Haiti’s Fate To Be Discussed At UN Donor Conference, Kids Will Be Covered, At The Seder
March 30th, 2010 - by: danny
This Just In Tuesday Night: Its Drill Baby Drill, Obama Style
Obama to Open Offshore Areas to Oil Drilling
The Obama administration is proposing to open vast expanses of water along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska to oil and natural gas drilling for the first time, officials said Tuesday.
The proposal — a compromise that will please oil companies and domestic drilling advocates but anger some residents of affected states and many environmental organizations — would end a longstanding moratorium on oil exploration along the East Coast from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean.
Remind me: Is this another turnaround on a campaign stand? Again?
THE SECOND NIGHT, “SEDER LITE”
HAITI DONOR CONFERENCE
GLENN BECK REBORN AS JOE MCCARTHY
And so I went to a seder last because I knew it was not religious and was intended as a celebration of human freedom. I walked through the usually posh streets of the Upper East Side and couldn’t help but notice that store after store had shut down and were empty on Third Avenue in the 60′s. Uh,oh, Hard Times Have Hit The Ritziest Zip Codes in New York.
Inside, a very warm home, the table was set beautifully and the people were friendly as we creatively improvised our way through the Hagadah ritual. Everyone wanted to see the escape from Pharohland to the Desert to the Holy Land move smoothly. I wanted to keep it light and friendly but when my friend the host jokingly introduced me as the Ambassador from Al Jazeera or some such–haha–at least one guest noticed. Did she ever! She and I were soon at loggerheads over what else? Israel! She was insisting that any criticisms of Netanyahu and the Israeli government was per se anti-semitic. Period! No discussion. No Debate. There was no convincing her otherwise as she explained to me why Obama must be pressured to lighten up on the Israeli government. She knew all the message points down cold.
I hate discussions like this because they always leave rationality behind and quickly go downhill.
The funny thing is that just today The US Government denounced countries denouncing Israel at the UN. and just last week, despite the supposed “flap” between our two govermments the US just did a major arms deal with Israel. That has not pacified the Israeli Lobby for whom it is always their way or the highway. Just yesterday, prominent professional Jewish “leaders” denounced Jimmy Carter because they decided his announcement that he was backing off his criticisms of Israel was not “sincere” enough, The Israeli lobby is now working overtime to mobilize the Congress to bully Obama into going softer on Netanyahu. They are pulling out all the stops with TV Ads, petitions, robo calls etc. The wagons are circling again.
Ironically, just last night, as I checked my email I was shocked to find a request from none other than the mouthpiece of ardent and inflexible Zionism in America to follow me on Twitter. I couldn’t believe it, but there it was, a request from none other than Harvard’s ALAN DERSHOWITZ himself. I knew Alan when I was in Boston, and respected some of his legal defense work in the days before he became the enforcer of every pro-Israeli initiative and the denouncer of every critic of Israel. We used to have cordial conversations.
I haven’t decided how to respond to this request yet but even this gesture putting me, I thought, in anointed company, did not in any way soften the had line of the woman who insisted she had once been a “liberal Jew” but was not a fundraiser for some Lobby front. implying she had inside information. Despite my attempts at persuasion, she was still implying I was anti semitic. Oy, so hurtful, and all too typical of the robotic amen corner that AIPAC has built over the decades.
Speaking of this issue. it was a pro-Israeli organization that first alerted me to the visit yesterday of French President Sarkozy, another strong supporter of Israel to the White House. But the lobby couldn’t be pleased by what happened as reported by the Israeli press:
Sarkozy joins Obama in condemning ‘settlements’
By Yitzhak Benhorin – Ynetnews
“During White House press conference, French leader said his own
commitment to Israel’s security is well known; France is standing with
the United States in condemning Israeli construction in east Jerusalem
[and] ‘settlement’ activity in an area claimed by the Palestinians
“contributes nothing.”
[SNIP]
“Speaking at a news conference with President Barack Obama after their
White House meeting Tuesday, Sarkozy praised Obama for trying to engage
the two sides in peace talks. Sarkozy said the ‘absence of peace’ in
the region ‘is a problem for all of us’ – and that it feeds terrorism
around the world.”
