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Mon, February 11, 2008 09:15:05 AMFrom:
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NEWS DISSECTOR: Obama Still On A Roll As Progressives Debate What It Means; Gates in Baghdad
NEWS DISSECTOR February 11, 2008
Obama Still On A Roll As Progressives Debate What It Means; Gates in Baghdad
POSTED AT 7:21 PM SUNDAY: MAJORITY BELIEVES WE ARE ALREADY IN A RECESSSION, OBAMA WINS MAINE, AND GRAMMY FOR AUDIO BOOk BEATING BILL C, ASSASSINS STRIKE IN EAST TIMOR
OBAMA IS SWEEPING BUT HILL AIMS AT BIG STATES
GATES IN IRAQ, MEDIA LACKS CRITICAL EDGE
WRITERS GUILD SAYS IT WON STRIKE, MEMBERS TO VOTE
Remember the war? No one else seems to be.
WELCOME TO BAGHDAD, SECRETARY GATES, HE CLAIMS THE SURGE IS WORKING
A suicide car bomb killed 33 people in Iraq on Sunday, a security official said, hours before U.S. Another 5 US soldiers gone.
AM UPDATE: Gates now says troop "drawdowns" may not happen, a sign that the "surge" is not surging and that the country is not being pacified. Last night on 60 Minutes, Barack Obama seems to have accepted the view that there is less violence in Iraq. Is that the case? Not from what I see in the press outside this country.
Watch how this is covered. So far the stress is on making progress: Ramzy Baround comments:
In the competitive world of media today, swift and conveniently selective reporting is of prime importance. Google News, for example, claims to scan 4,500 news sources, of which only a few are highlighted as main stories. There are thousands of similar services, all competing to produce a story in the fastest time. Thorough - and thus slower - reporting is relegated and crucial information often appears too little too late.
The Iraq story, which has occupied a huge proportion of headline news for years, serves as a good example of this.
On February 1st, only a few minutes apart, two Iraqi women detonated themselves in two crowded pet markets in the Iraqi capital. Authorities said that 98 people were reportedly killed and 200 were wounded. Eyewitnesses reported a grizzly scene where human and animal body parts littered the streets, hundreds of feet away from the blasts.Any thorough analysis of the story would have to examine several related factors. First, it would need to juxtapose the high death toll with US and Iraqi governments' reports of 'calm' in the Baghdad area. The claim of a 'return to normalcy' in the Iraqi capital has been propagated for months, as a way of validating US President's Bush's military 'surge'. Even if we buy into the questionable statistics aimed at hyping the positive outcome of the surge - questionable because they are only promoted by US and Iraqi military sources, with vested interests in downplaying the seriousness of the 'insurgency' - the violence seems to have shifted from the capital into northern areas, especially Mosul….
IN EAST TIMOR: ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON PRESIDENT
AM UPDATE: Prime Minister Guzman says this was a coup attempt. The rebel leader was killed. President Ramos Horta is now in critical condition in an induced coma according to the BBC. A State of Emergency has been proclaimed.
DILI, East Timor - East Timor President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was wounded in an attack on his home Monday by renegade soldiers, an army spokesman said.
An Associated Press reporter at the scene said Ramos-Horta was taken away in an ambulance to a hospital run by Australian troops. It was unclear what condition Ramos-Horta was in, army spokesman Maj. Domingos da Camara said.
One of Ramos-Horta's guards was killed in the attack, he said
UNDERNEWS—TELEGRAPH UK: CLINTON WANTS PARTY BOSSES TO MAKE OBAMA STAND DOWN
NEW: Hillary Clinton Replaces Her Campaign Manager
TELEGRAPH, UK - Hillary Clinton's most senior advisers are in a state of "panic" about her presidential prospects and are plotting to enlist Democrat leaders in Congress to thwart her rival Barack Obama's ambitions. The Clinton camp is braced for Mr Obama to win a series of primary elections over the next three weeks, which they fear could hand the Illinois senator unstoppable momentum in the race for the White House.
