Indy Media Watch

Leigh over at the House of Wheels has tagged me in a blog-based chain letter. In his email to me, he swears he would never do these by email, but because it's sent via blogs, it must be okay.

I keep trying to fight his logic, and am loath to do it, but like staring at an ugly person, can't resist. Here goes...

1. Total volume of music on my pc: 3,311 songs totalling 16.93Gb.

2. Songs playing right now: None actually. I find it a thorough distraction when working (unlike say the distraction of blogging). For what it's worth, the last song I listened to was Bran Van 3000's Astounded featuring Curtis Mayfield. I have always liked this song which jumps between genres several times and goes from violins to disco via Cuban and back in five minutes. Can you tell I'm not a music reviewer yet?

3. Last album purchased: What's an album? Seriously, it was everyone's favourite chillout CD Moon Safari by Air (French Band). I've had it in various media for years but a new copy was on sale in the $5 bin. Record executives pay attention: If music is cheap, people will pay for it!

4. Seven songs I've listened to a lot lately, from several genres: I'm not going to include the various "Crazy Frog" themes which I have heard ad-nauseum on the television, radio, websites and numerous cellphones. This is additionally difficult as I don't listen to my own collection that much, getting bored rather quickly and have got into Internet radio in a big way. There's some great stuff coming out of Holland and even the ads are amusing (briefly) as I don't understand them. Here goes:
a) Beastie Boys - Fight for your right to party. What can I say? iTunes seems to like playing it, I like listening to it.

b) Supertramp - Goodbye Stranger. My one Supertramp CD has been on high-rotation since my car's CD stacker got stuck on it.

c) Sasha and John Digweed - Expeditions (off the Northern Exposure series) a nice bit of dancy upbeat background music

d) Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells, the MIDI version of it from www.tubular.net. How's that for a different genre? No, I am not kidding and wanted to see how faithful a reproduction it was of a record I loved listening to when I was younger. I was also considering the merits of inflicting a twenty-six minute long ringtone on my workmates, particularly the ones who got scared watching The Exorcist.

e) Zero 7 - Pretty much all of their stuff. Great to chill out to or have going in the background when you don't want to work too hard.

f) Chumbawumba, Tubthumping. Yes, I have been out drinking quite a bit this week and my local venue seems to put this on at 9pm religiously. A one-hit wonder but a terrific song to drink to. I think the bar owner knows this...

g) Styx - Come Sail Away. another 'rock opera' type which changes style a whole lot. I was unfamiliar with this song until I heard Eric Cartman sing it on South Park (it's the song he has to sing in its entirety if someone hums the first few words of it). I had to find the original. I now know this is what the other kids were listening to while I was listening to Tubular Bells.

I'm supposed to pass this stick on to three others, so courtesy of my referrer logs, Evil Pundit, Environmental Republican and Sister Geoff, it's all yours.

Yesterday I linked to the story of an Irish journalist threatened, intimidated and assaulted by Irish Indymedia supporters. This was not the first time I had reported on highly concerning involvement and support of violence by Irish indymedia.

Now, from the person who referred me to the article comes Ireland Indymedia Watch. Plenty of frightening material including this article, Manufacturing Dissent, written shortly after the aforementioned attack on a journalist.

Like all the best Billy Bragged, badged-up, fundamentalists, indymedia see no middle ground on issues or an ability to prioritise. It is either black (preferably) or white. America and Britain wrong. Cuba and Chavez right. Islam good. Jews and Christians bad. Al-Jazeera honest. CNN dishonest. Imams true representatives of the local community. Parish priests oppressors. The Socialist Workers’ Party and Sinn Fein brilliant, infallible paragons or humanity and social justice. George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern, Michael McDowell (Irish Minister for Justice) and Tony O’Reilly (proprietor of Independent Newspapers) Hitler incarnate. A typical indymedia analysis and stance operates on the principle of “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”. Contrary to claims, there is no critique of ideas and opinions on Indymedia Ireland. It is a one-sided, Grade A Wankfest, courtesy of the usual “right on” sisters and brothers.

Whether it’s carpet-bombing in Afghanistan, a public eulogy of the works of Pearl Jam, revelations that the Madrid bombings were actually part of a coup d'état by the state, evidence of racist oppression in Ireland, the rights of geese bred for foie gras, or whatever, the same level of seriousness is attached.

