This is half repost and half new to this site.

On Saturday an entry appeared and I posted Susan's reply to it at the mirror site but Blogger was having problems so the entry never went up here. (I'm nothing if not forgetful.) As the posts here were being relayed over to the mirror site, I realized Susan's reply never made it here. (Sorry, Susan.) Here's the entry and below it, Susan's reply:

Air America programming notes and the gone but never forgotten Lizz Winstead on the Bully Boy's press conference

Programming notes from Air America.
Politically Direct Airs Sunday
Politically Direct, Air America's latest progressive news and interview show, launches this Sunday, May 1 from 2:00-3:00pm EST directly from Washington, DC. Veteran activist David Bender hosts. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert Byrd join him to discuss the "nuclear option."
In October, David Bender co-hosted the Sunday program Campaign Countdown with Rachel Maddow. (Link takes you to to the Air America Place archives for that show.)
Ring of Fire Expands to Two Hours with Callers
The new two-hour, call-in Ring of Fire debuts this Saturday from 5:00-7:00pm, with hosts Bobby Kennedy and Mike Papantonio. The Pap Attack returns as a featured segment.
The Pap Attack? Popular segment Papantonio did on Unfiltered. Kent Jones does "Kent Jones Now" on The Rachel Maddow Show these days which is also a revival of a popular segment that appeared on what show? Oh, yeah, Unfiltered. Rachel Maddow co-hosted what show? Unfiltered. That's not a slam at Papantonio, Jones or Maddow. It is noting that a network that was more than happy to pull the plug on Unfiltered continues to pick the bones of that program.
Chuck D and Lizz Winstead (co-hosts of Unfiltered)? I don't know. I hear Montel Williams and Sally Jesse may be interested in radio programs. (That's sarcasm.) No word yet on whether Rikki Lake will be replacing Randi Rhodes.
Let's jump over to Lizz Winstead's site to get her take on the Bully Boy's press conference since we won't get her voice from Air America these days:
Social Obscurity
Thank God the OC was preempted for that! Now I finally understand the Bush Strategy on Social Security.
I just needed to hear his overall plan for the future before I could comprehend it and because I am pretty sure I was blacklisted from his LieLapalooza Tour, I had to wait for last nights Network Television debut to see the show.
So let me lay out the four major points of his plan and then explain how he is gonna achieve it.In a nutshell: Create a world where the life expectancy rate is oh, say, 12. That way you can eventually do away with Social Security altogether. This is why he never talks about solvency. We dont neeeed solvency. Now you can shut up about it!
Combine that with the Rapture and you've got yourself a plan everybody can get behind and not be left behind.
Winstead goes over the points so click on the link.
Last programming note:
So What Else is News? Changes Hours
Marty Kaplan delivers his usual "un-spinning" of the days news, just an hour earlier. Tune in from 3:00pm-5:00pm this Saturday.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


Now here's Susan's reply to that post (new to this site):

Susan keeps me honest

Susan keeps me honest.

Susan: I just read the thing you posted ["Air America programming notes and the gone but never forgotten Lizz Winstead on the Bully Boy's press conference"]. Sally Jesse? Rikki Lake? Montel? Come on now. That's two women and an African-American male! Air America is only interested in white male TV talk show hosts! They'd be much more likely to hire Maury. And while I like David Bender am I the only one still noticing that there's not one Hispanic voice as a host or co-host of a radio program?

Absolutely, Susan, you are correct that there's no way two women and an African-American male would get a show or shows currently. And no, you're not the only wondering why there are no Hispanic hosts on Air America. Wasn't that the hot new demographic? Wasn't that supposed to be what the Democrats were going to be working towards strengthing their outreach efforts to? Maybe Air America missed that memo?

As for your question (about what I'm listening to this morning), Judy Collins' In My Life just went off and Tori Amos' The Beekeeper is playing right now. I haven't had time to get the new Bruce Springsteen or the new Judy Collins yet, no.* Lastly, to Susan and others asking about a new addition to this site, it may or may not go up tomorrow. I agree that it would be best to start it on a Sunday.Whether it will be this Sunday or not, I don't know. Krista & Gina, in their "round-robin," mentioned it as a heads up, not to say that it was going up this Sunday.

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

And for a change, members who read this site as their first choice and not the other version get a post before those at the other site because, once again, Blogger is acting up. This post will go up there sometime tonight.

