Friday, September 26, 2008

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.

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"Newly released grand jury transcripts add strong evidence to the argument that the conviction and execution of Ethel Rosenberg in the Cold War's biggest espionage case were based on perjured testimony.

In recent years, one of the two key witnesses against Rosenberg recanted his testimony. It now appears that the other witness made up her testimony. too. The witnesses were Ethel's brother and sister-in-law, David and Ruth Greenglass.

Thanks to the work of a team of lawyers and historians, the government released the grand jury testimony that formed the basis for the charges against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

At the Rosenbergs' trial, the Greenglasses testified that Ethel Rosenberg had typed stolen atomic secrets from notes provided by David Greenglass. The testimony provided the direct involvement the jury needed to convict Ethel Rosenberg and that the judge in the case needed to sentence her to death."
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=5786138

--->The NY Times carried a story about the Rosenbergs entitled: "A Spy Confesses, and Still Some Weep for the Rosenbergs." None of this false testimony made it into their story.

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Cynthia McKinney (Green Party) and Ralph Nader will be on the NY State ballot, according to the amount of signatures each candidate received.

Nationally, McKinney is running at 1% and Nader at 6%. Nader is now on the ballot of 45 states. As we have reported before on Activist Radio, independent candidates make up 10% of Americans polled recently for their presidential preferences.

--->The NY Times doesn't think McKinney and Nader are newsworthy, and they are simply not covered. This blackout reflects the wishes of both major parties that plan on keeping third party candidates will be kept out of the corporate funded debates as well. The major corporations fear that letting third party ideas slip out into the general public might really mean change, not the insipid and misleading "change" offered by offered by the front runners.

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Both Kirstin Gillibrand and John Hall, supposed "peace candidate" have signed on as cosponsors of the "Blockade Iran" resolution (HR 362). Not only does the bill call for an act of war, blockading Iran, but it accepts as fact all sorts of unproven allegations regarding weapons of mass destruction. Sound familiar? It should since a similar resolution was passed before the catastrophic invasion of Iraq.

Hall and Gillibrand are simply collaborators in the pending attack on Iran. No doubt they want to get reelected and need support from the weapons manufacturers, the oil companies and the Israeli lobby. But we the people, who want peace and our children home from the Middle East, should throw the bums out. Collaborators are worse for the peace movement than enemies. Until we start defeating this type of pro-war Democrat, there will be no ending America's slide into military empire.

--->The NY Times continues its blackout of RH 362. The betrayal of the peace movement by Kirstin Gillibrand and John Hall (along with other Democratic candidates for House seats) just doesn't fit into the two party story narative. The NY Times is also promoting an attack on Iran, and doing it as clearly as it promoted the last US war crime, the attack on Iraq.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.

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"A report to the UN Human Rights Council on Israel's shelling of Beit Hanoun in Gaza almost two years ago says it may have been a war crime. The report compiled by Archbishop Desmond Tutu casts doubt on Israel's explanation that the shelling resulted from a flawed artillery firing system. It calls on Israel to pay compensation to the victims, 19 of whom were killed.

Archbishop Tutu went to Beit Hanoun in May, after objections by Israel delayed his mission several times. The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the South African cleric's report contains horrific testimony from survivors of the shelling.

She says it speaks of the dead lying in the streets, of local hospitals overwhelmed, and of the injured having to hand over cash to get through Israeli checkpoints for treatment in Israel itself."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7617433.stm

--->The NY Times, as expected, never covered this story at all. Human rights abuses by Israel are simply kept off its pages. Perhaps that is why Americans know so little about what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza. Freedom of the press is routinely sacrificed to present favorable images of Israel.

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"Houses of cards, chickens coming home to roost - pick your cliche. The new low in the financial crisis, which has prompted comparisons with the 1929 Wall Street crash, is the fruit of a pattern of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions, and incompetence on the part of policy makers.

We had become accustomed to the hypocrisy. The banks reject any suggestion they should face regulation, rebuff any move towards anti-trust measures - yet when trouble strikes, all of a sudden they demand state intervention: they must be bailed out; they are too big, too important to be allowed to fail...

