Your Guest List for Sunday's Talking Head News Shows beamed across America by Corporate Media PLUS reports from the best lib/prog media! If you have related STORIES share below! DEBUNK HERE! Throw Bricks! First brick is on us! Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
ALL LINKS OPEN A NEW WINDOW!!!
Click on anything below and be INSTANTLY SMARTER!
GOP War on Everything We've covered the American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC, The Koch Brothers, Blackwater (nee Xe nee Academi), the proselytizing in the USAF at Mikey Weinstein's MilitaryReligiousFreedom.org, The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, K Street and you know about turd blossom's secret donor group American Crossroads, the Club for Growth, Grover Norquist's "drown government in a bathtub" Americans for Tax Reform and the "think" tanks like CATO, Hoover, Hudson, "New Pearl Harbor" Project for the New American Century PNAC, American Enterprise Institute and the biggie America Israel Political Action Committee, AIPAC and the slew of Christian Evangelical groups too long to list here including the Catholic Church. We take a break from the global economic chaos this week (see Max below on these updates) to focus on the synergy of these right-wing organizations. As the GOPher Primary Circus drags on yet another week we've heard some absolutely astonishing things coming out of the pie-holes of these troglodytes like Sanitarium suger-daddy Foster Freiss stunning Andrea Mitchell with "In my day they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptions. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly." Andrea Mitchell’s reaction to Foster Freiss’ comment? Priceless. (Video at link to mediaite.com if you missed it.) From workers' rights to women's rights the American Taliban are trying to drag all of us into the 12th century, in words and action.
We urge you to read Pennies from heaven: How Mormon economics shape the G.O.P by Chris Lehmann at Harper's (October 2011 Edition). Here's just a very small snip: Amid all the high-flying fund-raising and culture-war choreography, it’s easy to mistake the Mormons for just one more conservative interest group—something akin to, say, the Business Roundtable, with a robust “values” agenda. But the church’s real gift to the right has been its sense of persecution and embattled faith. Of course, these have been key ingredients of the conservative coalition since the evangelical right first stirred to life with Reagan’s 1980 landslide. Yet the old religious right was always a skeptical partner in its shotgun marriage with business conservatism. Fundamentalists found consumer capitalism, with its loose morals and easy credit, a hard pill to swallow. Meanwhile, free-market boosters resigned themselves to buying off senior evangelicals with lobbying dosh—as Jack Abramoff did in his unholy alliance with Ralph Reed—and cynically pledging, in each new campaign cycle, to stomp out the mortal threats of gay marriage and abortion on demand. Something, in other words, had to give. And in the aftermath of the debt-ceiling brinkmanship, we are now beginning to apprehend just what that something is....
Along those lines in Dick Cheney's home state Wyoming House advances doomsday bill (Wyoming Trib.com) CHEYENNE — State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States. House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government. The task force would look at the feasibility of Wyoming issuing its own alternative currency, if needed. And House members approved an amendment Friday by state Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, to have the task force also examine conditions under which Wyoming would need to implement its own military draft, raise a standing army, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.... AIRCRAFT CARRIER? In WYOMING? Huh? Next we go to David Sirota at Salon who explains The danger of an endless GOP primary Among progressive friends and colleagues of mine, there seems to be a consensus that the longer the Republican presidential primary continues the better for progressives. The idea is that Republican infighting weakens the ultimate nominee and exposes just how radical all of the GOP candidates are. As the domino theory goes, that will help more Americans see the ugly truth about what the Republican Party really is, which will subsequently convince more Americans to vote against the GOP, which will eventually force the GOP to moderate its politics. Straightforward as this hypothesis is, I don’t buy it — I believe the longer the Republican primary battle continues, the more the GOP’s most extreme proposals are given a mainstream platform, the more their ideas are granted public credibility and the more conservative propaganda is invisibly woven into our most basic political assumptions. In other words, I believe in the Goldwater Principle, which suggests that while the eventual nominee may fail to win the cycle’s general election, the elongated nomination contest — with its news cycle dominance and hardcore ideological edge — will help permanently shift the supposed mainstream “center” of our public debate to the fringe right..... Read all of Sirota's piece - he's on to something! Of course one big thing the GOPhers are hammering on now is the high gasloine prices at the pump, all without any basis of facts behind their attacks, as usual. Alex Seitz-Wald at the ThinkProgress Economy Desk points out Blame Oil Speculators, Not Obama, For Rising Oil Prices ... Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) "instructed fellow Republicans to embrace the gas-pump anger," while Rick Santorum conspiratorially claimed Obama is intentionally pushing up prices to cut carbon emissions. Not to be outdone, Newt Gingrich released a 30-minute video today about how "the Obama administration is so anti-oil" that they’ve forced the price of gas to go up. But there’s little truth to claims that Obama has curbed U.S. oil production and driven up gas prices in the process. As NPR noted this morning, the number of drilling rigs in U.S. oil fields has quadrupled under Obama and domestic oil production hit an 8-year high in 2011. For the first time in 60 years, the U.S. is now a net fuel exporter. Oil demand was actually down 4.6 percent last week over last year, while the supply of gasoline has actually increased slightly since a year ago. So why are gas prices so high? As McClatchy’s Kevin Hall explains today, there is a systemic problem: speculation. ... Then Jocelyn Fong at Media Matters explains What Reporters Are Getting Wrong About Gas Prices This tolerance for unsubstantiated claims about gas prices is part of a larger pattern among many news outlets: In an effort to capture the political argument of the day, journalists often miss the larger, more interesting, and more important story. What is the origin and the nature of our problem with gas prices? What can we do about it? Who supports and opposes those solutions? Who benefits from the status quo? If reporters aren't framing their gas price coverage around these questions, they're serving someone -- but it's not the public. ..... The issue of Keystone XL is not the first time mainstream reporters have been complicit in a public discourse over gasoline prices that is riddled with misconceptions. Last spring when prices eventually rose to near-record levels, Republicans and conservative media blamed the Obama administration's temporary deep water drilling moratorium enacted after the devastating BP oil spill in the Gulf. Reporters from the New York Times, Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNN, among others, provided the same he-said/she-said coverage we're seeing now....
