Syracuse Blogs

Syracuse Blogs

I have taken advantage of a great new service providing free blog publishing.

SEE: Syracuseblogs.com

My new Syracuseblog, HEY JUDE, will make link-connections to many local Syracuse-community bloggers as well as other New York State blogs.

I've also been researching blogs in Syracuse. Here is a partial list:

Red Thunder

David Metraux

NYCO

Collin vs. Blog

BlogJosh.forum

Mick Mather

K. Reid Wightman

Larry Roux

Parablemania

Uncle Sam's Cabin

OrangePhilosophy

Vacuum Energy

Entertainment Boogly

BooGuy Comics

Booglie-blog-munch

Hyleninja

Semi-Intelligent Thoughts

As I See It Now

Clearing Away The Fog

Sarah Kennedy

Ian Garatt

Cicero Commons

Concerned Camillus Citizens

Brennan Center for Justice

Gridiron Grit

That's Entertainment!

Fitness Fanatic

Faith Meets Life

CNY Traveler

Rational Liberal

Cazenovia, NY

Parish, NY

Movie Boy

Music Reviews

Auto News

Knicks Clicks

Big Blue Blog

Jetstream

Orange Juice

Orange Pros

O-Zone

More On Gannon / Propagandagate

More On Gannon / Propagandagate

Raw Story has an update on the Propagandagate issue. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has broken her silence, granting an interview to Raw Story.

This week, Jay Rosen said:

"Now the trail has led to Jeff Gannon, and In the Press Room of the White House that is Post Press. As far as I'm concerned, it is all one story. But I do not pretend to understand it yet."

I agree. The Right began their push to turn free press into a tool for their propaganda over 20 years ago, and dismantling their "handiwork" will take a lot of committed concentration and effort on the part of citizens like you and me. It has become apparent that we cannot depend upon the mainstream media to save themselves.

If there's one thing that's certain, it is that any person who holds a strong conviction regarding a truly free press will need to be vigilant in days, months, and perhaps years to come.

Jeff Gannon (aka James Dale Guckert) was only a drop in an ocean of right-wing propaganda which has been employed, whether directly or not, by the Bush administration like no other administration in the past.

Any self-respecting American with a healthy respect for freedom and truth, regardless of their respective political party, should be ashamed to defend the participatory destruction of the "Fourth Estate" by this White House.

Quote

"You are judged by what you do
While passing through....."


*Other gems of wisdom from musicals
Photo credit: Appleseed's

Blogosphere: LA Times Coverage of Gannon Disappointing

Blogosphere: LA Times Coverage of Gannon Disappointing

CJR -

If Fitzwater or Neuman honestly believes that there is any comparison to be made between Helen Thomas and a fake journalist with a fake name working for a fake news outlet asking fake questions at a real press briefing, then Neuman's feigned befuddlement over what a journalist is begins to seem less feigned. Alas, if the Los Angeles Times sees fit to print lazy and misleading pieces such as this, then the craft may indeed be facing an identity crisis, the likes of which Jean-Paul Sartre described 50 years ago.

American Street

-the piece misses so many of the actual truths invovled in this fiasco, that we were forced to write a letter to the editor of the latimes:

ladies and gentlemen:

i was happy to see your paper finally cover the gannon/guckert story about a phony reporter having access to the white house without proper credentials for over two years (a story which has been discussed publicly in other print media, on television and on internet discussion forums for more than a month, but better late than never, right?). however, i have some reservations about your reportage.

ms. neuman, aside from not researching or contacting the so-called “gay activists” and “left-wing bloggers” that broke the story, stated that those bloggers “posted on the internet homoerotic photos of gannon advertising himself as a $200-an-hour gay escort.” this implies some sort of invasion of privacy “outing” activity. ms. neuman failed to make clear that it was gannon/guckert who posted those “homoerotic photos” of himself on the internet for anyone with a mouse click to see (including print reporters for a large metropolitan newspaper, if they were so inclined to do any actual investigating).

and, by quoting gannon/guckert when he said “i’ve made mistakes in the past,” ms. neuman helps to propagate the implication that gannon/guckert’s escort activities were over with. in reality, the websites advertising his $200 per hour services were still current and active as of the beginning of this year, when the story broke. ms. neuman makes no mention of this fact.

further, ms. neuman failed to specify that talon news, the partisan republican website that gannon/guckert was “reporting” for, did not come into existence until several months after gannon/guckert was already allowed access into the white house under a false identity.

by focusing mainly on the “homoerotic” part of the story, ms. neuman deftly denigrates the points being made and questions being asked by thousands of americans on the internet forums (who have at least as much journalistic integrity as gannon/guckert, and therefore deserve as much respect from your paper). these are questions of national security, to wit: how did a prostitute (male escort renting sexual favors by the hour) get access to the white house under an assumed identity?”.....(read the rest at link)

why not take some time write a letter of your own?

Gary Brolsma Doesn't Want His 15 Minutes

Gary Brolsma Doesn't Want His 15 Minutes

Gary Brolsma is sorry he ever did it. Like many others, I got a lot of joy from his performance. So, even if you don't want your 15 minutes, Gary - Thanks for the smile you brought to my face.

Why Not Here?

Why Not Here?

"...as we've seen in spades over the past two years in Iraq, this rashness - this tendency to leap before we look - has its downside. Things don't come out wonderfully just because some fine person asks, Why not here?"

But this is clearly the question the United States is destined to provoke.

- David Brooks, NYT

Leap before you look?

I appreciate the longing for freedom just as much as any freedom-loving person. I think, however, that someone should poke a reality-stick in David Brooks' manic blather-bubble about his rhetorical question: "Why Not Here?"

The head of the Syrian Press Syndicate told The Times on Thursday: "There's a new world out there and a new reality. You can no longer have business as usual."

I'll say.

The people of Syria and Iran understand that Bush likes to provoke more than just 'questions'.

When most of them think "Why not here?" in terms of America, they are thinking 'If Bush could do what he did to Iraq, he could do it to us.'
It sends shivers dcown their spines.
They're not freedom-shivers.

They recall a President who leaped before he looked and still has not looked too closely at the civilian carnage and lives torn apart by his unnecessary war.

Why don't we?

Is there no outrage left in the country?

Thanks, Sens Durbin, Kennedy, Lautenberg, Kerry, Reid

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Thanks, Sens Durbin, Kennedy, Lautenberg, Kerry, Reid

Thank you, Senator Durbin.
Thank you, Senator Kennedy.
Thank you, Senator Lautenberg.
Thank you, Senator Kerry.
Thank you, Senator Reid.

You understood the importance and value of the public trust.
Where were the rest of the Democratic Senators?
Where were Republican Senators?
That's my question.

Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Please join me in praying and/or sending healing thoughts for Pope John Paul II. Regardless of your belief or your faith, suffering is a common human experience.



