Saturday, October 31, 2009

Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford

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Top: at U.S. Capitol, April 23, 1971
All photos & drawings:
Click to enlarge.


New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 44 -- November 4, 2009

This week in New World Notes, radio program #87, Tuesday, November 4:

Consumer Media Truth Commission
A l e r t !

Be Advised . . .
That the current installment of the radio series New World Notes--which installment formerly bore the title: "Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford" (hereinafter designated as "said crummy program")--has been renamed by order of the Consumer Media Truth Commission (hereinafter: the Commission) as:

"Mr. (or Ms) Kenneth Dowst Gassing On about the Supposed Good Old Days of

  • Appearing in Public with Unshorn Underarms and without Brassieres (both Genders)
  • Characterizing the Commission of Unapproved Activities of a Sexual or Pharmacological Nature (with or without inhaling) as "Striking Blows Against the Empire"
  • Unlawfully Burning Selective Service System Registration Cards
  • Committing Unapproved Acts of a Sexual, Pharmacological, First-Amendment, or Scholarly Nature
  • Failing to Support Economically America’s Barbers, Haberdashers, Pearl-Accessories Industry, Trouser Manufactures (other than Levi-Strauss and Wrangler), and Villager Clothing Retailers
  • Aiding and Abetting our (formerly, . . for the most part . . .) Brave and Patriotic Soldiers, Sailors, and Airpersons in Vietnam in their Commission of Insubordination, Sedition, Mutiny, Sabotage, Dereliction of Duty, A.’ing-themselves-W.O.L., Desertion, Displaying Disrespect to Officers, Failing to Kill Gooks When Lawfully Ordered, Marching in So-called "Peace Demonstrations,” Littering U.S. Government Property with Discarded Combat Medals, Testifying about U.S. Atrocities, Defecting to Canada and/or Sweden, Chanting ‘Hey! Hey! LBJ! How Many Kids Did You Kill Today?’ and Other Offenses."

The reason for this change-of-installment-title is:

Only nine (9) minutes of said crummy program reproduce Mr. (or Ms) Dahr Jamail’s inappropriate, unPatriotic speech in Hartford, Connecticut, of September 20, inst. -- the remainder of said crummy program being devoted to the aforementioned unPatriotic if false memories of Mr. (or Ms) Dowst, plus an overly-long if equally unPatriotic prerecorded song by one Mr. (or Ms) Jefferson Airplane and some cacophonous glam-rock "music" from, presumably, the mid-1980s.

This notice must be prominently displayed near every radio receiver capable of receiving broadcast-band FM transmissions and in the possession of a recipient of the "New World News" newsletter, except in the case of remote-control garage-door-opening appliances, in which case this notice may be affixed to a windshield, directly in front of the steering wheel, or other steering mechanism, of a motor vehicle containing an FCC-certified transmitting device designed for remote activation of said door-opening appliance, provided that both the appliance and the remote operating device are properly installed and functional.

CC.: http://www.dahr.org/ -- http://ivaw.org/

Top: Dahr Jamail in Bushnell Park, Hartford, CT, 9-20-09
Middle, Bottom: Washington, D.C., 9-17-07

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Top: Location & date unknown. Bottom: San Francisco, 1-27-2007.

Note: The radio program features my edited, condensed, 9-minute version of Dahr Jamail's Hartford speech of September 20, 2009. The complete, unedited, 16.5-minute speech (+ introduction) is available here.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Michael Parenti on the Republic, the Empire, the Economy, & the Citizens

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New World Notes News
Volume 2, Number 43 -- October 24, 2009


This week in New World Notes, radio program #86, Tuesday, October 27:

The Republic, the Empire,
the Economy, and the Citizens:

An Interview with Michael Parenti

In brief:

In a telephone interview with me of October 13, acclaimed political scientist and Left political analyst Michael Parenti discusses

  • the costs of empire and who pays them
  • how national governments--no longer sovereign--act as the servants of transnational global corporate capitalism
  • the REAL crime committed by the many "rogue states" the US has invaded the past half-century
  • Can citizens turn an empire back into a republic? . . . and
  • What happened to the US's progress towards social democracy?

