The Vatican re-Brands

Sometimes PBS Frontline does investigative journalism. Other times they do branding, and work as partners with their subjects.

Two Frontlines:

Hand of God
A moving, and frankly told story of a family's confrontation with the church that betrayed them, and how they survived it all with their humanity and humor intact.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/handofgod/)

Secrets of the Vatican
An inside look at the scandals that rocked Benedict’s Papacy.
(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secrets-of-the-vatican/)


The top one was produced by the brother of one of the estimated 10,000 children who are victims of Catholic Priest sexual abuse in the United States.

The bottom one is a narrative that seems to indicate that the Vatican and the church's 'embassies' world-wide are infected with a multitude of sin - and that the past pope, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) sacrificed himself for the church by leaking the "Vatileaks" - and then resigning; which has resulted in the beginning of a rebirth of the institution in likeness of pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Francis).

The top one is a stirring piece of journalism.

The bottom one ... I feel like I just got played. I'll only believe it if the sanction against sexual conduct is ended, and the Catholic Church allows women equal access to all positions in the church.

The business stuff, the banking, the arms dealing, and the acquiescence to fascist death squads sponsored by the CIA in Central America ... well, the most progressive form of government to date - the Republic of the United States of America - is breaking under that paradox (Military Industrial Complex), so I won't put it on the church in rome to lead that us out of that particular hell. That's on us.

Both programs are very important. I recommend watching them.

(Both are available online in Canada at the links provided.)



mh

#Ukraine - Jan 30 2014 - Democratic #Euromaidan has defeated Government - #fascists hold the street - want to overthrow the State and pivot to power

2014-02-25 - This piece was written Jan 30, 2014 - I held back this piece as the situation was unclear and very volatile. Since the weekend of Feb 19-22 the situation has some-what clarified. I'm corralling my sources and real-time documentation now, for my next piece on this unfolding situation. At this writing according to several sources in the field, the situation seems to have pivoted as I had feared it might when the article below was written. The State has collapsed as revolutionary "People's Rada" have sprung up all over the country. Around Kyiv to the proximate east and South - and especially to the West - Right Sector has lead in an apparently focused, organized and well timed  popular uprising that resulted in the decapitation of local government offices and institutions - which has resulted in the collapse of the central government and it's Constitution.


Jan 30, 2014 - The #Euromaidan movement is represented in Parliament by the United Opposition - which includes the fascist Svoboda "third position" neo-nazis.

With an understanding of the situation that flows from an historians perspective - what I see is that the fascists at this moment - in this very fluid situation - hold the keys to the next developments - and that - it appears that if western liberals remain divided and in this state of considering all the facts - the moment may be lost to effect this in a positive fashion - and at the same time, and most importantly - prevent a fascist government from coming to power in the Ukraine.

I just listened to Russian Studies expert Professor Stephen F Cohen's way-to-short debate with Anton Shekhovtsov on DemocracyNow! (Debate: Is Ukraine’s Opposition a Democratic Movement or a Force of Right-Wing Extremism? | Democracy Now!).

Professor Cohen says the fascists, through their control of the street demonstrations - have control of the #Euromaidan democratic movement - just at this moment now - .

At this time Professor Cohen is reading the situation as I see it also.

Here's how I saw the last 9 days play out:

When the government fell last week and all power resorted to Parliament, we saw the government fire all it's Ministers and dissolve the session of Parliament and promise the first new order of business would be to repeal all the anti-protest laws. (the laws that turned the peaceful protest into a week long running street battle run by the fascists, and which caused an ungovernable state of affairs --- the exact occurrence that toppled the government).

At that point the President proposed a power sharing government of national reconciliation. And the deputies of the opposition at first began to respond to that by asking the street to give up the occupations of the government buildings. That resulted in divisions on the street with one group holding the Agriculture Ministry being fired upon by the Svoboda fascists:


According to a NY Time Opinion piece from today the Agriculture Ministry is still occupied - by the fascists:

"Another problem is that the opposition is united largely in its disgust with the corruption and authoritarianism of the Yanukovych-led political elite and a vague longing for Westernization and transparency. Beyond that, the protesters are sharply divided. The differences were on display Wednesday when five people were wounded in a spat over who would control the occupied building of the Agriculture Ministry."

(NY Times Editorial - Time for a Deal in Ukraine - by The Editorial Board - JAN. 30, 2014 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/opinion/time-for-a-deal-in-ukraine.html).

After prolonged discussion in Parliament the amnesty law was passed by the majority government party - without the support of the United Opposition deputies:

Tiahnybok votes to fight on
5:48 a.m, Jan. 30 -- EuroMaidanPR report: After parliament voted to pass the amnesty laws, Svoboda Party opposition leader Oleh Tiahnybok addressed protesters from the main stage of Independence Square, saying that until all the main demands of the opposition are fulfilled, the opposition will continue fighting. Tiahnybok added that the opposition demands are aligned with those of the protestors and that the opposition will continue representing the protesters’ interests and demands. -- Brian Bonner

(EuroMaidan rallies in Ukraine (Jan. 28-29-30 live updates)


It was at this point - and how it stands now - that the fascist hold the trump card in what happens next. If they won't give up the street positions the United Opposition can't negotiate with the majority.

I think it is important to understand that the Ukraine is a capitalist liberal democracy in name only - it has none of the deep institutions of a robust liberal democracy we understand here (that are very tenacious and difficult to dismantle). So the Ukrainian State is very fragile - with just a little push this Ukrainian state could fall - and a fascist government could come to power in the centre of Europe.

