Back to newsletter listDate:
Wed, June 18, 2008 10:08:46 AMFrom:
MediaChannel.org
Subject:
NEWS DISSECTOR: GAZA AND ISRAEL IN NEW PEACE DEAL, US NIXES CLUSTER BOMB BAN
NEWS DISSECTOR June 18, 2008
GAZA AND ISRAEL IN NEW PEACE DEAL, US NIXES CLUSTER BOMB BAN
"In a major speech on the war in Iraq today, presumptive GOP nominee John McCain said that the Iraqis have split into two factions, Shiites and Sunnis, with a sinister goal in mind.
"My friends, the Iraqis have divided themselves into these two groups for one reason and one reason only," Sen. McCain told an audience in a retirement village in Scottsdale, Arizona. "They are trying to confuse me."
Andy Borowitz, Borowitz Report
STAPLES CENTER THIS, JACK NICHOLSON: CELTICS RULE, WHIPPED LAKERS 131-92.
MEDIA NEWS: TV CREW RELEASED AFTER BEING KIDNAPPED FOR 9 DAYS IN THE PHILLIPINES; PENTAGON JUSTIFIES KILLING OF REUTERS STAFFER IN IRAQ, BLAMES THE NEWS AGENCY FOR DOING ITS JOB
ISRAEL MAY BE IN NEW PEACE MODE
VIOLENCE SURGES IN AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ
RUSH LIMBAUGH SOUNDING LIKE ME
Peace, or some semblance of it may be breaking out out between Israel and Hamas. A Truce with Gaza is in the offing, or so it appears. Brokered by Egypt, some have reported it is happening, others that the reports are premature. Hamas claims the deal has been done:
WP: JERUSALEM, June 17 - Israel and the armed Islamist group Hamas agreed in principle Tuesday to a truce in and around the Gaza Strip, officials on both sides said, capping months of indirect talks brokered by Egypt.
The deal demonstrated Hamas's staying power as the ruler of Gaza and Israel's willingness to reach accommodation with groups it has labeled terrorist organizations. In recent weeks it has intensified negotiations with Lebanon's Hezbollah movement over a possible prisoner transfer and begun indirect peace talks with Syria.
This may come as shock to the zealots in the Israel Lobby who spend most of their time demonizing their enemies in Gaza and relegating them to Dante's circles of hell.
Just a week or two before his own political/personal scandal made Ehut Olmert's position more problematical, he was hinting about invading Gaza again. Is it possible that cooler heads have prevailed as Tel Aviv makes also makes kissyface with Syria.
Could this be a way of neutralizing the allies of Iran? There probably is more to this than meets the eye. Condi Rice and her boss are hunting down legacies, so they may be lurking in the background of these developments.
BBC reported it this way: "Israel and Hamas agree to a truce starting this Thursday, Palestinian officials tell the BBC after Egyptian-brokered talks.
These are the headlines on the Israeli paper Ha'aretz showing that Israel couldn't resist one last strike: The Defense Minister said it is too early to declare calm. Declare calm? "Calm" is the term used for an end to rocket attacks from Gaza which forces there describe as retaliatory.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday cautioned that it was too early to announce that an Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Gaza militant groups had been achieved.
"This evening, the possibility of reaching a calm is being examined. It is still early to declare it, and it is difficult to determine how long it will last," Barak said, speaking during a conference at Beit Yehoshua.
Barak: "It is too early to declare calm in Gaza" (Note: the word peace or ceasefire is avoided.
Egypt: Israel-Hamas truce to begin Thurs. morning; Hamas: 2nd phase of cease-fire to focus on Shalit. 21:55
IAF Gaza strikes kill 6 including gunmen linked to Shalit kidnap
The French news agency AFP reported
An Egyptian official said that a key element was the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, the territory's only one that bypasses Israel, a core demand of Hamas.
The official said the crossing could only be reopened once an agreement had been reached between the Islamist group and secular Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas' Fatah faction, whose forces were ousted from Gaza in June last year after a power struggle over Hamas' victory in democratic elections.
Abbas insists that he alone has the right to control the external borders of the Palestinian territories and up until June last year the crossing operated under an agreement between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the European Union.
Egypt's announcement came after a series of air strikes in Gaza that left six people dead, including a senior fighter with an Al-Qaeda-linked group, according to medics.
Israel Also Arrests Jewish Settlers Caught on Tape Physically Assaulting a Palestinian Farmer.
Peace Pundit: US Won't Sign Int'l Cluster Bomb Treaty
The treaty also contains promises to mobilize international aid to cluster bomb-scarred lands such as southern Lebanon, where a 2006 war between the militant group Hezbollah and Israel left behind an estimated 1 million unexploded bombs…
ATLANTA JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: HAITIANS EATING DIRT AS FOOD THERE GETS SCARCE
This is just one more report on the growing miserable situation there-as the new hurricane season begins. Where is the world? Does anyone care?
