*PRESIDENTIAL PEP RALLY*

*MICHAEL MOORE’S “BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE”*

*SCOTT RITTER, REPUBLICAN*

I was thinking of Mike Todd’s (a Liz Taylor’s ex) “Around the world in 80 Days” as I finished my circum-loco-navigation, or whatever you call it, of the blue planet in a little more than two weeks, leaving me jet lagged but duty bound to strap myself in because I am not yet weblogged. I missed the Presidential speech last night, that had been heavily hyped on the news channels I checked in Tokyo and then LA.

Here on the eve of the next apocalypse, was a call to arms that the White House had downplayed as nothing new. And then, to the surprise of many, the president didn’t even request airtime as the promoters of POTUS (President of the United States in insider lingo) tend to do. And the networks, seemingly sensitive to the political character of this latest exercise in Saddam bashing, obliged him. Why?

“STANGER AND STRANGER”

Media analyst Mark Crispin Miller was perplexed, commenting:

“So Bush wants to make war, but he doesn’t want to address the American people?Stranger and stranger.” AP reported last night, before a new term, “arsenal of terror,” was launched to replace “axis of evil” as the slogan du jour.

“The speech, which is expected to address the threat Iraq poses to the United States and the possibility of war, comes as Congress prepares to vote on resolutions authorizing military action.

- ABC: Not planning live coverage.

- NBC: Not planning live coverage.

- MSNBC: Planning live coverage.

- CBS: Not planning live coverage.

- FOX News: Undecided.

- FOX: Undecided.

CNN: Planning live coverage.”

ANTI-WAR MVT REACTS

Paul O Hanlon sent me the International Action Center’s response from his bunker in Scotland:

“For months Bush has presented an ever-changing set of rationales for war with Iraq, switching from one to another when the falsity of the argument becomes too obvious. Tonight Bush simply strung all these lies together into an argument for a war that is becoming increasingly unpopular…

“U.S. warplanes bomb Iraq almost every day. Iraq has not bombed the United States. Bush and his team of ultra-militarists and hawks have created an “Alice in Wonderland” version of reality. Seeking to establish that the coming war is a “just war,” Bush tonight continued his strategy of generating a hysteria around the so-called threat posed by Iraq’s potential for developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.” Sarah Ferguson, of the Village Voice reports on the growing peace movement. “Tens of thousands rally in cities across the country to sayNo to war with Iraq.”

RITTER REVEALS HE IS A REPUBLICAN

Meanwhile in the Guardian, former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter who has been criticizing the rush to war revealed that he is a Republican who is opposed to the policy (Ironic isn’t that one of the Administration’s fiercest critics comes from with the ranks of its own party?)”

“As a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and as a registered member of the Republican party who voted for George Bush in the last presidential election, I have to admit to a certain trepidation and uncertainty when I was asked by Labor MPs to participate in the massive anti-war rally in London on September 28.

“In my way of thinking, mass demonstrations, regardless of the righteousness of the cause, were the theatre of the political left, and not something with which I should be associated. I was proven wrong on all counts. The outpouring of democratic will that occurred on that day came not only from the left, but from across the breadth of mainstream British society. It sent a message to a Blair government that had grown increasingly isolated from public opinion: UK support for an American unilateral war on Iraq would not be tolerated. That message met a response a few days later from the Labour party at its annual conference in Blackpool. Democracy in action is a wonderful thing.:”

Scott Ritter of course was a UN weapons inspector in Iraq in 1991-98 and chief of the concealment investigations team. A full scale interview by William Rivers Pitt appears in a new booklet published by Context Books.(Contexbooks.com) Beau Friedlander who did the cover and interior design gave me a copy last night. The book begins with a famous quote by Karl Kraus: “How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe those lies when they see them in print.”

MARCHING AGAIN

That quote was uttered before TV transformed media. Now the lies are televised, just as much of the growing anti-war movement is not. I filmed some of the “Not in My Name” protest march in LA on Sunday afternoon that was big and boisterous and multi-generational. There was a 96-year-old marcher and there were toddlers against the war. Some of the activists I spoke to cited a split in many papers (except the Wall Street Journal) between editorial pages that do carry some critical articles and news columns that largely do not.

While a growing number of people seem to be speaking out against the war, who is for it? John Judis, a terrific journalist I ran into recently at a conference in Germany, offers a perspective on that in The American Prospect and shows who wants to go to war with Iraq: “rural, white, male, southern Republicans without a college diploma.”

In other words, they’re the same people who voted for Bush in the 2000 elections. While the folks opposing the war are, in the words of Judis, “disproportionately women, minorities, senior citizens, the college-educated and residents of the Northeast, Midwest and Far West.” In other words, Bush’s planned war against Iraq is likely to be just as legitimate as his own election.” –So writes: alternet.org

GO SEE MICHAEL MOORE’S NEW MOVIE

While The President was raving about “the urgent duty” to use violence to stop possible violence, (while that mysterious sniper was inflicting more violence in and around our nation’s capital) a new total assault on our culture of violence was unrolled at a Loew’s movie palace on 42nd Street. There author-activist and filmmaker Michael Moore previewed his stunning feature length documentary “BOWLING FOR COUMBINE” to cheers from a crowd that included members of the group Peaceful Futures–families of victims of the 9/11 attack who oppose a policy of vengeance and revenge. The film drives home the famous comment by the activist once known as H.Rap Brown, “violence is as American as apple pie.”

This artful act of agitprop opens this weekend in 900 theaters and is a must see. It is better than his Roger and Me, his first feature and certainly more timely. At a time when television is more conformist, it is surprising that Moore’s film will be shown in malls across America. Moore, whose new book has been a smash best seller, clearly resonates with many Americans who reject the mainstream’s right-tilted “balance.” His hulky lumbering presence makes him a celebrity anti-Christ, but celebrity nonetheless.

The film shows Michael Moore on fire — indicting America’s gun culture while revealing that he grew up with guns in his beloved Michigan and is a member of the NRA. In probing the Columbine High School massacre, he makes connections few in the media made, noting that the town of Littleton is a spoke in the military industrial complex and a home to manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction. The title comes from a class at Columbine High which two of the school’s “trench-coat” mafia attended, before they turned their weapons (with bullets purchased at the local K Mart) on their classmates and then themselves. Moore notes it was the day of the heaviest bombing of the Kosovo War. His team managed to get hold of the school’s surveillance videos that show the shooting in progress and the 911 operators tapes that reveal that, in the midst of the crisis, Fox and CNN were hogging the operator’s time improperly to get access to the names of distraught parents.

I don’t want to spoil your movie-going experience by revealing too many details about a movie that wowed the Cannes Film Festival–but I will say that it has impact and is very incisive and angry about the role of TV media in promoting fear — the fear that leads to gun violence in which the USA shamefully ranks as number #1 in world.

Moore notes that as crime went down, news about crime went up. There is a fascinating interview with the producer of the Fox series “COPS” that proves Hannah Arendt correct by showing the banality of evil and the stupidity of the media vultures who make and run it. In talks afterwards, Moore, as big a (physically and politically) fellow as the left has, can barely get on the networks as a guest and pundit. He said that in the last two months, he has had only two invitations — one at 7 in the morning and another after 11 at night. Despite his visible and lucrative achievements, he is still not considered ready for prime time.

He did note that hits on his MichaelMoore.com web site hit 17 million last month. (MichaelMoore.com) is a member of Mediachannel.com) Mike made a flattering comment about our work last night as well.

WAR WITHOUT END

We mustn’t forget the continuing killings in the West Bank which has prompted renewed criticism from the White House. The New York Times says 13 died in an attack on a town in Gaza. But the Palestine Chronicle has more of the kind of detail that is often overlooked by newscasters who describe the number of deaths as if they were covering a sporting event.

“At 1 a.m. this morning Israeli troops invaded two neighborhoods west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. A number of tanks supported by Apache helicopters entered the neighborhoods opening fire randomly; thirteen Palestinians were killed, among them four children, and more than seventy were injured, several of them seriously.

Some of the victims were killed by shooting and shelling while in their homes, but the majority was killed when the Israeli troops were withdrawing. People went out in the streets to look at the damage and help injured people, when an Apache helicopter suddenly turned around and fired missiles into the crowds. At least eight were killed.

Throughout the Israeli attack, ambulances were prevented from reaching the injured…. Israeli soldiers surrounded and entered the home of Rami Salame who was “wanted” by the Israeli army. The soldiers did not find Rami at home, and instead they shot his mother, Rahme Hassan Salame (45), in the head, killing her. A local TV news report on CBS in new York this morning simply said “Israel said they had killed Hamas members and militants.”

