Link TV in San Francisco is a precious resource for the progressive/transpartisan communities, and we¹re asking you to join us in making a gift to Link.
In December 1999, our good friend and colleague, Kim Spencer, http://www.linktv.org/whoweare/staff launched Link TV, the first nationwide television network dedicated to providing Americans with global perspectives on news, events and culture. In the wake of media consolidation. Americans have little access to diverse perspectives on critical global issues, and Link challenges this trend. Today, Link is now broadcast into 35 million homes across the US (largely through DISH, DIRECT TV and with some cable outlets), has 6.7 million regular viewers (many across the political and cultural divides), and provides coverage not found anywhere else in the US.
Link is the only US provider of Al Jazeera English, broadcasts Amy Goodman's Democracy Now! daily, and has won a Peabody Award for its Middle East news program, Mosaic.
DoD major commands have serious staffs that try to do the right thing. The same cannot be said for White House staffers or the intelligence community staffs promoted to their maximum level of incompetence. Reading between the lines of the below article, it's possible to see a national security decision-making process that is to close to “ready fire aim.”
Phi Beta Iota: David Ignatius is clearly among the lead writers striving to give Dr. Robert Gates a “legacy” (mythical as it might be). Missing from his various odes are the fact that decisions are not being made on the basis of facts or with the public interest firmly in mind.
Here‘s how she described Paul Revere's famous ride:
“…he who warned the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh, by ringin' those bells and, um, makin' sure as he's ridin' his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we're gonna be secure and we were gonna be free. And we we're gonna be armed.”
Phi Beta Iota: The ignorance of the public–Democrat, Republican, and Independent, is profound. Most Tea Party members really have no idea that there are two Tea Parties, and the one that has influence is not the one they belong to. Most citizens have no clue that to harvest oil from sands you have to use water from aquifers–water we cannot afford to waste. Needed desperately is public intelligence in the public interest.
Statement and Senate Floor Remarks by Sen. Bernie Sanders
WASHINGTON – Congress and the White House are now focused on how we deal with our huge deficit — a crisis brought about over the last 10 years by two wars, tax breaks for the rich, the Wall Street bailout and a prescription drug program — all unpaid for. The deficit also increased as a result of the declining tax revenues during a current recession, caused by the greed and illegal behavior of Wall Street.
The debate over deficit reduction comes at an unusual moment in American economic history. While the middle class is in rapid decline and poverty is increasing, the wealthiest people in our country and largest corporations are doing phenomenally well. Over the last several decades almost all new income created in this country has gone to the top 1 percent, who now earn more income than the bottom 50 percent. Further, the United States now has the most unequal distribution of wealth of any major country with the top 400 individuals owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million.
Given the reality of record-breaking corporate profits and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, it should be a surprise to no one that every recently published poll suggests that the overwhelming majority of the American people want the deficit to be addressed through shared sacrifice. They do not believe that the deficit should be reduced solely on the backs of working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor — many of whom are already suffering as a result of the recession. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Republicans have proposed.
Phi Beta Iota: The hypocrisy of the Democratic Administration is exceeded only by the hypocrisy of the Republican Party–one bird, two wings, same shit, just different colors. We await a knight speaking truth.
Phi Beta Iota: This is public intelligence at its best. A methodical, deep, documented look at the corruption inherent in the Corps of Engineers that the politicians at all levels that enable that corruption with their own lack of integrity. Below from the producer:
