The above is from AP's "Soldier jailed as suspected deserter" and doesn't contain any new information (two other articles have been highlighted this week -- a third if you count the one at the start of the month that we noted again this week) -- but worth noting so that the story doesn't just fade away. From PTSD and veterans to recruiters, Brandon notes Sewell Chan's "The Army Recruiter Is Not In" (New York Times):
About 20 antiwar activists gathered outside an Army recruiting office in East Harlem this afternoon to protest what they described as the military focus on persuading young blacks and Latinos to fight in Iraq. But if their aim was to disrupt recruiting, they did not. The office had already been closed for the day, with a metal gate drawn down over the plate glass windows.
Capt. Charles V. Jaquillard, the Army Recruiting Command's company commander for New York City, said the East Harlem office was not closed because of the protest. "We were conducting a training," he said. "We had everybody out at Fort Hamilton today."
After a 1 p.m. news conference at City Hall, the demonstrators gathered at 3 p.m. outside the new Army Career Center, which opened two years ago, at 126 East 103rd Street. They marched and chanted outside the closed office, as two New York City police officers looked on.
"The question of military recruitment is important because you can’t carry out this war without fresh troops," said Debra Sweet, the director of an organization called World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime. "These troops are being trained to carry out war crimes. We're sending a message that military recruiters are not welcome to prey on youth. The war will be stopped by the action of the people. That is the only way it will be stopped."
Ms. Sweet said that Latinos have been disproportionately represented among service members who have fought and died in Iraq. (The Times reported last year that the Army has focused much of its local recruitment efforts on public events popular among Hispanic New Yorkers.)
Brandon writes, "To underline the obvious, NYT is reporting on the peace movement. That's how full circle the whole thing's gone. When Democracy Now! loses all interest and can't even introduce the audience to a single war resister for all of 2007 and can't cover the peace movement, they make the case for the MSM by their silence." Their silence on that. It's not like they've been mute this whole time. They just haven't bothered to cover the topics that supposedly matter to independent media. They had other things to do. They will be mentioned in some way in Ava and my TV piece tomorrow. We got calls all day Friday from friends in the Writers Guild who are ENRAGED with a broadcast -- and for good reason. Equally true, Amy Goodman has ignored Iraq to the point that now she can't even get her facts right when she picks it up in passing so we'll be including that aspect as well. After Sunday, we hope to return to covering entertainment television. Due to the strike, we had to switch over to news and public affairs. We actually planned a summary piece at one point for the week where we didn't have the time to catch broadcasts. With entertainment programs, we're working from scripts and episodes provided. In the lead up to the fall season, we crammed like crazy because being on the road does not allow for a lot of TV watching time. Covering news and public affairs programming meant doing work when we thought out prep work leading up to the fall season would mean we'd coast through this year's commentary without any difficulty. Instead, each week started as a nightmare (except for the week that we grabbed 60 Minutes, that meant we didn't have to look at a TV for the rest of the week thankfully) and we would scramble on the road trying to catch as much as possible until we could find something that was worth commenting on. (And in three cases, PBS friends supplied copies of programs, so thank you to them.)
Andre was the first to note Margaret Kimberley's "Democrats Target Kucinich for Defeat" (Black Agenda Report) this week:
In his presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich told Democrats a brutal truth. Party orthodoxy is a disaster, a series of lies that must no longer be accepted. While his opponents, Obama, Clinton and Edwards, made it clear they weren't serious about ending the occupation of Iraq, Kucinich presented a plan to do just that. When they made the case for leaving a failed for-profit health care system intact, Kucinich said that non-profit universal care was possible. He co-sponsored legislation calling for impeachment hearings against Vice President Cheney and President Bush while leadership declared the criminals should go free.
While Barack Obama garners 80% to 90% of black votes in the primaries, it is the Kucinich platform that actually expresses the political opinions of most black Americans. Disavowal of American military aggression and support for government enforcement of legal and civil rights of citizens are the hallmarks of Kucinich's history. Obama makes eloquent but empty speeches bereft of specifics. In contrast, Kucinich's national political life appeared to be over shortly after it began because he took a courageous stand against corporate power.
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the new york times
sewell chanmargaret kimberley
