Journalist claims papers turned down story about Bush’s desire to invade Iraq by John Byrne An investigative journalist who authored a controversial book on the Bush dynasty says he approached major US newspapers about publishing a story before the 2004 election regarding George W. Bush’s alleged intent to invade Iraq prior to becoming president, but was rebuffed.
Hamas Delivers Peace Letter to President Obama by Medea Benjamin The Hamas government in Gaza reached out to President Obama on the occasion of his visit to the Middle East, announcing that Hamas was willing to talk to all parties “on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions.” CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, who carried the letter out from Gaza, said that the letter represented a significant development and an effort by Hamas to present a new face to the Western world. “While Osama bin Laden used the occasion of President Obama’s visit to deliver a scathing attack, Hamas reached out to a feminist U.S. peace group to deliver a letter to Obama urging dialogue, mutual respect and adherence to international law,” said Medea Benjamin.
Lorrie Moore, Daniel Pink, Pat Conroy & 'You time-wasting ding-dong!': More notes from the NYC Book Expo by Jane Stillwater If you are interested in finding out what is new in the world of book-publishing, all you gotta do is ask me. After spending two whole days poking around at the massive 2009 Book Expo in New York City, I now know just about EVERYTHING there is to know about new books. Every year the book-publishing industry puts on a huge show for book sellers and librarians and they pull out all the stops to make sure we all know just exactly books are going to be published next. Staged at the gigantic glass-and-steel Jacob Javits convention center, you walk in the front door and there spread out before you, 'like a patient etherised upon a table,' is a vast amount of information about what's going to be hot in the book-publishing industry next year. There are bunches of information booths, lots of shiny brochures, several Authors' Breakfasts and they are even giving away free books! I'm there!
Hamas Delivers Peace Letter to President Obama by Medea Benjamin The Hamas government in Gaza reached out to President Obama on the occasion of his visit to the Middle East, announcing that Hamas was willing to talk to all parties "on the basis of mutual respect and without preconditions." CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, who carried the letter out from Gaza, said that the letter represented a significant development and an effort by Hamas to present a new face to the Western world. "While Osama bin Laden used the occasion of President Obama's visit to deliver a scathing attack, Hamas reached out to a feminist U.S. peace group to deliver a letter to Obama urging dialogue, mutual respect and adherence to international law," said Medea Benjamin.
As World Marks Tiananmen Protest Anniversary, It's Time to Improve Coverage of Human Rights in China by Danny Schechter Anniversaries are always pretexts for news pegs, and when the 20th year since the Tiananmen protests and massacre in China rolled around, it was not surprising that every media outlet outside of China marked the event with pages of reminiscences and commentary. For the first time in recent memory, Chinese writers took over the New York Times op-ed page.
Boob jobs: It's past time the National Pastime had some leadership by Alan Bisbort Sonia Sotomayor saved baseball. So we were reminded last week after she was nominated to the Supreme Court. Before the 1995 baseball season began — the year after the players' strike — Judge Sotomayor issued a temporary injunction to get the season started, giving owners and players breathing room to reach an accord. She saved the game, in other words, just in time for the players to trash it all over again.
See no evil: Mainstream U.S. media are fully complicit in the conspiracy by Robert C. Koehler The heavily armed, trained killer was 'under stress' when he raped, then murdered a 14-year-old girl and tried to burn her body, after having murdered her parents and 7-year-old sister.'He's my Steve. You can't stop loving someone.'Here are the two poles of our existence, the human condition stretched between them, as taut as it can go, perhaps. How do we embrace a crime such as this -- we, as Americans, who underwrote it? We want to push the accused into the deepest corner of our forgetting, but we can't quite do so.
Rush and Newt Are Winning by E.J. Dionne A media environment that tilts to the right is obscuring what President Obama stands for and closing off political options that should be part of the public discussion.Yes, you read that correctly: If you doubt that there is a conservative inclination in the media, consider which arguments you hear regularly and which you don't. When Rush Limbaugh sneezes or Newt Gingrich tweets, their views ricochet from the Internet to cable television and into the traditional media. It is remarkable how successful they are in setting what passes for the news agenda.
US Judge Rejects Lawsuits in Wiretapping Cases by Agence France Presse SAN FRANCISCO - A US federal judge dismissed dozens of lawsuits against telecom companies that participated in a wiretapping program without court authorization during the presidency of George W. Bush.San Francisco-based US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the companies had immunity from liability under the FISA Amendments Act (FISAAA), which the US Congress adopted in 2008.
Options Are Overrated by Gail Collins Americans believe that the world works best when consumers have unlimited choice. This is why my corner drugstore offers, by my last count, 103 different kinds of body moisturizers. These are not, of course, to be confused with moisturizers for the face, hand, elbow or foot.
