Manufacturing Consent: A Movie about Noam Chomsky

If you have a couple hours to sit down and watch an incredible documentary, make sure to watch this one. The first time I heard about Noam Chomsky was in a NOFX song. I wish I would have looked him up a tad bit sooner.

I'm too tried to give a description so heres one from Wikipedia!:

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992) is a multi award-winning documentary film that explores the political life and ideas of Noam Chomsky, a linguist, intellectual, and political activist. Created by two Canadian independent filmmakers, Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, it expands on the ideas of Chomsky's earlier book, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, which he co-wrote with Edward S. Herman(Wikipedia)

Please just watch the first 10 minutes. This documentary will change the way you watch media. Not porn though, you'll probably still watch that the same way.


Here's that NOFX song, you punx:

Ghetto Black Names + Do people actually listen to Rush Limbaugh?

While at home, I turned on the television to notice that fox news was interviewing Rush concerning Obama's speech last night regarding healthcare and that Harvard professor who got arrested recently. Rush contributed his two cents while my jaw remained open for about six minutes. I wondered to myself, is this man serious? So I started searching and found these enlightening clips of one of the most famous media personalities in America. And apparently, he is.


Rush on Americans




Limbaugh On Illegal Immigration (the Limbaugh Laws)



Rush "speaks" to a liberal




Dave Letterman and Bill O'Reilly (my favorite television journalist) talking about the media, Sean Penn, and of course, Rush Limbaugh




I'm not sure if this changes your opinions on Rush Limbaugh but I hope it sheds some light on how big of a mindless ill informed sloth man he truly is.

Now, what really matters.

Send a message!

While venturing to Long Island last weekend, I came across an interesting article in Time Magazine entitled "Graffiti for Hire in the West Bank". Although I wasn't able to finish the article due to someone stealing away the magazine. However, I thought it would be interesting to mention it.

Watch the Video


*For some reason TIME doesn't like to embed videos. So you'll just have to click that link and watch the video version of the article.





If you don't have three minutes to watch the video, I'll break it down for ya'll.

-Isreal put up a 463 mile wall along the Gaza strip.
-Some artists in Gaza (not on Isreal's side) decided to use the wall as a canvas for they're artwork.
-YOU can have a message written on the wall for 30 euros.

Have your message written on the wall Here



I think a LoveSchack message would be great. Any ideas?

The Other Lieberman

Recent events have given me reason to be pessimistic once again about Israel and Iran (not that the pessimism ever really went anywhere). During the presidential campaign, then-Senator Biden came under fire for saying that he believes an international crisis will test President Obama within his first few months in office. If I had to predict an event fitting that description (and these predictions are somewhere between usually and always wrong), this would be it:

As the US moves to the left in its approach to the Middle East, Israel has taken a hard-right turn. Are they calculating that the Obama Administration, preoccupied with fixing the global economy, will avoid straining the US-Israel alliance? Maybe, and if the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as Israel's chief diplomat is any indication, they're already testing the waters.

Think of Avigdor as a militant-fascist-racist version of our own Senator Joe. Don't believe me? First, consider this quote: "If it were up to me I would notify the Palestinian Authority that tomorrow at ten in the morning we would bomb all their places of business in [commercial center] Ramallah, for example." Then, consider frequent chants of "Death to Arabs" that break out at his political rallies. He showcased his fundamental human decency when he punched a 12 year-old boy in the face who'd been in a fight with his son. He is currently embroiled in a corruption investigation that ties him to both local and foreign business interests.

He is, put simply, a thug. Like a hockey game late in the third period with nothing left to play for, a thug is brought in to send a message, not to score points. With Lieberman as the face of Israeli foreign policy, said foreign policy will be one that picks a lot of fights with little regard for the consequences.

