Diary of an Aging Protester

2003-06-26T18:24:00.000-04:00

Apparatchik
I will edit this later for accuracy since all I had was highlighters and no pencil when I saw this, but wanted to get in a quickie right away. As I was going to GSU's Atheletic Center on the shuttle from Tech this afternoon, I saw this incredible billboard across from CNN HQ which said (to paraphrase): Fox News does not pander to dictatorships, nor does it come out against our gov't. Fox News is for the American people.

I was pretty stunned but then again not really....

Yet for all of our demonizing of the USSR in the 1980s by right wingers, it's amazing how easy it is to see the similarities between the USA and USSR. Interrogating and imprisoning specific religious minorities and political dissenters, creating opps. for those with the 'right' ideology to be promoted, those with the wrong demoted or castigated, censoring the press and creating an apparatchik that protects those in power at all costs and benefits from it, dismantling regulations that are pro-citizen/gov't watchdog groups, and finding ways to export one's ideology through minor but very troublesome wars.

2003-06-24T21:12:00.000-04:00

more of "with us, against us"
recently my friend and colleague Chuck wrote a missive on his blog about his utter outrage at the House passing a bill that would end estate taxes in 2013 and thus increasing the deficit while decreasing monies for important programs for the needy (who also happen to be american citizen though it appears those in gov't don't remember that particular detail). Now it's my turn to be mad...(and FYI Chuck has a new blog address for those interested in reading his thoughts, screeds, and criticisms).

A news item broke yesterday that I wanted to ignore but today I just can't after reading Naomi Klein's biting piece in the Guardian about it and damn the imperious nature of the Bush clan is reaching new heights. It now seems that the Bush admin. and his sycophant Natsios who runs USAID can determine which NGOs get contracts based on whether they are with US (not saying anything the least bit critical of US occupation and attendant problems) or against US (doing what NGOs do, provide and dispense aid and act as watchdogs to gov'ts that interfere with that process). As Klein claims,

"The war on NGOs is being fought on two clear fronts. One buys the silence and complicity of mainstream humanitarian and religious groups by offering lucrative reconstruction contracts. The other marginalises and criminalises more independent-minded NGOs by claiming that their work is a threat to democracy. The US Agency for International Development (USaid) is in charge of handing out the carrots, while the American Enterprise Institute, the most powerful think-tank in Washington, is wielding the sticks."

Now, NGOs are not perfect; in fact, they have been criticized by many regional and national activists in 3rd world countries as doing exactly what the US gov't is now asking them to do--be imperial propangandists--in cahoots with certain ideologies that promote an agenda rather than distribute goods and services to those in need. So now that the US has made this policy official, do you not think that NGOs will not only be vulnerable to criticism but also to attack? many workers put their lives on the line as it is but to now have to face ire from people who may not think it is in their culture's best interest to take on US ideology, esp. in regions where that ideology is in serious cultural conflict, means that workers will be more endangered and the work they do will not get done because the US has decided they are an enemy of the state, oh excuse me, a threat to democracy.

So not to be a semantic nitpick, but the groups that do tow the line aren't really NGOs anymore, are they? Since as Klein muses, the N of NGO stands for Non as in Non Gov't Org. Instead they have graduated to an "arm of the gov't". So now they are AOGs. Sadly, as the last two years have shown, this admin will not stop in dismantling, changing, coercing, and bullying whomever and whatever it wants to get its own damn way. is this latest censorship not something that the former Soviet Union would do? How many more fronts are left for this dastardly admin. to occupy with its own cheap form of democracy? Buy one, get one free--just like at Kroger.

2003-06-24T16:47:00.000-04:00

In response to the Texas Defense of 6/22 - don't forget that Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly were from the stinkin' oil fields, too - growing up in a barren, sparsely populated part of Texas is a creative inspiration for some (those who turn to their inner resources to stay connected to humanity), and a good excuse for others (those who buy into the laziness of fitting into a stereotype rather than craft their own identity). This is true anywhere, but Texas is given to extremes - good and bad. It builds character in some people and distorts the character of others.

2003-06-23T10:39:00.000-04:00

A bit of Good News in a Grim Grim World
The Supreme Court has upheld the right to use affirmative action at the U. of Michigan law School. The 5-4 decision must be a shock to Bush & Co. who adamently came out against using race as a factor in admission. Sandra Day O'Connor (soon to retire) was the swing vote. The second case which was taken up by two white students who did not get into U of Michigan's undergrad program has been sent back to the Circuit Court because its use of a point system appears to be unconstituitional. In any case, there is some justice in the world. I'm always amazed by folks who sue universities over AA. It reeks of a privilege not known or known and thus exploited. I wonder why people don't question the AA that goes on in terms of wealth begetting wealth via the Ivy League system (which is private, I understand), but still you have idjits like Bush getting into Yale and Harvard based on his father's relation to these universities which I'm sure is bound up in donor funding as well as his position in public office.

2003-06-22T21:40:00.000-04:00

A Non-Violent Approach to Conflict in the Mideast
I was fortunate enough to see Sami Awad of the Holy Land Trust speak to a small group at the American Friends' House on Friday night. Sami started the Holy Land Trust in order to counter the growing violence between the Palestinians and Israelis by promoting a non-violent approach to resisting occupation. Sami definitely has his work cut out for him these days or rather since the 2nd intifada started. Some of the facts about the Palestinians' economic plight were stunning: 65% unemployed in the occupied territories, 80% rely on charity, hand-outs, etc. to just get by. Even more bone-chilling were his stories of trying to leave the territories to get to the us via israel. Since he has a US passport and is a citizen, you would think this wouldn't be a problem but the gestapo-style tactics of the IDF when he had already negotiated with the US embassy in Israel to leave were pretty disturbing. As were his descriptions of Bethlehem where he lives as being a prison since the Israelis have built a high wire fence with surveillance equipment around most of the city. Our tax dollars, of course, contribute to this internment. What Sami is trying to do is negotiate ways to bring Israelis and Palestinians together to fight violence on both sides. His work must be immensely depressing, esp. after viewing the last few weeks of violence in the aftermath of road map to peace talks but he seemed to think that there was hope, that really all one and one's community can do is continue to hope.

A lively discussion followed after his talk, particularly after a self-identified "leftie Jew" who had lived on a kibbutz and served in the IDF in the 70s claimed that Sami had not provided a balanced account of what was really going on. It seemed to me that his talk was focused on Palestine and the occupation but that he did condemn the violence and ineffectiveness of suicide bombers as much as he did the Israeli army. Many people attempted to counter his statements as did Sami himself, yet I got the feeling that this guy didn't want to argue or reason; he was adamant about being irrational. This idea of safe space just came to me in terms of finding places where people can listen rather than prod. This doesn't mean that speakers such as Sami shouldn't be questioned, and there were some questions that did try to get him to explain his ideas and methods more in depth and what success they could have in such a dire situation, but to pass judgement on someone's talk without really listening to what he had to say seemed really disingenuous and it seemed like the guy had come to the talk with some genuine interest and concern.

2003-06-22T20:35:00.000-04:00

In Defense of Texas
I know that the Dixie Chicks claimed that they were ashamed to be from Texas but I have to admit that having lived there for ten years, I claim it as a home and a place to go back to as well as a place to be proud of. Recently when I heard someone make a degrading comment once again about Texas, I countered his accusation of it being a conservative backwater by naming at least 4 Texans who have been instrumental in promoting a progressive political agenda--Ann Richards, governor when I moved there in 1991 (she too was an alcoholic but didn't go the route of crusader for Christ as yours truly) and unfortunately defeated in 1994 by Shrub, Molly Ivins, the political pundit, and her colleague, Jim Hightower. Lastly is the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan who I was fortunate enough to see speak at a Clinton-Gore rally at UT-austin back in 1992. BJ was the first African American woman to be voted in to Congress. She died a very premature death in 1996 from pneumonia. Jordan was one of the most thrilling orators I've ever heard--deep voiced and big boned, Jordan made the grass sway as we listened to her speak in the broiling May sun. I wish I could remember what she said but years later I do remember how she said it. It is extraordinary that someone like Jordan of the mellifluous voice could come from the same state as Georgy Porgy whose idea of effective prose is found in his common epithet "Big Dude" to any young man he meets which is supposedly what he called the son of Sami Al-Arian, the CS prof. at USF who's been taken away without any legal counsel since last fall, when he met Abdullah at a meeting with the Muslim community of Tampa.

My recent discovery of a website based in Austin, Bushwatch.com made me realize once again that to describe Texas as a conservative backwater is a bit off the mark--though events such as the lynching of James Byrd is testimony that reactionaries, racists, and fundamentally flawed righteous thinkers do live there. Bushwatch provides a great assortment of leading headline news from around the world, local and academic writers commentaries', cartoons, satire, and my favorite page Bushlexia.

