"10 Members of Granny Peace Brigade Released in Philly" (Democracy Now):
In Philadelphia, 10 members of the Granny Peace Brigade were arrested Wednesday after refusing to leave a military recruiting center.
That's news. Good for the Granny Peace Brigade.
Judge Sentences Katrina Looters to 15 Years in Jail (Democracy Now):
In other news from New Orleans, a judge has sentenced three people to fifteen years in prisons for looting in the days after Hurricane Katrina. The three were convicted of taking liquor, wine and beer from a grocery store.
So is that "justice"? It is if the police who looted are punished as well. Democracy Now pointed out earlier that they helped themselves to Mercedes. Are they going to get 15 years? What about the ones NBC's Today Show had video on, back in September, who were going through a Wal-Mart grabbing what they wanted. They were asked about it, on camera, and they said they didn't want to talk. I'm remembering DVDs and other items. Are they getting 15 years?
If they're not, this is just one more way to punish African-Americans.
And speaking of African-Americans, we smoke in significant numbers. (I don't smoke.) So do all members of the lower class. So I was kind of shocked (like Rebecca) to hear the nonsense about cancer being on the rise because of second hand smoke the other day. That's not why two old people I know have cancer. They have cancer because they live next to a plant that streams pollution all day and all the night. (In fact, it kicks up the stream at night. When you go to visit them, you roll up the windows and still get hit with a wave of that crap.) Screaming and tsk-tsking second-hand smoke is an easy out. Our water makes us sick, our air makes us sick. That's why cancer's on the rise. When you're ready to deal with that, deal with it. Until then, you're just scoring points of the backs of the poor lecturing about second-hand smoke. I also believe that there's a "causal link" as opposed to an established one as opposed to an "established" one. So until you're willing to turn your keen eyes to the factories pouring out pollution and the fact that poor people are the ones stuck living next to them, save me your smoking facts. I don't need 'em. I don't want 'em. (I don't smoke.)
I agree that the American Cancer Society is the biggest coward in the world. Of all the causes of cancer, they want to focus on only one. When they get a little bravery, maybe I'll take them seriously. Instead, it's one more way to focus on the things that don't really matter. Unless what matters is to demonize the poor. That's always fun, right? "Those poor folks, getting drunk, getting pregnant, smoking. Worthless and lazy." Right? That's the point, isn't it?
Because if the point was about the increase in cancer, then we'd be exploring the pollution in our environment, in our homes. KPFA aired a great documentary about the pollution in the homes during their last pledge month. Glomming on smoking alone allows a lot of people to feel superior. It does not, however, address reality. It's not uncommon to see on the news (I know two people personally) that someone had cancer (Christopher Reeve's wife Dana, for instance) who didn't smoke, who wasn't around smoking. But let's all pretend it's just smoking because it's easier to attack the habits of the poor then to go after the ones polluting the environment (inside and out).
That's it for me today. I already did an entry with Wally today. Mike and I are blogging on the same things so check out Mikey Likes It and see his thoughts. I'll go out with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Chaos and violence continue.
Stooges, fools and cheerleaders allow it to continue. Meanwhile the so-called coalition continues to shrink.
Romania becomes the next to tell the Bully Boy, "Catch you on the flip-side." Retuers reports Calin Tariceanu (prime minister of Romania) announced today that Romania would pull all troops by the end of the year -- before Romania's 890 troops can be pulled the Supreme Defence Council has to give its approval. Romania's president has slammed the proposal as had American ambassador to Romania and Advance Auto Parts merchant Nicholas F. Taubman. Bully Boy pioneer Taubman expressed his "impression that not all of the relevant parties, whether within Romania or beyond, were consulted before this proposal was announced." "Within Romania or beyond"? Spoken like a big donor, not like an ambassador, but Advance Auto Parts isn't known for turning out diplomats.
This as Rocky Mountain News reports that the Colorado Army National Guard's 169th unit will ship 100 soldiers to Iraq in July (with 300 of the "2/135th Aviation Company" currently training in Texas with orders to deploy in Septemeber).
Despite yesterday's 'coverage' of the "insurgent-poll" nothing really changed. It was another day of violence and chaos in Iraq.
Australia's ABC reports that Australian troops were "under attack" in southern Iraq. The Associated Press reports that "Iraqi and U.S. troops battled Shi'ite militiamen in a village northeast of Baghdad" -- still ongoing when the AP filed their report. Reuters notes, on this incident, that a police commander was shot dead by a sniper and two others were wounded.
Those were among many of the deaths in Iraq. As Sandra Lupien noted on KPFA's The Morning Show, there were multiple victims of violence today: trash collector, head of security for Baghdad University (Kadhim Challoub), merchants, baker, electrical worker and a woman who'd been waiting in her car with her two children (the children were wounded, not killed) among them. Reuters notes, in Kerbala, the death (by gunshot) of "a criminal intelligence policeman" as well as the death of two Iraqi soldiers (as well as one civilian, with one soldier and two other civilians wounded) in Faulluja, and one Iraqi soldier dead with seven more wounded from a roadside bomb in Riyadh. In Kirkuk, a car bomb exploded at a Shi'ite soldier's funeral initially claiming the lives of at least four. Reuters would later put the number of those dead at seven.
As Mark Mericle noted on yesterday's KPFA's The KPFA Evening News, "People gathered in 34 cities around the country yesterday to show their support for Lt. Ehren Watada" introducing a news report by Julie Sabatier from Portland.
Two other items noted on yesterday's KPFA Evening News, the 'apologetic' Joshua Belile, who once apologized (or 'apologized') for his song while advising others to "let it go," has now announced that he will be releasing "a professionally recorded version of the song in a few weeks" and in Berkeley, the city council has put a "symbolic" referendum on the ballot calling on Congress to impeach the Bully Boy due to his lies that led us into an illegal war. (June 27th was also declared Cindy Sheehan day.)
Reuters notes that seven corpses were found (male) in the Tigris River ("gunshot wounds . . . signs of torture"), while two more corpses (male) were discovered in the Euphrates River ("gunshot wounds . . . signs of torture"). Reuters notes that: "Morgue officials say 30-50 bodies are found in Baghdad alone every day." In Kirkuk, the AP reports the corpse of a fifteen-year-old female was discovered -- "kidnapped five days ago." The AFP puts the count of corpses discovered throughout Iraq today at 18.
File it under "No one could have guessed," Condi No-One-Could-Have-Guessed Rice had a "testy exchange" with Russia's Sergei Lavrov (Russia's Foreign Minister) in a "closed-door meeting" from which the audio feed was accidentally left on. "What does that mean?" Rice asks at one point, to which Lavrov responds, "I think you understand." In what might have been her most honest reply, she declared, "No, I don't." On that, we believe you, Condi, we believe you. The issue was how to word a statement on the security situation in Iraq and the anger spilled over publicly after the meeting, in front of reporters when Rice responded to Lavrov's comments about changes in America that he'd seen since he first visited in 1979, "So when did you go and where did you go in the United States in 1979 that you saw so much change? I am really interested." Though Rice may have forgotten, her current title is Secretary of State.
What gets play and what doesn't? One might think that Nancy A. Youssef breaking the news Monday that the US government, despite claims otherwise, was indeed keeping body counts of Iraqis. You might think that would be news . . . but you'd be wrong. What gets runs with?
Not truth. July 4th's a-coming, can't have families getting together in the United States without some false hope or Bully Boy might get a trashing that wouldn't bode well for the November elections. So nonsense gets tossed out by the puppet government and the media amplifies it.
Yes, we're speaking of the nonsense that "insurgents" are on the two-year-withdrawal bus. Since the domestic, US media has never explored the terms "insurgent" or "resistance," who knows what they mean? The AFP notes: "At the same time, a foreign diplomat raised questions about the identity of armed groups reportedly in contact with the government and whether they carry any real weight in the nationwide insurgency." Al Jazeera notes that eleven groups have met with occupation puppet Nouri al-Maliki and that eight of them are the ones being referred to. Do they carry any weight? A good question to ask. (Instead, it's easier to report/"report": "Insurgents meeting with Maliki!") Al Jazeera, which may be the only news organization that's going by more than government sources (it's spoken to representatives for the groups) reports that "the 11 groups operate north and north-east of Baghdad in increasingly violent Salahuddin and Diyala provinces."
Increasingly violent. This isn't Anbar, this isn't even Baghdad. These, if Al Jazeera's reporting is correct, are groups from, for Iraq, relatively restful provinces that are growing "increasingly violent." It's a nice bit of happy talk to send us all into the holiday weekend. It's not, however, reality. Having never explored the issue (other than to guess fighting is fueled by Iran -- wait, no! it's Egypt), they now want to get behind eight groups or eleven groups and the news consumer is left uninformed. (Possibly that's the point of it all.)
Reality was Nancy A. Youssef's report. Have we seen that covered in the New York Times? Have we seen it covered elsewhere? Maybe the silence is due to the fact that the administration being caught in yet another lie seems more "redundant" than "newsworthy"?
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Holla' Back Girl Uses Nah-Nah Diplomacy
BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX - MOSCOW.
THIS JUST IN!
MUST CREDIT CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & BULLY BOY PRESS.
INSPIRED BY THE NAH-NAH SISTERHOOD, CONDI RICE DECIDED TO PRACTICE HER OWN VERSION OF NAH-NAH DIPLOMACY WINNING SHOUTS OF "YOU GO, GIRL!" FROM MAD MADDY ALBRIGHT.
DROPPING THE TITLE OF SECRETARY OF STATE, CONDI WENT WITH "HOLLA BACK GIRL!" AS SHE DROPPED THE BOMB ON RUSSIA'S SERGEI LAVROV.
FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV AND HOLLA BACK GIRL CONDI HAD A THROW DOWN BEHIND CLOSED DOORS BUT FORGOT TO TURN OFF THE MIKES.
EMERGING TO FACE THE CROWDS WITH HER USUAL PHONEY SMILE AND CLENCHED FISTS, HOLLA BACK LISTENED WHILE LAVROV SPOKE OF THE CHANGES HE HAD WITNESSED IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE FIRST VISITING IN 1979.
SOMEBODY CALL THE PO-PO COZ CONDI WAS FLASHING ATTITUDE.
"SO WHEN DID YOU GO AND WHERE DID YOU GO IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1979 THAT YOU SAW SO MUCH CHANGE?" ASKED HOLLA BACK DOING THE NECK AND HEAD COMBO MADE FAMOUS BY MANY IN THE AUDIENCE OF A JERRY SPRINGER SHOW.
NAH-NAH DIPLOMACY, MAKING THE WORLD A LITTLE WORSE FOR ALL OF US.
Recommended: "Democracy Now: Norman Finkelstein, Dixon Osburne, Ben Wizner, Lawrence Norden"
"NYT: Dexy wants to process, everyone in a group circle!"
"NYT: Covering the spin and not much more"
"pissed"
"Specter thinks he might be angry, Dave Zirin and more"
"Guns and Butter"
"Fast on the fourth"
THIS JUST IN!
MUST CREDIT CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & BULLY BOY PRESS.
INSPIRED BY THE NAH-NAH SISTERHOOD, CONDI RICE DECIDED TO PRACTICE HER OWN VERSION OF NAH-NAH DIPLOMACY WINNING SHOUTS OF "YOU GO, GIRL!" FROM MAD MADDY ALBRIGHT.
DROPPING THE TITLE OF SECRETARY OF STATE, CONDI WENT WITH "HOLLA BACK GIRL!" AS SHE DROPPED THE BOMB ON RUSSIA'S SERGEI LAVROV.
FOREIGN MINISTER LAVROV AND HOLLA BACK GIRL CONDI HAD A THROW DOWN BEHIND CLOSED DOORS BUT FORGOT TO TURN OFF THE MIKES.
EMERGING TO FACE THE CROWDS WITH HER USUAL PHONEY SMILE AND CLENCHED FISTS, HOLLA BACK LISTENED WHILE LAVROV SPOKE OF THE CHANGES HE HAD WITNESSED IN THE UNITED STATES SINCE FIRST VISITING IN 1979.
SOMEBODY CALL THE PO-PO COZ CONDI WAS FLASHING ATTITUDE.
"SO WHEN DID YOU GO AND WHERE DID YOU GO IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1979 THAT YOU SAW SO MUCH CHANGE?" ASKED HOLLA BACK DOING THE NECK AND HEAD COMBO MADE FAMOUS BY MANY IN THE AUDIENCE OF A JERRY SPRINGER SHOW.
NAH-NAH DIPLOMACY, MAKING THE WORLD A LITTLE WORSE FOR ALL OF US.
Recommended: "Democracy Now: Norman Finkelstein, Dixon Osburne, Ben Wizner, Lawrence Norden"
"NYT: Dexy wants to process, everyone in a group circle!"
"NYT: Covering the spin and not much more"
"pissed"
"Specter thinks he might be angry, Dave Zirin and more"
"Guns and Butter"
"Fast on the fourth"
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Michael Smith's speech from Law and Disorder
WBAI's Law and Disorder? I ended up with four e-mails asking about the pirate station. I don't know. You've got a very small area downtown and it's during business hours. They play
Law and Disorder and I don't know what else in full but I did drive around with my cousin and we picked it up, like he'd told me would. I've heard a big of the show (probably 15 minutes) that way. Otherwise, they're playing music and another program that I'm not sure what it is. The music is usually Bob Marley (my cousin's heard Ziggy as well) and some songs that are mixes where they take a thing from one of the cable channels of some guy screaming and mix it so he sounds like an even bigger idiot. This is mixed with music that's Eastern and has beats added to it.
There's this thing from time to time that's a rain sound effect and we're guessing that's the "station name." I was telling my cousin and some friends about the show a few weeks back and my cousin says he heard it and I know he didn't. But he starts telling me about what he heard and he did hear it. It's some very, very low watt station. You really can only get it downtown. The other show isn't Democracy Now! but I don't know what it is. It's a news program where they were interviewing people about the war. There may be other programs too. But we've driven around downtown repeatedly to try to figure out what it's playing and we catch the music or Law and Disorder (plus the other show one time). He/She/They play Law and Disorder at lunch time and they may do it every day. They do it on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday that we can confirm. You've got about three streets running north and south that you can hear it on and maybe three times as many running east and west. But if you turn a corner on the wrong street, you lose it.
My cousin here's it all the time because he works downtown and he can hear it the second he's driving out of the parking garage. That's probably all I'm going to say about it because I thought it was pretty cool. When I was seven years old, I got a set of walkie talkies. I always played with one and would let my friends and my brothers and sisters play with the other. My sister decided to play like it was a light saber with the antenna extended and broke it off. So I just had the one. But I'd play dee jay a lot after that. I'd hold down the button on the side forever, song after song. Every now and then, between songs, I'd say some stuff. When my finger was tired and I had to stop, I'd listen, we lived next to the highway, and see if any of the truck drivers were talking about it? Most of the time, no. Every now and then someone would make one comment and that would make my day. I had a "listener."
So when it turned out that there was some low watt broadcast station in our city, I thought that was pretty cool. But I had one e-mail saying I needed to contact the FCC and how awful it was because this pirate station was interfering with "real radio stations." I don't think so. I think it's pretty cool. But I'm not going to write about it here again. He/She/They aren't hurting anyone and I don't want to cause any problems for them.
I think it's great. Whether it's the music or the programs, someone's sharing. We don't have any radio stations worth listening to and certainly nothing that's playing anything that people really care about (except maybe commercials and the money they can bring in) so I think it's
great. Maybe it will fold in a few weeks, maybe it will go on for a few years? But whoever is doing it cares and I think that's great.
This week on WBAI's Law and Disorder, Heidi Boghosian was the "anchor." They had a series of interviews and speeches and Boghosian set them up explaining where they were recorded and that sort of thing. The speeches were my favorite part of the show. I enjoyed the other parts and Mike's "Law and Disorder interviewed Suzanne Vega and Collective Soul" covers two interviews. But Dalia Hashad said a few weeks ago that America needs to wake up and I agree with that. Ruth is trying to focus just on Iraq right now. She said I could grab both speeches, but I'm going with Michael Smith's because I think Ruth can more easily work Michael Ratner's speech into her report in some way.
By the way if you listen to the program (or want to) via the WBAI's archive, Brandon e-mailed to say it's under "Joy of Resistance." It airs on Monday morning's right after Democracy Now and Brandon said it's labled "Joy or Resistance" this week (that's another show) so just pretend it says "Law and Disorder" and click for that program.
Brandon also said he recommends listening on Winamp because when he uses Real Player or Windows Media Player he has a lot of problems with it dropping out or with it getting stuck.
