Zimbabwe, a story WBAI and perhaps also Pacifica won't touch. Is it not racism for blacks and others to keep from condemning Robert Mugabe whose vicious ruthlessness has led to the unprecedented suffering of his people? What are the forces that won't allow Amy and Juan to do their jobs? Can these forces be surmounted? Apparently not yet. --Ronald

Here's one of a series of NYT articles on the latest suffering.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/world/africa/22zimbabwe.html?sq=Zimbabwe&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print

December 22, 2008
In Zimbabwe, Survival Lies in Scavenging
By CELIA W. DUGGER

NZVERE, Zimbabwe — Along a road in Matabeleland, barefoot children stuff their pockets with corn kernels that have blown off a truck as if the brownish bits, good only for animal feed in normal times, were gold coins.

In the dirt lanes of Chitungwiza, the Mugarwes, a family of firewood hawkers, bake a loaf of bread, their only meal, with 11 slices for the six of them. All devour two slices except the youngest, age 2. He gets just one.

And on the tiny farms here in the region of Mashonaland, once a breadbasket for all of southern Africa, destitute villagers pull the shells off wriggling crickets and beetles, then toss what is left in a hot pan. “If you get that, you have a meal,” said Standford Nhira, a spectrally thin farmer whose rib cage is etched on his chest and whose socks have collapsed around his sticklike ankles.

Read more:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/world/africa/22zimbabwe.html?sq=Zimbabwe&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=print

Unfortunately, the racism at WBAI-FM and who knows, elsewhere in the Pacifica world, makes it impossible for Amy Goodman's Democracy Now to report on Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe as she does on the United States for example.
Meanwhile the tragedy and the enormous suffering goes on and deepens.
Ronald

Why is Democracy Now (democracynow.org) of all people and places spinning Bush's bellicose language and tone regarding his plans for possible hostilities against Iran? Why are they toning down his aggressive remarks?

In their headlines for February 15, 2007, they lead with "Bush Backs Down on Iran-Bomb Claim." It surely must be a tortured reading of Bush's remarks to see him as backing down. That they had NPR/NYT style contextualization in mind seems clear from their choppy editing, making sure to cut the tape just before Bush's key statement, where he says with characteristic menace: "And I intend to do something about it."

For a comparable take, see Laura Rozen's warandpiece.com for a link to the Washington Post story to the same effect: that Bush is backing down. It's quite the opposite. One reading (mine) of Bush's tortured language below, is that it doesn't matter whether the President of Iran was or wasn't involved. Bush (still) intends to do something about it.

Democracy Now should be spanked.

Ronald

http://bleiersblog.blogspot.com
http://desip.igc.org



Excerpt:from Bush's February 14, 2007 press conference.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2007/02/14/568367-text-of-bushs-press-conference

Q: Thank you, Mr. President.

I want to follow up on Iran one more time. Are you saying, today, that you do not know if senior members of the Iranian government are, in fact, behind these explosives?

That contradicts what U.S. officials said in Baghdad on Sunday. They said the highest levels of the Iranian government were behind this.

It also — it seems to square with what General Pace has been saying, but contradicts with what your own press secretary said yesterday. What...

BUSH: Can I — let me — I can't say it more plainly: There are weapons in Iraq that are harming U.S. troops because of the Quds Force.

As you know, I hope, the Quds Force is a part of the Iranian government. Whether Ahmadinejad ordered the Quds Force to do this, I don't think we know. But we do know that they're there.

And I intend to do something about it.

And I've asked our commanders to do something about it. And we're going to protect our troops.

Q: But given some of those contradictions, Mr. President...

BUSH: There's no contradiction that the weapons are there and they were provided by the Quds Force...

Q: What assurances can you give the American people that the intelligence this time will be accurate?

BUSH: We know they're there. We know they're provided by the Quds Force. We know the Quds Force is a part of the Iranian government. I don't think we need who picked up the phone and said to the Quds Force, Go do this, but we know it's a vital part of the Iranian government.

What matters is, is that we're responding. The idea that somehow we're manufacturing the idea that the Iranians are providing IEDs is preposterous. My job is to protect our troops. And when we find devices that are in that country that are hurting our troops, we're going to do something about it, pure and simple.

