March 2007 Archives
You know, it's not every day that a guy gets to start off a blog entry by saying, "Well, so I just got off the phone with John and Teresa Kerry, and this is what they said to tell you..."
But I did in fact just get off the phone with John and Teresa Kerry, and this is what they said to tell you (paraphrased into my own words, of course, I can only scribble notes with a phone held to my ear so fast...)
(Our friend Lori Perdue was arrested on Friday for disrupting Congress. She wrote this explanation/description/analysis of the day and we publish it here in order to have a dialogue about such actions.)
I am, in general, a law-abiding citizen. I pay my taxes. I use my turn signals. I show respect for law enforcement officers, too much sometimes, according to Medea (Benjamin). I am a realistic person and an idealistic soul. The combination makes for an interesting perspective while working on the Hill.
I have been in many, many congressional hearings in the past several months. And yes, I have acted up, spoken up, been moved to stand up in protest, been removed and threatened with arrest.
Lori, after the Code Pink Slip action at the Mayflower Hotel last month
I have confronted legislators in hallways, following press conferences, in their offices, at events and on the streets of D.C. I have lobbied, monitored, and marched into the teeth of opposition. It is true, I have pushed the envelope and been pushed across the line and onto the floors of the House office buildings. That must be expected when one is working with likes of revolutionaries Medea Benjamin and Gael Murphy. I have not, however, been arrested… before Friday, March 23.
Civil disobedience has been something I have supported, and advocated. It is a valuable tool for change in our society, a vital part of Democracy. But I have made a point in many conversations to stress that it would take a very clear issue to motivate me to join the ranks of the activists who so willingly lay their bodies, records and pocketbooks on the line to emphasize a point to their government. Last week, I proudly, but with an overwhelming sadness, added my name to the list of those whose life stories include defying rules and laws to shed light on injustice and express dissent.
Lori, before going into the House chambers, photo: Tyler Westbrook
I spent early Friday morning on the sidewalk between the House office buildings and the Capitol lobbying Members going to and from the Democratic Caucus meeting, stressing that if they buy this war, by funding it, they will own it and will be held responsible for the outcome. I won’t say the effort was wasted, because the experience hardened my resolve. When Members who greeted me on their way to the Caucus meeting wouldn’t look me in the eye upon their return, I understood that our battle for de-funding was facing defeat at the hands of the Democratic leadership. The reality of the betrayal was stark, but not startling.
Move On had ensured that the staunch attitude of “No more money for War” from the Peace Movement contingent was muddled with an invalid poll and millions of dollars applied to pushing Dems to vote for the Supplemental and its millions for programs unrelated to ending the war. The tears started to flow freely when a Democrat finally looked at me, standing on the sidewalk with a poster of an American soldier carrying a dead Iraqi child, and said, “There’s nothing we can do about it. They are going to get their votes. Thank you for trying. Don’t stop.”
After working so hard, for so many weeks, with so many people, to pressure Congressional Democrats to vote “NO” on the Iraq War Supplemental, or for Democrats of principal to support the Lee Amendment that would fund only the safe and orderly withdrawal of troops, I felt I had no choice but to ensure that a voice of dissent was heard in the House.
I entered the Capitol building with Marine Mom Tina Richards, Military Families Speak Out co-founder Nancy Lessin, and two other members of MFSO. I was wearing black, clearly marked with Code Pink – Women for Peace, with stage blood on my hands and face. We waited in line, passed through security, waited inside the Capitol and were finally admitted to the House Gallery. Tina and I were seated in the front row, along the rail, directly behind the Democrats. As Speaker Pelosi addressed Congress Tina produced a photo of her Son, Cloy, bravely held it in front of her face and refused to put it away. She wanted to remind Congress, many of whom had met with her in the previous weeks, that her son could be recalled to active duty and deployed to Iraq, for the third time, if they funded the Supplemental. She was escorted out of the gallery by four plain clothes Capitol Police officers and removed from the building. They did not want to arrest her, told her so, and showed regret at her plight and were kind to her as they ejected her.
As the Speaker wrapped up her address by twisting the Peace Movement’s talking points to her purpose, making it seem as if the interests of American and International Peace Groups were truly being served by the passing of this bill, I felt physically ill. Pelosi was co-opting our truth and besmirching it with her partisan spin. The feeling of betrayal was overwhelming and my heart started to pound with an outrage that rivaled that of the dismay and anger I felt over “Shock and Awe”.
