Risky times for hard news and views

Clarence Page
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

November 28, 2005

NEW YORK CITY - After this year's International Press Freedom Awards dinner, an ex-reporter remarked to me that the honorees' inspiring stories made her "think about getting back into real journalism again," with her accent on "real."

"Me, too," I responded spontaneously, feeling unusually humbled by the realities of many of our overseas colleagues. It's been a rough year for American journalists. But things could be worse; we could be trying to work in China, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan, or rural Brazil.

Those are the countries in which death, jail, beatings, exile or intimidation color the daily working conditions of this year's recipients of the Press Freedom Awards, given out by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, of which I am a board member.

This year, the tributes seemed to have a new edge. The hardship and sacrifices of journalists in societies that are less free remind us not only of how much we take for granted in the United States but also how often our own press freedoms seem to be under siege.

We've seen one American reporter, Judith Miller, jailed while working as a reporter for The New York Times this year, and Rhode Island TV reporter Jim Taricani put under house arrest with an ankle bracelet in 2004. Dozens of others have been similarly threatened with subpoenas and jail while Congress drags its heels on whether to pass a federal shield law.

As our own government fights for increasing secrecy in the name of the war on terrorism, more tyrannical regimes increasingly borrow such homeland-security rhetoric to cover up their own abuses. And as our international trade grows, American companies increasingly ignore human rights abuses in order to win favors from tyrannical regimes.

One of this year's CPJ honorees, for example, was jailed in China, a perennial international leader for jailing journalists. Shi Tao, 37, a Chinese journalist, is serving a 10-year sentence for "leaking state secrets abroad."

Translation: He posted on the Internet a Propaganda Department memo that instructed Chinese journalists in the government-approved way to cover the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. If you follow the news, you also may know that his arrest resulted from a troubling cooperation between China's repressive police and the American company Yahoo, which has refused to discuss the affair, except for brief press statements about cooperating with host countries' laws.

Another honoree, Brazilian editor Lucio Flavio Pinto, 56, was too tangled up in harassing lawsuits to leave his Amazonian hometown to receive his award in person. Investigating corruption and deforestation has made him the enemy of powerfully well-connected big business people, one of whom punched him in a restaurant – on camera! Missing even one of his almost daily court appearances could land him in jail, said his daughter, Juliana da Chuna Pinto, who accepted the award on her father's behalf.

One of the other two honorees could not return to her home country and the other was about to do so only with great courage. Galima Bukharbaeva, 31, cannot return to Uzbekistan for fear of imprisonment or other reprisal stemming from her reporting of police torture, repression of Islamic activists, and other state-sponsored abuses in the former Soviet republic. While reporting a May 13 massacre of civilians in the city of Andijan, a bullet tore through her backpack, piercing her notebook and press pass, when troops opened fire on demonstrators.

And Zimbabwean lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, 47, is the first non-journalist to be honored by CPJ after she has been followed and arrested and beaten for her work on behalf of journalists, foreign and domestic, who have dared to operate independently of dictator-president Robert Mugabe.

With almost all of the country's independent journalists and correspondents driven out of the country, there is little press freedom left in Zimbabwe to protect. The result, as Mtetwa pointed out, is a growing freedom for Mugabe and his cronies to do whatever they want, unexposed by the light of journalists.

We take freedom of the press for granted in the United States. Press freedoms here are facing new questions, sometimes with good reason. Journalists who abuse those freedoms need to be taken to task. But that doesn't make the freedoms any less valuable.

---

Account frozen...

---

No animals were harmed in the making of the above post... much.

We've seen one American reporter, Judith Miller, jailed while working as a reporter for The New York Times this year.... Dozens of others have been similarly threatened with subpoenas and jail while Congress drags its heels on whether to pass a federal shield law.

So many people seem to think Judith Miller is unique, as if she had broken new ground by being the first American imprisoned on facts she never saw and a federal appellate opinion she was not allowed to read.

