< Here’s What We Are Doing On New Years; Good Luck To Us All

Here’s What We Are Doing On New Years; Good Luck To Us All

December 31st, 2010 - by: danny

Here’s What We Are Doing On New Years; Good Luck To Us All

Should Old Acquaintances Be Forgotten? Hell, No!

Happy “News” Year to all who visit this blog. If you like it, please tell your friends and lists to help us increase our readership. Its has been online since 2000 but the lack of promotional and marketing funds makes it hard for us to reach new readers. That’s where you can come come in to help. My appreciation goes to Cherie Welch, the Dissectrix, whom I still haven’t met though she   has been producing the blog since November of ’08 and the News Dissector Radio Show on the Progressive Radio Network. Thanks to David DeGraw, founder of AmpedStatus.com, for his services and support as well as to Franz Hartl who is helping on the tech front. We are seeking interns and volunteers to help us keep going. A salute, as always, to my partner at Globalvision and fellow blogger, Rory O’Connor.

The year is ending, and, as bad as it was, what with the political manipulation, decline of democracy, betrayal on so many fronts, and unending wars, it is likely to get worse in the year ahead. Many of us will be out partying as we have year-after-year. We will watch the ball drop in Times Square and see all the revelers reveling but those of us who are conscious doubt much can or will get better.

Rather than bring you all down, let me wish our small but growing community all the holiday cheer we can wring out these moments. Special thanks to those who recognize the hardships of sustaining independent media in this period and who have contributed to support Mediachanel.org. This is the last day to so if you want to claim a deduction for your donation to The Global Center, PO Box 677, NY NY 10035.

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VIVA MADIBA: Mandela’s New Book — Conversations With Myself: Nelson Mandela’s Final Memoir?

The consensus among reviewers is that the book doesn’t provide any new or startling revelations; instead it shows us glimpses of what the real Nelson Mandela is like, behind the public façade, behind the myth. In a review for the Guardian, Godwin (famous for his books on Mugabe’s Zimbabwean rule) says that Conversations with Myself is “intensely moving, raw and unmediated, told in real time with all the changes in perspective that brings, over the years, mixing the prosaic with the momentous. Health concerns, dreams, political initiatives spill out together, to provide the fullest picture yet of Mandela”. [More here →]

RELATED: Conversations with Myself book launch

‘In real life we deal, not with gods, but with ordinary humans like ourselves: men and women who are full of contradictions, who are stable and fickle, strong and weak, famous and infamous.’ – Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is one of the most inspiring and iconic figures of our age. Now, after a lifetime of taking pen to paper to record thoughts and events, hardships and victories, he has opened his personal archive, which offers an unprecedented insight into his remarkable life. Conversations With Myself gives readers access to the private man behind the public figure: from letters written in the darkest hours of Mandela’s twenty-seven years of imprisonment to the draft of an unfinished sequel to Long Walk to Freedom. [More here →]

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Columbia Journalism Review: THE YEAR OF WIKILEAKS – The WikiLeaks Equation: Secrets, free speech, and the law By Clint Hendler

Call it the Year of WikiLeaks. From April 5, when the site posted a grainy video showing the death of two Reuters employees from a U.S. helicopter attack, to November 28, when mainline journalism organizations began releasing stories based on a trove of some 250,000 diplomatic cables, the secret-sharing site shaped the news cycle. It also threatened to upend America’s working assumptions about journalism and free speech. Of course, WikiLeaks has been around for years, posting anonymously sourced documents that others would have rather been kept hidden. But it was this year that people noticed. [More here →]

Putin Supports Assange, Ridicules Washington’s Democracy Claim

As sources in the Kremlin suggest WikiLeaks founder be nominated for a Nobel Prize, Russia?s Vladimir Putin voiced support for Julian Assange and assailed the United States for its “undemocratic” attitude toward the Website owner. He said Americans have no right to lecture others on democracy after this incident. [More here →]

FAIR GIVES P.U. Litzer to Diane Sawyer for Wikicoverage

At the end of every year FAIR rounds up some of the stinkiest examples of corporate media malfeasance. This year brought no shortage of contenders; indeed, the hardest part of the P.U.-litzers is narrowing down the list. Readers who think we missed one can share their nominations at the FAIR Blog (fair.org/blog). And without further ado….

– Prosecute the Messenger Award: Diane Sawyer (ABC News) On October 22, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer introduced a report on WikiLeaks’ exposure of thousands of classified documents from the Iraq War. ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz summarized the contents of the WikiLeaks files: “Deadly U.S. helicopter assaults on insurgents trying to surrender…. The Iraqi civilian death toll far higher than the U.S. has acknowledged…. Graphic detail about torture of detainees by the Iraqi military.” After Raddatz’s report, Sawyer offered this followup: “I know there’s a lot of outrage about this again tonight, Martha. But tell me, anything more about prosecuting the WikiLeaks group?” [More here →]

Alternet.org: Elizabeth Warren — Foreclosure Crisis Could Have Been Avoided

In an op-ed published in the Miami Herald, Elizabeth Warren makes a strong case for a new consumer agency: “No one has missed the headlines: Haphazard and possibly illegal practices at mortgage-servicing companies have called into question home foreclosures across the nation. The latest disclosures are deeply troubling, but they should not come as a big surprise. For years, both individual homeowners and consumer advocates sounded alarms that foreclosure processes were riddled with problems.” [More here →]

What an understatement–“ridded with problems!” Follow Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism who is doing a great job of holding this industry’s feet to the fire. She reports today:

Woman Deceased in 1995 Continued to Robo Sign Till at Least 2008

How, may you ask, can a woman who has been dead since 1995 sign documents more than a decade later? Normally, one would hazard to guess that stamps with her signature on them were still in use (this is more common than you would think in foreclosure land). That would be plenty troubling.

But this little account comes from the debt collection realm, a cesspool of bad practices. Here, the credit card company Providian (acquired by WaMu in 2005) had employees signing affidavits in the name of Martha Kunkle for over a decade. Debt collection agencies continued to use these bogus affidavits. From the Wall Street Journal.

Economist Simon Johnson on the Year Ahead: Fresh Crises Loom in Europe and the U.S.

Most experienced watchers of the euro zone are expecting another serious crisis in early 2011, tied to the rollover funding needs of its weaker governments. With debts coming due from March through May, the crisis seems much more predictable than what happened to Greece or Ireland in 2010. And the investment bankers who fell over themselves to lend to these countries on the way up now lead the way in talking up the prospects for a serious crisis.

This situation is not more preventable for being predictable, because its resolution will involve politically costly steps – which, given how Europe works, can be taken only under duress. Don’t smile at the thought and think, “It can’t happen here,” because this same logic points directly to a deep and morally disturbing crisis in the United States.[More here →]

Foreign Affairs, Why the Rich Are Getting Richer

ThinkProgress.org: Georgia Bill Would Force State Taxpayers To Pay Only In Gold Or Silver

Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R) loves to introduce far-right reactionary bills. Among his greatest hits are an assault of Georgia’s authority to vaccinate its citizens, an unconstitutional bill declaring Roe v. Wade a “nullity,” and, of course, a bill eliminating income taxes. Yet Franklin may have outdone himself with his “Constitutional Tender Act,” which would require all transactions with the state of Georgia – including the payment of taxes – to be paid with U.S. minted gold or silver coins unless the state agrees to grant a special waiver for each transaction: [More here →]

SunLight Reporting Network: Information scarce on bids for failed banks

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is making less information available to the public about how it is dealing with the rising number of bank failures in 2010. Over the last year, the agency has failed to post a complete list of bids on 41 percent of the deals it makes with other banks to take over failing institutions–and what information it does provide is more limited than before.

Before May 2009, the FDIC would provide, upon request, the names of all entities placing bids on failed banks and how much each of them bid for the bank in question. Then the agency suddenly stopped–a move that provoked sharp complaints about lack of transparency, particularly in the business community.[More here →]

Key GOP lawmaker wants to stop financial regulations By Nancy Watzman

Reuters reports that Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, the incoming chairman of the Financial Services Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, wants to delay implementation of the new financial reform law for a year “so regulators have more time to understand the impact of rules they are writing.”

