On the Fulcrum...Tipping

So much zipping around in my head. First thing this morning, even before coffee, I received a message informing me that Bush is probably going to be in Phoenix next weekend. Geesh -- that means a whole lotta organizing. And there were so many other significant stories popping out at me today from various sources. I really just want to spread the information I dredge and skim -- but there is so much information that I don't think folks can put together some fairly obvious trends.

Bill Gates is giving money to right wing kooks. As a friend who forwarded the article detailing Gates and Verizon and others as providing sustaining levels of support to the fanatics from the religious right who are making significant inroads into taking over our schools and the educational system. That is it. No more Microsoft anything purchases... ever. I'm beginning a total conversion to running open source software on an Apple. I will not support fundamentalist luddites. (I'm not talking about the true Christians who follow the peaceful and loving teachings of Jesus.) Join me in telling Bill Gates to put it where the sun don't shine by stopping his plan to make his "you must be afraid of technology and give all your money to those of us who can make your communication systems function."


The U.S. administration now supports the creation of an Islamic State in Iraq. Pardon me while I try to wrap my head around this. Our fundamentalist Christian president has lied and had his staff falsify data to fight an immoral, illegal war. He has done this for unknown reasons -- and he has been enabled, coached and backed by corporate entites and the very few men who contol these goliaths who are concerned only with profit and filling their own pockets, no matter what the costs of this murderous personally motivated war might be. His actions have done nothing but exponentially enlarged the fundamentalist, jihadist, wacko base willing, and even glad, to die in this war and now to have actually increased the number of countries ruled by narrow and by all accounts mistaken interpretations of Islamic law. And all this while our sons and daughters have been fighting and dying in Iraq, our national safety and the likelihood of terrorist assault on American land, people and/or interests has skyrocketed without appropriate funding to protect our land and people. Only corporate oil interests and Bush family allies have benefitted -- and they have done so with the blood of our children on their hands. These same folks attempt to disparage the just demand of Gold Star Families who want to have Bush tell them the real reason their children died in Iraq is outrageous. I hope it backfires... as do many others.


Right-wing PR thinlly disguised as media (Clear Channel) is censoring ads that feature Cindy Sheehan.

TV Station Refuses to Air Anti-War Ad Featuring Sheehan
By JENNIFER DOBNER, AP

SALT LAKE CITY (Aug. 21) - A Utah television station is refusing to air an
anti-war ad featuring Cindy Sheehan, whose son's death in Iraq prompted a vigil
outside President Bush's Texas ranch.

The ad began airing on other area stations Saturday, two days before Bush was
scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City to the national convention of the
Veterans of Foreign Wars.

However, a national sales representative for KTVX, a local ABC affiliate,
rejected the ad in an e-mail to media buyers, writing that it was an
"inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City."

In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to
the American people about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction
and its connection to al-Qaida.

"I love my country. But how many more of our loved ones need to die in this
senseless war?" a weary-looking Sheehan asks in the ad. "I know you can't bring
Casey back. But it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."

Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad Saturday.

The ads were bought by Gold Star Families for Peace. Washington, D.C.-based
Fenton Communications, a public relations firm working for the group, provided
a copy of the e-mail received from station sales representative Jemina Keller
to The Associated Press.

In a statement Saturday evening explaining its decision, KTVX said that after
viewing the ad, local managers found the content "could very well be
offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of
fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in this Iraq war."

Station General Manager David D'Antuono said the decision was not influenced
by the station's owner, Clear Channel Communications Inc.

Celeste Zappala, who with Sheehan co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace,
said she was puzzled by the decision.

"What stunned me was that it was inappropriate to hear this message," she
said. "How is it that Salt Lake City should hear no questions about the war?"

The e-mail read: "The viewpoints reflected in the spot are incompatible with
our marketplace and will not be well received by our viewers." It added that
the spot didn't qualify as an issue advertisement.

For the ad to have been considered an "issue" advertisement a ballot measure
would have had to be at stake, D'Antuono said.

Mark Wiest, vice president of sales for NBC-affiliated KSL television, said
that in the interest of freedom of speech, his station didn't hesitate to run
the ad. KSL is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"The bigger picture is, by suppressing the message are we doing what is right
under the First Amendment and in an open democratic society?" Wiest said.

Bush received nearly 70 percent of the vote last fall in Utah, one of the
most conservative states north of the Bible Belt.