Action Point with Cynthia Black 01-13-2008 The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• ENTERTAINMENT: Tom Hanks Tells Hollywood Whopper in 'Charlie Wilson's War':

  Charlie Wilson's War purports to be the true story of a hard-partying U.S. congressman from Texas who engineered the defeat of the Soviet Union by the Afghan Mujahiddin. Now there are true stories, and there are true-ish stories. It is a given that, in creating a film narrative, sometimes the truth gets a little bent, but it's against the rules to change facts that change the outcome of history. When telling the story of Antony and Cleopatra, they gotta die at the end, n'est-ce pas? It's inappropriate, for example, to tell the story of World War II and pretend that, because the United States might have given a box of guns to the French Underground, there was no Holocaust. That's a pretty good analogy for what's been done in Charlie Wilson's War.

• ELECTION INTEGRITY: We need to eliminate secret vote counting, not a recount:

  It's pretty easy to see what happened in New Hampshire: We had an election in which 81% of our ballots were counted in secret by a private corporation, and this resulted in an outcome that is called into question. That's what happened. No recount is going to change this. What will change this is to get rid of corporate controlled secret vote counting in our elections.

  And, What's Sexist and What's Fair Game When It Comes to Hillary Clinton?

  I decided to give some somewhat random examples in my own mind of the difference between inappropriate standard white-male chauvinism and actual candidate "fair game" issues.

• THE ANDREW MYERS FILE (UPDATES FROM A POST 9-11 WORLD): At Taser party, it's shock and awe:

  Before she lets them shoot her little pink stun gun, Dana Shafman ushers her new friends to the living room sofa for a serious chat about the fears she believes they all share. "The worst nightmare for me is, while I'm sleeping, someone coming in my home," Shafman said, drawing a few solemn nods from the gathered women. Shafman, 34, of Phoenix, says she knows how they feel and tells how she used to stash knives under her pillow for protection. Welcome, she says, to the Taser party.

• Campaign 2008: U.S. corporate elite fear candidate Edwards:

  Edwards suffered a blow on Thursday when Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry snubbed him and endorsed Obama. Edwards was Kerry's vice-presidential running mate in Kerry's failed Democratic bid for the White House in 2004. BUSINESS'S FAVORITE UNCLEAR: Asked which candidate their clients most support, corporate lobbyists were unsure. Clinton has cautious backing within the corporate jet set, as do Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain and former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, they said.

• ENVIRONMENT: Green At Work Magazine Premier Corporate Sustainability Publication: The latest green business website I've discovered.

• MUST READ: Stay Classy, Mike Huckabee: another excellent piece from David Sirota:

  "The uncool subject is class," author Bell Hooks once wrote. "It's the subject that makes us all tense." What an understatement, considering the two leading "change" candidates in the latest presidential polls.

• "I Just Want to Tear Out My Hair" Darfur peacekeeping set back by 6 months: If only Darfur had strategic oil reserves.

  U.N. peacekeeping forces lack the troops and equipment necessary to improve the situation in violence-wracked Darfur and will continue to be ineffective until mid-2008, the U.N. peacekeeping chief cautioned Wednesday.

• INTERNATIONAL: Voices on Recording May Not Have Been From Iranian Speedboats:

  The Iranians have denied using the threatening language and are saying U.S.-released video is fabricated. Today, the Iranian government aired its own video of the event on state-run TV there.

• NO COMMENT: Suspicious Minds, How a ragtag group of conspiracy nuts is changing public perception of 9/11.

• Personal Safety Alert: World's Top Surveillance Societies:

  Experienced air traffic controllers are retiring faster this year than the government projected and their union said Wednesday the remaining veterans can no longer safely handle peak volumes in Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Southern California.

Action Point with Cynthia Black 11-11-2007: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• From the Mukasey File: The religious right hated him but he was Giuliani's BFF. Senators clashed with him on torture, but still he was confirmed. I tried to spread the truth. Oh well.

• MUST READ: In Iowa Speech, Edwards Demands Answers From Clinton On NAFTA Expansion and Taking On the Right's Local Machine & Fighting Against the Class War: another excellent piece from David Sirota:

This week, I participated in a televised debate against the ColoradoHouse Republican Whip, moderated by the president of the Independence Institute (Colorado's local version of the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation). The debate was aired statewide on PBS here, and it shows how our states and local communities - not just Washington, D.C. - are often the most important frontlines in both the Great American Class War and the battle against the extreme right.

• Framing the Debate: Media Derelict On Damning Giuliani Scoop: from Jeffrey Feldman, considers how to get past Giuliani's 'Strong on Terrorism' frame.

• Update to The Andrew Meyers File: Police over-reactions supported in a post 911 World: ACCIDENTAL HANGING: Medical Examiner Ann Bucholtz's autopsy of Carol Anne Gotbaum finally released.

• Speaking of Torture: This NY Times piece was forwarded to me via email (note the date): Liberties; President Frat Boy? By MAUREEN DOWD

We've all been exhausted by the faux culture wars of the Clinton era.

--SNIP

The leader of the frat pack is Mr. Bush, who made his debut in The New York Times in 1967 in a story about ''frat-branding'' at Delta Kappa Epsilon, the Yale fraternity of which he was once president.

SNIP--

Frat prankster George told Mr. Weisman that he was amazed that anyone was making a fuss about the branding, that at colleges in Texas they used cattle prods on pledges. There's something that doesn't compute about branding irons and Yale. If there did have to be branding, shouldn't it have been less Animal House and something more discreetly WASPy, like the logos for J. Press or Topsiders?

Later, in a newspaper interview, W. explained away the incident, saying, ''There's no scarring mark physically or mentally.''

SNIP--

At the 30th reunion of the Yale class of '68 last year, there was disappointment that Mr. Bush did not show up and excitement about his plans to run for President. But his buddies were quick to assure everyone, ''George has really changed a lot since Yale.''

Presumably, if frat-branding becomes an issue in his campaign, Mr. Bush will be able to spin the incident by saying that it proves, even better than pork rinds, that he is a true Texan.

Oh, had we known then what we know now...