"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Mussolini
He was quite right, wasn't he? Now the US is run by the White House Company, Bush as the speaker, Cheney as the boss, Wolfawitz as the brains, Mossad, MI6, CIA, etc. etc.
Do you agree?
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on a Department of Peace
Got this from Dot Maver, Executive Director of Peace Alliance, USA. I met her when I was covering Dennis Kucinich in 2004 Presidential campaign. She was his campaign manager and is very warm-hearted and a talented person.
Peace Alliance is the center of the US Department of Peace Movement and also the leader of the international movement. I am going to attend the 2nd People's Summit for Department of Peace, which will be held in Victoria, Canada, from Jun 18-22. Upon coming home, we will have a meeting for JUMP (Japan United for a Ministry of Peace) on July 9 or 17. Will keep you updated.
==========
http://www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/145/1/
Photo and interview by Mark Tompkins
For the Peace Alliance
At the Quest for Global Healing
May, 2006, Bali, Indonesia
What are your thoughts on the movement to establish Ministries and Departments of Peace in governments worldwide?
TUTU: It’s an extraordinary idea and, it fills one with a great deal of excitement and exhilaration, and it sounds crazy, but then I think it was crazy when Gandhi said we’re going to work so that eventually India is free. It must have been crazy when Martin Luther King Jr. also said we’re going to make civil rights a real issue in the United States, and maybe when Nelson Mandela and others said one day apartheid will be no more, that we need those like yourselves who dream dreams and say, “It is possible. It is possible for people to know that war is not natural.”
People have been able to live peacefully together, but if they live peacefully together after war, why should they have war first before they can realize that it is a great deal better. War is not nice to children, it’s not nice to people, it’s not nice to the environment.
And so I say go for it. This is marvellous. Go for it and really be crazy and say, one day we’ll ask, “Why were we so stupid for so long because of something so obvious?” Saying let us put our massive investment that we are putting right now in instruments of death and destruction, let us put them into something that is creative, that is life-enhancing teaching kids that there are ways of resolving differences that don’t need to be violent. You can sit down and ultimately say, “You know, actually, an enemy is a friend waiting to be made.”
Peace Alliance is the center of the US Department of Peace Movement and also the leader of the international movement. I am going to attend the 2nd People's Summit for Department of Peace, which will be held in Victoria, Canada, from Jun 18-22. Upon coming home, we will have a meeting for JUMP (Japan United for a Ministry of Peace) on July 9 or 17. Will keep you updated.
==========
http://www.thepeacealliance.org/content/view/145/1/
Photo and interview by Mark Tompkins
For the Peace Alliance
At the Quest for Global Healing
May, 2006, Bali, Indonesia
What are your thoughts on the movement to establish Ministries and Departments of Peace in governments worldwide?
People have been able to live peacefully together, but if they live peacefully together after war, why should they have war first before they can realize that it is a great deal better. War is not nice to children, it’s not nice to people, it’s not nice to the environment.
And so I say go for it. This is marvellous. Go for it and really be crazy and say, one day we’ll ask, “Why were we so stupid for so long because of something so obvious?” Saying let us put our massive investment that we are putting right now in instruments of death and destruction, let us put them into something that is creative, that is life-enhancing teaching kids that there are ways of resolving differences that don’t need to be violent. You can sit down and ultimately say, “You know, actually, an enemy is a friend waiting to be made.”
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Monday, May 15, 2006
Al Gore On Saturday Night Live!
Check out Al Gore having some fun! If only half of this were true!
Transcript of the show...
Al Gore: When Glaciers Attack -- The World That Might Have Been
Al Gore appeared last weekend on 'Saturday Night Live.' In the show's alternate reality, here's the speech he gave. "Good evening, my fellow Americans.
"In 2000 when you overwhelmingly made the decision to elect me as your 43rd president, I knew the road ahead would be difficult. We have accomplished so much, yet challenges lie ahead.
"In the last six years we have been able to stop global warming. No one could have predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melting are now on the attack.
"As you know, these renegade glaciers have already captured parts of upper Michigan and northern Maine, but I assure you: We will not let the glaciers win.
"Right now, in the second week of May 2006, we are facing perhaps the worst gas crisis in history.
"We have way too much gasoline. Gas is down to $0.19 a gallon and the oil companies are hurting.
"I know that I am partly to blame by insisting that cars run on trash.
"I am therefore proposing a federal bailout to our oil companies because -- hey, if it were the other way around, you know the oil companies would help us.
"On a positive note, we worked hard to save welfare, fix Social Security and of course provide the free universal health care we all enjoy today.
"But all this came at a high cost. As I speak, the gigantic national budget surplus is down to a perilously low $11 trillion.
"And don't get any ideas. That money is staying in the very successful lockbox. We're not touching it.
"Of course, we could give economic aid to China, or lend money to the Saudis ... again.
"But right now we're already so loved by everyone in the world that American tourists can't even go over to Europe anymore ... without getting hugged.
"There are some of you that want to spend our money on some made-up war. To you I say: what part of "lockbox" don't you understand? ...
"As for immigration, solving that came at a heavy cost, and I personally regret the loss of California. However, the new Mexifornian economy is strong and El Presidente Schwarznegger is doing a great job.
"There have been some setbacks. ... Baseball, our national pastime, still lies under the shadow of steroid accusations. But I have faith in baseball commissioner George W. Bush when he says, 'We will find the steroid users if we have to tap every phone in America!'
"In 2001 when I came into office, our national security was the most important issue. The threat of terrorism was real.
"Who knew that six years later, Afghanistan would be the most popular spring break destination? Or that Six Flags Tehran is the fastest growing amusement park in the Middle East?
"And the scariest thing we Americans have to fear is ... Live From New York, it's Saturday Night!"
(c) 2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
Transcript of the show...
Al Gore: When Glaciers Attack -- The World That Might Have Been
Al Gore appeared last weekend on 'Saturday Night Live.' In the show's alternate reality, here's the speech he gave. "Good evening, my fellow Americans.
"In 2000 when you overwhelmingly made the decision to elect me as your 43rd president, I knew the road ahead would be difficult. We have accomplished so much, yet challenges lie ahead.
"In the last six years we have been able to stop global warming. No one could have predicted the negative results of this. Glaciers that once were melting are now on the attack.
"As you know, these renegade glaciers have already captured parts of upper Michigan and northern Maine, but I assure you: We will not let the glaciers win.
"Right now, in the second week of May 2006, we are facing perhaps the worst gas crisis in history.
"We have way too much gasoline. Gas is down to $0.19 a gallon and the oil companies are hurting.
"I know that I am partly to blame by insisting that cars run on trash.
"I am therefore proposing a federal bailout to our oil companies because -- hey, if it were the other way around, you know the oil companies would help us.
"On a positive note, we worked hard to save welfare, fix Social Security and of course provide the free universal health care we all enjoy today.
"But all this came at a high cost. As I speak, the gigantic national budget surplus is down to a perilously low $11 trillion.
"And don't get any ideas. That money is staying in the very successful lockbox. We're not touching it.
"Of course, we could give economic aid to China, or lend money to the Saudis ... again.
"But right now we're already so loved by everyone in the world that American tourists can't even go over to Europe anymore ... without getting hugged.
"There are some of you that want to spend our money on some made-up war. To you I say: what part of "lockbox" don't you understand? ...
"As for immigration, solving that came at a heavy cost, and I personally regret the loss of California. However, the new Mexifornian economy is strong and El Presidente Schwarznegger is doing a great job.
"There have been some setbacks. ... Baseball, our national pastime, still lies under the shadow of steroid accusations. But I have faith in baseball commissioner George W. Bush when he says, 'We will find the steroid users if we have to tap every phone in America!'
"In 2001 when I came into office, our national security was the most important issue. The threat of terrorism was real.
"Who knew that six years later, Afghanistan would be the most popular spring break destination? Or that Six Flags Tehran is the fastest growing amusement park in the Middle East?
"And the scariest thing we Americans have to fear is ... Live From New York, it's Saturday Night!"
(c) 2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Intelligence Community Knew 9/11 Was An Inside Job As Soon As It Happened
Got this from Marty Greenhut of the Global Peace Campaign Mailing List.
You can subscribe to our ML (Mailing List) for free. It is full of important news that you do not hear in the mainstream media. To subscribe please send a blank email to:
globalpeacecampaign-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To visit the GPC Group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalpeacecampaign/
Please join us.
Anyway, you should read the following...
Everyone in the worldwide intelligence community knew that 9/11 was an inside job as soon as it happened...
Yumi
===========
Reynolds: "Come Out of the White House with Your Hands Up!"
http://milwaukee.indymedia.org/en/2006/05/205461.shtml
by Kevin Barrett
Ex-Bush Official Busts 9/11 Perps at U.W. Historical Society
Madison, WI
Saturday, May 6, 2006
An enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd packed the Wisconsin Historical Society auditorium Saturday to hear ex-Bush Administration insider Morgan Reynolds prosecute top administration and military officials for the 9/11 inside job.
Reynolds indicted Richard Cheney, George W. Bush, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Meyers, confessed WTC demolisher and insurance-fraudster Larry Silverstein, and others for mass murder, conspiracy, and other charges including high treason. The enthusiastic response from the overflow crowd was a de facto vote for conviction on all counts.
The former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis, showed that the defendants conspired to create a false cover story of suicide hijackings in order to "blow the World Trade Center to kingdom come" with explosives-a shock-and-awe psy-op designed to coerce the American people into supporting a pre-planned "long war" in the Middle East, massive increases in military spending, and the rollback of Constitutional civil liberties.
Reynolds stated that everyone in the worldwide intelligence community knew that 9/11 was an inside job as soon as it happened, with the obvious stand-down of US air defenses, controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, and non-protection of the President in Florida being the biggest tip-offs. The head of the Russian equivalent of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the former head of the German intelligence service Andreas Von Bulow, former National Security Agency official Wayne Madsen, and former MI-6 agent David Schayler have all openly called 9/11 an inside job, while former CIA official Ray McGovern has confirmed this directly in private, and indirectly in public by way of his ringing endorsement of David Ray Griffin's work on 9/11.
Reynolds, who served as George W. Bush's Labor Department Chief Economist in 2001-2002, believes that a 9/11 truth victory is looming on the near-term horizon. He predicted that one or more of the 9/11 insiders will soon "give it up" and come forward with what they know, saying "Remember, you heard it here first." He said that most of those complicit in the attacks did not realize how over-the-top the plot was, due to the need-to-know compartmentalization of such covert operations, and that some semi-complicit individuals will probably be coming forward. Reynolds said that most of his email acquaintances are now worried that the 9/11 truth movement is going to win, triggering the greatest Constitutional crisis in U.S. history. For Reynolds, this is less a cause for worry than for rejoicing: "We need a Constitutional crisis!"
Reynolds argued that 9/11 truth is a matter of extreme urgency, since the perpetrators seem to be preparing another 9/11-style terror hoax as a pretext for attacking Iran with nuclear weapons. He said that exposing the 9/11 fraud is the best way to stop Cheney's plan to stage an unprovoked nuclear attack on Iran, and the military draft and Pinochet-style prison camps and death squads for dissenters that might accompany it.
Reynolds urged the audience to help educate the American public about the 9/11 inside job. Personal contact with family and friends, the internet, alternative media, and public events like this are all good educational strategies, he said, adding that a demonstration of 100,000 9/11 truth supporters at Ground Zero next year would be hard for the media to ignore.
