along Wilshire Blvd. Many of them risked suspensions, expulsions, and even arrest, while some had to break out of locked down campuses and past school administrators, locked school gates, and police threats.
At a rally at the Westwood Federal Building, thousands of people crowded the lawn in front of the stage, stirred by the words and performances of Bianca Jagger, Rickie Lee Jones, Culture Clash and others. The rally was followed by a spirited march of 2000-2500 people through Westwood Village, where they were warmly greeted by onlookers.
The rally and march were covered by CNN, Indymedia, Telemundo, and local television channels 4, 7, 9, and 13, among others.
High School Walkouts:
--L.A. High: almost entire school walked out; someone driving down the street saw a crowd of 500 Black and Latino students in front of the school with signs, chanting against Bush, fists in air.
--Belmont HS: a student was passing out leaflets yesterday before school; jumped by cops, pepper-sprayed and arrested; today, at least 75 students and some teachers walked out
--Downtown Business Magnet HS: over 100 students walked out
--Marshall HS: over 100 students walked out
--Montebello HS: all week long, students have been wearing WCW armbands. Today, 40 students didn't go to school but gathered close by the school and had a march down Whittier Blvd. in ELA, carrying signs and chanting "Ya Basta" "F**k Bush" "Bush Lies, 1000s Die" "Queremos Paz, Quermos Justicia." Then they got on buses to go to Alvarado; when they told the bus driver what they were doing, she let them all ride for free.
--Van Nuys HS: on lockdown. Situation developing as we write. According to students inside, 20 students arrested when they tried to walk out. Students say dean physically assaulted 2 students--including a young woman--to try to prevent them from leaving. Students say they have a right to protest Bush and its unfair for school to try to stop them.
Reseda HS: one student suspended yesterday for "leafletting without proper authorization." Today, students tried to walk out but school principal issues lock down order and locked all the doors to the school. Some students jumped the fence. Reports still coming in from students inside.
Lincoln HS (East LA): 150 students tried to walk out; police blocked the front door and administrators blocked all other exits. Students still trying to figure out how to get out.
Hamilton HS: one group of 20 students walked out led by their assistant vice-principal and went to Westwood; another group of students walked out and went to Crenshaw.
Vista del Lago (Mar Vista): "a lot" of students walked out
Grant HS: 20 students walked out
Beverly Hills HS: some students tried to walk out but were threatened with suspension by admin. Haven't heard back from them.
Downey HS: 10 students walked out
Santa Monica HS & John Adams Middle School: 100s of students walked out
Orthopedic Hospital Medical Magnet HS: 60 students walked out
Harvest Charter School: a number walked out
Fairfax HS: lots of students walked out
South Gate HS: 10 students
Lynwood HS: 40-50 tried to walk out but prevented so they staged a sit-in in front of administration office. Admin. now trying to suspend 4-5 students for trying to walk out.
A WCW activist reported that groups of youth and students were on corners throughout the Pico-Union barrio with WCW signs and banners, chanting WCW slogans (these were beyond the students at Wilshire Alvarado).
300 people came out at Figueroa: a very diverse crowd: 25 critical mass bicyclists; city hall workers in suits; teachers w/ their students; an older gay couple who'd made t-shirts especially for the day with WCW and the web address that they gave away to everyone at the corner; then several waves of high school students that rushed through the corner on their way to Alvarado.
Fairfax: @ 150 people on all 4 corners with banners and signs. Among those present were Out Against the War, Fairfax HS students, Axis of Justice. Lots of homemade signs and banners among a sea of WCW signs and banners; making banners and signs on-the-spot. Lots of honking cars, people on corners leafletting cars, signing up recruits, selling t-shirts. Young and old at their first demo ever agitating on the bullhorn @ why the Bush Regime must go and why the world can't wait.
At Crenshaw: @ 300 people, including students from LA High (escorted by administrators), Hamilton HS, and Harvest Charter School (escorted by their teachers). Very lively chanting, WCW banners and signs.
Vermont: UTLA board member said he and board members were going to join people from Immanuneul Presbyterian Church and Hollywood Congregational Church at noon (but we haven't heard back yet).
Colleen wanted Martha Groves and J. Michael Kennedy's "Angelenos Join in Anti-Bush Protest" (LA Times):
The Westwood rally attracted an estimated 1,200 protesters, including some who walked out of work and school to join in. The nighttime protest clogged traffic in parts of the Westside for hours.
Additionally, an estimated 1,000 Los Angeles students walked out of local high schools Wednesday for various daytime protests around the city. Among the schools hit by walkouts were Los Angeles High, Hamilton High and Lincoln High.
The protests were put together by World Can't Wait, a coalition formed recently to stage the rallies. The protesters used the anniversary of Bush's reelection to call for his resignation in major population centers that included Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago.
At the Wednesday evening rally in Westwood, two dozen cardboard boxes were draped with American flags to resemble caskets.
[. . .]
Monica Carazo, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said World Can't Wait sent out fliers to schools urging students to leave school on the day of the protest.
"A lot of us were wondering where they were going," she said.
The protests began about noon along Wilshire Boulevard. Various speakers and musicians participated, including jazz vocalist Rickie Lee Jones; Edwin Ellis, the president of Veterans for Peace, Los Angeles; activist Bianca Jagger, and organizer Lucy Lee.
Colleen's argument for including the LA Times article was strong. The Los Angeles Times is not indymedia but it did actually report on the World Can't Wait activities. The New York Times sure didn't. So we'll make an exception and note them here.
Last night, I made a crack about Van Nuys (which I stand by -- not the people who live there, the ones in charge of the area) and Doyle found an article with more on the lockdown, Dana Bartholomew's "High school lockdown linked to Bush protest" (LA Daily News):
Van Nuys High School was temporarily locked down Wednesday after students protested against the Bush administration as part of a national demonstration.
Van Nuys High School Principal Herman Clay directed students to remain on campus and at their desks for 1 1/2 hours after he said two dozen students disrupted classes during the protest.
Some students said administrators threatened them with expulsion if they left campus and that one student was thrown to the ground as campus police attempted to take their pictures.
The lockout occurred as 1,000 Los Angeles students - including about 15 or 20 from Van Nuys High School who were accompanied by an administrator - left class to join a midday rally hosted by The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime. The New York-based group had staged protests in 70 U.S. cities.
"We had a few other kids, I suppose in sympathy, they went around campus uttering anti-Bush statements," said Clay, who locked down the campus between 10:45 a.m. and the end of lunch. "They had refused a directive to go to class."
"This really wasn't a big deal. We only went through (the lockdown) because we didn't want to take the risk of more kids out of class."
The Los Angeles protest included a midday march down Wilshire Boulevard and a rally held outside the Federal Building.
The Providence Phoenix runs a big, long, pointless whine that may have been pertinent a year ago but only demonstrates how out of touch the writer is. As Lily notes, "It's so nice for these people who never bother to get informed just sit around with their thumbs up their asses pretending to have studied the situation as they give the most banal of 'analysis.'"
Micah e-mails to note "The feathers war hawk Hillary [Clinton]" -- Kristen Lombardi's "Cindy Sheehan for President: Or Senate. The Anti-war left seeks a challenger for Hillary Clinton" (The Village Voice):
Not surprisingly, activists take issue with her October 2002 vote to authorize President Bush to use military force in Iraq. And they find fault with votes the senator has cast ever since. She has backed every war appropriations bill, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. She has filed legislation calling for expanding the U.S. Army by 80,000 soldiers over four years. And she has yet to push for a firm timetable for American troop withdrawal.
Leaders in the anti-war movement brought their complaints to the senator last month, as part of a Capitol Hill lobbying effort. On September 22, Clinton met with the movement's superstar, Sheehan, in a well-publicized meeting. New York activists, by contrast, got some face time with a legislative aide four days later. Thirty or so people, representing organizations from Syracuse to Albany and Manhattan, showed up at Clinton's office. They crammed a tiny room, surrounding the aide so, in the words of Colin Eager of Buffalo, "he'd feel a little bit of pressure."
They came with one request: They want Clinton to embrace a Senate resolution, sponsored by Wisconsin Democrat Russell Feingold, urging President Bush to submit to Congress a timeline for withdrawal. To activists, Eager says, the measure "is an immediate, concrete thing she could and should do. It's not a radical thing to ask the president for an exit plan."
Clinton, however, has yet to respond. (In fact, only one senator, California Democrat Barbara Boxer, has signed on to the bill.) Says Eisenberg, who also attended the September 26 meeting, "I can only conclude the senator is just not interested in our message."
[. . .]
Douglas Muzzio, who teaches political science at Baruch College, explains that activists "are asking Clinton to do the impossible." Activists tend to see the senator's positions as politically expedient, cold calculations designed to please everyone. But Muzzio sees it differently. "I think she believes in her votes. She is like a neo-liberal," he says, a true liberal on social issues, a true hawk on defense.
In other words, he says, "she is not their natural ally. She's not their 'it' anyway."
I've deleted a bunch of nonsense from the above. Not the journalist's nonsense but a lot of "defenders." Hillary needs to speak for herself and if she doesn't, she shouldn't be surprised if a planned run for president is derailed by others' truths about the health care plan of the 90s. This won't be the right screaming "socialized medicine!" This would be from people who worked on this issue for some time before 1992 and feel that universal health care was trashed in efforts by Hillary and company to appease the insurance companies.
Unlike the sadly named "Count Dookie" of Providence (kids, stay away from his "chocolate" cereal), Anya Kamenetz has a grasp on reality. Rachel e-mails to note Kamenetz's "Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young" (The Village Voice):
One Saturday this summer, Monique Dols, a Columbia University senior and a national leader of the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN), saw again why she has been working so hard to reach potential military recruits. "We were handing out flyers for an event with the brother of a military resister," Dols says of that day in Washington Heights. "Three 16-year-old [ROTC] cadets walked by in full military uniform. We started talking to them, and it turned out they were completely against the war. They had joined because it was an after-school program that provided structure and something for them to do. The priorities of a society that puts millions into military recruitment and continually cuts funding for after-school programs, that's backward, and that's the reality people are responding to."
When this column first covered counter-recruitment in January, the movement was a scattered, grassroots phenomenon, led by old-guard lefty organizations like the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors and Veterans for Peace. Since then, public opinion has turned decisively against the war in Iraq, and the active-duty army fell 8.5 percent short of its recruiting goals in the period that ended September 30, its worst year since 1979; the National Guard and army reserves did even worse. Counter-recruitment is growing into a truly broad, multigenerational, national movement that serves as a model for how diverse constituencies on the left can and should work together.
Jonah notes the news of NYC's World Can't Wait rally, Jed Brandt's "World Can't Wait, NYC: Hundreds Walk-Out, Thousands March" (NYC Indymedia):
I'm putting the size estimate at 2,000, with surges and ebbs along the way. It seemed that around 600 were gathered listening to the speakers, but as the march began crowds of students came in from the West and South sides of Union Square, swelling into the street and stretching for blocks.
Many people joined and fell away from the march as it progressed, with peaks that appeared significantly larger as the march moved through midtown. I have rarely seen this kind of spontaneous joining of protests. This says as much for the mood of the city as the spirit of the crowd.
Walkouts were organized at Midwood, Roslyn, Saunders, Beacon, and Notre Dame high schools. Campus walkouts came from Hunter College, CCNY, Baruch, Westchester Community College, with a lunchtime surge of NYU students at the Union Square rally.
Of the core crowd, 75% were high school and college students who had walked out from city-wide high schools and Manhattan campuses. The crowd was energetic, and noticably distinct from the "usual suspects" of the New York activist left who were conspicuously missing in action as coherent groupings.
The crowd was thoroughly diverse by race, with whites about 50% of the crowd; the rest evenly divided among Latinos, Blacks and Asians. There were no religious groups clustered by distinctive clothing. Unlike many protests in the thousands, there were no observable contingents based on identity or ideology. High-school crews and a horn/drum band created energy eddies in the crowd.
There was a red-and-black flag, a few American flags -- and the omnipresent flash green of the World Can't Wait stickers and placards.
Duncan e-mails to note Sofia Jarrin-Thomas' "The World Can't Wait: Students Against the War" (Boston IMC):
Cambridge Latin High School students came to protest in spite of what they called an "empty threat" from the principal to suspend them for three days if they joined the national day of action against the war.
The students were also greeted by Harvard staff who have been protesting the war every Wednesday at noon, ever since the Abu Ghraib torture scandal erupted, by walking in silent protest around campus. Similar walkouts occur every Wednesday at Boston College and Boston University.
"It's so good to see all these young people coming out against the war!" said an elderly activist who has regularly walked out on Wednesdays.
One of the organizers, Steven Bloomfield, spoke to the crowd about meeting hate with healing as a tool for defeating the architects of war. "We will not become victims of this war," he said. He recently was awarded the 2005 Peace and Justice Award by the Cambridge Peace Commission for his commitment to anti-war activism.
Racism, classism, and relocating funds to social causes instead of a war were many of the issues talked about at the protest. According to the National Priorities Project, the cost of war totaled about $205 billion by the end of the 2005 fiscal year.
The "World Can't Wait" campaign was set up as a civilian response to the Bush administration's mishandling and cover-up of intelligence to pursue an illegal war in Iraq.
Eddie e-mails to note Pete's "It Went Down Downtown" (Houston Indymedia):
A noontime rally today at Market Square, organized by the World Can’t Wait Coalition, demanded the removal of the current right wing administration. Touted as "the beginning of the end of the Bush regime" the rally coincided with last year’s contested election and sought to launch the mobilization of opposition groups of all stripes.
Members of local band Free Radicals started things off by playing drums. Although no horns were available, the duo succeeded in paying homage to the Crescent City by thumping a mildly rousing New Orleans beat. The following 10 or so speakers represented a wide array of people concerned about the state of the United States and its government. The organizers of the event, some of them aligned with the Revolutionary Communist Party, issued a call to action to counter the horrible atrocities and failures of the Bush administration. Their literature (some of which was recited by a speaker) declares "your Government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights." This writer agrees with the above statement but wonders about the use of "your government?" It seems that, assuming we live in this country, “our government” or, simply, "the government" would be appropriate.
Preferring to paint the town with pastel touches, as opposed to plain red, Jerome and Dominguez slammed some soul-elevating political poetry. The poem by Jerome was an intensely angry yet creative piece. Its message of unity was felt by everyone. Dominguez gave us a soul-searching social critique. I laughed, I thought of things in new and unsuspected ways, and I found out that he has a great singing voice.
A woman from New Orleans spoke of her desperate fight for survival in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Her story was frightening and seemed to further confirm that governments need to prioritize human lives. George Rider spoke of the immense ecological challenges we face. The New Black Panther Party was there in force. They called for power to be in the hands of the common people. Nick, a local writer/ activist/musician, warned of the dangers of authoritarianism. He encouraged people to get involved in non-hierarchical groups such as indymedia.
The rally was inspiring but was weakly attended (there were 30 to 70 people). Maybe a Saturday or Sunday rally would draw a bigger crowd.
Liang e-mails to note "PROTESTS IN SAN FRANCISCO AND NATIONWIDE TO 'STOP' THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION" (SF Bay Area Indymedia):
People held rallies, feeder marches, and caravans from all over the Bay Area to gather in San Francisco. They converged at 12pm in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, rallied from 12pm to 1pm, marched at 1:30pm, and an ended with another rally at 4:30pm in Civic Center Plaza. The march down Mission Street and back up Market was a sea of energized youth carrying aloft the distinctive WCW signs, doted with red “Not Our President! – Not in Our Name” posters and Earth flags.
Event speakers included Cindy Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace, California State Senator Carole Migden, SF Supervisor Chris Daly, CODEPINK’s Media Benjamin, Jeff Paterson on behalf of Not in Our Name, Paul George of the Pennisula Peace and Justice Center, a taped message from Mumia Abu Jamal, and a statement from WCW initiators the Revolutionary Communist Party.
After the main march left Civic Center, there was an unpermited breakaway march. As the march moved up Mission Street, a Molotov cocktail was tossed at the Chronicle Building. Near the end of the march, a small group sat down in the the street near Hyde and Market as a form of direct action. The police moved in and nine protesters were arrested. A tenth protester was arrested accused of having Molotov cocktails in their posession.
Tommy e-mails to note "Report from Atlanta" (The World Can't Wait):
500 to 600 people gathered in Woodruff Park downtown for the 1 PM rally. The crowd was mainly college and high school students. At least 7 high schools and 1 middle school had walkouts. The MC's of the rally were two students, one from Georgia State University and one from Spelman College, both of whom introduced themselves as having been activists for a whole 2 months! The first part of the rally was high school and middle schools students coming up to talk about why they came and what happened at the walkouts. At one high school, the administration had called an "intruder alert" at 10:45 AM, which means all the doors were shut and no one was allowed to leave their classrooms. The walkout had been scheduled for 11 AM. The "alert" was over at 11:15. One student walked out during the alert; others left when it was over. At another school, students were threatened with suspension and not being allowed to graduate.The rally was high energy and featured local hip-hop group The Expatriots. Speakers included the mother of the first soldier from Georgia to be killed in the Iraq War; the deputy director for the Southern Region of Amnesty International on the torture policy of the Bush administration, vice president of Concerned Black Clergy on the lessons of Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, and a representative of A Justice for All coalition on the threat of the Alito nomination on abortion rights. A whole group of students from Spelman College spoke as well. Someone from the crowd came up to speak about the hunger strike going on at Guantanamo. The World Can't Wait announcement was made by a group of high school students.
Many older activists at the rally were amazed and inspired by the outpouring of so many passionate and outspoken youth. There was a sense that a new movement among high school and college students has emerged on the scene as of November 2nd.The day ended with a spirited march through downtown. Many youth on the march now see themselves as organizers of the movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime!
500 to 600 people gathered in Woodruff Park downtown for the 1 PM rally. The crowd was mainly college and high school students. At least 7 high schools and 1 middle school had walkouts. The MC's of the rally were two students, one from Georgia State University and one from Spelman College, both of whom introduced themselves as having been activists for a whole 2 months! The first part of the rally was high school and middle schools students coming up to talk about why they came and what happened at the walkouts. At one high school, the administration had called an "intruder alert" at 10:45 AM, which means all the doors were shut and no one was allowed to leave their classrooms. The walkout had been scheduled for 11 AM. The "alert" was over at 11:15. One student walked out during the alert; others left when it was over. At another school, students were threatened with suspension and not being allowed to graduate.The rally was high energy and featured local hip-hop group The Expatriots. Speakers included the mother of the first soldier from Georgia to be killed in the Iraq War; the deputy director for the Southern Region of Amnesty International on the torture policy of the Bush administration, vice president of Concerned Black Clergy on the lessons of Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, and a representative of A Justice for All coalition on the threat of the Alito nomination on abortion rights. A whole group of students from Spelman College spoke as well. Someone from the crowd came up to speak about the hunger strike going on at Guantanamo. The World Can't Wait announcement was made by a group of high school students.Many older activists at the rally were amazed and inspired by the outpouring of so many passionate and outspoken youth. There was a sense that a new movement among high school and college students has emerged on the scene as of November 2nd.The day ended with a spirited march through downtown. Many youth on the march now see themselves as organizers of the movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime!
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
world can/'t wait
The above is from Not Waiting's "World Can't Wait Pre-Demos All Along Wilshire Building to Mass Demo at 5pm Today" (LA Indymedia) and was sent in by Cindy. It's Thursday and we're doing the Indymedia roundup (we have one mainstream in this entry) and the focus here is The World Can't Wait events from Wednesday.
Cindy also notes Felix Prosser's "URGENT! World Can't Wait--High School student suspended for organizing" (LA Indymedia):
This is an urgent update Sara Escudero, a high school student who's been part of organizing the most vibrant student movement since the 1994 Prop-187 walkouts was suspended for two days by the principal of Reside High, for passing out leaflets without his permission. This bully then told her they're going to try to expel her, and threatened to arrest her because some stickers made their way onto a police car and she had stickers.
Students like Sara have been putting themselves on the line for the future -- of humanity! We've got to have their backs. Call Reseda High to protest. Join the massive protest in the streets, along Wilshire, beginning at noon.
Marlene e-mails to note "Report From Los Angeles" (The World Can't Wait):
Determined to Drive out the Bush Regime, thousands of high school students walked out of schools all over L.A. county today and made their way to World Can't Wait convergence points all along Wilshire Blvd. Many of them risked suspensions, expulsions, and even arrest, while some had to break out of locked down campuses and past school administrators, locked school gates, and police threats.
At a rally at the Westwood Federal Building, thousands of people crowded the lawn in front of the stage, stirred by the words and performances of Bianca Jagger, Rickie Lee Jones, Culture Clash and others. The rally was followed by a spirited march of 2000-2500 people through Westwood Village, where they were warmly greeted by onlookers.
The rally and march were covered by CNN, Indymedia, Telemundo, and local television channels 4, 7, 9, and 13, among others.
High School Walkouts:
--L.A. High: almost entire school walked out; someone driving down the street saw a crowd of 500 Black and Latino students in front of the school with signs, chanting against Bush, fists in air.
--Belmont HS: a student was passing out leaflets yesterday before school; jumped by cops, pepper-sprayed and arrested; today, at least 75 students and some teachers walked out
--Downtown Business Magnet HS: over 100 students walked out
--Marshall HS: over 100 students walked out
--Montebello HS: all week long, students have been wearing WCW armbands. Today, 40 students didn't go to school but gathered close by the school and had a march down Whittier Blvd. in ELA, carrying signs and chanting "Ya Basta" "F**k Bush" "Bush Lies, 1000s Die" "Queremos Paz, Quermos Justicia." Then they got on buses to go to Alvarado; when they told the bus driver what they were doing, she let them all ride for free.
--Van Nuys HS: on lockdown. Situation developing as we write. According to students inside, 20 students arrested when they tried to walk out. Students say dean physically assaulted 2 students--including a young woman--to try to prevent them from leaving. Students say they have a right to protest Bush and its unfair for school to try to stop them.
Reseda HS: one student suspended yesterday for "leafletting without proper authorization." Today, students tried to walk out but school principal issues lock down order and locked all the doors to the school. Some students jumped the fence. Reports still coming in from students inside.
Lincoln HS (East LA): 150 students tried to walk out; police blocked the front door and administrators blocked all other exits. Students still trying to figure out how to get out.
Hamilton HS: one group of 20 students walked out led by their assistant vice-principal and went to Westwood; another group of students walked out and went to Crenshaw.
Vista del Lago (Mar Vista): "a lot" of students walked out
Grant HS: 20 students walked out
Beverly Hills HS: some students tried to walk out but were threatened with suspension by admin. Haven't heard back from them.
Downey HS: 10 students walked out
Santa Monica HS & John Adams Middle School: 100s of students walked out
Orthopedic Hospital Medical Magnet HS: 60 students walked out
Harvest Charter School: a number walked out
Fairfax HS: lots of students walked out
South Gate HS: 10 students
Lynwood HS: 40-50 tried to walk out but prevented so they staged a sit-in in front of administration office. Admin. now trying to suspend 4-5 students for trying to walk out.
A WCW activist reported that groups of youth and students were on corners throughout the Pico-Union barrio with WCW signs and banners, chanting WCW slogans (these were beyond the students at Wilshire Alvarado).
300 people came out at Figueroa: a very diverse crowd: 25 critical mass bicyclists; city hall workers in suits; teachers w/ their students; an older gay couple who'd made t-shirts especially for the day with WCW and the web address that they gave away to everyone at the corner; then several waves of high school students that rushed through the corner on their way to Alvarado.
Fairfax: @ 150 people on all 4 corners with banners and signs. Among those present were Out Against the War, Fairfax HS students, Axis of Justice. Lots of homemade signs and banners among a sea of WCW signs and banners; making banners and signs on-the-spot. Lots of honking cars, people on corners leafletting cars, signing up recruits, selling t-shirts. Young and old at their first demo ever agitating on the bullhorn @ why the Bush Regime must go and why the world can't wait.
At Crenshaw: @ 300 people, including students from LA High (escorted by administrators), Hamilton HS, and Harvest Charter School (escorted by their teachers). Very lively chanting, WCW banners and signs.
Vermont: UTLA board member said he and board members were going to join people from Immanuneul Presbyterian Church and Hollywood Congregational Church at noon (but we haven't heard back yet).
Colleen wanted Martha Groves and J. Michael Kennedy's "Angelenos Join in Anti-Bush Protest" (LA Times):
The Westwood rally attracted an estimated 1,200 protesters, including some who walked out of work and school to join in. The nighttime protest clogged traffic in parts of the Westside for hours.
Additionally, an estimated 1,000 Los Angeles students walked out of local high schools Wednesday for various daytime protests around the city. Among the schools hit by walkouts were Los Angeles High, Hamilton High and Lincoln High.
The protests were put together by World Can't Wait, a coalition formed recently to stage the rallies. The protesters used the anniversary of Bush's reelection to call for his resignation in major population centers that included Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago.
At the Wednesday evening rally in Westwood, two dozen cardboard boxes were draped with American flags to resemble caskets.
[. . .]
Monica Carazo, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said World Can't Wait sent out fliers to schools urging students to leave school on the day of the protest.
"A lot of us were wondering where they were going," she said.
The protests began about noon along Wilshire Boulevard. Various speakers and musicians participated, including jazz vocalist Rickie Lee Jones; Edwin Ellis, the president of Veterans for Peace, Los Angeles; activist Bianca Jagger, and organizer Lucy Lee.
Colleen's argument for including the LA Times article was strong. The Los Angeles Times is not indymedia but it did actually report on the World Can't Wait activities. The New York Times sure didn't. So we'll make an exception and note them here.
Last night, I made a crack about Van Nuys (which I stand by -- not the people who live there, the ones in charge of the area) and Doyle found an article with more on the lockdown, Dana Bartholomew's "High school lockdown linked to Bush protest" (LA Daily News):
Van Nuys High School was temporarily locked down Wednesday after students protested against the Bush administration as part of a national demonstration.
Van Nuys High School Principal Herman Clay directed students to remain on campus and at their desks for 1 1/2 hours after he said two dozen students disrupted classes during the protest.
Some students said administrators threatened them with expulsion if they left campus and that one student was thrown to the ground as campus police attempted to take their pictures.
The lockout occurred as 1,000 Los Angeles students - including about 15 or 20 from Van Nuys High School who were accompanied by an administrator - left class to join a midday rally hosted by The World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime. The New York-based group had staged protests in 70 U.S. cities.
"We had a few other kids, I suppose in sympathy, they went around campus uttering anti-Bush statements," said Clay, who locked down the campus between 10:45 a.m. and the end of lunch. "They had refused a directive to go to class."
"This really wasn't a big deal. We only went through (the lockdown) because we didn't want to take the risk of more kids out of class."
The Los Angeles protest included a midday march down Wilshire Boulevard and a rally held outside the Federal Building.
The Providence Phoenix runs a big, long, pointless whine that may have been pertinent a year ago but only demonstrates how out of touch the writer is. As Lily notes, "It's so nice for these people who never bother to get informed just sit around with their thumbs up their asses pretending to have studied the situation as they give the most banal of 'analysis.'"
Micah e-mails to note "The feathers war hawk Hillary [Clinton]" -- Kristen Lombardi's "Cindy Sheehan for President: Or Senate. The Anti-war left seeks a challenger for Hillary Clinton" (The Village Voice):
Not surprisingly, activists take issue with her October 2002 vote to authorize President Bush to use military force in Iraq. And they find fault with votes the senator has cast ever since. She has backed every war appropriations bill, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. She has filed legislation calling for expanding the U.S. Army by 80,000 soldiers over four years. And she has yet to push for a firm timetable for American troop withdrawal.
Leaders in the anti-war movement brought their complaints to the senator last month, as part of a Capitol Hill lobbying effort. On September 22, Clinton met with the movement's superstar, Sheehan, in a well-publicized meeting. New York activists, by contrast, got some face time with a legislative aide four days later. Thirty or so people, representing organizations from Syracuse to Albany and Manhattan, showed up at Clinton's office. They crammed a tiny room, surrounding the aide so, in the words of Colin Eager of Buffalo, "he'd feel a little bit of pressure."
They came with one request: They want Clinton to embrace a Senate resolution, sponsored by Wisconsin Democrat Russell Feingold, urging President Bush to submit to Congress a timeline for withdrawal. To activists, Eager says, the measure "is an immediate, concrete thing she could and should do. It's not a radical thing to ask the president for an exit plan."
Clinton, however, has yet to respond. (In fact, only one senator, California Democrat Barbara Boxer, has signed on to the bill.) Says Eisenberg, who also attended the September 26 meeting, "I can only conclude the senator is just not interested in our message."
[. . .]
Douglas Muzzio, who teaches political science at Baruch College, explains that activists "are asking Clinton to do the impossible." Activists tend to see the senator's positions as politically expedient, cold calculations designed to please everyone. But Muzzio sees it differently. "I think she believes in her votes. She is like a neo-liberal," he says, a true liberal on social issues, a true hawk on defense.
In other words, he says, "she is not their natural ally. She's not their 'it' anyway."
I've deleted a bunch of nonsense from the above. Not the journalist's nonsense but a lot of "defenders." Hillary needs to speak for herself and if she doesn't, she shouldn't be surprised if a planned run for president is derailed by others' truths about the health care plan of the 90s. This won't be the right screaming "socialized medicine!" This would be from people who worked on this issue for some time before 1992 and feel that universal health care was trashed in efforts by Hillary and company to appease the insurance companies.
Unlike the sadly named "Count Dookie" of Providence (kids, stay away from his "chocolate" cereal), Anya Kamenetz has a grasp on reality. Rachel e-mails to note Kamenetz's "Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young" (The Village Voice):
One Saturday this summer, Monique Dols, a Columbia University senior and a national leader of the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN), saw again why she has been working so hard to reach potential military recruits. "We were handing out flyers for an event with the brother of a military resister," Dols says of that day in Washington Heights. "Three 16-year-old [ROTC] cadets walked by in full military uniform. We started talking to them, and it turned out they were completely against the war. They had joined because it was an after-school program that provided structure and something for them to do. The priorities of a society that puts millions into military recruitment and continually cuts funding for after-school programs, that's backward, and that's the reality people are responding to."
When this column first covered counter-recruitment in January, the movement was a scattered, grassroots phenomenon, led by old-guard lefty organizations like the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors and Veterans for Peace. Since then, public opinion has turned decisively against the war in Iraq, and the active-duty army fell 8.5 percent short of its recruiting goals in the period that ended September 30, its worst year since 1979; the National Guard and army reserves did even worse. Counter-recruitment is growing into a truly broad, multigenerational, national movement that serves as a model for how diverse constituencies on the left can and should work together.
Jonah notes the news of NYC's World Can't Wait rally, Jed Brandt's "World Can't Wait, NYC: Hundreds Walk-Out, Thousands March" (NYC Indymedia):
I'm putting the size estimate at 2,000, with surges and ebbs along the way. It seemed that around 600 were gathered listening to the speakers, but as the march began crowds of students came in from the West and South sides of Union Square, swelling into the street and stretching for blocks.
Many people joined and fell away from the march as it progressed, with peaks that appeared significantly larger as the march moved through midtown. I have rarely seen this kind of spontaneous joining of protests. This says as much for the mood of the city as the spirit of the crowd.
Walkouts were organized at Midwood, Roslyn, Saunders, Beacon, and Notre Dame high schools. Campus walkouts came from Hunter College, CCNY, Baruch, Westchester Community College, with a lunchtime surge of NYU students at the Union Square rally.
Of the core crowd, 75% were high school and college students who had walked out from city-wide high schools and Manhattan campuses. The crowd was energetic, and noticably distinct from the "usual suspects" of the New York activist left who were conspicuously missing in action as coherent groupings.
The crowd was thoroughly diverse by race, with whites about 50% of the crowd; the rest evenly divided among Latinos, Blacks and Asians. There were no religious groups clustered by distinctive clothing. Unlike many protests in the thousands, there were no observable contingents based on identity or ideology. High-school crews and a horn/drum band created energy eddies in the crowd.
There was a red-and-black flag, a few American flags -- and the omnipresent flash green of the World Can't Wait stickers and placards.
Duncan e-mails to note Sofia Jarrin-Thomas' "The World Can't Wait: Students Against the War" (Boston IMC):
Cambridge Latin High School students came to protest in spite of what they called an "empty threat" from the principal to suspend them for three days if they joined the national day of action against the war.
The students were also greeted by Harvard staff who have been protesting the war every Wednesday at noon, ever since the Abu Ghraib torture scandal erupted, by walking in silent protest around campus. Similar walkouts occur every Wednesday at Boston College and Boston University.
"It's so good to see all these young people coming out against the war!" said an elderly activist who has regularly walked out on Wednesdays.
One of the organizers, Steven Bloomfield, spoke to the crowd about meeting hate with healing as a tool for defeating the architects of war. "We will not become victims of this war," he said. He recently was awarded the 2005 Peace and Justice Award by the Cambridge Peace Commission for his commitment to anti-war activism.
Racism, classism, and relocating funds to social causes instead of a war were many of the issues talked about at the protest. According to the National Priorities Project, the cost of war totaled about $205 billion by the end of the 2005 fiscal year.
The "World Can't Wait" campaign was set up as a civilian response to the Bush administration's mishandling and cover-up of intelligence to pursue an illegal war in Iraq.
Eddie e-mails to note Pete's "It Went Down Downtown" (Houston Indymedia):
A noontime rally today at Market Square, organized by the World Can’t Wait Coalition, demanded the removal of the current right wing administration. Touted as "the beginning of the end of the Bush regime" the rally coincided with last year’s contested election and sought to launch the mobilization of opposition groups of all stripes.
Members of local band Free Radicals started things off by playing drums. Although no horns were available, the duo succeeded in paying homage to the Crescent City by thumping a mildly rousing New Orleans beat. The following 10 or so speakers represented a wide array of people concerned about the state of the United States and its government. The organizers of the event, some of them aligned with the Revolutionary Communist Party, issued a call to action to counter the horrible atrocities and failures of the Bush administration. Their literature (some of which was recited by a speaker) declares "your Government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights." This writer agrees with the above statement but wonders about the use of "your government?" It seems that, assuming we live in this country, “our government” or, simply, "the government" would be appropriate.
Preferring to paint the town with pastel touches, as opposed to plain red, Jerome and Dominguez slammed some soul-elevating political poetry. The poem by Jerome was an intensely angry yet creative piece. Its message of unity was felt by everyone. Dominguez gave us a soul-searching social critique. I laughed, I thought of things in new and unsuspected ways, and I found out that he has a great singing voice.
A woman from New Orleans spoke of her desperate fight for survival in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Her story was frightening and seemed to further confirm that governments need to prioritize human lives. George Rider spoke of the immense ecological challenges we face. The New Black Panther Party was there in force. They called for power to be in the hands of the common people. Nick, a local writer/ activist/musician, warned of the dangers of authoritarianism. He encouraged people to get involved in non-hierarchical groups such as indymedia.
The rally was inspiring but was weakly attended (there were 30 to 70 people). Maybe a Saturday or Sunday rally would draw a bigger crowd.
Liang e-mails to note "PROTESTS IN SAN FRANCISCO AND NATIONWIDE TO 'STOP' THE BUSH ADMINSTRATION" (SF Bay Area Indymedia):
People held rallies, feeder marches, and caravans from all over the Bay Area to gather in San Francisco. They converged at 12pm in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza, rallied from 12pm to 1pm, marched at 1:30pm, and an ended with another rally at 4:30pm in Civic Center Plaza. The march down Mission Street and back up Market was a sea of energized youth carrying aloft the distinctive WCW signs, doted with red “Not Our President! – Not in Our Name” posters and Earth flags.
Event speakers included Cindy Sheehan of Gold Star Families for Peace, California State Senator Carole Migden, SF Supervisor Chris Daly, CODEPINK’s Media Benjamin, Jeff Paterson on behalf of Not in Our Name, Paul George of the Pennisula Peace and Justice Center, a taped message from Mumia Abu Jamal, and a statement from WCW initiators the Revolutionary Communist Party.
After the main march left Civic Center, there was an unpermited breakaway march. As the march moved up Mission Street, a Molotov cocktail was tossed at the Chronicle Building. Near the end of the march, a small group sat down in the the street near Hyde and Market as a form of direct action. The police moved in and nine protesters were arrested. A tenth protester was arrested accused of having Molotov cocktails in their posession.
