t r u t h o u t | Bush, Musharraf, Ahmadinejad Least Trusted Leaders
True laughed out loud, an uncommon behavior in these precarious latter days of Worst President Ever, who is however SO OVER.
Here's the funny (really, not so funny) news: That a survey of people in 20 countries found Dubya the Decider the 3rd WORST in terms of trust. Who outranked him? Number one, Musharraf, that Pakastani dictator who everybody but Bushco and the neocons love to hate, with only 18 percent trust rate. Number two, that tricky fellow Ahmadinejab of Iran, who DARES to challenge the American Empire and courts nuclear war with his defiance., with an actual 22 percent trust rate (Noted here: the MSM press use "defiant" to undermine a person, as was done by AP today in calling Obama "defiant" because he actually stood up to a McCain attack).
AND THE NUMBER THREE LEAST TRUSTED WORLD LEADER: King George Dubya Bush with the astonishing trust rate of 23 percent! Dig it!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The World's Longest ATV Parade is here!
WebEvent: Show Single Event
This link gives you all the skinny on that hoped-for world-record-breaking parade of ATVers gathered in Silver Bay today. That's right folks, today. They're expecting 2,500 people from all over the country, loud and proud, to ride some 50 miles of trails and play lots of fun games and churn up some topsoil and spew some fumes into the air.
It's the 25th anniversary of the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota. Reason enough to bring out the storm troopers, last gathered two years ago in Harlan County, Kentucky, that bastion of coal mining greed where moutaintops are getting cut off and thrown down. A little ATV erosion seems but a small thing next to that, n'est-ce pas?
Here's where the rest of the world discovers the newest ATV destination: the North Shore!
This link gives you all the skinny on that hoped-for world-record-breaking parade of ATVers gathered in Silver Bay today. That's right folks, today. They're expecting 2,500 people from all over the country, loud and proud, to ride some 50 miles of trails and play lots of fun games and churn up some topsoil and spew some fumes into the air.
It's the 25th anniversary of the All-Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota. Reason enough to bring out the storm troopers, last gathered two years ago in Harlan County, Kentucky, that bastion of coal mining greed where moutaintops are getting cut off and thrown down. A little ATV erosion seems but a small thing next to that, n'est-ce pas?
Here's where the rest of the world discovers the newest ATV destination: the North Shore!
Michael Winship on media reform and the economy
http://www.truthout.org/article/media-reformers-its-economy
This piece, written for Truthout by Michael Winship, and reprinted here, is the second in a series about the amazing National Conference on Media Reform and its implications for True, Cook County and the nation.
-True
Last weekend's National Conference on Media Reform in Minneapolis was a freewheeling, articulate, committed gathering of activists, policy wonks and everyday citizens dedicated to the idea that there can be no real democracy without a media democracy - independent reporting from diverse communities free of the interference and spin of government and big business. Perhaps, nowhere else can you witness an FCC commissioner like Michael Copps get a rock-star-like standing ovation worthy of Mick Jagger, or hear the words, 'Common carrier rules are hot!'
Some 3,500 assembled to participate in panels and hear a range of speakers that included my colleague Bill Moyers, Senator Byron Dorgan, Center for Internet and Society founder Lawrence Lessig, Naomi Klein, Louise Erdrich and Dan Rather. Participants grappled with mobilizing grass roots movements around such hot-button issues as continuing big media consolidation and net neutrality - the latter two words perhaps more elegantly phrased as "Internet freedom" - keeping cyberspace open and accessible to all, regardless of income. As Moyers has pointed out, neutrality sounds too much like Switzerland, and as my colleague Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild, West, says, the notion of fighting for neutrality seems oxymoronic. So, "Internet freedom" it is.
