Nick Clegg defends bullying Guardian

Nick Clegg has defended his actions towards the Guardian newspaper.

The fact that the Guardian has copies outside the country has restored my faith…somewhat.  Why should they have to go to such great lengths to exercise Freedom of Speech?

Gah, as I thought about this story last night, images of the King’s soldiers coming in and smashing printing presses went through my head…if nothing else, it sure does hit home that nothing has changed and that Freedom of Speech needs to be fought for and protected for democracy to survive.

The Guardian hard drives destroyed

When I first began reading this, I wondered how the agents got into the basement….shocked doesn’t begin to describe how I felt when I read that the Guardian’s editor allowed them to destroy the hard drives. Wow.  Just wow.

I never thought I’d see the day that the Guardian caved.  They threatened legal action?  Are you serious?  You caved because of threatened legal action?  Or was the threat something more sinister?

Jaysus H.

 

Protestors banned from oil exploration site

First Nations protestors were banned from interfering with oil exploration on a land reserve.  They consider it sacred ground and they were not consulted by leadership before the leaders gave their approval.  It’s stunning that the tribe brought charges before the court against their own.

What I would like to know is….if it is a land reserve, what the hell are oil companies doing there in the first place…?  It’s a land reserve! 

Just keep tearing up the Earth and polluting it until there is nothing left….small minds.

If we lose the media…

…then we basically lose a huge part of the democratic process.  The Fourth Estate has historically shed light on stuff the politicians would rather you not know…it’s kept the checks and balances needed to keep those in power from abusing that power. Edward Snowden is an example of how the media is no longer serving the public interest by investigating claims on abuse of power.

 

Power corrupts.

                                                         Absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

 

Links here and here--note the “feel good” town hall meetings to diffuse the growing voices against media consolidation….we’ll make it look like we care, and then totally ignore the wishes of the American people.  We’ll also ignore that the airwaves belong to the American people and their wishes should take precedence over corporate interests.

 

A scab by any other name

Diane Ravitch has an excellent link up to Black Agenda’s take on the charter schools takeover.  I am glad there are voices coming from the African American community against charters.  Up until now, I haven’t heard their voice being raised at what is surely a stealth racism of closing public schools in poor and minority neighborhoods and replacing them with deficient charters run by well-paid CEO’s.

I hear plenty against Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel, but I’ve yet to hear any voices raised against Oprah for promoting charters out the wazoo.

Rape is Not A Joke

Ever. Black or White.

Thanks to Michael Twitty for speaking out on rape.

He is speaking about slave rape, but the post is just as relevant to today.

I wish we had white men speaking out against Robin Thicke’s rape song “Blurred Lines”....but no….they’re actively promoting it….along with white women gushing over it.  Makes me want to throw up.

Here’s a piece on the controversy of Thicke and how others have not been held to the same standard.  It seems a little on the apologist side….a weird thing I’ve noticed with the Thicke crowd…”he really is for women’s rights”  and “you’re just not understanding the meaning of the lyrics…”  Oh, really?? What don’t I understand about “I’m going to give you something to tear your ass in two” or  “I’m gonna take a good girl….you know you want it” or “not many women can refuse this pimpin'”  or “do it like it hurt”  ??

I can tell you that I didn’t know about the others’ songs.  I don’t listen to rap.  The only way I knew about Thicke is because it’s being heavily promoted all over the place, from the web to TV.  I’m sure if the others were that heavily promoted, there would be some backlash.

Rape is not fun.  Rape is not a joke.  And making your money off of promoting rape is the lowest of the low.