Congress quickly moved for a voice vote on the bill. When the applause faded and legislators moved to cast their electronic votes for the record I recognized that my time had arrived. I quickly stood, held my bloody hands in the air and shouted, “Don’t buy this war.” I was grabbed by the Capitol Officer who had stationed himself next to me, expecting just this type of disturbance, and pulled into the aisle. I continued, “You’re buying it and you own it!” Four more officers surrounded me and lifted me by my elbows up the stairs as I shouted, “Troops Home Now! Troops Home Now! Troops Home Now!” as they carried me from the Gallery. Another Activist, Tighe Barry, picked up the cry from another area in the Gallery as they dragged me out, sustaining the dissent for a few more moments. We were both arrested, searched, cuffed and taken away by police quite efficiently and without violence.
Looking back, I realize that our actions did not change the way the votes fell, but the spirit of true change was recognized in the Capitol. Pelosi and the Blue Dogs got what they wanted legislatively. They got their money, but they also got the message that the cost was much greater than 100 billion dollars. The true cost will be paid in blood and tears. They did not, however, get it quietly, floating their political maneuvering under the radar. Tighe and I made sure they and everyone in the Gallery and maybe those watching at home on C-Span realized that there are those in the public who disagree, that there are Americans that don’t believe that more money for war is supporting the troops. I truly hope that all members of Congress understand that we will continue to mourn and dissent even in the House Chambers, and now in the Senate, until they act responsibly to Bring our Troops Home Now.
Lori Perdue is a native of Indiana, mother of two teenagers, a United States Air Force Veteran and is officially affiliated with Code Pink – Women for Peace, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out. She has been a full-time Peace Activist for two years.
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
- Thomas Paine
TIME thinks its readers are stupid. Really, it's the only explanation I can think of for this nonsense.
Exhibit A: TIME's cover for the
United States this week
Exhibit B: TIME's cover for the
rest of the universe this week
Now I ask you, during the week in which our members of Congress are voting on essential funding for the war in Afghanistan, which cover story do you think is more important for Americans to read? The case FOR teaching the Bible in school, or the real story about the Taliban in Afghanistan?
(And as a side note, what business does TIME magazine have pimping the teaching of the Bible in public schools? If we teach the Bible in public schools, are we going to be teaching the Qu'ran, too? The Torah? And who decides how these are taught?)
As you can see from just the few questions in parenthesis above, the discussion of teaching the Bible in school can be an interesting one. However, in terms of critical importance to both the immediate and long term future of America in the world, when it comes to the editorial choice of which story is more important to US readership --
Should a major news magazine either cover (a) Making the case for teaching the Bible in schools, or cover (b) The truth about the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan?
It seems obvious to me that choosing (a) over (b) is not only stupid, but a dangerous suppression of vital information. The Editor of TIME should be called upon to explain his choice.
If you would like to write to the Editor of Time Magazine, Rick Stengel, their US e-mail address is letters@time.com Please do not send attachments. Their fax number is 1-212-522-8949. Or you can send your letter to: TIME Magazine Letters, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020. Letters should include the writer's full name, address and home telephone and may be edited for purposes of clarity and space.
We would love it if you would share any letter you write with us in the comments section below.
TIME magazine thinks we are stupid. Let's show them just how wrong they are.
"In a complex world, you need TV news that's faster... harder... scarier... all-knowing."
With those bold words, satirical website The Onion launched its latest campaign to put only the finest fake news into the hands of web users everywhere: the streaming vidcast-based Onion News Network.
According to their website, "The Onion News Network has set the standard for globe-encompassing 24-hour television news since it was founded in December, 1892. The network boasts channels in 171 languages and can be viewed in 4.2 billion households in 811 countries." With a strictly fact-based approach like that, they're bound to be at least as fair and balanced as Faux News already is.
The ONN service was officially launched only this morning, so there are just a few of their tongue-in-cheek parodies of the typical 24-hour cable news show segments on their website so far. The Onion plans to add more video clips to the site at the rate of two per week, and they encourage viewers to embed the growing list of feeds in their own web pages much the same way that YouTube does.
The production quality of the ONN videos available so far is quite high across the board. The writing is somewhat less consistent, but at its best it is wickedly funny stuff. Hard-core MSM critics like the people who read and post here at the Democracy Cell Project ought to have a field day with The Onion News Network's satiric fake-news videos. After all, with timely stories like this to choose from, what's not to like?