As the US has been funding this radical element in an attempt to destabilize and disrupt the Russian Commonwealth of Independent States region (a geopolitical plan that is diametrically opposed to NATO's plan for the region - a US plan to weaken Russia systemically - and at the same time provide for the moving of Southern Eurasian oil and resources West, rather than East or North.

Therefore the US will have no choice but to support this new Ukrainian fascist state - or lose this particular round in the 'grand game' at a moment when it's economic house is collapsing.

This fact of a fascist state in the middle of Europe will have the effect of a cancer inside Europe. Like a house divided - it will either become all one thing - or all the other.

And as the lynch pin of American hegemony in Europe - it must therefore become all fascist - and so then too the fascist forces inside America would also then gain ascendancy in the grand game inside the gates of Rome Washington.


As the fascist maintain their pivot point at the centre of the Ukrainian popular revolution - so too will we see a continuation of the inability of the opposition to negotiate in Parliament.

A continuation of the dysfunction of the state will lead to further economic hardship in the very short term - thus drawing more and more angry young men to the fascist barricades.

Maintain the truce at the barricades in the squares - but end the occupations of the Government buildings and let the government begin to do it's work.

Begin the coalition government that the majority party has offered. Politically dislodge the fascists from that pivot point they now occupy.




mh

Failure of #Ukraine Progressives - rise of Fascist leadership in #Euromaidan movement

A source on the ground in Kiev - from any stated (democratic) perspective - would be nice...
 ..Voila:

The Final Straw Radio (AshevilleFM)

A weekly Anarchist Radio Show

Euromaidan: An Ukrainian Anarchosyndicalist perspective on these protests

December 31, 2013

In late November of 2013, Kiev and other parts of Ukraine saw the building of spontaneous plaza occupations and street demonstrations against President Yanukovych apparent decision to stall steps towards integrating Ukraine into the European Union. The protests, known as Euromaidan or EuroPlaza in Ukrainian, called on the ruling government to move forward with the integration, fearing that the stalling was a sign that the Ukraine was giving in to pressure from the competing Customs Union (made up of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) which had been courting Ukrainian participation. The protests are ongoing, despite the signature of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych into a deal with Russia for promised purchases of billions of dollars of Ukrainian products and a 30% discount on Russian Natural Gas. Euromaidan have been compared in scale, and sadly in lack of critical debate about issues among the populace, to the 2004 Ukrainian Orange revolution which saw the rising to power of those who would become the status quo today.

This week on the Final Straw, we’ll be speaking with Denys. Denys is an organizer and activist with the Kiev Local of the Autonomous Worker’s Union

..."

read the rest and listen to the podcast... http://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/post/2013/12/31/euromaidan-an-ukrainian-anarchosyndicalist-perspective-on-these-protests/

Podcast link: https://archive.org/download/AfmFinalStraw12222013/afm-final-straw-12222013.mp3



mh

Forum Research, TO Mayor Poll: Ford Approval Rating lowest of likely Mayoral Candidates

Image: Edit of page 5/55, Forum Research Inc. TO Mayoral Approval and Issues News Release (2013.11.20): http://www.forumresearch.com/forms/News%20Archives/News%20Releases/28439_TO_Mayoral_Approval_and_Issues_News_Release_%282013.11.20%29_Forum_Research.pdf


Inspired by Now Magazine 2013/11/23 | "Is Rob Ford untouchable?" | by Enzo Di Matteo | http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=195464



mh

Digital Rights Management could save Public Libraries, the Open Internet - and vise versa

Originally published on my Wall, at Facebook


This really cool:

I'm reading "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt" by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco on my desktop!

I went to Toronto Public Library (TPL) online, searched the title; found the ebook entry and clicked on the preview button (a blurb beside the ebook entry says all 4 copies are out already.
(??? '4 Copies' 'Out' ? - that doesn't make any sense - one copy is an infinite number of copies - it's an ebook!!!)

So, like I said, I clicked on the preview instead - and nothing happens - my OS says it will search the internet for the right program to open the file, so I say OK. It came back with nothing. So I copy and searched "Adobe EPUB eBook" (which sits rather innocuously under everything in the Library listing) and that gets me to Adobe's site - where I searched the term internally, and that gets me to the download for the Adobe ebook reader, "Adobe Digital Editions" - http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/

(Adobe is a victim of their marketing department - which turns English into brand names - which inside the sub-culture of the company become actual English - and then they try to use those words to communicate with us out here - and it doesn't work. I don't understand the words "Adobe Digital Editions", it sounds like a place where I would find ebooks - but I wasn't looking for an ebook, I was looking for an ebook reader - so search didn't work, trial and error got me to the page - it took me some time to get there; turns out "Digital Editions" is the brand name of Adobe's DRM enabled, ebook reader.)

The preview TPL is offering outside of the 'copies' it's being allowed to dole out 4 at a time, is Chapter 1 of the book, the story of Pine Ridge, South Dakota.

I've changed my mind about Digital Rights Management. Hither-to I've been a devote of Cory Doctorow's take on the digital revolution with regards to book publishing. He makes all of his book available online in full from the moment they are published in paper. His take is that he'll make his wages through 'reputation', he makes enough money to keep writing full time by doing speaking engagements, readings of his books etc. - more than he'll earn from the actual sale of the books themselves.

I'm of the opinion now that DRM is great - because it allows Public Libraries to get inexpensive, digital copies of books immediately upon publication - to loan out.

