Sunday, March 27, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
COULDN'T BE TRUE COULD IT?
FYI: This is from George Ure's March 16, A. D. 2011 Urban Survival post at http://urbansurvival.com/week.
Coping: With Nonmeaningful Coincidences
Remember the old TV show, Columbo with Peter Falk, where Falk would often be leaving the scene of the crime and would stop, turn, and say - heavily accents with a lower-class brogue - something like "Escuse, shir, but there's just one shing dats bothering me..."
I have days like that - like this morning, for example, where there's just one thing bothering me.
Proof seems to exist now that not all earthquakes are created equal.
At least, insofar as the magnetometer readings about the government/University of Alaska High Altitude Atmospheric Project, a/k/a HAARP which, as you may recall from our earlier discussions, uses a huge steerable HF radio transmitter system which is powered with a roughly 2-megawatt powerplant which, given the size of their antenna array, pumps many megawatts (if not gigawatts) of effective radiated power (ERP) into the ionosphere for "research".
So powerful is the radiation off the HARP site, that they even have their own local radar to augment other radar coverage so that aircraft in the area aren't inadvertently damaged. In other words, lotsa, lotsa power.
Over the years, a lot of crackpot theories have developed around HAARP, but it's always been conjecture based on the magnetometers since I've been unable to locate the critical data needed to interpret whether HAARP was causative to some of the odd phenomena afoot in the world today, like bird kills, out-of-place earthquakes, and the like, or whether it was coincident to anomalous events.
The date which would be required in order to make such an assessment necessarily include: Effective radiated power (ERP) the directional heading of the array - since in high frequency (HF) radio, there are always two paths to anywhere on earth (the short path and the long path which is the reciprocal direction from the antenna heading) as well as take-off angles, since the take-off angle of a radio wave may be varied.
Just to give a simple example, if I wish to contact someone in Europe on ham radio from my home QTH (location), I point my directional antenna, a 3-element yagi beam, off at about 45 degrees to hit Italy, for example. The tower goes up to the 60' foot level and "Ciao", "bon journo", or whoever comes back.
For closer-in communications, say with a ham in New Mexico, I'd lower the beam to about 30-feet (causing a more acute (higher) take-off angle which would come down sooner off the F2 layer, if I was playing that bank-shot, and I'd head out at 285ยบ, being constantly careful never to exceed the FCC limit on ham radio operations of 1.5 kW Peak Envelop Power (PEP). I always keep to about 1.2 kW PEP just to be safe. And yes, hams have RFI compliance statements about exposure to the general public in uncontrolled areas) and controlled areas, such as their own property and yes, there is signage at the entrance to our property which spells out that high power RF may be in use.
Back to point: HF antennas have power, direction, and maximum take-off angle lobes which dyed-in-the-wool hams (verging on geekly types) like me model using antenna modeling software such as W7EL's fine EZNEC program to see what's going on with their antennas...
Which gets me back to HAARP. Since the public doesn't get access to transmitter logs with frequency, pulse type, power, direction, and take-off angles the only thing we know is that yes, HAARP's magnetometers were on and working at the time of the 9.0 quake off Honshu, but follow me here: this is where things get interesting:
I plotted out the times of the Japan quake plus a few other quakes (6.0 and above) that were temporally adjacent, and put a few of them on the magnetometer timeline from HAARP's database and this is what we get:
See that big spiky thing around 07:00-08:00 UTC on March 10? Guess what's there? A 4.8 off Honshu... That's the big black spike which is followed by the next big black spike smack dab coincident with the 9/.09 quake!
The 6.1 off Honshu didn't do anything yet a 4.8 is coincident and then the 9.0? Like wait for something then pump it maybe? Of course not! Why, such thinking would verge on conspiratorial, would it not? But then again, there's the data to mull...and certainly a mechanism might be postulated.
You're welcome to perform the same work yourself (better do it today, since the USGS data for the 9th of March is about to roll off the USGS recent quakes list here.
Frankly, I don't expect the data magnetometer data to disappear off HAARP, but who knows in this world, eh?
But seems evident to me that if nothing else, HAARP which has cost hundreds of millions of your tax dollars and mine, seems to conclusively demonstrate that not all earthquakes are created equal at least in terms of magnetometer readings in Gakona, Alaska, and you just know that there's a lot more to this for the government to have spent the hundreds of millions, since the Department of Defense is running projects using the equipment at the site and warns against any improper use of the site on that account.
If you want to have a ton of fun, you could go into the magnetometer chain and look up the data for the magnetometer chains in the general direction of Japan, and what do you find? Missing data for places like Trapper Creek and Anchorage which, although they are in the general (short path) direction of Japan, is only coincidental....we're sure....try to fake a look of surprise right about here....
And now we get to the "One ting dats bothering me...."
Again, this is highly coincidental, George tilting at windmills stuff, but Japan as you probably know has a huge unfunded pension liability. Nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars in 2009 and still growing according to this Bloomberg report from January of 2010:
A fair-minded business reporter would be looking - about now - for the PTB to tip their hand on what happens to those pension liabilities...national emergency - that kind of thing.
---
I don't know about you, but I'd sure like to see HAARP open up and report all of it's transmitter operations and array headings for the week prior to the Japan quake. Not that I'm asserting any wrongdoing, of course. BUT I am bothered down at the soul level level what jumps out of the magnetometer readings.
That all earthquakes are not equal.
And that's got some huge scientific ramifications, including perhaps, hints about the expando planet idea, just for openers.
Oh, and if you see a modest quake in the Pacific Northwest or New Madrid area later this month? Tighten the seat belt just in case. How is it a 6.1 does nothing to the magnetometers and a 4.8 follows a ramping pulse-stepped kind of pattern, again?
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Assault on Collective Bargaining Illegal, Says International Labor Rights Group
Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn, Truthout: "The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal. Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their 'rights.' The ICLR explained to the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take them away is illegal."
Read the Article
Japan Nuclear Crisis Spreads to Third Plant
Hiroko Tabuchi and Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times News Service: "Japanese officials struggled on Sunday to contain a widening nuclear crisis in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami, saying they presumed that partial meltdowns had occurred at two crippled reactors and that they were facing serious cooling problems at three more. The emergency appeared to be the worst involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago. The developments at two separate nuclear plants prompted the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. Japanese officials said they had also ordered up the largest mobilization of their Self-Defense Forces since World War II to assist in the relief effort."
