No More Taco Bell Until Abortion Ends (Video)
Site editor’s note: if you have been following this political/internet/media explosion you may find this recent story posted to disinfo.com in December as an interesting footnote to the outcome.
These people will enjoy no more burritos until unborn babies are no longer terminated. Until Abortion Ends is a perplexing and to some extent inadvertently amusing trend in which people pledge to give up various things “until abortion ends”. (Although I assume they actually mean “until abortion becomes criminalized”.)
Mama Grizzly Sarah Palin Mauled In New Tell-All Book
Larry McShane reports in the NY Daily News:
Sarah Palin bedding a budding NBA star, snorting coke and cheating on the First Dude? You betcha — or so claims a new deep-dish book on the former Alaska gov.
The scandalous details are revealed in the highly-anticipated tell-all The Rogue: Searching for The Real Sarah Palin,” written by best-selling author Joe McGinniss.
Palin bedded future pro hoops player Glen Rice while he was playing at the University of Michigan, the National Enquirer reports about the McGinniss book.
The sharp-shooting Rice — who spent one season with the Knicks — was playing in the annual “Great Alaska Shootout” while Palin was a sports reporter with Anchorage television station KTUU, the Enquirer said.
Their one-night stand over Thanksgiving weekend 1987 reportedly occurred in the dorm room of Palin’s kid sister at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Palin was described by a friend as the aggressor, with the pal reporting…
Sheen Trumps Palin and More Junk Food News
Illustration: ssoosay via Flickr (CC)
Abby Martin writes on Media Roots:
“We are awash in electronic hallucinations. The worse it gets, the more we retreat into those hallucinations. Dying cultures always sever themselves from reality, because reality becomes so difficult to face, and we’re no exception to that.” — Chris Hedges, interview with Media Roots
Of Tiger Blood and Birthers
During the first four days of the corporate media’s fanatical coverage of actor Charlie Sheen’s drug-addled, tiger-blooded neurosis, four more US soldiers were killed in combat in Afghanistan. Yet, CNN only took notice after a Facebook campaign initiated by a fellow soldier went viral, which pitted the coverage of fallen soldiers against the celebrity addict. The campaign galvanized tens of thousands of people to write the following on their Facebook pages:
“Charlie Sheen is all over the news because he’s a celebrity drug addict, while Andrew Wilfahrt 31, Brian Tabada 21, Rudolph Hizon 22, Chauncy Mays…
Why Are Democrats So Weak? Thoughts on the Weiner ‘Scandal’ (Video)
Rachel Maddow speaks with Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks who has plenty to say:
Media Roots Radio: Osama Propaganda, Police Power, GOP & Obama’s 2012 Run-up
Via Media Roots Radio:
This episode covers new Bin Laden propaganda, the recent ruling giving police the power to break into homes without warrants and the media circus surrounding the GOP and Obama’s election run-up for 2012.
Why Facts No Longer Matter In The Media Discourse
How should we understand this latest and most troubling insight into the reality of our media ecology?
In the aftermath of the resolution of the Great Birther bash-up, even as President Obama tried to lay the issue at rest by producing the document that showed, proved, verified, documented, and validated his birth in one of the great states of our disunion, it was said that its release would only fuel more debate, and convince no one.
In other words, in the end, this long debated fact didn’t matter.
Facts no longer seem to matter on other issues, too, as articulated in the now infamous memo issued by retiring Senator Jon Kyle whose office, when confronted with evidence that he misspoke on the matter of how much money Planned Parenthood spent on abortions—he claimed 90%, the truth was but 3%—issued an advisory that said, “The statement was not meant to be factual.”
Jon Stewart and…
Measles Outbreak Linked to Anti-Vaccination Movement
The Seattle Times reports upon a recent measles outbreak in Minneapolis traced local Somalis fearful of a purported link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Andrew Wakefield himself has arrived on the scene. His 1998 study linking the MMR to a new syndrome dubbed “autistic enterocolitis” has since been retracted by the Lancet amid allegations of fraud, and his medical license has been revoked.
As CNN reports, Wakefield expected to earn as much as $43 million/year in revenue from “litigation driven testing” for autistic enterocolitis, a test for which he holds a potentially lucrative patent, and received more than $674,000 “from lawyers trying to build a case against vaccine manufacturers.”
From the Seattle Times article:
Health officials struggling to contain a measles outbreak that’s hit hard in Minneapolis’ large Somali community are running into resistance from parents who fear the vaccine could give their children autism.
Fourteen confirmed measles cases have been reported in Minnesota…
Jerry Seinfeld on Royal Wedding: ‘Let’s Pretend These Are Special People’ (Video)
Here could have said whatever he felt like, so I’m glad he called it like it is:
Charlie Sheen Quotes Presented By Superheroes
Well, we discovered this week Charlie Sheen does have a superpower: getting a million Twitter followers in 25 hours. If you’d like to take a break from the serious news of the week, very funny post from Laura Hudson on Comics Alliance:
Earlier this week, we decided that the only way to deal with the exploding celebrity Death Star that is Charlie Sheen was to take his spectacularly hubristic comments and put them in the mouths of superheroes, with the help of Chris Haley and Curt Franklin of the webcomic Let’s Be Friends Again.
You, the readers, told us that the six measly pieces of original art where your favorite Marvel and DC characters reiterate the philosophical jewels of the only celebrity whose veins pump pure tiger blood was simply not enough, and we have heard your demands.
Update: Actually Sheen may be trying to use his new-found superpower for good, the Hollywood Reporter is claiming he’s going to Haiti with Sean Penn.
Jon Stewart Explains His Critique of The Media to Rachel Maddow (Video)
I caught the televised version of this yesterday, here’s the entire uncut interview below. I know the folks at MSNBC weren’t too happy to be compared to Fox News at Stewart’s “Restore Sanity” rally, so he takes some time on that network to clarify his intended message.
Here’s a True “Profile in Courage”: Richard Tillman Speaks Out on His Brother, Pat Tillman’s, Death
Here is a man who I say deserves a true Profile in Courage Award.
Bill Maher interviews Richard Tillman, brother of Pat Tillman, on the recent Real Time.
Any person, dealing with grief over their sibling’s death, that manages to stand up for what their lost loved one truly believed in light of a media circus, is A-OK in my book.
This is speaking “Truth to Power” in its finest sense. Anyone willing to call out these opportunistic politicians who showed up at this brother’s funeral, and co-opt what he (Pat Tillman) believe against their own self-interest…
I agree with Bill Maher. I’d be happy to share a beer with Richard Tillman any day of the week…
Quran Burning Story: This Is How The Media Embarrass Themselves
Jason Linkins writes on Huffington Post:
[Thursday] afternoon, the leader of a microscopic cult of idiots who announced plans to stage an “international” day of Quran burning in Gainesville, Florida held a press conference, for a rapt media which decided that his moronic plans were the single most important thing going on in America. At that press conference, in front of “9/11 Truther” signs, this cult leader lied to everyone who was watching, telling them that he was going to call off his 9/11 book burning festival because he had successfully reached a deal with the people behind the Park51 community center in Lower Manhattan, in which they would move their facility away from the site of the World Trade Center.
Not a word of this was true, but it was amazing, all the same — at one fell swoop, we had finally knit up the strands of a season of irrationality…
The Daily Show on Obama’s “Wisdom” in the “Ground Zero Mosque” Media Circus
“Yes we can … but should we?” — Jon Stewart
Politics is often defined as the “art of the possible.” However it should also be defined as “you can’t please all the people all the time.” Especially the ones being idiots on the “ground zero mosque” media shitstorm.
Thankfully The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart (who recently George Lucas made a Stormtrooper) is on the money again about President Obama’s mixed public comments regarding this non-story.
I could not complete this post without mentioning the great Jon Oliver’s commentary:
“There is a difference, Jon, between what you can do and what you should do. You can build a Catholic Church next to a playground. Should you?”
Juggalos, Media Scares, and the West Memphis 3
Klint Finley writes on Mediapunk:
It’s difficult to estimate the total number of Juggalos. The 2009 Gathering of Juggalos had 20,000 people in attendence. The most recent ICP album sold about 50,000 copies in the first week. But let’s be conservative and go with the 20,000 estimate. (I actually suspect it’s much higher than this.)
Nightline cites only 3 instances of reported Juggalos actually murdering anyone. To be charitable, let’s assume there are 10 people who are both Juggalos and murderers.
That would mean AT MOST .05% of Juggalos are murderers. Granted that’s a significantly higher percentage than the US population at large (there were 16,272 murders in 2008 and the US had a population of about 305 million). But less than 1%, at most, isn’t exactly cause for alarm. And I would think Arizona’s finest would be better served by realizing that 99.94 percent of murders are committed by non-Juggalos and adjusting their law enforcement priorities accordingly.…
British Election Results in Hung Parliament, First Since 1974
What’s the deal here, was the first-ever televised debate to blame for a lack of a majority? Simon Veazey writes in the Epoch Times:
The British election has resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party gaining the most seats but falling short of the overall majority that would automatically grant them governance.
The apparent meteoric rise of Nick Clegg failed dismally to translate from the opinion polls to the ballot box, with his Liberal Democrat Party increasing its share of the vote by only one per cent, and most likely losing seats.
The election results have not been all declared, with 24 constituencies still to announce results at present. At present the Conservative seat count stands at 299, Labour at 255, and Lib Dems at 54.
However, it is clear from the results that the Conservative Party cannot win the majority needed to automatically claim the right to form a government.
Read More…
Sen. Lieberman Proposes Stripping Terrorists of American Citizenship
Chart: www.lurkertech.com/threat-chart (CC)
Stephanie Condon writes on CBS News:
As some Republicans in Congress continue to criticize the administration for its decision to read Miranda rights to alleged attempted terorrist Faisal Shahzad, independent Sen. Joe Lieberman is proposing a plan to avoid reading those rights to suspects like Shahzad.
The Connecticut senator, who typically votes with Democrats but is hawkish on national security issues, wants to see a new law that would strip people like Shahzad of their citizenship and, subsequently, their Miranda rights.
Lieberman is planning to introduce a bill that would allow the government to revoke the citizenship of an American who joins a foreign terrorist organization, the Hill reports. The proposed legislation would amend current law that strips a person’s citizenship if they fight with a foreign army.
“I think it’s time for us to look at whether we want to amend that law to apply it to American citizens who choose…
Secret Army Spy Plane May Have Snooped on Times Square Bomber
Really interesting article from Noah Shachtman in Wired:
Investigators were able to track wannabe terrorist Faisal Shahzad through his anonymous, pre-paid cell phone — exactly how, they won’t say. But there was a tantalizing explanation posted — and then quickly yanked — from the website of WCBS TV. “In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.”
Jeremy Scahill, relying on a source in U.S. Special Operations, says those planes were likely RC-12s, equipped with a Guardrail Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) system. The planes are designed to pluck all kinds of communications from the air. But from the ground, they could easily be mistaken for an executive aircraft. The RC-12 is based on the Hawker-Beechcraft King Air B200 suit-carrier. And…
Times Square Bomb: The Right’s Nuttiest Theory
Was the recent incident in Times Square an attempt to demonize the labor and environmental movements? Mother Jones reports:
Photo: T.L. Miles (CC)
This much we know: A US citizen born in Pakistan has been arrested for allegedly parking a Nissan Pathfinder in Times Square Saturday night, loaded with fertilizer that doesn’t combust, a kid’s alarm clock that likely didn’t tick, several gallons of gas, some propane tanks, and a few M80 firecrackers.
Attorney General Eric Holder has released a statement saying Shahzad was “taken into custody at JFK Airport in New York as he attempted to board a flight to Dubai.” There’s a lot we have yet to learn about what this news means, but it probably rules out one favorite conservative theory about the attempted bombing — that left-wing protesters took advantage of May Day (aka International Workers’ Day) to make a big bang in New York’s neon-soaked seat of capitalism.
Even before the…
‘Dr. Death’ Jack Kevorkian: “Medicine Is Controlled By Religion” (Video)
Here’s doctor and right-to-die activist Jack Kevorkian speaking with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto about the recent HBO film, You Don’t Know Jack. This film is a biopic of the good doctor’s infamous career later in life: those actions that landed him in prison and the media circus that revolved around him.
Kevorkian candidly expresses his views on Fox News and his opinion of this film:
