Cracked Up Crackdown

"Crack is whack," the one time Queen of the Night, Whitney Houston explained to Diane Sawyer on Primetime Live in 2002. She should know, right? Can she pass the information on to Iraq?

The cracked up 'crackdown' has been going on in Baghdad since June of last year. Like most of the plans coming from the White House, what it resulted in was completely different than what it was marketed as. The 'crackdown' started when Iraqis almost breached the Green Zone. So security was 'beefed' up. Then, as fall approached, the beef up was 'beefed' up. And it's been that way ever since. With each 'beefing,' violence has only increased.

So Bully Boy's 'answer' is to escalate -- to send As the Raging Grannies sang in DC last month, when Bully Boy's confronted with a failure, his response is "to just do it more and more."

He's got an urge to surge
He's got an urge to surge, oh yeah.
It's just some more of the same manure.
He's got an urge to surge
-- The Raging Grannies

21,500 troops was the unacceptable number he announced he would be sending -- with approximately 4,000 to be sent to Al Anbar Province and the rest to Baghdad. (At some point Congress may have a response, at least a symoblic one.) 21,500 more US troops to fight Bully Boy's illegal war of choice is unacceptable. But again, there's what marketed and then there is what's actually been sold.

Rick Maze (Army Times) reported on the Congressional Budget Office's study that found the escalation could "result in up to 50,000 troops actually being deployed to the region." Possibly Bully Boy's bill of sale was intended to be 'symoblic'?

The reality is that the more troops that have been poured into Baghdad, the greater the violence. At the start of this month, the United Nations' special envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi,
called for "fresh thinking." We won't stay up all night waiting for that moment to come.

In fairness to the puppet of the occupation, Nouri al-Maliki, he is a mere puppet. His strings are pulled from DC (where his fan base is diminishing). He's not an independent actor. He's not a leader of a country. The way it works is Bully Boy thinks he owns the property and that he's hired al-Maliki to manage it. A puppet or marionette can only accomplish what the people pulling the strings allow it to accomplish.

When Bully Boy announced it to the country in January, the speech was was sold as "He admitted mistakes!" No, he didn't. He didn't admit to any mistakes. "Where mistakes have been made . . ." is not admitting to mistakes and it recalls the October 8, 2004 debate with John Kerry where Bully Boy was asked to give three examples of example of mistakes he'd made and he couldn't think of one. (In his rambling response, he would offer: "I made some mistakes in appointing people, but I'm not going to name them. I don't want to hurt their feelings on national TV.")

Some spent time noting realities in the speech ("mistakes" wasn't a reality to be found in the speech), but did anyone comment on the wrap up? "Thank you and good night." What? No, "God Bless"? Did God and Bully Boy have another talk and God said, "Leave me out of it!"

When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our women's' rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?
-- "When The President Talks To God" -- written by Conor Oberst, available on Bright Eyes' CD Motion Sickness: Live Recordings

"Leave me out of it!" Well who would want Bully Boy tying them into the disaster that is Iraq? Where every month seems to contain a report on how the month prior's violence escalated? As Reuters reported at the start of this month, "Iraqi civilian deaths in political violence reached a new high in January, data from an interior ministry official showed on Thursday.The statistics, widely viewed as an indicative but only partial record of violent deaths, showed 1,971 people died from 'terrorism' in January, slightly up from the previous high of 1,930 deaths recorded in December 2006." And Robert Burns (AP) notes: "More American troops were killed in combat in Iraq over the past four months -- at least 334 through Jan. 31 -- than in any comparable stretch since the war began, according to an Associated Press analysis of casualty records."

Now why do you suppose that is? Could the recent slaughter in Najaf anger Iraqis? How about the slaughter near Amiriyah? These are just some of the most recent events. Haifa Street? Civilians are being killed and that increases the anger, the tension and the response.

