Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Pacifica has special coverage broadcasting right now

Kicking off with Ruth:

Pacifica Radio Archives All-Day Fundraising Special
18-hour natl. simulcast of programming from Pacifica's 50-plus-year history. Focuses: civil rights movement, live music, and the 1970 live reading on WBAI of Tolstoy's War and Peace. On December 6 the entire Pacifica network will pre-empt its regular schedule for an 18-hour simulcast of programming drawn from Pacifica's 50-plus-year history. This will be a fundraiser for the Pacifica Radio Archives that preserves the network's audio treasures. This year we're focusing on three major subject areas: the civil rights movement recordings, live music, and the 1970 live reading on WBAI of Tolstoy's War and Peace.

That's going on right now so make a point to listen. Right now.

Good evening. Let's note Democracy Now! and remember to check Elaine's site for her commentary:


Rice Denies U.S. Engages In Torture
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice denied Monday that the U.S. is engaging in torture and defended how the Bush administration's waging of the so-called war on terror. Rice's comments came ahead of a trip to Europe where she is expected to be questioned about the existence of secret CIA prisons and about the CIA's practice of kidnapping wanted individuals overseas. Rice did not deny the U.S. has secretly picked up detainees overseas and flying them to other countries but she denied this is being done "for the purpose of being tortured." "The United States does not permit, tolerate, or condone torture under any circumstances. Moreover, in accordance with the policy of this administration, the United States has respected and will continue to respect the sovereignty of other countries," Rice said. "The U.S. does not transport and has not transported detainees from one country to another for the purpose of being tortured. The United States does not use the airspace or the airports of any country for the purpose of transporting a detainee to a country where he or she will be tortured."

Condi denies? Condi lies.

I really don't know what to say about the thing above cause C.I. said it all this morning in
"NYT: 'U.S. Interrogations Are Saving European Lives, Rice Says' (Joel Brinkley)." Read that, C.I. said it all.

I can't believe anyone can take Condi Rice seriously. How many lies are they willing to swallow?


Iraqi VP Al-Yawer Criticizes State of Iraqi Security Forces
The bombings come just a day after Iraq's Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer publicly disputed comments made last week by President Bush about the improved state of the Iraqi security forces. Al-Yawer said the training of Iraqi security forces has suffered a big "setback" in recent months because the army and other forces have been increasingly used to settle personal and political scores. In addition al-Yawer warned that armed Shiite militias in the south might be trying to incite a civil war in Iraq.


It just gets worse and worse. March 2006 will be three years. That's not that far away. Three years of an illegal invasion/occupation and that's what the result is: planned chaos. Well at least Bully Boy is "resolute."

He'll keep troops over there regardless of how many people die. It didn't bother him to lie us into war so what does?

Nothing. It's time to bring the troops home, past time. In fact it reminds me of an editorial I helped with, The Third Estate Sunday Review's "Editorial: Time to Head On Home:"

