Now that Rupert Murdoch's neo Nazi media empire is facing controversy and criminal investigations in Britain, it's time to consider the illegal activities of Murdoch's Newscorp holdings here in the US. A perfect example of this is how Murdoch's propaganda network falsely advertises itself as "Fox News."

Here's some information on false advertising on the website of the FCC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

What truth-in-advertising rules apply to advertisers?

Under the Federal Trade Commission Act:

- Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive;
- Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims; and
- Advertisements cannot be unfair.

Additional laws apply to ads for specialized products like consumer leases, credit, 900 telephone numbers, and products sold through mail order or telephone sales. And every state has consumer protection laws that govern ads running in that state.
What makes an advertisement deceptive?

According to the FTC's Deception Policy Statement, an ad is deceptive if it contains a statement - or omits information - that:

- Is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances; and
- Is "material" - that is, important to a consumer's decision to buy or use the product.

Now, it isn't just the name that is deceptive. Newscorp routinely runs ads in other media outlets calling its network "Fox News" and falsely claiming that it is a news network.

The facts are quite different. "Fox News" produces fascist propaganda which intentionally misleads the viewers and which also is intended to keep viewers from knowing what is actually going on in this country and throughout the world.

A viewer watching this network knows less about the news after watching their shows than before. Yet, Murdoch's propagandists call it a "news" network.

As many of you already know, AT&T gave money to the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, a viciously heterosexist organization which has fought to block local LGBT rights laws in that state. Garden State Equality has withdrawn an award they gave to AT&T in response. (I would love to know why they gave an award to a homophobic corporation like AT&T in the first place, but that's another story.)

AT&T has a history of giving money to heterosexist politicians as well. Here are some of the bigots that have received money from AT&T.

Rep. Michele Bachmann

Sen. Robert Bennett

Rep. John Boehner

Rep. Roy Blunt

Rep. Eric Cantor

Rep. Darrell Issa

Sen. John "Keating Five" McCain

Sen. Rand Paul

Sen. Pat Toomey

It's sickening that GLAAD would even take AT&T's homophobic money, much less allow themselves to be bought and doing lobbying for AT&T against queer content and especially queer activist content on the Internet. The depths to which GLAAD has sunk are sickening.

 

In my last posting on AT&T's purchase of GLAAD's support of their homophobic merger with TMobile, I made an important point about who owns corporations and how that can be devastating for queers.

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.

Queers have fought so hard against the censorship of queer content. We still have a long way to go. However, it is more likely than not that AT&T will move things way backward if they succeed in their ultimate goal: establishing a total telecom monopoly.

I should also point out that rich Republicans, and the wealthy elites in general, have shown an increasingly totalitarian mindset and have been increasingly hostile to civil liberties and the US Constitution.

Of course, these critiques apply to all oppressed minorities, as well as liberals, progressives, and leftists. Corporate "news" outlets already are heavily censored by their owners. The Internet is critical for getting so much information that usually is suppressed in corporate outlets.

From a Free Press email promoting their Action Alert which addresses other aspects of the issue:

Back in the 80s, AT&T’s power was near absolute. That’s why government regulators stepped in to break it up and protect the American people against abuse.

Now, with AT&T’s planned $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile, we’re reaching the danger point again.

Tell the FCC: Step in Now to Stop AT&T’s Mega-Merger

Unless the FCC rejects this merger, Americans stand to lose control over the future of communications.

That's why so many have already flooded the FCC with comments since news of this outrageous merger became public. And that's why we need you to speak out again today.

We can’t let just two companies – AT&T and Verizon – control nearly 80 percent of the mobile marketplace. If the FCC rubber-stamps this deal, we’ll be giving these companies unchecked power — at our expense.

That means you’ll be paying more to have AT&T drop your calls; and access to popular applications like Skype, Slingbox and Google Earth will be limited even further … if AT&T lets you use them at all.

Keep in mind that AT&T eventually will try to buy Verizon.

Take Action Now!

 

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.

 

In a recent Nation blog entry, extreme right columnist Eric Alterman accuses Noam Chomsky of lying about him. Let's look at Alterman's rant first.

