Greanville’s Tweetios—
A People’s Press Release Service: Please pass this on, share it, tweet it, do whatever you can to expose these frauds. It’s the only way we can neutralize and push back the 1%’s lies.

In this release packet:

• Commentary and propaganda alert by Patrice Greanville
• Video exhibits showing the work of CSNY, backing Andrew Cuomo’s conservative agenda
• Video from Strong Economy for all, denouncing these TV ads
• Excerpts from The Daily News and The New York Times

Andrew Cuomo (Photo: Pat Arnow)

By Patrice Greanville, TGP
The bankruptcy of the Democratic party brand is eloquently demonstrated by the career and current course of Andrew Cuomo, New York State’s Governor. Part of a latter-day generation of Republican-lite Democrats, whose pro-business policies are often indistinguishable in substance from Republican colleagues, Cuomo is currently ubiquitously supported by an astroturf coalition of business groups going by the name of Committee to Save New York (CSNY, aka “Let’s Fix Albany Coalition”).  Despite the usual misleading publirelationese moniker, the evidence that Cuomo is playing for the plutocracy is writ large. It literally pours out of many channels.

Headlined The Daily News, a pro-business newspaper based in Manhattan which frequently postures as a champion of the “littlke guy”:

The Committee to Save New York spent $12 million to lobby Gov. Cuomo’s agenda

Report finds the amount to lobby Albany last year was highest in the state

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo had the biggest-spending special interest group on his side last year.

The Committee to Save New York — a collection of business and labor leaders formed to support Gov. Cuomo’s legislative agenda — spent $11.9 million to lobby Albany last year, the highest in the state, a Joint Committee on Public Ethics report found.

Cuomo has repeatedly complained about the impact special interest groups — especially public employee unions — have on Albany lawmakers.

“The Committee to Save New York was clearly in response to the money coming in from the traditional special interest groups,” said Dick Dadey, executive director of Citizens Union. “It was trying to add another voice but in doing so it became another special interest group.”

Committee spokesman Mike McKeon defended the spending.

“This demonstrates our ongoing commitment to fight for reforms in Albany and to ensure the progress continues,” McKeon said in a statement.

The committee’s spending was part of a record $220 million spent on lobbying in 2011. The previous record was $213 million set in 2010.

(See also in the addenda the New York Times’ coverage of the same news.)

It should be noted that while The Daily News dispatch gives some details about this issue, it does so in the usual Orwellian fashion utilized by US media, now so routine as to provoke infrequent complaints. As can be seen above, this approach deliberately confuses the issues and the players to such an extent as to be well nigh useless to the public.  Thus the “fight for reform” in this framing is actually the shady maneuvering to preserve a rotten status quo or make it worse, if possible. As well, labor is obliquely alluded to as some sort of insidious —if not sinister— and mysteriously powerful “special interest group”, an outright lie since business easily outguns labor in spending and political power. Furthermore, the objective interests of working people, by far the overwhelming segment in any society, can’t be at loggerheads with the wishes and health of society at large.  It’s for that reason that, despite occasional flaws flowing from cases of corrupt business unionism, by and large labor demands usually reflect the public interest.

Summation

A DLC/Clinton Democrat brandishing the kind of demagoguery that speaks and sounds cautiously progressive while implementing outright conservative policies—a template shared by Jerry Brown in California, among others— Cuomo’s recent career ⁽¹⁾ in many ways resembles Obama’s and is equally untrustworthy. It’s clear the man’s ambitions run high, as the Cuomos evidently position themselves to become a mini-dynasty ready to fill the Kennedys’ spot in the Democrats’ pantheon of power players.

Caveat emptor!

—Patrice Greanville is editor in chief of The Greanville Post.

_______________________________________________________________________________

¶

ADVERT PRO NOBIS

IF YOU CAN’T SEND A DONATION, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, AND YOU THINK THIS PUBLICATION IS WORTH SUPPORTING, AT LEAST HELP THE GREANVILLE POST EXPAND ITS INFLUENCE BY MENTIONING IT TO YOUR FRIENDS VIA TWEET OR OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS! We are in a battle of communications with entrenched enemies that won’t stop until this world is destroyed and our remaining democratic rights stamped out. Only mass education and mobilization can stop this process.

It’s really up to you. Do your part while you can. •••

Donating? Use PayPal via the button below.

THANK YOU.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

By Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America

Limbaugh: A piece of shit with few peers

firestorm that rages around his program as corporate America turns its back on the AM talker in the wake of his ugly, invasive, three-day smear campaign against Sandra Fluke, Limbaugh boasted he had thwarted the left-wing attack and they were the ones “shell shocked” at the turn of events.

nonpaid public service announcements on behalf of the United Negro College Fund and New York Office of Emergency Management. That’s because WABC didn’t feel comfortable putting lots of advertisers on Limbaugh’s show, which up and down Madison Avenue had become poisonous in this wake of his misogynistic Fluke debacle.  

How fitting.

by news that advertisers are requesting Limbaugh’s affiliated stations provide “Rush-free programming grids” so sponsors can verify that their brands aren’t appearing on his show.  

talk radio consultant, tells Media Matters. He says Premiere’s startling advertising move “suggests things are worse than we know.”

parent company, Clear Channel. A conservative-friendly media behemoth with a soft spot for right-wing radio, Clear Channel continuesto struggle not only with a depleted radio audience as more and more consumers migrate away from the AM/FM dial, but it’s also sagging under the weight of massive debt.

From a Forbes report, earlier this year:

told the New York Times that the advertising action had only cost the company $1 million per week in lost revenue, stressing the pain to the company’s bottom line has been minimal. The source also suggested the company is simply taking advertisers who want off Limbaugh’s show and finding spots for them on other Clear Channel programs.

new national talk show, which begins to air in April and will compete against Limbaugh during the noon-to-three time slot. Huckabee’s show is being syndicated by Cumulus Media Networks, whose parent company owns some of Limbaugh’s most high-profile affiliates, such as WABC in New York, WLS in Chicago, and WMAL in Washington, D.C.

already down 37 percent from 2010. (In the New York metro area of approximately 20 million people, just 72,000 people tune into Limbaugh’s show each day, according to Crain’s New York.) 

consultant Valerie Geller. “And when the money stops flowing, every station looks at every show.”

 

 

 

 

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

¶

ADVERT PRO NOBIS

IF YOU CAN’T SEND A DONATION, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, AND YOU THINK THIS PUBLICATION IS WORTH SUPPORTING, AT LEAST HELP THE GREANVILLE POST EXPAND ITS INFLUENCE BY MENTIONING IT TO YOUR FRIENDS VIA TWEET OR OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS! We are in a battle of communications with entrenched enemies that won’t stop until this world is destroyed and our remaining democratic rights stamped out. Only mass education and mobilization can stop this process.

It’s really up to you. Do your part while you can. •••

Donating? Use PayPal via the button below.

THANK YOU.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Occupy Miami raided by SWAT teams (VIDEO)
(While the DOJ chief sleeps)

Dozens of cops equipped with shotguns and assault rifles stormed a Miami, Florida apartment building on Tuesday, drawing weapons at peaceful protesters and children with the local Occupy Wall Street campaign that were lawfully residing inside.

Members of Occupy Miami moved into an Overtown safehouse last month after their previous encampment outside of the city’s Government Center was shut down by authorities earlier this year. Now for the second time in only six weeks, cops donned in SWAT-team style gear and brandishing weapons swarmed the residence of several occupiers again, allegedly acting on reports that the residents inside were stockpiling weapons to use in an upcoming demonstration.

“They said that they had gotten a tip that we had ‘long guns’ and were going to use them at our protest,” Occupy member Thomas Parisi tells the Miami New Times. “But we are a peaceful movement and told them that we had no intention of doing anything like that.”

Following the shut-down of the outdoor Occupy Miami encampment on January 31, some members of the group began living in an apartment building owned by a fellow protester. Rodrigo Duque, who now calls himself Señor Paz — or “Mister Peace” — told the Miami New Times last month that he opened the doors of his building to those who were evicted from the outdoor demonstration and told the paper, “Basically, all peaceful people are welcome.”

Dozens of occupiers residing inside were not expecting to welcome in members of local law enforcement on Tuesday, however, who are reported to have busted into the building with guns brandished without warning.

“They were pointing guns at children!” Ramy Mahmoud, a member of Occupy Miami, adds to the paper.