Read the Article
Religious Leaders Hold Out Against Qaddafi
Mike Elkin, Inter Press Service: "Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi claims Al-Qaeda and other Muslim extremists are behind the recent rebellion to oust him from power. Salem Geber, the most well-known cleric in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, says this explanation is not only wrong, but a vintage Qaddafi tactic to inspire fear. 'Qaddafi's latest speeches are nothing new,' the imam said from his office, which manages Benghazi's mosques and other Islamic heritage sites. 'Qaddafi liked to warn us of the Americans and the Europeans who craved our oil, and also of Al-Qaeda.'"
Read the Article
Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally
Alex Seitz-Wald, ThinkProgress: "Police estimated up to 100,000 people turned out in Madison, WI yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker's (R) assault on unions, making it bigger than any protests the city has witnessed, even those during the Vietnam War. The Madison rally is part of a much larger Main Street Movement of average Americans demanding fairness in labor laws, social spending, and taxation that has emerged in Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, and elsewhere. But yesterday's rally in Madison is noteworthy because at 85,000-100,000, it was bigger than the biggest tea party protest, the September 12, 2009 rally in Washington, D.C., which turned out only an estimated 60,000-70,000."
Read the Article
The Printing Press and the Euromess
Dimitri Papadimitriou, Truthout: "On March 15, Federal Reserve Bank officials will convene to decide on which way to direct - or redirect - their resources. Accusations that the Fed is running the printing press on overtime (as Republican budget maven Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin put it) have been steadily on the rise. Monetary policies shorthanded as 'printing money' and a European-style disaster will be portrayed as simply opposite shores of a small pond and ever more equations will be made between US financial troubles and those of Ireland and Southern Europe. As the run-up to the congressional debate on the debt ceiling proceeds (it has migrated from January to possibly July), the same accusations will crescendo."
Read the Article
Humanitarian Pays With Life for Feeding the Children of Iraq
Katherine Hughes, Truthout: "February 26, 2011, marks the eighth anniversary of the imprisonment of Dr. Rafil Dhafir. Dhafir continues to pay the price for feeding the children of Iraq during the US- and UK-sponsored UN sanctions against that country. According to the United Nations' own statistics, every month throughout the 1990's, 6,000 children under the age of five in Iraq were dying from lack of food and access to simple medicines. Three senior UN officials resigned because of what they considered a 'genocidal' policy of sanctions against Iraq. Dhafir's charity, Help the Needy (HTN), openly sent food and medicines to starving civilians in Iraq during the brutal embargo. Seven government agencies investigated Dhafir and HTN for many years. They intercepted his mail, email, faxes and telephone calls; bugged his office and hotel rooms; went through his trash; and conducted physical surveillance. They were unable to find any evidence of links to terrorism, and no charges of terrorism were ever brought against Dhafir."
Read the Article
For Wisconsin's Lawmakers, a Hero's Homecoming
A.G. Sulzberger, The New York Times News Service: "They are the unlikeliest of folk heroes. But this group of once-obscure lawmakers - a dairy farmer, a lawyer and a woman who is seven months pregnant, among others - that fled this capital nearly a month ago, returned Saturday to the cheers of tens of thousands who once again packed the streets in protest. Many in the crowd wore buttons or held signs bearing admiring nicknames for the group: the 'Fighting 14,' the 'Fab 14' or, simply, 'the Wisconsin 14.' They chanted, 'Thank you' and 'Welcome home.'"
Read the Article
Pennsylvania's Corbett Expands Conservative War on the Middle Class
Linn Washington Jr., This Can't Be Happening: "Swinging a sledge hammer, Pennsylvania's first-term Republican Governor Tom Corbett smashed into educational spending and state worker jobs during his first-ever budget address, following in the footsteps of his conservative cost-cutting confederates across the nation. While Corbett proposes slashing over a billion dollars in funds for pre-K through college, he spares the Keystone State's burgeoning billion-dollar Marcellus Shale natural gas industry from his call for 'shared sacrifice' to close a $4-billion gap in the state's budget."
Read the Article
"Do Not Waste Your Bullet": Over 20 Years After Gawkadal Massacre, Human Life Is Still Cheap in Kashmir
Sana Altaf, Truthout: "Again this year, Moisza did not celebrate her birthday. That day, January 22, once again brought back the memories of her maternal uncle, Rauf Ahmad, who laid down his life to save hundreds of people. It was January 20, 1990, just a year after the Kashmiri insurgency against Indian occupation began. Faced with massive unrest as the insurgency swelled, the Indian government, unable to restore law and order, dismissed Kashmir's democratically elected National Conference government; the legislature and cabinet was dissolved and governor rule was declared. Indian bureaucrat Jagmohan Malhotra was appointed governor. That night … the Indian paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) conducted warrantless house-to-house searches, arresting hundreds of people, beating them and allegedly harassing women."
Read the Article
One Creature That Deserves Extinction: The V-22 Osprey
John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus: "Some animals should be endangered. Consider the V-22 Osprey. The tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane, costs more than a $100 million apiece, killed 30 personnel in crashes during its development stage, and survived four attempts by none other than Dick Cheney to deep-six the program. Although it is no longer as crash-prone as it once was, the Osprey's performance in Iraq was still sub-par and it remains a woefully expensive creature. Although canceling the program would save the U.S. government $10-12 billion over the next decade, the Osprey somehow avoided the budget axe in the latest round of cuts on Capitol Hill."
Read the Article
Democratic Finance vs. Banking Fraud in Early America
William Hogeland, new deal 2.0: "Ordinary 18th-century Americans fought for fair access to small-scale credit and usable currencies. Big finance fought back. Calling modern banking 'a widespread fraud,' Rob Burns wants to push the finance industry out of everyday lending. A candidate for Congress in the fourth district of Illinois, Burns proposes using federally insured savings as a public fund for mortgages, student loans, consumer credit, business bridge loans - the kind of borrowing engaged in by ordinary Americans, not entrepreneurs. On a different finance reform front, the technology pioneer and culture critic Douglas Rushkoff has been exploring complementary currencies. Rushkoff envisions new monetary units, exchanged via handheld devices, helping to break what he calls 'the money monopoly.'"
Read the Article
Click here for more Truthout articles
"Scott Walker's real agenda in Wisconsin: The Republican governor's budget plan would open the state up to a corporate asset-grab not seen since robber baron capitalism."
That headline is not from BuzzFlash at Truthout; it's from The Guardian UK, and it pretty much nails where the current GOP is at: Milton Friedman on a triple dose of steroids.
Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout speculated about the trend of the government selling off public assets. In the end, this would lead to Grover Norquist's dream of "strangling government and drowning it in a bathtub" (a paraphrase). BuzzFlash, alas, was not being entirely sardonic when we predicted that we will have a manufactured "education crisis" resolved by selling off corporate naming rights (and perhaps ownership) to high schools, privatized teaching (mostly through computers), Wackenhut school security and even pay toilets to cover the costs of privatized sanitation services.
For anyone who thought that this was a parody, read this from The Guardian:
Just think of your grandchildren looking forward to their 20th reunion from JP Morgan Chase High of Peoria.
Oh, on the upside, they will get a free starter checking account.
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout
Next Will Walker Sell Bank of America Naming Rights to High Schools? Hire Wackenhut Security as Hall Monitors?
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
State Department Spokesman Steps Down After Criticizing Treatment of Bradley Manning
Read the Article at Politico
Nearly Identical Anti-Labor Bills Appear in Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Other States
Read the Article at ThinkProgress
Capitol Square Overflows in Largest Wisconsin Labor Solidarity Demonstration Yet
Read the Article at The Daily Page
Bachmann Muddles American History, Puts Battles of Lexington and Concord in New Hampshire
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo
War Crimes Good, Exposing Them Bad
Read the Article at Al Jazeera
We Must Seek Agreement on Gun Reforms
Read the Article at The Arizona Daily Star
The Age of the Political Sting
Read the Article at Mother Jones
Veering From Peaceful Models, Libya's Youth Revolt Turns Toward Chaos
Read the Article at The New York Times
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
----------
Support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation by clicking here.
To ensure you receive our messages please add the following address to your email address book: messenger@truthout.org
Jeanne Mirer and Marjorie Cohn, Truthout: "The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal. Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their 'rights.' The ICLR explained to the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take them away is illegal."
Read the Article
Japan Nuclear Crisis Spreads to Third Plant
Hiroko Tabuchi and Matthew L. Wald, The New York Times News Service: "Japanese officials struggled on Sunday to contain a widening nuclear crisis in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and tsunami, saying they presumed that partial meltdowns had occurred at two crippled reactors and that they were facing serious cooling problems at three more. The emergency appeared to be the worst involving a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago. The developments at two separate nuclear plants prompted the evacuation of more than 200,000 people. Japanese officials said they had also ordered up the largest mobilization of their Self-Defense Forces since World War II to assist in the relief effort."
Read the Article
Religious Leaders Hold Out Against Qaddafi
Mike Elkin, Inter Press Service: "Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi claims Al-Qaeda and other Muslim extremists are behind the recent rebellion to oust him from power. Salem Geber, the most well-known cleric in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, says this explanation is not only wrong, but a vintage Qaddafi tactic to inspire fear. 'Qaddafi's latest speeches are nothing new,' the imam said from his office, which manages Benghazi's mosques and other Islamic heritage sites. 'Qaddafi liked to warn us of the Americans and the Europeans who craved our oil, and also of Al-Qaeda.'"
Read the Article
Madison Rally Bigger Than Biggest Tea Party Rally
Alex Seitz-Wald, ThinkProgress: "Police estimated up to 100,000 people turned out in Madison, WI yesterday to protest Gov. Scott Walker's (R) assault on unions, making it bigger than any protests the city has witnessed, even those during the Vietnam War. The Madison rally is part of a much larger Main Street Movement of average Americans demanding fairness in labor laws, social spending, and taxation that has emerged in Ohio, New Jersey, Florida, Michigan, and elsewhere. But yesterday's rally in Madison is noteworthy because at 85,000-100,000, it was bigger than the biggest tea party protest, the September 12, 2009 rally in Washington, D.C., which turned out only an estimated 60,000-70,000."
Read the Article
The Printing Press and the Euromess
Dimitri Papadimitriou, Truthout: "On March 15, Federal Reserve Bank officials will convene to decide on which way to direct - or redirect - their resources. Accusations that the Fed is running the printing press on overtime (as Republican budget maven Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin put it) have been steadily on the rise. Monetary policies shorthanded as 'printing money' and a European-style disaster will be portrayed as simply opposite shores of a small pond and ever more equations will be made between US financial troubles and those of Ireland and Southern Europe. As the run-up to the congressional debate on the debt ceiling proceeds (it has migrated from January to possibly July), the same accusations will crescendo."
Read the Article
Humanitarian Pays With Life for Feeding the Children of Iraq
Katherine Hughes, Truthout: "February 26, 2011, marks the eighth anniversary of the imprisonment of Dr. Rafil Dhafir. Dhafir continues to pay the price for feeding the children of Iraq during the US- and UK-sponsored UN sanctions against that country. According to the United Nations' own statistics, every month throughout the 1990's, 6,000 children under the age of five in Iraq were dying from lack of food and access to simple medicines. Three senior UN officials resigned because of what they considered a 'genocidal' policy of sanctions against Iraq. Dhafir's charity, Help the Needy (HTN), openly sent food and medicines to starving civilians in Iraq during the brutal embargo. Seven government agencies investigated Dhafir and HTN for many years. They intercepted his mail, email, faxes and telephone calls; bugged his office and hotel rooms; went through his trash; and conducted physical surveillance. They were unable to find any evidence of links to terrorism, and no charges of terrorism were ever brought against Dhafir."
Read the Article
For Wisconsin's Lawmakers, a Hero's Homecoming
A.G. Sulzberger, The New York Times News Service: "They are the unlikeliest of folk heroes. But this group of once-obscure lawmakers - a dairy farmer, a lawyer and a woman who is seven months pregnant, among others - that fled this capital nearly a month ago, returned Saturday to the cheers of tens of thousands who once again packed the streets in protest. Many in the crowd wore buttons or held signs bearing admiring nicknames for the group: the 'Fighting 14,' the 'Fab 14' or, simply, 'the Wisconsin 14.' They chanted, 'Thank you' and 'Welcome home.'"
Read the Article
Pennsylvania's Corbett Expands Conservative War on the Middle Class
Linn Washington Jr., This Can't Be Happening: "Swinging a sledge hammer, Pennsylvania's first-term Republican Governor Tom Corbett smashed into educational spending and state worker jobs during his first-ever budget address, following in the footsteps of his conservative cost-cutting confederates across the nation. While Corbett proposes slashing over a billion dollars in funds for pre-K through college, he spares the Keystone State's burgeoning billion-dollar Marcellus Shale natural gas industry from his call for 'shared sacrifice' to close a $4-billion gap in the state's budget."
