This post is not intended to suggest the acorn doesn’t fall very far from the tree. Its subject is, however, interesting enough for me to spend hours on research and make a couple of long-distance calls to confirm.
First, I quote from the book, “The Interrupted Journey” by John G. Fuller, first published in 1966 and available on Amazon. The book is the story of Betty and Barney Hill, alleged UFO abductees.
"(Walter) Webb also was familiar with the findings and research of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in Tucson, Arizona, and another conservative non-profit group, inclined to take more seriously the reports of intelligent beings associated with UFO sightings, where the craft hovered or landed. APRO, as the organization is known, is under the direction of L. J. Lorenzen, an engineer in the Kitt Peak National Observatory at Tucson. Among its advisers are Dr. Frank Salisbury, Professor of Plant Physiology at Colorado State University; Dr. R. Leo Sprinkle, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming; H. C. Dudley, Chairman and Professor of Physics, University of Southern Mississippi; Dr. James A. Harder, Associate Professor in the College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, and others.
“Dr. Dudley once said, 'I recommend we use a bit of scientific curiosity to see whatever is the physics of the phenomena so many people are describing as UFOs. Ascribing the phenomena as due to psychological aberration is nonsense. There is a series of physical phenomena that needs explaining; let's get on with it in an open-minded, scientifically oriented manner. Then, let the data provide the answer.'''
I have confirmed with public relations at the University of Southern Mississipi that Dr. H. C. Dudley – Horace Chester Dudley – is the father of newly named British Petroleum CEO Robert Dudley.
This is not intended to disparage either Robert Dudley or his father. I just think it's interesting, and I believe DemWit to be the only media source on planet Earth to report it.
Don’t know about other planets.
7.30.2010
7.29.2010
Conspiracy Theory Generator
Thanks to my friend Bill Sumrall for providing me with a couple of hours of great online entertainment! This one is for the reader’s enjoyment, so … enjoy!
Public Eye has a very interesting site dedicated to various conspiracy theories, the groups who generate them and analyses of just how absurd they are. Take a look at the INDEX of links!
Now, for the fun part. In the Index, I spotted “Automatic Conspiracy Theory Generator.” Clicking on the link led me to a page with paradigms of four top conspiracy theories that just never seem to die out. By clicking on each of the four, information relating to that theory pops up in the box below the list. A little scary and a whole lot hilarious!
After you’ve checked out the four “theories,” you can then go below the box and create your own conspiracy theory. The fun here is in the choices in the drop-down boxes within the theory you are creating. This is LMAO stuff, dear reader, not to be missed if you need a little fun to make your day!
So, go HERE and check out the four conspiracy theory models, then create your own!
This post is dedicated to Bill, Tiny, Frodo, Leslie and Infidel, who know how to have fun.
As Infidel says about his approach to blogging (and I suspect everything):
“If it’s not fun, what’s the point?”
Public Eye has a very interesting site dedicated to various conspiracy theories, the groups who generate them and analyses of just how absurd they are. Take a look at the INDEX of links!
Now, for the fun part. In the Index, I spotted “Automatic Conspiracy Theory Generator.” Clicking on the link led me to a page with paradigms of four top conspiracy theories that just never seem to die out. By clicking on each of the four, information relating to that theory pops up in the box below the list. A little scary and a whole lot hilarious!
After you’ve checked out the four “theories,” you can then go below the box and create your own conspiracy theory. The fun here is in the choices in the drop-down boxes within the theory you are creating. This is LMAO stuff, dear reader, not to be missed if you need a little fun to make your day!
So, go HERE and check out the four conspiracy theory models, then create your own!
This post is dedicated to Bill, Tiny, Frodo, Leslie and Infidel, who know how to have fun.
As Infidel says about his approach to blogging (and I suspect everything):
“If it’s not fun, what’s the point?”
7.27.2010
Journalism today, plain & simple
I was taught and practiced ethical journalism. For 11 years with an Internet pulpit, I have made ethical journalism my number one concern.
Surely, dear reader, there is no reason to explain, after millions of words on the state of journalism today, how media which have fallen into prostitution can harm democracy.
After a long and distinguished journalism career. a white-haired editor friend told me, “Journalism is a whore riding a black horse.” The black horse being printer’s ink. How prescient he was!
Comes John Cory of Reader Supported News with a perspective on journalism today so plain and simple I post it here for my readers’ delight. Permission to republish is “freely granted.”
Running on Bullshit
By John Cory
Reader Supported News
25 July 2010
In the 1976 film “Network,” Howard Beale explains why on the previous evening's broadcast he had announced that he would commit public suicide on the air: "Well, I'll tell you what happened: I just ran out of bullshit ... So I don't have any bullshit left, just ran out of it, you see."
That is not a concern for what passes as our modern media because bullshit comes with a golden microphone and silver-framed teleprompter. Bring your own pooper-scooper.
The media narrative of the Shirley Sherrod event began with, "racist discovered at NAACP," then promptly shifted to, "oops, my bad," and then to, "what's wrong with this White House and why is the President afraid of FOX?"
On Wednesday's ABC Nightline Cynthia McFadden introduced a segment about the kerfuffle Andrew Breitbart had stirred up. Kerfuffle? That sounds so harmless.
The NY Times ran an editorial that began: "The Obama Administration has been shamed by its rush to judgment," and ended by noting that this time, Glenn Beck was right.
Howard Kurtz gave cover to FOX and Breitbart by glossing over the whole incident and ending with, "Still, one fact is indisputable. It was Vilsack, not Breitbart, who kicked Sherrod out of her job."
Rachel Maddow on MSNBC chided the White House for continually falling for these FOX News stunts, and Keith Olbermann interrupted his vacation for a Special Comment on the whole Sherrod affair and lectured Obama about standing up to the right-wing FOX noise machine.
Let's be blunt here, the media is not interested in journalism or news or context or factual reportage; it is interested in what sells - and that my friends, is bullshit.
CNN is a slogan generating "news" organization. "Keeping them honest" is the term most often used while uttering the phrase "both sides do it," as protection against accusations of being part of the "liberal media."
MSNBC has positioned itself as the anti-FOX with its so-called "liberal/progressive" evening lineup that punches back at the propaganda of FOX. It is Keith versus Bill-O and Rachel versus Hannity or whomever she can snark and giggle at. It is the World Wrestling Federation of "I know I am but what are you!"
In other words - bullshit. Lethal repugnant odious, but oh so shiny bullshit.
It is time to re-read Gene Lyons' "Fools For Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater." It is time to remind ourselves that the NY Times and Washington Post were cheerleaders for war with Iraq and Afghanistan. The networks quivered in near orgasm over the chance to embed with troops and roll across the desert in glorious full battle-rattle. The "media" attacked Michael Hastings over his reporting on Gen. McChrystal and whined about the need for friendly access to the military, and at the same time complained that BP restricted their ability to cover the Gulf oil disaster. BP was being mean!
The truth is, had BP oil been used as a lubricant for a celebrity sex scandal, the media would have broken through the security lines and rushed the bedroom for photographs. But of course, the oil was only used to lubricate the screwing of America, so nothing to see here - move along.
Our "media news" outlets are nothing more than carnival barkers and hucksters. They are the last real manufacturer left in this country. They manufacture sensationalistic fear while selling conformity to the great, unwashed American consumer. They sell tribalism and all the products that go with it.
In other words - bullshit.
The Sherrod affair was never about racism. It was blowback for attacks on the Tea Party - that manufactured coalition of hate and anger supported by conservative corporate largesse - just like that other media creation - Sarah Palin.
All the media did was yell: Fight! Fight! Someone called someone else a racist and then someone else showed that the other someone was a racist, too, and both sides do it so - we're just keeping them honest. See?
Breitbart won the prize his kind desires most - headlines and media profile.
MSNBC and FOX got to punch and blame each other, so that's a win.
The American people lost. They lost an opportunity to have an honest discussion about people and racism, about institutional racism, about the progress and redemption of race in our society. But at least they were entertained for a while. And isn't that what it's all about, really, a little entertainment between job losses and military suicides and the 100 bank failures so far this year and, oh yeah, having to talk about that scary race thing?
One night Howard Beale ran out of bullshit. Howard Beale is a fictional character.
So is our modern media.
Surely, dear reader, there is no reason to explain, after millions of words on the state of journalism today, how media which have fallen into prostitution can harm democracy.
After a long and distinguished journalism career. a white-haired editor friend told me, “Journalism is a whore riding a black horse.” The black horse being printer’s ink. How prescient he was!
Comes John Cory of Reader Supported News with a perspective on journalism today so plain and simple I post it here for my readers’ delight. Permission to republish is “freely granted.”
Running on Bullshit
By John Cory
Reader Supported News
25 July 2010
In the 1976 film “Network,” Howard Beale explains why on the previous evening's broadcast he had announced that he would commit public suicide on the air: "Well, I'll tell you what happened: I just ran out of bullshit ... So I don't have any bullshit left, just ran out of it, you see."
That is not a concern for what passes as our modern media because bullshit comes with a golden microphone and silver-framed teleprompter. Bring your own pooper-scooper.
The media narrative of the Shirley Sherrod event began with, "racist discovered at NAACP," then promptly shifted to, "oops, my bad," and then to, "what's wrong with this White House and why is the President afraid of FOX?"
On Wednesday's ABC Nightline Cynthia McFadden introduced a segment about the kerfuffle Andrew Breitbart had stirred up. Kerfuffle? That sounds so harmless.
The NY Times ran an editorial that began: "The Obama Administration has been shamed by its rush to judgment," and ended by noting that this time, Glenn Beck was right.
Howard Kurtz gave cover to FOX and Breitbart by glossing over the whole incident and ending with, "Still, one fact is indisputable. It was Vilsack, not Breitbart, who kicked Sherrod out of her job."
Rachel Maddow on MSNBC chided the White House for continually falling for these FOX News stunts, and Keith Olbermann interrupted his vacation for a Special Comment on the whole Sherrod affair and lectured Obama about standing up to the right-wing FOX noise machine.
Let's be blunt here, the media is not interested in journalism or news or context or factual reportage; it is interested in what sells - and that my friends, is bullshit.
CNN is a slogan generating "news" organization. "Keeping them honest" is the term most often used while uttering the phrase "both sides do it," as protection against accusations of being part of the "liberal media."
MSNBC has positioned itself as the anti-FOX with its so-called "liberal/progressive" evening lineup that punches back at the propaganda of FOX. It is Keith versus Bill-O and Rachel versus Hannity or whomever she can snark and giggle at. It is the World Wrestling Federation of "I know I am but what are you!"
In other words - bullshit. Lethal repugnant odious, but oh so shiny bullshit.
It is time to re-read Gene Lyons' "Fools For Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater." It is time to remind ourselves that the NY Times and Washington Post were cheerleaders for war with Iraq and Afghanistan. The networks quivered in near orgasm over the chance to embed with troops and roll across the desert in glorious full battle-rattle. The "media" attacked Michael Hastings over his reporting on Gen. McChrystal and whined about the need for friendly access to the military, and at the same time complained that BP restricted their ability to cover the Gulf oil disaster. BP was being mean!
The truth is, had BP oil been used as a lubricant for a celebrity sex scandal, the media would have broken through the security lines and rushed the bedroom for photographs. But of course, the oil was only used to lubricate the screwing of America, so nothing to see here - move along.
Our "media news" outlets are nothing more than carnival barkers and hucksters. They are the last real manufacturer left in this country. They manufacture sensationalistic fear while selling conformity to the great, unwashed American consumer. They sell tribalism and all the products that go with it.
In other words - bullshit.
The Sherrod affair was never about racism. It was blowback for attacks on the Tea Party - that manufactured coalition of hate and anger supported by conservative corporate largesse - just like that other media creation - Sarah Palin.
All the media did was yell: Fight! Fight! Someone called someone else a racist and then someone else showed that the other someone was a racist, too, and both sides do it so - we're just keeping them honest. See?
Breitbart won the prize his kind desires most - headlines and media profile.
MSNBC and FOX got to punch and blame each other, so that's a win.
The American people lost. They lost an opportunity to have an honest discussion about people and racism, about institutional racism, about the progress and redemption of race in our society. But at least they were entertained for a while. And isn't that what it's all about, really, a little entertainment between job losses and military suicides and the 100 bank failures so far this year and, oh yeah, having to talk about that scary race thing?
One night Howard Beale ran out of bullshit. Howard Beale is a fictional character.
So is our modern media.
7.26.2010
Still Ragin'
If you have not yet read Frank Rich's column in Saturday's New York Times, it sheds new light on a controversy:
There's a Battle Outside, and It's Still Ragin' LINK
There's a Battle Outside, and It's Still Ragin' LINK
7.23.2010
Glenn Beck's vision
Glenn Beck, who has moved up through the ranks of the despicable and self-aggrandizing, has now been handed an opportunity to turn the enigmatic energy that appeals to millions into a positive force.
