Stimulus and Somnolence

On GOP January 2009

Think about it.

Why would anyone think that "common ground," on any consistent basis, can be found with people like this, or that it would be beneficial to eliminate real differences in order to accommodate their views?

Republicans have made about as clear as possible that even though they'll pay lip service to "bipartisanship," they don't actually want that

Republicans aren't interested in "bipartisanship" except to the extent that they can force Democrats to enact their policies even though they have only a small minority thanks to being so forcefully rejected by the citizenry.

Debt as Money by Paul Grignon.

GOP to UAW:

Is this REALLY commercial tv news?

The Katrina Myth; the truth about a thoroughly unnatural disaster

Here's a story we haven't seen on the commercial outlets.

Kucinich: Citizens must demand Congress consider impeachment

We need 50 million Democrats like this one.

Noam Chomsky: Mass Media and Control Part 2/2

Noam Chomsky: Mass Media and Control Part 1/2

This is where he explains how advertising killed the working class news publications

Letter To Obama

This is mandatory summer reading.

Because something had to be done.

So we marched. We staged sit-ins and teach-ins. We burned draft cards and blockaded induction centers. We declared 'summers of love'. We stuck daisies into rifle barrels aimed at us. And some reacted, as you said, 'by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself'

Because the 'very idea of America itself' had become so distorted that it allowed for the napalming of children in their villages, and Mutually Assured Destruction through thermo-nuclear war, and the killing of presidents and civil rights leaders, and the destruction of the environment, and police riots against protesters, and the exploitation of migrant workers, and the oppression of blacks, and the subjugation of women, and even the slaughter of protesting students.

And the idea that hundreds of thousands of us could be forced to go kill other people against our will.

And if that's what the flag represented to the other side, then it damn well needed burning.

So call them 'excesses' if you will.

But those 'excesses' led to...

An end to the nuclear arms race.

An end to Vietnam.

An end to the draft.

Full legal rights for blacks.

Full legal rights for women.

Legal rights for gays.

Environmental protections.

Occupational safety laws.

And far far far more than I could ever list in one diary, so many things that seem so ordinary that they are the culture... now.

Though I will presume to list one last thing...

It's partly because of those 'excesses', and because people did not 'react merely by criticizing particular government policies' that you were able to become the Democratic party's candidate for president of the United States.

Just something you might want to think about, the next time you feel like bad-mouthing us DFHs.

Big Media Are Bad for Democracy

The segment of the Thursday, July 3rd episode will wind up focusing on the Big Media issue as led by Stop Big Media. We want to encourage as many viewers as we can to pick up the phone, call their Congressperson, and weigh in to say NO to the FCCs ruling expanding cross-ownership rights.

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Now That Was A Speech!

Yesterday evening, Sen. Chris Dodd gave a ripping speech on the Senate floor regarding FISA, the rule of law, and the disrespect for the institutions of government that supporters of telecom immunity have shown. It was the best speech anyone has given since this whole illegal domestic spying program was revealed.

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Big Oil Firms Ready to Sign Agreements With Iraq

BAGHDAD, June 19 -- Iraq is preparing to award contracts to several Western energy companies to help develop its vast oil resources, allowing them to consolidate their positions in a country that has seemed less threatening in recent months as security has improved.

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Senate Set to Clear Supplemental

Everybody's caving to BushCo and the war machine. The Senate is set to bow to the House in their long battle over whose plan for the supplemental spending bill will reach the president's desk. The House on Thursday evening approved its latest version of the measure (HR 2642), which would provide $161.8 billion in war funding, an expanded veterans' education.

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Tentative accord on spy bill, immunity

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House and congressional negotiators have reached a tentative agreement on an anti-terror spy bill that would permit court dismissal of potentially billions of dollars in lawsuits against phone companies, sources familiar with the talks said on Friday.

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Media Reform and Social Change

Communication and access to technology are central to the success of all social change efforts.

Amalia Anderson, Main Street Project, talks about going t]into local communities and giving the common people--immigrants and indigenous people--the skills to tell their stories digitally in lieu of the opportunities offered (or not) by mainstream media.

Structure is the theme--structural change, not just for indigenous people, but all people with local or common interests.

Mark Lloyd: User generated media should be fully funded by taxes on corporate media.

Platforms and structures: give local people ownership, propriety, viewership and trickle-up direction--start with local empowerment.

MNN--go out and get locals and bring them into the operation--and turn the platform into a venue for locals and then work to expand the whole operation onto the internet.

Then the presenters pulled hte rug out from under the audience by taking the microphone at the head table and talking about what is bias and how to recognize unfair reporting.

Media bias examples--war, Katrina, immigration.

Democratic Primary Boosts U.S. Image Around the World

LONDON, June 4 -- For much of the world, Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries was a moment to admire the United States, at a time when the nation's image abroad is in tatters.

"Although no one will admit it, Israeli leaders are worried about Obama," said Eytan Gilboa, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. "The feeling is that this is the time to be tough in foreign policy toward the Middle East, and he's going to be soft."

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GAO, Pentagon's IG Investigate "Pentagon Pundits"

I suspect the GAO is dragging the Pentagon IG, kicking and screaming, to investigate the propaganda program the Pentagon launched in their media psyop to promote the Iraq invasion.

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How telecoms are attempting to buy amnesty from Congress

Lobbyist disclosure forms and campaign contribution records illuminate the sleazy process by which our key laws are written.

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Bush Power Grab Since 911 - Democratic Underground

Unitary Executive theory is ahistorical and undemocratic.

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Center For Media and Democracy: Sheldon Rampton @ Google