Senator Levin on Afghanistan
Today, the Grand Rapids Press ran an Associated Press story with the headline, “Democrats balk at troop surge in Afghanistan.” The article makes the claim that, “Key Senate Democrats signaled Friday that any push by President Barack Obama to send more troops to Afghanistan is likely to hit resistance on Capitol Hill.”
The article is framed in such a way as to suggest that there are elements in the Democratic Party that are hesitant to support any additional increase to US troop levels in Afghanistan. However, the only source cited in this article is Michigan Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who says,
“There are a lot of ways to speed up the numbers and capabilities of the Afghan army and police. They are strongly motivated. I think that we should pursue that course … before we consider a further increase in combat forces beyond what’s already been planned to be sent in the months ahead.”
Levin is not saying he is against more US troops being sent to Afghanistan, rather that the US should put more emphasis on training Afghani troops to provide security in their own country. This line of thinking for Levin is very similar to what he proposed in Iraq, which was to make the Iraqi government responsible for dealing with internal security matters. Now Levin wants to put the burden of responsibility on the Afghani government, even though there are those who have spent time in Afghanistan and say that the Afghan security forces are corrupt.
The article does not explore Levin’s position on Iraq or the fact that he has consistently voted for funding bills that were tied to Iraq and Afghanistan spending, like the last piece of legislation that allocated $106 billion for US military activities in Iraq & Afghanistan that passed in June.
Another omission in this story was a much stronger criticism of the US policy on Afghanistan from fellow Democratic Senator Russ Feingold. Earlier this week Feingold stated that after eight years he sees no evidence that sending more troops will improve the situation in Afghanistan. The story also doesn’t provide much information or analysis of Levin’s comments within a larger context.
Defense Secretary Gates and several US commanders are now calling for more US troops on top of the 21,000 additional military personnel deployed a few months ago. The Obama administration is expected to discuss this new report from Gates next week and make some decisions about long-term US policy in Afghanistan. Independent reporter Glenn Greenwald wrote an excellent story on Thursday about the growing public opposition to the US occupation of Afghanistan and that it might rival health care as an issue that could greatly impact the future of the Obama administration.
Unfortunately, for readers of the Grand Rapids Press, there are no perspectives provided beyond Senator Levin and no analysis of a growing opposition to the nearly eight year occupation of Afghanistan. Instead, readers are led to believe that Senator Levin and other Democrats are in opposition to the President’s policy in that country. One should never confuse tactics with strategy. It appears that if there is a difference between some Democrats and their President it is on tactics, not long term strategy.
Immigration Reform Interviews – An Religious leader and Community Activist share their views
These interviews are part of a series that we will be posting with people from West Michigan who are working to push for a new immigration policy from the federal government. The West Michigan Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is working with the national group Reform Immigration For America (RIFA) to hold the new administration to its promise to reform immigration policy. You can join the local group by becoming a member on Facebook or contact Diane at dianelawkessler@gmail.com.
Local News Coverage of the Immigration Reform Campaign
On Monday, Reform Immigration For America (RIFA) kicked off their public campaign in Michigan to work towards comprehensive immigration reform. The West Michigan group working with RIFA held a press conference at the UFCW headquarters in Grand Rapids.
![immigration[1]](https://griid.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/immigration1.jpg "immigration[1]")
The only news media to show up was the Grand Rapids Press and WWMT channel 3 in Kalamazoo. I spoke with the channel 3 reporter who said that they would be sharing video footage of the press conference with the other local TV stations, since they now have an agreement to share video footage in order to cut costs. Of the four local TV stations, only WWMT has any coverage of the press conference posted online and their story was quite brief.
In contrast, the Grand Rapids Press story was quite good in that they cited several of the speakers from the press conference, provided a list of the demands that were being presented and even mentioned an action that people could take in order to get involved. What was most important about the Press coverage was the fact that they acknowledged that the local coalition is a broad based coalition representing people from organized labor, the faith community, and civil rights groups.
We filmed the entire press conference for those who would like to hear all the speakers from that day.
Independent Media Party with GRIID
Join us for refreshments, information on recent projects, GRIID classes, Media Bites, and opportunities for you get involved with media education and producing more independent media. We want to expand our work and we need you help. Now is the time to have more independent media that takes on the critical issues of our day. We will also have on hand some new GRIID Media Bites T-Shirts!
Monday, September 21
5 – 7pm
314 Straight Ave SW Door M (Tanglefoot Building)
Media Bites – Walmart
In this week’s Media Bites we look at a recent Back-to-School commercial from the retail giant Walmart. The ad tries to sell us on the idea that if you buy stuff for the dorm room at their store, your kids will be successful in college. This ad is similar to the one from JC Penny we looked at a few weeks back, in that the idea of back to school in more about shopping than education.
Yesterday, members of the Stop Targeting Our Kids (STOK) group took action to draw attention to the back-to-school spending pressures that parents and their children face every year.
According to STOK:
- Companies spend about $17 billion annually marketing to children, a staggering increase from the $100 million spent in 1983.
- There is an increasing amount of commercialism infiltrating our educational system, particularly at the K-12 grade levels.
- Children have become primary targets of advertisers who want to reach them every minute of every day, in school and out.
- Corporations have gained unprecedented access to our schools and children by offering “free” resources in exchange for the opportunity to promote their products.
It is because of this level of advertising that targets children STOK went to the Target and Wal-Mart stores in Grand Rapids to hand out flyers to customers and hold signs for motorists alone Alpine Ave.
STOK members decided to dress like characters from the Harry Potter books/movies to draw attention to their action. Some of the signs they held said, “School is for learning, not chain store earning,” “break the spell of back-to-school spending,” and “Learning is the real Magic.”
For more information on how children are targeted by advertisers go to www.commercialfreechildhood.org. To contact STOK send an e-mail to stokaction@gmail.com.
Immigration Reform Interviews – An Immigrant Rights Lawyer, Health Care Provider and Media Educator share their views
These interviews are part of a series that we will be posting with people from West Michigan who are working to push for a new immigration policy from the federal government. The West Michigan Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is working with the national group Reform Immigration For America (RIFA) to hold the new administration to its promise to reform immigration policy. You can join the local group by becoming a member on Facebook or contact Diane at dianelawkessler@gmail.com.
The first interview is with Liz Balck, who is a local immigrant rights lawyer. Next is Juan Daniel Castro, a local health care provider. Last is Jeff Smith director of Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy.
Senator Levin responds to Military Coup in Honduras
It has been some two months since a military coup in Honduras ousted the democratically elected government of Manuel Zelaya. The global diplomatic community unanimously denounced the coup and called for the restoration of democracy in that Central American country.
Initially the Obama administration spoke out against the coup but since mid-July they have stopped calling for the reinstatement of Zelaya. In fact, as Eva Gollinger reports, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is now referring to the coup leaders as the “interim government.” In addition, Gollinger writes, “The State Department has refused to certify legally the events in Honduras as a “coup”, it has not suspended nor frozen financial support or trade with the country, nor has it taken steps to pressure effectively the de facto regime.”
The lack of any serious action to defend democracy in the hemisphere and the tacit acceptance of the coup leaders suggests that the US is not interested in the rule of law in international affairs.
When asked recently about what his position on this matter is, Michigan Senator Carl Levin said,
“In July, Secretary Clinton announced that President Manuel Zelaya and Honduran National Congress President, Roberto Micheletti, agreed to engage in negotiations mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. These negotiations are ongoing and have done little to resolve this matter so far. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to lead the Obama administration’s effort to urge both sides to find a negotiated diplomatic resolution to the crisis.”
Seems that Levin is in agreement with the administration’s inaction and acceptance of the coup government.
The positions of the Democratic administration and Democratic Senator Levin raise questions about the US motives on the Honduran Coup. Some writers have suggested that since Zelaya is a member of the regional alliance known as the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the US administration wants to marginalize him. Some US media reports on the Honduran coup have suggested that Zelaya was ousted because he wanted to change the constitution to be President for life, which isn’t what Zelaya was advocating. In fact, as independent journalist Ben Dangl has reported,
“Nations across Latin America, including Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, have recently re-written their constitutions. In many aspects the changes to these documents enshrined new rights for marginalized people and protected the nations’ economies from the destabilizing effects of free trade and corporate looting.”
The proposal to rewrite the constitution in Honduras had significant support, especially from popular sectors.
What the US media has not reported on is that many of the coup instigators in Honduras are graduates of the infamous US Army School of the Americas. There has also not been much reporting of the popular resistance to the coup, nor the increasing repression that targets those who oppose the military coup.
US Coverage of the popular opposition to the coup in Honduras pales in comparison to that of the popular electoral opposition in Iran a few months ago. This comparison, which reflects a double standard, should be cause enough for people in the US to question the US government position on Honduras.
This interview is part of a series that we will be posting with people from West Michigan who are working to push for a new immigration policy from the federal government. The West Michigan Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is working with the national group Reform Immigration For America (RIFA) to hold the new administration to its promise to reform immigration policy. You can join the local group by becoming a member on Facebook or contact Diane at dianelawkessler@gmail.com.
This interview is part of a series that we will be posting with people from West Michigan who are working to push for a new immigration policy from the federal government. The West Michigan Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is working with the national group Reform Immigration For America (RIFA) to hold the new administration to its promise to reform immigration policy. You can join the local group by becoming a member on Facebook or contact Diane at dianelawkessler@gmail.com.