Beck has announced (LINK) that he has been diagnosed with macular dystrophy, one of a group of retinal disorders including retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which has affected my own family for generations. These retinal disorders, which include macular degeneration affecting one in 10 Americans over age 65, lead to legal then total blindness.
Despite my feelings about Beck as a political propagandist, I empathize when he says, “I know what my wife looks like. I know what my children look like. I have a great imagination. I know what color looks like. But I love to read. I thought to myself I’m too darn lazy to learn Braille.”
To best explain how retinal disorders affect a person’s life one need only note the functions of the normal retina.
In the normal eye, sight is processed through the cornea, iris, pupil and lens toward its final destination: the retina, a layer of nerve tissue which lines the back of the eye. At the center of the retina is the macula. Only 1.5 millimeters in diameter, the macula is responsible for the clearest, most detailed vision. (www.eyenet.com, official site of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.)
The retina is made up of two types of cells: rods and cones. The rods are designed for night vision, allow the detection of movement and objects and provide peripheral vision – what a person sees out of the so-called “corner of the eye.” Millions of cone cells, sensitive to light, detail and color, are packed into the macula. Cones provide the visual details which allow the normal eye to scan an eye chart, see a stop sign or read a newspaper. To experience the sensation known as color, the cones have three different pigments which act as a palette mixing blue, red or green wavelengths of light. If a person is missing one or more of the pigments, color-blindness results. (“Vision and Aging,” Eleanor E. Faye, B.A., M.D., Ophthalmologist, Editor. The Lighthouse International.)
Quite simply, retinal disorders destroy the functions of the normal retina.
The Foundation Fighting Blindness (LINK), formerly The Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation, is the national clearinghouse for research for a cure and even a reversal of vision loss. Amazing advances have been made toward this end.
Mr. Beck can now use his broadcast influence to call attention to these robbers of vision in much the same way Michael J. Fox, the late Christopher Reeve and Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn have used their afflictions to stir interest in and stimulate contributions for medical research.
Beck says he could be blind in a year – plenty of time to see the light, to stop tilting at windmills and to devote his energies to the common good.
Beck has announced (LINK) that he has been diagnosed with macular dystrophy, one of a group of retinal disorders including retinitis pigmentosa (RP), which has affected my own family for generations. These retinal disorders, which include macular degeneration affecting one in 10 Americans over age 65, lead to legal then total blindness.
Despite my feelings about Beck as a political propagandist, I empathize when he says, “I know what my wife looks like. I know what my children look like. I have a great imagination. I know what color looks like. But I love to read. I thought to myself I’m too darn lazy to learn Braille.”
To best explain how retinal disorders affect a person’s life one need only note the functions of the normal retina.
In the normal eye, sight is processed through the cornea, iris, pupil and lens toward its final destination: the retina, a layer of nerve tissue which lines the back of the eye. At the center of the retina is the macula. Only 1.5 millimeters in diameter, the macula is responsible for the clearest, most detailed vision. (www.eyenet.com, official site of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.)
The retina is made up of two types of cells: rods and cones. The rods are designed for night vision, allow the detection of movement and objects and provide peripheral vision – what a person sees out of the so-called “corner of the eye.” Millions of cone cells, sensitive to light, detail and color, are packed into the macula. Cones provide the visual details which allow the normal eye to scan an eye chart, see a stop sign or read a newspaper. To experience the sensation known as color, the cones have three different pigments which act as a palette mixing blue, red or green wavelengths of light. If a person is missing one or more of the pigments, color-blindness results. (“Vision and Aging,” Eleanor E. Faye, B.A., M.D., Ophthalmologist, Editor. The Lighthouse International.)
Quite simply, retinal disorders destroy the functions of the normal retina.
The Foundation Fighting Blindness (LINK), formerly The Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation, is the national clearinghouse for research for a cure and even a reversal of vision loss. Amazing advances have been made toward this end.
Mr. Beck can now use his broadcast influence to call attention to these robbers of vision in much the same way Michael J. Fox, the late Christopher Reeve and Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn have used their afflictions to stir interest in and stimulate contributions for medical research.
Beck says he could be blind in a year – plenty of time to see the light, to stop tilting at windmills and to devote his energies to the common good.
7.21.2010
WaPo's 'Top Secret America'
(BJ NOTE: I have placed links to this series in my left sidebar.)
A MUST-READ: Here is the press release from The Washington Post about its special investigative series on the nation’s intelligence community – “Top Secret America.” The Post has established a special Web site for this three-part investigative report (see press release). I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to read the press release below! We have all been begging for good, investigative journalism, and here it is!
The Washington Post's press release, July 19, 2010:
Washington Post Investigates the Intelligence World Responsible for America’s Safety
Two-Year Long Review Explores Redundancy, Unwieldiness in Top Secret Government Agencies
WASHINGTON--July 19, 2010--The Washington Post today published the first story in a new series exploring the Top Secret world created in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The series titled "Top Secret America” (www.TopSecretAmerica.com), describes and analyzes a defense and intelligence structure that has become so large, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, or whether it is making the United States safer.
Among the highlights:
-Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on Top Secret programs related to counter-terrorism, homeland security, and intelligence at over 10,000 locations across the country. Over 850,000 Americans have Top Secret clearances.
-Redundancy and overlap are major problems and a symptom of the ongoing lack of coordination between agencies.
-In the Washington area alone, 33 building complexes for Top Secret work are under construction or have been built since September 2001.
This is the first and most comprehensive examination of the complex system. It was reported by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Dana Priest and author, researcher, and military expert William M. Arkin. The findings are based on hundreds of interviews with current and former military and intelligence officials and public records. Nearly two dozen journalists worked on the investigation, including investigative reporters, cartography experts, database reporters, video journalists, researchers, interactive graphic designers, digital designers, graphic designers, and graphics editors at The Washington Post.
“This country’s top-secret national-security enterprise is both enormous and opaque,” Marcus Brauchli, The Post’s executive editor said. “We have sought through this long-term investigative project to describe it and enable our readers— including citizens, taxpayers, policymakers and legislators—to understand the scale and effectiveness of what has been created. The Post remains firmly committed to this kind of accountability journalism.”
In addition to the stories in the series, a blog will anchor the Top Secret America site providing updates on Top Secret America coverage, original journalism and insight around related national security matters. The Top Secret America blog will serve as an online destination for further reporting, discussion, analysis, and interaction. Priest and Arkin will host this continuing conversation throughout the rest of the year, working alongside readers to lead inquiries about dimensions of Top Secret America that remain unexplored.
Other multimedia features include:
-A searchable database illustrates information about government organizations that contract out Top Secret work, companies they contract to, the types of work they do, and the places where they do it.
-A map displays locations of all the clusters of Top Secret activity and some basic information about those areas.
-Each of nearly 2,000 companies and 45 government organizations has a profile page with basic information about its role in Top Secret America, and readers can filter searches by companies doing a specific kind of work, all companies mentioned in the story, or all companies with more than $750 million in revenue.
-A video guide to Top Secret America provides a concise, 90-second visual overview of the project’s major findings and implications.
-A video produced by PBS Frontline previews the series and illuminates the process of reporting. From the high-tech barn where Arkin worked to Priest’s guided-tour outside the NSA campus to a photographer’s experience shooting, the video captures how the information was gathered and evolved into the final series.
A second story to be published Tuesday takes an in-depth look at the government's dependence on private contractors and how it may be degrading the quality of the federal workforce. Managers of the intelligence agencies do not necessarily know how many contractors work for them. The Post estimates the number of contractors who work on Top Secret programs to be 265,000.
A third story to be published Wednesday focuses on the economic and cultural impact of a high concentration of Top Secret work within a community located around the National Security Agency. While the rest of the country struggles with an economic recession, in the clusters of Top Secret America, expansion continues and the unemployment rate is low. The NSA plans to expand by two-thirds its current size over the next 15 years.
The first installment of the series is available now online at:
www dot TopSecretAmerica dot com
(BJ NOTE: All three installments are now available.)
Dana Priest is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post. She was the Post's intelligence reporter for three years and its Pentagon correspondent for seven years before that. She has traveled widely with Army Special Forces, Army infantry troops on peacekeeping missions and the Pentagon’s four-star regional commanders. Priest received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for “The Other Walter Reed” and the 2006 Pulitzer for Beat Reporting for her work on CIA secret prisons and counterterrorism operations overseas. She authored the 2003 book, “THE MISSION: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America’s Military” about the military’s expanding influence over U.S. foreign affairs.
William Arkin is a reporter for The Washington Post and has been a columnist since 1998. He has been working on the subject of government secrecy and national security affairs for over 30 years and has visited war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books about the U.S. military and national security including seven basic reference works. He has been a consultant for Natural Resources Defense Council, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, and the U.S. Air Force. -END-
A MUST-READ: Here is the press release from The Washington Post about its special investigative series on the nation’s intelligence community – “Top Secret America.” The Post has established a special Web site for this three-part investigative report (see press release). I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to read the press release below! We have all been begging for good, investigative journalism, and here it is!
The Washington Post's press release, July 19, 2010:
Washington Post Investigates the Intelligence World Responsible for America’s Safety
Two-Year Long Review Explores Redundancy, Unwieldiness in Top Secret Government Agencies
WASHINGTON--July 19, 2010--The Washington Post today published the first story in a new series exploring the Top Secret world created in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The series titled "Top Secret America” (www.TopSecretAmerica.com), describes and analyzes a defense and intelligence structure that has become so large, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, or whether it is making the United States safer.
Among the highlights:
-Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on Top Secret programs related to counter-terrorism, homeland security, and intelligence at over 10,000 locations across the country. Over 850,000 Americans have Top Secret clearances.
-Redundancy and overlap are major problems and a symptom of the ongoing lack of coordination between agencies.
-In the Washington area alone, 33 building complexes for Top Secret work are under construction or have been built since September 2001.
This is the first and most comprehensive examination of the complex system. It was reported by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Dana Priest and author, researcher, and military expert William M. Arkin. The findings are based on hundreds of interviews with current and former military and intelligence officials and public records. Nearly two dozen journalists worked on the investigation, including investigative reporters, cartography experts, database reporters, video journalists, researchers, interactive graphic designers, digital designers, graphic designers, and graphics editors at The Washington Post.
“This country’s top-secret national-security enterprise is both enormous and opaque,” Marcus Brauchli, The Post’s executive editor said. “We have sought through this long-term investigative project to describe it and enable our readers— including citizens, taxpayers, policymakers and legislators—to understand the scale and effectiveness of what has been created. The Post remains firmly committed to this kind of accountability journalism.”
In addition to the stories in the series, a blog will anchor the Top Secret America site providing updates on Top Secret America coverage, original journalism and insight around related national security matters. The Top Secret America blog will serve as an online destination for further reporting, discussion, analysis, and interaction. Priest and Arkin will host this continuing conversation throughout the rest of the year, working alongside readers to lead inquiries about dimensions of Top Secret America that remain unexplored.
Other multimedia features include:
-A searchable database illustrates information about government organizations that contract out Top Secret work, companies they contract to, the types of work they do, and the places where they do it.
-A map displays locations of all the clusters of Top Secret activity and some basic information about those areas.
-Each of nearly 2,000 companies and 45 government organizations has a profile page with basic information about its role in Top Secret America, and readers can filter searches by companies doing a specific kind of work, all companies mentioned in the story, or all companies with more than $750 million in revenue.
-A video guide to Top Secret America provides a concise, 90-second visual overview of the project’s major findings and implications.
-A video produced by PBS Frontline previews the series and illuminates the process of reporting. From the high-tech barn where Arkin worked to Priest’s guided-tour outside the NSA campus to a photographer’s experience shooting, the video captures how the information was gathered and evolved into the final series.
A second story to be published Tuesday takes an in-depth look at the government's dependence on private contractors and how it may be degrading the quality of the federal workforce. Managers of the intelligence agencies do not necessarily know how many contractors work for them. The Post estimates the number of contractors who work on Top Secret programs to be 265,000.
A third story to be published Wednesday focuses on the economic and cultural impact of a high concentration of Top Secret work within a community located around the National Security Agency. While the rest of the country struggles with an economic recession, in the clusters of Top Secret America, expansion continues and the unemployment rate is low. The NSA plans to expand by two-thirds its current size over the next 15 years.
The first installment of the series is available now online at:
www dot TopSecretAmerica dot com
(BJ NOTE: All three installments are now available.)
Dana Priest is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post. She was the Post's intelligence reporter for three years and its Pentagon correspondent for seven years before that. She has traveled widely with Army Special Forces, Army infantry troops on peacekeeping missions and the Pentagon’s four-star regional commanders. Priest received the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for “The Other Walter Reed” and the 2006 Pulitzer for Beat Reporting for her work on CIA secret prisons and counterterrorism operations overseas. She authored the 2003 book, “THE MISSION: Waging War and Keeping Peace With America’s Military” about the military’s expanding influence over U.S. foreign affairs.
William Arkin is a reporter for The Washington Post and has been a columnist since 1998. He has been working on the subject of government secrecy and national security affairs for over 30 years and has visited war zones in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia. He has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books about the U.S. military and national security including seven basic reference works. He has been a consultant for Natural Resources Defense Council, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, and the U.S. Air Force. -END-
7.20.2010
Tea Party slugfest
Embarrassing. Absurd. Alien. Arrogant. Preposteroous. These are some of the milder adjectives before the exchange gets down and dirty between David Webb of the National Tea Party Federation and Mark Williams and Joe Wierzbicki of the Tea Party Express.
For the really heavy slurs, read CNN.com’s wrapup of Monday’s infighting: LINK
Oh, but “Webb predicted to CNN on Monday that his clash with Williams will soon be forgotten by voters. ‘This is not a split, so the gleeful left can put away the smiles,’”
Who’s smiling?
The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented a dramatic increase in racially motivated hate groups in America. Don’t tell me there’s no correlation between this rise and the fact that an African-American now occupies the Oval Office. That’s just poppycock!
When the Tea Party claims to be a grassroots movement, and one of its leaders writes blatantly racist thoughts under the guise of “satire,” it is time for well-meaning conservatives to wake up and ask who’s representing them - and who’s getting the most attention.
As one of my conservative friends said about the “fringe,” “It’s the squeaking wheel that gets the grease.”
For the really heavy slurs, read CNN.com’s wrapup of Monday’s infighting: LINK
Oh, but “Webb predicted to CNN on Monday that his clash with Williams will soon be forgotten by voters. ‘This is not a split, so the gleeful left can put away the smiles,’”
Who’s smiling?
The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented a dramatic increase in racially motivated hate groups in America. Don’t tell me there’s no correlation between this rise and the fact that an African-American now occupies the Oval Office. That’s just poppycock!
When the Tea Party claims to be a grassroots movement, and one of its leaders writes blatantly racist thoughts under the guise of “satire,” it is time for well-meaning conservatives to wake up and ask who’s representing them - and who’s getting the most attention.
As one of my conservative friends said about the “fringe,” “It’s the squeaking wheel that gets the grease.”
7.18.2010
Fury with the fringe on top
I always enjoyed Dana Milbank’s nightly appearance with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann until The Washington Post columnist’s fall from “Countdown” favor with a COLUMN about Barack Obama’s pre-election hubris.
In this morning’s WaPo, Milbank says the despicable message of the recent Mason City, Iowa, billboard is “supported by conservative thought leaders and propagated by high-level Republican politicians.”
A “thought leader” at the conservative Hoover Institution recently wrote in a revoltingly hypocritical column that Obama, like Hitler and Lenin, exploits "useful idiots" who don't know much about politics. Sarah Palin tweeted the link to her supporters.
“Godwin’s Law,” Mr. Milbank writes, emerged with the Internet and states that eventually when two sides argue online, one will call the other “Hitler” or “Nazi.” Such epithets, Milbank notes, have moved from the fringe to the mainstream – to cable news and even the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
THE BECK TALLY
Milbank writes, “Consider these tallies from Glenn Beck's show on Fox News since Obama's inauguration: 202 mentions of Nazis or Nazism, according to transcripts, 147 mentions of Hitler, 193 mentions of fascism or fascist, and another 24 bonus mentions of Joseph Goebbels. Most of these were directed in some form at Obama - as were the majority of the 802 mentions of socialist or socialism on Beck's nightly ‘report.’"
By quoting a number of politicians, Milbank contends the language of the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream. Perhaps it is the other way around. It seems to me those who were once considered “mainstream” have stepped across the line and moved into the fringe.
DemWit recommends:
“The tea party makes trouble with a capital T,” Dana Milbank, The Washington Post, 18 July 2010: LINK
In this morning’s WaPo, Milbank says the despicable message of the recent Mason City, Iowa, billboard is “supported by conservative thought leaders and propagated by high-level Republican politicians.”
A “thought leader” at the conservative Hoover Institution recently wrote in a revoltingly hypocritical column that Obama, like Hitler and Lenin, exploits "useful idiots" who don't know much about politics. Sarah Palin tweeted the link to her supporters.
“Godwin’s Law,” Mr. Milbank writes, emerged with the Internet and states that eventually when two sides argue online, one will call the other “Hitler” or “Nazi.” Such epithets, Milbank notes, have moved from the fringe to the mainstream – to cable news and even the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
THE BECK TALLY
Milbank writes, “Consider these tallies from Glenn Beck's show on Fox News since Obama's inauguration: 202 mentions of Nazis or Nazism, according to transcripts, 147 mentions of Hitler, 193 mentions of fascism or fascist, and another 24 bonus mentions of Joseph Goebbels. Most of these were directed in some form at Obama - as were the majority of the 802 mentions of socialist or socialism on Beck's nightly ‘report.’"
By quoting a number of politicians, Milbank contends the language of the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream. Perhaps it is the other way around. It seems to me those who were once considered “mainstream” have stepped across the line and moved into the fringe.
DemWit recommends:
“The tea party makes trouble with a capital T,” Dana Milbank, The Washington Post, 18 July 2010: LINK
7.16.2010
Palin's chances?
From USA Today/Gallup poll this morning:
“Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the best known and most positively rated of five possible contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Her 76% favorable rating among Republicans tops those of Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal.”
READ THE POLL RESULTS
And, never underestimate the lunacy in a country that re-elected George W. Bush.
“Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the best known and most positively rated of five possible contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Her 76% favorable rating among Republicans tops those of Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal.”
READ THE POLL RESULTS
And, never underestimate the lunacy in a country that re-elected George W. Bush.
7.15.2010
The Tea Party cause
Ryan Rhodes, spokesperson for the Iowa Tea Party, defended the statewide organization after an affiliate, the North Iowa Tea Party, erected a controversial billboard in Mason City.
The billboard, which has been papered over, pictured President Obama, Adolph Hitler and Vladimir Lenin under the phrases, “Democrat Socialism,” “National Socialism” and “Marxist Socialism.” The word “change” appeared under each image and above the phrase “Radical leaders prey on the fearful and the naïve.”
Rhodes, in a statement to CNN (LINK), said the billboard did an injustice to the Tea Party cause of “American exceptionalism.”
If the reader wants a dissertation-level understanding of “American Exceptionalism,” there are plenty of online entries and even books on the subject.
A fairly simple definition opens the Wikipedia entry:
“American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States occupies a special niche among the nations of the world in terms of its national credo, historical evolution, political and religious institutions and its being built by immigrants. The roots of the belief are attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, who claimed that the then-50-year-old United States held a special place among nations, because it was the first working representative democracy.”
Opponents of the theory put it in simpler terms: “jingoism” and “nationalist propaganda.”
Ironically, other political entities claiming such an exceptional destiny were the Third Reich and the U.S.S.R.
I love the country of my birth. I’m sure Mr. Rhodes’ Tea Party does, too, although many in its ranks would deny President Obama’s love of the country of his birth.
A myopic view of exceptionalism, howeve, does not allow for correcting faults and righting wrongs. A claim of perfection denies a need for improvement and results in stagnation. It impedes the “change” mocked by the billboard and brought about by such Democratic programs as the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society. In each of these programs a Democratic president moved America beyond the restrictive bounds of poverty, parameters, prejudice and its own self-importance.
Once more this nation has a leader with a progressive vision encompassing all its citizens, and a “confederacy of dunces” has risen up to put him down.
***
Sometime this morning, DemWit, my stepchild blog, will mark 20,000 visits. Thanks to you!
The billboard, which has been papered over, pictured President Obama, Adolph Hitler and Vladimir Lenin under the phrases, “Democrat Socialism,” “National Socialism” and “Marxist Socialism.” The word “change” appeared under each image and above the phrase “Radical leaders prey on the fearful and the naïve.”
Rhodes, in a statement to CNN (LINK), said the billboard did an injustice to the Tea Party cause of “American exceptionalism.”
If the reader wants a dissertation-level understanding of “American Exceptionalism,” there are plenty of online entries and even books on the subject.
A fairly simple definition opens the Wikipedia entry:
“American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States occupies a special niche among the nations of the world in terms of its national credo, historical evolution, political and religious institutions and its being built by immigrants. The roots of the belief are attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville, who claimed that the then-50-year-old United States held a special place among nations, because it was the first working representative democracy.”
Opponents of the theory put it in simpler terms: “jingoism” and “nationalist propaganda.”
Ironically, other political entities claiming such an exceptional destiny were the Third Reich and the U.S.S.R.
I love the country of my birth. I’m sure Mr. Rhodes’ Tea Party does, too, although many in its ranks would deny President Obama’s love of the country of his birth.
A myopic view of exceptionalism, howeve, does not allow for correcting faults and righting wrongs. A claim of perfection denies a need for improvement and results in stagnation. It impedes the “change” mocked by the billboard and brought about by such Democratic programs as the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society. In each of these programs a Democratic president moved America beyond the restrictive bounds of poverty, parameters, prejudice and its own self-importance.
Once more this nation has a leader with a progressive vision encompassing all its citizens, and a “confederacy of dunces” has risen up to put him down.
***
Sometime this morning, DemWit, my stepchild blog, will mark 20,000 visits. Thanks to you!
7.12.2010
'Beyond the Killing Fields'
This is a story of journalism when it was journalism – and what it has become today.
Among my top 10 favorite films is “The Killing Fields.” Two stories unfold in this true depiction of intertwinging lives. One is the story of Sydney Schanberg and other courageous reporters with boots on the ground in war-torn countries. The other is the story of Dith Pron, who survived the killing fields of Cambodia.
Dith Pron, who became a photojournalist with the New York Times, died from cancer in a New Jersey hospital in March 2008. Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who won an Academy Award for portraying him in the film, was gunned down outside his Los Angeles home in February 1996. There are killing fields, and there are killing fields.
Anyone who didn’t cry as Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pron were reunited to the strains of John Lennon’s “Imagine” is cold of heart.
Pulitzer Prize winner and former NYT reporter Schanberg, in a interview with Politics Daily (LINK), talks about his new book, “Beyond the Killing Fields: War Writings,” the closing of foreign news bureaus and why journalism today is in a “state of chaos.”
Here are excerpts from the interview:
“ With life on our planet spinning faster and faster on the electronic wings of the digital revolution, I have no simple answers.
“There is no way to turn back the clock. The world has embraced the new technology, and as I see it, the craft of credible, serious journalism is in a state of chaos.
“Money is at the heart of the issue. Papers have lost much of their advertising to the Internet, which so far has produced sparse original reporting considering the volume of websites, choosing instead to cherry-pick from newspapers without compensating them.
“Also, Internet sites have decided that their audiences want shorter, splashier articles, not lengthy, detailed ones that often force governments and corporations to correct errant ways of dealing with the public.”
“CRUCIAL FOR DEMOCRACY”
“Papers are disappearing into bankruptcy on a regular basis. Those that remain are struggling to find a business model that can still support in-depth reporting. The best journalism costs serious money. I'm referring to investigative journalism, which is especially costly because it can take months for a team of reporters to bring forth a solid, major story. In the past, these came almost entirely from a small number of major newspapers and a few magazines.
“As newspapers and their staffs have shrunk, so has that special product, which is crucial for any healthy democracy based on a well-informed public. Those still standing have created their own websites to seek new advertising revenue, but the money gap has not closed. And the decline of credible journalism continues.”
“TRAIL OF GARBAGE”
“Good journalism does not have to be printed on paper. But the Internet has also spawned an endless 24/7 trail of garbage, which I call bits-and-pieces journalism – ‘borrowed’ or ‘aggregated’ material from other sources, especially original stories from newspapers. Internet companies say that the material they use is in the public domain and, therefore, free.
“So what can we do to repair this mess? It isn't just a case of a profession in decline but a dumbing down of an entire nation - one that has considerable effect on the rest of the world.
"The public does not hold journalists in high esteem largely because news outlets, including newspapers, have chosen over time to increase fluff stories about gossip, celebrities, sex scandals, etc., and mix them with hard news.
We were dumbing down the coverage before the Internet reared its head. If we want to restore a higher grade of journalism, we professionals will have to address the public and convince them that without serious reporting, they will not have the means to make informed decisions.”
“WE’RE IN A FIGHT”
“In the past, we have never explained ourselves well to the public. We resent it when citizens raise questions about our stories. As a profession we have been soft and have not challenged our publishers when they sought more fluff. If we want to rehabilitate professional journalism, restore foreign bureaus, raise newsroom standards, then we're in a fight - on the Internet and at newspapers.
We would have to stand up and speak out. But I don't know a silent, invisible way to get a task like this done.”
***
Cue John Lennon. This retired journalist is crying.
Among my top 10 favorite films is “The Killing Fields.” Two stories unfold in this true depiction of intertwinging lives. One is the story of Sydney Schanberg and other courageous reporters with boots on the ground in war-torn countries. The other is the story of Dith Pron, who survived the killing fields of Cambodia.
Dith Pron, who became a photojournalist with the New York Times, died from cancer in a New Jersey hospital in March 2008. Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who won an Academy Award for portraying him in the film, was gunned down outside his Los Angeles home in February 1996. There are killing fields, and there are killing fields.
Anyone who didn’t cry as Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pron were reunited to the strains of John Lennon’s “Imagine” is cold of heart.
Pulitzer Prize winner and former NYT reporter Schanberg, in a interview with Politics Daily (LINK), talks about his new book, “Beyond the Killing Fields: War Writings,” the closing of foreign news bureaus and why journalism today is in a “state of chaos.”
Here are excerpts from the interview:
“ With life on our planet spinning faster and faster on the electronic wings of the digital revolution, I have no simple answers.
“There is no way to turn back the clock. The world has embraced the new technology, and as I see it, the craft of credible, serious journalism is in a state of chaos.
“Money is at the heart of the issue. Papers have lost much of their advertising to the Internet, which so far has produced sparse original reporting considering the volume of websites, choosing instead to cherry-pick from newspapers without compensating them.
“Also, Internet sites have decided that their audiences want shorter, splashier articles, not lengthy, detailed ones that often force governments and corporations to correct errant ways of dealing with the public.”
“CRUCIAL FOR DEMOCRACY”
“Papers are disappearing into bankruptcy on a regular basis. Those that remain are struggling to find a business model that can still support in-depth reporting. The best journalism costs serious money. I'm referring to investigative journalism, which is especially costly because it can take months for a team of reporters to bring forth a solid, major story. In the past, these came almost entirely from a small number of major newspapers and a few magazines.
“As newspapers and their staffs have shrunk, so has that special product, which is crucial for any healthy democracy based on a well-informed public. Those still standing have created their own websites to seek new advertising revenue, but the money gap has not closed. And the decline of credible journalism continues.”
“TRAIL OF GARBAGE”
“Good journalism does not have to be printed on paper. But the Internet has also spawned an endless 24/7 trail of garbage, which I call bits-and-pieces journalism – ‘borrowed’ or ‘aggregated’ material from other sources, especially original stories from newspapers. Internet companies say that the material they use is in the public domain and, therefore, free.
“So what can we do to repair this mess? It isn't just a case of a profession in decline but a dumbing down of an entire nation - one that has considerable effect on the rest of the world.
"The public does not hold journalists in high esteem largely because news outlets, including newspapers, have chosen over time to increase fluff stories about gossip, celebrities, sex scandals, etc., and mix them with hard news.
We were dumbing down the coverage before the Internet reared its head. If we want to restore a higher grade of journalism, we professionals will have to address the public and convince them that without serious reporting, they will not have the means to make informed decisions.”
“WE’RE IN A FIGHT”
“In the past, we have never explained ourselves well to the public. We resent it when citizens raise questions about our stories. As a profession we have been soft and have not challenged our publishers when they sought more fluff. If we want to rehabilitate professional journalism, restore foreign bureaus, raise newsroom standards, then we're in a fight - on the Internet and at newspapers.
We would have to stand up and speak out. But I don't know a silent, invisible way to get a task like this done.”
***
Cue John Lennon. This retired journalist is crying.
7.11.2010
Lock and load, amen!
A classmate from my high school days sent the following brief article from the right-wing NewMax (LINK). Just though DemWit readers would find it interesting:
Jindal Agrees to Allow Concealed Guns in Church
Thursday, 08 Jul 2010
BATON ROUGE, La. - Gov. Bobby Jindal has agreed to allow concealed handguns inside Louisiana's churches.
Churches, synagogues and mosques choosing to allow concealed carry will have to inform their congregations of the decision. Anyone wishing to carry a concealed weapon in a church will have to take an extra eight hours of tactical training each year.
Jindal signed the bill by Republican Rep. Henry Burns on Tuesday.
The new law does not apply to churches on school property.
Supporters of the measure said it can be a deterrent against criminal activity in church and will give an option to ministers and pastors to incorporate concealed handguns into their security plans.
Opponents argued it's inappropriate to have concealed handguns in church.
***
DemWit’s continuing effort to profile potential GOP presidential candidates.
Jindal Agrees to Allow Concealed Guns in Church
Thursday, 08 Jul 2010
BATON ROUGE, La. - Gov. Bobby Jindal has agreed to allow concealed handguns inside Louisiana's churches.
Churches, synagogues and mosques choosing to allow concealed carry will have to inform their congregations of the decision. Anyone wishing to carry a concealed weapon in a church will have to take an extra eight hours of tactical training each year.
Jindal signed the bill by Republican Rep. Henry Burns on Tuesday.
The new law does not apply to churches on school property.
Supporters of the measure said it can be a deterrent against criminal activity in church and will give an option to ministers and pastors to incorporate concealed handguns into their security plans.
Opponents argued it's inappropriate to have concealed handguns in church.
***
DemWit’s continuing effort to profile potential GOP presidential candidates.
7.08.2010
A little edukashun at Beck U.
Never has there been more evidence of the old adage “a little education is a dangerous thing” than the announcement that Glenn Beck has founded his own online university.
That’s no joke. Here’s the one-click matriculation (Cheetos and Kool-Aid not included): LINK
Adam Weinstein of Mother Jones has compiled a list of courses (LINK) he and other MoJo wits would like to see offered, and I reprint them here with his kind permission.
Mr. Weinstein, by the way, ain’t no intellectual slug. MoJo’s copy editor is a Navy veteran, is currently at work on a book about his "recession-fueled stint as a military contractor in Iraq" and, in addition to some great journalism experience, is a two-time Jeopardy champion. LINK
Courses at Glenn Beck's New U.
by Adam Weinstein
Mother Jones, Jul. 2, 2010
Have you heard the exciting news? Apparently appalled at the paucity of solid learnin' in America (excepting, of course, Texas), media maestro and renowned art historian Glenn Beck has announced the opening of his own great patriotic hall of academe. The forthcoming institution o'learnin', appropriately titled Beck University, will "explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future." Its faculty features such luminaries as a free-market economist whose degree is in psychology and a Texas Republican Party bigwig who hates, hates, HATES church-state separation. It even has an Ivy-style crest—featuring a feather, a buffalo, and the disembodied head of George Washington—and a Latin motto, "Tyrannis Seditio, Obsequium Deo" (roughly translated: "Revolution against tyrants, submission to God").
No word yet on whether RNC Chairman Michael Steele, apparently in need of some good historical and civics education of late, has enrolled. But just in time for the Independence Day weekend, the MoJo staff has produced a list of course offerings we hope to see at Beck U. next fall. If you have suggestions, too, post 'em to the comments or post them to Twitter with the hashtag #BeckUCourses! Let's do some educatin'! Yee haw!
Theories of Self and Other in the Autobiography of Ronald Reagan
Semiotics of Tricornered Hats
Mythology 101: Fossils
Presidential History From Harding to Coolidge
Oath Keeping
Semester Abroad in Kenya with Visiting Professor Dr. Jerome Corsi
Physics of AM Radio Waves
Fundamentals of Spelling and Grammar CANCELED
Great Military Heroes: John Wayne
Intro to Theology: Ayn Rand
Advanced Marketing Seminar: Rare Gold Coins
Drama 101: Intro to Alternative Lifestyles
Psych 301: Paranoia as Therapeutic Alternative
Wilde, Proust, and Other Homosexual Europeans
Middle Eastern and Arab Cultures: What's Up With That?
Literary Masters Colloquium: Cleon Skousen
Motherhood, Hockey, Hunting: Cultural Convergences
Studies in Moral Courage: Joe McCarthy
Counterinsurgency Techniques in Morning Radio
Phenomenological Epistemology and the Speeches of Barry Goldwater
Hermeneutics and Homosociality in The Overton Window
Political Science 300: Reverse Racism and the Modern Presidency
Colloquium on Great Filmmakers: Mel Gibson
Gym Crow
Underwater Conspiracy Weaving
***
I know my brilliant DemWit readers can come up with a few suggestions of their own. Have fun!
That’s no joke. Here’s the one-click matriculation (Cheetos and Kool-Aid not included): LINK
Adam Weinstein of Mother Jones has compiled a list of courses (LINK) he and other MoJo wits would like to see offered, and I reprint them here with his kind permission.
Mr. Weinstein, by the way, ain’t no intellectual slug. MoJo’s copy editor is a Navy veteran, is currently at work on a book about his "recession-fueled stint as a military contractor in Iraq" and, in addition to some great journalism experience, is a two-time Jeopardy champion. LINK
Courses at Glenn Beck's New U.
by Adam Weinstein
Mother Jones, Jul. 2, 2010
Have you heard the exciting news? Apparently appalled at the paucity of solid learnin' in America (excepting, of course, Texas), media maestro and renowned art historian Glenn Beck has announced the opening of his own great patriotic hall of academe. The forthcoming institution o'learnin', appropriately titled Beck University, will "explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future." Its faculty features such luminaries as a free-market economist whose degree is in psychology and a Texas Republican Party bigwig who hates, hates, HATES church-state separation. It even has an Ivy-style crest—featuring a feather, a buffalo, and the disembodied head of George Washington—and a Latin motto, "Tyrannis Seditio, Obsequium Deo" (roughly translated: "Revolution against tyrants, submission to God").
No word yet on whether RNC Chairman Michael Steele, apparently in need of some good historical and civics education of late, has enrolled. But just in time for the Independence Day weekend, the MoJo staff has produced a list of course offerings we hope to see at Beck U. next fall. If you have suggestions, too, post 'em to the comments or post them to Twitter with the hashtag #BeckUCourses! Let's do some educatin'! Yee haw!
Theories of Self and Other in the Autobiography of Ronald Reagan
Semiotics of Tricornered Hats
Mythology 101: Fossils
Presidential History From Harding to Coolidge
Oath Keeping
Semester Abroad in Kenya with Visiting Professor Dr. Jerome Corsi
Physics of AM Radio Waves
Fundamentals of Spelling and Grammar CANCELED
Great Military Heroes: John Wayne
Intro to Theology: Ayn Rand
Advanced Marketing Seminar: Rare Gold Coins
Drama 101: Intro to Alternative Lifestyles
Psych 301: Paranoia as Therapeutic Alternative
Wilde, Proust, and Other Homosexual Europeans
Middle Eastern and Arab Cultures: What's Up With That?
Literary Masters Colloquium: Cleon Skousen
Motherhood, Hockey, Hunting: Cultural Convergences
Studies in Moral Courage: Joe McCarthy
Counterinsurgency Techniques in Morning Radio
Phenomenological Epistemology and the Speeches of Barry Goldwater
Hermeneutics and Homosociality in The Overton Window
Political Science 300: Reverse Racism and the Modern Presidency
Colloquium on Great Filmmakers: Mel Gibson
Gym Crow
Underwater Conspiracy Weaving
***
I know my brilliant DemWit readers can come up with a few suggestions of their own. Have fun!
7.07.2010
Climate scientists cleared
Lies. Stopping them is not the biggest problem: reversing them is a major task. DemWit’s main aim is defending truth. Here’s a dose of truth just breaking in the news. Share it.
‘Climategate' review clears scientists of dishonesty, CNN, 7 July 2010.
“Climate change skeptics said the emails suggested data was being manipulated to exaggerate the threat of global warming.”
Read the story and pass the facts along.
‘Climategate' review clears scientists of dishonesty, CNN, 7 July 2010.
“Climate change skeptics said the emails suggested data was being manipulated to exaggerate the threat of global warming.”
Read the story and pass the facts along.
7.06.2010
Four past midnight
Death of a killer
In my collection of old newspapers and magazines marking historic events of my lifetime is a copy of Life magazine with a fold-out double cover proclaiming “OLYMPIC TRAGEDY: From this small Israeli team, 11 would die.” Not just Olympics fans, but the whole world watched in horror as “Black September” unfolded in Munich in 1972. The iconic photo shows Palestinian terrorist Khalid Jawad looking over the balcony of the Israeli team quarters in the Munich Olympic Village. In all, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, five terrorists and one West German police officer would lose their lives.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority news agency reported Abu Daoud, aka Mohammed Oudeh, the man who claimed to be the mastermind behind the Munich tragedy, is dead at age 73. Read the story.
The Dinosaur Trial?
I love the story of the Tennessee couple whose swimming pool project unearthed dinosaur fossils. A stunned Jim Leyden of Brighton said of the find in his backyard, "I grew up in New Jersey. I might find a body, but not a prehistoric animal."
One expert said the remains of the trilophodon, an extinct animal similar to the mammoth or mastodon, could be from 30,000 to 2 million years old. (LINK)
Attention Tennessee science teachers, any attempt to impart this knowledge to your students could result in a very famous event known as “The Dinosaur Trial.”
Reading the Tea leaves
On Monday a USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that “six in 10 Tea Party supporters view federal debt as an extremely serious threat to the future wellbeing of the U.S., easily their top concern.”
Where were these people for six years when the Republican-controlled executive and legislative branches of government were spending like drunken sailors?
