Omar & Muhammad: Propagandists?

"Many people (notably, Prof. Juan Cole, but there are others) think that Omar & Muhammad might be part of a Administration spin campaign--an accusation that, given this Administration's, shall we say, problematic relationship with truth and reality, isn't too far-fetched.."

Omar & Muhammad: Propagandists?

"...the issue of the Iraq War is very emotional for a lot of people, including me. This is the first war, after all, in which we chose to go to war. People invested a lot of their credibility, on both sides, on the outcome of the war. Seeing as how it's turned out so far, how can anybody be surprised at the heat of the rhetoric? People who were, and remain, pro-war, are now in the position of grasping at anything, no matter how tenuous, in order to justify their position, which in hindsight, was the wrong one to take.

I think what Omar & Muhammad are doing in Iraq is courageous, and if that tragic land is going to have any shot at freedom, it's going to be because of people like them, who take a bold leap into the unknown maelstrom of democracy. I salute their efforts, and if I have a chance to tell them face to face, I'll do so.

Nevertheless, no matter how badly, how earnestly [Jeff] Jarvis and other pro-war bloggers wish it to be otherwise, the majority of Iraqis are highly opposed to our occupation of Iraq. And in that context, someone like Riverbend is more reflective of what Ahmed in the souk really feels."

--Arkhangel

Bureaucratic Nightmare: Shirin Ebadi Book Squelched by US Government

Bureaucratic Nightmare: Shirin Ebadi Book Squelched by US Government



Shirin Ebadi is one of my personal heroines. I was flabbergasted to read the guest editorial at Juan Cole's Informed Comment today. It was written by William Fisher,who has managed economic development programs in the Middle East for the US State Department and the US Agency for International Development, and served in the international affairs area in the Kennedy administration.

Mr. Fisher claims that Iranian human rights activist/Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and her literary agent are suing the U.S. Treasury Department - and the Treasury Department obviously hasn’t yet told our State Department. Due to US governmental bureaucracy, a virtual "tipping of the hat" to Iranian law is being allowed to squelch the publication of Mme. Ebadi's new book in the United States. The Treasury Department has ruled it illegal “to enhance the value of anything created in Iran without permission” -- including books. As current laws stand, if Mme. Ebadi's literary agent were to help prepare the manuscript to Mme. Ebadi's new book for an American audience, both she and Mme. Ebadi would be subject to punishment -- 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for an individual or $1 million for a publishing house.

William Fisher says:

"Publication of the Ebadi book in the US would be perfectly OK with Treasury if the book were already published in Iran. But the Catch-22 here is that the ayatollahs have already foreclosed this option.

And now an anachronistic US law is having the same effect."

UPDATE: The WSJ reports that a lawyer for Mme. Ebadi has said that new regulations have been written for Treasury which "might be sufficient to end the lawsuit".

*Thanks to Jaded Reality for pointing this out to me.

The Reindeer Shoe by Billy Jones

The Reindeer Shoe
A Christmas Story For All




How would you like to read a Christmas story that will warm your heart and put you in the spirit of this holiday season?


I suggest that you read The Reindeer Shoe by Billy Jones, also known as Billy the Blogging Poet.


It begins with Billy's foreward, an interesting history of what we know today as the Christmas celebration. Then begins his magical tale, a new classic for all to enjoy- regardless of our age.





Billy is mentioned at Jay Rosen's Press Think today for his involvement with the Greensboro101 blogging community. Ed Cone is also given the honor he's due for his efforts in knitting the community together. The people in Greensboro have such talent - and such heart! I wonder - is it something in the drinking water? Whatever it is, it makes you wish you were there.

We'll miss you, Bill Moyers

"I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," Moyers said. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people....


We'll miss you, Bill Moyers

As a blogger, I want Bill Moyers to know how he has inspired people like me. It's because of Bill's desire to keep democracy alive through conversation that I am here, inspired to keep Bill's dream alive. I can't begin to tell you how much I'll miss NOW. The last show will air on PBS tonight.

There was a repeated broadcast of a wonderful interview which Bill gave to Terry Gross on today's NPR show, Fresh Air, and I will link the interview once it's available.

The Star Tribune has an article about Bill: After three decades, Bill Moyers calls it a career

The New York Times' headline reads: Moyers Leaves a Public Affairs Pulpit With Sermons to Spare

At Al-Jazeerah, Sam Hamod says: Goodbye, Bill Moyers: Some Praise and Some Criticisms of Moyers and PBS

The Nation talks about Our Debt to Bill Moyers

Front PAge magazine bids Bill 'adieu'.

