A Winding Road is back up at the original site and Folding Star has also created a mirror site (due to problems with Blogger*). From today's entry:

Today the hearings on John Bolton began, after being delayed from last Thursday, and being the political junkie that I can be I made sure to tape the hearings on CSPAN. I'm actually playing (and fast forwarding, I haven't the time or the patience to listen to the Republican members of the Committee kiss up to Bolton to show their approval) the tape as I write this, so I have yet to see it all the way through.
So far, the highlight has been the disruption by a handful of women who, directly after Bolton's questioning by Republican Senator Chafee of Rhode Island, stood up with large pink banners with slogans that said 'Bolton = Nuclear Proliferation', 'Diplomat For Hire No Bully Please' and 'Ban Bolton, Not Treaties' and calling out "No on Bolton. He does not represent our interests. He does not represent global security!"
The women were calm and moved out as soon as the security officers ordered them to do so, one calling out "Please vote no. We're here because there are no Senators representing the District of Columbia. This is my voice!"
The women were peace activists from Code Pink, and watching their peaceful disruption was truly watching Democracy in action, especially as, for about thirty seconds, someone moved to stand in front of the CSPAN camera, blocking any view of the women and their signs. Whether or not this was a purposeful attempt to block viewers from the protest, I can't say.

* I was asked whether I thought CJR Daily or Slate would cover the issue of Blogger in their blog reports. In e-mails that went out Sunday, I said, "No, I didn't. Having missed it on Friday, they wouldn't acknowledge their mistake (or that Wired beat them to the punch) come Monday."

How did it play out?

Rory, who reads CJR Daily out of "some planned frustration desire," e-mailed noting Candy Perfume Boy covered the blogs today and, no surprise, no mention of the brownout. (For Susan, "Candy Perfume Boy" is a term derived from Madonna's "Candy Perfume Girl" song. She uses the term in that song -- off Ray of Light. For Vanessa, yes, I'm sure that Chrissie Hynde's use of
"bully boys don't bother me, I purse my lips and they run away" from Pretenders "Sense of Purpose" is the reason for the use of the term "Bully Boy" to apply to Bush. "Sense of Purpose" first appears on Pretenders album Packed! And before anyone writes in, Hynde has stated it's "Pretenders," not "the Pretenders.")

Rory: CJR Daily is it's usual blend of uselessness. There are nine links in the "Blog" Report. Let me repeat, the "Blog" Report. How many of the nine links go to blogs? Did you guess nine? Wrong. Did you guess eight? Wrong again. Did you figure that at least half had to go to blogs?
Still wrong. Three go to blogs. Three links out of nine go to blogs in what they call a "Blog" Report. I only visit to laugh at them.

Glad they make Rory laugh, however, one of the links goes to a "blog" by Washington Monthly so some might argue that it's five sources (ABC, the Times, etc.) and four to blogs or "blogs."

We'll also note, since Candy Perfume Boy never tells (he's such a don't ask, don't tell boy, no?) that Candy Perfume Boy interned at The Washington Monthly. He's written for them (on NPR in 2003). He'd dispute employed, I'm sure. (I'm blanking on exact wording.) But isn't it strange, that CJR Daily, while reviewing others, doesn't feel the need to disclose what some might see as a conflict of interest? I'll agree with Jess (Third Estate Sunday Review), this is the true "circle jerk."

And while Candy Perfume Boy is slapping people down (as he is in the copy and past Rory sent me) for not admitting mistakes, he might want to check with his colleague Suzy Q who wrote a newspaper report during the campaign but left out a key piece of information. When it was brought to her attention, she noted that the info appeared in a Washington Post article. But the thing is, it appeared in the New York Times article she was originally reviewing (by Jodi Wilgoren). A community member pointed that out in real time. So her "correction" is less than honest. (And the community member has a comment up in the comments section on it from real time. Unless they've deleted it.)

So possibly, when Suzie Q's "correction" still wasn't correct and CJR Daily had the information (and has it in the comments section now unless they've deleted it), Candy Perfume Boy shouldn't be wasting everyone's time harping on the mistakes of others?

Or maybe there's just a set of standards they apply to others, but not themselves? That would explain a great deal.

David Wallace-Wells does the Slate blog report today (Lyle e-mailed it in). For the record, Juan Cole is correct and DW-W shows the same attitude people criticize in the mainstream media by doing "Cole says" and "but ___ says." He quotes a political scientist, DW-W, holding two degrees in poli sci, I'm confused as to what allows the "political scientist" quoted to claim the term but if he (and as Rebecca would say, "It's always a he") majored in political science, he may need to supplement his college education because he's missed Juan Cole's point. (Or maybe he just read quickly?) At any rate, when dealing with basic facts, DW-W should do more than offer a he said/she said.

For those who felt I came off "too nice" (Gina, Lincoln, KeShawn) to CJR Daily and/or Slate in the roundtable (I don't believe I even mentioned Slate by name, but I may have), I'm sorry if the impression was that I was being nice. I wasn't attempting to be nice. Or even "fair." Neither have ever figured in my life too prominetly. A friend who dabbles in politics e-mailed me a Slate story back in April of 2004 and I chewed her out for it. Hold on and let me see if I saved that e-mail.

Here it is:

"Please don't send me this s**t anymore. You yourself have talked about the fake left of The New Republic. I know you're not familiar with the site but if everyone you know recommends things to you, and think of how large that list is, and you're finding out about the ever floundering Slate via a sidebar on MSN, that should tell you all you need to know. Life is too short (or mine anyway) to spend it reading this f**ked up, psuedo left crap. If you're looking for an online only magazine, check out Salon which is really come to life these days. Please, never again e-mail me something from Slate."

That pretty much sums up my feelings for Slate. (We've noted Jack Shafer here, for pointing out Judith Miller's Hardball appearence and critiquing it. If you have to visit Slate, do so for Shafer, not the rest of the nonsense passing for "informed" discussion.)

The only time I see Slate these days is if a member sends it in via e-mail. The same with CJR Daily. Life's too short. And let's note that Slate got an award from members (more than one) in our year-in-review as something like "biggest waste of time." The community doesn't care for half-assed posing. And Erika, who's never sent Slate in via e-mail, has noted in e-mails is as obsessed with The New Republic as CJR Daily. One wonders if the rag might have already gone under were it not from the "props" from those two.

