Thursday, March 03, 2011

296 Companies Refuse Ads On Glenn Beck

To date (2/14/11), here is a list of statements from a fraction of the total number of advertisers that have either pulled ads from or taken proactive measures to ensure that their ads do not appear on the Glenn Beck Program in the United States, the U.K., or both:

  • ADT (added 11/5/10) (statement)
  • Aegon (added 9/14/09)
  • Airmiles.co.uk (added 10/20/09)
  • Allergan (added 8/17/09)
  • Allstate Insurance (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Ally Bank/GMAC Financial Services (added 8/17/09)
  • Alpro Soya (added 01/11/10) (statement) [see note 5]
  • American Express (added 12/7/10) (statement)
  • AmMed Direct (added 10/6/09)
  • Ancestry.com (added 8/24/09) (statement)
  • Anheuser-Busch (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Apple (report) [see note 6]
  • Applebee’s (added 8/27/09)
  • Ashley Furniture (added 8/28/09)
  • AT&T (added 8/24/09)
  • AVON (added 7/29/10) (statement)
  • Bank of America (added 8/25/09)
  • Bell & Howell (added 8/27/09)
  • Best Buy (added 8/17/09)
  • Best Western (added 2/5/10) (statement)
  • Binder & Binder (added 9/2/09)
  • Blaine Labs (anti-fungal & scar treatments) (added 8/24/09)
  • BMW (added 4/1/10) (statement)
  • Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Brez (anti-snoring strips) by Airware Inc. (added 8/21/09)
  • British Airways (added 12/14/09)
  • Broadview Security (added 8/17/09)
  • Brother International Corp. (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Cadillac (added 5/8/10) (statement)
  • Campbell’s Soup Co. (added 8/24/09)
  • Capital One (added 9/2/09)
  • Celsius (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Citrix Online/GoToMyPC (added 10/6/09)
  • Clorox (added 8/23/09)
  • Closing.com (Closing Corp.) (added 8/28/09) (read statement here)
  • Coca-Cola (added 6/24/10) (statement)
  • Concord Music Group (Hear Music) (added 10/6/09)
  • Constant Contact (added 10/15/10) (statement)
  • CVS (added 8/17/09)
  • Dairy Crest (added 7/5/10) (statement)
  • Dannon Co. (added 9/2/09)
  • Diageo (Guinness, Cuervo, Baileys’, etc) (added 10/5/09)
  • DirecTV (added 8/27/09)
  • Discover (added 9/2/09)
  • DITECH (added 8/24/09)
  • EggLands Best (added 9/21/09)
  • Elations Co. (added 8/24/09)
  • Equifax (added 10/6/09)
  • Eulactol USA (maker of Flexitol) (added 10/6/09)
  • Farmers Insurance Group
  • Fly.com/TravelZoo (added 7/21/10) (statement)
  • FreeCreditReport.com/Experian (added 8/24/09)
  • GEICO
  • General Mills (added 8/27/09)
  • George Foreman Cooking (added 2/20/10) (statement)
  • GetARoom.com (added 10/6/09)
  • GlaxoSmithKline (added 1/12/10) (statement)
  • Halifax (added 2/14/11) (statement)
  • Healthy Choice (owned by CongAgra)
  • Helzberg Diamonds (added 12/1/10) (statement)
  • History Channel (added 11/11/09)
  • Hoffman La Roche (maker of Boniva) (added 10/6/09)
  • Holiday Inn (added 5/12/10) (statement)
  • Honda (added 1/31/10) (statement)
  • HSBC (added 9/2/09)
  • Humana (added 9/14/09)
  • ICAN Benefit Group Insurance (added 9/2/09)
  • Idaho Potato Commission (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Infiniti (added 9/2/09)
  • Intersections Inc. (added 2/16/10)
  • ING DIRECT (added 01/07/09) (statement)
  • Jack Daniels (Updated 12/28/09) [see note 4]
  • Jelmar (CLR cleaner manufacturer) (added 9/2/09)
  • Johnson & Johnson (added 8/24/09)
  • Jordan McKenna Debt Counseling Network (added 9/2/09)