However, some topics are conspicuous by their absence: punishment beatings in Northern Ireland, Republican drug dealing, closer examinations of the financial affairs of non-profit organizations, condemnation of terrorism, the murder of children in Russia, Saddam Hussein’s human rights record, oppression in Zimbabwe, capital punishment in Cuba, FARC in Colombia, Islamic genocide in Algeria and Sudan, domestic violence, the rights of the disabled, Fathers for Justice, testicular cancer and so on.

As usual with extremists adhering rigidly to a principle, indymedia has a real problem extending the principle it to others.

Read it all and ask (as I already have) whether anything has changed.

Witness the experience of Irish Independent newspaper reporter Justine McCarthy who visited the Irish Indymedia Centre in 2004. Has anything changed?

Having received a telephone call over a week ago from a Dublin grassroots member named Ciaran, inviting me to visit the Indymedia Centre, I rang the organisation's best-known spokesperson, UCD sociology lecturer Aileen O'Carroll, last Thursday afternoon to double-check that it was permissible for me to go there. She said it was fine, told me it would be open at 5.30 and gave me directions to it.

When I arrived, there were two young Irish people manning a table at the entrance, giving information to visitors and taking their admission fees. I told them I was from the Irish Independent and handed over the two euro. As I was filling in a 'membership' form, a middle-aged couple who seemed to be either German or Dutch were also paying their admission. At the same time, a group of four or five younger people, who looked and spoke Spanish, showed their membership wristbands and went inside.

I entered after them and began reading articles on the wall taken from the Indymedia website. As I read, a young man with a haversack came to the desk. I heard him say he had arrived from Greece and this was his first time in Ireland.

Among the literature papering the walls were website denouncements of the mainstream media, alongside posters condemning "Fortress Europe". I took out my notebook and transcribed the headline from a poster calling for a no vote in "McDowell's racist referendum". I moved on to the next poster, bearing the distinctive W-enclosed-in-an-O symbol of the London-based WOMBLES, the group identified by gardai as posing the most significant threat among the protesters.

I was writing their slogan, "Resistance is Existence" in my notebook when I heard a male Cockney voice ask, "Where are you from?" I turned around and saw that between eight and 10 men and women had formed a semi-circle behind me. I said I was from the Irish Independent.

"Fuck off," spat a tall man, standing intimidatingly close to me. "Fuck off from here." Then other voices, all English, joined him, repeating: "Fuck off." Before I could reply, a small man wearing a black hoodie darted around to my right-hand side and grabbed the notebook out of my hand. He proceeded to prance around the warehouse ripping the pages of notes out of it, tearing them and scattering them on the floor.

I followed him, asking him to give me back my notebook, but found I could not get near him as the other people had insinuated themselves between him and me. They were glaring at me with utter hatred while the small man continued his macabre dance around the room with the notebook.
...
Only when all my notes had been torn out, did the man in the hoodie thrust the notebook back at me. While the two Irish people were apologising and giving me a contact mobile number so I could try to retrieve the notes later on (to no avail), a woman came over and demanded I leave. She too spoke with a strong English accent. The other people stood beside and behind her as she spoke.

She said she had never known "corporate media" to be allowed into any Indymedia centre she had been in, anywhere in the world. "As soon as she took out her notebook and started doing her business, she was corporate media," the woman said. "Being paid to tell her lies."

The aggression in the room was frightening. I have covered paramilitary funerals and street riots in Northern Ireland, been caught in crossfire in Lebanon and seen a colleague being shot at in Somalia, but I have never felt as vulnerable as I did in Dublin on Thursday.

I feared for my own safety and for the two Irish people who were the only ones prepared to stand up for me. At that point I said I would leave, and I went.

Three hours later, I saw Aileen O'Carroll on Prime Time complaining about the Garda operation and claiming that the anarchists were peaceful. I telephoned her yesterday morning and asked if she had heard what happened when I visited the centre.

"Yeah, yeah, I did," she replied. "That was dreadful. Actually I felt very bad about it."

I asked if her she knew who the people were who had intimidated me and stolen my notes.

"I haven't a clue who they were," she said. "Our organisation isn't involved in organising that space. All we can do is state our intention to have a peaceful protest."

As always...

Ireland Indymedia's discussion of the incident here. Not exactly contrite...

The International Solidarity Movement has for a long time used Indymedia as a publicity source. Here is the latest example via Chicago Indymedia. I have tended to overlook it as there are enough Israeli/Palestinian blogs without adding this one. Reading the article for a change however prompts me to ask some questions which perhaps someone can answer in a comment or via email (see left sidebar).

Firstly, the group is called "International Solidarity Movement" yet their domain, pasolidarity.org suggests a rather one sided approach to "international". I'll come back to that thought.

