That’s the way it goes I’m guessing. I was all ready to get on and find out that Blogger is down. I called Elaine to make sure she was seeing the same thing I was seeing and she was.
I told her I’d go into Microsoft Word and do my post and if she wanted to take the night off that was cool. She picks up Wednesdays for me. That’s a church night and you’ll probably never find anything here on a Wednesday night. So always just head on over to Like Maria Said Paz.
So we have a new blogger in the community. His name is Seth and he blogs at Seth in the City. I had planned to add him to my blogroll but now I don’t know. Blogger being down really screws up my plans. I’d thought I’d do an entry and then head on out for dinner at my aunt’s. We’re all going there because my cousin just got engaged.
This isn’t a formal dinner. That’ll come tomorrow night. But my aunt wanted to have everyone over from my cousin’s side of the family. I don’t know about other people and maybe I’m the only one who ever feels this way but . . .
I’m glad for my cousin. He’s got a great woman who loves him and she’s got a great man who loves her. I have no problem being with them. But I do have a problem being with the family during events like this because I’ll hear, "When are you getting married?"
When I find the right woman. Haven’t found her and I’m not desperate to. I date and there are some nice ladies but it’s just not been where you think, "Okay, I want to spend all my life with her."
I said that to this aunt last time when another cousin got married this summer and she grabbed pen and paper and started saying we were going to make a list and then find me someone. I don’t think you go shopping with a list. It happens when it happens.
If I was shopping, it would be probably someone like Betty and that’s not me trying to make a clumsy pass. But Betty’s the sort of woman if I was looking for a type and not that moment when you know "This is the one." She’s pretty, she’s got a great laugh, she’s obviously great with her kids and she’s just really interested in the world.
I can find pretty and beautiful real easy. But it’s not that easy to find someone who’s interested in the world. Two weeks ago, I was out with a woman and she said she’d heard I liked current events. I’m sure my eyebrows shot up because I know I was eager to hear what she was going to talk about.
Turns out that she wanted to talk about this man who’d killed someone or someones in his family. So I listen and wait thinking she’s going to talk about domestic abuse or something like that. But all she did was talk about the gruesome details. She says, "And I love CSI!"
So that date went no where. I don’t care for CSI and you can read Ava & C.I.’s review of CSI Miami to figure out why. I just don’t like those shows and the way we’re supposed to root for the trampling of people’s rights. 24 is just disgusting and I can’t stand that show either.
But I’m not someone who thinks talking about blood stains on the carpet is talking about current events. Maybe I’m crazy or the only one who feels that way but that’s how I feel.
If she’d even done a Headline News kind of thing where she just tossed out factoids and didn’t offer anything of her own, I might have thought about asking her out again. But it was one hour and ten minutes about the crime scene and about her going, "I just can’t believe it! Can you believe it?" every five minutes.
Usually, when it’s obvious that I’m with someone who doesn’t know one thing about the world around them, I’ll try to talk about music. That’s a waste of time too. Unless I want to hear about Little Kim’s trial. Or probably this week, hear about Diana Ross’ DUI bust. Paul Mooney did a thing on that on BET this week. Maybe you saw it, maybe you didn’t. But I agreed with Steve Harvey about it being disrespectful to Tracee Ross who was sitting out front.
I also felt like, that was two years ago. Is that the best Mooney can do? A joke built around something that happened two years ago?
I’m sorry Diana Ross had a drinking problem. Since she’s not been arrested since, I’ll assume she’s gotten help.
But the woman’s been making music since the early 60s. She had her first hit in 1964. That’s over forty years of being a public personality. I don’t think one arrest is that big of a deal. Alcoholism is a disease and she obviously had a problem. It’s not really about who she is to the black community.
Even if Tracee Ross hadn’t been out there, I still would have thought Mooney was tasteless. I hear a lot of jokes about Smokey Robinson’s hairstyle in the Dr. Pepper commercials and it did look weird. If Mooney was doing a joke on Diana Ross like that, I might have laughed. But to pick a moment from two years ago that was disappointing and to be making fun of her like that. I just felt like he was crapping where he eats. He was coming and trashing someone who really broke barriers for us.
Glen Campbell got busted and they had crazy photos of him all over the net. That’s more recent. Why didn’t he make fun of Campbell?
It just seemed to me like there was a line and he crossed it.
There are nothing disappointments for African-Americans, he doesn’t have to dig two years back or try to burn a pioneer to get a cheap laugh. I quit watching Saturday Night Live because Maya Rudolph was always doing Diana Ross skits. I didn’t think they were funny or even well thought out. I felt like she thought, "I put on this wig and I play with the hair and act stupid and it’ll be so funny."
I wonder how she’d feel if that was Minnie Ripperton someone on Saturday Night Live was making fun of. In case anyone reading this doesn’t know, Minnie Ripperton was Maya Rudolph’s mother.
There are enough attacks on the black community without us needing to hear them from members of the community. Diana Ross was busted once. Why is it a big deal? Christian Slater’s been busted how many times and I don’t see people doing jokes about that. And Christian Slater’s not even a big star.
Diana Ross is a big thing. She never needs another hit, we’ll always know she came out in a time when black people didn’t have a lot of crossover success. She and the Supremes got on Ed Sullivan a lot. Her group was second only to the Beatles for having number 1s in the 60s. That’s a big thing. She went on to a solo career, had more hits, got an Oscar nomination (which Halle Berry didn’t mention in her long acceptance speech – probably the only woman Halle didn’t mention), raised three daughters into beautiful strong women and is still raising two sons.
There have been highs and lows but she’s like the black community, we keep on going. So hearing Paul Mooney dig two years into the past for stale jokes to attack a pioneer with just rubbed me the wrong way. I also felt sorry for her daughter Tracee who was in the audience with the camera on her while Mooney was mouthing off and making a jack ass of himself.
Steve Harvey said he would have slugged anyone who talked about his mother like that. I think if Tracee had done anything other than sit there, the press would have been all over it. If she’d gotten up and walked out, the headlines would be "Prima Dona Tracee Ross Storms Out of BET Celebration!" If she’d done like Harvey, it would have been "Tracee Ross? No, Trashy Ross! Ross Slugs Paul Mooney."
I think she was in a difficult situation and you saw that Ross and others in her family had taught her to hold her head high and conduct herself correctly. I don’t think there was anything else she could have done.
But I think Paul Moodey owes her an apology and I don’t think he was funny.
Blogger’s still not up. I didn’t plan to write about Tracee Ross tonight. I was going to do some links and note some stuff that members have been doing at their sites. But I’m going to have to hit the door in a bit. If I have to leave before Blogger’s up, I’ll post this when I get back. It’ll be late so I won’t be adding to it.
Go read Betty's "Thomas Friedman's Endgame Should Start With A Shower," Mike's interview with Betty, Rebecca's "Christine & Pop Politics" Ava & C..I.'s "TV Review: Three Wishes," Kat's "Kat's Korner: Stones Keep Rolling," Ruth's latest "Ruth's Morning Edition Report" and C.I.'s "Quick note." And Elaine's "The gloom of the world is but a shadow." She did that yesterday and it's amazing.
And let me just swipe from C.I. because I've got to run out the door.
From "'Why Are You Here' and 'What's Changed'" (The Third Estate Sunday Review's voices from the protests in D.C. article), we're again noting Benny with apologies that he was overlooked. Thanks to Shirley for catching that.
87) Benny, 17, high school student: For the first time it feels like maybe a difference can come. We're studying about government and it really seems wild and out there but it's about us and I guess Cindy Sheehan drives that point home to me. So I am here for that reason and the change is that people wake up and you can see it in my class. We're debating and discussing what does free speech mean and what are your duties to be an American and stuff that I have never taken time to think on and it just seems real and connected to me. Maybe it's selfish and all too because we got the guys on campus goin, "Sign up and we'll take care of you. Free college." All these promises and you ask about war and like injuries and they don't talk about it. They brush you off or say, "You just watch out for yourself and you're fine." And I bet the 1900 men and women who are dead were watching out but that didn't save them. So it's just a lot to think about and maybe having government this year drives it home.
Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude
Mikey Likes It
Thomas Friedman Is A Great Man
The Common Ills
Cedric's Big Mix
The Third Estate Sunday Review
Kat's Korner
Like Maria Said Paz
Seth in the City
Diana Ross
Tracee Ross
Three Wishes
C.S.I. Miami
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Back Home and Blogging
I didn't post last night. I was tired when I got back from D.C. and I had promised the guys at the nursing home that I drop by and tell them all about it. So last night, that's what happened.
I thought it would be an hour but it ended up being three. It was a great visit but I was wiped out.
They care, my three friends. They did their own protest at their nursing home. They're good looking men so they had some ladies helping them out too. They took pictures of their Saturday protest and they were showing me those and I was so proud of them.
I'm not just saying this because they'll be reading it. But they will be reading it because we raised enough money at the church to get them their own laptops. I was so happy about that. I didn't have time to check on that before I left but I knew there was enough for one laptop. But the church really showed them how much they mattered to the congregation and kicked in heavy and hard.
It's also led to the start of a program. Most of us switch computers. And we toss out our old ones or sell them. If we toss them out, they're just going to a landfill.
So from now on, when a church member is upgrading to a new computer, the older one will be given to an elderly person. That'll be great. And my best friend who kept saying, "Well I don't know how to talk to old people" and using that as an excuse signed up to be the one who teaches them how to use their computers. I had asked him to visit on Sunday afternoon because that's one of my usual visiting times but I was in D.C. He visited Saturday and Sunday. Saturday with our preacher and his family to bring them the laptops and then he spent most of the day getting them set up and showing them how to use it.
They were e-mailing each other Saturday. "Is this working" and that sort of thing. They have e-mail down. And my friend Carlton's coming back this Sunday to check them more tricks.
We have a bulletin board at our church. Everyone checks it out on Sundays but it updates all the time. So if you're not coming in for a group or a choir rehearsal or a Wednesday night service, you can miss some things. My preacher's oldest daughter is going to e-mail out the items on Mondays and Fridays to all of our older members with computers so that they can know who's selling what, who's had a baby, who's in need of what and all that.
Guess what they did Saturday night? They listened to The Laura Flanders Show. Online. Their first time hearing that. C.I. had noted it Saturday morning and they wanted to check it out. I didn't hear it because we were still taking part in activism and the fun when it came on but they said she did a great job and had all these people on talking about the protests. They were really impressed with a state senator but they didn't know her name and I haven't heard the show yet.
I got an earful about my site. They said, "You didn't blog since Thursday!" I told them that I blog when I have the time and that I thought I would be blogging but it didn't happen and then there were all the problems with The Third Estate Sunday Review stuff getting lost in posting.
But one thing I did do last night was e-mail Gina and Krista. They wanted to know if they could get signed up for the gina & krista round-robin. Gina and Krista had closed off that a week or two ago. And that is a firm cut off. I knew that, I respected that. But like I told them in my e-mail, these are great guys, they just got online Saturday, they want the round-robin and it would mean a lot to me if they could get it.
So this morning, I'm rushing around trying to get ready for work and the phone rings and it's Gina and she said this once they can waive the cut off. She said not again. She said if someone else at my church wants it, they'll have to get the guys to foward the ones they're sent. But she said these guys are practically part of the community already because we've heard about them and they're like family so this one time.
Thank you, Gina and Krista. This is going to make them so happy.
They really are great. I asked Carlton what they talked about because his big excuse has been he doesn't know what to talk to "old people" about. He said if they were all like my three friends, he'd have no problem. My guys are the best but I bet he'll find out when he starts teaching other people how to use computers, that there are many people out there he can talk to and they've got interesting stories and thoughts.
They had one complaint about C.I. and it was, "Are we supposed to go to all these links?" I told them no and that the whole point of the pull quotes was to give you the information that C.I. or whichever member selected it thought was most important. "So it's like a greatest hits 8-track?" That made me laugh. (Still does.) Exactly. You can just read the pull quotes. A lot of members do that.
They said Mike makes them laugh and they loved the competition between Mike and Rebecca over who was going to declare themselves president with Bully Boy out of D.C. The big surprise to me on Monday night was that they each got e-mails from C.I. They were using the published address and they tell me that they e-mailed C.I. to say how much they liked The Common Ills. I was trying to explain to them that C.I. was still in D.C. for most of the day Monday and that C.I. wasn't checking that account so don't be upset about not hearing a reply yet and they asked me what I was talking about?
C.I. had already written them.
They played it off real cool at first and then they started laughing. They said they had figured it would be a few days before they heard anything so they were surprised too. They were also pleased about having the private address for members because C.I. told them to use that from now on. So they were saying, "We're members now." They are members now. They better start looking for some things to share with the community. I also told them they should think about starting a site. They don't think anyone would be interested. I told them Ruth used to feel that way too and now she does Ruth's Morning Edition Report. They read that Saturday.
I didn't. I am so far behind and need to catch up. But they read it and they were asking about Ruth and Tracey. Mainly they were asking why Ruth didn't think anyone would be interested because they really like her writing. I tried to tell them that the same thing applied to them but they aren't convinced. I'll keep working on them though.
Tomorrow I've got church so there won't be a post. But tomorrow Elaine will be posting at Like Maria Said Paz and she's grabbing Wednesdays at her site so I don't have to feel guilty about always missing them. Rebecca will be blogging tomorrow as well so people should check out Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude. And let me plug my good friends Mike and Betty. Tomorrow Mike will have an interview with Betty at his site Mikey Likes It! So there will be a lot to read without me.
I thought it would be an hour but it ended up being three. It was a great visit but I was wiped out.
They care, my three friends. They did their own protest at their nursing home. They're good looking men so they had some ladies helping them out too. They took pictures of their Saturday protest and they were showing me those and I was so proud of them.
