Because People Matter Progressive News and Views September / October 2007

Inside this issue:Editorial.............................................. 2Healthcare.for.All................................ 2Impeachment—Not.on.the.news......... 3Media.reform:.a.priority..................... 49/11.investigation.needed................... 5Talk.City.Radio................................... 6Democracy.Now!................................ 6Mainstream media: too little, too late. 7Making.a.Movie.................................. 8TV.stations.get.report.card................. 9Films:.“A.Place.Called.Sacramento”..9Journalism.Ethics................................ 9West.Coast.Diversity.Summit.......... 10Free.Internet.for.Sacramento............ 10Sacramento.Area.Peace.Action......... 12Big.Media.and.the.War..................... 13Israel/Palestine.reporting.................. 13Book.Review:.Assault on Reason... 14Calendar............................................ 15Progressive.Media............................. 16

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Media Spin on Iraq: We’re Leaving (Sort of)By Norman SolomonPosted on “AlterNet” July 26, 2007

In mid-July, a media advisory from “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” announced a new series of inter-views on the PBS show that will address “what Iraq might look like when the US military leaves.”

A few days later, Time magazine published a cover story titled “Iraq: What will happen when we leave.”

But it turns out, what will happen when we leave is that we won’t leave.

Urging a course of action that’s now supported by “the best strategic minds in both parties,” the Time story calls for “an orderly withdrawal of about half the 160,000 troops currently in Iraq by the middle of 2008. … A force of 50,000 to 100,000 troops would dig in for a lon-ger stay to protect America’s most vital interests….”

On Iraq policy, in Washington, the differences between Republicans and Democrats—and between the media’s war boosters and opponents—are often signifi-cant. Yet they’re apt to mask the emergence of a general formula that could gain wide support from the political and media establishment.

The formula’s details and timelines are up for grabs. But there’s not a single “major” candidate for president willing to call for withdrawal of all US forces—not just

By Dan Bacher

Sacramento for Democracy, a chapter of Progres-sive Democrats of America, hosted the local movie premiere of “War Made Easy: How Presi-dents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,” in July at the Crest Theatre in Sacramento with a large and enthusiastic crowd.

Author Norman Solomon, on whose book the film is based, was joined by Assemblyman Mark Leno and Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, sponsor of Assembly Joint Resolution 36, the bill to bring the California National Guard home from Iraq, for a live-ly panel discussion after the movie. Christine Craft, Sacramento’s own progressive radio talk show host of “Talk City,” on 1240 AM moderated the discussion.

The documentary exposes how corporate media and US presidents over the past 50 years have been partners in disinformation campaigns to promote a series of bloody, costly and unnecessary wars, includ-ing interventions in Vietnam, Central America, Yugo-slavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Adapted from Solomon’s 2005 book, by Loretta Alper and Jeremy Earp of the Media Education Foun-dation, the film chronicles how presidents managed to sell war using the same Orwellian arguments with the help of a compliant media. Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, the film exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have disseminated pro-war messages in one adminis-tration after another.

The movie documents in a darkly humorous mat-ter how presidential administrations claimed again and again they were seeking only peace, not conflict, while bombing thousands of civilians. The film fea-tures illuminating quotes from presidents about the US corporate state’s drive for war.

“We still seek no wider war,” President Lyndon Johnson said as he escalated a war in Vietnam that resulted in the deaths of 3 million Vietnamese and more than 50,000 US soldiers.

“The United States does not start fights,” said President Ronald Reagan, who engineered a war of genocide against the Mayan population of Guatemala wiping out 636 Mayan villages, along with military

interventions in Nicaragua, El Salvador and other countries. These interventions resulted in thousands dead, a massive exodus of refugees, and the destruc-tion of country infrastructures.

“America does not seek conflict,” argued George H.W. Bush, the architect of Operation Desert Storm and the invasion of Panama. Yet another mass mur-derer supported by the corporate media.

President Bill Clinton repeatedly bombed Yugo-slavia and Iraq, killing thousands of Iraqis, mostly children, through his campaign of economic sanc-tions against Iraq, and claimed, “I don’t like to use military force.”

George W. Bush, who advanced a “preventa-tive war” by illegally invading Afghanistan and Iraq, told the world, “Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly.”

By demonstrating how mainstream news has promoted endless war, the film dispels the notion of a liberal media propagated by right wing pundits. Solomon said when the news media finally starts entertaining the view that the war was based on lies, it is too late for the millions wounded and killed by the US military. “News media, down the road, will point out that there were lies about the Gulf of Tonkin or about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” said Solomon in the film. “But that doesn’t bring back any of the people who have died. When it comes to life and death, the truth comes out too late.”

Reaction to the movie was favorable by the audi-ence and panel members. “This film should be shown in every high school in America,” Craft said. Hancock also commented, “The propaganda techniques to wage war have been the same throughout our history. The question is how we inoculate our children against the propaganda.” Solomon encouraged screenings of the film throughout the country to revive and strengthen the anti-war movement.

For more information: www.warmadeeasythemovie.org.

Dan Bacher is an outdoor writer, alternative journalist and satirical songwriter in Sacramento.

“War Made Easy”—How Presidents and Media Collude to Wage War

See Solomon, page 11

Q & A discussion with author Norman Solomon after screening of “War Made Easy,” a film based on his book. From left to right, AM1240’s Christine Craft, Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, Assemblyman Mark Leno and Normon Soloman. Photo: Dick Wood

� Because People Matter September / October �007 www.bpmnews.org

People MatterVolume 16, Number 5Published Bi-Monthly by the Sacramento Community for Peace & Justice P.O. Box 162998, Sacramento, CA 95816 (Use addresses below for correspondence)

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because Editorial

On the coverA small sampling of the many books and maga-zine articles which are calling for the impeach-ment of George Bush and Dick Cheney.

JoAnn Fuller and Charlene Jones, Coordinating Editors for This Issue

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As is characteristic of BPM, this issue brings you news and opinion not covered by corporate media. We focus particu-larly on media activities by community members doing what they must to find expression or con-tend with the misdirection of Big Media shaping public discourse. Do you feel the media isn’t tell-ing the story, supplying diversity in art and analy-sis or covering important local issues? You aren’t alone. There is a vibrant media reform movement in our country that is making demands and

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on local television? Check out the efforts of the Sacramento Media Group and others. Like to read about success stories? We have those, too. And there are stories reporting on efforts to bring health care for all, the costs of war, getting to the bottom of Sept. 11, impeachment and more. We introduce writers new to BPM this issue and deliver some of our seasoned regulars. Take a look for yourself and don’t forget; the calendar page lists upcoming events you won’t want to miss.

By Elaine CornBeware the news story about health

care reform that does not mention state Senate Bill 840, the only proposed law that would provide universal single-payer health care to all Californians as a benefit of residence in the state.

For example, a story ran in The Sacramento Bee (“Term limit measure lures health care donors,” 7-16-07) about health care providers contributing in a crisscross affair to term limits measures that would preserve the seats of those members of the state senate who would “hurt” the for-profit health care industry the least. As confusing as the story was, it did attempt to provide background about the health care reform plans swirling through the Capitol building halls. But the list was incomplete.

Readers saw the governor’s big idea, errone-ously billed as “universal” and with its mandate to buy insurance from industry Bigs. Then there’s the Nuñez-Perata plan, which sets up a purchasing pool only for businesses, doesn’t cover the self-employed, and keeps private insur-ers in play, making it more like US Senator Ted Stevens’s bridge in Alaska—the Health Care Bill to Nowhere.

The story fails to mention the one plan that truly covers everyone, SB 840, Senator Sheila Kuehl’s cradle-to-grave health care for all Califor-nians. Rarely do media mention the legs this bill has grown and the progress it continues to make.

This past August, in a rare showing of elected officials representing the will of the people, SB 840 passed both houses, but was vetoed by the people’s governor. A snide observer might con-clude this is precisely when Schwarzenegger got the idea he should come up with his own plan

so he could claim to have invented the concept.

Perhaps SB 840 was omitted from The Bee’s story because it takes profit out of health care, therefore making it pointless to note contributions to politicians who do not take money from private insurers, such as Kuehl. Remembering that this story linked lob-byist donations to proposed reconfigurations of term limits, the writer also outlined how a Febru-ary 2008 ballot measure would tighten term lim-its, except for Nuñez and Perata. Unfortunately, he missed a chance to note that Kuehl terms out next year under current law. Could it be an accident that she won’t get the special treatment singled out for Nuñez and Perata so they remain in their leadership positions? Nuñez would get six years beyond 2008, Perata four. Kuehl would have to walk away. And the Health Care Bill to Nowhere would continue its journey to failed policy, keeping profit safely entrenched in our

True Health Care Reform: Any News? Then there’s the Nuñez-Perata plan, which sets up a purchasing pool only for businesses, doesn’t cover the self-employed, and keeps private insurers in play, making it more like US Senator Ted Stevens’s bridge in Alaska—the Health Care Bill to Nowhere.

BPM is sad to say farewell to Seth Sandronsky, whose mordant observations have appeared in the paper almost from the start. His vigorous “Media Clipped” seg-ment of the publication covered topics as wide ranging as economics, racism, education and gun violence. You will continue to find San-dronsky pieces on Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, and in the pages of The News and Review. We appreciated his careful editing and penetrating analysis and we will miss him.

Goodbye, Seth

SB 840: health care for all California.

medical futures—and these two in office. Who will carry the SB 840 torch after 2008?

And who among us will call out to the media every time health care reform is mentioned without containing a discussion or sentence acknowledging that SB 840, the true universal single-payer proposal, is the answer. We all must keep SB 840 alive and well. We must all be media watchdogs.

More information: www.onecarenow.org/index.html

Elaine Corn is a freelance journalist with no health insurance.

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By Charlene Jones

Cindy Sheehan, founder of Gold Star Families for Peace and Camp Casey, led marchers in July from Arlington National Cemetery to the office of Congressman John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Commit-tee, to ask him to begin impeachment proceed-ings against Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush. Sheehan’s contingent, while filled with names familiar to readers, is but one of a mounting number of less familiar actions and organizations across the country committed to addressing Constitutional griev-ances against the White House. Nonetheless, corporate media continue to dismiss, as did Rep. Conyers, the upsurge in American insistence on accountability by the Bush administration.

Numerous city, county and state measures have been disregarded, according to Project Censored, a media analysis center at Sonoma State University, along with hundreds of letters to editors of major newspapers, opinion writers across the country and cover articles by national publications like The Nation and Harper’s Maga-zine. Sheehan also presented Rep. Conyers with a petition containing more than a million sig-natures, according to a July broadcast of public news program “Democracy Now,” with little mention in mainstream news. In addition, one of the most popular questions submitted on “You-tube” for the July presidential candidates’ debate dealt with impeachment, according to the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center (LANIC), and CNN chose to skip it.

After Vice President Al Gore called “a president who breaks the law a threat to the very structure of our government,” PBS television’s McLaughlin Group spent a few minutes early this year on the “I” word but dismissed impeach-ment mentions as “a growing movement on the left trying to get some attention.” On a June air-ing of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Tom Foreman commented on Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) efforts to forward articles of impeachment against Cheney. “It’s hardly a mass movement, said Forman, “but the congressman from Cleve-land is picking up a few new pals.” How about those pals?

Nearly two years after Zogby International and Ipsos polls in 2005 reported more Americans wanted Congress to consider impeaching Presi-dent Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, than those who did not, the American Research Group surveyed the impeachment question again. More than four in 10 Americans favored impeach-ment hearings for President Bush and 54 percent favored impeachment of Vice President Cheney.

As of June, 11 state legislatures had con-sidered impeachment resolutions, according to LANIC, with Vermont succeeding in passage and Maine and Wisconsin still pending. The list of state Democratic parties that have passed resolu-tions urging impeachment of Bush and Cheney

In addition, one of the most popular questions submitted on Youtube for the July presidential candidates’ debate dealt with impeachment, according to the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center, and CNN chose to skip it.

has grown to 15. At least 77 cities and towns and a growing list of labor unions and other organiza-tions have also passed such declarations. Accord-ing to “Democracy Now!,” the cosponsor list for H.R. 333, Dennis Kucinich’s articles of impeach-ment against Cheney, is now up to 15. While not a member of Congress who may join the list, Bruce Fein also called for proceedings to begin.

Fein was deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and columnist for the conservative Washington News. For an hour dur-ing a July PBS broadcast of “Bill Moyers Journal” he laid out reasoning for all good women and men to demand inquiry into possible crimes by Bush and Cheney against the American people.

Fein praised “the great genius of the found-ing fathers, their revolutionary ideas, with the chief mission of the state to make you and them free to pursue their ambitions and faculties. Not to build empires, not to aggrandize government. That’s the mission for the state, to make them free, to think, to chart their own destiny. And the burden is on our government to give really good explanations as to why they’re taking these extraordinary measures. And on that score, Bush has flunked on every single occasion. And we need to get the American people to think. Every time that there’s an incursion on freedom, they have to demand why.”

Advocating for formal hearings on the impeachment, Fein said, “Because there are political crimes that have been perpetrated in combination. It hasn’t been one, the other being in isolation. And the hearings have to be not into this Republican or Democrat. This is something that needs to set a precedent, whoever occupies the White House in 2009. You do not want to have that occupant, whether it’s John McCain or Hillary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani or John Edwards, to have this authority to go outside the law and say, ‘I am the law. I do what I want. No one else’s view matters.’” Impeachment? Though you’d never know, the prospect is more popular every day. It seems more than a few new pals are lining up.

Charlene Jones is an editor with Because People Matter.

Impeachment Movement? Not on Mainstream News

California Democratic Party Impeachment Resolution, Adopted April 2007

CALLING FOR FULL INVESTIGATION INTO ABUSES OF POWER BY PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH AND RICHARD B. CHENEY

WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice President, subversive of the Constitution, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of Cali-fornia and the United States of America, by intentionally disseminating and propagating knowingly false and fabricated “evidence” regarding the threat from Iraq in order to wage a tragic, bloody war with the loss of thousands of brave American troops and Iraqi civilians, and WHEREAS, it is clear that since September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have abused their powers of office by: 1) using information they knew to be false as justification for the US invasion of Iraq; 2) condoning and authorizing the torture of prisoners of war; 3) authorizing wiretaps on US citizens without obtaining a warrant; 4) disclosing the name of an under-cover CIA operative contrary to law in order to harm her for her husband’s opposition to the Iraq War; 5) having suspended and denied the historic Writ of Habeas Corpus by ordering the indefinite detention of so-called enemy com-batants without charge and without access to legal counsel; and 6) overstepping Presidential authority by signing statements used to ignore or circumvent portions of over 750 Congres-sional statutes he brought into law; and THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports vigorous investigation of these charges by the Congress of the United States, including the full use of Congressional subpoena power authority to completely disclose the actions of the Admin-istration to the American people and to take necessary action to call the Administration to account with appropriate remedies and pun-ishment, including impeachment.

For information, organizing tools and petitions: www.ipetitions.com/petition/moveontoimpeachmentwww.democrats.com/join-our-impeachment-group-on-facebookwww.democrats.com/impeach-cheney-congressional-recordwww.impeachspace.comwww.afterdowningstreet.orgwww.impeachbush.tvwww.impeachpac.orgwww.bcimpeach.com

� Because People Matter September / October �007 www.bpmnews.org

Sacramento Progressive Events Calendar on the Web

Labor, Peace, Environment, Human Rights, Solidarity…

Send calendar items to Gail Ryall,gryall @cwnet.com.

www.sacleft.org

BeSt BuRGeRthe burgers and fries are described as legendaryBiting into this feast, the first thing you notice is that you can taste the beef. The French Ground Steak Burger w/cheese is the thing to order. That is a mouthful to say, and it’s definitely more than a mouthful to eat. Featuring

Harris Ranch Steak freshly ground and formed into a 1/3 lb. patty. Stop by soon. Nationwide Freezer Meats 1930 H Street, Sacramento (H and 20th Streets) 444-3286. Just remember H20 stands for H and 20th Street ««««

By Kari WestermanSince the beginning of the Bush administra-

tion and the ongoing battle of media ownership consolidation, independent media has been a refuge for people with dissenting views. It has allowed the questioning of power when no others would dare and has been a reassuring voice to concerned citizens, who may have thought they were crazy, in light of what they saw or heard on mainstream news.

