Indymedia roundup

Mark Robertson, the principal of Lake Washington High School--where the controversial Antioch Bible Church meets in the gym every Sunday [see "School Spirit," Sept 29]--tries to keep his roles as the school's leader and a member of the controversial church separate.
His roles may have blurred last June, though, when Molly Silver--who was coeditor-in-chief of the school's newspaper, the Limited Edition--wrote an opinion piece about Antioch. Her journalism adviser killed it. Silver suspects that's because Robertson attends Antioch. Moreover, he and the church's leader, Ken Hutcherson--the outspoken preacher who's leapt into national politics on an antigay platform--are reportedly friends.
Silver is a freshman at New York University now, studying journalism. Last May, while she was still a LWHS student, Silver read stories about Hutcherson lobbying Microsoft to withdraw its support of Washington State's proposed antidiscrimination bill. Those stories also referenced Lake Washington High School. "On the day that the New York Times spotlighted it, I realized that barely anyone at my school was aware of the travesty that was occurring in our gym every Sunday, though it had reached the status of national news," Silver says.
Silver already knew about Antioch's Lake Washington High School connection--she and other newspaper staffers were often in the school on Sundays putting the finishing touches on the paper, and they'd see Antioch members roaming the halls. "We had to sometimes kick them out, because we would need the journalism classroom," she says. "It pissed me off that these bigots had rights to use our school, though I knew it was completely legal."

The above is from Amy Jenniges' "Thou Shalt Not Publish" (The Seattle Stranger) and was e-mailed by Karla. Thursday. Indymedia roundup. This one is the grab bag entry on various topics.


Cindy e-mails to note Erik's "Santa Barbarans Make Arnold Listen" (Santa Barbara IMC):

Santa Barbarans came out in large numbers today even though they weren't invited to Governor Schwarzenegger's "town hall" meeting. They made sure the Governor heard where Santa Barbara stands on his anti-education, anti-worker agenda.
Lots of people (at least 150) showed up outside a garbage dump today to meet Governor Schwarzenegger. They told him what they think about his anti-education, anti-worker, and anti-health care ballot initiatives set to appear in the November 8 Special Election.
The Governor, trying his best to keep this meeting under wraps, secretly invited a few select supporters to attend his so-called "town hall" meeting at a giant refuse processing facility on the east side of Santa Barbara. Those select few were contacted late last night and only told of the location and time of the meeting after submitting their RSVP. The Governor is afraid to actually face the people of California because he knows his ideas won't stand up in a real town hall meeting where the public is free to ask questions.
Hundreds of firefighters, teachers, students, mothers and fathers stood outside the processing plant this morning, chanting "Keep Unions Alive! No on 75!" and "Hey hey, ho ho, Schwarzenegger has got to go!"

Durham Gal e-mails to note Besha Rodell's "The life of a tomato" ( Raleigh-Durham's The Independent Weekly):

Joan Holeman holds her hand out and displays the seeds she has saved from last year. She and her husband, Charles, have been growing German Johnson tomatoes on this land for 15 years. Charles' family has been farming on this land on and off for well over 100 years. Late in the winter, Joan sows the seeds, and another crop of tomatoes is born on the Holeman farm.
Every living thing has a life story, and the life story of a tomato can be very different depending on where they are grown and for what purpose. The biggest differences between a tomato grown on the Holeman farm and a tomato grown on a much larger, corporately owned farm are the economic beneficiaries of that tomato's life and the quality of the nutrition and taste it provides the consumer. While it is still debatable how much the chemicals and hormones used in industrial farming affect the consumer, there is no doubt that the product is fundamentally different from a naturally grown product. The rules and regulations regarding what you have to do to call your produce organic are too strict and complex for the Holemans, as they are for many of the area's small farmers. But the Holemans do their best to produce the most natural products they can manage. This is the life story of one of those products.
Charles and Joan grew up within a mile of each other on this farmland in Person County between Rougemont and Roxboro. They started their first day of school together in the same school. They are old-fashioned Southerners--quiet, humble, polite to a fault and grateful for the gifts they have. The Holemans consider themselves lucky that they live in an area of the South with so many good farmers' markets and a population that is willing to support those markets.


Melanie e-mails to note Grace Hood "Under corporate control: Scripps buys the Colorado Daily, and adds to its Denver-Boulder fiefdom" (Boulder Weekly):

If you didn't know what you were looking for, you may have missed last Tuesday's announcement that E.W. Scripps purchased the Colorado Daily. The announcement landed on Page 7 of the Daily, buried underneath a full-page Liquor Mart ad and the stories "Parties gone wrong" and "Students without academic requirements having a tough time getting into CU."
Boulder's other daily newspapers, the Daily Camera and its offshoot Dirt, both Scripps-owned, took a similarly disinterested approach to the news event. The Camera published a small news blurb on the first page of the business section, while Dirt buried the same news write-up in its paper.
Media experts are raising concerns about the lack of competition in the Boulder and Denver media markets. Boulder's dailies are now 100 percent owned by Scripps, a $2.2-billion corporation operated out of Cincinnati, Ohio. In Denver, Scripps owns the Rocky Mountain News and is associated with the Denver Post through the jointly operated Denver Newspaper Agency. The only publications in the Boulder/Denver market not owned by or affiliated with Scripps are Boulder Weekly, which is independently owned, and Westword, which is owned by News Times Inc.
The death of independent daily publications is not unique to Colorado. At the end of WWII about 80 percent of American daily newspapers were locally owned and 20 percent of newspapers were group-owned, according to media critic Richard McCord. By 1996, the numbers were reversed, and they are growing toward corporate domination. In theory, media critics agree that corporate media ownership diminishes the quality of the news due to factors like decreasing newsroom resources. However, some observers say that the independent spirit of the Colorado Daily was gone long before Scripps entered the picture. With talk of increased health benefits and deeper pockets, perhaps Scripps' ownership of the Daily won't have as much of a negative impact as some fear.

Portland e-mails to note Topher's "Remembering Matthew" (Portland Indymedia):

Seven years ago today, Matthew Shepard died as the result of a hate-motivated beating in the heart of America. Matthew's attack and resulting death brought the fear, discrimination and hatred that homosexuals have to live with every day to light and made the rest of America aware. Some people could say that we're gaining ground. Within the past several years, we've gained the attention of the mass media (and their sponsors). We've also had a brief affair with marriage. However, when I go back home to the mid-west, I'm still afraid of pick-up trucks. So how far have we really come?
Whatever. If I'm walking through the gay ghetto at night, back to my car and I feel my safety is in jeopardy, I'm not going to get on my cell phone and make a call to my senator to come save me. Hell, I don't even feel comfortable enough to call the police. They may be just as bad as the thug(s) following me. I would like to see the legislation pass (obviously) although ultimately, I do not think that it will help. With a man like George W Bush in office (and there will be many many more men like GWB in the president's seat), how can any queer feel secure? 'The state' doesn't care about queers. How can it, especially when the man who sits at the top of the pyramid, W himself, doesn't give two sh*ts about queers? I think that the one answer is community awareness. Help for queers won't come from some law written in Washington. Reaching out to the community, educating people in how hate in all of its forms can be harmful is a good place to start. That being said... The Laramie Project will be shown on October 16 at Laughing Horse Books on SE 36th and Division at 7 pm. The Laramie Project is a docu-drama set in Laramie where Matthew was killed, during the trials of his attackers. The transcripts were taken from over 200 of the residents of Laramie, exposing their fears, bigotry and feelings not dealt with. A short discussion will take place afterwards. Vegan treats will be provided. A $2-3 donation is asked but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. I know that this video showing is not the answer. However, I believe that it's a start. I hope to see you there.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

Democracy Now: Emira Woods, Yousri Fouda; Tom Hayden, Matthew Rothschild, Christine (Pop Politics), Ron (Why Are We Back In Iraq?) ...

 

SEC Subpoenas Frist’s Financial Records
The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist to hand over personal financial records related to his recent sale of stock in his family’s company HCA, the Hospital Corporation of America. The SEC is investigating whether Frist violated insider trader laws when he sold off HCA stock shortly before the company’s stock value fell. HCA is the largest private hospital corporation in the country.

 

 

Police Fire Water Cannons At Filipino Protesters
In the Philippines, dozens of students were injured after anti-riot police fired waters cannons in an attempt to stop a protest on Wednesday. At the rally outside the presidential palace in Manila, students were demanding President Gloria Arroyo resign. Last month Arroyo ordered police to break up all unpermitted rallies. Arroyo has also issued a gag order on any official who is called to appear before legislative investigations organized by opposition lawmakers. Opposition leaders are now openly comparing Arroyo to Ferdinand Marcos, the country’s former dictator. Opposition Congressman Teodoro Casino said "At least during the Marcos period, you knew what to expect. You were up against a fascist dictatorship, you knew that under a dictatorship, your rights were really being violated openly. This time, they have this veneer of legality, of the rule of law. Casino went on to say “They keep on saying the rule of law, when in fact they are violating it."

 

Nobel Peace Prize Nominated Prisoner Set to Die
In California, officials have scheduled Stan Tookie Williams to be executed on December 13, two months from today. On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Williams’ final appeal. Williams helped found the Crips gang in Los Angeles and was sentenced to death in 1981 for the killing of a convenience store worker. But he has since been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work at San Quentin State Prison where he was worked to curtail youth gang violence. Last year a documentary titled "Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story" aired on television. Jamie Foxx played Williams.

 

The above items are from Democracy Now!'s Headlines today and were selected by Brady, Carl and KeShawn.  Democracy Now! ("always worth watching," as Marcia says):

 

 Headlines for October 13, 2005

- Bush Cites Religion As Factor in Miers’ Nomination
- SEC Subpoenas Frist’s Financial Records
- Report: White House Ignored CIA’s Iraq Warnings
- Dozens Killed in Chechen Rebel Raid in Russia
- Police Fire Water Cannons At Filipino Protesters
- Nobel Peace Prize Nominated Prisoner Set to Die
- Dozens of Officers Go On Trial in Genoa
- Haiti To Delay Elections

 

Liberia’s First Election Since the Civil War: High Turnout and High Hopes

Liberia holds its first elections since the end of the 14-year civil war two years ago, drawing 1.3 million voters. The first official results show former soccer player George Weah and former World Bank economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as the leading figures in the race. We speak with Liberian Emira Woods, of the Institute for Policy Studies, about voters' hopes for the country's future and challenges stemming from the past.

 

Top Al-Jazeera Reporter Yousri Fouda On the Media and His Interviews with Al Qaeda Leaders

Investigative reporter Yousri Fouda from Al-Jazeera, the Arabic satellite television station, talks about his interviews with the al Qaeda members behind 9/11 and the danger al-Jazeera correspondents risk in light of the U.S. bombings of networks stations, the killing of correspondents, and the jailing of al-Jazeera reporters. Fouda speaks about the international attitude towards the network as it grows.

 

Democrats Chant “Shame” in Congress After Bills Pass Benefiting Big Businesses

In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, legislation in the Senate and House has been criticized as beneficial to corporations while sidelining the victims of the disaster. Recently, House Republican leaders pushed through a bill to make it easier for oil companies to build new domestic refineries.

 

Susan e-mails to note Tom Hayden's "What Iraqis Really Think About The Occupation" (Common Dreams):

 

The lack of critical media coverage at the beginning of the Iraq War is widely acknowledged. But the media's failure to cover Iraqi voices of opposition is arguably a greater default.

The mainstream media convey the impression that there are two categories of Iraqis--the handful of fanatical jihadist terrorists and the majority who showed their yearning to be free during January's election. In this paradigm, our troops are seen as defending, even cultivating, a nascent democracy. Not surprisingly, a Fox News poll in February revealed that 53 percent of Americans believed the Iraqis wanted our troops to stay while only 35 percent thought the Iraqis wanted us to leave.

To a public fed this distorted narrative and nothing more, the actual facts may be too jarring to believe. There has been little or no coverage of these realities:

A majority of Iraqis in polls favor US military withdrawal and an end of the occupation. At the time of January's election, 69 percent of Shiites and 82 percent of Sunnis favored "near-term withdrawal." Surveys done for the Coalition Provisional Authority in June 2004 showed that a 55 percent majority "would feel safer if US troops left immediately."

A recent summary of numerous Iraqi surveys, by the independent Project on Defense Alternatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, concluded that a majority of Iraqis "oppose the US presence in Iraq, and those who strongly oppose it greatly outnumber those who strongly support it." The PDA report went on to say that "the fact that [these surveys] have played little role in the public discourse on the Iraqi mission imperils US policy and contributes to the present impasse."

The only Iraqis who strongly support the US occupation are the Kurds, less than 20 percent of the population whose semi-autonomous status is protected by the United States, and who are represented disproportionately in the Iraqi regime. By backing the Kurds and southern Shiites, the United States is intervening in a sectarian civil war. The US-trained Iraqi security forces are dominated by Kurdish and Shiite militias.

In mid-September of this year, the eighteen-member National Sovereignty Committee in the US-sponsored Iraqi parliament issued a unanimous report calling for the end of occupation.

 

Marshall e-mails to note Matthew Rothschild's "Southwest Air Is Chilly" (McCarthyism Watch, The Progressive):

 

Lorrie Heasley, 32, of Woodland, Washington, was flying home from Los Angeles on October 4 on a Southwest Air jetliner.

The flight had a layover in Reno before proceeding to Portland, but Heasley was booted off before takeoff to Portland.

And it was all because of a shirt she was wearing.

It said, "Meet the F**kers," and it had pictures of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice on it.

"Southwest Airlines spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said the T-shirt became an issue after several passengers complained," the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

McInniss told the paper that it has a contract with the FAA allowing it to deny boarding to any customer whose clothing is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive."

Heasley told the paper that no one from Southwest said anything about the shirt when she got on.

 

Martha e-mails to note Christine's "Are Movies Thinking Too Much" (Pop Politics):

 

 

"A truly provocative film," continues [Caryn] James, "would deal with the backlash against sexual harassment laws, the contemporary sense that political correctness has gone too far. The sitcom 'The Office' (both the British and American versions), with its troglodyte boss and a human resources department that stages seminars on appropriate behavior, says more about harassment today."

(While the may be true, feminist groups are banking on North Country and its well-known stars -- Charlize Theron is on the fall cover of Ms. -- to get viewers talking about sexual harassment. It will be interesting to see if conversations take place outside the same circles.)

What's the most hopeful sign that Hollywood is going for real depth? The number of films on the horizon that try to make sense of conditions in the Middle East.

 

And on the subject of movies, Ron has "F**k Mamet" (Why Are We Back In Iraq?) where he recasts Glengarry Glen Ross:

 

Susan Hu's Glengarry Glen Rove is currently playing at
the Booman Tribune.

The WHIG players:

Alan Alda as Andrew Card.

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Karl Rove.

Meryl Streep as Karen Hughes.

Matt Damon as James R. Wilkinson.

Catherine Keener as Mary Matalin.

Al Pacino as Nicholas E. Calio.

Angela Bassett as Condoleezza Rice.

 

Note, there are photos with the entry of the Repubes and the dream cast.

 

Dona e-mails to note Norman Solomon's "The War on Terror -- In Translation" (FAIR):

 

When the Bush administration fires off a new round of speechifying about "the war on terror," the U.S. press rarely goes beyond the surface meanings of rhetoric provided by White House scriptwriters. But the president's big speech at the National Endowment for Democracy on Oct. 6 could have been annotated along these lines:

"We will not tire or rest until the war on terror is won."

Translation: This is a war that can go on forever.

"And while the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil but not insane."

As president, I am the world's authority on evilness and insanity.

"These extremists want to end American and Western influence in the broader Middle East, because we stand for democracy and peace and stand in the way of their ambitions."

Those who stand in the way of our ambitions are extremists.

"They hit us and expect us to run. They want us to repeat the sad history of Beirut in 1983 and Mogadishu in 1993, only this time on a larger scale with greater consequences."

Clinton and even Reagan were wimps compared to me.

 

Just last week, we were wondering where Vicky ToeJam was.  Had a spray cleared her up?

No.  Bill Scher notice the fungus is still among us in "Where's The Spin?" (Liberal Oasis) and she's jawing it up on Hardball but apparently she's in a baby-cried-the-day-the-circus-came-to-town mode.  Scher asks, "Where is the spin?" and answers:

 

Trick question: there isn't any.

There are no current signs of a coordinated spin effort to discredit Fitzgerald or defame the Wilsons.

Ken Mehlman isn't doing anything to counter the rumors and defend Rove and top Cheney aide Scooter Libby. Conservative pundits aren't hammering Joe Wilson.

Toensing is out there by her lonesome. Which is a great way to sound like a raving lunatic.

 

 

Reminder, Elaine will not be posting on Thursdays through December due to group. 

 

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

 

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Billie e-mails to note Ralph Blumenthal's "In Texas, Marriage Is on Ballot" in this morning's New York Times. Billie makes two points. 1) They're using the gay issue in 2005 not 2006. 2) "What were those rumors, Rick Perry?" She's referring to a live press conference carried on stations in her area (DFW) where Rick Perry announced that all the whispers and rumors were upsetting to his family. But he never identified those rumors. Billie thinks this will come up during the Republican primary. She's just not sure if it will be brought up publicly in commercials and a debate or whether it will be more whispers.

Billie: When rumors cause a governor to tear up and choke up on live TV at a press conference he called to address the rumors, I think the governor needs to come forward with what the rumors were.

Billie also corrects me for an earlier entry where I wondered (with regards to Harrie Miers gushing to then governor Bully Boy) would Greg Abbott gush to Rick Perry, "You're so buff."
Billie says no one who has ever seen Rick Perry would call him buff. They would instead, as Molly Ivins does, comment on his hair. My apologies for that error.

Ned notes that Douglas Jehl's "Report Says White House Ignored C.I.A. on Iraq Chaos" should put to the rest the "we were all wrong" argument/falsehood that attempts to act as though no one could have know what our invasion/occupation would lead to:


The review was conducted by a team led by Richard J. Kerr, a former deputy director of central intelligence, working under contract for the C.I.A. It acknowledged the deep failures in the agency's prewar assessments of Iraq's weapons programs but said "the analysis was right" on cultural and political issues related to postwar Iraq.
Mr. Kerr's review did not describe those findings in detail. But The New York Times first reported last year that two classified reports prepared for President Bush in January 2003 had predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict.
Those reports were by the National Intelligence Council, the highlevel group responsible for producing the government's most authoritative intelligence assessments.
Since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies have been notably more gloomy than the White House and the Pentagon about prospects for stability in Iraq. In the summer of 2004, newspaper articles about those reports so angered some Republicans that they accused the agency of trying to undermine President Bush.

The Times (always needing to have their fun) runs a Reuters story entitled "Chavez Ousts Missionaries." The missionaries are the New Tribe Ministries. The story tells you that. It doesn't tell you of it's long history in Venezuela. There are serious questions about New Tribe Ministries (we went over this in countless courses on Latin America, they aren't confined to Venezuela and they seem to have a nomadic tendency that's geared not towards results but has placed them near commodities). Jose Vicente Rangel has long accused New Tribe Ministries of many things. They have a long history in the area and have a curious relationship with corporations as well as intervention from the US embassy whenever there's talk of kicking them out of country, not of imprisoning them, which the embassy staff would have reason to register a reaction, but of kicking them out of the country. (Charges of ethnocide have long been made against New Tribe Ministries.) You don't get any of that in the Reuters' story. The Times is having a little laugh on the readers today. (Long history, means long history. Something like over fifty years by now. And these are charges made by government officials, historically, at various times over the years. Of course it's not our government officials or ones we approve of, so the Times chooses to look the other way.)

Marcia notes Judith Miller's no longer in contempt and that she's "Ms. Miller" and Valerie Plame is "Ms. Wilson" but that yesterday's "feminism" 101 from Laura Bush referred to her as "Mrs. Bush."

Marcia, sometime we'll talk about the historical struggle just to get "Ms." into the Times. That said, Marcia's right. "Mrs." is not part of Laura's "title" (the Times so loves their titles that they even created an exception for Agnew after he left in disgrace) . "First Lady Laura Bush" would be her title.

(To clarify, Judith Miller is married. That's why Marcia brought it up.)

Dominick e-mails to note David Lindorff's "Impeachment, Now and Then" (CounterPunch):

Here's a fascinating bit of news: More people today want to see President Bush impeached than wanted Clinton impeached on the eve of the House's vote on his impeachment.
According to a poll by the Zogby organization, just released by the group Afterdowningstreet.org, 50 percent of the American public now would like to see the House impeach Bush if it were found that he had lied about the reasons for going to war in Iraq (if?).
Compare that to December 17, 1998, only days before Clinton's impeachment by the House of Representatives, when an AP poll found that only 36 percent of the American public wanted to see the president impeached.
Clearly Americans view the flawed invasion of Iraq and other actions by the Bush administration, like the placing of business cronies in high places, the bankrupting of the federal government, and the failure to come to the rescue of an American city as far more serious than Clinton's sex romp and the lying about it that followed. And there's plenty more bad news to come for Bush, beginning with likely indictments in the Plame outing affair.
So, is the campaign by After Downing Street and other organizations to seek Bush's impeachment just tilting at windmills? It certainly isn't likely to happen with the current Republican domination of the House, but if public anger against Bush continues to grow, that could all change in November 2006, when all House seats are up for reelection.

Remember Mike has an interview with Tracey (Ruth's granddaughter) at Mikey Likes It!

Rod e-mails to note today's scheduled topics for Democracy Now!:


Thursday, October 13:
* Star al Jazeera investigative journalist Yousri Fouda joins us to talk about Iraq, the media and his interviews with top al Qaeda leaders.
* A look at the presidential elections in Liberia where soccer star George Weah and Harvard-trained economist Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf have emerged as frontrunners.

Rod also notes these upcoming appearances for Amy Goodman's Un-embed the Media tour:

* Amy Goodman in New York, NY:
Sat, Oct 15
*TIME: 4 PM
NewLife Expo
New Yorker Hotel
34th St. and 8th Ave.
New York, NY
Keynote speech
For tickets and more information, visit: www.newlifeexpo.com

* Amy Goodman in New York, NY:
Sun, Oct 16
*TIME: 5 PM
2005 Annual Fall Party
Dos Pueblos:
NY-Tipitapa (Nicaragua) Sister City Project
503 West 120 Street (between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway)
New York, NY
Music by John Fisher, Jim Rogers, and Ben Silver
For more information:
(p)646-610-2215
(email) info@tipitapa.org
(mail) Dos Pueblos, 2565 Broadway, #173; New York, NY 10025
(website) www.tipitata.org

* Amy Goodman in Oakland, CA:
Sat, Oct 22
*TIME: 7:30 PM
Presentation of first annual Pace e Bene Nonviolence Award to Dolores Huerta
First Congregational Church
2501 Harrison at 27th St
Oakland, CA
Amy will be interviewing Dolores Huerta
Tickets $15 advance, $18 door. $50 includes reserved seating and reception
Benefits Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service
Available in advance at www.paceebene.org
by calling 510-268-8765
or at independent East Bay bookstores:
Black Oak; DIESEL, A Bookstore; Global Exchange store; Pendragon; Pegasus(both stores); Walden Pond
Reception tickets only available in advance until October 17th at
www.paceebene.org
or by calling 510-268-8765
Download a flier here.

* Amy Goodman in New Paltz, NY:
Thur, Oct 27
*TIME: 7 PM
Panel discussion: Clean Money Clean Elections
SUNY New Paltz
Lecture Center 100

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

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