So Chomsky uses exactly one example to demonstrate his joint contention regarding both “America’s obsessive belief in capital punishment” and its “rejoicing in the manner of Bin Laden’s demise.” Regarding the death penalty, I do not support it and never have. Regarding “rejoicing,” Chomsky purposely ignored the sentence that followed the very one he chose to quote. It reads: “But it should not be occasion for joy. The Talmud tells the story of angels dancing and singing as the waters of the Red Sea close over the heads of the Egyptian troops after the Israelites have safely crossed over, only to be rebuked by their God: ‘How dare you dance and sing as my children drown in the sea?’”

This would sound convincing if one didn't bother to read Alterman's reprehensible commentary on bin Laden's extrajudicial murder. I should point out the fact that the very title of the piece, "Bin Gotten" rejoices in that murder. (Bolding and italics mine.)

The killing of Osama bin Laden was a just and necessary undertaking; just because he had the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands, and necessary because his continued escape from justice was an inspiration to others to try to follow in his footsteps. But it should not be occasion for joy. The Talmud tells the story of angels dancing and singing as the waters of the Red Sea close over the heads of the Egyptian troops after the Israelites have safely crossed over, only to be rebuked by their God: “How dare you dance and sing as my children drown in the sea?”

So, Alterman drools over the killing of bin Laden in the first sentence and the name of the essay, yet he admonishes people not to do exactly what he is doing. This nonsense is as self contradictory as the Bible, and equally irrational.

Let's look at some other things that Alterman said about this illegal, extrajudicial killing.

"Barack Obama’s solemn announcement of this tremendous achievement hit the perfect note."

"the president’s cool, calm decision-making and demeanor—coupled with the peerless professional execution of the operation—can only impress world opinion with the mature and steely determination of America’s post-Bush leadership."

Sick, sick, sick.

Chomsky is correct. Alterman was rejoicing.

In the italicized text, I noticed out a huge problem with Alterman's and the Nation's fact checking, assuming there actually is any by either party. Alterman makes the highly questionable claim that "he had the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands."

The Nation should know better than to publish unsubstantiated claims in defense of government murder. There still hasn't been a credible, independent investigation of 911. The "911 Commission" was a cruel joke. They didn't demand all of that illegal regime's emails, memos, etc. They didn't subpoena people.

Even worse, Bush spoke to that sham commission, not under oath, while Dickless Cheney was present. That is absolute proof that he and other Bush regime officials were lying about 911. That "911 Commission" did nothing about those lies.

There certainly is evidence supporting the theory that Bush regime officials knew that attacks were coming and deliberately allowed the attacks to take place. However, there also is evidence strongly suggesting that the 911 attacks were committed by the Bush regime itself. The most damaging evidence is that fact that all the amateur video footage of the attacks was stolen by the Bush regime under "national security" grounds. That footage has yet to be made public. (Gee, I wonder why.)

The most any professional journalist can say about bin Laden is that he is alleged to be the mastermind of the 911 attacks, and that the allegations are rather weak.

I am so sick of incredibly evil politicians like George W. Bush and Barack Bush shitting on our Constitution and our nation's values. I am equally sick and tired of their gleeful enablers like Alterman.

The killing of a man without trial in a legitimate civilian court is murder, cold blooded murder. The lack of convincing evidence of guilt only makes the crime more heinous. How can a "liberal" magazine like the Nation allow someone like Alterman to post disturbing, fascist nonsense on their website?

Is it any wonder why The Nation is always begging for money and subscriptions? They have become such partisan Democrats that they have gone to shocking lengths to pander to an extreme right President like Barack Bush. If that magazine wants more liberal and progressive supporters, then they should fire the shills for this corrupt, rightist administration and hire some real liberals and progressives to write for them.

Ted Rall is absolutely correct about The Nation when he discusses their censorship of writers criticizing this execrable administration from the perspectives of the left.

