Friday, January 30, 2004
If CBS won't yield on running the MoveOn.org commercial, boycott Super Bowl
There is only one thing corporations understand: money. The folks at the Censorship Broadcasting System (CBS) are no different. So if they refuse to yield on running the MoveOn.org commercial during Sunday's Super Bowl, hit them in the pocketbook by not watching the game. CBS and the FCC need strong reminding that the airwaves belong to the people, not to them to do anything they please.
Yours truly was so infuriated by MoveOn.org's call for a miserable one-minute boycott during halftime, that I fired off the following email to Trevor FitzGibbon (tfitzgibbon@fenton.com, 202-822-5200).
"A one-minute boycott? What kind of wusses are you? Is that game so bloody important to you? Boycott the whole game! If enough people boycott it, CBS will take a hit in its pocketbook (the only thing such people understand), because when the guaranteed ratings don't materialize, they will have to give the advertisers additional free time.
CBS must be laughing themselves silly over your call for a one-minute boycott. It's time to get serious!"
Yours truly was so infuriated by MoveOn.org's call for a miserable one-minute boycott during halftime, that I fired off the following email to Trevor FitzGibbon (tfitzgibbon@fenton.com, 202-822-5200).
"A one-minute boycott? What kind of wusses are you? Is that game so bloody important to you? Boycott the whole game! If enough people boycott it, CBS will take a hit in its pocketbook (the only thing such people understand), because when the guaranteed ratings don't materialize, they will have to give the advertisers additional free time.
CBS must be laughing themselves silly over your call for a one-minute boycott. It's time to get serious!"
Friday, January 16, 2004
White House now wants control over health and safety warnings
In a move to further usurp the powers of federal regulatory agencies, the White House now wants to control when warnings affecting health and safety are issued to the public, and to manage all scientific and technical peer reviews.
It isn't enough that the Bush administration has replaced qualified scientists and other experts with political hacks, religious fruitcakes and corporate buddies, now it wants the Office of Management and Budget to have the final say in areas it knows nothing about.
Warnings about the danger of a prescription drug, a medical device, a nuclear accident, a release of a toxic chemical or a biological, even mad cow disease would be at the pleasure of OMB, which undoubtedly would delay while weighing the cost of such disclosures to business versus the value of your life. Remember, the airlines used to calculate what your life was worth against the cost of installing safety devices.
OMB claims Congress has ordered it "to take 'a greater role in evaluating what the agencies do,'" according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
It isn't enough that the Bush administration has replaced qualified scientists and other experts with political hacks, religious fruitcakes and corporate buddies, now it wants the Office of Management and Budget to have the final say in areas it knows nothing about.
Warnings about the danger of a prescription drug, a medical device, a nuclear accident, a release of a toxic chemical or a biological, even mad cow disease would be at the pleasure of OMB, which undoubtedly would delay while weighing the cost of such disclosures to business versus the value of your life. Remember, the airlines used to calculate what your life was worth against the cost of installing safety devices.
OMB claims Congress has ordered it "to take 'a greater role in evaluating what the agencies do,'" according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Thursday, January 08, 2004
Building up the corporate-controlled New Democrats' favorite warrior: General Wesley Clark
It was disconcerting, to put it mildly, to watch Peter Jennings' velvet glove treatment of General Wesley Clark during Wednesday's Democratic presidential candidate series on World News Tonight. Jennings didn't just lob softball questions at the Republican turned Democrat who wants to be the Democratic nominee, he tossed sponge balls.
Jennings completely dropped the ball when it came to Clark's tenure as NATO commander in Kosovo. Rather than question Clark about nearly beating Bush to starting the next world war, Jennings allowed him to pave over his dismissal from his post as thought it had been merely a matter of office politics. Yipes!
And Clark is the guy the corporate-controlled New Democrats are hoping can stop Howard Dean. Double yipes!
If Democrats across the land voted in their self-interest and the interest of the nation -- assuming there is an honest primary vote (a big assumption, given e-voting machines, controlled by Republicans, that produce no paper trail -- Dennis Kucinch would win the party's nomination hands down.
