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:

CAROLYN BAKER WRITES

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.

HOW TO BUY THE DVD

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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