The entire book downloads onto your hard drive - but it's in a kind of Temporary File that erases after a certain amount of time. Users can request a renewal of the ebook - and that is allowed depending on the settings the publisher sets in the loan agreement.

Now - if I was a hacker - intent on defeating DRM there IS a way - as soon as the text of the book makes it's way to my computer screen it IS copy-able - Somehow; I don't know how, but I am as sure as I am that the sun will rise - there is an interface that can be constructed to copy what appears on one's computer screen.

Print Screen of "Days of  Destruction, Days of Revolt" by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco  - page 13 (Chaper 1) in ebook reader "Adobe Digital Editions"

So then I am victorious-cyberpunk-hacker-champion !!! But what''s the point? The book's available at the Library for free. :)

This is the best argument for DRM I have ever heard.

And I came up with it !

But then the gobbledygook coming out of the special interest media towers isn't much competition - blinded as they are by greed, and the popular media of greed - money.

 * * *


Originally published on my Wall, at Facebook (edited for clarity) (https://www.facebook.com/michael.holloway.90281/posts/441346309243176)




(I want a widget that can take posts I create in FB and posts them here if I click that button on my browser - I say browser because I know FB would never allow the app - at Faceboook it's Everything in - Nothing out.)



mh

Waterfont Toronto must speed Development - 'Big Mall' backroom deal dead

" ..with a consolidated effort by progressives that targets Jaye Robinson, Michelle Berardinetti, Karen Stintz and John Parker's ward constituents - organizes those progressive majorities against the Core Service Review cuts - this nightmare mayoralty could turn to an enlightened spring by Christmas!"

Councillors Jaye Robinson, Michelle Berardinetti, Karen Stintz and John Parker, the Star says (Ford gives up goal of seizing Port Lands), we're ready to split ranks on the Waterfront Toronto / Biggest Shopping Mall Ever! issue.

The Mayor's Office reacted quickly, compromise happened and now the call out of City Hall tomorrow will apparently be:  'Hurry up the spending, let's get the Waterfront Toronto vision in place quicker!!'.

So we go from a neo-con power grab, an insider real estate deal - to a Keynesian Infrastructure spending program.

Way to go Councillor Paula Fletcher!

A great victory if this passes council. She got everything she could have hoped for - and found a way for the Fordites to save a little face too.

So, it turns out Doug and Rob Ford are secret bicycle riding, pinko-Communists - possibly closet gays? 

Nope.

Tonight I'm checking out "#codeblueTO", the Twitter list tag that has evolved as an information clearing house on the Port Lands issue in Twitter. At 2:00 AM it was refreshing with 20 new hits every 5 minutes. Check it tomorrow as this news item hits the front porches and the broadcast morning news shows.

What this shows I think, is that this so called Mayor Ford City Council is really a centre dominated house of cards. On the Port Lands issue The Mayor's Office has chosen to fight one battle at a time - they've put out this fire with-in their ranks with this 'compromise'.

And the result is a complete victory for the process, and for the progressive agenda that is Waterfront Toronto - and Councillor Paula Fletcher who's Ward 30 includes the Port Lands.

The Ford brain-trust must consider that they will be lucky if the Core Services Review doesn't split them again. With out this 'step back' by The Mayor's Office the Core Service Review would be in danger. Cuts to services are more likely to pass with out a revolt because everyone's getting gored at the same time instead of everyone focused on one issue like The Portlands. The Core Service Review on the other hand, is about thousands of issues - perfect divide and rule ground for the Mayors Office and their corporate masters.. This is a likely scenario I think, and the strategic brillance of the Ford plan is that a raucous, divided council - each Councillor fighting to save services for their wards - would never find a common voice - and call the kettle black. The Mayor Office must hope that Council would never unite around the progessive idea that spending on infrastructure - with money already approved from the Federal and Provincial levels (for Transit City and the Port Lands) will increase the cities tax base and negate the on-going deficient problem. - with NO cuts in services.

You know - Keynesian economics, rather that neo-con slash and burn reactionary policies designed to appeal to the ignorant, guilt ridden, knee-jerk, first time electors who voted for this idiot.


My point being, with a consolidated effort by progressives that targets Jaye Robinson, Michelle Berardinetti, Karen Stintz and John Parker's ward constituents - organizes those progressive majorities against the Core Service Review cuts --- this nightmare mayoralty could turn to an enlightened spring by Christmas!

Ya think?. Are there other 'tippy' canoes out there?



mh

McClatchy says Wikileaks US Diplomatic Cables reveal Oil at the centre of Libyan War

McClatchy Newspaper's investigative reporter, Kevin Hall has spent some time digging through some 25,000 Wikileaks Diplomatic cables that mention Italian, Libyan, Russian and US Oil companies. He says they reveal how Oil has played a central role in a gambit by the US and France to keep Russian and Italian government owned oil companies out of Libyan oil fields - a gambit that is in fact naked, terrible war - the NATO bombing and special operations intervention that is attempting to over-throw Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.

From The Real News Network, May 16th 2011: "WikiLeaks Reveals US Wanted to Keep Russia out of Libyan Oil"

Kevin Hall in conversation with Paul Jay

http://therealnews.com/

So here we are again, Canadian Forces - through our NATO membership - fighting another war of aggression to control oil fields that as an oil exporting nation we have no interest in.

After the Conservative Majority was elected on May 2 2011, Bloomburg Press asked Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to reassure Bay Street about his plans for the next budget (June 2011). He said the Conservatives will stay the coarse. (Bloomburg Press May 11, 2011 - "Flaherty Vows to Use Parliament Majority to Erase Budget Deficit by 2014".)

