Friday, July 06, 2007

Marjorie Cohn, Laura Flanders & more

I'm adding that to the top of the post because I can't get in the space for the title. Elaine's had that same problem and thought it was just her. It's not.

Okay, last time, I noted Jen had e-mailed with a question. She read "Laura Flanders & Stanley Aronowitz (Law and Disorder)" about the discussion WBAI's Law and Disorder between Laura Flanders and Stanley Aronowitz. I had written: "The only thing I strongly disagreed with Flanders on was Iraq Veterans Against the War which is one of the most dedicated and hard working organizations around. I think they do real work (unlike a lot of others on the left). But Flanders brought up that she felt they should be leading the marches. I don't. We've dealt with this at Third. They should be up front and certainly in leadership roles. But I don't believe we play hide behind the vets. But Flanders brought up that she felt they should be leading the marches.

Jen e-mailed Sunday wondering about what Flanders said about IVAW. First off, Law and Disorder can be streamed online for free. Jen may not be able to stream or able to listen online and that's cool. (I don't stream online. A friend of C.I.'s burns the program on a disc and sends it to me.) But I want to be sure everyone knows that's possible if they're able to listen online. I also know that some people have hearing difficulties so saying "audio's online" doesn't help them.

What I wrote really was it. They were only mentioned once. (Or only once in what got played on the program.) Flanders is talking about weaknesses in the Democratic Party, in response to Stanley Aronowitz's comments (I agreed with Stanley) and saying it's true in various parts of the left and offers, as one example, "Why weren't the Iraq Veterans Against the War leading the anti-war marches this January?" That was all of it on IVAW. I'll be e-mailing this to Jen in case she misses it here.

This is from Marjorie Cohn's "Compassion, Conspiracy and Commuation:"

James Madison warned, "if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."

Her column's longer but that's what stood out the most to me. Cohn is president of the

CounterPunch offers a wide range of views (Cohn's article is from them) for which I'm grateful but Vijay Prashad's "Obama and Outsourcing" is so wrong it could have been written by Patricia J. Williams of The Nation. Prashad refers to Obama's slime memo sent out to the press (but they weren't supposed to tell that Obama had sent it -- they did tell) which was xenophobic and disgusting. Prashad doesn't know what he's talking about and I won't pretty that up. We disagree on Obama's 2004 DNC speech (Prashad's all over it, I think it was Bullying With a Sugar Coating). But Prashad suffers from mainstream media damage. He's convinced that Barack Obama's a sweetheart of a guy and this was Obama's first dust up. LIE. Barack Obama took out his 2004 Democratic competition with a smear that the guy beat his wife. He destroyed his only real Republican opponent (Jack Ryan) with the news that Ryan had taken his now ex-wife to sex clubs. That news was sealed in court documents. How do you think that got out? Barack fights dirty and always has. He does this con-job of innocence for the media.

If I see things praising Obama that do not know his history, I'll call it out. No offense to Prashad, whom I'd never heard of, but he's bought the mainstream media spin.

Now Lotta Links. When I read the gina & krista round-robin, I was thrilled! :D Bye-bye Lotta Links. I'm not fond of those who use the community and neve give back. Lotta Links was one of the worst about that. West was a 14-year-old boy at the time (summer 2005). He went to work with his dad for a week. He was bored and his dad (who has an office job) told him to play on the computer. (The dad was meeting with clients.) So West does. He knows Liberal Oasis and another site (I won't mention it) and he visits those and then he goes to this website that really doesn't do original content, just reposts in full others stuff. (Sometimes, as Narco News has pointed out, without permission.) There he learns about The Common Ills because this big site linked to The Common Ills.

So he's getting into that and checking out Rebecca's site. Now the rip-off site did a blog report, one of their few original content exceptions. Each day they supposedly covered what was most important (to the left) online. You can post there so he's posting noting Liberal Oasis, a big site that I'm not naming, C.I. and Rebecca's site. He's talking about how there was real stuff there and not a bunch of gas. Then, a day or so later, the blog 'reporter' does a post about Michelle Malkin, how she's right, how she gets it. The blog reporter does that at a supposed left site. West posts that the four sites he likes are doing real stuff and that Malkin's a racist and GOP. He ends with the joke, "Step out of the Republican closet."

