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Media on the Media
I have to confess...
I turned on CNN's Reliable Sources today and watched the media critique themselves. Today, their biggest critique of themselves was about two stories:
1. The first was E.T.'s (Entertainment Tonight) story about Angelina Jolie giving birth to her twins. Did she or didn't she? Was E.T. scammed by an impostor who posed as Jolie's assistant? Where is Angelina Jolie's assistant's evil media-duping imposter? Enquiring minds want to know!
2. The other story was the breaking news from Thursday that Obama and Hillary ducked the media and were meeting in private at her home in DC while the journalists covering Obama were trapped in flight on their way to Chicago without Obama on the plane. (Oh my!) In the meantime, reporters staked out the Clinton's home in DC trying to be the first to grab the all important picture of Hillary and Barack together. But Hillary and Obama scammed the media; they were a mile away at Sen. Dianne Feinstein's house hidden in the trees. (There seems to be a hidden allegory there, if you ask me.)
Lost in all this week's criticism of the entertainment media was Dan Rather's words at the Media Reform Conference.
Dan Rather as you all remember was one of the few media journalists who reported the truth about Bush in 2004 and yet was hung out to dry by the corporate media. After losing his job in 2004 and getting blacklisted in the industry, he has a lawsuit against the corporate media for their actions.
He has also been speaking out loudly for media reform.
Check it out:
In our news media, in our press, those who wield power were, in the lead-up to Iraq, given the opportunity to present their views as a coherent whole, to connect the dots, as they saw the dots and the connections... no matter how much these views may have flown in the face of precedent, established practice -- or, indeed, the facts (as we are reminded, yet again, by the just-released Senate report on the administration's use of pre-war intelligence). The powerful are given this opportunity still, in ways big and small, despite what you may hear about the "post-Katrina" press.
But when a tough question is asked and not answered, when reputable people come before the public and say, "wait a minute, something's not right here," the press has treated them like voices crying in the wilderness. These views, though they might be given air time, become lone dots -- dots that journalists don't dare connect, even if the connections are obvious, even if people on the Internet and in the independent press are making these very same connections. The mainstream press doesn't connect these dots because someone might then accuse them of editorializing, or of being the, quote, "liberal media."
But connecting these dots -- making disparate facts make sense -- is a big part of the real work of journalism.
So how does this happen? Why does this happen?
Let me say, by way of answering, that quality news of integrity starts with an owner who has guts. In a news organization with an owner who has guts, there is an incentive to ask the tough questions, and there is an incentive to pull together the facts -- to connect the dots -- in a way that makes coherent sense to the news audience.
But it is rare, now, to find a major news organization owned by an individual, someone who can say, in effect, "The buck stops here." The more likely motto now is: "The news stops... with making bucks."
America's biggest, most important news organizations have, over the past 25 years, fallen prey to merger after merger, acquisition after acquisition... to the point where they are, now, tiny parts of immeasurably larger corporate entities -- entities whose primary business often has nothing to do with news. Entities that may, at any given time, have literally hundreds of regulatory issues before multiple arms of the government concerning a vast array of business interests.
These are entities that, as publicly held and traded corporations, have as their overall, reigning mandate: Provide a return on shareholder value. Increase profits. And not over time, not over the long haul, but quarterly.
He concluded: "I could continue for hours, cataloging journalistic sins of which I know you are all too aware. But, as the time grows late, let me say that almost all of these failings come down to this: In the current model of corporate news ownership, the incentive to produce good and valuable news is simply not there....
"The stakes could not possibly be higher. Scott McClellan's book serves as a reminder, and the current election season, not to mention the gathering clouds of conflict with Iran, will both serve as tests of whether lessons have truly been learned from past experience. Ensuring that a free press remains free will require vigilance, and it will require work.
"Please, take tonight's energy and inspiration home with you. Take it back to your desks and your workplaces, to your colleagues and your fellow citizens. magnify it, multiply it, and spread it. Make it viral. Make it something that cannot be ignored -- not by the powers in Washington, not by the owners and executives of media companies."
Just in case it's not clear, Dan Rather, a dedicated journalist, has a mile-wide list of the corporate media's sins and each of them are about important matters: war, peace, torture, government abuse, whistle-blower protection, etc... And yet CNN's Reliable Sources represents the perfect example of the disconnect between honest and real media and entertainment media for profit. Reliable Sources, a show that purports to critique the media and keep it honest has the gumption to run with those two stories?
It's just more proof that E.T.=E.T.
But apparently Reliable Sources (R.S.)= E.T. too.
What they won't say is the Hillary and Obama probably went to the Bilderberg Conference in Chantilly Virginia on the way to DiFi's.
(click on my name, and we also have the controversial "Whitey" video)
bad link, sorry - forgot the /s/
So Kossacks ARE going below the belt with McCain
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/8/124239/0067/697/532221
top diary on his spurned wife - guess RNC will go after Obama's so it will already be fair game for McCain's wive(s) - so what ever happened to that lobbyist who looked like a younger version of Cindy
.. anyway .. there are plenty of ways to win besides that, but it's already happening
Continuing our discussion from the other thread...
Sparrow, there's no equivalency possible between suggesting that you don’t much care for someone’s personality and leaving hints in uninformed voters minds that a candidate for President might be a dreaded Muslim, with all that entails in our post 9/11 world.
But as I mentioned earlier, this rancor will disappear as Hillary exits the stage. Whether her “supporters” will vote for Obama is another story. Aside from Chuck, my guess is that there isn’t another dyed-in-the-wool Hillary supporter on this site.
But now unto more urgent matters. I just ordered two quarts of hot and sour soup, and was told by the people in the Chinese Resturant that they had no tofu to put in the soup!
nmp--I read from the bottom up too. It's a 'hangover' from the modding days at the jk blog. We had to race the clock back then.
