6th annual Michael Moore festival: A success for all of Michigan and the film industry
More than 106, 000 viewers reveled in the exotic, interesting, unique, and independent films presented by Michael Moore and the Traverse City Film Festival in 2010! Besides such wonderful films as NOWHERE BOY (the story of John Lennon’s coming of age as a teenage rocker maverick); THE INFIDEL ( the hilarious comic presentation of a Muslim family man who discovers his biological Jewish roots from adoption records); and THE IRANIAN COOKBOOK ( a documentary which reveals the constant cooking of the Iranian mothers and wives for Ramadan), film viewers were transfixed by the magic of the filmmaking world, its directors, writers, and performers.
They cannot shackle the truth, gag those who speak it, or blind us from seeing it...
"Truth lives a wretched life, but always survives a lie." --Anonymous
Last night, Bite Club of KC canvassed two heavily trafficked night spots in Kansas City, educating thousands of people about the University of Kansas Medical Center’s fraudulent waste of millions of our taxpayer dollars (which they attain via National Institute of Health grants) on fraudulent research AND about the abject cruelty (as evidence by the 160 violations of animal welfare laws for which the USDA cited them) that KU Med inflicts upon primates.
We distributed over 200 copies of this article by SAEN’s Michael Budkie which references publicly available summaries of animal abuse, as documented by KU Med’s own employees in federally required logs about their “patients.” A vast percentage of those members of the public who engaged us were outraged by the primate vivisection program at KU Med and stated they would help us shut them down any way they could.
Last night, Bite Club of KC canvassed two heavily trafficked night spots in Kansas City, educating thousands of people about the University of Kansas Medical Center’s fraudulent waste of millions of our taxpayer dollars (which they attain via National Institute of Health grants) on fraudulent research AND about the abject cruelty (as evidence by the 160 violations of animal welfare laws for which the USDA cited them) that KU Med inflicts upon primates.
We distributed over 200 copies of this article by SAEN’s Michael Budkie which references publicly available summaries of animal abuse, as documented by KU Med’s own employees in federally required logs about their “patients.” A vast percentage of those members of the public who engaged us were outraged by the primate vivisection program at KU Med and stated they would help us shut them down any way they could.
Let's give country reason to celebrate
Barack Obama comes home this week to celebrate his birthday, and to visit a Ford plant that has begun hiring again, aided by federal loan guarantees for clean energy production. Although Ford wasn't bailed out, it is part of an auto industry saved by the president's bold decision -- a decision that is paying off as the restructured companies are turning a profit and putting people back to work.
The auto company rescue was unpopular when President Bush first made the decision to intervene -- so that his successor could make his own choice. It was unpopular when Obama decided to rescue the companies, with an arranged bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler forcing restructuring. It is unpopular to this day. But it has worked. And it saved an estimated million jobs that would likely have been lost if the auto industry had been allowed to fail.
That success was the result of bold action. And now we need more bold action to help Chicago, Illinois and the nation -- which seem perilously close to turning back toward recession.
The auto company rescue was unpopular when President Bush first made the decision to intervene -- so that his successor could make his own choice. It was unpopular when Obama decided to rescue the companies, with an arranged bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler forcing restructuring. It is unpopular to this day. But it has worked. And it saved an estimated million jobs that would likely have been lost if the auto industry had been allowed to fail.
That success was the result of bold action. And now we need more bold action to help Chicago, Illinois and the nation -- which seem perilously close to turning back toward recession.
The next war
“I’m going to be killing people. I’m actually joining the Marines and will be doing this in real life.”
War springs eternal. Compare the words of the 18-year-old boy quoted above by Philadelphia radio station WRTI, as he was wielding a pretend machinegun at a video-game parlor/Army recruiting center at a Philly shopping mall, with those of two neocons, Charles Robb and Charles Wald (retired senator and general, respectively), writing last month in the Washington Post:
“We cannot afford to wait indefinitely to determine the effectiveness of diplomacy and sanctions. . . . Instead, the administration needs to expand its approach and make clear to the Iranian regime and the American people: If diplomatic and economic pressures do not compel Iran to terminate its nuclear program, the U.S. military has the capability and is prepared to launch an effective, targeted strike on Tehran’s nuclear and supporting military facilities.”
War springs eternal. Compare the words of the 18-year-old boy quoted above by Philadelphia radio station WRTI, as he was wielding a pretend machinegun at a video-game parlor/Army recruiting center at a Philly shopping mall, with those of two neocons, Charles Robb and Charles Wald (retired senator and general, respectively), writing last month in the Washington Post:
“We cannot afford to wait indefinitely to determine the effectiveness of diplomacy and sanctions. . . . Instead, the administration needs to expand its approach and make clear to the Iranian regime and the American people: If diplomatic and economic pressures do not compel Iran to terminate its nuclear program, the U.S. military has the capability and is prepared to launch an effective, targeted strike on Tehran’s nuclear and supporting military facilities.”
Moss versus machines: On the fifth anniversary of the death of election protection activist Bill Moss, news reports easy hacking of ATM machines and hence, electronic voting machines
It is fitting on the fifth anniversary of the death of Bill Moss, lead plaintiff in the legendary Moss v. Bush 2004 lawsuit in Ohio, that the Associated Press is admitting the easy hackability of Diebold machines.
“A hacker has discovered a way to force ATMs to disgorge their cash by hijacking the computers inside them,” reads the AP lead.
The AP goes on to warn that, “The attacks demonstrated last week targeted stand-alone ATMs. But they could potentially could be used against the ATMs operated by mainstream banks.”
What the Associated Press and corporate for-profit media fail to report is that Diebold, one of the world’s leading ATM hardware and sofware providers, also manufactures electronic voting machines with similar problems.
The similarities between hacking a Diebold ATM and a Diebold/Premier election machine are startling. For example, the hacker, Barnaby Jack, Director of Security Testing for Seattle based IOActive, Inc., stated “Every ATM I’ve looked at, I’ve been able to find a flaw in. It’s a scary thing.”
It’s even scarier that all major studies of electronic voting machines have found the same flaws.
“A hacker has discovered a way to force ATMs to disgorge their cash by hijacking the computers inside them,” reads the AP lead.
The AP goes on to warn that, “The attacks demonstrated last week targeted stand-alone ATMs. But they could potentially could be used against the ATMs operated by mainstream banks.”
What the Associated Press and corporate for-profit media fail to report is that Diebold, one of the world’s leading ATM hardware and sofware providers, also manufactures electronic voting machines with similar problems.
The similarities between hacking a Diebold ATM and a Diebold/Premier election machine are startling. For example, the hacker, Barnaby Jack, Director of Security Testing for Seattle based IOActive, Inc., stated “Every ATM I’ve looked at, I’ve been able to find a flaw in. It’s a scary thing.”
It’s even scarier that all major studies of electronic voting machines have found the same flaws.
Afghan War Leaks Expose Costly, Deceitful March of Folly
The brutality and fecklessness of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan have been laid bare in an indisputable way just days before the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on whether to throw $33.5 billion more into the Afghan quagmire, when that money is badly needed at home.
On Sunday, the Web site Wikileaks posted 75,000 reports written mostly by U.S. forces in Afghanistan during a six-year period from January 2004 to December 2009. The authenticity of the material published under the title "Afghan War Diaries" is not in doubt.
The New York Times, which received an embargoed version of the documents from Wikileaks, devoted six pages of its Monday editions to several articles on the disclosures, which reveal how the Afghan War slid into its current morass while the Bush administration concentrated U.S. military efforts on Iraq.
On Sunday, the Web site Wikileaks posted 75,000 reports written mostly by U.S. forces in Afghanistan during a six-year period from January 2004 to December 2009. The authenticity of the material published under the title "Afghan War Diaries" is not in doubt.
The New York Times, which received an embargoed version of the documents from Wikileaks, devoted six pages of its Monday editions to several articles on the disclosures, which reveal how the Afghan War slid into its current morass while the Bush administration concentrated U.S. military efforts on Iraq.