"The true strength of America happens when a neighbor loves a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves." --George W. Bush, Elizabeth, N.J., June 16, 2003

And this one says it all:

"We ended the rule of one of history's worst tyrants, and in so doing, we not only freed the American people, we made our own people more secure."--George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas, May 3, 2003

So there you have it, the sublime (barbara jordan) and the ridiculous (GW). Couldn't get more stark of a contrast. As an antidote to the above comments, I implore you to go to the BJ webpage posted above and read her keynote at the 1976 Democratic Convention. And remember: GW grew up in the most remote area of Texas, a place dominated by stinky oil fields and vast stretches of land where one didn't have to think to much about communicating, nevermind even just thinking. Being so isolated from the world has definitely contributed to his inability to speak or listen and surely it must have influenced him to drink.

2003-06-22T20:15:00.000-04:00

Been a While
Well, I've decided to resurface in the blogosphere after a few weeks of inhabiting the disser-sphere. Unfortunately the disser-phere is occupied by a party of only one (all dissertators operate in their own private but parallel disser-sphere) which makes it a lonely and often debilitating writing process. Still it must get done. My third chapter is now behind me--informally known as the chapter from hell--emailed off to the committee and I've got 1.5 chapters to go. So hurrah on that note. I've realized that both my blogging and my tv watching has gone way down in the past few weeks. This could mean either I'm being incredibly productive with my time or simply being more creative with discovering new ways to waste time. Of course, painting my apt. took up most of last week. It looks fabulous, I must admit. And a big shout out to Kyle, Bryan, and Lindsey for jumpstarting that venture, buying me most of the paint and supplies, and rearranging my bedroom.

I've also taken some TO from even attempting to cover the various political and geo-political fronts that this admin. is attempting to unravel. It's ultimately too depressing to write about. Despite brave attempts by some of those in the know about the case of the missing WMD, no one really wants to pick up the ball and run it through the endposts. I guess because either Rumsfeld or Cheney will get a death squad after them or be the mastiff defensive ends waiting to pulp them into the ground. The latest report on the Iraq Fiasco--The Great Lie of the 21st C.-- is that on June 14 on Meet the Press former Gen. Wesley Clark claimed that Rumsfeld and Cheney were chomping at the bit to make a connection between Al-Queda and Iraq hours after the second jet flew into the Twin Towers. Sadly none of the major media outlets who rely on these sunday morning shows cared to make that big of a deal about this news and the story never broke like others have. I've heard a recent story that many service folks are leaving the armed forces in droves, having been scared off by the prospect of another war as well as being completely burned in this one. And a story in the AJC today--front page--reported a high rate of cancers are already occurring in Iraq from the depleted uranium used by the US to blow up tanks and other heavy artillery. What else? it seems we lose a soldier a day to violence, iraqi children lose limbs and lives from unexploded ordinance, and the mideast is blowing itself up on the roadmap to peace.

2003-06-02T15:20:00.000-04:00

Wigfield
I went to see Wigfield with Bryan on Saturday night. I met Bryan at one of the protests right before the war started. He has a fabulous Chihuahua named Margo who is a real darling. After the show, we went back to his place and Margo was jumping and barking all over the place but she only weighs 4 pounds. Then she stuck her head in my purse and turned my phone on. When I got home, I had this 2 minute message of a conversation between me, Bryan, and Kyle (Brian's b.f.). I guess she started my voice mail somehow. Weird and disturbing.

In any case, I thought Wigfield was really good. We sat in the front row which was okay except when Steve Colbert sat in front of us on a stool and we had to bend our necks back really far. The play came out of a book that the three co-wrote together about a mythical town called Wigfield that is about to be destroyed when the state decides to destroy the dam in order to get the salmon run flowing again. A writer goes out to capture small town life before it's extinguished and discovers a cast of characters that puts David Lynch's Twin Peaks to shame in terms of sordid, bizarre, and politically incorrect portrayals of white trash. Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert each take several different characters and the play is about a play that the writer is forced to write in order for the publishing co. to make more than enough money via a two for one deal. Because the play is occuring while in progress, the actors read from scripts and don't dress up in character but there is a changing set of photographs via a slide show that act as hilarious props to the already funny character portrayals. The play ends with a video re-enactment that the writer has produced of the dam exploding at a last bash party that the whole town celebrates.

What I liked most about the play was its undercutting of our current romance with small town life found in many tv shows, films, and radio shows like Lake Woebegone. Shows like the Gilmore Girls reveal how you can have all the excitement of the city without the ugliness, the violence, and scruffiness that comes with. The town in GG is all about people who've made it but opt for slowing down and getting away from city life and its various problems. The grossly inaccurate attempt to draw out the wonders of the small town community through various festivals, marathons, town hall meetings, etc. does not really get at the poverty, desperation, and plight of the rural working-class. Although Wigfield is not about making social statements at all, it does seem to take to bat Lake Wobegonitis's bourgeous attempt to gloss over the difficulties of making a living or of being different in small communities. with characters like Raven the transvestite stripper or Julian Childs, the fey man who does theatrical productions using rabbits. Of course, one can read the show as taking a potshot at the trashy white working-class who inhabit Wigfield as well--an easy target.

After the show, Bryan bought a copy of the book and we waited on line to get it signed by the three writers/performers. as we got closer to them, I started feeling really nervous and tried to stand as far away as possible from them when Bryan had them sign the book. Just as we were walking away from them, Amy S. looked at me and said, Wow, what a pretty dress. I must have blushed, I'm sure, and just smiled and said, thanks. Then Bryan got all chatty with her and she was talking to us and honestly I didn't hear a thing she said because my mind was buzzing that she'd complimented me. Wow!

2003-05-26T13:55:00.000-04:00

A Tale of Two Women
Naomi Klein's report about the difference in US admin and media's reaction to Jessica "I'm Going to be the subject of an ABC Monday Night Made for TV Movie" Lynch and Rachel Corrie in the Guardian makes clear how the press here distorts and emphasizes specific stories in order to placate any possibility of a critique against Israeli control and destruction of the occupied territories and to keep the flags waving since 9/11. The article also shows how gender is used to mastermind certain kinds of hero worship--woman as warrior--over others--woman as peace activist. It's interesting that we can view Jessica's narrative as a new one emerging in the theater of war that has traditionally been assigned to men, yet the woman warrior has become a common trope particularly among computer gamers; thus, Jessica becomes-the Lara Croft of the Iraq War. Yet sadly rampant sexual harrassment and violence against women in the military occurs on a frequent basis and is often silenced and rarely reprimanded.

We're on the Road Map to Nowhere...
Reading articles like Klein's, and seeing the blatant ways that the US media and the admin. condone Israel violence through silence and erasure, makes me think that this 'road map' is just an attempt by Bush to pander to Arab concerns, (because he has to--american lives are at stake in the Middle East and the US), yet his agenda is to get Jewish votes for the upcoming election, esp. if Leiberman is in the running, so eventually he'll end up paying lip service to Palestinians while making Israeli's concerns the main focus. Bush has been playing this same janus-faced card for 2 years now with other issues such as stem cell research. It's all about getting the votes rather than doing anything as sincere as making a stand on an issue. Then again I'm assuming that he can have any kind of opinion that is not informed by Al-Anon ideology.

I know I'm being grossly cynical but the agreement to the road map to peace among Israeli cabinet members was only agreed to with the qualification of looking into 14 areas of concern. This doesn't bode well, folks. I mean, the Israeli cabinet agreed to the road map on their terms (the road map is intended to be non-negotiable) which means it wasn't an agreement, but a begrudgement. Yes, the right wingers are pissed, but I don't see why. Sharon has already indicated that refugees will not be able to return to pre-1948 lands they once possessed, and that settlements will continue to be built that have already been planned...so I'm not really seeing what Israeli right wingers have to sacrifice other than a future where Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank could live with human dignity, self-respect, economic opportunities, and political representation as they do.

2003-05-23T13:26:00.000-04:00

I've been out of touch recently, trying to get some momentum going for the home stretch of the diss. and continuing to clean with Johnny on the Spot for $$$. However, dear readers, an urgent matter demands your attention as you probably already know. Below you'll find an email that my friend Anne Helwig sent me today about the attempt to deregulate media via legislation that's going through Congress in early June. My friend/colleague in arms Chuck who attended the town hall meeting at Emory U. has done a fine job reporting on some of the issues at stake and also in covers overall responses to the questions and concerns people in the audience had and the turn-out.

Our Democracy Needs Real News with Diverse Points of View: Stop Giant Media Corporations from Growing Bigger-and Serving Up More Bias, Mayhem & Infotainment
Just click on this link to send an e-mail (text below) to all five members of the Federal Communications Commission, urging them not to allow giant media corporations to grow larger.

If journalism provided us a healthy diet of balanced news-rather than an overdose of mayhem, fluff, and distortion-would we have been able to prevent America's invasion of Iraq? Would more people vote? Would our neighbors be less cynical and less fearful of each other? Would our democracy and collective spirit be stronger? We think so. Yet, if the Federal Communications Commission has its way, America's shameful "news" media will continue to undermine our democracy. On Monday, June 2, the FCC will vote on new rules allowing our nation's giant media conglomerates to grow even bigger by squashing the independent media outlets we have left. The new rules would allow a mammoth media corporation in one city to own eight radio stations, two major TV stations, and the largest daily newspaper. The news media is too powerful-and essential in our democracy-to be dominated by a few for-profit corporations. Tell the Federal Communications Commissioners not to approve this plan allowing further mergers by media conglomerates. Just click on the link below.