--------------------
*As noted elsewhere, I was wrong. Get well bags contained three copies of Springsteen's latest CD and one had Judy Collins' latest CD. I didn't realize when I did the correction to that (there were also books and DVDs as well as other CDs) that it hadn't gone up here. So the mirror site's being visited by more than just our European members. (Thanks to the UK Computer Gurus for creating the mirror site to ensure that in one form or another, The Common Ills is always up.)

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

[Note: This entry, as it currently is, originally appeared at The Common Ills.  See, people who visit here do sometimes get entries way ahead of the other site.  "Susan Keeps Me Honest" went up five days after it first appeared here.]

While reading the current issue of The Nation (Al Gore cover, link takes you to the site, not that issue), I saw a notice today about changes in the online site. They've already changed online. (And possibly that's why Katrina vanden Heuvel wasn't on The Majority Report tonight? They already have the new issue available online.) To be lazy, I'm copying and pasting the e-mail that arrived this afternoon and not typing up the note from the print issue:

The next time you visit The Nation online, you'll see some new things that we wanted to tell you about. We've made major changes to the homepage and added some new features.
These changes, developed with the help of the award-winning design team Brown & Ryan, debut today.
We'll still offer selections from the magazine and all our regular web features. But we're adding a news wire that will spotlight overlooked but important stories on other, mainly progressive sites as well as RadioNation PodCasts, a Sites We Like section, and, for the first time, the ability to interact with the writers of our online blogs and commentaries. And we have many more changes in store as part of a slow but steady re-conceptualization of our online presence.
Please check us out and click below to let us know what you think of what we've done. We'd love the feedback and we'll publish a sampling of this reader mail in the coming weeks.

Myself? It's very visual but as a dyslexic, I won't claim that the changes (when I went to the site for the previous entry) didn't create a panic as I searched (in vain) for the archive button. (I clicked on the cover of the new issue and once taken to it, clicked the "issues" between "home" and the date of the current issue. I'm sure there's an easier way to find it.

I don't see Katrina vanden Heuvel's Editor's Cut or Ari Berman's Daily Outrage on the front page, but I've checked the permalinks we have for them (permalinks on the left, always on the left) and they still work. (KvH has a new photo as does Ari Berman who has had a hair cut since the old photo.) (I do like the photos, they're in color and they have bright backgrounds that are more inviting. Which isn't a slam on black & white photos. I love black & white photos. I just prefer the two photos that have been added here.)

I'm sure I'll get used to it as I play around on the web site more. It's more organized, or appears so. There are some articles (new issue) that I think we'll be interested in so hopefully there will be time to note them tonight.

Do yourself a favor and check out the new look to decide for yourself what you think.

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

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

From DC Indymedia, Maggie e-mails regarding Pete's "Verdict in Anti-torture Protest Case Delayed:"

In February, three were charged for stepping onto the lower steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, during a protest against the US military's use of torture and the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. The judge has allowed the defense two weeks to present written arguments.
In an unusual maneuver, the judge suspends conviction pending further arguments
WASHINGTON -- Three anti-torture activists will have to wait for their verdict after the judge's surprise move Wednesday, suspending her not guilty finding until June 30 when she will hear further arguments from the prosecution and the defense.
The three pro se defendants were charged with violating a federal law when they stepped onto the marble lower steps of the U.S. Supreme Court in February as part of a protest against torture used by the military and the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general.
After two days of testimony, D.C. Superior Court Judge Patricia Wynn ruled in favor of the U.S. Government, but then said she was open to further arguments if there was case law she neglected in her ruling statement. Defendants pro se Peter Perry and Mitchell Potts then responded that there were further case law matters that needed to be addressed.

From Kansas IMC, Lori e-mails Gene W. DeVaux's "Bush World as we know it:"

In the last four years, our national debt has grown by over 2 trillion dollars. Today the Senate voted to raise the debt limit to over 8 trillion dollars. Our trade deficits have ballooned to around 600 billion ayear. Annual federal budget deficits have been around 600 Billion when Social Security surpluses are subtracted from the equation. Gasoline is at record highs. China has become our chief competitor in the market for oil suppliers. The situation in Iraq is continuing to indicate a failure of foreign policy.
Jobs are being created, not in the United States, but in foreign countries. China is flexing its military muscle over Taiwan as it grows rich on sales to the United States. Wage discrepancies are growing with low income Americans seeing their paycheck shrink in relation to the huge salaries of corporate executives.

For more click the link prior to the excerpt. We'll also note an editorial from The Nation on the same topic. It's called "The Dollar Doldrums" and is by Doug Henwood (it's only available to subscribers so if you don't subscribe to The Nation, check your local libraries):

The major reason for the dollar's weakness is the profound imbalance in America's dealings with the outside world: We import far more than we export. The trade accounts slipped into the red in 1976, and the deficit has been getting steadily larger. This is an unusual performance for a rich country, where rough balance or even large surpluses are the norm. Trade deficits are usually associated with countries undergoing impressive growth spurts, like South Korea in its glory days (though the country has since matured into surpluses)--or chronically troubled economies, like those of Africa or Latin America.
When imports greatly exceed exports, you must borrow vast gobs of money from abroad to make up the difference. During the late 1990s, most of our foreign money came from private investors, intoxicated by the New Economy miracle of the Clinton era. Lately, the task of financing American deficits has fallen to the central banks of Asia, whose dollar assets (mostly US government bonds) now collectively surpass $1 trillion. They acquire these dollars in two ways. First, when Americans import foreign-made goods, we pay in dollars, which then accumulate abroad. Since there is relatively little that we export to Asia, they don't spend those dollars on our products; they acquire our securities instead.

Please note, The Nation has a new look and we'll cover that in an entry shortly.

From Boston Indymedia, Terrence e-mails Pete Stidman's "Hate Crime Alleged on Tufts Campus:"

Riyadh Mohammed 20, an Economics Major in his Junior year at Tufts University, alleges that he was attacked by three fraternity brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon in front of their frat house early Saturday morning. He claims he was beaten unconscious, and subjected to a chain of racist epithets. Police confirm that he was in need of medical attention after the incident.
Never one to hold back his opinions, president of the Arab Students Association at the school, and one who friends say, “puts the fact that he is an Arab out there.” Mohammed is proud of who he is. According to Mohammed, he and his girlfriend were walking home from a party at about 2am Saturday morning. They passed in front of 114 Curtis, the SigmaPhi Epsilon house, and to his girlfriend, Riyadh commented, "Sig Ep f**king sucks."
Whether intended or not, the hostile comment was overheard. Insults were exchanged and a short, slight, scuffle ensued.

Terrance says he's trying to figure out what happened but isn't sure. Read the comments and you'll find a variety of opinions. (I wasn't there, I don't know.) We'll try to follow this story if it develops further.

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

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

Susan just e-mailed, regarding the last post, to advise members that at Daily Kos, you can find Pitviper's "Amazing Political Video on Leno - UPDATE: Video Back Up." Pitviper is noting Connor Oberst's appeareance on The Tonight Show. There's a link to the performance (for those who'd like to watch online) and Pitviper provides the lyrics to the song. Pitviper has the lyrics (in full). Here's a sample:

"When the President Talks to God"
When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our women's' rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?
When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?

Susan's really excited by the entry and feels Pitviper has really offered not just a link and the lyrics (in full) to the song, but a wonderful overview of Bright Eyes and of what just happened last night when "the truth went out over the airwaves" (Susan's words).

So please check it out.

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

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

Colorado IMC is still down. As members may remember, Arkansas IMC was also attacked but it was back up last week. This week, they have a note, on their home page, that we'll reprint in full because I really think these sort of attacks are shameful.

May 4:
As of today (Wednesday) we at Arkansas Indymedia are still having problems due to the damage inflicted by last week's hacking of our and many Indymedia websites. Perhaps the most obvious to the reader or contributor is that articles or comments will not be posted right away. Due to the damage done to our data base, editors must now search for posted material and put it on the site manually. This is a process which, for obvious reasons, will take some time. Rest assured however, that your contribution will eventually find itself in our newswire or in the comments section below the selected article.
While we hope to get these problems worked out soon, there is currently no realistic time frame in which we can eliminate these problems. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you bear with us while we work through this temporary situation.
Arkansas IMC

Again, the attacks on IMC are disgusting and we can show our support in a variety of ways. You can give money, you can become active in your local IMC (in some areas, that may mean supporting your state IMC but many have regional chapters as well), you can visit IMC sites and utilize them, you can pass them on to friends via e-mail or pulling friends over to your monitor.
But this is our media, the people's media, and if we don't find a way to support it, we may end up without having any.

Also from Arkansas IMC, Patriots for Civil Liberties have "Fayetteville Group Seeks To Pass City Resolution Against the Patriot Act:"

Patriots for Civil Liberties is a citizens organization working to ensure the United States Constitution is maintained as Fayetteville's basis in law. Patriots for Civil Liberties has written a resolution condemning many of the provisions of the Patriot Act. If you are concerned about this issue Patriots for Civil Liberties would like you to help us get the resolution passed by the Fayetteville city council.
Patriots For Civil Liberties
http://www.northwest-ark.com/pfcl/
Patriots for Civil Liberties is a citizens organization working to ensure the United States Constitution is maintained as Fayetteville's basis in law. Patriots for Civil Liberties has written a resolution condemning many of the provisions of the Patriot Act. If you are concerned about this issue Patriots for Civil Liberties would like you to help us get the resolution passed by the Fayetteville city council.
Right now there are three ways Patriots for Civil Liberties needs your help.
1. At the organization's website ( http://www.northwest-ark.com/pfcl/) Patriots for Civil Liberties needs your signature on the petition supporting the resolution that will be presented to the city council. (You don't need to do this if you have already signed a petition.)
2. Forward this email to your friends, co-workers and family.
3. Become involved in working with Patriots for Civil Liberties. The next meeting will be held May 2nd, at 7 pm, at the Presbyterian and Disciples Student Center, located at 902 W. Maple in Fayetteville.
The resolution that will be presented to the city council can be read at the Patriots for Civil Liberties web site. http://www.northwest-ark.com/pfcl/
Patriots for Civil Liberties welcomes your comments.
Send comments to patforcivlib (at) yahoo.com .
PfCL is a coalition of justice groups, including OMNI and the ACLU of NWA.

Good for them. If you live in the area, you can make a difference. Sometimes, these resolutions have passed by one vote from a council member. Your voice is needed. You'll meet a lot of people (some of the left, some of the center, some on the right) who are concerned about rule of law and the right to privacy. You'll be helping with a cause that's basic to what kind of a country do we want and do we want to live in a democracy or not. If you know anyone who lives in the area, please e-mail them about this.

Conner Oberst of Bright Eyes performed a song ("When a President Talks To God"?) on the Tonight Show last night. Janeane Garofalo highlighted it tonight on The Majority Report. I wanted to pass that on because besides Susan and myself, a number of members are Bright Eyes fans and because, for those asking where are the protest songs on network TV, you heard one last night if you watched The Tonight Show. (I don't. I saw Jane Fonda on David Letterman's show and prior to that, you'd have to drop way back for the last time I caught either show.)

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

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

If you're noticing a delay in posting tonight, you aren't mistaken. Blogger had some advice for several errors that were occurring here. UK Computer Gurus did as well.

You may notice that the archive section is now weekly and not monthly. The archives (starting with December) were becoming too much for the Blogger problem to handle on a monthly system.

Making that change has already resulted in the last week of April reappearing in the archives. There are other changes that are going on that shouldn't effect the look of the site.

But there have been publishing errors increasingly and we were apparently headed for a "fatal flaw" so time is being taken for mainteance. This wasn't planned and my apologies for anyone who's been put out by this.

The goal is to do an entry prompted by Dallas tonight. If there's not time for that, we'll do it tomorrow.

And while mainteance is going on, I'm working (with Ava's help, thank you Ava) on the Thursday Indymedia highlights.

The 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 May 5, 2005
- Marine Faces No Charges For Shooting Unarmed Iraq
- Pentagon Analyst Arrested for Passing Secrets to AIPAC
- Small Explosion Occurs Outside UK Consulate in NYC
- Army Admits It Lied About Death of Pat Tillman
- FBI To Exhume Body of Emmett Till
- Venzuela Asks U.S. To Extradite Cuban to Face Terror Charges
- Gay Rights Pioneer Jack Nichols, 67, Dies

Ex-Haitian PM Yvon Neptune Near Death
We get an update on the condition of jailed former Haitian Prime Minister Yvon Neptune who has been on a hunger strike for 18 days and is reportedly near death. We go to Haiti to speak with human rights activist Patrick Elie who served as Haiti's Drug Czar and Undersecretary of State for Defense under Jean Bertrand Aristide and we speak with lawyer Brian Concannon.

The Christian Right and the Rising Power of the Evangelical Political Movement
We take a look at the rising power of the evangelical political movement in this country with journalist and author Chris Hedges and the Rev. Joseph Phelps, who led a counter-service to last month's "Justice Sunday: Stopping the Filibuster Against People of Faith." [includes rush transcript]

Louisville Landscape: Politics, Race and Police Brutality
We take a look at local Louisville politics and the political landscape of Kentucky with professor Ricky Jones, a political science specialist in the department of Pan-African Studies at the University of Louisville.

At The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby tracks Bully Boy's lies and how he attempts to scare people in his tent revivals of late. I can't pull quote because Somerby's got strong transitions between his writing and the quotes and to pull from it would not do it any justice at all (and probably confuse anyone who just read the excerpt here), so instead, we'll note his last two concluding paragraphs:

POSTSCRIPT--WHERE IS THE PRESS CORPS: In the past week, Bush has conducted SS pep rallies in Falls Church, Virginia; in Canton, Mississippi; and in front of the Latino Coalition in Washington. During these events, he has baldly dissembled--and openly lied--about the future of Social Security. In Falls Church, he told five young workers that, absent major changes, there will be "nothing there" in Social Security when they retire in 2041. In Canton, he told Nissan employees that the system will be bankrupt that year: "In other words, it's out." And he told the Latino Coalition that there will be "nothing left" in Social Security by that time. These statements aren't simply misleading; according to Bush's own projections, these statements are blatantly, laughably false. And Bush kept pimping up the nonsense with that disgraceful old UFO tale. People who think they won't get a check "understand the math," this fake man disgracefully said.
Yep! Bush keeps dissembling and lying, wherever he goes--and the "press corps" hides beneath its desks. They refuse to discuss the endless dissembling that drives what amounts to a snake oil tour. On Mother's Day week, Bush even lies to 84-year-old grandmothers--and the press corps won’t even stir about that. Has any president ever offered such sustained nonsense about such a major domestic initiative? We don't know, but you can't get the press corps to care. And by the way--do you remember how much they used to care about the truthfulness of public figures? Did Al Gore lie about Love Story? For two solid years, these pious fakes pretended that they had to know. For two solid years, these pious frauds kept pretending that they deeply cared. Can't you see why liberals and Dems have to name names again and again?

Lynda e-mails to note Naomi Klein's "How to End the War" (from In These Times):

The administration says the war was about fighting for democracy. That was the big lie they resorted to when they were caught in the other lies. But it’s a different kind of a lie in the sense that it’s a useful lie. The lie that the United States invaded Iraq to bring freedom and democracy not just to Iraq but, as it turns out, to the whole world, is tremendously useful--because we can first expose it as a lie and then we can join with Iraqis to try to make it true. So it disturbs me that a lot of progressives are afraid to use the language of democracy now that George W. Bush is using it. We are somehow giving up on the most powerful emancipatory ideas ever created, of self-determination, liberation and democracy.
And it's absolutely crucial not to let Bush get away with stealing and defaming these ideas--they are too important.
In looking at democracy in Iraq, we first need to make the distinction between elections and democracy. The reality is the Bush administration has fought democracy in Iraq at every turn.
Why? Because if genuine democracy ever came to Iraq, the real goals of the war--control over oil, support for Israel, the construction of enduring military bases, the privatization of the entire economy--would all be lost. Why? Because Iraqis don't want them and they don't agree with them. They have said it over and over again--first in opinion polls, which is why the Bush administration broke its original promise to have elections within months of the invasion. I believe Paul Wolfowitz genuinely thought that Iraqis would respond like the contestants on a reality TV show and say: "Oh my God. Thank you for my brand-new shiny country."
They didn't. They protested that 500,000 people had lost their jobs. They protested the fact that they were being shut out of the reconstruction of their own country, and they made it clear they didn't want permanent U.S. bases.
That's when the administration broke its promise and appointed a CIA agent as the interim prime minister. In that period they locked in--basically shackled--Iraq's future governments to an International Monetary Fund program until 2008. This will make the humanitarian crisis in Iraq much, much deeper.
Here's just one example: The IMF and the World Bank are demanding the elimination of Iraq's food ration program, upon which 60 percent of the population depends for nutrition, as a condition for debt relief and for the new loans that have been made in deals with an unelected government.
In these elections, Iraqis voted for the United Iraqi Alliance. In addition to demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of troops, this coalition party has promised that they would create 100 percent full employment in the public sector--i.e., a total rebuke of the neocons' privatization agenda. But now they can't do any of this because their democracy has been shackled. In other words, they have the vote, but no real power to govern.

Lynda's got an entry she's working on that she'd like to share with the community. Read this article (or at least the excerpt) to be prepared. If she's got it done by tonight, it will go up tonight. Otherwise, look for it tomorrow.

We have added some member since we last noted Naomi Klein's "Baghdad Year Zero" (published in Harper's Magazine). So I'll note it again and am more than willing to quote from it again (it's that important) if any members would like me to do so. (If you're confused by the remarks Klein's making in her In These Times article, I would strongly urge you to read "Baghdad Year Zero.")

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

Here are some other articles in this morning's New York Times that members are e-mailing about.

Ben e-mails to highlight Erik Eckholm's "U.S. Mishandled $96.6 Million in Rebuilding Iraq, Report Finds:"

American officials rushing to start small building projects in a large swath of Iraq in 2003 and 2004 did not keep required records on the spending of $89.4 million in cash and cannot account at all for another $7.2 million, a federal watchdog reported yesterday.
Most of the poorly documented spending appeared to involve incompetence or haste, but in some cases the auditors said they suspected theft. "We found indications of fraud," said the report by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Some cases were referred to a criminal investigations unit of the inspector general's office.
[. . .]
The report described instances in which district and field officers in the small-scale construction program did not provide adequate receipts for money they had reported as having been spent, or left Iraq without accounting for all the cash they had received. It said the chief money manager in Baghdad "did not maintain full control and accountability."

Ben: That's 89 million that didn't go to helping our schools, to helping our elderly, rebuilding our own infrastructure. I'd just like to know if the administration intends to take any responsibility for this? Wasn't this supposed to be the MBA administration? They've destroyed the economy and they can't even offer the appropriate oversight on our money that they freely hand out.

Rachel e-mails to note Edmund L. Andrews' "U.S. Warns A.F.L.-C.I.O. on Protests About Social Security:"

The Bush administration has warned the nation's biggest labor federation that union-run pension funds may be breaking the law in opposing President Bush's Social Security proposals.

Rachel: In other news, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. warned the Bully Boy administration that it may be breaking the law if it uses tax payer money to pay 'journalists' to promote the administration's proposal. Armstrong Williams had no comment.

(Rachel is using humor, please note.)

Keesha e-mails to highlight Gretchen Ruethling's "F.B.I. Will Exhume the Body of Emmett Till for an Autopsy:"


The F.B.I. said on Wednesday that it would exhume the body of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black Chicagoan whose killing 50 years ago in the segregated South helped fuel the civil rights movement, to determine the cause of his death.
The plans come one year after federal prosecutors and the authorities in Mississippi reopened the investigation, prompted in part by two documentary films about the crime.
During the investigation, officials discovered that an autopsy had never been performed and the cause of death had never been determined, said Deborah Madden, a spokeswoman for the F.B.I. in Jackson, Miss. Officials plan to exhume the body, which is buried in Alsip, Ill., a Chicago suburb, this month. The plans were first reported on Wednesday by The Chicago Sun Times.

Billie e-mails to highlight Carl Hulse's "2 on Ethics Panel Withdraw From Any DeLay Inquiry:"

Two Republican members of the House ethics committee who contributed to the legal defense fund of Representative Tom DeLay, the majority leader, recused themselves Wednesday from any potential investigation of him as the panel took the first steps that could lead to such an inquiry.
After a two-hour meeting, Representative Doc Hastings, the chairman, announced that the two representatives, Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma, would not take part in any action relating to Mr. DeLay. The two lawmakers each provided $5,000 last year to a fund being used to underwrite Mr. DeLay's legal expenses as he fought accusations of misconduct in Texas and Washington.

Lloyd e-mails to note Michael Kamber's "In an Untamed Tide of Violence, the Bystanders Die:"

"The militia came at midnight," he said, as a crowd waited outside his home for the funeral procession to begin. "Three men climbed over the wall. They thought someone from the opposition was in the house, and they threatened to kill everyone. They began firing their guns." One bullet pierced the wall of the room where Marcellin was sleeping. He was killed instantly.
The violence began after Togo's electoral commission announced last week that Faure Gnassingbé, son of Gnassingbé Eyadéma, the strongman who ruled Togo for 38 years, had won the April 24 presidential election. The opposition coalition has denounced the vote as fraudulent, and its candidate has declared himself president of Togo, raising the specter of further chaos and, possibly, civil war.

Maria notes that "Operation Happy Talk" always implodes "whenever dopes attempt to push 'everything's going great, we've brought liberation to the occupation" and steers us towards a Reuter's article online at the Times' web site entitled "Attacks Kill 19 in Iraq as Surge of Violence Continues:"

A suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi army recruitment center in a former airfield in western Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 11 people and wounding eight, police said.

Wally e-mails to note Ralph Blumenthal's "Judge Tosses Out Abuse Plea After the Ringleader Testifies:"

The court-martial of Pfc. Lynndie R. England, accused of abusing naked Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, was declared a mistrial on Wednesday when a military judge threw out her guilty plea over testimony by the convicted ringleader of the scandal and father of her baby.
[. . .]
The judge, Col. James L. Pohl, ordered the mistrial after Pvt. Charles A. Graner Jr., testifying on behalf of Private England, his former lover, portrayed their handling of a leashed prisoner as legitimate, contradicting her sworn admission of guilt and said she had acted at his request in helping to remove an obstructive prisoner from his cell.

