June 30, 2010
Screw Iraq, Afghanistan & Gaza: Let’s invade Detroit!
Returning from the 2010 Social Forum in Detroit, I saw several soldiers at the DTW airport, waiting for their flights. And once again I was struck by the thought that every American soldier seems to be a whole autonomous unit unto himself or herself. Every American soldier truly IS an “Army of One”. Highly trained, efficient, skilled, confident and respectful — these men and women in uniform are just the kind of people that Detroit really needs to get itself out of its slump. And every other city in America needs this caliber of person too.
So please tell me why, exactly, are these walking human resources being wasted way over on the other side of the world when their dedication and skill sets and — let’s face it — salaries and healthcare benefits are so desperately needed here at home?
No, we don’t need our soldiers’ weapons skills in places like the Gulf Coast states or the Rust Belt. But we do need their dedication and heart.
We need the Marine Corps’ skill sets. “The few, the proud.” We really do. And we need that kind of bravery and willingness to get the job done here rather than there.
Second Marine Regiment in Al Anbar. Tarawa. “Keep Moving.” I was there. I saw for myself what our Marines can do to help re-build a country.
We need our soldiers’ ingenuity, dignity and courage here at home, helping to put America back on track — not over in Afghanistan, not over in Iraq and not even over in Gaza — where the corporatists who run America pay the cream of Israeli youth to do their dirty work for them, wasting their young lives being thugs to the brutal Occupation instead of being honorable men who refuse to shoot babies at point-blank range.
When I see a soldier at an airport, I just want to go up and hug him. Or her. You think that our boys aren’t doing a good job? Then go see Sebastian Junger’s new documentary movie “Restrepo” (http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/independent/restrepo/) That’s the kind of ability and dedication I saw demonstrated again and again and again when I was in Iraq.
These guys are good.
But we need these men and women’s dedication and skills here at home, not over on the other side of the world.
And we need to be paying these men and women to be using their skill sets here, in America, in civilian life — in a job corps as well as a Marine Corps.
Screw bailouts for bankers, oil executives, Wall Street schemers and global corporations with no ties or loyalties to our country. They have done nothing with the money that Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Obama gave them except to use it to rip us off even more.
Let’s take back all that money — and give it to our returning soldiers instead. Let’s fill up ALL of our airports with returning soldiers. We truly need this lost generation’s abilities here at home. Now.
PS: While I was at the Social Forum representing the Free Palestine Movement, my booth was next to a booth manned by Peggy Logue and her husband. Logue is another dedicated Marine Mom. And she was selling her new book, “Skin in the Game,” all about her Marine son’s experiences in Haditha and her conflict between wanting to support her son’s efforts and her moral obligation to try to stop the needless bloodshed caused by global corporate wars. “Intense, raw, and profoundly honest, ‘Skin in the Game’ illustrates the human side of war and the daily struggle for peace.” http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Game-Journey-Mother-Marine/dp/142692433X
At the Social Forum, I also talked with Kyle Kajihiro, a representative of the American Friends Service Committee (http://afschawaii.org) in Hawaii, and he told me how the entire Pacific Rim area has become just another highly-militarized “American Lake” — to the benefit of global corporatists, not us.
Screw that.
We need skilled men and women here at home, not hunkering off somewhere in faraway places like Guam or Okinawa, defending rich people’s interests — not ours — because that’s the only job that our young men and women can get.
PPS: The Detroit airport is the only airport I have ever seen besides, of course, the Norita airport near Tokyo, where all signs are printed in both English and Japanese.
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Residents and tourists lured onto Florida beaches despite health warnings
Author’s note: I cannot believe people are letting their kids play in this crap! Check out some of the videos through the Examiner link…Social Darwinism at its finest.
Excerpt:
It appears that some Florida officials are more worried about the state’s economy than the health of residents and vacationers.
