Entries Tagged with NPR
August 16th, 2006
So, Monday and Tuesday was filled with news of various world leaders patting each other on the back as to who won in the latest Middle East Crisis, this Israel/Hezbollah Conflict.
“We are today before a strategic, historic victory, without exaggeration,” Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, said in a televised speech that was met with celebratory gunfire in the Shia suburbs of Beirut.
“We emerged from the battle with our heads high, and our enemy is the one who is defeated.”
In an impassioned address to the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said “the IDF warriors always had the upper hand,” and promised to hunt down Hezbollah’s leaders. [“Israel, Hezbollah claim victory” (globalandmail.com)]
“Hezbollah attacked Israel, Hezbollah started the crisis, and Hezbollah suffered a defeat in this crisis,” Bush said. [“U.S. ‘freedom agenda; big winner in Lebanon War, Bush says” (Canada.com)]
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed Hezbollah had emerged the winner in Lebanon and called the battles with Israel “God’s promise”. [“Iran president hails Hezbollah victory” (Ireland Online)
The President of Syria said today that the map of the Middle East had been redrawn by Hezbollah’s “victory” in its five-week war with Israel.
In a rare public speech, Bashir al-Assad said that the once invincible Israeli army had been humiliated and that the Jewish state would do well to seek peace and hand back occupied Arab land - or risk more defeats if it tried to pursue “terrorist policies” in the future.[“Syria declares victory in Lebanon conflict” (TimesOnline.co.uk)]
Probably the silliest thing to come out of Israel’s mini-war with Hezbollah in Lebanon is the posturing over who “won.”
Nobody won.[“No ‘winner’ in the conflict, but Palestinians are losers” (PensacolaNewsJournal.com)
This morning NPR was interviewing a family of Israelis returning to their homes for the first time since last Friday after it had been hit by a Hezbollah rocket. The father/husband/man of the house said what I think none of the news, military and government analysts get — except maybe The Pensacola News Journal — when asked about who he thought won the war, he basically said, “No one wins wars, there are only losers and losers.”
In the end, I wonder if governments and world leaders and terrorists and ideological fanatic folks and such stopped to ask those of us who are just trying to get through our lives every day if we would be interested in going to war and killing and destroying, I wonder how many of us would really be interested in the whole idea.
The king of Zor, he called for war
And the king of Zam, he answered.
They fashioned their weapons one upon one
Ton upon ton, they called for war at the rise of the sun.
Out went the call to one and to all
That echoed and rolled like the thunder.
Trumpets and drums, roar upon roar
More upon more.
Rolling the call of Come now to war.
Throughout the night they fashioned their might
With right on the side of the mighty.
They puzzled their minds plan upon plan
Man upon man
And at dying of dawn the great war began.
They met on the battlefield banner in hand.
They looked out across the vacant land.
And they counted the missing, one upon one,
None upon none.
The war it was over before it begun.
Two little kings playing a game.
They gave a war and nobody came.
And nobody came.
And nobody came.
And nobody came.
And nobody came.
[repeat and fade]
There is no pause:
The king of Zor, he called for war
And the king of Zam, he answered.
They fashioned their weapons one upon one
Ton upon ton, they called for war at the rise of the sun.
Out went the call to one and to all
That echoed and rolled like the thunder.
Trumpets and drums, roar upon roar
More upon more.
Rolling the call of Come now to war.
Throughout the night they fashioned their might
With right on the side of the mighty.
They puzzled their minds plan upon plan
Man upon man
And at dying of dawn the great war began.
They met on the battlefield banner in hand.
They looked out across the vacant land.
And they counted the missing, one upon one,
None upon none.
The war it was over before it begun.
Two little kings playing a game.
They gave a war and nobody came.
And nobody came.
And nobody came.
And nobody came.
And nobody came.