WAR ON SCIENCE: Attacks paid for by big business are 'driving science into a dark era' reports science editor Robin McKie at The Observer Most scientists, on achieving high office, keep their public remarks to the bland and reassuring. Last week Nina Fedoroff, the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), broke ranks in a spectacular manner. She confessed that she was now "scared to death" by the anti-science movement that was spreading, uncontrolled, across the US and the rest of the western world. "We are sliding back into a dark era," she said. "And there seems little we can do about it. I am profoundly depressed at just how difficult it has become merely to get a realistic conversation started on issues such as climate change or genetically modified organisms." ... As Fedoroff pointed out, university and government researchers are hounded for arguing that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are changing the climate. Their emails are hacked while Facebook campaigns call for their dismissal from their posts, calls that are often backed by rightwing politicians. At the last Republican party debate in Florida, Rick Santorum insisted he should be the presidential nominee simply because he had cottoned on earlier than his rivals Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney to the "hoax" of global warming. .... These institutions, acting as covers for major energy corporations, are responsible for the onslaught that has deeply lowered the reputation of science in many people's minds in America. This has come in the form of personal attacks on the reputations of scientists and television adverts that undermine environment laws. The Environmental Protection Agency, which is responsible for blocking mining and drilling proposals that might harm threatened species or habitats, has become a favourite target. .... n general, the worst excesses of the anti-science lobbies are confined to the US. However, there are signs that their influence is spreading, and that raises worrying issues, said Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, in London. "In coming years, we will have to ask ourselves if public policies should be based on the advice of experts who have carried out robust and rigorous analysis of the evidence, or if they should be guided by lobbyists who appear driven by narrow ideological dogma. "The answer may seem obvious, but we should be aware of the efforts being made in the UK to promote ideology over rational evidence-based decision-making, particularly when it comes to climate issues," said Ward. Just how this rise of anti-science antagonism pans out in the end remains unclear.....
Here's one brought to our attention by HeadOnRadio's Bob Kincaid (see Thorn-in-the-Side Thursday below for Bob's take) Big Greenwashing 101 Red Emma at EarthFirstNews: Greenwashing—[a compound word modeled on "whitewash"] a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that a company’s policies or products are environmentally friendly. John Muir must be rolling over in his grave. The organization he founded in 1892, the Sierra Club, America’s oldest and largest environmental group, have been in cahoots with the worst of the worst corporations in recent years. They’ve been paid tens of millions of dollars by the fossil fuel industry, tyrannical billionaire mayors and Wall Street in exchange for cleaning (and greening) up their public images. Not only have they acted as a green public relations firm for the bastions of wealth and power, but have also sold out frontline communities most impacted by extractive industry. Corporations rule our world with an unyielding iron fist. They poison and literally explode local communities with fracking and mountaintop removal. They profit off of dirty extractive industry with multi-billion investments. They empower a police state to repress democratic people’s movements drawing a line in the sand against Corporate America. But they also insidiously mitigate the power of grassroots resistance movements with a complicit non-profit industrial complex. Most environmental non-profits actively serve as a buffer zone between our people’s movements seeking real change and a corporate state hell bent on sucking every last bit out of the planet and its people before the impending ecological collapse. ... Sadly, the Sierra Club which boasts a democratic governance system and a healthy grassroots base of local chapters have become part of the corporate world’s equation for control. They’ve partnered with, and been funded by, natural gas corporations to promote gas as a “bridge fuel.” They’ve taken large donations from New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg even as he’s attacked labor unions and Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and released his racist police force to harass and demonize the Muslim community. They’ve even been business partners with the worst of the worst Wall Street banks, Bank of America, in greenwashing schemes to repair the bank’s damaged public image to the environmental community. ..... Despite publicly touting their role in shutting down hundreds of coal fired power plants, the Sierra Club continues a long standing financial relationship with the largest funder of coal in the US—Bank of America. The Sierra Club greenwashes Bank of America through an “affinity schemes.” An affinity scheme is a crafty public relations scheme where environmental organizations have their members get green branded credit cards through Bank of America. With every purchase, they make a donation to a good cause, a small profit for Bank of America and a public image coup for a bank under fire from everything to foreclosures to mountaintop removal to massive employee layoffs. The Sierra Club is far from alone in this scam; Credo Mobile/Working Assets, Defenders of Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Foundation and The Wilderness Society all have Bank of America affinity schemes. According to Rainforest Action Network, Bank of America has the biggest portfolio of coal projects that harm public health and destroy the climate. In 2009-2010, the coal industry received $3.9 billion in underwriting and corporate loans from Bank of America. It is involved in every step of the coal cycle. It regularly underwrites billions to the industry, including hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to Arch Coal and Peabody Energy—the two biggest coal mining companies in the country. They also underwrite billions every year to coal-heavy utility corporations, such as Southern Company and Edison International. They are also the largest forecloser of homes in US and have laid-off tens of thousands of employees in recent years.... It's hard to fathom The Sierra Club is a leading Greenwasher! Read the whole story! And our own msgeaux piles on with this Bill Gates: We Need Genetically Modified Seeds (Common Dreams staff ) At a forum of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in Rome today, Microsoft founder Bill Gates pressed the need for genetically modified seeds in the developing world, and the need for a "digital revolution" to meet the needs of the world's farmers. Gates' claims that genetically modified crops double or triple smaller farmers' yields have been challenged by recent research. Agence France-Presse reports:
- "We have to think hard about how to start taking advantage of the digital revolution that is driving innovation including in farming," the U.S. billionaire philanthropist said in a speech at the UN rural poverty agency IFAD in Rome. "If you care about the poorest, you care about agriculture. We believe that it's possible for small farmers to double and in some cases even triple their yields in the next 20 years while preserving the land," Gates said. [...]
- Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of "superweeds", according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people. (These statistics fly in the face of the Monsanto story-line propaganda, btw. -Ed.)
- Despite 20 years of research and 13 years of commercialization, genetic engineering has failed to significantly increase U.S. crop yields. ....In others words, not only can organic farming and ranching feed the world, but in fact it is the only way that we will ever be able to feed the world.”
And whack-a-moles in Virginia thought they could pass a law that basically is government-sponsored forced rape and nobody would notice. Dahlia Lithwick at Slate reports Virginia’s Proposed Ultrasound Law Is an Abomination This week, the Virginia state Legislature passed a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound before they may have an abortion. Because the great majority of abortions occur during the first 12 weeks, that means most women will be forced to have a transvaginal procedure, in which a probe is inserted into the vagina, and then moved around until an ultrasound image is produced. Since a proposed amendment to the bill—a provision that would have had the patient consent to this bodily intrusion or allowed the physician to opt not to do the vaginal ultrasound—failed on 64-34 vote, the law provides that women seeking an abortion in Virginia will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason. I am not the first person to note that under any other set of facts, that would constitute rape under the federal definition. What’s more, a provision of the law that has received almost no media attention would ensure that a certification by the doctor that the patient either did or didn’t “avail herself of the opportunity” to view the ultrasound or listen to the fetal heartbeat will go into the woman’s medical record. Whether she wants it there or not. I guess they were all out of scarlet letters in Richmond. ....... Of course, the bill is unconstitutional. The whole point of the new abortion bans is to force the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade. It’s unconstitutional to place an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy, although it’s anyone’s guess what, precisely, that means. One would be inclined to suspect, however, that unwanted penetration with a medical device violates either the undue burden test or the right to bodily autonomy. But that’s the other catch in this bill. Proponents seem to be of the view that once a woman has allowed a man to penetrate her body once, her right to bodily autonomy has ended. .... Whatever happens in the commonwealth, it’s fair to say it’s no accident that this week the Legislature also enacted a "personhood" law defining life as beginning at conception—a law that may someday criminalize contraception and some miscarriages as well as abortion. .... Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones picks up the ball and runs with it in Virginia Is for Zygote Personhood? ....On Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill introduced by Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Prince William) by a 66-32 vote. The bill, like other "personhood" measures, would amend the definition of the word "person" under state law to include zygotes, thereby granting them legal rights. Amanda Peterson Beadle at ThinkProgress provides this update Virginia Governor Backs Off ‘State-Sponsored Rape’ Ultrasound Bill, Promises To ‘Review’ Measure Malloy chatter Blizzard Tomorrow points out Another State Joins The Republican Transvaginal War On Women by Sarah Jones at PoliticusUSA We women are told to relax about the War on Women, because of course, the fight is over. Virginia will not be shoving a state-mandated and medically unnecessary condom clad tranducer up every woman’s vaginal canal who wants an abortion. Wow, what a win. Not so fast. They’ve moved on to Pennsylvania now. While the national boys natter on about how birth control is evil on the GOP Presidential stage, their cohorts and whispered VP hopefuls (Virginia’s McDonnell) are busy trying to shove state mandated transvaginal ultra-sounds up women’s vaginas. Perhaps if you’ve never had a transvaginal ultrasound, this only sounds intrusive. But I can assure you, it is in fact often quite painful. Imagine you had a muscle that only opened to give birth and once a month to let the lining of your innards shred, both of which caused significant pain, the former being likened to passing a kidney stone but worse. ... The bonus of the transvaginal ultra sound is that it does require the stirrups and the spread legs that we realize excite many men; our vulnerability and humiliation is a pleasure to some of them. We know. We see the movies, the photographs, and now the legislation. This is your basic male domination porn legislation. No different. Perhaps you thought this fight was over, because the Virginia men were made a laughing stock for their willful ignorance. But no, this fight is far from over. Right now, a similar but even worse bill is poised to strike Pennsylvania women courtesy of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (HB1077). This one mandates that the image screen be turned toward the woman’s face, though she will be allowed to avert her eyes (so kind). 113 of the 203 representatives have already signed on to the bill . There are several alarming factors involved here: Much more at the link you need to read plus her stunning conclusion! Then at Salon Sarah Fister Gale explains Why Rick Santorum would have killed my daughter ... Rather than turning to my local politician for prenatal advice, I followed the guidance of my obstetrician, who sent me to a perinatologist, who recommended I have an amniocentesis. Because he had a medical degree and years of experience treating pregnant women, I followed his recommendation.... Read this gripping story in its entirety. More from Sick "The Dominionist" Sanitarium, this one from ThinkProgress Top Biblical Verses That Illustrate Why Rick Santorum is Out of Step with Christianity on Environmental Issues Expressing his interpretation of this passage at a campaign rally recently, Santorum explained that “we were put on this Earth as creatures of God to have dominion over the Earth…. We should not let the vagaries of nature destroy what we have helped create.” He also said that environmentalism is “a worldview that elevates the Earth above man and says that we can’t take those resources because we’re going to harm the Earth.” However, Santorum confuses this Genesis passage as a command for exploitation, extraction and waste — ...