Despite health advisory signs that have been posted as early as June 10, Florida Governor Charlie Crist told CBS News on Saturday the water is safe and people should not worry. “It is safe,” Crist declared, “there isn’t a toxic nature to it that is detrimental to anybody. It is much more of a nuisance than anything else at this point.”
The Escambia County Health Department lifted a health advisory on Pensacola Beach on Friday, June 27 on the advice of a beach official and against the advice of a federal environmental official, according to the Pensacola News Journal. But the advisory was not lifted for Gulf Islands National Seashore’s Fort Pickens beach, immediately west of Pensacola Beach or Johnson Beach on Perdido Key.
These seemingly contradictory moves have sent mixed signals to an already ill-informed public and consequently, many residents and tourists were lured onto the beaches – and into the water, last weekend. Before the weekend, 400 people had already sought medical care for upper or lower respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, and eye irritation after trips to Escambia County beaches, said Dr. John Lanza, director of Escambia County Health Department.
“I only went into the water up to my ankles. That’s as far as I wanted to go,” said Joe Chambers, 28, of West Pensacola as he scrubbed off oily residue from himself and his son, Ethan, 4, in the public showers at Casino Beach. “It doesn’t smell like the beach. It smells like a gas station. There are no fish in the water. There’s nothing alive in the water. I don’t know how public officials can just look at the water and make a call to reopen it for swimming.”
“What you can’t see in the water may be more dangerous than what you can see, said Dick Snyder, director of the Center for Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation at the University of West Florida. …It can’t [be]seen and it poses health risks… [W]ater samples taken Thursday in the surf zone, where most people swim, at Casino Beach, reveal[ed] small amounts of alkanes, hydrocarbon molecules found in oil”, he said. Small amounts are not harmful. But the heavier, complex molecules in the tar balls, “are toxic,” he said.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) warns, “people, including pregnant women, can be exposed to these chemicals by breathing them (air), by swallowing them (water, food), or by touching them (skin). If possible, everyone, including pregnant women, should avoid the oil and spill-affected areas.”
Likewise, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warns:
Oil is a complex mixture of chemicals and metals that can be toxic depending upon the amount and duration of exposure and the susceptibility of the exposed person. Children are especially vulnerable to the toxic effects of certain substances due to factors like higher respiratory and metabolic rates and systems that are still developing, like the nervous system. Because some agents are heavier than air, they accumulate close to the ground, right in the breathing zone of children. Some agents can also be absorbed through a child’s skin. Children are in a critical period of development when toxic exposures can have profound negative effects, and their exploratory behavior often places them in direct contact with materials that adults would avoid.
In the aftermath of an oil spill, particular attention should be paid to physical safety, water contamination, and exposure to substances or situations that could potentially harm children.
Despite these and other warnings, people like Elaine Fox were not discouraged from visiting the beaches. “We’ve played in the water. No one is sick, and we’re all going back out today,” said Fox, among 50 that came to the beach as a group from Family Church in West Monroe, La. “I think a lot of this is nothing but media hype.” She spent time photographing her pregnant daughter-in-law Christi Fox, 25, who lounged in the surf draped in a white cloth covering a white bikini. A few tar balls stuck to her bathing suit as she walked back to their condominium.
While it may not be the place of the government to prevent people from swimming in the Gulf – that should be an individual decision – it is the responsibility of the state to fully inform and warn people of the health risks of doing so. It is utterly irresponsible for the Florida governor to announce on national television that the water is safe.
Read more, get links and video here: Madison Independent Examiner – Residents and tourists lured onto Florida beaches despite health warnings
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June 28, 2010
Oilicane II
Author’s note: Sorry about the bad URL on that last post. I have been having several problems with my Orlando Examiner page and I am going to be writing on my Madison, WI page from now on.
The problem hit the breaking point for me with that last article, because Mike Malloy read that article on his show on Friday, but when people went to read it, the link suddenly was dead.