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE

Meanwhile, Speak Out sends along a report by Bob Wing, editor of War Times newspaper which offers some color that is often missing in the reports of deadly incidents:

“Yesterday, as we drove from Gaza to Ramallah, we found ourselves at the main entry to the city. However, the entry has been destroyed. So, to enter, we had to drive for 45 minutes on one of those exclusive Israeli-only “bypass highways.” Finally the detour led us to a spot that was a stone’s throw from where we started the detour, but this time inside Ramallah. We were allowed to take that “shortcut” because we were in a United Nations car; otherwise it is much worse.

“One of the reasons today’s trip took us so little time is that, by chance, we ended up in a taxi driven by a Palestinian who holds Israeli citizenship at the military checkpoint on the way out of Ramallah. Otherwise, at each checkpoint, we would have had to change taxis once we got through the checkpoint. Even our Israeli citizen driver was not allowed to drive into Bethlehem, so we did have to change there.… Palestinians are treated like cattle, made to walk several hundred meter long gauntlets, often literally in cages, to pass Israeli checkpoints-that is, those few that are allowed through…

“Anyone who, like myself, might be imagining the Israeli “settlements” in the West Bank or Gaza as some kind of rustic pioneer thing need to be disabused of the notion. The settlements are gigantic (up to 50,000 persons) Darth Vaderesque suburban housing developments, with all the “conveniences.” They are state-subsidized, a core of settler zealots are organized residents, and many of the rest living there are just enjoying the cheap housing prices….”

REMEMBER TONY MAZZOCCHI

We pay our respects this morning to a labor leader that your news dissector knew and admired, Evelyn Leopold, a colleague and Reuters journalist of distinction, reports on the death of a founder of the new US labor party: ” Anthony Mazzocchi, a labor leader instrumental in securing U.S. national safety and health legislation in the work place, died on Saturday after a year of battling pancreatic cancer, friends and family said.

Mazzocchi, 76, a native of Brooklyn, New York, who lived in Montclair, New Jersey, and in Washington, died at his Washington home, said his companion, Katherine Isaac. Making no secret of his terminal illness, hewrote to friends and associates last summer, “I am both afflicted with an incurable disease and blessed with an incurable optimism.” Mazzocchi spent most of his union career with the then Denver-based Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union (OCAW), serving as a local union president, legislative director, health and safety director, vice president and secretary-treasurer. In 1970 as the OCAW’s legislative director in Washington, he played an crucial role in the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, often called the most pro-labor legislation in the last 50 years. In 1974, Mazzocchi was the key adviser to Karen Silkwood, a nuclear power plant worker at the Kerr-McGee facility in Oklahoma before she died in a mysterious car accident en route to meet a journalist. Her whistle-blowing activities and efforts to organize a union were the subject of a 1984 film, “Silkwood,” starring Meryl Streep.”

POST CARDS FROM JAKARTA

While I was in Jakarta, Indonesia a week ago, I reported on a screening organized by the foreign correspondents in that city. I asked them to share with us about their efforts on behalf of one of their fallen members. Catherine Munro writes: “… the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club has established a scholarship for an Indonesian journalist in memory of Jakarta-based Reuters cameraman Harry Burton. Harry was killed while working in Afghanistan on November 19, 2001. The scholarship will enable a journalist or cameraman to attend a 30-day television-training course in Jakarta. The first course is being funded by the sale of greeting cards, which can be used generally or for Christmas and Lebaran. Orders can be made by responding to this email

aapjakarta@attglobal.net, aapjakarta@attglobal.netn

(Incidentally in one of my reports from Indonesia I mistakenly reported that the fallen dictator Suharto was dead, promoting a query from Australian National Radio which said that was news to them. I was thinking of Sukarno or not thinking at all. Anyway, I wrote back with Mark Twain’s famous quote: News of my death has been exaggerated.”)

It is good to be back. I have loads to share with you. Tomorrow I will be reporting on why PBS has, surprise, surprise decided NOT to distribute our new film COUNTING ON DEMOCRACY (See the new ITVS.org website for more about this investigative film on what happened to all the votes in Florida in 2000, and to order, visit Globalvision.org) Before I left, SALON had expressed interest in publishing the piece but then held on to it for more than a month before “passing” for reasons that I found disgraceful. I will have more tomorrow. Please share your comments and suggestions with me by writing dissector@mediachannel.org. If you have not signed up for the Mediachaqnnel.org’s free e-newsletter, you can today by adding your name over the home page. Also surf on over to gvnews.net for the latest from the Globalvision News Network with all the news you don’t find elsewhere.