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07:05:38 01/03/12
Occupy Des Moines Steps Onto the Political Stage
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 07:05:38 01/03/12
Occupy Des Moines Steps Onto the Political Stage
We've all seen the dramatic coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement in cities across America in 2011. What started at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan spread to cities across America. While OWS focused on income inequality and the power of money in politics as a corrupting influence, a frequent criticism of the movement is that it stands little chance of affecting change if it doesn't work within the political process. During the intense media attention trained on Iowa before Tuesday's Caucuses, the NewsHour spent some time talking to members of the Occupy Des Moines movement about their plans to get engaged in that process, or at least to participate in the political theater surrounding the first voting event in the 2012 presidential election. For more PBS NewsHour political coverage, visit our politics page: www.pbs.org From: PBSNewsHour Views: 4501 56 ratings Time: 02:21 More in News & Politics
0 Views
07:05:38 01/03/12
Occupy Des Moines Steps Onto the Political Stage
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 07:05:38 01/03/12
Occupy Des Moines Steps Onto the Political Stage
We've all seen the dramatic coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement in cities across America in 2011. What started at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan spread to cities across America. While OWS focused on income inequality and the power of money in politics as a corrupting influence, a frequent criticism of the movement is that it stands little chance of affecting change if it doesn't work within the political process. During the intense media attention trained on Iowa before Tuesday's Caucuses, the NewsHour spent some time talking to members of the Occupy Des Moines movement about their plans to get engaged in that process, or at least to participate in the political theater surrounding the first voting event in the 2012 presidential election. For more PBS NewsHour political coverage, visit our politics page: www.pbs.org From: PBSNewsHour Views: 4501 56 ratings Time: 02:21 More in News & Politics
6 Views
16:00:56 12/29/11
Mitt Romney's Big Promises - and Bigger Lies
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 16:00:56 12/29/11
Click here to view this media
In the election of 1928, the Republican Party of Herbert Hoover promised voters "a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard." (We all know how that turned out.) Now, Mitt Romney is pledging that "If I'm President" every college graduate will be guaranteed a job, Iran will have no nuclear weapons and the United States will dominate the 21st century. And when Romney isn't making fantastic promises about what he'll do when he gets to the White House, he's slandering the current occupant , Barack Obama.
"I Won't Let Iran Get Nukes"
Governor Romney's guarantees start with Iran and its nuclear program . In a November 10, 2011 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Romney pledged, " I won't let Iran get nukes ." Or as he put it 10 days earlier during a GOP national security debate : >
"If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. If you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."
As to how he'll ensure that outcome, Romney explained that "If you want peace, prepare for war." And despite occasionally acknowledging the complexity of a strike against Iran and even the questionable possibility of success, Romney told the Wall Street Journal this weekend how he would get it done: >
So what would he do about it? "I do not have a top secret security clearance at this stage to be able to define precisely what kinds of actions we could take." But he adds that "the range includes something of a blockade nature, to something of a surgical strike nature, to something of a decapitate the regime nature, to eliminate the military threat of Iran altogether."
No U.S. Decline in Romney's "American Century"
Romney's promise to "eliminate the military threat of Iran altogether" is just part of his larger assurance that the 21st century will be another " American Century ." Pretending that the rise of India, China and Brazil doesn't inevitably entail the relative loss of U.S. power and influence, Romney announced in his October address at The Citadel : >
"This century must be an American Century. In an American Century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. In an American Century, America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world...As President of the United States, I will devote myself to an American Century. And I will never, ever apologize for America."
Not content to rest there, Romney accused President Obama of "waving the white flag of surrender": >
"An eloquently justified surrender of world leadership is still surrender. >
I will not surrender America's role in the world. This is very simple: If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President. >
You have that President today."
Two months later, Mitt Romney repackaged his promise and his slander at the December 15 Republican debate in Sioux City, Iowa: >
"Our president thinks America is in decline. It is if he's president. It's not if I'm president. This is going to be an American century."
As for Romney's charge that President Obama "went around the world and apologized for America," the Washington Post Fact Checker deemed it a Four-Pinocchio lie .
A Job for Every College Graduate
At an event in New Hampshire last week, Governor Romney's pandering went from the sublime to the ridiculous. There, Mitt pledged President Romney would deliver full-employment for all American college graduates: >
"What I can promise you is this -- when you get out of college, if I'm president you'll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job. That's the reason I will hopefully get young people who are in college is to say, You know what, I understand what it takes to get jobs in America."
As the record shows , not so much. After all, as the Los Angeles Times recently documented, Romney's "Bain Capital often maximized profits in part by firing workers." That's why FactCheck.org , the Washington Post Fact Checker and Fortune all refused to vouch for Romney's claim that "In those hundreds of businesses we invested in, tens of thousands of jobs net-net were created."