Miller was neither accused of nor convicted of a crime. She was jailed for civil contempt of court, something a shield law would likely not be designed to prevent. Though she was cited for contempt and jailed, the reasons were never a secret--she simply refused to reveal her source to the grand jury.

Though with the revelations that Bob Woodward knew all about Plame as well, this is becoming a story that everyone in Washington knew, but didn't choose to publish. And again, information that a shield law won't protect either.

---

Account frozen...

From today's local paper... many links from this page.
Rep. Cunningham resigns - took $2.4 million in bribes



Blatant bribery - Imprison Cunningham, go after contractors

SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

November 29, 2005

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's five-year spree of bribery, conspiracy and income tax evasion, laid bare yesterday for the first time in a 33-page plea agreement with federal prosecutors, is a truly sickening spectacle.

For an elected official, there is no greater breach of the public's trust than selling his office for private gain. In this instance, the sheer enormity of the Republican lawmaker's crimes demands a substantial prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns, who will impose sentence on Feb. 27, should send a resounding message that such flagrant bribery will not be tolerated.

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam and FBI investigators documented at least $2.4 million in illicit payments and gifts given to Cunningham by defense contractors between 2000 and June of this year, when the Union-Tribune first reported the suspicious sale of his house to Washington defense contractor Mitchell Wade. The plea agreement details how Cunningham was on the take to four as-yet-unnamed co-conspirators for benefits large and small.

The bribes included, among many others, the sale of his Del Mar Heights house for a price that was hundreds of thousands of dollars above its market value, plus a $115,100 payment to offset the capital gains taxes owed on the inflated sale. Later, Cunningham received an additional $500,000 check to pay off a mortgage on the $2.55 million house he purchased in Rancho Santa Fe with the proceeds from the sale of his Del Mar house.

The roster of venal and not so venal gifts accepted by Cunningham is lengthy: an antique Louis Phillipe-period commode (circa 1850), Persian-style carpets, a leaded glass cabinet, two silver candelabras, two blue glass vases, custom oak doors, a sleigh-style bed, earrings, a charm and necklace, a used Rolls Royce, his daughter's graduation party.

To his credit, Cunningham yesterday gave up his House seat and acknowledged his crimes forthrightly - an admission such as never occurred in the City Hall bribery scandal. "The truth is, I broke the law, concealed my conduct, and disgraced my high office," Cunningham said. "I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions, and most importantly, the trust of my friends and family."

But Cunningham's guilty plea on two counts of conspiracy and tax evasion is only one-half of this sordid story. The federal government now must proceed aggressively to prosecute the defense contractors who engaged in wide-scale corruption in exchange for the congressman's efforts to steer Pentagon business their way.

In the meantime, we urge Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to set the earliest practical date for the special election in the 50th congressional district to fill the remaining year of Cunningham's term. Stretching from San Marcos to La Jolla, the 50th district is tragically overdue for honest representation.

Same old proposal? Bush's guest worker plan still has fatal flaws.

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL

November 29, 2005

There is this old sales gimmick that some retail stores use. They'll put up a sign that reads "Grand Opening." Then, a few months later, they'll put the sign up again hoping to fool customers into thinking that something new is going on.

President Bush is using the same trick as he rolls out his administration's immigration reform plan, again and again. It was back in September 2001 when Bush - while hosting Mexican President Vicente Fox at a state dinner at the White House - first talked about pairing willing Mexican workers with willing U.S. employers. Nearly two and one-half years later, in January 2004, Bush unveiled his plan for a guest worker program. Under the president's plan, millions of workers now in the United States illegally could apply for three-year work visas, with a three-year extension, before returning home.

Law and order conservatives in Bush's own party were outraged. They said his guest worker plan amounted to amnesty, and they were right. They also said the president would never get his plan through Congress.

