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WP: Hasan Had More Contacts with American-Yemeni Iman al-Aulaqi (al-Awlaki)

11-21-09 8:04 P GMT-08
Report says the Major and the cleric discussed money transfers and other actions (that has Sen Levin calling the Ft. Hood shooting spree a terrorist action.) Still, there were two terrorists in Massachusetts who never acted because MA has strict gun laws. Texas has very lax codes. Another factor is the lack of full and complete checks of anyone who buys the most dangerous types of guns, like the cop killer that Hasan used.

Lies about ACORN set off Twitter Mob with #acornfacts

11-20-09 5:36 P GMT-08
Twitter is the most fun when the Tweeps start a big mob action themselves. And this one was glorious. Actually better than the Swine Flue mob that erupted last spring.

Washington Post- ABC News Poll President's Numbers Mostly Positive

11-20-09 5:05 A GMT-08
Seeing all the lies told about him, just staying in the plus column is a major victory.
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Goldmans Sachs to Give "A Good Trading Day's Haul" Back to American Public

11-19-09 9:33 A GMT-08
$100m for each of 5 years, or 2.3 percent of 2009 bonuses will be "tithed" out to small businesses over the period.

Poll: Americans Want a Surcharge on the HIghest Earners in US To Help Fund Health Care Reform

11-19-09 9:02 A GMT-08
Oh that's a poll that has to be redone so that Mainstream news can use the second, doctored one as proof that this one was wrong.

Too Many Breast Cancers Diagnosed by Mammograms?

11-18-09 8:08 P GMT-08
LA Lady: I've seen this in my own family. My sister found a series of "lumps" by self examination as promoted in the 80s. Each one caused extreme stress and expensive medical bills as it was removed and examined though we haven't had breast cancer in our immediate family whether post or pre-menopausal type. Luckily, she had good employer based insurance for it. So I'm for the new guidelines. Why get women into unnecessary "pre-existing condition" problems for lumps, even cancerous ones that disappear rapidly. Eat lots of fruit, veggies, whole grains, and other whole foods you can find at a local farmer's market.

The Nation: Newsweek Taps Bush Aide For Obama Reporting

11-18-09 6:53 A GMT-08
If it seems like Republicans are pushing the news, that's because they are.
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Alert Net at Reuters: Why boosting food output is not enough to beat hunger

11-18-09 6:36 A GMT-08
Inequality, not lack of supply creates hunger as food is priced out of the reach of the poor according to report. Thanks to @Liam_Fox at Twitter.com

Huffington Post: 18 Biggest Falsehoods in Sarah Palin's book

11-18-09 5:55 A GMT-08
You can also vote to tell them which whoppers you think are the worst.

Palingate: So how many abortions do these people claim Sarah had?

11-18-09 2:47 A GMT-08
I get lost in the long winding narrative. But they seem to imply that Trig is a rent a baby. But if a woman has an abortion why rent a baby about the time hers was to be born?

Exxon Gets their Iraqi Oil Field Deal

11-16-09 12:45 A GMT-08
Exxon gets 80% of "one of the largest" oil fields "in the oil rich south" according to the UK Telegraph. I know this is old news to some, but I just wanted a record here of the fact, and to inform anyone who hadn't heard yet. It did happen as we said it would. bTW, Telegraph, isn't the name of the largest partner usually first in news about a partnership? WTF?

Jenny Sanford Endorses Opponent to Husband For Next Year's Governor's Race

11-12-09 6:12 P GMT-08
Mrs. Sanford is no political lightweight either. This could send ol' Mark off to Argent... Oh wait. The pretty journalist isn't going to need a washed up old pol. Well maybe he can pitch a tent on the Appalachian trail, or join the soup lines with the rest of the unemployed homeless, the folks that Republicans usually ignore.

Massachusetts Man Says He Was Fired for Telling Colleague Her Gay Marriage Is Wrong

11-11-09 8:08 P GMT-08
Link goes to Fox News. Just wanted to make a comment. I've been there. You're taught by the fundie church that by standing up to "the infidel" you're going to win brownie points with God and get ya closer to the big man on that sea of glass when you die. And in the meantimes you're earning creds with your Christian buddies, a war story to tell and make yourself look good. Or maybe you know you're a tool for the Christian dominionists. Don't play martyr, now. I'ts just makes you look like a fool.

Examiner.com -- Robert Taylor: The Fort Hood massacre: more blowback from America's interventionist foreign policy

11-10-09 9:17 A GMT-08
Good piece. Agrees with the Bible that They who live by the sword will die by the sword.

Health Care Around the World: Why American Health Care for Uninsured is Like that Of 3rd World Nations

11-07-09 7:39 P GMT-08
Interview with TR Reid on the 4 methods of health care in the world and the types of insurance and other bundled medical programs in the developed world found in the nations of the world.

Neda's Mother: She Was Like an Angel

11-07-09 7:16 P GMT-08
Her mom, talks about Neda's life. New: Neda found it impossible to get work because she was divorced.