  • Jordans (added 2/14/11) (statement) [see note 8]
  • Kaplan Tutoring (added 7/8/10) (statement)
  • KFC (UK) (a Yum Brands! subsidiary) (statement) (added 7/12/10)
  • Kodak (added 1/21/11) (statement)
  • KRAFT Foods (added 8/20/09) (read statement here)
  • KRAFT Foods (UK) (added 11/13/09)
  • Lawyers.com (owned by LexisNexis)
  • Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Logo TV (added 3/23/10) (statement)
  • Lowe’s (added 8/24/09) (statement)
  • Luxottica Retail (parent company of Pearle & LensCrafters) (added 9/14/09)
  • Mars (maker of Snickers, M&Ms, Pedigree, etc..) (added 10/20/09) (read statement here)
  • Marriott International (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Men’s Wearhouse
  • Mercedes-Benz (added 9/2/09)
  • MetLife Bank (added 8/5/10) (statement)
  • Metropolitan Talent Management (added 10/6/09) [see note 3]
  • Michelin (added 11/18/10) (statement)
  • Monsanto (added 2/4/11) (statement)
  • Natwest (UK) (added 12/11/09)
  • Nestle (added 05/03/10) (statement)
  • Northland Juices (added 4/8/09) (statement)
  • NutriSystem (added 8/24/09) (statement) [see note 7]
  • ooVoo (added 10/6/09)
  • Overture Films (added 10/6/09)
  • Polaroid (added 10/2/10) (statement)
  • Premier Foods (UK) (added 11/18/09)
  • Premier Inn (UK) (added 12/20/09)
  • Procter & Gamble
  • Progressive Insurance
  • Prudential (added 1/28/10) (statement)
  • PUIG Beauty (added 12/14/09)
  • Purity Products (added 6/8/10) (statement)
  • Radio Shack
  • Re-Bath (added 8/17/09)
  • Reckitt Benckiser (UK) (added 12/04/09)
  • Regions Financial Corporation (added 8/27/09)
  • Republic of Macedonia (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Roche [see note 1]
  • S.C. Johnson
  • SAM (Store and Move) (added 8/27/09)
  • Sanofi-Aventis
  • Sargento Cheese
  • Scarguard (added 10/6/09)
  • Schiff Nutrition (maker of Tiger’s Milk & Fi-Bar) (added 10/6/09)
  • Sears (added 5/18/10) (statement)
  • Seoul Metropolitan Government (added 10/6/09)
  • Simplex Healthcare (Diabetes Care Club) (added 9/2/09)
  • Smith & Nephew (added 2/9/11)
  • Sprint (added 8/23/09)
  • StarKist (tuna) (added 2/8/10) (statement)
  • State Farm Insurance
  • Subaru (added 10/6/09)
  • Sylvan Learning (added 2/20/10) (statement)
  • Tesco (added 12/19/09)
  • Toyota-Lexus USA (added 10/6/09) / Toyota (GB) (added 2/3/10) (statement)
  • Travelers Insurance (added 8/27/09)
  • Travelocity
  • TurboTax (added 3/10/10) (statement)
  • UPS (added 8/23/09)
  • United Healthcare (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • United States Postal Service (added 9/14/09)
  • US Fidelis (added 2/16/10) (statement)
  • Verizon Wireless (added 8/21/09)
  • Virgin Atlantic (added 01/08/10)
  • Vodafone (added 07/02/10) (statement)
  • Vonage (added 8/24/09)
  • Volkswagen (added 2/16/10)
  • Waitrose (added 10/4/09) [see note 2]
  • Walmart (added 8/17/09)
  • Weight Watchers (added 2/20/10) (statement)
  • Western Union (added 2/16/10)
  • Woodland Power Products (added 10/6/09)
  • Wyeth Consumer Healthcare (added 9/14/09)
  • Yorkshire Tea (added 2/9/11) (statement)
  • Zoosk (added 8/2/10) (statement)

The New York Times recently reported that 296 companies refuse to have their advertisements run on Glenn Beck’s program. The report also explained that Fox News was having difficulty selling ads on O’Reilly and Fox & Friends on the days that Glenn Beck is scheduled to appear.

