Chris Hedges: The Truth Alone Will Not Set You Free

"Those who care about the plight of the working class and the poor must begin to mobilize quickly or we will lose our last opportunity to save our embattled democracy. The most important struggle will be to wrest the organs of communication from corporations that use mass media to demonize movements of social change and empower proto-fascist movements such as the Christian right. American culture-or cultures, for we once had distinct regional cultures-was systematically destroyed in the 20th century by corporations. These corporations used mass communication, as well as an understanding of the human subconscious, to turn consumption into an inner compulsion" - Hedges .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, July 4, 2009

Noam Chomsky on “Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours”

Chomsky, the MIT professor, author and dissident intellectual, just turned eighty years old this past December. He has written over 100 books, but despite being called “the most important intellectual alive” by the New York Times, he is rarely heard in the corporate media. We spend the hour with Noam Chomsky. He spoke recently here in New York at an event sponsored by the Brecht Forum. More than 2,000 people packed into Riverside Church in Harlem to hear his address, titled “Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours.” In his talk, Chomsky discussed the global economic crisis, the environment, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, resistance to American empire and much more - Democracy Now .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Friday, July 3, 2009

Todays Headlines from Democracy Now

Senate Dems Revise Healthcare Proposal - The proposal from Senators Edward Kennedy and Christopher Dodd includes a government-run insurance option
Obama Holds Health Forum with Pre-Screened Audience - An emotional moment came when Virginia resident Debby Smith described her inability to receive treatment for a recently diagnosed tumor
Lieberman [prick] Opposes Public Health Proposal - In an interview with the New Haven Independent, Lieberman said he is “skeptical” of a public health option both “in substance” and in its likelihood to attract congressional support
US Suspends Military Cooperation with Honduras - The Pentagon has suspended military cooperation with Honduras in response to the overthrow of the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. It’s the first major punitive action taken by the US since Zelaya was ousted last Sunday. The Obama administration has refused to legally classify Zelaya’s ouster as a coup, which would automatically trigger a suspension of aid
Morales: Bolivia Trade Suspension Shows Obama “Lied to Latin America” - President Obama has announced he will continue a Bush administration policy of suspending trade benefits to Bolivia. The Bush administration revoked the benefits last year, accusing Bolivian President Evo Morales of failing to cooperate in the so-called war on drugs
Military Panel Urges Discharge for Gay Servicemember - A US military panel has recommended the discharge of a ten-year veteran for publicly admitting he is gay. The soldier, US Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, is a graduate of the West Point military academy and an Arabic translator. If discharged, he would be the 266th member of the armed forces removed under President Obama for violating the “don’t ask, don’t tell”
Hussein Stoked WMD Talk Out of Fear of Iran - And newly declassified documents show former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein told FBI interrogators he let the world believe he had weapons of mass destruction to avoid appearing weak to neighboring Iran
read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, July 2, 2009

Michael Niman: Was Paul Wellstone Murdered?

In honor of Big Al getting certified, here's a piece that was published on Alternet back in 2002 shortly after Wellstone's plane went down .. It gives a good primer on which politicians died in plane crashes and when (John Tower, chair of Iran/Contra's Tower Commission; Hale Boggs, of the, um, Warren Commission) .. a phenomenon that began in the 70s .. Niman writes "Anyone familiar with my work knows that I'm certainly not a conspiracy theorist. But to be honest, I know I wasn't alone in my initial reaction at this week's horrible and tragic news: that being my surprise that Wellstone had lived this long" .. that is the saddest sentence i think i've ever read .. watch your back Big Al - mab .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Amy Goodman: Undo the Coup

Criticisms coming from DC are very tepid .. I don't think we'll intervene - mab .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Ishmael Reed: The Mad Dog DA and the Mad Dog Media .. The Persecution of Michael Jackson

Haha! .. sometimes i suspect all strange media occurrences can be boiled down to a Hatfield and McCoy style oligarch battle - like Turner vs Murdoch, Disney vs. Viacom, Sony vs Universal .. or else some genius decided that certain entertainment personalities can't get too powerful, especially if they start spouting off like John Lennon did .. Any hooo, for a take on MJ that you won't find elsewhere check this out from Ishmael Reed on Counterpunch .. Can't vouch for all the facts but i'd much rather read this than suffer through Wolf Blitzer's take on "Bad" .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Nikolas Kozloff: Obama’s Real Message to Latin America? The Coup in Honduras

