HOW CLOSE IT IS

HOW BLOODY IT IS

REPORTING FROM THE RED SOX NATION

The writer George Orwell understood the power of propaganda. He died years ago but at least one of his insights should stir us to action, “In times of universal deceit,” he wrote, in his classic 1984, “telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act”

Good morning fellow revolutionaries on this day before the Messection of 2004. “Feverish pitch” is the term the Washington Post used to characterize the exhausting pace of our TV driven politics in the final hours in what the called “one of history’s most bitter presidential campaigns.” What an understatement!

We are under attack from our TV sets. It’s a media war until the end. Today’s New York Times explains: “The campaign is coming to a close in an epic cacophony of advertisements striking notes of hope and fear, patriotism and betrayal.”

GET OUT THE VOTE

Johnny Apple of the NY Times tells us “The presidential election is very likely to be decided by the effort of both parties to get supporters ‘to the polls’” But the problems of doing so, the ongoing sabotage of the voting process is not the big news. Instead are commentators have returned to the game they like most–the numbers game–projecting electoral wins and losses, NBC’s Tim Russert is one of those wise men who loves to treat politics like sports. Sometimes, he’s able to interrogate his guests but yesterday Rudy Giuliani, a demagogue’s demagogue, ran circles around him spinning avoiding every tough question with pre-packaged pablum, His “interview” felt like an attack ad.

So much for journalism. I longed to play “Beat the Press.” Even the BBC was scraping the bottom of the barrel by featuring an interview with Harlan Ullman, the strategist who came up with “Shock and Awe.” I was shocked to find the bomber of Baghdad now bombing TV viewers with drivel. CNN was talking about the “tradion” which suggests that an incumbent always loses when the Washington Redskins lose their pre-election game. The lost yesterday to Greenbay Wisconsin.

AS CLOSE AS IT CAN BE

The Wash Post says: “Bush, Kerry in Reach of Electoral Win . . . But Neither Has Clear Advantage In Tossup States”. And thousands of poll workers are hard at work. I heard the NY Times Maureen Dowd on the radio last night talking about her “evil sister” who is beating the bushes for Bush in one battleground state. The NY Times quotes Eric Rademacher who runs the University of Cincinatti’s Ohop Poll as saying “It’s as close as it could conceivably be. Closer than I’ve ever seen before. Close here and several other states. We may not know the outcome until mid-November.”

Efforts are underway to suppress the minority vote and violate voting rights. The NY Times which did not report on maneuvers to purge voters in Florida before the election of 2000 now has one story saying: “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that at least some election officials are intentionally trying to stop eligible people from voting.”

The result: . . . “A series of hairbreadth finishes could plunge the nation into treacherous straits, with lawsuits in multiple states, a far more complex prospect than the legal contest in 2000, which was confined to Florida. Several suits have already been filed. But the huge numbers of newly registered voters could confound all the forecasts.”

HOW THEY DO IT

Josh Marhsall’s Talking Points Memo adds: “Some group is South Carolina is circulating a phony letter, purporting to be from the NAACP, alerting voters that they’ll be arrested at the polls if they have unpaid parking tickets or are behind in child support.”

http://tinyurl.com/6ymdx

DAMPEN REGISTRATION

A Times Editorial, “G.O.P. to the Poor: Don’t Vote” fleshes out one more example:

“With little notice or discussion, Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri allowed a provision into a Senate appropriations bill that could ban even nonpartisan voter registration efforts in public housing developments all over the country. This is an example of the unfortunate impulse now afflicting some parts of the Republican Party: a desire to suppress voting in poor and minority neighborhoods. Mr. Bond’s proposal runs contrary to both the spirit of democracy and federal law, which in recent years has moved increasingly toward broadening ballot access. The National Voter Registration Act — commonly known as the Motor Voter Act — actually requires state agencies, including those that issue welfare benefits and drivers’ licenses, to offer voter registration materials to the people they serve.”

IS THIS A CRIME?

Greg Palast is tracking some of these violations for the BBC and reported yesterday in the Observer out of London. Once again, as in 2000, the British press seems more on the case than their American counterparts:

“An Observer investigation in the United States has uncovered widespread allegations of electoral abuse, many of them going uninvestigated despite complaints of what would appear to be criminal attempts to manipulate voter lists.

