Bob e-mails to note this upcoming event via Seattle IndyMedia:

"Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience"
author: Roberto [. . .]

Monday, May 16th
Condon Hall Rm 109
(1100 NE Campus Parkway, University of Washington)
7 pm - 9 pm

This is the first Palestinian film to be shown to the General Assembly at the UN.
Come see the new film for a special screening and discussion with director - in Seattle: "Rachel Corrie: An American Conscience" A Documentary Film From Palestine

Monday, May 16th
Condon Hall Rm 109
(1100 NE Campus Parkway, University of Washington)
7 pm - 9 pm

This is the first Palestinian film to be shown to the General Assembly at the UN. Yahya Barakat, the director of this powerful documentary, goes beyond the politics of the Occupation to depict facts on the ground. He shows the Palestinian dilemma and what motivates members of the international peace movement to come to Palestine. Barakat's earlier movie is "The House of God", a documentary that brought to life the memorable siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem by the Israeli army in 2002. Yahya Barakat will be in attendance at the showing. He is eager to talk with the audience and answer questions after the film.


International Solidarity Movement activist, Rachel Corrie, was killed when an Israeli soldier ran her over with a bulldozer in March 2003. Rachel was from Olympia. The bulldozer is made by Caterpillar which is here in the United State. Rachel died trying to stop the demolition of the home of Dr. Samir Nasrallah and his family. for more info, call 206-568-7110

Presented by Ruckus

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

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

Billie highlights this from North Texas IndyMedia:

PROTEST: Halliburton Annual Shareholders Meeting by Diane Wood - CODEPink and 1919 Hemphill Wednesday, May 11 2005, 5:56pm

Wednesday, May 18, 2005 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Halliburton Office Main and 7th Street(Carter-Burgess Plaza) Fort Worth, Texas(FORT WORTH) – On May 18, in Fort Worth and Houston, a blast of whistles will blow to signal an alert to expose Halliburton’s crimes in Iraq. Protesters from Fort Worth will join in solidarity with protesters from Texas and around the country, who will rally and march outside the Halliburton Annual Shareholders Meeting in Houston. North Texas citizens will also be traveling to Houston. Actions will draw attention to Halliburton’s shameful actions in Iraq and demand that the company cease operations in that country.
The Fort Worth whistleblower protest will consist of a peaceful rally outside the Carter-Burgess Plaza, which houses one of the Fort Worth Halliburton offices. "Halliburton, with the help of its friends in the Bush administration, is making a killing off the death, destruction and corruption in Iraq," says Diane Wood, a representative of CODEPink Fort Worth and 1919 Hemphill.
"We're here to blow the whistle on Halliburton, showing that the company's shareholders have the blood of innocent Iraqis, U.S. soldiers, and even Halliburton employees on their hands. It's time for Halliburton to withdraw from Iraq and bring its workers home."
CODEPink is a women-initiated national grassroots peace and social justice movement. CODEPink Fort Worth is co-sponsoring this action. 1919 Hemphill is a local center advocating for a broad spectrum of peace and justice issues. For more information contact Diane Wood at (817) 800-4249, or Ramsey Sprague at (682) 556-0553.

This is an announcement so we're posting it in full and Billie hopes that other members in her area (DFW) will turn out for this. People in nearby areas, or who will be visiting the area May 18th can also turn out.

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

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

From San Diego IndyMedia, we'll note lotu5's "Pablo Paredes Puts the War on Trial." Here's an excerpt:

On May 11th, 2005, Pablo Paredes was found guilty of missing movement. The unauthorized absence charge was dismissed. Sentencing continues today, May 12th in the court martial. BUT, DURING THE PRE-SENTENCING PHASE...Marjorie Cohn made ABSOLUTE MINCEMEAT OUT OF THE PROSECUTION!

Click the link for more including testimony from attendees of the court martial.

For those who missed Democracy Now! today, from Headlines:

Iraq War Resister Pablo Paredes Convicted
In a special court martial proceeding yesterday in San Diego, a military judge convicted Iraq War resister, Navy sailor Pablo Paredes of one of two charges against him for refusing to redeploy to Iraq. The judge dismissed the second charge, saying it was duplicative. Paredes could get up to a year in jail. He faces sentencing today.
New Investigation Ordered in Army Resister Kevin Benderman's Court Martial
Meanwhile in Fort Stewart Georgia, the court martial of another war resister, Army Sergeant Kevin Benderman, came to a sudden halt yesterday when a military judge ordered a new investigative hearing for the soldier. The judge ruled that the investigating officer who recommended trying him in a general court-martial had compromised her impartiality in an e-mail to a military prosecutor.

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

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

After suffering for 7 days in critical condition from severe head trauma and contusions in his body, Nicolas David Neira Alvares died at age 15. He was brutally beaten by 8 Bogota, Columbia pigz and left to die.
This Mayday, like many others around the world, workers from many social movements gathered in Bogota, Columbia to march for worker's rights and to commemorate the events of 1886 in Chicago. According to accounts there was music and dancing and folks were in a non-violent mood. As the march reached the downtown area, pigz suddenly opened fire with tear gas and rubber bullets. Exploiting the chaos that ensued the pigz(faces concealed) charged into the crowd brutally beating people. In this moment 8 pigz singled out a 15 yr old male anarchist and beat him into unconsciousness. Many comrades bravely attempted to interfere to rescue him. It is unclear how long it was before they were successful. Alvares was then taken to the Salud Coop Hospital where he suffered for 7 days until his death. Apparently the trauma was so extensive that they were unable to operate to save him.

The above is from "Anarchist, Nicolas David Neira Alvares, Died Yesterday After Brutal Beating From 8 Pigz" by V! (Portland IMC) and was e-mailed in by Yazz.

From Portland IMC, I'd also note "Continuing crisis in Haiti exemplified by plights of imprisoned Prime Minister, Yvon Neptune, and singer So Anne:"

In Haiti's overcrowded prisons the constitutional Prime Minister Yvon Neptune lies on his deathbed as hundreds of other political prisoners languish behind bars without charges.
Neptune's sacrifice has cast a light into the shadows of Haiti's prisons and thousands of people around the world have felt compelled to speak out, unable to forget the injustices illuminated by Neptune's courageous and tragic hunger strike.
Neptune's case is a microcosm of a much larger problem that has plagued Haiti since the overthrow of the democratically elected government in February 2004. Since that time Haiti's justice system has been hijacked by an interim government intent on silencing dissent and there is no semblance of due process for those identified as Aristide supporters.

There are text and video options if you check out the link.

From Boston IndyMedia, Seth highlights Sofia Jarrin-Thomas' "Living in the Shadows: Undocumented Children Strive to Succeed." Here are the opening two paragraphs:

As an immigrant, Araceli has a hard time feeling like she belongs. She fled social unrest in Guatemala with her family when she was only five years old, speaks English better than Spanish, but has been forced to live in the fringes of society because she is considered illegal. "I've been here for sixteen years. I consider myself an American," she said.
The first time she found out about her status was when she tried to apply for college and was told the benefit of a higher education did not apply to her. One year after graduating from high school with a 3.5 GPA and unable to work legally in this country, she feels uneasy about her future. "Put your self in my shoes. I want an education and a career," she said.

Joy notes Kathleen Beckett's "Mordechai Vanunu speaks - March 30, 2005" (Madison IMC):

While visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank in late March and early April, my husband and I met Mordechai Vanunu who is under house arrest at the St. George's Guest House where we were staying.
Mordechai Vanunu, was an Israeli nuclear technician at the Dimona nuclear "research center" in the Negev Desert near his home at Beersheba. He worked there during the 1970's and early 80's. The facility harbored an underground plutonium separation plant operated in strictest secrecy. Vanunu took photographs of the facility and left the country. Captured by Israeli agents on September 30, 1986, Vanunu spent more than 11 1/2 years in solitary confinement completing his entire 18-year sentence in Israel's Ashkelon Prison on April 21, 2004.

Beckett has posted a link to the audio of Vanunu's speech.

