*NPR AND PBS SELL OUT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AGAIN
* ** *Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich has a scathing attack <http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/14-8> on the Obama budget this morning, recommending in its place a progressive tax system with cuts to the programs the American people (polling tells us) want cut, such as to that euphemistically called "defense" spending by corporate media "journalists." The Obama budget cuts programs which help the poor, after extending tax cuts that mostly go to the wealthy and maintaining the thousand overseas military bases, the wars, the Wall Street bailouts (Glenn Greenwald has a great piece <http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2011/02/15/anonymity/index.html> savaging the /Washington Post/ about their coverage on this), and other wild spending against the public interest (again, polling supports that average Americans want defense spending cut, the wars ended, and the rich taxed more). But /PBS/ and /NPR/ in their budget coverage don't go to the public interest. Their "reporters" want Social Security cut, even though it is a self-supporting program that does not add to the deficit (don't ever expect these spineless sycophants to say this). * *Last night on the /PBS NewsHour/, Gwen Ifill interviewed Obama Budget Director Jack Lew, asking him what he was doing to cut the budget. After Lew replied, Ifill shot back, "****Elephant in the room, Mr. Lew, entitlements, Social Security spending, Medicare, Medicaid, not -- not -- nowhere in this budget," apparently not satisfied that programs for the poor and elderly were cut enough. Would a right wing commentator have done it any differently? * *This morning Steve Inskeep did the same thing on /NPR's Morning Edition/, after his guest, Lew again, told what he was cutting, Inskeep responded again and again that there was no reduction in benefits for current Social Security beneficiaries, nor cuts to future beneficiaries, and "what does that leave?" as though this is the program that must be cut, despite the fact that Lew told him Social Security does not add to the deficit. * */NPR /and/PBS/ obviously don't want cuts to the programs Americans want to cut-- they want to cut the program the public supports, in pleasing their corporate sponsors, the ruling Forces of Greed <http://members.cox.net/libertyuv/FOG.htm>. * *This morning we got an email from Matt Lockshin of Credo Action asking that we oppose proposed federal cuts to /NPR /and/PBS/ and we responded that we want them cut. We have never seen why we should support propaganda which goes against the public interest. To email them with your opinion send to:[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK * ** *"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday backed away from Washington's call last week for Egypt's emergency law to be lifted immediately, saying the timing was up to the Egyptians," begins a piece in British news <http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/14/us-egypt-usa-idUSTRE71175920110214> this morning. * *This is Empire diplomatic talk for "We support the generals against the people of Egypt," since the masses of protesters want the emergency law, under which protesters can be arrested and detained without charges indefinitely (and are often "disappeared" and/or tortured after being arrested) canceled immediately. * *If Hillary asked that the emergency law be canceled, it would likely be done. The Empire is dragging its feet in an attempt to keep Egypt as a subservient client state if possible. Egypt's generals, who have ruled for decades (Mubarak is one of them) get their training and weapons from the USA, and do what they're told, including blockading Gaza for Israel and supporting US wars against fellow Arabs and fellow Muslims, all against the wishes of the Egyptian masses.* ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ** ** ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **An old man like me has seen a dramatic shift in the courts over a lifetime, from fairly conservative to very conservative to far right wing to fascist. Today they serve the corporations and the wealthy almost exclusively, against the public interest --Jack ** Our Corporate Courts <http://www.otherwords.org/articles/our_corporate_courts> *by Jim Hightower* *When corporate executives needed a political favor, they used to run to Congress. Now they can also run to the courthouse.* *Over the years, corporate chieftains and their political henchmen have steadily ensconced reliable /laissez-faire/ ideologues in hundreds of federal judgeships, quietly creating a corporate-friendly path for moving their litigation all the way from the district level through the Supreme Court.* *For example, in its effort to scuttle President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, the right wing has gone court shopping. They've filed their cases in the courts of judges who are known to be ideologically hostile to government regulation of health care corporations.* *Take U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson in Virginia. On December 13, he ruled that a key provision of the new law is unconstitutional. His decision is at odds with 14 other federal judges who'd dismissed similar challenges. He had to resort to twisted reasoning to reach his verdict and keep the right wing's flawed case moving. But, hey--you can't let legal niceties get in the way of ideology.* *Peek under Hudson's judicial robe and you'll find a naked partisan with a long career in hard-right Republican politics. A protégé of Ronald Regan and his detestable attorney general Ed Meese, Hudson ran unsuccessfully for a Virginia congressional seat in 1991. As consolation, he got two GOP political appointments in the state before George W. Bush put him on the federal bench in 2002.* *Even today, as he sits in judgment of politically motivated cases, Hudson continues to draw an annual income as an owner of a Republican political consulting firm. One of the firm's successful clients in 2009 was Ken Cuccinelli, just elected as Virginia's attorney general. And Ken just happens to be the official who filed the right wing's case against Obama's health care reform in Judge Hudson's court.* http://www.otherwords.org/articles/our_corporate_courts *Jim Hightower <http://www.jimhightower.com/> is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He's also editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown <http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/>.* ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *If you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know* ** *To join the Liberty Underground news service email [email protected] "join" for a subject* ** *You may also join our talk group athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/ <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/>if you would like to participate* ** *email: [email protected]* ** *Tell your friends about /LUV News/ because some people just don't get it* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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