"On the surface at least it seems unlikely that Obama would endorse an interventionist U.S. foreign policy in Central America. Over the past few months he has gone to great lengths to “re-brand” America in the eyes of the world as a reasonable power engaged in respectful diplomacy as opposed to reckless unilateralism. If it were ever proven that Obama sanctioned the overthrow of a democratically elected government this could completely undermine the U.S. President’s carefully crafted image ... In November, Zelaya hailed Obama’s election in the U.S. as “a hope for the world,” but just two months later tensions began to emerge. In an audacious letter sent personally to Obama, Zelaya accused the U.S. of “interventionism” and called on the new administration in Washington to respect the principle of non-interference in the political affairs of other nations" - Kozloff in Counterpunch .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, June 29, 2009

Democracy Now: Coup in Honduras – Military Ousts President Manuel Zelaya, Supporters Defy Curfew and Take to the Streets

"The Honduran military is effectively a subsidiary of the United States government. Honduras, as a whole, if any Latin American country is fully owned by the United States, it’s Honduras. Its economy is wholly based on trade, foreign aid and remittances. So if the US is opposed to this coup going forward, it won’t go forward. Zelaya will return, if the United States—if Obama and Hillary Clinton are sincere in their statements about returning Zelaya to power" - Greg Grandin on Democracy Now .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, June 29, 2009

Nader: Financial Reform, Words and Deeds

"[Obama] provides Washington aspirins for Wall Street brain cancer ... The President's plan omits, (1) strong antitrust enforcement, (2) tough corporate crime prosecution, and (3) more authority for shareholders, who own their companies, to control their hired bosses. The plan should have included giving shareholders the decisive power to set executive compensation-the perverse compensation incentives helped push companies to wild speculation ... What about sub-prime mortgage securities? Banks would be required to retain just a five percent stake before handing them off to other syndicates. This hardly is enough to induce prudence by banks selling these mortgages to impecunious home buyers" - Nader .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, June 27, 2009

Food Inc: Michael Pollan and Friends Reveal the Food Industry’s Darkest Secrets

Tara Lohan of Alternet interviews "Food Inc." director Robert Kenner whose film chronicles what he found out while spending six years tracing the path of corporate food production, and which features Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) and Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Friday, June 26, 2009

Alexandra Spieldoch: Global Land Grab [IMPORTANT]

"Foreign investment deals in agriculture are nothing new. In colonial times, European countries established plantation economies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to export food. Today there is large-scale investment in mining natural resources and contract farming as a means to source global supply chains. Yet these new land grabs are mammoth ... The convergence of the energy, land, and climate crises serves as a reminder of the limits to growth. The majority of these land deals could worsen the food crisis and the struggles associated with land use, human rights, and environmental degradation. To bring us back from the edge of resource depletion, governments need to increase aid for investment in small-scale producers and also regulate all investment so that it meets food security goals and promotes the realization of people's rights. This means promoting democratic consultation and transparent contracts. And it means promoting climate-friendly production methods based on smaller-scale, diversified planting systems rather than large plantations growing one commodity for export" - Spieldoch in Foreign Policy in Focus .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, June 25, 2009

Theda Skocpol: Moment of Truth for Obama and the Democrats

"If at this remarkable juncture Obama and the Democrats cannot enact a robust health care reform -- with a strong nationwide public option, cost controls, and nearly universal coverage -- I would not want to be in charge of fundraising and mobilization for them in the 2010 and 2012 elections! ... no matter if Senate Democrats still think they are operating in the world of the 1980s or 1993, they are not. Activist Democrats -- mobilizers, volunteers, bloggers, analysts, and donors -- are watching them. We will know exactly who blocks or eviscerates real reform here. We WILL blame the Senate and the responsible individual Senators. And many of us will blame the Obama adminsitration if it does not take a strong stand on the public option and real reform, starting right now" - Skocpol on Talking Points Memo .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Today’s Headlines from Democracy Now

