The Labor Day Blues

Here is Jim Kunstler's take on the state of the media world: "Whatever the politics of the moment may be, national attitudes are surely changing. A psychology of hardship is overtaking even the bread-and-circus blandishments of the Cheez Doodle / infotainment / professional sports matrix of idiocy that the sociopathic corporate axis-of-evil operates to take advantage of ordinary human weakness."

Read his whole article. As usual it is entertaining. And kind of frightening. Meanwhile Obama gives a speech to school kids today. The media is painting it as wildly controversial. When George Bush went into classrooms to read his favorite book to the children, "The Hungry Caterpillar" it wasn't controversial. Peacenik says some things never change.

by Jim Kunstler

One national moment-of-nausea this Labor Day weekend struck Sunday morning, when CNN's John King led off his 10 a.m. State of the Union show with a valentine to ABC's Diane Sawyer, on her becoming anchor of that network's evening news. (This was the most important news of the week???) The old legacy networks have taken on the role of dishing out reassurance to an anxious and insecure public as job number one, and the subtext of the Sawyer lede was that a Mommy figure would soon be in place to soothe the multitudes even as the nation free-falls into bankruptcy and disorder. This is supposed to be a counterpoint to the chorus of smug, braying rabble-rousers who inflame the crowds on Fox News and MSNBC, and CNBC -- the Glen Becks and Keith Olbermans and Dennis Kneales -- who work the anger regions of the brain.

The inherent conflicts arise from a nation that simply cannot bring itself to try getting its house in order. Instead of adult leadership, we prefer good parent / bad parent therapy -- a psychodrama of alternating messages of reassurance and punishment that provides distraction from problems and conundrums too horrible to face. One unfortunate result is the evaporating legitimacy of anyone or anything in authority, and that is extremely dangerous at a time like this because it creates the perfect opportunity for the rise of a corn-pone Hitler who will beat a path straight into a national ordeal-by-fire, and make everybody feel better by telling them clearly what to do.

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Meet the Press's Idea of a 'Debate'

Here are two examples of why the mainstream media is broken. Could there be a more slanted, tired, irrelevant panel ever. Neo cons all. Peacenik is so tired of all the same pundits shaping policy debates in the U.S. that Peacenik may kick in Peacenik's tv screen. Do pundits have to die to get off Peacenik's tv screen? Do pundits never retire? Ever?

by Glenn Greenwald

On Sunday, Meet the Press hosted a panel discussion to debate two primary issues: (1) foreign policy -- specifically, the war in Afghanistan, and (2) health care. The panel: Rudy Giuliani,Tom Friedman, Harold Ford, Jr., and Tom Brokaw (as Jay Rosen often notes, Meet the Press is doing a fantastic job of fulfilling its pledge to present "fresh voices" in its discussions).

With regard to Afghanistan, there is a major debate currently taking place about whether we should stay in that country. A majority of Americans now opposes the war. But there was not a single participant there who shares that view. All of them believe that it is imperative we remain, and put on their little General hats to exchange deeply Serious analyses of how we need to adjust our strategy and tactics for greater mission success. Of course, all of three of those whose views were known about Iraq -- Friedman, Ford and Giuliani -- were vehement supporters of the invasion. As always, not only does support for that war not produce shame or even impair one's credibility and Seriousness, but the opposite is true: having supported it is a prerequisite for being considered credible and Serious, which is why those are the only people -- still -- from whom we hear when it's time to convene Serious discussions of foreign policy. What an odd filtering standard for The Liberal Media to use.

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Lockerbie: Megrahi Was Framed

punditman says...

Punditman has learned over time that things are rarely as they appear to be in the Big media, with the exception of perhaps sports scores (they usually get that right). The rest is usually spin.

How can punditman make such a broad statement? Easily. The "spin" on any given story fulfills certain assumptions about the way journalists, editors and owners look at the world. Granted, this varies somewhat across the spectrum, from centre-right to centre-left to further right with a few token lefties, libertarians and odd balls thrown in to make it all seem fun and fair.

But the range of allowable thought is actually a lot narrower than many people assume, especially when one starts digging into specific stories that play out when new information comes to light. Big Media don't like to admit they were wrong or lazy; in particular when getting it right the first time involves prowling around the edges of the "dark side" of government espionage, covert deception and official malfeasance. For the most part, these institutions are heavily invested in the status quo's way of looking at the world. They don't like complexity if complexity puts egg on their face. It's much easier to toe the White House/White Hall line.

