Mike of Mikey Likes It! interviews Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix. We are so there.
"Interview with Cedric and Democracy Now! Headlines "
Good evening, we'll start with Democracy Now! and by the time I post this, the debate will probably be over but I hope you're listening to Amy Goodman moderate the debate between George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens. I recognize the hosts thanks to Ruth and her strong praise for WBAI's Christmas Coup Players. I always mean to put a thank you up here to Ruth for that. (I did e-mail her a thank you.)
Christmas Coup Players is a comedy radio program that airs the first Thursday of every month and it is a great show that will make you laugh like crazy. So listen in. Or go to their website and you can hear their stuff too.
"College Not Combat/Relief Not War" is something a student is talking about. This is what I see and what Maria's talked about when she's been quoted at The Common Ills. "This is" the student's explaining that high schoolers are overwhelming against the war. That's reality and people are not prepared for it if they're playing "Let's send more troops" in some little narrow mind way of "improving." This movement is going to slap the hawks upside the face with surprise because they don't seem to get what real people feel about the war. I saw it in my high school, I'm seeing it at my college.
Lot of stuff tonight so let me get started because we've got an interview with Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix on top of everything else.
Baghdad Suicide Car Bombing Kills 114
In Iraq, a suicide car bombing has killed at least 114 Shiite day laborers in Baghdad. 220 people were injured. It is believed to be the second deadliest bombing of the war. The explosion went off at 7 a.m. as the day laborers gathered in search of work. Meanwhile another 17 Iraqis were killed after they were dragged from their homes in the middle of the night and shot dead. The executions occurred in the town of Taji.
Do you get how much violence is going down? I called C.I. this morning because I loved the latest on sweaty jock strap sporting Todd S. Purdum ("NYT: Todd S. Purdum "cupping" the story") and it was crazy getting C.I. on the phone. When we were finally talking, the line goes out. When I got C.I. back on the phone I was talking about what I was hearing on Democracy Now! and this item right here and C.I. goes it is like the Guatamalization of Iraq. C.I. goes that people who cannot grasp John Negroponte and why he is in Iraq are either historically ignorant or willfully stupid. The connection was so bad and about to break up again so I just talked about the Purdum thing and asked Dad about it when I got home and Dad goes this is like how we kept pouring money into Guatemala for years and years while setting up puppet regimes and they had death squads and killed the people and it was all about American business and stuff like that. Made me think about some of the stuff Naomi Klein had written.
U.S. Expands Attacks on Sunni Strongholds
In Northern Iraq, U.S. forces have widened their attacks on Sunni strongholds in the region. Over the weekend, U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out a major assault on the city of Tal Afar. On Tuesday the U.S. attacked the city of Haditha.
And this is what Dad says is really to pay attention to. This is where we just go wild on the whole country side and breed even more hostility and begat more violence. (Don't think I'm a smarty, Dad used "begat.") This isn't the Iraq they sold you. This isn't the "Thank you, thank you, America for coming here." They just want us out and who can blame them?
Sen. Robert Byrd Calls for Withdrawal From Iraq
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, the Senate's most senior member, Robert Byrd called for the Bush administration to withdraw from Iraq and bring the troops home. Byrd said "We cannot continue to commit billions in Iraq when our own people are so much in need, not only now, in New Orleans, but all across America for everything from education to health care to homeland security to securing our own borders."
In the House you got some smart members but in the Senate I'm really only seeing Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy. I'm seeing a lot of cowards. And I may be the only one to say this and it may piss off some people but I'll throw it out. John Edwards sounds like a broken record. What was he? A one-term senator. He needs to stop repeating the same stuff from this summer. If he were smart, he'd be speaking out against the war and trying to build up some Howard Dean momentum. We watched the convention, my friends and I, over at Tony's house and everyone, Tony's parents, my friends, Tony and me were all just like "What the hell?" as John Edwards played war hawk. It was like he was trying to out Bully Boy the Bully Boy. Then he vanishes until everyone's complaining about the hits Kerry's taking from the GOP convention.
John Kerry and Ted Kennedy are our senators so I may be more inclined to support Kerry than some people. But Senator Kerry needs to get his act together to. As the junior senator, he should be backing up Ted Kennedy on ending the war.Good for Senator Byrd.
CounterRecruiter has found that Recruiters are at the Astrodome in Houston attempting to sign up evacuees. So check that out and let's get started with my buddy Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix.
First off, thank you Cedric. I really appreciate you're doing this interview. We were the newbies and now it's Elaine. :D
Cedric: I'll try to be interesting but no promises.
You'll be great. Okay, the first thing I want to ask you is a question from Lee Ann. She wrote in and wanted to know why you started your site and how you came up with the title Cedric's Big Mix?
Well the thing is, good question Lee Ann, the thing is that it really goes together, why I started and why the title. I'm a Common Ills community member and I think it's a great site and you had started your site because there were attacks on the community and there were people who could promote it but didn't. You got really mad about that.
Yeah, I had a petition going around until C.I. asked me to stop it and, by the way, I don't link to that site. I won't link to that site. I think that site is full of shit. I won't say the site's name because C.I. would hit the roof but it's a site that the community, even now, feels like we've done a lot to support -- "done" cause we don't go there anymore even when C.I. links -- so I stopped the petition and Wally and C.I. and Rebecca and I think Maria too were all talking to me about that and saying The Common Ills was a resource/review and we really didn't have time for that. So like Wally goes "Man, you can sit around griping or you can do something." That's why I started this site.
And I'm reading your site and I'm thinking about why you started because it was up here and it was out in the community and we knew what was going on. And I go back a ways with the community.
Right, like you are old school! You picked a winner for The Common Ills "Year In Review."
Which is funny because I wrote this entry defending my choice, I picked Eminem's "Mosh," and I was writing this thing about why it should get an award and I didn't think it would. I was making a case for it but thinking, "Well it's Eminem and that will kill it being noted." But C.I. put up my words and my choice and I always thought C.I. probably hates Eminem. Later on, I did ask C.I. and C.I. was all "Not hate, but not really care for." And I knew that. I knew it before I made my choice. This to me is what is so great about The Common Ills. It's a community. If we are pressing an issue, it's up there. It may not be what C.I. wanted to address or what was planned, but it's a community and every member can have a voice if they use it. There are issues I've brought up there too. Things that I felt were important and that I didn't feel got a hearing elsewhere. They'll get up there. They'll go out to the community. So it's really not a "blog." C.I.'s said that forever but it really is true. So you started your site and I thought, "Props to Mike" because you were doing your part. I wanted to do my part too. But I didn't think I had much to write about. That's where Cedric's Big Mix comes in. I thought I'd just make it like a blog report for the community, just highlight you, The Common Ills, Rebecca, The Third Estate Sunday Review, Kat and Betty. I just planned to do copy and pastes and make it a mix, like a mix tape. It was about doing my part to say, "Hey, there's a community here and you need to check it out." You really got me off my butt.
Well thank you and you know that when you started it was like a huge relief for me because I was the new kid on the block and I felt like every and any mistake was under a microscope and cause I felt like I was too. You started up and it was like, okay, I can breathe.
That's something you would toss to me and I would think, "What is he talking about?" Then Elaine started up last week and I got it. Because, me at least, I'm looking at the computer screen and thinking, "No one's going to care, why even bother. It will sound stupid or lame." A lot of that is just being new and a lot of it is being the newest one in the community. I really understood what you were saying when Elaine started up Like Maria says Paz. She's great. I hope she doesn't have the pressure we had.
I don't think she does. Her pressure, and you have this too, is "When will I find time?" But she put in those six weeks substituting for Rebecca so she had that under her belt and she knew what she was doing by the end of the six weeks.
Right. With her, it really is a time issue more than anything else. Also it's that she doesn't realize how many people are into what she is doing. She's also smart, really smart, and I think she has to scale that down. When we're all together working on The Third Estate Sunday Review that really comes through.
I know, I always feel like she's going to scream when I ask, "What are you saying?" I'm not embarrassed to say I don't know something.
She wouldn't scream at you. You're like a puppy, remember?
I laughed so hard when I read that. Okay, now my friend Tony had a question for you too. He wanted to know if people were really helping out and all. He knows you and me would talk because I'd usually be on the cell phone with you but he was wondering if it was like it said on your site and people were just saying, "Sure, run it by me."
They really were. C.I. has no time and I would feel so bad for e-mailing about something but C.I. would e-mail back or call. Kat was a huge resource. We'd get on the phone and talk forever. It would be maybe 5 minutes about the blog and then maybe 25 minutes just sharing. And she never said, "Cedric, I've got stuff to do." She understood that I was nervous and needed to ease into it. I called Elaine because Rebecca e-mailed her number. Not because Rebecca asked me to but because I was starting out and I thought if she had problems we could enjoy being blind together. Dona is someone who helped. She cuts right through the nonsense. That's not an insult. I'd read her something and she'd say, "Where do you think it goes off?" And if I had an idea, she'd give me some suggestions there and if I couldn't figure out where it went off the tracks, she'd say, "Right here." Jim was like Kat only instead of talking about music, we'd b.s. about sports. I can say b.s. here, right?
You can say anything here.
Oh I forgot, other than CounterRecruting, you're most famous for crotch rot.
Rebecca's the one who came up with that so give her the credit. But my girlfriend Nina's written this thing about me that's about my 'obsession' with my balls. She says I can't go a week without writing about my nuts.
You should post it.
I'm trying to get her permission to put it up. So who else?
Jess would call and just do a "Hey man" check in. I really appreciated that. I never, ever opened up my inbox without finding that Ava had written first thing each morning. Just an encouraging note and the offer to listen or talk. Ty was there in every way. Like Ava, I posted anything and there was Ty with encouragement. Betty is the surprise because she's got work, she's got kids, she's got church, there's like full plates and then there's Betty with food spilling over. But she made a point to call me. Which I really appreciated because a) I knew she didn't really have the time and b) I wasn't going to call her because I know how busy she is. Eli, Keesha and Francisco really helped me. Karla and Maria too. And I know you weren't asking for a compliment --
No, don't worry about it. We helped each other. Okay, here's Suzette's question, she wants to know if you're going to write about music any?
I mean to and I will. But there's not been time for it. But I think music is important. I think Kat does amazing reviews and that last one on Joan Baez, I bought that album after I read her review.
I get e-mails saying that. Kat's like the pied piper or something.
Right and I'm never going to be up to that level which is cool but it is intimidating. Changing the topic, did you read C.I. and Ava's entries last night and see that another community member may be starting a site?
Yeah. I have no idea who it is. That's the first I heard of it. I know there's someone who's thinking about it and but that's not who C.I. meant.
So there are two people who may start blogs?
Yeah. I know. We won't be the newbies by a long shot if that happens!
Sure 'nuff. That's really cool. I'm trying to figure out who the two are.
I'll tell you one after the interview.
I know it's not Eli, Wally or Keesha because I'm always after them to start up.
They'd all do a great job. Can you imagine what would happen if everyone started a site? How many are there now?
Eight not counting mirror sites.
See that's the community standing up and being counted. Eight sites and the community still isn't a year old. It's really something, isn't it? Okay, sorry to keep going to questions but I think it's partly that people are used to me doing interviews now and know what to expect and partly because everyone loves your work but let me do one more e-mail and then I'll stop but this one is from Eli and you know he's like the soul or heart or something of the community.
Eli's great. And we served on several committees selecting blog picks for The Common Ills permalinks. He is so full of wisdom and just inspiring. If I'm half the man he is when I'm his age, I'll be happy.
Well Eli thinks the world of you too. He wrote a great e-mail praising you for your writing about the nursing home. Eli's the oldest community member and he writes that he is so proud of Cedric not just for giving time to visit with the elderly but also for writing, and this is a quote, "about our responsibilities to each other. Cedric's heart can never be questioned."
I don't have anything to say to that. Members will understand why. When Eli speaks, we're all just honored and to have such praise from Eli . . .
I know. He chuckles when he reads me but you really speak to him so you should be proud. What entry are you the proudest of?
None of them. I go in with high hopes, and Kat said just write it so that's what I do, and then after I'm done I think, "Well maybe I could have done this or that."
You're really hard on yourself.
Well, I'm not like Ava and C.I. after they finish a TV review. I'm not going "It's crap. It's shit. Don't say it's funny, it's not."
Man, those two tear apart every review they write!
I understand that. There's never enough time for them to put it the way they want. They're always scrambling and always pushing the deadline so it's, for them, like an endurance test or running a martahon and they're just glad they made it over the finish line but not getting that they won the race.
You ran track.
Right. I played basketball. I did all the school sports but I was best at those two. I wasn't any good at football. I was j.v. but on varisity I was just a bench warmer. Let's talk about you for a second.
What's your favorite entry?
I'm not hard on myself like you or Ava and C.I. I don't think I have anything really great but I don't think that I've really embarrassed myself. I may be kidding myself on the last part. If I had to pick something, it would be the interviews because I have fun doing them.
I like your site because you always seem like this ball of energy and they're easy to follow because of that.
You switched to a new site. What were your reasons for that?
I set up the site with something easy. I asked the UK Computer Gurus what would be the easiest to do and they told me that place and they said they'd help me set it up and just let them know. But when I decided, it was a Saturday night and I didn't call them. I figured, set it up and see if you can handle it and if you can't, no one needs to know. So that's why I started there. But you can't do a blog roll or a permalink thing. Because of that, I didn't feel like I was doing what I wanted to do which was say, "Hey check it out." So I moved to the same program that everyone else uses.
How do you like it?
I honestly hate it. The other location, I could just copy something, drag it over to my compose window, click paste and there it was. But here, when I do that, the spacing is all off and it takes forever to go through and space it. But I figure I'll get used to it.
C.I. and Ava wrote something last night and it just hit me so let me change that to nine because Gina and Krista do their round-robin.
That's right. I enjoy reading that every Friday and can't believe how they're doing a daily this week for each day of the John Roberts hearings. They deserve credit for all their hard work.Can we talk about the war?You bet. I'm against the war and that was never a problem because, I'm African-American, we really didn't rally behind the Bully Boy. I think there are some great resources online that are agains the war. But the one that really spoke to me was The Common Ills. That's why I started writing C.I. to begin with, because of the stance on the war. Now, because of Cindy Sheehan and the people that supported her, it's not as foreign as it was but a lot of blogs, even on the left, or web sites, a lot of them couldn't make up their minds. One day they were opposed, one day they were for. And the ones who want to "fine tune" disgust me, honestly. I have no use for them.
Do you think your race had much to do with the way you viewed the war from the start?
I think it did. I mean there are "Uncle Toms" who sell out. I think Condi Rice is one, I think Colin Powell is one. But you're dealing with a race that, historically, knows that there is what the larger culture says and there is what you're seeing with your own eyes. So when Bully Boy and Condi and Colin and Rummy and the other, Dallas calls them "Bullies Without Borders," were hyping the war before we went over there, there wasn't a lot of, "Oh Bully Boy says it so it's true."
You, Ty and Betty wrote the skit addressing the dismissal of race.
Yes, we did. We were wanting C.I. to participate but C.I. likes Bob Somerby. That's who we were responding to, Bob Somerby of The Daily Howler. Betty was the one who finally asked C.I. and the response was, "Anything you need, I'm there." They didn't plan their part. Betty had some examples and spoke off the top of her head and so did C.I. But that's the community I was talking about earlier. The community was outraged by him. And C.I. understood the outrage, understood where we were coming from and when Betty asked, C.I. was there.
Have you guys talked about it since?
