MON: War On Iran Underway? TV Blitz in Florida, Attacks on Occupy: Help Needed
January 30th, 2012 - by: danny
Dissector In The Media:
READ: Latest Dissector Property Rights v Human Rights: Essay On Prosecuting Financial Criminals
LISTEN: Sunday’s broadcast of Reverend Jesse Jackson’s Keep Hope Alive Radio.com Show on Dispute Over Grammy Awards Dropping 31 Musical Categories
WATCH/LISTEN: Press TV Interview: Police Attitude Towards Occupy Journalists Filled With Contempt
The United States has fallen to 47th in press freedom rankings “In part because of the crackdown on journalists as well as activists in the Occupy movement
The attitude towards people covering the Occupy movement was filled with contempt in the same way that the attitude towards occupiers was driven by contempt,” Danny Schechter, editor of Mediachannel1l.org, told Press TV’s U.S. Desk on Saturday.
The crackdown “has become a national story because the same pattern seems to have taken place in many places. Scroll down.
Quotes of the Day From A Report on The World Economic Forum in Davos
Peter S Goodman, Huff Post: “Nouriel Roubini, the economist who — not for nothing — is known as “Doctor Doom,” noted that world leaders are divided on a great array of crucial issues, from arguments over trade imbalances and currency valuations to the threats posed by Iran and North Korea and the challenge of climate change.
“On all these issues that require international coordination, there is no agreement,” he said during a Saturday morning panel. “It’s a world of chaos that can lead to potential conflicts.”
Sarah Jones. PoliticusUsa.com Behind Jan Brewers’ Finger Pointing
“Any way you slice it, Brewer made a right fool of herself wagging her finger in the leader of the free world’s face and then attempting to spin her way out of it by playing the victim. TeaFems like Brewer and Palin have a particular penchant for playing the Damsel in Distress against paper tigers of their own paranoid imagination.”
News Not in the News
Leonid Savin, ICH: The Conundrum of Iran: War Against Iran Is Underway
Washington’s choice of pretexts for an aggression comprises at least three options, namely (1) Iran’s nuclear dossier; (2) an engineered escalation in the Strait of Hormuz; (3) allegations that Iran supports international terrorism.
•Reuters: Iran vows to stop “some” oil sales as inspectors visit
TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran sent conflicting signals in a dispute with the West over its nuclear ambitions, vowing to stop oil exports soon to “some” countries but postponing a parliamentary debate on a proposed halt to crude sales to the European Union. The Islamic Republic declared itself optimistic about a visit by U.N. nuclear experts that began Sunday but also warned the inspectors to be “professional” or see Tehran reducing cooperation with the world body on atomic matters. …
• Iran Threatens $150 Per Barrel Oil, Plans EU Export Ban
•John Grant, Thiscan’tbehappening.com adds: “… according to several recent reports, Israel’s top leaders are making it known they feel a massive air attack on Iran by Israel is a manageable thing — that suggestions such bombing attacks would lead to a major conflagration are all bluff. A Sunday New York Times Magazine article by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman concludes “Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012.”
Why do US leaders threaten to withhold patronage military funds when Egyptian militarists drag their feet on democracy, but not when Israeli militarists seem ready to drag us into World War Three?
Of course, we know the answer to this. Egyptians are backward brown Arabs with a history of living under the thumb of British colonial rule and US imperial hegemony. We know the drill: Bernard Lewis and the failures of Arab modernization. Israel, on the other hand, is just like us, a western garrison state run by a Prime Minister who went to Cheltenham High School just outside of Philadelphia and who likes to mentally link Iranians with Nazi Germany and the holocaust.
Renee Parsons, ICH: US Plans for Perpetual War
With the world’s largest military force including an incomparable nuclear arsenal and a budget to match, exactly who are we protecting the Homeland from — and what condition will it be in when they arrive?
•Yahoo: Syrian Battle Moves Into The Suburbs of Damascus
•NYT: U.S. Drones Patrolling Its Skies Provoke Outrage in Iraq
The use of unarmed craft to protect American buildings and personnel may foreshadow an expansion of such operations to the United States government’s diplomatic arm.
•CLG: Mission accomplished! Audit: US Defense Department can’t account for billions for Iraq ‘The bulk of the records are missing.’
The U.S. Defense Department cannot account for about $2 billion it was given to cover Iraq-related expenses and is not providing Iraq with a complete list of U.S.-funded reconstruction [sic] projects, according to two new government audits. The reports come from the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. The Iraqi government in 2004 gave the Department of Defense access to about $3 billion to pay bills for certain contracts, and the department can only show what happened to about a third of that, the inspector general says in an audit published Friday.
•BBC: Raul Castro Defends One Party Government in Cuba
In the “Homeland”
•eWall Streeter: Will Obama Tackle Mortgage Mess?
•Robert Scheer, Truthdig: Obama’s Faux Populism
I’ll admit it: Listening to Barack Obama, I am ready to enlist in his campaign against the feed-the-rich Republicans … until I recall that I once responded in the same way to Bill Clinton’s faux populism. And then I get angry because betrayal by the “good guys” for whom I have ended up voting has become the norm.
Yes, betrayal, because if Obama meant what he said in Tuesday’s State of the Union address about holding the financial industry responsible for its scams, why did he appoint the old Clinton crowd that had legalized those scams to the top economic posts in his administration? Why did he hire Timothy Geithner, who has turned the Treasury Department into a concierge service for Wall Street tycoons?
