Too Many Puppies

Geez, I made too many and started so many projects over the years.

Really nuts going through this blog stuff. 

Easily my biggest post is Kira’s Kingdom.

Starting doing minor podcasting with a voice recorder and discovered a nice little resource for my fellow Web creators to brush up on:

Digital Media Law Project: Fair Use

(URL: http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/fair-use)

Also have this always saved and ready to go now…

THIS PODCAST DOES NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF YOUTUBE, GOOGLE OR RESPECTIVE PARTNERSHIPS. THIS CONTENT IS USED IN THE FULL SPIRIT OF THE FAIR USE POLICIES AND PRACTICES.

 

—-

 

Follow @ Blogger:

 

http://ericlightborn.blogspot.com

 

Follow @ Twitter:

 

https://twitter.com/EricLightborn

Randomly Dipping Into My YouTube Subs

Hey why not?

News n’ Opinions

http://pirate-ninja-sayuri.deviantart.com/art/AlChestbreach-416210924

Some of the gamer time thang!

We found a Gopher with mod skills.

And Tek and Vasco bringing it in for the post.

 

Follow me on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/EricLightborn

It’s Not Just Beck That Is Losing The Cable Ratings War

BusinessInsider.com:

 

Fox News has the top 12 most-watched shows so far this year.

Which is perhaps not totally surprising since this marks the network’s ninth straight year as the number one channel in cable.

That is not to say it’s all rainbows and unicorns. (Or cupcakes and caliphates.) All of Fox’s top shows posted double digit losses year over year.

Glenn Beck suffered the biggest drop, losing 30% of his audience compared to the first quarter last year. But he wasn’t alone. Top ranking O’Reilly lost 14% of his audience, Sean Hannity, up a spot from 2010, lost 19%, and Bret Baier, who pushed Beck out of the top three, lost 13%.

Greta Van Susteren, who has been bleeding viewers to Anderson Cooper this month, is down 22.86%.

All in all Fox News actually lost 21% of its primetime audience during the quarter.

Compare this to CNN which is up 28% in primetime and MSNBC which is up 9% (Rachel Maddow increased by 16.65% and Anderson Cooper by 18%) and then take into consideration all the breaking news there’s been since Christmas, and one might begin to draw the conclusion that people are beginning to turn elsewhere for news news coverage.

Another explanation, of course, is that this time period last year was dominated by the health care debate and for much of that period Fox operated as an extension of the opposition. Now that the nation’s focus is international it’s harder to figure out an angle where Obama is bad and … nuclear meltdowns and Qadaffi are good.

*All numbers from Neilsen.

Glenn Beck & The Right-Wing Media

(WATCH VIDEO: Crooks & Liars “Glenn Beck ‘You’re Going To Have To Shoot Them'”)

I see Glenn Beck as actually dangerous, and not just abrasive and dishonest like other right-wing media pundits.

I first became mildly aware of Beck when he was scathing the Bush White House, but back then he never ever called himself “conservative” and only called himself “libertarian.” Today he has fashioned himself a New Media Joe McCarthy and wants to teach the children of America a distorted and fictitious version of U.S. History.

What has actually risen to the level of public danger is centered on the TV show aspect of what he has done with his career. If anyone doesn’t already know he has mocked setting people on fire, shown a shaky rape video for no reason beyond fear mongering and to cap it all off he called a sitting president a racist on live TV.

Because television gives the illusion of credibility putting the character (I believe he is playing everyone, he said so in an interview around when he got all freaky) of Glenn Beck out there has sent horrible and extremely dangerous repercussions into the nation that can never be taken back.

Without pulling out a pack of URLs it’s quicker to just say that historically the U.S. has kind of “self-policed” this kind of extremism and incitement to violence disguised as free speech when it has happened before and always the figure that resembles Glenn Beck of today had a fall from grace. Usually getting fired. The best recent example is “Dr.” Laura getting the axe: she went into something from a KKK rally and that was the “the line.”

It sounds too simple, I know, but the most serious offender here is News Corp and Fox News.

Glenn Beck is only especially dangerous because his bosses won’t fire him no matter what “line” he crosses. If you minus Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Brothers from this situation then Beck would have been canned for being disrespectful to a sitting president or too libel for his “here’s some violence, but don’t do violence” message he delivers regularly. Since this heartless media empire keeps him alive the kind of normal “quality controls” are not coming into play.

In the wake of the Tucson shooting, another act of domestic terrorism that the mainstream media refuses to label as such, and the moving speech delivered by President Obama there is a strong need to assess ourselves in our words and also more deeply to our mind state. This cannot, however, negate the need for people to speak their opinions about the current state of the nation.

