So, I'm at work clearing out my email the other day, and I find a piece of spam; somebody else's copy is here, if anybody cares. Although theirs was apparently addressed directly to them, and mine started out "Dear Pro-Life Friend" (which is two - two - two lies in one).
Now, I have no idea how they got my work email address - I'm fastidious about not using it for anything but business. They've got rules about that sort of thing. Nonetheless, it turns up on somebody's mailing list every so often. And since they'd gone to the trouble of tracking me down, it seemed only right that I should respond to it.
________________
Dear Ms Musgrave,
I realize that you probably didn’t actually write the fundraising letter I received, but it has a facsimile of your signature on it, so you get the blame.
I also realize that you seem to refer to yourself as “Congresswoman.” Well, I’m sorry, but you aren’t one anymore. And as far as I’m concerned, six years representing Colorado (where I’ve never lived) doesn’t entitle you to a lifetime honorific. I realize that it’s a sign of respect to refer to former Congressfolk by their title, but respect, really, has to be earned (and let’s not go there).
Plus, this is America: we threw off the yoke of our aristocracy a couple of hundred years ago. So, for any number of reasons, I think you should probably drop the title.
I also apologize for my delay in responding, but I’m not clear how you got my work email address, but, since I do, in fact, have a job, I have to access this from home, in my own time, to respond. Rules, y’know.
Now, let’s start with the fact that you’re being a spokesmodel for the Susan B. Anthony List, which has misappropriated the name of a staunch feminist and claimed that she was pro-life. Since there are no writings or speeches that can be reliably attributed to her regarding abortion, it’s a bit of an unfounded leap to decide Ms Anthony’s politics for her, isn’t it?
(Of course, I guess that “unfounded leaps” are a specialty of yours. For example, your support for “abstinence only” education, as if AO actually works: you should ask Bristol Palin how it worked out for her. Or your apparent belief that a woman without a functioning brain, like Terri Schiavo, still qualifies as “alive” in any functional sense of the word.)
Now, I understand that you can’t seem to stop your knees from jerking wildly whenever anyone mentions abortion, but your effort to defund Planned Parenthood seems a little bit excessive.
After all, over 90 percent of Planned Parenthood’s services go to preventative healthcare for low-income women, like STD treatment, Pap tests, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other healthcare that they wouldn’t be getting otherwise.
The most telling argument would have to be that, without the birth control that they offer low-income women, these women would be more likely to get pregnant, which would lead to more abortions. So, by trying to defund Planned Parenthood, you are probably causing more abortions than you’d be preventing.
On the other hand, you’ve never been a big advocate for birth control, have you? Aside from being openly opposed to allowing "Plan B" emergency contraceptive to be available when needed, you actually had the gall to insert an amendment into the "Runaway, Homeless, and Missing Children Protection Act" making it a crime to allow runaways access to contraception - after all, it's right there in the Bible. "Honor thy father and mother." So if they're rude enough to run away from home, they deserve to get pregnant, don't they?
Ms Musgrave, you're a short-sighted, partisan fool who doesn't bother to consider the repercussions of her actions. Isn't it time to leave the public eye, and maybe go hide in a cave and wait for the Rapture?
_________________
Editor’s note: By the way, we all need to stand up for Planned Parenthood.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
GOVERNOR WALKER, YOU’VE BEEN KOCH’D! - PLUS THE GOP PLOT TO BREAK UNIONS AND SEIZE PENSION ASSETS (AN OCTO UPDATE)
I am writing fast and furious to beat our dear Octopus to this story and thus keep him contained!
It has been reported and confirmed by his own staff that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was pranked by a caller pretending to be David Koch, one of the roachy duo who own Koch Industries, Inc, long believed to be pulling various GOP strings in order to further their own interests.
Walker fell for it, hook line and sinker and the ensuing conversation is full of priceless gems such as:
On the call, Walker talks about speaking with Democratic Sen. Tim Cullen, one of the Democrats hiding in Illinois to stop the bill, and telling Cullen he would not budge. After Walker said he would be willing to meet with Democratic leaders, the caller said he would bring "a baseball bat." Walker laughed and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on it."
HERE is a link to this breaking story.
And a h/t to BUFFALO BEAST who brought us this diabolical outing!
Fellow Zoners - please feel free to edit and add to this post as the story develops.
UPDATE! In the few minutes between the time I posted this and now, the Buffalo Beast has been removed from the 'net. Hopefully this is only because they were overwhelmed with visitors and not for more sinister reasons.