Besides, I like to read the most recent comments first.
Matthew,
No Tofu, huh? That is a major crisis!
Actually...speaking of food. Does anyone have any more info on the tomato salminilla outbreak? Do we know the origins yet?
I have to say, that I'm just getting too frightened to eat anything at all! All of us here know that our food is not safe, our toys are not safe, our roads are not safe, our ports are not safe.
Can someone PLEASE tell me...under Bill Clinton did we have as many alerts on food poisoning and toy/product poisoning? Or is this unique to George Bush under his 'homeland security dept.'
I think this is an important distinction to get the facts on.
Sparrow
I'll bet it's the Republican big business culture of deregulation.
I think Bill Clinton was middle-of-the-road as far as NAFTA, globalization, labor - but George Bush took it to a new extreme.
I mean, we should go to extremes on being protectionist either, but why sell out whole country to the highest bidder?
Interestingly, Wall Street is leaning Obama though there are some multimillionaires who will go with McCain.
Obama - Soros, Buffet
MaCain - Boone Pickens
Murdoch - up for grabs
(owns FOX, had fundraiser for Clinton in NY
for Senate but is from NY and is also neighbor
to Clinton Global Initiates, yet said he can't wait
to meet Obama and is excited about him)
Gates - up for grabs
(his dad = Clintonista but supported Kerry last
time; young Bill does alot for medical causes
and kids overseas but seems to sell out to whomever
lets Microsoft be a monopoly)
On the futures markets (political), Obama is more than 2:1.
UW Students for Obama:
http://baracklikeme.blogspot.com/2008/06/uw-students-for-obama.html
Just spent time this afternoon writing my first anti-propaganda email letter after receiving another one of Tony Perkin's little tear-at-your-heart patriotic little emails today.
I composed a good letter. I took my time. I told Christians to use their brains this time around, and to check the reality of their surroundings and their "leaders".
I have a sibling who saw "Sicko" and was angry after seeing it, but all of a sudden he has Christian friends sending him the Tony Perkins American Family Wizard of Oz emails playing of course, on patriotic themes and the wedge issues.
It's STARTING....and I don't want to have to write that letter more than once this fall. I can send it over and over however, so I think the investment in it this afternoon will be worth it.
If you're dealing with religious people sending out propaganda and lies, I saw a great response at DailyKos.
Oh I got that one yesterday! Here's what I said (14+ / 0-)
Recommended by:
Debby, Justina, A Chicagoan in Naples, athenap, nanobubble, Silence is Complicity, fhcec, Wanda517, Spekkio, sumo, PoliticalJunkessa, LookingUp, choochmac, roadbear
A member of my senior game community sent me the "heartwarming" John McCain email. After the usual "This more that you will NOT see in the news media" (in other words, only trust what comes through the smearmail channel) and the story of the visit to this woman, there was this:
**Has anybody heard if Barack Hussein Obama has served in The American Armed**
**Services?**
**From Barack's book, Audacity of Hope: **
**"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."***
My community members have been asked to NOT to send me any forwards, and that politics and religion are two things that I will not discuss with them (I know that many of them have very different views than I have, and my job there is to take care of their needs on the site). So I usually grit my teeth and delete them.
But this one really got me, because the woman who included me on her forward list is a super-fundy religious type whom I threatened to terminate if she didn't quit sending me religious crap. Since I really didn't care whether she canceled or not, she got a personal reply:
So, your Bible says "Thou shalt not bear false witness -- unless it's just politics."
Or does it excuse you if you're just passing on what someone else said, without bothering to find out if it is true. Would it be bearing false witness if someone spread lies about you, or would that be okay if they were just passing on what they heard and didn't start it?
You most CERTAINLY have not read "The Audacity of Hope," which I have, and have on my shelf. How many other lies have you forwarded on to "all you know" about Obama's supposed Muslim ties. Isn't it amazing that none of the "Christians" on the list EVER see anything wrong about being part of the smear machine?
I guess we just have different Bibles. Mine has Ten Commandments, not Ten Suggestions, and there is no mention of the "it's ok if it's just politics" excuse.
In her email sig, she has "Proverbs 3.5-6". That verse reads "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him."
So I added below my name "Proverbs 19:9" which I hope she looked up. It reads "A false witness will not go unpunished, And he who tells lies will perish."
These people really are stupid. She hurriedly sent out a retraction to her mailing list saying that "the story about John McCain wasn't true."
What a maroon. I'm sure I will hear more of these from her, but the "false witness" line does seem to sting with these people. It's not the first time I've used it, just the first time with her.
Watch the media conference here:
http://www.freepress.net/conference/tune_in
Yeah. I know it's part of the same old, same old, but we are in a very high stakes election season.
As far as same old, same old, goes, I don't get nearly as upset and angry at these Tony Perkins propaganda emails as I used to. I have had four years to mull it all over and slice it and dice it and shake and bake it and I feel pretty secure about where I stand and my choices.
I liked that letter, sparrow. Someone else just sent me another response to that kind of email from that kind of unsuspecting person. It also, was, GREAT.
Talked with one of my kiddies today. He brought up again how (with adding something more this time) McCain is a "jittery octigenarian with PTSD and his finger on the button", if he gets elected. He added "jittery octigenarian" this time. It's true.
I would ask my brother to not send me any more of those types of emails, but we have a fairly close relationship and I know he is doing the best he can to sort it out. He is a contracting manager, who is around alot of red-necked people who have pickups.
Slowly, oh so ever slowly, he has been starting to send me these emails. I talked to him on the phone last night and forgot to ask him if he is sending me those emails to punch my buttons. That WOULD be just like him. He knows how passionate I am about Obama. But he's been sending them with increasing frequency this past week or two (imagine that).
