[LAAMN] New Film - The Last Mountain
6/21/11 The Last Mountain - New Film Documentary in Theaters NOW http://thelastmountainmovie.com *starring Robert Kennedy Jr. - just saw highly recommend [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Turkey to take in NATO ground forces
Turkey to take in NATO ground forces Turkey has agreed that NATO can turn its airbase in Turkey into a base for ground operations into Syria. The country will become the main base in the area for the US-led military alliance’s ground forces. NATO’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said the alliance will transfer the bulk of its ground forces from a military base in the city of Heidelberg in southwestern Germany. Other troops will arrive from Spain to be placed at the Izmir Air Station in western Turkey, which will now become the centre for ground troops. Turkey has recently toughened its opinion on neighbouring Syria, where unprecedented civilian unrest has led to the deaths of many people. Ankara has already created its own military bases close to the common border with Syria. http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=799355 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Roger Cohen: The Great Greek Illusion
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/opinion/21iht-edcohen21.html?_r=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/opinion/21iht-edcohen21.html?_r=1nl=toda ysheadlinesemc=tha212 nl=todaysheadlinesemc=tha212 The Great Greek Illusion Roger Cohen NY Times Op-Ed: June 21, 2011 LONDON - Greece has long held emotional sway over Europe. All the cradle-of-Western-civilization talk earned it leniency, even indulgence. The European Union was not ready to go mano-a-mano with the birthplace of democracy. Past glory is a wonderful thing - and a lousy guide for present policy. That's true in the Holy Land, in Kosovo and in Athens. Greece should not have been allowed into the euro. It failed to join in 1999 because it did not meet fiscal criteria. When it did meet them in 2001, the fix came through phony budget numbers. But Europe's bold monetary union required an Athenian imprimatur to be fully European. So everyone turned a blind eye. In fact, recent history would have been a much better guide. Greece has had an awful past century. Let's begin with the wars of 1912-13 that wrested northern Greece from Ottoman control. Then came the massive population exchange, or ethnic cleansing, negotiated at Lausanne in 1923 under which about 400,000 Muslims were forced to move from Greece to Turkey and at least 1.2 million Greek Orthodox Christians from Turkey to Greece. That upheaval was followed by the 1930s dictatorship of General Metaxas; the brutal German occupation of 1941-44; and a devastating civil war in the late 1940s that bequeathed an ideological struggle between left and right whose visceral quality endures. The rightist military dictatorship of 1967-74 that rounded up and exiled leftists fanned the embers of the civil war. The ongoing conflict with Turkey over Cyprus, involving its own population exchanges, ensures the memory of 1923 has not been entirely laid to rest. So forget Socrates. Read Bruce Clark's excellent Twice a Stranger on the effects of the Lausanne population exchange and the psyche of modern Greece. Clark writes of Greece as a society where blood ties are far more important than loyalty to the state or to business partners. That's not a state of mind conducive to tax-paying, collective effort or balanced public finances. It doesn't rule them out but it doesn't help. It's no surprise that Greece took the euro as a means to live on the never-never - ending up with a debt load equivalent to 150 percent of gross domestic product and rising. Yes, E.U. membership provided some balm to Greek wounds. That's the great merit of the E.U.: It detoxifies history. But Greece remains a nation suspicious of outsiders - when you've been lorded over by the Ottomans you don't want to be lorded over by central bankers - and a place where state structures command scant loyalty. That does not bode well. It suggests the latest bailout, after the $158 billion last year, may just be good money chasing bad. I've never seen Europe in such dire straits. Greece is full of the aganaktismenoi , or the outraged, who resent the sharp cuts and sales of state industries made necessary because there is no drachma to devalue in order to regain competitiveness. Like protesters in Spain, they feel the poor and unemployed are paying for the errors of politicians, the evasions of the rich, and the whole globalized system that rewards the tech-savvy initiated while punishing those left behind. Their anger is understandable. In many ways the euro crisis, the European crisis, is an apt symbol of our times. A borderless order conceived by technocrats, sustained over a heady period by low interest rates, appreciated by the moneyed classes who made more money, is today facing popular revolt combined with the relentless pressure of its contradictions. Strikes and violent protest are one measure of a Europe that now leaves many citizens unmoved by the great achievements of European integration. Open borders are beginning to close again. Turkey is turning its back on the Union. Germany has checked out from its postwar European idealism. America lambasts Europe for its military fecklessness. Many Greeks and Spaniards feel Europe is no more than a scam. The bottom line is this: A monetary union among radically divergent economies without the buttress of fiscal or political union has no convincing historical precedent. For a while, the easy-money boom allowed everyone to overlook the fact that peripheral economies like Greece's or Portugal's were not gaining competitiveness or converging, but amassing unsustainable deficits and debt. Now the hard facts are plain. Given explosive Greek politics, German exasperation and the limits of what the Greek people will accept, I think the best imaginable outcome over time is probably an orderly Greek default rather than a disorderly one. There's simply no readiness to take the fundamental steps - like approving the issue of E-bonds underwritten by all the euro area's
[LAAMN] Fw: [May 19th Movement] Fwd: LA-CAN to Host Housing Activists Session with Bill Moyer and Steve Meacham on Fri. !!!
