Mike's Blog Roundup
By Mike Finnigan Wednesday Jul 23, 2008 11:00amPrometheus 6: This is pure evil and McCain will love it!
FP Passport: Europe is Obama country
The Cunning Realist: Growing Gills
Threat Level: Anti-Robocall crusader pushes for a crackdown on political phone droids
Each week until the election the producers of Uncounted - The New Math of American Elections, will release a clip from the film because now, more than ever, people need to see stories that will motivate them to stand up and help save our democracy.
ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: The Hacktacular Mickey Kaus...The History Commons - an online tool for journalists...Austin paper pulls, apologizes for, article on Netroots...Obama (and Big Media) turn a blind eye to Israeli apartheid...Pre-programmed ideological idiots continue to be welcomed on WaPo op-ed page...Usury is quaint...He's exotic, dammit...MSNBC prez on Fox "You can't trust a word they say"...McCain's bid should've ended last week...The decline of newspapers is about the rise of the corporate state, the loss of civic reponsibility to inform the public...Stephanopoulos also hacktacular...Nas delivers...He wants journalism, but journalism doesn't want him...The year the L.A. Times died...What traditional media can learn from blogs...Israelis accused of abusing journalist...
Speaking of European approval ratings of Obama, I wonder how Eastern Europe views him. That part of Europe, or maybe it's just Poland, seems to staunchly approve of the GOP. Why would they do that considering the GOP would have resulted in their destruction if it had elected an ideologue, I wonder? I'm also curious in how much East and South Asia approve of our candidates....
Stand up and save our democracy? How many times do I have to say it... it's not going to happen until the TV stops working. And the dumbya crew knows that more than anyone. Why do you think they keep the steaming crap flowing 24/7? The last thing they want is for the zombies to wake up.
Nothing in the MSM or the so called "progressive" blogosphere about the Aipac espionage investigation or the five time delayed trial. Nothing in the news about the date for the trial being set (again) for Oct 28 2008. Just astounding how two former high level employees from Aipac who are being indicted for 'allegedly" transferring highly classified intelligence about Iran to Israeli officials almost completely stay out of the news. If Rosen and Weissman had been working for any other lobbying group and had transferred highly classified intelligence onto France or some other country the MSM would be all over it. But this topic seems to be off limits for the progressive blogosphere too. Interesting
http://jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20080717ellisfederal.html
Ellis sets Oct. 28 for trial
By Published: 07/17/2008
The federal judge in the classified information case against two former AIPAC staffers set a trial date of Oct. 28.
The new date set Wednesday by Judge T.S. Ellis III during a closed hearing in the U.S. district court in Alexandria, Va. suggested that he is confident that the prosecution's
pretrial appeals of his decisions on what classified information may be used as evidence will play out by then.
The arduous process of negotiating what classified information may be presented in court is the principle reason for the extensive delay in bringing to trial Steve Rosen, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's former foreign policy director and Keith Weissman, its former Iran analyst; this is at least the sixth trial date set by Ellis since Rosen and Weissman were indicted in August 2005.
Separately, Ellis ruled in favor of the prosecution in allowing as evidence a Washington Post article from June 15 2003; that article, by Michael Dobbs, on Iran policy wars within the Bush administration, quoted senior administration officials as refusing to discuss a directive by President Bush on Iran because it is classified.
The same directive was allegedly the topic of discussion between Rosen, Weissman and Larry Franklin, then a Pentagon Iran analyst. The prosecution intends to use the article to show that Rosen and Weissman likely knew the document, a National Security Presidential Directive, was classified. Franklin has pleaded guilty in the case.
BACKGROUND
USA v. Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman ("The AIPAC Case"): Selected Case Files
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/aipac/index.html
former Governor Siegelman to visit at Firedoglake at 12 today
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/
Well, when the gop spew drill, drill, drill, show them video of the gigantic oil spill in New Orleans.
Its bad.