I was merciless to Obama. I was cruel in my criticisms of Obama’s sellouts to the right. In my writings and drawings I tried to tell it as it was, or anyway, as I saw it. I thought—still think—that’s my job. I’m a critic, not a suck-up. The Obama Administration doesn’t need journalists or pundits to carry its water. That’s what press secretaries and PR flacks are for.

Does Obama ever do anything right? Not often, but sure. And when he does, I shut up about it. Cartoonists and columnists who promote government policy are an embarrassment.

But that’s what “liberal” media outlets want in the age of Obama.

I can’t prove it in every case. (That’s how blackballing works.) The Nation and Mother Jones and Harper’s, liberal magazines that gave me freelance work under Clinton and Bush, now ignore my queries. Even when I offered them first-person, unembedded war reporting from Afghanistan. Hey, maybe they’re too busy to answer email or voicemail. You never know.

Other censors are brazen.

Even if The Nation didn't specifically target Rall, their censorship of genuine liberal and progressive views about Barack Bush is so blatant one cannot help but notice it.

Yet, a rightist like Alterman is published regularly by The Nation. It's truly reprehensible.

 

I got an email from The Color of Change with an Action Alert about someone who has a blog on the Psychology Today website which was truly disturbing.

Nearly 20 years after a black parent documented how hard it was to hear, "Mommy, I want to be white,"1 Psychology Today reinforced the false and hurtful sentiment that Black women aren't attractive.

Last week they published an article claiming it to be scientific fact that Black women are less beautiful than women of other races,2 penned by Satoshi Kanazawa, who is notorious for hiding behind pseudoscience to promote discredited racist and sexist ideas.3

By giving Kanazawa a platform and validating his ideas, Psychology Today dehumanized Black women and girls everywhere. After widespread public outcry, they removed the article from their website.4 But that alone won't erase the damage they've done by validating these discredited ideas — the editors need to apologize, explain how this happened, and let us know that it won't happen again. Please join us in demanding they do so immediately, and then ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/psychtoday

Kanazawa's article is flawed from top to bottom.5 Using a dataset from an unrelated study of teenagers, he draws the obviously false conclusion that Black women are "objectively" less attractive than women from other racial groups.

Kanazawa has a long history of hiding behind pseudo-science to express racist and sexist views. He once wrote an article asking "Are All Women Essentially Prostitutes?" and another suggesting that the US should have dropped nuclear bombs across the entire Middle East after 9/11 because it would have wiped out Muslim terrorists.6

So why does Psychology Today continue to give him a platform? Black women constantly face both subtle and explicit messages that they are valued less than women of other races — messages that are especially damaging to Black girls. Now Psychology Today has served as launching point for yet another attack, this time in the name of science.

Almost as if to cover up the racism inherent in his piece, Kanazawa says that black men are, "if anything more attractive" than their counterparts of other races because of "greater testosterone."7 But even here Kanazawa relies on the same pseudoscience to describe black men in familiar terms — brutish, hypermasculine, oversexed, exotic. And that's dangerous, too.

He uses a modern-day version of the faulty logic used to dehumanize blacks as inferior for hundreds of years, from the social Darwinists and eugenicists of the 19th century to The Bell Curve just 15 years ago. Psychology Today has a responsibility not to give such false logic a stage, nor validation.

To undo the damage it's done, Psychology Today needs to explicitly reject Kanazawa's ideas. Please join us in demanding that their editors apologize, explain how this article was published in the first place and what they'll do to ensure it won't happen again in the future. It takes just a moment:

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/psychtoday

I certainly encourage people to join me in signing the petition.

I started to look at their website, having never read the magazine. One thing I noticed was that the quackery Kanazawa spewed in the removed posting was not a unique occurrence. One of his postings was entitled "If Barack Obama Is Christian, Michael Jackson Was White," which was wildly irrational and showed a complete lack of understanding of Evolution despite the bio referring to him as an "evolutionary psychologist."

This train wreck gets more spectacular. Kanazawa actually refers to his blog as "The Scientific Fundamentalist," oblivious to the fact that such a thing is an oxymoron. He also wrote a review of some other wingnut's book. The review was entitled "Why Liberals and Conservatives Are Both Wrong about Evolution." In it, Kanazawa claims that liberal policies go against Evolutionary principals. once again showing he knows about as much about Evolutionary Biology as the Creationists.

