Left I on the News

This terrorism thing has gone way too far

"Bush Planning August Attack Against Kerry"

On a more serious, media criticism note, is that supposed to be as opposed to the July attack against Kerry, or the June attack against Kerry, etc.? Are we supposed to conclude that the campaign to this point has been a love-fest, where never was heard, a discouraging word? I guess all those negative ads the Bush campaign has been running for the last three months at least (and showing here in the Bay Area, of all places, where Bush doesn't have a prayer; God only knows what's happening in other parts of the country where there's actually a close contest) were all in my imagination.

Political humor of the day

"I think it's time we had a Skipper in charge, instead of a Gilligan."

- Random person in the crowd at a Kerry rally, interviewed on ABC News

On the subject of Bush not doing actual work (but not admitting that publicly, of course), what is wrong with this picture? Right now there are "urgent" warnings about an imminent Al Qaeda strike in New York City. We've been told before that a strike in the next few months is practically inevitable. There are recommendations of the 9/11 Commission which the commission is urging be acted on "urgently" before it's too late. George Bush (and the media, of course) tells us repeatedly that fighting terrorism is the most important thing we can be doing. So, in the midst of all this, how is George Bush spending the month of August? We're told he'll be on the road virtually every day, campaigning. Well, I'm glad to see he's taking this terrorism thing seriously, kind of like the way he took it back in August, 2001. As I said, I know he doesn't actually do any of the real work, but shouldn't he at least be pretending to be on the job? Apparently not.

Electoral success for the antiwar movement

"The Anti-War Respect Coalition was yesterday celebrating an electoral breakthrough in the East End of London after winning its first council seat.

"Respect, founded by the former Labour MP George Galloway six months ago, is now planning a concerted effort to pick up parliamentary seats in the East End in the election.

"It won its first councillor when Oliur Rahman, 23, captured a seat on Tower Hamlets council in a by-election on Thursday night, with Labour falling from first to third place."

Marines go to "extraordinary lengths" to avoid hurting civilians

"Fighting between insurgents and American-led forces in the volatile city of Fallujah has killed 20 militants, the military said Saturday.

"A Fallujah hospital official, Dr. Salim Ibrahim, had said Friday that clashes, which had been reported on earlier, killed 13 Iraqis and wounded 14 others.

"Many of those wounded, including at least one child, appeared to be civilians injured in U.S. airstrikes, he said, adding that he could not give an exact count of the dead, because many bodies had been torn apart in the bombings.

"'Our forces go to extraordinary lengths to minimize the impact of military action upon civilians,' Marines spokesman Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson told The Associated Press."

"Iraqi insurgents started the fighting Thursday by ambushing a patrol with gunfire, mortars and rocket propelled grenades before fleeing into buildings in the city, the military said.

"The Marines responded with tank and artillery fire at the mortar positions, several hundred yards away, the military said. Iraqi insurgents fled into buildings, which the Marines targeted with airstrikes and artillery, the military said."

Open government in California

As further evidence of that "sea change" that is coming, the Los Angeles Times reports about the process which produced these proposals:

"Some of California's most influential business interests — including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and EDS — were given easy access to a state commission as it met privately to recommend sweeping government changes, according to disclosure reports and interviews.

"Public interest groups, in contrast, complained Friday that they were largely excluded from the five-month study, ordered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger."

All Kerry all the time

But who was one of the first people Kerry spoke to after getting the nomination? None other than Ariel Sharon:

"Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry on Friday assured Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of his commitment to Israel's security, aides to Kerry said.

"During their conversation, Kerry informed Sharon that he has no argument with President George W. Bush's support for Sharon's rejection of a Palestinian right of return to Israeli territory."

Well, since this has evolved into an election piece, I might as well add some media criticism. The San Jose Mercury News today has two companion pieces, one about the Bush campaign appearance, the other about the Kerry campaign. Above the two is a joint headline: "Candidates hit the trail, come out swinging." The implication is that both candidates were attacking each other. But the articles say nothing of the sort. The Bush article talks about his attack on Kerry (claims that he has "few signature achievements" and "cannot be trusted"). But the Kerry article is all about his plan to (not) withdraw from Iraq, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Bush. So the impression left by the headline that both candidates were using "negative campaigning" yesterday is simply unsupported by the articles.

Kerry hoist with his own petard

"As a returning Vietnam War veteran who became a prominent peace activist, Kerry posed a rhetorical question before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971: 'How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?'

"Asked Friday if he would face that question about the Iraq war as president, Kerry said: 'I never said it was a mistake now. What I said is the way the president chose to go to war was a mistake.'

"Seated aboard his campaign bus in a captain's chair, Kerry said he didn't consider the war in Iraq a mistake, but that President Bush had misled Americans and the world by waging the war hastily and not 'as a last resort.'"

Hoist with his own petard. Although in this case, while he's the one figuratively being hoist with his own petard ("blown up with his own bomb"), four years from now there will most likely be several thousand more Americans, Iraqis, and others who have been literally hoist, if not with their own petard, by someone else's petard. And while that expression might sound quaint or humorous, I doubt their families will find anything quaint or humorous in their deaths.

