Photo: trader_john

I was involved in the LA Chapter of GLAAD to a certain extent early on, when GLAAD still fought against heterosexism in the media. GLAAD has gone way downhill since. In recent years, they actually were run by a homophobic Republican.

I had hoped that GLAAD would get less heterosexist after that clown left, but it's just doesn't get better.

Remember when AT&T was broken up as a monopoly to try to increase competition years ago under antitrust laws? Well, AT&T has been buying up competitors ever since, trying to regain its monopoly status. These days, this is especially dangerous since telecommunications companies are Internet providers and so much queer and queer activist content has moved to the Internet. Allowing these kind of corporate takeovers poses a potentially existential threat to the LGBT civil rights movement.

AT&T will be able use any monopoly to censor queer activism and queer content. Given the fact that most corporate executives and major shareholders are viciously heterosexist, racist, and sexist Republicans, it would be highly surprising (actually shocking) if they didn't abuse their power, absent the prospect of losing customers to competitors.

In full knowledge of all of this, GLAAD issued a letter to the FCC supporting the merger. After the controversy became public, GLAAD issued a statement including bizarre rationalizations that insult the intelligence of anyone with an IQ over 60. Some people were asking why GLAAD did this. The answer is readily available in another press release on their site.

GLAAD Receives $25,000 Grant from AT&T

AT&T is a major donor that gives amounts of money to GLAAD that are small to the multinational corporation and large to the faux media activist organization. AT&T has been able to buy GLAAD's betrayal, and GLAAD hasn't exactly lost sleep over the heinous thing they have done because they stopped giving a shit about the queer community well over a decade ago.

Living in a corporate police state would be just fine for AT&T, but it is deadly dangerous to oppressed communities like queers. We need to fight back when groups that claim to speak for us throw us under the bus so they can overpay their executives.

Note: I want to thank the guys at Feast of Fun for alerting me to this issue by putting up this news story and discussing it on their podcast. Their podcast is quite entertaining, yet it also includes important news, information, and insights. The only people that will make GLAAD and the HRC even act like they care about the queer community are dedicated podcasters, bloggers, and grassroots activists.

 

I've been a swing voter between the Democrats and the Greens for years, but voting for Democrats keeps getting more difficult. This latest incident of morally repugnant racism from New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Anthony Weiner.

From CBS News New York 5/19/11 where Gillibrand attacked Obama for calling on Israel to accept its internationally recognized borders.

“Steps toward a lasting peace, with real security, cannot start with pre-existing conditions on Israel, said New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Of course, a vicious bigot like Gillibrand would say that Israel cannot be forced to stop illegally occupying Palestinian land. She actually thinks that the US is obligated to support territorial claims of a racist government that is guilty, guilty, guilty of ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian people in Palestine and which systematically oppresses and discriminates against Palestinians living in their native lands in Israel. Obviously, she thinks that it is perfectly OK for Israel to have nuclear weapons that were obtained by a terrorist attack against the USS Liberty, yet she pretends that it faces a real security threat to its actual, legitimate borders.

I can't say I'm surprised. Nothing a bloodthirsty, NRA/KKK gun extremist like Kirsten Gillibrand could do would ever disappoint me. A pro robbery, rape, and murder politician like her is completely beneath contempt.

Anthony Weiner couldn't help but join in on the racismfest either.

“The Palestinians have said in 1967 and every year since that they want Israel not to even exist. That’s the problem,” added Rep. Anthony Weiner.

“I think the fundamental philosophy of the United States should be trying to help our ally in the region, to help democracy and freedom. That means being an ally of Israel. The Palestinians have made it clear again and again they prefer violence to peace.”

Never mind that Israel has never recognized the right of Palestinians to exist either.

Israel cannot be represented as a democracy when its political system blocks participation by Palestinian parties in governing the country. Most land in Israel is owned by a foundation that openly excludes rentals to anyone who isn't Jewish. So much for "freedom."

Weiner also is perfectly aware of the absolute fact that Israel regularly commits far more and far deadlier acts of violence against the Palestinians. Weiner also is perfectly aware of the absolute fact that Israel's political and military leaders are guilty of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza. He also knows that Israel is guilty of a military siege against Gaza, which is another crime against humanity.

