 Alternative to Right Wing Media: LIVE! from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am Monday-Friday, The Sunshine Tony Wong Show, featuring the Lyin' of the Left aka Uncle Bernie Ward, followed by Ray Taliaferro, from 1:00 to 5:00 am.  KGO - San Francisco |
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27JUN2003 MORON GOD SPEAKING TO BUSH - Update  
Ed. note: In
Hearing voices, smiting enemies Tom Engelhardt, not especially known for his Beltway homor
says, "He (Bush) hears a Voice and smites enemies" and weaves this outrageous story into some "voices"
heard by Judith Miller (the "reporter" for the New York Times, who turns out to have made more news
than
she bothered to misreport); that includes the Pentagon's very own Ahmed Chalabi voice - admittedly not as
serious as the Burning Bush problem but these two stories up together cause us to wonder, can we trust
the voices we hear anymore? OR Do you what I hear? [MORE]
JERRY JOINS BEN IN ENDORSING KUCINICH Some background on a RollCall Heard on the Hill story that didn't quite make it to press. HOH was trying hard to keep up with Ben Cohen's rapid-fire musings about how he's no big fan of presidential candidate Howard Dean, the former governor of his own home state, or potential future candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton* (D-N.Y.). But then the conversation got more interesting when Cohen was asked who his fellow co-founder in the Vermont ice cream business, Jerry Greenfield, will endorse in the presidential race. "Hang on a second," Cohen said. He put down his cellphone and could be heard shouting across the room, "Hey Jerry, it's Roll Call! They want to know who you're supporting in the presidential race!" After a moment, Cohen returned to the phone. "Kucinich," he said gleefully, revealing his longtime pal's choice... Cohen said Kucinich has the best handle on budget priorities by putting education and health care above Pentagon spending. *We like Dennis and Kerry, and Ben and Jerry, but we also like Draft Hillary 2004. MOVES TO WIDEN INTELLIGENCE PROBE DEFEATED The Kucinich Amendment seeking an audit of pre-war communications between the CIA and Vice President Cheney came up for a vote this morning. With the Intelligence Committee shielding the White House from a full investigation, the bill went down to defeat. Kucinich introduced the amendment after a Washington Post article reported that CIA analysts felt pressured by Cheney to cook their intelligence on Iraq to help the war mobilization. "There are many unanswered questions about the erroneous assertions made by this Administration," asserted Kucinich. "It is now clear that an Independent Commission is needed." [MORE - Washington Post] QUAGMIRE: The Truth About Today's Iraq By Carl F. Worden Ed. note Carl's article is right on! and even though we didn't have much luck in stopping the war before it started, it is also possible that the loss of a soldier-a-day won't get their attention either. The dollar cost might. They're figuring it in the billions per year for 5 or 10 years depending on who you're listening to; Rumsfeld or Biden. I'd like to see all of our troops home by Christmas. [To Carl's Article] Also, three overnight news items that are big stories in the straight media. Comical Ali Resurfaces, the tale of a fellow who says he only said what they told him to say. No harm done. We got a few laughs. Unlike Ari Fleischer who only said what they told him to say, and no one laughed when a whole bunch of people from Afganistan to Iraq and back wound up dead. Which leads into the lifelong racist and bigot Stom Thurmond having died. None too soon for Trott Lent. At least old Strom took Lott down. Not justification enough for an American flag to be flown at half-mast. And then there's the matter of the Supreme Court decision legalizing hetero and homeo sodomy, and apparently oral sex as well in Texas, and now throughout the rest of the U.S. It was an easy enough decision for the court. What? they were going to outlaw a variation of the kind of hosing that the American people are getting every day by a Texan who became President? Justice is a strange bird. It has caused the usual homophobes and racists and bigots to make ridiculous and typically white southerner statements in the accent of the devil's mother to boot - all except Strom; proving the old adage that only the good die young. 26JUN2003 U.S. (Oil) Coup in Venezuela or War on Drugs - Update Ed. note: In today's Danny News Dissector Schechter column, he sez the Committee to Protect Journalists sez, Billy Nesson, the US journalist has been freed in Acheh. In today's mail from politech we learned in The Road to Oceania by William Gibson that 1984 was actually 1948. Now they tell us! If you like the U.S. (Oil) Coup in Venezuela or War on Drugs Update, you'll love Skippy, the evil twin and The Great Satan snuggling up with the so-called "hypocrites" of the Islamic Republic (of Iran) - if you can tell the difference anymore between the Mujahideen al-Qalk (MKO) and the "establishment" mullahs. Exiled Dissidents To Confront Iran's Clergy is an article by Syed Saleem Shahzad, and carried by Asia Times Online and Globalvision News Network. To make heads or tails out of this non-story story is to understand that this piece of the puzzle is about the pre-prep-parations of the U.S. attempt to un-do the 1979 Islamic Revolution; i.e., to regain control of the Iranian oil fields. As we have seen in Afghanistan, Iraq and the U.S., the White House and the American oil companies don't give a damn about democracy or the liberation of the local citizenry from tyrants - and going back to do business with the MKO is like how the U.S. went about doing business with Usama bin Laden during the former Soviet Union days of occupation in Afghanistan. Think about it. In the very first days of the 911 story unfolding, it was learned that bin Laden was CIA-trained. Now the US-CIA is sleeping with the MKO? Do any of these MKOs know how to fly planes into the future? What makes the US-CIA or the White House think MKO isn't just as interested in Iranian oil as they are? [MORE] In Bush We Trust? By John Moyers TomPaine.com George W. Bush is a liar. There, I said it - the "L" word. Someone in Washington had to. [MORE] Protestors Are Not Terrorists By Bill Berkowitz - WorkingForChange.com Under the guise of President Bush's all-consuming, yet amorphous, war against terrorism, police agencies across the country are spying and compiling