|
Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Posts by ZP Heller
What Do the Blue Dogs and McCain Have Against Vets?
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 12, 2008 at 10:28 AM.
The GI Bill for the 21st Century was delayed again last week, and for a change, it wasn't McCain holding up its passage (though I'll get to him in a moment). It's actually the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, 47 fiscally conservative Democrats in the House who have voted for Bush's war time and time again. House Democratic leaders attached the GI Bill to an emergency war spending bill, thinking Bush wouldn't be able to veto it, but now they must figure out ways to offset the costs of the GI Bill if they want to appease the Blue Dogs.
This is truly despicable, considering the Blue Dogs have favored hundreds of billions in Bush's supplemental costs for the Iraq War, not to mention the billions more that have gone to private contractors. Daily Kos has more, including contact info for you to hound your Blue Dog representatives.
Of course, this news comes on the heels of a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that McCain is, in fact, "full of it" on the GI Bill (told ya I'd get to him). McCain's excuse for not co-sponsoring Jim Webb's bi-partisan legislation in the Senate has been that it would cause a loss of retention because too many members of the military would use the GI Bill as an excuse to leave. Not so, says the CBO, which found that any loss in retention would be balanced by an increase in military recruits looking to take advantage of the new GI Bill educational benefits.
McCain has been completely hypocritical on supporting our vets, and he 
Bill O'Reilly Completely Loses It!
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 12, 2008 at 5:20 AM.
You may have forgotten O'Reilly's Inside Edition days, but we haven't. This video just resurfaced... and I was wondering how I'd ever make it through Monday!
Worst. Rendition. Ever!
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 10, 2008 at 7:57 AM.
Hillary's biggest supporter is holding out hope for a convention surprise. In the meantime, he's so alone. For Hillary's secret blog and more humor go to http://www.newsgroper.com
Young Muslim Artists Challenge Stereotypes
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 8, 2008 at 10:21 AM.
The NY Times has a great piece today about American Muslim artists who are creating videos like this one to challenge stereotypes about Islam.
In December 2007, over 2,000 American Muslims were asked what they wished they could say to the world. This is what they said.
MAS Media Foundation presents "A Land Called Paradise." Unofficial music video for Kareem Salama's "A Land Called Paradise." Directed by Lena Khan.
FOX Attacks Obama
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 7, 2008 at 1:29 PM.
Watch as FOX's Steve Doocy throws a conniption fit in an attempt to link Obama with Bill Ayers. While it's kind of amusing that FOX can't drop the all-important crawl to get a glimpse of Ayers standing on an American flag, this smear is downright disgraceful.
Politics of Preschool
Posted by ZP Heller on May 7, 2008 at 11:10 AM.
A preschool girl attempts to gain social status through material means only to find out she's been trumped. Any similarities to the presidential primary are completely coincidental.
Thanks to www.youtube.com!
The Iraq War Profiteer No One Is Talking About
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 6, 2008 at 8:32 AM.
What's it going to take for us to hold the Iraq War profiteers accountable? The Bush administration's $3 trillion war in Iraq has been the direct cause of our current recession, and yet private defense contractors continue to reap billions in profits. I'm not even talking about KBR for the moment. That loathsome Cheney-backed Halliburton subsidiary has actually been the focus of a bit of media and Congressional attention recently (though not nearly enough) for contaminating our troops' water supplies, ignoring electrical safety standards that led to troop casualties, and dodging hundreds of millions in tax payments. No, I'm talking about L-3, the second largest employer in the Iraq occupation behind KBR.
L-3 makes about $1 billion a year off of the outsourcing of intelligence gathering in Iraq. The U.S. government hired L-3 to work with the military in interrogating and running background checks on Iraqi prisoners and civilians. L-3 now employs approximately 7,000 translators and 300 intelligence experts in Iraq, and has grown to become the ninth largest defense contractor in the U.S and the sixth largest Iraq War profiteer. While this outsourcing alone is cause for alarm, it is how L-3 runs its company that is particularly egregious.
Read the rest of the post on the flip side »
The Media Created the "Delusion" That Hillary Can Win
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 4, 2008 at 10:00 AM.
While the Pennsylvania primary has been over for nearly a couple of weeks now, this clip still seems fitting. Chris Matthews is surprisingly critical of the mainstream media's role in perpetuating the "delusion" that Clinton has a chance of winning.
IMPEACH THEM!
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 3, 2008 at 9:00 AM.
For more, check out impeachthem.com
Having Your Cake and Eating It Too
Posted by ZP Heller, MoveOn.org on May 3, 2008 at 8:57 AM.
100 Years in Iraq: And you thought no one could be worse than George Bush.
The Empire Strikes Barack
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 2, 2008 at 1:29 PM.
The second installment in a unique chronicling of the 2008 presidential election.
Did John McCain Call His Wife a C**t?
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 2, 2008 at 9:00 AM.
At a town hall meeting in Iowa yesterday, Baptist Minister Marty Parrish asked McCain:
"This question goes to mental health and mental health care. Previously, I've been married to a woman that was verbally abusive to me. Is it true that you called your wife a (expletive)?"
McCain: "Now, now. You don't want to... Um, you know that's the great thing about town hall meetings, sir, but we really don't, there's people here who don't respect that kind of language. So I'll move on to the next questioner in the back."
Apparently, Parrish was escorted out of the town hall for asking this question, then detained by Secret Service before being released. To me, that suggests a total hypocrisy at play. McCain can use this expletive to refer to his wife, but if an average citizen questions him about it publicly, he's taken into police custody, forced to leave a public forum, and questioned by the Secret Service?!
Parrish, who used to work for Joe Biden's campaign, explained the reasons for his question: "What I am worried about is his temper. Our country is in a serious crisis. This election is the most significant one since 1860. It appears America is asleep -- so I stood up and asked the question."
Cliff Schecter, who first revealed McCain's misogynistic mindset in his book, The Real McCain, has more on the town hall exchange at FireDogLake.
Updated: Is Clinton Advisor's "N**ger Comment a Baseless Smear?
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 2, 2008 at 8:34 AM.
Bill Clinton Campaign Chairman and Hillary Clinton '08 Advisor Mickey Kantor tells George Stephanapoulos and James Carville: "Look at Indiana...it doesn't matter if we win. Those people are shit. How would you like to be a worthless white ni**er?"
Sam Stein at HuffPo has the full story.
Update from Joshua H:
This video looks like a fraud. As Sam Stein notes, the audio in the key section is almost inaudible. I've listened to it ten times, and I'm pretty sure he says "those people are shitting" -- referring to the Bush (senior) White House after Bill Clinton had won deeply "red" Indiana -- and then I believe Kantor says: "how would you like to be in the White House right now?" -- not, "how would you like to be a white nigger?"
This video is up on Drudge, and getting around the internet like wildfire. I call BS.
UPDATE: At Politico, Ben Smith just talked to D.A. Pennebaker, who directed "The War Room." Pennebaker said that the "shit" expletive referred to the Bush reaction in the White House.
"'What he says is he’s surprised Perot’s numbers are holding,' said Pennebaker in a brief phone interview. 'He says they must be shi**ing in the White House.'"
Pennebaker said the racial slur was entirely fabricated.
Clinton Sinks to O'Reilly's Level
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 1, 2008 at 10:55 AM.
Hillary Clinton appeared on the O'Reilly Factor last night and will again tonight. FOX has already begun releasing highlights like this one, in which Clinton criticizes Jeremiah Wright and his speech at the National Press Club on Monday. And while we'll have ample time to dissect Clinton's appearance and why on earth she agreed to go on O'Reilly in the first place, what needs to be addressed now is the possibility that an ardent Clinton supporter arranged Rev. Wright's press club speech.
According to the NY Daily News and the LA Times blog Top of the Ticket, Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds organized the press club event. Reynolds has praised Clinton in the past, writing on her own blog: "My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you." She has also been unduly critical of Obama: "It is a sad testimony that to protect his credentials as a unifier above the fray, [Obama] is fueling the media characterization that Rev. Dr. Wright is some retiring old uncle in the church basement."
So to recap, a Clinton supporter arranges to give Wright a national spotlight to make incendiary remarks, forcing Obama to once again denounce his former pastor. Then, Clinton goes on FOX News to criticize Wright (and by extension, Obama) and the controversy that one of her supporters helped create. O'Reilly and his FOX pals, in turn, will use this as an excuse to rehash a stale news story that Obama has already distanced himself from. And then, to top it all off, the rest of the mainstream press will continue to play excerpts from this interview for days on end. When will this faux news cycle end?
The Great Derangement
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on May 1, 2008 at 8:51 AM.
The Great Derangement, a new book by Matt Taibbi.
This video was directed and animated by Eric Merola.
EMAIL
PRINT
3 COMMENTS
PERMALINK