Harper's pledge at the G-20 Summit in Toronto on June 26th, 2010 stands (see excerpt from G20 Summit, Final Declaration at the end of this essay), says Flaherty - all the stimulus spending will be re-coped with spending reductions of C$4.3 Billion/year over three years.

Added to this balance sheet though is a 6B/year corporate tax reduction that lowers the Canadian Corporate tax rate to the lowest of any developed country in the world. Added to that is a promised new income tax rule that allows spouces with children under 18 years to declare their incomes separately. Collectively these measures will reduce Federal income by 10B/year - so $4.3 Billion in reduced spending, coupled with the 10 Billion per year in reduced revenues, leaves $14.3 Billion per year over three years in spending reductions in order to balance Canada's year to year accounts by 2015.

Those spending cuts could come through the cancellation of the contract to purchase 60 - F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets from Lockheed Martin - killing airplanes that bomb innocent civilians in the streets of countries chosen by powerful interests who's agenda remains hidden from view - chosen for reasons that will be spun down to us by our 'free press' with words like 'human rights' and 'despotic leader'.

But those kind of cuts won't happen. Instead we'll cut programs that help people, and we'll further embed our economy with the corporate horsemen of a peak oil apocalypse.

Now that's some forward thinking Mr Harper - coming soon to a Federally funded service near you.


* * *

From "The G20 Toronto Summit Final Declaration (June 26 – 27, 2010)" (my emphasis)

...

10. We are committed to taking concerted actions to sustain the recovery, create jobs and to achieve stronger, more sustainable and more balanced growth. These will be differentiated and tailored to national circumstances. We agreed today on:

* Following through on fiscal stimulus and communicating “growth friendly” fiscal consolidation plans in advanced countries that will be implemented going forward. Sound fiscal finances are essential to sustain recovery, provide flexibility to respond to new shocks, ensure the capacity to meet the challenges of aging populations, and avoid leaving future generations with a legacy of deficits and debt. The path of adjustment must be carefully calibrated to sustain the recovery in private demand. There is a risk that synchronized fiscal adjustment across several major economies could adversely impact the recovery. There is also a risk that the failure to implement consolidation where necessary would undermine confidence and hamper growth. Reflecting this balance, advanced economies have committed to fiscal plans that will at least halve deficits by 2013 and stabilize or reduce government debt-to-GDP ratios by 2016. Recognizing the circumstances of Japan, we welcome the Japanese government’s fiscal consolidation plan announced recently with their growth strategy. Those with serious fiscal challenges need to accelerate the pace of consolidation. Fiscal consolidation plans will be credible, clearly communicated, differentiated to national circumstances, and focused on measures to foster economic growth.
* Strengthening social safety nets, enhancing corporate governance reform, financial market development, infrastructure spending, and greater exchange rate flexibility in some emerging markets;
* Pursuing structural reforms across the entire G-20 membership to increase and sustain our growth prospects; and
* Making more progress on rebalancing global demand.
Monetary policy will continue to be appropriate to achieve price stability and thereby contribute to the recovery.
...

mh

Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" and Smashing Pumpkins "1979"

(Update: 23/02/2012 - 're-embedded' The Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" (EMI) from Dailymotion.)



I like this.

It reminds me of 1996 when the Smashing Pumpkins "1979" came out.



To me both entries are a dismal reality check - fifteen years apart.

Have we been moving sideways?

This cannot stand. Will not stand.

We are are the verge of something very profound I think.

Something wonderful.

Check out Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs" at their site: http://www.arcadefire.com/the-suburbs/
(they're independent - so buy their stuff at their site)

Update: 11/12/11 - Pumkins taken down at Youtube - Fuck EMI - highlight and search.

Update: 23/02/2012 (found it on Dailymotion) - The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 by EMI_Music



mh

Protests across U.S. against Wisconsin-like anti-union bills - with Video Google Map

TheUpTake.org is aggregating video of the nation wide protests against Wisconsin-like anti-union bills - from people who were there to those of us who were not. They've integrated the social tools in this case by using Google maps to give us the big picture. Below is an embed of the Map; click on any of the blue Placemarks to see video embeds from that place of the Saturday, February 26th demonstrations.

Wisconsin Workers' Rights Rallies-Video Map

View Wisconsin Workers' Rights Rallies-Video Map in a larger map

If you were out demonstrating in your city and have media you'd like to contribute, go to TheUpTake.org contribute page for this story: http://theuptake.org/2011/02/25/national-day-of-workers-rights-support-rallies-send-us-your-videos-photos/.



mh

Encampment at the State Capitol at Madison Wisconsin

Wisconsin Protests - Day 12

From: OneWisconsinNow:  http://www.youtube.com/user/OneWisconsinNow#p/u

100,000 Strong

Looks like more than 100,000 to me...

Democracy Now! reporting from Wisconsin Friday. A nice tour of the 24 hours, now 13 day encampment in the State Capitol Building in Madison to defeat Governor Scott Walker Budget Repair Bill, and protect the rights of citizens to bargain collectively with their employers.



Also from "One Wisconsin Now":  http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/ 

I really like this one - it's a montage of 11 days of protest, the song is real catchy.

("Kids" is the third single from MGMT's album "Oracular Spectacular": spiritual and enlightened; a beautiful melody with lots of synthesizers, the robotized sound is a haunting counterpoint to the lyrics: http://www.whoismgmt.com/ca/home.)

Madison Protests

Democracy Now!  http://www.democracynow.org/
Friday Feb 25, 2011:

"Protesters Expect 100,000 in Madison as Assembly OKs Anti-Union Bill"  http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/25/protesters_expect_100_000_in_madison


"Wisconsin’s Uprising: A Guided Tour of the 11-Day Protest Encampment Inside the State Capitol in Madison" 
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/25/wisconsins_uprising_a_guided_tour_of



mh

Lee Camp is Gooood - Very good

We're Losing A Game Of Solitaire! - by comedian Lee Camp

His Bio at "Lee Camp2"

"1-minute Moments of Clarity by comedian Lee Camp. Contributor to The Onion, Saboteur of Fox News, Raconteur on stage."

 See much, much more at his Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/LeeCamp2#g/u

Like this here - an hilarious stand-up on the ironies that exist between our planet-destroying life style and our neurotic fetish for saving oil soaked birds and beached whales...





(And yes, the address is a live link --- and I see "Blogger-in-Draft" (http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/) has enabled the idea - the idea being, these blogger address's are transparent; you can see where the link is going before you click on it. I pasted the Youtube address into the blog intending to create a link out of it - a transparent link which is the standard around here from now on - but, I didn't have to open the widget and paste in the address again - all I had to do was hit the Link button and the address went live! Thus you will soon know - as Blogger roles this feature out in the blogosphere - that every Blogger link like this is legit.)



mh

Right to Collective Bargaining a foundation stone of Democracy

Not some hedonistic 'entitlement' that 'spoiled' baby boomers are likely to give up easily.

Corporations and their neo-con representatives are hoping we'll forget who caused this "Great Recession" and start blaming our neighbours. More on that in this rather level headed discussion lead by Laura Flanders, founder & host of GRITtv - which is NetCasting yesterday and today, from the Wisconsin State Capitol.

Mary Bottari & Mark Pocan: National Implications in Wisconsin

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 by GRITtv



Mary Bottari is the Director of The Center for Media and Democracy's Real Economy Project and the Editor of the BanksterUSA site for bank busting activists. She is an experienced policy wonk and she previously served as a Senior Analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based consumer group Public Citizen in its Global Trade Watch division.

Mark Pocan is a Wisconsin State Assemblyman from the 78th District.


GRITtv - Mary Bottari & Mark Pocan: National Implications in Wisconsin

Via: CommonDreams.org

CommonDreams Video - link list.



mh

Madison, Wisconsin City Council pulls off 'end run' on Governor Scott Walker's 'Demolition Bill'

The Madison, Wisconsin City Council has pulled off a sweet end run on extreme right wing Governor Scott Walker. Before the Republican majority at the State Legislature could pass the Governor's "Budget Repair Bill" - which would strip public employees of collective bargaining rights - the city has settled two year contracts with all their unions which will last until the end of 2012.

Here's City of Madison, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's blog post from last Thursday announcing Madison City Councils enlightened tactic.

Mayor Dave’s Blog

Special Meeting & a Special Walk
February 17, 2011 7:53 PM

It's just a question of simple fairness. The City of Madison has a dozen unions. Some have settled contracts to the end of 2011, some have contracts to the end of 2012 and others have not yet settled a contract at all. With Governor Walker's proposal to essentially wipe out any possibility of collective bargaining on the fast track, we had to act soon in order to treat all our unionized employees the same. If we wait until our next regularly scheduled Council meeting next Tuesday we might already be preempted from doing the right thing.

So, I've called a special Council meeting for tonight to settle all of our contracts through 2012. In addition, we'll try to help our non-represented employees as much as we can by eliminating a health insurance co-pay (they'll be forced to pay at least 12% of those premiums by the state anyway) and by trying to lock in the same modest pay increases that we'll give to our unionized employees over the next two years.

Because the Dane County Board has its meeting tonight in our usual chambers we had to relocate the Council meeting to the Overture Center where live video streaming is possible. Council members, union officials, leaders of non-represented employees and managers are invited to join me on the steps of the City County Building for some brief remarks. Then we'll walk together across the Capitol Square to the Overture Center for our meeting.

The point of that symbolic walk together is that labor and management are united on this. In fact, I'm not aware of a city in the state whose administration thinks that union busting is a good way to solve a budget problem. Collective bargaining has worked for better than four decades. My hope is that there's still some chance that sanity will reassert itself at the Capitol, but in case it doesn't we'll do our best to enforce Madison values in Madison.

The city is taking a risk - if Govenor Walkers bill is not defeated or amended the State Legislature will drastically reduce shared revenue transfers to Madison in 2012. (If the unthinkable happens - and at this point that seems VERY unlikely - this reporter would hazard a guess that the unions would remember the solidarity that this council is showing at this hour of need and agree to re-open the contracts.)

The Madison City Council move nicely highlights the conflict of visions between the radical right and everyone else: the extreme right wants to fix the recession by lowering peoples wages and laying off staff through service cuts - while everyone else thinks a Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Great Depression style New Deal stimulus and financial reform effort is the only way to get America and the world, out of this 'Great Recession'.

Wikipedia's article on the New Deal says it all in the first paragraph:

"The New Deal is a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States, from 1933 to 1936. The programs were responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the "3 Rs": relief, recovery, and reform. That is, relief for the unemployed and poor; recovery of the economy to normal levels; and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression."

1)  Obama's stimulus spending is coming to an end, and the Republican dominated House has just passed a bill over to the Senate (which will not pass) that would cut $61 billion in discretionary spending.

