Greenwald Nails It

Glenn Greenwald was quoting from his new book yesterday and he nailed exactly the problem with todays Washington media:

The relationship between official Washington and the permanent Beltway media class has become infinitely closer and more cooperative than ever before. Rather than acting as adversarial to one another, the most powerful political officials in Washington and the most influential media stars are part of the same system and nearly all are abundant beneficiaries of it. Many elite national journalists are incentivized to protect and defend powerful political leaders with whom they so frequently interact and on whom they depend for their access and their "scoops."
They have come instinctively to believe that Washington officials are intrinsically good people. Journalists live in the same social and socioeconomic circles, and the most powerful Washington figures are thus their colleagues and friends, not their investigative targets.
Thus, many journalists have become implacably resistant to the idea that these political leaders are lying about profoundly important matters, let alone engaging in serious or illegal misconduct. Many journalists have come reflexively to believe what their closest government associates say and to refrain from searching for or trying to uncover serious wrongdoing, because they simply do not believe it is there or, if it is there, have no desire or incentive to expose it.

Bravo Glenn.

Video Evidence: Who's Streets?

I have been worried that since "The War On Terror" has begun that authorities have suddenly been taking more latitude when it comes to Getting people to comply:








Or pushing around protesters:




This one is in spanish but you don't need the words:





This video, from dunnlap31 on YouTube is pretty disturbing. He or she points to The Portland Media Center for more information. I have a friend in Portland who has shown me similar photographs he and others have taken at demonstrations. Somehow the police always seem to takeout fire extinguisher sized canisters of mace and start shooting large groups of people who don't look that threatening. . . other than. . you know. . protesting.

This clip below was used as evidence in a complaint against the Portland Police department. I think it is a good example of how the pen may be mightier than the sword but video is mightier than the pen.

FDL on the Democrats in Congress and the war Funding

I love this article. It says everything I was trying to say below:

By Teddy at FDL:

"The primary power of Congress — funding — has been put into an untouchable box by the rhetoricians of the right. They dare us to cut off funding for the troops if we hate the war so much. Our side's leaders then sputter that they "will never leave our troops in harm's way without everything they need." Their side's mouthpieces accuse our leaders of political cowardice by saying that they want to end the war but won't use their power to do so. But those who vote to close the purse are accused of undermining the troops.

Got that? "You've got the power, so use it," when used, equals "You undermined our troops." It's cowardice not to use the power if you believe in ending the war, but! — only a traitor would undermine our troops in the field. Got it?"

Read the whole article

Apple meets YouTube

Apple TV Will be Playing YouTube videos/

I love the way Apple has been able to leverage their music distribution infrastructure to distribute television. The ability to buy TV shows and movies through iTunes and connect that media to someones' living room is going to change everything. Now they are beginning to add new media outlets. Al Gore is on the board of Apple. Could Current TV be next?

War Funding Bill

Democrats really piss me off. Don't get me wrong, I'm even less happy with Republicans but at least republicans know how to control the message. Republicans can get the upper hand in the public discourse even when their ideas are all wrong and the polls are in the basement. Democrats. . . Democrats can't seem to get the upper hand when all the facts are on their side and %75 percent of the country is cheering them on.

This is about controlling the conversation. Republicans all know how to get on the same page and force the debate onto their own terms. The claim that "Cutting funding Hurts the troops" is completely baseless. The president and our government have the absolute responsibility to keep everyone in the military safe and equipped to the last man on the last day no matter what becomes of the funding for the mission they are on.

De-funding the mission in Iraq does not hurt one American soldier, yet the Republican message machine framed the whole debate so that the definition of "harm to troops" has become those conditions that force them to withdraw from harms way. The minority now controls the debate over not only the majority party in congress but also the majority of Americans.

The democrats allowed this to happen. In the effort to appear more independent and less prone to "group think" they have become a heard of cats trying to win a public debate against a pack of highly disciplined attack dogs. They have allowed the terms of the public debate to be defined in such a way that their most powerful leverage over the president, taking the funding away from his disastrous project, is something that they have voluntarily taken away from themselves so they won't look bad. . . .

I really hope they get their act together in congress. America threw Republicans out of Washington because they were letting the president drive our country off a cliff. They may just take some more and replace some democrats too, Lieberman style, until they get a majority that actually speaks for them.

Music Segment: Traveler - 10,000 Years

Traveler is a sort of a "world metal" band that I made a performance video for recently. This is one of the songs that I particularly liked. It is especially good at the end:

Click To Play

Toys in the Gulf

The US navy has been moving lots of toys into the persion Gulf. Right near the boarder of Iran. At first it was the USS Eisenhower battle group. The Eisenhower group is now being replaced by the Nimitz group who is a similar Air attack group. The Nimitz group is joining another air attack group and two amphibious assault groups who are already there doing "exercises"

Everything Changed Since. . .

I need a place to vent as I look upon this crazy world we now live in. Up is down, villians are heros, cowards are strong on defense, smear is balance and entertainers are news. There is so much to say before I can even begin to express the spin that fills our heads.

Lets start here: