An outbreak of a lethal new bug at a leading specialist hospital has claimed 12 lives and is posing a grave new threat to the NHS, doctors have warned.
More than 300 patients have been infected with the bug, a virulent new strain of Clostridium difficile, at Stoke Mandeville hospital in Oxfordshire, known for its world-famous spinal injuries unit supported by the former disc jockey Sir Jimmy Savile. But all attempts to control the infection, which causes severe diarrhoea that can be life-threatening, have failed.
The disclosure raises new concerns about NHS hygiene following a series of scares over the superbug MRSA and the pressure on hospitals to hit waiting list targets.
Cases of C. difficile have soared from fewer than 1,000 in 1990 to 43,672 in 2004 but it has not received the same attention as MRSA. Latest figures show there were 934 deaths in 2003, a 38 per cent rise in two years. A similar number of people died from MRSA in the same year, with 955 people dying from the infection, a 30 per cent increase in two years.

The above is from The Independent, Jeremy Laurance's "Superbug kills 12 at spinal unit as doctors warn of new threat to NHS."

From Ireland's I.E. Breaking News, "Adams throws down talks challenge to unionists:"

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams tonight challenged the Democratic Unionist Party to take the "difficult" decision to enter dialogue with republicans.He said the Rev Ian Paisley’s party might find it “a very uninviting prospect”, but their current position of not negotiating with Sinn Féin was not sustainable.
Mr Adams said he awaited a positive response from the IRA to his appeal for them to declare a purely non-violent democratic future – and said there was now an unprecedented opportunity to make political progress in Northern Ireland.


From IPS, we'll note Jim Lobe's "Right-Wing Hostility to NGOs Glimpsed in Amnesty Flap:"

This week's flap over Amnesty International's characterisation of U.S. overseas detention facilities and practices as a ''gulag of our times'' offers insights into the Bush administration's and its neo-conservative supporters' deep distrust of some non-governmental organisations (NGOs). President George W. Bush's administration already had responded with ritual reflex -- most recently seen in its offensive against Newsweek -- to mostly undisputed charges that U.S. authorities have committed and continue to commit serious abuses, in some cases amounting to torture, against individuals rounded up on suspicion of supporting terrorism: It blamed the messenger, be it the International Red Cross or the media. In the last case, however, it was the rights watchdog Amnesty International and there was an interesting wrinkle in the administration's reaction: The way senior administration officials -- from the president, to Vice President Dick Cheney, to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Richard Myers -- immediately followed their initial statement of outrage against Amnesty's use of the word ''gulag'' with some version of the same non sequitur: arguing, in effect, that U.S. military interventions somehow justified non-compliance with the Geneva or U.N. torture conventions.
As stated by Cheney on CNN's Larry King show, it went like this: ''I think the fact of the matter is, the United States has done more to advance the cause of freedom, has liberated more people from tyranny over the course of the 20th century and up to the present day than any other nation in the history of the world.''
That precisely the same defence figured at the top of each official's comeback suggested that their ''talking points'' were all prepared by the same source -- testimony perhaps to the extraordinary discipline exercised by this White House to ensure that what used to be called the ''message of the day'' -- perhaps now more accurately referred to as the party line -- is repeated over and over again.
While Cheney was the most direct in denouncing the world's largest and most famous human rights organisation -- ''I just don't take them seriously'' -- the other officials declined to attack Amnesty's bona fides, no doubt because even the Bush administration knows that NGOs like Amnesty get much higher credibility ratings than leaders of major business, labour or government institutions, according to surveys.

From Open Democracy, we'll note Stephen Bowen's "'Full-spectrum' human rights: Amnesty International rethinks:"


Amnesty International recently highlighted a case concerning water protestors in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. On 17 May a large group of men, women and children went to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation office in Bhopal to complain that clean water had been denied them, despite a Supreme Court of India ruling in 2004. Ground-water had been contaminated after the infamous 1984 explosion at the former Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. Clean water, the protestors claimed, was their due.
The authorities’ reaction was heavy-handed. Riot police allegedly beat the protestors with sticks, arresting, detaining and even charging some. Had the police overreacted, acting excessively? Worse, had they acted politically, whether directed to or not, suppressing legitimate free expression, not least of those with a serious grievance? Both scenarios bring with them classic human-rights concerns. Those familiar with the organisation’s work would expect Amnesty International to step in. Indeed some would be disappointed if it did not.
However, what if the protestors had merely arrived, voiced their concerns and then gone home again, without police intervention? While less glaringly a case of human-rights abuse, informed commentators could still have said that this was a human-rights matter. After all, the 17 May protestors were seeking partial redress for wrongs done to them in 1984, when the Union Carbide pesticide factory exploded. The disaster left a deadly legacy; toxic gases caused the death of 7,000 people within days, at least another 15,000 in the following years, and some 100,000 people have since been struck down with chronic diseases.
In addition, 500,000 people were exposed to deadly chemicals and the environment was profoundly contaminated, remaining so twenty years on despite Union Carbide’s claims to the contrary. The Bhopal water protestors were effectively already people living in the shadow of human-rights crimes.
But what if protestors had mounted a peaceful water protest anywhere else? Should Amnesty International and other human-rights groups support all those seeking their “right to water”? Or equally to other natural resources, to education, housing, a family life, the right to work, to speak a language of one’s choice?


Back to IPS, Pat e-mails to note Sanjay Suri's "G8 SUMMIT:The Climate Does Not Look Good:"

The prospects for progress on climate change at the G8 summit in July do not look too good, going by the content of a leaked document. The document purporting to be a draft for agreements on climate change was posted anonymously on a website Friday. The British Prime Minister's office confirmed later that the document was genuine, but said it was being developed, and was not the final draft. Friends of the Earth picked on the document to show how little substantial progress there had been on climate change. The document marks agreement at the officials level on the draft to be produced at the summit of heads of government of the G8 countries (the United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Britain, Italy, France and Germany). The summit will be held at Gleneagles in Scotland July 6-8. Climate change is among the two top priorities named by the British hosts, along with development of Africa. The leaked draft calls for steps to deal with climate change, and for international financial institutions to play a role. But the general suggestions are not backed by any call to binding commitments.

From Australia's ABC, Lyle e-mails to note "Downer can grant defector political asylum: lawyer:"


An immigration lawyer says Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has the power to grant Chinese diplomat Chen Yonglin political asylum.
Mr Chen says the Immigration Department rejected his application for political asylum, advising him instead to apply for a protection visa.
He has been in hiding, fearing retributions from the Chinese Government, since he defected from his senior post at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney more than a week ago.
He claims his Government has up to 1,000 spies operating in Australia who have been kidnapping Chinese nationals.

From Scotland's The Sunday Herald, Elaine e-mails to note Robert Burns' "Military report confirms Koran mishandled at Guantanamo Bay:"

UNITED States military officials acknowledged that a copy of the Koran was splashed with urine at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terror suspects, but said none of the guards at the facility flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet.
Among other newly disclosed incidents cited in a Pentagon report on the mis handling of the sacred text at the prison were reports that a detainee’s Koran was deliberately kicked and another’s was stepped on.
On March 25, a detainee complained to guards that “urine came through an air vent” and splashed on him and his Koran. A guard admitted he was at fault, but the report, which offered new details about Koran mishandling incidents, did not make clear whether the guard had intended the result.
The findings are among the results of an investigation last month by Brigadier General Jay Hood, the commander of the detention centre in Cuba. The investigation was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report – later retracted – that a US soldier had flushed one camp detainee’s Koran down a toilet.

From the Times of London, Gareth e-mails Anthony Browne and David Charter's "Battle lines drawn up as leaders get ready for a war over EU:"


The struggle between the EU’s three biggest powers over the fate of the constitution, and the future direction of the Union, is likely to deepen the turmoil caused by the French and Dutch “no” votes last week. France and Germany are also expected to step up the pressure on Britain to be a “good European” by insisting that it surrender its budget rebate at a fin ance ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg tomorrow.
The meeting is supposed to agree the EU’s budget for the next seven years, and France and Germany will argue that reaching a deal is essential to prevent a second crisis. But Gordon Brown has insisted that the rebate must stay.
José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, sought to calm tensions at the weekend by pleading with EU leaders not to play the blame game. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, will tell Parliament today that Britain is suspending the ratification process for the constitution despite Saturday night’s demand by President Chirac of France and Chancellor Schröder of Germany that all countries pass judgment on the treaty.

Amy e-mails to note, from UK's The Independent, David Usborne's "Terrorists 'using Guantanamo as a recruitment aid:'"

Senior Democrats are calling for the closure of America's detention centre in Guantanamo, Cuba, saying it has become a "propaganda and recruitment tool" for terrorists in the wake of continued allegations of prisoner abuse.
A leading senator, Joseph Biden of Delaware, suggested the time had come to consider a gradual closure of the facility, arguing its worsening reputation around the world was helping to recruit people bent on hurting the US.
"This has become the greatest propaganda tool that exists for recruiting of terrorists around the world. And it is unnecessary to be in that position."
For a start, the senator argued, there should at least be an independent commission established to address the value of keeping Guantanamo. "The end result is, I think we should end up shutting it down, moving those prisoners."

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

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

We woke up this morning to the interesting news that Muhsin Abdul Hameed had also been detained! A member of the former Iraqi Governing Council, a rotating puppet president, and *The Sunni*. He is The Sunni they hold up to all Sunnis as an example of cooperation and collaboration. Well, he’s the religious Sunni. There is a tribal Sunni (supposedly to appease the Arab Sunni tribes) and that is Ghazi Al Yawir and there is the religious Sunni- Muhsin Abdul Hameed.
The Americans are saying Muhsin was “detained and interviewed”, which makes one think his car was gently pulled over and he was asked a few questions. What actually happened was that his house was raided early morning, doors broken down, windows shattered and he and his three sons had bags placed over their heads and were dragged away. They showed the house, and his wife, today on Arabiya and the house was a disaster. The cabinets were broken, tables overturned, books and papers scattered, etc. An outraged Muhsin was on tv a few minutes ago talking about how the troops pushed him to the floor and how he had an American boot on his neck for twenty minutes.

The above is from "Oops" at Baghdad Burning (and Riverbend posted is Monday, May 30th).

Pru e-mails, from England's Socialist Worker, Andrew Burgin and Matthew Cookson's interview with Seymour Hersh entitled "Seymour M Hersh -- from My Lai to Abu Ghraib:"


Tell us about US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s decision to introduce a "special access programme" involving US forces snatching or assassinating suspected Al Qaida operatives.
That was an early decision, and it's still going on. We still don't understand the extent in the US of what we call "rendition". This is the process of getting the name of someone, going in illegally, grabbing him illegally, taking him some place where the sun don't shine, beating him up -- and if he dies, so what?
It used to be called "disappearing" in Argentina and Brazil, where it caused an enormous outcry.
The real shock in the US is the weakness and the failure of congress. Yes, the president's been awful, dubious and craven -- but that's a given.
Congress has been much worse. The Democrats have no power at all. The Republicans control everything. There has been no serious investigation into Abu Ghraib.
Insane legal papers that came out after the Abu Ghraib story said that the Geneva Conventions didn't apply. It’s very troubling for me as an American, because it’s so profoundly against what the whole constitution says.
Although the prisoner abuse scandals in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have been big news, the British have had their own abuse scandals. Iraqi civilians have been kicked to death at Camp Breadbasket.
You've had the same problems here, although your press has been much better. The anti-war movement has been very intense here.
The marches that the novelist Ian McEwan was writing about, we don't see them in the US. If anything, it's backed down a little bit now after the election. People feel a little bit defeated.
I can't decide whether our congress is supine or prone, but it doesn't make much difference. In the US it's the absolute failure of the constitution.
The Times in London published documents about when Bush made his decision to go to war on Iraq. We should be dealing with the issue that the president of the US might have made the decision up to one year before going into Iraq, and had been misleading us.
These are documents showing that the decision to go to war was taken in April 2002. In Britain we have families of servicemen killed in Iraq who are calling for a full public investigation into the decision to go to war.
I watched the British election and I saw Reg Keys, one of the fathers, make an amazing speech in Tony Blair's home district. This got no attention in the US press.
But I think the worst times are ahead. The next few months are going to be very disturbing for all of us because Bush has got a real problem in Iraq, and he's not aware of it.
I don't see how you can avoid a civil war in Iraq. When that happens I don't know what they're going to do. I would guess the number of potential terrorists has gone up exponentially because of the war in Iraq.
It's a question of time. We'll start seeing more sophisticated people with better English, who will be able to penetrate visa and customs people in western Europe and the US. We could be in real trouble -- we could see a spreading insurgency.
We don't have any intelligence on the other side. We have no idea what's going on in Iraq -- we're just in there diddling. At some point we might say we've had enough, declare peace and walk out -- or be kicked out.
And we're going to have a mess in Iraq. The Sunnis are going half mad worrying about the spread of Iranian democracy or theocracy into the south of Iraq. We're seeing profound changes, and they've been triggered by the US without much forethought -- and certainly no afterthought.

