"There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of 5,000 people."
-- Huckabee on his Christ driven rise in the polls...both due to God’s intervention. If, as he claims, God is rigging the election for him, I want the almighty brought in on election fraud charges now!
For America's CEO's, my gift is a beautifully boxed, brand new set of corporate ethics. It's called the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Going to pollute someone's neighborhood? Then you have to live there, too. Going to slash wages and benefits? Then slash yours as well. Going to move your manufacturing to sweatshops in China? Then put your office right inside the worst of those sweatshops. Executive life won't be as luxurious, but CEO's would enjoy a new purity of spirit.
For George W and his cohort "Buckshot" Cheney, I sent some tonics they can take to help them come clean when congressional investigators and grand juries get into their White House files. Confession, after all, can be good for the soul.
For Democratic leaders in congress and the Democratic presidential aspirants, I sent jumbo glue guns so they can stiffen their spines. With regular injections, the party might finally stand up to Bush's imperial presidency and to corporate kleptocracy in Washington.
I didn't forget Republican presidential candidates, either. For Mitt, Rudy, Fred, Huck, and the boys, I sent memberships in the Reality-of-the-Month Club, which will deliver a new bottle of real world experience each month. By either drinking these elixirs or rubbing them into their scalps, they can reduce their ideological fantasies and gradually ease their way toward sanity.
-- Jim Hightower
VIDEO SECTION
I posted the article yesterday, now watch for yourself! Norm Solomon, who I’ve worked with in the past, lays waste to Glenn Beck and the corporate media. Beck is totally caught off guard and somehow was unaware what Solomon DOES for a living!
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/71271/
Ed Schultz discusses/debates Hillary’s “Obama is a muslim” (and coke user) whisper campaign…you know the Clinton’s are sweating when they start pulling out this kind of crap:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/21/hardball-ed-schultz-squares-off-against-mark-green/
“[I]n the more than 120 interviews and debates with the [presidential] candidates in 2007, the five political show hosts collectively have asked 2,275 questions. Of those questions, these journalists have only uttered the words "global warming" or "climate change" three times. More over, only 24 of these questions touched even remotely on the issue of global climate change.”
As our world is nearing the brink of annihilation, watch this great video of just some of the questions these “journalists” DID ask. Then sign the petition:
http://www.whataretheywaitingfor.com/
CIGNA KILLS ANOTHER...
It’s official, another health insurance company let one of their customers die rather than pay for the procedure the young girl needed. Just a few days ago the public was being asked to BEG Cigna to step in before the woman died and let her get the help she needed (a liver)…they delayed a week, initially turning her down, and had just yesterday agreed - due to the massive public outcry - to change that decision. But sadly, it was just a bit too late, and the young woman passed away today.
When will we reject this murderous, immoral, and irrational health care system we have? And when will we see these insurance industry blood suckers for what they are: criminals...even killers. WATCH SICKO! I can only hope those responsible at CIGNA will remember the name "Nataline Sarkisyan"...and it will haunt them until they die.
FROM C&L:
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee today blasted insurance giant CIGNA for failing to approve a liver transplant one week earlier for listen to 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, who tragically died last night just hours after CIGNA relented and agreed to the procedure following a massive national outcry.
On Dec. 11, four leading physicians, including the surgical director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program at UCLA, wrote to CIGNA urging the company to reverse its denial. The physicians said that Nataline “currently meets criteria to be listed as Status 1A” for a transplant. They also challenged CIGNA’s denial which the company said occurred because their benefit plan “does not cover experimental, investigational and unproven services,” to which the doctors replied, “Nataline’s case is in fact none of the above.”…read on
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ks6qeEvtvDU
Countdown lists 3 more scandals in their “Bushed” series (47 and counting so far)…from Gonzo to the KBR rapes to Blackwater…Oliver Stone couldn’t come up with shit this criminal…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/20/countdown-bushed-on-gonzo-contractor-assaults-blackwater/
ARTICLE SECTION: “P.U.-litzer’s”, Campaign "Coverage", The FCC
P.U. -lITZER AWARDS
Two old political allies and collegues, Norm Solomon and Jeff Cohen award their annual “P.U.-litzer’s” to the very worst examples of “journalism” in 2007.
Here's few of the awards...check them all out though:
SPINNING FOR ANOTHER WAR AWARD — Michael Gordon of The New York Times
Continuing where he left off before the Iraq invasion, when he used unnamed official sources to produce wildly inaccurate page-one articles on Iraq’s alleged weapons threat, Gordon in February wrote a front-page story with the stunning claim that Iran’s Supreme Leader had approved sending lethal explosives into Iraq to attack U.S. soldiers. (Even President Bush soon backed away from the claim.) Readers might have had trouble assessing Gordon’s charges — which were, as usual, almost entirely based on anonymous sources: “United States intelligence asserts … Administration officials said … Some American intelligence experts believe …” After analyzing the article, blogger Jonathan Schwarz speculated that “Gordon is not an actual person, but rather a voice-activated tape recorder.”
SNIP
“3-H CLUB” PRIZE — Too Many to Name
At the same time they’re imposing their own fixations on candidates, elite political reporters like to pretend that they have absolutely no idea why the candidates are struggling to overcome those fixations. A Dec. 11 Washington Post article deadpanned: “[John] Edwards has faced challenges of his own, namely ‘the three H’s’ — his expensive haircut, his hedge fund work after the 2004 election, and his sprawling homestead.”
Dozens of news reports in major outlets have deployed the “three H’s” shorthand, many implying that Edwards — unlike the wealthy candidates who never mention the poor — is a hypocrite when he discusses poverty. In July, the Post’s John Solomon devoted an entire investigative article to Edwards’ pricey haircuts: “It is some kind of commentary on the state of American politics that as Edwards has campaigned,” mused the reporter, “his hair seems to have attracted as much attention, as say, his position on healthcare.” Gee, how did that happen?
RISKY DEMOCRATS AWARD — L.A. Times, Washington Post
If you believe certain political pundits and reporters, Democrats are continuously pushing “risky” proposals that are off-putting to the American public. In November, a Los Angeles Times report — headlined “Democrats Calculate Risk on Tax Hikes” — called proposed Democratic tax hikes on wealthier Americans “a major political gamble.” (Unmentioned was the fact that Bill Clinton raised taxes on the rich and was re-elected, or that a Gallup poll shows 66 percent of Americans think “upper income people” don’t currently pay enough taxes.) Days later, a Washington Post report was headlined “Climate is a Risky Issue for Democrats; Candidates Back Costly Proposals.” (Unmentioned was the Post’s own poll showing that 70 percent of Americans think the federal government “should do more” on global warming; only 7 percent said “it should do less.”) Listening to press corps cautions may heighten Democratic timidity — but it hasn’t won many national elections.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/21/5930/
CAMPAIGN COVERAGE: TACTICS V. SUBSTANCE
This is a great breakdown of just how pathetic the media’s coverage of political campaigns has gotten, I highly suggest you read it. No matter how bad you think it has become, you only know the half of it.
A few clips first:
If arrogant journalists think they get to have the last laugh -- that they have total immunity and that they get to make the rules and decide the campaign narratives -- than they are painfully out of touch. Because more and more polls indicate that news consumers are fed up with the shallow, pointless type of coverage that the mainstream media is producing.
The most recent manifestation came in the form of Harvard's Center for Public Leadership National Leadership Index. The ongoing survey included interviews with 1,207 adults nationwide and focused mostly on leadership issues, but also asked people their impression of the media, and specifically, how the media is covering the campaign. The results?
[T]he press receives the lowest ratings of all. This is troubling, because democracies rely on a vibrant, probing, and trusted press. This year, we dig more deeply into the public's views on news media election coverage. The key finding: Americans' lack of confidence in the press stems from deep unease about bias and editorial content.
SNIP
In other words, news consumers want issues, issues, issues, while the press obsesses over tactics, tactics, tactics.
Here's how expansive the issues vacuum has become: It's not merely that the campaign press corps doesn't dwell on substance and issues, it's that the press often doesn't even acknowledge that issues exist. Two recent examples of that phenomenon come to mind. The first was the Democratic debate held in Iowa on December 4, and hosted by National Public Radio, and the second were the first installments of The Washington Post's "Front-runner" series, which profiled the candidates.
The NPR debate, by today's media standards, was almost freakishly focused on issues. Specifically, it centered on three topics that NPR had pre-selected; Iran-Iraq, the rise of China and immigration. Tuning into the broadcast was, at times, like listening to a two-hour policy seminar, as the candidate dove into details at length. The mainstream press, though, either mocked the proceedings (the New York Daily News dismissed it as a "snooze"), or simply ignored it, since substance is not welcome on the media's radar.
http://alternet.org/story/71139/
FCC DECISION…AND HOW TO STOP THEM…
And now for the kicker…this is the perfect article to conclude my “the corporate media threatens our democracy and salvation” series today. The first two articles should make clear EXACTLY why the FCC’s decision to allow further consolidation of our media is so important to stop! Can you imagine…your home town’s major TV news station is owned by Murdoch…and now, if the FCC is successful, he also could own the town’s largest radio station and newspaper? 1984 here we come.
Soon we’ll all be marching to the same, exact, corporate/fascist drum…like the Borg…only dumber.
Read this John Nichols piece on the FCC decision and how it can be overturned. Hint: it will take grassroots mobilizing and congressional backbone.
A few clips:
Arguing that the commission was bowing to pressure from media conglomerates without beginning to study the likely impact on local news coverage, minority ownership and other supposed concerns of the FCC, Copps told his fellow commissioners, "Today's story is a majority decision unconnected to good policy and not even incidentally concerned with encouraging media to make our democracy stronger. We are not concerned with gathering valid data, conducting good research, or following the facts where they lead us." Copps said he had little doubt that Martin and the other two Republicans would move quickly to waive what remains of the cross-ownership ban and begin approving mergers in communities large and small across the whole country.
SNIP
This is one fight where citizen action will matter….All four Democratic senators who are seeking the presidency signed the letter pledging to revoke and nullify the FCC decision. Now, New York's Hillary Clinton, Illinois' Barack Obama, Connecticut's Chris Dodd and Delaware's Joe Biden need to put the issue of media monopoly front and center in Iowa and New Hampshire. Of course, they can and will talk about other issues. But if they are not talking about the fundamental threat to diversity of media ownership in American communities and the country as a whole, they will be failing to use the most powerful bully pulpit in the fight against the monopoly on communication that represents the single greatest threat to the battered democratic discourse of a country where the public's right to know cannot take this hit and survive.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121907F.shtml
AT LEAST THREE OTHER WOMEN WERE SEXUALLY ASSAULTED WHILE WORKING FOR KBR IN IRAQ: Last week, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) said on CNN that he did not believe that the gang rape in Iraq of former Halliburton/KBR employee Jamie Leigh Jones was "an isolated case of assault." Poe then encouraged "other victims" to contact his office. In prepared testimony for the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, Poe said that his office had been contacted by three women other than Jones about sexual assaults they suffered while working for KBR in Iraq. Poe named one of the women, Tracy Barker, "who says that she was sexually assaulted in Iraq by a State Department employee who still works at the State Department today." ABC News identified the State Department employee as Ali Mokhtare, whom the Justice Department "declined to prosecute," despite "a recommendation from the State Department that he be charged." Poe said that the other two women had both reported "sexual assaults and sexual harassment by their coworkers." He also said that one of the women asserted that KBR not only protected an accused rapist, but also punished her for contacting Army MPs about the situation. In her testimony yesterday, Jones said that her job had also been threatened. KBR supervisors told her there was "no guarantee of a job," either in Iraq or back in Houston, if she didn't "stay and get over it." She also revealed that she has been contacted by 11 other women who have also been assaulted by contractors in Iraq.
Hmmm…15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi’s, and now this:
Forty-one percent of the al Qaeda fighters in Iraq were Saudi nationals, according to a West Point study. Libyan nationals accounted for the second largest group with about 19 percent of the total, "followed by Syrians and Yemenis each at 8 percent, Algerians with 7 percent and Moroccans at 6 percent."
"Teenagers who have had formal sex education are far more likely to put off having sex, contradicting earlier studies on the effectiveness of such programs," a new report in the Journal of Adolescent Health said yesterday. "Sex education seems to be working," said Trisha Mueller, an epidemiologist with the CDC who led the study.
Probe set into EPA's emissions decision -- A powerful congressional committee launched an investigation yesterday into whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency put politics ahead of policy in blocking California's first-in-the-nation law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Michael Gardner in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 12/21/07
HUCKABEE IS SCARY…AND REALLY, REALLY IGNORANT
David Corn took a look at a book Huckabee wrote as governor in 1998, called “Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence,” and found a “fierce culture warrior.” Among the “cultural conflicts” Huckabee descried:
"Abortion, environmentalism, AIDS, pornography, drug abuse, and homosexual activism have fragmented and polarized our communities."
A few pages later, the reader learns:
"It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations — from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia."
Huckabee’s book went on to denounce no-fault divorce, women’s equality in the workforce, and these perceived social ills:
"The legal commitment of ideological secularism to any and all of the fanatically twisted fringes of American culture — pornographers, gay activists, abortionists, and other professional liberationists — is a pathetically self-defeating crusade that has confused liberty with license."
END
VOTING FRAUD: LOST SOFTWARE, BOWEN SUED
Some amazing stuff coming out on the e-voting and fraud front...I'll get to more of it next week, but just quickly, software went missing in San Diego, and our great and courageous Secretary of State is being sued by a former executive for an e-voting machine company...you can't make this shit up.
FROM BRAD BLOG:
San Diego's Diebold Election Software 'Lost In Transit'
EPROM Chips Fed-Exed from CA Secretary of State Turn Up Missing, Package Arrives Empty, Police Investigating
UPDATE: SoS Confirms Precinct-Based Scanner Chips Missing, Will Voting Machine 'Sleepovers' Be Held Anyway?
Two shipping tubes sent from the California Secretary of State's office in Sacramento to the San Diego County Election Office arrived without their contents. The tubes left the SOS Office with more than 174 memory chips, or Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EPROM), containing firmware for the county's Diebold/Premier central-count optical scan voting machines.
The tubes arrived in San Diego but they were empty. The chips are now considered to be either lost or stolen...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5462
CA Sec. of State Sued by San Diego County and Their Former E-Voting Rep Turned Election Official
Complaint Alleges New Post-Election Audit Requirements in Close Elections Are Too Expensive, Create Too Much Work for Them...
Newly missing e-voting chips isn't the only election news to break out of the People's Republic of San Diego County today...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5461