“The allegations, which come just two days before Americans go to the polls in one of the most tightly contested elections in a generation, threaten to plunge Tuesday’s count into a legal minefield and overshadow even the elections of 2000.

“The claims come as both Republicans and Democrats put in place up to 2,000 lawyers across the country to challenge attempts to manipulate the vote in swing states.

” Although allegations of misconduct have been leveled at both parties recently, the majority of complaints that have been identified in The Observer’ s investigation involved claims against local Republicans.”

www.truthout.org/docs_04/110104C.shtml

BRINGING THE COUNTRY TOGETHER

Salon’s Michelle Goldberg:

“Lisa Dupler, a 33-year-old from Columbus, held up a rainbow-striped John Kerry sign outside the Nationwide Arena on Friday, as Republicans streamed out after being rallied by George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A thickset woman with very short, dark hair, Dupler was silent and barely flinched as people passing her hissed “faggot” into her ear. An old lady looked at her and said, “You people are sick!” A kid who looked to be about 10 or 11 affected a limp wrist and mincing voice and said, “Oh, I’m gay.” Rather than restraining him, his squat mother guffawed and then turned to Dupler and sneered, “Why don’t you go marry your girlfriend?” Encouraged, her son yelled, “We don’t want faggots in the White House!”

“The throngs of Republicans were pumped after seeing the president and the action hero. But there was an angry edge to their elation. They shrieked at the dozen or so protesters standing on the concrete plaza outside the auditorium. “Kerry’s a terrorist!” yelled a stocky kid in baggy jeans and braces. “Communists for Kerry! Go back to Russia,” someone else screamed. Many of them took up the chant “Kerry sucks”; old women and teenage boys shouting with equal ferocity.”

LOOK SOUTH

Lets take a second out to hear about another election in another land. AFP has the story. While US politics veer right, in Uruguay voters go another way:

“Socialist Tabare Vazquez scored a historic victory in Uruguay’s presidential voting as exit polls showed his coalition that includes former guerrilla fighters with more than 50 percent of votes cast.

“Supporters of Vazquez’s leftist coalition, which includes former Tupamaro rebels that took up arms to fight the 1973-1985 military junta, were already celebrating in the street as Vazquez declared victory. “Celebrate Uruguayans, celebrate, for the victory is ours, thanks, many thanks,” Vazquez told thousands of cheering supporters.

WORLD ON FIRE

There was another suicide bombing in Israel as tit for tat violence continues…Three Israel’s and the bomber dead…32 wounded. Israel is not winning its ear on terror, Why the upsurge in violent. This story from Al Jazeera offers a clue:

Human-rights abuses are being carried out by Israeli settlers on a massive scale, but the US media continues to choose not to present the whole Palestine/Israel story - just the Tel Aviv version,” she says. ( . . . ) “We are not talking verbal abuse, taunts and pushes - we are talking punctured lungs, broken arms, fractured ribs and whipping with chains. But Israeli police are not investigating.” ( . . . ) Alison Weir, the executive director of ifamericansknew.org, says that while Americans are well informed about the deaths of Israeli children, very few realize that approximately six times more Palestinian children have been killed.

http://tinyurl.com/5fg8m

How will Americans in Israel vote? Times Watcher Dan Cassidy shares this:

“In the last several presidential elections, Jewish voters in Israel have favored the Democratic candidate over the Republican by around 80 percent to 20 percent, said David Froehlich, who runs the Federal Voting Assistance Program in Israel, and is a former chairman of Democrats Abroad in Israel. He acknowledged that Mr. Bush would make a much stronger showing this time, because of his support for Israel. In addition, Israel was one of the few countries to enthusiastically support the invasion of Iraq. But Mr. Froehlich still predicted that Mr. Kerry would capture 60 percent of the Israeli vote. “

POWELL: WE ARE LOSING

Salon reports:

“Secretary of State Colin Powell has privately confided to friends in recent weeks that the Iraqi insurgents are winning the war, according to Newsweek. The insurgents have succeeded in infiltrating Iraqi forces “from top to bottom,” a senior Iraqi official tells Newsweek in tomorrow’s issue of the magazine, “from decision making to the lower levels.”

