Saturday, March 18, 2006

Amy Goodman grills Gordon; Cockburn and Christian Parenti on RadioNation with Laura Flanders

kicks butt. Did you catch war pornographer on Democracy Now! Friday?

If you didn't, read "NYT: Can't own up to mistakes, be it the paper or Michael Gordon" to find out what you missed. In fact, read it even if you saw it so you can get what a disgusting creep Gordon is. One of the professional liars who helped the Bully Boy lie us into war can't own the blame he has coming his way. Or as C.I. wrote in what may be my favorite part of this epic entry:

Now? Now the little boy who cried wolf (more than once) wants to pin it all on big sis Judy. He wants to act as though it wasn't him, it was that older sister Judith Miller. Why, he played with Jimmy Risen and lots of other boys! He wasn't just spending all day inside playing WMD dress up with Judy. He was a tough boy.
Whatever he is, whatever he was, it wasn't a reporter.
And that needs to be remembered as he peddles excuses. It's no surprise that his book is nothing but war pornography as he attempts to sell American on more occupation, on better planned occupation. It's nothing but an excuse for an illegal war. And an endorsement for the continuation of it. (Excuse me, for the continuation of a "policy decision.") Not surprising. He's still making excuses for his own part in selling the "policy decision."
Little boy Gordon might want to consider borrowing a bit from an old Steve Martin routine and parroting "Excuse me." It wouldn't be convincing, but it would, at least, be a step in the right direction.

If you missed the creep trying to weasel out of his blame, and trying to insult Amy Goodman which only made him look like a worthless creep, listen or watch "New York Times Chief Military Correspondent Michael Gordon Defends Pre-War Reporting on WMDs."

In fact, that's probably the one thing I'd add to C.I.'s entry. I'd point out that when confronted, Gordon not only can't accept the blame, he lashes out to feel like the big man. He starts hurling insults at Amy Goodman like that's going to change the fact that he LIED and that his LIES helped lead America into war.

Amy Goodman was so cool. She didn't let him phase her. He was trying to be so insulting, waving his finger and talking down to her, telling her she wasn't informed and lecturing her about journalism. Amy Goodman didn't let it phase her.

I listen to Democracy Now! on the radio (KPFA) and usually hear it twice if I'm working on a project because I'm usually finishing my cereal when it comes on and if I'm in the dark room or the living room, I've usually got the radio on. But I caught this one three times because Maggie and Sumner went over to a friend's and we were telling her about it. Sumner's flipping channels and then says, "Look it here it is."

So I got to see Gordon wave his finger at Amy Goodman. I got to his greasy, bloated face. He looked like a wall-eyed salmon. I couldn't believe how repugnant he was physically. But some people look exactly like they behave and Michael Gordon is a greasy, shifty-eyed liar.

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffery St. Clair noticed it and they wrote about it:

Footnote: It looks as if the fire escape chosen by Bush to save him from those low thirties numbers is the old neocon refrain of the Iranian menace. This clashes with the official line of the pundit legions, which is that the neocons have been sent out to pasture and replaced in the corridors of power by "pragmatists". We even heard Michael Gordon of the New York Times and his co-author Bernard Trainor, while flacking their new history of the Iraq war on Amy Goodman, claim that the neocons were "on the outside" during the planning and execution of the Iraq war. That was before Goodman spoiled Gordon's day by bringing up all those WMD fantasy pieces he wrote with Judy Miller. Anyone who needs reminding on just how the neocons did it last time, the better to prepare for the next war, would do worse than keep by their hand the IHS Press compilation Neo-Conned Again, which kicks off with a contribution from your two CounterPunch editors.

Cockburn will be on:

RadioNation with Laura Flanders
Third Anniversary of the Iraq War
Three years after invading Iraq, DC Dems are running from censuring W. Even as Bush defends pre-emptive war and says Iran is next
.Saturdays & Sundays, 7-10pm ET on Air America Radio
Who says the left has no alternatives to war?
We talk to Alexander Cockburn who has no fear... and to the former director of the Peace Corps, and UNICEF President -- Carol Bellamy. Plus anti-war veterans call in from New Orleans; wounded Iraqi children describe their lives today. And Nation author Christian Parenti on why Europeans are doing a better job than the US in Afghanistan.
A one-hour version of last weekend's live broadcast from Montana is available at http://lauraflanders-com.c.topica.com/maaeBgxabo5GAbQccDue/
It's all on RadioNation with Laura Flanders this weekend on Air America Radio.