dossiers on citizens exercising their constitutional rights. [MORE] From ICH: Exaggeration: overestimate, overstate, hyperbolize, enlarge on, distort, expand, magnify, misquote and overdraw By William Bowles The farce of an "investigation" into the "rush to war" continues in the UK as does the media's complicity in presenting the reasons entirely divorced from context and history. [MORE] Veteran neo-con advisor moves on Iran By Jim Lobe Iraq was only the beginning of the broader struggle against the "terror masters". "As soon as we land in Iraq, we're going to face the whole terrorist network," he told an interviewer in March. "Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia are the big four." Ed. note: Very simply, the War on Islam is only about two things; Oil and Israel - at U.S. taxpayer expense. [MORE] ON/OFF SUBJECT - Another good reason to have U.S. Troops Home by Christmas: "There is a commonly recognized perception that we are unwelcome, so there is no point." [MORE] "Pay no attention to the hypocrites, Neo!" Egypt has banned The Matrix Reloaded because it raises troubling questions about reality, creation, free-will and theological issues presumably settled by the Koran. Artists and intellectuals are indignant. [MORE - Geopolitics as a House of Cards by Tom Engelhardt] New Poster Boy for neo-Fascist Republicans: Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor is the latest extremist candidate nominated by the Bush Administration for a federal judgeship. An appointee to the US Court of Appeals, Pryor has called Roe v. Wade "the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history." He's compared homosexuality to necrophilia and incest. He's argued that "the challenge of the next millennium will be to preserve the American experiment by restoring its Christian perspective." See the ActNow weblog for groups fighting Pryor's nomination. [MORE] Denial. Denial. Denial. Okay, you know the drill. Anti-Semitism misses the point altogether. In an article by Justin Raimondo, one of the usually reliable anti-war suspects, there was no mention of Zion, Zionists or Zionism. Rhetorically speaking, and in defense of "valid criticism of Israel" being valid criticism of Israel without being anti-Semitic, how can there be a discussion of anti-Semitism or Jews or Israel without some mention of Zion, Zionists or Zionism - and expect to move the process along? Not even the peacniks have stomach enough to live with the inevitable consequences of the sustained Zionist unfairness as the status quo. And what would a discussion of anti-Semitism be without mentioning Daniel Pipes, who, for the record, is an "Islamophobe" and an anti-Muslim bigot whose ignorance about Islam is matched only by his hostility toward it. Daniel Pipes has a problem - his obsessive hatred of all things Muslim. Pipes is to Muslims what David Duke is to African-Americans. [MORE LATER, no doubt] Best leads from AlterNet: THE ART OF WAR Curt Holman, Creative Loafing (Charlotte) If you look to the arts to find meaningingful responses to Sept. 11, you'll find mostly superficial attempts -- if any. A SHOT IN THE ARM FOR RACIAL EQUITY Tim Wise, AlterNet Although something of a mixed bag for supporters of affirmative action, the Supreme Court's ruling is a victory within the current political climate. http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16252 HUGO CHAVEZ IS CRAZY! Greg Palast, AlterNet Well, actually, he's not. How the American media distorted events in Venezuela beyond all recognition is clear to one who reported from there. Also see U.S. (Oil) Coup in Venezuela or War on Drugs - Update. BUSH LEAGUE FUNDRAISING Micah L. Sifry, AlterNet Market Democracy: It's payback time for the wealthy and corporate interests who have reaped huge royalties for their support of the president. POST-WAR IRAQ: QUAGMIRE OR MASTER PLAN? Jim Lobe, AlterNet The increasingly disastrous situation in Iraq may be a result of neoconservative hubris or, more ominously, part of a master plan. A DECISION FULL OF HOLES Clinton D. Fein, AlterNet A new Supreme Court ruling on internet pornography hurts those it is supposed to help. *In Rights&Liberties AN ALTERNATIVE TO EMPIRE John Feffer and Miriam Pemberton, AlterNet An effective U.S. foreign policy would be literally compassionate and conservative -- two words George Bush and his posse of neocons know little about. WHAT IS THE INTERNET? Annalee Newitz, AlterNet Microsoft is striking yet again to undermine the credibility of Linux, a free, open source operating system that Microsoft considers one of the greatest threats to its empire. HUSSEIN 0, DEMOCRACY 0 Robert Scheer, AlterNet The Republicans now want us to believe that any distortions of the truth should have been forgotten once we took Baghdad. Finally, as slow news days go, Following Ari's Footsteps, a tompaine.com article by Richard Blow suggests that reporters assigned to the White House could do well to follow suit, and start covering real administration news. Richard Blow is the former executive editor of George Magazine. He is author of American Son: A Portrait of John F. Kennedy, Jr. 25JUN2003 GOD TOLD BUSH TO DO THIS AND THAT? Ed. note: Besides lying about his justification for war, and lies that are costing American lives every day, George W Bush is off his rocker! Besides being a liar, he's a blasphemer. God didn't tell him to run for office, only to then require him to steal the election in order to take office. God didn't tell him to get Usama bin Laden and al-Qaida, only to have Usama get away clean. God didn't tell Bush to get Saddam, only to have Saddam get away too - unless God is intentionally making a fool out of Bush. What kind of a god would do that? For that matter, by chance, is the god that is speaking to Bush the same god as haunts the pages of the King James Version (KJV)? According to Ha'aretz, "Abbas said that at Aqaba, Bush promised to speak with Sharon about the siege on Arafat. He said nobody can speak to or pressure Sharon except the Americans... (and then), according to Abbas, immediately thereafter Bush said: "God told me to strike at al Qaida and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." [MORE] Which reminds me... Today is the last day to vote in the MoveOn.org online Demo Primary. From the MoveOn site, readers can get a rundown on all of the candidates. As I have written elsewhere, Kucinich is number one on our editorial wish list. Kerry is ok. Too bad Al Sharpton isn't a "nice (more white-like) negro" like