Then please tell anyone else you think agrees that journalism is the lifeblood of democracy by forwarding this link.

Sincerely,
Ben Cohen
President, TrueMajority.org
Co-Founder, Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream*

2003-05-13T10:41:00.000-04:00

Rumi, You Snake
An article in the Independent today discusses how internal fighting between state and defense depts. has resulted in continuing chaos in Iraq. A few choice tidbits emerged that reveal the complexity of jumpstarting democracy in a sanction-, war-ravaged country. One is that several hundred british and US officials are suffering from a stomach virus that has resulted in vomiting; two is that any time any foreign official goes out and about, he/she is protected by an army of Humvees, loaded down with machine guns, also HQ in Baghdad is a former Hussein residence that is far off the beaten path and a known site of terror. Third, more evidence to reveal how Rumi's lies are not an anomaly but in fact essential to how this admin orchestrates its manuevers in the dark.What I've termed Bush's Pack of Liars . While Rumi is full of bluster and pomp stateside, shoving it in everyone's face as to the beauty of his war plan, some officials in Iraq provide an alternative view. And for whatever reason, my own investment in unveiling the BS of this Supreme Ct. gov't, I tend to side with this version.
One source said: "You will never get anyone to admit this but the US Army was two divisions short for the numbers needed to secure the key sites because of Rumsfeld's philosophy of using uniquely light forces. If we had two more divisions now in Baghdad, and a bit beyond, these security problems would probably go away."

What level of hell do you think Rumi would get given his lust for power, desire for destruction, and advocation of violence?

2003-05-12T16:07:00.000-04:00

Eating Raoul
An op-ed written by Jay Bookman for the AJC on May 8th seems to bolster many of the reflections of Salaam Pax in his recent entries about the US occupation of Iraq.

While the president notes that "the transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort," administration officials admit that they don't have enough troops in Iraq to maintain order today, and talk in terms of reducing troop levels by 75 percent -- to roughly 30,000 -- by the fall..

While Pentagon officials acknowledge that our military manpower is stretched thin by Iraq and the demands of empire elsewhere, we obstinately refuse to ease that burden by inviting the United Nations to help in policing Iraq..

And while we boast with good reason about the high-tech weaponry fielded by our military, at last report the civilian Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance in Baghdad doesn't even have working telephones almost a month after we occupied the city.

We are, in other words, a half-hearted empire, pleased with the power and prestige it brings but unwilling to spend the money, time and manpower to manage it. And half-hearted empires have a very short life expectancy.

I didn't think that this admin had the salt to stand by its promises of supporting the growth of a liberated peoples, but to be so blatantly dishonest about one's intentions is on the level of duplicity that Saddam himself wouldn't even adhere to. What I'm saying is that Saddam's nastiness was never cloaked in the rhetoric of compassionate conservatism that this admin seems to use to bully its way into any political situation that will reap vast sums of rewards for the few, not the many. Yesterday I was deflated while speaking to my sister who for all her smarts has absorbed the condescending attitude that Rumsfeld has been promoting, the one that views Iraqis as infants who are taking their first baby steps into a bright new world called democracy. And I just thought she is representative of the 70% of these pollsters who support what this admin. has done. there is little ability to be critical because there is no reason, only acceptance. When I asked her about the WMDs not being found, she said, Oh I know. And I said, so we were lied to. Bush should be impeached like Clinton. And she said, What? Are you kidding? And I said, he lied to the American people. None of the sites mentioned have had any trace of weapons, and she said, Well, that's because Saddam had them dismantled when the war started. Now why would he dismantle them and not use them? It doesn't make sense. Or why do anything? the whole army seemed to go awol; I can't imagine they were spending time trying to cover up Saddam's evil doings. For what purpose would that serve? But gaps and fissures don't matter. Any possibility of Bush being duplicitous is defanged by the cowboy humor, the twelve step platitudes.

2003-05-09T22:30:00.000-04:00

St Angela--Patron Saint of Housecleaners
I am on a merlot buzz, trying to ward off the growing despair about getting up early tomorrow to grade 1102 essays for 6 hours by finishing off the last drops of a decent bottle of wine. Speaking of 6, Johnny and I cleaned 6 places today. One of them was a CNN headline news journalist. I'll be discreet and not mention his name but he does do entertainment news and is kinda cute. His apt. is not much to speak of. Small 1 BR on the 36th floor in Midtown. Excellent view, but the digs reflect a guy who doesn't spend a lot of time at home. While cleaning Mr. CNN's place, Johnny and I found ourselves discussing our mutual fondness for Bill Hemmer. when I had free cable in Houston and watched CNN incessantly starting with the 2000 election, moving through 9/11, war on terror, anthrax scare, etc. I grew to really like Bill Hemmer. He is so not my type but I do find him really sexy in a there must be something beneath all that uptightness way. During some of the protests against the war on iraq in March, we would inevitably end up at CNN headquarters, and I distinctly remember thinking: Oh my god, Bill Hemmer could be in that building. And: we now live in the same town. As if I'd run into him at my yoga studio, or walking in Piedmont Park.

Anyway, during this marathon cleaning session, Angela called to tell me she didn't have to have her wisdom tooth pulled and she wanted to celebrate. So she showed up a few minutes after I got home tonight with wine, food, and good cheer in hand. I took a shower and by the time I'd got into clean clothes, she'd whipped out a very decent dinner of take-out california rolls, calamari salad, green salad, and merlot. We indulged in some memory recall since we're more or less the same age and at some point I took out some photo albums and showed pics of ex-husband, recent ex-, friends, family, etc. turns out that she worked at one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco, Espemento, a great tapas bar on 23rd and Valencia. My friends Glenda and Jesse lived in the Mission for years right around the corner from Angela! Isn't that a trip?

The night turned out to be a good one. I could've just sprawled on the couch watching Shields and Brooks on Newshour and getting depressed about geopolitics and my sore lower back, but instead Angela came to save the day. Thank you, Angela!

2003-05-08T12:24:00.000-04:00

Salaam Pax is Back!
I'm happy to see Where's Raed? is up and running again though he's a bit more bitter sounding. His account of war time Baghdad offers interesting insights that no press accounts, even Robert Fisk, could cover. His despair over Iraqis looting, relief and anger about saddam's departure, the problems with dinars, the scary encounters with fedayeen and US soldiers hunting them down, and acquiring gas--which appears to be a life or death situation--as well as his constant reminder that war is hell and has indelibly left scars on him and his family/friends all attest to the power of blogging and its long term effects as a medium of testimonial. For a more indepth analysis, check out Chuck's blog entry.I'm glad he's well and blogging again.

2003-05-03T16:20:00.000-04:00

Another One Bites the Dust
Israeli soldiers killed another journalist in the occupied territories. One more in a series of devastating murders of both activists and journalists in the past few months. As reported in The Independent UK

Mr Miller is the third foreigner to be killed or seriously wounded in Rafah in recent weeks. Tom Hurndall, 21, a peace activist from north London, is still in a coma after being shot in the head by Israeli troops three weeks ago.Witnesses said that he was shot by an Israeli soldier stationed in a military watchtower as he stooped to pick up a Palestinian girl.

And an American, Rachel Corrie, 23, also a peace activist, was killed on 16 March when she was run over by a bulldozer which she was trying to prevent from demolishing a Palestinian house. In the West Bank another American peace activist, Brian Avery, 24, was shot in the face in the town of Jenin on 5 April.

It scares me that the US condones such behavior; there is never any condemnation by the admin. despite its supposed promotion of palestinian statehood in the upcoming sequel to Bombing Baghdad known as the Road Map to Peace, but always a finger wagging at the latest suicide bomber. The tide is turning, indeed. The paranoia that the Israel military cultivates through its intense terror campaigns results in an anything goes mentality. I can see this same anxiety beginning to infiltrate american military personnel in Iraq--last week 20 people were killed in Fujula for demonstrating against US presence in an elementary school. Accusations that they (the demonstraters) fired first was suspect since no soldiers were injured. So were these perps just bad shots or did stone-throwing children set the the US troops off? It's amazing to me that stone throwers get shot dead in the West Bank...all the time. We're not talking Uzis, or AK-47s, but stones.

2003-05-02T18:21:00.000-04:00

Update on Me
I've been out of commission, not blogging for a week, and instead picking up the odds and ends of the semester, going out and socializing a bit, and trying to quell an illness of some kind--have been very very tired, achy, icky. Burn-out maybe? I still have some grading to do over the weekend and then I'll be done. In the meantime, I worked today cleaning houses. Since my original employment gig teaching pre-college classes at Emory tanked, cleaning houses will be my bread and butter until fall semester starts up. For some reason, this menial work is rather comforting, demanding careful concentration on the one hand but unlike teaching and scholarly work, I can be emotionally detached.. And Johnny, who I'll be working for, is pretty fun and laidback. And most importantly I get to see how people live, where they live, and how they furnish their homes--a favorite pastime of mine. Funny enough, both of the places we cleaned yesterday were heavy on the manly accoutrements: the condo's owner was a middle-aged gay guy, and the house in VA/HI was a young straight couple, but being from the south (I assume), their homes were fitted out in very sporty motifs. In one, a stuffed pheasant attached to a wall, in the other portraits of english hunting scenes in the other; in one, antiquarian books on guns; in the other, heavy oak furniture, and pillows galore. As Johnny said, for all his manliness, he can't keep the queer out of him. Just look at all these pillows!