“The alternative media, over a period of years now has been available as a source of comfort for people,” said Eric Vega, lifelong Sacramento resident, Chicano activist and chair of La Raza Network. However, like many in the community, Vega feels that unless action is taken to create a hard-hitting local independent media, the progressive movement in Sacramento will not advance.

The success of alternative new broadcasts like “Democracy Now!” demonstrates a thirst for independent information and analysis on a national level, but it leaves reporting of local news to the corporate media.

According to a study conducted in January 2004 by the Consumer Federation of America, the first source people rely on for their local news is newspapers and the second is television. Ste-phen Pearcy, Sacramento resident and attorney, organizes many political events and has wit-nessed the positives and negatives of local media coverage.

“Once KCRA came down and did a live broadcast about 30 minutes before the start of an event, and we ended up with several hundred people, many of whom said they had just heard about it on TV. What that told me was that there are a lot of people who would come to these things if they just knew about them,” said Pearcy, giving an example of how important the local media is to a community, if used effectively as a tool of a social movement.

“Part of the problem with local media is that a lot of the local groups don’t do their homework,” said Duane Campbell, professor

at California State University, Sacra-mento and chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. Campbell, with other democratic pioneers, is organizing a progressive forum for Oct. 4, 2007 at CSUS. One of the focal points will be media because media is an important part of a democracy, according to Campbell. Some of the workshops will be lessons in how to contact the press, write press releases and simple reporting.

Without reform of current corporate media institutions and the advancement of an inclusive media, the ability to disburse messages of peace and justice will not exist and the progressive movement will perpetually preach only to the choir.

“Every time there is a problem someone tries to create a new media instead of making the existing one work better,” Campbell said. “It just gets to a proliferation of low quality alternatives instead of some very high quality alternatives.”

Faye Kennedy, a Sacramentan who puts together the weekly online newsletter The Talking Drum, said that she feels it is important to take action rather than whining about a problem. “It won’t benefit us unless we are involved on a ground level of defining how things are cov-ered,” Kennedy said. “I think that all of us are writers, all of us may not be journalists, but we have the capacity to share our information with one another.” Kennedy thinks if the community agreed to contribute to media reform and worked to expand a more inclusive outlet of news, the outcome would be favorable for all.

If communities do not band together, and concern themselves with the importance of a vibrant independent media, progressive move-ments will operate in a vacuum. If there is no accessible forum in which to share ideas and learn from each other, there is no capacity to move forward. “The progressive media can’t be the holder of truth, but it’s the holder of questions. It is what questions power, and ques-tions tradition and all of the mono-liths of the conservative project generals,” said Vega.

What can you do to help the enrichment of local media? Write news stories and post them to

websites like www.sacindymedia.org or submit them to Because People Matter. They don’t have to be investigative pieces, but can be about local events or something not getting attention from mainstream media. Become a member at Access Sacra-

mento and take a basic filmmaking class. After certification, borrow their swanky equipment and produce your own show for the local cable access channel. Contact: 456-8600 or visit www.access-sacramento.org. If reform is more your style, get involved

with Sacramento Media Group. Meet people who share concerns and do something about them. Contact: 443-1792 ex.11 or smg@common-cause.org. Use the mainstream media as a tool

by writing letters and link to blogs. Support alternative publications and websites financially! Without subscribers and monetary support, independent media could not exist.

Kari Westerman is a member of Sacramento Media Group.

If communities do not band together, and concern themselves with the importance of a vibrant independent media, progressive movements will operate in a vacuum.

Why Media Reform Should Be a Priority Community leaders and activists sound off

They took a stand!Actually many stands. They cleaned them up and painted them, and put beautiful new plastic in the windows. Big thanks to Brian Lambert and Dan Harriman for their hard work. They’ve improved BPM’s image—and circulation at those stands—by at least 100%.

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CAAC Goes to the MoviesALMoSt EVEry MoNththe Central America Action Committee shows interesting and informative videos on social justice, labor struggles, and so much more! Call to see what’s playing this month…WE ALSO HAVE A VIDEO LIBRARY YOU CAN CHECK OUT.1640 9th Ave (east off Land Park Dr) INFo: 446-3304

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No problem! BPM has a volunteer job you can do from home. You don’t need a car, a computer or even much time: we need someone to update the local group meetings and radio programs listed in our paper. Call Ellen at 369-5510 for details.

Place an ad for your business or nonprofit group: Business card size ads only $40 (or $30 if run in multiple issues). Call 446-2844 for more info.

According to a May 2006 Zogby poll, 42 percent of the public believe the US government and its 9/11 Commission covered-up, concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence from the tragic events of Sept.11. Laying aside the mystique surrounding Sept.11, it was nothing more than a crime—the worst mass murder in American his-tory—but just a crime. Nevertheless, the Bush regime and controlled media called it an “act of war.”

No detectives of the New York City Police Department taped off this crime scene, took photographs or samples of chemical residues for analysis. No investigators gathered evidence and followed that evidence wherever trails led to find possible perpetrators.

Bill Manning, editor of Fire Engineering Magazine, called the three-day, visual walk-through of evidence sites a “half-baked farce” in the January 2002 issue. Crime scene evidence was destroyed as rapidly as pos-sible, and the steel shipped away.

Immediately follow-ing this horrendous crime, while the nation was traumatized, Bush admin-istration officials and their media spokespersons told the public it was Muslims with box-cutters who were responsible. No proof of this story’s veracity was ever given. Well over a year later, the 9/11 Commission was reluctantly formed, and its report, under Bush crony Philip Zelikow, simply substantiated the story it began with, and ignored vast amounts of evidence that did not fit its conclusions.

According to research and sources available on the websites listed below, some of the most compelling questions and facts include:

1) It is Standard Operating Procedure to scramble jetfighters whenever a jetliner goes off course or radio contact is lost. Between

September 2000 and June 2001, jetfighters were scrambled 67 times. On Sept. 11, Flight 77 was in the air for nearly an hour without radio con-tact before the Pentagon was hit. F-15 and F-16 jetfighters are three to four times faster than a jetliner’s 600mph. Andrews Air Force Base is only ten miles from the Pentagon and Langley

Air Force Base, 130 miles away. Where was the North American Aerospace Defense Command? Why were routine interception procedures for all four airplanes not followed on Sept. 11?

2) Firefighters in New York City are professionals, trained to fight all types of fires in skyscrapers. On Sept.11, they knew a mere jet fuel fire could not bring

down steel and concrete structures, since such fires cannot approach the temperatures needed to weaken or melt steel. Consequently, they went into the World Trade Center Towers to rescue people and knock down the fires. New York Fire Department Battalion Chief Orio J. Palmer reached the impact zone of the South Tower on

the 78th floor at 9:48 am and, according to a record-ing of his radio transmis-sion, reported, “Battalion 7, Ladder 15, we’ve got two isolated pockets of fire. We should be able to knock it down with two lines.” El even minutes later, the South Tower began to explode.

3) About an hour to an hour and a half after the airplanes hit, each Twin Tower inexplicably exploded. Starting at the top and continuing downward for all 110 floors, each Tower was pulverized at a rate of almost 10 floors per

second, killing everyone in each building. In about 13 seconds 90,000 tons of solid concrete in each Tower was turned to a fine dust in mid-air. There were no concrete boulders in the rubble. This dust spread out from the scene of destruction in a pyroclastic flow, like that fol-lowing a volcanic eruption, and covered Manhat-tan. Huge pieces of steel were hurled laterally for hundreds of feet in all directions. Molten metal could be seen streaming from the side of the South Tower as it exploded, and the pile of rubble itself contained molten steel for weeks afterward.

This evidence points to the use of high explo-sives. Numerous eyewitnesses, including many emergency personnel, have testified to explosions in the Towers. These facts are all documented in photographs, videotaped evidence and video-

taped eyewitness statements. 4) A third skyscraper, WTC Building 7, a

steel-framed 47 story concrete structure as big as a city block, 300 feet from the closest Tower, was not hit by an airplane or significant debris, and only a few small fires of unknown origin could be seen in its hundreds and hundreds of windows. At 5:20 pm on Sept.11, Building 7 suddenly imploded into its own footprint. It cascaded to earth in less than seven seconds in the manner of a controlled demolition. The implosion of WTC Building 7 was not even mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Why should the mass murder known as “9/11” be treated as an exception for which the rule of law does not apply? Congress has never addressed its many anomalies. The American public wants and deserves an unbiased, indepen-dent investigation with the power to subpoena witnesses. This is not an unreasonable request. Moreover, the real perpetrators may still run free. Because justice has never been served, a dark cloud hangs over our nation, and will until there is an actual investigation into this crime. Contact your congressional representatives to let them know you expect to have this grievance redressed. Demand an investigation and work for an independent 9/11 truth commission.

www.911truth.org www.patriotsquestion911.comwww.tvnewslies.org/html/9_11_facts.html

See calendar page 15 for meetings of Sacra-mento 9/11 Truth.