Marty Kaplan, director of the University of Southern California's Norman Lear Center, told those gathered they were a crowd that "may not color inside the lines but sure can connect the dots." Yet, as perceptive and informed as attendees were, sadly absent from the weekend's energetic dialogues was any significant discussion of this country's economy, the vast gap between rich and poor, the way gross inequality in such desperate times is being largely ignored by the media, our candidates and the progressive movement.
"The economic crisis is just not that compelling or sexy to the many progressives who are stirred into action by every ugly utterance by Bill O'Reilly," media activist and journalist Danny Schecter writes. "... Cheering on political personalities or mounting one more issue oriented e-mail campaign is certainly easier than confronting the economic and power imbalances caused by the structural conflicts in our economy."
Schecter goes on to quote an executive with the Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, who describes our current situation as, "A CRISIS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS." The exec elaborates: "I'm not talking New Testament biblical; I'm talking Old Testament hellfire and brimstone. This is the worst credit crisis we've ever seen."
Thirty-six and a half million Americans - one in eight Americans, one in six children - that we KNOW of, because there are no good ways to really measure - live below the official federal poverty level, $20,000 a year for a family of four. Half of us - half! - will have gone through a year or more of poverty by the time we turn 60.
In contrast, behold the woeful case of Alan Schwartz, former CEO of the now defunct investment bank Bear Stearns. As that company nosedived last year, with subprime mortgage hedge funds crashing in flames, Schwartz relinquished his usual annual bonus, which meant his total compensation for 2007 and the prior four years was a piddling $141 million. Poor guy had to rent out his 7,800 square-foot house in the New York suburbs and squat at his new, $28 million Manhattan apartment; his seven-acre home in Greenwich, Connecticut; and his Colorado condo. Just a couple of weeks ago, shareholders approved Bear Stearns's merger with JP Morgan, which received $30 billion in taxpayer-funded, federal loan guarantees to take over what little was left.
John McCain says the fundamentals of the economy are strong, but admits it's a subject he doesn't know a lot about. He counts among his economic advisers Carly Fiorina, fired chief executive of Hewlett Packard, where, you'll recall, she was accused of breathtaking mismanagement and street-bully tactics. Of her role in the McCain campaign, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management told The New York Times, "You couldn't pick a worse, non-imprisoned C.E.O. to be your standard-bearer."
Among McCain's other top advisers are John Green and Wayne Berman, who received $720,000 in lobbying fees from Ameriquest Mortgage, one of the noteworthy, predatory lenders in the country's mortgage mess. As The New York Daily News reported this past spring, Ameriquest, which has since been bought out by Citigroup, "was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show."
Barack Obama believes our current economic crisis is "the logical conclusion of a tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for far too long." Nonetheless, his economic policy director, Jason Furman, has been a defender of Wal-Mart and was director of former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, a group of Wall Street Democrats committed to continuing Bill Clinton's economic doctrine - i.e., growth based on deficit reduction and free trade.
Until his resignation Wednesday, Obama's team also included Jim Johnson, ex-Mondale chief of staff and former CEO of Fannie Mae, the government-sanctioned banker that buys and resells loans from other banks and lenders. According to The Wall Street Journal, Johnson, who was leading the search for Obama's running mate, was given preferential treatment when he received $2 million in personal loans from one of Fannie Mae's biggest customers, subprime lender Countrywide Financial Services.
A front page story in Wednesday's Washington Post added that Johnson was also "the beneficiary of accounting in which Fannie Mae's earnings were manipulated so that executives could earn larger bonuses. The accounting manipulation for 1998 resulted in the maximum payouts to Fannie Mae's senior executives - $1.9 million in Johnson's case - when the company's performance that year would have otherwise resulted in no bonuses at all, according to reports in 2004 and 2006 by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight."
Both candidates need economic advisers untainted by association with corporate interests, folks who know what it's like to have to live on macaroni instead of meat, to spend sleepless nights in subways or shelters, to let diseases like cancer and diabetes gnaw away at a person's insides because they can't afford medicine and doctors. And the media need to tell their stories, not only to make the rest of us aware and stir us to action, but also to validate and empower with web space, column inches and airtime the plight of those so afflicted, to bring dignity and gravitas to their predicament. Attention must be paid.