Read the Article
"Do Not Waste Your Bullet": Over 20 Years After Gawkadal Massacre, Human Life Is Still Cheap in Kashmir
Sana Altaf, Truthout: "Again this year, Moisza did not celebrate her birthday. That day, January 22, once again brought back the memories of her maternal uncle, Rauf Ahmad, who laid down his life to save hundreds of people. It was January 20, 1990, just a year after the Kashmiri insurgency against Indian occupation began. Faced with massive unrest as the insurgency swelled, the Indian government, unable to restore law and order, dismissed Kashmir's democratically elected National Conference government; the legislature and cabinet was dissolved and governor rule was declared. Indian bureaucrat Jagmohan Malhotra was appointed governor. That night … the Indian paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) conducted warrantless house-to-house searches, arresting hundreds of people, beating them and allegedly harassing women."
Read the Article
One Creature That Deserves Extinction: The V-22 Osprey
John Feffer, Foreign Policy in Focus: "Some animals should be endangered. Consider the V-22 Osprey. The tilt-rotor aircraft, which takes off like a helicopter but flies like a plane, costs more than a $100 million apiece, killed 30 personnel in crashes during its development stage, and survived four attempts by none other than Dick Cheney to deep-six the program. Although it is no longer as crash-prone as it once was, the Osprey's performance in Iraq was still sub-par and it remains a woefully expensive creature. Although canceling the program would save the U.S. government $10-12 billion over the next decade, the Osprey somehow avoided the budget axe in the latest round of cuts on Capitol Hill."
Read the Article
Democratic Finance vs. Banking Fraud in Early America
William Hogeland, new deal 2.0: "Ordinary 18th-century Americans fought for fair access to small-scale credit and usable currencies. Big finance fought back. Calling modern banking 'a widespread fraud,' Rob Burns wants to push the finance industry out of everyday lending. A candidate for Congress in the fourth district of Illinois, Burns proposes using federally insured savings as a public fund for mortgages, student loans, consumer credit, business bridge loans - the kind of borrowing engaged in by ordinary Americans, not entrepreneurs. On a different finance reform front, the technology pioneer and culture critic Douglas Rushkoff has been exploring complementary currencies. Rushkoff envisions new monetary units, exchanged via handheld devices, helping to break what he calls 'the money monopoly.'"
Read the Article
Click here for more Truthout articles
| TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES | |
That headline is not from BuzzFlash at Truthout; it's from The Guardian UK, and it pretty much nails where the current GOP is at: Milton Friedman on a triple dose of steroids.
Yesterday, BuzzFlash at Truthout speculated about the trend of the government selling off public assets. In the end, this would lead to Grover Norquist's dream of "strangling government and drowning it in a bathtub" (a paraphrase). BuzzFlash, alas, was not being entirely sardonic when we predicted that we will have a manufactured "education crisis" resolved by selling off corporate naming rights (and perhaps ownership) to high schools, privatized teaching (mostly through computers), Wackenhut school security and even pay toilets to cover the costs of privatized sanitation services.
For anyone who thought that this was a parody, read this from The Guardian:
Fast-forward to Scott Walker today. Representing a new breed apart from Wisconsin's earlier Republicans, he is seeking to reopen the asset-grabbing, Gilded Age-style. A plague of rent-seekers is seeking quick gains by privatizing the public sector and erecting tollbooths to charge access fees to roads, power plants and other basic infrastructure....Will the likes of Koch Industries, Bank of America, and Wal-Mart "own" your high schools soon? If Scott Walker and much of the GOP across the United States has its way, the answer is not, "That is ridiculous." The answer is, "It is really quite possible."
But who is one to steal from? Most wealth in history has been acquired either by armed conquest of the land, or by political insider dealing, such as the great US railroad land giveaways of the mid-19th century. The great American fortunes have been founded by prying land, public enterprises and monopoly rights from the public domain, because (to paraphrase Willie Sutton) that's where the assets are to take. Throughout history, the world's most successful economies have been those that have kept this kind of primitive accumulation in check. The US economy today is faltering largely because its past barriers against rent-seeking are being breached.
Nowhere is this more disturbingly on display than in Wisconsin. Today, Milwaukee - Wisconsin's largest city, and once the richest in America - is ranked among the four poorest large cities in the United States. Wisconsin is just the most recent case in this great heist. The US government and its regulatory agencies are effectively being privatized as the "final stage" of neoliberal economic doctrine.
Just think of your grandchildren looking forward to their 20th reunion from JP Morgan Chase High of Peoria.
Oh, on the upside, they will get a free starter checking account.
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout
Next Will Walker Sell Bank of America Naming Rights to High Schools? Hire Wackenhut Security as Hall Monitors?
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
State Department Spokesman Steps Down After Criticizing Treatment of Bradley Manning
Read the Article at Politico
Nearly Identical Anti-Labor Bills Appear in Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Other States
Read the Article at ThinkProgress
Capitol Square Overflows in Largest Wisconsin Labor Solidarity Demonstration Yet
Read the Article at The Daily Page
Bachmann Muddles American History, Puts Battles of Lexington and Concord in New Hampshire
Read the Article at Talking Points Memo
War Crimes Good, Exposing Them Bad
Read the Article at Al Jazeera
We Must Seek Agreement on Gun Reforms
Read the Article at The Arizona Daily Star
The Age of the Political Sting
Read the Article at Mother Jones
Veering From Peaceful Models, Libya's Youth Revolt Turns Toward Chaos
Read the Article at The New York Times
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
----------
Support Truthout with a tax-deductible donation by clicking here.
To ensure you receive our messages please add the following address to your email address book: messenger@truthout.org
Saturday, March 12, 2011
MARCH 12
Saturday 18 December 2010
Senate Repeals "Don't Ask Don't Tell"
Faiz Shakir, ThinkProgress: "Moments ago, by a 65-31 vote, the Senate acted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, the policy banning gays from openly serving in the military. The same six GOP senators who broke with their party during the cloture vote earlier today also voted for repeal: Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, George Voinovich, and Mark Kirk. Two more Republicans - John Ensign and Richard Burr - joined with Democrats in final passage."
Read the Article
As DREAM Act Fails, Graham Tells Undocumented Youth They Wasted Their Time
Andrea Nill, ThinkProgress: "Today, the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Fourty-one mostly Republican senators voted against a bill which would have provided young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents a path to legalization by pursuing a college education or serving in the military. 55 voted in the affirmative."
