Action Point with Cynthia Black 11-04-2007: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• From the Giuliani File: Councilman Gioia "I will do everything in my power to get answers, to get the truth"

  "...we have been working with the good folks at Brave New Films to get the New York City Council to investigate the way the administration of Rudy Giuliani handled the replacement and deployment of the FDNY radios that proved to be such a source of tragedy on 9/11. We delivered a petition urging action with almost 20,000 signatures to Councilman Eric Gioia on Monday and were very pleased at his initial reaction. Today we have even more video of the Councilman stating in very strong terms that he not only supports such an inquiry but is doing all he can to get the ball rolling.

• MUST READ: Bush Threatens to Veto Aid to Workers Harmed by Outsourcing: another excellent piece from David Sirota:

  At the same time the White House is pushing to vastly expand the job-killing, wage-destroying NAFTA trade model, we get this from
  Bloomberg News (full story attached below):
  "President George W. Bush may veto legislation to expand benefits for
  workers harmed by international trade because it would cover more
  workers than necessary

• Framing the Debate: The Real Meaning of 'Free Press': from Jeffrey Feldman,
  

• From the "I Think I'm Gonna Scream Now" File: Theocracy Now! Max Blumenthal keeps his eye on the wackadoodles so you don't have to...

• Update to The Andrew Meyers File: Don't Tase Me 'Bro Student Won't Be Charged: and his future with Greg Palast!

• Foreign Policy File: Putting the 'Israel Lobby' in Perspective and from Iran Nuclear Watch: Another Letter to the President on Iran

• FASCISM WATCH: Debt and Development, Presidential-Style: in the not-too-distant past Greg Palast and I discussed just this topic:

  "Co-reported alongside the news that Hunt Oil Company of Dallas had entered into an oil development contract in Iraqi Kurdistan was the fact that Hunt Oil's head honcho was a multi-million dollar contributor to the planned George W. Bush Presidential Library project."

• No Explanation Needed: Scholar links Bush's US and Hirohito:

  A top US scholar of wartime Japan said Wednesday that the Bush administration's "war on terror" bore close parallels to Japan's past militarism through a defiance of international law.
  
  Herbert Bix, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his landmark biography of wartime emperor Hirohito, said he believed US aerial bombings and alleged use of torture in Afghanistan and Iraq constituted war crimes.
  
  "The current American rampage in Iraq and elsewhere, not to mention the Bush administration's threats of war against Iran, so clearly replicates Imperial Japan during the period when its leaders willfully disregarded international law and pursued the diplomacy of force," Bix said during a visit to Tokyo.

‘Don't Tase me, bro’ Student Silenced by Fear!!!

What's more pathetic, this student being terrorized for asking a weak over-privileged Senator an inconvenient question or for this journalism student to be so weak? He'll have a fine place at ABC some day.

This also sets a dangerous anti-free speech precedent for colleges'. Are we now to believe that the only appropriate activities on a campus are those contained in the handbook on "How to Ask Meaningless Appropriate Questions?" These are how the new generation will be trained? Rewards for spineless bowing and scraping?

‘Don't Tase me, bro’ student won't be charged: "A University of Florida student who was filmed being shocked by police with a Taser stun gun after persistently questioning Sen. John Kerry will not face criminal charges and has apologized for his actions, his attorney said Tuesday."

Action Point with Cynthia Black 10-28-2007: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• Beyond MOVEON: First: MoveOn.org Didn't Invent BetrayUs- The Troops Did! Then, Moveon created: Americans for Exit. THEN, Limbaugh got busted with his "Soldiers who don't go to Iraq to die are 'phony' faux paux. Also, Michelle Malkin took a shot at MoveOn.org with "Sue me"! LAST WEEK, we're back to "[W]e're going to find out where your kids go to school" Limbaugh! AND TODAY? Rush sells his Congressional letter of condemnation to a millionaire using 501-c3 trust funds claiming it's a " free-speech" document!! Cronyism all-'round Rush-- you show 'em all how!!!
  

• From the Mukasey File: FIRST, Crony for the next Republican President? The religious right hates him but Giuliani loves him. AND NOW he's running into trouble: Senators clash with nominee about torture.
  

• MUST READ: Endorsing Irresponsible Journalism: another excellent piece from David Sirota:

  "Barely anyone reports when paid Washington lobbyists pose as statesmen to stealthily shill for their corporate clients, because that's just what happens day-to-day in D.C. Similarly, we see the Dean of Serious Washington Journalists mentioning the irresponsible choices of his fellowreporters, but mentioning it in a way that actually praises onecandidate as "exquisite" for exploiting that irresponsibility -rather than railing on the irresponsibility within his own industry."
  

• Framing the Debate --The "Islamofascism" PR Assault on America: "Islamofashion" from Jeffrey Feldman

• From the "I Think I'm Gonna Scream Now" File:Secretary of "Ferragamo" Rice Unfazed By Bloody Hands: Can't you just hear Condi's internal thoughts now? "Oh please, I've shed more blood over a girl-on-girl breakfast. Get a gag and then we'll talk". Here's the YouTube of Medea Benjamin arrest speech.

• Update to The Andrew Meyers File: Disturbing video remix "Baby Don't Taze Me"; OCALA.COM ain't nothing. Now use of tazer found "justified!

Action Point with Cynthia Black 9-23-2007: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• Mukasey: Chrony for the next Republican President? The religious right hates him but Giuliani loves him. Is the RNC positioning already? Or is there an inside voting-related job needed to get Rudy elected?
  

• MOVEON: MoveOn.org Didn't Invent BetrayUs- The Troops Did!: Oh, oh-- please somebody make it stop! And while you're at it make sure the Senate and press gets this memo! Also, excellent piece from George Lakoff on Betrayal framing.
  

• IMHO: Next Stop, Kent State: I love Greg Palast, but taking a book, even one as dangerous as Armed Madhouse, to a protest in the year 2007 is like taking a knife to a gun fight. But it could get worse. Remember murdered students at Kent and Jackson State in the 1970's?

• Scott Ritter is Waging Peace: The Art of War for The Antiwar Movement. Just in case you missed it; Washington September 15 Pro-War Protesters. And an older post from yours truly; Get on The Peace Train.

• Andrew Meyers File: YouTube video showing "chain of command" of unidentified man giving ACCENT member cue for campus officer prompt to stop Andrew -- 30 SECONDS INTO FIRST QUESTION-- well BEFORE arresting event use of "blow job"; Andrew Meyer's website; disturbing video remix "Baby Don't Taze Me"; OCALA.COM: The Ocala-Star Banner newspaper link-- good collection of Meyers coverage.

• Tasers in Schools: More Talk Less Taser: from this week's topic on The Campaign Frame with Jeffrey Feldman.

• Reality-Based Communities: Screw Loose Change: Includes "viewer guides" for the "screw loose" movies. Aahhhh... now if I could just get the time to enjoy them...