Yesterday I was at a protest in West Bloomfield. The GOP held a fundraising event here with Karl Rove as their headliner and with WDIV/Channel Four's Detroit weather forecaster Chuck Gaidicka as their MC.
Though the billings sent out included grand headlines featuring their on-air personality's name and status as the host for MC'ing the event, Channel Four felt there was no conflict of interest problem since they brought a camera outside to shoot footage of the protesters. "He's a private citizen and he's there as a private citizen," they said.
(In the meantime, they videotaped both inside the event and outside. What do you think, does Gaidicka's actions as an MC and the fundraisers' using his name and status as a local news celebrity to promote the event equate to private citizen activities, or does it cross ethical lines as far as WDIV's coverage of the event is concerned?)
As the day went on, the protest began with about 20 people who gathered in the parking lot across the road about 90 minutes early. The group crossed the street to the Shenandoah Country Club, where the organizers staked out the area where we would be allowed to protest and where not surprisingly protesters would be kept at least 500 feet away from the Evil One -- Karl Rove.
The organizers had prepared some very well designed signs that we inserted in the ground along the 1000 feet leading up to the Country Club's driveway. The signs combined, read, "Oakland Country GOP, SHAME ON YOU! Ordinary Citizens must testify UNDER OATH. Make Karl Rove testify under oath..." (The organizers have posted albums of the event here.)
As the rally continued, numerous people honked horns, flipped us the peace sign, and many even pulled their cars over into a nearby lot and joined us. So what started out as a couple of dozen protesting Rove's speach and the GOP fundraiser ended up being at least 100 people and likely more, too!
Yep, it's that time of year again -- March Madness, when the playoff process winnows down the pack to a final few vying for the big win.
Only in this case, we're not talking about college basketball playoffs. We're talking about something more important than a mere spectator sport.
We're talking about the real deal here, the ultimate game, where who wins and who loses can affect the lives of millions of people for years to come.
We're talking about a game called politics.
You may recall that right before the '06 elections, a certain senator from Massachusetts wanted to use his powerful fundraising abilities to help worthy Democratic candidates win in close races for vulnerable seats.
The goal was to raise large amounts of cash for those candidates to use for extra advertising and other expenses in the final days of the campaign season. The problem was selecting which candidates would be best able to put the funds to use.
The senator's staffers came up with a novel way to pick the final recipients. They put together a "Three for the Buzzer" program, in which a small group of candidates would be listed on his website and supporters would be urged to go there and vote for their own favorite three of the lot.
Not only did that build a lot of buzz for the candidates who were in the running, it also got a lot of people engaged in the process who would otherwise have been passive observers at best.
The "Three for the Buzzer" program was a big success. Response was high among the netroots audience, and the funds raised were put to good use by candidates who had the largest base of voters cheering them on.
That innovative concept worked so well last fall, in fact, that the senator and his staff are doing something very much like it again this weekend... and they want to hear from you.
They're calling it March Madness this time. And as you can see, the playoffs metaphor is quite apt:
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was impossible and probably pointless to do crowd estimates in Seattle over the three-day weekend. There were protest rallies April 18 and 19, peace vigils in a number of neighborhoods the next day, and an event with a popular Congressman, all competing for attendance and support.
What I did was try make the rounds to feeder rallies that eventually fed into a master rally at the Federal Building. I saw a mix of church, political and neighborhood organizations as well as those devoted to issues such as the environment, human rights and labor. There was noticeable inclusion of those all along the age spectrum, range of incomes, race and ethnicity and both civilian and military (past and present). I also overheard police and bus drivers talking about chances for overtime, news reports about traffic congestion related to protests and I saw some local media and a couple of helicopters overhead. So I guess for a work day, it was a good representation.
All the same, it's a damn shame to commemorate going into our 5th year of a needless war. I read earlier today in our local newspaper that "containing" Saddam with flyovers and weapons inspections would have cost 1/10th as much as this war. The financial cost is almost unfathomable, but the human cost is even more so.
From Eric Zorn's weblog on the Chicago Tribune website comes this poignant reminder of the human cost of the neocons' illegal and immoral war for oil in the Middle East:
Soldier's dad tells Bush, 'This war is wrong'
The two-page letter is signed from the “proud father of a fallen soldier.”
A little more than six weeks ago, his soul a cauldron of grief and rage, Richard Landeck, 56, of Wheaton addressed and mailed it to President Bush.
And since he’s yet to receive an acknowledgment or reply, he asked me if I’d help get his message out.