Tommy e-mails to note "Report from Atlanta" (The World Can't Wait):
500 to 600 people gathered in Woodruff Park downtown for the 1 PM rally. The crowd was mainly college and high school students. At least 7 high schools and 1 middle school had walkouts. The MC's of the rally were two students, one from Georgia State University and one from Spelman College, both of whom introduced themselves as having been activists for a whole 2 months! The first part of the rally was high school and middle schools students coming up to talk about why they came and what happened at the walkouts. At one high school, the administration had called an "intruder alert" at 10:45 AM, which means all the doors were shut and no one was allowed to leave their classrooms. The walkout had been scheduled for 11 AM. The "alert" was over at 11:15. One student walked out during the alert; others left when it was over. At another school, students were threatened with suspension and not being allowed to graduate.The rally was high energy and featured local hip-hop group The Expatriots. Speakers included the mother of the first soldier from Georgia to be killed in the Iraq War; the deputy director for the Southern Region of Amnesty International on the torture policy of the Bush administration, vice president of Concerned Black Clergy on the lessons of Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, and a representative of A Justice for All coalition on the threat of the Alito nomination on abortion rights. A whole group of students from Spelman College spoke as well. Someone from the crowd came up to speak about the hunger strike going on at Guantanamo. The World Can't Wait announcement was made by a group of high school students.
Many older activists at the rally were amazed and inspired by the outpouring of so many passionate and outspoken youth. There was a sense that a new movement among high school and college students has emerged on the scene as of November 2nd.The day ended with a spirited march through downtown. Many youth on the march now see themselves as organizers of the movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime!
500 to 600 people gathered in Woodruff Park downtown for the 1 PM rally. The crowd was mainly college and high school students. At least 7 high schools and 1 middle school had walkouts. The MC's of the rally were two students, one from Georgia State University and one from Spelman College, both of whom introduced themselves as having been activists for a whole 2 months! The first part of the rally was high school and middle schools students coming up to talk about why they came and what happened at the walkouts. At one high school, the administration had called an "intruder alert" at 10:45 AM, which means all the doors were shut and no one was allowed to leave their classrooms. The walkout had been scheduled for 11 AM. The "alert" was over at 11:15. One student walked out during the alert; others left when it was over. At another school, students were threatened with suspension and not being allowed to graduate.The rally was high energy and featured local hip-hop group The Expatriots. Speakers included the mother of the first soldier from Georgia to be killed in the Iraq War; the deputy director for the Southern Region of Amnesty International on the torture policy of the Bush administration, vice president of Concerned Black Clergy on the lessons of Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement, and a representative of A Justice for All coalition on the threat of the Alito nomination on abortion rights. A whole group of students from Spelman College spoke as well. Someone from the crowd came up to speak about the hunger strike going on at Guantanamo. The World Can't Wait announcement was made by a group of high school students.Many older activists at the rally were amazed and inspired by the outpouring of so many passionate and outspoken youth. There was a sense that a new movement among high school and college students has emerged on the scene as of November 2nd.The day ended with a spirited march through downtown. Many youth on the march now see themselves as organizers of the movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime!
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
world can/'t wait
Democracy Now: Rosa Parks' life celebrated by Jesse Jackson, Bernice King, Bill Clinton, Aretha Franklin, Joseph Lowery, Jennifer Granholm, Al Sharpton ...
HRW Identifies Poland or Romania as Location of Secret CIA Prison
The Bush administration is refusing to confirm or a deny a Washington Post account that the CIA is using a secret, Soviet-era prison run in Eastern Europe to hold prisoners. The prison is apparently a part of global network of CIA-run prisons in several countries. At the request of US officials. the Post did not reveal the location of the facilities. Human Rights Watch has identified Poland and Romania as likely locations, citing flight records of CIA aircraft transporting detainees from Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the Polish defense ministry denied the allegations to the Financial Times. A Romanian spokesperson declined comment. Agence France Presse is reporting Czech Republic Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan says his country recently turned down a US request to set up a detention center on its territory.
Carter Criticizes Bush Administration on Torture, Iraq War
In light of the Washington Post revelations, Bush administration officials insist they will not tolerate the use of torture at home or in any foreign prisons. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said: "We're doing everything we can to protect America but we obviously do everything we can to do it in a way that's consistent with our legal obligations." Yet there are no indications the Bush administration has dropped a controversial proposal that would exempt CIA agents from a Senate ban on torture. Speaking in New York yesterday, President Jimmy Carter criticized the Bush administration's stance: "The insistence by our government that the CIA or others have the right to torture prisoners in Guantanamo and around the World is just one indication of what this administration has done that's a radical departure from past policies." Carter also lashed out at the Bush administration's justifications for the war on Iraq. Carter said: "I think that the claims that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and the claims that he had massive weapons of mass destruction that would threaten our country were manipulated at least to mislead the American people into going to war."
U.S. Launch Lethal Air Strikes While Attacks Kill Dozens in Iraq
In Iraq, separate incidents claimed the lives of at least 53 Iraqi civilians and six U.S. troops Wednesday. Two U.S. troops were killed near Ramadi when insurgents reportedly shot down their helicopter. The Washington Post reports U.S. aircraft returned and dropped bombs near the crash site, killing at least 20 people. Elsewhere in the country, a suicide bomber exploded a minibus in an outdoor market in the town of Musayyib, killing 20 people and wounding 60 others.
Groups Call on CPB Board to Release Investigator's Report
In this country, a coalition of grassroots organizations is calling on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to release a long-expected inspector general's investigation into wrongdoing by former Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. Common Cause, the Center for Digital Democracy and Free Press have urged the CPB's board of directors to immediately release the report, which has only been reviewed in private. Tomlinson is accused of committing ethical and procedural breaches and misusing CPB funds.
The above four items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and were selected by Norah, Brian, Sam and Liang. Democracy Now! ("always worth watching," as Marcia says):
Headlines for November 3, 2005
- Funeral Service Held For Rosa Parks in Detroit
- HRW Identifies Possible Locations of Secret CIA Prisons
- Carter Criticizes Bush Administration on Torture, Iraq War
- Republicans Debate Rove's Future at White House
- U.S. Launch Lethal Air Strikes While Attacks Kill Dozens in Iraq
- Ex-Bolivian President Served Legal Summons in Washington
- GOP Proposes Cutting 300,000 Off Food Stamps
Jesse Jackson Delivers Eulogy at Rosa Parks Funeral: "Her Legacy is Secure. Her Work, Unfinished"
Over 4,000 people gathered in Detroit for the funeral of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks on Wednesday. The funeral capped a week of tributes to the woman often referred to as the mother of the civil rights movement. Civil rights leaders, Congressmembers, Senators, pastors and many others spoke at the service. The Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered the eulogy. We play excerpts of the service. [includes rush transcript]
Bill Clinton: Rosa Parks "Made Us See and Agree that Everyone Should Be Free"
Former President Bill Clinton was one of the first speakers at the funeral of Rosa Parks Wednesday in Detroit. Clinton said, "Let us never forget that in that simple act and a lifetime of grace and dignity, she showed us every single day what it means to be free. She made us see and agree that everyone should be free. God Bless you Rosa Parks." [includes rush transcript]
Bernice King Delivers Remarks at Rosa Parks Funeral on Behalf of Her Mother, Coretta Scott King
The Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King delivered remarks on behalf of her mother - who recently suffered a stroke - at the funeral of Rosa Parks.
Michigan Gov. Granholhm: Rosa Parks is "Our Own Gently Powerful War Hero"
Jennifer Granholm - the first female Governor of Michigan - spoke at the funeral of Rosa Parks Wednesday. She compared Parks to a war hero and ended by saying, "By your actions [Rosa Parks] you have given us your final marching orders, we are enlisted in this war and on behalf of the state of Michigan ma'am, we are reporting for duty."
Joseph Lowery Calls on Condoleezza Rice to Extend Voting Rights Act
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, a long-time civil rights activist and the co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was among the speakers the funeral of Rosa Parks. Lowery was also active in the movement to desegregate public transportation in Alabama in the early 1950's.
Al Sharpton: "Jim Crow Had Sons...He's a Little More Polished But the Results Are the Same"
Speaking at the funeral of Rosa Parks Wednesday, the Reverend Al Sharpton connected the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s to the struggles that are taking place today.
Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin Joins Jesse Jackson to Pay Tribute to Rosa Parks
Rev. Jesse Jackson's eulogy ended with him and the Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin on stage together paying tribute to Rosa Parks.
Where Have All the Fighters Gone? Juan Gonzalez Analyzes the New York City Mayoral Race
Democracy Now! co-host and Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez gives an analysis of the New York City mayoral race between Republican Michael Bloomberg and Democrat Fernando Ferrer and talks about the lack of focus on urban America by both corporate and progressive journalists.
Keshawn e-mails to note Margaret Kimberley's "Bush and the Pirates on Trial" (Freedom Rider, The Black Commentator):
The name Lewis "Scooter" Libby was not a household word until very recently. That is how many very powerful people operate, in the shadows, known only to a few. Libby is now very well known. He was chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney until an indictment for perjury and obstruction of justice forced him to resign.
Libby is charged with lying under oath to a grand jury in the case of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, came under attack from Cheney, Libby and the rest of the Bushmen when he revealed the administration's lies about nuclear capabilities in Iraq, lies that helped make the case for war.
On July 14, 2003, conservative columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's name, a possible violation of the law. It was difficult for special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to determine if the law had been violated, but it became crystal clear that Libby was fibbing.
Valerie Plame's identity was not the only fact revealed in this melodrama. It became clearer just how cozy the Washington press corps had become with the Bush administration, and that Dick Cheney wields considerable power.
Corey e-mails to note Amitabh Pal's "New Yorker gets it wrong on Scowcroft versus Bush Junior" (Amitabh Pal's Weekly Column, The Progressive):
The Iraq debacle has discredited the neoconservative belief system so badly that even dated ideologies are making a comeback.
Take Jeffrey Goldberg's largely complimentary profile of Brent Scowcroft in the October 31, 2005, issue of The New Yorker.
Scowcroft, President Ford and President Bush senior's national security adviser, is emblematic of the realist foreign policy approach. (His mentor, after all, was none other than Henry Kissinger, who, when the United States abandoned the Kurds in the mid-1970s, infamously commented that "covert action should not be confused with missionary work.") Goldberg flatteringly juxtaposes Scowcroft's realism with the crackpot idealism of the neoconservatives, implying that if President Bush Junior had listened more closely to his father's counselor, then the world would be a better place.
Scowcroft was certainly one of the first members of the foreign policy establishment to come out against an Iraq invasion, penning an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on August 15, 2002.
"The central point is that any campaign against Iraq, whatever the strategy, cost, and risks, is certain to divert us for some indefinite period from our war on terrorism," he wrote. "Worse, there is a virtual consensus in the world against an attack on Iraq at this time. So long as that sentiment persists, it would require the U.S. to pursue a virtual go-it-alone strategy against Iraq, making any military operations correspondingly more difficult and expensive."
But just because he was right about some of the negative consequences of the war doesn't necessarily mean that his hard-bitten worldview is a decent alternative to the aggressive militarism of the neoconservatives. He has, throughout his career, been an apologist for dictatorships and now does business with some of them through the Scowcroft Group, the consulting firm he operates.
He was a military assistant to President Nixon at the end of the Vietnam War.
Lawanda e-mails to note Dennis Kucinich's "Democrats: It's the War" (In These Times):
Ending the war in Iraq is right for a lot of reasons. The war was unjustified, unnecessary and unprovoked. It is counterproductive, strengthening al-Qaeda and weakening the moral authority of the United States. It is deadly: Many Americans, and many, many more Iraqis, have been killed or injured as a result of the fighting. And it is costly: Well over $250 billion in taxpayer funds have already been spent, with no end in sight.
It is also increasingly unpopular. For all these reasons, plus the increased spotlight that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita put on how much the war is draining resources desperately needed at home, Democrats should clearly call for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. If Democrats do not make this the centerpiece of their campaign in 2006, they risk repeating recent history, in which they failed to recover seats in the House and Senate.
National Democratic leaders have already tried, and tried again, to ignore the war, and it didn't work politically. During the 2002 election cycle, when Democrats felt they had historical precedent on their side--the president's party always loses seats in the mid-term election--the Democratic leadership in Congress cut a deal with the president to bring the war resolution to a vote, and appeared with him in a Rose Garden ceremony. "Let no light show" between Democrats and President Bush on foreign policy was the leadership's strategy, and it yielded a historic result: For the first time since Franklin Roosevelt, a president increased his majorities in both houses of Congress during a recession.
Then, in 2004, with the president vulnerable on the war, the Democratic Party again sacrificed the opportunity to distinguish itself from Bush. Members avoided the issue of withdrawal from Iraq in the Party platform, omitted it from campaign speeches and deleted it from the national convention.
Why is it an unconscionable political blunder to sweep the war and occupation of Iraq under the rug? Because the war is one of the most potent political scandals of all time, and it has energized grassroots activity all over the country.
Marcia notes Katha Pollitt's "Madam President, Madam President" (The Nation):
I can't help it. I love Commander in Chief. Sure, it's cheesy and underwritten and not as good as The West Wing. More story lines, please! More characters! More witty banter and moral ambiguity and multiple crises all coming to a head at the same time! But in a TV season in which the major network roles for women over 30 are as desperate housewives in size 0 stretch pants, this feminist fantasy about the first woman President gives me a thrill every Tuesday night at 9. Maybe there's more to life than Wisteria Lane, after all. I love Geena Davis as President Mackenzie "Mac" Allen, so unflappable and warm and confident and kind and clever, to say nothing of gorgeous and six feet tall. But then I've loved Geena Davis ever since she wrote a letter to Newsweek, at the height of the "date rape hype" hysteria, pointing out that speaking out against rape wasn't embracing the role of victim but rejecting it. Commander in Chief makes you realize how rarely on TV you get to see a woman in charge who isn't a dragon or a bundle of nerves--or a likable one who isn't incompetent, clumsy, silly or self-hating. Imagine, the show's been on since September 27, and Mac hasn't--yet--dissolved into a puddle of tears from the stress of running the free world while raising three kids and foiling the plots of sexist Republican Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton, played with delicious malice by Donald Sutherland.
Even more amazing, her husband, Rod Calloway (Kyle Secor), isn't sulking and acting out, even though one of Mac's first official acts when she moved up from being Vice President was to fire him as her Chief of Staff because otherwise people would assume he was running the show. He takes being First Gentleman with a sense of humor, pitches in equally with the kids and still wants to have sex. More miraculous still, so does Mac. Well, I said it was a fantasy. (Update: Looks like trouble is brewing in paradise. Sigh.)
Pundits wonder out loud if Commander in Chief will pave the way for a real-life woman President, like--oh let's just pick a name out of a hat--Hillary Clinton. Far be it from me to suggest that TV dramas don't affect Americans' real-life attitudes--I'd never even heard of cosmopolitans before Sex and the City and now I drink them all the time. The show may persuade some voters that it would be cool to have a woman President--"Madam President" has a nice ring to it. But it's unlikely to reach the gender-prejudiced. The substantial minority of voters who, according to polls, wouldn't vote for a woman nominated by their own party probably aren't watching the show, and besides, they're most likely Republicans (20 percent, versus 7 percent of Democrats) who would sooner admit the Earth is more than 10,000 years old than vote for Hillary. Mac Allen, moreover, is so androgynously terrific--even her name is unisex--she's less like a real woman politician than like one of Shakespeare's cross-dressing heroines--Rosalind, or Portia. It's hard to think of a woman within a thousand miles of the White House she doesn't make look frumpy and fussy and old and short.
Marcia asks if Ava and I are going to review Commander-in-Chief this weekend (The Third Estate Sunday Review)? No. We're doing a drama but that's not it.
Lynda e-mails to note Richard C. Crepeau's "Good Night and Good Luck" (Pop Politics):
Edward R. Murrow can be credited as the man who invented television journalism, having first perfected radio journalism during World War II. It should then be no big surprise that there is a high volume media buzz over the new film Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney's homage to Edward R. Murrow.
The focus of the film is the April, 1954, television broadcast on CBS produced by Fred Friendly and Murrow exposing the overblown accusations, bullying methods and attack on individual rights by Senator Joseph McCarthy. At the time of the broadcast McCarthy was already moving precariously close to disaster.
The "See It Now" broadcast by Murrow, Friendly and CBS did not bring Joe McCarthy down under the force of Murrow's critical analysis, but it did give the teetering senator a push on the slippery slope. McCarthy was in trouble. His own Republican party was set to jettison him as a liability when he dared to take on the Army and therefore the Eisenhower administration. It was fine when McCarthy attacked Democrats and pinkos, but it was no longer amusing when he attacked the Secretary of the Army. A large number of newspapers and magazines had already done what Murrow did on "See It Now."
Liz e-mails to note Glen Ford and Peter Gamble's "Immunity Sought for Uncle Tom Behavior" (The Black Commentator):
Uncle Tom. Sellout. Race traitor. Minstrel. Self-hater. Sambo.
African Americans, who have known for centuries that living, breathing, groveling, shuffling characters walk among us who actually match these caricatures, have been put on notice that it is taboo to point out the obvious.
One would think white media and politicians would have enough to do, policing the racist statements of their own group. Yet instead of deploying their censorship squads to suppress explicit and implicit white supremacist speech -- which flows like a daily tsunami from George Bush's Confederate/Republican Party and all its unofficial manifestations -- corporate media and Democrats make common cause to suppress the free speech of Black writers and artists who dare to confront other Black people who have committed political offenses against African Americans.
How dare these bastions of white power and privilege attempt to act as arbiters of African American discourse! Seldom listening to Black people, they are quick to lecture at Blacks, insanely believing that white institutions -- and this includes Blacks who serve those institutions -- have earned even a subatomic particle's worth of moral authority in Black America.
The latest Dem/GOP/corporate assault on Black internal political autonomy targeted The News Blog, operated by Black New Yorker Steve Gilliard. Gilliard altered a photo of Maryland's Black Republican Lt. Governor, Michael S. Steele, a candidate for U.S. senator, to conform more closely to the historical archetype that Steele's reflexive subordinate behavior most resembles. "Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house," read the caption under what Gilliard had made to look like a flyer for Steele's one-man minstrel show.
Gilliard's blog, which he says gets about 15,000 visits per day, routinely lays waste to the high-and-mightily-evil Right. He has posted a photo of Bush cabal-embedded New York Times reporter Judith Miller, captioned: "The Face of Treason." A picture of New Orleans cops beating a retired Black school teacher was altered to depict the policemen wearing Ku Klux Klan robes, explaining: "The nigger made us beat him. It's his fault." Good stuff.
A few weeks before Gilliard put Lt. Gov. Steele in proper visual context, Black Republican Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell -- the vampire of 2004 who sucked the franchise out of that state's African American voters -- got The News Blog treatment.
The country club circuit is also what got Maryland's Michael Steele on Gilliard's dis-list. Steele's running mate (read, boss) Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., held a fund-raiser at a country club that had never in its 127-year history admitted an African American -- a non-problem as far as Steele was concerned. Rather, the senatorial aspirant, who may face former NAACP executive director and Democratic congressman Kweisi Mfume in the 2006 election, spends most of his "white" time badmouthing Blacks -- the primary function of his ilk -- in places like the Elkridge Club. Let the picture fit the crime.
"Generally, it is an accurate depiction of Steele's groveling, lackey behavior," said Gilliard, in an email to the Baltimore Sun. "It is 2005, and such an institution should not exist, nor should a governor with as many black people as the state of Maryland attend a function at such a place."
Ericka e-mails to note Jon Platner's "Who Is Samuel Alito?" (Planned Parenthood):
Concern over Alito's nomination is not limited to issues of reproductive freedom. In several cases related to gender and racial discrimination at the workplace, Alito endorsed standards of evidence that would make it substantially more difficult for victims of employee discrimination to prove their cases or even bring them to trial. Alito has also issued several judicial opinions that fly in the face of the constitutional separation of church and state.
On the day that Alito's nomination was announced, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NE) told Reuters that Alito might be "too radical for the American people." He said he looks forward to meeting Judge Alito and learning why right-wing extremists "are so much more enthusiastic about him than they were about Harriet Miers."
Planned Parenthood already understands why right-wing extremists are so enthusiastic about Alito's nomination. His judicial philosophy is far to the right of Justice O'Connor's. Based on his past ruling in Casey, we believe that Judge Alito would vote with the extremists on the court to further undermine reproductive and privacy rights.
Planned Parenthood did not oppose John Roberts' nomination until we had a chance to hear him explain his views in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Samuel Alito is a different case. His judicial record leaves no room for ambiguity on how he would rule in cases that challenge our most basic rights.
Planned Parenthood opposes the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court. If confirmed, Alito could radically transform the Supreme Court and create a direct threat to the health and safety of American women.
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Pru finds Alan Cowell's "Close Ally of Blair Resigns Again in Scandal" hilarious. Pru feels that a disgraced resignation from a "centrist" will always be couched by the New York Times.
Pru: He has disgraced the country and yet, reading the gentle chiding from Alan Cowell, it is as though David Blunkett will be named Knight Commander by Order of the British Empire.
There's a "White House Memo" that Carl e-mails about. He wonders whether it will get the sort of ridicule that it deserves and that a "White House Letter" by Elisabeth Bumiller would? Good question.
It's entitled "Press Secretary on Trial in the Briefing Room" and attempts to provide you with the crashing waves that have threatened the love tunnel that exists between the press and Scott McClellan. Stretch praises him. Elite Fluff Patrol squad member Richard W. Stevenson blows air kisses. See, Scotty said Karl Rove and Scooter Libby weren't involved in the outing of Valerie Plame and now that the "public record" demonstrates that this is false, poor Scotty and poor press just aren't sure, as Dionne Warwick once sang, what to do with themselves.
It's a tough time for both sides. All those expectations. All those laughs. Could it all be coming to end? He fed them, they stroked him. It was a mutal love affair born of self-interests on both sides. So Stevenson uses terms like "unwilling or unable" (is he charting on patients?) to attempt to explain the bind Scotty finds himself in (although it applies equally as well to what passes for the press). If Scotty comes out and speaks the truth (highly unlikely considering the administration he serves in), Karl Rove might go ballistic on him.
What's Scotty to do?
Stevenson frets and worries.
It's all so very "Victim of Romance:"
Homeroom studyhall
I knew that I was gonna fall
Late at night I weep
Mumble in my sleep
Yeah knock on wood
Say I never felt so good
Heaven above
It must be love
Victim
Victim
I'm a victim of romance
Sing it, Stevenson, sing it!
("Victim of Romance" is written by John Martin. I'll plug Michelle Phillips' version which is available on her album of the same name and which Hip-O Select released this year on CD.)
"A member of a prominent Texas political family, he was viewed by many reporters when he took the job as genial and straightforward but difficult to knock off the White House's talking points," Stevenson all but sobs into pillow.
Stevenson reassures us that, in all the madness, Scotty's high roaded it and "has instead appealed to the better instincts of his journalistic inquisitors." Yes, Stevenson can't stop singing "Victim of Romance:"
Cold blooded felony
Murder in the first degree
It's a crime
What he's done to my spine
It certainly is. It certainly is a crime what Scotty's done to Richie's spine. A victim . . . a victim
. . . Stevenson's just a victim of romance.
Hopefully, it will all be worked out in time for home coming. I'd hate to think Richie might miss getting pinned by Scotty.
Craig S. Smith files "Chirac Appeals for Calm as Violent Protests Shake Paris's Suburbs" and Brenda wonders why she learned more of this on Sunday from Ty's section of "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-30-05." Well, Ty's very smart and three days of rioting seemed like news to him. The Times had to wait for day six before it struck them as news (and they file on day seven). If Chirac hadn't spoken up, readers might still be waiting.
The Times misses a great deal. Let's note Wally on the topic of what the New York Times covers and doesn't cover:
Today:
Florida: Fishing ban is overturned
A two-month ban on recreational grouper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico was overturned Monday, a day before it was scheduled to go into effect. Judge John E. Steele of Federal District Court ruled that federal officials went too far when they outlawed all grouper fishing to protect one species, red grouper. The restrictions were to have established a closed season for grouper in November and December in federal waters and reduced the daily bag limit of the fish to one from two. The decision means that many species of grouper can be caught in federal waters, beyond nine miles offshore in the Gulf. Red grouper remains off limits in those waters through December.
That's an Associated Press thing (in full) from "National Briefing."
Yesterday?
Florida: Trick-or-Treaters told to proceed with caution
Government officials in South Florida urged parents not to let their children go trick-or-treating after dark because of power failures and fallen power lines affecting much of the area a week after Hurricane Wilma. "If your kids don't need to go door to door trick-or-treating this year, they probably shouldn't," Lt. Bill Schwartz of the Miami police said. "If you can find an alternative like a mall, we highly recommend it." Public schools in Boward Country were closed through at least tomorrow and in Miami-Dade through today. Florida Power and Light said it had restored power to about 25 percent of the 3.3 million people who lost power after the hurricane. But it said some areas might not get power back until Nov. 22.
Also Associated Press also "National Briefing."
It sure is nice to be a "briefing." I asked C.I., when NYC had their day of blackout, how did that play in the paper of record? Front paged. No surprise there.
On the trick-or-treating, it was also because of "debris" from the hurricane and it was much stronger here than the Associated Press paragraph lets on. Then we're reading that 25% of the people who lost power have had it restored. But in some radio reports they say 77%. I don't think anyone's gotten an honest accounting and I don't think they'll get one because the national press isn't interested in this story.
Let me tell you what else you're not being told by the national paper of record. Jeb Bush called off city elections that were to have taken place yesterday in Miami-Dade (including the election of Miami's mayor). Students are missing classes because of the damage done by the hurricane and the lack of a quick response. Jeb's offering waivers because the school's won't meet the compliance demands. Depeche Mode has cancelled their concert, the one that was to kick start their tour, scheduled in Fort Lauderdale. You hearing much about the way it's effecting migrant farm workers?
Maybe if we talk about the effect it's had on college football, some might pay attention?
Did you hear about Tuesday's rainfall? In Broward, you had an apartment complex's roof cave in due to the damage from the hurricane combined with yesterday's rain. They're saying 500 people are now homeless. This story didn't end when the hurricane swept through Florida but the national media acts like it has. You've got complexes and condos that are unsafe and people wondering where they're supposed to go.
And guess what one answer was in Miami? You could stay overnight at a motel. The motel didn't have electricity, but you could stay there. And this "solution" came from the city government.
Where's the national media?
Tomorrow I'll try to be my usual smart ass self. This isn't supposed to be The Daily Florida. But one day without power in NYC is a massive, national news story. What happens in Florida isn't apparently cause for concern. But when a fishing ban is overturned, count on the New York Times to give you that news.
That's from yesterday's The Daily Jot (before anyone looks through the "National Briefing" for the items Wally noted).
I've been sick as a dog and had to think a moment to be sure but it was last week that we crossed the 2000 mark for American troop fatalities in Iraq (official count). Why did I wonder? We're now up to 2035. One week later. Which brings us to the next two highlights.
Krista e-mailed to highlight Elizabeth de la Vega's "The White House Criminal Conspiracy" (The Nation):
Legally, there are no significant differences between the investor fraud perpetrated by Enron CEO Ken Lay and the prewar intelligence fraud perpetrated by George W. Bush. Both involved persons in authority who used half-truths and recklessly false statements to manipulate people who trusted them. There is, however, a practical difference: The presidential fraud is wider in scope and far graver in its consequences than the Enron fraud. Yet thus far the public seems paralyzed.
In response to the outcry raised by Enron and other scandals, Congress passed the Corporate Corruption Bill, which President Bush signed on July 30, 2002, amid great fanfare. Bush declared that he was signing the bill because of his strong belief that corporate officers must be straightforward and honest. If they were not, he said, they would be held accountable.
Ironically, the day Bush signed the Corporate Corruption Bill, he and his aides were enmeshed in an orchestrated campaign to trick the country into taking the biggest risk imaginable--a war. Indeed, plans to attack Iraq were already in motion. In June Bush announced his "new" pre-emptive strike strategy. On July 23, 2002, the head of British intelligence advised Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the then-secret Downing Street Memo, that "military action was now seen as inevitable" and that "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Bush had also authorized the transfer of $700 million from Afghanistan war funds to prepare for an invasion of Iraq. Yet all the while, with the sincerity of Marc Antony protesting that "Brutus is an honorable man," Bush insisted he wanted peace.
Trevor e-mails to note Brian Conley's "Palestine Hotel, One Week Later…" (Alive in Baghdad):
Firdos Square is the site of the infamous propaganda event where the US toppled Saddam’s statue. It is easy to determine where the hotel compound is, from the massive concrete blast walls surrounding the area. However, it is nearly impossible to determine the entrance, and it still escapes me how anyone who hasn’t been there before is expected to find it.
Luckily Omar has been there many times working for others. The entrance is about ten feet wide and covered with a dark canvas roof, but open to the air. There were several Iraqi young men with kalashnikovs milling about at the entrance. They agreed to look at our two forms of ID after much insistence-we realized later it appeared they were prepared to let us just walk right in. After the ID check we were both frisked and proceeded down the street to the next checkpoint.
At the second checkpoint we had our IDs again checked-I’m not sure what cause we would have to fake them or change our identity once we were already mostly in the compound-and were searched once more. Just beyond the second checkpoint were two American soldiers relaxing in the shade, with some kind of military vehicle nearby-perhaps a Bradley?
Beyond the final checkpoint there is still a maze of razor-wire, concrete blast walls, and winding walkways to navigate before you reach the Palestine Hotel. At the entrance to the Palestine Hotel we were greeted by massive piles of broken glass and trash all over the terrace in front of the building. One week later, yet the area was still covered in debris and the various post-attack detritus that litters much of Baghdad.
It was simultaneously disorienting and comforting to see that even in the relative security of the Palestine compound, there still wasn’t anymore speed at reconstruction than elsewhere in Baghdad. Many of the front windowpanes were still empty or bearing the jagged edges of partial panes. Despite the devastation, many journalists passed us without a second look to the rubble strewn about. It was quite a shock to see the havoc played out in front of the hotel, one week later, and just a short way from the hotel, towards the blast walls and the Square, an American tank and several troops were stationed.
And still on the topic of Bully Boy, Lyle e-mails to note Nat Parry's "Bush's Rule of Law" (Consortium News):
George W. Bush reacted to the indictment of Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis Libby, with a startling assertion about the U.S. legal system. "In our system," the President declared, "each individual is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial."
While Bush's statement was surely intended to remind the public that Libby has yet to be convicted of a crime, it was remarkable to hear Bush endorse the presumption of innocence and due process after all he has done to erode those principles.
For four years, it has been a central legal precept of the "War on Terror" that Bush has the absolute right to imprison anyone of his choosing, including American citizens, who are then denied even a day in court, let alone a fair trial or presumption of innocence.
While the "rule of law" is usually defined as the universal protection of everyone equally under the law, Bush’s "rule of law" seems to mean, "We rule, so we decide who's protected by the law." Those protections are denied people whom Bush deems "terrorists" or "bad guys."
Bush's lip service to presumption of innocence, for example, must have been cold comfort to Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without charges and without the benefit of his day in court since May 2002.
Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport and accused of plotting to set off a radiological "dirty bomb"in a U.S. city. Bush unilaterally determined that Padilla was closely associated with al-Qaeda and represented a "continuing, present and grave danger" to the United States.
Bush cited his powers as commander in chief in declaring Padilla an “enemy combatant” and ordering him detained indefinitely at a military prison in South Carolina. Bush said Padilla was a "bad guy" and "he is where he needs to be, detained."
Padilla could be jailed for the duration of the war on terrorism, a potential life sentence given the fuzzy goals and indefinite timetable of the conflict. No trial is to be held.
Major Victory?
Padilla's capture was initially portrayed by the administration as a major victory in the "War on Terror." Bush said there was a "full-scale manhunt on" for other terrorists involved in the alleged plot, but to date, no one else involved has been captured.
Later, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the Padilla bomb plot amounted only to "some fairly loose talk" and "there was not an actual plan" to attack U.S. cities. [Washington Post, June 13, 2002]
In other words, nothing concrete in the alleged plot had occurred. Padilla had no bomb-making materials, no target, no operational co-conspirators, no plan. Beyond assertions from administration officials, there also was no evidence of Padilla's guilt.
Still no case brought against Padilla, still he remains imprisoned.
Rod passes on that a scheduled topic for today's Democracy Now! is:
Excerpts from the historic funeral of civil rights pioneer, Rosa Parks, in Detroit, & more
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
richard w. stevenson
craig s. smith
democracy now
rosa parks
brian conley
alive in baghdad
paris riots
the third estate sunday review
the daily jot
florida
elizabeth de la vega
nat perry
michelle phillips
victim of romance
elite fluff patrol
[Note from Shirley: David Gregory is "Stretch." I corrected typos I caught.]
Pru: He has disgraced the country and yet, reading the gentle chiding from Alan Cowell, it is as though David Blunkett will be named Knight Commander by Order of the British Empire.
There's a "White House Memo" that Carl e-mails about. He wonders whether it will get the sort of ridicule that it deserves and that a "White House Letter" by Elisabeth Bumiller would? Good question.
It's entitled "Press Secretary on Trial in the Briefing Room" and attempts to provide you with the crashing waves that have threatened the love tunnel that exists between the press and Scott McClellan. Stretch praises him. Elite Fluff Patrol squad member Richard W. Stevenson blows air kisses. See, Scotty said Karl Rove and Scooter Libby weren't involved in the outing of Valerie Plame and now that the "public record" demonstrates that this is false, poor Scotty and poor press just aren't sure, as Dionne Warwick once sang, what to do with themselves.
It's a tough time for both sides. All those expectations. All those laughs. Could it all be coming to end? He fed them, they stroked him. It was a mutal love affair born of self-interests on both sides. So Stevenson uses terms like "unwilling or unable" (is he charting on patients?) to attempt to explain the bind Scotty finds himself in (although it applies equally as well to what passes for the press). If Scotty comes out and speaks the truth (highly unlikely considering the administration he serves in), Karl Rove might go ballistic on him.
What's Scotty to do?
Stevenson frets and worries.
It's all so very "Victim of Romance:"
Homeroom studyhall
I knew that I was gonna fall
Late at night I weep
Mumble in my sleep
Yeah knock on wood
Say I never felt so good
Heaven above
It must be love
Victim
Victim
I'm a victim of romance
Sing it, Stevenson, sing it!
("Victim of Romance" is written by John Martin. I'll plug Michelle Phillips' version which is available on her album of the same name and which Hip-O Select released this year on CD.)
"A member of a prominent Texas political family, he was viewed by many reporters when he took the job as genial and straightforward but difficult to knock off the White House's talking points," Stevenson all but sobs into pillow.
Stevenson reassures us that, in all the madness, Scotty's high roaded it and "has instead appealed to the better instincts of his journalistic inquisitors." Yes, Stevenson can't stop singing "Victim of Romance:"
Cold blooded felony
Murder in the first degree
It's a crime
What he's done to my spine
It certainly is. It certainly is a crime what Scotty's done to Richie's spine. A victim . . . a victim
. . . Stevenson's just a victim of romance.
Hopefully, it will all be worked out in time for home coming. I'd hate to think Richie might miss getting pinned by Scotty.
Craig S. Smith files "Chirac Appeals for Calm as Violent Protests Shake Paris's Suburbs" and Brenda wonders why she learned more of this on Sunday from Ty's section of "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-30-05." Well, Ty's very smart and three days of rioting seemed like news to him. The Times had to wait for day six before it struck them as news (and they file on day seven). If Chirac hadn't spoken up, readers might still be waiting.
The Times misses a great deal. Let's note Wally on the topic of what the New York Times covers and doesn't cover:
Today:
Florida: Fishing ban is overturned
A two-month ban on recreational grouper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico was overturned Monday, a day before it was scheduled to go into effect. Judge John E. Steele of Federal District Court ruled that federal officials went too far when they outlawed all grouper fishing to protect one species, red grouper. The restrictions were to have established a closed season for grouper in November and December in federal waters and reduced the daily bag limit of the fish to one from two. The decision means that many species of grouper can be caught in federal waters, beyond nine miles offshore in the Gulf. Red grouper remains off limits in those waters through December.
That's an Associated Press thing (in full) from "National Briefing."
Yesterday?
