did you get the memo?
time to rally the troops to once again save npr/pbs.
save npr?
wasn't the mc-millions supposed to do that?
and on those mc-millions, in a decade or 2 will people look at that money the way people now see donations from big tobacco?
regardless, the seasons are changing, the dems are telling us, again, they'll save us. funny how they couldn't talk that talk during the alito confirmation hearings.
but now they'll save us.
thanks, i'll save myself.
how about dems just try to do your damn job?
that would be wonderful.
but it's time to save pbs and npr.
i'm looking at countless e-mails on that and wondering why they bother to send this to me?
i'm all for serious issues.
npr?
pbs?
pbs. i have satellite tv. i don't need public television.
before you say 'well you rude, rich bitch," who does need pbs?
people who can't afford cable and satellite could have a few more viewing options with pbs.
but pbs doesn't give a damn about those people. it's still not moved to digital (how much money have they wasted on that move anyway?) but that is the plan. get out of broadcast, move to digital.
take the 'public' (even more so) out of public television.
i'm supposed to save a corporation that doesn't give a damn about the people who need them the most?
i've got sundance. i've got a million channels. i did watch the barbra streisand special. (fly boy also bought me the boxed set of all the specials.) that's about the only thing i've HAD to see on pbs in years.
so i'll take a pass (again) on pbs.
i'll take a pass on npr which is possibly more useless than pbs. national petroleum radio is what dennis bernstein likes to dub them (and did so friday on ). it's a wonderful point.
there is no public in npr or pbs.
but we're all supposed to rally around and save them again so they can stab the people in the back again.
gina & krista did a poll of the community (noted here with permission) and if this effects pacifica, we'll care. it probably doesn't. (if it does, we'll hear about it and join the fight.) pacifica doesn't get the funds that npr does from the government because pacifica won't agree to the censorship that npr regularly does.
want to save public radio? don't e-mail your congress members about npr or pbs. use the time to grab a person, sit them down and get them to listen to pacifica. they'll end up aware that there is an alaternative. get the word out.
1 out of 10 listeners contribute, i believe that's the figure. it would be wonderful if every 1 could contribute (fly boy and i did in the latest round) but every 1 can't. that's reality. those who can need to do so for their own listening pleasure and because others can't. increasing the number of listeners around the world increases the chances that more people can contribute.
so do something useful, get the word out on pacifica.
the not so fresh air of terry gross won't be missed. boo hoo for terry 'all i did was ask.' yes dear, but whom did you ask, whom? not any 1 that could talk about the war in a realistic manner. terry thinks realism comes via dexter filkins of the new york times. three years into the war and the anti-war movement remains invisible on what is supposed to be national public radio with the exception of a report or two or three on cindy sheehan. terry gross can probe in mind numbing detail how a craftsman (and they're usually always 'men') came to see driftwood as the perfect medium to express himself in, she just can't address anything that effects our lives.
steve and renee might have to get real jobs. cokie might have to do a few more corporate convention speeches. every 1 will live. if times get hard for them, good. they might be forced to reconsider their own actions when they pushed the stock market as a way of covering labor issues. they might have to think, 'i wouldn't be existing on ramen noodles right now if only i'd said "this is crap, people are having hard times, we need to report it!" ' they never would. they can't.
they try to sell the idea that they have an upscale audience. brings in the corporate underwriting. (never raising unplesant issues keeps the corporate underwriting.)
we've got 2 wars waging right now. i really don't have time to try to fish crap out of a toilet yet again which is how i see npr and pbs.
let 'em die if they can't survive on their own.
how many millions did they give newt? bill bennett?
they always have money for that. they always have money for everything but the people.
they can kiss my ass.
they're crap and we kid ourselves each cycle that we'll save them and they'll appreciate it.
they don't.
i advocate that every 1 sit this 1 out.
let pbs and npr realize what happens when the natural audience they have betrayed sits it out.
let them work to get us back.
they were never 'left.' they were attempting to provide a better job representing the public. those days are gone.
i think it's past time people quit kidding themselves that any of their efforts to save funding in the past were appreciated.
nothing changes.
they won't even fire mara liar liason even though she regularly breaks every ethic and code of her profession. if that was a leftist going on about republicans, she would have been told 'you are a reporter, not a columnist - you can't work here and do that pundit gig anymore.' but she's a right winger, who reportedly assured roger ailes she was a republican before she started appearing on fox 'news' - so every 1 looks the other way when she all but calls for the heads of congress members on charges of treason.
you want to fight to save that, you go right ahead.
but there are serious battles to be fought.
this isn't 1 of them.
let them fight to save their own damn ass for a change.
let them see how far that gets them.
when they finally face a real cut, a deep 1, that can't be restored, maybe they'll learn to appreciate the audience?
until that happens, screw them.
maybe you can use the time to protest the war, protest the war on women, protest any number of REAL issues. or maybe you can just use the time to take a moment to relax?
zoing out in front of the tv is more productive than attempting to 'save' a so-called friend.
npr and pbs are a spouse that you repeatedly catch cheating.
now hillary would forgive that.
but is hillary clinton now the standard for the left?
i hope not.
be sure to read c.i.'s "NYT: Everybody wants to be a war pornographer" and "Other Items (Robert Jay Lifton on Democracy Now)" - they are amazing.
