Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 43

Tuesday Night Music Pick

It's Richard Thompson--fine songwriter and singer (and funnyman) and one of greatest guitarists ever--with one of his best, "When the Spell Is Broken." First, live and electric (from years ago), then acoustic (very recently).  Bonus:  go here for song with ex-wife Linda.

Jesus: A Polish Joke?

Story of the day, via Patch, in Michigan episode. Love the kid's comment:

After severe storms, which DTE Energy called one of the 10th worst in its 111-year history, rumbled across Wayne County Friday and abruptly shut down the St. Andre Bessette Church Festival, there was something especially comforting about some of the food when the celebration resumed on Saturday.

Festival chairman Robert Heller told WXYZ, Channel 7 said a parishioner excitedly told him that Jesus must prefer Polish food to Mexican food, then presented a pierogi – a Polish dumpling – as evidence.

“I was shocked,” said Heller, who was making tacos at the time. “I looked at it, and you can definitely see the face of Jesus.”

The church posted a picture of the holy pierogi on its Facebook page.

Megan Crosson posted that she just showed the picture to her kids. Her son, Gavin, reportedly responded, “What! Jesus is on a pierogi! I need some!”

The church isn’t quite sure what to do with the dumpling. Right now, it’s in a bag in the church freezer.

The 28 Missing Pages on 9/11

We had the 18 1/2 minute gap with Nixon and Watergate, and now 28-page gap on 9/11 probe.  The great Lawrence Wright at The New Yorker today:

On the bottom floor of the United States Capitol’s new underground visitors’ center, there is a secure room where the House Intelligence Committee maintains highly classified files. One of those files is titled “Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters.” It is twenty-eight pages long. In 2002, the Administration of George W. Bush excised those pages from the report of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks. President Bush said then that publication of that section of the report would damage American intelligence operations, revealing “sources and methods that would make it harder for us to win the war on terror.”

“There’s nothing in it about national security,” Walter Jones, a Republican congressman from North Carolina who has read the missing pages, contends. “It’s about the Bush Administration and its relationship with the Saudis.” Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, told me that the document is “stunning in its clarity,” and that it offers direct evidence of complicity on the part of certain Saudi individuals and entities in Al Qaeda’s attack on America. “Those twenty-eight pages tell a story that has been completely removed from the 9/11 Report,” Lynch maintains. Another congressman who has read the document said that the evidence of Saudi government support for the 9/11 hijacking is “very disturbing,” and that “the real question is whether it was sanctioned at the royal-family level or beneath that, and whether these leads were followed through.” Now, in a rare example of bipartisanship, Jones and Lynch have co-sponsored a resolution requesting that the Obama Administration declassify the pages.

 And there's a "ton of other stuff" still classified, including interviews with Bush, Cheney etc. 

The 'War of Choice' in Gaza

Yes, we've been saying and reporting this for many weeks, but now Roger Cohen weighs in at the 'NYT," affirming claims on Israel's "war of choice" on Gaza, going back to the "kidnapped teens" episode. Note the reference to no U.S. media probing of the kidnapping--notably by the Times' (and the IDF's) bureau chief, Jodi Rudoren. 

Much mystery continues to shroud its genesis, the abduction on June 12 of three Israeli youths near Hebron and their murder, now attributed to a local Palestinian clan including Hamas operatives who acted without the knowledge or direction of the Hamas leadership. (There has been no major investigative piece in the American press on the incident, a troubling omission.)

But enough detail has emerged to make clear that Netanyahu leapt on “unequivocal proof” of Hamas responsibility (still unproduced) for political ends. The prime minister’s aim was to discredit Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, for reconciling with Hamas; vindicate the collapse of the peace talks Secretary of State John Kerry had pursued; stir up Israeli rage over the fate of the teenagers; sweep through the West Bank arresting hundreds of suspected Hamas members, including 58 released under the terms of an earlier deal with Hamas; and consolidate divide-and-rule....

For more than two weeks after the abduction, persuasive evidence that the teenagers were dead was kept from the Israeli public. A hugely emotional return-our-boys campaign was pursued while the recording of a phone call from one of those boys to the police in the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping was not divulged. In it, shots and cries of pain could be heard. As Shlomi Eldar wrote, “It was a murder in real time, horrifying and monstrous.” After it, “Those who heard the emergency call recording knew that the best one could hope for was to bring the boys to their final resting places.”