“My voice, and that of many other frustrated Americans is not being heard,” he said.
It’s the least I can do, I replied.
“My son was killed in Iraq on February 2, 2007,” says the letter. “His name is Captain Kevin Landeck….
“He was killed while riding in a Humvee by a roadside bomb just south of Baghdad. He has a loving mother, a loving father and loving sister. You took him away from us.”
The letter adds that Kevin Landeck, 26, a Wheaton Warrenville South High School and Purdue University graduate, had been married for 17 months and was very proud to be serving his country.
But “the message he continued to send to me was that of incompetence,” Landeck’s letter says. “Incompetence by you, (Vice President Richard) Cheney and (former defense secretary Donald) Rumsfeld. Incompetence by some of his commanders as well as the overall strategy of your decisions.
“When I asked him about what he thought about your decision to `surge’ more troops to Baghdad, he told me, `until the Iraqis pick up the ball we are going to get cut to shreds. It doesn’t matter how many troops Bush sends, nothing has been addressed to solve the problem he started,’” says Landeck’s letter.
This is a reasonably close paraphrase of an e-mail Kevin Landeck sent to his parents on Jan. 19, a short note signed “live from the (excrement) show” that referred to the war strategy as “senseless.”
[...]
Richard Landeck and his wife Vicki have never been active in politics, they told me as I sat with them around their kitchen table Sunday night in the Stonehedge subdivision in the heart of DuPage County. He’s a sales rep. She’s a dental hygienist. Their other child, Jennifer, 23, is an actress who also works part-time at the nearby golf course.
As the war in Iraq enters its 5th year, look for families like the Landecks to become the face of the anti-war movement: Archtypal middle Americans who can no longer respond with platitudinous faith in our leaders to the persistent waste –-- a word Richard Landeck does not shy from –- of the lives of our young men and women in Iraq.
Saturday, they went to nearby Bloomingdale to join in a peace rally, their first.
What Eric Zorn did with his Chicago Tribune column, we can all do with this and the other blogs we participate in. Let's make sure the word gets out about Richard Landeck's letter to President Bush -- because, sadly, there are a lot more grieving families like the Landecks out there, and more are being added every day we let the White House keep on making brave men and women die for a lie in Iraq.
The full text of Mr. Landeck's letter follows; a memorial guestbook for his fallen son Captain Kevin Landeck has also been set up on the Chicago Tribune's site here if you would like to add your voice to those sharing in his family's loss.
Four years in and counting.
Over the last few days, anti-war actions have been taking place all over America (and all over the world) in acknowledgment of the fourth anniversary of the Bush administration's launching an illegal, immoral war of conquest in Iraq.
We-the-People seem to be rising up everywhere and demanding that our badly misused troops be brought home safely and that the neokonzertruppens' disastrous military adventure for profit in the Middle East be stopped NOW.
Sure, there were large and widely-publicized protest gatherings on the Mall in Washington on Saturday. Aren't there always? That's certainly the primary place for activists to see and be seen, donchaknow. But on Saturday and Sunday, and still today, there are also plenty of equally impassioned anti-war rallies being held in lots of other places outside the Beltway as well.
And not just in big fancy places like New York City and San Francisco and Seattle, either. But also -- and, arguably, much more significantly -- out in the hinterlands, in flyover country where people don't generally make that much noise about this sort of thing unless some sort of major sea change is taking place. No more fife-and-drum parades down Main Street -- now they're marching to the beat of a different kind of drummer in between the coasts.
Our friend Lane Anderson, a Vietnam veteran and Vet for Peace, writes to us from El Salvador:
Yesterday and today we made the pilgrimage to El Paisnal, the home of Father Rutilio Grande, the first of the Catholic priests killed by US-trained death squads. Father Rutilio was killed in 1977 and his assassination caused the awakening of his friend Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was in turn assassinated. The liberation theology embraced by Father Rutilio and Archbishop Romero led to further killings and President Carter´s suspension of military aid and training for the Salvadoran government and its military. This in turn led to peace negotiations which redistributed some land to the peasants and rebels.
The tendency of the powerful and greedy to anticipate success through violence is their flaw. What if they had not killed the priests? Would the US have withdrawn aid?
Where is St. Patrick now that we need him?
One of the legendary saint's big claims to fame -- other than eventually becoming the nominal excuse for what a friend of mine once called "Mardi Gras for red-haired people with freckles," of course -- is that he is said to have chased all the snakes out of Ireland way back when.
Too bad he's not around today, because we could sure use somebody to chase all the snakes out of Washington. Our own national Babylon-on-the-Potomac is heavily over-infested with them these days, too.
Snakes to the left of us, snakes to the right of us. You can't cross the Mall in D.C. anymore without stepping over (or, preferably, on) some scaly serpent. You can't hit a K Street lobbyist with a wad of hundreds without staring some spineless viper right in the eyes.
And if you happen to work for the VP's office or the DOJ, well, you'll have to look straight up just to watch one of those nasty aspies slither on by over your head. The place really is crawling with snakes, especially after the last six years or so. Those nine guys in the black robes couldn't figure out how to count votes, but they were still adders anyway.
Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes? We hate snakes.
As AfterDowningStreet.org's David Swanson reports this morning:
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: "Impeachment May Well Be the Only Remedy"
Remarks on the floor of the U.S. House, March 15, 2007
www.kucinich.usThis House cannot avoid its Constitutionally authorized responsibility to restrain the abuse of Executive power.
The Administration has been preparing for an aggressive war against Iran. There is no solid, direct evidence that Iran has the intention of attacking the United States or its allies.
The US is a signatory to the UN Charter, a constituent treaty among the nations of the world. Article II, Section 4 of the UN Charter states, "all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. . ." Even the threat of a war of aggression is illegal.
Article VI of the US Constitution makes such treaties the Supreme Law of the Land. This Administration, has openly threatened aggression against Iran in violation of the US Constitution and the UN Charter.
This week the House Appropriations committee removed language from the Iraq war funding bill requiring the Administration, under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, to seek permission before it launched an attack against Iran.
Since war with Iran is an option of this Administration and since such war is patently illegal, then impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran.
Hmm. The MSM is reporting that the legislative branch is finally growing a backbone.
And it's about damn time, too.
WHITE HOUSE CRISES SHOW NEW ACCOUNTABILITY
Bush faces opposition Congress with subpoena powerFor the first time since taking office, Bush confronts political furors on multiple fronts and an opposition Congress armed with the subpoena power to investigate them.
The response to the dispute over dismissed federal prosecutors underscores the inexperience of a White House accustomed to having its own party in control on Capitol Hill. After first brushing aside suggestions from a Congress that had been reluctant to exercise oversight for the last six years that the firings may have been improper, officials then sought to minimize White House involvement in the mass ouster. Tuesday's release of e-mails documenting the role of key administration figures in the decision to dismiss the prosecutors provoked outrage on both sides of the aisle.
In the past, questions about its actions might have died down without the internal administration e-mails being made public. Now the White House is in the position of explaining why it has repeatedly changed its story.
Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Democrats will not let Bush brush aside controversies. "This is going to be a rockier year for the White House because every time there is a perceived mistake, they can fire up an investigation," he said. "It puts the White House on the defensive."
We at the DCP have gotten used to reading (and writing and a rhythymic tic) about peace marches and anti-war rallies being held on or near Capitol Hill, usually aided and abetted by Karen Bradley and her Code Pink compadres.
DiAnne Grieser keeps us posted on the Left Coast progressive movement and anti-administration events being held in Seattle as well. So when we see a new blog entry about peace and protests, those are usually the first things that come to mind.
But there are other kinds of peaceful protests and advocacy actions, too. Here's one example of the best kind of causes and the best kind of people at work outside the anti-war agenda, from a live-blog diary posted this morning by karendc at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/13/92630/3401:
From the online Iranian news and culture reporting website Persian Journal:
Iranian defector may hold catalyst for war
Mar 11, 2007An Iranian defense official who reportedly defected to the West last week may be in possession of evidence that could be used justify military action against Iran.
Former Iranian deputy defense minister Ali Rez Asgari was secreted away from Turkey to an undisclosed location in Europe by Western officials.
This after he informed American officials several weeks earlier that he wished to defect and provide assistance in bringing down those running his country.
According to a London-based Arabic newspaper, Asgari was in possession of documents definitively linking the Iranian regime to the actions of Lebanon's Hizb'allah, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the two main insurgency forces in Iraq -- the Mahdi Army and the Badr Corps.
Asgari was also well acquainted with Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, as well as Tehran's preparations for possible military conflict with the US.
If the evidence -- particularly regarding Iran's role in Iraq's instability -- is verifiable, it could be enough to prompt Washington to begin putting war preparations in motion.
