But that First Amendment is a tricky beast, 'cause it with it, you can do stuff just like this:

Tiffin University is fine school located in a pleasant small town in NW Ohio. It was founded in 1888, and has a fine reputation throughout Ohio.

Tiffin University is also a big advertiser on Denny Schaffer's radio show. That was the same radio show on which Denny said "George Soros is an atheist; he hates Christians. His family escaped from Europe in 1940 posing as Christians using forged documents. George Soros COULD be the Anti-Christ."

You might want to e-mail Michael Grandillo, Vice President for Development & Public Affairs, and ask if he is aware of this.

Or maybe e-mail Dr. Paul Marion, President of TU and ask him.

Or Kristi Campbell, Assoc. Director of Undergraduate Admissions/Director of International Student Affairs, and ask her.

You might politely ask that Tiffin University sift is resources to programs that better reflect the values of the students and faculty, and that won't sully the good name and noble history of the school.

You gotta love the First Amendment.
8:24:38 PM  #  

Sent "please link to this" e-mails to Dave, Avedon and Liberal Oasis.

Became depressed at the futility of the whole effort.

Watched in wonder at the hits poured in from first Rayne, then Dave, Avedon and The Liberal Oasis. (Thanks!)

Newly energized, I called the local office of US Rep. Marcy Kaptur to follow up with the e-mail I sent yesterday. I turned down the offer of an appointment with the Congresswoman. (What the Hell was I thinking?)

Read an e-mail from the FCC--they will not even file my complaint because anti-Semitism isn't obscene.

Become blazingly angry.

Called the office of US Rep. Marcy Kaptur--"I do want that appointment with the Congresswoman". If the Federal government won't keep anti-Semitism off of the publiclly-owned airwaves, then someone pretty high up the Table of Organization is going to sit down with me and tell me why, dammit!

E-mailed the Mayor of Toledo.

Read an e-mail from Denny Schaffer.

Sent Denny Schaffer an e-mail with a two paragraph history of anti-Semitism.

Read another e-mail from Denny. Called his office--it was unproductive and unsatisfying for both of us, but not as unpleasant as you might think (though it wasn't a picnic either--he did threaten to sic the lawyers on me)

O.K. I was little off of my game today, it was Friday, after all.
7:23:45 PM  #  

Aug 12 @ 1:12pm

Doug....I just asked the question to my guest.....You heard wrong but I appreciate you for listening..... DS

Aug. 13 @11:20am

I said it in jest that heCOULD be the anti-christ....and that is word for word.....I am not allowed to have my sarcastic beliefs?  It was in jest but good luck to you.....I am a Christian and love all people especially my savior who was a Jew....... Peace & Prayers, Denny

Aug 13 @1:21pm

Doug, I was reading from an article reguarding George Soros....I did the interview so my listeners and myself included could learn more from the the man who wrote it.  I first learned that Mr. Soros was Jewish a few hours before my show.  I find it Ironic that a family escaping the Germans by posing as Christians....the irony being a mans family who used God to escape certain death has no faith today...my heart breaks for people like him that go through life without a relationship with our creator.....this is the last time I will reply to you by email....you are reading way to deep into this and you believe I have some motive of hatred here and that is false....I am sitting at my desk right now and if you would like to discuss it further please call me right now.....419-xxx-xxxx DS

I did take him up on the offer to call him. Interestingly, he made no mention of the article he claims to have been reading from. Instead, he told told me he said: "George Soros COULD be the Anti-Christ". He played the tape for me, and yes he did say "Could be". But there was another bit that I missed:

"George Soros is an atheist. He hates Christians."

(Here's a freebie for Denny: when you are in the hole, stop digging)

He also threatened my with a law suit if I misquote him by even one word. I asked for a transcript or even a link to the audio. Since he claims that the audio proves that nothing he said was anti-Semitic, I thought he would agree. Wrong.

"I'm not going to help you out".  
6:48:35 PM  #  

But he thinks that we can't make a difference. He thinks that ClearChannel wants controversy to boost ratings. He thinks we are in a classic Catch 22. He thinks hate speech on the radio isn't news.

The smart money says he is right. But I'm raising my son in this city, and I'm not going to concede it to the hate-mongers.

Do me a favor, email Russ and tell his that racism on the airwaves is news, and that we expect journalists to allies in protecting our communities from scum-bags who profit from hate.

rlemmon@theblade.com
6:47:49 AM  #  

Called the media columnist at the local paper to complain about anti-semitic remarks by a local radio host. I was told (politely) not to bother, nothing will change.

Call the program manager a the radio station to complain. Get stuck in phone-menu hell for 10 minutes, finally leave a voice-mail.

Call the local Jewish community center, get transfer to the unfortunate person who handles reports of anti-semitism. Leave another voice-mail.

Sent an e-mail to Atrios, begging for a link to my post.