The latest version of the 'crackdown' is supposed to allow for more house to house surges. The illustration is based upon an AFP photo (by David Furst) that ran on the front page of The New York Times February 7, 2007. The caption was: "NEW SECURITY PLAN An Iarqi man comforted his mother, who collapsed yesterday after he was questioned by American soldiers under a new security plan for Baghdad. [. . .]"

The woman collapsed because her son was being questioned. The look on the man's face is fear. Fear breeds anger, anger builds to resistance (and fuels the resistance). The destruction continues as long as US troops remain in Iraq because they are the breeding ground for the resistance.

Update on Gallaudet University

NO ACTION FROM GALLAUDET AGAINST ARRESTED STUDENTS Galludet University said it would not take disciplinary action against students arrested in protests that forced the ouster in October of its chosen president. "No student who was arrested will receive additional punishement," Robert R. Davila, the interim president, said in a video on the University's Web site. But arrested students may face job-related consequences if they work at the Clerc Center, where Gallaudet helps develop teaching strategies for deaf children, said Mercy Coogan, a university spokeswoman. And Mr. Davila's statement did not preclude the possibility of university sanctions against students involved in the protests but not arrested, Ms. Coogan said. (BLOOMBERG NEWS)

The above ran in the "National Briefing" column of The New York Times, Wednesday, February 7, 2007 (A13). While the above item contains some good news for the many dedicated students who refused to be bullied by an unresponsive administration, the issue of the Clerc Center is not good news.

The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center defines its purpose as:

Gallaudet University's Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center shares the concerns of parents and professionals about the achievement of deaf and hard of hearing students in different learning environments across the country. We all know that deaf and hard of hearing students can and do excel, but we also know that not all deaf and hard of hearing students are achieving their full potential.
The Clerc Center has been mandated by Congress to develop, evaluate, and disseminate innovative curricula, instructional techniques and strategies, and materials. The aim of the Clerc Center is to improve the quality of education for deaf and hard of hearing children and youth from birth through age 21.

Actively participating in the world around them is part of a student's education. Students who demonstrated were doing so to maintain the mission of their college. Nothing could be more important for academia than students supporting the mission of a school when even the administrators were waivering.

In an e-mail exchange on Saturday with one student activist, it was again stressed that the demonstrations went to whether Gallaudet was going to maintain its historic and mandated reason for existance or whether it was going to "water down all it has stood for historically"?
Knowing what the university stands for is about education. Standing up to preserve the setting is about education. That the Clerc Center wants to claim its aim "is to improve the quality of education for deaf and hard of hearing children and youth from birth through age 21" while, at the same time, offering the threat of unemployment to students who demonstrated the best in citizen activism and perseverence while fighting for the future of their university is more than a bit of a contradiction.

The student activist gave permission for us to use her name. We're not going to. Which brings us to the second problem -- this notion that punishment may still come to those not arrested. She wasn't arrested. Many weren't. Nonsense repeated that the protests were a rejection of the free exchange of ideas may confuse some but this wasn't about ideas being exchanged. The president who wasn't, Jane Fernandes, was not prevented from speaking and had been part of the university for some time, during which she was never gagged. This was about a policy change and students have a right to protest those (we encourage it) and should be applauded when they do -- whether it's an increase in student fees or a change in the direction of a university. To repeat, Fernandes was not prevented from sharing her thoughts on sign language, she was prevented from implementing her policy decision to weaken the historic support of sign language that Gallaudet University has offered since its inception. This wasn't about Fernandez' speech being shut down, this was about the university's future.

This is explained far better at Gallaudet Protest where Irving K. Jordan's attitudes towards the 2006 protests are contrasted with his attitudes towards the 1988 protests:

The 1998 television interview provides indisputable proof that Jordan *did* approve of DPN in 1988, contrary to his statement at the Florida Avenue gate during the protest last May. And not only did he *approve* of DPN, but he also said in this 1998 interview that protesting is the appropriate thing to do when all of the other options have failed.
Therefore, it is hypocritical in the extreme for the Board of Trustees to issue reprisals against protesters. The Eighth President of Gallaudet--Irving King Jordan, Jr, the man who, as President, had a seat on the Board in October when the decision to punish the protest heroes of Black Friday was made (and who also had a seat on the Board in December when the decision was affirmed)--the Eighth President declared to the whole world that PROTESTING IS APPROPRIATE WHEN OTHER OPTIONS HAVE FAILED.
During Deaf President Now in 1988 the entire campus was shut down. Gates were chain-locked shut and blocked with vehicles and the doors to the administration building were LOCKED shut with bicycle locks. THIS is what Jordan is giving his approval to in his 1998 interview. Jordan approved of the 1988 campus lockdown! He said everything in the 1988 DPN was perfect! When he was President, he even had art work on display near his office showing gates chain-locked shut.
Therefore, the current Board of Trustees doesn't have a leg to stand on. For them to issue reprisals against protesters after they changed their minds about Fernandes and thereby ADMITTED that they were wrong is an outrage.
They must do the right thing and show that they respect the deaf community and deaf people's right to self-determination. They must drop all reprisals against protesters.

On October 13th, an 133 students were arrested. This wasn't no where near even half of those demanding that the university live up to its mission. Threats of punishment for actions that did not and have not resulted in arrest are nothing but an attempt to punish collective action and to attempt to crack down on future actions. That is a denial of the free exchange of ideas.

The protests ran from the spring until October of last year and they were the largest, continued student protests of 2006. Despite that fact, you didn't hear much about it from independent media. In fact, two weeks ago, Jess had an exchange with an independent media writer where he attempted to explain, among other things, the importance of the activism at Gallaudet to an independent media writer who blew it off and got a severe (and deserved) rebuke from Ava as a result. But if the lack of coverage didn't tell you that independent media has a really hard time relating to (let alone covering) anything that doesn't reflect their own tiny circle, the exchange certainly brought that point home.

That was actually the point Jess was making. He was explaining how C.I. repeatedly put Gallaudet on the list of topics for a feature here and how, due to time, it kept getting postponed so, finally, C.I. said, "Pack your bags, we're going to Gallaudet." It was that visit that finally prompted us to write "The students of Gallaudet University are standing up." Witnessing the deterimnation and courage by the students, and students from throughout the university, with the support of some members of the faculty brought home how important the stand the students were taking was.

We support them and we're not going to be silent while they're bullied after they won their victory. That was a victory for the college. Threats of income loss or punishment for students should not be tolerated. In the months and months of protests, they showed stength of character and the kind of committment and determination that the education system is supposed to prepare everyone for but seldom does. In spite of leadership at the top of the university, the students showed the world that they understood the lessons they had been taught and that taking a stand is essential in a functioning democracy.

They were and are an inspiration and any punishment for their refusal to put into practice the very lessons that they were taught is both misguided and flat out stupid.

MyTV's Fascist House

This week on MyTV's Fascist House, it's all about dis-t-t-t-t-traction.



With Ehren Watada being court-martialed (this week's episodes are on a one-week delay, under Nouri al-Maliki's orders) and attention possibly coming his way, Bully Boy & Friends (which airs daily on Fox 'entertainment' television) decide to shake things up to catch the press' attention and steer it away from Watada.

Undercover CIA agents everywhere tremble as Ari Fleischer storms back into town and this time he's brought his posse! Condi's desperate to distract as well so she drops her Magnum look on the press (most stay off in the distance, but Diane Sawyer clearly approves). Bully Boy attempts to create a diversionary story by discussing his bowel movements publicly whenever possible. Good sport John McCain hops on his Showboat Express to giggle stupidly at Bully Boy's tales of stools and colon. Paul Bremer pulls back into DC bringing with him his cabaret tribute to Nathan Lane. Musical guest David Byrne gets pressed into service and tries to catch press attention by launching into screechy announcements of, "No, I am not Terry Gross! I am better looking than Terry Gross! I will punch the face of the next jerk that asks me, 'Are you Terry Gross?'!"

MyTV's Fascist House airing 365 days a year, 52 weeks. All new episodes!