- Original Message - From: kwazinkru...@aol.com To: may19thmovem...@lists.riseup.net Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 3:44 PM Subject: [May 19th Movement] Fwd: LA-CAN to Host Housing Activists Session with Bill Moyer and Steve Meacham on Fri. !!! -Original Message- From: kwazinkru...@aol.com To: mlk_coalit...@yahoogroups.com Sent: Mon, Jun 20, 2011 1:07 pm Subject: LA-CAN to Host Housing Activists Session with Bill Moyer and Steve Meacham on Fri. !!! Dear MLK Friends: LA-CAN (Los Angeles Community Action Network) will host a special Housing Activists Session of our weekend workshop on The New Arts of Organizing on Friday, June 24th, from 1-4:30 p.m. LA-CAN is one of the key organizations linking the activist housing movement together here in L.A.---including tenants, the homeless, those living in and/or fighting for improvements in public housing, and now those also organizing around mortgage foreclosures. This is a major, major plus, an ALL counts! We certainly need to adjust our public notices on the weekend's scheduled events to incorporate this fact, and encourage anyone we know who may be interested in attending to do so! I will provide more details soon! --- Kwazi [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Venezuelan Revolutionaries- Allende: “This is a Socialist Government Damn it, We are Not Handing Over a Single Comrade”
[image: Logo Venezuela Analysis] Allende: This is a Socialist Government Damn it, We are Not Handing Over a Single Comrade Jun 20th 2011, by Tribuna Popular [image: An image of martyr Chilean president Salvador Allende and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro (Photo: Archive).] An image of martyr Chilean president Salvador Allende and former Cuban leader Fidel Castro (Photo: Archive). *Allende: This is a Socialist Government Damn it, We are Not Handing Over a Single Comrade* In 1972, when, having already taken the decision to overthrow the government, North American pressure against the Chilean Popular Unity administration began to intensify president Allende was faced with the decision to hand over a group of Argentinean guerrillas. *Before analysing the situation with his collaborators, the president made the decision; getting to his feet and slamming his fist on the table he said clearly and determinedly, Here is how things are going to be, this is a socialist government damn it, we are not handing over a single comrade...tonight theyre leaving for Cuba.* *Below, Chilean comrade Roberto Ávila relates the details, in light of the recent series of events faced by President Chavezs government:* In the midst of a sea of conspiracies which ended up causing the death of General René Schneider, Head of the Chilean army Salvador Allende took office in Chile on the 4th of November 1970. North America had set out to achieve his overthrow as a state mission. One of the possibilities to attack Chile was to use Argentina, at that time a military dictatorship. Unresolved border disagreements were many, and we all know that Argentina is bigger than Chile. President Allende met with General Agustin Lanusse and they came to the agreement that the U.S. would wear down this bilateral relationship as a destabilisation campaign against the Chilean government. On the 15th of August 1972 the 114 political prisoners of the Almirante Zar naval base in Patagonia, Argentina - almost all of them guerrillas staged a prison break. Due to miscommunications, only some managed to reach Trelew airport, where they got hold of a passenger flight and set off towards Puerto Montt, in Chilean territory. Amongst the fugitives on the plane: Roberto Santucho, leader of the Peoples Revolutionary Army (ERP), Fernando Vaca Narvaja and Roberto Quieto from the National Leadership of Guerillas; Marcos Osatinsky from the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), Victor Fernandez Palmeiro, a legendry Argentinean guerrilla, Enrique Gorriarán Merlo and others of the same political importance. From Puerto Montt they arrived in Santiago; the legal reality was that they had unlawfully entered the country - they arrived armed and on a stolen plane. That was their formal legal situation; their real one was that of combatants fighting for the freedom of their country. They laid down their arms and went as prisoners to the central barracks of the Chilean Civil Police, luckily for the imposed guests. The request for their extradition was announced immediately by the Argentinean government, a request that a revolution like ours, with so many enemies and fighting alone, could not ignore. Argentina had even given us a loan to buy wheat. The Chilean rightwing immediately sounded the bells of scandal: Chile! Sanctuary for Latin American extremists, Relationship with Argentina Damaged, Rule of Law Violated. A huge popular demonstration took place on the hillside in Cerro Santa Lucia, in manifestion of Chilean revolutionary solidarity with their Argentinean brothers. On the 22nd of August, 16 of the political prisoners that were unable to escape were gunned down in Trelew, a despicable execution. President Allende met with the lawyers of the young Argentineans in the La Moneda Palace and sought the opinion of his Minister of Foreign Relations. What the minister said was devastating: the whole rightwing was in opposition, national and international. Only Eduardo Novoa Monreal, president of the State Defence Board, argued against handing the guerrillas over. Each new advisor put forward a series of legal and political arguments in favour of extradition. The fugitives lawyers were seeing the worst case scenario come true. Out of the blue the president of the Republic of Chile stood up and, slamming his fist on the table, said clearly and determinedly, Here is how things are going to be, this is a socialist government damn it, we are not handing over a single comrade...tonight theyre leaving for Cuba. That night a Cuban aircraft left for Havana with its libertarian cargo. We were alone in the world, with only the loyal friendship of the descendents of Martí, even the USSR had denied us help, surrounded by a thousand dangers, but the verb to betray was never conjugated. *Venezuelan revolutionaries, that was Salvador Allende. That was the conduct of the Chilean revolution. Mistakes are part of life, but they have to be corrected.*
[LAAMN] CORRECTED Report on June 13 NYC Dump Israel Bonds Picket
