Market Crash Predicted, Occupy Wall Street To Vote On Future This Weekend
September 30th, 2011 - by: danny
September 30: Happy Birthday to mishbukah born on this day: My Brother Bill (and my late Uncle, George Schechter)
Today, Friday at 1 PM, News Dissector Radio on Progressive Radio Danny Schechter speaks with Chuck Slatkin and postal employees about the threat to the survival of the Post Office. In the second half hour, David Degraw, editor of AmpedStatus.com, assesses the Occupy Wall Street protest. Tune in, Call In!
In The Media
RUSSIA TODAY: Mainstream media — watchdog, or lap dancer?
“The mainstream media coverage of the release of the American hikers from Iran has highlighted the decreasing role of the media as a watchdog. Add the coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests, and anti-war protests — is the media doing the Government’s bidding? RT’s Anastasia Churkina reports.
I am also quoted in Spanish in a blog in Cuba.
Obama’s Latest Extra-Judicial Assassination:
Foreign Policy: Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S. born Yemeni cleric implicated in numerous high-profile terror plots in the United States, was reportedly killed on Friday morning, according to both Yemeni and U.S. sources. A senior official in Washington said Awlaki had been killed by a hellfire missile fired from an unpiloted drone.
Wall Street’ Bracing for a CRASH
The news from the Wall Street Occupied by the Banksters:
New York Times reports: The stock market may be ahead of the economy. That suggests a crash is more likely than a second recession.
There are many ways to value equity markets. A simple one is to compare an index to nominal gross domestic product. What ratio counts as high is a matter of debate, but 1995 is a good starting point. The Dow Jones industrial average first climbed above 4,000 in February 1995, which was then almost 50 percent above its 1987 peak. It was 38 percent below the level of December 1996, when Alan Greenspan warned of irrational exuberance.
George Soros in the Financial Times:
Financial markets are driving the world towards another Great Depression with incalculable political consequences. The authorities, particularly in Europe, have lost control of the situation. They need to regain control and they need to do so now.
LBN reports: Good news for the global economy! U.S. stocks rallied after German Chancellor Angela Merkel passed a huge test Thursday, with the German Parliament voting to expand the EU bailout fund.
Stocks Made A Comeback
The word from Europe:
NYT: Even if Europe Averts Crisis, Growth May Lag for Years
In the best case, a bailout of troubled banks and governments could keep the financial system from experiencing a major shock, though easing the huge debt could take years.
Toward Freedom, Greek Debt is unpayable
NYT: Germany Approves Expansion of Euro Bailout Fund
BERLIN — The vote was also a narrow but significant political victory for Chancellor Angela Merkel, as fewer lawmakers from her own coalition joined the no vote than had been expected.
Dems want Bernanke to Do More:
The Hill: Frank, Dems say Bernanke must do more to help economy
Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.) and other Democratic lawmakers say Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke should do more to stimulate the economy.
While they have praised “Operation Twist,” the Fed’s latest attempt to spur on lending and reduce unemployment, Democrats said the central bank should be doing much more to expand economic growth.
“I think it’s a good idea but I would have gone further,” Frank, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement to The Hill Wednesday.
Congressman Sherman: “They could do a little bit more twisting, multiply whatever they’re doing by 120 percent or 140 percent. We need to bring down long-term interest rates,” he added.
Soak The Poor!
WP: Bank of America to charge $5 monthly debit fee
The move is part of a wave of changes eroding the low-cost model of banking for consumers.
Energy secretary admits he gave breaks for Solyndra
WP: Steven Chu gave the final nod to a $535 million federal loan and to easing loan requirements when the cash-strapped company couldn’t meet the terms.
The News From the Wall Street Occupied from The People:
RSN: Despite rainy weather, lack of shelter and increasing illness due too exposure, the Wall Street overnight occupiers numbers have grown 33% from 200 on the first day, September 17th to over 300 according to Time Magazine’
Amped Status reports:
The Future Direction Of #OccupyWallStreet To Be Voted On This Weekend
Last night, #OccupyWallStreet’s General Assembly came to a consensus on a timeline to establish a list of demands that the movement will be calling for. On Friday, September 30th, proposals will be made at the General Assembly meeting and through online submissions at OccupyWallSt.org. Throughout the weekend, the proposed demands will be debated and then voted upon. … Read More at Ampedstatus.com. Listen to News Dissector Radio today for an interview with editor David Degraw.
Fluent News: ‘Wall Street protesters target NY cops next’
Some Unions will join, reports Business Insider
According to Daily Kos, The New York Transit Workers Union (TWU) voted to support the Wall Street Protestors at their meeting last night.
A member of TWU Local 100 told a reporter that they would join the protest Friday at 4PM.
Here’s more about them from their website:
The TWU has four main divisions: Railroad; Gaming;
Airline; Transit; and Utility, University and
Service. The Union has 114 autonomous locals
representing over 200,000 members and retirees in 22
states around the country.
The Media “Coverage”
Al Jazeera profiled the protests noting that the government has yet to respond. The New York Times noted that a photo of a police supervisor using pepper spray has led to an internal investigation,
FAIR Reports: On ABC World News Sunday (9/25/11), anchor David Muir read this short item while playing footage of cops assaulting protesters:
“And here in New York, protests continued against the big banks and the bailout that helped the banks, Wall Street, they say, not Main Street. It turned ugly this weekend when protesters marching through Lower Manhattan clashed with police. One man right there brought down forcefully by an officer. About 80 people were arrested, in fact. The protesters posted this video on the Internet.
