Social Security Works has a great video countering lies about Social Security.



I love how they are actually talking about how wealthy and corporate interests are screwing over the rest of this.

The Cat Food Commission is telling some of the very lies being countered in this video. It's important to get the facts out there now, since the timing of the assault on Social Security and Medicare is set to happen during the lame duck congressional session which takes place when people are busy with the holidays and are disconnected from the news.

 

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.

 

There is something so incredibly creepy and inappropriate about injecting religion into every aspect of life. A truly offensive and intrusive aspect of this is the existence of "halal" and "kosher" restaurants. What is it about so many religionists that they insist on trying to impose their religion on every last aspect of life, acting like dogs that insist on pissing religion everywhere in order to mark their territory?

If people want to believe childish and irrational food superstitions, that's their choice, but in a public business, they should respect others enough not to use those superstitions as an excuse to shove their religions down everyone else's throats. When somebody discriminates against me this way, I tend to take my atheist business elsewhere.

Fundamantalist Christians and Roman Catholics are guilty of similar behavior. They insist on having "Christian" and "Catholic" businesses in order to use their businesses to mark territory for their faiths. That alone is enough reason for me to avoid those bigoted businesses. However, there is an added problem. There's a huge risk that a portion of the proceeds from purchases at those businesses end up in the hand of heterosexist and anti atheist hate groups. It would be self defeating and stupid for me to patronize these businesses.

If religionists really believe in these supposedly all powerful and all knowing gods, there should be no reason to mark the whole world as their territory. If these gods actually existed, there would be no need to do so. In any case, I'm burned out on this anti atheist discrimination and avoid feeding into it.

Photo: SanFranAnnie

 

Ms. McMahon's performances while WWE CEO/Diva are pretty funny. Somehow, they don't fit with the sweet and responsible image she is trying to project on TV.





She already has spent tens of millions of dollars in her effort to buy the Connecticut Senate seat. I hope the bad WWE publicity makes her spend even more money.

 

Google sure is breaking their "Don't Be Evil" tenet a lot lately. Check out this fab song.

FUJI MINX - The Music Made Me Do it (Official Un-Censored Version) from FUJI MINX on Vimeo.

In a previous posting, I objected to British Petroleum's effort to rebrand itself as "BP" and "Beyond Petroleum."

An excellent example of this is how the corporate media have gone along with British Petroleum's sleazy marketing ploy to call itself "BP." This marketing scam was created for two purposes.

1) British Petroleum didn't want the portion of the US populace that doesn't follow the news to know that a foreign corporation had bought major US oil companies.

2) Using "BP" allowed them to run these fraudulent "Beyond Petroleum" commercials where British Petroleum had the nerve to actually present itself as an alternative fuels company, a presentation even more offensive given the fact that British Petroleum joined with other Big Oil corporations to lobby against alternative fuels and public transportation while pushing for wars for oil here and in Britain.

This rebranding effort generated a lot of controversy at the time as a greenwashing technique for an environmentally hostile corporation.

Rebranding is an increasingly common deceptive corporate marketing practice. Rebrandings involving name changes are the most extreme, and the most extremely dishonest. However, less drastic rebranding efforts involving changes in logos and ad campaigns also can be used to try to deceive the public about a corporation whose practices are controversial.

Perhaps the most infamous examples of rebranding include Philip Morris's rebranding as "Altria" and Blackwater's rebranding as "Xe." The brand makeovers didn't change the behaviors of the corporations involved, which is exactly what one would expect.

(It should be noted that not all efforts to change logos and ad campaigns fit in the rebranding mode. Often, you will see a product that says "Same Great Product with a New Look" or something similar, though it doesn't have to be this explicit. This is an example of attempting to update and strengthen a brand, not trying to repudiate it when it starts representing things that are undesirable.)

That takes us to the Greedy Oily Pedophiles GOP and the teabaggers. The corporate lobbyists and pr people behind the teabagging scam developed it part to have an Astroturf army to intimidate liberals and Democrats. But, there was a bigger agenda. It was another corporate rebranding campaign, this time of the the right and the Republican Party. A few "establishment Republicans" have been sacrificed to the wealthy bands of teabaggers with pitchforks as part of the overall marketing strategy to put a new face on the party of Bush's colossal failure. A few of the teabagger candidates have been new to politics, but most come from the same rightist and GOP corporate elites as the "establishment Republicans" they defeated in primaries and state conventions. The teabagger bloggers are the same tired, establishment right bores that they always have been.

The "new and improved" GOP is the same as the old one. It's just like detergent.

The teabagger Astroturf "movement" also has been involved in rebranding campaigns. Teabaggers and teabagging were the original labels given to this brand by the HMO and health insurance lobbyists who created it. However, it bombed on TV when teabaggers proudly proclaimed themselves as such, while reporters and anchors were visibly uncomfortable trying to repress laughter.

The writers for the teabagger scam realized that they screwed up the script and would have to do a bit of rebranding. So, they changed the name to "tea partiers" or "tea party movement" and then made up a whopper about liberals making up the name "teabaggers." The corporate media, whose owners and advertisers were pulling the strings for this whole scam, dutifully went along with the rebranding.

One of the main organizing tools that was used by the puppet masters was white supremacy. The right flock in this country is so angry and afraid of having a half black president that they are willing to believe any rumor about President Obama without question.

This is ironic, given the fact, that Obama is supporting a similar rightist, corporate agenda as the teabagger movement. In terms of policy, the right has every reason to be thrilled with the Obama administration and the Democrats. Their "opposition" is pushing a slightly watered down version of their agenda. However, racist fear mongering always trumps reason with the sheeple on the US right.

However, the very same racism that provides much of the social glue for the people suckered into the Astroturf teabagger "movement" makes Teabagger Inc. approved candidates electable in general elections. So, it's off to the second major teabagger rebranding: pretending that their movement isn't racist.

The NAACP's condemnation of racist elements within the teabagger movement was perfectly reasonable, yet it encountered an enormous backlash. The organization violated two of the strongest taboos of our media's political culture. They criticized racism, and they refused to go along with one of corporate American's rebranding campaigns.

When given a choice between actually living up to their rebranding campaign and distancing themselves from the racists, Teabagger Inc, for the most part, went on a wild intimidation campaign. Shirley Sherrod refused to follow the usual script for people of color in the Obama Administration when the right fringe vilifies them. Should stood up for herself.

The wave of racist hysteria among the teabaggers in the midst of this showed that the need for bigotry to motivate the sheep overruled the rebranding campaign. Ms. Sherrod showed us that we can stand up to these incredibly evil people and the moneyed interests that finance them and work very hard to control their message.

There needs to be broader resistance to the right's rebranding efforts. The left needs to stop referring to the mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan as "contractors." We should stop saying that "race" is a problem in this country when racism is the real problem. We should resist all the rebranding campaigns and the bullshit that is slung during them.

 

The corporate media aren't telling us just how bad things are for the animals in the Gulf. (Hat Tip: Punk Patriot)



This video ends with a long overdue critique of corporations, corporate power, rightist ideology, and the efforts to deny the proper role of government. The speaker also calls for clean energy.

Learn more about the movement to revoke British Petroleum's corporate charter.

 

Before I get to the calls to action, I thought I would point out that the corporate media are incredibly gullible (or paid off through advertising) when they buy British Petroleum's claim that the oily muck they put into the Gulf of Mexico has disappeared. Here's an example from Democracy Now of what actually is happening.

We speak with independent journalist Anotnia Juhasz who is just back from Louisiana where she found what she calls some of BP’s "missing oil"–on the wetlands and beaches along the waterways near St. Mary’s Parish, where no one is booming, cleaning, skimming, or watching.

1. Make Sure British Petroleum Is Fully Liable for Those Killed in Its Offshore Drilling Explosion

One of the most important things to do to prevent more oil spills is to make sure that corporations that engage in the reckless and negligent practice of offshore oil drilling take full financial responsibility for the harm that is done by offshore drilling. Letting British Petroleum and other Big Oil corporations off the hook in any way gives them a financial incentive to continue drilling off of our nation's precious coasts.

Care2 and Credo Action have an Action Alert addressing this critical issue. (Note that the incredibly corrupt and evil US Chamber of Commerce is aiding and abetting British Petroleum in this case.)

BP is a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's largest and most influential lobbying organization. Last year, the Chamber spent $144 million opposing reforms in Congress. Though it claims to represent small business, the Chamber's positions nearly always align with the priorities of its biggest, and dirtiest members, including the coal and gas, health insurance and banking industries.

This year, the Chamber has had ample opportunity to defend its member business BP. While BP sits on the sidelines, the Chamber spends millions protecting BP's interests. It continues to demand greater offshore drilling, opposes increasing liability for oil spill damages and opposes increasing liability for workers killed in off-shore accidents.

Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to close a loophole in maritime law that limits liability for off-shore accidents. BP has not opposed this law publicly. How could it? The bill would allow the families of the eleven dead BP workers to recover the same amount in damages as they would be able to if the accident had occurred closer to or on shore. This is simple fairness, and the bill, called the SPILL Act, is remedying decades of disparity for off- shore workers.

The U.S. Chamber vociferously opposes the bill. Don't let the Chamber do BP's dirty work. Write to your senators and ask them to vote for the SPILL Act.

Please Take Action!

The Chamber isn't just guilty of helping Big Oil in this case. They also are guilty of working to block any meaningful action to fight global warming in Congress. This is one organization that corporations should face boycott campaigns if they don't cancel their memberships.

2. Support and Blog About Campaigns to Seize British Petroleum's Assets and Revoke Its Corporate Charter

If British Petroleum gets away with its heinous crimes, other corporations will be more likely to model their behavior after the corporation that is far from "Beyond Petroleum." If corporations aren't held accountable for their behavior, that behavior will keep getting worse. It's time to make an example of British Petroleum. Please consider supporting these efforts and bringing up these critical issues in your blogs.

Let's look at the facts.

1) House Republicans were threatening to delay passage of assistance for 911 responders through an unending series of amendments.

2) House Democrats go through a rule which requires a 2/3 vote to pass to get around the obstruction.

3) Republicans vote overwhelmingly against the legislation, blocking it.

The Republicans got exactly what they wanted: no aid to 911 responders. They are making all sorts of bullshit procedural excuses to avoid accountability for what they have done. Who is leading this nonsense? Rep. Peter King, an anti American Republican misrepresenting part of Long Island, is the culprit.

The fact that King is siding with the 911 terrorists against the 911 responders shows his complete lack of patriotism and integrity. He has absolutely no loyalty to New York or to America.

King is unfit to hold public office. He is among the most unpatriotic elements of society, and he always has been.

As frustrated as I am with the Democrats, even they haven't sunk this low.

 

Linda's ad people really screwed up on this one. She'll have to spend millions more undoing the damage done by this commercial. (I also like the messed up dialog, where the wrong character asks about the wrestling stuff.)



Ooooooohhhhhh yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhh!

McMahon's GOP primary opponent, Peter Schiff, is almost as goofy as she is. He is running a controversial ad that repeats the same bit of WWE footage of Ms. McMahon kicking an employee in the balls, while it claims that a rightist like McMahon is a "liberal."



I hope the Democrats run some of the much funnier ads they put up on YouTube on TV in the general election.

 

The right's jihad to close mosques has become more fervent, and the corporate media are happily using Muslims as scapegoats for the pain caused to middle class and poor Americans by wealthy and corporate interests. This is truly disturbing. But, Islam also is disturbing. Every religion is dangerous and evil, especially when its adherents accumulate political, economic, and cultural power. Much of the left in this country refuses to do anything but reflexively defend mosque construction without doing any real analysis. That is hardly surprising because rational analysis and critique of religion is still largely taboo.