Another 22 months went by. In October 2005, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao used a joint appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee to - again - unveil the administration's immigration reform plan which Chertoff likened to a three-legged stool. One of the legs looked familiar. Yep, it was Bush's guest worker plan. The other two were essentially enforcement measures: a proposal for an additional 1,000 border patrol agents, and another proposal for an additional 100 work site enforcement agents.

Yesterday, Bush himself traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to unveil once again - you guessed it - his immigration reform plan. There was a lot of good in it, from streamlining deportations of illegal immigrants to creating a tamper-proof identification card to building new roads and new fences along the border where appropriate. But the heart of it was the same three-legged stool, with the same emphasis on a temporary worker plan.

What is worse is that Bush's proposal has the same fatal flaws that it has always had. First, despite what Bush said in Arizona, it still amounts to amnesty. And that is still flatly unacceptable. Make no mistake. Under the president's plan, these aren't guests. They're permanent fixtures. Six years is more than enough time for these workers to put down roots, marry and have children. And then they'll never leave. Also, for all the talk about beefing up enforcement, the plan makes little mention of cracking down on those U.S. employers who can't wait to hire illegal immigrants despite the fact that doing so - at least knowingly - is against the law. Hiring 100 new workplace investigators for the entire country won't cut it.

If Bush had put greater emphasis on going after employers during his border visit, then the event might have been much more significant. It might even have been historic. Instead, it was little more than that which we've already experienced plenty of: a photo-op with a politician standing at the border and talking tough about illegal immigration without the slightest interest in doing what is really necessary to curb it.

A growing threat of U.S. isolationism

ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
THE MIAMI HERALD

November 29, 2005

Never mind that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's daily tirades against "U.S. imperialism" are rapidly gaining support in Latin America. The biggest threat to hemispheric relations in coming years may not be anti-Americanism, but U.S. isolationism.

I'm not kidding. While Chávez's 1960s-styled anti-American rhetoric may fizzle when world oil prices decline and Venezuela's elected strongman runs out of petrodollars to give away to his neighbors, we may see growing calls for a U.S. withdrawal from regional integration plans – and the world in general – in coming years.

A new poll by the Pew Research Center reveals that, as unhappy as Americans are with President Bush and the Iraq war fiasco, they are even more skeptical about the benefits of a greater U.S. "internationalism."

"Public skepticism about becoming too involved with the world has returned," the poll's authors say. "The percentage of Americans who say the U.S. should 'mind its own business internationally' has risen."

Consider some of the poll's findings:

While only 30 percent of Americans said their country should "mind its own business" internationally in 2002, the percentage has grown to 42 percent now.

While 67 percent of Americans agreed three years ago that the United States should give its full support to the United Nations, the percentage has dropped to 54 percent.

When asked about who will be the main U.S. allies or most important partners in the future, Americans named China, India, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Not one single Latin American country appeared in the picture.

Much of this sentiment is fueled by the fact that, while most Americans now agree that Bush made a big mistake in Iraq, they are even more upset by the United Nations' hypocrisy in blaming the United States for most of the world's ills, and for having dictatorships such as those in Libya and Cuba effectively control its human-rights commission.

In addition, last week's General Motors decision to lay off 30,000 autoworkers – and nearly daily headlines about the ever-growing influx of undocumented immigrants – have given ammunition to those clamoring for less free trade and a greater militarization of the U.S. border.

Amid this political atmosphere, U.S. isolationists are having a field day. Hispanic-allergic opinion makers ranging from Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., to perennial presidential candidate Pat Buchanan are claiming the United States would be a much better place with fewer Latin American imports and fewer Latin American immigrants.

Conservative columnists are urging Bush to learn a lesson from the recent riots in France and pretty much close the border with Mexico.

Tancredo is crisscrossing the country in an apparent bid to run in the 2008 Republican primaries on one issue – kick out undocumented workers.

Fortunately, not all public opinion trends point to a "Fortress America." When it comes to free trade, the Pew poll found that Americans younger than 50 have a better opinion of the U.S. trade deal with Mexico than older ones. Fifty-one percent of the younger group said the U.S. trade deal with Mexico is a "good thing," as opposed to only 34 percent among those in the older crowd.

