Amy Goodman and Jim Hightower Talk About a U.S. Attack on Iran

Activists Amy Goodman and Jim Hightower spoke about the American drumbeats for war -- this time against Iran and Venezuela -- and the corporate media's role in repeating the process used in drumming up popular support for the illegal attack on Iraq. The "Peace Podcast from the Peace Education" kicked off yesterday's news conference by asking Goodman and Hightower to address the topic. The questioning took place as both activists met with a group of Michigan bloggers (including RTR) at the 2008 Michigan Policy Summit in Lansing, Michigan. At one point in the discussion, Hightower suggests that public agitation is needed to stop the attacks. A blogger asks from the table if it is a blogger's responsibility to report on the agitation or to organize it. Hightower says point-blank, "Both." On that point, the Michigan bloggers have a lot of work to do. I predict that attacks on Iran and/or Venezuela will happen this year unless Americans mobilize against them. Michigan bloggers need to be more vocal about the topic, starting immediately.

Please stay tuned for more video and audio reports from the Michigan policy summit. See the photos of the summit by clicking here.

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Meanwhile, down at the Lansing State Journal...

I sit on the community readers panel for the Lansing State Journal. As part of the panel, I can make recommendations or story suggestions to the LSJ's editors. I plan suggest to the LSJ that they carry Amy Goodman's weekly column, especially now that Molly Ivins no longer appears as a progressive voice in its pages. If you want to help me in this endeavor, you can send an email message to the LSJ editorial page handler Derek Melot at dmelot@lsj.com. I'm still a little mystified (only a little) that the LSJ and other corporate media outlets failed to cover the Michigan Policy Summit, especially with the appearance of Goodman and Hightower. Does news not happen on weekend for these "professional journalists"?

Finally, the readers panel members get to answer a weekly question posed by the LSJ. Here is this week's question pose to the panel:

What advice do you have for 2008 high school and college graduates?

My answer did not make the print edition but appears online. I made my advice short and to-the-point. Here's my advice for the graduates:

In your life and career put people, peace, and planet before profits.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Goodman and Hightower Talk the Drumbeat of War