Politicians and the media will help expose the 9/11 inside job, he said, only after the growing grassroots movement reaches critical mass. The organizers of Reynolds' talk urged audience members to come to the upcoming international 9/11 truth conference in Chicago, 9/11: Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming Our Future, June 2nd-4th, 2006:* * *
Introduction to Dr. Reynolds Presentation
(delivered in much abbreviated form due to time constraints)
by Dr. Kevin Barrett
Coordinator, Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth: mujca.com Member, Scholars for 9/11 Truth: st911.org
Member, Scientific Professionals Investigating 9/11 (SPINE): 911physics.net
Friends, we are gathered here today not just to speak truth to power, but to start fighting back. The information you are hearing today is political dynamite. It is the stuff of which revolutions are made.
Evil rulers use divide-and-conquer strategies against their subjects. In Iraq, the occupiers blow up mosques and markets, and murder thousands of bystanders, in a lame attempt to provoke a Sunni-Shia civil war. But they're not fooling anybody. The Iraqis all know who's really doing these bombings, just as 90% of the Arab and Muslim world knows that 9/11 was an inside job. Here in Ersatz America, our criminal rulers are trying to divide us by whipping up emotional hysteria: abortion, immigration, gay marriage, liberal versus conservative, religious versus secular, Christian and Jewish versus Muslim-anything to distract us and keep us from seeing what they're doing to all of us.
9/11 truth unites ALL of us - left and right, gay and straight, religious, spiritual and secular, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, military and civilian - in revolutionary outrage against this evil regime, and in determination to overthrow it by any means necessary.
We hope the 9/11 truth revolution will be a nonviolent revolution. We are starting with education, symbolism, and nonviolent action. Please honor the request of Veterans for 9/11 Truth (v911t.org) to fly the American flag upside down as a symbol of Constitutional distress. And please come to Chicago for the international 9/11 truth strategy conference June 2nd - 4th, sponsored by 911truth.org and the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth. Posters are available at the table outside. We are meeting in Chicago to figure out how to win on 9/11 truth. And we are going to win. See: 911revealingthetruth.org
And when we win, the brave man we have invited here today will get a big chunk of the credit.
Dr. Morgan Reynolds is Professor Emeritus at Texas A & M University. He served as Chief Economist in the Department of Labor under George W. Bush during the Cheney regime's first illegitimate term. He is the former director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and appeared on innumerable political discussion shows in the mainstream media - back when we used to have a mainstream media rather than a Ministry of Propaganda. I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that - it's the Ministry of Love. Wait a minute, that's the one that runs Abu Ghraib and the sex torture gulag. Or is that der Ministry of Unheimlich Insecurity?
I'm sorry, I grew up back when we had something vaguely resembling a democracy - I can't keep all this stuff straight. In any case, Dr. Reynolds has a stellar resume, and the best part of it is that he is a Wisconsin Badger with three degrees from this great university - and he is living up to its motto, The Truth Will Set You Free!
Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Morgan Reynolds.
* * *
(For Morgan Reynolds' work, see his website nomoregames.net)
Related
http://mujca.com
http://911revealingthetruth.org
You can subscribe to our ML (Mailing List) for free. It is full of important news that you do not hear in the mainstream media. To subscribe please send a blank email to:
globalpeacecampaign-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To visit the GPC Group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalpeacecampaign/
Please join us.
Anyway, you should read the following...
Everyone in the worldwide intelligence community knew that 9/11 was an inside job as soon as it happened...
Yumi
===========
Reynolds: "Come Out of the White House with Your Hands Up!"
http://milwaukee.indymedia.org/en/2006/05/205461.shtml
by Kevin Barrett
Ex-Bush Official Busts 9/11 Perps at U.W. Historical Society
Madison, WI
Saturday, May 6, 2006
An enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd packed the Wisconsin Historical Society auditorium Saturday to hear ex-Bush Administration insider Morgan Reynolds prosecute top administration and military officials for the 9/11 inside job.
Reynolds indicted Richard Cheney, George W. Bush, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Meyers, confessed WTC demolisher and insurance-fraudster Larry Silverstein, and others for mass murder, conspiracy, and other charges including high treason. The enthusiastic response from the overflow crowd was a de facto vote for conviction on all counts.
The former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis, showed that the defendants conspired to create a false cover story of suicide hijackings in order to "blow the World Trade Center to kingdom come" with explosives-a shock-and-awe psy-op designed to coerce the American people into supporting a pre-planned "long war" in the Middle East, massive increases in military spending, and the rollback of Constitutional civil liberties.
Reynolds stated that everyone in the worldwide intelligence community knew that 9/11 was an inside job as soon as it happened, with the obvious stand-down of US air defenses, controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, and non-protection of the President in Florida being the biggest tip-offs. The head of the Russian equivalent of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the former head of the German intelligence service Andreas Von Bulow, former National Security Agency official Wayne Madsen, and former MI-6 agent David Schayler have all openly called 9/11 an inside job, while former CIA official Ray McGovern has confirmed this directly in private, and indirectly in public by way of his ringing endorsement of David Ray Griffin's work on 9/11.
Reynolds, who served as George W. Bush's Labor Department Chief Economist in 2001-2002, believes that a 9/11 truth victory is looming on the near-term horizon. He predicted that one or more of the 9/11 insiders will soon "give it up" and come forward with what they know, saying "Remember, you heard it here first." He said that most of those complicit in the attacks did not realize how over-the-top the plot was, due to the need-to-know compartmentalization of such covert operations, and that some semi-complicit individuals will probably be coming forward. Reynolds said that most of his email acquaintances are now worried that the 9/11 truth movement is going to win, triggering the greatest Constitutional crisis in U.S. history. For Reynolds, this is less a cause for worry than for rejoicing: "We need a Constitutional crisis!"
