Saturday, March 12, 2011

If All It Takes Is Finding A Disparaging Opinion, No One Would Have A Job

"Right-wing activist James O’Keefe’s latest “work” is an undercover video that shows representatives from a fake Muslim charity trying to make a $5 million donation to NPR. The “Muslim” donors-to-be meet with two NPR development officers. In the ensuing conversation, as all the media coverage explains, one of the two — Ron Schiller — expresses critical views of Republicans and the far-right Tea Party.

Schiller is an NPR fundraiser, with no journalistic role there. While it wasn’t wise to share his personal views at a lunch, it is the sort of thing that people do all the time. So why does anyone care about this? Because O’Keefe — and countless other right-wing critics — want to show that NPR is a bastion of left-wing propaganda. They can’t do that by studying the content of NPR’s broadcasts, but they can get a fundraiser to make disparaging comments about Tea Party conservatism and, in so doing, force out NPR CEO Vivian Schiller.

The political motivation behind the hidden camera sting is clear enough—to spark more discussion about NPR’s supposed bias, at a time when Republican politicians are looking to eliminate funding for public media."

Stinging NPR: James O’Keefe’s Big Nothing (via ryking)

O”Keefe is a known hack. He was caught trying to tamper with the phones in Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office. His ACORN “Pimp” video was highly-doctored, heavily-overdubbed, and secretly-taped: O’Keefe never dressed as a pimp in the offices of ACORN.

Who needs the whole story when you’re working the GOP/Conservative propaganda machine.

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QOTD: Pat Quinn

"When somebody tries to take away your right to band together and organize, that’s not healthy. And it’s very bad. And I think what went on in Wisconsin yesterday is something that the governor there, really, should be ashamed of himself."

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, on Wisconsin’s union-stripping legislation. (via pantslessprogressive)

Government should be for the people. The influence of Corporate People is getting out of hand. The biggest coup is getting the working classes to fight over the table scraps as their lunch is being stolen.

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Friday, March 11, 2011

Wisconsin: A Division Of Koch Industries

Wisconsin: A Division Of Koch Industries.  Photoshop or not, Corporations’ “free speech” is heard loud and clear.

Wisconsin: A Division Of Koch Industries.

Photoshop or not, Corporations’ “free speech” is heard loud and clear.

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Regulations Do Work

Support Our Teachers

Teachers did not send U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico, India, and China. Nor did they lose billions of dollars of other people’s money by gambling in deregulated financial markets. They did not deplete the public coffers by cutting taxes on corporations and the rich. Teachers did not drag us into two unending wars that are draining our national treasury. As our economy has suffered because of these ruinous policies, so have our schools.

School Woes Rooted in Boardrooms, Not Classrooms

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The Cuts That Kill

NOAA Tsunami Model For Pacific Basin

This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) image released on March 11, 2011 shows a model run from the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory showing the expected wave heights of the tsunami as it travels across the Pacific basin.    (via)

This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) image released on March 11, 2011 shows a model run from the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory showing the expected wave heights of the tsunami as it travels across the Pacific basin.

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Thursday, March 10, 2011

QOTD

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
John Steinbeck

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Wednesday, March 09, 2011

The GOP Jobs Canard

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If you are anti-Planned Parenthood, does that mean you are pro-unplanned parenthood?

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RSA Video: Profit v Purpose



RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us

When motivation for profit replaces the need for purpose, products and services fail.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Hong Kong Company Delivers Ultrafast Broadband

HONG KONG residents can enjoy astoundingly fast broadband at an astoundingly low price. It became available last year, when a scrappy company called Hong Kong Broadband Network introduced a new option for its fiber-to-the-home service: a speed of 1,000 megabits a second — known as a “gig” — for less than $26 a month.

How does that compare to the US broadband? "That’s one-twentieth the speed of Hong Kong Broadband’s service for downloading, for more than five times the price."

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The Payback: Sticking It To Teachers

Monday, March 07, 2011

Wall St v Teachers

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Not all teachers are great, not all Wall St bankers are scum. But if teachers caused a global financial crisis, got bailed out by taxpayers, and still paid themselves massive salaries, you would have a national massacre.

Why bankers elude the stigma of greed and overcompensation, yet teachers take it on the chin, baffles me.

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Gov. Scott Walker Has Lost The War

In what may be the result of one of the great political miscalculations of our time, Scott Walker’s popularity in his home state is fast going down the tubes.

A Rasmussen poll out today reveals that almost 60% of likely Wisconsin voters now disapprove of their aggressive governor’s performance, with 48% strongly disapproving.

While these numbers are clearly indicators of a strategy gone horribly wrong, there are some additional findings in the poll that I suspect deserve even greater attention.

It turns out that the state’s public school teachers are very popular with their fellow Badgers. With 77% of those polled holding a high opinion of their educators, it is not particularly surprising that only 32% among households with children in the public school system approve of the governor’s performance. Sixty-seven percent (67%) disapprove, including 54% who strongly disapprove.

Can anyone imagine a politician succeeding with numbers like this among people who have kids?

Republicans are racing toward the past. They are ill-equipped to handle issues relative towards women, children, access to affordable, health care, immigrants, non-Christians, matters involving empathy, and technologies and energy ideas of the 21st century.

Helping corporations and aging, wealthy, out-of-touch white people is hardly a platform.

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