Read the Article
Always Someone's Mother or Father, Always Someone's Child: The Missing Persons of Iraq
Dirk Adriaensens, Truthout: "Whatever definition may be given to 'missing persons' or 'enforced disappearances,' the problem in Iraq can be considered dramatic, even apocalyptic, by any standards. And since the US stated in 2007 that they were still involved in an 'internationally armed conflict,' Iraq's missing persons and forced disappeared after the 2003 invasion are definitely the responsibility of those who started this war and are still de facto occupying the country: the USA, the UK, and, by extension, their installed Iraqi puppet government."
Read the Article
Rebuilding the Labor Movement
Dick Meister, Truthout: "Unions are fighting hard to reverse the downward trend, and although many outside the labor movement openly doubt - or at least wishfully think - that it can't be done, I think they're wrong. The doubters are forgetting that it's been done before - and it's been done in the face of obstacles that were at least as great as those confronted by union adherents today."
Read the Article
Fannie and Freddie's Regulator Opposes Reducing Mortgages for Struggling Homeowners
Karen Weise, ProPublica: "The Obama administration has been pushing for banks and investors to cut mortgage balances for homeowners who owe more than their home is worth. But the regulator for the biggest investors of them all -- the government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- won't let the two do it."
Read the Article
In "Shameful Act," Republicans Kill Bill to Prevent Child Marriage
Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: "In an act that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said 'brought shame to Capitol Hill' last night, the House Republican leadership banded together at the last minute, and on purely specious grounds, to defeat a piece of legislation six years in the making aimed at preventing child marriage worldwide. The bill was supported by a wide-ranging coalition of groups including the International Women's Health Coalition and CARE-USA."
Read the Article
David Sirota | Why the "Lazy Jobless" Myth Persists
David Sirota, Truthout: "During the recent fight over extending unemployment benefits, conservatives trotted out the shibboleth that says the program fosters sloth.... Of course, this storyline makes no sense. From liberal Paul Krugman to archconservative Alan Greenspan, economists agree that joblessness is not caused by unemployment benefits. With five applicants for every one job opening, the overarching problem is a lack of available positions -- not a dearth of personal initiative."
Read the Article
Central Banking 101: What the Fed Can Do as "Lender of Last Resort"
Ellen Brown, WebofDebt.com: "We've seen behind the curtain, as the Fed waved its magic liquidity wand over Wall Street. Now it's time to enlist this tool in the service of the people."
Read the Article
So You Thought Health Care Was Fixed ...
Froma Harrop, Truthout: "So you thought health care was fixed. Well, maybe not 'fixed,' but you assumed that the new law had put us on the path to solving one of America's most pressing problems -- spiraling health care costs amid surging numbers of uninsured citizens. No, no, no, no. The recent decision by Judge Henry E. Hudson, of a U.S. district court in Virginia, pumps new life into Republican efforts to kill health care reform by draining the program of a means to pay for it."
Read the Article
Click here for more Truthout articles
Did you hear the joke about CNN sponsoring a Republican presidential candidate debate with the Tea Party as a partner?
Well, it's not a joke.
According to Mother Jones, "Sam Feist, CNN's political director, says the arrangement was designed to give undecided voters a way to educate themselves about 'diverse perspectives within the Republican Party, including those of the Tea Party.' It's not the first time CNN has partnered with the group. Earlier this year, CNN embedded with Tea Party Express on one of its bus tours, giving the group extensive coverage."
Hold that outraged laughter for a moment. Each year, the corporate media gets more and more skewed toward titillation and craven appeals to "targeted news marketing." And that is dangerous to a democracy.
Television news, in particular, has long since become an entertainment product, something that is sandwiched between commercials. To get higher fees for ads, the media conglomerates need to attract more viewers. And to attract more viewers, they need to sensationalize and reinforce a viewer's worldview, not objectively report the news.
In essence, "the news" has become another branded consumer product. It's not about a balanced perspective on what is happening in the world or the key policy issues facing the nation; it's about what will attract more viewership.
Yes, CNN appears to be making a concession to the populist right wing, which is perceived as being in political ascendancy in Congress, but it is also trying to attract a niche market share normally "owned" by FOX. Accurate news hasn't been seen as profitable since the days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, but selling an "attitude" about the "news" is - or in the case of FOX, making the news up to fit a political prism.
Many progressives, including BuzzFlash, may feel vindicated that a recent study indicated that FOX viewers are the most misinformed about the news. Indeed, according to TPM, "as exposure to Fox News increased, so did the misinformation."
But the study also showed that consumers of broadcast news outlets, in general, had many facts distorted, just to a much lesser degree than FOX viewers.
It's a perilous time for lucid decision making when "the news" is adapted to preconceived ideas and prejudices that can increase big media profits, rather than exposing us to the truth. A perilous time indeed.
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout Fox News VP Attacks Maryland Study Finding the Network's Viewers Are the Most Misinformed
Read the Article at ThinkProgress
White House Financial Advisers Get Rich Moving From Pennsylvania Avenue to Wall Street: It's Incestuous Greed
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Bank of America Stops Handling WikiLeaks Payments
Read the Article at AP
Republican Obstructionism a Risk for National Security
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Pakistani Spy Agency Denies It Unmasked CIA Chief
Read the Article at AP
Venezuela Grants Chavez Power to Rule by Decree
Read the Article at AFP
How iPhone Apps Track Us
Read the Article at The Wall Street Journal
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
Senate Repeals "Don't Ask Don't Tell"
Faiz Shakir, ThinkProgress: "Moments ago, by a 65-31 vote, the Senate acted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, the policy banning gays from openly serving in the military. The same six GOP senators who broke with their party during the cloture vote earlier today also voted for repeal: Sens. Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, Lisa Murkowski, George Voinovich, and Mark Kirk. Two more Republicans - John Ensign and Richard Burr - joined with Democrats in final passage."
Read the Article
As DREAM Act Fails, Graham Tells Undocumented Youth They Wasted Their Time
Andrea Nill, ThinkProgress: "Today, the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Fourty-one mostly Republican senators voted against a bill which would have provided young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. by their parents a path to legalization by pursuing a college education or serving in the military. 55 voted in the affirmative."
Read the Article
Always Someone's Mother or Father, Always Someone's Child: The Missing Persons of Iraq
Dirk Adriaensens, Truthout: "Whatever definition may be given to 'missing persons' or 'enforced disappearances,' the problem in Iraq can be considered dramatic, even apocalyptic, by any standards. And since the US stated in 2007 that they were still involved in an 'internationally armed conflict,' Iraq's missing persons and forced disappeared after the 2003 invasion are definitely the responsibility of those who started this war and are still de facto occupying the country: the USA, the UK, and, by extension, their installed Iraqi puppet government."
