IT’S BLOOOODY: More Casualties in Afghanistan On All Sides
May 31st, 2007 - by: danny
See The Letters on Cindy Sheehan Below
AFGHAN WAR: BLOODY BUT IGNORED
CHINA: THE EXECUTION CAPITAL
COMMENTS ON CINDY SHEEHAN
We begin today with that other war, the one which has been justified as ok because of the attack of 911. Its been a war of collective punishment against the Afghan people in the name of counter-terrorism. Are we getting the whole story?
CHOPPER down in Afghanistan; 7 dead
A U.S. CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down Wednesday in southern Afghanistan, U.S. and NATO officials said. Seven people — five military crew and two military passengers — were killed. NATO officials said the team that responded to the crash was ambushed. There was no immediate word on casualties during that attack.
Sarah Meyer has been tracking all the other deaths in Afganistan and writes:
American public awareness of murder/death in Afghanistan is cloudy. Nor do people realise that foreign troops are as unwelcome in Afghanistan as they are in Iraq. This article is about some of those deaths in Afghanistan. Civilian deaths have recently infuriated the Afghan people. The Americans ‘pay off’ these deaths -as if money is compatible with and resolves grief.
Click on her informative Index.
COMMENTS ON ZOELLICK VIA IPA:
SAMEER DOSSANI Director of 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice, Dossani said today: “Though I am not surprised that George Bush has nominated another white male neoconservative to the post of World Bank president, I am appalled. After the departure in disgrace of Paul Wolfowitz, the White House had a chance to live up to its own rhetoric and democratize the process for appointing the World Bank head. Instead they’ve stuck to the status quo, business as usual, based on a 60-year-old ‘gentleman’s agreement.’ The situation is unacceptable and gives the lie to any claim that the World Bank could ever be an institution for advancing the interests of countries in the Global South.” Dossani is a contributor to the blog World Bank President.
ASIA RUSSELL Russell is director of international advocacy for the group Health GAP. She said today: “During his tenure at U.S. trade representative, Robert Zoellick was well known among AIDS and public health advocates for lobbying for trade agreements that were major giveaways to the pharmaceutical industry. Because of Bob Zoellick’s efforts, these agreements will increase the cost of lifesaving medicines in developing countries. He put drug companies’ interests ahead of the interests of people living with HIV and other life-threatening diseases. He was on the wrong side of that debate.
TOM BARRY ON THE NEW WORLD BANK PRESIDENT
At first glance, Zoellick could be mistaken for an ideologue, as an evangelist for free trade and a member of the neoconservative vanguard. But when his political trajectory is more closely observed, Zoellick is better understood as a can-do member of the Republican foreign policy elitea diplomat who always keeps his eye on the prize, namely the interests of Corporate America and U.S. global hegemony. Based on his record in the Bush Sr. administration and the current Bush presidency, Zoellick is highly regarded as an astute dealmaker.
Rices surprise selection of Zoellick was greeted with an almost palpable sense of relief inside Washingtons foreign policy circles. The great fear, outside the neoconservative and militarist camps, was that Cheney and company would insist that the shrill unilateralist John Bolton, current undersecretary for arms control, serve as Rices deputy.
CHINA: ADDICTED TO EXECUTIONS; A long death row
May 30th 2007 : From Economist.com
NO ONE disputes that China is a rising great power thanks to its tremendous economic growth. But an announcement Tuesday May 29th cast several clouds over China’s reputation. The government says it will execute Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of its food and drug regulator, for corruption. The news represents a remarkable confluence of bad press for China: that high-level corruption is rampant, that its products have killed people and animals around the world, and that the country advertising its “peaceful rise” is a harsh, execution-happy dictatorship.
China may hope to dominate the world economically; it already does so in terms of the amount of people it executes. The total number is a carefully guarded state secret but Amnesty International, a human-rights watchdog, counted at least 1,770 executions in 2006 and the real amount could be as high as 8,000. The liberal use of the death penalty in China is not a subject of great public concern, partly because the extent of it is little appreciated. The media usually publicise only executions that are deemed by the government to have some wider cautionary value.
Ha’aretz: An Israeli on 40 years of occupation:
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MEDIA: More On Venezuela TV Takeover
May 31st, 2007 - by: danny
ON VENEZUELA: LA TIMES FEATURES REPORT THAT STATION CHAVEZ CLOSED WAS PART OF AN EARLIER COUP
Hugo Chavez versus RCTV :Venezuela’s oldest private TV network played a major role in a failed 2002 coup.
