An Occupier's open letter to Chris Hedges (WW)

Repost from Workers World:

An Occupier’s open letter to Chris Hedges

Published Mar 30, 2012 9:39 PM

Chris Hedges, a writer for The Nation and former New York Times reporter, spoke at the Left Forum’s closing plenary on March 18 in New York City.

As someone who was among the thousands of youth on Sept. 17 when the occupation of Zuccotti Park began; as someone who attended some of the early General Assemblies prior to that historic day; as someone who was arrested as part of the OWS Martin Luther King Day actions; as someone who is currently involved in the continuing occupation of Union Square in preparation for the May 1st General Strike, I must say loudly and clearly that you, Chris Hedges, do not speak for me.

The speech you gave at the Left Forum this year, in which you presented yourself as someone with authority and wisdom needed by OWS, said things that are the opposite of how I and many other OWSers feel.

First of all, the police brutality rained down on OWS by police departments around the country, coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security, is not the fault of the Black Bloc anarchists or any other elements inside OWS. Before a single window was broken or trash can turned over, the NYPD was brutalizing OWS activists. The blood of OWS activists has been spilled by the NYPD without pause or remorse since the beginning of these demonstrations.

By engaging in particular tactics of resistance, correct or incorrect, the Black Bloc is not responsible for the NYPD’s behavior. The NYPD has killed Ramarley Graham, Sean Bell and countless other African Americans without any provocation. They need no excuse for their viciousness. Don’t blame the victims.

In Oakland, Calif., and all across the U.S., many OWS activists are facing serious criminal charges. Why would you divide the movement by trying to label one section as “violent” and “dangerous”? Why would you aid the state in isolating some sections? Aren’t the Wall Street bankers the real criminals?

Secondly, the remarks you made about the events of 1989-1991 in Eastern Europe were way off.

When the USSR collapsed and the socialist governments of Eastern Europe were overthrown, this was a huge victory for the 1% against the 99%.

Things like the right to health care, education and employment were abolished. Life expectancy in the Eastern European countries went down by big numbers. Right now, the women of Eastern Europe, who once had paid maternity leave, guaranteed employment, and birth control and abortion on demand, are sex trafficked at higher rates than ever.

The events you described in your speech as being so glorious were simply the 1% taking control of Eastern Europe for themselves. Things for the working class have gotten worse since Wall Street recolonized a big chunk of the globe, with your confessed assistance.

I don’t want to model our movement on the events that led to economic catastrophe and mass suffering in Eastern Europe. Rather, the political movements I look to as inspiration for the OWS are the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the Chinese Revolution of 1949, the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and other socialist revolutions where the 99% took power away from the 1%.

In addition, I think much can be learned from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, where young people like us fought to prevent capitalist restoration.

Likewise, the anti-war movement, the Black Liberation movement, the Unemployed Councils and sit-down strike waves of the 1930s have real lessons for OWS on how to fight and win against the 1% here in the U.S.

Many within these movements, just like many of us in OWS, thought of capitalism and U.S. imperialism as the true enemy of humanity. They saw their movements, as we see OWS, as a place to fight to overthrow the system and create a society where the 99% rule.

A new chant has been catching on at OWS rallies in New York. It was on our lips in Union Square on March 21 when they tried to evict us. We also chanted it when we took back Zuccotti with crowds of Left Forum activists.

We chanted, “Just like Ho Chi Minh! Occupy is gonna win!”

When the Vietnamese people kicked the Wall Street bankers out of their country, it was a great victory for all humanity. It took a great deal of militancy and relentless years of heroic sacrifice on the part of the Vietnamese people.

I have no doubt that it will take a similarly long and relentless struggle to bring down the 1% in the U.S. But I’m confident that just as the Soviet people drove the Nazis out of Eastern Europe, the Chinese Red Army drove Japanese imperialism out of their country, and the people of Cuba still stand strong, that just like Ho Chi Minh, we too will win and defeat the 1%!

— Caleb T. Maupin
OWS activist and Workers World Party youth organizer

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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.

"Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot," "Iraq snapshot" and "Iraq snapshot" -- Congressional reporting.

"About the McGurk nomination . . ." and "Grading Nouri and the summit" -- two most requested highlights of the week by readers of this site.

Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Funding Terrorism" -- Isaiah's latest takes on Barack's support for al Qaeda in Iraq in Syria.


"Kat's Korner: Falling in (and out of) love with M. Ward" and "Kat's Korner: Carole Touches the Sky and Soul" -- Kat started this week with a music review and did the same last Sunday.

"Whitney," "Whitney," "community," "Cougar Town," "Whitney," "The Bionic Woman," "I was right and Watchers are idiots (Fringe)," "Are You There, Chelsea?," "TV?," "revenge and death,"
"Body of Proof," "He got fired," "Smash," "Desperate Housewives," "revenge," "The Good Wife" and "Call PBS on its crap" -- Betty, Ann, Rebecca, Ruth, Marcia, Elaine, Mike, Rebecca and Stan cover TV.


"THIS JUST IN! HE LOOKS LIKE HIS UNCLE!" and "If he had an uncle, he would look like Onyango" -- Wally and Cedric flip the script.


"Iraq," "The message," "Another Bush Crime Family Lackey," "executions," "The oil fight," "The promise," "Iraq's LGBT," "The summit" and "The summit" -- Iraq coverage from Trina, Ann, Betty, Rebecca, Ruth, Kat, Marcia and Mike.

"Hunger Games," "Stay Cool," "Mirror, Mirror," "Pretty Tired Woman" and "The Darwin Awards" -- Ann, Stan and Marcia go to the movies.

"Egg Rolls in the Kitchen" -- Trina offers a very simple recipe to make egg rolls.

"The message" and "We're all lotto ticket buyers now" -- Rebecca and Kat examine reality.


"He still does his computer searches on Alta Vista!" and "THIS JUST IN! HE'S THE WAVE OF THE PAST!" -- Cedric and Wally on the tech 'savy' prez.

"Paul McCartney," "Carole King and other things," "Diana Ross and other thoughts" and "Carole King" -- Kat and Betty on music.

"Best Buy closing stores" -- Trina on the economy.

"Me, Joe Biden" -- Isaiah dips into the archives.

Truest statement of the week

In fairness, not every one of the president's defenders believe he is powerless. Cruise missile liberals like Keith Oberman, Rachel Maddow, and Bill Maher accord him the powers of a super hero --- “the black ninja president” for dropping cruise missiles on the cars, relatives and wedding parties of whoever he designates a terrorist, enemy combatant or general nusiance. Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general and a man who says he has “a lot of power,” agrees. The lame “magic wand' excuse only seems to apply for things like stopping foreclosures, curtailing or forgiving student debt or shutting down unjust wars, things his voting constituents actually DO want.

-- Bruce A. Dixon, "Barack Obama, Democratic Expectations and the Magic Wand" (Black Agenda Report).

Truest statement of the week II

No soldier on the ground in Afghanistan or Iraq or anywhere else serving in uniform ought to -- on top of everything else -- be worried about whether the spouse and kids back home can pay the bills. That ought to be our goal, bottom line. 'That part, we got your back. Don't worry about anything but the mission, we've got the rest of it.' And it's very difficult to hear testimony as we did this morning from LTC Zecchini that in the middle of Afghanistan, on the warfront, he's worrying about trying to pay the bills back home and so's his spouse, so are the kids. That's a very human concern, a very legitimate one. We may never get to perfection. It's a big, complex system with lots of change orders. Bigger than any private sector enterprise. I understand. But that ought to be our goal. It's a human goal.

-- US House Rep Gerry Connolly at Thursday's joint-hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Organization, Efficiency and Financial Management and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Federal Financial Management Committee, reported in Friday's "Iraq snapshot."

A note to our readers

Hey --
Another Sunday.

First up, we thank all who participated this edition 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),
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
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.


This wasn't our planned edition. We'd actually planned to do a humor edition for this week. But then the week progressed and it was ignore Iraq at the majority of outlets. Obviously, we don't have that luxury nor would our readers forgive us if we tried to ignore the illegal war.

So we tried to think of what we could do about Iraq and one reader had a suggestion (thank you, Joe Barnes) and we also wanted to include a few non-Iraq pieces to have a mix.


Here's what we came up with:

• Truest statement of the week

Bruce A. Dixon on the Cult of St. Barack.

• Truest statement of the week II

It's not often we let a politician get a truest. We felt this one was more than important enough. Dona may talk to C.I., Ava, Kat and Wally about Congress next weekend. This weekend, there wasn't time.

• Editorial: Where in the world and on TV is Iraq?

Iraq just fell right off, dropped off the fact of the earth, if you believe most media outlets. This is a long editorial and we didn't plan it but, Janie, we'll pretend we did it just for you. (Janie e-mailed last week saying she missed long editorials she could "sink my teeth into.")

• TV: Iraq goes MIA

Jess is bored with the illustration for Ava and C.I.'s TV pieces and is toying with this for the latest. Let him know what you think. Ava and C.I. cover the failure of TV news yet again. This wasn't their planned piece. They were going to do an entertainment show but when we wanted to beef up Iraq coverage for this edition, one of the most obvious suggestions, and it came from them (Ava and C.I.) was to grade the networks' coverage of the 9th anniversary.

• From the TESR Test Kitchen

High up in the mix because it's a popular feature, yes, but also because it's not a weighty piece and we're trying to have a mix.

• Would you pay to support sexism? (Ava and C.I.)

This was planned for next week. Ava and C.I. rushed it ("totally unprepared," says Ava) when we decided to toss aside our planned humor edition and instead emphasize Iraq with other stories for a mix. Thank you to TCI community members Billie, Heather, Michael, Ryan and Stephanie who read this piece -- they were among the readers who first brought the gender imbalance on this radio station to our problem and they were kind enough to read it Sunday morning after Ava and C.I. were convinced the piece failed in every way. (They always hate their own writing.) At which point, Jess and Dona suggested we get feedback on it from some of the people who brought the problem to our attention.

• 2002: You had to fight to be heard

What can we do on Iraq? Ty brought up two e-mails and he and I suggested we find some pre-war coverage. Jess and C.I. suggested this program. Dona said, "I don't think we've given Eleanor Clift any credit in years."

• Iraq Quiz

Thank you to reader Joe Barnes who e-mailed asking if, to note the 9th anniversary, we could repost this quiz we wrote in 2007.

• The Great Compromiser Olympia Snowe (Ava and C.I.)...

I (Jim) asked Ava and C.I. to cover this as a TV piece the morning after it aired. They agreed to consider it. And they wrote it! Best of all.

• Iraq video report of the week

Lisa was among those writing recently who asked if we could post videos more often. I remembered that e-mail when we were talking about how to provide more Iraq coverage for this edition. And I asked, "Was there any Iraq video report worth highlighting?"

• The face of 'authority' on PBS

Ann wants this up at all community sites. Last week, we wrote "PBS, we don't want to see it in 2012" and Ann reposted it at her site. This edition, she suggested we note this again. Betty immediately agreed and they (and Dona) think we should note this a few more times just to get the point across.

• Women warriors in labor history (Martha Grevatt)

Workers World repost.

• What is going on at Madigan Army Medical Center?

Senator Patty Murray chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and wants answers about the Madigan Army Medical Center and PTSD.

• Salem-News.com Under Attack (Tim King)

Salem-News.com repost.

• HRW: Investigate VP bodyguard's death

Human Rights Watch repost.

• Highlights

Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.