NBC Nightly News aired a somewhat longer report the next day (9/26/11), with correspondent Ron Allen actually traveling downtown to the protest encampment in Liberty Plaza. His report included this “he said, she said”: “The protesters charge that the police used excessive force. The police say that anyone who resists arrest can expect to encounter some level of force, but nothing excessive.” The following morning’s Today show (9/27/11) briefly aired footage of a police official pepper-spraying nonviolent demonstrators in the face, noting that “the NYPD calls the officer’s actions appropriate.”??Some journalists seemed strikingly reluctant to take videotaped evidence of police violence at face value.
CNN anchor Ali Velshi (9/26/11) introduced footage of a police assault by dismissively saying that protesters were “now screaming abuse after they were arrested over the weekend.” After the footage of a cop violently subduing a protester, co-anchor Carol Costello noted, “Of course, what you can’t see is what came before the fight”–a disclaimer that could be made of every single piece of videotape that CNN runs.??
A September 27 New York Times piece (FAIR Blog, 9/28/11) seemed to defend the police force’s brutal response, with reporter Joseph Goldstein depicting a police department concerned about “terrorism” and the “destruction and violence” that supposedly accompany “anticapitalist demonstrations.” Such police worries, according to Goldstein, “came up against a perhaps milder reality on Saturday, when their efforts to maintain crowd control suddenly escalated”–an oddly passive way to introduce the use of pepper spray and body slams against nonviolent demonstrators.??”Even as the members of Occupy Wall Street seem unorganized and, at times, uninformed, their continued presence creates a vexing problem for the Police Department,” Goldstein wrote–though his acceptance of media myths about violent demonstrators (Extra!, 1-2/00, 3-4/00; FAIR Action Alert, 7/25/00) makes the reporter seem less informed than the protesters he patronizes.
Michael Moore paid a return visit to the Park Wednesday night as part of his book tour, and a media appearance on MSNBC.
The rapper Immortal Technique was also there.
NakedCapitalism.com, Comment by Matt Stoller, formerly with Congressman Alan Grayson:
Last weekend, I spent a few days with the protesters downtown near Wall Street, and it was an eye-opening experience. The people there want something, but it’s not a list of demands, and it is entirely overlooked by the media and most commentators on the protest.
If all you read are news stories and twitter feeds about #OccupyWallStreet, the most trenchant imagery that will stick in your mind is that of police brutality, and the politics of Wall Street greed. The debate seems to be organized around whether the protest will be “successful” or not, how the protesters are stupid or a new American Tahrir Square, or rhetoric designed in a media sphere that maximizes attention.
Glenn Greenwald suitably demolishes the sneering commentariat. But I think there’s something to add about what exactly this protest is, what it is doing, and most of all, what the people there “want”. They don’t have a formal list of demands.
And it’s obvious that this isn’t just about Wall Street, nor is it really a battle of any sort. There are political signs there attacking Fox News, expressing anger about Troy Davis, supporting the Iranian revolution, urging the Federal Reserve be reigned in, and demanding rich people pay their taxes. There are personal signs about debt, war, and medical problems. And people are dressed in costume, carrying lightsabers, and some guys are driving around a truck with a “Top Secret Wikileaks” sign on the side. I asked if they were affiliated with the site, and one of them responded with “That’s what the Secret Service asked”. Most of all, people there are having fun.”
Fair?
Other Protests
CLG: Union Airline Pilots Occupy Wall Street
Over 700 hundred Continental and United pilots, joined by additional pilots from other Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) carriers, demonstrate in front of Wall Street on September 27, 2011 in New York City. Hundreds of uniformed pilots, standing in stark contrast to the youthful Occupy Wall Street protesters, staged their own protest outside of Wall Street over the past couple of days, holding signs with the picture of the Hudson river crash asking “What’s a Pilot Worth” and others declaring “Management is Destroying Our Airline.”
News From Boston:
Boston, MA – Over 1,000 people are expected to take to the streets Friday for a march on Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to rally against Wall Street greed, predatory lending, and skyrocketing foreclosures in urban communities. Bank of America’s recent $8.5 billion dollar settlement with investors has surged foreclosures on distressed homeowners by the nation’s largest financial institution in recent weeks, according to new data from the foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac.
This was the largest monthly increase since August 2007, right after the housing bubble had burst. Friday’s march on B of A’s Massachusetts headquarters will be led by Boston residents who are facing foreclosure, and will culminate in a confrontational nonviolent sit-in by over 40 people.
ML-Implode.com, Mandelman: Pain in Spain Sending Banks Down The Drain
Max Wolff says on Huff Post that social media has a lot to do with the protests, Writing on Huntington Post, he notes:
From the Arab Spring through the OECD year of discontent, the web 2.0 generation is using social media to agitate against the status quo. We see parallels between the economic and political changes that are erupting. As the internet has gone social, discontent has gone viral. Clearly, new technologies of communication are not the cause of discontent. They are giving voice to millions and allowing a new disorganized coming together. New movements, like the platforms and apps that are helping them form, are distributed, loose and struggling to find solid foundation.
Other News:
Washington Post: Obama administration escalates crackdown on tough immigration laws
The Obama administration is escalating its crackdown on tough immigration laws, with lawyers reviewing four new state statutes to determine whether the federal government will take the extraordinary step of challenging the measures in court.
