With all the nauseating Obama whoopha & the Clinton misogyny, I think I forgot to post news of a personal nature:
1) My first prosey chapbook, "The Architect's Play," will be published by Poets Wear Prada Press by the end of March or beginning of April.
2) My revamped collaborative CD with more music & audio affects by the exquisitely talented Ben Miller and Don C. Meyer (hear a few tracks at myspace) is available for sale via Mad Hatters' Review
.
3) I'll be featured at a CLWN WR reading in Dumbo on MARCH 20TH (details to be posted).
4) I'll be featured in Buffalo, NY on APRIL 3rd (details to be posted).
5) I'll also be reading at the &NOW Festival (andnow.com) at Chapman University, CA (a bastion of rightwing mentality -- an absolutely appropriate venue for a festival of "innovative" writing), APRIL 15th through 17th (details to be posted).
6) I'll be featured in the gifted writer Patricia Eakins's Sunday afternoon series in Riverdale on APRIL 20TH (details forthcoming).
7) The MHR multi-media BENEFIT on MAY 4TH, 4 - 8pm, at The Bowery Poetry Club will be AMAZING. A list of participants will be posted shortly.
8) The delightful, multi-gifted multi-media writer, Sheila E. Murphy, and I completed our first collaborative project, a streamy, fusionary thang called ROOM. We'll begin our next one soon.
9) I'm not busy waiting for my first rejection of "Violet's Dream."
10) Several writings will most likely appear in Romanian translation in a Romanian print and online journal. Details will be provided sooner or later.
11) I am still having fun with "Gated Communities."
12) I LOVE the latest issue of MAD HATTERS' REVIEW!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Another Obama Expose + The Urgency of Media Reform
There are plenty of critiques of Hillary R Clinton. I'm more interested in the exposes of Obama, due to his attraction to voters who think he's progressive and are drawn to his youth, vitality, and vapid rhetoric (his speech writers are damn good and he speaks with silver tongue!). Americans and many others have a tendency to go for style over substance - Arnie and Ronnie are good examples of that. Frankly, I don't care for either candidate, as I've said before. There are no choices; either "Democrat," if elected, might prove to be somewhat of an alleviation from Cheney-Bush & co., but unhappily slight - certainly insufficient to undo the damage. The uber capitalistic paradigm of American democracy has failed to provide the constitutional safeguards and benefits we all need. Many of us progressives know that. Yet so many so-called liberals and progressives (eg, moveon) are in denial, wanting desperately to wave a flag and believe in a political messiah. What's the solution when our population doesn't get the truth from the mainstream media? (See, eg, "Former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson says the recent disclosures in the UK's Sunday Times concerning the sale of U.S. nuclear secrets to the foreign black market, as aided by high-ranking government officials, are "stunning." The Brad Blog.) The only possible way out of the seemingly irreversible mess must begin with the transformational takeover of media -- a daunting task, but at least some fearless Internet reporters and investigators are devoting their lives to it. If the people are not educated, the paradigm will remain the same. -- CN
_____________________
from counterpunch.org
Declaration of Independence Day Edition
July 4, 2007
Another Automaton of the Atomic Lobby
Barack Obama's Nuclear Ambitions
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
and JOSHUA FRANK
It is fast becoming one of the most important issues of the 2008 presidential campaign. Oil prices are expected to rise to even higher levels as the United States dependence on foreign crude is becoming increasingly unstable. And the perceived threat of global warming is making even the most skeptical of politicians nervous. The future of planet Earth, they claim, is more perilous than ever. Al Gore has made an impact.
But the Gore effect is like a bad hangover: all headache no buzz. The purported solution to the imminent warming crisis, nuclear technology, is just as hazardous as our current methods of energy procurement. Al Gore, who wrote of the potential green virtues of nuclear power in his book Earth in the Balance, earned his stripes as a congressman protecting the interests of two of the nuclear industry's most problematic enterprises, the TVA and the Oak Ridge Labs. And, of course, Bill Clinton backed the Entergy Corporation's outrageous plan to soak Arkansas ratepayers with the cost overruns on the company's Grand Gulf reactor which provided power to electricity consumers in Louisiana.
The Clinton years indeed saw an all-out expansion of nuclear power, not only in the US, but all over the globe. First came the deal to begin selling nuclear reactors to China, announced during Jiang Zemin's 1997 visit Washington, even though Zemin brazenly vowed at the time not to abide by the so-called "full scope safeguards" spelled out in the International Atomic Energy Act. The move was apparently made over the objections of Clinton's National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who cited repeated exports by China of "dual use" technologies to Iran, Pakistan and Iraq. The CIA also weighed in against the deal, pointing out in a report to the President that "China was the single most import supplier of equipment and technology for weapons of mass destruction" worldwide. In a press conference on the deal, Mike McCurry said these nuclear reactors will be "a lot better for the planet than a bunch of dirty coal-fired plants" and will be "a great opportunity for American vendors" -- that is, Westinghouse.
A day later Clinton signed an agreement to begin selling nuclear technology to Brazil and Argentina for the first time since 1978, when Jimmy Carter canceled a previous deal after repeated violations of safety guidelines and nonproliferation agreements.
In a letter to congress, Clinton vouched for the South American countries, saying they had made "a definitive break with earlier ambivalent nuclear policies." Deputy National Security Advisor Jim Steinberg justified the nuclear pact with Brazil and Argentina as "a partnership in developing clean and reliable energy supplies for the future." Steinberg noted that both countries had opposed binding limits on greenhouse emissions and that new nuclear plants would be one way "to take advantage of the fact that today we have technologies available for energy use which were not available at the time that the United States and other developed countries were going through their periods of development."
The atom lobby during the 1990s had a stranglehold on the Clinton administration and now they seem to have the same suffocating grip around the neck of the brightest star in the Democratic field today: Barack Obama.
Barack, for the second quarter in a row, has surpassed the fundraising prowess of Hillary Clinton. To be sure small online donations have propelled the young senator to the top, but so too have his connections to big industry. The Obama campaign, as of late March 2007, has accepted $159,800 from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power plant operator.
The Illinois-based company also helped Obama's 2004 senatorial campaign. As Ken Silverstein reported in the November 2006 issue of Harper's, "[Exelon] is Obama's fourth largest patron, having donated a total of $74,350 to his campaigns. During debate on the 2005 energy bill, Obama helped to vote down an amendment that would have killed vast loan guarantees for power-plant operators to develop new energy projects the public will not only pay millions of dollars in loan costs but will risk losing billions of dollars if the companies default."
"Senator Obama has all the necessary leadership skills required to be president,'' says Frank M. Clark, chairman of Exelon's Commonwealth Edison utility.
These gracious accolades come from one of Exelon's top executives, despite the fact that Obama proposed legislation in 2006 that would require nuclear plant operators to report any hazardous leaks. While introducing the legislation Obama noted the failure of Exelon to report a leak of radioactive tritium into groundwater near one of their Illinois plants. But the senator's criticism of nuclear power goes only so far.
During a Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works hearing in 2005, Obama, who serves on the committee, asserted that since Congress was debating the negative impact of CO2 emissions "on the global ecosystem, it is reasonable -- and realistic -- for nuclear power to remain on the table for consideration." Shortly thereafter, Nuclear Notes, the industry's top trade publication, praised the senator. "Back during his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004, [Obama] said that he rejected both liberal and conservative labels in favor of 'common sense solutions.' And when it comes to nuclear energy, it seems like the Senator is keeping an open mind."
Sadly for the credibility of the atom lobby, some of their more eye-grabbing numbers don't check out. For example, as noted in a report by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuke industry claims that the world's 447 nuclear plants reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent. But the true villain behind global warming is carbon. Existing nuclear plants save only about 5 percent of total CO2 emissions, hardly a bargain given the costs and risks associated with nuclear power. Moreover, the nuclear lobby likes to compare its record to coal-fired plants, rather than renewables such as solar, wind, and geothermal. Even when compared to coal, atomic power fails the test if investments are made to increase the efficient use of the existing energy supply. One recent study by the Rocky Mountain Institute found that "even under the most optimistic cost projections for future nuclear electricity, efficiency is found to be 2.5 to 10 times more cost effective for CO2-abatement. Thus, to the extent that investments in nuclear power divert funds away from efficiency, the pursuit of a nuclear response to global warming would effectively exacerbate the problem."
Clearly Senator Obama recognizes the inherent dangers of nuclear technology and knows of the disastrous failures that plagued Chernobyl, Mayak and Three Mile Island. Yet, despite his attempts to alert the public of future toxic nuclear leaks, Obama still considers atomic power a viable alternative to coal-fired plants. The atom lobby must certainly be pleased.
Jeffrey St. Clair is the author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature and Grand Theft Pentagon. His newest book is End Times: the Death of the Fourth Estate, co-written with Alexander Cockburn. St. Clair's new book on the environment, Born Under a Bad Sky, will be published in December.
Joshua Frank is co-editor of Dissident Voice and author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush (Common Courage Press, 2005), and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of the forthcoming Red State Rebels, to be published by AK Press in March 2008.
They can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net
_____________________
from counterpunch.org
Declaration of Independence Day Edition
July 4, 2007
Another Automaton of the Atomic Lobby
Barack Obama's Nuclear Ambitions
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
and JOSHUA FRANK
It is fast becoming one of the most important issues of the 2008 presidential campaign. Oil prices are expected to rise to even higher levels as the United States dependence on foreign crude is becoming increasingly unstable. And the perceived threat of global warming is making even the most skeptical of politicians nervous. The future of planet Earth, they claim, is more perilous than ever. Al Gore has made an impact.
But the Gore effect is like a bad hangover: all headache no buzz. The purported solution to the imminent warming crisis, nuclear technology, is just as hazardous as our current methods of energy procurement. Al Gore, who wrote of the potential green virtues of nuclear power in his book Earth in the Balance, earned his stripes as a congressman protecting the interests of two of the nuclear industry's most problematic enterprises, the TVA and the Oak Ridge Labs. And, of course, Bill Clinton backed the Entergy Corporation's outrageous plan to soak Arkansas ratepayers with the cost overruns on the company's Grand Gulf reactor which provided power to electricity consumers in Louisiana.
The Clinton years indeed saw an all-out expansion of nuclear power, not only in the US, but all over the globe. First came the deal to begin selling nuclear reactors to China, announced during Jiang Zemin's 1997 visit Washington, even though Zemin brazenly vowed at the time not to abide by the so-called "full scope safeguards" spelled out in the International Atomic Energy Act. The move was apparently made over the objections of Clinton's National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, who cited repeated exports by China of "dual use" technologies to Iran, Pakistan and Iraq. The CIA also weighed in against the deal, pointing out in a report to the President that "China was the single most import supplier of equipment and technology for weapons of mass destruction" worldwide. In a press conference on the deal, Mike McCurry said these nuclear reactors will be "a lot better for the planet than a bunch of dirty coal-fired plants" and will be "a great opportunity for American vendors" -- that is, Westinghouse.
A day later Clinton signed an agreement to begin selling nuclear technology to Brazil and Argentina for the first time since 1978, when Jimmy Carter canceled a previous deal after repeated violations of safety guidelines and nonproliferation agreements.
In a letter to congress, Clinton vouched for the South American countries, saying they had made "a definitive break with earlier ambivalent nuclear policies." Deputy National Security Advisor Jim Steinberg justified the nuclear pact with Brazil and Argentina as "a partnership in developing clean and reliable energy supplies for the future." Steinberg noted that both countries had opposed binding limits on greenhouse emissions and that new nuclear plants would be one way "to take advantage of the fact that today we have technologies available for energy use which were not available at the time that the United States and other developed countries were going through their periods of development."
The atom lobby during the 1990s had a stranglehold on the Clinton administration and now they seem to have the same suffocating grip around the neck of the brightest star in the Democratic field today: Barack Obama.
Barack, for the second quarter in a row, has surpassed the fundraising prowess of Hillary Clinton. To be sure small online donations have propelled the young senator to the top, but so too have his connections to big industry. The Obama campaign, as of late March 2007, has accepted $159,800 from executives and employees of Exelon, the nation's largest nuclear power plant operator.
The Illinois-based company also helped Obama's 2004 senatorial campaign. As Ken Silverstein reported in the November 2006 issue of Harper's, "[Exelon] is Obama's fourth largest patron, having donated a total of $74,350 to his campaigns. During debate on the 2005 energy bill, Obama helped to vote down an amendment that would have killed vast loan guarantees for power-plant operators to develop new energy projects the public will not only pay millions of dollars in loan costs but will risk losing billions of dollars if the companies default."
"Senator Obama has all the necessary leadership skills required to be president,'' says Frank M. Clark, chairman of Exelon's Commonwealth Edison utility.