Why hasn’t he pushed for a restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, which Clinton’s deregulation reversed? Does the president really believe that the Dodd-Frank slap-on-the-wrist sellout represents “new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like this never happens again”? Can he name one single too-big-to-fail banking monstrosity that has been reduced in size on his watch instead of encouraged to grow ever larger by Treasury and Fed bailouts and interest-free money?…
•James Surowiecki, The New Yorker (Via RSN): Romney’s Debt Machine
“… the same party that loves to inveigh against the dangers of excessive borrowing is now likely to nominate for President a man whose entire career, and entire fortune, was built on debt. Leveraged-buyout firms like Bain Capital, which Mitt Romney ran between 1984 and 1999, routinely borrow massive sums in order to make their acquisitions, leaving companies with debt loads equal to twice their annual sales or more.”
Isaiah Poole, New Priorities: Say The ‘P’ Word: Putting Poverty And The Poor Back On The Agenda
Did you catch the reference in President Obama’s State of the Union address to “poverty”? You can be forgiven if you didn’t. Greg Kaufmann of The Nation, who recently launched a weekly column, “This Week in Poverty,” on thenation.com, warns in his column today that if you review the video or the transcript of Obama’s speech, “don’t blink, you’ll miss it.” People living below the poverty line, 46 million Americans, represent 15 percent of the country, including more than one in five of the nation’s youth. And yet, as Kaufmann writes today, “in a 65-minute address describing the state of the union, President Obama decided it merited barely a mention.”
•Mandelman: Read This And Help Stop A Vicious Foreclosure Slated for Monday
•FT: Banks warn rule change will hurt
US banks fear that any recovery in the US housing market will be further delayed as a result of moves to remove credit ratings from American regulations, which will boost banks’ capital requirements by billions of dollars.
•Facebook Expected To File IPO This Week
Shelly Palmer: Facebook is expected to file for its initial public offering as early as Wednesday. The social network could be valued as high as $100 billion,
Supporting Occupy As Police Brutality Continues
I have had reports of the tasing of activists at Occupy DC. Today is the day that the National Parks Service pledged it would end the encampment on land they manage,
Yahoo: Arrests in Oakland protests rise to more than 400 –
(Occupy Websites: The Latest Re Oakland: Help Needed
OCCUPY OAKLAND NEEDS BAIL FUNDS!
Police Chief Howard Jordan has been quoted in AP saying there were almost 400 people arrested yesterday. There are many people who were arrested that need urgent medical attention, people who have been injured by the police or do not have their medication with them that they need to treat prior conditions. We need the money to bail these people out!
Many people who have medical needs were unable to prevent themselves from being arrested, or to retrieve their medication, because the police did not give a dispersal order– they just kettled. We are still gathering names.
Our bail funds have been dwindling significantly as a result of the police backlash against occupy oakland in the last month, if you are able, PLEASE donate – 10, 50, 100, whatever you can!
Mikal Kamil writes from Cali:
Hello Rich and The Roots!
Two weeks ago we spoke with the National Coalition Against Censorship regarding organizing an army of First Amendment advocates to support our efforts to exercise our right to assemble and speak freely. Occupy’s Phase ll strategy is to “Occupy The Mainstream” and “Get Money Out Of Politics.” Consequently, we can’t get money out of politics if we can’t assemble in public and/or be heard.
Over the last three months we have been developing a strategic anti-establishment meets mass-market campaign dubbed “Hard Block”.
The Hard Block Campaign’s mission is to bring together an army of civil liberty advocates and the creative class to encourage protesters and intra-protestors to defy and challenge the inconsistencies between the First Amendment and the illegal practices of those who blatantly violate the civil liberties of the 99 Percent. Hard Block’s slogan is simply “Occupy Anywhere You Like”!
Artwork for Hard Block has been rendered by legendary artists Shepard Fairey and will consist of merchandise, outdoor billboards, tv spots and recorded music by Will.i.am, Miley Cyrus, Tom Morello and many many others.
Let’s come together and plan a press conference. It would be great to assemble a list of the most egregious infringements on our rights since the movement started and get representatives from 50 organizations involved to make speeches.
LET’S HARD BLOCK THE REPRESSION OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT!
NCAC Statement to Occupy Wall Street
The right to peaceful protest is essential to a just and equitable society, as the history of movements to achieve women’s suffrage, gay rights, and civil rights attests. The right to protest and dissent exist precisely so that social goals and ideals can be achieved through peaceful means, without violence. This right applies to the rich and poor, and powerful and powerless. Time and again, however, public officials need to be reminded that they are obliged to respect the right to peaceful protest, and that they are prohibited from suppressing or regulating speech solely because of its viewpoint, no matter how unconventional or controversial.
These principles apply fully to the protests staged by Occupy Wall Street. While government officials may have the authority to regulate certain aspects of public protests, they are barred from imposing onerous rules designed to interfere with or prevent protests, or to impose different rules and procedures on some protest activities because of antipathy to their message. Using police harassment or intimidation to shut down or deter protests is also constitutionally-suspect.
We call on officials nationwide, especially in places where these protests are occurring, to respect the rights of protestors who seek to influence public policy through peaceful means. They play an essential role in our society, and reinforce the message that social problems of all kinds can be effectively addressed through the exercise of First Amendment rights.