Read the Article
Rebuilding the Labor Movement
Dick Meister, Truthout: "Unions are fighting hard to reverse the downward trend, and although many outside the labor movement openly doubt - or at least wishfully think - that it can't be done, I think they're wrong. The doubters are forgetting that it's been done before - and it's been done in the face of obstacles that were at least as great as those confronted by union adherents today."
Read the Article
Fannie and Freddie's Regulator Opposes Reducing Mortgages for Struggling Homeowners
Karen Weise, ProPublica: "The Obama administration has been pushing for banks and investors to cut mortgage balances for homeowners who owe more than their home is worth. But the regulator for the biggest investors of them all -- the government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- won't let the two do it."
Read the Article
In "Shameful Act," Republicans Kill Bill to Prevent Child Marriage
Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: "In an act that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said 'brought shame to Capitol Hill' last night, the House Republican leadership banded together at the last minute, and on purely specious grounds, to defeat a piece of legislation six years in the making aimed at preventing child marriage worldwide. The bill was supported by a wide-ranging coalition of groups including the International Women's Health Coalition and CARE-USA."
Read the Article
David Sirota | Why the "Lazy Jobless" Myth Persists
David Sirota, Truthout: "During the recent fight over extending unemployment benefits, conservatives trotted out the shibboleth that says the program fosters sloth.... Of course, this storyline makes no sense. From liberal Paul Krugman to archconservative Alan Greenspan, economists agree that joblessness is not caused by unemployment benefits. With five applicants for every one job opening, the overarching problem is a lack of available positions -- not a dearth of personal initiative."
Read the Article
Central Banking 101: What the Fed Can Do as "Lender of Last Resort"
Ellen Brown, WebofDebt.com: "We've seen behind the curtain, as the Fed waved its magic liquidity wand over Wall Street. Now it's time to enlist this tool in the service of the people."
Read the Article
So You Thought Health Care Was Fixed ...
Froma Harrop, Truthout: "So you thought health care was fixed. Well, maybe not 'fixed,' but you assumed that the new law had put us on the path to solving one of America's most pressing problems -- spiraling health care costs amid surging numbers of uninsured citizens. No, no, no, no. The recent decision by Judge Henry E. Hudson, of a U.S. district court in Virginia, pumps new life into Republican efforts to kill health care reform by draining the program of a means to pay for it."
Read the Article
Click here for more Truthout articles
| BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES | |
Well, it's not a joke.
According to Mother Jones, "Sam Feist, CNN's political director, says the arrangement was designed to give undecided voters a way to educate themselves about 'diverse perspectives within the Republican Party, including those of the Tea Party.' It's not the first time CNN has partnered with the group. Earlier this year, CNN embedded with Tea Party Express on one of its bus tours, giving the group extensive coverage."
Hold that outraged laughter for a moment. Each year, the corporate media gets more and more skewed toward titillation and craven appeals to "targeted news marketing." And that is dangerous to a democracy.
Television news, in particular, has long since become an entertainment product, something that is sandwiched between commercials. To get higher fees for ads, the media conglomerates need to attract more viewers. And to attract more viewers, they need to sensationalize and reinforce a viewer's worldview, not objectively report the news.
In essence, "the news" has become another branded consumer product. It's not about a balanced perspective on what is happening in the world or the key policy issues facing the nation; it's about what will attract more viewership.
Yes, CNN appears to be making a concession to the populist right wing, which is perceived as being in political ascendancy in Congress, but it is also trying to attract a niche market share normally "owned" by FOX. Accurate news hasn't been seen as profitable since the days of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, but selling an "attitude" about the "news" is - or in the case of FOX, making the news up to fit a political prism.
Many progressives, including BuzzFlash, may feel vindicated that a recent study indicated that FOX viewers are the most misinformed about the news. Indeed, according to TPM, "as exposure to Fox News increased, so did the misinformation."
But the study also showed that consumers of broadcast news outlets, in general, had many facts distorted, just to a much lesser degree than FOX viewers.
It's a perilous time for lucid decision making when "the news" is adapted to preconceived ideas and prejudices that can increase big media profits, rather than exposing us to the truth. A perilous time indeed.
Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout Fox News VP Attacks Maryland Study Finding the Network's Viewers Are the Most Misinformed
Read the Article at ThinkProgress
White House Financial Advisers Get Rich Moving From Pennsylvania Avenue to Wall Street: It's Incestuous Greed
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Bank of America Stops Handling WikiLeaks Payments
Read the Article at AP
Republican Obstructionism a Risk for National Security
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Pakistani Spy Agency Denies It Unmasked CIA Chief
Read the Article at AP
Venezuela Grants Chavez Power to Rule by Decree
Read the Article at AFP
How iPhone Apps Track Us
Read the Article at The Wall Street Journal
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
Friday, March 11, 2011
Thursday, March 10, 2011
“My Fear is that Climate Change is the Biggest Crisis of All”: Naomi Klein Warns Global Warming Could Be Exploited by Capitalism and Militarism
Naomi Klein: Tim DeChristopher Guilty Verdict Exposes "Double Standard" of How "Oil and Gas Companies Privatize Profits...Externalize the Cost"
Naomi Klein on Anti-Union Bills and Shock Doctrine American-Style: "This is a Frontal Assault on Democracy, It’s a Kind of a Corporate Coup D’Etat"
Naomi Klein: Tim DeChristopher Guilty Verdict Exposes "Double Standard" of How "Oil and Gas Companies Privatize Profits...Externalize the Cost"
Naomi Klein on Anti-Union Bills and Shock Doctrine American-Style: "This is a Frontal Assault on Democracy, It’s a Kind of a Corporate Coup D’Etat"
Monday, March 7, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
MICHAEL MOORE ON WISCONSIN
How I Got to Madison, Wisconsin ...a letter from Michael Moore
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Friends,
Early yesterday morning, around 1:00 AM, I had finished work for the day on my current "project" (top secret for now -- sorry, no spoiler alerts!). Someone had sent me a link to a discussion Bill O'Reilly had had with Sarah Palin a few hours earlier about my belief that the money the 21st Century rich have absconded with really isn't theirs -- and that a vast chunk of it should be taken away from them.
They were referring to comments I had made earlier in the week on a small cable show called GRITtv (Part 1 and Part 2). I honestly didn't know this was going to air that night (I had been asked to stop by and say a few words of support for a nurses union video), but I spoke from my heart about the millions of our fellow Americans who have had their homes and jobs stolen from them by a criminal class of millionaires and billionaires. It was the morning after the Oscars, at which the winner of Best Documentary for "Inside Job" stood at the microphone and declared, "I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail. And that's wrong." And he was applauded for saying this. (When did they stop booing Oscar speeches? Damn!)