These gracious accolades come from one of Exelon's top executives, despite the fact that Obama proposed legislation in 2006 that would require nuclear plant operators to report any hazardous leaks. While introducing the legislation Obama noted the failure of Exelon to report a leak of radioactive tritium into groundwater near one of their Illinois plants. But the senator's criticism of nuclear power goes only so far.
During a Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works hearing in 2005, Obama, who serves on the committee, asserted that since Congress was debating the negative impact of CO2 emissions "on the global ecosystem, it is reasonable -- and realistic -- for nuclear power to remain on the table for consideration." Shortly thereafter, Nuclear Notes, the industry's top trade publication, praised the senator. "Back during his campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004, [Obama] said that he rejected both liberal and conservative labels in favor of 'common sense solutions.' And when it comes to nuclear energy, it seems like the Senator is keeping an open mind."
Sadly for the credibility of the atom lobby, some of their more eye-grabbing numbers don't check out. For example, as noted in a report by the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuke industry claims that the world's 447 nuclear plants reduce CO2 emissions by 30 percent. But the true villain behind global warming is carbon. Existing nuclear plants save only about 5 percent of total CO2 emissions, hardly a bargain given the costs and risks associated with nuclear power. Moreover, the nuclear lobby likes to compare its record to coal-fired plants, rather than renewables such as solar, wind, and geothermal. Even when compared to coal, atomic power fails the test if investments are made to increase the efficient use of the existing energy supply. One recent study by the Rocky Mountain Institute found that "even under the most optimistic cost projections for future nuclear electricity, efficiency is found to be 2.5 to 10 times more cost effective for CO2-abatement. Thus, to the extent that investments in nuclear power divert funds away from efficiency, the pursuit of a nuclear response to global warming would effectively exacerbate the problem."
Clearly Senator Obama recognizes the inherent dangers of nuclear technology and knows of the disastrous failures that plagued Chernobyl, Mayak and Three Mile Island. Yet, despite his attempts to alert the public of future toxic nuclear leaks, Obama still considers atomic power a viable alternative to coal-fired plants. The atom lobby must certainly be pleased.
Jeffrey St. Clair is the author of Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: the Politics of Nature and Grand Theft Pentagon. His newest book is End Times: the Death of the Fourth Estate, co-written with Alexander Cockburn. St. Clair's new book on the environment, Born Under a Bad Sky, will be published in December.
Joshua Frank is co-editor of Dissident Voice and author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush (Common Courage Press, 2005), and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of the forthcoming Red State Rebels, to be published by AK Press in March 2008.
They can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Goodbye To All That -- on the Clinton v Obama Campaign
Goodbye To All That (#2)
by Robin Morgan
February 2, 2008
"Goodbye To All That" was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking
free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting
women (for an online version, see
http://blog.fair-use.org/category/chicago/).
During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and
contemporary women's movements, I've avoided writing another
specific "Goodbye . . ." But not since the suffrage struggle
have two communities—joint conscience-keepers of this
country—been so set in competition, as the contest between
Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls.
So.
Goodbye to the double standard . . .
—Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden
who's emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for
politics.
—She's "ambitious" but he shows "fire in the belly." (Ever
had labor pains?)
—When a sexist idiot screamed "Iron my shirt!" at HRC, it
was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted "Shine my
shoes!" at BO, it would've inspired hours of airtime and
pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.
—Young political Kennedys—Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby
Jr.—all endorsed Hillary. Senator Ted, age 76, endorsed
Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort
"See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the
forward-looking generation backs him." (Personally, I'm
unimpressed with Caroline's longing for the Return of the
Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short
memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe's suicide, and a
dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)
Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .
Carl Bernstein's disgust at Hillary's "thick ankles."
Nixon-trickster Roger Stone's new Hillary-hating 527 group,
"Citizens United Not Timid." John McCain answering "How do
we beat the bitch?" with "Excellent question!" Would he have
dared reply similarly to "How do we beat the black bastard?"
For shame.
Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between
splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we
would be righteously outraged—and they would not be
selling it in airports. Shame.
Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election
history, including one with the murderous slogan "If Only
Hillary had married O.J. Instead!" Shame.
Goodbye to Comedy Central's "Southpark" featuring a
storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC's
vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far
enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.
Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This
is not "Clinton hating," not "Hillary hating." This is
sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would
recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about
race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such
vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense
of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?
Goodbye to the news-coverage target-practice . . .
The women's movement and Media Matters wrung an apology from
MSNBC's Chris Matthews for relentless misogynistic comments
(www.womensmediacenter.com). But what about NBC's Tim
Russert's continual sexist asides and his all-white-male
panels pontificating on race and gender? Or CNN's Tony
Harris chuckling at "the chromosome thing" while
interviewing a woman from The White House Project? And
that's not even mentioning Fox News.
Goodbye to pretending the black community is entirely male
and all women are white . . .
Surprise! Women exist in all opinions, pigmentations,
ethnicities, abilities, sexual preferences, and ages—not
only African American and European American but Latina and
Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Arab
American and—hey, every group, because a group wouldn't
exist if we hadn't given birth to it. A few non-racist
countries may exist—but sexism is everywhere. No matter
how many ways a woman breaks free from other
discriminations, she remains a female human being in a world
still so patriarchal that it's the "norm."
So why should all women not be as justly proud of our
womanhood and the centuries, even millennia, of struggle
that got us this far, as black Americans, women and men, are
justly proud of their struggles?
Goodbye to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which
whites—especially wealthy ones—adore), while she has to
pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and
then found unforgivable). If she were blackor he were female
we wouldn't be having such problems, and I for one would be
in heaven. But at present such a candidate wouldn't stand a
chance—even if she shared Condi Rice's Bush-defending
politics.
I was celebrating the pivotal power at last focused on
African American women deciding on which of two candidates
to bestow their vote—until a number of Hillary-supporting
black feminists told me they're being called "race
traitors."
So goodbye to conversations about this nation's deepest
scar—slavery—which fail to acknowledge that labor- and
sexual-slavery exist today in the U.S. and elsewhere on this
planet, and the majority of those enslaved are women.
Women have endured sex/race/ethnic/religious hatred, rape
and battery, invasion of spirit and flesh, forced pregnancy;
being the majority of the poor, the illiterate, the
disabled, of refugees, caregivers, the HIV/AIDS afflicted,
the powerless. We have survived invisibility, ridicule,
religious fundamentalisms, polygamy, teargas, forced
feedings, jails, asylums, sati, purdah, female genital
mutilation, witch burnings, stonings, and attempted
gynocides. We have tried reason, persuasion, reassurances,
and being extra-qualified, only to learn it never was about
qualifications after all. We know that at this historical
moment women experience the world differently from
men—though not all the same as one another—and can
govern differently, from Elizabeth Tudor to Michele Bachelet
and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
We remember when Shirley Chisholm and Patricia Schroeder ran
for this high office and barely got past the gate—they
showed too much passion, raised too little cash, were joke
fodder. Goodbye to all that. (And goodbye to some feminists
so famished for a female president they were even willing to
abandon women's rights in backing Elizabeth Dole.)
Goodbye, goodbye to . . .
—blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even
including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys—though
unlike them, he got reported on). Let's get real. If he
hadn't campaigned strongly for her everyone would cluck over
what that meant. Enough of Bill and Teddy Kennedy locking
their alpha male horns while Hillary pays for it.
—an era when parts of the populace feel so disaffected by
politics that a comparative lack of knowledge, experience,
and skill is actually seen as attractive, when
celebrity-culture mania now infects our elections so that
it's "cooler" to glow with marquee charisma than to
understand the vast global complexities of power on a
nuclear, wounded planet.
—the notion that it's fun to elect a handsome, cocky
president who feels he can learn on the job, goodbye to
George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his
inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance.
Goodbye to the accusation that HRC acts "entitled" when
she's worked intensely at everything she's done—including
being a nose-to-the-grindstone, first-rate senator from my
state.
Goodbye to her being exploited as a Rorschach test by women
who reduce her to a blank screen on which they project their
own fears, failures, fantasies.
Goodbye to the phrase "polarizing figure" to describe
someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the
last century and are poised to make in this one. It was the
women's movement that quipped, "We are becoming the men we
wanted to marry." She heard us, and she has.
Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing
their hands, because Hillary isn't as "likeable" as they've
been warned they must be, or because she didn't leave him,
couldn't "control" him, kept her family together and raised
a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had
ever acted in the alcoholic, neurotic manner of the Bush
twins!) Goodbye to some women pouting because she didn't
bake cookies or she did, sniping because she learned the
rules and then bent or broke them. Grow the hell up. She is
not running for Ms.-perfect-pure-queen-icon of the feminist
movement. She's running to be president of the United
States.
Goodbye to the shocking American ignorance of our own and
other countries' history. Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir
rose through party ranks and war, positioning themselves as
proto-male leaders. Almost all other female heads of
government so far have been related to men of
power—granddaughters, daughters, sisters, wives, widows:
Gandhi, Bandaranike, Bhutto, Aquino, Chamorro, Wazed,
Macapagal-Arroyo, Johnson Sirleaf, Bachelet, Kirchner, and
more. Even in our "land of opportunity," it's mostly the
first pathway "in" permitted to women: Representatives Doris
Matsui and Mary Bono and Sala Burton; Senator Jean Carnahan
. . . far too many to list here.
Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .
Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous "Obama Girl" flaunting
her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it
wasn't her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and
dictated the clothes, which she said "made me feel like a
dork."
Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by
showing they're not feminists (at least not the kind who
actually threaten thestatus quo), who can't identify with a
woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky
power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if
they say something good about her. Goodbye to women of any
age again feeling unworthy, sulking "what if she's not
electable?" or "maybe it's post-feminism and whoooosh we're
already free." Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet
Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save
hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground
Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, "I
could have saved thousands—if only I'd been able to
convince them they were slaves."
I'd rather say a joyful Hello to all the glorious young
women who do identify with Hillary, and all the brave, smart
men—of all ethnicities and any age—who get that it's in
their self-interest, too. She's better qualified. (D'uh.)
She's a high-profile candidate with an enormous grasp of
foreign- and domestic-policy nuance, dedication to detail,
ability to absorb staggering insult and personal pain while
retaining dignity, resolve, even humor, and keep on keeping
on. (Also, yes, dammit, let's hear it for her connections
and funding and party-building background, too. Obama was
awfully glad about those when she raised dough and
campaigned for him to get to the Senate in the first place.)
I'd rather look forward to what a good president he might
make in eight years, when his vision and spirit are seasoned
by practical know-how—and he'll be all of 54. Meanwhile,
goodbye to turning him into a shining knight when actually
he's an astute, smooth pol with speechwriters who've worked
with the Kennedys' own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson.
If it's only about ringing rhetoric, let speechwriters run.
But isn't it about getting the policies we want enacted?
And goodbye to the ageism . . .
How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on
history, papering over real inequities and suffering
constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How
dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to
rouse U.S. youth from torpor it's useful to triage the
single largest demographic in this country's history: the
boomer generation—the majority of which is female?
Old woman are the one group that doesn't grow more
conservative with age—and we are the generation of
radicals who said "Well-behaved women seldom make history."
Goodbye to going gently into any goodnight any man
prescribes for us. We are the women who changed the reality
of the United States. And though we never went away, brace
yourselves: we're back!
We are the women who brought this country equal credit,
better pay, affirmative action, the concept of a
family-focused workplace; the women who established
rape-crisis centers and battery shelters, marital-rape and
date-rape laws; the women who defended lesbian custody
rights, who fought for prison reform, founded the peace and
environmental movements; who insisted that medical research
include female anatomy; who inspired men to become more
nurturing parents; who created women's studies and Title IX
so we all could cheer the WNBA stars and Mia Hamm. We are
the women who reclaimed sexuality from violent pornography,
who put childcare on the national agenda, who transformed
demographics, artistic expression, language itself. We are
the women who forged a worldwide movement. We are the proud
successors of women who, though it took more than 50 years,
won us the vote.
We are the women who now comprise the majority of U.S.
voters.
Hillary said she found her own voice in New Hampshire.
There's not a woman alive who, if she's honest, doesn't
recognize what she means. Then HRC got drowned out by
campaign experts, Bill, and media's obsession with
everything Bill.
So listen to her voice:
"For too long, the history of women has been a history of
silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to
silence our words.
"It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied
food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken,
simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of
human rights when woman and girls are sold into the slavery
of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when
women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to
death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are
raped in their own communities and when thousands of women
are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a
violation of human rights when a leading cause of death
worldwide along women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are
subjected to in their own homes. It is a violation of human
rights when women are denied the right to plan their own
families, and that includes being forced to have abortions
or being sterilized against their will.