What’s missing from the story, however, is how much money Neugebauer has collected from the financial sector for his election campaigns–the very folks who might be interested in such a delay. In his most recent race he got more than $418,000, dwarfing contributions he received from other sectors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Among his top donors were Bank of America, the American Bankers Association, and Credit Suisse Group. [More here →]

NYT: Rattner to pay $10 Million to Settle Charges

Steven Rattner, who helped lead the Obama administration’s auto industry overhaul, has agreed to pay $10 million to settle influence-peddling allegations in New York. Rattner admitted no wrongdoing as part of the deal, which was announced by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Thursday.[More here →]

How China deals with Financial Criminals

BEIJING A former China official tasked with investigating corruption has been executed for taking more than $4.7 million in bribes.The state-run Xinhua News Agency says Zeng Jinchun was shot to death Thursday. He was the ruling Communist party’s top corruption inspector for Chenzhou city in the central province of Hunan. The report says Zeng was found guilty of taking the 31 million yuan in bribes in return for handing out mining contracts and job promotions over a decade ending in 2006. Corruption in China sometimes gets the death penalty. Thursday’s execution comes a day after top Communist Party officials in Beijing again promised to crack down on the graft that is a major source of social unrest throughout the country. [More here →]

AP: Former Israeli president convicted of rape

JERUSALEM (AP) ­ Former President Moshe Katsav was convicted Thursday of raping an employee when he was a Cabinet minister, the most serious criminal charges ever brought against a high-ranking official in Israel and a case that shocked the nation. [More here →]

LETTERS ON MY ESSAY ON HELEN THOMAS

Yesterday, I spoke to Helen who was very excited by the piece, praised me for writing it although she said she feared it would “get me into trouble ” She was thrilled to hear about all the pick up by web sites in the US, Canada, Britain, South Africa and the Middle East.

William Shanley writes:

Great piece, Danny. And thorough research. The only other point that I might have been made was the irrational political climate in which we now live wherein free speech is casualty of corporate militarist empire, and reporters are taking the hit for political correctness and exposing what is real. No one was allowed to question 9/11 “facts,” Afghanistan, Iraq, torture, habeas corpus, and many reporters today are isolating themselves, unwilling to be interviewed for fear of losing their jobs. I have a list of major reporters I know who are living inside that meaning. Free speech is no longer free and history will record that it was lost in the last 10 years because of cowardice and rejection of the people’s right to know. But you’ve performed a great service by having the courage to stand up for a Great American, clearly distinguishing the issues and authentically communicating her passions and regrets. Many congrats…

albert stridsberg writes: while she showed irritation in her comments, helen thomas’s remarks were accurate and justified. if one must consider blood inheritance (as christians and jews generally do), it is important to note that most of the Ashkenzis who migrated to Palestine in the late 19th and 20th centuries were converts to judaism. their bloodlines contained no Semitic DNA. this can be demonstrated, apparently, by   DNA analysis of the present israeli population. helen knew this, of course.

Lady Jayne Stahl comments: Excellent piece on Helen Thomas, Danny, which I will circulate widely…

El Fra offered kind praise: Fabulous piece Danny – and thank you. Thank you for all your superlative work all these years, dogging the truth despite often being swallowed alive by the verbiage of most of the so-called “press”! Helen is an icon in my view – I always loved her for her steadfast adherence to what was “right” as opposed to what went with the flow, or was expedient. A teller of truths. Her banishment due to words taken out of context? That was reprehensible. Following her career most of my life, I knew what she was driving at and instantly knew these remarks were a sound byte and that they were going to try and have her banished. I cried that day. I’m a fan, I miss your stuff. I admire your defense of Helen, and, of course, admire Helen.

Millie Barnet writes from Santa Rosa, California: This is truly heart-breaking as well as outrageous and sickening, what happened to Helen Thomas. I would like to be part of an action, a roll call of people to apologize to her for such dishonor, and to thank her for her life of fearless service in the highest cause possible to humankind: speaking truth to power. When power cannot bear the truth it needs to be brought down. Long live Helen Thomas, a woman to make all women proud. And she didn’t wait for permission from a “women’s movement.

