On Wednesday, May 31st, Buffalo native Eyal Press talks about his book My Father, A City, and the Conflict that Divided America
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From the Amazon.com Review::
In this inside look at a battleground of the abortion debate?Buffalo, N.Y.?the son of an abortion provider examines both sides of the culture clash that envelops his Israeli father’s life. Drawing comparisons with the religious fundamentalism of his father’s homeland, Press takes the reader on a brisk, compelling tour of a city that saw both Operation Rescue’s massive “Spring of Life” protests in 1992 and the 1998 murder of abortion provider Barnett Slepian.
Where: First Unitarian Church, 220 Winton Rd. S. in Rochester
When: Wednesday, May 31st at 7pm
Admission: Free
I remember blogging on this story a few months back, maybe less. I remember talking about the “war is hell” trope and how this story brings us frighteningly close to what that expression really means. Now, I feel compelled to blog on this, in part because as a human I feel compelled not to look away. But there are no words. There is nothing brilliant, nothing innovative, nothing insightful that I can summon to express, nor in truth is there really anything for anyone to say except the bald truth of what has been reported already. I am left with a profound sadness.
It is impossible not to look on these events and see a picture of the “End Times” crowd ushering in ~ not the “End Times” for which they prepare ~ just the sad grinding down and slow starvation of our once proud nation. No matter what your religion, even if you are agnostic or athiest, in the face of such things you cannot possibly ignore that actions have consequences. The Iraq War will come back to us in ways we already can guess and ways we will not so easily predict.
And blame the Conservatives, blame the president, blame corporations. But blame me as well. Blame yourself. What have we done to stop this? Me, sitting in my office blogging and blathering about the way things should be. You, reading. Perhaps you have done more than I. If so, good. But one way or another, as a society, we’ve watched our country get hyjacked by radicals and criminals. We have been powerless to stop it. This war will not end soon, no matter the promises of the next round of politicians, and the rats will creep back in while war is raging to spoil our sustinance.
In the below-linked blog, Mr. Dreyfuss points out quite correctly that the Inimitable Mrs. Clinton has thusfar been silent. Let her remain silent, she has done us no good. As a New Yorker, I am pained to know that I will be forced to choose between a Republican who chooses to associate himself with the devils that started this war, and the devil of commission in Mrs. Clinton.
Is it too much to hope that our next round of elections be about serious issues? I would dearly like to avoid a replay of our last presidential election: two allegedly grown men in a pissing contest over shit that happened thirty years ago, desparately trying to avoid directly debating the war. I will reserve a special peice of my directionless hostility for the Baby Boomers ~ as a collective body ~ who got us into this war, but for now, I only want to hear from one person who wants to deal directly with the issue at hand. Christ, let’s elect John Murtha or Dennis Kucinich, or anyone who has the balls to face the unpleasant truth. Call me crazy, but I really think that if our leaders acted like grownups, our society would follow suit. For Christ’s sake, let’s find someone who can lead!
Let’s not let more children die simply because we can’t elect someone who will pay attention.
The Blog | Robert Dreyfuss: “The Girls Died Screaming” | The Huffington Post
The Marines shot them at close range and hurled grenades into the kitchen and bathroom, survivors and neighbors said later. Khafif’s pleas could be heard across the neighborhood. Four of the girls died screaming.
Technorati Tags: Haditha, Bush, Iraq, War Crimes
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The Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble will be performing the music of Kancheli and Shostakovich at the First Unitarian Church on May 29th for a Concert for Peace:
Please join us in honoring all who have been killed, all who have suffered and all who suffer still.
Where: First Unitarian Church, 220 Winton Road S. in Rochester
When: May 29th at 7pm
Admission: Free, donations accepted
Playbill:
Kancheli: Quartet in L’Istesso Tempo
Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E Minor
Well, the toothless FCC is looking into the faux news produced by the Bush Administration and corporations to dupe the public:
Independent Online Edition > Americas
Ms Farsetta said the public relations companies commissioned to produce these segments by corporations had become increasingly sophisticated in their techniques in order to get the VNRs broadcast. “They have got very good at mimicking what a real, independently produced television report would look like,” she said.
Wait. . . . What *does* “a real, independently produced television report” look like, anyway? This is an especially tough article to know how to read, especially for one who is currently reading Noam Chomsky: Radical Priorities. He is absolutely convinced that the media is basically an organalle of the same ruling class, and therefore not at all independent in the first place.
Of course, a story such as this sort of presupposes a certain level of independence in the media, because there would be no other reason to go around them in this way. At the same time, I think most of us who pay attention have seen a dramatic shift in the priorities of the media and the tone of thier delivery, so there does seem to be a certain prevailing influence of power on the media, whatever thier declarations to the contrary. Perhaps in this as in all things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle: the media is under pressure to book members of the Administration guests, and therefore cannot rock the boat too much.
But back to these so-called VNR’s (Video News Releases). That the Administration and Corporate America seem to be engaged in exactly the same types of deception ~ and by all accounts, primarily through the collusion of Fox media outlets ~ is the kind of thing that should give even those cynical of media independence reason to pause. This is about as obvious a Fascist crony system as you could ask to have in our society. Perhaps there is indeed a collusion between the media and the government, but when it is this eggregious, it needs to be broken up.
