RIP Walter Cronkite

Cronkite announces the death of JFK - November 22, 1963


Cronkite reports the Assassination of Martin Luther King - April 4, 1968

Interspecies Marriage

Just when I thought the scholars at 'Fox & Friends' couldn't be any dumber, they go and totally redeem themselves.

via Salon

Going Green

A bit of follow-up to my last post.


New Rules, June 19, 2009

The Green Party responded to Mr. Maher's request for 'an actual progressive party.' Here's their open letter dated July 1, 2009.

Although a registered Non-partisan voter, I've voted loyally with the Democratic Party since I was 18. To say that I'm a disillusioned American is an understatement at this point and, as such, I'm going Green and voting with the Green Party henceforth. Just an FYI ;)

Oh.My.God.

We're so screwed. To quote Bill Maher, 'this is not what I voted for.'


HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, June 13, 2009

As much as I appreciate what Bill's saying here, I have zero hope at this point. I hate to say it, but it's true. Obama is owned by the powers that be just like every other politician in the world. I'm not sure why I felt like it was so important to elect Obama, as if things would 'change.' As I've known for many years now, there's no difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties. Admittedly, I became swept up in the moment -- mainly due to the Bush Administration's absolutely destructive eight years at the helm -- but I will no longer buy into our politicians' bullshit. Can I take back my vote, please? Next election, I'll be voting with the Green Party or the Peace & Freedom hippies.

Be sure to read the excerpts from Matt Taibbi's eye-opening piece, The Great American Bubble Machine about 'how Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression -- and they're about to do it again,' from the new issue of Rolling Stone.

From the Goldman Sachs entry on Wikipedia:

During 2008 Goldman Sachs came under criticism for an apparent revolving-door relationship in which its employees and consultants have moved in and out of powerful US Government positions, where there may exist the potential for a conflict of interest. Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. The current chief economic adviser to President Obama, Lawrence Summers, was noted for receiving $5.2 million from hedge fund D.E. Shaw in 2008 and speaking fees (ranging from $45 thousand to $135 thousand per event) from banks including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch at a time when he was expected to become the most influential financial official in the U.S. Government. Former bank regulator William K. Black, appearing on Bill Moyers Journal on April 3, 2009, accused the financial industry of massive fraud, citing the role Tim Geithner played before being promoted to Treasury Secretary as well as the successful efforts of Alan Greenspan, former Goldman CEO Robert Rubin (Geithner's mentor) and Larry Summers in the late 1990s to block regulation of the financial derivatives market. According to Brooksley Born, former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Summers, Rubin and Greenspan blocked her efforts to regulate the derivatives market, on the grounds that the financial industry were objecting. Born was then succeeded as head of the CFTC by former Goldman Sachs executive Gary Gensler, who stated that he "should have done more to rein in exotic financial instruments that have battered global markets". Additional controversy attended the selection of former Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Geithner, despite President Barack Obama's pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration.

Another must-read is Matt Taibbi's May 23, 2009 article, The Big Takeover: How Wall Street Insiders are Using the Bailout to Stage a Revolution and be sure to watch the March 2009 Democracy Now interview with Taibbi on the subject in two parts:


Part 1 of 2


Part 2 of 2

Fawn + Dog

In the midst of seemingly endless bad news, here's something to make you smile.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Openly gay Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach will be discharged from the military because of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' (The Rachel Maddow Show, June 29, 2009)


Lt. Dan Choi's military trial -- for violating 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' by admitting he is gay -- is today. Here is his open letter to President Obama and Congress and you can still sign the letter of support for Lt. Choi.


President Obama speaks at an LGBT Pride event at the White House on June 29, 2009.

Stonewall Rebellion

In remembrance of the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, widely considered to be the event that jump-started the gay rights movement in America.

40 Years Later, Stonewall Riots Remembered (Audio from NPR's All Things Considered, June 28, 2009)

Frank Rich's piece in the Times, 40 Years Later, Still Second Class Americans


Proud - 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots

RIP Michael

Conservative Mind, Liberal Penis

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Governor Mark Sanford's Affair
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Alice in Wonderland

source

I can't wait to see this, but I'll have to ... until March 5, 2010 to be exact.