Justice Department attorneys have sued Arizona and, where a federal judge on Wednesday allowed key parts of that state’s immigration law to take effect but blocked other provisions. Federal lawyers are talking to Utah officials about a third possible lawsuit and are considering legal challenges in Georgia, Indiana and South Carolina, according to court documents and government officials. The level of federal intervention is highly unusual, legal experts said.
Mitt Romney confuses Winston Churchill with John Maynard Keynes
Letters
Sue M: whats that smell? Could it be an American revolution?
Editorial on Professional Journalists Rejection of Their Award for Helen Thomas
Peter Sussman wrote on an SPJ List:
“As I reflect back on the debate at the convention, I think I hadn’t given enough advance thought to rebutting the emotional venom directed at Helen and her views. As someone once said,”“You can’t reason someone out of something they weren’t reasoned into.” I thought that journalists would understand free speech and that it was enough to demonstrate that the award retraction was a direct response to Helen Thomas’s expression of her personal views. I believe we would have won were it not for the unanticipated, coordinated blitz against Thomas’s “hate speech,” “racism” and “bigotry.” How do you rebut that kind of blind rage with only reason? Or do you just sling the same shit in their direction? It was a disheartening choice.”
Guardian: Arundhati Roy on Ouster of David Barsamian from India
Matt Rothschild of the Progressive Calls for Letter Writing Campaign for David Barsamian who was ejected from India. Here’s his, send your own:
September 29, 2011
Ambassador Nirupama Rao
The Indian Embassy
2107 Mass. Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20008
Dear Ambassador Rao:
I am writing to register the strongest objection to the treatment that U.S. journalist David Barsamian received upon arriving at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Dehli early in the morning of Sept. 23.
Barsamian, the founder and director of Alternative Radio, was not allowed to get past the immigration desk. He was told he was on some banned list, and was put on the next plane back to the United States.
There is no excuse for not allowing this distinguished journalist to visit your country, as he has many times before. He has interviewed some of your leading intellectuals, including Nobel Prize-winner Amartya Sen, Booker Prize-winner Arundhati Roy, and Right Livelihood Award-winner Vandana Shiva. He has brought their work to the attention of millions of American citizens, thus enhancing the image of your country.
As a nation that boasts of being the world’s largest democracy, India should not be in the business of suppressing free speech and the free exchange of ideas and the freedom to travel.
I urge you to investigate this matter and to lift the ban on this great American journalist.
Sincerely,
Announcement:
WASHINGTON, DC — Green Parties in several states are co-sponsoring
and hosting a ‘No Nukes Tour’ of North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, and Florida from Monday, October 3, to Saturday,
October 8.
The No Nukes Tour, with the slogan “Organize the South!”, will feature
Green activist and candidate Howie Hawkins. Mr. Hawkins has been an
organizer in movements for peace, justice, labor, the environment, and
independent politics and against nuclear power since the late 1960s.
t/h Gregory Garvey: Final Treat: Mississippi Fred McDowell “When The Train Comes Along)
I will be back at #Occupy Wall Street tonight after 6.
Your comments Welcome. Write: Dissector@mediachannel.org
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Wall St Journal Reveals #Occupy Wall Street Likes Pizza, Israeli Position Slipping, Economy Sliding More
September 29th, 2011 - by: danny
Tomorrow, Friday, 1-2 PM, Tune in/Call in to News Dissector Radio on Progressive Radio Network.com
Guests: Chuck Slatkin on the crisis in the Post Office and Davd Degraw, editor of Amped Status.com, on #OccupyWallStreet”
Quote of the day:
Former Senator Russ Feingold writes: “A favorite and related concept of these same sages is that of bipartisanship, but for them bipartisanship is not so much members of different parties’ hammering out meaningful solutions as it is a group of middle-grounders who can be relied upon to embrace impotent proposals. To many in the Beltway, bipartisanship itself has become its own hollow ideology.”
Military Resistance: Quote Of The Day From Afghanistan:
“Cole Said His Platoon Suffered Close To 30 Percent Casualties, Mostly From Bombs Hidden Around Its Patrol Base”
“The Only Shred Of Sanity That Keeps Us Going Out Here Is That I Have To Protect His Ass And He Has To Protect My Ass”
“They Can Fire At Us All Night If They Want, As Long As Nobody Gets Hurt”
“‘Thank You For Listening,’ He said”
AP: Violence Up 39 Percent in Afghanistan
Headline of the Day from The Wall Street Journal: Down With Wall Street, But Keep The Pizza Coming
And so, on the llth day of #OccupyWallStreet, covered around the world has finally been recognized by the official newspaper of American finance. The WSJ deigned to cover an event taking place under their very noses but that the were apparently too busy to cover.
It made page 8 as a feature story with the pizza connection thrown in for good measure. It ends with “protesters hope they’ll be able to hold out for a while, some say forever.” Ha Ha Ha. The New York Times focused on protests around the world as a sign of a global rejection of electoral politics, but @OccupyWallStreet here in the homeland was not included.
NPR was holier than thou and defends its lack of coverage, as is typical of the tepid masters of public broadcasting: (RSN): Schumacher-Matos writes: “We asked the newsroom to explain their editorial decision. Executive editor for news Dick Meyer came back: ‘The recent protests on Wall Street did not involve large numbers of people, prominent people, a great disruption or an especially clear objective.’
Reverend Billy to Hold Prayer Service Tomorrow at 6
“DAY THIRTEEN of LIBERTY PLAZA. And so tomorrow, Thursday, is the two week anniversary of this new culture. We’ll be there singing at 6PM to show our gratitude for this brave occupation.
