The Re Collection

This is NOT an incompetent administration — they are producing exactly the results they want.

d r i f t g l a s s: Plan Asinine
Because the Four Horsemen of the Republicans now have exactly what they want: an entire region completely destabilized and spiraling out of control, and at every single fucking instant when doing the smart thing was both possible and might have salvaged some part of this mess, the GOP went out of its way to kick the world off the balcony and onto the pointy rocks.

Over and over and over again.

And what is that but purposeful?

Get any of your GOP pals 3-4 beers drunk and poke ‘em a little in their jingo hole and they’ll tell you exactly what they believe is going on.

They want them all dead.

All of them.

All of the scary brown people between the Jordan River and Kasmir.

All of them, sitting on all of that sexy, Christian oil, screaming at us in some weird language that we can’t understand about how much they Hate Us For Our Freedom.

Any halfway competent reverse-engineering of the events of the last five years can only bring you to one conclusion: this Administration has been playing to lose in the region.

Why?

Because they are trying to reconstitute a doctrine of Corporate Christian Manifest Destiny and visit on the Middle East exactly the same kind of slaughter that has not been seen since Europe annihilated whole nations and peoples in the Americas, and for the same reasons: For God and Gold.

I know absolutely nothing about the stock market, but I think I can read a chart fairly well, and this does not look good to me.

But, no worries; President Bush, in St. Petersburg, Russia, for a bike ride the G8 summit, assures us that “By pursuing pro-growth policies and restraining government spending, we will keep our economy the envy of the world.”

Attytood: A plea to America’s news directors and editors: Cancel Bush’s “Fear Factor”

So why does the media fall for bogus or misleading terror stories, Charlie-Brown-football-like, time after time? One answer is clearly: It works. The aftermath of 9/11 was the high water mark for cable news in terms of ratings, and it’s hard to let go of that. A newspaper like the New York Daily News, which broke the vague “financial district plot” last week, was surely glad to “scoop” the New York Times on the terror beat. What’s more, there is the acceptance of the notion that combating terrorism is indeed “a war,” which merits amped up “war coverage.”

But news outlets have another. more important role: To be responsible. Terror fears have warped the American political debate, from clearing the way for an unjust war in Iraq to papering over White House scandals. That type of influence is something that goes well beyond ratings. CNN would also get lots more viewers if Carol Costello or Anderson Cooper read the news in the buff, but that wouldn’t be very appropriate. Scaring the American public needlessly, we’d argue, is a much greater sin.

Barbra O’Brien of Mahablog guest blogs at Unclaimed Territory and introduces her series on saving democracy through media activism. I can’t wait to read the rest of it.

She says what I’ve been saying (though much better, of course) for a long time: That fixing the media in this country is THE most important thing for progressives to do.

Cultured

The ascension of the radical Right occurred over many years, and their takeover of government — a slow-motion coup d’état — happened gradually enough that most of us didn’t comprehend what was happening. America has been challenged by radicalism before, and always it has come back to the center soon enough. (And by “center” I mean the real center, where liberalism and conservatism balance, not the false “center” of today that would have been considered extreme conservatism in saner times.) I do not believe the coup is a fait accompli; the Right is not yet so secure it its power that it has dropped all pretense of honoring democratic political process. They’re still going through the motions, in other words. But this time I do not believe America will come back to the center unless a whole lot of us grab hold and pull at it. Hard.

How do we do that? First, we have to get our bearings and remember what “normal” is, which is going to be hard for the young folks whose memories don’t back back further than the Reagan Administration. Just take it from an old lady — what we got now ain’t normal.

Second, I argue that media reform is essential to all other necessary political reform. Until people outside the radical Right and the elite media-political establishment are able to take part in the nation’s political discourse, not much can be accomplished.

For example, many progressives have concluded it is pointless to support Democrats, because as soon as a Democrat gets inside the Beltway his spinal column is ripped right out of him. Time and time again, we’ve seen Democratic politicians make grand speeches to their liberal constituents, but once we get them elected they do little more than offer ineffectual objections to the ruling right-wing power juggernaut. At best. At worst, they vote with the Right out of some screwy notions about political expediency. And we’re all sick of this.