Two of the poems Lori read at Busboys and Poets last night resonated with me; I hope you appreciate them as well. -- Karen
Driven 9/25/06
One handed freestyle keyboarding and talking on two cell phones at once, she is driven, on a mission.
She catches my eye.
The buttons on her jacket are mis-aligned, making her collar jump up on one side.
She is unaware of her visage, she is driven, on a mission.
She hangs up the phone in her hand and places it on the table beside her computer,
Seamlessly sliding into another conversation, another gear, another thought process, talking into the phone balanced in the crook of her neck.
She squints at the screen of the laptop in front of her, clicks on something, passes on the retrieved information to whomever exists on the end of the sound wave, and signs off.
Letting the phone slip from her shoulder to her waiting hand, she ends the call with a practiced thumb and the slightest of glances at the tiny screen on the face of the device, and expertly drops the phone into the unfastened pocket of the ill-buttoned denim jacket.
From click to click she flows.
To the computer from the phone she goes.
Both hands now on the keyboard she changes focus again, pouring her energy, without pause into the document in front of her.
I shake my head, trying to suppress an involuntary giggle that wants to bubble up through the uncontrollable grin on my face.
She is driven, on a mission, with a vision.
My motion, my vibe, my giggle stifled to a sigh, something catches her eye.
And she smiles, realizing that she was caught multitasking,
It is the work of Peace and she is basking
In doing good things without asking.
She is building bridges, herding cats, putting out fires
And raising a voice of truth above the rumble of liars.
She types through the grin, which is deservedly wry
Her steady forward pace nullifies the march of time
Promoting change, improving people’s lives
She is driven, on a mission
A phone rings, she again slips into one handed freestyle keyboarding and with a push of a button she is communicating on two fronts at once, once more.
And the smile leaves her lips, but not her eyes.
The Moon-owned Washington Times, which no one in his/er correct mind would ever call a left-wing or even a centrist newspaper, published this op-ed piece by Wade Sanders this morning.
Key point: you don't have to be a bleeding heart liberal to know that Sam Fox should not, repeat *not*, be confirmed by the Senate to a plum job as ambassador to Belgium -- no matter what his good buddy Heckuva-Job-Bushie thinks.
Please feel free to contact your favorite senators and remind them that dishonest fat-cat greedheads like Sam Fox should never be rewarded by being handed cushy gigs that they are not even remotely qualified for -- especially this particular dishonest fat-cat greedhead.
(FYI's: Sanders is former deputy assistant secretary of the Navy. Former secretary of the Navy Jim Webb has stated that he will under no circumstances vote to confirm Sam Fox. Fox's nomination is currently on hold but is still pending a confirmation vote at some point.)
As the skipper of a Swift Boat during the Vietnam War, I recently watched with interest as Sam Fox, a Missouri multimillionaire, small-talked his way through a confirmation hearing on his nomination to be the United States ambassador to Belgium. ... I have no personal interest in Belgium, but one feature on Mr. Fox's long list of support for all things Republican caught my attention: "Foxy," as President Bush affectionately calls him, had donated $50,000 to the distasteful smear machine known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth during the 2004 election.
Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but one of the lessons drilled into me by the military and preserved through the memory of friends who were lucky enough to come home from Vietnam alive, is that truth matters above all else. And as a military man, it doesn't matter much who is being attacked -- John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry, or Jack Murtha -- I just don't believe that assaults on the military records of veterans belong in our politics. Nor do I believe that those who finance smears of decorated Vietnam veterans deserve to represent America on the world stage.
[snip]
So I read with great interest the hoopla over Mr. Fox's confirmation hearing. Given the long history of campaign contributions that Mr. Fox has spread around, it's no surprise that he had strong support from the Bush administration. Sure, "Foxy" lacks any background whatsoever in Belgium -- he can neither speak the language nor provide any hint of knowledge about the country, its culture, its people or its government. His background includes buying companies and making money -- not diplomacy.
[snip]
Make no mistake: I remember. Mr. Fox had helped bankroll one of the nastiest, dirtiest negative campaign ads of the entire 2004 presidential campaign, if not in presidential history. But it was more than that. It was personal to me. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth sullied the reputation of one of the Navy's bravest, most dedicated fighting forces. Again and again I see the word "Swiftboating" used as a pejorative -- not the valiant, honorable term it was nearly 40 years ago when young men gave their lives on the Mekong Delta.