Suffering highlights the fact that we are frail human beings.
Suffering can draw our interests toward the deep meaning we seek.
Suffering helps us to see the real value of life.
Suffering leads us to be compassionate to others.
Suffering sharpens our awareness that we will not be here forever.
Hardships have value, although they are often hidden. Suffering brings value to light.
Life is hard. Life is good. Love is present, even in the suffering we see and experience.
May we learn to show compassion and kindness towards all who are suffering.

"I pray that Mary, Health of the Sick, will continue to grant her loving protection to all who are wounded in body and spirit, and will intercede for those who care for them. May she help us to unite our sufferings with those of her Son as we journey in joyful hope to the safety of the Father's House."

Who Is Ketchum?

"I've always thought it was dangerous for the White House to get into the business of defining who is and is not a member of the press corps. That is better done by the news media."

- Mike McCurry, Clinton White House Press Secretary

Who Is Ketchum?
..and what did they have to do with the Bush Adminstration?

Open communication fosters informed decision making in our democratic society. PR is unregulated in the U.S. and is considered to be a vehicle for free speech. A PR firm's clients communicate with the news media as part of a free and open public debate. What happens when PR agencies fail to regulate themselves? When public trust is lost, the PR firm only harms itself. Has Ketchum crossed the line and contributed to knowingly polluting the news media?

According to their website, Ketchum is a unit of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC; www.omnicomgroup.com). The firm is headquartered in New York. Additional information on Ketchum, its award-winning work, and past press releases can be found at www.ketchum.com.

NYT - The Bush Administration is warned about its "news videos"

Electablog - I Know PR But What Am I

"Jay Rosen laments the fact that so few PR bloggers blasted Ketchum for their role in paying off Armstrong Williams to push the Dept of Education's No Child Left Behind program.."

Media Matters - On February 24 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, former Representative Susan Molinari (R-NY), president of the public affairs unit of public relations firm Ketchum Inc., made false assertions regarding President Bush's Social Security plan.

Salon.com - Beware the Coming Propaganda Juggernaut by Joe Conason

Exactly what Bush's minions at the SSA have been up to, aside from writing strategy plans, isn't clear yet. To find out, Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal public interest group, filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the SSA last month. Sloan asked for "records of any contacts between the agency and outside public affairs firms," notably including any dealings with Ketchum and Fleishman-Hillard -- the Washington P.R. giants recently implicated in the administration's pundit payola and news management scandals. Public records show that the SSA already has entered into a $1.8 million consulting contract with Fleishman-Hillard.

101PublicRelations.com - Bush Administration Has Been Bery, Bery Good To Ketchum


INF Opinions - Circling The Wagons: PR Firms Fear Revenue Loss, Thanks to Williams, Ketchum and others


Corporate Engaement blog - Interview: Talespin author on PR disasters, Ketchum, blogging and more


Ketchum: Former White House Economic Policy Advisor Carlos Bonilla Joins The Washington Group – A Ketchum Company

Ketchum’s The Washington Group (TWG), a government relations and lobbying firm, announced today that Carlos Bonilla, former White House economic policy advisor, joined as senior vice president. His extensive experience working with the Bush White House enhances the firm’s government relations capabilities.

Ketchum: About The Washington Group – A Ketchum Company

Founded in 1997, The Washington Group has a mix of clients including healthcare, technology, telecommunications, environmental, real estate and transportation companies. Seventeen government relations professionals with more than 150 years of combined legislative and political experience staff the firm.

The Washington Group became a part of the Ketchum Washington, D.C. office in January 2001. The combined Washington Group/Ketchum operation works synergistically to provide clients with the full range of public affairs services including lobbying, grassroots, constituency relations and public relations. The combined entity’s practice areas include: Corporate, Healthcare, Litigation, Public Affairs & Government Relations and Technology.

USA Today: Report: PR spending doubled under Bush

A young American Speaks Out at Montgomery Blair High School - Agencies must be held accountable for payoffs; Use of tax dollars is unacceptable

"Other parts of the Ketchum deal included last year's fabrication of fake video news reports featuring government employees posing as reporters. These segments were also intended to gain public approval for NCLB by tricking Americans into believing that they were watching objective news reporting, a tactic that has been declared both illegal and dishonest by watchdog groups."

Star Tribune - A lesson on disclosure and ethics by Patrick R. Hirigoyen

"..the Bush administration was the client of a public relations firm. In his Jan. 26 news conference, Bush said federal departments would no longer follow such practices nor enter into such contracts. The damage, however, not only had been done to the columnists' reputation, but to the administration's position. It appeared as if support could be obtained from experts and opinion leaders only by paying them -- certainly, not the perception the agencies wanted to create.

Which points to the role of the third party, particularly in the Williams case: the Ketchum Public Relations firm. This is an established, reputable firm, respected by clients and competitors. In the Williams case, the Jan. 12 New York Times quoted a spokesperson for the Council of Public Relations Firms as saying it was Williams' responsibility, not Ketchum's, to disclose the payments.

That's passing the buck. The strategy and program developed by Ketchum did a disservice to the client, hurting the administration's position and, in the end, its reputation."

__________________

Stories Related to Omnicom Group:

"The industry began selling its soul when it sold out to these advertising companies because the public relations business should be about the truth, not about sales."

- Jack O'Dwyer, public relations gadfly

CorpWatch - Spinning Media for Government by Chris Raphael

"In another curious development, a site on http://www.ketchum.com that touts the virtues of influencing public opinion leaders – through a special tool Ketchum calls “Influencer Relationship Management” – is no longer working.

Snapshots of the site on Wayback Machine (see http://www.archive.org and type in http://www.ketchum.com/IRM in the search bar) describe how the system works by “influencing the influencers.” The premise of Ketchum’s system, described in a press release and in snapshots of the site on Wayback Machine, is that there are a select group of people – such as elite media and analysts -- who mold public opinion. Through an “IRM portal,” clients can view the opinions of these influencers on an “attitude” scale. A snapshot of an “IRM portal” even seems to promise pictures of who these “influencers” are."

US Newswire, Feb 23, 2005:

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint against the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the District Court for the District of Columbia for failing to produce documents pursuant to Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA). CREW had asked SSA to produce any records relating to contracts SSA may have entered into with any public relations firms..

".we know that SSA has paid Fleischman-Hillard nearly $1.8 million since September 2003, we don't know what role, if any, Fleischman- Hillard has played in manufacturing that crisis. This is what we first tried to learn by filing the FOIA request and what we are now trying to learn by filing a lawsuit."

O'Dwyer PR/Communications website: "A PR industry ad campaign is needed to offset the Feb. 13 New York Times article headlined: “Spinning Frenzy: PR’s Bad Press".

