Global
Tuesday night, as water rose to 20 feet through most of New Orleans, CNN relayed an advisory that food in refrigerators would last only four hours and have to be thrown out. The next news item from CNN was an indignant bellow about "looters" of 7-Elevens and a Wal-mart. The reverence for property is now the underlying theme of many newscasts, with defense of The Gap being almost the first order of duty for the forces of law and order. But the citizens looking for clothes to wear and food to eat are made of tougher fiber and are more desperate than the polite demonstrators who guarded The Gap and kindred chains in Seattle in 1999. The police in New Orleans are only patrolling in large armed groups.
WAR MADE EASY
How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
By Norman Solomon
John Wiley & Sons ISBN 0-471-69479
$24.95 314 pages
In "War Made Easy" Norman Solomon demolishes the myth of an independent American press zealously guarding sacred values of free expression. Although strictly focusing on the shameless history of media cheerleading for the principal post-World War II American wars, invasions and interventions, he calls into question the entire concept of the press as some kind of institutional counterforce to government and corporate power.
How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
By Norman Solomon
John Wiley & Sons ISBN 0-471-69479
$24.95 314 pages
In "War Made Easy" Norman Solomon demolishes the myth of an independent American press zealously guarding sacred values of free expression. Although strictly focusing on the shameless history of media cheerleading for the principal post-World War II American wars, invasions and interventions, he calls into question the entire concept of the press as some kind of institutional counterforce to government and corporate power.
Rev. Jackson offers support for Chavez’ proposal to provide low-cost heating oil to US communities
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, issued the following statement today, following his personal meeting with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Following conservative Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson’s recent call to assassinate the Venezuelan President, the two leaders discussed Venezuela’s role in the world, moving toward diplomacy and dialogue between the US and Venezuela, and President Chavez’s proposal to provide low cost heating oil to poor communities in the U.S.
Members of the Rainbow/PUSH Delegation to Venezuela, including son Jonathan and daughter, Jacqueline; Professor Ron Walters, and Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis, held a wide ranging discussion with President Chavez this afternoon. Rev. Jackson’s statement follows:
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, issued the following statement today, following his personal meeting with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Following conservative Christian Coalition leader Pat Robertson’s recent call to assassinate the Venezuelan President, the two leaders discussed Venezuela’s role in the world, moving toward diplomacy and dialogue between the US and Venezuela, and President Chavez’s proposal to provide low cost heating oil to poor communities in the U.S.
Members of the Rainbow/PUSH Delegation to Venezuela, including son Jonathan and daughter, Jacqueline; Professor Ron Walters, and Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis, held a wide ranging discussion with President Chavez this afternoon. Rev. Jackson’s statement follows:
"Sarah, if the people had ever known the truth about what we Bushes have done to this
nation, we would be chased down in the streets and lynched."
-- Bush 41 to reporter Sarah McClendon, Dec. 1992
It's an amazing thing. Doctors' offices in New York and Washington will likely be standing-room-only in a couple of months. I can see it now -- the look on a nurse's face when she asks the vacuous, target-eyed media twits when they are "due," and each one chirps happily, "May 25th!" As she comes to the end of the line, the nurse notices a slender, auburn-haired woman fast asleep, her lips slightly open in a half-smile. She is snoring gently.
Hesitating to awaken her, the nurse spies a blonde whom she recognizes as CNN's "White House" correspondent, Dana Bash, "What about her?" the nurse asks Bash, pointing to the woman. "Is she due on May 25th too?"
-- Bush 41 to reporter Sarah McClendon, Dec. 1992
It's an amazing thing. Doctors' offices in New York and Washington will likely be standing-room-only in a couple of months. I can see it now -- the look on a nurse's face when she asks the vacuous, target-eyed media twits when they are "due," and each one chirps happily, "May 25th!" As she comes to the end of the line, the nurse notices a slender, auburn-haired woman fast asleep, her lips slightly open in a half-smile. She is snoring gently.
Hesitating to awaken her, the nurse spies a blonde whom she recognizes as CNN's "White House" correspondent, Dana Bash, "What about her?" the nurse asks Bash, pointing to the woman. "Is she due on May 25th too?"
COLUMBUS -- The shock waves from Ohio Governor Bob Taft's no contest plea to four misdemeanor ethics violations have turned this state's politics upside down. They also have direct roots in the stolen election of 2004.
Ohio's "Mr. Clean" governor has been forced to admit he took gratis golf games and other insider graft and goodies. His tearful no contest plea led to a nominal fine where lesser public figures could have gotten substantial jail time. Taft faced up to two years in jail.
Ohio's "Mr. Clean" governor has been forced to admit he took gratis golf games and other insider graft and goodies. His tearful no contest plea led to a nominal fine where lesser public figures could have gotten substantial jail time. Taft faced up to two years in jail.
