Recent comments

  • Reply to: Countdown to Beijing   18 years 7 months ago
    The People's Republic of China has a lot of work to do in the area of human rights and political freedoms, and it makes sense to hold their policies up to the same scrutiny as their presentation of the Olympics will attract. But treating Falun Gong as the litmus test of a free society is an error that journalists in the west continue to make year after year. Downloading and studying the books of the Falun Dafa movement (Falun Gong is the practise of their beliefs) makes it clear that F.G. is nothing more than a mish-mash of traditional Chinese practises for spiritual and physical health combined with a cult of personality centered around the founder Li Hongzhi. Readers of the books are repeatedly informed of Li's paranormal powers, and the material strongly emphasizes that the supposed benefits of Falun Dafa are not available to a diligent practitioner working in isolation, they can only be conferred by Li Hongzhi or one of his authorized associates, in person. This is akin to a pop psychologist renaming self-esteem as 'magic love' and saying that only they can transfer it into your mind by means of a secret process. Don't take my word for it: read the Faulun Dafa movement's own material and decide for yourself whether it is spirituality or snake oil. Falun Dafa is essentially a marketing concepts designed to sell books and seminars to a credulous public. By gathering together a mass of traditional (and free) Chinese knowledge about the cultivation of mental and physical health, and re-branding it as a paranormal breakthrough, the originators and managers of the Falun Dafa movement have simply found a way to encourage the Chinese public to pay for something they could have learned for free at the library. The same organization which promotes Falun Dafa also publishes a 'newspaper' called 'The Epoch Times', which spends less time reporting news than pointing out the deficiencies of the Chinese Communist Party. While this is a perfectly legitimate publishing activity, one must wonder whether the goal is to bring about change in China or simply collect advertising revenue from the large community of Chinese expatriates. I practise a martial art myself and found the Falun Dafa material particularly offensive because it subverts centuries-worth of public domain knowledge for the private profit of a few individuals, playing upon the credulity of the Chinese population. Reprinting fulminations about the BOCOG's use of a public relations firm without addressing the fact that Falun Gong is itself a creation of clever PR is shoddy journalism. It's ironic that CMD & PR Watch is giving a backhanded endorsement to a movement that is itself a marketing tool masquerading as a grassroots movement. I am not affiliated with the government of China, the Olympics, or any PR firms of any kind.
  • Reply to: Democratic Disconnect on Iraq   18 years 7 months ago
    We can stop the war in Iraq by boycotting the defense contractor General Electric corporation. I want each and every person who wants to stop the War in Iraq to contact the defense contractor General Electric. Go to http://www.ge.com and send them email to the effect that you have decided not to buy any GE products including Ovens, stoves, refrigerators, light bulbs, televisions, radios, telephones, video recorders, dvd recorders and players, etc. UNTIL their company executives get the President of the United States aka THE CHIMP to hold a press conference announcing that he will withdraw all US Troops from Iraq, to get replaced by UN troops to defend Iraq until Iraq troops can defend their own country. In addition to sending email from the web site you can make these demands of GE through their public relations officials. Please act polite when contacting them. Gary Sheffer Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs (203) 373-3476 gary.sheffer@ge.com Peter O'Toole Director, Public Relations (203) 373-2547 peter.o'toole@ge.com Yes his name's really Peter O'Toole but Bush appeared the one Lying in Winter about the Iraq war. When we join together and withhold our purchases from some targeted Republican contributors we can wield power that will force the executives of these Republican contributors to go to the Republican party do our agenda. Now, the agenda written below does not address everything but you can choose a big company that gives aid and comfort to the Republican Party and demand that their executives get the Republican Party to do what you want. You can excercise this power every day and you can get other people to join and exercise this power every day. What company executive would want thousands of people demanding a set of progressive agenda, every day with a legal threat of losing your business? Join me and I promise you a peaceful revolution. No need to go out in the streets, no need for first amendment zones, no arrests. You create a no buy zone for some selected Republican contributors such as Walmart, etc. Join me, please. A political message from the Revolution for progressive legislation. Here's how we force congress to pass a progressive agenda. Companies do not like boycotts. I suggest you email these demands to Walmart, Wendy's, Outback Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Curves for Women health clubs, each big Republican contributors. Also include Eckerd, CVS, and Walgreens Pharmacy chains. You can send this to other companies as well. Send this email to your friends and to others on political mailing lists. Thank you. Send this text in email or fax to a company you can afford to boycott which either heavily supports Republicans or should know better that we need progressive legislative change. We demand that your company executives get the Republican Party to hold a press conference and accede to these demands and then finally legislate and sign these into law. Until such a press conference happens and the legislation gets passed I will boycott your products. We demand that the Republican party end their aggressive and hateful action to end a woman's right to choose abortion or not. We demand the resignation of Tom Delay. We demand that the United States withdraw from Iraq. We demand that the Congress of the United states and the president of the United States enact a law to increase the minimum wage to TEN dollars an hour and also to extend unemployment benefits for all people whose unemployment benefits expired after 6 months even though they still seek work. We also demand that the Congress of the United States to not privatize social security benefits in any form including taking a percentage of the social security tax and placing it in private accounts. People can already create their own pensions with money after taxes in the private sector. We also demand that the congress make all of a person's earned income taxable for social security FICA tax purposes and remove the 88,000 dollar salary cap. This will make social security solvent for many years to come. We demand the congress increase the payroll tax in order to make social security solvent as well. We also demand congress and the president enact a prescription drug benefit under Medicare Part B which covers 80 percent of medication cost, with no extra premium, no extra deductibles, no means test and no coverage gaps, and no penalties for signing up in a succeeding year.. We also call for the complete repeal of the faulty Medicare law HR 1 / S 1 passed by congress in Nov 2003. We also demand vote by mail throughout the United States of America. This will prevent Republicans from vote suppression by skin color which happened electronicly and in person in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Demand that your state implement vote by mail with ballots easy to fill out and difficult to change or invalidate by Republican Party officials. We demand Civil servants on every state payroll should keep track of voter registrations and vote counting of mail in votes in each precinct and not companies such as Choicepoint. We need to take the Republican Party out of the business of keeping track of voter registration and counting votes. We demand States ban the secretary of state from engaging in politics especially acting as a campaign official for a presidential campaign. ______________________________________________________________________________ We do this in the spirit of peaceful resistance to a congress that refuses to enact this legislation If you don't support what the Republicans did since they took over the House of Representatives in 1995 and don't support the Republican party's plans for this year then Join the revolution for progressive legislation and sign the petition at http://www.boycott-republicans.com HIT REPUBLICAN CONTRIBUTORS IN THEIR WALLETS !! Write this url on your one, five and ten dollar bills in the white areas in Pencil. -------------------- To each person reading this if you agree with my message please tell your friends and have them tell their friends. We can stop the war in Iraq by boycotting the defense contractor General Electric corporation. I want each and every person who wants to stop the War in Iraq to contact the defense contractor General Electric. Go to http://www.ge.com and send them email to the effect that you have decided not to buy any GE products including Ovens, stoves, refrigerators, light bulbs, televisions, radios, telephones, video recorders, dvd recorders and players, etc. UNTIL their company executives get the President of the United States aka THE CHIMP to hold a press conference announcing that he will withdraw all US Troops from Iraq, to get replaced by UN troops to defend Iraq until Iraq troops can defend their own country. In addition to sending email from the web site you can make these demands of GE through their public relations officials. Please act polite when contacting them. Gary Sheffer Executive Director, Communications and Public Affairs (203) 373-3476 gary.sheffer@ge.com Peter O'Toole Director, Public Relations (203) 373-2547 peter.o'toole@ge.com Yes his name's really Peter O'Toole but Bush appeared the one Lying in Winter about the Iraq war. Join the revolution for progressive legislation http://www.boycott-republicans.com progressive activism group on myspace. http://groups.myspace.com/revolutionforprogressivelegislation my web log http://www.campusprogress.org/page/community/blog/maximus Liberal America forum. http://www.network54.com/Forum/259017 http://www.cafepress.com/revolution09 The Revolution for progressive legislation podcast For the complete list of podcasts look here http://savefile.com/projects/330309
  • Reply to: If You Pay Them, They Will Blog   18 years 7 months ago
    Hey, Stonyfield Farm, I love your new organic vanilla smoothies! Keep eschewing that damned RBGH! Inulin is a great touch, my nails really do grow stronger. I can't remember if you are the company that boasts happy cows or not, but the cows' well being is VERY important to me. (Too bad you had to sell out to Dannon, haven't forgiven them for offensive anti positive body image commercials they did in the 80's) If they are going to pay serious $ for blogging, where does one sign up for a few bucks for a quick endorsement or two?
  • Reply to: e-Qaeda   18 years 7 months ago
    Note that if the web became the ultimate tool for recruiting "born again muslims", it also turned into a media battlefield between terrorists : leaders sometimes praise each other but most of the time, different groups are competing for audience / brand recognition (ie the indecent race after each terror attack). ______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________
  • Reply to: Liberal Money   18 years 7 months ago
    The 2004 campaign showed fundraising was one thing, thinking an other and succeeding yet another. The difference was made at the county level. On this topic, another article can be found in the Brainwash Post ("Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks" - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080600848.html). Since it was dated August the 6th, I guess it inspired the Guardian. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Stephane MOT - http://www.stephanemot.com ______________________________________________________________________________________

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