http://www.newsdissector.com/blog Danny Schechter's daily media dissections Sun, 11 May 2008 22:18:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY The Wikipedia tells the real non-Hallmark card history: "The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother's Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother's Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/11/1968-at-40-a-generation-rose-but-was-rebuffed-time-to-do-it-again/ CAN RUPERT PULL IT OFF? UPDATE: NEW YORK - News Corp., the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has withdrawn its bid to purchase the Long Island paper Newsday, a News Corp. spokeswoman said Saturday. http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/11/rupert-murdochs-wall-street-journal-questioned-meet-byron-delear/ U.K. turns CCTV, terrorism laws on pooping dogs (Posted by Chris Soghoian) The United Kingdom has the most surveillance cameras per capita in the world. With the recent news that CCTV cameras do not actually deter crime, how can the local town councils justify the massive surveillance program? By going after pooping dogs. In a recent interview with The Guardian, the head of the Metropolitan Police's Visual Images Office explained the failings of CCTV: "Billions of pounds has been spent on it, but no thought has gone into how the police are going to use the images and how they will be used in court. It's been an utter fiasco: only 3 percent of crimes were solved by CCTV. There's no fear of CCTV. Why don't people fear it? (They think) the cameras are not working." Conjuring up the bogeymen ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/11/snoop-cameras-everywhere-in-the-uk-but-what-they-see-is-dogs-pooping/ IRAQ WAR APPROPRIATIONS VOTE POSTPONED A WEEK” The House this week delayed a vote on legislation providing more than $160 billion in new money for the administration's failed war strategy in Iraq. BURMA: THE CRISIS AFTER THE DISASTER PAULSON IS WRONG; CRISIS WILL DEEPEN HUMAN RIGHTS PROTESTERS AT GOOGLE MEETING BURMA: THE HORROR Two from the NY Times: Myanmar’s Biggest City Still Paralyzed After 5 Days A Times reporter in Yangon found that basic utilities have yet to be restored and that streets were choked with fallen trees, showing how difficult recovery from the cyclone could be. U.N. Aid Official Criticizes Junta The United Nations relief began arriving after an excruciating delay during which the junta resisted offers of large-scale help. Now, a closer look from a blogger via Globalvoices online: Writes Mong Palatino: First, an update on the situation in Myanmar after Cyclone Nargis hit the country a few days ago. The ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/08/burma-eyewitness-the-mess-is-terrible-everywhere/ PAULSON SAYS CRISIS DONE; DAS SAYS ITS JUST STARTING Credit crisis over? Not likely Short-term rallies and wishful thinking have buyers ready to pounce, but the end of the credit mess isn't yet here. In the meantime, here's some speculation on bank stocks. By Jon Markman The major stock indexes blasted to two-month highs last week in defiance of wretched news on the economy, one of those reverso-world moves that the market gods use to keep the public wrong-footed. It seems negative sentiment is so pronounced right now that every time the news is one lumen brighter than total blackness, buyers emerge from their foxholes to nibble. Yet Satyajit Das, an independent debt derivatives expert who for years has warned of an impending disaster in credit markets, doesn't buy it. I caught him at his Sydney, Australia, office a few days after he emerged from ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/08/stengels-ghost-advises-wall-street-it-aint-over-until-its-over/ DEATH TOLL RISES IN BURMA WHY SO MUCH APATHY ON THE WAR? NEW TALK ON "DREAM" OBAMA-CLINTON TICKET Will the Burma tragedy bring world pressure on the regime to step down? Will the World Stand By? BURMA—THE TRAGEDY ESCALATES Yesterday: YANGON, Myanmar - Bodies floated in flood waters and survivors tried to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails, while the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar said Wednesday that the toll from the cyclone and its aftermath may reach 100,000. BURMA REFUGEES DYING: WILL THE AID GET THERE TOO LATE? FRENCH NEWS AGENCY AFP: LABUTTA, Myanmar (AFP) - Thousands of shell-shocked survivors of the Myanmar cyclone emerged Wednesday, desperate for food and water after trekking for days through flood waters littered with the bodies of the dead. An AFP reporter who reached the remote southern delta hardest hit by the storm, which left more than 60,000 ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/08/burma-death-toll-climbing-to-100000-is-eco-crisis-over/ The Administration speaks with forked tongue. On the one hand we have the Treasury Department now saying the crisis is over—but then the head of the Fed in Kansas City says interest rates may go UP if inflation keeps going up: FIRST:THE FINANCIAL TIMES ON PAULSON The credit crisis is entering its later stages, but the process of deleveraging in the financial system still has further to go, according to Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary. "I am encouraged. I am feeling better about the markets," he told the Financial Times, adding: "In terms of the capital markets, I believe we are closer to the end than the beginning." Mr Paulson said he took "some comfort and satisfaction" from the amount of capital that was coming into the banking system, both in the form of equity infusions into banks and ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/08/paulson-claims-credit-crisis-is-waningbrooklyn-bridge-4-sale/ MILITARY UPRISING? Proposed Ban on “Porn” Angers Soldiers Should congress ban the sale of Playboy and Penthouse at U.S. military installations? Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga) thinks this is a big enough problem that he needed to introduce legislation to promote a ban on such men’s magazines as “porn”. Soldiers aren’t too happy about it… it’s become a big issue within the military: GRAFENWOHR, Germany — Legislation that would restrict the sale of certain men’s magazines on U.S. military bases around the world would be bad for morale, according to soldiers at Grafenwöhr. U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., has introduced legislation that would close a loophole in the current law that allows the sale of some sexually explicit material on military bases by lowering the threshold required to deem material “sexually explicit.” A Department of Defense committee that ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/08/soldiers-protest-ban-on-playboy-fcc-calls-gossip-news/ Politico.com: "Shellshocked House Republicans got warnings from leaders past and present Tuesday: Your party’s message isn’t good enough to prevent disaster in November.." YES HE COULD AND YES HE DID: OBAMA WINS NORTH CAROLINA WHEW: HILLARY WINS INDIANA BY TWO POINTS LAST WORDS OF DANIEL PEARL UNCENSORED I have just heard Barack Obama give a stemwinder of a speech after sweeping the primary in North Carolina. His win was called “convincing” on Politico.com after a day of my reading stories about screwed up counts and problems at the polls. The people behind him on the stage were all middle aged women, mostly white waving American Flags. Take that Hillary. No doubt his confidence is back and seems to already be starting running in a general election. The fact that CNN and others couldn’t call Indiana at 12:30 AM suggests that her hoped for sweep, ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/07/barack-obama-inching-closer-after-big-win-in-nc/ HOUSING WIRE: "More than half of those who purchased a home in 2006 now owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, the company said — surely ominous news for mortgage execs fretting over the potential for so-called borrower “walk-aways.” " ... http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2008/05/07/tracking-the-economic-decline-oil-up-another-bank-down/