Out of Print

Filmmaker Michael Moore told CNN’s Larry King that it’s time for President Barack Obama to wind down the war in Afghanistan. “It’s unwinnable. It’s immoral. It’s illegal. It’s wrong,” he said. “We need to leave.”

Moore appeared on the program Thursday along with another war critic, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

“It is my sincere hope that he decides to wind down and end this war, at least our part of this war, in Afghanistan,” Moore said. “Initially, the idea of going and trying to capture the criminals who committed a mass murder on 9/11, that was a good idea. But we never did that.

“There is no middle ground,” he stated emphatically. “You’re either going to go all out and fight a big war that can’t be won, or you’re going to bring the troops home and focus on the problems that we have right now — huge unemployment, global warming, a health care mess, all these things, our educational system, everything.”

Moved by Obama’s attendance at the transfer of bodies at Dover Air Force Base, something President George W. Bush infamously didn’t do, Moore offered hope that Obama might end the war in Afghanistan.”I’m going to trust in all my heart that he’s going to make the right decision,” he opined.

Yet earlier this month a senior administration official told the press, “What is not on the table, in any sense, is leaving Afghanistan or so narrowly defining our mission as to be the equivalent of leaving Afghanistan.” (After Moore’s appearance, Rep. Paul told King, “I don’t think he’s quite willing to criticize Obama like Bush, but I am.”)

And although King didn’t comment, Moore hammered on the scandal of CIA involvement with the opium trade there. “Yesterday, Larry, that story in The New York Times about how the brother of the president of Afghanistan, the brother of Karzai, is suspected of being involved in the opium trade, which funds the Taliban, and our CIA pays this man. So we’re paying the guy who’s helping to create the money that’s funding the Taliban that’s killing our soldiers. Are we, like, an insane country? When is this going to stop? I want this ended. I want these troops home.”

Moore’s latest film Capitalism: A Love Story has grossed $13 million in five weeks of release. He has now directed four of the eight highest grossing documentaries in U.S. history.

See the video by clicking HERE. This story was originally published on RawStory.com. My Dad wrote a response, see below:

I never jumped on the Michael Moore bandwagon. He had a
reporter’s sense of what issues might get headlines or sell
papers, but his documentary style was boring and intellectualy
superficial, evolving toward liberal sloppy attack-journalism,
a lame alternative to the calculated right wing impulse that
culminated in the swift-boaters–not to mention Rush of the
exquisite radio voice modulation, who re-validated medicine
shows. Think of the Limbaugh/Moore debates. I would rather
turn them both off and create a college of public health.

But I also heard the interview you reviewed and Moore was
compelling. Painted himself as a guy who took a controversial
position once before about Iraq, and is taking that
irrefutable position again (rhetorical analysis–>analogical
thinking is always suspect). Uncle M, concerned about his
nephew Devon Moore, or neice Dorothy Moore, about to have
their legs blown off to protect the opium magnate brother of
Karzai. (Devon and Dorothy are my inventions, but MM’s main
appeal was avuncular rather than analytical.)

I was turned off by Moore’s calculating motives. “I can get
the headlines.” This dislike came on strong when he went out
of his way to slag Keith Olbermann for backing the Iraq
invasion years ago–Moore is pathologically egotistical and
could not transcend his instinct to attack a fellow popular
liberal journalist competing for glory. Mike! Keith is a
sports announcer after all! Curb your insecurities!

But your review skipped all this complifying static–nailed
the core values that align me with Moore’s message. We are
learning the hard way like England and Russia in the past.
Given the alternate choice of right wing political duplicity
and historical ignorance, Moore’s foibles become irrelevant if
he can energize serious political debate about marching off
the cliffs into a chasm.

Friday morning reading

radioactivegavin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:18:01 +0000

Sorry Twitter pumpkin over capacity

Twitter serves up ideas from users from NY Times

ACLU: Obama signs bill allowing defense dept. to block FOIA requests

Pentagon won’t confirm domestic propaganda program ended from Raw Story

Israel targeting grassroots nonviolent Palestine activists from Antiwar.com

Illustrated view of world without net neutrality rules from WA Post

Climate change effect on North Sea now apparent from Wired

Netanyahu unsure how to contain Gaza fallout from Antiwar.com

Web to be truly worldwide at last from BBC News

Medical marijuana institutes crop up in Denver from Westword

Marijuana legalization expected to be on CA ballot

Beliefnet evangelist will be senior adviser to FCC chief Dr. J?

Brad Will’s murderer held in Mexico believed to be scapegoat

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/10/29-7

Matthew Hoh resignation letter

radioactivegavin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:35:16 +0000

US Foreign Service Officer Matthew P. Hoh,
Senior Civilian Representative, Afghanistan

“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end. To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.”

September 10, 2009

Ambassador Nancy J. Powell
Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520

Dear Ambassador Powell,

It is with great regret and disappointment I submit my resignation from my appointment as a Political Officer in the Foreign Service and my post as the Senior Civilian Representative for the US Government in Zabul Province. I have served six of the previous ten years in service to our country overseas, to include deployment as a US Marine office and Department of Defense civilian in the Euphrates and Tigris River Valleys of Iraq in 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. I did not enter into this position lightly or with any undue expectations nor did I believe my assignment would be without sacrifice, hardship or difficulty. However, in the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan, in both Regional Commands East and South, I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end. To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.

This fall will mark the eighth year of US combat, governance and development operations within Afghanistan. Next fall, the United States’ occupation will equal in length the Soviet Union’s own physical involvement in Afghanistan. Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people.

If the history of Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is no more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy that not only pits tribes, valleys, clans, villages and families against one another, but, from at least the end of King Zahir Shah’s reign, has violently and savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modern of Afghanistan against the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional. It is this latter group that composes and supports the Pashtun insurgency. The Pashtun insurgency, which is composed of multiple, seemingly infinite, local groups, is fed by what is perceived by the Pashtun people as a continued and sustained assault, going back centuries, on Pashtun land, culture, traditions and religion by internal and external enemies. The US and NATO presence and operations in Pashtun valleys and villages, as well as Afghan army and police units that are led and composed of non- Pashtun soldiers and police, provide an occupation force against which the insurgency is justified. In both RC East and South, I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul.

The United States military presence in Afghanistan greatly contributes to the legitimacy and strategic message of the Pashtun insurgency. In a like manner our backing of the Afghan government in its current form continues to distance the government from the people. The Afghan government’s failings, particularly when weighed against the sacrifice of American lives and dollars, appear legion and metastatic:

Glaring corruption and unabashed graft;
A President whose confidants and chief advisors comprise drug lords and war crimes villains, who mock our own rule of law and counternarcotics efforts;
A system of provincial and district leaders constituted of local power brokers, opportunists and strongmen allied to the United States solely for, and limited by, the value of our USAID and CERP contracts and for whose own political and economic interests stand nothing to gain from any positive or genuine attempts at reconciliation; and
The recent election process dominated by fraud and discredited by low voter turnout, which has created an enormous victory for our enemy who now claims a popular boycott and will call into question worldwide our government’s military, economic and diplomatic support for an invalid and illegitimate Afghan government.
Our support for this kind of government, coupled with a misunderstanding of the insurgency’s true nature, reminds me horribly of our involvement with South Vietnam; an unpopular and corrupt government we backed at the expense of our Nation’s own internal peace, against an insurgency whose nationalism we arrogantly and ignorantly mistook as a rival to our own Cold War ideology.

I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young men and women in Afghanistan. If honest, our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, etc. Our presence in Afghanistan has only increased destabilization and insurgency in Pakistan where we rightly fear a toppled or weakened Pakistani government may lose control of its nuclear weapons. However, again, to follow the logic of our stated goals we should garrison Pakistan, not Afghanistan. More so, the September 11th attacks, as well as the Madrid and London bombings, were primarily planned and organized in Western Europe; a point that highlights the threat is not one tied to traditional geographic or political boundaries. Finally, if our concern is for a failed state crippled by corruption and poverty and under assault from criminal and drug lords, then if we bear our military and financial contributions to Afghanistan, we must reevaluate and increase our commitment to and involvement in Mexico.