2003-05-02T18:07:00.000-04:00

A Carnival Ride
I just want to say that seeing Bush in his little fighter pilot outfit on board the USS Abraham LIncoln really made me sick to my stomch. Here is a man that views war as some carnival ride, some thrill that he's never experienced since he jumped ship back during Vietnam when he could've done the Real Thing. Now he's acting as if he's some veteran who's paid his dues, walking on board with his smug smile, pleased that he didn't vomit on the crash landing said to be part of the experience of being on an aircraft carrier. Who the hell is he kidding? I just couldn't watch it.Oh well, not all is right, Mr. Bush. Not all is right with the world as you say it is. War on terror: Has the tide turned?

2003-04-25T09:57:00.000-04:00

More Thoughts on Soft Colonialism
A report in the BBC todaydescribes the reaction by US admin to Kofi Annan's description of US military presence in Iraq as an 'occupying power' at his annual address to the Human Rights Commission. Supposedly the US ambassador to the UN in Geneva took umbrage at this description. As if we didn't invade the country, as if we haven't stationed our military in varous parts of the country, as if we didn't secure the thousand oil wells, as if we didn't bomb the major cities....
I'm disturbed by the lack of accountability this admin continues to illustrate. Rumsfeld's 'stuff happens. people do bad things' about the looting that went on for a week after 'liberation' and continues, Gen. Blount's remarks that an Iraqi grenade was responsible for the killing of 2 journalists at the Palestine Hotel, and when confronted with footage from a French TV station (ha!) that it was an American tank, still refused to apologize to the families or news organizations. Bush saying everything is going well during his Saturday morning address while every ministry office building was burned to the ground except for the Minister of Oil and the Foreign Office. Now Rumsfeld has declared that a cleric-ruled Iraq will not be acceptable as Powell attempts a mop up on the side by saying a theocracy doesn't mean a gov't that is undemocratice. I'd like them to articulate what they mean by democracy; its meaning fluctuates based on who's talking to the press and when. Yet we aren't occupying Iraq; we just sent 170,000 troops to rebuild a nation that we destroyed through sanctions.

2003-04-25T09:42:00.000-04:00

Thoughts from a Gulf War (the first one) Vet

2003-04-25T09:29:00.000-04:00

Amy Goodman Interview with Robert Fisk

2003-04-24T17:09:00.000-04:00

Friends in High Places
It's nice to know that I'm a friend of Carl Levin! This is his response to an email I sent out recently to 30 senators about the Patriot Act Sequel designed to prevent the sunsetting of harsh surveillance laws set out in the first one, among other things. Intterestingly enough, his email back to me was the only one which did not ask me to resubmit my email to his senate homepage through an on-line form.

Dear Friend:

Thank you for contacting me about the USA PATRIOT Act (P.L.107-56). I appreciate hearing your views.

The USA PATRIOT was approved by Congress on October 25, 2001 and subsequently signed into law on Friday, October 26, 2001. This law gives law enforcement agencies important new tools to use in combating terrorism without denigrating the principles of due process and fairness embedded in our Constitution. The law strengthens federal criminal laws against terrorism in several ways, including extending the statute of limitations for terrorist offenses and modernizing surveillance laws to permit investigators to keep pace with new technologies like cell phones and the Internet. I believe this law responds to the sentiments of the American people since the events of September 11th that we must act
swiftly and strongly to defend our country without sacrificing our most cherished values.

However, the law is not perfect. In fact, during the Senate's consideration of the bill, I supported three amendments offered by Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI). Each amendment would have strengthened privacy protections for American citizens without undermining law enforcement efforts to investigate terrorists. One amendment would have maintained limits in federal and state law on law enforcement access to personal records, particularly with regards to sensitive medical and financial information. A second amendment would have required law enforcement to ascertain that a surveillance target under this law's expanded wiretap authority was actually in the house that was bugged or using the phone that was tapped before surveillance could be initiated. The third amendment would have placed sensible limits on the government's ability to intercept computer communications. Among these limits were the type of investigation and the length of surveillance in which the government could utilize new surveillance authority provided in this law.

While these amendments were not adopted, I voted in favor of this bill because I believe this is a necessary piece of legislation. Though terrorism is a threat unlike any other our nation has faced, that cannot diminish our determination to fight it or our commitment to civil liberties.

Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Carl Levin

2003-04-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

Surge in Heretical Works on NYT Bestseller List
So not all Americans have been duped by the Bush posse as the many mainstream polls suggest. An article by Ed Vuillamy in the Sunday Observer claims that many books critical of the war and post-9/11 Bush and Co. have made their way into the top ten lists. Some that he mentions are:

9/11--Noam Chomsky

The Best Democracy Money Could Buy--Greg Palast -- he was at Emory last week but my lack of a car prevented me from going, yes I could've done Marta but it's hell to get there via public transport

Stupid White Men--Michael Moore Interestingly enough, his book came back on the top ten list after his speech at the Oscars

Targeting Iraq: Sanctions, Bombing and US Policy--Geoff Simons

Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Bush-Cheney Junta--Gore Vidal

Another book I'd recommend is a History of Arab Nationalism recently reviewed in the Guardian

Read on, folks, and fight the powers that be.

2003-04-22T08:55:00.000-04:00

Where is Salaam Pax
I've been thinking lately about Salaam Pax from Where is Raed, a blog that gathered a lot of momentum right before the war started. Located in Baghdad, he hopefully weathered the bombing campaign. I'm sure once electricity and phone lines are restored, he'll back up and running with a lot of interesting insights to provide on the liberation of Iraq. Come back to blog world, Salaam Pax, come back!

2003-04-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

Cocooning
As I watch the Sunday morning news shows, I see a protective shell that surrounds the media pundits' discourse--an inability to go one step further, to really discuss what is going on in Iraq now, not in the democratic future, but now. When discussions about WMDs come up, there is no mention of how the US and Britain have sent in their own inspectors rather than rely on UN expertise and knowledge of the area. Why? Why such reluctance? And then there is the current horror of 'post-war iraq". As John Pilger notes in his passionate column
When the invasion began, the British public was called upon to "support'' troops sent illegally and undemocratically to kill people with whom we had no quarrel. "The ultimate test of our professionalism'' is how Commander McKendrick describes an unprovoked attack on a nation with no submarines, no navy and no air force, and now with no clean water and no electricity and, in many hospitals, no anaesthetic with which to amputate small limbs shredded by shrapnel. I have seen elsewhere how this is done, with a gag in the patient's mouth.

As has been noted by many media pundits, we are so protected here in the US from the ugliness, the stench of war that tears bodies apart, leaves families devastated. Yet at the same time we cart out various retired military personnel to crow about how humane this war really was, the precision with which bombs were dropped has made this a whole new war.

We are so cocooned in this country, luxuriating in our literal and symbolic fatness, unaware of our complicity in so much of the world's other terrors--lack of water and food in Iraq, few hospital supplies because of UN sanctions and US efforts to stop any drugs from entering the country for years, not to mention the 500,000 N. Koreans in gulags living penned up like animals, like the chickens we stuff into pens in poultry factories.

2003-04-20T10:35:00.000-04:00

The Western eye has fundamentally been a wandering eye, a travelling lens. --Donna Haraway, "Situated Knowledges"

Rereading Haraway's essay for my third chapter, I found this sentence striking in relation to geo-politics today and the US's dominating role in the MidEast. It also provided me with a deeper theoretical connection to my earlier entry The Military Eye and the relation between violence, both epistemic and material, visual language, and Western domination of third world countries, especially as seen from the POV of the embeds joyriding across the desert--the new Lawrences of Arabia--in tanks and not on camels. I read some acc't today of how disgusted one political columnist was, perhaps Jonathan Raban in yesterday's Guardian, as he listened to a CNN embed who was a soldier in the Gulf War rhapsodize about his adventures crusing with the troops. There appeared to be little critical understanding of the violence used against local villagers, the whipped Iraqi soldiers, the scorched uranium earth....

It's rather frightening listening to Arab journalists from Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan talk on NPR about how the Arab street views this occupation with increasing apprehension that they are next. This is racism at its most vile and violent, anaesthetized, viewed through the lens of a camera, a video game, a tv screen.

2003-04-19T17:24:00.000-04:00

A Tale of Two Cities: Washington and London
Reading the BBC online after having graded Regents' Exams for six hours today, ('allo chuck--fellow blogger and regents' grader), I was please to find that at least British MPs have a backbone. Unlike our own elected congress who seem to be more eager to reap the benefits of an oil-rich Saddam-free Iraq than to question the intent behind this violent illegal war, the MPs are querying Mssrs. Blair and Bush where exactly these WMDs have gotten to since Saddam seemed so eager to use them, and if they're not found, there will be political hell to pay.

From today's Guardian:
MPs are also starting to ask questions about the conduct of the intelligence services. They want to see the evidence that persuaded members of the Commons intelligence committee to back government efforts to win round waverers before the war began. One MP is telling committee members: "You kept saying you wished you could tell us, so now will you tell us?"

