POLITICAL ALLIES: ACTION/Calendar: Martin Luther
King Jr. - Visionary and Trade Unionist
CONTENTS:
PHILLY AREA ACTION
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL ACTION:
________________________________
PHILLY AREA ACTION:
3 events to celebrate peace activism and oppose the
war.
1. Parkwy NW Peace and Justice High School is
holding a Civil Rights Museum at Germantown High School, 2nd floor from 9-
11:00 AM on Jan 21st . Students of Parkway NW High School for Peace and Social
Justice have created a "Teach In" about the Civil Rights Movement to
honor the legacy of Dr. King. Featured projects will showcase varying aspect of
the movement, from famous speeches to female voices to Brown vs. Board of Ed.
to the effects of the movement beyond black and white, yesterday, today and
tomorrow.
Laura Richlin, Peace
Program Coordinator, Parkway High School for Peace and Social Justice
7500 Germantown Avenue,
Philadelphia, PA 19119
215-248-6220 school
office, 215-248-6669 direct, parkwaypeace@hotmail.com
2. "Make War No More!" MARTIN LUTHER KING
DAY of NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE at LOCKHEED MARTIN, Sponsored by the Brandywine
Peace Community.
Monday, January 21, Noon, at the Lockheed Martin weapons
complex, Mall & Goddard Boulevard, Valley Forge, PA (behind the King of
Prussia Mall).
"The Martin Luther King Day of Nonviolent Resistance
will include Nonviolent Civil Disobedience (Those willing to face arrest for
nonviolent civil disobedience in the MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY of NONVIOLENT
RESISTANCE at LOCKHEED MARTIN need to attend a planning and preparation
meeting. Please call the Brandywine Peace Community,
610-544-1818.)
Others of us will participate in the demonstration with a
Philly Code Pink banner.
3. Philly Code Pink monthly planning meeting- Jan 21, 5PM
at 30th St.
Station (tables near the windows.)
See you on Martin Luther King's Birthday to fight for
Justice.
*************************************************************************
"Trees of Reconciliation: A Tu B'Shvat Seder
of Healing and Reparation."
Monday, January 21, 6-8
p.m.
Germantown Friends
Meeting, 47, W Coulter St. Philadelphia, PA 19144
Jewish Voice for Peace has created a new Hagaddah which
weaves liturgy, poetry and song to explore the legacy of trees in Jewish
tradition and in Israeli and Palestinian culture. The seder is
political/cultural (not Kabbalistic/mystical) This is the first step of
launching the "Trees of Reconciliation" initiative, which will seek
in the coming years to raise money to replant olive trees in the West Bank and,
at the same time, to raise consciousness among U.S. Jews about the realities of
the Israeli occupation. We are excited about both aspects of this new
initiative, and look forward to build an ongoing economic and educational
program beginning with this year’s Tu B'Shvat seder.
ALL ARE INVITED!
***********************************************************************************************
We can still save Germantown Ave!
A couple of weeks ago, I sent you a message about the
negative impact on Trolley Car Diner and other small businesses in Mt.
Airy/Chestnut Hill due to the PennDot construction project on Germantown Ave. I
was pleased with the outpouring of support from friends and others in the
community. Many asked what they can do to help.
First, please make a special effort to support businesses
in and around the construction zone. We need your continued patronage to stay
open during this difficult period. Check out www.savetheave.org for special
promotions and construction status.
Second, let our local
elected officials know that businesses need support during and after the
PennDOT construction. . The Coalition to Save Germantown Avenue and Mt. Airy
Business Association has requested $250,000 to market businesses along
Germantown Ave during construction. Contact State Senator LeAnna
Washington at (215) 242-0472 or washington@pasenate.com, State Representative
Cherelle Parker at (215) 242-7300 or CParker@pahouse.net , and State
Representative Rosita Youngblood at 215-849-6426 or ryoungblood@pahouse.net to
let them know you support marketing funds to keep our businesses alive.
Finally, contact PennDOT
and inform them that you are concerned about negative side effects of the
project. I am particularly worried about the amount of trash and other debris
piling up as a result of construction. You can reach the regional
District Executive of PennDOT, Lester Toaso, at 610-205-6660 or
ltoaso@state.pa.us. Please let him know that our community is watching and we
will not allow our neighborhood to be turned into a garbage can! Please request
that PennDOT either hire a dedicated cleaning crew or pay the Mt. Airy Business
Improvement District to keep the construction zone clean.
Strengthening Community
Through Economic Development
Ken Weinstein, (215)
848-1133 x204
_________________________________________
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF
ACTION SATURDAY, JAN 26, 2008
In Philadelphia:
March from 5th and Market to
the Israeli Consulate at 15th and Locust. Assemble at 12 noon.
FRIDAY, JAN 25, 2008 at 12:30
pm, we will hold a press conference at the Israeli Consulate (15 th &
Locust) demanding that the relief convoy be allowed to cross.
GAZA : LIFT THE BLOCKADE!! SUPPORT THE RELIEF CONVOY TO GAZA NOW!
Please bring signs & banners.
Saturday, January 26th, relief
convoys will depart from Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Beer Sheva, bearing
signs "GAZA: LIFT THE BLOCKADE!" Converging at Yad Mordechai at 12
noon, the rally will be at Erez Checkpoint at 13.00. On the other side will be
hundreds of Gazans, organized by The Palestinian International Campaign to End
the Siege on Gaza (www.end-gaza-siege.ps), including psychiatrist and human
rights activist, Dr. Eyad Sarraj.
The convoy will carry vital
supplies, with a special focus on water filters, since the water of Gaza is an
undrinkable cocktail of brine, sewage, pesticides and oil, with levels of
nitrates ten times higher than those set by the WHO, and coliform eight times
higher: denial of filters to Gazans is an unacceptable violation of basic
humanitarian standards. We will insist that the military authorities allow the
goods entry into Gaza, are prepared for prolonged stay near Erez, and a
public/judicial campaign.
For tax deductible
contributions in the U.S.: Checks should be written to:
"Eschaton/Gush Shalom," with "Gaza Convoy" in the memo
section, and mailed to Eschaton Foundation, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA
95060. At the same time an e-mail should be sent to Gush Shalom at
correspondence@gush-shalom.org indicating that a check has been sent to
Eschaton for the Gaza convoy and including the amount. That way
your donation can be used to make purchases for the action on Jan. 26.
Thank you for whatever you are able to do to help, and please pass this urgent
request on to your friends and political colleagues.
Links for more information:
http://www.end-gaza-siege.ps/IndexEn.htm
http://www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/gaza.htm
http://www.phr.org.il/phr/article.asp?articleid=506&catid=55&pcat=-1&lang=ENG
_____________________________________________________________________
Faces of CFS exhibit at 30th
Street Station right now/ Stop by & Tell your friends!
Also, if you hear something on
the radio or see something on TV please let me know so I can try to track it
down, too. This Sunday morning between 6-7 am there is an interview on WHYY, so
you earlybirds can check it out. The national
traveling photo exhibit, "The Faces of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome," is
now on display in the North Waiting Room of Amtrak's 30th Street Station
(corner of 30th and Market streets) through January 21.
Lela [mailto:lelabetts@comcast.net]
__________________________________________________
PA Dept. of Agriculture backs
down!
Pa. backs off milk-label change
By Tom Avril and Amy Worden INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
Pennsylvania agriculture
officials backed down today from a controversial ban on milk labels that
identify the milk as coming from cows not treated with synthetic growth
hormone.
The ban was to take effect Feb.
1, to the dismay of consumer activists and many smaller dairies who choose not
to inject their cows with hormones. But the move was superseded by new
standards issued today, after a review by the office of Gov. Rendell. Rendell
ordered the agency to review the policy after consumer outcry, his spokesman said”
The governor's position was relatively simple: he wanted the labels to be
accurate and informative," said Rendell's press secretary Chuck Ardo.
Though labels are once again permitted to mention that hormones were not used,
the standards require a disclaimer stating there is no difference in milk from
cows injected with hormones and milk from cows that are not injected. Such
disclaimers already are printed on many milk cartons.
"It's basically a complete back-down," said Michael Hansen, a senior
scientist at the nonprofit group Consumers Union, which had opposed the ban.The
agriculture department had issued the ban in October, arguing that a misleading
impression might be conveyed by identifying milk as coming from cows not
treated with synthetic hormones. Pennsylvania would have been the first state
to implement such a ban.