Florida: Trick-or-Treaters told to proceed with caution
Government officials in South Florida urged parents not to let their children go trick-or-treating after dark because of power failures and fallen power lines affecting much of the area a week after Hurricane Wilma. "If your kids don't need to go door to door trick-or-treating this year, they probably shouldn't," Lt. Bill Schwartz of the Miami police said. "If you can find an alternative like a mall, we highly recommend it." Public schools in Boward Country were closed through at least tomorrow and in Miami-Dade through today. Florida Power and Light said it had restored power to about 25 percent of the 3.3 million people who lost power after the hurricane. But it said some areas might not get power back until Nov. 22.
Also Associated Press also "National Briefing."
It sure is nice to be a "briefing." I asked C.I., when NYC had their day of blackout, how did that play in the paper of record? Front paged. No surprise there.
On the trick-or-treating, it was also because of "debris" from the hurricane and it was much stronger here than the Associated Press paragraph lets on. Then we're reading that 25% of the people who lost power have had it restored. But in some radio reports they say 77%. I don't think anyone's gotten an honest accounting and I don't think they'll get one because the national press isn't interested in this story.
Let me tell you what else you're not being told by the national paper of record. Jeb Bush called off city elections that were to have taken place yesterday in Miami-Dade (including the election of Miami's mayor). Students are missing classes because of the damage done by the hurricane and the lack of a quick response. Jeb's offering waivers because the school's won't meet the compliance demands. Depeche Mode has cancelled their concert, the one that was to kick start their tour, scheduled in Fort Lauderdale. You hearing much about the way it's effecting migrant farm workers?
Maybe if we talk about the effect it's had on college football, some might pay attention?
Did you hear about Tuesday's rainfall? In Broward, you had an apartment complex's roof cave in due to the damage from the hurricane combined with yesterday's rain. They're saying 500 people are now homeless. This story didn't end when the hurricane swept through Florida but the national media acts like it has. You've got complexes and condos that are unsafe and people wondering where they're supposed to go.
And guess what one answer was in Miami? You could stay overnight at a motel. The motel didn't have electricity, but you could stay there. And this "solution" came from the city government.
Where's the national media?
Tomorrow I'll try to be my usual smart ass self. This isn't supposed to be The Daily Florida. But one day without power in NYC is a massive, national news story. What happens in Florida isn't apparently cause for concern. But when a fishing ban is overturned, count on the New York Times to give you that news.
That's from yesterday's The Daily Jot (before anyone looks through the "National Briefing" for the items Wally noted).
I've been sick as a dog and had to think a moment to be sure but it was last week that we crossed the 2000 mark for American troop fatalities in Iraq (official count). Why did I wonder? We're now up to 2035. One week later. Which brings us to the next two highlights.
Krista e-mailed to highlight Elizabeth de la Vega's "The White House Criminal Conspiracy" (The Nation):
Legally, there are no significant differences between the investor fraud perpetrated by Enron CEO Ken Lay and the prewar intelligence fraud perpetrated by George W. Bush. Both involved persons in authority who used half-truths and recklessly false statements to manipulate people who trusted them. There is, however, a practical difference: The presidential fraud is wider in scope and far graver in its consequences than the Enron fraud. Yet thus far the public seems paralyzed.
In response to the outcry raised by Enron and other scandals, Congress passed the Corporate Corruption Bill, which President Bush signed on July 30, 2002, amid great fanfare. Bush declared that he was signing the bill because of his strong belief that corporate officers must be straightforward and honest. If they were not, he said, they would be held accountable.
Ironically, the day Bush signed the Corporate Corruption Bill, he and his aides were enmeshed in an orchestrated campaign to trick the country into taking the biggest risk imaginable--a war. Indeed, plans to attack Iraq were already in motion. In June Bush announced his "new" pre-emptive strike strategy. On July 23, 2002, the head of British intelligence advised Prime Minister Tony Blair, in the then-secret Downing Street Memo, that "military action was now seen as inevitable" and that "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Bush had also authorized the transfer of $700 million from Afghanistan war funds to prepare for an invasion of Iraq. Yet all the while, with the sincerity of Marc Antony protesting that "Brutus is an honorable man," Bush insisted he wanted peace.
Trevor e-mails to note Brian Conley's "Palestine Hotel, One Week Later…" (Alive in Baghdad):
Firdos Square is the site of the infamous propaganda event where the US toppled Saddam’s statue. It is easy to determine where the hotel compound is, from the massive concrete blast walls surrounding the area. However, it is nearly impossible to determine the entrance, and it still escapes me how anyone who hasn’t been there before is expected to find it.
Luckily Omar has been there many times working for others. The entrance is about ten feet wide and covered with a dark canvas roof, but open to the air. There were several Iraqi young men with kalashnikovs milling about at the entrance. They agreed to look at our two forms of ID after much insistence-we realized later it appeared they were prepared to let us just walk right in. After the ID check we were both frisked and proceeded down the street to the next checkpoint.
At the second checkpoint we had our IDs again checked-I’m not sure what cause we would have to fake them or change our identity once we were already mostly in the compound-and were searched once more. Just beyond the second checkpoint were two American soldiers relaxing in the shade, with some kind of military vehicle nearby-perhaps a Bradley?
Beyond the final checkpoint there is still a maze of razor-wire, concrete blast walls, and winding walkways to navigate before you reach the Palestine Hotel. At the entrance to the Palestine Hotel we were greeted by massive piles of broken glass and trash all over the terrace in front of the building. One week later, yet the area was still covered in debris and the various post-attack detritus that litters much of Baghdad.
It was simultaneously disorienting and comforting to see that even in the relative security of the Palestine compound, there still wasn’t anymore speed at reconstruction than elsewhere in Baghdad. Many of the front windowpanes were still empty or bearing the jagged edges of partial panes. Despite the devastation, many journalists passed us without a second look to the rubble strewn about. It was quite a shock to see the havoc played out in front of the hotel, one week later, and just a short way from the hotel, towards the blast walls and the Square, an American tank and several troops were stationed.
And still on the topic of Bully Boy, Lyle e-mails to note Nat Parry's "Bush's Rule of Law" (Consortium News):
George W. Bush reacted to the indictment of Dick Cheney's top aide, Lewis Libby, with a startling assertion about the U.S. legal system. "In our system," the President declared, "each individual is presumed innocent and entitled to due process and a fair trial."
While Bush's statement was surely intended to remind the public that Libby has yet to be convicted of a crime, it was remarkable to hear Bush endorse the presumption of innocence and due process after all he has done to erode those principles.
For four years, it has been a central legal precept of the "War on Terror" that Bush has the absolute right to imprison anyone of his choosing, including American citizens, who are then denied even a day in court, let alone a fair trial or presumption of innocence.
While the "rule of law" is usually defined as the universal protection of everyone equally under the law, Bush’s "rule of law" seems to mean, "We rule, so we decide who's protected by the law." Those protections are denied people whom Bush deems "terrorists" or "bad guys."
Bush's lip service to presumption of innocence, for example, must have been cold comfort to Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without charges and without the benefit of his day in court since May 2002.
Padilla was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare airport and accused of plotting to set off a radiological "dirty bomb"in a U.S. city. Bush unilaterally determined that Padilla was closely associated with al-Qaeda and represented a "continuing, present and grave danger" to the United States.
Bush cited his powers as commander in chief in declaring Padilla an “enemy combatant” and ordering him detained indefinitely at a military prison in South Carolina. Bush said Padilla was a "bad guy" and "he is where he needs to be, detained."
Padilla could be jailed for the duration of the war on terrorism, a potential life sentence given the fuzzy goals and indefinite timetable of the conflict. No trial is to be held.
Major Victory?
Padilla's capture was initially portrayed by the administration as a major victory in the "War on Terror." Bush said there was a "full-scale manhunt on" for other terrorists involved in the alleged plot, but to date, no one else involved has been captured.
Later, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said the Padilla bomb plot amounted only to "some fairly loose talk" and "there was not an actual plan" to attack U.S. cities. [Washington Post, June 13, 2002]
In other words, nothing concrete in the alleged plot had occurred. Padilla had no bomb-making materials, no target, no operational co-conspirators, no plan. Beyond assertions from administration officials, there also was no evidence of Padilla's guilt.
Still no case brought against Padilla, still he remains imprisoned.
Rod passes on that a scheduled topic for today's Democracy Now! is:
Excerpts from the historic funeral of civil rights pioneer, Rosa Parks, in Detroit, & more
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
richard w. stevenson
craig s. smith
democracy now
rosa parks
brian conley
alive in baghdad
paris riots
the third estate sunday review
the daily jot
florida
elizabeth de la vega
nat perry
michelle phillips
victim of romance
elite fluff patrol
[Note from Shirley: David Gregory is "Stretch." I corrected typos I caught.]
NYT: "Ex-Interior Deputy Testifies Lobbyist Offered Him Job" (Philip Shenon)
The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department acknowledged to Congressional investigators on Wednesday that he had received a job offer while at the department from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff and that he had other contacts with Mr. Abramoff, the focus of a corruption inquiry.
The official, former Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, insisted in testimony to a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that there was nothing improper in his ties to Mr. Abramoff and that he had immediately reported the job offer, in 2003, to ethics officials in the department. It can be a crime for federal officials to open job negotiations while working for the government.
[. . .]
Mr. Abramoff's e-mail messages show that he used a conservative lobbying group, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, and its president, Italian Federici, as a go-between with Mr. Griles.
The council was established in the 1990's by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, whom Ms. Federici has called her mentor. The council received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from Mr. Abramoff's tribal clients.
Ms. Federici, scheduled to testify, did not appear.
The above is from Philip Shenon's "Ex-Interior Deputy Testifies Lobbyist Offered Him Job" in this morning's New York Times or, as some may think of it, another chapter in this adminstration's Teapot Dome.
In other scandals, Libby e-mails to note Jeremy Scahill's "Tender Mercenaries: DynCorp and Me" (Common Dreams):
- DynCorp employees in Bosnia, where the company plays a major policing role, have engaged in organized sex-slave trading with girls as young as 12, and DynCorp's Bosnia site supervisor was filmed raping a woman. A subsequent lawsuit, filed by a company whistleblower, alleged that "employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and [participating in] other immoral acts." The whisteblower, with whom DynCorp eventually settled, "witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased." The company's initial response was to fire the whistleblowers. The employees involved in the sex ring were transferred out of the country. Some were eventually fired, although none were ever criminally prosecuted. One of the whistleblowers told Congress, "DynCorp is the worst diplomat our country could ever want overseas.''
- In Afghanistan, where DynCorp guards President Hamid Karzai, the company has a reputation for brutality and recklessness, including serious complaints from internationals of intimidation. It has even been rebuked by the State Department for its "aggressive behavior" in interactions with European diplomats, NATO forces and journalists. A BBC correspondent also witnessed one of the guards slapping an Afghan government minister.
- In Haiti earlier this year DynCorp bodyguards on the detail of interim president Boniface Alexandre beat at least two journalists trying to cover a presidential event. DynCorp has had a checkered past in Haiti, where it "trained" the national police force after the original coup against President Aristide, bringing several feared Tonton Macoutes leaders back into prominence.
- The company is facing a major lawsuit filed by 10,000 Ecuadoreans forced to live (and die) with the impact of DynCorp's toxic crop spraying, which it does in several Latin American countries, including Colombia, as part of Plan Colombia. Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, charges that "DynCorp's employees have a history of behaving like cowboys." A leading Colombian newsweekly called them "lawless Rambos."
As DynCorp swallows up more lucrative government contracts by the week, some in Congress are raising questions. "Is it [the] policy of the US government to reward companies that traffic in women and little girls?" Representative Cynthia McKinney asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in March.
Rod e-mails that today's scheduled topic for Democracy Now! is:
Excerpts from the historic funeral of civil rights pioneer, Rosa Parks, in Detroit, & more.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
phillip shenon
jeremy scahill
democracy now
rosa parks
The official, former Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, insisted in testimony to a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that there was nothing improper in his ties to Mr. Abramoff and that he had immediately reported the job offer, in 2003, to ethics officials in the department. It can be a crime for federal officials to open job negotiations while working for the government.
[. . .]
Mr. Abramoff's e-mail messages show that he used a conservative lobbying group, the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, and its president, Italian Federici, as a go-between with Mr. Griles.
The council was established in the 1990's by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, whom Ms. Federici has called her mentor. The council received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from Mr. Abramoff's tribal clients.
Ms. Federici, scheduled to testify, did not appear.
The above is from Philip Shenon's "Ex-Interior Deputy Testifies Lobbyist Offered Him Job" in this morning's New York Times or, as some may think of it, another chapter in this adminstration's Teapot Dome.
In other scandals, Libby e-mails to note Jeremy Scahill's "Tender Mercenaries: DynCorp and Me" (Common Dreams):
- DynCorp employees in Bosnia, where the company plays a major policing role, have engaged in organized sex-slave trading with girls as young as 12, and DynCorp's Bosnia site supervisor was filmed raping a woman. A subsequent lawsuit, filed by a company whistleblower, alleged that "employees and supervisors from DynCorp were engaging in perverse, illegal and inhumane behavior [and] were purchasing illegal weapons, women, forged passports and [participating in] other immoral acts." The whisteblower, with whom DynCorp eventually settled, "witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased." The company's initial response was to fire the whistleblowers. The employees involved in the sex ring were transferred out of the country. Some were eventually fired, although none were ever criminally prosecuted. One of the whistleblowers told Congress, "DynCorp is the worst diplomat our country could ever want overseas.''
- In Afghanistan, where DynCorp guards President Hamid Karzai, the company has a reputation for brutality and recklessness, including serious complaints from internationals of intimidation. It has even been rebuked by the State Department for its "aggressive behavior" in interactions with European diplomats, NATO forces and journalists. A BBC correspondent also witnessed one of the guards slapping an Afghan government minister.
- In Haiti earlier this year DynCorp bodyguards on the detail of interim president Boniface Alexandre beat at least two journalists trying to cover a presidential event. DynCorp has had a checkered past in Haiti, where it "trained" the national police force after the original coup against President Aristide, bringing several feared Tonton Macoutes leaders back into prominence.
- The company is facing a major lawsuit filed by 10,000 Ecuadoreans forced to live (and die) with the impact of DynCorp's toxic crop spraying, which it does in several Latin American countries, including Colombia, as part of Plan Colombia. Representative Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, charges that "DynCorp's employees have a history of behaving like cowboys." A leading Colombian newsweekly called them "lawless Rambos."
As DynCorp swallows up more lucrative government contracts by the week, some in Congress are raising questions. "Is it [the] policy of the US government to reward companies that traffic in women and little girls?" Representative Cynthia McKinney asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in March.
Rod e-mails that today's scheduled topic for Democracy Now! is:
Excerpts from the historic funeral of civil rights pioneer, Rosa Parks, in Detroit, & more.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
phillip shenon
jeremy scahill
democracy now
rosa parks
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Democracy Now: Robert Parry, Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, Gilbert Achcar, Scott Armstrong; David Lindorff, Eleanor Smeal, Green Party on Rosa Parks ...
Report: CIA Conducting Interrogations in Soviet-Era Prison
The Washington Post is reporting the CIA has been hiding and interrogating important al Qaeda detainees at a Soviet-era secret prison in Eastern Europe. The prison is part of a small global network of secret CIA and military compounds used in the so-called war on terror, including the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. At the request of U.S. officials, the Post did not publish the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the secret program. Intelligence officials and legal experts told the Post the prisons "would be considered illegal under the laws of several host countries, where detainees have rights to have a lawyer or to mount a defense against allegations of wrongdoing."
Historian: NSA Falsified Gulf of Tonkin Evidence
The New York Times is reporting new evidence has emerged about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that precipitated the escalation of the Vietnam War. A National Security Agency historian has determined officers at the agency knowingly falsified intelligence in order to make it look as if North Vietnam had attacked U.S. destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf. Following the alleged attack, Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese targets and used the event to persuade Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which led to the escalation of the war. The NSA’s historian determined the intelligence may have been falsified not for political reasons but to cover up earlier mistakes made by intelligence officers. However, the Times reports there has also been a cover up of the historian’s account, which was first published in a classified in-house journal of the National Security Agency in 2001. The historian’s article remains classified. According to the Times, policymakers at the NSA feared the release of the historical study might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.
Rumsfeld Stands To Profit From Flu Vaccine Sales
Meanwhile Fortune magazine is reporting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stands to reap a financial windfall from the sale of flu vaccines. Rumsfeld is an investor in Gilead Sciences, a California company that owns the patent to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy currently the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld was Gilead's chair from 1997 until joining the Bush administration in 2001. His stake in the company is valued at between $5 million and $25 million.
World Can't Wait Protests Set for Today
Over 200 protests and rallies are scheduled today across the country as part of a national day of action organized by the group The World Can't Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime. In New York the protests began Tuesday after one of the city’s leading hip-hop stations, Hot 97, rejected a paid ad promoting the protests. Organizers with World Can’t Wait are urging students across the country to walk out of classes in support of the protest. In Seattle, the Post-Intelligencer reports student walk-outs are scheduled in over two dozen schools.
The above four items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and they were selected by Tamika, Bernardo, Miguel and Rachel. Democracy Now! ("always worth watching," as Marcia says):
Headlines for November 2, 2005
- Senate Democrats Force Closed Session on Pre-War Intelligence
- Report: CIA Conducting Interrogations in Soviet-Era Prison
- Addington Attacked Aide Who Cited Geneva Conventions
- NAACP Concerned Over Alito Nomination
- Bush Announces $7.1 Billion Flu Plan
- World Can't Wait Protests Set for Today
- Rosa Parks To Be Laid to Rest in Detroit
Los Titulares de Hoy: Democracy Now!'s daily news summary translated into Spanish
Attorney Tells Why Guantanamo Detainee Attempted Suicide in Front of Him
More than twenty detainees in the Guantanamo Bay prison have attempted suicide and UN investigators continue to press for visits at the prison camp despite refusals from the Bush administration. We speak with lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, who recently witnessed a client’s suicide attempt during a visit, about the ongoing desperation of prisoners and the military’s reporting of the events. [includes rush transcript]
Almost 1,000 Days After U.S. Invasion of Iraq, Democratic Senators Call in Secret Session for Investigation of Pre-War Intelligence
Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday to question intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq invasion. We speak with investigative journalist Robert Parry and Scott Armstrong of the Information Trust about how the CIA leak case indictment has highlighted questions about pre-war intelligence. [includes rush transcript]
Gilbert Achcar: "The Very Presence of U.S. Troops Fuels the Insurgency"
We are joined in our New York studio by University of Paris professor, author and analyst, Gilbert Achcar, who has been engaged in a public online debate with University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole about whether the U.S. should immediately withdraw from Iraq. [includes rush transcript]
Zach e-mails to note that Robert Parry, a guest on today's Democracy Now!, has an article entitled "Is Impeachment the Answer?" (Consortium News):
Washington pundits are showering George W. Bush with advice on how to "restart" his presidency, but many Americans seem more interested in whether it's possible to "terminate" his presidency, removing him and other top officials from office. It is a question asked of us often.
The conventional wisdom -- virtually across Washington's political spectrum –--is that the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is unthinkable, and without doubt, it would be extremely difficult to engineer.
But a better answer to Americans interested in holding Bush and Cheney accountable is that impeachment is possible -- if enough voters want it to happen.
Say, for instance, 75 percent of voters favored impeachment and considered it a decisive issue in how they will cast their ballots. Would politicians facing such a popular groundswell risk their own jobs to save Bush and Cheney?
Or, put differently, what would happen if voters -- beginning with state and local elections on Nov. 8 -- rejected every Republican on the ballot? Would the public hunger for accountability begin to sink in then?
Crazy? Well, there are signs that even in Red States, Bush is becoming a drag on Republicans.
In Virginia, for instance, a Washington Post poll discovered that only 26 percent of voters said they were more likely to vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore because Bush endorsed him, while 47 percent said Bush's endorsement was a negative, with the rest either saying it made no difference or they had no opinion. [Washington Post, Oct. 30, 2005]
So, in a state that favored Bush in 2000 and 2004, barely one in four voters see Bush’s endorsement as a plus and nearly one in two voters see it as a minus.
And what if Bush went from being a drag hindering Republican candidates to being an anchor pulling them under? What effect would that have in the congressional elections of 2006? Might the Democrats achieve more than incremental gains?
Media Needed
Yet, while a political tidal wave starting in 2005 and gaining force in 2006 would have the potential of making accountability a reality, the tougher challenge of impeaching Bush and Cheney comes from the lack of an adequate infrastructure that can make the case consistently with the American people.
(FYI, Zach e-mailed to note that a day or two back. Due to being out of town last weekend and sick, I'm behind in the e-mails to the private account -- and barely reading the ones to the public account. Members do take priority and Jess, Ava and I have been focusing on the private account. There are over 3,000 unread e-mails in the public account so if you're a member using the public account -- common_ills@yahoo.com -- instead of the private account, please be patient for a bit longer.)
On a similar topic, Mia e-mails to note David Lindorff's "Thinking About Impeachment" (CounterPunch):
There is little doubt that the even if the Bush administration doesn't go down in flames, it will go down in history as one of, if not the most incompetent, corrupt and dangerous presidencies in the history of the republic.
The question is, with crimes so colossal, why isn't there a public demand for his impeachment?
In fact, there is a powerful and growing popular sentiment for impeachment--we just don't hear about it. The Zogby organization, the only polling outfit to have posed the question to date, found last June that 42 percent of Americans felt Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war (a much larger percentage believe he lied). That, of course, was before the mainstream media began finally reporting, as a result of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of Plamegate, on the disinformation campaign for war against Iraq directed by Vice President Dick Cheney and the White House Iraq Group. It was also before Bush himself was found to have been in on the cover-up of the outing of Valerie Plame by Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and presidential advisor Karl Rove. It was also before the US death toll in Iraq topped 2000.
Significantly, it was also before Bush's callous and inept performance following the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, which has driven his approval rating down to the size of his hard-core conservative base.
It's a safe bet that the percentage in favor of impeachment of this liar and joke of a president today would be a lot higher than Zogby found it to be in June--a figure, incidentally, which is higher than it ever was during the entire impeachment saga of President Bill Clinton in 1998/9, when the issue was, not an illegal war but an adulterous blow job.
Billie e-mails to note BuzzFlash's Wing of Justice winner for the week, Patrick Fitzgerald:
In a White House that fabricated a WMD threat and released classified information as political payback, Fitzgerald is that rarest of Bush appointees -- Someone who sees the "rule of law" as a sacred trust rather than a partisan punchline.
Even though Fitzgerald was nominated by a Republican Senator and appointed by the White House, a few minutes after the announcement of an indictment, the right wing message point meat grinder began claiming Fitzgerald was partisan. While truth and the rule of law are non-partisan, they are perennial obstacles to the Bush machine's obfuscation and betrayal of our nation, which is why the radical right fights them at every turn.
Third Party e-mails to note "Greens Pay Tribute to Rosa Parks:"
Green Party leaders mourned the passing of Rosa Parks, and encouraged Americans to recognize that the struggle for human rights and freedoms -- of which Ms. Parks remains a towering symbol -- is far from over.
"The best way to remember Rosa Parks' courage in 1955 is to rededicate ourselves to civil rights in 2005," said Rick Tingling-Clemmons, Black Caucus delegate to the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States. "Ms. Parks' act of civil disobedience on a bus led to passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which enforced the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. The obstruction and manipulation of votes in the 2000 and 2004 elections -- especially African American votes -- demonstrate that the civil rights movement isn't over, that we're still fighting for the right to vote for all Americans."
Greens have called for congressional legislation, a new Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing and enforcing a national right to vote. The U.S. Supreme Court gutted the principle of 'one person, one vote' in its 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, in disregard of the 14th Amendment's voting rights provisions (Section 2).
The experiences of the 2000 and 2004 national elections, including evidence uncovered in the Ohio and New Mexico recount campaigns in 2004 initiated by Green presidential candidate David Cobb, have proven an ongoing and concerted effort to prevent people from voting and to prevent votes from being counted. African American, young, and low income voters were especially targeted. A state 'Voter ID Law' passed earlier this year makes voting more difficult for citizens in Georgia, an effect of which will be the disenfranchisement of thousands of African American and other voters <http://www.gp.org/press/states/ga_2005_09_02.shtml>.
"There are many civil rights struggles still being fought: for the right to vote; for the rights of poor and African American Katrina survivors who have faced official indifference and mass removal; for social safety net guarantees of health care and housing; for basic freedoms in the era of the USA Patriot Act; for reparations for the descendents of slaves; for repeal of draconian drug laws sending thousands of young people to prison; for women's equality and the right to make our own health care and reproductive decisions -- the list goes on and on. We in the Green Party are fighting these battles, and we're doing so in the spirit of heroes like Rosa Parks," said Morgen D'Arc, co-founder and co-chair of the Green Party National Women's Caucus.
"The greatest tribute we can pay to Rosa Parks, who moved the conscience of America, is to recognize that the struggle for equal rights and human dignity continues around the world. Here in America we still suffer from racism, segregation, and poverty that are often hidden from sight, which makes its impact even more devastating for so many," said Dr. Alice Green, Green Party candidate for mayor of Albany, New York and founding director of the Center for Law and Justice.
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United Stateshttp://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party Black Caucus
http://www.greenpartyblackcaucus.net
Green Party National Women's Caucus
http://www.gp.org/committees/women/
Nolanda e-mails to note Eleanor Smeal's "Alito's Mother Says the Obvious -- But There's More" (The Smeal Report, Ms.):
The media is pushing a story right now that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's record on abortion is "mixed," even tilted in favor of abortion rights. Why are women's rights and reproductive rights groups convinced that Alito would be the fifth vote against abortion on the Supreme Court? And why are anti-abortion extremists singing his praises?
First of all, Alito's mother told the Associated Press that "of course" her son is "against abortion." But you don't need to get this from his mom. Reading between the lines, Alito has done the most he could do to restrict abortion rights as an appellate judge who had to follow Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade.
As a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1991 arguing that it is constitutional to force women to notify their husbands before obtaining an abortion. In a so-called partial-birth abortion ban case in New Jersey, he did not join the majority opinion overturning the law; rather, he wrote a concurring opinion simply stating that as an appellate judge, he had to follow Supreme Court precedent. But if confirmed to the Supreme Court, he would not have that constraint.
Sorry for the delay on this. World Can't Wait is my excuse. There's no excuse for Van Nuys surrounding a high school with police but considering that their cultural accomplishment in the eighties largely amounted to nothing more than fan clubs for daytime celebs, it's not all that surprising. (That's a slap at those in charge in Van Nuys, not at the people who live there.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
democracy now
robert parry
joshua colangelo-bryan
eleanor smeal
buzzflash
david lindorff
rosa parks
The Washington Post is reporting the CIA has been hiding and interrogating important al Qaeda detainees at a Soviet-era secret prison in Eastern Europe. The prison is part of a small global network of secret CIA and military compounds used in the so-called war on terror, including the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. At the request of U.S. officials, the Post did not publish the names of the Eastern European countries involved in the secret program. Intelligence officials and legal experts told the Post the prisons "would be considered illegal under the laws of several host countries, where detainees have rights to have a lawyer or to mount a defense against allegations of wrongdoing."
Historian: NSA Falsified Gulf of Tonkin Evidence
The New York Times is reporting new evidence has emerged about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that precipitated the escalation of the Vietnam War. A National Security Agency historian has determined officers at the agency knowingly falsified intelligence in order to make it look as if North Vietnam had attacked U.S. destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf. Following the alleged attack, Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese targets and used the event to persuade Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which led to the escalation of the war. The NSA’s historian determined the intelligence may have been falsified not for political reasons but to cover up earlier mistakes made by intelligence officers. However, the Times reports there has also been a cover up of the historian’s account, which was first published in a classified in-house journal of the National Security Agency in 2001. The historian’s article remains classified. According to the Times, policymakers at the NSA feared the release of the historical study might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.
Rumsfeld Stands To Profit From Flu Vaccine Sales
Meanwhile Fortune magazine is reporting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stands to reap a financial windfall from the sale of flu vaccines. Rumsfeld is an investor in Gilead Sciences, a California company that owns the patent to Tamiflu, the influenza remedy currently the most-sought after drug in the world. Rumsfeld was Gilead's chair from 1997 until joining the Bush administration in 2001. His stake in the company is valued at between $5 million and $25 million.
World Can't Wait Protests Set for Today
Over 200 protests and rallies are scheduled today across the country as part of a national day of action organized by the group The World Can't Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime. In New York the protests began Tuesday after one of the city’s leading hip-hop stations, Hot 97, rejected a paid ad promoting the protests. Organizers with World Can’t Wait are urging students across the country to walk out of classes in support of the protest. In Seattle, the Post-Intelligencer reports student walk-outs are scheduled in over two dozen schools.
The above four items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and they were selected by Tamika, Bernardo, Miguel and Rachel. Democracy Now! ("always worth watching," as Marcia says):
Headlines for November 2, 2005
- Senate Democrats Force Closed Session on Pre-War Intelligence
- Report: CIA Conducting Interrogations in Soviet-Era Prison
- Addington Attacked Aide Who Cited Geneva Conventions
- NAACP Concerned Over Alito Nomination
- Bush Announces $7.1 Billion Flu Plan
- World Can't Wait Protests Set for Today
- Rosa Parks To Be Laid to Rest in Detroit
Los Titulares de Hoy: Democracy Now!'s daily news summary translated into Spanish
Attorney Tells Why Guantanamo Detainee Attempted Suicide in Front of Him
More than twenty detainees in the Guantanamo Bay prison have attempted suicide and UN investigators continue to press for visits at the prison camp despite refusals from the Bush administration. We speak with lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, who recently witnessed a client’s suicide attempt during a visit, about the ongoing desperation of prisoners and the military’s reporting of the events. [includes rush transcript]
Almost 1,000 Days After U.S. Invasion of Iraq, Democratic Senators Call in Secret Session for Investigation of Pre-War Intelligence
Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday to question intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify the Iraq invasion. We speak with investigative journalist Robert Parry and Scott Armstrong of the Information Trust about how the CIA leak case indictment has highlighted questions about pre-war intelligence. [includes rush transcript]
Gilbert Achcar: "The Very Presence of U.S. Troops Fuels the Insurgency"
We are joined in our New York studio by University of Paris professor, author and analyst, Gilbert Achcar, who has been engaged in a public online debate with University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole about whether the U.S. should immediately withdraw from Iraq. [includes rush transcript]
Zach e-mails to note that Robert Parry, a guest on today's Democracy Now!, has an article entitled "Is Impeachment the Answer?" (Consortium News):
Washington pundits are showering George W. Bush with advice on how to "restart" his presidency, but many Americans seem more interested in whether it's possible to "terminate" his presidency, removing him and other top officials from office. It is a question asked of us often.
The conventional wisdom -- virtually across Washington's political spectrum –--is that the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is unthinkable, and without doubt, it would be extremely difficult to engineer.
But a better answer to Americans interested in holding Bush and Cheney accountable is that impeachment is possible -- if enough voters want it to happen.
Say, for instance, 75 percent of voters favored impeachment and considered it a decisive issue in how they will cast their ballots. Would politicians facing such a popular groundswell risk their own jobs to save Bush and Cheney?
Or, put differently, what would happen if voters -- beginning with state and local elections on Nov. 8 -- rejected every Republican on the ballot? Would the public hunger for accountability begin to sink in then?
Crazy? Well, there are signs that even in Red States, Bush is becoming a drag on Republicans.
In Virginia, for instance, a Washington Post poll discovered that only 26 percent of voters said they were more likely to vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore because Bush endorsed him, while 47 percent said Bush's endorsement was a negative, with the rest either saying it made no difference or they had no opinion. [Washington Post, Oct. 30, 2005]
So, in a state that favored Bush in 2000 and 2004, barely one in four voters see Bush’s endorsement as a plus and nearly one in two voters see it as a minus.
And what if Bush went from being a drag hindering Republican candidates to being an anchor pulling them under? What effect would that have in the congressional elections of 2006? Might the Democrats achieve more than incremental gains?
Media Needed
Yet, while a political tidal wave starting in 2005 and gaining force in 2006 would have the potential of making accountability a reality, the tougher challenge of impeaching Bush and Cheney comes from the lack of an adequate infrastructure that can make the case consistently with the American people.
(FYI, Zach e-mailed to note that a day or two back. Due to being out of town last weekend and sick, I'm behind in the e-mails to the private account -- and barely reading the ones to the public account. Members do take priority and Jess, Ava and I have been focusing on the private account. There are over 3,000 unread e-mails in the public account so if you're a member using the public account -- common_ills@yahoo.com -- instead of the private account, please be patient for a bit longer.)
On a similar topic, Mia e-mails to note David Lindorff's "Thinking About Impeachment" (CounterPunch):
There is little doubt that the even if the Bush administration doesn't go down in flames, it will go down in history as one of, if not the most incompetent, corrupt and dangerous presidencies in the history of the republic.
The question is, with crimes so colossal, why isn't there a public demand for his impeachment?
In fact, there is a powerful and growing popular sentiment for impeachment--we just don't hear about it. The Zogby organization, the only polling outfit to have posed the question to date, found last June that 42 percent of Americans felt Bush should be impeached if he lied about the war (a much larger percentage believe he lied). That, of course, was before the mainstream media began finally reporting, as a result of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of Plamegate, on the disinformation campaign for war against Iraq directed by Vice President Dick Cheney and the White House Iraq Group. It was also before Bush himself was found to have been in on the cover-up of the outing of Valerie Plame by Cheney chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and presidential advisor Karl Rove. It was also before the US death toll in Iraq topped 2000.
Significantly, it was also before Bush's callous and inept performance following the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, which has driven his approval rating down to the size of his hard-core conservative base.
It's a safe bet that the percentage in favor of impeachment of this liar and joke of a president today would be a lot higher than Zogby found it to be in June--a figure, incidentally, which is higher than it ever was during the entire impeachment saga of President Bill Clinton in 1998/9, when the issue was, not an illegal war but an adulterous blow job.
Billie e-mails to note BuzzFlash's Wing of Justice winner for the week, Patrick Fitzgerald:
In a White House that fabricated a WMD threat and released classified information as political payback, Fitzgerald is that rarest of Bush appointees -- Someone who sees the "rule of law" as a sacred trust rather than a partisan punchline.
Even though Fitzgerald was nominated by a Republican Senator and appointed by the White House, a few minutes after the announcement of an indictment, the right wing message point meat grinder began claiming Fitzgerald was partisan. While truth and the rule of law are non-partisan, they are perennial obstacles to the Bush machine's obfuscation and betrayal of our nation, which is why the radical right fights them at every turn.
Third Party e-mails to note "Greens Pay Tribute to Rosa Parks:"
Green Party leaders mourned the passing of Rosa Parks, and encouraged Americans to recognize that the struggle for human rights and freedoms -- of which Ms. Parks remains a towering symbol -- is far from over.
"The best way to remember Rosa Parks' courage in 1955 is to rededicate ourselves to civil rights in 2005," said Rick Tingling-Clemmons, Black Caucus delegate to the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States. "Ms. Parks' act of civil disobedience on a bus led to passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which enforced the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law. The obstruction and manipulation of votes in the 2000 and 2004 elections -- especially African American votes -- demonstrate that the civil rights movement isn't over, that we're still fighting for the right to vote for all Americans."
Greens have called for congressional legislation, a new Civil Rights Act, guaranteeing and enforcing a national right to vote. The U.S. Supreme Court gutted the principle of 'one person, one vote' in its 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, in disregard of the 14th Amendment's voting rights provisions (Section 2).
The experiences of the 2000 and 2004 national elections, including evidence uncovered in the Ohio and New Mexico recount campaigns in 2004 initiated by Green presidential candidate David Cobb, have proven an ongoing and concerted effort to prevent people from voting and to prevent votes from being counted. African American, young, and low income voters were especially targeted. A state 'Voter ID Law' passed earlier this year makes voting more difficult for citizens in Georgia, an effect of which will be the disenfranchisement of thousands of African American and other voters <http://www.gp.org/press/states/ga_2005_09_02.shtml>.
"There are many civil rights struggles still being fought: for the right to vote; for the rights of poor and African American Katrina survivors who have faced official indifference and mass removal; for social safety net guarantees of health care and housing; for basic freedoms in the era of the USA Patriot Act; for reparations for the descendents of slaves; for repeal of draconian drug laws sending thousands of young people to prison; for women's equality and the right to make our own health care and reproductive decisions -- the list goes on and on. We in the Green Party are fighting these battles, and we're doing so in the spirit of heroes like Rosa Parks," said Morgen D'Arc, co-founder and co-chair of the Green Party National Women's Caucus.
