Bohemian Mama

Disney, Mr Eisner said, had simply decided that it "did not want a film in the middle of the political process when we're such a non-partisan company".

Worse, it’s called “America’s Heart and Soul.”

“Entertainment movie giant Walt Disney Corp, which last month refused to release the politically explosive “Fahrenheit 9/11,” is unveiling a “patriotic” film this week that supporters say could act as a counter-balance Michael Moore’s hit film.

While Disney insists that the release of the rousing film “America’s Heart and Soul” on Friday is unconnected with Moore’s documentary, branded by his critics as “anti-American,” conservative groups that oppose Moore film say Disney’s new release makes them proud to be American.

“This unusual film was inspirational,” said Howard Kaloogian, chairman of Move America Forward, which has spearheaded a boycott campaign of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” after attending a special screening of the film Monday.

…Disney executives said that the release of the new film on Friday – a week after the release of “Fahrenheit” – was simply co-incidental. Releasing the film now “had nothing to do with ‘Fahrenheit 9/11? and there is no link at all between the two movies,” said a Disney spokewoman.

The move -- involving the seldom-tapped Individual Ready Reserve -- represents the latest evidence of the strain being placed on the U.S. military, particularly the Army, by operations in those two countries.

Roughly 5,600 soldiers from the ready reserve will be notified of possible deployment this year, including some soldiers who will be notified within a month, said an Army official speaking on condition of anonymity.

[...]

"Sometimes there's a misperception by some of the individuals ... that 'I've done my obligation, I've been in the Army, thank you very much, and I'm done'. But you're not done," the official said.

The Pentagon had originally planned to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq to approximately 110,000 by now, but continuing security problems compelled officials to maintain a level of about 138,000 troops. Officials have said they planned to maintain that number through the end of 2005.

The FEC ruling may also affect promotion of a slew of other upcoming political documentaries and films, such as “Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War,” which opens in August, “The Corporation,” about democratic institutions being subsumed by the corporate agenda, or “Silver City,” a recently finished film by John Sayles that criticizes the Bush administration.

Another film, “The Hunting of the President,” which investigates whether Bill Clinton was the victim of a vast conspiracy, could be subject to regulations if it mentions Bush or members of Congress in its ads.

Since the FEC considers the Republican presidential convention scheduled to begin Aug. 30 a national political primary in which Bush is a candidate, Moore and other politically oriented filmmakers could not air any ad mentioning Bush after July 30.

The president is not above the law, Kennedy wrote, but there is a "paramount necessity of protecting the executive branch from vexatious litigation that might distract it from the energetic performance of its constitutional duties."

He said "special considerations applicable to the president and the vice president suggest that the courts should be sensitive to requests by the government" in such special appeals.

A December report from an SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] task force complained that some alliance participants had questioned ``the truthfulness of Holy Scripture,'' refused to affirm the necessity of conscious faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and promoted ``women as preachers and pastors.''

One text, submitted to the committee by two prominent hard-liners, would encourage Southern Baptists to remove their children from ``officially Godless'' public schools in favor of Christian day schools or home schooling.

The night before mother left me, (as I was to be kept in hand by the old Mistress for especial use) she, Mother, came up to my little room I Slept in the "white people's house" and laid down on my bed by me and begged me for her own Sake, try and be a good boy, Say my prayers every night, remember all she had tried to teach me, and always think of her.

Her tears mingled with mine amid kisses and heart felt sorrow. She tucked the Bed cloths around me, and bade me good night. Bitter pangs filled my heart and thought I would rather die on the morrow mother and sisters and brother all would leave me alone in this wide world to battle with temptations trials and hardship.

Who then could I complain to when I was persecuted? Who then would come early the cold Winter morning and call me up and help me do my hard tasks?

Whose hand (patting) me upon the head would Sooth my early trials.

Then and there my hatred was kindled Secretly again my oppressors, and I promised myself if ever I got an opporteunity I would run away from these devlish Slave holders.

