Today, we're all cheerleaders

First, a correction. Friday, I wrote this:

This week, I noted special programming ( WBAI's special broadcast of Beckett's Waiting for Godot which aired Monday night -- if you missed it, you can use the archives to hear it).

Tammy was kind enough to e-mail and tell me that what you get from the archive is only the introduction to the play and one of the first scenes. I apologize for my error and thank Tammy for catching it.

Mike and I were on the phone and we were laughing and being quite silly. Which caused him to wonder what sort of posts we'd end up with? I have no idea. I know that we finished the edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review early (for Third) Sunday morning. (Four a.m.) (Third proper, which includes C.I., did do a polish on the editorial we'd all worked and Ava and C.I. never stopped polishing their TV commentary, but the rest of us were done by four a.m. That is late, but since there are times when it is 9:00 am or later, this was early and probably the earliest of any edition I've participated on.)

So, I was able to get some sleep and not wake up around three in the afternoon having lost half the day. I woke up at nine which gave me six additional hours in my Sunday so I was able to relax. I think that's why we were both in a silly mood. Usually, we're still recovering from Sunday. (If you wake up at three p.m., it can be very difficult to go to sleep at a reasonable time on Sunday night.)

So please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's commentary.

"Cindy Sheehan Returns to Camp Casey" (Democracy Now!):
And Cindy Sheehan and others returned to Crawford Texas to protest outside President Bush's estate. At a sunrise service on Easter Sunday the Rev. Joseph Lowery urged the protesters to keep working for peace.

I heard Cindy Sheehan saying that she would be at Camp Casey every time the Bully Boy goes on holiday. (It was on one of the Pacifica news shows but I was listening to several programs yesterday and don't remember which station I heard it on.) She said that it didn't matter that Bully Boy wasn't there (he was vacationing up north). I agree with that and agree with her about the rumors she's heard that he may be avoiding his ranchette (my term, not Sheehan's) because he doesn't want to face her.

That actually reminds me of a joke we did on April 9th in The Third Estate Sunday Review's
"'What I Didn't Find In Iraq' by Bully Boy:"

I found out this country needs something like unlisted addresses. You know, like unlisted phone numbers? Everytime I went down to my ranch to get a little rest that Cindy Sheehan would be out there. I asked Dick if I could have his undisclosed location and he got all hard ass and goes, "It's not a time-share."



"120,000 Mark 90th Anniversary of Easter Rising in Ireland" (Democracy Now!):
In Ireland, 120,000 people gathered in Dublin Sunday to mark the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising -- a short-lived 1916 rebellion against British rule. During the uprising, Irish rebels seized parts of Dublin from the British and declared an Irish Republic. The rebellion failed and the British executed 15 leaders. But the uprising inspired the Irish independence movement. Five years later 26 of Ireland's 32 counties became free of British rule.

If you know much about Mike, you know he is Irish-American. If you know The Common Ills community, you know that a number are as well and that there are also Irish members. They've gotten very tired of the attacks from the mainstream press on Ireland. Five years later 26 of the 32 counties did become free, but some are still occupied territories and the anger, from both sides, spills over into violence. There is a tendency in the mainstream to pin the blame on Sinn Fein (a political party currently) and that's very interesting considering that we're still talking about occupied land.

With modern day Israel, I often hear people say, of Palestinians, "They just need to get over it."
That would be the occupation they live under. (That's a simplification of what they live under but I'm rushing.) When I've followed that up with "What makes you feel that way?" -- the reply has usually been, "Well, I'm just tired of the fighting." (Sometimes, it's "I'm just tired of hearing about the fighting.")

But what would we do if we were a nation occupied by another government? If someone's tired of the violence in the occupied territories, they might want to think about how it is to live there. I'm sure the people are tired of it as well. (In fact, many press accounts note that.)

I'm not a violent person (although verbally these days I do assualt my TV if I make the mistake of attempting to watch coporate news). But I haven't lived under an occupation. The American Revolution (which led to the creation of this nation-state) was a revolt for self-rule.

That gets forgotten and here's another thing that gets forgotten. People will say that Native Americans need to "get over" the loss of their land (which is what our current nation-state sits on). I must be missing something because I've yet to see an effort to reclaim the land. I have seen legal efforts to get the monies owed from the IMB. I have read of a judge stating that the government has mismanged the funds. But the other thing I think of is the civil war in this country and how some from certain states haven't "gotten over" it. They're not attempting to fight a war, except for some fringe groups, against the country. But they put their flags up in their cars and trucks, in their windows and elsewhere and there's not a cry of, "Get over it!" Instead, there are movies, miniseries, documentaries and more maade on that time period over and over.

I find that interesting due to the fact that often times, when I've heard that statement from a person who is from the "Deep South" (not every person I know from that area has made remarks similar to that), I will ask what they think of the Civil War and, often times, they will speak of that period with great passion. So it would appear that those who have to "get over it" are always the people who are not like ourselves. I think we need to make an effort to be open when we hear of pain or hear someone speaking in pain because we won't understand where the pain is coming from otherwise.

In the eighties, TNT or TBS aired Funny Girl and I taped it for Rebecca because it wasn't just the movie, it was Sandra Bernhard hosting it and providing commentary throughout. Rebecca loves Barbra Streisand and loves Bernhard. The broadcast was starting in ten minutes and I attempted to call Rebecca but just got her machine.

I was living with a boyfriend at the time and he let his cousin borrow the tape. I came in on the end of that and saw her put it in her purse. I said, "Sure, watch it, but I need it back by the weekend because I taped it for a friend and I'm sending it to her." No problem replied the cousin.

That weekend, it wasn't returned so I called her. She denied having it. She said she'd never borrowed a tape. I told my boyfriend we were going over to his cousin's house. We went, he was reluctant to go, and I asked for the tape. She again denied borrowing it. I told her, "I saw you put it in your purse. I told you then that I had to send it this weekend." She lied to my face.
At which point, I turned to my boyfriend and said, "You better back me up."

She never would give me the tape. I told her I didn't know if she'd lost it or if she wanted it for herself but I knew she had taken it.

Rebecca was disappointed but handled it well. Now if someone wants to tell me to "get over it," I have no problem with that. It's a minor thing. But there are issues and events that people cannot just stuff inside because someone tells them to get over it. That needs to be recognized.
Just because you may not want to hear about it, does not mean that the issue which is very important to someone is something to "get over."




"Neo-Naxi Supremacist Convicted In WMD Case" (Democracy Now!):
In Tennessee, a white supremacist with Neo-Nazi ties has been convicted of attempting to acquire Sarin nerve and C-4 explosives in order to blow up government buildings. The man, Demetrius Van Crocker, once told an FBI informant that he dreamed of riding a motorcycle to Washington D.C. and setting off a dirty nuclear bomb while the House and Senate were in session. Crocker also said he wanted to get a helicopter license so he could bomb or spray poison gas on the African-American neighborhoods in Jackson Tennessee. Crocker was arrested after he bought nerve gas from an undercover agent. His attorney argued Crocker was prone to exaggeration and was a victim of entrapment. Despite the serious charges, the national press has ignored the story. The New York Times, Washington Post or Los Angeles Times have yet to report on Crocker’s arrest or conviction. A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that the radical right has attempted to carry out at least 60 terrorist plots since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

I have nothing to add to that one. But we both wanted to include it since it hasn't gotten attention.

Today, thanks to Sunny who taped it since I was in a session (I need to get an iPod), I listened to KPFA's Women's Magazine:

Women correspondents who covered the war in Iraq will join us by phone. May Ying Welch, freelancing with Al-Jezeera, Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times London, Hannah Allam with Knight Ridder and others will talk about the perspective that women bring to the coverage of the war. Marking the 57th anniversary of KPFA we host former programmers from KPFA Women's Department in the 1970's through the 1990's.

This was a very interesting broadcast. The second half contained women discussing how the Women's Department was built up and the accomplishments. One woman spoke of learning at the station that you had to fight to get your story on air and that if, after a long discussion/debate, you couldn't persuade people to see it your way, it probably wasn't a story worth telling. From that experience, when she switched to commercial broadcasting, she felt she was prepared to fight for her stories while some others weren't. She described them as "namby pamby." So she saw that as one of the benefits of her time at the station.

