MEDIA MATTERS: Glenn Beck’s affinity for chalkboard diagrams charting out the frequently illusory “connections” in the growing liberal conspiracy to undermine America is well-documented. In that spirit, Media Matters for America has explored Beck’s links to the extremist, unhinged, and sometimes paranoid people and groups that inhabit the world of right-wing political activism and laid them out in a Beck-style chart, but with two key differences: these connections actually exist, and they were spell-checked. MORE [Click chart to enlarge] EDITOR’S NOTE: We strongly urge you to click thru and read all about it RELATED: In recent days, Glenn Beck has […]
The Yes Men Punk The Chamber Of Commerce
YES MEN: In a dramatic announcement at the National Press Club today, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reversed its position on climate change policy, and promised to immediately cease lobbying against the Kerry-Boxer bill. Not. Within minutes of the announcement, it was revealed that the “Chamber spokesperson” was an impostor, and the press conference an elaborate hoax designed by activists to draw attention to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fight against public interest on climate change. At the close of the news conference, real Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Eric Wohlschlegel barged into the room visibly rattled, and declared the event […]
THE EARLY WORD: For The People, By The People
POLITICO: The movie, “By The People: The Election of Barack Obama” screens tonight at the Motion Picture Association of America in Washington in advance of a release on HBO on the anniversary of last year’s election. And it represents a rare glimpse behind the curtain of discipline and discretion that surrounded the Obama campaign – a glimpse that came even though some highly-placed campaign operatives feared the presence of cameras in their midst. It’s this cycle’s version of “The War Room” or “Journeys With George” – the political documentary whose unparalleled access will make it a defining document of the […]
INHALE TO THE CHIEF: DOJ Instructs Prosecutors To Stop Wasting Time And Money Busting People In Compliance With State Medical Marijuana Laws
[Artwork by REUBENSLP] ASSOCIATED PRESS: The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday. Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws. The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless […]
D’OH: Shepard Fairey Lied About ‘Hope’ Image Source
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Shepard Fairey’s claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his famous Barack Obama “HOPE” poster became a widely watched court case about fair use that now appears to have nearly collapsed. By Friday night, his attorneys – led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University – said they intend to withdraw from the case and said the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material. Fairey himself admitted that he didn’t use The Associated Press photo of Obama seated next to actor George […]
75% Of GOP Senators Voted In Favor Of Gang Rape
DAILY SHOW: As Jon Stewart reported on last night’s Daily Show, 30 GOP Senators (that’s 75% of all Republicans in the Senate for those keeping score at home) recently voted in favor of KBR and Halliburton’s right to gang-rape employees. It’s shocking, I know. However, it is important to keep in mind that KBR and Halliburton directed Chinatown. MORE THE GUARDIAN: US defence firms are to be barred from lucrative government contracts if they refuse to allow employees access to the courts, after a woman working for a Halliburton subsidiary in Iraq was prevented from taking legal action over an […]
NPR FOR THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When You Can’t
[CLICK TO ENLARGE] FRESH AIR While most record companies of the 1940s and 1950s made money in one genre, Cincinnati-based King Records spread the love to R & B, rockabilly, bluegrass, western swing and country. Jon Hartley Fox tells the story in his new book King of the Queen City. Combining archival research with contemporary interviews, Fox describes the company by focusing on the people who made up the culture, including executives Sydney Nathan, Henry Glover and Ralph Bass, as well as artists like Red Foxx, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and James Brown. A Dayton resident now based in California, Fox […]
MEDICAL MARIJUANA: High Anxiety
NEW YORK TIMES: “I’m so totally paranoid I can’t stand myself,” said the distributor, who runs a nonprofit group here that grows and sells marijuana for medicinal purposes and who insisted on meeting in the privacy of a hotel room. It was not meant to be this way. New Mexico’s new medical marijuana law was intended to provide safe, aboveboard access to the drug for hundreds of residents with chronic pain and other debilitating conditions. By licensing nonprofit distributors, New Mexico hoped to improve upon the free-for-all distribution systems in some states like California and Colorado, where hundreds of for-profit […]
BREAKING: Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
BLOOMBERG: U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Nobel Committee said in Oslo today. Obama, 48, last year was elected the first black U.S. president on a platform of extracting the U.S. from the Iraq war while increasing focus on an eight-year conflict in Afghanistan. Obama is the third sitting U.S. President to be awarded the prize, following Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won in 2002. MORE GLENN GREENWALD: As critical as I’ve been of […]
Bill Clinton Awards Spielberg The Liberty Medal
INQUIRER: Steven Spielberg has grown accustomed to praise. One of the world’s most successful filmmakers, ever, anywhere, he has received Oscars and honorary doctorates, won awards for public service and humanitarianism, and been granted nearly every superlative a man of art, thought, and heart could imagine. But he still seemed sincerely moved last night to be joining the ranks of the distinguished recipients of Philadelphia’s Liberty Medal. “I am very, very genuinely humbled by this,” Spielberg said after bowing his head so former President Bill Clinton, chairman of the National Constitution Center, could slip on the red, white, and blue […]
MANAN TRIVEDI FOR CONGRESS: Decorated Soldier, Doctor, Democrat, Health Care Reformer, Eagles Fan
BY PHILLYGRRL Last month, 35-year old Manan Trivedi, a physician and Iraqi war veteran, announced that he was running for the position of U.S. Representative in the 6th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. The post has been held by Republican Jim Gerlach for four terms despite a significant increase in Democrat voters in the district. The post became vacant when Gerlach announced in February that he will be running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2010. Since then, Trivedi, a Democrat who grew up in Berks County and currently works and resides in Reading, PA, has been spreading the word about his […]
GAMBLOR: Dozen Casino Protesters Arrested
INQUIRER: The organized act of civil disobedience by Casino-Free Philadelphia came as the casino company announced it planned to have a formal groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 8 for its slots parlor. More than 40 people gathered for the protest on Delaware Avenue about 6 a.m. They carried signs and banners wore red shirts that read “Bankrupt them” on the front and “Before they bankrupt us” on the back. About a dozen chanting volunteers sat down and linked arms in front of the construction gate. MORE