About The National Coalition Against Censorship: For 37 years, NCAC has been a unique force protecting the right to read, think, and speak freely. As a coalition of more than 50 national non-profit organizations, ranging from civil rights, labor, educational, artistic, and religious groups, NCAC engages a large and diverse community in educational and advocacy activities stressing the critical role of free speech for individual self-fulfillment and effective self-government. See the latest news from NCAC at www.ncac.org
Romney Killing Newt in the TV AD War
Daily Beast: As the Florida primary looms, voters there are being bombarded by ads from both Romney and Gingrich—but the slick former governor is airing the best ones by far
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/28/republican-political-ads-in-florida-why-romney-s-are-best.html?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=cheatsheet_morning&cid=newsletter%3Bemail%3Bcheatsheet_morning&utm_term=Cheat%20Sheet
WP: NBC objects to Romney’s ‘history lesson’
A harsh new ad from the former Massachusetts governor uses news footage from 1997 to remind voters of then-House speaker Newt Gingrich’s ethics violations.
What does it feel like to be subjected to those ads in Florida? Steven Jay Zuckerman tells us:
I currently live in South Florida, Palm Beach County to be precise.
As you know, I’m originally a New Yorker. The weather is generally very warm here and I moved here to get away from the cold winters. But while it’s generally warm here, the media ads are quite cold.
As we all recall, it’s the voting in the county that I live in that failed to count the votes twelve years ago.
As a person who believes in integrity and quality in reporting, the media in South Florida fails those of us who
have a heart and soul.
I can recall an event with Al Gore speaking about climate change and the actions needed—-there were hundreds
of picketers dressed up as Civil War mongers booing him! It was a regular riot to see this. I guess some people
still play dress up with their Ken and Barbie Dolls.
So last night, while watching one of my favorite television shows, I found myself bombarded by Political ads that not only insulted me, but caused me so much anger I was willing to call Comcast and cancel my cable subscription!
The Romney against Gingrich ads ended with a photo of Gingrich and Obama in the same frame, as if doctored by Photoshop.
The attack ads here in South Florida are so disturbing, I was forced to turn off the TV and read a good book.”
Laura Flanders writes
In all the post-show cable punditry, we heard not a peep of critique (Of the State Of The Union.) Yet US military targets proliferate — abroad, with the expanding use of unmanned drones against unconvicted people with dire consequences. And at home — with the just-approved use of the military and military detention against undefined domestic suspects — under the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA.
If only peace activists were on those TV panels! It reminds me why I’m working so hard to bring a new show to public TV. We’re currently conducting research among our viewers with a view to getting the show started earlier, even before PBS stations commit. Want to be part of our research? Let me know by emailing laura@GRITtv.org.
Flipboard: Social Media: The New American Brain Drain
Flipboard: [Infographic] The SMB Social Media Cheat Sheet
Comments welcome to dissector@mediachannel.org. Visit the new Mediachannel1.org
I am off on a global adventure for the week….More to come.
See the whole Post / →
Learning to Speak, Fighting Financial Fraud, Mortgage Deal? Evicting Occupy DC
January 29th, 2012 - by: danny
TUNE IN: This morning; I will join Reverend Jesse Jackson on his weekly radio show from 8-10 AM. If the show is not carried in your area, listen in on http://keephopealiveradio.com
Video of the Week: Deb Roy: The Birth of a Word
MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language — so he wired up his house
with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son’s life, then parsed 90,000 hours of homevideo to watch “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.” Astonishing, data-rich research with deep implications for how we learn.
Da Sunday Nooze:
Cops Crack Occupy Heads in Oakland:
AP: Update: “Dozens of police maintained a late-night guard around City Hall following daylong protests that resulted in 300 arrests. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a US flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.”
CLG: Police use tear gas and flash bang grenades on Occupy protesters –Full-blown confrontation between police and protesters taking place in Oakland 28 Jan 2012 Police in Oakland, California, used ‘chemical agents’ against Occupy Oakland protesters on Saturday. (Fox News) Police have used tear gas and flash bang grenades on demonstrators in Oakland, Calif., as authorities say a protest involving an estimated 2,000 people ‘turned violent.
Meanwhile, about 100 police officers surrounded City Hall while others were swept the inside of the building to see if any protesters broke in. USA Today reports. Report in New York Times.
•Occupy Supporters Have Issued A Statement Calling for An End To Violence Against Peaceful Protest
Excerpt: “To put the matter bluntly, but truly: the state planned and unleashed naked and systematic violence and repression against people attempting to exercise rights that are supposed to be legally guaranteed. This response by those who wield power in this society is utterly shameful from a moral standpoint, and thoroughly illegitimate from a legal and political one.
Now this movement faces a true crossroads. Will it be dispersed, driven into the margins, or co-opted? Or will it come back stronger? This question now poses itself, extremely sharply.
One thing is clear already: if this illegitimate wave of repression is allowed to stand… if the powers-that-be succeed in suppressing or marginalizing this new movement… if people are once again “penned in”—both literally and symbolically—things will be much worse. THIS SUPPRESSION MUST BE MASSIVELY OPPOSED, AND DEFEATED.
You can write to this group at: dontsuppressows@yahoo.com.
• Fluent News: ‘Topless Protesters Detained at Davos Forum’
•NYT: Former Taliban Officials Say U.S. Talks Started
Former officials said Taliban negotiators traveled to Qatar for discussions with American officials that included a possible prisoner transfer.
• Cain supports Gingrich, My hunch: Newt will help him pay off campaign debts….The New York Times reports that pro-Israel extremist and gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson has given $17 Million to Gingrich’s various campaigns. That’s $17 million!…Palin Calls Criticism Of Gingrich ‘Stalinesque’…Floriduh Congressman Alan West Tells GOP dinner: Liberals :”Should Get The Hell Out of the US.”
