Showing posts with label military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military. Show all posts

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Sick of War

New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 19 -- May 7, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #166, May 10, 2011

Sick of War

In brief

Since my birth in 1950, U.S. foreign policy seems to have consisted of war, war, empire building, and more war. Is anybody else sick of this? ... or at least feeling broke from paying for it all?

Two fine thinkers (and I too) explore the problem.

(1) Michael Parenti (1990s) discusses the the functions & purposes of the American empire and why "we" invade so many countries and overthrow their governments--many of them democracies. With an update by Parenti, from 2009, on the real reasons for our bombing of the former Yugoslavia (recorded live in West Hartford by me).

(2) Bruce Gagnon--famed crusader against the militarization of space & related worthy issues--discusses the U.S.'s policy of Endless War and the related destruction of our industrial base. And he shows who profits from these events. HINT: it's not our children, who face a future of no jobs outside the armed forces. (Also recorded live in West Hartford by me, in 2010.)

Above: Bruce Gagnon in 2004.

Notes, credits, & links

Music (outro): from Pete Seeger, Bring 'Em Home

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "boiler room") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.
You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

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.


Kenneth Dowst


Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)



  • May 17 -- Joe Bageant
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):




A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


Saturday, February 26, 2011

War and Religion (plus LIVE on WWUH)


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 9 -- February 26, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #156, March 1, 2011

Only on WWUH FM 91.3:

Special Live, Hour-long Broadcast
(for Spring Fundraising Marathon)

US Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel--where the "sky pilots"
(chaplains) prosyletize and evangelize the future real sky pilots.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.


Executive summary

  • Tuesday, March 1, noon - 1 PM on FM 91.3 (West Hartford, Connecticut) or streaming live at http://wwuh.org/
  • Call during this hour, and your pledge will register as support for the station's public affairs programs in general and New World Notes in particular.
  • 1 - 800 - 444 - WWUH ( - 9984) or 860-768-4008
  • Be thanked on air (by first name & town) or remain anonymous, as you choose.
  • Between brief appeals for money, I'll play or read a wide range of interesting program material--including some of the War and Religion program broadcast this week on other stations (see below).


This week on other stations and on mp3:

War and Religion

In brief

A look at the interplay among four forces: propaganda, the state, religion, and war. The war songs "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" are analyzed. (They let children listen to this blasphemy?)

One focus is on those enablers of state-sanctioned bloodbaths: military chaplains (a.k.a. "sky pilots"). Plus an expose' of rampant Christian evangelizing by the leadership--not least by the sky pilots--at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Top: Sacrilegious war propaganda. The more you slaughter the rebels, the more Christ-like you are, sez poet Julia Ward Howe (1861). The fine print at the bottom reads, "Published by the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments." (Click to enlarge.) Bottom: Antietam, 1862.


Notes, credits, & links

This is a replay of an old installment--#5, from March 2008--never before heard outside Greater Hartford--and now available for the first time on the Internet.

The full text of David Antoon's expose' of evangelism running amok at the Air Force Academy--"The Cancer From Within"--is here: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071107_the_cancer_from_within/

"Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition," as heard in this installment, was recorded by Kay Kyser and his Orchestra in 1942.

Outro: from Eric Burdon & The Animals, "Sky Pilot"

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "What, me worry?") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

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.

Top: Gettysburg, 1863 (photo by Matthew Brady). Bottom: "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition"--another rollicking, "God is on Our Side" war song (1942). The former phrase was coined by (what else?) a chaplain. Shown: 40 mm Bofors antiaircraft guns, quad-mounted on the carrier USS Hornet during World War II. To the left, sailors are passing--and loading--the ammunition. The tubes in the right middleground are spent shell cases.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • March 8 -- Controlling the People (2): Schooling and Scapegoating (Listener Advisory for strong language and graphic reports of violence.) From the documentary film, Human Resources
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Friday, January 28, 2011

Military Rape


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 5 -- January 28, 2011

This week in New World Notes, radio program #152, February 1, 2011:

Military Rape


In brief

Award-winning journalist Dahr Jamail--interviewed by Dori Smith, of Talk Nation Radio--discusses the extraordinarily high level of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) in the U.S. armed forces today. Essentially, MST is the rape of a soldier by a fellow soldier. Victims are of both sexes, but women soldiers are extremely likely to be victimized. Victims who report the assault are persecuted and denied therapeutic care; their rapists are promoted; and the Pentagon does nothing to fix the problem.