The synthetic hormones are said to boost milk production by about 10 percent,
and were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1994, though they
are not allowed to be injected in Canada or Europe. The product, which is
marketed as Posilac, is used on about one-third of U.S. dairy herds, according
to the manufacturer, St. Louis-based Monsanto.
Contact
staff writer Tom Avril at 215-854-2430 or tavril@phillynews.com
===============================
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL ACTION:
IS THIS THE END OF THE YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS BUS FOR
PEACE?
Please help Jim Goodnow, the bus driver and the Iraq
Veterans Against the War (IVAW) in replacing their bus that was destroyed by
fire. Even if you cannot do much, every dollar counts! And if you cannot, would
you forward this message to friends who may help?
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/30047
Monique saw Jim last night
and made a short video of his message you can hear and read more by going
to: http://www.yellowrosepeacebus.blogspot.com/
Those of you who
participated in our "Human Chain For Peace" in Philadelphia on
October 27th, remember the "Yellow Rose of Texas Bus For Peace".
Please, don't let it die.
On the site above there is a link for donation via
PayPal.
Check or money order
donations can be mailed, made out to:
Veterans For Peace, Chapter 106 (bus fund)
Mail your tax-deductible
contribution to:
Veterans For Peace, Chapter 106,
1804 Tree Line Drive, Carrollton, Texas, 75007
___________________________________________________________________
Rock Video showing in theaters promoting military
enlistment (U.S.)
In NYC, I have seen shorter trailers about the National
Guard and/or US
Army, which were part of the coming attractions for a main
film at theaters
on 42nd. St. Those trailers emphasized military
service as humanitarian
efforts, patriotism, comradeship, adventure and
travel. Then friends told
me about seeing them in other local theaters in
Manhattan.
If you live in a suburban
area, speak to the theater manager.
A demonstration and boycott of the theater may be
effective.
As we know, the military
budget for advertising is close to $4 billion and its message is everywhere -
billboards, magazines, hot cup holders, give-away items, at rock
concerts. The emphasis is on machismo, brotherhood (and sisters), and
warrior savior. But the bigger than life video is frightening.
A petition or flood of letters to
CEO's and corporate headquarters
demanding removal of this propaganda video or equal time
for a rebuttal
trailer. Boycott theaters that show military trailers.
Speak to the manager and
find out what he/she can do.
Flyers to counter the
dramatic and theatrical military message displayed
in the trailers and to show the other side:
The National Guard video
implies that war is glorious and the good guys
never die -
The truth is that soldiers die, civilians die, children
die.
The truth is that tens of thousands of military personnel
and civilians
suffer severe injuries and disabilities. Needed are
visuals as powerful as
demonstrated in the video.
The combination of bravery
in times of trouble, providing care and bringing
freedom, combined with strength and self-esteem is
enticing to youth who
have few choices after high school graduation. It's also
like many video
games that kids now play. Students have told me that the
military is cool. And when a rock group promotes the National Guard, it
may well provide him with the inspiration to
do the right and patriotic thing and enlist.
The video is shown at
matinees. For younger children, it's just another form of militarization of our
kids - preparing for action and beginning to see war, battle, and destruction
as a common part of life.
Please forward ideas and
examples of actions taken by groups around the
country, so our local group can develop a program/action
to counter the
militarization of youth.
Peace, Barbara H -1.
barbara harris [bharris21@nyc.rr.com]
2. www.GrannyPeaceBrigadePhiladelphia.org
___________________________________________________________________
FEBRUARY 5TH SHAPING UP TO BE HISTORIC DAY IN RACE FOR
U.S.PRESIDENT
Democrats will hold contests in 22 states and one
territory on February 5, known as Super Tuesday, while Republicans have
scheduled contests in 21 states for that day. According to The Washington Post,
52% of all pledged Democratic delegates will be awarded on Super Tuesday,
compared with the 4% that will have been allocated in the four opening
competitions of the year. The Republican delegates elected that day will make
up 41% of the total available. Contests in Nevada and South Carolina, along
with Florida's primary on January 29, are seen as critical for building
momentum before Super Tuesday. In California, the biggest prize on February 5,
state election officials estimate that more than half of voters may vote by
mail. About 42% of Democrats and 47% of Republicans in Florida have requested
absentee ballots. Nationwide, 31 states allow some form of early voting with
"no excuse required." New York, whose primary is also February 5,
requires voters to state a reason when they apply for an absentee ballot, leading
political professionals to speculate that such voting by mail will not be as
large a factor there as in other states. In Arizona, another Super Tuesday
state, balloting has already begun.