Please note that footnote 8 in the Israel Bonds report was incorrect. This has been corrected below. Apologies for any inconvenience. -- Please post and forward widely! [http://www.laborforpalestine.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/lfp-size\ .jpg] Labor for Palestine + www.laborforpalestine.net http://www.laborforpalestine.net/ + i...@laborforpalestine.net http://../LaborAgainstWar/post?postID=xeOY0uT0Xxj_GkyzKV5YFINzOIoTk10wR\ q1VJJn_QTVaQI1aNXhEzhuBU0Kg6XQP7x7-_7sKuSNarefufNE4TmNffd1z Find us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Labor-for-Palestine/111572208931552 June 13 New York City Picket Tells Labor Officials to Dump Israel Bonds [outline-style: none;border-style: solid;border-top-width: 1px;] by Michael Letwin, Labor for Palestine June 18, 2011 On June 13, more than fifty labor and anti-apartheid activists participated in a spirited picket of an Israel Bonds celebration dinner in New York City that honored prominent labor official Denis Hughes.[1] Part of a rapidly growing movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel,[2] the protest was called by New York City Labor Against the War http://nyclaw01.wordpress.com/ , Labor for Palestine http://laborforpalestine.net/ , Dump Israel Bonds http://www.dumpisraelbonds.com/ , Al-Awda NY: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition http://www.al-awdany.org/ , International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network http://www.ijsn.net/home/ , International Action Center http://www.iacenter.org/ , and the National Lawyers Guild-NYC Chapter http://nlgnyc.org/ . It dominated the dinner's only media coverage, headlined Protesters chant outside Israel Bonds gala, which reported that, Protesters were in force Monday night as the State of Israel Bonds, a prominent charity for real estate folks, celebrated its 60th anniversary honoring Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO.[3] Labor Complicity For decades, US labor officials have invested unknown millions from union retirement funds -- often without their members' knowledge -- in the Bonds.[4] [PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!] https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclickhosted_button_id=EP\ MD84RQ8NEEG This year's dinner awarded a Peace Medal to Denis Hughes, president of the New York State AFL-CIO. Hughes was director and chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank during the notorious credit bubble decade. It was chaired by Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and head of the Jewish Labor Committee.[5] Appelbaum has long traded on his image as a progressive labor leader to attack growing international trade union support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.[6] Recently, he has been at the forefront of a witch-hunt that banned supporters of Palestinian rights from meeting at the NYC LGBT Community Center.[7] Dump Israel Bonds Campaign The June 13 protest builds on earlier efforts to end such complicity. On October 14, 1973, just eight days after Israel provoked its fourth war in twenty-five years, three thousand Arab autoworkers in Detroit held a wildcat (unofficial) strike and march to protest UAW Local 600's purchase, without membership approval, of $300,000 in Israel Bonds. On November 28, 1973, Arab workers and their supporters struck again, this time a B'nai B'rith Humanitarian Award for UAW International President Leonard Woodcock.[8] On May 21, 2002, immediately following the infamous Israeli massacre in Jenin in the West Bank, New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) picketed an AFL-CIO Israel Bonds National Labor Division event where special guest Israeli Consul General Alon Pinkus express his gratitude to the labor movement for its decades of support.[9] On December 4, 2004, NYCLAW and Al Awda-NY co-founded Labor for Palestine, a network which called for U.S. labor bodies to Divest all labor investments in Israeli Apartheid.[10] Since then, Labor for Palestine has organized numerous events, and has issued public statements condemning labor officials' support for Israel and calling for labor bodies to cut ties with the Histadrut, the Zionist labor federation that not only supported Israel's war on Gaza, but which has spearheaded -- and whitewashed -- racism, apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians since the 1920s.[11] More recently, it has supported the Dump Israel Bonds http://dumpisraelbonds.com/ campaign, established by Connecticut trade unionist Stan Heller. It has also worked with US Palestinian Community Network http://www.uspcn.org/ , International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network/Labor http://www.ijsn.net/section/431/ , US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel http://www.usacbi.org/ , and other allied campaigns. PTUC-BDS Call and LFP Statement The June 13 picket followed a May 4, 2011 call from the newly-formed Palestinian Trade Union Coalition for BDS (PTUC-BDS)
[LAAMN] immigration and the culture of solidarity
Immigration and the Culture of Solidarity by David Bacon Published by the Americas Program on June 20,/2011 http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/4938 Editor's Note: This is the fifth and final article of a series on border solidarity by journalist and immigration activist David Bacon. All articles in the series were originally published in the Institute for Transnational Social Change's report Building a Culture of Cross-Border Solidarity. To download a PDF of the entire report, visit the Americas Program website. ONE indispensable part of education and solidarity is greater contact between Mexican union organizers and their U.S. counterparts. The base for that contact already exists in the massive movement of people between the two countries. Miners fired in Cananea, or electrical workers fired in Mexico City, become workers in Phoenix, Los Angeles and New York. Twelve million Mexican workers in the U.S. are a natural base of support for Mexican unions. They bring with them the experience of the battles waged by their unions. They can raise money and support. Their families are still living in Mexico, and many are active in political and labor campaigns. As workers and union members in the U.S., they can help win support from U.S. unions for the battles taking place in Mexico. This is not a new idea. It's what the Flores Magon brothers were doing for the uprising in Cananea. It's why the Mexican left sent activists and organizers to the Rio Grande Valley in the 1930s, and to Los Angeles in the 1970s. All these efforts had a profound impact on U.S. unions and workers. The sea change in the politics of Los Angeles in the last two decades, while it has many roots, shows the long-term results of immigrants gaining political power, and the role of politically conscious immigrant organizers in that process. Today some U.S. unions see the potential in organizing in immigrant communities. But most unions in Mexico, in contrast to the past, don't see this movement of people as a resource they can or should organize. What would happen if Mexican unions began sending organizers or active workers north into the U.S.? In reality, active members are already making that move, and have been for a long time. Yet there is no organized way of looking at this. Where, for instance, will the people displaced in today's Mexican labor struggles go? In 1998, almost 900 active blacklisted miners from Cananea had to leave after their strike that year was lost. Many came to Arizona and California. In Mexico City, 26,000 SME members took the indemnizacion and gave up claim to their jobs and unions. Many of them will inevitably be forced to go to the U.S. to look for work. Cananea miners and Mexico City electrical workers have a wealth of experience and a history of participation in a progressive and democratic union. They can help both workers in the U.S. and those they've left back home, building unions in the places they go to work. But to use their experience effectively, unions on both sides of the border need to know who they are and where they're going, and see them as potential organizers. SOLIDARITY and the migration of people are linked. The