"Dangerous Times" was the theme of the Left Forum which is where the speeches by Ratner and Smith were given. Michael Smith traced the real rise of empire to the 1991 privatization of national property in the former Soviet Union. He spoke about how that gave a number of people the plan for Iraq. If that idea's new to you, you should read Naomi Klein's "Baghdad Year Zero"
He spoke a book he, Michael Ratner and two of Michael Ratner's nieces worked on that was a collection of William Kunstler's writings (the nieces were Kunstler's daughters). They had a title for it and they wondered about it: The Emerging Police State.
Smith said, "That's a bit much. Perhaps we should calm down?"
But then they realized that what was happening in this country was too much, not the book title.
He made the point that, "The Final Solution wasn't announced as the Final Solution. . . . Things creep up and creep up." Now we're at a point where things could become "irreversible."
He spoke of Hitler's rise and how he didn't seize power immediately. He talked about the buring of the Reichstad and how it was, falsely, blamed on the communists. And from there you got all this demonizing. Hitler came to power on fear, preaching fear and being the one who would save you. Sound familiar?
He spoke about Lynne Stewart and I had an e-mail from a right-winger about the post last week and how I was a "Black Radical." If the e-mailer is my alternative, fine by me. But he brought up Lynne Stewart in his e-mail and noted how C.I. and Mike are Lynne Stewart supporters (at their sites they've covered this many times). He wanted "to let you know, she's a T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T." No she's not. And Michael Smith dealt with that. She's a lawyer who fought to uphold the Constitution and our rights. You can trash the law, and Bully Boy has, and maybe you'll catch someone who's guilty but you'll also put a lot of innocent people behind bars. Lynne Stewart was doing her job. She was an attorney. That some sixty-plus year-old grandmother who has spent years and years in a court room can be seen as a terrorist shows you how bad things are today. I'll speak for everyone doing a site in this community here and note, we all support Lynne Stewart. We all think the conviction needs to be overturned. Mike and C.I. talk about it more because they blog more (C.I. will kill me for that, because C.I. does more "entries" than any of us).
You may feel a little less scared at night because Lynne Stewart was wrongly convicted (and not of breaking a law -- find the law she broke) but in ten years when the hysteria dies down, this conviction is going to be seen as the tragedy it was.
I learned of Lynne Stewart in real time when they were railroading her. It was before the trial and I always appreciated that C.I. wrote about it. You saw a lot of people, including some lawyers, writing stuff that was really weak-ass. "Oh, of course I wouldn't do what she did but . . ." Or some saying, "They need to go for a lesser charage." Maybe they thought they were practical? I thought they were chickens. I love that about The Common Ills, there's no concern on C.I.'s part about "How will I sound?" Somethings do have a clear right and wrong and, when they do, you need to say so, you need to speak out. Which was the point Michael Smith was making. If you don't do that, the country you know is gone.
There was a big name lawyer who wrote a piece for a left magazine and it was so weak-ass. If that's the best he can do, maybe he should have said nothing. A woman was railroaded and trying to look "reasonable" doesn't (and didn't) save anyone. Lynne Stewart's attornies are suing to find out if her phone calls were tapped. I bet they were. What I wish she'd do is sue the government for refusing to allow her to do her legal duties to her client.
I don't think she'd win. But I think if that was front and center in a case, some of the weak-ass lawyers who couldn't defend her (out of fear of losing their pundit gigs or maybe what parents of their students might think) would have to deal with the real issues of the case.
I'll say Lynne Stewart's innocent. I'll say it to anyone. She is. And it's a honor to defend her. I won't be creating an excuse in ten years when people are horrorified by what was done to Stewart. I'll be able to say, "I spoke out. She was innocent and if people hadn't been so scared, they would have spoken out as well."
She's an attorney who tried to do her job. She didn't break a law. She "broke" a guideline that the government created. I'd love to see that challenged in court. If the government wants to have laws, you go through Congress. You don't create your own and call them guidelines.
Lynne Stewart's not a terrorist and she's innocent of breaking any laws. The woman should be set free, the conviction overturned. She's innocent.
Now Heidi Boghosian was on the panel that Michaels Smith and Ratner were speaking from so hopefully, we'll be able to get a speech from Boghosian. (She did a great job as anchor.)
Two statements I want to note from Michael Smith's speech are: "They're spying on attornies representing controversial clients"; "They're telling attornies you can't say what you want to with respect to your client." I want to note them because I was on the phone with Ruth and I asked her if she attended that forum because she wrote this Saturday:
A Daniel Ellsberg who does go public will, no doubt, need a attorney. If lawyers and their clients cannot speak freely, that is a problem. If everyone has to fear that their conversations are being monitored, a clampdown can set in.
She says she wished she'd gone but she didn't. She credits the similarity to "Professor Smith's lessons in the class Law and Disorder at University WBAI. She said Amy Goodman has spoken of that during fundraising, how WBAI is the people's university. I like that. You do learn a lot. I also learn a great deal at University KPFA. I'd probably learn a lot at others as well but I have problems trying to listen online with two and the third seems to always play music when I have time to listen. I'll go ahead and say what I think about that because I don't like it. Pacifica has a station in DC and they devote too much programming to music. They're in the nation's capital. There's really not an excuse for it. C.I. really does mean it when giving the speech that if you're lucky enough to have a Pacifica in your area, you should listen to it. And C.I. does listen to that one on DC trips. I don't have that kind of dedication. They need to lose about ten hours of music programming, at least, if they hoped to interest someone like me. If they don't have the money to produce their own shows, air Law and Disorder and other strong programs. But I think playing music for hours after hours when you're in DC is really wasting everyone's time. Leigh Ann Caldwell covers stuff from DC but she's not with that station. She's doing it with Free Speech Radio. She does a great job. I remember being so disappointed when we were all in DC and I was asking what the Pacifica station was because I was sure they were going to be doing strong coverage and I find it on the dial and it's jazz music.