Colin Powell because in truth Al is the cleverest of the whole pack but there's just no way in this day and age, when the country is so racist that he could ever, ever, ever be elected. I only hope he can get enough white and black votes to scare the white demo majority into adopting some of his fire and wisdom into the Democrat platform, and cause his ideas to be implemented when a Democrat takes the Presidency in 2004. I can't imagine any Republicans except the 30,000,000 mostly bigot and racist KJV'ers voting for Bush after the God-speaking-to-him episode. Kinda reminds me of the time that (likely) the same KJV god told V evangelist Oral Roberts that if he didn't scare up a bunch of money from the flock, "God will kill me!" From an editor point of view, I can't even imagine the non-nominally professing Christians voting for a liar, particularly after the right wing religionists made such a big deal out of Bill Clinton lying about a blow job - that, by the way didn't cost the lives of any American soldiers, or Afghani or Iraqi or anyone. 24JUN2003 TEXAS IS AMERICA'S TAKRIT Ed. note: Two and a half items today from the Danny "News Dissector" Schechter column for your consideration. Please consider these "action items", and also do what you can to help market Danny's new e-book EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION. After you've purchased a copy for yourself, ask your local library to get one. The Siuslaw Public Library in Florence already has a copy of Counting on Democracy (the movie). In all likelyhood, by the end of the week, they'll also have a nice crisp copy of Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror. If you have any two-edged ideas about marketing these publications and the ideas behind them, communicate! Schechter Item 1: Ashcroft's Plea to the Press. The New York Times reports: "Attorney General John Ashcroft called on the press and television today to dispel fears about the sweeping antiterrorism law known as the U.S.A. Patriot Act, which was enacted after the attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "Addressing two dozen editors, publishers, television executives and others, Mr. Ashcroft said, "We need the help of the news industry, the fourth estate, to inform citizens about the constitutional tools and methods being used in the war against terror. We need the media's help, for instance, in portraying accurately the U.S.A. Patriot Act." [MORE] Schechter Item 2: ZNET Is appealing for letters to Indonesian authorities to protect American journalist Billy Nessen in Aceh province. "Billy is a freelance journalist who has been reporting on the burgeoning independence movement in Aceh. Now he is trying to leave the war zone and is being prevented from doing so by the Indonesian government soldiers. It is essential that people please send faxes to the Indonesian government and to the US Ambassador to Indonesia. [MORE] Iran, satellite TVs at war of frequencies By Fereshteh Modarresi Tehran fighting Persian-language satellite TVs with microwave noise frequencies putting Iranians' health at risk. The Americans may not yet be landing on the beaches, but Tehran's entertainment woes appear to be the result of a very real war for the hearts and minds of the Iranian public. On one side are the Islamic Republic's overseas-based detractors, and some 10 foreign Persian-language channels beaming in broadcasts aimed at making Iranians who own dishes dance away to music deemed to be decadent and question the ruling clerics. Causing particular irritation is the Los Angeles-based National Iranian Television (NITV) with its campaign to convince Iranians - many of whom are too young to know any different - that life under the late shah, ousted in 1979, was much better. Ed. note: Also see the 20JUN2003 entry THE BURNT GENERATION by Koorosh Afshar. And on the ground here fighting them are state bodies, who according to numerous press reports have established a string of hi-tech jamming facilities positioned in and around the sprawling Iranian capital, all designed to counter what the powers-that-be see as a "cultural invasion." [MORE - MiddleEast Online] ON/OFF SUBJECT: On a political note to speak of since Dennis Kucinich, John Kerry and Howard Dean seem to be leading the demo pack of Presidential candidates, here's some food for thought and my humble opinion. I don't have any problem with Kerry. Kucinich is the most right on if not the most electable. Dean is certainly electable but his loyalties are divided between the Pentagon and the peaceniks. No joke!!MoveOn.org is also providing an "action" item starting point: to VOTE in the online Primary. Check it out. Still on point: Rumsfeld says 10 years, Biden says only five more years in Iraq. How about we bring home the troops by Christmas and instead put that projected annual military budget of $54 billion - $1.5 billion a month for Afghanistan, $3 billion a month for Iraq into our own economy by investing in jobs, education and the implementation of (Draft) Hillary (2004) health care? [MORE - Geopolitics as a House of Cards by Tom Engelhardt] 23JUN2003 TERROR AND LIBERALISM by Paul Berman 
Ed. note: All last week we talked about Danny Schechter's new e-book EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION. Without a
free press, we're dead in the water.
Danny settles the matter once and for all as to what's what about our free press caving into the almighty
spirit of psychosis and dumbing-down to the lowest common (Fox) denominator. Danny has stated the case
against the Bush administration for lying, and for the media publishing the White House/Pentagon lies as news.
Danny has done the American people a great service. Now it's up to us to become well enough versed in the charges
against Bush, Fox and (most of the rest of the) straight media to boycott whenever and however possible,
and to rally behind those who have made it their mission to remove Bush and his neo-Fascist regime from
the Washington and world scene. These people, and the Fox psychofants are truly dangerous people; no different
than Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Pinochet, the Shah of Iran, and Syria and Iraq's former Baathist
leaders Hafez al-Assad and Saddam Hussein. Speaking of "killing his own people", Hafez al-Assad crushed
a mostly Shi'ah rebellion in Syria, by killing 25,000 people, in much the same way the U.S. killed off
2,500 followers of Manuel Noriega shortly before his capture (as ordered by George HW Bush).