2)  Unemployment is still trending up. If you take into account all the people who have stopped looking for work the official unemployment rate of 10% is  probably closer to 20%. The economy is not anywhere close to "normal".

3)  No effective reform of the financial system has been achieved through an Act poplarly known as the Banking Reform Bill - the official title of which is "An Act to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end "too big to fail", to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes." I like the way Congress puts what we want to hear in the titles of bills (as that's all anyone reads), while the content of this bill leaves the toxic asset derivative vehicles in place, and Glass–Steagall (the 1930's bill to prevent economic instability) remains gutted.


The Great Depression of the 1930's had these same conservative voices that were willing to sacrifice the unemployed and the poor to fix the economy - people that thought giving more money and power to the institutions that caused the crisis in the first place was a good way to fix the crisis - vested interest, Pork Barrelers all.

It's amazing how fear makes people immediately go to their guilt impulse. I guess it's related to the hard winters our ancestors had to survive less than a hundred years ago - if you pigged out in autumn and over Christmas you might not live to see spring ( plus all the ads on TV today that play to those puritan values - the narrative goes: 'The recession is your fault because your greedy at the core of your nature [as you know], so buy this to make yourself feel better [because you're modern and know it's not real anyway]' ) - and while these are nice stories, they provide no real links to lessons learned in the history of economic crisis. They are ignorant knee jerk reactions that make good headlines and sound good coming out of talking heads mouths. They also represent the interests of the powerful and work against the interests of working people and the middle class.

Starving a recession leads to depression - that's the lesson of history - not the 'Little House on the Prairie' rhetoric that I hear coming from the corporate backed neo-con right.



Referencs:

The Capitol Times - Feb 17, 2011: "Laptop City Hall: "City Council approves all union contracts through 2012".

City of Madison - Mayor Dave's Blog - Feb 17, 2011: "Special Meeting & a Special Walk".

Bloomberg - Nov 18, 2010: "Prime U.S. Mortgage Foreclosures Hit Record as Unemployment Hurts Finances".

Wikipedia: "Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act"

Wikipedia: "New Deal"

Wikpedia: "Glass–Steagall Act"



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"The Uptake" Citizen Journalists covering Wisconsin Protests via "LiveStream" and networking via "Spot.Us"

Wisconsin Protests - Day 6

100,000 people came out on Saturday (Day 5), the biggest demonstration in support of Wisconsin Collective Bargaining Rights yet.

This breaking story offers an opportunity to describe a New Media Model that is evolving.

Below is an embed of a live stream from Madison Wisconsin where The Uptake volunteer journalist/producers are creating content and streaming it through LiveStream.

Pro-Labor Demonstrations Continue In Madison Wisconsin

Watch live streaming video from theuptake at livestream.com

How does it all work?

1. Broadcasting

LiveStream is an application that aggregates live streaming video to viewers parceled via subject categories. The first time I saw LiveStream was during the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - where a live feed of the broken pipe at the bottom of the gulf streamed day after day, after day.

"Livestream is the leading live video destination and platform. Event organizers, content owners, celebrities and artists around the world use Livestream's social broadcasting tools to engage and grow their audiences on the web, mobile devices, and connected TVs. More than one billion video minutes are streamed each month to a growing community of 20 million monthly viewers (50,000 of whom will be watching right now)."

It's like a TV box with only live streaming channels, no spin, no talking heads - just live streaming video on any subject you can imagine. 


2. Content Production

Will journalism be done by you or to you?

"The UpTake is a citizen-fueled, online video news gathering organization. Established July 2007."

The UpTake have volunteer journalist/producers feeding live streams from the Winsconsin Protests through LiveStream. The UpTake is gathering a community of volunteers, activists and donors via an innovative social networking site, Spot.Us.


3. Funding

Spot.Us

"Community-funded reporting"

"Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the "Center for Media Change" and funded by various groups like the Knight Foundation. We partner with various organizations including the Annenberg School of Communications in Los Angeles."

4. Spread the News

You can embed this LiveStream too.



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The Real News Network on Wisconsin Protests

AFL-CIO Associate General Counsel Damon A. Silvers lays it all out rather succinctly in this interview with Paul Jay.




More at The Real News

More coverage of this budding national (hopefully international) movement - an updating Google search list: TRNN + Wisconsin + Protests.

TRNN Link list 02/18/2011:

Best of the Web: Wisconsin Videos

 Wisconsin Workers Protest Anti-Union Bill
 Wisconsin Protesters So Loud They Drowned Out FOX Reporter
Democratic Lawmakers In Wisconsin Go Into Hiding
 Wisconsin Gov. Attacks Public Employees & Unions; Threatens to Use National Guard To Quell Protests
 Unions Threatened Across US Featuring: In These Times' Mike Elk debate and Less Government's Seton Motley
 Protesters & Unions In Wisconsin Threatened With National Guard!!
 Wisconsin protests war on unions
 Budget Repair Bill Protest! Madison WI 2 15 2011 Students Arrive
 Governor Walker Discusses Budget Repair Bill with Greta Van Susteren (2.15.11)



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Ontario Ombudsman, André Marin says G-20 Peaceful Demonstrators were lead into a Police Trap

Ontario Ombudsman, André Marin:

"Responsible protesters and civil rights groups who took the trouble to educate themselves about their rights prior to the G-20 had no way of knowing they were literally walking into in a trap. They were literally caught in the act, an act of public entrapment."

For what it's worth, From The Real News Network, the Ontario Ombudsman report on G-20 policing.