It was all done in the name of innovation, and any regulatory initiative was fought away with claims that it would suppress that innovation. They were innovating, all right, but not in ways that made the economy stronger. Some of America's best and brightest were devoting their talents to getting around standards and regulations designed to ensure the efficiency of the economy and the safety of the banking system. Unfortunately, they were far too successful, and we are all - homeowners, workers, investors, taxpayers - paying the price."
Joseph E Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/16/economics.wallstreet

--->The NY Times didn't think that Professor Stiglitz's remarks were newsworthy, even though he was a recipient of a Nobel prize in economics and works a subway stop from the Times building in Manhattan. The Guardian from the UK is the only place Americans can get a non corporate view of our financial debacle.

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Causes of Fannie's Collapse -- and How to Stop the Speculators

WASHINGTON - September 9 -

"The collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is partly the result of their own practices, but it is also part and parcel of the broader collapse of regulation that took hold in the late 1990's with the repeal of Glass-Steagall [banking regulation], which opened the door to massive securitization of subprime mortgages, and then the deliberate fostering of the housing bubble under the Bush administration...

[Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson's actions face up to the reality that government must be involved in housing. Meanwhile, John McCain continues to deny that reality. McCain's economic policy was created, in full, by Phil Gramm -- the architect of the deregulation that brought us this crisis. If John McCain becomes President, we'll likely see the 'solution' now being recommended by Alan Greenspan: breakup and privatization of Fannie and Freddie, leaving the private bankers in charge and taking government out of the housing business. There will be no recovery of the housing sector if that happens, and many more will face foreclosure."
James Galbraith (latest book: The Predator State)
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/0909-6

--->The NY Times in its exhaustive coverage of the Fannie, Freddie crisis didn't think the Glass-Steagall act even worth mentioning. Deregulation the culprit in the current economic meltdown? Not to the Times whose board is made up of corporate executives.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.

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The 2008 Democratic Party Platform and the Middle East:

"Among the positive aspects of the platform is a commitment to take concrete steps towards nuclear arms control and eventual disarmament. These include ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, strengthening the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and recognizing U.S. obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty...

Regarding the greater Middle East, however, the Democrats don't appear to have yet learned the lessons of the past 40 years: that the more the United States militarizes the region, the less secure we become...

The 2008 platform endorses an ongoing U.S. military role in that violent oil-rich nation. It calls for an unspecified number of U.S. troops to remain as a 'residual force' for such 'specific missions' as 'targeting terrorists; protecting our embassy and civil personnel; and advising and supporting Iraq's Security Forces, provided the Iraqis make political progress.'

A troubling aspect to these exceptions is the vagueness of the language. Given that the Bush administration has referred to all Iraqi insurgents fighting U.S. forces as "terrorists," it raises questions as to what degree U.S. military operations and the number of troops to sustain them will actually be reduced. In addition, the U.S. "embassy" - the largest complex of its kind in the world, taking up a bigger area than Vatican City and situated in the heart of Baghdad - requires a substantial military force to adequately defend. And the number of "civil personnel" in the country is in the tens of thousands and would presumably require many thousands of troops to protect them."
Stephen Zunes
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/05-3

--->Most of our mainstream media never presents the presidential candidates as basically agreeing on most aspects of the Iraq conflict. Why not cover this? It might reveal the involvement of both parties in continuing the occupation.

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"When John McCain selected Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate, pundits and reporters saw the move as more proof of McCain's "maverick" nature--despite the fact that Palin's selection would seem in large part to be an attempt to placate the Republican Party base, further undermining his media-sustained reputation as an independent politician who breaks with his party...

For the media, the storyline for McCain seems to be that he's a maverick just because he's John McCain. Weighing McCain's decision to choose either Palin or former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, John Harwood wrote in the New York Times (9/1/08), 'Both choices offered the opportunity to reinforce Mr. McCain's image as a free-wheeling maverick.' For much of the mainstream media, there is no other way to describe John McCain--no matter what reality is telling you."
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/0903-0

--->And why might the media be exaggerating McCain's maverick status? To elect another Republican who will continue the policies of George Bush, despite the fact that these policies are deeply unpopular. "Maverick" means change, or so the media tells us. Will Americans be stupid enough to believe it?