The effect of this concealment, whatever its justification, was to whip up an Israeli frenzy. This was the context in which a Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli extremists. It was also the context of the drift to war: air campaign, Hamas rockets and tunnel raids, Israeli ground invasion.

Pardon? Op-Ed Rejected by 'NYT'

Rick Perlstein, author of the new bestseller on the run-up to our Reagan catastrophe, wrote piece on President Gerald Ford's horrid pardoning of Nixon and how it produced so many cynics--published today at Salon.  But he posted on Facebook that it had been killed by the 'NYT' because they said they "couldn't follow the argument."

It was an enormously unpopular act. Ford’s approval rating declined from 71 to 49 percent, the most precipitous in history. This pardon was proof, the people said, that the system didn’t work — America was still crooked. Suspicions were widespread that it was the fruit of a dirty deal between Nixon and Ford: the presidency in exchange for the pardon. “The son of a bitch pardoned the son of a bitch,” was how Carl Bernstein broke the news Bob Woodward on the phone.

Since then, judgment on the pardon has reversed 180 degrees. First Woodward, then Bernstein, came to conclude there had been no deal, and that this was instead an extraordinarily noble act: Ford “realized intuitively that the country had to get beyond Nixon.” After Ford died in 2006, Peggy Noonan went even further. She said Ford “threw himself on a grenade to protect the country from shame.”

They’re wrong.

Jimi & The Monkees

Yes, few today may know, that Jimi Hendrix's first big tour, before he went giant in 1968, was a 1967 tour with...The Monkees, as opener.  My sister, as I recall, even attended concert in Buffalo as he first rock show.  A new photo has emerged of Jimi with a couple of the boys.

Throw Out This Rice

Updates:   TMZ says it has proof NFL did view the video tape earlier and will release their evidence tomorrow morning.  

The Ravens cut Rice and the NFL suspends him "indefinately" citing "new" video--must now be probe of whether they 1) knew what was on video long ago 2) actually viewed video 3) made no effort to learn about or view video.  Need probe of "what did Goodell know and when did he know it" re: Rice video.  Or maybe there's a key "18-1/2 second gap"?

Brian Kilmeade of "Fox and Friends" comments:  The lesson of the new video is..."take the stairs" next time.

NFL responds, "The video was not made available to us and no one in our office has seen it until today."  Also: Peter King flatly reported back in July that NFL officials DID see the inside-elevator video.  Today he is, of course, covering for them by wondering "if" they saw it.

Earlier today:  So everyone's talking about new video at TMZ that shows Ray Rice actually punching out girlfriend in that elevator (and again blasting measly two-game suspension).  But why is no one point out that it also shows that when he drags here out of elevator unconscious he first lets her legs remain where door could close and partly crush them--then turns her around lets her head rest in path of door closing (if it closed)?  Note:  Ravens fans stood and cheered him after suspension.

Ray Rice -- ELEVATOR KNOCKOUT ... Fiancee Takes Crushing Punch [Video] - Watch More Celebrity Videos or SubscribeUnfortunately your browser does not support IFrames.
Ray Rice -- ELEVATOR KNOCKOUT ... Fiancee Takes Crushing Punch [Video] - Watch More Celebrity Videos or Subscribe

Student Debt--Just Like STDs

So sez John Oliver--it will follow you for years and year.

From the Reality Show Hall of Fame

It was my next-to-last year at Crawdaddy but somehow we missed this 1978 classic "rock and roll sports" reality competition featuring (hold your breath):  Michael Jackson and Joan Jett (running 100 yard dash), Rod Stewart, Ed McMahon, Phyllis Diller, ELO, Seals & Crofts, Michelle Phillips, other Jacksons, Kenny Loggins, ShaNaNa, Sandy Duncan, Anne Murray, Susan Anton, and the list goes on and on!

Hawks Owner To Sell After Racist E-mail

Just happening.  Yeah, he "self-reported" but probe was underway.  AP on the email:

In the email sent in August 2012, Levenson shared his observations of the fan experience at Hawks games. He said he concluded "southern whites" were uncomfortable at games.

"My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base," Levenson said in the email released Sunday by the Hawks.

"Please don't get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arena back then. I never felt uncomfortable, but I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority."

Levenson said Hawks crowds are 70-percent black, the team's cheerleaders are black and hip-hop music was played.

"Then I start looking around at other arenas," Levenson said. "It is completely different."

Though he said he disagreed with the conclusion, he said he told team executives to add white cheerleaders and music "familiar to a 40-year-old white guy."

Added Levenson in the email: "I have even bitched that the kiss cam is too black."