.Thomas Gomez: Do 'they' have it in for us?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they’re not out to get you. Consider where we are today. Our country is at war in two countries. An additional 50,000 troops are on the North Korean border. Israel has promised to launch a first strike against Iran should it continue to move forward with its uranium enrichment program. Pakistan, technically a US ally, but an increasingly unstable one, already possesses 60 nuclear weapons. North Korea also possesses such weapons (as well as long range missiles capable of reaching San Francisco). Hamas now controls the occupied territories.
If Israel attacks Iran’s production facilities, as it did Iraq’s in 1 981, what prevents the Iranians from mining the Persian Gulf, attacking shipping, and shutting off the flow of oil to Europe, the US, and China thereby collapsing the world’s economy? Mines are roadside bombs that float. Unlike ‘81, Iran and Iraq are no longer at war.
If the US goes in on the ground the Iraqi insurgency quadruples, overnight. Meanwhile Iran itself is twice the size of Iraq and has weapons of mass destruction. “Regime change” cannot be accomplished from the sky (Genocide can though). Going in on the ground means a million man force, and that would require conscription. But, the president has nothing to worry about his good friends in Latin America, like president Chavez will certainly help him out if we need oil right? Um, maybe not.
Now let’s turn our attention toward Pakistan. Sen. John McCain said recently in defense of the government’s recent missile strike there, intended to carry out its policy of extra judicial execution "The war on terror knows no borders." Brilliant sound bite. Give his speechwriter a raise. Unfortunately we all know what he said is a lie, and so do they. Obviously a missile strike on downtown New York, London, Berlin, or Paris would be unthinkable. Hence Osama wins his point ‘Your blood is like water…’ He actually said that in his speech last year. Act like he’s right and those angry mobs chanting "Death to America!" will overthrow Mussaref and give Osama nukes. Hell, you can put a warhead in an oxcart, it’s not that big. So if missile bases and production facilities for making more are destroyed it won’t matter, plenty of cargo ships dock in NY harbor every day. If tons of refined heroin can get here every year, believe that Osama already knows how he plans to deliver. So if this shaky government collapses, go in on the ground again? Against a bunch of nukes? With what army? Um, again maybe not.
North Korea ha s a truce with the US that’s held since the end of hostilities there. If either, or God forbid, both of the scenario’s I’ve just laid out go down how long do any of you expect that truce to last? President Kim’s people are starving. It’s no secret. If the US were to be tied up in ‘clash of civilizations’ it’s quite likely his army, the countries only real asset, will strike south to reunify the peninsula. Again what response does our government plan to make? A hailstorm of nuclear fire that ignites the atmosphere? Please. But it could happen.
That was in my opinion Edward Said’s whole point in his very lucid assessment of Osama and Al Queda’s strategic military objectives in his interview with David Barsamian for KGNU radio immediately after Sept. 11, 2001 (and just before his own death). Said was of the opinion that by provoking an apocalyptic response by the US Osama felt he could accomplish what the Serbian nationalist to kill the Austrian Arch Duke accomplished, a ‘clash of civilizations’ that remakes the world map, no matter how many people die. The scary thing is its working. Islamist fundamentalism of the Al Queda variety is growing in popularity with every extra judicial killing, disappearance, and act of torture this government commits.
The state’s response to Arab political violence seems closely patterned upon Israel’s response to similar violence there. The recent election results in the occupied territories (not to mention the over a thousand Israeli dead in the recent Intifada) should make clear just how effective that approach has been. Israel, created to keep Jewish people safe from the kind of violence that devastated their community repeatedly in Europe, is, on the whole planet, the nation where you are most likely to die for being a Jew. So much for the best defense is a strong offense. Now with Hamas in power, Israel is continuing along the same path, with over 15 extra judicial executions since the elections, despite a cease-fire by Hamas. Why? The reality is that within the Green Line the wombs of Palestinian women are, as one Israeli politician put it, "A ticking time bomb". In 30 years the majority of the population within the Green Line will be Arab and Muslim. The only solution that can prevent that is mass deportation of the Arab population. Isreal does not want a truce. With the US now planning to cut ties to the Palestinian’s in retaliation for electing Hamas, who are you betting will step into the breach? Iran? Israel can’t use its big weapons on its own soil unless it wants a repeat of Masada. My bet is that a whole lot of folks want to smuggle bigger weapons to Hamas because if you’re bogged down at home a nation in a state of civil war is in no condition to undertake the invasion of its neighbors is it? Remember 1973? The oil embargo? The rationing?