But the powers that be are going to assure that Kucinich isn't going to win and, if they can pull it off, they are out to kill Dean's bid, too. We realists (deranged is what the neocons call us these days) realize that whether it's Dean, Clark, Kerry, Gephardt. Edwards or Lieberman (Mosely Braun and Sharpton have been consigned to the ash heap, too) that any change, should a Democrat somehow prevail against the Bush-Rovian machine, will only be a matter of degree.
Jennings completely dropped the ball when it came to Clark's tenure as NATO commander in Kosovo. Rather than question Clark about nearly beating Bush to starting the next world war, Jennings allowed him to pave over his dismissal from his post as thought it had been merely a matter of office politics. Yipes!
And Clark is the guy the corporate-controlled New Democrats are hoping can stop Howard Dean. Double yipes!
If Democrats across the land voted in their self-interest and the interest of the nation -- assuming there is an honest primary vote (a big assumption, given e-voting machines, controlled by Republicans, that produce no paper trail -- Dennis Kucinch would win the party's nomination hands down.
But the powers that be are going to assure that Kucinich isn't going to win and, if they can pull it off, they are out to kill Dean's bid, too. We realists (deranged is what the neocons call us these days) realize that whether it's Dean, Clark, Kerry, Gephardt. Edwards or Lieberman (Mosely Braun and Sharpton have been consigned to the ash heap, too) that any change, should a Democrat somehow prevail against the Bush-Rovian machine, will only be a matter of degree.
Saturday, January 03, 2004
FBI fears almanacs
The Associated Press has reported that the FBI is warning police to watch out for almanacs.
The AP received and verified a copy of a Christmas Eve bulletin the FBI send out to 18,000 police organizations, warning that almanacs could be used by terrorists "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning."
Even more ridiculous than the FBI's concern over almanacs is the reported reaction of John Pierce, the publisher of The Old Farmer's Almanac. "While we doubt that our editorial content would be of particular interest to people who would wish to do us harm, we will certainly cooperate to the fullest with national authorities at any level they deem appropriate,” he said.
The United States of America will be destroyed from within if people like Pierce continue to bow unquestioningly before these so-called “authorities” and their manipulative terrorism alerts and utterances about “national security.”
This is the FBI that deliberately weakenedits Minneapolis office's request for a warrant to search the computer of terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who has admitted to being a member of al-Q'aeda.
This is the FBI that interfered with the investigations of Special Agent Robert Wright of Chicago, described by Judicial Watchas "the only FBI agent to seize terrorist funds (over $1.4 million) from U.S.-based Middle Eastern terrorists using federal civil forfeiture statutes, prior to the September 11th attacks."
But they are concerned about almanacs.
Smells to me like the FBI is giving local cops another excuse to harass people of color at traffic stops. Or is Christian Hyperfundamentalist John Ashcroft stoking terrorism fears to harass Pagans who use “The Witches' Almanac?”
The AP received and verified a copy of a Christmas Eve bulletin the FBI send out to 18,000 police organizations, warning that almanacs could be used by terrorists "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning."
Even more ridiculous than the FBI's concern over almanacs is the reported reaction of John Pierce, the publisher of The Old Farmer's Almanac. "While we doubt that our editorial content would be of particular interest to people who would wish to do us harm, we will certainly cooperate to the fullest with national authorities at any level they deem appropriate,” he said.
The United States of America will be destroyed from within if people like Pierce continue to bow unquestioningly before these so-called “authorities” and their manipulative terrorism alerts and utterances about “national security.”
This is the FBI that deliberately weakenedits Minneapolis office's request for a warrant to search the computer of terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who has admitted to being a member of al-Q'aeda.
This is the FBI that interfered with the investigations of Special Agent Robert Wright of Chicago, described by Judicial Watchas "the only FBI agent to seize terrorist funds (over $1.4 million) from U.S.-based Middle Eastern terrorists using federal civil forfeiture statutes, prior to the September 11th attacks."
But they are concerned about almanacs.
Smells to me like the FBI is giving local cops another excuse to harass people of color at traffic stops. Or is Christian Hyperfundamentalist John Ashcroft stoking terrorism fears to harass Pagans who use “The Witches' Almanac?”
