Marking 9/11: Silence, Scamery, Threats, And A Warning Of A Coming Depression
THE “D WORD” MAKES IT ON TO TV
“The end result of the global economic slowdown may be the U.S. announcing national bankruptcy as the government cannot afford the bailouts that it promised and the market will not bail out the government,” Martin Hennecke, senior manager of private clients at Tyche, told CNBC on Thursday.
“We expect a depression in the United States. We expect a depression, very possibly, also in Europe,” Hennecke said on “Worldwide Exchange.”
9/11: BUSH SILENT, OBAMA AND MCCAIN VISIT GROUND ZERO
DEAL POSSIBLE IN ZIMBABWE TO END CONFLICT
MEDIACHANNEL MAY GO DOWN: HOW YOU CAN HELP
John McCain and his Democratic opponent Barack Obama visited Ground Zero in New York while the War President practiced a minute of silence….General Petraus says “victory” in Iraq Unlike.. Zimbabwe Opposition and Covernment negotiating a deal….Palin Threatening War With Russia if Georgia invaded again….
WAR ON PAKISTAN
NYT: Bush Said to Give Orders Allowing Raids in Pakistan
WASHINGTON – President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.
PAKISTAN NOT PLEASED
NYT: Pakistan’s Military Chief Criticizes U.S. Over a Raid (September 11, 2008)
The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants’ increasingly secure base in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission.
PALIN DEBATE SEETHES ON
Deepak Chopra: Obama and The Palin Effect
Sometimes politics has the uncanny effect of mirroring the national psyche
even when nobody intended to do that. This is perfectly illustrated by the
rousing effect that Gov. Sarah Palin had on the Republican convention in
Minneapolis. On the surface, she outdoes former Vice President Dan Quayle as
an unlikely choice, given her negligible parochial expertise in the complex
affairs of governing. Her state of Alaska has less than 700,000 residents,
which reduces the job of governor to the scale of running one-tenth of New
York City. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani is a towering international figure.
Palin’s pluck has been admired, and her forthrightness, but her real appeal
goes deeper.She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his
idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological
terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight,
countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed
to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of ‘the
other.’ For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings in people,
but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our
higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory
kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the
fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before
his arrival on the scene.)I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome
by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to
understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a
rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a
higher vision.
NY OBSERVER:”ARE REPUGS STEALING THE FEMINIST NARRATIVE?
In the days after Ms. Palin’s saucy Minneapolis salvo, underneath the giddy left-wing blogosphere blowback and smug IM banter—she looks just like Tina Fey! Imagine what Saturday Night Live is gonna do with this!—there were distinct rumblings of self-doubt. Had the feminist narrative suddenly been seized from the Democrats, who in their anxiety to “inspire,” have been not thrilling but simply inspiring—i.e., exhausting (and clunky-shoed in the bargain)? Where was the Democratic version of this fully actualized glamour-puss? Yes, Democrats have Michelle Obama. But she’s not on the ticket.
And in particular, how would that special subset of Democratic women—New York women—see Ms. Palin? After years of hand-wringing over “having it all”—balancing work, husband, baby, work, work, work, more babies, more work—would the snipey posters on UrbanBaby and the owners of the double-wide strollers rally around a candidate who, while she may not share their political views or background, shared something more intangible: the understanding and the experience of balancing work and motherhood and making it as a woman in an old boys’ club?
MEDIA: FAIR CHALLENGES “BALANCE IN WASH POST
A September 7 Washington Post article purported to offer “a guide to some of the more questionable assertions” coming from the Republican and Democratic presidential tickets at the recent party conventions. But what the paper really gave readers was a lesson in media “false balance,” where corporate journalists feel obligated to give equal attention to political lies or exaggerations from both sides–even when the facts suggest that the deception is mostly on one side.
The article - which appeared on the Post website as a Michael Dobbs “Fact Checker” feature - was introduced with an equal criticism of both major parties: “The political convention season generated its usual share of outlandish spin, misleading rhetoric and outright fibs. The presidential and vice-presidential nominees for both parties resorted to some dubious arguments to attack their opponents while promoting their own accomplishments and policy proposals.” Accordingly, the Post offered one example each from Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden, paired with an example from Republican John McCain and another from GOP running mate Sarah Palin.
According to the Post, Obama misled when he said his spending proposals could be paid for “by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens.” The paper suggested that Obama’s spending plans are actually more costly than his proposed savings. The Post’s critique is based on a report by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (8/29/08), which treats the renewal of any of the Bush tax cuts (as opposed to allowing them to expire as scheduled) as a new addition to the deficit, rather than a continuation of current policies, as Obama maintains.
11
Sep
IS WHATS HAPPENING ON WALL STREET SOCIALISM? NEW SCAMS, SF PROTEST
I was pleased that the Bob Morris’s Polizeros blog carried a photo of the cover of my new book PLUNDER and asys he is looking forward to reading it. I hope others will be too. (It is now available on Amazon.com et.al) I also found this enlightening post on the site:
What’s happening on Wall Street isn’t socialism
Let’s be clear about it. What’s happening on Wall Street now with the federal government propping up collapsing financial institutions is most assuredly not socialism. Last time I checked, the definition of socialism did not include the enriching of corporate pirates who drove huge institutions into bankruptcy while pocketing hundreds of millions for themselves and pals, while escaping prison time all the while. Nope, that’s not socialism at all.
Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of good.
The public collectively does not own Fannie and Freddie, nor do they have the slightest say in their administration. Nor will they in whatever institutions are about to collapse that the government will attempt to prop up. So, if it’s not socialism, then what is it? Hmmm.
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low.
Kevin Phillips, author and political strategist to U.S. President Richard Nixon, argues that the United States is a plutocracy in which there is a “fusion of money and government.”
Sound familiar?
You bet. I cite Phillips in my film In Debt We trust. This is what I have been writing about.
This week I wrote a commentary—now up on Huffington Post— about all the foreign money sloshing around in our economy and keeping it afloat. I pointed out that foreign banks had big holdings in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bow that the bank is recapitalizing under government control, are foreigners coming back in/? To some degree but the overall trend is scaring the shit out of the Treasury Department. Here’s a report on the appropriately named HOUSING DOOM website:
Foreign Buyers Flee Fannie Bill Sale
By John M.
Sellers of corporate debt can take some comfort that their bonds don’t share some of the uncertainty of post-bailout agencies, but what are the implications as the GSEs continue to roll over their paper? In this mostly positive story about today’s record bill sale by Fannie Mae, Bloomberg included an obscure paragraph about foreign participation that should really have been written in letters of fire:
Asian investors bought 12 percent of the latest two-year debt issue, as European investors purchased 8 percent, down from 39 percent and 17 percent in the July sale, according to company data. Central banks bought 27 percent, down from 57 percent. …
So on a proportional basis the Asians reduced their participation by over two-thirds and the central banks by over half. That certainly looks significant, and should make tomorrow’s release of FRBNY’s statistics on central bank net holdings of treasuries and agencies most interesting.
We’ve become sensitive to stories about the level of comfort that Asian governments have in agency debt. Today Taiwan put some mild restrictions [3] on the level of exposure to GSE debt of their insurance industry.
In the meantime, there is also the question of confidence in treasuries themselves. One measure [4] of quality seems to be causing some concern. So it’s not just the yield spread between “riskless” treasuries and agencies which is in play, but the absolute yields of both.
TRANSLATION FROM THE FINANCIALEEZE: THE SHIT IS HITTING THE FAN
MEXICAN BILLIONAIRE BUYS 6.1 $ OF NY TIMES
CRIME ON WALL STEET: THE SAGA CONTINUES
NYT:BANKS ACCUSED OF ILLEGAL TAX DODGES
Wall Street investment banks are marketing and selling complex schemes meant to allow foreign investors, including offshore hedge funds, to avoid paying billions of dollars in dividend taxes illegally, according to a Senate subcommittee report released Wednesday.
The 77-page report, by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, is based on scores of internal data and documents and singles out Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank, Merrill Lynch, UBS and Citigroup. The Senate subcommittee that prepared the report, led by its chairman, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, has held extensive inquiries into tax and offshore abuses. It holds a hearing on the report’s findings on Thursday.
APPLES STEVE JOBS BLAMES HEDGE FUNDS FOR SPREADING RUMORS
To the ranks of chief executives who blame those terrible meanies who run hedge funds for their troubles — Jeffrey Skilling at Enron, say, or Jimmy Cayne at Bear Stearns, or Patrick Byrne at Overstock.com — we can now add a new name: the one and only Steve Jobs. According to Jim Goldman, who interviewed Mr. Jobs today on CNBC after his latest razzle-dazzle product announcement, the Apple chief executive said the rumors that he had suffered a recurrence of cancer came from “hedge funds with a big short position in Apple.”
OUR CREDIT CARDS NO GOOD IN EUROPE
If you’ve been to Europe recently, you know that the majority of vending machines like kiosks or public telephones only take Credit Cards with the security chip in it.
While all of the credit cards issued in Europe have this security chip in them, only a handful of U.S. Credit Card issuers use such a feature. When traveling it can result in a waste of time, since it is a lot faster to get tickets at Museums, Train Stations, Subways, Airports using kiosks that also have English language menus, than to wait in the long lines and having to experience the language barrier.
But it’s getting worse. In order to counteract credit card fraud due to identity theft, credit card cloning and stolen cards, Europe is switching to a “Chip-and-PIN” system. The “Chip-and-PIN”system has extra protection since only credit cards with the security chip are accepted, either at vending machines or in person (like in a restaurant), and the point of sale machine will ask the consumer to enter the PIN, a procedure similar to what happens today when you use your ATM card.
Boston.com is reporting that “Nearly all the credit-card terminals in Britain, Ireland, Denmark, France, and Spain have been changed. Canada is scheduled to convert in 2010. And as many as 50 other countries around the world are converting.”
Unfortunately U.S. credit cards issuers have no plans to adopt the “Chip-and-PIN” system, not even for Business Cards. This is going to be a major inconvenience for international travelers, especially frequent business travelers.
THOSE “INDIANS” ON THE BEACH IN SAN FRANCISCO
When I was in San Francisco last week, I visited Ocean Beach and reported on the recreation of a l902 picture of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show with an installation with l00 Native Americans on horseback. The photo was imagined by Western artist Thom Ross who also created a figure of Annie Oakley who I saw as the role model for Sarah Palin. I wrote about that.
Now Tony Gonzalez, a leader of the American Indian movement, visited the “show” in the sand and was disgusted. He didn’t see an art installation or a tribute but rather an insulting “mockumentary.”
He writes: ‘
I found the exhibition of 100 warrior figures on horses, as colorful and impressive as it may seem, and led by buffalo bill cody and his ‘wild west’ show troupe, to be offensive, disturbing, insulting and just darn right culturally inappropriate! Not to mention the historical context or point of view; an outdated perpetuation of myths and oppression of the times. The artist himself has a bad attitude, is dressed in an unfriendly cowboy outfit, with a long jim bowie type knife on front of pants. If you haven’t seen the exhibit I encourage you to take a look at racism in its fine sublime forms, subtle historical messaging, and oppressive overture.
I especially call on the artists in our communities to come forward and challenge the installation artist for his deliberate gestures, and for having included george custer and other notorious Indian killers who sought to exterminate our peoples, cultures, violated treaties, our economy, and yet this guy is making a profit from this by selling his figures on public lands, too!! This is intolerable and unacceptable!!
11
Sep
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: A 9/11 APPEAL FOR SUPPORT FOR MEDIACHANNEL
A 911 APPEAL FROM NEWS DISSECTOR DANNY SCHECHTER:
Help Us Save And SUSTAIN MediaChannel.org
Of course I remember 9/11. No one who was in New York that day will ever forget it. At the same time, on this anniversary I sadly have to report that we have just heard from our one partner/funder that our twin towers — the collaboration of MediaChannel and Media Tenor — is being ended, with no ifs, ands or buts, and not much of a sensible explanation. And, yes, this, at least is an inside job.
It doesn’t make me feel good saying this on this holy or holies: MediaChannel’s survival is now on the line.
I was a responder in my own way that day. I went into high gear, writing, reporting, critiquing and dissecting. On September llth 2001, I began writing this blog every day, sometimes seven days a week, sometimes 3000 words in length, often more, probably inundating as much as illuminating.
I was soon producing books based in part on what were covering, ahead of their time books like MEDIA WARS: News at A Time of Terror, and as the American counter attack evolved into the war on terror and then Iraq, my book Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception, one of the first on the Iraq War in Summer 2003 and then my film WMD and soon a second book on media complicity with the War in Iraq: WHEN NEWS LIES.
I became a writing maniac, believing somehow that the printed word mattered, that independent media was necessary to monitor mainstream coverage and challenge it. The MediaChannel, which we started in l999, then found a more timely voice and a larger audience.
I considered myself lucky to have a platform, a place where I could freely express my ideas, take part in coverage of media coverage in real time and offer, when possible, a counter-narrative. This virtual “space” became a website I believed in and others respected.
We were able to raise funds and to some degree become a “thought leader” in independent media. At its peak, Medichannel had over a thousand affiliates and then more, with invitations and input flooding in from around the world.