Rod e-mails to note Douglas Jehl's "A Setback to Democrats' Request for Papers on Bolton and Syria" and to provide his own humorous summary of the events Jehl's detailing.

Rod: Richard Luger, the Republican Senator, refused to endorse the request of Senate Democrats to look over John Bolton's papers on Syria. Luger said that he wasn't sure there was anything to be found in the papers. Luger will soon be promoting his book, Don't Look! Don't Look! Turn Your Head, Avert Your Eyes in which he explains that everything he needed to know in life, he learned as a toddler while playing peak-a-boo. Luger explained, "If I don't see it, it's not there!" To those who would question his approach, the Senator responded that far too much has been made of the need for Congress to provide "oversight." "Oversight, schmoversight," said the Senator, "I firmly support 'don't ask, don't tell' in all areas of the government."

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

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

We'll note an Associated Press story from The Independent, "Blast hits British Consulate in New York:"

Two small explosions outside the British Consulate in New York caused slight damage to the building early today but no one was injured.
The explosions occurred about 3.50am (8.50am BST) and apparently originated in or near a cement flower box outside the consulate in midtown Manhattan, said police department spokesman Noel Waters.

Via BuzzFlash, Marcia e-mails to highlight this op-ed from The Seattle Times. The op-ed is written by Amy Goodman and her brother David Goodman and is entitled "Why media ownership matters:"

We see reporters in the cockpits of war planes, interviewing pilots about how it feels to be at the controls. We almost never see journalists at the target end, asking people huddled in their homes what it feels like not to know what the next moment will bring.
The media have a responsibility to show the true face of war. It is bloody. It is brutal. Real people die. Women and children are killed. Families are wiped out; villages are razed. If the media would show for one week the same unsanitized images of war that the rest of the world sees, people in the U.S. would say no, that war is not an answer to conflict in the 21st century.
But we don't see the real images of war. We don't need government censors, because we have corporations sanitizing the news. A study released last month by American University's School of Communications revealed that media outlets acknowledged they self-censored their reporting on the Iraq invasion out of concerns about public reaction to graphic images and content.

Back to The Independent James of Brighton e-mails to alert us to Andrew Grice's "One quarter of voters uncertain as Labour sag at the final post:"

The survey suggests Labour is on course for a third successive term but that a last-minute advance by the Liberal Democrats leaves Tony Blair uncertain that he will secure a big enough majority to serve the "full term" he wants before standing down.
Labour's 10-point lead in NOP's poll last week has slumped to three points after the closing stages of the campaign were dominated by Iraq.

Ruth e-mails Joe Conason's "Must-flee TV: How the GOP is taking over at PBS:"

Conservatives have long warned us that someday the commissars of political correctness are going to take over in Washington and impose their opinions on us with our own tax dollars. What they didn't tell us is that they would become those commissars, and that their politically correct orthodoxy would be the Republican Party line -- as they are now proving at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
With all the subtlety of an old-style Soviet bureaucrat, C.P.B. chairman Kenneth Tomlinson is extending partisan political control over public television. As a former Reader's Digest editor and Republican appointee, Mr. Tomlinson clearly understands what he was appointed to do.

From BuzzFlash, Zach e-mails Greg Palast's "Impeachment Time: "Facts Were Fixed:"

Here it is. The smoking gun. The memo that has, "IMPEACH HIM" written all over it.
The top-level government memo marked "SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL," dated eight months before Bush sent us into Iraq, following a closed meeting with the President, reads, "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WDM. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Read that again: "The intelligence and facts were being fixed...."
For years, after each damning report on BBC TV, "Isn't this grounds for impeachment?" Vote rigging, a blind eye to terror and the bin Ladens before 9-11, and so on. Evil, stupidity and self-dealing are shameful but not impeachable. What's needed is a "high crime or misdemeanor."

To continue reading click the link above or click here.

Brenda e-mails "Protesters Occupy University of Hawaii Admin Building" from IMC:

Since 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 28th, a coalition of Native Hawaiian groups, students, faculty, anti-war activists, environmentalists, and religious organizations have joined forces to occupy the University of Hawaii administration building, to demand the University cease all work on a secret Navy research project, UARC. This research is for the development of space-based laser systems, surveillance technologies, and sea-based mines. Since September 11, 2001, the US military has embarked on the largest expansion onto Hawaiian land, since World War II. The Army plans to take 28,000 acres of this precious land to station a Stryker Brigade.