Now, David says: Does this mean you're trying to have a pretext for war? No. It means I'm trying to protect our troops. That's what that's means. And that's what the family members of our soldiers expect the commander in chief and those responsible for — responsible for our troops on the ground.

And we'll continue to do so.

Democracy Now Report
by Ronald Bleier
Editor, DESIP, http://desip.igc.org

Archive: http://dnreportcard.blogspot.com

Democracy Now’s website: www.democracynow.org

Subscribe to the Democracy Now Report by sending an email (with no message or subject) to:
dnreportcard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


March 17, 2003

The death of 23-year-old International Solidarity Movement volunteer Rachel Corrie from Olympia, Washington, symbolizes the brutality of the Sharon and Bush administrations as we count the hours to the beginning of the American aggression against Iraq and the people of the world. Not only will many Iraqis suffer, but Rachel’s death pointed to the collateral damage that will be suffered by the Palestinian people when war starts. The evidence of George W. Bush’s unpitying cruelty is clear as the drums for battle begin to roll. As Hitler before him, now Bush has the whole world in his hands. History will soon reveal how much of it he will be allowed to crush.

Thursday 3.13.02
Highlight: Interview with Seymour Hersh at the end regarding his recent New Yorker article regarding Richard Perle, Chairman of the Defense Policy board which started out as an advisory body to the Defense Department, but now seems to have a mission to attack Iraq. Hersh linked Perle to possible blackmail of the Saudi government to the tune of 100 million in order to stave off negative publicity in the U.S.

Democracy Now Report
by Ronald Bleier
Editor, DESIP, http://desip.igc.org

Archive: http://dnreportcard.blogspot.com

Democracy Now’s website: www.democracynow.org

Subscribe to the Democracy Now Report by sending an email (with no message or subject) to:
dnreportcard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


Wednesday 3.12.03
DN has converted to a two hour show but frustratingly the first (extra) hour is not available on its flagship station, WBAI-FM in NYC. It’s apparently available a day late on its website in streaming audio and it may be available on cable at CUNY-TV, after midnight the next day. In any event, these reports, unless otherwise indicated, will cover the original, now second hour.

The program began with a very interesting review of reports that Al-Quaeda official, Khalid Sheik Mohammed was not arrested in Pakistan at the time announced, but that he was arrested earlier and the announcement held in order to balance its upcoming abstention at the U.N. on the question of war against Iraq. But why would the Americans go along with such a delay? It’s hard to imagine the U.S. delaying such an announcement for one minute. Is it possible the Pakistani’s caught Mohammed without the U.S. knowing it?

The next segment dealt with breaking news of the assassination of Serbian president Zoran Gingich. As it happened, DN correspondent Jeremy Scahill was on hand to provide background. Apparently Gingich was deeply unpopular, perhaps tied to local mafia, and had plenty of enemies on all sides. Nevertheless, it’s was hardly reassuring to hear that his death might open the way to the more popular far right.

The program closed with a powrerful segment on Ramzy and Suzanne Baroud, Palestinians who have written Searching Jenin: Eyewitness accounts of the Israel Invasion of 2002.

Tuesday, 3.11.03
The show today consisted of segments on U.S. condoned torture of Al-Quaeda suspects, the dreadful human and political situation in Gaza, etc, and elements of the story of Delma Banks Jr. scheduled to die in 24 hours in Texas featured in Bob Herbert’s column yesterday. According to many accounts, Mr. Banks was 3 hours away from the murder he was convicted of committing.

Confusion reigns about a second hour of DN. Where is it available? It’s not carried on WBAI, the flagship station, but it’s apparently available as streaming video on the DN website a day later. Go to first hour link.

Monday, 3.10.03
Amy arrested!! Amy reported that she was arrested and held for 3 hours in a Washington DC jail over the weekend in connection with reporting on the Ladies in Pink protest in front of the White House.

An update on U.S. bugging of UN diplomats as an arrest was made in Britain of a woman allegedly connected with the Observer report which broke the story.
The program closed with a good segment on the firing of Phil Donahue where it was argued that the network was a party to a campaign to make sure the show wouldn’t succeed.

The Donahue show is currently replaced by host Mike Savage who was termed a “gutter level bigot,” and examples were given to substantiate the charge.