The Clinton camp hopes to stop the Obama bandwagon by winning Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4, after which Mrs Clinton is planning to call on party grandees including Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Harry Reid, the party's leader in the Senate, to persuade Mr Obama to stand down. Clinton aides have privately admitted that Mr Obama would only consider such a move if offered the position of vice presidential running mate, something Mrs Clinton has always been reluctant to consider.
A senior Democrat who has discussed Clinton campaign thinking with a member of her inner circle said: "The Clintons are in a state of panic. She has to win both Texas and Ohio."
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THE OBAMATHON
Obama wins three more states….Virgin Islands…Here's one person's account from Nebraska: "xxx had a good time in spite of pushing a wheelchair and going around strollers, and waiting in long lines. This is his first time to caucus and most people were in a good mood. Obama clearly won as everyone lines up for their candidate. Everyone knows who you are voting for. The good side of it all is there is no electronic hanky or wacko ballots that are confusing. There was a sense of community and all types voted for Obama. Older farmers etc. …"
He's winning primaries and hearts. Here's a testimonial from supporter no doubt released to challenge, Hillary's appeal to older women. Jayyne Stahl sent me this message from Patricia Wald:
I have spent more than 40 years of my near-80 in public
service as a federal judge, international judge, public interest
lawyer and government official. A veteran of the woman's movement
since its infancy in the 1960's, an ardent Democrat and an equally
ardent supporter of women's rights-to-choose, to work, to live as we
see fit, and yes, one day to elect a woman President, I hail the
advances in my lifetime that have resulted in Senator Clinton's
dynamic bid for the Presidency.But women my age fought for the opportunity to be judged on
our skills, talents and abilities, not on our gender, and that is the
standard by which Senator Clinton's candidacy should be judged.
Perhaps we were naïve, but legions of us believed that if we were
allowed to enter the game alongside men, we would prove our worth.Which is a prelude to why I now support Barack Obama and have recently spent 8 days on the icy streets of Cedar Rapids , Iowa campaigning for him.
Fank Johnson writes me:" Oh, oh. What's going on here?
Yesterday, Barack Obama swept the caucuses and primaries in three states and the US Virgin Islands. The media have met this result with a mixture of amusement and growing alarm. Barring a miracle recovery by the Hillary Clinton campaign, Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. Then, he'll go on to win the election in November to become the 44th president of the United States. Here are some reasons why:
Hill-Bill-y made the fatal mistake of reading the newspapers. They believed the headlines which trumpeted the presumed coronation of Hillary Clinton as the first woman president. She did all the right things in positioning herself to become our nation's leader and commander-in-chief. She waffled about the war. She promised health care for all. She followed her handlers' advice. Yet, despite all her careful planning and execution, she finds herself in a swiftly sinking campaign ship.
The American people don't like to be told the election is a fait accompli. They still believe in the sacred democratic principle of one-person/one-vote. Indeed, the media and the Clinton campaign tried to convince the electorate Hillary was the anointed one; the delegate race was over before it began and there was no alternative to this pre-set scenario. All this did was stir up resentment among the voters. It also compelled them to ask the question: Why? Why was anything they were hearing inevitable? If we live in a genuine democracy, then why is anything inevitable — especially before the first vote was cast?
CAROLYN KAY IN CHICAGO RAISES CONCERNS
Why do Peggy Noonan, George Will and David Brooks favor Obama? (David Seaton's News Links) Because they are terrified of Hillary Clinton, that's why… It is this simple: in recent decades the Clintons are the only Democrats that win elections against Republicans… They don't want to ever face them again, no more complicated than that. As soon as Barack Obama is declared the official candidate of the Democratic party the voters will be treated to something similar to the old TV show, "This is your Life"…
And below are some of the things they'll bring out about him. Now, to those who will surely say that I shouldn't do the right's work for them, I say you must have been living under a rock for the last 18 years. The information below is already in the belly of the beast, waiting for the right moment to regurgitate all over the "transformation". And to those who say I shouldn't "bash" Obama, I say, it's not bashing if it's true. How can Democratic primary voters possibly make an informed decision about which candidate to vote for, when they know almost nothing about one of the two who remain?
We Illinois progressives sent Obama to the U.S. Senate, where he promptly joined the Joe Lieberman wing of the Democratic Party. He's not a progressive. But he's a master at pretending to be one. "Obama is a company man."
His economic advisers are very conservative, from the University of Chicago-Milton Friedman school of economics. My favorite economist, Paul Krugman, caught Obama using right-wing talking points on what to do about Social Security and about his health care plan….
WHAT SHOULD REPORTERS BE ASKING?
Dan Froomkin writes on Nieman Watchdog.org
"Reporters should be asking them a simple question: What kind of leadership are you showing right now? Why should we believe you have great leadership ability if you're not showing any on critical issues currently facing Congress and the nation?
By contrast to the Republican presidential candidates who talk as if President Bush doesn't exist (see my recent piece for NiemanWatchdog.org, Rating Bush on a scale of 1 to 10), the Democrats talk about him a lot. But they act as if he wasn't still very much in charge, still ramming legislation through Congress to fund his war in Iraq and generally subvert other key Democratic goals.
It's understandable that the presidential candidates themselves want to focus on what they would do once elected. And sure, being president is awfully different than being just one member of a political party whose majority, at least in the Senate, is tenuous. But to the extent that part of their promise to the American people is that they will be strong leaders, that they will have the courage of their convictions, and that they will reach across party lines and build working political coalitions - why shouldn't journalists ask for evidence in the here and now?
TED GLICK ON ZNET: SECOND THOUGHTS
Three weeks ago in a Future Hope column I wrote about how similar Obama and Clinton are when it comes to positions on issues. That hasn't changed. But I also said this:
"It may be that if Obama becomes President, the political forces he has unleashed-particularly among young people and the African American community-will come to constitute a progressive political bloc that, by means of independent pressure from below, will make it difficult for him to accommodate to the conservative and corporate interests-with whom he has significant connections-who will undoubtedly lean on him."
I've been thinking more and more about this, and I know that other activists who have the same distrust of the Democrats-distrust based on a great deal of empirical evidence and bitter experience-are doing the same. Last night, for example, I heard Amiri Baraka, a leading radical African American activist, articulate the reasons why he believed the progressive movement should get behind Obama.
CONSERVATIVE PEGGY NOONAN ON HILLARY: Can Mrs. Clinton Lose?
If Hillary Clinton loses, does she know how to lose? What will that be, if she loses? Will she just say, "I concede" and go on vacation at a friend's house on an island, and then go back to the Senate and wait?
Is it possible she could be so normal? Politicians lose battles, it's part of what they do, win and lose. But she does not know how to lose. Can she lose with grace? But she does grace the way George W. Bush does nuance.
She often talks about how tough she is. She has fought "the Republican attack machine" that has tried to "stop" her, "end" her, and she knows "how to fight them." She is preoccupied to an unusual degree with toughness. A man so preoccupied would seem weak. But a woman obsessed with how tough she is just may be lethal.
Does her sense of toughness mean that every battle in which she engages must be fought tooth and claw, door to door? Can she recognize the line between burly combat and destructive, never-say-die warfare? I wonder if she is thinking: What will it mean if I win ugly? What if I lose ugly? What will be the implications for my future, the party's future? What will black America, having seen what we did in South Carolina, think forever of me and the party if I do low things to stop this guy on the way to victory? Can I stop, see the lay of the land, imitate grace, withdraw, wait, come back with a roar down the road? Life is long. I am not old. Or is that a reverie she could never have? What does it mean if she could never have it?"
We know she is smart. Is she wise?
Frank Rich | Next Up for the Democrats: Civil War
The New York Times columnist Frank Rich asks: "What if a presidential candidate held what she billed as 'the largest, most interactive town hall in political history' on national television, and no one noticed?"
Waterboarding Revelations; Chavez Vs Exxon; Lierberman Sucking Up To McCain
Waterboarding for God and Country
By Ray McGovern
After one spends 45 years in Washington, high farce does not normally throw one off balance. I found the past few days, however, an acid test of my equilibrium.