The first half was the foreign correspondents and it was very interesting to hear their stories. Marie Colvin spoke of how a boyfriend told her she had to leave an area or else. (Other reporters had left as had some UN forces.) She spoke of how it mattered for her to be there due to the thousands of children and women who needed someone reporting to the world what was happening. I believe it was Hannah Allen who spoke of being engaged when she went to Iraq and how the engagment ended when he couldn't live with her assignment.

It was a strong program and I believe (believe) you can hear it via the KPFA archives. It reminded me of Ava and C.I.'s commentary this Sunday in some ways.

"TV: Katie Was a Cheerleader" (Third Estate Sunday Review):
If women learned anything from the trashing of Katie Couric last week, it was that today, we're all cheerleaders. In their eyes, we're all cheerleaders. Our own work isn't addressed and there's no desire to familiarize themselves with it before weighing in. Call us when it's our turn to stand trial at the war crimes tribunal.

"Never underestimate the power of your own voice"

Mike and I have picked three items to note from Democracy Now! instead of our usual two. We'll probably only be commenting on two but the third item is an announcement. I was asked why sometimes the items are in the same order on both our sites and sometimes they aren't? That's our 'editorial' call. If, after deciding on the items, we don't agree on which should be the lead item, we have a different order. There are no hard feelings when that happens. In addition, if we're each commenting on only one headline (with the other picking up the other) we'll lead with whichever headline we're individually covering. Please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's commentary.

"RAF Doctor Jailed For Refusing Iraq Service" (Democracy Now!):
In Britain, a doctor in the Royal Air Force has been sentenced to eight months in jail for refusing to go to Iraq. Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith maintained he is refusing his assignment in order to not take part in an illegal war. "Now more so than ever he feels that his actions were totally justified and he would not if placed in the same circumstances seek to do anything differently," Justin Hugheston-Roberts, the lawyer representing Kendall-Smith, said after the sentencing.

"And the war drags on . . . (Indymedia Roundup)" went up late (which is usual due to the number of e-mails C.I. has to read to pull that entry together) and I missed it last night, but Sunny hit me with the news of Dr. Kendall-Smith as soon as I walked into the office. When we listened to Democracy Now! during lunch and heard it, it still floored me. The presiding officer/judge of the court martial refused to allow the issue of the war to be raised.

How can you explain why you refused to serve without addressing your beliefs regarding the war itself? You can't. The moment that was disallowed, he was convicted. We didn't need to wait for the verdict. I knew that.

But hearing of the verdict from Sunny and then during the broadcast, I was still floored. On some level, I must have been hoping that it could turn out differently (no matter how practical I thought I was being). Friday's are usually a bright day for me due to the fact that the week is over (I'm just as glad to have a week behind me and a weekend facing me as anyone else). But this was a topic that Sunny and I returned to between patients throughout the day. At one point, I asked how things were going with the delivery man she's seeing and we spoke of that but it didn't manage to lift either of our moods. (Things are going well between them.)

I might have started the weekend off on a foul note were it not for the fact that Sunny printed up C.I.'s Democracy Now! entry which included news from members outside the United States noting how the verdict has actually started discussions that were not going on (for some people) prior and that it had upped the level of discussion among people who were already discussing it.

While that does nothing to help the doctor, it does help the dialogue and, hopefully, the next resister. His attempted legal stance was a brave one and, in the end, the fact that he was not allowed to argue it didn't silence it. It's being discussed and debated without being sanctioned by the court martial.



"California TV Station To Stop Using VNRs" (Democracy Now!):
In an update on a story we have been tracking, a major California television station has announced it will no longer use material from video news releases in any news reports. Last week the Center for Media and Democracy revealed at least 77 TV stations around the country have been caught airing corporate-sponsored propaganda disguised as news releases in the past 10 months. One of these stations was KCBS, Channel 2 in Los Angeles. On January 27 the station aired an edited video news release promoting the child-safe Internet search engine for the company NetTrekker. The station used part of the script and video provided by the company without revealing its source. On Wednesday the management at KCBS announced it was barring the use of video news releases.

The glass is at the half-way mark. The "half empty" argument is that only one channel has bothered to publicly state that they will no longer air them. The "half-full" argument is that one station has stepped up to the plate (and possibly more will do so later on). I'll leave to you to figure out where you stand on it.


"Immigrant Rights Coalition Calls for One Day Boycott, Walk-Out" (Democracy Now!):
A coalition of groups advocating for immigrant rights are calling for a massive one-day job and economic boycott to take place May 1st. Some are calling the event "A Day Without Immigrants." Organizers are calling on immigrants to refuse to work or spend any money on May Day to protest moves in Congress to criminalize undocumented workers. In recent weeks millions of immigrants and their supporters have taken to the streets in an unprecedented wave of protests.

This is the item we wanted to note. Consider it an announcement and something you should particpate in if you have the chance. Thanks to C.I. for giving me the heads up last weekend so I could clear my calendar. I will be participating and encourage everyone else who is able to do so as well. If you don't feel that immigrant rights apply to you, then do it show solidarity.

I'm just going to answer a few questions that have popped up in the e-mails. One guy who wants to make it clear that he's not part of the community and that he supports the Bully Boy wrote to say that Rebecca "and others" are covering Pacifica but that C.I. doesn't. Democracy Now! is covered every Monday through Friday at The Common Ills at least once. In addition, C.I. works it into more than one entry a day. Ruth writes a weekly report on Pacifica at The Common Ills. If members note programming highlights that will air that day, they are noted at the site as well.

C.I. added Democracy Now! to get away from the worship of the mainstream that is so common. The problem, however, is that one station is listened to by C.I. (over the airwaves). To note individual programming on that station would be seen by some as an endorsement and they'd wonder why their favorite station wasn't noted? When Pacifica offers special live coverage of Congress or whatever, C.I. will also note that. There is no question that The Common Ills gets the word out on Pacifica. (And in the "And the war drags on . . ." entries, you'll frequently see a Pacifica newscast noted.) C.I.'s trying to get the word out on Pacifica and occupies a different position in the community then the rest of us do. To put it in Pacifica terms, C.I. is the community's Amy Goodman. To say, "Listen to ___" would be seen as an endorsement of one over the other. C.I.'s made it clear that your first choice in Pacifica should always be a station that broadcasts in your area (if you're lucky enough to live in an area that has a broadcast station -- either one of the five stations or an affeliate). Even leaving out Ruth's wonderful reports, if you went through and counted links and mentions, you would find more at The Common Ills than you would at any other site. I'm a "floater." This week, I noted special programming ( WBAI's special broadcast of Beckett's Waiting for Godot which aired Monday night -- if you missed it, you can use the archives to hear it). Rebecca's respected in the community as a take-no-prisoners, call it the way she sees it voice. She's a great voice. (She's also one of my best friends.) But she occupies a different place within the community and she uses her position very effectively. Rebecca deserves praise for what she does.

But it's a mistake to state that C.I.'s not covering or to look at the move to increase coverage at other sites as reflecting poorly on The Common Ills because C.I. 's the one who raised this issue with us. Both to try to help Ruth out so she's not stuck covering everything and also because if we support indymedia, we need to get behind it and show support. The community is welcoming to the hearing impaired and visually imparied members. When two couples, each have a legally blind partner, asked about audio (so that they weren't just reading the commentary C.I. makes and the excerpts at the site), C.I. began adding additional audio links besides Democracy Now! An audio program is something that the couples can listen to together. NPR is even on the audio links and that's due to the fact that, regardless of what C.I. thinks of it, it does provide an option for members where one partner is visually impaired. C.I. does not link to audio links that require someone pay a fee to listen. That's to factor in the members on fixed incomes.

The visitor and I will never agree on the Bully Boy. (I am impressed that despite the fact that he disagrees with close to everything that goes up at any of the community sites, he continues to read them.) But I hope that we can agree that there's a misunderstanding of what The Common Ills does and how C.I. makes decisions. Also remember that Kat covers KPFA's Guns and Butter and that Cedric and Mike WBAI's Law and Disorder?

