Comedian/Activist Challenges Schumer In New York Senate Race, There’s More to KSM Than What’s In The MSM

November 17th, 2009 - by: danny

Drug Activist Leaves Kunstler Fund for Senate Bid
By COREY KILGANNON

“Disturbing the Universe,” a new documentary on the civil rights lawyer
William M. Kunstler , opened Friday at Cinema Village, in the East Village.

The film, made by two of Mr. Kunstler ¹s daughters, Emily and Sarah
Kunstler, burnishes the memory of Mr. Kunstler, who lived in a townhouse at
13 Gay Street, in Greenwich Village.

The family long occupied the townhouse, which was the headquarters of
the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice which attacked racism
and injustice and policies like the Rockefeller-era drug laws.

But now as the documentary is opening, the family has moved out and the
Kunstler Fund has been shuttered. The townhouse has been rented out to a
businessman, and one of its occupants, Randy Credico, 54, a stand-up
comedian and drug law activist who was director of the fund for the past 12
years, has decided to step down. He plans to devote himself full-time to his
United States Senate campaign, in which he intends to challenge Senator
Charles E. Schumer for the Democratic nomination next September

Lawyer Lynne Stewart Loses Appeal on Conduct in Blind Sheikh Case, May Appeal, Ordered To Prison

DAVID SWANSON: WHAT WE ARE NOT SHARING IN THE MSM ABOUT KSM

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the corporate “mainstream” media make quite a pair. We’re hearing a very “balanced” debate over whether KSM should be tried in New York City, and whether the most insane objections to that proposal are really insane or not. But what are we not hearing?

We’re not hearing that trying criminals for the crime of 9-11 ought to have been what we did years ago, rather than waging wars in response to a crime. We’re not discussing the possibility that had alleged 9-11 criminals been tried years ago rather than being imprisoned and tortured together with hundreds of innocents depicted as subhuman monsters, the “war on terror” might have been replaced with simply the wars on Iraqis and Afghans and Pakistanis. What effect might that have had on Americans’ willingness to surrender their Bill of Rights? We aren’t hearing about that.

Aside from a column by my friend Ray McGovern, not of course published by the corporate media, what are we hearing or seeing about KSM’s motive? Isn’t motive a traditionally important element in a criminal investigation? We’re told that putting KSM on trial would give him a platform for propaganda, but we’re not told what that propaganda might be. If it were really so pernicious, why not expose it and refute it? Isn’t that what societies that believe in free speech do with misguided speech? Don’t they defeat it with more and better speech? Or is that only when it can be done without using the word “Israel”?

Outside of progressive blogs, we’re not hearing that giving a somewhat fair, if less than speedy, trial to those most likely to plead guilty or be convicted, and a less fair military trial to others, and no trial at all to others still, reveals this show of justice to be a sham. If KSM were acquitted, President Obama would order him imprisoned outside the rule of law until he dies. If he is found guilty, as everyone universally expects, he may be officially murdered by the United States, motivating others to take up arms against a nation that wages and funds illegal wars, imprisons people without charge, tortures, kidnaps, renditions, and executes.

If the justice system is bent to ensure that KSM is convicted or permitted little opportunity to speak, will that bending have any permanent repercussions for our justice system? Or, to move in the other direction, having determined that “military justice” is not good enough for alleged mass murders, must we continue to pretend that it is good enough for members of the military? Can we not admit everyone into a single and improved justice system? We’re not hearing that discussion.

YouTube Debuts Channel for Citizen Journalists

The world’s top purveyor of Internet video has launched YouTube Direct, whereby TV and online news editors can obtain video from so-called “citizen journalists” — and even request such video be shot by amateurs seeking attention. Beet.tv: The Huffington Post, NPR, Politico and the San Francisco Chronicle are the first media companies to use the system.

THE BOOK: MASSIVE PROMOTIONAL BLITZ SELLS COPIES, MEAT IS THE MESSAGE

LA TIMES: Sarah Palin’s highly anticipated book, “Going Rogue,” is not likely to win any literary awards, but it’s very likely to sell a gazillion copies. (It’s currently Amazon’s No. 1 bestselling book, besting even the likes of Stephen King and Dan Brown.)

But very few of those copies, we suspect, will be purchased by vegetarians or vegans. In his review, our colleague Tim Rutten explains that a large portion of “Going Rogue” covers Palin’s life before she emerged as a well-known public figure, “so there’s a lot of winter, guns, fish guts, long hours at the nets under the midnight sun and a great deal about Palin’s fondness for meat…. There’s even a photo of her father teaching her to skin a harbor seal, an activity the caption informs is now forbidden for all but native peoples under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Ah, for the good old days.”

That part about Palin’s love of meat products, perhaps unsurprisingly, is raising the hackles of some animal-loving vegetarians and vegans, according to our colleague Johanna Neuman of The Times’ politics blog, Top of the Ticket. Especially offensive to the animal-byproduct-free set? Palin’s comment that “If any vegans came over for dinner, I could whip them up a salad, then explain my philosophy on being a carnivore: If God had not intended for us to eat animals, how come He made them out of meat?” (Humorous news-aggregation site Fark.com’s snarky rejoinder: “In other news, Sarah Palin endorses cannibalism.”)

Washington Blade Newspaper Closes (NYT)

The Washington Blade and several other gay newspapers and magazines around the country learned on Monday that they had been shut down after a federal agency that oversaw them was unable to find buyers for them. Washington City Paper/The Sexist: The final hours of the Washington Blade. Creative Loafing: The Southern Voice and David, Atlanta’s leading gay publications, have been shut down.

Adviser to Murdoch Is Leaving News Corp (NYT)

Gary Ginsberg, a close adviser to Rupert Murdoch for 11 years who often served as a liaison between the conservative Murdoch and the Democratic Party, will leave News Corporation at the end of the year. Murdoch called Ginsberg “one of my most trusted and effective executives over the past decade.”

MEET THE SPIES WE HIRE

A National Conference on Communications for Progressives
True Spin Conference, Jan. 21 and 22, Denver, CO

Join some of America’s best progressive communications practitioners for two days of panels, workshops, networking, and fun.

This conference brings together communications staff from progressive advocacy groups around the country to exchange ideas and learn new and creative communications tactics.
Partial List of Speakers:

· Jed Alpert, Mobile Commons

· Kathy Bonk, Author, Strategic Communications for Nonprofits

· Andy Goodman, a Goodman

· Dean Hollander, Fenton Communications

· Martin Kearns, Green Media Toolshed

· Holly Minch, HollyMinch.com

· Rashad Robinson, GLAAD

· Karlos Gauna Schmieder, Center for Media Justice

· David Sirota, Author

And moreÃ¢â‚¬Â¦.

The last True Spin Conference was held in 2008 and sold out. There were over 200 registrants from around the country, including PR people from all types of progressive organizations.

To register:
THE HARPERS.ORG TAKE ON THE NEWS

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a national
apology for the country’s role in the forced migration
throughout the Commonwealth from the 1930s to the 1970s of
150,000 poor British children, whose relocation was
intended to relieve social-service costs in Britain and
improve the “good white stock” of the Empire. German art
collector Udo Fritz-Hermann granted his mistress custody
of their daughter in exchange for the rights to two works
by Damien Hirst, including a 20-foot-long pill cabinet
entitled “In this terrible moment we are victims clinging
helplessly to an environment that refuses to acknowledge
the soul.” Windows Media, the nation’s largest publisher
of gay and lesbian newpapers, folded. World leaders agreed
not to agree to a comprehensive climate-change deal at
next month’s Cophenhagen conference, and Jeffrey “Matches”
Boyle, who served two years of a six-year arson sentence
for starting at least 20 fires, was granted a $50,000
annual pension by the Chicago fire department, from which
he retired before beginning his prison term. A goat born
with six legs, four testicles, and three penises was
granted a reprieve from sacrifice in the Indian city of
Varanasi. “I have seen goats with the name of Allah or the
holy number 786 on their bodies,” said one resident, “but
a goat with six legs is definitely unique and special.”

End of The News Dissector blog for today. You comments welcome to: Dissector@mediachannel.org

The News Dissector