”Sweeping consolidation has transformed public relations over the last two decades, with such publicly traded global communications giants as Omnicom, the WPP Group, the Interpublic Group, and Publicis Groupe acquiring a bevy of large, formerly independent firms. These behemoths have picked off well-known companies like Ketchum, Fleishman-Hillard, Hill & Knowlton, Weber Shandwick and Burson-Marsteller, placing them inside holding companies that also operate advertising, strategic consulting and marketing businesses....

"This is the Three Mile Island of the P.R. business," said Jack O'Dwyer, a public relations gadfly in New York who heads a research firm and publishes a newsletter bearing his name. "The industry began selling its soul when it sold out to these advertising companies because the public relations business should be about the truth, not about sales." - LINK

Polianna.com - The White House gave special privileges to a conservative operative with a shady past. But this is only the latest scandal in the GOP war against news.

Press Think: Further Analysis on WH Post Press

"Now the trail has led to Jeff Gannon, and In the Press Room of the White House that is Post Press. As far as I'm concerned, it is all one story. But I do not pretend to understand it yet."

- Jay Rosen

Press Think: Further Analysis on WH Post Press

A high-five to Jay Rosen. He's done some excellent analysis on the Gannon case in its relation to the Bush Administration's de-certification move against the Washington press. The story may shift, in its focus, from Gannon to a $97 million pot of post-press money that went to a PR firm named Ketchum.

Read this excerpt from his latest posting:

Whomever declared "Jeff Gannon" a valid correspondent believed, first, in the invalidity of the regular White House correspondents, whose representatives had of course rejected Gannon for a regular pass. As he rejected them. Froomkin reported on it (March 10, 2004) in the White House Briefing column he does for the Washington Post:

Gannon works for a tiny, supremely conservative organization called Talon News which publishes a Web site by the same name as well as one called GOPUSA.com. With the sole exception of Gannon, who says he is compensated, all the "reporters" are volunteers.
Gannon's presence in the White House briefing room is something of an irritant to most of the press corps, which considers his questions at briefings to be preposterous softballs.

And in return, Gannon sometimes writes on his own Web site about his views of the corps and how there is "perhaps no depth to which it will not sink in order to undermine a presidency."

In this view, there is no such thing as journalism; there is only raw politics. According to Media Matters, Gannon said on his radio show January 27 that the White House press corps "deserves to be gone around because they're not telling the truth about Social Security reform."

The key word is deserves. An illegitimate press demands not only national scorn but practical replacement. It is in this sense that "Jeff Gannon" deserved his press pass, Armstrong Williams deserved his $240,000, and Ketchum public relations deserved $97 million of taxpayer money to help the Bush Administration communicate the message. (My sense is that the big uncovered facts in this scandal are to be found there, in the $97 million pot of post-press money that went to Ketchum, a PR firm willing to bend the rules, and help create a replacement for real journalism.)

In the press room of the White House that thinks itself post-press, many of the people who have been de-certified still show up for their jobs each day, expecting some kind of briefing, as if they were, still, the Fourth Estate, as if they yet had some role in national politics. It probably galls the Administration that the ritual with real journalists has to go on, since "they don’t represent the public any more than other people do."

- Jay Rosen

SEE JAY ROSEN'S JAN 19th ARTICLE - Bloggers Are Missing in Action as Ketchum Tests the Conscience of PR

"Maybe this is the way things are done all the time in PR today. It's one of the most plausible explanations we have for the Ketchum contract, the apparent fraudulence of which is roughly parallel to the dubious memos in the Dan Rather case. But there we had bloggers who refused to let go."

SEE LISA STONE'S JANUARY 20th ARTICLE - Ketchum and Bloggers: Who Said What? What Remains? Lisa Stone Reports.

Hope4America

Hope4America

One of my favorite blogs is authored by Patty Ann Smith. Hope4America is like an oasis in the blogosphere. When I search for hope, inspiration, and meditation, she's always there to provide. I'm grateful.

Power Line Writes A Gannon-Shielding Piece of Fantasy

Power Line Writes A Gannon-Shielding Piece of Fantasy
If this is reliable blog journalism, I'm Jeff Gannon J.D. Guckert

I generally don't read much from Power Line. I went there today to have a look. What I found was what I perceive to be a lot of one-sided commentary, which is really no surprise. There seems to be very little balance, which is no surprise. The fact that these people have a direct line to mainstream media (such as CNN and MSNBC), all too often using Hinderaker as a voice for the overall blogging world should be a surprise. It helps me understand why the mainstream is squelching the Guckert/Gannon story. I'll speak more specifically about that in a moment.

Even the usually outspoken Christian Right fears talking about the story of Gannon in the White House Press Corps. And I think this is a shame...it's almost criminal that they are afraid to speak out.

I'm a Christian myself, and here's what I think. If Gannon was gay, I don't care about that aspect of his person. As a matter of fact, he'd have my support for his right to achieve full equality in the eyes of civil law. If he was a prostitute, then he was. Everyone can change. That said, I find Gannon to be a proud and bitter partisan, which has lead him to make false attacks on others who seek the truth about his entry into the White House Press Corps. To provide an example, here is what Jeff Gannon/JD Guckert recently said:

"If I had been a liberal reporter with the salacious past now attributed to me, I would be the Grand Marshall of the next Gay Pride Parade as well as a media darling, able to give softball interviews."

It runs against common values we share Americans to stay silent on this matter. It has nothing to do with Mr. Gannon's ego and everything to do with the White House.

Allow me to get back to the Power Line discussion.

The most utterly surprising Power Line entry I read was the one where shame is cast upon those citizens who want to know why a partisan plagiarizer with no real experience and no news organization (at the time) was given access to our White House. How can Powerline be so bold in their denial and get away with it?
How f**king stupid have we become that our mainstream media (and the public) will be satisfied with such blathering and ineffective excuses from Gannon's right-wing protectors?

In a search to make J.D. Guckert look like a victim, John Hinderaker belittles himself by relieving nearly all personal accountability from JD Guckert and attempting to place it on others.

It is a curious escape from reality, having little to do with the truth of the matter.

Here are some excerpts:

..liberals began “investigating” Gannon.

They found that he was a homosexual and started posting photos of him on their web sites, along with vicious personal attacks.

Gannon, stunned by the virulence of the left’s attack on him, quit his job at Talon.

a poor guy who thought he could put his past behind him and pursue a career as a reporter.

they seized on poor Mr. Gannon, made silly, baseless accusations against him, denounced him for being a homosexual

to distract attention from Jordan

to punish Mr. Gannon.."

Citizens had reason to investigate Guckert.
Guckert/Gannon wasn't the only one who "quit". Talon, the so-called "news organization" he represented, took a holiday itself. Most of their articles were wiped clean off of their website soon after bloggers brought their name to light.
If that doesn't raise a red flag, then I think you must be color-blind.

Gannon was no "poor guy". He was doing well for himself, it seems.