WASHINGTON SAYS: Don’t Criticize Israel, Only We Can Do That
Reuters: US objects to Israel being attacked at United Nations
“The United Nations Human Rights Council passed three resolutions on Wednesday condemning Israel over its policies in occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, but the United States voted against them all.”
Reuters asks: Is Bombing Iran Good For Business?
WHO WON IN IRAQ?
And then there was this development in Iraq as reported only by Juan Cole:
Chalabi Moves to Disqualify 6 Elected MPs, Demote Allawi’s Party to
Runner-Up
“How unwise is the rush among American pundits, mainly on
the political Right, to declare the election a vindication of George W.
Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Hey, warmongers: get it through your heads.
You went to war on the grounds that Iraq was a grave danger to the US
and might even nuke us. That was untrue and ridiculous. You don’t get
any mulligans in the invasion game. Nothing would vindicate Bush save
proof that Saddam Hussein’s regime was really dangerous to the US. It
wasn’t. It had bupkes in the way of WMD. Iraqis will eventually live
normal lives and get rich. That won’t vindicate Bush either. He lied to
us repeatedly and illegally invaded another country, contravening the
UN charter and a whole slew of international and even domestic US laws.
There is no vindication. But the unseemly backstabbing and maneuvering
of fundamentalists, ex-Baathists, Iranian double agents and CIA assets
in Iraq now is certainly not it.”
[SNIP]
“I admit to a good deal of frustration with the corporate media in the
United States that keeps talking about Iyad Allawi having ‘won’ the
Iraqi parliamentary elections. It just is not true. Apparently even
some well informed and intelligent Americans can’t understand the
difference between achieving a slight plurality and winning a
parliamentary election. And, it is dangerous to say these things
because the US press is read in Iraq and expectations are being created
among Iraqis that are likely to be disappointed.
“Allawi did not win and has not won and probably won’t win.”
The Opium Wars in Afghanistan
Tom Hayden, LA Times. The ‘Long War’ Quagmire
The doctrine, which posits an 80-year or so war against insurgents in the Middle East to South Asia, needs more scrutiny.
THE HAITI DONOR CONFERENCE TAAKES PLACE AT THE UN TODAY
Today, the Haiti Donor’s conference gets underway at the UN. This meeting’s outcome will determine how much money Haiti will have to work with, and what the priorities will be. Recently the NY Times reported that the situation today is worse than it was as the rainy season moves in with so little new housing constructed. Every day seems to bring bad news. The NGO’s are uncoordinated. Security is a problem. Violence and rape is a problem. A lack of food and jobs are big problems. What will be done
And then there is news like this
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Reserch reports:
The Pentagon is using Haiti as a Training Ground for Afghanistan
A recent report in Stars and Stripes reveals the nature of the US military operation in Haiti. Combat units from Iraq and Afghanistan have been deployed in Haiti under the banner of a humanitarian operation. Conversely, Haiti is also being used as a military training ground for forces without in-theater combat experience.
According to the Stars and Stripes report (March 14, 2010): “Marines deployed to Haiti to render emergency aid following January’s devastating earthquake are already training for the fight in Afghanistan.”
Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit who were dispatched to Haiti in the immediate wake of the earthquake are now being deployed in Afghanistan. In fact, the decision to send them to Afghanistan was taken prior to their deployment in Haiti:
“A small group of Marines stormed several small concrete buildings inside the wire at their seashore camp while their comrades played the roles of Afghan insurgents, shouting “bang” as they engaged their opponents in a mock attack. The day before, when Lt Gen Dennis J. Hejlik, commanding general of the II Marine Expeditionary Force visited the Marines on shore, he praised their good work in Haiti and asked them, “What’s next for you when you get home?”
“Afghanistan,” came the reply. As Huey helicopters buzzed overhead, Hejlik talked about the recent Marjah offensive, adding that there would be 20,000 Marines in Afghanistan by summer. “You will join them next spring,” he told the Marines at Carrefour. One of them, Sgt. Timothy Kelly, 23, of Johnston City, Ill., said members of his unit learned about the Afghan mission just before they got orders to head for Haiti.”