Friday, 3.7.03
The program began strongly with a segment on President Bush’s “scripted” press conference last night with White House correspondent Russell Mokhiber explaining that he was relegated to the back seat along with Helen Thomas who has publicly called President Bush the worst president in U.S. history. It was pointed out that the 17 reporters President Bush called on to ask questions were taken from a prepared list. Even the New York Times (3.7.03) acknowledged the obvious, that the press conference was called to upstage Hans Blix’s expected statement today at the UN on Iraq’s compliance with the weapons inspections regime. The Times reported that administration officials are “furious” with Blix. This might be a topic for DN to explore.

There followed a segment on sexual harassment and worse at the Air Force. Two ex Air Force officers explained that they left the Air Force after they had repeatedly been raped and there was no recourse in American law as the National Security Act, upheld by the Supreme Court, effectively shields offenders.

The program ended with a lackluster round table with several women in a tribute to International Women’s Day. Some daylight entered into the discussion when it was acknowledged that women leaders might themselves be militaristic a la Margaret Thachter and Indira Ghandi (I thought of Golda Meir). The discussion reminded me of an important essay on the subject, “The Savage Male,” by the late anthropologist Marvin Harris in his book, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches,” (1974, 1989) who explained that women in effect join men when it comes to security issues.


Thursday, 3.6.03
The program today was devoted to Iraq. Highlight: interviews with two of the human shields who seem to understand that Bush’s bombs have their names on them. Very sad. Also the issue of where the Iraqis wanted them to position themselves, not in hospitals, schools, etc, but rather at power stations, oil refineries, was brought up. It was acknowledged that these Iraqi demands led to some of the volunteers leaving.

Wednesday, 3.5.03
Good program on U.S. dirty tricks at the UN, monitoring communications in connections with upcoming Security Council vote; national protests today by high school and college students, and artists. An interview with Paul Marsden, former Labor MP, who switched to the Liberal Party in protest of Blair’s post 9/11 policies.

Democracy Now Report
by Ronald Bleier
Editor, DESIP, http://desip.igc.org

Archive: http://dnreportcard.blogspot.com

Democracy Now’s website: www.democracynow.org

Subscribe to the Democracy Now Report by sending an email (with no message or subject) to:
dnreportcard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


Monday 3.3.03
Very good program starting with an interview of the London Observer reporter who broke the story of U.S. spying on fellow security council members in order to pressure them on the important vote for war on Iraq.

The program continued with an interesting but confusing segment on whether or not Iraq has eliminated its biological and chemical weapons production capacity with Scott Ritter on one side and UNSCOM leader Rolf Ekeus on the other.

Good final segment with Mother Jones editor/writer Robert Dreyfuss who incidentally pointed out that none of the oil executives that he interviewed are in favor of a war with Iraq. This should help to shoot down the war for oil theory (But of course it won’t. Our side has true believers as well.). War for oil has as its basis a rational, logical (although immoral, shall we say) outcome. But this war is not about reason, common sense or security: it’s about ideology, the attempt to maintain an agenda of perpetual war. It’s not even about extending American Empire since we already dominate the world. It’s about enforcing American Empire through the use of military force. For example, President Bush has already hinted that he will not accept exile for Saddam. At the end of January, he was quoted as being skeptical of such a plan and he publicly demanded that if Saddam were to chose exile, he would have to take with him “a lot of other henchmen.” (See "Bush Warns Iraq It Has Only Weeks to Yield Weapons," (NYT, 1.31.03)The implication is that Saddam needn’t bother to try to open discussions on such an issue. As author Anthony Arnove said on the Morning Program today, President Bush is determined to go to war come what may.

The part that the War for oil folks miss is that it may be more dangerous and destructive to have a government fixed on the ideology of permanent war than one determined on the more rational idea of commandeering oil resources. Iraq’s oil has been a fixture for more than 50 years: the difference now is the cabal in power at the head of the U.S. government.

Friday 2.28.03
The program began with a good short segment on juvenile offenders on Louisiana’s death row where 16 of 17 youngsters slated for the death penalty are black and the same ratio of white victims to black. The rest of the program was devoted to an old speech by ace investigative journalist Greg Palast whom Amy has done yeoman’s work introducing to the American public. Amy might have let us know the date of Palast’s speech but perhaps she was embarrassed to underline how old it was. Once again I gather that there were virtually no produced segments because of BAI’s fundraising drive.