And that's what we came up with. See you next week.

Peace.

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

Editorial: Where in the world and on TV is Iraq?

As Ava and C.I. cover in their TV commentary this week, the networks were AWOL on Iraq last Monday which was the 9th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. And not just on the day of the 9th anniversary of the war that TV news worked so damn hard to sell, but the whole week.

And it wasn't just them. As C.I. and Betty observed last week, so-called 'independent' media was silent as well. Matthew Rothschild and his so-called Progressive magazine didn't have time for a blog post on Iraq, nor did The Nation magazine, nor did In These Times, nor did Democracy Now!, nor did . . . They made a lot of money and built an audience off the Iraq War. But that was when a Republican occupied the White House.


That's even more amazing when you consider that Iraq has not 'recovered' nor has the US occupation ended. For example, in anticipation of the scheduled Arab League Summit, Nouri al-Maliki has rendered Baghdad a heavily guarded ghost town. Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi has charged that Nouri's forces tortured his bodyguard, Amir Sarbut Zaidan al-Batawi, to death, Iraqi security forces told the press that, after the summit, Emo girls and young women will be targeted for death, violence continued to cause Iraqi Christians to flee Iraq,
attacks on Tuesday left over 56 dead and over 200 injured, and KRG President Massoud Barzani gave a major speech where he denounced the current state of the Baghdad-based government and Nouri al-Maliki:

Power-sharing and partnership between Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and others is now completely non-existent and has become meaningless. The Iraqi Constitution is constantly violated and the Erbil agreement, which was the basis upon which the current government was formed, has been completely ignored. As soon as they came to power, they disregarded the Constitution, the previous agreements that we had, and the principle of power-sharing.
[. . .]
There is an attempt to establish a one-million strong army whose loyalty is only to a single person. Where in the world can the same person be the prime minister, the chief of staff of the armed forces, the minister of defense, the minister of interior, the chief of intelligence and the head of the national security council.



Those are just some of the week's highlights.

Not everyone was silent.

PRI did cover the attacks on The World where anchor Lisa Mullins spoke with McClatchy News Service's Iraqi correspondent Sahar Issa:

Sahar Issa: [. . .] And I think insurgents want to remind people that although nine years have passed, everything in Iraqi politics today stems from an occupation of the country.

Lisa Mullins: The fact that the explosions are continuing now in such large numbers, what's the potential that this will derail the Arab League Summit next week?

Sahar Issa: The Iraqi government has taken this into consideration, I believe, because they have given two days holiday and there is a high possibility -- in fact, it is expected -- that a curfew will be announced. In which case, if people want to arrange bombings, it is going to be very difficult. But I don't believe it will be derailed, I believe it will take place. The Iraqi government looks to the summit to give it legitimacy in the Arab world. I doubt very much that it is going to let this opportunity slip between its fingers.

Lisa Mullins: Even if it has to embrace this opportunity and hold the summit against a backdrop of bombings?

Sahar Issa: They will want to keep it. It remains for the guests to decide whether they want to come to the site of bombings or not.

And Cindy Sheehan appeared on the Joyce Riley program The Power Hour to discuss her war tax resistance.



Cindy Sheehan: You know the United States president said today -- he didn't say it today, but the one that we have in office today -- said back in 2002 that the Iraq War was a stupid war but yesterday he made March 19th a Day of Honor because the US did such great things in Iraq. I want to put their wars on trial, Joyce. If I have to go on trial to do that then that's what I've been wanting to do. You know, to me, it just blows my mind that George Bush and Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of those War Criminals and international War Criminals -- and not just crimes abroad, but crimes in our own country -- they can run around free making all kinds of money with their books and their appearances and their consulting jobs for the war machine when they're prosecuting me somebody whose son was killed for their crimes. So, you know what, Joyce, I hate to use the term of George Bush but I think, "Bring it on."