I'm not just saying this because they'll be reading it. But they will be reading it because we raised enough money at the church to get them their own laptops. I was so happy about that. I didn't have time to check on that before I left but I knew there was enough for one laptop. But the church really showed them how much they mattered to the congregation and kicked in heavy and hard.
It's also led to the start of a program. Most of us switch computers. And we toss out our old ones or sell them. If we toss them out, they're just going to a landfill.
So from now on, when a church member is upgrading to a new computer, the older one will be given to an elderly person. That'll be great. And my best friend who kept saying, "Well I don't know how to talk to old people" and using that as an excuse signed up to be the one who teaches them how to use their computers. I had asked him to visit on Sunday afternoon because that's one of my usual visiting times but I was in D.C. He visited Saturday and Sunday. Saturday with our preacher and his family to bring them the laptops and then he spent most of the day getting them set up and showing them how to use it.
They were e-mailing each other Saturday. "Is this working" and that sort of thing. They have e-mail down. And my friend Carlton's coming back this Sunday to check them more tricks.
We have a bulletin board at our church. Everyone checks it out on Sundays but it updates all the time. So if you're not coming in for a group or a choir rehearsal or a Wednesday night service, you can miss some things. My preacher's oldest daughter is going to e-mail out the items on Mondays and Fridays to all of our older members with computers so that they can know who's selling what, who's had a baby, who's in need of what and all that.
Guess what they did Saturday night? They listened to The Laura Flanders Show. Online. Their first time hearing that. C.I. had noted it Saturday morning and they wanted to check it out. I didn't hear it because we were still taking part in activism and the fun when it came on but they said she did a great job and had all these people on talking about the protests. They were really impressed with a state senator but they didn't know her name and I haven't heard the show yet.
I got an earful about my site. They said, "You didn't blog since Thursday!" I told them that I blog when I have the time and that I thought I would be blogging but it didn't happen and then there were all the problems with The Third Estate Sunday Review stuff getting lost in posting.
But one thing I did do last night was e-mail Gina and Krista. They wanted to know if they could get signed up for the gina & krista round-robin. Gina and Krista had closed off that a week or two ago. And that is a firm cut off. I knew that, I respected that. But like I told them in my e-mail, these are great guys, they just got online Saturday, they want the round-robin and it would mean a lot to me if they could get it.
So this morning, I'm rushing around trying to get ready for work and the phone rings and it's Gina and she said this once they can waive the cut off. She said not again. She said if someone else at my church wants it, they'll have to get the guys to foward the ones they're sent. But she said these guys are practically part of the community already because we've heard about them and they're like family so this one time.
Thank you, Gina and Krista. This is going to make them so happy.
They really are great. I asked Carlton what they talked about because his big excuse has been he doesn't know what to talk to "old people" about. He said if they were all like my three friends, he'd have no problem. My guys are the best but I bet he'll find out when he starts teaching other people how to use computers, that there are many people out there he can talk to and they've got interesting stories and thoughts.
They had one complaint about C.I. and it was, "Are we supposed to go to all these links?" I told them no and that the whole point of the pull quotes was to give you the information that C.I. or whichever member selected it thought was most important. "So it's like a greatest hits 8-track?" That made me laugh. (Still does.) Exactly. You can just read the pull quotes. A lot of members do that.
They said Mike makes them laugh and they loved the competition between Mike and Rebecca over who was going to declare themselves president with Bully Boy out of D.C. The big surprise to me on Monday night was that they each got e-mails from C.I. They were using the published address and they tell me that they e-mailed C.I. to say how much they liked The Common Ills. I was trying to explain to them that C.I. was still in D.C. for most of the day Monday and that C.I. wasn't checking that account so don't be upset about not hearing a reply yet and they asked me what I was talking about?
C.I. had already written them.
They played it off real cool at first and then they started laughing. They said they had figured it would be a few days before they heard anything so they were surprised too. They were also pleased about having the private address for members because C.I. told them to use that from now on. So they were saying, "We're members now." They are members now. They better start looking for some things to share with the community. I also told them they should think about starting a site. They don't think anyone would be interested. I told them Ruth used to feel that way too and now she does Ruth's Morning Edition Report. They read that Saturday.
I didn't. I am so far behind and need to catch up. But they read it and they were asking about Ruth and Tracey. Mainly they were asking why Ruth didn't think anyone would be interested because they really like her writing. I tried to tell them that the same thing applied to them but they aren't convinced. I'll keep working on them though.
Tomorrow I've got church so there won't be a post. But tomorrow Elaine will be posting at Like Maria Said Paz and she's grabbing Wednesdays at her site so I don't have to feel guilty about always missing them. Rebecca will be blogging tomorrow as well so people should check out Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude. And let me plug my good friends Mike and Betty. Tomorrow Mike will have an interview with Betty at his site Mikey Likes It! So there will be a lot to read without me.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Rebecca, the heat and C.I. on Iraq
One guy wrote me about Rebecca's "potty mouth" in the Sunday thing they did at The Common Ills. I read it and I didn't have a problem with it. If it had been up at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Rebecca's site, it would have contained a lot more language, explicit.
The guy's got a problem with Rebecca. I don't. He tries to lure me into some debate about Christianity and I'm sorry but my Bible doesn't say "Thou Shall Stab Your Friends In The Back."
I like Rebecca. I like what she says. I like how she says it.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. I don't know. Sunday, at church, I was worrying because we've got air conditioning in our church but the older ladies had their fans out, which isn't uncommon, but they were "glowing" (never tell an older black woman she's "sweating" unless you know she won't be offended) while a lot of the older guys were looking really warmed over too.
My preacher is going to have someone come out and look at the air conditioning because it didn't get very cool in there. Hopefully, it just needs something minor. But it was pretty warm in there. A lot of the older people really need the air conditioning. Some of them don't have any in their homes or, because of tight budgets, can't afford to use it.
If they don't have any, the church tries to get them fans. Not one fan because no old person is going to park themselves in front of a fan all day. If they're living on their own or with a spouse or a friend, they've got stuff to do in the kitchen, stuff to do in the living room. So the church always tries to provide them with three fans.
There's a very sweet older woman at the church who kept saying no the fans because she wanted a boxed fan. The preacher and his wife showed her how the oscilating fan worked better because it moved around and how she could pull up the little lever and make it stay in place.
They visit her a week later and she's got the white levers up on all of them. Why? Because "all that turning can't be good." She thought she would wear it out.
Which reminds me of a story my friend Vern used to tell. It was 1987 and he and his wife had just gotten a new TV because the old one wasn't working. The picture was leaning sideways forever and then the picture and sound just went out. I remembered the kind of TV he was describing and you may too, you had this strip of metal buttons that you touched, not pressed down and you could go up and down the channels. The new TV had a remote and it scared him to death changing channels. Back in his day, you changed channels by turning the knob on the TV set and every time you turned it to a new channel, the picture would jump. So you didn't turn it all that much in Vern's house. Then with the one with touch buttons, it was a little easier. But that was the first time, on the TV set he got in 1987, that they could surf without any concerns. He said he hated it. Said it was better in the old day where you sat through something boring maybe but you saw the whole thing.
I miss Vern a lot. I'm worried about the other three guys at the nursing home because I know they miss him too. The choir director's wife was telling me Sunday that when you got a group of friends like that and one dies, the other's seem to follow after. I hope that's not true.
We hit 1900 U.S. military deaths in Iraq. Made me think of what C.I. wrote Saturday:
I'll note Richard A. Oppel Jr., Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker's "Baghdad Bombings Raise Anew Questions About U.S. Strategy in Iraq" (which is credited with this note: "This article was reported and written by Richard A. Oppel Jr., Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker."):
Although the attacks in Baghdad suggest that there may be cells of insurgents there, or at least that they can sneak into the city to plant bombs, senior officials at the Pentagon and in Iraq say they believe that Mr. Zarqawi and the insurgency's "center of gravity" is now in the bends and towns of the Euphrates River valley near the Syrian border.
Commanders say they plan to squeeze the Zarqawi leadership and Iraqi insurgents in those areas. Throughout the spring and summer marines and Army forces staged raids into those same towns, confiscating weapons and killing scores of insurgents. But many fighters melted into the countryside, and there were not enough coalition troops to keep a sufficient presence in the villages.
Commanders say new offensives in Anbar Province in coming weeks will be modeled on the siege of Tal Afar, which used 8,500 American and Iraqi troops.
"You will see the same thing down along the Euphrates Valley to push back out and restore Iraqi control to the area around Qaim," Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, said in an interview in Baghdad. General Casey said the Iraqi forces had little control of the country's border with Syria on either side of Qaim, a desolate town on the Euphrates.
Why am I noting it? I think we should remember what "commanders" say in this piece for a future date. Also we've dropped to the figure "8,500" (the one Elaine noted was consistent with other reporting but inconsistent with the Times' claim on Sunday [11,000]). And because "you will see the same thing." Not what's reported in the Times, but the same actions in Tal Afar that you saw in Falluja will be repeated elsewhere. Unlike the optimists quoted in the report, this will not be the end of it (even with death squads) but fuel for more rage.
Hopefully, Christian Parenti was correct and the Times reporters (at least Dexter Filkins) are aware that there is reality and then there is the spin that's characterized too many reports from the paper. We're told, by commanders who lead in the story, that Iraqis are cooperating to halt the insurgency (they're supposedly outraged by the violence). We've heard that claim before. We heard that claim, in fact, before we invaded.
It's offered as new and developing as though we've all acquired early senility and forgotten all that's come before. And we're also supposed to believe not only that in choosing between their own citizens and the occupiers, Iraqis are siding with the Operation Enduring Falsehood "coalition," but that they're ratting them out.
"Secretarian" wasn't a word that popped up much in the limited Tal Afar coverage in the Times. But it's worth noting the term. No doubt many sects are turning on each other (some believe that has been the US plan). But the idea that a country of people embraces an invader over their own people goes against history and political theory. Today commanders present it as fact.Here are the facts. Violence rages still. Violence has not been "subdued." It is unlikely that it will be "subdued" with these actions. We could let Negroponte unleash all the death squads his heart may desire but everyone that's killed will be replaced with friends and family. That's how a resistance breeds. That's historical.
There is no "subduing." This isn't a state in the United States (though certain policies seem to attempt to make it that). This is a foreign country. And to the citizens the US is a foreign force.They will argue and fight amongst themselves and we may prove momentarily effective at playing them off one another but not in the long term. In the long term, they want us out and they will not be "subdued" or "channeled." This isn't an issue of "Give us ___!" whatever service. This is an issue of autonomy and it won't go away while we're there.
Our presence only adds to the problems. "Fine tuners" will no doubt trumpet today's claims by commanders with choruses of "See!" I'm not sure what they think they're seeing (possibly the happy talk the Times portrays and gives far too much weight to -- though give the paper credit for clearly identifying who reported what), but it's an ahisotrical approach (and, bluntly, an ignorant one) to think that this is a turning point in the favor of Operation Enduring Falsehood.
"Winning" defined by the terms of the administration will mean more massive killings and they may delay certain attacks, maybe planned ones in the works, but this is how a resistance breeds.If you and I argue over the tree in the middle of both of our properties, I may kill you and claim the tree. Before I claim victory, I better be prepared to kill everyone close to you and everyone who's not pleased that I moved into the neighborhood.
We're talking a Biblical slaughter (term used intentionally). No baby Moses better be floated down a river.If I don't kill everyone then they will be there to tell what happened, to stroke the outrage and to encourage it.
There is no turned corner here. Suggesting there is requires a denial of history and a denial of how a resistance operates. That a nation (the US) supposedly so consumed with the Bible can't grasp the basics suggests that maybe they might need to read a little more closely. Otherwise, cries of "Let my people go" may come as a shock to them.
These are points that are raised later in the article, after the happy talk:
But independent analysts suggest that the strategy of driving the insurgents from urban centers and trying to capture or kill as many as possible, aiming especially at leaders, may be flawed. The violence in Baghdad is only one problem. Another is that the fighting may work against the search for political consensus among Iraqis.
Whether it was an editorial decision or one on the part of the journalists, pushing reality down into the article, as opposed to leading with it, was a mistake.In terms of past reporting, however, I'll give the writers (and the paper) credit for noting reality somewhere in the article. You lead with the most important information, however, and happy talk isn't important to anyone but the people spinning. Readers need reality from the start.
If I reassemble the article on my own, there are few quarrels I have with it. (As always with the paper, the reliance on "official sources" would be a quarrel I have with the article.) For a Times piece it's a strong one. But as assembled, weighted with happy talk at the start, it's not as strong as it should be.
A daily paper wants to provide you with a sense of "This just happened!" so possibly it's a problem with the form itself? However, I'd suggest that the opening paragraph could have been written in such a way that we'd have both history and what the military is spinning today.
Hopefully, this is a sign of stronger reporting to come from the Times.
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As a member of The Common Ills community, I've got to say, I have always enjoyed it best when C.I. addresses the issue of Iraq.
The guy's got a problem with Rebecca. I don't. He tries to lure me into some debate about Christianity and I'm sorry but my Bible doesn't say "Thou Shall Stab Your Friends In The Back."
I like Rebecca. I like what she says. I like how she says it.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. I don't know. Sunday, at church, I was worrying because we've got air conditioning in our church but the older ladies had their fans out, which isn't uncommon, but they were "glowing" (never tell an older black woman she's "sweating" unless you know she won't be offended) while a lot of the older guys were looking really warmed over too.
My preacher is going to have someone come out and look at the air conditioning because it didn't get very cool in there. Hopefully, it just needs something minor. But it was pretty warm in there. A lot of the older people really need the air conditioning. Some of them don't have any in their homes or, because of tight budgets, can't afford to use it.