Horror of horrors that Obama even pay lip service to getting Israel to accept its internationally established borders. No decent, honorable, moral person supports Israel keeping on square inch of territory it has stolen. Yet, Weiner's venomous racism against Arabs won't tolerate keeping Israel within its own borders.

Of course, this isn't the only example of slimy, dishonest behavior from that rightist Phonycrat. He pretended to champion the Public Option only to gleefully throw middle class and poor people under the bus and vote for Barack Bush's wealthcare plan for the HMOs, health insurers, and Big Pharma. The man has absolutely no personal or public integrity whatsoever. Weiner is the epitome of a bought politician. He's as much of a habitual liar as he is a venomous racist.

Incredibly rightist and bigoted politicians like Gillibrand and Weiner are far from exceptional in the Democratic Party. Heinous bullshit like this is why I'm finding it more and more difficult to support any Democrat ever again. These two de facto teabaggers are incredibly strong arguments for the Green Party.

 

People in this country are realizing that the pro democracy protests in Wisconsin and Ohio are an important part of resisting the totalitarian tactics of the wealthy oligarchs in this country. A lot of queers really get this. For instance, Pride at Work, an LGBT labor group sent out a message to its members in support of Wisconsin. From that email:

Rallies. Crowds spilling into the streets. Seas of people marching together in solidarity. Every day this week, nonstop.

This isn’t just happening in Egypt...but in Madison, Wisconsin.

Schools are closed. Workers, high school and college students, community members, faith groups and concerned citizens have dropped their daily lives to rally against Gov. Scott Walker’s draconian attacks on middle-class jobs and his proposal to strip Wisconsin teachers, nurses, social workers and other public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

Walker’s immediate attack is aimed directly at some 200,000 public workers—but the brave men and women taking to the streets come from every walk of life and recognize that all working people—public and private sector—are in jeopardy. And they know that if we don’t all speak out and stand together, we’ll all be targets.

The right to collective bargaining is vital for all workers, and particularly so for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers. For example, Wisconsin state laws do not include protections against discrimination based on gender identity and expression - so a union is likely the only form of protection for transgender workers.

Even for cis queers, having a union as backup can really help. If you are being discriminated by an employer, courts are an important venue for justice. However, it's your meager resources for lawyers vs. the employer's array of expensive corporate lawyers. Having union support really can help even things out. Of course, making workers of all sexual orientations and gender identities vulnerable is what a corrupt politician like Scott Walker is all about.

Pride at Work is asking people on Facebook to like the We Are One solidarity page.

The grassroots queer group, GetEQUAL, who played a major role in passing LGBT civil rights legislation in the last Congress, is supporting the protests on it's Facebook page. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force also is supporting the peoples' movement.

This shows that there are queer organizations that understand Harvey Milk's vision of queer civil rights as part of a larger movement for civil rights and social justice. The HRC is ignoring the pro democracy protests, showing that all it cares about is big money donations from wealthy donors. Middle class and poor LGBT people don't even appear on the so called "Human Rights Campaign's" radar screen. However, they are happy to profit off of Harvey Milk's name by renting his former shop in the Castro to sell their tacky crap.

The Green Party also is supporting the pro democracy protests. From their 2/22/11 press release.

Green Party leaders declared today that the party solidly supports Wisconsin's public-sector employees protesting a bill introduced by Gov. Scott Walker to eliminate their benefits and collective bargaining rights.

"We in the Green Party are standing out front on this issue by standing with our labor and public service brothers and sisters here in Wisconsin," said AJ Segneri, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party (http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org).

On Feb. 17, the Wisconsin Greens issued a statement affirming that their party "salutes the state's public workers, and stands in solidarity with their fight to retain full collective bargaining rights with their employers" (http://www.wisconsingreenparty.org/?q=node/97).

Wal-Mart's favorite dictatorship, the fascist regime in China, is joining the list of totalitarians in suppressing dissent. (Reuters: 2/21/11)

Over the weekend, Chinese police and censors showed the Communist Party has little to fear from protesters hoping to emulate the unrest that has unseated Egypt's long-time president, Hosni Mubarak, and now threatens Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Police dispersed dozens of people who gathered in central Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday after calls spread on overseas Chinese websites urging "Jasmine Revolution" gatherings. The police and foreign reporters outnumbered aspiring participants and curious passers-by caught up in the crowd.

