Left I on the News

"We can expect they'll do everything in their power to try to stop the march of freedom. And our troops are ready for it."

- George Bush, warning that Iraqi insurgents would increase their attacks ahead of the Oct. 15 referendum.

"Three suicide attackers detonated car bombs nearly simultaneously in a mainly Shiite town north of Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 60 people and wounding 70 others, a hospital official said. In the western town of Ramadi, the military said a roadside bomb killed five American soldiers.

"The deaths brought to 13 the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq in the past four days...More than 140 [Iraqis] have been killed in the past four days."

"She also asserted that women are faring much better in Iraq than under the rule of deposed President Saddam Hussein."

"Kidnapping and other forms of lawlessness since the invasion mean Baghdad's comparatively liberated women seldom leave home without a good reason."

One subject I've discussed here briefly is the total lack of even a mention of the recent antiwar demonstrations from leading liberal sites like Atrios and Daily Kos, and in fact the outright hostility (or, at least, disdain or total indifference) to it from sites including Oliver Willis and, more recently, Kos. Politics in the Zeros had some things to say about that article just yesterday.

Anyway, back to the Nation article, here's an interesting take on the subject:

"Why did certain liberals who opposed the war in Iraq refuse to march against it? The reason they gave was that left-wing groups like ANSWER, which helped organize the antiwar rallies, failed to denounce Saddam's regime. Yet many of those who could not abide an alliance with ANSWER endorsed the war in Afghanistan--even though it was waged by a government that recently invaded three Caribbean countries, funded dirty wars in Latin America and backed the government of Guatemala, the only regime in the Western Hemisphere condemned by a UN-sponsored truth commission for committing acts of genocide. Politics, of course, often entails an unhappy choice of associations. But if the deeds of the US government need not stop liberals from supporting the war in Afghanistan, why should the words--words, mind you, not deeds--of leftists deprive the antiwar movement of these very same liberals' support?"

"No one loves armed missionaries."

- Robespierre

"You can't reason a man out of a position he has not reasoned himself into."

- Oscar Wilde

"Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."

- Frederick Douglass

Stewart's guest last night was Viggo Mortensen, who is a well-known opponent of the war against Iraq, and was one of the handful of celebrities to meet with Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey. In the light of the just-concluded antiwar demo which had been featured on his own show earlier that night, did Stewart ask Mortensen a single question about the subject? No, he did not.

Maximizing pro-war sentiment and minimizing antiwar sentiment is FOX News' job, isn't it? Why is Jon Stewart pitching in?

"U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, making her first visit to Haiti, told Haitian officials Tuesday that upcoming elections must be 'open, inclusive and fair' if they are to help end the country's political crisis.

"But Rice also made it clear that the U.S. government doesn't want former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who left during a revolt last year, to return to Haiti.

"'The Haitian people are moving on,' Rice said."

Rice also adds this curiously ambiguous advice:

"Rice also encouraged the government to move quickly to resolve the cases of the two jailed Lavalas leaders, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune and the Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Roman Catholic priest who lived in exile in the United States for years before returning to Haiti under Aristide.

"'Justice has to come in a timely fashion,' Rice said."

Knight-Ridder does its part to contribute to the distortions, with this curious phrase: "...the Latortue government came to power during a bloody revolt that saw Aristide depart." Even in "clarifying" that phrase, they write only "Aristide's supporters contend that the United States forced him from office." "Depart"? "Forced him from office"? He was taken from his residence at gunpoint, surrounded by American guards, and flown in an American plane to a destination chosen by the Americans! Any reasonable person would described this as a U.S.-implemented coup and kidnapping, but, according to Knight-Ridder, only an "Aristide supporter" could possibly contend that was the U.S. "forcing him from office."

"There is some schedule showing what you (need) to do to get Iraqis standing up and defending themselves which is now suddenly beginning to happen, so there are some signs of progress. The only way we're going to be successful there – and ultimately, success is going to have to be somewhat redefined – is to create sufficient stability to get the troops home."

- George Bush? No, John Kerry, doing his best George Bush imitation

"Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles won't be deported to Cuba or Venezuela, where he is wanted for alleged terrorist crimes, a U.S. immigration judge decided -- but the judge left open the possibility that Posada could be sent to another country.

"Posada's case has put Washington in the uncomfortable position of being accused of harboring an accused terrorist even as it wages a global war on terrorism. The judge's decision, meanwhile, is sure to aggravate already strained U.S. ties with Venezuela.

"Posada will remain in indefinite detention in El Paso while his lawyers and supporters mount a legal and political campaign to free him.

"Immigration judge William Abbott ruled that Posada will not be deported to Venezuela because Abbott believes Venezuela would likely torture him -- a claim Venezuela has vehemently denied.

"In his decision on the case, the judge wrote that Posada was like 'a character from one of Robert Ludlum's espionage thrillers, with all the plot twists and turns Ludlum is famous for.' Abbott issued the ruling just hours after the government rested its case against Posada Monday. 'The most heinous terrorist or mass murderer would qualify for deferral of removal if he or she could establish . . . the probability [Ed. note: note "possibility", "probability"!] of torture in the future."

I'll start by saying I'm a huge Dylan fan, and someone who has always thought that Dylan's politics were overrated (i.e., that he really wasn't and isn't interested in politics), something the movie pretty much confirms, but that his musical talents (as seen in the movie but even better represented by some of his later material, e.g., Hurricane and Tangled Up in Blue, two of my favorites), are underrated. Anyway, as a Dylan fan I loved seeing the footing of old Dylan performances, and the lucidity of the interview sections with Dylan was surprising and the material interesting, as were some of the interviews with contemporaries.