Keep in mind that the Examiner is a subsidiary of the Clarity Digital Media Group, which is owned by Philip Anschutz, who made his fortune in…hold your breath…the oil and gas industry! Go figure, huh? Yeah, he’s trying to build the Fox News of internet news (according to Media Matters) and apparently some of my articles do not fit the mold. Believe it or not, Clarity Digitial Media Group bought the Weekly Standard, so technically I am on the same payroll as that neo-con sonofabitch William Kristol!
I have had several instances in the past month where articles that are strict news reports were classified in a flash presentation under politics, then simply buried. Needless to say, I had a few issues with my editor and decided that my articles would fit in better with a more progressive community like Madison, where I have a permanent residence, than in dumbass Orlando where editors would rather have Disneyland and theme parks promoted than real news. So, from now on I am back to writing in cheeseland… If anyone wants to hire a free-lance writer, let me know…at least until I can get my own web site going. The only true journalism in this country is independent.
Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the article again, updated:
Tropical storm Alex, the first named storm of the season, crossed the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico this weekend and is expected to gather intensity after it enters the Gulf of Mexico today.
Alex is currently packing sustained winds of 35 mph, but those are expected to increase to 60 mph once it reaches the Gulf and the storm could become a hurricane with up to 85 mph winds after feeding on the warm waters of the Gulf. It is expected to make landfall in Mexico, well-away from the BP disaster site.
When Alex became the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, officials immediately worried what effect it could have on efforts to contain the millions of gallons of crude spewing into the Gulf. An overly active hurricane season mixed with oil in the Gulf of Mexico may make bad news even worse for residents throughout the Gulf coast, from Florida to Texas.
According to Bloomberg, the mere possibility of a named storm entering the Gulf had Wall Street betting on a worst-case senario. On Friday, crude oil prices rose the most in four weeks on concern the first tropical storm of the hurricane season may head into the Gulf, disrupting both clean up efforts and oil production.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts an active hurricane season with 14 to 23 named storms. Eight to 14 of those storms are expected to become hurricanes and three to seven are likely to become major systems with winds of 111 miles (178 kilometers) per hour.
Joe Bastardi, a hurricane expert at AccuWeather.com, narrowed the range to 18-21 named storms.
Researchers at the Colorado State University hurricane forecast team, perhaps the most accurate in the nation, predict 18 storms. The team anticipates 10 hurricanes forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30. Five are expected to develop into major hurricanes (Saffir/Simpson category 3-4-5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.
So, what does that mean for Gulf residents, besides the usual destroyed property and higher gas prices? How about a new word? Oilicane! And a new experience that makes the tar sheets washing up on beaches benign by comparison.
Last month, AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski speculated on what a hurricane mixed with oil would be like:
Depending on the approach of a tropical storm or hurricane, increasing winds and building, massive seas would first halt containment operations. Rough seas would dislodge or destroy protective booms, rendering them useless as the storm draws closer.
Next, as the storm rolls through, high winds on the right flank of a hurricane making landfall would cause some oil to become airborne in blowing spray. A storm surge could carry contaminants inland beyond bays, marshes and beaches to well developed locations. Even a glancing blow from a hurricane passing to the west of the oil slick could be enough for winds and wave action to drive the goo nearby onshore, or to more distant fishing and recreation areas, perhaps in foreign waters.
Art Horn, a meteorologist in Manchester, CT writing for the Energy Tribune, puts the same concept in different words:
The gulf oil spill is bad but it could become much, much worse and soon. The threat is a hurricane moving over the spill. Water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are now running as warm or warmer than they did during the record setting season of 2005. This is significant. Warmer water means more heat and humidity over the tropical ocean to fuel hurricanes.
The winds of a hurricane are so strong that the normal interface between ocean and atmosphere disappears. The winds begin to generate large waves. Spray is blown off the top of the waves. That spray mixes with the air so that after a short time there is no real boundary between what is ocean and what is the atmosphere. If a large hurricane moves over the spill, this chaotic mixture of water and air will inevitably also contain oil. The oil will become airborne and travel with the hurricane.