Critics suspect that Downing Street may have hyped up the intelligence reports about Iraq's banned weapons. They point to last month's resignation speech by Robin Cook, in which the former foreign secretary said: "Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term."

Such doubts were echoed yesterday by a three-star Iraqi general who told the Guardian in Baghdad that the country had purged itself completely of weapons of mass destruction after the 1991 Gulf war.

I was disappointed to watch Colin Powell on Newshour the other night parroting his supposed nemesis Donny Rumsfeld about how the WMDs are there and will be found, even if it takes years. Years? If it takes years, then it seems logical that they are out of commission, wouldn't you say? I fear that it doesn't matter anymore to the US public at least, since the stroke of genius of this admin was to turn towards liberatory and humanitarian reasons to justify invasion.

A Pack of Cards, A Pack of Liars
What is so crafty about this admin. is the way it picks and chooses lines of argument that feed into both our fears and insecurities since 9/11, and simultaneously provide us an authoritative, patronizing, and compassionate role as a nation invested in other people's freedoms. It's quite clever really, and yet anyone with even the slightest knowledge of US foreign policy knows better than to be decieved by this pack of liars. I call for a new deck of cards to be created and distributed to the American people called Bush Administrations Most Wanted Liars--Dick Cheney: King of Clubs, Connie Rice--Queen of Hearts, Donny Rumsfield--Ace of Spades, Paul Wolferwitz--Jack of Spades. I'll add to the list as I see fit, and you can add your own.

Lastly....Wit from a Georgia College Student
Reading Regents' Exams are hell as anyone who's graded standardized writing exams can attest and yet every now and then one reads a gem from the rubbish heap (as V. Woolf would say). This morning I read an essay responding to this prompt: If you set out on a mission to outer space to colonize a planet , what features of life found on Earth would you consider never taking with you? (I admit I have problems with this question, but most Regents' Exams' questions seem to have this sinister benign aspect to them). The writer went on to respond that drugs, war, and Republicans would never be allowed on Planet X because Republicans were responsible for both dealing drugs and promoting war, particularly in the Iran-Contra Affair of the 1980s. There was also a funny picture of Oliver North on his/her prewriting sheet. I just laughed and laughed....

2003-04-14T14:46:00.000-04:00

Shocked and Awed at where US forces Loyalities Lie?
This from Robert Fiske today:
Iraq's scavengers have thieved and destroyed what they have been allowed to loot and burn by the Americans – and a two-hour drive around Baghdad shows clearly what the US intends to protect. After days of arson and pillage, here's a short but revealing scorecard. US troops have sat back and allowed mobs to wreck and then burn the Ministry of Planning, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Irrigation, the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information. They did nothing to prevent looters from destroying priceless treasures of Iraq's history in the Baghdad Archaeological Museum and in the museum in the northern city of Mosul, or from looting three hospitals.

The Americans have, though, put hundreds of troops inside two Iraqi ministries that remain untouched – and untouchable – because tanks and armoured personnel carriers and Humvees have been placed inside and outside both institutions. And which ministries proved to be so important for the Americans? Why, the Ministry of Interior, of course – with its vast wealth of intelligence information on Iraq – and the Ministry of Oil. The archives and files of Iraq's most valuable asset – its oilfields and, even more important, its massive reserves – are safe and sound, sealed off from the mobs and looters, and safe to be shared, as Washington almost certainly intends, with American oil companies.

2003-04-12T23:00:00.000-04:00

An Unbelievably Really Sad Day
The liberation of Iraq has come to this--ransacking the National Museum full of Mesopotamian antiquities--and Rumsfeld and Co. still don't seem to think it's a problem. His remarks to the theft and destruction was: Stuff happens.

2003-04-12T13:50:00.000-04:00

More Scary News out of Britain
Britain and the United States have bypassed the United Nations to establish a secret team of inspectors to resume the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is a sign of the desperation in London and Washington to find a "smoking gun" to justify the war that the Anglo-American team has already conducted three inspections in the past two weeks. No banned weapons have so far been found. Reported in The Guardian, 4/12/2003.

2003-04-12T09:46:00.000-04:00

Shopkeeper as youths helped themselves to everything in his small hardware store:
"Is this your liberation?"

Pedalling Compassionate Colonialism
What is coming out of the mouths of this administration is truly astounding. Not even the Onion can really attempt to parody the administration's cavalier take on the unravelling of civil society in Iraq. I thought my ire had reached its peak back in February when the big dogs consistently dismissed the work UN inspectors had done with a 'pshaw, what do you know about WMD?' but now after 3 weeks of the most intensive bombing campaign against an incredibly underprepared military force, the US cannot muster the energy to take the reins and admit they have now conquered Iraq and must take responsibility for bringing law and order, food and water, human services to the country. Instead we are told by Donny Rumsfeld that the reports of looting are 'overstated'. Overstated? Read this report from BBC:

Medical equipment such as heart monitors and incubators have been stolen and even the laboratories ransacked - centrifuges and microscopes smashed.
"I am desperately looking for someone to co-ordinate the situation with the hospital directors in various parts of the country, but I haven't found anyone, " said Mr Bonamy.
And he stressed that responsibility rested squarely with the Americans.
"You entered a city. Civil society broke down.
"It is your responsibility to guarantee at least minimal operation of infrastructure -- hospitals, police forces, firefighters, water, electricity," he said.
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has denied Iraq was falling into chaos.
"Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," he told reporters.
"I don't think there is anyone in those pictures or any human being who does not prefer to be free and recognise that you have passed through a transition period like this and accept it as part of the price of getting from a repressed regime to freedom."

Pride, ego, bloated sense of self--this man will surely witness his own fall and I can only hope that I will witness it. The 'untidiness of freedom' is what he calls it, but what I'm calling it is a soft pedalling of colonialism that means we can destroy the infrastructure of Iraq, kill its people, take control of the oil fields, but when it comes to providing structure again, well, we'll just step aside and let the Iraqi people decide what to do because if we did it, we'd show our cover as the neo-colonialists we really are. The incredible deviousness that permeates this adminstration stinks. They have no concern for human welfare, little cause to consider Iraqis' concerns after a traumatizing 3-week raining bombs campaign that must in some way have contributed to this unruly outburst. Think about it--I get pissed off when I have to put up with obnoxious dogs barking non-stop next door but what about several thousands, tens of thousands of bombs dropping all over your city? Right now the anger is directed for the most part against Hussein and his regime, but soon enough it will turn towards us, the other perpetrators of terroism and violence.

2003-04-08T12:29:00.000-04:00

The Economics of War
I find the idea of celebration repugnant also and see the long term effects as no cause for celebration at all. Especially interesting is our reliance on a military economy here in the US. Certainly Michael Moore has shown some of the connections between violence/war and economics in Bowling for Columbine, and history bears witness to the "benefits" of war economically to the winning parties. However, as the Roman Empire learned, you can't fight a war on mulitple fronts, and not just for strategic reasons. The economic impact takes its toll. Right now, by freezing assets from mid-East business people in order to crack down on "terrorist investments" etc, we have frightened off ALL mid-East investors. Interestingly enough, the US gains about 3 trillion dollars in those investments annually. What does that mean for our economy?
I also want to point out that i live in midwestern farm country. But it's not just "farm country." It is of note that Saddam Hussein invested in Northest Ohio. In 1987, a company controlled by Hussein bought a London firm, Matrix-Churchill, which had a US subsidiary in Ohio. This London-based company made computerized machine tools for use in manufacturing weapons. The New York Times called it, in the words of a former senior gov. official, "'the eyes and ears' of Iraq's arms procurement network in the United States." However, the plant was not shut down until a month after Iraq invaded Kuwait. Although the accusations surrounding the plant and its demise have resurfaced lately as "proof" of terrorist activity in the US, I think they also point to how deeply our economy is tied to and implicated in the Middle East. i hate to go psychoanalytical here, but to destroy the "external other" is really an "internal" blow at ourselves.

And speaking of Michael Moore, according to a report in the Daily Variety, he is producing a new film, Fahrenheit 911, that also takes a look at some of the economic stakes surrounding 911 and the current war. "Moore said the bin Laden family was heavily invested in the Carlyle Group, a private global investment firm that the filmmaker said frequently buys failing defense companies and then sells them at a profit. Former President Bush has reportedly served as a senior adviser with the firm. 'The senior Bush kept his ties with the bin Laden family up until two months after Sept. 11,' said Moore."

I hear a lot of seemingly intelligent people say "you know, we just don't know everything our government does. We need to accept that they will make some decisions utilizing info that is just not available to the general public. We need to trust that they make the right decisions based on that material even if it doesn't appear to be that way to us." I can only say, yes, we don't know everything, but that scares me even more. And trust? I thought democracy meant that the people needed to know the "truth" in order to make the well-informed decisions that keep a democracy working. It's hard to trust a government that keeps so many secrets, where "National Security" is a synecdoche for secrecy and the loss of individual rights.

