Noam Chomsky on “Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours” (video)

Watch this fascinating view on "the crises". Noam Chomsky at his best:

Bill O'Reilly "The Tiller Killer" should be jailed for hate-speech on grounds of inciting violence

Anyone who's been following my blog knows I'm pretty reluctant to pull the "hate speech" card. Simplified, I believe one only crosses the line when one incites acts of violence. But that's exactly why Bill O'Reilly should be jailed.

I'm not alone:

O'Reilly is being incredibly disingenuous when he claims that he bears no responsibility for others' actions in the killing of Dr. George Tiller on Sunday. When you tell an audience of millions over and over again that someone is an executioner, you cannot feign surprise when someone executes that person.

You cannot claim to hold no responsibility for what other people do when you call for people to besiege Tiller's clinic, as O'Reilly did in January 2008. And this was after Tiller had been shot in both arms and after his clinic had been bombed.

O'Reilly knew that people wanted Tiller dead, and he knew full well that many of those people were avid viewers of his show. Still, he fanned the flames. Every time I appeared on his show, I received vitriolic and hate-filled e-mails. And if I received those messages directly, I can only imagine what type of feedback O'Reilly receives. He knows that his words incite violence.

Thank you, Mary Alice Carr, well said.

PS1: More shocking news about how authorities (including FBI) responded to recent violent acts by Scott Roeder here.

PS2: Old but relevant "news" below:



PS3: More old "news":



PS4: O'Reilly falsely claimed he only "reported what groups" were calling Tiller



PS5: O'Reilly: "If I could get my hands on Tiller [the baby killer]....well, you know....



PS6: Mary Alice Carr in "conversation" with O'Reilly the Tiller Killer



PS7: Bill O'Reilly lying about HOW he used "tiller the baby killer":



LINKS
- Mary Alice Carr - Why I turned down O'Reilly
- Salon.com: O'Reilly's campaign against murdered doctor Tiller
- Democracy Now! More shocking news about Scott Roeder
- Salon.com: Tiller the baby killer

Amy Goodman on Meet the Press! (video)

BILL MOYERS: I think you wrote on your blog that Dave Brody from the Christian Broadcasting Network, Pat Robertson’s outfit, will one Sunday show up on “Meet the Press.” But an Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” will never show up on “Meet the Press.” What’s behind that phenomenon?

JAY ROSEN: I think part of the reason is that if Amy Goodman came on “Meet the Press,” she would say all sorts of things that not only challenge the people on the program, but challenge what they have been saying over the years. Would go back, in a sense, discredit the narrative that’s been building up for a long time. And even though it’s maybe not wholly conscious, the idea that there’s a kind of building narrative that is more or less accurate, that we kind of tell you what’s going on in Washington, is a common assumption in the press. And people who would completely shatter that, don’t [get invited on shows such as NBC's Meet the Press].

GLENN GREENWALD: I think that’s exactly right. It’s all about the content of views. Rush Limbaugh can depict himself as being this insurgent outsider [..] [but] all of the conventional clichés that the media airs frequently [...] are ones that Rush Limbaugh and the furthest fringes of the right essentially embrace.

And so, to include [extreme right-wing views] into our discussion is not very disruptive at all, whereas if you had people on from the left who were advocating things like the United States’ responsibility for its unpopularity in the world, the fact that we wage wars and bomb other countries and invade and occupy other countries far more than any nation on the planet. To include somebody like [Amy Goodman] would not only threaten the vested interests of everybody who’s participating in these conversations, it would disrupt the entire narrative, as Jay said it would. [...]

[These views are] stigmatized, they’re demonized as being things that don’t really deserve a platform. And so, you can’t include advocates of these views in these shows.

Read it all here

LINKS
- Democracy Now!: Why will Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! never show up on ‘Meet The Press?’
- Wikipedia: Meet the Press

Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neo-Liberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism (video)

Watch it here: Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neo-Liberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism

Introduction
As the world reels from the financial crisis on Wall Street and the taxpayer-funded $700 billion bailout, we spend the hour with Naomi Klein on the economy, politics and “disaster capitalism.” The “Shock Doctrine” author recently spoke at the University of Chicago to oppose the creation of an economic research center named after the University’s most famous economist–Milton Friedman. Klein says Friedman’s economic philosophy championed the kind of deregulation that led to the current crisis.

The credit crunch is spreading to financial markets around the world. Nearly 160,000 jobs were lost here in the United States in September, and that"s not including losses directly resulting from the financial meltdown. Wall Street might be breathing a little easier since Congress passed the $700 billion dollar bailout plan on Friday, but there are no signs of an easy or quick recovery.

Today we take a look back at the economic philosophy that championed the kind of deregulation that led to this crisis. We spend the hour with investigative journalist and author Naomi Klein. She is the bestselling author of “The Shock Doctrine.”

Naomi Klein spoke at the University of Chicago last week. She was invited by a faculty group opposed to the creation of an economic research center called the Milton Friedman Institute. It has a $200 million dollar endowment and is named after the University"s most famous economist, the leader of the neoliberal Chicago school of economics.

Naomi Klein, journalist and author of the books “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” and “No Logo.”

LINKS
- Democracy Now! : The end of Milton Freedman's Neo-Liberalism
- Wikipedia: Milton Freedman

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! wins Right Livelihood Award, also dubbed the Alternative Nobel (Sweden)

From Democracy Now!:

Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman has become the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, established to honor those “offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The annual prize, also known as the Alternative Nobel, will be awarded in the Swedish parliament in December. The other winners were Indian activists Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan, women’s rights advocate Asha Hagi of Somalia, and sexual violence victims’ advocate Monika Hauser of Germany.