The…gulf coast…is prime territory for devastating and deeply penetrating storm surges. Should a major hurricane push the spill towards the gulf coast there will be nothing that can be done to stop it. No amount of planning or engineering will help. No number of visits to the gulf by the president or any other official will stop the inevitable. The storm surge will drive the water and the oil miles inland. Everything in its path will be coated in a greasy bath of crude. Even the wind may have oil in it.
In New England, I have seen hurricanes and tropical storms that have blown salt spray many miles inland from the coast. The leaves of the trees eventually turn brown and fall off. In the case of the gulf it will be oil that will spray the trees, buildings and everything else in the way. How far inland this oily mess will blow is anyone’s guess but it will be unprecedented in its economic and environmental damage. The human and natural losses from such an event could be historic.
Are you getting the picture yet? At best, even moderate gale force winds at the BP disaster site days away from the Gulf of Mexico spill site could force at-sea workers to abandon their oil collection efforts for two weeks, the head of the national response effort said Friday, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
That timetable would “conservatively” unleash another half-million barrels of oil back in the sea – twice the Exxon Valdez spill. Using upper-end federal estimates of the leak, 840,000 barrels, or about 35 million gallons of oil would gush out unimpeded.
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen described the cut-and-run plan in a conference call to reporters Friday morning in which he said, “Realistically, out of an abundance of caution,” the Deepwater Horizon well would remain uncapped for 14 days.
And that is a best case scenario in a moderate storm.
Read more, get links and video here: Madison Independent Examiner – As tropical storm Alex nears Gulf, potential effects of hurricane are discussed
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Americans Love Corpo-Cola to Death
Listed in the fake ad are the 20 largest corporations by revenue in 2010, according to Fortune magazine and CNN Money. The real Coca-Cola ranks at 72, Wall Street bad boys Goldman Sachs Group peg in at 39, and BP has dropped off the top 100 list entirely; it was consistently in the top 20 until this year.
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June 27, 2010
June 26, 2010
Ye Olde Scribe Presents: Well THAT was Fracked Up
“Oil’s well that ends well.” OR… “Bend over New York and Pennsylvania while we shove this poison up your…”
You may remember the scene from the old movie. Perhaps his visit for “heart problems” is a sequel? Instead of being on a space station, they’re in an operating room. They see the chest bulge: about to explode.
“Doctor, we have to get in there fast, or this… thing? …will die, and whatever is in there will get out.”
“Yes, nurse, pass me the scalpel. You already passed me your virginity in the closet this morning.”
But before he could cut the patient open a monster called Halliburton busts out of the beast’s chest and kills everyone. Alien in a human skin Biggus Dickus laughs and says from the table: “Back into the chest my pretty. We have many, many more humans to butcher, poison and enslave.”
June 25, 2010
Meet oilcane
Author’s note: I am sure many of you have heard about the possibility of a methane gas explosion under the ruptured well in the Gulf. That is a possibility. This is almost a certainty…
Excerpt:
An overly active hurricane season mixed with oil in the Gulf of Mexico may make bad news even worse for residents throughout the Gulf coast, from Florida to Texas.
According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center, already, a tropical disturbance over the western Caribbean Sea continues to strengthen, and has a high 80 percent chance of developing into a tropical depression later Friday or Saturday.
According to Bloomberg, chances are it is heading into the Gulf of Mexico and Wall Street seems to be betting on that. Crude oil rose the most in four weeks on concern the first tropical storm of the hurricane season may form and has a 80 percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone this weekend. It may head into the Gulf, disrupting both clean up efforts and oil production.
The NOAA predicts an active hurricane season with 14 to 23 named storms. Eight to 14 of those storms are expected to become hurricanes and three to seven are likely to become major systems with winds of 111 miles (178 kilometers) per hour.
Researchers at the Colorado State University hurricane forecast team, perhaps the most accurate in the nation, predict 18 storms. The team anticipates 10 hurricanes forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and Nov. 30. Five are expected to develop into major hurricanes (Saffir/Simpson category 3-4-5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.