The training in Haiti “is geared towards close-quarters battle tactics”:
“Only a couple [of Marines in Kelly's squad] have experience in Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said. …
We have a lot of guys that aren’t going to be here for that Afghan deployment. The ones who are, we might as well get them in the mind-set.
Another Marine at Carrefour, Lance Cpl. Keith Cobb, 23, of Soso, Miss., said the Afghan deployment will be his first time in a war zone. “I want to kill the terrorists and get rid of the bad people, but I would rather be here because I know I’m going home after this,” he said”
Close Quarters Battle (CQB) is fighting involving small combat units “which engage the enemy with personal weapons at very short range”. The training imparted in Haiti is to be used in both urban warfare and counterinsurgency operations.
On March 25th, the US military reported that some 2,200 Marines, involved in humanitarian relief in Haiti had been withdrawn from the country.
FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS: WHY HAITI QUAKE KILLED MORE THAN CHILE QUAKE
The real reasons for the disparity between the effects of the two quakes are considerably more prosaic. The first obvious factor was seismological. The earthquake that struck Chile occurred twice as deep beneath the surface than the one that hit Haiti, which meant that the earth absorbed more of the impact. In addition, the epicenter of the Haitian quake was only 10 miles outside of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, compared to the epicenter in Chile, which was 70 miles from the city of Concepción. And of course, Haiti hadn’t suffered an earthquake of this magnitude since the 18th century, while Chile endured nearly two dozen major jolts in the 20th century, including the greatest earthquake ever measured, the 9.5 behemoth of 1960. With limited resources, you prepare for what you expect, and earthquakes weren’t the foremost threats on the minds of Haitians.
The second obvious factor was wealth. Chilean citizens enjoy an average income 10 times that of Haitians. Fully 80 percent of Haitians live below the poverty line, compared to fewer than 20 percent of Chileans. Is Chile’s economic development a result of its unabashed embrace of capitalism? In 1970, Chile’s gross national income per capita was also 10 times that of Haitians. To say that Chile has prospered over the last several decades because of its economic choices is really to say that the country began the race three-quarters of the way toward the finish line, while Haiti had barely left the starting block.
The key here isn’t individual wealth. In Port-au-Prince the National Palace collapsed, so even the prime minister is staying with friends. In Chile, meanwhile, the urban and rural poor suffered the most from the earthquake. The difference between the two countries is the degree to which money has been invested in the common good, such as sound infrastructure, decent services, and proper regulations. Greater wealth in the private sector doesn’t necessarily lead to more government tax revenues or proper government investments, so nix the free-market argument. Chile, for instance, established its much-admired building code not during the capitalist go-go days of Pinochet but in 1972, under a socialist administration. And although Haiti has experienced some profound democratic movements, high voting percentages and enhanced accountability don’t magically produce the capital necessary to earthquake-proof a country, so nix the democracy argument.
INSURERS NOW SAY THEY WILL NOW COVER KIDS
AFL-CIO: In the face of mounting public outrage, the health insurance industry yesterday backed away from its claim that a loophole in the new health care reform law would allow insurers to deny coverage for children with pre-existing conditions.
Real News Crisis of Neo Liberalism
BBC: Serbia’s parliament is debating a resolution condemning the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 – the worst incident of the Bosnian war.
The text apologises that Serbia did not do more to prevent the tragedy.
The killing of nearly 8,000 Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) was carried out by Bosnian Serb forces – allies of then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
Meanwhile a Dutch court has rejected an attempt to hold the United Nations responsible for the massacre.
Facing the past
The parliamentary resolution comes after years of denial in Serbia that the Srebrenica massacre even took place,
Gareth Porter, IPS: Two-Thirds of Boys in Afghan Jails Are Brutalised, Study Finds
WASHINGTON, Mar 30, 2010 (IPS) – Nearly two of every three male
juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused, according to
a study based on interviews with 40 percent of all those now
incarcerated in the country’s juvenile justice system.
