Freeze The Vote

Hey, didya catch the most recent edition of Uprising Radio on WATA? They did a whole program on the durn Eskimos of Alaska.

Don't they like wear mukluks or something? Worship nature, or their ancestors, walruses?

One thing is clear: they do not pray to the right god. So Sarah decided to just pretend that they didn't exist.

When Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain’s Vice Presidential running mate, the campaign was quick to present her political record in the state as one of reform against corruption. Rarely cited, if at all, was what her tenure has meant for issues of concern for Alaska Natives who comprise nearly one-fifth of the state’s population. Despite the echoes of “Drill, Baby Drill,” on the floor of the Republican National Convention, a majority of tribes in Alaska have continued to oppose Palin’s platform for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As Governor, Palin has also opposed Alaska Native Subsistence rights to hunting, harvesting and fishing by filing an appeal seeking to invalidate such protections granted by the Federal Government. While the Republican Vice Presidential candidate speaks of her campaign’s energy policies for the nation’s future, indigenous communities in Alaska continue to suffer a crisis of rising heating oil and gasoline prices...

Full Uprising program here.

20,000 Leagues Over Her Head

Will she now claim to be the only rightful heiress to the Reagan legacy because of her experience on the teevee?

Yes, we all had to start somewhere, but sometimes the best decision is to simply stay put.

Or maybe just to play in a league that is not out of your depth. Now, for the league update:

Weekend Video Salon: Who Owns Water?

...and how did a handful of corporations steal our water?

Weekend Video Salon: Boner? Bayner?

Be sure to watch the CNN banner at the bottom--and the crawl--as Sam Seder provides this update from the bailout negotiations:

One For The Posse

When you think of the countries around the world that have used military force to suppress their own citizens, which countries come to mind?

China?
Myanmar?
Chile?
Indonesia?

To the list above, you may want to add one more. From armytimes.com:

Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
...
They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.
...
The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.
...
“If we go in, we’re going in to help American citizens on American soil, to save lives, provide critical life support, help clear debris, restore normalcy and support whatever local agencies need us to do, so it’s kind of a different role,” said Cloutier, who, as the division operations officer on the last rotation, learned of the homeland mission a few months ago while they were still in Iraq.

We are curious about a few things:
1) Whatever happened to Posse Comitatus?
2) Do you remember Bush's recent order in which he granted enormous powers to himself in the event of an "emergency"?
3) At what point will the looming economic disaster facing this country be declared an "emergency"? Before or after the scheduled November election?

Did you really think--after what Bush has done to this country--that he would simply fade quietly into the sunset?

The following EOs all fall under EO 12919: [8]

• EO 10990: "allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports." [9]
• EO 10995: Federal seizure of all communications media in the US.
• EO 10997: Federal seizure of all electric power, fuels, minerals, public and private.
• EO 10998: Federal seizure of all food supplies and resources, public and private and all farms and equipment.
• EO 10999: Federal seizure of all means of transportation, including cars, trucks, or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports and water ways.
• EO 11000: Federal seizure of American people for work forces under federal supervision, including the splitting up of families if the government so desires.
• EO 11001: Federal seizure of all health, education and welfare facilities, both public and private.
• EO 11002: Empowers the Postmaster General to register every single person in the US.
• EO 11003: Federal seizure of all airports and aircraft.
• EO 11004: Federal seizure of all housing and finances and authority to establish forced relocation. Authority to designate areas to be abandoned as 'unsafe,' establish new locations for populations, relocate communities, build new housing with public funds.
• EO 11005: Seizure of all railroads, inland waterways and storage facilities, both public and private.
• EO 11051: Provides FEMA complete authorization to put above orders into effect in times of increased international tension o[r] economic or financial crisis (FEMA will be in control incase of 'National Emergency').

• EO 12919 "Apparently Allows Cabinet Heads to Make Direct Loans to Government Contractors." [10]
• Also see Index of Executive Orders, Beginning December 30, 1992, WorldNetDaily website.

Weekend Video Salon: Shock Doctrine--Wall Street Style

Who likes a disaster? Who profits from a disaster? Well, since there is a disaster, we're just going to have to privatize EVEN MORE--oh, and we can't afford health care anymore, either.

You know, because a disaster--which our deregulation-obsessed government had no role in creating--is upon us. So deal with it. Remember, all regulation is bad. This crisis is your fault.

The free market will self regulate--self police. Right.

