Category Archives: communications/media

Caging Birds

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I was flipping through the channels and saw that PBS was going to air a Nature spot featuring Hummingbirds.  Ah, I thought, a nice evening’s show.

Nope.

First, the hummers were doing their thing and going from flower to flower to get the nectar.  It showed ones with the ruby throat, ones with super-long beaks, and so on.

Then the show flips to the laboratory where a scientist is studying them.  The camera zooms into a hummer striking the glass “wall” in its confusion.  As the narrator tells the story of the scientist wanting to study the endurance of the hummer, it shows them attaching what looked to be a row of paper clips to the hummer’s feet, as it struggles to fly upward.

Well, that was it for me.

I can’t stand seeing animals caged.  I can’t understand why a scientist feels the need to, in essence, torture this bird that was once free to fly wherever it wanted.

And to those who would say, “hey, it’s getting food and is sheltered from predators…what’s the big deal…?”

To that I would say “Freedom is a big deal.”

That bird losing its ability to roam wherever and whenever and  just being let alone without someone poking at it –well, that’s what Spirit is about.  That’s what feeds the Soul. If that bird could talk, it would tell you the same thing.

Remember Fu Manchu?

The really chilling thing is….we’re not that far behind…

Rick Ross

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I edited the previous blog on the Webb story.  I can’t stop thinking about it–it is so compelling.  So…

I went looking for more of the story with Rick Ross. 

I wondered about his background.  I started with wiki, but there wasn’t much there.  Next I found the above site and it seems that it was the inability to read that sent him down the drug road.  It must have been devastating to him to have the talent of playing tennis well, especially in the time of doors being opened by Arthur Ashe,  (a side note~ how ironic that there is a picture of Ashe shaking Reagan’s hand, when Reagan’s ignoring the AIDS epidemic unfolding around him could be blamed for Ashe’s demise)  and not be able to see that through.  He is probably an undiagnosed dyslexic…possibly toxic (yeah, I know, some of you are groaning, but seriously…people are more affected by toxins than even they can recognize…and black folk who live in poor sections of town are more likely to be exposed to toxins dumped.  And don’t forget poor whites, too.)

This doesn’t mean that I excuse the behavior, because many who are dyslexic struggle but somehow compensate and overcome it.  ( I know that I had to read something two or three times while in school and college in order to understand and remember it.  )

–Rick Ross could have been affected while in school, and this in turn perhaps affected his ability to read and do well in school Just sayin’

It’s also important to note that without customers, Rick Ross had no busine$$.  It wasn’t just the poor blacks, as this article states, but the wealthy customers, too.  They’re just as guilty.

As I read the article on Ross, I began to think of all the devastation of cocaine.

David Crosby has said that cocaine was responsible for the end of the 60s.  Well, the love and peace and Light of it, anyway…

<sigh>

When a reporter touches a nerve…

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…and scoops a big newspaper…look out.       (**edited to clarify)

I can’t say that I remember the Gary Webb episode.  And you would think this would have been huge enough to be covered in my journalism classes or any of the communications classes I had at the university I attended.  Nope.  Perhaps it was too new at the time–and the facts were not well known.

The story is so compelling.  Not only for the bullying of Webb, but how crack cocaine was spread through the country.

Webb was vindicated by a 1998 CIA Inspector General report, which revealed that for more than a decade the agency had covered up a business relationship it had with Nicaraguan drug dealers like Blandón.

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If you click on the Dateline video on the fdl website, the reporter asks Rick Ross  if he had any responsibility in what happened (his pushing drugs among African Americans?)   And he answers that it was his responsibility for it.

The question arose about whether Webb thought the CIA wanted to get the African American community hooked on drugs….Yes, it is someone’s responsibility for taking drugs…if you don’t take it, then you can’t get addicted to it.  I don’t do drugs, but from what I have heard, cocaine is highly addictive—so…if the drug pushers know this (and I’m pretty sure if they were selling it in Nicaragua, they knew of its addictive qualities)—then they knew all they had to do is to get someone to take it once, and they had a customer for life…kind of like the tobacco industry trying to get people hooked on cigarettes.

…and why aren’t the “ruthless billionaires” in jail, too??

The  Webb story is a sad commentary on competitiveness, bullying, exposing criminal activity and doing what you think is the right thing…makes one wonder if we truly want to do good in this country?

I just wish Webb could have seen that what he did was important.  But to not get his ego wrapped around his career–that he had much to contribute in whatever path he took.  If he would have held on a couple more years, he would have been amazed at the internet, and perhaps his investigative skills would have been used for internet reporting.  (I’m also wondering why LAWeekly didn’t give him a job after the bullying episode left him unable to secure a position with other papers?)

Manning trial starts today

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(hat tip commondreams)

If they are successful with prosecution, we can kiss our Consitution good-bye.  The First Amendment guarantees one the right to speak out to air one’s grievances against the government.  I don’t believe that this was the only way that Bin Laden could have gotten his information or even if it was paramount to him attacking us.  They attacked us on 9/11 without the help of Manning…but the agencies knew of Osama and their own mistakes allowed the attack.  It’s so much easier to make someone else the fall guy when trying to deflect attention from your own mistakes.  And I don’t believe the charge of “aiding the enemy” is true in this case.  Intention is *everything* in criminal trials and I don’t believe that Manning’s intention was aiding bin Laden, but to highlight what was happening to inform the American public, which was not being informed by the mainstream media.

 

And if you read to the end, you see that the chilling effect is already taking place…whistleblowers are afraid to come forward with information.

Chilling, indeed.

Blackwater, Monsanto, and Gates Foundation

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In keeping up with all the dirty little deeds the Gates Foundation promotes….here is an article on the link between Gates, Monsanto, and Blackwater.   Really disturbing.

The article mentions The Nation with Jeremy Scahill—while looking for the Scahill article, I happened upon this with a scathing reply by the authors:

We agree that it will ultimately be up to farmers to decide what is best for them. Our concern continues, however, to be that the choices farmers face is systematically skewed, with some ideas being amplified over others. Any policies that involve redistribution–such as land reform–are off the Gates agenda, despite being a live concern to many African farmers’ movements. This demonstrates our broader point. Despite the foundation’s best efforts to be accountable once the policy has been laid down, the Gates Foundation’s interventions reflect, at heart, the undemocratic vision of a single very powerful and ultimately unaccountable organization.

Sincerely,

RAJ PATEL
ERIC HOLT-GIMENEZ
ANNIE SHATTUCK
www.foodfirst.org

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(italics are mine.)
Jeremy Scahill’s article here.

One of the most incendiary details in the documents is that Blackwater, through Total Intelligence, sought to become the “intel arm” of Monsanto, offering to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.

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Another fracking/nuclear/oil toadie on CSPAN

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Michael Levi was on CSPAN this morning…he was vague in his assertions, but reading between the lines, I saw “fracking toadie”.

He has written a book on energy that they were highlighting on CSPAN.  It has the words  “battle for  America’s future”  ….words that are emotional and raise an immediate red flag.

Brookings Institute fellow—another huge red flag.

From the wiki page on it:

Funders

At the end of 2004 the Brookings Institution had assets of $258 million and spent $39.7 million, while its budget has grown to more than $80 million in 2009.[64] Its largest contributors include the Ford Foundation, the Gates Foundation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband Richard C. Blum, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Pew Charitable Trusts, the MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the governments of the United States, Japan, Qatar, the Republic of China, the District of Columbia, and the United Kingdom.

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The Gates Foundation.  ExxonMobil. Republic of China.  Bank of America.  All giving money…for what payback…because these folks play to win and they don’t throw their money after something without expecting something in return.

And why is our government contributing to a think tank??

Here’s another piece I found on the Brookings Institute and their treatment of Diane Ravitch.  Pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?  I don’t know why they are considered liberal?

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And the fact that Levi is a doctor doesn’t necessarily impress me–Mengele and Freud were also doctors who skewed things towards their point of view.  It’s especially troubling that his doctorate is in War Studies.

He was advocating “clean energy” another industry catch phrase that actually means “keep on doing what we’ve always been doing, but keeping our dirty business out of the public eye as much as we can…”  (as seen by the non-coverage of the Arkansas oil spill.)

He was also stating that fracking should be done, and concern for the environment should be a priority. Sounds good, eh?  But then….he states further in the interview that the *only* problem was what to do with the contaminated water once they had extracted the natural gas…um, yeah, he totally ignores that there is a HUGE problem with the chemicals traveling through the earth to people’s wells, contaminating them.   My blog on that here. And here. And here.

There was a male caller making outrageous statements about green energy and allowing even more leasing to oil/gas companies…and he was not characterized as emotional…

…but when a woman caller called in and raised the earthquake question and the contamination from the chemicals…whoa…she was *cough*  “emotional”.  (I can’t remember if that was Levi’s exact wording, but the meaning was the same.)  In other words, even though she brought up facts, she was discredited as being emotional.  ::don’t worry your pretty little head, darling, we men folk will take care of this important stuff::   Grrrr.

So, my conclusion from the above is the Michael Levi is an energy industry toadie.  He’s dirty.

 

Energy regulation

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CSPAN featured Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of Federal Energy Regulatory  Commission.  Politico has this up.

A couple of callers commented on Wellinghoff’s demeanor.  He seemed to be no-nonsense.  He was formerly a consumer energy advocate.  It seemed that he was pro-consumer…but I couldn’t shake a bad feeling I had…

…he mentioned fracking as a viable practice for extracting natural gas at least two or three times during the short interview…and my heart began to sink…

He barely mentioned off grid and solar power, although when he did mention it, it was in a positive light.  What I would like to see is federal support for off grid classes in communities.  Let people create their own power for their needs, instead of huge coal plants and monstrous pipelines that spill oil (something else he said he was for.)

I hope that I’m wrong, but I can’t shake the feeling that he’s going towards the fracking industry.  He kept repeating that it could be done in an environmentally sound way.  Bullshit.

A woman caller had the same sentiment as me when she revealed that she is suffering from breast cancer due to methane gas released from fracking.  She said that he was feeding people a line and that her own governor was selling her state out from under the people.  (Unfortunately, I didn’t catch the state.)

Wellinghoff would not back down and repeated that fracking could be done in an environmentally friendly way. <sigh> So…another former consumer advocate has been bought off…

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Speaking of pipelines….

Why am I hearing about this after the fact?  Where was public radio BEFORE this took place?

And the Save the Dunes group apparently knew about it but, hey, as long as Enbridge *cough* promises to not spill any of its nasty ole’ oil into our rivers, lakes, and streams, hey, it’s okay with them….because, you know, Enbridge has such a stellar history of concern for the environment and the people and animals that inhabit it.  /very snarky, indeed.

From the article:

“IDEM, through its certification, is allowing Enbridge to disregard alternate pipeline routes and other opportunities to reduce and eliminate water quality impacts, in likely violation of the Clean Water Act,” said Kim Ferraro, staff attorney at the Hoosier Environmental Council.

Both Michigan and Illinois have laws governing interstate pipeline routing, requiring companies to assess environmental and community risks, but currently Indiana does not.

Good Grief….my head is about to explode…

 

 

 

AG – GAG hits a snag…

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(sorry, couldn’t help myself)

It would seem that the attempts by the ALEC groups to infringe on the First Amendment right to speak out have been thwarted…at least for now.

Stories here.

Be sure to click on the link for the Amy Meyer story.  Chilling.

And Indiana drops it for the year.  Knowing how they like to bring stuff under the radar, I’ll assume that it will be back next year and voted in when attention is diverted elsewhere…

Vision for the Blind

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NBC has this up on re-thinking vision.  (hat tip to val kilmer’s retweet .)

“We’re not going to hit you with our cane….

…well, not unless you deserve it…”

 

bwahahaha. Best line ever.  :p

In our “perfectionist” society, we are so judgmental and disappointed if things aren’t perfect.  This piece is so inspiring in that it highlights the need to back away from that thinking and enjoy and relish the not so perfect.

And once again it reinforces the idea that everyone has something to contribute to life on Earth….that we all have our hidden gifts to bring forth, if we could only recognize that the jocks and beauty queens and privileged are not the only worthy people…

…and that people are not the only worthy things on Earth…that everything–the plants, the animals, the birds–everything has a purpose and a gift to give.

 

Is Rape now okay….?

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Every time I think things can’t get any more disturbing…something comes along that makes my heart sink even lower….(and the great irony of all ironies is that as I’m reading this article, a pop up slides out and asks me to “like” them on the social media site they’re writing about…nope not going to—don’t have an account and won’t have an account…)

This is not acceptable. Not acceptable.  Not acceptable in any way.  This is, in my view, part of the problem with p_rn.  It desensitizes one towards sexual violence.   And we live in a culture that already thinks of women as second-class…but this is going down a level beneath the basement of one’s soul.

How dark one must be to not only rape a woman, but boast of it with graphic display. A total lack of empathy for physically and psychologically hurting another human being…

God help us.

 

My other blog on Steubenville here.

In India here.

Sexual assault in the military.