I wasn't attempting to be "nice." I just have nothing to say about either CJR Daily or Slate that's positive and they really don't effect my daily life. There were other topics I was interested in. And one of those will pop up in the next roundtable (which Ava's hoping we can do this weekend).

Lastly, to those asking about the The Nightline episode on PNAC (mentioned in the roundtable) it aired March 5, 2003. The site's version of it was "edited" to say the least. Members who missed the broadcast can e-mail and I'll send you a copy of the transcript (done from the episode by a friend).

E-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Democracy Now! (Marcia: "always worth watching"):

Headlines for April 11, 2005

- Up to 300,000 Iraqis Protest Against U.S. In Baghdad
- 40 Iraqis Die in Violence Over the Weekend
- Rep. Shays Calls on Tom Delay To Resign Post
- Mexican Populist Candidate May Be Barred from Running
- Cardinal Law to Celebrates Mass For the Pope
- Israeli Forces Kill Three Palestinian Teenagers
- Eric Rudolph Pleads Guilty to Abortion Clinic Bombings
- GM Pulls Ads From LA Times Over Coverage

Extreme Unilateralist or Strong Leader? A Debate on UN Ambassador Nominee John Bolton
The confirmation hearings for John Bolton - Bush's choice for US ambassador to the United Nations - begin today in Washington. We host a debate with Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies and Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation. [includes rush transcript]

Fmr. Honduran Human Rights Commissioner: "Impossibly Negroponte Did Not Know About Human Rights Violations" in Honduras
Senate confirmation hearings on John Negroponte's nomination to the post of National Intelligence Director are scheduled to begin Tuesday. We take a look at his record as U.S. ambassador to Honduras with a Honduran activist whose brother was disappeared by Honduran security forces, the former Honduran National Human Rights Commissioner and a filmmaker who has profiled human rights issues in Latin America. [includes rush transcript]

Venezuela: Revolution in Progress
Today is the third anniversary of the failed coup attempt to overthrow democratically elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. We speak with filmmaker Matt O'Neil about his new documentary, "Venezuela: Revolution in Progress." [includes rush transcript]

Bob Somerby's addressing a number of topics in today's The Daily Howler but we'll focus on the Times with this excerpt.

ELISABETH BUMILLER--PAP WITHOUT END: Bill O'Reilly will trash the New York Times tonight--and, this time, he'll mainly be right. He'll be trashing the Times for this Gail Collins ed, which calls those Arizona Minutemen "gunslingers" and "vigilantes" and says that they're "taking the law in their own hands." Collins sniffs at this lower breed--but makes no attempt to explain or defend her characterizations. O'Reilly will trash her work tonight--and this time, he'll mainly be right.
But Bill won't mention the other Times--the Times of Elisabeth Bumiller. Surely, Zeus' great halls rocked with laughter last night as her latest fatuous piece was posted, in which she types what the White House told her about the president's tastes in music. How exactly does Bumiller know what tunes are on the president’s iPod? Simple--she doesn't know what's on that Pod, she only knows what Bush's agents have told her. But she's always pleased to type up some pap, as long as her pointless (but politically pleasing) "information" came to her straight from the White House. By the way, what's the headline on today's piece? "Favorite Tunes for the Freewheelin' George Bush!" Freewheelin'! You have to love that! Just like the younger Bob Dylan!
As we mentioned last week, Bumiller's Monday "White House Letter" has been one of the most embarrassing projects in this age of press corps pimpistry. Her subject matter is relentlessly banal--and she always types just what she’s been told. And remember--this feature continued throughout Campaign 04, producing a weekly tongue-bath for Bush. Oh yeah! Who did the weekly, feel-good "Campaign Letter" on Kerry? No one did it--it didn’t exist! This is the side of the vacuous Times Mr. O'R won't be citing.

Over at Why Are We Back in Iraq?, Ron has "Two 16-year-old Girls Alone In Prison (part 3) :"

(Please scroll down and read the previous two posts if you missed it yesterday (Part 1 and Part 2). It's about two 16-year-old girls from New York City - one Guinean, the other Bangladeshi whose parents entered this country illegally - who have been detained as possible "suicide bombers" based on what looks like no evidence whatsoever. They need our help and support; they need e-mails and letters written to whomever can help them; they need phone calls and marches and rallies and whatever it takes.)
I know that there have been some people who have been hesitant to get behind this case because both of the girls are illegal immigrants and so are their parents. But maybe the fact that both girls have brothers and sisters who were born in America and are American citizens will help change their minds. These girls need our help.
Adem Carroll, a friend of the Bangladeshi girl, is a "a tireless fighter for Muslim civil liberties" who is allied with the Islamic Circle of North America. Adem is also 16 years old.
At a Yahoo newsgroup called "Shobak::CNN FOR THE LEFT" there is a page that contains a heartfelt letter Adem wrote the morning after the arrest and more details that he gathered in an interview with the parents of the Bangladeshi girl; her name is included there, too, but since she's only 16 I don't feel comfortable including that information at this time. If you follow the link please respect whatever privacy the 16-year-old girl still retains, but feel free to contact the lawyer who didn't show up for her hearing; his name I did include.

Comments on the two above excerpt. Ron's piece. The government has told us that ___ is a terrorist only for us to see the entire case fall apart later. So for anyone thinking, "Oh, we'll they're terrorists," I'd say they're innocent until proven guilty. Leaks to papers from the prosecution often indicate a weak case (in any case).

Comments on Somerby excerpt. First of all, on Feb. 9th, I did comment on a Bumiller "White House Letter." I saw that this weekend and my apologies for thinking I hadn't. Wasn't the first time I was wrong and won't be the last. I'll comment on Somerby with no op-ed for the Times restrictions. When a list includeds the names that were printed in the Times, it's not about what the person is listening to, it's about covering bases, so I'd agree that those quick to swallow should be a bit more skeptical. I howled at the inclusion of a Joni Mitchell song -- some aide trying to come off erudite and probably cursing themselves that Bully Boy gets credit (and not s/he) for knowing an obscure Mitchell song. (A cover version of a song made famous by Elvis and one of the worst recordings Mitchell has ever done -- my opinion.)

