When Does Mainstream Media Ignore Murderers?

When does the mainstream media ignore a really lurid murder case involving home invasion and the cold-blooded killings of a nine-year-old girl and her father?

Easy: It’s when the killers are white conservatives and the victims aren’t white:

We’ve been following the [Shawna] Forde case closely from the day it was first reported, in large part because it tells us so much about the mindset and behind-the-scenes operations of would-be border vigilantes.

Indeed, one of the things we look forward most to learning from this trial is the extent to which Minutemen cofounder Jim Gilchrist was involved: there is a considerable likelihood it will turn out he tipped off Forde that federal authorities were looking for her in connection with the murders.

We’re also looking forward to perhaps finally seeing some coverage of the case in the mainstream media — perhaps even Fox News, which has been assiduous in refusing to do so. I have to admit I’m baffled that, in a cable-TV business that prizes riveting audio snippets, it’s gotten so little attention elsewhere.

But then, this case always cut against everyone’s favorite “neighborhood watch” narrative. It’s about time we laid that one to rest for good.

Of course, this was enough to roust Jim Gilchrist from under his metaphorical rock to make a bogosity-laced statement, which David Neiwert promptly shot down.

Security Theater, Quantico Version

Here’s what the MPs at Quantico do when they’ve been told by their brass — who are watching them like hawks — to detain visitors just long enough to keep them from seeing someone before visiting hours end:

Jane Hamsher January 23rd, 2011 at 8:16 pm 182

In response to yellowsnapdragon @ 172
(hide text)

Was there ever an answer to that question? And who made the decision?

No there was never an answer. Every time we asked to leave, they wanted something else.

Can we leave?

We need your registration again, Ma’am.

Again?

Yes, Ma’am. Please step over here while we look at it.

(20 min)

Mr. House, we need your Social Security number again.

Why are we being detained here?

We need your Social Security number again, sir.

That went on and on.

MPs: We Were Told To Do This (Or: ‘Expired Tabs’ My Ass)

As John Chandley noted in a Tweet earlier this evening, the AP story on the detention of David House and Jane Hamsher at Quantico, which prevented David House from seeing Bradley Manning for yet another week, leaves out a key fact — namely, that the MPs told House and Hamsher that they had been ordered to detain them. As Jane Hamsher tells it:

I am very happy that I went, and could be there to support David, because one of the first things the MPs said to us when we arrived — long before they asked for driver’s license, social security numbers, registration, phone numbers, quizzed us about the addresses on our licenses, etc, etc, was that they had orders to do all of this. Which means they were planning to detain us long before we got there. They were going to use any excuse to keep David from visiting Manning, and try to intimidate him from coming back.

In other words, the “expired tabs” excuse that the Quantico spokesman fed to the AP is beside the point. The MPs had orders to detain House and Hamsher, a detention that magically ended almost exactly when visiting hours did, keeping House from checking up on Manning and his deteriorating mental condition.

Oh, and by the way: I’m not going to post it online because it’s private information, but while Jane’s tabs were indeed a month out of date, she was able to provide proof of insurance, which I have seen.

The Slow Mental Torture of Bradley Manning

Quantico brass have apparently decided they’re going to harrass and deny visitation rights to the only person who they haven’t scared away from visiting Bradley Manning in solitary confinement:

At roughly 1:00 pm, upon driving onto the base at Quantico, David House and blogger Jane Hamsher were detained by military guards. House, who is on the Quantico Brig’s visitation list, has been visiting Bradley Manning in confinement since last September.

In December 2010, House came forward with testimony that he witnessed a deterioration in Manning’s physical and mental state due to the conditions of solitary confinement. House traveled to the Quantico brig to check up on Bradley’s well-being after a week in which Manning’s lawyer filed an Article 138 complaint over Manning’s mistreatment at Quantico. House and Hamsher also planned to deliver a 42,000 signature strong petition calling for an end to the inhumane conditions that Manning is being held. Upon arriving at the main entrance at Quantico, House and Hamsher were stopped and detained by military police who provided no explanation of detainment aside from a statement from one MP that his orders to detain had “come from the top.”

Manning is incarcerated because of the word of Adrian Lamo. It’s obvious to everyone who’s looked closely at Lamo’s evidence and actions that he is a grossly unreliable witness who cannot be put on the witness stand; therefore, the DOD’s game plan seems to be to break Bradley Manning in the hope that he’ll tell them what they want to hear. However, breaking people in this fashion doesn’t provide truthful testimony, or even coherent lies. Instead, it just wrecks them in such a way that they can’t be put back together again.

People Advocating Breaking Laws! Shocking!

Look at this! A prominent figure advocates and encourages dark-skinned persons from south of the border to enter his country without their papers!

Estimates vary widely, but at least 30,000 slaves, some say more than 100,000, escaped to Canada via the Underground Railroad.^[6] The largest group settled in Upper Canada (called Canada West from 1841,^[20] and today Southern Ontario), where numerous Black Canadian communities developed. These were generally in the triangular region bounded by Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Windsor. Nearly 1,000 refugees settled in Toronto, and several rural villages made up mostly of ex-slaves were established in Kent County and Essex County.

Another important center of population was Nova Scotia, for example Africville and other villages near Halifax, see Black Nova Scotians. Important black settlements also developed in other parts of British North America (now parts of Canada). These included Lower Canada (present-day Quebec) and Vancouver Island, where Governor James Douglas encouraged black immigration because of his opposition to slavery and because he hoped a significant black community would form a bulwark against those who wished to unite the island with the United States.

Shocking, I tell you!

Mything you. Wish you were here.