Lucy, a community member, asks if I could pick one show to note? I don't want to do that. For various reasons. One reason is that listening live during the day is something that pops up when I have a cancellation. Otherwise, I only hear Democracy Now! (which Sunny and I listen to during the lunch hour). I'd prefer not to pin myself down to one program. I also think that by floating, I can grab more than one show over time. Lucy suggested a show and I will try to catch it next week and note it. If I was covering only one show, I'd have to say, "I'm sorry, but I cover ___."

I'll note a moment of panic today during Democracy Now! that Sunny and I both had. Amy Goodman was coughing and had to take a break. Before she came back, Sunny and I were both pointing out that the show broadcasts not far from ground zero in NYC and remembering this item from Thursday:

"Report: 15,000 Suffer From Medical Problems in NYC Post 9/11" (Democracy Now!):
In other news, the BBC is reporting the number of victims suffering medical problems in connection to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center has risen to at least 15,000 people. The US government has been hit with a class-action lawsuit that alleges it offered false assurances to Manhattan residents and workers that the air was safe in the aftermath of the attacks. In a landmark ruling, a New Jersey coroner said this week that a police officer's death was "directly linked" to his work at Ground Zero after 9/11. The officer, James Zadroga, died in January.

When she came back, she explained that she had a spring cold. (I think that probably comes from the fact that she's all over the country, getting the word out, covering news and doing outreach work for community media.) We both sighed in relief when she said that. Amy Goodman, who celebrated a birthday Thursday, does so much for indymedia and, if you found yourself worried in that moment, do your part to get the word out or do your part to get the word out because she had a birthday. But get the word out. Twenty years from now, due to further media consolidation (I think it will happen short of a major citizen revolution), the media landscape will have changed. I also think it's true that, twenty years from now, we'll see hundreds of Amy Goodmans because she's made a difference and she's demonstrated the role that journalists can and should play. She's altered the landscape and become a role model.

The visitor who disagrees with everything he finds at community sites continues to read. He's also started watching Democracy Now! on his local cable access channel -- a direct result, he states, of the emphasis this community has placed upon the program. If you think getting the word out doesn't matter, you're underestimating the power of your own voice. Let's make that the peace quote. (By the way, the visitor noted I mistyped the peace quote Wednesday in the heading. He's correct.)

"Peace Quote"
Never underestimate the power of your own voice.

democracy now
the common ills
immigration
cedrics big mix
law and disorder
like maria said paz
mikey likes it
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
ruths public radio report
pacifca
pacifica radio
radio
wbai
guns and butter
kpfa

"Sentiment without action is the ruin of the school"

Mike called early (for the time zone he's in, but what would be our regular time normally) to make sure I wasn't waiting to figure out items. Please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's commentary. Let me add that Rebecca will be blogging earlier tomorrow night or that's her plan. The reason? I'm off on Thursdays and people will either still be out West or making their way back tomorrow night. So go to her site and you'll have something up. "And the war drags on (indymedia roundup)" will go up at The Common Ills but that's a four to five hour thing to assemble each week and, in my time zone, it's usually up after I've gone to sleep. Rebecca will be discussing Flashpoints so you won't want to miss that. (That's a regular Thursday planned topic for her site Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude.)

Even before I spoke to Mike, I had already decided to stay silent on the topic of Katie Couric. I've read some of the criticism and they're really going to town on her. Ava and C.I. will tackle it on Sunday. When the "it's a girl!" b.s. started up, I figured it was only a matter of time before they tackled the topic. I don't know if this will be in place of their usual commentary or in addition to but I do know it will be worth reading.

"Report: Bush Admin. Suppressed Evidence Refuting Iraq WMD Claim" (Democracy Now!):
The Washington Post is reporting the Bush administration claimed to have found mobile weapons labs in Iraq after the invasion despite the explicit conclusions of a Pentagon-sponsored mission the claim was untrue. On May 29, 2003, President Bush cited the discovery of the trailers in an attempt to justify his decision to go war two months earlier. Bush said: "We have found the weapons of mass destruction." But just two days before, a Pentagon team sent to Iraq had concluded that the trailers were in fact "the biggest sand toilets in the world." One team member said: "Within the first four hours, it was clear to everyone that these were not biological labs." The Bush administration failed to make the findings public and continued with its faulty claim for more than one year.

You lied. You lied. You li-i-i-i-ed. I'm swiping from Aretha Franklin's "Baby I Love You."

But the press won't say that. If we've learned one thing from the last six years it's that the corporate press refuses to use "lied" when it comes to the Bully Boy. They also have a "no lie" clause with regards to Colin The Blot Powell. Bill Clinton? Al Gore? "Liar" can be used "liberally" but with regards to Republicans, they are much more "conservative."

That comes not from "journalistic standards" but as a result of the right-wing echo chamber and the right-wing working the refs for decades. That's why I firmly agree that the "tone" argument is nonsense. It's upset the corporate press, the way people call them out. They've gotten used to it from the right and, as they've demonstrated in 2000 and 2004, they'll walk lightly around Republicans. They'll save their "fun" to Democrats. For instance, if the below happened to a Democratic vice-president, I'm sure it would be front page news.


"Cheney Booed At Washington Baseball Game" (Democracy Now!):
And in Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney was greeted with loud boos Tuesday when he threw out the ceremonial pitch at the opener for Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals. This wasn't the first time Cheney has gotten a hostile reception at a baseball game -- in June 2004, Cheney was booed at a Yankees game here in New York.

But aren't Cheney and Bully Boy beloved by the nation? No, they aren't. As Mike noted last night "World's waking up" and that includes this country. But waking up is just like admitting you have a problem. It's a start and nothing more if you don't follow it up.

We really need to be following up. That's demonstrating, that's making our Congress reps hear us, that's making the war an issue.

There is a great deal to make an issue of in the illegal war. There is the issue of an administration that treats veterans as though they're invisible while they serve and disposable when they return.

"Letters from Fort Lewis" (Kevin Benderman, Kevin Benderman Defense Committee):
Americans are going to have to break out of their apathy and start helping ensure that our government does the right thing by these veterans and active duty people who have done and continue to do what so many of the privileged among us refuse to do. If you are a person in America who has benefited from the sacrifice of a person who has served in this country's military with honor, then it is your responsibility to give back to the veterans and their families, because if it weren't for those veterans, you probably would not have been able to achieve the success in your businesses that you now enjoy, watch the movies that now entertain you, or run on the fields of the games you participate in.

So if you're someone late in waking up, someone who went along with Bully Boy because you thought you were helping the enlisted, you can make up for the error in judgement by focusing on the issue of the enlisted. You can remember that the best way to stand with the troops is to bring them back home and work towards that goal.


"Peace Quotes" (Peace Center):
Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.
Edward Abbey

Demonstrations and movies

C.I. doesn't have the Democracy Now! entry up yet and my guess is that either there was too much activism or members are really weighing in about one guest on Democracy Now! Sunny hated him. We were listening at lunch and she had the most intense reaction. She did not like what he had to say. She felt he "sucked up air time" with his "pompous blowhardness" and she asked that I quote her on that.

Mike finally called. I've been staring at the screen and staring at it while I wondered if I should just grab two headlines and post something. He missed everything but the headlines at the beginning and Reverand Lawton Higgs at the end. He said Ava, Jess and C.I. grabbed the laptops at lunch with the goal of going through the members e-mails for highlights, noting developments in Iraq and thinking it would take a half hour at most. But the guest that irked Sunny also bothered a lot of members, especially ones from Dallas. His name is Gilbert Bailon and he is the editor and publisher of Al Dia which, I didn't realize this, is part of the Belo corporation. They own so many TV stations nationwide that they reach something like 14% of the population. That may not seem a lot to some but considering that we're not talking about ABC, CBS, etc., it is a great deal.

I think it was the slamming of the students that probably ticked off members. It really bothered Sunny -- who was sputtering she was so upset. The point where he probably lost a number of people was when he felt the need to offer 'tips' on protests. It's not his protest to offer tips on. The students who walked out last week around the country did a wonderful thing and that was their activism. They took charge and they did a wonderful job. They don't need some middle aged person (including me) telling them which flags they should carry and which they shouldn't.
Student walkouts.

