What did we learn from Saturday's RadioNation with Laura Flanders? A great deal. As always. But we're going to focus on a disappointing guest. Why?
A number of reasons. First of all, it proves Kat can call 'em:
You know who else has that kind of patience and tact? Laura Flanders. You can tell is just by listening. She believes strongly in her opinions but, short of someone making a jerk of his/herself, you can tell that she really takes care to respect people's feelings. (And you really have to make the ultimate jerk of yourself to tick Laura off.)
Flanders never lost her patience or tact. Us, we were groaning everytime the guest piped up.
Which is reason number two. C.I.'s stated, many times, a preference to the arts coverage in The Progressive as opposed to The Nation. Stated publicly. Ava's indicated her own similar feelings in their reviews and in passing remarks in conversations. We couldn't figure it out. Occassionally, we'll find a film review in the magazine and mention it to Ava and C.I. and, whether they agree with or disagree with the opinions, they'll agree it's well written and worth reading. The same with the book coverage. ("Forget the music coverage," says Kat who hasn't forgotten the "expert" who got all the basics wrong on Courtney Love's music.)
So what was the problem with The Nation's art coverage?
Richard Goldstein was a guest in Flanders' third hour. That's the problem, we quickly realized. His writing doesn't appear in the arts section but up front. A showy place for someone so confused.
One thing about his writing, everything in any form of entertainment, tends to get lumped into "Hollywood." It's an elastic definition that allows him to spew scattershot on any topic from rap music to films to talk radio to . . . You get the idea.
Tonight he spoke about the Oscars (causing intense groans from Ava and C.I.) without seeming to grasp much of what he was speaking of. Brokeback Mountain wasn't a hit. That's what Goldstein said. Causing Ava and C.I. to yell out, "By whose standards?" As of this past Thursday, the film, with a production budget of thirteen million, had grossed seventy-three million dollars domestically. It's made over five times its production budget. Sounds like a hit.
Or, as Laura Flanders pointed out, in Salt Lake City it was playing on five screens. Has there been a film with two male characters in love with another that's done better? Forget Philadelphia which was a "disease of the week"/legal drama film that kept any private moments (sexual or otherwise) between lead Tom Hanks and cameo actor Antonio Banderas offscreen. Until now, the closest moneymaker to Brokeback Mountain would be the comedy In & Out. In & Out grossedd just over 63 million (domestic) at movie theaters.
Exactly how is Brokeback Mountain not a hit? If he's arguing "blockbuster," we can point out the obvious, most blockbusters don't get nominated. (Where's the noms for The Wedding Crashers, huh?) He never defined his terms, which were highly elastic depending upon his mood apparently, but felt the need to offer that Brokeback Mountain was a hit in Europe. (Was that an attempt to riff on a joke from Cameron Crowe's Singles?) Brokeback Mountain has made approximately thirty-three million overseas (which is what we're assuming Goldstein's calling "Europe" -- possibly he has an actual monetary breakdown, but we doubt it). Crash? It's made almost twenty-nine million overseas.
In the midst of what could have been a discussion on pop culture and society, which was where Flanders was going, Goldstein attempts to weigh in on "voters" (he meant "the Academy" -- Oscar voters). Most of us were lost listening to his scattershot approach. Ava and C.I. helpfully explained that the Oscars a) go for uplifting due to the message of the industry that's attempted to be sent out both to this country and worldwide and that, in fact, this is why the Oscars were created; and b) the voting membership always trends older so you get "safer" selections. Goldstein seemed to be trying to argue that the Academy voted with an eye to fundamentalist America.
As Goldstein pooh-pahed signs of progess that Flanders attempted to explore, he seemed focused on fundamentalist America. We hope that was a joke about S&M desires among the 'vangical voters. Hey, we're smart asses all the time. We'll defend Goldstein if he was taking the smart ass approach there. But his grip on the facts was so loose that we're not sure whether that was an attempt at humor or just another example that his approach appears to be "we make it up as we go along" (hat tip to Tori Amos' "Gold Dust" on the CD Scarlet's Walk).
But he was obsessed with the 'vangical voters. He has the idea that "Hollywood" is focused on them ("baffled and concerned" by them, according to Goldstein). Mel Gibson did well with a (really bad and really offensive) religious picture. That was his example. He had nothing else to back it up. Now maybe this was a case of "Hollywood" including other forms such as TV? If so, we'd remind him that the topic was film. But if he was going to go to The Three Wishes well, he should have said so. His terms, elastic, are never defined. Sometimes a "hit" is something that makes a little more than its production budget, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes overseas grosses are worth noting (Brokeback Mountain) and sometimes they aren't (Crash).
Flanders attempted to raise issues (and we're guessing add some terms) by noting that Crash, which Goldstein did all but call "reactionary," was alternative in the nonlinear manner in which the story was told. Goldstein wasn't interested in that or wasn't up to. (We personally think he would have freaked if Laura Flanders had referred to a "moasic narrative.")
We'll praise Flanders and the documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry (director of Street Fight) who attempted to explore the issues. What do the Oscar nominations mean culturally? Do they or recent films signify anything culturally? What is an alternative film and how should narrative approaches be evaluated?
Flanders had enough worthy topics for a full fledged discussion. Maybe Goldstein was just in a cranky mood? We might have thought that was it were it not for the running commentary from Ava and C.I. Afterwards, as we discussed the Goldstein issue, we were surprised when Ava said that they'd linked to Goldstein in at least one TV review. Their usual policy, Ava and C.I.'s, is not to name the "water cooler critics" they so often refer to. Goldstein is one of them. Though not named, he was linked to in their Desperate Housewives review because of his failure to recognize the very real accomplishments of Susan Harris, he tried even their patience.
He's also one of the water cooler critics waxing it on about Geena Davis' red lipstick in Commander-In-Chief. But mainly, he's the water cooler critic who often substitutes facts with conventional wisdom.
C.I. offered one example (which Dallas tracked down). In March of 2003, while weighing in on the state of entertainment (in his water cooler way), Goldstein wrote:
Then came Naomi Wolfe, whose effort to counsel Gore on color schemes was met with the same scorn that greeted Jimmy Carter when he got attacked by a rabbit.
We don't know the rabbit story. We do know the Naomi Wolfe story. And we know the facts. Naomi Wolfe did not "counsel Gore on color schemes." It's a conventional wisdom, but it's not factual. Furthermore, having been refuted publicly by many (including Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler) and by Wolfe herself, the lie is now a sexist slur.
C.I. went with that example because "It appears that no one fact checks Goldstein." (They don't fact check all the music reviews either, Kat adds.) In 2003, there's no excuse for a falsehood about Wolfe's role in the Gore campaign to make it into print. But it did. If Goldstein knew he was repeating a lie, we'd be surprised. But it's a lie none the less.
It's a sexist thing to accept the "conventional wisdom" that a woman must be advising a candidate on fashion. (Newsweek pulled the same stunt on Gloria Steinem during the George McGovern campaign -- falsely claiming her role in the campaign was to pick out McGovern's socks.)
That was the example C.I. went with and chose it because it is so glaring false and because Bob Somerby has often written of The Nation's failures in reporting on the Gore campaign and election 2000. We like The Nation. We read it (eight of us involved in this piece subscribe). But no one, including us, is perfect and that the lie made it into print is very disappointing. Ava and C.I. could offer many more factual problems with Goldstein's writing. Along with that, they note his inability to define any terms in a single piece. (Forget an overall framework.)
Water cooler talk belongs in Blender, not The Nation. It certainly shouldn't be upfront in the magazine's placement and it certainly should be fact checked.
Water cooler talk leads to statements such as this:
Men won't watch what women enjoy: That's been the golden rule of television for decades.
Really? Where's the supporting evidence? Which men? Which women? What are the figures? Which programs? Murder She Wrote? The Mary Tyler Moore Show? Dynasty? Cosby? Which shows are we talking about? Goldstein's not talking facts, he's talking conventional wisdom and readers of The Nation are degraded when they're misinformed so badly. Ava and C.I. have often noted that attitude (especially with regards to CBS) in their reviews, but they've never accepted it. Or endorsed it. Leave it to a water cooler critic to accept it at face value.
Flanders, on Crash, noted, of the non-linear narrative, "in terms of form, in terms of the unresolved . . . I like it for that alone." Goldstein wasn't up for heavy lifting. (His "critiques" tended to have no more "depth" than this statement: "It's not going to alienate the right.")
When we started up The Third Estate Sunday Review, we reviewed a TV show right away. We've continued to do that. We've wisely turned them over to Ava and C.I. because they're doing a feminist critique that touches on a variety of issues and examines the show in a way you won't get in many other places. The overwhelming response to those reviews demonstrate that there is an audience to something beyond water cooler talk.
But in the first critique, we were just trying to fill space. And we did wonder whether there was a place for more infotainment talk in a world already saturated with it? There is. When it's done well, there is. Laura Flanders does it well. Ava and C.I. do it well. Water cooler talk doesn't serve anyone. Chasing down trends and offering up conventional wisdom as opposed to a real critique or real facts, doesn't serve anyone.
In many roundtables, Ava and C.I. have brought up Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times and then struck their remarks when it was time to post the feature. They don't often agree with Stanley's opinions, but they enjoy the passion with which she writes. (Ava feels Stanley's one of the few writers, of any genre, worth reading in the paper of record. C.I. says that there's little time to read the arts section but if her byline is spotted and "if she's not reviewing a program Ava and I are tackling that weekend, I always make a point to read it.") Our take on arts criticism in general is that bad criticism kills. It kills interest, it kills discussion. What's bad criticism? Water cooler talk. Rushing into praise whatever's gotten the bandwagon rolling. Bad criticism is also criticism that includes glaring factual errors. Alessandra Stanley getting the title of a Bob Dylan CD mentioned in a show wrong isn't a glaring factual error -- it's a mistake and they happen. Including a disproven falsehood about Naomi Wolfe, many years after it's been disproven, is a glaring factual error. Bad criticism is also turning arts coverage into stats. (Kat wrote about all of this at length in January of last year.)
Did you have a reaction to what you saw or heard? That's a criticism. That has value, even if some will disagree with your take. Hiding behind stats of falsehoods has no value and it's dishonest. Treating pop culture in a detached manner completely betrays the point of pop culture. (Yes, we're referring to the idiot with more hands than the average person who felt the need to "on the one hand, on the other hand, but still, and yet" it.)
Ava and C.I., who are familiar with Goldstein's writing, can cite paragraphs where he really seems to be coming to life. (We'll take their word for that.) We'd suggest that he and The Nation pursue those moments and ditch the water cooler aspects. Leave the "water cooler" to Newsweek and others who have turned discourse into horse race handicapping.
We'll echo Kat and applaud Laura Flanders for her tact. She had a the makings of a great discussion. When it was obvious that roadblocks were being tossed in the path repeatedly, she remained the Laura Flanders we all expect. She stayed on topic and did so politely (we'd say "In our dreams, we have her grace" but, honestly, we'd never give up our smart ass attitudes, couldn't if we tried). Which isn't to suggest that Flanders can't express outrage (listen to her on the wars). But week after week, she finds a way to talk to everyone and we admire her for it. Listen to her and you'll see why that is. This weekend, she's continuing the America is Purple tour (no "blue" states, no "red" states) and is South Dakota. Sunday?
Grassroots activists and the Democratic Party. From the Chicago suburbs, congressional candidate CHRISTINE CEGELIS on her-up-from-below primary campaign and JIM DEAN, of Democracy for America, on why the party needs the real thing, not astro-turf. And a media roundtable with New Orleanian JORDAN FLAHERTY and "Information Is Power" reporter TERRY ALLEN. All that and your calls.
We're noting RadioNation with Laura Flanders each week because we think it's a program worth noting and alternative media worth getting the word out on. We don't recap Saturday's three hour show (Saturdays & Sundays, 7-10pm ET on Air America Radio) but pull one aspect that stood out to us. And hope that it both raises your interest in the show and makes you think. This time, we hope you'll think about the state of arts criticism. Flanders can handle arts criticism (and handled it Saturday). So we hope you'll check her out (hopefully, you already are -- a number of readers have expressed that they're glad we're noting RadioNation with Laura Flanders each week because it's one of their favorite radio shows as well). We also hope you'll think about what arts and art criticism mean? What it means to your own life and the world around you?
Goldstein, at one point, offered on "Hollywood," riffing on Hustle & Flow, that "it's hard out here for a pimp." We don't think pimps, fluffers or hacks are needed. We think passionate criticism is.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Coalici�n de iglesias estadounidenses acusan a Washington de "infundir terror"
Coalición de iglesias estadounidenses acusan a Washington de "infundir terror"
Maria: Buenos dias. De parte de "Democracy Now!" ocho cosas que vale hacer notar este fin de semana. Paz.
Coalición de iglesias estadounidenses acusan a Washington de "infundir terror"
Una coalición de iglesias estadounidenses denunció severamente a la guerra de Estados Unidos en Irak y acusó a Washington de "infundir terror". Los 34 miembros estadounidenses del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias realizaron una declaración que decía: "Lamentamos profundamente la guerra en Irak, lanzada bajo engaño y en violación a las normas internacionales de justicia y de derechos humanos". La declaración fue emitida en Porto Alegre, Brasil, que es la sede del mayor encuentro de iglesias católicas en casi una década. La iglesia episcopal, la iglesia presbiteriana, y la iglesia metodista unida fueron algunas de las iglesias estadounidenses que apoyaron la declaración.