Godspeed, Bill. Whatever you choose to do in this life from here on in, I hope you will understand, in fullness, just how much you've meant to us.

Berkeley Pries Open Votergate

The day after electors cast votes at state capitols nationwide, at the regular meeting of the Berkeley City Council, half the public speakers expressed concern for democracy, given problems on Nov. 2 including minority and student vote suppression.

Berkeley Pries Open Votergate
A Resolution that the GAO Immediately Investigate 2004 Elections
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 15, 2004

Berkeley Pries Open Votergate,
Calls for Immediate Investigation of 2004 Election.

From Press Release:

Home of the free speech movement, Berkeley often tackles injustices. After hearing the citizens speak at the Tuesday night meeting, Mayor Tom Bates proclaimed, "Nothing is more fundamental than a free, fair election. When you start tinkering with that, it throws the whole system into disarray. I am pleased that we are taking this stand." The City Council then adopted, by unanimous consent, the "Resolution Supporting the Request that the GAO Immediately Undertake an Investigation of Voting Irregularities in the 2004 Elections." It is posted on the web at www.berkeleyresolution.blogspot.com.

Home

The waters of home
flow sweetly as winter
approaches with promise
to steal the colors which
caused enchantment this day



*I took this photo on a walk near my home in early November.

Brad Friedman:Updates on Ohio and Clint Curtis case

Brad Friedman:
Updates on Ohio and Clint Curtis case

Freelance journalist Brad Friedman never ceases to amaze. He has posted Yang's (YEI's) full response to the Clinton Curtis charges and has provided a response of his own.

Brad also informs us that Greens, Libertarians, along with Kerry-Edwards 2004 have just added "election tampering" to a civil suit filed against the state of Ohio. The fine folks at RAW STORY have the scoop and the court documents online.

Brad leads us to a WP story by staff writers Michael Powell and Peter Slevin, titled Several Factors Contributed to 'Lost' Voters in Ohio, which cites electoral problems which prevented many thousands of Ohioans from voting on Nov. 2. While "most senior state officials, Republican and Democratic alike, tend to play down the anger" over Ohio, the article leads you to understand this isn't all about conspiracy theory and tin-foil headgear. Some are saying that this is too little too late; that journalists are framing this too lightly; that they weren't out there doing theire job while the vote in Ohio (and God knows where else) was very possibly manipulated.

Ray Beckerman's Ohio Election Fraud will keep you up to date on many Ohio developments, including the Triad Vote Machine tampering/pending recount lawsuit.

US Embroiled in Iraq's Civil War

US Embroiled in Iraq's
Civil War

Bomb at Iraqi Shiite shrine Kills 7, wounds 32

Another attack upon a Shiite shrine in Iraq today.

As Sunnis pull away from the "democratic" electoral process and continue attacks upon holy Shiite places - targeting Shiite clerics - how long do you suppose the Bush administration can keep blaming Syria and Iran for what the Iraqi Sunnis have consciously chosen to do?

How long will it be before a Shiite fundamentalist comes to power through a lopsided vote?
How long before a newly-elected Iraqi leader commands that the US occupation forces make attacks upon Sunni strongholds?
Isn't that what we're already doing?
Are we pawns caught in the middle of Iraq's civil war?
How could George W. Bush have allowed this to happen to our military?

Helping Iraq is one thing - if Iraq had chosen to willingly help themselves. They have not proven to be willing to fight for their own nation. I've never seen a genuine intent on their part.

I think it's now a full blown civil war in Iraq.

January 30th may bring elections, but we cannot expect those elections to bring the kind of democracy that will curtail civil war within Iraq. In the light of this knowlege, the war has been a complete and utter failure. I hang my head in sorrow for all who've been caught up in this disaster.

The Splendid Failure of Occupation, Pt 23

The Splendid Failure of Occupation
Part 23: Dick Cheney, reshaping history with an ax
By B. J. Sabri
Online Journal Contributing Writer
LINK

Excerpt:

...think of Cheney and his reinterpretation of world history and relate that to Zionism, the locomotive of the neoconservatives ideology for world power, and then, think of Fallujah, the small Iraqi city the U.S. turned into rubble.

The instant we juxtaposed Cheney to these new ideas, our original thought stops, discards Halliburton, and begins searching for new relations with Cheney still at the center. Because Vice President Cheney is a pillar of hyper-imperialism, he is a means to understand America’s war on Iraq, and the militarist thrust to impose a durable U.S. world hegemony.

Accordingly, I shall discuss Cheney from five viewpoints: 1) Empire vs. imperialism; 2) U.N. resolutions as war alibis; 3) 9/11 as a rationale for Iraq’s conquest; 4) interaction with Zionism and vice versa; and 5) Falluja as a symbol for Cheney’s “American Modified and Accepted Hitlerism.”

From Part 23 of a series of articles written by B.J. Sabri, an Iraqi-American antiwar activist. The next part will be - Part 24: Dick Cheney: rewriting history with a shovel

Kerik Fest

photo from The Age

Kerik Fest

Omigoodgawd!

It's no wonder he never smiles!

'New Testament'according to Iddybud - joke

McMount McCavalry

'New Testament'according to Iddybud
*joke*

"To her husband's surprise the Virgin Zhood was pregnant with child. Fortunately for Virgin Zhood, an angel explained that her child was Harmonious Christ, the world's lord and cooter farmer, the glorious Husband of God. At his birth angels told shepherds in the field to follow the shining pone to find him. Also, three scented doghead dogs came bearing gifts of taters and beans. Yea verily, and it came to pass, after Harmonious Christ was baptized by being submerged in mule deer he gave the sermon on the stew. At the sermon on the stew Harmonious Christ taught: Blessed are the mealy for they shall take the legs, and furry are the bucks for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Harmonious Christ also performed many miracles such as when he turned Ears of Corn into Yogurt heads at his friend's wedding, and made the lovely man not so lovely. Unfortunately the rulers became angry with the influence of Harmonious Christ, So they gave him but a lovestick. But someday he will return in magnificent glory... So tithe and watch your back!!"

Okay, I need to explain this to you, dear readers. I had no clue what I was writing when I played the game at: New Testament Instant Religion Creator. There are other opportunities to write scripture at: RELIGION CREATOR. Knock yourself out.

I sincerely hope it doesn't offend. It's all in fun.

Viktor Bout's ties to the U.S. military

Viktor Bout's ties to the U.S. military

Last summer, I asked Who Is Viktor Bout--and why do they call him "The Merchant of Death"?

Laura Rozen has been following the story. According to her December 13th blog,

"Douglas Farah flags quite a scoop by Newsweek's Michael Isikoff. Not only has notorious "Merchant of Death" blood-diamonds trafficker Victor Bout been flying ammunition into Iraq under US government contract. It's been flying it in for Kellogg, Brown & Root, the subisidiary of Dick Cheney's Halliburton. Not once or twice or a dozen times: 142 times."

The most recent update at Ms Rozen's site includes an article by the LA Times on Bout's contracts with the US government.

Alex Harrowell (aka the Yorkshire Ranter) has been covering the story as well.

See: UN/Liberia/Bout -page 62-63

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

At today's DoD Special Defense Department Briefing on Iraq Reconstruction: - LINK
*Mr. Hess is Charlie Hess, who is the director of the Project and Contracting Office in Iraq

Q: There are reports that air cargo companies affiliated with a Russian arms dealer by the name of Viktor -- I'm probably mispronouncing it -- Bout, B-o-u-t -- have received a fair amount of business in Iraq despite the fact that he's on a Treasury Department blacklist. Do you know anything about it, first of all? And do you have any mechanisms in place to ensure that that kind of thing doesn't happen?

MR. HESS: Well, in terms of our contracts -- and that certainly does not sound like one, is is not one that I am familiar with at all -- but our contracts, our contracting officers will certainly look at the debarred contract list and at the embargoed contractor list to make sure that we're not dealing with firms that are, in fact, precluded from working with the U.S. government.

Q: But you don't have any information about --

MR. HESS: I have no information on this one whatsoever. I mean, if you could give me some more information about what they're doing. Is this a service contract of some sort, I take it?

Q: All I know is air cargo.

MR. HESS: I have not heard anything about that. But if you had some details, we can certainly check into it.

You Go To War With What You Have

"You Go to War With What You Have"
A Poem to Donald Rumsfeld from the Troops
by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Why do we soldiers dig and beg
While fighting in this powderkeg?
You lied to send our units here
In danger, without proper gear

We finally asked you to your face
Why our armor’s not in place
You looked at us as if we’re dumb
Your hands flew ‘round the podium

"You go to war with what you have", you rail
"I see violence! We must prevail!
The war’s an ugly dang’rous one
A lot’s not right; it isn’t fun."