Cynthia McKinney been interested in the possibility that the administration knew about, or conspired to commit the atrocities of Sept 11, 2001 (as is Pacifica's new ED). The original Air America program (a CIA front) flooded our communities with heroin to fund the Mekong tribesmen during Vietnam, in aftermath of the October Surprise of 1980 that secretly exchanged missiles for the 51 hostages (nice gift, take one apart and you can just keep making ‘em), an illegal and not so secret war in Central America, funded by cocaine, that claimed the lives of 200,000 (mostly civilians) in direct violation of the express will of congress, a 2000 election where the winner got 3 million FEWER votes than the loser….should we dismiss even the possibility of this the state itself being behind these events and examine evidence closely?
In the era of secret prisons, secret evidence, warrantless searches, state sanctioned torture, and extra judicial execution all being openly defended as legitimate? Gimme a break. Our glorious leader openly admits he has 5,000 of us under surveillance. Hell, I called a congressional aide I know the other day to discuss the world situation and he cut me off by saying that their office phones are tapped! This government has historically swept away civil liberties in time of war. I’m not insane to believe that the moron who now leads the nation feels the Patriot Act gives him the same sweeping powers given the German Chancellor by the Enabling Act (whether he uses them in the same way or not, he's said as much). Nor do I feel it is insane to believe that our aggressive foreign policy could result in serious blowback. Russia was a world power not so long ago.
Others have noted correctly that of Pacifica Radio's potential 50-60 million listener base we barely register. We are badly managed. The 15 female complainants at EEOC won the right to proceed. Legal bills alone might reach close to a million. Yikes! Where is our sexual harassment policy? Where is our policy on race and national origin? If we cannot mainstream our dissent and present something resembling a unified front soon, we may very soon be arguing on a certain U.S. base in Cuba. You think that's a joke? Raise your hand if you know Lynne Stewart.
After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, WTOP--the largest station in the DC area, with its all news format--doubled in size almost overnight. After the start of the Iraq war it increased its listenership again by 40%. That tells us that lots of people are hungry for information. Reeling from our own internal turmoil, as usual, we were unable to deliver the goods in part because we were not willing to put forth the resources, in part because entrenched groups of people, at every station, defend their turf.
WPFW, the Pacifica station in the nation's capital, basically built a news department ex nihilo (from nothing) after the strike by activists willing to volunteer, and finally drove them all out of the building and changed the locks to make that they would never come back! They're safe now. We can all listen to 22 hours a day of Smooth Jazz, as the Third World War takes us all off to that real “City on a Hill.” So what if the network is worth half a billion dollar? What is it doing, and what interests is it serving?
I live in a polarized, segregated society. I spent two years going to all kinds of different events for Pacifica. I saw events that were all Black, all White, or all in Spanish. All I saw was a right, a left, and a "Fuck that shit and put on the damn game already!" Why have the politics of race played such a big role in the network? Well, let’s see: there was slavery, genocide against indigenous people, apartheid… Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Remember the Civil Rights era when some Klansmen in Missisippi killed those young white boys? Yeah, well the family of one of them gave Pacifica WBAI. The Goodman’s I think. Believe they’re Jewish, funny thing how on the left its pretty much taken for granted that Jewish people are white, while on the far right it’s pretty much a given their not.
In New York there may be a mainstream. But you really think it’s the same mainstream as say, Money, Mississippi? Who in America today, after what we just witnessed in New Orleans, can deny would Cornel West’s simple statement that is the title of his best-known work "Race Matters." Do any of us, whatever our internal differences, believe that the solution is for the white people to stop feeling guilty and take up their burden? Despite the demographics of the nation, in which Blacks and Latinos are close to 50 percent of the broader left? Only the extremely marginalized (and extremely marginal) white folks within Pacifica can save us? With what? Who will do so? Bernstein? Maybe the guy who sent his personnel file to the shredder will save us. That ’s nonsense. Hey, Campanella was no saint either now. Nor do I plan to stake any claim to sainthood.