Ridiculous headline of the day

"Analysis: Kerry got a bounce, but it's a fleeting one"

But in fact, it's worse than that. Because the actual story doesn't say anything of the kind; indeed, it has no poll results at all! Instead, we have on the one hand "Independent analysts largely predicted some bounce" (that's the support for the first half of the headline, presumably) and on the other hand "Republicans are hoping that any bounce Kerry does receive will evaporate in coming weeks" which is presumably the justification for the second part of the headline. So "analysts' predictions" of a bounce are turned into "a bounce" and "Republican hopes" of a short-lived bounce are turned into "a fleeting bounce." Truly amazing.

Howard Kurtz, inventing history

Of course, since he was supposed to be doing "media analysis," which is his specialty, and not critiquing the convention itself, he might have noted that, other than C-SPAN, no one was showing Sharpton's speech anyway. CNN apparently did show a bit of it, but, as featured on last night's Daily Show, cut away from the speech to feature an all-important interview with...actor Steve Buscemi? (echoing their cutting away from Dennis Kucinich's speech to interview Lewis Black).

Watching television was actually very interesting last night. Within a few minutes I listened to Jay Leno having a substantive conversation with Michael Moore, heard actress Natalie Portman talk about how she's sure George Bush would appreciate a permanent vacation since he takes so many anyway, and then heard Joan Rivers tell Graham Norton that choosing between Bush and Kerry is like trying to decide who is your favorite Menendez brother. 'Tis the season!

Faith

"The desire to replace religious with rational explanations of life was a principal motivation of Dr. Crick's career."

If you read an abbreviated version of this article, as I did in the San Jose Mercury News, be sure to click the link above and read the full story in the Times. The abbreviated version I read was horribly butchered, leaving the reader with the impression that the DNA structure has bases pointing outwards, with the helix held together by metal ions in the middle (an early theory). Well, I guess if any of this made any sense to you anyway, you would already know the right answer. But you should still read the full story if you're interested in the subject at all.

Bush-bashing Quote of the Day

"We have an adversary powerful in technology and armaments, but a total orphan in terms of ideas."

- Fidel Castro, speaking in the Cuban National Assembly

Quote of the Day

"I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side."

- John Kerry, speaking at the Democratic convention

"He told us tonight about some poor bastard in Ohio whose job evaporated when his company unbolted the equipment and sent it south. Hey, Johnnie, didn't you vote for NAFTA?

"We applauded when he said the White House should stop treating teachers and school kids like fugitives from justice and help them out. But, Johnnie, didn't you vote for George Bush's 'No Child's Behind Left' assault on public education?

"Then there was that little story meant to show us all he is a Man for All Seasons, above party politics. 'I broke with many in my own party,' he said, 'to vote for a balanced budget, because I thought it was the right thing to do.' No, John, it wasn't. It was craven political cowardice, going with the anti-government hysteria that put a knife into the heart of the programs you cried over tonight.

"He told us the sad story of the poor homeless guy huddled in front of the White House. Is this the same John Kerry that voted for Clinton's welfare 'reform'? That put a five-year limit on food stamps, making child starvation the law of the USA. At least Ronald Reagan offered ketchup as a vegetable.

"Kerry made good use of the cash he saved on feeding the poor. 'I fought to put a 100,000 cops on the street.' Hey, thanks, John.

"But my absolute favorite of the night was when Kerry told us, 'Saying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't make it so. As President, I will ask hard questions and demand hard evidence.'

"But, as Senator, you didn't. No questions asked: you just closed your eyes and voted for the lie. I know it, and you sure as hell know it."

And, of course, the final irony of all. The last line of Kerry's speech? The obligatory "God bless America."

Followup: BIllmon highlights one of the other moments of double-talk in the Kerry speech:

Kerry: "As president, I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition: The United States of America never goes to war because we want to; we only go to war because we have to. That is the standard of our nation."

Billmon: If you know anything about American history, you know it's more a made-up tradition than a time-honored one (the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I and the Vietnam War were all wars of choice, as was Gulf War I, for that matter.)

The Daily Show rocks

But even better was the following segment, in which Stewart absolutely ripped apart various members of the media for their treatment (or mistreatment) of Al Sharpton's speech, featuring offensive comments by Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and many others. Cutting from clips of Brian Williams trivializing Sharpton's speech, to Sharpton remembering Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman, and other martyrs of the civil rights movement, or from Howard Fineman talking about how Sharpton had probably hurt Kerry with the Black community, to Black delegates responding to Sharpton with tremendous enthusiasm, Stewart was able to depict with devastating clarity the media for the fools that they are. Huzzahs and kudos to Stewart.

Freudian slip?

"We will double our special forces, to conduct terrorist operations...anti-terrorist operations."