#winning

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Dangers Of Fundamentalism

Religious fundamentalism is dangerous because it cannot accept ambiguity and diversity and is therefore inherently intolerant. Such intolerance, in the name of virtue, is ruthless and uses political power to destroy what it cannot convert. It is dangerous, especially in America, because it is anti-democratic and is suspicious of ‘the other,’ in whatever form that ‘other’ might appear. To maintain itself, fundamentalism must always define ‘the other’ as deviant

Peter Gomes

The need for confirmation and removal of doubt is at the center. Plus the ego. Somehow this ever-expanding mystery was meant for me. For eternity.

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No Choice Is Mandatory Maternity

"Abolition of a woman’s right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State."

Edward Abbey

To have a choice, to have privacy, is mandatory. They go hand in hand.

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Noam Nails It

combatsobriety:

In Egypt the working people are fighting to gain rights. In Wisconsin, in the richest country in the world, the working people are struggling to defend rights that are being destroyed…

Noam Chomsky

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America is War Inc.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Millenials And The Future

"Within the last 30 years, the United States under the reign of market fundamentalism has been transformed into a society that is more about forgetting than learning, more about consuming than producing, more about asserting private interests than democratic rights. In a society obsessed with customer satisfaction and the rapid disposability of both consumer goods and long-term attachments, American youth are not encouraged to participate in politics. Nor are they offered the help, guidance and modes of education that cultivate the capacities for critical thinking and engaged citizenship."

Left Behind? American Youth and the Global Fight for Democracy (via azspot)

I know each generation says this about the next, but…..

That being said, I have great hope for our youth and new voters, in general.

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Admitting The Knife Is There

tabularasae:

Journalist: Do you feel, however, that we’re making progress in this country?

Malcolm X: No, no. I will never say that progress is being made. If you stick a knife in my back 9 inches and pull it out 6 inches, that’s not progress. If you pull it all the way out, that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. They won’t even admit that the knife is there!

Such a great quote.

Reminds me how people won't admit to what got us here. Republicans have zero memory of spending all the money over the past 30 years. The Bush years are completely scrubbed. This new found deficit concern is so hollow.

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fuckyeahradicalcartoons:    What’s Next?    The destruction of the Middle Class continues…..
fuckyeahradicalcartoons:
The destruction of the Middle Class continues…..
"Unlike religious people, I look at all religions equally." - Ricky Gervais 

Take all the gods you don't believe in anymore: Zeus, Jupiter, Osiris, Horus, Dionysus, Odin, Thor, as well as, all the modern religions you dismiss as not real, and add your god to the list.

Support Our Teachers

Media_http29mediatumb_gfiua

Republicans like to pick and choose what they pay for. They usually choose not to pay. The Bush years were a massive I.O.U. Unpaid wars, tax cuts, rebate checks, Plan D.

Now, the Republicans want to attack the working class, using the massive debts they ran up, to somehow justify cuts towards the most vulnerable.

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Monday, February 28, 2011

"Anonymous" Open Letter To Koch Brothers

image
“Hello, Anonymous calling for the enemies of democracy. Are the Koch Brothers in?”

 
This warms my Trotskyite heart: After posting the following “open letter” to Koch Industries, effectively putting them on notice and asking the American and European population to stop buying their products, the politically motivated hackers of “Anonymous” have already begun to make good on their threat, as last night and this morning the Koch-supported rightwing political organization, Americans for Prosperity’s website was knocked offline several times. If an elite hacker was able to get into the intranet of Koch Industries, they could probably really disrupt their business for a few days. Let’s hope they cause maximum chaos for these evil bloodsuckers. (I hope Fox News is next. THAT would be the best thing ever, wouldn’t it?)

Here is the text of the letter:

Dear Citizens of the United States of America,

It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch—the billionaire owners of Koch Industries—have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back.

Koch Industries, and oligarchs like them, have most recently started to manipulate the political agenda in Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s union-busting budget plan contains a clause that went nearly un-noticed. This clause would allow the sale of publicly owned utility plants in Wisconsin to private parties (specifically, Koch Industries) at any price, no matter how low, without a public bidding process. The Koch’s have helped to fuel the unrest in Wisconsin and the drive behind the bill to eliminate the collective bargaining power of unions in a bid to gain a monopoly over the state’s power supplies.

The Koch brothers have made a science of fabricating ‘grassroots’ organizations and advertising campaigns to support them in an attempt to sway voters based on their falsehoods. Americans for Prosperity, Club for Growth and Citizens United are just a few of these organizations. In a world where corporate money has become the lifeblood of political influence, the labor unions are one of the few ways citizens have to fight against corporate greed. Anonymous cannot ignore the plight of the citizen-workers of Wisconsin, or the opportunity to fight for the people in America’s broken political system. For these reasons, we feel that the Koch brothers threaten the United States democratic system and, by extension, all freedom-loving individuals everywhere. As such, we have no choice but to spread the word of the Koch brothers’ political manipulation, their single-minded intent and the insidious truth of their actions in Wisconsin, for all to witness.

Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people, whose rights and liberties are being systematically removed one by one, even when their own government refuses to listen or worse - is complicit in these attacks. We are actively seeking vulnerabilities, but in the mean time we are calling for all supporters of true Democracy, and Freedom of The People, to boycott all Koch Industries’ paper products. We welcome unions across the globe to join us in this boycott to show that you will not allow big business to dictate your freedom.

U.S. Product Boycott List

Vanity Fair [not the magazine, the napkins and “classy” paper plates -RM]
Quilted Northern
Angel Soft    
Sparkle
Brawny
Mardi Gras  
Dixie        

European Product Boycott List

Demak’Up
Kitten Soft
Lotus / Lotus Soft
Tenderly
Nouvelle Soft
Okay Ktchen Towels
Colhogar
Delica
Inversoft
Tutto

To identify these brands, please look for the following logo anywhere on the packaging:
 

image

 
Anonymous.

We are Legion I We do not forgive I We do not forget I Expect us

We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us

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Not All Fat Is The Same

Seventeen Small Business Tax Cuts and Counting

Here's the list of 17 small business tax cuts that President Obama has signed into law --

From the Recovery Act, HIRE Acts, and Affordable Care Act:

1. A New Small Business Health Care Tax Credit

2. A New Tax Credit for Hiring Unemployed Workers

3. Bonus Depreciation Tax Incentives to Support New Investment

4. 75% Exclusion of Small Business Capital Gains

5. Expansion of Limits on Small Business Expensing

6. Five-Year Carryback of Net Operating Losses

7. Reduction of the Built-In Gains Holding Period for Small Businesses from 10 to 7 Years to Allow Small Business Greater Flexibility in Their Investments   

8. Temporary Small Business Estimated Tax Payment Relief to Allow Small Businesses to Keep Needed Cash on Hand

From the Small Business Jobs Act:

9. Zero Capital Gains Taxes on Key Investments in Small Businesses

10. The Highest Small Business Expensing Limit Ever– Up to $500,000

11. An Extension of 50% Bonus Depreciation

12. A New Deduction for  Health Care Expenses for the Self-Employed

13. Tax Relief and Simplification for Cell Phone Deductions

14. An Increase in The Deduction for Entrepreneurs’ Start-Up Expenses

15. A Five-Year Carryback Of General Business Credits

16. Limitations on Penalties for Errors in Tax Reporting That Disproportionately Affect Small Business

And from the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act:

17. 100 Percent Expensing

Since coming into office in January 2009, President Obama has signed legislation that created or extended 17 small-business tax cuts and credits.