[”Zor and Zam”, The Monkees, 1968, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees]
Tags: Israel, Lebanon, NPR, Hezbollah, The Monkees, Ehud Olmert, IDF, Hassan Nasrallah, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran, George W. Bush, Syria, Bashir al-Assad, Middle East, politics
August 8th, 2006
- Preparing for Martial Law - Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast reports that President Bush is trying to secretly federalize the National Guard, a move that the National Governors Association is trying to put a stop to. This is the kind of thing a dictator would do, by the way.
- Might as well face it, they’re addicted to porn… - SpinDentist @ The All Spin Zone reports on a poll revelling what I’ve suspected all along — that there are quite a large number of self-identified Christians involving themselves with porn. This may be why so many rightwingers are so interested in what everyone else is doing in their bedrooms.
- ABC’s Good Morning America covers story of gay Arabic speaker kicked out of military - John in DC @ AmericaBlog has a link to ABC’s Good Morning America video coverage of the story. I’ve seen the story reported on several liberal blogs, including Pandagon, but this is the first main stream media coverage I’ve seen. I have to agree with John that it does appear that the military does seem more interested in it’s witch hunt for homosexuals than in helping itself and in stopping the terrorists.
- Senate ratifies Europe cybercrime convention - Michael Hampton @ Homeland Stupidity reports that as of last Thursday night, “the U.S. can now spy on your Internet activity at the request of a foreign government — even if you are only doing things completely legal.” It’s called the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime. What does that mean? It’s a treaty which requires its signatories to pass laws against breaking into computer systems, child pornography, Internet fraud, computer viruses, denial of service attacks and related crimes.
The treaty requires the U.S. to turn over data stored by Internet Service Providers, and provide real-time interception of your Internet traffic, at the request of a foreign government, whether the offense the foreign government is investigating is a crime in the U.S. or not.
“That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation activist coordinator Danny O’Brien. “American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdictions’ requests to log their users’ behavior without due process, or compensation.”
“And it applies not just to ‘cyber’ crimes but to digital evidence of any crime, so foreign governments now may begin using U.S. law enforcement to help them gather evidence in all kinds of cases,” wrote Cato Institute Director of Information Policy Studies Jim Harper.
- Gunning for PBS - Steve Aqui @ Donklephant writes about the GOP’s targeting of funding for NPR and PBS and how the GOP would prefer both would just disappear. Steve points out how hypocritical the GOP is with it’s big tax cuts and it’s attempts to eliminate the estate tax and yet it claims there’s no money to help handicap children or pay for public radio and television or reduce the deficit.
Tags: PBS, NPR, GOP, Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, ABC, Good Morning America, Christians, George W. Bush, National Guard, National Governors Association, EFF
March 13th, 2006
I always listen to NPR when I’m getting ready in the morning. I’d much rather be able to watch the news in there but there’s no cable in the bathroom and no t.v. So, since moving to Maine, I’ve formed a bond with NPR, which is probably much more intellectual than the one I’d formed with the two redneck hicks who hosted the Country station’s morning show in New Orleans.
Anyway, by the time I get around to getting dressed on Sunday In Tune by Ten Sunday Morning with Sara Willis is usually on. Most of the time, I kind of just tune it out like it’s mall music or something. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s rarely anyone I actually recognize so it’s just kind of there in the background to keep my spinning mind busy while I pretty myself up and fuss at the cats and such.
Every now and then there’s an artist on that really catches my attention. A few months ago they really got under my skin with Lizz Wright, who’s Dreaming Wide Awake I did end up buying and I love.
Yesterday, they caught my attention with two songs back to back and I only caught one word of the second title. Now, here’s my confession. I despise going to NPR’s website. I always feel stupid when I go. I feel like you have to have a special I.Q. to figure out the navigation or something. There’s a secret to finding what you want exactly and I haven’t unlocked the mystery. So, I was dreading trying to find out what these two songs were.
However, it turns out that Maine’s Public Broadcasting Network website is actually very easy to navigate and I was able to find what I was looking for in seconds. Yay for Maine!
It also turns out that both of the songs I liked are soooooo new they aren’t released yet. They were “The Pride” by Essex Green (Cannibal Sea) and “Bisbee Blue” by Calexico (Garden Ruin). I’m curious if anyone has any opinions of these musicians as I’ve not heard of them before but they do apparently have other albums.
I think the kitties will be buying these for me for my birthday this year.
Tags: NPR, Cannibal Sea, Garden Ruin, Lizz Wright
August 16th, 2005
I heard this story on NPR this morning and it made me laugh. It’s funny because of the ineptness of the whole thing and not because it’s becoming a hassle to people.
I’m all for airport security. I’ve said so in the past — even if I’m inevitably the one watching them take out every single item from my purse to display to the world because the combination of an iPod Mini and a Palm Pilot in one small bag might indicate evil-doing. If it makes me safer in the long run, I’m good. I hate flying as it is, I don’t want to add worrying about terrorists on the plane to my list of worries like plunging from the air and smashing into the ground.
[“Israeli military releases another baby photo(Scarily, this is a real Middle Eastern baby in military garb)”] Anyway, so I heard this story on NPR this morning about children being stopped from boarding planes because their names match or are similar to names from the Transportation Security Administration’s no-fly list. This results in a major hassle as parents are forced to miss flights while trying to have birth certificates, passports, and other identification faxed to the airport security folks.
Critics including the American Civil Liberties Union say the government doesn’t provide enough information about the people on the lists, so innocent passengers can be caught up in the security sweep if they happen to have the same name as someone on the lists. [“Babies Caught Up in ‘No-Fly’ Confusion”]
I think if a child is five or under, he or she is probably not a terrorist…unless maybe it’s that baby from Family Guy. I also think that real terrorists don’t fly under their real names, but that’s just me. Anyway, I think airport security needs to exercise some common sense here — especially since TSA claims they’ve instructed security not to detain anyone under 12. Really, is this too hard to figure out?
The TSA has a “passenger ombudsman” who will investigate individual claims from passengers who say they are mistakenly on the lists. TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said 89 children have submitted their names to the ombudsman. Of those, 14 are under the age of 2. [“Babies Caught Up in ‘No-Fly’ Confusion”]
Tags: NPR, no-fly list, Transportation Security Administration, ACLU, innocent, Terrorists
August 8th, 2005
ABC anchor Peter Jennings passed away at his home last night. He’d announcef 4 months ago that he had lung cancer but had felt hopeful he would return to the air.
NPR had a wonderful tribute to him this morning, making me feel that Jennings was probably the last of a special kind of newsman.
Since he began anchoring the program in 1983, Jennings won numerous awards, including a National Headline Award and a George Foster Peabody award. He also won some 16 Emmys, according to the ABC News Web site.
Asked how it felt after anchoring ABC’s evening news program for 20 years, Jennings told CNN’s Larry King on Sept. 8, 2003: “Seems like yesterday; seems like forever — all at the same time.”
I was surprised to learn that he did not approve of the OJ coverage and that he spent 60 hours on air following 9-11 — his bosses could not convince him to go home. He most certainly understood what the world’s priorities should have been. He will be missed.
Tags: ABC News, Peter Jennings, NPR
July 16th, 2005
Man, I worked my ass off in high school to save money so I could go to Space Camp, which was infinitely better than all the Chrisitan Summer Camps my parents packed me off to in my elementary years. Still, my dreams of becoming an astronaut were pretty futile with my poor health.
I’d also dreamt of working at the FBI, CIA, or NSA, not as a field agent — obviously that sort of thing isn’t right for me. I mean, I might have had to -er- run for my life or point a gun at someone or something. I did, however, dream of becoming an analyst, but finding out what they were searching for back then was like trying to get the truth about the War in Iraq out of the Bush Administration.
Luckily for kids these days, with the expanding Homeland Security, the CIA at least is doing some proactive recruiting, focusing on high schoolers who may be assets later. I’m jealous.