Highlights

Highlights done quickly. (Yes, we're running way behind but all other things are completed.)

"Tacoma, Washington and Ehren Watada need you" -- Kat notes the importance of a large show of support in Tacoma for Ehren.

"ehren watada" -- Rebecca walks you through the issues involved in Watada's stand.

"Ted decides he's straight (humor)" & "THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY'S BUDDY IS 100% STRAIGHT!" -- Cedric & Wally explain that gay is just a detour on the Republican Highway!

"Walking Through Watada (The Court-Martial)" -- C.I. provides a cutting from various sources to bring you up to speed in case you've missed anything.

"Cedric filling in for Kat" -- when the mistrial was declared, Kat went to sleep almost immediately. Cedric filled in for her with a "just talking" post.

"ehren in the clear?" -- Rebecca summarizes main points by Marjorie Cohn (National Lawyers Guild president).

"House cleaning" -- C.I. entry on e-mails. Jess wants it noted that since it went up, where C.I. says, "No, I'm not calling you," three journalists (mainstream) have e-mailed asking for C.I.'s phone number. Jess says next time, "C.I. should write I'm not calling you and I don't want you to call me." (Jess, Ava, Shirley, Martha and Eli help out with the e-mails at The Common Ills.)
Jess adds, "Maybe they were attempting to make a joke?"

"Scooter goes "Woops!" & "THIS JUST IN! MEET THE JURY!" -- Wally and Cedric on the Scooter trial.

"Ehren Watada's mistrial" -- Mike's just talking post. (He was bouncing off the walls, truly.)

"Norman Solomon, Ehren Watada" -- Elaine tackles 'cruising during wartime.'

"Chicken Cacciatore in the Kitchen" -- Trina's latest, offering an easy recipe and much more. She also asked us to note, as she does, C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" where the 'do over' analogy is made.

"Life -- or what passes for it -- with the Friedmans"-- Betty's latest chapter. Betinna has allowed Friedman to move back . . . in a closet.

Truest statement of the week

Lastly, on CounterSpin today, John Nichols discussed Molly Ivins passing and worried that Ivins, whose columns were the most heavily circulated progressive ones in newspapers around the world, death would mean the space would go blank (of course, it could also go to a right-winger or centrist) so he suggested that if your local paper carried Ivins' columns, you contact them and ask that they continue to carry a progressive column. To go one further, Molly Ivins was one of the few women to make the top twenty most widely circulated columnists. So if you want to continue to see columns that address reality and you'd like to see a woman continue to be represented on the op-ed pages, you can ask your local paper to carry Amy Goodman (of Democracy Now!). Goodman's doing a weekly column now. I personally doubt that top 10 lists make for worthy or even "good" reading. Molly Ivins stood for something in each column (and humor was a part of it though Nichols wanted to downgrade it -- don't stand by him at a party). It's not just that any progressive voice is needed (or liberal voice), it's one that will use the space well. Goodman's demonstrated that she intends to tackle real topics. Goodman's columns can be found many places and Common Dreams is one. That said, if you're recommending that it be picked up to a newspaper, you need to note a paper that provides the column. "Resistance to war cannot be jailed" is Goodman's most recent column and the link takes you to The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. If you're pitching Goodman to your local paper, you should also note that she wrote (with her brother David) two bestselling hardcover books (Exception to the Rulers and Static) (say "New York Times bestsellers") and that she is an award winning journalist (George Polk Award, Aflred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting and is the 2006 RECIPIENT OF THE PUFFIN/NATION PRIZE FOR CREATIVE CITIZENSHIP). You should also note that she hosts (with Juan Gonzalez) Democracy Now! which is broadcast on over 500 radio & TV stations around the world as well as online and as a podcast. Also stress that Ivins wrote a weekly column and Goodman does as well. (Important because, from time to time, a columnist may choose to do a series of columns -- think Bob Herbert -- and newspapers with a weekly slot now open aren't going to want to fill it with a twice weekly column when they only have one day open each week.)
Amy Goodman is my personal choice. Members may have their own choice. If your choice is someone else, e-mail and we'll figure out the best way to present to present your choice to your local paper. But it is not enough to say, as John Nichols did, demand a progressive voice. (He may have been trying to leave it up to listeners or may not have wanted to pick one person over another.) You need to provide a concrete example otherwise you may find that the same editorial boards that boast Thomas Friedman is a liberal (I'm referring to his column in syndication -- the Times is stuck with him) have a very different idea than you do of what "progressive" or "liberal" is. This isn't something you wait on. The op-eds are 'valuable real estate' and they have a fast turn over. Once a spot is occupied, it is very difficult to get a paper to drop a columnist. (Complaints are sometimes seen as 'proof' of how many people read the columnist.) (Sometimes it is proof -- sometimes it's just a sign of how bored and tired readers are with the same-old, same-old.)

The above is from C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" Friday. We got 35 e-mails Saturday saying this was the truest statement of the week. We're glad you're agreeing, but are you following up? Are you contacting the paper? If not, get on it.

A Note to Our Readers

Hey --
Another Sunday where we run late beyond belief. But we've got an edition. It's done. It's posted. We're finally about to be able to go to sleep (after 30 plus hours up in a row). The core six are used to this nonsense. We thank those who help out each week for their patience.

Who helped out? This edition is the work of:

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

It's also the work of Dallas who hunts down links for us and is a sounding board (and more when we're lucky). We thank him. We thank Rebecca for photo shopping our original artwork.

Did someone say "new content"? Better believe it.

Highlights -- Mike, Cedric, Elaine, Rebecca, Wally and Betty selected the highlights and wrote the feature.

Green Party contest ($100 prizes) -- could you use $100? The Green Party is having a contest. Are you artistic? You should enter the contest. You should also check out Kimberly Wilder's call for accountability at The New York Times.

The Nation Stats -- Who knew, other than Ava and C.I., that this would be such a popular feature? This may quickly surpass My Fascist House as the most popular new feature we've added in the last few months. (For those wondering, My Fascist House goes up next week. Look for it then.) (We don't know what we'll do, but we're feeling kind of Condi-ish.) The Nation hits a new low, even for The Nation. In fact, to do worse with gender representation than they did this issue, they would have to print an entire issue where all bylines belong to males. You read that right. The issue we're providing the stats for features one, and only one, female byline. Is that acceptable? We don't think so and, judging by the e-mails, neither do you.


About the DNC's "2007 New Directions Survey" -- Short feature hollered Dona when the time ran extremely long! Short feature! Did we have any ideas for short features? (We want to revist the topic of Baby Cheney Poe but that won't be short.) Jess grabbed the junk mail that C.I. hadn't opened yet and started digging through. He found it, we said, "Great." Then we read it and are glad we did before it hit the trash can unopened. Guess what slogan they're promoting (a Republican groups slogan)?


Molly Ivins (1944-2007) -- Molly is gone. We're tired so we'll leave it at that and note that we'll miss her. Whether we knew her or just her writing, we will miss her. It is a great loss.

Amnesty International statement on Ehren Watada -- While The Nation can't offer any editorial support to Ehren Watada, look who steps up! There's a reason people are saying that they need to give their monies to organizations fighting for change -- as opposed to 'independent' media that reads like a highly limited voters' guide.