[snip]
Those of us who are real swift boaters know something about judgment and responsibility for our decisions. We live with the consequences of war every day. All decisions have consequences -- and so should Mr. Fox's decision in 2004. The Senate must reject Mr. Fox. We need to hold our public officials to the highest standards of integrity, judgment and honesty, and we need to honor the values that the Navy taught young men decades ago.
One thing that we all agree on quite strongly here at the DCP is that most of what we read and hear from the various mainstream news media sources is bogus to some extent -- incomplete, inaccurate, in many cases biased.
How can we tell when we're being told the truth and when we're being misled or lied to? How do we know who we can count on to tell us the truth and who we can safely assume is blowing smoke at us? How can we tell the difference between good journalism and bad?
It's difficult to separate the news wheat from the spin chaff, because every time we look at a new article or listen to a new story we have to keep asking ourselves the same questions time after time:
Is this a good story?
Is it informative?
Is it fair?
Is it well-sourced?
Does it show the "big picture"?
Can we trust the publisher of this story?
That's a time-consuming set of mental hoops to jump to every time we see a headline or hear a lead-in to another piece of news. If the answer to all or most of those questions is "yes", then we don't want to miss out on exploring and learning from the story in question. If the answer to all or most of those questions is "no", then we don't want to waste our time or bandwidth wading through it at all.
The Catch-22 here is that we can't answer those questions until we've already invested our effort in reading or listening to the story in the first place. If only there was some way to find out whether it meets those criteria before we bother experiencing it for ourselves. If only there was someone we could trust to hip us to what's good and warn us away from what's bad before we allow it to enter our own personal news streams.
If only there was some kind of news vetting service, someplace where we could go to get news stories that we can safely assume to be trustworthy, because we know that other people with the same cautious criteria to apply have checked them out for us and can vouch for their value. If only there was a reliable source on the web where we knew we could find news we could trust.
If only there was something like NewsTrust.
A couple of weeks ago in this space we reported on the stellar success of former vice-president Al Gore's book/film/dvd/lecture series/animated cartoon series/action figure/fashion line/video game/fully licensed promotional package combination called "An Inconvenient Truth." (Well, okay, so maybe he hasn't gotten all the way through that list yet. But he will.)
As we pointed out in that threader, thanks in part to Mr. Gore's work having gone box office boffo, environmental politics is the hottest new trend in Washington these days. Global warming: it's not just for science wonks any more. This ain't your grandfather's gas-guzzling old Mobil we're talking about here.
Suddenly it's a whole new solar-powered day. Big-business leaders are suddenly talking about fleet fuel standards in public again. Less-is-more minimalists are discovering that they're the hit of the parties. Conservatives are hugging ethanol corn the way liberals hug trees. Gee, who'd'a thunk it?
And to top it all off a formerly fuddy-duddy former vice president not only wins an Oscar for sticking to his guns and talking about what used to be political anathema, but looks like a shoo-in for winning a Nobel Peace prize over it, too. (When you consider that the last Washington insider to win a Nobel Peace prize was Henry Kissinger, the implicit irony of that is difficult to miss.)
So in these heady post-Gore days, everybody inside the Beltway is in a headlong bipartisan rush to prove that he or she is even more earth-friendly than the next pol. When it comes to cliquing along with the high-powered congressional chi-chi set, green is the new blue (and red).
But while most politicians these days are scrambling to produce some sort of bona fides to buttress their claims of having been environmentally-friendly all along, some of them don't have to scramble to do that -- they've been on the side of the green angels all along. John Kerry is one of the good guys in that regard. His wife Teresa Heinz Kerry is, too. And they've co-written a big new book together, so now they've even got the title page to prove it.
Just as well-crafted videos can inspire people on the internet, traditional street theater can do so in public spaces. Bill Moyer and Backbone Campaign from Vashon Island, WA do a very nice job of this, such the giant Backbone which went to the DNC convention and through the halls of Congress and which has visited the offices of major media.
On President's Day, the Backbone Campaign brought their public education in the guise of entertainment to the town square. Yesterday, on the anniversary of the US Constitution, they were at the Seattle Center, in the shadow of the Space Needle. This is a location where "the people" gather on weekends, ever since Elvis appeared there at the World's Fair in 1963. This weekend, I saw small conventions for jewelry makers, doll house enthusiasts and Bob the Builder fans around the center.
The Center House is an entertainment area in the middle of a food court where all these people and others tend to converge. On most weekends, there are stages and tables devoted to ethnic cultural events. It was all very well received as a family event, with t-shirt making, constitution signing and enjoyment of politically-themed music. I saw small children, in keeping with changes in technology, photographing the Constitution onto cell phone cameras.
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In the interstitials to be found between Art, Politics, and the Internets, a person keeps creating killer visual polemics and then posting them to the web. This is her latest effort:
And these are her reasons, in her own words:
A dictionary definition of the term "iconoclast" says that it refers to "someone who challenges or overturns traditional beliefs, customs, and values." By those standards, W. Leon Smith definitely chose the right name for the small-town Texas weekly newspaper he launched seven years ago.
You've probably never heard of Leon Smith, but the odds are pretty good that you've heard about his paper. The Iconoclast pole-vaulted into the national spotlight on September 29, 2004, when it had the audacity to endorse John Kerry for president.
The Iconoclast is based in tiny Crawford, Texas (pop. 705 as of the 2000 census, though that number has now grown due to an influx of new residents that include Cindy Sheehan and a certain individual by the name of George W. Bush.) And when The Iconoclast published its editorial endorsement titled "Kerry Will Restore American Dignity", the locals didn't take too kindly to what the paper had to say during the deeply divisive election cycle of 2004.
When news of a small-town Texas newspaper from Crawford endorsing a Democrat for president over the who bought a ranch there for photo-op purpses hit the wires, it went national in minutes and global in hours. Leon Smith's little small-town weekly newspaper, with a grand total of 920 copies sold each week by subscription and on the local newsstands, suddenly found itself in the center of a firestorm of epic proportions.
Local residents were up in arms. Subscriptions were canceled. All three newsstands in town refused to carry the newspaper any more. Most advertisers pulled their ads at once; those who didn't were boycotted. Hundreds of angry letters and emails poured into The Iconoclast's offices, threatening to overwhelm Smith and his three-person staff. (Some of those letters and emails threatened to do a lot worse than just overwhelm them.) Not everyone in town turned against Smith's paper; like the rest of the country at the time, Crawford was sharply divided. But the majority of residents in President Bush's adopted hometown were seriously disgruntled.
Smith's associate editor disassociated himself from the paper's endorsement of Kerry, but he and his other employees refused to back down. They expected to be driven out of business by the vitriolic anger of Crawford's citizens that resulted from the editorial statement they published that day in September. But a funny thing happened on the way to the bankruptcy court: bloggers came to The Iconoclast's rescue.
The room filled early last night at Politics and Prose. I had to fight off several elderly people to keep the seat open for Richard, who had decided to drive to meet me via West Virginia. He missed most of the talk.
Joe began by talking about the "carefully calibrated campaign" that the neo-cons have been working on for thirty years. He told us that his publisher and he had been discussing the Bush administration, and the publisher told him to take a new look at Sinclair Lewis' quickly executed book, It Can't Happen Here.
Joe did, and found it "eerie". Lewis wrote the book in four months, while he was drinking heavily, and at the behest of his wife, the journalist Dorothy Thompson, who had just been kicked out of Nazi Germany for championing the defense of a young Jew accused of assassinating a diplomat. The book sold over 200,000 copies and was turned into a play under the auspices of the WPA. Lewis even played the role of the Editor-Hero, Doremus Jessup, a few times. The book was almost made into a movie, but Italy and Germany threatened to ban all US-made films if it was made. Surprisingly, (hahaha) Hollywood folded.
Why did the book resonate with people at the time? Joe said people were concerned about fascism. Lewis also wanted to influence the 1936 elections; he was concerned that Huey Long was the type of character who would diminish democracy in the service of the powerful. Long was assassinated before the election, but readers got the comparison anyway.
In his book, Conason draws the comparisons between recent history and the events in the Lewis book, but it's not a literary treatise. Joe stands in a long tradition of muckrakers.
We here at the Democracy Cell Project don't campaign for particular candidates. We don't ask people for money to support particular causes. We don't take sides in any given battle between he-said-this and they-said-that. The basic rule of thumb here is:
"We don't have a dog in this fight."
That being said, though -- one part of our mission at the DCP is to educate, inform, activate, and empower the concept of a small-d-democratic citizenry. In the process, we sometimes point out incidents of spin, distortion, misinformation, and outright slanderous ad hominem attacks when we see that happening in the so-called Main Street Media, aka the MSM.
It's what we do. It's what we're here for.
The following is an example of that principle at work:
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