Notes

Michael Parenti will present a free public lecture on Wednesday, November 4, at 7:30 PM, in Wilde Auditorium of the Harry Jack Gray Center, University of Hartford, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford, CT. His talk is titled, Political Liberties and Economic Democracy. Reservations are required for this free event: call the University Box Office at (860) 768-4228 or 800-274-8587.

I'll be there recording the lecture (in the control room at the rear of the auditorium)--so please look me up and say hi. I'll be glad to see you again or else make your acquaintance!

More on Parenti: www.michaelparenti.org/

Photo by Harrison Bequette (photobucket.com). Click to enlarge.

This week's music: The Crown City Four, "Watch World War Three on Pay TV" (ca. 1960)

Credit where due

Thanks to Dr. Michael Parenti for his time, thoughts, & words. Thanks to the University of Hartford's Community Conversations Colloquium, Provost Lynn Pasquerella, & this year's colloquium steering committee for arranging & funding a public lecture by Parenti in November. Thanks to King Daevid MacKenzie for disinterring (from the ruins of its fallout shelter) this week's song. New World Notes is produced for WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail dot com.

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut date on WWUH shown:

  • November 3 -- Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford (9-20-2009)

Most recent book (2007). God and His Demons
(tentative title) is in the works.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Can WE Save the Environment?

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This week in New World Notes, radio program #85, Tuesday, October 20:

Can We Save
the Environment?

Realizing that no leadership on environmental crises will come from our political "leaders," ordinary Americans have begun making changes on their own. But what to do?

The show explores several approaches people are taking and advocating--including bicycling, recycling tap water, modifying everyday behavior, and raising chickens ... then reads Derrick Jensen's essay on why only political action will make any difference at all ... and ends by advocating all of the above.

Bucky Buckaw (Robert McMinn) & friend

Credit where due

Thanks to producers Joseph C. McGuire ("Everyday Environmentalist") and Robert McMinn ("Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast") for audio rebroadcast here. Produced for WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT.

Derrick Jensen

This week's music: James McMurtry, God Bless America

Coming soon -- Tuesday debut dates on WWUH shown:

  • October 27 -- Michael Parenti interview *
  • November 3 -- Resisting War: Dahr Jamail in Hartford (9-20-2009)


Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Dr. Michael Parenti (plaid shirt)

* Footnote:

A voice frequently heard on New World Notes--Michael Parenti's--can be heard live and in-person, at the University of Hartford at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, November 4. The acclaimed and popular political scientist and political analyst will speak on "Civil Liberties and Economic Democracy," in Wilde Auditorium of the University's Harry Jack Gray Center.

Admission is free, but tickets/reservations are required. To reserve your free ticket, call the University Box Office at (860) 768-4228, or toll-free at 800-274-8587.

I'll be there recording the talk (in the control room at the rear of the auditorium)--so please look me up and say hi. I'll be glad to see you again or else make your acquaintance! (I'm the chubby, bearded guy in his late 50s.)

Catch my recent conversation with Michael Parenti on next week's New World Notes.



Saturday, October 10, 2009

Women, War, & Violence

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Lisa F. Jackson filming The Greatest Silence

This week, New World Notes revives an early show you may have missed: "Women, War, & Violence" (originally NWN # 16, from April 2008), with a new introduction. In the chaotic fighting to grab the mineral resources of Congo, the armies have made the bodies of civilian women military targets. This psy-ops strategy is obscene but not illogical. Documentary filmmaker Lisa F. Jackson explains.

Jackson created the award-winning 2007 documentary film, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo.

Jackson receives Special Jury Prize at the Sundance
Film Festival, January 2008, for
The Greatest Silence.

Then Ynar Mohammed explains to Amy Goodman why the plight of women in Iraq today is much worse--and women are much much more oppressed--than was the case under the dictator the Americans "liberated" the Iraqi people from.

The humanitarian crises in Congo and in Iraq remain greater and graver than the sad situation in Darfur, Sudan. So why is all our attention being channeled to Darfur? Could there be oil under the (increasing) sands of Sudan? Would a little "humanitarian military intervention" do any great harm to Exxon-Mobil? (Answers: [1] yes; [2] probably not.)


Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):
Coming up in NWN (central Connecticut Tuesday playdates shown):
  • October 20 -- # 85: Can We Save the Environment? -- Maybe. But not by selling the car, turning off the electricity, eating vegan, and taking shorter showers, argues Derrick Jensen.
  • October 27 -- #86: Michael Parenti Special

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

REACTIONS: Helen Caldicott vs. Vermont Yankee

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New World Notes News
Coming up October 6 (Hartford-area broadcast on WWUH 91.3):

REACTIONS: Helen Caldicott
takes on Vermont Yankee (and the nuclear
noodleheads that run it for fun and profit)


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Vermont is the home of covered bridges ... maple syrup ... and an ancient nuclear power plant now seeking an operating-license renewal of 20 years. Famed antinuclear activist Helen Caldecott, M.D., speaking near the Vermont Yankee plant, explains why such facilities are killers when operating properly . . . and not nice at all when they (frequently) malfunction. A witty, scary, & funny talk.

Helen Caldicott, M.D.

Notes and Credits

Note: Broadcast schedule change: WHUS, 91.7 in Storrs--which used to air NWN at 7:30 AM on Friday--now airs it at 6:30 PM on Saturday. Listeners in Providence Plantation and eastern Connecticut can stop bemoaning their fate. Your favorite radio show hasn't been cancelled, after all. Nor has New World Notes!

About half of Helen Caldicott's hour-long speech in Brattleboro, VT (given April 10, 2009) is replayed in this week's installment. The audio is borrowed from Caldicott's radio series, "If You Love This Planet," #51 (August 2009). Link, below.

New World Notes is produced for WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.

Song -- Tom Lehrer, "We Will All Go Together When We Go"

Series Overview -- Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want ... and what they're trying to make us settle for.

Next Week -- On WWUH 91.3: Pledge Drive hour-long live special, Tuesday October 13, 12:00-1:00 PM (Eastern). Make a pledge during that hour and I'll thank you on-air. If you've already pledged (or whatever), you can still call and leave a message for me, and I'll receive it (and maybe read it aloud) a minute later.

Elsewhere & on the Internet: an Encore Performance . . . sorry . . . a re-run of NWN #16, "Women, War, & Violence," with a new introduction.


Great links. Really!

New World Notes Web page/blog: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/.

Hour-long Caldicott speech in Brattleboro, April 10, 2009:
http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/34913/40046/56726/?url=http://www.radio4all.net/files/jazzwilliams@gmail.com/3400-1-iyltp51.mp3

Isabel Vinson, her clothes back on, now displaying not her body but an admirable lack of contrition in this funny 4-minute radio interview. (First read the "hard-hitting political analysis," below.) http://www.ewiseradiotools.com/station_files/file_1177666610__.mp3

Historian, law professor, and legal scholar Joyce Malcolm in a free public lecture, Wednesday evening, October 7, at the University of Hartford. "To Heller and Back: Is There a Right of Self-Defense?" (Free) tickets/reservation required. For details, listen to this brilliantly witty announcement (1 min 16 sec): http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/36145/41329/58148/?url=http://www.radio4all.net/files/kdowst@hotmail.com/3415-1-joyce-malcolm_psa_192k.mp3.

For more info. on Malcolm, read this remarkably good info. sheet concocted by the university's P.R. office: http://hartford.edu/daily/Articles.asp?Mainid=6835&category=1

I feel a little proprietary here, as I was the one who recommended Malcolm to the public-lecture committee. . . .

And now for . . .

THE SORT OF HARD-HITTING POLITICAL ANALYSIS YOU WON'T GET FROM NEOFASCIST CORPORATE STOOGES LIKE GLENN BECK, SEAN HANNITY, & THE FOX TV-61 WEATHERMAN:

"Nudes, Not Nukes!"

Caldicott half- (maybe four-fifths-) seriously encouraged Brattleboro residents to hold a nude march demanding that Vermont Yankee be shut down. In fact, nude political protests are common enough in Brattleboro. Public lewd behavior is a ticket to the slammer in Vermont, as elsewhere, but public nudity itself is lawful.

Apparently nobody in Brattleboro has yet organized that march. (Better hurry, guys: the autumnal equinox went thataway!) But Benington citizen-model Isabel Vinson and photographer Remy Chevalier came up with a similar idea. The two photos, below, show (front to rear) Vinson, the Connecticut River (Yes, Hartfordites, that Connecticut River; we're downstream from the discharge pipes), and the Vermont Yankee "bomb factory," as Helen calls it.

Vermont Yankee and Isabel Vinson face off.

The lower photo was published on the front page of the Brattleboro Reformer, and the predictable howls of outrage from Offended Parents duly ensued. Why the fuss? Doesn't People put racier photos than that on its covers about 37 times a year? Ah, yes, but--if you look real closely at the Vinson photo, tilt your neck just so, and squint . . . you can see a nipple! They say.

I tried to see it ... honestly, I did. And I'm not saying it's definitely not a nipple. I'm just saying I think it's the top of a cooling tower in the background. One of the towers of Vermont Yankee that did not collapse from rust and rot and dry-rot in August 2007. Vinson herself says it's her nipple. Whatever. I'm tired of arguing. You be the judge.

Always the entrepreneur, I'm now in the process of moving to Brattleboro, where I'm setting up a storefront office. I guarantee that I'll cure any child-victim in New England of all the damage (s)he has suffered from exposure to women's nipples -- in 3 weeks--no more, no less--for only $1,500. For $1,750 I'll cover not just the nipple but the areola as well. Why take chances with the child you love?

For children who have been breast-fed, add an additional $1,500 to the price and an additional 3 weeks to the course of treatment. Damage this severe is very hard to cure, compared with the still-tragic but lesser injury done to children by leaving them in a room alone with the Brattleboro Reformer and a good magnifying glass. Why not toss in a loaded pistol and a pack of matches while you're at it, scum?!

Finally, be sure to ask about available discounts for treating TNO (traumatic nipple observation) suffered in areas where public nudity is perfectly legal (locker rooms, nudist camps, Vermont, etc.).

Note to VDMV: How about adding Live Modestly or Die! to the license plates? Apparently they tried it in Kabul, and it was a big hit. Or is that motto too close to New Hampshire's?

Note to Brattleboro Water District: I think it's time to stop adding maple syrup to the drinking water and to go back to fluoride. At least the psychotic side-effects of fluoride are well-understood and predictable!

A Brattleboro tradition

With the profits from my business treating traumatic nipple observation, I had planned to start another business: curing children of the effects of exposure to nuclear power plants. Nuke plants are just as bad as nipples, if not worse. But now I find that two people have gotten the jump on me. Apparently two pediatric oncologists are already doing outstanding work, one of them at the Royal Hospital of Sweden, in Stockholm; the other at the M.D. Anderson Clinic, in Houston. It is said that either can prolong the life of a childhood leukemia victim . . . often by 12, sometimes even by 18 months!

To judge by the expressed Parental Outrage, the effects of exposure to "routine releases" of radioactive tritium apparently aren't as bad as traumatic nipple observation. But they are harder to treat. What to do? Eureka! (he said, his eyes having moved downwards from Isabel Vinson's cooling tower). Traumatic Buttock Observation! Buttocks have got to be at least as common as nipples. Sure, per square inch, nipples are the second-deadliest visible organ of a woman's body, and buttocks far less detructive to the innocence of our children and teenagers. Per square inch. You can see where I'm going here. . . .

Coda

Christine Keeler, by Lewis Morley
(Click to remove chair)

As I type this, a verse from the 1960s comes to mind. An affair, recently ended, was revealed between the (married) Secretary of War for the U.K., John Profumo, and a young woman described as a "party girl," Christine Keeler. Keeler was said also to have been involved with a Russian senior naval attache' (in vulgar terms: spy) in London.

So far, so good, but then Profumo made an error of judgment. In March 1963--questioned about the affair in the House of Commons--the Secretary denied any improper behavior involving Ms Keeler. Public uproar over the scandal--particularly lying in Parliament(!)--weakened the Conservative government of PM Harold Macmillan.

A limerick was duly penned:

  • Look what you've done! said Christine,
    You've wrecked the whole Party machine!
    To lie in the nude
    Is not at all rude,
    But to lie in the House is obscene!