In the last two days I saw the C-SPAN coverage of the "FCC Hearings on Media Ownership," and also a video clip of William Kristol of PNAC fame speaking at the University of Texas at Austin.
What these had in common is that the crowd seemed on the verge of arresting the speakers at the events. The feel of unbridled revolutionary rage was palpable. I was transfixed, it was more dramatic than the best Hollywood political intrigue film. I was riveted to see the passion, the rage bursting from these audiences at speakers who they feel are stealing their democracy.
The FCC hearing began with guild leadership making powerful statements about how diversity of thought is being squeezed out of entertainment in America. Some addressing the FCC hit on the tight constriction of media news as well. The crowd responded with clapping hands, stomping feet, and "amens" all around.
The intensity of the event built until one woman spoke to the FCC and said, "We are tired of the same corporate media who controls almost all of what we hear and see, the same people who profit off the wars we get fooled in to. This is the same thought control the Nazis inacted to gain power. Today you at the FCC have the ability to go down in history as facilitating the end of our democracy, or of standing to preserve it and break up these media monopolies." The crowd exploded in applause. Speaker after speaker came DEMANDING that the media waves of America be given back to the people, rather than a few greedy "media pigs" in the words of one woman addressing the FCC.
Then another treat for anyone who loves democracy in America, was William Kristol, the conservative newsman, who also was part of The Project for a New American Century, commonly known as PNAC (pee-nack)'s comeuppance at the University of Texas at Austin. The crowd again and again attacked Kristol as a perpetrator of the attacks of 9/11 along with other "traitors" (as the crowd referred to them) in the Bush Administration that were complicit in the attacks of 9/11 as well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ov8nJ1lOa8
Kristol was humiliated, when time and time again the crowd called him "liar," "criminal," "traitor," again and again and again. One man challenged Kristol on PNAC's desire for a "new Pearl Harbor" as was described in one of their plans for America's future written before Bush became president. When the moderator told the man to be quiet or leave, the man replied, "Oh, okay. Let the traitor speak. Go ahead traitor."
A young Marine Corporal named Grant Collins, now back from Iraq POWERFULLY explains his feeling of betrayal for the war, and how his life is now dedicated to ending this war. When the hundred thousand soldiers in Iraq being fed Rush Limbaugh, and FOX News, get back and discover that Bush has admitted that "Iraq had NOTHING to do with 9/11," an angry bear will be awakening in these troops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lneZdNKa18A
The revolutionary fervor seeming to explode from many corners of society on so many levels. Americans are becoming aroused. The sleeping giant seems to be awakening.
I do believe the Democrats are destined to gain power next month. The only thing that will prevent this, I believe, is electronic voting machines that have no paper trail. I worked on the Kerry campaign in 2004. He was winning the race according to the exit polls. But, then . . . . later in the day the key precincts defied the exit polls, and went mysteriously to Bush. If the exit polls next month show Democrats, but the elections show Republicans . . . we know our democracy has been stolen. Absent this, it appears the Republicans are losing power in the Congress next month.
Of course if the American media were really doing its job, the GOP would not get one single vote. Yesterday someone emailed me a stunning documentary that was to be carried on the Discovery Channel, before Republicans killed it and ordered all copies destroyed. You can see a "rough draft" version of this stunning documentary on GOP sex slave scandals at the below link. I know what you are thinking, "sex slaves", sounds like some loony conspiracy theory. Among those testifying in this documentary is William Colby, former Director of the CIA. This documentary is no joke, and its censorship is a scandal and a shame of gargantuan proportions. See it at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4946110250157218995&q=Conspiracy
Once the Democrats gain some power, the struggle is only beginning. The next step is to create a movement to kick the Democrats in the ass. If the Democrats don't break up these media monsters feeding us propaganda, break up the oil, coal, and nuclear monopoly on our energy policy, and repair the civil liberties that have been stripped this year, then . . . they do us no good. The Democrats need a swift kick in the pants to get them started. They need to wake up every morning with a million emails and phone messages demanding that they do their jobs. The media needs to get a million emails to know we are sick of the status quo, and want them to do real investigative journalism to save our democracy.
