5/11/2006

preaching to the converted

so yesterday, i had some women over to talk about the war. i knew a few of them had expressed (mild) opposition to it. i wasn't sure about the others.

but we need to be taking this topic to the people in our lives (close and more distant) because we need to take the opposition to a new level. i think it worked. there were 2 (out of 30) who were for the war. the rest were against it. we spoke of why we felt the way we did. we spoke of what was going on that bothered us the most.

consider it my attempt to steal goldie's house party.

but what goldie (and her mother marlene) had in mind worked and we all need to be attempting that.

so i did wednesday afternoon and it went very well. i hope you'll try something similar.

until we're all talking, nothing's going to change.

1 woman said it best, for me, when she said, 'we're at war and it's like we can't talk about it but we can spend hours obsessing over american idol.'

you're the 1 who can change that. only you. it doesn't matter what i do. it doesn't matter what someone else does. you have a power and you have a voice.

wednesday night kpfa's flashpoints had 2 women on discussing these sort of gatherings. 1 was an iraqi-american and the other was with christian peacemarker teams. listen to the interview and maybe you'll agree or maybe you'll disagree. but we need to be trying something.

i'm not spitting on the peace movement. i think united for peace & justice and others like codepink have done a wonderful job. but we need to be taking it into our neighborhoods. not just to the big rally in our area or the national rally. this issue needs to be something we discuss.

how are you with children being killed? is it okay to kill some children? that's one of the issues the 2 women addressed.

on monday, ray mcgovern was a guest discussing confronting donald rumsfeld last thursday. that's another thing people should be doing if they have the opportunity and, if they don't, they should be talking about it. even if it's just 'can you believe ray mcgovern confronted donald rumsfeld?' some 1 may ask you why. that's the perfect time to explain.

or some 1 may find some courage hearing of mcgovern.

you never know.

look at what kat's done since saturday:

"Kat's Korner: Pink's not dead or silent"
"Kat's Korner: Need deeper? Check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years"
"Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection"
"Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'"


the war is in every 1 of those reviews.

i feel like i'm preaching to the converted here.

let me post c.i.'s iraq snapshot from today:


Chaos and violence continue.

Today? The
parliament continued to make the issue of who heads the Iraqi oil ministry the main topic. (Does that not demonstrate how important that position is?) As the AFP notes, yesterday was the self-imposed deadline the US backed Iraqi prime minister designate Nuri al-Maliki had set for finaliing his cabinet. The deadline was missed.

This as Rod Barton, an Australian Defence sciene intelligence officer, has made statements
that Australia was lied into war. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Company's Kerry O'Brien, Barton also addressed the issue of US torture:

KERRY O'BRIEN: Why do you believe he was beaten to death and how clear is the evidence that he was beaten to death?

ROD BARTON: I now know, and I didn't know this when I wrote the book, that he underwent a process called purgatory when he was arrested. Purgatory is, again, by this Special Forces 626. When they arrest the person they're trying to disorient the person. They put a hessian bag over the person's head and for three days or more the person is beaten, deprived of food and sleep and so on. There was a lot of stuff he was involved with. He developed poisons for assassination purposes. But I believe, I now know, that he knew about actual operations of assassinations of Iraqi dissidents overseas. And I believe that was the information that they were trying to get from him when they beat him again. The autopsy showed that he died not of a brain tumour or a brain aneurysm, or whatever they told me - not of natural causes, but the autopsy showed he died of blunt force trauma to the head. In other words, someone hit him too hard on the head.

Back in Iraq, as factions move towards the consolidation of militaries, Grand Ayatolla Hli al-Sistani has "ordered all Shi'ite mosques to close for three days" in Zubayr
reports the Associated Press. This as AFP is reporting that "official sanction" will be needed for clerics in Iraq. As part of the agreement, "capital and Iraqi forces" cannot raid mosques without US troops being present. Presumably 'sanctioning' of cleric will take place with US permission as well. (US military spokesperson, Rick Lynch, stated of the deal: "That's news to me, that's a surprise to me.")

In Baghdad, as noted on
KPFA's The Morning Show newsbreaks anchored by Sandra Lupien and by CNN, roadside bombs have claimed the lives of at least three American troops today (Lupien also noted the death of two Iraqi soldiers from a roadside bomb -- as does Reuters). The Associated Press notes a roadside bomb took the lives of five "municipal workers." (CNN also puts the number of dead at five and notes one wounded.) Reuters, which puts the previous number at four, reports assailents shot and killed a "judicial investigator near a courthouse." Courthouses and schools continue to be the targets for violence. And the corpse of a police officer was discovered ("hands bound, signs of torture and shot in the head").

In Baquba,
Reuters notes that a school teacher was killed and her fourteen-year-old nephew wounded by assailants. Is this the same woman, Widad al-Shimri, whose death the AP reports? They identify her as a Shi'ite "history professor" and note that her seven-year-old daughter was also killed. So at least one educator was killed in Baquba, possibly two. Also in Baquba, at least twenty-five men, suspected gunmen, have been arrested "wearing army uniforms" but not with the army.

In Haqlaniyah, US troops have fired on abandoned hotel where resistance fighters were believed to be while, in Kirkuk, assailants "ambushed and killed a police lieutenant colonel."

that's what's going on.

that's what we have brought about.

so let's get creative on getting the word out.

5/10/2006

more on hud's lead liar alphonso jackson

it is official. though i have yet to get the promised e-mail, blogger/blogspot has reviewed and decided that i am not a robot.

no more word verification.

now that i've been cleared of the charges, i feel the urge to scream, 'i'm actually part cyborg! like jamie on the bionic woman!'

HUD Secretary Turns Down Contractor Who Criticized Bush
Meanwhile, Housing and Urban Development Department Secretary Alphonso Jackson is coming under scrutiny after he revealed he cancelled a proposed deal with a government contractor who made critical comments of President Bush. According to the Dallas Business Journal, Jackson said the contractor had been selected for a government advertising contract. But the contractor was ultimately not selected after he told Jackson he didn’t like President Bush. Jackson said: "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe." In response, Democratic Congressmembers Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Henry Waxman of California called for a full investigation of Jackson’s contract decisions. In a letter to Jackson, the Congressmemembers wrote: "If this account is accurate, your comments and actions were improper and most likely illegal. Federal contracts should be awarded based on merit, not on whether a contractor likes or dislikes President Bush."

that's from democracy now and i thought i'd start with that because i ended with hud last night.

jackson has a history struggling with the truth, a public history. c.i. passed this on because i'd written about it yesterday. billie had sent this to c.i. to provide a little background on alphonso jackson:


Then there was the Thrilla on Marilla--the lightweight bout between Fielding and Alphonso Jackson which kept us occupied for a few weeks in the winter of 1993. The councilman and the Dallas Housing Authority chief, you may recall, got uniquely physical during a tense meeting in Mayor Bartlett's office. When it was over, no one was at all surprised that someone would want to stomp grapes on Paul Fielding's face--his major in college was, no doubt, the art of bringing out the worst in people. What surprised everyone is that Jackson actually did it.
A diminutive, soft-spoken, horn-rimmed-glasses type, Jackson simply gathered himself into an absolute fury and, like a bull at Pamplona, rammed Fielding face first into the unyielding metal frame of a partially opened door. Blackening eyes. Mangling facial nerves. Sending ears to ringing.
Jackson blew his opportunity to become a sympathetic figure in the eyes of Fielding detractors when he panicked, dissolving into a choke mode--not only denying that he'd beaten Fielding up, but frantically concocting off-the-wall scenarios about what happened. In one, the mayor, who actually witnessed Jackson's handiwork along with half the mayor's staff, was blamed for the bludgeoning.



so he gets into a fight and then lies about it. the author of that piece, by the way, was laura miller who no longer writes for a periodical, she's now mayor of the city of dallas.

and jaime s. jordan provides an update in the dallas business journal, which originally broke the jackson story, that has an interesting footnote:

(On May 3, Tucker told the Business Journal that the contract Jackson was referring to in Dallas was "an advertising contract with a minority publication," though she could not provide the contract's value.)


so on wednesday of last week hud spokesperson dustee tucker was maintaining that the story was true, but yesterday, saying it wasn't.

in congress, house represantives henry waxman and barney frank are asking questions:

In a letter to HUD Secretary Jackson, Reps. Waxman and Frank ask for an explanation of the Secretary's public admission that he decided not to award a contract to a contractor with "a heck of a proposal" because the contractor expressed a negative view of the President.


jackson has more problems. from representative louise slaughter's letter to alphonso jackson:

I was troubled to read recent news reports about the nature of certain contracts awarded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Specifically, I am concerned that a HUD contract has been awarded to a company allegedly involved in illicit activities including bribery, gambling, and prostitution.
Last week, Harper's Magazine's web blog posted an update to its coverage of the federal contracts awarded to Shirlington Limousine and Transportation, Incorporated of Arlington, Virginia. This report indicated that HUD had awarded the company a $519,823 contract. As you may know, the company's president, Christopher D. Baker, has an extensive criminal history including drug possession, attempted robbery, and car theft along with other offenses over the last decade. Additionally, allegations have been bade that suggest that individuals involved in an ongoing Congressional bribery investigation used the limousine service to provide escorts and other services to federal officials in exchange for federal contracts. The fact that a contract from your agency has been awarded to a company embroiled in such a serious criminal investigation raises significant questions about the HUD's procurement process.
This comes on the heels of reports that at an April 28th Dallas real estate forum, you stated that individuals or organizations who had expressed their opposition to President Bush would not be eligible to receive federal contracts. All qualified organizations and businesses should have the opportunity to compete in the federal procurement process, and contract should be awarded to the company that can do the best work at the least cost to the government. Awarding federal contracts based on political affiliation is not only inappropriate, it is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Therefore, I request that you release all documents and communications in your possession pertaining to any HUD contracts with Shirlington Limousine. Thorough examination of these documents is critical to eliminating suspicion of inappropriate or illegal activity in awarding Shirlington Limousine a federal contract. I also ask you to clarify your comments regarding the eligibility of Administration opponents to compete for federal contracts.
I hope you will swiftly honor my request for the release of all pertinent documents to restore the integrity to the procurement processes of your department.



and just to remember what he said, from an article credited to kutv and associated press:

"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.'" Jackson told the group, which promotes business opportunities for minorities in the real estate industry."He didn't get the contract," Jackson said. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

whether he's a lie face or trying to back peddle now (like he did when he got into the physical altercation), he needs to step down or fired.
now kat did another review last night: "Kat's Korner: Need deeper? Check out Josh Ritter's The Animal Years." i really love this cd. 'girl in the war' is, musically, the sort of magic brian wilson probably still wishes he could do.

and tonight? goldie, pay attention. she's reviewing pink's new cd tonight. i know a lot of community members have been waiting for it. she actually had this 1 written (i think the free design is the other 1 left that's already written) but she saw something online and decided to rewrite it. i'm really excited and i bet you are as well. so be sure to check for it. and check at the common ills because she posts her music reviews there, not at her own site: kat's korner (of the common ills). she started there and that's her contribution to the community.

the plan is 7 reviews over the next 2 weeks. she's done 3 so far with the 4th going up tonight. if you missed the other 3, the link to animal years is up above and the other 2 are:

"Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection"
"Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'"

i would like to write about today when i blog tomorrow. (can you follow that?)

but be sure to read c.i.'s "Other Items" and wally's "THIS JUST IN! HILLARY CLINTON LOVES THE BOYZ WHO CHEAT ON HER!" for the latest on hillary. in fact, doesn't she resemble the character of senator in "Head on Home (a musical in four scenes)"?

5/09/2006

hud run by a liar

i'm still a 'robot' in blogger/blogspot's b.s. eyes tonight.

the key word to type (when i post, to prove i'm not a robot) is 'ujkqmqa' - and they've got it in drippy b.s. writing.

on the plus side, c.i. and kat's complaints about how hard it was to read this bullshit obviously resulted in the option to hear the letters since it's unlikely many could read their slanted, curved letters.

again, don't they have better things to do? there were 2 outagges last week.

and maybe they should actually read a site before they flag it as done by a 'robot'?

i can't imagine any 1 read my site and would think i was a 'robot.' they might think i was a bitch, or worse, but no 1's ever accused me of being a robot before.

mike's sick. he's got chicken pox. i spent a few hours at his house tonight talking to his parents. he was asleep the whole time. when i got back here, i wasn't even sure i'd blog because i'm so pissed at this 'robot' nonsense.

i really think it's offensive. and i think they need to check a site before they flag it.

kat posted a new review last night, "Kat's Korner: Richie Havens: The Economical Collection" and is planning to have another 1 up tonight.