Pru also e-mails, from the UK's Socialist Review, "Rebellion in the Ranks?" by Anderw Burgin (co-interviewer of the above article):

'Shame on you.' These three words addressed to Tony Blair and George Bush at the funeral of Rose Gentle's 19 year old son Gordon announced the beginning of the Military Families campaign. Reverend Mann pointed the finger at those ultimately responsible for Gordon Gentle's death in Basra. Rose Gentle had encouraged Mann to tell the truth about her son's death.
Within weeks Rose had been joined by Reg Keys and together they founded Military Families Against the War (MFAW). This campaign is unique in British political history - it bears comparison with the Military Families Speak Out campaign in the US, with which it is linked. The campaign exposed very quickly the fragility of the army and the resonance of the anti-war movement throughout the population.
MFAW discovered that many soldiers and their families had been present on the 15 February demonstration. They had opposed the war and knew all the arguments that had been central to the Stop the War campaign. There was also an embryonic network of internet chatrooms and support groups on army bases already set up by army wives. These echoed the support groups set up by the miners' wives in the 1984-85 strike.
As the arguments for the war began to unravel others joined these military families, including many families and soldiers who had initially supported the war because they believed the case made by the government over weapons of mass destruction.
The 'families group' of those whose sons and husbands have been killed in Iraq started by Reg and Rose has grown to include 16 families and each week more families are coming forward. The Ministry of Defence is desperate to stop families contacting each other because it realises that the majority of them now want many questions answered.
All these families, now joined by a number of soldiers wounded in Iraq, are united around a central demand - for an effective public and independent inquiry into the legality of the war. It is almost unprecedented that any family of a soldier killed in battle would speak out. The fact that close to 20 percent now do so reflects the deep opposition to the war within the army itself. Anti-war protesters have leafleted army recruitment centres, barracks and even the Save our Regiments marches and on each occasion have received a positive response. 'We shouldn't be in Iraq,' is the most heard expression.
Soldiers themselves have come forward from the reserves, the Territorial Army and the regular army. All testify to the unpopularity of the Iraq war stretching through all ranks. Many hundreds of young soldiers are now absent without leave (Awol) and recruitment among teenagers is at an all time low. As one general put it, 'Soldiers feel there's no point in busting themselves to do a dirty job in Iraq, if back home people are saying the commitment is wrong, maybe even illegal.'
So far the army has ignored the Awol crisis but there has also been a 35 percent drop in recruitment meaning that many regiments will be unable to operate in Iraq. This echoes the situation that developed in Vietnam but over a much shorter period and in more concentrated form in Iraq.
In Vietnam the war was lost because the army refused to fight. The army refused to fight both because of the resistance in Vietnam and because a mass anti-war movement was built in the US. In the Armed Forces Journal in June 1971 Col Robert Heinl wrote, 'Our army that now remains in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units avoiding or refusing combat, murdering their officers, drug riddled and dispirited where not near mutinous. These are indicators of the worst kind of military trouble... exceeded only in this century by the French Army's Nivelle Mutinies and the collapse of the Tsarist armies in 1916 and 1917.'

In the Socialist Review, Ian Taylor follows up on the above with "'I Despise the Army Now:'"


Ray is an army reservist. He fought in the first Gulf War, but has told the army he will not serve in Iraq this time:
'As long as it is an illegal war and occupation I don't want anything to do with it. The army said to me, "Deal with it. You're a reservist." I wrote to Geoff Hoon and he said, "Deal with it." But I don't want anything to do with it.
I'm in touch with a few serving soldiers. A friend is on his second tour in Iraq. He didn't want to go, but if he did what I've done he would lose his career and his pension.
Every soldier I've spoken to does not want anything to do with it. There is a massive morale problem. Partly it's because of the casualties they are taking. You expect to take casualties, but you know so many people at home disagree with what you're doing.
I fought in the first Gulf War. I've seen friends suffer, but I thought it was for a worthwhile cause. Now people think, "What's the point?" I've seen people dying, and dying soldiers never think of their country. They think of their mums.
The abuse of prisoners is a symptom of it. I took lots of prisoners in the last Gulf War. But I had nothing but respect for them. This time the war is unpopular. It's like Vietnam - no one cares about you and you end up hating the people you're fighting.
Soldiers are a very tight-knit community. It's nigh on impossible to speak out. You risk being shunned by your fellows. You're portrayed as betraying "our boys". There is a fear of being tarred with the same brush even if you think someone is right.
I've been very fortunate. Most people I know have said I'm doing the right thing. They know I've been to war. But I've been told I'm a coward, a disgrace, that I should be put up against a wall and shot.
The image of Reg Keys making that speech with Blair looking so uncomfortable will have created discussion among soldiers. They will be saying this is wrong - like in the first Gulf War when the Americans destroyed the Iraqi army on the Basra road when it was running away. The official line was, "This is war." But privately the boys said, "This is murder."
Yet speak out and the army can give you a very hard time. I think it's difficult for physical bullying to take place at the moment because of the media attention. But bullying is rife. New blokes get a regular kicking. There are lots of regimental punishments. It can be very frightening physically.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, Dave e-mails "Australian-US relations 'not helping Wood:'"

Australia's close relationship with the United States was delaying the release of hostage Douglas Wood, a spokesman for Australian mufti Sheikh Taj Aldin Alhilali says.
Ikebal Patel, from the Federation of Islamic Councils, indicated the mufti had been able to provide proof to satisfy Australia's negotiating team in Iraq that Mr Wood was still alive but refused to publicly reveal the evidence.
Mr Patel said it was Australia's relationship with the US that was holding up negotiations to release Mr Wood.
He said Sheikh Alhilali was finding it difficult to negotiate with people who were jaded by the cruelty of the Americans.
"They're living in much worse conditions, the Americans aren't friendly people, they're giving them a lot of hard time," Mr Patel told the Nine Network.

From a Reuters' article in The Moscow Times entitled "Book: No Suicide, Islam Link:"

A surge in suicide attacks in Iraq and elsewhere around the world is a response to territorial occupation and has no direct link with Islamic fundamentalism, according to the author of a new book who has created a database of such bombings over the past 25 years.
[. . .]
In "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism," [Robert] Pape cited suicide terrorism campaigns from Lebanon to Israel, Chechnya and Sri Lanka, where he said major democracies had been the principal targets. A broad misunderstanding of the issue, he said, is taking the U.S.-led war on terrorism in the wrong direction and could in fact be fueling an increase in suicide terrorism.

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

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

Bob Somerby's Saturday Daily Howler went up today. Here's an excerpt of Somerby's critique of a "kiss-kiss" to Okrent (I love that -- "kiss-kiss" -- reminds me of Pauline Kael's collection entitled Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang):


In short, we are seeing a fiery young liberal dissembling with just about every breath--and every liberty is being taken to play kiss-kiss with Great Okrent. Indeed, as Manjoo continues, Okrent is brilliant again--and once again, Krugman is played as the loud, over-bearing fellow who simply won’t shut the f*ck up:
MANJOO (7): Okrent predicts that Krugman won't rest until he gets the last word, and he's right. Krugman, in the final entry, writes that Okrent was dead-wrong on everything, "and now he's not enough of a mensch to admit his error."
The over-bearing Krugman is at it again--he "won't rest until he gets in the last word," just as brilliant Okrent predicted. Once again, this is Manjoo's way of describing a perfectly appropriate response (by Krugman) to a nasty, unsupported attack (by Okrent). What could make a fiery young liberal have such an odd reaction?