"Women's rights are human rights. Among those rights are the
right to speak freely—and the right to be heard."
That was Hillary Rodham Clinton defying the U.S. State
Department and the Chinese Government at the 1995 UN World
Conference on Women in Beijing (look here for the full,
stunning speech).
And this voice, age 22, in "Commencement Remarks of Hillary
D. Rodham, President of Wellesley College Government
Association, Class of 1969."
"We are, all of us, exploring a world none of us
understands. . . . searching for a more immediate, ecstatic,
and penetrating mode of living. . . . [for the] integrity,
the courage to be whole, living in relation to one another
in the full poetry of existence. The struggle for an
integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust
and respect is one with desperately important political and
social consequences. . . . Fear is always with us, but we
just don't have time for it."
She ended with the commitment "to practice, with all the
skill of our being: the art of making possible."
And for decades, she's been learning how.
So goodbye to Hillary's second-guessing herself. The real
question is deeper than her re-finding her voice. Can we
women find ours? Can we do this for ourselves?
"Our President, Ourselves!"
Time is short and the contest tightening. We need to rise in
furious energy—as we did when Anita Hill was so vilely
treated in the U.S. Senate, as we did when Rosie Jiminez was
butchered by an illegal abortion, as we did and do for women
globally who are condemned for trying to break through. We
need to win, this time. Goodbye to supporting HRC tepidly,
with ambivalent caveats and apologetic smiles. Time to
volunteer, make phone calls, send emails, donate money,
argue, rally, march, shout, vote.
Me? I support Hillary Rodham because she's the best
qualified of all candidates running in both parties. I
support her because she's refreshingly thoughtful, and I'm
bloodied from eight years of a jolly "uniter" with
ejaculatory politics. I needn't agree with her on every
point. I agree with the 97 percent of her positions that are
identical with Obama's—and the few where hers are both
more practical and to the left of his (like health care). I
support her because she's already smashed the first-lady
stereotype and made history as a fine senator, because I
believe she will continue to make history not only as the
first U.S. woman president, but as a great U.S. president.
As for the "woman thing"?
Me, I'm voting for Hillary not because she's a woman—but
because I am.
############################################
About the Author: An award-winning writer, feminist leader,
political analyst, journalist, editor, and co-founder of the
Women's Media Center, Robin Morgan has published 21 books,
including six of poetry, four of fiction, and the
now-classic anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful, Sisterhood
Is Global, and Sisterhood Is Forever.
Her work has been translated into 13 languages. A founder of
contemporary U.S. feminism, she has also been a leader in
the international women's movement for 25 years. Recent
books include A Hot January: Poems 1996-1999; Saturday's
Child: A Memoir; her best-selling The Demon Lover: The Roots
of Terrorism, updated and reissued in 2001; and her novel,
The Burning Time. Her nonfiction work, Fighting Words: A
Took Kit for Combating the Religious Right, came out in
September 2006.
by Robin Morgan
February 2, 2008
"Goodbye To All That" was my (in)famous 1970 essay breaking
free from a politics of accommodation especially affecting
women (for an online version, see
http://blog.fair-use.org/category/chicago/).
During my decades in civil-rights, anti-war, and
contemporary women's movements, I've avoided writing another
specific "Goodbye . . ." But not since the suffrage struggle
have two communities—joint conscience-keepers of this
country—been so set in competition, as the contest between
Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRC) and Barack Obama (BO) unfurls.
So.
Goodbye to the double standard . . .
—Hillary is too ballsy but too womanly, a Snow Maiden
who's emotional, and so much a politician as to be unfit for
politics.
—She's "ambitious" but he shows "fire in the belly." (Ever
had labor pains?)
—When a sexist idiot screamed "Iron my shirt!" at HRC, it
was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted "Shine my
shoes!" at BO, it would've inspired hours of airtime and
pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor.
—Young political Kennedys—Kathleen, Kerry, and Bobby
Jr.—all endorsed Hillary. Senator Ted, age 76, endorsed
Obama. If the situation were reversed, pundits would snort
"See? Ted and establishment types back her, but the
forward-looking generation backs him." (Personally, I'm
unimpressed with Caroline's longing for the Return of the
Fathers. Unlike the rest of the world, Americans have short
memories. Me, I still recall Marilyn Monroe's suicide, and a
dead girl named Mary Jo Kopechne in Chappaquiddick.)
Goodbye to the toxic viciousness . . .
Carl Bernstein's disgust at Hillary's "thick ankles."
Nixon-trickster Roger Stone's new Hillary-hating 527 group,
"Citizens United Not Timid." John McCain answering "How do
we beat the bitch?" with "Excellent question!" Would he have
dared reply similarly to "How do we beat the black bastard?"
For shame.
Goodbye to the HRC nutcracker with metal spikes between
splayed thighs. If it was a tap-dancing blackface doll, we
would be righteously outraged—and they would not be
selling it in airports. Shame.
Goodbye to the most intimately violent T-shirts in election
history, including one with the murderous slogan "If Only
Hillary had married O.J. Instead!" Shame.
Goodbye to Comedy Central's "Southpark" featuring a
storyline in which terrorists secrete a bomb in HRC's
vagina. I refuse to wrench my brain down into the gutter far
enough to find a race-based comparison. For shame.
Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This
is not "Clinton hating," not "Hillary hating." This is
sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about Jews, we would
recognize it instantly as anti-Semitic propaganda; if about
race, as KKK poison. Hell, PETA would go ballistic if such
vomitous spew were directed at animals. Where is our sense
of outrage—as citizens, voters, Americans?
Goodbye to the news-coverage target-practice . . .
The women's movement and Media Matters wrung an apology from
MSNBC's Chris Matthews for relentless misogynistic comments
(www.womensmediacenter.com). But what about NBC's Tim
Russert's continual sexist asides and his all-white-male
panels pontificating on race and gender? Or CNN's Tony
Harris chuckling at "the chromosome thing" while
interviewing a woman from The White House Project? And
that's not even mentioning Fox News.
Goodbye to pretending the black community is entirely male
and all women are white . . .
Surprise! Women exist in all opinions, pigmentations,
ethnicities, abilities, sexual preferences, and ages—not
only African American and European American but Latina and
Native American, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, Arab
American and—hey, every group, because a group wouldn't
exist if we hadn't given birth to it. A few non-racist
countries may exist—but sexism is everywhere. No matter
how many ways a woman breaks free from other
discriminations, she remains a female human being in a world
still so patriarchal that it's the "norm."
So why should all women not be as justly proud of our
womanhood and the centuries, even millennia, of struggle
that got us this far, as black Americans, women and men, are
justly proud of their struggles?
Goodbye to a campaign where he has to pass as white (which
whites—especially wealthy ones—adore), while she has to
pass as male (which both men and women demanded of her, and
then found unforgivable). If she were blackor he were female
we wouldn't be having such problems, and I for one would be
in heaven. But at present such a candidate wouldn't stand a
chance—even if she shared Condi Rice's Bush-defending
politics.
I was celebrating the pivotal power at last focused on
African American women deciding on which of two candidates
to bestow their vote—until a number of Hillary-supporting
black feminists told me they're being called "race
traitors."
So goodbye to conversations about this nation's deepest
scar—slavery—which fail to acknowledge that labor- and
sexual-slavery exist today in the U.S. and elsewhere on this
planet, and the majority of those enslaved are women.
Women have endured sex/race/ethnic/religious hatred, rape
and battery, invasion of spirit and flesh, forced pregnancy;
being the majority of the poor, the illiterate, the
disabled, of refugees, caregivers, the HIV/AIDS afflicted,
the powerless. We have survived invisibility, ridicule,
religious fundamentalisms, polygamy, teargas, forced
feedings, jails, asylums, sati, purdah, female genital
mutilation, witch burnings, stonings, and attempted
gynocides. We have tried reason, persuasion, reassurances,
and being extra-qualified, only to learn it never was about
qualifications after all. We know that at this historical
moment women experience the world differently from
men—though not all the same as one another—and can
govern differently, from Elizabeth Tudor to Michele Bachelet
and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
We remember when Shirley Chisholm and Patricia Schroeder ran
for this high office and barely got past the gate—they
showed too much passion, raised too little cash, were joke
fodder. Goodbye to all that. (And goodbye to some feminists
so famished for a female president they were even willing to
abandon women's rights in backing Elizabeth Dole.)
Goodbye, goodbye to . . .
—blaming anything Bill Clinton does on Hillary (even
including his womanizing like the Kennedy guys—though
unlike them, he got reported on). Let's get real. If he
hadn't campaigned strongly for her everyone would cluck over
what that meant. Enough of Bill and Teddy Kennedy locking
their alpha male horns while Hillary pays for it.
—an era when parts of the populace feel so disaffected by
politics that a comparative lack of knowledge, experience,
and skill is actually seen as attractive, when
celebrity-culture mania now infects our elections so that
it's "cooler" to glow with marquee charisma than to
understand the vast global complexities of power on a
nuclear, wounded planet.
—the notion that it's fun to elect a handsome, cocky
president who feels he can learn on the job, goodbye to
George W. Bush and the destruction brought by his
inexperience, ignorance, and arrogance.
Goodbye to the accusation that HRC acts "entitled" when
she's worked intensely at everything she's done—including
being a nose-to-the-grindstone, first-rate senator from my
state.
Goodbye to her being exploited as a Rorschach test by women
who reduce her to a blank screen on which they project their
own fears, failures, fantasies.
Goodbye to the phrase "polarizing figure" to describe
someone who embodies the transitions women have made in the
last century and are poised to make in this one. It was the
women's movement that quipped, "We are becoming the men we
wanted to marry." She heard us, and she has.
Goodbye to some women letting history pass by while wringing
their hands, because Hillary isn't as "likeable" as they've
been warned they must be, or because she didn't leave him,
couldn't "control" him, kept her family together and raised
a smart, sane daughter. (Think of the blame if Chelsea had
ever acted in the alcoholic, neurotic manner of the Bush
twins!) Goodbye to some women pouting because she didn't
bake cookies or she did, sniping because she learned the
rules and then bent or broke them. Grow the hell up. She is
not running for Ms.-perfect-pure-queen-icon of the feminist
movement. She's running to be president of the United
States.
Goodbye to the shocking American ignorance of our own and
other countries' history. Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir
rose through party ranks and war, positioning themselves as
proto-male leaders. Almost all other female heads of
government so far have been related to men of
power—granddaughters, daughters, sisters, wives, widows:
Gandhi, Bandaranike, Bhutto, Aquino, Chamorro, Wazed,
Macapagal-Arroyo, Johnson Sirleaf, Bachelet, Kirchner, and
more. Even in our "land of opportunity," it's mostly the
first pathway "in" permitted to women: Representatives Doris
Matsui and Mary Bono and Sala Burton; Senator Jean Carnahan
. . . far too many to list here.
Goodbye to a misrepresented generational divide . . .
Goodbye to the so-called spontaneous "Obama Girl" flaunting
her bikini-clad ass online—then confessing Oh yeah it
wasn't her idea after all, some guys got her to do it and
dictated the clothes, which she said "made me feel like a
dork."
Goodbye to some young women eager to win male approval by
showing they're not feminists (at least not the kind who
actually threaten thestatus quo), who can't identify with a
woman candidate because she is unafraid of eeueweeeu yucky
power, who fear their boyfriends might look at them funny if
they say something good about her. Goodbye to women of any
age again feeling unworthy, sulking "what if she's not
electable?" or "maybe it's post-feminism and whoooosh we're
already free." Let a statement by the magnificent Harriet
Tubman stand as reply. When asked how she managed to save
hundreds of enslaved African Americans via the Underground
Railroad during the Civil War, she replied bitterly, "I
could have saved thousands—if only I'd been able to
convince them they were slaves."
I'd rather say a joyful Hello to all the glorious young
women who do identify with Hillary, and all the brave, smart
men—of all ethnicities and any age—who get that it's in
their self-interest, too. She's better qualified. (D'uh.)
She's a high-profile candidate with an enormous grasp of
foreign- and domestic-policy nuance, dedication to detail,
ability to absorb staggering insult and personal pain while
retaining dignity, resolve, even humor, and keep on keeping
on. (Also, yes, dammit, let's hear it for her connections
and funding and party-building background, too. Obama was
awfully glad about those when she raised dough and
campaigned for him to get to the Senate in the first place.)
I'd rather look forward to what a good president he might
make in eight years, when his vision and spirit are seasoned
by practical know-how—and he'll be all of 54. Meanwhile,
goodbye to turning him into a shining knight when actually
he's an astute, smooth pol with speechwriters who've worked
with the Kennedys' own speechwriter-courtier Ted Sorenson.
If it's only about ringing rhetoric, let speechwriters run.