If the United States managed to alienate the known universe with the George W. Bush's decidedly less bellicose rhetoric, Lieberman's ascension (and Likud's broader victories in the recent parliamentary elections) implies something genuinely frightening. With a daunting domestic agenda, any hint of backpeddling in the US-Israeli alliance is politically untenable for the Obama administration. Yet Israel still feels just as threatened, and they believe the relationship between the Iranian threat and time is exponential. So why not strike when America is most preoccupied and its opposition will be least vehement?

Figures like Lieberman deny the potential for diplomacy to mollify Iran. Their ideology denies the utility of waiting for Obama's efforts to work. It'd be like a devout Catholic who said, "I'm still waiting for the Messiah, just in case it isn't Jesus."

There is compelling reason to believe Israel wants to stifle diplomacy before it has the chance to materialize. Even modest success of US efforts would undermine Israel's insistence that Iran is a rogue state that can't be reasoned with.

Look for the Iranian elections, scheduled for this June, to be very important. Chances are good that current President and resident boogeyman Mahmoud Ahmedinejad will win an election wrought with improprieties. Israel may seize the moment to escalate its rhetoric, or worse.

NYU Protesters Fail...Like Many Others

If anyone has been following the so-called "Kimmel 18" who barricaded themselves in an NYU building (in the cafeteria), it would seem clear that protests these days are completely ineffective (with the exception of the Univ. of Rochester who somehow gave in to student's demands after 9 hours). Other than the one exception, can you think of the last time a protest, sit-in, be-in, march, speakers, etc. actually got something important and significant accomplished? The difference between protesters today and those in the past ('60's) is their priorities.

The list of 13 demands that the Take Back NYU! protesters gave to the administration just about covered everything under the sun...from disclosure of the budget to sending aid and money to the University of Gaza, to the NYU library being open to the public. Disclosing the budget would be nice for all of us, but for a private school they really do not have to do it (although we would all like it). Providing aid and money to Gaza, no matter one's political beliefs, is plain stupid. NYU needs all the money it can get. My parents can barely pay for this school. I don't want money that I could be receiving as financial aid going to the University of Gaza, or any other University in the world for that matter. It is not NYU's job to rebuild/support other countries or regions. If Take Back NYU! really wanted to accomplish this, then they should have brought it up with the NY Congressmen or Senators. As for the NYU library being public...I would have to tell these protesters to join many other NYU students and kill themselves. Are you serious? For $50,000 a year you want our library to be open to the public? What the fuck will that do? It is already crowded enough. We do not need there to be even less of a chance to find a book we need for a class because some NYC resident wants to leisurely read it.

These demands were ridiculous and too broad. If they had focused on just Gaza-related demands or budget demands, then there may have been a chance of being successful. Instead, Take Back NYU! was made up of 20 different NYU student clubs who all had their own personal needs to fulfill before those of the larger group.

Another major problem, that eventually lead to their downfall was their single most important demand: Amnesty for all those involved in the occupation (the idea of the occupation is ironic, considering they are occupying a building in order to end an occupation...). When people protested in the 1960's against the Vietnam War and burned their draft cards, did they make sure they wouldn't get arrested before they did it? No, they got thrown in jail, fighting for a cause they believed in. The success of their ideas and the group were much more important to them than their own well-being. This is what the NYU protesters, as well as most modern protesters lack: selflessness. It will be a long time until we see another Abbie Hoffman.

STEAL THIS BLOG ENTRY!

America: Fuck Yeah?

Although the last eight years of freakishly aggresive and alienating foreign policy have made it trendy on the left to bitch endlessly about the negative consequences of American hegemony, chances are good that the global economic crisis will change that a bit. In today's NYTimes, Tom Friedman has a defense of a renewed sense of nationalism:

While it is true that since the end of the cold war global leaders and intellectuals often complained about a world of too much American power, one doesn’t hear much of that grumbling today when most people recognize that only an economically revitalized America has the power to prevent the world economy from going into a global depression. It was always easy to complain about a world of too much American power as long as you didn’t have to live in a world of too little American power. And right now, that is the danger: a world of too little American power.