Sometimes it seems so surprising to me the amount of unconcern, even apathy, on the part of American citizens. So many people seem unruffled by the news that does come to light or seem completely unwilling to protest the erosion of their liberties and constitutional rights (unless of course it has to do with gun control). Carol Bly writes, "A classic problem of our species is our having two opposing instincts at the same time. The first is to be civilized and sensitive - to be willing not to settle for fast, easy answers to things, to be willing to look at the whole of life instead of only at one's own province. That elegant instinct is alwatys rippled and tipped by the second instinct, which is simply to go along, to take care of oneself and one's family, and never mind all the rest."

It's the "all the rest" that i'm worried about.

2003-04-08T09:40:00.000-04:00

Complex Thoughts from Robert Fisk
After reading Fisk's latest article, I think it's important that the brevity of the situation in Baghdad should not be forgotten when 'victory' is announced. From the perspective of many independent journalists, this war has taken a grave toll in death, injuries, and devastation of property on the Iraqi people and there is no real reason to celebrate the US occupation although I'm sure the news media here will only show the pretty picture of Iraqis kissing US soldiers' feet. I'm sickened when I read Fisk's articles about the many individual lives affected by one of the most intense, if not the most, bombing campaigns ever. Oh yes, but there were all those WMD's we had to fear. In case anyone's interested, the US has 14,500 nuclear warheads in its defense system, and we think North Korea is paranoid?

2003-04-07T11:07:00.000-04:00

Just for the Record
In a recent Time poll, 1200 Europeans were asked what country was the greatest threat to global security and 83% said the United States.

2003-04-06T20:50:00.000-04:00

Being Mischievous
This afternoon rather than grade the 60 odd projects that are stacked in various small piles in my living room, I penned off a letter to NBC about the Peter Arnett scandal. Here is my original letter, the response I received shortly after, and my response to its response.

I am writing to express my deep concern about the firing of journalist Peter Arnett. Regardless of the inappropriateness of the interview (and as far as I could tell he reported only what was already known), to fire a dedicated reporter who has put his life on the line, who has done more to provide an important communicative link to the current crisis in Iraq by being in Iraq than many other TV journalists, and who, by establishing trust with the Iraqi gov't, has provided you with opportunities and stories that you would not have had otherwise, is very disturbing. Transgressions such as his happen during one's career--to not give him the benefit of the doubt, to accept his apology, slap him on the wrist, and move on, is unconscionable.

We in the United States live in a very grim age; I am not referring to the terrorist threats, but to the crackdown on free speech in the public sphere since 9/11. The current administration has been incredibly effective in co-ercing mainstream media outlets to do as they say--to be with them or against
them--and your firing of Peter Arnett exhibits both the force in which this message is being relayed and the adherence to it by major broadcasting networks.

Sadly enough, after this most recent illustration of my point above, I have tuned out all US mainstream media and find that British media, despite its often overt political partisanship, conveys a much better
balance of critique, reflection, and objectivity than any news sources in the US today.

Thank you for your time.
All best,
Doreen Piano

Response from NBC as follows:

Thank you for taking the time to write to NBC News. Your comments are always appreciated. We're working hard to provide complete, accurate and responsible coverage of the war in Iraq. We're proud of the efforts of our journalists positioned around the world covering this conflict. We also want you to be aware of our position regarding Peter Arnett. Enclosed is a copy of the statement issued today by NBC News.

NBC News President Neal Shapiro spoke with Peter Arnett via telephone early this morning in an attempt to fully understand the circumstances of Arnett's interview on Iraqi TV. After their discussion, NBC News issued the following statement:

It was wrong for Mr. Arnett to grant an interview to state controlled Iraqi TV -- especially at a time of war -- and it was wrong for him to discuss his personal observations and opinions in that interview. Therefore, Peter Arnett will no longer be reporting for NBC News and MSNBC.

Mr. Arnett later appeared on NBC's Today program and offered an apology. "I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment."Mr. Arnett's ties to NBC and National Geographic Explorer have now been severed.
Thank you contacting NBC News.

My response is as follows:
Dear NBC PR Person:

Thank you for taking the time to write to me. Your response is always appreciated. I'm working hard to find complete, accurate and responsible coverage of the war in Iraq. I too am proud of the efforts of many
journalists positioned around the world covering this conflict especially those who do not work for US mainstream news affiliates.

I want you to be aware of my position regarding your statement about Peter Arnett. Other than the fact that you state that it was wrong in a time of war for Arnett to do what he did, you do not explain why he was fired, especially considering that he publicly apologized for his bad behavior. Thus, I find your
response to my email utterly ineffective in convincing me that there was good reason for him being sacked.
Best,
Doreen Piano

Response to my response was first: returned mail--recepient unknown. I guess one cannot respond to the response. So I re-sent it to the original email address: Nightly@nbc.com, and predictably received the same response as above. So much for dialogue!

2003-04-06T20:38:00.000-04:00

Fighting the Good Fight
Of course one of this blog's motivation is to argue (through illustration) that there is good media out there. Most recently is Arundhati Roy's passionate plea in a recent Guardian column (see my 4/2/03 entry), BBCs Rageh Omaar's insightful analyses, John Fisk of the Independent, and his colleague John Pilger, whose column today--We see too much...--spoke angrily on issues of representation of Iraqis, the coalition's inability to see the damage it has done, and the complete lack of sensitivity to the many lives already ruined in the name of freedom. Lastly Hilary Andersson writes poignantly of being implicated as an embed in the invasion of Iraq by US and British military forces.

On Friday I was pleased to find during my morning media trawl a few familiar names among the crowd. The first I came across was a letter in the Economist by an old work colleague Mark Lattimer who currently is director of Minority Rights Group in London. Mark and I worked at the Directory for Social Change, a non-profit organization that published books and gave seminars for NGOs and charities who are seeking various kinds of funding. We've shared many a syrupy Guinness at lunchtime with our fellow workers who were some of the most intelligent and informed people I've ever had the pleasure to work with. It was the 80s; we were a cynical lot, full of hatred for the Thatcher/Reagan duo, despairing over the poll tax, a city beseiged by conservative politics, broken in its infrastructure, an obsolete left; now fifteen years later we are besotten with another disastrous across the pond alliance, although this one does not seem to be as cozy, and in fact appears to be fissured over the future of Iraq, the Palestinian question, and whether or not to invade Korea, Iran, Syria, or Lebanon next.

We knew Mark was destined for big things (and we never kept it to ourselves, the churlish worker bees we were) as he always managed to convince the directors he was that much brighter than the rest of us. Or rather he had the credentials that made him appear that way--cambridge educated, articulate, well-manner, clean cut. I had other aspirations at the time and was content with a lowlife position, doing mostly admin and editing work, while pursuing dreams of being a full-fledged writer, but I had a savage wit, and thus took my job frustrations out on him whenever the chance presented itself. Being Mark, he seemed to enjoy the attention regardless of its bite. However, I must admit that I admire his steadfast ability to stay convicted to progressive politics. Here's to Mark!

Anthony Shadid is the other familiar name. I attended Anthony's wedding to Julie four years ago in Milwaukee. I know him really more as an acquaintance although he is a close friend of my my ex. Anthony has been a reporter in the MidEast for quite some time now, working for AP, The Boston Globe, and now The Washington Post. last year he was shot in the West Bank during the invasion of Jenin and Ramallah. I thought he'd take a desk job after that but it seems he is back in the field reporting from southern Iraq. You can read his most recent posting here: an attempt to give voice to the lives being affected by this invasion. there are definitely good people in the field working with what they can, that slight window of opportunity, to provide a fuller picture of this desperate situation created by the US gov't.

2003-04-03T12:31:00.000-05:00

Spring and Death
I have been thinking lately how wondrous spring is here in the Deep South. It is hard to think negative despairing thoughts when my street, so close to downtown, is flush with dogwoods, fruit trees, azaleas, rhododendrons, bulbs have sprung and tulips, irises, daffodils abound. But it also makes me sad to see nature so full of itself here and so beaten in Iraq where US troops now plow through the fertile crescent. The fertile crescent, dammit--center of ancient cultures--and much we owe to it and the culture that flourished there. I wonder if soldiers even think these thoughts or if it's not part of their purview, flushed out in training, being sensitive to the natural world in the theatre of war. This a.m. I came across this just now, a poem by a former UK's poet laureate vigorously opposing war that echoes some of these sentiments.

Regime Change
by Andrew Motion

Advancing down the road from Niniveh
Death paused a while and said 'Now listen here.

You see the names of places roundabout?
They're mine now, and I've turned them inside out.

Take Eden, further south: At dawn today
I ordered up my troops to tear away

Its walls and gates so everyone can see
That gorgeous fruit which dangles from its tree.

You want it, don't you? Go and eat it then,
And lick your lips, and pick the same again.

Take Tigris and Euphrates; once they ran
Through childhood-coloured slats of sand and sun.

Not any more they don't; I've filled them up
With countless different kinds of human crap.

Take Babylon, the palace sprouting flowers
Which sweetened empires in their peaceful hours -

I've found a different way to scent the air:
Already it's a by-word for despair.

Which leaves Baghdad - the star-tipped minarets,
The marble courts and halls, the mirage-heat.

These places, and the ancient things you know,
You won't know soon. I'm working on it now.'

