PLEASE TAKE THIS CELL, MR. BLACK

Deposed media tycoon Conrad Black Started his jail sentence in the US. 6 1/2 years in Florida. Three counts of fraud and one of obstructing justice. He owes the US $6.1 million. He is in a low security prison. He has filed an appeal.

MEDIA FAILURE

The Trends Institute reports:

RHINEBECK, NY, 3 March 2008 — The United States’ economy is in meltdown mode. The Panic of ’08, the beginning of the worst financial crisis to ever have hit modern America, is under way.

But despite the daily doses of dire economic data pointing to disaster, the media doesn’t report how bad it really is (if they report it at all), while Wall Street and Washington deny a recession is coming … or proclaim that should one arrive, the economic landing will be gentle.

For all those needing more proof of just how bad it is or how bad it will get, the evidence is clear and the outcome is predictable.

FOX NEWS ADMITS

NewsHounds: Fox admits that John McCain throws F-bombs around Congress.

The Rejected

First in a series of posts by a CJR reporter embedded with American forces in Iraq
By Paul McLeary

FROM AHRC NEWS: HELP–WEBSITE UNDER ATTACK

We need your help convincing Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and ACLU to help defend AHRC from attempts to close down the ahrc,com website.

A California Superior Court gave CAI foreclosure lawyers for Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association (an HOA Elizabeth and Arnold formerly lived in) a sanction judgement of $40,000. because Arnold filed a SLAPP suit in defense of a fraudulent lawsuit by Palacio del Mar that is on appeal. Arnold had sought and received Judge Brooks’ permission to file this SLAPP motion, which he promptly filed, but at the hearing of the motion, Judge Brooks reversed his position, claimed that it was untimely filed, and imposed sanctions to be paid to Peters & Freedman.

Judge Brooks, who had been colluding with Peters & Freedman, denying McMahons any discovery and forcing the McMahons ot pay thousands in sanctions and private rental judge referee fees at the r equest of Peters & Freedman, was issued a Public Admonishment by the Council on Judicial Performance after Arnold filed a complaint against him. ( Before the issuance of the Public Admonishment, Judge Brooks had recused himself from the McMahon case after publicity in the local papers about his racist remarks on several cases involving Hispanics, Middle Easterners and immigrants.)

Judge Smith took over the case and exhibited the same bias and ignored a recusal filing. He signed a $40,000. lawyer (Peters & Freedman) fees sanction judgment for Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association. Peters & freedman who took over Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association in 1993 has been using Palacio del Mar to front their extortion scams and their attempts to shut down homeowners from exposing their foreclosure and litigation fraud activities , So Peters & Freedman asked the judge to sign an order to transfer ownership of the ahrc.com domain to Palacio del Mar Homeowners Association. (See attached brief from them)

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and ACLU defend these sort of First Amendment cases (See EFF’s mission statement below and attachment). A week ago we asked EFF attorney Matt Zimmerman to help with the defense of ahrc.com. He asked us to send the filings on this case. We sent a brief background and the Peters & Freeman brief asking the court give them ahrc.com (See attached.) for their lawyer fee sanctions against Arnold. (Arnold is not the owner of ahrc.com)

A few days later on February 26, 2008 we received a press release and brief from EFF. AHRC is on their media release list and we publish their press releases that are of interest to homeowners e.g. recently we published their releases about their cases against the telecommunications companies and their lobby activities in Congress to stop legislation giving telecommunications companies immunity for warrantless tapping of telephone calls ) The press release stated that EFF and ACLU had jointly intervened on a similar case on behalf of wikileaks.org. (See attached) On February 29, 2008 we received another EFF press release saying that the judge had dissolved the wikileaks.org injunction.(See attached)

Our case is similar to the wikileaks.org case. Wikileaks permits third parties to post corporate and government documents that they believe expose wrongdoing. In the case of wikileaks, a Swiss bank was trying to shut wikileaks down allegedly for posting “leaked documents regarding personal banking transactions of their customers.”

AHRC.com permits homeowners, public officials, media and businesses to publish public news of interest to homeowners, Homeowners also published stories about their experiences in homeowner associations , the legislature and the courts. Shining the light on the activities of the politicians, lawyers and judges and the foreclosure industry has made ahrc.com a target for shut down. Peters & Freedman and CAI lawyers and judges have been working together for years to shut down all home foreclosure fraud news that homeowners have been exposing to the world.

We need need your help to get both EFF and the ACLU to help protect the first amendment and freedom of speech rights of all homeowners. This is an issue affecting not only the 55 million homeowners who live in homeowner associations and their families but also millions of other homeowners who have been losing their life savings, family assets and homes to mortgage and securities scams.

MEDIA: UNFAIR TO NADER

Kevin Howley: “In the weeks and months ahead, the corporate media will use this frame — Nader is a spoiler and his run for the presidency is little more than vanity and self-indulgence –whenever it deigns to even mention Nader in campaign press coverage.

Sad to say, even some progressive media outlets are dismissing Nader’s entry into the presidential race. As a result, we can expect little, if any, substantive reporting about the Nader campaign, his goals and objectives, and the glaring differences between his policy positions and those of the Republican and Democratic candidates.

The purposeful mixture of silence and condescension that characterizes press coverage of the Nader campaign reveals the democratic deficit that is at the core of our electoral process. It also makes a mockery of this campaign season’s clarion call for “change.”

Indeed, for all their talk of change, the major party candidates operate in that netherworld of centrist politics that is loath to challenge the status quo. Obama, Clinton, and McCain understand full well that corporate interests are the real third-rail of American politics. None of these “mavericks” or “agents of change” come close to Nader’s record for taking on corporate power.”

FINALLY, A MEDIA FREEBIE

Tony Sutton, the brilliant designer and editor, writes to announce that the new issue of the ColdType.Net Reader is available for free download. One of my articles is in it.

Subscribe to: The ColdType Reader – in two big sections this month

Main section: 64 pages, stories include: dogs as food, oil and the economy, pill-popping, US foreign policy, people power in Gaza, a day of rage, demolishing the new Berlin walls, the Winograd commission, Israel and emails, the pacification of Mosul, war against intolerance, media distortion, the trouble with NATO, death of the noble idea, vacations for criminals, New Orleans and basketball, a butt-kicking for Gitmo.

EXTRA: 24-page excerpt from Flat Earth News, a new book by investigative journalist Nick Davies that is causing a stir in the British media. The Blinded Observer tells how Britain’s leading liberal Sunday newspaper was manipulated by Downing Street and various intelligence services into supporting Bush’s war on Iraq.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE: http://www.coldtype.net

BURN, BABY, BURN

Finally, back to the housing crisis. I have told you about people walking away from homes they couldn’t afford. I have told you about some folks trashing their own homes after they defaulted to protest suprime/subcrime loans that proved unaffordable. But now, there’s something new–from Seatte: a violent attack on luxury homes by environmental militants. The Seattle Times reports:

Officials are blaming “domestic terrorism” for fires early today that destroyed three multi-million-dollar homes and damaged a fourth which were built as part of last year’s Seattle Street of Dreams in the Maltby area of Snohomish County.

Damage was estimated at $7 million.

Early reports indicated that explosive devices were found inside the homes. And nearby, a spray-painted sign bearing the initials of the Earth Liberation Front, challenged builders’ assertion that the homes featured environmentally responsible construction methods.

A KING-5 video showed the sign, which read: “Built Green? Nope black! McMansions in RCDs r not green. ELF” The initials “RCD” refers to “rural cluster development.”

Again, this area was called “The Street of Dreams.”

That’s it from me on this second day back on the job after my 19 1/2 nervous breakdown/computer breakdown.

Comments encouraged as usual to Dissector@mediachannel.org