With C.I., I haven't. You know how busy things are due to the hearings. But I spoke to Ty and Betty and C.I. told them the same thing which was basically, "I'm not going to tell anyone who feels that they are disrespected, 'Oh no, you're not.' I'm not going to assume that I know anyone's feelings better than they do. This is an issue and I get that." Because it really was an issue, a huge issue. Which is why the three of us wanted to do the skit and were going to do it by ourselves but C.I.'s participation kind of gave it a stamp of approval. Let's note too, that in the community, it wasn't a "black issue." It didn't fall along racial lines. The community itself got it. I think that's partly due to the fact that John H. Johnson's death was so ignored. And we saw that. And we saw a lot of people, on the left, ignore it at their sites. They didn't get it. They didn't get why the African-American community felt that Johnson mattered. And because of the work C.I. did on that, and The Third Estate Sunday Review and everyone in the community, because of that work, I think the community was able to grasp immediately, regardless of race, that we were headed down another road where the minority community wasn't validated and wasn't respected but instead it was, "It's not happening! You're crazy and seeing something that's not there." Gene Lyons is now weighing in and you know the idiot that linked to that because it's run through the community. I don't have any use for Gene Lyons now.
Bob Somerby?
C.I. will highlight Bob again when the New Orleans focus is gone. I'll wait and see on that. I'll also recognize that when he was dismissing the concerns of a race, he was doing it in real time.Maybe he'd find a way to say it differently now, I don't think he'd not say it, but maybe he'd find a way to say it that didn't bother so many. So I will, when C.I. highlights him again, give him a chance. But Lyons, he weighed in after it was a huge issue. Bob Somerby was doing it in real time. C.I.'s said that Bob Somerby's not racist just too focused on his own issues and I'm hoping that's true. But what he wrote was hurtful and I don't think he got that. I don't think he gets it now. I have no respect for Gene Lyons. With Bob Somerby, I'll take a wait and see attitude. There were some things before that I was interested in. And when C.I.'s spotlighting his work agian, I'm sure I'll find things I agree with. But, to go with what Gina's said, there's not a plate set at the table for me. I do feel that. I think it's a lack of realization. And until I see something differently, I'll go ahead and give Bob Somerby the benefit of the doubt.Do you go to the site now?
No. I'll wait for C.I. to spotlight it and if it's something that I'm interested in, I'll visit. I used to visit is every day. Sometimes before C.I. got the entry up. It was probably my favorite non-community site. And I was really hurt by what I read there.Which read to you like what?Like "This isn't an important issue." Like "People are making this up." And it's very real to me. I don't need a white man telling me what is and isn't racism or what I see as racism does or doesn't exist. I'm not sure how he meant it to be read, but I do know how I felt when I read those things.
Which was?
Hurt. Like I didn't matter. Because of my skin color. Like there were issues that time could be used on from sports to Wilson to any noodle brain on the right. But when an issue of race came up, it wasn't going to be addressed. We were going to be told it wasn't there, it wasn't happening. That it was driven by the "liberal intelligensia" or whatever it was. No L.I. came to my door to explain it to me. This is an issue that touched off in the black community and it was a very serious issue. And to hear him say it didn't exist, it wasn't real and it was coming from the TV or wherever . . . In his world that may be true. In my world, my friends don't sit in front of the TV watching those chat & chews. We're hardly ever on them. If we make it on, it's Uncle Toms. In the black community, in my area anyway, this wasn't driven by the meida. Before the media picked up on it, it was an issue. Those photos went around in mass e-mails. And I just wish that instead of immediately dismissing it, Bob Somerby had stopped a moment to ask himself, "Okay, I'm black and I'm seeing this. How do I feel?" I'll go along with C.I. and say he's not racist until I see something that indicates otherwise. But I will also say that he wasn't able to leave his own perspective. And from that perspetive he dismissed some very real concerns among African-Americans. That really hurt. I was angry. Now I'm just sad because he is smart, he has a lot to say. And when I really felt I could count on him to illuminate something, he was just saying, "There's no 'there' there!" So that hurt. Look, he could disagree with the photos and turn that into a serious discussion on race and that didn't happen. Instead it was all "fuck" this guy, that guy's stupid, and running down this nonsense. That hurt. The issue was racism and he was name checking. I'm speaking for me but, and you read the round-robin so you know, that was the feeling in the community.
That race wasn't serious enough to address?
Right. It hurt. It still hurts. Here was an issue, one that matters to me obviously, and instead of addressing it, he wanted to play butt pats with bloggers. I agree abou the "shout outs." That was already irritating. The hat tips that really were like shout outs at a Grammy show. That's not why I read him, to hear what other people were saying about something that was on TV or in print. I wanted to hear what he thought. So I was already frustrated with the site. But I was hanging in until he just dismissed race. To him, I don't know, I don't think it was about race. It was more chance to compete with Atrios or whomever. And that's what I mean, and what Gina and others mean, when they say he didn't deal with the issue. The issue of race was turned into an ammunition for him to go hunting. That hurt. That racism took a back set to his own personal battles.
I know you've got plans and I know that we need to wind down. I usually try to ask people if here was something I could have asked but didn't. So is there something I didn't bring up that you wished I should have?
I wish I was that smooth. But all I've been thinking about since you asked was, "I'm going to be so boring, I won't have anything to say and everyone's going to be thinking, 'I wish he'd interviewed C.I. instead.'"Because I had planned to interview C.I. and even had that agreed to but then you moved your site and C.I. said it would be better to highlight you.Exactly and I just felt like everyone was going to read and think, "Oh we could have had C.I. but we got the bartender on the Love Boat."
Well I think it went well. I think you came off very real. I don't want to call it "work" because I know you see it as something that benefits you, but I did have one more question. Everyone knows that you took one of the guys, one of your friends at the nursing home, Vern's death pretty hard.
I just . . . I want to be able to say, "It's cool that his family ignored him." But it's not cool. C.I. highlighted that and I asked about it and C.I. said "Hey, you made even an asshole like me tear up so don't think it wasn't good." But I feel like it would be lying to write "His family realizes now that they should have visited and called so everything worked out for the best." I don't think that. I wasn't going to say it was okay. If someone's got a family member or a friend in a nursing home, they need to know those people aren't sitting around thinking, "This is the life!"They, if they're lucky, have some friends in the nursing home. But they feel, and I don't just mean the three that I'm visiting with, they feel like they're forgotten. I just wish that people could get what it feels like if you're in one of those places and no one visits. Yes, they know you're busy. They'll say that to their friends. They talk you up, their kids, their grandkids, like they walk on water. They think about them and they are just waiting for a visit or a phone call and every day it doesn't come, that hurts them. They don't turn around and lash out. If anything, they start defending the kids and grandkids and talking about how busy they are and how they want to visit. But it hurts. Forgive me for the lecture.
Don't apologize. People need to think about it. I've been interviewing my buddy Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix. Check out his site because he's great. Last week I interviewed Elaine and before that I interviewed Jess, Ty, Dona, Jim, and Ava.
Who will it be next week?
I'm thinking Rebecca because she just got back from vacation and all. Thank you for letting me interview you.
Thank you.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
Spotlight: ABC mops up after Colin Powell (Ava and C.I. from The Common Ills)
We had no question of spotlighting this entry. It's written by our own Ava and C.I. and it goes to ABC's clean up for Colin Powell.
"Joint entry from Ava and C.I."
We've just finished participating in the roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin. It's late and we've got other things to do. But we wanted to note the e-mails that "get it" regarding ABC's alteration of Colin Powell's quote.
[For background see our review "TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were" (The Third Estate Sunday Review), C.I.'s "ABC 'fixes' Colin Powell" and Ava's "Note from Ava on ABC's altering Colin Powell's remarks."]
ABC may wish that Colin Powell didn't stammer ("I was, I was . . ."), repeatedly use "uh," say the "United Nations" (which completely disappears from the quote), etc., but he did.Their seamless, smooth quote is not reality. In that regard, it's one more piece of coverage on the war (beginning with the lead up reporting) that is not reality. ABC did not make an honest mistake. ABC intentionally altered reality. That this came from "ABC news" makes it all the more disturbing. If it were a press release put out by the entertainment division of ABC, it would still be wrong. However, bearing the imprint of "ABC News," it is more than wrong, it is below the standards of journalism. They aren't allowed to do what they did.
They can drop off anything from a quote by noting that they've done so (with
". . ."). They don't do that. They don't even acknowledge the break in the statements they've run together as one unified statement by noting where Barbara Walters' question came.
It's not up to the standards of reporting.
It is, however, consistent with the glossing over Colin Powell and the news media's efforts to always put a halo around their golden boy. We'd argue that the press has pushed the Powell for President nonsense (repeatedly) much stronger than any rumblings from the GOP party on the topic. (Walters pushes it again in the most recent 20/20 interview.)
We'd also argue, and e-mails demonstrate that members feel this way as well, that it's part of the effort to rewrite the war. The interview is one more piece of "we were all wrong" reporting. The altered quote serves that purpose.
If you were on a jury and the accused took the stand, your impression of her/him would be influenced by whether or not s/he spoke smoothly in reply to a direct question. Someone who replied, as Powell did, with stammers, mistakes and "uh"s wouldn't leave the same impression that the Powell of the altered quote does.
We think it's very sad that two online TV critics (two smart ass online TV critics) did a better job of preserving the public record than did ABC News.
"Joint entry from Ava and C.I."
We've just finished participating in the roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin. It's late and we've got other things to do. But we wanted to note the e-mails that "get it" regarding ABC's alteration of Colin Powell's quote.
[For background see our review "TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were" (The Third Estate Sunday Review), C.I.'s "ABC 'fixes' Colin Powell" and Ava's "Note from Ava on ABC's altering Colin Powell's remarks."]
ABC may wish that Colin Powell didn't stammer ("I was, I was . . ."), repeatedly use "uh," say the "United Nations" (which completely disappears from the quote), etc., but he did.Their seamless, smooth quote is not reality. In that regard, it's one more piece of coverage on the war (beginning with the lead up reporting) that is not reality. ABC did not make an honest mistake. ABC intentionally altered reality. That this came from "ABC news" makes it all the more disturbing. If it were a press release put out by the entertainment division of ABC, it would still be wrong. However, bearing the imprint of "ABC News," it is more than wrong, it is below the standards of journalism. They aren't allowed to do what they did.
They can drop off anything from a quote by noting that they've done so (with
". . ."). They don't do that. They don't even acknowledge the break in the statements they've run together as one unified statement by noting where Barbara Walters' question came.
It's not up to the standards of reporting.
It is, however, consistent with the glossing over Colin Powell and the news media's efforts to always put a halo around their golden boy. We'd argue that the press has pushed the Powell for President nonsense (repeatedly) much stronger than any rumblings from the GOP party on the topic. (Walters pushes it again in the most recent 20/20 interview.)
We'd also argue, and e-mails demonstrate that members feel this way as well, that it's part of the effort to rewrite the war. The interview is one more piece of "we were all wrong" reporting. The altered quote serves that purpose.
If you were on a jury and the accused took the stand, your impression of her/him would be influenced by whether or not s/he spoke smoothly in reply to a direct question. Someone who replied, as Powell did, with stammers, mistakes and "uh"s wouldn't leave the same impression that the Powell of the altered quote does.
We think it's very sad that two online TV critics (two smart ass online TV critics) did a better job of preserving the public record than did ABC News.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
A note to our readers
Another Sunday. Another day where things seem to be moving along quickly. And then they stop.
This time we can pin the blame on Ava and C.I. Three hours ago they wrote a review of Colin Powell and Barbara Waters' exchange on 20/20 that was very funny. Just as we were finishing the editorial, they stated the piece wasn't going up, that they were rewriting it. They kept one joke and that's basically it. They felt that the exchange deserved a stronger response. Having read both versions, we agree that the second version, the one we're running, is the stronger one. (Though we do miss the jokes in the first version.)
For this edition, we thank the following Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), and Mike of Mikey Likes It!. With the exception of the TV review which was done by Ava and C.I. only, those listed contributed to every feature here including the selection of spotlights.
You may note that in our media roundtable, Kat doesn't speak. Kat took notes to give Ava and C.I. a break. Those are the only three who can take notes because they're the only ones fast enough. Besides being occupied with taking notes, Kat also had the fourth topic on the list of things to be discussed. To make sure we got to it, Kat held off on her remarks so that there would be time. When Dona called time on the roundtable, she wasn't aware that Kat hadn't spoken yet. Afterwards, Mike pointed it out and Dona immediately offered to reopen the roundtable but Kat uttered her now famous slogan, "It is what it is." Kat didn't get to speak (and we regret that) but along with taking notes, she was suggesting topics that Jim whittled down to a list of five we were hoping to get to. Kat gets to speak first in the next roundtable.
To help out community members Gina and Krista of the gina & krista round-robin, we put off our planned book discussion and instead focused on children's books that had left an impression. We think you'll enjoy that discussion. And we were thrilled to be able to help out in any way Gina and Krista who do such a wonderful job with their round-robin each week.
For that book discussion, we were lucky to be joined by Folding Star who ran the weblog A Winding Road. We think readers of this site and members of The Common Ills community will also see it as a special treat that Folding Star participated.
Our news review went up as soon as it was done. We're noting "rush transcript." We post that as soon as it's completed. It appears in full length at the site until we're starting to post the other entries, at which point, we go back into the entry and add the code that offers you a sample of what's in store. But that's all we want to alter. Partly because we're lazy and partly because it's a transcript and shouldn't be polished up. We're covering many topics and we have a special report from Dallas who tells us about a relief center for the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in his area. Knowing this would be a lenghty report, Jim and Dona made the decision to make this only mention of Hurricane Katrina which is covered in many other places. Mike brings you up to speed on the rest of the world, Elaine on Iraq and Rebecca offers a nature report. Kat expands her focus from music to cover various entertainment news due to the fact that Betty was participating in an editorial commentary with Cedric and Ty. Jess, as always, gives you the peace report. Common Ills community member Amy e-mailed this week to ask if Jess could mention an event in her area. He was glad to and says that if others have events they would like to noted to e-mail us. (We're arguing over the e-mail address. C.I. says it's thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. We're all tired but we'll take C.I.'s word that there's no "the" in front of our e-mail address.)
We thank Dallas for his report and for, as always, hunting down links for our entries. We also thank Jess' parents who scanned sources online to help us have additional information for our news review. We thank Francisco for allowing us to rerun his run down of the important headlines from Democracy Now! this week.
We'll note that Cedric has moved his site to another location. (And we'll go into the template after, after, we get all entries up.) We say welcome back to Rebecca who returned from her vacation. We'll also say welcome to Elaine who substituted for Rebecca during her vacation and has also been helping us out here. Why welcome? She's started her own site, Like Maria Said Paz. We wanted to highlight something from her but she asked us to wait a week to have more to choose from.
Hopefully this edition brings you something that makes you laugh or makes you think or just makes you angry.
-- Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and C.I.
This time we can pin the blame on Ava and C.I. Three hours ago they wrote a review of Colin Powell and Barbara Waters' exchange on 20/20 that was very funny. Just as we were finishing the editorial, they stated the piece wasn't going up, that they were rewriting it. They kept one joke and that's basically it. They felt that the exchange deserved a stronger response. Having read both versions, we agree that the second version, the one we're running, is the stronger one. (Though we do miss the jokes in the first version.)
For this edition, we thank the following Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), and Mike of Mikey Likes It!. With the exception of the TV review which was done by Ava and C.I. only, those listed contributed to every feature here including the selection of spotlights.
