JILL CARROLL, U.S. Journalist Shown as Hostage
Kidnappers in Iraq Threaten to Kill Her TODAY!
Demanding Female
Prisoners Be Freed
The captors of an American journalist kidnapped in Baghdad 10 days ago threatened to kill her in three days unless authorities freed all female prisoners in Iraq, according to an Arabic television network that aired a brief video of the woman Tuesday night.
The story of Jill Carroll's capture is more disturbing in light of claims that she was at least striving to report the truth of the occupation of Iraq - if not becoming an advocate for Iraqis who want the US to leave (most of 'em).
WE CAN ALL CERTAINLY GET BEHIND A MAJOR OUTCRY AGAINST THE IRAQIS' APPARENT IGNORANCE OF THE VALUE OF A FREELY FUNCTIONING PRESS IN CRITICAL SITUATIONS, SUCH AS WAR -
BUT WAIT - The Iraqis HAVE journalists workin' the same mean streets as Jill Carroll. Oh, hell yeah!
Truthout dot org had this from The Guardian, UK, Monday:
American troops in Baghdad yesterday blasted their way into the home of an Iraqi journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4, firing bullets into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his wife and children. Ali Fadhil, who two months ago won the Foreign Press Association young journalist of the year award, was hooded and taken for questioning. He was released hours later. Dr Fadhil is working with Guardian Films on an investigation for Channel 4's Dispatches programme into claims that tens of millions of dollars worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been misused or misappropriated.
The troops told Dr Fadhil that they were looking for an Iraqi insurgent and seized video tapes he had shot for the programme. These have not yet been returned. The director of the film, Callum Macrae, said yesterday: "The timing and nature of this raid is extremely disturbing. It is only a few days since we first approached the US authorities and told them Ali was doing this investigation, and asked them then to grant him an interview about our findings. We need a convincing assurance from the American authorities that this terrifying experience was not harassment and a crude attempt to discourage Ali's investigation."
Dr Fadhil was asleep with his wife, their three-year-old daughter, Sarah, and seven-month-old son, Adam, when the troops forced their way in. "They fired into the bedroom where we were sleeping, then three soldiers came in. They rolled me on to the floor and tied my hands. When I tried to ask them what they were looking for they just told me to shut up," he said.
I'M NOT CHOCOLATE! It's not a laughing matter that there appear to be documented attempts to try to exclude former poor residents of N'Awlins (a majority of whom were black) from future plans to restore the city to its iconic status before Katrina turned it into a disaster that developers hope to turn into a nostalgic theme park misrepresentation. No, it ain't funny, but fortunately, months after the FEMA jokes have grown tired - and the rich white politicians and news anchors no longer pose in incongruous juxtaposition against waves of black folks left behind to fend for themselves on sidewalks outside of so-called shelters - the region retains the empty-headed mayor who kept everyone laughin' during some of the most horrific moments of the hurricane aftermath. Mayor Ray Nagin is Katrina's unintentional gift of comic relief that keeps on giving!
This week the mayor addressed the concern of many people, not all of whom are from N'Awlins, that the widely-anticipated vision of a renaissance for the "The Big Easy" may not include affordable housing in accessable neighborhoods for large numbers of poor folks, mostly black, who have been dispersed to a 1/2 dozen or more Southern cities. The mayor didn't need to worry about getting everyone's attention. Mayor C. Ray Nagin proclaimed:It's time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don't care what people are saying in Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have it no other way."
One New Orleans resident responded to Mayor Nagin's assertion: “We’re
more Neapolitan, not chocolate”
Another perplexed resident offered this comment: "It was white people who put Ray Nagin into office..."
SOLEMNLY SWEARING - THE HYPOCRITIC OATH
Rogier van Bakel, bloggin' @ Nobody's Business has this:
Sen. Rick Santorum, who has been tapped by fellow Senate Republican leaders to draft legislation tightening restrictions on lobbyists, has received more money from lobbyists than any other congressional candidate so far in the 2006 election cycle. Mr. Santorum, R-Pa., received $145,946 from lobbyists in the period from the start of the 2006 election cycle through Oct. 31, 2005, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics based on the most recent data the Federal Election Commission has published.
RANT, REV., RANT!Y' WANT TERM LIMITS?! I'D BE WILLING TO GIVE YA OURS!
It seemed so easy - limit the number of years an elected official can hold office and you refresh the system with fresh blood every 8-12 years. When a deal looks too good or too easy, the conventional wisdom goes, - beware! Make sure you have read the fine print. Term Limits were the mantra of Newt Gingrich's "reformist" conservatives in the '90s - and look how well THEY'VE done.
Term Limits have resulted in the best gummint money can buy right here in the BIG RED State of OHIO. The unintended consequence of term limits is that turning over the legislature to fresh politicians every so many years - results in sending the EXPERIENCED, PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS packing. The result is the horrific gaggle of inexperienced, inept, corrupt idealogues that make up the majority in the Ohio State legislature.
POEM FROM WRITER'S ALMANC : by Robert Frost from The Poetry of Robert Frost (Henry Holt).
"A TIME TO TALK"
When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, 'What is it?'
No, not as there is a time to talk.
I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,
Blade-end up and five feet tall,
And plod: I go up to the stone wall
For a friendly visit.
Well, the snow has melted. The sun is peepin' through the thin spots in the clouds. It just seemed like a good day to take this passionate purple Plymouth - a '41 soft-top to the park and steal some o' the lustre from all those Fords & Chevys... 
"HEY, THUMPER!" 
Good fortune. COMMENT! Please spread the meme. Don't smoke in bed...