Principal abogado de la armada alertó sobre políticas de detenidos del gobierno
La revista "New Yorker" reveló que dos años antes de que se publicaran por primera vez fotos de Abu Ghraib, el asesor general de la armada, Alberto Mora, comenzó a criticar lo que describió como "la política desastrosa e ilícita del gobierno de autorizar la crueldad hacia sospechosos de terrorismo". Mora advirtió a sus superiores del Pentágono acerca de las consecuencias de la decisión que tomó en 2002 el presidente Bush de burlar las convenciones de Ginebra. Según argumentó, la negativa de prohibir la crueldad hacia detenidos en custodia de Estados Unidos era una invitación implícita al maltrato. Mora cuestionó también el marco legal construido por el gobierno de Bush para justificar una expansión del Poder Ejecutivo, en temas que van desde interrogatorios a la escucha de conversaciones telefónicas. Calificó a las nuevas teorías legales que le otorgan al presidente el derecho a autorizar el abuso de "ilícitas, peligrosas y erróneas".
140 personas mueren en Irak tras bombardeo a santuario chiita
Irak está en estado de alerta máxima de seguridad luego de varios días de violencia provocada por el bombardeo a uno de los santuarios chiitas más sagrados del país en Samarra, el miércoles. Al menos 140 personas murieron en todo el país, la mayoría eran árabes sunitas. La Asociación de Académicos Musulmanes dirigida por sunitas, dijo que 184 mezquitas sunitas fueron dañadas o destruidas desde entonces. Diez clérigos murieron y otros 15 fueron secuestrados.
El gobierno impuso hoy un toque de queda inusual durante el día en Bagdad y en otras tres provincias, impidiendo que varias personas asistan a las plegarias del viernes.
Se han llevado a cabo una serie de manifestaciones conjuntas de sunitas y chiitas para llamar a la unidad nacional y condenar la creciente violencia. Diez mil personas manifestaron sólo en Basora. Pero varios analistas temen que Irak este al borde de la guerra civil.
Las Fuerzas Armadas estadounidenses están ordenando a sus soldados que permanezcan en sus cuarteles en Bagdad y que no salgan a la calle. Siete soldados estadounidenses murieron el jueves.
Mientras tanto, los funcionarios del canal de televisión satelital Al Arabiya están de luto tras la muerte de uno de sus más conocidos corresponsales en Irak. Atwar Bahjat, de 30 años de edad, fue asesinada el jueves junto con su camarógrafo y su sonidista.
Marina realiza estudio secreto sobre minorías étnicas de Irán
El "Financial Times" informa que un ala de inteligencia de la Marina contrató a un contratista privado de defensa para llevar a cabo un estudio secreto sobre las minorías étnicas de Irán. Esta medida podría indicar las etapas primarias de planes de contingencia para un ataque terrestre a Irán. La Marina llevó a cabo un estudio similar en Irak. Un ex oficial de inteligencia dijo que el propósito fundamental del ala de inteligencia de la Marina era "apoyar operaciones militares terrestres efectivas con el Cuerpo de Marina". El estudio aparentemente se centra en si Irán sería propenso a una fragmentación violenta siguiendo los mismos lineamientos que están dividiendo a Irak. El "Financial Times" informa que varios iraníes que viven en Estados Unidos se negaron a ayudar en el estudio porque lo consideran parte de un intento de dividir a Irán. Para llevar a cabo el análisis, las Fuerzas Armadas contrataron a una empresa subsidiaria de la contratista de defensa SAIC, Science Applications International Corp.
Estudio: Alrededor de 100 detenidos murieron bajo custodia de Estados Unidos
En otras noticias, un nuevo estudio del grupo Human Rights First descubrió que cerca de 100 prisioneros que estaban bajo custodia de Estados Unidos murieron en Irak y Afganistán en los últimos tres años y medio. Se sospecha y en algunos se confirmó, que al menos 34 de las muertes fueron homicidios. Otras 11 muertes fueron consideradas sospechosas y doce muertes fueron provocadas por torturas letales. El informe descubrió que la mayoría de las muertes resultaron impunes. Este informe surge una semana después de que se diera a conocer una nueva serie de fotografías de Abu Ghraib.
Juez ordena publicar nombres de detenidos en Guantánamo
Un juez federal ordenó al gobierno de Bush que publique los nombres de todos los prisioneros detenidos secretamente en la prisión de Bahía de Guantánamo. Hasta ahora, solo unos pocos detenidos han sido oficialmente identificados.
La orden surgió mientras el gobierno de Bush está bajo creciente presión internacional para cerrar la prisión.
Mientras tanto, documentos del FBI publicados recientemente indican que agentes del FBI advirtieron reiteradas veces a los interrogadores de las Fuerzas Armadas en Guantánamo que sus métodos agresivos eran legalmente riesgosos y que probablemente no eran efectivos.
Los documentos indican que altos funcionarios de las Fuerzas Armadas, entre los que se encontraba el Subsecretario de Defensa Paul Wolfowitz, estaban al tanto y en algunos casos aprobaron que se le colocaran capuchas a los prisioneros, que se los amenazara con violencia y que se los sometiera a tratos humillantes.
General de la OTAN: Soldados extranjeros permanecerán en Afganistán por "muchos años"
Esta noticia es sobre Afganistán. El comandante del contingente de Canadá de la fuerza de la OTAN en el país, dijo que los soldados extranjeros estarán allí por "muchos años". El Mayor General Michel Gauthier hizo estos comentarios en una entrevista publicada hoy en el periódico "The Guardian", de Londres. Está programado que el contingente que no pertenece a Estados Unidos aumente a 16.000 soldados en los próximos meses, además de los 20.000 soldados estadounidenses que actualmente están allí.
Estados Unidos impide ingreso de académico boliviano al país
En materia educativa, el gobierno estadounidense está impidiendo que un profesor boliviano ingrese al país para dictar cursos en la Universidad de Nebraska, debido a lo que denominó razones de seguridad. El profesor, Waskar Ari Chachaki, es miembro del pueblo indígena Aymara en Bolivia y es una destacada autoridad en creencias religiosas y activismo político en Bolivia. La Sociedad Histórica Estadounidense solicitó al gobierno estadounidense que reconsiderara su decisión. La presidenta electa de la agrupación Barbara Weinstein dijo que la situación es "muy preocupante". Weinstein dijo "Tendrían que darse circunstancias inimaginables para que alguien de Bolivia sea catalogado como un riesgo para la seguridad".
Un funcionario del Departamento de Estado le dijo a Chronicle of Higher Education que el gobierno tiene "información degradante" acerca de Ari, por lo cual no cumple con los requisitos para obtener la visa. Pero el gobierno no le proporcionó esa información a Ari ni a la universidad. Ari es considerado una voz moderada dentro de la comunidad Aymara y algunos de sus críticos lo acusaron de apoyar demasiado a Estados Unidos. Obtuvo su doctorado en la universidad de Georgetown. Hace dos años, se le negó la visa a otro profesor de nacionalidad extranjera, Tariq Ramadan, para que dictara clases en la Universidad de Notre Dame. Ramadan es uno de los más destacados académicos musulmanes en Europa.
Maria: Good morning. Here are eight headlines from the week via Democracy Now! Remember that Democracy Now! provides their daily headlines in both English and Spanish, so get the word out. And, as Ruth noted, Democracy Now! is celebrating it's tenth anniversary. Congratulations to Democracy Now! Peace.
Coalition of U.S. Churches Accuse Washington of "Raining Down Terror"
A coalition of American churches have sharply denounced the U.S. war in Iraq and accused Washington of "raining down terror". The 34 U.S. members of the World Council of Churches agreed to a statement reading "We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights." The statement was issued from Porto Alegre, Brazil which is hosting the largest gathering of Christian churches in nearly a decade. The Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church and the United Methodist Church were among the U.S. churches backing the statement.
Navy's Top Attorney Warned Against Administration's Detainee Policies
The New Yorker magazine has revealed that two years before the Abu Ghraib photos were first published, the Navy's general counsel, Alberto Mora, began challenging what he described as the administration's "disastrous and unlawful policy of authorizing cruelty toward terror suspects." Mora warned his superiors at the Pentagon about the consequences of President Bush's decision, in 2002, to circumvent the Geneva conventions. He argued that a refusal to outlaw cruelty toward U.S.-held detainees was an implicit invitation to abuse. Mora also challenged the legal framework that the Bush Administration has constructed to justify an expansion of executive power, in matters ranging from interrogations to wiretapping. He described the novel legal theories granting the President the right to authorize abuse as "unlawful," "dangerous," and "erroneous."
140 Die in Iraq Following Bom bing at Shiite Shrine
Iraq is under a high security alert following days of violence sparked by Wednesday’s bombing of one of the country’s holiest Shiite shrines in Samarra. At least 140 people, mostly Sunni Arabs, have been killed across the country. The Sunni-led Association of Muslim Scholars has said 184 Sunni mosques have since been damaged or destroyed. 10 clerics have been killed and 15 more abducted. The government imposed a rare daytime curfew today in Baghdad and in three other provinces -- preventing many from attending Friday prayers. A series of joint Sunni-Shiite demonstrations have been held calling for national unity and to condemn the increasing violence. As many as 10,000 rallied in Basra alone. But many analysts fear Iraq is on the brink of civil war. The U.S. military is ordering its soldiers to stay in its barracks in Baghdad and to stay off the streets. On Thursday seven U.S. troops died. Meanwhile the staff of the satellite TV channel Al Arabiya is in mourning following the death of one of its best-known correspondents in Iraq. The 30-year-old Atwar Bahjat was assassinated along with her cameraman and soundman on Thursday.
Marines Conduct Secret Study Into Iran Ethnic Minorities
The Financial Times is reporting an intelligence wing of the Marines has hired a private defense contractor to conduct a secret study of Iran’s ethnic minorities. This is a move that could indicate early stages of contingency plans for a ground assault on Iran. The Marines conducted a similar study in Iraq. A former intelligence officer said the ultimate purpose of the Marines intelligence wing was to "support effective ground military operations by the Marine Corps." The study appeared to focus on whether Iran would be prone to a violent fragmentation along the same kind of fault lines that are splitting Iraq. The Financial Times reports several Iranians living in the United States refused to help with the study because they saw it as part of an effort to break up Iran. To conduct the analysis, the military hired a subsidiary of the defense contractor SAIC, the Science Applications International Corp.
Study: Nearly 100 Detainees Have Died in US Custody
In others news, a new study from the group Human Rights First has found that nearly 100 prisoners in US custody have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last three and a half years. At least 34 deaths were due to suspected or confirmed homicides. Another 11 deaths were deemed suspicious and up to twelve deaths were caused by lethal torture. The report found that most deaths went un-punished. The report comes one week after a set of new photographs were released showing prisoner abuse at the US-run Abu Ghraib.
Judge Orders Release of Names of Guantanamo Detainees
A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release the names of all of the detainees being secretly held at Guantanamo Bay. Up until now, only a handful of the detainees have been officially identified. The ruling comes as the Bush administration is coming under increasing international pressure to close the prison camp. Meanwhile newly released FBI memos show that FBI agents repeatedly warned military interrogators at Guantanamo that their aggressive methods were legally risky and also likely to be ineffective. The memos indicate that senior military officials, including former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, were aware of and in some cases had approved of putting hoods on prisoners, threatening them with violence and subjecting them to humiliating treatment.
NATO General: Foreign Troops To Remain in Afghanistan For "Years and Years"
This news on Afghanistan -- the head of Canada's contingent to the NATO force in the country said foreign troops will be there for "years and years." Major General Michel Gauthier made the comments in an interview published in the Guardian of London today. The non-US contingent is set to increase to 16,000 troops in the coming months, in addition to the 20,000 US troops currently there.
US Blocks Indigenous Bolivian Scholar From Entry
In education news, the U.S. government is blocking an indigenous Bolivian professor from entering the country to teach at the University of Nebraska for what it's calling security reasons. The professor, Waskar Ari Chachaki, is a member of the Aymara indigenous people in Bolivia and is a leading authority on religious beliefs and political activism in Bolivia. The American Historical Society has called on the U.S. government to reconsider. The group's president-elect Barbara Weinstein called the situation "very disturbing." Weinstein said "It would have to be unimaginable circumstances for someone from Bolivia to be classified as a security risk." A State Department official told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the government has "derogatory information" about Ari that renders him ineligible for the visa. But the government has not shared that information with Ari or the university. Ari is considered to be a moderate voice within the Aymaran community and some of his critics have accused of being too "pro-U.S." He received his doctorate from Georgetown. Two years ago, another foreign-born professor, Tariq Ramadan, one of the leading Muslim scholars in Europe, was denied a visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame.
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Coalición de iglesias estadounidenses acusan a Washington de "infundir terror"
Una coalición de iglesias estadounidenses denunció severamente a la guerra de Estados Unidos en Irak y acusó a Washington de "infundir terror". Los 34 miembros estadounidenses del Consejo Mundial de Iglesias realizaron una declaración que decía: "Lamentamos profundamente la guerra en Irak, lanzada bajo engaño y en violación a las normas internacionales de justicia y de derechos humanos". La declaración fue emitida en Porto Alegre, Brasil, que es la sede del mayor encuentro de iglesias católicas en casi una década. La iglesia episcopal, la iglesia presbiteriana, y la iglesia metodista unida fueron algunas de las iglesias estadounidenses que apoyaron la declaración.
Principal abogado de la armada alertó sobre políticas de detenidos del gobierno
La revista "New Yorker" reveló que dos años antes de que se publicaran por primera vez fotos de Abu Ghraib, el asesor general de la armada, Alberto Mora, comenzó a criticar lo que describió como "la política desastrosa e ilícita del gobierno de autorizar la crueldad hacia sospechosos de terrorismo". Mora advirtió a sus superiores del Pentágono acerca de las consecuencias de la decisión que tomó en 2002 el presidente Bush de burlar las convenciones de Ginebra. Según argumentó, la negativa de prohibir la crueldad hacia detenidos en custodia de Estados Unidos era una invitación implícita al maltrato. Mora cuestionó también el marco legal construido por el gobierno de Bush para justificar una expansión del Poder Ejecutivo, en temas que van desde interrogatorios a la escucha de conversaciones telefónicas. Calificó a las nuevas teorías legales que le otorgan al presidente el derecho a autorizar el abuso de "ilícitas, peligrosas y erróneas".