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

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

For those e-mailing asking if there will be an Indymedia spotlight tonight, yes, there will be.

As noted earlier, we were doing a link to Feministe since Jill was going over there to blog with Lauren. As Maria requested, it's right below the link for Jill's Third Wave Agenda.

Since I was going into the template anyway, I figured I'd do some links that needed to be done.

First, in case there are any visitors or newer members who are unaware, if someone is a blogger their site is decided on by a panel of members. In the first months of this site, any link that went up would lead to someone e-mailing, "Oh my God! I hate ____! How could you link to ____!"
I was steered to ____ by a member. And if I didn't think ____ had something to say, I wouldn't have linked.

But because of this feeling that came up (with nearly every link), and because we are a community, I decided to turn it over to members. Dahr Jamail may be the only blogger that has never resulted in e-mails complaining. (He's also a journalist publishing in papers but pretend he's not for this example.) Everytime someone went up (suggested by some members), the complaints would come in. Maybe they were valid, maybe they weren't?

But it seemed to me that these links needed to be membership driven. We're using Dahr Jamail for this example because everyone loves Dahr. So one method would be to post, "Would everyone like to add Darh Jamail?" That would be the most democratic method. But if we posted that and then didn't add Jamail wouldn't that be a little humilitating to him? And would we publish the results (which might be even more humilitating -- again, we're using him for an example and using him because no one has ever objected to Jamail)? If 90% of the members said no and we posted that, wouldn't that be humiliating? So would we be like the Oscars and just not note the actual vote?

Though more democratic, I didn't see that as the answer. I thought of sending out e-mails to members to allow a direct vote but not to post about it here to allow anyone who didn't get linked not to feel snubbed. But when we share our favorite songs or movies or whatever, some members want to change their selection. Sometimes after the selections are up. So I wasn't wanting to deal with a vote for, a vote against, a vote for all by the same member.

So the idea of a panel came to mind. The panel rotates around members. (The current panel is serving two months consecutively because they are working on guidelines and a proposal to be voted on by members. Normally, each panel will serve one month.) I don't serve on that panel.
This is composed of members.

When a member e-mails requesting that a blog be added to the sidebar links, I pass that on to the current panel. They then read posts and debate amongst themselves.

They will either recommend a link or not. (There is no requirement that any links go up. There is not a set number that have to go up. The panel can approve every suggestion or shoot down everyone.)

This is more "representative democracy." But it allows no one to feel publicly snubbed and it allows members to determine the links.

This wasn't a way to avoid taking the heat. I determine links for organizations and magazines and if a journalist in another format blogs, I will add them as well. But the panel decides blogs by people who are primarily bloggers.

I'll stand by any decision on an organization, magazine, etc. But I don't claim to be a blog expert. So the panel decides on that.

I hope that's clear. (Adding links tonight was a three hour nightmare with one problem after another. So if it's not clear, blame it on my frustration over the last three hours.)

A number of people have wondered where the May links are for blogs? Good question. The panel does have some decisions (which I haven't seen yet) but they are currently focusing on preparing the policy for members to vote on.

I hate going into the template and always fear a problem that will cause the whole thing to crash.
So when the May links were delayed, I used it as an excuse to delay adding any links on my own.
But when Maria's e-mail came in, I e-mailed the panel members and got the approval of over half (and approval from the others came in as well, no panel member had a problem with adding Jill's new outlet since she had been approved for Third Wave Agenda).

Here's what was added and I'll note a few word abouts each if needed.
Feministe (Lauren & Jill's site): Jill's moving on to Feministe and Rebecca has an entry on that so we'll link to that.

David Sirota: Almost a month ago, I noted the need to link to his site. Members were excited about that and have waited and waited and waited and . . . Since I was in the template, I added it today. Sorry for the delay. Most members are already familiar with Sirota and love his truth to power re: DLC so if you're a visitor or member not familiar with Sirota (whose writing often appears in The Nation and In These Times), please check it out.

Global Exchange: This is an organization that Medea Benjamin is a part of it and for most members that says everything that needs to be said. I think it does as well so we'll just say, check out that site.