Stephen D. Foster Jr. presents
The Top 15 Most Dangerous Conservative Politicians And Government Officials To Watch In 2012 From the Supreme Court to the halls of Congress to governor’s mansions across the country, conservatives have ruthlessly pushed an agenda that has torn America asunder since 1980. As 2011 comes to a close, conservatives are still trying to push failed policies. This is a list of 15 individual conservatives that pose a significant threat to American society as we move into 2012 and beyond. ...[1 - 15]... As America enters 2012, we need to keep a sharp eye on these dangerous conservatives and we must seek to unseat them, because if we don’t, we can expect another thirty years of failed policies that only benefit the wealthy and the conservative effort to rule America. .... Read on for the entire list featuring the R.A.T.S. of the SCOTUS. Of course these troglodyte whack-a-moles have been at this a long long time. Here's one from The Yurica Report from 2005 Blackwell’s Un-American Scheme: Under the Guise of “Character and Civic Renewal” Ohio State Foists a Religious Moral Code upon Its Citizens by Katherine Yurica. Then see this one about Rick "Good Hair" Perry also at Yurica from 2011 A Rather Large and Significant “Modest Proposal” When Gov. Rick Perry took the stage at his prayer rally, he introduced his close friend Alice Patterson, who is deeply involved in C. Peter Wagner's Leadership Institute, where she focuses on "racial healing" in order to get African Americans to leave the Democratic Party, because as she says, that party is "literally controlled by demonic spirits!" Similarly, Cindy Jacob's prophetic word that the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell triggered mass bird deaths but significantly, Rick Perry's Response prayer rally has gone further, it "healed the land of Texas from the curse of Native American cannibals!" We thought Edith Getwell's essay will show the world the benefits to our future American growth and development should these folks gain control over our government!
Retired Republican House and Senate staffer Mike Lofgren explains the difference between "right-wing" and "conservative" in The Right-Wing Id Unzipped at Truthout Although Mitt Romney used the word "conservative" 19 times in a short speech at the February 10, 2012, Conservative Political Action Conference, the audience he used this word to appeal to was not conservative by any traditional definition. It was right wing. Despite the common American practice of using "conservative" and "right wing" interchangeably, right wing is not a synonym for conservative and not even a true variant of conservatism - although the right wing will opportunistically borrow conservative themes as required. .... Who are these people and what motivates them? To answer, one must leave the field of conventional political theory and enter the realm of psychopathology. Three books may serve as field guides to the farther shores of American politics and the netherworld of the true believer.
Please read all of Lofgren's post. Here are the books he talks about.
• Max Blumenthal's Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that shattered the party
• Bob Altemeyer's The Authoritarians FREE on line at the University of Manitoba
• Wilhelm Reich's "The Mass Psychology of Fascism" written in 1933 and unfortunately only obtainable in a stilted 1945 translation full of odd psychological jargon
And here are a few others you may want to pick up for deeper reading and study.
• Eric Fromm The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness
• Claudia Koonz Mothers in the Fatherland
• Professor Hannah Arendt The Origins of Totalitarianism
• John Dean Conservatives Without Conscience
The big buzzword coming out of the Right this week has been "SECULAR THEOCRACY" Our LAST WORD goes to Hrafnkell Haraldsson at PoliticusUSA (with plenty of videos)
Christian Right’s 2012 Meme: Atheist Dictatorship or Secular Theocracy (Or, How to Deflect Attention from a Santorum Theocracy) Look at the headline: this is increasingly the song sung by the proponents of theocracy in America. The first at least is a logical possibility: There are examples in history of atheist dictatorships – the Soviet Union and Communist China, for example (though these two are outnumbered somewhere on an order of magnitude by monotheistic – including Christian – theocracies). But the second is an impossibility: Secularism is not a religion but the separation between government and religious institutions and theocracy is by definition government by divine guidance. If America must suffer a theocracy it will be a Christian theocracy, and a Christian theocracy led by the very seem people predicting the “evils” of atheistic and secular rule. The oldest game in the book, of course, is to accuse the other guy of doing what you’re planning to do yourself as Hitler did in Germany, using the Communists and Jews as his foils. ..... Obviously, the United States is nowhere near being threatened by any “left-wing” dictatorship. The closest we have come to dictatorship was the Presidency of George W. Bush and that dictatorship would have taken the form of a Christian theocracy. We were very close. The threat was real and it remains real. Each and every time somebody says the Religious Right is dead it comes back stronger than ever. Look at Rick Santorum, who seems to think he is running for Pope of the United States rather than president. He says he does not intend to foist his beliefs on the rest of us but that is exactly what he is proposing nearly every time he opens his mouth. The threat of a Santorum presidency could not be more obvious.
Where Mitt Romney is concerned the kowtowing to the Religious Right is obviously more for show and they know that. As a Mormon, he will only ever be despised; Gingrich the serial adulterer also has very real problems in that department and Ron Paul carries with him too much libertarian (and anti-war) baggage to ever be embraced.
Ironically, Barack Obama is a Christian and very much a Christian-friendly president. He did virtually nothing upon taking office to roll back the Bush-era assault on the First Amendment. But he has two problems: he is black, and his theology smacks very much of the New, not the Old Testament. Claims that he is a radical leftist fall flat on their face: his policies are so moderate that he has even been identified as a moderate Republican by some analysts. And we have more accountability, more openness in government than at any time before 2001.
The possibility of an atheist or secular dictatorship of any type is virtually nil. Atheists are far from being a powerful demographic and contrary to fundamentalist fear-mongering don’t go in for forcing others to abide by their lack of belief, in contrast to the fundamentalists themselves. Secondly, secularism established this country through the U.S. Constitution, which should be seen as the highest development of the European Enlightenment. Secularism gave us modern democracy in place of theocracy.
But as with the tried and true “they’re coming for your guns” meme, fear mongering like this sells to the base. And you can bet that the more Santorum shills theocracy the more we’re going to hear about the dangers of left-wing dictatorship to deflect attention from fundamentalism’s love-child, the man who is the only real threat to our democracy in 2012: Rick Santorum.
As one would expect SANITARIUM appears as a legit guest on Meet the David and This Snufagopolis. The rest of the Sunday Beltway Bubalas concentrate on guvnors like the THIS WEEK cage match between MA's DEVAL PATRICK and MI's RICK SNYDER while Face the Bob goes with NJ's Chris Christie and MD's MARTIN O'MALLEY. Meet the David also gets AZ's Wicked Witch of the West JAN BREWER in a cage match against CA's JERRY "moonbeam" BROWN and State of the Candy goes with an equally compelling match-up of CO's JOHN HICKENLOOPER against WI's Evil SCOTT WALKER, the BTV Crew's fave Brick Target this week, since he's on borrowed time anyway what with his recall in full swing plus the "John Doe" Investigation basically just a great BRICK target. Lots more to click to below as well! Have a great Sunday and we'll see you next week!
BRICK TEEVEE ALERTS!©
»»» Jazz Legend Randy Weston @ Democracy NOW! Black History Special: Jazz Legend Randy Weston on His Life and Celebration of "African Rhythms" Feb 20, 2012
»»» Maali Mousa; Bill Van Esveld, researcher at Human Rights Watch; and Danny Morrison, a friend of the late Irish republican activist Bobby Sands @ Democracy NOW! Palestinian Prisoner Khader Adnan to be Released from Israeli Jail After 66-Day Hunger Strike Feb 21, 2012
»»» Student Jawad Rasul & Mongi Dhaouadi, executive director of the Connecticut chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations @ Democracy NOW! Spying on Campus: New York Police Caught Monitoring Muslim Student Groups Throughout Northeast Feb 21, 2012
»»» Trinity College Professor Vijay Prashad @ Democracy NOW! As Calls for Intervention in Syria Grow, Vijay Prashad Urges Reevaluation of NATO Attack on Libya Feb 21, 2012
»»» BBC’s Paul Mason @ Democracy NOW! As Greece Erupts, BBC’s Paul Mason on "The New Global Revolutions" over Austerity, Inequality Feb 22, 2012
»»» Joshua Landis and Karam Nachar @ Democracy NOW! Foreign Intervention in Syria? A Debate with Joshua Landis and Karam Nachar Feb 22, 2012
»»» Former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold @ Democracy NOW! Sen. Russ Feingold, New Obama Election Co-Chair: "The President is Wrong" to Accept Super PAC Money Feb 23, 2012
»»» OWS organizer Alexis Goldstein @ Democracy NOW! Occupy the SEC: Former Wall Street Workers Defend Volcker Rule Against Banks’ Anti-Regulatory Push Feb 24, 2012
»»» "Occupy Baby" @ Democracy NOW! "Occupy Baby": Occupy Wall Street Organizer Beka Economopoulos Gives Birth in Back of Cab Feb 24, 2012
»»» Marco Simons, legal director of EarthRights International @ Democracy NOW! Supreme Court to Decide Whether U.S. Corporations Can Be Sued for Abuses Overseas Feb 24, 2012
»»» GRITtv @ www.grittv.org with Laura Flanders
»»» FEATURED SHOW SUPPORT YOUR MEDIA DAY February 15th is Support Your Media Day! Laura Flanders and GRITtv are joining with independent media groups from all over the country in a one-day-only collaborative fundraiser. Join the fun by donating HERE.
BRICK TEEVEE SPORT!©
»»» PBA on ESPN It's the 69th PBA U.S. Open the third of four PBA Tour majors during the 2011-12 season! LIVE from Brunswick Zone Carolier, North Brunswick, N.J. Coverage begins at 3 pm et
»»» NASCAR on FOX Carl Edwards and Greg Biffle are in Row One of the starting grid for the “The Great American Race” NASCAR's biggest, richest and most prestigious motorsports event: the 54th annual Daytona 500! Coverage begins 12 pm et
»»» NBA on TNT! ALL-STAR GAME live on TNT! Coverage begins at 6:30 pm et. Then the 2nd half resumes on TNT with Double-header Thursday! KnicksThunder @ Magic 8 pm et then Heat @ Blazers 10:30 pm et
BRICK TEEVEE ACTION!©
The 1st Amendment is Our Permit Our permit to occupy is The First Amendment. Quickly sign the following statement which will be delivered to mayors, police chiefs and major media across the country:
- Our permit to occupy public squares and parks is in The First Amendment, which affirms “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” When people across the Middle East occupied public squares, leaders in Washington mostly cheered those protesters and warned Middle Eastern governments not to use force to clear them. Those other societies don’t have a First Amendment. Yet Washington affirmed the universal right to assembly and protest. We do have a First Amendment. The force being used to clear nonviolent protesters from public squares in our country is unacceptable. It must stop.
October2011.org Sign the Petition to Get the 99% Deficit Proposal Heard in Congress
- Please SIGN THE PETITION in support of the "99%'s Deficit Proposal" and plan direct actions to tell the Super Committee that the 99% have better solutions to our nation's crises. You can plan your own action at your Congressmember's office or join us in Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for marches to Capitol Hill. Check our calendar for announcements.
NET NEUTRALITY! SaveTheInternet.org A Push for Privacy in the Wake of the Carrier IQ Controversy Remember Carrier IQ, the company that makes the secret spying software that’s installed on more than 140 million phones? You know, the software that can record our most sensitive personal data? ... Thanks in part to the 22,000 people who joined Free Press’ call for a congressional investigation, some of those questions are closer to being answered and mobile users are closer to being protected. The protection comes in the form of a bill from Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey. Markey released a draft of a bill called the “Mobile Device Privacy Act” that would require phone companies to disclose to users just what is being done with all of their data. If the bill passes, an opt-out provision would go into effect a year later and would require companies to allow users to opt out of data-collection schemes like the one developed by Carrier IQ........