So make a point to listen (Saturday's show, if you hear it broadcast live, starts in mere minutes).












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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Help stop the Bully Boy's blood lust


The illustration is "The Year 2005: Bully Boy Exposed" by Isaiah.

Bully Boy's got the blood lust. If that's not obvious to you by now, ring-ring, clue phone, line one.

In my state, 240 residents have given their lives for Bully Boy's illegal war in Iraq. How many lives has your state given? You can check by state here.


The official count, take that for what it's worth, right now stands at 2311. That's the number for American troops who have died in Iraq, the official number. Which doesn't include those who were air lifted out and died elsewhere.



So we're coming up on the third anniversary of the invasion. Three years and no end in sight.
Bully Boy can't let go of his blood lust. He's like a vampire. But instead of feeding off his own brood, he wants to feed off the children of America. How long are we going to let him get away with that?

I think there's no excuse, after three years, to be on the fence about this illegal war. After three years, you should have an opinion and you should be able to share it.

There's really no excuse for not doing so.

If it weren't for the peace movement in the sixties and early seventies, we wouldn't have left Vietnam when we did. So with this weekend coming up, you can wonder what if, or you can get out there and participate.

One protest, one rally, won't end the war.

That's not the point. You have to demonstrate because it lets people know where you stand. It gives other people the courage to speak out. Each demonstration helps the cause a little more.
And if we come together for peace, the war will end sooner. If we continue to increase our numbers and continue to make our voices heard, we can put an end to the occupation.

Silence isn't an answer and it isn't an option.

Counting on big media? Oh get real -- and read "The war coverage (and lack of it)."

I believe I noted Mike's "Guantanamo, Spying and why it's important to get the word out" this weekend but I'll note it again because we need to get the word out. And we need to do in terms of END THE WAR BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW. We also need to do it in terms of our independent media. I listen on the radio to KPFA's Evening News and it never fails to inform me.

I think if you're a member of The Common Ills community, you know of Democracy Now! You should at any rate. But you need to be using that and finding other indpendent media as well and you need to be sharing it with your friends.

Big media failed us and it continues to fail us. I'll give you an example of one item I learned on tonight's KPFA Evening News: Bully Boy changed the rules. Again. This time on gays and lesbians in government being eligable for a security clearance. Under Bill Clinton it was stated that their sexual orientation couldn't be used against them. Now the rule is that it can't be the sole reason for denying a security clearance. Can't be the sole reason implies that it can be one reason and don't kid yourself otherwise.

Here's something else I learned, 87 bodies were found in Iraq. Some apparnetly were gagged, bound and tortured. There's another driving ban in Iraq.

What did you learn from your news provider this evening? A hold up, a mugging, a drive by?
Ever feel like TV news exists solely to scare the hell out of you? Doesn't seem to exist to provide you with anything that could inform you or help you make your life better, does it?

Hopefully, you have a news provider that provides you with real news. Be sure to get the word out on that. And get the word out that you are opposed to the occupation of Iraq. Bully Boy's tanking, there's no reason to be scared at this late date.

New Poll: 36% Approve Bush; 60% Say War is Going Badly
Bush made the announcement during a speech that launched a new public relations campaign to win greater support for the war in Iraq and his presidency. The latest USA Today/CNN poll shows the president's approval rating is at just 36 percent. And 60 percent of the country says the war in Iraq is going badly.

That's from Democracy Now! and here's another item, same source:

Mass Student Protests Continue In France
In France, student demonstrations are continuing throughout the country to protest a new employment law that will make it easier for companies to fire young workers. On Monday, hundreds of university students stormed the College de France in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Students hurled stones and cans at the police who responded with tear gas. Nearby the elite Sorbonne University remains closed. Over the weekend police raided the school to force out several hundred protesters who had taken over buildings. Sorbonne was the center of the May 1968 student uprising. Agence France Press reports student strikes are taking place at more than 40 universities across the country. More street demonstrations are planned for today.

The students in France make themselves heard (and then some). It's time for everyone opposed to the war to have the guts to say so. Publicly.