140 personas mueren en Irak tras bombardeo a santuario chiita
Irak está en estado de alerta máxima de seguridad luego de varios días de violencia provocada por el bombardeo a uno de los santuarios chiitas más sagrados del país en Samarra, el miércoles. Al menos 140 personas murieron en todo el país, la mayoría eran árabes sunitas. La Asociación de Académicos Musulmanes dirigida por sunitas, dijo que 184 mezquitas sunitas fueron dañadas o destruidas desde entonces. Diez clérigos murieron y otros 15 fueron secuestrados.
El gobierno impuso hoy un toque de queda inusual durante el día en Bagdad y en otras tres provincias, impidiendo que varias personas asistan a las plegarias del viernes.
Se han llevado a cabo una serie de manifestaciones conjuntas de sunitas y chiitas para llamar a la unidad nacional y condenar la creciente violencia. Diez mil personas manifestaron sólo en Basora. Pero varios analistas temen que Irak este al borde de la guerra civil.
Las Fuerzas Armadas estadounidenses están ordenando a sus soldados que permanezcan en sus cuarteles en Bagdad y que no salgan a la calle. Siete soldados estadounidenses murieron el jueves.
Mientras tanto, los funcionarios del canal de televisión satelital Al Arabiya están de luto tras la muerte de uno de sus más conocidos corresponsales en Irak. Atwar Bahjat, de 30 años de edad, fue asesinada el jueves junto con su camarógrafo y su sonidista.
Marina realiza estudio secreto sobre minorías étnicas de Irán
El "Financial Times" informa que un ala de inteligencia de la Marina contrató a un contratista privado de defensa para llevar a cabo un estudio secreto sobre las minorías étnicas de Irán. Esta medida podría indicar las etapas primarias de planes de contingencia para un ataque terrestre a Irán. La Marina llevó a cabo un estudio similar en Irak. Un ex oficial de inteligencia dijo que el propósito fundamental del ala de inteligencia de la Marina era "apoyar operaciones militares terrestres efectivas con el Cuerpo de Marina". El estudio aparentemente se centra en si Irán sería propenso a una fragmentación violenta siguiendo los mismos lineamientos que están dividiendo a Irak. El "Financial Times" informa que varios iraníes que viven en Estados Unidos se negaron a ayudar en el estudio porque lo consideran parte de un intento de dividir a Irán. Para llevar a cabo el análisis, las Fuerzas Armadas contrataron a una empresa subsidiaria de la contratista de defensa SAIC, Science Applications International Corp.
Estudio: Alrededor de 100 detenidos murieron bajo custodia de Estados Unidos
En otras noticias, un nuevo estudio del grupo Human Rights First descubrió que cerca de 100 prisioneros que estaban bajo custodia de Estados Unidos murieron en Irak y Afganistán en los últimos tres años y medio. Se sospecha y en algunos se confirmó, que al menos 34 de las muertes fueron homicidios. Otras 11 muertes fueron consideradas sospechosas y doce muertes fueron provocadas por torturas letales. El informe descubrió que la mayoría de las muertes resultaron impunes. Este informe surge una semana después de que se diera a conocer una nueva serie de fotografías de Abu Ghraib.
Juez ordena publicar nombres de detenidos en Guantánamo
Un juez federal ordenó al gobierno de Bush que publique los nombres de todos los prisioneros detenidos secretamente en la prisión de Bahía de Guantánamo. Hasta ahora, solo unos pocos detenidos han sido oficialmente identificados.
La orden surgió mientras el gobierno de Bush está bajo creciente presión internacional para cerrar la prisión.
Mientras tanto, documentos del FBI publicados recientemente indican que agentes del FBI advirtieron reiteradas veces a los interrogadores de las Fuerzas Armadas en Guantánamo que sus métodos agresivos eran legalmente riesgosos y que probablemente no eran efectivos.
Los documentos indican que altos funcionarios de las Fuerzas Armadas, entre los que se encontraba el Subsecretario de Defensa Paul Wolfowitz, estaban al tanto y en algunos casos aprobaron que se le colocaran capuchas a los prisioneros, que se los amenazara con violencia y que se los sometiera a tratos humillantes.
General de la OTAN: Soldados extranjeros permanecerán en Afganistán por "muchos años"
Esta noticia es sobre Afganistán. El comandante del contingente de Canadá de la fuerza de la OTAN en el país, dijo que los soldados extranjeros estarán allí por "muchos años". El Mayor General Michel Gauthier hizo estos comentarios en una entrevista publicada hoy en el periódico "The Guardian", de Londres. Está programado que el contingente que no pertenece a Estados Unidos aumente a 16.000 soldados en los próximos meses, además de los 20.000 soldados estadounidenses que actualmente están allí.
Estados Unidos impide ingreso de académico boliviano al país
En materia educativa, el gobierno estadounidense está impidiendo que un profesor boliviano ingrese al país para dictar cursos en la Universidad de Nebraska, debido a lo que denominó razones de seguridad. El profesor, Waskar Ari Chachaki, es miembro del pueblo indígena Aymara en Bolivia y es una destacada autoridad en creencias religiosas y activismo político en Bolivia. La Sociedad Histórica Estadounidense solicitó al gobierno estadounidense que reconsiderara su decisión. La presidenta electa de la agrupación Barbara Weinstein dijo que la situación es "muy preocupante". Weinstein dijo "Tendrían que darse circunstancias inimaginables para que alguien de Bolivia sea catalogado como un riesgo para la seguridad".
Un funcionario del Departamento de Estado le dijo a Chronicle of Higher Education que el gobierno tiene "información degradante" acerca de Ari, por lo cual no cumple con los requisitos para obtener la visa. Pero el gobierno no le proporcionó esa información a Ari ni a la universidad. Ari es considerado una voz moderada dentro de la comunidad Aymara y algunos de sus críticos lo acusaron de apoyar demasiado a Estados Unidos. Obtuvo su doctorado en la universidad de Georgetown. Hace dos años, se le negó la visa a otro profesor de nacionalidad extranjera, Tariq Ramadan, para que dictara clases en la Universidad de Notre Dame. Ramadan es uno de los más destacados académicos musulmanes en Europa.
Maria: Good morning. Here are eight headlines from the week via Democracy Now! Remember that Democracy Now! provides their daily headlines in both English and Spanish, so get the word out. And, as Ruth noted, Democracy Now! is celebrating it's tenth anniversary. Congratulations to Democracy Now! Peace.
Coalition of U.S. Churches Accuse Washington of "Raining Down Terror"
A coalition of American churches have sharply denounced the U.S. war in Iraq and accused Washington of "raining down terror". The 34 U.S. members of the World Council of Churches agreed to a statement reading "We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights." The statement was issued from Porto Alegre, Brazil which is hosting the largest gathering of Christian churches in nearly a decade. The Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church and the United Methodist Church were among the U.S. churches backing the statement.
Navy's Top Attorney Warned Against Administration's Detainee Policies
The New Yorker magazine has revealed that two years before the Abu Ghraib photos were first published, the Navy's general counsel, Alberto Mora, began challenging what he described as the administration's "disastrous and unlawful policy of authorizing cruelty toward terror suspects." Mora warned his superiors at the Pentagon about the consequences of President Bush's decision, in 2002, to circumvent the Geneva conventions. He argued that a refusal to outlaw cruelty toward U.S.-held detainees was an implicit invitation to abuse. Mora also challenged the legal framework that the Bush Administration has constructed to justify an expansion of executive power, in matters ranging from interrogations to wiretapping. He described the novel legal theories granting the President the right to authorize abuse as "unlawful," "dangerous," and "erroneous."
140 Die in Iraq Following Bom bing at Shiite Shrine
Iraq is under a high security alert following days of violence sparked by Wednesday’s bombing of one of the country’s holiest Shiite shrines in Samarra. At least 140 people, mostly Sunni Arabs, have been killed across the country. The Sunni-led Association of Muslim Scholars has said 184 Sunni mosques have since been damaged or destroyed. 10 clerics have been killed and 15 more abducted. The government imposed a rare daytime curfew today in Baghdad and in three other provinces -- preventing many from attending Friday prayers. A series of joint Sunni-Shiite demonstrations have been held calling for national unity and to condemn the increasing violence. As many as 10,000 rallied in Basra alone. But many analysts fear Iraq is on the brink of civil war. The U.S. military is ordering its soldiers to stay in its barracks in Baghdad and to stay off the streets. On Thursday seven U.S. troops died. Meanwhile the staff of the satellite TV channel Al Arabiya is in mourning following the death of one of its best-known correspondents in Iraq. The 30-year-old Atwar Bahjat was assassinated along with her cameraman and soundman on Thursday.
Marines Conduct Secret Study Into Iran Ethnic Minorities
The Financial Times is reporting an intelligence wing of the Marines has hired a private defense contractor to conduct a secret study of Iran’s ethnic minorities. This is a move that could indicate early stages of contingency plans for a ground assault on Iran. The Marines conducted a similar study in Iraq. A former intelligence officer said the ultimate purpose of the Marines intelligence wing was to "support effective ground military operations by the Marine Corps." The study appeared to focus on whether Iran would be prone to a violent fragmentation along the same kind of fault lines that are splitting Iraq. The Financial Times reports several Iranians living in the United States refused to help with the study because they saw it as part of an effort to break up Iran. To conduct the analysis, the military hired a subsidiary of the defense contractor SAIC, the Science Applications International Corp.
Study: Nearly 100 Detainees Have Died in US Custody
In others news, a new study from the group Human Rights First has found that nearly 100 prisoners in US custody have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last three and a half years. At least 34 deaths were due to suspected or confirmed homicides. Another 11 deaths were deemed suspicious and up to twelve deaths were caused by lethal torture. The report found that most deaths went un-punished. The report comes one week after a set of new photographs were released showing prisoner abuse at the US-run Abu Ghraib.
Judge Orders Release of Names of Guantanamo Detainees
A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release the names of all of the detainees being secretly held at Guantanamo Bay. Up until now, only a handful of the detainees have been officially identified. The ruling comes as the Bush administration is coming under increasing international pressure to close the prison camp. Meanwhile newly released FBI memos show that FBI agents repeatedly warned military interrogators at Guantanamo that their aggressive methods were legally risky and also likely to be ineffective. The memos indicate that senior military officials, including former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, were aware of and in some cases had approved of putting hoods on prisoners, threatening them with violence and subjecting them to humiliating treatment.
NATO General: Foreign Troops To Remain in Afghanistan For "Years and Years"
This news on Afghanistan -- the head of Canada's contingent to the NATO force in the country said foreign troops will be there for "years and years." Major General Michel Gauthier made the comments in an interview published in the Guardian of London today. The non-US contingent is set to increase to 16,000 troops in the coming months, in addition to the 20,000 US troops currently there.
US Blocks Indigenous Bolivian Scholar From Entry
In education news, the U.S. government is blocking an indigenous Bolivian professor from entering the country to teach at the University of Nebraska for what it's calling security reasons. The professor, Waskar Ari Chachaki, is a member of the Aymara indigenous people in Bolivia and is a leading authority on religious beliefs and political activism in Bolivia. The American Historical Society has called on the U.S. government to reconsider. The group's president-elect Barbara Weinstein called the situation "very disturbing." Weinstein said "It would have to be unimaginable circumstances for someone from Bolivia to be classified as a security risk." A State Department official told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the government has "derogatory information" about Ari that renders him ineligible for the visa. But the government has not shared that information with Ari or the university. Ari is considered to be a moderate voice within the Aymaran community and some of his critics have accused of being too "pro-U.S." He received his doctorate from Georgetown. Two years ago, another foreign-born professor, Tariq Ramadan, one of the leading Muslim scholars in Europe, was denied a visa to teach at the University of Notre Dame.
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Blog Spotlight: Rebecca on the real surreal life
Rebecca had a strong week running down important issues (such as reproductive rights) but we selected this post because it summed up what many of readers express in their e-mails.
surreal
Environmental Activist Arrested For Giving Speech
In Arizona, an environmental activist is facing 25 years in jail and a $250,000 fine for a speech he gave in San Diego three years ago. The government charges the activist, Rodney Coronado, broke the law by urging people to commit arson and telling them how to build an incendiary device. The FBI has described Coronado as a leader of the Earth Liberation Front. His speech came just a day after the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for burning down a new condominium complex in San Diego. Coronado has never been charged in connection with the fire -- just the speech he gave the next day.
that's a news headline from democracy now and my question is, don't you feel safer now? don't you?
someone's been stopped from using their free speech. another 'victory' in bully boy's phoney 'war' on terror.
and how great is the fbi? they arrested him ... 3 years after he gave a speech. probably would have nailed his ass sooner but they still haven't fixed the computer problems.