So GRITtv ran my comments -- and all week the right wingopoly has been upset over what I said: That the money that the rich have stolen (or not paid taxes on) belongs to the American people. Drudge/Limbaugh/Beck and even Donald Trump went nuts, calling me names and suggesting I move to Cuba.
So in the wee hours of yesterday morning I sat down to write an answer to them. By 3:00 AM, it had turned into more of a manifesto of class war -- or, I should say, a manifesto against the class war the rich have been conducting on the American people for the past 30 years. I read it aloud to myself to see how it sounded (trying not to wake anyone else in the apartment) and then -- and this is why no one should be up at 3:00 AM -- the crazy kicked in: I needed to get in the car and drive to Madison and give this speech.
I went online to get directions and saw that there was no official big rally planned like the one they had last Saturday and will have again next Saturday. Just the normal ongoing demonstration and occupation of the State Capitol that's been in process since February 12th (the day after Mubarak was overthrown in Egypt) to protest the Republican governor's move to kill the state's public unions.
So, it's three in the morning and I'm a thousand miles from Madison and I see that the open microphone for speakers starts at noon. Hmm. No time to drive from New York. I was off to the airport. I left a note on the kitchen table saying I'd be back at 9:00 PM. Called a friend and asked him if he wanted to meet me at the Delta counter. Called the guy who manages my website, woke him up, and asked him to track down the coordinators in Madison and tell them I'm on my way and would like to say a few words if possible -- "but tell them if they've got other plans or no room for me, I'll be happy just to stand there holding a sign and singing Solidarity Forever."
So I just showed up. The firefighters, hearing I'm there, ask me to lead their protest parade through downtown Madison. I march with them, along with John Nichols (who lives in Madison and writes for the Nation). Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and the great singer Michelle Shocked have also decided to show up.
The scene in Madison is nothing like what they are showing you on TV or in the newspaper. First, you notice that the whole town is behind this. Yard signs and signs in store windows are everywhere supporting public workers. There are thousands of people out just randomly lining the streets for the six blocks leading to the Capitol building carrying signs, shouting and cheering and cajoling. Then there are stages and friendly competing demos on all sides of the building (yesterday's total estimate of people was 50,000-70,000, the smallest one yet)! A big semi truck has been sent by James Hoffa of the Teamsters and is parked like a don't-even-think-of-effing-
And inside the Rotunda is ... well, it will bring tears to your eyes if you go there. It's like a shrine to working people -- to what America is and should be about -- packed with families and kids and so many senior citizens that it made me happy for science and its impact on life expectancy over the past century. There were grandmas and great-grandpas who remember FDR and Wisconsin's La Follette and the long view of this struggle. Standing in that Rotunda was like a religious experience. There had been nothing like it, for me, in decades.
And so it was in this setting, out of doors now on the steps of the Capitol, with so many people in front of me that I couldn't see where they ended, that I just "showed up" and gave a speech that felt unlike any other I had ever given. As I had just written it and had no time to memorize it, I read from the pages I brought with me. I wanted to make sure that the words I had chosen were clear and exact. I knew they had the potential to drive the haters into a rabid state (not a pretty sight) but I also feared that the Right's wealthy patrons would see a need to retaliate should these words be met with citizen action across the land. I was, after all, putting them on notice: We are coming after you, we are stopping you and we are going to return the money/jobs/homes you stole from the people. You have gone too far. It's too bad you couldn't have been satisfied with making millions, you had to have billions -- and now you want to strip us of our ability to talk and bargain and provide. This is your tipping point, Wall Street; your come-to-Jesus moment, Corporate America. And I'm glad I'm going to be able to be a witness to it.
You can find the written version of my speech on my website. Please read it and pass it around far and wide. You can also watch a video of me giving the spoken version from the Capitol steps by clicking here. I will be sending you a second email shortly with just the speech so you can forward a clean version of it without the above story of how I abandoned my family in the middle of the night to go to Wisconsin for the day.
I can't express enough the level of admiration I have for the people of Wisconsin who, for three weeks, have braved the brutal winter cold and taken over their state Capitol. All told, literally hundreds of thousands of people have made their way to Madison to make their voices heard. It all began with high school students cutting class and marching on the building (you can read their reports on my High School Newspaper site). Then their parents joined them. Then 14 brave Democratic state senators left the state so the governor wouldn't have his quorum.
And all this while the White House was trying to stop this movement (read this)!
But it didn't matter. The People's train had left the station. And now protests were springing up in all 50 states.
The media has done a poor job covering this (imagine a takeover of the government HQ in any other country, free or totalitarian -- our media would be all over it). But this one scares them and their masters -- as it should. The organizers told me this morning that my showing up got them more coverage yesterday than they would have had, "a shot in the arm that we needed to keep momentum going." Well, I'm glad I could help. But they need a lot more than just me -- and they need you doing similar things in your own states and towns.
How 'bout it? I know you know this: This is our moment. Let's seize it. Everyone can do something.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. This local Madison paper/blog captured best what happened yesterday, and got what I'm really up to. Someone please send this to O'Reilly and Palin so there's no mistaking my true intentions.
P.P.S. Full disclosure: I am a proud union member of four unions: the Directors Guild, the Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA (the last two have passed resolutions supporting the workers in Wisconsin). My production company has signed union contracts with five unions (and soon to be a 6th). All my full-time employees have full medical and dental insurance with NO DEDUCTIBLE. So, yes, I'm biased.
Sunday, March 6th, 2011
Friends,
Early yesterday morning, around 1:00 AM, I had finished work for the day on my current "project" (top secret for now -- sorry, no spoiler alerts!). Someone had sent me a link to a discussion Bill O'Reilly had had with Sarah Palin a few hours earlier about my belief that the money the 21st Century rich have absconded with really isn't theirs -- and that a vast chunk of it should be taken away from them.
They were referring to comments I had made earlier in the week on a small cable show called GRITtv (Part 1 and Part 2). I honestly didn't know this was going to air that night (I had been asked to stop by and say a few words of support for a nurses union video), but I spoke from my heart about the millions of our fellow Americans who have had their homes and jobs stolen from them by a criminal class of millionaires and billionaires. It was the morning after the Oscars, at which the winner of Best Documentary for "Inside Job" stood at the microphone and declared, "I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail. And that's wrong." And he was applauded for saying this. (When did they stop booing Oscar speeches? Damn!)