The study, carried out by U.S. defence attorney Kimberly Motley for
the international children’s rights organisation Terre des Hommes,
reveals a justice system that subjects juveniles, many of whom are
already innocent victims, to torture, forced confessions and blatant
violation of their rights in court.
Motley, who may be the only practicing Western defence attorney in
Afghanistan, told IPS that the study shows the need for alternatives
to introducing juveniles into what she calls the “injustice system”.
WSJ: LEVY ON BANKS?
A global levy on banks to pay for the cost of future bailouts is more likely now than it was six months ago, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said.
Alternet: Obama Packs Debt Commission with Social Security Looters
Obama has filled his new ‘debt commission’ with Wall Street insiders determined to gut Social Security.
See the whole Post / →
Daily FINANCIAL CRISIS CAPSULE: Too BIG TO JAIL?,CEOS AS ALIENS, “Smoking Gun” Bank Memo
March 30th, 2010 - by: danny
Robert Reich, Fraud, Fraud, Fraud On The Street
Bill Black: To Own A County, Rob a Bank
The reality of pervasive fraud is FINALLY surfacing in more reports and columns on economic issues. Disinfo will be releasing my film PLUNDER THE CRIME OF OUR TIME on DVD on April 6th. I am hoping Mediachannel readers will organize screenings and help make this issue much bigger than it has been. Why is this taking so long?
WP: Worker Productivity Said To Be Holding Back Job Creation
Financial Times: CEOs as ALIENS
CEOs risk being seen as ‘aliens’ over pay
Top executives “risk being treated as aliens” by politicians and the public because their pay is so out of step with that of the population at large, the head of the UK’s largest business organisation warned on Tuesday night.
Bloomberg: More On Rio Tinto Exec Conviction In China
The distortion of China’s so-called judicial processes by all concerned has seldom been more apparent than in the case of the Australia-based Rio Tinto mining giant and its China-based executives, who now face jail terms of seven to 14 years for corruption and theft of commercial secrets.
But at least the mainstream media seem willing to comment on these issues rather than be cowed by contempt and other actions that continue to give Singapore’s kangaroo courts a veneer of credibility. Even the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, owned by billionaire Robert Kuok. with his massive investments on the mainland, chose to headline its comment on the Rio case: “Sham trial does more harm than good, again”.
Maybe China will learn from the Rio experience that it should also follow the Lee Kuan Yew example and go after any foreign media that sets foot in its territory after commenting so critically on these politically inspired show trials. Maybe the Chinese princelings will likewise one day go after the Financial Times, which on the day of the Rio verdict ran a full page feature on the massive wealth accumulation and prime positions of various sons and daughters of past political leaders. This is the same newspaper that two years ago groveled before the Lee family for daring to mention that the chief executive of Temasek Holdings was the wife of the prime minister and daughter-in-law of Lee Kuan Yew.
But it is not just China that looks bad as a result of this episode. Rio’s chief executive Tom Albanese seems to have been in a huge hurry to patch up commercial relations with China even perhaps at the cost of more years in jail for his former employees, Australian Chinese Stern Hu and his three mainland underlings.
THE BIGGER PICTURE: WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
We are entering into the era of the ‘Post-Industrial Revolution’, a ‘class cleansing’ of the western world. The entire socio-political economic landscape is being redrawn and reorganized. The effects will be felt from the wallet to the family unit, itself.
WHY ARE ALL THE HONEYBEES DYING? SCIENTISTS WONDER WHY AND WORRY ABOUT FOOD SUPPLY
Bill Clinton’s Mea Culpa
“Smoking Gun” Bank Lobby Memo
Elizabeth Warren catches a major flip-flop by the chief banker lobby ABA, demolishing its credibility, in Politico oped: “…the ABA in 2006 said that policymakers should separate safety-and-soundness and consumer protection-exactly the opposite of its position today. This 2006 memo illustrates the ABA’s real consistency- consistent opposition to meaningful reform. If there is a smoking gun in the battle over financial regulatory reform, the 2006 ABA memo is it.”
Rortybomb rejects flawed premise of Dodd bill, that regulators just need “a bit more power”: “I don’t like the idea of the Saving the World Forever approach to financial reform for three reasons: (1) I don’t think it’ll work. The biggest banks are all bigger now, and I worry they may even be emboldened … (2) We are in a lot of trouble if this goes bad and we have another financial crisis in 6-8 years. (3) There are alternatives … that involve stricter rules, better regulation of derivatives, smarter resolution authority, etc”
No one in Washington will say how much money banks should be required to have on hand, reports NYT’s Andrew Sorkin: “Conspicuously absent from any regulatory legislation floating around Capitol Hill is the precise level of capital that banks should hold for every dollar they lend, called a capital ratio … when the fight over financial re-regulation is complete, the next big battle between Wall Street and Washington will be over capital ratios and liquidity … try pinning down Mr. Geithner, or anyone else in the Beltway, on how much capital banks should be required to keep … and certainties disappear.”
Washington’s Blog: DOES DODD GET IT?
On March 3rd, Richard Fisher — President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas — told the Council on Foreign Relations:
A truly effective restructuring of our regulatory regime will have to neutralize what I consider to be the greatest threat to our financial system’s stability – the so-called too-big-to-fail, or TBTF, banks. In the past two decades, the biggest banks have grown significantly bigger. In 1990, the 10 largest U.S. banks had almost 25 percent of the industry’s assets. Their share grew to 44 percent in 2000 and almost 60 percent in 2009.
The existing rules and oversight are not up to the acute regulatory challenge imposed by the biggest banks. First, they are sprawling and complex – so vast that their own management teams may not fully understand their own risk exposures. If that is so, it would be futile to expect that their regulators and creditors could untangle all the threads, especially under rapidly changing market conditions. Second, big banks may believe they can act recklessly without fear of paying the ultimate penalty. They and many of their creditors assume the Fed and other government agencies will cushion the fall and assume the damages, even if their troubles stem from negligence or trickery. They have only to look to recent experience to confirm that assumption.
Some argue that bigness is not bad, per se. Many ask how the U.S. can keep its competitive edge on the global stage if we cede LFI territory to other nations – an argument I consider hollow given the experience of the Japanese and others who came to regret seeking the distinction of having the world’s biggest financial institutions. I know this much: Big banks interact with the economy and financial markets in a multitude of ways, creating connections that transcend the limits of industry and geography. Because of their deep and wide connections to other banks and financial institutions, a few really big banks can send tidal waves of troubles through the financial system if they falter, leading to a downward spiral of bad loans and contracting credit that destroys many jobs and many businesses.
The dangers posed by TBTF banks are too great. To be sure, having a clearly articulated “resolution regime” would represent steps forward, though I fear they might provide false comfort in that a special resolution treatment for large firms might be viewed favorably by creditors, continuing the government-sponsored advantage bestowed upon them. Given the danger these institutions pose to spreading debilitating viruses throughout the financial world, my preference is for a more prophylactic approach: an international accord to break up these institutions into ones of more manageable size – more manageable for both the executives of these institutions and their regulatory supervisors. I align myself closer to Paul Volcker in this argument and would say that if we have to do this unilaterally, we should. I know that will hardly endear me to an audience in New York, but that’s how I see it. Winston Churchill said that “in finance, everything that is agreeable is unsound and everything that is sound is disagreeable.” I think the disagreeable but sound thing to do regarding institutions that are TBTF is to dismantle them over time into institutions that can be prudently managed and regulated across borders. And this should be done before the next financial crisis, because it surely cannot be done in the middle of a crisis.
