blog.marcwiesner.com

Capital hill is rank with it this week. After Robert’s nomination was so rushed through the Senate by the republican machine with no regard for Democrat requests that actual documentation of Robert’s stance and history it is the sweetest irony that the same fate has befallen the Republican party after Bush put Myers’ name forward. All of a sudden the GOP starts to reckon that it is important to see the writings of a person before they are given a lifetime appointment to one of the most powerful unelected seats in the US’s political system.

I love it when they get theirs and it’s doubly sweet when it happens so swiftly. Finally we’re seeing some signs of division within that party.

Here’s somthing fun. On October 6 2005 former Vice-President of the United States Al Gore was speaking at We Media, an event hosted by the Associated Press under the American Media Institute. In his speech he talked about the slip of mainstream news towards sensationalism and the importance of ratings over reporting.

Gore:

The purpose of television news is no longer to inform the American people or serve the public interest. It is to ‘glue eyeballs to the screen’ in order to build ratings and sell advertising. (link)

Two things I like about this.

Let’s break down the news, shall we? Looking at TV and newspapers we can distinguish the type of operation by its size; larger (national) operations and smaller (local) operations. National news outfits cost more money to run so they either have to have owners with deep pockets like Rupert Murdock and/or sell air time as commercials, both options make money contingent upon what they report, that is to say that if a source of funding finds a story you’re about to air objectionable you don’t want to air it or you’ll lose your funding. Bigger operations have more money so they can afford a shiner appearance.

On the other side, a smaller stations cover more local news partially because it’s what’s missing from national sources. As a result they may engrandize local events and exaggerate an event that happens within their locality. With less funding, a local outfit may cut a few corners or hire staff (both in front of the camera and behind) who are fresher on the scene.

So you have to be careful about believing the news from a big station because they’re whores for their money and you have to be careful about the news you get from a small station because of their focus on the local. The bigger station may distract you with their shiny effects while the smaller station may make you laugh when a newscaster stands in front of an LCD featuring the weatherman she’s introducing who, in turn, is standing in front of an LCD with the weather he’s going to be describing. The big difference is the sensationalism. Both local and national news sources (especially in the case of TV) are prone to being over saturated with sensationalist stories of a trivial event. The small stations will do this because it’ll boost viewership and it’s usually cheap to cover since they can send one reporter out to one place for 20 minutes worth of news instead of three to different places to fill that time. The bigger stations are the tricky ones though. They’ll hold on to a trivial story a lot longer. They can entertain themselves for at least six hours day talking about an airplane that’s crashed (if it’s a domestic plane). The reason for this is misdirection. By keeping the cameras on the airplane people are tricked into thinking that this is news. It’s not, it’s repetition. Events that you haven’t heard of are news. They distract you from what’s really going on: war, genocide, government corruption, unethical corporate practices. That’s news, the rest is polished trickery.

There’s an intresting post on indybay.org from a couple of photographers who are in the gulf-coast region. They visited a convention center in Texas that is being used to house those displaced by the huricane. Even as members of the media they were denied entry to the center but they were able to get some intresting shots of the outside of the building and the signs which notify anyone on the outside that if they’re RedCross or FEMA they have no business entering.

(LINK)

Shortly after these pictures were taken the Center closed its doors (PIX) and put Katrina back on the streets to wait for busses to a military base where they would be housed (more PIX)

Nothing says world democracy and human rights like a night time assassination by the FBI in a foreign country. The an FBI sniper shot Filiberto Ojeda Ríos in his home and let him bleed to death over the ensuing hours. Apparently hundreds of Feds and 20 snipers were part of the task force needed to keep the 72-year old Ríos from acquiring medical aid after he was shot. Ríos was wanted by the FBI for robbing a bank more than 20 years ago but in Puerto Rico Ríos was famed for leading the underground People’s Army and for resisting US-colonial efforts in that country.

Put it in perspective. These snipers are not hobbiests. These are government trained snipers. Army snipers are shooting enimy combatents in foreign contries. FBI snipers work in urban settings. They work in in US borders (most of the time) and around civilians. Do you think they would be more accurate or more sloppy than the Army snipers. I’m banking on more accurate. And how are snipers trained? One shot, one kill. I’m sure they’ll try to make excuses for why they missed a clean shot - “the shot was through glass,” “the target was moving” - BS like that but don’t believe that the FBI is going to take a team of 20 snipers into a foreign country and have none of them who’s had training shooting a moving target trough glass. There were no accidents, Sr. Ríos bled to death because the FBI wanted him to.