Obama "Has Not Created Any New Jobs"
If Mitt Romney can't prove his boasts about his own job creation record, neither can he justify his blatant lie about President Obama's : >
"25 million people are out of work because of Barack Obama. And so I'll compare my experience in the private sector where, net-net, we created over 100,000 jobs." >
"I'll compare that record with his record, where he has not created any new jobs."
Sadly for Mitt Romney, the Bush recession began in December 2007. As ThinkProgress rightly noted, "The private sector has added 2.3 million new jobs since March 2010, and it took the Obama economy one year to create more jobs than the economy under President Bush did in eight." As The Economist explained earlier, the recession was not at its deepest just as Barack Obama was entering office, but far worse than official statistics revealed at the time. Romney might also want to check with former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi as well as the non-partisan CBO , who concluded that the Obama stimulus program "added up to 0.9 million jobs in 2009, 3.3 million jobs in 2010 and 2.6 million jobs in 2011."
Obama's Debt Exceeds All Previous Presidents Combined
Mitt Romney didn't just lie about Barack Obama's jobs record. At the Sioux City debate, he got President Obama's contribution to the federal debt all wrong as well: >
"We all understand that the spending crisis is extraordinary, with $15 trillion now in debt, with a president that's racked up as much debt as almost all of the other presidents combined."
Of course, we don't all understand that, because it's not true . After Ronald Reagan tripled the gross national debt and George W. Bush doubled it again, Uncle Sam's red ink totaled almost $11 trillion when Barack Obama took the oath of office.
Obama is "Taking over 100 Percent" of Health Care
In his desperate quest to win over conservative Republican primary voters, Mitt Romney has turned his back on his signature achievement which he once boasted was a health care model for the nation. And to do it, Romney has been lying for months by telling voters "Obamacare is about taking over 100 percent of the people's insurance in this country."
In a September 15, 2011 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer , Romney made the same charge: >
"The Massachusetts plan was crafted for Massachusetts, for the needs of 8 percent of our population that didn't have insurance, not for the 92 percent that did. Obamacare is a plan that takes over 100 percent of the people in the country and their health care, and that's one of the reasons why people don't want it."
Sadly for Mitt Romney, repetition of a lie doesn't make it any more true.
The Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in the spring of 2010 targets the 17 percent of people (over 50 million people) who are uninsured . As Politifact explained in deeming Romney's fraud another "Pants on Fire" lie: >
According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans without health insurance nationally was slightly under 17 percent in 2009, the year Obama began pushing for the bill. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, the number was about the same in 2010, when the measure was signed into law. Other estimates have pegged the national number at about 15 percent.
As Henry Aaron, a senior fellow with the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution right noted, comparing 8 percent to 17 percent "would have been apples to apples" when it comes to the impact of the individual mandate at the center of both the Massachusetts and national plans. Sadly, Politifact concluded, Romney was guilty of "a felony case of comparing apples and oranges."
Romney "Will Reverse President Obama's Massive Defense Cuts"
During that same "American Century" speech in October, Governor Romney pledged: >
"I will reverse President Obama's massive defense cuts. Time and again, we have seen that attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price, not only in treasure, but in blood."
Sadly for Romney, as Steve Benen pointed out, defense spending has not only gone up every year of the Obama presidency . It is higher than it ever was when George W. Bush sat in the Oval Office.
Of course, Romney's confusion over matters of war and peace are hardly new. In an April op-ed for the Manchester Union Leader, Mitt forgot about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as he denounced President Obama for "one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history."
Obama's "Equal Outcomes" and "Entitlement Society"
Last week, the Romney campaign rolled out what may well become the meta-theme and meta-lie for the 2012 general election race.
After President Obama declared in his Osawatomie, Kansas address that Republican trickle down economics "never worked," Romney struck back. Just not with the truth: >
"Just a couple of weeks ago in Kansas, President Obama lectured us about Teddy Roosevelt's philosophy of government. But he failed to mention the important difference between Teddy Roosevelt and Barack Obama. Roosevelt believed that government should level the playing field to create equal opportunities. President Obama believes that government should create equal outcomes. >
"In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort, and willingness to take risk. That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others. And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the redistributing -- the government. >
"The truth is that everyone may get the same rewards, but virtually everyone will be worse off."