For the record, here’s what became of Clinton’s $128 million surplus: “President Bush's budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the (Bush) White House predicted for the 2009 budget year.” (LINK)
Two wars and tax cuts for the wealthy had nothing to do with it?
Gag a Gaga
Word came Friday that Lady Gaga had broken the 10 million mark of Facebook “followers,” beating out President Barack Obama. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the current population of the United States is 307,006,550, which, assuming the bulk of Facebook users is American, means one in 30.7 Americans either need to get a life or are Republicans. IMO, these social networking sites are venues of one-liner vapidity leading communication back to a prehistoric vernacular of “ugh.”
I hesitate to ask this, but who the heck is Lady Gaga?
In my collection of old newspapers and magazines marking historic events of my lifetime is a copy of Life magazine with a fold-out double cover proclaiming “OLYMPIC TRAGEDY: From this small Israeli team, 11 would die.” Not just Olympics fans, but the whole world watched in horror as “Black September” unfolded in Munich in 1972. The iconic photo shows Palestinian terrorist Khalid Jawad looking over the balcony of the Israeli team quarters in the Munich Olympic Village. In all, 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, five terrorists and one West German police officer would lose their lives.
On Saturday, the Palestinian Authority news agency reported Abu Daoud, aka Mohammed Oudeh, the man who claimed to be the mastermind behind the Munich tragedy, is dead at age 73. Read the story.
The Dinosaur Trial?
I love the story of the Tennessee couple whose swimming pool project unearthed dinosaur fossils. A stunned Jim Leyden of Brighton said of the find in his backyard, "I grew up in New Jersey. I might find a body, but not a prehistoric animal."
One expert said the remains of the trilophodon, an extinct animal similar to the mammoth or mastodon, could be from 30,000 to 2 million years old. (LINK)
Attention Tennessee science teachers, any attempt to impart this knowledge to your students could result in a very famous event known as “The Dinosaur Trial.”
Reading the Tea leaves
On Monday a USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that “six in 10 Tea Party supporters view federal debt as an extremely serious threat to the future wellbeing of the U.S., easily their top concern.”
Where were these people for six years when the Republican-controlled executive and legislative branches of government were spending like drunken sailors?
For the record, here’s what became of Clinton’s $128 million surplus: “President Bush's budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the (Bush) White House predicted for the 2009 budget year.” (LINK)
Two wars and tax cuts for the wealthy had nothing to do with it?
Gag a Gaga
Word came Friday that Lady Gaga had broken the 10 million mark of Facebook “followers,” beating out President Barack Obama. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the current population of the United States is 307,006,550, which, assuming the bulk of Facebook users is American, means one in 30.7 Americans either need to get a life or are Republicans. IMO, these social networking sites are venues of one-liner vapidity leading communication back to a prehistoric vernacular of “ugh.”
I hesitate to ask this, but who the heck is Lady Gaga?
7.02.2010
Hear that lonesome whistle
My love affair with trains is in my blood. The circa 1900 photograph accompanying this post is of my paternal grandfather, Marion Monroe Turner (left), with shop hands and "Boss" (seated center) at the Illinois Central Railroad maintenance shop in Water Valley, Mississippi. The men who built the rails built America.
To this day the distant whistle of a train brings back memories.
When we were little kids and living on Second Street in Grenada, Mississippi, my brother Isaac and I knew the daily schedule to run the two blocks up the street to the train depot and watch the City of New Orleans pull in. Our day wasn’t complete until we received a friendly wave from the engineer. (The Panama Limited with its Pullman cars came through at night.) Across the tracks was the Yellow Fever Cemetery. I’m not sure if it was off limits because of the possibility of lingering germs or because we would have had to cross the tracks. I suspect a little of both.
Hoboes riding the rails carved a cat on our fence post – a sign that meant “a kind woman lives in this house.” Rarely a day passed that one or more didn’t knock on our back door for food. Mother would give the hungry man a rake and tell him she would give him a plate of food if he would rake the leaves in our small back yard. Some took off, while others worked for Mother’s good cooking.
After we moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1951, Isaac and I had our first train ride. My daddy, who had to return home to work, drove us to Chincoteague, Virginia, an island in the Chesapeake Bay, where we spent a glorious summer with my sister Mary and brother-in-law Paul. Paul was stationed at Norfolk Naval Base, a daily commute on a ferry boat. At the end of our island adventure, Mother, Isaac and I rode the train home. What a thrill for a couple of kids.
My last train ride was a thrill, but of a different nature. In the spring of 1983, a friend and I rode the City of New Orleans from Jackson, Mississippi, to Carbondale, Illinois, where we were to retrieve some furniture pieces I had stored there. The train left Jackson in one of the worst spring floods recorded. For 200 miles we rode at a snail’s pace on rails three feet under water. When the engineer cleared Memphis, Tennessee, for higher ground, he made up for lost time. “How fast is this damn train going,” I accosted the conductor. “Is this Casey Jones’ trip to the promised land?” “70,” he chuckled. “More like 120,” I snapped back. My embarrassed companion escorted me to the dining car for a prescribed “stiff drink.” When I stepped off the train at Carbondale, happy to be in one piece, I declared, “That will be my last train ride,” and it was.
A few days ago I was relating this tale to my friend Jenny as we entered a Walgreen’s pharmacy. Overhead the Musak was playing.
Good morning. America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son.
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans.
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
A tear for a long-ago childhood ran down my cheek.
To this day the distant whistle of a train brings back memories.
When we were little kids and living on Second Street in Grenada, Mississippi, my brother Isaac and I knew the daily schedule to run the two blocks up the street to the train depot and watch the City of New Orleans pull in. Our day wasn’t complete until we received a friendly wave from the engineer. (The Panama Limited with its Pullman cars came through at night.) Across the tracks was the Yellow Fever Cemetery. I’m not sure if it was off limits because of the possibility of lingering germs or because we would have had to cross the tracks. I suspect a little of both.
Hoboes riding the rails carved a cat on our fence post – a sign that meant “a kind woman lives in this house.” Rarely a day passed that one or more didn’t knock on our back door for food. Mother would give the hungry man a rake and tell him she would give him a plate of food if he would rake the leaves in our small back yard. Some took off, while others worked for Mother’s good cooking.
After we moved to Jackson, Mississippi, in 1951, Isaac and I had our first train ride. My daddy, who had to return home to work, drove us to Chincoteague, Virginia, an island in the Chesapeake Bay, where we spent a glorious summer with my sister Mary and brother-in-law Paul. Paul was stationed at Norfolk Naval Base, a daily commute on a ferry boat. At the end of our island adventure, Mother, Isaac and I rode the train home. What a thrill for a couple of kids.
My last train ride was a thrill, but of a different nature. In the spring of 1983, a friend and I rode the City of New Orleans from Jackson, Mississippi, to Carbondale, Illinois, where we were to retrieve some furniture pieces I had stored there. The train left Jackson in one of the worst spring floods recorded. For 200 miles we rode at a snail’s pace on rails three feet under water. When the engineer cleared Memphis, Tennessee, for higher ground, he made up for lost time. “How fast is this damn train going,” I accosted the conductor. “Is this Casey Jones’ trip to the promised land?” “70,” he chuckled. “More like 120,” I snapped back. My embarrassed companion escorted me to the dining car for a prescribed “stiff drink.” When I stepped off the train at Carbondale, happy to be in one piece, I declared, “That will be my last train ride,” and it was.
A few days ago I was relating this tale to my friend Jenny as we entered a Walgreen’s pharmacy. Overhead the Musak was playing.
Good morning. America, how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son.
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans.
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
A tear for a long-ago childhood ran down my cheek.
7.01.2010
Cantor's 'manifesto' bugs GOPers
“House Minority Whip Eric Cantor has asked the ethics committee to greenlight a national book tour this August for a new GOP manifesto he’s co-authoring with two younger members of Congress, according to sources familiar with the situation. This is classic Cantor: a hyperambitious move to publish and push ideas he thinks will help rebrand the GOP, on his terms — and not necessarily those of his boss, Minority Leader John Boehner. If this were an isolated incident, it would pass without a peep. But it’s not: Cantor is earning a reputation for pushing his ideas so hard and so often that some GOP colleagues are questioning his motives.”
DemWit has selected this item to highlight CNN’s “Early Morning Speed Read” which can be accessed between 7 and 8 a.m. ET on CNN’s “Political Ticker.” The Speed Read covers the latest in politics as well as U.S., world and business news. An excellent source of news briefs served up with your morning coffee!
Read “Eric Cantor’s ambition raises concerns, debate”
Check out “Early Morning Speed Read”
Access CNN’s “Political Ticker”
DemWit has selected this item to highlight CNN’s “Early Morning Speed Read” which can be accessed between 7 and 8 a.m. ET on CNN’s “Political Ticker.” The Speed Read covers the latest in politics as well as U.S., world and business news. An excellent source of news briefs served up with your morning coffee!
Read “Eric Cantor’s ambition raises concerns, debate”
Check out “Early Morning Speed Read”
Access CNN’s “Political Ticker”
6.29.2010
No losers with health care act
Today DemWit welcomes guest writer Barbara O’Brien, web outreach coordinator for the Mesothelioma Asbestos Awareness Center. Barbara authors the progressive blog THE MAHABLOG, writes for a number of progressive sites, including Crooks & Liars and Alternet, and has appeared on MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”
Health Care Reform Will Help Everybody
by Barbara O’Brien
Many Americans assume the new health care reform act will benefit mostly the poor and uninsured and hurt everyone else, according to polls. As Matt Yglesias wrote, “Basically, people see this as a bill that will take resources from people who have health insurance and give it to people who don’t have health insurance.” Those who still oppose the reform say that people ought to pay for their own health care.
We all believe in the virtues of hard work and self-reliance, but these days it’s a fantasy to think that anyone but the mega-wealthy will not, sooner or later, depend on help from others to pay medical bills. And that’s true no matter how hard you work, how much you love America, or how diligently you take care of yourself. The cost of medical care has so skyrocketed that breaking an arm or leg could cost as much as a new car. And if you get cancer or heart disease — which can happen even to people who live healthy lifestyles — forget about it. The disease will not only clean you out; it will leave a whopping debt for your survivors to pay.
And the truth is, we all pay for other peoples’ health care whether we know it or not. When people can’t pay their medical bills, the cost of their health care gets added to everyone else’s bills and insurance premiums. When poor people use emergency rooms as a doctor of last resort, their care is not “free.” You pay for it.
Another common fantasy about medical care is that the “free market” provides incentives for medical companies to develop innovative new drugs and treatments for disease without government subsidy. It’s true that private enterprise is very good at developing profitable health care products. But not all medical care can be made profitable.
For years, the U.S. government has been funding medical research that the big private companies don’t want to do because there is too much cost for the potential profit. This is especially true for diseases that are rare and expensive to treat. An example of a recent advance made possible by government grants include new guidelines for malignant pleural mesothelioma treatment developed by MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers. Another is a blood screening test developed by mesothelioma doctors like thoracic surgeon Dr. David Sugarbaker. The health reform act provides for more dollars for such research, from which even many of the tea party protesters will benefit.
The biggest fantasy of all was that people who had insurance didn’t have to worry about health care costs. But the fact is that in recent years millions of Americans have been bankrupted by medical costs, and three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance. And yes, insurance companies even dumped hard-working, law-abiding patriots. But the health care reform act will put an end to that, and now America’s hard-working, law-abiding patriots are more financially secure, whether they like it or not.
Health Care Reform Will Help Everybody
by Barbara O’Brien
Many Americans assume the new health care reform act will benefit mostly the poor and uninsured and hurt everyone else, according to polls. As Matt Yglesias wrote, “Basically, people see this as a bill that will take resources from people who have health insurance and give it to people who don’t have health insurance.” Those who still oppose the reform say that people ought to pay for their own health care.
We all believe in the virtues of hard work and self-reliance, but these days it’s a fantasy to think that anyone but the mega-wealthy will not, sooner or later, depend on help from others to pay medical bills. And that’s true no matter how hard you work, how much you love America, or how diligently you take care of yourself. The cost of medical care has so skyrocketed that breaking an arm or leg could cost as much as a new car. And if you get cancer or heart disease — which can happen even to people who live healthy lifestyles — forget about it. The disease will not only clean you out; it will leave a whopping debt for your survivors to pay.
And the truth is, we all pay for other peoples’ health care whether we know it or not. When people can’t pay their medical bills, the cost of their health care gets added to everyone else’s bills and insurance premiums. When poor people use emergency rooms as a doctor of last resort, their care is not “free.” You pay for it.
Another common fantasy about medical care is that the “free market” provides incentives for medical companies to develop innovative new drugs and treatments for disease without government subsidy. It’s true that private enterprise is very good at developing profitable health care products. But not all medical care can be made profitable.
