Friday, October 09, 2009

Q Tips


NPR related comments welcomed.

23 comments:

geoff said...

All right, I haven't seen that one before. Rioting rioters wielding genormous q-clubs. D'you suppose they could ever hope to clear the murkin ear?

Kevan Smith said...

That's the right wing nuts storming the Nobel castle. I believe Inskeep is prominent in the foreground.

larry, dfh said...

Spent alot of time behind the wheel on Friday, so I got to hear part of Altogether Terrible Commentary. They ran a piece by john ydstie about the tumbling dollar, and he had some jackass talking about the huge budget deficit, and how we needed to curb Social Security to rectify the problem. Not a single mention of a billion a day for the DoD, or a billion a day for war supplementals, or the trillions handed over to the banksters. Not a peep about the last two Treasury Bond auctions where the Fed had to buy 50% of the bonds (and print $$ to cover the purchases), and the fact that absolutely NOBODY was buying long-term bonds. No, the problem was a self-sufficient (or nearly so) social support system.
These neo-lib creeps really make my skin crawl. Is ydstie adam davidson's stupider brother?
And following right behind was the charming eleanor beardsley with her cultured and highly worked oooh so genteel southern accent. She was on a jag because some arrogant Frenchies were aghast that the Louvre was wanting to put in a mcdonald's. Her voice dripped with such sardonie that

joan kroc
would have been proud. But I guess those subtle conflicts of interest don't make it to the ombuttsman's inbox.
Npr: fox news, sans sean hannity.

big!pink!fuzzy!who'sonfirst! said...

^ "Abbuuuuuuuuut!!"

macon d said...

Love the angry-mob image. Now THERE'S a revolution that won't be televised.

Anonymous said...

That must be World War III, which as Einstein said, will be fought with Q tips.

Johnson & Johnson had better stock up (especially if they want their stock up)

Anonymous said...

She [Ellenor Beardedlady] was on a jag because some arrogant Frenchies were aghast that the Louvre was wanting to put in a mcdonald's."

Freedom fries Ueber alles!

Anonymous said...

Someone (?) asked if NPR pays attention to sites like this. I don't know about that but . . . has anyone else noted that comments at NPR.org were able to be linked to FaceBook accounts . . . for about a month. Then suddenly, no linkage. I think it is because NPR realized that linking to FaceBook was "problematic". It took me a very long time to "discover" this site and the good work done by MyT. And I looked (skills are not the best lol) for something like this and eventually tried to start my own (skills are still not the best).

Linking to FaceBook allowed us to "reach" more people and that is a threat to NPR at the highest levels. They realize what they are "about" and how they accomplish their core mission which is: existing as a propaganda outlet for managing the rising anxiety (some say down-right panic) among the American managing /middle&upper classes.

My guess is that there are a lot of people "out there" that share similar views for similar reasons but have no idea that anything like this site exists. So, drop the auto linking to FaceBook.

Congrats to all of you that do what many can not bring themselves to do: Point out that the Emporer has no clothes.

edk

Anonymous said...

I have found this:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=12609&post=75005&uid=153137507379#post75005

edk

Anonymous said...

That's the right wing nuts storming the Nobel castle. I believe Inskeep is prominent in the foreground."

..with right wing nut Naomi Klein right next to him, right?

From NPR as it was originally envisioned (aka Democracy Now!)

Naomi Klein:

"This is supposed to be a prize that rewards concrete behavior, concrete action. And there are many people out there in the world who were under consideration for this prize, who every day perform acts that are taken at enormous risk for concrete benefit. I mean, I think that one of the people—one of the names under consideration this year was Dr. Mukwege in the Congo, in the DRC. This is somebody who is under personal threat because he is saving the lives of women every day who have been violently raped. And giving the prize to Dr. Mukwege—and I’m just giving one example—would have been such a concrete victory and encouragement for that action. It would have put pressure on the United States to take action, on the international community to take action, for the women of the Congo. And instead of that, we have this very, very political decision, and in many ways it’s like a pat on the head for good behavior or the hope of good behavior, because actually we’ve seen a lot of bad behavior..."

The Nobel committee awarded this prize once before in the name of "hopeful [naive?] thinking": to Arafat, Rabin and Perez.

...and we all know how well that worked out.

As everyone who has ever worked with a 3 year old knows, you don't give them the reward before they do what you want them to do and yes, most of our "leaders" behave like 3 year olds (or is it 2?) so should be treated accordingly.

Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...

Awarding the Peace Prize to Obama is equivalent to awarding the Chemistry Prize to a College Freshman on the basis of their high-school grades and their freshman lab notes...

geoff said...

Woody, yeah, except that you're really pulling for a brilliant post-doc research result because, hey, the fate of the planet hangs in the balance.

Anonymous said...

Oh the irony of it all:

In the am Obama claims he isn't worthy of a peace prize but has to be sure to get to the pm meeting to discuss continued occupation of Afghanistan (with the idea of expansion into Pakistan).

edk

Anonymous said...

I'd a gree with the first part but not the second

and their freshman lab notes..."

We've seen some of the results to Obama's freshman chem lab experiments.

Glenn Greenwald showed them to us.

And what is most disgusting of all is that the Democratic party is now using the very same tactic that Bush used to smear anyone who criticizes the award of the Nobel to Obama (and any other criticism of him): "You are either with Obama or you are with the terrorists".

I can only assume that Rahm "Rove" Emanuel is behind this.


I tell you, if these folks want my vote in 2010 or 2012, they are doing precisely the wrong thing.

I find such behavior absolutely disgusting.

geoff said...

I tell you, if these folks want my vote in 2010 or 2012, they are doing precisely the wrong thing.