Let's use facts when we debate.

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Context

A unionized employee, a Tea Party member and a corporate CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches out and takes 11 of the cookies, then says to the Tea Party member "look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."  — Dialogic

Pictures, 1000 Words, And Media Bias

New media’s role in Egypt was a little overrated – how much tweeting and facebooking was actually done when the dictator could just shut off the internet?

But could new media’s role in Wisconsin be underrated? From which news organization do you think I’m cribbing this most impressive shot most fully capturing the impact of the latest 70,000+ protest in the snow in Madison? ABC? CNN? FOX?Correct, none of the above.

If this were a Tea Party rally with 1/10th the people, it would be on more news programs. The mainstream media is whiffing at covering what democracy really looks like.

"The MSM had to be dragged into covering the Wisconsin protests. They ignored it for as long as they could possibly get away with it. The protesters just wouldn’t back down. Their numbers grew from 10,000 to 30,000 to 75,000 to 100,000 to 150,000 on 2/26.

But anytime 3 teabaggers gathered, there was instant coverage w/ the most glaring, unrelenting spotlight shone on their “grassroots movement” by every single national & cable TV station, reporter, pundit, & newsprint. Young people don’t rely on TV to get their news. They don’t know who David Gergen or Gloria Borger are…..& they don’t care."

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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sunday Morning Bias

Three Sunday Shows Fail To Include Democrats As Featured Guests

Last Sunday also tilted heavily toward GOP voices. This Sunday the trend continues. Three Sunday shows -- Fox, CBS, and NBC -- locked out Democratic voices as featured guests:

Fox News Sunday: Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR)

CBS Face the Nation: Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ)

NBC Meet the Press: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Liberal media, indeed.

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"Job Killing": The GOP Has A Bo{eh}ner For It

The budget fight is frustrating in identical ways. The discussion has generally focused on what House Republicans want (their $61 billion in brutal spending cuts), why they want it (they allegedly want to address the fiscal mess they created during the Bush years), and what they're prepared to do to get their way (shut down the government).

But the discourse rarely gets around to that other question: what would happen if Republicans actually got their way? It's heartening, then, to see the New York Times editorial board take a look at the consequences of the GOP plan.

In a recent report, economists at Goldman Sachs estimated that the House cuts would reduce economic growth by 1.5 percentage points to 2 percentage points in the second and third quarters of 2011. That would devastate employment. As a rule of thumb, each percentage point drop in growth means a loss of 1.2 million jobs. [...]

[M]ost of the cuts would be counterproductive. Annual spending on education through high school is cut by 12 percent, or nearly $6 billion (since the cuts would be squeezed into the rest of the current budget year, they are even deeper on an annualized basis).

Those cuts include reductions to Head Start that would remove 218,000 children from the program and cuts to elementary education that would hit 2,400 schools and nearly one million students. Pell Grants for college would also be cut by nearly $6 billion. Transportation investments would be cut by 9 percent, or $8.1 billion, including $2.7 billion from rail, $1 billion from highway spending and $675 million from public transit. Americorps and other community-service programs would be eliminated, although their benefit to society surely exceeds their $1.2 billion cost. Since national service programs are matched by $800 million from foundations and other sources, that would be lost, too.

The list goes on. Small businesses would be hit by a 9 percent cut, or $84 million, to the Small Business Administration. Homeowners facing foreclosure and other Americans with legal problems would be hurt by a $70 million cut to legal aid. Financial regulators would endure deep cuts that would cripple their ability to carry out the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. That's asking for another financial crisis.

The GOP are the true "job killers". Bush was the undoubted master of it. All those tax cuts produced what? Prosperity? Nope, just a huge deficit.

When asked about massive worker lay-offs if Republicans succeed, Boehner said, "so be it".

Making the economy worse, on purpose, may be the goal of Republicans, but America needs real leadership and not horse-race politics by the media and feigned fiscal concern until 2012 by the GOP.

Republican irresponsibility got us into this mess, it won't get us out.

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