Category Archives: ALEC

Women of Togo March

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…I guess the go-for-a-week-without-sex-thing didn’t work out so well.  No mention of it, anyway.

In other news, Koch Conservatives are urging women to keep their clothes on for other reasons….

You know, I’m almost disappointed that the election is coming up so soon…things are just starting to get interesting…

…chastity belts will be the next thing advocated by these groups…

GMO monsters; Nanoparticles and Karl Rove…

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Jill Richardson has this up at PR Watch.  Can anyone make sense of this?  The chemical/bioengineering industry is a monster running amok—make more toxic food that makes people, animals sick and poisons the atmosphere…

…so they can grow more food per acre.

I have a question:  if people are dying from the poison food and poison atmosphere, who is this serving?  Not us.

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More from PR Watch on the propaganda of Monsanto, et al…

Good Grief. Nanoparticles are nothing to worry about??  Just a little benzene (one of the most toxic chemicals out there)  isn’t going to hurt…/snark

And the debate on sunscreens also questions their validity and necessity.

CDC link here: http://www.ewg.org/analysis/toxicsunscreen

Natural News has a story here.

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Finally there’s this story on Rove controlling the purse strings…the behind the scenes and under the radar guy.

Greenwald on Extremism Normalized

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…continuing to boil the frog…

From the comments section, a few posters are arguing about the uninformed public making poor choices because…they’re uninformed.  SiouxRose makes the point that a single mother with 2 kids doesn’t have the time to do what we do–looking for the news on the internet…because she sure the hell isn’t getting the information she needs to make an informed decision on the network news.

Then another poster comments that people need to take responsibility.

The problem with that is  with media consolidation into the rightwing mania, the information access is extremely limited.  It’s difficult to get accurate, mostly unbiased (there’s no such thing as un-biased) news reported by intelligent individuals with a grasp of the subject at hand.  Like I reported earlier, the only station that reports news like it used to be reported, prior to Reagan’s assault on the Press and Marketplace of Ideas, is a rightwing station.  They report every half hour.  The other stations?  You’re lucky if you get the news in the morning, and then you’re SOL for the rest of the day.  Nothing. Nada.  And when the storm hit my area, there was nothing the next day–Saturday–to tell folks what was happening and where they could go for a cooling center.  But you can be sure that there will be half-hour segments when/if a ter__ist event is happening.

So…to blame the public for not getting access to information is blaming the wrong folks–they already have very little power.    And if you’re like me, you only get access to news through the internet.  As has been said before–you control information, you control people.

I just wish there were as much outrage over the consolidation of media and the end of the Fairness Doctrine as there is against war.

Following the trail…

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I picked up an old copy of The Nation over the weekend, the date:  10-1-2001.  It was the first issue after 9/11, and prominently featured the twin towers on the cover.  In it was a story that I don’t recall reading, and given the upheaval of that moment in time, I probably didn’t read it.

However, the story was worthy of the cover had it not been for the tragedy of the weeks before–

The report by Amy Bach, an attorney, was on the Federalist Society and its infiltration into law schools all over the country.

In it, she showed the web of connections that this “society” was constructing–conservative law students (Antonin Scalia was one) who didn’t like their liberal law professors’ point of view, and wanted to do something about it.  That something was the Federalist Society to encourage conservative students to organize, and then make connections to the power players in the White House and the Supreme Court.

Bach names names and one of them is Jeff Sutton.  He argued the cases Alexander v. Sandoval and University of Alabama et al v. Garrett. (link here: http://www.civilrights.org/monitor/vol11_no4/art1p1.html)

I did a search to see where Sutton was now–here:  http://www.onu.edu/node/34771

and here:  http://abovethelaw.com/tag/jeffrey-sutton/

Well, of course he was nominated to a judge position by Bush.

From the article:

“…it [Federalist policy] benefits big business, it’s anti-egalitarian, it shuts plaintiffs like the poor and disabled out of courts, and it rolls back the New Deal notion that the courts have a role to play in helping the downtrodden.”

However, Bach noted organizations of progressive and centrists, one of which is the American Constitution Society.  The problem with getting organized is that progressives are not as narrow-minded, but independent in thought.  It’s soooo much easier to organize when your targets are the poor, disabled, women, minorities, etc.–you know, people who have less power to fight back.

From the dark side…

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…I try not to give Limbaugh more attention, as they say whatever you give attention to gives it power…but today, as I moved the dial past Limbaugh’s show, I couldn’t help myself…

He is heavily trying to divert attention from the Bain/Romney deal by arguing that corporations are not people…so, therefore, there is no way that Romney could have had anything to do with Bain sending jobs overseas.  Romney makes patronizing speeches about bringing jobs back to the U.S.–saying he “knows what it takes” to bring jobs back–yeah, it takes workers willing to work for $3.00 an hour…(While Limbaugh continues the slams on those on welfare–you lazy good-for-nothings, getting off your ass and get a freaking job….)

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Next we have a racist and sexist statement all rolled into one:  “Elizabeth Warren, Indian squaw…”

First, he and his ilk were all over her for claiming to be a Native American…even after it had been in the news that she was, in fact, Native American.  Now he degrades her and her heritage by that racist statement.  Squaw is a derogatory term the French gave the women–it means vagina. I believe they also named the Grand Tetons…I’ll leave your imaginations to what female body parts that name refers to…

 

DN! today

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DN has this up today.

Let’s only hope that the carbon emissions news is followed by actual, you know, action.  Because if anything this administration is famous for–it’s tough words with no backbone.  The other day, I was listening to Limbaugh rant about the immigration law and Arizona and how the Obama Administration was instituting an “800” number for anyone observing a police officer violating someone’s civil rights.  Limbaugh was all for civil rights and said it was about time that they started doing something about it.

bwahahaahahahahahaha. *snort*

Um, okay, he really didn’t say that.  He was incensed that the Obama administration was actually trying to provide a way for folks to speak up.  He immediately said it would be the sniveling liberals who would be calling in and the police officers would be afraid of lawsuits, yada, yada, yada.

My heart was lifted at the news of an “800” number…but then I recalled all the past “strong” words by this administration, followed by…no action.  So, yeah, unless there is a full time staff behind this 800 number, and the people at the other end of the phone are actually empowered to DO something, well, I don’t see it providing much help.  And it might even hurt someone who calls in thinking they are doing a service for the community, give their name, phone number and they themselves are harassed.  I’m just saying this is a possibility.  An administration that allows illegal wire-tapping against the Fourth Amendment leaves me doubting the sincerity of this program.  Why now? Especially after record deportations?

Onto the other stories on DN:

The Tar Sands pipeline being once again pushed by Big Oil and the Obama Administration going along is another red flag that this administration continues to say one thing and do another.  I’m just cynical enough to wonder if the sudden decrease in gas prices has anything to do with the Administration’s agreeing to Tar Sands?

Lawmakers making money off of legislation? No way. They’re the most fine, upstanding individuals ever to walk the Earth. /snark

You see, entitlement only applies to little old ladies trying to collect Social Security and the poor trying to collect food stamps to eat.   They make the laws, so members of Congress are entitled to make profits off of it.

Sorry to see Nora Ephron has passed.  I was watching “When Harry Met Sally…” last night.  Peace to her.