America is on a road of a long, slow decline into moral ambiguity and a complete lack of ethics, and Glenn Beck combined with Fox News and the tea party is the first step toward this destruction of all that is good and decent in America. I don’t say these things to get a rise out of anyone or to single out Glenn Beck, but rather only because I see these words as the simple truth.

If Beck and those similar to him would only stop the incitement to violence, racism and bigotry then I would never raise issue with them beyond to merely disagree. Since this next evolution of political dialogue looks more like McCarthyism and Nazism combined I simply refuse to call it anything else.

To Every Age A Fear-Monger Is Born

 

There is always a figure that will stand up for evil, lies, Antisemitism and violence. There is never any lack of men and women who will sell their souls for attention, power, fame and money.

What is unacceptable is how so many in America accept the insane lies and Nazi propaganda tactics at face value when they come from Glenn Beck or other figures on the right.

Some people are simply sick. They have no care for truth and love only the sound of their name being spoken even if it be in disgust. Seeing this as fact I rarely comment on the national disgrace of broadcasting who goes by the name Glenn Beck. Some men are so divorced from American Values and love for the truth that all they create is no better than feces and all that one could comment on about them the same.

Nevertheless, this is the second time Glenn Beck has run afoul of the ADL and I wonder to myself just how many Nazi tactics this Fox News broadcaster has to use against the left before people everywhere can start calling him a racist, anti-Semite, Nazi-sympathizer. Because that’s exactly what he and all his fans are, so let’s cut the bullshit.

Meg Whitman Booed At Women’s Conference

(Watch the video)

 

Meg Whitman showed a clear disconnect with California voters when refusing Jerry Brown’s offer of taking down all but the two positive ads from both candidates. People in this state are not looking for the best smear agent, we are looking for the person best qualified for the job as governor.

Another aspect to Whitman’s reaction to this proposal that I have not heard discussed is that of the huge sums of money she has spent on the political attack ads flooding the media–they have effectively committed her to the political strategy of negativity since she decided to make the majority of the ads negative instead of positive. Now that they spent millions trying to convince people the “other” is so awful it would be somewhat like throwing all that money away to suddenly switch stance to a “I’m the better choice” position.

If Whitman was a smart, pragmatic leader she would have taken up Brown on his offer to cut the TV ads down to the two positive ads from each. It appears she lacks the ability to think in terms other than dollar signs, or so it seems.

I find this sort of thing very typical of the conservative-Republican side of things. They never want to actually agree to being held to ethics and standing against the smear season tactics. When the chips are down and both sides are ready to deal on how negative things are getting, it always seems to be the right-winger who simply refuses to make it more civil. Perhaps because they understand that the Republican base seems to be fueled by negativity, scapegoating and fear mongering.

Glenn Beck Deserves Zero Credit For Not Rebuking Sherrod

Some have made the point that because Glenn Beck did not join in on the most recent right-wing witch hunt designed to stir up racism that this somehow means he should be given credit.

I find this sentiment disgusting, to say the least.

This is the same man who calls the President of the United States a “racist” and fails utterly to define what exactly he meant by the “white culture” that Obama apparently hates. This is the same man who touted daily the previous witch hunt founded in racism, which came in part from the very same source of the Sherrod witch hunt.

Cutting Glenn Beck slack just because he didn’t join in this most recent attempt to destroy American democracy is like giving praise to a serial rapist for letting one of his victims go in a moment of humanity after destroying the lives of countless women prior to that.

This man leads the charge of vile hatred for progressives, spreads thinly veiled racism on the mainstream media, gleefully destroys the lives of poor black families helped by ACORN and atop all that cannot answer simple questions about what exactly he was trying to communicate when he publically defamed the sitting president.

Imagine, if you would, that a black cable / radio broadcaster was expressing the opinion that George W. Bush was a racist after the Katrina disaster. Would we all sit around and debate the merits of this point of view? Would we bring in Katie Couric to interview this person and try to suss out what they were saying in more specific terms? Or would we find it so disgusting as a nation that this person would be thrown off all widely accessed media sources?

It’s the last one, if you hadn’t figured that out on your own. If Americans had even one shred of common decency the likes of Glenn Beck would have been thrown off the air and become persona non grata to all except the most fringe media outlets after making such a vapid claim.

Instead some want to give him praise for not joining in what is only the most recent installment of anti-black sentiment brought forward by immoral conservatives and their corrupt media machine. Instead he leads his unpatriotic teabaggers on another rally designed to stir up hatred and racial animosity.