This piece, written for Truthout by Michael Winship, and reprinted here, is the second in a series about the amazing National Conference on Media Reform and its implications for True, Cook County and the nation.
-True
Last weekend's National Conference on Media Reform in Minneapolis was a freewheeling, articulate, committed gathering of activists, policy wonks and everyday citizens dedicated to the idea that there can be no real democracy without a media democracy - independent reporting from diverse communities free of the interference and spin of government and big business. Perhaps, nowhere else can you witness an FCC commissioner like Michael Copps get a rock-star-like standing ovation worthy of Mick Jagger, or hear the words, 'Common carrier rules are hot!'
Some 3,500 assembled to participate in panels and hear a range of speakers that included my colleague Bill Moyers, Senator Byron Dorgan, Center for Internet and Society founder Lawrence Lessig, Naomi Klein, Louise Erdrich and Dan Rather. Participants grappled with mobilizing grass roots movements around such hot-button issues as continuing big media consolidation and net neutrality - the latter two words perhaps more elegantly phrased as "Internet freedom" - keeping cyberspace open and accessible to all, regardless of income. As Moyers has pointed out, neutrality sounds too much like Switzerland, and as my colleague Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild, West, says, the notion of fighting for neutrality seems oxymoronic. So, "Internet freedom" it is.
Marty Kaplan, director of the University of Southern California's Norman Lear Center, told those gathered they were a crowd that "may not color inside the lines but sure can connect the dots." Yet, as perceptive and informed as attendees were, sadly absent from the weekend's energetic dialogues was any significant discussion of this country's economy, the vast gap between rich and poor, the way gross inequality in such desperate times is being largely ignored by the media, our candidates and the progressive movement.
"The economic crisis is just not that compelling or sexy to the many progressives who are stirred into action by every ugly utterance by Bill O'Reilly," media activist and journalist Danny Schecter writes. "... Cheering on political personalities or mounting one more issue oriented e-mail campaign is certainly easier than confronting the economic and power imbalances caused by the structural conflicts in our economy."
Schecter goes on to quote an executive with the Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, who describes our current situation as, "A CRISIS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS." The exec elaborates: "I'm not talking New Testament biblical; I'm talking Old Testament hellfire and brimstone. This is the worst credit crisis we've ever seen."
Thirty-six and a half million Americans - one in eight Americans, one in six children - that we KNOW of, because there are no good ways to really measure - live below the official federal poverty level, $20,000 a year for a family of four. Half of us - half! - will have gone through a year or more of poverty by the time we turn 60.
In contrast, behold the woeful case of Alan Schwartz, former CEO of the now defunct investment bank Bear Stearns. As that company nosedived last year, with subprime mortgage hedge funds crashing in flames, Schwartz relinquished his usual annual bonus, which meant his total compensation for 2007 and the prior four years was a piddling $141 million. Poor guy had to rent out his 7,800 square-foot house in the New York suburbs and squat at his new, $28 million Manhattan apartment; his seven-acre home in Greenwich, Connecticut; and his Colorado condo. Just a couple of weeks ago, shareholders approved Bear Stearns's merger with JP Morgan, which received $30 billion in taxpayer-funded, federal loan guarantees to take over what little was left.
John McCain says the fundamentals of the economy are strong, but admits it's a subject he doesn't know a lot about. He counts among his economic advisers Carly Fiorina, fired chief executive of Hewlett Packard, where, you'll recall, she was accused of breathtaking mismanagement and street-bully tactics. Of her role in the McCain campaign, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management told The New York Times, "You couldn't pick a worse, non-imprisoned C.E.O. to be your standard-bearer."
Among McCain's other top advisers are John Green and Wayne Berman, who received $720,000 in lobbying fees from Ameriquest Mortgage, one of the noteworthy, predatory lenders in the country's mortgage mess. As The New York Daily News reported this past spring, Ameriquest, which has since been bought out by Citigroup, "was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show."
Barack Obama believes our current economic crisis is "the logical conclusion of a tired and misguided philosophy that has dominated Washington for far too long." Nonetheless, his economic policy director, Jason Furman, has been a defender of Wal-Mart and was director of former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, a group of Wall Street Democrats committed to continuing Bill Clinton's economic doctrine - i.e., growth based on deficit reduction and free trade.
Until his resignation Wednesday, Obama's team also included Jim Johnson, ex-Mondale chief of staff and former CEO of Fannie Mae, the government-sanctioned banker that buys and resells loans from other banks and lenders. According to The Wall Street Journal, Johnson, who was leading the search for Obama's running mate, was given preferential treatment when he received $2 million in personal loans from one of Fannie Mae's biggest customers, subprime lender Countrywide Financial Services.
A front page story in Wednesday's Washington Post added that Johnson was also "the beneficiary of accounting in which Fannie Mae's earnings were manipulated so that executives could earn larger bonuses. The accounting manipulation for 1998 resulted in the maximum payouts to Fannie Mae's senior executives - $1.9 million in Johnson's case - when the company's performance that year would have otherwise resulted in no bonuses at all, according to reports in 2004 and 2006 by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight."
Both candidates need economic advisers untainted by association with corporate interests, folks who know what it's like to have to live on macaroni instead of meat, to spend sleepless nights in subways or shelters, to let diseases like cancer and diabetes gnaw away at a person's insides because they can't afford medicine and doctors. And the media need to tell their stories, not only to make the rest of us aware and stir us to action, but also to validate and empower with web space, column inches and airtime the plight of those so afflicted, to bring dignity and gravitas to their predicament. Attention must be paid.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
It's our turn now
“I gotta tell you, these people are crazy…the furthest left people in the face of America,” Bill O’Reilly told his loyal fanatics about the 3,500 illustrious journalists and activists who attended the National Conference on Media Reform in Minneapolis last weekend. He was trashing people like press legends Bill Moyers and Dan Rather, Sen. Byron Dorgan, FCC member Jonathan Adelstein, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, Nation editor Katrina van den Heuvel, award-winning blogger Ariana Huffington, Stanford genius prof Larry Lessig, novelist Louise Erdrich, True, and lots of other very, very smart people. All of them are dedicated to a free and independent press, guaranteed in our Constitution but decimated by corporate media owners and their hate-mongering shills. Thanks to Murdoch-style media consolidation, 2,400 senior journalists took buyouts last year. Now these folks don’t have to be censored by their bosses any more and they are making the most of it.
For once BillO didn’t have the last word. He made the fatal mistake of sending a reporter to videotape the conference, and Noah Kunin from The Uptake followed this Foxy guy around. There was a stellar scene when Bill Moyers called O’Reilly a pugilist and a blowhard, but not a journalist. The time of hate media is so over. True is so overjoyed. You can catch this magic moment on YouTube. Find the link at http://www.freepress.net.
Scripture tells us that the Last shall be First. And so, I’ll begin this story about the conference at its end. The charismatic closing speaker Van Jones told the wowed crowd, “It’s our turn now. It’s 40 years ago this weekend that we lost Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Van predicted that Barack Obama will win in November but will not necessarily win a second term unless the deep, deep crises of poverty, energy, war, media consolidation, and the devastating and rapacious corruption of the “Dragons on the Right” are addressed in his first term. Van says FDR’s New Deal has to be the model for change that addresses our 21st century problems of poverty and global warming: put people to work providing green energy solutions like the New Deal put people to work rebuilding America’s infrastructure.
Van asked his joyous and energized closing audience to do five things in the service of a pro-democracy movement to save the First Amendment. “We need to unleash the best in the country. The stakes are high, high.”