I know it's contemptably pompous and inexcusably wiggy, but I voted for Cynthia McKinney (albeit, knowing the O. would win CA.) In retrospect, I might have voted for her anyway.

larry, dfh said...

gope, yeah me too. Only I'm from DE, so there was no doubt about the result. What really surprised me is the number of people who didn;t know who she was, educated people, too. They know green, because it's a color, I guess, but they seemed to have never heard her name before.

Anonymous said...

I think Obama just had his character tested...

...and he failed, miserably.

Anyone with real character would have declined the award by saying something like:

"Thank you, but I am not deserving. Perhaps later on, if I have actually done something for humanity that is worthy of this award, I might accept it, but not until..."

Obama said the part about not being worthy, but then went on to accept the award on behalf of Joe the Plumber and all the other people in the world. What utter nonsense.

This one act -- his acceptance of an award that he CLEARLY has not earned -- told us more about Obama's character (or lack thereof) than anything else he has ever said or done.

And the way the Democratic party is painting everyone who criticizes Obama's acceptance as terrorists tells us about the total absence of character in any of our Democratic leaders.

The way this was handled is totally lacking in character and class, and it seems to me that this is going to have a very negative effect on most people.

larry, dfh said...

Sunday morning on whatever the weekend 'news' show is called: it was the usual in unababshed health care distortion. We got to hear that the 'public option' was "troublesome", and thus not worth pursuing. And we got to hear from bill frist (No Progressive Responses), about how much we need health care reform like that from the finance committee, because it is sooo bipartisan (and sooo heavily favors his family's HMO). It was non-stop typical npr rope-a-dope; nothing of substance, nothing of value, just wasting time until the next commercial or fundraising break: playing out the clock, so the public gets nothing and the sponsors everything. But most of all, keeping the 'intelligent' public docile and certainly not uneasy about the future creaming they certainly will get. These so-called reporters, and these senior correspondents, and the whole lot are just script-readers, and lousy ones at that. Their advertisers load the juke box with their selections, and the 'host' just pushes the 'play' button.

Benoit Balz said...

Woke up to some nice Pentagon PR propaganda yet again today:

Fort Carson Quietly Mourns War Deaths
by JEFF BRADY 10/11/2009

"At a Fort Carson press conference on Wednesday, military leaders said service members in the affected unit were keeping their spirits up, because they knew their dead colleagues helped to win that particular battle."

(Wait, didn't the US abandon the outpost after that fiasco - where other accounts had them pegged as "sitting ducks"?)

"There were a lot of heroes on that day," said Maj. Daniel Chandler, commander for the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team Rear Detachment. "They're really rallying around themselves and morale in the 4th Brigade Combat Team is high and it's getting stronger." Huh?

What are we being fed by NPR here?

No context, no criticism. More propaganda. Not to mention the other puff-piece about wounded vets surfing away their pain (both physical and mental) in San Diego...

geoff said...

Thanks, Benoit. That Fort Carson story was just god-awful. Some brain-dead nudnik stands out in a field by a helicopter with a hallmark sentiment "thank you" sign. And gets to pose the mind-numbingly stupid question, "Are we going to win this war on terror or not?" The "reporter" Jeff Brady is as smooth as an unwrinkled cerebellum.

Brady discovered NPR while running his own country grocery store outside the small town of Central Point, Oregon, for five-and-a-half years before college. "Customers often wanted to discuss current events. It was interesting, but I didn't know much. So I started reading the paper and listening to NPR to learn more," says Brady.

Hey, I got a clue for you Jeff: you still don't know much. Never mind that this propaganda phrase was invented "to justify unilateral preemptive war, human rights abuses and other violations of international law." (wiki) Since this Brady fellow is so utterly clueless, I'll offer another: war is terror.

The picture of the 8 soldiers from Fort Carson who died in this absurd "war" (occupation) is sobering, but it doesn not prompt the question of win/lose, rather it prompts the question of whether our leader have the courage to stop doing this really stupid thing, despite the really stupid propaganda of NPR.

Anonymous said...

Where th f..k have NPR "reporters" like Julie Rovner been living for the past year?

On Pluto?

Rovner thinks NPR has made a major discovery: that "Most people don't feel that they personally have a voice in this [health care] debate,"

Oh, Reilly?

Ya think, Julie? (you f...ing nitwit)

"a new poll by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health finds that, so far, the public feels profoundly shut out of the current health overhaul debate."

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry when I hear stuff like that.

Anonymous said...

I love this part of that Rovner piece:

"Another challenge, says Bob Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health, is who the public does not blame — doctors, hospitals and patients themselves. Many experts say those are the groups most guilty of overusing the health care system. "

Ah, yes, that omniscient fellow "Many Experts" has again weighed in.

It's all the fault of the doctors and patients. If only the damned patients would not get sick so often and the damned doctors would not try to make them better when they do, there would be no problem!

Rovner continues with her idiocy:
" According to the poll, the public is focused on the insurance and pharmaceutical industry. And they very much think government is part of the problem."

Perhaps that is because the insurance companies and big pharma ARE the problem -- and our government IS also a major part of problem because members of Congress continue to rig th system for the latter groups.

Rovner did quote one "expert who made sense, though:

"people are not focused on, 'Is something wrong with the delivery system?'" Blendon said."

Blendon got that right: The "delivery system is all f...ed up, mainstream news delivery system, including NPR, that is.

Anonymous said...

I met Jeff Brady twice. He's a mousy little twerp; looks and acts just like he sounds on air. Thus, he is perfect for NPR, to counterbalance the pro-war, DC-press secretaries NPR has covering the military and intelligence beats; DoD, FBI, CIA, etc. Since NPR gets advertising money from the DHS, why don't they rate their own NPR flak? Just wondering...