Reynolds argued that 9/11 truth is a matter of extreme urgency, since the perpetrators seem to be preparing another 9/11-style terror hoax as a pretext for attacking Iran with nuclear weapons. He said that exposing the 9/11 fraud is the best way to stop Cheney's plan to stage an unprovoked nuclear attack on Iran, and the military draft and Pinochet-style prison camps and death squads for dissenters that might accompany it.
Reynolds urged the audience to help educate the American public about the 9/11 inside job. Personal contact with family and friends, the internet, alternative media, and public events like this are all good educational strategies, he said, adding that a demonstration of 100,000 9/11 truth supporters at Ground Zero next year would be hard for the media to ignore.
Politicians and the media will help expose the 9/11 inside job, he said, only after the growing grassroots movement reaches critical mass. The organizers of Reynolds' talk urged audience members to come to the upcoming international 9/11 truth conference in Chicago, 9/11: Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming Our Future, June 2nd-4th, 2006:* * *
Introduction to Dr. Reynolds Presentation
(delivered in much abbreviated form due to time constraints)
by Dr. Kevin Barrett
Coordinator, Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth: mujca.com Member, Scholars for 9/11 Truth: st911.org
Member, Scientific Professionals Investigating 9/11 (SPINE): 911physics.net
Friends, we are gathered here today not just to speak truth to power, but to start fighting back. The information you are hearing today is political dynamite. It is the stuff of which revolutions are made.
Evil rulers use divide-and-conquer strategies against their subjects. In Iraq, the occupiers blow up mosques and markets, and murder thousands of bystanders, in a lame attempt to provoke a Sunni-Shia civil war. But they're not fooling anybody. The Iraqis all know who's really doing these bombings, just as 90% of the Arab and Muslim world knows that 9/11 was an inside job. Here in Ersatz America, our criminal rulers are trying to divide us by whipping up emotional hysteria: abortion, immigration, gay marriage, liberal versus conservative, religious versus secular, Christian and Jewish versus Muslim-anything to distract us and keep us from seeing what they're doing to all of us.
9/11 truth unites ALL of us - left and right, gay and straight, religious, spiritual and secular, Muslim, Christian and Jewish, military and civilian - in revolutionary outrage against this evil regime, and in determination to overthrow it by any means necessary.
We hope the 9/11 truth revolution will be a nonviolent revolution. We are starting with education, symbolism, and nonviolent action. Please honor the request of Veterans for 9/11 Truth (v911t.org) to fly the American flag upside down as a symbol of Constitutional distress. And please come to Chicago for the international 9/11 truth strategy conference June 2nd - 4th, sponsored by 911truth.org and the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth. Posters are available at the table outside. We are meeting in Chicago to figure out how to win on 9/11 truth. And we are going to win. See: 911revealingthetruth.org
And when we win, the brave man we have invited here today will get a big chunk of the credit.
Dr. Morgan Reynolds is Professor Emeritus at Texas A & M University. He served as Chief Economist in the Department of Labor under George W. Bush during the Cheney regime's first illegitimate term. He is the former director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis, and appeared on innumerable political discussion shows in the mainstream media - back when we used to have a mainstream media rather than a Ministry of Propaganda. I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that - it's the Ministry of Love. Wait a minute, that's the one that runs Abu Ghraib and the sex torture gulag. Or is that der Ministry of Unheimlich Insecurity?
I'm sorry, I grew up back when we had something vaguely resembling a democracy - I can't keep all this stuff straight. In any case, Dr. Reynolds has a stellar resume, and the best part of it is that he is a Wisconsin Badger with three degrees from this great university - and he is living up to its motto, The Truth Will Set You Free!
Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Morgan Reynolds.
* * *
(For Morgan Reynolds' work, see his website nomoregames.net)
Related
http://mujca.com
http://911revealingthetruth.org
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Stephen Colbert, New American Hero
I heard his name a week ago from my dear friend Norie Huddle. She sent me the speech he made at a Whitehouse dinner on April 30. I watchted it, laughed and laughed till my stomach ached! Who is this guy?
And a week later, today, I got what is written below from Lucille Moyer, and also from Truth Out, and others! Now I am realizing this is not just funny but revolutionary. You must watch and spread it around too!
Yumi
==============
Lucille Moyer wrote:
Stephen Colbert will become an American folk hero because he singlehandedly circumvented the administrative protectorate and the secret service to courageously and publically confront this president who doesn't read, doesn't watch TV, doesn't listen to advisers and thinks he is above the law and congress. It was a coup that untold millions upon millions around the world, marching in the streets, have been unable to achieve. Hooray for Colbert!!!
* * * * * *
Stephen Colbert: New American Hero
By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Posted on May 9, 2006, Printed on May 10, 2006
(Click here to read the story.)
Virtually overnight, Stephen Colbert became a hero to countless Americans, following his April 30 performance at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
Since then, millions of people have either watched the video or read the transcript of his skewering of both the president and the press corps, and have discussed it avidly. Tens of thousands of people have gone to the website ThankYouStephenColbert.org and written letters of appreciation. Talk about water-cooler chatter; the event crashed internet servers across the land. It truly was one of those moments of media shock and delight.
And then, an odd but revealing thing happened. Some of the chattering class commentators, mainstream media writers and columnists, and Democratic officials didn't get it: Not very funny, rude, not respectful of the president, and so on. Are they kidding? How could they not understand they were witnessing one of the bravest, most subversive performances in memory, which thrilled and gave hope to untold viewers and readers, and will be a huge marker when people look back on the Bush era?