Let’s get up from our computer, get out of our cars, come down from whatever fundamentalism keeps our America old and violent and profit-taking – and go down to the public square that sits there covered with pigeon shit and the shadow of a soldier on a horse – and sing the 1st Amendment! Start our culture over! REVOLUJAH!”
RSN: With the Occupation of Wall Street in its second week, solidarity actions are popping up around the country and the world. Cities currently supporting Occupy Wall Street are: Madrid, Spain; San Francisco, California; Los Angeles, California; Toronto, Canada; London, England; Athens, Greece; Sydney, Australia; Stuttgart, Germany; Tokyo, Japan; Milan, Italy; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Algiers, Algeria; Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel; Portland, Oregon; and Chicago, Illinois.
Cities in the process of joining Occupy Wall Street are: Phoenix, Arizona; Montreal, Canada; Cleveland, Ohio; Atlanta, Georgia; Kansas City, Missouri; Seattle, Washington; and Orlando, Florida.
Wall Street Blues: Judges Rule Rich Rule
Judge makes it harder for Madoff victims to collect, rules for owners of Mets
Bloomberg: Goldman Sachs Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit Over CDO Loss
U.S. District Judge William Pauley III in Manhattan ruled today that the bank didn’t sufficiently back up its claims against Goldman Sachs, which underwrote Davis Square, a CDO collateralized by residential mortgage-backed securities in 2006, and against Los Angeles-based TCW Asset Management Co., which manages collateral for asset-backed securities….
Pauley said about 79 percent of the mortgages underlying Davis Square were below prime and at an increased risk of default. He ruled that LBBW failed to allege specific facts to support its claims for fraud and unjust enrichment. He also said the bank was a sophisticated investor that accepted the risks of its investment.
Meanwhile in the economy:
Portside: Eurozone: Mark Weisbrot, Guardian, A Crisis of Policy, Not Debt
The European authorities’ doctrinaire decision to use debt issues to force austerity on Greece made the situation so much worse
LBN: AUGUST DURABLE GOODS ORDERS FALL
The economy is giving mixed messages. Orders for durable goods like cars and appliances fell .1 percent last month after a 4.1 increase in July. The decline is mostly due to an 8.5 percent drop in the orders of cars. But another indicator shows that businesses are continuing to invest, unfazed by the recent market upheaval. Nondefense capital goods increased 1.1 percent last month after falling 0.2 percent in July.
Dylan Ratigan: There will be no criminal investigations of Wall Street because Wall Street told the President and Eric Holder that it won’t happen. Here is why our country is dying (or already dead.)
(go to the 2:00 minute mark of the video)
NakedCapitalism.com: Protestors Disrupting Foreclosure Auctions in California
On Monday afternoon at 12:00 p.m., a group of protesters organized under the umbrella of the “Make Banks Pay California” campaign picketed a foreclosure sale at the Alameda County Courthouse located at 1225 Fallon Street, Oakland California.
I had heard about the protest from a contact in the real estate industry, and so I resolved to go down and see what it was about. I went specifically as an observer and not as a protester.
When I arrived around noon, I saw a group of roughly 10 to 15 people protesting. Some had yellow shirts marked “ACCE” picketing on the courthouse steps. Many of them had signs, like “Stop Foreclosures/End Bankster Fraud” and pictures of various Wall Street Executives tagged as “Wall Street Robber Banker.” One woman held up a sign that said “Chase and LPS Crime Scene.”
After chatting with a few of the protesters I found out that some of them were part of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and others were part of the local teachers union, SEIU Local 21. This being Alameda County, both the bystanders, protesters, auctioneers and bidders were a broad spectrum of ages and ethnicities.
Over the next 2 weeks, the Make Banks Pay California group plans to have a variety of actions in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles to “make Wall Street banks pay for destroying jobs and neighborhoods with their greedy, irresponsible and predatory business practices.”
Marvin Kitman: The Sun Never Sets on Solyndra
“I am a hearings junkie. My favorite entertainment channel is C-Span3. This past Friday morning, it had a real showstopper. The two chief executives of Solyndra appeared before the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The interrogators were examining how the solar energy company went bankrupt after getting $535 million in federal loans.
My favorite part is when citizens take the Fifth. I’ve seen some classic performances of citizens exercising their Constitutional rights. When in knee pants, sitting at my mother’s varicose knee, I still remember Frank Costello and other mobsters and racketeers. Then there were the dangerous possible 10 Communists in Hollywood… the Watergate hearings… Oliver North working in the basement of the Whitehouse in Iran-Contra. They either took the constitutional way out or came up with circumlocutions I don’t recall at this point in time.
But Brian Harrison, Solyndra CEO, and Wilbur G. Stover, the CFO, were masterful. They respectfully declined to answer questions 25 times out of 25 in the roughly hour of tough grilling by the Torquemadas of the House. The Solyndra sphinxes were so stony-faced as they read their rights from the single piece of paper on the table, it was as if they were auditioning for the Mount Rushmore of Corporate America.
What the Founding fathers had in mind was protecting citizens against self-incrimination. What a concept.
VIa Undernews: Study finds $11 in parts and a 8th grade science education can hack voting machines used by one quarter of American electorate
Brad Friedman, Salon – Voting machines used by as many as a quarter of American voters heading to the polls in 2012 can be hacked with just $10.50 in parts and an 8th grade science education, according to computer science and security experts at the Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The experts say the newly developed hack could change voting results while leaving absolutely no trace of the manipulation behind.
“We believe these man-in-the-middle attacks are potentially possible on a wide variety of electronic voting machines,” said Roger Johnston, leader of the assessment team “We think we can do similar things on pretty much every electronic voting machine.”
Homeland Security wants right to abuse environment as well as air travelers
USA Today – A controversial bill would give the Department of Homeland Security sweeping authority over federal lands within 100 miles of the U.S. border. The National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act would give the secretary of Homeland Security authority over federal lands within 100 miles of the U.S. international and maritime borders for “activities that assist in securing the border (including access to maintain and construct roads, construct a fence, use vehicles to patrol and set up monitoring equipment).” The measure also waives the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Park Service Organic Act, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, the National Historic Preservation Act and the Clean Air Act.
News By Press Release: “Terror Suspect Arrested In Commonwealth of Massachusetts
According to a press release from the FBI’s Boston Division, a Massachusetts man was arrested and charged on Wednesday for allegedly plotting to attack the US Capitol and the Pentagon with explosive RC airplanes. Rezwan Ferdaus planned on filling the RC airplanes with C-4 plastic explosives.
In addition to the charges related to his DC terror plot, Ferdaus was also charged with aiding a foreign terrorist organization in order to kill US soldiers abroad.
U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz confirmed that Ferdaus planned to attack the US Capitol and the Pentagon. “Our top priority is to protect our nation from terrorism and national security threats. The conduct alleged today shows that Mr. Ferdaus had long planned to commit violent acts against our country, including attacks on the Pentagon and our nation’s Capitol,” Ortiz said in the statement.
The FBI’s statement also confirms that the public was never in danger as Ferdaus was wrapped up in an FBI sting. The FBI’s undercover agents were used to communicated with Ferdaus as he plotted his attack. Richard DesLauriers, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Division, said that Ferdaus’ “arrest was the culmination of an investigation forged through strong relationships among various Massachusetts law enforcement agencies to detect, deter, and prevent terrorism.”
According to the press release, Ferdaus is a graduate student at Northwestern University with a degree in physics. Ferdaus began plotting to harm US soldiers as early as 2010 when he supplied electrical switches for explosive devices to undercover agents.
In January 2011, Ferdaus expressed his desire to attack the Pentagon with RC airplanes. In April 2011, Ferdaus added the US Capitol to his target list. According to the affidavit, Ferdaus’ desire to attack the US was very strong. “I just can’t stop; there is no other choice for me,” Ferdaus said.
The Hill: Apology From Rick Perry
Perry apologies for ‘heartless’ immigration comment, pushes border bona fides
Rick Perry said Wednesday that he was sorry for saying at last week’s Republican debate that those opposed to providing an in-state tuition break to the children of illegal immigrants “did not have a heart.”
“I was probably a bit over-passionate by using that word and it was inappropriate,” Perry said in a interview with Newsmax. “In Texas in 2001 we had 181 members of the legislature – only four voted against this piece of legislation – because it wasn’t about immigration it was about education.”
LBN: LIBYAN MISSILES GO MISSING:
Thousands of surface-to-air missiles are unaccounted for in Libya weapons that could be used to knock down airplanes if they fall into the wrong hands. Libya was estimated to have 20,000 surface-to-air missiles before the revolution began in February, but the U.S. and its allies are still figuring out exactly how many missiles they need to track down. The White House said Wednesday it will boost efforts to find and destroy the weapons stockpiles.’
From National Security Experts Blog: Michael Brenner writes, DIM THE LIGHTS, THE PARTY’S OVER
The United States’ strategic position in the greater Middle East is disintegrating. The repercussions of the Arab Spring have undercut the tacit alliance among Washington, Cairo, Riyadh, Amman and Jerusalem with auxiliary members in Yemen and Tunisia among other peripheral states. Mubarak is gone while his former military cohorts sap the revolution’s zeal through symbolic acts that include untying their bonds to Israel while cultivating an alliance with Turkey. Both pillars of the regional sub-system are animated by deepening anti-American feelings among their populace that are spreading across the Islamic world. In Ankara, moreover, the Erdogan government now has its own calculated view of a diplomatic field that no longer has the United States as its hub. The House of Saud is so badly rattled that it is turning on Washington as the cause of its new-found sense of vulnerability. Iraq’s sectarian Shi’ite leadership spurns the idea of a special relationship with us while incrementally building structures of cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Tehran will not bend the knee in response to our relentless campaign of shunning and sanctioning it – leaving Washington with the bleak choice of war or an indefinite period of tense onfrontation – in the absence of any readiness to speak seriously with its leaders about the terms of a modus vivendi.
Farther afield, Afghanistan is an endless slog with the vain hope of turning that ill-starred land into a Western oriented, pro-American country fading like the swirls of smoke from a lost pipe dream. Pakistan is now pronounced our enemy condemned routinely by our belligerent leaders as the source of all that stymies us in both places. Levels of anti-Americanism are so high as to leave those with favorable views of America within a statistical margin of error that reaches to 00.0. The country’s political elite is unifying around the hard position of giving a blunt ‘no’ in response to bellicose demands from Washington that it do our bidding. Everywhere we look, never has America’s standing been so weak, its authority so low, it credibility in such tatters, and its judgment so suspect.
Little of this registers in official Washington, or in the ante-chambers of power that is unofficial Washington….”