Secondly, the article gives a biography of one of the ISM members arrested in the protest the report covers.

Nathan Stuckey grew up as one of nine children in rural Cumberland County (Illinois) near the town of Montrose. After graduating from the University of Chicago in 1998, he accepted a position at the Chicago Board of Options Exchange where he has worked for the past five years. He became involved in the issue of Palestine after starting to read about the Middle East in the wake of the "911" tragedy.

Question: Why the scare quotes around 911? Not convinced?

Coming back to the agenda of this organization, I note last week's various news reports that the Palestinian Authority plans to demolish Jewish homes. My question to the so-called "International" solidarity movement is whether they will be joining arms and standing in front of the bulldozers in a similar manner to the protests they undertook when Israel tried to destroy homes used by terrorists.

In any case, a photo of one of the ISM members up a tree has prompted me to host my first caption contest just because everyone else seems to. Multiple entries are welcome via the comments. First prize a cheque for $100*



*Cheques will not be honored.

Another non-violent protest in LA.

The protest was peaceful and non-violent until the police rushed the crowd and arrested people for no reason.

Read that again... "non-violent until".

Until...It became violent. Like so many other "non-violent" protests.

A later article reveals:

One protestor who received among the highest charges was arrested for "assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon" (felony count), and is stil in detainment. The deadly weapon the charges are presumably accusing him / them of are flying water bottles that came randomly out of a crowd, and certain individual(s) were profiled based on where they were standing or who knows what criteria as being the potneital "water bottle throwers", even though the accused(s) did not have any possession of any bottles thru-out the night.

Here's a hint, part of being "non-violent" includes not throwing things at anyone, including police.

In other shocking developments,

ONE OF THE ARRESTEES WAS IN A WHEEL CHAIR. (NO, It wasn't even a power-motor'ed chair). Clearly, a chicano in a wheel chair with a heart full of passion is far too great a threat for the pinche policia to allow to roll free on our streets.

You mean people in wheelchairs are incapable of being criminals?

Such discrimination on Indymedia...

Philadelphia Indymedia is running a piece entitled Googling for Fun Can Be Depressing. The gist of it is that the mainstream media simply can't be trusted. There is of course considerable truth in that assertion and it's interesting reading. It claims however:

The alternative media in the U.S.--both print and internet-based--have played a critical role in forcing what amounts to our "government-run" media--CNN, Fox, NY Times, Washington Post, CBS, ABC, NBC, etc.--to report honestly.

Which "alternative media"? I do hope the author wasn't including Philadelphia Indymedia in that "critical role". Not when several inches up the newswire is: Evidence 911 inside job with Mossad help, link to Oklahoma bombing, and Congress is passing Noahide.

Ahh... More "evidence".

There are some other interesting links to the Israel Mossad complicity and high Talmudic US Zionist officials in carrying out the 911 attack

Viewing Indymedia is as such far more depressing than Google! Speaking of which, would the people who keep coming to this site via Google searches for "Scrotal inflation" please die already. The person who came here via a search for "Vialls madman" is however quite welcome.

Seattle Indymedia has completely lost it and is promoting a "volunteer project for a musical play about 911 and proved conspiracies".

"Steal this Play"
www.911musical.blogspot.com/
A public domain, volunteer project to create a musical play about 911 and other proved conspiracies. These include VoteScam, Chemtrails, 911 and Prescott Bush's finacing of Hitler.

Contributed material and web support is needed to complete the project. That includes a musical score. The project may succeed in creating large scale public awareness. The project is in the tradition of "Hair", which fostered widespread VietNam anti-war awareness.
...
Present song ideas include: "Cooking the Vote", "Divest My Best Investment (Prescott Bush and Hitler)" "Towers Down, Stocks Up". "Mohamed Atta Lap Dances Song."

There is no shortage of material to complete the project. The "magic bullet" logic of the official 911 Commission Report is virtual comedy. The popular David Ray Griffith Ann Arbor video provides inspiration for more material.

Can't wait for the reviews...

Zionist Jewish Terror, Zionist Violence, Zionist Perversion, Zionist Criminality, Zionist Gangsterism, Zionist Gang/Terror Stalking, Zionist Thought Police, Zionist Control of "Crime" (Law) Enforcement, Zionist Control (Monopoly) of Media, and other Zionazism in the Pittsburgh Region.

Got that? Good.

Thanks Pittsburgh Indymedia.

What better way, according to NYC Indymedia, to celebrate the 4th of July than burning the flag?

This July 4th is Flag Burning Day!