I was on the phone before I started this, on the phone with Rebecca. Make a point to check out Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude because she had a lot ot say on how Dems won't stand up for Russ Feingold. Also Betty has a new chapter entitled "First Among Fools." Check it out. Most important, use your voice, help stop the Bully Boy's blood lust.












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Saturday, March 11, 2006

Lois Lane on Laura Flanders, FBI Grills Professor, Octavia Butler ...

I asked C.I. on the phone today if I dreamed it or had there been a story on the KPFA's Evening News yesterday about a college professor being visited by the FBI? Yes, there was an in addition to listening to the archived broadcast, you can check out 's "FBI Grills Professor Over Support for Venezuela:"

A Pomona College professor who is an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Venezuela was questioned on March 7th by two agents from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in what he calls an act of intimidation.
The detectives visited Miguel Tinker-Salas during his office hours at about 2:40 or 2:45 pm Wednesday. They questioned him for about 20 minutes in his office at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. The detectives identified themselves but their names are being withheld at the request of the FBI.
According to Tinker-Salas, the agents told him they were interested in the Venezuelan community and concerned that it may be involved in terrorism. They asked him if he had relationships with the Venezuelan embassy or consulate, and if anyone in the Venezuelan government had asked him to speak out about Venezuela-related matters.
"They were fishing," says Tinker-Salas, "to intimidate and silence those who have a critical analysis of U.S. foreign policy."

is a democratically elected president and, last time I checked, we weren't at war with Venezuela. Exactly what is the doing questioning college professors to begin with, but, on top of that, questioning them about their statements regarding Chavez?

Apparently with Castro on up in the years, they need a new (undeclared) enemy and have settled on Chavez. While at , I saw an article on , who was one of Ty's favorite writers. So let me notes 's "The Genius and Courage of Octavia Butler:"

The first thing I thought when I heard of Octavia Butler's passing, just two weeks ago, is that her loss is insupportable. At fifty-eight years old and after having published in October her fourteenth book, Fledgling, Butler had many more thrilling tales of reason and self-consciousness in her and she was getting better and better at it. The loss of her knocked me down and, while writing these words in her memory, it's been hard to get up again.
In many ways, Fledgling was a new departure: a "vampire" book that had returned her to the supreme pleasures of storytelling. I was in the audience at a "lecture" she gave at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in November, a few weeks after Fledgling's release. There she admitted to everyone that writing Fledgling was fun, that she hadn't experienced this kind of joy in writing a novel for a very long time. In her most recent interviews, she was calling the new novel "light," yet this playful description was meant in direct comparison to her previous novels, which are utopian in the heaviest sense you can imagine.
I put "lecture" in quotation marks because all Butler wanted to do that night in New York was have conversation with the members of her audience. She refused to lecture. In their questions, many of her readers proved to be just as perspicacious as their writer-hero up there on stage lounging comfortably, as if this particular spot was for Butler no different than being at home in her reading chair. I remember thinking that these questions from the audience substantiate well the claim that every artist deserves the audience they end up getting.
This particular audience was simply brilliant, in a laid-back kind of way. It was a hard-earned cool, a self-ironic knowingness based on the fact that they have been reading, and rereading, books written not for the market or for a clique of like-minded people but rather for the genuine love of our abused humanity.

I see that Elaine's put up the announcement at her site () and I'm betting I've never noted it at mine, so let me put it out there here:

"Take Action: Demand Better Iraq War Coverage" (David DeGraw, MediaChannel.org):
Join United For Peace And Justice, MediaChannel.org and tens of thousands of Americans in calling on U.S. media outlets to do a better job of reporting on the war in Iraq and the anti-war movement protests against it.
As the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, the nationwide Peace & Justice movement is, for the first time, focusing protests on the Pro-War media slant that has made the war possible.With public opinion shifting from support for the war to calls for immediate withdrawal, the news media has an obligation to reflect on the role it has played in building a pro-war consensus with false and deceptive reporting. Many media organizations have published "mea-culpas" admitting "mistakes" and "flawed reporting," but the problem goes deeper and is ongoing.
The coverage remains one-sided and excludes anti-war voices from citizens and anti-war groups all over the world. We need real journalism, not jingoism.
It's Time to Make the US Media Accountable!
Click on the link below to send an email to U.S. media outlets now! Take Action: Demand Better Coverage

By the way, check out Elaine's "250 Doctors Condemn U.S. Treatment of Prisoners at Guantanamo" which is a sizeable read.