By Bart Jones
BART JONES spent eight years in Venezuela, mainly as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, and is the author of the forthcoming book “Hugo! The Hugo Chavez Story…
VENEZUELAN President Hugo Chavez’s refusal to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television might seem to justify fears that Chavez is crushing free speech and eliminating any voices critical of him.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Committee to Protect Journalists and members of the European Parliament, the U.S. Senate and even Chile’s Congress have denounced the closure of RCTV, Venezuela’s oldest private television network. Chavez’s detractors got more ammunition Tuesday when the president included another opposition network, Globovision, among the “enemies of the homeland.”
But the case of RCTV – like most things involving Chavez – has been caught up in a web of misinformation. While one side of the story is getting headlines around the world, the other is barely heard….
MAP THIS (I WANT MEDIA,COM) Google Maps Adds Street-Level Images
Google is launching Google Maps Street View, a new feature that shows a 360-degree view from the streets of New York, San Francisco and other select cities. “It feelsas if you’re walking down the street!” says Google Maps project manager Stephen Chau. Live video may be added later.
Time Warner’s AOL Launches Tech News Site
AOL is launching a “jargon-free” consumer tech news site, called Switched.com, which will be a part of AOL News.
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Dissector Daily Forum: Readers on Cindy And Other Issues
May 31st, 2007 - by: danny
FIRST UP: This is the kind of letter that means so much to all of us at Mediachannel as we face an uncertain future—see details on Friday. John Daly writes from West Australia:
I wish to know how I can contribute to your need for funds, please send me details of how you wish to receive my donation, and Please Please do not give up the fight, let me suggest that when you are in doubt of results, turn your eyes to Hugo Chavez and Venezuela. Power to the People.
Victor Anderson says this is the “summer of shove”
This summer if We ain’t shoving
Twin bummers and BushDEMs’ coming
We’re now back on our own ar dead
or Yo Heave Ho.
ON CINDY SHEEHAN:
Bob Johnson shares his reaction from York PA:
It excites me to read Cindy blast the two parties and then have you take up the cudgel. It is one of my strongest opinion that the two parties have sold us a bag of BS while stealing any sense of having a democratic government. The two party system, opposed by most founding fathers, is the total and absolute denigration of the people’s ability to control their governments. Of all the many bad things to fight in this nation, the two party system should be on the top of all our lists.
Among the farces promulgated upon us is the public support of the insane world of primaries, the public payment for party offices and staffs in Congress (Majority/minority leader, whip, etc.), party distribution of committee chairs and assignments and the virtual inhibition of third (fourth and fifth) parties from out elections. What a joke and what a crime perpetuated upon us. The Federalists Papers and other writings warned us about these evil machinations. But the citizens stick their heads in the sands of lies and deceptions and, when not offering support, ignore how they are cheated out of their birthright. It makes me laugh, cry and puke when I read how the founders thought it unncessary to ban political parties because it was so well known how detrimental they were to democracy and good government. Thomas Jefferson sold us all out with his party formation.
But we can only shake our fists at the moon and bewail our lost of democracy because the parties and the corporate sponsors own all the power. They illegally have created a large standing army (the real meaning of the 2nd Amendment by the way) and now we cannot even rebel. And if we point out these deficiencies the power folk yell loudly that we don’t love America and lack patriotism. Well they are right. I don’t love what America has become, I don’t love have we have sold out and been sold down the river and I damn sure am no patriot for this corporate owned nation. And I have not even brought up our insane religious institutions, our outmoded layers of government and the lack of concern for the health and welfare of all its citizens.
Ooops, sorry, but one of my hot, hot buttons just got pushed.
“SHE WILL BE FINE NOW”
“Gypccoyotes” writes
Cindy and I communicated long before she was a “voice” ..if she had only taken time ro fully recuperate last year from her surgery she might be in a better place … but her prog followers wouldn’t let her rest … maybe you are one of those ?? Cindy has struggled to the point of early “burnout” … it’s not the place to see things as they are …… Blaming everyone for the problem in/ with Iraq is wrong … or does she now … like bush … think 28% is the majority ??
She will be fine now … with no demands made on her fragile health!!
Your remark … “It is so much easier and emotionally (??) self-righteous to attack easier targets like republicans and the bush White House” …… duh … excuse me ??
That has got to be the stupidist remark I have ever read at Common Dreams …. gee whiz….. Who do you think started this war and has had all the power for the last four years dannie??
DS: Why do people have to be insulting? As I explained, I was arguing that the Bush people didn’t start the war on their own. They had help from our media and many Dems. I was suggesting that now that politicans are reverting to form, perhaps its time to target the media.
Bill Stankus writes:
I just read Danny Schechter’s piece on Cindy Sheehan’s resignation.
It just doesn’t cut it.
Everything Sheehan wrote is true and has been true for many decades.
Many years ago a woman columnist wrote a piece in time Magazine, in effect, saying that America had a warrior culture. The subsequent outrage was amazing. “How dare she …” was the common thread. As I recall she was dismissed from the Times. Before that, when George McGoven got the Democratic Party nomination, both the moderate and radical left dumped on George because he didn’t espouse all their divergent causes and they basically turned away from his anti-war stance. We got Nixon as a result.
Sheehan, while pure of motive needs to grasp that we are Puritan based society and we have a very large societal segment that is of a warrior mindset. Until there is a bottom up shift in values, that is when the majority says, “Let’s stop our Imperialism and hawkish ways”, there is little hope for a peace movement.
The current screams about media, while true, are ineffective. The media, as well as our government, only responds to the direction of the wind and, unfortunately, lobbying pressures. If and when there is significant pressure from moderates, anti-war organizers and other liberal forces, the media will then respond accordingly. Simply put: Change American values and the media will follow like a puppy dog. For now, all they respond to is what they see and feel: Big money, big government and big time conservative pressure.
While the adage “Hope springs eternal” may seen appropriate, my guess is that generalized optimism is misplaced. Can we change a society that enjoys it’s military and it’s might? Can we adopt love instead of repression? Will we continue our downward slide into cultural paranoia and fear? At the moment the trend is as George Carlin states, “We are circling the drain”.
A message to Cindy: I hope you do as you wrote, go enjoy your life because that’s really is all each of us has.
Antonio Cabral writes from San Antonio
As a long-time Chicano activist from San Antonio who some time ago also got tired of the state of the “U.S. Left,” I understand and respect Cindy’s feelings.
The cowardy, opportunistict Democratic Pary has astutely used the anti-war effort of many honest persons to further its strategy of “taking back our country,” (as most snake-salesperson Dems like to say). What they mean is “we are using the peace movement to put ourselves in power again. Then, we’ll screw the Left’s agenda.”
Anyway, until and unless the true Left throws the Dems into the trash can of history where they belong, honest Leftists and non-Leftists of good heart will keep on sleeping with the enemy, knowingly or innocently.
Alan Miller writes:
Good commentary. I heard Cindy on Democracy Now! this morning say that her “resignation” is more like a temporary factory shutdown for retooling. She expects the product to be even better once she “reopens.” If any good comes out of this, it will be to make people see that we cannot depend on Democratic or Republican politicians to end the war.”
Mark Homer writes:
Thank you for this column. I feel bad for Cindy also. I would have added only the caution that, when you are up against powerful people who hide behind passive aggressive fronts, all the fronts have to do is wait you out, as you burn yourself out. Therefore, it is important in a long-term battle to pace yourself, take care of yourself, and keep strong. Your job is not to perform for anyone–it is to speak your truth at important moments.
Regarding your film, I would like to support your work, but I am not willing to pay thirty dollars for a film which tells me what I already know. Those people who have not figured out that there is no free lunch, and that you cannot have major country that does not produce anything, are beyond the reach of a film. That includes our financial gurus, who have not figured out that, when China and India have accumulated enough capital, they won’t need upper class United States money or Harvard-educated financiers.
Florence Murphy writes from Grand Rapids:
“When I see how our politicians treat a grieving mother who has a message of peace, I am appaled with a feeling of hopelessness. I agree with Cindy Sheehan…this is NOT my USA. I am an idealist who believes our constitution and the Bill of Rights are idealistic as well however, attainable
Where is the outrage over an illegal war? The use of torture? The continued lying? The denial of the quagmire of Iraq? The corruption in the political system? An incompetence of the attorney general and others in this criminal administration?
The stolen elections? The refusal of the Dem party to use class descrimination as a legitimate issue? The nine trillion debt we have to China, India, and others? The gross new embassy in Baghdad? The oil and military greed meisters who have made outlandish profits while our troops and a million civilians die or are maimed for the rest of their lives?
WHO ARE WE NOW?
Leslie Cagan of United for Peace and Justice salutes Cindy:
We were not surprised that she needed a break. Cindy, like many of us, has been working to end the war in Iraq for many years. But like very few, she put most of the rest of her life on hold as she tirelessly traveled the country, spoke to groups large and small, marched and rallied and lobbied and participated in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, did media interviews and so much more every single day.
OMAR BARGOUTI ON OPRAH’S VISIT TO ISRAEL
My personal position regarding the planned Oprah “solidarity visit” to Israel is that it is a shame, no less, for an African-American descendant of oppressed slaves to show solidarity with oppressors enslaving an entire nation.
Israel is also an apartheid state, as South African minster Ronnie Kasrils — who is Jewish — often remarks. Jimmy Carter, UN representative Prof. John Dugard, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu also concur with this comparison. So how can Oprah turn off her moral compass and allow herself to become complicit in covering up and beautifying Israel’s military occupation; apartheid walls; indiscriminate killings of innocent Palestinians, particularly children; uprooting of more than a million trees; house demolitions; and persistent confiscation of land and water resources as policy aiming at gradual ethnic cleansing of Palestinians? If this is not being in bed with injustice, what is?
Inviting Oprah to visit the OPT to “balance” her solidarity trip to Israel is patently wrong, in my opinion. There is no middle ground or balance between a colonial oppressor and its victims. Would Oprah have agreed to visit Pretoria and Soweto in the 1980′s? If the answer =is no, then her visit to Israel, at the very least, reflects her moral inconsistency. Inviting her to the OPT can at best generate a token visit that will most certainly be used to cover up her “solidarity visit” to Israel. It would inadvertently provide legitimacy to that support for Israel.
I realize the iconic and extremely influential importance of Oprah’s views in the US and beyond. This is precisely why I think she ought to reconsider this shameful and ill-conceived trip that will ultimately smear her image internationally and even within the US. Even the “Talk-Show Queen” is not immune to moral accountability!”
FOR MORE: www.PACBI.org
SOME RECENT REVIEWS OF IN DEBT WE TRUST
There have been some positive reviews on blogs and in newspapers. Here’s News Blaze:
“In Debt We Trust is an educational expose’ which ought to be watched by anyone thinking about signing up for their first piece of plastic because, today, the average college student owes $50,000 by the time they graduate. While $30,000 of that figure is in tuition loans, the balance is accounted for by an accumulation of consumer spending inflated by interested and fees.”
PASATIEMPO (Santa Fe):
“There’s only one movie in Santa Fe scarier than 28 Weeks Later–this expose of the credit card industry by documentarian Danny Schechter.”
The Santa Fe Reporter:
“SFR Pick: With investigative journalism and first-person reporting, director Danny Schechter digs into where many of us are buried–consumer debt. It’s a credit to Schechter that he is able to reap profitable insights, as well as entertainment, from a story of economic interest.”
The Salt Lake City Weekly Compares In Debt We Trust to Maxed Out:
Real journalism in the visual medium has all-but-disappeared from television in recent years. Outrage at authority and at the status quo are, however, showing up in movies–in theaters sometimes, but more frequently as direct-to-DVD films sold directly to … well, the angry, the informed, and those who want to be informed.
Flying lower under the radar is In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts. Far more rebellious than Scurlock, Danny Schechter here casts an even wider net across the sea of instability just barely breaching the surface of the American economy–Foreclosures up! Bankruptcy “reform” hurts everyone except big business!–to show how deeply the American middle- and lower-class is at the mercy of major banking corporations, and how the bottom must inevitably fall out.
REMINDER: ELECTION INTEGRITY EVENT
JUNE 1ST, SUNY NEW PALTZ, 7:00 PM Lecture Center 100 (LC 100)
Greg Palast, Steve Freeman, Jonathan Simon, NYS BOE Commissioner Doug Kellner, NH Ass’t Secretary of State Anthony Stevens, Bo Lipari, Nancy Tobi
THE ONION: AND FINALLY, A LAUGH:
MySpace Outage Leaves Millions Friendless
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – It is feared the sudden lack of online companionship could inflict long-term psychological damage among MySpace’s 150 million users.
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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