Music: Diana Ross, what a long sad trip -- What threw us off? We don't blae the late start (we started two hours late). Jess, Ava and C.I. went right from DC to the south on a spur of the moment thing when a college professor called C.I. to say his students didn't understand the Watada case. "Fine, we'll be there Monday." From there it was one spur of the moment thing after another. I'm going long here (I am Jim) because this was our longest feature so it should have the longest explanation. So they end up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (community members, don't panic, we'll still be doing the planned trip next month). They worked Texas like crazy. One day turned into five. On Friday, there was a huge mix up at the hotel and lost luggage resulting in all three having nothing but i.d. and needing to be on a campus right away. How do you take a cab with no money and not have the cab driver call the cops? Charm the cabbie. (Ava and Jess are writing this up for the gina & krista round-robin. It is a hilarious story.) At some point, they have luggage -- at the airport -- and are en route but someone at the airport, trying to be kind, has sent it to where they are speaking and it just one mix up after another. At one point, when they have their stuff, Jess has his wallet, for five minutes. Then it's gone. Seriously, this is like a really bad screwball comedy. I'm just giving you some highlights, you have to read Ava and Jess' story of it. When they finally thought they were done and needed to get to the airport, there was a professor who'd heard about the talks they'd been taking part in and was desperate for them to speak to her class. They rescheduled the flight and did one more. It was the craziest week, it was a sad week because of Molly, and did we mention that they were in Texas? Did we mention that Texas had an ice storm? Did we mention that Jess, Ava and C.I. saw not only ice but snow? In Texas! So Saturday, their first day back in two and a half weeks, they had a great deal to do, a great deal to catch up on. We ended up starting late. This was the first feature we worked on. What you have here is 1/4 of the total we wrote.
Dona and I edited like crazy. We worked 5 hours on the writing of this and no one even noticed. We were all so into this piece. When it was noted (by Elaine), Dona went into a panic on how we were going to have time to write anything else. We managed. We're tired. It's over. Note, if and when we do Dolly Parton, Dona says we're only covering singles, we are not doing albums. After Diana Ross, Dona says no more albums!


The Cowards Silence on Ehren Watada -- That should actually be The Cowards' Silence when it appears. But let that be the least of our problems. Who's stepping for Ehren? You know the sad answer there already, don't you? Nice photo of Ehren. All the other illustrations are our own. Sheila e-mailed that photo to us and noted it was public domain. She said she knows it's importance that we all grasp how serious this is but she didn't think she'd seen a photo of Ehren smiling before. Sheila: "To be able to smile with all he's facing really moved me." Us too, Sheila. Thank you for passing it on.

TV: The Nights of Bankruptcy -- Ava and C.I. And, you know this, they hate their review. They note it was not completed. They were working on other things trying to get the pieces ready while Dona and I (Jim) were editing the Diana Ross piece. They had just started on this when we were done and hollered, "Everybody, editorial!" They didn't even realize it wasn't finished. C.I. was doing the morning entry at The Common Ills and waiting for the pieces to go up here (so that they could be linked to) when Ava asks, "Did we finish that?" NO! They finished it in five minutes. They say it's crap, we say it's great.

Editorial: Tossing "BE HONEST" right back at ya -- the editorial. Maybe it's time for independent media to get honest. (Maybe it's time for us to finish, Dona says, noting that she just finished her fourth pack of cigarettes since we started this edition.) Okay, the editorial speaks for itself.

A Note to Our Readers -- "In progress" went up because C.I. needed the links to post the morning entry at The Common Ills. That's what you're reading right now, this feature. We don't usually link to it but we swiped the links from The Common Ills.

Truest statement of the week -- 35 e-mails came in on Saturday saying that something that went up Friday evening (or night) contained the truest statement of the week. We agree. But don't just agree, do something about it.

That's it, we're off to bed. Again, thank you to everyone who helped. It was a very long, very rough edition. But the good news is, it's over. The bad news is that it starts back up next Saturday night. See you next week.

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

Editorial: Tossing "BE HONEST" right back at ya

Cursed are the peace resisters, for they shall destroy the earth.

A lot of hot air flies around. For instance, do the pundits who ignore Iraq but do shout out to the environment every fourth or fifth column think what goes in Iraq doesn't effect the environment? Do they think using depleted uranium is almost as good as planting a tree? Do they think the explosions don't impact global warming?

Or how about the much dismissed concern over Iraq's oil industry? The jaw boners want to tell you that it can be fixed, somewhere down the line, if the industry is privatized. Hmm. Foreign corporations stand to make as much 70% profit if privatization goes through. Foreign companies who are basically ready to steal the money from the Iraqi people are supposed to be trusted with the environment? Did Exxon ever pay up for the Exxon-Valdez oil spill? (No.)