But I say that progressivism’s salvation will not come from any political leader or party, Democrat or otherwise. Progressivism will only be saved when we can effect change in our political culture so that progressive ideas can get a fair public hearing. And this brings us to the necessity of media reform. [emphasis added]

When A Net Neutrality Tie Is A Win | TPMCafe
The news stories following the Senate Commerce Committee vote on Net Neutrality pictured it as a defeat for the forces of good. Don’t believe it. Even though the Net Neutrality amendment failed on a tie vote, we got ourselves into a good position for the rest of the game.

Texas is raising the speed limit to 80 mph on some roads because that’s what 85% of drivers are going anyway.

Many Texans are all over this immigration debate, outraged that folks from countries south of us are coming into the US without papers, or “illegally.”

So, I suggest that instead of creating yet more fuel inefficiency (among other disadvantages of faster driving), that these “illegal drivers” be returned home, forced to stay there, have their vehicle taken away, and be stiffly fined.

Seeing the Forest: Colbert Affair Exposes Loss of Rights
Don Imus was the speaker at the 1996 Correspondent’s dinner and his talk insulted President Clinton along the lines of the ongoing “conservative movement” narrative. Whitewater, Susan McDougal getting payoffs, Clintons getting indicted, missing billing records… The press had a field day — coverage everywhere.

This is critical. So please take action RIGHT NOW!!!

Sign MoveOn’s petition and call Congress today.

More info.

A great speech by Moyers on religious values in politics.

AlterNet: A Time for Heresy
It was in the name of Jesus that a Methodist ship caulker named Edward Rogers crusaded across New England for an eight-hour work day. It was in the name of Jesus that Francis William rose up against the sweatshop. It was in the name of Jesus that Dorothy Day marched alongside auto workers in Michigan, brewery workers in New York, and marble cutters in Vermont. It was in the name of Jesus that E.B. McKinney and Owen Whitfield stood against a Mississippi oligarchy that held sharecroppers in servitude. It was in the name of Jesus that the young priest John Ryan — ten years before the New Deal — crusaded for child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and decent housing for the poor. And it was in the name of Jesus that Martin Luther King Jr. went to Memphis to march with sanitation workers who were asking only for a living wage.

Congress moves to bar states from making food safer - Yahoo! News

What the food industry wants - and what several other industries are seeking - is one-stop shopping. It wants to make sure that once its lobbying and campaign cash win favors in Washington, states can’t get in the way.

Greg Palast has the dirt:
Bush Didn’t Bungle Iraq, You Fools
THE MISSION WAS INDEED ACCCOMPLISHED

And you know, it’s so obvious, we should have known all along…

From Margot Ford McMillen at the Progressive Populist:

Right now, in a state house near you, a few amoral lobbyists and politicians are working their black magic. They are few because they’ve bought out or squeezed out all the smaller companies. And they are powerful.

In Iowa, lawmakers are pushing for a bill to label and punish people who complain about factory farms in their neighborhood. The so-called “chronic complainers” may be researchers or they may be citizens trying to protect their families and their real estate investments, but under this law if you complain three times about industrialized agriculture, you are labeled and you have no right to be heard.

In 13 states, there are already laws against disparagement of agriculture. In the words of South Dakota’s version, this includes “dissemination … of any information … that an agricultural food product is not safe for consumption … or that generally accepted agricultural and management practices make … food products unsafe …”

That was the law that Oprah fought in Texas when she was prosecuted for saying she’d not eat another hamburger. She won the battle, by the way, but the war is still on.

Steve’s take on a MSM Wall-Street-themed take on blogs. You can count on him for a reality check. To the writer (of the NY Metro feature), blog readers are simply consumers, and blogdom is designed by Christof.

