Fuck the coporate media Part 3

Via: Daily Kos

Journalists Jane Akre and Steve Wilson were fired by the Fox News television station they work for after refusing to change their investigative report on Posilac, a Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) made by Monsanto. Their research documents potential health and safety problems of drinking milk treated with the synthetic hormone, but threatened with legal action from Monsanto, Fox wants the negative effects played down. The court eventually throws out Akre's whistle blower lawsuit after deciding that the media is allowed to lie.

Food as a weapon

In 1948 George Kennan, who at the time was a senior US State Department planning official, wrote:

We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security.

To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.

....

National Security Study Memo 200, issued in 1974, promoted population control in raw materials-rich developing countries. Thirteen developing countries were named as being threats to future US exploitation of their resources unless drastic measures were taken to reduce their population growth. In the NSSM Kissinger put it this way:

The world is increasingly dependent on mineral supplies from developing countries, and if rapid population growth frustrates their prospects for economic development and social progress, the resulting instability may undermine the conditions for expanded output and sustained flows of resources...

 

....

One little publicized result of "Shock and Awe" and the subsequent occupation is the series of laws drafted by the US occupation authority, the CPA. Paul Bremer put the new US-mandated laws into effect in April of 2004. There were 100 of them and they became known as Bremer's 100 Orders. This mandate was given to Bremer by Rumsfeld's Pentagon planners, as Engdahl writes ...

to impose a "shock therapy" that would turn the entire state-centered economy of Iraq into a radical free-market economic model.

Bremer's first act was to fire 500,000 state workers, most of them soldiers, but also doctors, nurses, teachers, publishers and printers. Next, he opened the country's borders to unrestricted imports: no tariffs, no duties, no inspections, no taxes.

Before the invasion Iraq's non-oil economy had been dominated by some 200 state-owned companies, which produced everything from cement to paper to washing machines. In June 2003, Bremer announced that these state firms would be privatized immediately.

Corporate tax rates were drastically reduced. Foreign companies were allowed to own 100% of Iraqi assets and they could take 100% of the profits earned out of the country. Iraq was to have become a laissez-faire capitalist paradise.

Iraq was suddenly transformed into to being the world's freest and most wide-open market. Its economy and banking system had been devastated by war and more than a decade of punitive US led sanctions. Iraqis were simply too poor to buy their newly privatized state companies. A conquered Iraq was in no position to object "aside from military sabotage and guerrilla warfare against the occupiers." The effect of Bremer's 100 orders was to give complete control of Iraq's economy to multi-national corporations.

In addition and of utmost importance

these laws were designed to pave the way for the most radical transformation of a nation's food production system ever attempted. Under Bremer, Iraq was to become a model for Genetically Modified or GMO agribusiness.

Bremer's Order 81, quote below is from Global Research

Order 81 deals specifically with Plant Variety Protection (PVP) because it is designed to protect the commercial interests of corporate seed companies. Its aim is to force Iraqi farmers to plant so-called "protected" crop varieties 'defined as new, distinct uniform and stable', and most likely genetically modified. This means Iraqi farmers will have one choice; to buy PVP registered seeds. Order 81 opens the way for patenting (ownership) of plant forms, and facilitates the introduction of genetically modified crops or organisms (GMOs) to Iraq. U.S. agricultural biotechnology corporations, such as Monsanto and Syngenta will be the beneficiaries. Iraqi farmers will be forced to buy their seeds from these corporations. GMOs will replace the old tradition of breeding closely related plants, and replace them with organisms composed of DNA from an altogether different species, e.g., bacterium genes into corn. In the long run, there won't be a big enough gene pool for genetic viability.

Iraq had kept its precious natural seed varieties in a seed bank in the town of Abu Ghraib. Sometime during the early part of the occupation the seed bank vanished, another casualty of the Iraq War. The Agriculture Ministry, fortunately, had taken the precaution of creating a back-up seed bank in neighboring Syria.

As a part of a program to phase out farm subsidies patent protected GM seeds were introduced to Iraqi farmers by way of the Ministry of Agriculture which distributed GM seeds at discounted prices. Once farmers began using the seeds, under the regulations of Order 81, they would be forced to buy new seeds every year from the seed companies.

Read more


America, ladies and gentlemen, is by no means a benign country who only wants the best for the world. And I highly doubt that our new Messiah, Obama, will do much about situations like this either. So please, please, please, read the diary and the comments, which contain more info. And when you are done, try not to be surprised that third world peoples view America with jaundiced eyes. This BS has been going for a very LONG time. And I can guarantee that what we know now is just the tip of the iceberg...

Food Riots Breaking out across the planet: UPDATED

A significant spike in grain and commodities prices is driving up the cost of food worldwide and marking the beginning of the collapse of the world economy. As a result, violent riots have broken out, as described by Vivian Walt (Time, February 27, 2008)

Rocketing food prices — some of which have more than doubled in two years — have sparked riots in numerous countries recently. Millions are reeling from sticker shock and governments are scrambling to staunch a fast-moving crisis before it spins out of control. From Mexico to Pakistan, protests have turned violent. Rioters tore through three cities in the West African nation of Burkina Faso last month, burning government buildings and looting stores. Days later in Cameroon, a taxi drivers' strike over fuel prices mutated into a massive protest about food prices, leaving around 20 people dead.

Includes timeline of riots since 2007. There goes world security...

From Reuters:Agflation Basically a world overview of the food crisis.

And Rice Hoarding in Asia: At the end of 2007, rice was priced at $360 a metric ton. Last week, medium-grade Thai rice (considered a market benchmark) hit $795 a ton. The Thai Rice Exporters Association expects rice prices to hit $850 a ton this week. And according to experts, we should expect to see the $1,000 per ton undreamt of price ticket sometime in the next three months.

Asia is panicking. By the end of March, 35 countries had recorded food riots. In the Philippines and Indonesia rice hoarding is taking place. The governments of Vietnam, India and Cambodia have taken steps to curb exports in order to ensure domestic supplies. Chinese Premier Wen Jiaobao took the unprecedented step of guaranteeing rice supplies to Hong Kong and Macau after soaring prices triggered panic buying.

Rice isn’t the only soft commodity to experience a sudden price surge. According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food costs worldwide spiked 23 percent from 2006 to 2007. Grains rose 42 percent; edible oils 50 percent, and dairy products 80 percent. Corn, wheat and soybean futures have all set new records on the Chicago Board of Trade this past quarter. But rice is probably the most politically sensitive commodity on the market.

Rice is the staple for half the world’s population.
...
Water shortages and a sharp coldspell in China, floods in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, excessive rainfall in North and South Korea, a typhoon in the Philippines and severe drought in Australia have all drastically reduced rice harvests. And global rice stocks are 4 percent below a year earlier and the smallest since the 1983/84 season. Moreover, ninety percent of rice produced in countries like Thailand, is consumed by its own domestic market, leaving a very small percentage for export purposes.

...

So what does this mean for us, the people having fried rice for lunch? For the wealthy and middle class consumers, rice and wheat price increases are a pricier inconvenience that they can and will have to bear with. But if prices go higher, it will be a disaster for the poor, who spend most of their disposable income on food.

Record high global grain prices have already compromised humanitarian aid efforts of international organizations such as the UN’s World Food Program (WFP). In 2006, WFP provided some 88 million people in 78 countries with much needed starvation-prevention food aid. As result of record world grain prices, WFP has been forced currently to launch an "extraordinary emergency appeal" for $500 million to continue its vital humanitarian work.

"At best, we’re at the same number of people last year who needed food assistance. So, a simple calculation would conclude that only half the people can be helped this year if WFP cannot secure enough food supplies," says FAO’s Abbassian.

