not watching television

US War Crimes . . .

The US Center for Constitutional Rights has filed war-crime complaints against Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet in a court in Germany, taking advantage of a German law permitting prosecution of human rights violations where-ever they may have occured. The CCR filed its complaint along with four Iraqi citizens to charge they were tortured and humiliated in the prison at Abu Ghraib.

My fervent hope is that the German courts honor human rights commitment expressed in the 2002 law and address these complaints with upmost seriousness. The New York Times reported today that a confidential Red Cross report has found the treatment of prisoners at Guatanamo "tantamount to torture." Yesterday at The Washington Note Steve Clemons posted on an article in the Boston Globe about extraordinary renditon, i.e., our government policy of whisking terror suspects off to countries like Egypt and Syria for interrogations that include torture.

This stuff has got to stop . . .

It's our policies they hate . . .

In a report issued just before the Thanksgiving holiday, an independent advisory board told the Pentagon that it not  our freedoms but our policies that at shoving Muslims into the arms of extreme militants, and at an increasingly alarming rate. It took how many people spending how much money for how long to discover this? Not that it matter, I suppose. The world-blind neo-con extremists at the Pentagon probably look upon such investigations as just so much bureaucratic  busywork.

PLAME GAME: PART . . . whatever

It's been so long since there's been anything new about the investigation into who outed undercover op Valerie Plame that Shirl and I've lost track of how many parts there have been in our series. But waddaya know? Now that the election is "over", fragments of new news have surfaced in the past frew days,

On Friday Susan Schmidt reported in the WaPo that the investigation is bogged down trying to pin-point exactly when Novak's Plame-outing columns was distributed previous to publication and exactly when White House aides started spreading the news. And shortly after the article appeared, Editor & Publisher posted a piece sorting the through Schmidt's news.

Today Laura Rozen at War and Piece pointed to a new article in the WaPo by Charles Lane that takes a look at the legal questions surrounding various reporter's efforts to avoid revealing their sources for the Plame leak to the special prosecutor in the case, Patrick Fitzgerald.

I agree with Laura that speculation in Lane's piece over whether Robert Novak has taken the Fifth is intriguing. Actually, the article gets closer to sorting out the difference between a reporter protecting a source trying to expose government wrong-doing and a government source using a journalist's pledge of confidentially to do wrong . . .

So, yet again, the question is, do these newest tid-bits mean something larger is about to break soon? I'm not comforted by the reminder in Schmidt's story that Fitzgerald is under no sanction to issue a report of any kind on his findings if he winds up the investigation without seeking criminal charges anywhere.

Hard to believe that exposing the identity of a CIA undercover agent, putting her life in danger and undermining secret operations vital to national security could just fade away. But then, like my pal Shirley says, "What ever happened about that anthrax thing?"

Amen . . .

From Free Press coverage of Rev. Jesse Jackson's stirring address to an overflow congregation at Mt. Herman Baptist Church in Columbus yesterday:

"This is not about John Kerry versus George Bush," said Jackson. "This is about Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer and Viola Liuzzo. About Goodman, Cheney and Schwerner, and twenty-seven years in prison for Nelson Mandela," he said, referring to heroes of the movements for equal rights. "It's about a will to dignity. It's not too much to ask for our vote to count."

Exactly. We're talking about our nation's founding principle here . . . Here, go read what Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman have to say. Sounds like it was a vintage -- which means great -- Jesse speech.

And here's a link to a Google page of press coverage of Jesse's visit. There are links to Cinci, Dayton, Toledo and Cleveland stories but nothing from the Columbus Dispatch yet.

Wikinews! Yay!

The creators of Wikipedia, the free open-source online version of the encyclopedia, is branching out into journalism. Read about the Wikimedia Foundation's new venture here, then go view the Wikinews demo for a the birth of another groundbreaking infomatics tool.

Wikipedia is frequently the first resource I turn to when I want to get an overview of a subject I'm reading or writing about. I like to link to it in my blog posts, too; when members of my vast readership follow the link they get general info about whatever I've mentioned and can usually follow links in the Wikipedia article to go deeper into the subject.

I expect that over time I'll be turning to Wikinews with equal frequency. I especially like the founders' understanding of what "neutrality" in a journalistic context means. And it will be great to have a site that covers those stories from around the world that are glossed- or passed-over completely in US mainstream sources of news.

