Occupy Wall Street: Charlie Rose - Amy Goodman - Chris Hedges Watch

A discussion about Occupy Wall Street with journalist Chris Hedges and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

A great little half hour, and interesting stuff from both participants, not just me girlfriend.

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11961

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Amy Goodman Democracy Now New York Times

I have the greatest respect and admiration for Amy Goodman, she is a rare bird indeed in America today. That sentiment reflected in this nice article from the New York Times.

I telephoned the Library yesterday as it happens, ordering three books.

Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times Amy Goodman

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ José Saramago

Cain José Saramago

A more comprehensive review from the Guardian. Sounds like a fun book.

A few words to come on those no doubt.

A Grass-Roots Newscast Gives a Voice to Struggles
By Brian Stelter
October 23, 2011

Hours after Amy Goodman, the host of the grass-roots newscast “Democracy Now!,” was arrested in Minnesota in 2008 while trying to cover protesters at the Republican National Convention, she was sitting in a network news studio above the convention floor, when a producer said: “I don’t get it. Why wasn’t I arrested?”

Amy Goodman, right, interviewing Tawakkol Karman, left, a Nobel laureate, with an interpreter.

Ms. Goodman asked him, “Were you out on the streets?” No, he said, he had been in the studio the whole time. “I’m not being arrested here either,” she said she told him. “You’ve got to get out there.” (Clip here)




For Ms. Goodman, that exchange expresses both a shortcoming of the network newscasts that many Americans consume and a strength of “Democracy Now!,” the 15-year-old public radio and television program. The newscast distinguishes itself by documenting social movements, struggles for justice and the effects of American foreign policy, along with the rest of the day’s developments.

Operated as a nonprofit organization and distributed on a patchwork of stations, channels and Web sites, “Democracy Now!” is proudly independent, in that way appealing to hundreds of thousands of people who are skeptical of the news organizations that are owned by major media companies. The program “escapes the suffocating sameness that pervades broadcast news,” said John Knefel, a comedian and freelance writer who started listening about four years ago and now tries never to miss an episode.

Though it has long had a loyal audience, “Democracy Now!” has gained more attention recently for methodical coverage of two news events — the execution of the Georgia inmate Troy Davis and the occupation of Wall Street and other symbolic sites across the country. Ms. Goodman broadcast live from Georgia for six hours on Sept. 21, the evening of the execution, and “Democracy Now!” reporters were fanned out in Manhattan from the first day of the protests against corporate greed.

“At the time, we had no idea if the protest would even last the night, but we recognized it as potentially an important story,” said Mike Burke, a senior news producer for the program. He noted that “it took NPR more than a week to air its first story on the movement.”

Distribution for “Democracy Now!” — which is live each weekday at 8 a.m. Eastern — comes from public, community and college radio stations; public access television stations and some PBS affiliates; the noncommercial satellite networks Free Speech TV and Link TV; and from the program’s Web site, DemocracyNow.org, which streams each hour long newscast in full.

The producers say the program is broadcast on more than 950 stations. But because the distribution is cobbled together and because the program has no commercials, no Nielsen ratings are available.

The media, Ms. Goodman said in an interview last week, can be “the greatest force for peace on earth” for “it is how we come to understand each other.” But she asserted that the views of a majority of Americans had been “silenced by the corporate media.”

“Which is why we have to take it back,” she said, echoing the sentiments of many of her fans.



Friends and former colleagues describe Ms. Goodman as ferocious and persistent, traits that have not changed since the program’s inception in 1996 on five Pacifica Radio stations.

“On the radio, she sounded at times like a giant, at others a giant slayer,” said Jeremy Scahill, now an investigative reporter for The Nation magazine, who practically begged Ms. Goodman to let him volunteer for the program in 1997. She agreed and initially paid him $40 a day from her own pocket. On Facebook he lists the program as his college education.

“What drove us was telling stories we felt were being ignored, misreported or underreported by corporate media outlets,” Mr. Scahill said.

The program slowly gained more stations and, amid a dispute with Pacifica, which was later resolved, it established itself as a nonprofit news organization in 2001. The week of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the program began to be simulcast on television. Since then, Ms. Goodman said, “the growth has just been phenomenal.”

While many media outlets were faulted for playing down antiwar protests after the attacks, “Democracy Now!” covered such events extensively.

Some fans as well as critics describe “Democracy Now!” as progressive, but Ms. Goodman rejects that label and prefers to call it a global newscast that has “people speaking for themselves.” She criticized networks in the United States that have brought on professional pundits, rather than actual protesters, to discuss the Occupy protests.