I figure I can at least get him to reason this stuff out since he was willing to see and believe alot of the Sicko material that Michael Moore put out. So I won't tell him to not send me any more of those emails. I will just meet each one with the facts.
He can do alot more good if he has reasoned it out and gotten feedback from both sides than he could if I got angry with him and told him to not send those to me. I figure, knowing him, that he's a. either struggling with the information himself or b. pulling my chain. He knows alot of people and to some degree (every vote helps)can be influential.
Ahh yes, the good old grass roots movement. I love it. We have been trained for it. Now we must act it.
I also have friends in town reading such books about the Bush Presidency as "Lies, Lies, Lies"
(not at my request) who call. It's amazing how that little grass roots movement can start a grass fire, one blade at a time. I have been talking to these people for four years.
Unfortunately, they have biases and pre-formed judgements set in established by present and former opponents of the truth. In fact, most of what I have done today is campaign - one person at a time, both over the phone to friends and family in town and out, and over the internet and through emails as well. I love this media age. It (the Presidential election)is on everyone's minds that I know, and right now several of them are still in the "decision-making stage" with alot of Rovian style smear tactics already started months ago. This year, I refuse to get emotional about it. Passionate, yes, emotional, no. They are calling and emailing, and starting the decision making process. I am telling them what I know, and providing proof if they want it, if they don't that's okay too. I've got too much to do to sit around and worry whether or not they like me.
A total shift in Hillary's blog - many willing to cross over to Barack.
Meanwhile, McCain says he doesn't know much about economics but he is planning to read Greenspan's book.
nmp...
maybe McBush can sleep at the Holiday Inn too.
McCain is so busted
I got this on an existing anti-Obama site from Hillary diehards who had gone to a new anti-Obama site:
yes i have been on some of the new noobama sites, supposedly
made up of disgruntled hillary people. funny thing, there are no
live bloggers, it just wants your info sent to them, very weird…
.....So you see? They are run by McCain.
I JUST got my Scotty book delivered by one of my neighbors. UPS delivered it to the wrong complex.
This is written by one of the worst haters on the internet.
hahahahahah
In all my wildest imaginings I never imagined that less than 24 hours after Hillary suspended her campaign some of her most ardent supporters would overdose on (as Pagan likes to put it) the Cult-Aide. I read and learned from a lot of these folks, they blogged and wrote and published diaries, they commented on various sites. These talented folks were fierce in their defense of Hillary as the best candidate and helped to bring the awful misogyny and outright lies of the Obots to light. These writers worked in place of the MSM which has forgotten journalism and deals in infotainment. What the hell happened?? Overnight some of these Hillary supporters were transformed into Obots. Have the pod people taken over??? Did Santa miss my house when he made that special run to drop off all the back-ordered Unity Ponies???
PUMA is still going. That stands for Party Unity My Ass.
There aren't many of them though. & some have joined Democrats for McCain. There aren't many of those either but one of the main ones was a webmaster for Dean for America. How sad. A woman. I really hope alot of this stuff is happening mainly on the internet.
Not My President Author Profile Page said:
McCain is so busted
I got this on an existing anti-Obama site from Hillary diehards who had gone to a new anti-Obama site:
yes i have been on some of the new noobama sites, supposedly
made up of disgruntled hillary people. funny thing, there are no
live bloggers, it just wants your info sent to them, very weird…
.....So you see? They are run by McCain.
June 8, 2008 8:49 PM
~~
So...let's send them lots of addresses and emails. Pinochio at pinochio4mccain@hotmail.com thebigbadwolf@yahoo.com
threeblindmice@gmail.com
straighttalktrainwreck@johnmccain.com
Is John McCain really 100% disabled?
John McCain gets tax-free disability pension
The disclosure of the Navy benefit for injuries incurred as a Vietnam POW may raise fitness questions.
By Ralph Vartabedian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 22, 2008
Sen. John McCain has long said he is in robust health and is strong enough to hike the Grand Canyon, but he also is receiving what his staff Monday termed a "disability pension" from the Navy.
When McCain released his tax return for 2007 on Friday, he separately disclosed that he received a pension of $58,358 that was not listed as income on his return.
On Monday, McCain's staff identified the retirement benefit as a "disability pension" and said that McCain "was retired as disabled because of his limited body movements due to injuries as a POW."
McCain campaign strategist Mark Salter said Monday night that McCain was technically disabled. "Tortured for his country -- that is how he acquired his disability," Salter said.
Certain types of military and veterans pensions are either partially or completely tax-exempt, depending on the seriousness of the disability. In McCain's case, the exemption is 100%.
If McCain had to pay taxes on the full amount of the pension, it would have increased his tax bill by about $18,000 based on the percentage of his income he paid to the federal government.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-pension22apr22,1,6562984.story
Hey - Australia has an honoured war criminal as of today - John Howard is on the Queen's birthday honours list:
"Mr Howard's citation recognises his contributions to economic and social policy reform and his role in "fostering and promoting Australia's interests internationally and the development of significant philanthropic links between the business sector, arts and charitable organisations".
I still haven't read this in its entirety - this paragraph - the word philanthropic choked me both times I got to it. I think he must have recommended himself for the honour. Howard - philanthropy - charitable certainly don't belong in a sentence together. How sick is this world?
From ..... http://www.theage.com.au/national/howard-heads-list-of-heavyweights-20080608-2nkd.html
Hi Woz and Kangaroo!
Good to see you up and on the blog. Now I am going to bed. Have a nice day, okay? (It's hard for me to think of you having day there while we have night here.) :-D)
Did Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?
News: In which a neoconservative jack-of-all-trades, a pair of Pentagon hawks, and an Iranian exile with a knack for tall tales try to outflank the CIA and conjure a coup in Tehran.
By Laura Rozen
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2006/07/three_days_in_rome.html
Hey - Australia has an honoured war criminal as of today - John Howard is on the Queen's birthday honours list:
Suck big time doesn't it, frikking disgrace
Hey TSP
Fox News Isn't Even Trying Anymore
Maybe the Republican Party's struggles are driving Fox News employees to hit the bottle. Because there's no other explanation for this video clip. Make sure to watch the second half, which is arguably worse than the first.
Fox News & Malkin Making Stuff Up About Obama
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8629_fox_news_isnt_e.html
hahaha tsp - only 2.35pm Monday here.
Interesting Rolling Stone analysis (primaries)
http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2008/06/08/hillarys-run-by-matt-taibbi/
long article but very provocative
The Cocktail Napkin Plan for Regime Change in Iran
Enlisting high-level contacts in the White House, Pentagon and Congress, Iran-Contra figure Michael Ledeen relentlessly pushed a freelance intelligence collection and Iran regime change plan on behalf of another veteran of the scandal, according to a report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (PDF) released Thursday.
The proposed plan to change the Iran regime, which requested $5 million in initial "seed" money from the U.S. government, was outlined on a cocktail napkin by Iran contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar at a Rome bar during a three-day meeting in December 2001 that brought the Iran contra actors together with two officials from the Pentagon. The Pentagon officials’ attendance at the meeting was authorized by Stephen Hadley, now the top White House national security advisor, the report found. Revelations that Iran Contra figures Ledeen and Ghorbanifar were involved in a new channel to the Bush administration set off alarm bells throughout the US government, and prompted multiple inquiries into whether the channel amounted to an unauthorized covert action and a possible counterintelligence threat. The latter issue was never resolved, after a top Pentagon official shut down the counterintelligence inquiry only a month after it had begun.
Later operations would require as much as $25 million, Ledeen and Ghorbanifar advised US officials, but could be financed in part, they said, by a foreign government in exchange for commitments of future Iran oil contracts to the foreign government’s state energy company, believed to be Italy’s ENI. Italy’s military intelligence service Sismi facilitated Ledeen’s Rome meeting, which, highly unusually, was not cleared with the US embassy in Rome or the CIA, even though it involved interaction with a foreign intelligence service.
The new Senate Intelligence committee report presents more evidence that the U.S. government under the Bush administration has been uniquely vulnerable to the intelligence schemes and foreign policy freelancing of discredited individuals and deemed fabricators such as Manoucher Ghorbanifar, and potentially even counterintelligence threats of an Iranian or other nature. It details how top officials in the Bush administration endeavored to permit such an ill-advised channel, took affirmative measures to conceal it in order to bypass the professional intelligence service, and then took steps to protect their role in the matter by shutting down the counterintelligence investigation launched by the Pentagon and to stall the Senate probe. The report also documents that Ghorbanifar has been able to influence US policy and intelligence channels in particular through Ledeen's contacts within Cheney's office and the Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz Pentagon.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8595_three_days_in_r.html
Well, what a surprise!
Defense lawyer: US urged interrogators at Gitmo to destroy notes in case they had to testify
By MICHAEL MELIA Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico June 8, 2008 (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=5026021
McCain Adviser Phil Gramm in the News Again: Did His Bank Help Wealthy Clients Evade Taxes?
For someone who wants to change Washington, John McCain has surrounded himself with plenty of guys who game the system. His campaign in recent weeks had to boot out a bunch of lobbyists, though his two top campaign aides—Rick Davis and Charles Black—remain in their posts, despite the fact they recently were high-powered lobbyists. Then there's Phil Gramm, a campaign cochairman and economic adviser to McCain. After leaving the US Senate, he became an executive and lobbyist for UBS, the Swiss mega-bank. And as I noted recently, eight years ago, when he chaired the Senate banking committee, he helped create the current subprime meltdown by slyly slipping into a must-pass appropriations measure a bill that completely deregulated certain financial instruments. Isn't that the sort of person you want advising a president and in line to be Treasury secretary?
http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/06/8627_mccain_adviser.html
A General's False Testimony on KBR
Will the Pentagon correct Major Gen. Jerome Johnson's tainted testimony on the potentially contaminated water KBR provided to the troops?
When Major Gen. Jerome Johnson appeared under oath before a congressional committee last year, he told enough untruths about KBR's work for the military that the US Army took the unusual step of retracting a portion of his testimony. Now it appears that Johnson also misled members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on another KBR-related matter: its provisioning of potentially contaminated water to US troops in Iraq.
Nearly three months ago Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), chair of the Democratic Policy Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the subject of Johnson's testimony, but he has yet to received a reply. "This was either an attempt by General Johnson to deliberately deceive the Congress, or a display of negligent disregard for facts," Dorgan wrote in the March 12 letter. "I hope you will review this matter and take appropriate action."
In April 2007, Johnson, then the commanding general of the US Army Sustainment Command, which is responsible for providing food, lodging, and a range of logistical support to the troops, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to answer questions about the Pentagon's primary logistics contract in Iraq. During the hearing, the committee's chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), alleged that the Army had reimbursed KBR, then a Halliburton subsidiary, for the cost of overpriced trailers the company had purchased through a subcontractor.
"[T]he [Defense] department has not paid KBR the $100 million for the trailers," Johnson told Levin. "As a matter of fact, KBR's cost is still suspended." Johnson when on to say that the DOD document from which Levin drew his information was "inaccurate." But it was Johnson who didn't have his facts straight.
More than seven months passed before the Army acknowledged Johnson's misstatement. "We sincerely regret the confusion that arose during the testimony and apologize for any impact to the Committee's deliberations," wrote Claude Bolton, assistant secretary of the Army, to Levin. In his "correction for the record," Bolton wrote that the Army had indeed paid KBR for the trailers, even though the Defense Contract Audit Agency had called the purchase "unreasonable due to KBR purchasing the [trailers] from someone other than the low bidder without...adequate justification."
The media paid little attention to the slip-up and subsequent correction, perhaps in part because, as the Army Times noted, "Bolton's letter ends the argument between the Army and Levin's committee because there is no way to recoup the money."
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2008/06/iraq-general-contaminated-water-false-testimony.html
NMP that Rolling Stone article stated all of my fears about this election to come. It gave voice to many of my fears (I still have others not mentioned). It is really scary that a person who couldn't win the nomination could be in such a powerful position as to cause the nominee to lose. Ok, let's see if she has the moral fibre some believe she does have. I sure hope she does.
A recent and great collection of clips from globalvillage1 that brings us right up to a few months ago and our preparedness to prevent the same kind of obscenity happening during this campaign.
Truth: The American Bottom Line
Military might not the way to deal with Iran
Amin Saikal
June 9, 2008
ISRAELI Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has openly declared that Iran's nuclear program must be stopped by "all possible" means. His Transport Minister, Shaul Mofaz, added on Friday that an attack on Iran looked "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of sanctions to stop Iran's potential for making bombs.
These declarations come against the backdrop of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's taunts that Israel "will soon disappear off the geographical scene", President George Bush's repeated lambasting of the Iranian Islamic regime as a great danger to world peace, Senator Hillary Clinton's vow to obliterate Iran if it attacked Israel, and Senator Barack Obama's pledge to "do everything in his power" to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear power.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/military-might-not-the-way-to-deal-with-iran-20080608-2nj2.html
Unbelievable - wounded US soldier treatment
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/3/85834/02617
In case you didn't know it, Daily Kos had a "Why Hillary Lost" as there theme yesterday. Their headliners gave their analysis of it. I enjoyed hearing their different views and frankly felt that their writings were a heck of a lot more articulate than the talking heads on msm.
Take a peek over there and read their writings from yesterday if you get a chance.
Here's the general link for those diarys.
I'm not used to getting around over at Kos, but I saw this today and thought it extremely funny...
Musings Over Morning Coffee
by DemFromCT
Mon Jun 09, 2008 at 04:25:54 AM PDT
So let's talk a little bit about The Speech. No, no, not that speech. We spent the weekend talking about that. I am talking about this speech (Media reviews: "Put McCain's speech against Obama's - and this was a wipe-out.").
This is The Speech that introduces John McCain to the country. We, in fact, got to meet the entire McCain family. We met John "I never saw a teleprompter I understood" McCain, John "the rictus smile of death" McCain (that one will never be let out in public again), John "my campaign looks like rank amateurs" McCain, John "I'm broke and I can't afford a big arena, even if we had the crowds" McCain, John "Change is the thing, so let me rip off Obama's slogans and campaign theme because I don't have one" McCain, and especially John "Goddamnit, I'm not George Bush" McCain. Seeing all of the McCains live has the Republicans very worried about their Presidential candidate's election chances in the fall. That, on top of being petrified of what's going to happen to Congressional Republicans.
More..... plus a great picture of "the hug" in case you haven't seen it before (or won't see it again, lol)...
http://www.dailykos.com/
http://images.dailykos.com/images/user/426/thehug.jpg
Kerry, Menendez, Dorgan, Lautenberg Legislations Demands End to Wartime Propaganda
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sens. John Kerry, Bob Menendez, Byron Dorgan, and Frank Lautenberg today introduced legislation that will prohibit the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) from using appropriated funds for propaganda and will require the DoD Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to deliver reports to Congress within 90 days. The bill is a companion measure to Rep. Paul Hodes’ (D-N.H.) amendment to the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 5658). In April, Sen. Kerry called for an investigation by the GAO into the DOD’s covert effort to cultivate military analysts with distinguished service records to produce favorable press coverage of the Bush Administration’s wartime policies. According to Media Matters, military analysts made 4,500 press appearances to produce systematic propaganda for the war.
“We’re going to make sure the public money isn’t used for propaganda campaigns that undermine the public trust,” said Sen. Kerry. “With confidence in Washington at an all-time low, the American people should not have to wonder whether the purportedly non-partisan, expert analysis they see on television might have been shaped by a government propaganda campaign. The Administration should be focusing all of its efforts on making Americans safer and more secure, not misleading marketing campaigns to keep them in the dark or smother competing opinions and dissent during a misguided war.”
“The decisions we make about war are often life or death decisions for American troops. They also have broad security implications. In the debate about war, facts and sober analysis should carry the day. There is no need for paid cheerleaders to support an argument,” said Sen. Menendez.
“This Administration has a history of pushing propaganda on the American public. The American people expect our federal government to tell the nation the truth. Our bill would require the immediate investigation of this Administration’s efforts to manipulate the news, and ensure that the public gets unbiased facts and analysis in the future,” said Sen. Lautenberg.
“In a free and democratic society, our government should never use the public airwaves to propagandize our citizens,” said Rep. Hodes. “Congress cannot allow an Administration to manipulate the public with false propaganda on matters of war and our national security. This legislation will ensure that no money authorized will be used for a propaganda program, and require a report to Congress by both the Defense Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office on whether previous restrictions on propaganda have been violated. It’s time for the American people to finally know the truth.”
I'm not sure yet what other comments and reviews Scotty's book has gotten, but so far, I didn't buy the darn thing to learn that his sport in high school was tennis and that he had twin brothers who graduated top of their class.
It's kind of empty book so far, like an empty suit.
Puffed up.
Snaky assemblage of McCain paraphernalia & anecdotes:
http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2008/06/fathers-day-mcc.html
Committee report finds Abramoff influenced White House
Contrary to the White House's claims, corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff had access to the highest reaches of the Bush administration and influenced numerous decisions within the executive branch, a draft report from the House Oversight Committee has concluded.
"The testimony and documents obtained by the Committee ... confirm that Mr. Abramoff had access to the White House," reads the report, which was released Monday. "Further, the record before the Committee contradicts White House claims that with respect to his White House contacts, Mr. Abramoff got 'nothing out of it.' Not only did Mr. Abramoff achieve some positive results from his White House lobbying, but White House officials sought out the views of Mr. Abramoff and his colleagues on matters of official business."
Abramoff was convicted in 2006 on several corruption charges related to his fraudulent dealings with Indian tribes he represented. Fallout from revelations of Abramoff's influence peddling rippled through Congress and contributed to several Republican lawmakers losing their seats in the Democrats' takeover that same year.
The 35-page report documents a two-year investigation by the committee into Abramoff's influence within the White House. It uncovered six photographs of the corrupt lobbyist and members of his family shaking hands with President Bush; the committee also found evidence of more than 70 previously unknown contacts between Abramoff and his associates and administration officials.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Committee_report_finds_Abramoff_influenced_White_0609.html
Bastards.
Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Davis issued a proposed Committee report on White House contacts with Jack Abramoff that concludes that Mr. Abramoff had personal contact with President Bush,
http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1996
Pollster Scott Rasmussen says that as of today, based on 3,000 automated telephone surveys over the past three nights, Obama gets support from 52% of the women in his national tracking poll compared with 40% for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. He says that's better than Democrat John Kerry did with women against President Bush in 2004.
O'LIElly v McClelland
Round 1 and 2 goes to McClellan, imo.
What's yours?
Seriously...check out the youtubes on that link.
Not My President Author Profile Page said:
Pollster Scott Rasmussen says that as of today, based on 3,000 automated telephone surveys over the past three nights, Obama gets support from 52% of the women in his national tracking poll compared with 40% for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. He says that's better than Democrat John Kerry did with women against President Bush in 2004.
~~~
Of course, nmp! Afterall, we were bombarded with fear messages for 2 years! We also hadn't experienced the Katrina effect, the long-war effect, the staggering accounts of incompetence and lawlessness that we hear now. Even though we don't hear much of it now, back in 2004, we got NOTHING.
Christy said:
Chairman Waxman and Ranking Member Davis issued a proposed Committee report on White House contacts with Jack Abramoff that concludes that Mr. Abramoff had personal contact with President Bush,
~~~
Surprise, surprise!
So now what?!!!
Report out. Same old same old?
When do the trials begin against Bush, Cheney, Rove, and others?
Elizabeth Edwards joins Obama on Health Care
(Now that's uniting! EE originally went to Hillary's plan after JRE was eliminated. I do wish that EE and Obama were behind single-payer that DK already has sitting in the House!)
The irony is that a single payer plan financed via an increase in the Medicare tax would be the best thing for American business. It would remove a huge (and ever growing) cost from their balance sheets. And with the advent of the Medicare Advantage model, you could also even offer individuals who want a more deluxe package that option as well.
Both the Clinton and Edwards models (that Krugman preferred) require you to buy insurance - under the argument that the only way to lower costs is to have everyone buy in. But if you're requiring everyone to buy in, why not just finance it via a payroll deduction?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4100170.ece
Barack Obama sets up internet 'war room' to fight slurs
A crack team of cybernauts will form a rapid response internet "war room" to track and respond aggressively to online rumours that Barack Obama is unpatriotic and a Muslim.
As he gears up for his general election fight against John McCain, Mr Obama and his chief advisers are aware of the danger of such rumours, amid polling data showing that a significant number of Americans believe he is a Muslim or are suspicious about his background. Such doubts were a factor in his poor showing with white, blue-collar voters during his primary battle with Hillary Clinton.
In recent days Mr Obama has -- unprompted -- brought up the subject of the chain e-mails and blog sites making the false claims. Some state that he is a radical Muslim who was sworn in as a US senator on the Koran; others that he sympathises with Palestinian radicals. Many focus on his middle name of Hussein, which was taken from his Kenyan father.
Referring to the e-mails in a speech last week to AIPAC, the powerful Jewish lobby, Mr Obama said: "They are filled with tall tales and dire warnings about a certain candidate for president and all I want to say is, 'Let me know if you see this guy named Barack Obama because he sounds pretty scary'."
Jen Psaki, a spokeswomen for Mr Obama, told The Times that the internet team was still being finalised.
She added: "The only way to run a campaign is to respond immediately when inaccurate information is put out. The [emails] are saying he's a Muslim. He's not. He's a Christian. He often brings up the e-mails that are out there and the smear campaign that's been run against him on the internet. We definitely recognise that getting out the correct information about Senator Obama is to our advantage and to the voters' advantage."
The "war room" comes as the Obama campaign prepares a series of biographical speeches, television advertisements and campaign appearances to tell his life story, an attempt to make voters more familiar with him. Despite his long nomination fight against Mrs Clinton, his campaign aides concede that millions of Americans still feel that they do not really know him.
Mr Obama's Kenyan father, who left the family when he was 2, was a Muslim, but not particularly religious. The Illinois senator lived in Indonesia from the age of 6 until 10 with his white, American mother and Indonesian stepfather, who was also a Muslim. Mr Obama has never been a Muslim, or worshipped at a mosque. He moved from being agnostic to finding Christ in his 20s, with the help of his former Chicago pastor: the Rev Jeremiah Wright, a figure whose incendiary sermons now haunt his candidacy and has increased suspicions among some voters about his patriotism.