On the above, I'll note that the e-mail Dallas forwarded (that he sent to the Times to complain of Okrent) about who was trying to have the "last word." It wasn't Krugman. It was Okrent. Okrent, in his final kiss off to readers, felt the need to weigh in (with not evidence given) on Krugman and without getting a comment from Krugman. Having been trashed in print (at his own paper), Krugman sought to reply to that. That should have been the end of it. The looney Okrent had his say, Krugman responded.

Instead, Last-Word Okrent had to have one more reply (always) and seems to forget that he's no longer working for the Times and that the space (public editor space) belongs to another now. Go away Okrent, go quickly away.

He wasted readers times, as Dallas pointed out in his e-mail to the Times, with self-interviews (because surely Okrent is the most important person in the world apparently), talk of his vacations, trashing the Tonys (what is his problem?) and calling them a "racket," . . . The "bravery" he demonstrated taking on the Tonys was not to be found in other columns. (His belated column on the Judith Miller, et al, reporting in the paper came only after readers pointed out he'd broken his rule not to comment on what had been printed at the paper before he was public editor when he wrote of the past Tony coverage prior to the Times covering the nominations.)

It was always "what I want to write about" with Okrent. Sometimes he wanted to write about "left" and "right." Or to refer to criticism from those poles. But he never wanted to address substantive charges of errors in the paper. These weren't errors that required him to wade through partisanship, these were factual errors that the paper never corrected. Whether it was creating titles for someone (titles that didn't exist) or skewing reporting by leaving out facts, basic errors that would never pass a fact check (whether one was partisan or not) were never addressed. He was a lousy "public editor." Having wasted readers' time with "what I want to write about," he now refuses to shut up. He won't go away.

If someone's trying to have the "last word," it's obviously Okrent. Dallas suggested, to the Times, that if Okrent had anything further to say, he needs to do so in a letter to the editor that may or may not be printed by the Times. In case the news hasn't sunk in, the paper has a new public editor. Okrent needs to walk on, walkon.org.

We're going to quote another section of Somerby (read the full column) because it made me think of the upcoming edition of The Third Estate Sunday Review. He's responding to an e-mailer who stated that this is all about -- the kiss-kiss, the foppishness, the let's-play-liberal -- about liberals attempting to see both sides:

We don't buy it. As we incomparably told the mailer, we remember a time when liberals were in the street every day, yelling, "Hey hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" Those liberals were not "bending over backwards to appear open-minded," nor were they "too broad-minded to take their own side in a quarrel." They were actually trying to win. As a result, they had no trouble framing a short, concise message, and they were more than willing to shout it in public. Whatever you may think of their stance, those liberals actually cared about the topic in question; they actually cared about the outcome of the day's political battles. But as we've watched "TV liberals" for the past dozen years, we have rarely seen any sign that they actually care very much about outcomes. In the present day, most of them wouldn't enact the Bush agenda themselves, but they show no sign of actually caring about whether or not the agenda wins. And there's nothing you can do to make them mad; they proved that in their acquiescence to the two-year press corps war that finally brought Candidate Bush to the White House. What kind of "liberal" would put up with that? Simple--the kind who isn't a liberal at all, the kind of "liberal" we currently see taking gas all over TV.

Keesha sent in this from CJR Daily. It was published May 27th but it's more than worth noting because it's a strong piece (and praise to CJR Daily for it). Paul McLeary's "'Civil War' Discovered in Iraq -- Again:"

To read reports of the continuing violence in Iraq is to risk a bad case of dejá vu. Each time the violence either spikes or ebbs, the media appear, on the one hand, shocked anew at the volume and ferocity of the killing, or, on the other hand, cautiously optimistic that the insurgency may be faltering.
As a result of this trend-heavy groupthink, we've seen the coverage of the war fall into a somewhat predictable cyclical pattern, where current stories read almost exactly like the ones we read a few months -- or at this point even years -- ago.
The New York Times runs once such article today, which seems at first glance to offer a fresh angle, describing the violence in Iraq as "civil war," -- or at least alluding to it as "sectarian" killing. The piece notes that "amid violence that has taken more than 550 lives across Iraq this month, [there is] renewed concern that the bloodshed may be shifting ever more toward crudely sectarian killings."
Truth be told, the idea that the violence in Iraq is devolving into a civil war is nothing new. In fact, intelligence analysts, military officials and U.S. Senators have been warning of civil war for quite some time. It's just that at the moment the Times, and a few other news outlets, are circling back to the premise as if it were a fresh one.

Martha e-mailed to note Danny Schechter's piece "CNN at 25: 'The World's Most Trusted Network:'"

CNN went on the air 25 years ago this June 1 from the basement of what had been a Jewish country club in Atlanta. The UN flag was flying overhead as Ted Turner proclaimed his cable revolution with the announcement that the channel that the big broadcasters then dismissed as the Chicken Noodle Network would stay on the air until the end of the world, fully report its demise and then play "Nearer My God to Thee" as was done on the deck of the titanic.The "mouth from the South" who would become a media mogul is now writing articles on the dangers of big media (penned by PBS's Pat Mitchell, a prominent "Turner turnover" who is herself on the way out). He spared no adjective as a one-man hype machine for the promise of a new global news order. He was audacious, bold and charismatic, but the institution that is his legacy is anything but.It has become a bland brand, more packaged than passionate with its prime competitor and arch-enemy Fox News the new innovator and home of controversy. CNN as "rebel" has been trumped by Fox as renegade.

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

Note: This was intended to be posted Saturday (as was another post that will go up shortly). My apologies.

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

For members who've been around awhile, I saw something while looking around for possible topics for the editorial by The Third Estate Sunday Review. (We all hurry around the web to try to find a topic and then we pitch them while the group chooses which topic they want to go with.) (Read their editorial, by the way.)

An article (by Scott Shane) in the New York Times on December 15 contained the following:

Mr. Kalugin speaks from unusually direct experience. In 1978, he passed along orders directing Soviet agents to supply the Bulgarian secret service with a spring-loaded umbrella that was later used to deliver a dose of the poison ricin, killing the Bulgarian dissident Georgi I. Markov in London.

The article was entitled "Poison's Use as Political Tool: Ukraine Is Not Exceptional" and we addressed it in two entries that day, "Questions while reading today's New York Times" and "Judith Regan, Zeller's writing for the Times; Oleg Kalugin; Georgi I. Markov; Democracy Now!; Daily Howler."

