Thank Goodness the Children are Safe

This past Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the FCC regarding the use of expletives on television. The case stems from two Billboard Music Awards programs broadcast by Fox Television.


The Court voted 5-4 in favor of the FCC. Thank goodness for justices such as Antonin Scalia for making sure our vulnerable children are not exposed to words that conjure visions of disgusting biological functions such as sex and excrement.

Some critics raise the question as to why the FCC allowed many instances of the word “fuck” during the movie Saving Private Ryan when it was broadcast on network television. These critics completely missed the point. Saving Private Ryan is a movie about WWII, American heroism and patriotism. These critics are unpatriotic at best, traitors at worst. They were probably even routing for the Germans during the movie.

I have a solution that would solve this whole vulgarity issue. Why not just replace the use of expletives on television with something that is acceptable to the FCC and the conservative wing of the Supreme Court. I suggest that any time someone is to use an expletive it be replaced with some form of violence such as a murder scene or a war scene, or any type of gratuitous violence. Because I for one would much rather have my child exposed to scenes of violence than a horrific word that could scar him forever, not to mention act as a gateway word to, I dare not think what else.

The Roof is on Fire, We Don't Need No Water Let the #@%* Burn

I’ll tell you what, you have to be thankful for the Internet. The downfall of print journalism is a true shame, but it’s about time this whole mainstream media conglomerate paradigm is burned to the ground, plowed under, and the earth salted so it can never grow back into its despicable self again.

Journalism, alas, the entire media industry is undergoing a paradigm shift. Let’s just hope when the dust clears that the journalism profession re-emerges with the ferocity of the likes of Elmer Davis and Edward R. Murrow and not the paper tiger it is today.

This is how screwed up things are at this moment in time. Shepherd Smith of Fox News went ballistic on Fox’s Strategy Room, a show streamed live over the Internet screaming “We are America, we do not f**king torture.”


Now all the speculation is how long it will be before Smith is sacked by Fox News. Well, I speculate that if Smith boosts Fox’s Internet and/or television ratings then he isn’t going anywhere. This is my whole point, increased ratings translate into increased ad rates which translate into increased share price. These are the only things important to Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, et al. They don’t give a rat’s ass about journalism.

Once again Glenn Greenwald exposes the media elite corporate suck ups, i.e. Chris Matthews, David Gregory, David Ignatuis, etc, etc, etc. Here is just a small excerpt of Greenwald’s piece on the current torture topic on Salon.com:

“This remains the single most notable and revealing fact of American political life: that (with some very important exceptions) those most devoted to maintaining and advocating government secrecy is our journalist class, of all people. It would be as if the leading proponents of cigarette smoking were physicians, or those most vocally touting the virtues of illiteracy were school teachers. Nothing proves the true function of these media stars as government spokespeople more than their eagerness to shield government actions from examination and demand that government criminality not be punished.”

Dump the Tea and Drink the Kool-Aid

Tomorrow is the big day, April 15th, that’s right, Tax Day Tea Party day. These Fox News and CNBC backed protests are scheduled to take place nationwide. The protests are aimed at Obama and his tax policies. It will be interesting to see how many Fox minions actually show up. What will be even more interesting, as pointed out on Salon.com, will be how many of the protesting minions will be receiving a tax cut via Obama’s new tax policy.

I would surmise that quite a few will be in the middle class tax cut bracket. Wealthy people don’t take to the streets, they manipulate weak-minded underlings to do their dirty work. So it is ironic that the "Tea" in Tax Day Tea Party in an acronym for Taxed Enough Already.

Fox News, aside from being completely biased in their support of anti-Obama protests can’t even get the metaphor correct. The last time I checked everyone in this country is represented in the U.S. Congress, except of course for the residents of Washington, DC and half the population of Minnesota (hey Norm, don't go away mad, just GO AWAY!).

Pandora's Box Revisited

I recall reading an article a few months ago which addressed the issue of the precedent set by the Bush administration regarding presidential powers. The main point was once Pandora’s Box is opened is it possible to put the demons back?

Before the 2008 presidential election conventional wisdom was that if John McCain is elected then he would absolutely continue to abuse the Constitution through these questionable executive powers. But if Obama is elected then he would restore the proper protocols and all would be well again, after all, he is a constitutional lawyer.

Well once again, it looks like conventional wisdom, i.e., the mainstream press, assumes there is a difference between Democratic and Republican politicians.

Glenn Greenwald at salon.com has been exposing Obama’s continuation, alas, escalation of Bush’s unconstitutional powers. Straight out of the elite’s handbook - never relinquish powers once achieved – policy has once again trumped principle.