And most importantly, Wednesday at the Left Forum, World Can't Wait's Debra Sweet moderated a discussion on the Iraq War with Larry Everest (author of many books but we'll note Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the US Global Agenda), Michal Otterman (author most recently of Erasing Iraq: The Human Costs of Carnage) and activist and author David Swanson who runs the War Is A Crime website (videos at World Can't Wait).

Larry Everest: Oh and those other Iraqis -- a throw away line -- who sacrificed their lives. In other words, you know, American lives are all that count here, you know, American chauvinism and support for the American military that's carrying out illegal, unjust and immoral wars and committing War Crimes. So, anyway, with that, I am glad to be talking about Iraq. You know, we can't erase the memory of Iraq, of what happened there and the lessons we should be learning. And I agree -- I like David's point: "No, repeat the lies that were told. Let the people know.' But you know, I thought about it, it's just -- my book actually deals with the history of US and British intervention in Iraq since the 1920s. It goes through the Iran-Iraq War, the sanctions. It's interesting because now there's a big thing about the IAEA and Iran, right? Well you if you read my book, you'll find out the IAEA was involved in planning coup de'etats and assassination attempts against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Of course, that's not mentioned. But anyway, so I-I-I think it's very important to ponder the real lessons of Iraq. And that's what I want to do today. And not feel, "Oh, well." You know, this is reflected in our attendence here. "Oh, that's over with. Let's move on." Or let's move no where. We really -- The Iraq War is incredibly revealing of the nature of this system, the illegitimacy of the entire system and the need for fundamental change and revolution if you stop and think about this. And that's what I want to reflect on a little bit here today. So,first of all, what I want to start out with is a quote which I think -- I want to deconstruct this. This is from BAsics, from the talks and writings of Bob Avakian who is the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party that I support, I write for its newspaper Revolution. He writes, "The essence of what exists in the US is not democracy but capitalism, imperalism and political structures to enforce that capitalism and imperalism." What the US spreads around the world is not democracy, the imperalism and political structures to enforce that imperialism." So just think about that. Not democracy, but capitalism, imperialism, political structures to support it. We didn't vote for the Iraq War, if you remember. And when the Iraq War began, 15 million people around the world and I mean hundreds of thousands in this country went out to the biggest protest since sometime in the sixties. 'Oh, that's a focus group.' Never mind. In other words, the political structures were not in anyway reflective of what people needed or want, they reflected the needs of capitalism and imperalism. That's what they were doing. Did the war reflect the consent of the governed? "Oh, here's what we're going to do in Iraq. Would you like us to do that?" No, it's -- as David pointed out -- one lie after another. And I liked your ten lies because it is hard to get how contorted and inflated and all this: 'No, Saddam Hussein's a Sunni and he's a secular ruler but, no, he's in bed with al Qaeda, the Islamic fundamentalists who, by the way, hate him.' And never mind, so we heard it on Fox News. You know, what about the so-called free press? That's supposed to be a pillar of democracy. It wasn't just that they repeated lies, they suppressed anyone who spoke the truth. Phil Donahue? Gone. [. . .] And then what does that say about the nature of that system? In other words, this quote I read, what the essence of what exists points to the fact that the economic base of society, the capitalistic system, is what sets the terms, not public opinion, not the interests of people, not how you vote, none of that. The system is determined and the terms are set by the needs of this capitalist, imperialist system and the political structures serve them. And what are the needs of that system? This is a system that demands global exploitation of labor -- go see the Mike Daisey Agony and Ecstacy of Steve Jobs, Apple and all their parts made in China and so on and so forth. And it demands control of resources. It demands control of markets. And all of this is enforced how? By military bases. 732 military based in what -- 120 or 130 countries and one war or intervention after another -- by violence. And this is how the system actually functions, this is how it works. And this is actually what was behind the Iraq War because a lot of people realize that lies were told in the Iraq War but they don't realize why the war was fought. You know, this is the biggest lie of all. And the New York Times sometimes will say, 'Well it's true that Judith Miller made a mistake in her reporting. You know, we'll leave aside the fact that all of this was deliberate, it wasn't a mistake, it wasn't bad intelligence." But what they never tell is you is: "Oh, by the way, this was a war of imperialism. Because since the collapse of the Soviet Union, we the US ruling class have realized that we have an opportunity to create an unchallenged empire across the globe because we don't face any other super powers. And if we don't seize this opportunity, our window of the unipolar moment" as they called it "would vanish and we'd be in big trouble because we have a lot of problems and contradictions in our own system and we're facing China and Russia, they could re-emerge. In fact, let's not let any regional powers rise to challenge us." And this was the driving logic behind the whole war on terror and the invasion of Iraq. A lot of people thought, "Oh, the invasion of Iraq was a 'diversion' from the 'real war on terror'." No, it wasn't. It was the perfect embodiment of the "real war on terror" which was never about catching a few dozen or a few hundred or however many there were al Qaeda or Saudi or whatever groups did the 9-11 attacks. It was about restructuring the entire Middle East and Central Asia and locking it more firmly under US domination. And, yes, defeating Islamic fundamentalism because it was creating problems for the US. This is a big reason they don't like Iran. And then using that region really as a hammer against the rest of the world. Why is the Middle East so important to the functioning of the system? And here, I do think people, I do think the capitalist class overall benefits from this. That's what keeps the wheels humming and turning. Yes, there are contractors that made some money. Sure, but that's not the essence of it because one US president after another, Democrat or Republican -- it doesn't matter, has considered the control of the Middle East central to US global power, right? This is why Israel looms so large for the US, because it's their military outpost. The Middle East, 60% of the world's energy sources. Energy is a strategic commodity that allows you -- It's not about SUVs and do consumers have good gas prices? It's about global dominance. Because if you control oil, you can shape the global economy and you can control powers that depend on oil.

Imagine if Pacifica Radio had broadcast that on all their stations. The march towards war on Iran, Syria and others might face a few obstacles. But silence has never been a hurdle to war.

Also Wednesday, Jules Whitcover (Chicago Tribune) observed, "Guided by American military counsel of what it would take, Obama has finally removed all of what have been defined as U.S. combat forces from Iraq, and is inching toward doing the same in Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Nevertheless, many American military and ancillary civilian employees will remain for who knows how long, ostensibly to train and advise the indigenous regimes in both places. If this not nation building, what is it? Whatever the name, the American people have emphatically declared in various opinion polls that they're fed up with it and want it to end."

And where on Pacifica Radio or network TV was that reality covered last week? It wasn't. The State Dept. will spend $6 billion occupying Iraq this fiscal year and want another $6 billion for next year, but we're not discussing it, we're not acknowledging it. Again, silence has never been a hurdle to war.


When the Iraq War started, a number of pundits across the political spectrum loved to note that many Americans couldn't find Iraq on a map. These days, it would appear to be the US commerical broadcast industry and the beggars of 'independent' media who need to study a map.






#

TV: Iraq goes MIA

Last Monday was the ninth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. It was very much a media war in the pre-war and early war stages. By December 2008, the US commercial networks were shipping out of Iraq with ABC infamously declaring that if a story came up, they could cover it via the BBC. They didn't really use the BBC News. They mainly just ignored Iraq instead.



But, hey, an anniversary? What's that? Stock footage, a chance for anchors to act knowing and pompous? Cheap and feeds into the anchors vanity. How could it miss?

Well it missed the viewers. You could have watched NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams Monday evening or ABC World News with Diane Sawyer or CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley or all three and you never would have seen Iraq. You might hear "Iraq" because a service member in Afghanistan had allegedly shot dead civilians and, before he was in Afghanistan, he served in Iraq. But to actually get a story on Iraq?

No.

Well there must have been major stories, right? Major breaking news that prevented any coverage of Iraq.

Brian Williams yammered on about Brian Lamb. (Half of America just asked, "Who?") Williams told audiences Lame would be leaving CSPAN and "as the founder of CSPAN, Brian Lamb changed television." Yeah, he was kind of the Lucille Ball of public affairs programming. (That was sarcasm.) And Lamb was "stepping down as CEO after running the place for 33 years."

And of course there was Kate Middleton . . . and what she wore. Who? She's married to a British prince and -- get this -- she gave a speech -- a three minute speech.

"It has been extremely rare that we've heard Kate's voice at all!" gushed a beaming NBC correspondent enthusing from London. NBC, ABC and CBS, they were all concerned with Kate and what she wore. For this 'big' speech, she wore a dress that was her mother's. CBS explained she was speaking at the hospice she was named patron of and played her 'speaking' in front of people, "You have all made me feel so welcome."

Damn, that is news. How will we be able to make the rent now? And think about what that means -- what "You have all made me feel so welcome" -- means for global warming.

It was news, we were told, because it's so "extremely rare" that we hear Middleton. Though not "extremely rare," Diane Sawyer assured us that it was rare, the news she was bringing us, from England. It was "a rare sighting" of "the living legend" Margaret Thatcher. A lot of time was wasted on the elderly woman visiting a public park where she spoke to no one but did pet a dog.

Besides, if Iraq had been included in the day's line up, Diane Sawyer might not be able to provide a historial 'report.'

"And something big happened fifty years ago today," Diane declared all hushed and breathless with photos of Bob Dylan flashing behind her, "a 20-year-old released his first album. Do you remember the album? If you don't remember it, you're forgiven."

You know who's not forgiven? The broadcast network news. They are an embarrassment. No where was that more obvious than with the news program Nightline. March 19, 2003, the full show was devoted to the start of the Iraq War -- and the program expanded beyond 30 minutes, giving 56 minutes on Iraq. And Monday night? The bulk of the 17 minute broadcast was devote to a story on orgasms which left five minutes for a Las Vegas gun shooting range and 5 minutes for Ashley Judd discussing her new ABC TV series Missing.

Nine years ago, they couldn't stop pimping the war. Last Monday, they acted as if it never happened -- not just their cheer leading the war but even the war itself.






#

From the TESR Test Kitchen

Just last month, we were trying a new flavor of Ruffles and being massively disappointed. So it was with more than a bit of trepidation that we picked up bags of Ruffles Loaded Bacon & Cheddar Potato Skins flavored.




The back of the package proclaims:

LOAD IT UP!
Hey, you. Yes, you. Lover of anything piled high with bacon, melted cheese, and sour cream. Seeker of the most outrageous loaded potato skin, your dream of legendary flavor is now a reality. Mouth -- meet RUFFLES Loaded Bacon and Cheddar Potato Skins flavored chips. Now that your mouth is full, it's time to find a way to hide these awesome chips from your freeloading roommate. Hide them under the bills -- he'll never look there.


Maybe he -- or she -- will, maybe not.

But will you eat the things?

We bought a lunch bag size, 2 and 7/8 ounces. And one of us found it so disgusting she (Dona) tossed it half-way in. The rest of us continued eating in a "Is it really this bad? It can't be this bad. Maybe the next bite will be better?" kind of way.

It never got better

Cheddar and bacon would probably be a good flavor. But this isn't working. The chives have a more pronounced taste than the bacon and the cheddar's beat out by the sour cream. But topping everything is the taste and small of uncooked potatoes.

These chips seem a little thicker than the rest and maybe that's resulted in them being less well cooked? Or maybe this was a marketing or cooking decision? Regardless, it's not a pleasant taste.

We were asked by a few readers if we could start noting the calories on things we ran through the test kitchen. The 2 and 7/8 ounces bag, if every chip is eaten by one person, will result in an addition of 480 calories. Another reason to consider buying something else to snack on.