AMY GOODMAN: Brian Ross, on the issue of the prisons, do you know if these prisons are still operating in Romania and Poland? I remember in one of her overseas trips recently, Condoleezza Rice went to Romania.
BRIAN ROSS: We reported in December that they had rushed to close them before she landed in Europe, so that she could say there are no such prisons in Europe, that they had operated up to a week before, when this word got out. And that was one of the reasons they were so eager for us not to report it was that it embarrassed her further. We reported that they closed down those two prisons and moved the 12 to 14 top al-Qaeda figures being held there to a third country in North Africa. And we did not report the name of that country.
that's from democracy now's "Freedom of the Press Under Attack: Government Begins Tracking Phone Calls of Journalists" and i'm noting it for a reason - others aren't. i'm not talking about people who note (or will note) this or note other things from democracy now, i'm talking about the people who act like the program doesn't exist.
now the right, you'd expect it from them. you'd be surprised if they acted any other way, in fact. too much reality for them.
but where is the support from the left?
do i have to close my eyes and wait for the guilty to come forward? should i name names?
on a different issue, let's name 1. wonkette. the old whore of a bad website that was nothing but sexual tease by a boring woman who only looked hot and exciting standing next to corpses and corpses in waiting. you got 2 men posting there so why do they still show the looks-nothing-like-anne-marie-cox-even-in-her-dreams drawing (in the kind of get up britney spears tossed aside circa 1997)?
who knows. but can the fellows be taught to count?
The far, far, far right British National Party's head starred in a gay "art" flick in 1989, which he also co-wrote, produced, and directed (a triple threat!).
i know they get something like a nickel for each click to their page and with their writing they probably need all the nickels so here's the link to their nonsense.
but let's walk the boys through:
The far, far, far right British National Party's head starred in a gay "art" flick [starred in=acting that's threat 1] in 1989, which he also co-wrote [wrote=writer, threat 2], produced [producer is threat 3], and directed (a triple threat!) [directed is threat four].
quadruple threat, boys of wonkette, quadruple threat.
give them a sympathy click and maybe they can save up for a calculator.
(or maybe they'll just blow it on another peep show.)
betty's posting a hilarious chapter tonight so make a point to visit her site.
want to know what else is hilarious? mary cheney.
c.i. forwarded something to me last week that i'll grab tonight. it's by ari berman who's a really strong writer.
The election is history, but the war between a Cheney (Mary) and a Kerry (John) lives on.
In her new memoir, Now It's My Turn, Cheney's lesbian daughter calls Kerry a "son of a bitch" and his running mate, John Edwards, "total slime," for mentioning her sexual orientation during the campaign debates.
Watching Edwards during the veep debate, Cheney allegedly mouthed the words "Go F*** Yourself." Months earlier, the Vice President had told Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy to do the same. Like father, like daughter.
ari made me laugh - he often does. but i really don't have much to say on it. not out of 'respect' for 'i'm gay today!' mary, but because c.i. covered it in "Other Items:"
Mary Cheney's hawking her new book and hoping to fleece your pockets so suddenly it's okay to say she's gay. She was gay, in fact out as gay, for years before John Kerry noted that in a 2004 debate. But we were supposed to be shocked, shocked, shocked. The only thing shocking was how craven or embarrassed her parents were by her and of her as well as her own silence during the attempt to liken her own life to something resembling a drug addiction that we simply don't speak of.
So Mary Cheney's got a new book out. I'm sure it's the nonfiction equivalent of her mother's fictional look at lesbians on the prarie. And sure that it, like her mother's book, is badly written. Were the book a success, she might be able to buy herself a little self-respect.
However, the book's a hard sell. There's nothing "explosive" (or even "interesting") about it. Her flurry of press was in November of 2004, not last month. She's the daughter of one of the least liked men in the world. (Her mother's a big question mark in the minds of many where "bland" is more often the term applied -- other less kind terms are applied by those who follow the news. Her father is known and hated.) Those who stick with her father (and some do, a little over 30% of the public, year after year) are the pro-torture, pro-secrecy, pro-fundy group. Translation, they're not interested in this book.
Destined to be Queen of the Remainders, filling the shelves at outlet malls across the nation (and not selling there either), Mary Cheney learned the lesson about cashing in from her her father -- she just couldn't learn his sense of timing (which, no matter what you think of him, has always been strong -- even this morning, he may be setting up a future book deal on life in prison, don't put it past him).
that says it all and then some. i mean it makes you laugh, it covers everything. her lousy book, her lousy self-image, her lousy self. i love it when c.i. chucks the high road and lets it rip. betty and i were talking about this because it made us laugh. (she's got 'translation' in her latest chapter as a tribute to this criticism. and it's hilarious, so be sure to check her site tonight!)
know what else is hilarious? wally's 'THIS JUST IN! NEDRA PICKLER SEES INSIDE PEOPLE!'
so go read it.
that's it for tonight. i'm rushing because we're all trying to get done as early as possible so that we can do some planning for this weekend. but great speech by michael parenti on kpfa's flashpoints. it was funny (and son christian was mentioned) and political. if you missed it, listen to it because it makes you think and it will make you laugh.
