Recent comments

  • Reply to: Handbook for Cyber-Dissidents   18 years 5 months ago
    I'm surprised CMD listed this story without letting its readers know the rather sordid links "Reporters without borders" maintains with the U.S. government and its attempts to destabilize Cuba, Venezuela & Haiti. Furthermore, its attempt to "borrow" the legitimacy of "Doctors without borders" via its name make it a perfect example of government propaganda masquerading as independent, non-partisan dissidence. Not what I would characterize as "citizen's journalism." Sincerely, Simon Enoch Department of Communication & Culture Ryerson University Toronto, ON Canada
  • Reply to: Never Whoosh A Spook!   18 years 5 months ago
    Thanks Kerri - yes heard that it came up. Will add Hansard links in to when I get a moment. Bob
  • Reply to: Never Whoosh A Spook!   18 years 5 months ago
    Hi Bob Senator Bob Brown laid it as bare and raw as he could in the Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee Estimates hearing yesterday in the Federal Australian Parliament. http://margokingston.typepad.com/harry_version_2/2005/11/asio_questioned.html#more has published the transcript though it doesn't really answer why the spooks were spooked by Scott.
  • Reply to: Is That "Anti-war Left" or "Anti-gay Right"?   18 years 5 months ago

    This soldier was from my town, and it really pisses me off that anyone would do that at a soldier's funeral! We have a small dedicated peace movement here and they were accused because of that sina kurva Sean Hannity. I hear of any protest here and I KNEW it wasn't any peace group locally. Then I hear it's those 'Rvd' Phelps people! Unfortunately since most Americans are not familiar with Islamist extremist propaganda the way I am, they do not realize the similarities between it and extreme fundamentalist Christian views.
    The ignorance of American fundamentalist Christians about doctrine, the true teachings of Jesus and the true history of the Church knows no end.
    The duplicity of it's money grubbing leadership knows no bounds. Too bad we can't put the Islamist Extremists and the Extreme Chrisian Fundamentalists onto a large island no one cares about and have like some sort of televised cage match.
    Sean Hanitty makes me want to break people and kill things anyway. I wondered what the local source of this evil rumor was.

    We have very little variety in English language media. It's in three catagories ClearChannel owned C&W stations an oldies ClearChannel owned station, loudmouth rightwing AM station, and a semi left but not too left really FM rock station both also owned by ClearChannel, then there is NPR. So there is bland objectivity, which I usually opt for, and the other option is Spanish language media which ClearChannel is trying hard to buy up.

    I listen to Shoutcast anymore since I can't stand hour upon hour of bad rock, bad rap, bad C&W music, classical, or jazz bores me at this point, and I can only take so much rightwing political harangue. I would feel the SAME way if it was exclusively leftwing political harangue for the same length of time dureing the day. I want variety and variety is no longer possible in English language radio broadcasting in the Yakim Valley, perhaps it's totally not possible in the whole of Eastern Washington.
    I was told at school one of the bad things about the old Soviet Union was lack of choice and that the availability of choice in all matters of life was a mark of a free country like the United States. Maybe it was sort of true then but it sure isn't true now. I'm old enough to remember the change.

    Oh by the way any God who wants someone's death for not minding the rules is a God who should be on a terror watch list...seriously... would you let someone like that on an airplane? I would not let these Christian fundamentalist extremists on a plane or a bus anymore than I'd let Al Qaida on a plane or a bus.

    The reason those fanatics from 'Rvd' Phelp's church came to protest was that they heard this soldier was gay. The man has a son who is also serveing in Iraq.

    I am not in support of the war, but it really makes me angry that this man and his family would be disrespected in such a disgusting manner. I think it was even more disgusting of Sean Hannity to deliberately misattribute the demonstrators and further that he did not appologize for this defamation of legitimate and sensitive people of our Valley who are working for peace. Every one of them is at pains to be decent toward soldiers and their families, and to state they respect the soldiers themselves and want to be of help to the ones who return wounded in body and mind.

  • Reply to: Still Doctoring the Facts   18 years 5 months ago

    According to [http://www.prweek.com/us/news/article/524515|PR Week], Ross and ACSH have [http://www.acsh.org/news/newsID.1213/news_detail.asp|responded to the report], admitting that Ross spent time in prison for defrauding Medicaid, but questioning the motives of Mother Jones for reporting it. "The folks who attacked me in this piece are trying to attack our message by going through me," Ross said. "All our ideas are based on sound science. I don't think they will succeed." And ACSH responded by calling Mother Jones a "fringe magazine."

    Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ACSH response is the admission by Elizabeth Whelan that she knew Ross was a felon when she hired him:

    Needless to say, I was stunned. I inquired about the offense involved (fearing that it was some aspect of quackery), and he asked if he could visit ACSH to meet me and outline the details in person.

    I mentioned to a few staffers and friends the facts about Dr. Ross's circumstances and his forthcoming visit. The response was mostly negative, with most arguing "it would be bad for ACSH to bring on someone with a criminal record." I remonstrated that before I rejected his application, I wanted to get the facts -- and judge his credibility and honesty for myself.

    Evidently for Whelan, "quackery" (meaning disagreement with ACSH's pro-pesticide, pro-junk food, pro-chemical industry arguments on health issues) is a worse crime than working for a scam clinic that submits false medical reports to the government to defraud taxpayers.

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