Highlights

This piece is written by Rebecca, Elaine, Betty, Cedric, Wally and Mike and all selections are our own unless otherwise noted.



"Ruth's Report" -- Go Ruth, it's your birthday, get busy. Ruth telling the truth as only she can. This is an amazing report. Cedric has actually heard News & Note and says Ruth caught it on good news, "It's an embarrassment. It's Flava TV played on NPR and that host can't shut up about how the Red House became the Dead House. As an African-American, I cringe with embarrassment anytime I get stuck listening." Ruth also takes on Leigh Ann Caldwell who's back to spinning. Betty notes that Ruth e-mailed her about that on Tuesday and was going back and forth earlier in the week about whether or not to include quotes from her in the report? She wrote them down for Betty and her fear was that, by repeating the false information Caldwell provided, she (Ruth) might be advancing the right-wing plot of Sympathy for Scooter. Please allow him . . . She decided not to quote. We think that was a good call and we wonder exactly why Caldwell sees a light sentence and fine as "harsh"?



Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Bye-bye" -- Isaiah will not have a new comic today. Ruth's report should have shown up last night. It didn't. It only showed up at 9:00 am (EST) this morning. She posted it. She called C.I. thinking she'd done something wrong. C.I. reposted it. It still would not show up (which is why it was posted here). At which point (and this is in a "Community Note" C.I. wrote at The Common Ills that isn't showing up currently), C.I. called Isaiah to check if he'd drawn the comic for this week. He was just about to start. C.I. told him to take the night off, don't bother, there were problems with the website and no guarantee that anything (comic or otherwise) would show when it was posted. So that's your heads up to what's going on today at The Common Ills.



"Green Beans and Jess in the Kitchen" -- Jess filled in for Trina and thinks his post was too short and not "weighty" enough. Mike reports, "Ma loved this. She was glad to have a day off and she really did enjoy it. She pointed out that Jess covered Peter Pace and then discussed food in a way that many readers will appreciate because it's not a gourmet cooking site. Most of Ma's readers are first time cooks and she said Jess' 'recipe' and his story should be well received."



"THIS JUST IN! BARACK LOST HIS GROOVE!" & "You go, girl!" -- until we read Wally & Cedric's joint post, we were confused where this Obama campaign was leading. Now we know. He meets Taye Diggs in a tropical paradise. Get your groove on, Obama!



"Adam Kokesh" -- C.I. explaining how wrong Heather Hollingsworth's 'reporting' has been and C.I. and Ava taking on Katrina vanden Heuvel who is always the last to note sexism when it occurs. An incredible entry and one Ty said 28 e-mails came in to this site on.



"THIS JUST IN! JOHN MCCAIN'S KNOCKED UP!" & "Senator Crazy with child!" -- an insta-classic from Wally and Cedric. So that's why John McCain's so obsessed with abortion!



"I've lost my faith in independent media (Betty)," "Indymedia, bad hair and bad manners," "Wow," "Pissed," "THIS JUST IN! YOU DON'T MEAN SH*T TO A TREE, INDYMEDIA!" & "The ungrateful" -- Betty, Elaine, Kat, Mike, Wally and Cedric weigh in on the stab in the back of the week. Rebecca writing this description because my own rant (I rewrote Monday's entry on Tuesday) is unreadable and I said, "We're not including it." Dona told us we shouldn't stuff this inside, we should write about exactly how we feel. Mike came off as angry as I was but his you can follow. Betty touched my heart with her wonderful post. Elaine was flat out funny as she can be when she finally gets pissed. Wally and Cedric chose to contrast the back stabbers with Mary Matalin who, in person, was actually very nice to them. (C.I.'s always said Matalin has good manners and is a warm person.) If these posts had not been written, the community sites would be dead now. If we had stuffed this inside, we would have just been depressed (which we still are) and angry (ditto). By writing about it, I think Betty, Elaine, Kat, Mike and Wally did some of the best writing they've ever done and I just realized I forgot to comment on Kat's. Kat used the stab in the back to talk about a previous one -- when someone came to begging to C.I. for attention and exposure and received it but it didn't end up being enough for the priss so the thing to do, apparently, was to trash C.I. in a lengthy e-mail to Ava. When that happened, all lost any desire to promote priss. C.I. had promised two mentions and, even knowning of the trashing, C.I. still kept the word because some people honor their word and have manners. As Elaine points out, independent media rarely is known for being done by people with manners. Great posts, one and all.



"The tax dodger Bono" -- we're going to expand on Kat's post in a future edition here. For now, read it.



"Betty filling in for Rebecca" -- Betty guest posted for Rebecca on Friday and wrote about childhood, childraising and other issues in only the way Betty can. As Cedric long ago noted, Betty brings deep wisdoms from the south.



"Torch Songs Between Dust and Bad Delivery" -- Betty also posted her latest chapter so give it up for Betty who found/made time for three posts in all last week. Betty wants it noted she had no idea what she was doing and had several chapters. She read them to Kat and C.I. Both thought all were fine. But Betty wasn't pleased. C.I. picked out the last line in one of the proposed chapters and suggested she develop that into a full chapter. That's how this one resulted. Read it.



"fair, (mama) michelle phillips, katie couric" -- Rebecca posted Monday (now gone), rewrote it on Tuesday, posted Wednesday and Thursday. We think she did strong work but she said we could only highlight this one. Here she's really laying it all out. A must read.



"Glen Ford, Dem nominees (Cedric)" -- Cedric fills in for Elaine and gets to the heart of the Obama nonsense. You won't want to miss this.



"Michelle Phillips, Stanley Aronowitz, Laura Flande..." -- Kat fills in for Mike and Stanley Aronowitz will be taking part in a debate on Monday in NYC, see the post for details. Admission is $5 and $10.



"And the war drags on . . ." -- In a week that was crazy enough for a number of reasons, C.I. wrote another magical entry that only C.I. can. We'd already agreed this was a must read before Ty informed us that this was the most cited thing for highlights among readers who e-mailed this site. (Second most, Elaine's post on indymedia.) Read it and you will see why. All week long, C.I. kept the head down and focused on the work. Since C.I. was the one ripped off, it's all the more amazing. But, as Rebecca says, that's C.I. for you.

Ruth's Report

Currently, at The Common Ills, Ruth's latest report is not displaying. We are posting it here and will include a link to it when it finally shows up online.

Ruth's Report

Ruth: This report's focus is bad radio so I will be covering both Pacifica and NPR. I will start with Pacifica.

Leigh Ann Caldwell attempted to sell the symbolic, non-binding Pelosi-Reid measure as "Troops out of Iraq" repeatedly in Mach. It was not that but to hear her reports on Free Speech Radio News or to hear her on WBAI or KPFA you would never know that. I have covered this before as have others and I have spent five hours on e-mails so, if this is news to you, you can use Technorati or Google search*.

As the D.C. correspondent, Ms. Caldwell is looked to as an expert which makes it all the more frightening when she is so obviously wrong. In the capacity of D.C. expert, she was brought on as a guest for KPFA's The Morning Show Tuesday and listeners should have asked for their pledges back. During a discussion with another guest and host Philip Maldari, Ms. Caldwell . . . I have no idea what she was attempting but it was not reporting. None of the 81 e-mails on this topic were from people who mistook it for reporting either.

The subject of I. Lewis Libby was addressed. For background on that, I will note Bill Moyers from his Friday broadcast of Bill Moyers Journal:

It is well known that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby--once Vice President Cheney's most trust adviser--has been sentenced to 30 months in jail for perjury. Lying. Not a white lie, mind you. A killer lie.
Scooter Libby deliberately poured poising into the drinking water of democracy by lying to federal investigators, for the purpose of obstructing justice. Attempting to trash critics of the war, Libby and his pals in high places -- including his boss Dick Cheney-- outed a covert CIA agent. Libby then lied to cover their tracks. To throw investigators off the trail, he kicked sand in the eyes of truth. "Libby lied about nearly everything that mattered," wrote the chief prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.
The jury agreed and found him guilty on four felony counts.

That very clearly sums up what Mr. Libby was convicted of and explains how offensive what he did, while a sitting member of our government, was. So listening to Ms. Caldwell Tuesday repeatedly state how "harsh" his sentence was took us well beyond what we expect from news and straight into the Gas Bag Beltway. Mr. Libby has not received a "harsh" sentence and Ms. Caldwell's asinine commentary might play well in the Beltway but she is supposed to be reporting to the real world.

Mr. Libby did something very offensive to American democracy and justice which led to him being sentenced to thirty months in prison and fined $250,000. Is that "harsh"? Considering the trust and faith he was supposed to be representing, I do not believe that can be called harsh. But if we leave opinion and go to the facts, we discover that the crimes Mr. Libby was convicted of could have resulted in a one-million-dollar fine and up to twenty-five years in prison. Instead, Mr. Libby has received approximately an eighth of the maximum sentencing time and one-fourth of the maximum fine. That is not "harsh."

Ms. Caldwell would do well to stick to the facts and leave her questionable judgements to the right-wing spin cycle. As embarrassing as that is to Pacifica news, it got worse.
Mr. Maldari, like myself, does not appear to be a computer expert. That is not a problem. It does mean that he will have questions from time to time, as do I, and I credit him with his courage in asking them. One of things that has been revealed in the Gonzales Gate coverage is that Karl Rove, and others but Mr. Maldari was asking of Karl Rove, were circumventing federal guidelines and laws on the preservation of White House communications by e-mailing from something other than their assigned White House e-mail accounts while conducting White House business.