The Huffington Post: This was one we should have linked to the day it went active. (Which was the plan.) But intentions often exceed time constraints on this end. It's up now, I hope you'll check it out. This is the site Arianna Huffington is running which will provide a variety of voices and hopefully members have a taste of it from highlights here and at Rebecca's site (Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude).

James Wolcott: The second day of this site, Attack Poodles was noted in suggestions of books to give as gifts. It's a great book. Wolcott is a critical mind who finds a way to critique with humor.
We have a link to Vanity Fair and with that link you could find Wolcott's blog (Wolcott writes for Vanity Fair) but he has his own link now (as he should have for some time).

AlterNet Peek: Members love this. Evan is the person running this (I believe). It's a part of AlterNet and you can access AlterNet through this link. Besides Maria, Eddie, Joy and Liang, who note it almost daily in e-mails, members in England are noting it as well and feel it gives a strong look into the blog world "in the States."

Michelle in Manchester believes it gives her a better feel of what's going on in this country "than any other medium." That's good enough for me. So we've added it.

DIY Dragon: This is a blogger. Normally it would go through the panel. Why was the panel bypassed here? (The panel knows of this add and agreed they didn't need to be consulted.) Because Mooki is a community member. The site was started prior to The Common Ills; however, Mooki is a long term member of this community and was not that into blogging anymore for a period. When Mooki found inspiration (which is partially credited to this community), it seemed to me that this was the same as a member creating a site after we started up. (And Mooki has been a contributing member via topic suggestions in e-mails since just after Thanksgiving.) This isn't a policital blog. It does address politics but it addresses a wide range of topics. In addition, Mooki is an artist so if you visit, please make a point to check out the art work.

But, head's up, do not click on the link to The Common Ills from DIY Dragon -- it doesn't work.
The "url" (thanks to an e-mailer this week for teaching me that term) is wrong (it has "%20" tacked on at the end).

Consortium News: Robert Parry (among others) writes at this site. Parry is someone that we've noted here and provided links to. Rebecca thinks he's one of our best journalists (I'd agree) and since he is the editor of the site (and also behind it's creation), when Rebecca brought him up in a Third Estate Sunday roundtable, it seemed way past time to think about adding Constorium News.

Grist Magazine: Saturday, we linked to an interview in Grist Magazine with Betsy Rosenberg (host of Air America's Sunday program Eco-Talk -- which, if it's on too early for you, I'd steer you to the Air America Place archives). The reaction was positive and usually noted, "I'm so glad there was an environmental link!" We need to do more of those, no question. Since people who went to the interview and looked around Grist were happy, this seemed a good place to start.

So that's what's been added. If you're curious, please access the links. If you're not (and many of you note that you have "just enough" time to read through the entries here, so that's fine), just know that they were added.

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 12, 2005
- Haitian PM Neptune on Verge of Death After 24-Day Hunger
-Strike- Iraq Attacks Kill 79, as Resistance Escalates
- Antiwar European Politicians Accused of Iraq Corruption
- Europe Condemns Turkey Over Trial of Kurdish Leader
- Fidel Castro Defends Assata Shakur, Calls for Mass Demo May 17
- US Student Tortured in Saudi Arabia Accuses FBI of Involvement
- Iraq War Resister Pablo Paredes Convicted
- Army Recruiter Threatens Recruit With Arrest

A ‘Right-Wing Coup’ at PBS & the CPB? A Roundtable Discussion on the Future of Public Broadcasting
On Wednesday, Reps. David Obey (D-WI) and John Dingell (D-MI) called for an investigation of the Corporation Public Broadcasting. This comes following accusations that the CPB has been largely taken over by conservatives who are influencing programming and hiring decisions. Obey requested that the Inspector General for the CPB, investigate whether the CPB is violating the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 that prohibits interference by federal officials over the content and distribution of public programming, and forbids "political or other tests" from being used in CPB hiring decisions.
We speak with Obey as well as PBS host Tavis Smiley, PBS board member Norman Ornstein, Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy and media analyst Robert McChesney, who is organizing this weekend’s National Conference on Media Reform.