How long has it been since we've seen that? They didn't do that by going to a publisher and asking, "What should we do?" They did it on their own and they did a wonderful job. Bailon's opinion is useless and unneeded. Just the fact that the "establishment" (which he is) is still talking about it demonstrates that the students were heard and seen.

Someone who is obsessing, a week after the fact, over a Mexican flag is probably someone who would never join a protest today. I praise the students for what they did last week (and what they are doing this week, they are still staging in walk outs). Carry whatever flag you're comfortable carrying. C.I. said something to the effect of (last week), "Where do these complainers think many of the targeted are from?"

The Mexican flag caused Bailon to panic. He was preaching assimilation throughout. Which also bothered Sunny because he seems to think the key is to life is being just a little different, not too much. It's a bleached out notion of diversity.

There was a story on the broadcast, one that actually mattered. I heard it on a Pacifica newscast last night. I'm not the publisher of a newspaper so if I've heard about it, one would guess that Bailon should have heard of it. But he wants to gripe about a Mexican flag instead of addressing a very real issue.

Here's a link (and their summary) to that story.

"Eighth Grader Commits Suicide After Being Threatened by School Official With Jail Time for Organizing Walkouts" (Democracy Now!):
An eighth grader in California killed himself two weeks ago after being threatened by a school official for participating in the student immigrant rights walkouts. Anthony Soltero, 14, died after he shot himself in the head on March 30th. We speak with the attorney representing Soltero's mother.

Do you understand why Sunny was so offended? A child is dead. But Bailon wants to whine about flags? Maybe it's generational? Maybe we're on the verge of another generation gap?

"Up to 2 Million March in National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice" (Democracy Now!):
As many as two million people took to the streets in more than 100 cities and towns across the country on Monday to march for immigrants' rights. Undocumented workers, legal immigrants, labor unions, immigrant rights advocates and their supporters demonstrated in what was billed as the National Day of Action for Immigrant Justice. In New York, more than one thousand demonstrators crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and packed the streets in lower Manhattan for a rally near City Hall. In Atlanta, as many as 80,000 people flooded the streets. In Phoenix, an estimated 100,000 rallied at the Arizona Capitol. 25,000 marched in Madison, Wisconsin. 10,000 in Boston. 8,000 in Omaha, Nebraska. The rallies Monday followed a day of demonstrations in San Diego, Miami, Birmingham, Alabama, Utah, Idaho and Iowa. A rally in Dallas drew half a million people, the largest protest in the city's history. In Washington DC, hundreds of thousands streamed past the White House to a rally on the National Mall. The demonstration took place just yards from the Capitol, where Senators last week failed to reach agreement on wide-ranging immigration reform that would allow the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants living in this country a chance to work here legally and eventually become U.S. citizens. We'll spend the hour looking at the growing immigrant rights movement after headlines.

Why have the results been so astounding? I'd argue because you don't have party machinary calling the shots. This is people, of all races, saying, "No, the government is not going to attack a people." So those who will be under attack and those who care or can identify, band together to be heard. As C.I. pointed out in the column in Friday's round-robin, this isn't a top-down activity. This is people pulling together, doing what they know needs to be done. Possibly, that's what's upset the likes of Bailon so much that they become fixated on a flag. Instead of one voice (or rallying behind one voice like at a party convention), this is a multitude of voices and it's quite amazing. Possibly only after so many years of oppression under Bully Boy could people again find their voices and use them for something other than a candidate.

"French Government Backs Down on Unpopular Job Law" (Democracy Now!):
In other news, France has scrapped a widely unpopular job law that would have made it easier for employers to fire young workers. French President Jacques Chirac announced the decision following two months of protests attended by millions of people. Student groups and unions hailed the decision as a major victory over a measure they claimed would have only worsened job security in France. Chirac said the measure would be replaced by a new initiative to help disadvantaged young people find work.

I wonder how much this impacted actions in this country? I think it has. I think, C.I. would say "buttefly wings," that whenever a group in one area stands up for itself, it does impact other areas. It's like when you see a movie where someone, say Goldie Hawn, goes up against the system and wins. You may leave that movie thinking, "I could do that. I can take control of my life."

I like Goldie Hawn movies. Since Rebecca wrote about the type of films I watch, I've gotten so many e-mails asking me why I don't care for this type or that type. I like many types of movies and that includes comedies. The Apartment is one of my all time favorite films. However, I'm not too keen on most of the movies that come out today. They just seem to be geared towards a younger demographic. Add in that the "I've got to get my life together and move out of my mother's/grandmother's basement" genre never excited me.

But I like Goldie Hawn movies. Even The Banger Sisters. I think Shampoo is my favorite film that she's done and, after that, probably . . . I don't know which one I would put right below it.
Let me depress everyone with a story. My brother is basically retired now and that came from making enough to live on and from the fact that doing that gave him a heart attack before he was thirty-five. He really is the only family (blood relation) that I have. (Our parents died in a car accident.) That was the most depressing time in my adult life, when he had the heart attack. I pushed my patients off on a friend and spent every minute I could at the hospital. I would come home, put on Private Benjamin and fall to sleep. My friends and that movie are the only things that kept me going during that period.

I haven't watched the film in years but I can still quote it. "I mean the army can't afford drapes? I'll be up at the crack of dawn." During that period, the smartest thing anyone could do, and my friends knew this, was ask, "What do you need me to do?" I needed a great deal of small things taken care of. Rebecca and C.I. were so supportive, keeping the fridge stocked, watering my plants, the little things that there really wasn't time for. That was a trying and scary time and I didn't need to process (who had the time?), I needed to stay focused on my brother so the friends who picked up the slack for me by doing the daily errands really helped out.

On C.I., it was pointed out to me that when I complained about Noam Chomsky's book, how I was told I could reserve it, that it wasn't out yet. No one told me that at the bookstores. If they had, I would have been far more understanding. C.I. already had the book and was talking about it. I assumed, since Chomsky was also on Democracy Now!, that the book was already out. I took it to California with me but only had time to read on the flight out. On the flight back, I was tired and ended up sleeping. But the title is Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy. I'm only on page fifty-eight but after I post this, I intend to read for a bit and then go to sleep.

Last night, I wasn't reading. I was listening to Waiting for Godot on WBAI and if you enjoy Beckett, I hope you were as well. (If you missed it, go to WBAI and click on their archives.)

Please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's thoughts later tonight. They were about to eat dinner when he got off the phone so I have no idea when he'll post.

Waiting for Godot broadcasts on WBAI public radio tonight

SAMUEL BECKETT 100:
A Special Presentation [on WBAI]
Monday, April 10, from 9:00-11:00 pm:
Commemorate Beckett's centenary and the 50th anniversary of the American premiere of his masterpiece, Waiting for Godot, by listening to a special broadcast of the play featuring the original Broadway cast: Burt Lahr, E.G. Marshall, Alvin Epstein and Kurt Kasner. Hosted and with an introduction by Simon Loekle.

Heads up to the above. On WBAI which you can listen to for free online.

Questions came in about the laptop. When it finally would start to boot back up there was a message about "allocated space" being used when not needed and it went through some process before it was operating again. Though a number are still in California, I did have to return (or risk cancelling appointments which I do not like to do at the last minute). Please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's thoughts and criticisms.




"White House Defends Bush Intelligence Disclosure" (Democracy Now!):
The White House has publicly admitted President Bush authorized the disclosure of pre-war intelligence on Iraq. But White House spokesperson Scott McLellan said the disclosure wasn't illegal because information disclosed by the President is considered declassified. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, has testified that President Bush authorized him to leak a highly classified intelligence document on Iraq to the press in an effort to defend the administration's decision to go to war.

I have no idea what lie Bully Boy will finally tell on this but it's obvious that he's going to have to say something, offer some sort of remark. He'll probably make it in front of a carefully chosen group. It will be heavily reported and that the "faithful" applauded will also be heavily reported. Dick Cheney will announce "the people have spoken" because a few people who were handpicked by the White House to attend the event applauded. Then the mainstream press will take the attitude of "He has spoken, we need to move on."

Because that is how they've operated in the last few years. People wonder why, in the rare times when Bully Boy holds a press conference, there are no follow up questions? Where are the follow up stories?