Colbert's speech had a huge impact for two reasons: First, he spoke truth to power right to the face of the president, in front of the entire news media. No one could miss, sidestep or deny it. It wasn't a scene from a movie, book or talk show -- it was live. It reminded me of Edward R. Murrow's famous address to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (recently depicted in the film "Good Night and Good Luck"). It gave me goose bumps. Colbert's performance shamed every Democrat or columnist who has been too afraid, too timid, or just too worried about losing his or her own power and access to go out on a limb and tell the truth that this administration is a disaster beyond our wildest nightmares. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove have gotten away with murder … and worse. And many of the people in that room that night who squirmed in their seats -- it was in part because of the internal indictment they were feeling for not doing what they should have done, countless times, long before. Maybe now they will do the right thing, but I won't be holding my breath.
The second reason Colbert made such a huge splash is the rapid advance of video on the web. Almost overnight, the media world has irrevocably changed as video is increasingly becoming as important as print and still images on the web. When, in a matter of hours, dozens of websites can post or link to a video and get the word out about a spectacular event, the role of the gatekeepers and the corporate media shrinks big-time. And it doesn't matter if the networks or CNN or Fox decides that they don't want you to see it -- they can't stop it. The people's network is now in working order. Progressives now have a television capacity; still rudimentary, perhaps, but powerfully effective.
The Press Leaks
The press coverage of the Colbert performance was illuminating, according to the popular blog, Democratic Underground: "Expect nothing less from the cowardly American media. This demonstrates powerfully the ability of the media to choose the news, and to decide when and how to shield Bush from negative publicity. Sins of omission can be just as bad as sins of commission."
The AP's first stab at it, as well as Reuters and the Chicago Tribune, tell us everything we need to know: In these reports, Colbert's performance is sidestepped and marginalized, while President Bush is depicted as lighthearted, humble and witty.
Salon's Joan Walsh points out, "Colbert's deadly performance did more than reveal, with devastating clarity, how Bush's well-oiled myth machine works. It exposed the mainstream press' pathetic collusion with an administration that has treated it -- and the truth -- with contempt from the moment it took office. Intimidated, coddled, fearful of violating propriety, the press corps that for years dutifully repeated Bush talking points was stunned and horrified when someone dared to reveal that the media emperor had no clothes. Colbert refused to play his dutiful, toothless part in the White House correspondents' dinner -- an incestuous, backslapping ritual that should be retired. For that, he had to be marginalized. Voilà: 'He wasn't funny.'"
On the Democratic political front, as John Aravosis wrote on AmericaBlog, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., actually stepped up to defend President Bush, saying, according to The Hill:
"I thought some of it was funny, but I think it got a little rough … He is the president of the United States, and he deserves some respect."
"I'm certainly not a defender of the administration," Hoyer reassured stunned observers, but Colbert "crossed the line" with many jokes that were "in bad taste."
Criticizing Colbert for being rude would be pretty funny if it weren't so depressing. Rude? Since when has politics in this administration used the Marquis of Queensbury rules? Is Dick Cheney sweet and accommodating? When, in their march to power, has the right wing had good manners -- about abortion or gay marriage, or in the push for invading Iraq? Sure, mention decorum and one thinks immediately of Karl Rove, of Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, of Jerry Falwell blaming America's bad morals for 9/11.
The fact is, Stephen Colbert is at the acme of rising independent voices -- in the blogosphere, on the internet, in publishing and independent filmmaking -- who are being aggressive and playing hardball the way the right does. And guess what? The establishment is getting nervous. The powers-that-be know that people respond to passion, anger and resistance, emotions that convey meaning and seriousness, and the will to fight hard for important issues.
In a smaller way, but showing similar guts, Cindy Sheehan spoke truth by traveling to Texas and demanding that the president explain, please, just what "noble cause" her son died for. Ray McGovern did it recently when he publicly challenged Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Atlanta, and so did Harry Taylor, the man who confronted George W. Bush at a town meeting in North Carolina.
Perhaps the most important lesson we have learned from the divisions laid bare by Stephen Colbert is that the big split isn't so much between Democrats and Republicans or between the media and the people and events they cover, but rather between the powerful and the angry, between those basking in power and those fighting for change. The kiss-ass media, the revolving-door congressmen, the sycophant lobbyists and congressional staffers, the greedy media consultants -- all are dependent on and addicted to the trappings of power, whether it's their next book, TV appearance, consulting contract, ride on Air Force One or junket to play golf at St. Andrews. Stephen Colbert turned the heat up on them all:
… let's review the rules. Here's how it works: The president makes the decisions; he's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people, the press, type those decisions down. Make, announce, check. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kickin' around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know: fiction!
It's getting hotter in the kitchen, and some of those who have the most to hide are getting closer to a meltdown.
Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/36067/
---------
The COMPLETE Colbert Clip is Here, Part 1 - Part 2.
---------
"NO BRAVERY" (A nation blind to their disgrace)
A Must Watch 4 Minute Video Flash presentation
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article11799.htm
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."
- Thomas Jefferson
And a week later, today, I got what is written below from Lucille Moyer, and also from Truth Out, and others! Now I am realizing this is not just funny but revolutionary. You must watch and spread it around too!
Yumi
==============
Lucille Moyer wrote:
Stephen Colbert will become an American folk hero because he singlehandedly circumvented the administrative protectorate and the secret service to courageously and publically confront this president who doesn't read, doesn't watch TV, doesn't listen to advisers and thinks he is above the law and congress. It was a coup that untold millions upon millions around the world, marching in the streets, have been unable to achieve. Hooray for Colbert!!!
* * * * * *
By Don Hazen, AlterNet
Posted on May 9, 2006, Printed on May 10, 2006
(Click here to read the story.)
Virtually overnight, Stephen Colbert became a hero to countless Americans, following his April 30 performance at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
Since then, millions of people have either watched the video or read the transcript of his skewering of both the president and the press corps, and have discussed it avidly. Tens of thousands of people have gone to the website ThankYouStephenColbert.org and written letters of appreciation. Talk about water-cooler chatter; the event crashed internet servers across the land. It truly was one of those moments of media shock and delight.
