Ah, they're just fighting for 'fairness and balance' ...

Fair and Balanced? The corporate and Republican buzz words for lying.

An appeal court, in the US -just like the ol' USSR- gave Fox News the right to lie. Fox's right to lie to the public was supported by five major media outlets

... that filed briefs of Amici Curiae- or friend of FOX – to support FOX’s position: Belo Corporation, Cox Television, Inc., Gannett Co., Inc., Media General Operations, Inc., and Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc. These are major media players! Their statement, “The station argued that it simply wanted to ensure that a news story about a scientific controversy regarding a commercial product was present with fairness and balance, and to ensure that it had a sound defense to any potential defamation claim.”

“Fairness and balance?” Monsanto hardly demonstrated “fairness and balance” when it threatened a lawsuit and demanded the elimination of important, verifiable information!

The Amici position was “If upheld by this court, the decision would convert personnel actions arising from disagreements over editorial policy into litigation battles in which state courts would interpret and apply federal policies that raise significant and delicate constitutional and statutory issues.” After all, Amici argued, 40 states now have Whistleblower laws, imagine what would happen if employees in those 40 states followed the same course of action?

The position implies that First Amendment rights belong to the employers – in this case the five power media groups. And when convenient, the First Amendment becomes a broad shield to hide behind. Let’s not forget, however; the airwaves belong to the people. Is there no public interest left—while these media giants make their private fortunes using the public airwaves? Can corporations have the power to influence the media reporting, even at the expense of the truth? Apparently so.

Via DailyKos

The world has not changed ...

Rick Perlstein writes:

Different America than the one all of us grew up in, this. Tell your kids to pay close attention. They're living through history.

I'll say this is a different America. But it's not a different world.

In my youth I disdained the crimes of the Germans. Now we are the Germans.

In my youth I respected the courage and tenacity and understanding of the Jews. Now Israel is carrying out the same kind of injustices against Moslems that were carried out against them.

No, the world has not changed. The players have just changed sides.

In Arizona the Constitution is holding on by it's toenails ...

Az court ruling limits warrantless car searches

But don't expect the souless robed life forms on the US Supreme Court to care about the US Constitution when this gets to them ...

Can't quite pin us down?

Apparently, try as they might, the internet tracking companies, don't yet have a complete handle on us.

Tracking Internet usage proving to be a tangled web

Hallelujah!

Believe it or not ...

Tucson and Marana are fighting over sewage ... not to push it off on the other but to get/keep control of it.

City enters sewer plant dispute --Threatens cutoff of fresh water going to Marana

The greed principle continued ...

Our health care system isn't designed to make people healthier: It is designed for extracting money from the vulnerable and putting it into the pockets of the rich

Consider the private, profit-making, insurance industry that Bush is so determined to defend. What "innovations" has it produced? The deductible, the co-pay, and the pre-existing condition are the only ones that leap to mind. In general, the great accomplishment of the private health insurance industry has been to overturn the very meaning of "insurance," which is risk-sharing: We all put in some money, though only some of us will need to draw on the common pool by using expensive health care. And the insurance companies have overturned it by refusing to insure the people who need care the most - those who are already, or are likely to become, sick.

Gratitude Journal ...

Tongue in cheek ... or not.

"The actions in my day-to-day life are actually quite pleasant," I wrote on January 21st, in a moment of insight. "It's anxieties that get me derailed."

The USA, just like the old USSR ...

This article at Crooks and Liars (Nonny Mouse Goes Down Under) brought up old memories of flying from Iran to I don't remember where and having an unplanned stop in the USSR. Scary stuff. I was young and American at a time when it was very pleasant to be so, but there were some on that plane who were very, very worried.

In the end nothing happened to that flight or anyone on it, that I know of. Now the US is the ogre of the world, not Russia or even China, as we has surpassed them all in stupidity.

What's that old saying? The more things change the more they stay the same. A most depressing truism.

(NOTE: Minor corrections made to this post.)

Maybe Homo sapiens come with a self destruct gene ...

Theocrats Deny ‘End Times’ Theology Is Cause of Their Push for War with Iran by Sarah Posner.

One would think Christ was a warrior instead of a hippie priest.

A very disappointing side of our so called 'Christian' America ...

Crooks and Liars is having a conversation with Michael Moore.

Comment 365 Michael Moore Says:

George @ 300:

The amazing thing about how our economic system is how expensive it is to be poor. I have been on both sides of the door, and it is really amazing how much more efficient it is to be on the better side. About the only counter example to this are the expensive hotels, which don’t tend to provide free breakfast or phone service.

If you can’t pay your credit card debt, they raise your rates (on everything.) If you don’t have insurance the procedures cost more. If you don’t have transportation be prepared to pay outrageous rates at the inner city store. If you don’t have your own home, you will pay more in rent, and if you can’t afford rent you will pay even more at flop hotels. If you don’t have a bank account, you have to go to a rip-off check cashing place.

Once I retired I relied on catastrophic medical coverage, so I never bothered to turn my bills in to the insurance company. Then my much smarter wife suggested that we do so, and in most cases our bills were halved! One expensive procedure was reduced from somewhere around $5000 to less than $800.

That is the difference between solvancy and bankruptcy for many people.

Let me be blunt. We Americans get some pathological kick out of beating up those who are less fortunate than ourselves. We do indeed punish the poor for being poor. We have structures in place that guarantee that they will never climb out of their poverty. It’s not an accident. And it is a very black mark on our soul.

A very black mark indeed perpetuated by all those wonderful 'Christian' politicians of ours.

Arizona's Child Protective Services (CPS) on par with Bush Administration ...

It appears that CPS is either as incompetent or as obtuse about their responsibilities as is the Bush Administration.

CPS seems to shrug off questions about its role in their deaths, saying caseworkers didn't hand Chris Payne his kids and had no reason to believe he would hurt them. "At no time," the summary says, "did CPS award custody of the children to Mr. Payne nor does CPS have authority to award custody."

No, they just told Payne to keep them, stopped police from taking them and then walked away, leaving them to die.

Two children are dead but just like with Bush and his fanatical mafia, CPS has no responsibility. None at all. They just stand around telling people what to do and not do, don't bother to investigate or follow through but it is definitely NOT THEIR FAULT. I'm surprised they haven't blamed the children.

CPS closed the neglect case on Hallam [the mother] in April 2006, calling it "unsubstantiated." Caseworkers never again checked on the children [who CPS, against a judge's order told police to leave with the father].

Ariana's decomposing body was found earlier this year, stuffed in a plastic tub left inside a storage locker. She had been beaten over a period of time. Tyler's body was never found. Police believe they were killed last summer.

Payne [the father] and his girlfriend, Reina Gonzales, are in jail, charged with first-degree murder. Meanwhile, CPS officials have re-engaged their cone of silence, holding on tight to the records that might explain why they just walked away.

Of taxes and explosions ...

I'm copying an entire post from Rick Perlstein's blog. I hope he does not mind but this juxtaposition of quotes is the kind that may break a mental log jam in someone's mind. And because that theoretical someone may theoretically read this post but theoretically not follow a link I have copied the entire post. I will remove it, of course if requested to do so. The following is posted at Rick Perlstein's blog, a blog that all should read.

Steamed
By Rick Perlstein on July 19, 2007 - 2:09pm.

We've referred to this document frequently, and will do so much more in the future. It's the skeleton key to understanding the Manhattan steam pipe explosion and its meaning for America's declining greatness. For now, let's strike, as it were, while the steam is still hot (200 degrees, in case you haven't heard). Scroll down and watch the CBS News report on yesterday's rush hour explosion in midtown Manhattan.

Here's what they say:

"...The explosion was so massive, so powerful, almost the entire East Side of Manhattan had to be shut down and evacuated...."

"...Ruptured steam pipes are a common occurence in New York. Mayor Mike Bloomberg blamed the gigantic incident on his city's aging infrastructure...."

To contextualize, here's what the previous mayor of New York has been saying:

“I’ve lowered taxes 23 times as mayor”

—at the May 15 Republican candidate debate, before pledging across-the-board federal budget cuts of five to 20 percent.

"You know why you have one of the best economies in the country? Because you have no taxes.'"

—to New Hampshire Republican activists on April 3.

"Every year - in good times or bad - I required city commissioners to propose cuts in their own budgets.... Fiscal conservatives understand the value of controlling the size and cost of -government. Controlling spending makes -government more efficient and more effective in achieving its core responsibilities."

—in an April 11 op-ed entitled "My Four Pillars of American Prosperity."

We don't endorse or dis-endorse candidates here at The Big Con. What we do is document an ideology and its failure. What Rudy Giuliani says is what every Republican candidate says. What he has provided us here—and the reason we single him out—is an illustrative tale. Put more conservatives in charge of your country; send your country down the road to wrack and ruin.

Republicans are bad for your health and dangerous to your welfare and disastrous for our democracy!

Jet Blue decides Ann Coulter OK but not DailyKos ...

Update: Oh, and JetBlue advertises with Fox. You see, it's okay to support the likes of Ann Coulter.

Maybe I'm getting sensitive ...

... but is it my imagination that Democratic politicians, as well as Republicans, refer to 'the American people' as if they were some entity very separate from themselves? As if they are not part of this messy and contrary mass of humanity that makes up the United States.

I understand that George Bush the bush-whacker thinks he is so exalted and above all others in the United States as to be perhaps just one step below (or is it one step above) God. But why do, apparently, all politicians talk about all of us who make up this country as separate from them. It's as if they are buying into the Bush fantasy that the entire country is comprised of individuals with sub-Bush IQ who must be 'taken care of' as if we are children.

We place them in office to represent us. We don't elect them to be our parents.

This is even more insulting than the court system's propaganda about how important the jury system and each individual juror is followed by the judge making sure you understand you are not to use your own reason and the lawyers, with the judge's help, manipulate what evidence is available with which to make your 'decision.' (I won't even get into the Bush's Attorney General scam, the US Attorney Scam and Bush's Scooter Libby slap in the face of anyone who thought there was some justice left in the US.)