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The decline and fall of American journalism

Until Judith Miller's piece showed up on the front page of the New York Times on April 22, I'd thought the distillation of disingenuous U.S. press coverage of the invasion of Iraq came with the images of the April 9 hauling down of Saddam's statue and of Iraqis cheering U.S. troops in the square in Baghdad in front of the Palestine Hotel.

These were billed as the photos and news footage that showed It Was All Worthwhile, up there in the pantheon with Joe Rosenthal's photograph of the raising of the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima and the images of the Berlin Wall going down.

Now, I'm certain there were plenty of Iraqis in Baghdad on April 9 delighted at the possibility that the Age of Saddam had drawn to a close. And probably there were some Iraqis prepared to wave at Saddam's conquerors riding in on their tanks. The problem is that the news photographs aren't there to prove it.

I've yet to see the image reproduced in any mainstream American newspaper that I've come across, but I have seen photographs on the Web of the entire square when that statue was being pulled down by a U.S. tank, and

Ohio Ballots, Computers, and Private Contractors

The Toledo Blade reports that Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is moving ahead with a plan to put computerized voting machines in all 88 Ohio counties by 2004.  County election officials, we are told, will able to choose a ballot vendor from a list of pre-selected private corporations that program electronic voting machines. The state will write all the purchase contracts and pay for the machines.  

This project is billed as vast improvement over current non-standardized voting systems. Officials also claim it is designed to protect Ohio from the ballot mess in Florida that threw the 2000 presidential election into the hands of the Supreme Court.  

However, it's worth asking whether or not the vote recording and counting process, so crucial to fair elections, should be placed in the hands of private contractors who are not accountable to citizens?  "You'd think in an open democracy," writes attorney Thom Hartmann in a recent article on CommonDreams.org, "that the government - answerable to all its citizens rather than a handful of corporate officers and stockholders - would program, repair, and control the voting machines."  

U.S. Easter celebrations hail the New Caesar

As the Freep goes to press this Easter weekend, amidst the rituals of a predominantly culturally Christian nation, the perils of the Bush administration’s imperialist occupation of Iraq were thrust into the mainstream media limelight. The Columbus Dispatch ran a New York Times article on its front page pointing out that which the Free Press has been pointing out for nearly a year, that the U.S. is planning a long-term military occupation of Iraq. The Pentagon is demanding long-term access to four key military bases in Iraq.

Alas, the shroud of Iraqi liberation is ripped away and the resurrected body of the new Roman Empire exposed. As the Times explained, “A military foothold in Iraq would be felt across the border in Syria, and in combination with the continued United States presence in Afghanistan it would virtually surround Iran with a new web of American influence.”

Why four died in Ohio: Governor Rhodes and his relationship with the FBI

Ten days after Governor James A. Rhodes assumed office on January 14, 1963, a Cincinnati FBI agent wrote Director J. Edgar Hoover a memo stating: “At this moment he [Rhodes] is busier than a one-armed paper hanger . . . . Consequently, I do not plan to establish contact with him for a few months. We will have no problem with him whatsoever. He is completely controlled by an SAC [Special Agent in Charge] contact, and we have full assurances that anything we need will be made available promptly. Our experience proves this assertion.”

Why would the FBI assert that the newly-inaugurated governor of Ohio is “completely controlled”? Media sources like Life magazine noted the governor’s alleged ties to organized crime and the Mafia in specific. Gov. Rhodes’ FBI file, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, suggests that it may be because of the FBI’s extensive knowledge of Rhodes’ involvement in the numbers rackets in the late 1930’s that the Bureau could count on his cooperation.

Michael Moore Was Right

There are no weapons of mass destruction: Bush's war was launched on a fiction. The fictional president has lied about just about every conceivable topic since he was appointed to the office, against the will of the voters of America.

I don't know if most Americans are even mildly aware of the scope of Bush administration lies. The television stations are co-opted into the propaganda stream. FOX is the worst, and Clear Channel radio stations. NBC is also horrid. They will not challenge Bush and his anti-democratic policies that favor the hugest and the richest. It's an Orwellian 1984 world out there now.

Bush and Company knew there would be no WMDs, since 1995, when Saddam's son-in-law Hussein Kamal defected and brought with him extensive documentation that the weapons programs were no more. UN inspectors knew, and they told the world that they had shut down Iraq's WMD programs, and that Iraq posed no threat at all to the superpower of the United States.

ComFest Funds a 'Grand' Tree Planting

Last Autumn, The Community Festival provided $1,000 to fund the planting of dozens of trees in Iuka Park, between Summit St. & North 4th. Several species, including paw paw, ironwood, beech, tupelo, & swamp white oak were planted. The work has been done in conjunction with the Iuka Ravine Association, and currently includes added mulching and chicken wire surrounds. ComFest regulars Maynard G Krebs (dubbed "The Ranger of Iuka Ravine" by an area neighbor) and Bill Winkle are seeing to the latest efforts. If you'd like to help them care for young trees, contact: billwinkle1@hotmail.com and use "Iuka Park Trees" in the subject line.

Poem

In the end there will be no humanity.
There will be nothing left.

This is our fate
as we have chosen it.
This is the end
we strive to achieve.
Look at what we have gained and all that we've lost,
and tell me that we've evolved.

Look at the evil in half of the world,
and tell me America isn't involved.

The Remington of our time

I nominate The New Yorker's Jeffrey Goldberg as the Remington of our time, though without the artistic talent. Remington? Back in 1898, William Randolph Hearst was trying to fan war fever between the United States and Spain. He dispatched a reporter and the artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to send back blood-roiling depictions of Spanish beastliness to Cuban insurgents. Remington wired to say he could find nothing sensational to draw and could he come home. Famously, Hearst wired him, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures, and I'll furnish the war." Remington duly did so.

I wouldn't set The New Yorker's editor, David Remnick, in the shoes of a Kong-sized monster like Hearst. Remnick is a third-tier talent who has always got ahead by singing the correct career-enhancing tunes, as witness his awful reporting from Russia in the 1990s. Art Spiegelman recently quit The New Yorker, remarking that these dangerous times require courage and the ability to be provocative, but alas, "Remnick does not feel up to the challenge."

That's putting it far too politely. Remnick's watch has been

Bob Fitrakis for City Council

There's a crucial race going on for Columbus City Council. It's not between the Democrats and the Republicans. It centers on Bob Fitrakis, the Green Party candidate, the only one who can make a difference. In fact, he's in many ways the only one qualified for the job.

Bob has campaigned long and hard for social justice in this town. He has fought against police brutality and for neighborhood rights, against environmental destruction and for a safe city.

The key is: Bob is unencumbered by the mainstream corporate agenda. All the D and R candidates are taking money from the developers and the big buck leaches that use city council as a funnel for their private interests.

Bob has fought against that all his life.

Stop the Patriot Act

Send your own version of this email to your Senator if you want to stop the Patriot Act.

Dear Senator,

I write to express my strong concern about media reports indicating that the Bush Administration and certain members of the Senate are considering moving quickly on legislation that would make permanent provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that are scheduled to sunset in 2005. I believe that not enough time has passed to evaluate the intrusive impact of these provisions, and that the Bush Administration’s reticence to share information about the implementation of powers authorized by the USA PATRIOT Act should be addressed before any consideration of legislation to make these expansive new powers permanent.

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