Charges Dropped: Investigation Needed

From Democracy Now!, some great news:

The St. Paul City Attorney’s office announced Friday it will not prosecute Democracy Now! journalists Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman also issued a statement Friday that “the city will decline to prosecute misdemeanor charges for presence at an unlawful assembly for journalists arrested during the Republican National Convention.”

Both announcements come two weeks after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention where over 40 journalists were arrested while reporting on protests taking place outside the convention center.

Upon learning of the news, Democracy Now! Host, Amy Goodman said, “It’s good that these false charges have finally been dropped, but we never should have been arrested to begin with. These violent and unlawful arrests disrupted our work and had a chilling effect on the reporting of dissent. Freedom of the press is also about the public’s right to know what is happening on their streets. There needs to be a full investigation of law enforcement activities during the convention.”

Goodman was arrested while asking police to release Kouddous and Salazar who had been violently arrested while reporting on street demonstrations. After being handcuffed and pushed to the ground, Goodman reiterated that she was was a credentialed reporter. Secret Service then ripped the credential from around her neck.

During demonstrations on the first day of the convention police used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and force against protesters and journalists. Several dozen demonstrators were arrested, as was a photographer for the Associated Press.

John Lundquist, attorney for the Democracy Now! journalists, said, “The most notable lapse by law enforcement during the RNC was the record-breaking number of journalists indiscriminately arrested and detained for doing nothing more than performing in the best tradition of reporters who gather the news.”

In the weeks after the journalist arrests, tens of thousands of members of the public contacted St. Paul officials to protest the unlawful arrests of working journalists. Goodman said, “We were deeply moved by the outpouring of support. We thank everyone who called and wrote first to have us freed and then to have the charges dropped. We thank everyone who stood up for press freedom and the First Amendment.”

The YouTube video of Goodman’s arrest was the most watched YouTube video during the convention week. It has now been viewed over 830,000 times. Salazar’s video of her own violent arrest is also available on YouTube.

KUDO's To You

Locals know best. So, what do the locals--who know her best--think of Sarah Palin?

Tune in to CC (pictured at left) and find out.

CC is an award-winning radio broadcaster with 20 years of experience here in Anchorage. Back in 1987, CC worked with the Pacific Rim Broadcasting Network to help pioneer talk radio in Alaska on KENI AM and KENI FM.
...

Here’s what CC says about her show, “Cutting Edge”: "There’s no doubt that my style is quite different from your typical AM talk show host. I prefer conversations to shouting matches. I believe that healthy discourse trumps dogmatic monologue, sound-byte talking points, and sensationalism. Cutting Edge listeners are progressive, open-minded people who are educated, intelligent and passionate.

Launch the KUDO audio stream here. She's on at 7:00 p.m. High Country time.

Tell It To The Hand

Are there any local free marketeers still standing?

If the total deregulation of the country's financial markets did not work 79 years ago, what would make people think that it would work today?

Ah, the glorious invisible hand of the free market. Through it, all things are fixed. Through it, everyone has a chance.

Libertarians: What went wrong? Over the last 30 years, the financial sector has been radically deregulated--and this is the result. This is your ideology in action.

Conservatives: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." Who said that? Wall Street's financial meltdown is the exact result of what Reagan preached. Our government stepped aside and let Wall Street do whatever it wanted to do. And now YOU are on the hook. Beautiful. Oh, and wouldn't it have been great if our Social Security program had been privatized like you folks wanted so badly? Just think about how much would be left for your retirement had all that money been invested in the stock market. What a fantastic idea.

“The secretary and the chairman of the Fed, two Bush appointees, came down here and said, ‘We’re from the government, we’re here to help them,’ ” Mr. Frank said. “I mean this is one more affirmation that the lack of regulation has caused serious problems. That the private market screwed itself up and they need the government to come help them unscrew it.”
--U. S. Rep. Barney Frank
...

"Roosevelt is dead," Limbaugh famously intoned at the appointment of GW Bush as President, "but his programs remain, and we're in the process of doing something about that, as well." Indeed.

Let's start calling this what it is - the total discrediting of the economic theories of Von Hayek, Milton and Thomas Friedman, Alan Greenspan, and borrow-and-spend Reaganomics/Bushnomics. The failure of "globalization," deregulation, and privatization. And let's begin to honestly identify today's events as a clear and clarion call for a return to the common-sense policies FDR put into place that saved capitalism from itself and its predators (and led to four decades of sustained growth of both the economy and the middle class) three generations earlier.

Thom Hartmann's article here.

Cue The Harp

Imagine if you will...what our country would be like under McCain/Palin.

