Media, Politics and Global Warming

There is a link between what needs to be done to address global warming, current political realities and the impending threat to the internet. There are solutions folks are offering. One is still on the internet: information.

I would not have known about the efforts from Japan to re-establish whaling if it were not for the internet. That effort has been pushed back < ">http://tinyurl.com/hg5de> but it has not died.

That particular battle has illustrated to me that we are in a war. I am not referring to the Iraq war. I mean a global war to make "1984" the reality of this globe- at least until global warming swamps us. And how close we already are. I believe that each of us, as international citizens of the earth, has the duty to fight back with the legal means we still can control. It helps me, to name this situation: a war. That clarifies to me why I have have been feeling desperate urgency since 2000 and why I have been feeling depressed and exhausted by the constant efforts needed to protect what rights this precious planet deserves.

I already have chronic fatigue syndrome so when I say I am exhausted from all this, I really mean it.

Part of the resistance to this war is inherent in the practice of ecological art. Many who are not artists are also using the internet for that, as http://tinyurl.com/ezgsl.

But I think we can also consider doing more.

On Larry King last week, Al Gore, in response to a question from a caller about what can be done about global warming, replied that every listener should call every elected official, from the lowest on up and start hammering at them to address the issue immediately. He also, in another context, commented that he had always spoken of global warming but the media refused to cover it.

I have been watching link tv.

Reporter Amy Goodman was on exhorting people to be aware of the danger of the media push now to privatize the internet. The push is coming from the same consortium of Bush family relatives and friends, inc Rupert Murdoch, et al, who have brought us to the current state of affairs. Diebold and Bass how control 80% of the voting machines. They are owned by die hard Bush supporters who have already amply demonstrated their disregard for the rule of law.


Linktv is are offering "Orwell Rolls in His Grave", for sale. The price, $400. Includes support of the channel. It occurs to me that this might be purchased by individual teachers & libraries for students. The channel has been showing a series of documentaries about the use of media for political manipulation and commercial profit, the systematic destruction of democracy since the Reagan administration, for example by rescinding the fair use doctrine in the media and the Rupert Murdoch/Fox News tactics that parallel the work of Goebells at the service of totalitarianism Fascism.

Those tactics include persistent intimidation & ridicule of the opposition, deliberate censorship & disinformation (a la Exxon Mobil) and media self-censorship to sustain commercial support.
Another guest was Greg Palast.

Figures on the 2000 and 2004 elections in this country are analyzed in the new book by Greg Palast, investigative reporter for the BBC, in his new book, "Armed Madness". His conclusions include that Jeb Bush deliberately purged 57 000 black voters 6 mons before the 2000 elections and he has the paperwork to prove it. He asserts that the media refused to run the stories when he offered the proof. 12% of black district votes registered errors that disqualified them vs 2% in white districts in the Florida count. The reasons included were faulty machines and lack of air conditioning which caused malfunctions.

Palast concludes that the answer is to resist MORE and get out even more voters.