Iran’s Guardian Council Admits to Vote Irregularities - The influential Guardian Council admitted the number of votes collected in fifty cities surpassed the number of people eligible to cast ballots in those areas.
Mousavi Calls for More Street Protests - Mousavi and former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami have defied Iran’s Supreme Leader and urged protesters to continue street demonstrations calling for a new election
Iran’s Web Spying Aided by European Firms Siemens and Nokia - Using the technology, the Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, which enables authorities not only to block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes
Israel to Allocate $250 Million for West Bank Settlements - Israeli army radio is reporting Israel plans to allocate $250 million over the next two years for settlements in the occupied West Bank
Report: One Billion People Go Hungry Every Day - World hunger is projected to reach a record high this year with more than a billion people going hungry every day. This is an increase of some 100 million people over the past year
Obama Admin Wants to Bring Spy Training Program to Colleges - The Obama administration has proposed offering federal money to colleges and universities to help train students to become spies for the CIA and other intelligence agencies .. unlike ROTC, the students’ participation in the spy training program would likely be kept secret
Poll: 72% of Americans back Creation of Public Healthcare Plan - A new poll by the New York Times and CBS News has found that 72 percent of Americans support the government creating a public healthcare plan, similar to Medicare, which would compete with private insurance plans. The poll also found the majority of Americans now believe the government would do a better job than private insurance companies in providing medical coverage
Obama Jokes about Plight of Uyghurs - Bermuda and the Pacific island nation of Palau have both accepted a group of Uyghur prisoners who had been held at Guantanamo for seven years even though US officials admitted they were wrongly detained. The Uyghurs are Chinese Muslims who could not be returned to China out of fear that they would be imprisoned and tortured. [Obama joked at the TV Correspondents’ Dinner], “Nick at Nite has a new take on an old classic: Leave It to Uyghurs. I thought that was pretty good.”
read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, June 22, 2009

John Wasik: Homes Still Cost Too Much

Wasik is the National Press Club award-winning author of Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream - He writes, "You would think with home prices still dropping like hailstones in most areas, that homes would be bargains. The present buyer's market obscures a key fact about the housing crisis though: millions sought the refuge of cheap credit, subprime and adjustable loans during the boom because they were the easiest routes to homeownership in a time when house prices far outpaced income growth. The sad fact is that the Great American Dream is still out of reach for far too many, and it was the declining affordability of decent houses that was one of the triggers of the housing bust" .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Sunday, June 21, 2009

‘Humanure’ Victory: Green Toilet Wins Austin City Approval

From Asher Price in The Austin American-Statesman .. gotta love those dirty hippies .. "The airy outhouse sports views of a pasture of cacti and smells mostly of sawdust. A small fan, powered by a solar panel affixed to the outhouse, keeps fumes moving through a PVC exhaust chimney. A hand-sanitizer dispenser sits beside the screen door... the toilet-side books include Malcom X Speaks, the Marxist sociological text Society of the Spectacle and the prison novel Iron City" .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, June 20, 2009

John Aravosis: President Obama Betrays the Gay Community

This has been flying under the radar (or mine at least since I haven't read Americablog for awhile) .. People in the GLBT community are pissed!!! There's been a lot of talk and no action from Obama on a host of issues but what really tipped the scale was when, as Aravosis writes in Salon, "last week our president had his Department of Justice file a brief in defense of DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act], a law he had once called 'abhorrent'. In that brief, filed on the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia (which outlawed bans on interracial marriage), our own interracial Harvey Milk, not lacking a sense of historical irony, compared our love to incest and pedophilia. Shit, meet fan" .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, June 18, 2009

Chris Hedges: The American Empire Is Bankrupt

"To fund our permanent war economy, we have been flooding the world with dollars. The foreign recipients turn the dollars over to their central banks for local currency. The central banks then have a problem. If a central bank does not spend the money in the United States then the exchange rate against the dollar will go up. This will penalize exporters. This has allowed America to print money without restraint to buy imports and foreign companies, fund our military expansion and ensure that foreign nations like China continue to buy our treasury bonds. This cycle appears now to be over" .. scary .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Ralph Nader: Is TV Worth the Transition?

"President John F. Kennedy's chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Newton Minow, shocked a broadcast industry audience when he called television a 'vast wasteland'. That was in 1961! Had he not mellowed as a corporate lawyer with a lucrative practice, what would Newton Minow say today? What is the superlative of 'vast wasteland?'" - Nader .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Sunday, June 14, 2009

Riders Get Naked for a Weekend of Anti-car Cycling Demonstrations

From The Guardian/UK.. "To celebrate cycling and the human body. The ride demonstrates the vulnerability of cyclists on the road and is a protest against oil dependency" .. those Brits sure know how to protest! cheers - mab .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Saturday, June 13, 2009