Perhaps reinstituting the Fairness Doctrine would help in other areas, perhaps not, but a society that holds the pretense of the democratic principle cannot allow this type of thing to continue nor can it ignore the problem without criminal prosecution. We shall see how true to our principles our society is prepared to be. . . .
Technorati Tags: Fairness Doctrine, media, vnr, fcc, chomsky, propaganda
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Bill Frist is doing whatever he can to position himself for the presidency, but in doing so, one has to wonder if he’s not just making himself look that much worse.? Frist reversed himself and broke from what is the unofficial party line about the raid on Representative Jefferson’s office that has been rankling the Congress for lo this last few days.? Details are murky for the uninitiated, and really, the whole argument is largely proceedural in ways that don’t really interest the public.
Why, then, would Frist bother to reverse himself on the situation?? Why does he now claim that the FBI acted within Constitutional limits when most of his Republican colleges disagree?? One can never tell what is in the mind of the slipperly-witted Frist.? This is the same guy who said Terri Shiavo was perfectly fine based on his review of video cassette tapes.
Frist is trying to get himself into the running for the Presidency.? However, much as Tom DeLay is the oft-regarded evil of The Right, Bill Frist may be doing a lot more to position himself as the poster-boy for Right Wing Bafoonery.
In the Huffington Post yesterday, Representative Silvestre Reyes raised 12 highly-pertinent questions about Bush’s plan to station National Gaurd troops on the border. All of those are good questions, and as usual, they are the kind of thing that thinking people would ask and the Administration never bothers to. When you see someone such as Rep. Reyes raising such questions ~ which I myself am certainly not knowledgable enough to have asked, myself ~ you begin to get very, very worried about what this means for our immediate future.
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It’s getting pretty ugly in the House, no doubt about that. The pro-drilling crowd is throwing “extremist” enviromental issues from twenty years ago in the faces of the anti-drilling crowd. The anti-drilling crowd is hitting the pro-drilling crowd with the “failed policies” bullet point. It is an interesting fight, in that when I say “pro-” or “anti-drilling,” that is not code for “Democrat” or “Republican.” There is a lot of bypartisan sniping going on here, though the balance of the fight is predictably along partisan lines.
The trouble for both Parties, and also the pro and con crowds, is that they are playing a long-ball game over an issue which is very immediate in the minds of Americans. Those who want to drill in ANWAR don’t want to acknowledge the fact that any (highly dubious) benefits from such a plan will not take effect for at least eight years. Those that oppose the ANWAR plan are talking about alternative energies, which while I approve, are going to take a long time to implement and do very little to nothing for those on the lower end of the income scale with late-model cars that cannot accept E85.
On balance, doing my best to keep biases aside, I think that the debate ultimately favours the Dems and the Liberals. The Republican answer to what is obviously a long-term energy crisis is just more of the same; this from the party that has bashed Dems for lacking ideas. The time is as ripe as any in my life for a genuine conversation about alternative energies, and while the Republicans pay lip service to it, they still manage to push it off as a pie-in-the-sky, long-shot alternative while continuing to push for a return to the norm. A very elloquent Rep from New York whose name I failed to catch turned Bush’s “Addicted to Oil” theme from the SOTU on it’s head and spoke brilliantly about the Republicans in terms of junkies looking for one more fix.
Having said all this, the fact remains that politics tend to be a short-term game, and niether side in this debate offered any short-term solutions.? The first party to come up with a specific plan to address the short-term needs of American gasoline consumers and voters will be the one to walk all over thier opponent.
The jury has found Ken Lay guilty on all charges, and did so quite quickly.? That’s Insider Trading, Bank Fraud.? They’ve still got the Jeffery Skilling charges to rule on, but if Kenny went down this hard, it doesn’t look too good for Jeff.
Woot!? Jeff Skilling just got the word:? Not guilty on chargea 42-50, which were the insider trading charges.? This is fun!? Blogging as it happens.? Still waiting on the rest of the charges.? Conspiracy and Fraud charges?? Guilty.
So there you have it. But if you’d like, you can always tune into CNN and watch a bunch of idiots talk endlessly about a bunch of vapid crap only barely associated with this case.? That’s always entertaining.
vBlog for Monday, 05/22/06, discussing the Sunday protest at the Pittsford Wegmans against the cruel and unhealthy conditions of the chickens in Wegman’s Wayne County egg farm.
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There is a protest at the Pittsford Wegmans against the unfair sentence imposed upon Adam Durand for tresspassing on the Wayne County egg farm owned by Wegmans. Adam was filming Wegmans Cruelty, a movie highlighting the inhumane and unhealthy treatment of chickens in thier farm, and for this advocacy, he got six months in jail, one year of probation, and $1,500 in fines.
Where: Pittsford Wegmans, 3195 Monroe Avenue
When: 1:45pm on Sunday, May 21st
Signage provided by Compassionate Consumers.