Called the FCC. Spent more time in phone-menu hell for 5 minutes. A live person tells me how to file a complaint by e-mail.

E-mail the complaint to the FCC.

E-mailed the Anti-defamation League

(Technically, around this time my lunch hour ended)

From a box under my desk, I dug out a small poster I made after Paul Wellstone's death. Across the top is the quote: "Never separate the life you live from the words you speak". Below that is picture of Paul speaking at a rally, then a quote from a Janis Ian song: "You can't reap what you don't sow; you can't plant on fallow ground; So let us fill this empty Earth with hope, until the rains come down".

After looking at the picture of Sen. Wellstone for ten minutes, it occurs to me that I have one Representative and two Senators. Ten minutes later, I have assurances from three different congressmen that as soon as I mail the detail of my complaint, they will ensure that it will be dealt with appropriately.

Called a second local columnist. Got her private e-mail address.

Noticed a staff attorney looking at me funny.

Went back to work.

Granted, I didn't accomplish much, but I haven't felt that good about work in, like, ever.
9:45:03 PM  #  

This afternoon, on live radio, local talk show host for WSPD Denny Schaffer, make the most blatantly anti-semitic statement I've ever heard (no transcript or audio available, but this almost exactly what was said. Thoughts were strung together, with nothing separating them):

George Soros is an atheist.

His jewish family escaped Europe in the 1930 by masquerading as Christians.

George Soros is the Anti-Christ.

He said this at 3:30, during the afternoon drive on one of the most popular radio stations in Toledo. And he just made one of the most hate-filled statement imaginable. Even now, four hours later, I am revolted and nauseous beyond words.

I never studied much about the historical phenomenon of anti-semitism, but even I can recognize the familiar and centuries-old pattern: Jews are godless; they can move amongst us without detection; they are the implacable enemy of everything we stand for. Schaffer didn't even try to dress it up, or couch his racism in euphemisms. He just . . . said it.

I'm guessing that it won't surprise anyone that Schaffer works for Clear Channel, and I'm guessing that tomorrow afternoon this racist jackass's job will just as secure as it was before he said these things.

Lies, hate and racism: just points in a business plan for Clear Channel.

[Update 8/13 In a phone conversation with Denny Schaffer, he confirmed that the statements were made, though he did dispute my interpretation. He played the tape of his comments for and there are two substantive differences fro what I quoted above:

Mr. Schaffer said "George Soros could be the Anti-Christ" He feels that this version inoculates him against charges of anti-Semitism. I disagree, but make your own judgement.

I also missed a clause in one the quote I provided above. "George Soros is an atheist; he hates Christians".

I was threatened with a lawsuit if I misquote so much as a single word of Mr. Schaffer's statements. When threatened, I requested a transcript, to ensure accuracy, Mr. Schaffer refused. Since he felt that his inflection on the word "could" is important in judging his meaning, I suggested that he post the audio on the internet. Again he refused]
7:58:59 PM  #  

Movies push a point of view: Activist group quickly organizes showings of 40-plus documentaries

This is an amazing story. In just three weeks a group called the Media Decompression Collective organized the "Take Democracy Back" film festival--three months of weekly, lefty documentaries that run right up to the Thursday before the election (also, free. Free is very big in Toledo). The line-up of documentaries is amazing, including one on problems with electronic ballots, irregularities in 2000 Florida vote, depleted uranium, an examination of the Carlyle Group, and much more (note to Toledoans: all free)

This is amazing, because this stuff just doesn't happen in Toledo. Really, it NEVER happens. Ann Arbor and Oberlin, sure, but not here. Voters here are reliably democratic, but the town is still conservative--in the 80s, Toledo was home to legions of "Reagan Democrats". Even the student population at the university is moderate-to-conservative, and mostly unpolitical. Documentaries almost never show here--everyone that I know was flabergasted when the The Fog of War showed up the mall cinema. (Every first-run theater in town is owned by National Amusements, so if Sumner Redstone doesn't like a movie, we can't see it)

When I left Fahrenheit 9/11, I loved the current of anger and excitement running through the crowd, but I was sure that it would dissipate by election day. That may not be the case if this festival is even a moderate success, maybe that F 9/11 crowd will stay angry and energized right through to November.

And that could be huge for everyone. The easiest way for the Democrats to carry Ohio is to have big turnouts in the industrial regions in the North to neutralize the conservative areas in the rest of the state. If the "Take Democracy Back" festival keeps Toledoans fired up and involved, then every Democrat in the country might owe the MDC a damn big "thank you".
7:04:01 PM  #  

The column begins this way:

BRITAIN'S Financial Times reported Wednesday that an official British government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq has concluded that Britain's MI-6 was correct to conclude that Saddam Hussein's regime had sought to buy uranium ore from Niger.