Why negative thinking makes the world a better place

11-07-09 5:32 P GMT-08
Writer's brush with positive thinking program illustrates how focusing on a positive outlook can hurt in the long run. 'come to think of it, positive thinking started out as a busineess ploy, didn't it? A ploy by already powerful and rich white men to ingnore the harm their business practices have on the world. Maybe they should go back to the EST scam. Oh yeah.that was for underlings. h/t @R_A_W at Twitter.com

Jake Tapper Interviews Roland Hedley Jr. On Twitter

11-07-09 7:03 A GMT-08
Over his new book based on his Twitter posts. (Has to be a first.) The Insufferably sufferable journalist opens up to the ABc's Political Punch columnist, or not. Now I know what I want for Christmas.

Focusing on Ft. Hood Killer's Beliefs Are an Easy Out to Avoid the Deeper Reasons for the Massacre

11-06-09 9:19 P GMT-08
Fort Hood and it's vicinity have have a lot of problems with killings and low morale. The fact that Hasan did not act until the day before he was to be deployed shows his actions were more about being denied his right to avoid war than because of his religious beliefs. Hat tip @ontd_political at Twitter.com for link

New book tells how Right Wing and business push mainstream news media into a right wing bias.

11-05-09 4:18 A GMT-08
Calls liberal bias of news media "and urban legend" and shows how the right forces news media to back up their own propaganda. Hat tip Twitter colleagues, probably either @maafa or @mparent77772

Meg Whitman's radio whoppers

11-02-09 5:04 P GMT-08
Right Now Ms. Whitman is a California concern, but such things go on in your state as well, and it's good to see some reporting on them which we do this far from the election. Beside should she win the governor's seat she's likely to be running for president by 2016 at the latest.

ROFLMAO Slate Imagines Barack Obama's Facebook Wall

11-02-09 4:26 A GMT-08
Must read. No registration required.

Users of Roan Plateau in CO Want Oil and Gas Drillers to Back Off

11-02-09 3:54 A GMT-08
My question is how many of those same people were at the GOP convention or at least in solidarity with the chant "drill baby drill". Just a bit ironic, don't you think?

Scott Roeder As John Brown? I can't begin to say all the things wrong with that

10-30-09 3:12 P GMT-08
While John Brown was helping fight off pro-slavery murderers in Kansas, the predecessors of Scott Roeder were probably there too, on the other side. And the David and Goliath fight was an arranged battle, not a cowardly assassination against an unarmed man attending church.

A Liberal's Hit List: Limbuagh's Crew Misses Hoax and Treats Obama Thesis Satire as Truth

10-25-09 7:11 A GMT-08
Yeah, so Limbaugh got scammed. Well it is important,because though his listeners call him a comedian, they treat him like a news reporter (a similar lack of skepticism is found in Glenn Beck fans. Therefore with Limbaugh and Beck, who make lots of money and can afford quality help it's almost criminal that they don't avail themselves of them. Apparently though TV advertisers are more sensitive to the standards of a show host. After Limbaugh spread racism a few years ago, a concerted effort was made by a large number of liberals to get his advertisers to give him the heeve ho, without much of the success that one group has had getting advertisers to drop Glenn Beck due to his racist remarks. Hat tip @crewislife at Twitter.com

Can You Get a Six Figure Job from the Unemployment Line?

10-25-09 12:27 A GMT-08
I think it would take many years of training and experience. Who's going to hire someone to totally screw Americans unless they know that person is without scuples or compassion. Still Pett's cartoon makes a good point.

"Swine" Flu Declared a National Emergency

10-24-09 9:22 P GMT-08
Order will allow hospitals to place separate H1N1 emergency rooms further from main hospitals. Too bad our government (including Congress) can't fight the oligarchy created by campaign donations from the wealthy as quickly and effectively.

New Book Coming Out in November on Sarah Palin "Going Rouge"

10-22-09 7:17 A GMT-08
No, actually I spelled that correctly. A book about Sarah Palin will be out the same day as her book. The only thing that scares me about the former governor is that we laughed so hard at Ronald Reagan until one day we woke up and he was the president-elect. Hat tip shadowfax_rulz at twittercom

The Above Linkblogs Might Contain "Borrowed" links.

Linkblogs do not substantially contribute traffic to my blog that I can discover. They all go offsite, and are often accessed from my blog. It's possible to access them from the RSS according to my settings. Still, even if I were to get ads clicking on a linkblog from the RSS won't drive more people to my blog than otherwise because they leave my resources. (Note to self, do more posts, less LBs with sources I find). I explain because I sometimes borrow links from people at Twitter, and often forget who put them up. (To fellow Twitterers: If you have a link to your blog, I will point it there, but Twitter, being impermanent, cannot hold your link for people to discover from there. I only 'borrow' them to get news out to as many people as I can who might not have seen the reports and videos found by the smart people I follow at Twitter or find in search rooms.

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AP Turns the Screws Into Shepard Fairey for Obama "Hope" Poster

posted 10-17-09
http://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/4020377570/in/photostream/
Major Headache from Mainstream News --Again?
Associated Press claims victory in Shepard Fairey case without much ground to stand on.
18th century sculptor's mortuary statue seems to know the feeling of being boxed in by the oligarchy of the major news sources.
Picture allowed via Creative Commons license. No support of nor further contribution to this blog by photographer/artist implied. Thanks to "Tim Green aka atoach" at flickr.com. Click on picture to go to original site and for link to options on different sizes. Rollover picture for further attribution.

Bloggers take action.  See bottom for what we can do to help Mr. Fairey and ourselves to be able to continue to act independently.

Funny, how the AP is now working like an arm of the Republican party.

But then reading many of their articles, one can see why that might be. The AP's rightward tilt has been noted before.

But again, the attack against Mr. Fairey follows a pattern of retribution against those who help the Democratic party, especially the middle or liberal side of it.  I doubt that Senator Baucus supporters get harassed.

Greg Mitchell in "UPDATED: Surprising Developments in AP vs. Shepard Fairey Case" takes pains to note that the AP is "Not for Profit", apparently relying on the stupidity of the American populace (or the stupidity that mainstream believes is it's main feature). Many partisan organizations both acknowledged and unacknowledged (like the supposedly non-partisan US Chamber of Commerce) act as tools for right wing causes, if only for the money backing such efforts.

Mitchell has a link to the LA Times blog that is covering Mr Fairey's case, probably via his statement on his blog (link below, At Mitchell's blog or at LA Times site).  Funny, but if Tribune company CEO Sam Zell's and AP's fantasies were granted, the Time's linking to Fairey's blog w/o permission and payment would be a copyright infringement.

The AP report (also available by link at GM's blog) starts right out with a very biased statement (in support of guess what news organization. They claim that Shepard Fairey's admission destroy his case, which they don't.  The AP assertions and previous actions have destroyed my trust in their news organization though.

The AP allowed a highly partisan manager of it's Washington Bureau to cover the 2008 election according to Gawker after sources I trust ""

So it's small wonder that the AP is playi ng the "destroy the Democrats" game.  And, of course, after years of studying how greed has been ding mainstream news, (though I also have doubts about mainstream news of earlier decades including the "golden age" of the era encompassing WW2 through the Vietnam War), I ask myself why I would begin to be surprised that street artist who created the iconic Obama Hope poster would be destroyed by news giant AP.

At least Martha Stewart had money to fight her case.

We need to help Fairey or we might as well close up shop.  

The worst people buy up congressional representatives and senators and use them to extract ever more money from the working people.  If right wing entities or money seeking organizations are allowed to also destroy anyone who takes time or makes an effort to support liberal causes, the circle will be closed.  

 I don't see any plea for monetary help for legal expenses at Mr. Fairey's blog, , but there are opportunities to buy his book and other items.  There might be a call for support later too.

Past statements on copyright infringement from various news sources shows that Fairey appears to be correct that the picture he used for his posters was changed enough to evade copyright protection, but the law usually follows Big Money.   

It will not be good for bloggers either if this sets a new precedence.  Mainstream news has been trying to get just about any talk about the news to be declared as a copyright violation.  

The political right wing would also be a primary gainer from such an outcome as well.

I have no connection with Mr. Fairey except that I live along with 17.6 million others in the Greater Los Angeles area which has been reported to also be where his home is at.

If Mr. Shepard loses, maybe he should go after all the publications that showed his poster for some money, or maybe they should just start paying now, if they don't want 1984ish versions of copyright laws enforced.

 Paste magazine might also owe Mr. Fairey money for their site as may everyone who used it.  (Plunk him down a Franklin, okay?)

And I love how the news from the AP and Tribune company to TV can use anyone's information they can extract from any source, from your neighbors to "our"  government and get freebies from the Republican party then claim copyright on it and impartiality in publishing it while making billions producing it.

Note to Bloggers and Social Media Users:

We, at the least, need to defend Shepard Fairey in our works and with our outrage.  An outcry has mitigated grossly overplayed lawsuits before. We could find ourselves up on the same scaffold he has been placed on if we let the oligarchs whether on the right or the left to determine how much of our news they own.

If we don't become outraged we could find ourselves being charged thousands for each time we linked to a news report in our Twitter streams of on our Facebook decks, or wrote a piece about a news report on our blogs, no matter if we make sure to hand off the reader to the original source full story.

Even non bloggers need to be concerned.  The former copyright protected oligarchic system of news distribution led to the horrors of the Vietnam war, where young men left their homes when the draft notice showed up to become killers and even to die because that's what they were "supposed to do". 

If we want to go back to those days, we'd better think again.  The new draft plans since the Bush administration revised them are to register everyone up to age 35 of both sexes with no exemptions for education, marriage, children.  Experts also say that if a new military venture is "needed" a draft will be necessary.  As we watch the same BS appear over attacking Iran as we saw about Iraq, we need to be frightened if only for our kids and grandkids, and work all methods for keeping out of that scenario.

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