Some people are evil, there is no other word for it. Beck is such a person.

The day I bend knee to evil is the day I stop being a human being.

Police Execution Is Now ‘Manslaughter’?

This Mehserle verdict is a blood stain on democracy.

This is not justice.

This is the condoning of ruthless murder by police officers, even when video evidence shows the execution in plain view.

Oscar Grant was executed in public, on camera, and the best the legal justice system has for the murderer is ‘involuntary manslaughter’!?!

Time and time again this society proves to me that they have no rights to the words “justice,” “equality,” & “freedom.”

Perhaps increased video surveillance of police activities will have no effect on limiting police corruption. If they can commit homicide on camera and receive this kind of treatment in the courts they have very little to fear from us. Maybe next time it will make more sense to execute the person with a camera as well to the police officer.

I’ve watched the video and slowed it down. Mehserle stands up and shoots Grant in the back, if he intended to use his taser he would not have needed to stand. This was a citizen execution, most likely non-premeditated and calling it anything but second degree homicide is an insult to all of us.

HuffPo: ‘Cavuto Called An A**hole’

This classic Conservative-Republican bullshit:

1) Insult the speaker.

2) Ignore the issue.

3) Play the ‘moral high ground’ if anyone defends themselves from your insults.

Video @ HuffingtonPost.

I think Cavuto is an asshole. Most of these conservatives on the media & on the blogs are exactly the same as well. Just angry, bitter, losers who want everyone to cry for them when someone fights back at their stupid and personal attacks on anyone that disagrees.

People talk about civil debate being dead in the U.S. If you ever wonder why that is just look at your local conservative and your local Republican mouthpiece. They are the murderers of free and open debate. No one else.

Shep Smith Cuts Loose On The BP Fanclub At Fox

Judge Andrew Napolitano joined hands with Rep. Joe Barton in a heartfelt defense of the oil industry. Specifically BP by trying to place all blame for the Deepwater Horizon disaster on the government.

HuffingtonPost.com:

Appearing on Smith’s “Studio B,” Napolitano argued that because BP relied on inaccurate government models to draw up its contingency plans, the government is at fault, and not the oil company.

“The oil companies have no choice, Shep, but to rely on what the government tells them,” Napolitano — a libertarian who recently launched a tea party show on Fox Business Network — said.

“So on the basis of this erroneous information, the government says: ‘Don’t dig at 500 feet, where Gov. Jindal says you can dig, where you want to dig, where we know you can easily control a spill, dig at 5,000 feet where our environmentalist folks think you should dig.”

“I’m getting kinda grossed out, Judge,” Smith shot back. “You’re blaming the government for this?’

“I’m blaming the government for this,” Napolitano affirmed.

I think this was kiddy-gloves language from Shep for such a vile misrepresentation of the facts surrounding the greatest environmental disaster in American History. But then again he is workin’ at The Fix… Kudos to Shep, I say! Good man!

Hardball: ‘Rise of the New Right’

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Chris Matthews of MSNBC has aired his political documentary covering the trend of radical right-wing extremism taking hold in the U.S.

I think it worth the watch.

“Political novice” is the description Matthews uses for most tea party activists, and I would have to agree. It is rather clear to me, within the confines of my experiences with the tea party, that these people are not lacking in passion but they are extremely lacking in logical framework.

Being a person who has taken an interest in studying political theory I find that I could make a better and more sourced argument in favor of the ultra-libertarian sentiments they promote, I’d just much rather not give them any free talking points. But the strongest trend I have noticed is this complete inability or unwillingness to clarify facts from opinions.

It’s just within my very nature to try to put myself in the others shoes, and because of this I can see were many of them have perfectly valid concerns. But it is the nature of how they go about expressing their concerns. With everything from “Take my country back!” to “Get your government hands off my Medicare!” to “Show me the birth certificate!” to (did you see this nonsense?) “He has a Connecticut Social Security card!” to draw from in terms of not just red hot punditry rhetoric but actual completely insane / stupid positions from actual people. Whom appear to be actually serious with us when they are talking…

The Label of ‘Teabagger’:

I won’t mince words and sit behind my battle lines: the term ‘teabaggers’ when used to discuss the ‘tea party’ is a political slur. It’s a negative label used in a negative way. It is true the ‘tea party’ has used the ‘tea bag’ reference in their rallies and at least one of them online talks about “teabaggin’ since ’09!” But I won’t dodge. Everytime I say ‘baggers or teabaggers I mean it. Just like they mean it when they call progressives “socialists” and “Marxists.” I see the label of ‘teabbager’ as being born out of exactly the kind of McCarhyist language we could hear all day on conservative media. Calling something or someone something it’s not is much like telling clever lies: it just inspires some people to try to lie to beat down the lies and others to just throw up hands in disgust.

