Under The Radar: Open Thread

Or the stuff you won’t hear from the MSM. The blogosphere is a big place and there is a lot going on that gets lost in all those pixels. The subtle background, the nuances to the top political news that don’t get aired in prime time. Lots of stories get buried or just ignored in news dumps. The White House does it all the time releasing stories late on Friday nights in hopes that in the rush to start the weekend, the media will miss what they’ve been doing, like caving to the right wing and blocking the habeas corpus rights of prisoners.

* We are finally seeing and hearing from the foreign press. Producers and Editors from foreign news organizations are turning up on NBC, ABC and the major cable network news programs giving their perspective on not just the Egyptian protests but the world in general. It took a revolution and the internet to start waking Americans to the reality that they aren’t be told all the facts. Al Jazeera may be coming to a cable service near you.

Since its inception in 2006, Al Jazeera English has been fighting for access to American viewers. Distributors have been unwilling to carry the service, but Mr. Anstey, the managing director, said in an interview that renewed talks with the major distributors were now under way. “There’s a growing call for Al Jazeera. That’s clear,” he said.

Al Jazeera English has contacted Comcast, for instance, and a meeting has been scheduled for later this month.

In an indication that perceptions of Al Jazeera may be changing, one of its correspondents in Washington reported on Thursday that people there “are all of a sudden very welcoming” to the network. “We’re on TVs all across the city.”

Of course, this scares the pants off the right wingers and Fox news, who sent one of it fear mongering minions, former United States ambassador to Morocco and a former contributor to Fox News, Marc Ginsberg, rushing to post an opinion at Huffington Post with wild accusations that Al Jazeera is fueling the unrest by “using events in Tunisia to fuel its favorite political pastime of disgorging its anti-authoritarian editorial bias across all of its media platforms — much to the anger and hostility of most Arab rulers, particularly those Al Jazeera views as too pro-western (Al Jazeera gives quite a pass to the despotic Syrian regime as well as to its Qatari benefactors).”

 * The real reason that George W. Bush was at the Super Bowl and not at a cozy dinner in Switzerland:

Human Rights Groups Announce Bush Indictment for Convention Against Torture Signatory States

No Immunity for Former Presidents Under Law

February 7, 2011, Geneva and New York – Today, two torture victims were to have filed criminal complaints, with more than 2,500-pages of supporting material, in Geneva against former U.S. President George W. Bush, who was due to speak at an event there on 12 February. Swiss law requires the presence of the torturer on Swiss soil before a preliminary investigation can be opened. When Bush cancelled his trip to avoid prosecution, the human rights groups who prepared the complaints made it public and announced that the Bush Torture Indictment would be waiting wherever he travels next. The Indictment serves as the basis on which to prepare country-specific, plaintiff-specific indictments, with additional evidence and updated information. According to international law experts at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), former presidents do not enjoy special immunity under the Convention Against Torture (CAT).

“Waterboarding is torture, and Bush has admitted, without any sign of remorse, that he approved its use,” said Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at CCR and Vice President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH). “The reach of the Convention Against Torture is wide – this case is prepared and will be waiting for him wherever he travels next. Torturers – even if they are former presidents of the United States – must be held to account and prosecuted. Impunity for Bush must end.”

While the U.S. has thus far failed to comply with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture to prosecute and punish those who commit torture, all other signatories, too, are obligated to prosecute or extradite for prosecution anyone present in their territory they have a reasonable basis for believing has committed torture. If the evidence warrants, as the Bush Torture Indictment contends it does, and the U.S. fails to request the extradition of Bush and others to face charges of torture there, CAT signatories must, under law, prosecute them for torture.

* From our home grown Taliban, better know as Republicans. Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner?

GA State Rep.: There’s No Such Thing as a Rape Victim

Georgia Republican state Rep. Bobby Franklin (of gold-standard-wannabe fame) has introduced a bill to change the state’s criminal codes so that in “criminal law and criminal procedure” (read: in court), victims of rape, stalking, and family violence could only be referred to as “accusers” until the defendant has been convicted.

Burglary victims are still victims. Assault victims are still victims. Fraud victims are still victims. But if you have the misfortune to suffer a rape, or if you are beaten by a domestic partner, or if you are stalked, Rep. Franklin doesn’t think you’ve been victimized. He says you’re an accuser until the courts have determined otherwise.

To diminish a victim’s ordeal by branding him/her an accuser essentially questions whether the crime committed against the victim is a crime at all. Robbery, assault, and fraud are all real crimes with real victims, the Republican asserts with this bill.

* Ian Welsh gives us his perspective on Arianna Huffington’s sell-out, or as he calls it “cashing out”, to AOL:

it’s been clear for a while that Huffpo was becoming less and less progressive or liberal and more and more a business for business sakes.  The model for Huffpo was always that the entertainment and gossip news would drive the traffic, that traffic would slop over into the more progressive and political writing, and would pay for it.

In other words, the entertainment pays for the politics, just as in the old days, news on the big networks was either a loss loser or not particularly profitable compared to other types of programming.  When the MBA types took over, that meant turning the news into “infotainment”, or segregating into cable, a niche market.  Because there is only one value in post Reagan business in America: making money.  Anything which interferes with making the most money possible (for you, not for your shareholders, don’t make me laugh) must be gotten rid of.

As our davidseth pointed out in his article from The Dream Antilles:

So my initial impression– I’m sure we’ll all have time to think about this today– is that once again the writers, the bloguer@s like you and me get to continue to tickle their keyboards and bang their heads on their monitors for free, while they create all of the “content” and the money, and it is huge money this time, will not find its way into their pockets.  Not a sou.

* Today is Chris Rock’s Birthday