LEVEE BREAKS NEAR GULFPORT: "Another rain-swollen levee failed today along the Mississippi River, triggering a dramatic helicopter rescue near Gulfport, Ill.
WAR SURGES IN BAGHDAD: 51 dead, 75 wounded. Shiites Expected to Retaliate. This attack took place in a neighborhood ethnically cleansed of Sunnis. Reportedly they were "brutally driven out." This seems to be part of the US divide and rule strategy of occupation.
REAL NEWS: IRAQI LEGISLATORS CALL FOR US TO LEAVE
TALIBAN TAKES 7 VILLAGES
CIVILIAN SEX ASSAULTS IN AFGHANISTAN
I THEE WED
LA TIMES: From San Diego to San Francisco, same sex couples secure marriage licenses and exchange vows.
TENT CITIES SPRING UP IN CALIFORNIA, WILL SUBPRIMERS GO DOWN?
THIS JUST IN: GOP BLOCKS SENATE BILL TO EXTEND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS TO JOBLESS AMERICANS
CHINA TO US: STOP LECTURING US
That seems to the subtext of Chinese-American economic meetings in Maryland as the US government, speaking for Wall Street, wants China to further deregulate its markets while the Chinese point to the Sub-prime debacle as showing the need for continued regulation. They also blame rising prices worldwide in large part on the engineered fall of the US dollar, a contention that Hank (Goldman Sachs) Paulson rejects. The US has been told it can open new offices to monitor food safety in China once China is allowed to offer similar offices in the USA.
LA TIMES LAUNCHES NEW "COUNTDOWN TO CRAWFORD" BLOG
Countdown to Crawford is a new blog The LA Times is launching to chronicle the last days and the last actions of the Bush administration.
LAW SCHOOL DEAN PLANS WAR CRIMES CONFERENCE
The American Bar Association magazine reports:
The dean of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover is planning a September conference to map out war crimes prosecutions, and the targets are President Bush and other administration officials.
The dean, Lawrence Velvel, says in a statement that "plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth."
Other possible defendants, he said, include federal judges and John Yoo, the former Justice Department official who wrote one of the so-called torture memos.
"We must insist on appropriate punishments," he continued, "including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German http://www.abajournal.com/news/law_school_dean_calls_conference_to_plan_bush_war_crimes_prosecution/Japanese war criminals in the 1940s."
FT: Senior lawyer condemns Guantnamo 'cruelty'
The use of harsh interrogation techniques on detainees at Bay was a "mistake of massive proportions" that damaged US national security, the former senior navy lawyer told the Senate on Tuesday.
ALARMS ON WALL STREET: WHO IS NEXT?
Yesterday, I reported this story from a newspaper in India. Today it was in the Times, way back in the business section.
The charges, which could be filed this week, would represent the first criminal case against the two former Bear Stearns executives and would most likely raise alarms across Wall Street over the handling of complicated mortgage securities.
The collapse of the funds set off a whirlwind of questions about the stability of the mortgage market and about Bear Stearns's financial footing last summer and contributed to the demise of the company.
Investors in the two hedge funds lost about $1.6 billion, and a fire sale of those funds' mortgage assets forced other hedge funds and banks to reassess the dollar values they had assigned to their own mortgage bonds.
Here's What these Subcrimers contributed to
TENT CITIES IN CALIFORNIA
This is from a French 24 Report:
In the wake of the housing crash, "tent cities" have been springing up in several places in California. The story is not that new. However, it has not received much mainstream press. Therefore, many are unaware this is even happening. The quality of some of the videos is not that good. Two of the better ones are from international writers. By the way, if you have not yet seen any of these, you may be in for a shock. Let's take a look.
THE NEW DANGER: DEFLATION
TD: NORTH KOREA AS THE WORLD's CANARIES
Rush Limbaugh Seems To Agree:"Orgy of Coverage" About Self-Important Media
NORTH KOREA AS THE WORLD's CANARIES
AFRICAN LEADERS CALL FOR FREE ELECTIONS IN ZIM
Two weeks before the presidential run-off elections in
Zimbabwe, over forty prominent African leaders have
released an urgent call for free, fair, peaceful, and
transparent elections. The open letter was published on
June 13 and June 14 in full-page advertisements in
South Africa's Business Day, the Financial Times, and
the New York Times. The initial signatories included 18
former presidents or prime ministers, two Nobel
Laureates, musicians Youssou N'Dour and Angelique
Kidjo, and former United Nations Secretaries General
Kofi Annan and Boutros Boutros-Ghali. It was sponsored
by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, founded and directed by
African mobile phone magnate Mo Ibrahim.
For previous AfricaFocus bulletins on Zimbabwe
RUSH LIMBAUGH ON TIM RUSSERT
Tim Russert passed away before the program ended, but the news on Friday didn't happen until afterwards. I actually got the news at about a quarter of three Friday afternoon in an e-mail that said "Not For Reporting" because it hadn't been confirmed. A very, very, very sad thing. I knew Tim Russert, and he was just a prince of a guy. But I have to tell you, folks, this orgy of coverage from about four o'clock Friday afternoon on ceased to be about Tim Russert and instead it's been about the media and who they are and how important they are. It's almost taken on a Princess Diana circumstance, where everybody wanted to be part of the story. All these people, second and third, fourth, fifth tier people coming out, "Yeah, Tim was a big friend of mine," and telling all these stories. The media doing everything they could to make this about them and their role in American culture today. It got to be a little bit unseemly after awhile, as it went nonstop into Saturday and into Sunday."
MY MAN
I made some similar points as Rush. Yikes. And was even blogged about by that coolest of cool writers, my man: Donnell Alexander:
My Man Danny Schechter
He wrote something interesting about the way Tim Russert's death is being covered in the mainstream media. Here's one compelling point from the News Dissector's coverage:
"Meet the Press never challenges the press; It helps set their agenda."
And I think this was well-said, too:
"While there were few criticisms of him in life, there are none allowed in death. We saw that with Ronald Reagan whom all the TV networks lionized."
And this is relevant because?
"Tim with his little white board commenting on the Florida election in 2000. No one remembers him investigating how that election was torpedoed."
He was a leader in the field, but come on. The news cycle has moved on. Let's get some critical distance.
MOVED ON? Not with more sympathy to be milked: CBS took out a full page ad in the NY Times today to honor
Tim Russert. What network will be next to try to associate itself with sympathy for this loss. Rush is right: Its all about them. They fear that their world is dying (as I explained in 2005 with my mini-manifesto THE DEATH OF MEDIA (Melville House Books.)
PALESTINIAN MILITANTS CLAIM TO HAVE A CYBER WAR UNIT
a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/etc/synopsis.html">PBS FRONTLINE'S VERSION OF "SICKO"
Gina Bentley writes:
I stumbled upon this while being *sick* and lying on the couch (yes, the irony!), about a Frontline documentary that seems so well done and forthright.
It goes to and researches 5 other capitalist democracies who have well-received healthcare programs.
It also debunks some claims that we've all heard such as long waits to see a doctor or specialist.
"Reid reports next from Japan, which boasts the second largest economy and the best health statistics in the world.
The Japanese go to the doctor three times as often as Americans, have more than twice as many MRI scans, use more drugs, and spend more days in the hospital.
Yet Japan spends about half as much on health care per capita as the United States."
T.R. Reid is interviewed after a showing of his documentary to the Senate Finance Committee and a video of the Q&A is available here:
A half-dozen military helicopters flew low over parts of Denver Monday night as part of a security drill organized by the U.S. Department of Justice. Denver police said they were aware of the operation, but could provide no details.
The secret drills coincided with preparations for the Democratic National Convention, which will take place in Denver in late August. The Denver Post reported that the military aircraft "buzzed above the Pepsi Center," the site of the convention.
A military spokesman, though insisted to the Rocky Mountain News that the military drills were unrelated to planning for the convention, which is expected to draw thousands of protesters as did the 2004 party conventions in Boston and New York.
"It's nothing more than Special Operations Command training with local authorities," said Lt. Nathan Potter, with Special Operations Command, which has authority over special forces from all branches of the military.
Special-effects maestro Stan Winston dies at 62 - Yahoo! News
Ralph Nader is in New York speaking at Symphony Space Wed Night at 7:30. Ralph's former running mate, Winona LaDuke, now backing Obama, was in town earlier to appear on the Colbert Report. She held her own brilliantly and gave SC a Native American name which translates as "smarty pants."
That's my take. Your comments welcome to Dissector@mediachannel.org
|
Make a tax-deductible donation today. You can send a check made out to our fiscal sponsor: or If you have ideas or suggestions, please write to Dissector@mediachannel.org REMEMBER: THE SITE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN. Thank you! |
Spread The Word: Please forward this to interested friends and colleagues >>
----------------------------------------------
Become a Member | Send a News Tip | Subscribe to Other MC Emails | ***
You are subscribed as ralrusu@gmail.com.
To modify your preferences, visit the subscription management page.
Concerned about the media? TELL A FRIEND!
© 2008 MediaChannel.org