Mr. Maldari explained that he was confused by that revelation and he wanted to know, from Ms. Caldwell, whether this meant that Karl Rove was leaving the White House to e-mail from other computers?

I went back and forth on whether to include that detail because it would be easy for some to ridicule Mr. Maldari for that question. I do not ridicule him for it. He had a question and he had the courage to ask. He noted he was confused by the revelations and Pacifica's D.C. expert was present so it was the perfect time to ask a question that Ms. Caldwell should have been able to answer.

If you assumed that Ms. Caldwell was going to explain about Blackberries and accessing different e-mail accounts on any computer, you were wrong. She responded that was correct. That is not correct. Karl Rove was not running to GOP headquarters every time he needed to send an e-mail from something other than his assigned White House account.

Ms. Caldwell should know better. Ms. Caldwell was asked a direct question and she gave the wrong answer. If Ms. Caldwell, the D.C. correspondent, does not know any better than that, it goes a long way towards explaining the host of mistakes she has been making recently. This reflects poorly on KPFA and on Pacifica Radio. If that is what Ms. Caldwell has to offer, then other programs need to stop bringing her on as a guest. Larry Bensky could have answered Mr. Maldari's question quickly and accurately. I do believe Mr. Bensky stated he was available for guest spots even though he had shut down his program Sunday Salon.

Turning to NPR, as most of the community did last week. I listened online at the national feed and learned a few things. In a report on tariffs, I learned that NPR will go to any lengths to promote free trade. The story attempted to convince America that tariffs only impact the working class. On a higher note, a report on the fortieth anniversary of Monterey Pop, featuring Michelle Phillips, was worth listening to even if the usual sexism was on display. Ms. Phillips was known in that time as Mama Michelle and a member of the Mamas and the Papas. She was also married to "Papa" John Phillips. So it is surprising that these reports continue to tell you of how Mr. Phillips and Lou Adler are responsible for Monterey Pop. As Kat wondered this week, is this an attempt to endorse the sexist notion that a husband's money is his own? As a member of the group and a sometimes songwriter, Ms. Phillips contributed to the family income and Mr. Phillips was not using "his" money.

The Monterey Report was obviously the high point of my listening week being that I am old enough to remember when it was current news. The low point? A program called News & Note which appears to exist so that a clubber, who used to go the Red House before too many shootings made it the Dead House, can pretend to practice journalism.

The show is offensive. It is offensive because it does not meet NPR standards for public affairs programming and, most of all, it is offensive for what it chooses to present to the public.

The actor Isaiah Washington was fired from Grey's Anatomy. This followed his using a slur on the set to refer to a gay castmate and then his again making homophobic remarks, this time in public, at the Golden Globes. If you follow the news, you may think that it is why he was fired. If you heard News & Note, however, you were informed that it was a White Gay Conspiracy. I seem to remember Mike Ovitz getting into hot water for floating similar crazy claims; however, NPR seems to think this makes for quality programming.

Apparently wishing to top that report, which aired repeatedly on the Wednesday feed, on Thursday we were informed, during a supposed discussion of the candidates running to become the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, that Asians and Latinos were breaking the law by voting even though they are not citizens. In fairness to the 'host' and the guest pushing that nonsense, Mary Frances Berry, it should be noted that this false charge seemed to derive from the fact that they were unaware that voters in presidential elections had to be citizens. As C.I. noted Thursday, damage control appeared to Ms. Berry rushing to assure that "their children are legal even if they're not".

This show is objectionable. It is hosted by an African-American woman so possibly we are not supposed to call it out? But having insulted Asians and Latinos in this country, citizens and non-citizens, and having pushed the lie of a White Gay Conspiracy, that is the reality. Apparently McFries buys a great deal of junk chatter hence News & Note.

News & Note also wants to cover the "arts." Which is why someone felt Malcom-Jamal Warner, one time TV child actor, was a guest worth having. Should I assume All Things Considered will next be interviewing Anson Williams?

Until last week, I had the pleasure of not knowing News & Note even aired. I find it objectionable that NPR thinks their programming has to be dumbed down in order to attract African-Americans. I think that when hosts are so ignorant of the laws for national elections, they should not be allowed to discuss the subject. However, restricting the host from that topic would only leave her with conspiracies and failed TV stars who last tasted fame by association in 1992. Possibly the best thing to do would be to replace the host before she offers the next offensive segment partly funded by tax payer monies?

[*C.I. note, by the end of March, Caldwell was no longer selling the Pelosi-Reid measure as "Troops Out Now." She was now pushing the notion that, in her words, "I know it doesn't go as far as many Democrats would like in cutting the funding." As far? That the Pelosi-Reid measure cut any funds was certainly an interesting interpretation.]