He's even back on the scene now, tilting at windmills of the "Old Media". He's possibly getting off on all the attention.

Who knows? Maybe he'll be the next Rush Limbaugh.

But he didn't belong in the White House Press Corps and we still want to know how and why he was there. The "accusations" made about him were not silly. They were based on real evidence found by a simple internet search.

The distracting/punishing jargon is purely rhetorical.

I think that John Hinderaker's piece was a sad joke made to cover for someone whose situation in the White House should be FULLY investigated to alleviate public distrust and concern.

_____________

One other comment, since I rarely talk about Power Line. That glaring flag of Israel directly under the US flag on the sidebar leads me to believe that there are more than just US interests in mind at Powerline. Our nation supports many friends around the world, so I ask myself why the Powerliners need to stick that one particular flag in our faces? I wonder if Powerline supports the espionage for Israel that has taken place within the OSP?

Gannon has come back with an internet presence, and Americans who respect truth ought to ride him out on a rail and wave a fond bye-bye at the station. Buy Hinderaker a ticket while you're at it.


See World O'Crap blog for a counterpoint to Tom Maguire's "Gannon/Guckert for Dummies"

Sadiq Zoman - Was It What He Did or Who He Was?

Sadiq Zoman -
Was It What He Did
or Who He Was?
My story at: AMERICAN STREET

Excerpt:

"As a teenage boy, Hungarian-born Elie Wiesel was deported with his family to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald, where his parents and younger sister died. In his book “Night”, Mr. Wiesel has left behind a bare-bones record of the horrific experience.

In one scene, late in the story, young Elie is demoralized to the point that he no longer sees a reason to go on living. There he was, a young man who should have everything to look forward to in life…suffering a great loss of meaning and spirit as he was treated worse than an animal by his fellow human beings.

How did his captors see him? Was young Elie something less than human to them? If there is any evil at work in this world, is it when we take the human framework and break it down to something worthless? What allows captors to be capable of such cruelty?

In good conscience, I must ask you this:

Was Sadiq Zoman tortured in Iraq, not for anything he had done, but simply for who he was? Was he tortured for no more than what the totality of his life experience and circumstance had led him to?

Why did Sadiq Zoman deserve such treatment?


Sadiq Zoman



I have read the words of Elie Wiesel and I have cried.

I think of the family of Sadiq Zoman and I shake my head and wonder,
"My God, what have we done? What have we become?"

Please read Mr. Wiesel's words about a terrifying night over 60 years ago.
Consider all....

Excerpt from NIGHT can be seen at American Street

Christopher Locke on Hunter S. Thompson

Christopher Locke on Hunter S. Thompson

QUOTES ABOUT HUNTER S. THOMPSON FROM CHRISTOPHER LOCKE

ON LOCKE'S BOOK, "GONZO MARKETING" : Gonzo Marketing wasn't so much about marketing as about voice -- that indefinable quality of communication that unmistakably signals it's coming from a human being. But not just any old garden-variety human. This is where the indefinable part comes in. And the risk of a perversely inverted elitism. It's simply not possible to weigh or measure voice, but chances are good (if you're not dead from the neck up and the waist down) you'll know it when you hear it. Thompson had voice. [..]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think if there's a reason HST killed himself, I mean, if he really meant to do that, it was some manner of long-delayed reaction to what he describes in this -- to me, the most arresting -- passage of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning...

And that, I think, was the handle - that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting - on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave...

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark - that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

- C. Locke

Dems - "Positioning" Isn’t Enough

Dems - "Positioning" Isn’t Enough

It's all about ideas. You must be firm about what you believe before you can take a stand.

QUOTE FROM "THE PHILOSOPHY GAP" BY MICHAEL TOMASKY:

I’ve been wondering lately, if there’s a deeper answer to the question of greater conservative sense of purpose? What if it’s not just about tactics, but about philosophy? [..]

I know this will sound really silly, but I’d like for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean and every other Democrat who’s interested to read Dewey and Lippmann and have a session in which they sit down and talk about it. Or a much simpler assignment, because it involves less reading and they’re busy people: Read Lyndon Johnson’s historic speech “To Fulfill These Rights” -- his commencement speech at Howard University in 1965 and the strongest philosophical justification for the Great Society that he ever issued in a single place -- and then sit down and debate what he said and figure out what their conclusions about LBJ mean for them today. Or Harry Truman’s speech to Congress laying out the Truman Doctrine. Et cetera, et cetera. [..]

AMERICAN PROSPECT

Irony Lost on American Ears

Irony Lost on
American Ears

JUSTIN WEBB QUOTE: "I talked yesterday about the attractions of the plain speaking President versus the complex Europeans - but there is of course a downside to this simple virtue.

Complexity and texture is sometimes rather satisfying in cooking and in language. At the news conference the German Chancellor said the two men had agreed that they should not emphasise their disagreements.

The faint irony of this comment was lost on American ears. They have reported it as "diplomatic speak" - not as a rather clever and gentle way of disposing of the subject."

LINK- BBC

Plamegate: "One by Two by Six"

Plamegate: "One by Two by Six"

This is important - read this excerpt from an article by Murray Waas - and read it carefully.

Prospect.org/Murray Waas:

According to sources, Rove, in his interview with the FBI, said that he and others on the White House's political staff wanted to contain the political fallout from Wilson's allegations, and that they thought the charge of favoritism was a legitimate issue. Rove added that when he steered others in the direction of the now-disproved charges, he believed them to be true, in part because he regarded Novak as a credible news source.

When the Justice Department investigation began last September, the White House press corps repeatedly questioned White House press secretary Scott McClellan as to whether Rove was the person who leaked Plame's name to Novak. Initially, McClellan said that Rove had denied that he was the leaker.

Then, on September 28, The Washington Post reported:

"Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. `Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge,' the senior official said of the alleged leak. A source said reporters quoted a leaker as describing Wilson's wife as `fair game.'"

A subsequent Newsweek story suggested that the Post had been incorrect in some details. According to the magazine's account, the calls to "at least six Washington journalists" took place after Novak's column appeared, rather than before. Furthermore, Newsweek made an assertion (confirmed by Wilson) that MSNBC talk-show host Chris Matthews called Wilson in July, a full week after Novak's column appeared, telling the former ambassador that "Karl Rove … said your wife was fair game."

When grilled on this variation of Rove's involvement, McClellan became evasive. McClellan insisted that the criminal investigation only centered on "whether someone leaked classified information;" questions regarding the "fair game" report were "down the road of rumor and innuendo and unsubstantiated accusations."

McClellan then warned reporters "not to read anything into what I said," refusing to answer questions about whether it was, in one reporter's words, "ethical for a senior administration official to advance a story about an illegal disclosure of a CIA operative, basically giving that story legs."