David R. Kimball is active in the 9/11 truth movement. Stop at his information table at the Sunday Farmers Market at W and 8th Streets. The posters shown with this article are available on www.911truth.org.

Needed: A Real Investigation For the Crime Known as 9/11By David R. Kimball

Because justice has never been served, a dark cloud hangs over our nation, and will until there is an actual investigation into this crime.

� Because People Matter September / October �007 www.bpmnews.org

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By Jeanie Keltner

Since we all know that what passes for left in corporate media is anything not extreme right, and because media helps create real-ity, it’s heartening to know these days radio dis-cussion has widened beyond Limbaugh lines.

Progressive talk radio is up against formi-dable opposition. Its ratings are great for the stage of growth it’s in; it has an audience. Although listen-ers may support progressive talk, advertisers are a different story. A leaked 2006 ABC radio network memo named 90 companies asking to be excluded from advertising on Air America, including Walmart, General Electric, ExxonMobil, Bank of America, VISA, Allstate and McDonalds, according to Extra!, January/February 2007, the magazine of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. Hardly surprising since the progressive critique most often comes back to the negative practices of corporations and global capitalism.

For a brief time, our area had two AM stations competing for our lefty ears. The Air America station ended when the parent organiza-tion underwent financial crisis and, though Air America was reconstituted, our local Air America station was not resurrected. The FM dial has

for years had KVMR, KDVS and Access Sacramento’s “The Voice” as independent resources. And hap-pily, on AM our area still has Sacramento’s first progressive station, the increasingly lively “Talk City,” KSAC 1240AM.

I am farther left than many KSAC hosts, but still I enjoy their commentary and the useful info they put out. Talk radio is like the letters to the editor section of the paper. Even when I feel least congruent with the host, say Ed Schultz (9–12 am), I enjoy hearing what callers have to say. It’s always

interesting and most often affirming to hear the voices of the “people”—all of us who capture the microphone only rarely, but who have informed opinions and many good ideas.

Though she’s obstreperous and sometimes rude, I love Brooklyn-tough Randi Rhodes (noon–3 pm). She’s so well informed, so passion-ate, and so aware of the comic paradoxes of our tragic political situation that I tune in for a while almost every day. And dynamic Christine Craft (3–6 pm) has been an immeasurable practical asset to progressive activism in our area, always willing to discuss and announce upcoming

events, open to on-air discussion with visiting speakers, and ready to courageously stand up for people and causes, however popular they may or may not be.

On Saturdays, I try to catch upbeat Peter Brixie’s “Ask-a-Lawyer” (9–11 am), a brilliant idea Brixie started on Access Sacramento. In these days of the $500/hour lawyer, his program helpfully navigates the important terrain where law affects ordinary individuals—landlord-ten-ant disputes, malpractice, custody—performing a true social service to us all. I also love hear-ing Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Mike Papantonio aggressively take on corporate crooks, polluters, hypocritical preachers and ugly politicians (Sat. noon–3 pm, Sun. 5–7 pm). There’s also travel and gardening, religion from a progressive point of view, Sam Seder and Arianna Huffington, the Young Turks, Steve Earle, Chuck D and “Radio Parallax.” Thank you for being there, TALK CITY!

For a complete schedule: www.1��0talkcity.com and www.fair.org for documentation of corporate media’s right-wing bias.

By W. Randy Haynes

Journalist Bill Moyers, in his 2007 speech at the National Conference for Media Reform, called on people to “organize a campaign to persuade your local public television station to start airing ‘Democracy Now.’ ” Well, that was after he stopped gushing over Amy Goodman, award-winning journalist and host of the news program.

Heeding Moyers’ call to action, Sacramento Progressive Alliance, the local affiliate of United for Peace & Justice, voted to actively encourage Sacramento’s PBS television station, KVIE, to add “Democracy Now! The War & Peace Report” to its broadcast schedule. Powerless at times when facing the world’s problems, this effort can fur-ther progressive change in Sacramento by work-ing together to give “Democracy Now!” a wider audience.

Goodman speaks for a large segment of the population who believes progressive views have

been muffled and/or censored from the demo-cratic dialogue. By putting progressive shows on cable public access stations, the sub-stations of satellite TV and late night time slots, liberal per-spectives are seen unfairly, and as “alternative,” meaning that most of America automatically tunes out. As a consequence, America and its democracy are poorer in numerous ways.

Information is the bedrock of any democ-racy. A full spectrum of thought is required for it to function properly, but that isn’t what most Americans get. Twenty percent of all Americans identify as liberal, according to the New York Times (6-26-07). When it comes to most issues, a large plurality agrees with progressive solutions. Yet, when one watches mainstream news, only centrist and conservative viewpoints are given, with very few exceptions. Liberals are cut out of the mainstream national debate. From war, health care and civil liberties, to election fraud and eroding democracy, it’s easy to see how the nation has been damaged by this omission in the public discourse.

Viewers must be thankful to the dedicated people on public access stations, LINK TV, and FSTV; in no way does this local effort to bring “Democracy Now!” to KVIE intend to diminish their vital work. Information and news program-ming like Goodman’s would never have been heard without them. But they aren’t enough. The left can no longer accept marginalization. Full inclusion at the table of ideas is not something that will be offered; it will have to be demanded. It’s impossible to imagine conservatives allowing their views to be shunted to inferior venues and timeslots.

Ron Cooper, executive director of Access Sacramento, used the phrase, “friends of Amy,” when speaking about the Moyers’ request and there is not a more fitting icon for progressive America than Goodman. Contact KVIE and let them know they are not meeting their stated pur-pose of reflecting “the community back to itself ” when it comes to news. Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” is too vital to Sacramento’s progressive community be marginalized.

Email KVIE: member@kvie.orgContact Sacramento Friends of Amy:

calyboys-dn@yahoo.com or 956-0680. W. Randy Haynes is a member of the Uni-

tarian Universalist Society of Sacramento and Veterans for Peace, and a Board Member of Sac-ramento Progressive Alliance. He is the author of Cajun Snuff, the first book of the Adam Stephen mystery series. Murder by the Sacred Tree, his second novel, takes place in Sacramento and will soon be released.

Beyond LimbaughTalk City widens the dialogue

Talk radio is like the letters to the editor section of the paper.”

Democracy Now!Saving our democracy one show at a time

In this 2005 photo, Amy Goodman and Ron Cooper, Executive Director of Access Sacramento, remind us that Access Sacramento airs “Democracy Now!” every weekday at 5am, 6pm and midnight.Photo: William Bronston

www.bpmnews.org September / October �007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 7

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Mainstream MediaToo little, too lateBy William A. Dorman

One thing that often confuses ordinary Americans about mainstream journal-ism is that they do, in fact, know about so many foreign policy misadventures of their government. Knowing about the Administration’s use of phony intelligence before the Iraq war or its outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, they believe we have a “free” press. However, we learn of bad behavior only as history, long after the moment for political outrage and possible action has passed.

Whether it’s learning about the CIA’s respon-sibility for overthrowing popular governments in Iran and Guatemala, or Chile, when it comes to foreign affairs, citizens who depend, say, on CBS or The New York Times have to make do with a

repeatedly delayed learning curve. The war with Iraq has been no exception. By the time the press informed us we’d been lied to about the reasons for invading Iraq, we were already focused on a new phase, occupation, which led to its own rev-elations that in turn came to be overshadowed by a ferocious civil war.

To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, we’re always looking at present and future American foreign policy behavior through the media’s rear view mirror. And even then, objects in the journalistic mirror aren’t presented nearly clearly enough to spark challenges to entrenched power.

Yes, more than a year after the invasion, The New York Times (5- 26-04) came to apologize for its deferential reporting leading up to the 2003 Iraq war, and, yes, The Times, some four years after the invasion (7-8-07), finally called for an orderly withdrawal of the US from Iraq, and, yes, The Washington Post recently (7-14-07) reported in irrefutable detail how Cheney has used and abused power in unprecedented ways, breathtak-ing in their wrong-headedness. But look at how long these positions and revelations were in com-ing, and consider how short they still stop of say-ing what needs to be said. Good journalism has to be timely. It has to make connections, point out patterns, provide context and, beyond any-thing else, identify and clearly label villainy—and call for accountability.

It’s hardly reassuring to reflect that here we are some thirty months into Bush’s second term, long after the extent of the Iraq disaster has become apparent, not to mention warrantless wiretapping, firing US attorneys and muzzling the Surgeon General, and not one major news-paper has called for his resignation or impeach-ment. By comparison, 17 months into Clinton’s second term, 25 US newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, had called for his impeach-ment/resignation, and by the following October, it was more than 115. It would appear that lying

about fellatio harms the interests of the nation more than one might casually assume. More likely it’s the case that the press has no problem taking after a politico’s sex life. Questioning a president’s claims on WMDs is a different matter entirely.

After the fact press coverage that refuses to label disastrous policymaking clearly for what it is affects popular opinion, which then, importantly, affects members of Congress. Given the lack of political courage in Congress to challenge the use of military force, the performance of the mainstream press takes on huge impor-tance. Had the press done a better job in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Democrats might have thought more than twice about voting for the October 2002 Joint Resolution authorizing use of force, particularly given that the public at the time widely favored diplomacy over force. Once that particular train left the station, it was virtually impossible to block Bush’s invasion.

Why the press behaves as it does in the foreign policy arena is not a simple matter, but the crux of the problem lies not in a vast right wing conspiracy, but in the mix of nationalism, militarism and corporate capitalism. When it comes to foreign policy, the defining dimension in popular opinion (and therefore Con-gressional action) is nationalism. If an administration can convince people and elected elites that a policy is consistent with the national mythology, the corpo-rate news and entertainment media is not going to risk the ire of its custom-ers, witness ABC dropping Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” for his controver-sial comment after 9/11.

If the base audience favors a militaristic “my country right or wrong” mythology, mainstream journalism isn’t going to get in the way of the parade. Put another way, journalism simply is no match for mindless nationalism, journalistic careerism, and bottom-line corporatism.

A friend of long experience as for-eign editor at major news organizations has said, “The average editor in the aver-age newsroom, worried about appearing political, bends not toward the right, but away from the left, overcompensating for their natural proclivities [to speak the uncomfortable truth about government lies]. It’s a false system, as if they feel always under attack by the same claptrap voices that charge fair judges with being “activist” judges.” He goes on to say, “They have abrogated power to the O’Reilly’s of the world, which may be the reason that Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert speak to power so effectively. They fill the obvious void.”

Some observers would have us believe that the Iraq disaster has been so obviously a policy wreck of historic dimension that mainstream journalism has finally learned lessons about offi-cial duplicity and imperial policymaking that it should have mastered much earlier. Given recent Bush Administration declarations about the US reserving the right to strike within Pakistan and Iran, we may get to test the proposition sooner rather than later.

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Good journalism has to be timely. It has to make connections, point out patterns, provide context and, beyond anything else, identify and clearly label villainy—and call for accountability.

Feb. 15 2003: “Elected Presidents’ Day” demonstration in San Francisco. Real journalists also criticize bad government! Photo: www.thomasalbert.com

William A. Dorman recently retired from a 40-year career at CSUS teaching government and media studies. He has published and lectured widely in this country and abroad, and is co-author with Mansour Farhang of US Press and Iran: Foreign Policy and the Journalism of Deference (U.C. Press, 1987).

� Because People Matter September / October �007 www.bpmnews.org

By Travis Silcox

Doesn’t everyone secretly, or not so secretly, want to make a movie? I’m just like the rest of the world, except as a teacher of film studies at Sac-ramento City College, I work with students every year to analyze films and learn about the movie-making process. Wasn’t it about time to try my hand at it?

Access Sacramento, the local community media station, gave me my opportunity to write and produce a ten-minute film by means of its annual screenwriting contest, “A Place Called Sacramento.” In its eighth year, all the short films feature Sacramento in some way and

winners of this year’s contest will show their work on Oct. 7 at the Crest Theatre.

My desire is to make films that speak to our social condition and give people a glimpse of how our world could be more just, thoughtful and fulfilling. I sure don’t want to make Hollywood films for a target audience of 11 to 17-year-old boys and give them the same old recycled crap—violence, homopho-bia, racism, misogyny and the status

quo.I finished

principal pho-tography on my little film, “Entering the Booth,” and the whole process was empower-ing, challenging and fun! But, to quote George Bush, and you need to read this with his fake Texas whine, “It’s hard work.”

My screenplay was based on oral histories I conducted with 35 people living in mid-town Sacramento. I chose three couples I thought would be most compelling to audiences who are unfamiliar with our wonderful midtown vibe, peo-ple who could communicate the essence of our diverse, pro-gressive neighborhood. Next,

By JoAnn Fuller

Before the general election in 2006, the Sacramento Media Group met with local television station managers to discuss their plans for election cover-age—a critical part of a broadcaster’s mandated obliga-tion to serve the public interest—and encouraged them to meet the national TV election coverage broadcasting guidelines developed by the bipartisan Presidential Advi-sory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. SMG then monitored the sta-tions’ news programs and evaluated their performance in providing informative coverage of the candidates, their positions and ballot measure issues.

The monitoring study showed only one Sacramento station, Channel 3, met the recommended minimum standard of five minutes per night of election-related coverage during the month before Election Day. During the fall, the five local stations received an estimated total of $32 million in revenues from election-related political advertising. Advertising rates ranged as high as $10,000 for a single spot. Yet it appeared most stations spent a small fraction of their earnings to inform voters about

their choices.The content of the news was also a disappoint-

ment. Based on the monitoring, the race for governor received the most coverage, even though the race was not competitive during the final month, according to the “California Election Survey” of the Rasmussen Reports, October 2006. Only 13.8 percent of the coverage focused on congressional races and a mere 1.6 percent on state legislative races. Viewers were six times more likely to see a campaign ad than an election news story.

Unfortunately, two of five local stations, Channels 10 and 19, refused to meet with SMG representatives or provide summaries of their plans for election coverage. This was particularly noteworthy given that in 2006 all California stations were to apply for re-license by the Federal Communications Commission, which requires stations to invite public comment on their activities. Yet these two stations denied community members from SMG an opportunity to exchange views. Nor did SMG receive any written response regarding the stations’ plans for election programming. Neither station gave any rea-

son for denying the requests. The 2006 election report, as well as the first SMG

election report from 2004, summarizing advocacy and monitoring activities with all five local television stations that broadcast to the greater Sacramento region are avail-able at www.commoncause.org/CA. SMG will continue to encourage local broadcasters to broaden efforts to meet public interest obligations and monitor program-ming. SMG also asks community members, media professionals and reform activists to join their work to make available more substantive, locally produced pub-lic affairs programming. An informed electorate and a vibrant democracy depend on it.

Contact SMG: jfuller@commoncause.org or call 443-1792 ex. 11.

JoAnn Fuller is a member of Sacramento Media Group and an editor with Because People Matter.

TV Stations Get Report CardLocal stations rated on election coverage

I had to come up with a “story” that would incorporate these oral histories.

The result was “Entering the Booth,” a trip into a fictional radio program that highlights people’s personal stories. Listeners to National Public Radio may find a resemblance to a radio program they hear broadcast. Think of “Antiques Roadshow” coming to Sacramento, but instead of featuring antiques we have real people recounting their real lives for a national audience.

The backbone of my crew was a group of former City College students who told me, if I wrote a screenplay and was chosen, they would help me film it. Our cinematog-rapher and director was Rachel Bryant, currently study-ing film at the University of California, Davis. Other former students worked as assistant producer, make-up artist, still photographer and production assistant. The rest of the crew was experienced but developing skills by working on projects such as this one, and they were invaluable.

Some things I learned to do that I’d never done before included: obtain a film permit from the Sacramento Film Commission, secure a liability bond to shoot on location, conduct audi-tions with experienced local actors, get extra gigabytes of RAM for my computer—and figure out what the heck that means—teach myself an editing program, plus cajole friends, students and family to give up weekends and evenings to work on, what must have looked like, a harebrained project.