You may note that in our media roundtable, Kat doesn't speak. Kat took notes to give Ava and C.I. a break. Those are the only three who can take notes because they're the only ones fast enough. Besides being occupied with taking notes, Kat also had the fourth topic on the list of things to be discussed. To make sure we got to it, Kat held off on her remarks so that there would be time. When Dona called time on the roundtable, she wasn't aware that Kat hadn't spoken yet. Afterwards, Mike pointed it out and Dona immediately offered to reopen the roundtable but Kat uttered her now famous slogan, "It is what it is." Kat didn't get to speak (and we regret that) but along with taking notes, she was suggesting topics that Jim whittled down to a list of five we were hoping to get to. Kat gets to speak first in the next roundtable.
To help out community members Gina and Krista of the gina & krista round-robin, we put off our planned book discussion and instead focused on children's books that had left an impression. We think you'll enjoy that discussion. And we were thrilled to be able to help out in any way Gina and Krista who do such a wonderful job with their round-robin each week.
For that book discussion, we were lucky to be joined by Folding Star who ran the weblog A Winding Road. We think readers of this site and members of The Common Ills community will also see it as a special treat that Folding Star participated.
Our news review went up as soon as it was done. We're noting "rush transcript." We post that as soon as it's completed. It appears in full length at the site until we're starting to post the other entries, at which point, we go back into the entry and add the code that offers you a sample of what's in store. But that's all we want to alter. Partly because we're lazy and partly because it's a transcript and shouldn't be polished up. We're covering many topics and we have a special report from Dallas who tells us about a relief center for the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina in his area. Knowing this would be a lenghty report, Jim and Dona made the decision to make this only mention of Hurricane Katrina which is covered in many other places. Mike brings you up to speed on the rest of the world, Elaine on Iraq and Rebecca offers a nature report. Kat expands her focus from music to cover various entertainment news due to the fact that Betty was participating in an editorial commentary with Cedric and Ty. Jess, as always, gives you the peace report. Common Ills community member Amy e-mailed this week to ask if Jess could mention an event in her area. He was glad to and says that if others have events they would like to noted to e-mail us. (We're arguing over the e-mail address. C.I. says it's thirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. We're all tired but we'll take C.I.'s word that there's no "the" in front of our e-mail address.)
We thank Dallas for his report and for, as always, hunting down links for our entries. We also thank Jess' parents who scanned sources online to help us have additional information for our news review. We thank Francisco for allowing us to rerun his run down of the important headlines from Democracy Now! this week.
We'll note that Cedric has moved his site to another location. (And we'll go into the template after, after, we get all entries up.) We say welcome back to Rebecca who returned from her vacation. We'll also say welcome to Elaine who substituted for Rebecca during her vacation and has also been helping us out here. Why welcome? She's started her own site, Like Maria Said Paz. We wanted to highlight something from her but she asked us to wait a week to have more to choose from.
Hopefully this edition brings you something that makes you laugh or makes you think or just makes you angry.
-- Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: Who decided Roberts could play leap frog on the Court?
Last Monday the hearings on John Roberts Jr. nomination to the Supreme Court were supposed to start. They were postponed. Now they are due to start tomorrow. In a week's time, Roberts' nomination has shifted. He's no longer just nominated to the Court, he's now nominated as Chief Justice.
Only in a Bully Boy world could someone who's never served on the Court be considered worthy of not only serving but also presiding over the Court. That's the kind of thinking that puts roommates and pals and campaign workers into public posts and we've seen the damage that can do.
Now the press has taken a pass on Roberts from day one. They're eager to see the boy get confirmed. So we aren't surprised that in the last week little was made of the fact that there's a world of difference between the federal courts and the Supreme Court.
But we'll ask the questions they won't? (Seems to be the function of our editorials.)
Are you telling us that of the seven justices currently sitting, and planning to continue sitting on the bench (we're leaving out the eighth who's announced her retirement), that there's not one, with their years of experience, who's actually qualified to be Chief Justice?
Are you saying that Bully Boy's boy, who's never served on the Court, has something that trumps all of them?
In a country that preaches the hard work ethic, it's hard to reconcile that notion with the idea that Roberts is going to play leap frog over the backs of seven sitting Justices.
We would assume that a new Justice would need time just to assimilate and grasp the workings involved in the Highest Court of the land. Instead of getting his toe wet, he's diving straight into the deep end. Well, a swimmer can do whatever they choose with their own lives and fate. But we're talking about a Court that is the final say in matters across the nation.
Exactly how does someone who's never served on the Court qualify to be elevated to Chief Justice?
Volunteering on Bully Boy's legal squad in 2000 appears to be one qualification. That's a qualification that's resulted in many appointments. On most of those appointments, the press failed to examine the resumes of the appointees. Case in point, Michael "Brownie" Brown. Thomas & Scalia (and the rest of the Gang of Four that's not retiring -- Gang of Five until Rehnquist's death), you just got served.
You're "good," just not good enough to be Chief Justice in the eyes of the Bully Boy. Put it another way, you're Irish-Americans trying to fit into the Italian mob. You'll never be a "made man." Put that in your Constitutional shredder and smoke it.
It's as though Roberts showed up to work the line at McDonalds and got put in charge of the franchise.
Something doesn't add up. But the press doesn't want to touch on it. They want to act as though it's perfectly natural for a man who was just a nominee to the Court a week ago to suddenly be in line to become Chief Justice.
We're hoping that the Democrats have some strategy here. Honestly, we've got more faith in Ted Kennedy than in any of the others. We're praying that lion will roar and drive home the questions to Roberts nominations.
But will anyone ask the neophyte would-be lifetime Chief Justice exactly what qualifies his starting at the top? Or will we continue to remain mute in this up-is-down Bully Boy world?
[Note: This editorial was written by Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava of The Third Estate Sunday Review', Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Mike of Mikey Likes It!, and C.I. of both The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review.]
Only in a Bully Boy world could someone who's never served on the Court be considered worthy of not only serving but also presiding over the Court. That's the kind of thinking that puts roommates and pals and campaign workers into public posts and we've seen the damage that can do.
Now the press has taken a pass on Roberts from day one. They're eager to see the boy get confirmed. So we aren't surprised that in the last week little was made of the fact that there's a world of difference between the federal courts and the Supreme Court.
But we'll ask the questions they won't? (Seems to be the function of our editorials.)
Are you telling us that of the seven justices currently sitting, and planning to continue sitting on the bench (we're leaving out the eighth who's announced her retirement), that there's not one, with their years of experience, who's actually qualified to be Chief Justice?
Are you saying that Bully Boy's boy, who's never served on the Court, has something that trumps all of them?
In a country that preaches the hard work ethic, it's hard to reconcile that notion with the idea that Roberts is going to play leap frog over the backs of seven sitting Justices.
We would assume that a new Justice would need time just to assimilate and grasp the workings involved in the Highest Court of the land. Instead of getting his toe wet, he's diving straight into the deep end. Well, a swimmer can do whatever they choose with their own lives and fate. But we're talking about a Court that is the final say in matters across the nation.
Exactly how does someone who's never served on the Court qualify to be elevated to Chief Justice?
Volunteering on Bully Boy's legal squad in 2000 appears to be one qualification. That's a qualification that's resulted in many appointments. On most of those appointments, the press failed to examine the resumes of the appointees. Case in point, Michael "Brownie" Brown. Thomas & Scalia (and the rest of the Gang of Four that's not retiring -- Gang of Five until Rehnquist's death), you just got served.
You're "good," just not good enough to be Chief Justice in the eyes of the Bully Boy. Put it another way, you're Irish-Americans trying to fit into the Italian mob. You'll never be a "made man." Put that in your Constitutional shredder and smoke it.
It's as though Roberts showed up to work the line at McDonalds and got put in charge of the franchise.
Something doesn't add up. But the press doesn't want to touch on it. They want to act as though it's perfectly natural for a man who was just a nominee to the Court a week ago to suddenly be in line to become Chief Justice.
We're hoping that the Democrats have some strategy here. Honestly, we've got more faith in Ted Kennedy than in any of the others. We're praying that lion will roar and drive home the questions to Roberts nominations.
But will anyone ask the neophyte would-be lifetime Chief Justice exactly what qualifies his starting at the top? Or will we continue to remain mute in this up-is-down Bully Boy world?
[Note: This editorial was written by Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava of The Third Estate Sunday Review', Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Mike of Mikey Likes It!, and C.I. of both The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review.]
TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were
Remakes usually suck. That's a lesson ABC's 20/20 learned Friday when they starred Barbara Walters and Colin Powell in a remake of The Way We Were.
Walters lacks the star power of Barbra Streisand. So Katie's passion has been tempered (we're being polite). At the crux of the film were the questions of what is truth, what is right? They carry that over from Arthur Laurents' screenplay. But Walters lacks the dedication to convincingly play someone determined in pursuit of truth -- which appears to result in the character Katie, more or less, being written out of her own film. Call this remake The Way It Was.
Powell, like Robert Redford, is shown early on military drag. He models well, he just lacks Redford's ability to convincingly play a man torn between doing what others want and what he knows is right. They did keep the plot point of Hubbell's betrayal. Probably had to because without the testimony that destroys Hubbell, you have no story.
They've updated the testimony. Instead of naming names during the McCarthy period, Powell lies to the United Nations and the world. What they miss is the heart breaking scene when Streisand explains to Redford that people are their beliefs. Probably too much a laugh getter if it came out of Walters' mouth. But if they were worried about unintended laughs, someone should have spoken to Walters about the three strands of red, worry beads she's wearing.
Walters says, unable to look at him while she does -- oh the drama!, "However, you gave the world false, groundless reasons for going to war. You've said, and I quote, 'I will forever be known as the one who made the case for war.' Do you think this blot on your record will stay with you for the rest of your life?"
Powell: Well it's a, it's a, of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United Nations, uh, United States, to the world. And it will always be uh, part of my, uh, my record.
Walters: How painful is it?
Powell: (shrugs) It was -- it *was* painful. (shifts, shrugs) It's painful now.
Has a less convincing scene ever been performed?
Possibly. Such as when Powell informs Walters that the fault lies with the intelligence community -- with those who knew but didn't come forward. Unfortunately for Powell, FAIR's advisory steered everyone to a Los Angeles Times' article from July 15, 2004:
Days before Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was to present the case for war with Iraq to the United Nations, State Department analysts found dozens of factual problems in drafts of his speech, according to new documents contained in the Senate report on intelligence failures released last week.
Two memos included with the Senate report listed objections that State Department experts lodged as they reviewed successive drafts of the Powell speech. Although many of the claims considered inflated or unsupported were removed through painstaking debate by Powell and intelligence officials, the speech he ultimately presented contained material that was in dispute among State Department experts.
Well movies always rewrite some details to make the characters more sympathetic and, presumably, that happened in this remake as well.
Having dismissed the need for facts, the "reluctant warrior" Powell now wants to weigh in on the invasion/occupation. Powell explains that we can't "cut and run" with regards to Iraq. We have to stay. He offers that "I'm not a quitter" himself -- amidst his stay the course nonsense. All this from the former Secretrary of State.
If it's so damn important that we "accomplish" over there, that we "stay the course," are the words really convincing coming out the mouth of the cut and run Secretary of State? Seems to us if you believe in this war as much as you say you do, and believe in staying the course, you . . . stay the course in your job. Powell didn't. There are the Rules for Powell and there are the rules for the rest of us.
Take Cindy Sheehan. She's a grieving parent and he feels sorry for her. Walters actually wakes up for this moment. And, in one of the few times prior to Powell's wife being brought on, she actually looks him in the eye while delivering her line.
Walters: But if you feel the war is just -- that's a different feeling than if you feel the war is is not.
Powell: Well, of course, for the person that is effected, it is. If they don't feel the war is just, they will always feel it as a deep personal loss.
Unlike Powell, we'd argue that regardless of beliefs on this war, the loss is a "deep, personal loss" for most, possibly all, who've lost family members. Maybe if he sent fat-boy Michael over there, he could find out for himself what it feels like? Till then, by his remarks, he's not anyone effected. How nice that must be.
But is the war just?
It's not a moral issue for Powell. He's already informed Walters of that. He lied. Well if he had to lie, forget the pre-emptive war debate for a moment, if he had to lie, what does that say about the war? Seems to us that a just war wouldn't be a war that required you pulling one over on the public to get support for.
It wasn't a moral issue, Powell states, going to war. Then what does it matter that he lied?
If it's not a moral issue, then what does it matter?
Powell's mea culpa is not only unconvincing, it's illogical. He's glad Saddam Hussein's gone. So why's he concerned with his "blot?" He's completely unconcerned that we're in a war that's based on lies. "I'm glad" he says. Sure he admits that he lied (by proxy -- it's others faults, you understand, nameless people in the intel community), but there's no moral concern. He's only worried about the slug line that now accompanies his name. The "blot." The tag 'liar, liar.'
Colin Powell lied to the United Nations. Not by proxy, he lied. His testimony. A testimony he made the decision to give. Despite objections from people in the department he headed. His accountability pose is hollow and unconvincing. Shrugs? "What are you going to do?" shrugs? That and the shiftiness during the exchange (he can't sit still during the exchange) back up his words. This isn't any big deal to him, that he lied and we went to war. He's just concerned that he's a known liar. For the rest of his life.
This is how he wants to be remembered:
"A good public servant somebody who truly believes in his country. . . . Somebody who cared, somebody who served."
Yeah well, Nixon wanted to be remembered a certain way as well. Liar's the way many remember him now. Liar's the way many will remember Colin Powell. Belief in your country doesn't allow you to lie to your country. Belief in your Bully Boy does. That's something this adminstration fails to grasp. They all think they're working for the Bully Boy. Powell makes statements to that effect. He's full of many things including his "service" to the Bully Boy.
The administration is supposed to be working for the country. Presidents come and go. The nation is what is supposed to matter. Belief in your country would mean you tell the people
the truth.
Somebody who served?
He didn't serve the country. He betrayed it. He didn't live up to his office. He didn't live up to the public trust. He didn't live up to the principles of democracy. He lied. He lied. He lied.
We won't put the glossy spin on it that Walters did. We're not looking at Powell through the blind eyes of love.
As the film, er news segment, winds down, the makers decide to go another way. In the original The Way We Were, the child of Katie & Hubbell is seen only fleetingly. In the remake, she actually has lines. As military and infotainment merge, their by-product, the remake tell us, is Elizabeth Vargas. Child Vargas is left to make one of those uncomfortable points that children always make, "Colin Powell doesn't seem to be haunted by this blot on his career." Walters all but brushes a lock from Powell's forehead as she attempts to make Vargas see father Powell in
a more flattering, and far less realistic, light:
Well, you know, he is a, he is a fine soldier, he has a fine family, he has respect, and this is a man who never wanted the Glory Road.
The music fails to swell. Possibly because Walters is no singer and they rightly spare us her rendition of "The Way We Were." With apologies to Alan and Marilyn Bergman, we'll post the lyrics to the song Walters obviously wanted to sing:
Spin
In the place of real reporting.
Mushy soft focus moments
Not The Way It Was.
Unasked questions
Of the facts that are well known.
Facts that never will be buried
Of The Way It Was.
Can it be that spin can triumph fact
If we carefully rewrite each line.
If he had the choice to do it all again
He would -- he could.
Spin
May be full of lies and yet
If we push hard enough
Others will simply forget.
So it's the spin
We will hold onto
Whenever we discuss
The Way It Was.
The Way It Was.
*Corrected to put change "is" to "was." Change is indicated by "*."
From 9-13-05's "ABC 'fixes' Colin Powell" (The Common Ills):
When a magazine, even an entertainment one, puts Orpah's head (for instance) on another body, there's an outcry. It's not considered appropriate or up to journalistic standards.
So let's see if anyone has a problem with ABC news which has done something just as bad if not worse.
