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Submitted by: AndrewG
This soldier was from my town, and it really pisses me off that anyone would do that at a soldier's funeral! We have a small dedicated peace movement here and they were accused because of that sina kurva Sean Hannity. I hear of any protest here and I KNEW it wasn't any peace group locally. Then I hear it's those 'Rvd' Phelps people! Unfortunately since most Americans are not familiar with Islamist extremist propaganda the way I am, they do not realize the similarities between it and extreme fundamentalist Christian views.
The ignorance of American fundamentalist Christians about doctrine, the true teachings of Jesus and the true history of the Church knows no end.
The duplicity of it's money grubbing leadership knows no bounds. Too bad we can't put the Islamist Extremists and the Extreme Chrisian Fundamentalists onto a large island no one cares about and have like some sort of televised cage match.
Sean Hanitty makes me want to break people and kill things anyway. I wondered what the local source of this evil rumor was.
We have very little variety in English language media. It's in three catagories ClearChannel owned C&W stations an oldies ClearChannel owned station, loudmouth rightwing AM station, and a semi left but not too left really FM rock station both also owned by ClearChannel, then there is NPR. So there is bland objectivity, which I usually opt for, and the other option is Spanish language media which ClearChannel is trying hard to buy up.
I listen to Shoutcast anymore since I can't stand hour upon hour of bad rock, bad rap, bad C&W music, classical, or jazz bores me at this point, and I can only take so much rightwing political harangue. I would feel the SAME way if it was exclusively leftwing political harangue for the same length of time dureing the day. I want variety and variety is no longer possible in English language radio broadcasting in the Yakim Valley, perhaps it's totally not possible in the whole of Eastern Washington.
I was told at school one of the bad things about the old Soviet Union was lack of choice and that the availability of choice in all matters of life was a mark of a free country like the United States. Maybe it was sort of true then but it sure isn't true now. I'm old enough to remember the change.
Oh by the way any God who wants someone's death for not minding the rules is a God who should be on a terror watch list...seriously... would you let someone like that on an airplane? I would not let these Christian fundamentalist extremists on a plane or a bus anymore than I'd let Al Qaida on a plane or a bus.
The reason those fanatics from 'Rvd' Phelp's church came to protest was that they heard this soldier was gay. The man has a son who is also serveing in Iraq.
I am not in support of the war, but it really makes me angry that this man and his family would be disrespected in such a disgusting manner. I think it was even more disgusting of Sean Hannity to deliberately misattribute the demonstrators and further that he did not appologize for this defamation of legitimate and sensitive people of our Valley who are working for peace. Every one of them is at pains to be decent toward soldiers and their families, and to state they respect the soldiers themselves and want to be of help to the ones who return wounded in body and mind.
According to [http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/524515|PR Week], Ross and ACSH have [http://www.acsh.org/news/newsID.1213/news_detail.asp|responded to the report], admitting that Ross spent time in prison for defrauding Medicaid, but questioning the motives of Mother Jones for reporting it. "The folks who attacked me in this piece are trying to attack our message by going through me," Ross said. "All our ideas are based on sound science. I don't think they will succeed." And ACSH responded by calling Mother Jones a "fringe magazine."
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ACSH response is the admission by Elizabeth Whelan that she knew Ross was a felon when she hired him:
Needless to say, I was stunned. I inquired about the offense involved (fearing that it was some aspect of quackery), and he asked if he could visit ACSH to meet me and outline the details in person.
I mentioned to a few staffers and friends the facts about Dr. Ross's circumstances and his forthcoming visit. The response was mostly negative, with most arguing "it would be bad for ACSH to bring on someone with a criminal record." I remonstrated that before I rejected his application, I wanted to get the facts -- and judge his credibility and honesty for myself.
Evidently for Whelan, "quackery" (meaning disagreement with ACSH's pro-pesticide, pro-junk food, pro-chemical industry arguments on health issues) is a worse crime than working for a scam clinic that submits false medical reports to the government to defraud taxpayers.
PepsiCo already partnered with the "National Urban League, the National Council of La Raza and the fitness organization America On the Move Foundation to get its healthy lifestyles message out to African-American and Latino consumers".
PepsiCo can claim 70% of their sales come from healthy food, they are the one who put the label. I'm not sure soda, even diet, and potato chips, even baked, are that healthy.
The smart spot remains the company headquarters : Purchase, NY.
______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________
Now I know it was a clear signal. We're raising the level of terror threat, but we're also raising the level of permissivity. They're using their Qaeda ? I'm calling my base* : you may not have the toughest fundamentalist nominated for the Supreme Court, but be sure the country is yours.
A few days later, authorities would allow the American National Socialist Movement (a.k.a. America's Nazi Party) to march proudly through Toledo, OH (a key state and a touchy area if any). Just like the yearly Orangist marchs in Ulster or Sharon's not so innocent September 2000 visit at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, a violent riot was bound to erupt. As a result, more publicity than these Nazis could ever dream of.