What would they do to our country?

They'd finish the job, that's what:

High Country Greenwash?

Way back in April, we made a post musing over the possibility of Aisling Broadcasting (which is operating under receivership) incorporating some sort of "green programming" into their lineup:

As Aisling Broadcasting casts about for a solution to their problems while operating under receivership, they would do well to examine some other formats which might be more suitable to some of the other potential demographic listener segments here in the High Country.
...
Some radio stations around the country are beginning to flip their formats to "green programming" which tends to focus on sustainability issues, in addition to a certain type of overall station format. And they sell commercials...some of them even get good ratings...and some even make MONEY.
...
With the large and well-established sustainability movement here in the High Country (not to mention the highly desirable younger college demographic at ASU), as well as the increasing number of jobs associated with this movement being created here, one would have to wonder why Aisling would not try to do something innovative--like trying the Green Format [on] one of their stations.

It's a stretch, we know. But one can hope. Anyway, it's not just big city radio stations that are switching to this new format. Some of these stations are even in Texas...Texas? Yep, and not just in Austin.

So, we were curious when we came across the notice on the goblueridge.net website stating that "goblueridge.net is going green! Coming Soon." Could this be an acknowledgment by Aisling that they are willing to change--and start including diverse points of view? Could this be an acknowledgment that in an area that skews overwhelmingly young and progressive--that conservative hate radio is no longer working (see: Receivership)? A rejection of the "flat-earther" global warming denier crazies?

Or will this be a local version of the classic corporate greenwash?

Weekend Video Salon: Catch A Wave

...and you'll be sittin' high above the world.


Sarah Palin's Churches and The Third Wave from Bruce Wilson on Vimeo.

The D-Word Vs. The Shiny

The corporate media continues to obsess over the very shiny, new religious extremist. She's so shiny that we just can't help but give her our undivided attention, too.

A fleeting mention of the D-word would never distract us from watching the shiny. We loves us some shiny.

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."

...

When the government can no longer pass the United States' "immense debt" on to taxpayers, it will turn to the holders of U.S. dollars, leading to the eventual downfall of the currency, Hennecke said.

Don't worry--the private sector will fix it. It always does, right? Full article here.

Motivational Speakers?

Do you even wonder about what the cumulative impact on society is from the kind of unbridled hate speech unleashed over our public airwaves by the likes of Limbaugh, Boortz, et. al? Is it possible that someone who listens to these programs--day after day--may find the justification that they have been searching for to carry out acts of violence?

This question needs to be asked. But don't look to the folks at Aisling Broadcasting to do the asking--they depend on the money generated by airing these very programs. Fortunately, someone else is willing to ask:

PBS's "Bill Moyers Journal" will focus Friday night on media-driven hate speech and whether it had an influence on the recent shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

On July 27, a gunman killed two people and injured six others at the church.

...

Police have said unemployed truck driver Jim David Adkisson [the gunman] of Powell claimed a hatred for "the liberal movement" and blamed it for his joblessness.

Full article here.

You can watch Bill Moyers Journal online or check here for local listings.

Charlie's Angle

When did Charles Gibson become Charlie Gibson anyway? What a great way to boost your "jus' folks" creds. Just change your name, so that you can "get down--verbally" so to speak.

We can't wait to hear all the tough, serious journalist-type questions that Charles will have for Ms. Palin.

In case he decides to prep for the interview, here are a few places that Charles can start, courtesy of Mr. Ron Kuby:



Here's an idea: every time Charles prefaces a question by saying "Some people say...," have a swig of your favorite drink.

RNC Protests In Boone

Where is the freedom of dissenting voices?

Following the arrests of Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar and the detainment of Elizabeth Press as well as other reporters and photojournalists this past week in St. Paul during the Republican National Convention, two local college students have decided to hold their own demonstration on the streets of Boone. They have several posters reading "Why is there no room for a dissenting voice?" Please do not tear gas me!" and "From pepper spray to homophobia It's a grand old party".

They are trying to raise awareness about the police brutality, unlawful arrests and down right harassment of peaceful protesters and journalists who have a right to express their views and document the event. Both Laramie Sheets and Patrick Mosley are telling people to go to the Democracy Now website to learn more about the terrible situation on the streets outside the 2008 RNC and encouraging people to write, call and email officials with pressure to drop charges against those who are innocent. Although they were jeered with disrespectful remarks while standing diligently near the Watauga County Republican Party Headquarters holding their homemade posters they were ready at a moments notice to speak to those who cared about the message they wanted to share.