McCain Found a Tool With Which to Woo Conservative Republicans: Israel
By Shmuel Rosner
Senator Joe Lieberman is playing a role here. The staunchest Jewish supporter McCain has, Lieberman can promise both Jews and Evangelical voters that McCain is the candidate who will not abandon Israel (no wonder some people still think Lieberman is McCain's top pick for Vice President).
Venezuelan Minister: Oil Company Asset Freeze is "Judicial Terrorism"
Caracas, February 8, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuela's Energy
Minister, Rafael Ramirez, characterised a series of court orders
obtained by Exxon Mobil Corp. in Britain, the Netherlands, and the
Dutch Antilles, freezing up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuelan
state oil firm PDVSA, as "judicial terrorism," in a statement today.The injunctions were solicited by Exxon in anticipation of an
arbitration ruling by the International Centre for Settlement of
Investment Disputes over a compensation claim. As part of a drive to
recover the nation's oil sovereignty the Venezuelan government
nationalized Exxon's 41.7 percent stake in the Cerro Negro project in
May last year with an offer for compensation. However, Exxon not
satisfied, demanded arbitration. Although the U.S. oil giant has not
specified how much it wants in compensation it said its investment in
the project was valued at $750 million at the time the assets were
expropriated."This is pure judicial terrorism," Ramirez told reporters in Caracas.
"If they think that with this they will get us to backtrack on our
nationalization policies, well, gentleman from Exxon Mobil, you are
dead wrong again."
BUSH TO SIGN STIMULUS BILL ON WEDNESDAY
Bear in mind this is a tax rebate bill—your money being advanced. Not new money.
SF CHRONICLE: Lenders pinch borrowing on lines of credit; Homeowners told crisis leaves them little or no equity
CREDIT CRISIS HERE TO STAY IN THE UK
Writers Guild Declares Victory As Strike Ends, Members Vote Tues; Your Letters
WGA SETS TUESDAY VOTE ON END TO STRIKE
The Writers Guild of America boards voted Sunday to submit the proposed end to the writers' strike to a WGA membership vote set for Tuesday that could send writers back to work as soon as Wednesday.
WP: Writers Applaud Deal With Studios TV Work Could Resume This Week
REAL NETWORKS: DOING GOOD "We crossed half a billion dollars in revenue for the first time, and more than doubled our adjusted EBITDA. We formed deep alliances with Viacom's MTV …"
PETE SIMON WRITES
Please check out our Public Radio Blog for Colorado:
I, and several others are writing articles and providing information about ALL public and community radio stations across Colorado. Unlike what the web address may indicate, this is NOT a blog operated by Colorado Public Radio (CPR), which many of us believe is truly against the spirit and intent of public broadcasting. CPR operates in much the way Minnesota Public Radio does.
Several years ago, I wrote a piece for Media Channel about CPR's unsuccessful attempt to buy out KUNC, Greeley which (as of July 24, 2007) today broadcasts with a much stronger signal that reaches most of metro Denver — hence giving CPR more than it can handle (forcing CPR to switch it's classical FM signal in Denver to their "news/info service" sometime this spring (see my piece beginning with the title "CRAZY EIGHTS" on the blog for more info on this).
I have two piece on the blog under the pseudo name "First Responder" — a piece about the proposed BUSH CUTS FOR The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the CRAZY EIGHTS piece about CPR's recent purchase of a second, lower-powered FM station, in Denver.
Thanks for your time. If there is any way you can post our blog link, that would be fabulous.
There's still some life out here on the plains and through the Colorado mountains.
Karen Wald writes; Can you imagine what the reaction of a crowd of upstanding US citizens would be like if a group were demonstrating in support of Osama Bin Laden and Al-Quaeda in mid-town Manhattan or anyplace else in the USA? Yet everyone seems to think it is perfectly normal that in Miami, people would be forming support groups for Luis Posada Carriles, name a street after his co-conspirator Orlando Bosch, and both physically and verbally attack anyone who dared condemn them. This is made easier because papers like the Miami Herald regularly cover-up for these mass murderers. They're never called terrorists except in quotation marks. They are "militant exiles" (sometimes "elderly militant exiles" to make it clearer these are not dangerous men). Only a fraction of the bombings and killings they are known to have committed (and of which they have sometimes publicly boasted and/or justified) are even mentioned. So Code Pink anti-Posada demonstrators weren't actually attacked during their last attempt to demonstrate the need to bring this killer to justice, they only "claimed" to have been "threatened".
A CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN ARTICLE
John Devlin writes from PA:
good stuff, and long overdue. amy goodman brought up the same subject on wednesday's show. it's now up to us to try to force obama/clinton to come clean on the items you mention, because the MSM sure as hell isn't going to.
the logical steps would seem to be that every group from codepink to true majority/moveon to UFPJ to, even, world can't wait, to put pressure on both, or all 3 candidates to start to be specific.
perkins' thesis, along with naomi wolf, naomi klein, chalmers johnson, robert kutner, michael ratner, yourself and others must be addressed or it's just "more of the same". who/what is/are the best conduit for this onslaught??
JAY JAYSON WRITES"
Dear Danny, Re What Is the 'Change We Can Believe In'? Is it possible to be a progressive and a capitalist as well? A new category: 'Progressive Capitalism'?
No one wants to follow Howard Zinn's advice and quote 1967 MLK Jr. condemnations of imperialist wars and predatory international captitalism. 'Progressives' want to play inside the house where it is nice and warm.
HOPING TO REFORM CAPITALISM MAKES YOU COMPLICIT IN ITS INIQUITIES/4
Danny once asked me to stop trying to draft Chomsky for a public media reform organization, and to help MediaChannel instead. My turn to ask Danny to help me and Howard Zinn get people to quote 1967-8 MLK Jr. condemnations of imperialist wars and predatory international."
STEVE FOURNIER RANTS
With the presidential election just a few (38) short weeks away, the embedded mass media can't seem to focus on anything else. Just over the past couple of days, it wasn't news when the executive branch announced to the legislative branch that torture is legal, notwithstanding laws prohibiting such practices. It wasn't news that at least five American kids died in the occupation of Iraq. It wasn't news when a sugar refinery blew up and killed some workers. It wasn't news that the nation's nervous allies in the Afghan adventure were expressing misgivings over all their dead boys. It wasn't news that Russia is beefing up its army. Bleak, even dire economic indicators emerging from a hundred different sources weren't news, but like the other items, were given only passing mention by the embedded mass media. Extended discussion of Romney's political liabilities and Huckabee's political assets left no time for journalism.
People now debate whether the news is censored to keep us from knowing what's going on or is merely edited to appeal to us as an audience. The truth may be simply that political discussion, like all gossip, is cheap. Talking about real issues requires work, and work is money, and if you can sell blather as news, you make more money. Start talking about why people are getting killed at work, and by the time you get finished paying for research and actual journalism, you're in the hole.
A APPEAL FROM JAPAN
Junta Izumi writes from Fukuoka, Japan
A US Marine raped a 14-year old girl in Okinawa,Japan, on February10.
Americans sometimes rape Japanese girls and women.We can't stand the matter any more.
A TEAR FOR CAMDEN TOWN BURNING DOWN
We are rolling into February in this leap year. Leap with us and support Mediachannel.org and encourage your friends to subscribe to this blog. Finally, congrats to the Grammy winners (see Grammy.com for the full list) and to Amy W for being there even though she was banned by the Busheviks. Thanks too for mentioning the hideous fire at London's Camden Market which I visited not long ago with my pal Ovais N. I used to live in Camden Town and salute all the London Firefighters who fought the blaze with nary a casualty.
Camden Town is a vital crossroads of the world and I am sure it will be be back. Let's hope so.
And while we are at it, lets pause to salute the 600 firefighters in South Korea who had a big fight on their hands. AP reports: "An overnight fire destroyed a 610-year-old landmark that was considered the top national treasure, officials said Monday. Police said the cause of the blaze was unclear but one official said arson was suspected.
The fire broke out Sunday night and burned down the wooden structure at the top of the Namdaemun gate that once formed part of a wall that encircled the capital."
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