CAMPAIGN FOR AMERICA'S FUTURE American Majority Rejects Washington Austerity Consensus – And We Demand Media Coverage by Roger Hickey, President, Campaign for America's Future: No more silent majority. The Campaign for America’s Future is joining with the Center for Economic and Policy Research (whose Co-Director, Dean Baker blogs regularly about economic bias in the media) and with FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) to monitor the media’s coverage and representation of the American Majority views as they go into covering the big deficit fight. But we want to enlist YOU too. Send us accounts of unbalanced coverage in the national media and in your local newspapers and television. Call up reporters, editors, assignment people and tell them when they are under-representing the views of the American Majority. We should have at least half the experts, pundits, quotes and real people represented in their coverage. In a debate as important as the one we are going into, we can’t allow the media to ignore the American Majority. Much more at www.ourfuture.org
MOVE TO AMEND! www.movetoamend.org SIGN HERE NOW! Also visit Rep Alan Grayson's site www.savedemocracy.net And Alan Grayson is running again in FL-8! Help out at CongressmanWithGuts.com
SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT See CourageToResist.org UPDATE! Manning-Lamo Chat Logs Revealed at wired.com plus The Deeply Personal Details in New Bradley Manning Chat Logs and Bradley Manning Support Network Much more at link.
UPDATE! ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton Emma Cape February 18, 2012: Emma Cape, Campaign Organizer for the Bradley Manning Support Network, discusses whistleblower Manning’s arraignment (open to the public) on February 23rd at Fort Meade, Maryland, beginning his court-martial; the evidence and witnesses withheld from Bradley’s defense team; the 2008 Obama voters who are demanding the president support Manning – or else lose their votes in 2012; and the “aiding the enemy through indirect means” charge that, combined with other charges, could give Manning a life sentence. UPDATE FROM DN! Headlines Friday Feb 24, 2012 Accused U.S. Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning was arraigned in a military court on Thursday on charges stemming from the alleged disclosure of classified material to WikiLeaks. Manning faces 22 charges, including aiding the enemy, for allegedly downloading and passing on thousands of classified files that later appeared on the WikiLeaks website. Manning deferred his plea on all charges and also deferred his decision on whether to appear before a military judge or a military jury. A trial could come as late as August.
DONATE YOUR OLD CELL PHONES TO T.J. MARTELL FOUNDATION Help save lives. Donate your old & used iPhone, Blackberries, Droid and other phones to help the T.J. Martell Foundations fund life-saving cancer & AIDS research. For more information, go to www.tjmartellfoundation.org
B R I C K T E E V E E
image ©2006 arkysue
THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©
Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE!
The essential guide for watching government propaganda
AFGHANISTAN: 1,904 US Military Dead as of Feb 24, 2012
The Obameter: Tracking Obama's Campaign Promises
Considering Democracy: 8 Things to ask your Representative
- This Week (ABC) anchor George Stephanopoulos
• Fact Checking ABC's "This Week" at NPR "On the Media" - Jake Tapper, interim host of ABC's "This Week," liked the idea of fact-checking his guests' comments, so he set up a partnership with Politifact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization. See Politifact Statements ABC News 'This Week'
• GOP Candidate Rick Santorum
• Michigan Governor and Romney backer Rick Snyder
• Massachusetts Governor and Obama campaign co-chair Deval Patrick.
• ROUNDTABLE: George Will and Cokie Roberts, plus former Democratic Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, host of Current TV's "The War Room," and former Republican Michigan Gov. John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable
- Face The Nation (CBS) Host Bob Schiefer this Sunday: Live from Miami
• New Jersey Governor, Republican Chris Christie
• Democrat Martin O'Malley, the Governor of Maryland
- 60 Minutes (CBS)
• "60 Minutes Presents: Going to Extremes," a special hour hosted by Steve Kroft
- Meet the Press (NBC) Host David Gregory
• Meet the Facts at NPR "On the Media" - Last December, NYU professor Jay Rosen proposed something simple yet revolutionary: why don't the Sunday morning chat shows fact check their guests? After "Meet the Press" host David Gregory declined, two college students launched a website to do it for him. One of them, Chas Danner, explains what they're trying to accomplish. See their website MeetTheFacts.com updating soon!
• Rick Santorum
• Governor Jerry Brown (D)
• Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R)
• ROUNDTABLE: Republican strategist and former McCain '08 senior strategist Steve Schmidt, Fmr. Democratic Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., Washington Post's Kathleen Parker, and NBC's Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd.
- State of the Union With Candy Crowley (CNN) At 9 AM ET, Candy talks to the power players: politicians, business leaders and international newsmakers who will make Monday morning's headlines. At NOON ET, Candy wraps it all up with fresh interviews and the best of the earlier hours.
• Obama Campaign Senior Adviser Robert Gibbs
• John McCain (R-Arizona)
• Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)
• Former Shell CEO John Hofmeister
• Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado)
• Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin)
- HEAD ON RADIO with Bob Kincaid
Headon Radio with Bob Kincaid 6 PM Eastern, 3 PM Pacific, 2300 GMT. Duration: 3 hrs. To be part of the conversation on Head-on Radio, call toll-free (877) 443-2366, or use our Liberal community line at 304-658-3333. Email: bob [at] headonradio [dot] com.
• THORN-IN-THE-SIDE THURSDAY!!!!! Bob calls out the Sierra Club's greenwashing comparing it to their email missive to "save the wolves" but they never have any "save the People of Appalachia" movements. And of course the rest of the H.O.R.N. family chimes in! Listen HERE (mp3) NOW! Amen to the White Rose Society! Donate to Head On HERE! And join Coal River Mountain Watch at www.crmw.net!
- YOUR GREEN NEWS REPORT
The Green News Report with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen: 6 minutes of green news, politics, analysis & snarky comment! BOOKMARK greennews.bradblog.com NOW!
• 'Green News Report' - February 23, 2012 IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: GOP presidential crazy train stops in Fantasy Land on gas prices; Big Oil fights to keep its taxpayer subsidies; Mine official charged in WV mine disaster; Canadian government 'suppressing science'; PLUS: Mutant two-headed trout ... All that and more in today's Green News Report!
IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see link): GOP Not Listening to Its Own Scientists on Climate Change; What Cleantech Bust?; Utilities Blowing Smoke on Coal-Plant Retirements; World's Oceans Get an Acid Bath; Canada's Tar Sands So Destructive It Makes Its Well-Paid Workers Want to Quit; Army Corps brings back streamlined strip-mine permits; Radiation detected 400 miles off Japanese coast... PLUS: Analyst: Recycle All You Want, The Planet Won't Notice ... and much, MUCH more! ...
BRADBLOG UPDATE: Previously Legal WI Voters Turned Away at Polls as GOP's New Photo ID Law Begins
Visit BradBlog.com to see who counts yer votes! Reference yer background/research at Who's Counting? too.
- The Peter B. Collins Show PODCAST!
Listen at PeterBCollins.com!
The Peter B. Collins Show covers American news and politics from the Left Coast. Veteran talk radio personality Peter B. Collins, based in San Francisco, delivers fresh interviews, commentary and analysis on a range of important topics, with views and voices you don’t often find in the corporate media.
• Holiday Break and Website Changes
- To my valued listeners: We are making some changes to the website and our terms, effective in January. We will continue to offer free podcasts–my new daily news and commentary. Our in-depth interviews will be available for $1 per episode, or to subscribers who pay $5 per month or more. Loyal listeners who simply can’t afford it should send an email to peter@peterbcollins.com, as we will be offering a limited number of scholarships to our friends who are hurting during these tough times. More information will be posted as we complete the revisions. I’m grateful to each of you for listening and supporting this work, and hope that the new model will enable us to keep it going well into the future. All the best, -pbc
• PBC Standard Podcast Roger Shuler’s Personal 12-year Battle Against Injustice and Sleaze in Alabama Roger Shuler is a longtime contributor here, mainly covering the political persecution of Gov. Don Siegelman. After a brief update on Siegelman, we delve into Shuler’s own ordeal, costing him and his wife their jobs, detailed at his blog. Will Durst on Rick Santorum.
- Ring of Fire Radio
Find us at http://ringoffireradio.com and http://goleft.tv/ hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder
Ring of Fire Radio - GoLeft TV - Robert F. Kennedy, Mike Papantonio, Sam Seder - Politics, Commentary, and News.
This Week on Ring of Fire! February 24, 2012
• Former Congressman Alan Grayson will join us to talk about his campaign to re-take his congressional seat, and he’ll tell us what he thinks of the current crop of GOP presidential candidates.
• Best-selling author and syndicated columnist Cliff Schecter will be here to tell us about Rick Santorum’s misguided religious beliefs.
• Media Matters vice president Ari Rabin-Havt will join us to discuss how Fox News is still influencing our political process.
• Author David DeGraw will tell us about the roots of the Occupy Movement, and what the next steps for the group will be.
• Author and law professor Tim Jost will join us for a discussion on the state of America’s healthcare system.
• And we’ll find out about the latest happenings in the Wisconsin recall election with Robert Kraig, executve director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin.
• VIDEO! Papantonio: Santorum’s American Taliban Mike Papantonio appears on The Ed Schultz Show to talk about Rick Santorum’s warped view of religion – a view that includes no rights for women, and attacks on those who believe differently.
• VIDEO! Papantonio: Is FOX Destroying The GOP? Roger Ailes has made it perfectly clear that his goal with the FOX News network is to get Republicans elected. The network has no problem pushing bogus conspiracies about Obama’s birth certificate, death panels, and even about FEMA setting up internment camps for Republicans. And it’s that kind of crazy talk that has finally made the network look more like a carnival sideshow among their viewers, rather than a legitimate news outlet. Mike Papantonio talks about how FOX’s brand of crazy is finally starting to do serious damage to the Republican Party with Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow at Media Matters.
• Support Those Who Support Progressive Media! 2011 has certainly been a great year for Ring of Fire, and we’ve had some great sponsors that have helped support the show throughout the year. We wanted to take the time to personally thank each and every one of them, and we encourage all of our listeners to take the time to support those who have support us.
• Join our blog at www.ringoffireradio.com. You can now SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST by clicking on the “Podcast” tab at the top of the Ring of Fire blog. Please help support progressive radio by signing up!
Ring of Fire Radio Ring of Fire, hosted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder: Saturdays at 3 o’clock Eastern, rebroadcasts 8-11 et Sunday evenings on Chicago's Progressive Talk WCPT AM & FM and 4 pm et on Sirius/XM 167 featuring The PAP Attack! "We’ll bring you the stories that the mainstream media didn’t feel like reporting this week."
- Majority Report with Sam Seder Streaming LIVE weekdays 11:30 am et @ Majority.fm!
• Civil Rights Lawyer & Author Michelle Alexander on the Myth of Desegregation [02•13•12]
• David Dayen of firedoglake on the Auto Bailout and Detroit [02•16•12]
• Jeff Smith of the Occupy Wall Street Press Team on Black Bloc & the future of Occupy [02•16•12]
• Cliff Schecter and Sam Seder discuss the Contraception Debate, Romney & more! [02•17•12]
MORE Podcast Interviews at majorityreport.official.fm!
- On the Edge with Max Keiser Podcasts and more @ MaxKeiser.com!
"HI Y'ALL! Tell the people! Tell the people!"
WHO IS MAX KEISER? Max Keiser is a financial expert, Prediction Markets analyst, inventor and filmmaker. He is the creator of the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX) the first Prediction Market. Max Keiser co-hosts “The Truth About Markets” on ResonanceFM 104.4 in London. He also produces and presents documentary films covering markets and finance for Al Jazeera’s “People & Power” series. Max Keiser started his career on Wall Street in 1983. He is the creator of KarmaBanque a site that enables activists to challenge corporate power.
• VISIT PirateMyFilm.com!!! Crowd Funding for Pirates!
• NEW! MaxKeiserTV on YouTube! MaxKeiserTV PLUS here is Max Keiser’s official Facebook page And here is the official Keiser Report page
• “They should never allow a CEO to walk away with the idea that crime pays,” says William Black by maxkeiser READ Bankers escape big penalties in FDIC failed bank cases (reuters)
•Buffett only invests in things he knows something about… Clearly Gold is something that does not fall into that category (Gold outperforms Buffett for ten yrs. straight) by maxkeiser READ ‘Gold Bullion or Cash’ Shows Buffett, Roubini, Krugman Mistaken; Faber, Rogers, Bass, Einhorn, Gross Correct (zerohedge)
•“We come full circle to what the ultimate goal of banker intervention in the European periphery is – nothing short of full gold confiscation.” by maxkeiser READ Projected PIIGS Pillage: 3233.5 Tons Of Gold To Be Confiscated By Insolvent European Banks (zerohedge)
• KEISER REPORT [KR251] Keiser Report: Rich guys totally observe you We discuss the riches made monitoring the population and the pittance paid for agreeing to be monitored. The also discuss the Serious Organised Crime Agency threatening to monitor Stacy for following a link while Max envisions a future in which granny gets it. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Charles Hugh Smith of OfTwoMinds.com about social fractals, tanking energy consumption and a citizenship futures market.
• KEISER REPORT [KR252] Keiser Report – The Hang a Banker A Week Solution We discuss Lloyd Blankfein’s suicide twinkie vest, Iceland’s parliamentary pelting, manipulation of Libor rates and rampant foreclosure abuse. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Shir Hever about price tagging in Area C of the West Bank …
• KEISER REPORT [KR253] Keiser Report – Burning Bankers Pays and a Suicide Twinkies Vest Blows We discuss Lloyd Blankfein’s suicide twinkie vest, Iceland’s parliamentary pelting, manipulation of Libor rates and rampant foreclosure abuse. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Shir Hever about price tagging in Area C of the West Bank and about destroying the competition in Gaza.
• KEISER REPORT [KR254] Keiser Report: Bubbling Economy We discuss market participating rally monkeys, market regulating surrender monkeys, economic policy making suicide monkeys and Greek ministry website hacking cheeky monkeys. In the second half of the show, Max talks to David Hales about ending top down Central Bank …
• ON THE EDGE On the Edge with David DeGraw – The Origin of the 99% Movement Posted on February 25, 2012 by stacyherbert
• THE TRUTH ABOUT MARKETS [TaM-353] The Truth About Max Keiser’s Self-Immolation Download show HERE (mp3)
• Donate to ResonanceFM here!
- ANTIWAR RADIO with Scott Horton
LIVE (9-11am Pacific, 12pm - 2pm Eastern) Plenty of archives too!
Listen at antiwar.com/radio
• Robert Naiman February 23, 2012: Robert Naiman, Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy, discusses his article “Does AIPAC Want War? Lieberman ‘Capability’ Red Line May Tip AIPAC’s Hand ;” how Joe Lieberman’s senate bill lowers the threshold for military action by adopting Israeli policy on Iran’s nuclear breakout capability; the dangerous ambiguity of the terms “vital national interest” and “nuclear weapons capability;” and how US diplomats have abandoned compromise in favor of “do what we say or else” bullying. Robert Naiman is Policy Director at Just Foreign Policy. Mr. Naiman edits the Just Foreign Policy daily news summary and writes on U.S. foreign policy at Huffington Post. He is president of the board of Truthout. Naiman has worked as a policy analyst and researcher at the Center for Economic and Policy Research and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. He has masters degrees in economics and mathematics from the University of Illinois and has studied and worked in the Middle East.
• Sheldon Richman February 23, 2012: Sheldon Richman, senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses his article “Obama Administration ‘Brainwashes’ Public on Afghanistan;” George Romney’s (Mitt’s father) courageous – but badly phrased – turn against the Vietnam War in 1967; how Lt. Col. Daniel Davis’s report on Afghanistan shows a similar “brainwashing” of the American public by the generals and MSM; the failure to make progress in three core areas in Afghanistan (Afghan government competency by 2014, decrease in violence, and a dead-end for the Taliban); why junior officers are losing faith in the war effort; and why Mitt and his many sons seem to have more important priorities than serving in the military, despite their pro-war rhetoric.
• Gareth Porter February 24, 2012: Gareth Porter, investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, discusses his article “Iran Holds Up Access to Parchin for Better IAEA Deal;” the conditions under which Iran would allow more stringent inspections and/or readopt the Additional Protocol; the brouhaha over a (likely imaginary) containment vessel at Parchin, which the IAEA says is used to test nuclear weapons; why Iran can’t make nukes (assuming they could and wanted to) while the IAEA inspectors remain in country; and the Obama administration’s conflicted feelings on war with Iran, which make an October surprise possible.
• Rep. Dennis Kucinich February 24, 2012: Rep. Dennis Kucinich discusses his letter to Congress, “War Machine Beats the Drums for War with Iran, Uses Iraq Play Book;” the propaganda efforts that convinced a majority of Americans war with Iran is a good idea; why we need to “stand strong for peace” and spend tax dollars to rebuild America, not squander them in another foreign war; and Kucinich’s Democratic challenger for Congress in Ohio’s new 9th District.
• Many more interviews at Antiwar Radio!
- fauxnews
• Governor Mitch Daniels (R-IN)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Brick TeeVee - THEY report. YOU throw bricks. ©
We're here because you're there. ©
First brick is on us! Get your Foam Bricks at ThrowThings.com HERE! FAIR USE: Regarding postings which may contain material published online by various sources: This site may present material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We present such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is presented without charge to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment