We Speak For Earth
Greece opened its first purpose-built detention centre for illegal migrants on Sunday in Athens, a week before a national election where illegal immigration has emerged as a key issue.
About 130,000 immigrants cross the country’s porous sea and land borders every year, the vast majority via Turkey, and the authorities are forced to release those who are arrested because of a lack of permanent housing.
With Greece in its fifth year of recession and worries over rising crime levels, illegal immigration has become a major issue in the run up of the May 6 election.
The once-obscure far-right Golden Dawn, which wants to deport all immigrants, is among the parties that has benefitted most from the mood among voters, and is expected to win its first seats in parliament.
Greece’s ruling Socialist PASOK and conservative rival New Democracy parties have also pledged to crack down on immigration to try to win over voters.
On Sunday, the first 56 immigrants were brought to the Amygdaleza detention camp in western Athens, a police official said. Dozens more are expected at the camp in the next few days, which can house up to 1,000 people, the official said.
Amygdaleza is the first of about 50 camps that Greek officials say will be built by mid-2013. It consists of dozens of containers that were originally set up to house people hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes.
“We are sending a message in every direction that the country is not unfenced anymore,” Civil Protection Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis said at a rally in Athens.
April 2012
Stephen Colbert (via sociolab)
Colbert nails it, as usual.
The image of federal agents on downtown streets far from McCormick Place — in battle gear, weapons slung — three weeks before the summit is certain to have a chilling effect on those who live and work in the Loop. It also calls into question Host Committee Executive Director Lori Healey’s oft-repeated message that Chicago will remain “open for business” during the summit.
On Thursday, Healey found herself in the difficult position of having to convince the public that a scary headline that blindsided even her is not an indication that the feds are bracing for weeks of trouble.
“A lot of us were surprised to read that. Obviously, the federal government doesn’t consult with the city when they do this. Everybody was unaware of this,” she said.
“It’s common practice for the federal government to have protection around their own buildings. Everybody plans extensively … for lots of different events. This is just getting an undue amount of attention. I would guarantee you they do it for all sorts of events. It’s just that they decided to publicly release it.”
Asked whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel was also blindsided by the Red Zone decision, City Hall offered a one-line response.
“This was a security decision and we were not involved,” the mayor’s communications director Sarah Hamilton wrote in an email to the Sun-Times.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported this week that the plan for “Operation Red Zone” kicks into high gear next week to protect a vast area in the Loop where thousands of federal employees and dozens of government offices are located.
The Federal Protective Service will deploy additional personnel beginning May 1, bringing in more people from out of town and outfitting them in “battle dress uniform.” They will be carrying “non-lethal” long guns — bean bag weapons — in a show of force that at the same time will allow people to move in and out of the zone freely, federal employees were told.
Healey called the news “a little bit distracting,” but not alarming. She stressed that the protective bubble was being created by the “landlord” for government buildings — not by the intelligence arm of the federal government.
The U.S. Secret Service plans to release its logistics plan — including specific boundaries of the security perimeter around McCormick Place — next week, she said. That’s when all the speculation about the inconvenience to everyday life in Chicago will finally be put to rest.
Is it a violation of the FCC rules for the TV Media to knowingly falsify a news report. And if so what rule is that? Thank you
Anonymous
The Communications Act of 1934 created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and provided the basis for how it works. It is a violation of the Act for broadcast media to knowingly falsify a news report. The FCC may penalize broadcasters for doing so.
However, another important goal of the Act was to protect free speech. So, the FCC must have real proof that the broadcaster lied on purpose before it can take action. An example of this kind of evidence might be sworn testimony from “insiders” with direct personal knowledge of an intentional falsification of the news. That’s a high bar, but Congress’s intention was to make it very hard for the government to intimidate or control broadcasters.
USA.gov’s tumblr addresses a GREAT freaking question (here)… for some reason, it’s not rebloggable - So I just copy/pasted it.
Now, it’d be interesting to look at our current rules, compare them to former legislation (like the “fairness doctrine”), and to perhaps consider other ways of evaluating ill intent - or ill consequence - by news corporations (e.g. that their viewers are somehow much more ignorant of certain topics than the rest of the news). Maybe News Corporations could be graded by taking those evaluations into consideration. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a “B” or “A+” or “D” when certain news shows start-up, which would inform viewers to be wary of its objectivity and accuracy?
I wonder if any News Corporations come to mind…
Oh, and let’s fix that reblog glitch by reblogging the hell out of this. Let’s raise this issue - cause there’s no reason why people shouldn’t discuss how to improve the accuracy of information fed to the public as “fair and balanced” news.
Screengrab via the flag-waving Fox Nation
SFist’s photos of a messier-than-usualaftermath at Fort Mason last Saturday got the right wingers frothing at the mouth, apparently. After the story was picked up by the Huffington Post, conservative bloggers from the Gateway Pundit and Fox Nation seized the opportunity to repurpose a couple photos along with an entirely fabricated story pinning the blame on Earth Day partiers and “Green Activists.” Here’s how the story appeared on Fox Nation:
Green Activists Trash Park on Earth Day
Happy Earthday everybody! This was the scene at Fort Mason park in San Francisco after Earth Day activists were through partying ….CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS
The click-through link leads you right to our original post. In case you were wondering where the scores of Tea Party commenterscame from. Meanwhile, over at Gateway Pundit, they’ve got even more headshaking for San Francisco, which if these folks are to be believed is a city 100% composed of irresponsible and hypocritical Green Activists (emphasis, theirs):
It Figures… Green Activists Completely Trash Park on Earth Day
Leftists will be leftists…
It doesn’t matter if they’re at an inauguration or an annual event praising Mom Earth, they will trash the place and expect YOU to pick up after them.And this was on Earth Day. Unreal.
To set the record straight here, the people partying on Fort Mason Green last Saturday would hardly identify themselves as part of any particular group that promoted anything other than getting drunk on cheap beer. There was no organized Earth Day celebration, and (perhaps more to the point) the partying occurred on April 21st. Which would be the day before Earth Day, for those keeping score at home.
This kind of blatant fabrication has become something of a trademark move for Fox News and News Corp in general, who seem to base much of their reporting on making outrageous claims and hoping no one calls them out on it. Why, just this morning Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy admitted that he made up part of an Obama quote, so it would sound like a dig at Mitt Romney. And climate scientists recently called out the News Corp-owned Wall Street Journal for printing BS about global warming.
Anyhow, should readers find themselves in need of a wildly incorrect interpretation of Saturday’s park mess, you can find it right here in Fox Nation’s “Culture” section. Stuck between alarmist reports of Mad Cow Disease in California, Victoria’s Secret photo shoots, and a picture of the “World’s Perfect Face.” [Spoiler Alert: It’s a white person!]
fox news / newscorp twisting facts and fabricating stories? Noooooo way.
There’s never been a more vital time for us all to become involved and create a movement to bring us along the way in standing up against the evisceration of the rule of law, the evisceration of our civil liberties and civil rights, the evisceration of human rights, the warmongering, the caving in to Wall Street, and the military industrial complex.
I know we hear a lot about how we shouldn’t support the alternative parties and their candidates because the lesser of two evils, Barack Obama, who I consider to be the more effective of two evils because when he acts, the Democratic Party falls in line and they don’t stand up against things like the most subversive and anti-American act ever: the National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the President to kidnap citizens, put us away indefinitely for the rest of our lives, without charges, without trial, without legal representation, and without habeas corpus. I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, that was not the United States of America.
We cannot allow this ramped up, imperial presidency to continue any longer.
Please support Rocky on AE and reblog this if you are not content with Obama’s betrayal of progressive values.
News organizations cultivate a reputation for demanding transparency, whether by suing for access to government documents, dispatching camera crews to the doorsteps of recalcitrant politicians, or editorializing in favor of open government.
But now many of the country’s biggest media companies — which own dozens of newspapers and TV news operations — are flexing their muscle in Washington in a fight against a government initiative to increase transparency of political spending.
The List
• News Corporation, which owns the Wall Street Journal and Fox News
• Walt Disney, which owns ABC News and ESPN
• NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast and includes NBC News
• Allbritton, which owns several TV stations and Politico
• Gannett Broadcasting, a division of Gannett, which owns USA Today
• Post-Newsweek Stations, the broadcast division of the Washington Post Company
• Belo Corp, which owns 20 TV stations
• Cox Media Group, which owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Austin American-Statesman, and other newspapers and TV stations
• Dispatch Broadcast Group, which owns Ohio and Indiana TV stations
• Barrington Broadcasting, which owns several TV stations around the country
• The EW Scripps Company, which owns TV stations and newspapers including the Commercial Appeal in Memphis
• Hearst Television Inc, which owns 29 TV stations
• Raycom Media, which owns TV stations
• Schurz Communications, which owns TV Stations and newspapers around the country
Civilized society looks in horror at many of the terrible deeds of the past, like torture and lynchings. At the time though, it was fairly well accepted - even if people suspected that it wasn’t the most civilized way to behave.
I wonder how bullies will feel 20 years from now. I’m talking about those kids who break down a classmate’s self-esteem to the point of depression and possibly suicide. I’m talking about the kids who know what they’re doing - and are proud of it. What will they think of themselves in 20 years when, hopefully, we’ll look at such behavior as simply barbarous.
Will they hate themselves for what they did? Will they try to repress it? Will they work to help others as a form of restitution? Or might they just not give a damn?
Injustice like that really upsets me.
p.s. :(
This tool tells you how many dollars went to each part of the federal budget.
A few months ago, an alternative currency was introduced in the Greek port city of Volos. It was a grass-roots initiative that has since grown into a network of more than 800 members, in a community struggling to afford items in euros during a deepening financial crisis.
The handicrafts stall at Volos central market lies at the end, just past the homemade jams. After perusing what there is on offer, Hara Soldatou picks out a set of decorated candles, delighted with her purchase. “They cost me 24 TEM, which I built up by offering yoga classes,” she says.
Wherever you wander through the market area, one thing you won’t need in your pocket is money.
From jewellery to food, electrical parts to clothes, everything here is on sale through a local alternative currency called TEM.
It works as an exchange system. If you have goods or services to offer, you gain credit, with one euro equivalent to one TEM.
You can then use your “savings” to buy whatever else is being offered through the network, leading to some rather original exchanges of goods.
It’s all reminiscent of an ancient bartering system returning to today’s Greece.
“I can get language classes or computer lessons in return”, says Stavros Ntentos from his stall where he sells children’s underwear.
“It’s a very good idea because we need to make people realise we can all buy and sell something; we don’t only need euros.”
“We have reached the bottom of our lives and we now have to think in a different way,” says Tasos, a vegetable-seller.
This is a really interesting idea. Click for the rest of the article.
Step aside, AT&T and Verizon. A new privacy-protecting Internet service and telephone provider still in the planning stages could become the ACLU’s dream and the FBI’s worst nightmare.
Nick Merrill, who challenged a demand from the FBI for user data, wants to create the world’s first Internet provider designed to be surveillance-resistant.
Merrill is in the unique position of being the first ISP exec to fight back against the Patriot Act’s expanded police powers — and win.
