According to his lawyer, the DOJ wanted Dr. Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. When he refused, citing his plea agreement, he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail.

Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a medical facility in North Carolina. Family members who recently visited him reported that he had lost 53 pounds, equivalent to more than 25 percent of his body weight. He is no longer able to walk or stand on his own.

Mel Gibson lashes out during 'Apocalypto' screening

Mel Gibson was at the center of an uproar Thursday night at the Armer Theater in Manzanita Hall at CSUN when a Central American Studies professor spoke out against the way Mayans are depicted in Gibson's film "Apocalypto."

Central American Studies Professor Dr. Alicia Estrada asked Gibson if he understood the negative portrayal of Mayans in the film. Estrada went on to say that Mayans have suffered from death and poverty but were depicted as ignorant and bloodthirsty in the film….

Security personnel began pushing the speaker and turned off Perez's microphone. Gibson said to let them talk, and the microphone was turned back on.

"I'm not offending you. I'm treating you with respect," Estrada said.

Gibson responded with liberal use of the f-word. Audience members clapped and cheered, one even turning to Estrada and clapping in her face.

President of the Central American United Students Association Josue Guajan came to the event because he is a CTVA student.

"I thought there would be conflict but I did not expect this disrespect to Professor Estrada," Guajan said.

Estrada said the film is blatantly racist, but Gibson responded by saying, "I don't think it's racist at all, and I resent you saying that it is."

Estrada and Perez were escorted out, but not before Gibson said, "I think you're a fucking troublemaker, so fuck off."

And speaking of Mel, try this on for size
Jayne Stahl on a marriage from hell

MIND READING MACHINES

THE LIMITS OF MULTI-TASKING

Comment on this post...

A VETERAN ON FORECLOSURES, A SONG TO LIVE BY

Before you read this long letter, read this news story from the Scotsman

US mortgage crisis forces homeowners to take refuge in their cars

OK, now here's a personal story:

Bob Francaviglia write about the mortgage meltdown from Bisbee, Arizona

Thanks for a great article and thanks for saying something that needs to be addressed. I'm a retired soldier with twenty years in uniform and another twenty two as a Department of Defense civiliandeveloping intelligence training for the military.

I'm one of the lucky ones. I escaped my country's wars with my body and psyche intact. As I approach seventy, my home and my vehicles are paid for. The house maybe almost a hundred years old, and the newest vehicle is a 1984 pick up, but the house is comfortable and the vehicles run. I have some credit card debt, but it's mostly for annual vacations and it's nothing I couldn't pay off tomorrow from my savings account. Aside from taxes and utilities, my retirement income goes for food and entertainment. I'm in the "catbird seat," and I'm thankful for that. It didn't come easy. I had to fight off the sales pitches of hucksters in three piece suits. I had to have forty hour a week part time jobs in addition to my military duties. I had to educate myself about dreams and riches and guard my own resources. But I recognize that there are millions of less savvy Americans, many of them as old or older than I, who are losing their homes. What happens to them when they join the ranks of America's homeless. Even the car they might live in might be repossessed.

Yes, I'm in the "catbird seat," mainly because I've never fallen for the blandishments of the financial institutions, and I've never fallen for that crap that says you've got to have more stuff so you can be "accepted." I may have a few three piece suits in my closet, but I choose to live in Levis. I've learned that clothes don't make the man, and a big house with a big mortgage doesn't give you the right to rub elbows with Donald Trump.

But, Danny, I can't see a solution to this tragedy. Was it Barnum who said, "There's a sucker born every minute?" There's an almost Darwinian aspect to this American tragedy. I used to be fond of saying that there's a huge number of Americans who will spend their rent money to get that "Famous Artist Course," advertised on the matchbook cover, thinking that, in months, they will become Andy Warhol.

I see all those infomercials on TV. You know the ones that talk about how you can buy a dozen houses for no money down, turn them around and retire rich. Yeah, and all you have to do is send five hundred bucks for the books. Maybe there's a "financial Darwinism" that applies here. Maybe the fools who lose everything because they were too ignorant, too lazy, too credulous, too simple… maybe they deserve not to survive in this socio-economic cauldron we call American capitalism. We've become a nation of dupes; collection of rubes who are easy prey for the circus managers who promise us riches, the attractiveness of movie stars, financial security and peace of mind. I find that I live in a nation of adolescents, pursuing nebulous dreams without substance. And it gets even worse when we look at the majority of the next generation, steeped in the hoo hah of MTV and VH1, thinking that all they have to do is float along andthey'll become rock stars. Oh I know there are really smart kids coming up the path. They'll go to college. They'll get their credentials.

They'll take their places in the law firms and on Wall Street. And they'll become the financial predators and the financial victims of our nation state. Even those, the best and the brightest, will translate their humanity into some meaningless portrayal of greatness, with ever greater homes, big boats they hardly ever sail, trophy wives or husbands, six martinis at lunch at the country club, and empty eyes looking at an empty future of more parties and more efforts to impresstheir "peers."