He references the dotcom disaster (and before that, I remember all the hoopla about the Japanese business model, that was going to leave us all in the dust), and all the CW about where that was going, as a cautionary tale. So have no fear about the Wal-Martization of blogs.

As one of his commenters stated:

What makes Gilliard solid, in my opinion, is his ruthless allergy to bullshit, his eye for creative abuse and his ability to caption his abuse (the better shots of the ongoing Stop Snitching “portraits” deserve framing IMO.) If Gilliard turns into a whiner or a panderer we will all leave his whining, pandering ass in the dust. He probably wouldn’t have it any other way.

What non-bloggers don’t understand is how time-consuming and difficult blogging is. Those who make it to the so-called A-list, usually do so because they work extremely hard and take it very seriously.

This is a new medium still in its infancy, but it has already changed the way information is produced and distributed. It has the potential to spread democracy in a viral way in which no tank, bullet or bomb can come close.

I am perfectly content to be a C-list (more like Z-list, but the NY Metro writer assumes only three levels to his heirarchical flowchart) blogger. My blog will not have advertising, unless it’s for items like books or films that promote my bigger agenda. It is an adjunct to my organizing work, and I think at this point I can safely say I won’t be selling out to on that score.

Right now, this blog is about progressive politics and the greater Waco, Texas, area known as “The Heart of Texas,” with a little science, food and personal diversions thrown in for seasoning. Not really a recipe for “success” as defined by Blogshares.

Update:
Peter Daou surveys the left side of blogland.

The attempt to marginalize progressive bloggers as part of an angry, unwashed, irrational mob is in full swing, but truth-telling has a self-sustaining power. Bloggers will continue to cut through the fabricated storylines, providing clarity, sanity, honesty, and an abiding loyalty to the Constitution and to the principles our country is founded upon.

History will look kindly on them.

And Reddhedd at FireDogLake takes the next logical step:

It seems to me that we have reached a point where things are moving up to a whole new level of discourse among progressives around the blogoverse. The question is: what direction do we take things from here? Now that is a question worth pondering, isn’t it?

Businesses have been encouraged by our government for years now to go into China, and the motivation was NOT to bring them our freedoms, but to take away their money. Now, the shit has hit the fan, because Yahoo, no doubt like other companies dancing to China’s tune, provided info that got a dissident identified and imprisoned for 8 years.

There will be hearings in the House this week. But as Steve Guillard correctly noted, there are only two choices here, and one of them is the right one.

I am a heavy user of various Yahoo services, and I recently contacted the company with my outrage over their release of search information to US spying agencies. Now this. I will be paying attention to the hearings, and seeing what Yahoo does about this. But things don’t look promising.

It will be a big hassle to move dozens of listserves to another service, to say nothing of my SBC account for internet access and several Yahoo mail accounts, but I will not continue to support Yahoo if this isn’t handled appropriately.

My message to Yahoo: Get out of China.

An Oklahoma travesty, via Joni:

May 2005 Engineer Update
In the 50-square-mile part of Oklahoma known as the Tar Creek Superfund Site, tainted waters run orange in creeks and streams, poisonous mountains of chat (mining cast-off) define the horizon, hundreds of dangerous and deteriorating open mineshafts dot the landscape, sinkholes constantly threaten, and children have high blood lead levels.

A partnership including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Interior, with support from the state of Oklahoma and Quapaw Tribe, is stepping in to clean up the area.

An unprecidented coalition of federal agencies, the state of Oklahoma and tribal governments are working on addressing this really critical area. No mention, of course, of the mining companies that created the problem.

New blog in town:

Here at the UnCJournal, our team of writers will bring you news, commentary, and analysis on topics such as:

• Income disparity
• Privatization versus public ownership
• The corporate erosion of democracy
• Corporate crime
• The IMF/WB/WTO
• Workers’ rights
• Unions and labor organizing
• International solidarity movements
• Free trade vs. fair trade debates
• Anti-globalization perspectives and alternatives
• Sustainable development
• Progressive science and healthcare policy
• The environment

How Comcast Censors Political Content says David Swanson of After Downing Street. (Comcast is a major internet service provider, equivilent, I think, to what Cox is around the OKC area.)