3 years after the fact, they arrest him for excercising his right to free speech.
did he even do what the fbi says he did? probably not. if he had, would it have taken them 3 years to charge him? probably not.
bully boy and his minions are like depraved barney fife's let loose on the world. daddy may have ensured bully boy failed upward but he's determined to make the nation fail downward.
can you believe how much this country has changed since the dry drunk took to steering it?
it's so surreal.
we've got prisoners held in guantamo without trial for years. and we call them 'detainees.' we're in the midst of a war that we know we were lied into but we're not supposed to talk about the downing street memos.
in 1999, could any of us have guessed we'd end up where we are now?
maybe in a 'worst case' kind of way.
it's like the david bowie song 'this is not america.' i wonder how they teach kids about this country now? i can't imagine patrick henry goes over to well with his 'give me liberty or give me death'. maybe they've changed it to 'give me phoney safety or give me death.' if that's the case, he'll find out he gets both.
we're in a war, we're told, a long war, but any 1 with information is gagged like sibel edmonds. and porter goss and john cornyn and all the other 1/2 wits scream about 'leaks!' but the people who should be talking are gagged.
it's insane.
my great grandmother says it reminds her of the hysteria at the start of the cold war. so what does that mean? that we have to live through 30 plus years of this crap?
i don't think so. bully boy's a liar and we need to say that as often as possible. we need to reject ari's 'watch what you say' edict.
we've gone from fdr's 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself' to 'fear everyone unless they have money!' and it's so far from what we're told the country stands for that you really do have to wonder what kids are being taught now?
are they taught that the bill of rights are disposable? do they say prayers each morning for king george and lady laura?
are we rewriting the george washington fable? does he now say 'i cannot tell the truth' and kids are taught that it's okay to chop down the cherry tree as long as you remember to lie about it after?
his father should have been behind bars for iran-contra and 'neilsie' should be behind bars for the savings & loans crimes. bully boy should be behind bars for his insider trading with harkin.
but watch, in 2008, if we get a democratic president, they'll play 'nice' and say 'we need to focus on the future' and all the crimes of lying us into war will be swept aside.
it's bad for the country, to be sure. but it's also bad for the democrats. the bush family wants to be a dynasty - that doesn't work too hard - compare poppy's lengthy vacations to bully boys and you get that when we're stuck with president jenna, she'll probably only work 5 days a year. and when she does work, it will be from the french quarter in new orleans. instead of press conferences, she'll stage her own 'girl gone wild!' yee-haw bits.
democrats need to stop this now. if poppy's father had been punished for his business ties to the nazis, we wouldn't have gotten prescott, or poppy or bully boy.
the family is a disgrace and they need to be held accountable. until that day comes, they'll keep showing up in this race and that race.
instead, dems act like james bond villains always letting the bushes slip away.
the creep who lied to me, that's the title of the current nightmare we're featured in.
we get to pay all the costs but we don't get to star in it. instead, we're supposed to bask in the lush glow of the 1st couple. lady laura needs to invest in control top pantyhose and bully boy needs to be carted off to a prison.
i wish i had some good news to send you off to the weekend with. but maybe we don't need good news on friday? maybe we need reality on fridays?
you know when we need good news? on monday. monday's are a pain in the ass. we could all use some good news to start our weeks off with. by the end of the week, we know the score.
i'll wind down by noting this from now:
Tell Your Senators to Oppose the PATRIOT Act
Despite some minor tinkering, the PATRIOT Act violates our civil liberties. Please take action NOW to oppose its reauthorization in the current form. It's up for a Senate vote on Tuesday, Feb. 28. Take action!
i'd also recommend you check out c.i.'s 'and the war drags on (indymedia roundup)," cedric's "Move on when you need to,"elaine's "it's a blot" (she was writing with fire tonight) and wally's "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY PRACTICES PRE-EMPTION!" and fly boy says to check out mike's "Democracy Now! and Danny Schechter" which i haven't read yet. i checked mike this evening but he wasn't up at his usual time so i assumed he was taking a friday off. fly boy calls it a 'must read' so i'll be reading it right after i get this posted.
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In Arizona, an environmental activist is facing 25 years in jail and a $250,000 fine for a speech he gave in San Diego three years ago. The government charges the activist, Rodney Coronado, broke the law by urging people to commit arson and telling them how to build an incendiary device. The FBI has described Coronado as a leader of the Earth Liberation Front. His speech came just a day after the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for burning down a new condominium complex in San Diego. Coronado has never been charged in connection with the fire -- just the speech he gave the next day.
that's a news headline from democracy now and my question is, don't you feel safer now? don't you?
someone's been stopped from using their free speech. another 'victory' in bully boy's phoney 'war' on terror.
and how great is the fbi? they arrested him ... 3 years after he gave a speech. probably would have nailed his ass sooner but they still haven't fixed the computer problems.
3 years after the fact, they arrest him for excercising his right to free speech.
did he even do what the fbi says he did? probably not. if he had, would it have taken them 3 years to charge him? probably not.
bully boy and his minions are like depraved barney fife's let loose on the world. daddy may have ensured bully boy failed upward but he's determined to make the nation fail downward.
can you believe how much this country has changed since the dry drunk took to steering it?
it's so surreal.
we've got prisoners held in guantamo without trial for years. and we call them 'detainees.' we're in the midst of a war that we know we were lied into but we're not supposed to talk about the downing street memos.
in 1999, could any of us have guessed we'd end up where we are now?
maybe in a 'worst case' kind of way.
it's like the david bowie song 'this is not america.' i wonder how they teach kids about this country now? i can't imagine patrick henry goes over to well with his 'give me liberty or give me death'. maybe they've changed it to 'give me phoney safety or give me death.' if that's the case, he'll find out he gets both.
we're in a war, we're told, a long war, but any 1 with information is gagged like sibel edmonds. and porter goss and john cornyn and all the other 1/2 wits scream about 'leaks!' but the people who should be talking are gagged.
it's insane.
my great grandmother says it reminds her of the hysteria at the start of the cold war. so what does that mean? that we have to live through 30 plus years of this crap?
i don't think so. bully boy's a liar and we need to say that as often as possible. we need to reject ari's 'watch what you say' edict.
we've gone from fdr's 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself' to 'fear everyone unless they have money!' and it's so far from what we're told the country stands for that you really do have to wonder what kids are being taught now?
are they taught that the bill of rights are disposable? do they say prayers each morning for king george and lady laura?
are we rewriting the george washington fable? does he now say 'i cannot tell the truth' and kids are taught that it's okay to chop down the cherry tree as long as you remember to lie about it after?
his father should have been behind bars for iran-contra and 'neilsie' should be behind bars for the savings & loans crimes. bully boy should be behind bars for his insider trading with harkin.
but watch, in 2008, if we get a democratic president, they'll play 'nice' and say 'we need to focus on the future' and all the crimes of lying us into war will be swept aside.
it's bad for the country, to be sure. but it's also bad for the democrats. the bush family wants to be a dynasty - that doesn't work too hard - compare poppy's lengthy vacations to bully boys and you get that when we're stuck with president jenna, she'll probably only work 5 days a year. and when she does work, it will be from the french quarter in new orleans. instead of press conferences, she'll stage her own 'girl gone wild!' yee-haw bits.
democrats need to stop this now. if poppy's father had been punished for his business ties to the nazis, we wouldn't have gotten prescott, or poppy or bully boy.
the family is a disgrace and they need to be held accountable. until that day comes, they'll keep showing up in this race and that race.
instead, dems act like james bond villains always letting the bushes slip away.
the creep who lied to me, that's the title of the current nightmare we're featured in.
we get to pay all the costs but we don't get to star in it. instead, we're supposed to bask in the lush glow of the 1st couple. lady laura needs to invest in control top pantyhose and bully boy needs to be carted off to a prison.
i wish i had some good news to send you off to the weekend with. but maybe we don't need good news on friday? maybe we need reality on fridays?
you know when we need good news? on monday. monday's are a pain in the ass. we could all use some good news to start our weeks off with. by the end of the week, we know the score.
i'll wind down by noting this from now:
Tell Your Senators to Oppose the PATRIOT Act
Despite some minor tinkering, the PATRIOT Act violates our civil liberties. Please take action NOW to oppose its reauthorization in the current form. It's up for a Senate vote on Tuesday, Feb. 28. Take action!
i'd also recommend you check out c.i.'s 'and the war drags on (indymedia roundup)," cedric's "Move on when you need to,"elaine's "it's a blot" (she was writing with fire tonight) and wally's "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY PRACTICES PRE-EMPTION!" and fly boy says to check out mike's "Democracy Now! and Danny Schechter" which i haven't read yet. i checked mike this evening but he wasn't up at his usual time so i assumed he was taking a friday off. fly boy calls it a 'must read' so i'll be reading it right after i get this posted.
the common ills
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
cedrics big mix
the daily jot
Yahoo! Mail
Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.
Blog Spotlight: Elaine on truth and fiction
Rebecca said, Elaine was on fire when writing this post. It's one of our favorites of the week. (And we'll be noting Rebecca's post immediately after this one, so no link to it here. We're trying to hurry and get some stuff up since we're running way behind.)
"It's a blot"
It's hard to believe it's only one day since I last blogged. So much has gone on. Please make a point to visit Mike's blog Mikey Likes It! to get his take on the events.
"140 Die in Iraq Following Bombing at Shiite Shrine" (Democracy Now!):
Iraq is under a high security alert following days of violence sparked by Wednesday’s bombing of one of the country’s holiest Shiite shrines in Samarra. At least 140 people, mostly Sunni Arabs, have been killed across the country. The Sunni-led Association of Muslim Scholars has said 184 Sunni mosques have since been damaged or destroyed. 10 clerics have been killed and 15 more abducted. The government imposed a rare daytime curfew today in Baghdad and in three other provinces -- preventing many from attending Friday prayers. A series of joint Sunni-Shiite demonstrations have been held calling for national unity and to condemn the increasing violence. As many as 10,000 rallied in Basra alone. But many analysts fear Iraq is on the brink of civil war. The U.S. military is ordering its soldiers to stay in its barracks in Baghdad and to stay off the streets. On Thursday seven U.S. troops died. Meanwhile the staff of the satellite TV channel Al Arabiya is in mourning following the death of one of its best-known correspondents in Iraq. The 30-year-old Atwar Bahjat was assassinated along with her cameraman and soundman on Thursday.
The tragedy continues. It is a tragedy. C.I. noted Camilo Mejia saying "Tragedy -- not my tragedy, but the tragedy of Iraq; my sacrifice is nothing compared to theirs." It is a tragedy and it goes on. Why?
I think we have the answer in "NYT: Bill Keller declares a 'play day' and paper misses Guantanamo coverage (again!)." Read that, because C.I. nails the paper of record perfectly. It's not about reporting that we need. It's about, as C.I. said in "Other Items" this morning, official speak:
So exactly what does the New York Times do today? Not a whole lot. They fawn over officials as usual. Such as with Steven R. Weisman and Robert F. Worth's "Violence Strains U.S. Strategy and Imperils Pullout Plans:"
Senior administration officials in Washington and Baghdad said the next few days would test American and Iraqi resolve, as the United States military, despite pressure to intervene and angry accusations that it stood by while Iraq erupted in revenge killings, holds back to see if Iraqis can quell violence themselves. An unusual daytime curfew in Baghdad scheduled for Friday Prayer could help, the officials said.
Did the officials say that? Well then it must be true and it must be recorded by the paper of record.
Meanwhile the Davids (S. Cloud and E. Sanger) team up to tell you what must be the most important development in the port story -- from "Dubai Company Delays New Role at Six U.S. Ports:"
The Dubai company at the center of a political furor over its plans to take over some terminal operations at six American ports said Thursday night that it planned to close the deal next week, but that it would "not exercise control" over its new operations in the United States while the Bush administration tried to calm opposition in Congress.
The statement may provide a little time and political breathing room for President Bush, who has appeared stunned at the opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike over the deal involving one of the country's few close Arab allies.
Bully Boy might get breathing room? Surely that is the most important detail in this story . . . in the eyes of the New York Times which, more and more, reads less like a newspaper and more like a club newsletter. At this rate, tomorrow's port story will inform us of whether or not the Bully Boy is still regular or if constipation has set in as a result of (backdrop) the controversy over the ports issue.
Are these the voices that matter to you? Or are you like me and more interested in the Kevin and Monica Bendermans of the world? Their story isn't important enough to the paper of record. That's exactly why that paper is so useless.
"Letters from Fort Lewis" (Kevin Benderman, Feb. 8, 2005):
The American people need to wake up to the reality of what this admininstration is doing to our country. They claim to be creating economic growth for the country, but I wish someone would explain to me why General Motors and Ford are eliminating 30,000 jobs each and why Kraft Food is eliminating 6,000 jobs IN AMERICA. The mega-oil corporations are bragging about the record profits they posted in 2005, while Jane and Joe "average" America are having to pay record prices for heating oil for their homes and record prices at the pump.
Another news report stated that Americans, on average, were not able to put any money into their savings accounts in 2005. This situation has not occurred since before the great depression of the 1930's. While I am not an economist, I don't need a weatherman to tell me which way the wind blows.
The $440 billion spent on mass destruction could have paid Social Security, it could have been spent on the Gulf Coast states destroyed by the hurricanes, it could have been spent on a more reliable immigration system, it could have gone to help seniors afford their prescription medication, it could have gone into a student loan program, it could go into research and development for more reliable and cleaner energy sources, and, it could have benefited America to finance something constructive instead of funding absolute destruction.
Now tell me which you relate to more: Kevin Benderman's truth or spin out of the mouth of the Bully Boy? Think about Monica Benderman, fighting for her husband and for her country. Does it not scream "human interest story"? It does to me. But the corporate press isn't interested in that. If you ask me, most of us have far more in common with the Bendermans than we do with the Bully Boys. A real press would be interested in covering these stories of how the illegal invasion/occupation is impacting people's lives. All the New York Times wants to do is suck up to officials. We are all the Bendermans. We thought we'd be able to take care of ourselves, do the right thing and no problem. But look what happened when Kevin Benderman tried to do the right thing. That's a story. The corporate press may not care, but it is a story.
"Marines Conduct Secret Study Into Iran Ethnic Minorities" (Democracy Now!):
The Financial Times is reporting an intelligence wing of the Marines has hired a private defense contractor to conduct a secret study of Iran's ethnic minorities. This is a move that could indicate early stages of contingency plans for a ground assault on Iran. The Marines conducted a similar study in Iraq. A former intelligence officer said the ultimate purpose of the Marines intelligence wing was to “support effective ground military operations by the Marine Corps.” The study appeared to focus on whether Iran would be prone to a violent fragmentation along the same kind of fault lines that are splitting Iraq. The Financial Times reports several Iranians living in the United States refused to help with the study because they saw it as part of an effort to break up Iran. To conduct the analysis, the military hired a subsidiary of the defense contractor SAIC, the Science Applications International Corp.
To steal from Rebecca, more I could have guessed that news. Is there anything that this administration can do at this point that would surprise anyone? Maybe tell the truth. That would be shocking after five years of nonstop lies. Maybe our mainstream media could start telling the truth as well? Ted Koppel is shameless. He wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that the paper ran today. It read like something a suck up to Henry Kissinger would write. Koppel's long sucked up to Kissinger. When I got to work this morning, Sunny showed it to me and asked, "Does Koppel think he's 'brave'?"
I bet he does. I bet he thinks he's brave. He wasted how many hours of Nightline? We're all supposed to be thrilled that he showed the names of the fallen twice. Or maybe that he did a story (one) on PNAC (that disappeared from the website in it's lenghtier transcript)? This is the man who was for the war. He said so publicly.
Now he's written a self-serving op-ed that says, basically, "So what if we were lied, we have a regional interest in the area and it is about oil." First off, Teddy, no WMD was known when you were still hosting Nightline. So you could have made those comments while you had a show. Second of all, you're not saying, "It's about oil! People have died for oil!" Instead, you're saying, "It's about oil and we have a strategic interest to defend . . ." and droning on in his usual dull manner. Where there's superficial, there is Ted Koppel.
I was so glad when C.I. wrote the thing on Koppel. It was embarrassing enough that the mainstream was acting like we were losing something of value but for the left to do the same was shameful. Did they never read anything by FAIR about the "balance" on Nightline? Were they not aware he was sucking up to Kissinger on air over and over. (Kissinger was one of Koppel's most booked guests.) Ted Koppel was George Will without the bow tie.
"The end of a (bad) era" (The Common Ills):
Tributes will probably roll out to remind us of what we're going to "miss." Yes, it's true there was little of the screaming found on CrossFire, The McLaughlin Group, et al. It's also true that there wasn't much for the left to applaud on Nightline.
As Gore Vidal's noted, ". . . if you want to know what the ownership of the country wants you to know, tune in to Nightline and listen to Ted Koppel and his guests" (Vidal, The Decline of the American Empire, p. 44). Vidal also cites a study by FAIR for the years 1985-1988 of Nightline. Koppel mentor Henry Kissinger racks up 14 appearances as does Al Haig -- other multi-appearance guests included Elliott Abrams and Jerry Falwell.
[. . .]
We're so starved for TV news (as opposed to "news") that there may be a temptation for some to extoll Nightline as "serious." What show were they watching? Let's trip down memory lane.
Let's drop back to July 29, 2004, Democracy Now!'s "ABC's Ted Koppel Refuses To Apologize For Pre-War Iraq Coverage:"
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that ABC and the other networks should apologize for providing an uncritical forum for the administration to lay out their unsubstantiated claims of weapons of mass destruction?
TED KOPPEL: I am glad you phrased your question so nicely. No, I don't think an apology is due if what you are saying is could we all have been more critical? I think the answer is yes. I must tell you, I am going to be responsive in behalf of Nightline over which I do have some control. We did do a 90-minute town hall meeting, the title of which was Why Now? and the essence of which was: Where is the evidence that there's an immediate danger to the United States? Did we do enough programs like that? I concede we did not. But that's a function of perhaps incompetence on my part, but certainly not ill will and I will try and do better the next time, but I don't think I need to apologize for it.
Amy Goodman, Robert Parry, Norman Solomon, FAIR, Gore Vidal, go down the list. (And C.I.'s got a ton of sources.) Ted Koppel was everything that was wrong with the mainstream press. But you wouldn't have known it to read some of the coverage. But there are people who think he was a "serious" journalist just because he spoke in that annoying tone instead of shouting. He was serious -- about conveying conventional wisdom. He was Cokie Roberts with less attitude. That's all he was. So it's fitting that he ends up at NPR which doesn't know how to report these days but sure knows how to bore the hell out of you with chatter amongst the hosts and really lame stories.
Do I seem upset tonight? I am. I can't believe Bully Boy's plans for Iran are starting to come out. The level of incompentence in the White House is not to be believed. Presumably, after he starts his third war, he'll immediately begin planning for North Korea. It's as if he's leading a one man march for WWIII.
"War Criminal Quote" (Colin Powell on the lies in his UN presentation via Ava and C.I.'s "TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were," The Third Estate Sunday Review):
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.
amy goodman
democracy now
the common ills
and the war drags on
ted koppel
nightline
gore vidal
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
the third estate sunday review
colin powell
"140 Die in Iraq Following Bombing at Shiite Shrine" (Democracy Now!):
Iraq is under a high security alert following days of violence sparked by Wednesday’s bombing of one of the country’s holiest Shiite shrines in Samarra. At least 140 people, mostly Sunni Arabs, have been killed across the country. The Sunni-led Association of Muslim Scholars has said 184 Sunni mosques have since been damaged or destroyed. 10 clerics have been killed and 15 more abducted. The government imposed a rare daytime curfew today in Baghdad and in three other provinces -- preventing many from attending Friday prayers. A series of joint Sunni-Shiite demonstrations have been held calling for national unity and to condemn the increasing violence. As many as 10,000 rallied in Basra alone. But many analysts fear Iraq is on the brink of civil war. The U.S. military is ordering its soldiers to stay in its barracks in Baghdad and to stay off the streets. On Thursday seven U.S. troops died. Meanwhile the staff of the satellite TV channel Al Arabiya is in mourning following the death of one of its best-known correspondents in Iraq. The 30-year-old Atwar Bahjat was assassinated along with her cameraman and soundman on Thursday.
The tragedy continues. It is a tragedy. C.I. noted Camilo Mejia saying "Tragedy -- not my tragedy, but the tragedy of Iraq; my sacrifice is nothing compared to theirs." It is a tragedy and it goes on. Why?
I think we have the answer in "NYT: Bill Keller declares a 'play day' and paper misses Guantanamo coverage (again!)." Read that, because C.I. nails the paper of record perfectly. It's not about reporting that we need. It's about, as C.I. said in "Other Items" this morning, official speak:
So exactly what does the New York Times do today? Not a whole lot. They fawn over officials as usual. Such as with Steven R. Weisman and Robert F. Worth's "Violence Strains U.S. Strategy and Imperils Pullout Plans:"
Senior administration officials in Washington and Baghdad said the next few days would test American and Iraqi resolve, as the United States military, despite pressure to intervene and angry accusations that it stood by while Iraq erupted in revenge killings, holds back to see if Iraqis can quell violence themselves. An unusual daytime curfew in Baghdad scheduled for Friday Prayer could help, the officials said.
Did the officials say that? Well then it must be true and it must be recorded by the paper of record.
Meanwhile the Davids (S. Cloud and E. Sanger) team up to tell you what must be the most important development in the port story -- from "Dubai Company Delays New Role at Six U.S. Ports:"
The Dubai company at the center of a political furor over its plans to take over some terminal operations at six American ports said Thursday night that it planned to close the deal next week, but that it would "not exercise control" over its new operations in the United States while the Bush administration tried to calm opposition in Congress.
The statement may provide a little time and political breathing room for President Bush, who has appeared stunned at the opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike over the deal involving one of the country's few close Arab allies.
Bully Boy might get breathing room? Surely that is the most important detail in this story . . . in the eyes of the New York Times which, more and more, reads less like a newspaper and more like a club newsletter. At this rate, tomorrow's port story will inform us of whether or not the Bully Boy is still regular or if constipation has set in as a result of (backdrop) the controversy over the ports issue.
Are these the voices that matter to you? Or are you like me and more interested in the Kevin and Monica Bendermans of the world? Their story isn't important enough to the paper of record. That's exactly why that paper is so useless.
"Letters from Fort Lewis" (Kevin Benderman, Feb. 8, 2005):
The American people need to wake up to the reality of what this admininstration is doing to our country. They claim to be creating economic growth for the country, but I wish someone would explain to me why General Motors and Ford are eliminating 30,000 jobs each and why Kraft Food is eliminating 6,000 jobs IN AMERICA. The mega-oil corporations are bragging about the record profits they posted in 2005, while Jane and Joe "average" America are having to pay record prices for heating oil for their homes and record prices at the pump.
Another news report stated that Americans, on average, were not able to put any money into their savings accounts in 2005. This situation has not occurred since before the great depression of the 1930's. While I am not an economist, I don't need a weatherman to tell me which way the wind blows.
The $440 billion spent on mass destruction could have paid Social Security, it could have been spent on the Gulf Coast states destroyed by the hurricanes, it could have been spent on a more reliable immigration system, it could have gone to help seniors afford their prescription medication, it could have gone into a student loan program, it could go into research and development for more reliable and cleaner energy sources, and, it could have benefited America to finance something constructive instead of funding absolute destruction.
Now tell me which you relate to more: Kevin Benderman's truth or spin out of the mouth of the Bully Boy? Think about Monica Benderman, fighting for her husband and for her country. Does it not scream "human interest story"? It does to me. But the corporate press isn't interested in that. If you ask me, most of us have far more in common with the Bendermans than we do with the Bully Boys. A real press would be interested in covering these stories of how the illegal invasion/occupation is impacting people's lives. All the New York Times wants to do is suck up to officials. We are all the Bendermans. We thought we'd be able to take care of ourselves, do the right thing and no problem. But look what happened when Kevin Benderman tried to do the right thing. That's a story. The corporate press may not care, but it is a story.
"Marines Conduct Secret Study Into Iran Ethnic Minorities" (Democracy Now!):
The Financial Times is reporting an intelligence wing of the Marines has hired a private defense contractor to conduct a secret study of Iran's ethnic minorities. This is a move that could indicate early stages of contingency plans for a ground assault on Iran. The Marines conducted a similar study in Iraq. A former intelligence officer said the ultimate purpose of the Marines intelligence wing was to “support effective ground military operations by the Marine Corps.” The study appeared to focus on whether Iran would be prone to a violent fragmentation along the same kind of fault lines that are splitting Iraq. The Financial Times reports several Iranians living in the United States refused to help with the study because they saw it as part of an effort to break up Iran. To conduct the analysis, the military hired a subsidiary of the defense contractor SAIC, the Science Applications International Corp.
To steal from Rebecca, more I could have guessed that news. Is there anything that this administration can do at this point that would surprise anyone? Maybe tell the truth. That would be shocking after five years of nonstop lies. Maybe our mainstream media could start telling the truth as well? Ted Koppel is shameless. He wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that the paper ran today. It read like something a suck up to Henry Kissinger would write. Koppel's long sucked up to Kissinger. When I got to work this morning, Sunny showed it to me and asked, "Does Koppel think he's 'brave'?"
I bet he does. I bet he thinks he's brave. He wasted how many hours of Nightline? We're all supposed to be thrilled that he showed the names of the fallen twice. Or maybe that he did a story (one) on PNAC (that disappeared from the website in it's lenghtier transcript)? This is the man who was for the war. He said so publicly.
Now he's written a self-serving op-ed that says, basically, "So what if we were lied, we have a regional interest in the area and it is about oil." First off, Teddy, no WMD was known when you were still hosting Nightline. So you could have made those comments while you had a show. Second of all, you're not saying, "It's about oil! People have died for oil!" Instead, you're saying, "It's about oil and we have a strategic interest to defend . . ." and droning on in his usual dull manner. Where there's superficial, there is Ted Koppel.
I was so glad when C.I. wrote the thing on Koppel. It was embarrassing enough that the mainstream was acting like we were losing something of value but for the left to do the same was shameful. Did they never read anything by FAIR about the "balance" on Nightline? Were they not aware he was sucking up to Kissinger on air over and over. (Kissinger was one of Koppel's most booked guests.) Ted Koppel was George Will without the bow tie.
"The end of a (bad) era" (The Common Ills):
Tributes will probably roll out to remind us of what we're going to "miss." Yes, it's true there was little of the screaming found on CrossFire, The McLaughlin Group, et al. It's also true that there wasn't much for the left to applaud on Nightline.
As Gore Vidal's noted, ". . . if you want to know what the ownership of the country wants you to know, tune in to Nightline and listen to Ted Koppel and his guests" (Vidal, The Decline of the American Empire, p. 44). Vidal also cites a study by FAIR for the years 1985-1988 of Nightline. Koppel mentor Henry Kissinger racks up 14 appearances as does Al Haig -- other multi-appearance guests included Elliott Abrams and Jerry Falwell.
[. . .]
We're so starved for TV news (as opposed to "news") that there may be a temptation for some to extoll Nightline as "serious." What show were they watching? Let's trip down memory lane.
Let's drop back to July 29, 2004, Democracy Now!'s "ABC's Ted Koppel Refuses To Apologize For Pre-War Iraq Coverage:"
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think that ABC and the other networks should apologize for providing an uncritical forum for the administration to lay out their unsubstantiated claims of weapons of mass destruction?
TED KOPPEL: I am glad you phrased your question so nicely. No, I don't think an apology is due if what you are saying is could we all have been more critical? I think the answer is yes. I must tell you, I am going to be responsive in behalf of Nightline over which I do have some control. We did do a 90-minute town hall meeting, the title of which was Why Now? and the essence of which was: Where is the evidence that there's an immediate danger to the United States? Did we do enough programs like that? I concede we did not. But that's a function of perhaps incompetence on my part, but certainly not ill will and I will try and do better the next time, but I don't think I need to apologize for it.
Amy Goodman, Robert Parry, Norman Solomon, FAIR, Gore Vidal, go down the list. (And C.I.'s got a ton of sources.) Ted Koppel was everything that was wrong with the mainstream press. But you wouldn't have known it to read some of the coverage. But there are people who think he was a "serious" journalist just because he spoke in that annoying tone instead of shouting. He was serious -- about conveying conventional wisdom. He was Cokie Roberts with less attitude. That's all he was. So it's fitting that he ends up at NPR which doesn't know how to report these days but sure knows how to bore the hell out of you with chatter amongst the hosts and really lame stories.
Do I seem upset tonight? I am. I can't believe Bully Boy's plans for Iran are starting to come out. The level of incompentence in the White House is not to be believed. Presumably, after he starts his third war, he'll immediately begin planning for North Korea. It's as if he's leading a one man march for WWIII.
"War Criminal Quote" (Colin Powell on the lies in his UN presentation via Ava and C.I.'s "TV Review: Barbara and Colin remake The Way We Were," The Third Estate Sunday Review):
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.
amy goodman
democracy now
the common ills
and the war drags on
ted koppel
nightline
gore vidal
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
the third estate sunday review
colin powell
Yahoo! Mail
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Blog Spotlight: Cedric on when to go
Cedric's offering some sound advice and will probably make you laugh (or at least raise an eyebrow) when he recounts events at Iwanna's church.
Move on when you need to
It's Thursday and Elaine can't blog on Thursday (she runs a group on Thursdays) so I grab Thursdays for her and she grabs Wednesdays (church night) for me. If you've never checked out her site, Like Maria Said Paz, please do so. I got matched with her, Eli, Kara and Brad by C.I. early on when I became a member of The Common Ills. We'd exchange e-mails and it was obvious she should be doing her own site. (So should Eli, Kara and Brad.) When she was filling in for Rebecca this summer while Rebecca was on vacation, she started helping out with The Third Estate Sunday Review and she's really sharp so maybe you know her from there? But check out her site: Like Maria Said Paz.
"How dare they try to end this beauty."
So what's the plan for tonight? An e-mail I wanted to get to awhile back but didn't have time (that'll be on my tombstone: "Didn't have time"). Iwanna e-mailed about her church back then and was kind enough to e-mail again this week or I would've forgotten.
She's got a beef and I'll quote her: "So it's not just donate to the plate that's passed around, we also have a Praise Bucket and they just added another one. I keep waiting to see the Car Note Bucket."
She's got a few beefs actually. She says she goes to church for the message and doesn't know "why we have to cluck like hens for 20 minutes at the start of every service while we're 'getting our praise on.'" Another complaint is that her preacher is always requesting, at the end of the service, that everyone go up to someone and hug. Iwanna goes to church with her adult son and her father and she's fine with hugging them "if I have to hug" but she's getting "real tired" of people coming up to her asking for a hug.
She also told me I could share this story. A year ago, there was a disagreement between two women in the choir at her church during choir practice. The first one wanted the solo and the second one said, "You always get the solo!" When the first one didn't back down, the second one cursed her and said, "I'm going out to my car and getting my gun!" The choir had to hold her back (while she was screaming, "Let me go! Let me go!") and Iwanna told her son they were leaving because it was getting crazy.
She has a ton of stories like that and I'm only sharing the ones she gave me permission to. But she's tired of this church. It was her late mother's church so she's continued to going.
But here's my advice, if your church isn't nourishing you and you've given it time, it's time for a change. I think a church is a long term thing and I expect that there will be bumps and all like any long term relationship. But if it stops working and it gets so bad that, like Iwanna, "all I want to do is go in, hear the sermon, and get out to my car" then it's probably time to consider another church.
When it stops speaking to you, and it continues to not speak to you, you need to move on. I hope that doesn't ever happen with me because I love my church but it does happen and when it does you just need to find another house of the Lord to worship in. That's not saying you failed or the church failed, just that you started out together but ended up taking different paths.
Though I put off writing about this here because I didn't have time, I did tell Iwanna that in an e-mail when she first wrote. Maybe seeing it up here will convince her that I mean it?
If your church isn't working for you, find one that does. I think most preachers or pastors would tell you the same thing -- not in a "get out" kind of way but because the message is more important than one church. Like I said, I hope that day never comes for me because my church means a lot to me and, even if that stopped being the case, I would still have a lot of memories tied up with it. I think that's why Iwanna's reluctant to make the break. But when you're miserable and it goes on and on for years, it's time to find a new house of worship.
Might even mean it was time to take a break and spend some time with yourself. But with Iwanna, she seems to just need to hear that it's okay to switch churches. Her aunt's goes to one that Iwanna's really curious about and she should check it out. Same goes for anyone.
The alternative is to just go through the motions and hate it and that does no one a favor. Doesn't do the congregation a favor, doesn't do your preacher a favor and it doesn't do you a favor.
So we've taken care of old business. Now I want to note something from Democracy Now! because Elaine always does:
Rumsfeld Backtracks on Iraq News Planting Denial
In other news, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has reversed his claim that the Pentagon has stopped planting news stories in the Iraqi media. Rumsfeld had made the claim on two separate occasions Friday. But on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said: "I don't have knowledge as to whether it's been stopped. I do have knowledge it was put under review. I was correctly informed. And I just misstated the facts."
Did you hear about that? Because you should have. This is typical for the administration. They act like a child cornered when caught in a lie -- they just create a new lie to get them out of hot water. To get everyone to back off, they lie and say something's stopped. Then, when things aren't being followed as closely, they turn around and retract their lie while claiming they thought that then.
"I just misstated the facts"? Weasel words for "I lied."
For an administration that can't stop invoking Jesus' name, they don't seem very familiar with the basics of the Bible, do they?
But that's often how it is. The people who make a spectacle of their faith are usually the least likely to actually practice it.
If you think about it, the very fact that they have to make a show of it usually means that they're trying to prove something. Now why does anyone have to prove anything? It's not a competition.
I really wish that politicians would invoke the Constitution more than they do the Lord. I don't look at politicians as the spiritual cheerleaders of the nation. When I hear Bully Boy go on and on about how God stopped his drinking and how God did this or did that, I think, "Well why didn't you go into preaching?" Really, if it's true, why didn't he go into preaching?
I don't think God wants us to kill each other. I don't think God wants to see a people lied into war. So when he speaks about God, it sounds phoney to me. I know some eat it up. I think he's dangerous to the country and think he needs to stop casting his opinions as being based in a faith because there's nothing spiritual about lying a nation into war. There's nothing spiritual about carpet bombing a country. Or bearing false witness.
Wally had a funny thing today that some people may miss. (Maybe not.) He gave me permission to post the whole thing so here it is.
THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY ADDRESSES THE ISSUE OF THE PORTS
BULLY BOY PRESS - DC.
TODAY BULLY BOY HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE TO ADDRESS A CONCERN RAGING THE NATION.
"EVERYONE IS FOCUSED ON THE PORTS. EVERY WHERE I GO IT IS 'THE PORTS' THIS OR 'THE PORTS' THAT. PEOPLE THE PORTS IS ALWAYS WITH US. WHENEVER YOU WANT, YOU CAN DO THEM GOOD. BUT, PAY ATTENTION BILL FRIST, YOU DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE ME."
"LOSING A JOB IS TRAUMATIC," BULLY BOY SAID. "ASK MY FATHER. IT'S DIFFICULT. IT PUTS A STRAIN ON OUR FAMILIES. BUT YOUNGER INDIANS ARE AQUIRING A TASTE FOR PIZZA FROM DOMINO'S. THANK YOU."
"WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS HE TALKING ABOUT?" HELEN THOMAS, DEAN OF THE DC PRESS CORPS, WONDERED.
"SHUT IT, HELEN!" SNAPPED A SOBBING ELIZABETH BUMILLER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES, "HE IS INSPIRATIONAL! SIMPLY INSPIRATIONAL!"
Related: "Other Items"
the new york times
elisabeth bumiller
bully boy
the common ills
Wally's put Jesus' words in Bully Boy's mouth and intentionally screwed them us (the way Bully Boy does in real life). The whole section about "the ports" (the poor) always being with us. I always laugh at Wally's stuff but this one made me laugh a little harder because it really did capture the way Bully Boy trots out scripture and screws it up.
For more laughs see Betty's "Thomas Friedman's one moment of public truth."
And that's almost it for me tonight. Almost. Three Cool Old Guys can't stop laughing when they read Ava and C.I.'s "TV Review: Close To Home (and floating in the toilet)." Sunday, when I visited, they were laughing about it. That was day one. They're still laughing about it and keep saying, "You've got to re-read it, it gets funnier each time." I agree it's up there with their best ones and that's a big compliment. So make a point to read it.
By the way, here's the new content from last Sunday's The Third Estate Sunday Review:
A Note to Our Readers
Editorial: No spine on no spying
TV Review: Close To Home (and floating in the toilet)
1 Book, 10 Minutes (Danny Schechter, The Death of Media)
Psst, here come the gatekeepers
Musings on the service economy
Ava and C.I. do the TV reviews themselves. But on the other features the credits are:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot.
I point that out because Betty, Kat and me sometimes hear, "You don't blog enough." We probably don't. But we are doing stuff besides what goes up at our own sites. Let me note one more thing because I haven't given Trina enough shout outs. Saturdays, Trina blogs at Trina's Kitchen. I hope you're checking her out. Iwanna, I guess I've added the Shout Out Bucket to this entry.
the daily jot
thomas friedman is a great man
the third estate sunday review
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
kats korner
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
cedrics big mix
thomas friedman is a great man
"How dare they try to end this beauty."
So what's the plan for tonight? An e-mail I wanted to get to awhile back but didn't have time (that'll be on my tombstone: "Didn't have time"). Iwanna e-mailed about her church back then and was kind enough to e-mail again this week or I would've forgotten.
She's got a beef and I'll quote her: "So it's not just donate to the plate that's passed around, we also have a Praise Bucket and they just added another one. I keep waiting to see the Car Note Bucket."
She's got a few beefs actually. She says she goes to church for the message and doesn't know "why we have to cluck like hens for 20 minutes at the start of every service while we're 'getting our praise on.'" Another complaint is that her preacher is always requesting, at the end of the service, that everyone go up to someone and hug. Iwanna goes to church with her adult son and her father and she's fine with hugging them "if I have to hug" but she's getting "real tired" of people coming up to her asking for a hug.
She also told me I could share this story. A year ago, there was a disagreement between two women in the choir at her church during choir practice. The first one wanted the solo and the second one said, "You always get the solo!" When the first one didn't back down, the second one cursed her and said, "I'm going out to my car and getting my gun!" The choir had to hold her back (while she was screaming, "Let me go! Let me go!") and Iwanna told her son they were leaving because it was getting crazy.
She has a ton of stories like that and I'm only sharing the ones she gave me permission to. But she's tired of this church. It was her late mother's church so she's continued to going.
But here's my advice, if your church isn't nourishing you and you've given it time, it's time for a change. I think a church is a long term thing and I expect that there will be bumps and all like any long term relationship. But if it stops working and it gets so bad that, like Iwanna, "all I want to do is go in, hear the sermon, and get out to my car" then it's probably time to consider another church.
When it stops speaking to you, and it continues to not speak to you, you need to move on. I hope that doesn't ever happen with me because I love my church but it does happen and when it does you just need to find another house of the Lord to worship in. That's not saying you failed or the church failed, just that you started out together but ended up taking different paths.
Though I put off writing about this here because I didn't have time, I did tell Iwanna that in an e-mail when she first wrote. Maybe seeing it up here will convince her that I mean it?
If your church isn't working for you, find one that does. I think most preachers or pastors would tell you the same thing -- not in a "get out" kind of way but because the message is more important than one church. Like I said, I hope that day never comes for me because my church means a lot to me and, even if that stopped being the case, I would still have a lot of memories tied up with it. I think that's why Iwanna's reluctant to make the break. But when you're miserable and it goes on and on for years, it's time to find a new house of worship.
Might even mean it was time to take a break and spend some time with yourself. But with Iwanna, she seems to just need to hear that it's okay to switch churches. Her aunt's goes to one that Iwanna's really curious about and she should check it out. Same goes for anyone.
The alternative is to just go through the motions and hate it and that does no one a favor. Doesn't do the congregation a favor, doesn't do your preacher a favor and it doesn't do you a favor.
So we've taken care of old business. Now I want to note something from Democracy Now! because Elaine always does:
Rumsfeld Backtracks on Iraq News Planting Denial
In other news, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has reversed his claim that the Pentagon has stopped planting news stories in the Iraqi media. Rumsfeld had made the claim on two separate occasions Friday. But on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said: "I don't have knowledge as to whether it's been stopped. I do have knowledge it was put under review. I was correctly informed. And I just misstated the facts."
Did you hear about that? Because you should have. This is typical for the administration. They act like a child cornered when caught in a lie -- they just create a new lie to get them out of hot water. To get everyone to back off, they lie and say something's stopped. Then, when things aren't being followed as closely, they turn around and retract their lie while claiming they thought that then.
"I just misstated the facts"? Weasel words for "I lied."
For an administration that can't stop invoking Jesus' name, they don't seem very familiar with the basics of the Bible, do they?
But that's often how it is. The people who make a spectacle of their faith are usually the least likely to actually practice it.
If you think about it, the very fact that they have to make a show of it usually means that they're trying to prove something. Now why does anyone have to prove anything? It's not a competition.
I really wish that politicians would invoke the Constitution more than they do the Lord. I don't look at politicians as the spiritual cheerleaders of the nation. When I hear Bully Boy go on and on about how God stopped his drinking and how God did this or did that, I think, "Well why didn't you go into preaching?" Really, if it's true, why didn't he go into preaching?
I don't think God wants us to kill each other. I don't think God wants to see a people lied into war. So when he speaks about God, it sounds phoney to me. I know some eat it up. I think he's dangerous to the country and think he needs to stop casting his opinions as being based in a faith because there's nothing spiritual about lying a nation into war. There's nothing spiritual about carpet bombing a country. Or bearing false witness.
Wally had a funny thing today that some people may miss. (Maybe not.) He gave me permission to post the whole thing so here it is.
THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY ADDRESSES THE ISSUE OF THE PORTS
BULLY BOY PRESS - DC.
TODAY BULLY BOY HELD A PRESS CONFERENCE TO ADDRESS A CONCERN RAGING THE NATION.
"EVERYONE IS FOCUSED ON THE PORTS. EVERY WHERE I GO IT IS 'THE PORTS' THIS OR 'THE PORTS' THAT. PEOPLE THE PORTS IS ALWAYS WITH US. WHENEVER YOU WANT, YOU CAN DO THEM GOOD. BUT, PAY ATTENTION BILL FRIST, YOU DO NOT ALWAYS HAVE ME."
"LOSING A JOB IS TRAUMATIC," BULLY BOY SAID. "ASK MY FATHER. IT'S DIFFICULT. IT PUTS A STRAIN ON OUR FAMILIES. BUT YOUNGER INDIANS ARE AQUIRING A TASTE FOR PIZZA FROM DOMINO'S. THANK YOU."
"WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS HE TALKING ABOUT?" HELEN THOMAS, DEAN OF THE DC PRESS CORPS, WONDERED.
"SHUT IT, HELEN!" SNAPPED A SOBBING ELIZABETH BUMILLER OF THE NEW YORK TIMES, "HE IS INSPIRATIONAL! SIMPLY INSPIRATIONAL!"
Related: "Other Items"
the new york times
elisabeth bumiller
bully boy
the common ills
Wally's put Jesus' words in Bully Boy's mouth and intentionally screwed them us (the way Bully Boy does in real life). The whole section about "the ports" (the poor) always being with us. I always laugh at Wally's stuff but this one made me laugh a little harder because it really did capture the way Bully Boy trots out scripture and screws it up.
For more laughs see Betty's "Thomas Friedman's one moment of public truth."
And that's almost it for me tonight. Almost. Three Cool Old Guys can't stop laughing when they read Ava and C.I.'s "TV Review: Close To Home (and floating in the toilet)." Sunday, when I visited, they were laughing about it. That was day one. They're still laughing about it and keep saying, "You've got to re-read it, it gets funnier each time." I agree it's up there with their best ones and that's a big compliment. So make a point to read it.
By the way, here's the new content from last Sunday's The Third Estate Sunday Review:
A Note to Our Readers
Editorial: No spine on no spying
TV Review: Close To Home (and floating in the toilet)
1 Book, 10 Minutes (Danny Schechter, The Death of Media)
Psst, here come the gatekeepers
Musings on the service economy
Ava and C.I. do the TV reviews themselves. But on the other features the credits are:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot.
I point that out because Betty, Kat and me sometimes hear, "You don't blog enough." We probably don't. But we are doing stuff besides what goes up at our own sites. Let me note one more thing because I haven't given Trina enough shout outs. Saturdays, Trina blogs at Trina's Kitchen. I hope you're checking her out. Iwanna, I guess I've added the Shout Out Bucket to this entry.
the daily jot
thomas friedman is a great man
the third estate sunday review
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
kats korner
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
cedrics big mix
thomas friedman is a great man
Yahoo! Mail
Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.
Kitchen Spotlight: Trina's got Brushetta in the Kitchen
Trina's latest. And yes, we are posting today. We're running way behind due to technical problems (among other things). Note that there are NSA hearings Tuesday.
Brushetta in the kitchen
Remember last week when we made American Brushetta? I had four e-mails from people willing to try using their ovens if it would, in one person's words, "really get me ready for a real recipe." In addition, the young woman whose e-mail had inspired Bonnie and I to put our heads together for a simple, get to know your oven recipe, made it three times and feels she can handle the oven.
A "real" recipe? Here we go, but note that you put more into the oven with last week's recipe than you will with this week's (where all you will be cooking is sliced bread).
8-10 slices of bread
1/3 cup of olive oil
Topping ingredients:
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 cup chopped Romaine lettuce
1 tablespoon of basil spice
1 garlic clove, minced or chopped
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/3 cup crumbled cheese (feta or blue cheese)
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush olive oil on both sides of bread slices. (I prefer Italian bread but you can also use French bread.) Don't have a cooking brush? Use the back end of a large spoon. Remember, you are dampening the bread, not soaking it. Put bread slices on a baking sheet. Place in the oven. After seven minutes, remove baking sheet, flip bread slices over and bake for seven more minutes. (Remember, oven temperatures may vary. As a guideline, the bread should look the same as you prefer it for your toast.)
While that is going on, take the topping ingredients and put them into a bowl. You can add any left over olive oil to the bowl as well. Stir the ingredients.
When the bread is done, guess what? You are done cooking. Turn off the oven. Now spoon the mixture onto each slice, about 1 tablespoon per slice.
Warning: You can cook the bread in a toaster oven following the same directions; however, I would not recommend that you brush the bread with olive oil and then attempt to cook the bread in a standard toaster.
This is a "real" dish, with a real "name," that is cooked and requested. Wally's mother and I were talking on the phone this week and she prefers to serve it on bagel chips she's bought at the bakery in her local grocery store. For that, or if you don't have an oven and use a standard toaster for the bread, you can brush with olive oil after.
If you are using the oven, congratulations because you've cooked a "real" dish in your oven. You'll find that it wasn't that hard. Marci e-mailed saying she had eaten Brushetta and she looked forward to the recipe but what would really help her would be a "meal." She'd like to serve the Brushetta on small slices as an appetizer and would enjoy having an easy to cook main dish. Which meant I was on the phone with Elaine, Rebecca and Betty checking to see if the recipe I have planned for next weekend was as easy for others as it seemed to be to me. Betty's concern is time because she has three small children. Elaine's concern is "easy" and time because if it's too much work, she's just as likely to stop on her way from work and pick up something instead of cooking. Rebecca feels she's a so-so cook unless she's got someone in the kitchen or on the phone walking and talking her through each step the first time she makes a dish. They helped me pick a recipe that they found easy. Then I ran the idea past Cedric. He's more apt to toss something frozen in the microwave but he's started using the recipes here and is getting comfortable with "cooking more than eggs." Cedric listened to the steps required and said that not only could he handle that but that he could cook it for the woman he's dating now and have a romantic dinner.
So thank you to Marci for the e-mail and next week's recipe will be baked dish to ensure that we're still using our ovens. It will also involve boiling water on the stove and, for some, browning meat in a skillet. If that has some of you excited, great. If it worries some of you, wait until next week and you'll see how easy all the steps are. (Those who don't eat meat or would prefer to skip meat for that dish will just be using the oven and boiling water on the stove.)
I saw something in Ruth's Public Radio Report today that I wanted to pass on:
From KPFT in Houston:
Program Preemption on Tuesday, February 28 - 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Senate hearings on the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program.
I do not doubt that other Pacifica stations may carry this but this morning only KPFT had a note up about it on their main page. Eight in the morning until five in the evening are Central Time Zone times.
That's this coming Tuesday. You can listen to Pacifica radio over the internet if you don't live in one of the areas that broadcasts it over the airwaves. Ruth's noting the 10th anniversary of Democracy Now! in her latest report. That is a program we watch in my house. I get more useful news and information from that program than I do from our local paper. As local TV news becomes more and more a crime watch and focused on the petty misdeeds of city workers, as opposed to the city's elected officials, I've found my desire to watch it has decreased. But Monday through Friday, I make a point to watch the hourly broadcast of Democracy Now! If you've never caught a show (which also airs on the radio and online), take a moment this coming week to check it out. I think you'll be impressed. For her report, Ruth called a number of us and asked us to select a report from the show that has stayed with us. I was impressed with various choices and it brings home just how much the show has covered. If you want to know what's going on in the world, watch or listen to Democracy Now! (and online, you can also read transcripts).
brushetta
cooking
recipes
food
democracy now
pacifica
pacifica radio
radio
kpft
nsa
fisa
government snooping
government spying
snoopgate
thomas friedman is a great man
trinas kitchen
cedrics big mix
like maria said paz
the third estate sunday review
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
the daily jot
ruths public radio report
the common ills
A "real" recipe? Here we go, but note that you put more into the oven with last week's recipe than you will with this week's (where all you will be cooking is sliced bread).
8-10 slices of bread
1/3 cup of olive oil
Topping ingredients:
3 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 cup chopped Romaine lettuce
1 tablespoon of basil spice
1 garlic clove, minced or chopped
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
1/3 cup crumbled cheese (feta or blue cheese)
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Brush olive oil on both sides of bread slices. (I prefer Italian bread but you can also use French bread.) Don't have a cooking brush? Use the back end of a large spoon. Remember, you are dampening the bread, not soaking it. Put bread slices on a baking sheet. Place in the oven. After seven minutes, remove baking sheet, flip bread slices over and bake for seven more minutes. (Remember, oven temperatures may vary. As a guideline, the bread should look the same as you prefer it for your toast.)
While that is going on, take the topping ingredients and put them into a bowl. You can add any left over olive oil to the bowl as well. Stir the ingredients.
When the bread is done, guess what? You are done cooking. Turn off the oven. Now spoon the mixture onto each slice, about 1 tablespoon per slice.
Warning: You can cook the bread in a toaster oven following the same directions; however, I would not recommend that you brush the bread with olive oil and then attempt to cook the bread in a standard toaster.
This is a "real" dish, with a real "name," that is cooked and requested. Wally's mother and I were talking on the phone this week and she prefers to serve it on bagel chips she's bought at the bakery in her local grocery store. For that, or if you don't have an oven and use a standard toaster for the bread, you can brush with olive oil after.
If you are using the oven, congratulations because you've cooked a "real" dish in your oven. You'll find that it wasn't that hard. Marci e-mailed saying she had eaten Brushetta and she looked forward to the recipe but what would really help her would be a "meal." She'd like to serve the Brushetta on small slices as an appetizer and would enjoy having an easy to cook main dish. Which meant I was on the phone with Elaine, Rebecca and Betty checking to see if the recipe I have planned for next weekend was as easy for others as it seemed to be to me. Betty's concern is time because she has three small children. Elaine's concern is "easy" and time because if it's too much work, she's just as likely to stop on her way from work and pick up something instead of cooking. Rebecca feels she's a so-so cook unless she's got someone in the kitchen or on the phone walking and talking her through each step the first time she makes a dish. They helped me pick a recipe that they found easy. Then I ran the idea past Cedric. He's more apt to toss something frozen in the microwave but he's started using the recipes here and is getting comfortable with "cooking more than eggs." Cedric listened to the steps required and said that not only could he handle that but that he could cook it for the woman he's dating now and have a romantic dinner.
So thank you to Marci for the e-mail and next week's recipe will be baked dish to ensure that we're still using our ovens. It will also involve boiling water on the stove and, for some, browning meat in a skillet. If that has some of you excited, great. If it worries some of you, wait until next week and you'll see how easy all the steps are. (Those who don't eat meat or would prefer to skip meat for that dish will just be using the oven and boiling water on the stove.)
I saw something in Ruth's Public Radio Report today that I wanted to pass on:
From KPFT in Houston:
Program Preemption on Tuesday, February 28 - 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Senate hearings on the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program.
I do not doubt that other Pacifica stations may carry this but this morning only KPFT had a note up about it on their main page. Eight in the morning until five in the evening are Central Time Zone times.
That's this coming Tuesday. You can listen to Pacifica radio over the internet if you don't live in one of the areas that broadcasts it over the airwaves. Ruth's noting the 10th anniversary of Democracy Now! in her latest report. That is a program we watch in my house. I get more useful news and information from that program than I do from our local paper. As local TV news becomes more and more a crime watch and focused on the petty misdeeds of city workers, as opposed to the city's elected officials, I've found my desire to watch it has decreased. But Monday through Friday, I make a point to watch the hourly broadcast of Democracy Now! If you've never caught a show (which also airs on the radio and online), take a moment this coming week to check it out. I think you'll be impressed. For her report, Ruth called a number of us and asked us to select a report from the show that has stayed with us. I was impressed with various choices and it brings home just how much the show has covered. If you want to know what's going on in the world, watch or listen to Democracy Now! (and online, you can also read transcripts).
brushetta
cooking
recipes
food
democracy now
pacifica
pacifica radio
radio
kpft
nsa
fisa
government snooping
government spying
snoopgate
thomas friedman is a great man
trinas kitchen
cedrics big mix
like maria said paz
the third estate sunday review
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
the daily jot
ruths public radio report
the common ills
Yahoo! Mail
Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Bonus: Headlines
In the United Kingdom today, over 200 people gathered at St Nicholas and Writhington Church, in Radstock, Somerset for the funeral of Corporal Gordon Pritchard who died in Basra on January 31, 2005 becoming the 100th British soldier to die in Iraq. 101 British troops have died in Iraq, official count. Gordon Pritchard, who was 31 years-old, is survived by his wife Julie-Ann and his children Stacey, Harrison and Summer.