UPDATE FROM OCTO: Two years ago, I posted this announcement about taking leave from the Swash Zone to collaborate on a story with Lindsay Beyerstein of Focal Point. Two years later, the project remains on hold, and the story untold. I am still constrained from revealing certain details, but I will volunteer this for now: The story is about a ten year plan to break the unions, dismantle all Defined Benefit Pensions in America, and seize pension assets.
You guessed it. The Wisconsin story and the collaboration between Lindsay and Octopus are interconnected. Here is a brief synopsis:
Former Treasury Secretary John Snow was formerly the Chairman of CSX Corporation, a holding company sold to the Carlisle Group after Snow accepted a cabinet post in the Bush/Cheney administration. Dick Cheney held board positions in CSX and Electronic Data Systems (EDS). EDS was the largest creditor named in the USAir bankruptcy filing. As Treasury Secretary, Snow had jurisdiction over the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Snow was Cheney's choice for the Treasury position. These are the relationships between the key players in this story.
As you can surmise from the above synopsis, busting unions and seizing pension assets has been a long term objective of the GOP. Lindsay and Octopus are awaiting the outcome of litigation between the pilots and the PBGC before publishing the full account.
UPDATE! FRIDAY FEB 25
Despite all the evidence coming to light about the connection between the corrupt Gov Walker and the Koch Klan, the Wisconsin Assembly passed their anti-union bill. While the fight goes on it is certainly a sad day for Wisconsin and for America. You can access the article HERE. This really deserves a separate post - is anyone among the Zoners working on this?
It has been reported and confirmed by his own staff that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was pranked by a caller pretending to be David Koch, one of the roachy duo who own Koch Industries, Inc, long believed to be pulling various GOP strings in order to further their own interests.
Walker fell for it, hook line and sinker and the ensuing conversation is full of priceless gems such as:
On the call, Walker talks about speaking with Democratic Sen. Tim Cullen, one of the Democrats hiding in Illinois to stop the bill, and telling Cullen he would not budge. After Walker said he would be willing to meet with Democratic leaders, the caller said he would bring "a baseball bat." Walker laughed and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on it."
HERE is a link to this breaking story.
And a h/t to BUFFALO BEAST who brought us this diabolical outing!
Fellow Zoners - please feel free to edit and add to this post as the story develops.
UPDATE! In the few minutes between the time I posted this and now, the Buffalo Beast has been removed from the 'net. Hopefully this is only because they were overwhelmed with visitors and not for more sinister reasons.
UPDATE FROM OCTO: Two years ago, I posted this announcement about taking leave from the Swash Zone to collaborate on a story with Lindsay Beyerstein of Focal Point. Two years later, the project remains on hold, and the story untold. I am still constrained from revealing certain details, but I will volunteer this for now: The story is about a ten year plan to break the unions, dismantle all Defined Benefit Pensions in America, and seize pension assets.
You guessed it. The Wisconsin story and the collaboration between Lindsay and Octopus are interconnected. Here is a brief synopsis:
- The story involves former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, former Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and 103 legislators in the House of Representatives.
- Over 1,100 retired airline pilots lost 40% of their pension funds when their employer, USAir, filed for bankruptcy protection. Every organization and institution offering redress failed the pilots at every step along the way.
- US Air (employer) declared bankruptcy after 9/11 and alleged that all pilot pension funds had been lost. During the discovery phase following bankruptcy proceedings, USAir admitted having 78% of the funds which was turned over to the PBGC; later it was shown that US Air had 103% of the funds.
- ALPA - the airline pilot union abandoned their retired pilots by refusing to represent them in claims against USAir … thus violating their own bylaws;
- U.S. Congress -– The pilots lobbied Congress to redress their grievance. The Airline Pension Act of 2003 (the bill known as HR 2719) was sponsored by 103 legislators but died in committee;
- The Law firm representing the pilots was bought by a rival firm that represented only management; thus the original law firm withdrew from case;
- Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) – Although the PBGC recovered 103% of the pension funds, pilots are receiving only 60% of their pensions; there is a pending class action suit between the pilots and the PBGC.
- Current Status – of the 1,100 retired pilots participating in the class action suit, 285 have since died – with no resolution after 8 years of litigation. The matter is still pending.
“[Name redacted], I want to tell you something in strict confidence. If they find out I told you, it will cost me my career and my future. They are not only NOT going to help you, but it is their agenda to dismantle all Defined Benefit Plans worldwide, not just in the U.S.”According to this aid, these were the goals of the leadership: To remove all legacy costs as a long-term obligation off corporate books with the goal of increasing shareholder value. Not targeting pilots specifically, their aim was to use USAir as a test case for cutting legacy costs in key industries, such as automotive and steel and the public sector, by circumventing or overturning laws that protected these pensions. The pilots were chosen as a test case because they were regarded negatively as “under-worked, over-paid playboys.”
Former Treasury Secretary John Snow was formerly the Chairman of CSX Corporation, a holding company sold to the Carlisle Group after Snow accepted a cabinet post in the Bush/Cheney administration. Dick Cheney held board positions in CSX and Electronic Data Systems (EDS). EDS was the largest creditor named in the USAir bankruptcy filing. As Treasury Secretary, Snow had jurisdiction over the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Snow was Cheney's choice for the Treasury position. These are the relationships between the key players in this story.
As you can surmise from the above synopsis, busting unions and seizing pension assets has been a long term objective of the GOP. Lindsay and Octopus are awaiting the outcome of litigation between the pilots and the PBGC before publishing the full account.
UPDATE! FRIDAY FEB 25
Despite all the evidence coming to light about the connection between the corrupt Gov Walker and the Koch Klan, the Wisconsin Assembly passed their anti-union bill. While the fight goes on it is certainly a sad day for Wisconsin and for America. You can access the article HERE. This really deserves a separate post - is anyone among the Zoners working on this?
Monday, February 21, 2011
On, Wisconsin!
So, I'm clicking through Time Magazine yesterday, and I come across this column by Joe Klein, regarding the Wisconsin trade union debate. Now, I don't always disagree with Klein, but this column was just a revelation to me.
But maybe I'm misreading the situation up there. Go on, Joe.
(You know, it's funny. I've been hearing that quote from the Right a lot lately. "Elections have consequences." It's funny, though. You'd think that if they really believed it, they'd have been saying it after the 2008 elections, wouldn't you? But I digress.)
Oh, yeah. And by the way, "contracts can be terminated"? (I reworded that a little; the double negative bothered me.) Yes, they can. But, being a contract, the courts get to step in, and if it turns out that one side is not "acting in good faith," they get to face penalties for being a lying bag of douche.
That's the point of a contract, isn't it?
But here's the point you're missing, Joey. "Governor Scott Walker's basic requests" - what he's asking for now. Because he's also taking away any ability to argue later, when he gets completely unreasonable.
And he will. See, Scott Walker has always been against unions. He longs for the days when the worker had no rights, and the employer could pay slave wages and fire for no reason. It's been a dream of his for years.
But again, I digress.
You're saying that thirty years ago, a janitor was paid almost twice what he is now? Because the current median salary for a janitor in New York is $33,483. And in 30 years, without adjusting for inflation, janitors are earning 44% less than they did in the 80's?
Man, that union sucks!
(Quick math check - 60,000 - 33,483 = 26,517 / 60,000 = 44.195% - does that sound right to everybody?)
I'll skip a little here, while Klein spends about a paragraph whining about how mean unions are. I mean, I could point out the backbreaking demands of the industrial Barons of the 1800s, leading to the formation of labor unions, which were opposed by those privileged elite millionaires who hired thugs to yadda yadda yadda...
Nobody cares. Rich people want to stay rich, and don't care who they have to destroy to do that. If you don't know this history, you're probably too stupid to care.
But that does bring us to this:
But then Joey just gets stupid.
OK, now, since Walker wants to remove any ability of the unions to bargain for anything except base salaries... what the hell are you saying here? That they'll win on topics that they can't even argue about anymore?
You're an idiot, Klein. In fact, let's go further than that.
The basic theme here is that public employees are overpaid. According to a study by Jeffrey Keefe, professor of Labor and Employment Relations at Rutgers, public employees are compensated 3.75% less than similarly skilled and educated private-sector counterparts.
And, in fact, Scott Walker is trying to say that he has to do all this to "save" Wisconsin, to plug a big hole in the budget. But you know the funny part? Wisconsin was doing fine (in fact, they had a budget surplus) until Scott Walker became governor, and created a crisis by giving the state's money away to his cronies.
So, basically, Walker is a lying, thieving bag of fuck, with all the integrity of a rabid weasel.
And here you are, Joey, supporting him. What does that make you?
Revolutions everywhere--in the middle east, in the middle west. But there is a difference: in the middle east, the protesters are marching for democracy; in the middle west, they're protesting against it.Actually, it sounds to me like the public employees in Wisconsin are demonstrating so that they can keep getting their voices heard, and so the government doesn't gain more control over their lives. Really, it sounds kind of like "democracy" to me.
But maybe I'm misreading the situation up there. Go on, Joe.
I mean, Isn't it, well, a bit ironic that the protesters in Madison, blocking the state senate chamber, are chanting "Freedom, Democracy, Union" while trying to prevent a vote? Isn't it ironic that the Democratic Senators have fled the democratic process?Isn't it interesting That the Senate Republicans want to force through a bill to strip away decades of rights, and only allow it three days of debate? Why is it that they're in such a hurry again?
An election was held in Wisconsin last November. The Republicans won. In a democracy, there are consequences to elections and no one, not even the public employees unions, are exempt from that.Absolutely right! There was an election! And because of that, you people have to lose your civil rights! That's just logic!
(You know, it's funny. I've been hearing that quote from the Right a lot lately. "Elections have consequences." It's funny, though. You'd think that if they really believed it, they'd have been saying it after the 2008 elections, wouldn't you? But I digress.)
There are no guarantees that labor contracts, including contracts governing the most basic rights of unions, can't be renegotiated, or terminated for that matter.Uhh... Joe? Isn't that the point here? The unions want to be able to renegotiate as needed. The governor wants to take that right away from them.
Oh, yeah. And by the way, "contracts can be terminated"? (I reworded that a little; the double negative bothered me.) Yes, they can. But, being a contract, the courts get to step in, and if it turns out that one side is not "acting in good faith," they get to face penalties for being a lying bag of douche.
That's the point of a contract, isn't it?
And it seems to me that Governor Scott Walker's basic requests are modest ones--asking public employees to contribute more to their pension and health care plans, though still far less than most private sector employees do.Well, yeah. When you factor in all the private sector employees who don't even have heath insurance, sure. (That's about 46 million people nationwide, incidentally.)
But here's the point you're missing, Joey. "Governor Scott Walker's basic requests" - what he's asking for now. Because he's also taking away any ability to argue later, when he gets completely unreasonable.
And he will. See, Scott Walker has always been against unions. He longs for the days when the worker had no rights, and the employer could pay slave wages and fire for no reason. It's been a dream of his for years.
But again, I digress.
When I covered local government in New York 30 years ago, the school janitors (then paid a robust $60,000 plus per year)...OK, hang on here for just a minute.
You're saying that thirty years ago, a janitor was paid almost twice what he is now? Because the current median salary for a janitor in New York is $33,483. And in 30 years, without adjusting for inflation, janitors are earning 44% less than they did in the 80's?
Man, that union sucks!
(Quick math check - 60,000 - 33,483 = 26,517 / 60,000 = 44.195% - does that sound right to everybody?)
I'll skip a little here, while Klein spends about a paragraph whining about how mean unions are. I mean, I could point out the backbreaking demands of the industrial Barons of the 1800s, leading to the formation of labor unions, which were opposed by those privileged elite millionaires who hired thugs to yadda yadda yadda...
Nobody cares. Rich people want to stay rich, and don't care who they have to destroy to do that. If you don't know this history, you're probably too stupid to care.
But that does bring us to this:
Industrial unions are organized against the might and greed of ownership. Public employees unions are organized against the might and greed...of the public?Uh... no, Joey, that would be the government. You know, like millionaire governor Scott Walker and his billionaire backers. How is that hard to understand?
But then Joey just gets stupid.
Despite their questionable provenance, public unions can serve an important social justice role, guaranteeing that a great many underpaid workers--school bus drivers, janitors (outside of New York City), home health care workers--won't be too severely underpaid. That role will be kept intact in Wisconsin. In any given negotiation, I'm rooting for the union to win the highest base rates of pay possible...and for management to win the least restrictive work rules and guidelines governing how much truly creative public employees can be paid.Oh, god. I swear we've covered this. Read back up to the top. I'll wait.
OK, now, since Walker wants to remove any ability of the unions to bargain for anything except base salaries... what the hell are you saying here? That they'll win on topics that they can't even argue about anymore?
You're an idiot, Klein. In fact, let's go further than that.
The basic theme here is that public employees are overpaid. According to a study by Jeffrey Keefe, professor of Labor and Employment Relations at Rutgers, public employees are compensated 3.75% less than similarly skilled and educated private-sector counterparts.
And, in fact, Scott Walker is trying to say that he has to do all this to "save" Wisconsin, to plug a big hole in the budget. But you know the funny part? Wisconsin was doing fine (in fact, they had a budget surplus) until Scott Walker became governor, and created a crisis by giving the state's money away to his cronies.
So, basically, Walker is a lying, thieving bag of fuck, with all the integrity of a rabid weasel.
And here you are, Joey, supporting him. What does that make you?
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Union Maid
I looked forward to enjoying retirement - to kicking off my shoes and watching my tentacles wriggle in silhouette against the glare of late night TV without a care in the world. What Wisconsin taught me: The battles for social progress won by my forbearers are fragile and tenuous at best. The social safety net, public education, environmental protection, Planned Parenthood, decent wages - all under siege. It seems the Kochroaches are hell bent on reversing civilization itself. Hells, bells, they are even turning back the clock on evolution as Bagheads and Beckheads, devoid of conscience, slither legless on their stomachs.
I hope this YouTube video will remind our progeny how their forbearers fought the good fight.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
The Republican War Against Women
As a member of MoveOn.org, I receive regular email on issues of vital importance. This one can't wait so I am posting it here and now:
1) Republicans not only want to reduce women's access to abortion care, they're actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven't.2) A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to "accuser." But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain "victims."3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids.5) In Congress, Republicans have proposed a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life.6) Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids' preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working.7) And at the federal level, Republicans want to cut that same program, Head Start, by $1 billion. That means over 200,000 kids could lose their spots in preschool.8) Two-thirds of the elderly poor are women, and Republicans are taking aim at them too. A spending bill would cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens.9) Congress voted yesterday on a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country.10) And if that wasn't enough, Republicans are pushing to eliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans. But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. You can't make this stuff up).
Friday, February 18, 2011
Motes and beams
There was a wicked messenger
From Eli he did come
With a mind that multiplied
The smallest matter.
-Bob Dylan-
_______________________
From Eli he did come
With a mind that multiplied
The smallest matter.
-Bob Dylan-
_______________________
To distort the importance of a matter, to exaggerate little things, perhaps to draw attention away from big things, to belabor the significance of a problem long past: making a mountain out of a molehill. If you need to elevate this common human tendency to the level of psychology, call it magnification. Call it hyperbole. Call it catastrophization. Otherwise call it politics. It's how governments handle problems both real and invented. High purpose, Liberal or Conservative; it usually ends in hyperbole and fraudulent accounting.
Dismayed at how may people are dying in automobiles? One might expect a focus on the areas where most of them occur, but once the problem is taken up by zealots, hyperbolized and dressed up as catastrophic, we have unbearable pressure to apply oppressive speed limits to the safest areas while doing essentially nothing about those areas where the bulk of fatalities occur. As crime declines, we make every next one a bigger problem, focus on the most spectacular and base our estimations of the whole on a freak occurrence. It's human nature and it's also a human weakness to be exploited.
But there are more sinister applications. Take the constant carping about how trade unions are harming our economy, now that their membership and power are at low tide. One might infer that eliminating them entirely is a better description of the hidden intent.
Take the heavy emphasis on medical liability claims as a way to reduce the accelerating cost of health care. They account for a tiny fraction of the whole and seem to be the whole and sole solution offered by one particular political party. Never mind the mountain, look here instead. A cynic might suggest a motive having to do with benefiting from high medical costs.
Spending cuts. We need spending cuts and you're crazy if you don't think we need spending cuts so lets propose spending cuts and lets keep cackling and gobbling and chanting about cutting the little things so that no one notices where the money is going and why the income can't keep up with it. Never mind that mountain LOOK AT THAT MOLEHILL!
So what are we told we have to cut? In general we're told about programs that aren't as much financially significant as doctrinally anathematic. NPR has to go, particularly now that it's credibility exceeds that of Fox. It may cost the average American pennies a year, but never mind, it has to go. The EPA of course since it retards the wanton rape and pillage of corporate vikings. Gingrich wants it dead. Planned Parenthood: it's offensive to religious tyrants -- it has to go.
Hyperbole and fraudulent accounting, Let's cut the debt by .001% and make things that are cheap seem prohibitively expensive and those trillions and trillions we didn't make from cutting taxes and those trillions we blew on unnecessary wars obsolete weapons and fraudulent procurement? Don't look at that, look at school lunches!
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Stop Glenn Beck: New Petition Letter Addressed to Fox News CEO Roger Ailes
As part of an ongoing effort to pressure Fox News into pulling the plug on the Glenn Beck Show, here is a standard petition letter addressed to Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Please feel free to copy the text of this letter and paste it into your letterhead - adjusting type size and font style as needed (11 or 12 points should suffice):
Roger AilesThe letter is short enough to fit on a single page (word count=265). Within a few days, please look for another petition letter addressed to Fox News advertisers (i.e. the boycott letter). A startup list of advertisers will be included with this post.
Chairman and CEO, Fox News Channel
News Corporation
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036
(Date)Dear Mr. Ailes:
After the shooting rampage in Tucson that left six people dead and thirteen injured, you offered this appeal for civility: “I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast.”