Rep. Bernie Sanders on the Importance of Media Reform As A Political Issue
In this broadcast from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign we hear an excerpt of a speech by Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vemont. He spoke at the conference "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?"
Marcia asks for everyone to listen closely to note that Norman Ornstein, "great friend of the so-called left," brings out the knife for Bill Moyers.

Marcia: Norm Ornstein is digusting. I'm glad Amy Goodman had him on the panel because people who just know him from Al Franken's show may think he's "one of us." He's not. (And I agree with Rebecca on Al.) Jeff Chester does an incredible job (and refutes Ornstein). So does Tavis Smiley. Make time to listen or watch this segment. There's no transcript yet but even if there were, I'd argue listen or watch if you have the option.

At The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby advises no Howler for Thursday or Friday. (Possibly one on Saturday.) I'll dispute that because there is a post today (Thursday) that, while brief, is a post. It deals with an issue Yazz noted in the Times this morning, Hillary Clinton. Somerby has made notes of the very sad (my opinion) Margaret Carlson and Chris Matthews from the fact challenged broadcast of Hardball last night.

Maria e-mails to note Jill's latest at Third Wave Agenda:

Third Wave Agenda, as we know it, is over.
Lauren of Feministe has asked me to co-blog with her, and because she and her blog are so amazing, there was no way I could turn down that offer. I'm really excited to be posting over there, and I hope that all the great, loyal commenters will follow me!I'm not sure what the future of Third Wave Agenda will be. I'll probably keep posting on it, but posts will probably be few and far between and it will likely turn into something a bit more personal and much less political -- the interesting political stuff will go on Feministe, while the stupid crap about "feelings" and what I did today will go here.
So, it will probably be very boring to anyone who doesn't know me (and honestly, most people who do know me will probably be bored with it too). And while I hate going all Livejournal on people, hopefully when ya'll see how rad Feministe is, you'll get over it and will spend lots of time there to fill the hole in your heart that TWA's demise has certainly created. So... this is my semi-official farewell. I graduate tomorrow and will probably be sad, so I'll post something about that here so that I can start getting into the new "personal blog" format. We'll see how it all works out.

Maria asks if we can provide a link to Feministe. I've been able to reach half the panel plus one and explain Maria's argument (which I agree with): Jill passed the panel, the community likes her blog, she's stopping her blog and going to Feministe, since she's been approved, can we go ahead and provide a link to Feministe. All that I was able to reach were fine with it. So we will provide a permalink to Feministe tonight (and, as Maria requested, put it right under Third Wave Agenda's link). (I've also advised Rebecca as Maria requested and she says she'll add Feministe to Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude later today.)

Lloyd e-mails to note a BuzzFlash editorial entitled "Andrea Mitchell Has a New Book Coming Out in the Fall. It Should be Called, 'I'm What's Wrong with Journalism:'"

In an ideal world, the public airwaves used by giant corporations to help entrench the Republican Party would not be owned by private companies. They are a commodity that belongs to the citizens of the United States. But the mistake of privatizing the airwaves is long behind us.
How do we now begin to recapture control of television news so that the information necessary to make decisions in a democracy becomes the norm, not the rare exception?
And, although we can hope to put pressure on the FCC not to further deregulate the media, who is going to buy what exists and return broadcast journalism to the age of Edward R. Murrow -- or a new modern incarnation of the integrity that he symbolized?
That's a question to which no answer is forthcoming. The wealthy Americans on the pro-democracy movement side generally fund movements, activism and politicians, not efforts to democratize the media. (We know personally at BuzzFlash. We survive because of lots of relatively modest premium purchases. No one has sent us a check where we had to count the zeroes.)
As for now, Andrea Mitchell symbolizes how journalistically compromised the modern mainstream media has become. After all, she's in bed with Alan Greenspan, General Electric, and the Republican Party. That's some menage a trois.
It may be a nice glitzy frolic for her, but it's toxic for democracy.

Cedric also found something at BuzzFlash (no surprise, there's so much worth reading), "Rep. John Conyers, Jr., on Judicial Nominations, Partisanship and Preserving the Filibuster:"

Over the past several weeks, we have seen unprecedented attacks on the independent judiciary by leading members of the Republican majority. Most of the public, however, may have missed earlier efforts of the majority to "capture" the courts through the arguable abuse of both legislative and executive authority. These attempts by the administration and Republicans in Congress threaten to debase permanently the courts and undermine the stability of our legal system for mere short-term political gain.As was apparent from the message of Justice Sunday - a nationally televised Christian conservative political rally, the right-wing of the Republican party has made the appointment of judges the latest battle ground in the raging "culture" wars. The telecast's participants accused Democrats of using the filibuster to keep judges of a certain faith off the bench and essentially tarred their opponents as the enemies of God. The participation of Senator Frist in this event is troubling because the implication that any party or any senator would impose a litmus test against people of faith is not only wholly inaccurate, but irresponsible.In reality, this debate is over the nature of our democracy and respect for the independent federal judiciary. For 200 years, the Senate has used the filibuster to protect the rights of the minority in Congress and prevent intensely divisive legislation from passing. The filibuster is part of a series of Senate rules designed to encourage compromise and protect our democracy from being captured by one party or faction controlling all the branches of government, precisely the situation we have today.

For Cindy, I'll note that both of the above are BuzzFlash exclusives.

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

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

Via BuzzFlash here are five items you might want to follow.

From The Nation, Ayelish McGarvey's "Dr. Hager's Family Values:"

Late last October Dr. W. David Hager, a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush Administration appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), took to the pulpit as the featured speaker at a morning service. He stood in the campus chapel at Asbury College, a small evangelical Christian school nestled among picturesque horse farms in the small town of Wilmore in Kentucky's bluegrass region. Hager is an Asburian nabob; his elderly father is a past president of the college, and Hager himself currently sits on his alma mater's board of trustees. Even the school's administrative building, Hager Hall, bears the family name.
That day, a mostly friendly audience of 1,500 students and faculty packed into the seats in front of him. With the autumn sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, Hager opened his Bible to the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel and looked out into the audience. "I want to share with you some information about how...God has called me to stand in the gap," he declared. "Not only for others, but regarding ethical and moral issues in our country."
For Hager, those moral and ethical issues all appear to revolve around sex: In both his medical practice and his advisory role at the FDA, his ardent evangelical piety anchors his staunch opposition to emergency contraception, abortion and premarital sex. Through his six books--which include such titles as Stress and the Woman's Body and As Jesus Cared for Women, self-help tomes that interweave syrupy Christian spirituality with paternalistic advice on women's health and relationships--he has established himself as a leading conservative Christian voice on women's health and sexuality.
And because of his warm relationship with the Bush Administration, Hager has had the opportunity to see his ideas influence federal policy. In December 2003 the FDA advisory committee of which he is a member was asked to consider whether emergency contraception, known as Plan B, should be made available over the counter. Over Hager's dissent, the committee voted overwhelmingly to approve the change. But the FDA rejected its recommendation, a highly unusual and controversial decision in which Hager, The Nation has learned, played a key role. Hager's reappointment to the committee, which does not require Congressional approval, is expected this June, but Bush's nomination of Dr. Lester Crawford as FDA director has been bogged down in controversy over the issue of emergency contraception. Crawford was acting director throughout the Plan B debacle, and Senate Democrats, led by Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray, are holding up his nomination until the agency revisits its decision about going over the counter with the pill.


From Truthout, William Rivers Pitt's "One of These Days:"

So the phone rings and I answered it while trying to navigate Memorial Drive in Cambridge - yes, at that moment I was the jerk on his cell phone who almost kills you with his car - and on the line is a producer from MSNBC who wanted me on the Connie Chung show. Hot damn, I thought. This is getting serious. The producer wanted me on the show to talk about Hans Blix and the weapons inspections taking place in Iraq. Great, I said. Yeah, she went on, we want you to talk about how the inspectors are doing a really bad job.
So picture this moment. There I was, trying to drive down one of the worst roads in Cambridge with a cell phone the size of a gallon of milk stuck to my ear, and I have this MSNBC producer telling me that if I go on the show, I have to dump all over the inspectors who at that time had been in-country about a week. Coincidentally, that was exactly the same line of rhetoric being pushed by the White House at exactly that time. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless, and I'm lucky me, the car and the giant cell phone didn't wind up in the Charles River.
I asked her if she knew who she was talking to. She didn't understand. My book, I told her, says there are no weapons of mass destruction and therefore no reason to go to war there. I'm the last person on the planet, therefore, who is going to haul water for the idea that there are weapons in Iraq. Furthermore, I said, I don't know where you get off trying to gin up resentment against the inspectors. They just got there, and if they can finish their work without getting derailed by nonsense like this, it'll hopefully keep a lot of people from getting killed. The MSNBC producer laughed quietly - that's the part I will never forget, how she laughed - and hung up.
For me, that's it in a nutshell. That's what ails us as a nation. The corporate media does not report the news anymore. They create consensus, they manufacture the common fictions under which we are expected to live. With the TV media, this behavior is all the more insidious because TV reaches everyone.

From Common Dreams, Justin Quinn's "Anti-Bush Protesters Plan Lawsuit Over Arrests:"

Lawyers representing "The Smoketown Six" are scheduled to announce today the filing of a federal civil rights lawsuit against law enforcement agents who arrested the protesters during a visit by President Bush to East Lampeter Township earlier this year.
A press conference concerning the lawsuit is expected to be held this morning in Philadelphia.
The lawsuit alleges that the demonstrators' right to free speech was violated after police arrested them for stripping down to thong underwear and piling on top of each other in an attempt to re-enact a photograph from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.
The protesters were taken into custody minutes before the president's tour bus passed through Smoketown in July. They later were charged with disorderly conduct.

From AlterNet, Bruce Schneier's "National Insecurity Cards:"

As a security technologist, I regularly encounter people who say the United States should adopt a national ID card. How could such a program not make us more secure, they ask?
The suggestion, when it's made by a thoughtful civic-minded person like Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times, often takes on a tone that is regretful and ambivalent: Yes, indeed, the card would be a minor invasion of our privacy, and undoubtedly it would add to the growing list of interruptions and delays we encounter every day; but we live in dangerous times, we live in a new world ... .
It all sounds so reasonable, but there's a lot to disagree with in such an attitude.
The potential privacy encroachments of an ID card system are far from minor. And the interruptions and delays caused by incessant ID checks could easily proliferate into a persistent traffic jam in office lobbies and airports and hospital waiting rooms and shopping malls.
But my primary objection isn't the totalitarian potential of national IDs, nor the likelihood that they'll create a whole immense new class of social and economic dislocations. Nor is it the opportunities they will create for colossal boondoggles by government contractors. My objection to the national ID card, at least for the purposes of this essay, is much simpler.
It won't work. It won't make us more secure.
In fact, everything I've learned about security over the last 20 years tells me that once it is put in place, a national ID card program will actually make us less secure.

From Yahoo News, the Associated Press' "Critics Ask Congress to Temper Patriot Act" by Jesse J. Holland:

Sens. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told the Senate that while they cannot show any specific abuses, the anti-terrorism law is written in a way that could allow abuses.
"Our law cannot be written for the best and the brightest. They must also anticipate enforcement from the worst and the weakest," said Craig, who is pushing a bill with Durbin that would scale back some of the Patriot Act's powers.
Critics of the law want Congress to pass the SAFE Act to limit the Patriot Act in several ways, including requiring government officials to inform suspects about the "sneak and peek" searches within seven days if a judge does not intervene. The current law does not specify when the government has to inform suspects about the secret search.

Tori sent a quote from a BuzzFlash interview that apparently went up yesterday but I can't find it on the site. When I do find it, we'll highlight it.

We will note, quickly because I'm running late this morning, that at Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Rebecca's been addressing the issue of the polio outbreaks. Click here and here to read her commentaries.

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

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