Your Letters
Jared writes: ” just wanted to say I was thrilled to see your piece on Occupy Wallstreet on Al Jazeera. As a student who has many friends who’ve went down and is planning on heading down this weekend, I am grateful that at least some news outlets are picking this up. Seeing as Al Jazeera appeals to an audience who actually have a clue of what’s happening in the US, I am hopeful to think your article will bolster support for this burgeoning movement!
Adam McConnel offers this update from Istanbul:
Hi Danny, there was an article in Zaman last night expalining that the Turkish FM had been at the UN for 10 days and had been in something like 80 different meetings with officials from around the world. Things are really getting interesting at the moment. The Turkish stock market to?ok off again this week after jack-knifing last week. The Turkish FM also contradicted the article in the NYT yesterday (?) on Turkey’s foreign policy, saying that Turkey was NOT trying to sell itself as a model for the entire region, but he had said that before the article even appeared… the Kurdish political party has finally decided to join the parliament…
Daily Beast: Amazon Declares War On Apple
It’s on! With the $199 Kindle Fire taking on the iPad, the two giants of digital media go head-to-head in the tablet-computer market. The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons reports.
Happy Birthday to the UE (Union Electrical Union)
UE is celebrating our 75th anniversary this year. We are proud that for eight decades UE has stayed true to our mission of aggressive struggle to improve our conditions. In honor of this milestone, we’d like to share with members and supporters stories of UE’s fight for human rights at work and a just world as well as innovations that have helped build the movement. Help us celebrate our birthday and get some inspiration along the way.
I met Joost Smiers in Istanbul. He is working on challenging the power of copyright and cultural conglomerates. Read his argument in this essay.
Protest in India against the expulsion of US radio journalist David Barsamian
EVENT IN NEW YORK FOR TROY DAVIS
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR
TROY DAVIS
Please join other New Yorkers in a memorial for Troy Davis
Saturday, October 1st, 2011
11:30 am to 12:30 pm (doors open at 11:00 am)
Riverside Church, South Hall
490 Riverside Drive, NY NY
(Enter at 93 Claremont Avenue near 121st Street)
On Wednesday, September 21, the state of Georgia executed Troy Davis. Troy’s case, marked by strong doubts about his guilt, touched people around the world. On Saturday, October 1, he will be buried in Savannah, his home.
Thousands of New Yorkers fought for and cared about Troy Davis’s battle against the death penalty. Join us to mark his passing, to stand together against the system that murdered him, and to celebrate the struggle that brought so many people together to say, “I Am Troy Davis.”
In Troy’s words: “The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davis’s who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.”
The memorial will be followed by an organizing meeting of the
Campaign to End the New Jim Crow, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm, in the same location.
Share your comments on the blog and how we can attract more readers. Write: dissector@mediachannel.org
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Back At #Occupy Wall Street, SPJ Shames Journalism, Difrent Here, Nukespeak Coming,
September 28th, 2011 - by: danny
How Free Is Freedom of Speech in The US of A? RT asked. I responded.
Meanwhile back a the Occupation…
I went back to #Occupy Wall Street yesterday to check on the state of the stalemate with the cops and to see if the crowd was growing. It is, but not that visibly. There was a media strategy meeting underway when I got there while a teach-in on economics was scheduled for later.
The beehive was buzzing.
I did get some praise for my new piece on Al Jazeera English, but I was also criticized by one veteran activist for being too analytical and not positive enough, even though I am enthused by the protest but worry for it.
He gave me an editorial from the Newark Star Ledger which he felt was excellent. It read in part:
“The group cannot be dismissed as twenty something, nothing-better-to-do protesters. Among them are former white-collar workers who, for the first time in productive, tax-paying lives are unemployed with no prospects for a job.
This nation should listen to this small Wall Street encampment which arrives just as the president appears ready to stop coddling the rich.
For one of the few times since the meltdown, there’s a group of Americans speaking on behalf of the other 99 percent.”
Naked Capitalism: “There seems to be a class difference between white collar and blue collar cops. It was a white collar cop that maced the women. OccupyWallStreet claims about 100 blue collar cops failed to show up to work today in protest.”
And who are the soldiers of this revolution? Karen Malpede writes for Portside:
Our New Left devolved into Weatherman fantasies of violent
revolution, yet what remains forty years later are these new
committed pacifists, reminding each other in their General
Assembly to take their vitamins, stay hydrated and recycle.
They are gentle, non-hierarchical, non-doctrinaire,
completely committed to non-violence. There are egos to be
seen, but, so far, so good, there are no internecine fights
for dominance, no purges, no betrayals. They paint signs
with individualistic, often witty, always acute and
encompassing sayings: “if you lost your house, Wall Street
stole it from you,” and they have a bucket collecting money
for their “adopt a puppy fund.” …
Everyone was talking about the arrival of left luminaries like Michael Moore Monday night and Susan Sarandon yesterday morning. In the afternoon, Cornell West showed up and there was a hug fest with admiring activists and supportive words from this most eloquent public intellectual. I also saw the priest, Father Paul Meyer, a clerical comrade of the Berrigans.
I ran into a CNN producer who was looking for students in debt to interview, and saw a TV crew from Japan. David Degraw of AmpedStatus.com worries that the leaderless nature of the occupation may make it hard to attract media attention. He also told me about counterattacks by Anonymous who hacked into the cell phones and websites of the police officers who attacked the marchers with pepper spray Saturday and found porn that is all over the internet.’