Weeks after Tucson, nothing has changed. Glenn Beck has turned up the volume on partisan hate speech. The poisoned atmosphere unleashed by Glenn Beck means any citizen - Democrat, Independent, or Republican - can be defamed in public and targeted for persecution. Beck’s messages provoke unstable persons to act on impulse, and events have shown that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts:
Prison Term for Man Who Threatened Speaker Pelosi:Mother of Accused Man Blames Fox News
Renowned Professor Terrorized After Glenn Beck Broadcasts
League of Women Voters Targeted by Glenn Beck Fans
Two California Highway Patrolmen Shot by Glenn Beck Fan
Three Pittsburgh Policemen Killed by Glenn Beck Follower
There is no plausible deniability that can wipe the blood off Beck’s hands or absolve the Fox News Channel of responsibility for reckless incitement. Shooting sprees, murder, malicious defamations and infamous provocations … these have no place in a free society. When toxic television threatens public safety, all citizens of all persuasions have grounds for alarm.
Glenn Beck has crossed boundaries that should never be crossed. It is time to pull the plug on the Glenn Beck Show before more people are terrorized, injured and killed.
Sincerely yours,
(name and signature)
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Abeckalypse Now
Why would a news organization retain the services of someone who calls their veracity into constant question and may actually cost them money by making advertisers queasy and uncomfortable at the flow of misinformation and distortion and psychodrama?
Well, perhaps one of the ways a chronic failure in the prophecy business covers up an unblemished record of being wrong is to maintain the distraction that theatrical extremists provide. The Fox Faithful aren't likely to reflect as much on such failures when their ears are filled with brand new, fresh and fabricated outrages from their stable of performance artists.
Why, for instance, allow speculation and comparison with our failed attempts at nation building and regime changing so vehemently supported by the GOP News Outlet with spontaneous and indigenous and possibly more successful attempts we had nothing to do with other than supporting the status quo? If Egypt moves toward democracy without and in spite of American economic and military assistance to a dictator, people might become cynical.
So keep them busy with visions of the Apocalypse and associate it with people exercising their endowed right to assemble, to speak out, to petition peacefully. Find a video clip where hazy air, a dirty lens and bright lights create lens flare. If you're a photographer, if you have aging eyes, you know what it is, but if you're a sheep in the Fox Flock, it's an apocalyptic horseman:
You get paid actors to report this idiocy with a straight face. You get Glenn Beck to howl insanely about a Muslim Caliphate to the illiterates who buzz about him like flies. You use everything you can to keep the audience focused on the moment and to make the moment seem perilous. You do anything you can to keep them from remembering that they've been on the wrong side of every prediction, whether dire or deliriously optimistic. If you run out of smoke and mirrors, dust and streetlights, you just make it up.
It's a bit like a Ponzi scheme. You need new lies coming in to cover the old ones, but sooner or later, no matter how gullible the patsies are, it blows up. It becomes an Abeckalypse. And they are gullible. According to a University study, Fox watchers will believe anything and the more they watch, the stupider they get.
Well, perhaps one of the ways a chronic failure in the prophecy business covers up an unblemished record of being wrong is to maintain the distraction that theatrical extremists provide. The Fox Faithful aren't likely to reflect as much on such failures when their ears are filled with brand new, fresh and fabricated outrages from their stable of performance artists.
Why, for instance, allow speculation and comparison with our failed attempts at nation building and regime changing so vehemently supported by the GOP News Outlet with spontaneous and indigenous and possibly more successful attempts we had nothing to do with other than supporting the status quo? If Egypt moves toward democracy without and in spite of American economic and military assistance to a dictator, people might become cynical.
So keep them busy with visions of the Apocalypse and associate it with people exercising their endowed right to assemble, to speak out, to petition peacefully. Find a video clip where hazy air, a dirty lens and bright lights create lens flare. If you're a photographer, if you have aging eyes, you know what it is, but if you're a sheep in the Fox Flock, it's an apocalyptic horseman:
You get paid actors to report this idiocy with a straight face. You get Glenn Beck to howl insanely about a Muslim Caliphate to the illiterates who buzz about him like flies. You use everything you can to keep the audience focused on the moment and to make the moment seem perilous. You do anything you can to keep them from remembering that they've been on the wrong side of every prediction, whether dire or deliriously optimistic. If you run out of smoke and mirrors, dust and streetlights, you just make it up.
It's a bit like a Ponzi scheme. You need new lies coming in to cover the old ones, but sooner or later, no matter how gullible the patsies are, it blows up. It becomes an Abeckalypse. And they are gullible. According to a University study, Fox watchers will believe anything and the more they watch, the stupider they get.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Help Pull the Plug on Glenn Beck
After the shooting rampage in Tucson that left six people dead and thirteen injured, including Congresswoman Giffords, Fox News President Roger Ailes appealed for civility: “I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast.”