"The greatest tribute we can pay to Rosa Parks, who moved the conscience of America, is to recognize that the struggle for equal rights and human dignity continues around the world. Here in America we still suffer from racism, segregation, and poverty that are often hidden from sight, which makes its impact even more devastating for so many," said Dr. Alice Green, Green Party candidate for mayor of Albany, New York and founding director of the Center for Law and Justice.
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United Stateshttp://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party Black Caucus
http://www.greenpartyblackcaucus.net
Green Party National Women's Caucus
http://www.gp.org/committees/women/
Nolanda e-mails to note Eleanor Smeal's "Alito's Mother Says the Obvious -- But There's More" (The Smeal Report, Ms.):
The media is pushing a story right now that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's record on abortion is "mixed," even tilted in favor of abortion rights. Why are women's rights and reproductive rights groups convinced that Alito would be the fifth vote against abortion on the Supreme Court? And why are anti-abortion extremists singing his praises?
First of all, Alito's mother told the Associated Press that "of course" her son is "against abortion." But you don't need to get this from his mom. Reading between the lines, Alito has done the most he could do to restrict abortion rights as an appellate judge who had to follow Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade.
As a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Alito was the lone dissenter in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1991 arguing that it is constitutional to force women to notify their husbands before obtaining an abortion. In a so-called partial-birth abortion ban case in New Jersey, he did not join the majority opinion overturning the law; rather, he wrote a concurring opinion simply stating that as an appellate judge, he had to follow Supreme Court precedent. But if confirmed to the Supreme Court, he would not have that constraint.
Sorry for the delay on this. World Can't Wait is my excuse. There's no excuse for Van Nuys surrounding a high school with police but considering that their cultural accomplishment in the eighties largely amounted to nothing more than fan clubs for daytime celebs, it's not all that surprising. (That's a slap at those in charge in Van Nuys, not at the people who live there.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
democracy now
robert parry
joshua colangelo-bryan
eleanor smeal
buzzflash
david lindorff
rosa parks
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.
the new york times
democracy now
amy goodman
joshua colangelo-bryan
juan gonzalez
matthew rothschild
rickie lee jones
douglas jehl
tim golden
rita j. king
world can't wait
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
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.
the new york times
democracy now
amy goodman
joshua colangelo-bryan
juan gonzalez
matthew rothschild
rickie lee jones
douglas jehl
tim golden
rita j. king
world can't wait
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
NYT: "Detainee Policy Sharply Divides Bush Officials" (Tim Golden & Eric Schmitt)
The Bush administration is embroiled in a sharp internal debate over whether a new set of Defense Department standards for handling terror suspects should adopt language from the Geneva Conventions prohibiting "cruel," "humiliating" and "degrading" treatment, administration officials say.
Advocates of that approach, who include some Defense and State Department officials and senior military lawyers, contend that moving the military's detention policies closer to international law would prevent further abuses and build support overseas for the fight against Islamic extremists, officials said.
Their opponents, who include aides to Vice President Dick Cheney and some senior Pentagon officials, have argued strongly that the proposed language is vague, would tie the government's hands in combating terrorists and still would not satisfy America's critics, officials said.
The above is from Eric Schmitt and Tim Golden's "Detainee Policy Sharply Divides Bush Officials" in this morning's New York Times. Golden and Schmitt (which I think is the actual order for the byline) take up a lot of space but never tell you the most important thing. The US government doesn't need to worry about "vaugue." We have no problem, check the State Dept. reports, identifying what is torture when done in other countries by other governments. The administration can dance around this forever (and will as long as reporters like Golden and Schmitt refuse to point out the obvious) but we define torture. We compile reports of what we see as human rights abuses. By the way the State Dept. categorizes that (or did before Condi stepped into that office), what we have done is torture. Bully Boy can sign off on all the executive orders he wants and we can torture the definition of torture in print (and other media forums) but the government knows what it is and calls it that when it is used by others. Bully Boy wants an exemption. That's the story.
And that's the one thing Schmitt and Golden don't tell you as they go off with their backstory gossip that they pass off as news. Condi feels this way. Does she really? That's not what Brent Scowcroft told The New Yorker. It's a cute little article that relies on anonymice to make various people come off looking good while not noting the anonymice (unless we're to believe that Schmitt and Golden are in on the administration's policy debates -- policy debates? I know try to quit laughing).
Maybe it's just still being sick, but reading this nonsense I wonder why the Times even published today. Adam Liptak takes a stab (a strong stab) at going over Alito's record. Otherwise, the paper reads like a base newsletter. There's really no excuse for the Times to publish this nonsense, full of whispers of praise from unnamed sources, and still call itself a newspaper today.
It's just nonsense and they've got nothing to add re: the outing of Valerie Plame or, in fact, Iraq. (I'm not in the mood to note the nonsense on how the US government has a new plan for the resistance.) They're all over the place scurrying for bits of cheese like the little rats they are today, noting any favorable whisper and looking for a pat on the head from the Bully Boy & co.
Meanwhile, in the Washington Post, Dana Priest has "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11" -- which we'll read a summary of in the Times tomorrow but today they're too busy sucking up to guarantee the access they're so fond of. From Priest's article:
The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.
The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.
Keeping information from the public? While secret detentions go on? The USSR lives on and it lives on in the heart of the Bully Boy. This isn't the behavior of an open democracy. This is a bunch of little minds in little boys and girls thinking they can do whatever they want, that they can subvert any rule, any norm, any law just by screeching "national security" and the nation will respond like scared children whimpering, "As long as you protect us!" For those whimpering, shame on you. That's not what this country was built upon.
Again, expect to see the story (watered down) summarized in the Times tomorrow. Today they're just a base newsletter telling you about who showed up and who left, tossing out a little mild base gossip that won't offend anyone.
They've got nothing to add re: the closed session Harry Reid invoked in the Senate yesterday.
(Read Elaine's comments on that from last night.) Carl Hulse and David D. Kirkpatrick go with the "Partisan!" cry in "Partisan Quarrel Forces Senators to Bar the Doors." As though it hasn't been over a year since Pat Roberts promised the second part of the investigation into intelligence -- the part that focuses on whether the administration manipulated intell.
On the radio last night, I heard Bill Frist clucking that he wasn't sure he could ever trust Harry Reid again. What does that mean? I guess it means Harry Reid better not hope for any insider trading tips for Bill Frist. Considering Frist's own problems (and the investigation into them), he might want to purchase something in a non-high horse for the next time he wants to hop on the soapbox. Then there was Rick Santorum, who always sounds on the verge of tears, whining that politics were being played in the Senate! Dear Lord, what's next? Gambling in Vegas!
But the mild report in the Times is written in such a way as to not offend anyone in power, thus keeping those access channels open for another day.
Let's go to the real world, Barbara e-mails to note John R. MacArthur's "Pro-War Liberals Frozen in the Headlights" (Common Dreams):
It's been dreadful, these past three years putting up with George Bush's fraudulent rationales for invading Iraq. And there's no respite in sight -- the phony justifications keep coming, no matter how many corpses pile up, no matter how badly the political situation deteriorates in Baghdad, no matter how many lies surface about the pre-war propaganda campaign.
The other night in a restaurant I had to bite my tongue, instead of my bread, when a man at a neighboring table declared his "trust" in Dick Cheney and the president.
But as much as I'm infuriated by the Bush brigade's steadfast support of the Iraq horror, I find myself angrier still when pro-war liberals -- the so-called reluctant hawks -- wring their hands over the bloody mess they've wrought with their neo-conservative allies.
There are many such handwringers in politics, especially within the leadership of the Democratic Party. Sen. Joseph Biden, of Delaware, is forever asking "tough questions" about Iraq (the torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo upset him terribly), without drawing the obvious conclusion that we never should have attacked in the first place, and need to get out as fast as possible.
In journalism, the current handwringer-in-chief is the New Yorker writer George Packer, whose book The Assassins' Gate has met with high praise from handwringers, hawks, and a subset of pundits I call trimmers. Handwringers "anguish" over their past or current support for the war; hawks don't apologize for anything; and trimmers criticize Bush the foolish president, but avoid unequivocal denunciations of this foolish war.
Zach finds something the Times couldn't print because it's too much truth for them and not enough gossip, Robert Higgs' "Worst U.S. War Criminals Escape Justice" (Constorium News):
By violating the UN Charter, which the U.S. Constitution makes part of the supreme law of the land, President George W. Bush has violated that law. He has further violated his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution by taking the armed forces to war without a congressional declaration of war.
The failure of Congress to protest his impudence is immaterial to this violation, in which Congress itself has chosen, by funding the war, to serve as the president's accomplice rather than checking and balancing his exercise of unconstitutional power as the Framers intended.
Inasmuch as President Bush has so clearly violated his oath of office, exceeded his constitutional power, and contravened the supreme law of the land, one wonders why he has not been impeached for his high crimes. Can the answer be that we now live in a lawless society, where the strong simply do as they please, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Constitution or the laws?
In Iraq, U.S. forces have brought death to tens of thousands, most of them noncombatants, and physical injuries to countless others. They have wreaked vast damages to property by bombing, shelling, shooting, and other violent means. They have brought about conditions of life for ordinary Iraqis marked by rampant crime, unemployment, impoverishment, and extreme insecurity of life, health, and property, as well as criminal looting by everyone from the highest state officials to the lowest street thugs.
Such are the fruits of the U.S. government's war of aggression--war crimes and crimes against humanity laid atop its crimes against the peace.
Yet, to date, all we have to show for the legal process against top U.S. officials is an indictment for one apparatchik's workaday dirty tricks--the sort of thing countless government flunkies do every day of the week.
Be grateful for small blessings, we might tell ourselves. All right: so far, so good, Mr. Fitzgerald. You've gone the first yard. Still, you have miles and miles ahead of you if justice is to be served.
In the real world, Marci notes John Nichols' "Cheney, Libby and the Mess They Made" (The Online Beat, The Nation):
Much of official Washington remains focused on the issues -- legal and political -- that have arisen from the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney who was a principal architect of the administration's approach to Iraq before and after the invasion and occupation of that distant land. This is as it should be: Libby and his former boss need to be held accountable for leading this country's military forces into a quagmire that has cost more than 2,000 American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives.
The only problem with this otherwise healthy obsession with the investigation is that it draws attention away from the disaster that Cheney, Libby and their crew of neoconservative nutcases have created.
In addition to the rapidly mounting death toll -- 93 U.S. troops were killed in October, the highest casualty rate since January -- the insurgency's Tet offensive-level attacks within the capital city of Baghdad, and the degeneration of the trial of Saddam Hussein into a legal farce, there is the tragedy of the country's bumbled attempt to craft and implement a constitution.
Lloyd e-mails to note Matthew Rothschild's "Cheney Promotes Two with Dirty Hands to Take Over for Libby" (This Just In, The Progressive) which gives you the background on David Addington and John Hannah:
Addington's and Hannah's hands are dirty for other reasons, as well.
Addington was assistant general counsel to the CIA from 1981 to 1984, when Reagan's CIA was funding the death squads in El Salvador and raising an illegal contra army to fight the Sandinistas.
As Cheney's counsel in the Vice President's office, Addington was a primary advocate of Bush's military tribunal policy and his relaxed attitude toward torture.
"On at least two of the most controversial policies endorsed by Gonzales, officials familiar with the events say the impetus for action came from Addington," R. Jeffrey Smith and Dan Eggen reported in The Washington Post on January 5. Addington even "drafted an early version of a legal memorandum circulated to other departments in Gonzales’s name."
According to The Nation, that memorandum was the one dated January 25, 2002, which contains the following notorious line: "This new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions requiring that captured enemy be afforded such things as commissary privileges, scrip (i.e., advances of monthly pay), athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments." This memo also advises that a Presidential determination that says the Geneva Conventions don't apply "substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act."
Hannah, for his part, allegedly served as the funnel that Ahmad Chalabi used to pour misinformation about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction back to the White House. Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress (INC) led the propaganda effort, with an apparent assist from Hannah. "On June 26, 2002, the INC wrote a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee staff identifying Hannah as the White House recipient of information gathered by the group," according to a Knight Ridder article by Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel. (The article noted that Cheney's office has denied Hannah received the information from the INC.)
Please note, Rothschild has more reality in his column than the Times (see next entry) offers on the same subject (until paragraph ten) in a lengthy article.
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.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
robert higgs
the new york times
democracy now
joshua colangelo-bryan
juan gonzalez
matthew rothschild
john nichols
john r. macarthur
tim golden
eric schmitt
like maria said paz
carl hulse
david d. kirkpatrick
bill frist
rick santorum
harry reid
dana priest
the washington post
Advocates of that approach, who include some Defense and State Department officials and senior military lawyers, contend that moving the military's detention policies closer to international law would prevent further abuses and build support overseas for the fight against Islamic extremists, officials said.
Their opponents, who include aides to Vice President Dick Cheney and some senior Pentagon officials, have argued strongly that the proposed language is vague, would tie the government's hands in combating terrorists and still would not satisfy America's critics, officials said.
The above is from Eric Schmitt and Tim Golden's "Detainee Policy Sharply Divides Bush Officials" in this morning's New York Times. Golden and Schmitt (which I think is the actual order for the byline) take up a lot of space but never tell you the most important thing. The US government doesn't need to worry about "vaugue." We have no problem, check the State Dept. reports, identifying what is torture when done in other countries by other governments. The administration can dance around this forever (and will as long as reporters like Golden and Schmitt refuse to point out the obvious) but we define torture. We compile reports of what we see as human rights abuses. By the way the State Dept. categorizes that (or did before Condi stepped into that office), what we have done is torture. Bully Boy can sign off on all the executive orders he wants and we can torture the definition of torture in print (and other media forums) but the government knows what it is and calls it that when it is used by others. Bully Boy wants an exemption. That's the story.
And that's the one thing Schmitt and Golden don't tell you as they go off with their backstory gossip that they pass off as news. Condi feels this way. Does she really? That's not what Brent Scowcroft told The New Yorker. It's a cute little article that relies on anonymice to make various people come off looking good while not noting the anonymice (unless we're to believe that Schmitt and Golden are in on the administration's policy debates -- policy debates? I know try to quit laughing).
Maybe it's just still being sick, but reading this nonsense I wonder why the Times even published today. Adam Liptak takes a stab (a strong stab) at going over Alito's record. Otherwise, the paper reads like a base newsletter. There's really no excuse for the Times to publish this nonsense, full of whispers of praise from unnamed sources, and still call itself a newspaper today.
It's just nonsense and they've got nothing to add re: the outing of Valerie Plame or, in fact, Iraq. (I'm not in the mood to note the nonsense on how the US government has a new plan for the resistance.) They're all over the place scurrying for bits of cheese like the little rats they are today, noting any favorable whisper and looking for a pat on the head from the Bully Boy & co.
Meanwhile, in the Washington Post, Dana Priest has "CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons: Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11" -- which we'll read a summary of in the Times tomorrow but today they're too busy sucking up to guarantee the access they're so fond of. From Priest's article:
The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.
The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.
The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.
Keeping information from the public? While secret detentions go on? The USSR lives on and it lives on in the heart of the Bully Boy. This isn't the behavior of an open democracy. This is a bunch of little minds in little boys and girls thinking they can do whatever they want, that they can subvert any rule, any norm, any law just by screeching "national security" and the nation will respond like scared children whimpering, "As long as you protect us!" For those whimpering, shame on you. That's not what this country was built upon.
Again, expect to see the story (watered down) summarized in the Times tomorrow. Today they're just a base newsletter telling you about who showed up and who left, tossing out a little mild base gossip that won't offend anyone.
They've got nothing to add re: the closed session Harry Reid invoked in the Senate yesterday.
(Read Elaine's comments on that from last night.) Carl Hulse and David D. Kirkpatrick go with the "Partisan!" cry in "Partisan Quarrel Forces Senators to Bar the Doors." As though it hasn't been over a year since Pat Roberts promised the second part of the investigation into intelligence -- the part that focuses on whether the administration manipulated intell.
On the radio last night, I heard Bill Frist clucking that he wasn't sure he could ever trust Harry Reid again. What does that mean? I guess it means Harry Reid better not hope for any insider trading tips for Bill Frist. Considering Frist's own problems (and the investigation into them), he might want to purchase something in a non-high horse for the next time he wants to hop on the soapbox. Then there was Rick Santorum, who always sounds on the verge of tears, whining that politics were being played in the Senate! Dear Lord, what's next? Gambling in Vegas!
But the mild report in the Times is written in such a way as to not offend anyone in power, thus keeping those access channels open for another day.
Let's go to the real world, Barbara e-mails to note John R. MacArthur's "Pro-War Liberals Frozen in the Headlights" (Common Dreams):
It's been dreadful, these past three years putting up with George Bush's fraudulent rationales for invading Iraq. And there's no respite in sight -- the phony justifications keep coming, no matter how many corpses pile up, no matter how badly the political situation deteriorates in Baghdad, no matter how many lies surface about the pre-war propaganda campaign.
The other night in a restaurant I had to bite my tongue, instead of my bread, when a man at a neighboring table declared his "trust" in Dick Cheney and the president.
But as much as I'm infuriated by the Bush brigade's steadfast support of the Iraq horror, I find myself angrier still when pro-war liberals -- the so-called reluctant hawks -- wring their hands over the bloody mess they've wrought with their neo-conservative allies.
There are many such handwringers in politics, especially within the leadership of the Democratic Party. Sen. Joseph Biden, of Delaware, is forever asking "tough questions" about Iraq (the torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo upset him terribly), without drawing the obvious conclusion that we never should have attacked in the first place, and need to get out as fast as possible.
In journalism, the current handwringer-in-chief is the New Yorker writer George Packer, whose book The Assassins' Gate has met with high praise from handwringers, hawks, and a subset of pundits I call trimmers. Handwringers "anguish" over their past or current support for the war; hawks don't apologize for anything; and trimmers criticize Bush the foolish president, but avoid unequivocal denunciations of this foolish war.
Zach finds something the Times couldn't print because it's too much truth for them and not enough gossip, Robert Higgs' "Worst U.S. War Criminals Escape Justice" (Constorium News):
By violating the UN Charter, which the U.S. Constitution makes part of the supreme law of the land, President George W. Bush has violated that law. He has further violated his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution by taking the armed forces to war without a congressional declaration of war.
The failure of Congress to protest his impudence is immaterial to this violation, in which Congress itself has chosen, by funding the war, to serve as the president's accomplice rather than checking and balancing his exercise of unconstitutional power as the Framers intended.
Inasmuch as President Bush has so clearly violated his oath of office, exceeded his constitutional power, and contravened the supreme law of the land, one wonders why he has not been impeached for his high crimes. Can the answer be that we now live in a lawless society, where the strong simply do as they please, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Constitution or the laws?
In Iraq, U.S. forces have brought death to tens of thousands, most of them noncombatants, and physical injuries to countless others. They have wreaked vast damages to property by bombing, shelling, shooting, and other violent means. They have brought about conditions of life for ordinary Iraqis marked by rampant crime, unemployment, impoverishment, and extreme insecurity of life, health, and property, as well as criminal looting by everyone from the highest state officials to the lowest street thugs.
Such are the fruits of the U.S. government's war of aggression--war crimes and crimes against humanity laid atop its crimes against the peace.
Yet, to date, all we have to show for the legal process against top U.S. officials is an indictment for one apparatchik's workaday dirty tricks--the sort of thing countless government flunkies do every day of the week.
Be grateful for small blessings, we might tell ourselves. All right: so far, so good, Mr. Fitzgerald. You've gone the first yard. Still, you have miles and miles ahead of you if justice is to be served.
In the real world, Marci notes John Nichols' "Cheney, Libby and the Mess They Made" (The Online Beat, The Nation):
Much of official Washington remains focused on the issues -- legal and political -- that have arisen from the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney who was a principal architect of the administration's approach to Iraq before and after the invasion and occupation of that distant land. This is as it should be: Libby and his former boss need to be held accountable for leading this country's military forces into a quagmire that has cost more than 2,000 American lives and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives.
The only problem with this otherwise healthy obsession with the investigation is that it draws attention away from the disaster that Cheney, Libby and their crew of neoconservative nutcases have created.
In addition to the rapidly mounting death toll -- 93 U.S. troops were killed in October, the highest casualty rate since January -- the insurgency's Tet offensive-level attacks within the capital city of Baghdad, and the degeneration of the trial of Saddam Hussein into a legal farce, there is the tragedy of the country's bumbled attempt to craft and implement a constitution.
Lloyd e-mails to note Matthew Rothschild's "Cheney Promotes Two with Dirty Hands to Take Over for Libby" (This Just In, The Progressive) which gives you the background on David Addington and John Hannah:
Addington's and Hannah's hands are dirty for other reasons, as well.
Addington was assistant general counsel to the CIA from 1981 to 1984, when Reagan's CIA was funding the death squads in El Salvador and raising an illegal contra army to fight the Sandinistas.
As Cheney's counsel in the Vice President's office, Addington was a primary advocate of Bush's military tribunal policy and his relaxed attitude toward torture.
"On at least two of the most controversial policies endorsed by Gonzales, officials familiar with the events say the impetus for action came from Addington," R. Jeffrey Smith and Dan Eggen reported in The Washington Post on January 5. Addington even "drafted an early version of a legal memorandum circulated to other departments in Gonzales’s name."
According to The Nation, that memorandum was the one dated January 25, 2002, which contains the following notorious line: "This new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions requiring that captured enemy be afforded such things as commissary privileges, scrip (i.e., advances of monthly pay), athletic uniforms, and scientific instruments." This memo also advises that a Presidential determination that says the Geneva Conventions don't apply "substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act."
Hannah, for his part, allegedly served as the funnel that Ahmad Chalabi used to pour misinformation about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction back to the White House. Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress (INC) led the propaganda effort, with an apparent assist from Hannah. "On June 26, 2002, the INC wrote a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee staff identifying Hannah as the White House recipient of information gathered by the group," according to a Knight Ridder article by Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel. (The article noted that Cheney's office has denied Hannah received the information from the INC.)
Please note, Rothschild has more reality in his column than the Times (see next entry) offers on the same subject (until paragraph ten) in a lengthy article.
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.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
robert higgs
the new york times
democracy now
joshua colangelo-bryan
juan gonzalez
matthew rothschild
john nichols
john r. macarthur
tim golden
eric schmitt
like maria said paz
carl hulse
david d. kirkpatrick
bill frist
rick santorum
harry reid
dana priest
the washington post
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Democracy Now: Murray Waas, Julian Bond, Dorothy Height, Cicely Tyson, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Oprah ...
Report: 40 Iraqis Die in U.S. Bombings Near Syria
In Iraq, hospital officials in the town of Qaim say up to 40 people were killed Monday in U.S. bombings near the Syrian border. An Iraqi doctor said many of the killed were women and children. Local residents said U.S. aircraft carried out a series of bombing raids beginning shortly after midnight and continuing until dawn. Military officials said they were targeting safehouses used by a local Al Qaeda leader.
October Marks Fourth Deadliest Month for U.S. In Iraq
And U.S. losses in Iraq continue to rise. Seven U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday bringing the monthly death toll to 92. This made October the fourth deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.
Headlines for November 1, 2005
- Senate Prepares for Battle Over Alito Nomination
- NY Times: Alito Nomination is "Another Lost Opportunity"
- Alito's Mother: "Of Course He's Against Abortion"
- Report: 40 Iraqis Die in U.S. Bombings Near Syria
- October Marks Fourth Deadlines Month for U.S. In Iraq
- Bush's Church Calls for U.S. Troop Withdrawal
- U.S. Army Dumped 64 Million Pounds of WMDs into Ocean
Los Titulares de Hoy: Democracy Now!'s daily news summary translated into Spanish
Cheney Taps Torture Memo Author to Replace Scooter Libby
On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney appointed his legal counsel, David Addington, to be his new chief of staff following the resignation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Addington once wrote the war on terorrism has rendered the Geneva Conventions "obsolete." We speak with investigative reporter Murray Waas and hear former Ambassador Joseph Wilson speak out on the outing of his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame. [includes rush transcript]
Excerpt:
Oprah Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Julian Bond, Dorothy Height & Others Pay Tribute to Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks
On Monday, thousands of mourners filled the Metropolitian AME church in Washington for a memorial service for the late Rosa Parks, who died last week at the age of 92. Over the past two days, more than 40,000 people filed past her casket in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Monday where her body had lain in honor. She was the first civilian and only second woman or African-American to receive such an honor. Speakers at Monday's memorial included Oprah Winfrey, actress Cicely Tyson, NAACP chair Julian Bond, civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height, Parks' childhood friend Johnnie Carr, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and NAACP President Bruce Gordon.
Excerpt:
We'll note "How Karl Rove Got His Groove Back" (BuzzFlash):
Karl Rove, like Goebbels, is a master of propaganda -- and a key component of crisis management propaganda is timing. If Monday, October 31, began with another wave of TreasonGate headlines, it could spell further erosion for a White House that not only daily betrays a nation, but is totally and utterly incompetent. (Any person not caught up in the national state of right wing hysteria is suicidal if they support this administration, because the WH's bungling ineptitude daily threatens our national security and economic well-being.) So Scalito was "rolled out" early, before he was probably even out of bed, to divert the press from Friday's indictment (that was really a door opening onto the entire conspiracy behind lying America into war).
Marcus e-mails to note Moira Feeney's "Trial Begins for Salvadoran Commander Nicolas Carranza in Memphis" (Tennessee Independent Media):
Memphis, TN: October 31, 2005. Today Colonel Nicolas Carranza, former Vice-Minister of Defense of El Salvador, comes face-to-face with five individuals who accuse him of torture, extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity. The trial is expected to last about three weeks. This is the first time Carranza has ever had to answer accusations that he oversaw widespread human rights violations in El Salvador. Carranza came to the United States in 1985 and settled in Memphis. He became a U.S. citizen in 1991.The plaintiffs allege that, as Vice-Minister of Defense, Colonel Carranza exercised command and control over the three units of El Salvador's Security Forces from late 1979 until early 1981. It was during that time, in July 1980, that death squad members murdered the parents of Ana Patricia Chavez due to their membership in the ANDES 21 de Junio teachers' union. In September 1980, Francisco Calderon witnessed the murder of his father, also a member of ANDES, by plain-clothes gunmen working with the National Police. The same month, university student Cecilia Santos was arrested and tortured in the National Police headquarters. In late November of that year, Manuel Franco, the husband of Erlinda Franco, and five other pro-democracy leaders of the Frente Democrático Revolucionario were abducted in a Security Forces operation, tortured and killed. The FDR assassinations were among the most shocking incidents carried out by the Salvadoran military during 1980, and they led directly to the commencement of a full-scale civil war a conflict that claimed an estimated 75,000 lives.
Due in part to U.S. government concerns about his human rights record, Carranza was transferred out of his post as Vice-Minister in early 1981.
In 1983, Colonel Carranza was appointed director of the notorious Treasury Police shortly after the murder of a U.S. military advisor, Lt. Cmdr. Albert Schaufelberger, in San Salvador. In a reckless attempt to find the person responsible for the killing, five men dressed in civilian clothes abducted engineering student Daniel Alvarado and took him to the headquarters of the Treasury Police. There he was tortured severely and forced to sign a confession stating that he had been involved in the Schaufelberger murder. U.S. officials investigating the case concluded and reported that Daniel was not responsible in any way for the assassination and that he had made the confession in order to stop the brutal torture.
In 1984, while Colonel Carranza was still chief of the Treasury Police, The New York Times reported that he had been a paid informant for the CIA. He was subsequently removed from his position at the Treasury Police and came to the United States.
The suit is jointly brought by the Tennessee-based firm Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC, and the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), a non-profit human rights organizations that works to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice.
Lead counsel David Esquivel stated, "Finally these plaintiffs will have an opportunity to tell their stories of survival to the jury. They have waited too long for justice, and I am honored to represent them in this action." Esquivel was recently named pro bono attorney of the year by the Tennessee Bar Association largely due to his work on this case.
Matt Eisenbrandt Litigation Director of CJA said, "Today's trial marks a pinnacle in CJA's efforts to hold Salvadoran human rights violators accountable. We will continue to work with the community of survivors to break the cycle of impunity that persists in El Salvador." In 2004, CJA won a landmark judgment against a California resident who organized the assassination of revered Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. The victory led to calls in El Salvador for the repeal of the country's Amnesty Law. The Romero case followed a $54 million jury verdict in 2002 against Generals Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who, along with Carranza, were top military leaders in the 1980s.
Patty Blum, CJA Senior Legal Advisor and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School, commented: "This trial will address some of the most infamous incidents in the tragic history of El Salvador. The repressive military was responsible for thousands of deaths in the 1980s, and now the plaintiffs hope to hold Colonel Carranza responsible for his role in the abuses."
For additional information about the case and regular updates from the trial, please see CJA's website: www.cja.org.
Gilbert e-mails to note Grace Lee Boggs' "The first change I'd make in Detroit" (Michigan Citizen):
Yet the only kind of "school reform" that we are getting is No Child Left Behind, a program that measures learning by test performances, guarantees that students who are already failing
will continue to fail, and blames and punishes everyone involved in the school system, students, teachers, administrators, parents and the community, for the deepening crisis in our public
schools.
Why is it so hard to start real school reform? I think it is because the crisis in our schools mirrors
the conflict in our own hearts between our professed love of equality and our willingness to accept the inequality and hierarchy inherent in capitalism. Imbedded in our public school system is the fundamental contradiction between our concept of public schools as the repository and vehicle of democratic citizenship, on the one hand, and, on the other, the need of the capitalist system for stratification.
Because tests are allegedly value-free and only measure merit, they cover up and allow us to
evade this contradiction.
Nevertheless history shows that schools remain the laboratories for struggles over what it means
to be an American. Does it mean becoming more democratic, more egalitarian, and more
transparent? Or does it mean increasing the great divide between the haves and the have-nots,
as our school system is now doing. That is why the 50 percent rate at which students of color
are dropping out of public schools is the major social justice issue of our time. By voting with
their feet, these young people are declaring that they are no longer willing to participate in this cover-up.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. And, as promised, upcoming dates for Amy Goodman's Un-Embed the Media tour:
* 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
* Amy Goodman in Stonybrook, NY:
Thur, Nov 3
*TIME: 4 PM
7th Annual George Goodman Symposium
Provost Lecture by
Phil Donahue and Michael Ratner
Stony Brook UniversityStudent Activities Center Auditorium
Amy Goodman will attend, but will not be speaking
For more information, visit http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/provlec
* Amy Goodman in Keene, NH:
Fri, Nov 4
*TIME: 7 PM
World Affairs Symposium on Globalization
Keene State University
Event is free and open to the public
For more information, visit www.keene.edu
* Amy Goodman in San Francisco, CA:
Sat, Nov 5
*TIME: Noon
Green Festival
San Francisco Concourse
8th & Brannan St
San Francisco, CA 94123
Day Pass: $11 each ($15 at the door) good for either Sat or Sun
For more information, visit http://greenfestivals.com
* Amy Goodman in Redding, CA:
Sat, Nov 5
*TIME: 7:30 PM
Tickets:
$10 reserved seating in advance,
$15 at the door
Available for sale at:
Bogbean Books & Music 1740 California Street
and Graphic Emporium 1965 Pine St.
(530) 241-4278
Pre-show reception:
$50--includes admission to event and Goodman's book, The Exception to the Rulers.
For more information, call (530) 245-3488,
or visit www.peaceredding.org/TicketsforAmyGoodmanevent.htm
* Amy Goodman in Poughkeepsie, NY:
Wed, Nov 10
*TIME: 5:30 PM
Vassar College
The Villard Room, Main Building
Poughkeepsie, NY
Free and open to the public
amy goodman
democracy now
rosa parks
cicely tyson
scooter libby
plamegate
In Iraq, hospital officials in the town of Qaim say up to 40 people were killed Monday in U.S. bombings near the Syrian border. An Iraqi doctor said many of the killed were women and children. Local residents said U.S. aircraft carried out a series of bombing raids beginning shortly after midnight and continuing until dawn. Military officials said they were targeting safehouses used by a local Al Qaeda leader.
October Marks Fourth Deadliest Month for U.S. In Iraq
And U.S. losses in Iraq continue to rise. Seven U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday bringing the monthly death toll to 92. This made October the fourth deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.
Bush's Church Calls for U.S. Troop Withdrawal
President Bush and Dick Cheney are facing more opposition about the war in Iraq - this time from their own church. Last week the United Methodist Church passed a resolution calling for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq. The resolution read in part "As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq. Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never have fought." The church board also called on Congress to create and independent, bipartisan commission to investigate U.S. treatment of detainees overseas.
World Can't Wait Organizes 185 Protests for Nov. 2
Meanwhile anti-Bush demonstrations in over 185 cities and campuses are being organized for Wednesday by a group called The World Can't Wait. The group picked the first anniversary of the 2004 election to launch its effort to drive out the Bush government.
The above four items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and were selected by Charlie, Marci, KeShawn and Gina. On the fourth item, Gina reminds everyone that World Can't Wait is discussed in last Friday's edition of the gina & krista round-robin but wants to be sure that even visitors are aware of it. More information can be found here. Democracy Now! ("always worth watching" as Marcia says):
Headlines for November 1, 2005
- Senate Prepares for Battle Over Alito Nomination
- NY Times: Alito Nomination is "Another Lost Opportunity"
- Alito's Mother: "Of Course He's Against Abortion"
- Report: 40 Iraqis Die in U.S. Bombings Near Syria
- October Marks Fourth Deadlines Month for U.S. In Iraq
- Bush's Church Calls for U.S. Troop Withdrawal
- U.S. Army Dumped 64 Million Pounds of WMDs into Ocean
Los Titulares de Hoy: Democracy Now!'s daily news summary translated into Spanish
Cheney Taps Torture Memo Author to Replace Scooter Libby
On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney appointed his legal counsel, David Addington, to be his new chief of staff following the resignation of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Addington once wrote the war on terorrism has rendered the Geneva Conventions "obsolete." We speak with investigative reporter Murray Waas and hear former Ambassador Joseph Wilson speak out on the outing of his wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame. [includes rush transcript]
Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: So far the investigation into the C.I.A. leak has led to the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Libby was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and false statements. He resigned following the indictments. President Bush's Chief Advisor, Karl Rove, has so far escaped indictment for his role in the leak. He remains, though, under investigation. Back in August 2003, Wilson first fingered Rove, saying, quote, "At the end of the day it's of keen interest to me to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs." In his address yesterday Wilson repeated his view Rove should be fired.
JOSEPH WILSON: I'll say it again. I don't believe Mr. Rove should be permitted to resign. I believe that this is a firing offense. To be so cavalier in the handling of the secrets of this great nation really is an abuse of the public trust.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Ambassador Joseph Wilson. While Karl Rove remains in the White House, Vice President Dick Cheney has appointed his legal counsel, David Addington, to replace Scooter Libby. Cheney also appointed John Hannah, who served on his national security staff since March 2001 as assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs. Libby had held both positions. Addington was referred to -- by the job title in the indictment of Libby on Friday and appears likely to be called as a witness should Libby's case go to trial. On Monday, I spoke with investigative journalist Murray Waas, one of the leading investigative reporters in the C.I.A. leak case. He co-authored an article in the National Journal Sunday about David Addington.
MURRAY WAAS: David Addington is one of the Vice President's closest aides. Lewis Libby was a guy with unprecedented authority and power. Lewis Libby was one of the most powerful staff assistants to a vice president, who in himself was perhaps the most powerful vice president in the country's history. So Lewis Libby had the positions of not only being the Chief of Staff to the Vice President before his resignation following his indictment on Friday, but he's also the President's National Security Advisor, and he also had the title of being special assistant to the President. The third one was kind of symbolic in the sense of -- to show that his loyalty was also to the President, that he didn't just serve the Vice President. It was a unified White House. So David Addington worked under Lewis Libby. Libby was his mentor, but David Addington was the counsel to the Vice President of the United States. And so today -- yesterday, the Vice President named his successor -- the successor to Lewis Libby as Chief of Staff, and that appointment is going to be David Addington.