So, what does that mean for Gulf residents, besides the usual destroyed property and higher gas prices? How about a new word? Oilcane! And a new experience that makes the tar sheets washing up in Pensacola benign by comparison.
Last month, AccuWeather.com hurricane expert Joe Bascardi speculated on what a hurricane mixed with oil would be like:
During the age of sail, winds occasionally blew ships hundreds of miles off course. The wind could have the same effect on the oil slick. Now, imagine several storms during the season doing the same thing.
Art Horn, a meteorologist in Manchester, CT writing for the Energy Tribune, puts the same concept in different words:
The gulf oil spill is bad but it could become much, much worse and soon. The threat is a hurricane moving over the spill. Water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean are now running as warm or warmer than they did during the record setting season of 2005. This is significant. Warmer water means more heat and humidity over the tropical ocean to fuel hurricanes.
The winds of a hurricane are so strong that the normal interface between ocean and atmosphere disappears. The winds begin to generate large waves. Spray is blown off the top of the waves. That spray mixes with the air so that after a short time there is no real boundary between what is ocean and what is the atmosphere. If a large hurricane moves over the spill, this chaotic mixture of water and air will inevitably also contain oil. The oil will become airborne and travel with the hurricane.
The…gulf coast…is prime territory for devastating and deeply penetrating storm surges. Should a major hurricane push the spill towards the gulf coast there will be nothing that can be done to stop it. No amount of planning or engineering will help. No number of visits to the gulf by the president or any other official will stop the inevitable. The storm surge will drive the water and the oil miles inland. Everything in its path will be coated in a greasy bath of crude. Even the wind may have oil in it.
In New England, I have seen hurricanes and tropical storms that have blown salt spray many miles inland from the coast. The leaves of the trees eventually turn brown and fall off. In the case of the gulf it will be oil that will spray the trees, buildings and everything else in the way. How far inland this oily mess will blow is anyone’s guess but it will be unprecedented in its economic and environmental damage. The human and natural losses from such an event could be historic.
Are you getting the picture yet? At best, even moderate gale force winds at the BP disaster site days away from the Gulf of Mexico spill site could force at-sea workers to abandon their oil collection efforts for two weeks, the head of the national response effort said Friday, according to the St. Petersburg Times.
Should Gulf residents do as our fearless “leader” says and pray, or should we start contacting relatives, friends or real estate agents up north…now? I’ll leave the answer to that to you…
Read more, get links and video here: Orlando Independent Examiner – Would a hurricane in the Gulf this year be called an oilcane?
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June 24, 2010
Pensacola beaches closed due to oil
Author’s note: My Examiner page includes a rare video taken from an Escambia County Sheriff’s helicopter that shows the extent of the damage to the beaches. It is gut-wrenching. Use the link at the bottom to get there.
Excerpt:
The oily nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico has become reality for Pensacola Beach residents.
Residents and tourists awoke there yesterday morning to the stench of hydrocarbons, thick pools of oil washing ashore, yellow tape 75 yards back from the water and no-swimming signs along with beach health advisories.
CNN reports that “more than nine miles of white shoreline and beaches were soaked with syrupy oil…and a health advisory has been issued by Escambia County for parts of Pensacola Beach and Fort Pickens.”
According to a CNN iReport, “this morning was the worst I have seen, the most gut wrenching and heart breaking walk on the beach in my entire life. You can’t walk a step without stepping in tar balls…it’s as far as the eye can see.”
Christy Travis, 41, a visitor from Arkansas, was walking the oil-splotched beach at Fort Pickens when she saw a baby bottlenose dolphin in distress after beaching itself on a sandbar. Once the dolphin was discovered, a three hour ordeal ensued to try and save the mammal in the water. Two U.S. Coast Guard volunteers and a Florida Department of Environmental Protection officer were involved in the rescue attempt.