Are we starting to get the picture yet? The public is. They want the troops home. Polls show that. It's just the media and our leaders that are too timid to address it. "Stay the course!" they chant. This "cakewalk" has now lasted over two years. Donald Rumsfeld says twelve is a possiblity. "Cakewalk?"
How do you define "success" in Iraq? That's difficult since the reasons for the invasion/occupation constantly shift. But it's not been a cakewalk, this war of choice. And we haven't made the world safer for anyone. Iraq's not safer. We're not safer. The London bombings prove the fly paper theory was crap.
Now we're supposed to let the ones who brought us this war go back to the drawing board to . . . think up new excuses? They had no planning other than (as Naomi Klein pointed out in "Baghdad Year Zero") to have a tag sale on the Iraqi assets. Even the Operation Happy Talkers seem to have a case of cat got their tongues. (Sadly, we're sure this is a momentary condition.)
If sane people can agree that the illegal occupation is a disaster for everyone involved (outside of those profitting from the war), how much are we willing to give to "stay the course?" We want the body counts to double? When do we reach the point that we say enough?We steer to you to "Should This Marriage Be Saved?" and ask at what point do we take a realistic look at what's going on?Pig-headed is not a virtue. It's not sane. It's not logical. And it's only going to get more people killed.
The Bully Boy has sullied this nation's name. He's trashed treaties and conventions. He's had a five-year frat party at our expense. At some point, we need to roll up our sleeves and do some cleaning. And that means tossing in the garbage the notion that after two years of the "cake walk" this is anything like what was sold to us."Stay the course?" We say "head on home." Head on home to what America is supposed to stand for. On what America is supposed to represent. This invasion/occupation isn't what America's supposed to be about. So let's all grow up, sober up and realize that the Bully Boy's taken us on a two-year bender. Comes a time when you gotta head home. It's past time for that.
Iraq had no WMD. It was not a threat to us ("mushroom cloud," Condi?). Someone lied us into war. They took us off course. It's time to get back to what America's all about and it's time to realize that drunk slurring his words and telling us he knows another bar that's still open isn't anyone we want to get a car in with. We're ready to head on home and return to the lives we should be leading. Lives that don't involve wars built on lies. Lives that don't involve trying to impose a system on a people who didn't ask for us to be there. Lives that don't involve falling for the latest Operation Happy Talk. Lives that are reality-based. Bar's closing, let's all head on home. At least the ones who still have that option, the ones who didn't give their lives to a war of choice, one that should have been avoided.
[Note: Since these editorials tend to get reposted elsewhere, we'll note this was written by The Third Estate Sunday Review crew of Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava as well as by C.I. of The Common Ills, Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Kat of Kat's Korner, Mike of Mikey Likes It! and Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man.]

I always love working on the editions but that editorial is one that my friends were all "Way to go, dude!" We wrote that on July 10th. I'm still proud of it to be honest. I think we really hit it out of the park with that editorial.

Now let's do Edmund's e-mail. Edmund's not his real name and his live-in girlfriend isn't really named Britney. Edmund's a 21 year old college student (everything's true but the names) and he's been living with Britney for almost a year now. Sunday night he was finishing up a research paper that he was way behind on cause he was sick with the flu for most of the week before. So he's done finally and it's now Monday, two in the morning. His first class is at seven in the morning. It's a half hour trip to campus. All he's eaten all day was a bag of Gardettos and a Payday. He says he asks himself if he's going to eat or go to sleep? He decides he's too tired to eat.

So he gets pulls off his sweats and hops in bed and Britney rolls next to him. And she's awake and she's wanting to have sex. They kiss and grope a bit but he's wiped out. He just wants to go to sleep. He's hard and Britney knows it and he explains he's just tired so they go to sleep.

But he's worried that he's "old" now because he just passed up sex for the 1st time in his life. For sleep.

I don't know that he's old. I think it's getting over the flu, getting the paper done and being real tired all working together. And it's not like he's not able to get it up which would be a different story.

I wrote him back last night and told him to chill. But he's convinced he's got some gray hair now and feels like next time he'll want to go to sleep and not be able to even get a bone. I think he's making too much of it. What do you think?


Let's go out with Gina Holland's "Justices Hear Military Recruiting Case:"

The Supreme Court appeared ready Tuesday to uphold a law that says colleges cannot turn away military recruiters in protest of the Pentagon's policy on gays if the universities also want to receive federal money.
New Chief Justice John Roberts said schools unhappy with the "don't ask, don't tell" policy have a simple solution: turn down federal cash.
And Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring, said colleges can post disclaimers on campus noting their objections to military policy.
Law school campuses have become the latest battleground over the policy allowing gay men and women to serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves.
Solicitor General Paul Clement said that when the government picks up the tab for things like research and education grants, the military also is entitled to demand "a fair shot" in terms of equal access for its recruiters to a university's "best and brightest."
Clement said the military is receiving nothing more than any other donor would expect.
A few justices, including David Souter, worried that the free speech rights of law schools could be hindered by Congress' action of tying funding to military recruiters' access.
"The law schools are taking a position on First Amendment grounds, and that position is in interference with military recruiting, no question about it," Souter said.

Check Campusantiwar.net for more information.

Remember my motto: The Common Ills community is important and the Common Ills community is important to me. So I'll do my part for the Common Ills community.














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