Saturday, April 07, 2007

Radio, Kimberley, Cockburn

Brady has a very funny e-mail praising Ruth (which has been passed on to her) and also wondered where the report was? Ruth has completed it (I've read it), it will go up during RadioNation with Laura Flanders and, if at possible, we'll try to interview Ruth for The Third Estate Sunday Review using Brady's comparison (which also made Ruth laugh).


RadioNation with Laura Flanders airs Saturdays and Sundays, live, 7:00 pm to 10 pm EST, over Air America Radio stations (or stations that carry their content, actually), XM satellite radio and online. This weekend's line up:

SATURDAY
He did it! Florida's Governor Crist is re-enfranchising some Felons. MUSLIMA LEWIS, of the American Civil Liberties Union will tell us how it came about. The military have a new ruse to deny wounded service people benefits. Nation Contributor, JOSHUA KORS, ANDREW POGANY of Veterans for America, and Iraq veteran, JON TOWN spill the beans. Then, JONATHAN SCHWARTZ, of Headcount and MARC BROWNSTEIN, of 'The Disco Biscuits' model music making that swells the electorate.
SUNDAY
In a big news week on the environmental front, we talk to author/environmentalist BILL McKIBBEN, whose new book is 'Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.' CHIP WARD, formerly assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library, tells us why public libraries are doing double duty -- as unofficial homeless shelters. And our Blue Grit grassroots hero of the week is DORIS 'GRANNY D' HADDOCK, who is on another walking tour. All that, and your calls. We're live, and left, on the weekends....

Moving on to Margaret Kimberley's "Torture" (Freedom Rider, Black Agenda Report), noted by Carl first:

Guantanamo is awash in confessions these days. Walid Mohammad bin Attash claims to have blown up the USS Cole. Khalid Sheik Mohammed confessed to planning 9/11, the bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, and night clubs in Bali. He also confessed to killing of Daniel Pearl and perhaps Anna Nicole Smith, too.
An Australian prisoner, David Hicks, has confessed to terrorist activity. He spent 5 years at Guantanamo and recently pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism, which wasn't even against U.S. law until October 2006. The only way for him to return home was to confess. He also had to sign an agreement denying his previous statements that he had been tortured. He had to promise not to sue the U.S. government, make any money from telling the story of his ordeal, or talk to the media for at least one year.
"These military tribunals have doomed our country."
These confessions are not taken seriously by any intelligent people in this country and they are certainly not taken seriously by anyone outside of it. Even the namby pamby Congressional actions on Iraq are sending the Bushites into a frenzy of show trials to justify waging endless war on the rest of humanity. The confessions will surely be repeated when the bombing of Iran begins.
Not only are these military tribunals a travesty and a great injustice to the people involved, but they have doomed our country. The hatred that spawned the 9/11 attacks has only grown with time. Now all Americans have bulls eyes on their heads because of the evil people who run this government.

Lynda notes Alexander Cockburn's "Dead Dogs Don't Bleed: How Giuliani Lost America" (CounterPunch) and thinks the two lines opening the excerpt below are so funny that it doesn't matter that the Rudy G commentary is left out of the excerpt ("People can use the link, those first two lines are funny!"):

Americans like their First Family to have a dog. They think it means at least one honest creature lodged at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Nixon used to put sesame seeds in the turn-ups of his trousers so his spaniel, King Timahoe, would nuzzle him in public. "Any man who does not like dogs and not want them about does not deserve to be in the White House," said President Calvin Coolidge.
Giuliani has been saying that as president, he would regard Judi as co-president--present at cabinet meetings, her hand next to his on the driving wheel. There are a lot of dog lovers who now see Judi's hand as one grasping an instrument of dog torture, unfit for any high calling.
So it looks like curtains for the Giuliani campaign. One of his main rivals, the choleric Senator John McCain is in trouble for claiming it's safe to walk around Baghdad. This puts the Republican governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, in a stronger position than he dared hope a few weeks ago. Romney is a Mormon, thus associated in the American mind with tolerance for marriages not even serial in their prolixity, like the Giulianis'. The Democrats have the choice of a woman (Clinton) who has raised truckloads of cash for her campaign, a black man (Obama), who has raised as many truckloads or a white man-- Edwards, whose popular wife Liz is bravely battling terminal cancer. Speculation at this stage in the game is idle. The first real test is nearly a year away, in Iowa--where Edwards may do well, even though Hillary for the moment is far ahead of her rivals--both in positive and negative measurements.

Rachel notes the following two upcoming programs (Sunday and Monday) on WBAI -- times given are EST and you can listen in the NYC area or online:

Sunday, April 8, 11am-noon
THE NEXT HOUR
Post-Warholian radio artists Andrew Andrew and guest.

Monday, April 9, 2-3pm
CAT RADIO CAFE
Choreographer Lar Lubovitch on three new dances premiering at SkirballHall; actress/writer/co-creator Leslie Lewis Sword on her one-woman show,"Miracle in Rwanda"; and actor Morlan Higgins on his role as AndreHeguenet, "the Olivier of South Africa" in Athol Fugard's theatricalmemoir, "Exits and Entrances." Hosted by Janet Coleman and David Dozer.

This is a rushed and late post, my apologies. I had intended to fly home Friday and ended up staying over. Also, big thanks to Trina who laughed as I complained this morning about the Times' article. If she hadn't laughed, indicating that someone would find it funny, I don't know what I would've written about this morning. Thank you to Trina, her husband and their son Mike for the hospitality Friday night and this morning.

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