The reports coming out of both inside and outside the RNC convention center are very different than the reports from the Democrat National Convention held last week in Denver. While mainstream news reporters such as Chris Matthews broadcast the excitement and joyous moods of the more than 80,000 of those who attended the gathering of democrat delegates he was also seen giving equal voice to both protesters and supporters of Obama and the DNC. The complete opposite can be seen on footage coming out of St. Paul in the lack of news reporters presence, the shortage of attendance by delegates in the Xcel Energy Center as well as the harsh treatment of people gathering outside no matter their reason for being there.

Although there were protesters who deliberately damaged property and rioted violently against police who deserve to be prosecuted for their crimes it is a shame and a disgrace that those trying to get theirs and others voices out have been silenced by their unlawful incarceration and severe handling when being illegally arrested. The excuse given by the St. Paul Police Chief and other officials that they cannot be responsible for a reporter who gets in the way or appears to be involved in an unlawful act is not backed up by the videos and statements by the staff of Democracy Now.

Our country was founded on the basic constitutional amendments of freedom of speech, the right to assemble and the freedom of the press. The fact that our American rights and freedoms have been trampled on and disregarded by our own government so heavily in recent years is the ultimate disrespect for the rule of law. While claiming to protect our freedoms these enforcers are essentially acting illegally themselves and instituting policies where the public has limited recourse for justice. We should all be very grateful these courageous students feel free here in Boone to stand up for what they believe and can peacefully demonstrate their views on our streets.

Photo: D. Shumate

Shiny Stuff

Look everybody! Something Shiny! She's Shiny! Yea!!

But don't look at these things. They're NOT SHINY. Well, maybe the first one is. :-(

From The Sam Seder Show:

Todd Palin's former business partner [actually a different person from the one named in the National Enquirer piece, the same media outlet that broke the story about John Edwards' affair--Ed.], just filed an emergency motion to seal his divorce records.

From AP:

Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve called in top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants, and told them on Friday that the government was preparing to place the two companies under federal control, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.

Ours Go Up To Eleven:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators on Friday shut down Silver State Bank, saying the Nevada bank failed because of losses on soured loans, mainly in commercial real estate and land development.

It was the 11th failure this year of a federally insured bank.

Pinkout:

A blizzard of pink slips propelled the jobless rate from 5.7 percent in July to 6.1 percent in August, the Labor Department reported Friday. Such a sharp increase is usually a strong recession warning, and it dashed investors' hopes for a late-year recovery.

But, wow--she sure is SHINY!

Call To Action: Support Journalists

Today it is critical that you make your voice heard in the Ramsey County Attorney and St. Paul City Attorney offices. Demand that they drop all pending and current charges against journalists arrested while reporting on protests outside the Republican National Conventions.

The Ramsey County Attorney’s office is in the process of deciding whether or not to press felony P.C. (probable cause) riot charges against Democracy Now! Producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Please contact Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner by all means possible to demand that her office not press charges against Kouddous and Salazar.

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner
RCA at co.ramsey.mn.us (cc: dropthecharges at democracynow.org)
651-266-3222

Susan Gaertner for Governor
info at susangaertner.com (cc: dropthecharges at democracynow.org)
(612) 978-8625
(612)804-6156

The St. Paul City Attorney’s office has already charged Amy Goodman with misdemeanor obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer. Contact St. Paul City Attorney John Choi by all means possible to demand that the charges against Goodman be dropped immediately.

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi
john.choi at ci.stpaul.mn.us (cc: dropthecharges at democracynow.org) (651) 266-8710

Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention.

During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several dozen demonstrators were also arrested during this action, as was a photographer for the Associated Press.

IMPORTANT

Be sure to cc: dropthecharges@democracynow.org on all emails so that our team can deliver print outs of your messages to the St. Paul City Attorney and Ramsey County Attorney offices.

Stop the Arrests of Journalists. Sign the Letter.

Police in St. Paul arrested several journalists yesterday, including Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and an AP photographer as they were covering protests of the Republican National Convention. And earlier this weekend, police raided a meeting of the video journalists' group I-Witness with firearms drawn to arrest independent media, bloggers and videomakers.

Sign here.

Continuing RNC Coverage: DN Producer Nicole Salazar Beaten

This is video from DN producer Nicole Salazar's camera. You can listen to Nicole scream as the police beat her, and her cries of "Press!", "Press!". She is a fully credentialed journalist, and was wearing her press badge.