What externality is punditman babbling about? The recent release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahiin in the Lockerbie bombing case is a perfect example of what punditman is prattling about. If you have fifteen minutes to spare and the ability to employ elementary logic you will easily see that this act of mass murder, this tragedy, this "court case," wreaked of intrigue, coverups and "more than meets the eye" from the very beginning. The "powers that be" were definitely up to something. But what? And why? Eric Margolis believes this case was a frame up and said so in his August 30th column, Muammar Qaddafi: Mad Like a Fox. He ends it with "Happy birthday, Moammar." That makes punditman feel a bit uncomfortable and slightly perplexed. After all, Margolis believes that Libya was "guilty as hell" of another atrocity—the bombing of the French UTA airliner in 1989—but the column is well researched. And it is in the Toronto Sun, an example of one of those contrarian columnists that occasionally break the mold.

But for the most part the rest of the media remain in la la land when it comes to the background intrigue to this case. A sense of renewed rage about Megrahi's release is understandable only if it is a clear-cut case, which it is not.

So what was the Lockerbie bombing all about? Was Iran behind it, in a tit-for-tat response to this:

1988: The U.S. intervenes on Iraq's side in its eight-year war against Iran. A U.S. navy Aegis cruiser, Vincennes, violates Iranian waters and "mistakenly" shoots down an Iranian civilian Airbus airliner in Iran's air space. All 288 civilians aboard die. Then vice-president George H.W. Bush vows, "I'll never apologize ... I don't care what the facts are."

The Vincennes' trigger-happy captain is decorated with the Legion of Merit medal for this crime by Bush after he becomes president. Washington quietly pays Iran $131.8 million US in damages.

If indeed Iran was culpable, why the kangaroo court case that followed? What "bigger" issues were involved? Did the West need Iran all of a sudden as it prepared to launch the Gulf War against Iraq? What facts and suppressed evidence do Western governments not want exposed to the light of day? Is it all about oil?

John Pilger scolds the media, who aside from a few notable exceptions, have put on a disgraceful performance in the service of state power. Good job, John.

by John Pilger

The hysteria over the release of the so-called Lockerbie bomber reveals much about the political and media class on both sides of the Atlantic, especially Britain. From Gordon Brown’s "repulsion" to Barack Obama’s "outrage," the theater of lies and hypocrisy is dutifully attended by those who call themselves journalists. "But what if Megrahi lives longer than three months?" whined a BBC reporter to the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond. "What will you say to your constituents, then?"

Horror of horrors that a dying man should live longer than prescribed before he "pays" for his "heinous crime": the description of the Scottish justice minister, Kenny MacAskill, whose "compassion" allowed Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to go home to Libya to "face justice from a higher power." Amen.

The American satirist Larry David once addressed a voluble crony as "a babbling brook of bullsh*t." Such eloquence summarizes the circus of Megrahi’s release.

No one in authority has had the guts to state the truth about the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the Scottish village of Lockerbie on 21 December 1988 in which 270 people were killed. The governments in England and Scotland in effect blackmailed Megrahi into dropping his appeal as a condition of his immediate release. Of course there were oil and arms deals under way with Libya; but had Megrahi proceeded with his appeal, some 600 pages of new and deliberately suppressed evidence would have set the seal on his innocence and given us more than a glimpse of how and why he was stitched up for the benefit of "strategic interests."

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Bush's Third Term? You're Living It

This article is almost too depressing to read. But Peacenik read it. Peacenik just wants to go away for the long weekend and look in campfires and forget about Bush's third term. Peacenik hopes you can enjoy the long weekend as well. Have a good one.

by David Swanson

It sounds like the plot for the latest summer horror movie. Imagine, for a moment, that George W. Bush had been allowed a third term as president, had run and had won or stolen it, and that we were all now living (and dying) through it. With the Democrats in control of Congress but Bush still in the Oval Office, the media would certainly be talking endlessly about a mandate for bipartisanship and the importance of taking into account the concerns of Republicans. Can't you just picture it?

There's Dubya now, still rewriting laws via signing statements. Still creating and destroying laws with executive orders. And still violating laws at his whim. Imagine Bush continuing his policy of extraordinary rendition, sending prisoners off to other countries with grim interrogation reputations to be held and tortured. I can even picture him formalizing his policy of preventive detention, sprucing it up with some "due process" even as he permanently removes habeas corpus from our culture.

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Preemptive Arrest

Peacenik remembers watching Minority Report when it came out in 2002. It was topical. The U.S. was already well into justifying preemptive war, so it wasn't much of a stretch to imagine preemptive arrest. And of course it happened. Peacenik will follow this court case. Peacenik wonders how many peace protesters will get arrested this fall during anti-war demonstrations. Preemptively or not.

Preemptive Arrest

by Abby Zimet

A year after St. Paul police rounded up and arrested over 200 people who were planning to protest the Republican National Convention - but hadn't actually done anything yet - 27 plaintiffs filed a class action suit against the city on behalf of all those arrested. Police officers used pepper spray, non-lethal ammunition and horses against the protesters, none of whom was convicted of anything except not liking Republicans.