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

Oh, Susan will ask. if she didn't see the article, "You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care)" is the Mitchell song that makes the list. (Are you laughing, Susan? Me too.) And it's off Wild Things Run Fast.

To answer a question that pops up in today's e-mails frequently, "Juliet" (Stevie Nicks song I quoted during the roundtable for The Third Estate Sunday Review) is off the album (Stevie Nicks solo album, not Fleetwood Mac) The Other Side of the Mirror. If I'd read over the piece after Ava and I finished the TV review, I would have asked that the album title be included because I know from past experience here that e-mails will come in asking that.

To answer the question that popped up the most in the e-mails, Kat will have a Kat's Korner up by this Sunday. (That's according to Kat.) Ruth had suggested an older album and Kat wanted to check with Eli to see if he knew either of the two Ruth suggested. (Kat: I was hitting a block with the Beatles because they've been written and rewritten about.)

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Liang e-mailed to note this from Danny Schechter's News Dissector:

Jeff Chester, executive director, Center for Digital Democracy reports "The ideologically driven majority on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) now has the perfect apparatchik to run its zealous campaign to promote conservative/GOP-approved public broadcasting programming. Ken Ferree is now its "acting president." That spells trouble for those who care about the fate of PBS and NPR--with a capital F.
"Ferree was the key aide to FCC Chairman Michael Powell on media policy. As head of the FCC's Media Bureau until March of this year, Ferree delivered to Powell--as he will deliver to his new boss, CPB Chair Kenneth Tomlinson--whatever was required to advance ideological interests. Ferree helped engineer the Commission's 2003 rules on media ownership that swept away what little was left of restraints on the conglomerates. More importantly, he supported policies that undermined the rights of viewers and listeners--and citizens--to a media system that fosters discourse, creative expression and democracy. "

Eddie notes Katrina vanden Heuvel's Editor's Cut from Friday:

On Monday, Montana became the fifth state to officially condemn the USA Patriot Act. Joining Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont--not to mention more than 375 local governments--Montana's state legislature passed the strongest statewide resolution against the Patriot Act yet, according to the ACLU. In an overwhelming bipartisan consensus, Montana's House of Delegates voted to approve Senate Joint Resolution 19--which discourages state law enforcement agencies from cooperating in investigations that violate Montanans' civil liberties--88 to 12. Earlier this year, the resolution passed in the state Senate 40 to 10.
"I've had more mail on this bill than on any other, and it's 100 percent positive," said House Member Brady Wiseman (D-Bozeman). Republican Rick Maedje (R-Fortine) said the resolution "protects our states' rights and is what true Republicans in every 'red state' should be doing."

If you haven't heard, the New York Times is shuffling the schedules for their op-ed columnists (which is why Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman weren't in yesterday's paper). Betty uses that as a jumping off point for the latest installment in her continuing parody Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man:

My husband Thomas Friedman says, "The world is going to hell in an Enstrom's gift basket!"He has been furuious all morning and yelling and screaming things like, "The New York Times is the Hillary Duff of the global village attempting to pass itself off as the Meryl Streep!" I have never seen Thomas Friedman so mad.

I'd also urge people to check out Jeffrey St. Clair's "Torture Air, Incorporated" from CounterPunch:

A sleek Gulfstream V jet with the tail number N379P has racked up more international miles than most passenger jets. Since October 2001, this plane has been spotted in some of the world's most exotic and forbidding airports: Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Karachi, Pakistan, Baku, Azerbaijan, Baghdad, Iraq, and Rabat, Morocco.
It has also frequently landed at Dulles International, outside Washington, DC and enjoys clearance to land at US military air bases in Scotland, Cyprus and Frankfurt, Germany. Observers around the world have noticed men in hoods and chains being taken on and off the jet.
The plane is owned by a company called Bayard Marketing, based in Portland, Oregon. According to FAA records, Bayard's lone corporate officer is a man called, Leonard T. Bayard. There is no contact information available for Bayard. Indeed, there's no public record of Bayard at all. No residential address. No telephone numbers. Nothing.
In fact, Bayard Marketing is a dummy corporation and Leonard Bayard is a false identity. They were both created by the CIA to conceal an operation launched after the attacks of September 11, 2001 to kidnap suspected terrorists and transport them to foreign governments where they could be interrogated using methods outlawed in the United States ­ that is, tortured and sometimes killed.

Lastly, we'll note this from Extra! (the magazine put out by FAIR), "Fear & Favor 2004 — FAIR's Fifth Annual Report: How power shapes the news" by Peter Hart and Julie Hollar.
It's informative and worth reading. Here's an overview paragraph from the article:

The Fear & Favor report is an attempt to illustrate this growing encroachment on journalism with real examples that have been made public--not an exhaustive list by any means, but a reminder that such pressures exist, and that reporters serve the best interests of citizens and the journalistic profession by coming forward with their own accounts.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

This morning's New York Times carries the date "Monday, April 11, 2005" right under the banner. I note that from the start because some people reading Eric Schmitt's
"U.S. Commanders See Possible Cut in Troops in Iraq" may end up a little confused. So before anyone goes digging through the closets for fringes and the drawers for love beads, let me repeat that it is still 2005; it's only the government that's stuck in the past recycling lies and the Times
that's ready to swallow them (as, let's face it, they too often did during Vietnam).

"Peace is around the corner," "secret plan for peace," "we're making progress," . . . choose your lie because it looks like they're all coming back. Maybe instead of a reporter (not a slam against Schmitt), the Times might want to assign a historian to cover each announcement on Iraq. The historian could note how the latest Operation Happy Talk echoed the talk of an earlier era and, most importantly, how things really turned out back then.

Instead, we're left with the back and forth of reality breaking through for a brief moment and then the propaganda starting back up. Less skeptical readers may end up with whiplash trying to follow the bouncing ball.

Douglas Jehl's "Intelligence Chief Is Urged to Assert Powers Quickly" can be boiled down to Negroponte is being urged (if confirmed Tuesday) to take a hard line quickly and though no one seems to worried how Porter Goss might react to that, D.C. gossips wonder how Donald Rumsfeld will handle the turf war.