Last week, no United States television network covered the filing of a lawsuit in Canada by four men who said they had been tortured during the Bush administration and who are seeking Mr. Bush’s arrest and prosecution. But one of the men, Murat Kurnaz, a former prisoner at Guantánamo Bay, was interviewed at length by Ms. Goodman and her co-host, Juan Gonzalez.

The nonprofit nature of the program means that the producers “never have to worry about how an advertiser might feel,” avoiding potential self-censorship, Mr. Burke said. But it also sharply limits the size of the staff. The program relies on volunteers to transcribe segments and, occasionally, to translate foreign-language interviews.

Ms. Goodman regularly helps raise money for stations that broadcast the program. The Internet has given the program a global audience and the ability to reach that audience for more than an hour a day. On the evening of Sept. 21, the live stream about the execution of Mr. Davis was viewed more than 800,000 times.

The live stream attested to “the hunger for this kind of information,” Ms. Goodman said. “Yet there was no network that was there to cover this moment throughout the night.”

Except, in a sense, “Democracy Now!” was able to be that network, at least for a night. YTN

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Amy Goodman Democracy Now: Colleagues of Slain Kansas Abortion Doctor George Tiller Continue His Fight for Reproductive Rights

If you ever wondered why I take such an interest in this issue, well first and foremost, I honestly believe that it should be every woman's right to choose whether she carries a foetus to term or not.

I consider the social/economic implications of a woman or girl being forced to carry a pregnancy to term. And those social/economic consequences are by no means trivial, but I'm sure I don't have elaborate on those.

Lastly, and least it must be said, (for now) is the imposition of a biblical morality that has no place in a modern society. There are rich and powerful factions that are working to such ends, the ultimate goal of these extremists being the establishment of the Theocratic States of America, or some such, who want to rule America under biblical law.

Not only that, the social/economic class that wants to impose this morality, is invariably so far removed and above those, who would have the will of the sanctimonious imposed on it. Which as you can well imagine, is about as far away from a democracy as you can get. An occidental Iran if you will. Women's reproductive rights only being the thin end and start of this particular brand of totalitarianism.

Plenty more in the sidebar under the various tags.

Update and an endorsement I guess, of what I've just been rattling on about.

Attack of the Theocrats! How the Religious Right Harms Us All - and What We Can Do About It

Advance copies now available

Also available for Kindle at Amazon and Nook at Barnes&Noble

Publication Date: February 15, 2012
At no time in American history has the United States had such a high percentage of theocratic members of Congress-those who expressly endorse religious bias in law. Just as ominously, at no other time have religious fundamentalists effectively had veto power over one of the country's two major political parties. As Sean Faircloth argues, this has led to the crumbling of the country's most cherished founding principle-the wall separating church and state-and presages yet even more crumbling. Faircloth, a former politician and current executive director of the Secular Coalition for America, moves beyond the symbolism to explore the many ways federal and state legal codes privilege religion in law. He goes on to demonstrate how religious bias in law harms all Americans-financially, militarily, physically, socially, and educationally. Sounding a much-needed alarm for all who care about the future direction of the country, Faircloth offers an inspiring vision for returning America to its secular roots Reviews RDF

Colleagues of Slain Kansas Abortion Doctor George Tiller Continue His Fight for Reproductive Rights

A federal judge has blocked the impact of one of the laws aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood, ordering Kansas to restore federal family planning funds to a clinic that claims it suffered "collateral damage" from the law because it would be forced to close, leaving 650 mostly low-income patients without access to reproductive healthcare services. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, and the unaffiliated Dodge City clinic, are challenging a law requiring the state to first allocate Title X funds to public health departments and hospitals, which leaves no funds for specialty family planning clinics. This is just the latest development in Kansas, which saw the murder of one of its staunchest supporters of women’s access to abortion: Dr. George Tiller. For more, we are joined by Julie Burkhart, who worked for eight years with Tiller before he was killed in 2009. She is the founder and director of the Trust Women Foundation and PAC, which focuses on protecting women’s access to reproductive healthcare, as well as the rights of the physicians who provide these services.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from Kansas City, right on the border between Kansas and Missouri, an area that is ground zero in the push to reduce women’s access to reproductive services, and specifically abortion.

The music you just heard was from Kansas City native, by the way, Charlie Parker.

After the passage of Roe v. Wade, Kansas had 27 abortion providers. Now it has three. All three of those clinics were targeted by a barrage of bills that passed during the last legislative session in Kansas. This was the session that saw the rise of Republican Governor Sam Brownback after Democrat Kathleen Sebelius left to become President Obama’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Well, just yesterday, a federal judge blocked the impact of one of the laws aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood. He ordered Kansas to restore federal family planning funds to a clinic that claims it suffered "collateral damage" from the law because it would be forced to close, leaving 650 mostly low-income patients without access to reproductive healthcare services. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the unaffiliated Dodge City clinic are challenging a law requiring the state to first allocate Title X funds to public health departments and hospitals, which leaves no funds for specialty family planning clinics. They argue that under the Supremacy Clause, Kansas cannot impose further restrictions on a federal program. Congress created Title X of the Public Health Services Act to promote family planning services to low-income patients, because it found the lack of access to birth control services exacerbates poverty.

This is just the latest development in Kansas, which saw the assassination in 2009 of one of its staunchest supporters of women’s access to abortion: Dr. George Tiller. The 67-year-old doctor was shot as he attended services at his Wichita, Kansas, church. In a related development, an ethics panel recommended last week that former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline have his state law license suspended over his conduct during criminal investigations of abortion providers, including Dr. Tiller, saying he was "motivated by dishonesty and selfishness."

For more, we’re joined by Julie Burkhart. She worked for eight years with Dr. George Tiller before he was killed in 2009. She’s founder and director of the Trust Women Foundation and PAC, which focuses on protecting women’s access to reproductive healthcare, as well as the rights of the physicians who provide these services.

Even today, our condolences on losing your friend, Dr. Tiller. You were with him days before he was killed in 2009? Transcript

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Occupy Wall Street Democracy Now! Daily News Digest October 14

I shall be looking at these myself, but somewhat later.

Democracy Now! Daily News Digest
October 14, 2011

NYC Withdraws Cleaning Evacuation Order in Face of Defiant Occupy Wall Street Protesters Occupy Wall Street protesters are celebrating in Manhattan’s Financial District today after successfully defying orders to evacuate the encampment they have held for nearly four weeks. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had said Zuccotti Park, renamed Liberty Plaza by protesters, would have to be cleared by 7:00 a.m. following a request by its owners that it be cleaned. Thousands of people began congregating in the square overnight amidst concerns the cleaning order was a pretext for evicting the protesters. Hours later, New York City officials announced the request to clear the park had been withdrawn. We go live to Zuccotti Park to speak with Democracy Now!'s Ryan Devereaux. We also speak with New York City Council Member Jumaane Williams, who is one of many local officials who have lent their support for the occupation. Watch/Listen/Read

Constitutional Rights Lawyer Michael Ratner: Failed Occupy Wall Street Evacuation Order is Illegal Speaking from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, attorney Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights says New York City’s efforts to displace Occupy Wall Street protesters in order to clean the park violates their First Amendment rights and would have led to a major confrontation. We also speak with an Occupy Wall Street organizer about plans for a global day of action tomorrow, October 15, called "United for #GlobalChange." Watch/Listen/Read

Alleged Inhumane Conditions for Post-9/11 Suspects Sparks Global Scrutiny of U.S. Detention Policies Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, detention policies in the United States are facing increasing scrutiny both here and abroad. American citizen Tarek Mehanna is set to stand trial this month on charges of "conspiring to support terrorism" and "providing material support to terrorists." He was 27 years old when he was arrested in October 2009 and has been held in solitary confinement since then. Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights is hearing a case on the legality of extradition of terror suspects to the United States on the grounds that inmates are subjected to inhumane conditions of confinement and routine violations of due process. To discuss detention policies since 9/11 in the United States, we’re joined by Tarek Mehanna’s brother, Tamer, and Gareth Peirce, one of Britain’s best-known human rights attorneys. Watch/Listen/Read

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Amy Goodman Democracy Now On Occupy (Wall St) Lots of Cities

Protests inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" encampment in New York City continued to expand this weekend with protests taking place in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, San Francisco and Oakland, among others. Many of the protests have led to arrests. After about 500 protesters gathered during the day in front of the Iowa Statehouse in Des Moines, renaming the capitol complex "People’s Park," police arrested 32 people after they spent the night in the park. Also over the weekend, in Washington, D.C., the National Air and Space Museum was closed Saturday afternoon after security guards used pepper spray to repel more than 100 demonstrators protesting an exhibit on drones. Afterward, an assistant editor with the conservative publication The American Spectator wrote online he had infiltrated the group and provoked guards to pepper spray the crowd. Back in New York City, thousands of protesters marched from their base in the Financial District, where the "Occupy Wall Street" encampment is entering its fourth week, to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek addressed demonstrators Sunday at Zuccotti Park. "They tell you are we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers," Žižek says. "We are the awakening, from a dream which is turning into a nightmare. We are not destroying anything. We are only witnessing how the system is destroying itself." Transcript

As the "Occupy" movement expands from the "Occupy Wall Street" protest in New York City throughout the United States, we look at its historical significance. "This is an incredibly significant moment in U.S. history," says Dorian Warren of Columbia University. "It might be a turning point, because this is the first time we’ve seen an emergence of a populist movement on the left since the 1930s." We also speak to Firedoglake blogger Kevin Gosztola, who has been reporting from the occupations in Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Transcript

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Democracy Now! Reporters Win Landmark Settlement Over 2008 RNC Arrests

The settlement figure isn't mentioned in this clip, but they each received $100,000.

I have an article posted on on the 2008 RNC and video The eye of the Storm, Portland Oregon 2002. A link and a taster at the bottom of the page.

This is no way to treat my girlfriend.

Press Freedom Victory: Democracy Now! Reporters Win Landmark Settlement Over 2008 RNC Arrests

AMY GOODMAN: As we reported in yesterday’s headlines, a final settlement been reached in our federal lawsuit challenging the police crackdown on journalists at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Democracy Now! producers, Nicole Salazar, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and I filed the suit last year against the Minneapolis and St. Paul Police Departments, the Ramsey County Sheriff and Secret Service personnel. The lawsuit challenged the policies and conduct of law enforcement during the 2008 RNC that resulted in our arrest.

We were among dozens of journalists arrested that week in St. Paul. More than 40 were arrested. On September 1, 2008, the opening of the convention, Nicole and Sharif were covering a police crackdown on street protests. Nicole’s camera captured her arrest and assault by the officers. As the riot police came at her shouting, "On your face," she shouted back, "Press, press."

NICOLE SALAZAR: Watch out! Watch out! Press!

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of here! Move!

NICOLE SALAZAR: Where are we supposed to go? Where are we supposed to go?

POLICE OFFICER: Get out of here!

NICOLE SALAZAR: Dude, I can’t see! Ow! Press! Press! Press!

POLICE OFFICER: Get down! Get down on your face! On your face!

NICOLE SALAZAR: I’m on my face!

POLICE OFFICER:Get down on your face!

NICOLE SALAZAR: Ow! Press! Press!

[SCREAMING]

AMY GOODMAN: That was Democracy Now! producer Nicole Salazar, screaming as the riot police took her down, bloodying her face. Sharif Abdel Kouddous was arrested next. I rushed to the scene and asked to speak to a commanding officer to get Sharif and Nicole, accredited journalists, released, whereupon I was ripped through the police line and arrested.

POLICE OFFICER: Ma’am, get back to the sidewalk.

DENIS MOYNIHAN: Release the accredited journalists now!

AMY GOODMAN: Sir, just one second. I was just running from the convention floor.

DENIS MOYNIHAN: You are violating my constitutional rights. You are violating their constitutional rights.

POLICE OFFICER: Sidewalk now!

AMY GOODMAN: Sir, I want to talk to your superior —-

POLICE OFFICER: Arrest her?

AMY GOODMAN: Do not arrest me!

POLICE OFFICER: You’re under arrest.

POLICE OFFICER: Hold it right there. You’re under arrest. Stay right there. Back up. Back up.

POLICE OFFICER: Everybody, you cross this line, you’ll be under arrest, so don’t do it.

CROWD: Let her go!

AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and I held a news conference in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan where hundreds are camped out with the Occupy Wall Street protest. We were joined by our attorneys to announce the settlement. We begin with Steven Reiss of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

STEVEN REISS: There is a reason why freedom of the press is in the First Amendment, because without freedom of the press, there is no democracy, and that’s a lesson that applies not just abroad, and we’ve seen many times in recent months abroad, it applies here as well. And for freedom of the press to be vindicated, it takes journalists with the courage to vindicate those rights, and three of those journalists are here with you today.

AMY GOODMAN: Thank you all for coming out. It is very important that we reached this settlement today with the St. Paul, Minneapolis Police, and the U.S. Secret Service. To challenge how the authorities are dealing with press at public events. On September 1, 2008, my colleagues and I were covering the first day of the Republican Convention in St. Paul. I was on the convention floor interviewing delegates, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, Democracy Now! producers, were out on the streets covering the protests. I got a call on the convention floor that Sharif and Nicole had been arrested and had been injured. I raced to 7th and Jackson, the parking lot where I heard they were. The riot police had formed a line, had fully contained the area. I went up to them, asked to speak to a supervising officer to have my colleagues released. They were credentialed like I was, very clearly, I was wearing the top security credentials that allow me to interview presidents and vice presidents, congressman and delegates, issued by the authorities.