McClellan then repeatedly refused to exonerate Rove, according to a transcript of his remarks, instead insisting that any White House comments were merely a matter of "setting the record straight" rather than "spreading information to punish someone for speaking out," something the White House "would not condone."

As a result of the Post report, federal investigators are now hunting for not only the identity of the administration official who leaked Plame's name to Novak but also the administration official who told the paper about the telephone calls to the six other reporters. The investigators believe it likely, according to an attorney familiar with some aspects of the criminal investigation, that the source of the Post story may very well know the identity of the person who leaked Plame's name to Novak.

In interviews with potential witnesses, investigators have taken to referring to the story and its mysterious source as "one by two by six," meaning that one official may know the identity of two other administration officials who spoke to the six reporters.

"If they find 'one by two by six,' then just maybe… they have also found their guy," said one attorney familiar with the criminal investigation.

FULL TEXT available at American Prospect.

Sibel Edmonds is back in the news

Sibel Edmonds is back in the news

Washington, DC, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The Department of Justice has abandoned its claim that allegations made by a fired FBI translator are secret, paving the way for a court case that will air embarrassing allegations about incompetence, poor security and possible espionage in the translation unit of the Bureau's Washington Field Office.

-- WASHINGTON TIMES

Both Houses of Congress Get Involved in 'Gannon' Case

Both Houses of Congress Get Involved in 'Gannon' Case

Editor and Publisher reports:

- Two leaders of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee want the federal prosecutor investigating the Valeria Plame case to subpoena a personal journal of controversial White House reporter James Guckert.

- In addition, E&P has confirmed an online report that Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is circulating a letter among his colleagues that asks President Bush to launch an investigation into how Guckert, who writes under the byline “Jeff Gannon,” gained access to White House press briefings over two years despite having no journalism background and using a false name.

_________________


SEE ACTION ALERT at AMERICAblog - Tell your US Senators to sign the Durbin letter about Gannon

________________


Speaking on condition of anonymity, an aide for Sen. Harry Reid has said the Senator has joined the call for an investigation. SEE RAW STORY

John Kerry has signed on. After making waves on Bill Maher, Joe Biden confuses and disappoints by declining to sign.

Jon Aravosis at Americablog has posted about a World Net Daily article which is highly critical and suspicious toward J.D. Guckert's easy access to the White House Press Corps. Here is an important quote from the WND article by Joseph Farah:

"You might remember the two-year fight WorldNetDaily waged to become credentialed by the Senate Press Gallery. Meanwhile, an activist organization – pretending to be a journalistic one and ensnared in personal scandal – pranced into the White House and secured access to the president of the United States. It raises serious security questions. It raises questions of propriety. It raises questions of judgment. And it raises questions about the role of a free press in a free society."

REPUBLICAN SENATORS MUST JOIN THE CALL FOR AN INVESTIGATION.
CITIZENS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM SHARE CONCERN.

Heidi Anderson:Liberal Media?! Get real!

Heidi Anderson:
Liberal Media?! Get real!

I am leading you to Heidi Anderson's guest column at The Shorthorn, newspaper for the University of Texas at Arlington, where Heidi is a history senior.

No Meaning in Liberal Media -
Phony reporter disproves this bias in broadcasting

Excerpt:

"I did not learn about James Guckert on the local news. I did not hear about him on any cable news networks either. I certainly did not read about him in The Dallas Morning News. I was not informed about this very important story by any of the traditional news media outlets; so I have two words to say to all you conservatives who claim that our news is delivered by a “liberal media”:

"Get real."

_____________

Media Matters: Local US Newspapers speak out

Capital Times (Common Dreams) - Bush's Journalism Jihad Exposed

John Steinberg - Raw Story Column

Salon - 'Gannongate': It's Worse Than You Think

Alternet -

"Behind every scandal of the past few decades -- from Watergate to Iran-Contra -- was a congress controlled by the opposition party. Dems can't issue subpoenas and thus, Hertzberg concludes, Gannongate is likely to end up Nothinggate."

*Nothinggate: See Hendrik Hertzberg

Buzzflash - Mark Crispin Miller Examines Mainstream Media's Blind Eye Towards the Gannongate Sex Scandal

Donald Russo/Morning Call - White House Owes Us an Explanation

Senate Dems Asking for Inquiry on Gannon/Media

Senate Dem Leadership Asking for Inquiry on Gannon/Media

Thank you, Senator Durbin, and all Senators who care about citizens' concern about the state of the media's relatonship with the White House.

U.S. Senators: Please join the call for this inquiry.

Bush In Europe

Bush In Europe
From BushWatch.com
Bush In Europe

Bush Tells Europe United Front Against Iran 'Essential,' But Refuses To Provide It, nyt
Most European Press Believe Bush Words Don't Match His Deeds, nyt
Germans offer a chilly welcome to Bush, Cathy Grieve, BBC
Bush's charm offensive falls foul of Chirac, Settle
Chirac defies Bush on China arms, BBC
Bush Faces European Disagreement On China Arms Embargo, nyt
Bush threatens reprisals over EU arms sales to China, Castle
Chirac urges Bush to offer Iran incentives, AFP
Bush in Europe: tensions boil beneath talk of transatlantic unity, Van Auken
Different Trip, Same Old Bush, Froomkin
More hot air from Bush in Brussels, tehran
Bush warns Russia on the rule of law, Bumiller
Next stop Bratislava and a testing time with his pal Putin, Tisdall
Bush May Feel Chilly Blast From Russians, nyt
Barroso's EU thermostat set on cool for Bush, Vinocur
EU "Keen" To Host Conference On Aid To Iraq, BBC
Iraq clouds Bush's Europe visit, Deccan Herald


Iraq issue is not over, EU tells US, afp
Only friends in hall for Bush's speech, Bowley
Why Europe Matters, Bergmann
Europe: Happy Meals, Harvey+Legum+Baskin
Bush listens to Europe's concerns, Jonathan Marcus, BBC
Ed: Bush's European visit, asahi ed
Europeans, lend Bush your ears, Dale
Pictures: Bush in Europe, Hindustan Times
US and EU: double standards in trade policies, Shahid Javed Burki
All 26 NATO allies will help train Iraqi forces in Europe, AP
Anti-Bush Protesters Dispersed At EU Headquarters, AP

Fun with Random Activities

Fun with Random Activities

From Corpus Callosum who found it at Scrutiny Hooligans from the great Asheville, North Carolina.

1.Grab the nearest book.
2.Open the book to page 123.
3.Find the fifth sentence.
4.Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5.Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

____________

"The American Philosophical Society is described as a company of old women."

- from Goodwin and Co. by Henry David Thoreau from the book Henry David Thoreau : A Writer's JournalEdited with introduction by Laurence Stapleton, English and Political Theory Professor, Bryn Mawr College

John Leo's Way Off The Mark

John Leo's Way Off The Mark

In a recent column about Eason Jordan by John Leo, he says:

Here's the retroframing: Some mainstream media fell back on their traditional view of bloggers as inaccurate, upstart nobodies who dare to criticize their betters. Last week, for instance, The New York Times, which had looked the other way for two weeks, ran a story dripping with disdain. Headlined "Bloggers as News Media Trophy Hunters," it offered a simple-minded view of bloggers as wild conservatives out to collect liberal scalps. The story was laced with quotes assuring us that bloggers are a "lynch mob" of "salivating morons," fanning fears of "the growing power of rampant, unedited dialogue" on the Internet (as opposed to the completely reliable and unrampant reports in mainstream media).

I am a blogger, too.

John Leo probably hasn't read me, but I cannot imagine he hasn't read Press Think, which is the best full-scope discussion of the matter available online. If he had, he couldn't say, unless he was being intellectually dishonest, that the ex-post-facto reports from the mainstream media have come from nothing more than thin air, partisanship, and big ego.

On the contrary, they've come from non-partisan blog discussion and analysis.

I can offer John Leo much more than "retroframing".

I can offer John Leo "of-the-moment" blog reports on what I witnessed. I got on top of the story on February 2 and blogged nearly every day about what I witnessed. Sometimes I blogged more than once in a day about it.

Those conservatives were not wild in their effort to damage what they see as "old media". They were calm, extremely open, extremely vocal, and well-organized.

You can be calm, cool, collected, and still salivate.

John Leo's calling the CNN newsroom "partisan".

I know he's wrong. If they are ignoring stories they shouldn't ignore, that would make them indifferent, avoiding, and ineffective.
Not partisan. That's a mythical acusation.

Look at the title chosen for John Leo's opinion column:

"PARTISAN NEWSROOMS HAD BETTER GET USED TO BLOGGERS"

If you're going to spin at that way, John Leo, then "Partisan columnists had better get used to bloggers", too.

A New Era - American Traditions Gone

A New Era - American Traditions Gone

These are must-reads from some of our best American political writer/bloggers:

Stirling Newberry - The Rise of Rove's Republic

"The old Liberal Democratic order, as great as it was, as filled with magisterial decision, and now deep tradition - is gone. Gone with it are the means by which it channeled partisan anger, personal ambition, and political conflict into decisions wiser than any one individual making them. We are living in a new era, in a new Republic, and as with any moment which brings forth a new order, we must admit of our weaknesses and limitations, but not be hobbled by them, or by any false sense of modesty. We did not chose this moment, it has chosen us. It has chosen us to make choices for others - both here and around the globe, because America is still the mightiest nation on earth. And how we make those choices will yield the words be carved on stones, and perhaps crosses, here and around the world."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dave Johnson - Checks and Balances and the "F-word"

"I think we are entering a new phase of American history. These are not normal times, the pendulum is not swinging back, and historical trends of American politics no longer apply. American democracy was built on a system of checks and balances, and mechanisms of oversight and accountability. But the checks and balances and oversight and accountability are being removed. There is no Congressional oversight of this administration, the Justice Department does not investigate its crimes, the Federalist Society judges block all attempts to enforce the laws and the new media is no longer functional. The military acts as an arm of The Party and The Party is firmly in control of the State. The system of controls and protections that was carefully built over the last two centuries was put in place for reasons, by people who learned the lessons of history. I can not think of a time in history when a society left itself so wide open to tyranny from its leadership without it occurring."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Dave Neiwert - Series on the Rise of Pseudo Fascism in the U.S., Part One

Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Conclusion

"Bush with a mandate will be Bush Unleashed, and the volatility of this election will likely release a lot of pent-up frustrations at liberals, but it's difficult to say how high the levels of violence are likely to be. On the other hand, the conservative movement's totalitarian impulses, particularly in gerrymandering the political system a la Texas, to ensure the GOP's continued political dominance, raise the chilling prospect of, at the very best, a Stalinist/PRI-style one-party state, where every person in the government is first a member of the party. This shift will be more incremental in nature, but there is also bound to be a breaking point at which a cumulative reaction arises against it."

Robert Kennedy Jr has used the F-word

I have used the F-word

Hearts and Minds At Work

Hearts and Minds At Work




the peaceful uprising

hearts and minds
doing the real work
the bone-deep work
of freedom

no guns
no bombs
clear voices
one mind

syria
cannot
stay
here

hearts and minds
have decided
upon their
own direction

AP/CNN photos

Notes:

- Today, President Bush demanded an end to Syria's "occupation" of Lebanon

- Syrian withdrawal is already a part of Syrian policy.

- Syrian political activists, on Sunday, supported calls for their country to withdraw the troops but expressed concern at the level of anti-Syrian protests in Lebanon.

- More than 40 of Lebanon's 128 MPs have called on the international community to back their peaceful "uprising for independence" and accused the government and its political masters in Damascus of having a hand in Rafiq Hariri's assassination.

- President of France, Jacques Chirac is adamant about having the process of the Syrian withdrawal and Hizbullah's disarmament be monitored by the U.N. France and the United States sponsored U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, which essentially calls on Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon and to stop interfering in Lebanese politics. Chirac has recently said that Lebanese parliamentary spring elections "will only be credible" if the resolution is applied. He said France wanted to see a "fully sovereign and democratic Lebanon."


- Lebanon's Defence Minister Abdel Rahim Mrad said his government was poised to boycott a UN probe into the death of former Premier Rafiq Hariri, a move likely to put Lebanon on a collision course with both the former mandatory power and the United States. Some news reports are saying the Lebanese government will cooperate.

_ Some American conservatives are concerned about the Hariri assassination and the blame that is being thrown at Syria's Bashar, who, if he did have anything to do with it, would have to be "the dumbest *#$!* man on the planet."

"This atrocity has the look of a false-flag operation to goad a volatile president into an attack on Syria. And, indeed, the cries are coming from the predictable quarters for Bush to let the missiles fly."

- Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has defended his nation's role in Lebanon by arguing that if Syria pulled out, the Lebanese would slip back toward civil war. Bashar has implied that forcing a Syrian withdrawal could reignite Lebanon.

To the U.S. Congress:

After Iraq, we citizens have good reason to be concerned. We have good reasons not to trust the Bush administration. Public opinion polls have borne out the truth about our deep-rooted suspicion. These sound like unnecessary war drums coming from the Bush administration. Please, do your sworn duty to the people of America this time. Let's not allow President Bush to lead us to unnecessary war with Syria.

"Buckle up and watch your backs"

"Buckle up and watch your backs"


Hunter S. Thompson 1937 - 2005

Winston Churchill said "The first casualty of War is always Truth." Churchill also said "In wartime, the Truth is so precious that it should always be surrounded by a bodyguard of Lies."