Next Stop: Washington DC
Scott Galindez writes on RSN: “‘A press release from the October2011 coalition announced that “…the People’s Uprisings seen around the world and in the United States will come to Washington, DC beginning on Thursday, October 6 when thousands will converge to begin a prolonged people’s occupation of Freedom Plaza.’ The release claimed they were building on Arab Spring, European Summer, Madison and the Occupation of Wall Street.”
Yahoo reported pushback from some activists to unresponsive media outlets:
“Does NPR think this is unimportant?” one NPR listener, Daniel Clay, wrote. “Are you going to wait for someone to die or commit serious violence before you give it the attention it deserves?”
Fair or not, it appears that violence did inspire at least some deeper coverage of the protests.
A YouTube video that appears to show a New York City police officer using pepper-spray on women during the Wall Street protests has been picked up by national outlets, including the “Today” show. As The Cutline’s colleague Zachary Roth notes on The Lookout, the officer, Anthony Bologna, is also being sued in connection with an incident during demonstrations at the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Journalist Charles M Young who I once interviewed at 20/29 wrote:
1) I had brunch on Sunday in Chinatown with a friend who works in local television news. He complained that the Occupy Wall Street people had sent over video that they said showed demonstrators getting maced. It didn’t show any such thing, my friend insisted. After brunch I walked over to occupied Zuccotti Park (two blocks north of Wall Street) and told somebody at the Media table that they had to be careful about claiming more for their video than it actually showed. Then I went home and looked at the video, and it clearly showed several young women, who presented no physical threat, getting wrapped up by police in a plastic net and pepper sprayed in the face.
2) My friend’s other complaint about Occupy Wall Street was that they didn’t have a list of demands. Nobody knows what they want, said my friend. It is true that they don’t have a policy statement yet, nothing to spoonfeed the corporate press. But they are trying. On Saturday night, I sat through their General Assembly meeting in the park and heard the report of the One Demand Working Group. Basically, they wanted to demand that other autonomous groups in other cities join them. Most of the General Assembly pointed their hands down and wiggled their fingers, meaning disapproval (in a supportive way). Several people said that you can’t demand solidarity from an autonomous group, you can only encourage it. And everyone seemed to think the language wasn’t “provocative” or “funny,” which meant it had way too much Process jargon and not enough Anglo Saxon monosyllables. It was suggested (not decided) that the One Demand Working Group try another draft and perhaps combine their efforts with the Principles of Solidarity Working Group.”
While the media is still not doing the job it should in covering this brave undertaking, a journalists organization showed the high degree of caution, complicity and conservatism we have come to expect in the lamestream media.
When veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas was fired for speaking out against Israel, the Society for Professional Journalists ended a media award given in her name. Here’s a report by a journalism student in Va.
A group of journalists in the society tried to get them to reverse their decision at the annual SPJ convention. One report I read said many who defended the SPJ’s stance didn’t know the facts.
But it didn’t matter. They opted, as many unconscious journalists do, to support the status quo, The vote failed by 85-71 vote.
Paul LaRoque wrote: “Terrible. I’m ashamed of SPJ. The delegates had a chance to undo an unethical SPJ action and failed. Thanks to the 71 who voted for restoration. Shame on the others.”
Peter Sussman wrote: “I too am deeply disturbed by the discussion and outcome. It was a coordinated “old guard circling the wagons” debate”
Former SPJ President Christine Tatum, added: “I’m truly ashamed of SPJ.
I heard some of the debate. The mischaracterizations of Helen’s remarks were just that — mischaracterizations. Intentional ones at that.”
Lets give the final word to Helen Thomas:
“”I am unafraid to criticize anyone who is against freedom and the rights people have to fight for their freedom. I am unafraid to criticize anyone who cannot stand up in defense of those who are oppressed.”
“Look at what is happening on the world stage. Millions of people are standing up for Palestine’s freedom. Their opinions are valid and reasonable, and they are finally saying enough to the bullying of Israel and its lobbyists. We (journalists) should celebrate that this debate is finally happening among nations more openly and directly — and we of all people should be able to respect differences in opinion.”
“I have taken hard stands in my life — and plenty of them. I’m not stopping now.”
“I love you, (Christine Tatum) and all of the men and women who have stood in my defense. You have risked so much to defend free speech — my free speech — in the ways you have. It’s not the award that matters to me. I have a bunch of wood and glass around here (in my home). It’s knowing that people who don’t even agree with me value the principle of free speech so much.”
Economy:
Financial Times: Split opens over Greek bail-out terms
A split has opened in the eurozone over the terms of Greece’s second €109bn bail-out with as many as seven of the bloc’s 17 members arguing for private creditors to swallow a bigger writedown on their Greek bond holdings, according to senior European officials.
The divisions have emerged amid mounting concerns that Athens’ funding needs are much bigger than estimated just two months ago. They threaten to unpick a painfully negotiated deal reached with private sector bond holders in July.
WilliamBowles (William Bowles Info) adds some perspective from London:
“In case you hadn’t noticed, especially if you get your news from the MSM, there is the mother of all capitalist crises unfolding around us. A crisis that appears to be far deeper even than the Crash of ’29 and given the global nature of corporate capitalism, nobody (except the rich) can escape its awful destructive power, short of revolution of course.
So deep in fact, that the imperial elites are incapable of resolving it and appear to be frozen to the spot like a deer caught in the headlights, attempting to apply ‘solutions’ that only compound the contradictions. It points once and again to the chaotic nature of capitalism that hides its ignorance behind glib phrases that mean nothing.