And then, an odd but revealing thing happened. Some of the chattering class commentators, mainstream media writers and columnists, and Democratic officials didn't get it: Not very funny, rude, not respectful of the president, and so on. Are they kidding? How could they not understand they were witnessing one of the bravest, most subversive performances in memory, which thrilled and gave hope to untold viewers and readers, and will be a huge marker when people look back on the Bush era?
Colbert's speech had a huge impact for two reasons: First, he spoke truth to power right to the face of the president, in front of the entire news media. No one could miss, sidestep or deny it. It wasn't a scene from a movie, book or talk show -- it was live. It reminded me of Edward R. Murrow's famous address to the Radio and Television News Directors Association (recently depicted in the film "Good Night and Good Luck"). It gave me goose bumps. Colbert's performance shamed every Democrat or columnist who has been too afraid, too timid, or just too worried about losing his or her own power and access to go out on a limb and tell the truth that this administration is a disaster beyond our wildest nightmares. Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rove have gotten away with murder … and worse. And many of the people in that room that night who squirmed in their seats -- it was in part because of the internal indictment they were feeling for not doing what they should have done, countless times, long before. Maybe now they will do the right thing, but I won't be holding my breath.
The second reason Colbert made such a huge splash is the rapid advance of video on the web. Almost overnight, the media world has irrevocably changed as video is increasingly becoming as important as print and still images on the web. When, in a matter of hours, dozens of websites can post or link to a video and get the word out about a spectacular event, the role of the gatekeepers and the corporate media shrinks big-time. And it doesn't matter if the networks or CNN or Fox decides that they don't want you to see it -- they can't stop it. The people's network is now in working order. Progressives now have a television capacity; still rudimentary, perhaps, but powerfully effective.
The Press Leaks
The press coverage of the Colbert performance was illuminating, according to the popular blog, Democratic Underground: "Expect nothing less from the cowardly American media. This demonstrates powerfully the ability of the media to choose the news, and to decide when and how to shield Bush from negative publicity. Sins of omission can be just as bad as sins of commission."
The AP's first stab at it, as well as Reuters and the Chicago Tribune, tell us everything we need to know: In these reports, Colbert's performance is sidestepped and marginalized, while President Bush is depicted as lighthearted, humble and witty.
Salon's Joan Walsh points out, "Colbert's deadly performance did more than reveal, with devastating clarity, how Bush's well-oiled myth machine works. It exposed the mainstream press' pathetic collusion with an administration that has treated it -- and the truth -- with contempt from the moment it took office. Intimidated, coddled, fearful of violating propriety, the press corps that for years dutifully repeated Bush talking points was stunned and horrified when someone dared to reveal that the media emperor had no clothes. Colbert refused to play his dutiful, toothless part in the White House correspondents' dinner -- an incestuous, backslapping ritual that should be retired. For that, he had to be marginalized. Voilà: 'He wasn't funny.'"
On the Democratic political front, as John Aravosis wrote on AmericaBlog, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., actually stepped up to defend President Bush, saying, according to The Hill:
"I thought some of it was funny, but I think it got a little rough … He is the president of the United States, and he deserves some respect."
"I'm certainly not a defender of the administration," Hoyer reassured stunned observers, but Colbert "crossed the line" with many jokes that were "in bad taste."
Criticizing Colbert for being rude would be pretty funny if it weren't so depressing. Rude? Since when has politics in this administration used the Marquis of Queensbury rules? Is Dick Cheney sweet and accommodating? When, in their march to power, has the right wing had good manners -- about abortion or gay marriage, or in the push for invading Iraq? Sure, mention decorum and one thinks immediately of Karl Rove, of Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, of Jerry Falwell blaming America's bad morals for 9/11.
The fact is, Stephen Colbert is at the acme of rising independent voices -- in the blogosphere, on the internet, in publishing and independent filmmaking -- who are being aggressive and playing hardball the way the right does. And guess what? The establishment is getting nervous. The powers-that-be know that people respond to passion, anger and resistance, emotions that convey meaning and seriousness, and the will to fight hard for important issues.
In a smaller way, but showing similar guts, Cindy Sheehan spoke truth by traveling to Texas and demanding that the president explain, please, just what "noble cause" her son died for. Ray McGovern did it recently when he publicly challenged Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Atlanta, and so did Harry Taylor, the man who confronted George W. Bush at a town meeting in North Carolina.
Perhaps the most important lesson we have learned from the divisions laid bare by Stephen Colbert is that the big split isn't so much between Democrats and Republicans or between the media and the people and events they cover, but rather between the powerful and the angry, between those basking in power and those fighting for change. The kiss-ass media, the revolving-door congressmen, the sycophant lobbyists and congressional staffers, the greedy media consultants -- all are dependent on and addicted to the trappings of power, whether it's their next book, TV appearance, consulting contract, ride on Air Force One or junket to play golf at St. Andrews. Stephen Colbert turned the heat up on them all:
… let's review the rules. Here's how it works: The president makes the decisions; he's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people, the press, type those decisions down. Make, announce, check. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kickin' around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know: fiction!
It's getting hotter in the kitchen, and some of those who have the most to hide are getting closer to a meltdown.
Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.
© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/36067/
---------
The COMPLETE Colbert Clip is Here, Part 1 - Part 2.
---------
"NO BRAVERY" (A nation blind to their disgrace)
A Must Watch 4 Minute Video Flash presentation
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article11799.htm
"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government."
- Thomas Jefferson
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Babies Today Are Still Dying from Chernobyl 20 Years Ago
I had to post this here so that more people understand what it means to have nuclear power plant operating near you. (by this I mean 200 miles (320KM) or less!) Imagine being a mother who has a baby dying from cancer, and you can not do anything. Many Iraqi mothers are now experiencing this from DU pollution, as are the mothers of Chernobyl children.