There were no signs of protests in Beijing on Monday.

It's a small start, but a start nevertheless. After what the murderous Chinese regime did during the last series of pro democracy protests and how they ruthlessly suppress dissent, it isn't terribly shocking that people there are reluctant to try again.

If the Chinese eventually do win their freedom, I wonder where Wal-Mart will start shipping American jobs to.

Meanwhile, a study has shown that most US corporations and corporations that do business here in the US pay no federal income tax. (Those that do pay income tax pay far, far less than they should.)

It's bad enough that those fuckers keep shipping our jobs to foreign countries like China, but it's even worse that most of them pay nothing in taxes.

 

If you have followed the New York Times' coverage of the pro democracy protests in Wisconsin and Ohio, you can't help see how that once proud newspaper has become a Faux News style propaganda rag for the rich, for their corporations, for the GOP and against middle class and poor Americans.

I for one am sick and tired of that paper's content being comparable to that which one flushes down the toilet. If you don't like this, you should contact their circulation department, the one that is responsible for newspaper sales. As a customer, former customer, or someone who refuses to pay for their biased garbage, that's where you have the most leverage.

circulation@nytimes.com

Whenever you see a biased article, it also is a good idea to directly email the reporter(s) propagandist(s) who wrote it.

I'm sure you have a list of grievances against that rightist propaganda rag. Here are some of mine.

1) Refusing to acknowledge the fact that the Wisconsin and Ohio protests are pro democracy protests.

2) Failing to acknowledge the fact that the teabagger counter protests which the Times is promoting are tiny and completely staged by the Koch brothers.

3) Running public relations pieces glorifying Scott Walker instead of doing actual news coverage.

4) Censoring the fact that Wisconsin's deficits could easily be converted to surpluses by making Walker's rich campaign contributors pay their fair share in taxes.

5) Failing to acknowledge that the right to organize unions and the right to strike are universally recognized human rights.

6) Giving far more ink and pixels to the side of the rich and the Republicans than to the side of middle class Americans.

7) The general pattern of rightist propaganda at the NY Times.

8) The heavy news censorship at that paper which rivals that under Soviet Pravda.

You don't need to live in NY to take part in this action. This is a national propaganda rag, and they want circulation dollars from throughout the US. Please contact them now!

circulation@nytimes.com

Photos: Nemo's great uncle

qnr

 

Economic issues have played a role in pro democracy protests in the Middle East and the US.



Hat Tip: Monkey Muck

The video points out that Scott Walker started with a budget surplus only to give money to corporate special interests, which created the deficit.

 

It's good to see that the pro democracy protesters in Wisconsin are too patriotic to buy the anti American propaganda pushed by the foreign propaganda network, Faux News. That network is part of a broader terrorist propaganda network controlled by the infamous Australian fascist, Rupert Murdoch.



(Hat Tip: Freak Out Nation)

Note: I had to replace the video.

 

Pro democracy protests keep spreading against fascism, corruption, rigged elections, violations of human rights, and economic attacks against the middle class and the poor. This time, they have spread to Ohio. (Labor Notes 2/18/11)

Thousands of workers, mostly public employee union members but also from the private sector, rallied at the Capitol in Columbus, Ohio, Thursday to stop a senate bill that would end public workers’ collective bargaining rights.

The proposed law would take away public employees’ right to strike and make them pay 20 percent of their health care costs. Teachers would lose automatic step increases. The bill would end binding arbitration to resolve deadlocks in union-management negotiations. Republican Governor John Kasich ran on this anti-worker program.

And the "election" Kasich "won" was rigged by the same corrupt forces that rigged the "election" in Wisconsin that put Scott Walker in power.

4-5,000 pro democracy activists joined the protest. There were roughly 200 Astroturf teabagggers staging a fake counterprotest, inevitably on the orders of their corporate employers.

Check out some video from the protest.



These are real, hard working Americans. They aren't the parasitical idle rich that demand more and more of our money.

 

Photo: trader_john

The Gold Bubble hasn't burst yet, and it already is causing misery and destruction. A 2/11/11 Alternet article talks about the environmentally destructive nature of gold mining and processing.