Joel Siegal, aide to Congressman John Conyer, stated last year that the Progressive Caucus within the Congress now numbers 78, 38 of whom are in the Black caucus. Yet African-Americans number only 13% of US society. I’m I doing the math right here? Because what I’m seeing is the Black vote going more than 90% against Bush nationally, and electing damn close to 50% of the representatives that are even remotely progressive. The reality is white people stopped feeling guilty, if they ever did (it’s more like some Jews have progressive politics, face it), long ago and launched the Reagan revolution. That’s how we got here. Yeah, the white progressives can put can put a “million” people in the street, under the leadership of the Worker’s World Party, or the Revolutionary Communists. Such progressive whites, along with other progressive constituencies, are deserving of inclusion, whatever any of us may think of Chairman Mao, Lenin, or Che. The question is do you want the chairman’s folks driving the car? IMHO We ain’t gonna go too far in that ride.
But yeah, Pacifica is a voice for the disenfranchised, and these standing formations of whites on the far left can put people in the street to delegitimate government policy at a time of increasing loss of our rights at home and the looming threat of a ‘clash of civilizations’ that has the potential to take the lives of untold millions around the world. I also agree with the assertions made elsewhere that we need more diversity in programming and better programming. Vera Avery Brown has the distinction of being perhaps the last American Journalist to interview Marwan Bhargouti before the Israeli courts sentenced him to 5 consecutive life terms as the leader of the armed wing of the PLO. Compare that interview with David Barsamian’s interview at KGNU with Edward Said. Both are available online. See what you think. Because we’re spending $70,000 more a year than KGNU (and for your information this is a non-profit, and salary information for the highest ranking officials of non-profits is STILL in the public domain, we have the United Way to thank for that).
Anyone ever hear of Charlene Hunter-Gault? Pull her name up online. Pacifica throws money at its news divisions both locally and nationally. So "where’s the beef"? I am a graduate of the 8th grade and a holder of the esteemed NYS GED. Pull me up online. Now pull up the news director in Berkley (Aileen Afidrary, I believe, who along with Larry Bensky at the national level saw fit to defend a US coup in Haiti). Are we stupid? We’re paying good money for crap and everyone, including our graying listener base knows it. Name one good investigative piece done by our paid news staff at Pacifica in the past two decades? Have we ever produced a single piece, in 20 years, that we thought worthy of even submitting for consideration for a Peabody Award? One thing I am forced to agree with is that the Pacifica network is a half billion dollars mostly just rotting.
Infoshop News
If Israel attacks Iran’s production facilities, as it did Iraq’s in 1 981, what prevents the Iranians from mining the Persian Gulf, attacking shipping, and shutting off the flow of oil to Europe, the US, and China thereby collapsing the world’s economy? Mines are roadside bombs that float. Unlike ‘81, Iran and Iraq are no longer at war.
If the US goes in on the ground the Iraqi insurgency quadruples, overnight. Meanwhile Iran itself is twice the size of Iraq and has weapons of mass destruction. “Regime change” cannot be accomplished from the sky (Genocide can though). Going in on the ground means a million man force, and that would require conscription. But, the president has nothing to worry about his good friends in Latin America, like president Chavez will certainly help him out if we need oil right? Um, maybe not.
Now let’s turn our attention toward Pakistan. Sen. John McCain said recently in defense of the government’s recent missile strike there, intended to carry out its policy of extra judicial execution "The war on terror knows no borders." Brilliant sound bite. Give his speechwriter a raise. Unfortunately we all know what he said is a lie, and so do they. Obviously a missile strike on downtown New York, London, Berlin, or Paris would be unthinkable. Hence Osama wins his point ‘Your blood is like water…’ He actually said that in his speech last year. Act like he’s right and those angry mobs chanting "Death to America!" will overthrow Mussaref and give Osama nukes. Hell, you can put a warhead in an oxcart, it’s not that big. So if missile bases and production facilities for making more are destroyed it won’t matter, plenty of cargo ships dock in NY harbor every day. If tons of refined heroin can get here every year, believe that Osama already knows how he plans to deliver. So if this shaky government collapses, go in on the ground again? Against a bunch of nukes? With what army? Um, again maybe not.
North Korea ha s a truce with the US that’s held since the end of hostilities there. If either, or God forbid, both of the scenario’s I’ve just laid out go down how long do any of you expect that truce to last? President Kim’s people are starving. It’s no secret. If the US were to be tied up in ‘clash of civilizations’ it’s quite likely his army, the countries only real asset, will strike south to reunify the peninsula. Again what response does our government plan to make? A hailstorm of nuclear fire that ignites the atmosphere? Please. But it could happen.