Kara e-mails to note Norimitsu Onishi's "Tokyo Protests Anti-Japan Rallies in China:"

The marches have set off a steep decline in the already troubled diplomatic relations between Asia's big powers and threatened to harm their important economic relationship. Japan has recently adopted a more assertive foreign policy, and its relations with South Korea have deteriorated as well, so the dispute with China could leave Japan isolated in Asia.
Its simultaneous disputes with China and South Korea, two countries invaded and occupied by Japan, have been rooted in differences over the past, including the approval last week of Japanese junior high school textbooks that critics in and outside Japan say whitewash Japanese militarism. But the fight over the past has also crystallized into a fight over the future, as South Korea and China have each moved to oppose Japan's effort to win a permanent seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council.
[. . .]
The Ministry of Education's approval of textbooks that contain significant revisions of painful historical events is one of a number of signs of a rightward shift here.
The textbooks, for example, play down the issue of the so-called wartime comfort women, Asian women forced by the Japanese military to work as sex slaves, as well as the issue of Asians brought to Japan to be forced laborers.

Brandon e-mails to note Sharon LaFraniere's "Health Workers Race to Block Deadly Virus in Angolan Town:"

Someone alerted one of the mobile teams of health workers that scour neighborhoods here daily that Mrs. Pinto, a 42-year-old pediatric nurse, appeared to have become another victim of the Marburg epidemic, which is centered in this northern province, also called Uíge.
[. . .]
The race to contain the outbreak of Marburg, a deadly relative of the better-known Ebola virus, is centered here in the town of Uíge (pronounced weezh), where health officials fear the makings of a public health disaster that could spread elsewhere in Angola and beyond.
The number of victims is already the largest ever recorded from a Marburg outbreak, and there is no effective treatment. Nine out of 10 people who get the virus die, usually within a week.
The first cases of the virus were identified in the pediatric ward where Mrs. Pinto had worked. Despite incessant warnings on local radio that families of the sick should neither treat them at home nor touch them if they die, Mrs. Pinto's family cared for her in their house and prepared her for burial. The virus is spread by bodily fluids, and even stray drops of spittle or beads of sweat can lead to death.

And Lloyd e-mailed to note "the latest Tom DeLay scandal" by highlighting Philip Shenon's
"Inquiries of Top Lobbyist Shine Unwelcome Light in Congress:"

Mr. Abramoff, known to envious competitors as "Casino Jack" because of his multimillion-dollar lobbying fees from the gambling operations of American Indians, wrote to a Texas tribe in June 2002 to say that a member of Congress had "asked if we could help (as in cover) a Scotland golf trip for him and some staff" that summer. "The trip will be quite expensive," Mr. Abramoff said in the e-mail message, estimating that the bills "would be around $100K or more." He added that in 2000, "We did this for another member - you know who."
[. . .]
Mr. Abramoff did not explain why the tribe should pay for the lavish trip, nor did he identify the congressmen by name. But a tribe spokesman has since testified to Congress that the 2002 trip was organized for Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican and chairman of the House Administration Committee, and that "you know who" was a much more powerful Republican, Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader and old friend of Mr. Abramoff's. Both lawmakers have said they believed that the trips complied with House travel rules.
The e-mail message of June 7, 2002, is part of a mountain of evidence gathered in recent months by the Justice Department, the Interior Department and two Senate committees in influence-peddling and corruption investigations centered on Mr. Abramoff, a former college Republican campaigner turned B-movie producer turned $750-an-hour Washington super-lobbyist.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

This is the second part of our "what is media in other countries covering?"

Dallas notes that in Australia our friend Luke (wotisitgood4) notes realites not dealt with while the media was on "Pope-arama:"

* "Mexico is heading for political crisis after its Congress voted to impeach the leading candidate in next year's presidential election in what his supporters said was a naked act of obstruction." LINK apparently there were "several hundred thousand supporters in the capital's central square" what will the democracy-bringers do? did blinky discuss this when he was in mexico recently? who else was in mexico recently? i think the anti-c.rice went? and maybe rumsfeld? is this why the media was told to go wall2wall pope-arama? is this version2.0 of the failed media strategy wrt the venezuela debacle?

* similarly, heres Shakespeare's Sister:"Nothing happens in a vacuum with this administration. DeLay suddenly having lost his protection, finding himself naked, cold, and alone on the front page of the Washington Post, was not inevitable, not in this media climate. This is an orchestrated takedown, and you can bet your boots it’s a red herring for something. We’ve just got to make sure we keep our eyes peeled for exactly what that something is." LINK

* meanwhile, rebecca thinks that the pope-a-palooza is unadulterated p.r. with a splash of zero-cost programming - which is possibly true, but she also says (in passing): "i used to work in public relations. back then we prayed for a day like this week (just a day!). some family man was leaving his wife and kids for his pregnant mistress and a day like any of the past 9 or 10 came along, we'd be screaming, 'we're putting it out now! no(one) will even notice it!'" i'd posit that maybe this was the *purpose* of the ridiculous level of coverage.

And while in Australia, we'll note "Doctors link Vioxx to 300 deaths" from ABC:

A best-selling pain reliever has been linked by doctors to the deaths of about 300 Australians. Arthritis drug Vioxx was withdrawn from the worldwide market last year after being linked in the United States to more than 100,000 heart attacks and strokes.

US lawyers say they have internal memos and documents showing that the drug manufacturer, Merck, knew that Vioxx was dangerous in the mid-1990s.

Merck denies those claims.

Royal Adelaide Hospital Professor Les Cleland has told ABC TV's Four Corners program that about 30 per cent of 1,000 events in Australia may have been linked to the drug before it was banned.

From the International Federation of Journalists, we'll note "Impunity, Justice Denied and Media Killings That Haunt the United States:"

The International Federation of Journalists today called on the United States government to end all speculation over targeted killings of journalists and media staff by providing "credible and convincing" reports on incidents in which 14 media staff have been killed since the invasion of the country in March 2003.

"The United States stands accused of failing to meet its obligations to deliver justice and fair treatment to the victims of violence by its own soldiers," said IFJ General Secretary Aidan White in a letter to President George Bush.

Similar letters calling for the US to carry out exhaustive investigation into these cases have been sent by IFJ affiliates to US officials and many countries.

April 8th marks the second anniversary of the United States attack on Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel, which at the time contained scores of reporters and media people reporting on the US invasion. Two journalists were killed and others wounded.

On the same morning, a journalist was killed when the Baghdad offices of the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera was attacked by US fighter planes.

The IFJ says there are another 11 other cases of unexplained killings in which US soldiers were involved that require answers. "

The ordeal of family, friends and colleagues of media victims continues as they wait for justice from the authorities about how and why their loved ones died," said White.

From OpenDemocracy, Gareth notes Dominic Hilton's "Is Britain a banana republic?" Here's an excerpt:

In 2005, thanks to what the London Evening Standard calls "quirks in the electoral system", pollsters predict Blair could win a House of Commons majority of 70-90 seats with only a "wafer thin" 2-3% lead over the Conservatives (with only 53% of voters saying they "intend to vote"). Conservative leader Michael Howard reportedly thinks the "people who matter" make up only 2% of the electorate.

Whatever one's view on the Iraq war, if the British people were the boss, British troops would not be wearing desert boots.

In fact, if the British people were really in charge, it would say so in a British constitution that begins "We the people of the United Kingdom…".

The UK election in May is billed as all about turnout. If voters show in large numbers, it should favour Labour. Conservatives stand accused of deliberately campaigning to keep people away from the polls.

As if!

I went to corruption-ridden Birmingham to hear Michael Howard talk about the decline in popular participation and he insisted he was all for boosting voter turnout. True, when I chatted to him afterwards, he made little effort to seduce me to the polls. There was no "Can I rely on your vote, young man?" Just a blank stare and an expression that read "Why am I wasting my time with this jerk?"

Perhaps he was clocking my name for a postal ballot. Postal voting is no answer not only because it is "wide open to fraud", but because it is a stunt, designed to increase turnout but failing to address the basic relationship between the state and its citizens.

There's a hollow centre in British politics, and it's in danger of being stuffed with forged ballot-papers.

Friday's (domestic) Free Speech Radio News offered this:

Journalists Held in Iraqi Prisons (3:27)

According to the Pentagon, a CBS news freelancer who was shot in the hip by US troops Wednesday is being held in prison as a suspected insurgent. Meanwhile, a journalist with the Arab language satellite al-Arabiya network continues to be held in prison. Aaron Glantz reports from Washington.

[Click on "Friday" to listen to the thirty minute program and hear the story.]

This is echoed at Reporters Without Borders. From "Concern that US forces are holding CBS cameraman who was shot and wounded:"

Reporters Without Borders said today it was very worried that the US forces have detained a CBS cameraman of Iraqi nationality ever since shooting and wounding him during an operation against an insurgent on 5 April.

"We call on the US army to release him very quickly if no evidence is produced to support his alleged collaboration with the insurgency," the press freedom organization said.

The organization said there have already been cases of journalists being detained for no reason by the coalition forces in Iraq.

In May 2004, for example, three journalists with the French TV station Canal + were detained while working in Baghdad. They were held for nearly 30 hours although they had their press cards and their TV station immediately confirmed their identity.

A US army statement said the CBS cameraman was being held because be might pose "an imperative threat to the coalition forces."

CBS said the US military suspect him of links to the rebels because video footage found in his camera shows he was on the scene of several bombings shortly after they took place. This makes the US military think he may have been warned in advance in the insurgents.

CBS yesterday issued a statement of support for their cameraman, who began working for them three months ago after being recommended by one of their fixers. CBS has asked that he not be named for his own protection.

From the UK's Independent, Susan e-mails to note David McNeill's "Textbook war escalates as China and Korea vent their fury at Japanese rewriting of history:"

Thousands of Chinese protesters pelted the Japanese embassy in Beijing with missiles and shouted "Japanese pigs come out" and "stop distorting history" over the weekend, dragging Sino-Japanese relations to a new low.

The protests against Tokyo's authorisation of textbooks that many Chinese say whitewash Japan's 15-year occupation is the latest incident to rock the shaky partnership between Asia's leading power and its rising star.

[. . .]

The most contentious history text removes all references to the comfort women and suggests that Korea and China invited or benefited from the Japanese occupation. A civics text claims jurisdiction over a clump of rocks called Takeshima (in Korean, Tokdo) that Korea has held since 1945.

"What nonsense is this," said an editorial in the normally mild Korea Herald. Written by a group of neo-nationalist academics, the two texts, with the backing of a right-wing media conglomerate, have sold nearly one million copies since 2001.

This success has dragged the teaching of history sharply to the right: just one new history textbook out of eight mentions the comfort women this year, down from seven in the mid-1990s, and references to other war crimes have been toned down or dropped.

From the BBC, Dominick notes "Taiwan bans Chinese journalists:"

Taiwanese officials have ordered journalists from two of mainland China's largest official media groups to stop working on the island. They claim the reporters are contributing to straining relationships between Taipei and Beijing.

Xinhua news agency and the People's Daily newspaper have ignored Taiwan's objection to an anti-secession law passed by China last month, they say.

The law authorizes the use of force if Taiwan tries to gain independence.

Also from the BBC, Rachel notes "Nepal clash deaths 'rise to 100:'"

Authorities in Nepal now say 100 died in clashes between Maoist rebels and government forces in the remote western district of Rukum on Thursday. The clashes were by far the biggest since King Gyanendra assumed direct power on 1 February, vowing to crack down on the rebels.

The army said it had recovered 97 rebel bodies and that three soldiers died. The rebels have not commented on their dead but say the army's losses were much higher. None of the claims could be independently verified.

The Maoists have been fighting for nearly 10 years to replace the monarchy with a communist republic. About 11,000 people have been killed.

Note: This is part II of the post. See previous entry.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This post originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

We'll start our look at news from other countries (other than the US) with Girl Blogger of Baghdad Burning. Here is an excerpt from her latest post:

Thousands were demonstrating today all over the country.
Many areas in Baghdad were cut off today for security reasons and to accomodate the demonstrators, I suppose. There were some Sunni demonstrations but the large majority of demonstrators were actually Shia and followers of Al Sadr.
They came from all over Baghdad and met up in Firdaws Square- the supposed square of liberation. They were in the thousands.
None of the news channels were actually covering it. Jazeera showed fragments of the protests in the afternoon but everyone else seemed to busy with some other news story.
[. . .]
BBC and EuroNews were busily covering the wedding between Prince Charles and the dreadful Camilla. CNN was showing the Pope's funeral.
No one bothered with the demonstrations in Baghdad, Mosul, Anbar and the south. There were hundreds of thousands of Shia screaming "No to America. No to terrorism. No to occupation. No to the devil. No to Israel."
The numbers were amazing and a little bit frightening too.
Ever since Jalal Talbani was named president, there have been many angry Shia. It's useless explaining that the presidential chair is only symbolic- it doesn't mean anything. "La izayid we la inaqis." As we say in Iraq. "It doesn't increase anything, nor does it decrease anything."
[. . .]
Two years and this is Occupation Day once more. One wonders what has changed in this last year. The same faces of April 2004, but now they have differing positions in April 2005.
The chess pieces were moved around and adjusted and every one is getting tired of the game.

In an article from Haaretz entitled
"PM to tell Bush: Abbas losing control, not fulfilling promises"
and credited to Aluf Been, Nathan Guttman and "Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies" we are told the following:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be emphasizing to U.S. President George W. Bush and other administration officials this week that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' control over the Palestinian Authority's territories is collapsing and the armed organizations are violating their own cease-fire promises, as occurred this weekend in Gaza.
[. . .]
The Sharon trip came after a tense weekend in Israel. In addition to the flare-up in Gaza, thousands of police were sent to Jerusalem to prevent a threatened demonstration by extreme rightists on the Temple Mount. Palestinian demonstrators flooded the site to "protect" it from the Jewish protesters.
And while fewer than 100 demonstrators showed up for a much touted "demonstration by tens of thousands" on Tel Aviv's Ayalon highway, dozens of rightists burned tires Sunday, snarling the already jammed morning rush-hour traffic until police cleared the way.

Also from Haaretz, Rob e-mails to note Aluf Been's
"Analysis: Another chapter of tiresome bickering:"


Sharon's visit was planned as a public relations exercise, as a show of support on the part of President George W. Bush for the prime minister and his disengagement plan. There isn't much personal chemistry between Sharon and Bush, but they need one another. Sharon needs his standing in the Likud bolstered in the wake of his severe run-ins with his party through the obstacle course of getting the pullout approved. The six hours he will spend at the president's ranch and the joint jeep ride among the cows and calves are designed to show that only Sharon can "bring the Americans," who will support him.
For his part, Bush wants to show his critics around the world that he is serious about promoting an Israeli-Palestinian accord, that America knows how to repay someone who is willing to evacuate settlers.


From Germany's Der Spiegel, we'll note Marion Kraske and Jan Puhl's
"Eastern Europe Probes Secret Police Informants 15 Years On:"

The Budapest consulting firm Political Capital markets itself with a bold and entirely self-confident slogan: "We bring the future to your desk." But the documents the firm is currently working on are attracting more attention than any marketing catchphrase. The company is compiling embarrassing files on people who reportedly served as informants to the secret police here before the fall of the Iron Curtain. The files portray many Hungarians in a rather unfavorable light.
Political Capital's first move was to publish a list of 19 names on an Internet site where well-respected members of the former Hungarian secret service are identified. The names are of people who are now top journalists, famous rock musicians, as well as a Who's Who of the Budapest political scene. This includes former prime minister Peter Medgyessy, Hungary's former ambassador to the Vatican, Sandor Keresztes, the current head of the Hungarian central bank and the deputy director of the Hungarian division of Europol.Within only two hours of the names' release, the Web site recorded a surge of more than 100,000 visitors. For many Hungarians, the mechanisms and complexities of the communist informant system are now only gradually coming to light.

Also from Der Spiegel, we'll note Uwe Klussman and Christian Neef's "Revolutions Speed Russia's Disintegration:"

Kyrgyzstan was the latest country in the region whose government was chased out of office. The Georgians needed several months in 2003 to unseat Eduard Shevardnadze, and the Ukrainians took eight weeks last fall to overthrow their government in Kiev. But the former nomad people of Kyrgyzstan broke all previous records: in Bishkek, the revolution was a done deal after two hours, and it was the first such event in a former member of the Soviet Union that is dominated by the Muslim religion.
Of course, East and West had totally different takes on the kind of coup which happened in this republic, which shares its border with China.
While the Americans celebrated Kyrgyzstan's "dawn of a better, democratic future" (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice), a confidante of Putin had a different take. Referring to Kyrgyzstan's traditional role as a hub for drug trafficking and the looting in the capital's streets, he painted a grim picture: This, he said, was a revolution that "tastes like opium and shows the color of the darkest night."
It sounded all-too similar: When the authoritarian Ukrainian regime in Kiev was overthrown by Victor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, Moscow called it an "anti-Russian coup." But the upheaval in Kyrgyzstan wasn't exactly any old uprising of local shepherds. Instead, it was no less than a break with tradition, especially for Putin.
That the reports from Bishkek reached him during his visit to Yerevan must have been symbolic for the Russian leader in a very bitter way: Following Akayev's toppling, a leader known to be loyal to Moscow, Armenia is now the last remaining truly pro-Russian republic in the post-Soviet region.

From Aljazeera, we'll note "WHO attacked in Angola:"

World Health Organisation teams fighting an outbreak of Marburg virus in Angola have been forced to temporarily suspend work in one area after scared residents stoned their vehicles, officials said.
WHO halted operations in parts of the Uige district in northwestern Angola on Friday following the attacks on Thursday.
Residents apparently feared the medics could be spreading the infection that has already claimed 184 lives, some of them health workers.