- John Kerry, speaking to the Democratic Convention

What war is all about

One story from the article:

"Christmas Eve, 1968, finds Kerry leading a patrol up a canal along the Cambodian border. The Christmas ceasefire has just come into effect. So what the boat was doing there is a question in and of itself. They spot two sampans and chase them to a small fishing village. The boat takes some sniper fire, (or at least Kerry says it did). Kerry orders his machine-gunner, James Wasser, to open up a barrage. At last a note of contrition, but not from Kerry. Wasser describes to Brinkley how he saw that he'd killed an old man leading a water buffalo. 'I'm haunted by that old man's face. He was just doing his daily farming, hurting nobody. He got hit in the chest with an M-60 machinegun round. It may have been Christmas Eve, but I was real somber after that... to see the old man blown away sticks with you.' It turned out that Kerry's boat had shot up one of the few 'friendly' villages, with a garrison of South Vietnamese ARV soldiers, two of whom were wounded."

"A few weeks after the incident on the Cambodian border Kerry's boat was heading up the Cua Lon river toward Square bay, when one of the crew yelled 'sampan off port bow'. Kerry ordered the machineguns to fire on the fishing boat. The sampan stopped and Kerry and his crew boarded it. They found a woman holding an infant, and near her the body of her young child riddled with machine gun bullets, lying face down among bags of rice. Kerry tells Brinkley he refused to look at the dead child, saying, 'the face would stay with me for the rest of my life and it was better not to know whether it was a smile or grimace or whether it was a girl or boy'. Kerry's preferred mode is the usual one. 'Our orders', he tells Brinkley a few pages later, 'were to destroy all the hooches and sampans we could find.' "

Good, non-"pack" journalism does exist

"Umm Muhammad's green eyes flashed one day last week as she listened to the imam at a rundown Baghdad mosque preach about how women should be silent and unseen, traveling only 'from the home to the grave.'

"She knew the edict didn't apply to her; the same imam had blessed her before battle when she became one of the first female commanders in rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia."

The media joins the Democrats in stifling even mainstream "dissent"

"The convention delegates proceeded through the traditional roll call of states to nominate Kerry. In the end, Kerry won the votes of 4,254 delegates, with 43 dissents."

John Edwards on Palestine

"A new president will bring the world to our side, and with it—a stable Iraq and a real chance for peace and freedom in the Middle East, including a safe and secure Israel."

Through the looking glass headline of the day

"Israel's Sharon Ties Disarming WMDs to Mideast Peace"

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Thursday Israel would only reconsider the need for its 'deterrent capability' when there is peace across the Middle East and its neighbors abandon weapons of mass destruction."

There is no evidence (and no likelihood) that any other Middle Eastern country has a single nuclear weapon (the only real weapon of "mass" destruction), while Israel has more than a hundred by most estimates.

Quote of the Day

"We have found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I was mayor of Cleveland, and I tell you I have seen weapons of mass destruction—in our cities. Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction. Joblessness is a weapon of mass destruction, homelessness is a weapon of mass destruction, racism is a weapon of mass destruction, fear is a weapon of mass destruction. We must disarm these weapons—and re-arm ourselves with quality public schools and dedicated teachers, good housing and quality health care, decent jobs and stronger neighborhoods."

- Dennis Kucinich, speaking at the Democratic convention

"So let us blaze a new path with John Kerry and John Edwards. This convention will lead us toward the victory not just of a party, but the victory of the American people over fear, a victory of hope over despair, of faith over cynicism. A victory for health care, for civil liberties, for workers’ rights, for human rights, for the environment, for peace."

Not that it matters what Kucinich had to say. C-SPAN did broadcast his talk, but CNN thought it was more important for us to listen to Anderson Cooper interviewing comedian Lewis Black, a view shared by all the other cable channels, all of whom felt that the viewers would rather listen to their pontificating talking heads instead of to the speaker (not that this was a particular slight on Kucinich - Al Sharpton, Gen. Shalikashvili, and essentially every other speaker other than John Edwards was equally ignored). Actually, it was very reminiscent of the TV coverage of demonstrations, where invariably, instead of letting viewers hear what the speakers have to say (people who were actually chosen both for their knowledge and eloquence), instead they think we are more interested in the views of a random participant in the march or, even worse, in one of their reporter's typically misleading explanations of what the demonstration was all about.

Back to Kucinich's speech, I wonder if he realizes how close he came to a speech that Fidel Castro has been delivering since 1979:

"Enough of the illusion that the problems of the world can be solved by nuclear weapons. Bombs may kill the hungry, the sick, and the ignorant, but they cannot kill hunger, disease, and ignorance. Nor can they kill the righteous rebellion of the peoples.

"Let us say farewell to arms, and let us in a civilized manner dedicate ourselves to the most pressing problems of our times. This is the responsibility and the most sacred duty all the world's statesmen. This, moreover, is the basic premise for human survival."

The Voice of America

Kerry - gullible or culpable?

"During a visit to Washington in April 2000, when I lobbied senators and representatives for a full review of American policy regarding Iraq, I spoke with John Kerry about what I held to be the hyped-up intelligence regarding the threat posed by Iraq's WMD. 'Put it in writing,' Kerry told me, 'and send it to me so I can review what you're saying in detail.'