2003-04-02T08:42:00.000-05:00

From a Commentary by Arundati Roy in the Guardian
Despite the pall of gloom that hangs over us today, I'd like to file a cautious plea for hope: in times of war, one wants one's weakest enemy at the helm of his forces. And President George W Bush is certainly that. Any other even averagely intelligent US president would have probably done the very same things, but would have managed to smoke-up the glass and confuse the opposition. Perhaps even carry the UN with him. Bush's tactless imprudence and his brazen belief that he can run the world with his riot squad, has done the opposite. He has achieved what writers, activists and scholars have striven to achieve for decades. He has exposed the ducts. He has placed on full public view the working parts, the nuts and bolts of the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire.

Recommended Reading: Venik's Aviation
The internet has provided many of us who are against this war with a few nuggets of comfort and hope. For example, this war has galvanized a global community of resisters through a number of sources: circulated group emails, listservs such as Rhetors for Peace, blogs such as Salaam Pax, local and national activist websites, and international news sources such as Al-Jezeerah that provide alternate narratives to those dominating in the US. Images cobbled together on mainstream media of protests worldwide feed into the sense that there is a unifying force as the NY Times has suggested that is as powerful as the US military machine.

These sources are also unpredictable as Salaam Pax has shown us in his ability to use the form of a journal much like a real-time Diary of Anne Frank to illustrate the effects of global conflict on young people. One site a bit off the beaten path is Venik's Aviation which is dedicated to translating military intelligence analysis and information from a non-government Russian source about the war on Iraq. Venik ( his/her name--not sure) is obviously in the aviation/aerospace engineering business and seems to get his/her information from a reliable but anonymous source who is intercepting information from both Iraqi and US sources. Once again like Salaam Pax there is a sense of whether what we're reading is really 'true' but again like Salaam Pax, certain details, the structure and genre of the reports, provides its own veracity. I highly recommend reading the daily posts about military operations and also Answering Some Questions to get a sense of Venik's good character and spirit, his/her openess and gratitude.

2003-04-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

Observations from Rageh Omaar of BBC NEWS
However they feel about a policy that seeks to overthrow the government, and no matter how careful the targeting of the bombardments, the reality is that huge weapons are being used. Property is being damaged, and there have been a couple of tragic incidences when large numbers of civilians have been killed. More than 400 cruise missiles and bombs have smashed into this city. The people of Baghdad are traumatised, and frightened of what is still to come.

2003-04-01T08:17:00.000-05:00

From a Russian Military Intelligence Report
Certain available information points to a serious conflict between the coalition command and the US political and military leadership. The [US] Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld - the main planner and lobbyist of the military operation against Iraq - accuses the coalition command and Gen. Tommy Franks personally of being passive and indecisive, which [in Rumsfeld's opinion] led to the lengthening of the conflict and the current dead end situation. In his turn Franks in front of his subordinates calls the Secretary of Defense the "old blabbermouth" and an "adventurist" who dragged the army into the war on the most unfavorable terms possible. However, most [US military] officers believe
that both military leaders are responsible for the coalition's military failures. Rumsfeld allowed gross errors during the planning of forces and equipment required for the war, while Franks did not show enough
strength to get the right forces and the right training for the troops in this campaign and, in essence, surrendered to the whims of the politicians...

It is entirely possible that the future of this war will see the departure of one of these two commanders. Some reports suggest that Rumsfeld has already proposed to President Bush a change in the
coalition command. However, Bush declined this proposal calling it untimely and damaging to the morale of the troops and that of the American people.

Comment This Russian website has a two-pronged analysis: one is to report the inner details of what is going on in the battlefield through intercepting communications and the other is to analyze what is going on for future reference. In other words, the March 31 report provides an analysis of how Russia would fare against the US forces while also providing some interesting insights on Iraqi manuevers. Not surprisingly this website is being hacked into from US-based domains.

also Peter Arnett was fired from NBC yesterday for saying less than what was reported above on Iraqi TV. I found it interesting that Barbara Walters on The View framed his interview as telling the Iraqis that we were losing. Those were her exact words! Of course, the audience and the other viewers'--Meredith, Starr, and Joy--were completely taken aback and appalled. And then Starr said, Yeah and now he's working at The Mirror which is very very anti-war! As if this proved that he was the traitor that everyone now thinks he is. Scary. Where are we? McCarthy Era? Stalingrad? The campagin of disinformation and lies in this war/administration has really reached epic proportions....

You have articles in newspapers all over the world claiming there are problems within the US military higher ups about the course of war and then you have Rumsfield outright denying it, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Meyer telling the media "this is not the kind of information that we should be relaying right now. It doesn't do any good for our troops who are trying to fight a war."

You can run, but you cannot hide. The military eye has backfired.

2003-03-30T20:39:00.000-05:00

Palestinian Land Day

Attended the Palestinian Land Day Rally today. Several hundred of us marched to the Israeli Consulate located in a bland office building, a carbuncle as the Prince of Wales would describe it, on Spring St. As the announcement claims, On March 30th , 2003, thousands of Palestinians and their supporters will come together to commemorate 'Land Day' to bring to world attention the plight of the Palestinians and the Israeli authorities policy of land confiscations. 'Land Day' (Yum al-Ard) has been commemorated yearly since the killing on March 30, 1976 of six Palestinians by Israeli troops during peaceful protests over the confiscation of Palestinian lands.

This year's commemoration comes in the midst of a land grab that continues unabated and the murder of Palestinians that escalates unchecked. Since Sept. 2000 – Feb. 13 2003, 1791 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, of whom 328 were minors under the age of 18. Another 21,821 Palestinian civilians were injured. In the shadows of a possible war on Iraq, the events highlight the concern that a war in the region will provide a cover for increased Israeli aggression on the Palestinian people and their land.

Comment: It seems to me that there must be a way for this current anti-war/peace movement to shift its energies into demanding Palestinian statehood. Because the scope of this movement is so broad and reaches areas of the globe where public demonstrations are being allowed for the first time (such as in China, right on!) then pressuring this current administration's statements about mideast peace should not be a problem. Yet, sadly, Americans are uncomfortable supporiting Palestinian statehood--it places many folks in this position where if they are for palestinian self-determination than they will be accused of being anti-israeli and thus anti-semitic--yet the argument can be made that Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank are subjected to the same kinds of systematic represssion by Israelis that Hussein metes out to ethnic groups he despises. But this argument is not supported by the majority of Americans because to them the ones being subjected to pain and suffering are Israelis blown up on buses and in cafes. Thus to be for palestinians' rights and freedom is to be pro-terrorist.

It is the same argument used against anti-war protestors now where we are positioned as Saddam lovers (and thus pro-torture, pro-terrorism, pro-state sponsored represession). These false binary arguments weave themselves into the public discourse and are taken as commonplaces. thus it becomes difficult for many to take a stand against Israeli occupation, esp. post-9/11 where the ties between Israel and US have strengthened because we now can understand and feel what it is to be victims of terror.

Wake up, people! Read the news---go to Middle East Research and Information Project, the BBC online, UK Guardian, and read news about the Middle East from a different perspective. It will blow your mind. At this point I realize that most who are reading this know me, and know about these issues (probably more than I do). But the random reader may come across this and take my declamation to heart. Wake up, people.Turn off CNN.

So now I'm beginning to see that I will not finish my dissertation unless I stop blogging. But blogging will continue through the course of this war, and it is most surely more fun than dissertating though the audience (of 4) is about the same. May my committee not stumble upon this in the coming weeks or they will understand my silence....

2003-03-29T09:21:00.000-05:00

A few juicy tidbits culled from Bill Moyers' show Now that I would recommend as an antidote to the shite broadcast on most other stations about the war on Iraq.

"Sey Hirsch is the closest America has to a terrorist." --Richard Perle, fmr Asst. Secy. of Defense

VP Dick Cheney now has the power to classify any document he wants--it will be vanished from the public record, inaccessible, no longer existent.

As the bill for this war increases, currently $75 Billion with more needed as the admin sees it, veterans' benefits were cut in the current budget that was passed.

2003-03-27T17:55:00.000-05:00

Astute thoughts about the discourse of images and its relation to this war from my colleague Chuck who is keeping a similar but v. different protest blog The Chutry Experiment and whom I must thank for getting me to blog by actually doing it rather than talking about it.

"I have been thinking about blogging, the war, and other issues over the last few days, and I want to think more systematically about these issues in paper, possibly for a conference. For now, I just want to revisit my observations about Under Fire, which I discussed a few days ago. A recent Salon article addresses debates about the veracity of Iraqi broadcasts of Saddam Hussein speeches. Intelligence reports suggest that these broadcasts are not live, but taped, therefore implying that Saddam may have taped these broadcasts before the war in order to maintain the fiction that he is still alive. Many observers, however, note the specificity with which he describes certain battles in order to contend that he is indeed still alive.

Certainly there is more going on here than the mere "deceptiveness of images" argument that we see in a theorist like William J. Mitchell. One of the immediate complications is the question of how perceptions of power function in the narrative that is being offered here. There seems to be an implication that without Saddam Hussein, Iraq may not have anything to fight for or may choose not to fight. It's interesting to me that the US can rely on our awareness that images may be deceptive in order to cast doubt on Saddam's speeches (including the brief suggestion that one of his look-alikes may be delivering some of the speeches), but the same incredulity is not generally extended to American media sources."

Comment: There was a very funny article in The Guardian last week that spoofed on the many doubles of Mr Bush and VP Cheney, saying that in recent appearances his ears increased dramatically, thus provoking speculation about whether or not he was who he seemed to be.

Now I must simply do some yoga.

2003-03-27T17:27:00.000-05:00

Al-Jazeera is impossible to access. Hackers continue to keep it out of order in both its english and arabic versions. The internet is not a democratic space; people who have the most power are those who use their technical skills to suppress points-of-view they disagree with by destroying them.

2003-03-27T17:18:00.000-05:00

Thoughts from the Arab World: A Report from Hani Shrukallah in Al-Ahram Weekly
"We will stay on the path, mile by mile, all the way to Baghdad and all the way to victory," Bush told his troops at Central Command headquarters in Florida yesterday. But former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, in an interview broadcast by a Lisbon private radio station on Tuesday was doubtful. "We do not have the military means to take over Baghdad," he said. "The United States is going to leave Iraq with its tail between its legs, defeated. It is a war we cannot win."

Throughout the Arab world, seven days into the invasion of Iraq, there was considerable awe, not at the viciousness of an illegal foreign invasion of Arab land, but at the stiffness of the Iraqi people's resolve in its defence.

It was also reported that 20,000 protesters turned out to protest in central Cairo last thursday! in a country that has limited public demonstrations agains the US invasion to areas that keep numbers down, that is so awesome.

2003-03-27T16:02:00.000-05:00

I am inhabiting a grey area on the war. I am divided between a history of watching my father painfully and slowly build bridges with eastern Europe and Russia on behalf of NATO, patiently and quietly and more successfully than we could have imagined 20 years ago/versus some sobering names - Hitler, Pot, Ceausescu, Milosevic. With each of these men, the world was patient to the tune of prolonged silences during the excecution of millions upon millions of human beings. But, I am striving to see sense in every point of view, and I am prepared for my points of view to change and shift as I learn and see more. And there are some words I am repeating to myself:

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." (William James)
AND
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

2003-03-27T14:30:00.000-05:00

Nice Blog. On the war I am torn. Here is where I stand:

Should we have gone to war now? No. In general, should pre-emptive strikes happen from the US? No. Did Bush go about this the right way? No. Should Saddam be forced from power, yes! Do I feel bad about American blood being spilled over a process that has a high likelihood of making that country a better place. No. Do I feel bad about civilian Iraqi blood being spilled over a process that has a high likelihood of making that country a better place. Yes. Am I pissed about Haliburton getting the fire fighting contract.? Yes.

As for the media coverage, I have even stopped listening to NPR. It's overwhelming. I find my TV off more than before. So now on my 1 hour commute from LA to OC I listen to Big Boy on 106. Amidst the hip hop beats, the shout outs, and local radio celebrity Big Boy yelling 'you can't beat that with a bat" I forgot the war......

2003-03-27T09:34:00.000-05:00

Accountability
This morning, the BBC reports this about the marketplace bombing:
A US military spokesman at coalition Central Command said: "Our early intelligence report provides no conclusive evidence that we have caused the damage in the civilian marketplace.
"One possibility and high probability is that it was caused from the fallout from the regime's anti-aircraft fire."
But the BBC's Andrew Gilligan in Baghdad says that explanation is "unlikely because we simply haven't heard any anti-aircraft fire in the city for the past four days".
The US military has admitted using precision-guided weapons to target Iraqi missiles and launchers which it says were hidden in a residential area less than 100 metres (300 feet) from homes.

Comment: I realize we are at war. I realize that we need to demonize the enemy in order to keep citizens and troops' morale up. This is no time to sympathize with the devil. However, this is why I dislike war. there is no sense of accountability for the loss of lives. Particularly with this 'humane war'--a war like no other--the pentagon/media seems compelled to frame everything as most likely caused by the Iraqi regime. But what they're not getting is that most likely it doesn't really matter on the streets of Basra or Baghdad whose bombs are dropping; it's just they are dropping and maiming and killing and the fact of the matter is, they wouldn't be if the US hadn't invaded.

2003-03-26T09:33:00.000-05:00

Fading Empire: Signs of Decline

this morning's Guardian has Mark Tran commenting on what looks to be an article published by Independent Strategy, a business research agency, circulating internationally that reveals four very prominent signs that the US power will soon be just a memory. Read on! !
Mark Tran

2003-03-26T08:25:00.000-05:00

Got to watch a video game this a.m. c/o of a Pentagon briefing in Qatar. Pictures of before and after were shown displaying our humaneness to the world. First you see a tank under a bridge, then you see a big black cloud, and voila, the bridge is still standing but the tank is gone. This went on for quite some time. What they don't tell you and what I read at Salam Pax, a blog by an Iraqi in Baghdad, is that the fragments of bombs as well as what exploded have to go somewhere. Often they destroy buildings, injure people, and wreak havoc on anyone, thing in the vicinity.

2003-03-26T08:21:00.000-05:00

This just in from Reuters:
The head of the world's biggest journalists' organisation says a U.S. bomb and missile attack on Iraqi television was an attempt at censorship and may have breached the Geneva Conventions.

Supposedly bombing a media center just because you don't like what it's saying is illegal in a civilized war.

2003-03-25T22:19:00.000-05:00

The Military Eye
It finally came to me why these embedded journalists that are so insidiously part of the military machine imposing itself on Iraq really disturb me. They cannot move beyond the frame of what it's like to be in combat since they are cybernetically connected to the war machine as it races to Baghdad. Thus, the camera works in a number of ways to voyeuristically give us pleasure and reinforce our feelings of superiority about the beauty and grace of the machine--whizzing along the desert at top speeds--and at the same time viewing the war this way makes us vulnerable to attack by the enemy thus reinforcing our fear of this unknown terror that was 9/11 and that continues to be a threat that shapeshifts--then it was Al-Queda, now it is Saddam, next it will be whom? We are as some mentioned part of the video game, stalking and being stalked, and as peter jennings said ever so politely, remember you're not seeing 90% of what's going on. But who cares about that 90%? all that matters is what the cyborg journalist is seeing.

2003-03-25T22:08:00.000-05:00

Semantically Speaking

I find it interesting that the admin continues to keep the words 'terror', and 'terrorist' in constant circulation not only through terror alerts but now through pentagon briefings in which sundry military personnel discuss the actions of the Iraqi army as terroristic, and as Iraqis being in terrorist cells in Basra, and as performing terrorist-like activities. Yes, it appears that the Iraqi soldiers are using rather unsavory techniques such as using civilians as human shields and pretending to surrendar only to attack troops--these are reprehensible acts. However, to me, the sporadic violent attempts to undermine a terrifying and sublime superpower whose bombing of Baghdad was described by BBC correspondent Robert Parsons as "another night of awesome nightime terror" seems to be the only way to fight an enemy that basically has you covered from all sides. this is the yankees playing my old high school team. That the Iraqis can possibly shoot back despite their pathetic military equipment--as the Pentagon was so proud to belch this a.m. about disarming ancient surveillance trackers: didn't even have a chance, nipped it in the bud before they could get so much as a sentence transcribed--is really rather amazing. That it's being framed as terrorism boggles my mind. This enemy knows no laws, as Bush said today. But I say the enemy knows that when push come to shove, defending one's own country when invaded by any means possible is the only option left. Is that terrorism? I'm not getting it.....

2003-03-24T08:52:00.000-05:00

in the beginning

I am starting this blog to keep a public account of life during wartime. Last week the US declared war against Iraq. We are now approaching a week anniversary of this so-called 'new kind of war.' At this point I can no longer keep my thoughts and ideas about this war to private sources such as journals, emails, and phone conversations. Thus, I intend to keep an account of details of how war is being presented to me through the vast source of information sources that are now made available through electronic sources. I am mostly concerned with creating a pastiche of different kinds of discourse that I'm trawling from a number of news sites and places both here in the US and abroad, both local and global. At the same time, I plan to, of course, provide my own commentary. For what it's worth.

Current Highlights
Michael Moore at Academy Awards last night shouting, Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Shame on you! Why did so many people boo him? So this is the 'liberal' hollywood that mainstream Americans and talk show hosts go ballistic over? I don't think so. I salute him for his daring outburst during a time when such remarks will surely be met with censure and I also thank Pedro Almodovar for thanking anti-war protesters for being vigilant in the face of growing resentment that we should now 'support our troops and let the debate over war die'.

from Paul Reynolds, BBC News, 3/22/03
The leadership appears to be defiant. They have not so far been shocked or awed, it seems.
Vice President Taha Yassir Ramadan appeared at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday and showed no signs of surrendering. Nor did the interior minister on Friday who appeared in combat gear and with his chrome plated AK 47.
Indeed, Mr Rumsfeld, a student of history, will know that regimes facing even certain defeat do not necessarily crumble. The Argentine commander in the Falklands, the hapless General Menendez, fought on until the end.
Hitler knew he would be defeated yet held on until the Russians were at the doors to his chancellery.

the british--they do know how to do journalism!