It wasn’t seconds before the police ripped me through the police line, twisted my arms back, slapped the handcuffs on, pushed me against the wall, and onto the ground. I was pleading with them not to arrest me, but that’s precisely what they did. I was then brought over to Sharif Abdel Kouddous, his arm was bloodied, he was handcuffed. We were saying very clearly, "You must release us now. We are wearing our press credentials." Whereupon the Secret Service came over and ripped the credentials from our around our necks. I was then taken to the police van, where Nicole was; Nicole Salazar. She was handcuffed. Her face was bloodied, and she described quickly what happened. She said they have been covering the peaceful protests while I was convention. That the riot police had moved quickly in on them. They were in a parking lot. She was backed against the parked cars as they shouted, "On your face." She filmed, but the same time, showed her press pass and shouted, "Press, press." They took her down from in front and behind, onto the ground, her face in the ground. They had a knee or boot in her back. They dragged her leg, which was bloodying her face in the ground.

The first thing the police did was pull the battery out of her camera, if you were wondering what they wanted to stop happening. Nicole was doing her job. She was recording the public protest outside the conventions, which was supposed to be a celebration of democracy. Sharif was there. Sharif Abdel Kouddous, our senior producer, told the riot police to calm down. They pushed him up against the wall, kicked him twice in the chest, bloodied his arm. They face felony riot charges. I was arrested with a misdemeanor. They took me to the police garage where the cages were erected for the protesters. Sharif and Nicole were taken off to jail.

We were held for hours, ultimately released because of the thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people from around the country who responded to the video that was put up by independent reporters. The video of our arrest went viral; the most watched Youtube video the first two days of the convention. We believe that is what freed us. The response, the outrage of people around the country. We were simply doing our jobs. It is our job not only to be on the convention floor, but to be covering the corporate suites, to find out who is covering these conventions, who is sponsoring these conventions, and also to be in the streets where the uninvited guests are. The thousands of people who also have something very important to say. Democracy is a messy thing and it’s our job to capture it all and we shouldn’t have to get a record when we try to put things on the record.

We were not alone in our arrests. More than 40 reporters were arrested. Let this send a message to police departments around the country as we move into the next conventions in Charlotte and Tampa, that the police must not violate our freedom to cover what is happening in the streets. It is not only a violation of freedom of the press, but a violation of the public’s right to know, and we are particularly gratified to have come out of this settlement with the training agreement on the part of the St. Paul Police Department, working with the Center for Constitutional Rights and the ACLU and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, to come up with a training manual and a training process, so that the St. Paul Police, and they will urge the Minneapolis police and the state police to do the same, will be trained in how to deal with reporters; not to engage and arrests of reporters or to engage in unlawful arrests at all.

ANJANA SAMANT: Hello everyone, more

More at Further Tales From a Police State and The Big Fascist Picture Show

More recently: Police State 4: The Rise of FEMA includes a brief review.

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Michael Moore: Man Interviewed by Democracy Now! on Troy Davis Execution Inspired My Georgia Boycott

I felt privileged to have the opportunity to listen to this conversation between two giants, both of broadcasting and of compassion. Very moving.

Michael Moore: Man Interviewed by Democracy Now! on Troy Davis Execution Inspired My Georgia Boycott

Michael Moore: ....."Fine, then I’m going to donate whatever royalties I make on this book to The Innocence Project, which is a group who has got many people off death row. And, I’m also going to donate to a voter registration drive." There were 600,000 African Americans in the last election that were not registered to vote in Georgia. Georgia is one of these states that is making it increasingly difficult for people to register to vote, and to vote, on election day. So I will not touch any of the money that this book makes from the state of Georgia. I just don’t want anything to do with it, and I cancelled going there, to Atlanta on my book tour. I won’t go there. I will not participate. And, myself and my website guys, we’ve been talking to the African American students at Morehouse and some of the colleges down there. And there’s a number of people that are going to have a much more organized response to this with the state of Georgia. We’re going to identify those politicians and we are going to identify corporations in Georgia like Home Depot and Coca Cola and others who contribute money to these politicians that allow this death penalty to exist. More at the transcript link.

Quintessential Amy Goodman.