Robert Parry has a new article "Colin Powell Being Colin Powell" (Consortium News). It's a good article, a strong one (not uncommon with Parry's writing).It includes this:
In his first extensive interview since his resignation early this year, Powell told ABC News that his reputation has suffered because his assurances about Iraq's supposed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons proved false.
"It's a blot," Powell said. "I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."
That isn't correct. It's not Parry's mistake. He's using (and crediting) "Exclusive: Colin Powell on Iraq, Race, and Hurricane Relief" by "ABC News."
ABC broadcast the interview (conducted by Barbara Walters) on September 9th. (The article's dated September 8th when you use the link, September 9th when you utilize the print function.)Is it appropriate for ABC to improve on the public record?
Colin Powell did not say "Of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."
Here's how that "quote" sounded before ABC News decided to "improve" on it and reassemble it:
Powell: Well it's a, it's a, of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United Nations, uh, United States, to the world. And it will always be uh, part of my, uh, my record.
Walters: How painful is it?
Powell: (shrugs) It was -- it *was* painful. (shifts, shrugs) It's painful now.
In ABC's "quote" they bracket "it." I have no idea why. He says "it." But they note, wrongly, that they are "adding" to the quote there. They do not note that they have deleted the stammers. They also leave out the "United Nations" and the fact that Walters asked him a question.
Why does it matter?
First of all, it matters because a news organization is supposed to be accurate.
Second of all, it matters because this is Powell addressing an issue. His mistakes (UN?), his stammers, all of it is important. ABC news presents it as a smooth, seamless response. That's not the case. He hemmed and he hawed. And the public should know that and the public record should show that.
Print reporters caught some attention for improving on Bully Boy's statments. This should catch attention as well.
Part of the "response" is how Powell structures his words.
Is he nervous? He may appear that way to some (Ava and I found him shifty when we watched the interview). This is public record. This was broadcast on national television. ABC does not have the right, journalistically, to 'smooth over' his remarks.
He was awkward when he spoke. That's part of his response -- or would be if ABC hadn't cleaned it up.
Ava and I reviewed the "performance" for The Third Estate Sunday Review (see "TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were").
The 'smoothed over' quote is not how it occurred.
Ava and I hold onto a copy of anything we review for at least seven days in case a question comes up. For instance on Smallville, surely, one person wrote, Tom Welling wasn't shirtless when Annette O'Toole remarked that he was dressed to go out, was he?We could be wrong. We watched it again. He was shirtless. At other times, someone will question if another character might have stated the line. So we'll watch again. We can make a mistake and we will correct it if we do. (More often than not, we're having to prove something to angry Nick Lachey fans or angry Nick & Jessica fans.) (After seven days, someone's waited too long to weigh in on a TV review. Unless it's something we've been provided with, we ditch whatever we've reviewed.)
Ava's in class but I called the apartment and Jim's there. He played back the interview. I can't say whether "It is painful. It's painful now." is what Powell said (as we noted) or if it's "It was painful. It's painful now" (as ABC notes). The connection wasn't clear enough for me to make out if "is" or "was" is used. [Note from Ava: I've listened to the interview. "Was" is the word and I've corrected that. Otherwise, C.I. and my version of the quote is accurate. I've put "*" around "was" to note that I've changed it. That is the only thing we're wrong on.]
But I could make out the "uh"s. I could make out Walter's question. I could make out Powell stating "United Nations."
Was he nervous? Did he intend to say "United Nations"?
Presenting it, as ABC news does, in a smooth, seamless quote is not reflecting the public record. It is, however, once again cleaning up after Powell.
In our review, Ava and I noted that it played like a really bad remake of The Way We Were. We note this:
As the film, er news segment, winds down, the makers decide to go another way. In the original The Way We Were, the child of Katie & Hubbell is seen only fleetingly. In the remake, she actually has lines. As military and infotainment merge, their by-product, the remake tell us, is Elizabeth Vargas. Child Vargas is left to make one of those uncomfortable points that children always make, "Colin Powell doesn't seem to be haunted by this blot on his career." Walters all but brushes a lock from Powell's forehead as she attempts to make Vargas see father Powell in a more flattering, and far less realistic, light:
Well, you know, he is a, he is a fine soldier, he has a fine family, he has respect, and this is a man who never wanted the Glory Road.
The music fails to swell. Possibly because Walters is no singer and they rightly spare us her rendition of "The Way We Were."
What they couldn't do when people were watching with their own eyes, ABC does in their "report." There's no excuse for what they have posted online. That's not what happened, that's not the way it happened.
It does present Powell in a more flattering light. It does eliminate his starts and stops, his stammer, his use of "United Nations." As p.r., it's fine. As journalism it's not fine. Journalism doesn't allow the public record to be 'polished.'
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Update 12-5-2010. We've fixed the FAIR link.
Walters lacks the star power of Barbra Streisand. So Katie's passion has been tempered (we're being polite). At the crux of the film were the questions of what is truth, what is right? They carry that over from Arthur Laurents' screenplay. But Walters lacks the dedication to convincingly play someone determined in pursuit of truth -- which appears to result in the character Katie, more or less, being written out of her own film. Call this remake The Way It Was.
Powell, like Robert Redford, is shown early on military drag. He models well, he just lacks Redford's ability to convincingly play a man torn between doing what others want and what he knows is right. They did keep the plot point of Hubbell's betrayal. Probably had to because without the testimony that destroys Hubbell, you have no story.
They've updated the testimony. Instead of naming names during the McCarthy period, Powell lies to the United Nations and the world. What they miss is the heart breaking scene when Streisand explains to Redford that people are their beliefs. Probably too much a laugh getter if it came out of Walters' mouth. But if they were worried about unintended laughs, someone should have spoken to Walters about the three strands of red, worry beads she's wearing.
Walters says, unable to look at him while she does -- oh the drama!, "However, you gave the world false, groundless reasons for going to war. You've said, and I quote, 'I will forever be known as the one who made the case for war.' Do you think this blot on your record will stay with you for the rest of your life?"
Powell: Well it's a, it's a, of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United Nations, uh, United States, to the world. And it will always be uh, part of my, uh, my record.
Walters: How painful is it?
Powell: (shrugs) It was -- it *was* painful. (shifts, shrugs) It's painful now.
Has a less convincing scene ever been performed?
Possibly. Such as when Powell informs Walters that the fault lies with the intelligence community -- with those who knew but didn't come forward. Unfortunately for Powell, FAIR's advisory steered everyone to a Los Angeles Times' article from July 15, 2004:
Days before Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was to present the case for war with Iraq to the United Nations, State Department analysts found dozens of factual problems in drafts of his speech, according to new documents contained in the Senate report on intelligence failures released last week.
Two memos included with the Senate report listed objections that State Department experts lodged as they reviewed successive drafts of the Powell speech. Although many of the claims considered inflated or unsupported were removed through painstaking debate by Powell and intelligence officials, the speech he ultimately presented contained material that was in dispute among State Department experts.
Well movies always rewrite some details to make the characters more sympathetic and, presumably, that happened in this remake as well.
Having dismissed the need for facts, the "reluctant warrior" Powell now wants to weigh in on the invasion/occupation. Powell explains that we can't "cut and run" with regards to Iraq. We have to stay. He offers that "I'm not a quitter" himself -- amidst his stay the course nonsense. All this from the former Secretrary of State.
If it's so damn important that we "accomplish" over there, that we "stay the course," are the words really convincing coming out the mouth of the cut and run Secretary of State? Seems to us if you believe in this war as much as you say you do, and believe in staying the course, you . . . stay the course in your job. Powell didn't. There are the Rules for Powell and there are the rules for the rest of us.
Take Cindy Sheehan. She's a grieving parent and he feels sorry for her. Walters actually wakes up for this moment. And, in one of the few times prior to Powell's wife being brought on, she actually looks him in the eye while delivering her line.
Walters: But if you feel the war is just -- that's a different feeling than if you feel the war is is not.
Powell: Well, of course, for the person that is effected, it is. If they don't feel the war is just, they will always feel it as a deep personal loss.
Unlike Powell, we'd argue that regardless of beliefs on this war, the loss is a "deep, personal loss" for most, possibly all, who've lost family members. Maybe if he sent fat-boy Michael over there, he could find out for himself what it feels like? Till then, by his remarks, he's not anyone effected. How nice that must be.
But is the war just?
It's not a moral issue for Powell. He's already informed Walters of that. He lied. Well if he had to lie, forget the pre-emptive war debate for a moment, if he had to lie, what does that say about the war? Seems to us that a just war wouldn't be a war that required you pulling one over on the public to get support for.
It wasn't a moral issue, Powell states, going to war. Then what does it matter that he lied?
If it's not a moral issue, then what does it matter?
Powell's mea culpa is not only unconvincing, it's illogical. He's glad Saddam Hussein's gone. So why's he concerned with his "blot?" He's completely unconcerned that we're in a war that's based on lies. "I'm glad" he says. Sure he admits that he lied (by proxy -- it's others faults, you understand, nameless people in the intel community), but there's no moral concern. He's only worried about the slug line that now accompanies his name. The "blot." The tag 'liar, liar.'
Colin Powell lied to the United Nations. Not by proxy, he lied. His testimony. A testimony he made the decision to give. Despite objections from people in the department he headed. His accountability pose is hollow and unconvincing. Shrugs? "What are you going to do?" shrugs? That and the shiftiness during the exchange (he can't sit still during the exchange) back up his words. This isn't any big deal to him, that he lied and we went to war. He's just concerned that he's a known liar. For the rest of his life.
This is how he wants to be remembered:
"A good public servant somebody who truly believes in his country. . . . Somebody who cared, somebody who served."
Yeah well, Nixon wanted to be remembered a certain way as well. Liar's the way many remember him now. Liar's the way many will remember Colin Powell. Belief in your country doesn't allow you to lie to your country. Belief in your Bully Boy does. That's something this adminstration fails to grasp. They all think they're working for the Bully Boy. Powell makes statements to that effect. He's full of many things including his "service" to the Bully Boy.
The administration is supposed to be working for the country. Presidents come and go. The nation is what is supposed to matter. Belief in your country would mean you tell the people
the truth.
Somebody who served?
He didn't serve the country. He betrayed it. He didn't live up to his office. He didn't live up to the public trust. He didn't live up to the principles of democracy. He lied. He lied. He lied.
We won't put the glossy spin on it that Walters did. We're not looking at Powell through the blind eyes of love.
As the film, er news segment, winds down, the makers decide to go another way. In the original The Way We Were, the child of Katie & Hubbell is seen only fleetingly. In the remake, she actually has lines. As military and infotainment merge, their by-product, the remake tell us, is Elizabeth Vargas. Child Vargas is left to make one of those uncomfortable points that children always make, "Colin Powell doesn't seem to be haunted by this blot on his career." Walters all but brushes a lock from Powell's forehead as she attempts to make Vargas see father Powell in
a more flattering, and far less realistic, light:
Well, you know, he is a, he is a fine soldier, he has a fine family, he has respect, and this is a man who never wanted the Glory Road.
The music fails to swell. Possibly because Walters is no singer and they rightly spare us her rendition of "The Way We Were." With apologies to Alan and Marilyn Bergman, we'll post the lyrics to the song Walters obviously wanted to sing:
Spin
In the place of real reporting.
Mushy soft focus moments
Not The Way It Was.
Unasked questions
Of the facts that are well known.
Facts that never will be buried
Of The Way It Was.
Can it be that spin can triumph fact
If we carefully rewrite each line.
If he had the choice to do it all again
He would -- he could.
Spin
May be full of lies and yet
If we push hard enough
Others will simply forget.
So it's the spin
We will hold onto
Whenever we discuss
The Way It Was.
The Way It Was.
*Corrected to put change "is" to "was." Change is indicated by "*."
From 9-13-05's "ABC 'fixes' Colin Powell" (The Common Ills):
When a magazine, even an entertainment one, puts Orpah's head (for instance) on another body, there's an outcry. It's not considered appropriate or up to journalistic standards.
So let's see if anyone has a problem with ABC news which has done something just as bad if not worse.
Robert Parry has a new article "Colin Powell Being Colin Powell" (Consortium News). It's a good article, a strong one (not uncommon with Parry's writing).It includes this:
In his first extensive interview since his resignation early this year, Powell told ABC News that his reputation has suffered because his assurances about Iraq's supposed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons proved false.
"It's a blot," Powell said. "I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."
That isn't correct. It's not Parry's mistake. He's using (and crediting) "Exclusive: Colin Powell on Iraq, Race, and Hurricane Relief" by "ABC News."
ABC broadcast the interview (conducted by Barbara Walters) on September 9th. (The article's dated September 8th when you use the link, September 9th when you utilize the print function.)Is it appropriate for ABC to improve on the public record?
Colin Powell did not say "Of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and [it] will always be a part of my record. It was painful. It's painful now."
Here's how that "quote" sounded before ABC News decided to "improve" on it and reassemble it:
Powell: Well it's a, it's a, of course it will. It's a blot. I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United Nations, uh, United States, to the world. And it will always be uh, part of my, uh, my record.
Walters: How painful is it?
Powell: (shrugs) It was -- it *was* painful. (shifts, shrugs) It's painful now.
In ABC's "quote" they bracket "it." I have no idea why. He says "it." But they note, wrongly, that they are "adding" to the quote there. They do not note that they have deleted the stammers. They also leave out the "United Nations" and the fact that Walters asked him a question.
Why does it matter?
First of all, it matters because a news organization is supposed to be accurate.
Second of all, it matters because this is Powell addressing an issue. His mistakes (UN?), his stammers, all of it is important. ABC news presents it as a smooth, seamless response. That's not the case. He hemmed and he hawed. And the public should know that and the public record should show that.
Print reporters caught some attention for improving on Bully Boy's statments. This should catch attention as well.
Part of the "response" is how Powell structures his words.
Is he nervous? He may appear that way to some (Ava and I found him shifty when we watched the interview). This is public record. This was broadcast on national television. ABC does not have the right, journalistically, to 'smooth over' his remarks.
He was awkward when he spoke. That's part of his response -- or would be if ABC hadn't cleaned it up.
Ava and I reviewed the "performance" for The Third Estate Sunday Review (see "TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were").
The 'smoothed over' quote is not how it occurred.
Ava and I hold onto a copy of anything we review for at least seven days in case a question comes up. For instance on Smallville, surely, one person wrote, Tom Welling wasn't shirtless when Annette O'Toole remarked that he was dressed to go out, was he?We could be wrong. We watched it again. He was shirtless. At other times, someone will question if another character might have stated the line. So we'll watch again. We can make a mistake and we will correct it if we do. (More often than not, we're having to prove something to angry Nick Lachey fans or angry Nick & Jessica fans.) (After seven days, someone's waited too long to weigh in on a TV review. Unless it's something we've been provided with, we ditch whatever we've reviewed.)
Ava's in class but I called the apartment and Jim's there. He played back the interview. I can't say whether "It is painful. It's painful now." is what Powell said (as we noted) or if it's "It was painful. It's painful now" (as ABC notes). The connection wasn't clear enough for me to make out if "is" or "was" is used. [Note from Ava: I've listened to the interview. "Was" is the word and I've corrected that. Otherwise, C.I. and my version of the quote is accurate. I've put "*" around "was" to note that I've changed it. That is the only thing we're wrong on.]
But I could make out the "uh"s. I could make out Walter's question. I could make out Powell stating "United Nations."
Was he nervous? Did he intend to say "United Nations"?
Presenting it, as ABC news does, in a smooth, seamless quote is not reflecting the public record. It is, however, once again cleaning up after Powell.
In our review, Ava and I noted that it played like a really bad remake of The Way We Were. We note this:
As the film, er news segment, winds down, the makers decide to go another way. In the original The Way We Were, the child of Katie & Hubbell is seen only fleetingly. In the remake, she actually has lines. As military and infotainment merge, their by-product, the remake tell us, is Elizabeth Vargas. Child Vargas is left to make one of those uncomfortable points that children always make, "Colin Powell doesn't seem to be haunted by this blot on his career." Walters all but brushes a lock from Powell's forehead as she attempts to make Vargas see father Powell in a more flattering, and far less realistic, light:
Well, you know, he is a, he is a fine soldier, he has a fine family, he has respect, and this is a man who never wanted the Glory Road.
The music fails to swell. Possibly because Walters is no singer and they rightly spare us her rendition of "The Way We Were."
What they couldn't do when people were watching with their own eyes, ABC does in their "report." There's no excuse for what they have posted online. That's not what happened, that's not the way it happened.
It does present Powell in a more flattering light. It does eliminate his starts and stops, his stammer, his use of "United Nations." As p.r., it's fine. As journalism it's not fine. Journalism doesn't allow the public record to be 'polished.'
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Update 12-5-2010. We've fixed the FAIR link.
13 Books, 20 Minutes
Jim: In this week's book discussion, we're focusing on children's book. That's due to the fact that Gina and Krista asked us to because they'll be doing a survey of children's lit in this Friday's the gina & krista round-robin. We're happy to assist. Next week, we'll be discussing Tariq Ali's Street Fighting Years. This week, we'll be noting a book that stood out in childhood. Participating are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ava, Jess, Ty and myself, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), Mike of Mikey Likes It!, C.I. of both The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review, and we're very lucky to be joined by Folding Star who ran the weblog A Winding Road.
Ava: I asked to go first because when this feature was discussed, I claimed E.B. White's Charlotte's Web which was something that many of us involved would have selected. The illustrations are done by Garth Williams and this is a book that had a huge impact on me. It was read to me before I could read myself and it's one I read repeatedly in elementary school. Confession, it's also a book I still pick up when I'm feeling depressed. Last paragraph of the book:
Kat: My choice is one that only two people involved had heard of, The Country Bunny and The Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward, with pictures by Marjorie Hack. I loved this book, as much for the pictures as the story. The Country Bunny is a Sally Field type, plucky and feisty. She wants to be one of the Easter egg carriers. Each year, there's a contest and the fastest bunnies are selected to deliver the eggs. Although the Country Bunny is one of the fastest, she is told that it's too bad she has so many children or she could be one of the five selected. She makes an argument, which always struck me as both common sense and feminist, and she gets to be the fifth carrier. She also becomes the bravest carrier and as she attempts to deliver the final egg, "the loveliest egg," up a snow covered hill, Grandfather Bunny arrives with gold shoes that will assist her. So it's a story with feminist overtones and Country Bunny gets a snazzy pair of shoes to wear as she breaks through the glass ceiling, what's not to love?
Cedric: My favorite growing up was a little book called The Harlem Globetrotters and Basketball's Funniest Game. A nephew has the book now and we pass it around because it's an easy book and because it features African-Americans. Also, a kid who might not read something else, if he or she likes sports, will usually pick it up. Growing up, we all fought over this book. I don't just mean when we were little. But my sister had it before me, okay? It was passed down to her and then it was my turn. When I was reading bigger books, she tried to claim it back and kept saying she had only "loaned it" to me. It's funny now, but there were some intense fights over this book. I called my brother to find out the credits for it and it's by Clare and Frank Gault and illustrated by Charles McGill. It's probably not a great book, I'm sure it isn't. But it's one that's held the interest in my family.
Jim: My favorite book was a sports book too and is far less weighty than your choice. But it's by the same authors and I didn't know that. Clare and Frank Gault. It was my dad's book so it was also passed on.
Cedric: Really?
Jim: Yeah. Dick Ericson did the illustrations though. It's called How to Be a Good Baseball Player. My dad got it when he was nine-years-old. I don't remember this, but my mom says he read it to me over and over even when I was in the crib. Baseball's real big with my dad. He coached my little league team. Ty, Jess and Ava tease me about moving in with Dona over at her place with Ava but if they see the book there, they'll know I've moved because I wouldn't live anywhere without that book. What I can remember is Dad going over this book with me all the time when I was in elementary school. As summer approached, he'd pull out the book and we'd read it and look at the pictures. It's really an instructional book and I'm probably choosing it more for memories than the book itself but here's a quote:
Dona: As a dull gaze sets over everyone from that quote, I'll go next. I can't pick one. I can narrow it down to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prarie series. And from that, I can narrow it down to the first book or On the Banks of Plum Creek. I loved the books. I hated the TV show. I may be the only one who feels that way but the book seemed to have some hard hitting emotions and moments, stop laughing Jim, and the TV series seemed to be like Lassie. I kept waiting for Melissa Gilbert to get petted on the head every episode. But I love the books. All of them. And Jim, if you don't stop laughing, I'll eviscerate you for choosing an instructional book. I love those books.
Folding Star: I loved the Little House books, too. I read them over and over as a kid. I also read the books of Beverly Cleary over and over again, especially the Ramona books. But the one book that always comes to mind when I think of childhood favorites is Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw. It's such a great book. It's about this boy who wants to be a writer and, as a class assignment in elementary school, writes a letter to a children's author. The book takes the form of his letters to the author and later the journal the author suggests he keep. For anyone who ever wanted to be a writer when they were a kid, it's a wonderful book, but it also really deals well with the emotions kids may be dealing with after their parents divorce, and just in general with feelings about adolescence. It's just an amazing book.
Betty: I like the Ramona books too. I'd forgotten them until I started reading them to my own kids. It's like rediscovering the books all over again. My favorite changes from week to week depending on what the kids are into. Currently, they want Robert Bright's Georgie. That's a book about a little boy who's a ghost and it has the ink drawings that the kids get excited over.
This summer, at my oldest's day care, there was a Halloween in July thing where they got to dress up and read books. They had to make their own masks with construction paper and sacks and they did that in day care so it wasn't a stress for the parents. But during that week, one of the books they read was Georgie and this was really hard to find a copy of. But we "had" to have it and I remember those days so I finally found a copy on the internet. Let me do a quote because I just feel like I'm rambling here. (Laughing) Maybe because I'm not reflecting on the past but the topic pulls me very much into the present. Here's the opening of the book:
It's a cute book and at a time when the youngest is worrying about monsters under the bed, it's great because I can say, "I don't think it's monsters, I think it's Georgie!" and peace is restored and bed times met.
Mike: Mine's a Halloween book because I always loved Halloween best because you got to dress up in costumes. Christmas is great for presents, but Halloween's still my favorite. My book is by Bernard Wiseman, he did the words and the pictures, and it's called Halloween with Morris and Boris. It's about a moose and a bear who go trick or treating. My favorite character was Morris the moose. Boris was kind of a know it all and had a short temper. Morris ends up being a clown for Halloween and Boris ends up being a ghost. They get candy and go to a party and play pin the tail on the donkey and bob for apples. I just liked the book when I was little. Halloween, the color of the drawings.
Ty: I liked the colors in one book when I was little too. Ickle Bickle Robin by Edna Mitchell Preston and drawings by Norman Bridwell. The red on the robin's chest always looked like orange to me and that color just stood out. I would stare at the pictures even after I could read myself. The parents of Ickle Bickle Robin are arguing about whether he's old enough to fly or not. The dad thinks he is but the mom thinks he isn't. Then when he does fly, the dad's the one who's worried. It's a funny book.
Jess: I think my book's funny too. It's Maurice Sendak's Pierre which is part of the Really Rosie series. This was the first book I "read." I say "read" because we had the Carole King soundtrack to Really Rosie and it played all the time. She sings the words Sendak wrote to her own music and melodies. So I knew the words from the song and I'd turn the pages while I sang the song to myself. Here's the opening:
When I was a kid I thought it was "that a suit and a bull more all lies there." That's what my folks tell me. I guess I was just coming up with words I knew.
Rebecca: I'm going with a book I hated. It left an impression, but I hated it. Martha Tolles' Katie For President. So here's the basic plot. Katie wants to be president of the class. Her rival is Lynne Colby. They don't like each other. Turns out Lynne envies her just as much as Katie envies Lynne. What that has to do with election, I don't know. But Katie has to deliberate over whether to even vote for herself. That's before she finds out that Lynne's an okay person. The "happy" ending? Katie loses the election to Lynne. Katie's fine with it. Even when a note that destroyed her chances to win was written by Lynne's friend and Lynne knew about it. It was all too much to stomach and another "Empathy, girls!" story. Young girls need more victory stories, not lessons in how to be happy about losing.
C.I.: Interesting. I'll go with an obvious choice. The Curious George series. And from that, I'll go with Curious George Rides a Bike. H. A Rey is the author. The drawings were always a big deal to me. Monkeys were big with me. Chim-Chim on Speed Racer, Lance Link . . . And riding a bike is a big thing when you're a kid. I still remember the day the training wheels came off. I was in the drive way, my mother had taken them off. She gave me a push down the drive and, here's the point of the story, as I went down the drive, I turned and started down the sidewalk. No, I don't fall or crash or skin my knees. When I stopped, I stopped because I was ready and didn't fall over. Here's the point, one oft noted over the years, when I turned, I turned left.
Jim: I like that story. We hope this helps, Gina and Krista. Next week, Tariq Ali's Street Fighting Years.
Ava: I asked to go first because when this feature was discussed, I claimed E.B. White's Charlotte's Web which was something that many of us involved would have selected. The illustrations are done by Garth Williams and this is a book that had a huge impact on me. It was read to me before I could read myself and it's one I read repeatedly in elementary school. Confession, it's also a book I still pick up when I'm feeling depressed. Last paragraph of the book:
Wilbur never forgot Charlotte. Although he loved her children and
grandchildren dearly, none of the new spiders ever quite took her place in his
heart. She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone
comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.
Kat: My choice is one that only two people involved had heard of, The Country Bunny and The Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward, with pictures by Marjorie Hack. I loved this book, as much for the pictures as the story. The Country Bunny is a Sally Field type, plucky and feisty. She wants to be one of the Easter egg carriers. Each year, there's a contest and the fastest bunnies are selected to deliver the eggs. Although the Country Bunny is one of the fastest, she is told that it's too bad she has so many children or she could be one of the five selected. She makes an argument, which always struck me as both common sense and feminist, and she gets to be the fifth carrier. She also becomes the bravest carrier and as she attempts to deliver the final egg, "the loveliest egg," up a snow covered hill, Grandfather Bunny arrives with gold shoes that will assist her. So it's a story with feminist overtones and Country Bunny gets a snazzy pair of shoes to wear as she breaks through the glass ceiling, what's not to love?
Cedric: My favorite growing up was a little book called The Harlem Globetrotters and Basketball's Funniest Game. A nephew has the book now and we pass it around because it's an easy book and because it features African-Americans. Also, a kid who might not read something else, if he or she likes sports, will usually pick it up. Growing up, we all fought over this book. I don't just mean when we were little. But my sister had it before me, okay? It was passed down to her and then it was my turn. When I was reading bigger books, she tried to claim it back and kept saying she had only "loaned it" to me. It's funny now, but there were some intense fights over this book. I called my brother to find out the credits for it and it's by Clare and Frank Gault and illustrated by Charles McGill. It's probably not a great book, I'm sure it isn't. But it's one that's held the interest in my family.
Jim: My favorite book was a sports book too and is far less weighty than your choice. But it's by the same authors and I didn't know that. Clare and Frank Gault. It was my dad's book so it was also passed on.
Cedric: Really?
Jim: Yeah. Dick Ericson did the illustrations though. It's called How to Be a Good Baseball Player. My dad got it when he was nine-years-old. I don't remember this, but my mom says he read it to me over and over even when I was in the crib. Baseball's real big with my dad. He coached my little league team. Ty, Jess and Ava tease me about moving in with Dona over at her place with Ava but if they see the book there, they'll know I've moved because I wouldn't live anywhere without that book. What I can remember is Dad going over this book with me all the time when I was in elementary school. As summer approached, he'd pull out the book and we'd read it and look at the pictures. It's really an instructional book and I'm probably choosing it more for memories than the book itself but here's a quote:
How do you throw a fast ball?
One way is to grip the baseball with two fingers across the seams.
Or you can grip the ball using two fingers along the seams.
And some pitchers like to use only one finger across the seams.
Dona: As a dull gaze sets over everyone from that quote, I'll go next. I can't pick one. I can narrow it down to Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prarie series. And from that, I can narrow it down to the first book or On the Banks of Plum Creek. I loved the books. I hated the TV show. I may be the only one who feels that way but the book seemed to have some hard hitting emotions and moments, stop laughing Jim, and the TV series seemed to be like Lassie. I kept waiting for Melissa Gilbert to get petted on the head every episode. But I love the books. All of them. And Jim, if you don't stop laughing, I'll eviscerate you for choosing an instructional book. I love those books.
Folding Star: I loved the Little House books, too. I read them over and over as a kid. I also read the books of Beverly Cleary over and over again, especially the Ramona books. But the one book that always comes to mind when I think of childhood favorites is Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw. It's such a great book. It's about this boy who wants to be a writer and, as a class assignment in elementary school, writes a letter to a children's author. The book takes the form of his letters to the author and later the journal the author suggests he keep. For anyone who ever wanted to be a writer when they were a kid, it's a wonderful book, but it also really deals well with the emotions kids may be dealing with after their parents divorce, and just in general with feelings about adolescence. It's just an amazing book.
Betty: I like the Ramona books too. I'd forgotten them until I started reading them to my own kids. It's like rediscovering the books all over again. My favorite changes from week to week depending on what the kids are into. Currently, they want Robert Bright's Georgie. That's a book about a little boy who's a ghost and it has the ink drawings that the kids get excited over.
This summer, at my oldest's day care, there was a Halloween in July thing where they got to dress up and read books. They had to make their own masks with construction paper and sacks and they did that in day care so it wasn't a stress for the parents. But during that week, one of the books they read was Georgie and this was really hard to find a copy of. But we "had" to have it and I remember those days so I finally found a copy on the internet. Let me do a quote because I just feel like I'm rambling here. (Laughing) Maybe because I'm not reflecting on the past but the topic pulls me very much into the present. Here's the opening of the book:
In a little village in New England there was a little house which belonged
to Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker.
Up in the little attic of this little house there lived a little
ghost. His name was Georgie.
Every night, at the same time, he gave the loose board on the stairs a
little creek,
and the parlor door a little squeak.
It's a cute book and at a time when the youngest is worrying about monsters under the bed, it's great because I can say, "I don't think it's monsters, I think it's Georgie!" and peace is restored and bed times met.
Mike: Mine's a Halloween book because I always loved Halloween best because you got to dress up in costumes. Christmas is great for presents, but Halloween's still my favorite. My book is by Bernard Wiseman, he did the words and the pictures, and it's called Halloween with Morris and Boris. It's about a moose and a bear who go trick or treating. My favorite character was Morris the moose. Boris was kind of a know it all and had a short temper. Morris ends up being a clown for Halloween and Boris ends up being a ghost. They get candy and go to a party and play pin the tail on the donkey and bob for apples. I just liked the book when I was little. Halloween, the color of the drawings.
Ty: I liked the colors in one book when I was little too. Ickle Bickle Robin by Edna Mitchell Preston and drawings by Norman Bridwell. The red on the robin's chest always looked like orange to me and that color just stood out. I would stare at the pictures even after I could read myself. The parents of Ickle Bickle Robin are arguing about whether he's old enough to fly or not. The dad thinks he is but the mom thinks he isn't. Then when he does fly, the dad's the one who's worried. It's a funny book.
Jess: I think my book's funny too. It's Maurice Sendak's Pierre which is part of the Really Rosie series. This was the first book I "read." I say "read" because we had the Carole King soundtrack to Really Rosie and it played all the time. She sings the words Sendak wrote to her own music and melodies. So I knew the words from the song and I'd turn the pages while I sang the song to myself. Here's the opening:
There once was a boy
named Pierre
who only would say,
"I don't care!"
Read his story,
my friend,
for you'll find
at the end
that a suitable
moral lies there.
When I was a kid I thought it was "that a suit and a bull more all lies there." That's what my folks tell me. I guess I was just coming up with words I knew.
Rebecca: I'm going with a book I hated. It left an impression, but I hated it. Martha Tolles' Katie For President. So here's the basic plot. Katie wants to be president of the class. Her rival is Lynne Colby. They don't like each other. Turns out Lynne envies her just as much as Katie envies Lynne. What that has to do with election, I don't know. But Katie has to deliberate over whether to even vote for herself. That's before she finds out that Lynne's an okay person. The "happy" ending? Katie loses the election to Lynne. Katie's fine with it. Even when a note that destroyed her chances to win was written by Lynne's friend and Lynne knew about it. It was all too much to stomach and another "Empathy, girls!" story. Young girls need more victory stories, not lessons in how to be happy about losing.
C.I.: Interesting. I'll go with an obvious choice. The Curious George series. And from that, I'll go with Curious George Rides a Bike. H. A Rey is the author. The drawings were always a big deal to me. Monkeys were big with me. Chim-Chim on Speed Racer, Lance Link . . . And riding a bike is a big thing when you're a kid. I still remember the day the training wheels came off. I was in the drive way, my mother had taken them off. She gave me a push down the drive and, here's the point of the story, as I went down the drive, I turned and started down the sidewalk. No, I don't fall or crash or skin my knees. When I stopped, I stopped because I was ready and didn't fall over. Here's the point, one oft noted over the years, when I turned, I turned left.
Jim: I like that story. We hope this helps, Gina and Krista. Next week, Tariq Ali's Street Fighting Years.
The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review 9-11-05
C.I.: Good morning and welcome to The Third Estate Sunday Review news review.
Jess: Australia's ABC network reports that a peace activist may face deportation. The activist, Scott Parkin, is a nonviolent peace activist conducting workshops on peace. A security assessment has found him to be a "risk." Liz Thompson of Australia's Anti-Deportation Alliance told ABC that:
"The idea that someone who talks about non-violent methods of resistance to state violence can be considered a threat to national security is pretty concerning, particularly in the light of the new laws that are being proposed."
Jess (con't): Now I'd like to note an excerpt from Cindy Sheehan's "Peacemakers: What Kind of Extremist Will You Be?" at BuzzFlash:
Most everyone who is reading this knows what happened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 04, 1968. Some of you may even know what happened to my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan on April 04, 2004. If you don't know, Dr King and Casey were murdered by the same malevolent entities: People and ideologies that say that we have to be mortally afraid of the "ism" du jour and we, as Americans who have the "moral high-ground" in the world can send our innocent children to invade innocent countries and kill innocent people to fight the "ists" that go with the "isms."
In Vietnam we were fighting the evil Communists and in Iraq we are fighting the evil terrorists. Our war against Communism out-stayed its welcome in the 1980's and the military industrial war complex was running out of excuses to build bombs, tanks, bullets, ships, submarines, and soldiers; so in 2001, our leaders who serve the war machine had to switch our enemy of the state to terrorism.
Dr. King had the temerity to challenge the war machine and war racketeers on April 04, 1967 in his famous speech on Vietnam...and he paid for that bit of inspired, courageous, honesty with his life exactly one year later. Casey had the naïve gall to join the US Army thinking he would be making the world a better, safer place... and he paid for that kind of immature (but honest) patriotic mistake with his wonderful life.
Casey was a brave and honorable man who we were told volunteered to go on the mission that killed him to save the lives of his buddies. He was shot in the back of the head and died a little while later in a medic's station while a medic was trying to hold his brains in while the doctors tried to keep him breathing. We have heard many wildly disparate stories of Casey's last few minutes on earth, I don't know if we will ever know the truth. One thing I do know, however, is that like Dr. King, Casey's murder will be to advance the cause for peace and in the name of love.
I am wholly and completely convinced that this aggression on Iraq is illegal, immoral and appallingly unnecessary. I am also convinced that one drop of blood was one drop of blood too much to be shed for this abomination in Iraq. Now oceans of blood -- both Iraqi and American -- have been spilled for ruinous and disturbing policies of very bad people in our government who have based their reasons for invasion and occupation on their twisted imaginations and their seemingly bottomless lust for power, profits, chaos and confusion.
Jess (con't): This is a powerful statement and deserves attention. Due to the length of the excerpt and knowing that Betty, Cedric and Ty have put a lot of time into something they'll be providing tonight, I'll use the rest of my time to note two things. First, here are the upcoming dates for the Bring Them Home Now Tour:
Central Tour:
Cleveland, OH: Sun, Sep. 11th
Pittsburgh, PA: Sun, Sep. 11th - Wed, Sep. 14th
Harrisburg, PA: Wed, Sep. 14th
Philadelphia, PA: Wed, Sep. 14th - Sun, Sep. 18th
Baltimore, MD: Sun, Sep. 18th - Wed, Sep. 21st
Northern Tour:
Detroit, MI: Sun, Sep. 11th
Buffalo, NY: Sun, Sep. 11th - Tue, Sep. 13th
Rochester, NY: Tue, Sep. 13th
Syracuse, NY: Tue, Sep. 13th
Albany, NY: Tue, Sep. 13th - Wed, Sep. 14th
Amherst, MA: Wed, Sep. 14th - Thu, Sep. 15th
Boston, MA: Fri, Sep. 16th - Sun, Sep. 18th
New Haven, CT: Sun, Sep. 18th
Providence, RI: Sun, Sep. 18th
New York City, NY: Sun, Sep. 18th - Tue, Sep. 20th
Newark, NJ: Tue, Sep. 20th
Baltimore, MD: Tue, Sep. 20th - Wed, Sep. 21st
Southern Tour:
Savannah, GA: Mon, Sep. 12th - Tue, Sep. 13th
Charleston, SC: Tue, Sep. 13th
Columbia, SC: Tue, Sep. 13th - Thu, Sep. 15th
Raleigh-Durham, NC: Thu, Sep. 15th - Sun, Sep. 18th
Fayetteville, NC: Fri, Sep. 16th
Williamsburg, VA: Sun, Sep. 18th
Richmond, VA: Sun, Sep. 18th - Tue, Sep. 20th
Alexandria, VA: Tue, Sep. 20th - Wed, Sep. 21st
Jess (con't): If they're in your area, show your support. And reader Amy asked me to note that one week from today, in Madison Wisconsin, Jane Fonda & George Galloway's tour gets under way. We publish on Sunday and I'll note this again next week but to give an advance heads up, we'll note it now. Jane Fonda will speak for twenty minutes and introduce George Galloway who will then speak for an hour. Ticket prices are ten dollars for students and twenty dollars for everyone else. Tickets are now on sale and the event takes place in the Wisconsin Union Theatre. For more information, you can consult Madison Indymedia and the article Lee Sensebrenner wrote. Let's keep the activism that took off this summer alive and growing.
C.I.: Thank you, Jess. You have a report that you completed but you'll be holding that?
Jess: Correct. With the events the weekend of the 23rd, we've decided to hold that in case we're short on time.
C.I.: Thank you. We'll also note that BuzzFlash has a petition asking that Jenna & Barbara Bush enlist in the military or that no other Americans be sent to Iraq. To sign the petition click here.
We're now fortunate to have Dallas participating with us again. Dallas hunts down all the links you find at The Third Estate Sunday Review, and many at The Common Ills as well. This week Dallas spent many hours volunteering at a relief center for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in his local area. Dallas?
Dallas: C.I., I live in Dallas, Texas and one of the areas that it has been set up is the city's Convention Center. I saw positives and negatives and, my personal judgement, the negatives stem mainly from the lack of assistance provided by the federal government. After attending a training session by the Red Cross, I reported to the Convention Center where residents are tightly packed and alternate between frustration and hope. Many businesses, including Honey B. Ham and Dominos Pizza, donated food throught the week. Food was not in short supply and, again, that food was donated. Last week, we had spoken of the proximity to the West End Station of the Convention Center. The West End Station is a bus and train station that services the DFW area. The city has provided all the evacuess with passes which allow them to travel on the local transportation free of charge. The evacuess wear braclets which allow them to enter and depart from the Convention Center. They are not confined to the center nor are they forced to leave each day. One concern that we discussed last week was repeatedly raised by evacuees in the Convention Center which is the heat outside and the lack of shade for those wishing to step out and get some fresh air. There is also confusion expressed over the layout around the Convention Center. A plus I did not note last week is that although Dallas and surrounding areas are set up under a multi-system that seems to encompass every development design, the immediate area that the evacuees at the Convention Center are in is set up, more or less, on a grid system. That's a rarity in Dallas and a benefit to the location. Those I spoke with who ventured out for walks cited the ease with which they were able to find their way back to the Convention Center. Inside the center itself, there are various areas set up to address problems.
Walgreens and another drugstore have set up to provide medications. One of the best run areas, my opinion, is the DISD, Dallas Independent School District, which is registering the children for classes. Five mothers cite that as the easiest area to navigate and the most helpful.
Social Security and FEMA are rated by most as the worst areas and the most confusing due to the paper work and the constant referrals of "You need to see ___" first. That was a hall mark in the Convention Center, something that volunteers and evacuees repeatedly noted. The local organizations were running with speed and efficiency. The federal organizations were not. As the week progressed, frustration with the federal agencies became the most cited topic by evacuees who complained to me.
C.I.: What would you offer as an explanation for that?
Dallas: Frustration over the procedures. The paperwork is more often a maze of paperwork for those agencies. There is a "It's not my job" attitude that is sometimes expressed verbally. Again, this is with the federal agencies. The local agencies, such as DISD which you would expect to be frustrating, have had more thought and planning put in. They're also under local oversight which no doubt helps as well.
C.I.: And you said in an e-mail Thursday that it was a peaceful setting.
Dallas: Right. People do express frustrations, valid ones. But the evacuees have not lived up to any of the horror stories reported in some media.
C.I.: Other than complaints regarding the federal agencies, what has been the biggest complaint from evacuees in the Convention Center?
Dallas: That family can't enter. If you lived in New Orleans and were currently in the Convention Center and Jess was your brother from Oklahoma who showed up to check on you, Jess would not be allowed into the Convention Center. I spoke to many who voiced this complaint. Two of which actually had a visitor that they found out later. Both visitors had stationed themselves in the area outside of the Convention Center with the hopes that their family inside might walk out or someone that they knew who could go back in and inform them that they were outside. The two people who did leave the Convention Center by chance and encounter visitors took the story back inside and a number of evacuees are wondering whether they too might have had people attempting to visit them. There's a discussion, at least inside the Convention Center, on a way to address that issue because obviously it is an important one.
These people have already lost so much and certainly no one wants to deprive them of a visit from loved ones.
C.I.: The rule was set up for safety reasons?
Dallas: Yes. You have to have a braclet to enter or leave the Convention Center. This is an attempt to focus on the needs of the evacuees.
C.I.: As opposed to the homeless population that you spoke of last week?
Dallas: Correct. As well as to prevent casual visitors from dropping in. You're dealing with a tightly packed area, set up with cots. There's not a great deal of privacy and the braclet system was also an attempt to provide the evacuees with some privacy from what one agency head called "curiosity seekers." I should probably disclose that I did vote for our mayor, Laura Miller, and for the council member that represents me. However, I'm not always pleased with the mayor's positions or proposals. I went in wanting to help and expecting a nightmare. Not from the evacuees but from the way things would be set up. I think the mayor and the council has provided strong oversight and that the city officials involved planned very carefully. Again, the contrast between what you receive from the city and what you receive from the federal agencies is very different. The mayor is saying publicly that the city needs more federal assistance and a few hours inside the Convention Center will demonstrate why she is asking for that.
C.I.: Thank you for that report Dallas. We now have an editorial sgement. It will begin with Betty and myself, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, and then we'll be joined by Ty of The Third Estate Sunday Review, and Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix. Before we get to that, last week, Elaine and I attempted to figure out the terms "refugee" and "evacuee." For information on that you can refer to Ruth's Morning Edition Report from Saturday. We will all be using the term "evacuee" in place of "refugee." Betty, you have issues with a certain fact checker, correct?
Betty: Correct. My frustation were voiced here last Sunday over what I saw as his insensitivity and lack of desire for an exploration of racial issues. As the week progressed, my frustration only grew with each daily entry from the fact checker.
He critiques Rep. Dianne Watson (D-CA) for her complaints about the use of the term refugee. He writes:
But let’s go farther: Who exactly has called the New Orleans storm victims "refugees coming from a foreign country?" Answer: No one has made such a statement. Watson is pleasuring herself.
C.I.: Fact, the legal definition of "refugee" refers to those from a foreign country. Refugess come from a foreign country, to repeat. Watson is legally correct. Legally the "from a foreign country" is implied.
Betty: He wrote of Kanye West and Don Imus and their remarks of Bully Boy hating black people:
Kanye West knew it, and Imus did too.
C.I.: Fact, he does not know what Bully Boy hates anymore than anyone else does.
Betty: He wrote:
A single photo caption from Agence France Press failed to use the naughty term "looting"--and a pair of white people were portrayed in the photo! To Atrios, a college professor (!), this single, unexplained example seemed to display a troubling race bias—and the stupid story quickly spread around the liberal web (ending up in a stand-alone story in the New York Times). As it turned out, the photojournalist had a very good reason for saying this couple “found” bread and soda from a local grocery--he said he had literally seen them do it! But pseudo-liberals were outraged by this one example--and when pseudo-liberals start to pleasure themselves, one example is all they need to establish a troubling principle. Their well-trained professors (!) play along.
C.I.: Fact, we are outside of France. AP distributes AFP globally. Snit fits over AFP seem beside the point. More importantly the photo is a Getty Image. Which AFP distributes. AP distributes AFP internationally. Are we confused yet? We won't get any clarity from the fact checker.
The photos were teamed on the internet by Yahoo.
Fact checker informs that the photo journalist says he saw the "looting." Unless he knows the photog it certainly is strange that he, who ridicules the press so often, is building his case on a single source. It certainly is a pleasing story for the photog involved. One doubts that Maureen Dowd would be granted the same unquestioning treatment to a defense she offered that only she could back up.
Interestingly enough and not surprisingly, there are larger issues. Such as the photos themselves.
Betty: Left out of discussion is the fact that the "looting" man is presumably not far from the store in question since the Getty journalist claims to have seen the looting. The Getty photog couldn't very well have chased the man far for a photo.
C.I.: Or shouldn't have since the photo shows the quote "looter" unquote in chest deep water.
The man is thought to be carrying a case of Pepsis. Betty, do you prefer your Pepsi chilled or under stagnant water?
Betty: Well, while there's nothing like a rust ring to make a can of Pepsi more attractive, I think I'd have to choose the can not buried under water where it will remain for days.
C.I.: Point. There are bigger issues. The "analysis" is useless.
Cedric: Help! Help! Help!
Betty: Cedric, are you okay?
Cedric: I've just sliced open my hand. It was bad enough when I woke with an ingrown fingernail.
Betty: Cedric, you're losing a lot of blood. Let's apply pressure.
Ty: Hold it one damn minute! Before anyone applies pressure, allow me to fact check. Contrary to the way the liberals love to spread self-pleasing tales, Cedric DOES NOT have an ingrown fingernail. He has a hang nail! Allow me to explain at length.
Betty: But Ty, there is a bigger issue!
Cedric: I'm bleedin,g man!
Ty: Drop the bandage, Betty! The issue at present is that Cedric has lied, lied, lied about having an ingrown nail. It is a hang nail. That is our focus and that will be our focus.
C.I.: Ty, isn't it correct that Cedric is bleeding from a sharp cut to his hand?
Ty: I'm not commenting on that. I'm not into self-pleasing liberal tales that liberals tell themselves to be self-pleased. I'm the last honest man, emphasis on man, and I will howl and holler until I am heard!
Cedric: You self-righteous ass!
C.I.: The above, beginning with the appearence of Cedric screaming, "Help! Help! Help!" was a dramatization. Betty?
Betty: Did Cedric, in our dramatization, have a hang nail or an ingrown fingernail? Considering that, Cedric's hand was bleeding, Ty's focus on the hang nail issue was rather strange.
Ty: The point of the skit that Betty, Cedric and I wrote was to underscore that there are larger issues. The character I played was someone totally oblivious to the pain of others and unconcerned with the big issues but determined to extoll my own self-pleasing critiques.
Betty: And did a very fine job. Our Weekly Howler Players, Ty and Cedric. The skit actually illustrates some of the huge problems this week. Thursday is all , these people claim crime wasn't as rampant as portrayed, the police chief says otherwise!
Ty: "But, uh, I guess I should toss in that the police chief might have a reason to say that."
Cedric: "And note how I don't mention word one about the reports of the police abusing reporters."
Betty: When you set the rules, when you call the fouls, when you're the home team, you can make an argument. Doesn't make it valid. As a black woman, I'm grossly offended by pretty much every commentary the Fact Checker has offered on this topic.
Ty: The minimizing of race and the serious issues involved repeatedly by someone rushing into scream, "Don't look here!" didn't play well to the three of us. He appears to want a serious discussion on race. But only on his terms.
Cedric: And he'll attempt to ridicule anyone who attempts to raise a serious issue because, instead of focusing on the bloody hand, he's trying to figure out whether it's a hang nail or in grown nail. It's insulting no matter how it's meant. As the three African-Americans of this community who have sites, we felt we had a special obligation to make sure our point of view was heard on this nonsense.
C.I.: Ty, you have a statement to read composed by everyone participating in this edition?
Ty: Correct. We don't know the intent of the Fact Checker. We do know that many in the community found his remarks insensitive and offensive. Racial issues have been addressed rarely at his site so if he's thinking that he's earned some benefit of the doubt on this, he's wrong.
We link to him at this site on our blog roll. It is our hope that he was in a bad mood all week, as evidenced by his use of the f-word, and attempting to make points that he never executed due to his frustration. But as the comments stand, people are offended. Issues of representation have been raised in other forums and while focusing on the domestic mainstream may limit some of his choices due to the institutional bais in those organizations focused on, the fact remains that people are asking questions and feeling, in the words of Common Ills community member and co-author of the gina & krista round-robin, uninvited.
C.I.: Thank you Ty, Betty and Cedric. Again, that was editorial content. We now go Elaine with reports from Iraq. And we'll note that this week Elaine started her own site, Like Maria Said Paz.
Elaine: It is now September 11th. Though the mainstream media hasn't been very concerned with covering it, the fatality count for American troops in Iraq stands at eleven [for the month thus far]. There is not a total for those wounded in action but August's total is 451 injured while serving in Iraq.
The Associated Press reports that this Friday, at a court martial, Sgt. David Fimon pled guilty to abusing prisioners in Iraq. Reportedly, the abuse included stun guns used on prisoners who were both handcuffed and blind folded.
In Tal Afar, Reuters reports that the mayor, Mohammed Rasheed, has resigned saying that "The operation is targeting Sunni neighbourhoods."
As noted elsewhere, The New York Times has a fondness for copying press releases from the military and turning them as a news reports. One such press release last week claimed that Saddam Hussein had confessed. The BBC reports that attornies for Hussein state there has been no confession.
While the paper of record for press releases told readers about a questionable confession and baseball in Iraq, they found little time to report on Tal Afar.
Aerial bombings began mid-week according to Aljazeera. Aljazeera also reports that:
"The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) in Iraq slammed the military offensive in Tal Afar on Saturday, saying it was as an expression of innate sectarian hatred that rulers should refrain from." The BBC reports that the city of Qaim is next on the radar for the US military although this is being delayed due to the fighting in Tal Afar. The Observer has called events in Tal Afar
"the biggest assault since the retaking of Falluja." At some point The New York Times may decide to report on it.
C.I.: Thank you, Elaine. In other news you may not find in The New York Times, we go to Mike, of Mike Likes It!
Mike:Based on past reporting on the area, there's a good chance this is news that The New York Times won't tell you, a confrontation in Belfast between police and loyalists resulted in violence. Australia's ABC reports that at least one Protestant was shot and that the authorities speak of a spike in the attacks in West Belfast by loyalists. Machine gun fire was reportedly heard.
C.I.: The IRA is supposed to be disarming but as many, not the Times, pointed out the loyalist paramilitary goups, which exist even if the Times can't find them, have made no such proclamation. What else is know about the attacks?
Mike: The police speak of petrol bombs, blast bombs and bricks being hurled at them by loyalists. The crackpot The New York Times loves to quote, Ian Paisley, is blaming the violence on parade commissioners who re-routed a parade, according to the BBC. Burning automobiles and other things are blocking many roads. In other news from Europe, The Guardian is reporting that the general-secretary of the Transport & General Workers Union, Tony Woodley, is calling for Tony Blair to step down as prime minister within the year and thus far refusing to endorse Gordon Brown as the next prime minister. In the United States, the Associated Press is reporting on The "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" -- a 2002 Pentagon plan that is in the process of being updated. The doctrine calls for the use of nuclear weapons to fight "terrorists" in a pre-emptive war. Left unstated by the AP is the legalisty of a pre-emptive war.
C.I.: That is disturbing, Mike. Thank you. We'll note that Jim Lobe's "Anti-Terror Strategy in Doubt on 9/11 Anniversary" at IPS raises serious questions about the strategy of the so-called "war" on terror. Now we go to Rebecca, of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, who is filing her first report for the news review and is focusing on nature. Rebecca?
Rebecca: C.I., the great apes in Africa are facing extinction. The BBC reports that the UN and ministers of 23 African republics are attempting to save the great apes which could disappear in one generation if nothing is done. In Rio de Janeiro, Ireland's BreakingNews.ie reports, savelha are dying in large numbers in the lagoon of Marapendi which follows the 2000 death of "132 tons of fish in the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon." Scientists are concluding, according to the BBC, that climate change (global warming) could result in 50 million people be facing the risks of hunger and starvation over the next fifty years. The New Zealand Herald reports that a "southern Right Whale, a sub-adult about 14 metres long" remains caught "in a craypot." Rescue teams have lost track of it and the whale is expected to die if not located soon. Finally, on Tuesday, the World Health Organization issued an alert that it appears bird flu has transferred from poultry to migratory birds.
C.I.: Thank you, Rebecca. Now we go to Kat, of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), for an entertainment wrap up.
Kat: As reported by the Associated Press, faced with a legal challenge by CNN, the federal government has backed off their demand/command that the media be prevented from documenting and witnessing the recovery of bodies in New Orleans. Rolling Stone reports that
"MELISSA ETHERIDGE will produce and host the Lifetime network's breast-cancer awareness special, WomenRock! Our Journey with Melissa Etheridge. The show, which will be taped in Los Angeles on September 29th, will air October 18th as part of the network's Our Lifetime Commitment: Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign." The AFP reports that Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain has won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. Spin reports that Outkast's upcoming film will also feature " Ving Rhames, Terence Howard, Faizon Love, Patti LaBelle, Macy Gray, and Cicely Tyson." The Progressive's Barbara Ehrenreich follows up her million selling Nickle and Dimed with a new book entitled Bait & Switch. Bait & Switch focuses on the white collar world and Ehrenreich explained what led her to write the book to the Associated Press:
I hadn't thought of doing anything like this after "Nickel and Dimed." I spent four years running around the country, speaking about the issues. What was beginning to catch my attention was the number of letters ... from people with degrees — not just bachelor's, but master's — who sunk into poverty and couldn't come back. ... I hadn't thought this was a group in trouble. My curiosity was piqued.
Kat (con't): Lastly, tonight the Independent Channel airs Danny Schechter's documentary WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception which airs at 10 pm eastern and pacific times and nine pm in the central time zone.
C.I.: Thank you, Kat. WMD, if you get the Independent Channel, please check out the movie tonight. And that wraps this edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review news review. We thank Dallas and Jess' parents for hunting down links and helping locate stories. Dona and Jim, both of The Third Estate Sunday Review, acted as producers, helping to edit the stories and maintain the one hour frame we try for in this feature. Dona asks that we note this feature is a "rush transcript."
Jess: Australia's ABC network reports that a peace activist may face deportation. The activist, Scott Parkin, is a nonviolent peace activist conducting workshops on peace. A security assessment has found him to be a "risk." Liz Thompson of Australia's Anti-Deportation Alliance told ABC that:
"The idea that someone who talks about non-violent methods of resistance to state violence can be considered a threat to national security is pretty concerning, particularly in the light of the new laws that are being proposed."
Jess (con't): Now I'd like to note an excerpt from Cindy Sheehan's "Peacemakers: What Kind of Extremist Will You Be?" at BuzzFlash:
Most everyone who is reading this knows what happened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 04, 1968. Some of you may even know what happened to my son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan on April 04, 2004. If you don't know, Dr King and Casey were murdered by the same malevolent entities: People and ideologies that say that we have to be mortally afraid of the "ism" du jour and we, as Americans who have the "moral high-ground" in the world can send our innocent children to invade innocent countries and kill innocent people to fight the "ists" that go with the "isms."
In Vietnam we were fighting the evil Communists and in Iraq we are fighting the evil terrorists. Our war against Communism out-stayed its welcome in the 1980's and the military industrial war complex was running out of excuses to build bombs, tanks, bullets, ships, submarines, and soldiers; so in 2001, our leaders who serve the war machine had to switch our enemy of the state to terrorism.
Dr. King had the temerity to challenge the war machine and war racketeers on April 04, 1967 in his famous speech on Vietnam...and he paid for that bit of inspired, courageous, honesty with his life exactly one year later. Casey had the naïve gall to join the US Army thinking he would be making the world a better, safer place... and he paid for that kind of immature (but honest) patriotic mistake with his wonderful life.
Casey was a brave and honorable man who we were told volunteered to go on the mission that killed him to save the lives of his buddies. He was shot in the back of the head and died a little while later in a medic's station while a medic was trying to hold his brains in while the doctors tried to keep him breathing. We have heard many wildly disparate stories of Casey's last few minutes on earth, I don't know if we will ever know the truth. One thing I do know, however, is that like Dr. King, Casey's murder will be to advance the cause for peace and in the name of love.
I am wholly and completely convinced that this aggression on Iraq is illegal, immoral and appallingly unnecessary. I am also convinced that one drop of blood was one drop of blood too much to be shed for this abomination in Iraq. Now oceans of blood -- both Iraqi and American -- have been spilled for ruinous and disturbing policies of very bad people in our government who have based their reasons for invasion and occupation on their twisted imaginations and their seemingly bottomless lust for power, profits, chaos and confusion.
Jess (con't): This is a powerful statement and deserves attention. Due to the length of the excerpt and knowing that Betty, Cedric and Ty have put a lot of time into something they'll be providing tonight, I'll use the rest of my time to note two things. First, here are the upcoming dates for the Bring Them Home Now Tour:
Central Tour:
Cleveland, OH: Sun, Sep. 11th
Pittsburgh, PA: Sun, Sep. 11th - Wed, Sep. 14th
Harrisburg, PA: Wed, Sep. 14th
Philadelphia, PA: Wed, Sep. 14th - Sun, Sep. 18th
Baltimore, MD: Sun, Sep. 18th - Wed, Sep. 21st
Northern Tour:
Detroit, MI: Sun, Sep. 11th
Buffalo, NY: Sun, Sep. 11th - Tue, Sep. 13th
Rochester, NY: Tue, Sep. 13th
Syracuse, NY: Tue, Sep. 13th
Albany, NY: Tue, Sep. 13th - Wed, Sep. 14th
Amherst, MA: Wed, Sep. 14th - Thu, Sep. 15th
Boston, MA: Fri, Sep. 16th - Sun, Sep. 18th
New Haven, CT: Sun, Sep. 18th
Providence, RI: Sun, Sep. 18th
New York City, NY: Sun, Sep. 18th - Tue, Sep. 20th
Newark, NJ: Tue, Sep. 20th
Baltimore, MD: Tue, Sep. 20th - Wed, Sep. 21st
Southern Tour:
Savannah, GA: Mon, Sep. 12th - Tue, Sep. 13th
Charleston, SC: Tue, Sep. 13th
Columbia, SC: Tue, Sep. 13th - Thu, Sep. 15th
Raleigh-Durham, NC: Thu, Sep. 15th - Sun, Sep. 18th
Fayetteville, NC: Fri, Sep. 16th
Williamsburg, VA: Sun, Sep. 18th
Richmond, VA: Sun, Sep. 18th - Tue, Sep. 20th
Alexandria, VA: Tue, Sep. 20th - Wed, Sep. 21st
Jess (con't): If they're in your area, show your support. And reader Amy asked me to note that one week from today, in Madison Wisconsin, Jane Fonda & George Galloway's tour gets under way. We publish on Sunday and I'll note this again next week but to give an advance heads up, we'll note it now. Jane Fonda will speak for twenty minutes and introduce George Galloway who will then speak for an hour. Ticket prices are ten dollars for students and twenty dollars for everyone else. Tickets are now on sale and the event takes place in the Wisconsin Union Theatre. For more information, you can consult Madison Indymedia and the article Lee Sensebrenner wrote. Let's keep the activism that took off this summer alive and growing.
C.I.: Thank you, Jess. You have a report that you completed but you'll be holding that?
Jess: Correct. With the events the weekend of the 23rd, we've decided to hold that in case we're short on time.
C.I.: Thank you. We'll also note that BuzzFlash has a petition asking that Jenna & Barbara Bush enlist in the military or that no other Americans be sent to Iraq. To sign the petition click here.
We're now fortunate to have Dallas participating with us again. Dallas hunts down all the links you find at The Third Estate Sunday Review, and many at The Common Ills as well. This week Dallas spent many hours volunteering at a relief center for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in his local area. Dallas?
Dallas: C.I., I live in Dallas, Texas and one of the areas that it has been set up is the city's Convention Center. I saw positives and negatives and, my personal judgement, the negatives stem mainly from the lack of assistance provided by the federal government. After attending a training session by the Red Cross, I reported to the Convention Center where residents are tightly packed and alternate between frustration and hope. Many businesses, including Honey B. Ham and Dominos Pizza, donated food throught the week. Food was not in short supply and, again, that food was donated. Last week, we had spoken of the proximity to the West End Station of the Convention Center. The West End Station is a bus and train station that services the DFW area. The city has provided all the evacuess with passes which allow them to travel on the local transportation free of charge. The evacuess wear braclets which allow them to enter and depart from the Convention Center. They are not confined to the center nor are they forced to leave each day. One concern that we discussed last week was repeatedly raised by evacuees in the Convention Center which is the heat outside and the lack of shade for those wishing to step out and get some fresh air. There is also confusion expressed over the layout around the Convention Center. A plus I did not note last week is that although Dallas and surrounding areas are set up under a multi-system that seems to encompass every development design, the immediate area that the evacuees at the Convention Center are in is set up, more or less, on a grid system. That's a rarity in Dallas and a benefit to the location. Those I spoke with who ventured out for walks cited the ease with which they were able to find their way back to the Convention Center. Inside the center itself, there are various areas set up to address problems.
Walgreens and another drugstore have set up to provide medications. One of the best run areas, my opinion, is the DISD, Dallas Independent School District, which is registering the children for classes. Five mothers cite that as the easiest area to navigate and the most helpful.
Social Security and FEMA are rated by most as the worst areas and the most confusing due to the paper work and the constant referrals of "You need to see ___" first. That was a hall mark in the Convention Center, something that volunteers and evacuees repeatedly noted. The local organizations were running with speed and efficiency. The federal organizations were not. As the week progressed, frustration with the federal agencies became the most cited topic by evacuees who complained to me.
C.I.: What would you offer as an explanation for that?
Dallas: Frustration over the procedures. The paperwork is more often a maze of paperwork for those agencies. There is a "It's not my job" attitude that is sometimes expressed verbally. Again, this is with the federal agencies. The local agencies, such as DISD which you would expect to be frustrating, have had more thought and planning put in. They're also under local oversight which no doubt helps as well.
C.I.: And you said in an e-mail Thursday that it was a peaceful setting.
Dallas: Right. People do express frustrations, valid ones. But the evacuees have not lived up to any of the horror stories reported in some media.
C.I.: Other than complaints regarding the federal agencies, what has been the biggest complaint from evacuees in the Convention Center?
Dallas: That family can't enter. If you lived in New Orleans and were currently in the Convention Center and Jess was your brother from Oklahoma who showed up to check on you, Jess would not be allowed into the Convention Center. I spoke to many who voiced this complaint. Two of which actually had a visitor that they found out later. Both visitors had stationed themselves in the area outside of the Convention Center with the hopes that their family inside might walk out or someone that they knew who could go back in and inform them that they were outside. The two people who did leave the Convention Center by chance and encounter visitors took the story back inside and a number of evacuees are wondering whether they too might have had people attempting to visit them. There's a discussion, at least inside the Convention Center, on a way to address that issue because obviously it is an important one.
These people have already lost so much and certainly no one wants to deprive them of a visit from loved ones.
C.I.: The rule was set up for safety reasons?
Dallas: Yes. You have to have a braclet to enter or leave the Convention Center. This is an attempt to focus on the needs of the evacuees.
C.I.: As opposed to the homeless population that you spoke of last week?
Dallas: Correct. As well as to prevent casual visitors from dropping in. You're dealing with a tightly packed area, set up with cots. There's not a great deal of privacy and the braclet system was also an attempt to provide the evacuees with some privacy from what one agency head called "curiosity seekers." I should probably disclose that I did vote for our mayor, Laura Miller, and for the council member that represents me. However, I'm not always pleased with the mayor's positions or proposals. I went in wanting to help and expecting a nightmare. Not from the evacuees but from the way things would be set up. I think the mayor and the council has provided strong oversight and that the city officials involved planned very carefully. Again, the contrast between what you receive from the city and what you receive from the federal agencies is very different. The mayor is saying publicly that the city needs more federal assistance and a few hours inside the Convention Center will demonstrate why she is asking for that.
C.I.: Thank you for that report Dallas. We now have an editorial sgement. It will begin with Betty and myself, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, and then we'll be joined by Ty of The Third Estate Sunday Review, and Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix. Before we get to that, last week, Elaine and I attempted to figure out the terms "refugee" and "evacuee." For information on that you can refer to Ruth's Morning Edition Report from Saturday. We will all be using the term "evacuee" in place of "refugee." Betty, you have issues with a certain fact checker, correct?
Betty: Correct. My frustation were voiced here last Sunday over what I saw as his insensitivity and lack of desire for an exploration of racial issues. As the week progressed, my frustration only grew with each daily entry from the fact checker.
He critiques Rep. Dianne Watson (D-CA) for her complaints about the use of the term refugee. He writes:
But let’s go farther: Who exactly has called the New Orleans storm victims "refugees coming from a foreign country?" Answer: No one has made such a statement. Watson is pleasuring herself.
C.I.: Fact, the legal definition of "refugee" refers to those from a foreign country. Refugess come from a foreign country, to repeat. Watson is legally correct. Legally the "from a foreign country" is implied.
Betty: He wrote of Kanye West and Don Imus and their remarks of Bully Boy hating black people:
Kanye West knew it, and Imus did too.
C.I.: Fact, he does not know what Bully Boy hates anymore than anyone else does.
Betty: He wrote:
A single photo caption from Agence France Press failed to use the naughty term "looting"--and a pair of white people were portrayed in the photo! To Atrios, a college professor (!), this single, unexplained example seemed to display a troubling race bias—and the stupid story quickly spread around the liberal web (ending up in a stand-alone story in the New York Times). As it turned out, the photojournalist had a very good reason for saying this couple “found” bread and soda from a local grocery--he said he had literally seen them do it! But pseudo-liberals were outraged by this one example--and when pseudo-liberals start to pleasure themselves, one example is all they need to establish a troubling principle. Their well-trained professors (!) play along.
C.I.: Fact, we are outside of France. AP distributes AFP globally. Snit fits over AFP seem beside the point. More importantly the photo is a Getty Image. Which AFP distributes. AP distributes AFP internationally. Are we confused yet? We won't get any clarity from the fact checker.
The photos were teamed on the internet by Yahoo.
Fact checker informs that the photo journalist says he saw the "looting." Unless he knows the photog it certainly is strange that he, who ridicules the press so often, is building his case on a single source. It certainly is a pleasing story for the photog involved. One doubts that Maureen Dowd would be granted the same unquestioning treatment to a defense she offered that only she could back up.
Interestingly enough and not surprisingly, there are larger issues. Such as the photos themselves.
Betty: Left out of discussion is the fact that the "looting" man is presumably not far from the store in question since the Getty journalist claims to have seen the looting. The Getty photog couldn't very well have chased the man far for a photo.
C.I.: Or shouldn't have since the photo shows the quote "looter" unquote in chest deep water.
The man is thought to be carrying a case of Pepsis. Betty, do you prefer your Pepsi chilled or under stagnant water?
Betty: Well, while there's nothing like a rust ring to make a can of Pepsi more attractive, I think I'd have to choose the can not buried under water where it will remain for days.
C.I.: Point. There are bigger issues. The "analysis" is useless.
Cedric: Help! Help! Help!
Betty: Cedric, are you okay?
Cedric: I've just sliced open my hand. It was bad enough when I woke with an ingrown fingernail.
Betty: Cedric, you're losing a lot of blood. Let's apply pressure.
Ty: Hold it one damn minute! Before anyone applies pressure, allow me to fact check. Contrary to the way the liberals love to spread self-pleasing tales, Cedric DOES NOT have an ingrown fingernail. He has a hang nail! Allow me to explain at length.
Betty: But Ty, there is a bigger issue!
Cedric: I'm bleedin,g man!
Ty: Drop the bandage, Betty! The issue at present is that Cedric has lied, lied, lied about having an ingrown nail. It is a hang nail. That is our focus and that will be our focus.
C.I.: Ty, isn't it correct that Cedric is bleeding from a sharp cut to his hand?
Ty: I'm not commenting on that. I'm not into self-pleasing liberal tales that liberals tell themselves to be self-pleased. I'm the last honest man, emphasis on man, and I will howl and holler until I am heard!
Cedric: You self-righteous ass!
C.I.: The above, beginning with the appearence of Cedric screaming, "Help! Help! Help!" was a dramatization. Betty?
Betty: Did Cedric, in our dramatization, have a hang nail or an ingrown fingernail? Considering that, Cedric's hand was bleeding, Ty's focus on the hang nail issue was rather strange.
Ty: The point of the skit that Betty, Cedric and I wrote was to underscore that there are larger issues. The character I played was someone totally oblivious to the pain of others and unconcerned with the big issues but determined to extoll my own self-pleasing critiques.
Betty: And did a very fine job. Our Weekly Howler Players, Ty and Cedric. The skit actually illustrates some of the huge problems this week. Thursday is all , these people claim crime wasn't as rampant as portrayed, the police chief says otherwise!
Ty: "But, uh, I guess I should toss in that the police chief might have a reason to say that."
Cedric: "And note how I don't mention word one about the reports of the police abusing reporters."
Betty: When you set the rules, when you call the fouls, when you're the home team, you can make an argument. Doesn't make it valid. As a black woman, I'm grossly offended by pretty much every commentary the Fact Checker has offered on this topic.
Ty: The minimizing of race and the serious issues involved repeatedly by someone rushing into scream, "Don't look here!" didn't play well to the three of us. He appears to want a serious discussion on race. But only on his terms.
Cedric: And he'll attempt to ridicule anyone who attempts to raise a serious issue because, instead of focusing on the bloody hand, he's trying to figure out whether it's a hang nail or in grown nail. It's insulting no matter how it's meant. As the three African-Americans of this community who have sites, we felt we had a special obligation to make sure our point of view was heard on this nonsense.
C.I.: Ty, you have a statement to read composed by everyone participating in this edition?
Ty: Correct. We don't know the intent of the Fact Checker. We do know that many in the community found his remarks insensitive and offensive. Racial issues have been addressed rarely at his site so if he's thinking that he's earned some benefit of the doubt on this, he's wrong.
We link to him at this site on our blog roll. It is our hope that he was in a bad mood all week, as evidenced by his use of the f-word, and attempting to make points that he never executed due to his frustration. But as the comments stand, people are offended. Issues of representation have been raised in other forums and while focusing on the domestic mainstream may limit some of his choices due to the institutional bais in those organizations focused on, the fact remains that people are asking questions and feeling, in the words of Common Ills community member and co-author of the gina & krista round-robin, uninvited.
C.I.: Thank you Ty, Betty and Cedric. Again, that was editorial content. We now go Elaine with reports from Iraq. And we'll note that this week Elaine started her own site, Like Maria Said Paz.
Elaine: It is now September 11th. Though the mainstream media hasn't been very concerned with covering it, the fatality count for American troops in Iraq stands at eleven [for the month thus far]. There is not a total for those wounded in action but August's total is 451 injured while serving in Iraq.
The Associated Press reports that this Friday, at a court martial, Sgt. David Fimon pled guilty to abusing prisioners in Iraq. Reportedly, the abuse included stun guns used on prisoners who were both handcuffed and blind folded.
In Tal Afar, Reuters reports that the mayor, Mohammed Rasheed, has resigned saying that "The operation is targeting Sunni neighbourhoods."
As noted elsewhere, The New York Times has a fondness for copying press releases from the military and turning them as a news reports. One such press release last week claimed that Saddam Hussein had confessed. The BBC reports that attornies for Hussein state there has been no confession.
While the paper of record for press releases told readers about a questionable confession and baseball in Iraq, they found little time to report on Tal Afar.
Aerial bombings began mid-week according to Aljazeera. Aljazeera also reports that:
"The Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS) in Iraq slammed the military offensive in Tal Afar on Saturday, saying it was as an expression of innate sectarian hatred that rulers should refrain from." The BBC reports that the city of Qaim is next on the radar for the US military although this is being delayed due to the fighting in Tal Afar. The Observer has called events in Tal Afar
"the biggest assault since the retaking of Falluja." At some point The New York Times may decide to report on it.
C.I.: Thank you, Elaine. In other news you may not find in The New York Times, we go to Mike, of Mike Likes It!
Mike:Based on past reporting on the area, there's a good chance this is news that The New York Times won't tell you, a confrontation in Belfast between police and loyalists resulted in violence. Australia's ABC reports that at least one Protestant was shot and that the authorities speak of a spike in the attacks in West Belfast by loyalists. Machine gun fire was reportedly heard.
C.I.: The IRA is supposed to be disarming but as many, not the Times, pointed out the loyalist paramilitary goups, which exist even if the Times can't find them, have made no such proclamation. What else is know about the attacks?
Mike: The police speak of petrol bombs, blast bombs and bricks being hurled at them by loyalists. The crackpot The New York Times loves to quote, Ian Paisley, is blaming the violence on parade commissioners who re-routed a parade, according to the BBC. Burning automobiles and other things are blocking many roads. In other news from Europe, The Guardian is reporting that the general-secretary of the Transport & General Workers Union, Tony Woodley, is calling for Tony Blair to step down as prime minister within the year and thus far refusing to endorse Gordon Brown as the next prime minister. In the United States, the Associated Press is reporting on The "Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations" -- a 2002 Pentagon plan that is in the process of being updated. The doctrine calls for the use of nuclear weapons to fight "terrorists" in a pre-emptive war. Left unstated by the AP is the legalisty of a pre-emptive war.
C.I.: That is disturbing, Mike. Thank you. We'll note that Jim Lobe's "Anti-Terror Strategy in Doubt on 9/11 Anniversary" at IPS raises serious questions about the strategy of the so-called "war" on terror. Now we go to Rebecca, of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, who is filing her first report for the news review and is focusing on nature. Rebecca?
Rebecca: C.I., the great apes in Africa are facing extinction. The BBC reports that the UN and ministers of 23 African republics are attempting to save the great apes which could disappear in one generation if nothing is done. In Rio de Janeiro, Ireland's BreakingNews.ie reports, savelha are dying in large numbers in the lagoon of Marapendi which follows the 2000 death of "132 tons of fish in the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon." Scientists are concluding, according to the BBC, that climate change (global warming) could result in 50 million people be facing the risks of hunger and starvation over the next fifty years. The New Zealand Herald reports that a "southern Right Whale, a sub-adult about 14 metres long" remains caught "in a craypot." Rescue teams have lost track of it and the whale is expected to die if not located soon. Finally, on Tuesday, the World Health Organization issued an alert that it appears bird flu has transferred from poultry to migratory birds.
C.I.: Thank you, Rebecca. Now we go to Kat, of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills), for an entertainment wrap up.
Kat: As reported by the Associated Press, faced with a legal challenge by CNN, the federal government has backed off their demand/command that the media be prevented from documenting and witnessing the recovery of bodies in New Orleans. Rolling Stone reports that
"MELISSA ETHERIDGE will produce and host the Lifetime network's breast-cancer awareness special, WomenRock! Our Journey with Melissa Etheridge. The show, which will be taped in Los Angeles on September 29th, will air October 18th as part of the network's Our Lifetime Commitment: Stop Breast Cancer for Life campaign." The AFP reports that Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain has won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. Spin reports that Outkast's upcoming film will also feature " Ving Rhames, Terence Howard, Faizon Love, Patti LaBelle, Macy Gray, and Cicely Tyson." The Progressive's Barbara Ehrenreich follows up her million selling Nickle and Dimed with a new book entitled Bait & Switch. Bait & Switch focuses on the white collar world and Ehrenreich explained what led her to write the book to the Associated Press:
I hadn't thought of doing anything like this after "Nickel and Dimed." I spent four years running around the country, speaking about the issues. What was beginning to catch my attention was the number of letters ... from people with degrees — not just bachelor's, but master's — who sunk into poverty and couldn't come back. ... I hadn't thought this was a group in trouble. My curiosity was piqued.
Kat (con't): Lastly, tonight the Independent Channel airs Danny Schechter's documentary WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception which airs at 10 pm eastern and pacific times and nine pm in the central time zone.
C.I.: Thank you, Kat. WMD, if you get the Independent Channel, please check out the movie tonight. And that wraps this edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review news review. We thank Dallas and Jess' parents for hunting down links and helping locate stories. Dona and Jim, both of The Third Estate Sunday Review, acted as producers, helping to edit the stories and maintain the one hour frame we try for in this feature. Dona asks that we note this feature is a "rush transcript."
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