"Please be sure that
you are registered, educated and know the voting rules for your state,"
said George J. Kourpias, President of the Alliance. "If you have questions
about identification requirements or voting by mail, it is better to ask your
local elections office sooner rather than later." Information is always
available at 1-866-OUR-VOTE, the National Campaign for Fair Elections hotline.
____________________________________________________________________
Congress will soon decide
whether to grant immunity to telecom companies that may have violated the law
in assisting with the administration's illegal wiretapping program by handing
over their customers' private records without a warrant.
Granting retroactive immunity
would pull the plug on current and pending litigation against these companies,
allowing the Bush administration to keep buried important information about the
extent of its illegal spying programs.
Don't let it happen. Here are
two ways you can make an impact:
1. Please use
this form to send an e-mail to your senators -- we will also use this action
like a petition in our lobbying efforts, bringing to senators a record of the
numerous action-takers in their states.
http://www.pfaw.org/go/NoTelecomImmunity
2. If you
have a video camera or a webcam, send us a short video (preferably under a
minute), by the end of the week, telling members of Congress in your own words
why they should say NO to telecom immunity.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers may hold a telecom immunity
hearing as early as next week and our hope is to get Rep. Conyers activist
video testimonials that may be useful in the hearing.
In addition to making the
videos available to Rep. Conyers, we'll compile and deliver them to the Hill
prior to the Senate vote.
Video Guidelines
Please submit videos that are
less than 60 seconds long (or not much longer) and don't exceed 100MB. Make
sure you identify yourself and where you are from in your video (and also in
the e-mail message you send us).
How to Submit
Once you've shot your video and
have saved it as a file on your computer, send it to us in one of the following
ways:
1. E-mail us
the file at fisa@pfaw.org. (Please include at minimum your name, city and state
in the e-mail message.)
2. Use the
file-sending site YouSendIt to upload your video to the web -- no registration
required. YouSendIt will then send your video to us. To use YouSendIt:
i. Go to www.YouSendIt.com.
ii. In the "To"
field, enter fisa@pfaw.org.
iii. In the "From"
field, enter your e-mail address.
iv. In the "Select a
file" section, hit "Browse," and find your video file on your
computer.
v. Your video will then upload,
and you'll be presented with a screen saying your upload was successful.
vi. Make sure you provide your
information (name, city, state) in the "message" field and then
simply hit "Send." (There is no need to click any of the other
options that are offered.)
Please note that by submitting
a video you are releasing ownership of it (see terms below), but we won't use
it in a way to which you object. We'd like to post some of the videos on YouTube
and Facebook, as well as pfaw.org, to get the word out, so please let us know
in your e-mail or in the message area provided by YouSendIt if you'd prefer we
not share your video with anyone other than members of Congress.
Thank you for your activism!
-- Your Allies at People For
the American Way
P.S. If you need some more
background information on telecom immunity before recording your video
submission, you can get some facts here:
http://media.pfaw.org/PDF/capitolhill/2007-12-17-FISA-reform.pdf
____________________________________________________________________
Martin Luther King Jr. - Visionary and Trade Unionist by
James Parks
<http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/01/18/martin-luther-king-jr-visionary-and-trade-unionist/>
AFL-CIO Blog
January 18, 2008
We all know that Martin Luther King Jr. was a
visionary. We know he was a champion for civil rights.
But did you know that he also was a strong supporter of
unions and workers' rights from Day One?
As AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff said last
year, speaking before the Electrical Workers:
I would submit to you that Dr. King
was a trade
unionist. He believed in our movement
and struggled
for our movement. He knew and he
preached that
civil rights were inadequate without
economic
rights. Dr. King knew that our
economic system
allows a few to have too much power
and wealth and
workers to have too little, so he
believed that we
have a responsibility to struggle to
push down
wealth and power from those who have
too much to
those who have too little. That is why
he was a
trade unionist. His last great
campaign was the
Poor People's Campaign to organize
America's poor
to fight for economic justice and
dignity.