Travis said the dolphin was crying as people rushed to save it. She said people scraped oil off the dolphin with their hands. “It was heartbreaking. Everyone was crying…we had oil all over us. It was so sad. It just broke our hearts.”
The dolphin did not survive. It died while en route to Gulf World Marine Park, a rescue facility in Panama City. WPLG Miami reported that a necropsy will be performed to determine exact cause of death, according to Courtnee Ferguson of the BP Unified Command Joint Information Center in Mobile.
Dee Pittman, 57, of Pensacola, who was among the people gathered at Fort Pickens, expressed the reverence that residents have for their once-pristine beaches: “You can’t get close to the water. It’s (oil) just coming in. This is very dangerous. BP doesn’t get it. This is sacred ground to us. We got married on these shores. We baptized our children in this ocean. We entrust the ashes of our loved ones in this ocean.”
Read more, get links and video here: Orlando Independent Examiner – Aerial and land footage of oil-fouled Pensacola beaches
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Pop’s Quiz
“If you get this wrong you’re stupider than the stupidest old man.”
The old drillers and related companies are threatening to off shore elsewhere. We should…
1. Give them whatever they want no matter how many pelicans, fish and humans are threatened by possible spills.
2. Corporations have more rights than humans. Who are we to make sure this doesn’t happen to again before they continue to drill? Bow to your oil covered golden calf master!
3. They want to leave? Fine. They can never do business in America again. Any in country assets will be seized and only released if they are proven: A. not at fault for current and past messes/problems… B. not responsible in any way for current and past messes/problems… C. …to have done whatever they could to safeguard our shores, wildlife and people. Otherwise? In country assets sold off to compensate all those who have been hurt, help those Americans connected with said companies find jobs.
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Edward R. Murrow vs. the Cheshire Cat
The Quislings who tout America’s free press seem to have forgotten or are ignoring the dire predictions in the 1947 Hutchins Commission’s Report on the press which warned: “As the importance of communication has increased, its control has come into fewer hands.”
In analyzing the Hutchins Report, Louis M. Lyons said: “It is directly because newspaper publishers as a class are among the most conservative groups in America that newspaper performance is as uninspired, as unoriginal, and uninformed as it is.”
Zechariah Chaffee, Jr. agreed: “The sovereign press for the most part acknowledge accountability to no one except its owners and publishers.”
In an effort to compile an accurate assessment of the quality of Rupert Murdock’s job performance as America’s Editor-in-chief, we picked up a copy of Carl Jensen’s book, “20 Years of Censored News” (copyrighted 1997), and started to see if the underreported stories from 1976 to 1995 indicate that the Hitchins Commission was a misguided example of ducky-lucky style overreaction or if it was a spot-on example of prescient concern.
Project Censored in those twenty years focused attention on stories that are still not going to get much time on Fox.
In 1976 their number four story was “Why oil prices go up.”
The topic of Illegal aliens was their number ten story in 1977. Since 1977 the USA has been under the control of Republican Presidents for ten of the ensuing 33 years. Apparently the Republicans have gotten their act together now and will solve this problem if they can get their guy into the White House in 2012.
Project Censored’s number three story in 1978 was “The Government’s War on Scientist Who Know Too Much.” Were they worried about the polar bears back then? No. They thought radiation in a workplace might cause cancer.
PBS as the “oil network” was the Project Censored number eight story for 1979. The ads don’t have any effect on editorial content now do they?
In 1980 the number two stories was about NSA eavesdropping on Americans. How else where they going to protect us from a potential 9-11?
1981 #3 The story asserted that Camp Libertad in Florida was training folks to become terrorists.
1982 # 6 The story was Ronald Reagan as America’s Chief censor. David Burnham, in the New York Times reported: “In its first 21 months in office, the Reagan Administration has taken several actions that reduce the information available to the public about the operation of the government, the economy, the environment, and public health.” Wasn’t he just trying to help Rupert protect you from news that would spoil your digestion?
1983 #10 “The DOD’s Cost-plus Contracting System Taxpayer Swindle” How ya gonna make a profit on World Peace?