They ban him. They says "Step out of the Republican closet" is hate speech. What ALTERNate universe do they live in? (Yeah, I gave you a tip about the sh*t bag website in question.) It doesn't end there. First the blog 'reporter' and then his boss Bald Matthew start e-mailing the kid demanding that the kid apologie to the 'reporter' (who looks like his head was squeezed by a vice during birth -- LOL, no apology to Evan from me, rot in hell you disgusting creep). They want the kid to beg and grovel for a joke (a funny as hell joke!) they didn't like. They threaten him that if he doesn't apologize, The Common Ills, Liberal Oasis, Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude (Rebecca's site) and the other big site will never be linked to again.

So the kid apologizes. He apologizes to two BULLY ASS HOLES who should have lost their jobs (and that's not even counting them trying to dig up dirt on West -- they were e-mailing people trying to get dirt on him, we only found out about that later on) and also to the four sites.

Rebecca sees the e-mail and e-mails West with her phone number and asks him to call her. He does. She writes about it that night. And she calls that sh*t ass site and the two BULLY ASS HOLES out. She also calls C.I. (who was on the road) to explain what's going on. C.I. does an entry that says a) West, come on board as a member, we're glad to have you, b) calls out the jerk off site and the bullies, c) delinks from the site.

This is around where I end up going from community member to community member with my own site because I've read about it at Rebecca's, at C.I.'s and in the gina & krista round-robin (which prints all the e-mails the Bullies sent West and his responses). (And later, after people see the round-robin, gets notified that while the Bullies were doing that, they were also e-mailing trying to find out dirt on West -- Gina and Krista run those e-mails as well -- spying on a 14 year old kid, they are disgusting.)

What does Lotta Links do during this period? They stop highlighting The Common Ills. Prior to this, from November 2004 to the summer of 2005, C.I.'s had a link on Lotta Links main page pretty regularly. Ruth's report got linked one time as well. This happens and the cowards at Lotta Links can't be near anything 'controversial.' Since when is it controversial to say that no 14-year-old kid should be bullied by any adults, let alone adults at an alleged left site?

So what happens is The Common Ills goes from a link every third or so week to never being linked to again. There will be two more links between then and now and it will be over six months later before The Common Ills gets linked to again (and then the mirror site and not The Common Ills proper which was chicken sh*t).

Now everybody knows I love C.I. but that pissed me off. I know C.I. doesn't care about links. (If C.I. cared, The Common Ills would have stayed silent on the West issue, two other sites did. Only Rebecca and C.I. stepped up to defend a kid. Is it too obvious to point out that the other two sites are run by men, the sites that stayed silent?) So I was pissed off by this nonsense.

I think Lotta Links is a dumb site and always have. They've supposedly added original content. Supposedly. It's bad writing. And it's bit writing. But in their dreams they are more than the 125 plus links they feature each day.

They are cowards. C.I. defends a kid and the cowards of Lotta Links can't be associated. They can't risk pissing off a big player online. So they decide to act (publicly) like The Common Ills doesn't exist while continuing to e-mail C.I. privately.

Wednesday, one feature ran at all sites, our group writing piece:

"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you must have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"
"Are You A Writer For The Nation? If so, chances are you have a penis"

Now when C.I. stood up for the kid, a lot of sites online lost interest in The Common Ills because they worried about pissing off a big site. And I wasn't the only one getting pissed. C.I. had to issue an order (a request but we followed, so I'll call it an order) insisting that members stop attempting to get TCI highlighted anywhere. The cowardice was making everyone pissed and C.I. said it didn't matter about links and just forget about it. (C.I. wasn't unaware this nonsense would happen as a result of standing up for a kid. C.I. didn't give a damn. It was more important to stand up for a kid.)

Eddie (who I owe a shout out too that I'll do at the end) saw the feature on Wednesday and figured, "This isn't just C.I.'s writing. I'm not breaking any rules by trying to get it highlighted." Eddie bought premiums from Lotta Links. Eddie visited Lotta Links. So Eddie uses their contact forum for suggested links, puts all the information in, writes a paragraph or so explaining why it's important and checks off that in addition to suggesting the link, his remarks can be used in their "mailbag." Eddie brings this up in the roundtable for the Gina and Krista round-robin (roundtable took place Thursday night for Friday's round-robin). Eddie wasn't the only one participating that had noted it. They were angry and mad. C.I. was participating and agreed a) no rule was broken because this was group writing (and not just something by C.I.) and b) it was pretty crappy not to highlight it. Eddie explains it didn't just not get highlighted. They published a "mailbag" on Thursday of stuff from the 4th (which Lotta Links took off, guess news isn't a 24-7 business). Eddie wasn't the only one. That it didn't even qualify for the mailbag was the last straw. That was ignoring the members who had written the feature and members who e-mailed Lotta Links and shared their thoughts on the feature. That was a total pissing on of the community.

