Ongoing RNC Coverage: Democracy Now! Journalists Arrested

UPDATE: VIDEO OF AMY GOODMAN BEING ARRESTED AT RNC HERE.

UPDATE: RAW AUDIO OF AMY GOODMAN'S ARREST VIA INDYBAY HERE.

UPDATE: Get the Coldsnap Legal Collective Twitter here.

UPDATE: Amy Goodman reported arrested. From Coldsnap Legal Collective: "Mass arrests on Jackson & 9th, including Democracy Now! journalists Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddou, Nicole Salazar."

UPDATED: Watch live, street-level coverage via The Uptake here.

Watch this video of Democracy Now!/Eyewitness Video producer Elizabeth Press. This is a chilling story of how the "opposition" is intimidated in the United States.

UPDATED: Amy Goodman jumps fence to question police:






You can also track police raids as they occur across the Twin Cities here.

Proud to be an Amurkin'?

Miss Alaska

While the corporate media obsesses over McCain's VP pick--a person with 18 months of experience as a state governor, and highly valuable experience as a mayor of a small town half the size of Boone--you may wonder if anything else is going on out there. Turns out nothing is going on:

As the nation focuses on Sen. John McCain's choice of running mate, President Bush has quietly moved to expand the reach of presidential power by ensuring that America remains in a state of permanent war.

...

The New York Times page 8 placement of the article in its Saturday edition seems to downplay its importance. Such a re-affirmation of war carries broad legal implications that could imperil Americans' civil liberties and the rights of foreign nationals for decades to come.

No worries. Take another Soma. Full article here.

Pull Up A Log

Our Present Crisis has been exacerbated by war profiteering. By fear mongering. By the language of hatred being passed off as information.

This is now.

But someone, many moons ago, spoke fearlessly about these dangers. It wasn't our current president--could you even imagine him speaking this boldly? On behalf of people--as opposed to corporations?

This is what leadership in a time of crisis sounds like. You won't hear anyone being urged to go shopping:

Rise Up! It's Good To Be King!

King Coal that is.

Gregory Boyce, CEO of Peabody (coal), sat down for an interview with USA Today recently. According to the article, Boyce isn't sweating too terribly much about coal's huge greenhouse gas emissions because--get this--"Black is the new Green".

From the Center for American Progress:

“There’s a perception out there that coal is dirty, and we have to change that,” he adds, noting that coal plants already have cut emissions of some pollutants and boosted efficiency to slash CO2 discharges. “Black is the new green.“

Huh. Must be a really dark green:

“Clean coal” is a shorthand term for “technologies designed to enhance both the efficiency and the environmental acceptability of coal extraction, preparation and use.” This includes established technologies used to capture methane emitted during coal mining and to “wash” coal before it is burned to separate toxic impurities, as well as technologies to capture and geologically store its greenhouse emissions (CCS) that are “expensive, experimental and not in commercial use.”

The coal industry, with the assistance of the current administration, has been fighting regulations to establish or enforce the use of existing technologies to reduce traditional air pollutants produced by coal-burning like mercury and sulfur dioxide. In climate scientist James Hansen’s analysis, the only way to avoid climate catastrophe is to establish “an immediate moratorium on additional coal-fired power plants without CCS.”

And that $275,000 dollar donation from Peabody to Newt Gingrich's "American Solutions For Winning The Future" 527 promoting the "Drill Here Drill Now" thing? Sounds like the same old green to us.

See you at the movies.

Keepin' 'Em Down

There's a whole school of thought out there that believes in the notion that it is not good to have a strong middle class. To these people, you only need to look at the 1960's and 1970's in America to understand that sending kids to college (so that they may improve their lot in life) is a bad idea. You know--because those uppity kids might start to demand change, and more opportunity--equality even.

To the ruling class in this country, that's just too risky. To the ruling class, democracy is OK, but plutocracy is much better. Best to keep the little folks down. Thank goodness there are plenty of ways to do that:

Alex Carey said that the people of the US have been subjected to an unparalleled, expensive, 3/4 century long propaganda effort designed to expand corporate rights by undermining democracy and destroying the unions. The 20th century, he wrote, is marked by three historic developments: the growth of democracy via the expansion of the franchise, the growth of corporations, and the growth of propaganda to protect corporations from democracy. Carey’s unique view of US history goes back to World War I and ends with the Reagan era.

Noam Chomsky dedicated his book “Manufacturing Consent” to the memory of Alex Carey. Chomsky says that the Australian sociologist would have written the definitive history of propaganda in the US, had he lived to complete his work. This is a fairly complex production with many voices, historic sound clips, and source material. The program has been used by writers and students of history and propaganda. Alex Carey: Taking the Risk out of Democracy, Corporate Propaganda VS Freedom and Liberty with a foreword by Noam Chomsky was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1995.

Radio can educate. Radio can challenge--without being hateful. Part one here, part two here.

Weekend Video Salon: Must Be The Peaches

Here's Rachel Maddow guest-hosting MSNBC's Countdown. You may know Rachel, she also hosts a radio show on Air America, the progressive radio network.

As conservatives and local media titans may want to note, Air American is now doing so poorly that its hosts are also getting TV gigs--indeed, the first hour of Countdown is simulcast on Air America during Rachel's regular radio program. Just another reason for conservatives to declare the network DOA, and for local media monopolists to insist that there is no market for progressive radio in the High Country.

Anyway, here's Rachel having an interesting conversation with Lawrence Korb about McCain's deep and highly questionable ties to Georgia--and the $800,000 reason why McCain hearts him some new cold war action. Enjoy!

Midweek Video Salon: Harvesting NC Wind Energy

"We'd love to tell you there's NOT a hole in the ozone layer..."

Here's a locally-produced short documentary on about the rise of wind energy in western North Carolina. The time is now.

Oil And Water

As we get closer to our upcoming free screening of Rise Up! West Virginia, we're going to focus a bit on the intersection of the fossil fuel economy and the mainstream media. Today's installment comes from the heart of the High Country, courtesy of Aisling Broadcasting's WXIT 1200 AM.

For whatever reason, Aisling chooses to carry Rush Limbaugh--in addition to a full stable of other syndicated talkers--all of which are quite loyal to the rightist, pro-corporate philosophy of privatized profits and socialized losses. This, despite the fact that the Boone radio market has voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates in the last few elections, and is a college town.

As big oil pours millions of dollars into the coffers of presidential candidates, and hires PR firms to tidy up their windfall profit laden image, we're hearing and seeing more stories in the corporate media that essentially say...oil's not so bad, after all...big oil is the new green...or our personal favorite...oil and water DO mix!

Here's an excellent example as brought to you over the public airwaves via WXIT 1200 AM: As Rush will make abundantly clear, oil has never done anything to negatively impact the environment. In fact, oil isn't bad at all--it turns out that the ocean likes to eat it:

On the August 5 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh said of the effects of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska: "The sea eats oil alive. That place up there, nature cleaned it up faster than we ever could."
...
What is the damage? How has oil destroyed America? How has it destroyed people's lives? It's done just the opposite. Where does this come from? What in the world is the political calculation these people have to construct a presidential campaign based on the hatred of oil, as though oil itself is a conservative Republican? They're treating oil as if it were no different than Bush. They hate Bush, they hate oil. And both are irrational.
...
Nature cleaned up itself so damn fast. It was such a laughable thing to watch people with dish towels and Dawn dishwasher detergent wiping oil off of the rocks at Prince William Sound.
...
But anyway, the sea eats oil. The sea eats oil alive. That place up there, nature cleaned it up faster than we ever could.
...

You see, it's very difficult to help people learn about the importance of switching to sustainable energy resources when you have flat-earthers of the Limbaugh variety spewing these lines. And yet there these people are--day after day--reciting their talking points like the good little force multipliers that they are.

Full audio, transcripts, and empirical data covering the environmental devastation of the Exxon Valdez spill here.

Cloned Mormon Puppy Slaves

It must be sweeps week or something. Or maybe Aisling Broadcasting's website, goblueridge.net, experienced a drastic decline in hits ever since they started requiring visitors to register before posting a comment.

Either way, Aisling's family-centered values were on bold display when they posted this gem of a story today:

Newland Woman Clones Puppies and Renews Interest in 30-Year-Old “Mormon Sex Slave” Case

They devoted 11 paragraphs to this story (we thought one-sentence paragraphs were big grammatical no-nos, but hey, who's counting), offering plenty of salacious detail along the way.

Hey, thank goodness kids don't use the internets, eh Aisling? We would certainly never expect any local kids to go to Aisling's site to read about the Watauga spelling bee or anything like that. Be proud guys, there's certainly nothing else out there worth reporting on that might take up 11 paragraphs. Your Pulitzer is on the way.

Libertarian World

Not too long ago, the streets seemed full of Ron Paul supporters--especially at busy intersections like NC 105 and 321 in Boone. Lots of signs, lots of enthusiasm. We thought it was great to see so many people engaged in the political process, even if we did not exactly agree with the libertarian philosophy.

Despite our efforts to find a picture of Paul supporters doing their thing here in Boone, our searches of the internets proved fruitless. So, we'll use this guy's picture to make a few points--points that make us wonder if our local libertarians have really thought about what a true, libertarian world would look like. The blockquotes below are taken directly from the Libertarian Party Platform:

1) This Paul supporter is standing at a busy interstate highway overpass. If libertarians were in power, the interstate highway system as we know it would not exist:

The only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected. All efforts by government to redistribute wealth, or to control or manage trade, are improper in a free society.

2) This Paul supporter is standing on a sidewalk, most likely constructed or required by the local government. Yet libertarians say that:

People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others.

3) There are directional signs and traffic signals at the intersection. In a libertarian world, there probably wouldn't be any of these things--see, they're not profitable enough:

We seek to divest government of all functions that can be provided by non-governmental organizations or private individuals.

4) This Ron Paul supporter can breathe.

Pollution and misuse of resources cause damage to our ecosystem. Governments, unlike private businesses, are unaccountable for such damage done to our environment and have a terrible track record when it comes to environmental protection...environmental advocates and social pressure are the most effective means of changing public behavior.

Looks like this Ron Paul supporter has taken a few things for granted. How well would he do without them?

Weekend Video Salon: T-shirt of Terror!

Because the big, consolidated, corporatized media always focuses on the REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF:

Local Media Monopoly: The One

There are alot of places you can go to be told how to vote.

You can tune in to any number of syndicated talk radio programs carried by Boone's Aisling Broadcasting. Their entire talkshow lineup is right wing. Not an opposing viewpoint to be heard. All good for democracy.

Another place you can go is church. There, you can be told that Obama is the Antichrist--apparently because he went on a trip overseas and stirred things up. Obama turned out to be pretty popular over there, he visited "Mesopotamia", and performed other devilish duties--all of which clearly revealed that HE IS THE ONE.

The next day, after church, you can tune in to WXIT 1200 AM, or WATA 1450 AM, maybe even Glory 1130 AM--and get that scary sermon about Obama the Antichrist reinforced.

Let's take a listen as Thom Hartmann deciphers the dog-whistle political messaging going on these days--about the one:

North Carolina Voters In Danger?

As many on the campaign trail are turning their attention to voter canvassing for Obama over the next 100 days and volunteering to register voters across North Carolina, there are others who are volunteering and being paid to remove citizens from the voter rolls. In other states it is the lawmakers who are purging voters of their right to vote. Greg Palast reported on various activities of voter purging during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections--and it is happening again, according to Palast.

While Florida and Ohio garnered most of the attention of those past stories, voters are being purged in many more states during this run up to the 2008 presidential elections. Colorado has purged 1/5 of all voters and Nevada along with Ohio have a "new federal law which is knocking out tens of thousands of voters who lost their home to foreclosure. In...New Mexico, HALF of the Democrats of Mora, a dirt poor and overwhelmingly Hispanic county, found their registrations disappeared this year, courtesy of a Republican voting contractor." [1] It should also be noted that these states are mostly swing states, like North Carolina, so this could wreak havoc on democracy as we know it come November.

In the most recent Rasmussen poll for North Carolina, Obama currently trails John McCain by three points, which is consistent with previous polls showing McCain in the lead by a margin of 2-5 points. [2]

John McCain 47
Barack Obama 44
Bob Barr 3

"Every North Carolina poll since Hillary Clinton left the race has shown the race close but with John McCain in the lead, and this one continues that trend. There's also continued evidence of the enthusiasm gap between Barack Obama and John McCain. Although McCain leads the poll overall, just 23% of respondents view him very favorably compared to 31% for Obama." [3]

Photo courtesy D. Shumate.

References:

[1] http://www.gregpalast.com/obama-doesn’t-sweat-he-should/

[2] http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2008/07/north-carolina-president.html

[3] http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-stability-in-nc-polls.htm

Weekend Video Salon: A Different Kind Of Barnraising

People often ask about what can be done to address the increasingly corporatized, consolidated media landscape.

Some people simply resign themselves to the idea of listening to context-free "news", Limbaugh-style hate radio, or "local news" that does not even begin to cover local issues.

Some people think (and do) otherwise: