Veracity Radio

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Good evening,

Welcome to VeracityRadio. It has been a busy news week and we’ll cover some of those important items in tonights show. This week we saw BP continue to flounder in the Gulf with our disaster. Animals are dying in the gulf and BP’s CEO wants his life back. Currently BP claims its “top cap” is working a little to bring oil to the surface for containment but considering their credibility right now, little they say is worth much.

In international news, Israel raided a flotilla of ships destined for Gaza. The flotilla has been in planning for some time now and we’ll get reports on what happened and have some discussion on the results of this action.

George Bush was quoted this week as admitting to authorizing the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and stated that he would do it again. Though no audio or video of the event was published, local papers and attendees have shared this “news” with us. This comes a year and half after his Vice President admitted to ABC and PBS that he was instrumental to the passage of this program.

Tonight we have a jam packed show for you and I hope that you will appreciate the words of our various guests and I’m very humbled to have the opportunity to speak with them. As always we welcome your feedback at veracityradio@gmail.com or visit the blog at veracityradio.

First up we’ll hear a reading of the op-ed by University of Utah College of Law professor Amos Guiora called The Bagram Habeas Decision: Bad Law, Bad Policy. Then I’ll play an interview I did with Mr. Guiora on Monday with comments on the flotilla and the global war on terror.

Then we’ll talk to Dahr Jamail about the flotilla, a revisit to the attack on the USS Liberty, oil in Canada, theft of Iraqi culture, and the need for independent Journalism.

We’ll have a discussion about George Bush’s comments with retired Brigadeer General David Irvine. I especially want to thank him for joining us on short notice to clarify the comments in this week’s Huffington Post and the consequences of Bush’s admission.

Then as we enter June it is important to recognize that this is Torture Awareness Month. Joining us to discuss the details and events will be Larry Siems of the ACLU and then an interview with former FBI special agent Coleen Rowley. Rowley and I also discussed the Free Gaza Flotilla, the war on terror and the media coverage of such important events.

We’ll have a visit with Jess Levin from Media Matters about BP’s contributions, individual contributions, and Obama. What is the truth behind the $71,000 in contributions?

And last, I’ll feature some archived audio from an event held in Houston a few years ago with the family of Rachel Corrie. This features letters written by Rachel as read by local activists and finishes with a few words from Cindy Corrie.

ANSWER coaliton SeizeBP campaign – Media Matters on BP/Halliburton spill and Andy Worthington
Segment 1 –

Matthew Alexander – How To Break A Terrorist
Segment 2 – (note: there are portions of the audio which dropped out and were boosted from remaining low volume. They were included to retain as much of what Mr. Alexander shared as possible.)

Hour Three included audio from Jason Leopold’s interview with John Kiriakou at TruthOut.org

and from CSPAN archives – John Kiriakou and Col. Steve Kleinmann

Our listening link will be available before airtime. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Tonight’s show features Matthew Alexander, Author of How To Break A Terrorist, Andy Worthington on British Elections and Guantanamo Bay detainees, Media Matters discussion on Elena Kagan and BP, and a visit with ANSWER coalition about their Seize BP campaign.

I’ve been recording television news for over a decade. The greatest bulk of recordings are from CSPAN. With hundreds of hours of hearings, press conferences, speeches, and special presentations, CSPAN has kept my VCRs, DVDRs, and computers busy for so long I can’t fathom the time. What started as a need to gather actualities from public officials morphed into watching for the sparse moments of accountability.

Well CSPAN has really outdone itself with its latest offering. According to them, their entire video library is online. I’ve scanned it and let me tell you, it is quite impressive. Clearly this isn’t every video feed ever covered, but they have done a really good job at referencing important materials that are key to any research of public government and private voices about governance.
Try for yourself: CSPAN Library

Or if you type in a keyword like Rumsfeld, you can get over 400 videos so far:
Rumsfeld

As a blogger, a researcher, and a media hound, I have to be able to find relevant source material fairly quickly or I can either lose focus on the story, be interrupted with pressing current events, or lose leads on information. It is a relief that I am able to say to myself, “Ok, George Bush spoke about Abu Zubaydah on September 6, 2006, being a high value detainee”, and then deciding I need to go back and visit the words and account before compared to what is publicly known later.

There are times when the video record can completely change my understanding of older issues. I might notice a congress member for the first time, be reminded of one who is now gone (Tom Delay, Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy), or one who was grilled before our eyes, Alberto Gonzales.

I love that I can now search to precise moments in time where officials testified, spoke publicly, or were the subjects of other panel inquiry. We’ll be filling in several older articles with CSPAN video and creating a weekly archives visit to key moments in our history.

We’ll still be digitizing the tapes we have just in case CSPAN ever takes the library down, but we are deeply thankful and impressed with their efforts.
To Start us of this post, lets visit the speech George Bush gave to the CIA on September 26, 2001:

There are some videos that do not have embed tags, but you can watch them at CSPAN’s site and link to them from articles or your favorite social media pages. But when the videos can be embedded into a blogger’s page it helps the reader complete the picture with contemporary coverage by the only channel focused on watching U.S. government process and related politics.

Well friends we have enjoyed many months of service at YouTube under our ‘youtube.com/cheneywatch’ address. This afternoon we had the account suspended for posting the latest JibJab video that was aired at the Radio and Television Correspondence Dinner last Friday night, June 19th. Barack Obama spoke right after and was then followed by John Hodgman. We posted the video because it was in context of the evenings events, all of which was aired on the cable news networks during the broadcast. While we understand that JibJab seeks to protect its rights, the lack of appeal, the lack of ability to respond with respect to a removal request, and the blatant work by YouTube to avoid being contacted leaves us to ask…

Why Use YouTube?
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UPDATES: The Washington Post has written a story confirming the family account. See our latest story: “Washington Post: Clinton Told True Tale of Woe, Says Kin [Updated].”

And Jake Tapper of ABC News has more — “Is Hillary’s Much-Maligned Hospital Story Fundamentally True?.” Tapper refers to the story below: “The website NoQuarterUSA today pointed out what Holman’s full story was — and his full story is significant.”
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The Clinton campaign is being accused of lying about the hospital story that Hillary Clinton has told to audiences on the campaign trail. Now Fox News is parsing the history of the event that ABC fully published on its Web site (VIDEO below). In that video, Bryan Holman is shown telling Hillary the story that she tells on the trail. The NY Times has published a report in which O’Bleness Hospital said they did not turn her away. But, that isn’t what Bryan Holman said in the first place. I have confirmed with Deputy Holman that he did not say O’Bleness denied Ms. Bachtel. It was another hospital that denied her. He is also clear that she wasn’t denied over a co-payment as some have speculated. I will keep you updated here at NoQuarter as this story develops.

The thing you have to see is that this isn’t “THE HOSPITAL” in question. Bryan Holman said that after being denied, she went to another hospital.

Here’s the video of Bryan Holman telling the story unedited. (Note: in the middle he states she was denied treatment then went to another hospital, the O’Bleness hospital.)

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