"I did just that, penning a comprehensive article for Arms Control Today, the journal of the Arms Control Association, on the 'Case for the Qualitative Disarmament of Iraq.' This article, published in June 2000, provided a detailed breakdown of Iraq's WMD capability and made a comprehensive case that Iraq did not pose an imminent threat. I asked the Arms Control Association to send several copies to Sen. Kerry's office but, just to make sure, I sent him one myself. I never heard back from the senator.

"Two years later, in the buildup toward war that took place in the summer of 2002, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on which Kerry sits, convened a hearing on Iraq. At that hearing a parade of witnesses appeared, testifying to the existence of WMD in Iraq. Featured prominently was Khidir Hamza, the self-proclaimed 'bombmaker to Saddam,' who gave stirring first-hand testimony to the existence of not only nuclear weapons capability, but also chemical and biological weapons as well. Every word of Hamza's testimony has since been proved false. Despite receiving thousands of phone calls, letters and e-mails demanding that dissenting expert opinion, including my own, be aired at the hearing, Sen. Kerry apparently did nothing, allowing a sham hearing to conclude with the finding that there was 'no doubt' Saddam Hussein had WMD."

"Competent but clever"

"'The accused [Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic ] ... has elected to represent himself, but has done so competently but cleverly, in that he has attempted to 'hijack' the trial to his agenda while stopping just short of obstructionism,' prosecutors said in the submission to judges on Wednesday.

"The prosecutors accused Milosevic, who is defending himself, of making political rather than legal points." (Source)

Fahrenheit fever spreads south

"Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, in which the US moviemaker delivers a critical image of President George W. Bush, will open in Cuba on Thursday.

"Many Cubans are tingling with anticipation at the screening of the film, having heard much about it since its US release, and the refusal by movie moguls at Disney to distribute it nationwide.

"The film will open simultaneously at Havana's Cuba Cinematheque, to be followed tomorrow by shows in 120 movie theaters throughout the country." (Source)

Free speech at the Democratic convention

"And that is why as president my husband will not fear disagreement or dissent. He believes that our voices -- yours and mine -- must be the voices of freedom. And if we do not speak, neither does she.

"In America the true patriots are those who dare speak truth through power."

To the best of my knowledge, this Teresa Heinz Kerry-related event, just slightly more important than her telling a reporter to "shove it!", has not been covered by a single media outlet other than Pacifica radio (the "shove it!" remark, by contrast, gets 6300+ hits on Google).

Did your pay go up 22% last year?

"The CEO's at the nation's largest companies saw their raises more than doubled in 2003 as the median raise handed out by S&P 500 companies to their top executives was 22.18 percent, according to a study by The Corporate Library."

The right of return

"He was born in the summer of his twenty-seventh year
Coming home to a place he'd never been before."

- John Denver, Rocky Mountain High

"A plane carrying 200 French Jewish immigrants has landed at Tel Aviv airport in Israel, amid diplomatic tensions between Israel and France. There to greet them was Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Around 2,000 French Jews make this journey every year."

The New York Times spins for Cheney and the war

"This is an enemy, as the 9/11 commission reported last week, whose purpose 'is to rid the world of religious and political pluralism'. This is not a foe we can reason with, or negotiate with, or appease. This is, to put it simply, an enemy that we must vanquish. And we will vanquish this enemy."

Delusional Democrats

Moore, speaking today, talked about a conversation he had with Ralph Nader before Nader decided to run. He recounted how he had told Nader that there was no reason for him to run because "he [Nader] had done his job in 2000" and pushed the Democrats in the right (meaning left) direction and that "the Democrats of 2004 aren't the Democrats of 2000." As proof he offered the presence in the Democratic race of Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich. He seems to have failed to note that Howard Dean was crushed early by the party establishment, and Dennis Kucinich made such a difference in the party that he couldn't even get a debate in the platform committee about the war, much less an actual plank in the platform denouncing the war.

I understand the "lesser evil" argument, even though I don't agree with it. But if you take that stance toward the election, please - don't delude yourself into thinking you'll be getting something that exists only in your own imagination.

As a side note, let me say this about Al Franken - what a blowhard. At yesterday's panel discussion, there were 8 or 10 panelists, and there was an hour and a half of time. Responding to the very first question, about how the legacy of Paul Wellstone could be carried forth in the Democratic Party, Franken proceeded to talk for at least five full minutes, if not more, rambling on with anecdotes about Wellstone, etc. While the other panelists gave straightforward answers to the questions that were posed, Franken repeatedly gave long-winded, off-topic answers, as if the world was hanging on his every word. Hey Al! They're not. And they accuse Ralph Nader of being "ego-driven."