How did this quack get a blog on that website?

Well, I did some more browsing of the Psychology Today website and found just how vacuous and bizarre that magazine really is. "The Four Types of Female Friends to Avoid" article showed less insight, scientific or otherwise, than the typical boilerplate advice articles in womens' magazines. There was another article called "Could Crime Rates be Influenced by No NFL Season?" with speculation about as intelligent and relevant to peoples' lives as Access Hollywood.

The sad thing is that I'm sure some people turn to Psychology Today in hopes that it would actually help them deal with problems in their lives. The best outcome they can hope for would be a waste of time. I sure wouldn't take any of the articles I saw on the website seriously. It is truly reprehensible that a magazine that covers a really serious area of subject matter is so airheaded and is run by people with such execrable editorial judgement.

At least I know that I didn't make a mistake by not bothering to buy the magazine in the past.

Sigh.

Note: One thing I should point out about the Action Alert mentioned in the beginning is that the "Social Darwinists" were completely ignorant of Darwin's writings and Evolution. Evolutionary Biology gets way too bad of a reputation because some racist quacks attached their visceral prejudices to science that completely went over their heads.

Photo: SanFranAnnie

 

DistributorCapNY did a great public service by posting a list of the evil corporations advertising on Glenn Beck. Check it out!

Thanks to DCap for doing this.

By the way, it's important to boycott every Fox/Murdoch media outlet, entertainment or "news" because one subsidizes the other.

 

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

 

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.

 

Scapegoating public employees has become a favorite pastime of corporate media outlets, and Faux News is leading the way. Never mind that states are in fiscal troubles for two reasons:

• - The Great Recession directly resulting from misconduct by corporations and the wealthy.

• - Rich people not paying anywhere near their fair share in taxes.

Of course, Falafel Man cites Rupert Murdoch's wildly unreliable New York Post as his first source. What do you call it when Rupert Murdoch's propagandists start citing each other as sources?

Circular Unreasoning

The venomously bigoted, corrupt, extreme right organization, the "Democratic Leadership Council" which was really an organization that followed the lead and ideology of the Republican extreme right, is gone, gone gone. That's right. They are following their ideological clones at the Crystal Cathedral into bankruptcy.

The group was once chaired by Bill Clinton because Bubba thought the Democratic Party wasn't sufficiently corrupt, racist, sexist, and homophobic to satisfy him. He pushed through their hateful, GOP style policies throughout his time as President. Those very DLC policies drove Democratic voter turnout way down and kept it down, handing Congress to the GOP in 1994 and keeping them in power throughout the rest of his presidency.

(Lieberbush was Chair from 1995-2001, providing an example of just how reprehensible that organization truly was.)

The DLC proved itself to be sleazy all the way up to the bitter end. If you check their website, their main focus of late was trying to ship more American jobs abroad during the Great Recession.

One of the comical sideshows to all of this is that the corporate media keep portraying an organization whose political views are far to the right of the overwhelming majority of Americans as "centrist." Maybe the DLC's agenda was towards the center of the ideology of the rich Republicans who own these media outlets, but it sure was loony right for the bulk of us.

Obviously, the wealthy interests behind the Democratic Liquidation Council still have enormous power over the Democratic Party. However, it is nice to see one less organization in this world promoting bigotry, discrimination, and blatant political corruption.

Illustration: ddogbreath

 

Comcast always has been an incredibly evil corporation. They make a shitload of money off the Internet, but they don't want to play by the rules. For instance, they have lobbied heavily against Net Neutrality, and they have censored emails to their customers from an organization with different political views than those of the far right Goppers who run Comcast.

So, it didn't surprise me that Comcast got rid of Keith Olbermann from its newly acquired MSNBC. Don't be surprised if other centrist or liberal hosts get the axe.

Free Press has sent out a press release that does an excellent job of bringing up the broader issues that Comcast's purchase of a majority interest in NBC Universal entails. Here is Josh Silver's statement.