But isn't it about getting the policies we want enacted?
And goodbye to the ageism . . .
How dare anyone unilaterally decide when to turn the page on
history, papering over real inequities and suffering
constituencies in the promise of a feel-good campaign? How
dare anyone claim to unify while dividing, or think that to
rouse U.S. youth from torpor it's useful to triage the
single largest demographic in this country's history: the
boomer generation—the majority of which is female?
Old woman are the one group that doesn't grow more
conservative with age—and we are the generation of
radicals who said "Well-behaved women seldom make history."
Goodbye to going gently into any goodnight any man
prescribes for us. We are the women who changed the reality
of the United States. And though we never went away, brace
yourselves: we're back!
We are the women who brought this country equal credit,
better pay, affirmative action, the concept of a
family-focused workplace; the women who established
rape-crisis centers and battery shelters, marital-rape and
date-rape laws; the women who defended lesbian custody
rights, who fought for prison reform, founded the peace and
environmental movements; who insisted that medical research
include female anatomy; who inspired men to become more
nurturing parents; who created women's studies and Title IX
so we all could cheer the WNBA stars and Mia Hamm. We are
the women who reclaimed sexuality from violent pornography,
who put childcare on the national agenda, who transformed
demographics, artistic expression, language itself. We are
the women who forged a worldwide movement. We are the proud
successors of women who, though it took more than 50 years,
won us the vote.
We are the women who now comprise the majority of U.S.
voters.
Hillary said she found her own voice in New Hampshire.
There's not a woman alive who, if she's honest, doesn't
recognize what she means. Then HRC got drowned out by
campaign experts, Bill, and media's obsession with
everything Bill.
So listen to her voice:
"For too long, the history of women has been a history of
silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to
silence our words.
"It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied
food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken,
simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of
human rights when woman and girls are sold into the slavery
of prostitution. It is a violation of human rights when
women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to
death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.
It is a violation of human rights when individual women are
raped in their own communities and when thousands of women
are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a
violation of human rights when a leading cause of death
worldwide along women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are
subjected to in their own homes. It is a violation of human
rights when women are denied the right to plan their own
families, and that includes being forced to have abortions
or being sterilized against their will.
"Women's rights are human rights. Among those rights are the
right to speak freely—and the right to be heard."
That was Hillary Rodham Clinton defying the U.S. State
Department and the Chinese Government at the 1995 UN World
Conference on Women in Beijing (look here for the full,
stunning speech).
And this voice, age 22, in "Commencement Remarks of Hillary
D. Rodham, President of Wellesley College Government
Association, Class of 1969."
"We are, all of us, exploring a world none of us
understands. . . . searching for a more immediate, ecstatic,
and penetrating mode of living. . . . [for the] integrity,
the courage to be whole, living in relation to one another
in the full poetry of existence. The struggle for an
integrated life existing in an atmosphere of communal trust
and respect is one with desperately important political and
social consequences. . . . Fear is always with us, but we
just don't have time for it."
She ended with the commitment "to practice, with all the
skill of our being: the art of making possible."
And for decades, she's been learning how.
So goodbye to Hillary's second-guessing herself. The real
question is deeper than her re-finding her voice. Can we
women find ours? Can we do this for ourselves?
"Our President, Ourselves!"
Time is short and the contest tightening. We need to rise in
furious energy—as we did when Anita Hill was so vilely
treated in the U.S. Senate, as we did when Rosie Jiminez was
butchered by an illegal abortion, as we did and do for women
globally who are condemned for trying to break through. We
need to win, this time. Goodbye to supporting HRC tepidly,
with ambivalent caveats and apologetic smiles. Time to
volunteer, make phone calls, send emails, donate money,
argue, rally, march, shout, vote.
Me? I support Hillary Rodham because she's the best
qualified of all candidates running in both parties. I
support her because she's refreshingly thoughtful, and I'm
bloodied from eight years of a jolly "uniter" with
ejaculatory politics. I needn't agree with her on every
point. I agree with the 97 percent of her positions that are
identical with Obama's—and the few where hers are both
more practical and to the left of his (like health care). I
support her because she's already smashed the first-lady
stereotype and made history as a fine senator, because I
believe she will continue to make history not only as the
first U.S. woman president, but as a great U.S. president.
As for the "woman thing"?
Me, I'm voting for Hillary not because she's a woman—but
because I am.
############################################
About the Author: An award-winning writer, feminist leader,
political analyst, journalist, editor, and co-founder of the
Women's Media Center, Robin Morgan has published 21 books,
including six of poetry, four of fiction, and the
now-classic anthologies Sisterhood Is Powerful, Sisterhood
Is Global, and Sisterhood Is Forever.
Her work has been translated into 13 languages. A founder of
contemporary U.S. feminism, she has also been a leader in
the international women's movement for 25 years. Recent
books include A Hot January: Poems 1996-1999; Saturday's
Child: A Memoir; her best-selling The Demon Lover: The Roots
of Terrorism, updated and reissued in 2001; and her novel,
The Burning Time. Her nonfiction work, Fighting Words: A
Took Kit for Combating the Religious Right, came out in
September 2006.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
More on Media Misogyny
From Mark Crispin Miller:
While we're busy (too busy!) looking into the condition of our voting system,
which the media refuses to discuss, there are, of course, a lot of other issues
that our press also ignores, or handles badly.
Take, for instance, the blunt sexism that has always marked the media's
treatment of female politicians (and female human beings generally), and that
has now come to the crisis-point at MSNBC. While Hillary Clinton has her
faults (she's not my choice), being a woman isn't one of them, any more than,
say, Obama's being African-American is one of his faults (and that candidate
does have his faults, although you wouldn't know it from the media).
[FROM ME: To see how Obama's manipulated his childhood memories in order to play the race card, see: OBAMA'S CHILDHOOD.]
While Hillary, I repeat, has major faults (including a campaign that Murray Chotiner
would have loved), the animus against her has, from the outset 16 years ago,
always been infused with wild misogyny, especially on the right. No member
of the press should ever feed that animus in any way; and so it's absolutely
proper that those apes at MSNBC have been slapped down for it.
MCM
From Media Matters
"Media Matters"; 2/8/08
The mess at MSNBC
NBC President Steve Capus' statement is the best sign yet that NBC News is beginning to take seriously the lengthy pattern of inappropriate comments about women made by NBC and MSNBC reporters. But apologies and statements and even suspensions don't mean anything unless they are followed by an actual change in behavior. Things didn't change at NBC/MSNBC after the Matthews controversy; hopefully they will this time.
Shuster responds to firestorm over his Chelsea Clinton comments
"Last night during the show, I spoke about Chelsea Clinton and noted the affection that so many of us have for her. I also spoke about phone calls she has made to superdelegates to convince them to support her mom. In describing this effort, I used a phrase that was inappropriate, and I apologize to the Clinton family, the Clinton campaign, and all of you who were justifiably offended. As I said this morning on MSNBC, all Americans should be proud of Chelsea Clinton, and I am particularly sorry that my language diminished the regard and respect she has earned from all of us and the respect her parents have earned in how they raised her." Read More
NBC News president: Shuster suspended for Chelsea Clinton comments
Statement from David Brock on Pattern of Sexist/Misogynistic Outbursts on MSNBC: "The Time for Apologies Has Passed"
MSNBC's Shuster falsely claimed he said "Americans should be proud of" Chelsea Clinton before his "pimped out" comment.
"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser
The mess at MSNBC
Three weeks ago, in the wake of Chris Matthews' quasi-apology for one of his countless objectionable comments about women in general and Hillary Clinton specifically, I argued that Matthews' apology was not enough. Neither Matthews nor MSNBC had acknowledged that the problem ran far deeper than one comment by Matthews -- and their failure to make such an acknowledgement was an ominous sign that the apology would not be accompanied by a change in behavior, no matter how forcefully Matthews insisted: "I get it."
So what has happened in those three weeks?
MSNBC has turned Matthews' purported apology into a promotional campaign, using clips of his statement to advertise MSNBC programming. Not the parts of the statement in which he acknowledged having been "callous," "nasty," and "dismissive" toward Hillary Clinton, of course -- the parts in which he spoke of his love for politics.
Turning a forced apology into a promotional campaign seems like a pretty good sign that MSNBC and Matthews don't "get it" at all.
But it isn't the best sign. Consider what else has happened during MSNBC broadcasts since Matthews' apology.
First, Matthews' MSNBC colleagues leapt to his defense. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and reporter David Shuster lashed out; Scarborough declaring it "offensive" and "outrageous" that Matthews had to apologize, and Shuster adding "this is absolutely infuriating, to see the way these groups used him for pure political gain is absolutely infuriating." As I noted at the time, Scarborough and Shuster have their own history of questionable comments about women:
At the end of his rant, Scarborough insisted, "This ain't about Hillary Clinton's campaign."
Scarborough got that part right. This isn't about Hillary Clinton's campaign. This is about a consistent pattern of misogynistic comments by Chris Matthews. Comments about and directed toward a variety of women. A consistent pattern of Matthews objectifying women. And a consistent pattern of MSNBC looking the other way.
It's about an MSNBC host saying things like this: "I've been trying to call Alessandra Stanley with The New York Times for some time just to have lunch with her, and she thinks it's because I'm trying to influence her -- that's not the case at all, it's because, I was surprised, I saw a picture of her and I thought she was kinda hot!"
That one wasn't Chris Matthews, though. That one was ... Joe Scarborough.
It's about things like a male MSNBC host describing a woman running for president as "shrill" (and "very shrill") and asking, "[W]hat about her housekeeping skills?" Those were Joe Scarborough, too.
MSNBC's David Shuster also chimed in with a defense of Matthews: "[T]o see him have to go through this is absolutely infuriating, to see the way these groups used him for pure political gain is absolutely infuriating."
But this isn't about political gain. This isn't about one comment about Hillary Clinton, or even 30 comments about Hillary Clinton: This is about Chris Matthews' pattern of inappropriate treatment of women, and about MSNBC's continued acceptance of it. It's about things like a male journalist doing a mocking "impersonation" of the women who host The View - an impersonation that featured a high-pitched, whiny voice.
That one wasn't Chris Matthews, either. That one was ... David Shuster.
Then, after defending their colleague, it was back to business as usual for NBC/MSNBC reporters.
Tim Russert suggested that there is irony in a "self-avowed feminist" having shown "some emotion," as though feminists are the dour, humorless beings Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson think they are. At least Russert stopped short of using the term "feminazis."
A few days later, Tucker Carlson mocked the idea that Hillary Clinton could have been a "victim of gender discrimination," noting that she had gone to Yale Law School. Clinton's comments about "gender equality," to which Carlson was purportedly responding, were in fact general, and not about her specifically. And his invocation of Clinton's graduation from Yale Law as evidence of a lack of gender inequity in her life was just bizarre: As Clinton noted in her autobiography, "When I entered Yale Law School in the fall of 1969, I was one of twenty-seven women out of 235 students to matriculate. This seems like a paltry number now, but it was a breakthrough at the time and meant that women would no longer be token students at Yale."
Incidentally, Carlson doesn't seem to have defended Matthews. Maybe he didn't want to draw attention to his own on-air behavior:
And then there's MSNBC host Tucker Carlson, who has described Hillary Clinton as "whining" and suggested the reason there are so few women in Congress is that "most women are so sensible, they don't want to get involved in something as stupid as politics" and said of Clinton, "[W]hen she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs," and described her as "castrating, overbearing, and scary." (MSNBC can't say they didn't know what they were getting when they hired Carlson; before joining the cable channel, he said women "want to be spanked vigorously every once in a while" and told Elle magazine that Clinton is his "guilty fantasy," explaining: "Every time I see her I think I could, you know, help. ... She seems tense.")
On January 23, an (all-male) Morning Joe panel laughed along as Mike Barnicle compared Hillary Clinton to "everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court."
Then on January 30, Joe Scarborough told co-host Mika Brzezinski, "Mika, don't make me backhand you."
On February 4, Matthews led a panel discussion of what the Associated Press described as Clinton's "emotional reunion Monday with a colleague from the early days of her legal career as a child advocate." The discussion featured a suggestion that Clinton had cried on purpose in order to win votes the next day, a statement by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson that "with some people it's sad movies ... with Hillary Clinton ... it's an impending primary. It just breaks her down." Even Chris Matthews seemed to understand that something might not be quite right about the obsessive focus on Clinton showing emotion; near the end of the discussion, he said, "I wonder what [sic] we're focusing more on this than we would if it were a male candidate."