Followup: Here is the text of that speech by Michael Moore, in which you can read, among other things, how Moore excuses Kerry's vote on the invasion of Iraq because Kerry "believed" George Bush just like "70-80% of our fellow Americans did." Vote for Kerry! He's as gullible as the next guy! (Unless the next guy is Ted Kennedy, or Dennis Kucinich, or a host of others in Congress, not to mention millions of Americans and people around the world.) The fact that Kerry believed, and still believes, that the United States had the right to invade Iraq even if the allegations against it were true doesn't seem to bother Moore, which presumably means that when Kerry decides to invade Iran, or North Korea, both of whom may well have nuclear weapons (or be on the way to having them), Moore will have no objections.

If a tree falls in the forest...

First of all, to put everyone on the same page, here's the text of the first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Don't be thrown off by the phrase "free speech." It's the freedom to be heard we must fight to preserve.

Quote of the day

"We shouldn't apologize because great countries don't have to do that."

- Madeleine Albright, speaking to Al Franken on his radio show, referring (this time) not the death of half a million Iraqi children from the U.S.-enforced sanctions but rather about the "mistakes" that were made in invading Iraq, not treating our "allies" with more respect, etc.

War criminal Albright, by the way, is the lead-off speaker on the final night of the convention, starting the introduction process for Kerry.

Israel? Palestine? Never heard of them.

"In a new study of media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a group of American college students was asked, 'Who is occupying the occupied territories, and what nationality are the settlers?' Fairly simple questions, but only 29 percent knew the correct answers. The Israelis are both the occupiers and the settlers.

"The study points out that the Americans questioned were journalism and media students and some had even done projects on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. So their answers clearly overstated the public’s level of knowledge about the Middle East."

"The [study] point[s] to the way Israeli and Palestinian combatants are labelled in television reports. Palestinians are 'activists,' 'militants,' 'extremists,' 'assailants,' 'gunmen,' 'bombers,' 'terrorists,' 'killers,' 'assassins,' 'fundamentalist groups,' 'attackers,' 'self-styled Palestinian martyrs' and 'fanatics.'

"Israelis are 'soldiers' or 'troops,' and even when an Israeli group tried to bomb a Palestinian school, they were not 'terrorists' but 'vigilantes.'

"The report also found that there is significantly more coverage of Israelis casualties than Palestinian, even though Palestinians consistently have two or three times as many casualties.

"Also, in the spiral of Palestinian-Israeli violence, Palestinians are frequently described as 'starting' the trouble, while the Israelis 'retaliate.'

"The researchers say television has largely denied its audience an explanation of the background and origins of the conflict. 'It is clear,' they say, 'that the fact of military occupation and its consequences are crucial to an understanding of the rationale of Palestinian action.' Many in the audience sample did not understand that there is a military occupation and that it is widely seen as illegal."

Tell the truth, go to jail...and stay there

"Is there any doubt that al-Saadi is not a "prisoner of war" but actually a political prisoner, being held for political reasons, specifically the threat his speaking in public would pose for the re-election of George Bush?

Another day, another anti-Cuba slander

"In power, Castro's huge ego and Flintstone-quality economic thought have created a mere survival economy on a rich island."

As additional proof of that claim, I refer readers to the just-released United Nations Human Development Report, which for the first time this year ranks Cuba in the "High human development group" that includes the G-8 nations, etc. The "Human Development Indicators" section of the report ranks Cuba 52nd out of 177 countries (the United States, by the way, ranks 8th). Hardly proof of "a mere survival economy."

This is what "democracy" looks like

Protesters in a cage, well-armed riot police on the outside.

TalkLeft has had some very good coverage of the various goings on, including:

• The FBI paying advance visits on Boston protesters in Denver (!), asking them "Are you planning to be involved in any criminal acts at the national conventions? Do you know anybody who is?"


• The caging of protesters in Boston

"Authorities said they were lowering the maximum number of protesters to 1,000, from a previous 4,000, because of concerns of overcrowding."

This is what "democracy" looks like.

George Bush projecting calm - some questions

The other question, which has also not been explicitly asked, is "what is the value of projecting calm?" If a ship hits an iceberg, should the Captain "project calm" or should he or she do his or her best to get the crew working on a solution before the ship sinks? If Bush had smelled smoke while sitting in the classroom, would it make sense to do nothing so as to "project calm," or would it make sense to try to figure out where the smoke was coming from (or at least make sure someone else was trying to figure it out) before the building burned down?

As usual, just asking.

Scott Ritter on the Iraqi resistance

One interesting aspect of Ritter's analysis is his conclusion:

"The calculus is quite simple: the sooner we bring our forces home, the weaker this movement will be. And, of course, the obverse is true: the longer we stay, the stronger and more enduring this byproduct of Bush's elective war on Iraq will be.

"There is no elegant solution to our Iraqi debacle. It is no longer a question of winning but rather of mitigating defeat."

Another "precision" attack in Fallujah

This is what the U.S. military calls a "precision attack" - dropping a bomb in the courtyard of a house. Here's the story as reported by AP, which, unlike the U.S. military, was actually on the scene as evidenced from the photo above:

"U.S. forces launched a 'precision attack' Friday against a suspected gathering of insurgents outside a house in the volatile city of Fallujah, the U.S. military said.