"This deal is a win for Comcast, General Electric and NBC executives, and a devastating loss to everyone else, and to democracy itself. As of today, Comcast has an Orwellian amount of control over your media experience and your wallet. By controlling both information and the ways people access that information — by cable, broadcast and the Internet -- Comcast-NBC can and will block competition, stifle innovation and silence independent, opposing viewpoints.

“Comcast customers can expect to see their bills go up, as they foot the $30 billion tab. And even if you’re not a Comcast customer, you’re sure to end up paying more. Next, get ready for a merger wave, as other corporations seek out similar mega-deals to try to compete with Comcast-NBC. Putting too much media power in the hands of a single company is bad for the American people and for our democracy."

No kidding. Look at all the damage that already has been done by Rupert Murdoch's fascist media empire.

Photo: dmuth

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


 

I love the Onion, though I have to admit they usually don't go for such hard edged satire. This video is brilliant. (Hat Tip: Unqualified Offerings)


Judge Rules White Girl Will Be Tried As Black Adult

 

This is a national disgrace.

Community Health Systems (CHS) is an incredibly evil corporation that runs for profit hospitals, including Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in Pennsylvania.

(From Labor Notes: 1/12/11)

CHS offers a health care plan that under-insures the individual or family, offering limited coverage and substantial co-pays, deductibles, and coinsurance. This unaffordable plan has already been forced on the non-union employees at the hospital, some of whom have acquired thousands of dollars in health care debt already, even when they are treated in the same hospital in which they work.

Even hospital employees are getting shitty healthcare. This is obviously corrupt and immoral. It also raises the question, would you trust healthcare from workers who don't have halfway decent healthcare themselves.

This is an example of healthcare cruelty and corruption that permeates our society. We need Medicare for All, not Obama's wealthcare plan for HMOs, health insurers, and Big Pharma. We also need to nationalize all for profit hospitals.

The employees in the nurses union went on a one day strike to fight for healthcare and to end other hateful and abusive practices by CHS. It's great to see people fighting back. This kind of fightback by unionized workers is why the corporate media lie like crazy to demonize unions. The owners and advertisers in the corporate media want everyone but the ultrarich to live in abject poverty and serfdom.

Learn more about the strike.

Photo: elisfanclub

 

Let's review the facts that no one can honestly dispute:

1) Sarah Palin put out a terrorist gun target map which was a deliberate set of instructions to shoot and kill members of Congress.

2) Sarah Palin is directly and personally responsible for the shootings in Arizona.

3) It is physically impossible to defend Sarah Palin without endorsing the terrorist attack in Arizona and gloating over what was done to the victims.

Yet, neo-Nazi Daily Beast commentator Howard Kurtz did just that. He defended Sarah Palin and attacked people who have enough honesty and integrity to acknowledge Sarah Palin's involvement in the shootings.

What a sick fuck!

No decent human being could defend Sarah Palin after what she has done. This isn't about left or right. It's about human decency and patriotism. Every moral, loyal, honest American is blaming that traitor Sarah Palin for the shootings because everyone, regardless of ideology, knows for a fact that Sarah Palin directly caused this to happen.

(Ordinarily, I would link to the offending article, but I refuse to ever link to another article by a neo-Nazi like Howard Kurtz again. I also refuse to link to or visit the Daily Beast until that terrorist loving Nazi is fired. I will not drive traffic to hate sites on the Web.)

 

Our economy is shitty because of the corruption and incompetence of corporate executives, wealthy speculators, and the rightist politicians they have bought. Yet, bought politicians and corporate media propagandists are working on a relentless jihad to scapegoat and punish government employees for the economic suffering we are experiencing. Steven Greenhouse of the extreme right (yes extreme right) New York Times wrote a vicious propaganda piece which is the most prominent anti worker rant currently being passed around the Internet. According to these rightist shills, only the rich should have even remotely decent lives.

If you are like me, you are burned out on reading and hearing the bullshit that is being spewed at middle class Americans who are unionized. I would like to focus on the fightback.

Brave New Films has put together a wonderful video on the subject which I encourage you to put up on your blog too.



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AFSCME, the nation's largest public employee union, has come up with a Stop The Lies campaign to counter this seemingly endless wave of propaganda. They have their own video, albeit a bit less slick.



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AFSCME also has an open letter which I urge you to sign against this constant barrage of lies.

I also would like to bring up a few points.

Some Facts the Corporate Media Don't Want You To Consider:

1) Laying off public sector workers makes life more difficult for people laid off in the private sector. It creates a bigger pool of people looking for the same small number of jobs.

2) Laying off public sector workers hurts the overall economy. Public workers provide services which help our society function more effectively. Public sector workers also are consumers, and lack of consumer spending is generally cited as one of the main causes of our incredibly slow economic recovery.

3) Cutting public sector salaries and benefits hurts private sector workers in the long term. This economic downturn won't last forever. Eventually, employers will be competing for workers again. When they do, the levels of compensation will be based on what other employers are offering. Lowering what public sector workers get will lower the standards of all non rich Americans in the long haul.

4) All the state "budget crises" are fake. Deficits could easily be switched to surpluses by making the rich pay a little closer to their fair share in taxes.

Update: I found this fab Laura Flaunders video on this subject.



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Photo: Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff

It was bad enough when rightist Rep. Peter King (R-Xe) falsely labeled Wikilieaks a "terrorist organization" and called for the Obama Administration to fraudulently classify it as such, only to have other Goppers back him up. Now, extreme right Vice President, Joe Biden is joining in this massive campaign of shoot the messenger. (From The Australian 12/20/10)

When asked whether he thought Mr Assange was a high-tech terrorist or a whistleblower like those who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers - a series of secret documents revealing US military policy in Vietnam - Biden was clear: "I would argue that it's closer to being a high-tech terrorist."

Let's make one thing clear. The people demonizing Wikileaks in government and the corporate media are perfectly aware of the fact that Wikileaks most definitely is a journalistic organization, one that exposes the corruption and crimes of governments and the passive and propagandistic nature of corporate media outlets.

Biden's efforts to demonize a website that facilitates whistleblowing is an example of just how little difference there really is between the Democrats and Republicans on most issues, when you brush away the dust of partisan rhetoric. This kind of demonization by rightist ideologues and corrupt politicians already has resulted in death threats against Wikileaks' founder, Julian Assange.

Of course, Barack Bush has played a role in this smear campaign against the heroic figure and website. (same source)

President Obama has led worldwide condemnation of WikiLeaks, calling its actions "deplorable", while Mr Assange's opponents have called for him to be held accountable.

So, some members of the power elites in various countries have gotten caught doing things they shouldn't. Big fucking deal. That's no excuse for making astonishingly absurd "terrorism" accusations. Every time a bought politician or sleazy corporate news outlet wants us to go along with something deplorable and corrupt, they trot out the words "terrorism" and "terrorist" in order to try to frighten us into pliable silence. It really insults our intelligence at this point.

Those fuckers have cried wolf so many times before it isn't even funny. I'm amazed anyone still buys their bullshit.

 

I finally got around to listening to last Wednesday's Democracy Now podcast. When I heard this, I was upset, but hardly surprised. (DN 12/8/10)

By contrast, the only group that will see its taxes increase are the nation’s lowest-paid workers. Individuals who make less than $20,000 and families with earnings below $40,000 stand to see tax hikes because Obama agreed to eliminate his Making Work Pay credit, which provided up to $400 for individuals and $800 for families of low and moderate income.

The tax breaks for the rich were described just before (bolding mine):

A new analysis shows that the wealthiest Americans will receive the most benefit from President Obama’s controversial fiscal deal with Republicans. This week, Obama agreed to extend the Bush-era tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and reduce the estate tax in return for a 13-month extension of jobless benefits and a handful of tax credits for low- and moderate-income Americans. According to the New York Times, at least a quarter of the tax savings under the deal will go to the wealthiest one percent of the population. The plan’s $900 billion cost will be added to the federal deficit, not made up through spending cuts or the closing of loopholes that have taxed capital gains and dividends at just 15 percent.