What happens in Iraq does effect the environment directly. And we toss that out there because our Chatty Cathys and Charlies of the left have so damn little to say about Iraq.

Exactly when they do they get serious. Excuse us, let us rephrase that -- BE HONEST: When do you get serious?

Ehren Watada faces a court-martial tomorrow. Now, it's not, for instance, Egyptian bloggers, and it might not lend itself well to yet another artistic rendering of stereotyping the south; however, it is pretty damn important. BE HONEST: Do you give a damn?

Abeer Qasim Hamza was gang-raped and murdered by US soldiers in her home. BE HONEST: Do you give a damn about Abeer?

When the helicopter crashes started piling up (before the 12 dead in the one crash), did you call out the nonsense excuses and demand some honesty about the fact that helicopters were being shot down? BE HONEST: You didn't write one damn word. A crash here, a crash there, here a crash, there a crash, and you didn't have one damn word to say about it.

December 31st, the number of US troops who have died in the illegal war reached 3,000. You don't have to answer whether or not you noted it -- we know you didn't. A few days after the fact, The Nation did online, in a single sentence that they spun into gays and military. (Apparently the author of that piece hadn't found anything to attack in the latest issue of Harper's magazine.) But are you aware that the AFP count for the month of January was 90 US troops killed? BE HONEST.

When you ignore war resisters, when you refuse to cover them, do you have any idea how that hurts your colleagues who work with you? Do you know their histories? BE HONEST.

If you did, you'd hang your head in shame. In fact, BE HONEST, at this late date, with so little you've done to cover Iraq, how do you live with yourself? BE HONEST.


Cursed are the peace resisters, for they shall destroy the earth.

[Illustration is "Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts 'Peace Resister'."]

TV: The Nights of Bankruptcy

ABC, Wednesday nights, catch it while you can, if you enjoy suffering. Tag on the toe reads "The Knights of Prosperity" and possibly it's trying to make a political statement in some sort of Carter Country way (although that lame sitcom at least offered a catch phrase)?

Whatever it's trying to do, The Knights of Prosperity is bad, really bad, TV. It's one of the two worst sitcoms the big three has shoved off on audiences. Your TV Guide will tell you it's a comedy and, while we don't endorse that publication, we think viewers may need to refer to it in order to grasp what genre the thing's supposed to be?

We don't do spoilers but the set up is the entire plot, so consider yourselves warned. A bunch of losers plot to rob Mick Jagger. Hilarity is supposed to ensue as they put their plan into motion. The most interesting thing about the program is that it airs on the same network that had screaming fits, in 1994, over Adam (played by Arye Gross) faking a neck injury to get some insurance money. Screaming fits. It didn't end after the episode of These Friends of Mine was filmed. It didn't even die down after it aired. In fact, when Gross would finally leave the show (by then known as Ellen), ABC would still be harping on the plot for that one episode.

Now they're gladly airing a show (well, less gladly since the ratings came in) whose entire premise is that Mick Jagger will be robbed. What's going on there?

The assumption now is that ABC wasn't keen to feature a likeable character ripping off big business (insurance) but robbing a celebrity is "cute" and "funny." Well, as Lily Tomlin pointed out years ago, big business protects its own.

But who protects the viewers?

This show is the ugly cousin you can't fix up even when you offer to pay a prom date. So exactly how did it end up on air? The creators also made Ed -- aka the show that spent a season vying with Titans for the 'honor' of lowest rated NBC program. Rob Burnett and Jon Beckerman's Ed was one of those shows that NBC was convinced you'd like (despite the ratings), so they gave it a roll out, season after season, the way they do when they mistake milquetoast for quality. Having spent four seasons serving bland sunny side up, the creators might have wanted to stroke their inner nasty? Self-pleasure never played so boring.