Brenda notes that there is a live cam with this link.

Democracy Now! covered this story on Monday with their segment entitled "Students Occupy Univ. of Hawaii Building to Protest Construction of Military Center" which is a read, watch, listen.

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

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

The inbox is full of members (seventy-five last time I checked) noting David Johnston and Eric Lichtblau's "Pentagon Analyst Charged With Disclosing Military Secrets." This is a big news story. From Johnston and Lichtblau's article:

The analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, turned himself in to the authorities on Wednesday morning in a case that has stirred unusually anxious debate in influential political circles in the capital even though it has focused on a midlevel Pentagon employee.
The inquiry has cast a cloud over the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which employed the two men who are said to have received the classified information from Mr. Franklin. The group, also known as Aipac, has close ties to senior policymakers in the Bush administration, among them Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to appear later this month at the group's annual meeting.
[. . .]
According to a 10-page F.B.I. affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint, Mr. Franklin divulged the secret information about the potential attacks at a lunch on June 26, 2003. Officials said he was dining with two of Aipac's senior staff members. The lunch was apparently held under F.B.I. surveillance. Four days later, federal agents searched Mr. Franklin's office and found the document containing the information.
Later, agents found dozens of classified documents at his home. The affidavit did not describe the subject matter of the documents, but said 38 were classified Top Secret, about 37 were classified Secret and approximately eight were classified Confidential. The dates on the documents spanned more than three decades. The affidavit did not indicate whether the information that was disclosed would have placed American troops at risk, and it offered no details about the gravity of the information that might have been compromised.

The article mentions the 'embarrassment' for two administration officials (one past, one current) who were "also close to Aipac:" Paul D. Wolfowitz and Douglas J. Feith.

It should be remembered that Franklin has been charged but not convicted. These are serious charges and some source (or sources) is (are) noting the evidence (or alleged evidence) against Franklin. Those who can remember how J-Ass tried cases via the press and how 'damning evidence' often petered out by the time it made it into court, should remind themselves that these are charges until Franklin has his day in court.

Allegations don't equal convictions. Cases argued in the press often fail to bear out in court.

Having noted the above, if the allegations are true and Franklin is convicted, this is appalling.
The Times notes that the foreign government isn't named in the indictment but it is thought to be Israel.

The press should pursue this case (God forbid we have to count on the administration). These are very serious charges. But a number of e-mails this morning have come in offering the punishment they hope awaits Franklin. (All of it legal punishment. And none were hoping for the death penalty.) So, just to be clear, unless and until Franklin's convicted in a court of a law, he's only been charged with crimes.

That's not to dismiss anyone's opinions or concerns. We should all be concerned and we all have our opinions (including me). I hope the press actively pursues this story. But, that said, I'm not looking for a conviction by media based on FBI leaks to the press. (If the press finds their own evidence, they should print it. In fact, they should pursue their own leads and not just wait around to be fed leaks by the FBI.)

This is about Franklin's life (and those of his friends and family) which can be destroyed via unfounded leaks. I'd object to "official" whispers being used to convict in the media regardless of whom the whispers focused on (right, left, whatever). Hopefully, in their coverage the press will be responsible. As readers (viewers, listeners) we can be responsible regardless of how the press behaves. (Tori e-mailed that she thought the media would take a pass on this story and that we were reading a one day story. Tori feels that since it involves the administration, the press will "stuff this story down the memory hole." I understand why Tori suspects that -- it's certainly been the manner in which the press has behaved on other stories involving this administration. Hopefully, the implications of the charges against Franklin will prompt the press to do their job.)

The charges are very serious and go to issues of national security. This is a story and the press should cover it. And when the Times does, we'll note it. But since we are dealing with the life of someone's who's yet to be convicted of anything, I hope everyone is fine with operating under the presumption of innocence.

Johnston and Lichtblau do a strong job of noting what is known and what is passed on. Hopefully future articles (by them or other reporters) will do the same. (I do wonder how broadcast media will run with this story.)

If other sites want to leave the area of innocent until proven guilty, that is their business and they should speak in their own voices. (And more power to them.) But here, my hope is that we can remember that Franklin has been charged, not convicted. (My "hope," this is a members' community. Obviously members are allowed to weigh in with their own opinions and, obviously, some members may disagree with my opinion.)

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

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