During MSNBC's February 5 primary coverage, correspondent Lester Holt seemed surprised that "[t]he first woman candidate with a serious shot at winning the presidency beat out her male rival" in exit polls on the question of "[w]ho would make the best commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces?" Holt even reminded viewers, "Keep in mind, this at a time the nation is fighting on two fronts." This wasn't the first time an NBC personality seemed to question whether a woman could be an effective commander in chief of the armed forces:
* On June 24, 2007, Chris Matthews asked if Clinton's "being surrounded by women" makes "a case for commander in chief -- or does it make a case against it?" Matthews went on to say, "But isn't that a challenge, because when it comes down to that final decision to vote for president, a woman president, a woman commander in chief, will be an historic decision for people. Not just men, but women as well."
* On May 30, 2005, Matthews asked retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey if "the troops out there" would "take the orders" from "Hillary Clinton, commander in chief." When McCaffrey responded, "Why wouldn't they listen to a [female] commander in chief? Sure," Matthews responded: "You're chuckling a little bit, aren't you?" When McCaffrey responded, "No," Matthews said: "No problem? No problem? No problem?" McCaffrey answered, "Absolutely not. None."
Most recently, David Shuster said on the February 7 edition of Tucker that "there's just something a little bit unseemly" about Chelsea Clinton contacting super delegates on behalf of her mother, adding, "[D]oesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"
This morning, Shuster offered a Matthews-esque quasi-apology for analogizing Chelsea Clinton to a prostitute.
But, like Matthews, Shuster didn't seem to "get it."
Shuster first claimed to have praised Chelsea Clinton on Tucker: "I said a lot of wonderful things about Chelsea. I praised her; I said Americans should be proud of her. ... as I said last night, everybody, all of us, love Chelsea Clinton." In fact, Shuster had not said Americans should be proud of her, or that "everybody, all of us, love Chelsea Clinton." Not even close.
Then Shuster reiterated that Chelsea Clinton's efforts on Hillary Clinton's behalf are "unseemly" -- though, again, he did not explain why they are unseemly, or whether it was unseemly for Mitt Romney's sons to campaign on his behalf.
Finally, Shuster got to the real issue: "[L]ast night, I used a phrase -- some slang about her efforts. I didn't think that people would take it literally, but some people have."
That's just ridiculous. Nobody took Shuster's statement that Chelsea Clinton is "being pimped out" literally. Nobody. People were bothered that he analogized her to a prostitute, not that they thought he was actually saying she has sex in exchange for money. Shuster's "I didn't think that people would take it literally" excuse is like calling someone a b*tch, then saying, "Hey, I didn't think people would think I was saying she is literally a dog." It completely misses the point.
This afternoon, NBC News President Steve Capus issued a statement calling Shuster's comments "irresponsible and inappropriate" and announcing that Shuster "has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts" other than to make another apology, which aired tonight. Shuster then offered a more complete apology at the beginning of the February 8 edition of Tucker.
Capus' statement is the best sign yet that NBC News is beginning to take seriously the lengthy pattern of inappropriate comments about women made by NBC and MSNBC reporters. (NBC News did not issue a statement about Matthews, allowing Matthews' overly narrow, on-air quasi-apology to stand as the closest thing to an official statement.)
But apologies and statements and even suspensions don't mean anything unless they are followed by an actual change in behavior. Things didn't change at NBC/MSNBC after the Matthews controversy; hopefully they will this time.
According to Capus, "NBC News takes these matters seriously." If NBC News wants viewers to believe that, it would help if it told us how it is taking these matters seriously. What steps has NBC News taken to ensure that things like this don't happen again? Have executives given their reporters and pundits guidance about what kinds of things are not appropriate to say? Have they talked to Matthews and Scarborough and Carlson and Shuster and the rest about their lengthy history of objectionable comments to and about women?
Three weeks ago, I wrote: "A week ago, MSNBC had a Chris Matthews problem. If things don't change, the cable channel may have a much bigger problem."
Maybe this time they'll listen.
While we're busy (too busy!) looking into the condition of our voting system,
which the media refuses to discuss, there are, of course, a lot of other issues
that our press also ignores, or handles badly.
Take, for instance, the blunt sexism that has always marked the media's
treatment of female politicians (and female human beings generally), and that
has now come to the crisis-point at MSNBC. While Hillary Clinton has her
faults (she's not my choice), being a woman isn't one of them, any more than,
say, Obama's being African-American is one of his faults (and that candidate
does have his faults, although you wouldn't know it from the media).
[FROM ME: To see how Obama's manipulated his childhood memories in order to play the race card, see: OBAMA'S CHILDHOOD.]
While Hillary, I repeat, has major faults (including a campaign that Murray Chotiner
would have loved), the animus against her has, from the outset 16 years ago,
always been infused with wild misogyny, especially on the right. No member
of the press should ever feed that animus in any way; and so it's absolutely
proper that those apes at MSNBC have been slapped down for it.
MCM
From Media Matters
"Media Matters"; 2/8/08
The mess at MSNBC
NBC President Steve Capus' statement is the best sign yet that NBC News is beginning to take seriously the lengthy pattern of inappropriate comments about women made by NBC and MSNBC reporters. But apologies and statements and even suspensions don't mean anything unless they are followed by an actual change in behavior. Things didn't change at NBC/MSNBC after the Matthews controversy; hopefully they will this time.
Shuster responds to firestorm over his Chelsea Clinton comments
"Last night during the show, I spoke about Chelsea Clinton and noted the affection that so many of us have for her. I also spoke about phone calls she has made to superdelegates to convince them to support her mom. In describing this effort, I used a phrase that was inappropriate, and I apologize to the Clinton family, the Clinton campaign, and all of you who were justifiably offended. As I said this morning on MSNBC, all Americans should be proud of Chelsea Clinton, and I am particularly sorry that my language diminished the regard and respect she has earned from all of us and the respect her parents have earned in how they raised her." Read More
NBC News president: Shuster suspended for Chelsea Clinton comments
Statement from David Brock on Pattern of Sexist/Misogynistic Outbursts on MSNBC: "The Time for Apologies Has Passed"
MSNBC's Shuster falsely claimed he said "Americans should be proud of" Chelsea Clinton before his "pimped out" comment.
"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser
The mess at MSNBC
Three weeks ago, in the wake of Chris Matthews' quasi-apology for one of his countless objectionable comments about women in general and Hillary Clinton specifically, I argued that Matthews' apology was not enough. Neither Matthews nor MSNBC had acknowledged that the problem ran far deeper than one comment by Matthews -- and their failure to make such an acknowledgement was an ominous sign that the apology would not be accompanied by a change in behavior, no matter how forcefully Matthews insisted: "I get it."
So what has happened in those three weeks?
MSNBC has turned Matthews' purported apology into a promotional campaign, using clips of his statement to advertise MSNBC programming. Not the parts of the statement in which he acknowledged having been "callous," "nasty," and "dismissive" toward Hillary Clinton, of course -- the parts in which he spoke of his love for politics.
Turning a forced apology into a promotional campaign seems like a pretty good sign that MSNBC and Matthews don't "get it" at all.
But it isn't the best sign. Consider what else has happened during MSNBC broadcasts since Matthews' apology.
First, Matthews' MSNBC colleagues leapt to his defense. Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough and reporter David Shuster lashed out; Scarborough declaring it "offensive" and "outrageous" that Matthews had to apologize, and Shuster adding "this is absolutely infuriating, to see the way these groups used him for pure political gain is absolutely infuriating." As I noted at the time, Scarborough and Shuster have their own history of questionable comments about women:
At the end of his rant, Scarborough insisted, "This ain't about Hillary Clinton's campaign."
Scarborough got that part right. This isn't about Hillary Clinton's campaign. This is about a consistent pattern of misogynistic comments by Chris Matthews. Comments about and directed toward a variety of women. A consistent pattern of Matthews objectifying women. And a consistent pattern of MSNBC looking the other way.
It's about an MSNBC host saying things like this: "I've been trying to call Alessandra Stanley with The New York Times for some time just to have lunch with her, and she thinks it's because I'm trying to influence her -- that's not the case at all, it's because, I was surprised, I saw a picture of her and I thought she was kinda hot!"
That one wasn't Chris Matthews, though. That one was ... Joe Scarborough.
It's about things like a male MSNBC host describing a woman running for president as "shrill" (and "very shrill") and asking, "[W]hat about her housekeeping skills?" Those were Joe Scarborough, too.
MSNBC's David Shuster also chimed in with a defense of Matthews: "[T]o see him have to go through this is absolutely infuriating, to see the way these groups used him for pure political gain is absolutely infuriating."
But this isn't about political gain. This isn't about one comment about Hillary Clinton, or even 30 comments about Hillary Clinton: This is about Chris Matthews' pattern of inappropriate treatment of women, and about MSNBC's continued acceptance of it. It's about things like a male journalist doing a mocking "impersonation" of the women who host The View - an impersonation that featured a high-pitched, whiny voice.
That one wasn't Chris Matthews, either. That one was ... David Shuster.
Then, after defending their colleague, it was back to business as usual for NBC/MSNBC reporters.
Tim Russert suggested that there is irony in a "self-avowed feminist" having shown "some emotion," as though feminists are the dour, humorless beings Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson think they are. At least Russert stopped short of using the term "feminazis."
A few days later, Tucker Carlson mocked the idea that Hillary Clinton could have been a "victim of gender discrimination," noting that she had gone to Yale Law School. Clinton's comments about "gender equality," to which Carlson was purportedly responding, were in fact general, and not about her specifically. And his invocation of Clinton's graduation from Yale Law as evidence of a lack of gender inequity in her life was just bizarre: As Clinton noted in her autobiography, "When I entered Yale Law School in the fall of 1969, I was one of twenty-seven women out of 235 students to matriculate. This seems like a paltry number now, but it was a breakthrough at the time and meant that women would no longer be token students at Yale."
Incidentally, Carlson doesn't seem to have defended Matthews. Maybe he didn't want to draw attention to his own on-air behavior:
And then there's MSNBC host Tucker Carlson, who has described Hillary Clinton as "whining" and suggested the reason there are so few women in Congress is that "most women are so sensible, they don't want to get involved in something as stupid as politics" and said of Clinton, "[W]hen she comes on television, I involuntarily cross my legs," and described her as "castrating, overbearing, and scary." (MSNBC can't say they didn't know what they were getting when they hired Carlson; before joining the cable channel, he said women "want to be spanked vigorously every once in a while" and told Elle magazine that Clinton is his "guilty fantasy," explaining: "Every time I see her I think I could, you know, help. ... She seems tense.")
On January 23, an (all-male) Morning Joe panel laughed along as Mike Barnicle compared Hillary Clinton to "everyone's first wife standing outside a probate court."
Then on January 30, Joe Scarborough told co-host Mika Brzezinski, "Mika, don't make me backhand you."
On February 4, Matthews led a panel discussion of what the Associated Press described as Clinton's "emotional reunion Monday with a colleague from the early days of her legal career as a child advocate." The discussion featured a suggestion that Clinton had cried on purpose in order to win votes the next day, a statement by Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson that "with some people it's sad movies ... with Hillary Clinton ... it's an impending primary. It just breaks her down." Even Chris Matthews seemed to understand that something might not be quite right about the obsessive focus on Clinton showing emotion; near the end of the discussion, he said, "I wonder what [sic] we're focusing more on this than we would if it were a male candidate."
During MSNBC's February 5 primary coverage, correspondent Lester Holt seemed surprised that "[t]he first woman candidate with a serious shot at winning the presidency beat out her male rival" in exit polls on the question of "[w]ho would make the best commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces?" Holt even reminded viewers, "Keep in mind, this at a time the nation is fighting on two fronts." This wasn't the first time an NBC personality seemed to question whether a woman could be an effective commander in chief of the armed forces:
* On June 24, 2007, Chris Matthews asked if Clinton's "being surrounded by women" makes "a case for commander in chief -- or does it make a case against it?" Matthews went on to say, "But isn't that a challenge, because when it comes down to that final decision to vote for president, a woman president, a woman commander in chief, will be an historic decision for people. Not just men, but women as well."
* On May 30, 2005, Matthews asked retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey if "the troops out there" would "take the orders" from "Hillary Clinton, commander in chief." When McCaffrey responded, "Why wouldn't they listen to a [female] commander in chief? Sure," Matthews responded: "You're chuckling a little bit, aren't you?" When McCaffrey responded, "No," Matthews said: "No problem? No problem? No problem?" McCaffrey answered, "Absolutely not. None."
Most recently, David Shuster said on the February 7 edition of Tucker that "there's just something a little bit unseemly" about Chelsea Clinton contacting super delegates on behalf of her mother, adding, "[D]oesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?"
This morning, Shuster offered a Matthews-esque quasi-apology for analogizing Chelsea Clinton to a prostitute.
But, like Matthews, Shuster didn't seem to "get it."
Shuster first claimed to have praised Chelsea Clinton on Tucker: "I said a lot of wonderful things about Chelsea. I praised her; I said Americans should be proud of her. ... as I said last night, everybody, all of us, love Chelsea Clinton." In fact, Shuster had not said Americans should be proud of her, or that "everybody, all of us, love Chelsea Clinton." Not even close.
Then Shuster reiterated that Chelsea Clinton's efforts on Hillary Clinton's behalf are "unseemly" -- though, again, he did not explain why they are unseemly, or whether it was unseemly for Mitt Romney's sons to campaign on his behalf.
Finally, Shuster got to the real issue: "[L]ast night, I used a phrase -- some slang about her efforts. I didn't think that people would take it literally, but some people have."
That's just ridiculous. Nobody took Shuster's statement that Chelsea Clinton is "being pimped out" literally. Nobody. People were bothered that he analogized her to a prostitute, not that they thought he was actually saying she has sex in exchange for money. Shuster's "I didn't think that people would take it literally" excuse is like calling someone a b*tch, then saying, "Hey, I didn't think people would think I was saying she is literally a dog." It completely misses the point.
This afternoon, NBC News President Steve Capus issued a statement calling Shuster's comments "irresponsible and inappropriate" and announcing that Shuster "has been suspended from appearing on all NBC News broadcasts" other than to make another apology, which aired tonight. Shuster then offered a more complete apology at the beginning of the February 8 edition of Tucker.
Capus' statement is the best sign yet that NBC News is beginning to take seriously the lengthy pattern of inappropriate comments about women made by NBC and MSNBC reporters. (NBC News did not issue a statement about Matthews, allowing Matthews' overly narrow, on-air quasi-apology to stand as the closest thing to an official statement.)
But apologies and statements and even suspensions don't mean anything unless they are followed by an actual change in behavior. Things didn't change at NBC/MSNBC after the Matthews controversy; hopefully they will this time.
According to Capus, "NBC News takes these matters seriously." If NBC News wants viewers to believe that, it would help if it told us how it is taking these matters seriously. What steps has NBC News taken to ensure that things like this don't happen again? Have executives given their reporters and pundits guidance about what kinds of things are not appropriate to say? Have they talked to Matthews and Scarborough and Carlson and Shuster and the rest about their lengthy history of objectionable comments to and about women?
Three weeks ago, I wrote: "A week ago, MSNBC had a Chris Matthews problem. If things don't change, the cable channel may have a much bigger problem."
Maybe this time they'll listen.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
DoD to "augment civilian law" during pandemic or bioterror attack
Here's the scenario:
Chush (Cheney-Bush) engineers a terrorist attack of crazed suicidal killer birds from Iran on a nuclear plant in NJ or NY, resulting in the decimation of the populace of several counties and big cities, including NYC. There are exceptions, however. Miraculously, the big wigs, traders and brokers at Wall Street and the CEOs and other high ups of financial institutions and big corporations have been spared, due to their having taken (fortuitously) a sick day in Belize. There's plenty of evidence that Chush engineered the WTC attack. See eg, WTC .
Don't laugh too hard and deride those of us who don't debunk conspiracy theories backed by evidence. The vipers in power love to debunk such theories for obvious reasons. Conspiracies are as common as houseflies. They buzz about educational institutions, corporations, mafia hangouts, and playgrounds, where kiddies gang up to beat up or humiliate other kiddies or one maligned, unpopular kid. Ask me about summer camp; what a sweet bunch of little girls did to a nerdy one. The world is a seesaw in a storm.
See also: Ron Hanson's post of yesterday at the MAD HATTERS'REVIEW BLOGG.
__________________
Citizens for Legitimate Government, a multi-partisan activist group established to expose the Bush Coup d'Etat and oppose the Bush occupation in all of its manifestations.
DoD to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack --By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
Is Bush is getting ready to play the Bioterror Card? The GOP cannot steal an inevitable Democratic landslide in November 2008. Will the Bush regime continue its illegitimate rule and empire by implementing a full-blown police state, in the aftermath of an avian flu pandemic or (Bush-engendered) bioterror attack?
*****
H.R. 1585
11 May 2007
Section 1615, page 672 (of 794)
(Under TITLE XVI, NATIONAL GUARD ENHANCEMENT) .....
DETERMINATION OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CIVIL SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS
(a) DETERMINATION OF REQUIREMENTS---- The Secretary of Defense shall determine the military-unique capabilities needed to be provided by the Department of Defense to support civil authorities in an incident of national significance or a catastrophic incident.
(b) PLAN FOR FUNDING CAPABILITIES---
(1) PLAN----The Secretary of Defense shall develop and implement a plan, in coordination with the Secretaries of the military departments and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for providing the funds and resources necessary to develop and maintain the following:
(A) The military-unique capabilities determined under subsection (a).
(B) Any additional capabilities determined by the Secretary to be necessary to support the use of the active components and the reserve components of the armed forces for homeland defense missions, domestic emergency responses, and providing military support to civil authorities.
(2) TERM OF PLAN---- The plan required under paragraph (1) shall cover at least five years.
*****
DoD to carry out 'military missions' during pandemic, WMD attack By Lori Price 23 Oct 2007 On Thursday, the Bush administration issued a directive which 'establishes a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness (Strategy), which builds upon principles set forth in Biodefense for the 21st Century (April 2004) and will transform our national approach to protecting the health of the American people against [with] all disasters.' HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-21 states that within one year of the directive's date, 'the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, shall establish an academic Joint Program for Disaster Medicine and Public Health housed at a National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences... Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense authorities will be used to carry out respective civilian and military missions within this joint program.'
From the 'people' who brought you the response to Hurricane Katrina (blown levees): US military begins planning for avian flu pandemic 10 May 2007 The US military has begun to plan for a possible avian flu pandemic that could kill as many as three million people in the United States in as little as six weeks, a Pentagon planning document said. The Defense Department's "Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza," which was posted Wednesday on a Pentagon website, lays out guidelines and planning assumptions for US military services and combatant commands. Possible scenarios include US troops being called in to put down riots, guard pharmaceutical plants and shipments, and help restrict the movement of people inside the country and across its borders. "When directed by the president, DoD will provide support to civil authorities in the event of a civil disturbance," the document said. "DoD will augment civilian law enforcement efforts to restore and maintain order in accordance with existing statutes." The military also may assist civil authorities in "isolating and/or quarantining groups of people in order to minimize [foment] the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic," it said. [Bye bye, Posse Comitatus! And suddenly, the US is going to control its borders? Gag me with a chainsaw! This newfound 'border control' ability is to keep people from *leaving* the US. KBR's $385M detention center contract will be expanded and renewed.]
CDC wants to test 107 air passengers; TB patient stayed in NYC 31 May 2007 Health officials around the world were scrambling Wednesday to find about 80 air passengers who sat near a man who spent three days in a New York City hospital with a form of tuberculosis so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said Wednesday that the CDC is working closely with airlines to find passengers who may have been exposed to the rare, dangerous strain. Health officials in France said they have asked Air France-KLM for passenger lists, and the Italian Health Ministry said it is tracing the man's movements. [Did the US allow the TB-infected man to travel so that a media-engendered 'outcry' for safety would 'force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off?' See: DHS wants early passenger info 14 Jul 2006 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has submitted a proposal that will force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off. Through the new plan, airlines could send the entire list of information on the flight and the people onboard up to 60 minutes before departure or through a constant relay system as passengers check in... The new proposals may also end the practice of international airlines having to screen their passengers against governmental "no fly" lists during check-in or boarding. Privacy laws in the European Union (EU) have prevented similar legislation being introduced before. In May, the highest court in the EU struck down a proposal to allow airlines to provide the DHS with extensive passenger information, such as fare payment details, phone numbers, and addresses. This directive is currently being redrafted.]
Report Says TSA Violated Privacy Law --Passengers Weren't Told That Brokers Provided Data to Screening Program in '04 22 Dec 2006 Secure Flight, the U.S. government's stalled program to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated federal law during a crucial test phase, according to a report to be issued today by the Homeland Security Department's privacy office... TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said that he supports the use of Secure Flight and that his agency is working closely with other government officials to ensure it protects privacy. "We are working in a transparent way," Hawley said, adding that the agency's "challenging" goal is to roll out the program in 2008.
Secret DHS Agreement to Share Passenger Data in Violation of Agreements Is Confirmed (ACLU) 25 Apr 2006 The text of a secret agreement that the Department of Homeland Security executed with the Centers for Disease Control to share airline passenger data confirms...that the U.S. government is distributing information that it explicitly promised it would not share... In 2003, the United States and the European Union reached an agreement under which the EU would share Passenger Name Record (PNR) data with the U.S., despite the lack of privacy laws in the United States adequate to ensure Europeans' privacy. In return, DHS agreed that the passenger data would not be used for any purpose other than preventing acts of terrorism or other serious crimes. It is now clear that DHS did not abide by that agreement.]
Canadian authorities locate 16 of 28 passengers sought from TB exposure flight 30 May 2007 Public health officials in the United States and Canada revealed Wednesday they have narrowed down to roughly 70 to 80 the number of people on two recent transatlantic flights who were seated in close proximity to a man infected with a rare and potentially deadly form of tuberculosis. Canadian health authorities are trying to find anyone who sat in Row 12 - plus the two rows ahead and behind - of Czech Airline flight 0104 to Montreal from Prague on May 24. The man, who is infected with extensively drug resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, was seated in 12 C.
TB patient's father-in-law works at CDC lab --Infected man ID'd, taken to Denver hospital; others on 2 flights sought 31 May 2007 The father-in-law of the tuberculosis patient under the first federal quarantine since 1963 works as a microbiologist at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory that studies TB and other bacterial infections. Bob Cooksey said he gave his 31-year-old son-in-law, attorney Andrew Speaker, "fatherly advice" [!] when he learned he contracted the disease.
Authorities seeking those on flight 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government [!] after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. The infected man flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the United States. He cooperated with authorities after learning he had an unusually dangerous form of TB. He voluntarily went to a hospital and is not facing prosecution, officials said.
U.S. Government Issues a Quarantine Order --CDC Order is First Since 1963 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. This marks the first time since 1963 that the government issued a quarantine order. The last such order was to quarantine a patient with smallpox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Report: National Guard May Be Needed to Enforce Quarantine in Flu Pandemic 09 May 2007 Military and civilian health facilities will be overwhelmed if a nationwide flu pandemic hits the United States, and the National Guard may have to be called out to provide medical help and even enforce a quarantine, the Defense Department warned in a report released Wednesday. ...The 86-page report report is dated August 2006 and titled "The Department of Defense Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza." According to the report, in the event of a pandemic or a [Bush-engendred] bioterror attack, the Defense Department may be called by the president to assist civilian authorities in minimizing the spread of disease by placing restrictions on interstate transportation.
Scientists Recreate 1918 Flu and See Parallels to Bird Flu --In 2005, U.S. Army scientists reconstructed Spanish flu virus by extracting genetic fragments from the bodies of victims exhumed from the Alaskan permafrost. 18 Jan 2007 Scientists infected monkeys with a virus that caused the 1918-19 influenza pandemic and said in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature that it caused an illness like that suffered by patients with the bird flu now spreading in Asia.
Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 UK Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions. A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect on mice. Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.
KBR awarded $385M Homeland Security contract for U.S. detention centers 24 Jan 2006 KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co., said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base period with four 1-year options. The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster, the company said.
KBR Awarded U.S. Department of Homeland Security Contingency Support for Emergency Support Services 24 Jan 2006 (halliburton.com) "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities... to support the rapid development of new programs."
Originally published 11 May 2007
Permanent URL for this page: http://www.legitgov.org/DoD_to_augment_civilian_law.html
Chush (Cheney-Bush) engineers a terrorist attack of crazed suicidal killer birds from Iran on a nuclear plant in NJ or NY, resulting in the decimation of the populace of several counties and big cities, including NYC. There are exceptions, however. Miraculously, the big wigs, traders and brokers at Wall Street and the CEOs and other high ups of financial institutions and big corporations have been spared, due to their having taken (fortuitously) a sick day in Belize. There's plenty of evidence that Chush engineered the WTC attack. See eg, WTC .
Don't laugh too hard and deride those of us who don't debunk conspiracy theories backed by evidence. The vipers in power love to debunk such theories for obvious reasons. Conspiracies are as common as houseflies. They buzz about educational institutions, corporations, mafia hangouts, and playgrounds, where kiddies gang up to beat up or humiliate other kiddies or one maligned, unpopular kid. Ask me about summer camp; what a sweet bunch of little girls did to a nerdy one. The world is a seesaw in a storm.
See also: Ron Hanson's post of yesterday at the MAD HATTERS'REVIEW BLOGG.
__________________
Citizens for Legitimate Government, a multi-partisan activist group established to expose the Bush Coup d'Etat and oppose the Bush occupation in all of its manifestations.
DoD to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack --By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
Is Bush is getting ready to play the Bioterror Card? The GOP cannot steal an inevitable Democratic landslide in November 2008. Will the Bush regime continue its illegitimate rule and empire by implementing a full-blown police state, in the aftermath of an avian flu pandemic or (Bush-engendered) bioterror attack?
*****
H.R. 1585
11 May 2007
Section 1615, page 672 (of 794)
(Under TITLE XVI, NATIONAL GUARD ENHANCEMENT) .....
DETERMINATION OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CIVIL SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS
(a) DETERMINATION OF REQUIREMENTS---- The Secretary of Defense shall determine the military-unique capabilities needed to be provided by the Department of Defense to support civil authorities in an incident of national significance or a catastrophic incident.
(b) PLAN FOR FUNDING CAPABILITIES---
(1) PLAN----The Secretary of Defense shall develop and implement a plan, in coordination with the Secretaries of the military departments and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for providing the funds and resources necessary to develop and maintain the following:
(A) The military-unique capabilities determined under subsection (a).
(B) Any additional capabilities determined by the Secretary to be necessary to support the use of the active components and the reserve components of the armed forces for homeland defense missions, domestic emergency responses, and providing military support to civil authorities.
(2) TERM OF PLAN---- The plan required under paragraph (1) shall cover at least five years.
*****
DoD to carry out 'military missions' during pandemic, WMD attack By Lori Price 23 Oct 2007 On Thursday, the Bush administration issued a directive which 'establishes a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness (Strategy), which builds upon principles set forth in Biodefense for the 21st Century (April 2004) and will transform our national approach to protecting the health of the American people against [with] all disasters.' HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-21 states that within one year of the directive's date, 'the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, shall establish an academic Joint Program for Disaster Medicine and Public Health housed at a National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences... Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense authorities will be used to carry out respective civilian and military missions within this joint program.'
From the 'people' who brought you the response to Hurricane Katrina (blown levees): US military begins planning for avian flu pandemic 10 May 2007 The US military has begun to plan for a possible avian flu pandemic that could kill as many as three million people in the United States in as little as six weeks, a Pentagon planning document said. The Defense Department's "Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza," which was posted Wednesday on a Pentagon website, lays out guidelines and planning assumptions for US military services and combatant commands. Possible scenarios include US troops being called in to put down riots, guard pharmaceutical plants and shipments, and help restrict the movement of people inside the country and across its borders. "When directed by the president, DoD will provide support to civil authorities in the event of a civil disturbance," the document said. "DoD will augment civilian law enforcement efforts to restore and maintain order in accordance with existing statutes." The military also may assist civil authorities in "isolating and/or quarantining groups of people in order to minimize [foment] the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic," it said. [Bye bye, Posse Comitatus! And suddenly, the US is going to control its borders? Gag me with a chainsaw! This newfound 'border control' ability is to keep people from *leaving* the US. KBR's $385M detention center contract will be expanded and renewed.]
CDC wants to test 107 air passengers; TB patient stayed in NYC 31 May 2007 Health officials around the world were scrambling Wednesday to find about 80 air passengers who sat near a man who spent three days in a New York City hospital with a form of tuberculosis so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said Wednesday that the CDC is working closely with airlines to find passengers who may have been exposed to the rare, dangerous strain. Health officials in France said they have asked Air France-KLM for passenger lists, and the Italian Health Ministry said it is tracing the man's movements. [Did the US allow the TB-infected man to travel so that a media-engendered 'outcry' for safety would 'force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off?' See: DHS wants early passenger info 14 Jul 2006 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has submitted a proposal that will force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off. Through the new plan, airlines could send the entire list of information on the flight and the people onboard up to 60 minutes before departure or through a constant relay system as passengers check in... The new proposals may also end the practice of international airlines having to screen their passengers against governmental "no fly" lists during check-in or boarding. Privacy laws in the European Union (EU) have prevented similar legislation being introduced before. In May, the highest court in the EU struck down a proposal to allow airlines to provide the DHS with extensive passenger information, such as fare payment details, phone numbers, and addresses. This directive is currently being redrafted.]
Report Says TSA Violated Privacy Law --Passengers Weren't Told That Brokers Provided Data to Screening Program in '04 22 Dec 2006 Secure Flight, the U.S. government's stalled program to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated federal law during a crucial test phase, according to a report to be issued today by the Homeland Security Department's privacy office... TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said that he supports the use of Secure Flight and that his agency is working closely with other government officials to ensure it protects privacy. "We are working in a transparent way," Hawley said, adding that the agency's "challenging" goal is to roll out the program in 2008.
Secret DHS Agreement to Share Passenger Data in Violation of Agreements Is Confirmed (ACLU) 25 Apr 2006 The text of a secret agreement that the Department of Homeland Security executed with the Centers for Disease Control to share airline passenger data confirms...that the U.S. government is distributing information that it explicitly promised it would not share... In 2003, the United States and the European Union reached an agreement under which the EU would share Passenger Name Record (PNR) data with the U.S., despite the lack of privacy laws in the United States adequate to ensure Europeans' privacy. In return, DHS agreed that the passenger data would not be used for any purpose other than preventing acts of terrorism or other serious crimes. It is now clear that DHS did not abide by that agreement.]
Canadian authorities locate 16 of 28 passengers sought from TB exposure flight 30 May 2007 Public health officials in the United States and Canada revealed Wednesday they have narrowed down to roughly 70 to 80 the number of people on two recent transatlantic flights who were seated in close proximity to a man infected with a rare and potentially deadly form of tuberculosis. Canadian health authorities are trying to find anyone who sat in Row 12 - plus the two rows ahead and behind - of Czech Airline flight 0104 to Montreal from Prague on May 24. The man, who is infected with extensively drug resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, was seated in 12 C.
TB patient's father-in-law works at CDC lab --Infected man ID'd, taken to Denver hospital; others on 2 flights sought 31 May 2007 The father-in-law of the tuberculosis patient under the first federal quarantine since 1963 works as a microbiologist at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory that studies TB and other bacterial infections. Bob Cooksey said he gave his 31-year-old son-in-law, attorney Andrew Speaker, "fatherly advice" [!] when he learned he contracted the disease.
Authorities seeking those on flight 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government [!] after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. The infected man flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the United States. He cooperated with authorities after learning he had an unusually dangerous form of TB. He voluntarily went to a hospital and is not facing prosecution, officials said.
U.S. Government Issues a Quarantine Order --CDC Order is First Since 1963 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. This marks the first time since 1963 that the government issued a quarantine order. The last such order was to quarantine a patient with smallpox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Report: National Guard May Be Needed to Enforce Quarantine in Flu Pandemic 09 May 2007 Military and civilian health facilities will be overwhelmed if a nationwide flu pandemic hits the United States, and the National Guard may have to be called out to provide medical help and even enforce a quarantine, the Defense Department warned in a report released Wednesday. ...The 86-page report report is dated August 2006 and titled "The Department of Defense Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza." According to the report, in the event of a pandemic or a [Bush-engendred] bioterror attack, the Defense Department may be called by the president to assist civilian authorities in minimizing the spread of disease by placing restrictions on interstate transportation.
Scientists Recreate 1918 Flu and See Parallels to Bird Flu --In 2005, U.S. Army scientists reconstructed Spanish flu virus by extracting genetic fragments from the bodies of victims exhumed from the Alaskan permafrost. 18 Jan 2007 Scientists infected monkeys with a virus that caused the 1918-19 influenza pandemic and said in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature that it caused an illness like that suffered by patients with the bird flu now spreading in Asia.
Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 UK Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions. A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect on mice. Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.
KBR awarded $385M Homeland Security contract for U.S. detention centers 24 Jan 2006 KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co., said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base period with four 1-year options. The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster, the company said.
KBR Awarded U.S. Department of Homeland Security Contingency Support for Emergency Support Services 24 Jan 2006 (halliburton.com) "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities... to support the rapid development of new programs."
Originally published 11 May 2007
Permanent URL for this page: http://www.legitgov.org/DoD_to_augment_civilian_law.html
DoD to "augment civilian law" during pandemic or bioterror attack
Citizens for Legitimate Government, a multi-partisan activist group established to expose the Bush Coup d'Etat and oppose the Bush occupation in all of its manifestations.
DoD to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack --By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
Is Bush is getting ready to play the Bioterror Card? The GOP cannot steal an inevitable Democratic landslide in November 2008. Will the Bush regime continue its illegitimate rule and empire by implementing a full-blown police state, in the aftermath of an avian flu pandemic or (Bush-engendered) bioterror attack?
*****
H.R. 1585
11 May 2007
Section 1615, page 672 (of 794)
(Under TITLE XVI, NATIONAL GUARD ENHANCEMENT) .....
DETERMINATION OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CIVIL SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS
(a) DETERMINATION OF REQUIREMENTS---- The Secretary of Defense shall determine the military-unique capabilities needed to be provided by the Department of Defense to support civil authorities in an incident of national significance or a catastrophic incident.
(b) PLAN FOR FUNDING CAPABILITIES---
(1) PLAN----The Secretary of Defense shall develop and implement a plan, in coordination with the Secretaries of the military departments and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for providing the funds and resources necessary to develop and maintain the following:
(A) The military-unique capabilities determined under subsection (a).
(B) Any additional capabilities determined by the Secretary to be necessary to support the use of the active components and the reserve components of the armed forces for homeland defense missions, domestic emergency responses, and providing military support to civil authorities.
(2) TERM OF PLAN---- The plan required under paragraph (1) shall cover at least five years.
*****
DoD to carry out 'military missions' during pandemic, WMD attack By Lori Price 23 Oct 2007 On Thursday, the Bush administration issued a directive which 'establishes a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness (Strategy), which builds upon principles set forth in Biodefense for the 21st Century (April 2004) and will transform our national approach to protecting the health of the American people against [with] all disasters.' HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-21 states that within one year of the directive's date, 'the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, shall establish an academic Joint Program for Disaster Medicine and Public Health housed at a National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences... Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense authorities will be used to carry out respective civilian and military missions within this joint program.'
From the 'people' who brought you the response to Hurricane Katrina (blown levees): US military begins planning for avian flu pandemic 10 May 2007 The US military has begun to plan for a possible avian flu pandemic that could kill as many as three million people in the United States in as little as six weeks, a Pentagon planning document said. The Defense Department's "Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza," which was posted Wednesday on a Pentagon website, lays out guidelines and planning assumptions for US military services and combatant commands. Possible scenarios include US troops being called in to put down riots, guard pharmaceutical plants and shipments, and help restrict the movement of people inside the country and across its borders. "When directed by the president, DoD will provide support to civil authorities in the event of a civil disturbance," the document said. "DoD will augment civilian law enforcement efforts to restore and maintain order in accordance with existing statutes." The military also may assist civil authorities in "isolating and/or quarantining groups of people in order to minimize [foment] the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic," it said. [Bye bye, Posse Comitatus! And suddenly, the US is going to control its borders? Gag me with a chainsaw! This newfound 'border control' ability is to keep people from *leaving* the US. KBR's $385M detention center contract will be expanded and renewed.]
CDC wants to test 107 air passengers; TB patient stayed in NYC 31 May 2007 Health officials around the world were scrambling Wednesday to find about 80 air passengers who sat near a man who spent three days in a New York City hospital with a form of tuberculosis so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said Wednesday that the CDC is working closely with airlines to find passengers who may have been exposed to the rare, dangerous strain. Health officials in France said they have asked Air France-KLM for passenger lists, and the Italian Health Ministry said it is tracing the man's movements. [Did the US allow the TB-infected man to travel so that a media-engendered 'outcry' for safety would 'force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off?' See: DHS wants early passenger info 14 Jul 2006 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has submitted a proposal that will force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off. Through the new plan, airlines could send the entire list of information on the flight and the people onboard up to 60 minutes before departure or through a constant relay system as passengers check in... The new proposals may also end the practice of international airlines having to screen their passengers against governmental "no fly" lists during check-in or boarding. Privacy laws in the European Union (EU) have prevented similar legislation being introduced before. In May, the highest court in the EU struck down a proposal to allow airlines to provide the DHS with extensive passenger information, such as fare payment details, phone numbers, and addresses. This directive is currently being redrafted.]
Report Says TSA Violated Privacy Law --Passengers Weren't Told That Brokers Provided Data to Screening Program in '04 22 Dec 2006 Secure Flight, the U.S. government's stalled program to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated federal law during a crucial test phase, according to a report to be issued today by the Homeland Security Department's privacy office... TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said that he supports the use of Secure Flight and that his agency is working closely with other government officials to ensure it protects privacy. "We are working in a transparent way," Hawley said, adding that the agency's "challenging" goal is to roll out the program in 2008.