Weeks after Tucson, nothing has changed. If anything, Fox News has turned up the volume on partisan hate speech. Fevered hysteria and conspiratorial fear mongering on national television are not harmless.
How quickly we forget the lessons of history. The bogeymen of 1930s anti-Semitism that morphed into the bogeymen of 1950s McCarthyism has morphed again into the mainstreaming of Glenn Beck Militia Theater. The message is clear: Glenn Beck wants to extort your silence, and anyone who refuses to capitulate will be targeted and stalked:
Glenn Beck, Self-Appointed "Progressive Hunter"
The poisoned atmosphere unleashed by Glenn Beck and Fox News means any citizen - Democrat, Centrist, or Republican - can be slandered in public and targeted for persecution. Beck pitches his messages at unhinged misfits who are most likely to act on impulse, and events have shown that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts. There is no plausible deniability that can remove this blood from Beck’s hands:
It is time to pull the plug on Glenn Beck and serve notice to Fox News that partisan hate speech has no place in a free society. The strongest message you can send is to vote your pocketbook. Write letters to Fox News advertisers; tell them you will no longer patronize their products and services; and keep boycotting sponsors of Fox News until these outrageous partisan witch-hunts have stopped. Removing Glenn Beck from the airwaves will save lives.
Visit the Drop Fox Website Here
Visit the Fox News Boycott Website Here
Visit the Stop Beck Website Here
Endorsements:
Captain Fogg, Sheria, BJ, Octopus, Squatlo, Sue, Nance, TnLib, TomCat, Truth 101, Maleeper, Green Eagle, Kay, Shaw Kenawe, RockyNC.
UPDATE: To help spread this message, I am placing this article in the public domain, which means anyone may use it freely without credit or attribution. If you want a copy of the complete text (including imbedded links and html code), please send a request via email to swashzone@gmail.com. Finally, a note of special recognition to The Legendary Spocko who taught us how to take on Big Media by boycotting their sponsors.
Weeks after Tucson, nothing has changed. If anything, Fox News has turned up the volume on partisan hate speech. Fevered hysteria and conspiratorial fear mongering on national television are not harmless.
How quickly we forget the lessons of history. The bogeymen of 1930s anti-Semitism that morphed into the bogeymen of 1950s McCarthyism has morphed again into the mainstreaming of Glenn Beck Militia Theater. The message is clear: Glenn Beck wants to extort your silence, and anyone who refuses to capitulate will be targeted and stalked:
Glenn Beck, Self-Appointed "Progressive Hunter"
The poisoned atmosphere unleashed by Glenn Beck and Fox News means any citizen - Democrat, Centrist, or Republican - can be slandered in public and targeted for persecution. Beck pitches his messages at unhinged misfits who are most likely to act on impulse, and events have shown that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts. There is no plausible deniability that can remove this blood from Beck’s hands:
Murders, shooting sprees, domestic terrorism, private citizens hiding in fear, infamous intimidations and provocations broadcast on national television - all linked to Glenn Beck - enough is enough! When toxic television threatens public safety, it concerns everyone. Even prominent Republicans are becoming alarmed:
Former Bush speechwriter David Frum:
Former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner:
National correspondent for The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg:
It is time to pull the plug on Glenn Beck and serve notice to Fox News that partisan hate speech has no place in a free society. The strongest message you can send is to vote your pocketbook. Write letters to Fox News advertisers; tell them you will no longer patronize their products and services; and keep boycotting sponsors of Fox News until these outrageous partisan witch-hunts have stopped. Removing Glenn Beck from the airwaves will save lives.
Visit the Drop Fox Website Here
Visit the Fox News Boycott Website Here
Visit the Stop Beck Website Here
Endorsements:
Captain Fogg, Sheria, BJ, Octopus, Squatlo, Sue, Nance, TnLib, TomCat, Truth 101, Maleeper, Green Eagle, Kay, Shaw Kenawe, RockyNC.
UPDATE: To help spread this message, I am placing this article in the public domain, which means anyone may use it freely without credit or attribution. If you want a copy of the complete text (including imbedded links and html code), please send a request via email to swashzone@gmail.com. Finally, a note of special recognition to The Legendary Spocko who taught us how to take on Big Media by boycotting their sponsors.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Egypt - a brief look back
You know, with as short an attention span as the average American has, you'd think that the recent uprising in Egypt would have disappeared from the radar. After all, the first major protests against Mubarak started on January 25, and his government was overthrown in two and a half weeks.
And now, here we are, with a military council in power, saying that they'll ensure an orderly transition to an elected government. It's over, and American Idol is on. Why are people still paying attention?