6/10/2006
6/08/2006
flashpoints (dahr jamail was a guest)
i'm covering flashpoints tonight and that's it. it's actually past the time i had said i would forget about blogging if blogger/blogspot wasn't up. but mike called and said it was up. i'll keep it short in case it goes down again.
flashpoints. bradley wrote and he's a huge fan of flashpoints. i am too. but i'm not going to cover every minute of the show. i write about what stands out to me and what i'm in the mood to write about. i don't do requests.
so here's what stood out to me on flashpoints.
the knight report. i really enjoy that feature. it covers a ton of material and it's too much for me to cover. here's what robert knight covered tonight: zarqawi and how's he's been 'dead' before.
robert knight ran it all down regarding 'the latest in a series of death reports' about the 'bruised but remarkably preserved corpse' since the house was 'vaporized' in 'the u.s. strike.'
he noted that 'almost exactly a year ago . .. june 2, 2005,' it was announced 'he was killed and buried in falluja.' 'before that death . . . in march of 2004 [it was] reported that he was killed . . .' 'a year later, in may of 2005 . . . claimed that zarqawi was killed yet again . . . during . . . operation matador' 'In september of last year, yet another death report . . .' 'but in november . . . november 20, 2005 . . . was killed . . .'
nora (who may be norah, i'm still learning names) made a point that few in the media had when she addressed the issue: 'alleged al Quada leader.'
she spoke with the one & only dahr jamail and asked him about the timing of this "news"?
the timing?
'i think that is really the most important of the issues. the fact that haditha was getting the attention it fianlly deserved . . . more and more was coming out . . . the damn had finally broke . ..' but now it's out the window. It 'couldn't have come at more convenient time for' the american administration. dahr pointed out that it was knocking everything else out of the news cycle.
on the subject of rumsfeld naming number of dead that zarqawi is allegedly responsible for, dahr said 'in my opinion over 250, 000 Iraqis have died as a result of this illegal invasion/occupation.'
the displaying of zarqawi's photos reminded him of the person put up on the screen (in 1984) for the 'hate time.' he wondered, 'who will we blame the catastrophe of iraq on now?'
then he spoke of when saddam hussein was arrested and the reaction he heard from iraqis,
'well is capturing saddam going to get me more electricty . . . is it going to get me a job' - a long list.
what's next?
'the level or propaganda I think will only continue to increase . . . . i think we should continue to expect more propaganda . . .'
he noted that the way "reporters" are "reporting" 'they're leaving the door open to that path' of connecting iraq to al qaeda to osama.
nora wondered what was happening that they wouldn't hear about and dahr said that truth would be the victim.
he noted that we'd probably not here about a lot of things: 'women's right in Iraq . . they've gone back at least a 100 years. . . . when are we going to start hearing about collective punishment' by the u.s. military.
he noted ramadi and called it 'the key event' comparing it to falluja in april of 2004 and noting that the city was already surrounded, snipers in place, etc.
he and nora then discussed the 2 500-pound bombs and who was killed by them. he noted he hadn't heard a thing about civilian casulities. he noted that it was 'the equivalent of a small car bomb. . . . without a doubt there were civilian casulities'
dennis then conducted an interview with a guest who pointed out that zarqawi was brought to iraq by the occupation, a product of the occupation. this isn't a victory for freedom, it's a symptom of the occupation.
he saw the announcement on tv at midnight and saw the prime minister surrounded by americans to make the announcement. he wondered of the puppet government, 'what kind of a government is that? . . . he's surrounded by the americans on the right and on the left . . . this is a puppet government.'
so that was flashpoints. i hope you listened. if you missed it, you can hear it at kpfa or at flashpoints - both archive.
i'm going to throw in c.i.'s iraq snapshot but i also want to note that c.i. was all over this zarqawi nonsense from the first thing this morning.
Iraq snapshot.
al-Zarqawi is dead. Maybe. As **Sandra Lupien noted**, this is the second "death" of al-Zarqawi, according to the US government ("Earlier this year the military thought it had killed Zarqawi in another operation but later announced it had been mistaken."). Also noted by Goodman was Thomas E. Ricks "Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi: Jordian Painted As Foreign Threat To Iraq's Stability" (Washington Post). In that article, Ricks wrote of "a propaganda campaign" run by the US military "to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq." Andrew Marshall (Reuters) notes that "the Zarqawi myth" was fed by "U.S. forces" despite the fact that "[m]ost experts believe his foreign fighters make up only a fraction of the insurgency". The Financial Times of London is calling it "one of the biggest propaganda coup's for the US since the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003."
Brian Whitaker (Guardian of London) notes the build up "by the US and sections of the media . . . [to turn al-Zarqawi] into the main bogeyman, but the war, or civil war as it is increaingly regarded, has a momentum of its own." Whitaker goes on to note the daily deaths of "[d]ozens of ordinary people" in Iraq including the targeting of ice vendors. Jonathan Wright (Reuters) reports that news of the death has resulted "in deep splits on Thursday" among Arabs outside of Iraq and quotes Arab analysts including Diaa Rashwan ("expert on Islamist groups at the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo") saying, "Zarqawi in recent times did not represent an important element in violent operations on the ground in Iraq. Other groups which are not extreme, resistance groups not terrorist groups, have grown in strength."
The military strike which may or may not have killed al-Zarqawi involved "[t]wo F-16 warplanes [which] dropped two 500-pound bombs" on the area (China's People Daily). Reuters' Hilmy Kamal reports from that area and is told by a teenager there, "The Americans have a habit of bombing places and then claiming Zarqawi or others were there." Kamal notes that residents are "sceptical" of the claim that al-Zarqawi was there. On KPFA's The Morning Show, Sandra Lupien noted that the US military "called the operation a precision airstrike," that a woman and child died in the attack and that among the rubble/ruins of the attack were "a child's sandal" and "a backpack with a teddy bear on it." The Financial Times notes that "Television pictures of the site of the raid on the village of Hibhib showed an extensive area of destruction and a US Centcom official confirmed to al-Jazeera television that not all the casualties inflicted during the raid were inside the house targetted." KUNA reports that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was asked about the reported killing in terms of whether or not it would be a violation of the Geneva Convention and he responded he didn't think so, "if indeed he is the one who has been killed, has been at war, in a fight. I don't think you can equate it to targeted assassinations of the kind we have seen elsewhere."
Brian Conley notes that Al Jazeera was attempting to interview Zarqawi's brother in law Abu Qudama but the interview was stopped, Abu Qudama "was arrested by Jordanian police. Just before he was arrested he was denouncing members of the press for not always speaking truth about his brother-in-law, making him into an evil man, and not just a fighter for god." Conley notes that "at least one Al-Jazeera correspondent" was arrested as well.
