Welcome to Left Out, reality-based independent radio on WRCT 88.3FM, and on the worldwide web at leftout.info. Left Out is co-hosted by Bob Harper and Danny Sleator. Today's program is produced by Matt Hornyak. Listeners are invited to call the program at (412) 268-WRCT (9728), or to send email to bob@leftout.info
Listen to Democracy Now every weekday morning at 8am on WRCT.
Listen to Brent Mickum from the Center for Constitutional Rights and attorney for the Guantanamo Bay detainees speak on human rights and due process, torture and mistreatment, at 7pm today, immediately after Left Out.
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Bernard Chazelle is a professor of Computer Science at Princeton University who has written several important essays on the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq, including the widely circulated essay Bush's Desolate Imperium.
About a year and a half ago we predicted on Left Out that Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was behind the outing of Valerie Plame, the CIA undercover operative whose cover was blown by the Bush administration in retaliation for her husband's exposure of the administrations lies about Iraq's attempt to acquire nuclear material from Niger. After spending nearly three months in jail, Miller decided to testify to the grand jury investigating the affair, and in doing so stated that she and Libby discussed Plame in June of 2003, about one month before publication of Wilson's explosive op-ed piece in the New York Times. This past weekend the New York Times has finally reported on Miller's involvement, and Miller herself has told her side of the story. But these articles raise as many questions as they answer.
As with so many issues in the Bush administration, the only thing we know for sure is that we do not know the full story.
Starting with the Katrina disaster in the Gulf region, the main stream media coverage of President Bush has changed dramatically. Now, at long last, reporters are asking serious questions, and are exposing the evident lies, rather than playing along with the script. Examples include the criticisms of Bush's handling of the Katrina disaster, the exposure of the fraudulent "conversation" with the American soldiers in Iraq, and the criticism of Bush's selection of a laughably (were it not so serious) inadequate Supreme Court candidate. While we in the independent media applaud the change in attitude towards Bush and his cronies, the more important observation is that this change represents another instance of the underlying problem, namely the groupthink of the corporate "news" media. For some reason it has become not just acceptable, but almost a given, to expose Bush for what he really is, but why now? And why all of a sudden are all the major news outlets now acting out to a different script? Why is there a script at all?
True to form, President Bush appointed yet another crony to a high government office, this time as Associate Justice on the Supreme Court. Harriet Miers is, by most accounts, a lightweight toady who thinks that President Bush is one of the smartest men she's ever known. She has no experience as a judge, and she shows no signs of having any scholarly qualifications whatsoever. Rather, she's yet another single woman fauning over W, helping to insulate him from the reality-based community. Even Bush's base is up in arms over the nomination, mostly because they were expecting someone to the right of Robert Bork, but partly because of her blatant lack of qualification for the job, plus a suspicion that she may be another Souter, rather than another Thomas.
Late-breaking reports suggest that Vice President Cheney may resign his post, not, of course, because of his impending indictment, but to spend more time with his family. Condi to take over?
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Tom Paine
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