Secret DHS Agreement to Share Passenger Data in Violation of Agreements Is Confirmed (ACLU) 25 Apr 2006 The text of a secret agreement that the Department of Homeland Security executed with the Centers for Disease Control to share airline passenger data confirms...that the U.S. government is distributing information that it explicitly promised it would not share... In 2003, the United States and the European Union reached an agreement under which the EU would share Passenger Name Record (PNR) data with the U.S., despite the lack of privacy laws in the United States adequate to ensure Europeans' privacy. In return, DHS agreed that the passenger data would not be used for any purpose other than preventing acts of terrorism or other serious crimes. It is now clear that DHS did not abide by that agreement.]
Canadian authorities locate 16 of 28 passengers sought from TB exposure flight 30 May 2007 Public health officials in the United States and Canada revealed Wednesday they have narrowed down to roughly 70 to 80 the number of people on two recent transatlantic flights who were seated in close proximity to a man infected with a rare and potentially deadly form of tuberculosis. Canadian health authorities are trying to find anyone who sat in Row 12 - plus the two rows ahead and behind - of Czech Airline flight 0104 to Montreal from Prague on May 24. The man, who is infected with extensively drug resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, was seated in 12 C.
TB patient's father-in-law works at CDC lab --Infected man ID'd, taken to Denver hospital; others on 2 flights sought 31 May 2007 The father-in-law of the tuberculosis patient under the first federal quarantine since 1963 works as a microbiologist at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory that studies TB and other bacterial infections. Bob Cooksey said he gave his 31-year-old son-in-law, attorney Andrew Speaker, "fatherly advice" [!] when he learned he contracted the disease.
Authorities seeking those on flight 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government [!] after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. The infected man flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the United States. He cooperated with authorities after learning he had an unusually dangerous form of TB. He voluntarily went to a hospital and is not facing prosecution, officials said.
U.S. Government Issues a Quarantine Order --CDC Order is First Since 1963 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. This marks the first time since 1963 that the government issued a quarantine order. The last such order was to quarantine a patient with smallpox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Report: National Guard May Be Needed to Enforce Quarantine in Flu Pandemic 09 May 2007 Military and civilian health facilities will be overwhelmed if a nationwide flu pandemic hits the United States, and the National Guard may have to be called out to provide medical help and even enforce a quarantine, the Defense Department warned in a report released Wednesday. ...The 86-page report report is dated August 2006 and titled "The Department of Defense Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza." According to the report, in the event of a pandemic or a [Bush-engendred] bioterror attack, the Defense Department may be called by the president to assist civilian authorities in minimizing the spread of disease by placing restrictions on interstate transportation.
Scientists Recreate 1918 Flu and See Parallels to Bird Flu --In 2005, U.S. Army scientists reconstructed Spanish flu virus by extracting genetic fragments from the bodies of victims exhumed from the Alaskan permafrost. 18 Jan 2007 Scientists infected monkeys with a virus that caused the 1918-19 influenza pandemic and said in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature that it caused an illness like that suffered by patients with the bird flu now spreading in Asia.
Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 UK Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions. A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect on mice. Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.
KBR awarded $385M Homeland Security contract for U.S. detention centers 24 Jan 2006 KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co., said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base period with four 1-year options. The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster, the company said.
KBR Awarded U.S. Department of Homeland Security Contingency Support for Emergency Support Services 24 Jan 2006 (halliburton.com) "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities... to support the rapid development of new programs."
Originally published 11 May 2007
Flu 'Oddities'
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Email this page to a friend.
Permanent URL for this page: http://www.legitgov.org/DoD_to_augment_civilian_law.html
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Last updated: 11/10/2007 00:07:15
HOME |COUP 2004 | PRESS RELEASES | PRESS RECEIVED |IMPORTANT CALLS TO ACTION | LINKS | JOIN CLG™ | WELCOME TO CLG | CONTRIBUTE | CONTACT US
Copyright © 2007, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.
DoD to 'augment civilian law' during pandemic or bioterror attack --By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
Is Bush is getting ready to play the Bioterror Card? The GOP cannot steal an inevitable Democratic landslide in November 2008. Will the Bush regime continue its illegitimate rule and empire by implementing a full-blown police state, in the aftermath of an avian flu pandemic or (Bush-engendered) bioterror attack?
*****
H.R. 1585
11 May 2007
Section 1615, page 672 (of 794)
(Under TITLE XVI, NATIONAL GUARD ENHANCEMENT) .....
DETERMINATION OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CIVIL SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS
(a) DETERMINATION OF REQUIREMENTS---- The Secretary of Defense shall determine the military-unique capabilities needed to be provided by the Department of Defense to support civil authorities in an incident of national significance or a catastrophic incident.
(b) PLAN FOR FUNDING CAPABILITIES---
(1) PLAN----The Secretary of Defense shall develop and implement a plan, in coordination with the Secretaries of the military departments and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for providing the funds and resources necessary to develop and maintain the following:
(A) The military-unique capabilities determined under subsection (a).
(B) Any additional capabilities determined by the Secretary to be necessary to support the use of the active components and the reserve components of the armed forces for homeland defense missions, domestic emergency responses, and providing military support to civil authorities.
(2) TERM OF PLAN---- The plan required under paragraph (1) shall cover at least five years.
*****
DoD to carry out 'military missions' during pandemic, WMD attack By Lori Price 23 Oct 2007 On Thursday, the Bush administration issued a directive which 'establishes a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness (Strategy), which builds upon principles set forth in Biodefense for the 21st Century (April 2004) and will transform our national approach to protecting the health of the American people against [with] all disasters.' HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-21 states that within one year of the directive's date, 'the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Defense, in coordination with the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, shall establish an academic Joint Program for Disaster Medicine and Public Health housed at a National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences... Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Defense authorities will be used to carry out respective civilian and military missions within this joint program.'
From the 'people' who brought you the response to Hurricane Katrina (blown levees): US military begins planning for avian flu pandemic 10 May 2007 The US military has begun to plan for a possible avian flu pandemic that could kill as many as three million people in the United States in as little as six weeks, a Pentagon planning document said. The Defense Department's "Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza," which was posted Wednesday on a Pentagon website, lays out guidelines and planning assumptions for US military services and combatant commands. Possible scenarios include US troops being called in to put down riots, guard pharmaceutical plants and shipments, and help restrict the movement of people inside the country and across its borders. "When directed by the president, DoD will provide support to civil authorities in the event of a civil disturbance," the document said. "DoD will augment civilian law enforcement efforts to restore and maintain order in accordance with existing statutes." The military also may assist civil authorities in "isolating and/or quarantining groups of people in order to minimize [foment] the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic," it said. [Bye bye, Posse Comitatus! And suddenly, the US is going to control its borders? Gag me with a chainsaw! This newfound 'border control' ability is to keep people from *leaving* the US. KBR's $385M detention center contract will be expanded and renewed.]
CDC wants to test 107 air passengers; TB patient stayed in NYC 31 May 2007 Health officials around the world were scrambling Wednesday to find about 80 air passengers who sat near a man who spent three days in a New York City hospital with a form of tuberculosis so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since 1963. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding said Wednesday that the CDC is working closely with airlines to find passengers who may have been exposed to the rare, dangerous strain. Health officials in France said they have asked Air France-KLM for passenger lists, and the Italian Health Ministry said it is tracing the man's movements. [Did the US allow the TB-infected man to travel so that a media-engendered 'outcry' for safety would 'force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off?' See: DHS wants early passenger info 14 Jul 2006 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has submitted a proposal that will force all international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off. Through the new plan, airlines could send the entire list of information on the flight and the people onboard up to 60 minutes before departure or through a constant relay system as passengers check in... The new proposals may also end the practice of international airlines having to screen their passengers against governmental "no fly" lists during check-in or boarding. Privacy laws in the European Union (EU) have prevented similar legislation being introduced before. In May, the highest court in the EU struck down a proposal to allow airlines to provide the DHS with extensive passenger information, such as fare payment details, phone numbers, and addresses. This directive is currently being redrafted.]
Report Says TSA Violated Privacy Law --Passengers Weren't Told That Brokers Provided Data to Screening Program in '04 22 Dec 2006 Secure Flight, the U.S. government's stalled program to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated federal law during a crucial test phase, according to a report to be issued today by the Homeland Security Department's privacy office... TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said that he supports the use of Secure Flight and that his agency is working closely with other government officials to ensure it protects privacy. "We are working in a transparent way," Hawley said, adding that the agency's "challenging" goal is to roll out the program in 2008.
Secret DHS Agreement to Share Passenger Data in Violation of Agreements Is Confirmed (ACLU) 25 Apr 2006 The text of a secret agreement that the Department of Homeland Security executed with the Centers for Disease Control to share airline passenger data confirms...that the U.S. government is distributing information that it explicitly promised it would not share... In 2003, the United States and the European Union reached an agreement under which the EU would share Passenger Name Record (PNR) data with the U.S., despite the lack of privacy laws in the United States adequate to ensure Europeans' privacy. In return, DHS agreed that the passenger data would not be used for any purpose other than preventing acts of terrorism or other serious crimes. It is now clear that DHS did not abide by that agreement.]
Canadian authorities locate 16 of 28 passengers sought from TB exposure flight 30 May 2007 Public health officials in the United States and Canada revealed Wednesday they have narrowed down to roughly 70 to 80 the number of people on two recent transatlantic flights who were seated in close proximity to a man infected with a rare and potentially deadly form of tuberculosis. Canadian health authorities are trying to find anyone who sat in Row 12 - plus the two rows ahead and behind - of Czech Airline flight 0104 to Montreal from Prague on May 24. The man, who is infected with extensively drug resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, was seated in 12 C.
TB patient's father-in-law works at CDC lab --Infected man ID'd, taken to Denver hospital; others on 2 flights sought 31 May 2007 The father-in-law of the tuberculosis patient under the first federal quarantine since 1963 works as a microbiologist at a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory that studies TB and other bacterial infections. Bob Cooksey said he gave his 31-year-old son-in-law, attorney Andrew Speaker, "fatherly advice" [!] when he learned he contracted the disease.
Authorities seeking those on flight 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government [!] after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. The infected man flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 aboard Air France Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech Air Flight 104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the United States. He cooperated with authorities after learning he had an unusually dangerous form of TB. He voluntarily went to a hospital and is not facing prosecution, officials said.
U.S. Government Issues a Quarantine Order --CDC Order is First Since 1963 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. This marks the first time since 1963 that the government issued a quarantine order. The last such order was to quarantine a patient with smallpox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Report: National Guard May Be Needed to Enforce Quarantine in Flu Pandemic 09 May 2007 Military and civilian health facilities will be overwhelmed if a nationwide flu pandemic hits the United States, and the National Guard may have to be called out to provide medical help and even enforce a quarantine, the Defense Department warned in a report released Wednesday. ...The 86-page report report is dated August 2006 and titled "The Department of Defense Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza." According to the report, in the event of a pandemic or a [Bush-engendred] bioterror attack, the Defense Department may be called by the president to assist civilian authorities in minimizing the spread of disease by placing restrictions on interstate transportation.
Scientists Recreate 1918 Flu and See Parallels to Bird Flu --In 2005, U.S. Army scientists reconstructed Spanish flu virus by extracting genetic fragments from the bodies of victims exhumed from the Alaskan permafrost. 18 Jan 2007 Scientists infected monkeys with a virus that caused the 1918-19 influenza pandemic and said in the Jan. 18 issue of the journal Nature that it caused an illness like that suffered by patients with the bird flu now spreading in Asia.
Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 UK Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions. A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect on mice. Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.
KBR awarded $385M Homeland Security contract for U.S. detention centers 24 Jan 2006 KBR, the engineering and construction subsidiary of Halliburton Co., said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency contract from the Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base period with four 1-year options. The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said. The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster, the company said.
KBR Awarded U.S. Department of Homeland Security Contingency Support for Emergency Support Services 24 Jan 2006 (halliburton.com) "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities... to support the rapid development of new programs."
Originally published 11 May 2007
Flu 'Oddities'
Click here!
Email this page to a friend.
Permanent URL for this page: http://www.legitgov.org/DoD_to_augment_civilian_law.html
Digg!
CLG Index
Last updated: 11/10/2007 00:07:15
HOME |COUP 2004 | PRESS RELEASES | PRESS RECEIVED |IMPORTANT CALLS TO ACTION | LINKS | JOIN CLG™ | WELCOME TO CLG | CONTRIBUTE | CONTACT US
Copyright © 2007, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved.
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