Eight years into war, no nation has ever known a more dedicated, well trained, experienced and disciplined military as the US Armed Forces. I do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and Sisyphean mission as the US military has received in Afghanistan. The tactical proficiency and performance of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines is unmatched and unquestioned. However, this is not the European or Pacific theaters of World War II, but rather is a war for which our leaders, uniformed, civilian and elected, have inadequately prepared and resourced our men and women. Our forces, devoted and faithful, have been committed to conflict in an indefinite and unplanned manner that has become a cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure. Similarly, the United States has a dedicated and talented cadre of civilians, both US government employees and contractors, who believe in and sacrifice for their mission, but they have been ineffectually trained and led with guidance and intent shaped more by the political climate in Washington, DC than in Afghan cities, villages, mountains and valleys.

“We are spending ourselves into oblivion” a very talented and intelligent commander, one of America’s best, briefs every visitor, staff delegation and senior officer. We are mortgaging our Nation’s economy on a war, which, even with increased commitment, will remain a draw for years to come. Success and victory, whatever they may be, will be realized not in years, after billions more spent, but in decades and generations. The United States does not enjoy a national treasury for such success and victory.

I realize the emotion and tone of my letter and ask that you excuse any ill temper. I trust you understand the nature of this war and the sacrifices made by so many thousands of families who have been separated from loved ones deployed in defense of our Nation and whose homes bear the fractures, upheavals and scars of multiple and compounded deployments. Thousands of our men and women have returned home with physical and mental wounds, some that will never heal or will only worsen with time. The dead return only in bodily form to be received by families who must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, loved vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can anymore be made. As such, I submit my resignation.

Sincerely,

Matthew P. Hoh
Senior Civilian Representative
Zabul Province, Afghanistan

Cc: Mr. Frank Ruggiero
Ms. Dawn Liberi
Ambassador Anthony Wayne
Ambassador Karl Eikenberry

Historic hate crimes bill, bloated defense budget

radioactivegavin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:36:04 +0000

President Barack Obama signed into law a historic and contentious defense spending bill Wednesday that includes a broad expansion of hate-crimes legislation to include crimes committed against people because of their sexual orientation.

After passing out of the Senate 68-29 last week, the defense appropriations bill included hate-crimes language deemed too important for Obama to follow up on his threatened veto over concerns about military spending.

“I promised Judy Shepard when she saw me in the Oval Office that this day would come,” Obama told the crowd at the signing of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act. Shepard’s son, Matthew was tortured and murdered in Laramie, Wyoming in 1998, because he was gay. According to the FBI, more than 77,000 hate-crime incidents were reported between 1998 and 2007.

Many conservatives worry the law will be used to criminalize speech. During recent floor debate, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) asked, “Can priests, pastors and rabbis be sure their preaching will not be prosecuted if it says certain things are right and wrong?”

Firebrand libertarian broadcaster Alex Jones urged opponents of the president to write letters this week promising to vote out Democrats if he signs “the freedom-destroying hate crimes bill.” However, Attorney General Eric Holder has said the law will only be used to prosecute acts of violence.

The new ‘hate crimes bill’ expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It is the first law in the history of the federal government to extend legal protections to transgender persons, requiring the FBI to track statistics on hate crimes against them for the first time.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act also removes the current prerequisite that a victim be engaged in voting, going to school or other federally-protected activity. Federal authorities will be able to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue, with extra funding for prosecution available to all.

At the signing, Obama also touched on the problem of billions of dollars in cost overruns for military projects, pointing out that funding for F-22 fighters was removed from 2010 defense spending. He had threatened to veto the spending bill during summer negotiations with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Critics have warned the defense bill nevertheless contains $100B in unnecessary spending on other equipment, including F-35 jet engines. Obama today called for further “fundamental” reforms in how the government and Pentagon do business, according to CNN.

Thirty-year Government Accountability Office veteran Winslow T. Wheeler warned earlier this year not to trust talk of defense spending reform. “For decades, the media have taken their descriptions of the size of the defense budget straight from the Pentagon’s annual press release,” he wrote. “Its business as usual, pure and simple.”

