Who's the real martyr, Judy Miller or Jim DeFede?
"We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality." So wrote Lord Macaulay back in 1830. With this bracing dictum in mind, let's go back to the July 28 firing by The Miami Herald of Jim DeFede.
Why was Defede fired? On Thursday, the columnist was called on the phone by former Miami City Commissioner Arthur Teele Jr. Defede had known him for many years. Teele had just been indicted on federal mail fraud and money laundering charges, and a male prostitute was claiming that Teele had enjoyed his sexual services and used cocaine with him.
As Defede listened to the distraught Teele, he says he realized that the man was in a very bad way. "The idea that he might be thinking suicide was in my mind. I wanted to get what he was saying down -- to preserve what he was saying -- so I pushed the record button."
Why was Defede fired? On Thursday, the columnist was called on the phone by former Miami City Commissioner Arthur Teele Jr. Defede had known him for many years. Teele had just been indicted on federal mail fraud and money laundering charges, and a male prostitute was claiming that Teele had enjoyed his sexual services and used cocaine with him.
As Defede listened to the distraught Teele, he says he realized that the man was in a very bad way. "The idea that he might be thinking suicide was in my mind. I wanted to get what he was saying down -- to preserve what he was saying -- so I pushed the record button."
Forgotten Victims of America’s Plutocracy
Like wolves among sheep, America's Plutocracy preys on the weaker and less fortunate members of society. Since America's founding, they have leveraged their economic power to dominate the government and the media, the vehicles through which they advance their avaricious agenda. In early American history, they employed an imperialistic foreign policy to ensure the expansion of US boundaries and interests. Along the way, they virtually annihilated the Native American population. Once they had attained as much of the North American continent as they were able, they used “Manifest Destiny” and the “Communist threat” as rationalizations to invade other nations (i.e.The Philippines) support ruthless dictators in other nations (Augusto Pinochet in Chile) who have tortured and killed millions. Recently, legislation favoring corporations over workers and consumers has sharply diminished the power of labor unions and opportunities for small entrepreneurs, while historically, corporations have maimed and killed their employees and their customers with hazardous working conditions and unsafe products.
Lawyers, guns and money: Just put down that lawsuit, pardner, and no one gets hurt
NEW YORK - There are 200 million guns in civilian hands in the United States. That works out at 200 per lawyer. Wade through the foaming websites of the anti-Semites, weekend militiamen and Republicans, and it becomes clear that many among America's well-armed citizenry have performed the same calculation. Because if there is any hope of the ceasefire that they fear, it will come out of the barrel of a lawsuit.
And that is why a shoot-to-kill coalition in the Senate, led by Wild Bill Frist (R-Tenn) and his simpering sidekick, Scary Harry Reid (D-Nev), voted yesterday to grant immunity from law suits to gun makers.
First, the score. Gunshot deaths in the US are way down - to only 88 a day. Around 87,000 lucky Americans were treated for bullet wounds last year; 32,436 unlucky ones died, including a dozen policemen by their own weapons.
For Americans, America remains more deadly than Iraq.
In one typical case, a young man, Steven Fox, described feeling pieces of his brain fly from his skull after a mugger shot him. He is permanently paralyzed.
And that is why a shoot-to-kill coalition in the Senate, led by Wild Bill Frist (R-Tenn) and his simpering sidekick, Scary Harry Reid (D-Nev), voted yesterday to grant immunity from law suits to gun makers.
First, the score. Gunshot deaths in the US are way down - to only 88 a day. Around 87,000 lucky Americans were treated for bullet wounds last year; 32,436 unlucky ones died, including a dozen policemen by their own weapons.
For Americans, America remains more deadly than Iraq.
In one typical case, a young man, Steven Fox, described feeling pieces of his brain fly from his skull after a mugger shot him. He is permanently paralyzed.
The masterpiece of the penguins
"The March of the Penguins"
At the Drexel, Bexley, Ohio
"That Penguin Movie" at the Drexel happens to be a major masterpiece. This improbable full-length feature film about the lifecycle of penguins at the South Pole would sound like a joke. How about watching grass grow?
But it takes its place alongside "Microcosmos" in the small but growing niche of nature documentaries that are truly great enough to stand up to theatrical release.
The March refers to the seventy-mile walk these emperor penguins must take back and forth from their breeding grounds to the sea to feed.
When they are four years old, these beautiful non-flying birds leave the frigid ocean and walk to a place where the ice doesn't melt. Here they mate and create their eggs, which they carry around in feathered sacks beneath their bellies.
At the Drexel, Bexley, Ohio
"That Penguin Movie" at the Drexel happens to be a major masterpiece. This improbable full-length feature film about the lifecycle of penguins at the South Pole would sound like a joke. How about watching grass grow?