Meanwhile the BBC reports that two posts have been filled in occupation puppet and Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Actually, three posts were (finally) filled as the Guardian reports: "General Abdul-Qadre Mohammed Jassim, a Sunni Arab, . . . named as the new defence minister . . . Jawad al-Bolani named as the interior minister and Sherwan al-Waili as national security minister" (both al-Bolani and al-Waili are "Shia Muslims"). This comes after many missed deadlines that al-Maliki set for himself as well as seventeen days after the constitutional deadline of May 22nd.
The Associated Press reports on the bombs in the Baghadad that killed "at least 19 people . . . wounding more than 40." The bombs went off at in a section known as New Baghdad. Ignoring this and other realities allows Sally Buzbee (Associated Press) to declare Thursday "good news Thursday" indicating that possibly she's auditioning for a TV chat gig since such a statement has little resemblance to reporting. (In one of her most non-reporting remarks, she concludes of al-Maliki: "Thursday's events just made clear he's bound and determined to jump in and try." Well Yippee-ki-yay, Cowgirl!)
What Iraq was she speaking of? Along with the bombing noted already, Reuters reports thirteen were wounded from a bomb "planted inside a building" in Baghdad, that four corpses were discovered, that police announced today that (yesterday) Ahmed Kurdi ("judge of Dujail court") had been kidnapped . . . Fredrik Dahl (Reuters) reports that: "Gunmen shot and seriously wounded a senior Defence Ministry official . . . General Khalil al-Ibadi, in charge of food supplies for the armed forces, and his driver . . ."
This as the BBC reports that the British Ministry of Defence is investigating the death of a thirteen-year-old boy. As noted yesterday, "The Associated Press reports that British soldiers fired on civilians and did so because 100 people (presumably adults) were stoning them, Iraqi police say that the "people" were children and that a thirteen-year-old boy was killed and a twelve-year-old girl was wounded." A spokesman acknowledges to the BBC that they "are aware of reports that a 13-year-old has been killed" and states that British troops "reported that two teenage boys had been hit."
Finally, Terri Judd reports on the continued deterioration for women in Iraq. Noting that Iraq was "once the envy of women across the Middle East," Judd offers a look at the new realities which include women's heads being forcibly shaved after they refuse to "refuse to wear a scarf," being "stoned in the street for wearing make-up," being nothing but tokens who make up "25 per cent of Iraq's Provincial Council" . . . On the last item, Judd notes that women's faces are "blacked out" with the slogan "No women in politics" on "[p]osters around the city" and that women serving on the council have been told "you don't know anything" so "they just agreed to sign whatever they were told."
democracy now
amy goodman
the common ills
iraq
kpfa
the morning show
sandra lupien
the washington post
thomas e. rick
brian conley
dahr jamail
mikey likes it
flashpoints
flashpoints. bradley wrote and he's a huge fan of flashpoints. i am too. but i'm not going to cover every minute of the show. i write about what stands out to me and what i'm in the mood to write about. i don't do requests.
so here's what stood out to me on flashpoints.
the knight report. i really enjoy that feature. it covers a ton of material and it's too much for me to cover. here's what robert knight covered tonight: zarqawi and how's he's been 'dead' before.
robert knight ran it all down regarding 'the latest in a series of death reports' about the 'bruised but remarkably preserved corpse' since the house was 'vaporized' in 'the u.s. strike.'
he noted that 'almost exactly a year ago . .. june 2, 2005,' it was announced 'he was killed and buried in falluja.' 'before that death . . . in march of 2004 [it was] reported that he was killed . . .' 'a year later, in may of 2005 . . . claimed that zarqawi was killed yet again . . . during . . . operation matador' 'In september of last year, yet another death report . . .' 'but in november . . . november 20, 2005 . . . was killed . . .'
nora (who may be norah, i'm still learning names) made a point that few in the media had when she addressed the issue: 'alleged al Quada leader.'
she spoke with the one & only dahr jamail and asked him about the timing of this "news"?
the timing?
'i think that is really the most important of the issues. the fact that haditha was getting the attention it fianlly deserved . . . more and more was coming out . . . the damn had finally broke . ..' but now it's out the window. It 'couldn't have come at more convenient time for' the american administration. dahr pointed out that it was knocking everything else out of the news cycle.
on the subject of rumsfeld naming number of dead that zarqawi is allegedly responsible for, dahr said 'in my opinion over 250, 000 Iraqis have died as a result of this illegal invasion/occupation.'
the displaying of zarqawi's photos reminded him of the person put up on the screen (in 1984) for the 'hate time.' he wondered, 'who will we blame the catastrophe of iraq on now?'
then he spoke of when saddam hussein was arrested and the reaction he heard from iraqis,
'well is capturing saddam going to get me more electricty . . . is it going to get me a job' - a long list.
what's next?
'the level or propaganda I think will only continue to increase . . . . i think we should continue to expect more propaganda . . .'
he noted that the way "reporters" are "reporting" 'they're leaving the door open to that path' of connecting iraq to al qaeda to osama.
nora wondered what was happening that they wouldn't hear about and dahr said that truth would be the victim.
he noted that we'd probably not here about a lot of things: 'women's right in Iraq . . they've gone back at least a 100 years. . . . when are we going to start hearing about collective punishment' by the u.s. military.
he noted ramadi and called it 'the key event' comparing it to falluja in april of 2004 and noting that the city was already surrounded, snipers in place, etc.
he and nora then discussed the 2 500-pound bombs and who was killed by them. he noted he hadn't heard a thing about civilian casulities. he noted that it was 'the equivalent of a small car bomb. . . . without a doubt there were civilian casulities'
dennis then conducted an interview with a guest who pointed out that zarqawi was brought to iraq by the occupation, a product of the occupation. this isn't a victory for freedom, it's a symptom of the occupation.
he saw the announcement on tv at midnight and saw the prime minister surrounded by americans to make the announcement. he wondered of the puppet government, 'what kind of a government is that? . . . he's surrounded by the americans on the right and on the left . . . this is a puppet government.'
so that was flashpoints. i hope you listened. if you missed it, you can hear it at kpfa or at flashpoints - both archive.
i'm going to throw in c.i.'s iraq snapshot but i also want to note that c.i. was all over this zarqawi nonsense from the first thing this morning.