economic crisis in Mexico is getting much worse, with no upturn in sight. With a 40% poverty rate, the government still has no program for employment beyond encouraging investment with lower wages and fewer union rights. And since the maquila sector is tied to the US market, it experiences even worse mass layoffs than other Mexican sectors, with the waves of unemployed then crossing the border just a few miles away from their homes. Six million Mexicans left for the U.S. in the NAFTA period, a flow of people that now affects almost every family, even in the most remote parts of country. Migration has become an important safety valve for the Mexican economy and also relieves pressure on the Mexican government. It uses the tens of billions of dollars in remittances to make up for social investment cut under pressure from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Teachers' strikes, like the one in Oaxaca in 2006, mushroom into insurrections because there is no alternative to migration and an economic system increasingly dependent on remittances. Economic reforms and displacement create unemployed workers - for border factories, or for U.S. agriculture and meatpacking plants. Displacement creates a reserve army of workers available to corporations as low wage labor. If demand rises, employers don't have to raise wages. In a time of economic crisis, unemployed people are used to pressure employed workers, making them less demanding, and more fearful of losing their jobs. Displacement and migration aren't a byproduct of the global economy. The economic system in both Mexico and the U.S. is dependent on the labor that displacement produces. Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on a
[LAAMN] Chinese in Cuba, a Cuban in China (Part II)
*- Havana Times.org - http://www.havanatimes.org -* *Chinese in Cuba, a Cuban in China (Part II)* Posted By *Circles Robinson* On June 20, 2011 @ 6:46 am In *Interviews,Lead Articles* | *No Commentshttp://www.havanatimes.org/?p=45431print=1#comments_controls * - Share http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php [1] - Tweet http://twitter.com/share [2] - - Share http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php [1] - Tweet http://twitter.com/share [2] - *Julio Tang interviewed by Dmitri Prieto * http://www.havanatimes.org/?attachment_id=45432 [3] Julio Tang in Panyu District in Guangzhou. *HAVANA TIMES, June 20 HT **continues its interview with Julio Tang*http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=45304 * [4], a Cuban of Chinese descent who is currently studying in China and who is a founding member of two socially critical left initiatives in Cuba (the Haydee Santamaria Collective and the Critical Observatory).* *HT: Do China or the Asian models of state/market socialism offer alternatives for the future of Cuba? * *Julio Tang:* If youre referring to commercial relations that can help improve the Cuban economy, I can tell you that the more these are deepened the better, though I dont know how we can benefit from these, given how far behind and underdeveloped we are. *But if youre referring to the possible ideological or strategic approaches of the Cuban government to the imponderable elements of Asian capitalisteconomic growth, represented by China and the Asian Tigers (each very much Chinese), I think that would be the worst thing that could happen to our country*. Cuba possesses geographical, political and socio-cultural conditions that are totally different from those in this region. *A posture, whether forced or not, that leans toward the new Asian pole of world capitalism would be a defining collision between emancipatory Cuban praxis and even with traditional socialist concepts (perhaps even romantic ones) existing in our country*. As for the communists and/or Stalinists, I cant tell since I dont believe theres a collision of any type with them, though around here we can indeed glimpse some type movement toward them. To speak about any type of linking with the process of capitalization and realization of consumerism in these societies and in Cubas future implies speaking of a total and indiscriminate devaluing of the labor force, spoiling all the achievements reached by the working classes of the world, corruption at all levels and civil homogenization under the consumerist ideals. China is experiencing all of these evils along with the undeniable but contradictory benefit of technological development. These occurrences are common to any type of capitalist society, but China is also adopting ideological positions that are increasingly moving away from the socialist ideal, passing through the most rampant neo-Confucianism. *HT: What is it that you appreciate most about Chinese culture, keeping in mind your nature as a social researcher? * *Julio Tang*: Everything in China is interesting as I get closer to the culture no longer being able to be completely personal and as I practice more from the point of view of a researcher. Thats to say that Im enjoying what I like most about this culture but always looking for the most favorable approach to analysis. In this sense the Taoist logic of the parks and architecture, the search for beauty and virtue, walking around and looking at the women or the evolution of the timbre of the voices of people when they talk, these are all are enriching experiences. As in all cultures there are positive and negative aspects. Unfortunately the ideas that are held in Cuba on China and its citizens are extremely scanty and stereotyped. A tacit agreement also exists in Chinese society itself (which for some time has been evidenced by its government) of promoting a positive image of its culture and its civilization for the sake of inserting the country into the twists and turns of global society. That image is something that is often refuted by people with only stay a short time in this country. China is more than Confucius, silk, calligraphy, ceramics or exacting reproductions of aspects of western culture. In fact, those elements are no more than very old cultural representations that are present alongside exquisite and modernized variations. Today China is also greed, the God money, passive acceptance, rampant consumerism and showcasing postures, among other characteristics. *HT: Tell us about your experiences as part of the globalized Chinese proletariat. * *Julio Tang*: Well, the first objective of my stay here is to study. Everything else has to be secondary. However, at certain times its been necessary to address certain needs, and part-time employment has been a saving grace. On the other hand, I havent had that many experiences, but day-to-day life, observation, conversations and some opportunities end up forming certain new
[LAAMN] U.N. council passes gay rights resolution By Jill Dougherty, CNN
From: Michael W. Hathaway [mailto:mykha...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 4:09 PM U.N. council passes gay rights resolution By Jill Dougherty, CNN Foreign Affairs Correspondent June 17, 2011 1:22 p.m. EDT People celebrate during a gay pride march this month in Strasbourg, France. People celebrate during a gay pride march this month in Strasbourg, France. STORY HIGHLIGHTS *U.N. Human Rights Council resolution passes 23-19, with three abstentions *Some African nations criticize South Africa, which introduced the gay rights measure *The move puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda, a U.S. official says *This is really a critical beginning of a universal recognition of a new set of rights, she says RELATED TOPICS * http://topics.cnn.com/topics/LGBT_Issues LGBT Issues * http://topics.cnn.com/topics/United_Nations United Nations * http://topics.cnn.com/topics/South_Africa South Africa * http://topics.cnn.com/topics/Hillary_Clinton Hillary Clinton * http://topics.cnn.com/topics/U_S_Department_of_State U.S. Department of State (CNN) -- In what the U.S. State Department is calling a historic step, the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution Friday supporting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation. The resolution, introduced by South Africa, is the first-ever U.N. resolution on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons. It passed with 23 votes in favor, 19 opposed and three abstentions amid strong criticism of South Africa by some African nations. Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told CNN, It really is a key part in setting a new norm that gay rights are human rights and that that has to be accepted globally. It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world, she said, and that those issues ... need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what's going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda going forward. Divided opinion continues among some countries about whether the time has come to take up gay rights in the U.N. forum, Nossel said, so this resolution is really significant as far as gaining widespread support for doing just that. The State Department lobbied intensively for the resolution, and Nossel said the United States was pleased to see African leadership, from South Africa in particular, as well as strong support from South America, Colombia and Brazil. The resolution also will commission the first-ever U.N. report on the challenges that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people face around the globe. Nossel said the Obama administration hopes it will open a broader international discussion on how to best promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons. In March the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a statement, supported by 85 countries, on gay rights called Ending Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Friday's vote marks a victory for defenders of human rights, said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. It sends a clear message that abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity must end. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made gay rights a key focus of the State Department's human rights agenda, expressing her view that gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights. At a gay pride event this month at the State Department, Clinton said, Men and women are harassed, beaten, subjected to sexual violence, even killed, because of who they are and whom they love. Some are driven from their homes or countries, and many who become refugees confront new threats in their countries of asylum. In some places, violence against the LGBT community is permitted by law and inflamed by public calls to violence; in others, it persists insidiously behind closed doors. Nossel told CNN, it's not like discrimination or violence are going to end overnight because of the U.N. resolution, but now ... when there are proposals in parliaments or legislatures around the world to illegalize gay activity or repress people because of their sexual orientation, opponents can point to this and say, 'Hey, the U.N. has spoken out, there is a resolution that rejects this squarely.' That is the way these international norms are built, she said. It's not from scratch. On women's rights, on minority rights, it builds up over time. So this is really a critical beginning of a universal recognition of a new set of rights that forms part of the international system. . [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[LAAMN] From Palestine Online Store: World Refugee Day 2011
- Original Message - From: Haithem @ Palestine Online Store Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 2:11 PM Dear Friends, On the occasion of World Refugee Day 2011 (June 20th), and as part of our effort to increase awareness about our Palestinian struggle, Palestine Online Store has launched a new page featuring items that focus on refugee issues. Sixty three years later, Palestinians constitute the world's oldest and largest refugee problem. While we are still deprived of our basic and inalienable human right of return to this day, we are determined to keep on the struggle until every refugee returns home. The new section [ http://palestineonlinestore.com/refugees ] , which will continuously be expanded, currently includes 8 book titles, including Badil's Handbook on Protection of Palestinian Refugees, 8 films, including Salt of this Sea and Chronicles of a Refugee, 6 music CD's, including Marcel Khalife's The Bridge and Doc Jazz's Front Door Key, 2 shirts including Dr. Fayeq Oweiss' Awda calligraphy, as well as buttons and posters. For every order placed now through Friday that includes at least one item from this new section, Palestine Online Store will donate $5 to Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, as a contribution to the organization's outstanding advocacy for refugee rights and protecting our right of return. Please circulate widely and help raise awareness about the Palestinian issue, while at the same time supporting Palestinian commerce, filmmakers, authors, artists, and farmers. Sincerely, Haithem El-Zabri Palestine Online Store http://palestineonlinestore.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report
Please forward US orders news blackout over crippled Nebraska Nuclear Plant: report Submitted 2 days 23 hrs ago A shocking report prepared by Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (FAAE) on information provided to them by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) states that the Obama regime has ordered a “total and complete” news blackout relating to any information regarding the near catastrophic meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant located in Nebraska. According to this report, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant suffered a “catastrophic loss of cooling” to one of its idle spent fuel rod pools on 7 June after this plant was deluged with water caused by the historic flooding of the Missouri River which resulted in a fire causing the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) to issue a “no-fly ban” over the area. Located about 20 minutes outside downtown Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant is owned by Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) who on their website denies their plant is at a “Level 4” emergency by stating: “This terminology is not accurate, and is not how emergencies at nuclear power plants are classified.” Russian atomic scientists in this FAAE report, however, say that this OPPD statement is an “outright falsehood” as all nuclear plants in the world operate under the guidelines of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES) which