First Look: What a weird 'Wonderland' Tim Burton's made

Live-blogging the Revolution

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Hate

The crazies are certainly coming out of the woodwork these days. In just the last few weeks alone we've seen individuals associated with fringe right-wing hate groups putting their hate into action with the murder of Dr. Tiller, the murder at the Holocaust Museum and the Minutemen murders in Arizona. Incidences of domestic terrorism seem to rise when there's a Democratic president in office and one wonders if having the country's first African-American president in its history will spur these hate groups to commit more acts of violence than ever before. Another factor today that just may encourage more of these hateful acts of violence is that right-wing media outlets such as Fox News Channel provide ample airtime thus giving voice and validation to some of these seemingly 'fringe' ideas. See here and here for more information.

Salon has an interesting piece about the prevalence of white supremacists in the US military entitled Neo-Nazis are in the Army now by Matt Kennard. A few highlights:

Soldiers' associations with extremist groups, and their racist actions, contravene a host of military statutes instituted in the past three decades. But during the "war on terror," U.S. armed forces have turned a blind eye on their own regulations. A 2005 Department of Defense report states, "Effectively, the military has a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy pertaining to extremism. If individuals can perform satisfactorily, without making their extremist opinions overt … they are likely to be able to complete their contracts."

Carter F. Smith is a former military investigator who worked with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command from 2004 to 2006, when he helped to root out gang violence in troops. "When you need more soldiers, you lower the standards, whether you say so or not," he says. "The increase in gangs and extremists is an indicator of this." Military investigators may be concerned about white supremacists, he says. "But they have a war to fight, and they don't have incentive to slow down."

Tom Metzger is the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and current leader of the White Aryan Resistance. He tells me the military has never been more tolerant of racial extremists. "Now they are letting everybody in," he says.

Hunter Glass was a paratrooper in the 1980s and became a gang cop in 1999 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, near Fort Bragg. "In the early 1990s, the military was hard on them. They could pick and choose," he recalls. "They were looking for swastikas. They were looking for anything." But the regulations on racist extremists got jettisoned with the war on terror.

Geoffrey Millard, an organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War, served in Iraq for 13 months, beginning in 2004, as part of the 42nd Infantry Division. He recalls Gen. George Casey, who served as the commander in Iraq from 2004 to 2007, addressing a briefing he attended in the summer of 2005 at Forward Operating Base, outside Tikrit. "As he walked past, he was talking about some incident that had just happened, and he was talking about how 'these stupid fucking hajjis couldn't figure shit out.' And I'm just like, Are you kidding me? This is Gen. Casey, the highest-ranking guy in Iraq, referring to the Iraqi people as 'fucking hajjis.'" (A spokesperson for Casey, now the Army Chief of Staff, said the general "did not make this statement.")

"The military is attractive to white supremacists," Millard says, "because the war itself is racist."

The U.S. Senate Committee on the Armed Forces has long been considered one of Congress' most powerful groups. It governs legislation affecting the Pentagon, defense budget, military strategies and operations. Today it is led by the influential Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain. An investigation by the committee into how white supremacists permeate the military in plain violation of U.S. law could result in substantive changes. I contacted the committee but staffers would not agree to be interviewed. Instead, a spokesperson responded that white supremacy in the military has never arisen as a concern. In an e-mail, the spokesperson said, "The Committee doesn't have any information that would indicate this is a particular problem."

This article reminded me of something I came across a while back... a website showing the number and locations of active hate groups in the US. Enjoy!

Song to the Siren

June gloom has put me in a melancholy mood.


Heartbreaking.


It's a rare thing when a cover version does justice to the original, but Guthrie and Fraser manage to do it.

Mount Mabu

Using Google Earth, Dr. Julian Bayliss from the Darwin Initiative discovers a previously unknown rainforest in Mozambique.

via HuffPost