Truest statement of the week

MAHMOOD MAMDANI: Well, I was struck by the fact -- because I live nine months in New York and three months in Kampala, and every morning I open the New York Times, and I read about sort of violence against civilians, atrocities against civilians, and there are two places that I read about -- one is Iraq, and the other is Darfur -- sort of constantly, day after day, and week after week. And I'm struck by the fact that the largest political movement against mass violence on US campuses is on Darfur and not on Iraq. And it puzzles me, because most of these students, almost all of these students, are American citizens, and I had always thought that they should have greater responsibility, they should feel responsibility, for mass violence which is the result of their own government's policies. And I ask myself, "Why not?" I ask myself, "How do they discuss mass violence in Iraq and options in Iraq?" And they discuss it by asking -- agonizing over what would happen if American troops withdrew from Iraq. Would there be more violence? Less violence? But there is no such agonizing over Darfur, because Darfur is a place without history, Darfur is a place without politics. Darfur is simply a dot on the map. It is simply a place, a site, where perpetrator confronts victim. And the perpetrator's name is Arab, and the victim’s name is African. And it is easy to demonize. It is easy to hold a moral position which is emptied of its political content. This bothered me, and so I wrote about it.

[. . .]

And I'm struck by the innocence of those who are part of the Save Darfur -- of the foot soldiers in the Save Darfur Coalition, not the leadership, simply because this is not discussed.Let me tell you, when I went to Sudan in Khartoum, I had interviews with the UN humanitarian officer, the political officer, etc., and I asked them, I said, "What assistance does the Save Darfur Coalition give?" He said, "Nothing." I said, "Nothing?" He said, "No." And I would like to know. The Save Darfur Coalition raises an enormous amount of money in this country. Where does that money go? Does it go to other organizations which are operative in Sudan, or does it go simply to fund the advertising campaign?



-- Mahmood Mamdani to Amy Goodman on last Monday's Democracy Now! ( "Mahmood Mamdani on Darfur: 'The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency'").

Truest statement of the week II

Jim Wallis, the man who would be Jerry Fallwell in clown drag, held a 'debate' on Monday that was by invitation only. Jesus may have sat with the sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, etc., but Wallis only breaks bread with the really big names. That's the only explanation on how a supposed 'forum on faith, values and politics' sponsored by our Right-On-Bro Jimmy managed to include 2008 Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama but, SOMEHOW, managed to exclude Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Mike Gravel, Bill Richardson and Mike Gravel.
Heaven may be open to all but Wallis has a bit of the bully bouncer in his carriage. After Obams, Hills and Johns joined Right-On-Bro Jimmy to ask, "Are You There God, It's Me Front Runner?", CNN's Paula Zahn Now presented Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson and Joe Biden. Strangely, all four are Catholic. Strangely? Catholics in Alliance For The Common Good sponsored the Jimmy Wallis group -- the one that . . . excluded four Catholics. Exactly how does Catholics in Alliance intended to meet their stated goal ("promoting the fullness of the Catholic Social Tradition in the public square") while denying Catholics invites?



-- C.I. from Wednesday's "Iraq snapshot"

A Note to Our Readers

Hey --

A long, long session that shouldn't have been. Technical problems (some of you noticed it took forever for features to go up after "Highlights" went up and guessed we weren't having any luck posting) accounted for two hours, C.I. attempting to upload visuals (no luck for own artwork) took forever, and we had assorted other problems and issues.

Let's note who worked on this edition:


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

Thanks also to Dallas (soundboard and links) and to Rebecca (photoshopping for the print edition this time since none of our artwork made it online).

Whadda' we got?

Truest statement of the week -- we had all agreed early on last week, this would be truest statement of the week short of a drunken Bully Boy, stumbling before a mircophone and yelling, "I'm back on cocaine! I'm a War Criminal! I lied the nation into war! You won't impeach me! You're too damn scared! Soon as I come down from my coke high, I'm declaring Martial Law!"
that this would be truest statement of the week. Since Bully Boy has yet to state the obvious, it remained the truest.

Truest statement of the week II -- This is a C.I. and C.I. didn't want it. But we had so many problems that when Dona said, "We can go with this or we can write another piece," C.I. said, "Fine." This was actually recommended as truest by three readers including Stanley who has a birthday today, Happy Birthday Stanley!

Editorial: The Thrice Screwed Adam Kokesh -- Paris Hilton gets covered on KPFA and those fighting to end the war may or may not get covered? That's screw one. Screw two is the MSM coverage. Screw three is is the US military. You know what would be really great, if the US media -- BIG AND SMALL -- could grasp that the Iraq war goes on each summer when they run off to vacation or cover other topics. That would be really great. And I will say it (I can feel C.I. cringing over my shoulder) -- if the independent media had done ANYTHING to cover Cindy Sheehan last summer maybe she wouldn't have felt like her efforts were being wasted -- maybe if they had covered her fast, her trip to Jordan, Camp Casey opening again, she wouldn't have felt that way, others would have learned what was going on and the whole peace movement would be a lot further along. We can't afford a second summer where independent media runs from Iraq and if anyone thinks we've been nasty thus far, just try to pull that sh*t this summer and you'll see how rude we can get. "Sh*t" because if C.I. doesn't have time to send out e-mails, we're censoring. I meant to note that last week (Mike did) but forgot. There are some that use a work computer on Sunday and on Monday and that's the only access they have. They get a mass heads up from C.I. when we're using language so they don't have to worry about write ups or firings. When there's not time to do a mass e-mailing, we'll censor.