Filmmaker Michael Moore was a part of the global audience tuning in for Democracy Now!'s live coverage from outside the Georgia prison where death row prisoner Troy Davis was executed on September 21. Moore describes how he was inspired by one of the people Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman interviewed on the scene after news of the execution was announced. The man, who introduced himself as Wesley Boyd, immediately called for a boycott of the state of Georgia in response to Davis' execution. Moore says he then asked his publisher to recall all copies of his new book from stores in Georgia, saying, "I don’t want any commerce being done in my name in the state of Georgia." When he was told the books were already on the shelves, Moore decided to donate proceeds from the sales in the state to the Innocence Project and a voter registration drive. He also discusses his previous work on the case of a death row prisoner who shares his name, a topic he writes about in the chapter, "The Execution of Michael Moore," in his new memoir Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re on the road in Minneapolis. Today we play the second part of my interview with one of the most famous independent filmmakers in the world, Michael Moore. For more than two decades, Michael has been one of the most politically active, provocative and successful documentary filmmakers in the business. His films include, Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, for which he won the Academy Award, Fahrenheit 9/11, SICKO, and Capitalism: A Love Story. He has a new book out, it’s called, Here Comes Trouble: Stories From My Life. You can see part one of the interview with Michael Moore on our website at democracynow.org. After Monday’s program, I had a chance to ask Michael Moore about the execution of Troy Anthony Davis that took place on Wednesday, September 21. The state of Georgia killed Davis despite significant doubt about his guilt in the killing of a white, off-duty police officer, Mark MacPhail, in 1989. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses in the case later recanted or changed their testimony, and there was no physical evidence linking Troy Davis to the crime. Democracy Now! was there, reporting live from the death row prison grounds in Jackson, Georgia when Troy Davis was executed. Davis will be buried on Saturday in Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up. I began my interview with Michael Moore by playing a clip of Troy Davis speaking during an Amnesty International conference call in 2009. Transcript

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"Something Has Started": Michael Moore Occupy Wall Street : Democracy Now

Two segments from Democracy Now. The first, where Michael Moore discusses the implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The second and much lengthier piece, (link only) is a chat between Moore and Amy Goodman, where Moore talks about his formative years, his film making and his new book, Here Comes Trouble. Towards the end of the piece there is a clip of Moore accepting his Oscar for Bowling For Columbine, the ruckus his acceptance speech caused, and its consequent effects on Moore's life, and the threats to that life.

I posted excerpts from Here Comes Trouble that covered that period of his life in a post entitled Michael Moore Croissant-Eater.

"Something Has Started": Michael Moore on the Occupy Wall St. Protests That Could Spark a Movement

Oscar-winning filmmaker, best-selling author,and provocateur laureate Michael Moore joins us for the hour. One of the world’s most acclaimed — and notorious — independent filmmakers and rabble-rousers, his documentary films include Roger and Me; Bowling for Columbine for which he won the Academy Award, Fahrenheit 9/11, SICKO; and Capitalism: A Love Story. In the first part of our interview, Moore talks about the growing "Occupy Wall Street" protests in Lower Manhattan, which he visited on Monday night. "This is literally an uprising of people who have had it," Moore says. "It has already started to spread across the country in other cities. It will continue to spread. ... It will be tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people ... Their work ahead is not as difficult as other movements in the past ... The majority of Americans are really upset at Wall Street ... So you have already got an army of Americans who are just waiting for somebody to do something, and something has started." Democracy Now

"Here Comes Trouble": Michael Moore Tells The Formative Tales Behind His Filmmaking, Rabble-Rousing

For more than two decades, Michael Moore has been one of the most politically active, provocative and successful documentary filmmakers in the business. We talk to Moore about his new memoir, "Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life," which comprises 20 biographic vignettes that capture how his political and sociological viewpoints developed. He also discusses the numerous attacks and death threats he received after speaking out against former President George W. Bush, after winning a 2003 Academy Award for his film, Bowling for Columbine. He first discussed these fears and necessity to hire a security team on Democracy Now! last year, which ultimately encouraged him to write publicly about these incidents in his memoir. Watch Democracy Now

Having more respect for, than I had knowledge of, I rectified that shortcoming by reading Amy Goodman's bio on Wiki. Link here if you are of a like mind.

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American Pot Calling Iran Kettle Black: US Hikers

Which given America's infinite capacity for hypocrisy, comes as no great surprise.

It's BSF here (before sparrow fart) so I haven't as yet watched the Democracy Now clip, but given my Jose Padilla post of two days ago, I thought this a very apt article.

Update:

Having watched the clip, quite lengthy, some twenty odd minutes, it becomes essential viewing, to truly appreciate that America doesn't have a moral leg to stand on. And Iran? Moral and Iran don't belong in the same sentence.