We have 55 nuclear power plants plus one new reprocessing plant in Japan. According to Greenpeace in one day Rokkasho Reprocessing plant discharges the same amount of radiation as a single nuclear power plant would discharge in one year. But some say it is more than that.
For example, Mr. Kiyohiko Yamada says that the discharge of radiation from Rokkasho alone IN ONE DAY is more than all the 55 nuclear power plants in Japan combined FOR A YEAR. What this means is that Rokkasho is releasing the equivalent amount of radiation that 20,075(55 by 365 days) nuke plants would release PER DAY. Mr. Yamada says that the radiation release data was made public through the Gennen's public hearing minutes, which he has access to (Gennen is the Japan Nuclear Fuel Company who operates the Rokkasho reprocessing plant). The "active test" of the reprocessing plant started on March 31.
This number sounds too high to be believable to me, so I am in the process of checking this data. I will will adjust these figures after I have confirmation of this data.
This is really crazy. Are the Japanese people (we) so stupid to allow this happen to their(our) land, water and air? All our assets, houses, apartments, company buildings and so on, will become worthless if a single accident happens. In case of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant, without even an accident, the pollution is released on a daily basis, as part of the regular operation of the plant, so the damage is ongoing and continous...
Who would want to invest in such a potentially dangerous place? Think about it. If we wanted to sell Japan in such a condition, who would buy it? We have no right to pollute our planet, our land, water and soil. They are for our children to enjoy. We must do something about this!
Yumi
Please read the letter below, from Michael Mariotte, the Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
I hope you will forward it on to others around the world.
============
NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-NIRS (301-270-6477); Fax: 301-270-4291
www.nirs.org
May 4, 2006
Dear Friend of NIRS,
I’m sitting today in our office in Rivne, Ukraine, where we’re working on the next steps to build upon last week’s remarkable Chornobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future conference in Kyiv, Ukraine.
I’m almost 200 miles west of Chornobyl, yet just 30 miles to the north is one of Ukraine’s four levels of contaminated zones. In this zone, tens of thousands of people live and work and farm and eat food grown on land that is killing them. More than four million people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia still live on land contaminated from the Chornobyl accident of 20 years ago. Sadly, babies born today are still dying from that accident because they’re drinking milk produced by cows eating contaminated grass. Chornobyl truly is an accident without end.
If your information came only from the American media, or the nuclear power industry, you would probably think Chornobyl really wasn’t so bad. A disaster, yes, but a manageable one; one the world can live with if necessary to produce needed electricity.
Sitting here in Ukraine, with new studies about the real consequences of Chornobyl stacked next to my desk, the reality looks quite different.
Last September, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organization (WHO) released a report on Chornobyl’s consequences, which concluded that while the accident had resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and permanent interdiction of large areas of land, “only” about 4,000 cancer fatalities were expected. Perhaps only the cynical nuclear power industry could consider a disaster whose consequences are greater than Hurricane Katrina to be good news, but the industry seized upon this study to argue that the world should be building more nuclear reactors.
But in the past few weeks, several new studies have been released countering the IAEA’s report. First came the TORCH report, prepared for the Chornobyl+20 conference. It concluded that 30,000-60,000 cancer fatalities can be expected. A report prepared for Greenpeace and endorsed by more than 50 scientists from the affected countries projects 93,000 deaths, and perhaps as many as 200,000. Other studies project even higher casualties.
And these reports were big news across Europe. Finally, even the World Health Organization (which by a 1950s-era agreement is forced to accept IAEA statistics on nuclear-related health effects) could no longer accept the IAEA’s numbers, and on April 20 released a document projecting a still-very-conservative 29,000 deaths (although you had to read the fine print to find that number).
In short, the IAEA has been largely discredited; its September report found to be self-serving. The real consequences, and thus lessons of Chornobyl, are much greater and more profound than the IAEA and nuclear industries of the world want to admit.
Across Ukraine, across Europe, this is generally understood. But the U.S. media has by and large ignored the reality of Chornobyl and its implications.
That’s easy to do in the U.S., it’s much harder to ignore here in Ukraine. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be coming home. I can leave and not worry about the ongoing consequences. The people who live here cannot.
And yet we all—in every country—ignore the devastation of Chornobyl at our own peril. Because Chornobyl can happen anywhere there is nuclear power and, unless its lessons are learned, it will happen again.
The studies I referred to, and more, are available on our website at http://www.nirs.org/c20/c20us.htm, along with the resolution from the conference and a lot more.
In coming weeks, we’ll be adding proceedings from the conference and updating and expanding our sections on nuclear power and climate change and on sustainable energy, so that you’ll continue to have access to the best and latest information on the issues important to us all. And we’ll be working to spread the truth about Chornobyl, and nuclear issues generally, to the media across the U.S.
You’ll also be hearing from us about the latest congressional activity on Yucca Mountain and reprocessing and how your actions can make a difference in our energy future.
That all takes resources, of course, and I hope you’ll take a moment now to help by donating to us at https://secure.campagne-online.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=2927&LangPref=en-CA. This is our secure online credit card processing system. You can also access this site directly from the NIRS home page at http://www.nirs.org.
As an added incentive, if you contribute by June 30, your contribution will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by a matching grant set up as a tribute to NIRS’ Radioactive Waste Project director Diane D’Arrigo, who is celebrating her 20th year at NIRS.
If you’d prefer to donate by check, please send your contribution to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Or you can contribute by credit card over the phone at NIRS, 301-270-6477.
However you choose to contribute, I hope you will do so as generously as you can. We must ensure that there will be no more Chornobyls—not in Ukraine, and not in the U.S.
Thank you for your help and support.
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
We have 55 nuclear power plants plus one new reprocessing plant in Japan. According to Greenpeace in one day Rokkasho Reprocessing plant discharges the same amount of radiation as a single nuclear power plant would discharge in one year. But some say it is more than that.