Charles Halal, a Lebanese American wrote: “Thanks Danny, It’s not often anyone speaks with as open a mind as you. My father would applaud your efforts…”

George Collin writes from New Hampshire: Let me couch my quibble: I fancy myself a recovered former Chrisitian and relative atheist. I don’t dismiss the best of Christian principles, but do lament that its leaders hardly seem to take the Redemption seriously. Relative atheism allows the sop of avoiding the pseudo canard that can befuddle the absolutists: how can we be absolutely certain of the absence of what so many, meaning such disparate content, refer to as “God”, by one label or another.

That said, are not a seeming majority of Christians particularly damnable these days, even though it would be an absurdity to say that Christians collectively are damnable,….for their ‘relative’ silence. Why are Christianity’s pubahs not banding in protest at the White House gates and decrying Obama’s ignoble acceptance of the Nobel, and the atrocities he orchestrates in Afghanistan, and his many other betrayals of basic human rights?

Analogously, there are Jewish critics of Israel militaristic policy. Obviously including you, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Paul Jay and on and on.. But, though it exists, we don’t hear too much about internal Israeli criticism of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I think Helen, forgivably, blinked when she articulated her qualified regret. And I don’t think she “misspoke” in the first instance, other than articulating unwisely. Yes, the whole story is that there inevitably, and predictably, would be and obviously actually are Jews whose compassion is intact and, not succumbing to silence, out Israel for its US coddled regional imperialism and barbaric practices in general as well as for its reprehensible repression of Palestinians, whose ranks obviously include many who have succumbed to mindless malice.

My point is that the substance of Helen’s message, as you clearly allow, was accurate and hardly Antisemitic. Just because arrangements were made for the establishment of Israel on Palestinian land did and does not now make it ‘moral’, nor does Palestinian upset justify Israeli barbarism in the name of ‘security’. It was impractical, unrealistic and, you might say, that Jewish immigrants should go home, back to where they came from was frivolous venting. In that sense, Helen’s solution was absurd, but not anti-Semitic.

I finish by saying that I don’t think we should allow Helen’s remarks to constitute “misspeaking” in the same way, say, that certain of Roger Clemens’ apparent lies were dismissed by him as “misremembering”. Misspeaking connotes, in my view, the implication that while the essence of her view may be unexceptional she disclosed unforgivable bias in her delivery. The facts on the ground justify her vitriol. Best to you!

E Kittredge: Thank you so much for your article which I read to the end. I’m grateful too that Common Dreams bookmarked it. I’ll check out mediachannel.org. Thanks again, Danny Schechter!

Kathy Barry: Thank you Danny Schechter for your excellent article in Common Dreams today. I was trying to write such an article but the final stages of book production commanded all my time. You hit it right on the mark. Did you know that at the time of the Gaza Aid Flotilla, the same Rabbi had a phoney video on his site which pictured Arabs “terrorists” on the boat condemning Jews. But at the time no one questioned his journalism. Your article is honoring and compassionate.

You may not remember but we met years ago in either Detroit or Syracuse in relation to some CORE activities. All a bit hazy. Congratulations on your new book. Best, Kathy Barry

SN writes: Thanks for that article, the first I’ve read in support of Helen Thomas and the first I’ve seen with any context to the story. I remember seeing it on the Daily Show and having a feeling that Jon had just contributed to a hit: click hereGreat job and again, thanks.

Victor Ortiz wrote: “Thank you for the Al Jazeera piece, Danny!”

Wesley Parish writes,

I couldn’t agree more. It’s disgraceful how people confuse a people, a religion
and a state, and then insist that the state is beyond criticism …

Karen Wald writes:

I was so outraged by what they did to her and, understanding what she was trying to say, attempted to defend her (which made at least one reader of cuba inside out ask to be taken off the list!)
Thanks and have a good year (let’s hope it’s not too much worse than the last) :(

Jon Ross writes “She showed her true colors and was caught.”

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