Lotta Links (and their various sites -- which mispelled Adam Kokesh's name, by the way! Idiots!) got pulled Thursday night from The Common Ills links. As soon as the roundtable was over, C.I. logged in and pulled the links. They are gone. Should have happened long, long ago but at least it finally happened. Through all of this, the two year ignoring of TCI, C.I. continued to highlight Lotta Links (even in the snapshots -- I would sometimes pull Lotta Links out of it when I reposted because I hate Lotta Links and pretty much hate all cowards).

So they're dead to us now. Should have happened a long time ago. But C.I. really doesn't care whether anyone links to or gives shout outs to C.I. That probably is something that you have to grow up rich to care so little about. It's also why C.I. and Elaine laugh about those Toilet Scrubbers who think they're crashing the gates. They have no power, they are servants to the Democratic Party that the Democratic Party will use for as long as they are useful. C.I. and Elaine can tell you about how magazines got used during Carter's tenure too and how they thought they were players and quickly realized they were invited in to work the party, not as a guest.

So when you've got a lot of money and you move in the big circles, what some lame ass online does probably really doesn't matter to you. I never doubted C.I. on this. I'm just explaining why it is. And that's why C.I.'s always been able to do one of the few independent sites online. There's no attempt to get 'power' from the site. There's no attempt to raise money on the site. There's no attempt to become a 'name' via online. (C.I.'s already a name in real life.) So The Common Ills really is independent. And that independence has been its greatest strength. C.I. can and will call out anybody (I was surprised by one that got called out this week! :D).

A lot of the other 'online voices' have already turned into gas bags trying to get on TV and radio. C.I. avoids both in real life and isn't about to try to do it for something online. (C.I. noted the first month of The Common Ills that there would be no interviews, no radio appearances, no TV appearences to discuss the site or to promote it. That has remained the case even with people begging Ava and C.I. to do interviews for their newspapers or magazines.)

So now Lotta Links is gone. The cowardice of Lotta Links bothered me. C.I. explained that they had to make a living and that most people weren't brave to begin with, even before money entered the picture. C.I. didn't hold the fact that they were cowards against Lotta Links and continued to treat them fairly. But when they decided that the writing by several members of this community (a six month study that found 181 more males were published by The Nation than females) and decided to ignore members who e-mailed (by not even including them in the mailbag), that was the last straw.

So bye-bye Lotta Links. Your days are over. Not just at The Common Ills but period and the reason for that is people my age. We're sick of your b.s. actions to prop up the spineless Democratic Party. In a scaredy cat country in 2003 and 2004, you might have had traction. You might have seen brave. But Dems got back in control in 2006 and did nothing. Now you're just another con artist hyping the Democratic Party and your lack of independence is obvious to all. Lot of people will be going down on that. My generation is sick of it.

Eddie shout out and thanks. I started way late tonight. That's because we're in California at C.I.'s. We flew out. Eddie didn't know that and thought I was trying to track down Laura's quote. So he went to the website and listened to the program (and he said some others) for me. I appreciate that Eddie. (Hope he enjoyed the programs because I had packed the CD of that show for this trip.) That's how it is in this community, we've always got each other's backs.

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Friday, July 6, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces the death of another US soldier, the US military flacks turn out to say "no" to withdrawal, Ehren Watada's pre-trial motions hearing is set to begin, Iraqi refugees face restrictions from one formerly open Western nation, US outlets play "Brendan Nelson who?", and more.

Starting with news of war resistance. Today, at Fort Lewis, pretrial motions were supposed to be heard in the court-martial of Ehren Watada. If the judge allows the court-martial to begin, it will start July 23. Yesterday, in San Francisco, a rally was held by supporters for the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq whose February court-martial ended in a mistrial call over the objection of the defense. Tim Ryan (KCBS) noted Ying Lee's statements on why a retrial should not be taking place, "As the first military officer in the US military to refuse to be sent to Iraq, he said the war is unconstitutional, it's illegal, it violates the Nurember principles and it violates the rule of law."

In other news of war resister, don't say this too loudly, we don't want to shock The Nation, but there's another war resister who's gone to Canada. Now The Nation, the AP and a whole lot of media want to pretend that war resisters just don't exist. So let's all speak in whispers because, otherwise, we might give them all heart attacks (or at least dirty drawers). Ross Spears, 19 years-old, in Canada from his Virginia military base. Michael Bhardwaj (Canada's CBC) reports on Spears decision and notes Ross Spears' attorney, Kourosh Farrokhzhad "is hoping Canada will fulfill its obligation to protect people who are wrongfully persecuted for their beliefs or their actions." Spears has settled in Ottawa as has US war resister James Burmeister who was noted in Monday's Iraq snapshot.