My partner Rory O’Connor began his own “Media Is A Plural” blog too and he’s now written THE book on hate radio called SHOCK JOCKS: Hate Speech & Talk Radio. (Alternet Books)
We had hoped to create a site that could aggregate content from all over the world and introduce journalists and media organizations to each other to help build a media and democracy movement. We had big ideas and deep ideals. We struggled on but soon many affiliates thought they would do better with their own sites. Our movement fragmented with less and less collaboration. We insisted on being post partisan but many partisan political activists saw media criticism only as a tool to beat up on their rivals, left against right, Democrats vs Republicans and the other way around. There was plenty of money for those sites but a shrinking commitment to ours.
We were more interested in critiquing corporate media. We were better at writing and producing than promoting and fundraising. Soon, the funding tapered off, as previous funders got “donor fatigue” and moved on to newer, younger, sexier projects often motivated by the”flavor of the week” rather than helping us build our capacity and outreach to new audiences. And now it is going, going and almost gone despite a sizable audience and enthusiasm. We built a community but that community has not helped us build our network.
If Mediachannel is relevant, timely, empowering, as we believe it is, than our readers must try to find ways to support us. But many of you don’t or can’t –in part, perhaps, because we don’t employ all the promotional ‘tricks’ to sustain our work.
We were fortunate a year ago to get support from Media Tenor, then a German-based media monitoring company. But they have their own problems and priorities and can’t do it anymore. So folks, here we are, “celebrating” our ninth anniversary — and on the edge of survival.
We may have to call it quits unless you, many of you, make tax deductible donations—we would suggest $50 or more—to keep us going. Right now, both my partner Rory O’Connor and I are donating all our time and services, as well as subsidizing rent and other expenses, server fees, bookkeeping and accounting expenses, etc.
So whatever money comes in for MC goes for just four budget items:
l. Part-time Salary for Web Director and Editor David DeGraw
2. Distribution support to Democracy In Action.
3. Technology and Support to keep us running. You will notice how
Mediachanel’s look and features were upgraded this past year and look great.
4. Security—to prevent against further hacker attacks from those who want to silence us
We know we need a bigger team, especially highly motivated and competent people who can do promotion, fundraising and help upgrade our technology as we are doing with our Medichannel.2.0 initiative,. Unfortunately none of our former foundation supporters are willing to help, and not because they don’t like our work. Many have turned their backs on independent media — at the time its needed most.
For now we need to scale back and hunker down just to survive. Given the generally tough economic times — particularly in the indy media sector — our company Globalvision can no longer afford to underwrite this tax-exempt site, which is a not for profit project of the Global Center foundation, run by a separate and independent board.
What all this boils down to is an announcement we don’t want to make. But here goes: We now only have enough support to continue operations through OCTOBER 15th 2008. That’s the Ides of October. Period. Full Stop. That’s it. Not much notice, is it?
We are being direct. Are there enough of you willing to help with checks made out to the Global Center at 575 8th Avenue, New York, New York l0018, Suite #2200? If you have specific contacts or doable ideas, you can call me at (212) 246-0202 ext. 3006. (Please don’t tell us to call George Soros. He helped in the past. He’s “moved on.”)
If help is not forthcoming, if your donations are insufficient, we may have to say sayonara, thank you for your support over all these years, declare victory and close down. Right now we don’t see how we can keep going on a ZERO budget. Tell us we are wrong. Show us you care.
Make a difference so we can continue to make a difference.
We want to keep going. It’s never over until it’s over. There is nothing on the wide world web quite like mediachannel: global, informed, original. And our Media Savvy newsletter. We are willing to keep fighting if we know you are there with us. In short, its time to put up before we are forced to shut up.
You can donate on Paypal or directly. That address again:
Checks should be made out to:
THE GLOBAL CENTER
and say For MediaChannel.org
575 8th Avenue, Suite #2200
NY, NY 10018 USA
Thank you for joining us on this journey.
This fight goes on with or without us, but we prefer the former to the latter.
Danny Schechter
News Dissector
PS: THANKS FOR THE MANY KIND LETTERS AND PROMISES OF SUPPORT.
LATE NEWS: Black Entertainment Television president of Entertainment Reggie Hudlin is leaving the company after three years in the position.
FRIDAY TONIGHT: MUST SEE—BILL MOYERS TAKES ON SHOCK JOCKS,HATE RADIO ON PBS. APPEARING IN THE PROGRAM —MEDIACHANNEL BLOGGER AND AUTHOR RORY O’CONNOR.
CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS
Have a great weekend. Give some thought to Mediachannel’s appeal for help.
Commments to Dissector@mediachannel.org
No comments:
Post a Comment