For years, the U.S. government has been funding medical research that the big private companies don’t want to do because there is too much cost for the potential profit. This is especially true for diseases that are rare and expensive to treat. An example of a recent advance made possible by government grants include new guidelines for malignant pleural mesothelioma treatment developed by MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers. Another is a blood screening test developed by mesothelioma doctors like thoracic surgeon Dr. David Sugarbaker. The health reform act provides for more dollars for such research, from which even many of the tea party protesters will benefit.
The biggest fantasy of all was that people who had insurance didn’t have to worry about health care costs. But the fact is that in recent years millions of Americans have been bankrupted by medical costs, and three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance. And yes, insurance companies even dumped hard-working, law-abiding patriots. But the health care reform act will put an end to that, and now America’s hard-working, law-abiding patriots are more financially secure, whether they like it or not.
An orator silenced
There will be a million words written across the Web today about Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Seven years ago he rose to the floor of the U.S. Senate and gave one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. So, I will let him speak to his legacy in his own words:
The Emperor Has No Clothes
by US Senator Robert Byrd
Senate Floor Remarks
October 17, 2003
In 1837, Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, wrote a wonderful fairy tale which he titled The Emperor's New Clothes. It may be the very first example of the power of political correctness. It is the story of the Ruler of a distant land who was so enamored of his appearance and his clothing that he had a different suit for every hour of the day.
One day two rogues arrived in town, claiming to be gifted weavers. They convinced the Emperor that they could weave the most wonderful cloth, which had a magical property. The clothes were only visible to those who were completely pure in heart and spirit.
The Emperor was impressed and ordered the weavers to begin work immediately. The rogues, who had a deep understanding of human nature, began to feign work on empty looms.
Minister after minister went to view the new clothes and all came back exhorting the beauty of the cloth on the looms even though none of them could see a thing.
Finally, a grand procession was planned for the Emperor to display his new finery. The Emperor went to view his clothes and was shocked to see absolutely nothing, but he pretended to admire the fabulous cloth, inspect the clothes with awe, and, after disrobing, go through the motions of carefully putting on a suit of the new garments.
Under a royal canopy the Emperor appeared to the admiring throng of his people - all of whom cheered and clapped because they all knew the rogue weavers' tale and did not want to be seen as less than pure of heart.
But, the bubble burst when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the Emperor had nothing on at all. He had no clothes.
That tale seems to me very like the way this nation was led to war.
We were told that we were threatened by weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but they have not been seen.
We were told that the throngs of Iraqi's would welcome our troops with flowers, but no throngs or flowers appeared.
We were led to believe that Saddam Hussein was connected to the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but no evidence has ever been produced.
We were told in 16 words that Saddam Hussein tried to buy "yellow cake" from Africa for production of nuclear weapons, but the story has turned into empty air.
We were frightened with visions of mushroom clouds, but they turned out to be only vapors of the mind.
We were told that major combat was over but 101 [as of October 17] Americans have died in combat since that proclamation from the deck of an aircraft carrier by our very own Emperor in his new clothes.
Our emperor says that we are not occupiers, yet we show no inclination to relinquish the country of Iraq to its people.
Those who have dared to expose the nakedness of the Administration's policies in Iraq have been subjected to scorn. Those who have noticed the elephant in the room - that is, the fact that this war was based on falsehoods - have had our patriotism questioned. Those who have spoken aloud the thought shared by hundreds of thousands of military families across this country, that our troops should return quickly and safely from the dangers half a world away, have been accused of cowardice. We have then seen the untruths, the dissembling, the fabrication, the misleading inferences surrounding this rush to war in Iraq wrapped quickly in the flag.
The right to ask questions, debate and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms.
Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world's greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. This huge spending bill has been rushed through this chamber in just one month. There were just three open hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87 billion, without a single outside witness called to challenge the Administration's line.
Ambassador Bremer went so far as to refuse to return to the Appropriations Committee to answer additional questions because, and I quote: "I don't have time. I'm completely booked, and I have to get back to Baghdad to my duties."
Despite this callous stiff-arm of the Senate and its duties to ask questions in order to represent the American people, few dared to voice their opposition to rushing this bill through these halls of Congress. Perhaps they were intimidated by the false claims that our troops are in immediate need of more funds.
But, the time has come for the sheep-like political correctness which has cowed members of this Senate to come to an end.
The Emperor has no clothes. This entire adventure in Iraq has been based on propaganda and manipulation. Eighty-seven billion dollars is too much to pay for the continuation of a war based on falsehoods.
Taking the nation to war based on misleading rhetoric and hyped intelligence is a travesty and a tragedy. It is the most cynical of all cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth. It is dangerous because once having lied, it is difficult to ever be believed again. Having misled the American people and stampeded them to war, this Administration must now attempt to sustain a policy predicated on falsehoods. The president asks for billions from those same citizens who know that they were misled about the need to go to war. We misinformed and insulted our friends and allies, and now this Administration is having more than a little trouble getting help from the international community. It is perilous to mislead.
The single-minded obsession of this Administration to now make sense of the chaos in Iraq, and the continuing propaganda which emanates from the White House painting Iraq as the geographical center of terrorism is distracting our attention from Afghanistan and the 60 other countries in the world where terrorists hide. It is sapping resources which could be used to make us safer from terrorists on our own shores. The body armor for our own citizens still has many, many chinks. Have we forgotten that the most horrific terror attacks in history occurred right here at home! Yet, this Administration turns back money for homeland security, while the president pours billions into security for Iraq. I am powerless to understand or explain such a policy.
I have tried mightily to improve this bill. I twice tried to separate the reconstruction money in this bill, so that those dollars could be considered separately from the military spending. I offered an amendment to force the Administration to craft a plan to get other nations to assist the troops and formulate a plan to get the U.N. in, and the U.S. out, of Iraq. Twice I tried to rid the bill of expansive, flexible authorities that turn this $87 billion into a blank check. The American people should understand that we provide more foreign aid for Iraq in this bill, $20.3 billion, than we provide for the rest of the entire world! I attempted to remove from this bill billions in wasteful programs and divert those funds to better use. But, at every turn, my efforts were thwarted by the vapid argument that we must all support the requests of the Commander in Chief.
I cannot stand by and continue to watch our grandchildren become increasingly burdened by the billions that fly out of the Treasury for a war and a policy based largely on propaganda and prevarication. We are borrowing $87 billion to finance this adventure in Iraq. The president is asking this Senate to pay for this war with increased debt, a debt that will have to be paid by our children and by those same troops that are currently fighting this war. I cannot support outlandish tax cuts that plunge our country into potentially disastrous debt while our troops are fighting and dying in a war that the White House chose to begin.
I cannot support the continuation of a policy that unwisely ties down 150,000 American troops for the foreseeable future, with no end in sight.
I cannot support a president who refuses to authorize the reasonable change in course that would bring traditional allies to our side in Iraq.
I cannot support the politics of zeal and "might makes right" that created the new American arrogance and unilateralism which passes for foreign policy in this Administration.
I cannot support this foolish manifestation of the dangerous and destabilizing doctrine of pre-emption that changes the image of America into that of a reckless bully.
The emperor has no clothes. And, our former allies around the world were the first to loudly observe it.
I shall vote against this bill because I cannot support a policy based on prevarication. I cannot support doling out 87 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars when I have so many doubts about the wisdom of its use.
I began my remarks with a fairy tale. I shall close my remarks with a horror story, in the form of a quote from the book Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews Hermann Goering.
"We got around to the subject of war again, and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
". . . But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
***
Mr. Byrd of West Virginia always carried a little book in his coat pocket – a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America. In this speech he strongly upheld the authority it gave him. God rest his soul.
The Emperor Has No Clothes
by US Senator Robert Byrd
Senate Floor Remarks
October 17, 2003
In 1837, Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, wrote a wonderful fairy tale which he titled The Emperor's New Clothes. It may be the very first example of the power of political correctness. It is the story of the Ruler of a distant land who was so enamored of his appearance and his clothing that he had a different suit for every hour of the day.
One day two rogues arrived in town, claiming to be gifted weavers. They convinced the Emperor that they could weave the most wonderful cloth, which had a magical property. The clothes were only visible to those who were completely pure in heart and spirit.
The Emperor was impressed and ordered the weavers to begin work immediately. The rogues, who had a deep understanding of human nature, began to feign work on empty looms.
Minister after minister went to view the new clothes and all came back exhorting the beauty of the cloth on the looms even though none of them could see a thing.
Finally, a grand procession was planned for the Emperor to display his new finery. The Emperor went to view his clothes and was shocked to see absolutely nothing, but he pretended to admire the fabulous cloth, inspect the clothes with awe, and, after disrobing, go through the motions of carefully putting on a suit of the new garments.
Under a royal canopy the Emperor appeared to the admiring throng of his people - all of whom cheered and clapped because they all knew the rogue weavers' tale and did not want to be seen as less than pure of heart.
But, the bubble burst when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the Emperor had nothing on at all. He had no clothes.
That tale seems to me very like the way this nation was led to war.
We were told that we were threatened by weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but they have not been seen.
We were told that the throngs of Iraqi's would welcome our troops with flowers, but no throngs or flowers appeared.
We were led to believe that Saddam Hussein was connected to the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, but no evidence has ever been produced.
We were told in 16 words that Saddam Hussein tried to buy "yellow cake" from Africa for production of nuclear weapons, but the story has turned into empty air.
We were frightened with visions of mushroom clouds, but they turned out to be only vapors of the mind.
We were told that major combat was over but 101 [as of October 17] Americans have died in combat since that proclamation from the deck of an aircraft carrier by our very own Emperor in his new clothes.
Our emperor says that we are not occupiers, yet we show no inclination to relinquish the country of Iraq to its people.
Those who have dared to expose the nakedness of the Administration's policies in Iraq have been subjected to scorn. Those who have noticed the elephant in the room - that is, the fact that this war was based on falsehoods - have had our patriotism questioned. Those who have spoken aloud the thought shared by hundreds of thousands of military families across this country, that our troops should return quickly and safely from the dangers half a world away, have been accused of cowardice. We have then seen the untruths, the dissembling, the fabrication, the misleading inferences surrounding this rush to war in Iraq wrapped quickly in the flag.
The right to ask questions, debate and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms.
Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world's greatest deliberative body is being snubbed. This huge spending bill has been rushed through this chamber in just one month. There were just three open hearings by the Senate Appropriations Committee on $87 billion, without a single outside witness called to challenge the Administration's line.
Ambassador Bremer went so far as to refuse to return to the Appropriations Committee to answer additional questions because, and I quote: "I don't have time. I'm completely booked, and I have to get back to Baghdad to my duties."
Despite this callous stiff-arm of the Senate and its duties to ask questions in order to represent the American people, few dared to voice their opposition to rushing this bill through these halls of Congress. Perhaps they were intimidated by the false claims that our troops are in immediate need of more funds.
But, the time has come for the sheep-like political correctness which has cowed members of this Senate to come to an end.
The Emperor has no clothes. This entire adventure in Iraq has been based on propaganda and manipulation. Eighty-seven billion dollars is too much to pay for the continuation of a war based on falsehoods.
Taking the nation to war based on misleading rhetoric and hyped intelligence is a travesty and a tragedy. It is the most cynical of all cynical acts. It is dangerous to manipulate the truth. It is dangerous because once having lied, it is difficult to ever be believed again. Having misled the American people and stampeded them to war, this Administration must now attempt to sustain a policy predicated on falsehoods. The president asks for billions from those same citizens who know that they were misled about the need to go to war. We misinformed and insulted our friends and allies, and now this Administration is having more than a little trouble getting help from the international community. It is perilous to mislead.
The single-minded obsession of this Administration to now make sense of the chaos in Iraq, and the continuing propaganda which emanates from the White House painting Iraq as the geographical center of terrorism is distracting our attention from Afghanistan and the 60 other countries in the world where terrorists hide. It is sapping resources which could be used to make us safer from terrorists on our own shores. The body armor for our own citizens still has many, many chinks. Have we forgotten that the most horrific terror attacks in history occurred right here at home! Yet, this Administration turns back money for homeland security, while the president pours billions into security for Iraq. I am powerless to understand or explain such a policy.
I have tried mightily to improve this bill. I twice tried to separate the reconstruction money in this bill, so that those dollars could be considered separately from the military spending. I offered an amendment to force the Administration to craft a plan to get other nations to assist the troops and formulate a plan to get the U.N. in, and the U.S. out, of Iraq. Twice I tried to rid the bill of expansive, flexible authorities that turn this $87 billion into a blank check. The American people should understand that we provide more foreign aid for Iraq in this bill, $20.3 billion, than we provide for the rest of the entire world! I attempted to remove from this bill billions in wasteful programs and divert those funds to better use. But, at every turn, my efforts were thwarted by the vapid argument that we must all support the requests of the Commander in Chief.
I cannot stand by and continue to watch our grandchildren become increasingly burdened by the billions that fly out of the Treasury for a war and a policy based largely on propaganda and prevarication. We are borrowing $87 billion to finance this adventure in Iraq. The president is asking this Senate to pay for this war with increased debt, a debt that will have to be paid by our children and by those same troops that are currently fighting this war. I cannot support outlandish tax cuts that plunge our country into potentially disastrous debt while our troops are fighting and dying in a war that the White House chose to begin.
I cannot support the continuation of a policy that unwisely ties down 150,000 American troops for the foreseeable future, with no end in sight.
I cannot support a president who refuses to authorize the reasonable change in course that would bring traditional allies to our side in Iraq.
I cannot support the politics of zeal and "might makes right" that created the new American arrogance and unilateralism which passes for foreign policy in this Administration.
I cannot support this foolish manifestation of the dangerous and destabilizing doctrine of pre-emption that changes the image of America into that of a reckless bully.
The emperor has no clothes. And, our former allies around the world were the first to loudly observe it.
I shall vote against this bill because I cannot support a policy based on prevarication. I cannot support doling out 87 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars when I have so many doubts about the wisdom of its use.
I began my remarks with a fairy tale. I shall close my remarks with a horror story, in the form of a quote from the book Nuremberg Diaries, written by G.M. Gilbert, in which the author interviews Hermann Goering.
"We got around to the subject of war again, and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.
". . . But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
***
Mr. Byrd of West Virginia always carried a little book in his coat pocket – a copy of the Constitution of the United States of America. In this speech he strongly upheld the authority it gave him. God rest his soul.
6.27.2010
Busting Fox News' BP propaganda
Those wonderful, tireless folks at Media Matters for America have done it again. They have identified the MYTHS Fox News would have you believe about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and just hammered that self-aggrandizing bunch of scoundrels with FACTS.
I can picture a sleep-deprived MMFA staff on a 48-hour, non-stop researchathon, chewing on Styrofoam cups of coffee, in zealous determination to defend truth.
I can picture it because I’ve been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.
They have produced an easy-to-read listing of myths, claims, realities and facts, which is 17 pages in length in a 12-point bold font. I have added subheads in all caps to guide the reader readily through their research and have placed the article in The Reading Room.
Treat this one like a good book: you have my word you won’t find it boring! And, boy, will you learn a few things!
To my family and friends in Gulf Coast states directly affected by this environmental and economic disaster, to all Americans, isn’t it time for Fox News to feel some shame for spreading lies on matters as dire and diverse as war and natural and manmade disasters?
Isn’t it time to recognize Fox News is in it for Rupert Murdoch’s bottom line and makes fools of its fans?
If the folks at MMFA can bust their butts busting media lies, distortions, half-truths and misinformation, can’t you take the time to examine their findings and prepare yourself to pass the facts along the next time you hear someone on Fox News say something like this:
"The (Obama) administration's response can be summed up as follows: demonize BP, seize its assets, raise taxes on energy and, therefore, raise prices, pile on regulation, appoint a commission, all to gloss over the failure to deal promptly with the oil spill. And then give us pipe dreams about a green future."
Well, can’t you?
Step into The Reading Room.
I can picture a sleep-deprived MMFA staff on a 48-hour, non-stop researchathon, chewing on Styrofoam cups of coffee, in zealous determination to defend truth.
I can picture it because I’ve been there, done that and bought the T-shirt.
They have produced an easy-to-read listing of myths, claims, realities and facts, which is 17 pages in length in a 12-point bold font. I have added subheads in all caps to guide the reader readily through their research and have placed the article in The Reading Room.
Treat this one like a good book: you have my word you won’t find it boring! And, boy, will you learn a few things!
To my family and friends in Gulf Coast states directly affected by this environmental and economic disaster, to all Americans, isn’t it time for Fox News to feel some shame for spreading lies on matters as dire and diverse as war and natural and manmade disasters?
Isn’t it time to recognize Fox News is in it for Rupert Murdoch’s bottom line and makes fools of its fans?
If the folks at MMFA can bust their butts busting media lies, distortions, half-truths and misinformation, can’t you take the time to examine their findings and prepare yourself to pass the facts along the next time you hear someone on Fox News say something like this:
"The (Obama) administration's response can be summed up as follows: demonize BP, seize its assets, raise taxes on energy and, therefore, raise prices, pile on regulation, appoint a commission, all to gloss over the failure to deal promptly with the oil spill. And then give us pipe dreams about a green future."
Well, can’t you?
Step into The Reading Room.
6.16.2010
Step back in time to the problem
If you are old enough, you remember those red, white and blue posters with the pointed finger and the challenge, “Uncle Sam wants you.”
I have just finished reading the transcript of President Obama’s address to the nation last night. In the wake of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, this president is pointing his finger at YOU: he wants you to help him to help America break its “addiction to fossil fuels.”
Isn’t it time?
When all the blame goes around, it ultimately comes back to YOU – for you are a citizen of a nation which consumes 20 percent of the world’s oil supply while possessing less than 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
YOU are further to blame for not demanding accountability in the wake of years of Reppublican deregulation of this industry.
LET US step back in time to the problem.
On Thursday, 25 May 2006, I noted in my Daily Journal:
BREAKING NEWS: Awaiting a verdict in the 53-day trial of Enron’s founder and CEO Ken Lay (charged with six counts of securities fraud and conspiracy) and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling (charged with 28 counts of the same). The jury has deliberated six days. These men allegedly bilked employees and stockholders out of life savings when the company went belly up. They are accused of reporting the company was doing great when, in fact, it was failing. Stocks plummeted from $90 a share to zero. As an MSNBC reporter stated: “Enron has come to symbolize corporate greed.” This is the biggest case of corporate fraud to date – and there have been some big ones!
Noon. Ken Lay GULTY ON ALL COUNTS! Jeff Skilling GUILTY on 19 of 28 counts! Also, Reuters is reporting a judge has found Ken Lay GUILTY in a separate case of bank fraud.
Bush’s good buddy Lay came out to the microphone to proclaim his innocence and invoke the name of the Lord. Not once has this hypocrite admitted any guilt in bilking so many out of their life’s savings.
NOW, step into DemWit’s time machine and travel back to the year 2003 when I first wrote “The Enron Connection” - an article I have subsequently updated.
I present the crux of that article here to show how closely aligned the Bush administration – which forumulated our energy policies – was to those regulated by them.
From “The Enron Connection” by B.J. Trotter:
RALPH REED - Former head of the Christian Coalition and GOP strategist. Reed was hired by Enron for $10,000 a month in 1997 on the recommendation of Bush political adviser Karl Rove as a way to keep Reed loyal to Bush and close enough not to disrupt the campaign's "compassionate conservative" spin.
DON EVANS - First, Bush's chief campaign fund-raiser, then Secretary of Commerce. Evans accepted Enron Chairman Ken Lay's campaign contributions and fielded Lay's phone calls.
KEEP READING, it gets better.
ALBERTO GONZALES - Gonzales is a White House counsel who worked at Vinson and Elkins, a Houston law firm which represented Enron and signed off on Enron's questionable accounting schemes.
PATRICK H. WOOD III - Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Wood was Ken Lay's personal choice to replace Curtis Herbert, Jr., who was forced out of office by Bush after disagreeing with Lay on regulatory policies.
SPENCER ABRAHAM - After being appointed Secretary of Energy by Bush, Abraham called Ken Lay to talk about Enron's financial difficulties and their effect on energy markets. As a senator, Abraham received substantial Enron contributions.
ROBERT ZOELLICK - U.S. Trade Representative Zoellick, who served on Enron's advisory council, provided another key source of access for Enron officials.
MARC F. RACICOT - Former Montana governor Racicot was Enron's Washington lobbyist. He dropped his client after being named Republican National Chairman.
WENDY GRAMM - As Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chairman, Gramm, wife of then Senator Phil Gramm (R. - TEXAS), pushed through a measure exempting Enron from federal oversight. She serves on Enron's audit committee.
SENATOR PHIL GRAMM - Then Senator Gramm pushed through legislation shielding Enron from government scrutiny and later decided not to seek re-election in 2002.. Thus ended a dedicated Senate career for Gramm, who, in the mid-80s, co-authored the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act with the intent of balancing the nation's budget and cutting federal deficits.
THOMAS E. WHITE - White, a 10-year Enron executive involved in market manipulation and price gouging, sold off $12 million in Enron stock after Bush appointed him Secretary of the Army. Citizen advocacy groups pushed for his resignation, and he resigned in April 2003.
KARL ROVE - Rove, chief White House political adviser, was a major Enron stockholder when he met with Ken Lay to discuss Enron's problems with federal regulators.
JOHN ASHCROFT - U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft had to recuse himself from the Justice Department's Enron investigation after revealing the company donated $61,000 to his failed 2000 Senate campaign.
OTHER BUSH POLITICAL ASSOCIATES WHO HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED BY ENRON - Former Commerce Secretary and Texas oilman Robert Mosbacher, Secretary of State James Baker, former White House economics guru Lawrence B. Lindsey, campaign adviser Ed Gillespie. Department of Commerce General Counsel Theodore W. Kassinger and Maritime Administrator William G. Schubert.
DICK CHENEY - As head of the Bush administration energy task force, which, if I recall, met behind closed doors, Vice President Cheney gave Ken Lay and other Enron executives major influence over the creation of the nation's energy policy.
KEN LAY - Enron Chairman Lay, a longtime personal friend of George W. Bush, made the company Bush's biggest campaign contributor and used his resulting influence to shape public energy policy in Enron's favor.
GEORGE W. BUSH - President Bush rewarded Enron's massive campaign contribution by refusing to intervene when the company's profiteering sparked California's energy crisis - a crisis for which California Governor Gray Davis paid the ultimate price, a recall from office by groups which succeeded in putting the responsibility of the state's energy and budget crisis on his shoulders.
I CONCLUDED the article:
The tangled web of Enron is far-reaching and under-reported. Television news is too busy covering the "flavor-of-the-day" stories - from Michael Jackson's dangling baby to the Laci Peterson murder case to the touting of Ann Coulter's new book, which hails Sen. Joe McCarthy as a great American hero - to report on REAL news. The days of great investigative journalism, when the "Fourth Estate" served a "checks and balances" function, are seemingly in the past.
And, Enron is just the tip of the iceberg. The web of corporate entanglement by the current administration clearly marks a CONFLICT OF INTEREST, a charge which in the past would have had every newspaper and TV news source in this country howling for investigation.
Halliburton, Harkin, Bechtel, Westar. All involved in a political quid pro quo resulting in massive government contracts. Halliburton, where Dick Cheney served as chairman and CEO, and its affiliates have been given the very lucrative job of rebuilding Iraq.
There is no need for an independent counsel here. No one need dig up the facts. These are the facts, reported by a few brave news outlets, citizen advocacy groups, corporate watchdogs and Internet news sites across this nation. The problem with newspapers is their reader base is localized and not as far-reaching as cable TV's CNN, MSNBC and Fox News or the major network anchor desks. These TV news outlets, all owned by major corporations, have remained eerily silent on this issue of conflict of interest.
The ultimate responsibility for righting this wrong lies in the power of the American citizen's sole possession, which cannot be bought or sold - the vote.
Questioning why nothing is being done about this issue is fair.
SOURCES OF NAMES: Common Cause and “Big Lies: The Right Wing Political Machine and How It Distorts the Truth” by Joe Conason.
TRAVELING BACK to the late 1960s:
I worked in public relations at St. Regis Paper Company’s Ferguson Mill in Monticello, Miss. – at the time the world’s largest paper mill. I know the standards in place at that time to protect the environment and ensure workplace safety. I even remember a home office memo explaining the term “ecology.” Somewhere along the way those standards have been eroded.
BACK TO THE FUTURE:
There is a lesson to be learned here. Will America seize this opportunity and accept the presidnt’s challenge?
Not if the Republican Party can help it.
I have just finished reading the transcript of President Obama’s address to the nation last night. In the wake of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, this president is pointing his finger at YOU: he wants you to help him to help America break its “addiction to fossil fuels.”
Isn’t it time?
When all the blame goes around, it ultimately comes back to YOU – for you are a citizen of a nation which consumes 20 percent of the world’s oil supply while possessing less than 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves.
YOU are further to blame for not demanding accountability in the wake of years of Reppublican deregulation of this industry.
LET US step back in time to the problem.
On Thursday, 25 May 2006, I noted in my Daily Journal:
BREAKING NEWS: Awaiting a verdict in the 53-day trial of Enron’s founder and CEO Ken Lay (charged with six counts of securities fraud and conspiracy) and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling (charged with 28 counts of the same). The jury has deliberated six days. These men allegedly bilked employees and stockholders out of life savings when the company went belly up. They are accused of reporting the company was doing great when, in fact, it was failing. Stocks plummeted from $90 a share to zero. As an MSNBC reporter stated: “Enron has come to symbolize corporate greed.” This is the biggest case of corporate fraud to date – and there have been some big ones!
Noon. Ken Lay GULTY ON ALL COUNTS! Jeff Skilling GUILTY on 19 of 28 counts! Also, Reuters is reporting a judge has found Ken Lay GUILTY in a separate case of bank fraud.