*Fluent: ‘UN inspectors visit Iran as nuclear tensions rise’
•Could Wall Streeters Be Finally Sent To Jail?
Taibbi: Good Foreclosure Deal Could Open the Door to Ending Up With Half of Wall Street in Jail
Last night on Countdown, Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi talked about the recent foreclosure settlement deal being negotiated between the state Attorney Generals, including California’s bold Kamala D. Harris, and the banks.
“If they do this for real, if they do this like an Enron-style investigation, you could have half the luminaries on Wall Street doing prison time…. they all made enormous profits from selling mismarked and over-evaluated mortgages to unsuspecting investors,” Taibbi said.
The question in terms of broader national policy, says Taibbi, is whether the Obama Administration has really gotten the Occupy Wall Street message, or “will it be a cosmetic investigation” only? ”
I would go “cosmetic.” Here’s why:
Dissector Essay: Remember Rousseau: Property Rights and Human Rights Are Still At War
The conflict between property rights and human rights has entered a new chapter. It is a debate that goes back to the challenge by landowners and merchants behind the American Revolution’s war on British control over the colonial economy.
Only today, as those speaking in the name of the 99% challenge the super wealthy of the 1% (actually the .001 %) there is a new battleground in what’s known as the housing market with as many as 14 million Americans in or facing foreclosure.
The defense of property rights is the holy of the holies for the propertied classes with a whole industry set up to enforce their claims of ownership.
We have seen how this plays out with the courts, run by often bought off and complicit judges rubber-stamping claims by banks and realty interests even when laws are disregarded amidst fraudulent filings, biased contracts, and phony robot signings. They control the marshals who seize your property, and constantly denigrate the real victims as “irresponsible.”
It’s not surprising any more to read about banks foreclosing on properties they don’t even own.
Jean-Jacques Rosseau who postulated the “social contract” that gives property rights a moral claim would be turning in his grave if he knew of the many abuses that homeowners in the US face daily.
According to one scholarly presentation I read, “In order to clearly present Rousseau’s views on property in the Social Contract, we must first define what he means by property. Property according to Rousseau is that which is obtained legally thereby purporting legitimate claim to ones holdings. Now we must consider what gives an individual the right to openly claim ownership.
Rousseau points out that right does not equal might. In other words, having a right can never derive from force. A right must be given legitimately which means it is attached to moral and legal code. This makes it contractual whereby the rights of one are applied to the rights of all. Once a right is established, it is beneficial and necessary for the individual to apply this right effectively for his best interests and those of the whole. This motivation is directed at the formation of community thereby creating a social contract between individuals that come together to act as a group.
Now a combination of rights is formed whereby each individual is protected by the whole group that stands together as a community. The concept is that man standing alone is more vulnerable than many men united each in defense of the other. This condition makes it impossible for one to hurt an individual without hurting the whole group or for one to hurt the group without affecting each individual.
There is now a social contract where individual rights are combined. In this case, it is in the best interest of the individual to give over his rights to the group since he has a more powerful protective base than standing alone.”
And yet many of us today do “stand alone:” in the commercial marketplace where borrowers are seen as suckers by lenders and fraud is pervasive, abuse, lying, and theft is built into the equation.
Now President Obama says, four years after the markets melted down and the sub prime mortgages were exposed a sub-crime, which he will crack down on these abuses.
Hallelujah.
It sounds good, and you want to believe, especially because Obama has tapped New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who has rejected settling with some banks engaged in massive frauds because it’s a deceptive deal, as a top gun for the effort.
Now, the Justice Department has announced the details to the press, minus the official who will run the effort and who was “traveling” and couldn’t make the press conference.
(Lanny Breuer is his name, and before joining the Department that calls itself Justice, was working for a law firm representing big banks, perhaps not a topic he wanted to answer questions about.)
Attorney General Holder was there to reveal that there will be 55 people working on this full time, 30 attorneys and support people, and 10 FBI agents who first blew the whistle on “pervasive real estate fraud” back in 2004.
Yves Smith of NakedCapitalism.com who follows details like this closely was underwhelmed, writing:
“During the Savings and Loan crisis, Bill Black reminds us that there were about a thousand FBI agents working on the various cases. That’s one hundred times the number of people working on a scandal that is about forty times larger and far more complex.
To put it another way, let’s say that this scandal cost the American public $5-7 trillion in lost home equity. That’s about $100 billion of lost home equity per person assigned to this task force. If someone stole $100 billion a corporation, like say, if somehow Apple’s entire cash hoard which is roughly that amount, suddenly disappeared, I’m guessing that the FBI would assign more than one person to the case.”
Ok, these are tough times and the government is pressed and the President is running for reelection with his “bundlers” (i.e . the people who raise the big money) pressing the flesh on Wall Street to find more 1% donors. Will this fund raising effort stymie his hell raising effort?
Stay tuned.
Adds Smith: “For the last eight weeks, nearly 200 federal examiners have labored inside some of the nation’s biggest banks to determine how those institutions would hold up if the recession deepened.
Yup, roughly four times as many people were assigned to conduct sham stress tests as are assigned to investigate the causes of the financial crisis and prosecute the people responsible. So we see that this is a not a serious deployment of government resources to unmask a complex economy-shaking financial scheme. It just isn’t.”
No surprise there.
And, as for the causes of the financial crisis, remember the Commission that was created by Congress and that found the while disaster “avoidable.”