As a film, I was distinctly unimpressed. I thought it was poorly edited, with far too much emphasis on the negative reactions of some British fans to his electric material (just as an example), jumped around unnecessarily, left out needed explanations (who were Suze Rotolo and Maria Muldaur, for example? Girlfriends? Lovers? Just performers who happened to be playing every bill Dylan was? We never learn; even the relationship with Joan Baez is barely touched on and unclear unless you already know the facts.) Basically, I thought most film students could have done a better job than the great Martin Scorsese did. If you really want to learn about this period, the book to read (at least, the one I'm familiar with) is Positively 4th Street by David Hajdu.

My "favorite" film, incidentally, wasn't any of the Dylan material, but the brief shots of Gene Vincent singing "Rip It Up" and of Odetta (what a voice!) singing something.

Your turn...

Today's development:

"An immigration judge in El Paso hinted strongly Monday that Cuban exile militant Luis Posada Carriles would be allowed to stay in detention in the United States, said Matthew Archambeault, a lawyer for Posada.

"On the last day of Posada's immigration trial, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security wrapped up their case with a short closing statement, Archambeault said. They never called any witnesses to testify against Posada."

Update: A much longer version of the story with a lot more details has now been posted. The most interesting addition is this:

"The Venezuelan embassy said that DHS' failure to contest Posada's request for protection from torture contradicts the position it took in another recent immigration case involving two Venezuelan Army Officers accused of bombing diplomatic missions in Caracas. In that case, Garrett-Jackson [the Department of Homeland Security assistant chief counsel in the Posada case] and a colleague -- Carlos Lopez -- acted much more aggressively in challenging witnesses for two former Venezuelan national guard lieutenants seeking asylum.

"Garrett-Jackson and Lopez sought to show that Lts. Jose Antonio Colina and German Rodolfo Varela were fleeing prosecution -- not persecution -- and did not deserve asylum. After they were granted deferral, Homeland Security appealed the decision on the ground that a former general recently detained in connection with the bombing case had not been tortured."

That brings us back to "some other intelligent force." But isn't creating the universe (and, presumably, all the living things in it, like Adam and Eve and the serpent and the apple tree and all the rest) one of the primary functions of "God"? Who might this other "intelligent force" be? Satan? Or perhaps some other God? Doesn't the First Commandment start "I am the Lord Thy God"? I don't remember it starting "We are the Lords Thy Gods." What's the deal? If this "other intelligent force" designed all the living things, what does the "real" God do? Send hurricanes to punish the wicked? This whole theory strikes me as blasphemy of the worst kind, sure grounds for excommunication.

Of course, the intelligent design advocates don't say it was "some other intelligent force," they just say it could be some other intelligent force or it could be "God." But surely that is also blasphemy, suggesting that there is even the possibility that there could be some power in the world as powerful as God.

Needless to say, these claims by intelligent design advocates are nothing more than disingenuous pap. But, since they see fit to make them, it's time to call them on the implications of those claims, rather than just saying that they are a "thinly disguised repackaging of creationism."

Two "sidebar" notes on the subject:

For a delightful lesson in the consequences of primitive people believing in supernatural explanations for natural phenomena, watch Bing Crosby in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (or, if you're one of those literate types, I suppose you could read the Mark Twain book). Allee-allee-in-free! Walla Walla, Washington!

And, just a quick science lesson, or rather reminder, about something that's always worth remembering when people start assaulting Charles Darwin. When Charles Darwin (and Alfred Russel Wallace, as the Post reminds us), in the early to mid 1800's, came up with the idea of natural selection as the driving force for natural selection, they had absolutely no idea how that might happen. They had no knowledge of DNA, or chromosomes, or the entire molecular basis of life, including the genetic mutations which are the actual driving force of natural selection. All of those subsequent discoveries, right up through current day sequencing of genes and the determination of the similarities between species (and, indeed, the use of those molecular similarities to correct errors made simply by considering physical differences), have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt the correctness of Darwin's fundamental insight. Which makes the 1859 publication of The Origin of Species all the more remarkable, and all the more relevant to today's discussion.

"In the chaotic, hopeful April of 2003, Baghdad's Karrada district was one of those neighborhoods where residents showered flowers on U.S. forces entering the capital.

"More than two years after flowers and water cascaded onto the arriving Americans, what's being thrown on Karrada's streets, and who is throwing it, has changed as well.

"Mohammed, a courtly, gentle-mannered man, carefully chose the harshest word he could think of for urine.

"In Karrada this summer, Mohammed and the neighborhood watched as American soldiers on patrol grew irritated at an Iraqi who had left his car in the street to run inside a store on an errand, blocking their armored convoy.

"The Americans took one of the empty plastic water bottles they use to relieve themselves when on patrol, Mohammed said. When the Iraqi driver ran out to move his car, an annoyed American plunked him with the newly filled bottle and rolled on, Mohammed said.

"'He started crying,' Mohammed said of the Iraqi driver, humiliated in front of the neighborhood.

"Mohammed, who said he had been one of the happiest people in Karrada to see the Americans when they came in April 2003, retrieved the bottle and handed it to the weeping man.

"'I said, 'Give this to the Iraqi government,'' Mohammed said. ' 'Tell them this is the sovereignty the Americans have brought us.' '"

The rest of the article is about how much worse life is in Baghdad in all ways now than before the invasion, especially for women, but certainly not limited to them by any means.

"T.K.O.d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope. When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections."