Other Occupy Miami members that gave quotes to the paper without attribution say at least six cop cars stopped outside of their building on Tuesday before one officer took out a gun and aimed it at an occupier. “I thought it was either a joke or he was robbing us,” one protester tells the paper. “Then an ice-cream truck full of SWAT officers pulled up.”

Parisi, who believes the raid came over false reports of a terrorist threat, says the cops took unnecessary action during this week’s events. “They forced a 57-year-old diabetic woman onto the ground. And they pointed their guns at my wife,” he says.

“They are calling us terrorists, but what I saw today was demons pointing guns at us,” Ramy Mahmoud adds to the account. “They terrified us.”

Mahmoud also says cops questioned him with inquiries which included “Are you a Muslim?” and “Do you love this country?”

“I said hell no, I don’t love this country, and it’s because of shit like this,” Mahmoud tells the paper.

Several people were handcuffed and brought in for questioning but no arrests were made. Author Naomi Wolf was quick to comment on the story, writing on her Facebook page that “This is some of the scarier footage I have ever seen.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

¶

ADVERT PRO NOBIS

IF YOU CAN’T SEND A DONATION, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, AND YOU THINK THIS PUBLICATION IS WORTH SUPPORTING, AT LEAST HELP THE GREANVILLE POST EXPAND ITS INFLUENCE BY MENTIONING IT TO YOUR FRIENDS VIA TWEET OR OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS! We are in a battle of communications with entrenched enemies that won’t stop until this world is destroyed and our remaining democratic rights stamped out. Only mass education and mobilization can stop this process.

It’s really up to you. Do your part while you can. •••

Donating? Use PayPal via the button below.

THANK YOU.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Senior Contributing Editor

For the most part a media-fabricated “hero”, flagwaving plutocrat John McCain, like many embittered old men, is transparently tanatophilic, an unapologetic war lover.⁽³⁾ —Eds.

larger than Germany, France, Spain and Italy combined,” Mr. Avnery tells us; it would be a long war, something on the scale of the Vietnam War. Further, very importantly (and the Israelis know this), given the very powerful Israeli nuclear force, what difference would it really make in world politics if Iran does get The Bomb (think India/Pakistan).

However, there are political reasons why Netanyahu has no intention of attacking Iran. I think that for him they are the more important considerations for not doing so. Domestically, a recent poll showed that 60% of Israelis disapprove of any pre-emptive strike on Iran. Although he might not give a hoot about what would happen to oil prices from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, he does know what would happen to Israel as the result of a counter-attack from Iran using their conventional missile weapons. He also knows, counter to the Israeli published bravado on this one, that any attack in [an] attempt to destroy Iran’s “nuclear weapons” facilities, given the size of the country and the depth of the burial of Iran’s nuclear facilities, whether for peaceful or military purposes, would be technically very difficult to carry out, with no guarantee of success. Of course there surely would be no “knock-out” of an Iranian nuclear weapons program if, as many intelligence analysts sources, including US ones, state, there is none.

on the matter, dspite the fact that his postion in reality varies little from the published Isreali one: “we [the U.S.] will not let Iran get the bomb” (whether they want it or not). Certainly, the AIPAC/GOP axis treats Obama that way. And why would Netanyahu want to do that, other than (apparently) really not liking Obama personally? Because his goals of aggression have nothing to do with Iran and everything to do with the Palestinians and the Occupied Territories, known to the Israeli Right, their US far right-wing/Orthodox settler base in them, and their US Right-wing Christian supporters. They all make policy based on Biblical text, which does, from several millennia ago, describe “The Land of Israel.” What Netanyahu and his even-further-to-the-right allies really want to do is annex the West Bank and drive out the Palestinians. And then they would ethnically cleanse Israel of its Arab citizens at the same time. If Obama wins re-election, it is highly unlikely that any of this would be possible, and in one way or another Netanyahu would be forced into real negotiations. This is something he absolutely does not want to do (1). And so, the solution? Get a Republican government elected, by feeding strongly into the standard GOP myth that Obama (?Muslim, ?Kenyan, definitely “black” [even though he is half white]) is “weak.” Iran would not be bombed anyway. Israel would certainly not have to negotiate with the Palestinians and might very well be allowed to proceed with its desired conquest, which certainly Israeli government officials have openly advocated (2).