Bloggers. If you want to increase the size of Democracy Now's default player, change the 300 part of this code to whatever you require. You are watching this at 640.

embed_show_v2/300/2011/

What media coverage omits about U.S. hikers released by Iran
By Glen Greenwald
Sep 26, 2011

Two American hikers imprisoned for more than two years by Iran on extremely dubious espionage charges and in highly oppressive conditions, Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, were released last week and spoke yesterday in Manhattan about their ordeal. Most establishment media accounts in the U.S. have predictably exploited the emotions of the drama as a means of bolstering the U.S.-is-Good/Iran-is-Evil narrative which they reflexively spout. But far more revealing is what these media accounts exclude, beginning with the important, insightful and brave remarks from the released prisoners themselves (their full press conference was broadcast this morning on Democracy Now).

Fattal began by recounting the horrible conditions of the prison in which they were held, including being kept virtually all day in a tiny cell alone and hearing other prisoners being beaten; he explained that, of everything that was done to them, "solitary confinement was the worst experience of all of our lives." Bauer then noted that they were imprisoned due solely to what he called the "32 years of mutual hostility between America and Iran," and said: "the irony is that [we] oppose U.S. policies towards Iran which perpetuate this hostility." After complaining that the two court sessions they attended were "total shams" and that "we'd been held in almost total isolation - stripped of our rights and freedoms," he explained:

In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would remind us of comparable conditions at Guantanamo Bay; they'd remind us of CIA prisons in other parts of the world; and conditions that Iranians and others experience in prisons in the U.S.

We do not believe that such human rights violation on the part of our government justify what has been done to us: not for a moment. However, we do believe that these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments - including the government of Iran - to act in kind.

[Indeed, as harrowing and unjust as their imprisonment was, Bauer and Fattal on some level are fortunate not to have ended up in the grips of the American War on Terror detention system, where detainees remain for many more years without even the pretense of due process -- still -- to say nothing of the torture regime to which hundreds (at least) were subjected.]

Fattal then expressed "great thanks to world leaders and individuals" who worked for their release, including Hugo Chavez, the governments of Turkey and Brazil, Sean Penn, Noam Chomsky, Mohammad Ali, Cindy Sheehan, Desmond Tutu, as well as Muslims from around the world and "elements within the Iranian government," as well as U.S. officials.

Unsurprisingly, one searches in vain for the inclusion of these facts and remarks in American media accounts of their release and subsequent press conference. Instead, typical is this ABC News story, which featured tearful and celebratory reactions from their family, detailed descriptions of their conditions and the pain and fear their family endured, and melodramatic narratives about how their "long, grueling imprisonment is over" after "781 days in Iran's most notorious prison." This ABC News article on their press conference features many sentences about Iran's oppressiveness -- "Hikers Return to the U.S.: 'We Were Held Hostage'"; "we heard the screams of other prisoners being beaten" -- with hardly any mention of the criticisms Fattal and Bauer voiced regarding U.S. policy that provided the excuse for their mistreatment and similar treatment which the U.S. doles out both in War on Terror prisons around the world and even domestic prisons at home.

Their story deserves the attention it is getting, and Iran deserves the criticism. But the first duty of the American "watchdog media" should be highlighting the abuses of the U.S. Government, not those of other, already-hated regimes on the other side of the world. Instead, the abuses at home are routinely suppressed while those in the Hated Nations are endlessly touted. There have been thousands of people released after being held for years and years in U.S. detention despite having done nothing wrong. Many were tortured, and many were kept imprisoned despite U.S. government knowledge of their innocence. Have you ever seen anything close to this level of media attention being devoted to their plight, to hearing how America's lawless detention of them for years -- often on a strange island, thousands of miles away from everything they know -- and its systematic denial of any legal redress, devastated their families and destroyed their lives?

This is a repeat of what happened with the obsessive American media frenzy surrounding the arrest and imprisonment by Iran of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, convicted in a sham proceeding of espionage, sentenced to eight years in prison, but then ordered released by an Iranian appeals court after four months. Saberi's case became a true cause célèbre among American journalists, with large numbers of them flamboyantly denouncing Iran and demanding her release. But when their own government imprisoned numerous journalists for many years without any charges of any kind -- Al Jazeera's Sami al-Haj in Guantanamo, Associated Press' Bilal Hussein for more than two years in Iraq, Reuters' photographer Ibrahim Jassan even after an Iraqi court exonerated him, and literally dozens of other journalists without charge -- it was very difficult to find any mention of their cases in American media outlets.

What we find here yet again is that government-serving American establish media outlets relish the opportunity to report negatively on enemies and other adversaries of the U.S. government (that is the same mindset that accounts for the predicable, trite condescension by the New York Times toward the Wall Street protests, the same way they constantly downplayed Iraq War protests). But to exactly the same extent that they love depicting America's Enemies as Bad, they hate reporting facts that make the U.S. Government look the same.