One: Hold the new President accountable, but HOLD him too.”
Two: Move from agitation to education; there is no longer only one right (PC) way. Meaning that the movement needs to embrace all people of good will and not only the ones who name everybody else as sellouts.
Three: Keep us united. We need each other, need ALL the Democratic leaders. The Clintons and the Edwards and the Kennedys, we all can work together.
Four: Don’t give up on your ideals in the face of challenges and setbacks. Tell the naysayers, “We have plenty of money—strip it out of the Pentagon budget, take it from the jailers.”
Five: Remember how it was after 9/11 when people turned the flag into a war flag, how lonely it was; remember the sick Reality TV of Hurricane Katrina. Remember when we didn’t have any power. Remember when homophobes divided our families and created shattered young suicides in the name of Family Values.
“Those days are over now. Everybody in the Family has Value. We get to be the people now:
Big now.
Wise now.
Proud now.
“We will finally, 40 years later, be the generation NOT to ‘Take America Back,’ but that takes America forward.”
And to cheers and tears and shouts and hugs and promises and hope, the fifth National Conference for Media Reform came to a close.
For once BillO didn’t have the last word. He made the fatal mistake of sending a reporter to videotape the conference, and Noah Kunin from The Uptake followed this Foxy guy around. There was a stellar scene when Bill Moyers called O’Reilly a pugilist and a blowhard, but not a journalist. The time of hate media is so over. True is so overjoyed. You can catch this magic moment on YouTube. Find the link at http://www.freepress.net.
Scripture tells us that the Last shall be First. And so, I’ll begin this story about the conference at its end. The charismatic closing speaker Van Jones told the wowed crowd, “It’s our turn now. It’s 40 years ago this weekend that we lost Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Van predicted that Barack Obama will win in November but will not necessarily win a second term unless the deep, deep crises of poverty, energy, war, media consolidation, and the devastating and rapacious corruption of the “Dragons on the Right” are addressed in his first term. Van says FDR’s New Deal has to be the model for change that addresses our 21st century problems of poverty and global warming: put people to work providing green energy solutions like the New Deal put people to work rebuilding America’s infrastructure.
Van asked his joyous and energized closing audience to do five things in the service of a pro-democracy movement to save the First Amendment. “We need to unleash the best in the country. The stakes are high, high.”
One: Hold the new President accountable, but HOLD him too.”
Two: Move from agitation to education; there is no longer only one right (PC) way. Meaning that the movement needs to embrace all people of good will and not only the ones who name everybody else as sellouts.
Three: Keep us united. We need each other, need ALL the Democratic leaders. The Clintons and the Edwards and the Kennedys, we all can work together.
Four: Don’t give up on your ideals in the face of challenges and setbacks. Tell the naysayers, “We have plenty of money—strip it out of the Pentagon budget, take it from the jailers.”
Five: Remember how it was after 9/11 when people turned the flag into a war flag, how lonely it was; remember the sick Reality TV of Hurricane Katrina. Remember when we didn’t have any power. Remember when homophobes divided our families and created shattered young suicides in the name of Family Values.
“Those days are over now. Everybody in the Family has Value. We get to be the people now:
Big now.
Wise now.
Proud now.
“We will finally, 40 years later, be the generation NOT to ‘Take America Back,’ but that takes America forward.”
And to cheers and tears and shouts and hugs and promises and hope, the fifth National Conference for Media Reform came to a close.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Obama! The world rejoices, the nutcakes rant
Though you might not know it from reading the MSM, the whole world is rejoicing with the nomination of Barack Obama. Of course as progressives and people of good will we also are happy, but do we really know HOW happy we should be? Consider these awesome words: "America, this is our moment. This is our time:"
America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.
The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. -Barack Obama on claiming the 2008 Dem presidential nomination.
AND NOW.... look at the craziness making the rounds on the Internet. Again you won't see THIS in the MSM or even in the progressive media! Honestly, sometimes True thinks his friends have their heads up their.... er, I mean, in the sand. If you don't think McCain, a Bushie clone, can possibly win because of the 68 percent against failed policies, think again. This kind of Swift-boating stuff is pure poison, the more so because all those folks who send it on saying, "This is interesting" are just dumb enough to believe it. Come on, read it, don't say you don't want to spoil your happy day. Know your enemy:
http://snopes.com confirms this is factual. Check for yourself. Look in the box on the left side of the screen and click on Barack Obama - what they say wil chill you to the core!
IF THIS IS TRUE NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. WHAT IS IN THE BIBLE WILL TAKE PLACE .
A man will come from the east...
MAY WE ALL PRAY FOR WISDOM AND DISCERNMENT
AND PRAY FOR EACH OTHER AS WE MAKE THIS DECISION
OF A LIFETIME! OUR LIVES, CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN'S
LIVES WILL BE CHANGED FOREVER BECAUSE OF OUR CHOICE
THIS ELECTION. MAY GOD BE WITH US ALL!
God help us if this man is elected!! But it is all stated in the Bible
and it will happen sooner or later. This is from Darlene Millican,
wife of the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church here in Sun City I have felt
for sometime now that Obama is the one person that 'Frightens Me'.
I believe the Bible has warned us that 'A man will come from the East
that will be charismatic in nature and have proposed solutions for all our
problems and his rhetoric will attract many supporters!' When will our
pathetic Nation quit turning their back on God and understand that this
man is 'A Muslim'... First, Last and always... and we are AT WAR with
the Muslim Nation, whether our bleeding-heart, secular, Liberal friends
believe it or not. This man fits every description from the Bible of the
'Anti-Christ'! I'm just glad to know that there are others that are frightened
by this man! Who is Barack Obama? Very interesting and something that
should be considered in your choice. If you do not ever forward anything else,
please forward this to all your contacts... this is very scary to think of what lies
ahead of us here in our own United States ... better heed this and pray about it
and share it.
Who is Barack Obama?
Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu ,
Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel,
Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita , Kansas Obama's parents
met at the University of Hawaii . When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced.
His father returned to Kenya . His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL
Muslim from Indonesia . When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to
Indonesia Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta . He also spent two
years in a Catholic school. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that
he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, 'He was once a Muslim, but that
he also attended Catholic school.' Obama's political handlers are attempting to
make it appear that that he is not a radical. Obama's introduction to Islam came
via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior
Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct
influence over his son's education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's
mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a
Wahabi school in Jakarta . Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed
by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.
Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major
public office in the United States , Barack Hussein Obama has joined the
United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.
Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he
show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts,
Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches. Do you want someone like this
as your PRESIDENT? Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected
Presidential candidacy. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the
US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level -
through the President of the United States , one of their own! The Bible says
'He will come from among you!'
Monday, June 02, 2008
Press gives free full-page ads to Lutsen Mountain owners
Both the Star and the News Herald have strict policies about word limits on their editorial pages. Lots of just plain folks as well as elected officials have gotten the brush-off when they attempted to exceed the limits, maybe because they were writing about an issue too complex to cover in 400 words.
Not so the Poplar River Management Board, that thinly veiled cover for the owners of Lutsen Mountain who want a North Shore Aspen of megadevelopment to add to the already overtaxed Poplar River...
No, both papers gave these folks a full page, right a full page, presumably without charging for the advertising that their devious spin on the facts amounted to.
Corporate owners don't deserve to get public support, period. And when they are part of the problem they darned well ought to pay for the solution, and not pass it on to the hapless residents who can so ill afford to pay more taxes.
True
Not so the Poplar River Management Board, that thinly veiled cover for the owners of Lutsen Mountain who want a North Shore Aspen of megadevelopment to add to the already overtaxed Poplar River...
No, both papers gave these folks a full page, right a full page, presumably without charging for the advertising that their devious spin on the facts amounted to.
Corporate owners don't deserve to get public support, period. And when they are part of the problem they darned well ought to pay for the solution, and not pass it on to the hapless residents who can so ill afford to pay more taxes.
True
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Trolling for terrorists: what does that look like?
Mulling over the wonderful story and editorial comments by Jane Howard about the sad court case of the Border Patrol agent in the death of Dr. Ken Petersen....
Howard said she is glad to know that the Border Patrol is there to stop terrorists from coming in through Canada... Well, then, how do those PaTrollers stop those Terrists (as they are called by our Fearless Decider)? Do they recognize them by their assault weapons, or their camouflage gear? Or is it the color of their skin? Or maybe the faintly Arabic cast of their features? Is there some secret sign that they are taught in their Terrist Training? Or is this just one more instance of racist profiling?
It seems that driving up and down the Gunflint Trail is one of the big ways the Border Trollers carry on their fearless hunt. What exactly are they looking to find? Hmm, True looks a little scruffy, like much of Cook County, when he goes off fishing. Is scruffiness a sign of Terrism? A couple of years ago, True's friend Toivo watched a scene in the Grand Marais Harbor parking lot, where a couple of tourist families in vans were having a picnic. Trouble was, those couple of families looked like they might be Middle Eastern. Toivo watched in astonishment as one after another Border Patrol vehicles appeared, slowly TROLLING by the innocent families, obviously trolling for terrists posing as tourists.
It makes True laugh and laugh that the mouthpiece hired to represent Weber quoted bloggers and even our wonderful Sheriff Falk to prove that in Cook County the Border Patrol is perceived as the enemy more than "invisible terrorists." Now why would we ever think that?
Well, silliness aside, at least give those Trollers some Driver Training and don't let them off the hook when they get well-deserved traffic tickets.
Immunity? Because Ms. Weber was diligently pursuing those invisible Terrists she gets to run down and kill a good man?
Honestly, what country are we living in? Maybe a Latin American dictatorship? That's what they do down there, folks, with the blessing of our big corporations like Coca Cola. But that's another story.
True
Howard said she is glad to know that the Border Patrol is there to stop terrorists from coming in through Canada... Well, then, how do those PaTrollers stop those Terrists (as they are called by our Fearless Decider)? Do they recognize them by their assault weapons, or their camouflage gear? Or is it the color of their skin? Or maybe the faintly Arabic cast of their features? Is there some secret sign that they are taught in their Terrist Training? Or is this just one more instance of racist profiling?
It seems that driving up and down the Gunflint Trail is one of the big ways the Border Trollers carry on their fearless hunt. What exactly are they looking to find? Hmm, True looks a little scruffy, like much of Cook County, when he goes off fishing. Is scruffiness a sign of Terrism? A couple of years ago, True's friend Toivo watched a scene in the Grand Marais Harbor parking lot, where a couple of tourist families in vans were having a picnic. Trouble was, those couple of families looked like they might be Middle Eastern. Toivo watched in astonishment as one after another Border Patrol vehicles appeared, slowly TROLLING by the innocent families, obviously trolling for terrists posing as tourists.
It makes True laugh and laugh that the mouthpiece hired to represent Weber quoted bloggers and even our wonderful Sheriff Falk to prove that in Cook County the Border Patrol is perceived as the enemy more than "invisible terrorists." Now why would we ever think that?
Well, silliness aside, at least give those Trollers some Driver Training and don't let them off the hook when they get well-deserved traffic tickets.
Immunity? Because Ms. Weber was diligently pursuing those invisible Terrists she gets to run down and kill a good man?
Honestly, what country are we living in? Maybe a Latin American dictatorship? That's what they do down there, folks, with the blessing of our big corporations like Coca Cola. But that's another story.
True
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