Having spent my entire adult life, nearly half a century, bleeding for this nation of sheep, fighting in the jungles of Vietnam and other places that our countrymen could not find on a map, I wonder what it was all for. Like cattle on the ramp into the slaughterhouse, they have no inkling what's about to happen to them. While my brothers in arms return to this America with shattered bodies and broken spirits, these "creatures" are more concerned with the latest sale at Walmart, the latest celebrity on American Idol, and whether Josh really means to marry Kristal on "Days of Our Lives."

I've fought all the wars I intend to fight, Danny. Now, tending my roses in this little place on the Mexican border, I intend to live what's left of my life to the fullest. And the idiots who fell for the fat mortgage and the big house in the subs, well… they bought it, they can just eat it.

WOW!

JOURNALISM AND HISTORY

On Saturday, I spoke at a conference of professors assessing the history of journalism at NYU. I caught two fascinating papers by scholars before plunging into my unmoderated panel on Vietnam, Iraq and the media parallels that unite the two wars.

The snatches of history by the Professors sounded right. One was about two Doctors who challenged the Comstock Laws dating back to the l880s that used the Postal Service to enforce anti-obscenity, pornograohy statues and anti-sex education rules for forty years to cleanse America of the immoral and the impure. Comstock was the J Edgar Hoover of his age and the forerunner to the likes of Attorney General Ashcoft who draped a nude statue in the Justice Department or the FCC that is fining networks for incidents like Janet Jackson's Boob reveal.

The other paper was about an incident in l913 when a radical magazine called THE MASSES denounced the Associated Press with a cutting cartoon for its coverage of a mine strike. For denouncing the AP as a lying monopoly, editor Max Eastman and cartoonist Art Young were arrested at the AP's behest which then denounced any suggestion that it was a monopoly.

Long articles about the AP's benevolence suddenly appeared in major newspapers extolling its virtues. Eastman and Young's case never came to court and years later, after World War 2, the Courts found that the AP was a monopoly. What was especially fascinating was that the Professor who discussed his research was denied access to the AP's archives today, and, ironically, he is an ex AP reporter. A further irony: AP President Tom Curley is a leading advocate of more freedom of information protection for the press.

The war presentations had their moments too—especially in the validation of all the speakers that the parallels between Iraq and Vietnam are many and prescient. Eric Boehlert author of "Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush (he says the press HATES the title) shared some fascinating findings of research on current war coverage. He looked into the coverage of the threat of a civil war in Iraq back in the period 2002-2003 when the war was being waged by the media before the invasion got underway. How many media stories were there that hinted at or explored that possibility?

The answer is astounding; of tens of thousands of stories indexed that had three or more references to Iraq in the Times, Washington Post, AP, NPR etc—and we are talking TENS OF THOUSANDS—only a trickle, or handful raised the possibility of the scenario we are seeing played out daily. Some outlets had one, others 3, but the threat was treated as virtually non-existent So much for the depth of coverage and sources consulted.

An official hostorian for the US Army was next and I braced for a defense of the military or the media. He was as critical as everyone else and read a memo to the US Ambassadir from Barry Zorinthian, a US Public Affairs advisor written in Saigon just after the Tet Offensive warning of the defeat to come. The historian substituted the word Iraq for the word Vietnam in the memo and it fit eerily,

My turn finally came and you can check my book WHEN NEWS LIES to get the essence of my spiel.

REJECTED LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Stuart Ewen's brilliant new site on rejected letters to the editor is now up. Check it out

SEEKING INSPIRATION

As Mediachannel fights for survival, I am looking for sources of inspiration. I found some in a song from Leonard Cohen:

The Bells lyrics
(Written By L Cohen, Performed In "Night Magic")—cf the lyrics to the song "Anthem" on the Cohen album "The Future")

(The birds they sang at break of day
Start again, I heard them say
Nor dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be.

The wars they will be fought again
The holy dove be caught again
Bought and sold and bought again
Until we set them free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
The light behind to see.

Add up the parts, not yours the sum
Strike up the march, there is no drum
Every heart to love must come
Like a refugee

So lets all "ring the bells that still can ring," and see how and if we might figure out how to keep Mediachannel channeling in the months ahead. If you live in or near Rochester New York, set aside next Friday for the national premiere hosted by Dr. Robert D. Manning of my new film IN DEBT WE TRUST at the Little Theater at 7 PM. See IndebtweTrust.com with more dates that we are adding.

Comments to Dissector@mediachannel.org

Comment on this post...

Spread The Word: Please forward this to interested friends and colleagues >>

----------------------------------------------

Concerned about the media? TELL A FRIEND!

© 2007 MediaChannel.org