If they don't have any, the church tries to get them fans. Not one fan because no old person is going to park themselves in front of a fan all day. If they're living on their own or with a spouse or a friend, they've got stuff to do in the kitchen, stuff to do in the living room. So the church always tries to provide them with three fans.
There's a very sweet older woman at the church who kept saying no the fans because she wanted a boxed fan. The preacher and his wife showed her how the oscilating fan worked better because it moved around and how she could pull up the little lever and make it stay in place.
They visit her a week later and she's got the white levers up on all of them. Why? Because "all that turning can't be good." She thought she would wear it out.
Which reminds me of a story my friend Vern used to tell. It was 1987 and he and his wife had just gotten a new TV because the old one wasn't working. The picture was leaning sideways forever and then the picture and sound just went out. I remembered the kind of TV he was describing and you may too, you had this strip of metal buttons that you touched, not pressed down and you could go up and down the channels. The new TV had a remote and it scared him to death changing channels. Back in his day, you changed channels by turning the knob on the TV set and every time you turned it to a new channel, the picture would jump. So you didn't turn it all that much in Vern's house. Then with the one with touch buttons, it was a little easier. But that was the first time, on the TV set he got in 1987, that they could surf without any concerns. He said he hated it. Said it was better in the old day where you sat through something boring maybe but you saw the whole thing.
I miss Vern a lot. I'm worried about the other three guys at the nursing home because I know they miss him too. The choir director's wife was telling me Sunday that when you got a group of friends like that and one dies, the other's seem to follow after. I hope that's not true.
We hit 1900 U.S. military deaths in Iraq. Made me think of what C.I. wrote Saturday:
I'll note Richard A. Oppel Jr., Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker's "Baghdad Bombings Raise Anew Questions About U.S. Strategy in Iraq" (which is credited with this note: "This article was reported and written by Richard A. Oppel Jr., Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker."):
Although the attacks in Baghdad suggest that there may be cells of insurgents there, or at least that they can sneak into the city to plant bombs, senior officials at the Pentagon and in Iraq say they believe that Mr. Zarqawi and the insurgency's "center of gravity" is now in the bends and towns of the Euphrates River valley near the Syrian border.
Commanders say they plan to squeeze the Zarqawi leadership and Iraqi insurgents in those areas. Throughout the spring and summer marines and Army forces staged raids into those same towns, confiscating weapons and killing scores of insurgents. But many fighters melted into the countryside, and there were not enough coalition troops to keep a sufficient presence in the villages.
Commanders say new offensives in Anbar Province in coming weeks will be modeled on the siege of Tal Afar, which used 8,500 American and Iraqi troops.
"You will see the same thing down along the Euphrates Valley to push back out and restore Iraqi control to the area around Qaim," Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, said in an interview in Baghdad. General Casey said the Iraqi forces had little control of the country's border with Syria on either side of Qaim, a desolate town on the Euphrates.
Why am I noting it? I think we should remember what "commanders" say in this piece for a future date. Also we've dropped to the figure "8,500" (the one Elaine noted was consistent with other reporting but inconsistent with the Times' claim on Sunday [11,000]). And because "you will see the same thing." Not what's reported in the Times, but the same actions in Tal Afar that you saw in Falluja will be repeated elsewhere. Unlike the optimists quoted in the report, this will not be the end of it (even with death squads) but fuel for more rage.
Hopefully, Christian Parenti was correct and the Times reporters (at least Dexter Filkins) are aware that there is reality and then there is the spin that's characterized too many reports from the paper. We're told, by commanders who lead in the story, that Iraqis are cooperating to halt the insurgency (they're supposedly outraged by the violence). We've heard that claim before. We heard that claim, in fact, before we invaded.
It's offered as new and developing as though we've all acquired early senility and forgotten all that's come before. And we're also supposed to believe not only that in choosing between their own citizens and the occupiers, Iraqis are siding with the Operation Enduring Falsehood "coalition," but that they're ratting them out.
"Secretarian" wasn't a word that popped up much in the limited Tal Afar coverage in the Times. But it's worth noting the term. No doubt many sects are turning on each other (some believe that has been the US plan). But the idea that a country of people embraces an invader over their own people goes against history and political theory. Today commanders present it as fact.Here are the facts. Violence rages still. Violence has not been "subdued." It is unlikely that it will be "subdued" with these actions. We could let Negroponte unleash all the death squads his heart may desire but everyone that's killed will be replaced with friends and family. That's how a resistance breeds. That's historical.
There is no "subduing." This isn't a state in the United States (though certain policies seem to attempt to make it that). This is a foreign country. And to the citizens the US is a foreign force.They will argue and fight amongst themselves and we may prove momentarily effective at playing them off one another but not in the long term. In the long term, they want us out and they will not be "subdued" or "channeled." This isn't an issue of "Give us ___!" whatever service. This is an issue of autonomy and it won't go away while we're there.
Our presence only adds to the problems. "Fine tuners" will no doubt trumpet today's claims by commanders with choruses of "See!" I'm not sure what they think they're seeing (possibly the happy talk the Times portrays and gives far too much weight to -- though give the paper credit for clearly identifying who reported what), but it's an ahisotrical approach (and, bluntly, an ignorant one) to think that this is a turning point in the favor of Operation Enduring Falsehood.
"Winning" defined by the terms of the administration will mean more massive killings and they may delay certain attacks, maybe planned ones in the works, but this is how a resistance breeds.If you and I argue over the tree in the middle of both of our properties, I may kill you and claim the tree. Before I claim victory, I better be prepared to kill everyone close to you and everyone who's not pleased that I moved into the neighborhood.
We're talking a Biblical slaughter (term used intentionally). No baby Moses better be floated down a river.If I don't kill everyone then they will be there to tell what happened, to stroke the outrage and to encourage it.
There is no turned corner here. Suggesting there is requires a denial of history and a denial of how a resistance operates. That a nation (the US) supposedly so consumed with the Bible can't grasp the basics suggests that maybe they might need to read a little more closely. Otherwise, cries of "Let my people go" may come as a shock to them.
These are points that are raised later in the article, after the happy talk:
But independent analysts suggest that the strategy of driving the insurgents from urban centers and trying to capture or kill as many as possible, aiming especially at leaders, may be flawed. The violence in Baghdad is only one problem. Another is that the fighting may work against the search for political consensus among Iraqis.
Whether it was an editorial decision or one on the part of the journalists, pushing reality down into the article, as opposed to leading with it, was a mistake.In terms of past reporting, however, I'll give the writers (and the paper) credit for noting reality somewhere in the article. You lead with the most important information, however, and happy talk isn't important to anyone but the people spinning. Readers need reality from the start.
If I reassemble the article on my own, there are few quarrels I have with it. (As always with the paper, the reliance on "official sources" would be a quarrel I have with the article.) For a Times piece it's a strong one. But as assembled, weighted with happy talk at the start, it's not as strong as it should be.
A daily paper wants to provide you with a sense of "This just happened!" so possibly it's a problem with the form itself? However, I'd suggest that the opening paragraph could have been written in such a way that we'd have both history and what the military is spinning today.
Hopefully, this is a sign of stronger reporting to come from the Times.
------------
As a member of The Common Ills community, I've got to say, I have always enjoyed it best when C.I. addresses the issue of Iraq.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Quick one
Tommy e-mailed asking where the Wednesday post was and in case anyone's wondering, I don't post Wednesdays. It's a church night and I don't have time to post. Elaine's always going to try to post on Wednesdays for that reason so check out Like Maria Said Paz on Wednesdays.
If she needs a day covered, I'll try to do the same for her.
I need to note something from The Third Estate Sunday Review. It's from the book talk we had there. It's all worth reading but Gina & Krista asked us to talk about children's books and then asked that we spotlight our own picks on our own sites. That's because tomorrow, in their round-robin, they're taking a long look at children's books. So here was my choice again because Gina and Krista do a lot to help me so I want to give something back:
Cedric: My favorite growing up was a little book called The Harlem Globetrotters and Basketball's Funniest Game. A nephew has the book now and we pass it around because it's an easy book and because it features African-Americans. Also, a kid who might not read something else, if he or she likes sports, will usually pick it up. Growing up, we all fought over this book. I don't just mean when we were little. But my sister had it before me, okay? It was passed down to her and then it was my turn. When I was reading bigger books, she tried to claim it back and kept saying she had only "loaned it" to me. It's funny now, but there were some intense fights over this book. I called my brother to find out the credits for it and it's by Clare and Frank Gault and illustrated by Charles McGill. It's probably not a great book, I'm sure it isn't. But it's one that's held the interest in my family.
Jim: My favorite book was a sports book too and is far less weighty than your choice. But it's by the same authors and I didn't know that. Clare and Frank Gault. It was my dad's book so it was also passed on.
Cedric: Really?
Jim: Yeah. Dick Ericson did the illustrations though. It's called How to Be a Good Baseball Player. My dad got it when he was nine-years-old. I don't remember this, but my mom says he read it to me over and over even when I was in the crib. Baseball's real big with my dad. He coached my little league team. Ty, Jess and Ava tease me about moving in with Dona over at her place with Ava but if they see the book there, they'll know I've moved because I wouldn't live anywhere without that book. What I can remember is Dad going over this book with me all the time when I was in elementary school. As summer approached, he'd pull out the book and we'd read it and look at the pictures. It's really an instructional book and I'm probably choosing it more for memories than the book itself but here's a quote:
Another thing I'll point out is that Mike's got great stuff up at his site Mikey Likes It! all the time. But yesterday (and this is probably part of the non-great stuff), he posted his interview with me. So you can check that out if you're interested.
I was reading Rebecca's stuff at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude today and I was playing catch up so I was reading what she wrote yesterday and Tuesday. I was honestly a little concerned about her because she's got a cold and she seemed pretty down. She assured me she was feeling better and I hope that's true. She said the whole John Roberts thing has depressed her and she doesn't feel like she can write about it because her ex-husband's parents had such a fit when she was going to write about her abortion. So it's been a not so great time for her.
Even with that, I think she wrote a really great thing on Tuesday about p.r. I know this is a hard time for her and she feels like her arms are tied behind her back. I told her she should just say "screw you" to her ex-in-laws but I know she won't. I will say if she needs something, she can holler.
Rebecca helped me a lot with my site and I've talked about that at the old site and I don't think I really talked about it in the interview yesterday. I don't think I made much sense on anything. But Rebecca, when she's well, is fiery and passionate and when I needed a pep talk, she would give it and make me feel like I could do anything. Her belief in me kept me blogging so I want to say that I don't just hope Rebecca is feeling better, but that I also couldn't have kept going without her. If she needs something, she better holler.
Johnny just saw C.I.'s editorial on the reporting from the Green Zone and wrote me to say how much he enjoyed it and asked if I could steer people to it again. So read this because it's laying it on the line while others tiptoe. And read Joseph C. Phillips "The Other Story of Katrina" from The Chicago Defender too. And don't miss this news from Democracy Now!:
State of Texas Executes Frances Newton
The state of Texas has executed Frances Newton. She was killed by lethal injection shortly after 6 o'clock last night despite widespread calls for a stay of her execution. She is the first African-American woman to be executed in Texas since Reconstruction. Her supporters included Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the Austin American Statesman and the head of the American Bar Association. Numerous questions were raised about whether Newton received a fair trial when she was convicted of killing her husband and two children 18 years ago. Her state-appointed attorney, Ron Mock, did not interview a single witness in preparation for her trial. He has since been barred from handling capital cases due to incompetence. Hours before her execution, the Supreme Court denied a petition to stop her execution.
Common Ills
If she needs a day covered, I'll try to do the same for her.
I need to note something from The Third Estate Sunday Review. It's from the book talk we had there. It's all worth reading but Gina & Krista asked us to talk about children's books and then asked that we spotlight our own picks on our own sites. That's because tomorrow, in their round-robin, they're taking a long look at children's books. So here was my choice again because Gina and Krista do a lot to help me so I want to give something back:
Cedric: My favorite growing up was a little book called The Harlem Globetrotters and Basketball's Funniest Game. A nephew has the book now and we pass it around because it's an easy book and because it features African-Americans. Also, a kid who might not read something else, if he or she likes sports, will usually pick it up. Growing up, we all fought over this book. I don't just mean when we were little. But my sister had it before me, okay? It was passed down to her and then it was my turn. When I was reading bigger books, she tried to claim it back and kept saying she had only "loaned it" to me. It's funny now, but there were some intense fights over this book. I called my brother to find out the credits for it and it's by Clare and Frank Gault and illustrated by Charles McGill. It's probably not a great book, I'm sure it isn't. But it's one that's held the interest in my family.
Jim: My favorite book was a sports book too and is far less weighty than your choice. But it's by the same authors and I didn't know that. Clare and Frank Gault. It was my dad's book so it was also passed on.
Cedric: Really?
Jim: Yeah. Dick Ericson did the illustrations though. It's called How to Be a Good Baseball Player. My dad got it when he was nine-years-old. I don't remember this, but my mom says he read it to me over and over even when I was in the crib. Baseball's real big with my dad. He coached my little league team. Ty, Jess and Ava tease me about moving in with Dona over at her place with Ava but if they see the book there, they'll know I've moved because I wouldn't live anywhere without that book. What I can remember is Dad going over this book with me all the time when I was in elementary school. As summer approached, he'd pull out the book and we'd read it and look at the pictures. It's really an instructional book and I'm probably choosing it more for memories than the book itself but here's a quote:
How do you throw a fast ball?
One way is to grip the baseball with two fingers across the seams.
Or you can grip the ball using two fingers along the seams.
And some pitchers like to use only one finger across the seams.
Another thing I'll point out is that Mike's got great stuff up at his site Mikey Likes It! all the time. But yesterday (and this is probably part of the non-great stuff), he posted his interview with me. So you can check that out if you're interested.