Click here to read excerpts from Acuff's speech:
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/01/16/dr-king-was-a-trade-unionist
In 1961, King explained his belief that the civil
rights and union movements were linked. Speaking before
the AFL-CIO Convention that year, he said:
The two most dynamic and cohesive
liberal forces in
the country are the labor movement and
the Negro
freedom movement... Together we can
bring about the
day when there will be no separate
identification
of Negroes and labor.
Four years later, he told the Illinois AFL-CIO
convention:
Negroes in the United States read the
history of
labor and find it mirrors their own
experience. We
are confronted by powerful forces
telling us to
rely on the goodwill and understanding
of those who
profit by exploiting us. They deplore
our
discontent, they resent our will to
organize, so
that we may guarantee that humanity
will prevail
and equality will be exacted.
And in 1967, one year before he died, King wrote in his
book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
that unions are just as important as business in
ensuring economic success for people of color:
Our young people need to think of
union careers as
earnestly as they do business careers
andprofessions.
This year, the annual AFL-CIO King Day celebration is
in Memphis, the site of his last campaign and where he
was assassinated while helping city sanitation workers
gain a voice at work. (See video of King supporting the
sanitation workers:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1378314715?bctid=1373284584)
Michael Honey points out his book, Going Down Jericho
Road (available at The Union Shop Online
https://unionshop.aflcio.org/index.cfm?CFID=5828198&CFTOKEN=87338600),
that King always supported the union movement as a means
of bringing justice to the workplace. Honey is one of
the speakers at the annual King Day celebration.
King had qualities that allowed him to
lead a mass
movement that joined working-class
people to the
middle class through the black church.
In a
remarkable few moments in his first
speech at the
first mass meeting of the Montgomery
Improvement
Association, King put the struggle
against
segregation into a moral and
world-historical
context. 'There comes a time when
people get tired
of being trampled over by the iron
feet of
oppression,' and have to organize, he
said. Unions
had set the precedent. 'When labor all
over this
nation came to see that it would be
trampled over
by capitalistic power, it was nothing
wrong with
labor getting together organizing and
protesting
for its rights.'
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_____________________________________________
Inky Notes (January 12,
2008): The Inky’s Continued Excessive Attention and Kindness Toward
Bush; Bush Trip to the Middle East; Bush as
Constitution-Buster; Satullo on Impeachment and Current Candidates;
More on Rubin Bias on Pakistan Crisis, Edward S. Herman
The Inky has shown some signs of improvement recently, with its letters
columns allowing longer, more powerful analyses (previously giving excessive
space to idiotic effusions of the rightwing), and occasional surprises
like the Commentary column authored by three members of the House Judiciary
Committee entitled “Impeach Cheney Now” (Dec. 27). But the
rightwing still dominates the Commentary page, and the Inky remains a prime
source if you are interested in the trials and tribulations of Britney
Spears (and now her sister Jamie Lynn Spears), Paris Hilton, Janet
Jackson, Lindsay Lohan, Alycia Lane, and the gang (see, e.g.,
“Just how low can Lilo go?” [Jan. 3]; Mary Sanchez, “Another
Spears soap opera spotlights teen pregnancy” [ Jan. 2]; “2007 In
Gossip: Sinning Celebs of ‘07” [Dec. 29]).
Bush’s Trip to the Middle
East
And they continue to grovel
before George Bush, with everything he says and every trip he makes front
and center and without critical analyses in the news articles, or very often on
the editorial pages. Most recently, Bush is off to the Middle East, and the
Inky features this as big news but misrepresents its probable aims. On January 10th
we were given a front page piece with a Bush and Olmert picture, and misleading
title, by Michael Abramowitz, in “An early act: Nudging the sides
toward accord.” Earlier, “Bush presses on to Mideast
amid change” (January 7), a front page article by Warren Strobel,
which takes it as a given that Bush once strove to create a democratic Middle
East (the mainstream media have never digested the facts that Bush-Cheney
originally intended a Chalabi rule in Iraq, and were only forced into
elections--but not democracy-- by circumstances beyond their control; or that
pressure for “democracy” exerted on the friendly dictatorships in
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc. have been absolutely minimal). Terence Hunt’s
“Bush prepares to see Mideast for himself” (Jan. 6), talks about
the Bush objective of building “momentum for the troubled peace
process,” but this, like Abramowitz’s piece, is baloney as
Annapolis was a propaganda stunt--as well as an anti-Iran organizing device--
which followed six years of Bush support for Israeli settlements, the
apartheid wall, and ethnic cleansing, with Bush openly proclaiming at Annapolis
that he was not going to exert any pressure on the parties
negotiating—which guaranteed total failure.
This current visit to the
Middle East is one more photo-op trip, again with a possible link to
Bush’s (and Olmert’s) eagerness to attack Iran. It is interesting
to see how an Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, can publish a devastating critique of
Bush’s visit, assailing his record and featuring the fact that only in
Israel is Bush really welcome at this point (Gideon Levy, “A hostile
president,” Haaretz, Jan 6, 2008:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/941823.html). Nothing like this can appear
in the Inky, or in the New York Times for that matter.
There are also a number of
articles in the international media, even the media in friendly Middle Eastern
states (Cernig, Bush From The Arab Street , in which Omar Hassan, a
Kuwaiti op-ed writer for AFP, gives us some hints), suggesting that a major
purpose of the Bush trip is a further effort to prepare for a war on
Iran, but nothing like that can be found in the Inky. (See, e.g., Justin
Raimondo’s very good piece “'A heartbeat away' from war with Iran
and Pakistan”: http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12176; and
for a good critical overview of Bush’s visit, see the Z Commenatary
by Phyllis Bennis:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2008-01/10bennis.cfm.)
The Israel-Palestine conflict
is of course a subject on which the U.S. mainstream media have collapsed
completely, and the Inky doesn’t depart from this failure either in its
news or editorial policy. The Los Angeles Times at least had the courage to
allow John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt space for a presentation of their views
on the power and negative effects of the pro-Israel lobby
(“Israel’s False Friends”:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-mearsheimer6jan06,1,6831048.story?ctrack=1&cset=true.).
But the Inky has not done this, nor has it reviewed those authors’
powerful and scholarly book on the subject.
Bush as a Constitution-Buster
I’ve noted before, also,
that the Inky has long failed to publish news and editorial material that
features the scope of Bush’s attacks on the checks and balances system,
the Constitution, and the rule of law. And of course they don’t review
any of the numerous books coming out on those subjects, as a matter
of their scandalous no-political-books review policy. The Inky never
picked up Paul Krugman’s excellent “Distract and Disenfranchise,”
subtitled “A unified theory of Bush scandals” (NYT, April 2, 2007),
nor Bob Herbert’s piece on “The Definition Of Tyranny,”
subtitled “Are we willing to cede our checks and balances?” (NYT,
July 17, 2006). They have also failed to give much attention to the
stream of critiques of Bush law violations, including the recent statement by
over a thousand lawyers, including former Governor Mario Cuomo and former
Reagan administration official Bruce Fein, demanding wide-ranging investigative
hearings into unconstitutional and potentially criminal activity by the Bush
administration (see the posted item by Katrina Vanden Heuvel on “Lawyers
Stepping Up,” The Nation, Dec. 12, 2007. Go to
Original.) Admittedly, there are a few exceptions, including the earlier
call for impeachment in a short Commentary column by Lindorff and Olshansky and
the very recent piece mentioned above by three congresspersons on
“Impeach Cheney Now.” But given the abuses and constitutional
crisis and threats at stake the Inky has short-changed its readership on this
set of issues.
Satullo on Impeachment and the
Candidates
Furthermore, as I have pointed out before, the Inky refuses to treat Bush as
harshly as they treated Clinton (an understatement). Former Inky Editorial Page
Editor Chris Satullo wrote an editorial back on January 22, 1998 calling for
Clinton to resign if he had had that affair with Lewinsky and lied
about it. He returned to this subject in his Commentary of June 20, 2004
(“Overdue question to Clinton devotees”), and in the process
revealed once again how he has provided de facto protection to Bush while
proving that he is not guilty of any liberal bias. In his June 2004
piece Satullo argued that if Clinton had resigned back in 1998 it is more
likely that Gore would have won in 2000. This is not only questionable, but a
silly basis for calling for a resignation of a sitting and not unpopular
president. As for lies, way back in 2004 Senator Charles Schumer assembled a
list of 237 administration lies, and there are many books now written about
Bush’s lies (none reviewed in the Inky, which also has never had a
Commentary article listing of lies, a listing available in many forms).
Even more important, the Bush lies have had huge political and policy consequences,
in contrast with Clinton’s lies on Lewinsky. But it seems never to have
occurred to Satullo that if he editorialized calling for Clinton’s
resignation based on lies that he should do the same for Bush, and that such a
call was long overdue. He has apparently internalized the double standard that
has made the editorial board alert to Democratic failings while treating Bush
with great kindness (I discuss this longstanding bias more fully in
“Profiles in Cowardice,” Z Magazine, July/August 2001, available in
the inkywatch.org archive).
Satullo’s recent column “Who’s who and why in the race
for president” (Jan. 6), has some clever writing and makes some telling
points, but most of it is too clever by half, and with biases too raging.
Thus, on Kucinich, Satullo says that “When his vote totals turn out
to be as tiny as he is, fiery bloggers will blame that on the ‘corporate
media,’ rather than his fringe appeal.” Satullo cannot resist a
sneer at Kucinich’s “tiny” size, just as in dealing with
Edwards he can’t resist calling him a “faux populist with a seven
figure bank account, a killer mansion and ab/hab hair…” Sheer
nastiness!—imagine what Satullo could have done to the crippled, wealthy
populist Franklin D. Roosevelt! But note also how Satullo suggests that
the “corporate media” couldn’t be influencing election
outcomes, which is off-the-wall analysis; and that Kucinich’s views are
“fringe.” On the latter point, Kucinich is alone among the
candidates in supporting an Iraq policy and health care and tax policies that
polls show to be consistent with the views of two thirds of the public. Poor
Satullo has internalized the views of the dominant class so completely that
“fringe” for him means “fringe of the power elite.”
Trudy Rubin on Pakistan, Always
Within the Frame of U.S. Interests
Trudy Rubin talks mainly with U.S. and client state officials, and locals who
will follow the official line, and she has long tended to identify with the
policies espoused by her own country’s establishment. This is why
in her handling of Russia in the Yeltsin years a reader of her
columns would hardly know that the mass of the population was undergoing a
calamity; things were moving in accord with U.S. policy interests in ending any
“socialist” or even social democratic threat and Russia was being
both beggared and integrated into the Western-dominated global economy. So she
was pro-Yeltsin and missed the fact of--and responsibility for--a catastrophe.
In the same mode now on Pakistan, Rubin argues that “Pakistan won’t
see the danger: Most refuse to see the threat of Islamist expansion”
(Dec. 30, 2007). But Rubin can’t comprehend that most Pakistanis
don’t want their country to be embroiled in a major civil war such as
Rubin’s leaders have brought to Iraq. She recognizes that the United
States first supported the buildup of the Islamic jihad to destabilize
the Soviet Union and that this was crucial in helping the Taliban obtain
power. She often mentions the connection of the Pakistani intelligence (ISI) to
these Islamic extremists, but she underplays the role of the United States and
fails to mention the resentment of the jihadists, who recognized that
they had been used, when the United States abruptly abandoned their country
after the Soviet withdrawal. (This is a point stressed by Chalmers Johnson in
“Abolish the CIA”:
www.tomdispatch.com/post/1984/chalmers_johnson_on_the_cia_and_a_blowback_world.
Johnson, the author of three outstanding books on U.S. militarism and
“blowback” has never had a Commentary column, nor had a book
reviewed, in the Inky.)
Trudy Rubin also downplays the extent to which military rule in Pakistan and
the denial of democracy has been U.S.-supported for many years and seems to be
a central feature of U.S. policy there—and one deeply resented by the
locals. (See Graham Usher, “How Pakistan’s Military Came to
Dominate the State: The Army Won’t Return to the Barracks,”
http://mondediplo.com/2007/12/02military .) Now that Musharraf is apparently no
longer useful Rubin suggests more democracy, but she fails to recognize that
Bhutto’s reentry was designed to provide a democratic façade, not to
provide real democracy. There is strong evidence that a real democracy would
not welcome Pakistan’s subordination to a U.S. war; hence this
country’s leaders are still not going to support it. Rubin asserts
that Bhutto’s is “a warning to Pakistanis---and us—of
the growing threat of Islamic expansionism.” She just takes it for
granted that Islamic extremists murdered Bhutto, although it is widely believed
in Pakistan (and with some evidence) that this was an operation of the
army—and if so, is that a warning to the Pakistanis?
The post 9/11 U.S. and NATO war on Afghanistan drove millions of mainly
Pashtuns into Pakistan and created further huge resentments at U.S.
intervention and the U.S. subsidization and manipulation of the Pakistani
army and political leadership. She takes it as a given and natural right for
this country to intervene with military force and to buy and dominate
governments anywhere. The thought that a majority of Pakistanis
might consider army rule—long supported by the United
States—and U.S. intrusions, as more dangerous and threatening to
their welfare than “Islamic expansionism” is outside her frame of
reference. Rubin can’t conceive of “U.S. expansionism”
as a problem, or the idea that the Islamic expansionism in Afghanistan and
Pakistan could be a result of her own country’s policies. Rubin found a
publisher and analyst in Pakistan who would agree with her that the Islamic
threat there is not the West’s fault, but there are other views that do
not surface with Rubin or the Inky: for some samples, see Jim Lobe’s
“Pakistanis See US As Greatest Threat”: http://www.countercurrents.org/lobe080108.htm.
Joelle Kuntz, “Asia Hobbled by Its Military,” from Geneva’s
Le Temps: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010808G.shtml; Robert Fisk,
“They don’t blame al-Qa’ida, They blame Musharraf”:
://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article3291600.ece; and Tariq Ali’s
“A tragedy built on military despotism and anarchy”
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2232700,00.html. Tariq Ali is
another superb writer on Islam whose work can never be read in the Inky (and
whose books are never reviewed there).
Consider also this
excerpt from a recent Guardian article by the Indian author Pankaj Mishra,
which has a tone and intellectual thrust quite different from that of
Trudy Rubin:
In any case, the Taliban and
their sympathisers can't be "eliminated". The web of strategic tribal
and ethnic alliances has represented the strongest Pashtun claims in recent
decades as traditional rulers of Afghanistan's ethnic mosaic. Even today, as
the writer Rory Stewart has pointed out, "many Pashtun clearly prefer the
Taliban to foreign troops". In actuality, the Taliban can only be
contained. But even that may remain a fantasy if foreign occupation continues
to radicalise Pashtuns in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Musharraf has himself only just
escaped assassination. Even though he grudgingly accepted Washington's choice,
Bhutto, as a civilian facade for military rule, he can't be unaware that
Pakistan's stability depends on successful deal-making in the Pashtun heartland
rather than in the White House. This lesson is not entirely lost on western
policymakers. EU diplomats expelled from southern Afghanistan a day before
Bhutto's assassination were trying to reach out to the Taliban. But such
peacemakers face their most influential adversaries among those who think that
errant natives respond best to a bit of stick. Writing in the Wall Street
Journal last week, the Tory MP Michael Gove warned the west not to betray any
"sign of weakness" to the Taliban.
Doubtless the Churchill
wannabes that have proliferated since 9/11 would fight on their laptops to the
last drop of Afghan and Pakistani blood. Intoxicated by their own cliches, they
remain blind to how their warmongering in the cause of democracy in Afghanistan
and Pakistan has boosted the most militaristic elements there, ruining even the
basic hope of a violence-free life, not to mention the grand ambition of
democracy.
The CIA's anti-Soviet jihad not only ensured the dominance of the military
intelligence establishment over elected government in Pakistan; it also spawned
a new radical force, which now menaces military as well as civilian authority
in Pakistan. We may praise or blame Benazir Bhutto for what she did or did not
do, but as long as Pakistan remains hostage to failed western policies those
aspiring to lead it can achieve little apart from personal power - along with a
high risk of martyrdom. www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2237021,00.html
In
a fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the
Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a
murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture
has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or
physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according
to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of
Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United
States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1
trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our
national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion - by far the highest in our
national history.
…George McGovern