You told us freedom's on our side,
Our enemies have no place to hide
And human history sweeps freedom true
Well, Rumsfeld, we've got news for you

"What you have" are good, good men
Who trusted when you began
This war to liberate Iraq
and find the WMDs in stock

Turns out there wasn't a WMD one
But still you kept us on the run
By telling us we'd liberate
A nation that we've learned to hate

Each brother forced to deathbed calm
by RPG, trap, and sucide bomb
Regrets they ever bit this dust
Or ever learned to loyally trust.

They went to war with what they had-
A thing called life, you ignorant cad!
And all you say is, "You can have all
the armor in the world and you still might fall."

It doesn't take the smartest guy
To figure out that you would lie
To your own Grandma if you thought it might
Get her to come to Iraq to fight.

Copyright Jude/Iddybud 2004

Before He Went To War-A song by Patty Ann Smith

Before He Went To War-A song by Patty Ann Smith

"BEFORE HE WENT TO WAR"

This is a song that Patty Ann Smith of Hope4America has written about her brother, Bob, a Vietnam Vet who died in 2003.
She dedicates this song to all of our troops both past and present.
Click here to download free at Scrub Records: http://scrubrecords.com//artists/918/

Harvard's Other Rock Star: Andrew Morgan

Music:
Harvard's Other Rock Star: Andrew Morgan
Meet Nietzsche's answer to Britney Spears.
By Justine Nagurney
Harvard Independent, 9 Dec 2004

"Essentially what I'll be attempting is to integrate the heart of Nietzsche's critique of Christianity into pop song structure," Morgan told me in an interview. "The intent behind an integration of Nietzsche's critique and pop music is one of subversion - accessing the widest possible mainstream audience in order to introduce content that would challenge the current manipulations of religious language and dogma by undercutting the basis for such actions. [ .. ] Twenty-two musicians (including former Built to Spill cellist John McMahon), five years, and at least as many cities in the making, Misadventures in Radiology ultimately came into being as a result of the goodwill of the late Elliott Smith, to whom the album is dedicated.."

- Justine Nagurney '06

House Rep Cynthia Davis Owes Apology to Citizens and Colleagues

House Rep Cynthia Davis Owes Apology to Citizens and Colleagues


Davis

I saw this quote at Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, and I think it bears repeating, if only to point out what is gut-worst in some of our elected representatives. Missouri Representative Cynthia Davis is allegedly speaking for her "common sense" and "grassroots" constituency in Missouri while comparing liberalism to terrorism:

"It's like when the hijackers took over those four planes on Sept. 11 and took people to a place where they didn't want to go," she added. "I think a lot of people feel that liberals have taken our country somewhere we don't want to go. I think a lot more people realize this is our country and we're going to take it back."

Rep Cynthia Davis is not only speaking in an unstatesman-like manner, she is a nothing more than a hateful-sounding partisan for making such comparison. She is not representing common sense. She is boldly representing what is so very wrong with America today. She owes at least half the population of the United States (and her colleagues) an apology.

Clinton Curtis' "show stopper" testimony causes "gasps" at hearing

Clinton Curtis' "show stopper" testimony causes "gasps" at hearing
Daily Kos diary, Spiral Stairs, 14 December, 2004

There is a transcript of a video of Curtis' Ohio Democratic House Judiciary Committee testimony at Daily Kos and Raw Story.

Credit for the story belongs to Brad Blog.

Other references:

Mark Adams is covering this story at Dispassionate Liberalism.

see Who Is Clinton Curtis? Iddybud, 12 Dec 2004

Deceiving America

Deceiving America

U.S. military charters call for giving truthful information to the media and the public, and must be reconciled with the Pentagon's bitter current debate over how far it can go in creating propaganda to influence opinion abroad.

Will Americans soon be totally deceived by their government about war? Sometimes it can't be helped, if you ask Brig General Mark Kimmitt, who now serves as deputy director of plans for the American military command in the Middle East. It's a tough business, but sometimes we just have to learn to accept outright lies because of "conflicting principles". (Is this sounding acceptable to you yet?)


According to the NY Times:

"This is tough business," said General Kimmitt.