- Etan Thomas, Washington Wizards basketball player, speaking at Saturday's antiwar rally

That was enough of that, so I switched to CNN, just in time to hear Lou Dobbs' guests finishing their debate on teaching intelligent design in the schools. After the "anti" person closed by saying that "intelligent design" was a way of sneaking religion into the schools through the back door, the "pro" person closed by claiming that teaching evolution was bringing athiesm into the schools through the front door. Well, it is true that if your religion happens to believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, you're not going to get many converts from anyone who was paying attention in biology class. But evolution and natural selection have precisely nothing to say about God per se; even those who want to believe that there is a God who plays some kind of role in history believe that God created the physical laws which run the universe, and presumably the universe itself, and then let those laws take it from there.

Bald-faced nonsense, passed off as "wisdom," from one right-winger after another, from one channel after another. It's a wonder I have any hair left.

"But while the number of Iraqi forces has grown steadily to more than 192,000, the ministries have yet to put in place many of the budgeting, contracting, personnel management and other systems necessary to administer the country's military and police units, U.S. military officers and diplomats said.

"The State Department office has struggled to fill all the adviser slots allotted to it, especially at the Interior Ministry, where at least 10 of 51 positions remain vacant."

"Even as Nagin pressed ahead, officials acknowledged that a severe financial crunch is affecting teachers, the district attorney's office, hospital workers and the police. Schools are not expected to reopen before January.

"The Orleans Parish district attorney's office announced it would lay off more than half its 'non-essential, non-legal' staff primarily because the city of New Orleans has been unable to make its quarterly payment to the office. A statement warned: 'Further layoffs may be required without additional funding.'

"The city received $102 million in immediate salary assistance, but under federal rules the money may be used only for overtime.

"'We don't know how we'll pay base salaries,' Nagin said. Police officers were paid last Friday, but the mayor said it will be difficult to make the next payroll.

"The Louisiana State University health care services division, which runs a network of hospitals across the state, has pledged to pay workers through October. The system lost nearly half its revenue when Katrina demolished its flagship Charity Hospital in downtown New Orleans and is in danger of losing staff members, chief executive Don Smithburg said."

Incidentally, just as a counterpoint to the title of this post, I just watched a feature of MSNBC which showed Habitat for Humanity volunteers building prefabricated houses in Burbank, CA and other cities, ready to ship to the Gulf Coast. The people of the United States, like all people around the world, have a generous spirit. It's the government which is a completely different kettle of fish.

"'Radicals can get out on the street and spout anything they want to,' said Kevin Pannell, a 27-year-old Air National Guardsman who lost both legs in Baghdad. 'I would challenge those people to go to Baghdad and do that.'"

"Cindy Sheehan...was arrested today outside the White House at the head of a civil disobedience campaign intended to dramatize the opposition to the war in Iraq...At least a dozen were arrested...for demonstrating without a permit."

I've said this before and I'll say it again -- if every demonstration I've every attended that was attended by 100 (or even 400) people got the kind of press coverage that this pro-war demonstration got, it would be a different world.

I will say one kind word about the pro-war people: one of the signs I saw on TV at their demo said "Support the Troops and Their Mission." Which made me very glad to see that at least the one person holding that sign understood that there was definitely a difference between the two, because when I (and millions more) say "Support the Troops," we most definitely do not mean "and their mission."

But why now? I was clueless, until I opened today's paper and learned that tomorrow is a key Likud party vote which is essentially a showdown between Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu for control of Likud. And a light bulb switched on. Or, to return to the title's metaphor, the other shoe dropped on my head.

[First posted 9/25, 7:52 a.m.; updated]

I think I'm going to refrain from discussing print media coverage of yesterday's demonstrations, particularly the age-old subject of undercounting, since all that is available on the web for all to see and read. Instead I'm offering this post up as an open thread for readers to summarize what they've seen on TV, which is more ephemeral. Here's what I've seen so far:

• NBC11 (San Francisco Bay area) had a long, excellent piece covering the Washington demo and then, at much greater length, the San Francisco demo. The latter featured shots of the lead banner, shots of the demonstration, numerous good (not frivolous as they sometimes are) interviews with marchers. The reporter mentioned that issues other than Iraq were discussed, and followed that with an interview with a marcher who talked about capitalism and the interconnectedness of the issues, and then followed that with his own observation that it all came down to criticism of the administration (which wasn't quite true, for sure, but it certainly got the idea across that these aren't just "a bunch of unrelated issues." He didn't offer a crowd estimate, but noted that there were so many people it took him two hours to walk the march route. He walked the entire length of the march with the crowd, and it showed. Their online story, by the way, isn't even related to their on-air story.
• KPIX (CBS 5) (San Francisco Bay area) had a reasonably long, but distinctly forgettable piece (I've forgotten it). However, at the moment, their online site (previous link) had some pretty extensive raw footage (not what was on the air), first some brief shots from the very end of the day at Jefferson Square Park, but then some very good footage of the march and chanting itself, which will give you a real feel for the march.
• American Morning on ABC this morning had a piece on the Washington march which I caught the last part of, so I don't know how long it was, but I do remember them using the word "huge" to describe it, and film of Cindy Sheehan speaking.
• And last but not least from me, C-SPAN. Their website had said the Washington rally would be broadcast on C-SPAN2, which I dutifully set to tape while I was marching in San Francisco, only to return home to find out that the C-SPAN2 coverage was about some book conference. But later in the evening, I found C-SPAN itself rebroadcasting (or broadcasting for the first time?) the entire Washington rally; I missed the first part (not sure how many), but got to see many, many of the speeches, almost all of them excellent.
• And I should mention CNN, CNN-Headline News, Fox News, and MSNBC. So far on those channels with 24 hours of time to fill every day, I have heard not a word about the demonstrations

Update: I just learned from an ANSWER email that the Washington Post article on the demonstration, which is a pretty good article, took up the front page of the paper above the fold, which is rather significant. The Post website also has a video of the demonstration here.