Iraq snapshot.
al-Zarqawi is dead. Maybe. As **Sandra Lupien noted**, this is the second "death" of al-Zarqawi, according to the US government ("Earlier this year the military thought it had killed Zarqawi in another operation but later announced it had been mistaken."). Also noted by Goodman was Thomas E. Ricks "Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi: Jordian Painted As Foreign Threat To Iraq's Stability" (Washington Post). In that article, Ricks wrote of "a propaganda campaign" run by the US military "to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq." Andrew Marshall (Reuters) notes that "the Zarqawi myth" was fed by "U.S. forces" despite the fact that "[m]ost experts believe his foreign fighters make up only a fraction of the insurgency". The Financial Times of London is calling it "one of the biggest propaganda coup's for the US since the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003."
Brian Whitaker (Guardian of London) notes the build up "by the US and sections of the media . . . [to turn al-Zarqawi] into the main bogeyman, but the war, or civil war as it is increaingly regarded, has a momentum of its own." Whitaker goes on to note the daily deaths of "[d]ozens of ordinary people" in Iraq including the targeting of ice vendors. Jonathan Wright (Reuters) reports that news of the death has resulted "in deep splits on Thursday" among Arabs outside of Iraq and quotes Arab analysts including Diaa Rashwan ("expert on Islamist groups at the al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo") saying, "Zarqawi in recent times did not represent an important element in violent operations on the ground in Iraq. Other groups which are not extreme, resistance groups not terrorist groups, have grown in strength."
The military strike which may or may not have killed al-Zarqawi involved "[t]wo F-16 warplanes [which] dropped two 500-pound bombs" on the area (China's People Daily). Reuters' Hilmy Kamal reports from that area and is told by a teenager there, "The Americans have a habit of bombing places and then claiming Zarqawi or others were there." Kamal notes that residents are "sceptical" of the claim that al-Zarqawi was there. On KPFA's The Morning Show, Sandra Lupien noted that the US military "called the operation a precision airstrike," that a woman and child died in the attack and that among the rubble/ruins of the attack were "a child's sandal" and "a backpack with a teddy bear on it." The Financial Times notes that "Television pictures of the site of the raid on the village of Hibhib showed an extensive area of destruction and a US Centcom official confirmed to al-Jazeera television that not all the casualties inflicted during the raid were inside the house targetted." KUNA reports that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was asked about the reported killing in terms of whether or not it would be a violation of the Geneva Convention and he responded he didn't think so, "if indeed he is the one who has been killed, has been at war, in a fight. I don't think you can equate it to targeted assassinations of the kind we have seen elsewhere."
Brian Conley notes that Al Jazeera was attempting to interview Zarqawi's brother in law Abu Qudama but the interview was stopped, Abu Qudama "was arrested by Jordanian police. Just before he was arrested he was denouncing members of the press for not always speaking truth about his brother-in-law, making him into an evil man, and not just a fighter for god." Conley notes that "at least one Al-Jazeera correspondent" was arrested as well.
Meanwhile the BBC reports that two posts have been filled in occupation puppet and Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. Actually, three posts were (finally) filled as the Guardian reports: "General Abdul-Qadre Mohammed Jassim, a Sunni Arab, . . . named as the new defence minister . . . Jawad al-Bolani named as the interior minister and Sherwan al-Waili as national security minister" (both al-Bolani and al-Waili are "Shia Muslims"). This comes after many missed deadlines that al-Maliki set for himself as well as seventeen days after the constitutional deadline of May 22nd.
The Associated Press reports on the bombs in the Baghadad that killed "at least 19 people . . . wounding more than 40." The bombs went off at in a section known as New Baghdad. Ignoring this and other realities allows Sally Buzbee (Associated Press) to declare Thursday "good news Thursday" indicating that possibly she's auditioning for a TV chat gig since such a statement has little resemblance to reporting. (In one of her most non-reporting remarks, she concludes of al-Maliki: "Thursday's events just made clear he's bound and determined to jump in and try." Well Yippee-ki-yay, Cowgirl!)
What Iraq was she speaking of? Along with the bombing noted already, Reuters reports thirteen were wounded from a bomb "planted inside a building" in Baghdad, that four corpses were discovered, that police announced today that (yesterday) Ahmed Kurdi ("judge of Dujail court") had been kidnapped . . . Fredrik Dahl (Reuters) reports that: "Gunmen shot and seriously wounded a senior Defence Ministry official . . . General Khalil al-Ibadi, in charge of food supplies for the armed forces, and his driver . . ."
This as the BBC reports that the British Ministry of Defence is investigating the death of a thirteen-year-old boy. As noted yesterday, "The Associated Press reports that British soldiers fired on civilians and did so because 100 people (presumably adults) were stoning them, Iraqi police say that the "people" were children and that a thirteen-year-old boy was killed and a twelve-year-old girl was wounded." A spokesman acknowledges to the BBC that they "are aware of reports that a 13-year-old has been killed" and states that British troops "reported that two teenage boys had been hit."