References:

1. Jonas, S., “Why the Current Israeli Government Will Not Negotiate,”

http://www.planetarymovement.org/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=541&pop=1&page=0.

——————————————————————————————————-

http://www.truth-out.org/, http://www.buzzflash.com), a Contributing Editor for The Greanville Post (https://www.greanvillepost.com/; a Featured Writer for Dandelion Salad; a Contributor to Op-Ed News.com (http://www.opednews.com/), and a Contributor to TheHarderStuff newsletter.

___________
NOTE: All captions added by the editors.

_______________________________________________________________________________

¶

ADVERT PRO NOBIS

IF YOU CAN’T SEND A DONATION, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, AND YOU THINK THIS PUBLICATION IS WORTH SUPPORTING, AT LEAST HELP THE GREANVILLE POST EXPAND ITS INFLUENCE BY MENTIONING IT TO YOUR FRIENDS VIA TWEET OR OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS! We are in a battle of communications with entrenched enemies that won’t stop until this world is destroyed and our remaining democratic rights stamped out. Only mass education and mobilization can stop this process.

It’s really up to you. Do your part while you can. •••

Donating? Use PayPal via the button below.

THANK YOU.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

By Conn Hallinan

Iran is not a military threat to Israel, but it is a political problem, because Tel Aviv sees Teheran’s fierce nationalism and independence from the U.S. and Europe as a wildcard. Iran is also allied to Israel’s major regional enemy, Syria–with which it is still officially at war — and the Shiite-based Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Shiite-dominated government in Iraq.

::::::::

Wars are fought because some people decide it is in their interests to fight them. World War I was not started over the Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination, nor was it triggered by the alliance system. An “incident” may set the stage for war, but no one keeps shooting unless they think it’s a good idea. The Great War started because the countries involved decided they would profit by it, delusional as that conclusion was.

It is useful to keep this idea in mind when trying to figure out if there will be a war with Iran. In short, what are the interests of the protagonists, and are they important enough for those nations to take the fateful step into the chaos of battle?

First off, because oil and gas are involved, a war would have global ramifications. Iran supplies China with about 15 percent of its oil, and India with 10 percent. It is a major supplier to Europe, Turkey, Japan and South Korea, and it has the third largest oil reserves and the second largest natural gas reserves in the world. Some 17 million barrels per day pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a significant part of the globe’s energy supply.

In short, the actors in this drama are widespread and their interests as diverse as their nationalities.

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran is building nuclear weapons that pose an “existential” threat to Israel. But virtually no one believes this, including the bulk of Tel Aviv’s military and intelligence communities. As former Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said recently, Iran “is not an existential” threat to Israel. There is no evidence that Iran is building a bomb and all its facilities are currently under a 24-hour United Nations inspection regime.

But Israel does have an interest in keeping the Middle East a fragmented place, riven by sectarian divisions and dominated by authoritarian governments and feudal monarchies. If there is one lesson Israel has learned from its former British overlords, it is “divide and conquer.” Among its closest allies were the former dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia, and it now finds itself on the same page as the reactionary monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman.

Iran is not a military threat to Israel, but it is a political problem, because Tel Aviv sees Teheran’s fierce nationalism and independence from the U.S. and Europe as a wildcard. Iran is also allied to Israel’s major regional enemy, Syria — with which it is still officially at war — and the Shiite-based Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Shiite-dominated government in Iraq.

In the Netanyahu government’s analysis, beating up on Iran would weaken Israel’s local enemies and at little cost. Tel Aviv’s scenario features a shock and awe attack, followed by a United Nations mandated ceasefire, with a maximum of 500 Israeli casualties. The Iranians have little capacity to strike back, and, if they did attack Israeli civilian centers or tried to close the Hormutz Strait, it would bring in the Americans.

Of course that rose-colored scenario is little more than wishful thinking. Iran is not likely to agree to a ceasefire — it fought for eight long years against Iraq — and war has a habit of derailing the best-laid plans. In real life it will be long and bloody and might well spread to the entire region.

Iran’s leaders use a lot of bombast about punishing Israel if it attacks, but in the short run, there is not a lot they could do, particularly given the red lines Washington has drawn. The Iranian air force is obsolete, and the Israelis have the technology to blank out most of Teheran’s radar and anti-aircraft sites. Iran could do little to stop Tel Aviv’s mixture of air attacks, submarine-fired cruise missiles, and Jericho ballistic missiles.

For all its talk about “everything being on the table,” the Obama administration appears to be trying to avoid a war, but with the 2012 elections looming, would Washington remain on the sidelines? On the “yes” side are polls indicating that Americans would not look with favor on a new Middle East war. But on the “no” side are a united front of Republicans, neo-conservatives, and the American Israeli Political Action Committee pressing for a confrontation with Iran.

Israeli sources suggest that Netanyahu may calculate that in the run-up to the 2012 American elections, an Israeli attack might force the Obama Administration to back a war and/or damage Obama’s re-election chances. It is no secret that there is no love lost between the two leaders.

But the U.S. also has a dog in this fight, and one not all that different than Israel’s. American hostility to Iran dates back to Teheran’s seizure of its oil assets from Britain in 1951. The CIA helped overthrow the democratically elected Iranian government in 1953 and install the dictatorial Shah. The U.S. also backed Saddam Hussein’s war on Iran, has had a longstanding antagonistic relationship with Syria, and will not talk with Hezbollah or Hamas. Tel Aviv’s local enemies are Washington’s local enemies.

When the Gulf monarchs formed the GCC in 1981, its primary purpose was to oppose Iranian influence in the Middle East. Using religious division as a wedge, the GCC has encouraged Sunni fundamentalists to fight Shiites in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, and blocked the spread of the “Arab Spring” to its own turf. When Shiites in Bahrain began protesting over a lack of democracy and low wages, the GCC invaded and crushed the demonstrations. The GCC does not see eye-to-eye with the U.S. and Israel on the Palestinians — although it is careful not to annoy Washington and Tel Aviv — but the GCC is on the same page as both capitals concerning Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

The European Union (EU) has joined the sanctions, although France and Germany have explicitly rejected the use of force. Motivations in the EU range from France’s desire to reclaim its former influence in Lebanon to Europe’s need to keep its finger on the energy jugular vein. In brief, it isn’t all about oil and gas but a whole lot of it is, and, as CounterPunch’s Alexander Cockburn points out, oil companies would like to see production cut and prices rise. A war would accomplish both.

Iran will be the victim here, but there will be some who would take advantage of a war. An attack would unify the country around what is now a rather unpopular government, allow the Revolutionary Guard to crush its opposition, and give cover to the current drive by the Ahmadinejad government to cut subsidies for transportation, housing and food. A war would cement the power of the most reactionary elements of the current regime.

There are other actors in this drama — China, Russia, India, Turkey, and Pakistan for starters, none of whom support a war — but whether they can influence events is an open question. In the end, Israel may just decide that its interests are served by starting a war, and that the U.S. will go along because it is much of the same mind.

Or maybe this is all sound and fury signifying nothing?

The sobering thought is that the three most powerful actors in this drama — Israel, the U.S. and its European allies, and the Gulf Cooperation Council — have many of the same interests, and share the belief that force is an effective way to achieve one’s goals.

On such illusions are tragedies built.
Submitters Website: http://dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Conn M. Hallinan is a columnist for Foreign Policy In Focus, “A Think Tank Without Walls, and an independent journalist. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. He oversaw the journalism program at the University of California at Santa Cruz for 23 years, and won the UCSC Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teaching Award, as well as UCSC’s Innovations in Teaching Award, and Excellence in Teaching Award.  He was also a college provost at UCSC, and retired in 2004. He is a winner of a Project Censored “Real News Award,” and lives in Berkeley, California.

_______________________________________________________________________________

¶

ADVERT PRO NOBIS

IF YOU CAN’T SEND A DONATION, NO MATTER HOW SMALL, AND YOU THINK THIS PUBLICATION IS WORTH SUPPORTING, AT LEAST HELP THE GREANVILLE POST EXPAND ITS INFLUENCE BY MENTIONING IT TO YOUR FRIENDS VIA TWEET OR OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS! We are in a battle of communications with entrenched enemies that won’t stop until this world is destroyed and our remaining democratic rights stamped out. Only mass education and mobilization can stop this process.

It’s really up to you. Do your part while you can. •••

Donating? Use PayPal via the button below.

THANK YOU.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________