It offered plenty of analysis but quickly led to paralysis with partisan bickering fogging the issues and no agenda for change forthcoming.
Like the 911 Commission report years earlier or the Warren Commission’s findings before that, it was read by many but believed by few.
Matt Stoller, a former aide to former Congressman Alan Grayson tries to unravel a massive contradiction that rises to the man at the top:
“There are two underlying structural problems with the new(ish) Federal task force on financial fraud,” he writes.”
One, it is the policy of the administration to protect the banking system’s basic architecture, which means the compensation structure and the existing personnel who run these large institutions. Any real investigation into the financial collapse will inevitably lead to the collapse of this architecture. Thus, any real investigation will be impeded when it begins to conflict the basic policy framework of the Obama administration. And this framework is set by Obama. It’s what he believes in. He made this clear in his first State of the Union, when he said a priority of the administration was to ensure that “the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times.”
Perhaps this is why so few bankers have spoken out loudly about this latest effort to target their financial frauds. They know it’s not serious and recognize that political business like the news business is now a branch of show business.
And John-Jacques Rousseau is not talking either He has been dead for hundreds of years along with his social contract.
Mortgage Liability Settlement In The Works
Sam Stein and Zach Carter,Huff Post: Obama Administration and Banks Near Deal on Mortgage Fraud Legal Liability
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, state attorneys
general, and, perhaps, the nation’s largest banks are
close to a final settlement on the years-long struggle
over allegations of massive foreclosure fraud, according
to several sources familiar with the talks. And the
final details of the arrangement, according to the
source who revealed them, will apparently not preclude
prosecutors and regulators from taking legal action
against many of the common abuses during the house
bubble. It remains to be seen whether all parties will
ultimately sign off on the language.
The settlement is worth $25 billion, a sum which will be
distributed to homeowners who were wrongfully foreclosed
on as well as those who remain underwater. In addition,
banks could still face future legal action over 12
specific violations.
According to someone intimate with the negotiations,
there will be no legal release of the banks with respect
to:
1 Criminal liability.
2 Tax liability
3 Fair lending, fair housing, or any other civil rights
claim.
4 Federal Housing Finance Agency or the GSEs [Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac]
5 CFPB claims for the period after they came into
existence in July 2011
6 SEC claims
7 National Credit Union Association Claims
8 FDIC claims
9 Federal Reserve Board claims
10 MERS claims
In addition, the source said, there will be preservation
of the vast majority of securitization claims including
all claims regarding state pension funds as well as the
vast majority of the origination fraud claims from HUD,
the VA and the USDA.
Company Obama cited in SOTU speech just went bankrupt
Business Insider – Andrew Restuccia of The Hill is reporting that Ener1, a battery company that President Obama referenced in his State of The Union Speech on Tuesday as an example of successful energy investments, has just filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
That’s just two days after the speech.
“In three years, our partnership with the private sector has already positioned America to be the world’s leading manufacturer of high-tech batteries,” Obama said in his speech.
According to Phil Milford and Dawn McCarty at Businessweek, Ener1 had received a $118 million U.S. Energy Department grant to make electric-car batteries. And the grant received bi-partisan support, so it is not entirely on Obama’s shoulders
•Singing About Bam: David Rovics, singer-songwriter:
I was inspired to verse by the Republican “debates.” I have long thought about how wonderful the world would be if President Obama really were the tree-hugging, immigrant-loving, pacifist Muslim hippie class warrior that the rightwing nutjobs love to portray. The other day it occurred to me to write the song. Here’s the YouTube broadside version recorded with my phone.
“If Only It Were True”
Occupy News: Appeal To Defend Occupy DC
It took just 72 hours for the National Park Service and their Director, Jonathan Jarvis, to cave-in to Republican pressure to remove the Occupy protesters who are camping at Freedom Plaza and McPherson Park. Despite glowing praise from Democrats for a job well done in the handling of the protesters at a congressional hearing held this past Tuesday, January 24, 2012, leaflets were passed out Friday PM by National Park Service police. These require the removal of all tents by Monday, January 30 at 12 PM.
The Official Notice: January 27, 2012
This communication serves as notice that, on or about noon, January 30, 2012, the United States Park Police will commence enforcement of the long-standing National Park Service (NPS) regulations that prohibit camping and the use of temporary structures for camping in McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza. The NPS has repeatedly advised participants in both parks of the camping regulations, and had sought voluntary compliance. On or about noon, January 30, 2012, if camping violations are observed, individual violators may be subject to arrest and their property subject to seizure as evidence. Any temporary structure used for camping also will be subject to seizure as an abatement of a public nuisance, and may be reclaimed by the property owner between the hours of 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. at the Park Police D-1 Station located at 960 Ohio Drive, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024, if done within the 60 days. Items determined to be trash or a bio-hazard, however, will be disposed of as refuse, so you are advised to promptly dispose of any such items.
NPS REGULATIONS PROHIBIT THE FOLLOWING:
1. CAMPING, defined as the “use of park land for living accommodation purposes such as sleeping activities, or making preparations to sleep (including the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping) or storing personal belongings, or making any fire, or using any tents or shelter or other structure or vehicle for sleeping or doing any digging or earth breaking . . . .” Title 36 CFR § 7.96(i)(1).