By raising the mythical red menace of communism and falsely attributing it to Barack Obama, Romney in the words of Paul Krugman had introduced " The Big Lie " into his " Post-Truth Campaign ." While Andrew Sullivan announced "Mitt Romney is a big, fat liar," Steve Benen lamented that "Romney, allegedly the responsible one in the Republican field, has been reduced to lying uncontrollably." And while Greg Sargent in the past had expressed amazement at "Mitt Romney's casual, effortless falsehoods," New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait explained that Romney's red scare rose to a whole new level of duplicity: >
"This isn't just a casual line. In eight sentences, Romney asserts over and over again that Obama wants to create "equal outcomes" and give everybody the "same rewards." This is nuts, Glenn Beck-level insane. Restoring Clinton-era taxes is not a plan to equalize outcomes, or even close. It's not even a plan to stop rising inequality. Obama's America will continue to be the most unequal society in the advanced world -- only slightly less so. The alternative proposals accelerate inequality even further."
Of course, as the proliferating profiles from the Wall Street Journal , the New York Times , the Washington Post and others show, Mitt Romney is no stranger to inequality. Legendarily cheap and analytical , as a Harvard Business School student Romney gave a presentation to his classmates that "proved the value of family time based not on emotion but on yield." Two Romney quotes - " I love business " and " I love data " - seem to sum up the man.
As for loving the truth, that for Mitt Romney is apparently another matter altogether.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives .)
9 Views
22:00:04 11/14/11
Occupy Sympathizer Plays APEC Dinner
[LESS INFO] 9 VIEWS | ADDED 22:00:04 11/14/11
Click here to view this media
The more surprising aspect of this clip is not that someone who performs in front of these world leaders should openly sympathize with the Occupy movement, but that everyone was surprised he wasn't whisked away by security, as if that would be the appropriate or at least the usual response. Then we read further down and are told that few of those leaders were even listening and the irony becomes clearer.
In any event, expect Fox News and the usual suspects to have a field day with this tomorrow.
Brianna Keilar's blog report for CNN: >
HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) - As President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and the heads of 18 other nations dined together Saturday night, they were unwittingly serenaded for almost 45 minutes by a musician playing a song about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
"We occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few," sang Matthew Swalinkavich, a well-known local guitarist who calls himself Makana, the Hawaiian word that means "the gift". Makana was invited by the White House to perform during the APEC leaders dinner.
Dressed in a suit, Makana at first played traditional Hawaiian-style music as leaders arrived at Honolulu's Hale Koa Hotel. He continued his performance during dinner, positioned next to the four tables where leaders and their spouses dined. Eventually he unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a t-shirt that said, in handwritten letters, "Occupy with Aloha," and began playing a song he recently wrote called "We Are the Many".
Video recorded on a cell phone by Makana's sound technician showed some leaders turning their attention toward him as he sang the song, but most appeared not to notice. "I started out very cautiously because my intention was not to disrupt their dinner. My intention was to subliminally convey a message that I felt was paramount to the negotiations," Makana told CNN. "Eventually I got enough courage to go into it for an extended period of time. And I ended my show with the line 'the bidding of the many not the few.' I sang it about fifty times in different ways for them to hear."
And here is a report by Yes Lab : >
Honolulu - A change in the programmed entertainment at last night's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gala left a few world leaders slack-jawed, though most seemed not to notice that anything was amiss.
During the gala dinner, renowned Hawaiian guitarist Makana, who performed at the White House in 2009, opened his suit jacket to reveal a home-made “Occupy with Aloha” T-shirt. Then, instead of playing the expected instrumental background music, he spent almost 45 minutes repeatedly singing his protest ballad released earlier that day. The ballad, called “We Are the Many,” includes lines such as “The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw.... And until they are purged, we won't withdraw,” and ends with the refrain: “We'll occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.”
Those who could hear Makana’s message included Presidents Barack Obama of the United States of America, Hu Jintao of China, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, and over a dozen other heads of state.
"We Are the Many", lyrics and video below the fold.
We Are The Many
Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy
Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few
1 Views
22:00:04 11/14/11
Occupy Sympathizer Plays APEC Dinner
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 22:00:04 11/14/11
Click here to view this media
The more surprising aspect of this clip is not that someone who performs in front of these world leaders should openly sympathize with the Occupy movement, but that everyone was surprised he wasn't whisked away by security, as if that would be the appropriate or at least the usual response. Then we read further down and are told that few of those leaders were even listening and the irony becomes clearer.
In any event, expect Fox News and the usual suspects to have a field day with this tomorrow.
Brianna Keilar's blog report for CNN: >
HONOLULU, Hawaii (CNN) - As President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and the heads of 18 other nations dined together Saturday night, they were unwittingly serenaded for almost 45 minutes by a musician playing a song about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
"We occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few," sang Matthew Swalinkavich, a well-known local guitarist who calls himself Makana, the Hawaiian word that means "the gift". Makana was invited by the White House to perform during the APEC leaders dinner.