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Causes of Fannie's Collapse -- and How to Stop the Speculators

WASHINGTON - September 9 -

"JAMES K. GALBRAITH Galbraith's latest book is The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. He said today: 'The collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is partly the result of their own practices, but it is also part and parcel of the broader collapse of regulation that took hold in the late 1990's with the repeal of Glass-Steagall [banking regulation], which opened the door to massive securitization of subprime mortgages, and then the deliberate fostering of the housing bubble under the Bush administration.'

'This was tied to financialization throughout the economy and the sequence of bubbles and busts that have resulted. The first was in information technology, the second in housing, and now we're seeing it in commodities, especially oil.'

'[Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson's actions face up to reality that government must be involved in housing. Meanwhile, John McCain continues to deny that reality. McCain's economic policy was created, in full, by Phil Gramm -- the architect of the deregulation that brought us this crisis. If John McCain becomes President, we'll likely see the 'solution' now being recommended by Alan Greenspan: breakup and privatization of Fannie and Freddie, leaving the private bankers in charge and taking government out of the housing business. There will be no recovery of the housing sector if that happens, and many more will face foreclosure.'"
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/0909-6

--->The NY Times in its exhaustive coverage of the Fannie, Freddie crisis didn't think the Glass-Steagall act even worth mentioning. Deregulation the culprit in the current economic meltdown? Not to the Times whose board is made up of corporate executives.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

News fashioned by the people in charge, the corporations and your government. Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine.

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"Over 1000 new buildings are being constructed in the settlements, in which approximately 2,600 housing units, according to Peace Now’s calculations (aerial photographs and field visits). Approximately 55% of the new structures are located to the EAST of the constructed Separation Barrier.

The number of tenders for construction in the settlements has increased by 550%. 417 housing units, compared to just 65 in 2007. The number of tenders in East Jerusalem has increased by a factor of 38 (1,761 housing units compared to 46 in 2007).

In recent years the trend has accelerated to eliminate the Green Line through intensive construction intended to create a territorial connection between the blocks of settlements and isolated settlements in the heart of the West Bank."
http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&docid=3380

--- >The NY Times reported the settlements story quite differently. There is no mention of where the settlements are being built in the West Bank.
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"Israeli Naval vessels are currently firing on unarmed Palestinian fishing boats and international human rights workers off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The fishing boats are several miles off the coast of Gaza City, in Palestinian territorial waters. As of 11am (4am EST) no one had been injured, but live ammunition is still being fired in the direction of the civilian boats.

The unarmed boats went to sea at dawn this morning, in an attempt to fish in their own water. Six international human rights workers from five different countries accompanied the fishermen in the hopes that their presence would deter the Israeli military from firing on the fishermen. In the past the Israeli military has shot and killed unarmed Palestinian fishermen for trying to fish in their own waters." (e-mail from activists who broke the blockade of Gaza)

UPDATE: According to a report from the International Middle East Media Center, two fishermen several miles to the north were hit by Israeli weapons fire. Mohammad Ani Assultan, age 19, was wounded, and Hussam Assultan, age 32, was hit in the head. He is said to be in critical condition. http://www.imemc.org/article/56793

--- >The NY Times did not report this story at all. Protecting Israel's reputation has always been more important than reporting the news to Americans.
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"One in ten respondents in a recent national poll of preference for President support candidates other than either Senator Barack Obama (Dem.) or Senator John McCain (Rep.). This is a finding of a poll conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, released by CNN.

The ORC poll found 6 percent support Ralph Nader (Independent/Peace & Freedom, in California), 1 percent support former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (Green), and 3 percent support former Congressman Bob Barr (Libertarian)."

--- >Despite CNN's involvement with this poll and relationship with ORC, CNN never reported that a surprisingly large one in ten support other candidates. In fact, CNN scarcely reported on this poll at all. The NY Times has characteristically kept silent about candidates outside the two corporate funded parties.

UPDATE: A poll from Gallup's website indicates that "just 12 % of Americans expressing confidence in Congress...the worst rating for any institution in the 35 year history of this question...Only 26 percent of respondents have confidence in the institution of Presidency; only 32 percent in the Supreme Court, only 24 percent in TV news; only 24 percent in newspapers; and only 20 percent have confidence in big business."