Thursday, February 21, 2013

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.

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The Guardian UK:
"The battered credibility of the Guantánamo trials has been further dented by revelations of hidden microphones, intelligence service interference with court proceedings and protests from lawyers who say the US military is preventing a proper defence of the alleged organisers of the 9/11 attacks.

The increasingly chaotic pre-trial hearings for the alleged mastermind of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and four co-accused have slowed progress toward the full trial, to the point where it will now not start until at least 2014. But the latest developments also further undermine confidence in a military court whose legitimacy has long been questioned.

In recent days, the commander of the Guantánamo prison, Colonel John Bogdan, was forced to admit on the witness stand that secret listening devices disguised as smoke detectors were installed in the cell where lawyers met their clients, and that he knew nothing about them.

The eavesdropping was revealed in court by one of the defence lawyers, Cheryl Bormann, who said she became suspicious about the supposed smoke detectors during a meeting with her client, Walid bin Atash, who is accused of training some of the 9/11 hijackers."

->Must we go to the Guardian in the UK to understand the farce of the Guantánamo trials? The NY Times prints "all the news that fits the empire," and left this story out.

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Worldnews, NBC:
"GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba -- While the prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks were in the Guantanamo courtroom this week, guards seized confidential legal documents, books, photos and even toilet paper from their cells, according to a prison camp lawyer.

Most of the seized items will be returned, the camp lawyer testified in a hearing Thursday marked by angry outbursts, eye-rolling and lengthy diversions from the docket in the war crimes court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba.

Defense lawyers said some defendants returned to their cells after court sessions earlier in the week to find that bins containing their legal documents had been ransacked and confidential papers relating to their defense were missing. The seizures happened while the camp's top legal adviser was on the witness stand giving assurances that no one was reading those private legal documents, said Cheryl Bormann, an attorney for defendant Walid Bin Attash."

-->The NY Times published an article entitled, "Legal Clashes at Hearing for Defendants in 9/11 Case" and basically repeated government denials that there was anything wrong in the criminal proceedings. 

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Reuters:
"Corporate school reformers promote privately operated but publicly funded 'charter schools' as one of the key components of their profit-friendly approach to solving what they call the failure of traditional public schooling, but a new investigative report from Reuters shows that many such institutions disregard their own promises of inclusion and equal opportunity by creating barriers to needier students while targeting for enrollment those most likely to pad test scores or otherwise enhance their own promises of 'success'.

As Reuters notes, there are many regulations that guide the admission behavior of charter schools, but because most of these rules are written by states there can be a wide divergence of how school districts operate nationwide. The investigation found that larger charter school operations—like KIPP, Yes Prep, Green Dot and Success Academy—have more equitable admission and enrollment structures, but that smaller, independently-run charters—whose numbers are growing exponentially nationwide as the corporate education reform movement helps remove barriers through state legislation—are inundated with practices that make a mockery of 'equal access' to all students.

As Reuters reports, many charter schools across the US, despite their assurances to the contrary, 'aggressively screen student applicants, assessing their academic records, parental support, disciplinary history, motivation, special needs and even their citizenship, sometimes in violation of state and federal law.' "

-->The NY Times is out to lunch when it comes to reporting on charter schools. The one article The NY Times ran recently, entitled "Teachers and Policy Makers: Troubling Disconnect" only made it to the "Opinionator" blog.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.

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The Guardian UK:
"The most extremist power any political leader can assert is the power to target his own citizens for execution without any charges or due process, far from any battlefield. The Obama administration has not only asserted exactly that power in theory, but has exercised it in practice...

What has made these actions all the more radical is the absolute secrecy with which Obama has draped all of this. Not only is the entire process carried out solely within the Executive branch - with no checks or oversight of any kind - but there is zero transparency and zero accountability. The president's underlings compile their proposed lists of who should be executed, and the president - at a charming weekly event dubbed by White House aides as "Terror Tuesday" - then chooses from 'baseball cards' and decrees in total secrecy who should die. The power of accuser, prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner are all consolidated in this one man, and those powers are exercised in the dark...

The core freedom most under attack by the War on Terror is the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process. It provides that 'no person shall be . . . deprived of life . . . without due process of law'. Like putting people in cages for life on island prisons with no trial, claiming that the president has the right to assassinate US citizens far from any battlefield without any charges or trial is the supreme evisceration of this right."

->This is probably the biggest story that has emerged from 9/11, the complete shredding of our Constitutional rights by both Republican and Democratic presidents. Most of our US media has been complicit in convincing Americans that they are still safe despite the president's sole authority to kill US citizens. Historians have long debated how Hitler assumed such power in the early 1930's. Perhaps they should be studying how Bush and Onama have done it in the beginning of the Twenty First Century.

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Common Dreams:
"New York could soon become the newest state in the union to allow hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the controversial technique used to enable shale oil and gas extraction. The green light from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo could transpire in as little as 'a couple of weeks,' according to journalist and author Tom Wilber.  

That timeline, of course, assumes things don't take any crazy twists or turns. Enter a press conference today in Albany, where seven groups, including Public Citizen, Food and Water WatchFrack Action, United for ActionCatskill Citizens for Safe Energy, and Capital District Against Fracking, called for an Albany County District Attorney General investigation of the Cuomo Administration.