Also from Aljazeera, Kara e-mails to note "Oxfam: Rich nations fixing world trade:"

Rich nations are rigging international trade by providing heavy farm subsidies while also pushing for developing countries to lower protective tariffs, according to a report released by the Oxfam aid agency.
In negotiations at the World Trade Organisation, richer states - particularly the US and the EU - are forcing developing countries to open their markets and then dumping their own excess agricultural produce at below cost price, undermining the livelihood of farmers in poorer nations, according to the 68-page report.
"This is an example of rigged rules and double standards at their baldest," said Phil Bloomer on Monday, head of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign. "Their selfish motives couldn't be clearer."
The US and EU have repackaged their farm subsidies so they appear to conform to WTO rules, but they are still able to dump products such as corn, milk, rice and sugar on world markets, the report said.

Note: This is part one. I'm breaking it up into sections because there's trouble posting.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
 
[Note: This post originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

From Rachel Maddow's web site (and it's an announcement, so we're printing it in full to get the word out):

The Rachel Maddow Show launches nationally on the Air America Radio Network Thursday, April 14th, 2005
Every weekday morning 5AM-6AM (Eastern), tune in for a fast-paced, well-informed, provocative take on the headlines, what ought to be in the headlines, the right-wing agenda, sports (or at least Rachel's latest evidence for why the Yankees are the real evil empire), plus a look ahead at the day's developing stories.
Also launching April 14th: Won't be up at 5:am? Go to MaddowOnline.com and stream or download the current edition of The Rachel Maddow Show - and read Rachel's daily newsblog.
Tune in live on Air America Radio affiliates coast-to-coast, on Sirius and XM satellite radio, and worldwide online at airamericaradio.com. The Rachel Maddow Show is the smartest newshour in radio.
Click here for a list of Air America Radio affiliate stations.
Links: MaddowOnline.com
Air America Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio

From a non-private e-mail that Trina fowarded (this e-mail was sent to all who signed up for announcements at Maddow's site):

The Rachel Maddow Show will be a solid information-packed, fast-paced newshour with an ambitious mission: by the time you’ve heard each hour-long show, you’ll have a well-informed, progressive perspective on what mainstream media drones will be talking about that day, plus the most important stories the mainstream media wants you to ignore.
We’ll throw in a peek at the right-wing’s daily talking points, sports headlines (particularly when they help justify my theory that the Yankees are the real evil empire), and a look at the developing stories of the day ahead, so you are fully equipped to do battle at the water cooler.
All that, plus the award-winning satirical newscasts of Air America favorite Kent Jones!
The other big announcement is that MaddowOnline.com, the new website for The Rachel Maddow Show, will also host my daily newsblog, where I’ll expand on the stories from that day’s show, write about the day’s developing news, and give you a heads up on what we’re looking at for the next day’s show.
Plus I’ll gossip shamelessly about Air America and the punditocracy.
As you know, we had originally planned to launch Monday April 11th or Monday April 18th, but we then realized that a mid-week start would give me and the plucky TRMS staff a chance to recover over the weekend after two days of on-air loopyness while we adjust to our new lives of sleep deprivation.
The Executive Producer of The Rachel Maddow Show is Jonathan Larsen, the big cheese at Air America’s "Morning Sedition." Vanessa Peel, Julia Lipkins and Kris LoPresto, all of Air America’s "Unfiltered" round out the very able staff. These four are a dream team for me, and I intend to bribe them mightily and often to keep them happy despite their new hours.
On a personal level, I’m actually looking forward to the destruction of my circadian rhythms, if only because I’ve always wanted one of those little metal “day sleeper” signs for my front door. If you’re not an early-riser, fear not. By launch day you should be able to stream or download the entire current edition of The Rachel Maddow Show at MaddowOnline.com.
And by “download,” yes, technically, that means you can podcast it. Expect a few technical glitches while we get set up, but the plan is for you to be able to listen to The Rachel Maddow Show at any time of day.
If you want to be able to listen on the traditional radio machine, the good news is that most Air America affiliates are looking forward to carrying the new show.
You can help out by contacting your local affiliate (the list is here http://airamericaradio.com/stations.asp) to ask them to please consider carrying it.

I will attempt to remember to provide a heads up to Maddow's show Wednesday but members know how prone I am to forget. So mark your own calenders (and feel free to remind me Wednesday to do a heads up).

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Last weekend on Ring of Fire, there was a segment on the media that members might enjoy because it dealt with the media (and Cokie Roberts gets mentioned, which we always love).
For those not familiar with Ring of Fire, it's a one hour radio program that airs on Air America Saturday and Sunday (the Sunday episode is a rebroadcast from Saturday). It airs from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm eastern standard time. The hosts are Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mike Papantonio. I'll assume everyone knows Bobby Kennedy (which is how he self-bills on air) but if anyone's unfamiliar with attorney Papantonio, you might remember him from the "Pap Attack" on Unfiltered.

Papantonio interviewed Elliot D. Cohen on the state the free press.

Cohen noted that the purpose of the press is "to keep a watchful eyes on governmental abuse."
Papatonio brought up GE and the pollution of Hudson River. Since GE owns NBC and MSNBC, this story is less likely to get play and with the conglomerations buying more and more properties, how will any reporter be able to cover important stories.

Papantonio: How does a reporter do that if he's at the beck and call of Jack Welch?

Cohen: What's happened is, and this is historically significant, that the conduit for delivery of news, the broadcast machinery, the pipes, the cables and so forth, are owned by these giant corporations but they're also calling the shots about what comes through them and the regulation is just not there. . . . The corporate lobbyist have bowed down to the government in order to get what they want in terms of deregulation. . . . Michael Powell disregarded the outcry of the public. There were over 700,000 letters that were sent to the FCC, mostly against deregulation, and he refused to hear it.

Michael Powell as the poster boy for activism? Don't laugh. Cohen argued that with his disdain and disregard, Powell has helped fuel a movement that is tired of, as Papantonio noted, cities where "you've got a newspaper saying the same message as radio, radio saying the same message as television" all a result of the move towards allowing cross-ownership.

Papantonio: Disney ABC radio, they've got all the talkers, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity they're going to say any damn thing this administration wants them to say because at the end of the day, it's all about how much money they make. That's why Disney ABC wouldn't even distribute Micheal Moore's documentary Farenheight 9/11.

Cohen: The government actually has to start doing more regulating and it's only going to do that if the people really continue to apply pressure.

On the subject of what media do we, the people, have left, the internet was brought up.