Source

Pictures of the Memorial
photo copyright Mr. Zereno

I’m amazed that someone so religious as our Crusading President cannot wrap his mind around the idea of martyrdom. Cindy Sheehan was arrested yesterday while sitting with some of her cohorts on the side walk outside of the White House after they were refused, again, a meeting with Bush. The great charge that was levied against her? Apparently they were “protesting without a permit.” Outside of the White House. Yeah, and if you’re eating a burrito while walking across Pennsylvania Avenue you’ll be shot on the spot. Someone tell me, if the White House guards (are they secret service?) violates the Constitution who gets sued?

From what I’ve been hearing today I FEMA’s already planning on slipping. There was a FEMA spokeswoman on the radio, NPR I think, talking about how since Katrina hit they’ve been in “action mode” and won’t be able to come down and really take any lessons away from the hurricane for at least two weeks. That’s about 13 days too many for anyone who will be run over by Hurricane Rita. Thanks for the heads-up, FEMA.

One more day before Rita is expected to make landfall in Texas. Already leaving at-risk areas is difficult with freeways being clogged up and lives have been lost following the explosion of a bus full of elderly people. The question will be asked repeatedly, how much have we learned from Rita? While the Department of Transportation has, reportedly, provided busses for fleeing Texans to use reports from the area are suggesting that the busing programs are poorly communicated to residents. Much of FEMA’s efforts have been centering around preparing for the fallout, taking steps to minimize its devastation.

I would imagine that Bush have mixed feeling about Rita. While more destructions would mean more contracts to Haliburton, the destruction would occur in Bush’s home state. Given the migratory nature of the Bush Clan though, I doubt any mixed feeling will last very long. The role of the Federal Government, FEMA, and Haliburton in the coming days, weeks, months, and possibly years given the degree of devastation and the time needed to rebuild, will be import in determining what happens to the displaced poor following the Gulf Coast Hurricanes.

This is what I can’t stand about mainstream news. Did anyone from the major news networks blink away from jetBlue Flight 292? Now I wasn’t watching the whole time, but if I believe the newscasters (and I’m very hesitant to do so) they spent about three hours covering the plane circling LAX. Yes, it’s a dire situation but we don’t even get one hours coverage of the unconstitutional war in Iraq. With war and genocide in the world, with the degradation of the environment, with critical junction of the supreme court, the elections in Germany we are suffering the effects of the networks sensationalism when we tolerate a news channel that lets real news pass by while one story sits stagnant on the airwaves. The same sensationalism that led the news networks to spread panic and superstition more than information and insight following the 9/11 attacks. When we allow ourselves to be fooled by entertainment that masquerades as news we allow ourselves to live under under from of censorship that is made unknowable more harmful by its subtlety.

If northing’s going wrong, I have to wonder why Michael Brown has been “reassigned.” And it’s so wonderful how Bush stands by his boys. The air of arrogance is so thick around that man he almost seems significant. I thought most people started to become introspective about the age of four or something. And did you hear Michael Chertoff’s at the press conference? “Mike Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge” (full text link). I won’t argue with Chertoff there. When you’ve got no qualifications you’ve got no hand to lend. Even still, I’ve got to say that anyone taking their job seriously would have taken preparations seriously. And at least have the balls to say that he couldn’t have SNAFU’d things more if he was trying to. And how about Brown’s assignment now. He’s making preparations for Ophelia’s landfall? Oh, man, almost makes me feel sorry for Florida. But hey, you get what you pay for, right? Thank you sunshine state.

You know who needs to be in charge of hurricane relief? Cuba. Cold war’s over and Cuba is uniquely qualified to handle hurricane fallout. They’ve already offered us doctors, thousands that are waiting for an OK (link), I’ll bet that lovable bear Castro would give us an adviser to coordinate relief efforts. And think of what a great step that will be toward mending US-Cuba relations. We accept Cuban help, we get more people helped in the Gulf region, and we get Cuban cigars by the end of the year. I know, I’m a romantic, aren’t I?

But that won’t happen. Bush and his damnable arrogance. Bush’s response to the help being offered by the world: “America is a strong and resilient nation. Our people have the spirit, the resources and the determination to overcome any challenge” (link). If we have the resources, where are they, why aren’t they being properly utilized? We can be strong in character and admit that we need help with some things. We have spirit, it should be given a time to heal. There’s nothing wrong with accepting the help of your neighbors when your house burns down. Our neighbors have shown their generosity, we should learn to accept graciously in this rare time when motivations temporarily lean away from the political and toward the humanistic.