2. USE OF TEMPORARY STRUCTURES FOR CAMPING: “Temporary structures may not be used outside designated camping areas for living accommodation activities such as sleeping, or making preparations to sleep (including the laying down of bedding for the purpose of sleeping), or storing personal belongings, or making any fire, or doing any digging or earth breaking or carrying on cooking activities. The above-listed activities constitute camping when it reasonably appears, in light of all the circumstances that the participants, in conducting these activities, are in fact using the area as a living accommodation regardless of the intent of the participants or the nature of any other activities in which they may also be engaging . . . .” Title 36 CFR § 7.96(g)(5)(vi).
The NPS camping regulation has been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court. The NPS has a long and proud tradition of providing opportunities for the exercise of First Amendment rights, but it also is obligated to protect our important cultural and natural resources. Although 24/7 demonstration vigils and the use of symbolic temporary structures, including empty tents used as symbols of the demonstration, may be permitted in the park areas, camping and the use of temporary structures for camping is not.
TO COMPLY WITH NPS CAMPING REGULATIONS, YOU MUST DO THE FOLLOWING:
1. Remove all camping material from the park, AND
2. Leave one side of all temporary structures open at all times to ensure public health and safety and to allow NPS personnel to monitor compliance with camping regulations.
At both parks, NPS rangers will be distributing this notice to persons and at each temporary structure, and will post it in conspicuous locations in the parks, and on the park’s website at www.nps.gov/nacc/parkmgmt.
Despite Director Jarvis’ statements to Congress that there had been no less than two previous long-term encampments on Washington DC property the National Park Service bowed to Republican pressure. Vehement support for the Occupiers was given by committee Democrats including Eleanor Holmes Norton, whose district these camps are in ,and Elija Cummings,the ranking member on the committee. The flyers, which were posted at both camps and handed out to all Occupy campers in attendance ,stated that they would be subject to arrest and their possessions seized ,if they did not vacate the park by the noon deadline.
Attorneys representing both camps have already filed suit in Federal District Court in an attempt to obtain a restraining order barring the Park Service from implementing its order. The court hearing is set for this Monday Feb 1 at 9:30AM. These attorneys have twice been successful in stopping previous evictions of McPherson Park.
Walking Occupation Reaches Atlanta
Elizabeth Freud sends this news of an Occupy Long Walk along:
We are a group of 20 marchers who have walked over 750 miles to arrive at the Martin Luther King Jr. eternal flame. We began our journey Dec. 1, 2011 at the MLK Jr. memorial in Washington DC. We hope our effort will suggest a link of continuity between historic events of the civil rights movement and the emerging “Occupy” movement, which similarly seeks redress of systemic injustice in our society.
We will arrive in Atlanta Saturday evening and plan to hold a press event Sunday, January 29th at 2pm at the MLK Memorial & Eternal Flame, at which we will discuss our formative experiences on the march, plans for future marches, and constructive visions for the evolution of Occupy, our nation, and world.
Undernews: Hull House closes after 120 years
Huffington Post – Hull House, the Chicago social services organization founded more than 120 years ago by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, closed Friday after running out of money.
The agency said the poor economy resulted in more demand for its services but also made it harder to raise money to cover its costs. Hull House has been providing child care, job training, housing assistance and other services for 60,000 people a year in the Chicago area.
The agency had announced plans to close in the spring, but Friday’s shutdown was unexpected, striking some 300 employees with a devastating and unexpected blow. They received layoff notices and final paychecks and then spent the day packing their belongings and saying tearful good-byes. Many said they were startled to learn their insurance ended almost two weeks ago.
Founded in 1889, Hull House was the best known of the 400 settlement houses in the United States in the early 1900s. The settlements were designed to provide services to immigrants and the poor while uplifting them through culture, education and recreation. At its peak, Hull House served more than 9,000 people a week, offering medical help, an art gallery, citizenship classes, a gardening club and a gym with sports programs.
Victoria Brown, a history professor at Grinnell College and author of “The Education of Jane Addams,” said the closure was “an absolute puzzle” and wondered why officials had not publicized the financial problems earlier in an effort to save the agency.
“I wish we would have known. Why weren’t they screaming this from the rooftops?” said Brown. Addams “was known as gentle, not confrontational, but one of her favorite words was `stupid.’ She would say, `This is just stupid. How could this have happened?’”
•Fluent: ‘British Police Arrest 5 in Tabloid Bribery Probe’
Music: Outernational Sings Dylan’s “When The Ship Comes In” With Jim Keltner
Letters
Bruce Morgan writes: “What Social Contract?”
As Obama has shown over the past three years, his words are meaningless; particularly now that he is in full campaign mode. He may be an excellent orator, but he remains the handmaiden of the uber-rich.
Thanks for Joining me. I will be leaving the country for a week on Monday. Hope to write from there.
Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org Please visit Mediachannel1.org
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Youssou N’Dour Thrown Off Ballot In Senegal, Youths Riot, Feds To End Occupy DC, The Pentagon’s Floating “Mothership”
January 28th, 2012 - by: danny
Listen: Friday’s News Dissector Radio Hour on PRN.FM
Quote of the Day: Noam Chomsky Remembers Howard Zinn
“Howard’s remarkable life and work are summarized best in his own words. His primary concern, he explained, was ‘the countless small actions of unknown people’ that lie at the roots of ‘those great moments’ that enter the historical record – a record that will be profoundly misleading, and seriously disempowering, if it is torn from these roots as it passes through the filters of doctrine and dogma.”
Daily Beast: Obama Unveils Plan to Curb College Costs
As prefaced in his State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a plan Friday to reduce college costs by tying federal student aid money to universities’ tuition rates and the value they provide graduates. Under the plan, colleges would be rewarded based on their success in offering lower tuition prices to benefit low-income students, the White House said in a statement. A key aspect of the plan is that it wouldn’t increase taxpayer dollars, because students would pay off aid money with interest. Obama announced the proposal before 4,000 students at the University of Michigan, who cheered “Four more years!” The visit at Michigan was an official government event and the last stop on a three-day, five-state tour in which the president planned to spell out the ideas in his SOTU speech and appeal to the middle class.
Meanwhile:
Release: GRADS FIGHT SALLIE MAE’S ‘UNEMPLOYMENT PENALTY’ WITH ONLINE CAMPAIGN
50,000 people join campaign on Change.org calling on Sallie Mae to immediately stop charging jobless students a $50 “unemployment fee” per loan for forbearance
WASHINGTON, DC – More than 50,000 people in all 50 states have joined a popular campaign on Change.org calling on Sallie Mae to stop charging jobless borrowers a $50 fee for forbearance on their student loans. Borrowers who can’t pay the extra fee are put into default.;
Stef Gray, a recent graduate of a public college who took out private student loans through Sallie Mae, is leading the campaign on Change.org after being hit with the fee when she asked for a forbearance.
“What Sallie Mae is doing is wrong,” said Gray, who launched the campaign on Change.org. “My loan already grows by more than $1,000 in interest every three months when it’s in forbearance, and I pay almost 10% in interest because my parents weren’t alive to cosign my loans.”
•LBN: Is Hillary Ready To Leave Politics?:
Its not the first time shes said shes getting out of politics after her current job, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear Thursday that shes ready to call it quits. In a meeting with State Department employees, Clinton said shes tuckered out after 20 years on the high wire of American politics. She said she will finish her term and, if President Obama wins re-election in November, will serve with him until he finds a replacement. She hasn’t been following the election season or the GOP debates, which she acknowledged was a little odd for her. But after being first lady, senator, an aspiring presidential candidate and finally Secretary of State, Clinton said it would probably be a good idea just to find out how tired I am.”
•Fluent on Ron Paul: ‘Associates: Paul pursued strategy of publishing controversial newsletters’
•Fluent: Secret Service to probe bullet-ridden Obama image’
Department of Military Cutbacks
WP: Pentagon to send floating base to Mideast for use by commandos
The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, al-Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates, among other threats.
In response to requests from the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, the Navy is converting an aging warship it had planned to decommission into a makeshift staging base for the commandos. Unofficially dubbed a “mothership,” the floating base could accommodate smaller high-speed boats and helicopters commonly used by Navy SEALs, procurement documents show.
BBC: Senegal’s 85 year old President Allowed to Run Again, Singer Youssou N’Dour Thrown Off Ballot
Clashes have erupted in Senegal’s capital Dakar, after the top court said President Abdoulaye Wade could run for a third term in next month’s poll.
Angered by the decision, protesters threw stones at riot police, who responded by firing tear gas.
Mr Wade, 85, has already served two terms. But the constitution was amended since he was last elected, and he has argued the law is not retroactive.
In its ruling, the court barred famous singer Youssou N’Dour from running.
The opposition had earlier warned it would hold street protests if Mr Wade’s candidacy was approved, and crowds had gathered in central Dakar to await the ruling.
After the decision came through, youths in the area around Place de l’Obelisque set fire to tyres and engaged in running battles with police.
The commissioner of Dakar police, Arona Sy, told AFP a policeman was killed in the clashes.
The authorities said the protest would be tolerated in spite of an official ban on demonstrations.
The constitutional court’s statement, issued late on Friday, listed 14 candidates – including Mr Wade – as eligible to stand in the 26 February election.
The court ruled that Youssou N’Dour’s candidacy was invalid because he had not gathered the required number of signatures.
The Grammy award-winning musician announced he would stand earlier this month, saying “the people are fed up with career politicians who almost all enriched themselves with the state’s money”.
Youths at Place de l’Obelisque told Associated Press that they planned to turn the square into the equivalent of Egypt’s Tahrir Square if Mr Wade’s candidacy was allowed to go ahead.
Senegal is seen as one of the most democratic and stable countries in West Africa – it is the only country in the region never to have experienced a military coup.
However, tension is rising ahead of the election and one prominent politician has been charged with murder.
By Glenn Greenwald, ICH: The Human Rights “Success” In Libya
When the West invokes human rights concerns to justify an attack on a dictator whom it has long tolerated (and often even supported), that is rather compelling evidence that human rights is the packaging for the war, not the goal.
Fidel Castro: The ‘idiocy and ignorance’ of US Republican race
News from Spain, France, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, England, the Malvinas and several other parts of the planet are serious and all foretell political and economic disaster due to the foolhardiness of the United States and its allies.
WP: Economy Grows But Not By Much
U.S. economy grew at 2.8 percent rate in fourth quarter
The U.S. economy grew at a modest 2.8 percent rate in the final three months of last year, the fastest growth in 2011. Americans spent more on cars and trucks, and companies built up their stockpiles. But growth in the October-December quarter — and all of 2011 — was held back by the biggest annual government spending cuts in four decades.
Washington Times: Conservatives Blame Obama for Growth in Food Stamp Use
This year, more than 46 million (15 percent of all Americans) will get food stamps. … That’s 45 percent higher than when Obama took office, and twice as high as the average for the previous 40 years.
Should We Bank On Banks?
Another Bank Outrage by Mandelman (Ml-Implode.com): Unnecessary, Unreasonable and Unthinkable
Because I just cant believe that anyone would intentionally do this to the parents of an autistic 12 year-old girl invite them to apply for a loan modification, and then after six months, leave them over a weekend with the uncertainty of losing the only home they’ve known for 15 years… in a matter of days the home in which they have raised four children all because he was injured while while working for the school district… and she lost her second job… its simply unthinkable.
•NYT: Romney’s Close Ties To Goldman Sachs
•NY Times OpEd: Banks Taketh, but Don’t Giveth
The banks that are engaged in a Manhattan land grab seem to be in the business of taking our money but not in the business of giving it back.
Poland: Anti-Counterfeiting Or Censorship?
Thousands of protesters have taken to Poland’s streets over the signing ?of an international treaty activists say amounts to internet censorship.
On January 26 Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement in Tokyo.
Today, the European Union and 22 member states signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), ?Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. They have now joined the ?US and seven other nations that signed the treaty last October.
Related to ACTA, a chapter in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) “would have state signatories adopt even more restrictive copyright measures than ACTA,” reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Twitter Agrees To Censorship
Mark Gibbs, Forbes Gibbs writes: “In what can only have been a fit of corporate insanity, Twitter announced that it has the ability to filter tweets to conform to the demands of various countries.”
AP reports , what we reported Yesterday : Jesse Jackson Appeals to Grammy Awards For Fairness
•Daniel Victor, Slate: Anti-Muslim Training, Sex Predators, and the Labor Behind iPads
Occupy Updates
Fluent: ‘Park Service: Occupation ends Monday’
Guardian: Occupy Activists Evicted From London Office Block
Media
Eric Boehlert, RSN/Media Matters: How Fox News Is Destroying the Republican Party
“True, conservatives in recent years have shown virtually no interest in critiquing, let alone trying to rein in, Ailes’ empire. Still, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Fox’s programming and the radical, fear-based agenda it’s setting for Republicans is now doing lasting damage to the Grand Old Party.”
Fluent: Writers condemn violence against Mexico journalists
NUMBER 47: David Lindorff: What Would Peter Zenger Say:
We are the Champions…of the World?
Say it loud and say it proud: We’re Number 47! We’re Number 47! Boo-yah!
If you want to know why the US — beacon of freedom, land of the First Amendment — is now ranked number 47th (out of 179) in terms of freedom of the press in the annual ranking put out by Reporters Without Borders, below South Africa, Botswana, South Korea and Comoros, and just above Argentina, Romania and Latvia, you could ask Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York and himself owner of a huge news organization, or his Chief of Police Raymond Kelly.
For that matter you could ask the mayors and police chiefs of Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, or a host of other cities.
Better yet, ask the mayor of Oakland and her police department’s latest gestapo chief, Howard Jordan.
According to Reporters Without Borders, what caused the US to plunge from 20th place last year, up there with Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Japan, down to 47th this year, was the way reporters were treated by police as they tried to cover the Occupy Movement that began last September. ‘’
In Memoriam: Kevin White, Former Mayor Of Boston
“Boston Globe: Kevin Hagan White, a political figure who helped transform Boston into a world-class city during 16 often turbulent years as mayor, died last night in his Beacon Hill home, his family said in a statement. He was 82 and was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease about a decade ago…
A larger-than-life presence of his era, Mr. White had deep roots in the parochial old political culture of the city, but lightning instincts and a roving intellect that propelled him to national stature. Amid society-altering upheavals of the era — the civil rights movement, Vietnam War, and Watergate — he adapted and survived, at times reinventing himself.”
One Achievement: He saved Boston from a major riot by supporting a concert by James Brown,
Humor From The Onion: Did The Media Treat Bachmann Unfairly Because She’s An Insane Woman?
Letters
Robert Youngman writes;
“Hi Danny,
Enjoyed your piece on Aljazeera…….
You made two comments which I believe are invariably interconnected.
“The assumption is that the media is neutral, they’re just to show us what’s happening. Unrecognized is that they are in a race too, for ratings, revenues and recognition. The TV reporters and pundits who get far more “face time” than the politicians are political to the core, as interested in promotion and attention as the people they cover.”
and………..
Former Washington Post and CNN/Daily Beast commentator Howard Kurtz was one of the few pundits to recognize that Gingrich successfully turned a major media assault on him back on to the media in his first response to a question from his colleague John King on his treatment of his ex-wives.
“Newt Gingrich probably won the debate in those opening moments,” Kurtz said. “And I must say that I thought it was a misstep for (CNN’s) John King, who is a fair and seasoned and balanced reporter, to make that the very first question of the debate.”
And it is for this reason that I believe CNN’s John King KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING when he made that the very first question of the debate to Newt Gingrich. Surely, it is in CNN’s (and all of the other network’s) best interests to have the contest for the Republican candidate for President to go on as long as possible. John King readily admitted that he expected Gingrichs’ answer to be what it was, but of course he would never admit that his underlying intention was actually to help Gingrich’s chances in the South Carolina primary to keep the race going – which I believe it was.
Unfair and/or unethical on John King’s part? Probably, but as you said – the media is looking out for the media first……..
Nat Segaloff writes:
I just found your terrific September 5, 2001 piece “When Is a Journalist a Journalist” on the Media Channel site and will cite it for my Committee rather than bother you for the same thing in a personal e-mail. Great writing and information.
Compelling Visual: Underwater Wreckage Photos
Thanks for being here. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org. Please check out the new Mediachannel1.org
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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