The Sunday Times of London reports a development in the assassination of Georgi I. Markov. From Jack Hamilton and Tom Walker's "Dane named as umbrella killer:"

It remains one of Britain's most famous unsolved murders -- made all the more notorious by the James Bond nature of the killing. The murder weapon was an umbrella, partly developed by the Soviet KGB, which fired a pellet the size of a pinhead, containing the poison ricin.
Last week, in a serialisation containing leaks of secret service files in the Bulgarian daily newspaper, Dnevnik, the identity of Markov's killer was finally revealed.
He was named as Francesco Giullino, a Dane of Italian origin who travelled Europe in a caravan pretending to be an antiques salesman: in fact, he was a Bulgarian secret agent.
The documents, uncovered during six years of research by Hristo Hristov, a Sofia-based investigative journalist, reveal how the Communist-era Durzhavna Sigurnost (DS), the Bulgarian equivalent of the KGB, had ordered Giullino to "neutralise" Markov.

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


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

We're highlighting only one article in this entry because it's an important one (Lynda, Eli, Rob, Kara, Maria, Susan, Zach and Ben all e-mailed on it). From Richard Bernstein's "One Muslim's Odyssey to Guantanamo" in this morning's New York Times:

About two months after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, the Pakistani police picked up Murat Kurnaz, a 19-year-old Muslim from Germany who was traveling by bus near the city of Peshawar.
The police turned Mr. Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen born in Germany, over to the American military in Pakistan, who in turn transferred him to Afghanistan, and he was held as a terrorist suspect.
[. . .]
Though no link to Mr. Atta was ever found, Mr. Kurnaz was sent to the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he has been held for about three years now as an enemy combatant, specifically accused of being a member or ally of Al Qaeda or its terrorist network. The evidence against him is that, while he was traveling in Pakistan, he was the guest of a militant Islamic group said to have supported terrorist acts against the United States.
In addition, Mr. Kurnaz was known to have intended to travel to Pakistan with a close friend, Selcuk Bilgin, another Turkish citizen from Bremen. And Mr. Bilgin, according to an American military tribunal's findings on Mr. Kurnaz, later carried out a suicide bombing.
But in recent months, as details of the charges against Mr. Kurnaz have come to be known, German officials here in Bremen who have investigated both Mr. Kurnaz and Mr. Bilgin have reacted to the American conclusions about Mr. Kurnaz with astonished incredulity.
The most striking element in the picture is that, contrary to the American assumption about Mr. Bilgin having carried out a suicide bombing, the Germans say that claim is demonstrably false.
"He lives here," Uwe Picard, the Bremen criminal prosecutor who carried out the German investigation into Mr. Bilgin, said in an interview in his office here. "He is still alive."
Moreover, even American documents indicated that much of the evidence on Mr. Kurnaz actually seemed more to exonerate him than to incriminate him. The decision of the three-member Guantanamo tribunal that found Mr. Kurnaz to be an enemy combatant last September refers to classified material in his file and indicates that that is where the reputed links to Al Qaeda would be documented.

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

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

 

President Bush said during the third election debate last October that most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans. In fact, most - 53 percent - will go to people with incomes in the top 10 percent over the first 15 years of the cuts, which began in 2001 and would have to be reauthorized in 2010. And more than 15 percent will go just to the top 0.1 percent, those 145,000 taxpayers.

The above is from David Cay Johnston's "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind" in this morning's New York Times. The article's worth reading and we're about to provide another excerpt; however, I wanted to be sure that everyone registered the paragraph above.

The people at the top of America's money pyramid have so prospered in recent years that they have pulled far ahead of the rest of the population, an analysis of tax records and other government data by The New York Times shows. They have even left behind people making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Call them the hyper-rich.
They are not just a few Croesus-like rarities. Draw a line under the top 0.1 percent of income earners - the top one-thousandth. Above that line are about 145,000 taxpayers, each with at least $1.6 million in income and often much more.
The average income for the top 0.1 percent was $3 million in 2002, the latest year for which averages are available. That number is two and a half times the $1.2 million, adjusted for inflation, that group reported in 1980. No other income group rose nearly as fast.
The share of the nation's income earned by those in this uppermost category has more than doubled since 1980, to 7.4 percent in 2002. The share of income earned by the rest of the top 10 percent rose far less, and the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell.

"[T]he share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell." To repeat for emphasis, "the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell."


Before our spirits sink like stones, let's turn to amusement in this morning's New York Times -- Elisabeth Bumiller attempts to explain those White House Letters columns, or at least justify them to herself, in "If They Gave Nobels for Networking. . .:"


Mr. Woodward, anxious and confused about his future, nonetheless displayed the kind of terrier instincts that would later serve him so well. He peppered Mr. Felt with questions about his job, extracted his phone number and over the years cultivated Mr. Felt as a mentor and friend. When the Watergate break-in occurred, the fledgling Washington Post reporter had a vital relationship with the leaker, christened Deep Throat, who had no small part in bringing down a president and making Mr. Woodward's career.
In short, it was a lesson in what is now called networking, or the importance of personal relationships in the small town of the nation's capital.

Yes, networking is key to the Elite Fluff Patrol. As squad leader, Bumiller knows that better than many. (In fairness, there was an improvement in recent articles. And this is an article, from the Week in Review section, not a White House Letter.)

Eddie e-mails to highlight this from Eric Lichtblau's "From Advocacy to Terrorism, a Line Blurs:"

Supporters question why, if Mr. Al-Arian is as dangerous as federal authorities make him out to be, they did not lock him up until 2003 after wiretapping him for years and watching him meet with senior Republicans and Democrats. Mr. Al-Arian campaigned for President Bush in 2000, was photographed with him at a campaign stop, and took part in a White House briefing with Karl Rove in 2001, one of many political contacts that his defense lawyers indicate they may raise as evidence of his solid credentials.
The case, which became a major issue in last year's Senate campaign in Florida, has left divided camps of friends and foes from Tampa to Washington, with even some one-time supporters of Mr. Al-Arian now questioning his activities. In February 2003, John Ashcroft, who was then attorney general, personally announced the indictment of Mr. Al-Arian, identifying him as the North American leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Mr. Ashcroft said the group was responsible for the murders of many dozens of people, and he pointed to the prosecution of Mr. Al-Arian as a prime example of the government's efforts to "choke off terrorist resources and financing."
Justice Department officials credit changes under the Patriot Act that allowed intelligence agents and criminal prosecutors to share information more easily for bringing the case to prosecution. Although the F.B.I. had been monitoring Mr. Al-Arian since the early 1990's as part of a foreign intelligence investigation, officials said the results were slow to reach prosecutors because of legal impediments and turf battles.

Erika e-mails to note the Associated Press' "Rape Counselor Fights Warrant Over Opening Cadet's File:"


A rape counselor who has refused to give a military court records of her sessions with a former Air Force Academy cadet asked a judge on Friday to prevent the military from arresting her and forcing her to turn over the information.
The counselor, Jennifer Bier, filed for a temporary restraining order in Federal District Court here. A warrant had been issued for her arrest for refusing to turn over the records.
The former cadet Ms. Bier counseled is one of the women whose accusations about sexual assault touched off a scandal in 2003 that toppled the academy's top leaders.