Dressed in a suit, Makana at first played traditional Hawaiian-style music as leaders arrived at Honolulu's Hale Koa Hotel. He continued his performance during dinner, positioned next to the four tables where leaders and their spouses dined. Eventually he unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a t-shirt that said, in handwritten letters, "Occupy with Aloha," and began playing a song he recently wrote called "We Are the Many".
Video recorded on a cell phone by Makana's sound technician showed some leaders turning their attention toward him as he sang the song, but most appeared not to notice. "I started out very cautiously because my intention was not to disrupt their dinner. My intention was to subliminally convey a message that I felt was paramount to the negotiations," Makana told CNN. "Eventually I got enough courage to go into it for an extended period of time. And I ended my show with the line 'the bidding of the many not the few.' I sang it about fifty times in different ways for them to hear."
And here is a report by Yes Lab : >
Honolulu - A change in the programmed entertainment at last night's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gala left a few world leaders slack-jawed, though most seemed not to notice that anything was amiss.
During the gala dinner, renowned Hawaiian guitarist Makana, who performed at the White House in 2009, opened his suit jacket to reveal a home-made “Occupy with Aloha” T-shirt. Then, instead of playing the expected instrumental background music, he spent almost 45 minutes repeatedly singing his protest ballad released earlier that day. The ballad, called “We Are the Many,” includes lines such as “The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw.... And until they are purged, we won't withdraw,” and ends with the refrain: “We'll occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll occupy the offices of you, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few.”
Those who could hear Makana’s message included Presidents Barack Obama of the United States of America, Hu Jintao of China, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, and over a dozen other heads of state.
"We Are the Many", lyrics and video below the fold.
We Are The Many
Ye come here, gather 'round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who've trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won't withdraw
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can't divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can't buy
Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We'll occupy the streets
We'll occupy the courts
We'll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few
2 Views
14:06:33 10/19/11
Global Revolution Day in Austin - March to Shut Down Chase Bank
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 14:06:33 10/19/11
The Occupy Austin movement took to the streets Saturday 10/15/2011. Starting at 12:00 p.m., demonstrators marched from City Hall, through Downtown, to the State Capitol. On the way, the occupiers made a stop at Chase Bank at Sixth Street and Lavaca Street to withdraw their money and close their accounts. "I closed my bank account because I'm sick of the CEO's of large corporations like J.P. Morgan Chase reaping the benefits and passing the buck onto us," protester Jonathan Marmon said. Last Friday, the second day of the now 10-day demonstration, activists marched from City Hall to Bank of America for the same purpose. Ihor Gowda has participated in the Occupy Austin movement since it started on Oct. 6. "For the last few years I have felt corporate money influencing the political process is something that needs to change in the country," he said. Saturday’s march coincided with an international movement against corporate greed and the role of corporations in government. In Frankfurt, Germany, some 5,000 people took to the streets to protest in front of the European Central Bank. Thousands marched through the Bosnian city of Sarajevo carrying pictures of Che Guevara and old communist flags that read "Death to capitalism, freedom to the people.” Thousands of people also joined peaceful protests in Sydney, Tokyo, Manila, Hong Kong and Seoul. Video produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala, Mari Hernandez and Matt Gossage A ZGraphix Production. http://zgraphix.org My TIP JAR
19 Views
07:42:42 10/19/11
Occupy Austin Day 10 - Global Revolution Day
[LESS INFO] 19 VIEWS | ADDED 07:42:42 10/19/11
The Occupy Austin movement took to the streets Saturday 10/15/2011. Starting at 12:00 p.m., demonstrators marched from City Hall, through Downtown, to the State Capitol. On the way, the occupiers made a stop at Chase Bank at Sixth Street and Lavaca Street to withdraw their money and close their accounts. "I closed my bank account because I'm sick of the CEO's of large corporations like J.P. Morgan Chase reaping the benefits and passing the buck onto us," protester Jonathan Marmon said. Last Friday, the second day of the now 10-day demonstration, activists marched from City Hall to Bank of America for the same purpose. Ihor Gowda has participated in the Occupy Austin movement since it started on Oct. 6. "For the last few years I have felt corporate money influencing the political process is something that needs to change in the country," he said. Saturday’s march coincided with an international movement against corporate greed and the role of corporations in government. In Frankfurt, Germany, some 5,000 people took to the streets to protest in front of the European Central Bank. Hundreds marched through the Bosnian city of Sarajevo carrying pictures of Che Guevara and old communist flags that read "Death to capitalism, freedom to the people.” Hundreds of people also joined peaceful protests in Sydney, Tokyo, Manila, Hong Kong and Seoul. Video produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala, Mari Hernandez and Matt Gossage A ZGraphix Production. http://zgraphix.org My TIP JAR
0 Views
08:44:43 11/12/10
Noam Chomsky - History of US Rule In Latin America
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 08:44:43 11/12/10
History of US Rule in Latin America;
Elections and Resistance to the Coup in Honduras.
Beginning with an overview of the four Nobel Peace Prize winning US President's influences on the region.
Filmed by Paul Hubbard at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 12-15-09
44 Views
20:30:33 11/03/10
Baratunde Thurston - Lost In Translation: The Onion Abroad
[LESS INFO] 44 VIEWS | ADDED 20:30:33 11/03/10
Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/09/29/A_Conversation_about_Comedy_and_Politics
Onion editor Baratunde Thurston lists examples from the satirical news website that have resonated with audiences outside the U.S. While some of the gags sparked meaningful discussion on issues overlooked by traditional media, occasionally the humor has been lost in translation.
-----
Comedy and politics have gone together for a long time, and in this age, political comedy is everywhere. We have reached a point where instead of just mocking the news, the comedian Jon Stewart was ranked as America's most trusted news source by participants in a Time magazine online poll. How does comedy influence politics? Do jokes about politicians create their image, or just reflect what people already believe? Does political comedy lead people to be more critical of politicians or just more cynical? Join us for this conversation about the influence of comedy on politics.
This event will feature The Gregory Brothers, from YouTube and Barely Political fame for their Auto-Tune the News videos; Baratunde, the web editor of The Onion and co-founder of the blog Jack and Jill Politics; Dan Powell from Comedy Central's show "Ugly Americans"; and Steve Almond, author of My Life in Heavy Metal and Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. Sponsored by the Graduate Program in International Affairs. - The New School
Baratunde Thurston is a comedian, author and vigilante pundit. He was nominated for the Bill Hicks Award for Thought Provoking Comedy, declared a Champion of the First Amendment by Iowa State, and called "someone I need to know" by Barack Obama. He has appeared on ABC, NPR, the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and ComedyCentral.com.
Thurston is the co-founder of Jack and Jill Politics and performs regularly in New York City, where he works by day as Web Editor and politics czar for The Onion. He hosts Popular Science's "Future Of" on the Science Channel, and he lives in Twitter.
0 Views
18:24:31 10/16/09
A Bomb In Every Issue How The Short Unruly Life Of Ramparts Magazine Changed America
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 18:24:31 10/16/09
With Author Peter Richardson The rollicking story of Ramparts—the magazine that captured the zeitgeist of the ’60s, repeatedly scooped the New York Times, brought the new left into American living rooms, and made an indelible imprint on American journalism "Ramparts was part of the media mud puddle out of which some of the most lively forms of journalism crawled, like gonzo journalism and new journalism. . . . It was rambunctious and clever at a time when journalism had grown stodgy and stale." —Mitch Stephens, author of A History of News A Bomb in Every Issue tells the largely untold story of the wild ride of this hugely influential magazine that achieved countless firsts: it published the first conspiracy theory about JFK’s assassination, it was the first to reveal that the CIA had backed the National Student Association during the Cold War, and its article about the use of napalm on Vietnamese children (another first) caused Martin Luther King Jr. to speak out against the war for the first time. Launched in 1962 as an intellectual Catholic quarterly, within five years Ramparts had become a secular magazine and won a George Polk Award for “its explosive revival of the great muckraking tradition.” Deeply committed to the civil rights and antiwar movements, its contributors included Noam Chomsky, Cesar Chavez, Seymour Hersh, Angela Davis, and Susan Sontag. It was in its pages that Che Guevera’s diaries and the prison diaries of Eldridge Cleaver (which became Soul on Ice) first appeared. But by 1975, out of money and time, it had folded for good. Ramparts was “the journalistic equivalent of a rock band,” Richardson argues and, despite its early demise, it left an important journalistic legacy, influencing a generation of reporters and editors, that is still apparent today. Peter Richardson is the author of American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams. He is the editorial director at PoliPoint Press and the interim chair of the California Studies Association, and teaches courses on California culture at San Francisco State University. He lives in Marin County, California.
0 Views
17:12:08 07/02/09
Media Influences In America
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 17:12:08 07/02/09
Studies conducted by mediaed.org indicate that the media tends to use advertising that has nothing to do with what they're selling to persuade the public to buy certain products. Researchers say that Americans need to gain control over the influence of the media. We spoke with people in San Francisco's Potrero Hill to find out their thoughts about media influence in society.