When everyone showed up on time, technology worked with you, not against you, and the cast

See Movie Magic, page 9Rachel Bryant, film director, readies her shot. Photo: Dick Wood

Making a Movie

Viewers were six times more likely to see a campaign ad than an election news story.

Producer Travis Silcox prepares actors Joe Concannon and David Philipp as crew member Ellen Dillinger readies the clapper. Photo: Dick Wood

David Philipp and Joe Conannon relax before filming as “Entering the Booth” director, producer and crew set up. Photo: Dick Wood

Another take with Lyvonne and Robert Sewell (seated on the right). Director Rachel Bryant (with camera) is assisted by Angela OrtnerPhoto: Dick Wood

www.bpmnews.org September / October �007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 9

By Ian KesselerI know people’s perceptions of the media just by

reactions I get when I tell them I’m studying journal-ism. I’m about to move away to study journalism at San Francisco State University, so I’ve had this conversation a lot lately. Some offer a hopeful smile and an encourag-ing word about this new generation of media meddlers dabbling in online journalism; how bloggers remind us what a free press really is. Others give me a sideways glance, sometimes a little sneer, and remind me how corrupt and slanted journalism has become. I understand both perspec-tives, but either way the conversation always comes back to ethics.

I guess that shouldn’t surprise me after all the hits journalism has taken in recent years with fabulists, plagia-rists and guys like Armstrong Wil-liams. Remember him? He took a large sum of cash from the government to promote a presidential policy in a for-mat designed to look like mainstream news coverage. Of course they sneer. Unfortunately for Williams and other journalists, all that money can’t buy back trust.

As an editor for the Sacramento City College newspaper The Express, I spent a lot of time adapting

to change. I learned a new writing style, worked with photographers switching from film to digital formats, found a way to take print copy to the Web. One thing

that hasn’t change, despite evidence to the contrary, is journalistic eth-ics. Sure, it seems fewer writers are sticking to them, but it’s not because these principles are chang-ing with everything else in the industry. In fact, it’s the one thing that never needs to change.

We know the payola puff pieces written by Williams are still the exception but the basic American journalistic principle of fair and comprehensive coverage may have eroded with the freedom the Inter-net offers. Newsrooms today are forced to compete with anyone who has a keyboard and Internet access,

writers who don’t answer to editors, writing about what-ever suits them, often without sources or consequences. Blogs on both sides of the political spectrum are havens for strongly slanted journalism. Although the passion bloggers have for their subjects is vital to exercising First Amendment rights, it’s easy to see the damage they may cause the credibility of journalists playing by the

My desire is to make films that speak to our social condition and give people a glimpse of how our world could be more just, thoughtful and fulfilling.

I look forward to making changes technology has yet to bring to the newsroom, but I’m keeping the best part of my community college education, ethics.

Journalism Ethics in the Digital Age

“Quentin Sacramento” is the mascot for PCS. He has done films such as “The Good, The Bad, and the Sushi,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sunfish Kid,” and “Gone with the Swim,” and “The Maltese Scallop.”

A Place Called Sacramento By Ron Cooper

For the eighth year, Access Sacramento celebrates its one-of-a-kind scriptwriting and short film production project for local writers and producers. PCS challenged local scriptwriters to create ten-minute scripts about the people, places and events that make the Sacramento community such a distinctive place to live. A panel of local professionals reviewed all entries and 10 were selected for volunteer production.

Access Sacramento announced the chosen filmmak-ers at its May “Cast & Crew Call.” From a community pool of talent, production teams were formed and ten films were produced during the summer months. To assist in the writing and production of the scripts, a series of workshops are held at the Coloma Center throughout the spring, providing professional training in PCS scriptwriting, production planning, acting for the camera, low budget production and post-production techniques. After months of hard work and great fun, the filmmakers and Access Sacramento invite the public to see the completed films, one day only, Sunday, October 7

at the Crest Theater, 1013 K St., starting at 1pm. Tickets to the festival are $10 a person, open seating.

In the seven years of PCS, 69 short films have been created. To view films completed for the 2004, 2005 and 2006 PCS film festivals, go to the website, www.access-sacramento.org.

Access Sacramento is a nonprofit organization dedi-cated to using community media to build better commu-nications between individuals and groups in Sacramento County. With television studio, radio and television pro-duction equipment, media lab, mobile production truck, and other gear, Access Sacramento trains and manages volunteers and shares their work on cable radio and tele-vision channels 17 & 18.

Ron Cooper is Executive Director of Access Sacramento.

rules. Don’t believe me? What’s the first phrase that pops into your head when I mention “The Drudge Report?” Exactly.

As I look forward, I’ve also been looking back. The classroom didn’t teach me only how to write like a jour-nalist, it taught me to work like one, too—to report the facts as fairly and objectively as possible. It taught me to do my homework before making accusations and that a story that doesn’t represent all sides of the argument isn’t one worth telling. That’s as basic to journalism as clear sentence construction. When an inexperienced writer or blogger forgets the importance of responsible reporting, it adds to the frustration of the public, and to the sneers I get.

As newspapers continue to merge into one giant media conglomerate and the people’s faith in the main-stream media continues to crumble, finding a job that keeps me ethically grounded and happy will become more difficult. I look forward to making changes tech-nology has yet to bring to the newsroom, but I’m keeping the best part of my community college education, ethics. If I can do anything in my career to promote those ide-als, I’ll be able to hold my head high when I tell someone I’m a journalist. If I can do that, maybe I’ll get a different response when someone finds out what I do.

Ian Kessler is former editor in chief of The Express, Sacramento City College.

Actors and crew making movie magic happen.Photo: Dick Wood

Movie Magic from page 7and crew enjoyed themselves, it was pure pleasure. My hope is that more Sacramentans, with alternative visions of what film can provide and provoke, will take up the pen and the camera. Cinema has the power to be transformative. While Hollywood uses it to stupefy the population, film can be a tool to liberate, question and broaden. I know I’m not alone in seeing the potential of local cinema. Many of the other films in “A Place Called

Sacramento” this year take on topics both surprising and intriguing. Come see the fruits of our efforts and be inspired to make a movie of your own. For more infor-mation about “A Place Called Sacramento” premiere, go to www.accesssacramento.org

Travis Silcox teaches English and film studies at Sacramento City College.

Emmy and Joe Gunterman listen to direction from Travis Silcox as director Rachel Bryant and sound engineer Chris Terry prepare. Photo: Dick Wood

10 Because People Matter September / October �007 www.bpmnews.org

Some of the Places You Can Find BPM

Sacramento AreaCoffee WorksCrest TheaterDimple Records, Arden Wy

Dose Coffee ShopFlowers RestaurantGalleria (29th & K)GrindersHart Senior CenterLido CafeLight Rail: 65/Folsom 2nd Ave/Freeport

Los JarritosLuna’s Cafe & Juice BarMercy Hospital, 40th/J Pancake Circus, 21st/Broadway

Planned Parenthood: Franklin Blvd, Watt Ave., 29th St.

Queen of TartsQuick MarketSacramento Bagel, 47th/H

Sacramento Natural Foods Coop

Sacramento Public Library (Main & many branches)

Sargent Coffee House (Alhambra & M)

Starbucks (B'wy & 35th)The BeatTime Tested BooksTower Theater (inside)Tupelo (Elvas & 57th)Underground Books (35th St. near B'way)

Weatherstone Coffee

Chico Area

DavisBogey’s BooksEspresso Cafe RomaDavis Natural Food Coop

NewsbeatUniversity Mall

Greenhaven areaBuckthorn’s Coffee, 7465 Rush River Dr

Nevada CityUS Post Office

Where would you like to see BPM? Let Paulette Cuilla know, 422-1787.

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First West Coast Diversity SummitBy Michael R. Gorman

A crime, thought a thing of the past in Sacramento, shocked this capital city of California on July 1, 2007. Satender Singh was assaulted in a hate motivated crime while picnicking with friends at Lake Natoma. It was reported the attackers spoke Russian and English and shouted “sodomite” and other anti-gay invectives prior to killing Singh. They spewed racist threats at Satender’s Fijian and East Indian friends, while calling themselves God’s people. But it was the man they observed to be gay whom they targeted for violence.

