Seeking Common Sense in a World Gone Mad
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Who the Heck is...
Babblemur
Akaoni
ABOUT BABBLEMUR.COM
20 May 2005
with this country here
| MEET THE GREENS! |
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| Green??? Meet Pete Karas, a life-long Racine resident, who was re-elected as Alderman for Racine's 9th district with over 73% of the vote! Karas formed the "Bright Public Power Initiative" to bring low-cost, municipally owned utilites to Racine, WI. Look for a "Bright" future for Alderman and Green Pete Karas! |
May 19, 2005
or...
What's F*cked Up in Wisconsin THIS week?
by Babblemur
- Gay Bashers to Defend Wisconsin Wisconsin State Legislature
decides to hire James Dobson's Alliance Defense Fund, the extremist evangelical legal
team, to represent the State Legislature in the state supreme court case regarding
Domestic Partner Benefits in Wisconsin. (This is the "Sponge Bob is Gay" outfit, to
put it in perspective). Said Marc Pocan, D-Madison: "If bringing in fringe extremists
who think cartoon characters are gay is the only way to fight providing health care
benefits to Wisconsin's families, it is a sad day in Wisconsin," Pocan said in a
statement. "John Gard is clearly obsessed with gays and lesbians. I know of few
people who think so regularly think about sex." See Duluth Superior article for
more. - No Birth Control for YOU, Baby Killer! Republican Lawmakers in
Wisconsin are pushing a bill that would support the right of Pharmacists to refuse to
fill prescriptions for birth control pills or 'morning after' pills based on their religious
beliefs, without fear of reprimand or loosing their job. The 'conscious clause'
became an issue recently when a pharmacist refused to fill a woman's prescription
for a 'morning after' pill, refused to transfer the prescription to another pharmacy,
and called the woman a 'baby killer' in front of everyone (and God Almighty). The
woman, not only distraught, wound up pregnant and had an abortion. For an
insightful analysis on this see Vegitarian Steakhouse Also news on this here: - It Worked in Florida (2000), it can Work Here! In fall 2004
the djirector of the Wisconsin State Elections Board gave the state's contract to create
an electronic voter list to Accenture, the famous firm responsible for the 2000
purging of Florida's voting rolls. Accenture, whose parent company is HQ'd in
Bermuda to avoid paying U.S. taxes, was also formerly a division of Arthur Anderson
of ENRON fame. Accenture is now asking for a re-negotiation of their contract
supposedly because they can't get the job done on time. For 13 Million Dollars, I
could create a voter list by August! In fact, I could do it for 10 million! Throw in
a bonus, and I'll even purge some names for ya! : See the Wisconsin Democracy
Campaign for information on their lawsuit regarding this. Also see this watered down
story here.
LINKS TO OTHER SITES
Blogs and Babblers
 | Alternet | |
| Common Dreams | |
| Crooks and Liars | |
| Daily Kos | |
| Eschaton |
Wisconsin
| Vast Dairy State Conspiracy | |
| Fightingbob.com | |
| Wisconsin Democracy | |
| Campaign |
Oshkosh
| ABV Army Times | |
| Eye on Oshkosh | |
| TonyPalmeri.com | |
| Oshblog | |
| Lake Winnebago Green Party |
Media
| Democracy Now! | |
| Salon.com | |
| Slate.com | |
| Washington Post | |
| New York Times | |
| Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | |
| Oshkosh News | |
| Oshkosh Northwestern | |
| Recent News |
| ENVIRONMENT Rebuffing Bush, 132 Mayors Embrace Kyoto Rules (New York Times)
|
| HYPOCRISY Bill Moyers Defends PBS, Assails Right Wing (St. Louis Dispatch, via Common Dreams)
|
| GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY Amendment would create competitive legislative races (Madison Capital Times)
|
| HUGO CHAVEZ 'El' Jazeera (alternet)
|
Greens condemn bipartisan
support for the Real ID Act
and Iraq occupation
appropriations
(Green Party Press Release)
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green Party
leaders claimed that Democrats are
supporting some of the most damaging
and extreme agenda of the Republican
Party, citing the unanimous Senate vote to
institute a national identity card for all
Americans.
"We're moving towards a one-party system, with
Democrats rubberstamping most Republican
legislation," said David Cobb, the Green Party's
2004 presidential candidate.
Senate Democrats and Republicans, unanimously
and virtually without debate, approved the 'Real
ID Act.' This legislation mandates electronic ID
cards for all Americans in accord with Homeland
Security Department specifications.
Greens called the Real ID Act, which was slipped
into an otherwise uncontroversial spending bill, a
major step towards universal surveillance, a
violation of the right to privacy and freedom of
mobility, an ineffective security measure, and a
vicious attempt to blame undocumented
immigrants for the nation's problems. (Many
Greens have supported other provisions in the
bill, especially the increases in death benefits, life
insurance, and payments for traumatic injury for
U.S. service members.)
The Senate also voted unanimously on May 10 in
favor of $82 billion in emergency appropriations
for military expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Greens have called for an immediate end to the
occupation and are urging defeat for HR-1268, the
National Defense Authorization Act, but predict
overwhelming support for the bill from both
Democrats and Republicans.
Green Party leaders noted that mainstream
Democrats have long agreed with Republicans on
numerous major issues, favoring antidemocratic
supranational trade authorities (NAFTA, WTO,
etc.), the war on drugs, the 1996 Antiterrorism
and USA Patriot Acts, the death penalty, the
1996 Telecommunications Act, welfare reform
that penalizes the poor, expanded drilling for oil
in Alaska, bills privileging credit card and other
financial corporations over working Americans
<http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2005_04_21.html>,
and surrender of Congress's constitutional power
to declare war to the White House. Last month,
Democratic Party national chair Howard Dean
endorsed the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq.
(Greens take the opposite position on all these
issues.)
Democratic Party leaders have also rebuffed
attempts within their own party to introduce
national health insurance, repeal Taft-Hartley
restrictions on workplace organizing, and grant
statehood to the District of Columbia.
"When John Kerry scolds his fellow Democrats
for supporting same-sex marriage and Howard
Dean hopes that Bush's Iraq policy is 'incredibly
successful', it's painfully clear that the U.S. lacks
opposing leadership," said Pat LaMarche, Green
candidate for Vice President in 2004.
"Democracy demands an opposition party to
challenge and debate the direction of our nation.
The U.S. is in grave peril with no voice but that of
the administration, amplified by the Democrats.
That's why the Greens are the fastest
growing political party in the country."
Where did we go wrong?
by Ed Garvey (FightingBob.com)
"...Would it hurt anything to shine some light on this process?"
Censorship Wars Update
by Akaoni
I’m sure that most readers of this site (if there are any) are aware of this whole
Newsweek fiasco. Well today Newsweek completely retracted their story in the face of
heated criticism from the White House and Pentagon, and of course excessive screaming
and bloviating from the right. What is not getting a lot of time is the fact that what
Newsweek reported is not at all new. All of these claims were out there previously,
beginning with four former British detainees. Raw Story illustrates in great detail.
So what is this really about? It seems pretty clear to me. The Bush administration and
wingnut right has once again seized the opportunity to take the SCLM to task for daring
to make public, information that is critical to the Bush admin. and its policies. It is
particularly hypocritical for the very same right wing punditocracy, who whole heartedly
denies any connection between U.S. policy and the upswing in anti-American sentiment,
to then blame Newsweek for printing news, which was corroborated by a source at the
Pentagon.
If there was violence, it was not Newsweek policy that caused it, it was U.S.
government policy which must take at least part of the blame. Even if the Koran abuse
story turns out not to be true (which I doubt), it is not Newsweek who is ultimately
responsible. Maybe they should have more thoroughly vetted their source, but they even
checked the story with the Pentagon before printing it. How much farther must they go
before printing information?
This is ultimately about the Bush administration once again deflecting criticism and
blaming the messenger. The Pentagon and the Bush administration have been shown
time and time again that they were at the very least allowing detainees to be treated
poorly, and at worst encouraging such behavior. But once again the administration does
everything in its power to avoid responsibility, and deflect blame. That is the real story
here, it’s sad that the media once again lets it be a story all about themselves.
On another front, the administration’s war against Public media has moved to NPR.
Today’s New York Times has a story about Ken Tomlinson’s continuing war on truth.
As you may remember, in a previous post (The Assualt on PBS), I said that NPR is
pretty safe from these attacks because of the generous endowment of Joan B. Kroc (Ray
Kroc’s widow), I was wrong. As the New York Times Reports:
- In one of several points of conflict in recent months, the chairman of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates federal funds for public
radio and television, is considering a plan to monitor Middle East coverage on
NPR news programs for evidence of bias, a corporation spokesman said on
Friday.
The corporation's board has told its staff that it should consider redirecting
money away from national newscasts and toward music programs produced by
NPR stations.
Top officials at NPR and member stations are upset as well about the
corporation's decision to appoint two ombudsmen to judge the content of
programs for balance. And managers of public radio stations criticized the
corporation in a resolution offered at their annual meeting two weeks ago urging
it not to interfere in NPR editorial decisions.
Yes, Tomlinson has expanded the war on independent media and truth telling.
Even though internal polling by the CPB has shown that PBS and NPR are not
generally viewed as biased, Tomlinson is taking up the sword in the name of
balance. Yes the old right-wing meme, which is so often trotted out, is once
again invoked. See my previous post for my view of “balance.”
Anyway, this time Tomlinson has taken the bizarre step of appointing two
ombudspersons, one from the left and one to the right to ensure
balance. To start with this is absurd, and contradicts the very nature of
who an ombudsperson is and what he or she does. Salon's Eric Boehlert
explores this issue:
"It mystifies me," says Geneva Overholser, a Washington-based University of
Missouri journalism professor who served as the Washington Post's ombudsman
from 1995 to 1998. "What in the world does it mean to have two? It makes no
sense." She argues that ombudsman responsibilities are specifically designed to be
carried out by just one person as way to demonstrate that a single journalist can
be open-minded and listen to all sides of a dispute. By setting up a sort of left-vs.-
right, "Crossfire" approach, Overholser says, the CPB model "participates in the
ideological charade that journalists can't be fair. This is a perversion of the
ombudsman.”
[…]
The two-person, right-vs.-left approach "is antithetical" to the ombudsman
position, says Jeffrey Dvorkin, who holds that position for NPR and serves as
president of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. "The value of the
ombudsman is as an ideological and political independent."
"Why stop at two ombudsmen? Why not have four or a committee of 12?" quips
Carl Stern, a former correspondent for NBC News who teaches journalism ethics
at George Washington University and, like Overholser, is a member of PBS's
Editorial Standards Review Committee. "Balancing ombudsmen -- when will this
end? Are we going to have armies of ombudsmen? This is silliness."
But as I’ve already noted this is not really about balance. Even if NPR was
perfectly balanced, if it continued to report issues of truth, it would inevitably
contradict the Bush administration. It is this truth with which the Bush
administration is truly at war. This issue is about shutting up dissent; specifically,
its about censoring news coverage which might be critical, or produce
information which contradicts the Bush administration narrative. Since NPR and
PBS present sensible, rational news, they must be brought into line with the rest
of the garbage, sensational media. They know information is power, and have
done a masterful job of manipulating the media. Let’s make sure that this effort is
unsuccessful.
Salon also has a great article about Bill Moyers' battle with Tomlinson
here.
The Carpetbagger Report weighs in as well.