I put on some long underwear today and took a nice 2 hour walk through the neighborhood. I was exploring all the urban nooks and crannies between Allen and downtown, it was realy interesting, and relaxing. I like living here.



this is a picture of a city with some history


is it London? or Buffalo NY?


Main St Reborn





More at Flickr

in the LA Times yesterday one of their reporters broke a story about the US military passing off covert propaganda in the Iraqi press as news. I wrote about it on WNY Media and I needed a nice picture to go with it, so I googled "Propaganda" and found some great pictures allong with the (WIKIPEDIA - propaganda) entry for propiganda. and since I work with photoshop every day it only took me about 30 minutes to whip up this hysterical graphic.
I chuckle every time I look at it. I know it's disrespectful to our commander in chief, and I know some people will be offended by it, but I don't mind inciting political discussion with a provocative saterical image. and besides, it's freaking hysterical. and it represents this administeration beyond this specific news story. this is one of the most secerative presidents in history, and his reign has been completely stagemanaged. from the fact that he almost never holds press conferances or has any type of dialogue in public, to the fact that he doesn't allow the ceremony of bringing home soldiers caskets from war to be filmed or photographed. and what about embedded american reporting from Iraq and the intentional targeting of countless unembedded journalists... I could go on but I'll let others add to the list if they want to, and I'll get to the picture I'm talking about.






here's the full story...

[size=l] US Military Propaganda Masquerading as News[/size]
Wednesday, 30 November 2005

As part of the American "information offensive" in Iraq, the US military is authoring pro-America propaganda and slipping it into the Iraqi Press as legitimate unbiased news. Without letting anyone know that the US military, not Iraqi journalists, wrote the articles.

We are paying The Lincoln Group to translate them into Arabic, and pass them off to Iraqi newspapers as freelance journalism. Contractors posing as journalists pay $15,000 - $50,000 to Iraqi newspapers that typically publish these articles in their newspaper as a regular unbiased news story. According to a story in the LA Times released today.

The US has also purchased at least one newspaper and 'taken control' of one radio station which are used to channel more pro-American news to the Iraqi public. Nobody has been notified that these outlets are run by the US.

In other words, we have propaganda masquerading as Iraq's new free democratic press. Apparently the US can not depend on the facts, so we manufacture our own subjective truth, and depend on the almighty dollar to convince people to agree with us, and say what we want them to.

Hurray for democracy!!

Full article "U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press" from LA Times staff reporters Mark Mazzetti and Borzou. Daragahi below.


U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press
Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object
to the practice.

By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON - As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S.
military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories
written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the
U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations"
troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers
with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military
officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news
accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories
trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and
tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side
of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S.
or Iraqi governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate
that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such
articles, with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite
Terrorism," since the effort began this year.

The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S.
military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based
firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the
stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors,
sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when
they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

The military's effort to disseminate propaganda in the Iraqi media is
taking place even as U.S. officials are pledging to promote democratic
principles, political transparency and freedom of speech in a country
emerging from decades of dictatorship and corruption.

It comes as the State Department is training Iraqi reporters in basic
journalism skills and Western media ethics, including one workshop
titled "The Role of Press in a Democratic Society." Standards vary
widely at Iraqi newspapers, many of which are shoestring operations.

Underscoring the importance U.S. officials place on development of a
Western-style media, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday
cited the proliferation of news organizations in Iraq as one of the
country's great successes since the ouster of President Saddam
Hussein. The hundreds of newspapers, television stations and other
"free media" offer a "relief valve" for the Iraqi public to debate the
issues of their burgeoning democracy, Rumsfeld said.

The military's information operations campaign has sparked a backlash
among some senior military officers in Iraq and at the Pentagon who
argue that attempts to subvert the news media could destroy the U.S.
military's credibility in other nations and with the American public.

"Here we are trying to create the principles of democracy in Iraq.
Every speech we give in that country is about democracy. And we're
breaking all the first principles of democracy when we're doing it,"
said a senior Pentagon official who opposes the practice of planting
stories in the Iraqi media.

The arrangement with Lincoln Group is evidence of how far the Pentagon
has moved to blur the traditional boundaries between military public
affairs - the dissemination of factual information to the media - and
psychological and information operations, which use propaganda and
sometimes misleading information to advance the objectives of a
military campaign.

The Bush administration has come under criticism for distributing
video and news stories in the United States without identifying the
federal government as their source and for paying American journalists
to promote administration policies, practices the Government
Accountability Office has labeled "covert propaganda."

Military officials familiar with the effort in Iraq said much of it
was being directed by the "Information Operations Task Force" in
Baghdad, part of the multinational corps headquarters commanded by
Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines. The officials spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were critical of the effort and were not
authorized to speak publicly about it.

A spokesman for Vines declined to comment for this article. A Lincoln
Group spokesman also declined to comment.

One of the military officials said that, as part of a psychological
operations campaign that has intensified over the last year, the task
force also had purchased an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a
radio station, and was using them to channel pro-American messages to
the Iraqi public. Neither is identified as a military mouthpiece.

The official would not disclose which newspaper and radio station are
under U.S. control, saying that naming them would put their employees
at risk of insurgent attacks.

U.S. law forbids the military from carrying out psychological
operations or planting propaganda through American media outlets. Yet
several officials said that given the globalization of media driven by
the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, the Pentagon's efforts were
carried out with the knowledge that coverage in the foreign press
inevitably "bleeds" into the Western media and influences coverage in
U.S. news outlets.

"There is no longer any way to separate foreign media from domestic
media. Those neat lines don't exist anymore," said one private
contractor who does information operations work for the Pentagon.

Daniel Kuehl, an information operations expert at National Defense
University at Ft. McNair in Washington, said that he did not believe
that planting stories in Iraqi media was wrong. But he questioned
whether the practice would help turn the Iraqi public against the
insurgency.

"I don't think that there's anything evil or morally wrong with it,"
he said. "I just question whether it's effective."

One senior military official who spent this year in Iraq said it was
the strong pro-U.S. message in some news stories in Baghdad that first
made him suspect that the American military was planting articles.

"Stuff would show up in the Iraqi press, and I would ask, 'Where the
hell did that come from?' It was clearly not something that indigenous
Iraqi press would have conceived of on their own," the official said.

Iraqi newspaper editors reacted with a mixture of shock and shrugs
when told they were targets of a U.S. military psychological
operation.

Some of the newspapers, such as Al Mutamar, a Baghdad-based daily run
by associates of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, ran the articles
as news stories, indistinguishable from other news reports. Before the
war, Chalabi was the Iraqi exile favored by senior Pentagon officials
to lead post-Hussein Iraq.

Others labeled the stories as "advertising," shaded them in gray boxes
or used a special typeface to distinguish them from standard editorial
content. But none mentioned any connection to the U.S. military.

One Aug. 6 piece, published prominently on Al Mutamar's second page,
ran as a news story with the headline "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite
Terrorism." Documents obtained by The Times indicated that Al Mutamar
was paid about $50 to run the story, though the editor of the paper
said he ran such articles for free.

Nearly $1,500 was paid to the independent Addustour newspaper to run
an Aug. 2 article titled "More Money Goes to Iraq's Development," the
records indicated. The newspaper's editor, Bassem Sheikh, said he had
"no idea" where the piece came from but added the note "media
services" on top of the article to distinguish it from other editorial
content.

The U.S. military-written articles come in to Al Mutamar, the
newspaper run by Chalabi's associates, via the Internet and are often
unsigned, said Luay Baldawi, the paper's editor in chief.

"We publish anything," he said. "The paper's policy is to publish
everything, especially if it praises causes we believe in. We are
pro-American. Everything that supports America we will publish."

Yet other Al Mutamar employees were much less supportive of their
paper's connection with the U.S. military. "This is not right," said
Faleh Hassan, an editor. "It reflects the tragic condition of
journalists in Iraq. Journalism in Iraq is in very bad shape."

Ultimately, Baldawi acknowledged that he, too, was concerned about the
origin of the articles and pledged to be "more careful about stuff we
get by e-mail."

After he learned of the source of three paid stories that ran in Al
Mada in July, that newspaper's managing editor, Abdul Zahra Zaki, was
outraged, immediately summoning a manager of the advertising
department to his office.

"I'm very sad," he said. "We have to investigate."

The Iraqis who delivered the articles also reaped modest profits from
the arrangements, according to sources and records.

Employees at Al Mada said that a low-key man arrived at the
newspaper's offices in downtown Baghdad on July 30 with a large wad of
U.S. dollars. He told the editors that he wanted to publish an article
titled "Terrorists Attack Sunni Volunteers" in the newspaper.

He paid cash and left no calling card, employees said. He did not want
a receipt. The name he gave employees was the same as that of a
Lincoln Group worker in the records obtained by The Times. Although
editors at Al Mada said he paid $900 to place the article, records
show that the man told Lincoln Group that he gave more than $1,200 to
the paper.

Al Mada is widely considered the most cerebral and professional of
Iraqi newspapers, publishing investigative reports as well as poetry.

Zaki said that if his cash-strapped paper had known that these stories
were from the U.S. government, he would have "charged much, much more"
to publish them.

According to several sources, the process for placing the stories
begins when soldiers write "storyboards" of events in Iraq, such as a
joint U.S.-Iraqi raid on a suspected insurgent hide-out, or a suicide
bomb that killed Iraqi civilians.

The storyboards, several of which were obtained by The Times, read
more like press releases than news stories. They often contain
anonymous quotes from U.S. military officials; it is unclear whether
the quotes are authentic.

"Absolute truth was not an essential element of these stories," said
the senior military official who spent this year in Iraq.

One of the storyboards, dated Nov. 12, describes a U.S.-Iraqi
offensive in the western Iraqi towns of Karabilah and Husaybah.

"Both cities are stopping points for foreign fighters entering Iraq to
wage their unjust war," the storyboard reads.

It continues with a quote from an anonymous U.S. military official: "
'Iraqi army soldiers and U.S. forces have begun clear-and-hold
operations in the city of Karabilah near Husaybah town, close to the
Syrian border,' said a military official once operations began."

Another storyboard, written on the same date, describes the capture of
an insurgent bomb-maker in Baghdad. "As the people and the [Iraqi
security forces] work together, Iraq will finally drive terrorism out
of Iraq for good," it concludes.

It was unclear whether those two storyboards have made their way into
Iraqi newspapers.

A debate over the Pentagon's handling of information has raged since
shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

In 2002, the Pentagon was forced to shut down its Office of Strategic
Influence, which had been created the previous year, after reports
surfaced that it intended to plant false news stories in the
international media.

For much of 2005, a Defense Department working group has been trying
to forge a policy about the proper role of information operations in
wartime. Pentagon officials say the group has yet to resolve the
often-contentious debate in the department about the boundaries
between military public affairs and information operations.

Lincoln Group, formerly known as Iraqex, is one of several companies
hired by the U.S. military to carry out "strategic communications" in
countries where large numbers of U.S. troops are based.

Some of Lincoln Group's work in Iraq is very public, such as an
animated public service campaign on Iraqi television that spotlights
the Iraqi civilians killed by roadside bombs planted by insurgents.

Besides its contract with the military in Iraq, Lincoln Group this
year won a major contract with U.S. Special Operations Command, based
in Tampa, to develop a strategic communications campaign in concert
with special operations troops stationed around the globe. The
contract is worth up to $100 million over five years, although U.S.
military officials said they doubted the Pentagon would spend the full
amount of the contract.