Thinking of giving your sweetheart gold jewelry for Valentine's Day? You might want to first know what goes into making it. Extracting enough gold for one ring takes an average of two pounds of cyanide (a teaspoon will kill you). Processing the gold in one ring uses over 1,400 gallons of water, enough to meet the daily needs of 100 people. Left behind is a toxic sludge containing heavy metals, cyanide compounds, and arsenic. Each gold ring produces an average of 20 tons of waste - millions of tons over the life of a mine.

This article focuses on gold for jewelry, apparently because that is the consumer behavior that Alternet's readers are most likely to change. However, the largest cause of increased gold mining is the rapidly and ridiculously escalating gold prices on speculative markets. Every time someone tries to con people into believing that a highly volatile commodity like gold is a "safe haven," gold mining increases. Even worse, as gold gets more difficult to find, the environmental destruction per unit of gold increases because the gold gets more difficult to extract.

Since gold jewelry is the way that the average person speculates in gold, I suppose it is worth mentioning.

This gold fever also creates enormous human misery.

Producing gold can also come at great human cost. Mines are often imposed on communities that don't want them, and cause communities to lose their lands and livelihoods. Human costs also include the use of child labor in mines in Mali, dangerous conditions in mines in Ghana, and armed violence and human rights violations that have been linked to gold mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last year, I complained about the Gold Bubble and the inevitable gold crash just waiting to happen.

I'm sorry, but gold is not worth anywhere near $1200 per ounce.

Yet, despite a drop on Friday, gold was trading at the astronomical level of $1194. This is just plain crazy.

Today, gold traded at $1,372.50 per ounce in New York.

WTF?

The gold bubble isn't just financial idiocy, it is destructive and dehumanizing.

Sigh. Remember how, in 2005, people warning about the Housing Bubble were treated like paranoid idiots? People never seem to learn.

Second Photo: SanFranAnnie

 

Photo: paulbaker

The wave of pro democracy protests that started in Tunisia is spreading farther and farther. First, it was Arab countries. Then, it Iran. Now, the pro democracy wave has hit the state of Wisconsin. (AFP 2/17/11)

A bill aimed at busting public workers unions in the US state of Wisconsin prompted mass protests and a statewide police hunt for Democratic lawmakers who fled to block the measure's passage Thursday.

Police estimate that more than 20,000 protesters flooded the state capital of Madison, some even sleeping overnight in the public galleries of the statehouse.

Normal life was brought to a halt by the legislative crisis, with scores of schools closed as teachers and other government workers called in sick and hit the streets to fight for their collective bargaining rights.

Just as was the case in pro democracy protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere, there is a major economic element to the pro democracy protests in Wisconsin. In all of these cases, you had corrupt illegitimate leaders stealing from ordinary people in order to enrich the wealthy elites of those societies. The AFP coverage acknowledged that the protesters see the connections.

Many protestors appeared to be taking inspiration from the recent democratic uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, with some even wearing King Tut hats.

Keep in mind that the fringe right extremist Scott Walker is illegitimately holding the office of Governor of Wisconsin as the result of massive election rigging involving big money campaign contributions from wealthy donors (including the Koch brothers), corporatist PAC money, direct corporate campaign spending, and a highly censored and propagandistic corporate press which is reminiscent of the non free press in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states.

The "election" that put Walker in power was as fake as the "elections" that Hosni Mubarek held and the ones that Stalin staged in the USSR.

The similarities between Walker and totalitarian dictators doesn't there. Walker has utter contempt for basic human rights like the right to strike and the right to organize unions and negotiate for wages and working conditions.

Walker also is fond of using deliberately deceptive propaganda to push his fascist, anti American political agenda. He is fond of lying about a phony "budget crisis" in Wisconsin despite the fact that making his wealthy donors pay their fair share in taxes would convert the state's deficits into surpluses that could create jobs throughout Wisconsin. It isn't a budget crisis. It's a corruption crisis that is bought about by the very kind of election rigging that put Walker into office in the first place.

I'm glad to see that the pro democracy movement has reached the USA. It's long overdue.

 

Remember how the Bush regime and its corporate media enablers made claims of "looting" in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina? Remember how those claims were wildly exaggerated and largely fictional, designed to justify leaving thousands of people there to die?

Well, it looks like the corporate media are justifying the brutalization of people with looting propaganda again, this time in Cairo. (CNN 1/29/11)

By day, tens of thousands turned out in cities across Egypt -- demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, calling for major economic and political reforms and, in multiple spots, bloodily clashing with police forces.

By night, with the security forces seemingly disappeared, some had stepped back to mourn those killed, treat their wounds or gather strength. Other citizens, meanwhile, gathered whatever weapons they could find as they banded together with friends, family and neighbors to protect their communities from roving bands of looters.

"There's no army, no one to prevent (theft and chaos). They disappeared," said one man from a Cairo suburb on Saturday night, who united with friends, cousins and neighbors to protect their property.

Yes, of course. The murderous police state in Egypt is necessary to protect the Egyptian people from the eeeeeebilllll looters. Put all those nasty people in Cairo in the Superdome a secure location for their own safety.

I can smell the bullshit all the way from the CNN corporate headquarters.

Image: US Government Export Portal


 

No commentary here. Egyptian activists are asking people to pass this along to get around corporate media censorship in Egypt and the US.

URGENT MESSAGE FROM EGYPT:

To all the people of world
The people in Egypt are under governmental siege. Mubarak regime is banning Facebook, Twitter, and all other popular internet sites Now, the internet are completely blocked in Egypt. Tomorrow the government will block the 3 mobile phone network will be completely blocked. And there is news that even the phone landlines will be cut tomorrow, to prevent any news agency from following what will happen.

Suez city is already under siege now. The government cut the water supply and electricity, people, including, children and elderly are suffering there now. The patients in hospitals cannot get urgent medical care. The injured protesters are lying in the streets and the riot police are preventing people from helping them. The families of the killed protesters cannot get the bodies of their sons to bury them. This picture is the same in north Saini (El-Sheikh zoyad city) and in western Egypt (Al-salom). The riot police is cracking down on protesters in Ismailia, Alexandria, Fayoum, Shbin Elkoum, and Cairo, the capital, in many neighborhoods across the city.

The government is preparing to crackdown on the protesters in all Egyptian cities. They are using tear gas bombs, rubber and plastic pullets, chemicals like dilutes mustard gas against protesters. Several protesters today have been killed when the armored vehicles of the riot police hit them. Officials in plain clothes carrying blades and knives used to intimidate protesters. Thugs deployed by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior are roaming the streets of Cairo, setting fire on car-wheels as means of black propaganda to demonize protesters and justify police beatings and state torture

All this has been taken place over the past three days during the peaceful demonstrations in Cairo and other cities. Now, with the suspicious silence of the local media and the lack of coverage from the international media, Mubarak and his gang are blocking all the channels that can tell the world about what is happening.
People who call for their freedom need your support and help. Will you give them a hand?

The activists are flooding the net (youtube and other sites) with thousands of pictures and videos showing the riot police firing on armless people. The police started to use ammunition against protesters. 15-year old girl has been injured and another 25 year old man has been shot in the mouth. While nothing of these has appeared in the media, there is more to happen tomorrow. Will you keep silent? Will you keep your mouth shut while seeing all these cruelty and inhumane actions?

We don’t ask for much, just broadcast what is happening

Written by: Mariam Hussien

The horribly corrupt, extreme right government led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to push for more poverty in misery in Egypt even though the people of that country are so understandably outraged by what is being done to them that they are trying to overthrow the corrupt dictator in that country.

I should note that Merkel dishonestly refers to as "economic reforms" in Egypt are things like the following.

1) Selling off state owned industries at fire sale prices to multinational corporations that slash jobs and pay.

2) Cutting back on government food subsidies and other programs for the people.

3) Cutting taxes for the wealthy elites in Egypt while cutting taxes for foreign corporations and speculators. (So much for "austerity.")

4) Giving international banksters absolute power over Egypt's economic policies. (So much for "freedom" and "democracy.")

If you think I'm wrong or exaggerating, remember that Merkel was the banksters' point person in enforcing draconian social spending cuts on Greece and Ireland which easily could have been avoided by making corporations and the rich pay closer to their fair share in taxes.

Now, for her government's latest efforts to spread poverty and misery for the many, and unearned wealth for the few:
(Monsters and Critics 1/28/11)

Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed Friday for reforms in Egypt, saying through a spokesman, Christoph Steegmans, that Egypt suffered from 'a range of deficiencies.'

...

At a government news conference, Merkel spokesman Steegmans was very cautious, saying only that areas where reform was needed in Egypt included economic policy and in policies against poverty.

What are the kinds of policies that the fringe right government in Germany considers "against poverty"? Items 1-4 listed above.

It's not like these policies are new. The kind of plutocratic totalitarianism pushed by the Merkel government, the World Bank, the IMF, and many US and British officials has a known track record. In Central and South America, it has dramatically increased poverty and has employed military coups, suppression of dissent, torture, and mass murder.

The same things have been done in Russia, and to a lesser extent in Poland. The results were predictable: small super rich elites gorging on an orgy of conspicuous consumption while the overwhelming majority of the population suffered so badly they actually were better off economically under communism, as bad as that was economically.

If all of this sounds completely off the radar of what you are familiar with, I urge you to read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins.

If this reminds you of what has been going on here in the US, it should. The bailouts by Congress and the bankster controlled Federal Reserve of the banksters and brokesters but not the American people basically worked along the same lines. Bush may have pushed the congressional bailout, but Barack Obama voted for it in the Senate.

Imagine if there was no bailout of bad mortgage paper. Imagine instead if that bailout was directed at the people who needed help with their mortgages. Imagine also if the astronomical increases in interest rates for predatory adjustable rate mortgages were cut back dramatically or eliminated by federal law. The effects would have been.

1) Very few foreclosures.

2) A much smaller loss of equity for homeowners.

3) A much shorter recession, one that would have ended by late 2009 if not earlier.

4) Much smaller budget deficits due to much higher tax revenues in a less dysfunctional economy.

5) Much of the value of the mortgage paper would have been saved, indirectly by making it possible for people to pay off mortgages and by preventing the extremes of the collapse in housing prices.

6) Banksters would not be holding so many stolen properties, just waiting to sell them when the economy gets better while getting the federal government to assume the short term risks.

The ability of banksters, brokesters, and wealthy speculators to corrupt governments is hardly limited to Germany. It is highly common, and it includes most US government officials, at the federal, state, and local level. What makes Merkel and her fringe right government stand out so much is just how arrogant and entitled those corrupt politicians are.

It also frightens me to see an extreme right German government in collusion with totalitarian banksters. It reminds me too much of the mid 1930s.

Images: US Government Export Portal

madhavaji

miketually

respres

 

Before I get to this particular activist campaign, I thought I would give what appears to be the answer to the question that piqued my curiosity. Who is the ghostwriter of Shrub's book? (The Daily Beast 3/9/10)

How did 28-year-old ex-Yalie and former speechwriter Christopher Michel become the man behind Dubya's memoirs? Bryan Curtis talks to Bush chief of staff Andrew Card and former speechwriters Matt Latimer and Marc Thiessen about how Michel went from Barbara Bush’s classmate to the confidant he dubbed “Junior Bird Man.”

Now, onto the substance.

Various activists are calling for people taking Shrub's Bush, which most bookstores are misfiling, and putting it in Crime sectionsm where it belongs. From CODEPINK's 11/12/10 press release: (bolding mine)

With the release of George W. Bush's memoir Decision Points, CODEPINK activists are mobilizing throughout the country to make sure Bush is greeted by protests. They have already "greeted him" at book signings in Dallas and Milwaukee, and will be outside his events in Miami this weekend as well as at the opening of Bush's Presidential Library in Dallas next week. Activists are also descending on bookstores to move Decision Points into the Crime section at local bookstores, and are downloading special "This Book's Author is a War Criminal" bookmarks to put in each copy.

"With his book, media appearances and the opening of his library in Dallas, George Bush is being treated as a respected statesman instead of what he really is: a war criminal," said CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin. "That's why we, the people, have to set the record straight."

Bill Quigley, writing on Michael Moore's website, discussed the true crime nature of the book as well. Somebody also started a Facebook Group which proposes moving the book where it belongs.

It's odd how something as innocuous as properly filing a book in a bookstore or library has become subversive in our incredibly censored and propagandized society.

As CODEPINK pointed out in their press release, there is a very serious issue behind this rather mild act of restoring correct order to book collections.

"High officials must be held accountable for criminal acts," says CODEPINK cofounder Jodie Evans. "Otherwise, it sends a clear message to future administrations--including the current one--that they are not required to uphold the basic tenets of human rights and international law."

