And to think I wanted to be just like them.

 I wanted to be like Carl Bernstein and Bob Wooodward; I wanted to be like Max Robinson and David Brinkley. Instead, all I've seen the past few months (years) are pretenders and fake prompt readers who couldn't investigate a story if it bit them in the behind. I used to think I was something if I read the New York Times on a daily basis or check out Time and Newsweek; I used to think watching PBS made me smarter if I caught the McLaughlin Group every so often to shore up my knowledge.

 These days I keep waiting for the punchline and realize I don't have cable or satellite anymore and the folks posing as news reporters are actually news reporters and not John Stewart or Stephen Colbert. So I am silently making my own private MSM protest by reading the blogs and checking out credible outlets overseas and independent journalistic sites.

Joseph Cirincione, the former head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (I should probably put a "sic" after that) and now the head of the equally peaceful sounding "Plowshares Fund," has been consistent on Iran. Twice in 2006 (here and here), I wrote about his taking the "not if, but when" attitude toward Iran developing nuclear weapons. You might think the National Intelligence Estimate in late 2007 might have given him pause, but no, there he was on Democracy Now this morning, pushing the same line still, with statements like

I've come to believe that things are getting better and better and worse and worse, faster and faster, simultaneously.

~ Crisis Fatigue and the Co-Creation of Positive Possibilities, by Tom Atlee

Is there a more accurate statement of the dynamic flux (polite euphemism) we find ourselves in as this new century unfolds?

Yesterday, Amy Goodman served up a big slice of the "better and better" side of this dynamic -- for me, a sorely needed and welcome reminder!  She was announcing the awarding of the first-ever Buckminster Fuller Challenge prize, and reflecting on Fuller's still-vibrant legacy.

Maybe the Mainstream Media is finally getting the message. As I reported on Thursday, NBC actually aired a piece on the their Nightly News about a new report from U.S. Climate Change Science Program linking Climaticide to extreme weather events.

Then, yesterday, syndicated columnist, Amy Goodman, had a piece in the Seattle Post Intelligencer called Flooding is global warming at work in which she took the Mainstream Media to task for their failure to connect the dots in their reporting on extreme weather events and Climaticide. Double score here.  Goodman reports on the link between Climaticide and extreme weather and criticizes the MSM for acting as if the connection does not exist.

Hardball's Chris Matthews took heat from Clinton supporters during the primary and appears to be trying to learn more about the complexity of women voters in recent shows. Give him credit for trying, even though he still succombs to the "it's all about abortion" mentality.

Originally posted at RHRealityCheck.org - News, information and analysis for  Reproductive Health.

Don't get me wrong.  I've loved MSNBC's occasional turn to the liberal side with commentators like Keith Olberman.  But for the most part, it's still pretty main stream.  Still pretty corporate.

But every once in awhile a serious voice breaks through into the bobble-headed sound-bite world of talk television.  Tonight it was wonderful to see Amy Goodman of Democracy Now forcefully declare her views on the woman vote in the Presidential election.

It's incredible to watch an alternative voice on corporate media.  I thought she did well in hitting the issues she wanted to hit and more than held her own in a forum that demands such concision that usually only conventional platitudes are heard.  But what do you think?  Did Amy best her opponents?

More on Amy after the break, including a run-in with Michael Sipes of REM.

I just came back from the Michigan Policy Summit, and boy am I excited! The summit included keynotes by Amy Goodman of Democracy NOW! and the legendary Jim Hightower.  Also, Jeffrey Feldman and Marcy Wheeler, who have Michigan ties, were also there (check out Feldman's liveblog).

In addition, breakout sessions were held dealing with issues surrounding the environment, healthcare, and education.

During years prior to the 1769 Bengali bubble the British East India company through its officers and private military implemented and enforced draconian laws that eliminated food stores and instead set up shipping routes to take India's crops to Britain.

Millions of indigenous people were forced to pay "free market price" for their own food. When the 1769 drought struck and harvest was poor the stock market crashed and prices skyrocketed. As a result 10 million poor people starved to death the following year.

Today, thanks to deliberate World Bank and IMF policies 3rd world countries follow a similar policy of no food stores and massive food exports through international corporations who set unfair monopoly prices that destroy farmers and rip off consumers on the "free commodities world market".

Boy, a whole bunch of celebrity blogs and websites must be busy little bees today.

There's so much to do.

Whole new slates of graphics ... The Death Clocks and Counters have to be put together ... Compiling all the old links of every little piece of gossip, sleaze, faux pas and just plain goofy news they can find.

Good morning. There is not allot of talk on Daily Kos about Recycling items, the lie about Bottled Water, Littering,  things we can do in our personal lives to help. I apologize if there are any errors or mispellings, I had a very long weekend, and not real motivated this morning.

Yesterday, I was watching Bill Moyer's Journal, he did an interesting piece on the Kerner Report from 1968, which I never knew anything about.  It was great story and must see for everyone. The second part of his show, he had Major Cory Booker on of Newark, what a remarkable man.  He had an interesting view, that we as Americans have to take personal responisibilty for things in our communities. responsibility.  

Democracy Now with Amy Goodman & Juan Gonzales is another great program and I encourage everyone to watch it Daily, there shows are always available on there website in transcript form and video.  They have done some great pieces on the problems with our Water Supply, the myth about bottled water, and Global Warming.

Today on Democracy Now! co-host Amy Goodman asked Sen. Barack Obama after a NYC event why he is not calling for a total withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in accordance with the 70 percent of Iraqis who say they want the US out.

Here's the link to today's segment. Or you can read the transcripts below the fold.

The Nobel prize-winning president of East Timor, Jose Ramos-Horta, is in critical condition, breathing on a ventilator.  Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao survived an attempted coup against him and Ramos-Horta. Ramos-Horta was shot in the back of the head and the stomach...  Now Gusmao has declared a 48 hour state of emergency.

Rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado and another insurgent are dead.

After watching what the Democratic Party has done to Dennis Kucinich, it is abundantly clear that the Democratic Party doesn't care a whit about democracy or the principles of fair play.

Rather than conducting a primary election for delegates in which every candidate has an equal chance to collect delegates going to the convention, the Democratic Party has rigged the game so that candidates who represent a minority view within the party are disenfranchised.  

The Democratic Party does this in many ways but the two chief ways are through the manipulation of the voting system using the 15% rule, and the manipulation of the debate system by collaboration with the media-military-industrial corporations.  Just as the Democrats in congress have sold out the Party over the war and impeachment, the Democratic Party has abdicated its own authority over its own primaries and convention by giving control of our public elections to private corporate interests.

This cannot stand if we are to have a viable democracy. It is not the neo-cons to blame only. Instead the Democratic Party is bringing us a neo-fascism that is sold with the expertise of Madison Ave. By having no principles when it comes to the conduct of the primaries and the debates the Democratic Party has shown its true colors.

It's always about Osama bin Laden. "Do you know Osama bin Laden?" is the question that begins, as if by law, every interview with anyone, and I mean anyone, accused of anything that would be of interest to a Joint Terrorism Task Force - and believe me, that's very inclusive, for a "force" that has a vague mission, a big budget, and an imperative to "find terrorists" which means "anyone suspicious." And so, the Bush Freedom-bashers "suspect" the news organization Al-Jazeera, of consorting with The Enemy - those well-defined entities, known scientifically by all, called "terrorists" - by having those Bin Laden rants broadcast on their network.

So what do they do? Arrest and "detain" the cameraman, Sami Al-Haj, who works for al-Jazeera, en route to Pakistan. The charge? There is none. It's all about suspicion, that well-defined, logical means of administering justice - especially by fascist or totalitarian governments. Are we becoming one of them? As if it's not bad enough to be held in Gitmo indefinitely, he's been on a harrowing hunger strike for one year. Amy Goodman interviewed his brother...

Cross posted at Turn Maine Blue

It is not realistic that any one woman or man has the knowldege, experience and energy to know how to lead our nation through the great variety of domestic and foreign matters that face our government. So those that aspire to the office of president hire advisors, women and men with learning and experience in particular fields that a candidate will use in the formation of policy.

Democracy Now!, hosted by Amy Goodman, has a great segment this morning which looks at the front running presidential candidates and their foreign policy  advisors. Some of these names are well known, and the others less so, but all have one thing in common: the use of American force as an instrument of American foreign policy.

AMY GOODMAN: Presidential candidates are scrambling to win last-minute support in Iowa ahead of tonight’s caucus. Thousands of reporters have also descended on Iowa this week, covering everything from Mike Huckabee’s haircut to John Edwards’s rally with singer John Mellencamp.

A dark cloud is passing over America. We've witnessed, in recent years, the death of many of our constitutional rights and liberties. We've also seen increasingly authoritarian trends in daily life and culture.

I've never understood why I've found so many like-minded people online, but had so much trouble converting that into real political power.  This author is proposing a coalition "that can act as a counterforce to this gathering threat to our liberties."

Dennis, riding high from his movement on impeachment and also for the Democracy for America Pulse Poll victory, appeared on Democracy Now this morning with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

"What we're fighting for now is not to prevent global warming. There is going to be some global warming; there already is. What we're fighting for now is to keep that miserable and difficult century of global warming from turning into an absolute catastrophe that rewrites the geology and biology of this planet for eons to come."