Gina e-mails to note Lisa W. Foderaro's "A Lawmaker Is Criticized Over E-Mail With Entergy:"


In early May, a legislator in Westchester County said that he had spotted a piece of paper in the parking lot as he was heading to his car after a long public meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
"I hate litter so if I see paper I tend to pick it up and throw it away," said the Democratic legislator, Michael B. Kaplowitz, who opposes the power plant.
What he had found was a printout of an e-mail exchange between an official of Entergy Nuclear Northeast, the plant's owner, and another county legislator, Robert P. Astorino, the Republican nominee in the race for county executive. The exchange included talking points for the meeting from Entergy's director of communications, Larry Gottlieb.
A copy of the e-mail printout was given to The New York Times by a third party who is not involved in politics or in Indian Point issues, and Mr. Kaplowitz confirmed its discovery. In a telephone interview, Mr. Kaplowitz criticized Mr. Astorino for letting Entergy script his response to the Democratic county executive, Andrew J. Spano, who is running for re-election and is a relentless opponent of Indian Point.

Susan e-mails to note Christine Hauser's "Abbas Postpones Elections in Move Rejected by Hamas:"

Mr. Abbas's decree said a new date would be announced in another presidential order after "completing necessary legal steps and national consultations."
The announcement confirmed expectations of a postponement that have been growing since last month, when the Palestinian elections commission said more time was needed to solve differences over changes to the law that focused largely on how legislative seats are filled.
Mr. Abbas's faction, Fatah, faces challenges from Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in the parliamentary election, the first in which it has agreed to take part. Hamas spokesmen have responded to expectations of a delay by saying Mr. Abbas was maneuvering to hold on to power.
"Abbas's postponement decision was unilateral," a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said in a statement. "He did not consult with Palestinian movements.

Cedric e-mails to note Celia W. Dugger's "U.S. Challenged to Increase Aid to Africa:"


But when President Bush was asked this week about Mr. Blair's effort, as well as a British proposal to raise money for development on capital markets, he replied, "It doesn't fit our budgetary process."
The president hastened to add that he hoped to advance a "compassion agenda" when Mr. Blair plays host to leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations in Scotland next month, but any new Africa pact would certainly be weakened without American support.
Underlying this debate are differences over Africa's readiness to absorb the additional $25 billion in aid Mr. Blair advocates. The Europeans favor a quick and bold surge in spending that officials in Paris and London say will make it possible for Africa to join the global economy.
Their view is buttressed by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Blair's Africa commission and a panel of experts appointed by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
All have said that many African nations are improving governance, fighting corruption and growing economically, and could make good use of more aid.
Bush administration officials say they, too, believe aid can help. They note that the United States has tripled aid to Africa to $3.2 billion since Mr. Bush took office, with initiatives to tackle AIDS and to assist well-governed countries. Financing for those programs will grow in coming years, they say.

I have some issues with the Times report. But rather than go into that, I'll refer you to Rolling Stone's "An Epidemic Failure: Whatever happened to Bush's pledge to combat AIDS in Africa?" by Geraldine Sealey which should make the problems with the Times (full) report obvious:

Dubbed the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the ambitious agenda provided the administration with some much-needed PR at the very moment it was preparing to defy international will by invading Iraq. But from the start, Bush has failed to deliver on the funding he promised -- and what little money he has provided is being used to promote a right-wing agenda that undercuts international efforts and puts millions of people in AIDS-ravaged countries at greater risk of infection and death.
Thanks to the president's foot-dragging, his "emergency plan" took its sweet time getting going. Bush requested only $2 billion for PEPFAR in its first year -- a billion less than one would expect. Then, when Congress decided to approve $400 million more than the president asked for, Bush unsuccessfully fought to block the increase. By the time the first relief funds arrived in Africa, nearly a year and a half had passed since the president announced his plan -- a costly delay in fighting an epidemic that claims 8,500 lives every day.
The administration insists it will meet its goal by 2008, saying it planned all along to gradually "ramp up" the program. But public-health experts say it looks increasingly unlikely that Bush will fulfill his promise -- and that even if he does, the money will fall far short of what is needed. According to UNAIDS, a partnership involving the World Bank and nine other international aid groups, the world needs to spend $20 billion a year by 2007 to wage an effective war against AIDS. What Bush proposes to spend annually, if funding remains constant, is less than half the $6.6 billion that America would be expected to contribute based on the size of its economy. "The fact that the United States can spend $300 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but cannot find a relative pittance to rescue the human condition in Africa -- there is something profoundly out of whack about that," says Stephen Lewis, the secretary-general's special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The president's AIDS initiative, like his invasion of Iraq, is a go-it-alone affair that ignores the clear global consensus on how to fight AIDS. In launching his own initiative, Bush has shifted the bulk of U.S. money away from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an international organization that has funded projects in 128 countries and is widely recognized as the best way to distribute AIDS funds. "Bush is starving the fund," says Dr. Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "It's despicable, frankly."

That covers all that caught members and my own attention. (We may have missed something, such is life. Or, as Kat says, "It is what it is.") There's an Isaiah illustration to go up but I've done this entry and the one above it while on break from The Third Estate Sunday Review. We're still working on the edition. So I'll be posting Isaiah's illustration on the next break.

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

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

Miguel: Hola. De "Democracy Now!" seis cosas que vale notar esta fin de semana.

CIA creó grupos para vuelos de sospechosos por el mundo
El New York Times informó que la CIA creó una nueva generación de compañías fantasmas para facilitar que el gobierno de Bush traslade en avión a sospechosos alrededor del mundo. El informe está centrado en la firma Aero Contractors, con base en Carolina del Norte y fundada por un funcionario de la CIA que fue jefe piloto de Air America, una empresa que perteneció a la CIA durante la Guerra Fría. Según registros de vuelos, Aero Contractors aterrizó en repetidas oportunidades en Afganistán, Bahía de Guantánamo, Paquistán y Libia. La CIA aparentemente es dueña de 26 aviones, que son propiedad de siete corporaciones que parecen no tener empleados. Los aviones son luego utilizados por verdaderas compañías ya sea controladas o vinculadas a la CIA. Además de Aero Contractors, el Times identificó dos compañías de Florida como probables compañías de la CIA: Pegasus Technologies y Tepper Aviation.

Unión Estadounidense de Libertades Civiles obtendrá más documentos de abuso a prisioneros
Un juez federal ordenó al Pentágono que exhibiera decenas de fotos y cuatro películas que muestran el abuso a prisioneros en la prisión de Abu Ghraib en Irak, como parte de un juicio iniciado por la Unión Estadounidense de Libertades Civiles (ACLU). El Director Ejecutivo de ACLU, Anthony Romero indicó que "estas imágenes pueden ser feas y chocantes, pero muestran que las torturas eran algo más que actos de algunos soldados inadaptados". La ACLU pidió que se designe un asesor especial para investigar la tortura y el abuso a los prisioneros. La orden del tribunal surgió como respuesta al juicio de la Ley de Libertad de Información presentado por la ACLU, la Unión de Libertades Civiles de Nueva York y el Centro de Derechos Constitucionales.