i love richie havens but that's not a cd for me - for all the reasons listed in the review. i have richie havens' albums and this is really more for new listeners. there's a richie havens collection i love. it's called resume: the best of richie havens. it has 17 tracks (1 song's a medley so you get 18 songs) on it, only 6 of which appear on the 'best of.'

did you catch kat's review saturday: "Kat's Korner: Neil Young's Living With War -- key word 'Living'"? that's what i've listened to today, neil young's living with war. i agree that the last track is the 1 you ditch quickly. i'm already over that 1. but the rest of the album is really strong and i'm amazed at how many good cds have come out this year. i hope a lot of other people quit playing 'war got your tongue?' because until they do, the war drags on.

i've got some friends coming over tomorrow afternoon to discuss the war and i'm going to try to serve trina's latest 'Pasta salad with avocado dressing in the Kitchen' - i'm not a good cook. i can be talked through over the phone. but i have found trina's recipes to be practical and becky-proof.

so let's do some news and then i'll post this thing (if blogger/blogspot allows me to).

is alphonso jackson a crook or just a liar? he's the secretary of hud (housing & urban development) appointed by the bully boy. the associated press reports that he gave a talk in dallas, tx and told the group present that he refused to grant a contract to 1 company because the representative of the company didn't support the bully boy:

"He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president,'" Jackson told the group, according to the newspaper.
"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.'" Jackson told the group, which promotes business opportunities for minorities in the real estate industry.
"He didn't get the contract," Jackson said. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."


if the story is true, hold on for that, alphonso jackson is 1 more idiot who thinks he works for the bully boy when, in fact, he works for the people of the united states.

dustee tucker, hud spokesperson, says jackson made the whole thing up. so he's a liar?

She acknowledged that Jackson did not tell the audience the story was made up. But, she said, Jackson used the "hypothetical" story to describe the ruthless politics of Washington. She said the secretary was trying to convey that Washington is a place where political opponents, rather than stabbing you in the back, "will stab you in the chest."

i believe the knife was held by jackson and he waved it in a threatening manner. he needs to go. he is not fit to hold that office. is he a liar? let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's a liar. the liar then wants to set a tone where you either love you some bully boy or you get no contracts. jackson knew that his story (lie?) would be repeated. that's why he bragged about it. he is unfit to hold that office and his ass needs to be kicked to the curb.

5/08/2006

msnbc plagiarizes the associated press

i've got unexpected company tonight and planned to just highlight something c.i. did this afternoon because it's worth noting. i get into my account and now i'm apparently a 'robot' because i have some stupid ass 'word verification' added at the bottom of this post.

you know, i think blogger/blogspot has a lot more important things to do than harrass real people. unless i'm mistaken, last monday no 1 could post at all until the west coast employees had their lattes (that was up at the discussion boards - it's sarcasm).

seems to me they have a few more important things to focus on.

here's c.i.'s thing about how msnbc decided to 'borrow' from the associated press:

Question for the day? Does MSNBC think it's okay to rip off the Associated Press without crediting them? (This was pointed out to me by someone at one of NBC's rival networks.)

First here's what appears at MSNBC (credited to "MSNBC News Services" and link takes you to the "report"):

Insurgents often try to prevent Iraqi citizens from cooperating with their country's new democratically elected government by attacking government workers and killing men who have been recruited into Iraq's military and police forces.

CBS is running an Associated Press article (no individual author credited at CBS, however it's Sameer N. Yacoub's "Bombs Kill U.S. Soldier and 7 Iraqis"):

Insurgents often try to prevent Iraqi citizens from cooperating with their country's new democratically elected government by attacking government workers and killing men who have been recruited into Iraq's military and police forces.

That's word for word. CBS notes it is an AP article. MSNBC pulls the paragraph and runs it without crediting it to AP. (Note: First paragraph contains a link to a CBS & AP story. That's another article -- one with joint credit.)


if company leaves early, i'll post again. if not, that's it for tonight.

5/07/2006


we're in the home stretch at the third estate sunday review. we have a small feature on anthony arnove's book iraq: the logic of withdrawal. dona thought an illustration might liven up the edition. so i've scanned this and am posting it here so that we can use it there. it's an important book, so please read it. new content will start going up at the third estate sunday review shortly. (2 things by ava and c.i. -- something that will excite readers.) Posted by Picasa