Image: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

 

The NRA is so extreme and dangerous that they actually oppose background checks for guns at gun shows. They really don't care how many school and workplace shootings there are.



Please Take Action to Support Background Checks!

 

Photo: ryanjreilly

I am so sick of politicians and pundits attacking Wikileaks. As an American citizen and voter, I have an inalienable right to know about the war crimes and actual military status of the Afghanistan war. I am sick of politicians in both major political parties fraudulently classifying data that should be public in order to cover up their criminality and incompetence.

Pro torture Sen. Chuck Schumer, who represents Xe, Halliburton, and Big Oil in the Senate, really has gone off the deep end this time. He actually is going on a jihad against the courageous people at Wikileaks who are exposing the lies and the war crimes that are being committed in the Afghanistan war. Schumer's morally bankrupt and unAmerican press release includes all sorts of disturbing and unconscionable statements.

After last week’s controversial leaking of sensitive documents related to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced Wednesday that Wikileaks would never qualify for any protection under the media shield legislation that awaits action in the Senate, adding he is already drafting new language to incorporate into the bill to make that explicit.

Schumer, the Senate’s lead author of the measure, said two parts of the existing bill already ensured that Wikileaks could never assert the privilege created by the legislation. First, the site does not fit the bill’s definition of a journalist, which requires that the covered party regularly engage in legitimate newsgathering activities. Second, the bill allows a judge to waive the privilege altogether if critical national security concerns are at stake.

But Schumer said he would be working with Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the Senate Intelligence Chairman, anyway on language that could serve as a further safeguard against the possibility of Wikileaks ever seeking protection from the bill.

“Neither WikiLeaks, nor its original source for these materials, should be spared in any way from the fullest prosecution possible under the law,” Schumer said. “Although the bill in no way shields anyone who broke the law from prosecution, we are going the extra mile to remove even a scintilla of doubt.”

Schumer was perfectly aware of the indisputable fact that Wikileaks was engaging in completely legitimate news gathering activities. Exposing government lies and corruption is the most important function of a free press.

Schumer's provision allowing "a judge to waive the privilege altogether if critical national security concerns are at stake" is an enormous loophole designed to promote government coverups. The Obama Administration and most members of the House and Senate already have brazenly lied and said that the Wikileaks revelations pose a threat to our national security, demonstrating that the loophole is so enormous that it effectively nullifies the shield law he is pushing.

If Schumer had the slightest integrity he would be denouncing the Obama administration's efforts to retaliate against whistleblowers on both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But, Schumer is so murderously racist, he will support any deception and misuse of the classification of government data in order to feed his bloodlust. Schumer is so beholden to moneyed interests that he won't do his job as a Senator to expose and fight corruption. I refuse to ever vote for that bought bigot again. The culture of corruption in DC is rampant among both the Democrats and the Republicans.

I am so sick of the corporate media lying and saying Schumer is a liberal when he has proven himself to be a Bush/Cheney/Obama/Clinton/Palin/Beck far right Republican. Corporate newspapers constantly whine about losing circulation. Yet, they keep expecting newspaper readers, the vast majority of whom are liberal, to pay for a constant barrage of rightist propaganda and lies.

Chuck Schumer and Feinstein should resign in disgrace. Neither of them is fit to hold public office.

 

In order to maintain its little Middle Eastern empire, the Israeli government and society are getting so closed that they are failing to live up to the democratic ideals that country was founded on, limited as they were to Jews. So, it takes a lot to shock me these days. But, this one just blows my mind. (Haaretz 5/16/10)

Professor Noam Chomsky, an American linguist and left-wing activist, was denied entry into Israel and the West Bank on Sunday.

No reason was initially given for the decision, but the Interior Ministry later said immigration officials at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan had misunderstood Chomsky's intentions thinking initially he was also due to visit Israel.

Chomsky, who is on a speaking tour in the region, was scheduled to speak at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank on Monday.

This is so crazy, even the Israeli government is trying to reverse the decision.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad said officials were now trying to get clearance from the Israel Defense Forces, which controls access to the West Bank to allow Chomsky to enter that territory.

"We are trying to contact the military to clear things up and if they have no objection we see no reason why he should not be allowed in," said Hadad.

The efforts by the Israeli government and Defense Forces to marginalize and dehumanize the Palestinians have gotten so fanatical that they are having more and more bizarre results. Chomsky explained what happened, as best he could.