Amnistía defiende el término "gulag"
Mientras tanto, la directora de Amnistía Internacional, Irene Khan, pidió a Estados Unidos que permita el ingreso a investigadores de derechos humanos a los centros de detención en la Bahía de Guantánamo y en otras partes, en caso que quiera desmentir las acusaciones de abuso. Khan respondió al gobierno de Bush, que desestimó las acusaciones del grupo de que Estados Unidos tenía un "gulag", y defendió especialmente la utilización de ese término. Escuchamos las palabras de Irene Khan ayer: "Pretendíamos enviar un fuerte mensaje a Guantánamo, Bagram y esa red de cárceles, de que los centros de detención creados como parte de esta guerra del terror, que de hecho socavan los derechos humanos de forma dramática, solamente pueden evocar los peores aspectos de los escándalos de derechos humanos del pasado". Escuchábamos a Irene Khan, directora de Amnistía Internacional.

Estados Unidos amenazó con retener 10 millones de dólares de ayuda a Kenia
El gobierno de Bush amenazó con retener 10 millones de dólares de ayuda militar a Kenia si el país no exime a los estadounidenses de los juicios ante el Tribunal Penal Internacional. Estados Unidos pretende que Kenia firme un compromiso de que nunca entregaría a ningún estadounidense acusado por crímenes de guerra ante el Tribunal mundial sin la aprobación de Estados Unidos. Políticos keniatas acusaron a Estados Unidos de chantajear al país. Estados Unidos ya firmó acuerdos bilaterales de no-entrega con 100 países.

Manifestantes interrumpen discurso de Rice en San Francisco
Mientras tanto, manifestantes de Global Exchange y Code Pink interrumpieron el viernes un discurso de Rice en San Francisco. Los manifestantes se congregaron durante el evento bajo el grito de "detengan la tortura y la matanza. Estados Unidos fuera de Irak". Vestían capuchas negras y togas, intentando recrear la imagen más famosa de tortura en la prisión de Abu Ghraib. Los activistas fueron arrestados y retirados del edificio.

Bajan salarios pero crece número de hogares millonarios
Nuevos estudios demuestran que el número de casas con ingresos netos de un millón de dólares aumentó un 20% el año pasado. Ahora hay 7,5 millones de los llamados hogares millonarios en el país. Mientras tanto, el Instituto de Política Económica informó que los salarios reales para los empleados no gerenciales están disminuyendo a la velocidad más rápida registrada en los últimos 14 años. La última vez que los salarios bajaron tan estrepitosamente fue a comienzos del año 1991.

NEW FEATURE: Democracy Now! is now offering the program's daily news summary translated into Spanish. Los Titulares de Hoy

Miguel: In English, here are six stories from Democracy Now! that I wanted to highlight.

CIA Creates Front Groups to Fly Suspects Around the World
The New York Times is reporting today that the CIA has created a new generation of shell companies to make it easier for the Bush administration to secretly fly suspects around the world. The paper focuses on the North Carolina based firm Aero Contractors which was founded by a CIA officer who once served as chief pilot for Air America - a Cold War era CIA owned airline. According to flight records Aero Contractors has repeatedly landed at Guantanamo Bay, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya. The CIA appears to own 26 planes all of which are owned by a web of seven shell corporations that appear to have no employees. The planes are then operated by real companies that are either controlled by or tied to the CIA. In addition to Aero Contractors, the Times identified two Florida companies as likely CIA front companies: Pegasus Technologies and Tepper Aviation.

ACLU to Get More Prisoner Abuse Docs
A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to turn over dozens of photographs and four movies depicting abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU's Executive Director Anthony Romero said "These images may be ugly and shocking, but they depict how the torture was more than the actions of a few rogue soldiers." The ACLU is calling for the appointment of an outside special counsel to investigate the torture and abuse of prisoners. The court order came in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Amnesty Defends ‘Gulag’ Label
Meanwhile, the head of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, called on the United States to open its detention centers at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere to human rights investigators if it wants to dispute allegations of abuse. Khan was responding to the Bush administration's dismissal of the group's allegation that the US was running a gulag and she defended the use of that word, gulag, in particular. Here is Irene Khan, speaking yesterday: "What we wanted to do is to send a strong message that Guantanamo, Bagram and this sort of network of prison, detention centres that have been created as part of this war on terror is actually undermining human rights in a dramatic way, can only evoke some of the worst features of human rights scandals of the past." That was Irene Khan, the head of Amnesty International.

U.S. Threatens to Withhold $10 Million in Aid to Kenya Over ICC
The Bush administration is threatening to withhold $10 million in military aid to Kenya if the country does not agree to exempt Americans from prosecution at the International Criminal Court. The U.S. wants Kenya to sign a pledge that it would never hand over any American accused of war crimes to the World Court without U.S. approval. Kenyan politicians have accused the U.S. of blackmailing the country. The United States has signed so-called bilateral non-surrender agreements with 100 countries.

Demonstrators Interrupt Rice Speech in San Francisco
Meanwhile demonstrators from Global Exchange and Code Pink interrupted a speech by Rice in San Francisco on Friday. The protesters stood up during the event and started screaming "Stop the torture. Stop the killing. U.S. out of Iraq." The protesters were wearing black hoods and cloaks in an attempt to recreate the most famous image of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal. The protesters were arrested and removed from the building.

Wages Fall But Number of Millionaire Homes Soars
New studies show that the number of households in the country with a net worth of one million dollars rose by about 20 percent last year. There are now 7.5 million so-called millionaire households in the country. Meanwhile the Economic Policy Institute is reporting that real wages for non-management employees are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years. The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com. Thanks to Miguel for pulling headlines from Democracy Now! for the week. Again, try to pass on the new feature at Democracy Now!:

NEW FEATURE: Democracy Now! is now offering the program's daily news summary translated into Spanish. Los Titulares de Hoy

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

Yes, we always try to give The Laura Flanders Show its own entry. That's because members love this show regardless of whether they identify with the Democratic Party, the Green Party, another third party, or just identify "left." For three hours on Saturday and three hours on Sunday, radio veteran, journalist (FAIR, The Nation, TomPaine.com) and author, Flanders anchors a program that's diversity boggles the mind. (Folding Star has written of what you can learn about someone from the book shelves. I'm picturing Flander's bookshelves filled and overflowing with fiction and nonfiction of every kind.)

If you haven't checked out The Laura Flanders Show, here's a description from the show's "about page" at Air America's web site.

