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The Temptations - Aint Too Proud To Beg
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News and Opinion
From Glenn Greenwald's new Q&A sessions at The Guardian:
Glenn Greenwald's reader Q&A:
the highlights
On Thursday, Glenn Greenwald took questions from his readers in a live Q&A. Here are some of the highlights
Are you surprised by the reactions of the American media establishment to Obama's inaugural speech? – HLB Engineering
I found the reactions to that Inaugural ritual creepy and depressing for two reasons:
(1) I can't believe how reflexively and reliably many progressives cheer for Obama's speeches and pretend that they signify anything substantive given how many times he's said things that had no bearing on what he does. I do agree speeches on their own can be important - that's the power of ideas I referenced above - but viewing one of Obama's speeches as reflective of his actual intent is the consummate case of Lucy and the football.
(2) This has been the case for a couple decades now, but everything about the inaugural festivities reeks of empire and royalty. It's pure Versailles - so gaudy and overwrought. It's particularly gross when the country is suffering so much financially. But that's precisely when people love their monarchs and royal families - it gives them a fantastical escape.
But the police state created in DC, and the marching and dancing troupes that parade before the waving Leader, and the ecstasy over his presence, are really unhealthy. The one exception was the 2008 inauguration - electing the first black president was something really worth celebrating given the country's history with race - but everything else is wretched. I had to ignore it.
Political leaders really aren't meant to be revered. It's unhealthy and dangerous.
[ ... ]
What do you think it will take for the US media to cover all aspects of a story, do proper investigations, and not just prop up whatever administration is in the White House? – Robert Rizzuto
That's not going to happen. That's not their business model. I gave up on that goal a long time ago. Developing alternatives to that - using the internet and other forms of developing new media - is the only real way that will happen.
Of course some isolated journalists even at establishment venues do this already. And it's sometimes possible to infiltrate those venues and do it. But as a general proposition, establishment media exists to support the establishment, not to challenge it.
Major ISPs set to implement ‘six strikes’ online piracy program
A new voluntary system aimed at rooting out online copyright piracy using a controversial “six strikes” system is set to be implemented by US Internet providers soon, with the impact unclear.
The program was created with the music and film industry and the largest Internet firms, with some prodding by US government.
The system had been set to take effect late last year but was delayed until early 2013 by the Center for Copyright Information, the entity created to manage the program.
[...]
Participating in the program are the five largest broadband Internet providers — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T, Cablevision and Verizon — covering some 85 percent of US residential customers.
Lesser said the program should be launched “very soon” after some technical issues are worked out, but offered no date.
Sundance film seeks to show real Bin Laden ‘Manhunt’
While Hollywood-style Osama bin Laden manhunt movie “Zero Dark Thirty” has garnered controversy and awards, a lower-profile film seeks to tell the real story of finding the Al Qaeda chief.
“Manhunt”, a documentary by US director Greg Barker, was presented at the Sundance Film Festival this week, days after Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow’s dramatization won best actress Golden Globe for Jessica Chastain.
In meticulous detail, including thorough interviews with ex-CIA agents, it traces the two-decade hunt — one before 9/11 and one after — that led to the Abbottabad, Pakistan hideout where Bin Laden was killed on May 1, 2011.
The film, produced by American television channel HBO, is one of the most highly-anticipated at America’s biggest independent movie festival in the snowy mountains of Utah.
[...]
“I was aware they were doing the film, but there was no contact whatsoever. I kept this project very quiet, because of all the controversies around that movie going way back,” he told a small group of journalists at Sundance.
“I just thought the less I say about what we are doing, the better.”
McConnell, fundraising on Harry Reid's refusal to reform the filibuster, claims that Pres. Obama is furious. But Obama publicly praised the non-reform. So who knows? It makes his somewhat ambitious inauguration speech a non-starter. Not that I expected that he meant to do the things he speechified about anyway, but now that the Democrats in the Senate refuse to govern, it's pretty much a certainty.
‘We Beat The Liberals’: McConnell Campaign Brags About Defeating Filibuster Reform
The email, subject line “We Beat the Liberals,” bragged that President Obama was “furious” after liberal senators and left-wing groups failed to pass their “dangerous scheme” to break down the checks and balances in the Senate.
“You see, they had been pushing a plan to end the filibuster, allowing Harry Reid and the Obama Democrats to pass their agenda with a simple majority,” wrote Jesse Benton, McConnell’s campaign manager. “Well, Mitch McConnell stood strong and stopped that scheme dead in its tracks.”
Blog Posts and Tweets of Interest
Evening Blues
the temptations-just my imagination
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