I can think of a couple of other possibilities for the source of the email blockage they experienced, but all of them involve squelching of political speech, and it comes down to Comcast being more responsible for how it operates it’s near monopoly (in some areas of the country).

Ed Harriman of the London Review of Books examines the flow of money into and out of Iraq since the US invasion. It’s a long tale of incompetency, malfeasance and greed. The Cliff Notes version: money was — and is — so mismanaged that in essence, US taxpayers (and Iraqi reconstruction money originally from the Oil for Food program) built and sustain the insurgency.

But don’t forget: Republicans are good with money.

Not a Good Day for Innovation, Customer Rights and Free Speech

The Grokster file sharing decision was the most notorious of the ones handed down today. But the court also came down on the wrong side in the so-called “Brand X” matter, saying cable Internet access providers companies don’t have to provide access to third party ISPs. They own the cable, so they get to decide what data gets sent, in what order.

Given that there are only two “broadband” providers in most communities — if that many — this is an invitation to a media consolidation that makes the current one look pale. The decision, which ratifies Congressional and FCC failure to address the open-access question in a way that promotes freedom of speech, is a gift to the cable/phone duopoly. They will abuse their power, because history shows that’s how they work.

Do you care? Or are you a sheep, baa baa, ready to be just a consumer of the crap Hollywood feeds you? Are you willing to let the phone and cable companies dominate tomorrow’s media, having built “their” networks on the backs of monopoly deals with government that they now leverage to capture entirely new markets? Baa baa.

If you care, fight back. Call, and especially write, your member of the U.S. House and U.S. senators. Tell them that the law is now grossly out of balance in the hands of the entertainment cartel and data duopoly. They won’t pay much attention if you’re the only one who calls, but they may begin to wake up if enough people care.

I watched a hearing (conducted only by Democrats) on C-SPAN addressing the ways in which Halliburton and its subsidiaries are bilking the American taxpayer, while abusing service members. Really almost too vile to believe: one former foodworker said freshness-date expired, and even scrapnal-tainted food was fed to the soldiers.

Halliburton’s Iraq deals described as contract abuse - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. Army procurement official said on Monday Halliburton’s deals in
Iraq were the worst example of contract abuse she had seen as
Pentagon auditors flagged over $1 billion of potential overcharges by the Texas-based firm.

This is hilarious:
Yahoo! News - Blogs Will Change Your Business

..wherein you will learn such important points as “[…]we’re going to take you into the world of blogs by delivering this story — call it Blogs 101 for businesses — in the style of a blog. We’re even sprinkling it with links. These are underlined words that, when clicked, carry readers of this story’s online version to another Web page. […]

and so on. I will give the writer credit for at least making one critical point:

But one thing is clear: Companies over the past few centuries have gotten used to shaping their message. Now they’re losing control of it.

Couldn’t be happier about that, myself.

The brilliant Paul Krugman is the saving grace of the New York Times. An economist/academic that sees the big picture and writes clearly and passionately. He’s doing a series on the completely counter-priductive health care system in this country. And, I’ve found a complete online archive of Krugman’s work (the Times puts a price on its content after two weeks). Yay! I love the internets.

The health care columns (so far):

Ailing Health Care

The Medical Money Pit

Passing the Buck

The Green Party issued a stinging rebuke of the Dems over the horrible bankruptcy bill passed and signed this week.

“72 Democrats handed President Bush, the Republicans, and corporate America a victory last week, proving that Americans have only one party for working people — the Green Party,” said Peggy Lewis, co-chair of the Green Party of the United States.

Today’s statement, Dems Sell Out on Bankruptcy, was instigated by fellow Okie Green, JMB.

Join my team at the Wal-Mart Fact Checker site.

Stripped Down. This article from New Scientist magazine tells of an idea for bringing low-cost computing to the poor in developing countries. The key to making it possible: no Microsoft.