Well the overseer began to weigh the cotton, and when he got around to them that didn't have cotton enough he told them to stand back until he got through weighing cotton and he would see what was the reason they could not pick more cotton. So when he got around to me he told me to stand back with the rest of them and he would see why I couldn't pick more cotton. Well when he got through weighing cotton, he took his cowhide and made one of the women lay down, and pulled her clothes over her head and made the other woman hold her and her clothes over her head. He give that woman about two hundred lashes and I thought that was enough except he was going to kill her. I could see the skin fly near about every lick he struck her. Then he made the woman that held the one he had whiped lay down and made the one he had whiped hold her clothes over her head. Then I thought if that was the kind of whipings he gave them I would not stay and take mine. So I saw my chance while he was whiping to make my escape, so I left. . . . I could hear him calling me, but I would not come back. So I was then in the woods with the wild animals and only about fifteen years of age. I suffered very much for some thing to eat.

The ambush involved soldiers from the Oregon National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry, the same Cottage Grove-based unit that suffered the deaths of three soldiers in combat in Iraq less than two weeks ago, according to the Guard.

It underscores the danger of the mission, said Maj. Arnold Strong, a Guard spokesman. "It remains a very dangerous, hazardous environment that these guys are working under on a daily basis."

[...]

With Sunday's attack, four state guardsmen have been killed this month in Iraq, the worst loss for the Oregon National Guard since World War II. Two dozen soldiers with an Oregon connection, and more than 820 U.S. soldiers, have been killed since the start of war last spring.

Remember Sean Baker, the soldier at Guantanamo who was brutally beaten while playing the role of a detainee during a training exercise? The Army had been claiming that his medical discharge was unrelated to the traumatic brain injury he sustained while the trainees were learning how to abuse prisoners. Now the Army admits that the discharge was "partly" related to that injury.

Is there any part of the executive branch of government that ever tells the truth the first time?

Sean Baker says that while serving as a member of the 438th Military Police company in Guantanamo Bay during Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was ordered to pose as the enemy for a training exercise. Baker said he received a severe brain injury because of the subsequent beating he received.

Baker claims that he was ordered to put on one of the orange jump suits worn by the detainees. "At first I was reluctant, but he said 'you'll be fine...put this on.' And I did," said Baker.

"I was on duty as an MP in an internal camp (at Guantanamo Bay) where the detainees were housed," said Baker.

Baker says an officer in charge issued the order because he wanted the training to be as real as possible. Baker says what took place next happened at the hands of four U.S. soldiers - soldiers he believes didn't know he was one of them - has changed his life forever.

[...]

Baker's certificate of discharge from active duty shows the 37-year-old had a character of service that was "honorable" It shows he retired due to temporary disability - the brain injury Baker claims is the direct result of posing as a prisoner and being beaten at the hands of U.S. soldiers.

Reversing itself, the Army said Tuesday that a G.I. was discharged partly because of a head injury he suffered while posing as an uncooperative detainee during a training exercise at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

The Army had previously said Specialist Sean Baker's medical discharge in April was unrelated to the injury he received last year at the detention center, where the United States holds suspected terrorists.

It's the fact that a group of people working together from all different parts of our government came to this conclusion apparently without serious controversy.

I can't get past the fact that this is the product of a "working group" of lawyers, all of them highly educated, presumably intelligent, decent hardworking Americans who love their country. And, not one of them resigned their post rather than participate in creating a legal justification for torture. And, it was not just an abstraction to them; they went into great detail about the precise amount of pain that was to be allowed. There are long passages in which the meaning of "severe pain" is discussed, the effect of long term mental damage is assessed and where the justification of the infliction of long term damage is defined as a matter of intent rather than result.

[...]

These people who set about legalizing inhumane behavior on behalf of a president on whom they confer absolute power to order it at will are as shallow and evil as the cliché spouting president who demanded it. The slippery slope to totalitarianism started in a conference room where coffee and donuts and microsoft power point presentations on torture and pain were on the agenda one morning.

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

PRESS BRIEFING BY
LARRY SPEAKES
December 11, 1984
The Briefing Room
12:03 p.m. EST

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
MR. SPEAKES: Lester's beginning to circle now. He's moving in front. (Laughter.) Go ahead.

Q: Since the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta (laughter) reports...

MR. SPEAKES:This is going to be an AIDS question.

Q: that an estimated

MR. SPEAKES:You were close.

Q: Well, look, could I ask the question, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES:You were close.

Q: An estimated 300,000 people have been exposed to AIDS, which can be transmitted through saliva. Will the President, as Commander-in-Chief, take steps to protect Armed Forces food and medical services from AIDS patients or those who run the risk of spreading AIDS in the same manner that they forbid typhoid fever people from being involved in the health or food services?

MR. SPEAKES:I don't know.

Q: Could you - Is the President concerned about this subject, Larry

MR. SPEAKES: I haven't heard him express...

Q: ...that seems to have evoked so much jocular

MR. SPEAKES: ...concern.

Q: reaction here? I - you know -

Q: It isn't only the jocks, Lester.

Q: Has he sworn off water faucets

Q: No, but, I mean, is he going to do anything, Larry?

MR. SPEAKES:Lester, I have not heard him express anything on it. Sorry.

Q: You mean he has no expressed no opinion about this epidemic?

MR. SPEAKES:No, but I must confess I haven't asked him about it. (Laughter.)

Q: Would you ask him Larry?

MR. SPEAKES: Have you been checked? (Laughter.)

When the FBI went through Brandon Mayfield's possessions to investigate his connection with the Madrid train bombings, agents seized what they called "miscellaneous Spanish documents."

As The New York Times reported, Mayfield's family later identified the documents as his children's Spanish homework.

But by April 13, according to the Times, the Spanish told the FBI that the match was "conclusively negative." In a meeting with the FBI in Spain April 21, Spanish officials insisted there was no match, while FBI agents insisted there was -- but never asked to see the actual bag.

By then, the FBI had found that Mayfield was a Muslim convert, that he was often seen driving to the Bilal Mosque, and that he had represented, in a child custody suit, one of the Portland Seven convicted terrorists.

[...]

But Mayfield was arrested May 6, after the Spanish had rejected the match April 13 and again April 21. He wasn't released until May 20, when the Spanish said they'd matched the fingerprint to someone else.

A leaked Pentagon memo cast serious doubt yesterday on the Bush administration's insistence that its treatment of prisoners was bound by laws and treaties banning torture.

A secret document discloses that, on the eve of the Iraq war, political appointees overruled military lawyers to assert that President George W Bush was not bound by US and international law on torture.

The memo, prepared for Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, went on to claim that, if national security was at stake, government agents who tortured or even killed prisoners on the president's authority were immune from prosecution.

"Emergency food providers from around the country are reporting a surge in demand from the families of reservists," reports the Web site of the D.C.-based Food Research Action Center, noting news stories from California, Florida and Washington.

Col. Dennis Spiegel (Ret.), deputy director of the private organization Army Emergency Relief, reports that requests for assistance from National Guard and reserve troops -- who qualify as soon as they're called in full-time service -- went up "several hundred percent" from 2002 to 2003. States all over the country, says Spiegel, have been asking the Department of Defense to send someone out to explain how access to programs such as food stamps and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition programs works for military families.

Most military families interviewed by reporters say the financial problems are insignificant compared with worry about the servicemen's safety. But the pressures are real. In Thurston County, Washington, home of Fort Lewis, 250 military families are on the WIC program.

"I think the stories of families being in need," says Ellen Vollinger of FRAC, "are pretty striking."

It does seem that the least we owe Americans serving in Iraq and Afghanistan is that their families at home shouldn't be hungry.

The scenario assumed in the Pentagon study is that this kind of development occurs rapidly, hitting a tipping point, in the 2010-2020 period. Not the three days of the movie's fantasy, but still very different from the more gradual, longer-term danger usually associated with climate change. Although not a celluloid apocalypse, the effects outlined in the Pentagon study are more than scary enough. Consider:

"…average annual temperatures [in Europe] drop by 6 degrees Fahrenheit in under a decade….The climate in northwestern Europe is…more like Siberia."

"Mega-droughts begin in key regions in Southern China and Northern Europe around 2010 and last throughout the full decade….depleting fresh water reserves."

"China…is hit hard by a decreased reliability of the monsoon rains….Widespread famine causes chaos and internal struggles…"

"Persistent typhoons and a higher sea level create storm surges that cause significant coastal erosion, making much of Bangladesh nearly uninhabitable."

"Military confrontation may be triggered by a desperate need for…energy, food and water rather than by conflicts over ideology, religion, or national honor."

"The United States turns inward, committing its resources to feeding its own population, shoring-up its borders, and managing increasing global tension."

"With inadequate preparation, the result could be a significant drop in the human carrying capacity of the Earth's environment."