And, from the Ontario Ombudsman Channel on Youtube, a video of entire press conference by Ontario Ombudsman, André Marin:

Caught in the Act: Ontario Ombudsman's special report on G20 regulation

"Ontario Ombudsman finds G20 regulation of "dubious legality"; Citizens unfairly trapped by secret expansion of police powers. TORONTO (December 7, 2010) The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services quietly promoted the use of a likely illegal regulation to grant police "extravagant" powers on the eve of the G20 summit, Ontario Ombudsman André Marin says in his latest report."

Also, see the press release at the Ontario Ombudsman's website.

I think it is important to pay close attention to what Ontario Ombudsman, André Marin says at the press conference in the second video. "Responsible protesters and civil rights groups who took the trouble to educate themselves about their rights prior to the G-20 had no way of knowing they were literally walking into in a trap. They were literally caught in the act, an act of public entrapment."

A review the weeks events revels to me, a disturbing practice run for martial law - that was carefully prepared and carried out by a combined force of the RCMP, the OPP and Toronto Police as well as members of police forces from across the country - a dry run where a central command in Barrie, in a Colorado type CENTCOM war fighting communications and command centre directed police on the ground through a massive multi-million dollar phalanx of information gathering systems, including aerial surveillance, and the networking of public and private security cameras - to harass large groups of peaceful demonstrators, and then, to apply force in the form of crowd control techniques like boxing-in, then illegal detention, and finally illegal arrests of large groups of legally demonstrating citizens.

The most interesting example of this was on the Sunday at Queen and Soho where neighbourhood people who, at the beginning, were calling out support to police as they boxed in peaceful demonstrators at Queen and Spadina, (about 400 metres away), were then themselves victims of another boxing-in attempt by riot police as Barrie Command and Control decided the situation was an excellent opportunity to practice a counter flanking tactic.

***

I wonder how people who were not here, from across Canada who supported the police actions on that weekend and commented online at many newspaper websites that I read - especially at CTVglobemedia Inc. owned entities that spun the spectacle of lawlessness and disorder seemingly in order to confuse rather than inform - will respond to this report after much time has passed, and confusion about the weekend has been better digested?

Do the images of the burning police car, repeated over and over and over, and the oft re-run images of the handful of 'black block' children who were allowed by police to smash the windows of businesses from Queen to College on Young street that Saturday, via a mysterious 45 minute black-out of Toronto Police communications --- those activities that police then used to arrest any one they felt like in an area bigger than most provincial capitals occupy --- still, in their minds, did the situation demand such police powers that to suspended Canadian's right to peacefully protest was justified?

To sum up, for you who see see nothing peculiar in all this, the actions of less than 100 'black block' demonstrators - in the midst of peaceful demonstrators numbering in the tens of thousands - were used as a pretext to illegally arrest 1,000 people, detain them, in some cases assault them, allowed a combined police operation of police forces from across the country to practice de facto Martial Law for 48 hours in the centre of Canada's largest city.

If based on these facts, if you still think this was necessary, you still don't see a hidden agenda, a paranoid delusion by our government about the people of this country (or perhaps it alludes to their plans for us?) then politicians should have stood up in Provincial Parliament and passed such laws in full public view. Laws that would allow our police forces to act in a legal way because the national security called for it --- instead of using trickery, like the Saturday black-out in communications, and secret laws expanded to encompass situations they were not intended to be applied to, and surreptitiously training officers on how to skirt the law, and as well as instructing them incorrectly about their rights and responsibilities during the lead up the the G-20 week - and as such leaving individual officers at risk of prosecution and civil suit, as well as codifying a culture of lawlessness in many police forces across the country and leaving good officers bewildered as actions they're being ordered to do they know are illegal but forcing them for fear of their careers to break their personal moral codes, they're reason for being an officer in the first place, tattered and trampled under they're own boots?

All these things in my mind, points to a disturbing lack of confidence by our elected representatives about whether they believed in what they were doing, about they're ability to reason and lead. About they're understanding of what we have built in this great land, this great liberal democracy -  a land of good people who care for one another even if they may disagree one thing or another. What place did this lawless come from? What cultural diaspora did this weekend from hell come out of?

From some rotten, dusty, paranoid corner of some old tower on Parliament Hill?

Near the Prime Ministers Office?

No one's saying a thing from that corner - as usual.



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Empathic Social Imperatives at odds with populist "Competitive Instinct". Jeremy Rifkin's 'The Empathic Civilization'

A few years ago I noted that solutions to many problems emerging in the new, smaller, better connected world are trending towards the social rather than the dominate meme trumpeted in the mainstream press and talk radio in America - the myth of the magic of market forces that will solve everything - except not surprisingly, it's two key motivators; greed and fear.

This video form RSA illustrates a talk by Jeremy Rifkin about the evolution of empathy.




What's RSA?

"For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress. Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action."

Find out more...

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"Hope Is Action" - Chris Hedges & Veterans for Peace

Just spreading some news that ain't so fit to print much anymore...

"When you put your body on the line and you say you won't let this happen anymore and you'll do whatever it takes to make that happen, it's something spiritual."
- Veteran for Peace, Washington DC, December 16, 2010

Ellsberg, McGovern, Hedges arrested outside White House...

131 'Veterans for Peace' activists arrested during the nonviolent demonstration...

Sometimes a small demonstration is bigger than the biggest marches. This demonstration may go down as a turning point in the history of these Long Wars (Iraq and Afghanistan). It comes at a moment when any hope that Obama could make the changes needed, that the electoral process could work - has been dashed on rocks that are a House and Senate that cannot change, will not change.