Finally, Terri Judd reports on the continued deterioration for women in Iraq. Noting that Iraq was "once the envy of women across the Middle East," Judd offers a look at the new realities which include women's heads being forcibly shaved after they refuse to "refuse to wear a scarf," being "stoned in the street for wearing make-up," being nothing but tokens who make up "25 per cent of Iraq's Provincial Council" . . . On the last item, Judd notes that women's faces are "blacked out" with the slogan "No women in politics" on "[p]osters around the city" and that women serving on the council have been told "you don't know anything" so "they just agreed to sign whatever they were told."
democracy now
amy goodman
the common ills
iraq
kpfa
the morning show
sandra lupien
the washington post
thomas e. rick
brian conley
dahr jamail
mikey likes it
flashpoints
6/07/2006
stupid blogger/blogspot
blogger/blogspot is full of shit.
mike and elaine lost their posts. mike's on the phone now. i'm not wasting all night while they try to get their shit together.
remember a few weeks ago? they had time, they MADE time, to accuse me of being a robot.
for that, they have all the time in the world. to fix the damn problem they've had since monday? they don't have time for that.
i think we need to seriously consider pullling all our sites and going to a for-pay site where, presumably, you would get a response when THEY screw up. as opposed to the weak-ass apologies that are meaningless (which is all blogger/blogspot gives).
i've really had it with their nonsense.
Army Lt. Refuses Iraq Deployment
Meanwhile, a US army officer has announced he's refusing his deployment to Iraq slated for later this month. The officer, First Lt. Ehren Watada, says he first asked for permission to resign his position in January. He says he wrote: "I am whole-heartedly opposed to the continued war in Iraq, the deception used to wage this war, and the lawlessness that has pervaded every aspect of our civilian leadership." Lt. Watada is believed to be the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq since the invasion. Simultaneous news conferences by his supporters are expected to be held today in his home state of Hawaii and in Olympia, Washington. Military officials told Watada he cannot attend the news conference because he is barred from speaking publicly about his case while on duty at the base.
on flashpoints tonight, they aired an interview with ehren watada. listen to that. it's real news. i'm not writing another word because blogger/blogspot will probably lose it.
people have lives. they don't need to spend an hour or more on a post just to have blogger/blogspot screw it up. and i've got a message now that 'could not connect to blogger.com. saving and publishing may fail.' so let me get this up while the message is gone.
i'm so sick of them. they can make me prove i'm not a robot but they can't do their own job.
mike and elaine lost their posts. mike's on the phone now. i'm not wasting all night while they try to get their shit together.
remember a few weeks ago? they had time, they MADE time, to accuse me of being a robot.
for that, they have all the time in the world. to fix the damn problem they've had since monday? they don't have time for that.
i think we need to seriously consider pullling all our sites and going to a for-pay site where, presumably, you would get a response when THEY screw up. as opposed to the weak-ass apologies that are meaningless (which is all blogger/blogspot gives).
i've really had it with their nonsense.
Army Lt. Refuses Iraq Deployment
Meanwhile, a US army officer has announced he's refusing his deployment to Iraq slated for later this month. The officer, First Lt. Ehren Watada, says he first asked for permission to resign his position in January. He says he wrote: "I am whole-heartedly opposed to the continued war in Iraq, the deception used to wage this war, and the lawlessness that has pervaded every aspect of our civilian leadership." Lt. Watada is believed to be the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq since the invasion. Simultaneous news conferences by his supporters are expected to be held today in his home state of Hawaii and in Olympia, Washington. Military officials told Watada he cannot attend the news conference because he is barred from speaking publicly about his case while on duty at the base.
on flashpoints tonight, they aired an interview with ehren watada. listen to that. it's real news. i'm not writing another word because blogger/blogspot will probably lose it.
people have lives. they don't need to spend an hour or more on a post just to have blogger/blogspot screw it up. and i've got a message now that 'could not connect to blogger.com. saving and publishing may fail.' so let me get this up while the message is gone.
i'm so sick of them. they can make me prove i'm not a robot but they can't do their own job.
6/06/2006
immigrants, molly ivins, third estate sunday review
on flashpoints tonight, a wonderful point was made about ahnuld being all ready to support his bully boy by sending troops to the california-mexico border and ahnuld was talking about the 'exit strategy.' trying to be on top of his game, no doubt. but the point was made that you don't usually talk of 'exit strategies' for your own country. well maybe ahnuld was feeling a little home sick for austria? maybe we should build a wall to protect the u.s. from ahnuld? as long as bully boy's scapegoating immigrants, why not scapegoat them all! that's what i propose. scapegoat every 1. you, me, every 1 who's not 100% native american. (and i don't mean, by 'native american,' born in the united states.)
this latest wave of scapegoating comes as the united nations notes that over 191 million people around the world live outside of their country of birth. like the governator ahnuld.
molly ivins has a hilarious look at the truth of all bully boy's bluster on gay marriage, immigrants, flag burning and more. from 'Flag Burning and Other Dubious Epidemics:'
Gay marriage, now there's a crisis. Well, OK, so there isn't much gay marriage going on here in Texas. None, in fact. First, we made it illegal. Then, we made it unconstitutional. But President Bush is all concerned about it, so I guess we have to alter the U.S. Constitution.
Gus and Captain Call (of "Lonesome Dove" fame) will be an item--with who knows who waiting in line right after them.
Also of great concern to Republicans is God Almighty, who, rather to my surprise, has been elected chairman of the Texas Republican Party. That's what they announced at the biannual convention in San Antonio this week: "He is the chairman of the party." Sheesh, the Democrats couldn't even get Superman.
Also weighing down the nation with a heavy burden is the estate tax, which the Senate will try to repeal this week. The estate tax applies to around 1% of Americans, and I have yet to find any record of it costing anyone a family farm or business. It affects only very, very, very rich people, of whom you are probably not one. And they don’t, actually, need another tax break.
These are the things we are supposed to be worrying about, and you notice that it frees us of quite a few troubles we might otherwise fret about.
The war in Iraq? No sweat.
War with Iran? We're carefree.