NPR : A Spooky Summer Camp, Run by the CIA
A Spooky Summer Camp, Run by the CIA
All Things Considered, July 15, 2005 · The intelligence services of the U.S. are looking for a few good men and women and are taking steps to make sure they can find them in the future. Trinity College is running a “spy camp” for high-school kids this summer. The kids will learn about intelligence work and spy craft in weeklong sessions. The camp is free, but you can’t tell anyone what you learn.
Oh, and while I was searching for information on the above program, I discovered that there are a number of summer camps like this one in Pennsylvania focusing on children of all ages. Get them while they’re young before they’ve had a chance to form opinions of their own, right?
I’m still jealous. I so would have rather gone to spy camp than space camp — which by the way was nothing like the movie. 
Tags: CIA, FBI, NSA, spy camp, NPR
July 12th, 2005
I first heard about Cyrus Kar last week while listening to NPR. Since then, I’ve kept an eye open for stories on such media sites as CNN.com. Most of the information I’ve found about the strange case has been from foreign media and blogs.
Any American media references appear to be mostly after this past weekend and I’m amazed to note that while CNN.com has no searchable references, the right-wing biased Fox News does. This North Carolina paper’s site only had a sentence on the subject.
And yet, this is the tale of an ex-Navy Seal who was arrested in Iraq simply for being in the wrong cab at the wrong time. This is a right-winger American film-maker on a personal journey to research a former Persian king who supported civil rights who was arrested simply because the trunk of the taxi he was in had washer timers, commonly used for bomb-making in the Middle East. He was held in a 5′x7′ cell without due process even after the FBI informed his family that he had been cleared of suspicion after passing a polygraph test.
“Saddam Hussein has had more due process than Cyrus Kar. This is a detention policy that was drafted by Kafka.”
I just don’t understand why a bigger deal isn’t being made of this. I thought we were supposed to be fighting for freedom and liberty and all of that. I thought we were supposed to be bringing freedom to these other countries. Not only are we out of control in treating the citizens of other countries like non-entities, we have begun stripping the rights of Americans.
What kills me is the argument so many people give that if you haven’t done anything, the FBI or the CIA or whoever is enforcing the Patriot Act, won’t be knocking down your door to haul you away to some prison where they’ll be able to hold you without telling you why and without letting you talk to lawyers, family, or friends indefinitely. Cyrus Kar didn’t do anything wrong. He was just taking a taxi, the wrong taxi…
Who’s next? Your neighbor? You? Me?
Why aren’t we talking about this? Why are we letting it slip into the back pages of the paper to be forgotten by the time we read the comic pages?
Tags: Cyrus Kar, NPR, Fox News, detainees, Iraq, FBI, innocent, Civil Rights
June 24th, 2005
Sometimes peer pressure works in our favor. Let’s hope the trend for using peer pressure for good keeps going.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Big Bird and National Public Radio won a reprieve Thursday as the House restored $100 million that had been proposed as a budget cut for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The 284-140 vote demonstrated the enduring political strength of public broadcasting, whose supporters rallied behind popular programs such as “Sesame Street,” “Postcards From Buster” and “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.”
The Public Broadcasting Service undertook a high-profile campaign to rescind the proposed cut. Lawmakers were flooded with letters and phone calls.
PBS still might end up with less money than in its current budget. The legislation would eliminate a $23 million for the Ready to Learn program, which subsidizes children’s educational programming and distributes learning materials.
Public broadcasting advocates say $82 million is set to be cut for satellite upgrades and a program to help public TV stations switch to digital technology. Restoring the money would mean dipping into dollars intended for stations and programming, they say.
Opponents of the cut said public broadcasting provides programming not available elsewhere.
“Do we want to live in a society where pop culture dictates all that is offered on the airwaves,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-New York.
Full story at CNN.com.
Tags: House of Representatives, NPR, CNN, PBS
