Clipmarks | papananook's clips

Nader calls U. S. "corporate fascism"

Wed, 14 May 2008 17:15:18 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: "We used to be able to challenge corporate influence in Washington, but they have so much power now that we can't. The corporations are laughing at us. They're daring us to try to take away their power," said Nader.

The choice between a Democrat and a Republican is to Nader a "choice between horrible and terrible." He warned against voting for a candidate because they're not as bad as the other. "If you have a low expectation level of politicians, then they're going to oblige you," said Nader.

Nader warned against continued complacency. "What's wrong with us? Are we the biggest suckers? Are we super-suckers?" He exhorted his audience at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists to find their "constructive anger."

He doesn't think it's too late to turn things around, but it will require, "people to break from corporate thinking." Nader called on Americans to reach out to each other, get active and organized, and to make demands for what they need and want.

Nader cal

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

OAKLAND - Independent candidate for President Ralph Nader described the current government and economic system of the United States as "corporate fascism" at a campaign event held in Berkeley on May 12.

"We're living in a country whose democracy is beyond the breaking point. The extent of corporate control has developed into corporate fascism," declared Nader.

"We don't have a capitalist economic system - it's corporate fascism. Every major tenet of capitalism is violated by corporate power," said Nader. Only small businesses still practice capitalism, according to Nader.

Corporate fascism not only rules U. S. politics and the economy, but also other aspects of life including the way people think, said Nader. "We grow up corporate with commercialized childhoods. We get a corporate education."

US Drought Monitor Mapping

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:47:22 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: drought.unl.edu

Visit the NDMC Photo Gallery to see photos of drought conditions in California, Georgia, South Carolina, and other states. If you have photos showing drought conditions, please consider submitting them to the Photo Gallery.

NOTE: To view regional drought conditions, click on map below. State maps can be accessed from regional maps.

To compare current drought conditions with last week’s map, click here.

To view tabular statistics of this week's Drought Monitor, click here

To view tabular statistics for the Drought Monitor archive, click here

To view Drought Monitor Change Maps, click here.

12-week
animation

long-term drought
indicator blends

6-week
animation

NDMC's Drought
Impact Reporter

For more information on the above experimental drought blends, see http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/tools/edb/droughtblend-access-page.html#exp.

Ex-Officials: Bush Admin. Ignored Iraq Corruption

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:42:47 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The U.S. embassy “effort against corruption - including its new centerpiece, the now-defunct Office of Accountability and Transparency - was little more than ‘window dressing,’” he added.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.

Arthur Brennan, who briefly served in Baghdad as head of the department’s Office of Accountability and Transparency last year, and James Mattil, who worked as the chief of staff, told Senate Democrats on Monday that their office was understaffed and its warnings and recommendations ignored.

Brennan also alleges the State Department prevented a congressional aide visiting Baghdad from talking with staffers by insisting they were too busy. In reality, Brennan said, office members were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers’ workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s “evisceration” of Iraq’s top anti-corruption office, he said.

Myanmar police block aid workers; food piles up

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:23:22 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.japantoday.com

Police barred foreign aid workers from reaching cyclone survivors in hard-hit areas Tuesday, while emergency food shipments backed up at the main airport for Myanmar’s biggest city.

Relief workers reported some storm survivors were being given spoiled or poor-quality food rather than nutrition-rich biscuits sent by international donors, adding to fears that the ruling military junta in the Southeast Asian country could be misappropriating assistance.

U.N. officials warned that the threat was escalating for the 2 million people facing disease and hunger in low-lying areas battered by the storm unless relief efforts increased dramatically.

Ten days after the tempest, reaching the worst-affected areas was getting more and more difficult.

Checkpoints manned by armed police were set up Tuesday on roads leading to the Irrawaddy River delta and all international aid workers and journalists were turned back by officers who took down their names and passport numbers. Drivers were interrogated.

Jon Stewart on Larry King

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:11:33 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: cathy-edgett.livejournal.com

the presidency -

Our president didn't know that oil was approaching $4.00 a gallon because he doesn't know. This is what Jon Stewart has to say.

In Larry King's recent interview with Jon Stewart, Larry brought up the subject of the primaries and asked him if American is ready for a woman or a black president.

Jon looked at him quizzically and said, "This is such a non-question. Did anyone ask us in 2000 if Americans were ready for a moron?"

Wholphin Magazine presents some great short film.