The economy? Hey, did you see that employment report? Well, ignore it.
since elaine's post on the most recent edition for the third estate sunday review was lost, cedric asked me to note something about it if i had anything to note. what i talked to elaine about was mainly the fact that c.i. and dona started the week having to clean up the mess that was the news roundup and both didn't get to sleep on monday morning until after the sun came up. then there was the roundtable friday/saturday. i just felt like 4 hours was too much to try to force a short story (that never came). i was for trying for about an hour and a half, maybe 2. but after 2 hours it was obvious that nothing was going to come of it and i was for ditching it then. but both dona and c.i. had sunday plans and having done so much at the start of the week, they really didn't need to sit around and wait for every 1 to grasp that there was no short story there when we could have been busy writing other things.
that's it from me. be sure to read 'TV: TESR Investigates.' (i may cover the edition again tomorrow night.)
this latest wave of scapegoating comes as the united nations notes that over 191 million people around the world live outside of their country of birth. like the governator ahnuld.
molly ivins has a hilarious look at the truth of all bully boy's bluster on gay marriage, immigrants, flag burning and more. from 'Flag Burning and Other Dubious Epidemics:'
Gay marriage, now there's a crisis. Well, OK, so there isn't much gay marriage going on here in Texas. None, in fact. First, we made it illegal. Then, we made it unconstitutional. But President Bush is all concerned about it, so I guess we have to alter the U.S. Constitution.
Gus and Captain Call (of "Lonesome Dove" fame) will be an item--with who knows who waiting in line right after them.
Also of great concern to Republicans is God Almighty, who, rather to my surprise, has been elected chairman of the Texas Republican Party. That's what they announced at the biannual convention in San Antonio this week: "He is the chairman of the party." Sheesh, the Democrats couldn't even get Superman.
Also weighing down the nation with a heavy burden is the estate tax, which the Senate will try to repeal this week. The estate tax applies to around 1% of Americans, and I have yet to find any record of it costing anyone a family farm or business. It affects only very, very, very rich people, of whom you are probably not one. And they don’t, actually, need another tax break.
These are the things we are supposed to be worrying about, and you notice that it frees us of quite a few troubles we might otherwise fret about.
The war in Iraq? No sweat.
War with Iran? We're carefree.
The economy? Hey, did you see that employment report? Well, ignore it.
since elaine's post on the most recent edition for the third estate sunday review was lost, cedric asked me to note something about it if i had anything to note. what i talked to elaine about was mainly the fact that c.i. and dona started the week having to clean up the mess that was the news roundup and both didn't get to sleep on monday morning until after the sun came up. then there was the roundtable friday/saturday. i just felt like 4 hours was too much to try to force a short story (that never came). i was for trying for about an hour and a half, maybe 2. but after 2 hours it was obvious that nothing was going to come of it and i was for ditching it then. but both dona and c.i. had sunday plans and having done so much at the start of the week, they really didn't need to sit around and wait for every 1 to grasp that there was no short story there when we could have been busy writing other things.
that's it from me. be sure to read 'TV: TESR Investigates.' (i may cover the edition again tomorrow night.)
6/05/2006
blogger's acting nutsy tonight so short post
elaine just called and is upset. why? blogger/blogspot (which rarely fixes any of its problems and never responds to e-mails) just lost her entire post.
this wasn't a normal post. she spent at least two hours talking to people for this post. she wrote 12 paragraphs based on the conversations. (and this was about the latest third estate sunday review so she was also present for the ordeal that was this edition.) and then? she covered three items from democracy now, covered janet coleman's cat radio cafe, noted two other details about iraq and goes to publish only to find the dumb ass blogger/blogspot has lost her post. she gets 'page cannot be displayed.'
she is so mad right now. i don't blame her. four hours working on a post? c.i. can do that but i don't know that any of us do that ourselves at our own sites (i'm not talking about group efforts).
i'm not going to post long because mike just called and said he went to publish and he's having problems too. he's got his post on his end. he can see it's not lost. but when he goes to publish it, blogger/blogspot gets hung up and it won't publish. so with both of them having problems, i'm not going to invest much in this post.
i will note that dennis bernstein interviewed greg palast on flashpoints tonight and that palast's book armed madhouse comes out tomorrow. there was also a report on the upcoming mexico elections and how the zapatistas are considering a day of protest on july 2nd (that's the day of the election) because the 3 parties refuse to recognize and represent the people of the countryside.
read ava and c.i.'s 'TV: TESR Investigates' it's hilarious. and if you are reading this on a monday night, consider yourself lucky. i saved after 'hilarious' and had no problem. (mike said to save every few paragraphs after what just happened to elaine - and as usal blogger/blogspots 'recover post' option is a sick joke that never works.) but i then thought i'd see if it would publish. if it did, i'd come back in and add some more. but it wouldn't publish.
usually, when there's a problem you get a 'test connection' now message, you click on it and blogger tells you whether or not it can connect. that's not happened but there's some screwy problem. oh, if you don't see entries tomorrow morning at the common ills, check the mirror site because if this problem continues and is universal, it may prevent posting tomorrow morning. (i'll call c.i. in a bit to give a warning.)
i'll note this by c.i. because it's worth noting and elaine was upset that she didn't have time to at least copy and paste this:
Iraq snapshot. As Amy Goodman noted, more than 85 people died from violence in Iraq over the weekend. In Baghdad today, 'commandos' raided bus stations kidnapping "at least 50 people," the Associated Press reports. The AFP notes that Major General Rashid Fulayah "contradicted earlier reports that the operation was officially sanctioned." The assailants wore "commando uniforms" and were originally thought to be part of the police commandos (militias) -- Rashid Fulayah is the "commander of the police commandos in Baghdad." Both Sandra Lupien (on KPFA's The Morning Show) and Reuters noted that 'commando' initiated kidnappings were seen as coordinated.
Also in Baghdad, the AFP reports that eleven students were killed by assailants who stopped their bus and "riddled it with bullets." Two brothers traveling to college were also gunned down in a separate attack reports CBS and AP. In a separate report, AP notes the two Sunni brothers' names were Ahmed and Arkan Sarhan and that they "were in their early 20s." Reuters reports that "the head of the local municipal council" Ghalib Ali Abdullah and his driver were killed by assailants in Baghdad. And the Associated Press notes that assailants "in two cars" killed Kadim Falhi Hussein al-Saedi "near his home in western Baghdad."
In Ramadi, CBS and the AP report, artillery was fired by "U.S.-led forces" and the "the U.S.-Iraqi Joint Operations Center" states the targets were "four military-aged males unloading a weapons cache" while Dr. Omar al-Duleimi notes that "five civilians were killed and 15 wounded."
Speaking to the hosts of Law and Disorder on WBAI this morning, Anthony Arnove (author of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal) noted of the illegal occupation, "The longer the US stays the worse things will get . . . The United States has no right to be in Iraq. They used a series of lie [to wage an illegal war]. . . All those lies have now been exposed. . . . Every day the occupation is engaging in collective punishment of the Iraqi people."*
Throughout Iraq, corpses were found. In Suwayra, Reuters reports, four corpses ("stab wounds") were discovered "in the Tigris River." The AFP notes that seven corpses were discovered in Baghdad. The AP notes two of the corpses and that one "had been shot in the head" and the other was also shot in the head as well as the chest and was blindfolded.
Margaret Hassan was kidnapped in October of 2004 and assumed dead in November of 2004 (her body was never found -- her husband remains in Iraq until her body is found). Today, the BBC reports, Mustafa Salman al-Jubouri "has been jailed for life for his role in the abudction and murder of aid worker Margaret Hassan." Reuters notes that "[t]wo other defendents in the case were freed" and that "[m]ore than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003" and that "[m]ore than 40" of tose kidnapped were killed. Hassan, who had "British, Iraqi and Irish nationality," had been the "head of the Iraqi operation of the CARE International charity." In January of 2003, Hassan went to the United Nations and spoke with a number of people including UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette -- a visit she summarized on CNN as, "My message to the United Nations was . . . this is an impoverished nation over 12 years. They have not got what it takes to withstand a further crisis." Margaret Hassan met her husband Tahseen Ali Hassan in England and then moved to Iraq in 1972.
Though CARE played down her political stance, as her family notes, she "was vocally opposed to the war in Iraq." Speaking to Daniel McGrory (Times of London), her family blames the British government for Hassan's death noting "the refusal by the British Government to open a dialogue with the kidnappers." Her brother and three sisters revealed that the kidnappers had contacted Tahseen Ali Hassan repeatedly using his wife's cell phone, each time demanding a dialogue with the British Embassy for her relase; however, the British Embassy, according to Tahseen Ali Hassan, refused to contact the kidnappers (repeatedly refused, there were at least four calls and each one was passed on the British Embassy according to Hassan, the Times confirms the first call was passed on).
In the United States, CNN notes that Joe Biden called for Donald Rumsfeld (sec. of Defense, US) to step down as a rsult of the incidents in Haditha and the cover up. The senator appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and stated: "When you make serious mistakes, you step forward and you acknowledge them and you walk away. . . . [Rumsfeld] should be gone; he shouldn't be in his office tomorrow morning."
And Rumsfeld wasn't in his office Monday morning. Rumsfeld is in Vietnam. Sunday began a three day visit where he's meeting with "his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Van Tra."
CBS and the AP report that CBS reporter Kimberly Dozier will not be returning to the United States on Tuesday as had been expected. On May 29th, a roadside bomb in Baghdad injured Dozier and took the lives of Paul Douglas and James Brolan. In their joint story, CBS and the AP note: "Scores of journalists -- nearly 75 percent of them Iraqis -- have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion." Many are also missing including French cameraman Frederic Nerac who has been missing since March 22, 2003 and German cameraman Isam Hadi Muhsin Al-Shumary who has been missince August 15, 2004. Reporters Without Borders' places the figure for journalists and media assistants killed since the illegal 2003 invasion at 97. In addition Iraqi reporter Reem Zeid and Marwan Khazaal, who were kidnapped Feb. 1, 2006 remain missing as does Agence France-Presse's accountant Salah Jali al-Gharrawi who was kidnapped April 4, 2006. (All three kidnappings took place in Baghdad.) Reporters Without Borders has an online petition that they intend to deliver "to Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to encourage him to do everything necessary to find them."
*Ruth read the Arnove quote used over the phone and will be covering Arnove's appearance in her next Ruth's Public Radio Report. (Thank you, Ruth.)
this wasn't a normal post. she spent at least two hours talking to people for this post. she wrote 12 paragraphs based on the conversations. (and this was about the latest third estate sunday review so she was also present for the ordeal that was this edition.) and then? she covered three items from democracy now, covered janet coleman's cat radio cafe, noted two other details about iraq and goes to publish only to find the dumb ass blogger/blogspot has lost her post. she gets 'page cannot be displayed.'
she is so mad right now. i don't blame her. four hours working on a post? c.i. can do that but i don't know that any of us do that ourselves at our own sites (i'm not talking about group efforts).
i'm not going to post long because mike just called and said he went to publish and he's having problems too. he's got his post on his end. he can see it's not lost. but when he goes to publish it, blogger/blogspot gets hung up and it won't publish. so with both of them having problems, i'm not going to invest much in this post.
i will note that dennis bernstein interviewed greg palast on flashpoints tonight and that palast's book armed madhouse comes out tomorrow. there was also a report on the upcoming mexico elections and how the zapatistas are considering a day of protest on july 2nd (that's the day of the election) because the 3 parties refuse to recognize and represent the people of the countryside.
read ava and c.i.'s 'TV: TESR Investigates' it's hilarious. and if you are reading this on a monday night, consider yourself lucky. i saved after 'hilarious' and had no problem. (mike said to save every few paragraphs after what just happened to elaine - and as usal blogger/blogspots 'recover post' option is a sick joke that never works.) but i then thought i'd see if it would publish. if it did, i'd come back in and add some more. but it wouldn't publish.