Thursday 2.27.03
Today’s program was the first fully produced program since the WBAI fundraiser began. A welcome change. And an excellent program it was, basically focusing on the disinformation and propaganda in Bush’s speech about the war. First Jeremy Scahill explained that aid groups are wary of providing the government with information because of fears that this information will be used in targeting. It was pointed out that the Red Cross was highly critical of the U.S. in the past and that the U.S. “accidentally” bombed a Red Cross warehouse in Kabul twice even though it was clearly marked. The “accidental” bombing of the Kabul offices of Al Jazeera was also mentioned.

Times reporter Chris Hedges and Robert Fisk also spoke of military restrictions on reporters in war, and gave the lie to suggestions that this coming war will be reported more freely. Hedges reported how he was severely beaten by the Saudis in the 1991 Gulf War when was reporting on how the Saudis made no effort to fight when they were attacked.

Amy played an excerpt from Bush’s speech last night in which he said in connection with the Israeli Palestinian conflict: “Other regimes will be given a clear warning that support for terrorism will not be tolerated.” Is this not a warning to Iran and Syria and to the American people about the war that is planned after the Iraq war. This is a reminder that after the Iraq war begins, the political atmosphere will be changed and those who temporize with this war, like The New York Times, and Albert R. Hunt of the WSJ, (see his disappointing Op-ed today) will not be able to stand back and say, enough is enough, but they will perforce be drawn into the Bush agenda of perpetual war in the same way that they are now its prisoners.

The issue of comparing Saddam Hussein to Hitler and Bush to Churchill was brought up in the discussion with Robert Fisk, but it was not emphasized that in the threat he poses to world peace, Bush can be compared to Hitler. Polls in England and elsewhere have shown that majorities believe that Bush is a greater threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein.


Wednesday 2.26.03
Opening segment featured author Dilip Hiro who spoke about Prime Minister Tony Blair’s difficulties, but didn’t mention that in the case of a successful war, Blair might come out a winner as will Bush, at least for the short term. Hiro’s concluding remarks focused on threats of increased terrorism as a result of war. It’s time that someone made the point that increased terrorism is most likely to redound to the benefit of the right wing Bush agenda, at home for sure, and possibly abroad as well. An unforeseeable factor is increased instability in the Middle East and South Asia in particular and the effects of a Turkish takeover of parts of northern Iraq.

Tuesday 2.25.03
Today’s show devoted to a taped speech by Howard Zinn and other taped material about him. While WBAI is fundraising, Amy must use taped pieces like this which she can interrupt in NYC. I suppose one answer would be to do taped segments, but I guess that is beyond their current capabilities.

Democracy Now Report
by Ronald Bleier
Editor, DESIP, http://desip.igc.org

Archive: http://dnreportcard.blogspot.com

Democracy Now’s website: www.democracynow.org

Subscribe to the Democracy Now Report by sending an email (with no message or subject) to:
dnreportcard-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Monday 2.24.03
Quibble: In the headlines, Amy repeated that “tens of millions” of people around the world demonstrated on Feb 15-16 against the war in Iraq. The estimates I’ve seen put the numbers at around 10 million. Tens of millions suggests at least twice that number. Why should Democracy Now risk its credibility over this issue?

Activist Bernadette Devlin spoke about her experience at Chicago’s airport on Feb 21st when she was denied entry to the U.S. and sent back home as a security threat.

The rest of the program was devoted to a speech by writer activist Arundhati Roy. See comment below about fundraising vs. original programming. In her speech, Roy reminded us that Bush has characterized the war on terror as the “the task that never ends.”

Friday 2.21.03
A good segment on recently jailed Florida professor Sami Al-Arian on terrorism charges.

The rest of the program was devoted to a speech by Malcolm X on the anniversary of his assassination. The speech was a reminder of how great a speaker and how great a mind we lost. His voice was so clear and so strong that it could not be tolerated. The government was lucky in this case that it had a Muslim faction do its dirty work.
The speech was also an indirect and sober commentary on how far away we are today from those relatively hopeful days, when the levers of government were controlled by relatively rational people.

Thursday 2.20.03
Brett Barber, a remarkably articulate 16 year old student in Michigan was sent home from his high school because he wore a T-shirt critical of President Bush. Brett is working with ACLU to challenge his high school administrators.
The rest of the show devoted to an excellent documentary on 1991 Gulf War, “Hidden Wars of Desert Storm.”