Jamail attributes the epidemic in part to changes in military training, which now "dehumanizes" soldiers much more than in past generations. Jamail also associates dehumanization with another military epidemic, PTSD.

Finally, distinguished journalist Robert Fisk, speaking in 2008, searches for the causes of U.S. soldiers' newfound delight in torturing people. He finds one in the same dehumanization produced by the new military training.

Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/
http://www.talknationradio.com/
Fisk excerpt courtesy of TUCradio.org

This week's music: Bruce Springsteen, Bring Them Home. See the music video here. Pete Seeger's Vietnam-era version is here.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "thumb") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

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.


Top: Dahr Jamail. Bottom: The Pentagon's response to the epidemic of rape and other sexual assault: a small P.R. campaign.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut dates shown)

  • February 8 -- Controlling the People (1): On the Job .

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Friday, January 14, 2011

Chris Hedges: The Corporate War on the People


New World Notes News
Vol. 4, No. 3 & 4 -- January 14, 2011

This fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #150-151, January 18 & 25:

Chris Hedges:
The Corporate War
on the People

December 16, 2010: Hedges at an antiwar protest outside the White House. Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg, and others later chained themselves to the surrounding fence. 131 were arrested.

In brief

Journalist, columnist, and former war correspondent Chris Hedges discusses the corporate attack on the American people and on the "liberal" institutions that once helped empower the people.

Part 1: How we got here. In the first of two installments, Hedges discusses how things got to their unhappy current state. He explores the mass-propaganda machine created during World War I, the rise of the public relations industry to serve corporate power, the campaign against labor unions and other liberal institutions, militarism, the replacement of traditional American values (such as thrift) with corporate values, and the sell-out of the Democratic Party.

Part 2: How to fight back. In the second installment, Hedges discusses totalitarianism, American-style; the Christian Right; why the Tea Party (rightly) hates the Liberal Establishment; the perfidy of the Democratic Party; U.S. parallels with the former Yugoslavia; the necessity of resistance; and the importance that the resistance be nonviolent.

Top: Master propagandist of the Wilson administration, George Creel manufactured American public support for World War I. After the war, Creel's techniques would serve the interests of the large corporations.
Bottom: Creel-sponsored propaganda film. Most graphics: Click to enlarge.

Notes, credits, & links

NWN #150 and 151 rebroadcast an interview conducted by Mike McCormick, of the radio program "Mind Over Matters," on December 2, 2010 (slightly condensed by me). http://www.talkingsticktv.org/ . Thanks to Mike for a fine interview and permission to rebroadcast it.

http://www.truthdig.com/chris_hedges

Chris Hedges' most recent book is Death of the Liberal Class (2010).

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "table") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

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.

Top: abandoned U.S. factory

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • February 1 -- Military Rape
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmastime Absurdities


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 50 -- December 18, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #146, December 21:

Christmastime Absurdities

Publicity photo for a performance of Ionesco's The Lesson--a classic of the Theatre of the Absurd. Most Photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

This is a season of absurdities--in both meanings of the term--and Installment #146 of New World Notes explores them with a light touch.

(The second meaning--known only to those who majored in Drama, Philosophy, or English in college--refers to the unbridgeable gap between what exists and what the human spirit needs.)

With prose by me and AP ... and with comic-satiric seasonal songs by Roy Zimmerman, Hugh Blumenfeld, and Stan Freberg ... we celebrate the absurdities of the season. Some of which can be traced back to Biblical times.

Like, can anybody make sense of the historical Jesus? What's with driving the money-changers out of the Temple? What's so bad about currency exchange? American Express does it all the time. Now, driving the High Priests out of the Temple . . . that would have been 'way cool!