"The attack did not kill anyone but wounded five civilians, including three children, said Dr. Kamal Al-Ani, a hospital official. The U.S. military did not indicate if there were any casualties. Witnesses denied the house was harboring militants."

"Al-Ani said a U.S. warplane fired a missile that landed in the garden of a house in the Jubail neighborhood in southern Fallujah. Associated Press Television News video showed a huge crater beside the house.

"'We were sleeping in the morning when a U.S. missile hit our house,' Saddam Jassim said as he and his brother cleared debris. 'We have nothing to do with the resistance or Zarqawi. These are pretexts used by the U.S. military to terrorize the people in Fallujah because U.S. soldiers are unable to face the insurgents.'"

"'Based on multiple sources of intelligence, the attack targeted 10 to 12 terrorists with known ties to the Abu Musab al-Zarqawi network of foreign terrorists,' U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Erv Lessel said in a statement."

And meanwhile, the New York Times reports the straight U.S. government line: "The American military conducted a strike in Falluja today on a group of Iraqis it said were known allies of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has claimed credit for some of the deadliest attacks and kidnappings in Iraq." Not only do they report the government line, they reinforce it by emphasizing the evil nature of the alleged targets of the raid. Only in the fourth paragraph of the article do they get around to the minor caveat: "Residents in the town said at least five people were wounded, two of them children." The telling details of the incident, as reported by AP, are nowhere to be found. TV reports, needless to say, aren't long enough to get to that "fourth paragraph." CNN, for example, simply parrots the U.S. military, even using their absurd euphemism for themselves: "U.S.-led forces in Iraq conducted a strike in Fallujah on about a dozen terrorists with ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to a statement from the Multi-National Forces (MNF)." "U.S.-led forces" indeed. How many "non-U.S. forces" were involved in this strike? My guess: zero.

Fahrenheit 9/11 continues to astound

The 9-11 Commission report

"In the 1980s, young Muslims from around the world went to Afghanistan to join as volunteers in a jihad (or holy struggle) against the Soviet Union. A wealthy Saudi, Usama Bin Ladin, was one of them. Following the defeat of the Soviets in the late 1980s, Bin Ladin and others formed al Qaeda to mobilize jihads elsewhere."

The report doesn't explicitly ask the forbidden question "Why is the enemy?", but here's what it says on the subject:

"Bin Ladin also stresses grievances against the United States widely shared in the Muslim world. He inveighed against the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, which is the home of Islam’s holiest sites, and against other U.S. policies in the Middle East."

When it comes to recommendations, most of those are of the "mechanical" variety, things which will definitely shift terrorist attacks from one target to another, or from one country to another, but which will never stop such attacks because they don't address the root causes, those "U.S. policies in the Middle East." But I was surprised to see that the Commission does have some recommendation on the subject of "policy changes" designed, in their words, to "Prevent the Continued Growth of Islamist Terrorism." Here are the top few:

• "Define the message and stand as an example of moral leadership in the world. To Muslim parents, terrorists like Bin Ladin have nothing to offer their children but visions of violence and death. America and its friends have the advantage—our vision can offer a better future." [Ed. note - I doubt the Palestinian children would agree]


• "Where Muslim governments, even those who are friends, do not offer opportunity, respect the rule of law, or tolerate differences, then the United States needs to stand for a better future." [Ed. note - pretty nebulous recommendation. Does that mean we should propagandize against the Saudi Arabian government? Not sure]


• "Communicate and defend American ideals in the Islamic world, through much stronger public diplomacy to reach more people, including students and leaders outside of government. Our efforts here should be as strong as they were in combating closed societies during the Cold War." [Ed. note - Better PR, that's the ticket!]


• "Offer an agenda of opportunity that includes support for public education and economic openness." [Ed. note - yes, letting American companies dominate the market in the Middle East (a.k.a. "economic openness") is surely the ticket for improving the American image there...not.]

Armed forces recruitment

"The U.S. Army has long lured recruits with the slogan 'Be All You Can Be,' but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers' dime.

"Between 2000 and 2003, military doctors performed 496 breast enlargements and 1,361 liposuction surgeries on soldiers and their dependents."

"Thin, ambiguous, and incomplete"

Lies of the Times

"In Iraq, the transfer of sovereignty has led to some reduction in American casualties."

It was bad enough when Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy Secretary of Defense, underestimated American deaths in Iraq by 40%. I'm not sure if it's better or worse when a "newspaper of record" does the same thing.

A "reduction in American casualties"? Not on your life. And certainly not on the lives of those who continue to die in Iraq, day after day.

Helicopter down?

"Guerrillas have shot down a U.S. helicopter during fierce clashes in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi and three on board have been killed, says an Iraqi police officer in the city.

"Several witnesses also said a helicopter was shot down.

"The police officer said the aircraft came down near the eastern entrance of the city and burst into flames. He said the area had been sealed off by U.S. troops."

"The U.S. military says a report from Iraqi police that an American helicopter has been shot down near the city of Ramadi is false.

"'We have not had any casualties in the past 24 hours and no downed helicopters,' a spokesman for the U.S. Marine Corps in western Iraq said on Wednesday."

How many dead in Iraq?

As for Iraqis, Iraq Body Count is now reporting a minimum of 11,252 and a maximum of 13,213 Iraqi civilian deaths, which appears to include Iraqi policemen. Even that "maximum" is really a "minimum maximum" however, because Iraq Body Count only tallies deaths which have been reported by multiple news sources, and doesn't include deaths they don't feel they can "confirm," and certainly doesn't include deaths which haven't been reported in the news at all. There still appears to be no even vaguely reliable count of Iraqi military deaths. Once again, neither the U.S. media nor the U.S. government can be bothered to keep track.

The Sandy Berger story - some questions

Something is very strange about both of these claims.

And the third question pertains to the investigation itself. Supposedly this investigation has been going on since October, 2003! What is this, the O.J. Simpson murder trail? For cryin' out loud, we have a guy who supposedly took some papers out of a room, was seen doing it, and doesn't deny it. How much evidence is there to gather in this complicated case, exactly? How many witnesses are there to call? This can't be serious.

Followup: Newsday, in reporting the story, lets us know that there are other materials which have "gone missing" from the National Archives:

"Among significant documents missing from their expected places is the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment communications journal for July 1950, during the Korean War. That month, a battalion from the cavalry killed many South Korean refugees at the village of No Gun Ri.

"The journal would have recorded any orders to shoot the civilians, but after a 1999-2001 inquiry, Army investigators said they didn't find the document and didn't know what happened to it."

Sex, lies, and videotape

Back to the substance of the article, here's what the student in question has to say:

"But regardless of the exact wording, [Charles] Trumbull says the president's speech misconstrued the meaning, which he says should have been clear from his paper.

"'It shows that they didn't read much of the article,' Trumbull said in a telephone interview. [Ed. note: I lied about the "videotape" in the title; it was a phone interview]

"According to Trumbull, who conducted field research in Cuba, prostitution boomed in the Caribbean nation after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, providing an important source of currency for the Cuban economy. Castro, who outlawed prostitution when he took power in 1959, initially had few resources to combat it. But beginning around 1996, Cuban authorities began to crack down on the practice.

"Although prostitution still exists, Trumbull said, it is far less visible, and it would be inaccurate to say the government promotes it.

"Even when Castro made the remarks, Trumbull said, he was not boasting about Cuba's prostitutes as sex workers.

"'Castro was merely trying to emphasize some of the successes of the revolution by saying 'even our prostitutes our educated,' ' Trumbull said. 'Castro was trying to defend his revolution against negative publicity. He was in no way bragging about the opportunities for sex tourism on the island.'"

Followup: More insight on the real situation.

Political humor of the day

"President Bush said today he's looking into whether Iran had anything to do with 9/11, but he's not declaring war yet. He said first he wants to know all the facts. So apparently, he's trying a new strategy." - Jay Leno

World to Israel: "Mr. Sharon, tear down that wall!"

"The General Assembly approved a resolution overwhelmingly on Tuesday evening demanding that Israel obey a World Court ruling that it abandon and dismantle its separation barrier on the West Bank and pay compensation to Palestinians affected by its construction.

The vote was 150 in favor and 6 against - including the United States - with 10 abstentions."

The United States is almost completely isolated in the world in its support for Israel. The world is overwhelmingly opposed to what Israel is doing. So there must be significant opposition to Israeli policies in the United States, right? Certainly not in the Congress, where last month the Senate "voted 95-3 in favor of a resolution endorsing US President George W. Bush's April declarations that Israel should not have to fully withdraw from the West Bank as part of a final peace deal, and that Palestinian refugees would return to a future state of Palestine, rather than to Israel," and the House voted 407-9 supporting the same position; essentially giving Sharon carte blanche to continue doing what he's doing, and giving an official (rather than the decades-long unofficial) U.S. seal of approval on Israel's continued violation of international law.

Quote of the Year (1984)

"Sometimes we extend the peace by using war."

- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (Source)

Listen to Flashpoints!

For the last two nights there have been exceptionally valuable updates on the situation in Palestine. Last night's show (July 19) featured an interview with Jeff Halper, a Professor of Anthropology at Ben Gurion University in Israel and the Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House demolitions (ICAHD). Halper talks about how Israeli soldiers "hunt" Palestinians, the role of the young second-generation Israeli "settlers" in provoking violence, the role of the U.S. government in maintaining the imbalance between Israel and the Palestinians, and much, much more. Well worth listening to. Tonight's show (July 20) featured Amer Abdel Hadi, the director of Radio Tariq el-Mahabbeh in Nablus, talking about the cold-blooded murders being committed by Israeli troops in Balata after deliberately provoking Palestinian youth into throwing stones, again the role of the U.S. government, and more. Again well worth listening to.

Flashpoints! also starts out with a few minutes of news summary from Robert Knight, who has a wonderful way of putting things. The show does suffer from two flaws. One is web-related - the different shows have direct links for the download, but not for the summary, making it hard to easily link to specific broadcasts (and even harder, or impossible, to link to specific sections of the broadcast, since generally there are two or three major sections of the show). The second flaw is more important, and quite unfortunate. Because the show wants to bring its listeners authentic voices from around the world who really know what they're talking about, you frequently find yourself struggling to listen to someone with a thick accent (Haitian, Middle Eastern, etc.) speaking in a deep voice over an imperfect telephone connection, and it can be hard work to follow the conversation. But it's always worth trying, to get information on a daily basis you simply won't hear elsewhere. If you're not a regular listener, start by checking out the July 19 interview with Halper, and move on from there. You won't regret it.

Linda Ronstadt and the media

In this case, though, it's the press coverage of the event I want to spotlight. Here's the most complete coverage of the event I could find online, from the San Diego Union-Tribune pop music critic:

"Like a musical Moses staging a song-fueled parting of the Red Sea, the veteran star instantly split her sold-out audience of 1,360 in two.

"Half the crowd heartily applauded her praise for Moore, the other half booed. In an instant, the intimate outdoor venue on Shelter Island filled with a roar of cheers and jeers that grew to a near-fever pitch.

"As Ronstadt started to perform her encore, an impassioned version of the Eagles' "Desperado," dozens of concertgoers angrily streamed toward the exits, while others gave her an ovation."

"Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she also got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie, 'Fahrenheit 9/11.'

Ronstadt's comments drew loud boos, and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater. People also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air."

"'That dedication angered some Aladdin guests who spilled drinks, tore down posters and demanded their money back', said casino spokeswoman Sara Gorgon. About a quarter of the 4,500 people in the audience got up and left before the performance had finished, Gorgon said." [Ed. note: it just might put that number into context if the article had noted that the dedication preceded the encore, i.e., the last song of the night]

Unlike AP and Reuters, the Los Angeles Times actually thought it might be appropriate to find out what Ronstadt had to say, and their story sheds further light on the subject:

"Ronstadt, a longtime liberal activist, has often shared her political and social views, whether she was singing at the No Nukes concert series or jabbing at Enron executives by giving them a pointed dedication of 'Straighten Up and Fly Right.'

"Through the years, though, Ronstadt has never heard a hall so powerfully divided each night between hisses and hurrahs. She heard it from the first night she offered the comments about Moore's film.

"'At first there's just silence, then there's 'Yeah!' and then there's 'Boo!' and then the audience starts fighting with each other,' she recalled. 'You know how they say we are just polarized down the middle? I've done this all across the country and I'm telling you, it's like my independent poll. I have never seen a reaction like this, in all my years of touring.'"

"Ronstadt said her career zenith in the 1970s is long gone and that in a quasi-retirement mode she has the success and boldness to say what she thinks. 'Clear Channel can't threaten to not play my records because they are not going to play them anyway.'"

"We have to stick together. I just think we can't take this lying down. It's like the Weimar Republic… these [neo-conservative] people are taking over the government. People are sound asleep and I don't think this is the time to back down."

One hidden cost of the Israeli occupation of Palestine

"Suicide has become the leading cause of death in the Israeli armed forces. In 2003, a total of 43 Israeli soldiers took their own lives last year compared to 30 killed in Intifada-related hostilities, said the report.

"The Israeli army denies any connection between army excesses in the occupied territories and the phenomenon of suicides among soldiers. Army sources routinely cite more mundane reasons such as emotional crises, bullying and persecution by superiors, and psychological depression. [Ed. note: how reassuring!]

"It is widely believed, however, that a significant number of suicide cases are connected to the soldiers' traumatic experiences in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Aljazeera.net quoted an Israeli peace activist who spoke on condition of anonymity as saying that she believed many of the soldiers who went on to take their own lives simply couldn"t cope with the moral burden of causing avoidable and unjustified deaths in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"'Israeli soldiers are ordered to do things that go against their moral values...and they are left with this terrible burden which evolves into depression and eventually lead to suicide', she said.

"Last month, a number of former conscripts who had just finished their army service in the southern West Bank town of Hebron, described vividly the manner in which they mistreated and humiliated Palestinian civilians. The group set up a photo exhibition opposite the Defence Ministry complex in Tel Aviv, featuring graphic pictures of ordinary Palestinians being tormented, often in a sadistic manner, by occupation soldiers."

In election news...

And they dare to criticize Nader for accepting money from Republicans, or the signatures of Republicans on his petitions!

The Sandinista legacy

Not a word in the article about the actual accomplishments of the Sandinistas during their eleven years in power nor, other than a picture caption and a brief reference to Calero's activities, is there any indication that the Sandinistas had to spend enormous amounts of financial and emotional capital during their years in power fighting the U.S.-backed Contras, rather than devoting their full energies (and finances) to carrying out their revolution. Nor is there the slightest reference to the nature of the country, or its economy, under Somoza, before the Sandinista revolution, back when Somocistas like Adolfo Calero were fat and happy and the rest of the Nicaraguan people...weren't.