Yesterday on C-SPAN's Booknotes program, Brian Lamb interviewed Paul Berman, the author of a new book titled Terror and Liberalism, who came to our attention on about March 25 (Day 5 of the Iraq War), as a result of a New York Times article The Philosophy of Islamic Terror. I editorialized some initial responses to Berman's Times article, and today I got a somewhat different view of Berman than I got from the Times article. Thank God for C-SPAN! No less dangerous, but unlike Dan Pipes, who hates Muslims professionally, Paul Berman is a scared rabbit who out of sheer fear will fuel the flames of what is likely to be one hell of a war over the next 100 or 200 years - between Islam and the west. I should say "wests" because the Christians have one and the Jews have one, and both even against each other, together and separately they are waging a war against Islam that started forever ago, but with the advent of the Crusades, the Inquisition, the formation of an Israeli (Zionist) state in Palestine, the (1979 - 52 hostages for 444 days) Islamic Revolution, 911, and the years more U.S. war in Iraq, the tit-for-tat goes on. In this most recent round that features Usama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda followers, Paul Berman indicates that the driving force behind the Usamas of this world is Sayyid Qutb, an Islamic scholar who was deemed dangerous by the Egyptian government. In 1966 they executed him. After reading The Philosophy of Islamic Terror, I commented and quoted Berman's interpretations of the Sayyid Qutb writings, where Berman gives us the kind of insight to what 911 was really about, and if we are to have a clue as to what lies ahead for those whose best hope is that every person might be free from servitude to others. Berman, who for reasons having more to do with the survival of Israel (the real estate, not "O'Israel my [chosen] people"), supported the Bush militarism in Iraq while disagreeing with the Bush war aftermath chess-playing, wrote: "Were it given the chance to strike up an alliance with Saddam Hussein's Baath movement, (Al-Qaeda) would be doubly terrifying..." Never mind that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" maxim doesn't apply in the same way Stalin took help from USUK to defeat Fascism, which then finally in the days or Gorby backfired. Neither would Al-Qaeda utilize "brownshirts" and then use their ss-equiv to kill them after their dirty work was done. Al-Qaeda would kill them off first, as in the Pauline (Christian) admonition that one part leaven, leveneth the whole loaf. Look at the USSR again. "The true Islamic system as interpreted by Sayyid Qutb meant the complete and true freedom of every person and the full dignity of every individual of the society. On the other hand, in a society in which some people are lords who legislate and some others are slaves who obey, then there is no freedom in the real sense, nor dignity for each and every individual. Sayyid Qutb insisted that shariah meant freedom of conscience. Though freedom of conscience, in the Qutb interpretation, meant freedom from false doctrines that failed to recognize God, and freedom from the disease of (modern) schizophrenia. Shariah, in a word, was utopia for Sayyid Qutb." While imprisoned, Sayyid Qutb wrote: "To live 'in the shade of the Qur'an' is a great blessing which can only be fully appreciated by those who experience it. It is a rich experience that gives meaning to life and makes it worth living. I am deeply thankful to God Almighty for blessing me with this uplifting experience for a considerable time, which was the happiest and most fruitful period of my life - a privilege for which I am eternally grateful." In explaining Sayyid Qutb thought (and writings), Paul Berman thoroughly explains the ins and outs of 911 and beyond... The first Qur'an I ever read was translated by George Sale, whose great-great-great-etc grandfather was killed by the Muslims during the Crusades. He hated Islam and Muslims, and his interpretation or translation of "Al-Koran" was brutal, not brutally accurate but brutal as hell! No matter George Sale's hatred, he could not keep the Qur'anic "message" from coming through. To some extent, no matter Berman's personal fear quotient, we can trust his interpretation of Qutb's work because he thinks by making it as accurate as possible, westerners will take his own personally schizo agenda and "message" more seriously. That, because Berman doesn't know what Sayyid Qutb is saying, even though Berman is bringing the Qutb "message" to us. Unlike Dan Pipes who is blinded by his Zionist-driven hatred toward Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, Berman is blinded by his justifiably Jewish fear of both KJV and Pauline-type Christians, and Muslims, particularly of the anti-Zionist stripe, but Berman's unfounded fear and paranoia goes beyond the Palestinian problem, conveniently forgetting the responsibility Muslims have to protect Christians and Jews from any harm IF they pay the zakat. Just as when Ted Koppel and Nightline brought us the words of Imam Khomeini, the ABC "news" producers let them through because they thought the American people would be outraged. That too backfired. Among the "52" were CIA spies, who trained the Shah's murderous SAVAK. We learned about the 1952 CIA overthrow of Iran's elected government. We learned about the true aspirations of the Iranian people, and how badly they'd been treated by the Shah and the US-CIA. Did that justify the "444" days? Would there have been 444 days had there not been an Iran/Contra episode? If the "52" had been released before the election instead of on the very day Reagan took office, would Reagan or Carter have been inaugurated? As soon as I can get a copy of Berman's book, I'll review it here. But while we're waiting, consider this: By the Sayyid Qutb measure of Islam (as a two-edged sword), the kufr (interpreted as the "infidel"), isn't deemed candidate for demise because they're Jews or Christians (as Berman and Dan Pipes would lead us to believe), but because some Jews and some Christians (and some Muslims) are ungrateful. A subtle difference but the difference between night and day; the difference between life and death - any recovering alcoholic who doesn't drink anymore knows that - without being a scholar of anything. 