CHINA GETS OFF THE TRAIN

An election eve defection from the Bushworld view by Powell will not be welcomed by Karl Rove and Company. But Powell is only one person. His minor dissent ws overshadowed by a blast from the East,

“BEIJING (AP) — On the eve of the U.S. presidential election, China accused President Bush of trying to “rule over the whole world,” saying the invasion of Iraq destroyed the global anti-terrorism coalition and worsened religious and ethnic conflicts.

“The strikingly pointed criticism from a government that Washington calls a key anti-terrorism ally was a departure from China’s past refusal to comment on the U.S. presidential candidates.

“It came in a commentary in a state newspaper by Vice Premier Qian Qichen, who criticized what he called the “Bush Doctrine” as a policy of pre-emptive military attack and a Cold War relic.”

HOW MANY DIED? THEY KNOW!

London’s Independent reports:

“The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq, contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified, according to one of the authors of an independent study which reported last week that the war has killed at least 100,000 Iraqis.

“Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time, General Tommy Franks, that ‘We don’t do body counts’, the US military does collect casualty figures in Iraq,” said Professor Richard Garfield, an expert on the effects of conflict on civilians. “But since 1991, when Colin Powell was head of the joint chiefs of staff, the figures have been kept secret.”

“Professor Garfield, who lectures at Columbia University in New York and the London School of Hygiene and Public Health, believes the Pentagon’s stance has confused its response to the latest study. “The military is saying: ‘We don’t believe it, but because we don’t collect figures, we can’t comment,” he said.”

GWB VS SADDAM IN THE DEATH TOLL

Michigan’s Professor Juan Cole comments on the new Iraq Civilian casualty figures:

“The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, reports that the US and coalition forces (but mainly the US Air Force) has killed 100,000 Iraqi civilians since the fall of Saddam on April 9, 2003. Previous estimates for civilian deaths since the beginning of the war ranged up to 16,000, with the number of Iraqi troops killed during the war itself put at about 6,000.

“The troubling thing about these results is that they suggest that the US may soon catch up with Saddam Hussein in the number of civilians killed. How many deaths to blame on Saddam is controverial. He did after all start both the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War. But he also started suing for peace in the Iran-Iraq war after only a couple of years, and it was Khomeini who dragged the war out until 1988. But if we exclude deaths of soldiers, it is often alleged that Saddam killed 300,000 civilians. This allegation seems increasingly suspect. So far only 5000 or so persons have been found in mass graves. But if Roberts and Burnham are right, the US has already killed a third as many Iraqi civilians in 18 months as Saddam killed in 24 years.”

HAWKING SAYS NO

Also from the Independent, this development:

“Stephen Hawking, Britain’s most eminent scientist, has become the latest prominent opponent of the Iraq war by agreeing to take the lead role in a ceremonial protest to coincide with the United States presidential election. Peace protesters will gather in Trafalgar Square at 5pm on Tuesday, where they will read out the names of 5,000 Iraqi men, women and children known to have died in the conflict.”

New voices are weighing in on those missing weapons. I notice two stories of significance.

“Human Rights Watch said Saturday it alerted the U.S. military to a cache of hundreds of high-explosive warheads in Iraq in May 2003, but that officials appeared uninterested and still had not secured the site 10 days later.”

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: “Six months after the fall of Baghdad, a vast Iraqi weapons depot with tens of thousands of artillery rounds and other explosives remained unguarded, according to two U.S. aid workers who say they reported looting of the site to American military officials.

The aid workers say they informed Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the highest-ranking Army officer in Iraq in October 2003, but were told that the United States did not have enough troops to seal off the Ukhaider Ammunition Storage Area, which included more than 60 bunkers packed with munitions.

“We were outraged,” said Wes Hare, city manager of La Grande, Ore., who was working in Iraq as part of a rebuilding program.

RED SOX NATION

I felt like I was in that James Taylor song driving the turnpike from the Berkshires to Boston, as a big white limo flying four Red Sox flags cut in front of me. Over thrill million people turned out for a rolling parade, the celebration of THE TEAM’s big victory in the World Series after 86 years. The tolls were WAIVED on the Mass Pike, a first in my memory. Despite the fog and light drizzle millions lined the streets and the Charles River to wave and cheer, a release like no other in a time of terror and political warfare.

“Thank You” and “We Believe” were the dominant slogans. Strange how more people in New England seemed to believe in the Red Sox Nation than the USA. What else is there to believe in, one fan told me.