"Investigate, Coordinate, Litigate, Recount & Recuse"

WELCOME CURSOR DERESELECTION 2004 READERS. Where-ever you are, I hope you'll consider loading up a car with friends and driving to the Fight for Democracy Rally in Columbus this Saturday. Yeah, you might run into foul weather or have car problems. But think of it as an adventure in America . . . you're bound to meet some interesting fellow citizens along the way. There's a map for how to find the Ohio Statehouse in the post below . . .

That's what Rev. Jesse Jackson, speaking during a teleconference, says Ohioans must do in response to the voting irregularities during the recent election . As Steven Rosenfeld notes in this new article at the Free Press, Jackson is in Columbus and Cincinnati today to confer with activists and other leaders fighting to establish the legitimacy of the state's presidential vote.

Meanwhile, plans go forward for the CASE-Ohio sponsored Fight For Democracy Rally next Saturday, December 4, beginning at 1 pm at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus (see flyer link below). Folks at the CASE-Ohio yahoo list have been talking about wearing orange to the rally -- clothing or armbands, ribbons, etc. -- to show solidarity with Ukrainians who took to the streets to protest fraud in their recent elections. I think this is a terrific idea. After all, our democratic comrades in Ukraine have managed (with support from the US government!) to halt to have their election declared invalid; the least we can do in the land of Novus Ordo Seculorum is verify our own.

I've been doing my small bit, emailing my admittedly small circle of friendly contacts about the rally, posting info over at Atrios' blog with the url to a fuller post over at my own. Somewhere along the way my blog post was picked up and posted in part at DemocraticUnderground in a thread begun by one of the rally organizers. So word's getting around . . .

And you can help, whether you live in Ohio or not. Dzika, the same DU member who posted info from my blog also posted a link to a printable Fight For Democracy Rally flyer. Just click on the image below for a full-page version you can print, copy and post on bulletin boards and telephone polls where-ever you go.

And please, if you can swing it in any way, please come to the rally -- and bring a carload of friends with you when you do. Here's a link to an in-town map of Columbus that will help you find the Statehouse once you exit the interstate.

 

Unwelcome . . .

Go to Deep Blade Journal for a fuller picture of how anti-war Canadians view Bush's coming visit to Ottawa . . .

Did you celebrate Buy Nothing Day?

We did. In fact, we're in the process of stretching it into a Buy-Nothing 3-day weekend. Daughter Jo did go to the public library yesterday and was concerned she could be breaking the pledge by using the car to drive there. But I told her well, no, it wasn't  Consume Nothing Day, so it was okay to consume gasoline as long as she didn't buy any, just like it was alright for us to consume all those T-Day leftovers as long as we didn't buy any additional food to go with.

At least that's my understanding of how Buy Nothing Day works. If I've got it wrong, my apologies to Adbusters, the Green Dragon Patriots, Rev. Billy and my fellow Church of Stop Shopping congregants.

Of course, buying nothing here in rural Ohio is different from not buying anything in NYC. But we do have a McD's (actually, two), like in Times Square where Rev. Billy et al. (channeling Martin Luther all the way) planned to post 9 Theses Against Corporate Rule on the doors of the Golden Arches Cathedral yesterday.

Truth, Justice & The American Way

Up in Cleveland The Plain Dealer is reporting today that People for the American Way have filed a mandamus suit asking the Court of Appeals to force Secretary of State Blackwell to perform his dutiy and inform Cuyahoga County voters whose provisional ballots were rejected of both the reasons and how they can challenge the decision.

One-third of the provisional ballots cast in Cuyahoga County were invalided on Blackwell's instructions.

Shameful promotion . . .

Okay, the shameful part is mine. I'm ashamed to say (but compulsively confessional) that I offered to help Cyndy at mousemusings with her wonderful project to compile info on progressive and alternative consumer resources so we can all live truer to the world we want to see unfold -- and I've done virtually nothing. I remember some wise person saying "There are no reasons, only excuses" (I think it was either Yoda or my dad) when failing to follow through on commitments. So I'll just say I haven't given up and move on . . .

The promotion part is over at mousemusings where Cyndy, true to her commitment, has a post today with links to a slew of ways to spend/not spend with political goals in mind. Go here to find out more about all news and resources at The Orifice of Homelandabsurdity and how to use your boycott power during the holidays and beyond.