Included, at no additional charge: an update on the most absurd news story of last Christmas ... anybody remember? ... the Scam of the Alleged Underwear Bomber.

Roy Zimmerman in West Hartford, August 2008.
Photo by Kenneth Dowst
.

Notes, credits, & links

This week's music:

  • Roy Zimmerman, Buy War Toys for Christmas
  • Hugh Blumenfeld, Long-Haired, Radical, Socialist Jew
  • Stan Freberg, Green Chri$tma$

Of the 3 recording artists who produced this week's Christmas music, one (Stan Freberg) is actually a Christian. You don't have to be Jewish to write a good Christmas song, it turns out!

Check out Tereza Coraggio's podcasts at http://www.thirdparadigm.org/ .

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

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.

Top: Hardened Muslim-extremist terrorist Umar Abdulmutallab. On cap, note logo of terrorist organization, AQIWA (Al Qaida in Western Africa). Bottom: Stan Freberg, creator of the immortal Big Production Number, Green Chri$tma$.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • December 28 -- TSA: Teaching Submission to Americans? (Thousands Standing Around? Testicle Squeezers of America?)
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


PS: For fun, scroll down to the previous entry & check out these photos of an apparition that appeared in the ice cubes in my wine glass. (Please don't ask what ice cubes were doing in my wine glass.) Is it Christ? Sonny Bono? Saddam Hussein? Fr. Guido Sarducci? You decide! (Permanent link: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/2010/12/apparition.html .)

Friday, December 10, 2010

Why We Fight


New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 50 -- December 11, 2010

This week in New World Notes, radio program #145, Dec. 14:

Why We Fight

Payback for 9/11? Baghdad, 2003.
Most photos: Click to enlarge.

In brief

Not Frank Capra's propaganda classic of the 1940s but a different award-winning documentary with the same name. Eugene Jarecki's film won the Grand Jury Prize of the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

A tapestry of many threads, Why We Fight depicts the U.S. war machine, the Military-Industrial Complex, and U.S. imperialism since World War Two. My much-condensed radio version follows just a few of the threads. It includes expert commentary by Gore Vidal, John S.D. Eisenhower, and the late Chalmers Johnson.

Interwoven is the story of Wilton Sekzer, a retired NYC cop . . . grief-stricken at the death of his son in the Twin Towers, yearning for revenge against the perpetrators, who he had been led to believe were the Iraqis. He sought a memorial to his son, and eventually a large bomb was dropped on Baghdad bearing the inscription, "In loving memory of Jason Sekzer" (see photo).

He now struggles with the knowledge that the Iraqis were innocent of 9/11 and that he had been deceived by his President.

Bottom: John S.D. Eisenhower, son of the president (Top), reflects on his father's distaste for war and distrust of the U.S. military establishment.

Notes, credits, & links

Over the past 10 years, Chalmers Johnson did much to popularize the term blowback . . . and the insight that the United States in fact is an empire. He died on November 20, 2010. Gore Vidal and Michael Parenti, likewise, have long argued that our republic has become an empire.

http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "spreading chestnut tree") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

You can listen to any installment of New World Notes online or else download it (as an mp3 audio file) for later listening. The show is archived at both radio4all.net and (from #90 onwards) The Internet Archive. Either link should get you a reverse-chrono listing of available installments. Or browse the show's Web site: Each installment has a page, and each page has links to the recorded audio.

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.

Top: Chalmers Johnson. Bottom: Wilton Sekzer (inset) and the memorial to his son Jason. Soon after the photo was taken, the Guided Bomb Unit (it appears to be a "bunker-buster") was dropped upon Baghdad.

Coming soon (Tuesday air debut date shown)

  • December 21 -- Christmastime Absurdities
Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):



A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


Friday, May 21, 2010

Bruce Gagnon on Endless War and the Economy



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 21 -- May 23, 2010

This Fortnight in New World Notes, radio programs #116-117, May 25 & June 1:

Bruce Gagnon on
Endless War and
the Economy


In brief

Anti-war and anti-nuke activist Bruce Gagnon (pronounced GAG-non) explains how militarism and endless war are detroying the American economy and the lives of Americans.

