Saturday, April 14, 2007

THIS JUST IN! TIRED OLD HOOKER


 
IN AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THESE REPORTERS, U.S. SENATOR CRAZY JOHN MCCAIN HOPPED OFF THE JOHN MCCAIN SHOWBOAT EXPRESS TO CONFIDE THAT HE WAS THINKING OF DROPPING OUT OF THE RACE.
 
THOUGH CRAZY JOHN HAD HOPED TO GRAB THE 2008 G.O.P. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION HE FELT HE WASN'T "GETTING THE BREAKS" AND THAT "REPORTERS ARE FICKLE. I COULD JOKE WITH 'EM, TELL 'EM MY G**K JOKES AND MAKE FUN OF MINORITIES AND THEY LAPPED IT UP LIKE I WAS DON IMUS OR SOMETHING.  NOW THEY'RE ALL OUT TO GET ME."
 
CRAZY JOHN WAS ESPECIALLY ANGRY THAT HIS BIG AD PUSH, TO BE TIMED WITH HIS OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT THAT HE WAS IN THE RACE, WAS LEAKED TO THE PRESS. 
 
"'VOTE INSANE! VOTE JOHN MCCAIN!' HAD A GOOD RING TO IT," HE WHIMPERED.  "NOW IT'S OUT THERE AND SO IS MY SLOGAN 'I DISAGREE WITH WHAT THE MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT.'  HOW CAN YOU DO BETTER THAN THAT?  I WAS POSITIONING MYSELF AS SO INDEPENDENT THAT I DIDN'T EVEN GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!"
 
AFTER CRAZY JOHN CALMED DOWN (AND AFTER THESE REPORTERS REMOVED ALL SHARP OBJECTS FROM HIS REACH), HE REVEALED THAT THE REAL ISSUE WAS MONEY.
 
"I GOT BEAT IN FUNDRAISING BY TWO GUYS NAMED MITT AND RUDY.  WHAT IS THAT?  THE MUTT AND JEFF OF CANDIDATES?  I WAS BIG TIME!  I OWNED 2000.  NOW NOBODY WANTS TO GIVE ME BLING-BLING OR MY PROPERS.  IT'S LIKE I GET A LITTLE LOVEY DOVEY WITH THE BULLY BOY AND SUDDENLY MY PRICE DROPS.  I'M SICK OF BEING TREATED LIKE A TIRED OLD HOOKER WHO'S BEEN WORKING THE CORNER ABOUT 20 YEARS TOO LONG," HE SIGHED.
 
 
 
 
In war resister news, we'll focus on KPFA and Brian Edwards-Tiekert.  Responding to a commentary by Marc Sapir in The Berkeley Daily Planet last week, Edwards-Tiekert wanted to address the issue of war resisters.  Edwards-Tiekert is an important part of KPFA's news staff and does strong work, but appears to think much more is being covered than actually is.   Sapir, sharing his feelings and fears regarding KPFA, wrote (this was not the thrust of his commentary), "How could KPFA be a useful tool for the GI resisters' movement, the immigrants' rights and sanctuary movements, the prison reform and opposition movements, the new sds [SDS] (already at 160 chapters), . . . if such an edict is upheld?"  Sapir is referring to the fact that KPFA can promote events; however, they can not say "Be there" (as Sasha Lilley explained on the Listeners' Report earlier this month).  Edwards-Tiekert grabs the subsection of that sentence and responds (this was not the thrust of his response), "Clearly, he [Marc Sapir] wasn't listening the week Aaron Glantz traveled to Fort Lewis, Washington, to produce up-to-the minute rports on the failed court martial of First Lieutenant Ehren Watada."  Was Edwards-Tiekert?  Aaron Glantz' reports were largely filed for Free Speech Radio News and re-aired duing the KPFA Evening News and during Aileen Alfandary's newsbreaks during The Morning Show.  Sandra Lupien and Alfandary each spoke with Glantz once during the court-martial on programs other than the Free Speech Radio News.  But, as Edwards-Tiekert well knows, Free Speech Radio News is an independent program, it is not a KPFA program.
 
Aaron Glantz did a wonderful job reporting on the court-martial for Free Speech Radio News, for IPS, for OneWorld.net.  His voice gave out and, possibly, had that not happened he would have done more reporting on it for KPFA.  But in terms of reporting (not interviews days after the mistrial was called), Edwards-Tiekert appears to believe that Glantz was reporting on KPFA programs more than he was.  This could result from the fact that it was usually announced (by the news staff) that he would be reporting but, in the morning or evening, what instead aired was a rebroadcast (sometimes edited down) of a report Glantz had done for Free Speech Radio News.
 
Ehren Watada's court-martial is important.  His upcoming court-martial (July 16th) will also be important and, hopefully, KPFA will do a better job covering it than they did with the February one.  For that coverage, Aaron Glantz deserves praise.  KPFA?  Not so much. That was February.  Since Watada's court-martial, Agustin Aguayo and Mark Wilkerson have been court-martialed.  Aguayo was court-martialed in Germany, possibly that's why it wasn't covered (reading wires doesn't really replace first person reporting)?  Wilkerson was in Texas.  Texas is much closer to California than DC (Edwards-Tiekert notes KPFA's DC coverage in his response) but it might as well be across the Atlantic.  What of Robert Zabala's historic court case?  Where was KPFA?  Again, reading wire reports (or local press) on air doesn't really replace on the spot reporting.
 