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The one comforting thought in all of this is that many staunch supporters of Obama are taking to the digital streets and hammering him all over the Internet for his assault on the Constitution. This is a refreshing change from the blind, almost messianic, loyalty the conservatives had for Bush.

On a side note, if you are sick and tired of reading mainstream media garbage (I don’t mean liberal media, this is a myth. I mean media that are slaves to their corporate overlords) you really should read Glenn Greenwald as an alternative source.

Enough!

It’s about time people started calling out the right wing nut jobs for their fear mongering and violent rhetoric. Many moderate and progressive blogs are finally exposing right wing blowhards such as Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, and Dobs, just to name a few. Crooks and Liars (C&L) points to a very disturbing statistic in making their case of a connection between the aforementioned blowhards and the weak minds they tend to influence, “According to the F.B.I., there have been 1.2 million more requests for background checks of potential gun buyers from November to February than there were in the same four months last year.” But C&L makes one mistake in their argument with this qualifier, “Coincidence? Maybe. Just posturing? Hopefully. But it all gives me a really bad feeling.”

Leave off the qualifier and state the obvious logical conclusion which is, the right wing nut jobs have been touting bold face lies since Obama was elected (and long before) that he will attack the Second Amendment and take away everybody’s guns. This is unsubstantiated rhetoric with no factual basis designed only to infuriate their weak-minded minions and inflate their ratings.

It’s about time these self-serving blowhards are called to the carpet for their irresponsible, un-American behavior without the qualifiers. These pretend patriots are a clear and present danger to a civil society. It’s true, it’s real, and it’s about time we take to the streets and shout it as loud as humanly possible.

It's Time

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Wednesday, in Mexico. Clinton admitted that the U.S. is very much complicit in the increasingly explosive problem that is the Mexican drug trade. This is a truism that no one from the former Bush Administration would ever have admitted, lest they be waterboarded by Dick Cheney.

Humans have been altering their states of consciousness since time immemorial. The biological and psychological drive to alter reality is just too strong and history is fraught with futile attempts by arrogant, ignorant power brokers to ban it. The Spanish Conquistadors attempted to ban the Aztecs from using peyote in the 16th century. It didn’t work.

Evo Morales, the President of Bolivia wrote an excellent op-ed piece in the NY Times imploring the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs to remove the outlaw designation from the coca leaf. Morales’ argument makes way too much sense, therefore, it most likely will be ignored by the powers that be at the UN.

The time has come to abandon the ignorance, arrogance, and the joke that is the war on drugs which is nothing more than a war profiteer machine. Natural plants such as marijuana and coca should be legal to grow and possess without designation. Then legalize, regulate, and tax other drugs such as cocaine and heroin to put all of the drug cartels out of business. Maybe it’s time to declare war on failed policies and while we’re at it let’s declare war on declaring war. Then we can take to the streets to protest the wars on failed policies and declaring war.

Send in the Clown

Timothy Egan wrote an excellent editorial, Wednesday, in the NY Times titled Fears of a Clown. It is about the latest drama being played out within the Republican Party regarding Rush Limbaugh as the new de facto leader of the GOP. There is a long list of Republican politicians who have, after deriding Limbaugh, publicly groveled for his forgiveness. The latest butt kissing suck up is Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, and present chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC). As Egan points out, “smarter Republicans know he (Limbaugh) is not good for them” and this is much to the delight of the Democrats. Limbaugh could possibly be sticking, albeit unintentionally, a dagger in the heart of the GOP; this got me thinking about Pagliacci, the sad tragic clown.

Pagliacci is an Italian opera about a clown named Pagliacci who murders his wife for being unfaithful. The opera is actually a play within a play, so Pagliacci is played by Canio (a character in the play) who was played, most famously, by Luciano Pavarotti. Pagliacci, as a clown, must continue to make his audience laugh even as he murders his wife and her lover. Limbaugh is that sad, tragic clown who is murdering his once loyal Republican Party which has lost its way, in his eyes. The only difference is that Limbaugh does not even realize the damage he is inflicting. Is it because he is blinded by his quarter of a billion dollar contract or his massive, pompous ego, I don’t know; but one thing I do know is that if the “smart Republicans” want to save their party they better take to the streets. As for the Democrats, they should take to the seats, with popcorn in hand, and enjoy the show.

Dog Pile on the Rabbit!

Sorry, but I can’t resist piling on Gov. Bobby Jindal (R, Louisiana) for his Republican response speech to President Obama’s congressional address. Jindal has taken heat from just about every corner of the media; this includes Republicans as well as Democrats. The heat is justified as Jindal’s speech was full of the same old rhetoric that conservatives have been spouting for years; tax cuts good, government bad.

Jindal attempted to release the conservative hounds (Smithers, release the hounds) by tossing out a piece of red meat or as I like to call it, the other white meat; pork. Jindal’s now infamous example of unnecessary spending in the stimulus package is for volcano monitoring. It is pretty obvious that Jindal chose volcano monitoring because most of the American public is not even remotely familiar with volcanoes, so it seems like a good strategy to play on that ignorance. Well, do you know who is familiar with volcanoes, the United States Geological Survey is and they state some pretty darn good reasons to monitor volcanoes over at fivethirtyeight.com?

Now I realize that Jindal is a Rhodes Scholar and that implies that he is very intelligent, but how could he have missed the obvious correlation between hurricanes, i.e. Katrina and volcanoes when he first read the speech, assuming he did not write it. Both are natural disasters that have the potential to kill many people if they are not monitored. Here is the governor of Louisiana mocking a program to monitor natural disasters. Now, I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t smack of high intellect to me.

This is one of the great things about the Internet; in years past much of what Jindal said in his speech would have only been discussed in newspaper editorials and on talk radio, but today it is all over the internet. Millions of people are now exposed to the reality of what was really said, assuming you read the right sites such as factcheck.org.

Now that is what I call taking to the streets, digital streets that is…

And Now for Something a Little Different...

Now for something a little different; instead of a post about a self serving politician here is a positive story which reaffirms the power of taking it to the streets. The story of Rocky, the Australian cattle dog was chronicled in today’s Washington Post. Rocky went missing on January 3, 2009 while being walked by a friend of Rocky’s “daddy,” Ravi Pimplaskar. Ravi was devastated by the loss of his best friend who has been with him through six apartments, four cities, two states, three jobs, and one wife in the past seven years.

Ravi proceeded to do everything humanly possible to find Rocky by using the most powerful tool at his disposal; the power of the people. Aside from posting Rocky’s picture everywhere, Ravi created a blog titled “Help Find Rocky” in which he posted sightings replete with maps along with posts describing how he was dealing with the heartbreak.

Thirty-six days later Ravi’s efforts were rewarded when Rocky was returned to him; a little worse for wear, but for the most part healthy. Here we have a perfect example of the power that people have at their disposal. Using tools such as communication, organization, and technology much can be accomplished. Let this be a lesson; taking it to the streets can produce positive results as long as the right tactics are employed in a focused strategy.

Feinstein's Folly

Here we go again. Can any bill make it through Congress without being used by our elected officials as their own personal campaign contribution solicitation fund? Crooks and Liars posted an entry on the attempted rape of the senate's version of the stimulus bill by US Senator Diane Feinstein. Apparently, Feinstein is trying to insert an amendment into the bill to allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the power to "manage" network traffic in order to deter child pornography, copyright infringement, and other unlawful activity.

The IT watchdog group Public Knowledge has reported that the Motion Picture Association of America is behind Feinstein's folly. This is really about the MPAA attempting to use the legislative branch of our government to stop the financial bleeding caused by the public's streaming of illegal copies of movies and television programs over the Internet. Due to the fact that copyright infringement laws are so hard to enforce in the digital age Feinstein is willing to give ISPs the power to peek into every packet of data on the Internet because this is the only way to find illegal files. This is akin to the US Post Office opening every piece of mail looking for child pornography. How would you feel if your mail arrived already opened every day?

Just how hypocritical can Feinstein be? Here is one of the most outspoken senators against the former Bush administration and his unconstitutional programs alowing domestic spying on US citizen's telephone and email communications doing the exact same thing. Apparently, when it suits their personal needs our elected officials are willing to use the U.S. Constitution as toilet paper.

Perhaps it time we take to the streets...

Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

Was Ben Franklin speaking strictly of the common man when he stated the quote above, because it's hard to believe that even in Franklin's day the elites were paying all of their taxes? That it is a privilege of the wealthy to circumvent the law without consequences is certainly not a new concept. Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, and Tim Geithner are the most recent poster children for the "I'm not a crook, I'm just an idiot" defense. This defense was ubiquitous within the Bush Administration; when caught doing anything extra judicial, just plead ignorance/stupidity. Imagine, a treasury secretary who is not smart enough to pay all of his taxes. If the current tax code is too complicated even for this financial whiz kid what chance do we commoners have? Are you listening IRS? I am puzzled why Geithner was given a pass, yet Daschle was run out of town on a rail. The White House suppossedly received hundreds of phone calls and emails from angry Americans about Daschle; again, why Daschle and not Geithner? Perhaps it was the disproportionate media attention to the Daschle story as compared to the Geithner story. Wake up people; if you are angry about Daschle's pilfering, check out the the tax thievery going on at the corporate level. Now that is something to take to the streets about...