Chomsky said inspectors had stamped the words "denied entry" onto his passport when he tried to cross from Jordan over Allenby Bridge.

When he asked an Israeli inspector why he had not received permission, he was told that an explanation would be sent in writing to the American embassy. "They apparently didn't like the fact that I was due to lecture at a Palestinian university and not in Israel," Chomsky told Reuters by telephone from Amman.

Rick over at Ten Percent, is reporting that there is another ship of supplies being sent by the Free Gaza folks, and the Israeli government is threatening a military attack if the ship doesn't turn back.

In order to maintain their occupation, Isreal is losing its mind.

Photo: Duncan Rawlinson

 

I could use my own words, but Heaven 17 said it so much better all those years ago.



 

Image: Contando Estrelas

The Burmese opposition has decided not to go along with being window dressing for the dictatorship's bogus upcoming election. (The Irrawaddy 3/29/10 - Hat Tip: Ten Percent)

Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Monday decided against registering for the general election this year, a party spokesman told The Irrawaddy.

“Without any objections, all the party leaders reached a consensus not to register the party and join the election because the junta's election laws are unjust,” said senior party official Khin Maung Swe who attended the meeting at the party's Rangoon headquarters. “We also agreed to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.”

Party officials said that the lawyer of detained leader Suu Kyi read out a message from Suu Kyi to the party leaders at the meeting and said that “Daw Suu could not accept the party registering under the unjust laws, but she said that neither she nor anyone else owns the party. Therefore, the party members have to make the decision by themselves democratically.”

The Obama administration has said that it is disappointed, blaming the generals, but will continue to "engage" with the military dictatorship. This policy, which even sounds a lot like Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement" with the apartheid regime in South Africa, emboldened the Burmese dictatorship to rig the elections with an election law which, among other things, would ban Suu Kyi from the party she leads in return for a chance to participate in "elections" whose outcome would be predetermined anyway.

 

So much of the media coverage is focused on how the rampant child molestation in the Roman Catholic clergy is affecting Ratzi and the Vatican. What about its effects on the rape victims? When anyone defends those clerical monsters, they should be forced to read and listen to the words of people who have been raped.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has a statement that should be required reading for anyone who defends Ratzinger or his evil church at this point.

SNAP Press Statement

For immediate release: Saturday, March 27, 2010

A Wisconsin victim's impact statement

Statement by Kevin Dresdow

I was a typical twelve year old boy before I met Jim Blume. I had a lot of friends. I was athletic, a good student, and attended mass every Sunday. My family was very supportive and always there for me; we were an ordinary happy family. Everybody who knew Jim wanted to be his friend because of his generosity and kind nature. The racquetball games, ski trips, playing board games were all just a ploy to get me alone whenever he had the chance. I was twelve, shy and trapped inside Jim’s parent’s house in Mishawauka Indiana the first time he molested me while I was trying to sleep. I was confused, wondering what had just happened. The molesting continued for the next two years, dozens of times in five different states from right here in Wisconsin to California.

It is hard to describe in words how this has impacted my life for the last thirty-two years. I have very low self –esteem. I have lost my faith in the Catholic Church and I trust no one. I have been addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex and tobacco. I worry everyday for my three children and wonder if this might happen to them. I lied to and kept this secret from my former wife who I was with for twenty-four years. I have troubles with all of my relationships, which resulted in my divorce five years ago. I have occasional nightmares and have trouble focusing on daily tasks, which has prevented me from holding a job for a long term basis. I kept this inside of me for all of these years because I was confused, ashamed, and worried what my family and friends would think. To this day I am seeing a counselor in the hopes that someday I will be healed. There were other victims after me, and now I feel guilty for not coming forward before they became prey to this pedophile. Now my parents who are in their seventies share their own guilt for allowing me to spend so much time with Jim Blume and encouraging me to take a trip with him across the country. They even had him over for dinner on occasion; he had everyone believing he was a good man.

I need to move on with my life. I am so sorry I wasn’t able to come forward sooner and offer my deepest apologies to those who were victimized after me. For me to think that this man might still have the ability to molest another child is unbearable. The fact that he originally denied my allegations only made this process worse. Now I need to see him punished so he doesn’t have the opportunity to ruin another person’s life.