The cast? Eugene's the main character, the Dadio of this nit-yawn, and he's played by Donal Logue who will hopefully win some raves for Ghost Rider. He's a little too dramatic for the show. Which is partly the writers' fault but he also carries some of the blame. Eugene's hot for/in lust over Esperanza (Sofia Vergara) who's also part of the gang. Characters frequently ask why and you will too. (Vergara's already set up future employment elsewhere, something others working on the show would be smart to do.)

Do we really need to go through this? There is the token "Black guy." He's there mainly so racist comments can be made, followed by the I'm-not-racist-I-got-a-Black-on-my-crew bit. More recently, Eugene had to confront the issue that there are gay people in the world. Something Archie Bunker and Phyllis Lindstrum were addressing in early 70s TV. It's all so badly written, it's all so boring. And that's before Dustin Diamond shows up playing himself.

If you're asking who, you are forgiven. In plot and "special guest stars," the whole thing plays like the intentionally dopey sitcom Michael thought up years ago on Newhart -- with wacky next door neighbors (Don Knotts) and "zingers" like, said to the Grim Reaper, "Why so glum, Grim?"

As a telling spoof of how bad TV could be, the sitcom within a sitcom episode of Newhart had you howling. The problem with The Knights of Prosperity is that this isn't a send up -- this is actually supposed to be funny.

The characters stumble around and any time forward moment is needed the writers seize upon "luck" to explain plot developments. Over and over. They can't explain the characters moving forward through talent or drive, it's always just luck. It must be bad luck since it continues to air (for now), but it's luck none the less.

The Water Cooler Set has wet their pants over this show (well, we hope it's urine) and reading their praises is actually funnier than anything that made it onscreen. We'll note that the woman hater (dating back to Charlie's Angels and running through this year anytime a woman is a co-lead or, heaven forbid, a lead) weighed in with his usual nonsense and praised the show for adding a token woman to the cast. Does he think she's any good? Other than her looks, do you think he even addresses that? We'll ask again, how do you file over four decades worth of misogynist reviews and never get called out on it?

The Set will never notice because they're too busy telling you that this is real . . . man. You almost picture the males stroking their long since clipped ponytails. It's real, man, because this is reality, man, the economy's in the toilet, man, and this is the only way these 'guys' can get ahead, man.

We're all supposed to repeatedly bob/nod our heads and say, "It's copasetic." But it's not and it goes to what we were addressing at the top: ABC gets offended when big business is ripped off for one episode. ABC is not offended when a person is ripped off for an entire season. (Or, for that matter, the audience.) So The Water Cooler Set might want to put down their rolling papers long enough to ponder that.

If they do, they might be able to see that the message is not Robin Hood. Mick Jagger is not an evil king. He has done the gang no wrong (unless they spent money to purchase his solo CDs). They don't even know him. A tour of his residence airs on TV and that's how he ends up being the target of their scheme. He is not Enron, he has not ripped off or destroyed a pension fund.
Considering Jagger's real life roots, he's someone that's not all that different than the characters plotting to rip him off.

Jagger was a late choice in the proceedings. Originally, the gang was supposed to rip off Jeff Goldblum. When Goldblum left the project, Jagger became the target celeb. Right away that demonstrates that this is not Robin Hood. Yes, we all know the "rob from the rich to give to the poor" theme. But does The Water Cooler Set read? If so, do they retain?

The actual story deals with Robin Hood addressing injustice and tyranny (as bad as She's The Boss was, we don't think it qualified as tyranny, just bad music). His enemies were the Sherriff and Prince John. They were formidable foes, corrupt evil doers who got off on screwing over people. That is not at all what The Knights of Prosperity is about.

If the show's merry band were targeting a Dennis Kozlowski, we doubt very seriously that it would have ever aired. The viewers get cheated by wasting time on this sick mess. Readers of The Water Cooler Set get misinformed because that set either can't read anything heavier than In Style or they can't retain it. The network and The Water Color Set are in collusion to convince you this is brave TV -- brave TV would be if either set was targeted. Chances are, it still wouldn't play funny.