But it takes its place alongside "Microcosmos" in the small but growing niche of nature documentaries that are truly great enough to stand up to theatrical release.
The March refers to the seventy-mile walk these emperor penguins must take back and forth from their breeding grounds to the sea to feed.
When they are four years old, these beautiful non-flying birds leave the frigid ocean and walk to a place where the ice doesn't melt. Here they mate and create their eggs, which they carry around in feathered sacks beneath their bellies.
Lance Armstrong and America: Harvey Wasserman Letter in Today's NYTimes
To the Editor:
Thomas L. Friedman has chosen the right man in pointing to Lance Armstrong as a role model ("Learning From Lance," column, July 27). Armstrong's will and brilliance in overcoming cancer and winning seven Tours de France are the stuff of legend.
But Mr. Friedman does not mention Armstrong's equally important opposition to the war in Iraq. Though a personal friend of President Bush, Armstrong has sharply and correctly criticized the war as politically wrongheaded and catastrophically expensive. "I don't like what the war has done to our country, to our economy," he said last year. "My kids will be paying for this war for some time to come."
Mr. Friedman is right to admire Armstrong as an athlete. Lance also has it right on this awful war.
Harvey Wasserman
Bexley, Ohio, July 27, 2005
Thomas L. Friedman has chosen the right man in pointing to Lance Armstrong as a role model ("Learning From Lance," column, July 27). Armstrong's will and brilliance in overcoming cancer and winning seven Tours de France are the stuff of legend.
But Mr. Friedman does not mention Armstrong's equally important opposition to the war in Iraq. Though a personal friend of President Bush, Armstrong has sharply and correctly criticized the war as politically wrongheaded and catastrophically expensive. "I don't like what the war has done to our country, to our economy," he said last year. "My kids will be paying for this war for some time to come."
Mr. Friedman is right to admire Armstrong as an athlete. Lance also has it right on this awful war.
Harvey Wasserman
Bexley, Ohio, July 27, 2005
Dramatic new charges deepen link between Ohio's "Coingate," Voinovich mob connections, and the theft of the 2004 election
COLUMBUS -- New charges filed against Ohio Governor Bob Taft's former top aide have blazed a new trail between "Coingate" and the GOP theft of the 2004 presidential election.
Brian Hicks appears in court today to answer charges that he failed to report vacation trips he took to Coingate mastermind Tom Noe's $1.3 million home in the Florida Keys. A top Taft aide for a dozen years, Hicks stayed at Noe's place in 2002 and 2003. Another Taft aide, Cherie Carroll, is charged with taking some $500 in free dinners from Noe.
Noe is a high-roller crony of Taft, US Senator George Voinovich and President George W. Bush. Noe charged the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation nearly $13 million to invest some $58 million. Ohio Attorney-General Jim Petro, to whom Noe once donated money, says some $4 million disappeared into Noe's pocket.
The new charges against Taft's former aide are at the edge of Coingate's links to Bush, Voinovich and organized crime. Through Noe's wife Bernadette, those links extend to the GOP theft of Ohio 2004.
Brian Hicks appears in court today to answer charges that he failed to report vacation trips he took to Coingate mastermind Tom Noe's $1.3 million home in the Florida Keys. A top Taft aide for a dozen years, Hicks stayed at Noe's place in 2002 and 2003. Another Taft aide, Cherie Carroll, is charged with taking some $500 in free dinners from Noe.
Noe is a high-roller crony of Taft, US Senator George Voinovich and President George W. Bush. Noe charged the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation nearly $13 million to invest some $58 million. Ohio Attorney-General Jim Petro, to whom Noe once donated money, says some $4 million disappeared into Noe's pocket.
The new charges against Taft's former aide are at the edge of Coingate's links to Bush, Voinovich and organized crime. Through Noe's wife Bernadette, those links extend to the GOP theft of Ohio 2004.
Spine, spine everywhere a spine
Last weekend, the Progressive Ohio Backbone Campaign rallied for three days before the Democratic Leadership Council, which held its annual convention in Columbus, Ohio, July 23rd-25th
-- Backboners wanted a voice in the DLC’s “National Conversation – It’s about the American Dream.”
Outgoing DLC leader, Evan Bayh (D-Ind) misread the “Got Spine?” message and won resounding applause when he promised conventioneers, “Too many of our countrymen, right here in the heartland, believe Democrats … don’t have the spine or the backbone to use force even in the face of the most compelling of circumstances. And that must change.”
Hillary Clinton echoed these sentiments when she called for a “unified coherent strategy focused on eliminating terrorists wherever we find them.” She wants the US to remain in Iraq until peace is achieved, characterizing the mission as part of the “long struggle against terrorism,” when she spoke before the think tank, the Aspen Institute, earlier this month. (AP 7/11/05)
-- Backboners wanted a voice in the DLC’s “National Conversation – It’s about the American Dream.”
Outgoing DLC leader, Evan Bayh (D-Ind) misread the “Got Spine?” message and won resounding applause when he promised conventioneers, “Too many of our countrymen, right here in the heartland, believe Democrats … don’t have the spine or the backbone to use force even in the face of the most compelling of circumstances. And that must change.”
Hillary Clinton echoed these sentiments when she called for a “unified coherent strategy focused on eliminating terrorists wherever we find them.” She wants the US to remain in Iraq until peace is achieved, characterizing the mission as part of the “long struggle against terrorism,” when she spoke before the think tank, the Aspen Institute, earlier this month. (AP 7/11/05)
Dramatic new charges deepen link between Ohio's "Coingate" Scandal and Election Problems
COLUMBUS -- New charges filed against Ohio Governor Bob Taft's former top aide have blazed a new trail between "Coingate" and the GOP theft of the 2004 presidential election.
Brian Hicks appears in court today to answer charges that he failed to report vacation trips he took to Coingate mastermind Tom Noe's $1.3 million home in the Florida Keys. A top Taft aide for a dozen years, Hicks stayed at Noe's place in 2002 and 2003. Another Taft aide, Cherie Carroll, is charged with taking some $500 in free dinners from Noe.
Noe is a high-roller crony of Taft, US Senator George Voinovich and President George W. Bush. Noe charged the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation nearly $13 million to invest some $58 million. Ohio Attorney-General Jim Petro, to whom Noe once donated money, says some $4 million disappeared into Noe's pocket.
The new charges against Taft's former aide are at the edge of Coingate's links to Bush, Voinovich and organized crime. Through Noe's wife Bernadette, those links extend to the GOP theft of Ohio 2004.
Brian Hicks appears in court today to answer charges that he failed to report vacation trips he took to Coingate mastermind Tom Noe's $1.3 million home in the Florida Keys. A top Taft aide for a dozen years, Hicks stayed at Noe's place in 2002 and 2003. Another Taft aide, Cherie Carroll, is charged with taking some $500 in free dinners from Noe.
Noe is a high-roller crony of Taft, US Senator George Voinovich and President George W. Bush. Noe charged the Ohio Bureau of Worker's Compensation nearly $13 million to invest some $58 million. Ohio Attorney-General Jim Petro, to whom Noe once donated money, says some $4 million disappeared into Noe's pocket.
The new charges against Taft's former aide are at the edge of Coingate's links to Bush, Voinovich and organized crime. Through Noe's wife Bernadette, those links extend to the GOP theft of Ohio 2004.
Thomas Friedman, Liberal Sadist?
The acclaimed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has often
voiced enthusiasm for violent destruction by the U.S. government. Hidden in
plain sight, his glee about such carnage is worth pondering.
Many people view Friedman as notably articulate, while others find him overly glib, but there’s no doubt that he is an influential commentator with inherently respectable views. When Friedman makes his case for a shift in foreign policy, the conventional media wisdom is that he’s providing a sober assessment. Yet beneath his liberal exterior is a penchant for remedies that rely on massive Pentagon firepower.
Many people view Friedman as notably articulate, while others find him overly glib, but there’s no doubt that he is an influential commentator with inherently respectable views. When Friedman makes his case for a shift in foreign policy, the conventional media wisdom is that he’s providing a sober assessment. Yet beneath his liberal exterior is a penchant for remedies that rely on massive Pentagon firepower.
The function of political scandal
Given the enormous disaster of the U.S. onslaught on Iraq, the monstrous suffering engendered by the occupation, the violence around the world that this same occupation has spawned, how strange it is that the counter-attack on the Bush administration should have come most effectively in the form of the Plame scandal.
Millions of words have now been written about the outing of Valerie Plame, CIA-tasked wife of Joe Wilson, who undercut the claims of the Bush administration that Saddam's Iraq was on the edge of having nuclear capability. A special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has now labored for months. A female reporter on the staff of the New York Times, Judith Miller, is in jail for not answering Fitzgerald's questions. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, stands in danger of indictment for lying to Fitzgerald. He already has been exposed as a liar.
These are all big events, yet after all these months I find it hard to understand what the fuss is all about and to take the Plame scandal seriously.
Millions of words have now been written about the outing of Valerie Plame, CIA-tasked wife of Joe Wilson, who undercut the claims of the Bush administration that Saddam's Iraq was on the edge of having nuclear capability. A special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, has now labored for months. A female reporter on the staff of the New York Times, Judith Miller, is in jail for not answering Fitzgerald's questions. Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove, stands in danger of indictment for lying to Fitzgerald. He already has been exposed as a liar.
These are all big events, yet after all these months I find it hard to understand what the fuss is all about and to take the Plame scandal seriously.