Saturday, April 29, 2006

Why Darfur Matters

Subtitled:
Let's See Ann Coulter Brag Now, Beeatches!


(Ed. Note: I'm not sure why I attributed this stuff to Coulter, altho she could and probably has said it. The intereview I cite, however, features another frigid blonde, Laura Ingraham. Mea culpa. I try to be accurate.)

You may recall I posted about an exchange that James Carville had with Ann Coulter on the Today Show a month ago or so. During the course of that discussion, Coulter called into question the courage of journalists who reported from "the balconies of hotels in Iraq" about all the bad news going on there, while she was on the ground with the soldiers.

I might point out, those were American, well-armed, soldiers who appeared, based on the photos, to be miles behind any action. Be that as it may, that ridiculous and obnoxious (obnoxious, because she was saying it on the network that lost David Bloom during the Gulf War to an injury directly attributable to being in action) comment now has a smackdown.

Academy Award winning actor George Clooney and his father, Nick, a columnist for the Cincinnati Post traveled to Darfur in Sudan to witness firsthand the genocidal slaughter and ethnic cleansing of black Sudanese by Arabic Muslims in that region of Africa.

They went without a guide. They went without any formal military escort and without the permission of the Sudanese government.

In short, bitch Coulter, they put their asses on the line to do some REAL reporting and weren't running around wasting precious American resources and military might to get some debutant to the dance on time. They were journalists.

Excerpts from Nick Clooney's column, Friday, April 28:
"They came from the sky," one told me. "Bombers and helicopters with guns. They shot us down. We did not know why they came. We hid children. There was quiet for a time, then we heard horses' hooves and they were on us. They slaughtered everything, our cattle, our goats. They killed. They killed. We ran."

How many in your family were killed? I asked.

"Nine." Another man said "seven." Another held up three fingers.

Who did it? I asked. They were hesitant. "The tora-bora," said a chief. That is slang for renegade militia, random thugs and others.

George spoke to a group of women. They told him of the attack, the torture, the pillaging. Who did it? he asked. "The janjaweed!" shouted one woman. Yes. The hated "devil riders."

We heard dozens of harrowing stories. "You must help us. There must be peace." What do you need right now? we asked. "Plastic sheeting. The rainy season is in two weeks and we have no shelter from the rain." Would they go back to Darfur? "Never. There is nothing there."

Meantime our little group had its first casualty. Mike Herron collapsed from heat stroke. After a brief hospital stay, he returned to the states, cursing his luck. George would take over camera duties.
Here that, MAnn Coulter? Put your scrawny little ass on the line like an Academy Award winning actor, or shut the fuck up!

For those of us who DON'T live on Cloud City, here's the Clooney interview from Today.

Pay close attention to how, even when refugees stream over the border into Chad, they are still harassed, and killed, even for a pail of water.

Rallies are tomorrow. Find one. Go.

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