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes Ross Spears, Jared Hood and James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Augstin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Care, Kyle Huwer, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.

Joel Bleifuss deserves much credit for already having covered the issue of Iraq Veterans Against the War but he's also written "The New Children's Crusade" (note, that link is being given by a friend with In These Times and it's not working currently -- hopefully, it will work shortly) which opens with a look at Vincent J. Emanuele returning home to Chesterton, Indiana. I don't have time to hear the article read over the phone. We'll note it in Monday's snapshot.

Regardless, Iraq Veterans Against the War are completing their summer base tour. Showtime is filming the tour for a documentary. The last dates are: the Naval Sub Marine Base in Groton, CT on July 6th at 7:00 pm; and Fort Drum in NY on July 8th at 4:00 pm. They have really given their all and if you are in those areas, you should show your support by attending and you can hear about the efforts to surpress and silence them -- none of the efforts have worked. Last Friday, Adam Kokesh, Nate Lewis, Mike Blake, Sholom Keller and Steve Mortillo were harrassed at Fort Jackson for the crime of t-shirting with an alleged intent to be fully dressed. Saturday went smoothly, but Sunday was another story Kokesh, Lewis and Liam Madden. Writing at his site, Adam Kokesh discusses the July 1st arrest at Fort Benning which "is an open post, anyone with proper ID is allowed on base" but Nate Lewis and Liam Madden were arrested for approaching the gate on foot (not entering the base) and:

We raced to the gate and got there just in time to see Nate and Liam getting loaded into cruisers. One of the cops came out to where we were standing and explained "they had been arrested for protesting," and told us that if anyone crosses the line "in protest," they will be arrested. We have this on tape. Then the press showed up and wanted a statement, so I waited until they were set up and put a mic on me, and gave a statement to them and for the record to the documentarians who were with us, and our own camera for safety. I changed by shirt so it would be clear I was not protesting and went across to ensure that Liam and Nate were, "afforded the full protection of the law." You can see a video of that here.
Fortunately, Michael Blake stepped up and dealt with all of the press that came and really did a great job presenting our side of the story as opposed to the Army spokeswoman's story, which only identified me as a "third unidentified protestor." We've really seen some stupid coverage over this. (But that all pales in comparison to the lie the Marine Corps told about Liam Madden's response to the plea bargain that, "they were dropping the case because they had 'received sufficient indication' from Madden that he would no longer wear his uniform when engaged in political activities. They also determined that his statements did not warrant futher action.)

Further action? As a second Republican (Pete Domenici) has joined Richard Luger in calling for an end to the illegal war , Rick Lynch, who not all that long ago while being billed as "Maj. Gen." was also billed as "spokesperson," issues his own statement. CBS and AP report Rick Lynch says that there can be no withdrawal of US forces because that would leave "a mess" in Iraq which begs the question what term does Lynch think currently describes Iraq? The Getty Images photo with the story reports that the newly designed camo (2004) is really intended for both a younger person and a much thinner person. Study the photo and wonder if Lync's camo is the footy-pajamas version. If you doubted the overgrown boys who let others do the fighting weren't being sent out 'on point,' click here for the nonsense Maj. Gen Benjamin Mixon repeated on CNN.

Less attention, in the US, has been given to the remarks of Australia's Defence Minister Brendan Nelson. On Day Two, Kathy Marks (Independent of London) reports, "The Australian Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson has admitted that oil was a major factor in the government's decision to keep troops in Iraq, a unexpectedly frank confession that sent political commentators into a tizzy." Marks also notes that only 1000 Australian troops are in Iraq (Green Zone), the other 600 are "in the region." Rod McGuirk (The Scotsman) cites Hugh White ("Australian defence analyst") who judges the remarks as, "In the kind of washing machine of different arguments that they've been tossing around, the oil one has come to the surface, so to speak, accidentally." As to the clampdown in this country, it has nothing to do with the press refusing to allow some of those against the war early on to cry, "We were right!" No, the silence has everything to do with the fact that such a remark by a sitting member on the government of a coalition government should immediately trigger an international investigation because a war of choice on another country to take control of their resources is a war crime.

As the US government strong arms the puppet, Nouri al-Maliki, to push through the theft of Iraqi oil in the form of oil legislation that would turn over as much as 70% of the profit from Iraqi oil to foreign corporations, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) interviewed Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein (first woman to be president of a national union in Iraq, president of Electrical Utility Workers Union) and Faleh Abood Umara (of Federation of Oil Unions). From the interview:

AMY GOODMAN: Explain the law.
FALEH ABOOD UMARA: [translated] According to Article 111 of the Iraqi Constitution, which states that the oil and gas of Iraq are owned by the Iraqi people and they have the right to control it. But when you look into the details of the law, many of the articles of the law actually conflict with this preamble of the law, the most important point of which is the issue of the production-sharing agreements, which allows the international oil companies, especially the American ones, to exploit the oil fields without our knowledge of what they are actually doing with it. And they take about 50% of the production as their share, which we think it's an obvious robbery of the Iraqi oil.
We also object to the procedure by which these companies are given the contracts for exploiting the oil, because it allows the granting of the contracts with the aid of foreign advisers. We demanded that it's actually the Iraqi experts that need to be consulted with regards to the granting of the contracts.
In brief, there is hardly an article in the law that actually benefits the Iraqi people. But they all serve American interests in Iraq. And we know well that the law was actually written here in the United States, with the help of James Baker and Ms. Rice and the experts from the IMF. And it serves the interests of the American government and not the Iraqi people.
We're still negotiating with the Iraqi parliament and the Iraqi government, and we succeeded in halting the discussion of the law in the parliament until next October. And we hope that we will manage to modify some of the articles of the law. As regards to the strike, we actually declared victory last week.

and:

HASHMEYA MUHSIN HUSSEIN: [translated] It's more stable than other places in -- like in Baghdad, because they handed the security over to Iraqi forces security and the British forces were redeployed to the outskirts of the city. But the situation in Iraq, in general, and Basra, just like any other part of Iraq, suffers from the situation. It's not very good, especially economically. We have about 65% unemployment rate, and nine million Iraqis live in poverty. The services are really bad, especially electricity. So for every hour of electrical current, we have six hours of black out, and sometimes they skip the actual hour of electrical current. And this is really an adverse situation, because it's really hot and humid in the south.
AMY GOODMAN: And how did that compare under Saddam Hussein?
HASHMEYA MUHSIN HUSSEIN: [translated] The electrical situation was better under Saddam. At least during the night you would have a constant electrical current. And this situation is such, because of the sabotage and exploding the power stations in the center of Iraq.
AMY GOODMAN: How has life changed for women in Iraq, in Basra, where you are?
HASHMEYA MUHSIN HUSSEIN: [translated] As a part of the Iraqi society, they suffer like everybody else, but also there were laws that were issued under the occupation that specifically targeted women, especially Law No. 137, which canceled the old civil law and delegated all issues that have to do with civil law to the local communities and religious communities, religious authorities. We took this very seriously and went out in demonstrations until the new law was canceled, but it was reintroduced through the new constitution, and we now demand the cancellation of this article.
As far as women's rights are concerned, women are not completely suppressed. As you can see, I am right here in front of you. And we have 25% of the parliament members who are women, and we seek, we hope that it will soon become 40%. And this is a result of our struggle and determination that women in Iraq will have their rightful place.

Goodman also interviewed Iraq poet and novelist Sinan Antoon and we'll note that next week. Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports that American planes destroyed three houses in "Al-Medea'ain area (south of Baghdad)," a Kirkuk roadside bombing that wounded two police officers and "two unknown missiles were launched upon Tisaeen Al-Jadeeda in downtwon Kirkuk and one of them hit one of the houses damaging it and injuring one resident in the area." Reuters notes 7 people (from the same family) from a mortar attack in Baghdad, 1 dead from a Baghdad roadside bombing, 1 Iraqi police officer killed by a hand grenade in Mosul (another wounded), and a Samawa roadside bombing that claimed 4 lives.


Shootings?Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 7 people were shot dead in Baghdad, an Iraqi soldier shot dead in Hawija and, in Mosul, a husband and wife were shot dead as they attempted to run from unidentified assailiants.


Corpses?

Hussein Kadhim (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 5 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes 2 corpses discovered in Mahmudiya.

And today the US military announced: "One MNC-I Soldier died of wounds received during combat operations in western Baghdad on Thursday." 3592 is now the total number of US service members to die in the illegal war since it began.

On PBS' NOW with David Brancaccio, which begins airing this week's new episode tonight in many markets (check local listings), they provide an update on Nour al Khal, an Iraqi translator, who has been attempting to receive asylum in the US. There are an estimated 4 million Iraqi refugees, internal and external. Karl Ritter (AP) reports that Sweden, one of the few Western countries that has been welcoming in the past, is now "tightening its asylum rules and will forcibly deport Iraqis who are denied refuge" after having received an estimated 18,000 "since 2006."






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