A spectrum of liberal responses to Cindy Sheehan has come into
sharper focus.
The message is often anti-Bush... but not necessarily anti-war.
Frank Rich spun out his particular style of triangulation in the New York Times on Aug. 28. While deriding President Bush's stay-the-course stance, Rich also felt a need to disparage the most visible advocate for quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Putting down Sheehan -- and, by implication, the one-third of the U.S. public that wants all American troops to exit Iraq without delay -- Rich's column mocked "her bumper-sticker politics" and "the slick left-wing political operatives who have turned her into a circus."
Rich criticized "the utter bankruptcy of the Democrats who had rubber-stamped this misadventure in the first place." Yet, in effect, he was willing to help rubber-stamp continuation of the "misadventure" in the present tense.
The president, Rich lamented, "pretends that the only alternative to his reckless conduct of the war is Ms. Sheehan's equally apocalyptic retreat."
The message is often anti-Bush... but not necessarily anti-war.
Frank Rich spun out his particular style of triangulation in the New York Times on Aug. 28. While deriding President Bush's stay-the-course stance, Rich also felt a need to disparage the most visible advocate for quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Putting down Sheehan -- and, by implication, the one-third of the U.S. public that wants all American troops to exit Iraq without delay -- Rich's column mocked "her bumper-sticker politics" and "the slick left-wing political operatives who have turned her into a circus."
Rich criticized "the utter bankruptcy of the Democrats who had rubber-stamped this misadventure in the first place." Yet, in effect, he was willing to help rubber-stamp continuation of the "misadventure" in the present tense.
The president, Rich lamented, "pretends that the only alternative to his reckless conduct of the war is Ms. Sheehan's equally apocalyptic retreat."
AUSTIN -- Seems like every year at the end of summer there's this sense of coming back from somewhere, whether we've gone anywhere or not. Whatever the summer pattern is -- a swim, the kids, a stroll --- it's as though we sort of blink and there's the world again, still there. Very much still there.
I suppose if you're George W. Bush, the world never does go away no matter how long you spend on vacation; it just sort of camps at the end of your driveway like Cindy Sheehan. Those of us who study politics and the media got to watch Cindy Sheehan being slimed by the right-wing attack machine -- hey, no free passes just because you're a mom whose kid was killed in Iraq. We also get to watch left-wing PR people exploit her grief, because you can't even be for peace without public relations anymore. This is The World, after all.
I suppose if you're George W. Bush, the world never does go away no matter how long you spend on vacation; it just sort of camps at the end of your driveway like Cindy Sheehan. Those of us who study politics and the media got to watch Cindy Sheehan being slimed by the right-wing attack machine -- hey, no free passes just because you're a mom whose kid was killed in Iraq. We also get to watch left-wing PR people exploit her grief, because you can't even be for peace without public relations anymore. This is The World, after all.
Hurricane Katrina, one of the largest and strongest storms on record, roared onto shore this week, causing massive devastation in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and other states. But another danger to the region is still brewing. With storm surges of up to 20 feet in some areas, huge petro-chemical plants, gas stations and waste pits have unleashed a toxic cocktail of chemicals ranging from vinyl chloride to gasoline.
Take Action! Natural disaster or terrorist attack - Tell Congress to act NOW to prevent more tragedy.
Already nicknamed "Cancer Alley," the polluted area now suffers from contaminated flood waters of up to 20 feet - which can affect homes, drinking water and surrounding waterways. In New Orleans, the city's levee system is now serving only to hold water in the city, creating a temporary lake of toxic chemicals, gas, oil and storm debris.
Take Action! Natural disaster or terrorist attack - Tell Congress to act NOW to prevent more tragedy.
Already nicknamed "Cancer Alley," the polluted area now suffers from contaminated flood waters of up to 20 feet - which can affect homes, drinking water and surrounding waterways. In New Orleans, the city's levee system is now serving only to hold water in the city, creating a temporary lake of toxic chemicals, gas, oil and storm debris.
RESULTS has made protecting Medicaid a major domestic focus for more than 6 months and the final outcome is right around the corner. By September 16, Congress must put together their final budget proposal, which includes $10 billion in cuts to the Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce Committees that have jurisdiction over Medicaid. During the August recess, staffers will be putting together the final “menus” of budget options that Members will have to choose from when they return. This week, voice your support for Medicaid and tell Congress not to make any cuts to Medicaid that would hurt beneficiaries.
Visit our Take Action Now center to send an e-mail to MOCs about Medicaid.
(http://capwiz.com/results/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7583841)
For more resources and information on our health care work in 2005, check out our new Health Care for All Campaign Website. (http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=1459)
For more resources and information on our health care work in 2005, check out our new Health Care for All Campaign Website. (http://www.results.org/website/article.asp?id=1459)