Oprah Winfrey, Cicely Tyson, Julian Bond, Dorothy Height & Others Pay Tribute to Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks
On Monday, thousands of mourners filled the Metropolitian AME church in Washington for a memorial service for the late Rosa Parks, who died last week at the age of 92. Over the past two days, more than 40,000 people filed past her casket in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Monday where her body had lain in honor. She was the first civilian and only second woman or African-American to receive such an honor. Speakers at Monday's memorial included Oprah Winfrey, actress Cicely Tyson, NAACP chair Julian Bond, civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height, Parks' childhood friend Johnnie Carr, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and NAACP President Bruce Gordon.
Excerpt:
JULIAN BOND: We are gathered here to say goodbye and well done to Rosa Louise McCauley Parks. She leaves us as she lived her life with honor and dignity. She was daughter, sister, wife, aunt and mother to the Movement. But she was more than that. She leaves us just short of the 50th anniversary of the day she showed the world you can stand up for your rights by sitting down. Her actions produced a movement and introduced America to a new leader. Dr. King said she was anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone by and the boundless aspirations of generations yet to come.
Now, she wasn't the first to refuse to surrender to Montgomery's apartheid. There had been Claudette Colvin, there had been Mary Louise Smith and countless others before her, those who believed they had rights just like any other citizen. But Rosa Parks was the first person to plead not guilty; for her, breaking Alabama law was obeying the Constitution. It was defending justice. She was tired, alright. She was tired of mistreatment. She was tired of second class citizenship. But, you know, she didn't want to be known as the bus woman. She was much, much more than that.
A historian writes, "Although Martin Luther King played crucial role in transforming a local boycott into a social justice movement, he was, himself, transformed by a movement he did not initiate." In Montgomery, the boycott owed its success to what a historian calls the self-reliant NAACP stalwarts who acted on their own before King could lead. Rosa Parks was first among those NAACP stalwarts. She had been active with the NAACP for more than a decade before the boycott began. When it began, she was secretary to the Alabama NAACP state conference. She was secretary to the Montgomery branch of the NAACP. She was advisor to the youth council of the NAACP. She was secretary to the Alabama Voters League. But she was more than that.
We'll note "How Karl Rove Got His Groove Back" (BuzzFlash):
Karl Rove, like Goebbels, is a master of propaganda -- and a key component of crisis management propaganda is timing. If Monday, October 31, began with another wave of TreasonGate headlines, it could spell further erosion for a White House that not only daily betrays a nation, but is totally and utterly incompetent. (Any person not caught up in the national state of right wing hysteria is suicidal if they support this administration, because the WH's bungling ineptitude daily threatens our national security and economic well-being.) So Scalito was "rolled out" early, before he was probably even out of bed, to divert the press from Friday's indictment (that was really a door opening onto the entire conspiracy behind lying America into war).
Marcus e-mails to note Moira Feeney's "Trial Begins for Salvadoran Commander Nicolas Carranza in Memphis" (Tennessee Independent Media):
Memphis, TN: October 31, 2005. Today Colonel Nicolas Carranza, former Vice-Minister of Defense of El Salvador, comes face-to-face with five individuals who accuse him of torture, extrajudicial killing and crimes against humanity. The trial is expected to last about three weeks. This is the first time Carranza has ever had to answer accusations that he oversaw widespread human rights violations in El Salvador. Carranza came to the United States in 1985 and settled in Memphis. He became a U.S. citizen in 1991.
Due in part to U.S. government concerns about his human rights record, Carranza was transferred out of his post as Vice-Minister in early 1981.
In 1983, Colonel Carranza was appointed director of the notorious Treasury Police shortly after the murder of a U.S. military advisor, Lt. Cmdr. Albert Schaufelberger, in San Salvador. In a reckless attempt to find the person responsible for the killing, five men dressed in civilian clothes abducted engineering student Daniel Alvarado and took him to the headquarters of the Treasury Police. There he was tortured severely and forced to sign a confession stating that he had been involved in the Schaufelberger murder. U.S. officials investigating the case concluded and reported that Daniel was not responsible in any way for the assassination and that he had made the confession in order to stop the brutal torture.
In 1984, while Colonel Carranza was still chief of the Treasury Police, The New York Times reported that he had been a paid informant for the CIA. He was subsequently removed from his position at the Treasury Police and came to the United States.
The suit is jointly brought by the Tennessee-based firm Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC, and the Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA), a non-profit human rights organizations that works to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice.
Lead counsel David Esquivel stated, "Finally these plaintiffs will have an opportunity to tell their stories of survival to the jury. They have waited too long for justice, and I am honored to represent them in this action." Esquivel was recently named pro bono attorney of the year by the Tennessee Bar Association largely due to his work on this case.
Matt Eisenbrandt Litigation Director of CJA said, "Today's trial marks a pinnacle in CJA's efforts to hold Salvadoran human rights violators accountable. We will continue to work with the community of survivors to break the cycle of impunity that persists in El Salvador." In 2004, CJA won a landmark judgment against a California resident who organized the assassination of revered Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. The victory led to calls in El Salvador for the repeal of the country's Amnesty Law. The Romero case followed a $54 million jury verdict in 2002 against Generals Jose Guillermo Garcia and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who, along with Carranza, were top military leaders in the 1980s.
Patty Blum, CJA Senior Legal Advisor and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School, commented: "This trial will address some of the most infamous incidents in the tragic history of El Salvador. The repressive military was responsible for thousands of deaths in the 1980s, and now the plaintiffs hope to hold Colonel Carranza responsible for his role in the abuses."
For additional information about the case and regular updates from the trial, please see CJA's website: www.cja.org.
Polly e-mails to note "Salvadoran torture trial begins" (BBC):
The lawsuit says that Mr Carranza commanded military and police units that took part in what they call a deliberate reign of state terror with the use of torture and murder.
In a pre-trial ruling, a judge found that claims of torture or witnessing wrongful deaths by at least four of Mr Carranza's accusers were valid.
More than 75,000 people died during El Salvador's 12-year civil war between the US-backed government and left-wing rebels, which ended in 1992.
Colleen e-mails to note Nora Ephron's "What's Eating George Bush?" (The Huffington Post):
I'm sorry to have to return to what continues to be, for me, the Rosebud event of the second Bush term, but since I live in New York and am free from the kind of facts and "inside information" that burden most people who write about politics, I keep thinking about the day the plane flew into the airspace while the President rode his bicycle.
As you may recall, on May 11, 2005, a small plane made an unauthorized detour into the air space over the nation's Capitol, setting off a red alert. The Secret Service evacuated Dick Cheney and rushed Laura Bush to a bunker in the White House. The President was not there. He was off riding his bicycle in Beltsville, Maryland, and the Secret Service didn't notify him about the incident until it was over. At the time they claimed they didn't want to disturb his bicycle ride. It's my theory that this incident was one of the reasons for the rift between Bush and Cheney -- a rift, I'm proud to say, that I was one of the first to point out (on the Huffington Post), on the basis of no information whatsoever, and which now turns out (according to this week's Newsweek) to be absolutely true.
Emboldened by the success of this deduction, I would like to ask another question that I've been wondering about for some time: What's wrong with the president? Is he fighting depression? Is he being medicated in some way that isn't quite working? What's up? I even bought a copy of one of the supermarket tabloids that alleged he'd started drinking again, but the article (like all articles in supermarket tabloids) was extremely disappointing; even the over-exciting picture of the President on the front page, holding a glass of wine, turned out to be an old irrelevant photograph of him making a toast at some banquet; there was no real evidence in the article that he was back on the sauce.
FYI, if you missed Danny Schechter on Ring of Fire Saturday on Air America, click here and (via Air America Place) you can still hear it.Gilbert e-mails to note Grace Lee Boggs' "The first change I'd make in Detroit" (Michigan Citizen):
Yet the only kind of "school reform" that we are getting is No Child Left Behind, a program that measures learning by test performances, guarantees that students who are already failing
will continue to fail, and blames and punishes everyone involved in the school system, students, teachers, administrators, parents and the community, for the deepening crisis in our public
schools.
Why is it so hard to start real school reform? I think it is because the crisis in our schools mirrors
the conflict in our own hearts between our professed love of equality and our willingness to accept the inequality and hierarchy inherent in capitalism. Imbedded in our public school system is the fundamental contradiction between our concept of public schools as the repository and vehicle of democratic citizenship, on the one hand, and, on the other, the need of the capitalist system for stratification.
Because tests are allegedly value-free and only measure merit, they cover up and allow us to
evade this contradiction.
Nevertheless history shows that schools remain the laboratories for struggles over what it means
to be an American. Does it mean becoming more democratic, more egalitarian, and more
transparent? Or does it mean increasing the great divide between the haves and the have-nots,
as our school system is now doing. That is why the 50 percent rate at which students of color
are dropping out of public schools is the major social justice issue of our time. By voting with
their feet, these young people are declaring that they are no longer willing to participate in this cover-up.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. And, as promised, upcoming dates for Amy Goodman's Un-Embed the Media tour:
* 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
* Amy Goodman in Stonybrook, NY:
Thur, Nov 3
*TIME: 4 PM
7th Annual George Goodman Symposium
Provost Lecture by
Phil Donahue and Michael Ratner
Stony Brook UniversityStudent Activities Center Auditorium
Amy Goodman will attend, but will not be speaking
For more information, visit http://www.stonybrook.edu/sb/provlec
* Amy Goodman in Keene, NH:
Fri, Nov 4
*TIME: 7 PM
World Affairs Symposium on Globalization
Keene State University
Event is free and open to the public
For more information, visit www.keene.edu
* Amy Goodman in San Francisco, CA:
Sat, Nov 5
*TIME: Noon
Green Festival
San Francisco Concourse
8th & Brannan St
San Francisco, CA 94123
Day Pass: $11 each ($15 at the door) good for either Sat or Sun
For more information, visit http://greenfestivals.com
* Amy Goodman in Redding, CA:
Sat, Nov 5
*TIME: 7:30 PM
Tickets:
$10 reserved seating in advance,
$15 at the door
Available for sale at:
Bogbean Books & Music 1740 California Street
and Graphic Emporium 1965 Pine St.
(530) 241-4278
Pre-show reception:
$50--includes admission to event and Goodman's book, The Exception to the Rulers.
For more information, call (530) 245-3488,
or visit www.peaceredding.org/TicketsforAmyGoodmanevent.htm
* Amy Goodman in Poughkeepsie, NY:
Wed, Nov 10
*TIME: 5:30 PM
Vassar College
The Villard Room, Main Building
Poughkeepsie, NY
Free and open to the public
amy goodman
democracy now
rosa parks
cicely tyson
scooter libby
plamegate
NYT: "Cheney Fills Posts of Indicted Former Aide" (Richard W. Stevenson)
Richard W. Stevenson informs the reader that it takes two people to replace an indicted disgrace. In "Cheney Fills Posts of Indicted Former Aide," David S. Addington and John P. Hannah are the two people. From the article:
Mr. Addington was referred to by job title in the indictment of Mr. Libby on Friday, and appears likely to be called as a witness should Mr. Libby's case go to trial. The indictment referred to a conversation Mr. Libby held with the vice president's counsel on July 8, 2003, in which Mr. Libby asked what paperwork the Central Intelligence Agency might keep if an employee's spouse took an overseas trip.
At the time, according to the indictment, Mr. Libby was compiling information about a trip to Africa undertaken by a former diplomat, Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose wife, Valerie Wilson, was a C.I.A. officer. Ms. Wilson's identity was later made public, leading to an investigation into whether administration officials had leaked her name.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said Mr. Addington was the counsel referred to in the indictment. Mr. Addington was not charged with any wrongdoing.
Mr. Hannah was not referred to in the indictment, but like most of Mr. Cheney's aides, was questioned during the investigation. Mr. Hannah's lawyer, Thomas Green, told Newsweek last week that Mr. Hannah was not a target of Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation and "knew nothing" about the leak. Mr. Green was out of the country on Monday and did not return a call to his office.
Restoring the tone in DC apparently.
Zach notes Elaine Cassel's "A Moment of Truth" (CounterPunch):
The media is filled with Republican pundits, right-wring Christians, and arrogant politicians lambasting Patrick Fitzgerald for prosecuting Scooter Libby for lying to the FBI and the grand jury. Not a "real" crime, sniffs Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who, surely, being from Texas, must know a lot about lies. Big lies, and how to tell them.
Why is it that these Republicans choose not to embrace the truth, and telling the truth, as a revered "family value" or American "virtue"?
It's because lying is part and parcel of their overarching policy--a policy that is to its core, aggressive, yet weak, self-serving and subversive, manipulative, and antisocial.
Though much research has been devoted to detecting deception, almost no one has studied the psychology of lying. Patrick Fitzgerald eloquently stated that lying is antithetical to the workings of the civil or criminal justice system. As a lawyer, nothing is more odious to me than a lying client, judge, cop, juror, or witness. They mock the entire legal system. They attack it, they subvert it. They derail justice.
Remember to listen, watch or read Democracy Now! today. Amy Goodman has an appearance coming up tomorrow that we'll note later today. (Yes, I'm still sick.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
elaine cassel
richard w. stevenson
Mr. Addington was referred to by job title in the indictment of Mr. Libby on Friday, and appears likely to be called as a witness should Mr. Libby's case go to trial. The indictment referred to a conversation Mr. Libby held with the vice president's counsel on July 8, 2003, in which Mr. Libby asked what paperwork the Central Intelligence Agency might keep if an employee's spouse took an overseas trip.
At the time, according to the indictment, Mr. Libby was compiling information about a trip to Africa undertaken by a former diplomat, Joseph C. Wilson IV, whose wife, Valerie Wilson, was a C.I.A. officer. Ms. Wilson's identity was later made public, leading to an investigation into whether administration officials had leaked her name.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the special prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said Mr. Addington was the counsel referred to in the indictment. Mr. Addington was not charged with any wrongdoing.
Mr. Hannah was not referred to in the indictment, but like most of Mr. Cheney's aides, was questioned during the investigation. Mr. Hannah's lawyer, Thomas Green, told Newsweek last week that Mr. Hannah was not a target of Mr. Fitzgerald's investigation and "knew nothing" about the leak. Mr. Green was out of the country on Monday and did not return a call to his office.
Restoring the tone in DC apparently.
Zach notes Elaine Cassel's "A Moment of Truth" (CounterPunch):
The media is filled with Republican pundits, right-wring Christians, and arrogant politicians lambasting Patrick Fitzgerald for prosecuting Scooter Libby for lying to the FBI and the grand jury. Not a "real" crime, sniffs Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who, surely, being from Texas, must know a lot about lies. Big lies, and how to tell them.
Why is it that these Republicans choose not to embrace the truth, and telling the truth, as a revered "family value" or American "virtue"?
It's because lying is part and parcel of their overarching policy--a policy that is to its core, aggressive, yet weak, self-serving and subversive, manipulative, and antisocial.
Though much research has been devoted to detecting deception, almost no one has studied the psychology of lying. Patrick Fitzgerald eloquently stated that lying is antithetical to the workings of the civil or criminal justice system. As a lawyer, nothing is more odious to me than a lying client, judge, cop, juror, or witness. They mock the entire legal system. They attack it, they subvert it. They derail justice.
Remember to listen, watch or read Democracy Now! today. Amy Goodman has an appearance coming up tomorrow that we'll note later today. (Yes, I'm still sick.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
the new york times
elaine cassel
richard w. stevenson
"Labor Dept. Is Rebuked Over Pact With Wal-Mart" (Steven Greenhouse)
The Labor Department's inspector general strongly criticized department officials yesterday for "serious breakdowns" in procedures involving an agreement promising Wal-Mart Stores 15 days' notice before labor investigators would inspect its stores for child labor violations.
The report by the inspector general faulted department officials for making "significant concessions" to Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, without obtaining anything in return. The report also criticized department officials for letting Wal-Mart lawyers write substantial parts of the settlement and for leaving the department's own legal division out of the settlement process.
The report said that in granting Wal-Mart the 15-day notice, the Wage and Hour Division violated its own handbook. It added that agreeing to let Wal-Mart jointly develop news releases about the settlement with the department violated Labor Department policies.
The above is from Steven Greenhouse's "Labor Dept. Is Rebuked Over Pact With Wal-Mart" in this morning's New York Times.
Wal-Mart, the 'family' story, can comply with existing child labor law . . . provided they're given a 15 day notice before an inspection and provided they're found in violation they get one of those Harriet Miers "redo"s and are given ten more days to come into compliance with the law.
Gordon S. Heddell (inspector general) calls it a violation and it is. So why isn't the Times front paging it and why is Wal-Mart seen as a 'family' store? A work camp, sure. But a 'family' store?
That the most profitable, most powerful retail store on the globe needs an exception to on the book laws tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the greed involved and the 'family' nature of the store.
It also underscores the lack of interest (some might say "scorn") that this administration has for the public. This isn't something the Times can cluck over and deem "partisan" so instead they bury the findings of this report inside the paper instead of front paging it.
On the front page you can find nonsense by Michael Barbaro ("A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room") that plays the usual "some say" and "but others say" and never touches on any issue at length with the exception of stock value and the market:
Once a darling of Wall Street, Wal-Mart's stock price has fallen 27 percent since 2000, when H. Lee Scott Jr. became chief executive, a drop that executives have said reflects, in part, investors' anxieties about the company's image. Sales growth at stores open for more than a year has slowed to an average of 3.5 percent a month this year, compared with 6.3 percent at Target. And Wal-Mart is facing growing resistance to new urban stores, with high- profile defeats in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
At no point in the article does Barbaro take a moment to discuss the p.r. bait and switch (reported by the Times last week but maybe he was too busy being amused by the "war room" to pick up a paper) of their "insurance" plan ("scam"?). This isn't journalism. This is a p.r. report on . . . public relations and the Times should be embarrassed to front page it. But the paper of record has gotten away with passing off press releases as reporting for so long, they probably aren't capable of being shame faced at this point. Barbaro found the Wal-Mart "war room" amusing. At least he got something out of the article. That's more than can be said for readers of it.
While the Times fluffs, Billie wonders where their story is on Nicholas Carranza's trial? From Thomas Fawcett's "Salvadoran colonel charged for abuses commited 20 years ago" (The Daily Texan):
Colonel Nicolas Carranza, a top military official in El Salvador in the early 1980s, will face charges of torture and human rights abuses in a Memphis, Tenn. court today.Carranza's case represents one of the few trials conducted in the United States against former Salvadoran military officials accused of killing thousands of unarmed civilians to maintain military control over the country. Legal technicalities only allow for civil charges to be filed and due to amnesty laws in El Salvador, these cases can only be tried in other countries. "Carranza was involved in the training of death squads, terror squads and lots of other atrocious things," said UT journalism associate professor Mercedes de Uriarte. "100,000 unarmed civilians were killed in El Salvador during that time." Uriarte added that these events occurred in the context of the U.S. government's effort to stamp out communism in Central America in the 1980s. Several Latin American countries elected left-leaning socialist governments during this time. The U.S. responded by funding often brutal military dictatorships in an effort to prevent the spread of communism, such as the Salvadoran military government, according to de Uriarte.
Well it doesn't have the feel good spin of yarns from the "war room" so they leave it to the Associated Press to cover in the only story they've provided on the case, "Torture Suit Begins for Salvadoran Officer." From that article:
A civil lawsuit filed against Nicolas Carranza, 72, accuses him of crimes against humanity. A 10-member jury was seated Monday afternoon, with testimony scheduled to begin Tuesday.
''This is a first opportunity for our clients to finally have a chance to say what happened to them, to explain to a jury and to the world,'' Matthew Eisenbrandt, a lawyer for the Center for Justice and Accountability, said in advance of Monday's court session.
Carranza, who has declined talking about the specific allegations, denies wrongdoing. He became an American citizen and has lived in the Memphis area since 1985.
The lawsuit, filed by five current or former Salvadorans, says Carranza commanded military and police units that took part in a ''deliberate reign of state terror'' with the ''widespread and systematic'' use of torture and murder.
That's the New York Timid. Zach e-mails to note Norman Solomon's "The Press Acquits Itself" (CounterPunch):
Many people have become aware that news articles by Judith Miller and other Times reporters -- often splashed on the front page -- were conduits for the administration's deceptive claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The New York Times has portrayed itself as a victim of misinformation, as though a conveyor of falsehoods has scant responsibility.
But bogus news reporting was not the only way that the Times helped to push the United States into invading Iraq. Despite its reputation as a strong opponent of going to war, the paper's editorial voice capitulated when it was needed most.
Let's reach down into the Orwellian memory hole and retrieve what the New York Times had to say -- in an editorial headlined "The Case Against Iraq" -- the day after what Frank Rich now calls Colin Powell's "notorious presentation."
The Times declared that Powell "presented the United Nations and a global television audience yesterday with the most powerful case to date that Saddam Hussein stands in defiance of Security Council resolutions and has no intention of revealing or surrendering whatever unconventional weapons he may have."
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
norman solomon
thomas fawcett
the new york times
michael barbaro
steven greenhouse
The report by the inspector general faulted department officials for making "significant concessions" to Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, without obtaining anything in return. The report also criticized department officials for letting Wal-Mart lawyers write substantial parts of the settlement and for leaving the department's own legal division out of the settlement process.
The report said that in granting Wal-Mart the 15-day notice, the Wage and Hour Division violated its own handbook. It added that agreeing to let Wal-Mart jointly develop news releases about the settlement with the department violated Labor Department policies.
The above is from Steven Greenhouse's "Labor Dept. Is Rebuked Over Pact With Wal-Mart" in this morning's New York Times.
Wal-Mart, the 'family' story, can comply with existing child labor law . . . provided they're given a 15 day notice before an inspection and provided they're found in violation they get one of those Harriet Miers "redo"s and are given ten more days to come into compliance with the law.
Gordon S. Heddell (inspector general) calls it a violation and it is. So why isn't the Times front paging it and why is Wal-Mart seen as a 'family' store? A work camp, sure. But a 'family' store?
That the most profitable, most powerful retail store on the globe needs an exception to on the book laws tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the greed involved and the 'family' nature of the store.
It also underscores the lack of interest (some might say "scorn") that this administration has for the public. This isn't something the Times can cluck over and deem "partisan" so instead they bury the findings of this report inside the paper instead of front paging it.
On the front page you can find nonsense by Michael Barbaro ("A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room") that plays the usual "some say" and "but others say" and never touches on any issue at length with the exception of stock value and the market:
Once a darling of Wall Street, Wal-Mart's stock price has fallen 27 percent since 2000, when H. Lee Scott Jr. became chief executive, a drop that executives have said reflects, in part, investors' anxieties about the company's image. Sales growth at stores open for more than a year has slowed to an average of 3.5 percent a month this year, compared with 6.3 percent at Target. And Wal-Mart is facing growing resistance to new urban stores, with high- profile defeats in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
At no point in the article does Barbaro take a moment to discuss the p.r. bait and switch (reported by the Times last week but maybe he was too busy being amused by the "war room" to pick up a paper) of their "insurance" plan ("scam"?). This isn't journalism. This is a p.r. report on . . . public relations and the Times should be embarrassed to front page it. But the paper of record has gotten away with passing off press releases as reporting for so long, they probably aren't capable of being shame faced at this point. Barbaro found the Wal-Mart "war room" amusing. At least he got something out of the article. That's more than can be said for readers of it.
While the Times fluffs, Billie wonders where their story is on Nicholas Carranza's trial? From Thomas Fawcett's "Salvadoran colonel charged for abuses commited 20 years ago" (The Daily Texan):
Colonel Nicolas Carranza, a top military official in El Salvador in the early 1980s, will face charges of torture and human rights abuses in a Memphis, Tenn. court today.Carranza's case represents one of the few trials conducted in the United States against former Salvadoran military officials accused of killing thousands of unarmed civilians to maintain military control over the country. Legal technicalities only allow for civil charges to be filed and due to amnesty laws in El Salvador, these cases can only be tried in other countries. "Carranza was involved in the training of death squads, terror squads and lots of other atrocious things," said UT journalism associate professor Mercedes de Uriarte. "100,000 unarmed civilians were killed in El Salvador during that time." Uriarte added that these events occurred in the context of the U.S. government's effort to stamp out communism in Central America in the 1980s. Several Latin American countries elected left-leaning socialist governments during this time. The U.S. responded by funding often brutal military dictatorships in an effort to prevent the spread of communism, such as the Salvadoran military government, according to de Uriarte.
Well it doesn't have the feel good spin of yarns from the "war room" so they leave it to the Associated Press to cover in the only story they've provided on the case, "Torture Suit Begins for Salvadoran Officer." From that article:
A civil lawsuit filed against Nicolas Carranza, 72, accuses him of crimes against humanity. A 10-member jury was seated Monday afternoon, with testimony scheduled to begin Tuesday.
''This is a first opportunity for our clients to finally have a chance to say what happened to them, to explain to a jury and to the world,'' Matthew Eisenbrandt, a lawyer for the Center for Justice and Accountability, said in advance of Monday's court session.
Carranza, who has declined talking about the specific allegations, denies wrongdoing. He became an American citizen and has lived in the Memphis area since 1985.
The lawsuit, filed by five current or former Salvadorans, says Carranza commanded military and police units that took part in a ''deliberate reign of state terror'' with the ''widespread and systematic'' use of torture and murder.
That's the New York Timid. Zach e-mails to note Norman Solomon's "The Press Acquits Itself" (CounterPunch):
Many people have become aware that news articles by Judith Miller and other Times reporters -- often splashed on the front page -- were conduits for the administration's deceptive claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The New York Times has portrayed itself as a victim of misinformation, as though a conveyor of falsehoods has scant responsibility.
But bogus news reporting was not the only way that the Times helped to push the United States into invading Iraq. Despite its reputation as a strong opponent of going to war, the paper's editorial voice capitulated when it was needed most.
Let's reach down into the Orwellian memory hole and retrieve what the New York Times had to say -- in an editorial headlined "The Case Against Iraq" -- the day after what Frank Rich now calls Colin Powell's "notorious presentation."
The Times declared that Powell "presented the United Nations and a global television audience yesterday with the most powerful case to date that Saddam Hussein stands in defiance of Security Council resolutions and has no intention of revealing or surrendering whatever unconventional weapons he may have."
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
norman solomon
thomas fawcett
the new york times
michael barbaro
steven greenhouse
Monday, October 31, 2005
"Rosa Parks Eulogy" (John Conyers)
Still sick. About to crawl back into bed. Zach found this and it's important enough that I can post is and not feel the need to hunt down anything else. (Thank you, Zach.)
From John Conyers, Jr.'s website, "Rosa Parks Eulogy:"
I am travelling between Detroit and DC early this week to participate in services in remembrance of Rosa Parks. This is my first draft of a eulogy for a dear friend, who I will miss very much.
Rosa Parks Eulogy
October 31, 2005
Today, as we remember and say goodbye to Rosa Parks, I am moved to ask that we all consider her example in the struggles our world faces today. Rosa Parks led by example. She was not the loudest voice or the most forceful. She did not create change by arrogance or violence. She showed that one citizen's voice; a soft and determined voice can be heard, saying simply: "Love justice and despise oppression."
Those simple words. With them, the impetus to reconnect with this struggle for racial justice in America began with this humble woman, a seamstress in Alabama, who on December 1, 1955, chose to no longer obey the ordinance that blacks sit in the back of the bus and if it was full, then they give up the bus to white passengers. It is hard to conceive of the total segregation that this Nation was immersed in. On that day, she refused to obey a bus driver's order; and it began the chain of actions and organizations and commitments that led to a resurgence of the civil rights movement as we know it. Her arrest sparked a boycott of the Montgomery city bus lines. It went on for over a year as more and more people of all backgrounds and colors and economic classes joined in. Finally this matter reached, in November of 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed that desegregation codes deny under the 14th amendment the equal protection of laws to African Americans. It did not stop at the borders of the United States. The power of her ideas was not constrained by continents or oceans. Nelson Mandela, after his release from prison, visited Detroit. When he got off the plane, politicians, businessmen and other dignitaries waited to greet him. The one person he recognized was Rosa, and he began to chant "Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks."
A word about Rosa as a person, not as a civil rights icon. I got to know her quite well when she moved to Detroit after her heroic actions in Montgomery, and to this day I believe that her support of me in the primary in the 1964 election made the difference in my being elected to Congress. After my election, the very first person I asked to join me in the Congressional office was Rosa Parks. Fortunately, she accepted my offer, and we worked together for more than 20 years, and remained close friends.
She was so modest. They said she got fired from her job a month after the boycott. Here is what she said in the book she wrote: "A month after the boycott began, I lost my $25-a-week job when the Montgomery Fair department store closed its tailor shop. I was given no indication from the store that my boycott activities were the reason I lost my job. People always wanted to say it was because of my involvement in the boycott. I cannot say this is true. I do not like to form in my mind something I do not have any proof of.''
That exemplifies this incredible humbleness that marked everything that she did. I said the first person I am going to bring into my congressional office staff is Rosa Parks, and she accepted. Never once have I ever heard her raise her voice in anger. Never once have I heard her speak negative or unkind remarks about anybody, this persona, this modest woman of incredible determination who, by the way, brought Martin Luther King into Montgomery to help lead the Montgomery bus boycott, which was the start of his career as a civil rights leader. Yet this humble woman, quiet, dignified, always pleasantly composed, was able to bring forward this and other countless acts of civil disobedience which resulted in us changing the way that America operates.
That's an excerpt. It's on a government website so we could excerpt in full but John Conyers, Jr. i.d.s it as a work in progress. For anyone who missed his appearance on Democracy Now! last week ["John Conyers On Rosa Parks: 'She Earned the Title as Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.'"], Parks worked on Conyers first campaign for Congress and, after he was elected, was part of his staff. His comments provide insight. (As opposed to a State Department Secretary who . . . I'll leave it at that.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
rosa parks
john conyers jr.
john conyers
democracy now
From John Conyers, Jr.'s website, "Rosa Parks Eulogy:"
I am travelling between Detroit and DC early this week to participate in services in remembrance of Rosa Parks. This is my first draft of a eulogy for a dear friend, who I will miss very much.
Rosa Parks Eulogy
October 31, 2005
Today, as we remember and say goodbye to Rosa Parks, I am moved to ask that we all consider her example in the struggles our world faces today. Rosa Parks led by example. She was not the loudest voice or the most forceful. She did not create change by arrogance or violence. She showed that one citizen's voice; a soft and determined voice can be heard, saying simply: "Love justice and despise oppression."
Those simple words. With them, the impetus to reconnect with this struggle for racial justice in America began with this humble woman, a seamstress in Alabama, who on December 1, 1955, chose to no longer obey the ordinance that blacks sit in the back of the bus and if it was full, then they give up the bus to white passengers. It is hard to conceive of the total segregation that this Nation was immersed in. On that day, she refused to obey a bus driver's order; and it began the chain of actions and organizations and commitments that led to a resurgence of the civil rights movement as we know it. Her arrest sparked a boycott of the Montgomery city bus lines. It went on for over a year as more and more people of all backgrounds and colors and economic classes joined in. Finally this matter reached, in November of 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed that desegregation codes deny under the 14th amendment the equal protection of laws to African Americans. It did not stop at the borders of the United States. The power of her ideas was not constrained by continents or oceans. Nelson Mandela, after his release from prison, visited Detroit. When he got off the plane, politicians, businessmen and other dignitaries waited to greet him. The one person he recognized was Rosa, and he began to chant "Rosa Parks, Rosa Parks."
A word about Rosa as a person, not as a civil rights icon. I got to know her quite well when she moved to Detroit after her heroic actions in Montgomery, and to this day I believe that her support of me in the primary in the 1964 election made the difference in my being elected to Congress. After my election, the very first person I asked to join me in the Congressional office was Rosa Parks. Fortunately, she accepted my offer, and we worked together for more than 20 years, and remained close friends.
She was so modest. They said she got fired from her job a month after the boycott. Here is what she said in the book she wrote: "A month after the boycott began, I lost my $25-a-week job when the Montgomery Fair department store closed its tailor shop. I was given no indication from the store that my boycott activities were the reason I lost my job. People always wanted to say it was because of my involvement in the boycott. I cannot say this is true. I do not like to form in my mind something I do not have any proof of.''
That exemplifies this incredible humbleness that marked everything that she did. I said the first person I am going to bring into my congressional office staff is Rosa Parks, and she accepted. Never once have I ever heard her raise her voice in anger. Never once have I heard her speak negative or unkind remarks about anybody, this persona, this modest woman of incredible determination who, by the way, brought Martin Luther King into Montgomery to help lead the Montgomery bus boycott, which was the start of his career as a civil rights leader. Yet this humble woman, quiet, dignified, always pleasantly composed, was able to bring forward this and other countless acts of civil disobedience which resulted in us changing the way that America operates.
That's an excerpt. It's on a government website so we could excerpt in full but John Conyers, Jr. i.d.s it as a work in progress. For anyone who missed his appearance on Democracy Now! last week ["John Conyers On Rosa Parks: 'She Earned the Title as Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.'"], Parks worked on Conyers first campaign for Congress and, after he was elected, was part of his staff. His comments provide insight. (As opposed to a State Department Secretary who . . . I'll leave it at that.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
rosa parks
john conyers jr.
john conyers
democracy now
Democracy Now: Larry Johnson, Diane McWhorter, Rev. Joseph Lowery; Tom Hayden, Kim Gandy, Ruth Conniff, Christian Parenti ...
Bush Nominates Samuel Alito to Supreme Court
President Bush is preparing to nominate federal appeals judge Samuel Alito Jr. today to the Supreme Court. Alito's nomination comes just four days after Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination. The 55-year-old Alito is widely seen as a judicial conservative who has been nicknamed "Scalito" for his philosophical similarities to Justice Antonin Scalia. The Christian Right has been lobbying Bush to pick a candidate who will oppose abortion rights and overturn Roe v. Wade. In Alito, Bush has picked a judge who has been involved in the one of the most significant abortion case in recent years. As a federal appellate judge, Alito backed a Pennsylvania law that required women to inform their husbands before they sought an abortion. His support came in the form of a dissenting vote in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey which eventually went to the Supreme Court in 1992. The high court voted 6-3 to strike down the spousal notification requirement. Last night Senate minority leader Harry Reid said Alito is not one of the names of acceptable nominees that he gave to the president. Reid said of Alito's nomination "I think it would create a lot of problems."
President Bush is preparing to nominate federal appeals judge Samuel Alito Jr. today to the Supreme Court. Alito's nomination comes just four days after Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination. The 55-year-old Alito is widely seen as a judicial conservative who has been nicknamed "Scalito" for his philosophical similarities to Justice Antonin Scalia. The Christian Right has been lobbying Bush to pick a candidate who will oppose abortion rights and overturn Roe v. Wade. In Alito, Bush has picked a judge who has been involved in the one of the most significant abortion case in recent years. As a federal appellate judge, Alito backed a Pennsylvania law that required women to inform their husbands before they sought an abortion. His support came in the form of a dissenting vote in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey which eventually went to the Supreme Court in 1992. The high court voted 6-3 to strike down the spousal notification requirement. Last night Senate minority leader Harry Reid said Alito is not one of the names of acceptable nominees that he gave to the president. Reid said of Alito's nomination "I think it would create a lot of problems."
After "Week From Hell" Bush's Approval Rating Drops
New polls show that the public trust in the Bush administration has reached a new low. A new ABC News/Washington Post Poll has found Bush's approval rating to be just 39 percent - the lowest of his presidency. Meanwhile 46 percent of the country says the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined under Bush. Only 15 percent of the country feel Bush has restored honesty and ethics to the government. This comes after what Time Magazine described as the worst week of Bush's presidency. Within a span of four days the U.S. death toll in Iraq topped 2,000, Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court and Lewis Scooter Libby was indicted and resigned. Time described it as Bush's QUOTE "Week from Hell."
Rosa Parks Lies in Honor at U.S. Capitol
In Washington, over10,000 people began lining up Sunday outside the Capitol to pay homage to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks who died last week at the age of 92. Parks' body is lying in honor at the U.S. Capitol in the Rotunda. According to Senate historian Richard Baker, Parks is the first private citizen to ever be accorded the honor. She is also the first woman and second African-American to lie in honor at the Capitol. The tribute is usually reserved for heads of state. President Reagan was the last person to lie in state at the Capitol. A memorial service will be held today at the Metropolitan AME Church in Washington. Her body will then be flown to Detroit for a funeral on Wednesday. On Sunday a memorial service was also in Montgomery Alabama. We'll have more on Rosa Parks later in the show.
The above three items are from today's Democracy Now! Headlines and were selected by Lyle, DK and Joan. Democracy Now! ("always worth watching," as Marcia says):
Headlines for October 31, 2005
- Bush Nominates Samuel Alito to Supreme Court
- Libby Resigns After Five Count Indictment in CIA Leak Case
- After "Week From Hell" Bush's Approval Rating Drops
- Rosa Parks Lies in Honor at U.S. Capitol
- U.S. Troop Level in Iraq Reaches 161,000
- Arab League: U.S. Must Leave Iraq
- 62 Die in Bombings in New Delhi
- Bush Nominates Samuel Alito to Supreme Court
- Libby Resigns After Five Count Indictment in CIA Leak Case
- After "Week From Hell" Bush's Approval Rating Drops
- Rosa Parks Lies in Honor at U.S. Capitol
- U.S. Troop Level in Iraq Reaches 161,000
- Arab League: U.S. Must Leave Iraq
- 62 Die in Bombings in New Delhi
Bush Picks Conservative Judge Samuel Alito Who Endorsed Abortion Restrictions for Supreme Court
President Bush nominated federal appeals judge Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court Monday, just four days after Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination. The 55-year-old Alito is widely seen as a judicial conservative who has been nicknamed "Scalito" for his philosophical similarities to Justice Antonin Scalia. In 1991, Alito backed a Pennsylvania law that required women to inform their husbands before they sought an abortion. His support came in the form of a dissenting vote in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. [includes rush transcript - partial]
President Bush nominated federal appeals judge Samuel Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court Monday, just four days after Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination. The 55-year-old Alito is widely seen as a judicial conservative who has been nicknamed "Scalito" for his philosophical similarities to Justice Antonin Scalia. In 1991, Alito backed a Pennsylvania law that required women to inform their husbands before they sought an abortion. His support came in the form of a dissenting vote in the landmark case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. [includes rush transcript - partial]
Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: Explain how it's out of the mainstream.
DONNA LIEBERMAN: Well, if a woman -- one of the core points about the protection of the right to choose is that the decision about having an abortion is a decision about a woman's health, it's about her future, it's about the responsibilities that she is going to have forever and ever and ever. And if you cant make a decision about what happens to your body without your husband's permission, well, then do you have equal rights as a member of our society? And Justice Alito would say no. So, I think that we see that right if, in fact, he is confirmed there will be four votes really to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Former CIA Agent Larry Johnson: Bush Should Ask for Karl Rove's Resignation Over CIA Leak
Lewis "Scooter" Libby resigned on Friday after being indicted on five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents during the CIA leak investigation. President Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove has so far escaped indictment for his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. We speak with former CIA agent, Larry Johnson.
Lewis "Scooter" Libby resigned on Friday after being indicted on five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents during the CIA leak investigation. President Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove has so far escaped indictment for his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. We speak with former CIA agent, Larry Johnson.
Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: Very good to have you with us. Can you talk about your response to the indictment?
LARRY JOHNSON: I think it's a good start, a move in the right direction. What's appalling is the response you know, the Republican response is expected, but mainstream media figures, whether we are talking Tim Russert or Andrea Mitchell or others, who are trying to say, Well, so there's no underlying crime, so really no harm, no foul. You know, if you listen very carefully to what Fitzgerald said, her cover was blown, and you know, he didn't when he said her cover is blown, that mean she's had cover, number one. Number two, the reason he could not indict under the Identities Protection Act is because Libby obstructed the investigation. So, you know, Fitzgerald is just playing you know, biding his time. He is going to openly come in with an indictment on the original crime, but he is going to squeeze these guys very carefully. So, I think we're fortunate to have someone of Fitzgerald's character involved with this.
Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Lies in Honor in Capitol Rotunda
The body of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was flown to Washingon DC Sunday night to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. She is the first woman and second African American to lie in state. We speak with the Rev. Joseph Lowery and author Diane McWhorter and we go back to 1956 to air a rare interview with Parks aired on Pacifica Radio's KPFA. [includes rush transcript]
The body of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks was flown to Washingon DC Sunday night to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda. She is the first woman and second African American to lie in state. We speak with the Rev. Joseph Lowery and author Diane McWhorter and we go back to 1956 to air a rare interview with Parks aired on Pacifica Radio's KPFA. [includes rush transcript]
Excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: That is Rosa Parks, speaking in April 1956 in the midst of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. She had refused to stand up for a white passenger just a few months before, December 1, 1955. We're joined in our New York studio by Diane McWhorter, author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama and the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. She won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction for this book. We're also joined on the telephone by long-time civil rights activist, Reverend Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, involved in the 1950s, even before Rosa Parks refused to stand up, in desegregating the South, particularly transportation, and was this weekend in Montgomery, Alabama, for the service, the memorial service for Rosa Parks. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Reverend Lowery, your memory of Rosa Parks in the 1950s, when you would come up from Mobile to Montgomery to support her in the bus boycott?
REV. JOSEPH LOWERY: Well, she was a mild-mannered activist. She was deceptive in her demeanor. You would never expect her to be as -- inside as fiery and courageous as she really was, and so when they called me in Mobile and told me she was the person who sparked the boycott, I was surprised and amused and, of course, delighted, because she was a wonderful woman who did not act as a soloist. While she was alone on the bus, she was part of a movement. She was active in the NAACP, and long before she refused to give up her seat on the bus, she engaged in voter registration drives, in helping young people understand the struggle, and even after the boycott, she continued to work in the movement. So, she was part of an organized effort to change America and to as a seamstress, not only a seamstress on clothes, but a seamstress on the fabric of American democracy. It needed mending, and she was the person God chose to do it at this moment in history.
??? e-mails to note a "must read" Tom Hayden piece entitled "The Watergate Parallel" (Common Dreams):
A 1974 headline - "THE WATERGATE CRISIS, AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE..."
"The Watergate crisis represents a conflict in the American establishment brought on by the Indochina War, giving the peace movement its best chance yet to finally end U.S. involvement..."
So concluded "A Strategy To End the War", a working paper of the Indochina Peace Campaign, in 1974. The IPC was a network in key states which carried out public education and pressured Congress from the grass roots to sign a "peace pledge" to end direct US military involvement, cut off police aid, and support a political settlement.
The "Watergate opportunity" arose from the Republican Administration subverting the democratic process by breaking laws in pursuit of an unachievable victory in Indochina. Watergate revealed to centrist opinion at the highest levels that Nixon's Vietnam policies were not worth the price in domestic abuse of power.
The war ended in early 1975 when the Congress terminated military aid, ten years after the authorized the US invasion after the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin "incident."
Is history repeating itself today? The scandal rocking the Bush Administration is about "how the [White House] manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to bolster its case for the war in Iraq and to discredit anyone who dared to challenge the president", in the apt words of Sen. Harry Reid.
Nixon aides went after Pentagon and RAND analyst Daniel Ellsberg, stealing documents from his therapist's office in search of damaging personal information. In the current scandal, the "Ellsberg" character is former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his agent/wife Valerie Plame. Both Ellsberg and Wilson had to be destroyed because they were revealing the fabrications underlying the rationale for war, the Pentagon Papers and the forged Niger documents.
Lyle e-mails to note Ruth Conniff's "The White House's Bad Week" (Ruth Conniff's Online Column, The Progressive):
The damage control cycle has started, and the frantic spinning shows how low the Republicans have sunk. You have to give a big E for effort to William Safire, who said on Meet the Press on Sunday that "there's always a narrative in Washington," and since the current "narrative" is the travails of the Bush Administration, the "new" narrative will shortly be Bush's comeback. How heartening to think that any time a White House is in trouble it follows, like the night follows the day, that the President will arise triumphant in the next news cycle. Not to be a nattering nabob of negativism, but surely Safire, as a former Nixon White House staffer, can remember a few exceptions to this cheery rule.
Last week, the Republicans were floating the notion that perjury and obstruction of justice are not serious crimes(quick, everyone, erase your memories of these same rightwingers' high dudgeon during the Clinton impeachment). Then came Friday's press conference by the straight-shooting special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, which obliterated that strategy. Fitzgerald demonstrated in his indictment of Scooter Libby both an unavoidably distasteful pattern of lying in this Administration, and the gravity of the underlying issue. Fitzgerald hasn't nailed down Libby for intentionally unmasking a covert CIA agent, he explained (the law is written in such a way as to make that a difficult feat). But in the details of Libby's conversations with reporters divulging that agent's identity, the seriousness and seaminess of what Libby did is clear.
The new Republican talking point is that Libby alone is responsible for his own bad behavior. Yet the indictment points out that he first learned Valerie Plame's identity from Dick Cheney. And the gossip Libby helped generate, attempting to discredit Joe Wilson by unmasking his wife, had a malicious aim that benefited the whole Administration--not Libby as an individual.
Lyle notes that he did listen to The Laura Flanders Show Sunday and asks that we note the archives (at Air America Place). If you missed it, you can listen via Air America Place. (I will later in the week. I had it on but was so sick and so out of it, I can't tell you much of what was discussed.)
Marci e-mails to note Christian Parenti's "The Question of Kurdistan" (The Nation):
Outside the violent city of Mosul lies the last checkpoint of the Kurdish militia, or peshmerga. The gunmen control a bridge where the dusty rolling land of the northern Mesopotamian plain tucks itself into a seam along the Al Kazir River. In a few months these fields will be green with winter wheat, but now they are wind-swept, pale and desiccated. The yellow late-afternoon sun casts long shadows.
From a hilltop redoubt, the peshmerga watch but do not control three majority-Arab villages clustered along the winding, silted river below. At the bridge they search cars for explosives and weapons and check the identities of Arab drivers headed east from the hell that is Mosul toward the secure enclave of Erbil, the Kurdish capital.
At the checkpoint there is no Iraqi flag flying, only the banner of greater Kurdistan, which nationalists say includes parts of Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. "We are working for the future, not for now. We want an independent Kurdistan. We want to defend our real borders. And we want America to help," says the peshmerga's commanding officer as we sip hot tea and lean into the wake of his desk fan.
All the outward signs at this checkpoint indicate that Kurdish independence is imminent and that Iraq will soon break apart. The new Constitution can also be read as hastening Iraq's end by allowing groups of provinces to create semi-autonomous regions, possible mini-states. Many observers fear this will lead to massive intercommunal war--ending with an oil-rich Kurdistan in the north, an oil-rich Shiite state in the south and a badly wounded, festering Sunni-dominated rump of Iraq in the middle.
Some experts actually argue for such a breakup of Iraq, believing that creating three substates will avoid a wider war. The most prominent advocates of this position are Leslie Gelb of the Council on Foreign Relations and Peter Galbraith, a former US Ambassador to Croatia. Over the summer Galbraith, an adviser to the Kurds who is highly critical of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, laid out this case in a widely read piece for The New York Review of Books. Since then, among the chattering classes of the United States, something like a Galbraithian consensus has developed that sees the "invented" postcolonial nation of Iraq as inevitably headed for disintegration and Kurdistan as already de facto independent.
Yet on the ground in Kurdistan these assumptions begin to fall apart. The region's ties to Iraq are quite strong. At the same time, Kurdistan's internal divisions are surprisingly intense. Just as the Shiites in the south have been fighting among themselves--followers of Sadr versus the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq--so too is the political culture of Kurdistan defined by the fault lines of class, tribe, party and ethnicity; there is no monolithic Kurdish state ready to emerge. Most important, Kurdish leaders are keenly aware that the United States has not given them a green light to seek total independence. The Kurds, landlocked and surrounded by enemies, are candid about not wishing to alienate their new patron, Uncle Sam.
Erika e-mails to note Kim Gandy's "Misery and Glee" (Below the Belt, NOW):
While we're savoring the latest good news, let's also savor the memory of a true hero.
Rosa Parks' simple yet profound act of courage on December 1, 1955, spurred a nationwide movement for basic human rights for all people of color. Her name is known far and wide -- but most people don't know the full story. Parks had been active in the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP for over twenty years before she refused to give up her seat that December day. She advised local youth, helped organize voter registration drives, and even traveled to out of state conferences to learn how to desegregate schools.
Her sitting down on that bus during rush hour was no act of weariness -- it was an act of defiance. She was challenging an unjust law. She had spent decades working for justice, and put herself on the line for what she believed in, civil rights and equal justice for all. Sound familiar? She was us. Her life and her role as "Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" is a testament to what activists can achieve.
Remember Rosa Parks when you start to get discouraged or feel like your activism doesn't accomplish anything. As Gandhi said, "Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it." So keep up the great work! Who knows which one of the countless actions we do will be the spark that touches off the next revolution?
Following in her Footsteps
If you're of a mind to start right now doing something Rosa Parks would have done, consider joining me in New Orleans in a week, on Monday, November 7th, for a protest march across the Gretna Bridge. I'll be joining Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.), Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, and other leaders and activists as we take back the bridge that hundreds of bedraggled Katrina survivors, mostly black, tried to cross to escape the floodwaters and the chaos of the Convention Center.
According to eyewitness reports, they were stopped at gunpoint by Gretna police and local sheriffs, who fired shots over their heads to turn them back into the city. We will be rallying on Monday morning at 10am at the Convention Center, and then marching across the bridge, also called the Crescent City Connection. Please encourage friends and family in the Gulf area to join us in this protest, and to come early for hands-on community service on Sunday as well.
Julia e-mails asking if we can plug Ron? Yes, we'll plug in full (I don't think he'll mind). From "Why Are We Back At Press Think" (Why Are We Back In Iraq?):
Two years ago I started this blog...originally to promote my play - "The Rules of Embedment or Why Are We Back In Iraq?" (sample scenes can be read at the bottom of this page)
Although I had a few readings that went well, my producer dropped out, and I had no funds or connections to go any further. After toying with political satire for a spell I started blogging like everyone else in the spring of 2004.
But it wasn't until I wrote this little story - on November 6, 2004 - about the Bush family connections to Project P.U.L.L. co-founder Ernie Ladd, "Cocaine, Wrestling & George Bush," that I realized I could do more than just blog my opinions. So - laugh if you want - I became an investigative blogger.
A few days ago Jay Rosen asked me to work on a guest post at Press Think, which was quite an honor since he's been a huge inspiration and influence on my work.
So here's a link to "Does The New York Times Have a Learning Disability?" (My original title was "More Than Curious, Less Than Learning," and...heh...in the first draft I played like Donald Trump and advocated the termination of four Times people but we toned it down some)
I guess you can say "propaganda" is the theme of Why Are We Back In Iraq? The play and the blog.
If you're coming here for the first time...here's some of the work I've done that I'm most proud of...including articles published at Raw Story that I worked on:
"'Spikes of Activity' in the DSM"
"U.S. changed Iraq policy to begin airstrikes months before war"
"Beyond Abramoff: Gambling lobbyist joined with anti-gambling congressman, derailed gambling bills"
"A Deconstruction of the Newsweek 'Riots'"
" Reporter, editor say 'Jeff Gannon' plagiarized article"
"Coulter caught cribbing from conservative magazines"
"Are Our Troops Dying For Paxcon?"
"Kenneth Blackwell's Confession"
"The New York Times is a Brick Wall"
"Company run by Frist's brother made $630m deal two days before he announced he would be leader"
"Military releases seep into Katrina news articles"
"Who Really Knows Who Shot Who?
"Conservative magazine blames blacks, political correctness for chaos"
"Miers provided misleading information to Judiciary Committee"
Jay Rosen is someone whose work Ron respects so this is a big thing. We'll congratulate him and say, "Well done."
Furthering the plugs, I'll note Danny Schechter's "Libby Indicted" (Media Channel):
Its been years of waiting and months of anticipating but that old saw about no one being above the law came to pass with the indictment of Vice President Cheney's consigliare L."Scooter" Libby. The trial may be years away but he is out of there and the Bush Administration which came to office with a deceptive campaign and an illicit election, and then launched a war based on more lies, has finally been knocked off its perch -- at least a little. The prosecutor did not charge Libby under the law penalizing the release of information about intelligence agents, but he did find evidence of lying. Libby, who knows fiction well because he is also a novelist, is going down -- if not to jail, then certainly down in the court of public opinion. He has resigned.
The Washington Post" Libby faces obstruction of justice, false statement and perjury charges. President Bush's top political strategist, Karl Rove, is spared."
Here's part of the indictment which you can read in full on the Washington Post site:
On or about June 9, 2003, a number of classified documents from the CIA were faxed to the Office of the Vice President to the personal attention of LIBBY and another person in the Office of the Vice President. The faxed documents, which were marked as classified, discussed, among other things, Wilson and his trip to Niger, but did not mention Wilson by name. After receiving these documents, LIBBY and one or more other persons in the Office of the Vice President handwrote the names "Wilson" and "Joe Wilson" on the documents. 6. On or about June 11 or 12, 2003, the Under Secretary of State orally advised LIBBY in the White House that, in sum and substance, Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and that State Department personnel were saying that Wilson's wife was involved in the planning of his trip.
Brad and Kara both wrote to note that Danny's News Dissector blog has been hacked (again). Mondays usually start with me visiting News Dissector but this morning, I just crawled back into bed after the entries posted. (Which I intend to do as soon as I get this sent. An earlier attempt to post within Blogger resulted in a lost entry so I'm doing this via e-mail.)
Vernoica e-mails to note Jesse's "Where the Hell Is Your Proof?" (TV News Lies):
To this day, there has been no independent official inquiry into the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Kean Commission, with which most Americans are familiar, was based on the Bush/PNAC version of events. It was charged with probing the breakdown of intelligence prior to the attacks and making suggestions for improving communications among the competing agencies involved. The Commission, formed after more than a year of opposition by the Bush administration, did not repeat...did NOT investigate or report about the causes of the attacks.
Far more important -- to this day there has not been a single piece of evidence presented to the public that corroborates the official government version of the most devastating attack in our history. Think about that. For more than four years, scores of credible experts have challenged the explanations offered by the Bush administration, and yet not a shred of evidence has been offered by the US government to support the official version of events they claim took place on that day.
Even more absurd is that fact that not a single official inquiry has attempted to respond to, discredit, or refute the questions that have been raised. On the contrary, both the American government and the complicit media have dealt with the every single challenge to the 9/11 explanations in two ways. They either totally ignore them or dismiss them out of hand as ridiculous conspiracy theories. Most of the well-researched and revealing findings by independent investigators are unknown to the vast majority of Americans.
Martha e-mails to note Christine's "Remembering Rosa Parks" (Pop Politics):
"Rosa Parks, the African American seamstress who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., 50 years ago and lent a spark to the beginnings of the modern civil rights movement, will make history again as the first woman ever to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, after the House today passed a resolution permitting the tribute," writes Petula Dvorak in the Washington Post.
Since her death Monday in Detroit at age 92, churches, civic organizations and individuals have clamored to pay tribute to Parks. Among them was Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). Parks had worked in Conyers's Detroit office for more than 20 years.After looking at the list of tributes he envisioned since her death -- " a statue, a stamp, a resolution, a memorial service" -- Conyers said it occurred to him that only the vigil reserved for statesmen or warriors would be right. He authored the resolution to permit Parks to lie in honor inside the Capitol.
"We think having her body lie in honor in the Rotunda is probably the most expressive way that we in government can let everyone know that the legacy of Rosa Parks is embraced by the federal legislature," Conyers said yesterday. "I must say that the bipartisan support has been excellent."
It would be the first time a woman has been so honored and one of the few occasions for a citizen who did not hold an elected office.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
And we're going to note Dahr Jamail's upcoming appearances before I forget:
November 01, 2005
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Event: An Independent Reporter's View of the War in Iraq
Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada - at the Centre St. Pierre, Room 100, 1212 Panet (métro Beaudry)
Time and Date: Tuesday, 1 November 7 pm
The presentation and Q&A will be simultaneously translated (real time) to French; organized by "Échec à la guerre" and "OCVC".
For more info contact: legaultr (at) colba (dot) net
November 02, 2005
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
Event: Dahr Jamail - Independent Reporters View of the War in Iraq
Location: Kresge Auditorium of the Visual Arts Center(on Upper Park Row - runs parallel with Maine Street)Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine
For more info contact: Kate Harris, 207.833.6569 or kate(at)earthlovers.org
Co-sponsors include: AFSC New England, AFSC Maine Committee on Youth and Militarism, Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks, Maine chapter of the Women's League for International Peace & Freedom (WILPF), the Green Horizon Foundation, Peace Action Maine, Maine Chapter 001 of Veterans for Peace, Bowdoin-Democratic Socialists of America and Global Justice (Bowdoin)
Download the flier for this event
November 03, 2005
Boston, MA
Event: Eyes Wide Open Exhibit - Dahr Jamail will be a featured speaker
Location: Boston, MA - Paulist Center, 5 Park
Street
Time and Date: Thursday, 3 Nov, 7 pm
More info please visit: The Eyes Wide Open Web Page: http://www.afsc.org/eyes/details/boston/common.htm
Details: Dahr Jamail will be a featured speaker along members of Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Parents for Peace, and an Iraq Veterans for Peace
Contact Info: email jlederer (at) afsc (dot) org or email jgerson (at) afsc (dot) org for additional information or call 617-661-6130
Tufts University, Boston, MA
Event: Dahr Jamail - an Independent Reporter's View of the War in Iraq
Location: Robinson 253, Tufts University, Boston
Date and Time: Thursday, 3 Nov, 3pm
For more info contact: Jospeph Gerson, JGerson (at) afsc (dot) org
November 04, 2005
Gloucester, MA
Event: Dahr Jamail- An independent U.S. journalist presents a thought-provoking analysis of what the American presence in Iraq means.
Date and Time: Friday, November 4th @ 7:30 pm
Location: The Independent Christian Church (Unitarian-Universalist) 10 Church St., Gloucester, MA
Contact: Susan Nicholson 978-283-5030
Sponsored by: North Shore Coalition for Peace & Justice, Cape Ann Forum, Veterans for Peace: Samantha Smith Chapter, Womens Action for New Directions (WAND, Newburyport), First Universalist Church of Essex
ALL ARE WELCOME DONATIONS APPRECIATED
Download the Flyer
More information about this event
November 05, 2005
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Event: Dahr Jamail - an Independent Reporter's View of the War in Iraq
Location: Olin Humanities Building, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Time and Date: Saturday, 5 Nov, 7 pm
More Details: 857.204.9924 or kate.crockford (at) gmail (dot) com
November 06, 2005
Port Chester, New York
Event: Dahr Jamail Speaks About Iraq
Location: 225 King Street (near train station) Port Chester, New York
Time and Date: Sunday, November 6, at 6:30 p.m.
More information: mfox36 (at) netzero (dot) com
November 07, 2005
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
Event: Peace Project presents Dahr Jamail
Location: Northwestern University, Evanston Campus. Leverone Hall, Coon Forum Room 2001 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL
Date and Time: Monday, November 7th 7 pm
Information: The event is free and open to the public.
More information about this event
November 09, 2005
Pomona, CA
Event: Dahr Jamail presenting at CalPoly Pomona
Location: Campus Forum at CalPoly, Students Union in the Centaurus Room
Time and Date: noon-1 presentation
For more info: schico (at) oxy (dot) edu
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA
Event: Dahr Jamail speaks at Occidental College
Location: Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA. In Weingart, room #117
Time and Date: Wednesday, November 9th, at 7:00pm
Directions to Occidental and Weingart: http://www.oxy.edu/x2160.xml Weingart is building #17 on the campus map and parking structure is #43, just north of Weingart.
November 10, 2005
Pomona College, Claremont, California
Event: Independent Journalist Dahr Jamail Reports on the situation in Iraq
Location: Pomona College, Oldenborg Center
Time and Date: 12 O'clock Noon, Thursday, November 10
More Information: Email HLW04747 (at) pomona (dot) edu or Rita_Bashaw (at) pomona (dot) edu
That's all events posted for November.
Yahoo! FareChase - Search multiple travel sites in one click.
NYT: Somebody get Scott the big mop
Somebody get Scott the big mop.
Today's clean up? "Doubts Cast on Vietnam Incident, but Secret Study Stays Classified" which attempts to clean up not only Gulf of Tonkin but the paper's coverage of it in real time. Translation, Shane's got a really big mess to clean up:
The National Security Agency has kept secret since 2001 a finding by an agency historian that during the Tonkin Gulf episode that helped precipitate the Vietnam War, N.S.A. officers deliberately distroted critical intelligence to cover up their mistakes, according to two people familiar with the historian's work.
The closest the New York Times may ever come to righting their coverage of the Vietnam conflict. (Yes, by the late sixties and early seventies, the Times was doing a better job -- after public opinion had turned against the conflict.) Maybe in forty years, someone else can grab the mop and beging to clean up some of the mess related to the lies that got us into Iraq? Scott Shane, in the words of Graham Nash, "Teach Your Children Well." The paper may need them.
(I'm assuming, possibly wrongly, that members are aware of the Gulf of Tonkin since it's only news to the Times. If that assumption is mistaken, e-mail to the private address and if it's a few, I'll go over it in e-mails; if it's a lot, we'll do an entry here.)
Lynda e-mails to note Katharine Q. Seelye's "At 2,000, Iraq's Military Deaths Got the Media's Full Attention" which she feels is a strong article (and she worries Zeller's piece will be the one note online due to the topic -- naval gazing). I haven't read all of Seelye's piece but here's an excerpt:
When the death toll of Americans in Iraq reached 1,000 back in September 2004, The Omaha World-Herald ran a respectful article in a signle column down the right side of its front page. "A grisly milestone reached in Iraq," read the headline.
Last week, by contrast, when the roster of American dead reached 2,000, The World-Herald displayed that stark number in larger type at the center of its front page, above an article and three photographs showing the war's human toll, including a bank of tombstones.
Already, I'm sure some will note that the death toll is larger due to the fact that Seelye hasn't clarified that she's focusing solely on the toll for American military.
Ryan e-mails to note Carlotta Gall's "2 U.S. Soldiers Are Charged With Assaulting Afghan Prisoners:"
Two American soldiers have been charged with assaulting two Afghan detainees and could face court-martial in Afghanistan, the chief United States military spokesman here, Col. Jim Yonts, said Sunday.
The announcement, 10 days after details emerged about an episode earlier this month in which two American soldiers burned the bodies of Taliban fighters who had been killed in a firefight, heightened fears that the Afghan people will turn on the American forces in Afghanistan.
The two soldiers, members of the 926th Engineers, an Alabama National Guard unit, are accused of striking the detainees and punching them in the chest, shoulders and stomach, Colonel Yonts said. Neither of the detainees required medical treatment as a result of the assault, he said. "They are charged with maltreatment, assault and dereliction of duty," he said. "All three of these charges could go to court-martial," he said. Since the soldiers involved and their unit are still in Afghanistan, the case could go to a court-martial in Afghanistan at Bagram air base, the main American military base in the country.
The BBC is reporting that Samuel A. Alito Jr. is the new nominee for the Supreme Court.
There were no Sunday entries last night. I was sick before I got on the plane home. When I got home, I thought I was taking a nap. (The nap ended up being many, many hours.) We'll try to pick up items in entries throughout the week. (But a number of items sent in were covered in the news review The Third Estate Sunday Review did.)
I'm still sick so don't expect much today. (And thank you to Cedric who I asked to call me and scream into the phone this morning to wake me up or I'd still be in bed asleep.)
Remember to catch Democracy Now! today (if you listen, if you watch or if you read the transcripts).
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
gulf of tonkin
vietnam conflict
scott shane
carlotta gall
afghanistan
katharine q. seelye
Today's clean up? "Doubts Cast on Vietnam Incident, but Secret Study Stays Classified" which attempts to clean up not only Gulf of Tonkin but the paper's coverage of it in real time. Translation, Shane's got a really big mess to clean up:
The National Security Agency has kept secret since 2001 a finding by an agency historian that during the Tonkin Gulf episode that helped precipitate the Vietnam War, N.S.A. officers deliberately distroted critical intelligence to cover up their mistakes, according to two people familiar with the historian's work.
The closest the New York Times may ever come to righting their coverage of the Vietnam conflict. (Yes, by the late sixties and early seventies, the Times was doing a better job -- after public opinion had turned against the conflict.) Maybe in forty years, someone else can grab the mop and beging to clean up some of the mess related to the lies that got us into Iraq? Scott Shane, in the words of Graham Nash, "Teach Your Children Well." The paper may need them.
(I'm assuming, possibly wrongly, that members are aware of the Gulf of Tonkin since it's only news to the Times. If that assumption is mistaken, e-mail to the private address and if it's a few, I'll go over it in e-mails; if it's a lot, we'll do an entry here.)
Lynda e-mails to note Katharine Q. Seelye's "At 2,000, Iraq's Military Deaths Got the Media's Full Attention" which she feels is a strong article (and she worries Zeller's piece will be the one note online due to the topic -- naval gazing). I haven't read all of Seelye's piece but here's an excerpt:
When the death toll of Americans in Iraq reached 1,000 back in September 2004, The Omaha World-Herald ran a respectful article in a signle column down the right side of its front page. "A grisly milestone reached in Iraq," read the headline.
Last week, by contrast, when the roster of American dead reached 2,000, The World-Herald displayed that stark number in larger type at the center of its front page, above an article and three photographs showing the war's human toll, including a bank of tombstones.
Already, I'm sure some will note that the death toll is larger due to the fact that Seelye hasn't clarified that she's focusing solely on the toll for American military.
Ryan e-mails to note Carlotta Gall's "2 U.S. Soldiers Are Charged With Assaulting Afghan Prisoners:"
Two American soldiers have been charged with assaulting two Afghan detainees and could face court-martial in Afghanistan, the chief United States military spokesman here, Col. Jim Yonts, said Sunday.
The announcement, 10 days after details emerged about an episode earlier this month in which two American soldiers burned the bodies of Taliban fighters who had been killed in a firefight, heightened fears that the Afghan people will turn on the American forces in Afghanistan.
The two soldiers, members of the 926th Engineers, an Alabama National Guard unit, are accused of striking the detainees and punching them in the chest, shoulders and stomach, Colonel Yonts said. Neither of the detainees required medical treatment as a result of the assault, he said. "They are charged with maltreatment, assault and dereliction of duty," he said. "All three of these charges could go to court-martial," he said. Since the soldiers involved and their unit are still in Afghanistan, the case could go to a court-martial in Afghanistan at Bagram air base, the main American military base in the country.
The BBC is reporting that Samuel A. Alito Jr. is the new nominee for the Supreme Court.
There were no Sunday entries last night. I was sick before I got on the plane home. When I got home, I thought I was taking a nap. (The nap ended up being many, many hours.) We'll try to pick up items in entries throughout the week. (But a number of items sent in were covered in the news review The Third Estate Sunday Review did.)
I'm still sick so don't expect much today. (And thank you to Cedric who I asked to call me and scream into the phone this morning to wake me up or I'd still be in bed asleep.)
Remember to catch Democracy Now! today (if you listen, if you watch or if you read the transcripts).
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
gulf of tonkin
vietnam conflict
scott shane
carlotta gall
afghanistan
katharine q. seelye
NYT: Todd pens a valentine to Tim Russert and the paper front pages it
We're not Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts from yesterday.
Why? The press loves this story if they can repeat gossip everyone knows (and include others in the press). Check out the Times.
Front page of the Times features Todd S. Purdum's "TV Newsman Is His Own News in the Leak Case" which reads as a desperation plea on the part of Purdum: "Pick me, Timmy! Make me a guest in the roundtable!" I'm reminded of the song "No Wonder" from Yentl (lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, music by Michael Legrand, "Who wouldn't want someone who fusses and flatters, who makes you feel that you're all that matters, whose only goal in life is to serve you . . ." That's Todd's suck up to Tim Russert this morning. The fumes continue to rot Purdum's brain.
Is the Times just going to recap this story? Or are they going to lead on it? (Looks like they're just going to recap it.)
Nolanda e-mails to note Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's "Beginning of the End? Watergate 2005? Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?" (CounterPunch):
Scooter Libby was the lawyer who got the charges dropped against billionaire scamster Marc Rich back in Clintontime. But that had more to do with Rich's billions than with any legal talents Libby may have. On the evidence of the indictment brought by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald on Friday, October 28, one fact stands out: SCOOTER LIBBY IS INCREDIBLY STUPID.
And this is what CounterPunch gets from the Fitzgerald indictment as a whole.
Special prosecutor Fitzgerald could have suggested that there is a cancer growing on the presidency, metastasizing out of Dick Cheney's suite. He could have stated, or even hinted that yesterday's indictment of Libby is the first drum roll in a mighty symphony of prosecutorial onslaughts on felonious conduct in high places.
But special prosecutor Fitzgerald did none of these things. He trailed his coat plenty of times. In his indictment of Libby he opens a couple of doors a few inches, so that the attentive reader can see footprints that head off towards the vice president's office. But then the door shuts and there's no evidence that special prosecutor has an appetite to prise it open again.
Despite all the enormous hopes vested in the Plame affair, that it is playing the same role in the downfall of the Bush administration as did the "third-rate rate burglary" that kicked off Watergate, this could be the end of the story, even if Fitzgerald has said there might have to be further investigation of Karl Rove, identified in the Indictments as Official A.
Back to Libby and his stupidity. Put yourself in his shoes. You are about to go before a grand jury and testify under oath. You know that the special prosecutor has successfully subpoenaed White House and CIA logs. Your lawyer whispers in your ear that the three most beautiful words in the English language are "I don't recall". He claps you on the back and, alone and unarmed, you enter the grand jury room. You raise your right hand and swear solemnly that you will testify to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God.
And here's nice Mr Fitzgerald asking you questions and you tell one staggering lie after another. Not sneaky little half truths. Not mincing little evasions. No, Sir! Not this Scooter! I work for Dick Cheney and I can really, really tell a lie. And you do! You fire off volley after volley of brazen falsehoods, stretchers so ripe with willful and considered mendacity that it's a marvel the words don't explode in the jury room like methane in an overheated pile of manure.
Keesha e-mails to note Katrina vanden Heuvel's "Dear Scooter, From Dick" (Editor's Cut, The Nation):
I admire your principled fight against the five indictments. But for my part, this is the rare case where this "principal" would be better off if you plead guilty. That's one reason why I let George accept your resignation. If you find a way to testify about the discussion we had relating to the Wilson-Plame matter, if any, I would be very interested in who your cellmate will be.
You were indicted in the fall. It is still fall. You fell down the stairs and broke your foot. Now you don't walk so good. It would be terrible if you fell down the stairs again and broke your skull. Others can cover up our stories--Iraqi WMD and the energy task force, Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their unbroken roots connect them. Do the thirty years. At least you still have your health.
Until then, you will remain in my prayers and under surveillance.
With admiration,
DICK CHENEY
Mike's mother e-mailed to note this section of Robert Parry's "Letting the White House Walk?" (Consortium News):
The limited scope of the Libby indictment buoyed some conservatives, including former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova, who pounced on its narrow construction as a sign of White House vindication.
Meanwhile, other Republicans made clear that while they would spare Fitzgerald from a public-relations counter-offensive, they would continue their long-running campaign to disparage Wilson.
Because of his criticism of Bush's use of WMD intelligence, Wilson -- who is now just a private citizen -- has become a bete noire for Republicans, on par with their hatred for the French, the United Nations or filmmaker Michael Moore.
Three months ago, the Republican National Committee even posted an article entitled "Joe Wilson's Top Ten Worst Inaccuracies and Misstatements," which itself used glaring inaccuracies and misstatements to discredit Wilson. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com's "Novak Recycles Gannon on 'Plame-gate.'"]
However, what upsets some Americans most about Fitzgerald's narrow indictment of Libby is that it seems to have let other participants in the Plame leak off the hook.
The larger conspiracy -- to punish an Iraq War critic for telling the truth about false intelligence used to take the United States to war -- will go unpunished and unexplained, at least for now.
In street terms, it looks a lot like the White House got a walk.
[Note, members know who Mike's mother is. She's shared links and excerpts here many times. But Mike's sister doesn't want to be "named" at his site and so until I get express persmission to note ___ as Mike's mother, I'm noting her this morning as "Mike's mother." She signed the e-mail "____, Mike's mother" with the blank filled in.]
Lloyd e-mails to note Matthew Rothschild's "The Cabal's First Casualty: Scooter Libby Indicted, Resigns; Cheney in Trouble" (This Just In, The Progressive):
When Lynne Cheney asked Libby how he felt, he gave, according to Woodward, a one-word answer: "Wonderful."