My conclusion: The Venezuelan-Cuban brand of radical anti-Americanism will not last for decades, even if we may see it expand to Bolivia after next month's elections.

The 21st century is likely to be marked by three major trade blocs – the Asian bloc, the European bloc and the Americas' bloc – and most countries will sooner or later have to gain preferential access to one of these three blocs to increase their exports, grow and reduce their poverty levels.

But there is a real danger that isolationism may gain ground in America.

That would be a tragedy, because there is no way the United States will be able to reduce illegal migration, curb drug trafficking and increase exports unless the huge income gap that separates the Americas is narrowed.

And that will take more involvement with the region, not less.

---

Account frozen...

http://www.overspun.com/video/FamilyGuy.GWB.Vietnam.wmv

http://www.overspun.com/video/FamilyGuy.GWB.Vietnam.wmv
<link></link>

---

Account frozen...

Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, whose Washington, D.C., office is seen here, resigned after pleading guilty to accepting bribes. President Bush called Cunningham's actions "outrageous" yesterday during a press briefing in El Paso, Texas.

Now that's definately the pot calling the kettle black.

'Overwhelming case' forced Cunningham to accept deal - Bribery probe continues despite lawmaker's guilty plea

ANDRES OPPENHEIMER is an idiot but this time he may not be wrong.

---

"Raggio spezza, amista lunga"

---

Account frozen...

Political Grapevine
by Brit Hume

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry came out firing in his response to the president's plan for victory in Iraq, saying that the presence of U.S. troops, "presents food for the insurgency. And you need to reduce that presence." But just five months ago, Senator Kerry argued exactly the opposite. During a June TV appearance, Kerry said U.S. generals were telling him, "We don't have enough troops in Iraq," and "There aren't enough people on the ground,” adding, "The way you honor the troops and the way you provide a policy to America is to do everything possible to win."

Where's Joe?

Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman, who just returned from Iraq, defended U.S. efforts there in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal and a subsequent news conference on Capitol Hill, saying the military has "a good plan" for victory in Iraq, that progress is "visible and practical" and warning that such progress could be turned back by a premature withdrawal.

But the major media that played up Democratic Rep. John Murtha's call for withdrawing U.S. troops largely ignored Lieberman's remarks. Neither ABC nor CBS mentioned the senator in their nightly newscasts while NBC aired a short sound byte. And The Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today ran not a word of Lieberman's praise for U.S. efforts in Iraq.

Blame Game

The four activists kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq are part of the anti-war group Christian Peacemaker Teams and you might think the organization is furious with their captors, but you'd be wrong. Instead, the peace group is blaming the U.S. and Britain for the abduction, saying, "We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people."

The group's Web site reveals that it's a left-wing organization that has also stood with Palestinians against "Israeli occupation," and with illegal Mexican immigrants against harsh "U.S. immigration policy."

Who's that Soldier in the Uniform?

Liberal activists at MoveOn.org have yanked an anti-war ad blasting the administration for leaving U.S. troops in Iraq over the holidays after the Pentagon pointed out it used British soldiers to represent Americans in Iraq. The picture appeared as the ad's narrator says, "A hundred and fifty thousand American men and women are stuck in Iraq."

But a Pentagon spokesman tells Cybercast News that American men and women wear darker fatigues with a different pattern and don't have shorts as part of their combat uniforms. After trying to fix the error by doctoring the original photo to darken the uniforms and put long pants on the soldier in shorts MoveOn.org removed the ad from its Web site.