For example, Mr. Kiyohiko Yamada says that the discharge of radiation from Rokkasho alone IN ONE DAY is more than all the 55 nuclear power plants in Japan combined FOR A YEAR. What this means is that Rokkasho is releasing the equivalent amount of radiation that 20,075(55 by 365 days) nuke plants would release PER DAY. Mr. Yamada says that the radiation release data was made public through the Gennen's public hearing minutes, which he has access to (Gennen is the Japan Nuclear Fuel Company who operates the Rokkasho reprocessing plant). The "active test" of the reprocessing plant started on March 31.
This number sounds too high to be believable to me, so I am in the process of checking this data. I will will adjust these figures after I have confirmation of this data.
This is really crazy. Are the Japanese people (we) so stupid to allow this happen to their(our) land, water and air? All our assets, houses, apartments, company buildings and so on, will become worthless if a single accident happens. In case of the Rokkasho reprocessing plant, without even an accident, the pollution is released on a daily basis, as part of the regular operation of the plant, so the damage is ongoing and continous...
Who would want to invest in such a potentially dangerous place? Think about it. If we wanted to sell Japan in such a condition, who would buy it? We have no right to pollute our planet, our land, water and soil. They are for our children to enjoy. We must do something about this!
Yumi
Please read the letter below, from Michael Mariotte, the Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
I hope you will forward it on to others around the world.
============
NUCLEAR INFORMATION AND RESOURCE SERVICE
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912
301-270-NIRS (301-270-6477); Fax: 301-270-4291
www.nirs.org
May 4, 2006
Dear Friend of NIRS,
I’m sitting today in our office in Rivne, Ukraine, where we’re working on the next steps to build upon last week’s remarkable Chornobyl+20: Remembrance for the Future conference in Kyiv, Ukraine.
I’m almost 200 miles west of Chornobyl, yet just 30 miles to the north is one of Ukraine’s four levels of contaminated zones. In this zone, tens of thousands of people live and work and farm and eat food grown on land that is killing them. More than four million people in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia still live on land contaminated from the Chornobyl accident of 20 years ago. Sadly, babies born today are still dying from that accident because they’re drinking milk produced by cows eating contaminated grass. Chornobyl truly is an accident without end.
If your information came only from the American media, or the nuclear power industry, you would probably think Chornobyl really wasn’t so bad. A disaster, yes, but a manageable one; one the world can live with if necessary to produce needed electricity.
Sitting here in Ukraine, with new studies about the real consequences of Chornobyl stacked next to my desk, the reality looks quite different.
Last September, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and World Health Organization (WHO) released a report on Chornobyl’s consequences, which concluded that while the accident had resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars in damages and permanent interdiction of large areas of land, “only” about 4,000 cancer fatalities were expected. Perhaps only the cynical nuclear power industry could consider a disaster whose consequences are greater than Hurricane Katrina to be good news, but the industry seized upon this study to argue that the world should be building more nuclear reactors.
But in the past few weeks, several new studies have been released countering the IAEA’s report. First came the TORCH report, prepared for the Chornobyl+20 conference. It concluded that 30,000-60,000 cancer fatalities can be expected. A report prepared for Greenpeace and endorsed by more than 50 scientists from the affected countries projects 93,000 deaths, and perhaps as many as 200,000. Other studies project even higher casualties.
And these reports were big news across Europe. Finally, even the World Health Organization (which by a 1950s-era agreement is forced to accept IAEA statistics on nuclear-related health effects) could no longer accept the IAEA’s numbers, and on April 20 released a document projecting a still-very-conservative 29,000 deaths (although you had to read the fine print to find that number).
In short, the IAEA has been largely discredited; its September report found to be self-serving. The real consequences, and thus lessons of Chornobyl, are much greater and more profound than the IAEA and nuclear industries of the world want to admit.
Across Ukraine, across Europe, this is generally understood. But the U.S. media has by and large ignored the reality of Chornobyl and its implications.
That’s easy to do in the U.S., it’s much harder to ignore here in Ukraine. In a couple of weeks, I’ll be coming home. I can leave and not worry about the ongoing consequences. The people who live here cannot.
And yet we all—in every country—ignore the devastation of Chornobyl at our own peril. Because Chornobyl can happen anywhere there is nuclear power and, unless its lessons are learned, it will happen again.
The studies I referred to, and more, are available on our website at http://www.nirs.org/c20/c20us.htm, along with the resolution from the conference and a lot more.
In coming weeks, we’ll be adding proceedings from the conference and updating and expanding our sections on nuclear power and climate change and on sustainable energy, so that you’ll continue to have access to the best and latest information on the issues important to us all. And we’ll be working to spread the truth about Chornobyl, and nuclear issues generally, to the media across the U.S.
You’ll also be hearing from us about the latest congressional activity on Yucca Mountain and reprocessing and how your actions can make a difference in our energy future.
That all takes resources, of course, and I hope you’ll take a moment now to help by donating to us at https://secure.campagne-online.com/registrant/donate.aspx?EventID=2927&LangPref=en-CA. This is our secure online credit card processing system. You can also access this site directly from the NIRS home page at http://www.nirs.org.
As an added incentive, if you contribute by June 30, your contribution will be matched, dollar-for-dollar, by a matching grant set up as a tribute to NIRS’ Radioactive Waste Project director Diane D’Arrigo, who is celebrating her 20th year at NIRS.
If you’d prefer to donate by check, please send your contribution to NIRS, 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 340, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Or you can contribute by credit card over the phone at NIRS, 301-270-6477.
However you choose to contribute, I hope you will do so as generously as you can. We must ensure that there will be no more Chornobyls—not in Ukraine, and not in the U.S.
Thank you for your help and support.
Michael Mariotte
Executive Director
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
nirsnet@nirs.org
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Dear Mr. President!, by Pink
This is so wonderful! I hope Mr. President, you will listen to the words, carefully!
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