The Independent’s headline (24/9/11) summed up the elite’s dilemma succinctly, if somewhat archaically but then that’s what you would expect from an obsolete elite used to bamboozling the public by obscuring the facts and praying that no one will notice:
“The World prays for an economic miracle”
NYT: As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe
Protesters around the world have something in common: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.
The Daily Bell writes “Depression Leaves Investors Feeling Like a Dog Without a Bone”
Don’t Let Volatile Markets Get You Off Your Game … With the 4-day slump in stocks momentarily taking a breather, investors are tentatively coming out of their bunkers to assess the damage. The 7% storm that battered the markets this week destroyed more than $1 trillion of wealth held in the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index (NYA), according to Factset data. – Yahoo Finance
Dominant Social Theme: Look. Depressions happen.
PBS: Survey: Health Care Premiums Soar for Many Employees
Haaretz: US Condemns Israel AgainIsrael
The U.S. condemned Tuesday Israel’s plan to build 1,100 new housing units in Jerusalem’s contested Gilo neighborhood, which lies beyond the Green Line.
Gareth Porter, Afghanistan Killing Squads
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NUKESPEAK
UPDATED TO INCLUDE EVENTS THROUGH
THE STILL UNFOLDING FUKUSHIMA DISASTER
On October 4, 2011, Sierra Club Books will publish the 30th anniversary edition of Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima exclusively in e-book format. First published in 1982 in the wake of the first great nuclear plant accident at Three Mile Island, the original edition, written by Stephen Hilgartner, Richard C. Bell, and Rory O’Connor, examined the turbulent history of the nuclear industry, documenting the extraordinary public relations campaign that developers undertook to sell nuclear technology.
This new edition, updated by original authors Richard C. Bell and Rory O’Connor, brings the book fully up-to-date, exploring the critical events of the last three decades—including the disaster at Chernobyl, the campaign to re-brand nuclear energy as a “clean, green” solution to global warming, and the still unfolding disaster at Japan’s Fukushima power plant. In addition, the authors argue persuasively that a language of euphemism and distraction continues to dominate public debate about nuclear weapons and nuclear power around the world. Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune adds an insightful foreword to the new edition.
In Nukespeak: The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima, you will find:
• The full text of the 1982 edition, which explored the history of nuclear development up to and just beyond the Three Mile Island accident, as well as four new chapters covering the continuing proliferation of nuclear weapons and the catastrophic accidents at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011.
• An analysis of the language used to shape and distort political discourse and thinking on nuclear issues, supported by an index of “Nukespeak” words, and a look at how public relations campaigns have influenced the debate.
• Fresh perspectives on the failed economics of nuclear power and the continuing plans for a “nuclear renaissance” in the United States.
New Album of Note
STEPHAN SAID, ACCLAIMED ARAB-AMERICAN ARTIST-ACTIVIST, RELEASES ANTICIPATED ALBUM, DIFRENT, PRODUCED BY HAL WILLNER
With New Album and Upcoming Shows, Said Continues to Contribute to the Global Movement for Freedom
Nearly ten years after his dedicated to building an international movement for a more equal society. His new album, difrent, anticipated the Arab Spring: It was recorded well before the uprisings, yet it contains a version of the
Egyptian civil rights anthem “Aheb Aisht Al Huriya,” (“I Love The Life of Freedom”), which Said released as a free mp3 and video, making one of the first musical contributions to the nascent freedom movement in the region. Indeed, much of the music on the album—produced by Hal Willner (Allen Ginsberg, Leonard Cohen and the forthcoming Lou Reed & Metallica album)—is an apt soundtrack for the movement, which Said sees as global, rather than confined to the Middle East.
AP: Atomic worker advocates aghast at names in manual
CINCINNATI (AP) — Advocates for U.S. atomic workers sickened by radiation exposure say they’re stunned that a federal claims training manual uses fictional characters’ names, including an apparent reference to the disfigured villain of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” horror movies.
Deborah Jerison of Yellow Springs, Ohio, said she recently received the Labor Department manual in response to a Freedom of Information request made months earlier. Her late father worked at a now-defunct nuclear weapons plant in Miamisburg, Ohio. She heads a group that helps former atomic workers and their families pursue federal occupational illness compensation claims.
The manual she says she received uses case names derived from TV and movies, such as claimant “Freddie Krueger,” spelled slightly different than the Freddy in the “Nightmare” series. The Krueger in the manual is reported as dying on Oct. 31 — Halloween. The example suffered from “depression, dementia and skin cancer.”
Andy Rooney, 92, To Leave 60 Minutes After Final Appearance on Sunday
Hijacker caught After 40 Years
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A fugitive task force that spent nine years pursuing the case of a 1970s militant who carried out one of the most brazen hijackings in U.S. history got a break this week: police matched his fingerprint to a resident ID card in Portugal.
That match led to the arrest Monday of George Wright, 68, who had been on the run for more than 40 years…
The FBI said Wright became affiliated with an underground militant group, the Black Liberation Army, and lived in a “communal family” with several of its members in Detroit.
In 1972, Wright — dressed as a priest and using an alias — hijacked a Delta flight from Detroit to Miami. With him were several members of his communal group, including Wright’s companion and their 2-year-old daughter.
Obama Advisor David Axelrod: Obama Faces “Titanic Struggle”
What a choice of words. Isn’t that the unsinkable ship that sank? And what was Axelrod’s role in all this?
Shana Tova from me to thee.
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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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