1) Why have I stopped noting other sites?
I haven't. I assume that's in reference to weekday morning entries where I note the community sites that updated and a few non-community sites.
That is a time issue. I don't necessarily have time to say "and non-community sites blah, blah, blah."
One morning this week, I didn't even have time to note the community sites.
It's a time issue and also a I'm-so-sick-of-being-online issue.
But it's not meant as an insult to any sites we usually note.
2) That said, I'm appalled by the lack of Iraq coverage -- still -- at so many other sites.
The left side of the internet in the US was made off the Iraq War.
Now that the pathetic Barack Obama is leading the war on Iraq, no one wants to step up.
They're all cheap whores and I have no respect for them.
They're the reason idiots in this country can and do write letters to the editor right now about how all US troops are out of Iraq.
They're the reason so many idiots in this country are unaware Barack's been sending US troops back into Iraq since June or that 3 US troops have already died in Operation Inherent Resolve.
3) A lot of minor celebrities found wider fame on the back of the Iraq War.
Ani DiFranco, for example. She hasn't given a damn about Iraq since Bully Boy Bush left office.
Marcia's "Michael Franti the fake ass" noted a video this week -- many other community sites did as well but Marcia was e-mailed the video and she got others to note it.
Michael gets confronted verbally and how does the 'peace activist' respond?
By pushing and shoving and grabbing the camera.
If that's surprising to you, how else did you expect him to respond?
He's nothing but a cheap whore now.
He got confronted on his whoring ways.
Anyone who's ever participated in an intervention knows an addict active in his or her disease tends to lash out when the truth is presented.
That's what happened with Michael.
His addiction to whoring is too powerful.
It's hilarious in the video when he claims he holds Barack accountable every night when he's onstage.
Tell another lie, Michael.
With the exception of Susan Sarandon, I haven't seen any celebrity take stock off themselves, do a self-check and restore their beliefs and ethics.
And to be clear, I'm talking about political celebrities. Halle Berry is not political. She supports Barack. Halle is a friend and I've never had a problem with her support of Barack.
But if you present as an activist -- Jane Fonda does -- then I do have a problem with you.
Because the illegal spying continues, because the persecution whistle blowers continue, the attacks on the press have increased under Barack, more people have been deported under Barack, and the wars continue under Barack so I'm just not in the mood for your whoring.
Steven Spielberg's another. He's not political.
You're wasting your time trying to have a political conversation with Steven. His idea of politics is voting every two years (plus doing fundraisers). And that's fine, he has other interests. (His pretense in political issues ended with his marriage to Amy Irving who was always more concerned about the world and justice than he was.)
Stephen and Halle are nice people. Like many Americans they have other issues and interests to focus on.
I'm not going to get upset with either for not knowing about the illegal spying or whatever.
But if you claim to be political, I'm really getting tired of you slobbering over Barack.
That's why I don't feel sympathy for the gay actor who staged a wedding to a horse faced woman just a little while back. We all know who I'm talking, Mr. Political whose bad plastic surgery has made him look really feminine.
And I'm tired of people like 'brave' John Pilger who (a) can't get the facts straight on Julian Assange and (b) can't fight for Julian effectively.
How pathetic are these little bitches like John Pilger (and I know John and I would call him a little bitch to his face)?
Julian will testify to a country if they will promise not to hand him over to the US!
I'm sorry, why does another country have to make that promise?
I don't think they will, they haven't so far.
But I'm speaking in terms of logic.
And maybe I better speak slower because we have lost all sense of logic on the left.
Why is the world -- or those who support Julian -- insisting that a country promise not to turn Julian over to the US?
If the US is your concern, then that's where you should be applying your pressure.
Embarrass Barack, shame him.
Force him to make the declaration that the US government will not seek custody of Julian Assange.
It shouldn't be that hard to do.
First and foremost, there's really nothing to prosecute Julian under in US law.
He's not a US citizen.
He broke no vow to the US government.
He broke no security clearance promise.
Barack's image in the world has taken a beating, around the globe. It wouldn't be very hard to get a campaign going on this to apply pressure to Barack and that pressure might prove to be effective.
But instead of being logical or attempting something different, John Pilger and his cronies think if they just keep saying the same thing for years and years, keep doing the same thing, somehow something will change.
That's not logical thinking. It's the thinking of an addict, I believe that's called "stinking thinking" and goes with the "nothing changes if nothing changes" platitude.
4) A number of e-mails note changes and shifts here and the belief that I'm preparing to go dark.
I would love to stop this site. There have been changes and simplifications. They're about the fact that I am tired. But we're not going dark yet.
If other left sites were covering Iraq, maybe we could go dark. But there are just too many liars for us to go dark.
5) Community member Tori asked what the biggest lesson for me personally was regarding Iraq.
That they all lie. Not just politicians but so-called political leaders.
I can be really stupid and often am.