In Part 1 (NWN #116), he discusses his radicalization during his own military service . . . and the connections among our crumbling infrastructure, increasing unemployment, decreasing educational opportunities for working-class kids, the increasing militarization of our society, the export of weapons (our #1 export), aggressive U.S. foreign policy, corporate globalization, our ruling elites' desire to control the world's oil supply, . . . and the wisdom of Progressives' forming alliances with the "Tea-partiers."

In Part 2, (NWN #117), Gagnon discusses the destabilization of the world by (a) the globalization and expansion of NATO and (b) the US's encircling Russia and China with "missile defense" installations. He discusses the increasing dependence of public universities on funding from the Pentagon (in exchange for secret war research); ... the joint support by Republicans and Democrats alike for "free-market" capitalism, oligarchy, and military empire; ... how spending on peaceful projects creates many more jobs than "defense" spending; ... and why his nickname for Obama is "The Magician."

Top: Gagnon in 2004. Bottom: Aegis-class destroyer USS Oscar
Austin leaves the Bath (Maine) Iron Works. Balloons for the kiddies
of Gagnon's home town. Maine's principal exports appear to be
Aegis destroyers and potatoes. Most graphics: Click to enlarge.


Notes and credits

No song on #116 (apart from a bit of Little Stevie Wonder on the "outro"). #117's song: David Rovics, After the Revolution

Recorded live at Saint James Church, West Hartford, Connecticut, by moi, on April 16, 2010. Bruce's talk was sponsored by the West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice (http://www.westhartfordpeace.org/ ).

#117 includes only one question from the very good Q&A. The entire Q&A (34 minutes--uncut & unedited) will be uploaded as a separate file along with #117 (link at the top of this page).

Bruce Gagnon is Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "unisex bathroom") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford.

To send feedback, you can post a Comment to this page or else email kdowst at hotmail period com.

Free weekly NWN email newsletter on request.

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.

Top: Aegis-class destroyer Decatur touches off an SM-3 "missile defense"
missile.
Bottom: Why "we" are in Afghanistan. The red curve shows the
desired oil and gas pipeline from the Caspian Basin to the Sea of Arabia.
A shorter route through Iran seems to have been Not An Option.


Coming Soon -- Tuesday debut dates shown:

  • June 2 -- Civil-liberties activist Paul Siegel on Gay Rights As a First-Amendment Issue.

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Bruce Gagnon in South Korea, 2009. I'm not sure what "UFG" stands for,
but it almost certainly involves more US military/naval bases in that
small & oppressed country. When will the U.S. government withdraw
its troops from Iraq? Hell, after 57 years, it still hasn't withdrawn them
from
Korea!
Postscript, May 24: A friend, knowledgeable about Korea, sent a
newspaper story on UFG. It stands for Ulji Freedom Guardian. It's a
joint training program for South Korean and "allied" (U.S. and/or NATO)
troops. Officially, they're training to defend South Korea from invasion
from the North. Skeptics believe that they're actually training to invade
North Korea. In either case, UFG is further destabilizing a region that had
little stability to begin with.


A-Infos Radio Project http://www.radio4all.net


Friday, March 5, 2010

Psychopaths With Occam's Razor



New World Notes News
Vol. 3, No. 10 -- March 5, 2010

This Week in New World Notes, radio program #105, March. 9:

Psychopaths With Occam's Razor

Exeutive summary

Hierarchies (government, military, & Wall Street) become top-heavy with psychopaths--all of whom are capable of harming others without feeling the slightest guilt, empathy, or remorse. The Official Explanation of each outrage they commit is always convoluted. The principle of "Occam's Razor" posits that (all else equal) simpler explanations are more likely to be true than explanations worthy of Rube Goldberg. An example of the latter is the Official Story of why there was no air defense on 9-11-2001.

Here's a simple, Occam-friendly explanation of U.S. foreign policy since 1990: The psychopaths are running the show for their own benefit.