Maybe it's the cognitive dissonance. We like democracy, but only on our terms.
Muhammed Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is not a nice man. He ruled Egypt for thirty years, primarily because the Egyptian constitution set him to be "elected" by a referendum of the Assembly, and nobody could run against him. When he grudgingly allowed a "democratic election" in 2005, he "won" by 89% of the vote, in an election so openly rigged that the Egyptians rioted in the streets. Mubarak's response? He had his chief political rival, Ayman Nour, convicted to five years hard labor.
(What Nour was claiming was, of course, totally unfair: of course you buy votes in poorer neighborhoods - that's just basic economics; and if security forces prevented people from voting for opposition candidates, sometimes with simple beatings, sometimes with tear gas, rubber bullets, and even live bullets - well, that's just high spirits on the part of patriots, right?)
Mubarak's government openly persecuted political opponents, and was a willing participant in Bush's policy of extraordinary rendition* (often orchestrated directly by his vice president, Omar Suleiman, who might have ended up in charge of Egypt had the the Egyptian people not opposed the "orderly transition" supported by the US and European governments).
Mubarak's police and security forces were blatant in their abuses:
The notably corrupt* Egyptian government bears some striking parallels to Iraq under Saddam Hussein: an almost cartoonish dictator (who was grooming one of this two sons for succession), security forces kidnapping people off the streets for rape and torture, corruption throughout all levels of government. But the American right wing cheered when Saddam was brought down. Why are they sobbing and clutching their pearls now that Mubarak has been ousted?
Is it because we weren't involved with the overthrow of this government?
Well, let's consider some of the people we did help put into power: the Shah of Iran; the Somoza family of Nicaragua; "Papa Doc" Duvalier of Haiti; General Suharto of Indonesia. (This ignores all the dictators America has helped keep in power.)
Maybe allowing other countries to decide their own fate is the best policy.
____________
* Note: Microsoft Word documents
And now, here we are, with a military council in power, saying that they'll ensure an orderly transition to an elected government. It's over, and American Idol is on. Why are people still paying attention?
Maybe it's the cognitive dissonance. We like democracy, but only on our terms.
Muhammed Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is not a nice man. He ruled Egypt for thirty years, primarily because the Egyptian constitution set him to be "elected" by a referendum of the Assembly, and nobody could run against him. When he grudgingly allowed a "democratic election" in 2005, he "won" by 89% of the vote, in an election so openly rigged that the Egyptians rioted in the streets. Mubarak's response? He had his chief political rival, Ayman Nour, convicted to five years hard labor.
(What Nour was claiming was, of course, totally unfair: of course you buy votes in poorer neighborhoods - that's just basic economics; and if security forces prevented people from voting for opposition candidates, sometimes with simple beatings, sometimes with tear gas, rubber bullets, and even live bullets - well, that's just high spirits on the part of patriots, right?)
Mubarak's government openly persecuted political opponents, and was a willing participant in Bush's policy of extraordinary rendition* (often orchestrated directly by his vice president, Omar Suleiman, who might have ended up in charge of Egypt had the the Egyptian people not opposed the "orderly transition" supported by the US and European governments).
Mubarak's police and security forces were blatant in their abuses:
In one video, a woman is forced to strip and is abused by a police officer and in another Egyptian mini-bus driver, Emad el-Kabir... is shown screaming on the floor as officers sodomize him with a wooden pole. The police then sent the video to el-Kabir’s friends to humiliate him. These videos remove the abstract quality of the debate over U.S. torture policies, both in terms of waterboarding and extraordinary renditions.The Mubarak family amassed billions in crooked deals during his time with the government (both as a politician and earlier, as a high-ranking army officer).
Both of the videos were put on Youtube and have been seen around the world. What is most striking about the el-Kabir video is that the police were so unconcerned about disclosure of torture that they sent it to the victim’s friends. It was only due to Youtube and public outcry that the officers were given relatively short prison sentences.
The notably corrupt* Egyptian government bears some striking parallels to Iraq under Saddam Hussein: an almost cartoonish dictator (who was grooming one of this two sons for succession), security forces kidnapping people off the streets for rape and torture, corruption throughout all levels of government. But the American right wing cheered when Saddam was brought down. Why are they sobbing and clutching their pearls now that Mubarak has been ousted?
Is it because we weren't involved with the overthrow of this government?
Well, let's consider some of the people we did help put into power: the Shah of Iran; the Somoza family of Nicaragua; "Papa Doc" Duvalier of Haiti; General Suharto of Indonesia. (This ignores all the dictators America has helped keep in power.)
Maybe allowing other countries to decide their own fate is the best policy.
____________
* Note: Microsoft Word documents
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