Mazzetti reported from Washington and Daragahi reported from Baghdad

The Story...

Molly and I had planned to get engaged on our anniversary November 17, but I thought it should be more of a surprise. On Tuesday the 15th while she was at class I made a gourmet dinner, lit all the candles in the house, turned off the lights and waited for her to get home. She just thought I was just being sweet until I pulled the ring from my pocket. She cried, it was great. I couldn't have planned it any better.

I left work at noon to prepare. I made Mushroom Soup (her favorite) with gourmet ingredients from the Lexington Co-op, I also found our absolute favorite Cheese, Epoisses, at Wegmans (a small miracle), and she also loves Avocados so I got one of those from the Co-op too, along with a loaf of fresh bread. And some cheesecake for dissert. Oh yea.. a bouquet of sunflowers too.

After Tuesday, we left on a week long vacation to Molly's Cabin in the Adirondacks to celebrate and spend time together.

Molly also gave me a ring, I'll wear it on my right hand until we get married, then it will become my wedding ring.











More Pictures on Flickr

picture from today.

We went to go see Dar Williams at the Statler Towers tonight.


The Building is an amazing piece of Buffalo's history. we took some time to explore before heading into the Randezvous room to see Girlyman and Dar Williams.


Dar Williams on Stage in the Randezvous Room


it was tough to get a clear picture, she moved around a lot.


after the concert we realy explored...

yep, we found this view while exploring. in the near future this window and it's view of city hall will be part of a condominnium. you will actually be able to own this amazing space in the heart of downtown. I think it's fantastic, wish I could afford it.

Today is the day.

Voting is especially important in local elections. 500 votes can mean life or death in these types of elections.

if you are fed up and you feel disenfranchised by the electoral system Vote for Judy.

if you want to tell the Democratic and Republican machines of Buffalo and Erie County that we are not going to tolorate their corruption any longer, vote for Judy.

Why? because she genuinely cares about this city. she is not in it for the paycheck or the perks or the power, she is running for mayor because she feels an obligation to help.

Good intentions do not mean everything however, and luckily Judy has the skills and the background to make her absolutely qualified. She was director of a project here in Buffalo which helped over 90 low to moderate income people set up and manage their own businesses. Why spend money on Bass Pro whose proffits are mostly going out of state, let's invest in our own people and help them utalize their own creativity and ambition.
in addition she earned her Masters from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where she focused her studies on community problem solving and decision making. maybe it's just me but I think it's a good idea to base Buffalo's decisions on research, rather than who knows who, and who gets money out of the deal.

if you still have doubts go to her website and watch the debate, or the interviews. you can see her honesty and determination for yourself.


See you at the polls
you have until 9:00pm

I stumbled upon an old quote from our great leader, George W, from the day before the war in Iraq began.

Some of you will remember that day, March 17, 2003, Bush got on prime time TV and demanded that Saddam Hussein and his sons leave Iraq within 48 hours. seems like a reasonable request to me! *sarcasm* First we asked him to let the UN weapons inspectors back into his country or we would start a war, so he did, that fool, he must be just trying to trick us, let's try something harder! Leave your Country Bastard!!

Here's the Quote, and a link to the Presidents adress. it is interesting to read these things from today's perspective, knowing all that we do now about the situation. his statment sounds grave, but the monster that he is confronting is in reality a weak paper tiger. no links to Al-Qaeda and no WMD.

anyway the justification, straight forward...

"The danger is clear: Using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country, or any other."

[size=l]Cheney wants CIA to be Exempt from ban on Torture[/size]

I saw that headline on the Buffalo News yesterday, and I was simply astounded. I don't know how people can say that kind of stuff with a straight face and think it's OK. Seriously, what have we become.

I posted about this amendment before
[inlink]dcoffee,21[/inlink]Bush loves Torture
[inlink]dcoffee,22[/inlink]PS. on anti-torture amendment

for anyone on the fence about using torture, you don't get credible or useful information from someone by beating them up, you must befriend them and make them trust you. convince them that you are not an enemy and help them open up to you. torture either leads to people saying whatever you want to hear, or it validates the idea that America is the great Satan and if you die by our hands you are surely going to heaven as a martyr.




anyway here's the Full article

Cheney wants CIA to be exempt from ban on torture
By DAVID ESPO and LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press
11/5/2005

WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to exempt the CIA from a proposed ban on torturing terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in the closed-door session.

Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants said, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided such treatment was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.

The vice president made his comments at a regular weekly private meeting of Senate Republicans, according to several lawmakers who attended. Cheney often attends the meetings, a chance for the rank-and-file to discuss legislative strategy, but he rarely speaks.

In this case, the room was cleared of aides before the vice president began his remarks, which one senator said included a reference to classified material.

The officials who disclosed the events spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the discussion.

"The vice president's office doesn't have any comment on a private meeting with members of the Senate," said Steve Schmidt, a Cheney spokesman.

During the session, Cheney drew support from at least one lawmaker, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, while Sen. John McCain of Arizona dissented, officials said.

McCain, who was tortured while he was a prisoner during the Vietnam War, is the chief Senate sponsor of an anti-torture provision that has twice cleared the Senate and triggered veto threats from the White House.

Cheney's decision to speak at the meeting underscored both his role as White House point man on the contentious issue and the importance the administration attaches to it.

The vice president made his appeal as Congress is struggling with the torture issue in light of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States houses about 500 detainees at a naval base, many of them captured in Afghanistan.

In addition, human rights organizations contend the United States turns detainees over to other countries that it knows will use torture to extract intelligence information.

Cheney's appeal came on Tuesday, two days before a former senior State Department official claimed in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" that he had traced memos back to Cheney's office that he believes led to U.S. troops abusing prisoners in Iraq.

Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff in the first Bush administration, said Thursday that Cheney's views were put in "carefully couched" terms in memos but that to a soldier in the field it meant sometimes using interrogation techniques that "were not in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva Conventions and the law of war" to extract better intelligence.

The Senate recently approved a provision banning the "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. The vote was 90-9, and an identical provision was added to a second measure on a voice vote Friday.

Comparable House legislation does not include the provision, and it is not clear whether anti-torture language will be included in either of two large defense measures Congress hopes to send to Bush's desk later this year.

The White House initially tried to kill the anti-torture provision while it was pending in the Senate, then switched course to lobby for an exemption in cases of "clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States."

I'm glad I live in the City. I was in South Buffalo until last May, which is still pretty, Caz Park is especially beautiful right now. but there's just something great about being in a friendly urban village this time of year. Buffalo is a remarkable city. I tried to capture the feel of the neighborhood and with these pictures. I would have taken more except the camera battery died. but these are pretty nice. there's more at Flickr














More pictures

I hope you guys are reading WNY Media, it is emerging as the best web based local News source. I understand that for programers and web designers like myself it can be painful because of the many flaws in the code. it's not nearly as slick as Buffalo Rising but the content is good. Also WNY Media is very open for people to join and add their own articles. I started working with them in May and have seen it transition into a dedicated news cooperative. some of the stories have quite a bit of investigative reporting behind them, many of the writers are intimately involved in the issues they cover.

They definitely need a programmer to poke around in their code for a while and fix the little flaws though. any volunteers?

Anyway I posted an article there recently about Judy Einach's press conferance, which talked about the casino and her letter to Gale Norton which was signed by a bunch of community and government leaders. the story was all but ignored by the mainstream media so I tried to do a decent job covering it on WNY Media. Usually when I write an article I post it here, but for this one I have to post a link, there's a bunch of formatting and stuff that goes with it, along with a terrible video I took at the event and a good picture. the full text of her letter and the speaches given at the press conference are there as well. take a look, I think it turned out very professional, except the video.

WNY Media article