To some degree, this just means that the rest of the world is not inclined to hate us for our freedom, tolerance and comparative power, but instead they'll just hate us when we're assholes. Right?

Let Me Tell You How It Will Be...

UPDATE: 2:15 pm Only a few minutes after I confidently declared the Daschle nomination would be pushed through, he withdraws. Great. In hindsight, this already seems like it was a foregone conclusion. Live and learn.

Does anyone pay their taxes?

First it was Timothy Geithner, the now-confirmed Treasury Secretary. Then it was Tom Daschle, Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (i.e. the guy who's supposed to fix health care). It didn't end there, when today, Nancy Killefer, nominee for Chief Performance Officer, withdrew her candidacy, citing some tax issues that she didn't want to become a distraction for the Obama Administration.

The excuse given for Geithner and Daschle is that they have been designated to fill such vital roles in the new administration that they're indispensable. If you believe healthcare reform is important, then there's a compelling public interest in seeing Daschle pushed through. On the one hand, it's a refreshing departure from the Bush appointments, where utterly unqualified hacks were appointed to run things like FEMA. Obama is making appointments on the basis of competence - no one is saying Geithner and Daschle aren't two of the top dogs in their respective fields.

But when you try to balance the competency argument with Obama's promise of a more ethical government, someone ends up flying ass-up off the seesaw. Of course, this is more of a political embarrassment than a substantive issue. It's got a big fat ironic red bow on it for Republicans who like to whine about tax-and-spend liberals. It also just makes people angry; it straddles the line between cozy and corrupt, depending on who you talk to.

Eventually, Tom Daschle will be confirmed, because Democrats have the votes and Daschle has the political capital. But Republicans will be making lots of loud noises in the process. If any of those loud noises include viable alternatives to his nomination though, I'll be very surprised.

"black no longer in the back"

I think that benediction said it all.



Proud to be an American,

The Bush has been Trimmed

This is a little bit after the fact, but I through that Bush's farewell address, like McCain's on election night, was a well rehearsed and dignifying closing moment for the controversial leader. Of particular interest were his points on having the "courage" to make the decisions he made and one final reinforcement of the idea that sometimes simply things come down to being "good versus evil."

Of course, a graceful goodbye does not justify past injustices, but it does put in to perspective how he sees himself, something I've always wondered about. Like Sarah Plain, the popular media defined his character (albeit entertainingly) for much of the population. Have we ever before been able to buy posters containing a list of misquotes by our Commander in Chief? I've seen small, barely forty page books entitled "Our Dumb President," complete with Bush wearing a dunce cap. With constant image readjustment readily available, how can we not think so little of him?

Don't get me wrong, much of the bashing was well deserved. But all the remarks about his policies and presentation only fueled my curiosity in his motives. Does Bush really view his willingness to make decisions as courageous? If he truly means it, why does he see the world in such black and white extremes? Oliver Stone suggests he ran for president after a religious revelation believing he was following God's orders. He further suggests that he was just the puppet of religious fanatics, oil, and the tag team of Cheney and Rove.

When Bush woke up each morning to a security briefing about threats to the United States, did he afterward take a shower, stare in the mirror, and wonder how God was going to tell him to deal with these threats? I hope not, not that it matters much now. But still, I do think Bush had considerable amounts of courage not to allow the United States to become isolated, thinking only of itself instead of world security. Obama brings the promise of finishing up what his predecessor started in a quick and clean manner. I hope after our presence in Iraq has diminished, Obama continues a policy of appropriately aggressive international relations. To wall ourselves off to the world would be just as bad as pretending it's not there. History will see where Bush lies; until then, Obama must use his popularity to reshape our image, with the same dignity that Bush left us on, not denying what has happened, but focusing on what we need to do.

SEMI-RELATED NOTE: Warren Zevon's song "The Envoy" looks at politics satirically as a super hero battle, the title character the president's right hand man who rights the wrongs of other nations. Maybe Bush had the album on his ipod.

Some nice, honest people, just trying to make a buck...

Hamas steals from aid trucks and sells to highest bidder. Way to keep your people alive. Although, it is smart, because it works doubly well. The poor people are without food and water and die and Israel looks like a shitty, anti-humanitarian kind of country, and Hamas makes money. Nice.


(click title for link)

Sunday Politics Round-Up

A few interesting things from around the net as we head into the last full week of the George W. Bush Administration. Whether you loved it or hated it, this is such an incredibly historic moment for so many reasons that everyone should take the next few seconds to reflect on it.........

• Maureen Dowd's NYT column is not very forgiving:

From Gaza to the unemployment figures to the $10.6 trillion debt, things keep spiraling while W. keeps fiddling. Just as when he was in the National Guard and didn’t bother to show up, now, as the scabrous consequences of his missteps shake the economy and the world, he doesn’t bother to show up. He’s checked out — spending his time on more than a dozen exit interviews that do nothing to change his image as a president who was over his head and under Cheney’s spell.

• Fred Barnes' piece in the Weekly Standard is so incredibly vacuous, I couldn't make it past the first page. It's a list of Bush's top 10 achievements. If you read it pretending it was written for David Letterman, it's actually quite funny.

• Finally, the new guy is interviewed on ABC.

What The Hell Do I Know?: Governor Patterson's iTax and the Islanders being sold to Toronto.

Follow this link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=53869903141&ref=ts

And if you don’t like to follow instructions, then just read this:

The iTax is a budget proposal made by Governor Patterson to put taxes on things ranging from beer to sporting events (follow the link for more details)
On the group, you can see a lot of political talk going back and forth amongst people too mad to type correctly but all I can say is although this sucks, lets not attack the guy.

Granted, this sucks, but I think I understand where he's coming from.
Albany is not getting enough tax money from the people and the money's gotta come from somewhere, so of course the first victims are going to be things that are considered luxuries such as sporting events, jewlery and other things listed in the link. But the problem is, those "luxuries" are things that could really jumpstart the economy. You just got to read people.

As stated, one of the things being taxed are tickets to sporting events. Governor Patterson clearly isn't into sports (and no, he wouldn't need to SEE games, there's the radio so that argument can be tossed); and seriously, to not be into sports in New York is like being married to a female supermodel and not like tits. Anyway, if he was, then he’d realize he’d be losing money taxing sporting events.

We got to ask ourselves: why do people go to sporting events? The same reason why people buy music, take their cars for a spin for the hell of it, or drink like fishes: to get away from the stupid ass taxes they’re paying already.

Do you know how much dough can be made on people trying to escape? Too much.
Heres what I’m thinking: lessen the prices of the tickets, sell the beer cheaper, and let people have their fun. Not only will this make people come back more frequently but if these guys have fun at the events, they’ll tell their friends (?) and other people will want to go. And then they’ll buy stuff and the kids will get soda cheaper, and everything else falls into place. The shit sells itself. Then, the state comes in and taxes the big companies for selling the products in New York, not affecting the product itself., like taking a cut from the beer companies and giving it to the state to fund schooling and health plans and the like. As far as the sporting locations go, same thing. Take more from the company itself, but not let it affect prices of tickets. If the tickets were the same price AND New York taxes the companies, that’d be ridiculous, but to sell more tickets to people who CAN buy more and you have a gold mine. I know they already have a property tax and other wacky taxes to go with it, but they dared to be here, let the state do it’s thing. Like I said, it will sell itself.

But what about the companies that won’t share their profits with the state? Fuck ‘em.
Really. What the hell are these companies going to do? Leave? Let ‘em.

Say Budweiser gets really upset with New York state, being they (the company itself) has to pay more to sell the beer there. If they leave, they’d be making a big mistake. New York City has a lot of people, and a lot of depressed people, at that. There’s money to be made there, my friend.

Maybe it’s a moral thing, too. To not go to the games itself, but to be home and watch them, or to not drink a lot of beer and get something else, but really, it’s not going to fly. It’s only because people are depressed and you can make money off depression.
Plus, if all this money we can shave off these companies can fund public venues and other needs more than they are already, people wouldn’t be so depressed.

This probably is in a lot of people’s heads already, or maybe I'm wrong (I welcome both, but I hope I'm on the right track).

So:
Tax the companies, leave the product alone.
People will buy them still, I swear.

Just a playful thought.
-Nick S

P.S- That picture I added is what I think about the Islanders being sold.

Israel-Palestine continued...

UPDATE: Rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanon this morning, raising the possibility of a second front in the ongoing conflict.

This is pretty much what I anticipated when I first argued that regardless of your personal allegiance, a reasonable and dispassionate observer has to doubt the strategic viability of Israel's approach. The fact that Israel may soon be fighting this war on two (or more) fronts is frightening. And even if Israel succeeds in Gaza, there is the real possibility that a power vacuum there will be filled by even more extremist Palestinian leadership (a la Al Queda) - making matters much, much worse.

It's cool to be pro-Israel. It's not cool to manifest your support by simply rejecting any argument that is remotely critical of Israel's defense policy. It's unfortunate that so many people would rather dig for half-truths and shitty arguments that support a preconceived conclusion instead of educating themselves on the issues and using that information to form more reasonable opinions. This, of course, applies equally to those who treat Israel like a completely unprovoked oppressor.

The bottom line: If you're so emotionally connected to Israel or Palestine that you can't see the big picture here: sit down and shut up.

A Different Jew's Perspective on the Israel-Palestine Conflict

Take an hour and watch this whole documentary. Although this was made in 2006, I find the information presented to be as relevant as ever with the current events taking place in Gaza.

Since I was brought here to spew Conservative Jewish propaganda....

Looks like Obama will be a great friend to Israel.





NYC Mayor knows what's up (the second one's from CNN because I know everyone here thinks FOXNEWS is the worst thing in the world. See the second Bloomberg link....6:05...Obama's quote about his children...very well put).

God Bless America
Am Yisrael Chai

Peace out, War in

That's it for News for Jews today

Obama's Thoughts

“If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing.”
-- Barack Obama

Downer Alert: Israel Attacks Hamas, Hamas Attacks Israel, Repeat.

Israel's recent incursion into Gaza has a lot of people wondering how to interpret the most recent spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence. The air assault is continuing, and the ground-game is coming any day now, so expect to hear a lot more about this in the coming weeks.

For the uninitiated, here's a brief history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The unfortunate trend in the US is for mindless (mostly Conservative...sorry) drones to cheerlead whatever course of action Israel takes because they're our allies, and anyone who supports the Palestinians is just pallin' around with terrorists.

Don't forget that Israel is a democratic country. Their policies are subject to deliberation and debate just like our own policies. That means if you disagree with their policies, you're not anti-Israel or anti-Semitic or pro-terrorism, you just...disagree with the policy.

Think about it. If criticizing Israel makes you anti-Israel, that would mean all Bush critics are anti-American, and all Obama critics must also be anti-American...which would make us a nation of anti-Americans?

In this case, invading Gaza may be counterproductive to Israel's long-term security. Hamas sucks. No question. But they're a militant wing of a huge oppressed group. Millions of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are barely surviving on a tiny piece of land and meager resources, and the Israeli attacks are killing hundreds of civilians and pushing millions to the brink of starvation. If Israel keeps pounding the shit out of them, it will push the moderate peace-minded Palestinians towards violence, out of the mere necessity of self-preservation. That's bad news for liberals, conservatives and moderates alike.

What do you think about the whole situation? How will Obama break from Bush in handling this mess?

Discuss...