Sacramento community leaders decried the death as a consequence of escalating anti-gay hatred by militant members of Slavic Christian Churches in the area, encouraged by American fundamentalists who sponsor many Slavic immi-grants to the country and are on hand to blame

the gay community.How do good

people respond to hatred? That was the question posed at the First West Coast Diversity Summit in late July at midtown Sacramento’s Trinity Cathedral. The event, planned to address rising homophobia, originated with gay activist Nate Feldman, who has documented the rise of anti-gay protests with his video camera and a “YouTube” account. Cer-tain Feldman was an alarmist and protests would whither under the heat of recent gay rights victo-ries, few had listened. On the day that would have been Singh’s 26th birthday, the summit faced hatred turned deadly. People were listening.

Attendance at the meeting was a picture of diversity with the Druid who gave the open-ing address to the translated speech by a Slavic Christian pastor doing his best to edge out of a homophobic paradigm. Representatives from the gay-supportive Asian Pacific League, Slavic Com-munity Services, La Raza, NAACP, Sacramento Grove of the Oak, Spiritual Life Center, Pagans, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, atheists, politicians, street activists and others of all backgrounds

came together to speak of peaceful co-existence in, what Time magazine called, the nation’s most diverse city.

As Sacramento goes, summit participants were aware, so goes the nation. With this death and the consequential summit, Sacramento became ground zero. Singh was the canary in the mine, the Druid summarized. Our model of response must be the natural forest where diver-sity is the very foundation of health and growth, and homogeneity means death.

For more information: www.satendar.com

Michael Gorman is a Sacramento poet and writer.

By JoAnn FullerThanks to a group of dedicated citizens, Sac-

ramento will soon be able to log on to free Inter-net service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at a speed fast enough to be useful. The Sacramento City Council negotiated a contract with a WiFi Internet Service Provider providing just that. Within two years, people should be able to use the Internet wherever they are within the city limits. Those using computers inside a building may need a special device to boost the signal, but those are inexpensive and easily installed.

This means individuals who couldn’t access the general information, employment opportuni-ties or cheaper shopping offered online because of service costs, now will be able to log on free of charge. Families with children can ask about

their child’s homework, researchers can travel the world for the latest information, and small businesses can expand their customer base with virtually no expense.

How did all this happen? The Sacramento Media Group, along with Ruth Blank of the Sacramento Commu-nity Regional Founda-tion, Ron Cooper of Access Sacramento, Ann Lucas of the Non-profit Resource Center and we at California Common Cause, spearheaded a coali-tion of 60 nonprofits to lobby the City Council to help bridge the digital divide that prevents some community members and families from accessing Internet services. Plans are also going forward to obtain refurbished computers and other equipment, and training to those who need them.

This success in Sacramento comes as Free Press, a media reform advocacy group, issued a report titled “Shooting the Messenger,” that docu-ments how the US has fallen behind in Internet use. Once in the lead, the country is now ranked 15th in deployment and adoption of affordable broadband services. In addition, the service most pay for is painfully slow and expensive. For example, Japanese connections are a dozen times faster than those offered in the US and access is much cheaper.

What happened to the US Internet lead? Paul Krugman in The New York Times (7-3-07)

explains it simply as bad policy. The US is falling behind because other countries used judicious regulation to promote competition. At the most, customers in the US have a choice between a cable monopoly and phone monopoly for Inter-net service. The price is high, the service is poor, but there’s nowhere else to go.

If you are interested in community media issues and media reform, contact Sacramento Media Group: jfuller@commoncause.org or 443-1792 ex. 11; www.freepress.net>

JoAnn Fuller is Associate Director of Califor-nia Common Cause and an editor with Because People Matter.

On the day that would have been Singh’s 26th birthday, the summit faced hatred turned deadly. Now people were listening.

Success! Free Internet for Sacramentans!

A community paper needs community support: Subscribe!

Within two years, people should be able to use the Internet wherever they are within the city limits.

www.bpmnews.org September / October �007 BECAUSE PEOPLE MATTER 11

HeLP BPM Get tHe WORDS Out!BPM needs help dropping stacks of BPMs at locations around town. Call Paulette at (916)422-1787.

“combat” troops—from Iraq, or willing to call for a complete halt to US bombing of that country.

Those candidates know that powerful elites in this country just don’t want to give up the leverage of an ongoing US military presence in Iraq, with its enormous reserves of oil and geopo-litical value. It’s a good bet that American media and political powerhouses would fix the wagon of any presidential campaign that truly advocated an end to the US war in—and on—Iraq.

The disconnect between public opinion and elite opinion has led to reverse perceptions of a crisis of democracy. As war continues, some are appalled at the absence of democracy while others are frightened by the potential of it. From the grassroots, the scarcity of democracy is transparent and outrageous. For elites, unleashed democracy could jeopardize the priorities of the military-industrial-media complex.

Converging powerful forces in Washing-ton—eager to at least superficially bridge the gap between grassroots and elite priorities—are likely to come up with a game plan for withdrawing from Iraq without withdrawing from Iraq.

Scratch the surface of current media scenari-os for a US pullout from Iraq, and you’re left with little more than speculation—fueled by giant dol-lops of political manipulation. In fact, strategic leaks and un-attributed claims about US plans for withdrawal have emerged periodically to release some steam from domestic antiwar pressures.

Nearly three years ago—with discontent over the war threatening to undermine Presi-dent Bush’s prospects for a second term—the White House ally Robert Novak floated a rosy scenario in his nationally syndicated column that appeared on Sept. 20, 2004. “Inside the Bush administration policy-making apparatus, there is strong feeling that US troops must leave Iraq next year,” he wrote. “This determination is not predicated on success in implanting Iraqi democ-racy and internal stability. Rather, the officials are saying: Ready or not, here we go.”

Novak’s column went on to tell readers: “Well-placed sources in the administration are confident Bush’s decision will be to get out.” Those well-placed sources were, of course, unnamed. And for good measure, Novak fol-lowed up a month before the November 2004 election with a piece that recycled the gist of his Sept. 20 column and chortled: “Nobody from the administration has officially rejected my column.”

This is all relevant history today as news media are spinning out umpteen scenarios for US withdrawal from Iraq. The game involves dangling illusionary references to “withdrawal” in front of the public.

But realities on the ground—and in the air—are quite different. A recent news dispatch from an air base in Iraq, by Charles J. Hanley of the Associated Press, provided a rare look at the high-tech escalation underway. “Away from the headlines and debate over the ‘surge’ in US ground troops,” AP reported on July 14, “the Air Force has quietly built up its hardware inside Iraq, sharply stepped up bombing and laid a foundation for a sustained air campaign in sup-port of American and Iraqi forces.

In contrast to the spun speculation so popular with US media outlets like Time and the PBS “NewsHour,” the AP article cited key information: “Squadrons of attack planes have been added to the in-country fleet. The air recon-naissance arm has almost doubled since last year. The powerful B1-B bomber has been recalled to action over Iraq.”

This kind of development fits a historic pat-tern—one that had horrific consequences during the war in Vietnam and, unless stopped, will persist for many years to come in Iraq.

Assessing the distant mirror of the Vietnam War, the narration of the new documentary “War Made Easy” (based on my book of the same name) spells out a classic White House maneuver: “Even when calls for withdrawal have eventually become too loud to ignore, officials have put forward strategies for ending war that have had the effect of prolonging it—in some cases, as with the Nixon administration’s strategy of Vietnamization, actually escalating war in the

name of ending it.”Between mid-1969 and mid-1972, American

troop levels dropped sharply in Vietnam—while the deadly ferocity of American bombing spiked upward.

The presence of large numbers of US troops in Iraq during the next years is a likelihood fogged up by fanciful media stories asserting—without tangible evidence—that American troops will “pull out” and the US military will “leave” Iraq. The spin routinely glides past such matters as the hugely militarized US embassy in Bagh-dad, the numerous permanent-mode US bases in Iraq, and the vast array of private—and often paramilitary—contractors at work there courtesy of US taxpayers. And there’s the rarely mentioned prize of massive oil reserves that top officials in Washington keep their eyes on.

The matter of US bases in Iraq is a prime example of how events on Capitol Hill have scant effects on war machinery in the context of out-of-control presidential power. “The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to bar permanent United States military bases in Iraq,” the New York Times reported on July 26. But the war makers in the nation’s capital still hold the whip that keeps lashing the dogs of war.