So GRITtv ran my comments -- and all week the right wingopoly has been upset over what I said: That the money that the rich have stolen (or not paid taxes on) belongs to the American people. Drudge/Limbaugh/Beck and even Donald Trump went nuts, calling me names and suggesting I move to Cuba.
So in the wee hours of yesterday morning I sat down to write an answer to them. By 3:00 AM, it had turned into more of a manifesto of class war -- or, I should say, a manifesto against the class war the rich have been conducting on the American people for the past 30 years. I read it aloud to myself to see how it sounded (trying not to wake anyone else in the apartment) and then -- and this is why no one should be up at 3:00 AM -- the crazy kicked in: I needed to get in the car and drive to Madison and give this speech.
I went online to get directions and saw that there was no official big rally planned like the one they had last Saturday and will have again next Saturday. Just the normal ongoing demonstration and occupation of the State Capitol that's been in process since February 12th (the day after Mubarak was overthrown in Egypt) to protest the Republican governor's move to kill the state's public unions.
So, it's three in the morning and I'm a thousand miles from Madison and I see that the open microphone for speakers starts at noon. Hmm. No time to drive from New York. I was off to the airport. I left a note on the kitchen table saying I'd be back at 9:00 PM. Called a friend and asked him if he wanted to meet me at the Delta counter. Called the guy who manages my website, woke him up, and asked him to track down the coordinators in Madison and tell them I'm on my way and would like to say a few words if possible -- "but tell them if they've got other plans or no room for me, I'll be happy just to stand there holding a sign and singing Solidarity Forever."
So I just showed up. The firefighters, hearing I'm there, ask me to lead their protest parade through downtown Madison. I march with them, along with John Nichols (who lives in Madison and writes for the Nation). Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and the great singer Michelle Shocked have also decided to show up.
The scene in Madison is nothing like what they are showing you on TV or in the newspaper. First, you notice that the whole town is behind this. Yard signs and signs in store windows are everywhere supporting public workers. There are thousands of people out just randomly lining the streets for the six blocks leading to the Capitol building carrying signs, shouting and cheering and cajoling. Then there are stages and friendly competing demos on all sides of the building (yesterday's total estimate of people was 50,000-70,000, the smallest one yet)! A big semi truck has been sent by James Hoffa of the Teamsters and is parked like a don't-even-think-of-effing-
And inside the Rotunda is ... well, it will bring tears to your eyes if you go there. It's like a shrine to working people -- to what America is and should be about -- packed with families and kids and so many senior citizens that it made me happy for science and its impact on life expectancy over the past century. There were grandmas and great-grandpas who remember FDR and Wisconsin's La Follette and the long view of this struggle. Standing in that Rotunda was like a religious experience. There had been nothing like it, for me, in decades.
And so it was in this setting, out of doors now on the steps of the Capitol, with so many people in front of me that I couldn't see where they ended, that I just "showed up" and gave a speech that felt unlike any other I had ever given. As I had just written it and had no time to memorize it, I read from the pages I brought with me. I wanted to make sure that the words I had chosen were clear and exact. I knew they had the potential to drive the haters into a rabid state (not a pretty sight) but I also feared that the Right's wealthy patrons would see a need to retaliate should these words be met with citizen action across the land. I was, after all, putting them on notice: We are coming after you, we are stopping you and we are going to return the money/jobs/homes you stole from the people. You have gone too far. It's too bad you couldn't have been satisfied with making millions, you had to have billions -- and now you want to strip us of our ability to talk and bargain and provide. This is your tipping point, Wall Street; your come-to-Jesus moment, Corporate America. And I'm glad I'm going to be able to be a witness to it.
You can find the written version of my speech on my website. Please read it and pass it around far and wide. You can also watch a video of me giving the spoken version from the Capitol steps by clicking here. I will be sending you a second email shortly with just the speech so you can forward a clean version of it without the above story of how I abandoned my family in the middle of the night to go to Wisconsin for the day.
I can't express enough the level of admiration I have for the people of Wisconsin who, for three weeks, have braved the brutal winter cold and taken over their state Capitol. All told, literally hundreds of thousands of people have made their way to Madison to make their voices heard. It all began with high school students cutting class and marching on the building (you can read their reports on my High School Newspaper site). Then their parents joined them. Then 14 brave Democratic state senators left the state so the governor wouldn't have his quorum.
And all this while the White House was trying to stop this movement (read this)!
But it didn't matter. The People's train had left the station. And now protests were springing up in all 50 states.
The media has done a poor job covering this (imagine a takeover of the government HQ in any other country, free or totalitarian -- our media would be all over it). But this one scares them and their masters -- as it should. The organizers told me this morning that my showing up got them more coverage yesterday than they would have had, "a shot in the arm that we needed to keep momentum going." Well, I'm glad I could help. But they need a lot more than just me -- and they need you doing similar things in your own states and towns.
How 'bout it? I know you know this: This is our moment. Let's seize it. Everyone can do something.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
P.S. This local Madison paper/blog captured best what happened yesterday, and got what I'm really up to. Someone please send this to O'Reilly and Palin so there's no mistaking my true intentions.
P.P.S. Full disclosure: I am a proud union member of four unions: the Directors Guild, the Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA (the last two have passed resolutions supporting the workers in Wisconsin). My production company has signed union contracts with five unions (and soon to be a 6th). All my full-time employees have full medical and dental insurance with NO DEDUCTIBLE. So, yes, I'm biased.
Durbin Draws Line in Sand on Budget Cuts
Read the Article at Reuters
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Says Walker Is Lying About an Electoral Mandate to End Collective Bargaining
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
China Tracks Foreign Journalists
Read the Article at The New York Times
Bradley Manning's Jailers Accused of Ritual Humiliation
Read the Article at The Guardian UK
New York Times Posts Puff Piece on Koch Brothers
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Obama Said to Consider Tapping Oil Reserves
Read the Article at The New York Times
Ivory Coast Crisis Worsens as Police Loot Homes of New Cabinet
Read the Article at The Guardian UK
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
Read the Article at Reuters
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Says Walker Is Lying About an Electoral Mandate to End Collective Bargaining
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
China Tracks Foreign Journalists
Read the Article at The New York Times
Bradley Manning's Jailers Accused of Ritual Humiliation
Read the Article at The Guardian UK
New York Times Posts Puff Piece on Koch Brothers
Read the Article at BuzzFlash
Obama Said to Consider Tapping Oil Reserves
Read the Article at The New York Times
Ivory Coast Crisis Worsens as Police Loot Homes of New Cabinet
Read the Article at The Guardian UK
Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines
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