I was reading Rebecca's stuff at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude today and I was playing catch up so I was reading what she wrote yesterday and Tuesday. I was honestly a little concerned about her because she's got a cold and she seemed pretty down. She assured me she was feeling better and I hope that's true. She said the whole John Roberts thing has depressed her and she doesn't feel like she can write about it because her ex-husband's parents had such a fit when she was going to write about her abortion. So it's been a not so great time for her.
Even with that, I think she wrote a really great thing on Tuesday about p.r. I know this is a hard time for her and she feels like her arms are tied behind her back. I told her she should just say "screw you" to her ex-in-laws but I know she won't. I will say if she needs something, she can holler.
Rebecca helped me a lot with my site and I've talked about that at the old site and I don't think I really talked about it in the interview yesterday. I don't think I made much sense on anything. But Rebecca, when she's well, is fiery and passionate and when I needed a pep talk, she would give it and make me feel like I could do anything. Her belief in me kept me blogging so I want to say that I don't just hope Rebecca is feeling better, but that I also couldn't have kept going without her. If she needs something, she better holler.
Johnny just saw C.I.'s editorial on the reporting from the Green Zone and wrote me to say how much he enjoyed it and asked if I could steer people to it again. So read this because it's laying it on the line while others tiptoe. And read Joseph C. Phillips "The Other Story of Katrina" from The Chicago Defender too. And don't miss this news from Democracy Now!:
State of Texas Executes Frances Newton
The state of Texas has executed Frances Newton. She was killed by lethal injection shortly after 6 o'clock last night despite widespread calls for a stay of her execution. She is the first African-American woman to be executed in Texas since Reconstruction. Her supporters included Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, the Austin American Statesman and the head of the American Bar Association. Numerous questions were raised about whether Newton received a fair trial when she was convicted of killing her husband and two children 18 years ago. Her state-appointed attorney, Ron Mock, did not interview a single witness in preparation for her trial. He has since been barred from handling capital cases due to incompetence. Hours before her execution, the Supreme Court denied a petition to stop her execution.
Common Ills
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Spotty
Another spotty entry from me. Gina & Krista are spotlighting children's book in a long essay in their regular round-robin (Friday) and we're supposed to note our favorite children's book.
Here's what I shared with The Third Estate Sunday Review:
Cedric: My favorite growing up was a little book called The Harlem Globetrotters and Basketball's Funniest Game. A nephew has the book now and we pass it around because it's an easy book and because it features African-Americans. Also, a kid who might not read something else, if he or she likes sports, will usually pick it up. Growing up, we all fought over this book. I don't just mean when we were little. But my sister had it before me, okay? It was passed down to her and then it was my turn. When I was reading bigger books, she tried to claim it back and kept saying she had only "loaned it" to me. It's funny now, but there were some intense fights over this book. I called my brother to find out the credits for it and it's by Clare and Frank Gault and illustrated by Charles McGill. It's probably not a great book, I'm sure it isn't. But it's one that's held the interest in my family.
Jim: My favorite book was a sports book too and is far less weighty than your choice. But it's by the same authors and I didn't know that. Clare and Frank Gault. It was my dad's book so it was also passed on.
Cedric: Really?
Jim: Yeah. Dick Ericson did the illustrations though. It's called How to Be a Good Baseball Player. My dad got it when he was nine-years-old. I don't remember this, but my mom says he read it to me over and over even when I was in the crib. Baseball's real big with my dad. He coached my little league team. Ty, Jess and Ava tease me about moving in with Dona over at her place with Ava but if they see the book there, they'll know I've moved because I wouldn't live anywhere without that book. What I can remember is Dad going over this book with me all the time when I was in elementary school. As summer approached, he'd pull out the book and we'd read it and look at the pictures. It's really an instructional book and I'm probably choosing it more for memories than the book itself but here's a quote:
I'll note two more things quickly. Mike interviewed me over at his site Mikey Likes It! so if you're curious, you can read that there. Also be sure to check out C.I.'s "NYT: Todd S. Purdum 'cupping' the story" which will make you laugh hard.
http://www.blogger.com/ rel="tag">The Common Ills
Here's what I shared with The Third Estate Sunday Review:
Cedric: My favorite growing up was a little book called The Harlem Globetrotters and Basketball's Funniest Game. A nephew has the book now and we pass it around because it's an easy book and because it features African-Americans. Also, a kid who might not read something else, if he or she likes sports, will usually pick it up. Growing up, we all fought over this book. I don't just mean when we were little. But my sister had it before me, okay? It was passed down to her and then it was my turn. When I was reading bigger books, she tried to claim it back and kept saying she had only "loaned it" to me. It's funny now, but there were some intense fights over this book. I called my brother to find out the credits for it and it's by Clare and Frank Gault and illustrated by Charles McGill. It's probably not a great book, I'm sure it isn't. But it's one that's held the interest in my family.
Jim: My favorite book was a sports book too and is far less weighty than your choice. But it's by the same authors and I didn't know that. Clare and Frank Gault. It was my dad's book so it was also passed on.
Cedric: Really?
Jim: Yeah. Dick Ericson did the illustrations though. It's called How to Be a Good Baseball Player. My dad got it when he was nine-years-old. I don't remember this, but my mom says he read it to me over and over even when I was in the crib. Baseball's real big with my dad. He coached my little league team. Ty, Jess and Ava tease me about moving in with Dona over at her place with Ava but if they see the book there, they'll know I've moved because I wouldn't live anywhere without that book. What I can remember is Dad going over this book with me all the time when I was in elementary school. As summer approached, he'd pull out the book and we'd read it and look at the pictures. It's really an instructional book and I'm probably choosing it more for memories than the book itself but here's a quote:
How do you throw a fast ball? One way is to grip the baseball with two fingers
across the seams. Or you can grip the ball using two fingers along the seams. And
some pitchers like to use only one finger across the seams.
I'll note two more things quickly. Mike interviewed me over at his site Mikey Likes It! so if you're curious, you can read that there. Also be sure to check out C.I.'s "NYT: Todd S. Purdum 'cupping' the story" which will make you laugh hard.
http://www.blogger.com/
Monday, September 12, 2005
Swiped
I said I ws going to sleep but ended up fooling around online. Glad I did. I always say I'll spotlight The Chicago Defender and I never do (I do link to them on my blogroll). Something always happens. "Meant to." Like my previous post.
Saw this at The Common Ills and I'm just going to swipe from C.I. and post it here. Haven't cared much for John Kerry since he didn't fight for a recount but I'll give him credit for having something in an African-American newspaper.
Swiped:
Keesha e-mails to note John Kerry's "Commentary: Lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina" (The Chicago Defender):
The evidence that our nation was unprepared for hurricane Katrina is undeniable. Thousands of our fellow citizens losing their lives not to wind and water -- but thirst and starvation. Rescue attempts failing to materialize days on end, leaving mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, to perish in ways embarrassing to fathom in this society: children running out of medication; elderly too long without dialysis; patients whose oxygen tanks went empty or respirators went offline.
When people were stuck on those roofs, they weren't just cut off from the floors beneath them. They were cut off from the world, including the nation that pledged to protect them.The failure in Washington was indeed undeniable and embarrassing, and time will continue to expose the scope of the injustice exacted on the people of New Orleans.
In the meantime, we must honor those lost in the hurricane by making a strong commitment to the survivors. And our first responders should be commended for their bravery in the face of countless dangers.
If there is any silver lining for Americans in the face of this tragedy, we can find it in the courage of our people. Families are gathering food, clothes and supplies and sending it south by the truckload. Americans are opening up their homes to complete strangers. The generosity and compassion of the American people is incomparable but sadly these past few days Americans have learned the hard way that generosity and compassion from those who are in charge of the federal government is in short supply.
Keesha's cool and always finding neat stuff. We served together on the committee at The Common Ills that selects the blogs to add to the blogroll over there and I just want to close with a shout out to Keesh.
Saw this at The Common Ills and I'm just going to swipe from C.I. and post it here. Haven't cared much for John Kerry since he didn't fight for a recount but I'll give him credit for having something in an African-American newspaper.
Swiped:
Keesha e-mails to note John Kerry's "Commentary: Lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina" (The Chicago Defender):
The evidence that our nation was unprepared for hurricane Katrina is undeniable. Thousands of our fellow citizens losing their lives not to wind and water -- but thirst and starvation. Rescue attempts failing to materialize days on end, leaving mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, to perish in ways embarrassing to fathom in this society: children running out of medication; elderly too long without dialysis; patients whose oxygen tanks went empty or respirators went offline.
When people were stuck on those roofs, they weren't just cut off from the floors beneath them. They were cut off from the world, including the nation that pledged to protect them.The failure in Washington was indeed undeniable and embarrassing, and time will continue to expose the scope of the injustice exacted on the people of New Orleans.
In the meantime, we must honor those lost in the hurricane by making a strong commitment to the survivors. And our first responders should be commended for their bravery in the face of countless dangers.
If there is any silver lining for Americans in the face of this tragedy, we can find it in the courage of our people. Families are gathering food, clothes and supplies and sending it south by the truckload. Americans are opening up their homes to complete strangers. The generosity and compassion of the American people is incomparable but sadly these past few days Americans have learned the hard way that generosity and compassion from those who are in charge of the federal government is in short supply.
Keesha's cool and always finding neat stuff. We served together on the committee at The Common Ills that selects the blogs to add to the blogroll over there and I just want to close with a shout out to Keesh.
Lecture
I'm tired tonight. I only spent an hour at the nursing home visiting. I told the guys I was really wiped out and going home to do a few minutes online and then hitting the sack. I told them I'd make it up by going over tomorrow night. So I get asked why I didn't just not show tonight?
Because I feel like they hear a lot of promises that aren't kept. I feel that way with Vern especially.
At his funeral, I had to hear over and over from different people in his family how they meant to visit him in the nursing home. Meant to. Like he just went in a week or so ago. He was in there for over five years. With one exception, the last family visit he had was in January. He died in September. I don't think there's an excuse for that.
I tried to be nice about it but if they pressed me, I gave my opinion. I know that one side of the family has another member in a nursing home so I didn't see the point in telling them something that would comfort and absolve them.
They need to be thinking about the other family member.
Vern had some grandchildren who called and wrote. And he really appreciated that. He had a grandson in college on an athletic scholarship and she clipped stories on the team all year and sent them to him even when she didn't have time to write a real letter. He appreciated that and understood she was "on the tip of the United States" as he liked to put it because she was in Florida.
Other people, especially full grown adults, didn't have that excuse.
I hang with the three guys still at the nursing home. I'm there to visit them. But I look around and see a lot of lonely elderly people. It's like they just got dumped there and then forgotten.
So if you're reading this and you've got someone in a nursing home, a friend or a family member, you visit them. If they're too far and you don't have the money for a trip, you write and you call them.
I see a lot of people hanging on with hope that they are going to be remembered by someone who knows them. I think that's pretty sad that a lot of times that doesn't happen.
I walk in and the ladies start talking going on about how I'm there to see my friends. As I pass them, they'll always greet me and I greet them back and with their names when I know them.
The guys tell me that they're becoming celebrities and everyone's always asking them about their friend from church and telling them how lucky they are to have someone visiting.
I can tell a joke but I'm not the funniest guy. I'm not the smartest guy. But all it takes is just a visit and a listen to really make their day.
When I went Sunday afternoon, I took my youngest brother. He tickled them. He's a funny guy and always joking. But it doesn't matter to them if I'm making them laugh or not. They just appreciate that someone is stopping by and talking to them. I told my preacher this was the best thing he ever did, this program.
If you've got a family member or a friend in a nursing home, you make the time to visit. If you don't know anyone in one but you have time to spare, regardless of your age, I think you should consider volunteering in some way. It may not seem like much to you but it really means a lot to them.
And if you're like most of Vern's family who couldn't make the time for visits or calls or letters, I guess maybe someday you'll be in a nursing home and everyone will forget about you. I'm not saying "fate" or "punishment." But his kids are getting older and they didn't make a point to visit and take their children so when they're older there's no way their own children will see it as important to visit. You model behavior and the behavior Vern's kids modeled to their own children was put Vern in the nursing home and get on with your life. So it may come back to bite them in the butt. If it does, they'll have only themselves to blame.
Mike e-mailed me about C.I.'s editorial Saturday and said he, Elaine and Rebecca were all linking to it. I was going to anyway because I printed it out Sunday and took it to the nursing home. They couldn't stop talking about that tonight. They loved it and were talking about the "fools" in the press who got us into this war and keep us in it.
We're going to start a drive at the church to get a laptop for the guys. I think they'll get a kick out of that. I print stuff for them and I take mine when it's charged up. I need to get a new battery since the thing's always dying. But the church is behind it. Some think we might be able to raise enough for three but even if it's just one, I know they'll be happy.
If you didn't read the editorial Saturday, make a point to read it now because three of the wisest men I know say it's the kind of talking we need to be having right now.
"Editorial Reading press releases, live from the Green Zone"
[Note: This is an editorial.]
What the hell goes on in the Green Zone? Forget the rumors that led to a guild becoming involved (rumors of wild behavior on the part of Times reporters, rumors that someone was fired for telling truths to wives back in the United States, rumors, rumors, rumors), exactly what do they do?
Not a whole hell of a lot.
The big Iraq news of the week was Tal Afar. The Times front paged Kirk Semple's " Baseball in Iraq: As Pastimes Go, It's Anything But." Apparently the jock fumes reach the Green Zone as well. (Though I'll refrain from pinning this one on Todd S. Purdum.)
This is a front page story. Why? Not because it's a big story in Iraq. It's not. It's a piece of disgraceful fluff. It's Operation Happy Talk. And while it goes on, while we're bored with a non-story passing for front page news, the Times can't even report on Tal Afar.
What do they do in the Green Zone?
Yes, Friday, finally, a story ran in the Times on Tel Afar: "U.S.-Iraqi Sweep Arrests 200 in Rebel Staging Area" but the Times receives no credit for that article, it's an Associated Press article. Whatever it's positives or minuses, all the Times did was run a report by another news organization.
So what do they do in the Green Zone?
And what the hell is Robert F. Worth? Is he a reporter? Is he an op-ed writer? Read"Basra Bombs Kill 16 Iraqis and 4 U.S. Contractors" and try to answer that question.
I'm unable to grasp how, in a story on bombings, this opening qualifies for a news report:
There was also a piece of good news: American military officials said [. . .]
What did "American military officials" say? It doesn't matter for this discussion. (A contractor was released.) What is that judgement call ("good news") doing in the paper? Is Worth channeling Matt Lauer? Tip to Worth: "In other news . . ." You're supposed to be reporting. You're not there to editorialize.
The sentence, the part noted above, reveals all that is wrong with the Times reporting on Iraq."American military officials said . . ." That's the basis for every damn thing. (Yes, I'm tossing around "damn." Call me Bumiller. But "damn" is much more mild than the word I'm saying outloud as I dictate this.)
Reporters are supposed to serve as the eyes and ears of the public. That's why they're called the "watch dogs." That's not happening when every "report" is a press release. "American military officials said . . ." And what did you see Robert F. Worth? What did you hear? Not what were you told. What did you observe all by yourself?
Or does that require leaving the Green Zone? From all accounts, it's Delta House there so who would want to leave -- other than someone with a modicum of taste?
Look they can Boys Gone Wild it or not all they want in the Green Zone, I don't care. I do care what makes into print but I wonder if anyone reporting from the Green Zone does?
I did a conference call with three friends (reporters) on this asking them to play devil's advocate so I could anticipate the responses. (The Times would call the phone call "reporting.")
So here's the big argument. "It's not safe. I could lose my life."
You know what, cover cook-offs. If that's your excuse, cover cook-offs. No one's forcing you to be there. The paper certainly isn't forcing anyone. Reporters are choosing to be there. If you're a reporter and you're there, you need to be reporting.
It's not safe, doesn't cut it. It wasn't safe for Daniel Pearl. He went after the story. Others have before him and will after. The attitude of "Oh it's tough here so you have to cut me slack" doesn't wash. You get off your asses or the Times needs to appoint J-school graduates who are ready to dig in and find stories. (Which the Times, being the Times, will water down. But a diluted news report is still more powerful than any of the diluted press releases that regularly get filed.)
There is nothing, I repeat nothing, that reporters can point to with pride coming out of Iraq for the paper. You're not making a name for yourself. The t-shirt you should be furnished with when you depart can only proclaim: "I SURVIVED THE GREEN ZONE." That's all that's being done. Reporting isn't being done. (And the Times is becoming a joke to other print organizations over their "reporting" from Iraq.)
Want a blast from the past? Try this ("More Iraqi Army Dead Found in Mosul; 2 Clerics Slain," November 23, 2004):
Basic services are still unavailable in Falluja, and the valves in the city's main water-treatment plant are still not working. But troops will provide bottled water until the plant and the city's heavily damaged water and sewer pipes can be fixed, the general said.
The general said it, did he? Well Richard A. Oppel. Jr. and James Glanz, did you follow up on that? Or did you just print what you were told? (Rhetorical question.)
Does anyone working for the Times in Iraq do anything more than play telephone chain? Does anyone not buckle immediately?
From Molly Bingham's "Home From Iraq" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution):
The intimidation to not work on this story was evident. Dexter Filkins, who writes for The New York Times, related a conversation he had in Iraq with an American military commander... Towards the end of one of their conversations, Dexter declined an invitation for the next day by explaining that he'd lined up a meeting with a "resistance guy." The commander's face went stony cold and he said, "We have a position on that." For Dexter the message was clear. He cancelled the appointment.
If you're going to discuss Iraq, you have to discuss Filkins at some point. I'm aware it's more pleasing to discuss Judith Miller. But if she had a part in getting us over into Iraq, it's the "reporters" like Filkins who keep us there. For the record, Filkins has denied Bingham's version of the events. People will have to make up their own minds as to whom to take the word of.
While you're attempting to sort that out, let's again note this:
Christian Parenti mentioned Filkins last night on The Laura Flanders Show: "Dexter Filkins politics are very different from the Dexter Filkins politics we know in the New York Times. [In person, he's saying] 'Oh it's awful, the situation is totally out of control.'" That's a paraphrase (I've left out a "Dude" among other things).
Oh, it's awful, the situation is totally out of control?
Didn't seem that way when Filkins reported "In Faulluja, Young Marines Saw the Savagery of an Urban War" -- his rah-rah-rah piece of "award winning" journalism. Six days after the battle (Nov. 15), Filkins' story makes it into print. Exactly how slowly does he type? Exactly whom edited that copy?
From Dahr Jamail's "Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation" (pdf format, you can find the quote below at this site here):
Burhan Fasa'a, a cameramn with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), witnessed the first eight days of the fighting. "I entered Falljuah near the Julan Quarter, which is near the General Hospital," he said during an interview in Baghdad. "There were American snipers on top of the hospital," who, he testified, "were shooting everyone in sight." The Iraqi Red Crescent would have to wait a full week before being permitted to dispatch three ambulances into the city.
Not quite the way Filkins reported it. For that matter, not quite the way Richard A. Oppel, Jr. and James Glanz report it. (They report that the Iraqi Red Crescent found no one when they entered Falluja. They just fail to seriously address why that is.) It goes beyond Filkins but Filkins has the prize and he contributed the go-go boy gone wild story that portrays a massacre as a video game.
Reality: Preceding the blood bath, males of "fighting age" were prevented from leaving that city. The destruction was severe and has not been "fixed." (Does the United States military still provide bottled water? Did they ever? Not what they told you, but what you could verify, please.)
Press releases continue to pass for reporting ("Hussein Confessed to Massacre Order, Iraqi President Says") and they should all be worried. They're the upcoming Judy Millers. They're the laughingstock of many of their peers. (Filkins epecially whose appearance on Terry Gross's Fresh Air is legendary -- and the tales repeated of it are far more interesting than what he actually said on air.)
Let's note this:
On this 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Amy Goodman, host of the national radio and TV show "Democracy Now!" is submitting a formal request to the board of the Pulitzer Prize, calling for The New York Times and its reporter William Laurence to be stripped of the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the atomic bomb. Laurence was also on the payroll of the US War Department. Goodman recently wrote an Op-Ed in The Baltimore Sun (written with journalist David Goodman, her brother) called "The Hiroshima Coverup" (see http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0805-20.htm ).
Goodman said, "William Laurence and the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the atomic bomb, and his faithful parroting of the government line was crucial in launching a half-century of silence about the deadly lingering effects of the bomb. It is time for the Pulitzer board to strip the atomic bomb apologist and his newspaper of this undeserved prize."
This is Filkins future. I used to assume that it would take place long after he was gone. (And long after I was gone.) But he's the one reporters bring up to me. They're friends and they know I consider his reporting proganda. (Had the election gone differently, would his story have been more realistic?) So maybe they're just saying what they say to please me? I don't think so. (I could, as always, be wrong.)
But away from them, when you walk someone through Filkins reporting, someone who has no idea who he is, they grasp that its people like Filkins that keep us in Iraq.
By failing to report accurately what Operation Enduring Falsehood did (and what they do) they allow a number of otherwise well meaning people to think "fine tuning" is an answer. (Filkins is also a laughing stock for a TV appearance I missed. He supposedly minimized a trial for the abuses of Abu Ghraib -- with regard to instructions from above.) Fine tuning isn't an answer. As Filkins allegedy told Parenti, "It's totally out of control." Until that truth makes it into the reports, I'm saddened by those who argue fine tuning and aren't war hawks but I don't blame them for the failures of the press to report reality. They're being short changed. (Hawks aren't. They don't need excuses to continue war. They thrive on it the way some in the Green Zone thrive on the chaos.)
But here's the reason Filkins may feel the bite while he's still alive. Some domestic reporters in the United States aren't speaking fondly of the embeds. They're pointing fingers right now as the clampdowns that reporters have gone along with in Iraq come home to the United States.
The Boys Gone Wild are also a joke to people who've served in the area. And those first hand accounts will continue to come out. A Worth or Glanz will be embarrassed for being so quick to print press releases, but Filkins was in Falluja. He saw with his own eyes and he didn't report.
The bodies, the limbs piled up in the streets, Filkins somehow missed. And he was there. A friend at one of the top ten (circulation) dailies has gone from lukewarm support of Filkins' infamous "reporting" to outright disgust with it. The opinion is there is no "comeback" from it. That Filkins could do a mea culpa and return his prize and he'd still be damaged goods.
That kind of talk may not make it into the Green Zone but Filkins should worry. And so should the paper.
In an early November piece on Falluja (this one co-written with James Glanz), a military officer told Filkins that "it ought to go down in history." Filkins accepted the gung-hu attitude, too bad he didn't consider the words themselves. This will go down in history.
This will haunt the Times and it will haunt Filkins.
Amy and David Goodman may not get the Times stripped of a Pulitizer (though I hope they do) but just addressing the issue accomplishes something. And when the issue of Dexter Filkins is seriously addressed it will further tarnish the paper's name.
With Judith Miller, the paper waited far too late to address the situation. (Both her reporting itself and the legal argument they attempt to make -- they not Millers' attornies.) If they hem and haw with regards to what passes for "reporting" from Iraq currently, they'll further hurt their already badly damaged reputation.
In the meantime, by not revisiting the press releases they published, they do real reporting, democracy and the people of the United States a huge disservice because they're not reporting. It took Cindy Sheehan to act as the spark to wake up a nation. The Times could have done that long ago with some strong reporting. It shouldn't be the job of the editorials to try to later straighten out the reporting.
And as the press in the United States feels they're under attack, they're making some rather rude comments about those in the Green Zone that they feel have condoned this sort of behavior.
Democracy Now! noted the following Friday:
The journalists who have been covering Hurricane Katrina have literally been risking their lives for the last week. Reporters have been stationed in and around New Orleans since the Hurricane hit and have tirelessly reported on the devastation to the city. Some journalists have expressed enormous outrage at government officials for their slow response. A few television reporters openly broke down on air as they report the horrific conditions and the desperation of victims. Reporters have witnessed the militarization of the city and are starting to feel the effects of the government crack-down on information gathering. FEMA is now rejecting requests by journalists to accompany rescue boats searching for storm victims. In addition, journalists are being asked not to photograph any dead bodies in the region. NBC News Anchor Brian Williams reported on his blog, that police officers had been seen aiming their weapons at members of the media. And a blogger named Bob Brigham wrote a widely read dispatch that the National Guard in Jefferson County are under orders to turn all journalists away. Brigham writes: "Bush is now censoring all reporting from New Orleans, Louisiana. The First Amendment sank with the city."Earlier this week, Reporters Without Borders issued a warning about police violence against journalists working in New Orleans. They highlighted two cases – in one case police detained a Times-Picayune photographer and smashed his equipment to the ground after he was seen covering a shoot-out with police. In the second case, a photographer from the Toronto Star was detained by police and his photos taken from him when police realized that he had snapped photos of a clash between them and citizens who the police claimed were looters.
Those in the Green Zone may have kidded themselves, if they were non-Arabic, that they weren't being controlled. It was just the Arabic reporters suffering, right?
A Dexter Filkins could cancel the meeting with the resistance and kid himself that he made the choice. (Like Madonna' s ludicrous claim in the nineties that the difference was she chained herself.) The "choices" that have been made are now impacting reporters outside the Green Zone and they aren't amused.
That's why the Times should be concerned. The rumblings and grumblings are coming from their competitors. Not from independent media, which the Times would easily dismiss (as it so often does). I don't know that other dailies are doing a better job than the Times (the daily I read is the New York Times). Reporters at other papers seem to think to think they are. Three reporters in particular (two at one organization, one at another) are mentioned repeatedly (by press not affiliated with the two organizations).
The Times is aware that Judith Miller has become the fall guy for every reporter that gave breathless (and non questioning) coverage to WMD claims. So they're familiar with the concept of a fall guy. (They've also created a few over the years.) They should be really concerned right now because although Filkins isn't the "name" that Miller is (even people who didn't read her reporting in real time can now list the problems with it), he'll quickly become that. One reporter trying to cover New Orleans has already used Filkins as an adjective to express dismay over conditions that authorities attempted to impose. ("They thought I'd do a Filkins!")
Whereas the derision of Miller began with the independent press, Filkins' is starting at the top. Again, he wrote a first person account of what happened in Falluja. That's hard to come back from as details continue to emerge about what didn't get reported in that piece of melodrama.
The paper should be very worried. It took years for the criticism of Miller to go beyond independent media. If Filkins gets burned by the mainstream press, it will be a much harder hit than any criticism the Times faces over Miller.
The fact that they've continued to offer press releases won't help them either. They should have dealt with this long ago. They need a new chief in Baghdad and they need it right away.
What Americans need is some honest reporting.
Because I feel like they hear a lot of promises that aren't kept. I feel that way with Vern especially.
At his funeral, I had to hear over and over from different people in his family how they meant to visit him in the nursing home. Meant to. Like he just went in a week or so ago. He was in there for over five years. With one exception, the last family visit he had was in January. He died in September. I don't think there's an excuse for that.
I tried to be nice about it but if they pressed me, I gave my opinion. I know that one side of the family has another member in a nursing home so I didn't see the point in telling them something that would comfort and absolve them.
They need to be thinking about the other family member.