WaPo op-ed definitely has its share of rightwing ideologues. but, then so does the NYT... and the LATimes... and cable news, network news, WSJ, washtimes, the USA today, etc., etc., etc
i mean, really, the NYTimes publishes tom friedman... and bill kristol... does one need to say anymore?
there is a reason why the policies that have destroyed so many families, and further enriched the powerful and elite are supported by those that have been hurt and discarded--and part of that reason is the technicolor yawn of the upper class apologists that is printed in our dailies and broadcast on the tube. this is one of the successful strategies of the far right. they have convinced the majority of americans in myths, all the while laughing their way to the bank, which they own.
I'm very excited about the coverage that will happen when Obama reaches Europe. I'm reading that there are huge groups who will greet and meet the Obama delegation. He is something like 90 - 10 over McSame in Europe. His only seemingly weak spot is Israel.
The GOP is already scared of what they are seeing from his visits to Jordan, Iraq etc. Europe will cause a tailspin.
In the Alternet article, Chris Hedges makes the point that most blogs do not write stories, they merely report what is out there. That is true, but the blogs (the good ones) focus on bringing to the forefront stories that matter, stories that we should be focusing on. The blogs (again, the good ones) are providing that civic responsibility lacking throughout most of the media. How many people read blogs because they are dissatisfied with the state of the media and search for sanity within those blogs?
The snippet regarding the death of the LA Times should consider that their readership took a dive when they announced who their new owner was going to be. I know that was the last straw for me. It was shortly after they announced that they would be pairing down the opinion page to add more pages on style (and celebrity gossip), because "this is what our readers want". This is not news. This is not civic responsibility. In fact, it is the kind of faux news, cheap story, gossip rag we should be running from at all cost. Alas, we have become a nation of voyeurs. Just count the number of reality shows and tell me that this isn't true.
One of my pet peeves is the lack of dignity, decency and manners within the media. I'm sick of one person talking or shouting over another. I'm sick of name calling, editorializing, personal attacks. I'd like to see a media that doesn't behave like a tabloid rag. Again, this is why some people turn to the blogs. Yes, they are opinionated, but most are attempting to speak truth to power, which is exactly what we need at this time in our history. Also, if ever there was a catalyst for media reform, the blogs are it.
Just a reminder, Sen. Obama is scheduled to give his speech in Germany at about 1:15p Washington time. Hopefully at least one of the cable news channels will cover it.
pissed off patricia @ 9:
C-Span says they will cover it .. 1 pm ET ..
http://www.c-span.org/
usury.........very much is style the last 20-30 yrs. but
more so the last 8-10 yrs. ie. mortgage fiasco providing loansto people that obviously couldn't make a payment. should people take responsibility for signing all those documentsof course they should but the lenders have a responsibilty to system also. now the mortgage crisis is effecting entire communities neighbors property values
and the municipalities are losing on property taxes usually collected from homes now vacanted. this became predatory.why insatiable appetite of wall street went to the level of taking advantage of the less fortunate. now were faced with a "bail out" of fannie and freddie. we the prey now have to help the merchants of paper...wall street....who talk the talk of
the "free market" but now walk the walk of socialism.
are to beat that deal put the risk on the people. the same people who pay high interest rate credit cards the
cards that come with 5 pages on fine that nobody and i
mean nobody can interpret.
this is what naomi klein is talking about "disaster capitalism".......it's ruining people's live financially and emotionally...that has many consequences. i'm not why
we can't have a free market with some rules. i've always been told that most people are good i believe that but most people aren't all people. we need regulation regarding "usury".....
Here from Thomas Jefferson:
But sadly, ominously, we are on our way to having government without newspapers.
Offshore Drilling anyone?
General_Rennenkampf @ 1:
Um.. I don't know where you got that idea? It's true that East Europe does have some fairly hard-core conservatives, held over from old communist-hatred. But that's "conservative" from a European standpoint, which is still in general far to the left of the USA.
Note, for instance, that all European countries (including the former communist ones) have banned the death penalty. And with Poland as the exception, allow abortions (and Poland doesn't ban abortions completely either). Note that all the former communist countries have still retained their public sector to an extent more similar to West Europe than to the USA. E.g. they all still have public health care. They all still have almost all their kids in public schools. (and public university systems) And so forth.
In short: In my opinion, they have much more in common politically with the rest of West Europe than with _either_ US party, much less the GOP party line.
Poland is fairly _religiously_ conservative in _some_ respects, e.g. the abortion issue). But they're more like the rest of Europe than the US when it comes to the role religion plays in politics (read: very small). The former (or was it former-former?) president of Poland had no qualms about telling people he was an atheist. I don't see an atheist getting elected in today's USA.
And all the Poles I know (about ten or so), conservative or liberal, think that the idea that Ronald Reagan liberated them from Communism is patently absurd.
Oh and for the record: I'm half-hungarian. And they and Poland consider themselves to be Central Europe, not Eastern. ("Look at a map!" they'll tell you)
Nowadays "Eastern Europe" is best left for Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Moldova. :)
Alexdem @ 15:
darn .. I thought the Czechs were the only "Middle Europeans" ..
Good to know more former Iron Curtain Countries consider themselves "Middle Europeans."
If your in the mood to have your blood pressure go up 50 points or so, read this little item that somehow got overlooked in the midst of all the other news of the day. http://www.tagg-lines.com/2008/07/ladies-and-gentlemen-it-is-my-pleasure.html
The award winning Palestinian journalist who was abused at the hands of the Israeli military and police is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Israeli denials of assault and abuse.
It is standard operating procedure in the Israeli government's handbook to cover up for wrongdoing by lying.
Case in point is the Rachel Corrie incident. Rachel Corrie was a 23 year old peace activist from the US. She went to the West Bank and Gaza to advocate for what she believed was a just and noble cause. Israel demolishes Palestinian homes on a regular basis and when Rachel Corrie stood in the way of a bulldozer to prevent it from demolishing a family's home, the bulldozer driver told her to move, when she refused, he simply drove over her crushing her back. There is a video on YouTube with actual footage of the incident. Be warned, it's rather graphic.
In their official report the Israeli military stated that a wall had fallen on her and killed her. That's baloney!
Like I said, Standard Operating Procedure.
Rachel Corrie: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article1248.shtml
I'm surprised the pundits haven't been painting Obama as a European kiss-up yet. All they need to do is get a little Xenophobia riled up (freedom fries anyone?)
Curses! A new plethora of links I must now read! ;-)
Crimes and Misdemeanors -- By Emily Bazelon, Kara Hadge, Dahlia Lithwick, and Chris Wilson
Wow... I'm surprised that Alberto Gonzalez is more centered than Bush & Cheney!
Newsletter from Courage Campaign:
"Last night, news broke that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign an Executive Order on Monday slashing the wages of over 200,000 state employees to the bare minimum.
Not California's minimum wage of $8 per hour. The federal minimum wage of $6.55. Six dollars and fifty-five cents an hour.
Imagine trying to pay your bills on $6.55 an hour. Now imagine what will happen to thousands of vital service workers forced to live on poverty-level wages. A nauseating irony: many state employees may need to seek aid from the very state services that employ them."
"As Karyn, a state employee, said in the comments to the Sacramento Bee story that broke the story statewide last night:
"$6.55 an hour only amounts to $1,048 per month. After my rent, that would leave only $218 left. How many of you can live on that? Hardly, am I a rich state employee. As a clerical, I am usually broke by the 10th of the month, and the other 3 weeks of the month I am barely getting by."
This is absolutely outrageous. And the only way we can stop Arnold is by raising our voices as loud as possible in protest before Monday morning. Please sign our "Stop Arnold" petition to Governor Schwarzenegger. On Monday morning, we'll deliver thousands of your signatures to the Governor's office:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/StopArnold
End Letter.
This is ridiculous.
Alexdem @ 15:
Alexdem @ 14:
Where do I get that idea? A Pole I met online that was further to the right than most Americans on the forum I was on. Of course, a guy like that'd skew things a bit, I'd guess...
And thank you for the information, for some reason the board I'm on with the most international members seems to attract the most far-right people while many people on the board accuse it of being skewed to the left.