Flying Blind

When the Obama Administration took over in January, along with a few new faces in the US congress, there were sure to be changes in how the government does business. Soon after, Defense Secretary Gates, kept on by Obama despite being a Bush appointee, presented a proposed defense budget that called for cutting back on some programs. (programs, not necessarily military spending, that remains higher than anytime in history) The proposal got some press as it called for cutting things like missile defense, C-17 cargo planes, and the F-22 program.? The main point of this move was to scale back or cut extremely expensive programs who’s goals are purposes never really materialized.?? It wasn’t the reduced military spending overall that alot of people who voted for change had hoped for, but it was a small step towards reigning in a government that spends record shattering amounts in the name of defending the homeland.

Then came the month of June and statements byContinue reading “Flying Blind”

Testimony on the State of the Media

In a recent post you might remember me pointing to the words of The Wire creator and former Baltimore journalist David Simon as he was interviewed on Bill Moyer’s program.? You might also remember that I’m a huge, let’s be honest, FAN, of Simon as I find the Wire to be one imperfect and completely accurate mirror of how our society and our world functions.

So it might come as a surprise and certainly ironic when I tell you I hated David Simon’s testimony before US Congress during the recent session on the state of the media industry. Hmm, saying I hated it is kind of silly, the basic fact is that based on Simon’s words before congress, I don’t agree and would argue some of his statements/facts.

I actually plan to develop my response further, possibly putting it out as a video entry, but for now I wanted to begin to break-down what problem I have with Simon’s words and to properly lay out my own responses.Continue reading “Testimony on the State of the Media”

bmtv37 Congressional War Criminals

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John Edwards voted for the war in Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed because of the war in Iraq.

John Edwards helped make that possible.

And now he tells the public he is a good candidate to lead the country.

This is my response.

I will not be jetlagged, or silent.

Landed in the wee hours of the morning, here in Amsterdam. And since it’s October, it stays nice and dark until at least 7am, so I just pretended it was night time and I had a meal, read some blogs, and unpacked. – Which explains why I woke up in the middle of the afternoon.

On the flight over I had a chance to catch up with podcasts, mainstream and alternative. One of the podcasts that made me gag and foam at the mouth was, as usual, Meet the Press. They had a senate candidate debate between two Ohio politicians. Now I know I’m a broken record on this subject, but I cannot and will not remain silent when I see and hear fraud, hypocracy, and distraction disguised as an election.

These two candidates are the same. That is clear from the basic fact that they spend alot of time and energy trying to prove that they are not the same. Hard work when you’re both warmongering, wealthy, and puppets of two parties that share a common goal: having power and pleasing the powerful.

To some extent I blame Meet the Press for giving this a stage and pretending there is a debate to be had. Tim Russert should have spent his time exposing both men for being poorly informed on international affairs and completely vague about their domestic agenda.

I turned off the interview after 20 minutes and somewhat appropriately, selected the film “American Dreamz”.