There are no follow up questions because there are no follow up stories. All the press needs is some sort of a quote and they announce that the story is closed. "Bully Boy, what was the White House involvement with Enron?" "Ken Lay eats green cheese." They would report the green cheese remark and then "move on" to some other story. If questioned, they'd argue, "We reported on that!" When note taking becomes reporting, we're all in trouble.




"Mass Protests Continue Around the US For Immigrant Rights" (Democracy Now!):
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in cities across the country Sunday urging Congress to pass legislation that would legalize the estimated 12 million undocumented workers in the US. An estimated 500,000 people took to the streets in Dallas. The marchers filled the downtown streets with chants of "Si Se Puede!" -- Spanish for "Yes, we can!". In St. Paul, Minnesota, 30,000 people rallied at the state capitol. In Birmingham, Alabama, demonstrators marched along the same streets where activists clashed with police in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. Other protests were held in New Mexico, Michigan, Iowa, Alabama, Utah, Oregon, Idaho and California. Michael Martinez, who attended a rally in San Diego, said: "It's not about flags, it's not really about race. It's about just equal opportunities for everybody and nobody being above or below the law and nobody being exploited by the law. It's that simple." More protests are planned for today in nearly 100 cities across the country.

That is so wonderful. If you think about it, certain lawmakers in Congress were under the impression that they could do exactly as they wanted without any input. That's been the process for some time now. So to see this massive surge of democracy is really amazing and a lesson in what can be done.


"Want More Bush? Elect McCain" (Helen Thomas, Common Dreams):
He is against abortion rights and gun-control laws and believes students should be taught the religion-oriented "intelligent design" theory of creation as well as the theory of scientific evolution.
His painful experience as a POW during the Vietnam War led him to buck the White House on the question of using torture to interrogate detainees and prisoners of war. Despite White House opposition, he triumphed with a 90-9 Senate vote on his anti-torture amendment to the defense appropriations bill.
Well, almost.
In signing the bill, the president issued a statement that under his constitutional authority as commander in chief, he did not have to abide by the anti-torture amendment. This is a dubious claim of presidential power that should be challenged.
McCain's political record is not entirely pristine. He was a member of the so-called Keating Five -- five senators linked to Charles Keating in the savings and loan scandals in 1991. But a special investigator found that McCain had not been substantially involved in influence peddling but criticized him and three others for "questionable conduct."
That searing experience may explain why McCain has been an avid advocate of campaign finance reform.
With his "hail fellow well met" persona and tendency to jaw with the media and pundits in the back of the campaign bus, he has created the impression in some quarters that he is a "moderate."
Forget it. His voting record speaks for itself.

I do like Helen Thomas. I do not like John McCain. For that reason, I'm noting the above. I assume, now that he's cozying up to Jerry Fallwell, that he'll shortly issue a press statement for attending the funeral of Mark Bingham.

Today, I caught Cat Radio Cafe on WBAI (airs from two p.m. to three p.m.) had a really interesting discussion about art and artists. I came in late to the show. Probably ten minutes after Janet Coleman began conductin the interview. But among the ones discussed were Brecht, Lillian Hellman, Norman Mailer and George Eliot. I had no idea, for instance, that Bertolt Brecht had been involved in Hollywood movies. He came up with the story for Hangmen Also Die which I looked up at IMDB. Here's a summary of the film:

On May 27, 1942 the Nazi Reichsprotector of Bohemia/Moravia, the "Hangman" Reinhard Heydrich, died from the bullets of unidentified resistance fighters. Hangmen Also Die is the story of Heydrich's assassination in fictionalized form. It was Bertolt Brecht's only comparitively successful Hollywood project; the money he received allowed him to write "The Visions of Simone Marchand", "Schwyk in the Second World War" and his adaptation of Webster's "The Duchess of Malfi". Hanns Eisler won an Academy Award for his musical score.

That was written by J. Arnold Free. There's also a summary by Jim Beaver. Somone else might recognize other names in the cast but I recognized three. The first was Anna Lee, who died in May 2004. She was famous as Lila Quartermaine on General Hospital to many but I'm sure to many (including me) she was famous for playing Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music. Walter Brennan was in the film as well and the first movie that comes to mind for me there is To Have and Have Not with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart. (Second film? Meet John Doe starring Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper.) The film was directed by Frtiz Lang famous for M, Metropolis, Fury and more.

Brecht had a habit of taking credit for the work of women in his life. I wasn't aware of that but I only know some of his work and not a great deal of his life. Rebecca probably already knew about that. George Eliot came off better in the artist's eyes (I believe Edward Sorel was the artist interviewed). The discussion of the authors was the chief portion of the broadcast but it was also followed by a discussion on improvisation.

Kat is covering KPFA's Guns and Butter each week and Rebecca's covering Flashpoints. All of us are attempting to get the word out on Pacifica and, equally important, to help Ruth out so each Saturday she's not thinking, "Okay, seven days and twenty-four hours each day, I can cover this." There's no way she can. So we're all attempting to note Pacifica at least once a week at our sites.

I'm a "floater" meaning that I haven't adopted one show. It will probably depend upon what is going on that week and what I know is on. I'd mentioned to Ruth this weekend, when we were all together in California, that I had a Monday hour free due to a cancellation (no problem, dentist trumps all). I was hoping for some suggestions of programs she enjoyed or something you hadn't been able to get to that members of the community were requesting. She recommended Cat Radio Cafe because she enjoys it and it is a community favorite. Janet Coleman was the host I heard but David Dozier is also a host. Both are part of the The Christmas Coup Players.


Pacifica is popular within the community and I hope everyone works hard to get the word out. I noticed that C.I. worked in a mention of Law and Disorder during "Book Discussion: 2 Books, Don't Count the Minutes" and we really should be able to do that, to offer those kind of references. Not, "Oh, I was watching CNN" or "Oh, I was listening to NPR" but to note the sources that matter because they believe the world matters (as opposed to believing the world is a teeter-totter and "balance" is a religion). So my committment online is that I will try to note, in addition to Democracy Now!, at least one Pacifica program a week. Because that should be the ideal, what C.I. did. We're discussing Arundhati Roy's An Ordinary Person's Guide To Empire and she addresses the issue of torture. C.I. wanted to make a point about the Guantanamo prisoners and, in the middle of that point, works in Law and Disorder as a point of reference. (By the way, "I don't know that they are doing it" by C.I. refers to combining the practice of loud volume with no volume. I've added "[doing the next part]" to the transcript because I had an e-mail asking if C.I. was refuting torture by sound at Guantanamo and, no, that wasn't the case. C.I. spoke hesitantly on it and afterwards it was asked, "If they aren't doing it already, did I just advise them a way to improve torture?" I don't think so. I think it was a good point and that it's probably already being used but the connection outside of Guantanamo hadn't been made. I followed it but in case anyone else was confused, I've added that clarifcation.)

If we really worked at that, their would be an awareness, a very real awareness, of exactly what was out there on the media landscape beyond the consolidated, heavily referenced media we hear too much from and too much of. With that and the limitations of big media in mind, I've composed the peace quote for this evening.


Peace Quote (from me):
Peace requires many voices and the awareness of them.


democracy now
pacifca
pacifica radio
radio
law and disorder
wbai
kats korner
like maria said paz
mikey likes it
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
ruths public radio report
the common ills

Brief post due to strange goings on

C.I. hollered "Save! Save now!" and only Mike immediately figured out what was going on. I'm posting briefly. I had a longer entry that I lost. It was "cute" the way C.I.'s computer goes down, then Rebecca's, then Betty and mine at the same time and there's a weird "click" on this computer. (I'm using a neighbor's of C.I.'s computer. I'm not sure if my laptop will reboot, we've split up to get things posted.)