Alexander Panetta, of the Associated Press, is reporting that Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay maintains that "latest intelligence" indicates that the four memebers of Christian Peacemaker Teams are still alive. The four members, kidnapped in November, were last seen in a January 29th videotape. The four members are:
James Loney,
41, of Toronto;
Harmeet Singh Sooden,
32, a former Montreal resident;
Tom Fox,
54, of Clear Brook, Va.,
and Norman Kember,
74, of London [. . .]
Sunday's upsurge in violence continued on Monday. Reuters is reporting that bombings in Mosul and Baghdad today killed "at least 19 people." The Associated Press reports that in Karbala one American soldier was killed in a bombing and that in Mosul, a bomber killed himself in a "restaurant packed with policemen eating breakfast, killing at least five people and wounding 21, including 10 policemen". The Department of Defense has identified Capt. Anthony R. Garcia of Fort Worth, Texas as one of the 34 US military fatalities this month. Garcia died of from gunshot wounds after a February 17th shooting that took place on a military base in Tikrit. Garcia is survived by his wife Doris and his children Kelly and Garrick.
Brian Zimmerman, of Gannet News, is reporting that questions still surround the shooting death of Army Reservist David Douglas who died two weeks after returning to the United States from a one-year stint in Iraq. Commenting on the violent deaths of many returning veterans, National Guardsman Alfonso Williams told Zimmerman:
You have a whole lot of built-up anger from being over there. . . . You can't explain (what it's like) to anybody. And to them, what they may think is screaming and hollering to you is a normal tone.
In 2005, the military reports that 136 active duty personnel committed suicide. No figures are kept for those who are inactive. The current number for US military fatalities in Iraq stands at 2276.
As Jane Mayer reported in The New Yorker, early warnings were ignored by the administration about the environment created for abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo. Noting that "Human rights are under threat," Amnesty International is calling for the closing of Guantanamo. Tuesday, Amnesty International will host a live online discussion:
Live chat with Moazzam Begg, ex Guantánamo detainee, on 21 February, 6-7pm GMT
Moazzam Begg, British citizen, was held for "nearly three years," as noted on Democracy Now!. Amnesty International's call echoes the call of the UN investigation team as well as the prime ministers of Germany, France, England and Malaysia. U.S. Charm Minister Karen Hughes, speaking to Al Jazeera, rejected calls to close Gitmo and reportedly maintained that not only are the people imprisoned in Guantanamo wanting to kill Americans but that some released "have gone back to fighting and killing Americans." If the report is accurate, it is surprising that such an assertion would be made by the Minister of Charm and not Bully Boy himself.
In this country, the Associated Press is reporting that Republican governors George Pataki (New York) and Robert Ehrlich (Maryland) have joined the chorus of voices objecting by administration plans to turn over control of "six major U.S. ports" to Dubai Ports World. Senators Robert Menendez (New Jersey) and Hillary Clinton (New York) are also objecting to the proposed plan. Speaking out against the plan involving the Arab company, Mendendez stated today, "We wouldn't turn over our customs service or our border patrol to a foreign government. We shouldn't turn over the ports of the United States, either."
Feminist Wire Daily is reporting that CWIG (Center for Women in Government and Civil Society) has conducted a study on "the percentage of women in policy-making positions - such as state legislators, elected officials, high court judges, department heads, and top governor's advisors" for the years 1998 to 2005 and found that the rate of growth for women in those positions increased by only 1.6% -- "from 23.1 percent to 24.7 percent." FWD notes:
Slow progress for women in state government has national implications, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers. State and local office serve as a "pipeline" to draw women into national politics. Not to mention, adds Walsh, state legislatures themselves are "making a tremendous amount of policy" –- in 2005, 48 state legislatures considered over 500 anti-choice bills.
On the national level, NOW notes, that although "almost nine million more women voted than men" only fourteen women serve in the United States Senate and only sixty-seven in the House, while of the fifty governors in the United States, only eight are women.
As noted on Sunday's KPFA Evening News, Saturday Feb. 25th, a Counter-Recruiting workshop will be held, open to the public, from 2 to 5pm at the Veterans' Memorial Building, Room 219, 401 Van Ness Ave. March 1st is the National Law Student Day Against the Death Penalty (SDADP).
In other news, Philadelphia Indymedia is reporting that Governor Ed Rendell vetoed the Pennsylvania's Voter ID bill. Rendell, who spanked Casey Junior in the 2002 election race, stated, "I see no reason to enact laws that will result in voter confusion and disenfranchise legitimately registered voters." Member of Protect the Vote had successfully fought against the proposed legislation and were on hand for the veto ceremony.
In other civil liberties news, following what BuzzFlash has called "Just Your Average Week of the Bush Administration Betraying America," the ACLU features a snapshot of governmental spying/snooping in the form of Betty Ball who states:
It is true that I have become more motivated to work for justice and social change knowing that the government is abusing its powers like this. But I am worried about how far the government will go to squelch First Amendment rights and silence dissent. Will we all be rounded up and incarcerated? Already so many people have been frightened away from participating in our events, and have asked to have their names removed from our mailing lists, for fear of the consequences of associating with us. I hesitate to call people to discuss plans for rallies or protests because I don’t want them ending up in an FBI file labeled as a "domestic terrorist."
Meanwhile, author and activist Diane Wilson remains in a Victoria County jail in Texas. Wilson was arrested for unfurling a banner that read "Corporate Greed Kills--From Bhopal to Baghdad" at a Dick Cheney attended fundraiser in Houston on December 5, 2005. Wilson's banners are apparently too much for the delicate sensibilities of the foes of democracy. She is currently serving a 150 day sentence for a 2002 action where she climbed a Dow Jones tower and unfurled a banner which read "Justice For Bhopal." CODEPINK is calling for Wilson's release.
In other take action news, MediaChannel.org is asking you to Take Action: Demand Coverage of Able Danger (more info on the Able Danger program can be found at Able Danger Media Monitoring).
Finally, Monday's Democracy Now! featured:
"Readings From Howard Zinn's 'Voices of a People's History of the UnitedStates:'"
Today we spend the hour with readings from a Voices of a People's History of the United States edited by historian Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. It is the companion volume to Zinn's legendary People's History of the United States which has sold over a million copies.We will hear dramatic readings of speeches, letters, poems, songs, petitions, and manifestos. These are the voices of people throughout U.S.history who struggled against slavery, racism, and war, against oppression and exploitation, and who articulated a vision for a better world. Performances include Danny Glover as Frederick Douglass, Marisa Tomei as Cindy Sheehan, Floyd Red Crow Westerman as Tecumseh and Chief Joseph, Sandra Oh as Emma Goldman and Yuri Kochiyama, and Viggo Mortensen as Bartolomeo de Las Casas and Mark Twain.
This entry was compiled by:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot.
democracy now
news
iraq
the common ills
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
kats korner
the third estate sunday review
mikey likes it
like maria said paz
cedrics big mix
thomas friedman is a great man
the daily jot
feminist wire
jane mayer
the new yorker
codepink
diane wilson
guantanamo
national lawyers guild
amnesty international
aclu
counter-recruiting
able danger
buzzflash
Alexander Panetta, of the Associated Press, is reporting that Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay maintains that "latest intelligence" indicates that the four memebers of Christian Peacemaker Teams are still alive. The four members, kidnapped in November, were last seen in a January 29th videotape. The four members are:
James Loney,
41, of Toronto;
Harmeet Singh Sooden,
32, a former Montreal resident;
Tom Fox,
54, of Clear Brook, Va.,
and Norman Kember,
74, of London [. . .]
Sunday's upsurge in violence continued on Monday. Reuters is reporting that bombings in Mosul and Baghdad today killed "at least 19 people." The Associated Press reports that in Karbala one American soldier was killed in a bombing and that in Mosul, a bomber killed himself in a "restaurant packed with policemen eating breakfast, killing at least five people and wounding 21, including 10 policemen". The Department of Defense has identified Capt. Anthony R. Garcia of Fort Worth, Texas as one of the 34 US military fatalities this month. Garcia died of from gunshot wounds after a February 17th shooting that took place on a military base in Tikrit. Garcia is survived by his wife Doris and his children Kelly and Garrick.
Brian Zimmerman, of Gannet News, is reporting that questions still surround the shooting death of Army Reservist David Douglas who died two weeks after returning to the United States from a one-year stint in Iraq. Commenting on the violent deaths of many returning veterans, National Guardsman Alfonso Williams told Zimmerman:
You have a whole lot of built-up anger from being over there. . . . You can't explain (what it's like) to anybody. And to them, what they may think is screaming and hollering to you is a normal tone.
In 2005, the military reports that 136 active duty personnel committed suicide. No figures are kept for those who are inactive. The current number for US military fatalities in Iraq stands at 2276.
As Jane Mayer reported in The New Yorker, early warnings were ignored by the administration about the environment created for abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo. Noting that "Human rights are under threat," Amnesty International is calling for the closing of Guantanamo. Tuesday, Amnesty International will host a live online discussion:
Live chat with Moazzam Begg, ex Guantánamo detainee, on 21 February, 6-7pm GMT
Moazzam Begg, British citizen, was held for "nearly three years," as noted on Democracy Now!. Amnesty International's call echoes the call of the UN investigation team as well as the prime ministers of Germany, France, England and Malaysia. U.S. Charm Minister Karen Hughes, speaking to Al Jazeera, rejected calls to close Gitmo and reportedly maintained that not only are the people imprisoned in Guantanamo wanting to kill Americans but that some released "have gone back to fighting and killing Americans." If the report is accurate, it is surprising that such an assertion would be made by the Minister of Charm and not Bully Boy himself.
In this country, the Associated Press is reporting that Republican governors George Pataki (New York) and Robert Ehrlich (Maryland) have joined the chorus of voices objecting by administration plans to turn over control of "six major U.S. ports" to Dubai Ports World. Senators Robert Menendez (New Jersey) and Hillary Clinton (New York) are also objecting to the proposed plan. Speaking out against the plan involving the Arab company, Mendendez stated today, "We wouldn't turn over our customs service or our border patrol to a foreign government. We shouldn't turn over the ports of the United States, either."
Feminist Wire Daily is reporting that CWIG (Center for Women in Government and Civil Society) has conducted a study on "the percentage of women in policy-making positions - such as state legislators, elected officials, high court judges, department heads, and top governor's advisors" for the years 1998 to 2005 and found that the rate of growth for women in those positions increased by only 1.6% -- "from 23.1 percent to 24.7 percent." FWD notes:
Slow progress for women in state government has national implications, says Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers. State and local office serve as a "pipeline" to draw women into national politics. Not to mention, adds Walsh, state legislatures themselves are "making a tremendous amount of policy" –- in 2005, 48 state legislatures considered over 500 anti-choice bills.
On the national level, NOW notes, that although "almost nine million more women voted than men" only fourteen women serve in the United States Senate and only sixty-seven in the House, while of the fifty governors in the United States, only eight are women.
As noted on Sunday's KPFA Evening News, Saturday Feb. 25th, a Counter-Recruiting workshop will be held, open to the public, from 2 to 5pm at the Veterans' Memorial Building, Room 219, 401 Van Ness Ave. March 1st is the National Law Student Day Against the Death Penalty (SDADP).
In other news, Philadelphia Indymedia is reporting that Governor Ed Rendell vetoed the Pennsylvania's Voter ID bill. Rendell, who spanked Casey Junior in the 2002 election race, stated, "I see no reason to enact laws that will result in voter confusion and disenfranchise legitimately registered voters." Member of Protect the Vote had successfully fought against the proposed legislation and were on hand for the veto ceremony.
In other civil liberties news, following what BuzzFlash has called "Just Your Average Week of the Bush Administration Betraying America," the ACLU features a snapshot of governmental spying/snooping in the form of Betty Ball who states:
It is true that I have become more motivated to work for justice and social change knowing that the government is abusing its powers like this. But I am worried about how far the government will go to squelch First Amendment rights and silence dissent. Will we all be rounded up and incarcerated? Already so many people have been frightened away from participating in our events, and have asked to have their names removed from our mailing lists, for fear of the consequences of associating with us. I hesitate to call people to discuss plans for rallies or protests because I don’t want them ending up in an FBI file labeled as a "domestic terrorist."
Meanwhile, author and activist Diane Wilson remains in a Victoria County jail in Texas. Wilson was arrested for unfurling a banner that read "Corporate Greed Kills--From Bhopal to Baghdad" at a Dick Cheney attended fundraiser in Houston on December 5, 2005. Wilson's banners are apparently too much for the delicate sensibilities of the foes of democracy. She is currently serving a 150 day sentence for a 2002 action where she climbed a Dow Jones tower and unfurled a banner which read "Justice For Bhopal." CODEPINK is calling for Wilson's release.
In other take action news, MediaChannel.org is asking you to Take Action: Demand Coverage of Able Danger (more info on the Able Danger program can be found at Able Danger Media Monitoring).
Finally, Monday's Democracy Now! featured:
"Readings From Howard Zinn's 'Voices of a People's History of the UnitedStates:'"
Today we spend the hour with readings from a Voices of a People's History of the United States edited by historian Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. It is the companion volume to Zinn's legendary People's History of the United States which has sold over a million copies.We will hear dramatic readings of speeches, letters, poems, songs, petitions, and manifestos. These are the voices of people throughout U.S.history who struggled against slavery, racism, and war, against oppression and exploitation, and who articulated a vision for a better world. Performances include Danny Glover as Frederick Douglass, Marisa Tomei as Cindy Sheehan, Floyd Red Crow Westerman as Tecumseh and Chief Joseph, Sandra Oh as Emma Goldman and Yuri Kochiyama, and Viggo Mortensen as Bartolomeo de Las Casas and Mark Twain.
This entry was compiled by:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot.
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feminist wire
jane mayer
the new yorker
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national lawyers guild
amnesty international
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