That's why Fattal and Bauer receive so much attention while victims of America's ongoing lawless detention scheme are ignored. It's why media stars bravely denounce the conditions of Iran's "notorious prison" while ignoring America's own inhumane prison regime on both foreign and U.S. soil. It's why imprisonment via sham trials in Iran stir such outrage while due-process-free imprisonment (and assassinations) by the U.S. stir so little. And it's why so many Americans know Roxana Saberi but so few know Sami al-Haj.

An actual watchdog press is, first and foremost, eager to expose the corruption and wrongdoing of their own government. By contrast, a propaganda establishment press is eager to suppress that, and there is no better way of doing so than by obsessing on the sins of nations on the other side of the world while ignoring the ones at home. If only establishment media outlets displayed a fraction of the bravery and integrity of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who had a good excuse to focus exclusively on Iran's sins but -- a mere few days after being released from a horrible, unjust ordeal -- chose instead to present the full picture. Salon

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Occupy Wall Street Protest: Democracy Now Video

Perhaps it's because I don't live in the land of self delusion, or America for that matter, although in reality they are one and the same, but for everything I have ever read, or everything I have ever watched pertaining to protest and civil disobedience during the last hundred years, is but one thing common.

That in this home of the brave, land of the free, how in an instant, do America's finest, strip away any pretence of being impartial representatives of law and order, and show themselves for what the truly are; stormtroopers of both the establishment and the rich and powerful.

Which side are you on boys, which side are you on?

The same Natalie Merchant rendition only different graphics. The first being solely US related.

Harlan County USA

Occupy Wall Street Protest Enters Second Week; 80 Arrested at Peaceful March

It is day 10 of the "Occupy Wall Street" campaign. On Saturday, more than 80 protesters were arrested as hundreds took part in yet another march to Wall Street. Many of them were committing civil disobedience by walking in the street, but some say they were on the sidewalk when officers with the New York City Police Department used nets and physical force to break up the crowd. Videos uploaded to YouTube show officers pepper-spraying protesters in the face from close range, punching demonstrators and dragging people through the street. Since Sept. 17, thousands have gathered near in New York City’s financial district near Wall Street to decry corporate greed. Many have said they have been inspired by other popular uprisings from Spain to the Arab Spring. On Sunday, protesters issued a communiqué calling for the resignation of the NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly and for a dialogue with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Thanks to Democracy Now!’s Ryan Devereaux and Jon Gerberg for this report. Transcript

Related:
The Holy Ghost People, Taking Up Serpants and Tales From Stump Holler

Youtube search: Which side are you on

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Rick Santorum Is a Twat

Such were the Google keywords resulting in a recent visit to these unhallowed pages.




And he is a twat, let's face it. A pissy, bigoted, homophobic (closeted cocksucking) sanctimonious Republican twat. Who sires rotten fat kids by the by.

I had already passed on today's featured video, not because it was unworthy of airing, quite the opposite in fact, probably doing so because it also contained a few seconds of the odious Rick Santorum. The talking head, Mahmood Mamdani, a guest on Democracy Now, was eminently worthy, as was the message that Ron Paul was trying to impart on that most unfortunate of unfortunates, the American Voter. And I don't say Republican voter, for reality and home truths are equally unpalatable to the majority of the other side as well.

A few stills then of the offending bucket of slime and then on to the clip proper.






By the way Ricky, you might as well sit the fuck down right now, you've as much chance of being elected prez, as I have. You transparent twat.




Ten minutes.

Near the end of Monday’s Republican presidential debate, Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas drew boos from the crowd and a rebuke from other candidates on the podium when he criticized U.S. foreign policy in discussing the roots of the 9/11 attacks. "We’re under great threat because we occupy so many countries," Paul said. "We have to be honest with ourselves. What would we do if another country, say China, did to us what we do to all those countries over there?" Our guest, Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani, responded to Dr. Paul’s comments by saying, "He sounds like a professor. I mean, he’s trying to educate his audience, and the audience is not ready to be educated. It wants to be rallied to a cause that it doesn’t have to think about." Mamdani is the author of several books, including "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror." Democracy Now

If this post achieves nothing else, the next time yer man does a search, he'll find something custom made for him.

eta: Oh I almost forgot, it may also help to spread the word, but I honestly don't think Ricky needs me to achieve that.

Rick Santorum Asked Google to Fix His Filthy Anal Sex Problem

Should Rick Santorum’s “Google Problem” Be Fixed?

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