-----------------------------------

Not longer quoting the article, just a personal note on the peace activist abductions: the most proximate cause of the abduction was that terrorists abducted them. This was not a necessary consequence of the activists appearing in Iraq, so it would not be correct to say that the activists were directly at fault here. We say that John Wilkes Booth killed President Lincoln even though the most proximate cause was the medical treatment that he received afterward... the medical treatment was necessary because of Booth's actions, so the death is Booth's fault. The activists must want us to believe that somehow the abduction was a necessary response to their presence, and their presence was a necessary response to the invasion. This is the only way that one can conclude that the US and UK are responsible. Leaving the presence-to-abduction link alone for the moment, Cindy Sheehan has been arguably much more effective as an activist and never set foot in Iraq... thus the invasion-to-presence link doesn't hold water.

We are left to conclude that the activists took a huge and unnecessary risk, but that blame lays on the terrorsists.

---

No animals were harmed in the making of the above post... much.

Get out, let Allah sort them out.

---

Account frozen...

I am on a political form called United Political Debate which has many of these issues being debated. Just that most members are still posting to that Yahoo Group and not joining the nifty web forum.

Let's hear it for Kerry/Edwards:


With events happening in Europe, let us look at the 2015 map of Europe:


Let us look at the latest Anti-War protestors:

---

I am from District 268 in the Deneb Sector of Vilani Space.

Hmmm, a lot of legal-speak, too much to comprehend even for a MENSA member. I used to work for lawyers for four and a half years, and I learned how to read and speak their lingo. Let me summerize this disclaimer into one sentence:

"All your base are belong to us!"

[font='fixedsys,verdana']DISCLAIMER

SETI@home and University of California assumes no liability for damage to your computer(s), loss of data, any other event and/or condition that may occur as a result of participating in SETI@home. The opinions, comments, links, and the content therein (hereafter "Posts") do not necessarily reflect the views of the State of California, the University of California (Berkeley and/or its parent system), the SETI@home project, its programmers, volunteers, affiliates, and/or sponsors (hereafter "The Group"). The individual who creates a Post (hereafter "The Poster") is solely responsible for that Post's content. The Poster is not responsible for content linked to outside of the realm of this forum unless the poster created and/or maintains the content of the linked information. Posts do not carry the endorsement of The Group and should not be interpreted as such. The Group disclaims liability of all damages (monetary, physical, psychological, mental, emotional, and otherwise) caused by exposure to any and/or all Posts.

WARNING

Administrators of this website reserve the right to delete Posts as they wish without prior notice and/or recourse for appeal.

TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT

There will be no tolerance of trolling or spamming. Flame wars are not permitted. Punishment for non-compliance may be severe, cruel, unusual, and/or inhuman. There is no obligation to read and/or write Posts. There is no obligation to respond to a Post. There is no official language in this thread. This thread may not be respawned until 300 posts have been made.

MISCELLANEA

This thread is the continuation of "Political Thread" No. [10], [9], [8], [7], [6], [5], [4], [3], [2], [1].

Even though Steve Ballmer does his monkey dance every time we say it, this is the SETI@home forum for BOINC users only!

[/font]

---

I am from District 268 in the Deneb Sector of Vilani Space.

Get out, let Allah sort them out.

That's what you call some sort of military strategy? "Get out?" I would just call it "capitulation."

Get out, let Allah sort them out.

That's what you call some sort of military strategy? "Get out?" I would just call it "capitulation."

"Get out!" borrowed from The Amityville Horror

What it really means is turn chicken, surrender to the terrorists, allow them to take control of Iraq as we pull troops out, and then the terrorists will use the resources of Iraq to attack the USA and other nations. Hey nice plan, we should have elected the Democrats into office, they would have pulled out of Iraq by 2004, and we would have had more 911 attacks as a result by now. I'm getting tired of living anyway, why don't we just line up against the wall with bullseyes painted near our hearts on our shirts and allow the terrorists to just shoot at us. It makes just as much sense as the "Get out" strategy, brilliant!

Might as well surrender now and put the USA under Islamic Law, controlled by Osama bin Laden, maybe some of the Liberal Democrats can work for Osama, because it appears they are already working for him but don't know it yet. :)

---

I am from District 268 in the Deneb Sector of Vilani Space.