About the award:

The Right Livelihood Award was established in 1980 to honour and support those "offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today".

It has become widely known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize' and there are now 133 Laureates from 57 countries.

Presented annually in Stockholm at a ceremony in the Swedish Parliament, the Right Livelihood Award is usually shared by four Recipients.

[...]

The Right Livelihood Award is widely recognized as the world's premier award for personal courage and social transformation. Besides the financial support, it enables its Recipients to reach out to an international audience that otherwise might not have heard of them. Often, the Award also gives crucial protection against repression. For the Laureates, the Award has opened many doors, including prison doors.

Unlike the Nobel Prizes (for Physics, Physiology/Medicine, Chemistry, Literature, and Peace), the Right Livelihood Award has no categories. It recognises that, in striving to meet the human challenges of today's world, the most inspiring and remarkable work often defies any standard classification. For example, people who start out with an environmental goal frequently find themselves drawn into issues of health, human rights and/or social justice. Their work becomes a holistic response to community needs, so that sectoral categories lose their meaning.

LINKS
- Democracy Now!: Amy Goodman wins Alternative Nobel
- Right Livelihood Award: For Outstanding Vision and work on behalf of our planet and its people

Progressive Re-Framing, Democracy Now! Style

At issue is the US hypocrisy allegations in Russia criticism, well re-framed by the Democracy Now! crew at the end of the segment (in bold):

Rice Rejects Hypocrisy Allegations in Russia Criticism

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has escalated US rhetoric against Russia. On Thursday, Rice said the West should stand up to what she called Moscow’s “bullying.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice: “Russia’s intimidation of its sovereign neighbors, its use of oil and gas as a political weapon, its unilateral suspension of the CFE Treaty, its threat to target peaceful nations with nuclear weapons, its arms sales to states and groups that threaten international security, and its persecution—and worse—of Russian journalists and dissidents and others. The picture emerging from this pattern of behavior is that of a Russia increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad."

Rice’s comments were her harshest to date since Russian troops invaded Georgia after Georgia attacked the breakaway province of South Ossetia. It’s widely speculated the Bush administration helped encourage the Georgian attack, which ended up backfiring for the Georgian government. The White House has been widely ridiculed over its protests of Russia’s response to the attack. Rice was questioned on accusations of Bush administration hypocrisy in light of its own invasion of Iraq.

Rice: “If you look at an Iraq that will not seek weapons of mass destruction like the Saddam Hussein regime, that will live in peace and security with its neighbors and that will give its own people a chance for democratic governance, I don’t think that that bears any resemblance to invading a small democratic neighbor whose only crime apparently was that it wished to be a part of the emerging transatlantic world.”

There were other differences: the Russia-Georgia conflict led to several hundred deaths; the US invasion of Iraq has led to the deaths of anywhere between hundreds of thousands to more than one million Iraqis.

LINKS
- Democracy Now!: Headlines for September 19, 2008
- Wikipedia: Framing in Politics

Democracy Now!'s TWO HOUR shows on the Democratic National Convention in Denver

One word: Wow!!!

Watch it.

LINKS
- Democracy Now!

Amy Goodman questions Barack Obama on withdrawal Iraq (audio)

From the Democracy Now website:

Amy Goodman Questions Sen. Obama (click Real Audio to go to the interview directly) on Heeding Iraqis’ Call for Full U.S. Withdrawal

Following his speech on the economy at New York’s Cooper Union, Amy Goodman asks Sen. Barack Obama why he is not calling for a total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in accordance with the 70 percent of Iraqis who say they want the U.S. out.

Another Amy Goodman interview with former American president Bill Clinton shouldn't be missed either.

LINKS
- Democracy Now!: Obama questioned by Amy Goodman on withdrawel Iraq (click Real Audio to go directly to the interview)
- Democracy Now!: Bill Clinton Loses His Cool in Democracy Now! (interview starts about half way through the show)

Wesley Clark: US planned to take out seven countries in five years (video)

See it yourself:




General Wesley Clarke about the US plans for future wars:

About ten days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in.

He said, “Sir, you’ve got to come in and talk to me a second.”
I said, “Well, you’re too busy.”
He said, “No, no.” He says, “We’ve made the decision we’re going to war with Iraq.”

This was on or about the 20th of September.

I said, “We’re going to war with Iraq? Why?”
He said, “I don’t know.” He said, “I guess they don’t know what else to do.”

So I said, “Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?” He said, “No, no.” He says, “There’s nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq.” He said, “I guess it’s like we don’t know what to do about terrorists, but we’ve got a good military and we can take down governments.” And he said, “I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail.”

So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan.

I said, “Are we still going to war with Iraq?”

And he said, “Oh, it’s worse than that.” He reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” -- meaning the Secretary of Defense’s office -- “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”

Wesley Clark about the Middle East and the America's interests in the Middle East:

The truth is, about the Middle East is, had there been no oil there, it would be like Africa. Nobody is threatening to intervene in Africa. The problem is the opposite. We keep asking for people to intervene and stop [the wars in Africa].

There's no question that the presence of petroleum throughout the [Middle East] has sparked great power involvement. Whether that was the specific motivation for the coup or not, I can't tell you. But there was definitely -- there's always been this attitude that somehow we could intervene and use force in the region.

Whole Article: Democracy Now!