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A
new force against the rightwing media juggernaut
by
IseFire
- Wed 05/05/04; 9:30 pm EST
A friend, Darrin Bodner, has moved to Washington D.C. (my sympathies,
Darrin <wink>) to help David Brock with a new media watchdog
org, Media Matters for America. Visit them regularly at mediamatters.org.
The debut of Media Matters is truly exciting. *With passive reporting--the
regurgitation of press releases, disproportionately from the disciplined
and rich GOP-Bush-Rove spin machine--now an American crisis,
*with market share hogs like Fox News and Clear Channel literally
propagandizing for the right-wing and calling it "news,"
and
*with lazy TV news programs and channels following a model of "reporting"
focused on anchor-celebrities and sensationalizing, organizations
like Media Matters are desperately needed to call the press to accountability
(and to simply fact check!)
There cannot be too much funding or energy dedicated to efforts
like those of Media Matters.
Unlike
Youth Pastor-In-Chief Bush, Kerry offers a plan for Iraq
by IseFire
- Mon 05/03/04; 7:06 am EST
Americans are dutifully dying in Iraq for lack of presidential wisdom,
intelligence, or worldly savvy. Apparently heaven is Bush's real
game, since he so loves to chat and read about it. Alas, George
W. Bush missed his calling to be Youth Pastor of the local mostly-white
upper middle-class evangelical mega-church. As a result, we're stuck
with him playing president, trying to figure out how to avoid "cutting
and running" from the messy foreign debacle he created.
While Bush is befuddled, his Democratic challenger John Kerry offers
a 3-part plan for Iraq, if the press will bother to report on it:
(1) appoint an internationally-sanctioned high commissioner to work
with Iraqi authorities on the political transition;
2) create an expanded international security force, preferably with
NATO, and
3) create a massive training effort to build Iraqi security forces
for the Iraqi people.
The
DLC
summarizes: "U.S. forces in Iraq need clear and decisive leadership.
But the president who promised to usher in 'a responsibility era'
won't accept responsibility for dangerously underestimating what
it would take to secure Iraq after Saddam Hussein was deposed, and
for failing to give brave U.S. troops the direction and support
they need to accomplish their mission and come home."
Bush
economics: Speaking sympathy to power...
by
IseFire
- Sun 05/02/04; 3:52 am EST
This
from Mercer Human Resource Consulting: The median white collar worker
made $46,100 in 2003, an increase of 3.3% from the previous year.
By contrast, the median CEO at 350 of the nation’s largest
corporations, made $3.6 million, an increase of 19% from the previous
year
Full
assault on civil rights progress under way...
by
IseFire
- Fri 04/30/04; 11:42 pm EST
This
week alone:
*Lawmakers in Topeka,
KS, resurrected a proposed amendment to the state
Constitution that not only bans same-sex marriage but also denies
civil unions and other forms of partner recognition.
*A Wilson
County, NC, judge denied without explanation Tuesday
a petition by the ACLU to end a school district's decision to ban
a gay student's campaign posters for class president.
*An Oklahoma
bill preventing out-of-state same-sex couples from sharing the custody
of an adopted Oklahoma child is on its way to the governor after
passing both legislative chambers.
*Virginia
lawmakers passed a sweeping ban on same-sex partners that outlaws
any "partnership contract or other arrangements that purport
to provide the benefits of marriage."
*Michigan's
state Senate is poised to vote on a package of bills that could
allow doctors and nurses to deny treatment or medication to gay
patients on moral grounds.
Want
to defeat terrorism? Don't count on Bush...
by
IseFire
- Fri 04/30/04; 12:46 am EST
More
agents are deployed against Castro than Bin Laden.
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