1984 # CIA and the Death Squads – Immoral and Illegal
1985 #5 Media Merger Mania Threatens Free Flow of Information
1986 #2 Official U.S. Censorship: Less Access to Less Information
1987 #1 The Information Monopoly #4 Reagan’s Mania for Secrecy: Decisions Without Democracy
1988 #1 George (H. W.) Bush’s Dirty Big Secrects #2 How the EPA Pollutes the News and the Dioxin Cover-up #6 America’s Secret Police Network – LEIU Part II (It was also their #6 story in 1978) #9 U.S. Refuses to Abide by International Court of Justice (Whew! Thank God for that. Otherwise George W. Bush Jr. might be dragged off and be subjected to a War Crimes Trial conducted by foreigners!)
1989 #1 Global Media Lords Threaten Open Marketplace of Ideas #8 Biased and Censored News at CBS and the Wall Street Journal
1990 #1 The Gulf War: Truth was the First Casualty #3 The CIA Role in the Savings and Loan Crisis #5 Continued Media Blackout of Drug War Fraud #9 Where Was George (H. W. Bush) During the Iran-contra Affair?
1991 #1 CBS and NBC Spiked Footage of Iraq Bombing Carnage #2 Operation Censored War #6 No Evidence of Iraqi Threat to Saudi Arabia #10 The Bush Family and Its Conflicts of Interest
1992 #The Great Media Sell-Out to Reaganism #3 Censored Election Year Issues #7 Trashing Federal Regulations for Corporate Contributions #8 Government secrecy Makes a Mockery of Democracy #9 How Advertising Pressure Can Corrupt a Free Press
1993 # The Real Welfare Cheats: America’s Corporations
1994 #9 The Pentagon’s Mysterious HAARP Project
1995 #4 The Privatization of the Internet
This list was compiled in a capricious and arbitrary manner from the book which lists ten under reported stories for each of the twenty years covered in the book. Add to that the fact that they have listed ten stories for each of the intervening fifteen years, and you would have a list of 350 topics, which is way to long to hold most readers’ interest; hence the abbreviated list.
Does it seem like this list is a quant exorcize in nostalgia or is it closer to an accurate forecast of what was to be expected during the George W. Bush era?
Ironically, Project Censored is currently (like many websites delivering progressive punditry) seeking contributions to continue their efforts to circumvent a complete bamboozlement of the public while conservative media seem immune to the harsh effects of Bush’s economic legacy.
Newspaper and TV station owners are strongly denying that the Supreme Court decision permitting corporations to pay for ads aimed at voters will be a windfall to them and their businesses. Is it logical to think that running the ads will add to those media’s overhead costs and are not to be perceived as unexpected bonuses. Extra ads won’t be a bonus? If you believe that you’ll believe that George W. Bush was an F-102 pilot.
Where is America’s free press?
Edward R. Murrow, in a speech title “Why Should News Come in 5-Minute Packages?,” (efforts to find a transcript online were unsuccessful) said: “For if the premise upon which our pluralistic society rests – which, as I understand it, is that if the people are given sufficient undiluted information, they will then somehow, even after long sober, second thoughts, reach the right decision – if that premise is wrong, then not only the corporate image but the corporations are done for.”
Little did he realize that it was news delivered by a free press that was doomed.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (AKA Lewis Carroll), in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” wrote: “‘All right,’ said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.”
Now the disk jockey will play the soundtrack album from “Newsies,” Roy Orbison’s “Paper Boy,” and the Beatles’ “A day in the life.” We have to go search for a scoop. Have a “stop the press!” type week.
Do Republicans have a God-given right to be disingenuous?
Last week while most Americans were fretting about the oil spill and a change in personnel, the Supreme Court of the United States was looking (askance) at Section 18 of the US Code and the results of their ruling may let some high profile prisoners walk free in the sunshine sooner than expected.
The broad implication of the decision might give Republicans more latitude in making reality gelatinous. Democrats hold themselves to a higher standard and won’t be inclined to indulge in any chance to avail themselves of the possibility to find some wriggle room regarding the issue concerning an opportunity to “deprive another of the intangible right to honest services.”
Some people might assume with all the laws about fraud and a certain religious commandment that there is, in any business dealing, an implicit right to honest services.
Wrong! Does the reverse corollary apply? Do Republicans now know that they have an intangible right to deliver dishonest service? When a Republican candidate for office says that he (hypothetical example) had the training to be an F-102 pilot does that mean that he actually was one?
We know a fellow whose identity revolves around his training and expertise in the martial arts. He will often drop the fact that he taught Bruce Lee into the conversation. Often it comes right after he has listed his qualifications for being an authority on the martial arts. He does not say what he taught Mr. Lee and so if he taught Bruce Lee to change a tire on his car and you leap to the assumption that the fellow taught Lee everything he knew about karate, the misperception is your fault because you have made an assumption.
Recently we picked up a bargain copy of the book which was the basis for the move “Catch Me If You Can.” The book was a bit different from the movie hence the movie carried the tag line: “based on a true story.”
The author, Frank Abignale, would ask people “can you cash a check for me?” and then present a slip of paper which was not a genuine check. Since when is a question a lie?
Do you want the evidence to be in the form of a mushroom cloud? Since the invasion of Iraq, it has become the custom to refer to hand grenades as weapons of mass destruction. If you didn’t realize that it was necessary to invade oil rich Iraq because they had hand grenades, that was your own fault for not being a weapons expert and fully able to parse the talking points offered as sound logical reasons for invading Iraq. Little did America realize that the Bush team was composed of cunning linguists dead set on going to war.
In ethics class, students are presented with the concept of “the greater good.” Suppose a man who wanted to kill you entered (another hypothetical) your office and informed your secretary that he wanted to see you so that he could kill you. Should she say that you called in sick today, point to the inner office where you work, or should she use the intercom to ask if you could squeeze an unscheduled visitor into your schedule? Some ethics experts say that the greater good of saving your life outweighs the obligation to adhere to the Commandment that gives the flat fiat that you must always tell the truth.
So it’s OK to lie sometimes and the Supreme Court has rendered the concept of “deprive another of the intangible right to honest services” moot; so truth, justice and the American way have just seen one of the team go missing in action.
The headline for this column asks a question. We have presented several relevant items for your consideration and now invite you to draw your own conclusions . . . or . . . you can wait and see if the Republicans act as if they have a God-given right to lull you into adoring acquiescence.
Americans have no right to know what went on in the meeting between Dick Cheney and the energy companies. Americans have no right to know how the programs used in the electronic voting machines work. Americans have no right to know what BP is doing or plans to do regarding the oil spill. As a matter of fact, Americans have no right to go to public parks and see the oil spill clean up work being done. It would seem that other than being used to print the coming tsunami of corporate financed campaign ads, America has no want or need for a free press to keep citizens informed so that they can vote intelligently.
It would also seem that the Supreme Court based their decision on the old folk wisdom: “After you shake hands with a Republican, count your fingers.”
Cynical curmudgeons will continue to regard all politicians as they would a snake oil salesman as portrayed by W. C. Fields. Dittoheads will be the first to second the Charles Dickens Republican attitude of “God bless us every one.” (Was Dickens predicting Uncle Rushbo when he wrote: “He is an honorable, obstinate, truthful, high-spirited, intensely prejudiced, perfectly reasonable man.” in Bleak House?)
Perhaps it is time to change the motto on money from “In God We Trust” to “Caveat Emptor.”
Rudyard Kipling was ahead of his time when he wrote
“If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.”
Now the disk jockey will play: “the theme from Elvira Madigan,” “Green Fields,” and Shirley Temple’s version of “On the Good Ship Lollipop.” We have to go write a letter to Santa Claus. Have a “smile when you say that” type week.