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Archive for the ‘Communications’ Category

Gulf Disaster – Obama Transcript of Presidential Address

Posted in Communications, Congress, Disaster, Health and Food, Humanism, Indigenous, Justice, Media, Nature, Politics, War on June 15, 2010| 4 Comments »

On my way over to the WH to download this evening’s Presidential address re: the Gulf oil spill, I noticed that Dandelion already had. So, here is that blog’s  transcript link with just about the same two word comment I would make were I able to be that polite right now:

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/barack-obamas-oval-office-address-on-bp-oil-spill-and-energy-transcript/.

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A Piece of my Mind!?!!!

Posted in Communications, Congress, Feminism, Justice, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

If you ever needed proof that the difference between a conservative and an Obat depends on which end of the animal you are feeling, it’s what is going to happen on April 10th on PBS.

Bill Moyers is retiring. PBS is about to replace the “Bill Moyers Journal” with two other shows: One is “Ideas in Action” co-produced by the “George W. Bush Institute” and the other is “Need to Know”, an integrated broadcast and current affairs project.

At a time when we need, more than ever, independent, investigative journalism, and a forum for all, PBS intends not only to substitute the pontifications of a think tank, but those of the distinctly rabid right winged bat kind. I fail to see how this kind of TV viewing can ever be more that Bushian apologists attempting to direct the herd. It’s highly insulting to Moyers’ legacy and to my brain. Even though I’m liberal, I wouldn’t like it any better if this new show were coming from Al Gore’s similar group.

Based on PBS’s current decision making capabilities, I have no idea whether the second show will be any better.

And just to let you know that Bushism is still alive and has the FCC and Public broadcasting in its clutches, there is this tidbit. PBS is also REMOVING David Brancaccio’s “NOW” on April 10th. David has done a fine job of taking over Bill Moyers show, when the Bushians were able to get Moyers removed. David made the show his own.

These two shows have continued to bear the brunt of speaking truths to those in power. Even though the Commission is now weighted 3 Democrats to 2 Republicans, it’s clear that the Obama’s FCC has every intention of directing PBS down the Bush path and continuing the legacy.

Michael Getler is the ombudsman at PBS.ORG. CONTACT HIM HERE.

CONTACT YOUR LOCAL STATION AND TELL THEM TO STOP THIS OUTRAGE!  REMIND THEM IT’S PLEDGE WEEK. IF YOU DO MAKE A PLEDGE, SPECIFY THE PROGRAM.

EMAIL THE FCC COMMISIONERS, AND TELL THEM TO FIX THIS MESS!

Chairman Julius Genachowski: http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/genachowski/mail.html

Commissioner Michael J. Copps: http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/copps/mail.html

Commissioner Robert M. McDowell: http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/mcdowell/mail.html

Commissioner Mignon Clyburn: http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/clyburn/mail.html

Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker: http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/baker/mail.html

WHILE YOU ARE AT IT, CONTACT YOUR LOCAL POLITICIAN!

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Now You See Him, Now you Don’t

Posted in Communications, Justice, Politics, War, tagged , , , , on March 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

So, what’s up with all the Adam Gadahn stories? I’m sitting here looking at my home town paper, that ran the AP story of his capture on March 7th. Even ABC put a story out. Now, the WH is playing word games.  Might almost make a person think someone “disappeared” him.

Gaggle by Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton aboard Air Force One en route Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, 3/8/10
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Willow Grove, Pennsylvania
10:25 A.M. EST
[…Q    On Pakistan, what has the President been updated on in terms of this American that’s been detained there?
MR. BURTON:  Well, we haven’t confirmed any detainments, and I would refer you to the Pakistani government for information about individuals that they’ve detained.

Q    Has he been getting updates, though, on these reports that it could have been Gadahn and now they’ve backed off that?
MR. BURTON:  I assure you that the President gets regular updates about what intelligence there is about people who are detained and what’s happening in the fight against extremists all over the world….]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/gaggle-deputy-press-secretary-bill-burton-aboard-air-force-one-en-route-willow-grov

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This You????

Posted in Communications, Politics, women, tagged , on February 25, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Graham Cluley over at Dark Reading reminds us that Twitter has it’s own phishing problems:

Twitter Phishing Attacks Asks, ‘This You????’

Posted by Graham Cluley, Feb 24, 2010 09:47 AM

[The wave of phishing attacks against Twitter users continues to catch unwary surfers.