clearly states the “events” occurring at the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant do, indeed, put it in the “Level 4” emergency category of an “accident with local consequences” thus making this one of the worst nuclear accidents in US history. Though this report confirms independent readings in the United States of “negligible release of nuclear gasses” related to this accident it warns that by the Obama regimes censoring of this event for “political purposes” it risks a “serious blowback” from the American public should they gain knowledge of this being hidden from them. Interesting to note about this event was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chief, Gregory B. Jaczko, blasting the Obama regime just days before the near meltdown of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant by declaring that “the policy of not enforcing most fire code violations at dozens of nuclear plants is “unacceptable” and has tied the hands of NRC inspectors.” This report further notes that the “cover-up” of this nuclear disaster by President Obama is being based on his “fantasy” of creating so-called green jobs which he (strangely) includes nuclear power into as his efforts to bankrupt the US coal industry proceed at a record breaking pace. Unknown to the American people about Obama’s “war” on the US coal industry is it’s estimated to cost them over a 60% increase in their electricity bills by 2014 and cause over 250,000 jobs to be lost in an already beleaguered economy. More ominous for those American people whose lives depend on the coal industry that is being deliberately destroyed is the Obama regime’s massive “security exercise” currently ongoing in the major coal mining States of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, and as we can read about, in part, as reported by InfoWars.Com: “If you’re still living under the delusion that the TSA is just restricted to airports then think again. A joint VIPR “security exercise” involving military personnel has Transportation Security Administration workers covering 5,000 miles and three states, illustrating once again how the TSA is turning into a literal occupying army for domestic repression in America. The TSA, in alliance with a whole host of federal, state, local agencies as well as military personnel, is currently conducting a massive “security exercise” throughout Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. “The participating teams are composed of a variety of TSA assets including federal air marshals, canine teams, inspectors and bomb appraisal officers. They will be joined by state and local law enforcement officials to supplement existing resources, provide detection and response capabilities. The exercise will utilize multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams,” reports the Marietta Times. Although the exercise is couched in serious rhetoric about preparedness, it relates to “no specific threat” and the details are nebulous to say the least and seems to revolve around little else than testing out high-tech surveillance equipment and reminding Americans who their bosses are.” Obama’s fears of the American people turning against nuclear power, should its true dangers be known, appear to be valid as both Germany and Italy (whose people, unlike the Americans, have been told the truth) have turned against it after the disaster in Japan and vowed to close all of their
[LAAMN] Davod Sirota: Regardless of Harm
From: rad-green-On Behalf Of Bill Totten Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 3:40 PM Subject: [R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] America's Energy Ethos http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11483/americas_energy_ethos_do_regardles s_of_harm/ Do, Regardless of Harm by David Sirota In These Times (June 10 2011) Laugh me off as the idealistic son of a physician (which I am), but I still thought the doctor's ethos of first do no harm was a notion we could all agree on. Even in this hyper-polarized Era of the Screaming Red-Faced Partisan, I thought we would witness the recent Fukushima reactor meltdown or footage of Americans setting their tap water on fire and at least agree to stop pursuing energy policies that we know endanger our health and safety - if not out of altruism, then out of self-interest. How embarrassingly naive I was. That, or I momentarily forgot that this isn't just any industrialized country - this is America circa 2011, a haven of hubris that has become hostile to the do no harm principle. This makes us different than, say, Japan and Germany when it comes to nuclear power. Scarred by fallout, the former has canceled plans to build fourteen new nuclear plants and has radically altered its energy agenda, now moving to pursue solar rather than atomic energy. Likewise, according to the Associated Press, the latter reacted to Japan's plight by vot(ing) in favor of a ban on nuclear power from 2022 onward. By contrast, in the days after the Fukushima disaster, the Obama administration not only reaffirmed its commitment to expanding nuclear power, but, according to ProPublica, also continued the policy of routinely waiving fire rule violations at nearly half the nation's 104 commercial reactors, even though fire presents one of the chief hazards at nuclear plants. Additionally, the Associated Press reports that two congressional lawmakers are now pushing the government to back a new generation of miniature nuclear reactors that would be sited throughout the country. Incredibly, these moves come even as a nuclear reactor in Washington State just experienced a fire scare and even as a new study of US Geological Survey data shows many of the nation's reactors sit near active fault lines. The same story is playing out in the quest to find natural gas. Over the last few years, more evidence has surfaced that suggests drinking water may be getting contaminated by fracking - a drilling technique that involves injecting toxic chemicals into the earth. This evidence runs the gamut from a new Duke University study into methane, to a New York Times report on fracking wastewater being dumped into rivers, to Pennsylvania gas companies acknowledging that fracking is contaminating drinking water, to those now-famous YouTube videos of combustible tap water. In response, South Africa last month halted a major natural gas project and France's National Assembly voted to ban fracking outright. Both countries' governments cited the first do no harm rationale, saying more scientific research needs to be done before fracking can go forward. Again, though, our own government has been going in the opposite direction. Succeeding a Bush administration that exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Obama administration has refused to forcefully back congressional legislation that would merely require gas companies to disclose their fracking chemicals. At the same time, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is publicly insisting that she is not aware of any proof that fracking has harmed water supplies. Meanwhile, the White House's one seeming tilt toward caution - its panel to study fracking - ended up being a sham, as six of the administration's seven appointments have direct ties to the energy industry. It all adds up to a frightening divergence: As the world increasingly embraces do no harm, we're doubling down on do, regardless of harm - and as most physicians will tell you, that kind of attitude often ends in tragedy. _ David Sirota, an In These Times senior editor and syndicated columnist, is a bestselling author whose book Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now - Our Culture, Our Politics, Our Everything was released in March of 2011. Sirota, whose previous books include The Uprising (2009) and Hostile Takeover (2007), hosts the morning show on AM760 in Denver. E-mail him at d...@davidsirota.com or follow him on Twitter @davidsirota. Please support independent media by subscribing and/or donating to In These Times magazine: http://www.inthesetimes.com/subscribe/ http://www.inthesetimes.com/donate TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click the appropriate link at the top or bottom of http://billtotten.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/americas-energy-ethos/ ___ Rad-Green mailing list rad-gr...@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG -
[LAAMN] Fw: [rac] rac interview on brazilian anarchist radio on friday! Fwd: PROGRAMAÇÃO DA SEMANA 22/06 e 24/06
- Original Message - From: Jennifer Garcia To: Tierra Y Libertad ; r...@lists.riseup.net Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 10:03 AM Subject: [rac] rac interview on brazilian anarchist radio on friday! Fwd: PROGRAMAÇÃO DA SEMANA 22/06 e 24/06 -- Forwarded message -- From: Cordel Libertário radiocordel-liberta...@hotmail.com Date: 2011/6/21 Subject: PROGRAMAÇÃO DA SEMANA 22/06 e 24/06 To: PROGRAMAÇÃO DA SEMANA 22/06 e 24/06 Para esta semana a Rádio Cordel Libertário juntamente com as suas parcerias, continuara fazendo o debate sobre o anarco-feminismo e também sobre as iniciativas libertárias ao redor do mundo, por isso não deixem de escutar e participar da programação dessa semana. 22/06 - 4ªF: ENTREVISTA COM A MILITANTE Mabel (João Pessoa/PB) Iniciaremos a semana entrevistando a militante Mabel de João Pessoa/PB, o bate-papo será sobre o Anarco-feminismo, o espaço que colocam as mulheres nesta sociedade, o machismo, enfim o tema será bem amplo sobre organização e ações feministas, por isso não podem deixar de participar e fomentar este tema tão pouco discutido em nossa sociedade e coletivos/organizações em geral. Venha contribuir 24/06 - 6ªF- Entrevista ao vivo com jenny e mauricio do movimento comunidades autônomas revolucionárias (R.A.C) de los angeles/EUA Nessa sexta-feira entrevistaremos Jenny e Mauricio integrantes do Movimento R.A.C (Comunidades Autônomas Revolucionárias) de Los Angeles EUA, nesse bate papo ela/e falara um pouco desse movimento e as atividades que promovem juntamente com a população imigrante dos EUA. Será uma boa oportunidade para quem quiser conhecer melhor sobre as iniciativas libertárias nos E.U.A, por isso não percam!!! Por isso não perca a programação desta semana! Faça parte desta Rede de Comunicação Libertária divulgando a programação para sua lista de e-mails e para toda sua rede social, e também se tiver algum contato ou conhecimento de algum Coletivo/Movimento Libertário/Anarquista existente, mande para a Rádio o e-mail, contribuindo assim de forma direta na programação e o fortalecimento deste meio de comunicação. LEMBRANDO * Transmissão ao Vivo: 21:10 * Reprise no dia seguinte: 09:00 * Reprise das Transmissões da Semana nos Finais de Semana: 20:00 OBS: Lembrando que durante essas transmissões ao vivo as/os ouvintes poderão participar ativamente da programação, por meio de perguntas e reflexões através do chat presente no blog, ou mesmo AO VIVO. Quem quiser acompanhar/escutar as entrevistas que já ocorreram, elas já estão disponíveis no blog na página PROGRAMAS ANTERIORES. SAUDAÇÕES LIBERTÁRIAS Rádio Cordel Libertário A Rádio que Valoriza e Respeita a Liberdade e a Diversidade! radiocordel-libertario.blogspot.com radiocordel-liberta...@hotmail.com orkut: Rádio Cordel Libertario Facebook: Cordel Libertário [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --- Unsubscribe: mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com --- Subscribe: mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com --- Digest: mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com --- Help: mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn --- Post: mailto:la...@egroups.com --- Archive1: http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn --- Archive2: http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com --- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ * Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional * To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) * To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[LAAMN] Fwd: [TheBlackList] They'll Steal Our Assets and Sell Them For Pennies On The Dollar
This article is pretty good, except it looks to the US Conference of Mayors to do something. They just elected Villarraigosa to lead the group, and he's the master of privatization and gentrification (using public construction to anchor private development).--MN From The Ramparts Junious Ricardo Stanton They'll Steal Our Assets And Sell Them For Pennies On The Dollar Despite the fact that average American citizens, much like the Greeks, had nothing to do with creating these massive budget holes, their Social Security is being raided, and public pensions have been invested in derivatives and other toxic time-bomb financial instruments. Now, they will surely face austerity measures of similarly reduced benefits and services accompanied by increased taxes to absorb the damage. Although spending cuts and smaller government through privatization might make sense when faced with growing deficits, we must be aware that austerity measures can also hide in the shadows of privatization. Some politicians are touting the privatization of public services and assets as part of the economic solution. However, the public is being left out of the discussion about which services will be affected, what public assets are being sold, who is getting contracts or purchasing assets and, finally, to what benefit to the people. Given the self-serving track record of a crony corporate State, we can only assume the worst that none of these actions will actually benefit average Americans, but only provide continued cover for more looting. US Debt Woes Expose Hidden Austerity and Looting of Public Assets http://theintelhub.com/2010/10/18/u-s-debt-woes-expose-hidden-austerity-and-looting-of-public-assets/ Don't blink, if you do the Kleptocrats will steal everything you have. Now they are doing it gradually but as they continue to get away with it under cloak and protection of the government, they will get bolder and bolder. Who are these master thieves and crooks who are robbing this country blind? They are the international banksters who own the Federal Reserve Bank, they are the hedge fund managers, the Wall Street Ponzi schemers and con artists, the local state and US officials they bribe with campaign contributions and a host of co-defendants too long to mention. The economic implosion we are experiencing is not an accident or some abhorrent business cycle, it is part of a contrived, deliberate scheme to gut the US economy, reduce the middle class to debt