Asian Food riots story pointed out by this person. thanks

(no subject)

Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown-No Air

Dear Amanda Marcotte from the Pandagon blog

You appropriated.(EDIT again: See below for definition of plagarism pointed out by stoneself, which would then place this entire thing back under the tag of plagiarism again. Especially since Ms. Marcotte sites another woman, Nina Perales as the inspiration, in an effort to bolster her claims that brownfemipower had nothing to do with it. Ms. Perales, however, was < was not credited in the article either!*headdesk*) You STOLE from WOC. Taking ideas that aren't yours without citing where they came from is FUCKING STEALING!!! And because of your greed and vanity a powerful advocate for the voiceless has decided to take down her blog. It's not enough to be published, to have a popular blog, to be asked to work on a Presidential campaign. Must you use your more powerful position to engage in the same type of exploitation that you complain that men do to you and your constituency, women? How fucking hypocritical. How fucking self-absorbed. And then you want to hide? HELL NO! Stand up and own your actions. You took the adulation. Stand up and own your shame. Please take down your BS article, and publicly apologize for your motherfucking STEALING!!!!

Thanks to delux_vivens and the many others who exposed the truth.

This hits it out of the park


EDIT:Problem Chylde has a diamond bright post on this plagiarism



: Plagiarism is defined as the use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source. This includes, but is not limited to: (a.) Copying from the writings or works of others into one’s academic assignment without attribution, or submitting such work as if it were one’s own; (b.) Using the views, opinions, or insights of another without acknowledgment; or (c.) Paraphrasing the characteristic or original phraseology, metaphor, or other literary device of another without proper attribution. from the uc berkeley library website goddammit plagiarism is not word for word copying. it is the theft of ideas. * * *




The Nina Peralis Mention

Isn't this so fucking relevant, based on the BS happening now!

A Letter to White Feminists

Funny how this letter was written and the repsonse is to appropriate without crediting. Dear heaven and earth!

(no subject)

Black Indians: They still exist

Via spiralsheep

Cultural Appropriation

delux_vivens in sex_and_race led me to this:

Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances:
New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality
Lisa Aldred

Consuming Native American Spirituality

Commercial exploitation of Native American spiritual traditions has permeated the New Age movement since its emergence in the 1980s. Euro-Americans professing to be medicine people have profited from publications and workshops. Mass quantities of products promoted as "Native American sacred objects" have been successfully sold by white entrepreneurs to a largely non-Indian market. This essay begins with an overview of these acts of commercialization as well as Native Americans' objections to such practices. Its real focus, however, is the motivation behind the New Agers' obsession and consumption of Native American spirituality. Why do New Agers persist in consuming commercialized Native American spirituality? What kinds of self-articulated defenses do New Agers offer for these commercial practices? To answer these questions, analysis from a larger social and economic perspective is needed to further understand the motivations behind New Age consumption.

In the so-called postmodern culture of late consumer capitalism, a significant number of white affluent suburban and urban middle-aged baby-boomers complain of feeling uprooted from cultural traditions, community belonging, and spiritual meaning. The New Age movement is one such response to these feelings. New Agers romanticize an "authentic" and "traditional" Native American culture whose spirituality can save them from their own sense of malaise. However, as products of the very consumer culture they seek to escape, these New Agers pursue spiritual meaning and cultural identification through acts of purchase. Although New Agers identify as a countercultural group, their commercial actions mesh quite well with mainstream capitalism. Ultimately, their search for spiritual and cultural meaning through material acquisition leaves them feeling unsatisfied. The community they seek is only imagined, a world conjured up by the promises of advertised products, but with no history, social relations, or contextualized culture that would make for a sense of real [End Page 329] belonging. Meanwhile, their fetishization of Native American spirituality not only masks the social oppression of real Indian peoples but also perpetuates it.

The Rainbow Tribe: New Agers Identifying with Native American Spiritual Traditions

The term New Age is often used to refer to a movement that emerged in the 1980s. Its adherents ascribe to an eclectic amalgam of beliefs and practices, often hybridized from various cultures. New Agers tend to focus on what they refer to as personal transformation and spiritual growth. Many of them envision a literal New Age, which is described as a period of massive change in the future when people will live in harmony with nature and each other. Only in this New Age will they realize the full extent of human potential, including spiritual growth, the development of psychic abilities, and optimum physical health through alternative healing. Most New Agers contend that this transformation will not take place through concerted political change directed at existing structures and institutions. Rather, it will be achieved through individual personal transformation.

The New Age is only a movement in the loosest sense of the term. There is no circumscribed creed or defined tenets in the New Age movement. Nor are there any requirements for membership, although studies show most tend to be white, middle-aged, and college educated, with a middle- to upper-middle-class income. Estimates of people identifying with the New Age movement tend to run from ten to twenty million. Exact numbers are difficult to ascertain, however, because many New Age books have seeped into the mainstream and have influenced the views of people not consciously identified with the movement. The New Age is thus not a strictly defined community headed by formally recognized leaders with an articulated dogma. Rather, it is a term that is applied to a heterogeneous collection of philosophies and practices. There is a wide and burgeoning number of practices associated with the New Age, including interests in shamanism, goddess worship, Eastern religions, crystals, pagan rituals, extraterrestrials, and channeling spirit beings. "Native American spirituality" is among the most popular interests. 1

It is my contention that the New Age is primarily a consumerist movement. There are a minority of adherents who live together and try to incorporate New Age philosophies and practices into all aspects of their lives. Some incorporate these practices into part of their lives by taking workshops and engaging in New Age practices in their spare time. However, the majority of those who identify themselves as New Age (or who could be reasonably labeled as such by others) participate primarily through the purchase of texts and products [End Page 330] targeted for the New Age market. Native American spirituality is one of the most popular and profitable sectors of this New Age commercialism. 2

In this essay, the term New Agers is used to refer to the sector that is interested in Native American spiritual traditions. Certainly, not everyone involved in the New Age movement is interested in Native American spirituality. Moreover, there is diversity among those interested New Agers. A small percentage constructs their essential identity around Native American religion. A number of those who identify themselves as members of "the Rainbow Tribe" arguably fit into this category. Some Rainbow Tribe members spend time in communities they form, engaged in their own version of Native American rituals. However, many New Agers interested in Native American spirituality participate only through commercially run seminars or the purchase of texts and products. This article is primarily concerned with New Agers whose interest in Native American spirituality is expressed through commercial pursuits. Although entrepreneurs will be discussed in the overview of New Age commercialization of Native American spirituality, their motivations are not the subject of this analysis (arguably, they are shrewd businessmen and women who know how to tap into lucrative markets). Rather, this essay seeks to explain why New Age consumers seek spiritual meaning through purchase.

More

WAR CRIMES: Memo Surfaces, signed by BUSH, ALLOWING TORTURE.

Here's the central point:

As detailed in the recent ABC News story on how top White House officials in the National Security Council discussed specific details of torture, the Bush Administration torture policy was determined by the NSC.

What ABC didn't mention is that Bush is the head of the National Security Counsel and the 2002 NSC decision memo in question, shown at the bottom of this post, signed by George W. Bush, establishes that Bush was in 2002 indeed doing his job as acting head and final decision maker of the National Security Council.

Bush was in the torture loop, as the decider. Indeed, it's his job. As president he's head of the NSC.

What's important now we have at least ONE signed memo which establishes George W. Bush as the executive authority making final decisions in the NSC process which established a United States run torture regime; the document shown at the bottom of this post.

Of course:

He's the decider.


READ THE REST HERE


THERE IS NO PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY. I repeat, THERE IS NO PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY. IM-FUCKING-PEACH.