TV: Creature Crap -- Ty says it seemed like I was ragging on Ava and C.I.'s commentary last week to most people e-mailing. I wasn't. I was really tired (we all were). I thought they were funny and observant but I did feel that they were making comments about serial dramas that I hadn't heard before (even from when we're all sitting around talking during the week) so that stood out the most. But it was funny and I wasn't trying to say it wasn't. This one is funny as well. I laughed my ass off while I was reading this out loud to everyone. Wally said, "Jim, either stop laughing or give it to someone else to read." Sidebar, I fill in for Rebecca and pick my ten favorite Ava and C.I. commentaries from 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 thus far. Just the favorites that come to mind. That was at least a month ago. I'm still getting hate mail on that. I'm still getting, "How dare you forget ____!" and e-mails along those lines so forget that I love what they do, just to avoid those angry e-mails I would never diss Ava and C.I. Again, this one will have you laughing. (I heard the phone call at the end of the review, by the way, and I was laughing during that too.)

Liam Madden -- Liam Madden held a press conference on Thursday. Friday morning, KPFA couldn't note that in their news breaks during The Morning Show but they could note Paris Hilton. Again, are you seeing the problem here?

Get America Out Of Iraq -- The print edition version of this is longer with each person drawing names out of a baseball cap and you got a candidate's name and "postive" or "negative." You then had to find something positive or negative (depending upon what you drew) to say about their plan. We liked it for the print version. We didn't want to defend Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton's plans up here. (No one drew "Obama positive.")

The Nation Stats -- Two more issues and the problem continues. Friday, on KPFA's The Morning Show, they addressed how few women owned radio stations. (More own rural than own big city and total percentage of women owners is 6%.) Does it make a difference when women are in charge? Looking at The Nation, you could argue, "No, it does not."

Caged Tepid -- Get it? Caged Tepid. Not Caged Heat? This is our humor feature.

Wait! Dahr's not Canadian! -- Two big features collapsed on us. One, C.I. pointed out this wasn't the week for. (When it is the week for it, we'll note it was the delayed feature.) C.I. didn't pull it. C.I. explained that we probably didn't want to offer praise or attention and we all knew why. So that got pulled. The other just wasn't coming together. (The latter ran in the print edition.) We'd put it through several drafts. We also had a short feature that C.I. said, "That's nice but Isaiah's comic for today is that exact same thing." So we killed that and were left with a huge hole and nothing to fill it with. Dona asked C.I., "What didn't you note -- for a short item -- last week that you meant to. Remember, short item." (Dona says short item every chance she gets.) C.I. remember the Thursday correction in The New York Times so we ran with it as a short item.

Socialism 2007, Chicago, June 14-17th -- This takes place this coming weekend. Lot of people there. Anthony Arnove, Dahr Jamail, Laura Flanders, Sharon Smith, Jeffrey St. Clair, Kelly Dougherty, Camilo Mejia and Garrett Reppenghagen among others.

Highlights -- Mike, Wally, Cedric, Elaine, Rebecca and Betty did this. We thank them for it.

That's it. We'll see you next weekend and next weekend may be our summer fiction read. May not be. But it's next weekend or the weekend after. So that's your heads up.

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

Editorial: The Thrice Screwed Adam Kokesh

The Government's argument in this case seems to imply that somehow what these amateur actors did in Houston should not be treated as a "theatrical production" within the meaning of 772 (f). We are unable to follow such a suggestion. Certainly theatrical productions need not always be performed in buildings or even on a defined area such as a conventional stage. Nor need they be performed by professional actors or be heavily financed or elaborately produced. Since time immemorial, outdoor theatrical performances, often performed by amateurs, have played an important part in the entertainment and the education of the people of the world. Here, the record shows without dispute the preparation and repeated presentation by amateur actors of a short play designed to create in the audience an understanding of and opposition to our participation in the Vietnam war. Supra, at 60 and this page. It may be that the performances were crude and [398 U.S. 58, 62] amateurish and perhaps unappealing, but the same thing can be said about many theatrical performances. We cannot believe that when Congress wrote out a special exception for theatrical productions it intended to protect only a narrow and limited category of professionally produced plays. 3 Of course, we need not decide here all the questions concerning what is and what is not within the scope of 772 (f). We need only find, as we emphatically do, that the street skit in which Schacht participated was a "theatrical production" within the meaning of that section.
This brings us to petitioner's complaint that giving force and effect to the last clause of 772 (f) would impose an unconstitutional restraint on his right of free speech. We agree. This clause on its face simply restricts 772 (f)'s authorization to those dramatic portrayals that do not "tend to discredit" the military, but, when this restriction is read together with 18 U.S.C. 702, it becomes clear that Congress has in effect made it a crime for an actor wearing a military uniform to say things during his performance critical of the conduct or [398 U.S. 58,63] policies of the Armed Forces. An actor, like everyone else in our country, enjoys a constitutional right to freedom of speech, including the right openly to criticize the Government during a dramatic performance. The last clause of 772 (f) denies this constitutional right to an actor who is wearing a military uniform by making it a crime for him to say things that tend to bring the military into discredit and disrepute. In the present case Schacht was free to participate in any skit at the demonstration that praised the Army, but under the final clause of 772 (f) he could be convicted of a federal offense if his portrayal attacked the Army instead of praising it. In light of our earlier finding that the skit in which Schacht participated was a "theatrical production" within the meaning of 772 (f), it follows that his conviction can be sustained only if he can be punished for speaking out against the role of our Army and our country in Vietnam. Clearly punishment for this reason would be an unconstitutional abridgment of freedom of speech. The final clause of 772 (f), which leaves Americans free to praise the war in Vietnam but can send persons like Schacht to prison for opposing it, cannot survive in a country which has the First Amendment. To preserve the constitutionality of 772 (f) that final clause must be stricken from the section.



We're having a real hard time grasping what is so difficult to understand about the above. It's the Supreme Court's decision in Schacht v. United States (1970) and, for some reason, reporters just can't grasp it.



Four of us saw it in Boston on Thursday when Liam Madden held a press conference to discuss the US military's attempts to silence him and someone (a reporter, naturally) wanted to liken his case to Adam Kokesh. Here is Madden's response in full, "Adam's case is different than mine. He was charged with wearing a uniform during a political street theater and also with making disrespectful comments to a superior commissioned officer. So his charges are different and the board will be different. And that is just one grounds that Adam has to appeal his case."



Adam Kokesh was 'tried' last Monday for taking part in street theater and damned if the reporters just couldn't grasp it. Heather Hollingsworth has earned a special place in hell for her lazy reporting and we're sure she'll bump into many others that she knows once she gets down there.



Hollingsworth failed to tell readers (repeatedly) that during the so-called hearing, Kokesh was asked a number of questions including whether or not he voted in the 2004 election and whether or not he was "a card carrying member of Iraq Veterans Against the War? Meaning what exactly? Does he attend meetings with Garrett Reppenhagen but get in on a guest pass?



After you get over how ridiculous the question is, you may zoom in on how offensive this throw back to the HUAC days is. We weren't aware that Iraq Veterans Against the War was on an official government blacklist. We aren't surprised to know that it is considering the current administration but that says a great deal about how the government truly feels about the troops.



Another thing that Hollingsworth (Associated Press and her scribbles were picked up everywhere) somehow missed was that the three 'judges' at the alleged hearing admitted that Kokesh was not governed by UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice). They admitted that no one in the IRR is.



That being the case, the only thing that should apply to Kokesh is the Supreme Court ruling which found that the US military has no say over who wears what in a theatrical production.

But that's just too much for the small brained press to grasp. They also appear to have serious problems telling the difference between a "letter" and an "e-mail." It's all so confusing for them you start to wonder if they pay someone to come in and program their Tivo?



While the mainstream was missing every detail that mattered (with few exceptions, Reuters and The Washington Post being two), where the hell was independent media?



When the mainstream media screws up the facts, don't we all expect independent media to step in? But where were they? It's as though they all sprouted pubes last week and took to the bathroom with a cellphone to examine and share the findings with friends.



In the process, Adam Kokesh got screwed over three times. First by the alleged hearing which downgraded him from honorable discharge to a general discharge. Second by the mainstream media who screwed up the details and basic facts to badly that it seemed as if they had enlisted in the service of something other than a free press. Third by independent media which, believe it or not, in its broadcast form, made time for Paris Hilton but had no time for Liam Madden's press conference.



Let's just repeat that: Paris Hilton could get covered on broadcast independent media news last Friday; however, Liam Madden's Thursday press conference? There just wasn't room to squeeze it on for Friday's news breaks. And that may say it all.

TV: Creature Crap

Do you remember the kid in high school who was hung up on a musical artist, generally a really bad artist? S/he would go on and on about how deep the lyrics were. S/he would scribble them in spirals during classes and try to foist them off on people as soon as the bell rang. The artist in question could never write a song because songs are lyrics and music. So maybe you don't remember the artist the kid was pimping but you surely remember the annoying kid. Well we've discovered what they grow up to be: members of the Water Cooler Set.