Vern had some grandchildren who called and wrote. And he really appreciated that. He had a grandson in college on an athletic scholarship and she clipped stories on the team all year and sent them to him even when she didn't have time to write a real letter. He appreciated that and understood she was "on the tip of the United States" as he liked to put it because she was in Florida.
Other people, especially full grown adults, didn't have that excuse.
I hang with the three guys still at the nursing home. I'm there to visit them. But I look around and see a lot of lonely elderly people. It's like they just got dumped there and then forgotten.
So if you're reading this and you've got someone in a nursing home, a friend or a family member, you visit them. If they're too far and you don't have the money for a trip, you write and you call them.
I see a lot of people hanging on with hope that they are going to be remembered by someone who knows them. I think that's pretty sad that a lot of times that doesn't happen.
I walk in and the ladies start talking going on about how I'm there to see my friends. As I pass them, they'll always greet me and I greet them back and with their names when I know them.
The guys tell me that they're becoming celebrities and everyone's always asking them about their friend from church and telling them how lucky they are to have someone visiting.
I can tell a joke but I'm not the funniest guy. I'm not the smartest guy. But all it takes is just a visit and a listen to really make their day.
When I went Sunday afternoon, I took my youngest brother. He tickled them. He's a funny guy and always joking. But it doesn't matter to them if I'm making them laugh or not. They just appreciate that someone is stopping by and talking to them. I told my preacher this was the best thing he ever did, this program.
If you've got a family member or a friend in a nursing home, you make the time to visit. If you don't know anyone in one but you have time to spare, regardless of your age, I think you should consider volunteering in some way. It may not seem like much to you but it really means a lot to them.
And if you're like most of Vern's family who couldn't make the time for visits or calls or letters, I guess maybe someday you'll be in a nursing home and everyone will forget about you. I'm not saying "fate" or "punishment." But his kids are getting older and they didn't make a point to visit and take their children so when they're older there's no way their own children will see it as important to visit. You model behavior and the behavior Vern's kids modeled to their own children was put Vern in the nursing home and get on with your life. So it may come back to bite them in the butt. If it does, they'll have only themselves to blame.
Mike e-mailed me about C.I.'s editorial Saturday and said he, Elaine and Rebecca were all linking to it. I was going to anyway because I printed it out Sunday and took it to the nursing home. They couldn't stop talking about that tonight. They loved it and were talking about the "fools" in the press who got us into this war and keep us in it.
We're going to start a drive at the church to get a laptop for the guys. I think they'll get a kick out of that. I print stuff for them and I take mine when it's charged up. I need to get a new battery since the thing's always dying. But the church is behind it. Some think we might be able to raise enough for three but even if it's just one, I know they'll be happy.
If you didn't read the editorial Saturday, make a point to read it now because three of the wisest men I know say it's the kind of talking we need to be having right now.
"Editorial Reading press releases, live from the Green Zone"
[Note: This is an editorial.]
What the hell goes on in the Green Zone? Forget the rumors that led to a guild becoming involved (rumors of wild behavior on the part of Times reporters, rumors that someone was fired for telling truths to wives back in the United States, rumors, rumors, rumors), exactly what do they do?
Not a whole hell of a lot.
The big Iraq news of the week was Tal Afar. The Times front paged Kirk Semple's " Baseball in Iraq: As Pastimes Go, It's Anything But." Apparently the jock fumes reach the Green Zone as well. (Though I'll refrain from pinning this one on Todd S. Purdum.)
This is a front page story. Why? Not because it's a big story in Iraq. It's not. It's a piece of disgraceful fluff. It's Operation Happy Talk. And while it goes on, while we're bored with a non-story passing for front page news, the Times can't even report on Tal Afar.
What do they do in the Green Zone?
Yes, Friday, finally, a story ran in the Times on Tel Afar: "U.S.-Iraqi Sweep Arrests 200 in Rebel Staging Area" but the Times receives no credit for that article, it's an Associated Press article. Whatever it's positives or minuses, all the Times did was run a report by another news organization.
So what do they do in the Green Zone?
And what the hell is Robert F. Worth? Is he a reporter? Is he an op-ed writer? Read"Basra Bombs Kill 16 Iraqis and 4 U.S. Contractors" and try to answer that question.
I'm unable to grasp how, in a story on bombings, this opening qualifies for a news report:
There was also a piece of good news: American military officials said [. . .]
What did "American military officials" say? It doesn't matter for this discussion. (A contractor was released.) What is that judgement call ("good news") doing in the paper? Is Worth channeling Matt Lauer? Tip to Worth: "In other news . . ." You're supposed to be reporting. You're not there to editorialize.
The sentence, the part noted above, reveals all that is wrong with the Times reporting on Iraq."American military officials said . . ." That's the basis for every damn thing. (Yes, I'm tossing around "damn." Call me Bumiller. But "damn" is much more mild than the word I'm saying outloud as I dictate this.)
Reporters are supposed to serve as the eyes and ears of the public. That's why they're called the "watch dogs." That's not happening when every "report" is a press release. "American military officials said . . ." And what did you see Robert F. Worth? What did you hear? Not what were you told. What did you observe all by yourself?
Or does that require leaving the Green Zone? From all accounts, it's Delta House there so who would want to leave -- other than someone with a modicum of taste?
Look they can Boys Gone Wild it or not all they want in the Green Zone, I don't care. I do care what makes into print but I wonder if anyone reporting from the Green Zone does?
I did a conference call with three friends (reporters) on this asking them to play devil's advocate so I could anticipate the responses. (The Times would call the phone call "reporting.")
So here's the big argument. "It's not safe. I could lose my life."
You know what, cover cook-offs. If that's your excuse, cover cook-offs. No one's forcing you to be there. The paper certainly isn't forcing anyone. Reporters are choosing to be there. If you're a reporter and you're there, you need to be reporting.
It's not safe, doesn't cut it. It wasn't safe for Daniel Pearl. He went after the story. Others have before him and will after. The attitude of "Oh it's tough here so you have to cut me slack" doesn't wash. You get off your asses or the Times needs to appoint J-school graduates who are ready to dig in and find stories. (Which the Times, being the Times, will water down. But a diluted news report is still more powerful than any of the diluted press releases that regularly get filed.)
There is nothing, I repeat nothing, that reporters can point to with pride coming out of Iraq for the paper. You're not making a name for yourself. The t-shirt you should be furnished with when you depart can only proclaim: "I SURVIVED THE GREEN ZONE." That's all that's being done. Reporting isn't being done. (And the Times is becoming a joke to other print organizations over their "reporting" from Iraq.)
Want a blast from the past? Try this ("More Iraqi Army Dead Found in Mosul; 2 Clerics Slain," November 23, 2004):
Basic services are still unavailable in Falluja, and the valves in the city's main water-treatment plant are still not working. But troops will provide bottled water until the plant and the city's heavily damaged water and sewer pipes can be fixed, the general said.
The general said it, did he? Well Richard A. Oppel. Jr. and James Glanz, did you follow up on that? Or did you just print what you were told? (Rhetorical question.)
Does anyone working for the Times in Iraq do anything more than play telephone chain? Does anyone not buckle immediately?
From Molly Bingham's "Home From Iraq" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution):
The intimidation to not work on this story was evident. Dexter Filkins, who writes for The New York Times, related a conversation he had in Iraq with an American military commander... Towards the end of one of their conversations, Dexter declined an invitation for the next day by explaining that he'd lined up a meeting with a "resistance guy." The commander's face went stony cold and he said, "We have a position on that." For Dexter the message was clear. He cancelled the appointment.
If you're going to discuss Iraq, you have to discuss Filkins at some point. I'm aware it's more pleasing to discuss Judith Miller. But if she had a part in getting us over into Iraq, it's the "reporters" like Filkins who keep us there. For the record, Filkins has denied Bingham's version of the events. People will have to make up their own minds as to whom to take the word of.
While you're attempting to sort that out, let's again note this:
Christian Parenti mentioned Filkins last night on The Laura Flanders Show: "Dexter Filkins politics are very different from the Dexter Filkins politics we know in the New York Times. [In person, he's saying] 'Oh it's awful, the situation is totally out of control.'" That's a paraphrase (I've left out a "Dude" among other things).
Oh, it's awful, the situation is totally out of control?
Didn't seem that way when Filkins reported "In Faulluja, Young Marines Saw the Savagery of an Urban War" -- his rah-rah-rah piece of "award winning" journalism. Six days after the battle (Nov. 15), Filkins' story makes it into print. Exactly how slowly does he type? Exactly whom edited that copy?
From Dahr Jamail's "Iraqi Hospitals Ailing Under Occupation" (pdf format, you can find the quote below at this site here):
Burhan Fasa'a, a cameramn with the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), witnessed the first eight days of the fighting. "I entered Falljuah near the Julan Quarter, which is near the General Hospital," he said during an interview in Baghdad. "There were American snipers on top of the hospital," who, he testified, "were shooting everyone in sight." The Iraqi Red Crescent would have to wait a full week before being permitted to dispatch three ambulances into the city.
Not quite the way Filkins reported it. For that matter, not quite the way Richard A. Oppel, Jr. and James Glanz report it. (They report that the Iraqi Red Crescent found no one when they entered Falluja. They just fail to seriously address why that is.) It goes beyond Filkins but Filkins has the prize and he contributed the go-go boy gone wild story that portrays a massacre as a video game.
Reality: Preceding the blood bath, males of "fighting age" were prevented from leaving that city. The destruction was severe and has not been "fixed." (Does the United States military still provide bottled water? Did they ever? Not what they told you, but what you could verify, please.)
Press releases continue to pass for reporting ("Hussein Confessed to Massacre Order, Iraqi President Says") and they should all be worried. They're the upcoming Judy Millers. They're the laughingstock of many of their peers. (Filkins epecially whose appearance on Terry Gross's Fresh Air is legendary -- and the tales repeated of it are far more interesting than what he actually said on air.)
Let's note this:
On this 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Amy Goodman, host of the national radio and TV show "Democracy Now!" is submitting a formal request to the board of the Pulitzer Prize, calling for The New York Times and its reporter William Laurence to be stripped of the 1946 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the atomic bomb. Laurence was also on the payroll of the US War Department. Goodman recently wrote an Op-Ed in The Baltimore Sun (written with journalist David Goodman, her brother) called "The Hiroshima Coverup" (see http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0805-20.htm ).
Goodman said, "William Laurence and the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the atomic bomb, and his faithful parroting of the government line was crucial in launching a half-century of silence about the deadly lingering effects of the bomb. It is time for the Pulitzer board to strip the atomic bomb apologist and his newspaper of this undeserved prize."
This is Filkins future. I used to assume that it would take place long after he was gone. (And long after I was gone.) But he's the one reporters bring up to me. They're friends and they know I consider his reporting proganda. (Had the election gone differently, would his story have been more realistic?) So maybe they're just saying what they say to please me? I don't think so. (I could, as always, be wrong.)
But away from them, when you walk someone through Filkins reporting, someone who has no idea who he is, they grasp that its people like Filkins that keep us in Iraq.
By failing to report accurately what Operation Enduring Falsehood did (and what they do) they allow a number of otherwise well meaning people to think "fine tuning" is an answer. (Filkins is also a laughing stock for a TV appearance I missed. He supposedly minimized a trial for the abuses of Abu Ghraib -- with regard to instructions from above.) Fine tuning isn't an answer. As Filkins allegedy told Parenti, "It's totally out of control." Until that truth makes it into the reports, I'm saddened by those who argue fine tuning and aren't war hawks but I don't blame them for the failures of the press to report reality. They're being short changed. (Hawks aren't. They don't need excuses to continue war. They thrive on it the way some in the Green Zone thrive on the chaos.)
But here's the reason Filkins may feel the bite while he's still alive. Some domestic reporters in the United States aren't speaking fondly of the embeds. They're pointing fingers right now as the clampdowns that reporters have gone along with in Iraq come home to the United States.
The Boys Gone Wild are also a joke to people who've served in the area. And those first hand accounts will continue to come out. A Worth or Glanz will be embarrassed for being so quick to print press releases, but Filkins was in Falluja. He saw with his own eyes and he didn't report.
The bodies, the limbs piled up in the streets, Filkins somehow missed. And he was there. A friend at one of the top ten (circulation) dailies has gone from lukewarm support of Filkins' infamous "reporting" to outright disgust with it. The opinion is there is no "comeback" from it. That Filkins could do a mea culpa and return his prize and he'd still be damaged goods.
That kind of talk may not make it into the Green Zone but Filkins should worry. And so should the paper.
In an early November piece on Falluja (this one co-written with James Glanz), a military officer told Filkins that "it ought to go down in history." Filkins accepted the gung-hu attitude, too bad he didn't consider the words themselves. This will go down in history.
This will haunt the Times and it will haunt Filkins.
Amy and David Goodman may not get the Times stripped of a Pulitizer (though I hope they do) but just addressing the issue accomplishes something. And when the issue of Dexter Filkins is seriously addressed it will further tarnish the paper's name.
With Judith Miller, the paper waited far too late to address the situation. (Both her reporting itself and the legal argument they attempt to make -- they not Millers' attornies.) If they hem and haw with regards to what passes for "reporting" from Iraq currently, they'll further hurt their already badly damaged reputation.
In the meantime, by not revisiting the press releases they published, they do real reporting, democracy and the people of the United States a huge disservice because they're not reporting. It took Cindy Sheehan to act as the spark to wake up a nation. The Times could have done that long ago with some strong reporting. It shouldn't be the job of the editorials to try to later straighten out the reporting.
And as the press in the United States feels they're under attack, they're making some rather rude comments about those in the Green Zone that they feel have condoned this sort of behavior.