"An extraordinary appeal to Americans from the Bush administration for money to help pay for the reconstruction of Iraq has raised only $600...Contributors have no way of knowing who will receive their donations or even where they may go, after officials said details had be kept secret for security reasons." (Source)

Actually, this ties in very well with what is on C-SPAN right now - the "Rally to Honor Military Families" which was mentioned in almost all the press coverage of yesterday's antiwar demos, and given equal coverage on MSNBC this morning before it even took place. The crowd at this rally seems to consist of a few dozen people at most (the Washington Post says 100; I won't quibble); I think there are more people on the stage (all of whom, rather bizarrely, are wearing identical maroon polo shirts marking them as Gold Star Family Members). On a related amusing note, the Post quotes the FreeRepublic spokesperson from yesterday as saying they expected 20,000 people at this rally. Yeah, nice try, Freepers! I hope you didn't rent enough portapotties for 20,000 people - those things are expensive! You could have used the money to up that $600 voluntary donation total mentioned above.

"The US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons.

"A series of contracts have been uncovered that relate to the US army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. They ask companies to tender for the production of bulk quantities of a non-virulent strain of anthrax, and for equipment to produce significant volumes of other biological agents.

"A spokesperson for Dugway said the anthrax contract is still at the pre-solicitation stage, and the base has not yet acquired the agent. They refused to say what it will be used for."

(Hat tip to Suburban Guerilla)

The crowd at the closing rally at Jefferson Square Park, giving some better idea of the huge size of the turnout

One of the two lead banners (which walked side-by-side for the length of the march)

And now, once again in relation with Cuba, America votes for death and not life - the death of Americans, the death of Cubans, and the death of people from seven other Latin American countries. It's a small story, really, almost not worth mentioning, except that it's so emblematic. Cuba is hosting a conference on the mechanical ventilation and blood gases in the treatment of intensive care subjects; to be honest I don't really know what that means. I do know that 300 doctors from the region were denied the chance to learn from six American (that's "U.S.-American", not "American" as in "a resident of the Americas") specialists on the subject, and in turn they were denied the chance to learn from their Latin American colleagues, because the U.S. government denied them permission to travel to Cuba for the conference.

And the result? Someday, maybe many days, perhaps in Cuba, perhaps in Mexico, perhaps in Guatemala or one of the other countries whose doctors were denied this important knowledge, perhaps even in the United States, someone, maybe many someones, is going to die as a result of not receiving the best possible care. And that blood will be on the hands of Condoleezza Rice, and George Bush, and the entire despicable United States government, who day after day show their devotion to the culture of death.

Incidentally, the title of this post is a reference to a wonderful book called "Bird of Life, Bird of Death," subtitled "A Political Ornithology of Central America." It's about the author's search through Guatemala for the resplendant Quetzal, the "Bird of Life", one of the most beautiful birds in the world, and his discovering that the real symbol of Guatemala was the vulture, the Bird of Death. The book paints a vivid picture of Guatemala in the 80's, when it was written, and I have no reason to believe things are very different today. Another highly recommended book for your reading pile.

A tiny section of the radical, long-haired, hippie crowd (not) attending the closing rally at Jefferson Square Park in San Francisco. As the saying goes, "this is what democracy looks like."

Kay Lucas, director of the Crawford Peace House. Did you think kindly, gray-haired grandmotherly looking women were conservative and would be frightened of being associated with ANSWER and the radicals in San Francisco? Think again.

I've heard crowd estimates of 20,000-50,000. I can tell you that as I led the march (part of the security team), we were almost at the end of the 2-mile or so march route when we heard that the last people had left Dolores Park where the march started. I then was put on collection duty, and collected money from the crowd filing by me (and three others across the street, and others behind us) for 45 solid minutes (plus another 5 minutes of stragglers). There were a lot of people; Jefferson Square Park was absolutely filled to capacity.

Apologies for not getting better shots; I was fully occupied until late in the day when I went "off duty."

"Up to 100,000 people are expected to march through central London today, demanding that British troops be withdrawn from Iraq.

"The demonstration...will begin outside the Houses of Parliament, where protests have been banned under new laws. The coalition said it wanted to challenge the "stupidity" of the legislation as well as show that British people remained opposed to this country's continued involvement in Iraq."

"An Iraqi judge said on Saturday he had renewed arrest warrants for two British soldiers who were rescued from jail early this week by troops using armor to crash through the prison walls.

"The British government said the warrants are not legally binding, as the soldiers are subject to UK law."

"[Israeli Defense Minister Shaul] Mofaz also said Israel might resume targeted killings of Palestinian militants. During more than four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, scores of militants were killed in targeted attacks, most by missiles fired from Israeli aircraft."

July 16: "Three Hamas fighters were killed when an Apache helicopter and ground troops fired into a hillside redoubt near Salfit, a town in the northern West Bank. Soon after, an Israeli drone aircraft fired a missile into a van in Gaza City, killing four Hamas members, the group said."

"If George Bush really wants to honor Gold Star Mothers, he should stop making more of them.""

- Cindy Sheehan, reacting to George Bush's designation of Sunday as "Gold Star Mothers Day"

Bear in mind that ANSWER volunteers have been preparing for this demonstrations for weeks, making thousands of signs, dozens of banners, and so on (not even mentioning leafletting, postering, etc.). But even with all that pre-preparation, anywhere from one to two dozen volunteers spent the entire day doing various tasks which still remained to be done to make a large demonstration a successful one. For my part, I spent the entire day preparing clipboards with attached pens, making boxes to collect sign-up cards, and preparing press kits. Doesn't sound like the work of an entire day? It wouldn't have been for any other demonstration I've ever worked on, but when you are talking about a dozen clipboards, and ten boxes, and 75 press kits, believe me, that was a full day's work, and I wasn't slacking. All around me people were calling the press, taking calls from the press, taking calls from volunteers, answering emails, planning the arrangement of booths, reconfirming with speakers, filling boxes of materials organized by location (this demonstration has two sites and two stages), making signs for volunteer sign-up tables, medical tents, and on and on and on.

A lot of people speak very cavalierly about the efforts of ANSWER and seem to think that a demonstration is just something you put out a call for and then it happens. To put it mildly, it just ain't so. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those activists, volunteers all in this case, who are able to devote countless hours to making the antiwar movement, and many other movements, happen.

What I'm not fine with are remarks by Tom Matzzie, director of MoveOn.org Political Action, who tells the Chronicle that "the more vocal people at these rallies are part of the far left and not representative of most Americans." That's a rather curious accusation coming from the director of a group whose only campaign on the subject of Iraq is not immediate withdrawal, now favored by a majority of Americans, not even gradual withdrawal, favored by an overwhelming majority, but that the White House should "tell the truth about Iraq."

And then we have the remarks of Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the Berkeley-based Tikkun magazine, who says "that we are willing to participate in a demonstration with others whose views we find obnoxious," and that ANSWER's criticisms of Israel have "an anti-Semitic tinge." Richard Becker of ANSWER correctly tells the Chronicle that such accusations are "garbage." I'll say that I have been to many ANSWER-organized rallies and programs, read newspapers and magazines published by key ANSWER organizations like the Workers World Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and never once seen or heard anything that was remotely anti-Semitic or even "tinged" with anti-Semitism.

But here's the thing. Michael Lerner is welcome to think (and speak) whatever nonsense he wants to; so is Tom Matzzie. But when they make such destructive comments to the press on the eve of antiwar demonstrations which may prove critical in moving this country that much closer to ending this illegal, immoral, murderous war, they are more than just wrong, they are objectively pro-war. MoveOn.org has endorsed the demonstration, as has Lerner, but statements like these are guaranteed to scare people away and make the demonstrations smaller; indeed they align themselves perfectly with the FreeRepublic spokesperson quoted in the article who says "People should be careful of the company they keep in these marches" in her attempt to scare people away.

A friend suggested that if George Galloway had the chance, he would horsewhip people like Matzzie and Lerner for their treachery. She meant verbally, but either way it sounds good to me. For once I'll quote Bill O'Reilly approvingly in addressing myself to Matzzie and Lerner: Shut up!

"Almost six in 10 said the U.S. made a mistake in invading Iraq, but less than half wanted to withdraw all forces immediately."

But that isn't even the major point. Here's the major point -- the fact that half (more or less) of Americans are for immediate withdrawal from Iraq is nothing short of astonishing. Not a single major politician, not a single major newspaper, not a single major pundit supports that position, and not only don't they support that position, they are constantly barraging the American public with the dire consequences of immediate withdrawal, as George Bush does in this very article, asserting that "the terrorists win" if the U.S. leaves Iraq. Iraq will become a haven for terrorists. There will be a "civil war" and mass slaughter if the U.S. leaves. We'll be "cutting and running" if we leave (not "cutting our losses," which is what will really be happening). 2000+ Americans will have died in vain. The "job" won't be finished. The "mission" won't be accomplished. In the face of this barrage of propaganda, it would be impressive if 10% of Americans said they were for immediate withdrawal. The fact that half of all Americans feel that way is nothing short of astonishing. And worthy of something a little more than "less than half wanted to withdraw all forces immediately."

Update: USA Today's coverage is much better.

Incidentally, as far as I can tell from searching, the two leading liberal blogs, Atrios (Eschaton) and Daily Kos, have yet to mention the march on September 24 (or even the "respectable" lobbying on the September 26); one of the major "second tier" blogs, Oliver Willis, actually polemicized against protesting. This is what happens when your entire orientation is to the Democratic Party, and for what that's really about, see Thomas Shannon's quote in the post just below this one.

"The United States went through a similar process of populism, and our party structure found a way to contain it."

Fortunately, the tide is turning, thanks to people like Hugo Chavez, against whom Shannon informs us he is prepared to engage in a "'battle of ideas." But he'll be disappointed, because Chavez's sense of decency will surely keep him from going into battle against an unarmed man (rim shot).

(Hat tip to Whatever It Is, I'm Against It)

"AMY GOODMAN: To ask a question that was asked of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Madeleine Albright -- do you think the price was worth it -- 500,000 children dead?

RICHARDSON: I believe our policy was correct, yes."

"The UK defence secretary and Iraqi prime minister have denied the unrest in Basra has strained relations between the two countries."

Update: In print:

"British troops in the tense southern city of Basra greatly reduced their presence in the streets Thursday...For the second day, no British forces were seen accompanying Iraqi police on patrols of Basra, as they routinely had in the past.

"Basra Gov. Mohammed al-Waili...said any Iraqi government employee who cooperates with British forces in Basra will be punished."

Politics in the Zeros reminds us that the minor "sticking point" in the so-called "agreement" which was trumpeted in the press yesterday somewhat prematurely, is just the small matter of the U.S. fulfilling a commitment it made in 1994 to build a light water nuclear reactor plant in North Korea.

Update: It's truly amazing what passes for commentary on this subject in the U.S. press. This is from an op-ed article on the subject from Knight-Ridder foreign affairs columnist Daniel Sneider:

"Rice persuaded the president to accept a Chinese last-chance draft that fudged the issue by agreeing to discuss the supply of a reactor at an 'appropriate time.'

"The Bush administration immediately defined 'appropriate time' as years down the road, after all other nuclear programs were totally dismantled. Within hours the North Koreans offered a diametrically opposite interpretation, supported by nothing in the actual wording of the document, that the reactor had to be provided first.

"Seasoned hands recognize this as standard North Korean tactics -- before the ink is dry, they try to renegotiate what others thought was a done deal."

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron (not the same one!) alongside a Great Egret

"Our entire national defense, our entire army, and our entire society is prepared to defend itself, not to attack others. Not to occupy foreign lands, but to defend our land."

- Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban National Assembly, interviewed this morning for a full hour on Democracy Now!, explaining just one of the reasons why Cuba is able to respond so effectively to hurricanes with minimal loss of life.

Ricardo Alarcon is not only one of the most important, but also the most well-spoken members of the Cuban leadership, but you would be hard-pressed to find any mention of his name, nevertheless a one-hour interview, in the corporate media. A search of the New York Times, for example, returns exactly one hit from 2004, one from 2003, and two from 2001. On CNN, one reference from 2004 and then a couple from 2002. None from 2005 at either place. Needless to say you'll find more mentions than that just here at Left I on the News.

Why is that astonishing? Because of the origin of that phrase, "iron wall". Here it is, from a 1923 article by the Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky. Judge for yourself the irony, or the complete appropriateness if you prefer, of the current Israeli Foreign Minister using that phrase:

"Thus we conclude that we cannot promise anything to the Arabs of the Land of Israel or the Arab countries. Their voluntary agreement is out of the question. Hence those who hold that an agreement with the natives is an essential condition for Zionism can now say "no" and depart from Zionism. Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, continue and develop only under the protection of a force independent of the local population -- an iron wall which the native population cannot break through. This is, in toto, our policy towards the Arabs. To formulate it any other way would only be hypocrisy."

And, needless to say, the irony of an Israeli talking about some symbolic wall "coming down" at the same time they're busy finishing building a very real wall pretty much goes without saying.

"There is a particularly terrible epidemic -- let's call it that -- which has the world in its grip: HIV, AIDS. It is threatening to wipe out entire nations and even vast continental regions.

"Cuba ranks highly on the world scale of countries preventing and struggling against this disease. Looking at the rates that prevail in this part of the world, it can be noted that some countries with an average infestation rate, had in 2003 -the last year for published statistics -- an AIDS prevalence of 2.4%, 2.3%, 3.2% in the adult population aged between 15 and 49 years. I'm not mentioning any names for obvious reasons. In other countries the infestation rate is much higher still. The lowest rate after Cuba is 0.6%. I'll not say who that is either. The rate in Cuba is 0.07%, that is to say, 8.6 times less than in the country with the second lowest rate.

"Our doctors, our scientists, our pharmacists, and in particular the members of the 'Henry Reeve' Contingent, must know all there is to know about AIDS, the most efficient ways to combat it, and above all they should realize that these methods must be adapted to the specific conditions of each country.

"When the immensely rich developed nations decide to truly cooperate with countries in Africa and other parts of the world in the struggle against AIDS, they will need professionals like those in the 'Henry Reeve' Contingent. It is then that the value of this action will be understood in all its magnitude. The rich, developed states posses the financial capital, but they don't have the human capital. In order to avoid transmission from mother to child, for example, it is necessary to perform a Caesarian section on the mother; the mothers live in the villages and the doctors from the developed world don't go into the African villages, they have not been trained for that.

"It is necessary to train the doctors needed in the countryside, in the villages, in the poor and marginalized neighborhoods of Third World cities. Even in extremely rich countries like the United States, tens of millions of Afro-Americans, Indians, Latin American immigrants, Haitians and many others have no healthcare programs or medical care.

"We are offering to train professionals who are prepared to struggle against death. We shall prove that there is a solution to many of the planet's tragedies. We are proving that man can and must better himself. We are proving the value of conscience and ethics. We are offering life."

Incidentally, I can still find no evidence whatsoever that the Western press has made any mention of the "Miracle Mission" program.

Cindy Sheehan Takes on the Democrats, Hillary Clinton
"Sheehan isn't stopping her critique with Bush. On the contrary, she has begun to set her sights on Congress and the Democratic Party as well. When she spoke in Brooklyn on the night before, she took note of the fact that Senator Hillary Clinton voted to authorize Bush to use force in Iraq and - like most Senate Democrats - has done little to bring the troops home. Clinton, in fact, has filed legislation calling for more troops.

"In an interview after her speech, Sheehan told the Voice she was 'so frustrated' by leading Democrats like Clinton 'who should be leaders on this issue, but are not.' Already, she has set up a future meeting with New York's junior senator this weekend. And she plans to sit down with the state's senior senator, Chuck Schumer, too. 'It's time for them to step up and be the opposition party,' she said. 'This war is not going to end unless the Democrats are on board with us.'"

As far as turning up the pressure on Democrats as well as Republicans, I'll let Simply Red have the last word(s):

Turn it up, turn it so loud
It don't ever stop
No no no no
Turn it up, makes me so proud
I believe in this feeling

Well you've lost all the things
That sharing could bring
Thought you were doing right
But violence and flames
And torches and chains
Are fuelling
These new northern lights
Like prisoners working
On infertile land
Took eight years
To find out the score
If you're sick then you're lonely
Out of work then you're hungry
The sentence is four years more

Turn it up, turn it so loud
It don't ever stop
No no no no
Turn it up, makes me so proud
I believe in this feeling
Turn it up, turn it up
Right up, right up

Who says poverty and race
Can be kept in their place
By keeping it
All underground
And ruling the country
Are unfaithful husbands
Who spank little boys
Gagged and bound
There's got to be a better way
For you and for me
To turn this hypocrisy round
The growth of a nation
Cannot be achieved
By keeping
The downtrodden down

Turn it up, turn it so loud
It don't ever stop
No no no no
Turn it up, makes me so proud
I believe in this feeling
Turn it up, turn it up
Right up, right up

I have nothing against this kind of event, or writing letters to your Congressperson, or practically any kind of activity designed to focus attention on the war and increase opposition to it. But in the end, there is no substitute for huge, public demonstrations which cannot be ignored, not only because they provide the public at large with a chance to see the antiwar movement, but also because they provide the antiwar movement itself with a chance to see our strength in a way that's much more concrete than reading polls, which can measure the breadth of antiwar sentiment but not its depth. So, stealing a line from the latest email reminder from ANSWER: "Friends don't let friends miss Sept. 24!" And if you're busy like me and you can lose track of what day it is - that's this Saturday!

"Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."

- President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953 (courtesy of Norman Solomon)

"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."

- Fidel Castro, 1979

Today's news makes for a perfect case in point. Today, four Americans were killed in Mosul. One is described as a "diplomat" but more precisely as a "diplomatic security agent," whatever that is (I thought "diplomats" specialized in discussing things with people, not pointing guns at them). The other three are described as "private security contractors" so we can guess the "diplomat" was actually their official "contact." We also learn in this article about four more deaths on Sept. 7 of "four private American guards who worked as security agents for the Bureau of Diplomatic Security in Basra" (whatever that is!). All in all well over a hundred of these "private security guards" have been killed in Iraq, and the vast majority are simply privatized soldiers. The only difference between them and the "soldiers" killed in Iraq is that the latter get paychecks directly from the U.S. government, while the former get their paychecks from a middleman; they're all doing the same kind of jobs. Indeed, it seems that more often than not when we read about American soldiers in Iraq, they're busy passing out candy or building soccer pitches, so perhaps they're even less "soldiers" than the private guards are.

Make no mistake about it, the U.S. toll in Iraq is well over 2,000, no matter what misleading figures the U.S. government and their handmaiden media care to report. Not to forget that the "coalition," about whom one hears whenever the P.R. value of that term is required but never (not even in the British media!) when death totals are mentioned, has sustained total deaths (including "contractors") now approaching 2,400.

And no, I haven't forgotten about the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis, but that isn't the point of this post.

"British armored vehicles backed by helicopter gunships burst through the walls of an Iraqi jail Monday in the southern city of Basra to free two British commandos detained earlier in the day by Iraqi police, witnesses and Iraqi officials said."

Blitzer starts by playing a clip of Bill Clinton saying "I don't think any person with a straight face can tell you that Katrina was caused by global warming," and then asks Turner if he agrees. Turner points out, quite rightly, that while the cause of any one hurricane is impossible to specify, that statistically, there are now more hurricanes, and more severe ones, than in the past, and that that is attributed by scientists to global warming. Blitzer, indignant at not getting the desired response, then blusters about some huge hurricanes that occured in the early 1900's. Gee Wolf, weren't you listening to Ted's reply? No one says there haven't been huge hurricanes in the past. Twit.

But here's the kicker, from the Meet the Press transcript: Bill Clinton had said almost exactly the same thing as Ted Turner! Here's the very next sentence following the clip that Blitzer played: "But what we do know, what the evidence shows, is that there is an increase in the number and severity of bad weather events all across the globe." Clinton then goes on for an entire paragraph about global warming. So the quote Blitzer played was completely misleading, a complete distortion of what Clinton said.

A little later (I'll return to Turner), he interviewed someone from the National Hurricane Center about the storm/hurricane currently entering the Gulf and causing the Florida Keys to be evacuated. Given what just happened in Louisiana and Mississippi, wouldn't an obvious question be to ask if the poor and the sick had been evacuated, or if there were plans to do so? Not to Wolf, evidently (later in the day I did happen to see Florida Governor Jeb Bush going over exactly those things, so it is something that is being done).

Back to Turner, Blitzer next turned to North Korea. The entire lead-in to the questioning was about how North Korea agreed to this, North Korea agreed to that, etc. There was not one word to suggest anything other than that North Korea had completely capitulated in these discussions, or to suggest that the United States had promised or agreed to anything, such as stating that "it has no intention to attack or invade the DPRK with nuclear or conventional weapons," which, however meaningless such a statement might be given the track record of the United States, was in fact one of the key North Korean demands which the U.S. had previously refused to accede to.

This omission wasn't enough for Blitzer, though, who then launched into a blistering attack on Kim Jong Il, "one of the worst men on Earth." Of course he couldn't back up that statement with any actual data, since there is none, Kim Jong Il never having launched a military attack against any other country. Turner was up to the task, talking about his recent trip to North Korea, how he hadn't seen people starving, etc. When Blitzer raised the alarmist call that North Korea has a million armed men on the border with South Korea, Turner first challenged his statistics, and then noted that South Korea and the U.S. have a half million armed men of their own at the same border. Turner correctly noted that North Korea isn't the slightest threat to the U.S., to which Blitzer sputtered "but they have missiles that can reach the U.S." Turner responded, "yes, the Aleutian Islands, and the only thing there are sea lions." Perhaps not 100% accurate, but it shut Blitzer up, anyway. Also effective was Turner's turning to Blitzer and asking him if he'd ever been to North Korea, which Blitzer had to admit he had not. The point I'm trying to make, which you all know, is that Blizer, who is supposed to be a reporter or an anchor, was instead acting clearly as an advocate, forcefully and inappropriately so; Condoliezza Rice wouldn't have been arguing with Turner any more strongly (or any more truthfully) than Blitzer was.

In other news on the democracy front, the country which those same members of Congress (along with the Administration and the corporate media) routinely refer to as "the only democracy in the Middle East" showed its contempt for the concept:

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed Friday to withhold Israeli cooperation from Palestinian legislative elections in January if candidates from the militant group Hamas take part.

"'We will make every effort not to help them,' he said at a meeting with journalists in New York. 'I don't think they can have elections without our help.'"

"Mr. Sharon said Israel could choose not to remove roadblocks and checkpoints that would block Palestinians from the polls and make it hard for Palestinians in Jerusalem to vote."

In the U.S. (and, I guess, elsewhere), small suburban Jewish congregations will occasionally share a building with a congregation of another faith. What makes a building a synagogue isn't that it was built by Jews, or that Jews have on occasion worshipped there; what makes it a synagogue as far as I can determine is the presence of one or more Torahs. And I feel rather confident in saying that there were no Torahs left in the "synagogues" of Gaza.

If the buildings themselves had been so sacred, the Israelis could have torn them down brick by brick and rebuilt them elsewhere, or just jacked the building up and towed it away. Not only weren't they synagogues any more, they weren't even sacred -- some of them, at least, had most recently been used as fortresses from which the occupants could actually attack not just their fellow human beings, but their fellow Jews no less.

Whatever It Is, I'm Against It published a picture the other day of one of these buildings, with a new temporary sign placed on it reading "Holy Place" in Arabic and English, but not Hebrew. The reason for the Arabic is understandable. Why no Hebrew? Because no Hebrew-speaking person was ever going to return to that place. And why English? So that the when a picture was published in the media of the building being destroyed, the world would get the message that the Palestinians were barbarians. Talk about cynical ploys.

Even if by some stretch of definition these buildings were still synagogues, they didn't have the slightest right to remain there. If someone stole your land, and built something, anything, on it, and then later was forced to give it back to you but said, "oh, by the way, I'm leaving you your land, but you don't have the right to tear down my house/synagogue/grocery store/tennis court/whatever," you would simply laugh -- such a person has neither the legal nor the moral right to tell you any such thing. But that didn't stop George Bush from mounting his high horse and playing the demagogue on this subject. And, in the United States at least, he could do so knowing there isn't a single significant politician or media outlet who would dare call him on his demagoguery.

"Bill O’Reilly: The truth of the matter is our correspondents at Fox News can't go out for a cup of coffee in Baghdad.

"Condoliezza Rice: Bill, that's tough. It's tough. But what -- would they have wanted to have gone out for a cup of coffee when Saddam Hussein was in power?"

Sorry, I'm afraid I've taken the edge off that "humor" in the title of the post. My bad.

Ted Rall has the nerve to write a column I contemplated writing, but didn't:

"Hurricane Katrina has prompted Americans to donate more than $700 million to charity, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy. So many suckers, so little foresight.

"The U.S. government can easily pick up the tab for people inconvenienced by bad weather--if helping them is a priority. That goes double for Katrina, a disaster caused by the government's conscious decision to eliminate the $50 million pittance needed to improve New Orleans' levees.

"For our leaders the optional war against Iraq is such a priority, which the Congressional Budget Office expects to cost $600 billion by 2010. That's four or five Katrinas right there. (That's also where the levee money went.) Because rich people are always a political priority, their taxes have been slashed by $4 trillion over a decade--the equivalent of 32 Katrinas. So worried are our public servants about the tax burden placed on the rich that they're looking out for rich dead people. This is why they've gutted the estate tax that, at a cost of $75 billion annually, will run half a Katrina a year. Trickle-down economists beginning with Milton Friedman shout 'starve the beast,' but while the social programs are put on a diet, the mean and powerful pig out more than ever.

"Cutting a check to the Red Cross isn't just a vote for irresponsible government. It's a drop in the bucket compared to what you'll end up paying for Katrina in increased taxes.

"Granted, in terms of popularity of likelihood of success, trying to make a case against giving money to charities compares to lobbying against puppies. The impulse to donate, after all, is rooted in our best human traits. As we watched New Orleanians die of thirst, disease and anarchic violence in the face of Bush Administration disinterest and local government incompetence, millions of us did the only thing we thought we could to do to help: cut a check or click a PayPal button. Tragically, that generosity feeds into the mindset of the sinister ideologues who argue that government shouldn't help people--the very mindset that caused the levee break that turned Katrina into a holocaust and led to official unresponsiveness. And it is already setting the stage for the next avoidable disaster.

"It's time to 'starve the beast': private charities used by the government to justify the abdication of its duties to its citizens."

Just one small quibble with Rall - "inconvenienced"? You lose everything you have in the world, and he refers to that as "inconvenienced"? Honestly.

(Hat tip to Cursor)

Update: It's been many years since I read it, but if memory serves one of the best discussions of this issue can be found in the great socialist novel, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, written by Robert Tressell more than 90 years ago. The book isn't easy to find, but it's a wonderful read and highly recommended.

"The government of the United States is failing the American people."

- Sen. Robert Byrd

"Yes, Hurricane Katrina revealed swearing, crying and stupefied public officials at all levels. Their initial paralysis may have endangered some lives."

The fact that later in the same article, Hanson refers to Cindy Sheehan's "circus" only adds to my complete and utter contempt for him. Although how that contempt could get any greater is hard to imagine.