CBS hit a new ratings low and no one saw it coming because the Water Cooler Set was spit polishing crap yet again. The show's called Creature Comforts and if it demonstrated the type of kids the Water Cooler Set was in high school, it also demonstrated that there's more movement in those commercials for HoverRound and Little Rascal than there is in this eye sore.

The whole point of doing a non-live action series was supposed to be providing the giddy rush that those not bound by earthly laws can provide. So we were shocked to tune in and discover that this was like downscale Merchant Ivory, minus the costumes, as everyone sat or lay around while speaking. The "camera" is trained upon claymation animals. The scripts?

There are no scripts. The voices of real life people are used as they babble on about whatever minor topic comes to mind and then, by pairing it with claymation, it's supposed to be not only worth watching but also funny. Reality is Adults Say The Dullest Things repeatedly while the claymation animals remain inert and immobile except for the flapping gums and occasional eye dart.

Reality is also that this "British" series didn't air on BBC, it aired on ITV and if most Americans just asked "What?" that tells you a great deal. It's equally true that, on ITV, each program is ten minutes, not thirty minutes (excepting only their Christmas special). Comedy Central used to burn the British edition off during overnight hours because the show was such a dog.

But with few exceptions, the Water Cooler Set was talking it up as though it was the second coming of The PJs if not The Simpsons. The Idiot Bellafante, always, wins top prize in the American Idiot competition for over reaching to draw comparisons between the program and the film Borat (last we checked, Borat could and did walk). As The Idiot Bellafante babbled on and on, she revealed that she sees herself a snob. We see her more as a TV anarchist.

What Bellafante and her idiot posse among the Water Cooler Set really want is unentertaining TV. We've seen that all year long. They've rushed to praise the badly written Studio Yada Yada, they've gone ga-ga over the return of the hoary sixties device of one camera sitcoms not shot in front of a studio audience. The less entertaining something is, the more they cheer it on. (Possibly, along with being anarchists out to destroy entertainment, they're also not-so-latent masochists?)

The fall and spring TV season was all about the voice over. Don't show the audience what's happening, tell them repeatedly, over and over. With Studio Yada Yada, the voice overs were delivered as speeches -- on the nose, verbose dialogue. Voice overs is really all Creature Comforts is and before the next alarmist series of articles weighs in on Americans' increasing weight gain, one might want to consider how much all these stationary TV programs have contributed to the increasingly sedentary nature of America?

We worry most about the kids who may (mistakenly) watch Creature Comforts. Gone will be the days when they ran down alleys playing Linc, Julie and Pete, hopped on their bikes and pretended they were Starsky & Hutch, or played vampire slayers. They may instead assume that Creature Comforts is the way to go and lay on their sides mouthing really dopey dialogue for an hour and a half before coming indoors claiming to be tired and worn out.

In the last ten months, the Water Cooler Set has repeatedly embarrassed themselves but they have no shame and seem intent on providing groans all summer long judging by their takes on Creature Comforts. While they seem determined to demolish all life left in TV, CBS can't really afford to do that since it depends on viewers to pay the bills and those big bonuses. At the end of last week, CBS announced they were un-cancelling Jericho. Some in the press have seen it as a victory for those viewers showering CBS with peanuts (don't ask) in an attempt to force them to bring the show back. The reality is that a certain one hour program revolving around a vampire is quickly becoming a nightmare. The lead's not filming as well as the suits thought he would and the scripts are belabored. That, more than peanuts, is why Jericho is being brought back. We were told by two friends in programming at CBS that they think the show can reach a wider audience if it focuses more on the "young" characters. (Some of whom are played by actors in or nearing their thirties. But this is, after all, CBS which skews the oldest of any network when it comes to their audience.) On Saturday, we tried hard not to laugh as we were told that CBS thinks it can be the new Roswell. For those who have forgotten, Roswell was a WB series that lasted three seasons and was never a heavy hitter for the net-lette. It also featured a better looking (and younger) cast that could actually act. How, we wondered, does CBS plan to address the beer bloat of one cast member? A diet or a nasty smack habit?

Steering the conversation back to Creature Comforts, we asked exactly what persuaded CBS to air the show in the first place? They did see the episodes before air, right? We were told it was cheap to make (most unscripted shows are) and that the creators were "proven" with American audiences. How so? As evidence by the box office for Wallace & Gromit, we were told. For the record, that animated film made approximately $56 million at the box office in the United States. Disney's Lilo & Stitch, by contrast, raked up $140 million at US theaters. But Chicken Run, we were told, Chicken Run! To which we asked, "Who's running, who's even moving in Creature Comforts?" The only movement involved in Creature Comforts is the audience that's grabbing the remote and switching to another channel.

[Note: A regular reader passed on to Ty that he would appreciate a shout out to Daniel Coyne and The Uncommon Man website. Since the reader was writing about our -- Ava and C.I.'s -- TV reviews, we're including it as a note here to make sure it's not forgotten in the all night writing session. For Bill, there's the shout out.]

