More On The Great Schlep; MUSIC AGAINST FORECLOSURES IN BROOKLYN 10/1

September 28th, 2008 - by: danny

Before i offer more on the great schlep, an announcement: I will be shlepping down to Wall Street (Exchange and Broad) for a major protest against the bail out. High Noon. Exchange and Broad Street.

WELCOME TO THE GREAT SCHLEP

The Great Schlep aims to have Jewish grandchildren visit their grandparents in Florida, educate them about Obama, and therefore swing the crucial Florida vote in his favor. Don’t have grandparents in Florida? Not Jewish? No problem! You can still become a schlepper and make change happen in 2008, simply by talking to your relatives about Obama.

Comedian Sarah Silverman has released a video urging young Jews to schlep to Florida to get their grandparents to vote for Barack Obama. Seriously. We’ll let her explain.

The New York Times confirms that the organizers may have a sense of humor, but the “schlep” is “100 percent real.”

The Great Schlep:

We Need a schlep to Isreal As Pro Peace Israelis Are Targeted by Fanatics

NOT MENTIONED IN THE DEBATE
Terrorists Tried To Murder Professor Zeev Sternhell

Israel Prize winner Zeev Sternhell was lightly injured
yesterday when a pipe bomb exploded outside his home in
Jerusalem, in what police suspect could be a new
campaign by right-wing extremists to target prominent
left-wingers.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter called the
incident “a nationalist terror attack apparently
perpetrated by Jews” and said the police would not rest
until “those terrorists” were behind bars.

“We should see the explosive as aimed at killing,”
Dichter said, adding that the attack “takes us back to
the days of [Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin’s
assassination.”

Professor Sternhell walked out of his home in a quiet
Jerusalem neighborhood shortly after midnight to shut a
courtyard gate when the bomb went off, lightly wounding
him in one leg, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-
Ruby said.

AMNESTY: Bosnia and Herzegovina: Failure to protect “Sarajevo Queer Festival”

Several people were attacked this week at the first ‘Sarajevo Queer Festival’, said Amnesty International, as it called on the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to provide adequate security for festival participants. The authorities must also promptly and thoroughly investigate the attacks and bring those responsible to justice, said Amnesty.

Eight people, policemen included, were reported to have been injured after dozens of young men attacked visitors to the festival, which opened on 24 September in the Academy of Fine Arts in the centre of the capital, Sarajevo.

According to the organisers of the event, initially scheduled to continue until 28 September, (the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender non-governmental organisation Udruzenje Q), police let anti-gay protestors get too close to the venue thus endangering the participants.

FROM NEWSBUSTERS: LOU DOBBS GETS IT RIGHTCNN’s Dobbs Highlights Wall Street’s Political Contributions

Go To BradBlog.com: Exclusive: Fox ‘News’ Spikes AP Story on Conservatives ‘Questioning Palin Heft’

Article Detailing a Number of Criticisms of the Republican Veep Nominee Was ‘Top Story’ at FNC Website, Only to be Suddenly Disappeared

ZSPACE: “NOT VERY INTERESTING” – Haiti, New Orleans And Media Hypocrisy By David Edwards

On September 1, the press began warning that “the storm of the century” was about to hit New Orleans as Hurricane Gustav “bore down nearly three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city”. (‘It’s the storm of the century,’ Daily Mirror, September 1, 2008)

A comparable storm of media coverage was to follow, with continuous live broadcasts from the city. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin heightened the sense of drama:

“For everyone thinking they can ride this storm out, I have news for you – that will be one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your life.” (Paul Thompson, ‘Storm of the century,’ Daily Mail, September 1, 2008)

But Nagin’s worst fears were not realised. In fact weather forecasters had warned at the time that it was “too early to know whether New Orleans will take another direct hit”. (Daily Mirror, op.cit)

By September 3, the reality was apparent. Hurricane Gustav had swept through Louisiana, causing eight deaths and widespread damage, but “had not produced any significant flooding,” the Independent reported. US officials “faced charges of over-reacting” as they were “forced to defend the decision to evacuate more than two million people”. (Guy Adams, ‘Officials deny threat of Gustav was exaggerated,’ The Independent, September 3, 2008)

Saturation media coverage had been devoted to a disaster that had simply not happened.

The following day, a senior BBC journalist leaked an email from his editor to media analyst David Miller at Strathclyde University. The whistleblower’s editor had listed several stories which he described as “not that interesting”, followed by the comment: “Dull stories – every one of them, don’t you think?” These were the stories:

“The leading anti-drugs judge in Afghanistan has been assassinated. “There’s been an angry reaction in France following the magazine publication of photos of Taleban fighters displaying trophies they’d stripped from French soldiers killed in an ambush. “The authorities in Haiti say the number of those killed in the wake of Tropical Storm Hanna has risen to more than sixty. “A United Nations report says the world’s wealthiest countries are failing to deliver on their promises to boost development aid.”

The anonymous BBC journalist expressed his feelings:

“I’m sure once that Hurricane gets to Florida we’ll have live coverage of the telephone polls falling over, but sixty dead people in Haiti. Not that interesting.”

YOUR LETTERS

MARY ELLEN CHURCHILL ON THE SALE OF WAMU

I talked to one of the workers at my local WaMu branch yesterday, where my mom and I both have accounts, and she said that the workers had maintained confidence in WaMu right up to the end, and now have lost all their retirement money that they’d invested in WaMu stock.

However for the big guy, the guy on top, Alan H. Fishman, he gets to keep his $ 7.5 Million signing bonus and may even get $11.6 million in severance in addition!!! Miss Suzanne Hoctor, Assistant Financial Manager, and the others in the WaMu branch on Fulton St. in San Francisco, they just feel lucky they still have a job

“But the seizure and the deal with JPMorgan came as a shock to Washington Mutual’s board, which was kept completely in the dark: the company’s new chief executive, Alan H. Fishman, was in midair, flying from New York to Seattle at the time the deal was finally brokered, according to people briefed on the situation. Mr. Fishman, who has been on the job for less than three weeks, is eligible for $11.6 million in cash severance and will get to keep his $7.5 million signing bonus, according to an analysis by James F. Reda and Associates. WaMu was not immediately available for comment.”

from:
Largest Bank Failure in American History

CREDIT REFORM NOW

Denise Richardson, a brave warrior in the fight for credit reforms writes

I linked yet again to your video

trying to tell them to seek the truth! in light of all that’s going on it is even more deplorable that no one would listen to the victims -years ago when they tried to warn of this nightmare!

CLINTON-HATING READER OFFERS RECOGNITION FOR “WORST WRITTEN ARTICLE EVER” (MY ARTICLE ON MEDIACHANNEL.ORG)

Caryn Vargo writes

think there were some valid points in that mess. You left out the fact that our lending practices were socialized in the mid 90s by Clinton and his friends. That led to unqualified borrowers getting mortgages. It wouldn’t have mattered if you did mention it. No one would understand what the hell your writing about. Get your head out of the clouds.

Gerald Calente from the Trends Research Institute:

The $700 billion rescue package being rammed through Congress should be voted on by the people, not Congress. “The bailout plan will only bail out CEOs and preferred stakeholders of failing financial firms while sinking the American people deeper in debt. If America is truly a democracy, then let the people decide. Put the bailout on the November ballot.”

Doug Latimer who writes the well written and provocative blog Questionable Content in the Bay Area writes:

A few questions:

Hasn’t it always been the function of the Demorats in this system to
save capitalism from itself?

I know many liberals worship at the shrine of Saint Franklin, but wasn’t
that his goal? Yes, there were benefits in the New Deal for just folks
… but that wasn’t his ultimate aim, was it?

And why aren’t we using this crisis to talk about the fact that
capitalism can be made to work more equitably … but it can never be truly equitable?

“Executive pay reform” is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp
stick … but as much of a moral disgrace as the size of our prison
population is, shouldn’t it be expanded by several thousand, to include the brokers and bankers and politicians and corpress enablers and anyone else guilty of these crimes?

Shouldn’t we be talking about who needs to do hard time, rather than who’ll have to sell off a couple of mansions?

Am I missing something here? “Law and order” are rightly dirty words those who stand for peace and justice and all that good stuff … but don’t we need a menschy version of just that to clean up this mess and keep it from ever happening again?

Check out Doug’s blog:

I N S A N E

Robert Roth writes:

I’m afraid the insane $700B. giveaway — a more accurate word than “bailout” — is a done deal though and it will go in much bigger amounts to Bush & Paulson’s friends on Wall Street, leaving the rest of us & our descendants proportionally more impoverished. A few in Congress — including Peter De Fazio — have been saying better things than the Dem leadership but they appear to be heavily outgunned, and also to assume that the form of the “bailout” is what counts, so they want to help Main Street, etc.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the giveaway/bailout will prevent the implosion of the financial aka casino “system” & then the economy. That much you’ve said. But I don’t think at the Bush level it’s INTENDED as a bailout. It’s merely another transfer payment. The money will go to Bush & Paulson’s friends on Wall Street, buying their bad paper at prices no one else would pay, and leaving us with the bill. For the record, explanation from Dennis Kucinich’s economics advisor attached.

Franklin Johnson writes:

I’m afraid the insane $700B. giveaway — a more accurate word than “bailout” — is a done deal though and it will go in much bigger amounts to Bush & Paulson’s friends on Wall Street, leaving the rest of us & our descendants proportionally more impoverished. A few in Congress — including Peter De Fazio — have been saying better things than the Dem leadership but they appear to be heavily outgunned, and also to assume that the form of the “bailout” is what counts, so they want to help Main Street, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t think the
giveaway/bailout will prevent the implosion of the financial aka casino “system” & then the economy. That much you’ve said. But I don’t think at the Bush level it’s INTENDED as a bailout. It’s merely another transfer payment. The money will go to Bush & Paulson’s friends on Wall Street, buying their bad paper at prices no one else would pay, and leaving us with the bill.

MUSIC AGAINST FORECLOSURES—BIG SHOW IN BROOKLYN OCT 1 I WILL BE THERE

A call to arms against the predatory financial industry that brought us the housing & credit crisis

Koko Dozo will headline a diverse gang of committed, pissed-off musicians out to get YOU pissed. Focused on the legalized loan-sharking that has fueled the subprime crisis and predatory credit card practices and school loans.

LINE-UP:

* Koko Dozo, w/ special guest & MC, La Bruja
* Brooklyn’s Soulchild Theophilus London (norm Rex)
* Joe Bendik
* One Word Song
* William Rottman
* Prez Powerz
* Mammi-ama Ofori

Reality Check by Danny Schechter ‘The News Dissector,’ journalist, Emmy award-winning filmmaker, author and agitator

WHEN: Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
WHERE: Public Assembly (formerly known as Galapagos)
10 N. 6th Street
between Kent and Wythe Aves.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Subway Line: L to Bedford Ave.

MUSICIANS—PLEASE JOIN THE HOME SWEET HOME PROJECT.

Shana Tova/Happy Eid

Comments and contributions: dissector@mediachannel.org

The News Dissector