If so, this gives the lie to the charge that "Bush lied!" when he said in his 2003 State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. "

The July 7 story by Mark Huband follows his article from the previous week, which revealed that "a key part of the UK's intelligence on the uranium came from a European intelligence service that undertook a three-year surveillance of an alleged clandestine uranium-smuggling operation of which Iraq was a part."

Mr. Huband doesn't identify the "European intelligence service" in this or his earlier story. The scuttlebutt is that it was the DSGE, the French external intelligence service, which shared the intelligence with MI-6 only on the express condition that the Brits not share it with the United States. (Terrific allies, the French.)

That the Niger uranium story was confirmed by other, European, intelligence services, isn't new. We've known this fact for months. We have also known that these other services based their opinions on the same documents that the US used, and these documents were forged. Yes, the Niger yellow-cake story had only one source, and that source was peddling forged documents. This source was just a wise businessman and sold the same product multiple times. How do we know this? It's in the report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [Note: large PDF file]. The report explicitly says: ""March 4, 2003, the U.S. Government learned that the French had based their initial assessment that Iraq had attempted to procure uranium from Niger on the same documents that the U.S. had provided to the INVO"

Does this shoot down the "Bush lied" theory? Nope, and the source for this is the same Senate report. The whole issue of Nigerian uranium sales surfaced because President Bush mentioned the sale in a speech in Cincinnati in October 2002, and repeated the claim in the State of the Union address in January 2003. Both times the CIA attempted to removed the claims from the President's speeches, and both times the claim remained. And here is what the Senate report says about the incidents:

Although the NSC had already removed the uranium reference from the speech, later on October 6th, 2002 the CIA sent a second fax to the White House which said, "more on why we recommend removing the sentence about procuring uranium oxide from Africa: Three points (1) The evidence is weak. One of the two mines cited by the source as the location of the uranium oxide is flooded. The other mine city by the source is under the control of the French authorities. (2) The procurement is not particularly significant to Iraq's nuclear ambitions because the Iraqis already have a large stock of uranium oxide in their inventory. And (3) we have shared points one and two with Congress, telling them that the Africa story is overblown and telling them this is one of the two issues where we differed with the British."

The White House was told that of the two mines that were supposedly the source of the uranium, one was flooded, and one was not under the control the Nigerians at all. That sure sounds like a lie to me.

Then, Kelly tells us this: "In fact, Mr. Wilson himself has confirmed that Iraq did indeed try to buy uranium from Niger."

No he didn't. Wilson did tell the CIA that Iran had contacted the Nigerians, but Iran and iraq are different countries . I guess knowing the difference between Iran and Iraq--two countries that speak different languages (Arabic and Farsi), have different ethnicities (Iraq is populated by Arabs, while Iranians are Persians), and are totally different in nearly every way--is too much to expect of the national security writer for The Blade.

I do have a theory how kelly made this mistake. Susan Schmidt made the same mistake in an article in The Washington Post. Possibly, Kelly just lifted the story from her article--without attribution--and wrote it into his own column without checking the facts.

The rest of his column is just as false. Remember, to this day, WMD have not been found in Iraq. That's just a fact, and one that the Bush administration agrees with. What has been found are remnants of the pre-1991 WMD programs that were dismantled in the aftermath of that war. Tests conducted by the Pentagon have confirmed that the shells found by the Poles were from that pre-Gulf War I period, and no evidence of active nuclear programs have yet been found. Throughout the 1990s, containment worked. All the evidence found in the last year confirms this. Even George Bush admitted he was wrong when Tim Russert interviewed him on Meet the Press.

In short, Jack Kelly's column is just another attempt to lie for the Bush administration, and a sad attempt to cover up his own role in deceiving the American public in the months leading to the invasion--an invasion that will cost the US 200 billion by election day, and to date has cost the lives of 1000 Coalition servicemen and women. Does anyone think his tone will change one the death toll exceeds 1,200 or 1,500? How high will the butcher's bill have to go before Jack Kelly tells us the truth?
1:56:43 PM  #  

I was sceptical, since such noble motivations didn't sound like the vile, loathsome corporate behemoth I work overtime to keep out of Gabe's world.

Now I see this:

INTERNET sex diarist Jessica Cutler - known in the US capital by her nom de plume "Washingtonienne" - has signed a lucrative book deal with HyperionDisney, to write a novel, the company said today.

The publishing house declined to disclose the amount of the book deal, but her agent, Michael Carlisle told The New York Times that said the price was in the "substantial six figures."

Interesting choices Disney makes. It is OK to profit from the story of a woman who got paid for sex, and used government computers to boast about it, but it's not OK to profit from Michael Moore exercising his right of free speech.

I suppose it is only coincidence that F9/11 would piss of Republicans on the FCC or on important congressional committees that have never heard of Washingtonienne

I wish my ethical system were that convenient.
9:32:26 PM  #