That was in my opinion Edward Said’s whole point in his very lucid assessment of Osama and Al Queda’s strategic military objectives in his interview with David Barsamian for KGNU radio immediately after Sept. 11, 2001 (and just before his own death). Said was of the opinion that by provoking an apocalyptic response by the US Osama felt he could accomplish what the Serbian nationalist to kill the Austrian Arch Duke accomplished, a ‘clash of civilizations’ that remakes the world map, no matter how many people die. The scary thing is its working. Islamist fundamentalism of the Al Queda variety is growing in popularity with every extra judicial killing, disappearance, and act of torture this government commits.
The state’s response to Arab political violence seems closely patterned upon Israel’s response to similar violence there. The recent election results in the occupied territories (not to mention the over a thousand Israeli dead in the recent Intifada) should make clear just how effective that approach has been. Israel, created to keep Jewish people safe from the kind of violence that devastated their community repeatedly in Europe, is, on the whole planet, the nation where you are most likely to die for being a Jew. So much for the best defense is a strong offense. Now with Hamas in power, Israel is continuing along the same path, with over 15 extra judicial executions since the elections, despite a cease-fire by Hamas. Why? The reality is that within the Green Line the wombs of Palestinian women are, as one Israeli politician put it, "A ticking time bomb". In 30 years the majority of the population within the Green Line will be Arab and Muslim. The only solution that can prevent that is mass deportation of the Arab population. Isreal does not want a truce. With the US now planning to cut ties to the Palestinian’s in retaliation for electing Hamas, who are you betting will step into the breach? Iran? Israel can’t use its big weapons on its own soil unless it wants a repeat of Masada. My bet is that a whole lot of folks want to smuggle bigger weapons to Hamas because if you’re bogged down at home a nation in a state of civil war is in no condition to undertake the invasion of its neighbors is it? Remember 1973? The oil embargo? The rationing?
Cynthia McKinney been interested in the possibility that the administration knew about, or conspired to commit the atrocities of Sept 11, 2001 (as is Pacifica's new ED). The original Air America program (a CIA front) flooded our communities with heroin to fund the Mekong tribesmen during Vietnam, in aftermath of the October Surprise of 1980 that secretly exchanged missiles for the 51 hostages (nice gift, take one apart and you can just keep making ‘em), an illegal and not so secret war in Central America, funded by cocaine, that claimed the lives of 200,000 (mostly civilians) in direct violation of the express will of congress, a 2000 election where the winner got 3 million FEWER votes than the loser….should we dismiss even the possibility of this the state itself being behind these events and examine evidence closely?
In the era of secret prisons, secret evidence, warrantless searches, state sanctioned torture, and extra judicial execution all being openly defended as legitimate? Gimme a break. Our glorious leader openly admits he has 5,000 of us under surveillance. Hell, I called a congressional aide I know the other day to discuss the world situation and he cut me off by saying that their office phones are tapped! This government has historically swept away civil liberties in time of war. I’m not insane to believe that the moron who now leads the nation feels the Patriot Act gives him the same sweeping powers given the German Chancellor by the Enabling Act (whether he uses them in the same way or not, he's said as much). Nor do I feel it is insane to believe that our aggressive foreign policy could result in serious blowback. Russia was a world power not so long ago.
Others have noted correctly that of Pacifica Radio's potential 50-60 million listener base we barely register. We are badly managed. The 15 female complainants at EEOC won the right to proceed. Legal bills alone might reach close to a million. Yikes! Where is our sexual harassment policy? Where is our policy on race and national origin? If we cannot mainstream our dissent and present something resembling a unified front soon, we may very soon be arguing on a certain U.S. base in Cuba. You think that's a joke? Raise your hand if you know Lynne Stewart.
After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, WTOP--the largest station in the DC area, with its all news format--doubled in size almost overnight. After the start of the Iraq war it increased its listenership again by 40%. That tells us that lots of people are hungry for information. Reeling from our own internal turmoil, as usual, we were unable to deliver the goods in part because we were not willing to put forth the resources, in part because entrenched groups of people, at every station, defend their turf.