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Iran Nuclear 'Threat' Hyped: IAEA's ElBaradei

It will be curious to see how much attention ElBaradei gets in the U.S. mainstream media. Peacenik recalls he didn't get much attention in the runup to the Iraq war. That was when Bush et.al. were warning about mushroom clouds at a time when the Iraqi weapons programs were defunct. Any attention he does get will be derisive.

And of course Obama and his neocon buddies are threatening to play hardball (gasoline sanctions) if Iran doesn't stop their non-existent nuclear program. These guys are going to talk themselves into another war if they don't stop with all the posturing. The way things are going they may as well bring Cheney back into the administration ferchrissakes.

In an interview published on Tuesday, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, pictured here in 2008, called the threat from Iran "hyped" and that there was no evidence that Tehran will soon have nuclear weapons. (AFP/File/Samuel Kubani)

VIENNA - Iran is not going to produce a nuclear weapon any time soon and the threat posed by its atomic program has been exaggerated, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief said in a published interview.

The West suspects Iran wants to develop a nuclear weapons capability under the guise of a declared civilian atomic energy program. Tehran rejects the charge, saying its uranium enrichment program is a peaceful way to generate electricity.

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Obama Has Betrayed the Progressives Who Got Him Elected -- So Now What Do We Do?

Yep, Obama has been a dud so far. The warmongers seem more entrenched then ever. The right wing continues to dominate public discourse. No regulation on Wall Street. Mountain top removal mining continues. No torture prosecutions. And on and on. What happened to "yes we can".

Peacenik doesn't know what to blame it on. Fox news and CNBC and the rest of the mainstream media have certainly been anti-Obama. And the rightwing fringe, the Glen Becks and Lou Dobbs, certainly get more coverage then they warrant. Can Obama re-capture the progressive vibe. He better do it soon, or else the U.S. will embrace another kind of change, the wrong kind. The Sarah Palin kind.

Posted by Allison Kilkenny, True/Slant at 5:40 PM on August 31, 2009.

Total withdrawal dates and single-payer healthcare were never seriously part of the agenda. They were nice, empty promises, made to get elected.

Though he's barely over six months into his first term, President Obama faces a critical time. According to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, support for Obama is dropping, and Greg Sargent theorizes this is due to waning support among Democrats and liberals.

Sargent's theory makes sense. Ask any Democrat or Progressive why they voted for Obama, and you're likely to hear a range of grievances extending from he's better than Bush to Nader wasn't on the ballot, but others say things like he said he'd bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, or he promised healthcare reform.

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10 trillion Zimbabwe dollars!

Peacenik has raised this before. Here is one possible future for Canada and/or the U.S. Bad economic policy has consequences. Is Zimbabwe the future? Maybe.

By Ian Parker

Posted Monday, August 31 2009 at 00:00

Counting a bunch of Zimbabwean dollars. Picture: Reuters

THE CHEQUE HAD SPACES FOR NOT ONLY BILL-ions, but trillions, quadrillions, quintillions and hexatillions: the last three being words I had never encountered before.

One hears of Zimbabwe’s problems, but it is not until you actually see its cheques and bank notes, that reality strikes home. What seems like an awful lot of money is worth nothing. The 10 trillion dollar note above was offered to a hawker on a Harare street for one avocado and he refused to accept it.

What madness led Zimbabwe to even print such worthless currency? Now, of course, its government has given up and the only acceptable currency is the US dollar. How the man in the street is expected to obtain American dollars is a mystery.

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Punditman not posting (for now)

Punditman will not be posting for a bit as he deals with several externalities. Peacenik is in charge.

15 Best Foods to Improve Your Immunity

Peacenik was thinking about posting an article about the polls showing possible Republican gains in the 2010 congressional elections. Peacnik admits the Democrats have been woeful in stopping the wars, regulating Wall Street and passing some watered down type of universal healthcare. But to return to Congress more oleaginous Republicans, who created most of the problems that the U.S. and the world now faces, seems kinda crazy.

So instead Peacenik thought this post about nutrition and your immune system would be more useful and topical. Particularly since some Punditman readers are apparently going to avoid flu shots as the swine flu ramps up in the fall. Peacenik was particularly happy to see barley on the list of 15. Peacenik will get more beer immediately.

By Tina McCarthy, EcoSalon. Posted September 1, 2009.

Incorporate these healthy foods into your diet to strengthen your immune system in a way your taste buds can appreciate.

Not in the mood to choke down yet another gritty serving of Emergen-C? Boost your body from the inside out with powerful foods that help your immune system function optimally. Just incorporate these healthy foods into your diet to strengthen your immune system in a way your taste buds can appreciate.

Oysters

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