The decision of the Anti Defamation League to call for the cancellation of the project to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is both fascinating and instructive. It should immediately strike people as odd and ironic that the ADL is trying to suppress the construction of places of worship for minority religious faiths. However, it is as instructive as it is ironic.

The ADL's position as a civil rights organization already had been compromised by its racist and antisemitic bigotry against Palestinians and Arabs in general. For many, this stunt will permanently remove it from the category of civil rights groups. Yet, this needs to be looked at in the broader context.

It certainly is a good thing that Jews are safer and more comfortable in our society. That represents important progress. However, the way that some Jewish people on the right have responded to this is disturbing. Many American Jews have started to see themselves as assimilated whites in a position of dominance over others. This subset of the Jewish community has become Republican, endorsed conservative causes, and has become rather racist against a broad range of minorities in our society, not limited by any stretch of the imagination to Arabs.

The ADL's condemnation of the Ground Zero mosque reflects that mindset. The ADL is starting to see itself as part of the dominant group in society and is doing what religious organizations generally do when they feel power: suppressing faiths with little or no power in society. This phenomenon is hardly limited to Judaism nor is it limited to the USA.

Analysis of the ADL's behavior is useful, but it should serve as a mode of entry into analysis of the anti mosque crusade whose bandwagon the ADL has gleefully jumped on. Anti mosque protesters are largely trying to defeat and destroy (often their words) a minority religious ideology which has gotten a foothold in this country.

Their rhetoric and agenda are highly hypocritical. Islam isn't any more evil than Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Mormonism, or any other religious faith. If someone wants to oppose the construction of a house of worship for one faith, they are morally obligated to oppose the construction of such places for all faiths.

It's no secret that religion is the main root cause of poverty, war, environmental destruction, racism, sexism, heterosexism, and ignorance in the world. Yet, these protesters want to pretend that their particular religious superstitions are somehow morally superior to other religious superstitions. This shows an incredible level of vanity, hubris, and just plain stupidity on their part.

The anti mosque jihads certainly have their counterpart in majority Muslim countries. In the Maldives, a journalist recently was arrested after being "accused" of being an atheist in a country where Islam is required by law. In Saudi Arabia, Islam not only is mandatory, but failure to show up at mosque can result in a visit from the secret police. In today's Iraq, governed by Islamic religious extremists, Christians are routinely persecuted and sometimes murdered with impunity.

A defender of the anti mosque movement here in the US might claim that this Christian and Jewish jihad is nonviolent. That is simply not true. Anti Muslim hate crimes in this country are quite common and represent the violent wing of the same movement.

Of course, the persecution of various religious groups feeds on itself. Persecution of Christians in Islamic countries creates fear that motivates Christians to try to block Islam in societies where they predominate. It works the other way around too.

Religious persecution has been the norm ever since people of different religious superstitions encountered each other. There is nothing new here, and people never seem to learn. Religion always has been the greatest source of human division, and that is because of the absolutist claims made by religions. If you depend on the "one true way" to get into heaven or the equivalent, people living their lives happily without that "one true way" pose an existential threat to that faith and the sense of false security it brings. That will never change as long as there is religion. It's the nature of the beast.

Defenders of religion would like to claim that it is only fundamentalist religion is responsible for the problems. However, fundamentalist religion is an inevitable consequence of the belief that certain texts are "holy" and inspired by deities. Also, more moderate versions of religious faiths provide political and cultural cover for the more militant versions.

Many people have been questioning the ability of humans to survive nuclear weapons, our warlike behavior, and environmental destruction for decades. Yet, many of them don't see the connection to religion. It's not difficult to discern, but their psychological dependency on religion keeps them from seeing what is directly in front of them.

If you really are serious about peace and progress, you need to let go of religion.