WPFW, the Pacifica station in the nation's capital, basically built a news department ex nihilo (from nothing) after the strike by activists willing to volunteer, and finally drove them all out of the building and changed the locks to make that they would never come back! They're safe now. We can all listen to 22 hours a day of Smooth Jazz, as the Third World War takes us all off to that real “City on a Hill.” So what if the network is worth half a billion dollar? What is it doing, and what interests is it serving?
I live in a polarized, segregated society. I spent two years going to all kinds of different events for Pacifica. I saw events that were all Black, all White, or all in Spanish. All I saw was a right, a left, and a "Fuck that shit and put on the damn game already!" Why have the politics of race played such a big role in the network? Well, let’s see: there was slavery, genocide against indigenous people, apartheid… Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Remember the Civil Rights era when some Klansmen in Missisippi killed those young white boys? Yeah, well the family of one of them gave Pacifica WBAI. The Goodman’s I think. Believe they’re Jewish, funny thing how on the left its pretty much taken for granted that Jewish people are white, while on the far right it’s pretty much a given their not.
In New York there may be a mainstream. But you really think it’s the same mainstream as say, Money, Mississippi? Who in America today, after what we just witnessed in New Orleans, can deny would Cornel West’s simple statement that is the title of his best-known work "Race Matters." Do any of us, whatever our internal differences, believe that the solution is for the white people to stop feeling guilty and take up their burden? Despite the demographics of the nation, in which Blacks and Latinos are close to 50 percent of the broader left? Only the extremely marginalized (and extremely marginal) white folks within Pacifica can save us? With what? Who will do so? Bernstein? Maybe the guy who sent his personnel file to the shredder will save us. That ’s nonsense. Hey, Campanella was no saint either now. Nor do I plan to stake any claim to sainthood.
Joel Siegal, aide to Congressman John Conyer, stated last year that the Progressive Caucus within the Congress now numbers 78, 38 of whom are in the Black caucus. Yet African-Americans number only 13% of US society. I’m I doing the math right here? Because what I’m seeing is the Black vote going more than 90% against Bush nationally, and electing damn close to 50% of the representatives that are even remotely progressive. The reality is white people stopped feeling guilty, if they ever did (it’s more like some Jews have progressive politics, face it), long ago and launched the Reagan revolution. That’s how we got here. Yeah, the white progressives can put can put a “million” people in the street, under the leadership of the Worker’s World Party, or the Revolutionary Communists. Such progressive whites, along with other progressive constituencies, are deserving of inclusion, whatever any of us may think of Chairman Mao, Lenin, or Che. The question is do you want the chairman’s folks driving the car? IMHO We ain’t gonna go too far in that ride.
But yeah, Pacifica is a voice for the disenfranchised, and these standing formations of whites on the far left can put people in the street to delegitimate government policy at a time of increasing loss of our rights at home and the looming threat of a ‘clash of civilizations’ that has the potential to take the lives of untold millions around the world. I also agree with the assertions made elsewhere that we need more diversity in programming and better programming. Vera Avery Brown has the distinction of being perhaps the last American Journalist to interview Marwan Bhargouti before the Israeli courts sentenced him to 5 consecutive life terms as the leader of the armed wing of the PLO. Compare that interview with David Barsamian’s interview at KGNU with Edward Said. Both are available online. See what you think. Because we’re spending $70,000 more a year than KGNU (and for your information this is a non-profit, and salary information for the highest ranking officials of non-profits is STILL in the public domain, we have the United Way to thank for that).
Anyone ever hear of Charlene Hunter-Gault? Pull her name up online. Pacifica throws money at its news divisions both locally and nationally. So "where’s the beef"? I am a graduate of the 8th grade and a holder of the esteemed NYS GED. Pull me up online. Now pull up the news director in Berkley (Aileen Afidrary, I believe, who along with Larry Bensky at the national level saw fit to defend a US coup in Haiti). Are we stupid? We’re paying good money for crap and everyone, including our graying listener base knows it. Name one good investigative piece done by our paid news staff at Pacifica in the past two decades? Have we ever produced a single piece, in 20 years, that we thought worthy of even submitting for consideration for a Peabody Award? One thing I am forced to agree with is that the Pacifica network is a half billion dollars mostly just rotting.
Infoshop News
posted by madtom at 11:16 PM
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