I like music. There's a program I'll listen to on Saturdays on WBAI that's music. If I'm not doing something for the church or for my family (meaning when I'm home), I'll listen to it. It's a pretty interesting mix and the guy who hosts it always has some stuff to say. When we were all out in California, I heard some really good music programs on KPFA. World music, folk, rock, etc. I like jazz. I like it enough to take about an hour of it in a club once a month. To me, the DC station is too much a jazz station. Which I always see as "Black people classical music." I like jazz, my family likes jazz but if you're African-American, you know what I'm talking about. It's Huxtable Music.
Maybe they have a wealthy listenership but I saw a lot more people with my skin color in DC than I did White people and they didn't look like they were rolling in it. (And thanks to C.I. because when we did a real sight seeing thing on our second group trip, C.I. didn't just make it about the big landmarks but showed us the other areas and there's is so much poverty in DC.) The station plays some rap as well. Late at night, if I remember right. But to me, I felt like I was listening to a classical music station. That seemed a real loss of what could be a station reaching out to people who really needed it. In some of those areas, I bet people didn't have money for cable. I was really surprised to see DC the first time and more so on the second visit because I thought I'd be used to it this time. There is so much poverty. There's so much decay. You can see where the money goes and where it doesn't go.
The signal came in loud and clear on the radio, I just didn't hear much worth listening to.
I'm sure some will disagree and think, "Well we need jazz." We "need" jazz like we need steak -- meaning you need to take care of the basics before you start focusing on the items we can live without and I don't think they focus on what's needed. I like that thing about how the stations are like universities but I think the one in DC just offers a musical appreciation course and not much else. It was like NPR and I found that very disappointing.
I'll probably cover an interview Dalia Hashad did when I blog on Thursday.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq Snapshot:"
Chaos and violence continue.
Happy talk continues.
In the land of reality, Medea Benjamin and Raed Jarrar examine the neutered "peace plan" put foward by occupation puppet Nouri al-Maliki and the United States. Benjamin and Jarrar remind that a World Public Opinion poll this year "showed 87% of the general population [of Iraq] favoring a set timeline for U.S. withdrawal." This as USA Today reports on the USA Today/Gallup Poll which found that "[a] majority of Americans say Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq" and that "[h]alf of those surveyed would like all U.S. forces out withing 12 months."
In other reality news, Sandra Lupien noted on KPFA's The Morning Show, over 5% of Iraq's population is displaced with over 150,000 having fled their home (a figure that does not include those who have been taken in by extended family members). In addition, Reuters notes that the figures for children only: 40,000 displaced children since February 22nd of this year. UNICEF, in its 1996 study (the most recent) looking at the effects of war on children found, for the 1980s: "2 million killed; 4-5 million disabled; 12 million left homeless; more than 1 million orphaned or separated from their parents; [and] some 10 million psychologically traumatized." Using figures up through the 80s, UNICEF found that civilian victims of war "has been rising steadily".
Bombings?
Reuters notes that in Baghdad, one car bomb took the lives of three peopl at a market and wounded at least ten while a second bomb took the lives of three police officers with another three wounded.
Al Jazeera notes that a car bomb in Kirkuk which took the lives of three and wounded at least seventeen. The Irish Examiner notes that the car bomb attack "came three days after a roadside bomb killed the chief of intelligence in Kirkuk" (Associated Press). Also in Kirkuk, Reuters notes "an off duty soldier" was killed by assailants "while driving his car."Kidnappings?Updates on two items. First, we noted yesterday the 10 kidnapped males. Steven Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra (Canadian Press) report that the ten were all Sunni and students who were kidnapped "from their dormitory rooms" at Iraqi Technology University. The AFP reports that the kidnappings took place in "broad daylight" and that the kidnappers used "five sports utility vehicles with tinted windows".
Emma Griffiths (Australia's ABC) reports that the four Russian diplomats -- Fyodor Zaytsev, Rinat Aglyulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedosseyev -- have been confirmed dead by the Foreign Ministry of Russia. The four were kidnapped on June 3rd in Baghdad when their car was attacked by unknown assailants. During the attack a fifth diplomat,Vitaly Vitalyevich Titov , was killed. On Sunday, a videotape was released which showed what appear to be some of the four being killed. While the press reports were circulating, the Russian government noted repeatedly that the murders had not been confirmed. The Mujahedeen Shura Council has asserted since last weekend that they had killed the four diplomats.
Meanwhile, as Amy Goodman noted on Democracy Now! today, "former CIA officer Tyler Drumheller said he repeatedly warned administration over the discredited Iraqi source known as 'Curveball'." Ignoring the warnings and advise, Colin Powell used the information for his now infamous UN speech that Powell has described as a "blot" on his career/record. Yesterday in Washington, DC, Democrats in the Senate held a hearing on the intelligence issue where, among others, Larry Wilkerson and Paul Pillar testified. Speaking of the administration and the intelligence community, Pillar stated, "I would describe the relationship as broken."
Joshua Belile will not be punished for "an obscenity-laced song" performed "to a laughing and cheering crowd." The US military has found no reason to charge him and one unnamed Marine Corps. official tells Reuters that "poor taste, poor judgment and poor timing, not to mention offensive lyrics, do not necessarily amount to criminal conduct." Margaret Neighbor (Scotsman) described the song thusly: "In a four-minute video called Hadji Girl, a singer who appears to be a marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iarqi woman's family after they confront him with authomatic weapons." As Sandra Lupien reported June 14th on KPFA's The Morning Show, the song included lyrics such as: "the blood sprayed from between her eyes." As Lupien noted June 15th on KPFA's The Morning Show, the apologetic Belile stated that "People need to laugh at it and let it go." Reuters notes that he has said it was "supposed to be funny" and that he based it on Team America: World Police. (The film that underwhelmed at the box office in 2004 and was put out by the South Park twins.)
