Saturday, November 03, 2007

THIS JUST IN! DIANNE FEINSTEIN, GIRL SENATOR, COOS!

 
"I RATHER LIKED THAT HEADLINE," COOED AND GIGGLED U.S. SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN TO THESE REPORTERS IN A RARE INTERVIEW.
 
SENATOR FEINSTEIN WAS REFERRING TO A STORY SHE'D PRINTED UP FROM THE CBS NEWS WEBSITE THAT WAS HEADLINED "FEINSTEIN SAYS YES TO MUKASEY."
 
"I FEEL LIKE I JUST MADE THE COVER OF YOUNG BRIDE," SHE HALF-WHISPERED, POURING THE THREE OF US CUPS OF CAMOMILLE TEA.  "AND I ALWAYS TRY TO BE POSITIVE."
 
THESE REPORTERS POINTED OUT THE FIRST SENTENCE OF THE REPORT: "Sen. Dianne Feinstein has come through for Republicans again." 
 
SENATOR FEINSTEIN GIGGLED AND WONDERED IF IT MADE HER SOUND "EASY"? 
 
"I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD TIME GAL," SHE INSISTED.
 
"EASY" MIGHT EXPLAIN HOW A U.S. SENATOR COULD IGNORE WARNINGS FROM THE CENTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND STATEMENTS AND TESTIMONY BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD MARJORIE COHN ABOUT THE DANGERS IN CONFIRMING MICHAEL MUKASEY FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL.
 
"WHO CARES?" ASKED DI-FI NIBBLING ON A TEA BISQUIT.  "HE'S NOT ALBERTO R. GONZALES."
 
SENATOR FEINSTEIN INFORMED US THAT SHE WAS TIRED OF THE TOPIC AND MUCH MORE INTERESTED IN DISCUSSING HER NEW NON-ACTION FIGURE TOY WHICH SHE EXCITEDLY INFORMED US WAS PAINTED IN CHINA.
 
 
THE NON-ACTION FIGURE MISS DIANNE.  SHE COMES NON-FULLY POSEABLE.  SHE'S IN A SEATED POSITION.  YOU CAN EXTEND HER LEGS OR BEND THEM DEPENDING UPON WHETHER YOU WANT HER TO SIT IN A CHAIR OR SIT ON THE FLOOR. 
SHE WEARS A LOVELY DRESS WITH SEVERAL LAYERS.  SHE COMES WITH WHITE GLOVES AND THE CUTEST LITTLE PURSE THAT MATCHES HER HAT, HER BELT AND HER SHOES.  THE NON-ACTION FIGURE HAS A SILLY GRIN PASTED ON ITS FACE AND IS CALLED "MISS DIANNE, GIRL SENATOR."
THE TEA SET IS PURCHASED SEPARATELY.
 
"IT'S SO PRECIOUS," SHE INSISTED, "JUST LIKE ME!"
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance. War resister Joshua Key told his story in The Deserter's Tale and  now Key's book is among those optioned to tell the story of the illegal war on the big screen.  Eric Jordan has optioned Key's story.  Jordan and partner Paul Stephens began their producing careers with documentaries made for television at The Film Works, their Toronto based production company.  Their latest release is Beowulf and Grendel in 2005 featuring Sarah Polley and many others.  Josh Getlin (Los Angeles Times) quotes Jordan, "I didn't set out to make a pro-Iraq war movie or an anti-Iraq war movie.  I wanted to make a movie about people under pressure, real people, and the fact that this is complex world.  Just imagine what this kid went through, never dreaming he'd desert the U.S. Army.  That's a great book -- and a great movie."  And a story that needs to be told.  Time and again, war resisters who go public cite the internet overwhelming.  Helga and Agustin Aguayo have also cited David Zeiger's documentary of resistance within the military during Vietnam, Sir! No Sir! If Jordan is able to bring Key's story to the screen, it will have an impact.
 
There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Michael Espinal, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.

 

Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.
 
 
The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."
 