Why do sports teams elicit this kind of adulation. Is it an identity thing, a sense of belonging, a love of the competitive effort, or a feeling that somehow these professional athletes, men who in this instance call themselves cowboys and idiots, who play hard and party hard were doing it for them, for their community, for their lives? That is a bizarre belief because it is expected than many of those being cheered in Boston today won’t be there tomorrow as they exercise their right to go for the gold and find higher paying jobs. Such is they money comes first. Negotiations with the players resumes today.

What is it that on the eve of an election in which a Senator from Massachusetts is in striking distance of the presidency that makes politics boring and unexciting by comparison.?

You see it all over the world. People die in soccer wars, march behind their sports heroes, and absorb all the details of their histories and records. Yesterday after a screening of WMD at the Northampton film festival, I was asked about how you can get people interested in information and analytical Coverage.

Watch sorts television, I responded, see all the charts and stats, and data and descriptions. Hear all the strategic discussion. When its interesting, people are interested.

YOUR LETTERS

Larry Houghtling:

“Did you notice the frontpage subhead in the Post on Saturday, under Osama bi Ladin’s photo?

It read “Urges Bush defeat.”

“Damn, if I’d known back in my reporter days that it was okay to say anything I bloody well pleased no matter whether it was true or not, I might still be a journalist!

“Keep throwing those harpoons.”

SEE THIS

Unsigned:

“I saw you speak a few years back while I was an undergrad at Cornell. Your lecture forever changed my view of the media. You’re doing a great service with this organization. Hey there,

I’ve got something I think you might be interested in passing around. In a recent press conference, George Bush was asked if he had made any mistakes during his presidency. He couldn’t come up with any off the top of his head. So I compiled a little video to refresh his memory.

Check out “George Bush: Mistaken” on www.hategun.com at:
www.hategun.com/features/mistaken/index.html

Nikki Oldaker:
Did you see the 60 minutes report tonight, I couldn’t believe what I was watching

GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets?
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/31/60minutes/main652491.shtml

CHILD ABUSE LEADS TO MILITARY ABUSE

Blaine Newcomb writes:

“I have been reading about battered women, batterers, and battered children. I called a few of the major researchers on the psychology of the batterer and they told me that there was no research they knew of on a correlation between being battered as a child and interest in and participation in the U.S. military.

“According to the books I have read, the batterers act violently and feel little if any remorse. Sounds like a perfect soldier.

1. What about a film showing segments from hundreds of films preparing men for war, and showing the drill sargent talking to the men as they must have been talked to as children by their parents. “Get on the floor right now you little Son of a Bitch.” “Did I give you permission to speak?” “You are to speak only when I tell you to.” “You puke.” “You shit” “You’re nothing.” “You’re nobody”etc.

Cut back to pictures of abuse of children. Do interviews with soldiers. Provide research data within the context of the film. Also, interview C/O’s perhaps who decided to leave. I have never seen such a film and have read no books on the relationship between verbal and physical abuse of boys and how many of them have become soldiers.

2. What about a documentary about the effects of depleted uranium with a sampling of the blood of a thousand American soldiers returning from Iraq and find out how many of them have depleted uranium in their blood? Juan Gonzalez on ‘Democracy Now!’ had an interview, but are there wealthy individuals in America who would finance a good study on the incidence of depleted uranium in the blood of the soldiers, the probability of birth defects in the children, etc. Such a film could be distributed through MoveOn.Org. etc. Even with corporate media control couldn’t such information filter down to the wives of men headed for Iraq.

“I find it very strange that apparently little if any research has been done on this subject and feel this would make a compelling documentary with interviews, etc., etc.”

So much to report, so little time. The new Bush slogan is “Stand With Me.” Forget the issues, I’m your guy. I can say the same.

ON THE ROAD

Had a great screening of WMD at the Cape Anne Forum in Gloucester last night. A very impressive community turnout and lots of interest. Today, we screen for the UN correspondents. Foreign reporters seem to understand these issues. Did anyone see the interviews with me this past weekend in Asahi in Japan and Le Monde in Paris. If you have a copy, send it along. I am speaking at the New School University tonight.

Tomorrow, I vote, I hope with the rest of our US readers. Fingers crossed. To borrow the optimistic slogan of Red Sox Nation, “Believe.”

Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org