Democracy Now! noted the following Friday:
The journalists who have been covering Hurricane Katrina have literally been risking their lives for the last week. Reporters have been stationed in and around New Orleans since the Hurricane hit and have tirelessly reported on the devastation to the city. Some journalists have expressed enormous outrage at government officials for their slow response. A few television reporters openly broke down on air as they report the horrific conditions and the desperation of victims. Reporters have witnessed the militarization of the city and are starting to feel the effects of the government crack-down on information gathering. FEMA is now rejecting requests by journalists to accompany rescue boats searching for storm victims. In addition, journalists are being asked not to photograph any dead bodies in the region. NBC News Anchor Brian Williams reported on his blog, that police officers had been seen aiming their weapons at members of the media. And a blogger named Bob Brigham wrote a widely read dispatch that the National Guard in Jefferson County are under orders to turn all journalists away. Brigham writes: "Bush is now censoring all reporting from New Orleans, Louisiana. The First Amendment sank with the city."Earlier this week, Reporters Without Borders issued a warning about police violence against journalists working in New Orleans. They highlighted two cases – in one case police detained a Times-Picayune photographer and smashed his equipment to the ground after he was seen covering a shoot-out with police. In the second case, a photographer from the Toronto Star was detained by police and his photos taken from him when police realized that he had snapped photos of a clash between them and citizens who the police claimed were looters.
Those in the Green Zone may have kidded themselves, if they were non-Arabic, that they weren't being controlled. It was just the Arabic reporters suffering, right?
A Dexter Filkins could cancel the meeting with the resistance and kid himself that he made the choice. (Like Madonna' s ludicrous claim in the nineties that the difference was she chained herself.) The "choices" that have been made are now impacting reporters outside the Green Zone and they aren't amused.
That's why the Times should be concerned. The rumblings and grumblings are coming from their competitors. Not from independent media, which the Times would easily dismiss (as it so often does). I don't know that other dailies are doing a better job than the Times (the daily I read is the New York Times). Reporters at other papers seem to think to think they are. Three reporters in particular (two at one organization, one at another) are mentioned repeatedly (by press not affiliated with the two organizations).
The Times is aware that Judith Miller has become the fall guy for every reporter that gave breathless (and non questioning) coverage to WMD claims. So they're familiar with the concept of a fall guy. (They've also created a few over the years.) They should be really concerned right now because although Filkins isn't the "name" that Miller is (even people who didn't read her reporting in real time can now list the problems with it), he'll quickly become that. One reporter trying to cover New Orleans has already used Filkins as an adjective to express dismay over conditions that authorities attempted to impose. ("They thought I'd do a Filkins!")
Whereas the derision of Miller began with the independent press, Filkins' is starting at the top. Again, he wrote a first person account of what happened in Falluja. That's hard to come back from as details continue to emerge about what didn't get reported in that piece of melodrama.
The paper should be very worried. It took years for the criticism of Miller to go beyond independent media. If Filkins gets burned by the mainstream press, it will be a much harder hit than any criticism the Times faces over Miller.
The fact that they've continued to offer press releases won't help them either. They should have dealt with this long ago. They need a new chief in Baghdad and they need it right away.
What Americans need is some honest reporting.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Rambling
I want to note first that Elaine has started her site and it's called Like Maria Said Paz. This is my first time online since I learned she'd started her own site so I'll add her to the blogroll tonight.
Wednesdays are really church nights for me and it's pretty much impossible for me to blog most Wednesday nights. But Elaine and I were talking and she said that since she's not blogging every day, she'd be happy to grab Wednesdays. So on Wendesdays, you can always expect something new at Like Maria Said Paz.
That really is a relief for me because I'm not sure what this site is going to be like. And I did feel like I would be letting people down more than lifting them up. Elaine's last Friday blogging, I had called her after I read her kind words to everyone. I knew she was thinking about doing a site (but I didn't know she decided until I read Mike's interview) and we were talking again about blogging and how I believe in Kat's attitude: write when you have something to say. But how I also feel bad about knowing that on hump day each week, it's unlikely I'll ever have anything to say. So when she offered to grab Wednesdays, it really was a relief.
And I want to tell her and the community that she need to just blog when she has the time. I love C.I. and The Common Ills but C.I.'s always posting. Several times a day. Then you have Rebecca and Mike who do it Monday through Friday each day. Then you have The Third Estate Sunday Review that only blogs once a week but it's mulitple things each week. Poor Betty's trying to like crazy to do her novel twice each week. That's what Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man is, a novel. She's got to be creative and think of things that other people don't have to worry about. She puts in a lot of work on her site. Then there's Kat and now me just writing when we have the time and something to say. And I hope everyone will understand that Elaine's got a lot going on in her life and a demanding job (she's a psychologist).
So if you find yourself thinking, I wish she'd write more, realize that's a good thing. Better to want more of Elaine. I love the look of her site and I love her stuff.
Now about my homey Mike. Next Wendesday, he'll have an interview with me at his site Mikey Likes It! We're going to do that on Tuesday because I won't have time on Wednesday but that's just to make sure everyone knows.
Mike is crazy in the best sense of the word. He's like this ball of energy. He's always tossing things around in his head and he's just an amazing man.
My neighbors think I'm a dope head because of Mike. I'm not joking. Last week, we all worked on a roundtable at The Third Estate Sunday Review and it got lost and didn't post. But one thing that happened in it was Mike wanted everyone to think of one thing we could each do for the environment. I recycle and a lot more so I didn't think there was anything more I could do which shows you how stupid and complacent I can be. But Mike said finally, "What about air freshners? You use air freshners?"
Course I do. I don't want to be fouling up the crib. So Mike's talking about how the can itself isn't reused and how the spray is bad . . . I said, "I'm not letting my place get stinky." I'm good about a lot of things except carrying the trash out nightly. There's at least one night a week, usually Wednesday, when I'm just too tired to bother. I'll come in the next evening after work and with the trash sitting in the trash can and the air conditioner off all day and the whole place just baking, it will smell awful and I always reach for the can of air freshner.
So people started tossing out ideas and one idea was pou porri. I don't like that stuff. I have an aunt who put some out three years ago and the same stuff is still out. It's dried out and I don't like the smell from it. So then someone suggested scented candals. Then Mike said incense and Kat had a long list of fragrances I might like.
Incense is really big at Mike's house and that was interesting to me because to me it's always just been something people use to cover the smell of drugs. But for Mike, who's Catholic, it can also remind him of his faith. I've never been to a Catholic church and Mike and Kat were telling me about all the rituals involved in Christmas Mass.
Too late to type "long story short." But I bought some, and sniffed the box like Kat suggested to make sure I'd like the smell, and so on Thursday I come home and there's the smell. I was tired because I visited the guys at the nursing home but I took the trash out right away. Smell was still there so I lit a stick of incense and burned it and it really seemed to wipe out the smell. Ever since, I've been lighting sticks like crazy.
Got an e-mail from Blue and he told me he loved the new look here and that he thought it was awesome that I linked to The Chicago Defender. I agree that The Defender is an excellent paper but I need to give credit where it's due because I'd never heard of it until C.I. linked to it at The Common Ills during the John H. Johnson thing where the mainstream was acting like it was no big deal that Johnson died. Since then, it's been noted at least once a week, usually more, at The Common Ills and C.I. put it on the blog roll over there. It's independent media and it's Afro-centric so I wanted to note it too. I've learned a lot of resources thanks to The Common Ills so I wanted to back up that attitude by noting some here. I hope people will check it out but, if they don't, if they just know it's out there, I think that's cool. In June, I didn't even know there was a weekly black newspaper in Chicago. Now I find myself visiting it and I think they've done a really great job with their coverage of the hurricane. I also think that they present a strong African-American voice and that we need those.
I don't mean Bill Cosby who I found kind of offensive. It seemed to me and a lot of my friends like he was trying to score on the backs of blacks, trying to score with white people. The Chicago Defender seems to have common sense as well as a strong sense of purpose. And we need to know about the resources we have out there. Starting today, I'm going to try to link to something from the paper every week. Today I want to suggest that you read Jesse Washington's "Katrina Inspires Unprecedented Outpouring Of Aid In Black America" which is an important story about how African-Americans are digging deep to help out the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Bully Boy.
Wednesdays are really church nights for me and it's pretty much impossible for me to blog most Wednesday nights. But Elaine and I were talking and she said that since she's not blogging every day, she'd be happy to grab Wednesdays. So on Wendesdays, you can always expect something new at Like Maria Said Paz.
That really is a relief for me because I'm not sure what this site is going to be like. And I did feel like I would be letting people down more than lifting them up. Elaine's last Friday blogging, I had called her after I read her kind words to everyone. I knew she was thinking about doing a site (but I didn't know she decided until I read Mike's interview) and we were talking again about blogging and how I believe in Kat's attitude: write when you have something to say. But how I also feel bad about knowing that on hump day each week, it's unlikely I'll ever have anything to say. So when she offered to grab Wednesdays, it really was a relief.
And I want to tell her and the community that she need to just blog when she has the time. I love C.I. and The Common Ills but C.I.'s always posting. Several times a day. Then you have Rebecca and Mike who do it Monday through Friday each day. Then you have The Third Estate Sunday Review that only blogs once a week but it's mulitple things each week. Poor Betty's trying to like crazy to do her novel twice each week. That's what Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man is, a novel. She's got to be creative and think of things that other people don't have to worry about. She puts in a lot of work on her site. Then there's Kat and now me just writing when we have the time and something to say. And I hope everyone will understand that Elaine's got a lot going on in her life and a demanding job (she's a psychologist).
So if you find yourself thinking, I wish she'd write more, realize that's a good thing. Better to want more of Elaine. I love the look of her site and I love her stuff.
Now about my homey Mike. Next Wendesday, he'll have an interview with me at his site Mikey Likes It! We're going to do that on Tuesday because I won't have time on Wednesday but that's just to make sure everyone knows.
Mike is crazy in the best sense of the word. He's like this ball of energy. He's always tossing things around in his head and he's just an amazing man.
My neighbors think I'm a dope head because of Mike. I'm not joking. Last week, we all worked on a roundtable at The Third Estate Sunday Review and it got lost and didn't post. But one thing that happened in it was Mike wanted everyone to think of one thing we could each do for the environment. I recycle and a lot more so I didn't think there was anything more I could do which shows you how stupid and complacent I can be. But Mike said finally, "What about air freshners? You use air freshners?"
Course I do. I don't want to be fouling up the crib. So Mike's talking about how the can itself isn't reused and how the spray is bad . . . I said, "I'm not letting my place get stinky." I'm good about a lot of things except carrying the trash out nightly. There's at least one night a week, usually Wednesday, when I'm just too tired to bother. I'll come in the next evening after work and with the trash sitting in the trash can and the air conditioner off all day and the whole place just baking, it will smell awful and I always reach for the can of air freshner.
So people started tossing out ideas and one idea was pou porri. I don't like that stuff. I have an aunt who put some out three years ago and the same stuff is still out. It's dried out and I don't like the smell from it. So then someone suggested scented candals. Then Mike said incense and Kat had a long list of fragrances I might like.
Incense is really big at Mike's house and that was interesting to me because to me it's always just been something people use to cover the smell of drugs. But for Mike, who's Catholic, it can also remind him of his faith. I've never been to a Catholic church and Mike and Kat were telling me about all the rituals involved in Christmas Mass.
Too late to type "long story short." But I bought some, and sniffed the box like Kat suggested to make sure I'd like the smell, and so on Thursday I come home and there's the smell. I was tired because I visited the guys at the nursing home but I took the trash out right away. Smell was still there so I lit a stick of incense and burned it and it really seemed to wipe out the smell. Ever since, I've been lighting sticks like crazy.
Got an e-mail from Blue and he told me he loved the new look here and that he thought it was awesome that I linked to The Chicago Defender. I agree that The Defender is an excellent paper but I need to give credit where it's due because I'd never heard of it until C.I. linked to it at The Common Ills during the John H. Johnson thing where the mainstream was acting like it was no big deal that Johnson died. Since then, it's been noted at least once a week, usually more, at The Common Ills and C.I. put it on the blog roll over there. It's independent media and it's Afro-centric so I wanted to note it too. I've learned a lot of resources thanks to The Common Ills so I wanted to back up that attitude by noting some here. I hope people will check it out but, if they don't, if they just know it's out there, I think that's cool. In June, I didn't even know there was a weekly black newspaper in Chicago. Now I find myself visiting it and I think they've done a really great job with their coverage of the hurricane. I also think that they present a strong African-American voice and that we need those.
I don't mean Bill Cosby who I found kind of offensive. It seemed to me and a lot of my friends like he was trying to score on the backs of blacks, trying to score with white people. The Chicago Defender seems to have common sense as well as a strong sense of purpose. And we need to know about the resources we have out there. Starting today, I'm going to try to link to something from the paper every week. Today I want to suggest that you read Jesse Washington's "Katrina Inspires Unprecedented Outpouring Of Aid In Black America" which is an important story about how African-Americans are digging deep to help out the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Bully Boy.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Sojourner Truth
Is anyone else having problems with the stream from KPFK? I saw Ruth's heads up at The Common Ills and made a point to be by the computer for Sojourner Truth. It's a really strong look like she said it would be but I'm falling on and off so missing about a third of it.
Stream hasn't busted up yet again on this part and the issue of the coverage from Mississippi is being addressed. The corporate media is portraying mississippi as something that happened to white people. The man speaking is talking about the "racism of the situation" missing out the large number of African-Americans being effected. Margaret Prescod just asked "Where are the black people?" and that's a question we need to be asking.
If you want to help the communities that have been destroyed, this is a charity that was given out:
The People's Hurrican Fund
383 Rhode Island Street
Suite 301
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-487-2111
In Greenville, Mississippi there is a fund as well:
Southern Relief Fund
P.O. Box 1223
Greenville, Mississippi 38702-1223
662-334-1122
You can also go to Quality Education as a Civil Right and find out more information.
Margaret Prescod asked "What now will happen to the black community?" In New Orleans, what will happen to property and land? She's talking about how there's almost an encouragement for them not to come back. That's been a worry of mine since Dr. Beverly Harris raised the issue on Democracy Now! (and props to Betty for mentioning that report in her editorial in "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review").
The port of New Orleans does about a 1/4 of the shipping in the United States and so one of the guests feels it will be up and running within three weeks. The other parts of New Orleans aren't as pressing to our country. This is a hard hitting discussion and if you're missing it, you're really missing out on something.
As an African-American male, I've gotten used to hearing pieces discussed, pieces of this issue, and I give a big, hearty round of applause to broadcasters like Tom Joyner who don't shy from these topics. But Tom Joyner can only do so much in a morning show that's a blend of so many topics. Margaret Prescod's show was really amazing to listen to. There was information, like about the port handling a quarter of the shipping, that I didn't know. But what stood out the most was hearing a conversation or a discussion on the radio that sounded like something I recognized. These are the kind of conversations I take part in and I see going on around me.
But I don't hear them in the corporate media. C.I.'s talked about how The Common Ills is a "resource/review" often enough and how it is about us finding voices that speak to us and realizing that we are not alone and that there are people out there who think like we do and feel the same we do. I didn't realize how marginalized I felt by the corporate media until I listened to Sojourner Truth just now. My questions, my anger, my rage, my pain was out there floating across the internet. It was really empowering, so much so, that I was almost shaking at parts of the show. (And now that it's off, I'm having no problem hearing the program after.) I can talk like this and be around people talking like this in my family, with my friends and at my church.
But in terms of the corporate media, the most I'm ever getting of this perspective is a slice or sliver.
This really fed me, validated me and made me think. I was wondering, when I read Ruth's heads up, what it was that made her want to give the heads up. I'm guessing this morning, Sojourner Truth was just as powerful. I was already glad that Ruth was going beyond NPR for her Ruth's Morning Edition Report because I'm not that big on NPR. The voices are too smooth, and too white, and the topics are too smooth, and too white. I can listen in a sort of eat my vegetables way. I get some information that's pretty standard but maybe better than what I'd get from CNN. But I don't hear my perspective on that public radio network.
Morning Edition irritates the hell out of me with all the banter from Biff & Skipper. (That's Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne.) They never telegraph that I'm not included more than when they're chuckling with each other.
Public radio doesn't start and stop with NPR and I'm glad about that and glad that Ruth's covering more than NPR. I'm glad too that she caught Sojourner Truth this morning and gave the community a heads up. C.I. always says the community is only as strong as members make it and, man, did that get proven today.
I got fed today and heard voices and a discussion that spoke to me. I know from working with The Third Estate Sunday Review that C.I.'s the first to self-criticize and self-trash so I want to say that The Common Ills more than lived up to its stated purpose for this member this evening.
Stream hasn't busted up yet again on this part and the issue of the coverage from Mississippi is being addressed. The corporate media is portraying mississippi as something that happened to white people. The man speaking is talking about the "racism of the situation" missing out the large number of African-Americans being effected. Margaret Prescod just asked "Where are the black people?" and that's a question we need to be asking.
If you want to help the communities that have been destroyed, this is a charity that was given out:
The People's Hurrican Fund
383 Rhode Island Street
Suite 301
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-487-2111
In Greenville, Mississippi there is a fund as well:
Southern Relief Fund
P.O. Box 1223
Greenville, Mississippi 38702-1223
662-334-1122
You can also go to Quality Education as a Civil Right and find out more information.
Margaret Prescod asked "What now will happen to the black community?" In New Orleans, what will happen to property and land? She's talking about how there's almost an encouragement for them not to come back. That's been a worry of mine since Dr. Beverly Harris raised the issue on Democracy Now! (and props to Betty for mentioning that report in her editorial in "The Third Estate Sunday Review News Review").
The port of New Orleans does about a 1/4 of the shipping in the United States and so one of the guests feels it will be up and running within three weeks. The other parts of New Orleans aren't as pressing to our country. This is a hard hitting discussion and if you're missing it, you're really missing out on something.
As an African-American male, I've gotten used to hearing pieces discussed, pieces of this issue, and I give a big, hearty round of applause to broadcasters like Tom Joyner who don't shy from these topics. But Tom Joyner can only do so much in a morning show that's a blend of so many topics. Margaret Prescod's show was really amazing to listen to. There was information, like about the port handling a quarter of the shipping, that I didn't know. But what stood out the most was hearing a conversation or a discussion on the radio that sounded like something I recognized. These are the kind of conversations I take part in and I see going on around me.
But I don't hear them in the corporate media. C.I.'s talked about how The Common Ills is a "resource/review" often enough and how it is about us finding voices that speak to us and realizing that we are not alone and that there are people out there who think like we do and feel the same we do. I didn't realize how marginalized I felt by the corporate media until I listened to Sojourner Truth just now. My questions, my anger, my rage, my pain was out there floating across the internet. It was really empowering, so much so, that I was almost shaking at parts of the show. (And now that it's off, I'm having no problem hearing the program after.) I can talk like this and be around people talking like this in my family, with my friends and at my church.
But in terms of the corporate media, the most I'm ever getting of this perspective is a slice or sliver.
This really fed me, validated me and made me think. I was wondering, when I read Ruth's heads up, what it was that made her want to give the heads up. I'm guessing this morning, Sojourner Truth was just as powerful. I was already glad that Ruth was going beyond NPR for her Ruth's Morning Edition Report because I'm not that big on NPR. The voices are too smooth, and too white, and the topics are too smooth, and too white. I can listen in a sort of eat my vegetables way. I get some information that's pretty standard but maybe better than what I'd get from CNN. But I don't hear my perspective on that public radio network.
Morning Edition irritates the hell out of me with all the banter from Biff & Skipper. (That's Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne.) They never telegraph that I'm not included more than when they're chuckling with each other.
Public radio doesn't start and stop with NPR and I'm glad about that and glad that Ruth's covering more than NPR. I'm glad too that she caught Sojourner Truth this morning and gave the community a heads up. C.I. always says the community is only as strong as members make it and, man, did that get proven today.
I got fed today and heard voices and a discussion that spoke to me. I know from working with The Third Estate Sunday Review that C.I.'s the first to self-criticize and self-trash so I want to say that The Common Ills more than lived up to its stated purpose for this member this evening.
Monday, September 05, 2005
New site
I've moved Cedric's Big Mix. There are two main reasons for that.
1) I go visit some guys, some great guys, in a nursing home at least twice a week. Ii'd print up stuff that all of us in The Common Ills community did. And Vern, who just passed away, had told me that he really liked my stuff but he hated the way my site looked. He said maybe it looked different onscreen than on paper. But for Vern, I'm switching.
2) I tried to put links in my posts to make sure people knew where to go for Common Ills
community members but Mike explained to me that in terms of the things that measure online, those links didn't seem to count. One of the reasons I started this Big Mix was because I've gotten a lot from this community and I want to give back. Now I've got them all linked on the side of my site and you can go there or not but it's there and should count by the mechanical gods that measure that nonsense.
I'm leaving the other site up for now at least but I am putting new entries up here.
Until I started this entry, C.I. of The Common Ills was on the phone with me and big thanks for that because I don't know what to do with this blogging program. And thanks to Mike of Mikey Likes It! for advising me to have some links planned so I wasn't sitting there with C.I. on the phone trying to figure out what to link to.
I'll add other links at some point. Any Common Ills community member that starts a site can e-mail me at cedricsbigmix@yahoo.com and I'll put you on my blog roll.
What about me? I know the community members with sites will link to me other than that, hey I'm an African-American blogger in a white, white net world, I ain't expecting much. I've noticed, for instance, that Betty of Thomas Friedman Is A Great Man busts her butt on her stuff and it is amazing but she's not linked to outside the community with one or two exceptions. You got a lot of white kids who like play with white kids. I ain't looking to be bussed in.
Think it has nothing to do with racism or sexism then go read Betty's stuff. And her entire topic is Thomas Friedman who the left loves to criticize but somehow they just can't give it up for Betty and say, "Hey, here's a link."
It's an inbred, tight circle and they all do the reach around to stroke each other off. That goes for a certain blogger who I'll leave nameless out of respect for C.I., but Mike, Elaine and I have had it with her peeing all over the left. She just loves to be linked to but she's not giving it up for others. Elaine, while she was substituting for Rebecca at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, took her and others off Rebecca's blog roll. I think that was so cool. Rebecca will stand up for anyone. And her thanks just wasn't forth coming.
The Common Ills is the flagship of the community and C.I. doesn't have to worry about links because we're such a huge community that grows all the time. (Check out the profile views on the site if you don't believe it.) And, like Kat says, we'll do just fine with just the community members who like our stuff checking out our sites. But I still don't think it's right that Betty's ignored or Rebecca.
As for me, I don't have time for the echo chamber so it ain't going to make my eyes water when this site is ignored outside the community.
I'll be linking to some magazines when I have time but I hate going into the template already. I'd heard about that from the gang at The Third Estate Sunday Review especially and it is a pain. In my entries, I'll always try to link to the community and to Democracy Now! but otherwise, you might just have to go to the blog roll because I'm learning this program as I go along. When the UK Computer Gurus get back from vacation, I'll be pestering them like crazy.
If you're new to me, let me start by saying I'm like Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills). We both blog when we have something to say. If I don't have anything to say, my Mama always taught me to shut my mouth.
I like music and I like to talk about stuff that's happening. This Mix is supposed to be just that with stuff I find that I want to highlight (mainly from the community). I'm not sure how that will go because everyone's told me that when you copy and paste in this program you have a lot of work to do with spacing and stuff. At the old site, I just copied with the mouse, took it over to the site and pasted it and everything was just like it was from the site I was copying.
So if you want to hang, feel free. If you don't, that's cool. But Vern told me to speak my anger and as I get back to blogging I'm going to do that. There's a lot to be angry about these days and I won't put any lipstick on the pig here.
Check out The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Editorial: Let's Play Politics" if you're curious about the sort of thing I'm hoping to do here.
1) I go visit some guys, some great guys, in a nursing home at least twice a week. Ii'd print up stuff that all of us in The Common Ills community did. And Vern, who just passed away, had told me that he really liked my stuff but he hated the way my site looked. He said maybe it looked different onscreen than on paper. But for Vern, I'm switching.
2) I tried to put links in my posts to make sure people knew where to go for Common Ills
community members but Mike explained to me that in terms of the things that measure online, those links didn't seem to count. One of the reasons I started this Big Mix was because I've gotten a lot from this community and I want to give back. Now I've got them all linked on the side of my site and you can go there or not but it's there and should count by the mechanical gods that measure that nonsense.
I'm leaving the other site up for now at least but I am putting new entries up here.
Until I started this entry, C.I. of The Common Ills was on the phone with me and big thanks for that because I don't know what to do with this blogging program. And thanks to Mike of Mikey Likes It! for advising me to have some links planned so I wasn't sitting there with C.I. on the phone trying to figure out what to link to.
I'll add other links at some point. Any Common Ills community member that starts a site can e-mail me at cedricsbigmix@yahoo.com and I'll put you on my blog roll.
What about me? I know the community members with sites will link to me other than that, hey I'm an African-American blogger in a white, white net world, I ain't expecting much. I've noticed, for instance, that Betty of Thomas Friedman Is A Great Man busts her butt on her stuff and it is amazing but she's not linked to outside the community with one or two exceptions. You got a lot of white kids who like play with white kids. I ain't looking to be bussed in.
Think it has nothing to do with racism or sexism then go read Betty's stuff. And her entire topic is Thomas Friedman who the left loves to criticize but somehow they just can't give it up for Betty and say, "Hey, here's a link."
It's an inbred, tight circle and they all do the reach around to stroke each other off. That goes for a certain blogger who I'll leave nameless out of respect for C.I., but Mike, Elaine and I have had it with her peeing all over the left. She just loves to be linked to but she's not giving it up for others. Elaine, while she was substituting for Rebecca at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, took her and others off Rebecca's blog roll. I think that was so cool. Rebecca will stand up for anyone. And her thanks just wasn't forth coming.
The Common Ills is the flagship of the community and C.I. doesn't have to worry about links because we're such a huge community that grows all the time. (Check out the profile views on the site if you don't believe it.) And, like Kat says, we'll do just fine with just the community members who like our stuff checking out our sites. But I still don't think it's right that Betty's ignored or Rebecca.
As for me, I don't have time for the echo chamber so it ain't going to make my eyes water when this site is ignored outside the community.
I'll be linking to some magazines when I have time but I hate going into the template already. I'd heard about that from the gang at The Third Estate Sunday Review especially and it is a pain. In my entries, I'll always try to link to the community and to Democracy Now! but otherwise, you might just have to go to the blog roll because I'm learning this program as I go along. When the UK Computer Gurus get back from vacation, I'll be pestering them like crazy.
If you're new to me, let me start by saying I'm like Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills). We both blog when we have something to say. If I don't have anything to say, my Mama always taught me to shut my mouth.
I like music and I like to talk about stuff that's happening. This Mix is supposed to be just that with stuff I find that I want to highlight (mainly from the community). I'm not sure how that will go because everyone's told me that when you copy and paste in this program you have a lot of work to do with spacing and stuff. At the old site, I just copied with the mouse, took it over to the site and pasted it and everything was just like it was from the site I was copying.
So if you want to hang, feel free. If you don't, that's cool. But Vern told me to speak my anger and as I get back to blogging I'm going to do that. There's a lot to be angry about these days and I won't put any lipstick on the pig here.
Check out The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Editorial: Let's Play Politics" if you're curious about the sort of thing I'm hoping to do here.
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