usually, when there's a problem you get a 'test connection' now message, you click on it and blogger tells you whether or not it can connect. that's not happened but there's some screwy problem. oh, if you don't see entries tomorrow morning at the common ills, check the mirror site because if this problem continues and is universal, it may prevent posting tomorrow morning. (i'll call c.i. in a bit to give a warning.)
i'll note this by c.i. because it's worth noting and elaine was upset that she didn't have time to at least copy and paste this:
Iraq snapshot. As Amy Goodman noted, more than 85 people died from violence in Iraq over the weekend. In Baghdad today, 'commandos' raided bus stations kidnapping "at least 50 people," the Associated Press reports. The AFP notes that Major General Rashid Fulayah "contradicted earlier reports that the operation was officially sanctioned." The assailants wore "commando uniforms" and were originally thought to be part of the police commandos (militias) -- Rashid Fulayah is the "commander of the police commandos in Baghdad." Both Sandra Lupien (on KPFA's The Morning Show) and Reuters noted that 'commando' initiated kidnappings were seen as coordinated.
Also in Baghdad, the AFP reports that eleven students were killed by assailants who stopped their bus and "riddled it with bullets." Two brothers traveling to college were also gunned down in a separate attack reports CBS and AP. In a separate report, AP notes the two Sunni brothers' names were Ahmed and Arkan Sarhan and that they "were in their early 20s." Reuters reports that "the head of the local municipal council" Ghalib Ali Abdullah and his driver were killed by assailants in Baghdad. And the Associated Press notes that assailants "in two cars" killed Kadim Falhi Hussein al-Saedi "near his home in western Baghdad."
In Ramadi, CBS and the AP report, artillery was fired by "U.S.-led forces" and the "the U.S.-Iraqi Joint Operations Center" states the targets were "four military-aged males unloading a weapons cache" while Dr. Omar al-Duleimi notes that "five civilians were killed and 15 wounded."
Speaking to the hosts of Law and Disorder on WBAI this morning, Anthony Arnove (author of IRAQ: The Logic of Withdrawal) noted of the illegal occupation, "The longer the US stays the worse things will get . . . The United States has no right to be in Iraq. They used a series of lie [to wage an illegal war]. . . All those lies have now been exposed. . . . Every day the occupation is engaging in collective punishment of the Iraqi people."*
Throughout Iraq, corpses were found. In Suwayra, Reuters reports, four corpses ("stab wounds") were discovered "in the Tigris River." The AFP notes that seven corpses were discovered in Baghdad. The AP notes two of the corpses and that one "had been shot in the head" and the other was also shot in the head as well as the chest and was blindfolded.
Margaret Hassan was kidnapped in October of 2004 and assumed dead in November of 2004 (her body was never found -- her husband remains in Iraq until her body is found). Today, the BBC reports, Mustafa Salman al-Jubouri "has been jailed for life for his role in the abudction and murder of aid worker Margaret Hassan." Reuters notes that "[t]wo other defendents in the case were freed" and that "[m]ore than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003" and that "[m]ore than 40" of tose kidnapped were killed. Hassan, who had "British, Iraqi and Irish nationality," had been the "head of the Iraqi operation of the CARE International charity." In January of 2003, Hassan went to the United Nations and spoke with a number of people including UN Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette -- a visit she summarized on CNN as, "My message to the United Nations was . . . this is an impoverished nation over 12 years. They have not got what it takes to withstand a further crisis." Margaret Hassan met her husband Tahseen Ali Hassan in England and then moved to Iraq in 1972.
Though CARE played down her political stance, as her family notes, she "was vocally opposed to the war in Iraq." Speaking to Daniel McGrory (Times of London), her family blames the British government for Hassan's death noting "the refusal by the British Government to open a dialogue with the kidnappers." Her brother and three sisters revealed that the kidnappers had contacted Tahseen Ali Hassan repeatedly using his wife's cell phone, each time demanding a dialogue with the British Embassy for her relase; however, the British Embassy, according to Tahseen Ali Hassan, refused to contact the kidnappers (repeatedly refused, there were at least four calls and each one was passed on the British Embassy according to Hassan, the Times confirms the first call was passed on).
In the United States, CNN notes that Joe Biden called for Donald Rumsfeld (sec. of Defense, US) to step down as a rsult of the incidents in Haditha and the cover up. The senator appeared on NBC's Meet the Press and stated: "When you make serious mistakes, you step forward and you acknowledge them and you walk away. . . . [Rumsfeld] should be gone; he shouldn't be in his office tomorrow morning."
And Rumsfeld wasn't in his office Monday morning. Rumsfeld is in Vietnam. Sunday began a three day visit where he's meeting with "his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Van Tra."
CBS and the AP report that CBS reporter Kimberly Dozier will not be returning to the United States on Tuesday as had been expected. On May 29th, a roadside bomb in Baghdad injured Dozier and took the lives of Paul Douglas and James Brolan. In their joint story, CBS and the AP note: "Scores of journalists -- nearly 75 percent of them Iraqis -- have been injured, killed or kidnapped in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion." Many are also missing including French cameraman Frederic Nerac who has been missing since March 22, 2003 and German cameraman Isam Hadi Muhsin Al-Shumary who has been missince August 15, 2004. Reporters Without Borders' places the figure for journalists and media assistants killed since the illegal 2003 invasion at 97. In addition Iraqi reporter Reem Zeid and Marwan Khazaal, who were kidnapped Feb. 1, 2006 remain missing as does Agence France-Presse's accountant Salah Jali al-Gharrawi who was kidnapped April 4, 2006. (All three kidnappings took place in Baghdad.) Reporters Without Borders has an online petition that they intend to deliver "to Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to encourage him to do everything necessary to find them."
*Ruth read the Arnove quote used over the phone and will be covering Arnove's appearance in her next Ruth's Public Radio Report. (Thank you, Ruth.)
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