Liam Madden

The photo above demonstrates one of the two (trumped up) charges against Liam Madden currently. Like two other Iraq Veterans Against the War, Cloy Richards and Adam Kokesh, Liam Madden is being targeted by the US military in an attempt to silence dissent. One of the charges is that Madden wore his "uniform" or parts of it in demonstrations. Study the photo above, we'll get back to it.



On Thursday, in broad daylight, Liam Madden spoke on the steps of the Massachusetts State House with supporters and reporters gathered. Madden might be thought to be news with what he's facing and he's certainly photogenic ("Like a young Tom Cruise," said one attending the press conference). Surprisingly the press was elsewhere. His conference resulted in no coverage, for instance, on Democracy Now! or, for that matter, Boston IMC. Dave Goodman filed a brief report that aired on Thursday's The KPFA Evening News and Free Speech Radio News.



Four participating in the writing of this feature did attend and can report (much to the military's pleasure, we're sure), Madden wore no fatigues or portions of fatigues, let alone a uniform. He wore a black Iraq Veterans Against the War t-shirt and a pair of jeans.



He began the press conference with a prepared statement, then did a question and answer session and then spoke with individuals. In his opening statements he spoke of how the US military's efforts to punish him, Adam Kokesh and Cloy Richards was "vindictive waste of tax payer dollars to silence free speech and to assault the First Amendment rights of our veterans."

Madden served in Iraq and was discharged from active duty status at the start of this year with an honorable discharge and the rank of Sgt. As he re-entered civilian life, he became active and outspoken against the illegal war and was informed last month that his discharge status was now in question and that he "was being recommended for an other than honorable discharge from the IRR [Inactive Ready Reserves]."



He explained that this resulted from two charges, "wearing a partial uniform at a protest" and making "disloyal statements" while in uniform.



The "uniform" can be seen in the photo above. For those unaware, those returning from Vietnam wore much more in protests and were never prosecuted. If, however, you wore your uniform (your actual uniform) while you were serving you could be (and some were) punished.

The US military is attempting to change the rules and your dumb ass pundit class wants to play like fatigues are "uniforms" while your independent media is actually AWOL on this story.



That's how much the illegal war matters to (and registers with) independent media currently, they are perfectly happy to throw Richards, Kokesh and Madden to the wolves of mainstream media. We are not aware of a sit down interview with Cloy Richards in the past. (We have heard him reading from his writings on Flashpoints Radio) but his mother, Tina Richards, is certainly not shy nor are Kokesh and Madden. If that's confusing to anyone, you don't hold a public press conference, as both Kokesh and Madden have done, if you dry up around cameras.

But strangely enough, there is just no time for them -- even Dave Goodman's report was reduced to the headlines section of Free Speech Radio News as opposed to being a true report aired during the bulk of the show. Now it is true that independent media, like the bulk of the mainstream, is largely located in NYC and thinks if it didn't happen in NYC it just didn't happen.

The Progressive is located outside of NYC which may be why Matthew Rothschild could write about Kokesh while no one at The Nation could -- but certainly whether the entertainment industry is backing Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is more earth shattering news than what happens to any of these three people. It's not? Well The Nation thinks so.



In his press conference, Madden discussed the nonsense of the "uniform" by noting he wore "a camouflage top, unbuttoned with jeans and t-shirt." Most in the media repeat still that Madden was in "uniform." (Check the photo at the top.) He also pointed out that Vietnam veterans did the same during that illegal war and did so without being punished or threatened with punishment. Why? Ourselves, we'll assume because independent media was a lot stronger back then.



The second charge, as he noted, was for making "disloyal" statements. Disloyal statements? It all sounds so very McCarthy-ish that we'd grab our bobby socks were it not for the fact that J. Edgar Hoover had asked to be buried with them. (We refused to honor the request, so he had Mark Felt break into our homes and steal them.) How was he "disloyal"? He called War Crimes "War Crimes." He spoke to truth and that's "disloyalty."



In a really bad movie, Dennis Hopper's character once said, "The nineties are going to make the sixties look like the fifties." Bully Boy has certainly tried to make this decade be the fifties. And where is brave independent media on this?



Madden ended his remarks by noting, "I stand by what I said." If independent media stands by what they've said throughout the illegal war, don't they need to be covering Madden, Richards and Kokesh? (Though Madden's press conference couldn't be cover on the KPFA news breaks the next day, as Ruth points out, Paris Hilton's drama could be. We doubt listeners were informed or educated by that nonsense and we question the critical abilities of anyone who thinks Hilton is more of a news story than Madden.)



They all deserve serious attention and by refusing to offer that, independent media has allowed mainstream media to set the terms of the discussion. If you want to show your support for the three you can demand better coverage from independent media, you can provide your own coverage in your own circles and sign the petition to support of Madden.