Every summer good Americans don their best red white and blue, and gorge themselves on beer and hotdogs to celebrate our independence from England, but from its very beginnings this country has been built on illegitimacies.
...
So on this Fourth of July we call on you to express your feelings on their “Independence Day” by burning a flag in a nationally coordinated action. Together we will show the elite that we are everywhere and that we completely reject the false principals this holiday is based on.

Please spread this message far and wide. Stay tuned to the regular channels for more information. To endorse this call, help organize or just speak your mind, check out the listserv:
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/flagburningday

I'm not going to buy into the whole debate about burning flags. What I will say however, is some people take for granted far too much, their right to do certain things without getting shot.

I wonder if Burn the Flag day will be as popular as Freeze the Media day? It's just as intelligent...

Update: Thanks to Michelle Malkin's story, Beware of Moonbats with Matches I have been getting links from all sorts of sites from across the political spectrum. I know this from my referrer logs. Had I relied on Trackback, I never would have known... A selection of (ahem) interesting comments below:

1: OK let me get this down.............I can't flush the Quran but its OK for someone to burn my country's flag.
...
2:Flag burning is not an expression of free speech it is an example of destructive behavior that I would say is more damaging to me personally than a prayer at a high school football game is to an atheist. These people make me sick.
...
3:This 4th of July is Punch-a-Flag-Burner Day.
...
4: "Got a light?"
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5:Malkin muses: “Wonder which museum will be displaying the desecrated flags as art?” (Answer: The Louvre).

Finally, a couple of comments from the discussion on NYC Indymedia:

actually, if you wanna make a point, and "Burning a Flag a Day Keeps the Oppressor Away" (thanks for making that easy! lol) mentioned it semi-jokingly, carry the flags of MANY oppressive nations around the world. That way you demonstrate to the world what anarchism is: anti-state, not necessarily anti-america. Yes, the U.S. Empire is the most dangerous and criminal of them all, but people who still think of anarchism as dark, nefarious, underworld-type phenomena must be shown the Light when it comes to who we are and what we are representing.

Do you see the light?

gee, this is really going to win the hearts and minds of those "patriots". Why not do something more constructive than piss a bunch a sheep off?

Patriotic sheep... Your move.

Update 2: Via the comments, James Royal has really missed the point and attacked me for promoting this. Err James, I am not Indymedia. Time for Seppuku...

Update 3: Flip has contacted the New York Fire Department and can confirm that lighting fires in a public place may be illegal. Not the same as anti-flag burning laws some would endorse, however it seems they would nonetheless render flag burners in breach of the law (in addition to being just plain dumb).

Someone posted a comment on my recent post about Sydney Indymedia's latest offensive piece on women which says:

There are times I suspect you just don't like australians.

Actually, no. I love Australians as do most of the (free) world. What I do not approve of, is Australian Indymedia. There is of course a difference unless you can prove that Aussie Indymedia is representative of anything down-under other than lunatics and radicals. The evidence I have provided here on numerous occasions would suggest otherwise.

I have looked over my various entries (and my favourites, see link on the left sidebar) and can see Sydney (and to a marginally lesser extent Melbourne) got quite a bit of my attention. There are two reasons for this. One, the content on those sites simply deserved it. Certainly, Sydney is screwed (as someone so eloquently put it here).

Secondly, I tend to keep returning to some Indymedia sites as I find something on one of them and keep watching it to see 'what happens' to it. The downside is I probably focus on some sites and consequently miss a lot of stuff on other IMC sites although some of my readers do send me tip-offs which I invariably explore. Whilst there are numerous Indymedia sites, and it is difficult (excruciating?) to watch all of them, much of the material is repeated verbatim on each site. So it doesn't ultimately matter if it's Vancouver, Sydney, Buffalo, New York or Russia, someone is writing precisely the same crap about the same people and ignoring real issues where something like Indymedia could make a difference if its leadership weren't so irresponsible (or just plain nasty).

Here however (courtesy of Melbourne Indymedia) is someone who does actually hate Australia and is suggesting a boycott of it. What? No Fosters Beer? No Russell Crowe? Surely there are places more deserving of a boycott. (Cue tumbleweed)....

According to North Texas Indymedia: The truth about 9/11 is slowly making it's way out from the Internet.

An extremely brave and intelligent University Professor named Dr. David Ray Griffin has written a book that is full of irrefutable facts about the 9/11 attacks that will stun people who have not been getting their news from non main stream sources.

Read it all and stay tuned for part 2, the truth about green men is slowly making it's (sic) way out from the Internet...

Irrefutable!

DC Indymedia kicks off this week with: MY PET GOAT: Lancing the Neo Con Coverup.