Fisher joints many other top economists and financial experts believe that the economy cannot recover unless the big, insolvent banks are broken up in an orderly fashion, including:
* Nobel prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz
* Nobel prize-winning economist, Ed Prescott
* Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan
* Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker
* Dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School, and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, R. Glenn Hubbard
* Simon Johnson (and see this)
* President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Thomas Hoenig (and see this)
* Deputy Treasury Secretary, Neal S. Wolin
* The President of the Independent Community Bankers of America, a Washington-based trade group with about 5,000 members, Camden R. Fine
* The Congressional panel overseeing the bailout (and see this)
* The head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair
* The head of the Bank of England, Mervyn King
* The leading monetary economist and co-author with Milton Friedman of the leading treatise on the Great Depression, Anna Schwartz
* Economics professor and senior regulator during the S & L crisis, William K. Black
* Economics professor, Nouriel Roubini
* Economist, Marc Faber
* Professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the Chicago Booth School of Business, Luigi Zingales
* Economics professor, Thomas F. Cooley
* Former investment banker, Philip Augar
* Chairman of the Commons Treasury, John McFall
Even the Bank of International Settlements — the “Central Banks’ Central Bank” — has slammed too big to fail. As summarized by the Financial Times:
Newsweek: When Congress Doesn’t Do its Job
FT: SEC launches ‘Repo 105′ probe
US regulators on Monday asked more than 20 financial groups whether they engaged in transactions along the lines of “Repo 105″ — an accounting device that helped Lehman Brothers conceal its high leverage ratio during the financial crisis
Consumer Spending will Drop Says Roubini
…Given the underlying weakness in wage and asset income together with further room for balance sheet repair, consumer spending is expected to weaken in H2 2010 with the fading of temporary government support to income, and the personal savings rate is likely to trend higher.
See the whole Post / →
GLENN BECK REBORN AS JOE MCCARTHY, TARGETS SCHOLAR, Code Pink Tries to Arrest Rove
March 30th, 2010 - by: danny
BECKISM SUPPLANTS MCCARTHYISM: Glenn Takes Up Joe’s Mantle
New Activist Assault on Scholars The Right Wants to Trash As Part of Their New War On Progressivism
I have known Frances Fox Piven and her late colleague Richard Cloward for years. They have been brilliant and commited advocates of empowering the poor and have engaged in supporting community organizing and progressive social policies as intellectuals and activists. Suddenly, Frances has been thrust into the crosshairs of Glenn Beck’s latest smarmy crusade as a personality to be targeted, discredited and destroyed.
This is a vicious and dishonest effort focusing on an article from l966 and then tying it to a smear of the Obama campaign for Capital S Socialism/Communism/ Fascism and worse. It has focused around the the use of another one of those ACORN-like trash videos in which a righteous right-winger named Kyle Olson talked his way into her home and then videotaped her following her release from the hospital. This was a form of elder abuse among other things.
Clearly, Frances was not aware of the way Beck’s storm troopers and shock troops operate. They are using a Keywikiblog, a fake wiki platform to launch the tea party type assault against her and Cornell West, among others.
Here’s the video they are circulating in their offensive ideological offensive.
Here are articles that respond to this
HUFFINGON POST
THE NATION
More You Tube on BECK’s Assault…
Velvet Revolution
Frances Fox Piven Responds:
THE NEXT PHASE?
dKOS: “With health insurance reform passed, do you think the town hall meetings during spring recess will be as confrontational as they were last summer?”
At this writing, 62% of dKOSters leaned yes, 34% leaned no, and 5% weren’t sure or had no opinion.
* Dick Armey, the former Republican Majority Leader heads up Freedom Works and is a lobbyist for DLA Piper. Americans for Prosperity is run by Tim Phillips, who was Ralph Reed’s former partner in the lobbying firm Century Strategies. The group is funded by Koch family foundations – a family whose wealth is derived from the oil industry. Indeed Americans for Prosperity has coordinated pro-drilling ‘grassroots’ events around the country.
Also see Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, a $20 million operation that’s running a national campaign to kill progressive health care reform; Club for Growth, founded by Steven Moore who pushed for ending all assistance to low-income Americans, and Americans for Tax Reform, founded by Grover Norquist.
CODE PINK SEEKS TO ARREST KARL ROVER. HE DENOUNCES “AUTHORITARIAN LEFT”
Why I Tried to Put the Cuffs on Karl Rove
Alternet: We could not allow this war criminal to tout his book around the country and get away with describing anything tied to Bush as courageous.
He wanted to do a book signing and she wanted to arrest him,” was the lead on KCBS TV in Los Angeles. Dozens of activists attended the book signing in Beverly Hills of Karl Rove and his new book, Courage and Consequence.
After almost an hour of his lies I leapt up with a set of handcuffs and my full page arrest complaint followed immediately by the event security. I managed to get very close to Rove, even tricking the security to let go of me, causing Rove to dash away while I reached for his wrist with the hand cuffs. My words followed him. But he only went a few steps and was greeted by Dede Miller, her nephew Casey Miller, son of Cindy Sheehan was killed in Iraq 6 years ago April 4th. She told him his lies killed her nephew while holding up a photo of Casey. Patricia Foulkrod, director of the Ground Truth stood by him with an Arrest the War Criminal banner as the event unraveled and he announced to the organizers it was over.
We at CODEPINK could not allow this war criminal to tout his book around the country and get away with describing anything tied to Bush as courageous. Not to mention that there has been no consequence for his constant lies. Serious lies. Lies that led the US to invade an innocent country at the cost of over 100,000 US casualties and an estimated million Iraqi lives and another 4 million displaced. Not to mention the two elections he shamelessly stole. We can’t sit back and allow him to continue to spread more lies; we heard many more of them last night. Until these war criminals face justice, until they are held accountable for their crimes, the lies continue to spread creating an unreality that is at the root of the teabaggers’ anger…read entire article at Alternet.net.
Whither Privacy Online?
Obama faces major online privacy test
By Declan McCullagh – CNET News
“When Barack Obama was campaigning for the presidency in 2008, he
promised that as president, he would ‘strengthen privacy protections
for the digital age.’
“[A coalition including Google, eBay, Microsoft, AT&T, the ACLU, and
Americans for Tax Reform] is calling for a federal law requiring police
to obtain search warrants before tracking Americans’ cell phone
locations or accessing their e-mail and documents stored in the
cloud–positions that place its members squarely at odds with the Obama
Justice Department.”
Harold Feld: Advocates of More Broadband Under Attack
When big media companies couldn’t get the special treatment they wanted from the FCC to disable millions of TVs and DVRs, they wrote a bitter letter (PDF) blaming Public Knowledge. When cable companies attacked an FCC plan to make set-top boxes something you could buy rather than rent, they attacked the “Public Knowledge” plan.
And it seems like every day, industry and the think tanks it funds go on the war path to attack us as “socialists” (PDF) for pushing the FCC to adopt rules that make broadband affordable for everyone. They call us “pirates” because we don’t want telephone and cable companies to block your downloads, and they call us “radicals” because we think its crazy for the Justice Department to devote more resources to stopping illegal file sharing than to stopping human trafficking.
YES MEN TYPE ACTIONS SPREAD: TWO NEW ACTIONS FROM JUST THIS LAST WEEK!
* CODEPINK pulled off a “Yes-Men-inspired” coup last Monday by making everyone think that AIPAC was suddenly agreeing with the Obama Administration’s criticism of settlements in the West Bank. The action forced AIPAC, which claims to not have a position on settlements, to admit that it disagrees with current U.S. policy and international law. (It also incidentally drew attention to J Street, the much more representative, intelligent, and cool Jewish lobby – which does have a clear position on settlements.) Later the same day, a CODEPINK operative brusquely interrupted Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as he gave lip-service to peace.
* A big shout out to a group in Missoula who made waves in their community last week by widely announcing a shockingly generous “thank you” concert and giveaway on behalf of Macy’s and Smurfit-Stone, two longtime Missoula businesses that had closed just before Christmas, laying off hundreds of workers and leaving the town with millions in unpaid property taxes and debt. (Macy’s CEO Terry J. Lundgren noted that “we improved our profitability” in 2009 by reducing expenses, “enabling us to generate significant cash flow” of $1.6 billion; Smurfit-Stone, whose operations in Mexico and Asia leave them “well positioned for long term growth,” paid out millions in executive bonuses while CEO Sir Michael Smurfit bought a $68 million yacht.) In part thanks t o the “thank you Missoula” action, a bunch more folks in Missoula are wondering why the two companies haven’t thanked the town for sacrificing prospects and jobs for their profits and yachts.
MEDIA NEWS From Iwantmedia.com
AP:Google CEO Schmidt’s Pay is Cut in Half
Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s total compensation fell 52% last year to $245,322 as the Internet search leader cut back on its employee perquisites to help lift its profits during the recession. By Schmidt’s request, Google limited his salary to just $1 for the fifth straight year.
BBC: Martha, Hallmark Mull New Cable Channel
Hallmark and Martha Stewart may be joining forces behind a new lifestyle cable channel. Hallmark parent Crown Media Holdings is in early talks with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia about forming a new venture. If Oprah is getting her own channel, why not Martha?
NY Times: CNN Fails to Stop Decline in Prime Time
CNN continued a precipitous decline in ratings for its prime-time programs in the first quarter of 2010. The audience for long-running 9 p.m. host Larry King dropped 43%. CNN’s talk-show specials with Anderson Cooper have been seen as a trial run for a new 9 p.m. show.
BBC: Russia media criticize Kremlin over Moscow Metro bombs
Amid outrage over suicide bomb attacks on Moscow’s Metro, sections of Russia’s press have been scathing about what they see as the Kremlin’s failure to protect or even inform citizens.
With nearly 40 people dead and 70 injured at stations in the heart of the Russian capital, several newspapers railed at the authorities, criticising the state-controlled TV channels for inadequate coverage.
“Why didn’t senior officials… talk to people through one of the main federal channels to stop them from going into the Metro and to prevent panic?” asked writer Vadim Rechkalov in the popular daily Moskvosky Komsomolets.
“Instead, from the moment when the first blast took place and till 0900 [0600 BST], the leading federal channels showed people singing, dancing, making breakfast and relieving pain with their hands.”
USING THE CRISIS: After two female suicide bombers killed at least 38 people riding the Moscow metro as part of what authorities think is a “deadly new Chechen terror campaign,” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed that the “terrorists will be destroyed.” Experts say the attacks could cause Putin to grab more executive power in the name of domestic security.
CHINA GETS NEW UNIVERSITY
SHANGHAI (AP) — China’s newest university has no football field or fancy library. For inspiration, it looks not to Confucius, but to Ronald McDonald. But Shanghai’s Hamburger U. aspires to be a leader in higher learning for ambitious Chinese managers.
McDonald’s Corp. inaugurated its first Hamburger University in China on Tuesday to train new generations of managers as foreign companies step up efforts to develop and keep Chinese talent.
China is McDonald’s Inc.’s fastest-growing global market, said Tim Fenton, the company’s president for Asia, Pacific, Middle East and Africa. He said the country’s $300 billion-a-year “informal eating out” market is expanding at an annual rate of 10 percent, compared with 2 to 3 percent in the United States.
NETWORKED JOURNALISM
How Al Jazeera Experiments With Networked Journalism
Comment:
Ken Kanavos writes:
“Hard to conclude Conservative fascination with Palinesque-inspired pretzel-logic and misplaced revolutionary ideation won’t conclude with some extraordinarily evil event. This over-the-top Right-Wing hatemongering disguised as first-amendment expression has got to stop. ”
Marty Kaplan, Alternet: Are Americans As Stupid As The Media Thinks We Are?
Last word to/from Andy Borowitz
In Turnabout, Michael Steele Calls Same-sex Unions “Incredibly Hot”
GOP Chairman Changes Positions
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) – In what appears to be a reversal of a long-standing GOP position, RNC chair Michael Steele said today that he considered same-sex unions “incredibly hot, especially when the girls are getting it on in a glass case.”
When asked if his comment meant that the GOP now favored same-sex marriage, Mr. Steele clarified his position: “If we’re talking about two hot lesbian girls simulating marriage in a glass case, yes, I am very much into that sort of thing.”
Mr. Steele denied that he had changed positions on same-sex union issue, but added, “There’s nothing wrong with changing positions if you like the new one better.”
The GOP chairman could not be reached for further comment, as a spokesman for Mr. Steele said he was all tied up.
Other Republicans were critical, however, about the GOP chairman’s authorizing close to $2000 for a night out at a Los Angeles sex club, including Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada): “Why spend that kind of money for something you can see in my office for free?”
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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.
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