Bush’s good buddy Lay came out to the microphone to proclaim his innocence and invoke the name of the Lord. Not once has this hypocrite admitted any guilt in bilking so many out of their life’s savings.
NOW, step into DemWit’s time machine and travel back to the year 2003 when I first wrote “The Enron Connection” - an article I have subsequently updated.
I present the crux of that article here to show how closely aligned the Bush administration – which forumulated our energy policies – was to those regulated by them.
From “The Enron Connection” by B.J. Trotter:
RALPH REED - Former head of the Christian Coalition and GOP strategist. Reed was hired by Enron for $10,000 a month in 1997 on the recommendation of Bush political adviser Karl Rove as a way to keep Reed loyal to Bush and close enough not to disrupt the campaign's "compassionate conservative" spin.
DON EVANS - First, Bush's chief campaign fund-raiser, then Secretary of Commerce. Evans accepted Enron Chairman Ken Lay's campaign contributions and fielded Lay's phone calls.
KEEP READING, it gets better.
ALBERTO GONZALES - Gonzales is a White House counsel who worked at Vinson and Elkins, a Houston law firm which represented Enron and signed off on Enron's questionable accounting schemes.
PATRICK H. WOOD III - Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Wood was Ken Lay's personal choice to replace Curtis Herbert, Jr., who was forced out of office by Bush after disagreeing with Lay on regulatory policies.
SPENCER ABRAHAM - After being appointed Secretary of Energy by Bush, Abraham called Ken Lay to talk about Enron's financial difficulties and their effect on energy markets. As a senator, Abraham received substantial Enron contributions.
ROBERT ZOELLICK - U.S. Trade Representative Zoellick, who served on Enron's advisory council, provided another key source of access for Enron officials.
MARC F. RACICOT - Former Montana governor Racicot was Enron's Washington lobbyist. He dropped his client after being named Republican National Chairman.
WENDY GRAMM - As Commodities Futures Trading Commission Chairman, Gramm, wife of then Senator Phil Gramm (R. - TEXAS), pushed through a measure exempting Enron from federal oversight. She serves on Enron's audit committee.
SENATOR PHIL GRAMM - Then Senator Gramm pushed through legislation shielding Enron from government scrutiny and later decided not to seek re-election in 2002.. Thus ended a dedicated Senate career for Gramm, who, in the mid-80s, co-authored the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act with the intent of balancing the nation's budget and cutting federal deficits.
THOMAS E. WHITE - White, a 10-year Enron executive involved in market manipulation and price gouging, sold off $12 million in Enron stock after Bush appointed him Secretary of the Army. Citizen advocacy groups pushed for his resignation, and he resigned in April 2003.
KARL ROVE - Rove, chief White House political adviser, was a major Enron stockholder when he met with Ken Lay to discuss Enron's problems with federal regulators.
JOHN ASHCROFT - U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft had to recuse himself from the Justice Department's Enron investigation after revealing the company donated $61,000 to his failed 2000 Senate campaign.
OTHER BUSH POLITICAL ASSOCIATES WHO HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED BY ENRON - Former Commerce Secretary and Texas oilman Robert Mosbacher, Secretary of State James Baker, former White House economics guru Lawrence B. Lindsey, campaign adviser Ed Gillespie. Department of Commerce General Counsel Theodore W. Kassinger and Maritime Administrator William G. Schubert.
DICK CHENEY - As head of the Bush administration energy task force, which, if I recall, met behind closed doors, Vice President Cheney gave Ken Lay and other Enron executives major influence over the creation of the nation's energy policy.
KEN LAY - Enron Chairman Lay, a longtime personal friend of George W. Bush, made the company Bush's biggest campaign contributor and used his resulting influence to shape public energy policy in Enron's favor.
GEORGE W. BUSH - President Bush rewarded Enron's massive campaign contribution by refusing to intervene when the company's profiteering sparked California's energy crisis - a crisis for which California Governor Gray Davis paid the ultimate price, a recall from office by groups which succeeded in putting the responsibility of the state's energy and budget crisis on his shoulders.
I CONCLUDED the article:
The tangled web of Enron is far-reaching and under-reported. Television news is too busy covering the "flavor-of-the-day" stories - from Michael Jackson's dangling baby to the Laci Peterson murder case to the touting of Ann Coulter's new book, which hails Sen. Joe McCarthy as a great American hero - to report on REAL news. The days of great investigative journalism, when the "Fourth Estate" served a "checks and balances" function, are seemingly in the past.
And, Enron is just the tip of the iceberg. The web of corporate entanglement by the current administration clearly marks a CONFLICT OF INTEREST, a charge which in the past would have had every newspaper and TV news source in this country howling for investigation.
Halliburton, Harkin, Bechtel, Westar. All involved in a political quid pro quo resulting in massive government contracts. Halliburton, where Dick Cheney served as chairman and CEO, and its affiliates have been given the very lucrative job of rebuilding Iraq.
There is no need for an independent counsel here. No one need dig up the facts. These are the facts, reported by a few brave news outlets, citizen advocacy groups, corporate watchdogs and Internet news sites across this nation. The problem with newspapers is their reader base is localized and not as far-reaching as cable TV's CNN, MSNBC and Fox News or the major network anchor desks. These TV news outlets, all owned by major corporations, have remained eerily silent on this issue of conflict of interest.
The ultimate responsibility for righting this wrong lies in the power of the American citizen's sole possession, which cannot be bought or sold - the vote.
Questioning why nothing is being done about this issue is fair.
SOURCES OF NAMES: Common Cause and “Big Lies: The Right Wing Political Machine and How It Distorts the Truth” by Joe Conason.
TRAVELING BACK to the late 1960s:
I worked in public relations at St. Regis Paper Company’s Ferguson Mill in Monticello, Miss. – at the time the world’s largest paper mill. I know the standards in place at that time to protect the environment and ensure workplace safety. I even remember a home office memo explaining the term “ecology.” Somewhere along the way those standards have been eroded.
BACK TO THE FUTURE:
There is a lesson to be learned here. Will America seize this opportunity and accept the presidnt’s challenge?
Not if the Republican Party can help it.
6.14.2010
Confluence
Have you, dear reader, ever experienced a confluence of seemingly unrelated events or facts which absolutely blew your mind?
I cannot go wrong when my longtime friend and avid bookworm Annelle Poole recommends a good read. Thanks to her I’ve devoured mystery series by James Lee Burke, Nevada Barr, Ann B. Ross and Janet Evanovich. Recently, she reminded me to try prolific British mystery writer Anne Perry’s “Detective William Monk” series, one of many bestselling series by the author. I’m into the third book of the Monk series, and all I can say is Perry delivers!
In 1994, LOTR director Peter Jackson made “Heavenly Creatures,” a fascinating and amazingly crafted film based on a 1950s murder in Christchurch, New Zealand. Two schoolgirls, the beautiful and extroverted Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) and sulky and introverted Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) formed a bond of adolescent love and fantasy which led to their murder of Parker’s mother. The crime was horrific, the mother bludgeoned to death with a brick tied in a stocking. The girls served five years in prison and upon release were ordered never to see each other again.
It took my friend Bill Sumrall, who has never forgotten any detail he’s heard or read, to remind me of something I had filed away in some dormant grey cell.
Apparently the two girls never saw each other again, although they both eventurally ended up in Scotland. Pauline Parker ran a girls riding school and now lives on the remote Orkney Isles. She has never granted an interview about the murder. Juliet Hulme moved to England to live with her mother and assumed her stepfather’s name. She became the very successful writer of murder mysteries Anne Perry.
I cannot go wrong when my longtime friend and avid bookworm Annelle Poole recommends a good read. Thanks to her I’ve devoured mystery series by James Lee Burke, Nevada Barr, Ann B. Ross and Janet Evanovich. Recently, she reminded me to try prolific British mystery writer Anne Perry’s “Detective William Monk” series, one of many bestselling series by the author. I’m into the third book of the Monk series, and all I can say is Perry delivers!
In 1994, LOTR director Peter Jackson made “Heavenly Creatures,” a fascinating and amazingly crafted film based on a 1950s murder in Christchurch, New Zealand. Two schoolgirls, the beautiful and extroverted Juliet Hulme (Kate Winslet) and sulky and introverted Pauline Parker (Melanie Lynskey) formed a bond of adolescent love and fantasy which led to their murder of Parker’s mother. The crime was horrific, the mother bludgeoned to death with a brick tied in a stocking. The girls served five years in prison and upon release were ordered never to see each other again.
It took my friend Bill Sumrall, who has never forgotten any detail he’s heard or read, to remind me of something I had filed away in some dormant grey cell.
Apparently the two girls never saw each other again, although they both eventurally ended up in Scotland. Pauline Parker ran a girls riding school and now lives on the remote Orkney Isles. She has never granted an interview about the murder. Juliet Hulme moved to England to live with her mother and assumed her stepfather’s name. She became the very successful writer of murder mysteries Anne Perry.
6.10.2010
'You know how he is'
Carly Fiorina, who will challenge California Democratic Sea. Barbara Boxer in the November election, failed to heed the advice, “Treat every microphone as a live microphone.”
Innocuous enough, while waiting for a broadcast interview, were her quotes of a friend making fun of Sen. Boxer’s hair style.
My favorite moment of the chit-chat was Carly’s assessment of Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Questioning why Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman would choose to appear on Hannity’s show, the mike caught this critique:
"It's really surprising that on the first day of the general [election], Meg Whitman is going on Sean Hannity, I think it's bizarre…I think it's a very bad choice actually. You know how he is."
Yes, Carly, we know how he is: a pouty-faced, ineffectual whiner whose personal emotions and rude interruptions override truth.
A spokesperson for Carly told CNN’s Political Ticker the Republican candidate for Boxer’s seat was just making “early morning small talk.”
And, for prime time small talk, there’s always Fox News.
***
A brief post follows.
Innocuous enough, while waiting for a broadcast interview, were her quotes of a friend making fun of Sen. Boxer’s hair style.
My favorite moment of the chit-chat was Carly’s assessment of Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
Questioning why Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman would choose to appear on Hannity’s show, the mike caught this critique:
"It's really surprising that on the first day of the general [election], Meg Whitman is going on Sean Hannity, I think it's bizarre…I think it's a very bad choice actually. You know how he is."
Yes, Carly, we know how he is: a pouty-faced, ineffectual whiner whose personal emotions and rude interruptions override truth.
A spokesperson for Carly told CNN’s Political Ticker the Republican candidate for Boxer’s seat was just making “early morning small talk.”
And, for prime time small talk, there’s always Fox News.
***
A brief post follows.
Update on Warren Jeffs
Arizona has dropped charges against polygamist leader Warren Jeffs at the behest of prosecutors and victims who want him to face the more serious felony charge, in Texas, of sexual assault of a child. Jeffs is a "prophet" of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). ARTICLE
I recommend anything written by Jon Krakauer, but, in this case, his “Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith” is one of the best resources for a history of the Mormons and a revealing investigation of the offshoot FLDS sect Jeffs has lead.
I recommend anything written by Jon Krakauer, but, in this case, his “Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith” is one of the best resources for a history of the Mormons and a revealing investigation of the offshoot FLDS sect Jeffs has lead.
6.09.2010
Beck's bibliography
The combination of someone named to Time’s “100 Most Influential Persons in the World” and someone hell-bent on revising American history is lethal.
I’m guessing most DemWit readers don’t tune in to Glenn Beck’s history lessons via radio and Fox News.
But, plenty of people do, and the history Beck is dishing out is based on a bibliography boasting a crackpot anti-Semitic and Hitler sympathizer, a John Birch Society fanatic and even opponents of the civil rights movement.
To hell with historians who have laboriously documented their works, Beck’s sources, he claims, reveal the true history of this country - which progressives seek to erase.
The scariest enemy he can conjure for the gullible is “the intellectual elite.”
Beck even evoked imagery of the civil rights movement telling his listeners “dogs and fire hoses” might one day be turned on them. Fear, you see, is the first step in brainwashing.
Yesterday’s PROGRESS REPORT, Center for American Progress, has an eye-popping exposé of just exactly what Beck is teaching his followers.
Recommended: “Radical Right: Glenn Beck’s Revisionist History”
I’m guessing most DemWit readers don’t tune in to Glenn Beck’s history lessons via radio and Fox News.
But, plenty of people do, and the history Beck is dishing out is based on a bibliography boasting a crackpot anti-Semitic and Hitler sympathizer, a John Birch Society fanatic and even opponents of the civil rights movement.
To hell with historians who have laboriously documented their works, Beck’s sources, he claims, reveal the true history of this country - which progressives seek to erase.
The scariest enemy he can conjure for the gullible is “the intellectual elite.”
Beck even evoked imagery of the civil rights movement telling his listeners “dogs and fire hoses” might one day be turned on them. Fear, you see, is the first step in brainwashing.
Yesterday’s PROGRESS REPORT, Center for American Progress, has an eye-popping exposé of just exactly what Beck is teaching his followers.
Recommended: “Radical Right: Glenn Beck’s Revisionist History”
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