"Bush Accused Of OKing Leak of Classified Info" (Democracy Now!):
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has testified that President Bush authorized him to leak a highly classified intelligence document on Iraq to the press in an effort to defend the administration's decision to go to war. This marks the first time Bush has been linked to the leaking of classified information and raises new questions if Bush was directly tied to the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's grand jury testimony was cited in court papers filed by prosecutors late Wednesday. Libby was indicted in October on charges that he lied to investigators about his role in the outing of Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson who was a vocal critic of the war. On Sept. 30, 2003, President Bush warned against anyone in his administration leaking classified information. "Let me just say something about leaks in Washington. There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington," Bush said. "There's leaks at the executive branch; there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is." On Capitol Hill, Bush was widely criticized by Democrats on Thursday. This is Senator Charles Schumer of New York. "It is increasingly clear that this case goes far beyond Scooter Libby. At the very least, President Bush and Vice President Cheney should fully inform the American people of any role they played in allowing classified information to be leaked," said Schumer. "Did they believe they have the right to do this and if so, in what circumstances? Or is this just something that may have been done to accommodate the president's momentary political needs? According to court documents today, Scooter Libby said that the president authorized the vice president to direct him to disclose classified information to reporters in order to bolster support for the war in Iraq."


Bully Boy seems to be connected to the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. I will nutshell what I'd earlier written and note that there's nothing wrong, my opinion, with the press outing. The CIA has a long history of torture, preventing democracy in other nations and spying on American citizens. I don't weep for the CIA. Whether Valerie Plame is a "good" agent or an example of the worst of the CIA, I don't know.

The problem is that what the press has a right to do in the name of watchdog duties, the administration doesn't. If Bully Boy wants to dismantle the CIA (an idea that I would support), he should do so. (He seems more eager to rearrange it and other agencies which he hands control of to Negroponte.) He didn't do that. The outing of Plame should not have come from the administration. The executive branch should not out employees. (The CIA reports to the president.) This was an attack and, since he's not attempting to end the CIA, it was such a breach of ethics that the nation should be appalled. It was a betrayal and it was done to attack Joe Wilson. There is nothing honorable in the administration's aims or their means.

I don't know Ms. Plame and she may be a wonderful person. But I've not invested myself in what should happen to Robert Novak. He did the administration's bidding but if other reporters outed CIA agents (and I think they should), it wouldn't bother me. I was bothered that he remained silent while others were attacked as surrogates.

I do not mean Matt Cooper. Matt Cooper knew Karl Rove was naming Plame because Rove named her to him. That was a little secret that Cooper only revealed when he was afraid he'd be sitting in jail. When he realized Karl couldn't save him in jail, he suddenly spills the beans. If he'd named Karl (as he did Scooter) in 2004, the public could have known about it before the election. How do you think that could have effected the election?

Matt Cooper did write about the outing before he named Karl. He never got honest with his readers. The heads up that Rove received from a co-worker of Cooper's is also very curious and the questions should go to Matt Cooper. Rove got tipped off and that's very strange for a supposed secret that Cooper, at that point, was still maintaining he couldn't reveal.

If the press comes across the names of CIA agents, I firmly believe they should print them. I do not believe that the administration should be leaking the names. What the administration did should be punishable (and depending upon your reading of the law it is punishable). Bully Boy's publicly attacked leakers but the leaks have come from the administration.

Until those who aided in the cover up come forward with the truth, Matt Cooper among them, he may get away with it. Nixon had a set of "plumbers" but he wasn't fortunate enough to have so many in the press willing to look the other way. That's one of many areas where Bully Boy's ahead of Nixon.

"Sen. Harkin Urges Democrats To Back Censure of Bush" (Democracy Now!):
Meanwhile Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa has admitted in a radio interview that he is embarrassed that more Democrats have not supported Russell Feingold's motion to censure the President for illegally ordering the NSA to conduct domestic spying.


Harkin's correct, it is shameful. As Robert Parry noted on KPFA's Living Room Friday, the Democrats need to realize that the game plan that failed them in 2002 and 2004 doesn't appear to be a winning strategy. They need to be offering bold statements, not sitting around thinking that they have a sure win due to Bully Boy's polling.

That's it for today. I did have a much longer version of this but when C.I.'s computer went down, I didn't grasp what "Save! Save now!" meant. By the time I did, my laptop was also down. I'll say that was very curious and note that, after September in DC, we did have backup plans in case similar things happened.

Please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's thoughts which he thinks he had saved before the laptop he was on went down.

This isn't finished but Blogger's about to go down

The way things are being done tonight by the "blog twins" (Mike and myself) is that we're both noting the same two items but we're each writing about only one. That's due to the fact that Mike has really strong feelings and thoughts on one and I have that on the other. We agreed on the two items to select but we both felt that one was in our area of strength so we'd blog on that one. If that's confusing, so is life.

22 Killed in Iraq Violence (Democracy Now!):
At least 22 people were killed in violence around Iraq on Tuesday. The deadliest incident came in Baghdad, when ten people were killed in a car bombing.

John Kerry had an op-ed in the New York Times today and Gary Hart was interviewed by Andrea Lewis on KPFA's The Morning Show. Both men expressed a basic premise that I do support which is we have to leave Iraq. Other than that, I had to wonder, "Are they out of touch or 'framing'?" Both have a "get tough" strategy. It works, as these things usually do, in one direction. For Kerry, we need to 'get tough' with the Iraqi government. Why haven't they formed a successful government after all this time? That's his question.

US involvement isn't noted despite the fact that the US government was very involved in every government set up since the invasion. To ignore that fact is to miss the picture. Is John Kerry not aware of that? Is he not aware that in the most recent elections, we would have been even more involved had Nancy Pelosi not objected? There is much in the column he wrote that I can support but I can't get behind the premise of the Iraqis' have 'failed' when, in fact, the Iraqis have never been in charge.

So is he 'framing'? Is this his concept of a way to sell withdrawal to the people?

I have no idea. But I can't believe he's unaware of the US government's involvement in the elections and the selection process. Is he unaware that we're pressuring the current prime minister to step down? If so, he must have missed the news coverage for the last week and a half because it's been reported and reported and reported -- even by the mainstream press.
(By the way, I enjoyed how Wally inverted the story today.)

If he is aware and this is framing, that's one reason so many of us don't care for framing. It's used as a way to sneak something over. The Nation did a cover story on young 'activists.' They weren't activists. They were liars. Not very smart liars, but liars does describe them. They bragged about how they'd sold a wage increase by not focusing on real issues but instead cloaking it in the Bible. Now, if I remember right, the vote on that comes up this month. They bragged about putting one over on their fellow students (at a religious college) two or so months ago.

That article bothered me for several reasons. First of all, there are activists on campus, real ones. They don't get a cover story. But the White, junior DLC division does. That story was so insulting to me as a regular reader of the magazine because I don't buy that publication for marketing. I buy it for ideas. I buy it for discussions of large issues. That story could have come out of a newsletter for the DLC and all they would have done was clip out the ending where Tom Hayden was briefly quoted (and noted that these 'activists' weren't activists).

So is that where we are now? We'll say anything to get the troops home?

I understand the desperation, I realize that people are dying (on all sides) every day. But Hart and Kerry struck me the wrong way today.

Hart spoke of security and how Dems needed to up their profile. He made clear that he was making observations and not endorsements in those comments. But when you're dealing with critiques, you're usually dealing with your own opinion. Anyone, for instance, expecting Ava and C.I. to sit through a T&A show and then write in praise of it at The Third Estate Sunday Review is going to be disappointed because they're writing from a feminist perspective.

He spoke of a new kind of warfare that we'd be facing in the future. I believe he noted the need to combine special ops. If he did do that, then that is advocating. I say if because it was a crazy morning. I thought I was going to miss the interview live but I had a cancellation so Sunny and I both listened to it. While we were listening, I was catching up on two journals. If I'm remembering wrong and he didn't advocate combing Delta Force, et al, my apologies and my bad.

But since he did speak of door-to-door warfare and went on to note Falluja, I don't think I'm remembering incorrectly. A caller pointed out that door-to-door involved civilians. Hart stated he wasn't endorsing it, he was just making observations. If that's true then what is the suggestion that we combine special forces? To me that's not just an observation.

The caller was very upset and I didn't blame her. I think he tossed around Falluja a little too casually. What went on there in November of 2004 and earlier in April of 2004 qualifies for war crimes. I'd grabbed coffee from the break room and when I was walking back, a caller, male, was on the phone and he didn't get to finish his comment because Gary Hart exploded at him. The caller was making the point, from what little I heard (and Sunny said I heard basically all of it) that America's motives have been imperialistic.

Gary Hart said of the caller that he was the reason for the problems Democrats had in winning races. I don't think a critique of US history and it's imperialistic aims are the reason anyone loses an election.

I also was highly offended when another caller, again male, spoke in defense of the previous caller. This caller spoke with a Latino accent and Hart asked him, "If you feel that way, why did you come to this country?" (That's a paraphrase. "Really" may have been the question as well.)
I found it offensive at the time and I still find it offensive. A female caller spoke on similar topics as the other two I've noted and she also brought up the fact that the US government has historically propped up tyrannical governments that abuse their citizens. She brought up Saudia Arabia and possibly that was the reason Hart could get behind that question.

Was Hart 'framing' in the interview? With his observations (I say opinions) of how the Democratic Party needs to be a tough party in order to win, was he framing?

To be fair to him, he included children (American) in national security and the environment. His security talk was not just war, war, war.

I'm actually interested in reading his book. (But I have a long reading list currently so I probably won't buy it until May.) He had many interesting ideas. But both he and Kerry seem to be 'framing' to me.

I don't think we get away from aggressive wars (which he is opposed to) by not addressing the roots of those wars and other wars that came before. He appeared, to me, to want to take it on a case-by-case basis. I don't see how that helps. It allows us to condemn one war of aggression; however, it allows them to continue.

It was an hour interview on a wide range of subjects and I don't want to give the impression that I disagreed with everything he said. I will be reading his book at some point. He was on the show to promote the book and he did peak my interest in it. (In the new book. Not the one on religion.)

But with both him and Kerry, two people opposed to the illegal war and speaking out against it, I felt less common ground than I would've expected. Amy Goodman interviewed him on Democracy Now! and he had stated that he learned by listening. I don't think he listened to the caller he snapped at. With Andrea Lewis, he made the point (which I agree with) that Democrats who voted for the invasion need to admit that they are wrong. He said admitting that you are wrong is one of the hardest things to do for a politician. I think he needs to admit that he handled that call poorly.

I spoke to C.I. and opened with, "I know you are busy, I'm sorry to call, but I spoke to Ruth and I think I'm writing about Hart's interview." C.I. knows Hart, C.I. likes Hart personally (and has campaigned for him). C.I. said, "Elaine, when Cedric calls worried it's one thing. But you've known me forever. If you have a problem, write about it. I'm not going to be upset." I wish I could've spoken longer on the phone but I know C.I. (and Ava and Jess) were working on immigration activism.

I will note that Andrea Lewis is all that Ruth's said and more. I understood why she enjoys Lewis' interviews so much. Many of Hart's point I could either agree with or was interested in hearing more information about them (which is why I'll be reading the book) but the above were the moments I disagreed with. C.I. asked if I'd note Ralph Nader because a number of e-mails came in on "whatever was said about Nader."

Hart believes that Nader cost Al Gore the election in 2000 and that Nader voters are responsible for Bully Boy being in the White House.

I don't agree with that and C.I. doesn't agree with that. So consider this a joint statment from us both. (We've spoken of this many times and if I offer something that's different from C.I.'s opinion by mistake, I'll note it tomorrow. I know C.I. probably won't have time to write tonight and I know the issue probably does need addressing within the community.)

rebecca note: i'm adding links for elaine and a comment near the bottom, but i did speak to c.i. and was told there was no disagreement with the 2000 comments and 'in fact, no disagreement with anything elaine's written. it's a great entry.'

During the 2000 campaign, Al Gore could've stolen voters from Nader. To do that, he would have had to have spoken to issues. (I voted for Al Gore. As did C.I. Up until a Rolling Stone interview we were willing to listen to Nader's campaign and weigh the issues addressed. In the interview, Nader dismissed the concerns of pro-choice voters and that's when he lost any interest we might have had in his campaign.)

I can go more into my/our thoughts on the campaign if someone needs me to but Mike just called to say he didn't think he was going to be finished in time. "In time? Are we in a race tonight?" Yes, we are. A race against Blogger which goes offline for fine tuning in less than ten minutes. I wasn't aware of that. So let me just say the above about the campaign for tonight.

Now in terms of winning or losing, Al Gore won the vote. He beat the Bully Boy. In the recount phase (and there was never a full recount despite James Baker's talking points of the votes being counted and recounted), Al Gore's campaign made huge mistakes. Joe Lieberman agreeing to count all military votes regardless of whether they were filled out properly or came in on time (or had a postmark) was a huge mistake. Joe Lieberman being on the ticket was a huge mistake.

Asking Jesse Jackson to leave was a mistake. They needed demonstrations, real ones, as opposed to the phoney ones staged by people flown into Florida to stop the recount. The disenfranchisment of African-American voters was not addressed by the campaign.

Al Gore won the vote. He lost the race. The Surpreme Court bears responsibility for that but so does his campaign. Six years later and the Democratic Party still fails to grasp that Republican want to win. They're not going to play nicely. They're going to pull out all stops. They smeared John Kerry with the Not So Swift Floaties (as C.I.'s dubbed them) and Kerry could have fought back. He could have made a real issue of Osama, not just in the debates but with commercials as well. He could have made an issue (or his campaign, I should say) of any number of topics but he played it like it was a race between gentleman. Obviously, his campaign never grasped how Karl Rove operates.

Ralph Nader didn't cost Al Gore the election. Even with Nader in the campaign, he won the vote. (Nader also wasn't the big beneficiary of the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach -- that was Pat Buchanan.) He lost the election because his campaign played nice and worried about how they'd look to the press. He should have fought for the race he won. He didn't. That goes to his team and to him. That has little to do with Ralph Nader and everyone needs to get over the idea that in a democracy you can ask someone (or bully them) into stepping out of a race.

I'm posting this now because I have less than 2 minutes left before Blogger goes down.

Sinn Fein Member Who Spied for British Found Dead (Democracy Now!):
In Ireland, a former Sinn Fein member who spied for the British government has been murdered. The man, Denis Donaldson, admitted last year he spied on fellow Irish nationalists. Donaldson’s murder comes as the Irish and British governments are attempting to relaunch stalled peace negotiations. Both the Sinn Fein and the Irish Republican Army denied involvement in the killing.


okay, me again (rebecca). i'm adding this to elaine's post, adding on thursday. elaine's talk about the 'options' being tossed around are tied into the body count item because people will always die from wars and pretending that a war is bad but that another war might be okay, isn't a critique. it's fine tuning. it's accepting that the war with iraq would be okay if we had gotten a u.n. resolution. there needs to be a serious look at the war and at how it fits into other wars. that won't come from fine tuning or from pretending like bully boy just bungled the war. the was was illegal. illegal wars will continue until we can move beyond the fine tuning nonsense.

on the 2nd item from democracy now, elaine was going to explain that she and mike had chosen the 2 items, the way they usually do, but had decided each would write about 1. for comments on the second item, see mike's 'Ireland.'

Tom DeLay and more

Thank you for kind e-mails wishing me well. I do feel better this evening. I'm sure the kind thoughts helped. Please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's view on this evening's news.


"Former GOP Majority Leader Tom Delay to Resign" (Democracy Now!):
Republican Congressman Tom Delay has announced he is resigning and will give up his House seat within the next few months. The former House Majority Leader has been one of the most powerful -- and controversial -- Republicans on Capitol Hill. DeLay announced his resignation just days after a former top aide, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty in connection to a lobbying scandal involving Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Last November, Delay's former press secretary Michael Scanlon also plead guilty to related charges. Delay was up for his re-election but polls showed he would likely lose. Last year Delay was forced to give up his position as House Majority Leader after he was indicted on criminal charges of conspiracy to violate Texas election laws. Federal investigators have also probed Delay's personal dealings with Abramoff. DeLay's wife worked for the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group which had close ties to the Republican lobbyist.


Tom DeLay. What can you say? That he turned self-interest into a major cash cow? That he helped further the distrust in the government by his close relationship with lobbyists? (His heavy petting?)

