Action Point with Cynthia Black 05-18-2008: The Reference Shelf

This week's article and item links:

• POLITICS: NATIONAL: CAMPAIGN 2008: What's McCain have against education benefits for veterans? The "Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act" sounds like the kind of rally-round-the-flag plan that John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all could embrace. Instead, it's become one of the starkest dividing lines between McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and his likely Democratic opponent.

• ENVIRONMENT: Fighting the False Solution of Nuclear Power: If it's a bill it must be flawed: "Although the word 'nuclear' has been carefully omitted from the bill, it is clear that this is a covert attempt to bolster a failing nuclear power industry in the name of addressing climate change," said Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder. "It's time to focus on real global warming solutions like solar, wind and energy efficiency, not to further fatten the moribund nuclear calf."

• NATIONAL SECURITY AND ENVIRONMENT: From one of my favorite resources, The Mainstream Media Project, this bulletin came across my desk:

  While many news stories focus on the potential threat from Iran in developing nuclear weapons... on Monday, The Washington Post reported that 40 or more nations worldwide have informed the UN that they wish to build nuclear power plants. The fear is this may be the first step in enriching plutonium for weapons... In order to back down from the increasing global momentum towards more nuclear weapons, the U.S. must take an active part in pursuing nuclear nonproliferation.

  So what to do? Interview someone exciting of course! With Dr. Arjun Makhijani we'll show how one of those Obama-electing "egghead" types can get the job of carbon cutting with free-market NON-nuclear technologies done! Now, wouldn't that be a nice change?! You can freely download Arjun's real Dr. Egghead book, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for US Energy HERE.
  

• POLITICS: ELECTIONS AND CAMPAIGNS-- NEW WEB SITE: MAPLight.org: Advanced campaign contribution effect database (hat-tip to Joy Marx-Mendoza):
  

  The site is a database of campaign contributions related to congressional voting and combines three data sets: Bill texts and legislative voting records; Supporting and opposing interests for each bill and Campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics. Combining this data makes visible key information that could never before be determined easily. For example: Contributions given by interests supporting and opposing each bill; Average donations given to legislators voting Yes and No on each bill and a Timeline of contributions and votes for each bill, graphically identifying when legislators received large donations before or after their vote.

• MUST READ: Toward A New Washington Consensus: From David Sirota:

  You've probably heard that John McCain once said, "I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues." This line is regularly referenced by Democratic television pundits as evidence that McCain is unprepared to lead the country during arecession. The criticism is certainly valid, but it ignores something more troubling. It's not that politicians like McCain "need to be educated" about economics, as he admitted. It's that they do not comprehend how economics impacts international affairs.

Action Point with Cynthia Black 05-11-2008: The Reference Shelf

This week's article and item links:

• POLITICS: NATIONAL: CAMPAIGN 2008: Did Rush Limbaugh Tilt Result In Indiana? Truly unfunny may be the interference Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos may be wreaking on primary outcomes in the Democratic race. Many people have asked if said interference is legal, and SO FAR it appears to be...but that is just so far.

• FUN, SNARKY, WEIRD AND COOL: HE'S A NAZI: This has been around a while but in case you missed it the first time and since we'll be on the topic of Rush (jeez, what the hell kind of name is Rush, anyway?) we may as well ensure you have this fabulous and well-made send-up of the Commando of Cheeks himself. And, from the creator of The Daily Show...this well-deserved humor break: Shoot the Messenger.

• COMMUNICATIONS: MEDIA: Where did the Web rumors about Obama come from? McClatchy operates as the last bastion of repectable journalism in America. Privately owned too-- imagine that. In this article they give us some facts toward needed rumor-mongering “push back", but that still requires more information. Pushing back on the Obama misinformation is easy when you have most of the facts. The collection of info on whether Obama puts his Hand Over Heart during the Star Spangled Banner from Snopes is a start. By the way, I haven't said the pledge, let alone put my Hand Over Heart for ANY reason since the day Ohio National Guard killed 4 Ohio State University students, but that's just me. Oh, AND from Media Matters comes this too...Dick Morris: Election hinges on whether "we believe" Obama is "sort of a sleeper agent who really doesn't believe in our system."

