MSM Wankery Redux

This is a good segue into MSM wankery staring with: I'll bet you weren't aware how vitriolic and relentless the Democrats are. And while all the media talk has been about how those crazy Dems want to do nothing but spend money there's this from Senate Republican Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) who insisted on Sunday that Congress should extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans regardless of their impact on the deficit, even as he and other Republicans are blocking unemployment insurance extensions over deficit concerns. Will the media report it? Will the deluded teaparty types notice?


Media Matters chronicles how stories go from Fox news (no matter how inane or insane) to the MSM. In effect they create news and oft times a whole series of news cycles. Rush picks up on one of those stories and proves he's a pig.

Climate Change suggests two scientists could just as well be called Ocean Change. The oceans are choking on greenhouse gases. Our emissions are changing ocean temperature, pH and circulation with wide-ranging effects on biological productivity and ecosystem health. These are among the conclusions of five review articles published in a special feature on the oceans in a recent issue of Science magazine. Go read the whole thing.

A story that should make everyone sit up and take notice, Lake Superior 20 degrees F warmer than normal for this time of year - that's massive!

Even though the Treasury Department estimates that ending the subsidies to bigoil would decrease domestic oil production by less than one half of one percent, an amendment proposed by Bernie Sanders (I-VT) that would have cut $35 billion in tax subsidies to big oil companies, failed to pass, losing 61-35. Every GOP Senator voted against the measure. The good people over at the Wonk Room explain why and how they continue to get away with this.

Democrats try and unite under a single banner to counter teaparty politics, demanding all the change they voted for.

The Oceans and Climate Science

On this morning's radio show the focus was climate change and the current state of our oceans and their general health. Starting with a story from Science Daily about a newly published report in the latest issue of the journal Science that evaluates the total impact of  climate change, carbon dioxide, pollution and other human-related phenomena on the world's oceans. Scott C. Doney's paper represents a meticulous compilation of the work of others as well as his own research in this area, which includes ocean acidification, climate change, and the global carbon cycle. An important read if you are trying to understand all the factors in play.

Another study published in Science magazine on Friday concurs saying, the world's oceans are virtually choking on rising greenhouse gases, destroying marine ecosystems and breaking down the food chain... The changes could have dire consequences for hundreds of millions of people around the globe who rely on oceans for their livelihoods. The oceans are interconnected of course and included in that study is information about how the temperatures of polar oceans are connected to temperatures in the tropics. Essentially what the study states is that a continued rise in global temperatures could lead to a permanent state of 'El Niño' which would lead to yet more warming, and by the way, the likelihood of increased episodes of extreme weather. The consequences of these changes are too numerous to list but even MSM wankers Time Magazine, have noted some of them - cute penguin alert.

Lastly for your perusal, a diary from Dailykos with news on actions Obama has taken to stem the tide of Mountain Top Removal (MTR) permits issued in the US that is the beginning of the end to the sleazy days of the Bush/Cheney admin allowing polluting corporations to ignore the rule of law. There's also a host of assorted green related news stories.

Soylent Green

 

I can remember being a kid and watching the film about a future dystopia, "Soylent Green," and thinking it quaint. I don't get that same sense of kitschy fun now when I view it. Characters portrayed by Charlton Heston and Edward G. Robinson live in a world where complete desertification has taken over the planet, destroyed the environment, and the inhabitants live a hard-scrabble life in a world completely depleted of all its' wonders and natural resources. It's (quite famously and literally) a dog eat dog world.

Today, as I busy myself posting the news links to stories I covered on my radio show, stories that are not getting enough MSM coverage because the medias are far too busy focusing on fake scandals like Obama using the word "ass," I find myself thinking of that fictional world. (My only problem with Obama's use of that word is that he did not direct it those truly responsible for the continuing disaster in the Gulf and those who really lower the level of discourse, especially when it comes to policy and politics.) Anyhow, as I continue following the nightmarish stories that are coming out of the Gulf while those on the right continue to push for an end to the moratorium on drilling, I see nothing but people blind to the real potential of this disaster in concert with everything else that is taking place around the globe. So much so that an entertainment I once regarded as a B-movie fantasy now seems prophetic and frightening.

Listen to how short-sighted and ignorant this man sounds now in the light of what's taking place:

Bigtime Roundup

There's nothing like taking a couple of days off to help you fall behind!

I'm going to start with the story that actually kept me from blogging Friday and Saturday: I checked in late and the first story the blogosphere brought to my attention was this ghastly story out of Arizona courtesy of Wonkette:

From the Arizona Republic:


A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school. The project’s leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children’s ethnicity ….


R.E. Wall, director of Prescott’s Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town’s most prominent intersections.


“We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars,” Wall said. “We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics).”

Happily the story doesn't end there. By weekend's end the man leading the campaign against the multi-ethnic mural, Steve Blair, had been fired from his talk radio show and they were no longer changing the color of the children's faces in the mural. Maybe the moral of the story is I really should have more faith in humanity.

While we're on the subject of raging Republican racists let's not forget this idiot, South Carolina State. Sen. Jake Knotts, who said, "We got a raghead in Washington; we don't need one in South Carolina." Classy!

Okely-dokely, don't stop me if you think you've heard this one before: BP spills 500,000 lbs of toxic chemicals at Texas plant where 15 people died in 2005. BP, always willing to prove they have their priorities straight, have purchased several phrases on search engines such as Google and Yahoo so that the first result that shows up directs information seekers to the company's official website. Aren't they awesome?

Some Republican shills say things so stupid that it's hard to know exactly what to say about them - with others, it's pretty cut and dried, "We give you money, you say nice things about us or nothing at all!"



Climate Progress has the complete story about how the Bush/Cheney administration enabled the mess in the Gulf that we are currently witnessing. It's a sad tale of tax breaks for coal, oil and gas and nuclear energy corps, and non-stop cuts for renewable energy programs.

Consequences of Climate Change: Ocean acidification.

Right-wingers complain that homophobes are always portrayed as mean and bullying on TV. Not enough happy-go-lucky hate-filled people on your box! While we're on the subject of whiny Republicans, here's House Minority leader John Boehner crying because Paul McCartney made fun of Bush's intelligence, or lack thereof, and demanding an apology. Coincidentally it was on the same day that Bush declared waterboarding (although illegal) was awesome!

One of the more ridiculous media memes out there week, "Bitch-slap us please Mr. President!"