As the insightful analyst Phyllis Bennis points out: “The bill states an important prin-ciple opposing the ‘establish-ment’ of new bases in Iraq and ‘not to exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq.’ But it is limited in several ways. It prohibits only those bases which are acknowledged to be for the purpose of per-manently stationing US troops in Iraq; therefore any base constructed for temporarily stationing troops, or rotating troops, or anything less than an officially permanent deploy-ment, would still be accepted. Further, the bill says nothing about the need to decommis-sion the existing US bases already built in Iraq; it only prohibits ‘establishing’ military installations, implying only new ones would be prohibited.”

Despite all the talk about how members of Congress have been turning against the war, few are clearly advocating a genuine end to US military intervention in Iraq. Media outlets will keep telling us that the US government is develop-ing serious plans to “leave” Iraq. But we would be foolish to believe those tall tales. The

Solomon from page 1

antiwar movement has an enormous amount of grassroots work to do—changing the political terrain of the United States from the bottom up—before the calculus of political opportunism in Washington determines that it would be more expedient to end the US occupation of Iraq than to keep it going under one guise or another.

Norman Solomon is author of War Made Easy, How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spin-ning Us to Death.

1� Because People Matter September / October �007 www.bpmnews.org

Coffee from NicaraguaSupport Sacramento’s sister city, San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua, by purchasing organic whole-bean coffee grown in the rich volcanic soil on the island of Omotepe, Nicaragua. Thanks to the efforts of the Bainbridge-Omotepe Sister Island Association in Washington, we are able to bring you this wonderful medium roast coffee.Your purchase helps the farmers on the island and helps support Sacramento’s long relationship with San Juan de Oriente. All profits go directly back to the Nicaraguan communities. $9.00 a pound. Available in Sacramento at: The Book Collector, 1008 24th St.

Sacramento SoapboxProgressive Talk ShowAccess Sacramento, Channel 17 with Jeanie Keltner.Monday, 8pm, Tuesday noon, Wednesday, 4am.Now in Davis, Channel 15, Tuesday, 7pm.

Sacramento Area Peace Action

Sacramento Area Peace Action is an all-volunteer organization that works to educate and mobilize the public to promote a non-interven-tionist and non-nuclear US foreign policy and to promote peace through international and domestic economic, social, and political justice. Join us!

Send your check to: sacramento area peace action (sapa) 909 12th street, #118, sacramento, ca 95814. or call us! 448-7157, e-mail: sypeaceact@jps.net, web: www.sacpeace.org

JOIN SACRAMENTO AREA PEACE ACTIONAnnual dues are $30/individual; $52/family; $15/low income.

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Resources on Palestine:Institute for Middle East Understanding: www.imeu.net.Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: www.wrmea.com.Rafah Today: www.rafahtoday.org.National Council of Arab Americans: www.arab-american.net.

This September, Congress will have yet another opportunity to stop funding the disas-trous war against Iraq. As of Aug. 1, this war has killed over 3650 US soldiers and an esti-mated 700,000 Iraqi men, women and children, wounded tens of thousands, driven hundreds of US soldiers to kill themselves and thousands to desert, forced nearly 5 million Iraqis from their homes, and wasted over $448 billion.

End Congressional Ambiguity. End the funding

Symptomatic of its uncertainty about end-ing the war on Iraq, in July the House passed both HR 2929 (no permanent bases and no US control of Iraqi oil) and HR 2956, which calls for a unspecified troop reduction, while it leaves an indeterminate number of troops in Iraq indefi-nitely. One has to wonder why we need what could be thousands of troops in Iraq if we aren’t having permanent bases and we don’t want their oil. HR 2956 says nothing about getting the US-financed military contractors out of Iraq and it keeps the ‘redeployed’ US troops in the region, where they could be readily used to attack or re-occupy Iraq, intensify the war on Afghanistan, or invade Iran. Should these two bills be passed by the Senate, they would most certainly be vetoed by Bush.

However, ending the war does not require a 2/3 majority to override Bush’s veto—it requires a simple majority in the House to vote NO on Bush’s request for more funding. Doing so will not imperil the troops, but not doing so will con-demn many more to die or be severely wounded.

Send a Clear & Complete Message Our demand to end the Iraq war and occu-

pation must also be a call to end the war on and occupation of Afghanistan. Ending these wars means bringing all the troops and military contractors home and closing all the bases. A US military presence in either Iraq or Afghanistan will never fix anything; what we must do is pay to repair the damage our government has done to the infrastructure, people, culture, and environ-ment of these two nations.

And our cry to end the war must also be one to scrap our brutal policy towards the Middle East that has been a complete disaster for the people of this region and is bad for the people in our country. The wars on and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are symptoms of a miserable foreign policy that cannot bring military victory but only an environment filled with depleted uranium, an unpayable national debt, and incon-solable shame for the war crimes committed in our names.

Keep the Pressure up on CongressAny progress Congress makes towards end-

ing this war is only because of public pressure. At least once a week, fax or call Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Thompson, Dan Lungren, or John Doo-little, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein. And get your friends, family, neighbors, friends and co-workers to call. Add a message to your answering machine that reminds people to call Congress.

Tell these electeds, who are supposed to be

working for you, to: VOTE NO on any more funding that continues the war, and VOTE YES to bring all the troops home and military contractors home from Iraq and Afghanistan now, close all the bases, and change our foreign policy to one based on respecting, not destroying, human life and the environment. Call (202)224-3121. If you can, fax: Matsui: (202)225-0566; Thompson: (202) 225-4335; Lungren: (202) 226-1298; Doolittle: (202)225-5444; Boxer: (916) 448-2563; Feinstein: (202) 228-3954.

Pack your bags and go to DC People from all over the country are mobiliz-

ing to get Congress to respond to the American people and end the war on Iraq. Actions are planned for nearly the whole month in Wash-ington, DC (see BOX) as well as local efforts. If you can go to Washington, do it. Housing info is available at: www.codepinkalert.org/housing. If you can’t go to DC, participate in local events and help send others. For more information, contact Sac Area Peace Action: 916-448-7157.

Participate in local actions:Vigils every Tuesday, Wednesday & 1st & 3rd Saturdays: check sacpeace.org

The People’s Rally to End the War, Sept. 7, 3-6pm, Capitol West Steps. All groups that are against the war are invited to form contingents and march to the rally. FMI: 916-455-6312; paulncandy@comcast.net

California’s Calling Congress to End the War: Sept 10-13: Join people in every California district in calling Congress this week. See sac-peace.org for other local actions this week.

End the War Now demonstration in San Fran-cisco, Oct 27; for info on buses & carpools from Davis & Sacramento: 916-448-7157

We Can Make Congress Really end the Wars on Iraq and Afghanistan in September—if they get the message.

Go to Washington, DC & Stop the warActions organized by a broad spectrum of national peace & justice groups.

Ongoing lobbying with Code Pink: stay at their DC house: www.codepinkalert.org Sept. 14-21, 2007: Days of Decision, in DC & across the country: www.declarationofpeace.orgSat. Sept. 15, 2007: DC March & Rally: www.Sept1�.orgSun. Sept. 16: National Training Session for the other Days of Action, www. Sept1�.org Mon. Sept.17: Peoples March Inside Congress, www.codepinkalert.orgTues. Sept. 18: Congressional Challenge Day, www.grassrootsamerica�us.orgWed. Sept. 19: Direct Action, www,answer.pephost.org Thurs. Sept. 20: Veterans lobbying day, www.ivaw.orgFri. Sept. 21: National Moratorium Day, www.iraqmoratorium.org. Sept 22-29, 2007: Encampment in DC, www.troopsoutnow.org

Coming EventsThursday, Oct. 4, 7–9pm, Richard Beck-er with the ANSWER Coalition, recently returned from the major anti-war efforts in Washington, DC during September, will address the next steps to ending US war pol-icy. 909 12th St, Sacramento, 916-448-7157.

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 7–9pm, Dissent: Voices of Conscience. Colonel Ann Wright resigned from the US Foreign Service in March 2003 over several disagreements with the Bush Administration including their decision to attack Iraq, the lack of effort in resolving the Israel-Palestine situation, and unnecessary curtailment of civil liberties. Wright’s newly published book will be avail-able at the talk. Time Tested Books, 1114 21st St, Sacramento. 916-448-7157; sypeace-act@jps.net

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