ridden peons and usher in a neo-feudal economic system with the Kleptocrats as the new monarchy and land owners. The same strategy that they used to foment the stock market crash of 1929: promoting a get rich quick mentality based on ignorance of the system, massively over leveraged stock purchases, rigged markets using pump and dump schemes and insider trading to manipulate the stock market was used to pump up and subsequently crash the real estate, stock and derivatives markets. The game was so thoroughly rigged that the crash is still rolling out and we don't see it because the corporate media is shilling for the system..It's like living in a house infested with termites who are eating away at your foundation, damaging the load baring structures but your house hasn't collapsed yet. The same scheme that rocked Wall Street in the 1920's is at play here only this time its on steroids. There are hundreds of trillions of dollars in derivatives about to collapse and that doesn't count the over leveraged (on credit) Credit Default Swap side bets that have been laid that have yet to be called since the collapse hasn't occurred yet. If you want to know what's going on read John Perkins' book Confessions of An Economic Hit Man or watch some of his lectures on YouTube. The same thing the IMF World Bank and US-Aid do around the world to third world countries is the same thing Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup, Lehman Brothers and the other giant investment houses did to Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Iceland, Eastern Europe and the US. This is why the people of Spain are in the streets now, why the Irish are up in arms and the people of Portugal are so pissed off pardon my French. If you want to see how it was done here rent the documentary Inside Job that won an Academy Award last year. The same austerity programs the IMF and World Bank loan sharks impose on third world countries when they get so far in debt they can't pay the loans off and what Goldman is imposing on Spain, Portugal et al is going to happen here, only under stealth and trickery. Many states invested their pension funds in hedge fund derivatives and Wall Street Ponzi schemes hoping to get higher returns than the minuscule rates they were getting elsewhere. That was the hook the con men used to
[LAAMN] Top radio talkers sell endorsements
Top radio talkers sell endorsements By: Kenneth P. Vogel and Lucy McCalmont June 15, 2011 04:36 AM EDT If youre a regular listener of Glenn Becks radio show and you wanted to contribute to a political group that would advance the populist conservative ideals he touts on his show, youd have plenty of reason to think that FreedomWorks was your best investment. But if youre a fan of Mark Levins radio show, youd have just as much cause to believe that Americans for Prosperity, a FreedomWorks rival, was the most effective conservative advocacy group. And, if Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity are who you listen to, youd be hearing a steady stream of entreaties to support the important work of the Heritage Foundation. Thats not coincidence. In search of donations and influence, the three prominent conservative groups are paying hefty sponsorship fees to the popular talk show hosts. Those fees buy them a variety of http://www.politico.com/static/PPM170_110614_levinafp.htmlpromotional http://www.politico.com/static/PPM170_freedomworks.htmltie-ins, as well as regular on-air plugs praising or sometimes defending the groups, while urging listeners to donate often woven seamlessly into programming in ways that do not seem like paid advertising. The point that people dont realize, said Michael Harrison, founder and publisher of the talk media trade publication TALKERS Magazine, is that (big time political talk show hosts) are radio personalities they are in the same business that people like Casey Kasem are in and what they do is no different than people who broadcast from used car lots or restaurants or who endorse the local roofer or gardener. The Heritage Foundation pays about $2 million to sponsor Limbaughs show and about $1.3 million to do the same with Hannitys and considers it money well spent. We approach it the way anyone approaches advertising: where is our audience that wants to buy what you sell? Genevieve Wood, Heritages vice president for operations and marketing. And their audiences obviously fit that model for us. They promote conservative ideas and thats what we do. Last month, in the midst of a http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55051.htmlflurry of scrutiny of GOP presidential candidates stances on health insurance http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54651.htmlmandates similar to one included in the 2010 Democratic healthcare overhaul, Limbaugh took to the airwaves to defend Heritages past support for such a proposal. The Heritage Foundation to this day says they are being impugned and misrepresented in terms of their advocacy for such a thing, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_051811/content/01125107.guest.htmlLimbaugh said, explaining that the venerable think tank abandoned the idea once they saw it implemented and realized it doesnt work. Limbaugh, who has been a paid Heritage endorser http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_010709/content/01125109.guest.htmlsince 2009, said the reversal did nothing to detract from the profound respect for Heritage. Heritage is the gold standard. Heritage was every bit as involved in Reaganism as Reagan was, and nothings changed. Levin, whose endorsement deal with the tea party organizing group Americans for Prosperity started last summer, was similarly protective of his sponsor last year after President Barack Obama singled out the group in making the case that anonymously funded attack ads http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43470.htmlwere distorting the midterm elections. Americans for Prosperity is a magnificent organization that people join voluntarily. You. Me, Levin said http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiJQWtE8mm0on his syndicated radio show. Obama, Levin continued, wants you to hate Americans for Prosperity. So if he wants you to hate it, then you should embrace it, and promote it, and support it and join it, because its effective. Beck, lavishing praise on FreedomWorkss new social network website this year, seemed to acknowledge the blurriness of the line between his shows content and messages paid for by advertisers. This is a new thing from FreedomWorks and by the way, they are sponsor of this program and I have a commercial to do for them in, well, in just a few minutes. I dont think theyre going to get one because this is pretty much it, he said on his show, in a clip thats http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/02/14/freedom-connector-get-organizedposted on his personal website. But it is something that I believe in, Im not saying this because theyre paying me to do a commercial in a couple of minutes. This is something that I think is absolutely critical. To be sure, the hosts political perspectives dovetail with those of their endorsees and their paid sponsorships do not preclude them from discussing or even praising other groups. And the integration of sponsors and