That wisdom will not be much comfort to babies born last week. The first news they get in this world will be News subjected to Military Censorship. That is a given in wartime, along with massive campaigns of deliberately-planted "Dis-information." That is routine behavior in Wartime -- for all countries and all combatants -- and it makes life difficult for people who value real news. Count on it. That is what Churchill meant when he talked about Truth being the first casualty of War.

From: When War Drums roll

See Rox Populi for a collection of Hunter S. Thompson links

Blogs and Mainstream - A new balance of power

Blogs and Mainstream - A new balance of power

"There is something in the virtual air and the winds of change seem to be blowing harder".

At Blogcritics.org, Margaret Romao Tolgo provides an analysis of how blogs are making their way into the mainstream and are directly affecting the news.

I couldn't agree more with this comment by Ms. Tolgo:

The blogger coverage of Gannongate appears to have fallen victim to partisan spin that spun out of control. In their zeal to discredit Mr. Guckert/Gannon, the bloggers covering him got caught up in a salacious sidestory and lost sight of the most important issue which was suspicion that the White House might be engaging in the manipulation of the press -- a most grave breech of our founding principles, if it is true -- not that Mr. Guckert/Gannon used a pseudonym..or registered domains for gay pornography sites after having written anti-gay articles.

In the story of J.D. Guckert, it isn't too late for the bloggers to steer and steady their course toward the "most important point". I have been stressing this point since the blog-story broke. While the tawdry gay-escort portion of the tale is relevant to the story, the bigger issues must remain the focus. As evidenced in yesterday's Washington Post Ombudsman's editorial, the bloggers have done their job in bringing Guckert's situation to the forefront. The mainstream, if you believe Michael Getler, will now seize this story as "their own".


I was quoted in Ms. Tolgo's article:

Jude Nagurney Camwell of The American Street offered this assesment (sic), "The ‘Right-wing mouth machine’ would like us all to think that Eason Jordan was 'bad' and 'unAmerican' for saying what he said. CNN has been complicit by their reticence to talk about tough issues. They wound up to be the biggest loser. They lost Eason Jordan. Eason was guilty before being proven innocent by no other process except one: the blog-trial."

I stress my point once more:

Eason Jordan lost his position with CNN due to a blog trial. There was never a mainstream media discussion. The Star Tribune has a piece (ex post facto) about the Eason Jordan case, pointing out the fact that Jordan was out of a job before some major media outlets even reported there was a controversy.

Right wing blogs seized the moment in the case of Jordan.

CNN allowed themselves to be abused by the court of the right-wing in the rolling vigilante thunder of the new storm called the blog-mob.


In the Star Tribune article, there are statements from Bill Roggio, a New Jersey computer technician who helped put together the Easongate.com Web site

"I think that we're definitely being accused of going on a witchhunt and I think that was unfortunate."

From a rational standpoint, this looked as if it was, indeed, a concerted political effort to promote an activism which has become all too familiar to call it anything less than a witchhunt.

Easongate: J'accuse.

"The reason a story like this broke is because the media ignored it and the bloggers pursued it."

The "reason" the story broke, I would respectfully contend, is due to the inescapable fact that people with a political agenda (which they cannot deny or rationalize away) wanted to make Jordan's statement a focal point in the headlines.

Roggio says he believes 'Jordan's resignation was justified'. I could not disagree with him more. There was no fireable offense committed by Eason Jordan. There was no public debate, other than the trial-by-blog by a non-balanced right-wing kangaroo court which seems to wield an unreasonably weighted influence upon the mainstream media today.

Roggio dons a mask of hypocrisy when asked for a statement about the J.D. Guckert story that is just now heating up in the mainstream and coming up for public debate in the mainstream arena. Bloggers uncovered evidence linking Guckert to online sites suggestive of gay pornography. Roggio says:

"That's ugly. It's an embarrassment to me as a blogger."

I wonder if Mr. Roggio might think that a person posing as a trusted and seasoned journalist, getting [far] too-easily credentialed for the White House Press corps, is a situation in which he should have any concern, especially when we've learned that the news organization Guckert represented did not even become a "news organization" until after he'd somehow squeezed his way into the White House press room?

Why wouldn't Bill Roggio care about this story unless he was politically motivated to want to sweep it under a rug?

More importantly, why would he see the citizen-journalists' act of uncovering the story as "ugly" in any way, shape or form?

No one has made up stories about J.D. Guckert. If the truth surrounding J.D. Guckert is ugly, we can only blame the light of day.

Who can be embarrassed by the light of day?

Putting Guckert's unusual activities in the White House Press corps into clear focus will work to expose the same right-wing misinformation-carousel that has caused Eason Jordan to lose his position by no more than an unjust blog-mob tarnishing.

It's no shame for the Bush administration to shape their agenda.
It is against every common American value we share for the administration to use the media to twist reality and truth to fit its agenda.

Any possibility whatsoever that Guckert was allowed to be in that room to assist that perversion of reality on behalf of the Executive is worthy of a high level of investigation.

It's time for reasonable and caring citizens to put a stop to this political manipulation of American journalism.

That concern isn't ugly.
It's based upon shared American values.

Gannon May Sue Bloggers

Run, Guckert, run
from thyself, ye shall run
and by the truth say we
'tis none but the fault o'the light o' day

Gannon May Sue Bloggers
Get this:

Jeff Gannon is considering suing liberal interest groups, bloggers and others for a "political assassination" that drove him from his job as a reporter for a conservative news outfit called Talon News, he told NEWSWEEK.

If he's going to take such little responsibility for his own actions, perhaps he'd better sue the Bush administration, too, for allowing him to become a story. Karl Rove mistakenly thought the news was something he could manipulate, package and sell to all of us. He expected we'd never question it at all. Or that we'd be intimidated from free speech - from asking and pointing to truths uncovered by investigation - under the scary threat of pending lawsuits.

Yes. Guckert had best add the Bush administration to his list of all the defendants who caused him to run away - from himself.

Lotsa luck, "Guck".




Photo credit: fusionanomaly.net

Mme Ebadi Calls For Judicial Reforms in Iran

"We want justice, not political turmoil."

- Mme Shirin Ebadi

Mme Ebadi Calls For Judicial Reforms in Iran

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi is calling for judiciary reforms in Iran, claiming that many political prisoners in the country are not granted access to a lawyer.She said that just because people like her are struggling for human rights and justice does not make them political opponents.

Ebadi, the 2003 Peace Prize winner, was speaking at a human rights meeting in Tehran.

She said any accused person has the right to have a lawyer. Ebadi said even the judiciary chief himself has stressed this irrefutable right, but she said that many, mainly political, prisoners cannot avail themselves of it.

She said that she was jailed for representing students involved in protest demonstrations and her colleague, Nasser Zarafshan, is still in jail for having taken on the 1999 controversial case of slain Iranian dissidents.

WP:Why Gannon is "A Story"

Washington Post:
Why Gannon is "A Story"

I offer an important mainstream media opinion to those of my readers who have chastised me (on and off this blog) about what they see as partisan "screeching" about Jeff Gannon.
The Washington Post concurs with my view.
This is a non-partisan and relevant issue.
WP Ombudsman Michael Getler explains why.

The events, questions and controversies surrounding Sept. 11, 2001, and the subsequent war in Iraq, are like bones in the throat for millions of people. For many, they are also seen as a partisan issue. But for others, they are not partisan. It is a matter of wanting to know everything we can about what was known, said and done. That's the journalist's role. Every piece of the puzzle deserves to be looked at and reported on by journalists who have followed these events closely. These two documents added to the historical record and merited more attention.

Many more readers were exercised last week about the bizarre case of James Dale Guckert, aka "Jeff Gannon," the conservative "reporter" who worked for such organizations as Talon News and GOPUSA, and who managed to get himself regularly cleared into White House news briefings, and who asked a question at a presidential news conference about Democrats who he said "seem to have divorced themselves from reality."

Here's how one reader put it: "I don't understand why The Post has turned the 'Jeff Gannon' story into yet another piece about bloggers. The story happened to be broken by bloggers, to their credit. But the story has two serious elements that The Post should report out on its own: 1) How is it that in an era when we have to take our shoes off to get on an airplane, a guy gains access to the White House with an alias on his ID badge? I don't believe that has yet been answered; 2) To what extent was granting 'Gannon' access another form of buying or manipulating the news? These are important questions." I agree."

We Must Not Act Out of Fear

We Must Not Act Out of Fear

My adopted son was born in West Africa. When he was 10 there was a civil war. He was left alone without care, food, school or safety. At 11, he was forced to become a soldier. He was told he could avenge the death of his parents.I met him when he was 15. He had escaped the army and found his sanity again. He said, "I realize now that revenge only produces revenge. There is no end to revenge.We must simply stop."

During the war in Sierra Leone I spoke to my son every Friday morning. While waiting for permission for him to come to this country, I could not immediately change his life in Africa or slip him through the phone wire as I liked to imagine. But I could offer some relief from excruciating bouts of fear and hopelessness, and the hurtling energy of frustration that re-instigated his earlier trauma.I suggested he try to distinguish between when he was caught up in stories about frustration, panic and fear, and when he felt alert, regardless of feeling or circumstance.

By sitting down at the moment the fear began, and becoming familiar with the details of where he was at the moment, he was able to place his attention on his feet and hands, back and belly.

Just like the shopkeeper as he sits with his tea, my son discovered that what he was feeling could be experienced and tolerated. He was able to calm himself and be of help to others.

There are so many ways in our everyday lives in which we can be drawn out of a sense of wakeful balance and become victims of our impulses. In that moment we have no power. We become like the two friends who propose to battle over the length of a moustache. The awareness that lets us rest our minds before acting out of fear is the same awareness that produces the joy of creative problem-solving and generosity that brings peace in adverse circumstances.

- Laura Simms, one of the nation's leading storytellers helping to bridge differences between students divided by racial and cultural strife.

There Is Only One of Us Here

There Is Only One of Us Here

Through the curtain the daylight crept
I looked at my lover as she slept
And as I watched her face I wept
It was a wonderful disguise.

Mike Scott (of Waterboys fame) recites the strangers he encounters throughout the day: a driver turning to look at him in traffic; a blind man addressing him outside a museum; a fat woman in a queue; a drunk on the stairs as he returns home; and the president “on the news at 10, looking like he could use a friend.” All of them, he decides, wearing a wonderful disguise.

Stood in front of the mirror all alone
Examined my features, skin and bone
Looked at the face I’ve always known
It was a wonderful disguise.

He explained the inspiration by email. “I was living in the Findhorn community in the mid 1990s and started to see divinity in peoples’ faces, in their eyes. I told a more experienced community friend and she said ‘you are seeing God in all his wonderful disguises’. I knew in my heart then she was right – and now I know it in my whole being.”
“Findhorn changed the way I look at life and other people forever,” he noted on the Waterboys’ official website. “I realized everyone really is the same deep underneath, with the same longing to love and be loved.

Behind all our appearances, as one writer says,
‘There is only one of us here.’”


*A tip of the hat to Jerry Katz

Jonathan Schell on Iraq's Unpredictable Politics

Jonathan Schell on Iraq's Unpredictable Politics

Last year I commented that the U.S. assault on Fallujah would probably work against the intended goal of a healthy liberal democracy in Iraq.

Judging from what we know, so far, about the results of January's election in Iraq, I think my prediction bore much truth.

There were many happy purple fingered people in Iraq. The fingers belonged to the Shiite and Kurd population, for the better part. It would be dishonest for me to say that I am not happy that the voters in Iraq literally risked their lives for the hope of something better. Hope does not translate to reality, as we well know from our own nation's past two presidential elections. In the case of Iraq, when the hoped-for "better" falls out, I think what we will really see is a push for a separation of the varied tribes of the land rather than the growth of united and proud nationalism.

Jonathan Schell says it very well. (subscription required for link) His recent Nation article explains the "falling out" and the realistic truth that surrounds the results of January's election. Schell says:

"What the election was not was a decision by "the Iraqi people." It's not even clear that at this moment there is such a thing as the Iraqi people. Opinion among scholars and others is divided on the point. Iraq is a nation without a constitution (it is governed by a Transitional Administrative Law) and without a state. If some observers are correct, it is also a nation without a nation."

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was offering the elections as a means of ending the occupation while he was, at the same time, relying upon the U.S. occupation to make the elections happen. Terror attacks occurred, largely by Sunni insurgents upon Shiites. Because of Sistani's leadership and insistence upon the January election date, Shiites did not retaliate. The Sunnis knew they could still boycott the voting, and, in Schell's words, "the great majority of them reportedly did, but they failed to stop it entirely."

As a result, al-Sistani may have been able to win power, but he may still be unable to found a just new order in Iraq. In Schell's words:

All the parties express a desire to avoid civil war, but there is a distinct possibility that what the vote strengthened was not "the Iraqi people" but each of the subgroups. The high vote of the Shiites and the low vote of the Sunnis may have carried the same message: When all is said and done, we are more faithful to the interest of our own group than to a unified Iraq. The very steps Sistani took to achieve the Shiite electoral triumph may turn out to have fatally undermined any future government. When he acquiesced in the smashing of Falluja, he passed up an opportunity for national solidarity that may not come soon again. The danger for the Shiite leadership is that by associating themselves with an occupying power, they will--even among many Shiites--throw away the legitimacy that the election has just given them. Then all hopes, including those so movingly expressed on January 30, will have been betrayed.

Schell ponders the wisdom of an extended U.S. presence in Iraq, saying that "the danger for the United States in staying is that it will wind up on one side of a civil war that its presence will continually exacerbate but be unable to quell."

Gannon Headlines

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