This writeup was originally published on RawStory.com.

Newspaper circulation declines, 350, crowdsourcing

radioactivegavin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 08:11:35 +0000

Will coal help Kentucky phenom John Wall play basketball?

radioactivegavin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:35:11 +0000

John Wall at practice last week.

TV news host Rachel Maddow invited sports writer Dave Zirin on her show to talk about the funding behind the basketball program. Read more about the political economy of sports by clicking each of these links. Wall’s eligibility is in question, as reported by AP. Meanwhile, donors want to fund a $7M dorm for student-athletes called the Wildcat Coal Lodge sponsored by coal interests. Read about it and watch the video at RawStory.com.

My Dad wrote back about the story:

Something is just weird about this story–black lung and basketball in the same floor plan. Not to mention minority stardom in basketball against the non-presence of minorities in the coal industry elite, mid-elite, high salaried labor, and all the way down the line. What do coal miners and college basketball players have in common? (knock/knock): Exploitation.

Saturday headlines

radioactivegavin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:56:12 +0000

Goldstone dares US on Gaza report

Presidential power has gone way too far by David Swanson

Shoes fly as Dubya tells Canadian audience ‘I did not sell my soul’

Can the peace movement reach Obama? from Common Dreams

Obama: in favor of lesser coverage? pressuring Reid to drop public option?

What controlling the media really means by Glenn Greenwald

FCC postpones non-commerical, educational radio license application window

AUDIO: UN renews Haiti peacekeeping mission from Media Hacker

House probe targets big mortgage lenders

Obama’s consumer agency no sure deal

AT&T on iPhone exclusivity, dropped calls, net neutrality

MPAA revamping antipiracy strategy

Obama sees consensus growing on climate change bill

Senators seek bipartisan consensus on warming, energy

Conservative Dems signal they won’t block public option

Recession: Middle class families grow medical marijuana to cope

Thursday reading

radioactivegavin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:04:58 +0000

Chronic case of denial

Pentagon used psyops on US public from Raw Story

Musicians demand info on their music used for torture

AT&T staff told to complain about net neutrality to FCC

Oops: Sequoia reveals e-voting code from Tech Dirt

Rep. Polis narrowly avoids net neutrality disaster

Broadband stimulus has failed to date from App Rising

Rachel Maddow challenges Liz Cheney: be on my show

New public media models examined from Media Shift

Infinite Dial calls Absolute Radio UK ‘most innovative in the world’

First public white spaces broadband network trial launch in Virginia: 1 2

FBI can continue to gag recipient of National Security Letter

Propaganda now on sale at AT&T store from Public Knowledge

AT&T boss asks employees to fake it from Save the Internet

Over 200,000 calls to Congress in favor of health reform in 1 day

Google partners with iLike and Lala for new music service

Pentagon instructs officials to cancel nonexistent ACORN contracts

Adam Carolla podcast credited for new radio content trend

Denver Westword hiring marijuana critic is national news!

Medical marijuana applicants in Colorado increasing

Hemp: Legalize it and I will industrialize it from Huff Po

New article on ACORN in Boise Weekly

radioactivegavin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:20:44 +0000

Click over to the Boise Weekly news department to read my latest article. ACORN couldn’t raise enough funds to stay in Idaho. There was a lot of material that couldn’t fit in print. Should have a blog coming out later this week. If you’re in Boise, grab me a newsprint copy. I love newsprint.

Wednesday updates

radioactivegavin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:36:27 +0000

US spies buy stake in firm that monitors blogs, Twitter from Wired

Secret Service overwhelmed with unprecedented death threats

‘Blue Bell’ Dems must fix net neutrality mistake from Daily Kos

Obama issues new medical marijuana guidelines from NORML

Gallup poll finds record support for marijuana legalization

CA airports allowing passengers to fly with medical marijuana

Illinois medical marijuana bill on hold

Why Fox News is un-American from Newsweek

Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel calls Afghan troop increase ‘reckless’

Jelli bringing crowd-sourced radio to the US

Wars between White House and the press by Alexander Cockburn

AT&T, carriers fund Dem reps against net neutrality from WA Post

Weekend Reading 40+ stories

radioactivegavin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:49:06 +0000

Bush covered up global warming, hid info from Dems from Raw Story

Carbon emissions must peak by 2015 from Common Dreams

At UN, US votes against Gaza war crimes report endorsement

Code Pink delivers Afghani women’s petition to end war to Obama

VIDEO- Ron Paul at 10/15 Congressional hearing on Afghanistan

Ariana Huffington: Joe Biden should resign to oppose Afghan escalation

Afghan election fraud investigation trims Karzai’s votes from AFP

House Republicans call for Muslim investigations by Glenn Greenwald

Goldman Sachs to double their bonuses by Cindy Sheehan

Liz Cheney launches pro-war pro-torture group from Air America Radio

Judge closes Blackwater trial to public from Raw Story

The Israeli Brand from Adbusters

The press needs to change the way it covers Fox News by Eric Boehlert

Surprise: Perils of open government by Lawrence Lessig

Special interests see copyright treaty, we can’t from Wired

Gore Vidal: America is rotting away, Obama can’t save it

Interview with furious Gore Vidal from The Independent UK

VIDEO- Rachel Maddow confronts Tim Phillips

Finland: 1st to make broadband access legal right from Tech Crunch

Telecom industry should tell the truth about billing by Megan Tady

Joel Kelsey from Consumers Union on telecom billing from WA Post

New FCC blog on open Internet

Blue Bell Dems ask FCC to tone down net neutrality from Wall St Journal

Dems do telecom’s net neutrality bidding in letter to FCC by Megan Tady

Communications Workers oppose net neutrality by Art Brodsky

Al Franken on net neutrality from The Rag Blog

Should incumbents or independents do broadband mapping? by Drew Clark

Huge developments in AP vs. Shepard Fairey case from Editor & Publisher

Lt. Dan Choi said no to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell by Amy Goodman

Lt. Ehren Watada out of the miliary from Courage to Resist

Nobel Peace Prize: Hope, hopelessness and change by Josh Stearns

Mainstream media is propaganda from Naked Capitalism

CNN will not air anti-Lou Dobbs commercial from Huffington Post

Senate Judiciary: AM/FM must pay more for music from Future of Music Coalition

Seattle NPR affiliate raises $1M in eleven days from Blather Watch

VIDEO- Target Women: Beauty contraptions by Sarah Haskins

Checking Facebook or Twitter the new after-sex smoke? from Ars Technica

VIDEO- The entire financial crisis in 7 minutes from Huffington Post

Namapahh Radio on Columbus Day Congressional apology

VIDEO- Bill Frist right, Bill Maher wrong on vaccines? from The Contrarian

Old Van Jones interview from Hollywood Clout on Air America Radio

On tour with Josh Martinez

radioactivegavin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:42:57 +0000

I toured with the Josh Martinez Sex Buffett across Idaho & Montana last winter.

Josh Martinez live in Boise @ Gusto

Listen to exclusive audio & read all about it on The Finger HERE.

Boise Weekly article on ACORN next week

radioactivegavin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:59:08 +0000

Jeremy Scahill

Heads up, my new article about ACORN in Idaho is coming out in the Boise Weekly next Wednesday. There is a lot of material, so why not start HERE with the latest from Rebel Reports writer Jeremy Scahill in The Nation on how ACORN fits into the larger federal contractor scene.

New podcast I Have Seen the Future

radioactivegavin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:44:48 +0000

Check the Exponential Records site for my new podcast. I’m getting my home studio fired up to keep doing mixes like this from here in Colorado. See similar work at TOUCH THE SKY.

Some notes on the tracks in the mix-

You can download the new record by Diego Bernal absolutely free from Exponential Records!

LAKE’s incredible brand new record is out and K Records has it on vinyl.

Karl Blau’s track is from the Anonymous Monk calendar. Get it!

Denver’s Westword recently reviewed a live Pretty Lights show.

Khingz has a new record out. Thug consciousness, wow.

Blue Scholars have a new EP out, partying in Hawaii with thinking caps on.

Moka Only is playing Cypress Hill Smokeout Festival next weekend.