• MUST READ: Acknowledging the Race Chasm: From David Sirota: When it comes to race, American politics is as polarized as a red and blue election map. On one side are those who try to distract from the issue; on the other side are those who work to sensationalize it. As this campaign season shows, what unifies both is bigotry.

Action Point with Cynthia Black 04-06-2008: The Reference Shelf

Today's article and item links:

• POLITICS: NATIONAL: CAMPAIGN 2008: VIDEO: Obama Reverend's So-Called "Hate Speech" and the Propoganda Campaign Behind It!

  Since ABC television's release of selected "hate" language from Obama's long-time Pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the permutations of it into a hypnotic loop has been fast and targeted and is an excellent example of how ABC, Fox and talkers from Limbaugh to Savage are working in concert to trigger the "angry black man" frame in the minds of Americans.
  

• FRAMING: Why the Smear of Wright Is So Wrong from Jeffrey Feldman:

  Jeffrey Feldman: Listen up, folks. This is no joke. There is a very serious problem afoot in this election and either we start taking the lead at dealing with it or nobody will. That problem is the right-wing framing of our nominee.

• MUST READ: Confessions of An Economic Hit Man from David Sirota:
  

  To paraphrase the UFO poster from "The X Files," I wanted to believe. Specifically, I wanted to believe the guy talking tough about campaign finance reform was committed to getting money out of politics. This was the Arizona senator who in 2002 taped a radio ad praising his state's "clean elections" system. It provides public money to candidates so they don't have to finance campaigns with corporate contributions - the kind given in exchange for legislative favors. McCain's support for clean elections, I thought, proved he wanted to end corruption. But by the time the senator showed up here in Colorado last week for a fundraiser at Denver's Petroleum Club, I knew I had been duped.

VIDEO: Obama Reverend's So-Called "Hate Speech" and the Propaganda Campaign Behind It!

Since ABC television's release of selected "hate" language from Obama's long-time Pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the permutations of it into a hypnotic loop has been fast and targeted and is an excellent example of how ABC, Fox and talkers from Limbaugh to Savage are working in concert to trigger the "angry black man" frame in the minds of Americans.

Even if one does not hear the loops, angry coast-to-coast rebroadcasts bits of it create another endless loop of questions, arguments, concern and accusations-- all likely to result in one thing-- people will just get sick of hearing about it.

Eventually, just the sound of Barack Obama's voice regardless of what he is saying will trigger an uncomfortable sense in any listener and I believe it is creating a dislike for Obama --uneasy memories of the voices on those clips or just a subtle unidentifiable discomfort-- that is the real aim of the strategy behind this campaign. Why? Well, people vote from their feelings don't they? Many deciding at the last minute in the voting booth?

Wouldn't it be useful for Republican strategists if an ingrained 90's era Clinton "bad feeling" button paired with this current attack on Obama helped the undecided vote at the last minute for McCain, who they may not like intellectually but about whom, they at least don't "feel" uneasy? (for more on how techniques to create this effect are manufactured and work in elections see Thom Hartmann's book Cracking the Code, Chapter 5, "How Feelings Are Anchored").

Examine the following; the audio loop being played in part or whole on Hannity's daily radio show:




Now, listen to the "chickens coming home to roost" comment from a section 9 minutes long and apparently from a sermon September 17th 2001-- 6 days after 9/11.





This next clip contains the snippet "God damn America" (near the end) from a sermon on the changing nature of governments that contemptuously act as God and what they can expect.




In context, those bits and pieces of angry rhetoric blend into REASONED AND WHOLE OPINIONS, with logical connections to how faith and God interplay with society. And regardless of how YOU feel about the content of the sermons, you do NOT hear Barack Obama's voice, have any reason to picture him or have any reason to feel you don't like him. But going back to loop one, embedded in your mind?

Oh yes you do, oh yes you do.