The latest attack seen spreading across the microblogging network asks a very simple question:

This you????

followed by a shortened link pointing to a bogus Web page that is posing as the Twitter login screen….]

http://www.darkreading.com/blog/archives/2010/02/twitter_phishin.html?cid=nl_DR_DAILY_2010-02-25_h

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Agreement of Sorts at Cop15

Posted in Climate, Communications, Feminism, Health and Food, Human Rights, Humanism, Justice, Men's Rights, Nature, Politics, War, Women's Rights, tagged , , , , , , , on December 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Revised 4:33 PM, PST

“Mitigation.  Transparency.  Financing.”

Politico says agreement of a sort has been reached at Cop15. Read their article. It sounds like everyone is going to go home to lick her/his wounds and figure out what to do next. Phrases like “a visibly angry Obama”, “no binding agreement”, “leaving before the last vote (Obama)” and “funds to poor countries remain on the table only as long as the Chinese submit to monitoring”, all lend credence to the idea that none of this is a done deal and a lot of posturing all around was needed. I suppose after eight years of Bushco, the refined US position was a pretty big change to take in for China and India.

POLITICO Breaking News:

—————————————————–

The U.S. China, India and South Africa have reached a “meaningful” climate change deal that sets a cap on worldwide temperature increases, according to administration officials.

For more information…http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30794.html

Ban Ki-moon’s entreaty for nations to get it together and commit, have common sense and move forward, I think, reflects in all of us.

The bottom line was introduced by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It has found “that to stave off the worst effects of climate change, industrialized countries must slash emissions by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, and that global emissions must be halved by 2050”.

Both China and India have been deeply and increasingly involved with trade negotiations in Africa for some time. If you think how our trade with Mexico has worked, you will understand the similarity; cheaper goods, fewer laws in place to protect environment and people, and cheaper labor. In particular, raw goods are wanted. As an example, China only has a little over 14% arable land, having lost one fifth to desertification, and a population of around 1.39 billion, as opposed to the United States with 18% arable land, and a population of a little under 308 million. At first glance, India seems in better shape with arable land of around 50%, however they live with yearly losses due to monsoons. Also, they have a population of just under 1.67 billion. One thing all three have in common is very large coal reserves, increasing the temptation to assign value to it’s use.

An interesting comparison of international environmental treaties signed and ratified by these three or any other countries can be found in the CIA World Fact Book. This is the list as of December 18th, 2009. The Fact Book is updated regularly and these may change as countries work toward further agreement.

USA
Environment – international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Biodiversity, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Hazardous Wastes
China
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
India
Environment – international agreements:
Field info displayed for all countries in alpha order.
party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

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Cop15 – Clinton says: “We Are in a Common Boat”

Posted in Children, Climate, Communications, Feminism, Finance, Human Rights, Justice, Men's Rights, Nature, Politics, War, Women's Rights, tagged , , , , , , , on December 17, 2009| 2 Comments »

Politico has a lot to say about Cop15 today:

By GLENN THRUSH | 12/17/09 7:20 AM EST

Updated: 12/17/09 10:23 AM EST

[COPENHAGEN — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton threw a climate change Hail Mary on Thursday in hopes of salvaging the Copenhagen talks from collapse – pledging U.S. participation in a multinational fund to provide poor nations with a $100 billion a year by 2020. This is considerably more than the 10 billion originally promised, though not as much as some would like the US to commit….]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30723.html

Since, however, President Obama is still planning to show up at the Conference on the 18th, we are all hopeful that she is again paving the way for one of his triumphant entrances.

Just in case you weren’t sure we had enough USAns rampaging through Copenhagen, Nancy Pelosi took 20 house members with various interests in Science, there on Thursday. Should I hazard a guess that this is the contingent of House members that will be expected to support the 100 billion pledge Clinton promised, to poor countries to keep from drowning when their islands disappear? Sub Saharan Africans, too are in the process of drowning in an ocean of sand, as skyrocketing maternal mortality rates, starvation, coastal fishing loss, and loss of water are enveloped by desperate and futile wars.

The consensus is that 90% of the new emissions will come from poor and developing countries, not China and the USA. We already reached close to our “full” capacity at production of airborne water and landborne garbage.

In counterpoint, certain senators, including one Ben Nelson, of recent abortion news fame, think that even though the US has been THE leading polluter, and therefore one of the MAIN causes of warming, the poor countries ought to just fix it themselves. After all, we are having such a difficult time at home, they ought to just give us a break. Can you believe this?

“They’ve got to come up with their own,” said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). “We’re not asking them for money, as far as I know.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30690.html

Why aren’t they suing us? Careful guys, your caste mentality is showing.

Finally, Dipnote sends a lovely factoid. Did you know that traditional cook stoves, per unit, are the considered the worst polluters in the world?

And who usually winds up slaving over them?

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091214 – Monday Ketchup

Posted in 51 Percent, Communications, ERA, Feminist Majority, Humanism, Indigenous, Justice, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

It’s a world sprung anew. Even as we tweet away, others are watching. Transparency will be even more important – it’s time to end the Patriot Act. Only if we are vigilant about our rights, and work to be part of the legal architecture that builds around our new forms of communication, will those rights be upheld. It’s up to us.

Twitter Tapping

Published: December 12, 2009

The government is increasingly monitoring Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites for tax delinquents, copyright infringers and political protesters. A public interest group has filed a lawsuit to learn more about this monitoring, in the hope of starting a national discussion and modifying privacy laws as necessary for the online era.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/opinion/13sun2.html?src=tptw

I drove through Pecos once in 2006. It was in the evening, we were late, and my family, in the back of the RV was hot and already tired of the trip from SF to Leander, where my older daughter lived. There might have been three other cars on the road with me. A man was out on the main road with a big bunch of gorgeous looking cantaloupes – a tired man. His eyes bored right into mine as I passed. I hated myself even as I was doing it, but I passed him and his cantaloupes by.

Later, in the real estate news I saw homes going for next to nothing.  I saw a hundred acre farm, it could have been that tired old man’s, flat and plowed, with water and a home, for sale for less than most RV’s. Desperation builds desperate lives. Profit based prisons sprout and grow is such places. They are a disease of human nature preying on the desperate and less than equal. They do not provide equal protection under the law, as I think of it. They do not profit society. They profit people like those running the Vanguard Group and Geo Corporation and Wackenhut.

A Death in Texas

Profits, poverty, and immigration converge

Tom Barry

The Reeves County Detention Complex burns on the morning of February 2, 2009.

County Clerk Dianne Florez noticed it first. Plumes of smoke were rising outside the small West Texas town of Pecos. “The prison is burning again,” she announced.

About a month and a half before, on December 12, 2008, inmates had rioted to protest the death of one of their own, Jesus Manuel Galindo, 32. When Galindo’s body was removed from the prison in what looked to them like a large black trash bag, they set fire to the recreational center and occupied the exercise yard overnight. Using smuggled cell phones, they told worried family members and the media about poor medical care in the prison and described the treatment of Galindo, who had been in solitary confinement since mid-November. During that time, fellow inmates and his mother, who called the prison nearly every day, had warned authorities that Galindo needed daily medication for epilepsy and was suffering from severe seizures in the “security housing unit,” which the inmates call the “hole.”

http://bostonreview.net/BR34.6/barry.php

As the article below states, in fact, civil rights have been warred against since the law’s inception in 1964 – essentially how long our country has been leading off to the right. Human rights, that include equality by sex, were never achieved, even though some rights have been eked out law by law. It will take years to put us back on the path. The time to start is NOW and this looks like a start.

Civil Rights Division To Clean Up After 8 Years of Bush

Posted Wed, 12/09/2009 – 07:08

“Bush packed the Civil Rights Division with right-wing lawyers and administrators determined to erase even the most elementary gains made by minorities.”

The Obama administration has accomplished one solid achievement that may go down in the history books as at least a partial reversal of fortune for racial minorities in the United States. For eight long years, the Bush administration waged vicious political warfare against the very concept of civil rights, as we had come to understand it in America. Equal protection under the law became a dead letter in the U.S. Justice Department, whose Civil Rights Division was transformed into a bulwark of white male supremacy and petty reaction….]

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/civil-rights-division-clean-after-8-years-bush

A settlement from a Democratic administration, and for the individuals who fought for their rights:

Tribal Justice News

[Attorney General Holder, Secretary Salazar Announce Settlement of Cobell Lawsuit on Indian Trust Management (AG) 
On Dec. 8, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a settlement of the long-running and highly contentious Cobell class-action lawsuit regarding the U.S. government’s trust management and accounting of over three hundred thousand individual American Indian trust accounts…



http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-ag-1312.html
…]

http://nativetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2740:tribal-justice-news&catid=55&Itemid=31

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