We must demand the Democrats (AND the media) do their job. This is why we've launched "CONGRATULATIONS DEMOCRATS, NOW DO YOUR JOB!" Learn more about this movement at http://www.CongratulationsDemocratsNowDoYourJob.com. Please visit this site daily and use its Democrats and Media contacts and demands. Forward and post this link on to everyone you can every day. Our democracy depends on it.
You may contact Mr. Douglas at findtruth40@hotmail.com Reprint permission for this article is granted. You may publish it anywhere and everywhere.
By William E. Douglas, Jr., who is author of "The Amateur Parent – A Book on Life, Death, War & Peace, and Everything Else in the Universe." Bill has been a guest columnist for the Kansas City Star, The Business Journal, and other media worldwide. His past essays include, "Exposing the 9/11 Conspiracy Wingnuts," "The Explosion of the 9-11 Truth Movement -- US Media's Dirty Little Secret," "Good Night, and Good Luck - WMD, NIST, Popular Mechanics, 9/11 and Media Crimes" and also "Why the Jewish Community Should Demand 9/11 Truth."
Good point. The Democrats certainly seem willing to do nothing in Congress if elected, so long as they have power. That's why shamefaced two-timer traitors like Lieberman who got his when the winds had changed, need to go.
by
Dean Powers (100 articles, 7 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 54 comments)
on Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 10:29:26 PM
But....there just might be a teensy weensy problem here. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, we can recall governors, but not Congressmembers. The only way they can be removed is if Congress removes them. In other words, once they're elected, the only way they can be forced to leave is if they remove themselves.
So once they're elected, we have no power over them. They get a million letters from us, and one visit from a single lobbyist for a multi-billion dollar corporation, and which one do you think gets their attention? They can get a million letters and phone calls a day saying that we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more, but they'll just get a bunch more unpaid college interns to handle the increased phone calls and mail while they jet off to play golf with the lobbyists.
Yes, I know that Nancy Pelosi, if the Democrats get a majority and Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House, has promised on "Day One" to "break the links between lobbyists and legislation." But you're asking people to vote against their own stock portfolios here, and even if you could get it through the House, it would never pass the Senate, not even with a Democratic majority. And if it did, Bush would veto it. And no Democrat currently in Congress is willing to try to impeach Bush. Not Pelosi, not Feingold, and not even Conyers. They've been happily working with the Bush administration for six years now, and they're doing very well, thank you very much.
As for the newbies, it looks like Dr. Robert Bowman may be elected and he's no lightweight. But this could be "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," all over again, only in reality, not a movie, with a lot more corruption than in the movie, and no filibuster allowed.
We do have one, and only one bit of leverage. It isn't elections, though. Read, "Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, An American Political Tradition -- 1742-2004," by Tracy Campbell. From George Washington to George Bush, this country may never have seen an honest election and it doesn't take electronic voting machines to rig elections, it just takes political party machines. The only leverage we have is economic.
The political parties can rig the elections, but they still need our campaign contributions. I'm not sure what they need them for, since they seem to retain most of the money in party and personal political war chests, but they believe that they need millions of our dollars to fund the mail, phone, and TV fundraisers they need in order to ask us to send them more money. But that's only around election time. The rest of the time they depend on the big-money corporations.
The question is if they can survive solely with defense industry funding. Because everything else comes from us. We buy the cars, the gas to put in the cars, the energy to light and heat our homes and run our appliances, the products that they used to pay us to manufacture but have now been outsourced to China, etc. The only money they have that we do not control is our tax money, which they use mostly for no-bid war-profiteering defense contracts. Everything else we have some discretion over.
So if five or ten million people tell their Congressional representatives to get rid of the media monopoly, nothing is likely to happen. But if the same five or ten million people say, "If this doesn't happen within 30 days, I am cancelling my cable TV subscription," the defense contractors that own the media would make sure it happened. Do the math. I don't have cable TV, but I think the cost averages to about $50 a month for most people. Ten million times $50 is half a billion dollars a month. And there are, right now, at least ten million people in this country who want a new, full, impartial investigation into 9/11.
Demands have to be accompanied by finite reasons for complying with them. We're not going to have a revolution, we're not going to take hostages, we can't recall elected officials, so the only leverage we have is our combined buying power. Please consider accompanying all demands with specific actions if the demands are not met. It means explaining to people that we might have to go for a month or two without cable TV in order to regain control of the media. Only if enough people think such a sacrifice is worth it will a demand be met.
The same with everything else. What happened to the electric car? Dear Congressmember: If this demand is not complied with within the next 30 days, I will stop driving my car and not buy gas until my demand is met.
That's much harder. It takes the kind of sacrifice we saw in the Montgomerey bus boycott during the Civil Rights Movement. People would have to find ways to use public transportation and not everyone could. But if people understand the potential savings in the long run, it might be possible.
Congresscritters are used to getting kicked around. If you want action, you have to hit them where it really hurts -- in the pocketbooks and wallets of the big corporations that own them.
by
Mark E. Smith (20 articles, 26 quicklinks, 63 diaries, 763 comments)
on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 4:01:13 AM
Well, I think the above person's threat of boycott is fascin
Well, I think the above person's threat of boycott is fascinating.
I'm just not sure why he's telling everyone not to pressure Democrats and media, by taking all of 3 minutes in the morning using the "11 Key Demands" and the email lists at CongratulationsDemocratsNOWdoYourJob.com
It always bugs me when someone has a good idea, but rather than just saying their good idea, they feel compelled to try to get other ideas cast away as crap.
Folks, cynicism is our main problem. Put pressure on the media and Democrats to make the "11 Key Demands" part of our political reality.
Urge everyone you know to go to CongratulationsDemocratsNOWdoYourJob.com
by
Bill Douglas (68 articles, 2 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 434 comments)
on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 7:44:31 AM
I not only did not tell people NOT to join you, I joined your action group myself!
But I also explained why letter and phone calls alone will not work, and suggested that you add something to your action calls that will elicit action.
Your refusal to consider that, coupled with your mischaracterization of what I wrote, which is here for everyone to see, makes me wonder if your real motive is not to effect change at all, but to fool people into thinking they are doing something while Congress gets a free pass for a couple more years to continue destroying this country.
You came up with an excellent idea. I support it. I joined in. I have recommended it to others. But I've also pointed out how to make it effective, and you not only rejected that suggestion out of hand, but you mischaracterized what I'd said in order to do so.
Millions of Democrats have been emailing and phoning their Democratic representatives for the past six years, begging, pleading, and even demanding that they stand up and oppose the Republican agenda. Millions of us have done it in organized ways through groups like Move On and Common Cause, while also doing it on our own initiative and in concert with smaller groups. And we've had no effect whatsoever on the way Congress votes. The Republicans have gotten everything they wanted passed, and the Democrats have either stood idly by doing nothing, or voted to support the Republicans.
Perhaps you have not been one of us. Perhaps you have been too apathic and uninvolved to have been phoning, writing, emailing, and personally visiting your Democratic Representatives constantly for the past six years as we have, so you really don't know that it doesn't work. I hope you don't have too steep a learning curve, and that when you finally learn the truth, you will consider my suggestion.
by
Mark E. Smith (20 articles, 26 quicklinks, 63 diaries, 763 comments)
on Friday, October 13, 2006 at 2:38:42 PM
The issue (or rather answer) is about the Democrats putting traditional "poll picking waffling" aside and instead taking a substantive position (on anything - as a start) and then in the heat of Republican diversionary criticism, mustering the intestinal fortitude to run with it - i.e. conviction.
They can make a lot (ton) of hay with that.
This OpEd piece suggests one way of starting anew:
