Truest statement of the week

Second question: Why do so many “progressive” men seem to have so many misogynist slurs sloshing around in their heads?

Having asked those questions, let’s make a few observations:

Ed Schultz isn’t the first. Keith Olbermann engaged in open misogyny for years—and liberals kept their pretty traps shut. For years, we wondered if we were the only ones who were struck by this incessant behavior. (It wasn’t fun complaining about his conduct in the face of massive silence.)

Eventually, we got our answer: A bunch of liberal “intellectual leaders” had found his conduct repellent too—but they had refused to say so in public! See THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/28/11. Hint: Careerist “liberal leaders” may not be tremendous good people.

Ed Schultz isn’t the first. Chris Matthews engaged in ugly misogyny for the better part of a decade. In January 2008, a miracle occurred: The liberal world began to notice; incredibly, many liberals even began to complain! (After all those years, we have no idea why that suddenly happened.) In response, Rachel Maddow ran out and vouched for Matthews, big-time. One week later, she signed her first contract at The One True Liberal Channel.

(See THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/21/08; scroll down to “STARR REPORT.” Also, see THE DAILY HOWLER, 1/15/08.)

Today, Maddow is paid $2 million per year, if Newsweek knows its stuff. To us, this event raised the first warning flag about this self-impressed child. We do hope her money spends good.

-- Bob Somerby on Ed Schultz's suspension (The Daily Howler).

Truest statement of the week II

The liberal class, which attempted last week to discredit the words my friend Cornel West spoke about Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, prefers comfort and privilege to justice, truth and confrontation. Its guiding ideological stance is determined by what is most expedient to the careers of its members. It refuses to challenge, in a meaningful way, the decaying structures of democracy or the ascendancy of the corporate state. It glosses over the relentless assault on working men and women and the imperial wars that are bankrupting the nation. It proclaims its adherence to traditional liberal values while defending and promoting systems of power that mock these values. The pillars of the liberal establishment—the press, the church, culture, the university, labor and the Democratic Party—all honor an unwritten quid pro quo with corporations and the power elite, as well as our masters of war, on whom they depend for money, access and positions of influence. Those who expose this moral cowardice and collaboration with corporate power are always ruthlessly thrust aside. The capitulation of the liberal class to corporate capitalism, as Irving Howe once noted, has “bleached out all political tendencies.” The liberal class has become, Howe wrote, “a loose shelter, a poncho rather than a program; to call oneself a liberal one doesn’t really have to believe in anything.” The decision to subordinate ethics to political expediency has led liberals to steadily surrender their moral autonomy, voice and beliefs to the dictates of the corporate state. As Dwight Macdonald wrote in “The Root Is Man,” those who do not make human beings the center of their concern soon lose the capacity to make any ethical choices, for they willingly sacrifice others in the name of the politically expedient and practical. -- Chris Hedges, "Why Liberal Sellouts Attack Prophets Like Cornel West" (Information Clearing House).

A note to our readers

Hey --
Another Sunday. And we're late as usual.


First, we thank all who participated this week which includes Dallas and the following:

The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.

And content?

• • Truest statement of the week
• Bob Somerby for telling the truth about MSNBC then and now.
• 
  
  • Truest statement of the week II
  Chris Hedges for calling out the pathetic schills who attacked Cornel West to prove what 'good soldiers' they were.
• 
  
  • 
    
  • Editorial: Who is the US military propping up?
  It's really past time that the press start the conversation about what sort of government exists in Iraq. The editorial board of The New York Times attempted to jump-start that conversation a few months back. It did not take. It will require more than one outlet.
• 
  
  • TV: The CW falls, The CW rises
  Ava and C.I.'s look at Smallville, The CW and the state of TV.
• 
  
  • Has the White House broken the Hatch Act?
  A serious question and we're apparently the first to ask it.
• 
  
  • Just Another Iraq War success story
  The illegal war has many victims.
  
• 
  
  • Diane Rehm manages to book even fewer women (Ann, ...
  Ann, Ava and C.I. wrote this and we thank them for it. They will do this study for at least three months. After that, they're not sure.
• 
  
  • Applauding Mickey Z and other truth tellers
  Rebecca and C.I. brought the idea for this piece to the edition. We applaud Mickey and wish we had many, many more truth tellers like him.
• 
  
  • The TV roundtable
  Before time ran out, there was going to be two roundtables: A TV one and an Iraq one.
• 
  
  • FBI witch-hunt (Workers World)
  A repost from Workers World.
• 
  
  • Highlights
  Mike and the gang wrote this. We thank them for it.
• 
  

Dona and I (Jim) worked on the Iraqi piece and only that. This edition was really steered by Jess, Ava and C.I. We thank them for that.


Peace.

-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.

Editorial: Who is the US military propping up?

It's truly amazing, week after week, to watch as so much of the US press pretends that Iraq is a democracy. Excuse us, as so much of the small portion of the US press which pays attention to Iraq insists that it's a democracy.

As in the US, Iraq has three branches of government: Executive, legislative and judicial. Iraq, like the US, has a Constitution. Like the US, the Iraqi Constitution outlines what the powers of each branch are.

Last week, New Sabah reported that Nouri al-Maliki was continuing to assert that he, as prime minister, has the right to write the laws and all Iraq's legislative branch, the Parliament, has the power to do is to vote up or down on the proposed legislation Nouri submits. Only he or the country's ceremonial president (Jalal Talabani), according to Nouri, can write laws.

This is what the US lost lives for? To install a new dictator?

This is why the US has to stay in Iraq past 2011? To maintain Nouri's dictatorship?

(On staying in Iraq past 2011, check out Kelly McEvers report for today's Weekend Edition.)

Nouri is targeting the press, he's targeting the Iraqi people (especially protesters) and the answer, to the White House, is to keep propping up Nouri?

Something was birthed in Iraq after the invasion, but it wasn't democracy.






Illustration is Isaiah's "Not Quite There."

TV: The CW falls, The CW rises

"Our dark lord will be pleased," Christine Willes hissed as Granny Goodness in the series finale of Smallville but to our ears it sounded a lot like Lucie Salhany who created UPN, a netlette that merged with the WB TV to form The CW in 2006.





Smallville wrapped up this month after 10 seasons -- a feat which makes clear there was still more UPN than WB in The CW. Oh sure, there was the almost wedding of Clark (Tom Welling) and Lois (Erica Durance) drenched in pseudo Lilith Fair music (Sara Bareiles' "Breathe Again") and filled with the sort of things Dawson might have said to Joey years ago at the Creek like, "You've always believed in me. And I believe in you. And when you believe in someone, it's not just for a minute or for an hour, it's for forever." However, on the Creek, Dawson and Joey would have gotten hitched. Instead Chloe (Allison Mack) sounds an alarm about kryptonite and Clark yells, "Get everybody out of here!"

However, typical UPN, everybody had already pretty much left. After all, the season average rating was 1.2 with a rank of 131 -- putting it far behind other cancelled shows such as The Chicago Code (rank of 71), The Cape and No Ordinary Family (both tied for 83), Lone Star The Whole Truth and and Traffic Light (tied for 103), etc. (Click here for Nellie Andreeva's "Full 2010-2011 TV Season Series Rankings," Deadline.com.) And, to be clear, season ten's average rating wasn't a drop. It's consistent with the ratings the show received the season before. Both seasons averaged a little over two and a half million viewers. If it had been a film, it would have bombed.

The WB kicked off at the start of 1995 determined to do what Fox had done before -- become a netlette that captures ratings and buzz with the hope of one day moving to seven nights of programming (a feat Fox still hasn't managed to pull off). Season one was a bomb (though Unhappily Ever After, from that first season, would stay on air for four seasons despite lousy ratings). Season two was as bad. Season three saw the netlette make inroads with 7th Heaven and The Steve Harvey Show. But season four is when The WB turned it around. Buffy the Vampire Slayer caused chuckles in the advertising lead up but, once it started airing, it quickly became The WB's cult hit.

Sarah Michelle Geller starred in the action adventure as high school student Buffy who slayed vampires, demons and others as she and her friends dealt with the aches and pains of young love. It set the stage for the following season when Dawson's Creek would (mid-season) debut and become the network's first actual hit. Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams, Katie Holmes and James Van Der Beek played four high schoolers dealing with family problems and, yes, the aches and pains of young love. That was The WB signature -- any show of any genre could potentially be a hit provided it included the thread of "the aches and pains of young love." Adhering to that formula helped turn Felecity, Roswell and Popular into immediate hits (only immediate ones) and Gilmore Girls into seven-season hit. And ignoring it helped insure that Angel never had any real impact or ever became much more than the little sister spin-off of Buffy.

More than any other show on The WB, the Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan starring Charmed (a sisterhood of witches) managed the formula allowing the show to be repeatedly moved around on the schedule and still pull in strong ratings for eight seasons. (Season eight had nearly twice as many viewers as this final season of Smallville did.) Charmed wrapped up after the spring of 2006 because UPN and The WB were merging and they just knew they could do better.

They never managed that feat. And we're sure there are many former execs of The WB and UPN who are laughing at the fact that the merger should have provided The CW with seven solid nights of programming; however, CBS and Warner Bros' execs just knew they could do better than all who had come before them. CBS being CBS, they were especially concerned about the whole women thing, women making CBS so nervous. (Which is why the network has long attacked its own women-led hits; see the network's treatment of Cagney & Lacey, Designing Women, Murphy Brown, Murder She Wrote, Cybill, The Nanny and Touched By An Angel among others.) So they didn't want to carry over the female-driven hit of Charmed to The CW from The WB and they didn't want to carry over UPN's Eve to The CW. If America's Top Model hadn't been reality tv, they probably wouldn't have carried it over either.

At the end of the series finale of Smallville, they teased viewers with the hope that Lois and Clark would get married after their aborted earlier attempt in the episode. "Are you ready?" asked Lois. Clark replied, "I've been ready for seven years."

The CW is only five years old. But since, unlike UPN or The WB, it wasn't creating anything new (merger's rarely do), it should have been ready from day one. Instead, it's wasted everyone's time thinking it could pull in young male viewers. "Free to be," it insisted in its first series of ads, and the poor souls honestly thought so, airing male-geared bombs 4Real and In Harm's Way thereby wrecking the Sunday night that Charmed built -- a night that they've never managed to get back. Fridays were WWE Friday Night Smackdown. That ratings bomb, pulled over from UPN, continued for the first two seasons on The CW despite hurting the ratings and complaints from affiliates. The UPN struggler (which never covered its budget in ad revenues) Veronica Mars was CBS' idea of a WB show. And they could never understand why it didn't take off. (Among other reasons because Veronica was a token female on a show dominated by males.)

"I need to figure out a way to break the darkness," Clark declared faced with the series' final obstacles. He might as well have been speaking for the netlette because the CW came dangerously close to extinction up until Gossip Girl and 90210 revived its fortunes.

90210 took Fox's hit show from the 90s, revamped it and turned it into a popular youth hit for the '00s and, at least so far, the '10s. Gossip Girl was Dynasty re-populated with teenagers. It's in 90210 that The CW finally showed some awareness. Featuring guest spots by original series stars Shannen Doherty, Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth, they knew the first season would have buzz and curiousity viewers, more than enough to pull them through to the end of that first season. But that season was a nightmare as the producer The CW cared about bailed and the two left kept trying to change what The CW had purchased. Muscling out those two to keep the show geared towards tweens and young women was the smartest thing The CW has done -- and the ratings back that up.

At the end of The WB, they weren't doing much right. 2001 marks the beginning of the downfall. The WB had become the most talked about netlette, it dominated the industry magazines and the consumer ones (like Entertainment Weekly) but then the consensus was, "Okay, now we're going to do what we really wanted to!" It's no surprise that the last great WB show (Gilmore Girls) was launched in 2000. 2001 is when they begin importing failing shows from other networks, shows that don't really fit The WB image. 2001 is when they begin to think they can muck with the formula.

'What the little girls want,' the suits decided, 'is pretty boys. As long as we do that, we can do any kind of show.'

They were wrong. But they just knew that they could do a horror show about demons that would bring in the fellows as long as they made the leads two young hotties. That's how you get Supernatural which, as we once pointed out, is "like really bad gay porn where the leads forget to take their clothes off." Smallville was a little smarter. If only when it came to disrobing. As we noted in 2005, "You're cued that the bod is supposed to be really hot by the opening credits where you see Tom Welling in stages of undress not once, not twice, but three times." It was a 'strategy,' it just wasn't a winning one. Neither show was ever a big hit (Smallville had a dynamic debut, that's all it had ratings wise) and their only real impact can be found online. That's where you can find the Wincest stories of the boys of Supernatural fooling around (and sometimes Sam gets Dean pregnant) or the gay erotic stories of Tom Welling where he usually ends up, if not flying, at least swinging . . . in a sling.

In a frantic moment of the series finale, Tom Welling basically turns to the camera and asks, "What if this is all wrong? My training, Smallville, the farm. My memories. What if it was all just a crutch?" Were we a former male model who never learned to act, we'd be worried as well.

At 34 and with 10 years of celebrity-dom (if not stardom), it's a bit late in the game to try to learn to act. And 34 is way too late to be hoping to ride the next teen or tween interest wave. Welling was smart to grasp that he couldn't be seen in the Superman suit because he'd packed on too many pounds around the middle. (Note the final scene with Welling on the roof. His guts hanging over his pants and when he starts removing the white dress shirt, they stop before his belly would have been exposed.) Sensing the teen throb gravy train was ending, Welling attached himself to a prospective TV series, Hellcats, as an executive producer -- a smart move for an actor who hasn't been able to get any work other than his TV series for the last six years and who still has nothing lined up for his future.

Welling was even smart enough to use his bargaining power to get The CW to pick up Hellcats for this past season (they really wanted the tenth season of Smallville despite the low ratings of the ninth). It's a shame that the power was used for a poorly written mess which Alessandra Stanley (New York Times) rightly described as "a soft-porn music video for teenagers." No, a soft-porn music video isn't generally the way to lure tween girls into a show. That was far from it's only problems. "Tell me the truth, please for once tell me the truth," a character whined in the bad show's trademark of having characters repeat themselves -- as if the writers needed to pad out each script.

While Welling used his power to get the show on the air, The CW used Welling. They waited until after they'd drained all the promotion gigs they could from Welling and after the series finale of Smallville aired to announce they were giving Hellcats the axe. (Smallville aried its last new epiosde Friday, May 13th. Four days later, The CW announced Hellcats was no more.)


Welling insisted in that series finale, "No one can push me or lead me anywhere. My whole life I've been trying to fit in to two different worlds and the truth is I don't belong to either one of them." If he's referring to acting and producing, we'd agree he's demonstrated nothing to indicate he has the skills for either. Where he goes now, we have no idea.

But The CW seems to be getting the point. The Vampire Diaries started off a bad show but followed The WB formula and improved. It, the success of Gossip Girl and 90120 and the continued performance of One Tree Hill have steered The CW back to its successful roots (which would be The WB). It's for that reason that they're so excited about The Ringer.

Sarah Michelle Geller returns to TV and The CW has her. One of the few bonafide stars of the small screen and they managed to grab her. The hope for the debut is that her Buffy fame will interest young girls and will also pull in the sizeable (when Buffy was on WB, not when it was on UPN) number of males and females who sailed through their teenage years with Buffy as guidance counselor. And after the debut? Friends at The CW swear this show will hook viewers immediately. We'd love to see that. But in the meantime, we're even more excited about The Secret Circle which not only has a great trailer and a Charmed vibe but returns Kevin Williamson to his roots in a way that The Vampire Diaries couldn't and didn't. Williamson was the genius who created Dawson's Creek.


Between now and the fall premieres, many networks will jockey for attention and buzz but, at this point in the game, only The CW deserves it. This could be the year if finally becomes the breakout network.

Has the White House broken the Hatch Act?

Is Twitter campaigning?

It's a question the FEC might want to probe. Barack Obama has a Twitter feed.

No we're not a sitcom actor or Arianna Huffington -- meaning we're not stupid enough to have ever believed Barack Obama does his own Tweets. So when the news broke in November 2009 (here for Marshall Kirkpatrick reporting it at Readwriteweb.com) that Barack had declared in a townhall that "I have never used Twitter," we weren't at all surprised.

But the Twitter feed, started after Barack became President of the United States, has managed to fool 8,309,213 people -- or help the fools delude themselves -- that he Tweets.

The White House has used the feed to communicate to citizens. But, uh-oh, you gotta' draw a line between government service and campaigning.





Some might find that third Tweet -- congratulating Democratic candidate Kathy Hochul on her win -- as problematic. Our focus is on that second Tweet, the one right above it, the one that reads: "2012 Battleground States Director Mitch Stewart gives a video briefing on our summer organizing strategy. http://OFABO/8WKBaU" Where does it go?

The re-election page of the Barack Obama presidential campaign (see below).



To a page where you can sign up to volunteer on his campaign or you can click on a button and donate.

Does no one remember the furur over Al Gore using a phone in the White House to fundraise?

March 5, 1997, Democracy Now! (link is audio) addressed it. Then-Vice President Al Gore is quoted, from his March 3, 1997 press conference on the issue, stating of his fund raising efforts, "On a few occasions I made some telephone calls from my office in the White House using a DNC credit card. I was advised there was nothing wrong with that practice. The Hatch Act has a specific provision saying that while federal employees are prohibited from requesting campaign contributions, the president and the vice president are not covered by that act because obviously we are candidates."

David Rabin, then of Public Campaign, explained on the program, "He's accused of soliciting monies from a government office building I think that's the gist of the allegation and he is basically saying that his attorney has advised him there's no controlling legal authority that prevents him from doing that." Rabin said the problem is an appearance of impropriety. But he repeatedly noted he didn't want to talk about the issue of whether or not a crime was committed, he had (he thought) bigger fish to fry and wasted it on a (generic) lecture about campaign financing.

October 6, 1993, then-President Bill Clinton signed the Hatch Act and he declared:

The Federal Employees Political Activities Act, which I'm about to sign, will permit federal employees and postal workers on their own time to manage campaigns, raise funds, to hold positions within political parties. Still, there will be some reasonable restrictions. They wouldn't be able to run for partisan political office themselves, for example, and there will be some new responsibilities, which I applaud the federal employees' unions for embracing and supporting.

While we restore political rights to these millions of citizens, we also hold them to high standards at the federal workplace, where the business of our nation is done will still be strictly off limits to partisan political activity. Workers on the job won't even be allowed to wear political campaign buttons. At the same time, the reforms will maintain restrictions on the activities of workers in the most sensitive positions -- in law enforcement and national security.

That means the Twitter of Barack Obama's is going to need a few changes.

First off, no more Barack Obama pretense. Now that the Twitter feed is being used as a campaign tool, the American people need to know who is writing the Tweets to ensure that the Tweets are not being written on the tax payer's bill or at the federal workplace.

It was never a good idea for the president who has quickly become synomous with lying to pretend he did a Twitter feed. Now that his presidential Twitter feed is being used for partisan campaigning, it's, in fact, dangerous, and possibly illegal.

Just Another Iraq War success story

Iraq. Where an illegal war has brought democracy and freedom.

For Little Saddam (Nouri al-Maliki) maybe.

But for the people?

Not really. And the woman above (screen snap from video at Free Iraq uprising) holds a photo of her husband. She took part in the False Promise Friday protest in Baghdad. The one the US media ignored. They couldn't shut up about Moqtada al-Sadr's 'protest.'

Moqtada, you may remember, announced his protest weeks ago. It was going to be huge. Huge. He was going to turn out his 2.5 million supporters in Baghdad, turn 'em out and turn 'em loose. It would be the protest to end all protests.

But the press ignored all those previous statements, all those prior boasts. Thursday that 'protest' took place. Allegedly 17,000 members of his militia marched through the streets of Sadr City. (Sadr City is a slum in Baghdad.) A functioning press would have asked, "What happened to the big demonstration in downtown Baghdad you swore was coming?"

They didn't ask. They didn't bother.

Reality: Moqtada quickly realized he couldn't turn out the protest he'd boasted of. At which point, he switched to a march by his militia.

The US press -- the same press that ignores actual protests in Iraq -- rushed to insist that "tens of thousands" took part. They got that number by turning observers into participants. The so-called "tens of thousands" (70,000, the AP wanted to insist) were nothing but residents of Sadr City opening their front doors to see what was marching past their homes.

And so a faux protests, a media staged event, proved that when the press wants to, it can cover Iraq. (For more on the press' Moqtada nonsense, see this by C.I.)

And, the next day, when actual protests took place, the same press again demonstrated that they weren't interested in real protests. At least four people were arrested protesting in Baghdad Friday. The Great Iraqi Revolution reported: "THE 4 YOUNG ACTIVISTS WHO WERE ARRESTED TODAY BY QASSIM ATTA AND TAKEN TO A PLACE UNKNOWN - 27.5.2011 - THEIR NAMES ARE: JIHAD JALEEL, ALI ABDUL KHALIQ, MOUAYED AL TAYEB AND AHMED AL BAGHDADI. We pray God to have them released very soon."

The Great Iraqi Revolution reported? Yes. And more and more they are the only outlet you can count on to provide the truth about what's going on in Iraq.

The woman in the screen snap is one of many who have taken to the streets of Baghdad (and around Iraq, in fact) holding photos of their missing loved ones. It's a story the US press has taken no interest in.

They're too busy trying to sell the 'success' of the Iraq War and, to pull off that fable, they have to bleach a lot of reality out of the story.

Diane Rehm manages to book even fewer women (Ann, Ava and C.I.)

If Republicans in Congress want to cut off NPR's government funding, we'd recommend they attach an equality clause to the funding. As our studies have demonstrated repeatedly, NPR's not at all interested in providing the same platform for women that it does for men. Last year, we spent the full 12 months following Terry Gross' Fresh Air. What did we find?

That women made up only 18.546% of the guests. 18.546%. Now, off the airwaves, in the US,
women are said to make up 50.1% of the population. To pretend that they were represented on Fresh Air requires a lot of stupid or a lot of drugs. Possibly, Terry Gross could provide you with both.



We're now studying The Diane Rehm Show and already found dismaying results, as noted in "Diane Rehm's gender imbalance (Ann, Ava and C.I.)." The examination found that, for April, only 34.48% of her guests (only 34%) were women.


The month of May still has two days in it. Monday, May 30th, Diane intends to rebroadcast (one man, one woman -- the woman is the second hour and is Carly Simon, an interview worth listening to). Tuesday she has five guests scheduled for the first hout (US House Rep Michael Burgess, Norman Ornstein, Ron Pollack, Julie Rovner and Joy Johnson Wilson) and one guest for the second hour (Anthony Facui). Should that schedule change, we'll change our figures in the next installment and note that the scheduled line up changed. (If there's no change, we'll note that next time as well, just so we're all on the same page.)

But using the data for Monday and Tuesday, we're left with a total of 118 guests.

For those with poor math skills, 59 guests would have to be women for an equal number of women to have been booked. But 59 weren't women. You want to guess how many were women?

Thirty-two were women, eight-six guests were men. Which breaks down to, for the month of May, 27.11% of her guests were female. From the embarrassing 34% of April, Diane Rehm managed to actually drop lower, to 27%.

Some might think Diane doesn't notice this. Really? When twice this month she did an entire two hour broadcast with not one female guest, you think she couldn't notice that? Do you also think she doesn't notice that her show doesn't book women for 'hard news'? Especially when the panel is discussing debt or science, Diane can provide three and five guests but she and her producers really seem to struggle to find a woman to include.

Time and again, Diane sends the message that women are good as artists (Carly Simon) and as readers (book discussions) but they're not good at the sciences. And even when she allows that women are good as artists and readers, please note men fair much better there and that book discussions are usually about books written by men.

If NPR applied Diane or Terry Gross' percentages to hosts, a good number of on air women would be on the unemployment line. Time and again, NPR seems to intentionally broadcast this message from their female staff: I got mine.

That's neither fair nor reflective. We won't hold our breath waiting for NPR's ombudsperson to tackle the issue. When we did our year-long study of Fresh Air, the ombudsperson was "curious" and "interested" but apparently still falling back on her (false) claim that she can't comment on Fresh Air because it's not an NPR show. Of course, NPR broadcasts the show. Of course, NPR holds the copyrights to the show. In fact, that detail alone makes it legally an NPR show but legalities aren't taught in J-school. Equally true is that she has commented on Fresh Air several times before including when Terry felt the need to use the n-word on air. So it's really just that Alicia Shephard doesn't comment on Fresh Air unless she wants to. The Diane Rehm Show, as we have noted before, is regularly identified as an NPR show by the press. (The New York Times among them.) No requests for correction come in on that.


With the exception of Monday and Tuesday's guests, you can find tallies in the posts below (from Ann's site):

• 4 men, 2 women
• Three men, 1 woman
• 4 guests, 3 were men
• Pretty sick
• 4 men, 1 woman

2 of 10

• 
  
• 6 guests, only 1 was a woman
• 3 men, 1 woman
• 4 men, 1 woman

• 2 women, 4 men
• 6 guests, only 1 was a woman
• 4 men, 2 women
• 5 guests -- all men
• 5 men, 4 women

• 3 and 3
• 5 men, 1 woman
• 7 men, four women
• 4 men, 2 women

Applauding Mickey Z and other truth tellers

Memorial Day is a when the fallen US service members are remembered. It's often said truth is the first casualty of war. It certainly was the first casualty of the Iraq War -- as Liane Hansen and weapons inspector David Kay noted on today's Weekend Edition (NPR).

Kay spoke of being shunned for telling the truth. And that reminded us of just how popular liars can be. For example, 'brave' 'lefties' Eric Alterman and Katrina vanden Heuvel love to praise two-bit speech writer Hendrik Hertzberg (a centrist, a fool and a liar) because he writes for The New Yorker. And the two-bit speechwriter writes for The New Yorker because he lies. He lies and runs with the pack. That was evident in 2000 when he not only refused to call out the attacks on Al Gore but he took part in them and wrote that Al Gore claimed he invented the internet. (Al Gore never said any such thing.) Of course, this is the same Hendrik who embarrssed himself in 2004 as his dippy collected 'writings' came out in Politics by appearing on Air America Radio and being asked a very basic question which he rushed to run from . . . only for the host to point out that Hendrik himself had noted this when covering the campaign of George H.W. Bush many moons ago and that it was among the observations in his just-released Politics. Hendrik didn't really have a response for that proving the adage that a confronted gasbag is often a silenced gasbag.

A number of people disgraced themselves in 2008 -- and a number have continued to disgrace themselves since -- as they traded in independence for membership in the Cult of St. Barack. Some have come forward and admitted they were wrong.

As Marcia explained last week, it's okay to be wrong. We could have all been wrong. If we were were, if Barack had pulled all US troops out of Iraq, if he'd addressed the needs of the people and not the corporations, etc., we'd be mature enough to say, "Golly were we wrong in 2008 -- and since -- when we repeatedly called out Barack as a corporatist War Hawk."

Maturity doesn't mean you won't be wrong. We will all be wrong in our lifetimes. Repeatedly. Maturity is realizing you were wrong and being able to admit it, to own it.

Looking at a candidate in 2016, some of us may see someone of strength, some of us may seem someone bought and paid. And that can be opinion and one group may end up right and one group wrong.

But there is another layer.

That layer is the group that betrayed everything they supposedly believed in to push their candidate of choice. For example, FAIR still hasn't gotten honest about how they repeatedly and consistently ignored sexism in the 2008 Democratic Party primaries while calling out real racism and pretend racism to advance their candidate (Barack). They're supposed to be a watchdog. They never once called out, for example, Keith Olbermann. When, under pressure and with the Democratic Party primaries wrapping up, they finally addressed sexism on their show (CounterSpin), it took Hillary being called a "bitch" on CNN. And they spent one sentence on that, forgetting to tell you who said it because they were much more interested in (yet again) insisting that Barack had been wronged. Ava and C.I. documented the silence on sexism throughout the primaries from FAIR and noted it when CounterSpin finally found an example of sexism:

Peter Hart: One of the most disturbing features of the media coverage of the Democratic presidential race is the way racism and sexism have been expressed. CNN viewers were treated to one pundit explanation that people might call Hillary Clinton a bitch because well isn't that just what some women are. Not everyone's so out in the open. MSNBC host Chris Matthews opened his May 18th show wondering how Barack Obama would connect with regular Democrats? Obviously code for working class Whites. This would seem to make the millions of Obama voters so far irregular. But then consider the May 14th op-ed by Washington Post Writers Group Kathleen Parker. She wrote about 'full bloodness' and the patriot divide between Obama and John McCain offering that there is "different sense of America among those who trace their bloodlines through generations of sacrifice." This makes Obama less American than his likely Republican rival and his success part of a larger threat "There is a very real sense that once upon a time America is getting lost in the dash to diversity." Well thanks to The Washington Post, Parker's rant appeared in newspapers around the country including the Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune. We're not sure what those papers used for a headline but one blogger suggest [nonsense] would do. Parker's attack wasn't even new. Before in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan wondered if Obama had ever gotten misty thinking about his country's rich heritage. John McCain by contrast "carries it in his bones." There's an appetite in corporate media for such repellent ideas as Editor & Publisher's Greg Mitchell recalled, Noonan's column was praised by NBC's anchor Brian Williams as Pulitzer worthy.

And, in 2008, that was the extent of the calling out of sexism against Hillary by the so-called 'watch dog.'

FAIR needs to own what they did. They weren't just wrong, they violated every core belief they preach (apparently, they don't hold these core beliefs, they just preach them). They were far from alone.

Howard Zinn was a historian. He was a rabble rouser. He was one of the left's brightest lights. And he built up his repuation over many, many decades.

But he trashed everything he stood for to whore for Barack.

Howard endorsed Barack. When the shock and backlash was too much, Howard immediately made an announcement that he was endorsing Ralph Nader. From the Nader Campaign's October 29, 2008 press release:

Howard Zinn now says he’s voting for Nader.

The famous historian lives in Massachusetts, where Obama is ahead by 20 points.

Zinn created a stir earlier when he said he was voting for Obama.

He legitimately took some heat for supporting the corporate Obama.

But late last night, Zinn admitted in an e-mail to our campaign that he made a mistake and now says he will vote for Nader.

And Zinn urges all people of conscience to vote for the true progressive in slam dunk states.

But, of course, this just more Coward Zinn. The 'independent' who counted on the support of the disenfranchised to become a known quantity didn't really support independents. He would go on to insist that if you were in a swing state, you should vote for Barack.

Had people followed that sort of advice when buying history books, no one would ever purchased one by Zinn. Is there anything sadder than a dreamer who can no longer dream?

Even worse, Coward lied. He did not vote for Ralph. He only said he was going to in order to stop the criticism (rightful criticism) of his cowardice and his selling out. After the election, Coward would repeatedly brag about voting for Barack in interview after interview. He would allow his name to be used -- the 'independent' -- for an inaugural ball. (Anthony Arnove would insist to us that he and Howard were not attending and that it was too late to remove their names. That is and was a falsehood.) In one of her last conversations with him, Elaine would point out that he had betrayed his life's work and he wasn't getting any younger but Howard would poo-pah that and insist that Barack was the second coming. He died shortly after and never managed to improve or salvage his legacy.

His actions trashed his legacy.

For some strange reason (ignorance), Riverdaughter is on one tear after another at the left (she's been getting right-wing linkage for some time now and maybe she's ready to cross over?). In her delusioned state, it was she and only she who stood up against the Cult of St. Barack.

That's not true, that's not true at all.

In real time, there were many of us who had the courage to stand up.

The tens of thousands of readers who look to Zinn as a trusted voice of wisdom and reason are being dangerously misled by an article that omits the reality that every indication points to Barack Obama doing the exact opposite of what Zinn writes. Zinn knows as well as anyone that not an iota of evidence exists that Obama would do anything approaching what is described above. For a man of Zinn’s stature on the Left to even hint of such a possibility is a shockingly irresponsible act and one that only contributes to the misguided perception that Obama’s election is somehow a victory for the progressive Left.

That's Mickey Z, showing the kind of courage that gets you attacked ("News Flash: Obama Hypnotized Zinn"). Bad enough that you get attacked on it real time, but to be forgotten afterward?

Riverdaughter knows full well the fallout from telling the truth about Barack in 2008, as do we. So for her to repeatedly state and imply that the left was silent when they weren't isn't just wrong, isn't just insulting, it's shameful. We're not fans of Riverdaughter, we really can't stand her these days, but we will not deny her the credit she deserves for being correct about Barack Obama. It's a real shame she can't provide the same courtesy and recognition to others.

Mickey Z wasn't taking a one-time stance. He was vocal, he was vocal repeatedly. And he called out some of the big names and did so based upon what they did and said in the past and present. (As opposed to Riverdaughter who can't stop slamming Chris Hedges for things he's never done or written.) Here's Mickey Z when Noam Chomsky and Coward endorsed Barack:
This strategy of choosing an alleged 'lesser evil' because he/she might be influenced by some mythical 'popular movement' would be naive if put forth by a high school student. Professors [Noam] Chomsky and Zinn know better. If it's incremental change they want, why not encourage their many readers to vote for Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney? The classic (read: absurd) reply to that question is: 'Because Nader or McKinney can't win.' Of course they can't win if everyone who claims to agree with them inexplicably votes for Obama instead. Paging Alice: You're wanted down the ______ rabbit hole.

Down the rabbit hole, indeed. Seems we need a day of remembrance for truth tellers as well.

The TV roundtable

Ty: It's Memorial Day Weekend and my boyfriend and I went to my grandparents for the holiday. My plan was to take the weekend off but when I happened to text Jess and he told me there was some talk of a TV roundtable, I texted back, "I'll moderate!" If you'd like to e-mail, our e-mail address is thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. Participating in this roundtable are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Ava, and me, Ty; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Ruth of Ruth's Report; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; and Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript. Ava and C.I. take the notes and that may be the bulk of what they do this roundtable.





Ty: Okay. A great deal to cover. First off, this edition, Ava and C.I.'s TV article is on The CW. They're providing an overview of it and Betty observed that it's "really an overview of the TV industry period." At which point, I hollered over the phone, "Stop! Stop! Save it for the roundtable." By the way, everyone participating is in DC except me and I'm participating by phone. Betty, why don't you start there?

Betty: Well The WB and UPN merged in 2006 to form The CW. The WB was one of the few, really the only, networks geared towards women. As Ava and C.I. establish in their piece, that was already changing at The WB by 2001 and that's really true of the whole industry. And this point, about how hostile TV has been to women in the '00s, it was a very hostile decade, isn't an observation I'm originating, to be clear, this is what Ava and C.I. long observed and long documented. Maybe it was the violence of the '00s, maybe it was a reflection of who was in the White House, maybe it was just the continued hatred of women, but women really were forced to the back of the bus for the bulk of the decade.

Ruth: Right. And Betty and my favorite TV show of the decade was The New Adventures of Old Christine. It was one of the few shows that starred a woman, one of the few shows that became a hit, and even so, the whole time, it had to battle to stay on the air. And, again, Ava and C.I. document that over and over, year after year, how CBS is trying to undermine that show until they finally cancel it. Find me one other show CBS treated the way in the last decade? You cannot. Now find me one other successful CBS sitcom that starred a woman in the last decade? Again, you cannot.

Betty: And while, as Ruth and I have said, Ava and C.I. documented the attacks on the show by the network repeatedly, for the two of us, they really drove it home in February 2007 with "TV: All just a bit of (CBS) history repeating."

Ruth: And, three years later, the show got the axe. After withstanding one assault after another. It also made me not really care about watching TV anymore. This was a funny show and I loved every character on the show. Old Christine, Barb, New Christine, Richard, Richie, Matthew. I loved the guest stars.

Betty: I really find it strange that CBS has so many sitcoms but they cancel the only one that my daughter can watch and see someone like herself. I'm referring to Wanda Sykes. My daughter loved Wanda. The first time she walked through the room while I was watching the show and Wanda was on, my daughter stopped cold, stared at the TV, let out this loud laugh, then turned to me and said, "Mommy, she's funny." And she was. Barb and Christine were the best TV pairing since Lucy and Ethel. But CBS couldn't stand it apparently and they can't apparently stand Black women. This season, they had Two and A Half Men, Rules of Engagement, How I Met Your Mother, Mad Love, Mike & Molly, the William Shatner sitcom and The Big Bang Theory. That's seven shows. Some of which take place in major cities, like How I Met Your Mother. But they didn't have one Black female actress starring or co-starring. Let me explain that I am not asking CBS to put a Black woman on every one of their TV shows. I wouldn't complain if they did, but I'm not asking for that. I am asking them why they had seven sitcoms and not one of them featured a Black woman in the cast? I'm damn tired of their sexism and I'm sick of their racism.

Ty: Betty, you've written at your site and spoken here over the years of shows like The Boondocks and others that might be a little too mature for kids but you'd let your oldest son watch anyway.

Betty: Right. Just because he is mature and there are so few shows that he can see someone like himselv in. I'm Black, my kids are Black, we've got color TVs that will show any color but the networks don't seem to want to put the color Black before the cameras.

Ty: There was Undercovers on NBC last fall --

Stan: Sorry. Not Black. Not in the sense that we had two Black Americans in the leads. Both of those people were from other countries. It was also a really bad show. But, yes, I will give NBC credit there for trying.

Betty: Both of my sons were really hoping on that show. They wanted it to be good. Then they watched the first episode and they hated it. They especially hated the woman. For the reasons outlined in Ava and C.I.'s "TV: It Takes Two" actually. They didn't buy them as a couple. But anyway, my daughter and I watched Ugly Betty for Vanessa Williams -- it was a great show but we watched it together for Vanessa. And now we watch Desperate Housewives together for Vanessa Williams. We also watch an A&E detective show because they have a Black woman in the main cast. I forget the name of the show.

C.I.: The Glades.

Betty: Yes, thank you.

Ty: And your kids watch Happy Endings.

Betty: Right. And there are sexual jokes in that ABC sitcom. My boys are both old enough that I really don't care. They're laughing at those jokes. My daughter might be a little bit young, maybe not, but Damon Wayans Jr. is on the show. And he's usually the one doing the sexual humor that they can all get -- because his is usually less a line and more of him dropping his pants. But I seriously hope ABC and Marc Cherry get the responsibility they have by having Vanessa in the cast. That doesn't mean she can't be stupid or bitchy or a victim or whatever. But it does mean they need to be sure she gets a spotlight as much as the other women.

Ty: Betty's youngest son had a favorite show, The Cape. That was also one of Stan's favorite shows. NBC gave it the axe. Stan?

Stan: I don't know. Both of my favorite shows got the axe: The Cape and No Ordinary Family. Maybe there's just not a place for a super hero show on TV? I really was surprised to see them both bite the dust. I was prepared to lose one but to lose both?

Wally: Okay, Stan, when you say you were prepared to lose one, what do you mean? You were preparing yourself?

Stan: Right. I was preparing myself for losing one. Some days, I would think it was The Cape, some days I would think it was No Ordinary Family. But I never thought it would be both. I'm pretty much where Ruth was after they cancelled The New Adventures of Old Christine, feeling like maybe I won't even bother to watch anymore.

Ty: Both of those shows, Stan, were new shows, this was their first season. Any shows that are already on that you'd consider watching?

Stan: Well I'll probably watch The Good Wife online. But that's the other thing. Like a lot of people, I had to look at my finances due to the bad economy and I dropped cable. Even with the converter box, I can't pick up CBS so any of those shows I would watch, I'd have to watch online.

Ty: Mike, you were in a similar position to Stan. The two shows you follow are Chuck and Fringe and they were both at risk.

Mike: Right but they both got brought back. Fringe got brought back despite having lower ratings than No Ordinary Family and The Cape. Chuck will be in its last season. They've ordered 13 episodes and told the producers that this is the last season. If Fringe's ratings don't go up, I wouldn't be surprised if this time next year we're learning it got cancelled too. And I do know what Stan's talking about because I thought one of the two would get the axe. And I was trying to prepare myself too. I had actually gone further than Stan because I had picked which one I could deal with losing more and that was Fringe. If one had to be kicked off screen, I decided I could handle it being Fringe better.

Wally: And then after the season finales you really felt that way.

Mike: Right. I mean Fringe basically evaporated Joshua Jackson's character. Not that Chuck was much better. Looking like they've put the intersect into Morgan. If that's the new season, don't air 13 episodes. Air one and then cancel the damn thing. But in a lot of ways, Stan and I, in both our situations are better off than Marcia.

Stan: Right because she doesn't know what's happening to her show.

Ty: Marcia's show is The Event. What's going on there?

Marcia: NBC gave it the axe. That should be the end of it. But there are all these rumors that someone -- maybe Netflix -- will pick it up. The last episode of the show -- or of season one -- aired Monday and I still haven't blogged about it. I did watch it. I just don't know what's happening. In a way, I'm sad for Stan that both of his shows got the axe but I wish I knew what was going on with The Event.

Ty: The Event, Fringe, No Ordinary Family and The Cape can all be seen as sci fi shows. And of them, only Fringe will be returning. Marcia, you're a big sci fi fan.

Marcia: Right. That's my favorite actually. I watch the Star Gates and the Star Treks and the Galaticas. I just find the genre interesting. And another sci fi show got the axe, ABC's V. Stan was talking about how he has to catch CBS online and I think that's a point that really has to be made. If you can't get the show online, it's not going to find the same kind of audience. V ticked off viewers by not being online.

Ty: A good point. Do you see things changing for sci fi?

Marcia: Well there's The CW. But I'm not really into teen shows. However, the Sarah Michelle Geller show, The Ringer, I will be watching the first episode of that to see where it goes. I wish, since The CW has tried to bring back 90s hits 90219 and Melrose, they would make an attempt to bring back The X-Files.

Ty: Interesting. Rebecca, we're nearing the end of the roundtable. At your site, you covered Heroes until NBC cut that show --

Rebecca: It needed to get the axe. That show just got worse and worse with each episode of that last season.

Ty: And this year you picked up Brothers & Sisters which ABC cut. You weren't surprised that they cut it. Or it didn't seem to me you were.

Rebecca: I wish it had come back in that I would watch it if it did. But it was the end of my world or anything. I enjoyed the show and thought Sally Field was amazing. I feel bad for her. But otherwise, it's not that upsetting. Probably because it got a real ending. The season finale that ended up being the series finale worked well as an ending for the show.

Ty: You were the first in the community to start blogging about a TV show, I think. It might have been Mike, but I think you were doing TV flashback posts before Mike started. I know Mike started blogging about Chuck in the show's first year. Why do it?

Rebecca: I think it was 2005 when I did a post about Dynasty. And it really brought in some readers. And what I found was that if you write about a show you like, you'll find others who like the show. And Mike was the first to blog about a TV show each week at his site.

Mike: Yeah, with Chuck and then I added Fringe. What I like, and what I think readers like, is that each week they know -- while new episodes air, that you're going to be blogging about that. It gives it a bit of a schedule. They know, "Oh, it's Tuesday, Mike's going to blog about Chuck." And there's also the fact that someone who is a big fan of, for example, No Ordinary Family and reading Stan's stuff has the chance to read the Iraq snapshot that day. And they might otherwise not get exposed to anything to do with the Iraq War.

Ty: Okay, we're wrapping up but, Wally, when Rebecca went to London to do some work for the Labour Party in the elections, you filled in for her and grabbed Heroes, what was it like to blog about the TV show.

Wally: A pain, actually. I had to figure out what to include and what not to. And no matter what I included, I knew there would be e-mails -- and there were, always -- about what I had left out.

Betty: I get that too. And I'll just end up doing another post on the episode of Desperate Housewives.

Wally: And that's fine because it's your blog but I was always thinking, "I'm doing it wrong and I'm going to run off everyone of Rebecca's readers."

Ty: Alright, so that's what it's like to blog about the shows, and we talked about what it was like to lose your favorite shows and even offered a bit of hope for the fall via Marcia's hope for The Ringer. So that's going to be it for this roundtable. This is, again, a rush transcript.

FBI witch-hunt (Workers World)

Repost from Workers World:

FBI steps up anti-communist witch-hunt

By Michael Martinez
Los Angeles

Published May 26, 2011 10:22 PM

The sun had not dawned yet on the cold, crisp morning of May 17 in Alhambra, a neighborhood east of Los Angeles. It was hard to believe spring had arrived that morning when at 5 a.m. the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team assembled in front of Carlos Montes’ driveway and front yard. The silence was shattered along with Montes’ door as the officers rammed it down and then sprang into his home bearing automatic rifles.

May 20 protest at Federal Building in Los Angeles. WW photo: John Parker

Montes is a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. He has been a long-time activist for immigrant rights and Chicano liberation in southern California. He was a founder of the Brown Berets and a fighter with Chicano Moratorium.

A leader in the Southern California Immigration Coalition, Montes has led the big May 1 immigrant marches in Los Angeles since 2006, along with many other fighters like BAYAN USA, Union del Barrio and the International Action Center.

Although the LASD claimed they raided Montes’ residence over an illegal weapon’s charge, the true nature of the raid was revealed when they ransacked his house and took historical political documents dealing with more than 40 years of his activism, photos, his computers and his cell phones.

Stop the witch-hunt

Montes is not the only activist who has been targeted by the FBI for his solidarity work. Last September the FBI raided 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists’ homes. Many of them belong to FRSO, the same organization to which Montes belongs. They were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.

After these subpoenas were issued, Montes became active, along with many other supporters, among them Workers World Party and Fight Imperialism, Stand Together, in opposing the government’s witch-hunt against FRSO members in the Midwest.

Montes was also named in the FBI’s subpoena which was left in the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee’s office on Sept. 24. Like many of the 23 activists called before the grand jury, he had helped to organize the mass march there on the opening day of the 2008 Republican National Convention.

Building the fightback

On May 20 a crowd of more than 100 activists gathered in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. What was originally set up as a press conference became a raucous rally supporting Montes against the FBI charges.

This writer opened the rally, as the crowd chanted, “FBI: Hands off the movement.” Montes thanked everyone for being there for him and showing support.

John Parker, West Coast regional coordinator of the IAC, spoke in Montes’ defense. He denounced the FBI raids and called for solidarity, evoking Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by stating, “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

Terrie Cervas of Gabriela USA compared the FBI raid against Montes to the treatment faced by political activists in the Philippines at the hands of the U.S.-backed and -trained government.

A truck displaying a large banner in solidarity with Montes stopped traffic in front of the rally. Soon, two Homeland Security SUVs showed up and the truck moved. The government agents chased down the truck and stopped it toward the end of the block. Half a block away, those at the rally could see the agents harassing the truck driver.

The demonstrators rushed over to the truck and pressured the agents to release the driver. The angry crowd chanted, “Let him go! Let him go.” Feet began to move off the sidewalk and into the street. The agents were being surrounded, and feeling the crowd’s pressure, let the truck driver go.

The demonstrators returned to the Federal Building to hear others speak who had been recently targeted by the state, like Alex Sanchez, leader of Homies Unidos, and Nativo Lopez, a long-time immigrant rights advocate.

More local actions will be announced. The FBI raids against Montes and others are unacceptable. The only thing that will stay the hand of the state from repeating another wave of fascist-like McCarthyist incarcerations and COINTELPRO-style repression will be the people’s fightback movement.

---

Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

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Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.

"The teen idol demise of Moqtada al-Sadr (though th..." -- Most requested highlight be readers of this site, C.I. providing the breakdown on al-Sadr.


Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Little Man" -- Isaiah's latest comic, taking on the lack of democracy and freedom under Barry.


"Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Scott Brown, John Kerry, veterans clearing house," "Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (Wally)," "Senate Veterans Affairs Committee,"
"Ron Paul (Ava)" and "Iraq snapshot" -- Congressional hearing reporting in the community by C.I., Wally, Kat and Ava.


"Death of Black Agenda Report?" and "Melissa Harris Perry denies her White Mommy" -- Marcia and Stan on Melissa Harris Lacewell Whoever She Married This Month's attempts to pretend her mother's not White as Melissa pretends to speak for the Black community.



"Bradley" -- Elaine on Bradley Manning.

"Patriot Act and Barack's weak wrist" and "THIS JUST IN! THE SECRET PLAN!" and "Barry O has a mechanical pen? A penis as well?" -- Mike, Wally and Cedric on Barak's 'autopen.'


"Bok Choy in the Kitchen" -- Trina offers a summer recipe.


"The spotlight?" -- As Betty explains, the problem is not the spotlight.


"john pilger, get your facts right" -- why is it that journalist John Pilger can't take the time to get his facts right?


"Ruth's Sleaze Report," "The day, Sleaze Edwards," "The John Edwards Scandals" and "John Edwards" -- Ruth peers into the sewer to cover Edwards.

"The sad end of a so-called peace center" -- Kat explains the end.

"Three flicks on the weekend" -- Stan goes to the movies and Ann covers radio:

• 3 and 3
• 5 men, 1 woman
• 7 men, four women
• 4 men, 2 women

"the role of political wife" -- Rebecca breaks it down.

"Fawing?" -- Kat's amazed that any press can fawn more than the US press.

"She self-embarrasses again!" -- it's like an imploding star -- and Marcia can't look away from it.


"Cindy and Libby" and "The sexually inadequate sexists (Ray and Richard)" -- Elaine and Mike on what's right and what's wrong.


"Retire, Clyburn, retire" -- Betty makes it clear that someone who will be 71 shortly needs to retire.


"No snapshot" -- Mike explains why Tuesday was a night off for the community.


"THIS JUST IN! COLBERT WANTS TO BE A BLONDE!" and "Colbert King, print hooker" -- Wally and Cedric on the latest in a long line of stooges.