Today’s Headlines from Democracy Now

Antiwar Lawmakers Urge Rejection of War Funding - In a letter to other House members who have previously opposed war funding, Congress members Lynn Woolsey of California and Dennis Kucinich of Ohio urged them to retain “steadfast opposition” to the new bill
Contradicting Obama, Sen. Baucus Rules Out “Public” Health Care - Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee chair leading Congressional efforts on health care reform, said he would propose a plan based on creating member-based insurance cooperatives not run by the government [whatever that means]
WHO Declares Swine Flu Pandemic - the WHO raised its pandemic alert level to six, its highest level. Health officials say the alert level means the swine flu has spread to two world regions and doesn’t signify a likely increase in deaths or serious cases
General: Afghan Violence Worse Since 2001 - Addressing the public outrage in Afghanistan over scores of deadly U.S. attacks, Petraeus said: “This is the graveyard of empires. . . . It is a place that has never taken kindly to would-be conquerors.”
Thousands of Peruvians Rally Against Indigenous Crackdown - In Peru, thousands of people took part in nationwide demonstrations Thursday to support an indigenous protest against oil and natural gas exploration in the Amazon rainforest. Tensions have flared after last week’s police killings of scores of civilians at an indigenous roadblock
Activists Protest Schumer for Backing Peru Trade Deal - three activists were released from jail following their arrest for blockading the New York offices of Democratic Senator Charles Schumer. The activists say they confronted Schumer for his refusal to address human rights concerns in voting for the U.S.-Peru trade deal in 2007
Owner of Medical Marijuana Dispensary Sentenced to 1-Year Term - An owner of a California dispensary for medical marijuana has been sentenced to one year in prison. The owner was given the jail term despite the Obama administration’s vow not to prosecute medical dispensers who comply with state law
read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Friday, June 12, 2009

Barbara Ehrenreich: Tales of Tent City

"I used to be a Republican. I voted for Ronald Reagan," a man who identified himself only as Tom M. told me, laughing. But it was Reagan who in his first year as president halved the budget for public housing. Over the course of his first term, more than half a million people were thrown off the disability rolls. "Until then," says Tim Brown, director of Sacramento County's Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative, "basically there was no homelessness." Since then, neither the disability nor the housing budget has come close to recovering. Clinton-era welfare reforms cut all but the last remaining threads of the Great Society safety net. - Ehrenreich in The Nation .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Thursday, June 11, 2009

Tim Weiner: The CIA’s Truth Problem

"when he was in the White House, [President] Ford feared that the truth about the past would destroy the CIA and damage the United States. That same kind of fear is drowning out calls for a truth commission on the conduct of the 'war on terror.' 'The question is how to plan to meet the investigation of the CIA,' Ford mused at a White House meeting in February 1975. His chief of staff, Donald Rumsfeld, called for 'a damage-limiting operation' to save the secrets from spilling in Congress. The man Ford chose to run the CIA--George H.W. Bush--tried his best. But no one protected former CIA director Richard Helms. He drew a two-year suspended sentence in 1977 on a federal charge of deceiving Congress about his orders from President Nixon to overthrow the government of Chile" - Weiner in The Nation .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Chris Hedges: Hold Your Applause

"The expanding imperial projects and tightening screws of repression lurch forward under Obama. We are not trying to end terror or promote democracy. We are ensuring that our corporate state has a steady supply of the cheap oil to which it is addicted. And the scarcer oil becomes, the more aggressive we become. This is the game playing out in the Muslim world. The Bush White House openly tortured. The Obama White House tortures and pretends not to ... Obama, whose embrace of American imperialism is as naive and destructive as that of George W. Bush, is the newest brand used to peddle the poison of permanent war" - Hedges .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Monday, June 8, 2009

Waging Non-Violence Blog

This is a most excellent new blog from two good friends of mine, Eric Stoner and Bryan Farrell .. I've posted some of their pieces that were on Common Dreams and other sites .. go check it out!! - mab .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Sunday, June 7, 2009

Robert Reich: How Pharma and Insurance Intend to Kill the Public Option, And What Obama and the Rest of Us Must Do

"One of their proposals is to break up the public option into small pieces under multiple regional third-party administrators that would have little or no bargaining leverage. A second is to give the public option to the states where Big Pharma and Big Insurance can easily buy off legislators and officials, as they've been doing for years. A third is bind the public plan to the same rules private insurers have already wangled, thereby making it impossible for the public plan to put competitive pressure on the insurers ... [another is is Olympia] Snowe's proposal, [where] the public option would kick in years from now, but it would be triggered only if insurance companies fail to bring down healthcare costs and expand coverage in he meantime .. as Pharma and Insurance well know, 'years from now' in legislative terms means never" - Reich .. read more
Posted by Mike Blaxill, Sunday, June 7, 2009