As I noted earlier today (at ) RadioNation with Laura Flanders, Saturdays & Sundays, 7-10pm ET on Air America Radio, has among other guests this weekend:

Saturday
The America is Purple tour continues in Montana. We visit Big Sky country to hear from Democrats who are in power and activists making a difference. From the Montana Democratic Party's annual Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner at the Civic Center Ballroom, 340 Neill Avenue, Helena, MT, we talk to JIM FARRELL, Montana Democratic Party executive director; political pioneer DOROTHY ECK; U.S. Senate candidate JON TESTER, Governor BRIAN SCHWEITZER, state Rep. KEVIN FUREY, an Iraq War vet, legislator and student; DAVID SIROTA, writer and co-chair of the Progressive Legislative Action Network and ANNA WHITING SORRELL, member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Northwestern Montana and Policy Advisor to the Governor.
Sunday
Going deeper into who and what made the difference in returning Democrats to power, we go to the Montana Human Rights Network (MHRN) and talk to: MHRN co-director and state Senator KEN TOOLE; MHRN co-director CHRISTINE KAUFFMAN; Montana Women Vote's TERRY KENDRICK; actress and activist, MARGOT KIDDER of MontanaWomenFor.org, state Rep. MARY CAFARRO and WEEL state welfare specialist; THERESA KEAVENY of Montana's League of Conservation Voters, and HELEN WALLER of the Northern Plains Resource Council. If you want to be part of our audience on Sunday, call the Montana Human Rights Network on 406 442 5506 for address details.

C.I. forwarded an e-mail from Ken who was excited that Margot Kidder was going to be on Laura's show but Ken wondered how I could have not mentioned his favorite MK movie?
directed by . I meant to mention it. I was on the phone with C.I. making sure it was okay to post my entry and adding a little to it while I waited, Ruth's Public Radio Report got caught in posting hell and took forty minutes to finish publishing, and just talking on the phone about different things. When C.I. said, "Go ahead and post it, this isn't ever going to stop publishing," I went ahead and posted, having forgotten to mention Sisters. It's a favorite of mine. De Palma's seventies films are my favorites. Of his. is when he starts to lose me. I like the film and love in it but that's the beginning of my enjoying parts of his films. By , I'm pretty much off the reservation -- brought the only entertainment to the film, in my opinion.

Now check out Betty's "Club Membership: One" () and Mike's "Guantanamo, Spying and why it's important to get the word out " (). And check out all of Wally's The Daily Jot this week. They're brief and they're hilarious. And check out Ruth's report because I loved it. Ruth catches CounterSpin on WBAI , but I listen to it on KPFA and when Eric Deggans was going on about the poor mainstream media needing some big named politicians speaking out before they could cover issues like race and class, I thought, "You are on the wrong program and the wrong network." He really did excuse away the lack of coverage. It's the media's job to cover the issues. If the mainstream media wants to ignore the issues and hide behind the excuse of "no politician is speaking out!" that's their excuse and they can try to defend their failure to do their job but a supposed media critic (which is what Deggans fancies himself) shouldn't make excuses for the (it's really hard to get stories on race and class across on TV, etc.).

And speaking of women with common sense and strong voices (Ruth, Laura), check out 's "Enough of the D.C. Dems:"

Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.
I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues where you reach out to the other side and try to split the difference. You want to talk about lowering abortion rates through cooperation on sex education and contraception, fine, but don’t jack with stuff that is pure rightwing firewater.
I can’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can’t even see straight.

By the way, Rebecca thinks Russ Feingold is sexy. I say that not to embarass Rebecca, he may be sexy, but because everywhere I go lately some friend stops me about a piece at The Third Estate Sunday Review, I don't remember which one, I barely remember us writing it, that had something about Russ Feingold like "with your bad, sexy self" and wanting to know if I think he's sexy? A lot of women are telling me that they do. I've never really thought about it and don't generally find any politician sexy, but I keep explaining it so let me put it up here to clear things up.


















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