20JUN2003 THE BURNT GENERATION by Koorosh Afshar Ed. note: The U.S. has a role in the future of Iran - to keep the hell out!! Since the 52 hostages were held for 444 days, I've been following the Imam and his Islamic Revolution. Until that 1979 day, none in the history of the United States had ever stood up against the United States. Imam Khomeini and his "students" forever changed the world, and had reversed the CIA's 1952 overthrow of a democratically elected government, where after they put in the "puppet" Shah to run their government and their oil. In the CIA coup, the US even managed to knock British oil interests out of the box. It should also be noted that the CIA-trained SAVAK tortured and murdered so many thousands of ordinary Iranian citizens during the Shah's rule that not a single family did not have a loved one at one time or another imprisoned or worse. In today's tompaine.com newsletter they sent a great article written by an Iranian (Persian) youngster; born at about the time of the Islamic Revolution. From this side of the pond, I'm not going to criticize the younger generation, and how they go about the implementation of their vision for their future. I just want to say that at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, Rafsanjani was a hero. Today he is a scoundral. As is often the case, just as we have seen in under the Zionists, the oppressed became the oppressor. Besides Rafsanjani and most of the mullahs being oppressive, most are outright crooks and are a shame to what the Islamic Revolution ever could have been. At the beginning of the Revolution there really was a free press in the Islamic Republic. Kiss that one good-bye. At the beginning of the Revolution, there was a great promise that was stolen away from the mothers and fathers and uncles and aunties (of the children today, now half grown) who fulfilled a dream that had begun with the religious clerics and teachers of the Imam, in 1905. There is a great history about how the Iranian people got from "here to here" and in the backlash of Rafsanjani and his crowd stealing the Revolution away, the people may throw the baby (Revolution) out along with the mullahs. That would be a shame. Imam khomeini would roll over his Beethoven if he knew. But how much more anguished he would be if he'd known his compatriots in arms (at the time) had so betrayed the Revolution, and even the same future generations whose voices we are now hearing, so listen well... "It is the dream that made America America." [MORE] 19JUN2003 EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION by Danny Schechter "If Congress were true to the principles of democracy it would be the people's lobby." -- Tom Johnson "What a radical contrast to the House of Representatives today!" -- Bill Moyers 
Ed. note: What do we have in the way of a "radical contrast" to what has become a press (media)
and journalists who have forgotten altogether what a free press ever was or might have been?
In today's mail, tomdispatch brought us Lies of the prewar era and other tales of our time, wherein with the help of Eric Umansky and referencing the Washington Post's page 1 rethink by Dana Priest, William Booth, and Susan Schmidt ( A Broken Body, a Broken Story, Pieced Together), hedux (theydux) a redux of the Jessica Lynch story (or fib) that is likely to be on a TV near you as a mini-series. Laura Croft might play the role of Jessica Lynch. As seriously as a good night's sleep can be, the Iraq war had my full-time attention for forty days and forty nights. I didn't miss much. In reading Danny Schechter's new e-book EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION - not to be confused with PR Watch's fine book with a similar name that focuses on propaganda, whereas Danny has "dissected" the war through media coverage generally and the media cover-up as cosmetic roll-over to the (civilian and military) Pentagon(s)' canned version of the story - one quickly realizes Danny got even less sleep and didn't miss anything. The Jessica Lynch story was fresh in my mind this morning as I was up 'til 3 ayem taking a trip down memory lane with Danny's 225 page EMBEDDED which arrived in yesterday's e-mail as an Acrobat download (available now from MediaChannel.org). Danny wrote some about the Jessica Lynch story, still unfolding, and how (and why) for example ABC, CBS, CNN, MS-NBC and NBC could cookie-cutter what was reported and distorted in such a uniform manner. Talk about redundancy!! By contrast, Fox became the shameless media whore for the Bush administration's war machine. The rest of the networks followed suit, but it's only that the war ended when it did that saved Fox's competitors from becoming Fox clones altogether. Even though 70% of Americans believe the outright lies of the Bush administration and the Pentagon's version of the Iraq war story, Danny's EMBEDDED is the lynch-pin and anchor for while it is still fresh in our memory what it is and how we might never allow such a caving-in of the media to ever happen again. I say again: Danny didn't miss anything. In chronological order, from last (the mobile chemical weapons labs) to the Iraq war's version of the Tonkin Gulf incident, he has dispelled every lie. When the Bush administration and the media go on trial, Danny's EMBEDDED shall rightly be Exhibit A from which the list of charges is derived and nailed to their door. The only things missing from this e-book version is footnote references (however his sources are noted throughout the text), and an easy "index" which would be wholly practical for this e-book format. In a recent note, Danny said he was looking for a publisher to print a paperback version - for easier nailing onto the White House door. ON/OFF SUBJECT: At the end of today's tomdispatch, is a link to Bill Moyers' recent speech, wherein he speaks of how we got from here to here regarding freedom, speech, press, democratic institutions and some of his experiences over the years, and some of the personalities along the way who helped shape Moyer's version of journalism experientially. Moyers spoke about Tom Johnson, who was a progressive mayor of Cleveland in the early nineteen hundreds. Moyers said, "Tom Johnson was a businessman converted to social activism. His major battles were to impose regulation, or even municipal takeover, on the private companies that were meant to provide affordable public transportation and utilities but in fact crushed competitors, overcharged customers, secured franchises and licenses for a song, and paid virtually nothing in taxes - all through their pocketbook control of lawmakers and judges. Johnson's argument for public