A civil disobedience action in Washington on Thursday December 16th 2010 delivered the message that as, one after the other the avenues for progressive change are closed to the people, and the powers that be become more and more unable to bend - the only way forward is to use the tactics of Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi:  to stand in the way of the evil being perpetrated in our names.


TruthDig - December 17, 2010:

"Hedges delivered a rousing speech about the nature of hope (in contrast to what certain campaign slogans might have suggested in recent years), pointing out that “hope has a cost, hope is not comfortable,” before joining other supporters of Veterans for Peace who chained themselves to the White House fence."

Truthdig reports on ‘Hope Is Action’ civil disobedience at White House fence:

To me, this feels like that then unknown demonstration back on October 27, 1967, when the "Baltimore Four" (Berrigan, artist Tom Lewis; and poet, teacher and writer David Eberhardt and United Church of Christ missionary and pastor The Reverend James L. Mengel) poured blood on Selective Service records in the Baltimore Customs House. With this symbolic act of civil disobedience began the peace movement's victory in stopping the Vietnam war.

Veterans for Peace White House Civil Disobedience to End War



Video via Youtube's
Direct From Washington, DC
ebecker2000's Channel



Other speakers at the same event:

Flowers, McGovern, Benjamin and Becker: "End These Wars, Now!"



Video via Youtube's,
William Hughes Presents,
liamh2's Channel



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xkcd Cartoon: WikiLeaks

Hee,hee. A paradox no? In my experience True stuff usually has a paradox or two with-in.

In other news...

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (F.A.I.R.) WikiLeaks Petition Campaign

Join me & stand up for freedom of the press; support @WikiLeaks by Signing FAIR's petition today (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/592/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=5343).

As journalists, activists, artists, scholars and citizens, we condemn the array of threats and attacks on the journalist organization WikiLeaks. After the website's decision, in collaboration with several international media organizations, to publish hundreds of classified State Department diplomatic cables, many pundits, commentators and prominent U.S. politicians have called for harsh actions to be taken to shut down WikiLeaks' operations.

Major corporations like Amazon.com, PayPal, MasterCard and Visa have acted to disrupt the group's ability to publish. U.S. legal authorities and others have repeatedly suggested, without providing any evidence, that WikiLeaks' posting of government secrets is a form of criminal behavior--or that at the very least, such activity should be made illegal. "To the extent there are gaps in our laws," Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed (11/29/10), "we will move to close those gaps."

Throughout this episode, journalists and prominent media outlets have largely refrained from defending WikiLeaks' rights to publish material of considerable news value and obvious public interest. It appears that these media organizations are hesitant to stand up for this particular media outlet's free speech rights because they find the supposed political motivations behind WikiLeaks' revelations objectionable.

But the test for one's commitment to freedom of the press is not whether one agrees with what a media outlet publishes or the manner in which it is published. WikiLeaks is certainly not beyond criticism. But the overarching consideration should be the freedom to publish in a democratic society--including the freedom to publish material that a particular government would prefer be kept secret. When government officials and media outlets declare that attacks on a particular media organization are justified, it sends an unmistakably chilling message about the rights of anyone to publish material that might rattle or offend established powers.

We hereby stand in support of the WikiLeaks media organization, and condemn the attacks on their freedom as an attack on journalistic freedoms for all.

******

Michael Holloway, Journalist-Blogger


Daniel Ellsberg


Noam Chomsky


Glenn Greenwald (Salon)


Barbara Ehrenreich


Arundhati Roy (author)


Medea Benjamin (Code Pink)


Tom Morello (musician)


John Nichols (The Nation)


Craig Brown (CommonDreams)


Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report)


DeeDee Halleck (Waves of Change, Deep Dish Network)


Norman Solomon (author, War Made Easy)


Tom Hayden


Fatima Bhutto (author)


Viggo Mortensen (actor)


Don Rojas (Free Speech TV)


Robert McChesney


Edward S. Herman (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania)


Sam Husseini


Jeff Cohen (Park Center for Independent Media)


Joel Bleifuss (In These Times)


Maya Schenwar (Truthout)


Greg Ruggiero (City Lights)


Thom Hartmann


Ben Ehrenreich


Robin Andersen (Fordham University)


Anthony Arnove (author, Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal)


Robert Naiman (Just Foreign Policy)


Dan Gillmor (Salon)


Michael Albert (Z Magazine)


Kate Murphy (The Nation)


Michelangelo Signorile (Sirius XM)


Lisa Lynch (Concordia University)


Rory O'Connor (Media Is a Plural)


Aaron Swartz


Peter Rothberg (The Nation)


Doug Henwood (Left Business Observer)


Barry Crimmins


Bill Fletcher, Jr (Blackcommentator.com)


Bob Harris (writer)


Jonathan Schwarz (A Tiny Revolution)


Alex Kane


Susan Ohanian


Jamie McClelland (May First/People Link)


Alfredo Lopez (May First/People Link)


Antonia Zerbisias (Toronto Star)


Mark Crispin Miller (NYU)


Jonathan Tasini


Antony Loewenstein


(Organizations/institutions listed for identification purposes only)

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The Real News Network's New video outlines the RNN Vision

From the TRNN page, "The Promise":

"The Promise" represents The Real News Network as we hope it will be when fully funded. What you have been seeing so far on our web site is just a taste of what's to come. We need your support to make this vision a reality.

The Real News Network Main Page

The Real News Network Youtube Channel



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