Then everyone started to gloat at the expense of Brent Scowcroft, Jim Baker, Lawrence Eagleburger, and especially Colin Powell, writes Woodward.
They are gloating no longer.
Cheney himself makes a cameo in the Libby indictment: "On or about June 12, 2003, Libby was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the Central Intelligence Agency in the Counterproliferation Division. Libby understood that the Vice President had learned this information from the CIA."
Mysterious accounts of unnamed people in the Vice President's office also crop up: "On or about June 9, 2003, a number of classified documents from the CIA were faxed to the Office of the Vice President to the personal attention of Libby and another person in the Office of the Vice President. . . . Libby and one or more other persons in the Office of the Vice President handwrote the names 'Wilson' and 'Joe Wilson' on the documents."
This indictment is burning the hair off of Cheney’s skin.
But he tried to stay cool, saluting Libby as "one of the most capable and talented individuals I have ever known."
And well might he praise Libby, for it seems Libby was doing his boss's dirty work in outing Valerie Plame, and then covering for his boss before the grand jury and federal investigators.
Libby testified he heard about Plame from reporters first, when the indictment says he heard it first from Cheney.
Libby didn't want to rat on his boss, and so his boss is grateful for that--and for his years of service to the cabal.
Ruth & Tracey e-mail to note John Nichol's "Patrick Fitzgerald: It's Not Over" (The Online Beat, The Nation):
The most intriguing news with regard to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of the apparent effort by the Bush-Cheney administration to punish former Ambassador Joe Wilson for revealing how the White House deceived the American people about the threat posed by Iraq is not the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
Make no mistake, it is exceptionally significant that Cheney's closest aide and political confidante over the past two decades, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, has been charged with two counts of making false statements to federal agents, two counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for misleading and deceiving the grand jury about how he learned that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a Central Intelligence Agency operative.
Of course, it matters that Fitzgerald's office says Libby lied "about how and when in 2003 he learned and subsequently disclosed to reporters then-classified information concerning the employment of Valerie (Plame) by the Central Intelligence Agency." Of course it matters that, in response to these indictments, one of the most powerful players in Washington -- the right-hand man of the vice president, a pioneering champion of the neo-conservative worldview and a principal architect of the war with Iraq -- has resigned from his positions with the administration.
But what matters most are the questions that the Libby indictment has raised with regard to Cheney's actions?
E-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
todd s. purdum
john nichols
katrina vanden heuvel
matthew rothschild
alexander cockburn
jeffrey st. clair
robert parry
the world today just nuts
Ruth's Morning Edition Report (repost from Saturday)
[Repost from Saturday.]
"Ruth's Morning Edition Report"
Ruth: One of the things I enjoyed most this week was hearing Amy Goodman, chiefly on WBAI and KPFA, note Pacifica's history. I honestly could have listened to a great deal more of that topic. Monday on Democracy Now!, they provided an exclusive interview from 1956 with civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and I wondered why, during the pledge drive, there had not been a push to note more of the historical significance of Pacifica?
As was often noted during the pledge drive, Pacifica has been the news outlet committed to providing you with information before the lead up to the war and throughout the occupation. That is historic and certainly reason enough, in my mind, for listeners to support the programming. I did wonder what a longer view of the network's past might have done to pledge efforts?
The pledge drive concluded Friday. It did not conclude on a happy note for two members who e-mailed me to complain that following Patrick Fitzgerald's live statement, instead of staying with questions and answers, the programming returned to a holitistic medicine show. I was listening to KPFA because I am impressed with their news department and on KPFA, they interrupted programming to carry Fitzgerald's live statement and then returned to programming which was a discussion of the indictment with guests John Nichols (of The Nation) and Bruce Shapiro.
I am sure that there are listeners who enjoyed the return of the medical show but I will have to agree with the two members who e-mailed complaining of that decision. As a lifetime news junkie, my own personal priority is the news. My suggestion to the two members (Rachel and Micah) is that, in the future, when there is breaking news that occurs late in the day, switch to KPFA. Kimba e-mailed me to note a news segment that she felt was worthy of attention:
"Documents Shed Light on Abu Ghraib Death"by John McChesney
Morning Edition, October 28, 2005 · Nearly two years after the death of an Iraqi man questioned at Abu Ghraib prison was ruled a homicide, no one has been charged. Confidential CIA documents offer further insight into the death of Manadel al-Jamadi, who was in CIA custody when he died.
Kimba writes that report, which she heard Friday on Morning Edition, made up for "a year of nothing special." I agree that it is an important report and I felt that way when I heard it Thursday. I had trouble with KPFA's website and kept getting an error message. C.I. had told me before of the Pacifica sister stations. I went from one to another California station but could not find one carrying the KPFA Evening News. The last station I went to, which carries Pacifica and NPR programming, was broadcasting that story. I agree that it was an excellent move for Morning Edition to broadcast the report the next day but possibly the reason it ranks as one of the best reports from Morning Edition is because it did not originate with Morning Edition?
E-mails have come in asking where is CounterSpin? I usually catch FAIR's CounterSpin on WBAI and due to the pledge drive, it has not aired on Fridays at its regular time. It can be heard online and I will listen to it this weekend but, like many news junkies, I was glued to the live broadcasts all week as I wondered what Patrick Fitzgerald would do with regards to the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Trina e-mailed to say that she found it difficult to listen during pledge drive because she did not have any money to give. She also noted that she could not listen to NPR during pledge drives without getting furious because "unlike Pacifica, they just come off greedy." Trina listed the following nonsense, Trina's term which I agree with, that she heard during NPR's pledge drive:
1) You can find sixty dollars by cleaning your sofa.
Trina wonders if, since she is on a fixed income herself, she is supposed to invite wealthy strangers into her home with the hope that coins and dollars might fall from their pockets into her sofa cushions?
2) A calender was being given away, an NPR calender, with a forty dollar donations causing the two local anchors to say that they usually did not give premiums with minimal donations and that, since the calender was so nice, they really should reconsider the donation necessary to receive a calender.
Trina wonders how many forty dollar donations they lost over that commentary? I would hope that they lost all of them.
3) NPR wants your money.
Read The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Watchdog Daily" for a humorous look at that. But they want your big money.
I listened to all five of the Pacifica stations this week and would hear that twenty dollars, ten dollars, anything would be appreciated. As a listener, I found that more inclusive and more welcoming. One member e-mailed to say he did give twenty dollars which was not an easy gift due to his budget but the fact that Pacifica was welcoming of all amounts did speak to him. I imagine it spoke to others as well.
NPR's uninformed comments contribue to their image of being a "yuppie" news network.
Marci e-mailed to say that pledge drives were necessary for listener supported radio and wondered what I made of the special programming other than the documentaries on Pacifica?
I enjoyed the coverage of last Saturday's conference on the Bully Boy's war crimes. Michael Ratner was a personal favorite speaker. His broadcast remark that "Our job is to keep them running" was one of my favorites of the week. Whether it is providing speeches from a conference or something along the lines of Robert Fisk's speech and questions and answers, pledge drives do provide Pacifica with the chance to greatly reinforce important themes and issues.
There are three programs that I want to note. The first was the Monday special from Law & Disorder "Beyond the Patriot Act" on WBAI. Along with providing a serious examination of the Patriot Act, the topic of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay was addressed. "A couple of hundred . . . who've been on a hunger strike since August. Several of them are near death."There is a call for a national day of protest on November 1st:
The Center for Constitutional Rights, in cooperation with organizers and communities across the country, is calling for a Fast for Justice on Tuesday November 1st to demand that the Bush Administration follow the law and provide the detainees at Guantánamo Bay with due process and humane treatment.
To find out more about the Fast for Justice and the hunger strike, click on the links below and join us at one of the Fast for Justice Vigils.
Fast for Justice Vigils
Washington, DC: Join CCR, the Muslim American Society for Freedom, and other faith and community organizations for a Vigil in front of the Department of Justice at 12pm: 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (Navy Memorial station on the green line).
New York: Join CCR, the NY Coalition for Civil Liberties, ICNA and other faith and community organizations at 26 Federal Plaza at 1 pm(Broadway between Duane and Worth Streets, Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall on the 4,5,6 or City Hall on the R or W).
More information can be found at the Center for Constitutional Rights. The Center for Constitutional Rights produces Law & Disorder. I have listed the wrong date in an earlier entry for the next airing of Law & Disorder so I'll note that it airs on WBAI "Alternate Mondays, 10:00 to 11:00 a.m" EST.
[C.I. note: Due to the pledge drive, WBAI's archives may be confusing. Dallas found the special "Beyond the Patriot Act." To listen, look for the following on WBAI's archive page:
Expert Witness Monday, October 24, 2005 5:00 pm 85Play
Talk Back! Monday, October 24, 2005 3:00 pm 85Play
These cover the three hour special.]
Also remember that the latest installment of the Christmas Coup Comedy Players(CCCP) will air this coming Thursday at 11:00 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. EST. This program airs once a month so if you enjoy strong comedy, you've been advised.
The second program I would like to emphasize is KPFA's "APEX Express Fund Drive Special" which featured "The words of Thich Nhat Hanh as he spoke at the Colors of Compassion retreat in Southern California last month." C.I. actually phoned to alert me to that. Friday evening, Elaine called and she had also received an alert from C.I. Elaine found the program provocative and we both felt the main point can be boiled down to Thich Nhat Hanh's message that what the peace movement needs to do now is to look within.
Thirdly, I would like to note Wednesday's Democracy Now! which devoted the program to an interview: "Col. Janis Karpinski, the Former Head of Abu Ghraib, Admits She Broke the Geneva Conventions But Says the Blame 'Goes All the Way to The Top.'" This is an important interview that provides the most in depth look at the culture of Abu Ghraib from any broadcasting source.
If you missed the broadcast, you can listen or watch it online or you can read the transcript.
Lastly, who said "Yes, I do that." Nina Totenberg on today's Weekend Edition. What was she speaking of? The Rush Limbaugh Show. When NPR's legal affairs expert plugs Rush Limbaugh on NPR, you realize how low NPR has sunk.
rosa parks
plamegate
democracy now
iraq
pacifca
kpfa
wbai
kpfa evening news
like maria said paz
amy goodman
hunger strike
guantanamo bay
janis karpinski
thich nhat hanh
apex express
law & disorder
michael ratner
center for constitutional rights
nina totenberg
morning edition
weekend edition
npr
ruths morning edition report
"Ruth's Morning Edition Report"
Ruth: One of the things I enjoyed most this week was hearing Amy Goodman, chiefly on WBAI and KPFA, note Pacifica's history. I honestly could have listened to a great deal more of that topic. Monday on Democracy Now!, they provided an exclusive interview from 1956 with civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks and I wondered why, during the pledge drive, there had not been a push to note more of the historical significance of Pacifica?
As was often noted during the pledge drive, Pacifica has been the news outlet committed to providing you with information before the lead up to the war and throughout the occupation. That is historic and certainly reason enough, in my mind, for listeners to support the programming. I did wonder what a longer view of the network's past might have done to pledge efforts?
The pledge drive concluded Friday. It did not conclude on a happy note for two members who e-mailed me to complain that following Patrick Fitzgerald's live statement, instead of staying with questions and answers, the programming returned to a holitistic medicine show. I was listening to KPFA because I am impressed with their news department and on KPFA, they interrupted programming to carry Fitzgerald's live statement and then returned to programming which was a discussion of the indictment with guests John Nichols (of The Nation) and Bruce Shapiro.
I am sure that there are listeners who enjoyed the return of the medical show but I will have to agree with the two members who e-mailed complaining of that decision. As a lifetime news junkie, my own personal priority is the news. My suggestion to the two members (Rachel and Micah) is that, in the future, when there is breaking news that occurs late in the day, switch to KPFA. Kimba e-mailed me to note a news segment that she felt was worthy of attention:
"Documents Shed Light on Abu Ghraib Death"by John McChesney
Morning Edition, October 28, 2005 · Nearly two years after the death of an Iraqi man questioned at Abu Ghraib prison was ruled a homicide, no one has been charged. Confidential CIA documents offer further insight into the death of Manadel al-Jamadi, who was in CIA custody when he died.
Kimba writes that report, which she heard Friday on Morning Edition, made up for "a year of nothing special." I agree that it is an important report and I felt that way when I heard it Thursday. I had trouble with KPFA's website and kept getting an error message. C.I. had told me before of the Pacifica sister stations. I went from one to another California station but could not find one carrying the KPFA Evening News. The last station I went to, which carries Pacifica and NPR programming, was broadcasting that story. I agree that it was an excellent move for Morning Edition to broadcast the report the next day but possibly the reason it ranks as one of the best reports from Morning Edition is because it did not originate with Morning Edition?
E-mails have come in asking where is CounterSpin? I usually catch FAIR's CounterSpin on WBAI and due to the pledge drive, it has not aired on Fridays at its regular time. It can be heard online and I will listen to it this weekend but, like many news junkies, I was glued to the live broadcasts all week as I wondered what Patrick Fitzgerald would do with regards to the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Trina e-mailed to say that she found it difficult to listen during pledge drive because she did not have any money to give. She also noted that she could not listen to NPR during pledge drives without getting furious because "unlike Pacifica, they just come off greedy." Trina listed the following nonsense, Trina's term which I agree with, that she heard during NPR's pledge drive:
1) You can find sixty dollars by cleaning your sofa.
Trina wonders if, since she is on a fixed income herself, she is supposed to invite wealthy strangers into her home with the hope that coins and dollars might fall from their pockets into her sofa cushions?
2) A calender was being given away, an NPR calender, with a forty dollar donations causing the two local anchors to say that they usually did not give premiums with minimal donations and that, since the calender was so nice, they really should reconsider the donation necessary to receive a calender.
Trina wonders how many forty dollar donations they lost over that commentary? I would hope that they lost all of them.
3) NPR wants your money.
Read The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Watchdog Daily" for a humorous look at that. But they want your big money.
I listened to all five of the Pacifica stations this week and would hear that twenty dollars, ten dollars, anything would be appreciated. As a listener, I found that more inclusive and more welcoming. One member e-mailed to say he did give twenty dollars which was not an easy gift due to his budget but the fact that Pacifica was welcoming of all amounts did speak to him. I imagine it spoke to others as well.
NPR's uninformed comments contribue to their image of being a "yuppie" news network.
Marci e-mailed to say that pledge drives were necessary for listener supported radio and wondered what I made of the special programming other than the documentaries on Pacifica?
I enjoyed the coverage of last Saturday's conference on the Bully Boy's war crimes. Michael Ratner was a personal favorite speaker. His broadcast remark that "Our job is to keep them running" was one of my favorites of the week. Whether it is providing speeches from a conference or something along the lines of Robert Fisk's speech and questions and answers, pledge drives do provide Pacifica with the chance to greatly reinforce important themes and issues.
There are three programs that I want to note. The first was the Monday special from Law & Disorder "Beyond the Patriot Act" on WBAI. Along with providing a serious examination of the Patriot Act, the topic of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay was addressed. "A couple of hundred . . . who've been on a hunger strike since August. Several of them are near death."There is a call for a national day of protest on November 1st:
The Center for Constitutional Rights, in cooperation with organizers and communities across the country, is calling for a Fast for Justice on Tuesday November 1st to demand that the Bush Administration follow the law and provide the detainees at Guantánamo Bay with due process and humane treatment.
To find out more about the Fast for Justice and the hunger strike, click on the links below and join us at one of the Fast for Justice Vigils.
Fast for Justice Vigils
Washington, DC: Join CCR, the Muslim American Society for Freedom, and other faith and community organizations for a Vigil in front of the Department of Justice at 12pm: 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (Navy Memorial station on the green line).
New York: Join CCR, the NY Coalition for Civil Liberties, ICNA and other faith and community organizations at 26 Federal Plaza at 1 pm(Broadway between Duane and Worth Streets, Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall on the 4,5,6 or City Hall on the R or W).
More information can be found at the Center for Constitutional Rights. The Center for Constitutional Rights produces Law & Disorder. I have listed the wrong date in an earlier entry for the next airing of Law & Disorder so I'll note that it airs on WBAI "Alternate Mondays, 10:00 to 11:00 a.m" EST.
[C.I. note: Due to the pledge drive, WBAI's archives may be confusing. Dallas found the special "Beyond the Patriot Act." To listen, look for the following on WBAI's archive page:
Expert Witness Monday, October 24, 2005 5:00 pm 85Play
Talk Back! Monday, October 24, 2005 3:00 pm 85Play
These cover the three hour special.]
Also remember that the latest installment of the Christmas Coup Comedy Players(CCCP) will air this coming Thursday at 11:00 a.m. to 11:55 a.m. EST. This program airs once a month so if you enjoy strong comedy, you've been advised.
The second program I would like to emphasize is KPFA's "APEX Express Fund Drive Special" which featured "The words of Thich Nhat Hanh as he spoke at the Colors of Compassion retreat in Southern California last month." C.I. actually phoned to alert me to that. Friday evening, Elaine called and she had also received an alert from C.I. Elaine found the program provocative and we both felt the main point can be boiled down to Thich Nhat Hanh's message that what the peace movement needs to do now is to look within.
Thirdly, I would like to note Wednesday's Democracy Now! which devoted the program to an interview: "Col. Janis Karpinski, the Former Head of Abu Ghraib, Admits She Broke the Geneva Conventions But Says the Blame 'Goes All the Way to The Top.'" This is an important interview that provides the most in depth look at the culture of Abu Ghraib from any broadcasting source.
If you missed the broadcast, you can listen or watch it online or you can read the transcript.
Lastly, who said "Yes, I do that." Nina Totenberg on today's Weekend Edition. What was she speaking of? The Rush Limbaugh Show. When NPR's legal affairs expert plugs Rush Limbaugh on NPR, you realize how low NPR has sunk.
rosa parks
plamegate
democracy now
iraq
pacifca
kpfa
wbai
kpfa evening news
like maria said paz
amy goodman
hunger strike
guantanamo bay
janis karpinski
thich nhat hanh
apex express
law & disorder
michael ratner
center for constitutional rights
nina totenberg
morning edition
weekend edition
npr
ruths morning edition report
Sunday, October 30, 2005
The World Today Just Nuts "GEE WHIZ" by Isaiah
Isaiah's latest The World Today Just Nuts. GEE WHIZ starring Karl Rove as the brainless Scarecrow, Scooter Libby as Dorothy, Matthew Cooper as the Cowardly Lion and Judith Miller as the Tin Man (no heart).
The Laura Flanders Show tonight: Ruth Conniff and Studs Terkel
The Laura Flanders Show this evening (seven to ten p.m. eastern time) will include Ruth Conniff (The Progressive) and Studs Terkel. That's your heads up. (Flanders announced it on air. Lloyd, you love The Progressive -- as do I -- so I expect you to listen.)
Besides listening to The Laura Flanders Show via iPod, you can also listen to it over broadcast radio (if there's an AAR in your area), via XM Satellite Radio (channel 167) or listen online. It's a program that airs Saturdays and Sundays. (Sundays is not a rebroadcast unless the show is on vacation.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
ruth conniff
studs terkel
laura flanders
the laura flanders show
radio
Besides listening to The Laura Flanders Show via iPod, you can also listen to it over broadcast radio (if there's an AAR in your area), via XM Satellite Radio (channel 167) or listen online. It's a program that airs Saturdays and Sundays. (Sundays is not a rebroadcast unless the show is on vacation.)
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
ruth conniff
studs terkel
laura flanders
the laura flanders show
radio
NYT: David E. Rosenbaum, Elisabeth Bumiller, Eric Schmitt, Scott Shane, Douglas Jehl and Adam Liptak on leaks and White House scandals
David E. Rosenbaum has a curious kind of article in this morning's New York Times. It's entitled "The Latest in Second-Term Scandals" and it's a curious piece indeed.
Rosenbaum notes that Reagan's popularity took a hit as news of Iran-Contra broke. He then notes that it went back up by the summer. What Rosenbaum leaves out is that the breaking news in February was covered. After which, the press wasn't interested in covering it. You watched the hearings and read the paper summaries, you were getting a report that didn't match what you'd seen. (Robert Parry has written of this in depth, those new to the subject can start here.) So the power of the press (to run with a story or to conceal one) is left out.
What else is left out?
So much. But I'll assume Rosnebaum's old enough to know better re: Iran-Contra.
But did no one at the paper think of the role of the press in scandals? Did, for instance, no one suggest that considering the paper's current Judith Miller problems, maybe Ike should be left out of the rundown?
Eisenhower, Rosenbaum tells you, hit a low point in 1958, mid-point of his second term. Would Ike have hit a lower point in 1952 if it were known that Mohammed Mossadegh was ousted in a CIA coup? And what of the Times?
Would it take a hit if it were widely known that Judith Miller is one in a long of Millers? The Miller back then was Kennett Love. He knew the CIA was involved. He knew that Mossadegh wasn't high on communism (had, in fact, outlawed it). He knew there was truth and there was what made it into the paper. He knew the CIA was funding upheaval. He didn't write about it then. His excuse, when he was confronted with, of all things, a college term paper (Princeton) that he wrote afterward, was one of "patriotism."
No doubt Judith Miller could offer the same excuse if she wanted.
There is an attitude from some (such as the latter day Dylan of the net) that the Times was putting truths into print up until they went after Bill Clinton (Jeff Gerth being the leader there).
That's simply not true. The Times has always had an interesting take on the truth. And reporters like Miller have been given wide berth provided they went with official sources.
Miller is one person of many currently at the Times. Dexter Filkins' rah-rah reporting of the slaughter in Falluja will come back to haunt the paper. Maybe it will take forty years and maybe some latter day Beck will be focused on how President Jenna Bush is getting a pass from reporter X and screaming that "The Times has started lying! And they just started this four years ago when a Democrat was in the White House!" It won't be true then, it's not true now.
Love isn't the only one from his time period. Miller's not the only one from her's. The Times has always been very good at taking dictation. The latter day Dylan is myopic when it comes to "vision." He's focused solely on Bill Clinton and Al Gore and solely on the domestic shores. He can have whatever narrow (and disappointing) focus he wants. But for him to scold others constantly for getting something wrong or "wrong" ("wrong" when it's a dispute over opinion but he tries to act as though it's over facts), he needs to get his act together and stop claiming that when Bill Clinton ran for president everything changed at the Times. Or else, and this may very well be the case, he often writes like a neoliberal, he needs to say, "I know they screwed up coverage over and over and in some cases 'lie' is the only word for it, but I don't care. I don't care about the rest of the world and I don't care about anything but Al Gore and Bill Clinton."
But for the supposed fact based, latter day Dylan to put out the misinformation that the Times was committed to factual reporting until Bill Clinton came along is appalling.
We'll note Scott Shane's "Cover-Up, Nothing but the Cover-Up" because Marcia grasps what latter day Dylan doesn't. From Shane's article:
From Watergate to Iran-contra, from the Monica Lewinsky case to the current one, the pattern has been the same. The offense that launched the investigation rarely ends up in the bill of particulars when indictments come down. Instead, the charges are often related to the cover-up, which, Mr. Colson recalled, President Richard M. Nixon could be heard on the White House tapes presciently declaring as potentially more dangerous than the original crime.
Marcia: Note the links. A link to Iran, no link to Iran-Contra even though as a subscriber to the paper, I can go through the archives and get a 100 articles a month for free. I'll take that as an admission on the part of the Times that they have nothing worth reading on the Iran-Contra period.
Good call, Marica. It's also true that the Times doesn't know what to do with their website, but a larger message (and the sense of apathy) may be behind that.
Elisabeth Bumiller, teamed up with Eric Schmitt, has a strong opening in "In Indictment's Wake, a Focus on Cheney's Powerful Role:"
Vice President Dick Cheney makes only three brief appearances in the 22-page federal indictment that charges his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., with lying to investigators and misleading a grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case. But in its clear, cold language, it lifts a veil on how aggressively Mr. Cheney's office drove the rationale against Saddam Hussein and then fought to discredit the Iraq war's critics.
The document now raises a central question: how much collateral damage has Mr. Cheney sustained?
Many Republicans say that Mr. Cheney, already politically weakened because of his role in preparing the case for war, could be further damaged if he is forced to testify about the infighting over intelligence that turned out to be false. At the least, they say, his office will be temporarily off balance with the resignation of Mr. Libby, who controlled both foreign and domestic affairs in a vice presidential office that has served as a major policy arm for the West Wing.
The generous take on the above is that Bumiller's been awakened by the scandal. The not so generous take is that someone's floating a trail balloon and once again using the Times to test it.
Douglas Jehl. We can't not note Jehl since we've already noted Shane. Noting Shane means the angry e-mails of "you play favorites" will pour in any way so let's note Jehl and give the petty & the jealous (soon to be a daytime drama based upon the Times) something to really whine about. From Jehl's "Indictment Gives Glimpse Into a Secretive Operation:"
The antipathy felt by Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby toward Mr. Wilson, in the aftermath of the invasion, has also long been known. But the events spelled out in the 22-page indictment suggest a far more active, earlier effort by the vice president's office to gather information about him and his wife.
The indictment tracks a period in the spring of 2003, at a time when the American failure to find illicit weapons in Iraq meant that the administration's rationale for war was beginning to unravel, and when early reports about Mr. Wilson's 2002 trip, which had not yet identified him by name, raised questions about whether the White House should have known just how weak its case had been, particularly involving Iraq and nuclear weapons.
By any measure, the indictment suggests that Mr. Libby and others went to unusual lengths to gather information about Mr. Wilson and his trip. An initial request on May 29, 2003, from Mr. Libby to Marc Grossman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, led Mr. Grossman to request a classified memorandum from Carl Ford, the director of the State Department's intelligence bureau, and later Mr. Grossman orally briefed Mr. Libby on its contents.
Adam Liptak goes over the odds (of conviction) in " The Legal Issues: It May Be Wrong, but Is It Perjury? For Prosecutors, That Is Often the Challenge" so those interested should check out his article.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
robert parry
adam liptak
scott shane
douglas jehl
elisabeth bumiller
eric schmitt
david e. rosenbaum
Rosenbaum notes that Reagan's popularity took a hit as news of Iran-Contra broke. He then notes that it went back up by the summer. What Rosenbaum leaves out is that the breaking news in February was covered. After which, the press wasn't interested in covering it. You watched the hearings and read the paper summaries, you were getting a report that didn't match what you'd seen. (Robert Parry has written of this in depth, those new to the subject can start here.) So the power of the press (to run with a story or to conceal one) is left out.
What else is left out?
So much. But I'll assume Rosnebaum's old enough to know better re: Iran-Contra.
But did no one at the paper think of the role of the press in scandals? Did, for instance, no one suggest that considering the paper's current Judith Miller problems, maybe Ike should be left out of the rundown?
Eisenhower, Rosenbaum tells you, hit a low point in 1958, mid-point of his second term. Would Ike have hit a lower point in 1952 if it were known that Mohammed Mossadegh was ousted in a CIA coup? And what of the Times?
Would it take a hit if it were widely known that Judith Miller is one in a long of Millers? The Miller back then was Kennett Love. He knew the CIA was involved. He knew that Mossadegh wasn't high on communism (had, in fact, outlawed it). He knew there was truth and there was what made it into the paper. He knew the CIA was funding upheaval. He didn't write about it then. His excuse, when he was confronted with, of all things, a college term paper (Princeton) that he wrote afterward, was one of "patriotism."
No doubt Judith Miller could offer the same excuse if she wanted.
There is an attitude from some (such as the latter day Dylan of the net) that the Times was putting truths into print up until they went after Bill Clinton (Jeff Gerth being the leader there).
That's simply not true. The Times has always had an interesting take on the truth. And reporters like Miller have been given wide berth provided they went with official sources.
Miller is one person of many currently at the Times. Dexter Filkins' rah-rah reporting of the slaughter in Falluja will come back to haunt the paper. Maybe it will take forty years and maybe some latter day Beck will be focused on how President Jenna Bush is getting a pass from reporter X and screaming that "The Times has started lying! And they just started this four years ago when a Democrat was in the White House!" It won't be true then, it's not true now.
Love isn't the only one from his time period. Miller's not the only one from her's. The Times has always been very good at taking dictation. The latter day Dylan is myopic when it comes to "vision." He's focused solely on Bill Clinton and Al Gore and solely on the domestic shores. He can have whatever narrow (and disappointing) focus he wants. But for him to scold others constantly for getting something wrong or "wrong" ("wrong" when it's a dispute over opinion but he tries to act as though it's over facts), he needs to get his act together and stop claiming that when Bill Clinton ran for president everything changed at the Times. Or else, and this may very well be the case, he often writes like a neoliberal, he needs to say, "I know they screwed up coverage over and over and in some cases 'lie' is the only word for it, but I don't care. I don't care about the rest of the world and I don't care about anything but Al Gore and Bill Clinton."
But for the supposed fact based, latter day Dylan to put out the misinformation that the Times was committed to factual reporting until Bill Clinton came along is appalling.
We'll note Scott Shane's "Cover-Up, Nothing but the Cover-Up" because Marcia grasps what latter day Dylan doesn't. From Shane's article:
From Watergate to Iran-contra, from the Monica Lewinsky case to the current one, the pattern has been the same. The offense that launched the investigation rarely ends up in the bill of particulars when indictments come down. Instead, the charges are often related to the cover-up, which, Mr. Colson recalled, President Richard M. Nixon could be heard on the White House tapes presciently declaring as potentially more dangerous than the original crime.
Marcia: Note the links. A link to Iran, no link to Iran-Contra even though as a subscriber to the paper, I can go through the archives and get a 100 articles a month for free. I'll take that as an admission on the part of the Times that they have nothing worth reading on the Iran-Contra period.
Good call, Marica. It's also true that the Times doesn't know what to do with their website, but a larger message (and the sense of apathy) may be behind that.
Elisabeth Bumiller, teamed up with Eric Schmitt, has a strong opening in "In Indictment's Wake, a Focus on Cheney's Powerful Role:"
Vice President Dick Cheney makes only three brief appearances in the 22-page federal indictment that charges his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., with lying to investigators and misleading a grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case. But in its clear, cold language, it lifts a veil on how aggressively Mr. Cheney's office drove the rationale against Saddam Hussein and then fought to discredit the Iraq war's critics.
The document now raises a central question: how much collateral damage has Mr. Cheney sustained?
Many Republicans say that Mr. Cheney, already politically weakened because of his role in preparing the case for war, could be further damaged if he is forced to testify about the infighting over intelligence that turned out to be false. At the least, they say, his office will be temporarily off balance with the resignation of Mr. Libby, who controlled both foreign and domestic affairs in a vice presidential office that has served as a major policy arm for the West Wing.
The generous take on the above is that Bumiller's been awakened by the scandal. The not so generous take is that someone's floating a trail balloon and once again using the Times to test it.
Douglas Jehl. We can't not note Jehl since we've already noted Shane. Noting Shane means the angry e-mails of "you play favorites" will pour in any way so let's note Jehl and give the petty & the jealous (soon to be a daytime drama based upon the Times) something to really whine about. From Jehl's "Indictment Gives Glimpse Into a Secretive Operation:"
The antipathy felt by Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby toward Mr. Wilson, in the aftermath of the invasion, has also long been known. But the events spelled out in the 22-page indictment suggest a far more active, earlier effort by the vice president's office to gather information about him and his wife.
The indictment tracks a period in the spring of 2003, at a time when the American failure to find illicit weapons in Iraq meant that the administration's rationale for war was beginning to unravel, and when early reports about Mr. Wilson's 2002 trip, which had not yet identified him by name, raised questions about whether the White House should have known just how weak its case had been, particularly involving Iraq and nuclear weapons.
By any measure, the indictment suggests that Mr. Libby and others went to unusual lengths to gather information about Mr. Wilson and his trip. An initial request on May 29, 2003, from Mr. Libby to Marc Grossman, the undersecretary of state for political affairs, led Mr. Grossman to request a classified memorandum from Carl Ford, the director of the State Department's intelligence bureau, and later Mr. Grossman orally briefed Mr. Libby on its contents.
Adam Liptak goes over the odds (of conviction) in " The Legal Issues: It May Be Wrong, but Is It Perjury? For Prosecutors, That Is Often the Challenge" so those interested should check out his article.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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"The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-30-05" (The Third Estate Sunday Review)
"We're finishing up the editorial at The Third Estate Sunday Review. In the meantime, here's their news review from earlier this morning." Note, this was e-mailed to the site but didn't hit it. (Or hasn't yet.)
The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-30-05
C.I.: Good morning and welcome to The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-30-05 and Betty says everyone should have remembered to turn their clocks back last night. We have a report from Florida, news from the world of entertainment, news on Iraq and other items. First we go to Jess of The Third Estate Sunday Review and Dona asks that we note this is rough transcript.
Jess: At Alive in Baghdad, Brian Conley has posted an interview. What you won't get in The New York Times, you can get at Alive in Baghdad: the voices of Iraqis.
Omar: What is your message for the American People?
K [Khulood]: I would send a call, a rescue call. To the American people and especially to the mothers to not let their sons to come to Iraq. Because we are completely destroyed, and we are wounded. We want to feel rest, and we are requesting to all the American forces to pull out from Iraq, and also all the occupying forces, in order to live in peace, to get security. To let our children have a better future.
Omar: Is there anything else you would like to say?
K: We want to have a rest because we are so tired and so sick.
C.I.: Jess this comes at a time, it certainly reflects polling in Iraq, Khulood's sentiments, but this comes at a time when rumors are flying regarding Ali al-Sistani.
Jess: Correct. The rumors are that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shi'ite based in Najaf, will issue a call for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. In December, elections will take place for parliment. In January, when the parliment beguns session, it is said that al-Sistani will call for the American troops. Meanwhile, this week, Bully Boy goes to Agentina. Protests are already planned. From an Associated Press article:To many Latin Americans, "the war smacks of U.S. imperialism and bullying and is extraordinarily unpopular," said Riordan Roett, director of the Western Hemisphere program at Johns Hopkins University. "America is seen as an arrogant, run-amok republic that does things without thinking them through."
C.I.: And in the United States?
Jess: As noted on Democracy Now!, on Wednesday over 15,000 rallies took place around the nation to note crossing the 2,000 mark for US military fatalities in Iraq. Quite a large number for a mid-week event and one that required getting the word out quickly.
C.I.: Thank you, Jess. We now go to Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix.
Cedric: As most will know already, Rosa Parks, civil rights pioneer who refused to give up her seat on the bus when ordered to do so which led to the a city wide, bus riders strike, passed away Monday. I've thought about what to say to note the death of a leader and toyed with a biographical sketch or a timeline. But one of the books we read for this week's book discussion offered something that I felt summed up things better than I ever could. From The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son:"
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
C.I.: Thank you Cedric. Again, Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son." Rosa Parks passed away Monday at the age of 92. The following day the US military fatality rate for those killed in Iraq reached 2,000. For news on Iraq, we go to Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz and Mike of Mikey Likes It. We started with Mike last weekend, so Elaine, why don't you start?
Elaine: C.I., the official fatality count for American troops in Iraq stands at 2016. When the count reached 2,000 this past week, over . The official count for American troops wounded in Iraq is 15,220.
Mike: Three of the 2016 who've died in Bully Boy's war of choice are from yesterday, two from a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad and one died near Baiji.
Elaine: While the causes of death in those cases are clear, another military death is less so. The Associated Press reports that an unnamed American soldier was found dead Friday. The cause of death is under investigation. Al Jazeera reports that in Huweder, a car bomb has killed 26 Iraqis.
Mike: The AP offers 30,000 as their count for Iraqis who've died during the invasion/occupation.
Elaine: The occupation has also taken a toll on recruitment in the United States with the military having to lower expections each month. As reported by CounterRecruiter, the figures for fiscal year 2005 find the military 6,600 soldiers short of their target goals. The occupation is also effecting numbers in Great Britain. The war in Iraq is identified, by Michael Smith in London's Sunday Times, as the reason for 6,000 members of England's Territorial Army which has resulted in "a manning crisis."
Mike: Another crisis is the one described by Rahul Mahajan at Empire Notes:
After last November's demolition of Fallujah and its transformation into a prison camp, insurgents shifted their focus to Mosul and Ramadi, as well as towns along the Euphrates up toward the Syrian border. Mosul, which had seen very few incidents before, became a hotbed of violence; Ramadi, which had been quite active before, became probably the city in Iraq in which there has consistently been the most fighting between the occupying forces and the resistance.
In the last six weeks, 21 American soldiers have been killed in Ramadi, far more than in any other city in Iraq, the vast majority by roadside improvised explosive devices, detonated when troops patrolled.
There is no police force in Ramadi and the local government set up by the U.S.-initiated political process is largely unable to function (the deputy governor of Anbar province was recently assassinated).
Elaine: And the indictment of Scooter Libby is said to lead to a political crisis for the Bully Boy. England's The Independent headlines "Special report: Bush faces his Watergate." In this article, by Andrew Buncombe, it's noted that:
But the issues raised by "Plamegate" - the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent - are far more significant than those involved in the "second-rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee's offices in Washington's Watergate complex in the 1970s. They go to the heart of why America, and its faithful ally, Britain, went to war in Iraq.
Mike: A point missed by Todd S. Purdum who prefers sniffing his own dirty jock strap to reporting. From The Common Ills yesterday, storry C.I. my sister begged me to work this in:
Let's start with Todd S. Purdum ("A Prosecutor's Focus Shifted to a Cover-Up") who apparently decided that instead of washing his dirty jock, he'd turn it inside out and wear it for another six months without washing. That would explain how the fumes got to him yet again and why he feels the need to early on toss out Bill Clinton. Drawing comparisons no sane person would make (Clinton's cover up revolved around a private, consensual sex affair; Libby's cover up revolves around the outing of a CIA agent), you start to wonder if Todd's not only sniffing his own fumes but also chewing on his dirty jock? The after taste of his "news analysis" makes one wonder.
How far into the article before Todd mentions Clinton (for balance, I'm sure)? Fourth paragraph. How far before Nixon is mentioned? Fourteen. (Always check my math.)
And what are we 'assured' when Nixon finally crawls out from under the rock? "The Wilson affair is not Watergate . . ." Really?
The issues involved are not a consensual sex affair either. But Todd didn't have a need to rush to assure there. They may actually go beyond the petty motives of Watergate (original motive: to spy on the Democratic Party during a presidential election) since the outing of Valerie Plame is an attempt to discredit (and silence) her husband Joseph Wilson who was explaining that there was no evidence of "yellow cakes."
C.I.: Jumping in, Todd S. Purdum of The New York Times.
Elaine: At IPS, Jim Lobe calls the administration's loss of Libby "a serious blow." Lobe offers the rundown on Scooter Libby in "A Formidable Hawk Goes Down."
Mike: Robert Parry asks "Letting the White House Walk?" at Consortium News. While Parry notes that other indictments may be forthcoming and that a trial of Scooter might allow more details to emerge, he also notes this that's not making it in other reporting on Plamegate:
In his five-count indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, prosecutor Fitzgerald leaves the false impression that it was all right for White House officials with security clearances to be discussing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, a counter-proliferation official under deep cover.
Under the rules of classification, however, to see such secrets an official must not only have a top-secret clearance but also special code-word clearance that grants access to a specific compartment governed by strict need-to-know requirements.In both the Libby indictment and a hour-long press conference on Oct. 28, Fitzgerald showed no indication he understood how extraordinary it was for White House officials to be bandying about the name of a covert CIA officer based on the flimsy rationale that she was married to an ex-diplomat who had been sent on a fact-finding trip to Niger.
Fitzgerald, who is the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, appears to have bought into the notion that government officials had a right to discuss Plame's covert status among themselves as long as they didn’t pass the secret on to journalists. Then Fitzgerald didn't even seek punishment for that, limiting his criminal case to Libby's lying about how and when he learned of Plame's identity.
C.I.: That is a very important point. Thank you, Elaine and Mike. Scooter Libby indicted for a number of counts -- perjury, false testimony, etc. -- in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson who went public to expose Bully Boy's 16 word lie in the 2003 State of the Union address regarding "British intelligence has recently learned that Sadaam Hussein sought" yellow cake from Niger. Also, quickly, Eric Schmitt's "An Influential Bush Insider Who Is Used to Challenges" rightly pointed out that Scooter Libby is not just Cheney's chief of staff. Scooter was "assistant to the president, chief of staff to the vice president and Mr. Cheney's national security advisor." Now we go to Rebecca, of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, offers us a look at the news from the world of science. Rebecca?
Rebecca: C.I., Steve Connor notes in the UK's Independent that last week Prince Charles of England declared "climate change was one of the greatest problems" facing the world. As England experiences a surprisingly warm October, Connor reminds that "[t] exceptionally hot, dry summer of 2003 is estimated to have resulted in about 35,000 extra deaths in Western Europe." Are any guys drinking hard this Halloween weekend? If so, you might want to know that a recent study in India found it can effect sperm and increase difficulties in having children as well as in getting erections. Erectile dysfunction? In this day and age of Viagra? The consumer organization Public Citizen is asking the FDA "to add warnings to the labels of Viagra and other impotence drugs, noting that some users have gone blind." Is Tony Blair politically impotent? Marie Woolf reports in "Blair caved in after secret royal memo on badger culling" that a snap of the royal fingers by Prince Charles, or in this case a letter, and Tony Blair goes into lapdog mode, panting with a frenzy he usually reserves solely for the Bully Boy. A leaked memo results in the latest embarrassment for Blair. Prince Charles wrote Blair that a thinning of the badger population would meet with his approval due to his belief that this would reduce the spread of bovine tuberculosis from badgers to cattle.
C.I.: Thank you, Rebecca. Now for a report from Flordia, we go to Wally of The Daily Jot.
Wally: C.I. the death toll for Hurricane Wilma is now 21. Almost a million residents remain without power and they're telling us somewhere around Thanksgiving, maybe November 22nd, power might be restored. This is unnacceptable. The federal government and the state government's response is unacceptable. We have a gas generator, here at my Grandpa's. Not everyone has that. The widow next door is storing somethings in his refrigerator because she has no power. She's using hurricane lamps. This woman is 67 years old and barely five feet tall. An offer was made for her to stay here but she doesn't want to leave her home unoccupied after dark. Why should she have to? Why can't they get the power back on? Up and down the street, throughout the neighborhood, her story isn't any different. Earlier, before the review, Kat made a comment about how nice it was of me to stay with my grandfather during this. I don't think it's being nice. In the immediate area around my grandfather's home, a cell phone is a novel thing. There are a number of elderly people here with no electricity and no working phone --
C.I.: Wally, are the phone lines out or is this a case of the phones that are being used? A portable phone, a cordless phone requires electricity.
Wally: Yes, that's the issue. We're dealing with an area where technology caught up enough to justify the cordless phone, usually with an asnwering machine, but not the cell phone. Or an area and a . . .
C.I.: Demographic? These are predominately elderly people?
Wally: Correct. My Grandpa holds on to everything. He had about four of the phones, the cord phones, and he gave them out to neighbors. But these people are here, they don't want to leave their homes which are pretty much fine except for not having electricity. Would you or anyone who'll read this let your grandparents go a month without electricity? This is ridiculous. There should be outrage throughout the United States over the fact that the state of Florida and the United States seems to think a month without electricity is acceptable. It's not acceptable.
C.I.: Wally, you spoke of the woman who is storing some food in your grandfather's refrigerator.
Wally: Right. If you don't have a generator, you can't have food that will spoil. If you don't have a generator, you better use that hurricane lamps at night. It's insane. People, old and young, not being able to have lights, not being able to keep food and what's being done? Not a damn thing. Bully Boy struts into the state long enough to grab some BBQ and act like everything's going fine and it isn't. This isn't a case where we've got the type of destruction that New Orleans got but at the same time, people here didn't leave their homes in large numbers. Those who did, thinking the hurricane was over so all was back to normal, get home to find out that they don't have electricity. And the government wants to say, to almost a million people, "Wait until Thanskgiving." It's going to get cold and without electricity, some people won't have access to hot water for a shower or a bath. It's insane. The state government is failing the people, the United States is failing the people. The press should be all over this. You've got waste in the streets because the sewers are backed up. You got lines at the few gas stations that are open. You got lines for ice, for water. And the almost a million I keep using is Saturday's figure. Thursday they were saying over two million on the radio. I have a hard time believing that after telling everyone it would be Thanksgiving, that a million people suddenly got power. But the figure they're using now is eight hundred thousand and something.
C.I.: Are people staying?
Wally: Most of them are. There's a couple, an elderly couple, who are leaving Monday for their son's if the electricity isn't on but most people don't have the choice or don't want to leave. There are people with kids, some babies, and from that group I usually hear that Christmas is almost here and they don't have the money to do Christmas for the kids and to hit the road. So people are trying to manage for now but a month is insane. I was in line for two hours the other day, Thursday, and people are calm and all, but they are pissed off. This is a huge embarrassment for the state government and the federal government and if the press would give us a little attention and put a little pressure on this, maybe Bully Boy would do something more than drop by for a sandwich and a photo op before jetting back out. In fact, instead of visiting, he should just send us the fuel that would have been used to fly in. The planning for the refineries wasn't what it should have been which is one reason that there are lines for gas. Another reason is that some of the stations have gas but the pumps aren't working. People are pissed but calm right now. You got people having cookouts to cook meat before it spoils that they had stocked up on before the power went off. But I don't think they can take a month of camp outs.
C.I.: Thank you for that report Wally. For news from the world of entertainment, we go to Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man. Betty, what do you have for us this morning?
Betty: C.I., no one wants to talk too much about it but for the fifth week in a row the show that America supposedly had to watch is down in the ratings: ABC's Desperate Housewives. 30 million watched last season's ender, 28.4 million watched this season's debut. Each week, this year, has seen erosion in the viewership and it's now down to 25.2 million. In the who the hell asked for it department, the otherwise unemployed Sylvester Stallone will make his sixth Rocky film and his fifth Rambo film. While Republicans punch their fists in the air and holler, 13 and 14 year-old boys ask, "Who?" As Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices readies for release, Wal-Mart's trying to offset the Greenwald documentary with their feel good, Up With Corporations response film entitled Why Wal-Mart Works: And Why That Drives Some People C-R-A-Z-Y. The fact that they spell out crazy demonstrates how out of it the store that no self-respecting teen would purchase clothes at is. I spent time with my teenage nieces this weekend and apparently the must-say insult in their crowd is anything having to do with Wal-Mart. From, "Where'd you get that shirt? Wal-Mart!" to "Where'd you get that weave? Wal-Mart!" the corporation that just won't go away is fast becoming the punch line to any insult.
C.I.: Betty, Kat wants to jump in on this. Kat of Kat's Corner (of The Common Ills).
Kat: Sorry to butt in but as someone a bit older than Betty, I'll note that it's a similar process to what happened with K-Mart. It stands for cheap goods and as a new group of teens comes of age that's been lugged to Wal-Mart once too often, they turn on it. If Betty's nieces are knocking it for non-political reasons, Wal-Mart should worry more about that than Robert Greenwald's documentary. I'll jump back out now.
Betty: That's a good point that Kat made. The teen years are all about what's hot and what's not for many and when something gets bad word of mouth, there are problems. With my nieces, they're not commenting on Wal-Mart's practices of hiring or insurance or wages. They're commenting on the store being uncool. As Kat points out, once that rep starts getting around, it's very hard to recover. You lose the teen girls, forget it. Greenwald's film opens in select markets on November 4th and can be purchased online. George Takei, known to millions as Mr. Sulu on Star Trek, came out this week. Takei, who's been in an 18 year relationship with Brad Altman, said, "The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay. The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young." Demi Moore teams with Sharon Stone, Anthony Hopkins, Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan for Emilio Estevez's upcoming film Bobby. Estavez will appear in front of the camera but he'll also be directing from a script he wrote. Finally, this coming Tuesday, Lifetime's Real Women will remember Rosa Parks with an Intimate Portrait featuring commentary from Ruby Dee, her late husband Ossie Davis and Gloria Steinem among others. Following that, Lifeteime Telivision will broadcast The Rosa Parks Story starring Angela Bassett as Parks and Cicely Tyson as her mother.
C.I.: Thank you, Betty. Ty of The Third Estate Sunday Review offers us some news from Europe and Indida. Ty?
Ty: It's practically the summer of 1968 in Paris all over again as, for the third night in a row, youths rioted. The young people are protesting the deaths of a 15 year-old and a 17 year-old on Thursday when they were apparently eluding police and ended up being electrocuted. The authorities say that Saturday night was less violent, 20 cars were torched, 13 youths were arrested. In New Delhi, 61 people are dead from bombs that went off in two market places. A third bomb went off on a bus but the driver had apparently gotten the passengers off in time after spotting a suspicious object. Also in India, The Taipei Times reports that a train derailed leaving at least one hundred dead.
C.I.: Thank you, Ty. Also from The Third Estate Sunday Review, Ava brings us up to speed on Guantnamo Bay and Venezuela.
Ava: C.I., the BBC reports that Fawzi al-Odah wants to die. Who is Fawzi al-Odah? A man arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and held at Guantanamo Bay since. Three years with no hearing. Locked up and forgotten. Fawzi al-Odah is one of the prisoners who in Guantanamo who has staged a hunger strike. The US government's response? To force feed. The US military asserts that only 26 prisoners are currently on a hunger strike, other estimates place the number at 150.
C.I.: Ava, the Center for Constitutional Rights is calling on a day of fast for November 1st to highlight this issue.
Ava: And on that day they are also staging rallies in DC and in NYC. The DC rally will take place at noon on 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in front of the Justice Dept. In New York, the rally will take place at 26 Federal Plaza at one o'clock in the afternoon. I'd like to turn now to an Associated Press article by Natalie Obiko Pearson that dismisses the allegations against New Tribes Mission but, unlike the reporting of Juan Foero in The New York Times, notes some of the allegations.
C.I.: Great. Before you do, to set up for readers, Hugo Chavez has ordered New Tribes Mission out of Venezuela. Juan Forero is up in the arms over this expulsion which makes makes any rumor of CIA connections seem all the more valid since Forero doesn't tell you about past allegations. With Forero, always note what he leaves out.
Ava: New Tribes, the article notes "has settlements in remote, mineral-rich tracts of Venezuelan rain forests located far from the surveillance of authorities" and that they have "long faced accusations of wrongdoing in Venezuela." From the article:
Anthropologists, military officials and others have accused the group of watching indigenous people die of malnutrition while living in luxurious camps, forcing communities to give up ancestral traditions and creating a sophisticated enclave of airstrips and settlements to exploit gold, quartz and even uranium deposits.
C.I.: Does she question why the US embassay gets involved when New Tribe Ministries is asked to leave a foreign country, they're based in Florida.
Ava: Sarasota, Florida. One would think with the problems facing Florida, they'd want to return to help there. But no, she doesn't mention anything about that. She does note that "Tomas Antonio Marino Blanco, a navy captain, recently revived claims first made in 1978 that New Tribes missionaries have helped U.S. defense contractors from Westinghouse conduct mineral prospecting." Unlike Juan Foero, she could find the public allegations. I'll give her credit for that.
C.I.: Thank you Ava. We now go to Kat with musical news. Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills).
Kat: C.I., what's that?
What is that sound ringing in my ears
I've heard that sound before
What's that I hear ringing in my ears
I hear it more and more
It's the sound of freedom calling
Ringing up to the sky
It's the sound of the old ways falling
You can hear it if you try
Kat (con't): From Phil Och's "What's That I Hear?" A question worth asking as the outing of a CIA agent can now be traced to the White House, as poll numbers for Bully Boy tumble and while polls show an increase in opposition to the war in Iraq. Some people hear the ringing. Take Audioslave who are addressing the war in their new video "Doesn't Remind Me." Some don't hear the ringing at all. Take Kelly Preston who will star in the film Angel which has enough problems finding an audience with Burt Reynolds in the cast but only triples the problems by co-starring, as the love interest -- will he get a hair cut -- Bully Boy supporter, wonder if Bully Boy wears Keith around his groin, and all around war cheerleader who put even Judy Miller to shame, Toby Keith. Hell, give Miller the role of love interest opposite Kelly Preston, it would certainly create more of a stir.
C.I.: Thank you, Kat. And thank you to Dallas for doing the links, to Jess' parents for hunting down links and to Dona and Jim of The Third Estate Sunday Review who keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes throughout. Studs Terkel and Ruth Conniff, of The Progressive magazine, on The Laura Flanders Show tonight.
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posted by Third Estate Sunday Review @ Sunday, October 30, 2005
The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-30-05
C.I.: Good morning and welcome to The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 10-30-05 and Betty says everyone should have remembered to turn their clocks back last night. We have a report from Florida, news from the world of entertainment, news on Iraq and other items. First we go to Jess of The Third Estate Sunday Review and Dona asks that we note this is rough transcript.
Jess: At Alive in Baghdad, Brian Conley has posted an interview. What you won't get in The New York Times, you can get at Alive in Baghdad: the voices of Iraqis.
Omar: What is your message for the American People?
K [Khulood]: I would send a call, a rescue call. To the American people and especially to the mothers to not let their sons to come to Iraq. Because we are completely destroyed, and we are wounded. We want to feel rest, and we are requesting to all the American forces to pull out from Iraq, and also all the occupying forces, in order to live in peace, to get security. To let our children have a better future.
Omar: Is there anything else you would like to say?
K: We want to have a rest because we are so tired and so sick.
C.I.: Jess this comes at a time, it certainly reflects polling in Iraq, Khulood's sentiments, but this comes at a time when rumors are flying regarding Ali al-Sistani.
Jess: Correct. The rumors are that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shi'ite based in Najaf, will issue a call for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. In December, elections will take place for parliment. In January, when the parliment beguns session, it is said that al-Sistani will call for the American troops. Meanwhile, this week, Bully Boy goes to Agentina. Protests are already planned. From an Associated Press article:To many Latin Americans, "the war smacks of U.S. imperialism and bullying and is extraordinarily unpopular," said Riordan Roett, director of the Western Hemisphere program at Johns Hopkins University. "America is seen as an arrogant, run-amok republic that does things without thinking them through."
C.I.: And in the United States?
Jess: As noted on Democracy Now!, on Wednesday over 15,000 rallies took place around the nation to note crossing the 2,000 mark for US military fatalities in Iraq. Quite a large number for a mid-week event and one that required getting the word out quickly.
C.I.: Thank you, Jess. We now go to Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix.
Cedric: As most will know already, Rosa Parks, civil rights pioneer who refused to give up her seat on the bus when ordered to do so which led to the a city wide, bus riders strike, passed away Monday. I've thought about what to say to note the death of a leader and toyed with a biographical sketch or a timeline. But one of the books we read for this week's book discussion offered something that I felt summed up things better than I ever could. From The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son:"
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
C.I.: Thank you Cedric. Again, Langston Hughes' "Mother to Son." Rosa Parks passed away Monday at the age of 92. The following day the US military fatality rate for those killed in Iraq reached 2,000. For news on Iraq, we go to Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz and Mike of Mikey Likes It. We started with Mike last weekend, so Elaine, why don't you start?
Elaine: C.I., the official fatality count for American troops in Iraq stands at 2016. When the count reached 2,000 this past week, over . The official count for American troops wounded in Iraq is 15,220.
Mike: Three of the 2016 who've died in Bully Boy's war of choice are from yesterday, two from a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad and one died near Baiji.
Elaine: While the causes of death in those cases are clear, another military death is less so. The Associated Press reports that an unnamed American soldier was found dead Friday. The cause of death is under investigation. Al Jazeera reports that in Huweder, a car bomb has killed 26 Iraqis.
Mike: The AP offers 30,000 as their count for Iraqis who've died during the invasion/occupation.
Elaine: The occupation has also taken a toll on recruitment in the United States with the military having to lower expections each month. As reported by CounterRecruiter, the figures for fiscal year 2005 find the military 6,600 soldiers short of their target goals. The occupation is also effecting numbers in Great Britain. The war in Iraq is identified, by Michael Smith in London's Sunday Times, as the reason for 6,000 members of England's Territorial Army which has resulted in "a manning crisis."
Mike: Another crisis is the one described by Rahul Mahajan at Empire Notes:
After last November's demolition of Fallujah and its transformation into a prison camp, insurgents shifted their focus to Mosul and Ramadi, as well as towns along the Euphrates up toward the Syrian border. Mosul, which had seen very few incidents before, became a hotbed of violence; Ramadi, which had been quite active before, became probably the city in Iraq in which there has consistently been the most fighting between the occupying forces and the resistance.
In the last six weeks, 21 American soldiers have been killed in Ramadi, far more than in any other city in Iraq, the vast majority by roadside improvised explosive devices, detonated when troops patrolled.
There is no police force in Ramadi and the local government set up by the U.S.-initiated political process is largely unable to function (the deputy governor of Anbar province was recently assassinated).
Elaine: And the indictment of Scooter Libby is said to lead to a political crisis for the Bully Boy. England's The Independent headlines "Special report: Bush faces his Watergate." In this article, by Andrew Buncombe, it's noted that:
But the issues raised by "Plamegate" - the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent - are far more significant than those involved in the "second-rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee's offices in Washington's Watergate complex in the 1970s. They go to the heart of why America, and its faithful ally, Britain, went to war in Iraq.
Mike: A point missed by Todd S. Purdum who prefers sniffing his own dirty jock strap to reporting. From The Common Ills yesterday, storry C.I. my sister begged me to work this in:
Let's start with Todd S. Purdum ("A Prosecutor's Focus Shifted to a Cover-Up") who apparently decided that instead of washing his dirty jock, he'd turn it inside out and wear it for another six months without washing. That would explain how the fumes got to him yet again and why he feels the need to early on toss out Bill Clinton. Drawing comparisons no sane person would make (Clinton's cover up revolved around a private, consensual sex affair; Libby's cover up revolves around the outing of a CIA agent), you start to wonder if Todd's not only sniffing his own fumes but also chewing on his dirty jock? The after taste of his "news analysis" makes one wonder.
How far into the article before Todd mentions Clinton (for balance, I'm sure)? Fourth paragraph. How far before Nixon is mentioned? Fourteen. (Always check my math.)
And what are we 'assured' when Nixon finally crawls out from under the rock? "The Wilson affair is not Watergate . . ." Really?
The issues involved are not a consensual sex affair either. But Todd didn't have a need to rush to assure there. They may actually go beyond the petty motives of Watergate (original motive: to spy on the Democratic Party during a presidential election) since the outing of Valerie Plame is an attempt to discredit (and silence) her husband Joseph Wilson who was explaining that there was no evidence of "yellow cakes."
C.I.: Jumping in, Todd S. Purdum of The New York Times.
Elaine: At IPS, Jim Lobe calls the administration's loss of Libby "a serious blow." Lobe offers the rundown on Scooter Libby in "A Formidable Hawk Goes Down."
Mike: Robert Parry asks "Letting the White House Walk?" at Consortium News. While Parry notes that other indictments may be forthcoming and that a trial of Scooter might allow more details to emerge, he also notes this that's not making it in other reporting on Plamegate:
In his five-count indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis Libby, prosecutor Fitzgerald leaves the false impression that it was all right for White House officials with security clearances to be discussing the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame, a counter-proliferation official under deep cover.
Under the rules of classification, however, to see such secrets an official must not only have a top-secret clearance but also special code-word clearance that grants access to a specific compartment governed by strict need-to-know requirements.In both the Libby indictment and a hour-long press conference on Oct. 28, Fitzgerald showed no indication he understood how extraordinary it was for White House officials to be bandying about the name of a covert CIA officer based on the flimsy rationale that she was married to an ex-diplomat who had been sent on a fact-finding trip to Niger.
Fitzgerald, who is the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, appears to have bought into the notion that government officials had a right to discuss Plame's covert status among themselves as long as they didn’t pass the secret on to journalists. Then Fitzgerald didn't even seek punishment for that, limiting his criminal case to Libby's lying about how and when he learned of Plame's identity.
C.I.: That is a very important point. Thank you, Elaine and Mike. Scooter Libby indicted for a number of counts -- perjury, false testimony, etc. -- in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson who went public to expose Bully Boy's 16 word lie in the 2003 State of the Union address regarding "British intelligence has recently learned that Sadaam Hussein sought" yellow cake from Niger. Also, quickly, Eric Schmitt's "An Influential Bush Insider Who Is Used to Challenges" rightly pointed out that Scooter Libby is not just Cheney's chief of staff. Scooter was "assistant to the president, chief of staff to the vice president and Mr. Cheney's national security advisor." Now we go to Rebecca, of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, offers us a look at the news from the world of science. Rebecca?
Rebecca: C.I., Steve Connor notes in the UK's Independent that last week Prince Charles of England declared "climate change was one of the greatest problems" facing the world. As England experiences a surprisingly warm October, Connor reminds that "[t] exceptionally hot, dry summer of 2003 is estimated to have resulted in about 35,000 extra deaths in Western Europe." Are any guys drinking hard this Halloween weekend? If so, you might want to know that a recent study in India found it can effect sperm and increase difficulties in having children as well as in getting erections. Erectile dysfunction? In this day and age of Viagra? The consumer organization Public Citizen is asking the FDA "to add warnings to the labels of Viagra and other impotence drugs, noting that some users have gone blind." Is Tony Blair politically impotent? Marie Woolf reports in "Blair caved in after secret royal memo on badger culling" that a snap of the royal fingers by Prince Charles, or in this case a letter, and Tony Blair goes into lapdog mode, panting with a frenzy he usually reserves solely for the Bully Boy. A leaked memo results in the latest embarrassment for Blair. Prince Charles wrote Blair that a thinning of the badger population would meet with his approval due to his belief that this would reduce the spread of bovine tuberculosis from badgers to cattle.
C.I.: Thank you, Rebecca. Now for a report from Flordia, we go to Wally of The Daily Jot.
Wally: C.I. the death toll for Hurricane Wilma is now 21. Almost a million residents remain without power and they're telling us somewhere around Thanksgiving, maybe November 22nd, power might be restored. This is unnacceptable. The federal government and the state government's response is unacceptable. We have a gas generator, here at my Grandpa's. Not everyone has that. The widow next door is storing somethings in his refrigerator because she has no power. She's using hurricane lamps. This woman is 67 years old and barely five feet tall. An offer was made for her to stay here but she doesn't want to leave her home unoccupied after dark. Why should she have to? Why can't they get the power back on? Up and down the street, throughout the neighborhood, her story isn't any different. Earlier, before the review, Kat made a comment about how nice it was of me to stay with my grandfather during this. I don't think it's being nice. In the immediate area around my grandfather's home, a cell phone is a novel thing. There are a number of elderly people here with no electricity and no working phone --
C.I.: Wally, are the phone lines out or is this a case of the phones that are being used? A portable phone, a cordless phone requires electricity.
Wally: Yes, that's the issue. We're dealing with an area where technology caught up enough to justify the cordless phone, usually with an asnwering machine, but not the cell phone. Or an area and a . . .
C.I.: Demographic? These are predominately elderly people?
Wally: Correct. My Grandpa holds on to everything. He had about four of the phones, the cord phones, and he gave them out to neighbors. But these people are here, they don't want to leave their homes which are pretty much fine except for not having electricity. Would you or anyone who'll read this let your grandparents go a month without electricity? This is ridiculous. There should be outrage throughout the United States over the fact that the state of Florida and the United States seems to think a month without electricity is acceptable. It's not acceptable.
C.I.: Wally, you spoke of the woman who is storing some food in your grandfather's refrigerator.
Wally: Right. If you don't have a generator, you can't have food that will spoil. If you don't have a generator, you better use that hurricane lamps at night. It's insane. People, old and young, not being able to have lights, not being able to keep food and what's being done? Not a damn thing. Bully Boy struts into the state long enough to grab some BBQ and act like everything's going fine and it isn't. This isn't a case where we've got the type of destruction that New Orleans got but at the same time, people here didn't leave their homes in large numbers. Those who did, thinking the hurricane was over so all was back to normal, get home to find out that they don't have electricity. And the government wants to say, to almost a million people, "Wait until Thanskgiving." It's going to get cold and without electricity, some people won't have access to hot water for a shower or a bath. It's insane. The state government is failing the people, the United States is failing the people. The press should be all over this. You've got waste in the streets because the sewers are backed up. You got lines at the few gas stations that are open. You got lines for ice, for water. And the almost a million I keep using is Saturday's figure. Thursday they were saying over two million on the radio. I have a hard time believing that after telling everyone it would be Thanksgiving, that a million people suddenly got power. But the figure they're using now is eight hundred thousand and something.
C.I.: Are people staying?
Wally: Most of them are. There's a couple, an elderly couple, who are leaving Monday for their son's if the electricity isn't on but most people don't have the choice or don't want to leave. There are people with kids, some babies, and from that group I usually hear that Christmas is almost here and they don't have the money to do Christmas for the kids and to hit the road. So people are trying to manage for now but a month is insane. I was in line for two hours the other day, Thursday, and people are calm and all, but they are pissed off. This is a huge embarrassment for the state government and the federal government and if the press would give us a little attention and put a little pressure on this, maybe Bully Boy would do something more than drop by for a sandwich and a photo op before jetting back out. In fact, instead of visiting, he should just send us the fuel that would have been used to fly in. The planning for the refineries wasn't what it should have been which is one reason that there are lines for gas. Another reason is that some of the stations have gas but the pumps aren't working. People are pissed but calm right now. You got people having cookouts to cook meat before it spoils that they had stocked up on before the power went off. But I don't think they can take a month of camp outs.
C.I.: Thank you for that report Wally. For news from the world of entertainment, we go to Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man. Betty, what do you have for us this morning?
Betty: C.I., no one wants to talk too much about it but for the fifth week in a row the show that America supposedly had to watch is down in the ratings: ABC's Desperate Housewives. 30 million watched last season's ender, 28.4 million watched this season's debut. Each week, this year, has seen erosion in the viewership and it's now down to 25.2 million. In the who the hell asked for it department, the otherwise unemployed Sylvester Stallone will make his sixth Rocky film and his fifth Rambo film. While Republicans punch their fists in the air and holler, 13 and 14 year-old boys ask, "Who?" As Robert Greenwald's Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices readies for release, Wal-Mart's trying to offset the Greenwald documentary with their feel good, Up With Corporations response film entitled Why Wal-Mart Works: And Why That Drives Some People C-R-A-Z-Y. The fact that they spell out crazy demonstrates how out of it the store that no self-respecting teen would purchase clothes at is. I spent time with my teenage nieces this weekend and apparently the must-say insult in their crowd is anything having to do with Wal-Mart. From, "Where'd you get that shirt? Wal-Mart!" to "Where'd you get that weave? Wal-Mart!" the corporation that just won't go away is fast becoming the punch line to any insult.
C.I.: Betty, Kat wants to jump in on this. Kat of Kat's Corner (of The Common Ills).
Kat: Sorry to butt in but as someone a bit older than Betty, I'll note that it's a similar process to what happened with K-Mart. It stands for cheap goods and as a new group of teens comes of age that's been lugged to Wal-Mart once too often, they turn on it. If Betty's nieces are knocking it for non-political reasons, Wal-Mart should worry more about that than Robert Greenwald's documentary. I'll jump back out now.
Betty: That's a good point that Kat made. The teen years are all about what's hot and what's not for many and when something gets bad word of mouth, there are problems. With my nieces, they're not commenting on Wal-Mart's practices of hiring or insurance or wages. They're commenting on the store being uncool. As Kat points out, once that rep starts getting around, it's very hard to recover. You lose the teen girls, forget it. Greenwald's film opens in select markets on November 4th and can be purchased online. George Takei, known to millions as Mr. Sulu on Star Trek, came out this week. Takei, who's been in an 18 year relationship with Brad Altman, said, "The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay. The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young." Demi Moore teams with Sharon Stone, Anthony Hopkins, Elijah Wood and Lindsay Lohan for Emilio Estevez's upcoming film Bobby. Estavez will appear in front of the camera but he'll also be directing from a script he wrote. Finally, this coming Tuesday, Lifetime's Real Women will remember Rosa Parks with an Intimate Portrait featuring commentary from Ruby Dee, her late husband Ossie Davis and Gloria Steinem among others. Following that, Lifeteime Telivision will broadcast The Rosa Parks Story starring Angela Bassett as Parks and Cicely Tyson as her mother.
C.I.: Thank you, Betty. Ty of The Third Estate Sunday Review offers us some news from Europe and Indida. Ty?
Ty: It's practically the summer of 1968 in Paris all over again as, for the third night in a row, youths rioted. The young people are protesting the deaths of a 15 year-old and a 17 year-old on Thursday when they were apparently eluding police and ended up being electrocuted. The authorities say that Saturday night was less violent, 20 cars were torched, 13 youths were arrested. In New Delhi, 61 people are dead from bombs that went off in two market places. A third bomb went off on a bus but the driver had apparently gotten the passengers off in time after spotting a suspicious object. Also in India, The Taipei Times reports that a train derailed leaving at least one hundred dead.
C.I.: Thank you, Ty. Also from The Third Estate Sunday Review, Ava brings us up to speed on Guantnamo Bay and Venezuela.
Ava: C.I., the BBC reports that Fawzi al-Odah wants to die. Who is Fawzi al-Odah? A man arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and held at Guantanamo Bay since. Three years with no hearing. Locked up and forgotten. Fawzi al-Odah is one of the prisoners who in Guantanamo who has staged a hunger strike. The US government's response? To force feed. The US military asserts that only 26 prisoners are currently on a hunger strike, other estimates place the number at 150.
C.I.: Ava, the Center for Constitutional Rights is calling on a day of fast for November 1st to highlight this issue.
Ava: And on that day they are also staging rallies in DC and in NYC. The DC rally will take place at noon on 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in front of the Justice Dept. In New York, the rally will take place at 26 Federal Plaza at one o'clock in the afternoon. I'd like to turn now to an Associated Press article by Natalie Obiko Pearson that dismisses the allegations against New Tribes Mission but, unlike the reporting of Juan Foero in The New York Times, notes some of the allegations.
C.I.: Great. Before you do, to set up for readers, Hugo Chavez has ordered New Tribes Mission out of Venezuela. Juan Forero is up in the arms over this expulsion which makes makes any rumor of CIA connections seem all the more valid since Forero doesn't tell you about past allegations. With Forero, always note what he leaves out.
Ava: New Tribes, the article notes "has settlements in remote, mineral-rich tracts of Venezuelan rain forests located far from the surveillance of authorities" and that they have "long faced accusations of wrongdoing in Venezuela." From the article:
Anthropologists, military officials and others have accused the group of watching indigenous people die of malnutrition while living in luxurious camps, forcing communities to give up ancestral traditions and creating a sophisticated enclave of airstrips and settlements to exploit gold, quartz and even uranium deposits.
C.I.: Does she question why the US embassay gets involved when New Tribe Ministries is asked to leave a foreign country, they're based in Florida.
Ava: Sarasota, Florida. One would think with the problems facing Florida, they'd want to return to help there. But no, she doesn't mention anything about that. She does note that "Tomas Antonio Marino Blanco, a navy captain, recently revived claims first made in 1978 that New Tribes missionaries have helped U.S. defense contractors from Westinghouse conduct mineral prospecting." Unlike Juan Foero, she could find the public allegations. I'll give her credit for that.
C.I.: Thank you Ava. We now go to Kat with musical news. Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills).
Kat: C.I., what's that?
What is that sound ringing in my ears
I've heard that sound before
What's that I hear ringing in my ears
I hear it more and more
It's the sound of freedom calling
Ringing up to the sky
It's the sound of the old ways falling
You can hear it if you try
Kat (con't): From Phil Och's "What's That I Hear?" A question worth asking as the outing of a CIA agent can now be traced to the White House, as poll numbers for Bully Boy tumble and while polls show an increase in opposition to the war in Iraq. Some people hear the ringing. Take Audioslave who are addressing the war in their new video "Doesn't Remind Me." Some don't hear the ringing at all. Take Kelly Preston who will star in the film Angel which has enough problems finding an audience with Burt Reynolds in the cast but only triples the problems by co-starring, as the love interest -- will he get a hair cut -- Bully Boy supporter, wonder if Bully Boy wears Keith around his groin, and all around war cheerleader who put even Judy Miller to shame, Toby Keith. Hell, give Miller the role of love interest opposite Kelly Preston, it would certainly create more of a stir.
C.I.: Thank you, Kat. And thank you to Dallas for doing the links, to Jess' parents for hunting down links and to Dona and Jim of The Third Estate Sunday Review who keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes throughout. Studs Terkel and Ruth Conniff, of The Progressive magazine, on The Laura Flanders Show tonight.
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posted by Third Estate Sunday Review @ Sunday, October 30, 2005