______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________
*"Some people call you the elites; I call you my base" (nb : Qaeda in Arabic).
On this NYT article dated 20051018 : "Bush Crises Raise Criticism of Chief of Staff's Management Style".
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The scapegoat has eventually been found : he is Karl Rove's boss and no decision is taken in the White House without his knowledge. This powerful leader must quit at once.
Andrew H. Card Jr is responsible for everything, from the disastrous handling of Katrina to the surrealistic nomination of Harriet E. Miers. He is certainly the one who said there were WMDs in Iraq and for all we know, he could even have shot JFK.
So the great decision maker who spends less time finding a scapegoat when he's under attack than reading "my pet goat" when his country's under attack, the great thinker who writes down such powerful memos as the now famous "I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible ?", The Great King Dubya, Lord of the Banana Republic of the Divided States of Amerika, will once again prove his wisdom and his character : He will fire His Chief of Staff or rather dis-Card him.
God bless Amerika and someone bring me a barf bag.
______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________
PR Week published a [http://www.prweek.com/us/sectors/crisis/article/521887|report on October 12] saying that PR industry reforms in the wake of the fake news scandal are "inconclusive":
The impact of recent scandals over government PR contracts will likely be felt for a long time. So why has the PR industry's reaction been so spotty? ...
In the wake of the high-profile controversies, many firms pledged to tighten up practices and formalize codes of ethics to ensure that no disclosure issues would ever damage the credibility of their work. ...
In the weeks following the story, PR Week reported, sometimes in painstaking detail, the industry's response to the situation, including urgent calls for reform among agencies. But on the whole, individual agencies' responses to the issue of transparency have not been as noticeable. Indeed, some firms have taken steps to address the issue, while others have been more discreet.
... all of which is a delicately worded way of saying, "all our talk about reform was just empty blather."
The Scott Parkin case had nothing to do with Scott Parkin per se.
It was a test case for a number of reasons:
A. The loss of civil liberties in the name of terrorism. This was a benchmark case to test reactions.
B. It would also have been "a test" to see how Australian media people would respond and re-act.
C. It is also designed to intimidate what are called "activists".
D. The statement made by the attorney general as regards Scott also was a test case as to see who would challenge what he is saying "on record".
E. All the other test cases in the "boiling the frog syndrome" are more controversial. Keeping the Australian national in the American prison in Cuba. The Statements by Muslim leaders etc
Here in Western Australia an academic who wrote and published an anti-war book has come under the attention of American Military, but the local press remains silent.
All these test cases are testing to see how compliant Australian Media is.
The Australian newspaper is controlled with-in the Rupert Murdock agenda - so we can expect the editor to quote "un-named" contacts from with-in the Australian intelligence community - and no one challenges if the source indeed made 'such and such' a statement.
This recently happened with a front page Australian newspaper fear story (will post the day and date).
Margo Kingston's web diary seems one independent media along with indymedia.org
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (I'm not affiliated w/ it) has been defending both student and teacher rights for years in this arena.
Check out:
http://www.thefire.org
for more information about their mission and the cases the have handled. There are even a number of downloadable PDF file of Fire's guides to student rights on campus.
I agree that racism is not limited to the "deep south" and that there ought to be more discussion of race issues such as the situation you're describing in Detroit. However, my original article didn't limit itself to a discussion of racism only in the deep south. For example, it discussed Agatha Christie's novel, Ten Little Niggers. Christie was British, and the title of her book was taken from a children's song popular in England. That's not only outside the deep south but outside the United States.
I'd also take issue with your suggestion that my article is "fetishizing the former propagandistic images of Jim Crow." There's nothing "former" about this stuff. As current examples like "Ghettopoly" demonstrate, propaganda of this type is still being produced.
"Morning Edition, September 27, 2005 · The FBI is investigating a series of cross burnings in the Detroit area. The burning crosses were among the symbols of intimidation used by segregationists during the civil rights era. Now they are part of a rash of hate crimes in a region long separated by race. Detroit Public Radio's Quinn Klinefelter reports." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4865351
I wonder why so much of the discussion nof race in America centers on the "deep south." If the "series of cross burnings in the Detroit area" was happening in the Birmingham area or any other "deep south" area it would be national news, CNN Faux News, MSNBC etc...but since it is occurring in one of if not the most racially segregated areas of the country it only ranks a blip on NPR.
I am from the deep south and I do know serious racsist but I have never seen racism, hate and ignorance to rival that of the Ohio River Valley area around Cincinnati, OH which is definitley not the deep south,but is also home to a recent rend of cross burnings which lead to several arrests, so it is time for the discussion of Race and Racism in america to move beyond the shadows of history and into the present. Fetishizing the former propagandanistic images of Jim Crow without talking about the real locations of division in the country is merely an academic exercise.
After the First Week of the new season we see a lot of that placement. But in most magazines we don't really have journalism, but entertainment. I see ti as a problem when it is supposed to be a "news magazine" as opposed to "Ladies Home Journal" or "Flex"