My Pet Goat of course refers to the totally discredited title of the book George W. Bush was allegedly reading to a class of schoolchildren when notified of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The title was used by Mike Moore and others to cast typical aspersions on the President's intelligence. My thoughts on the matter? He became the President of the most powerful country on earth. I wish I were that "stupid"! But I digress...

I raise this, because the article on Indymedia is flawed literally right from the first words. Of course it gets 'better'...

Spending on the Columbia shuttle accident: $50 Million. Eight People Died.

Spending on the 911 Commission:$ 14 Million. Three Thousand People Died.

Asks Lance: Where are the priorities?

Uh Lance, no one knew why the Columbia space shuttle exploded. Everybody knew why the Twin-Towers collapsed. The priorities were preventing a repeat attack, which like it or not, has been the case so far.

According to respected journalist Peter Lance, the plot was hatched two years earlier, in the mind of Ramzi Yousef, who has mysterious and suggestive links to Timothy McVeigh.

Timothy McVeigh is said to have traveled to the Phillipines, as did the 911-linked Ramzi Yousef. Did Yousef help McVeigh with the Oklahoma City bombing?

Now, I know what you are thinking. Sounds like a conspiracy theory, right?

No!

Well...even paranoids have real enemies. And there has been a web of conspiracies, with the common thread being the sweeping of failures of the Bush administration right under the rug.

Paranoids may have enemies, but I suspect you have enemies who you have failed to identify in your quest to Blame Bush.

I'll give you a hint: O__m_ b_n_ La__n.

Tired of merely offending Jews, Americans, democratically elected leaders and democracies in general, Sydney Indymedia is now offending all women as well.

Read the comments and watch how it degenerates from childish humor to radical conspiracy theories in a matter of minutes.

Seattle Indymedia's front page is featuring Extreme Views ... Rarely Shown.

Try to follow the logic:

Most in Israel and Palestine seek a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict there. But, there are some extreme and powerful forces with different ideas. We often hear about the so-called “terrorists” in the region but how often do we associate that term with Jewish settlers who are violent?

So-called terrorists? You mean the ones who carry so-called explosives onto so-called schoolbuses and deliberately murder so-called children? Or the so-called gunmen who shoot so-called pregnant women?

There may be a good reason you don't hear as much about "Jewish settlers who are violent" in much the same way you don't hear about militant vegetarians who are violent, environmentalists who are violent or anti-abortionists who are violent. That is, they are such a statistical minority they are insignificant. Compare Israeli and Arab television for a primer in who's inciting whom.

And here in the US, we hear much about the powerful “Jewish lobby” supposedly responsible for our policy there. But, how often to we talk about the Christian Zionists and the influence of the religious right on Middle East policy?

Excuse me, the only reason we "hear much about the powerful "Jewish lobby" is because of antisemitic conspiracy outlets such as Seattle Indymedia. Perhaps you are hanging around the wrong people?

Finally, in promoting their film on the subject:

We regret that this provocative program falls within the Jewish holiday of Passover. We know that many folks will be celebrating Seders with friends and family.

I'm sure they're just kicking themselves that no Jews will attend. My heart bleeds...

BC Indymedia, the replacement for the awful Vancouver Indymedia is running publicitty for Al-Manar Television.

Al-Manar is the Lebanese TV outlet of Hezbollah and has been placed on the list of terrorist organizations by the U.S and several other countries.

Rusty Shackleford observed some time ago that:

The French-based media group, Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders), has condemned the U.S. actions by stating that al-Manar doesn't broadcast terrorist propaganda all the time, sometimes they do news reporting.

Uh huh. And I'm sure Osama bin Laden doesn't like to blow people up all the time and sometimes likes to play backgammon.

Anyway, according to BC Indymedia:

Since it's removal from the airwaves - most notably those airwaves serving America and Europe, the singular voice of sanity and truth, amidst the lies and misdirection of the mass media was silenced ... or so it was thought.

Indeed. Terrorists organizations can always count on Indymedia for support.

al-Manar Television is an important resouce, not just for the Lebonese, Arabs or Muslims, but for all people who are striving to find and obtain the Truth, their programming is well presented, extremely well researched, and always as unbiased and fair as is humanly possible.

Just like Indymedia...

Via MEMRI comes but a few examples of precisely why Al-Manar and its message has no place in society:

• Hizbullah Leader Hassan Nasrallah: Death to America.
• Mothers of Hizbullah "Martyrs": We Are Very Happy And Want to Sacrifice More Children
• Deputy Leader of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt: 'a nation that does not excel at the industry of death does not deserve life.'

And just in case you want to argue that they're not terrorists, they seem pretty comfortable with the idea:
Hizbullah's Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah: We Would Rather Remain a "Terrorist Organization" Than Lay Down Our Arms

I'm sure that since this material is interspersed with sports news and music clips, it's okay by Reporters Sans Frontieres. It sure isn't with me!

This is not the first time Indymedia has shilled for terrorists. I previously reported on Indymedia serving as a propaganda outlet for Hezbollah. Read it and see just how "unbiased and fair" they were.

Danbbury CT Indymedia is outraged that Anarchist David Graeber is to be fired by Yale

Anarchist David Graeber has apparently been fired from his position as associate professor at Yale University for his political beliefs (actually for some made-up, bullshit reasons but I think its pretty clear that the Yale power structure is uncomfortable with having a young, passionate anarchist in their anthro department).

Assuming it is because of his "passionate activist" beliefs (and no counterpoint - the other side of the story is presented ) why might Yale be "uncomfortable"? A sample of his work:

In the corporate media, the word ‘violent’ is invoked as a kind of mantra—invariably, repeatedly—whenever a large action takes place: ‘violent protests’, ‘violent clashes’, ‘police raid headquarters of violent protesters’, even ‘violent riots’ (there are other kinds?). Such expressions are typically invoked when a simple, plain-English description of what took place (people throwing paint-bombs, breaking windows of empty storefronts, holding hands as they blockaded intersections, cops beating them with sticks) might give the impression that the only truly violent parties were the police. The US media is probably the biggest offender here—and this despite the fact that, after two years of increasingly militant direct action, it is still impossible to produce a single example of anyone to whom a US activist has caused physical injury.

Does that include Police?

Would a student paper be accepted if it made such a claim without evidence to back it up?

There might be other reasons Yale isn't impressed... I for one am concerned at the trend towards "increasingly militant direct action".

Moreover, in most of the Indymedia reports on bystanders being injured at protests, they were usually caught in the crossfire. This is held up as examples of police brutality, but begs the question at what point "activists" are responsible for obeying the law.

Innocents caught in the crossfire between Police and terrorists militants combatants activists using them as human shields is an old problem.

Ottawa Independent Media Center is promoting a new magazine, Defiance Not Compliance. What is it?

Defiance Not Compliance is a local Ottawa zine aimed at bringing an anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian analysis to local events and struggles. Every issue of the zine has a theme. Defiance Not Compliance is published by Anti-capitalist Community Action (ACA).

Just thought you should know.

My referrer logs show I have been linked to (again) by Faruque Ahmed.

Perusing Sydney Indymedia allowed me to come across this audio file:

Forbidden Knowledge

"Jeeze"

The most powerful broadcast ever recorded in the history of Humanity.

Also known as: 9/11 conspiracy theories recorded in audio by an apparently stoned lunatic for the benefit of people who can't read...

Today, is Freeze the Media Day.

Please ignore it.

Whilst it's a welcome break from the usual antisemitism cheerfully hosted on Sydney Indymedia, a current article is a textbook case of anti-Police propaganda and appears to be libellous as well.

The article is entitled: "Armed Gang Distrupts [sic] Sydney May Day" and says:

Bored gang-members were seen hanging around at the outskirts of the May Day demonstration yesterday. They were dressed in paramilitary apparel, displaying their "gang colours", possibly waiting for the demonstration to become radical, or violent so they could participate in militant "clashes".

Ha ha, how witty calling Police an armed gang.

One commenter writes:

A good joke, except I expect very true.

Oh really? According to the next paragraph:

A homeless man was quietly passing by the May Day demonstration when the gang members began to intimidate him. He was pushed to the ground. The gang members stood around him, holding him down on when he tried to get up.

No obvious irony or sarcasm was intended here, given the attached photograph, reproduced below.



Another comment observes:

The photograph provides little context.

I see three cops on the right hand side standing around, not even paying attention to the other two.

Were the other two involved in a scuffle, would-be arrest or any other form of tactical engagement, I doubt their colleagues (or the chick with the flag on the left-hand side) would be looking in the other direction.

It looks to me like there was a guy passed out on the pavement and the Police tapped him on the back. Pretty reasonable.

It certainly doesn't appear as though they are "holding him down" as claimed.

"Pretty reasonable" indeed, not that this could be expected of an Indymedia report on the Police of course.

A further comment in case there was any doubt:

Another of the three photos originally published shows the "boys in blue" in a more sympathetic light. http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54872&group=internal


maybe we shouldn't use the features page for cheap jibes (and gross generalisations are not great journalism).

You don't say?

Finally:

Turn your brains on before posting such childish bullshit, and even more so before making it a FEATURE!!!

Homeless people do indeed gat intimidated and harassed, so this mock piece comes at THEIR expense, not the cops. And the cops can use it now to "demonstrate" that the anti-authoritarian left are lunatics.

I am sure any such "demonstrations" will have little problem sourcing evidence...

I have no doubt an apology to the officers in question will be forthcoming.

The New York Times piece, Laura Bush Talks Naughty discusses the First Lady's Spring Dinner stand-up comedy routine.

On Saturday night, Laura Bush set a new standard. After interrupting her husband and telling him to sit down, she did a stand-up routine that included what was probably the first joke told in earshot of a president that involved him and a horse's phallus.

Mrs. Bush called her husband Mr. Excitement for going to bed by 9 o'clock and turning her into a "desperate housewife."
...
Noting that Andover and Yale did not have "real strong ranching programs," she said Mr. Bush had started his ranching career by trying to milk a horse - a male horse.

Her timing had the audience howling, and the edgier lines had them gasping. Jokes about pent-up sexual frustration from a prim librarian? With her born-again husband sitting there and enjoying it? And cameras recording it for Republican preachers who are determined to get sex out of schools and off television?

For the mainly Democratic audience - this was a crowd of Washington journalists and luminaries from Hollywood and Manhattan - it was an evening of cognitive dissonance. How to reconcile this charming image on stage with the Bush they love to bash?

An article on Melbourne Indymedia (That's Melbourne, Australia funnily enough) appears to be having the same difficulty.

You thought you had heard it all from the Bushes. As young Americans die and kill in Iraq, the First "Lady" does a standup comedy routine before all the bigwigs in Washington and to the national and world press, joking that her husband, America's Protector, has Portnoy's Complaint, going to bed early and leaving her a Desperate Housewife. Did that leave "Lady" Laura to practice animal housewifery? Tell us about yourself, too, Laura. Show us your Lyndie England routine.

The NYT says:

Mrs. Bush's performance, and her husband's reaction, wasn't a shock to the reporters who cover the White House. For years they have tried to convince their friends outside Washington that Mr. Bush is actually not a close-minded dolt, and Mrs. Bush is no Stepford Wife or Church Lady. Yes, they're Texans who go to church and preach family values, but they're not yahoos or religious zealots.

The coverage of Mrs. Bush's comic debut may change some minds, but for devout Bush-bashers, it's much easier to stay the course.

Indymedia proves it, and shows that some people really don't have a sense of humour either:

File your FCC complaint against Laura Bush...

If man on animal sex (horse masturbation) jokes on a public CSPAN broadcast aren't indecency, what is?

(UPDATE) It has been pointed out to me that the FCC might not cover this because CSPAN is a cable channel. So be sure and include in your complaints that the FCC should expand its mandate to cover these types of outrages whether they are on broadcast OR cable TV. (END OF UPDATE).

Here is where to find out information about how to make a complaint.

Maybe we should be alerting the American Family Association (AFA) for their aid in fighting this case of broadcast obscenity?...

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

Maybe you should just lighten up?

According to DC Indymedia, "(Our) Leaders Planned.....Attacks of 9/11" according to an "extremely brave and intelligent University Professor named Dr. David Ray Griffin".

As with all such conspiracy theories, it is (according to the writer):

very well thought out and is irrefutable.

Irrefutable?

Excuse me for a moment....



Thank you. I feel better now.

Looking further into the piece, allowed me to come across this group, the "Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth" who, according to their website:

s a group of scholars, religious leaders and activists dedicated to uniting members of the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths in pursuit of 9/11 truth

And who are some of these "scholars and religious leaders"? Google has been most helpful. One, Israel Shamir, described on the site as "Russian-Israeli intellectual, writer, translator and journalist" and the token Jew on the list, is described elsewhere as an antisemite. Off to a good start it seems.

Another, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology at the Pacific School of Religion, has written various papers including Why It is Imperative to Defeat George W. Bush.

The list goes on...

The site introduces itself stating:

Getting Muslims, Jews and Christians to unite on anything except blowing each other up is getting harder and harder these days. Getting them to unite and courageously stand together demanding 9/11 truth is both astonishing and inspiring. After all, whether you think Ousama Bin Laden or Ousama Bin Cheney did it

I wonder what the two gentlemen in question think...

the whole point of the 9/11 atrocity was to set Muslims, Jews and Christians at each others' throats.

Was it? Or was it simply to kill Americans. And speaking of throats, people are getting their throats slit by terrorists. What's the "whole point" of that activity, and why is it impossible for some people to accept that there are other people in this world who are actually bad, and aren't named George?

I am all in favour of peaceful religious co-existence, however this is simply not the basis on which to achieve it, and these are certainly not the people who should be driving it. Sorry.

Via Yahoo News comes a report that Italy Indymedia featured:

Pope Benedict XVI dressed in a Nazi uniform [and] was told to suspend its activities on Wednesday for offending the Roman Catholic religion, court officials said.

Rome prosecutors accuse the Indymedia Italia site, which is part of a network of alternative media websites, of causing offense to the Catholic religion by publishing the photo montage alongside the caption "Nazi pope".

Under Italian law, the offense is punishable by up to one year in jail.

The website, which is registered under the name of a Brazilian-based company, Indipendent Media Center, was still online Wednesday evening and showing the controversial image despite the court ruling.

Italy's largest press union, FNSI, slammed the decision as an "unacceptable attack on critical and satirical freedom".

"Indymedia publishes without any form of censorship any kind of electronic message -- that is the basis of its editorial policy," said the FNSI's secretary general, Paolo Serventi Longhi.

"I do not agree with the message's content, in fact I find it very serious, but press freedom cannot be called into question," he added.

Agriculture Minister Gianni Alemanno, a member of the conservative National Alliance, hailed the decision to ban the site, arguing that Indymedia Italia had "reached a pinnacle of offensiveness and vulgarity".

Why would anyone think that?

This has turned into a front-page Italy Indymedia discussion on freedom of speech. This is despite the obviously hateful (or simply unintelligent and childish) nature of the material as reported.

Here it is. "Critical and satirical"? Give me a break.

I wonder how many Italy Indymedia readers would claim they'd defend to the death someone's right to post such crap however condemn daily, soldiers who actually do defend such rights against real problems.

My previous thoughts on the Pope and Nazis here. Leave the guy alone!

Whilst on the topic of DC Nazis, don't you just love it when Nazi groups attempt to manipulate the left-wing anti-war agenda by suggesting the war on Iraq (like everything else really) was all just a grand Jewish plot?

In short, the benefits derived by the United States from its Middle East military adventure are highly questionable;

You're right. Bring back Saddam.

but that is easily understood if one recognizes that the policy the Bush II administration has pursued did not originate as one to benefit the interests of the United States but rather to benefit those of Israel, as those interests have been perceived by the Israeli Right.

Naturally Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with it. In fact those who spent hard-time in Abu Ghraib (before it became famous for what the Americans did) or watched their families killed are no doubt cursing the lack of benefits. And by the way, how does this sit with the other widespread theory that this was really all about US oil interests. Which is it?

Umm... Yes. Well.

While the neoconservatives were the driving force behind the American invasion of Iraq and the consequent efforts to bring about regime change throughout the Middle East, the idea for such a war did not originate with American neocon thinkers but rather in Israel. An obvious linkage exists between the war position of the neocons and what has long been a strategy of the Israeli Right and, to a lesser extent, of the Israeli mainstream.

Oh I'm sorry, I thought the neocons were Jews. At least they were according to other articles by the same author. This gets interesting:

The idea of a Middle East war had been bandied about in Israel for many years as a means of enhancing Israeli security.

The idea of peace in the Middle East however, has been bandied about for far longer as a means of enhancing Israeli security. Unfortunately, 'certain troublesome things' like hateful incitement keep getting in the way.
It continues:

War would serve two purposes. It would enhance Israel's external security by weakening and splintering Israel's neighbors. Moreover, such a war and the consequent weakening of Israel's external enemies could help resolve the internal Palestinian demographic problem, since the Palestinian resistance has derived material and moral support from Israel's neighboring states.

The Palestinians got no material supportfrom neighbouring states whatsoever. In fact, it was the total lack of support from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria which has caused the Palestinians much of their problems since 1948 when Israel wasn't destroyed in the Arab invasion and this messed up all their forecasts. Not one Arab state subsequently offered to accept the Palestinians at that time, preferring to keep them stranded in camps as pawns against Israel. The only thing Palestinians and neighbouring states have ever had in common was hatred of Israel. That does not however translate to actual support for each other.

The article of course does not translate to anything more than antisemitic conspiracy theories about Israeli control over the US Government which of course can happily co-exist with equivalent theories about Rightwing Christian control and Saudi Control. It's all okay for Indymedia. I am so unimpressed yet so unsurprised.