"Are we trying to inform? Yes. Do we offer perspective? Yes. Do we offer military judgment? Yes.

Must we tell the truth to stay credible? Yes. Is there a battlefield value in deceiving the enemy? Yes. Do we intentionally deceive the American people? No."

The rub, General Kimmitt said, is operating among those sometimes conflicting principles.

"There is a gray area," he said. "Tactical and operational deception are proper and legal on the battlefield." But "in a worldwide media environment," he asked, "how do you prevent that deception from spilling out from the battlefield and inadvertently deceiving the American people?"

New Yogananda Book May Change View of Jesus

photo credit: www.reluctant-messenger.com

New Yogananda Book May Change View of Jesus

52 years after his death, a book compiled from decades of Paramahansa Yogananda's speeches and writings is being published by his Los Angeles-based Self-Realization Fellowship. "The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of Christ Within You," is a book which offers Yogananda's ideas about the deeper meaning of Jesus' teachings and their essential unity with yoga. Yogananda believed these major teachings were lost to institutional Christianity. The "bridge-building book" will offer intricate discourse on various Gospel passages and may change the way people see Jesus, according to USC professor emeritus and specialist in world religions, Robert Ellwood.

According to Amazon.com's editorial review:

"Yogananda takes the reader on a profoundly enriching journey through the four Gospels. Verse by verse, he illumines the uni­versal path to oneness with God taught by Jesus to his immediate dis­ciples but obscured through cen­turies of misinter­pretation: "how to become like Christ, how to resurrect the Eternal Christ within one’s self."
Never before available in its entirety, this landmark work by one of the most revered spiritual teachers of our time transcends divisive sectarianism to reveal a unifying harmony underlying all true religions. A groundbreaking synthesis of East and West, it imparts the life-transforming realization that each of us can experience for ourselves the promised Second Coming -- awakening of the all-fulfilling Divine Consciousness latent within our souls.."

LA Times writer Teresa Wantanabe says:

The guru did not focus on a literal return of Jesus. Rather, he said, the significant Second Coming involved a return of the "Christ consciousness" of divine intelligence, wisdom and perception that was incarnate in Jesus and other masters, such as Krishna of India. As it spreads among seekers, it will bring peace and harmony, he said.

Yogananda also says that John's puzzling Book of Revelation is not a treatise on Armageddon and the final days before Christ's Second Coming, as perceived by many Christians. He says John, whom he described as the most deeply mystical of Jesus' disciples, was providing a road map to divine union using yoga techniques [...]

..If the book confounds or offends traditionalists, however, Chappel and Sharma say it might not surprise mystics. The path to God or enlightenment through meditation is found in Sufism of Islam and cabala of Judaism, monastic Buddhism and contemplative Christianity.

Chidananda says such Christian mystics as Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart and John of the Cross have described experiences of divine union that uncannily resemble the yoga experience.".

Being Left by Kathryn Schulz

"..we on the left have failed [..] not only to express convincingly that we love our country, but also why we love our country."

Being Left by Kathryn Schulz

At The Nation, Kathryn Schulz does an eloquent job of explaining how she believes many progressives have missed the boat on defining their vision for the America they love and desire to see.


Photo credit: www.adsources.com

While we don't have to be a bunch of crooning Lee Greenwoods, we should never be afraid to admit that we are heartbroken over the fact that our efforts failed insofar as the election goes. Yet, we shouldn't dwell on the angst. Instead, we can express how deeply we love and care about our country and its people and move on to a future of hope.

"Instead of defining that vision, we have scrabbled desperately for a tiny patch of space inside the right's increasingly narrow-minded nation, abdicating our real job of providing a countervailing ideal. We have forgotten that we are supposed to have a dream, and as a result, we now have a nightmare. Like many progressives, I look at another four years of the Bush Administration and see a widening gyre: more war, more terrorism, more corruption, more governmental secrecy and inaccessibility, more religious fanaticism, more poverty, more debt, more international isolation. I see a political ethos of greed, secrecy, divisiveness and cronyism, and a cultural ethos that makes moral failings of this country's bedrock principles--reasoned dissent and respect for difference. I look on all of that and I understand why much of this nation is heartbroken.

And yet, strangely, it is ultimately in that heartbreak that I find some measure of hope. Heartbreak is, after all, evidence of the existence of love, and our current grief is a kind of emotional sonar, a way to measure the previously hidden depth of our dedication. We need to begin acting on that love and dedication".