Avedon always has good stuff. I found a baby elephant, a wonderful website on the size of everything from quantum foam to the observable universe and, best of all Encyclopedia Mythica, complete with a bestiary.

Keith Olberman, Cut Down By Comcast

Read about it here.

Further proof, as if anyone needed it, that the GOP/Media Complex is alive and well.

Friday Cat Blogging

Gabby Giffords Must Be Made Of Titanium

She’s slated to leave intensive care this Friday and start an aggressive course of therapy, less than two weeks after a bullet went through her brain:

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was able to stand with assistance on Wednesday, an aide said, with her doctor adding that the congresswoman has the strength to stand on her own.

“Today we were getting her out of bed again and we were able to stand with assistance,” said Dr. Peter Rhee, Tucson’s University Medical Center’s trauma chief. “She’s got the strength to stand on her own, lift her head up and these … I see improvements every single day.”

[...]

In addition to standing on Wednesday, Giffords’ doctor said she was put in a chair and was able to look out a window.

“We went to a window and so she could see the mountains of Tucson,” Rhee said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that lifted up her spirits.”

The congresswoman, who will be moved to a rehabilitation center in Texas later this week, had worries about her safety long before she was critically wounded by a gunman at a public event this month, her husband said on Tuesday.

“We’ve discussed it a number of times,” Mark Kelly told KVOA. “She felt that that was a possibility, pretty much exactly what had happened … there have been threats against her and other members of Congress.”

[...]

In an e-mail sent to friends and family members Tuesday and obtained by CNN, Giffords’ mother, Gloria, writes that she will be moved from Tucson’s University Medical Center to rehabilitation facilities in Houston on Friday.

“There is a team of medical specialists involved … including military surgeons who specialize in bullet wounds to the head,” the e-mail says. “They want to start aggressive rehab immediately.”

Giffords’ office confirmed the move and said that while the move is expected to be Friday, “the exact day of the move will depend on the congresswoman’s health.” Her family chose TIRR Memorial Hermann rehabilitation hospital in Houston, part of the Texas Medical Center, because of its reputation, one of her doctors said.

“The congresswoman’s family wants to ensure she receives the best rehabilitative care possible for her type of serious penetrating brain injury,” said Dr. Michael Lemole.

Kelly said that Memorial Hermann’s proximity to Tucson was another factor in the decision.

“I am extremely hopeful at the signs of recovery that my wife has made since the shooting,” he said. “The team of doctors and nurses at UMC has stabilized her to the point of being ready to move to the rehabilitation phase. Their goal — and our goal — has been to provide Gabby with the best care possible.”

[...]

Gloria Giffords writes that her daughter shows improvement every day “and shows higher levels of comprehension and complex actions.

“Yesterday, when Mark came back from speaking at her aide’s memorial service, she reached up and untied his tie and undid the top button to his shirt,” according to the e-mail.

“Last night, she took his iPod and scrolled through all the pictures. Early this morning she began to read cards made for her by some 4th graders! Her unbandaged eye tracked the lines, she opened the cards and turned them over reading the back. Mark’s gotten pages of large print of Harry Potter’s 1st book for her to hold and read.”

The e-mail also says that Giffords gave her husband “a 20-minute neck and back rub.”

Keep it up, Congresswoman Giffords.

Haiti agonistes. Did US assassinate Brazilian general?

Amy Goodman had a fascinating interview with Kim Ives over events in Haiti, especially the arrival of the notorious mass murderer, the dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Ives says that:

The Organization of American States is ordering Préval to change the results of the election held on November 28th, which was a completely ridiculous election marred by terrible irregularities. …

Préval is resisting this and has not responded to the OAS report and seems to question its methodology. So, we think that Duvalier’s arrival there is really an effort to pressure Préval and show him—in a way, rally the Duvalierist base, because he really is the symbol of that old guard that left power 25 years ago.

The occupying powers are willing to be ruthless in order to set up a compliant regime:

There apparently was even a meeting that the former OAS ambassador to Haiti, a fellow called Seitenfus, who has since been dismissed because of his frankness, made a—was in a meeting where they were actually discussing how to get a plane to ship Préval out [i.e., to kidnap him, as was done to former President Aristide].
…
Haiti remains the only militarily occupied nation in the Western hemisphere. It is suffering under the results of the earthquake, 1.3 million people still living under tents and tarps. Cholera has killed closing on 4,000 people, and no end in sight. You have a tremendous level of poverty and misery in the country. So, the U.S.’s main concern is not all of this, but simply how to put a façade on this occupation of the country, how to basically put their people in. And for the first time in 20 years, since Aristide’s election—first election in 1990, they have two neo-Duvalierist candidates who are positioned to take power through this completely bogus election.

And then this bombshell:

AMY GOODMAN: And the newest WikiLeaks documents showing the U.S. pressuring Brazil to also prevent Aristide from returning home?

KIM IVES: Exactly. They’ve been pressuring Brazil. And there’s another interesting WikiLeak that came out today, that the Brazilian general in 2006 who supposedly committed suicide in his hotel room—

AMY GOODMAN: Under MINUSTAH, the U.N. forces.

KIM IVES: Of the U.N. forces, MINUSTAH—was that he may in fact have been assassinated.

The cable was just released by Aftenposten. It has Dominican President Leonel Fernandez speculating that this might have been an assassination. The only person he could think of who might have done such a thing is alleged CIA asset Guy Philippe (sorry, can’t find a better link. But more on the company he keeps here).

This is truly remarkable. If it is confirmed, it’s going to end US influence over Brazil. Even the military types won’t like the idea that one of their own can just be snuffed out.