In this program, various observers discuss the decade-long genocidal sanctions against the Iraqi people (1990s, mostly under Clinton), Jewish Nazi-collaborator George Soros, 9/11, and General S.L.A. Marshall's groundbreaking discovery of soldiers' extreme reluctance to kill other humans, even "enemy" troops.

We even end on a note of hope and optimism. After all, the normals still outnumber the psychopaths 20-to-1, and the psychos haven't yet succeeded in grabbing complete control of the Internet!

Top: The Anti-occam: Rube Goldberg (1883-1970)
Bottom: Goldberg's soup-cooling machine


And the winners are . . .

Rube Goldberg Award-winning byzantine Official Explanations include

  • How 2 airplanes caused 3 steel skyscrapers to collapse, each onto its own footprint, at near-freefall speed, while mimicking every characteristic of a controlled implosion
  • Why, on 9-11-2001, there was no air defense of "the Homeland" and no missile defense of the Pentagon
  • How giving a trillion dollars to private Wall Street corporations--no strings attached--will create jobs and reduce home foreclosures
  • Why U.S. forces are killing people in Afghanistan

Notes and credits

Thanks to James Corbett (http://www.corbettreport.com/ -- episode #113) for the audio on George Soros. Thanks to Tereza Coraggio (http://www.thirdparadigm.org/) for the article by Dr. Kevin Barrett, "Twilight of the Psychopaths." Regular podcasts by both Corbett & Coraggio are archived on radio4all.net.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "counter") of WWUH-FM, a community service of that beacon of light in darkest Connecticut, the University of Hartford. Feedback to kdowst at hotmail period com.

See last week's installment (#104) for more on psychopaths in power (and the predictable results).

On the show I've condensed--and in the process toned down --Kevin Barrett's essay, "Twilight of the Psychopaths." Here's the full text (in .pdf).

As Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeline Albright (then a brunette) famously
defended, on TV, the Administration's murder of 500,000 Iraqi children by
its oppressive regime of sanctions. The equal number of adult civilians
murdered didn't bear mentioning. Here, in February 2004, she arrives in
Berkeley to plug her published memoirs. And no, the sign on the window
isn't exaggerated, inflammatory rhetoric. Even so, the buck stops with her
boss, the Psychopath-in-Chief. Apologies to Sassacus, Black Elk, & Sitting Bull.

Coming Soon

  • March 16 -- The Second Coming (in American imagination & popular culture)
  • March 23 -- Airport Security & Other Scams

Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):

Could a teenaged Jew in Hungary, ca. 1944, actively assist the Nazi
Occupiers in robbing other Jews of their wealth and shipping them off
to extermination camps . . . and--decades later--feel not the slightest
guilt or remorse? Easy as
goulash to a psychopath!


    Saturday, February 20, 2010

    Resisting Violence: Kathy Kelly (R) + LIVE on WWUH




    New World Notes News
    Vol. 3, No. 7 -- February 20, 2010

    This Week EXCEPT on WWUH: radio program #103, Feb. 23:

    Resisting Violence: Kathy Kelly


    Last week's installment, "Not ALL Christians Are Evil," started off by whacking the Institutional Church--Protestant Division. This week's starts off by whacking the Roman Catholic Division. Outraged Catholic listeners are asked not to turn off the radio the instant they hear the late Cardinal Spellman described as a "fascist warmonger." Please wait for the "However, . . . ."

    This "encore presentation" (with minor revisions) celebrates and features the great American and Catholic antiwar activist Kathy Kelly. She tells a touching and funny story about ordinary citizens who fought against the U.S. War Machine . . . and won. The hero(ine)s of the story happen to be ordinary citizens of Ireland. But who's to say it wouldn't work just as well at home?

    Kelly says almost nothing about her religious beliefs--which, however, clearly underlie her antiwar crusade. Imagine! Two weeks in a row, we've managed to turn up some people (two of them still alive!) who believe that Christianity requires something other than killing "evildoers," stealing oil, and persecuting homosexuals! Who'd a' thunk?

    (l. to r.:) Kathy Kelly, Australian Catholic Worker activist Ciaron O'Reilly,
    and the five Pitstop Ploughshares, outside the courthouse, Dublin, 2006.

    For details and more photos, please see the blog entry for the original incarnation of this installment: http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/2008/11/resisting-violence-kathy-kelly.html . Note that the links to the audio file on that old page are to the unrevised, lower-audio-fidelity version (installment #39), of December 2008.

    Listeners in central Connecticut--and all others--who wish to hear the updated version of the program (installment #103) can listen online or download an MP3 audio file for later listening. You'll find the download links at the top of this blog page.


    This Tuesday, noon to 1 PM, on WWUH 91.3 and wwuh.org:

    Special Hour-Long Live Show

    In this special broadcast for Pledge Marathon Week, regular but brief appeals for money will punctuate a potpourri of insightful political/social commentary by a range of voices. You'll hear none of these voices on corporate-controlled radio or TV stations--neither the overtly commercial stations nor the ones dependent on grants from Cargill, Exxon Mobil, and other social ils. Plus we'll have a reflection or two by me and two or three songs (not by me).

    Black Agenda Report Senior Columnist Margaret Kimberley

    Pledges of support to any noncommercial, alternative, community-based radio station are always in good taste. Pledges of support to WWUH made by telephone while New World Notes is broadcasting--noon to 1 PM (Eastern) this Tuesday, February 23--are even nicer, as I'll be able to thank you on-air . . . unless you prefer to remain anonymous. A tally is made of the amount pledged by phone during each show--and the loser has to buy beer and pizza for the other 67 volunteer staff members. No, just kidding about the beer and pizza.

    The phone number for pledges is 1 - 800 - 444 - WWUH ( - 9984). You can also pledge online at http://wwuh.org/ or else print out a form and mail in a check (same Internet address).

    Words and voices included in this Tuesday's show come from people including

    • the late the Rt. Hon. Robin Cook, MP--a high official in Tony Blair's Labour government--denouncing the U.K.'s imminent invasion of Iraq and resigning from the Government (March 17, 2003). Ends with the first-ever standing ovation in the House of Commons. Then the next day they voted for war. Cook died in 2005
    • Margaret Cook--Robin's estranged divorced wife at the time of the resignation--in a stunning new appreciation marking the Chilcot Inquiry, titled, "I'm So Proud of You, Robin Cook" (February 7, 2010)
    • Margaret Kimberley on the Obama administration claiming the right--and attempting--to assassinate U.S. citizens (Don't the 5th and 12th Amendments sort of discourage this sort of thing?)
    • Jello Biafra, in the summer of 2008, predicting almost exactly what an Obama presidency would be like. Jello's batting average: .980. He failed to imagine assassinating American citizens or the magnitude of the strings-free giveaway of the nation's wealth to Wall Street
    • Michael Parenti, from a phone interview with me last October, discussing the real agenda of U.S. foreign policy
    • comedians Jimmy Tingle and George Carlin, proving that you can be serious and funny too. And that even the darkest tragedy can use a little Comic Relief. Yes, we do lighten up from time to time . . . at frequent intervals!
    • 3 Vietnam Veterans--Greg Payton, Susan Schnall, and David Kline-- recalling their and other GIs' rebellion against an evil and unnecessary war
    • urban poet Benjamin Zephaniah, showing the ill effects of bad media choice, in "(I've Been Listening to the) Rong Radio Station"--performed in the back of a cab driving around west London. Listener, beware! Don't let this happen to you!*

    Robin Cook, denouncing the imminent Iraq War and resigning from
    Blair's Labour Government, March 17, 2003. His speech prompted
    the first-ever standing
    ovation in the House of Commons. "Principled
    resignation" is another bit of eccentric British behavior unknown in
    the upper ranks of American government. Compare Colin Powell.

    Catch New World Notes (all times Eastern):


    * Thanks to fellow radio guy Tereza Coraggio (http://www.thirdparadigm.org/) for finding & sharing the Zephaniah video from which I'll broadcast the audio.