If not for Democracy Now, I wouldn't even know about the tax increases for the poor, the near poor, and the lower middle class. This should be getting huge press attention, but people with lower incomes don't buy as much crap, and they can't afford to make campaign contributions, much less big ones.

The biased approach to this tax cut deal for the rich/tax increase deal for the poor by the corporate media shows why we need independent media so badly. Politicians can get away with the rankest corruption when most people are kept ignorant.

Photo: madhavaji

 

The Washington Post has sunk to this level.
Photo: a kingdom for a donkey

It's no big secret that the Washington Post has been a corrupt, partisan, rightist, unpatriotic, and unreliable news source for some time, especially when it comes to the lies of wealthy and powerful Republicans.

However, a 12/3/10 editorial by this propaganda rag attacking the movie "Fair Game" which explores the crimes committed by the Bush regime against Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson took things to astonishing extremes.

The only grudging admiration I can offer the Post's editorial board was its efficiency. They managed to pack so many lies into such short sections of text with a ruthless efficiency that the paper seldom devotes to actual new reporting.

Lies (3):

The movie portrays Ms. Plame as having cultivated a group of Iraqi scientists and arranged for them to leave the country, and it suggests that once her cover was blown, the operation was aborted and the scientists were abandoned. This is simply false. In reality, as The Post's Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby reported, Ms. Plame did not work directly on the program, and it was not shut down because of her identification.

Facts:

1) Ms. Plame did work directly on the program.

2) There was no claim that the entire program was shut down. The claim was that CIA front company that Plame was involved with was shut down.

3) That company was shut down, and the lives of its employees were endangered.

Lies (7):

The movie portrays Mr. Wilson as a whistle-blower who debunked a Bush administration claim that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from the African country of Niger. In fact, an investigation by the Senate intelligence committee found that Mr. Wilson's reporting did not affect the intelligence community's view on the matter, and an official British investigation found that President George W. Bush's statement in a State of the Union address that Britain believed that Iraq had sought uranium in Niger was well-founded.

.
Facts:

1) Joseph Wilson was a whitle-blower.

2) He debunked the claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Niger.

3) The entire US intelligence community knew that the claim was false.

4) George W. Bush and the rest of his administration deliberately lied when they made the claim.

5) The Senate intelligence committee's "investigation" was a fraudulent, partisan, GOP sham.

6) The British "investigation" was a white wash designed to protect Tony Blair from political scrutiny and criminal prosecution.

7) The Downing Street Memos prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that both the US and British Government knew that there was no Iraqi nuclear program.

Lies (4):

"Fair Game" also resells the couple's story that Ms. Plame's exposure was the result of a White House conspiracy. A lengthy and wasteful investigation by a special prosecutor found no such conspiracy - but it did confirm that the prime source of a newspaper column identifying Ms. Plame was a State Department official, not a White House political operative.

Facts:

1) The supposed "investigation" was conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, a highly partisan and politically connected Republican who took Bush regime claims at face value rather than running a real investigation.

2) It is physically impossible for a newspaper column to be the prime source of information on this. Insider information was needed for Robert Novak to make his treasonous revelations.

3) The sources of the leak were in the Bush regime.

4) The leaks were coordinated by Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, and probably other Bush regime officials.

Lies (2):

Though it was long ago established that Mr. Wilson himself was not telling the truth - not about his mission to Niger and not about his wife - the myth endures.

Facts:

1) Joe Wilson did tell the truth about the war.

2) Joe Wilson did tell the truth about his wife.

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The Washington Post really is trying to out Moonie the Moonie owned Washington Times.

I should note that the facts I have pointed out have been widely and publicly known for several years for now. There is no possible way that the Washington Post could not be aware of them.

The dishonesty is yet another example of the corporate media's Judith Miller style approach to "journalism." "Reporters," pundits, and editorial boards act as stenographers for the lies of the wealthy and the powerful, especially when those lies get our country into illegal, corrupt, and genocidal wars. I can't imagine why anyone would subscribe to the Washington Post. Why pay to be lied to in a way that only serves to insult one's intelligence?