I saw this all go down before. And I wanted to believe that that was due to personalities and not to the system itself and its inherent corruption.
But everyone wants to whine and point to Katharine Graham and how she and the Post walked away from investigative reporting and holding the powerful accountable and blah, blah, blah.
But what I saw was quite different.
Maybe because I wasn't such a dumb f**k?
I can be stupid but I never believed the press was our friend or the least bit truthful.
I've seen too many people destroyed by the press.
And I'm talking entertainment, I'm not talking a whistle blower or someone trying to change the world.
I'm talking a man or woman who wouldn't do what a studio or network wanted and they called in their chits and got all this hideous coverage on the person they wanted targeted.
I also know the natural rhythms and cycles of the press and their need for narrative which means they build you up and then they tear you down.
So this notion that the national press was some institution of trust never really sank in for me.
But the Post didn't (and doesn't) exist in a vacuum.
By that I mean, the Post (and the Times and others) were forced to do the kind of reporting they did because of the underground press.
You had an active underground press that pursued truths.
And the shock to me was seeing how quickly they sold out.
The weekly 'alt' newspapers, the magazines, The Nation, The Progressive, etc.
They were so disgusting, in fact, that it was not that hard for James Weinstein to raise funds in the mid-70s to start In These Times.
In These Times was a reaction to the mainstreaming and centering of other left and 'left' political journals and magazines. (David Sirota has many faults -- as do I -- but his work at In These Times has an awareness that harkens to the best of the magazine's past.)
Elaine remembers that period very well. And she kept telling me (in the early years of the Iraq War), "You're going to be so disappointed." She also got me to stop donating. And she was right, they used Iraq to make money and then they went to their whoring.
They were supposedly appalled by war, used that claim to back Barack in 2007 and 2008, and then ignored Barack's wars.
They're whores.
6) Antiwar.com tries so hard and you're so mean to them!
I don't believe I've ever ignored a request to link to an article of Antiwar.com's.
My job is not to beg to be in the circle jerk.
I am an independent voice and I'm a critic.
I don't play favorites.
I gave David Sirota a compliment above.
I've done that before.
I'll do it again.
All community members know this and a lot of readers and drive-bys do to: David Sirota threatened to sue this website.
He had no grounds for it but you don't need ground to sue.
I saw a little lawyer on the tube
He said "It's so easy now anyone can sue"
"Let me show you how your petty aggravations can profit you!"
Call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice brutality and innocenceArtifice and innocence
-- "The Three Great Stimulants," written by Joni Mitchell, first appears on Dog Eat Dog.
David wrote a column attacking a woman's understanding (did someone just say, "naturally" -- yes, he has an earned a certain image). The woman was anti-war and the mother of an Iraq War veteran.
And David wrote a column 'correcting' her understanding of a member of Congress. Tina's understanding was correct and, more to the point, David left out that he used to work for the member of Congress.
That's the sort of disclosure you're supposed to make.
That's the kind of accountability we demand at this site.
David didn't like being called out and had a hissy fit in an e-mail. He didn't follow up on his threats (to his credit, he had more sense when he was calm).
To this day when I give David a compliment here, I get angry e-mails -- from community members!
He threatened to sue!
Yeah, he did.
And we replied to him here and it wasn't really that big of a deal.
If we're going to be fair, if he has something of value -- and he does more often than not -- then he should get credit for that.
I am wary of him because come election years he tends to lose his spine and cheerlead the Democratic party blindly.
I hope that doesn't happen in 2016.
But I don't carry a grudge against him. I don't even dislike him.
I dislike when he attacks Tina Richards.
But if he were to write something on Iraq, we'd be happy to link.
I don't dislike Justin Raimondo or Jason Ditz. (I do dislike Scott Horton.) I don't play like the 'media critics' of FAIR. If you're wrong, I'm calling you out. I don't care if you're on 'my side' or not.
We highlight Raimondo and Ditz. We don't highlight Horton, "ya'll." I can't take his pompous voice. I can't take his stupidity.
Specifically, he spent Nouri al-Maliki's second term as prime minister selling Nouri as a groovy guy. Nouri is a thug and he did real and lasting damage to Iraq.
7) We defended an Iraqi woman throughout the week. She and her child (or three children -- details vary) were kidnapped by the Lebanese military with the assistance of the CIA.
She may be the wife of a terrorist -- some have her married for a few months to him several years ago!
She may be the sister of a terrorist -- some say she was never married to the terrorist in question!
She may be related to no terrorists.
It doesn't matter to me.
What matters is that she needs to be let go and the US government should never be involved in kidnapping family members of suspects or in plans to use the kidnapped person or persons as "bargaining chips."
A number of concerned e-mails came in cautioning me I could get "burned" on this.
The woman might be a terrorist!
She might be.
She might not be.
What we know currently demands that people stand up for the woman the press says is Saja al-Dulaimi.
Now no one wants to.
The Iraqi woman has been left on her own.
The Center for Constitutional Rights won't say a damn thing in her defense nor will Amnesty.
Feminists should damn well be speaking up because this is a woman being targeted and kidnapped because of her alleged relationship to a man (either a husband -- ex or current -- or a brother) and not for anything she herself is accused of.
And certainly if Off Our Back was still around, someone might speak up.
But Women's Media Center is a joke, a bordello of whores who can't stand up for anything so don't look for the 'brave' Gloria Steinem to ever speak up. She'll play the victim till her dying days -- which can't come soon enough when you consider all the mess the feminist movement will have to clean up due to Gloria's various lies over the years.
I'll stand up for the woman.
I don't give a damn about 'credibility' of if I get burned.
A woman and her child (or children) have been kidnapped to be used as bargaining chips.
We supposedly deplore that in the United States.
Yet our government is involved in this kidnapping.
I'm sorry, I'm not a whore like Gloria.
I would never lie and swear to Sondra Locke, for example, that I'd help her in lawsuit against Clint Eastwood and then spend all my time avoiding her calls because Maria Shriver asked me to.
The woman needs to be defended.
I'll defend her.
It's not open to debate.
Thank you for your concern, but no woman should be kidnapped by a terrorist group or government (or terrorist government) to be used as a bargaining chip.
It's wrong no matter who does it and I'll speak out.
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
The number of US service members the Dept of Defense states died in the Iraq War is [PDF format warning] 4494.
The following community sites -- plus Susan's On the Edge, PBS' The NewsHour, Jody Watley and Chocolate City -- updated:
In Tuesday's Iraq snapshot, the following appeared:
Lastly, David Bacon's latest book is The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration. We'll close with this from Bacon's photo essay "FIESTA IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE - DANCERS"
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE (9/29/14) -- For three days during the town fiesta of San Miguel de Allende indigenous dance groups converge here, and dance through the streets from morning until late at night. Costumes celebrate everything from religious symbols to mythologized history to a common bond with the culture of native peoples north of the U.S. border. Almost 40% of San Miguel residents are Otomi and 20% Nahua, but the dances are performed by groups from all over Mexico.
Indigenous people in Izcuinapan, the original native community located here, had a long history of resistance to the Spanish colonizers. Guamare and Chichimeca people attacked the first Spanish settlement, and the Spanish viceroy was eventually forced to recognize a limited independence for the indigenous people here.
We'll note Bacon's photo essay again but I can't find it online currently. When we note it again, we'll include a link. (You can also try Googling and might have more luck than I have.) For more on David Bacon see:
THE REALITY CHECK - David Bacon blog
http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com
EN LOS CAMPOS DEL NORTE: Farm worker photographs on the U.S./Mexico border wall
http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=fc67a76dbb9c31aaee896aff7&id=0644c65ae5&e=dde0321ee7
Youtube interview about the show with Alfonso Caraveo (Spanish)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJeE1NO4c_M&feature=youtu.be
The Real News: Putting off Immigration Reform Angers Grassroots Activists
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=12352
David Bacon Interviews Dyanna Taylor, Granddaughter of Documentary Photographer Dorothea Lange
https://soundcloud.com/kpfa-fm-94-1-berkeley/dyanna-taylor-on-her-grandmother-dorothea-lange
David Bacon radio review of the movie, Cesar Chavez
https://soundcloud.com/kpfa-fm-94-1-berkeley/upfronts-david-bacon-reviews-film-on-cesar-chavez-and-the-grape-strike
Interviews with David Bacon about his new book, The Right to Stay Home:
Book TV: A presentation of the ideas in The Right to Stay Home at the CUNY Graduate Center
http://booktv.org/Watch/14961/The+Right+to+Stay+Home+How+US+Policy+Drives+Mexican+Migration.aspx
KPFK - Uprisings with Sonali Kohatkar
http://uprisingradio.org/home/2013/09/27/the-right-to-stay-home-how-us-policy-drives-mexican-migration/
KPFA - Upfront with Brian Edwards Tiekert
https://soundcloud.com/kpfa-fm-94-1-berkeley/david-bacon-on-upfront-9-20
Photoessay: My Studio is the Street
http://artofthecommune.wordpress.com/2014/02/26/my-studio-is-the-street-photoessay-by-david-bacon/
Photoessay: Mexico City marches against NAFTA and to protect its oil and electricity
http://desinformemonos.org/2014/02/veinte-anos-de-tlc-veinte-anos-de-resistencia/
Nativo Lopez dialogues with David Bacon on Radio Hermandad
http://radiohermandad.blogspot.com
The Real News: Immigration Reform Requires Dismantling NAFTA and Respecting Migrants' Rights/ Immigrant Communities Resist Deportations
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10938
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10933
Click here to see the photo essay in full. Between attending Congressional hearings and speaking events I did not have time until today to search for it again, my apologies.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
iraq
i hate the war
the ballet