Edwards-Tiekert muses, "Perhaps Sapir doesn't listen much to the radio station he maligns."  As Ruth pointed out regarded Sasha Lilley's declarations in the Listeners' Report, Lilley doesn't seem to listen a great deal.  In the listners' report she maintained that KPFA news staff promoted, on air, the KPFA webpage of local events when, in fact, that wasn't the case.  KPFA is an important radio station and a historic one.  Edwards-Tiekert is a strong member of the news staff.  His commentary (and recent call in on air to Larry Bensky) only fans simmering flames for many.  I'm not interested in that.  (Ruth may be.  She can write whatever she wants in her space.)  I am interested in war resisters. 
 
Edwards-Tiekert may feel Watada was covered by the KPFA news.  He really wasn't.  (Off topic, but needs noting again, Philip Maldari, not part of the news staff, did a wonderful job last summer interviewing Bob Watada.)  That false impression may come from on air announcements such as, "Tomorrow morning in the first half-hour of The Morning Show, Aileen Alfandary will speak with Aaron Glantz . . ." -- announcements that were made of coverage that never took place.  (That's not a slam at Alfandary.  Glantz' voice was giving out early on.)  But announcements of intended coverage are not actual coverage.  And re-airing reports done for a non-KPFA produced program (Free Speech Radio News) on KPFA news and news breaks does not indicate that KPFA itself provided coverage.
 
In February, Kyle Snyder was hauled away in handcuffs (and in his boxers) by Canadian police.  Joci Perri (Citizenship and Immigration) stated the arrest was requested by the US military and that deportation was supposed to follow.  Did KPFA listeners hear about that on the news?  Joshua Key is being 'shadowed.'  Winnie Ng reported the incident that happened at her home.  She was visited by three men, she was told they were Canadian police.  They were looking for Key (Joshua, Brandi and their children stayed with Ng early on after moving to Canada).  Ng's character was called into question (including by some 'friends' in Canada) and the police said it never happened.  Turns out, it did happen.  The Canadian police, WOOPS, did send out one officer . . . with two members of the US military.  Has the KPFA news informed listeners about those developments?  Dean Walcott self-checked out of the US military and went to Canada in December of 2006.  How often has his name came up during news breaks or newscasts?
 
Here's where the real fault is, the real problem.  Four years into the illegal war and KPFA still has not created a program to focus on Iraq.  Flashpoints started to cover the first Gulf War.  KPFA can't spare one half-hour or hour a week for a program that focuses on Iraq?  Of course they can.  The fact that they haven't is more embarrassing than any of the back and forths or the old history (covered in both Edwards-Tiekert and Sapir's commentaries).  Is KPFA frozen or paralyzed when it comes to new programming?  No.  In fact it did an election series for the 2006 elections.  One would think that an illegal war was at least as important as a mid-term election.
 
Dean Walcott, the latest to go public, part of the growing movement of war resistance within the military that also includes Ehren Watada, Camilo Mejia, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson,  Kyle Snyder , Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Joshua Key, Ricky Clousing, Mark Wilkerson, Agustin Aguayo, Camilo Mejia,  Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum. 
 
 
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
 
Yesterday in Iraq, the Green Zone was the target of an attack.  AFP notes today that the US military is now saying that the bombing in the parliament's cafeteria killed only one person (but "an Iraqi security officer" maintains "three people died").  Though Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) prefers to call it the "International Zone," as William M. Arkin (Washington Post) notes of the Green Zone, "The Zone is officially known as the international zone, a less inflammatory label that suggests non-U.S. control, but everyone knows the truth." Bushra Juhi (AP) reports that al Qaeda is claiming responsibility for the bombing and that it was a suicide bombing and that the Iraqi parliament met today ("about 90 minutes") but turnout was low due to the traffic ban and to the fact that many were visiting the wounded from yesterday's bombing.  While AP repeats that the culprit is thought to be a bodyguard to a Sunni lawmaker, The Australian reports that three cafeteria workers are being questioned as well as "some parliamentary guards".  CNN notes that this is due to the suspicion that the bombing was an 'inside job'.  Robert Burns (AP) reveals: "The U.S. military will not take over security of the Iraqi parliament building in the wake of the deadly suicide bombing in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, a top commander said Friday.  Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said "it is clear we still have a long way to go to provide stability and security to Iraq."  Michael Howard (The Guardian of London) informs, "US officials admitted last night that the bombing of the Iraqi parliament shows that not even the heavily fortified Green Zone is safe any more, despite the security crackdown launched earlier this year in the Iraqi capital."  Despite that reality, Robin Wright and Karin Brulliard (Washington Post) report that John McCain, "who this week spoke of 'the first glimmers' of progress in the new U.S. effort, said the attack on the parliament building does not change the 'larger picture'."
 

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