A poll in mid-March found that 13 per cent of Americans think that Mr Obama is a Muslim -- a 5 per cent increase since December 2007. Another found that 23 per cent of Democrats who hold negative views of him believe that he is a Muslim. The same survey showed that 61 per cent of voters view him as patriotic, compared with 76 per cent for Mrs Clinton and 90 per cent for Mr McCain.
In recent weeks Mr Obama has pinned an American flag badge to his suit lapel after being criticised by Republicans for not wearing one.
He locked horns with Mr McCain on Monday over the faltering economy, the number one issue with voters, as the Democrat started a 17-day economics tour with a speech in North Carolina lambasting the Republican over his support for the fiscal policies of President Bush.
The Arizona senator pre-empted his rival's address by painting him as a liberal tax-and-spender.
2 million poll workers wanted for November elections
Advertisements [?]Source: USA Today
States and counties are putting out "help wanted" signs five months before Election Day in hopes of finding hundreds of thousands of younger, tech-savvy poll workers needed to handle an expected record turnout.
In many cases, workers don't even have to be old enough to vote.
With a one-day workforce of nearly 2 million poll workers wanted by November, election officials are busily recruiting at high schools, colleges and businesses. They're looking for people who can speak foreign languages or help voters with disabilities. They're making training more convenient and splitting long workdays in half.
"The first challenge is just in the sheer numbers," says Dean Logan, acting clerk of Los Angeles County, which needs 25,000 poll workers in the nation's most populous voting jurisdiction.
More than 122 million Americans voted in 2004, up from 105 million in 2000. The number is expected to jump again because of high interest in the White House contest, which drew near-record primary turnout on a percentage basis.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008...
I heard on CNN Kucinich is introducing 35 articles of impeachment against Bush.
Impeachment Happening in Congress Right Now
Advertisements [?]Source: American Chronicle
David Swanson
Congressman Dennis Kucinich is on the floor of the House of Representatives right now introducing 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush.
Yes, 35. He'll be reading for a while.
Watch C-Span Now! .....
http://c-span.org ....
Take your laptop outside and turn the volume up!
Read more: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/64479
I used to work the polls here in NYC, but was bumped by the local Democratic party because I refused to canvas for them. I saw working a 15 hour day for less $12.00 an hour as a civil duty. They saw it as some great privilege - and wanted to extract even more blood from a stone!
That phrase should have read "civic duty".
Link at kos to the DK into of impeachment. Not much details.
Rawstory: Bush impeachment
GO DENNIS GO DENNIS GO DENNIS!
We need to call Congress in support of Dennis's bill.
Also, we need to make this go viral.
It's on our blog for starters. & it's being discussed by Seattle for Obama and Washington for Obama lists & probably all over the internet.
Why now? will it have any teeth? Isn't it too late?
And will pelosi and conyers (etc) FINALLY do it?
IT's all over du and kos and c/l
Our campaign for accountability for the Bush administration is making legitimate progress.
I am pleased to announce to you that the House Judiciary Committee has met my public call for Scott McClellan's immediate testimony with action:
Today, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers officially invited Mr. McClellan to testify under oath on Friday, June 20th at 10AM.
After all of our hard work pushing for impeachment hearings for Vice President Cheney – the McClellan hearing provides our cause with a legitimate opportunity to showcase the crimes and violations of this Administration for the American people, the mainstream media, reluctant members of the Democratic party, and sensible Republicans. This hearing provides us our first genuine opportunity to enter the public consciousness and change the dynamics that have prevented true accountability for Bush and Cheney.
Mr. McClellan was a major figure in the Valerie Plame/CIA scandal, as well as a leading propagandist for the Bush White House's deliberate attempts to hide the true costs of this war from the American public. As such, Mr. McClellan will testify under oath (and be subject to perjury charges should he lie) and be asked about the following matters:
1. What role did President Bush, Vice President Cheney , and key administration officials take in the effort to reveal the identity of covert CIA agent Valeria Plame Wilson – thus destroying her network and putting lives in jeopardy?
2. What role did President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and key administration officials take regarding the firing of U.S. Attorneys or political reasons?
3. What role did President Bush, Vice President Cheney, key administration officials take in conspiring to blatantly break U.S. and International laws prohibiting the use of torture?
I call on Mr. McClellen to immediately accept this invitation and testify under oath as he previously agreed to while being interviewed on national television.
During the hearing I will have roughly five short minutes to question Mr. McClellan and undercover the illegalities committed by this Administration – which is why it is critically important that every representative on the Judiciary Committee hears your voice. Please let them know that you demand answers to these questions.
Nor should it stop there: Karl Rove has thumbed his nose to the Judiciary Committee's subpoena – joining Harriet Miers, Joshua Bolten and Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff David Addington as the only Administration officials in history to claim Congress has no power to even bring them before a committee to be questioned.
I have called for Karl Rove to be held in inherent contempt and for the other renegade officials to appear as required by their subpoenas, or be forced to do so by the House Sergeant of Arms.
What the Judiciary's request of McClellan proves is that if we stay vigilant – if we call loudly and repeatedly for accountability - that we become very difficult to ignore.
Please stay tuned. I hope for more developments soon.
With great respect,
Congressman Robert Wexler
A guy called "Republican Defector" brought it up at Obama's site.
Even if it's symbolic it will go into the Congressional Record for all time. There are 35 articles. It's taking him about two hours or more just to read it, right?
I like the way he started .. "this house is not in order" .. to which Pelosi starting hitting with the gavel
That house is strangely quiet.
It sometimes takes a little man to do a big job.
Too late? As long as the bastard still has half a minute left in power, then there is still time to go about impeaching him.
There is really nothing else you CAN do. We must bring them down.
Even after November We Must Bring Them DOWN!
It is never too late to do the right thing.
At American Chronicle:
Impeachment Happening in Congress Right Now!
David Swanson
Congressman Dennis Kucinich is on the floor of the House of Representatives right now introducing 35 articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush.
Yes, 35. He'll be reading for a while.
Watch C-Span Now!
If ou don't have cable, go to a bar and tell them to put it on C-Span 1!
Or watch at the Video/Audio tab at
http://c-span.org
Take your laptop outside and turn the volume up!
More details coming later tonight
Action in the House coming later this week!
Good websites to watch for updates and actions:
http://kucinich.us
http://democrats.com
http://afterdowningstreet.org
Let Justice roll down like waters in a mighty stream . . .
There's going to be at least one article of impeachment that interests you and perhaps even mentions you. Watch for updates.
Inauguration is not til January.
Bush and Cheney could invade Iran.
Impeach them both.
President would then be Robert Byrd, who is out of the hospital.
And as NMP says, this will go onto the record for all time. He will not let them say he did nothing.
Even if he fails, he tried. And history will be riddled with the mystery of why The Worst President in American History was only confronted by this one tough, persistant little congressman.
Dennis Kucinich will live forever as a great American Hero. That is being written into future history books right now, even as I type this.
Maybe the Line of Secession I read was wrong.
Some say it would be Pelosi.
It is going to be damn hard for georgie and the cabal to dismiss THIRTY FIVE articles of Impeachment.
That is the political equal to 'bootstrapping' them.
I Love It!
It would be Pelosi as I understand it.
nmp--i thought it was pelosi. (ok. no caps or long sentences tonight.my hands are hurting.)
Yes it's Pelosi then Byrd then Condi.
Check...the media IS starting to report it. Little papers, big ones--around the country around the world! Maybe it will stick this time?
Google Hits
"The urgency of Impeachment" has 384 similar articles!
yes, US, Pakistan and Nigeria - driven to impeachment proceedings
Amazing
Reuters has it too. "Dennis Kucinich defies his party'sleadership on impeachment"
And also there are 2161 articles of one type alone, now!
OMG you guys...could this be really going to happen?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDZ8seg4Nr4
Favorite and rate it up!
Obama could raise $100 million in June, fundraisers say
Source: The Hill
Leading Democratic fundraisers predict that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will raise hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few months if he opts out of public financing and begins raising money for the general election.
Specifically, they say Obama could raise $100 million in June and could attract 2.5 million to 3 million new donors to his campaign.
These fundraisers say Obama could increase his fundraising dramatically because of three factors: a boost of enthusiasm among Obama donors following his clinching of the nomination; the migration of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) donors to his camp; and the mobilization of big Democratic donors who have given little so far this year.
Record-breaking projections give Obama strong incentive to pass up $85 million in public funds that his opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), has said he would accept.
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/obama-could-raise-100-...
Too Cool to Dance
by Crashing Vor http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/9/221152/9924/858/533077
I've been watching Rep. Kucinich read his Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush on C-Span and checking into the live blog threads here.
And I'm pretty disgusted.
Crashing Vor's diary :: ::
Not at Rep. Kucinich, but at some here, DailyKos, the great, orange ground zero of Democratic, progressive and constitutional thought on the danged old Interwebs, who feel that, because Rep. Kucinich's efforts tonight are almost surely doomed to fail, that it is unworthy of their attention or approval.
Listen up. This is a United States congressman, standing in the well of the chamber of the House of Representatives, reading into the Congressional Record a detailed and comprehensive list of the violations of U.S. and international law by a sitting president. Even if nothing comes of this, this is an important moment in the history of our country.
Those who are so sure that this is a quixotic gesture, that our spineless Democratic leaders will never bring these articles to a vote on the House floor, that even taking the time to read these articles into the record of our Congress are so pointless as to be beneath their notice or respect, remind me of other people I've known.
Having spent way too many years in the music business, I've hung out with engineers, producers, publishers, publicists, reviewers, managers, artists and other "music people." And, to a person, almost all of them shared a common flaw: they were too cool to dance.
Whether it was one of the last public appearances of the Grateful Dead, Marcia Ball playing to a house of ten patrons in a flooding rain, Bonnie Raitt with half the Meters roaring at the Jazz Fest or just another Saturday night with the local blues band, these tragically hip, how's-my-hair guest-list-and-laminate peacocks couldn't be moved from the wall or the bar to actually shake their asses. To music that extraterrestrials would cross light years to hear.
Friends, Democrats, countrymen, lend him your ears.
This is your history. Your grandchildren will ask if you heard this speech.
Put down your fucking call brand drink and dance.
Ok. apparently google may say 2176 Impeachment hits but that was a mistake. It leads to ummmm 50 maybe?
Timroff who we met at y-kos last year, nmp, (the journalist) thinks that this is a co-ordinated effort by DK, Wexler, and Conyers.
Especially now that they've got Scotty and (Fitz?) ready to testify.
Well....
Isn't that just the way IT GOES????
The ONE NIGHT I work late, and come home and DON'T turn on MSNBC News and then check for news on my computer, something really BIG like this happens!!!!
O.K. I am TOTALLY unaware of what is - what has been happening all day.
If I would have known I would have come home and set the DVR to record the proceedings.
Sparrow, you still UP?
One ringee dingee....
Sparrow
I think the coordinated effort is plausible.
"..thinks that this is a co-ordinated effort by DK, Wexler, and Conyers.
Especially now that they've got Scotty and (Fitz?) ready to testify."
Me too, i get a strange feeling this is the beginning of the end.
I am still sitting here thinking ' OMFG! I can not believe that just happened!".
Christy, for you I am so very happy tonight. Wouldn't THAT just be a fitting end to this nightmare regime?
Let them go down in History as they really were:
Let's just start with a. and go all the way down the list to z.
This country might have a chance after all.
U.S. quits as observer at UN Human Rights Council under war-crimes accusations
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/357