 
 
Turning to US politics.  Margaret Kimberley (Black Agenda Report) summarizes the state of Senator Barack Obama's Democratic presidential primary campaign, "For months Obama was the political flavor of the month, wooed by fawning celebrities, and promoted by the corporate media.  The stamp of approval from the right people had him sitting firmly atop an enormous pile of campaign cash.  Now his deep pocketed contributors are showing signs of buyers' remorse, miffed because he is only neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in Iowa and trailing behind her in New Hampshire.  Obama has been hoisted on his own petard.  He assured Democrats that he was 'safe.'  He openly scorned movement politics, and made the appeal of color blindness his calling card.  He chose neo-con Bush suck-up Joe Lieberman as his Senate mentor.  His criticisms of the evil occupation of Iraq focused not on murder and theft committed by Uncle Sam, but by the traumatized Iraqs' efforts to deal with an American-created hellish existence.  Leaving 'all options on the table' is part of the Obama stump speech on Iran."  On the subject of Iran, Barack Obama appears on the front page of this morning's New York Times.  War pornographer Michael Gordon and Jeff Zeleny who lied in print (click here, here and here -- the paper finally retracted Zeleny's falsehood that should have never appeared) present a view of Barack Obama that's hardly pleasing.  Among the many problems with the article is that Obama as portrayed in the article -- and his campaign has issued no statement clarifying.  The Times has the transcript online and from it, Barack Obama does mildly push the unproven claim that the Iranian government is supporting resistance in Iraq.  Gordo's pushed that unproven claim repeatedly for over a year now.  But Obama's remarks appear more of a reply and partial points in lengthy sentences -- not the sort of thing a functioning hard news reporter would lead with in an opening paragraph, touch on again in the third paragraph, in the fourth paragraph, in . . .  But though this isn't the main emphasis of Obama's statements (at any time -- to be clear, when it pops up, it is a fleeting statement in an overly long, multi-sentenced paragraphs), it does go to the fact that Obama is once again reinforcing unproven claims of the right wing.  In the transcript, he comes off as obsessed with Hillary Clinton.  After her, he attempts to get a few jabs in at John Edwards and one in at Bill Richardson.  Here is what real reporters should have made the lede of the front page: "Presidential candidate and US Senator Barack Obama who is perceived as an 'anti-war' candidate by some announced that he would not commit to a withdrawal, declared that he was comfortable sending US troops back into Iraq after a withdrawal started and lacked clarity on exactly what a withdrawal under a President Obama would mean."  That is what the transcript reveals.  Gordo really needs to let go of his blood lust for war with Iran. 
 
Writing up a report, Gordo and Zeleny are useless but, surprisingly, they do a strong job with some of their questions.  The paper should have printed up the transcript.  If they had, people might be wondering about the 'anti-war' candidate.  He maintains Bill Richardson is incorrect on how quickly US troops could be withdrawan from Iraq.  Obama states that it would take at least 16 months which makes one wonder how long, if elected, it would take him to move into the White House?  If you can grab a strainer or wade through Obama's Chicken Sop For The Soul, you grasp quickly why he refused to pledge (in September's MSNBC 'debate') that, if elected president, he would have all US troops out of Iraq by 2013: He's not talking all troops home.  He tries to fudge it, he tries to hide it but it's there in the transcript.  He doesn't want permanent military bases in Iraq -- he appears to want them outside of Iraq -- such as Kuwait.  But he doesn't see the US embassy in Iraq -- the largest US embassy in the world as a base.  However, he does feel that even after the illegal war was ended, US troops would need to remain behind in order guard the embassy and the staff.  In addition, it becomes clear that he will keep US troops in Iraq to train the Iraqi police.  Because? 
 
The reporters don't think to ask.  Here's a slice of reality, the US military is not trained to train police officers.  Here's another to drop on the plate, Jordan was training them.  Jordan got pushed aside around the half-way mark of 2006.  If Obama wanted to pull US troops out of Iraq, the most obvious solution is to turn over the duty of training police officers to a non-military force.  Along with needing those for trainers, he needs some to protect the trainers.  Gordo gets to the point asking, "So how will you protect the trainers without forces in Iraq?"  His answer is an embarrassment, he'd could keep the trainers out of potentially difficult situations.  And in Iraq, that would be where?  In addition, he would keep troops in Iraq for counter-terrorism (but not, he insists, counter-insurgency).  If this doesn't all sound familiar, you slept through this spring and summer when Congressional Dems tried repeatedly to convince the American people that "all troops out of Iraq" could also mean that US troops stay to train, as military police, to fight terrorism, etc.  While he's off talking al Qaeda in Iraq (a small number and one most observers state will be forced out by Iraqis when US troops leave) and working in more attacks on Senator Clinton, it's noted that he has "a more expansive approach to Iraq than she does in that you identify in your plan the possiblity of going back into Iraq to protect the populartion if there's an all-out civil war. . . . And providing monitors to help the population relocate and go after war criminals.  Those are three elements -- those are new missions for Americans after Iraq that she doesn't postulate."  What follows is a comical exchange:
 
Obama: But they aren't necessarily military missions.
 
NYT: But how do you go back into Iraq without military forces?
 
Obama: No, no, no, no, no.  You conflated three things.  The latter two that you are talked about are not military missions.  Let's just be clear about that.
 
NYT: An armed escort is not a military mission?
 
Though Obama says he wants "to be clear," he refuses to answer that yes or no question and the interview is over.
 
So let's be clear that the 'anti-war' Obama told the paper he would send troops back into Iraq.  Furthermore, when asked if he would be willing to do that unilaterally, he attempts to beg off with, "We're talking too speculatively right now for me to answer."  But this is his heavily pimped September (non)plan, dusted off again, with a shiny new binder.  The story is that Barack Obama will NOT bring all US troops home.  Even if the illegal war ended, Obama would still keep troops stationed in Iraq (although he'd really, really love it US forces could be stationed in Kuwait exclusively), he would still use them to train (the police0 and still use them to protect the US fortress/embassy and still use them to conduct counter-terrorism actions.  Margaret Kimberley (cited at the opening of this section on politics) called it correctly.  Meanwhile Ruth Conniff (The Progressive) weighs in on the alleged Democratic 'debate' this week, dubbing it "pile-on-Hillary night," and wondering what the point of it really was: "But hanging over all this is the specter of the $90 million Hillary had raised by the middle of October.  That huge amount of cash so outstrips the other candidates, it seems like a silly game of make-believe to pretend that a clever quip during a debate, or even the extremely important and legistimate points the candidates made last night, could change the dynamic of the race.  It doesn't matter how trenchant your comments are if you are drowned out by the amplified voice of a frontrunner who can buy all the airtime that's left in this extremely short primary season."  Also noting the heavy donations from big business is Bruce Dixon (Black Agenda Report), "For Democratic and Republican wings of America's permanent ruling party, the all-important selection which precedes the election isn't about poll numbers, votes or the citizens that cast them.  It's about winning the favor of military contractors, the banking and financial sectors and Big Oil.  It's about reassuring insurance and pharmaceutical companies, cozying up to agribusiness, the cable and telecom monopolies, allaying the fears of chambers of commerce, and wooing Hollywood."  Dixon goes on to note the industries pouring big money in Obama and Clinton's campaigns, notes PEJ's tracking of the first six months of mainstream press coverage of the candidates this year -- Obama received more positive coverage from the mainstream than any other candidate for president  -- almost 20% more than Hillary Clinton and  approximately 19% more than Rudy Giuliani -- and concludes that the Dem presidential ticket will be Clinton-Obama (Clinton for president). 
 
Meanwhile US House Rep and Democratic presidential nominee contender Dennis Kucinich announced that he is calling for House vote next week.  On?  Impeachment of Cheney.  Kucinich: "The momentum is building for impeachment.  Millions of citizens across the nation are demanding Congress rein in the Vice President's abuse of power.  Despite this groundswell of opposition to the unconstitutional conduct of office, Vice President Cheney continues to violate the U.S. Constitution by insisting the power of the executive branch is supreme.  Congress must hold the Vice President accountable.  The American people need to let Members of Congress know how they feel about this.  The Vice President continues to use his office to advocate for a continued occupation of Iraq and prod our nation into a belligerent stance against Iran.  If the Vice President is successful, his actions will ensure decades of disastrous consequences."  His office notes, "The privileged resolution has priority status for consideration on the House floor.  Once introduced, the resolution has to be brought to the floor within two legislative days, although the House could act on it immediately.  Kucinich is expected to bring it to the House floor on Tuesday, November 6."
 
 
 

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