Finally, in peace news. NPR actually covered the case of Suzanne Swift. The audio clips can be heard online and lasts 3:58 minutes. The reporting? The segment's over (except for some really bad bumper music) at 3:26 minutes in a report filed by Martin Kaste. The report starts at 0:16 and Swift's case is over by 1:30 minutes. A minute and fourteen seconds may not seem like much but it's more than they've given Ehren Watada.
Today is a day of action for those wanting to stand with war resister Ehren Watada. To sign a petition in support of Watada by clicking here. More information on today's national day of action can be found at ThankYouLt.org and Courage to Resist.
Law and Disorder and I don't know what else in full but I did drive around with my cousin and we picked it up, like he'd told me would. I've heard a big of the show (probably 15 minutes) that way. Otherwise, they're playing music and another program that I'm not sure what it is. The music is usually Bob Marley (my cousin's heard Ziggy as well) and some songs that are mixes where they take a thing from one of the cable channels of some guy screaming and mix it so he sounds like an even bigger idiot. This is mixed with music that's Eastern and has beats added to it.
There's this thing from time to time that's a rain sound effect and we're guessing that's the "station name." I was telling my cousin and some friends about the show a few weeks back and my cousin says he heard it and I know he didn't. But he starts telling me about what he heard and he did hear it. It's some very, very low watt station. You really can only get it downtown. The other show isn't Democracy Now! but I don't know what it is. It's a news program where they were interviewing people about the war. There may be other programs too. But we've driven around downtown repeatedly to try to figure out what it's playing and we catch the music or Law and Disorder (plus the other show one time). He/She/They play Law and Disorder at lunch time and they may do it every day. They do it on Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday that we can confirm. You've got about three streets running north and south that you can hear it on and maybe three times as many running east and west. But if you turn a corner on the wrong street, you lose it.
My cousin here's it all the time because he works downtown and he can hear it the second he's driving out of the parking garage. That's probably all I'm going to say about it because I thought it was pretty cool. When I was seven years old, I got a set of walkie talkies. I always played with one and would let my friends and my brothers and sisters play with the other. My sister decided to play like it was a light saber with the antenna extended and broke it off. So I just had the one. But I'd play dee jay a lot after that. I'd hold down the button on the side forever, song after song. Every now and then, between songs, I'd say some stuff. When my finger was tired and I had to stop, I'd listen, we lived next to the highway, and see if any of the truck drivers were talking about it? Most of the time, no. Every now and then someone would make one comment and that would make my day. I had a "listener."
So when it turned out that there was some low watt broadcast station in our city, I thought that was pretty cool. But I had one e-mail saying I needed to contact the FCC and how awful it was because this pirate station was interfering with "real radio stations." I don't think so. I think it's pretty cool. But I'm not going to write about it here again. He/She/They aren't hurting anyone and I don't want to cause any problems for them.
I think it's great. Whether it's the music or the programs, someone's sharing. We don't have any radio stations worth listening to and certainly nothing that's playing anything that people really care about (except maybe commercials and the money they can bring in) so I think it's
great. Maybe it will fold in a few weeks, maybe it will go on for a few years? But whoever is doing it cares and I think that's great.
This week on WBAI's Law and Disorder, Heidi Boghosian was the "anchor." They had a series of interviews and speeches and Boghosian set them up explaining where they were recorded and that sort of thing. The speeches were my favorite part of the show. I enjoyed the other parts and Mike's "Law and Disorder interviewed Suzanne Vega and Collective Soul" covers two interviews. But Dalia Hashad said a few weeks ago that America needs to wake up and I agree with that. Ruth is trying to focus just on Iraq right now. She said I could grab both speeches, but I'm going with Michael Smith's because I think Ruth can more easily work Michael Ratner's speech into her report in some way.
By the way if you listen to the program (or want to) via the WBAI's archive, Brandon e-mailed to say it's under "Joy of Resistance." It airs on Monday morning's right after Democracy Now and Brandon said it's labled "Joy or Resistance" this week (that's another show) so just pretend it says "Law and Disorder" and click for that program.
Brandon also said he recommends listening on Winamp because when he uses Real Player or Windows Media Player he has a lot of problems with it dropping out or with it getting stuck.
"Dangerous Times" was the theme of the Left Forum which is where the speeches by Ratner and Smith were given. Michael Smith traced the real rise of empire to the 1991 privatization of national property in the former Soviet Union. He spoke about how that gave a number of people the plan for Iraq. If that idea's new to you, you should read Naomi Klein's "Baghdad Year Zero"
He spoke a book he, Michael Ratner and two of Michael Ratner's nieces worked on that was a collection of William Kunstler's writings (the nieces were Kunstler's daughters). They had a title for it and they wondered about it: The Emerging Police State.
Smith said, "That's a bit much. Perhaps we should calm down?"
But then they realized that what was happening in this country was too much, not the book title.
He made the point that, "The Final Solution wasn't announced as the Final Solution. . . . Things creep up and creep up." Now we're at a point where things could become "irreversible."
He spoke of Hitler's rise and how he didn't seize power immediately. He talked about the buring of the Reichstad and how it was, falsely, blamed on the communists. And from there you got all this demonizing. Hitler came to power on fear, preaching fear and being the one who would save you. Sound familiar?
He spoke about Lynne Stewart and I had an e-mail from a right-winger about the post last week and how I was a "Black Radical." If the e-mailer is my alternative, fine by me. But he brought up Lynne Stewart in his e-mail and noted how C.I. and Mike are Lynne Stewart supporters (at their sites they've covered this many times). He wanted "to let you know, she's a T-E-R-R-O-R-I-S-T." No she's not. And Michael Smith dealt with that. She's a lawyer who fought to uphold the Constitution and our rights. You can trash the law, and Bully Boy has, and maybe you'll catch someone who's guilty but you'll also put a lot of innocent people behind bars. Lynne Stewart was doing her job. She was an attorney. That some sixty-plus year-old grandmother who has spent years and years in a court room can be seen as a terrorist shows you how bad things are today. I'll speak for everyone doing a site in this community here and note, we all support Lynne Stewart. We all think the conviction needs to be overturned. Mike and C.I. talk about it more because they blog more (C.I. will kill me for that, because C.I. does more "entries" than any of us).
You may feel a little less scared at night because Lynne Stewart was wrongly convicted (and not of breaking a law -- find the law she broke) but in ten years when the hysteria dies down, this conviction is going to be seen as the tragedy it was.
I learned of Lynne Stewart in real time when they were railroading her. It was before the trial and I always appreciated that C.I. wrote about it. You saw a lot of people, including some lawyers, writing stuff that was really weak-ass. "Oh, of course I wouldn't do what she did but . . ." Or some saying, "They need to go for a lesser charage." Maybe they thought they were practical? I thought they were chickens. I love that about The Common Ills, there's no concern on C.I.'s part about "How will I sound?" Somethings do have a clear right and wrong and, when they do, you need to say so, you need to speak out. Which was the point Michael Smith was making. If you don't do that, the country you know is gone.
There was a big name lawyer who wrote a piece for a left magazine and it was so weak-ass. If that's the best he can do, maybe he should have said nothing. A woman was railroaded and trying to look "reasonable" doesn't (and didn't) save anyone. Lynne Stewart's attornies are suing to find out if her phone calls were tapped. I bet they were. What I wish she'd do is sue the government for refusing to allow her to do her legal duties to her client.
I don't think she'd win. But I think if that was front and center in a case, some of the weak-ass lawyers who couldn't defend her (out of fear of losing their pundit gigs or maybe what parents of their students might think) would have to deal with the real issues of the case.
I'll say Lynne Stewart's innocent. I'll say it to anyone. She is. And it's a honor to defend her. I won't be creating an excuse in ten years when people are horrorified by what was done to Stewart. I'll be able to say, "I spoke out. She was innocent and if people hadn't been so scared, they would have spoken out as well."
She's an attorney who tried to do her job. She didn't break a law. She "broke" a guideline that the government created. I'd love to see that challenged in court. If the government wants to have laws, you go through Congress. You don't create your own and call them guidelines.
Lynne Stewart's not a terrorist and she's innocent of breaking any laws. The woman should be set free, the conviction overturned. She's innocent.
Now Heidi Boghosian was on the panel that Michaels Smith and Ratner were speaking from so hopefully, we'll be able to get a speech from Boghosian. (She did a great job as anchor.)
Two statements I want to note from Michael Smith's speech are: "They're spying on attornies representing controversial clients"; "They're telling attornies you can't say what you want to with respect to your client." I want to note them because I was on the phone with Ruth and I asked her if she attended that forum because she wrote this Saturday:
A Daniel Ellsberg who does go public will, no doubt, need a attorney. If lawyers and their clients cannot speak freely, that is a problem. If everyone has to fear that their conversations are being monitored, a clampdown can set in.
She says she wished she'd gone but she didn't. She credits the similarity to "Professor Smith's lessons in the class Law and Disorder at University WBAI. She said Amy Goodman has spoken of that during fundraising, how WBAI is the people's university. I like that. You do learn a lot. I also learn a great deal at University KPFA. I'd probably learn a lot at others as well but I have problems trying to listen online with two and the third seems to always play music when I have time to listen. I'll go ahead and say what I think about that because I don't like it. Pacifica has a station in DC and they devote too much programming to music. They're in the nation's capital. There's really not an excuse for it. C.I. really does mean it when giving the speech that if you're lucky enough to have a Pacifica in your area, you should listen to it. And C.I. does listen to that one on DC trips. I don't have that kind of dedication. They need to lose about ten hours of music programming, at least, if they hoped to interest someone like me. If they don't have the money to produce their own shows, air Law and Disorder and other strong programs. But I think playing music for hours after hours when you're in DC is really wasting everyone's time. Leigh Ann Caldwell covers stuff from DC but she's not with that station. She's doing it with Free Speech Radio. She does a great job. I remember being so disappointed when we were all in DC and I was asking what the Pacifica station was because I was sure they were going to be doing strong coverage and I find it on the dial and it's jazz music.
I like music. There's a program I'll listen to on Saturdays on WBAI that's music. If I'm not doing something for the church or for my family (meaning when I'm home), I'll listen to it. It's a pretty interesting mix and the guy who hosts it always has some stuff to say. When we were all out in California, I heard some really good music programs on KPFA. World music, folk, rock, etc. I like jazz. I like it enough to take about an hour of it in a club once a month. To me, the DC station is too much a jazz station. Which I always see as "Black people classical music." I like jazz, my family likes jazz but if you're African-American, you know what I'm talking about. It's Huxtable Music.
Maybe they have a wealthy listenership but I saw a lot more people with my skin color in DC than I did White people and they didn't look like they were rolling in it. (And thanks to C.I. because when we did a real sight seeing thing on our second group trip, C.I. didn't just make it about the big landmarks but showed us the other areas and there's is so much poverty in DC.) The station plays some rap as well. Late at night, if I remember right. But to me, I felt like I was listening to a classical music station. That seemed a real loss of what could be a station reaching out to people who really needed it. In some of those areas, I bet people didn't have money for cable. I was really surprised to see DC the first time and more so on the second visit because I thought I'd be used to it this time. There is so much poverty. There's so much decay. You can see where the money goes and where it doesn't go.
The signal came in loud and clear on the radio, I just didn't hear much worth listening to.
I'm sure some will disagree and think, "Well we need jazz." We "need" jazz like we need steak -- meaning you need to take care of the basics before you start focusing on the items we can live without and I don't think they focus on what's needed. I like that thing about how the stations are like universities but I think the one in DC just offers a musical appreciation course and not much else. It was like NPR and I found that very disappointing.
I'll probably cover an interview Dalia Hashad did when I blog on Thursday.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq Snapshot:"
Chaos and violence continue.
Happy talk continues.
In the land of reality, Medea Benjamin and Raed Jarrar examine the neutered "peace plan" put foward by occupation puppet Nouri al-Maliki and the United States. Benjamin and Jarrar remind that a World Public Opinion poll this year "showed 87% of the general population [of Iraq] favoring a set timeline for U.S. withdrawal." This as USA Today reports on the USA Today/Gallup Poll which found that "[a] majority of Americans say Congress should pass a resolution that outlines a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq" and that "[h]alf of those surveyed would like all U.S. forces out withing 12 months."
In other reality news, Sandra Lupien noted on KPFA's The Morning Show, over 5% of Iraq's population is displaced with over 150,000 having fled their home (a figure that does not include those who have been taken in by extended family members). In addition, Reuters notes that the figures for children only: 40,000 displaced children since February 22nd of this year. UNICEF, in its 1996 study (the most recent) looking at the effects of war on children found, for the 1980s: "2 million killed; 4-5 million disabled; 12 million left homeless; more than 1 million orphaned or separated from their parents; [and] some 10 million psychologically traumatized." Using figures up through the 80s, UNICEF found that civilian victims of war "has been rising steadily".
Bombings?
Reuters notes that in Baghdad, one car bomb took the lives of three peopl at a market and wounded at least ten while a second bomb took the lives of three police officers with another three wounded.
Al Jazeera notes that a car bomb in Kirkuk which took the lives of three and wounded at least seventeen. The Irish Examiner notes that the car bomb attack "came three days after a roadside bomb killed the chief of intelligence in Kirkuk" (Associated Press). Also in Kirkuk, Reuters notes "an off duty soldier" was killed by assailants "while driving his car."Kidnappings?Updates on two items. First, we noted yesterday the 10 kidnapped males. Steven Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra (Canadian Press) report that the ten were all Sunni and students who were kidnapped "from their dormitory rooms" at Iraqi Technology University. The AFP reports that the kidnappings took place in "broad daylight" and that the kidnappers used "five sports utility vehicles with tinted windows".
Emma Griffiths (Australia's ABC) reports that the four Russian diplomats -- Fyodor Zaytsev, Rinat Aglyulin, Anatoly Smirnov and Oleg Fedosseyev -- have been confirmed dead by the Foreign Ministry of Russia. The four were kidnapped on June 3rd in Baghdad when their car was attacked by unknown assailants. During the attack a fifth diplomat,Vitaly Vitalyevich Titov , was killed. On Sunday, a videotape was released which showed what appear to be some of the four being killed. While the press reports were circulating, the Russian government noted repeatedly that the murders had not been confirmed. The Mujahedeen Shura Council has asserted since last weekend that they had killed the four diplomats.
Meanwhile, as Amy Goodman noted on Democracy Now! today, "former CIA officer Tyler Drumheller said he repeatedly warned administration over the discredited Iraqi source known as 'Curveball'." Ignoring the warnings and advise, Colin Powell used the information for his now infamous UN speech that Powell has described as a "blot" on his career/record. Yesterday in Washington, DC, Democrats in the Senate held a hearing on the intelligence issue where, among others, Larry Wilkerson and Paul Pillar testified. Speaking of the administration and the intelligence community, Pillar stated, "I would describe the relationship as broken."
Joshua Belile will not be punished for "an obscenity-laced song" performed "to a laughing and cheering crowd." The US military has found no reason to charge him and one unnamed Marine Corps. official tells Reuters that "poor taste, poor judgment and poor timing, not to mention offensive lyrics, do not necessarily amount to criminal conduct." Margaret Neighbor (Scotsman) described the song thusly: "In a four-minute video called Hadji Girl, a singer who appears to be a marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iarqi woman's family after they confront him with authomatic weapons." As Sandra Lupien reported June 14th on KPFA's The Morning Show, the song included lyrics such as: "the blood sprayed from between her eyes." As Lupien noted June 15th on KPFA's The Morning Show, the apologetic Belile stated that "People need to laugh at it and let it go." Reuters notes that he has said it was "supposed to be funny" and that he based it on Team America: World Police. (The film that underwhelmed at the box office in 2004 and was put out by the South Park twins.)
Finally, in peace news. NPR actually covered the case of Suzanne Swift. The audio clips can be heard online and lasts 3:58 minutes. The reporting? The segment's over (except for some really bad bumper music) at 3:26 minutes in a report filed by Martin Kaste. The report starts at 0:16 and Swift's case is over by 1:30 minutes. A minute and fourteen seconds may not seem like much but it's more than they've given Ehren Watada.
Today is a day of action for those wanting to stand with war resister Ehren Watada. To sign a petition in support of Watada by clicking here. More information on today's national day of action can be found at ThankYouLt.org and Courage to Resist.
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