The Laura Flanders Show cuts through the news and events of the week to find out how the actions of our politicians affect us and asks, what can we do to make a change? Past guests include Hugh Masekela, Danny Glover, Jimmy Breslin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Isabel Allende, Eve Ensler, Nile Rodgers and Angelique Kidjo. Her book BUSHWOMEN; Tales of a Cynical Species, which came out in paperback in April 2005 was a New York Times Bestseller.

To that I'll add that the only program on which I've heard community favorite Matthew Rothschild (editor of The Progressive) was The Laura Flanders Show. (Note, not all Air America programs feature guests regularly. Note also, that when the vanishing of Lizz Winstead happened, my need to listen to Air America nonstop vanished as well. I'll listen
If you are in an area, one of sixty-four, that has a station providing Air America programming and you don't have satellite radio (XM Satellite Radio - ch. 167
Sirius Satellite Radio - ch. 144), remember that you can listen to The Laura Flanders Show and other Air America programming online via real player or windows media player.

Here's what's coming up on The Laura Flanders Show:

Saturday, June 4: Is Deep Throat really a hero? Will W. keep a lid on John Bolton's spy secrets? Will Planned Parenthood of Indiana reveal its youngest clients? Where do you draw the line on keeping secrets and respecting privacy?
Judith DeSarno, National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association President, on eroding privacy rights. Ex-Guantanamo prisoner Martin Mubanga, answers your questions. Amnesty International USA Executive Director Dr. William Schulz replies to the White House's attack on AI's report condeming US torture tactics in the war on terrorism. Finally, award-winning poet and performer Carl Hancock Rux, on dealing with war and other themes his book "Asphalt," now in paperback and music from his latest CD, "Apothecary Rx."
Sunday, June 5: When are U.S. allies expendable, according to the Bush mob? Kenya refused to shield US troops from international court, so W. yanked $1.2 billion in military aid. What's the White House afraid of?And as the U.N. celebrates World Environment Day in San Francisco, what's your personal impact? We measure our ecological footprints and talk to two activists from the urban environmental justice movement, Vivian Chang, of the Asian-Pacific Environmental Network, and Van Jones, of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA.Finally, The 2005 Book Expo is in New York City, so we talk to David Balduc of Boulder Books and Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books in St Louis, MO, about the latest and greatest books and book trends.

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

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

 

The weekend Air America radio broadcasts have started. So What Else Is News? is currently on. Here, from the Air America home page, is the lineup for Marty Kaplan's show and the others this weekend.

So What Else Is News?- Saturday 3pm-5pm with host Marty Kaplan
The Wives of Watergate. Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn, wife of Post editor Ben Bradlee, tells Marty Kaplan what the wives did and didn't know about the identity of Deep Throat. Plus, the rock band OK Go tries to overcome the "sophomore slump," one year after literally writing the book on how to be a political band.

Ring of Fire- Saturday 5pm-7pm w/ Mike Papantonio & Robert Kennedy, Jr
Mike Papantonio talks with Mike Elsner of the Motley-Rice law firm about the Bush administration's attempts to block a lawsuit against a U.S.-based Saudi bank, which allegedly financed suicide bombers in Israel. Then, Bobby Kennedy talks with James Howard Kunstler, author of"The Long Emergency," about what happens when the oil runs out.
The "good" terrorist: Will the Bush Justice Department prosecute or protect Republican ally and anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles? Mike discusses with Peter Kornbluh, author of "The Posada File."

The Laura Flanders Show- Saturday & Sunday 7pm-10pm Saturday, June 4: Is Deep Throat really a hero? Will W. keep a lid on John Bolton's spy secrets? Will Planned Parenthood of Indiana reveal its youngest clients? Where do you draw the line on keeping secrets and respecting privacy?
Judith DeSarno, National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association President, on eroding privacy rights. Ex-Guantanamo prisoner Martin Mubanga, answers your questions. Amnesty International USA Executive Director Dr. William Schulz replies to the White House's attack on AI's report condeming US torture tactics in the war on terrorism. Finally, award-winning poet and performer Carl Hancock Rux, on dealing with war and other themes his book "Asphalt," now in paperback and music from his latest CD, "Apothecary Rx."
Sunday, June 5: When are U.S. allies expendable, according to the Bush mob? Kenya refused to shield US troops from international court, so W. yanked $1.2 billion in military aid. What's the White House afraid of?And as the U.N. celebrates World Environment Day in San Francisco, what's your personal impact? We measure our ecological footprints and talk to two activists from the urban environmental justice movement, Vivian Chang, of the Asian-Pacific Environmental Network, and Van Jones, of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA.Finally, The 2005 Book Expo is in New York City, so we talk to David Balduc of Boulder Books and Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books in St Louis, MO, about the latest and greatest books and book trends.

The Kyle Jason Show- Saturday 10pm-Midnight
Kyle continues to deliver his message of positivity and music.

The Best of Mike Malloy- Sunday Midnight to 3am

Ecotalk - Sunday 7am-8am with host Betsy Rosenberg
Betsy gives first hand accounts and interviews directly from the The United Nations World Environment Day in San Francisco. She covers as many of the 300 events as possible, including a private dinner with Al Gore. Plus, insider sources say the US EPA is on order from high to not participate in/attend the historic summit. Betsy discusses.

Liberal Arts- Sunday 1pm-2pm with host Katherine Lanpher Guests for this special one-hour special program include author Jonathan Lethem, stage star, playwright and novelist Eric Bogosian, and musician Willie Nile. The show was taped in front of a live audience at the Housing Works Books Cafe in Soho, New York City.

Politically Direct- Sunday 2pm-3pm with host David Bender
David Bender interviews DNC chairman Howard Dean and writer Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post blog.

Bobby Kennedy and Mike Papantonio's Ring of Fire repeats 5pm-7pm.

The Laura Flanders Show- Sunday 7pm-10pm Sunday, June 5: When are U.S. allies expendable, according to the Bush mob? Kenya refused to shield US troops from international court, so W. yanked $1.2 billion in military aid. What's the White House afraid of?And as the U.N. celebrates World Environment Day in San Francisco, what's your personal impact? We measure our ecological footprints and talk to two activists from the urban environmental justice movement, Vivian Chang, of the Asian-Pacific Environmental Network, and Van Jones, of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA.Finally, The 2005 Book Expo is in New York City, so we talk to David Balduc of Boulder Books and Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of Left Bank Books in St Louis, MO, about the latest and greatest books and book trends.

The Revolution Starts... Now - Sunday 10pm-11pm w/ host Steve Earle"What kind of man can make or break your heart with his guitar?" Steve Earle's guest this week: The Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf blues legend Hubert Sumlin.

On The Real- Sunday 11pm-1am with Chuck D and Gia Garel
David Zirin's columns are a unique fusion of sports writing and socio-political observation. Chuck D and Gia Garel talk to him about his views and his new book "What's my Name Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States."

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

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