They are asking 'whether Lawrence Schwartz, Secretary to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, has a conflict of interest between his stock investments and his involvement in the state’s decision on whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing for shale gas.'

Schwartz - dubbed 'the ringleader' of Governor Cuomo's administration - potentially has what these groups describe as a legal conflict-of-interest. A months-long DeSmogBlog investigation reveals that Cuomo's chief-of-staff actually has a direct financial interest in fracking going forward in New York state, potentially falling under the sphere of insider trading."

-->The NY Times didn't think this story was newsworthy. Corruption in high places has never been The NY Times' forte, especially when committed by those in power.

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Common Dreams:
"Israeli officials gave the final stamp of approval for hundreds of new settler homes in the West Bank over the weekend, signaling the country's refusal to cease its illegal expansion in the West Bank ahead of a recently scheduled visit by US president Barack Obama. The Israeli defense ministry on Sunday said it has given the green light for the construction of 346 new settler homes in two settlements in the southern West Bank.

'The defense ministry has approved plans for 200 housing units in Tekoa and 146 housing units in Nokdim,' the ministry said. Additionally, reports surfaced on Monday that Israel has given the final approval for 90 new homes in the Beit El settlement near Ramallah.

The moves, which defy condemnation from an ever growing international community, come days after the White House announced that Obama will visit Israel in March for the first time in his presidency in a bid to 'to reaffirm the deep and enduring bonds between the United States and Israel,' White House spokesman Jay Carney stated last week."

-->Why isn't The NY Times even reporting this story? Israel snubbing a US president by building settlements right before his state visit is no doubt newsworthy. But The NY Times can't really give up its role as the protector of Israel, even when it conflicts with honest reporting.

Thursday, February 07, 2013

Fantasyland Media:

http://www.fantasylandmedia.org

Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want to keep from the public eye.

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The NY Times:
"One dispiriting lesson from Chuck Hagel’s nomination for defense secretary is the extent to which the political space for discussing Israel forthrightly is shrinking. Republicans focused on Israel more than anything during his confirmation hearing, but they weren’t seeking to understand his views. All they cared about was bullying him into a rigid position on Israel policy. Enforcing that kind of orthodoxy is not in either America’s or Israel’s interest.

Brooklyn College is facing a similar trial for scheduling an event on Thursday night with two speakers who support an international boycott to force Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories. While this page has criticized Israeli settlements, we do not advocate a boycott. We do, however, strongly defend the decision by the college’s president, Karen Gould, to proceed with the event, despite withering criticism by opponents and threats by at least 10 City Council members to cut financing for the college. Such intimidation chills debate and makes a mockery of the ideals of academic freedom...

The sad truth is that there is more honest discussion about American-Israeli policy in Israel than in this country. Too often in the United States, supporting Israel has come to mean meeting narrow ideological litmus tests..."

->The NY Times made another breakthrough with this Opinion Page editorial. US policy towards Israel must be debated because we are a free society. Now if its news wasn't so blatantly pro-Israel.

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Global Research:
"The Israeli national water company Mekorot undermines Palestinians’ access to water, according to a new report commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The report finds that deep water drillings by Mekorot and the Israeli agri-industrial firm Mehadrin in the occupied Jordan Valley have caused the drying up of Palestinian wells and springs. About 80 percent of all water drilled in this area is consumed by Israel and its illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Mekorot took over responsibility for the West Bank’s water resources from the Israeli military in 1982. The new report documents a clear pattern of discrimination against Palestinians. Whereas Palestinians living in most of the West Bank face 'chronic shortages,' Israeli settlements enjoy a constant supply of water. Palestinians are prevented from using wastewater provided to Israeli settlements for irrigation and instead have to rely on more expensive water for that purpose. Furthermore, valves supplying Palestinians tend to be cut off when water shortages occur, yet no such restrictions are applied to the use of water by Israeli settlers."

-->The NY Times didn't think this story of Israel stealing Palestinian water was newsworthy. After all that talk about the need for a national discussion on Israeli policies.

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Common Dreams:
"While recent proposals from lawmakers and corporate CEO 'extremists' have put Social Security benefits on the chopping block, Americans are coming out in strong support of the vital program. They are saying: Preserve it.  Fund it.  Strengthen it.  Raise our taxes for it. The results come from a survey released Thursday from the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Academy of Social Insurance, and highlight the stark contrast between the support Americans have for the program and the austerity proposed as 'a minor tweak' that would cut needed benefits to millions.

Some of the findings from the survey: 82% agree it is critical to preserve Social Security for future generations even if it means increasing Social Security taxes paid by working Americans, and 87% want to preserve Social Security for future generations even if it means increasing taxes paid by wealthier Americans. 

Nearly 3 in 4 Americans (72%) say they have a favorable view of Social Security, and a favorable view is shared across income brackets and ages. 84% believe current Social Security benefits do not provide enough income for retirees, 89% said Social Security benefits are more important than ever, and 75% said we should consider raising benefits.

'My Republican colleagues in Congress and some Democrats are attempting to use the deficit crisis as an excuse to cut Social Security benefits. That is wrong,' Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said on Thursday at news conference with a coalition of seniors, veterans and labor organizations in support of strong Social Security benefits."

-->Why is the only socialist in Congress the one supporting what the people so clearly want as far as Social Security? Why isn't The NY Times even reporting this story?