Papantonio: Is it [the internet] free.

Cohen: We're moving from modem dial up internet to the cable kind of internet, the broadband. As we do that the more and more people get on that, the less ISP providers that you have to choose from.

Papantonio: What happens when AOL Time Warner Comcast says "No, no, no, we control this media. We disagree with what you're saying."

Cohen: Unless we stop the progression of deregulation and quid pro quo that we're talking about here, the last bastion of democracy, which is the internet, is going to turn into another part of this media conglomerate . Look at radio, look what's happened with Clear Channel, over 1200 stations. They boast of reaching more than fifty-percent of the population and seventy-percent of the Latino population. This is what they're proud of. What's happening to the indpendent voices of radio? They're being crowded out.

Papantonio then brought up James Wollcott (Vanity Fair contributor and author of The Attack Poodles).

Papantonio: I talked to James Wollcott several week ago, interesting book that he has out called The Attack Poodles. It's just a wonderful book where he talks about some of the same issues you talk about. He says we don't need to be afraid so much of the O'Reillys and the half-wit Hannitys and the people like that. We need to be afraid of the John Stossels, the Cokie Roberts, the Brit Humes, the Tim Russerts. The people who are dressed up in sheeps clothing. And he says that's where the real threat is.

We have a situation where there's company people now, there's not journalists. They're selling their journalistic souls in order to be respected within their corporations. This is what's going on now. . . . We're seeing instead corporate clones and this is destroying the credibility and they put themselves forth under the guise of being careful journalists. They're simply parrots for an organization, they're not honest.

Papantonio: The problem is when we turn on the TV and we think that John Stossel or Cokie Roberts or Brit Hume or Tim Russert are on our side.

Cohen: Or Chris Matthews.

Papantonio: Or Chris Matthews! We need to think twice don't we?


Elliot D. Cohen is the editor of News Incorporated: Corporate Media And It's Threat To Democracy which BuzzFlash is offering as a premium.

If you missed the interview and would like to hear it, you can listen to that episode of Ring of Fire via Air America Place. Go to the archives and download the April 2, 2005 episode.

Cohen is the final guest. (Air America Place airs the show without commercials -- unless it's something environmental or political -- and I believe Cohen's segment starts around minute twenty-six. Without commercials, the episode clocks in at thirty-seven minutes and forty-four seconds.) As always, consider my note taking more of a guide than anything else.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Heads up to an Associated Press article by Michael Kunzelman. The article is entitled "Kerry: Trickery Kept Voters From Polls" and here's an excerpt of the first three paragraphs:

Many voters in last year's presidential election were denied access to the polls through trickery and intimidation, former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry told a voters' group Sunday.
"Last year too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated," the Massachusetts senator said at an event sponsored by the state League of Women Voters.
"There is no magic wand. No one person is going to stand up and suddenly say it's going to change tomorrow. You have to do that," he said.

E-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

Ruth e-mailed to note a link she saw on BuzzFlash ("NPR Calls Bush's Social Security Strategy 'Effective' What Are They Smoking?")

Ruth: I am hoping that this is a sign that NPR's free pass is being cancelled.

I hate to dash spirits at the start of a week, but BuzzFlash has always been willing to highlight bias on NPR. FAIR is another organization that has not shied away from the truth about NPR.
But I do agree with Ruth that it's great BuzzFlash is calling attention (again) on NPR. We'll touch on this in the next entry (the long promised Ring of Fire thing). Also at BuzzFlash, you'll find a link to Lizz Winstead's contributions to a New York Times article in the Week in Review section. (An article Betty also mentioned.)

We'll note Congressman Bernie Sanders' "ORWELL IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION." Here's an excerpt:

Yesterday, as a member of the Financial Services Committee, Congressman Bernie Sanders heard testimony from Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez and from HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson. The hearing primarily focused on the Bush Administration’s proposal to slash federal investments in our nation's towns, cities, and states --which is not surprising from an Administration that is attempting to dismantle almost every federal program for low and moderate income Americans.
What Congressman Sanders did find surprising was the Orwellian nature of the testimony from Secretary Gutierrez and the shameless degree to which the Bush Administration is prepared to turn truth on its head. In his prepared opening remarks, Secretary Gutierrez stated that America is experiencing "tremendous economic prosperity." Really? What America is Secretary Gutierrez living in?
Has the Secretary visited with any of the 21.9% of children in America who are living in poverty? Or did he mix us up with Denmark where virtually 100% of children live poverty-free lives.
Has the Secretary visited with any of the 4 million Americans that have entered the poverty ranks since President Bush was first elected, or is he only attending cocktail parties at country clubs with the rich and famous?

In less than an hour The Laura Flanders Show starts. (Ring of Fire is on right now.) Her guests and topics tonight:


Sunday, April 10
Is April the cruelest month? If you’re a Republican, you might think your party was breaking apart, starting from the top. If you’re on the left, you might wonder why the opposition isn’t making more of this moment. Today we go outside the box to get out of the political boxing ring.
We start with ELLEN WILLIS author of, “Don’t Think: Smile!” and Director of NYU Journalism School’s Cultural Reporting and Criticism program. She and Laura talk about the “Bush Women” and how the right’s hijacking the work of the Feminist movement. Then AMIRA HASS, the pioneering Israeli journalist and author of “Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege” and “Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land.” Plus GREG PALAST, investigative journalist and author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” and MARK LEVINE, host of “The Inside Scoop,” on WAGE AM-1200, on the latest news. And ELAINE PETROCELLI, owner of San Francisco’s Book Passage bookstore, on what’s flying off the shelf.

And let me throw this in. Last night on The Laura Flanders Show, Flanders read an article from Reuters about the reaction during the Pope's burial when Bully Boy's face was flashed on screen. Flanders reads and speaks German, which is a good thing, because, as she noted, the article hadn't been translated into English and carried in the United States. Here was one sentence she translated:

As the crowd saw the big picture of Bush on the screen, they greeted Bush with jeers and wolf whistles.

You didn't hear that on network television and I doubt you heard it in many places on the radio dial. You'll always learn something no one else is discussing when you listen to The Laura Flanders Show.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This post originally appeared at The Common Ills.]