C.I. phoned last night to check on me (saying, "If you hadn't answered on the first ring, I would've hung up"). We spoke of my cold and of Tom DeLay which had just started making the news. This was our consensus so equal credit to both. (I would note which was C.I.'s and which was mine, but it all blurred because I was feeling so sick.)
Tom DeLay gave the Democrats a gift. They won't take it. They don't have the strength, guts, fortitude, whatever to run with the gift.

DeLay has proclaimed he was under attack and blamed Ronnie Earl for his problems, as opposed to his own actions. His decision to step down smells of guilt. It will smell of guilt to voters.If the Dems want to take back the House, Tom DeLay is the what needs to be cited. But already Sheila Jackson Lee and Howard Dean have made noises about being non-partisan and taking the high road.

DeLay didn't get drunk at a party and embarrass himself. His problems are a direct result of what he did in his elected role. For Dems to act as thought DeLay's problem is some sort of personal issue is a mistake. His actions made him the poster boy for bad government.

I live on the east coast, far from Texas. People today were talking about Tom DeLay more than anything since a sport's scandal. Regardless of where you live or how little you pay attention to the news, you know Tom DeLay. I had no idea he was that well known, but he is. Democrats make a huge mistake by not making an issue out of DeLay's official conduct in elected office.





"Nine U.S. Troops Die in Deadliest Day of Year" (Democracy Now!):
In Iraq, the deaths of nine U.S. troops were announced on Monday making it the deadliest day of the year for the United States. 13 U.S. troops have already died this month, nearly half the number who died in all of March.


When will the press learn that Operation Happy Talk is a momentary wave that always is followed with a larger, harsher wave of reality?

The chaos and violence never stopped. But there was an attempt over the weekend to speak of fatalities being down -- with little effort to note that today's wounded suffer serious problems or to note how high the figures were for the wounded.

To me, the latest wave of happy talk read as though the message was: "Less Americans being killed, so quit worrying." That was a false reading on the status for American troops; however, it was also offensive since violence and chaos is always reality for Iraqis living in the "liberated" Iraq.

Rebecca called this evening. She and I were both mentioned by C.I. today. I hadn't read the piece that bothered C.I. so Rebecca read it to me. I have no idea what that woman was attempting. It appeared she was channeling Democrats in Congress who have lost the spine to fight. As the woman listed "sensible ideas" regarding abortion, I seriously questioned her committment to abortion rights. I found her column offensive and destructive. Did she express her feelings or those of the Democratic Party?

If she was being a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, let me be clear that I avoid reading cheerleading magazines for Democrats. There are a number of those. Some of them were behind Joe Lieberman in 2004 (for the Dem nomination for president). If you're giving up your independence, you really aren't much of a reporter.

Maybe the woman wasn't? If so, she needs to set out of her hermatically sealed world because the rights she's willing to give away, the 'protectionist' measures she's supporting, are not items I can agree with.

I think it's really sad that a woman who says she's pro-choice would write something like that. It's pro-choice in the same way that Joe Lieberman is a Democrat -- in name only.

The Bionic Cold

Warning: yawns ahead. If you yawn, don't feel bad. I'm yawning on my end. I can't believe now that winter's almost over, I've caught a winter cold.

I know a number of people consider it spring the minute daylight savings kicks in. The official first day of spring is either March 20th or 21st. But where I live, you learn not to get excited until after Easter. There can still be a rough cold spell before Easter so I don't get excited about the arrival of spring until after Easter.

I read what Rebecca wrote tonight and I'll comment on that because I'm not sure how much of a "news brain" I have tonight. On movies, I don't just watch foreign films and documentaries. The last movie I wanted to see was Monster-In-Law (which I enjoyed). But most of the things don't seem to interest me. Kill Bill wasn't my type of movie. V is something I might see because of the look the film has. But Kill Bill struck me as a film that had a washed out look to it (except in the snow scene) and really played like a bad TV movie from the 70s. I saw that because it was an "empowerment" movie. I didn't see that in it. I saw a lot of women playing shoot-em-up and other nonsense. It was like a slasher film.

It just wasn't my type of movie. I'd hoped there would be more to it and was very disappointed. After that I wasn't keen on seeing a movie again until it was time for Jane Fonda's return to acting. I saw movies between then because I will go see things with friends and on dates, but that gives you an idea of how often I really want to see a movie.

I do see documentaries. Usually on some subject that interests me. But I'm always up for a documentary.

Miss Congeniality was not my DVD. I laughed at the film but felt like I was watching a 2 part episode of The Bionic Woman. In fact, I think I was. Only when Lindsey Wagner was competing in the beauty contest, she sang a song.

Well it's good to feel alive in the moring
To feel the sunshine warming up your face now
And I can hear the cannonball
Coming down the tracks now
And I'm so glad that I'm living in the country.

I think that's how the song went.

If I see a TV show or a movie, the song usually sticks in my head for years.

I'll talk about The Bionic Woman and then go over the news. (Yes, I'm padding this out with TV talk.) I really did enjoy that show. First of all, Jamie Sommers wasn't your standard TV hero of that time. She wasn't killing people the way Steve Austin often did on The Six Million Dollar Man. Second, she lived in a converted barn that made you think, "Converted barn? Might be the way to go." (Like most things on TV, it was stylish.) Third, Jamie had a sense of humor. Fourth, there were moments of reality.

For younger readers, Jamie was a tennis player who had an accident (parachute accident). She was thought dead because she was supposed to be dead. The character was brought on The Six Million Dollar Man just for the story of Steve loves Jamie, Jamie dies. But viewers really liked Jamie so they later brought her back and said that instead of dying, she'd gotten bionic parts. She had bionic legs (like Steve), a bionic arm (ditto) and a bionic ear. She also had no memory of key events when she came back.

If I remember right, there was a story where Jamie's body was rejecting the bionic parts. I know I remember an episode, last year of the show, I believe, where Jamie was called a "freak" by a kid. This was during some upheaval and Jamie ended up thinking the kid was right and hitting the road.

I am probably doing a poor job conveying the show to anyone who hasn't ever seen it. That can only partly be pinned on the fact that I'm sick. It's also due to the fact that it's not a show, I think anyway, that you can describe easily. It had a number of levels to it.


"Gen. Zinni: Rumsfeld Should Resign" (Democracy Now!):
Here in this country, calls for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign are increasing. On Sunday, Gen. Anthony Zinni, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, accused Rumsfeld of committing a "series of disastrous mistakes" in Iraq.

Donald Rumsfeld looks like the sort of man who'd play a villain on The Bionic Woman. He'd have access to classified plans and be attempting to pass them on to the Fem-Bots or something.
He just has that evil look about him. So Andrew Card was sent packing last week (and replaced with Josh Bolton). Is Rumsfeld next on the clean sweep? I don't think so. I don't think the Bully Boy would fire him. Not just because he was carrying out Bully Boy's orders but also because the Bully Boy responds to pressure by digging his feet in.

With all of the screw ups that have gone on, Ronald Reagan would have already found ten fall guys. Bully Boy appears to have so much disdain for the public that he doesn't even feel the need to go through the motions to find a fall guy.



"Condoleezza Rice: U.S. Made Thousands of Mistakes in Iraq" (Democracy Now!):
Meanwhile Condoleezza Rice admitted that the United States had probably made thousands of errors in Iraq. She made the admission on Friday during a meeting in Britain. "I know that we made tactical errors, thousands of them I'm sure,"Rice said. "This could have gone that way or that could have gone that way, but when you look back in history what will be judged is did you make the right strategic decisions and if you spend all your time trying to judge this tactical issue or that tactical issue I think you miss the larger sweep."

Screw ups? Condi admitted to some and then quickly minimized them with her ahistorical lens. The "larger sweep" is that an illegal invasion was sold on lies and then an illegal occupation followed. I have no idea what history book Condi Rice thinks is going to be written but she appears to be suffering from denial if she thinks the lies are just a "tactical issue." Between her involvement in that and her poor job as head of the NSC, she will not be remembered as someone who did her job even adequately.

For history to look fondly on what the administration has done will require a lot of revisionism. Far more likely is her being remembered as The Moronic Woman. (I'm tired and sneezing, call it a theme.)

Please visit Mikey Likes It! for Mike's thoughts which, I'm sure, are more coherent than my own. Also please read C.I.'s "And the war drags on ...(Indymedia Roundup)."