Dynamic Duo Dump
Philadelphia Too! And Fox!
Weeks after getting dropped from New York, Glenn Beck – and fellow-hate-monger Sean Hannity – got dumped from WPHT in the City of Brotherly Love. Ever classy, Beck promptly trashed the city where he got his start, making residents even less crazy about him. And a poll finds people aren’t so crazy about Fox anymore either! –Abby Z
Glenn Beck And Sean Hannity Dropped From Philadelphia Radio Station
Yesterday, hate radio hosts Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity had their nationally syndicated radio shows dropped from WPHT in Philadelphia, the second radio station to drop both.
Two weeks ago, Beck was dropped from WOR in New York, but cancellation in Philadelphia hurts more. Beck started in Philadelphia, and many of his radio staffers still live in Philly, including Beck’s side-kick Stu. Beck immediately said, “Philly sucks.”
Last October, Hannity was dropped by Deseret Media Companies (DMC) in Utah a for-profit arm of the Mormons. Hannity’s drop may be a clash between DMC’s “Mission Statement,” which calls for “light and knowledge” and advancement of “integrity, civility, morality, and respect for all people,” and Hannity’s constant lack of civility.
Recent cancellations may be a pattern; advertisers and broadcasters grow wary over hate radio rhetoric. Color of Change reports 81 companies quit advertising on Beck’s Fox News show and Media Matter 100, including those who haven’t withdrawn ads yet. READ MORE: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/19/beck-hannity-philly/#
Beck on Philly: Bluster of typical accuracy by Chris Satullo January 19, 2011. Glenn Beck, ubiquitous pundit and hawker of gold bullion, slandered our fair city. He fulminated about how no one in his right mind would walk the “killing streets around Independence Hall” after 6 p.m. for fear of being shot or stabbed. Here’s the audio. READ MORE: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/11450-beck-on-philly-bluster-of-typical-accuracy
"Excessive regulations" hamper business.
President Obama’s second year in office has been like his first: good news/bad news. Unfortunately, it’s been a little worse.
On endangered species, he revoked some damaging Bush-era policies and protected 120 million acres of habitat for the polar bear, but he also relegated 254 imperiled species to the unprotected “candidate” list and illegally removed gray wolves from the endangered species list. On climate, he began Clean Air Act regulation of CO2 from the largest smokestack polluters but blocked progress toward a science-based climate treaty in Copenhagen and Cancún and adopted a Bush-era decision to ban regulation of emissions to save polar bears. On oceans, he issued a positive decision on protecting Atlantic bluefin tuna, but exempted BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling projects and hundreds of others from environmental review — even after the Gulf oil-spill catastrophe.
Overall, the Center for Biological Diversity gives Obama’s two-year environmental record a disappointing “C-.” Check out President Obama’s report card for yourself.
Tunisians protest in central Tunis. Tunisia's interim president promised a "total break" with the past and hailed "a revolution of dignity and liberty," as prosecutors opened a vast inquiry against the previous leader. (AFP/Fred Dufour)
Arab Leaders Warn of More Revolts Amid Growing Anger. Summit agrees $2bn aid for region as family of Tunisia’s former president is arrested. Catrina Stewart and Kim Sengupta in Tunis January 20, 2011 by The Independent/UK
Tunisia began to search for millions of pounds believed stolen by the country’s ousted leader and his family. Arab leaders were warned that dire economic conditions could provoke a Tunisian-style revolt elsewhere in the region. Events in Tunisia inspired similar demonstrations, often at the risk of violent crackdowns by powerful security forces that are quick to stamp out dissent. In Algeria, thousands marched the streets to vent anger at rising food prices, while Jordanians staged demonstrations against high unemployment. Egypt, Oman, Yemen and Libya all witnessed large-scale protests for leaders to address high unemployment, soaring food prices and other economic woes.
A Tunisian-style revolt may not sweep across the region, but protesters and political opposition are nevertheless emboldened. The street vendor who triggered the Tunisian revolt when he set himself on fire sparked a wave of copycat self-immolations. At least 12 people set themselves on fire – seven in Algeria, three in Egypt – in the past week!
In an attempt to provide some relief, Arab League countries said they would back a $2bn aid program. Analysts warned that joblessness could only be tackled through a loosening of state control over the economy, a trend that prevails in many Arab states, and encouraging the growth of a private sector.
STUPIDOLOGY, a serious subject
READ MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/20-5
The only question is, "Is it a Disaster, or a Catastrophe?"
2010 Matches Record for World’s Hottest Year. UN climate scientists panel says human greenhouse gas emissions stoke climate change that will bring more floods, droughts and rising sea levels. Stephanie Nebehay January 20, 2011 by Reuters
GENEVA – Last year tied for the hottest year on record, confirming a long-term warming trend, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The first ten years of the millennium are the hottest since records began in the 1900s. The trend will continue for years, how high depends on how much greenhouse gas is released. The difference between the three hottest years was less than the margin of uncertainty in comparing the data, from land-based weather and climate stations, ships, buoys and satellites. READ MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/20-0
Uncle Sam Lost
Reversing ‘Citizens United’ by Katrina vanden Heuvel January 19, 2011 by The Washington Post
It will be a year this week since Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative activist colleagues on the Supreme Court joined together in a dramatic assault on American democracy. Their decision in the Citizens United case overturned more than a century’s worth of precedent by awarding corporations the rights of citizens with regard to electioneering, allowing unlimited contributions from corporate treasuries to flood the electoral landscape. As The Nation noted, “This decision tips the balance against active citizenship and the rule of law by making it possible for the nation’s most powerful economic interests to manipulate not just individual politicians and electoral contests but political discourse itself.” Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), himself a victim of Citizens United spending, said, “It is going to be worse in 2012 unless we do something – much worse.”
Opportunity exists: Justice Roberts and allies overreached so brazenly that they opened a way for genuine reform. At the modest end is reviving the Disclose Act to require corporations to show how they spend money and provide disincentives for spending. However, this is triage if not accompanied by a broader push for bolder reform.
The Fair Elections Now Act has been introduced in Congress, but best is a constitutional amendment that corporations are not people and have no right to buy elections.
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) introduced such an amendment to beat back the court. “Justice Brandeis got it right,” she noted. ” ‘We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.'”
An August 2010 poll found 77 percent of all voters view corporate spending in elections as bribery. Broad majorities favor limiting corporate control over our political lives.
In a nation where recovery feels like recession, the suffocating grip of corporate money is anything but abstract. There is the clearest possible link between the rise of corporate power and the challenges of everyday lives. Corporate money can be blamed for watering down consumer protections and diluting health-care and financial reform. There is almost no conversation we have in American politics in which corporations don’t occupy all the seats at the table. Reversing Citizens United is about more than any one issue or court case – it is, at its base, a question of whether American democracy itself can beat back a corporate takeover, whether our most cherished principles of self-government can ultimately prevail. READ MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/19-13
RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH » Corporate Marquee
Corporations are not persons
Corporations are not persons and do not have the rights of human beings. Support a constitutional amendment to reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United, and move to firmly establish that money is not speech. Votes and participation count. Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate “preemption” actions by global, national, and state governments. Move to Amend
Goldman Defies Public Fury With Another £10bn Bonus Payout. Stephen Foley in New York January 19, 2011 by The Independent/UK
Just say, "Yes!"
Goldman Sachs, mightiest of investment banks will reveal more bumper bonus payouts, averaging $450,000 (£280,000) per person, showing that bankers’ pay behaviour has failed to change. Goldman dominates trading and the continuing high level of bonuses comes despite declines in trading activity.
Goldman is viewed as “a giant vampire squid, wrapped round the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” (Matt Taibbi). Last week, Goldman published a 63-page report promising to tie bonuses to ethical practices. Earlier the bank was looking to raise $1.5bn in an exclusive share offer, known as a private placement, for the bank’s top clients, a “special purpose vehicle” set up to avoid US Securities and Exchange Commission rules that a private firm with more than 500 shareholders register and file public statements. READ MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/01/19-0
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