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:57:57 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.wholphindvd.com

Bees

Directed by WHOLPHIN
PLAY CLIP

American Outrage (Excerpt)

Directed by
Beth Gage & George Gage
PLAY CLIP

Directed by Amy Lippman
A Michael Chabon short story
Starring Paul Rudd and Zooey Deschanel
PLAY CLIP

CURRENT ISSUE
SUBSCRIBE
PURCHASE
WATCH STUFF

All issues of Wholphin, including Issue 1, which has never before been sold individually, are now in stock at the McSweeney's Store.

Strongest Man

Directed by Jeremy Bailey
4:31 minutes

Herculean Cinema.
PLAY FILM

Carmichael and Shane

Directed by Alex Weinress and Rob Carlton
6 minutes

The economics of parenting.
PLAY FILM

Concrete Tightrope

Directed by Toby Moore and Selena McKenzie
4:04 minutes

How to get some sidewalk cred.
PLAY FILM

This is Your Life

Directed by RAFAEL FUCHS
3:19 minutes

Great for cardio.
PLAY FILM

The Country

Directed by BRADY BALTEZORE
1:28 minutes

Triumphant mice.
PLAY FILM

An Internal Camaraderie

Directed by ELI MARIAS & AMOS NATKIN
5:36 minutes

Prepare to be amazed.
PLAY FILM

REJECTED SPOTS FOR THE ARMY'S CURRENT AD CAMPAIGN, "STRENGTH FOR NOW, STRENGTH FOR LATER." BY THE BR

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:50:14 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks:
2. "Vet"

(Open on a short-haired, twentysomething YOUNG WOMAN as she puts on a white lab coat in an X-ray room. A door opens and a VETERINARIAN appears holding a domesticated white rabbit, which the VET pets as it purrs gently. She throws the YOUNG WOMAN a stethoscope.)

VET: Now remember, people's animals are like members of their family. So it's important that we stress to them the gentle methods and safety precautions we employ while the pets are here in our supervision. Know what I mean?

(Cut to the same YOUNG WOMAN at Abu Ghraib, smashing a prisoner in the face with the butt of her rifle, hogtying naked prisoners, posing in front of a naked dogpile of blindfolded prisoners with a "thumbs up" as a cigarette dangles from her lower lip. Cut back to the VET's office, where the YOUNG WOMAN responds.)

YOUNG WOMAN: Yes, ma'am. (Accidentally laughs.)

VET: What's so funny?

YOUNG WOMAN: Nothing.

Yeah, Be all you can be.

Clip Source: www.mcsweeneys.net

1. "Mailer"

(Open on a YOUNG MAN, mid-20s, at his first day of work at a Jiffy Lube. A mustachioed, gum-snapping STORE MANAGER, mid-30s, removes his grease-stained glasses and shakes our young applicant's hand.)

MANAGER: Welcome aboard. Now, when you ring up the customers, be sure to get a home address so we can add them to the mass coupon mailer. It takes some tact, as people don't like to give out their personal info. Are you comfortable gathering information?

(Cut to a dingy interrogation room at the American base in Guantánamo. We see a montage of the YOUNG MAN screaming at a tied-up Iraqi prisoner, slapping him in the face, kicking him out of his chair, being calmed down by a fellow soldier, connecting electric clamps to the Iraqi's testicles, etc. Cut back to the YOUNG MAN as he responds without emotion to the MANAGER.)

YOUNG MAN: Yes, sir, I think I can handle that.

COOKIE MONSTER SEARCHES DEEP WITHIN HIMSELF AND ASKS: IS ME REALLY MONSTER?

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:44:16 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: BY ANDY F. BRYAN...he continues:
"Me thinks me have serious problem. Me thinks me addicted. But since when it acceptable to call addict monster? It affliction. It disease. It burden. But does it make me monster?

How can they be so callous? Me know there something wrong with me, but who in Sesame Street doesn't suffer from mental disease or psychological disorder? They don't call the vampire with math fetish monster, and me pretty sure he undead and drinks blood. No one calls Grover monster, despite frequent delusional episodes and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. And the obnoxious red Grover—oh, what his name?—Elmo! Yes, Elmo live all day in imaginary world and no one call him monster. No, they think he cute. And Big Bird! Don't get me started on Big Bird! He unnaturally gigantic talking canary! How is that not monster? Snuffleupagus not supposed to exist—woolly mammoths extinct. His very existence monstrous. Me least like monster. Me maybe have unhealthy obsession, but me no monst

Clip Source: www.mcsweeneys.net

Me know. Me have problem.

Me love cookies. Me tend to get out of control when me see cookies. Me know it not natural to react so strongly to cookies, but me have weakness. Me know me do wrong. Me know it isn't normal. Me see disapproving looks. Me see stares. Me hurt inside.

When me get back to apartment, after cookie binge, me can't stand looking in mirror—fur matted with chocolate-chip smears and infested with crumbs. Me try but me never able to wash all of them out. Me don't think me is monster. Me just furry blue person who love cookies too much. Me no ask for it. Me just born that way.

Me was thinking and me just don't get it. Why is me a monster? No one else called monster on Sesame Street. Well, no one who isn't really monster. Two-Headed Monster have two heads, so he real monster. Herry Monster strong and look angry, so he probably real monster, too. But is me really monster?

Rob Kall @ Oped news goes on...

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:11:14 GMT

clipped by: papananook

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

Disasters all over. Burma, China, the USA's Toronado alley... And I think of Naomi Klein's disaster capitalism, how governments take advantage of human tragedies and tighten their grip on their control, throwing away human rights.

We're seeing it happen pretty transparently in Burma. Who knows what happens in China. And I'd be willing to bet that Bush and his appointees will take advantage of the tragedy in Oklahoma and Kansas and Georgia in some ways.

But we won't see any talk like that on MSNBC or CNN or, god forbid, FOX. We won't see them talk about the Pentagon Military spokesmen-- the despicable propagandists who masqueraded as honest consultants. No, not at all. We SHOULD see the MSM corpstream media announcing that they will never, ever use any of the shills the pentagon prepped, again. We should be told by CNN and MSNBC and FOX noise that these shills will be sued for fraudulently operating as independent consultants whent they were really on the payroll of the Pentagon.

The Myth of "Underdevelopment"

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:05:28 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks:
Yesterday's video "Economic Hitman"
showed how the banking system is
designed to bankrupt borrower nations.

The long term goal is to extract
resources as super low prices and
to limit progressive poltical
ideas.

The method is simple:

1. make an impossible-to-pay-back loan;
2. negotiate collateral far in excess of
the loan's value;
and
3. collect

The system works that much better
when it's backed up with the
capacity for overwhelming
violence.

Michael Parenti talks about the
history and reality of so-called
Third World "underdevelopment"
and points out that Americans are
next on the agenda:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/318.html

- Brasscheck

- Brasscheck

P.S. Please share Brasscheck TV e-mails and
videos with friends and colleagues.

That's how we grow. Thanks

Clip Source: www.brasschecktv.com

Michael Parenti

[Video]

The myth of progress

Peasants in Central America in the 1950s were better nourished than their descendants today.

What happened?

The same thing that has happened all over the Third World.

The gangster-corporate state has become more effective at extracting wealth from poorly armed countries.

Clip Source: pagead2.googlesyndication.com

World Food Crisis

Mercy Corps aids suffering families hurt by rising costs. You can help!

www.mercycorps.org/foodcrisis

Help Us Save Lives

Please, help us Change the World One Child at a Time. Thanks!

www.chrf.org

Worldwide Telescope--WOW!!!

Wed, 14 May 2008 14:34:42 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: This is very cool.

Clip Source: www.worldwidetelescope.org

Clinton Questions Obama's Ability To Greet World Leaders

Wed, 14 May 2008 14:10:23 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Just about her speed. Haha.

Clip Source: www.theonion.com

WV—Hillary Clinton once again attacked Barack Obama on the issue of experience Tuesday, this time questioning the Illinois senator's ability to effectively smile, make appropriate eye contact, and offer sufficiently delicious finger foods when welcoming visiting world leaders. "My opponent has never greeted foreign dignitaries such as the Japanese Minister of Forestry and Fisheries, as I had the opportunity to do when I was first lady," Clinton said, adding that she has an extensive background in both double-clasped hand shakes and idle small talk with political luminaries from several nations. "Do the American people really want a president who doesn't know when it's appropriate to gesture toward a chair, indicating where a head of state should be seated?" At a previous speech in Indianapolis, Clinton had challenged Obama's ability to create a health-care reform initiative that would ultimately fail and hand Congress over to the Republicans in an electoral landslide

The Pentagon Is America's Biggest Polluter

Wed, 14 May 2008 13:57:08 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: No surprise here--the Defense industry has always polluted and fought the clean-ups because it would lessen their profit. And half our taxes go to them.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

The U.S. has a grossly corrupted health protection system.

The nation's biggest polluter isn't a corporation. It's the Pentagon. Every year the Department of Defense churns out more than 750,000 tons of hazardous waste -- more than the top three chemical companies combined.

Yet the military remains largely exempt from compliance with most federal and state environmental laws, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Pentagon's partner in crime, is working hard to keep it that way.

For the past five decades the federal government, defense contractors and the chemical industry have joined forces to block public health protections against perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that has been shown to effect children's growth and mental progress by disrupting the function of the thyroid gland which regulates brain development.