ownership was simple: "If you don't own them, they will own you. It's why advocates of Clean Elections today argue that if anybody's going to buy Congress, it should be the people." When advised that businessmen got their way in Washington because they had lobbies and consumers had none, Tom Johnson responded: "If Congress were true to the principles of democracy it would be the people's lobby." What a radical contrast to the House of Representatives today!" For the sake of keeping this horrific incident in our American history fresh in our memory; both what the Bush administration did in taking the whole country to war against Iraq (for purely personal reasons and financial gain for their friends), and what the media did and didn't do to be truthful and factual about what really happened on the ground and as a result of "embedding" the reporters with the troops, what happened at the editors' collective desk, with Danny's EMBEDDED, we've got a "radical contrast" starting point, speaking of what a free press ever was or might ever be again. 18JUN2003 Got news? Ed. note: I've got news for you! Nothing is new!! The (Bush administration) government is still lying to us every day on all that matters. Iraq. WMD. Iran. Taxes. Drugs (the war on, and prescriptions). Oh, and we're losing one American a day in Iraq, where we had no business being there in the first place. See WMDs again; that even if Saddam had them, they were NOT EVER a threat to USUK anyhow. Israel might have been threatened, but the fourth most well-equipped military on earth didn't need the likes of the US to cover their Zionist and trouble-making asses. How about the "oil" arguement? Never mind. At least Martha Stewart is in the news again. Editorially speaking, Martha is an ex-stock broker, so she knew the rules. If it is proven that she's broken the rules she should go to jail. We don't overlook the fact that the powers that be, mostly white, mostly men, and mostly bullies don't like her, while her (legal) defenders don't have the clout to keep her outa jail... In the spirit of kickin'em when they're down, a picture is worth a thousand words. We have three new ones!!  Were still on the MediaChannel.org bandwagon. They moved to new digs, along with Globalvision. Phones, emails and faxes remain the same. They're cutting costs and continuing on with urgent fundraising efforts. PayPal is on their front page to help readers make tax-deductible donations via credit card. Readers can also communicate directly by making checks payable to The MediaChannel/The Global Center at 575 8th Avenue. You can ee'em direct at: giving@mediachannel.org. Danny Schechter's new e-book on the Iraq war coverage, " Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception" is helping in MediaChannel.org's fundraising effort (see June 16 entry - below). Two new blurbs to speak of: Author/linguist/activist Noam Chomsky... "In this compelling inquiry, Danny Schechter vividly captures two wars: the one observed by embedded journalists and some who chose not to follow that path, and the "carefully planned, tightly controlled and brilliantly executed media war that was fought alongside it," a war that was scarcely covered or explained, he rightly reminds us. That crucial failure is addressed with great skill and insight in this careful and comprehensive study, which teaches lessons we ignore at our peril." Investigative journalist Greg Palast, author of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" says: "Once again, Danny Schechter, has the goods on the Powers Da Be. This time, he's caught America's press puppies in delecto, "embed" with the Pentagon. Schechter tells the tawdry tale of the affair between officialdom and the news boys - who, instead of covering the war, covered it up. How was it that in the reporting on the 'liberation' of the people of Iraq, we saw the liberatees only the gunhole of a moving Abrams tank? Schechter explains this later, lubricious twist, in the creation of the frightening new Military-Entertainment Complex." As for overnight news... Bush insider cahootsing with Kerry. In case no one noticed, this "story" is unfolding with more twists and turns than a Tom Clancy novel. Stay tuned! Also see: Former Bush intelligence insider assails counterterrorism tactics By Laura Blumenfeld - Washington Post 17JUN2003 Phuck Faux! In no small measure, thanks to Faux and the like of Bill O'Reilly, 70% of the American people believe lies to be true and don't care. For the 30% of us who don't believe what the media is puking out, we don't hafta support the corportions who pay the wages of sin. Huh? We don't hafta purchase products and services from the corporations that pay for the lies our fellow citizens believe. There are fewer than 100 coporations that sponsor the news broadcasts of Faux, ABC, CBS, CNN, MS-NBC and NBC. Can 30% of us make a difference? [To be continued] ON/OFF SUBJECT: Belgian "Boycott Bush" Campaign Closes U.S. Oil Stations Mother (earth) Knows Best Arms companies - are also involved in producing household goods General Electric (Hotpoint, and other appliances) Boeing Oil The links between the oil companies and the war on Iraq ExxonMobil/Esso ChevronTexaco Car companies and Airlines - Driving the oil economy Ford, General Motors, Daimler Chrysler American Airlines, Northwest Airlines Symbols of US Imperialism - The most obvious targets... Altria (Philip Morris, Kraft) Pepsico (Pepsi, Starbucks) Coca-Cola McDonalds Walt Disney Pfizer (Pharmaceuticals) Microsoft The Dirtiest Dozen Corporations - Partners in Mass Destruction Alliant Bechtel Inc. Boeing British Aerospace Electronics (BAE Systems) British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) General Dynamics IBM Lockheed Martin Mitsubishi Raytheon Siemens TRW University of California Bush Donors MBNA $3.0m Philip Morris $2.9m Microsoft $2.4m AT&T $2.4m UPS $2.3m Bristol Myers Squibb $2.1m Verizon $2.0m Pfizer $1.9m SBC $1.9m Enron $1.8m Citigroup $1.8m Federal Express $1.7m Time Warner/AOL $1.6m Credit Suisse $1.6m Ernst & Young $1.5m UST $1.5m Morgan Stanley Dean Witter $1.5m Lockheed Martin $1.5m Union Pacific $1.5m Freddie Mac $1.4m Bell South $1.4m Glaxo Wellcome $1.3m Amway $1.3m Price W'house Coopers $1.3m Deloite & Touche $1.3m Eli Lily $1.3m Goldman Sachs $1.2m Anderson W'wide $1.2m Merrill Lynch $1.2m Exxon Mobil $1.2m WorldCom Inc $1.2m Lehman Brothers $1.1m International Paper $1.1m General Electric $1.1m Global Crossing $1.1m MGM Mirage $1.1m Koch $1.0m Aflac $1.0m Paine Webber $1.0m American $1.0m Financial Gp Boeing $1.0m Southern Co $1.0m Ltd Inc $950k BP Amoco $950k KPMG $900k Am'can Airlines $900k Schering Plough $900k Williamson $880k Bank Pharmacia/Upjohn $850k One $850k Qwest $850k Anheuser Busch $850k Cintas Corp $828k MandalayResort Gp $810k Lehman Bros $810k Reynolds Tobacco $810k Fannie Mae $800k Bank of America $800k American Int Gp $800k GAF $800k Chevron Texaco $800k Paso $790k CSX $770k Burlington North $770k General Dynamics $750k American $740k Home Prods Joseph Seagram $740k PepsiCo $720k Chase Manhatten $700k FPL Group $685k Prudential $900k USX Corp $650k Northwest Airlines $650k Aventis $650k First Energy $640k Reliant Energy $640k Walt Disney $640k WalMart $630k Cisco Systems $630k Texas Utilities $630k AEI Resources $630k Westwood One $620k Amgen $600k K Mart $590k UAL Corp $570k Home Depot $560k Duchossois Inds $550k Archer Daniels Midland $530k Edison Int'l $530k Ford $510k General Motors $510k Daimler Chrysler $500k Also see: Fibbing It Up at Fox by Dale Steinreich As for overnight news... Catholic Bishop arrestd after fatal "hit and run". Right!! 16JUN2003 THE FIRST FULL-LENGTH BOOK ON THE WAR ON IRAQ By Danny Schechter, News Dissector We can't fix nothin' without knowing what's happening... From Mediachannel: "To preview Danny Schechter's just published e-book on the media coverage of the war in Iraq, visit ColdType.net. The book, "EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION," discusses "how the media failed to cover the war on Iraq." Mediachannel is selling electronic editions of it for $15.99. You can pay by PayPal but must also write dissector@mediachannel.org so we can send you the PDF file. For donations of $100, we will send you the e-book, as well as the paperback edition of "MEDIA WARS: News at a Time of Terror" (Rowman & Littlefield) and Polarity 1's companion CD soundtrack. Please tell your lists and your friends. We need help in getting the word out." Press release info: There were two wars going on in Iraq - one fought by the armies with soldiers bombs and fearsome military force. The other was fought alongside it with cameras, satellites, armies of journalists and propaganda techniques. One war was rationalized as an effort to disarm WMDs - Weapons of Mass Destruction; the other was carried out by even more powerful WMDs, Weapons of Mass Deception. The TV networks in America called their non-stop coverage their finest hour but critics like veteran journalist, a former ABC and CNN producer, charge media complicity in promoting the cheerleading for a war in which some reporting was sanitized, staged and suppressed. Schechter, author of Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror, The More You Watch The Less You Know and News Dissector, fuses an insider's knowledge with an outstanding perspective. Throughout the war, he was "self-embedded" at Mediachannel.org, the world's largest on-line media issues network, writing a 3,000 word daily news "dissection." "It is important for readers to assess these arguments before our memories fade and Bush Administration changes the subject," says Schechter. "We rushed this book into print online so it can contribute to the continuing debate about the war and its impact. Until now, only the government is being scrutinized. It's urgent that we also confront media coverage." Read a preview at http://www.coldtype.net/danbook.html The book is sold for $15.95 to benefit Mediachannel.org, a global online affiliate network for a democratic media with 1080 affiliates. Readers can pay for the book and make additional contributions on Mediachannel.org. Checks to Mediachannel.org/The Global Center 578 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10018. Ed. note: Danny has about the best grasp on "media" doings, no-doings and undoings as anyone on the scene today. In fact, in the whole world of journalists who get published on the net, there are not more than fifty or 100 who are saying what needs to be said that is helpful enough to effectively arm us with the facts we need in order to not let what happened since the unreported Holocaust stories buried by the New York Times when it was happening, the 1960s Assassinations, Election 2000, 911, and now most recently the absolutely unnecessary war on Iraq happen again and again and again, and sandwiched in-between, the Bill Gates/Microsoft story; where the corporate "they" stole the Netscape browser, renamed it "Internet Explorer" and manipulated the PC market so today 95% of all PC users are saddled with IE on their Windows - which was also a "stolen" (software) emulation of a Xerox (hardware) Macintosh computer. Five years after the Netscape theft, Microsoft was found guilty as charged and was required to pay nearly a billion dollars to AOL (who bought the superior Netscape browser even though they don't use it for their AOL subscribers. Go figure). Anyhow, had the theft been a criminal matter instead of a civil matter, Bill Gates would have been sentenced to 20 years in prison along with the $750,000 payback to AOL/Netscape. As it is, and as The Geeze has stated elsewhere, Bill Gates nearly died laughing at only having to pay that amount to wind up with 90% of the browser market over the next 20 years with no jail time. The media, and particularly the "business" media completely and absolutely missed this story. Never mind that MSNBC is owned by Bill Gates, and CNN, owned by AOL/Time-Warner likely made a "deal" to phase out Netscape over the next few years. What Bill Gates did with Netscape was just as wrong as what George Bush in making war on Iraq, but as Danny Schechter pointed out, what the media did and didn't do in reporting the "news" was just as wrong! Danny's book is about an unprecedented failure of government to act in behalf of the American people, and how the American people did nothing. But its also about how and why it happened the way it did; that our usual sources of even questionable news, nearly all of the straight media went Faux, went missing in the spirit of a free press, and to this day a majority of the American people believe what the media were told to say, and now we know, and Danny has documented just exactly what the lies were and who told them. We even know why. I urge OCNS and Geeze readers to purchase a copy of this book from Mediachannel.org. YOU need to know what's happening, and THEY need our financial support. While it is true that there are another half-dozen online media outlets who also need our support because of how vital an honest flow of real news is to our survival as a "free" people in America, Mediachannel is also offering some hold in your hand and read with your mind's eye substance for the help we should be giving to them anyhow. And so for the 9 jillionth time, let me also urge OCNS and Geeze readers to subscribe to Danny's Daily. There is a "subscribe" box at the top of the page. Danny gives good leads to the aforementioned 50 or 100 writers' work and their otherwise mostly unreported stories and often times Danny so goes to the heart of other stories you don't need spend your whole news junky day trying to find out what's what. Danny writes what's what five days a week, and if you've already read his columns, you know where to go for the weekend fix. As for overnight news... The White House is making (oil) "deals" with the Taliban again? and otherwise? all of the above! 13JUN2003 BURMA SHAVE! Senate approves economic penalties against Myanmar aka Burma OR Burma backkfires on Soros The Senate approved 97-1 economic sanctions that would ban the U.S. import of goods from Myanmar. The military government's arrest of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and its crackdown on her pro-democracy movement are the driving force behind the Senate's vote. The only senator opposing the sanctions was Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. Sens John Kerry, D-Mass., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., did not vote. [MORE] Harold Pinter blasts 'Nazi America' and 'deluded idiot' Blair Angelique Chrisafis and Imogen Tilden Harold Pinter likened George W Bush's administration to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany, saying the US was charging towards world domination while the American public and Britain's "mass-murdering" prime minister sat back and watched. Pinter blamed "millions of totally deluded American people" for not staging a mass revolt, and said the US government was the most dangerous power that had ever existed. [MORE] - The Guardian UK The Largest Covert Operation in CIA History - ICH by Chalmers Johnson Pattern of Megalomania - ICH by Schuyler Ebbets ON/OFF SUBJECT: On the whose road, again? Just as the U.S. wouldn't have struck a deal with Saddam, Palestinians who resist the "Zionist holocaust" daily are just as unlikely to make any deals with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is considered no less a Hitler-like figure than the USUK labeled Saddam. The Palestinians still remember the role of Sharon in Sabra and Shatila, where with Israeli backing more than 800 Palestinians were killed in 1982. Now, 20 years later, on Wednesday, Sharon said his army would continue to assassinate Palestinian leaders. Also see 12JUN2002 Draft Hillary 2004 Update  Skeletons 1933 - 2003 
Danny Schechter, newcollegenews.net, thenation.com motherjones.com, tompaine.com, indymedia.org informationclearinghouse, alternet.org, Tom Engelhardt  DISCUSSION * NEWS * IRAQ BODY COUNT * SARS BODY COUNT Media Wars: News at a Time of Terror by Danny Schechter, Walter Cronkite  |
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Michael Moore's documentary, Bowling for Colombine, wins at France's prestigious awards ceremony in Paris.
In his acceptance speech Moore thanked France for "having the courage to stand up and say no" to US plans to attack Iraq. "One of the best definitions of an ally, of a friend, is that your friend is the one who can tell you when you're wrong," he said. "So thank you for showing us the way, for standing up and for something very important... I want to let you know that there are tens of millions of Americans who feel the same way." Moroccan artists pay tribute to US anti-war stars. "We praise the courage of American stars who said no to war in Iraq," said Mohamed Bakrim, secretary general of the association of the Casablanca cinema festival. Bush: The Fictitious President Michael Moore, one of the first signatories of the "Not in my name" appeal, symbolizes resistance to war and to violence, he said adding "with their commitment against war, American stars have given another image of America." Michael criticized Bush and the USUK war in Iraq, during his Oscar acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. The documentary maker who won his first Oscar Sunday for Bowling for Columbine, had said "We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man who's sending us to war for fictitious reasons, whether it's the fiction of duct tape or the fiction of orange alerts. We are against this war, Mr. Bush! Shame on you, Mr. Bush! Shame on you!" Michael Moore to Tackle Bush/bin LadenTies in Next Doc Michael Moore will depict alleged dealings between two generations of the Bush and bin Laden families in his next documentary "Fahrenheit 911." "The primary thrust of the new film is what has happened to the country since Sept. 11, and how the Bush administration used this tragic event to push its agenda," Moore tells Variety . "It certainly does deal with the Bush and bin Laden ties. It asks a number of questions that I don't have the answers to yet, but which I intend to find out." The documentary will suggest that the business dealings between George Bush and Osama bin Laden's late father led to George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden becoming mortal enemies. "The senior Bush kept his ties with the bin Laden family up until two months after Sept. 11," Moore says. "The bin Ladens invested heavily in the Carlyle Group, which has its hands in a number of pies and is the 11th largest defense contractor even though it mostly buys failing defense companies and sells them for profits." |
800 American professors sign document warning of Israeli ethnic cleansing
We join with our Israeli colleagues in calling for vigilance as events unfold in Israel and the Occupied Territories. With an average of more than $10 million dollars per day of American tax dollars going to Israel, we believe Americans cannot remain silent while crimes as abhorrent as ethnic cleansing are being openly advocated. We urge our government to communicate clearly to the government of Israel that the expulsion of people according to race, religion or nationality would constitute crimes against humanity and will not be tolerated. For more information about the U.S. letter, including instructions on how to sign it, see: www.professorsofconscience.org. |
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