Logical Disconnect:

Woman interviewed in Matthews video: “[Republicans] need to put up candidates that actually represent conservatism.”

No, the ‘tea party’ need to define what they think ‘conservatism’ actually means to them.

I have long viewed the tea party as misguided grassroots efforts being proped up by an overly attentive news media in their rallies, and in the organizers it is a mixture of astro-turfing and nationalist militant paranoid fervor based primarily on racism against the first black president.

Barney Frank addressed this issue of the “tea party deficit hawks” in his health care town hall that got  a good deal of media attention for the frivolous exchange about “Nazi policies” and “dinning room table[s].”

If one is claiming to understand the problematic trends of rising deficit against rising inflation in the U.S. then you were opposed to Iraqi and Afghan occupations for exactly this reason. Not to mention the lack of any ‘tea party’ protests over TARP bailout spending. Not one ‘tea party’ protest on Washington, not as long as Bush was in office.

Another argument they often make about the “size of government” being the source of their frustration, is also lacking a logical framework of any sort. Not that they would make the argument, but that that again if you are talking about expansion of government power that again was the Republican Bush II. And just like the deficit issue, almost all of them admit they only ever came to politics / political activism after January 2009.

A final hurdle that all these ‘tea party’ promoters and activists still fail to explain: Why if they are such strict Constitutional scholars do they not see the multiple layers of constitutional infringements in the recent AZ SB 1070 bill? If their worry be “tyranny” then surely “show me your papers” should have them tossing their ‘tea parties’ on Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s lawn by now?

Why are tumble weeds blowing by the ‘tea party HQ’ on this one? I mean I can see where maybe some get all confused on the W. unconstitutionality issues, just because you have masters of deceptions and lies like Karl Rove on the case to do combat with to get the facts. But these jokers writing this SB 1070 and some of the after-thoughts of discrimination at FAIR have no such war-hounds working their case. They can be picked off with a pocket constitution and about fifteen minutes worth of reading.

Bottom Line:

From the very beginning I saw the ‘tea party’ movement as just the anti-Obama movement and while it has grown I believe it has only grown to be come the anti-Progressive / anti-Democratic movement. When both their so-called ideological leaders like Bachmann, Palin, Beck, King, etc. and their just everyday inspired folks of their movement cannot come to these simple logical failings in what they spout forth to us a clear level of a lack of intellectual curiosity is boldly revealed on their part. I’ll never believe the Founders intended people to abuse the First Amendment by promoting ignorance over knowledge. And that, is precisely the message outlets like Fox News and the ‘tea party’ are sending out every day.

SB1070 For Dummies & Hayward Hung By The Toes

This YouTube video from 4409 “Wake Up America” Productions is what people really need to understand about ‘that law’ that everyone is talking about when not picturing BP exec Tony Hayward in some contraption from one of the Saw movies.

==================================================

“Please don’t kill me, America! I promise another ad campaign and more toxic dispersant!”

==================================================

This is not about immigration. This is about encroaching on civil liberties first with racial profiling and then moving forward from there to effect all groups.

At least five lawsuits have been filed thus far to fight against the Arizona law coming on behalf of the ACLU and others.

AZCentral.com:

A group of 14 civil and immigrant-rights organizations and 10 individuals on Monday filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s new immigration law. It is the fifth legal challenge of the law, which goes into effect July 29 and makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally.

All the lawsuits seek to prevent the law from going into effect. However, this latest case names Arizona’s county officials as defendants, while previous suits were filed against state officials.

Participants in this case include the American Civil Liberties Union, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Immigration Law Center, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Day Laborer Organizing Network and Asian Pacific American Legal Center.

Since I put “for dummies” in my headline I’ll move forward slowly about the why on this show-me-your-papers law signed by Jan Brewer is unconstitutional. Instead slamming a bunch of legalese at you it’s much better to simply look closely at the Section B paragraph of AZ SB 1070:

“For any lawful stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official …”

This just means anything at all that might be contact with the police. If they flag you down on the street when you are walking, that is a “lawful stop.” It has very little to do with vehicles and everything to do with the security of your person from harassment from the police. Even when a police officer who has mistaken your identity, let’s say, it is still a committing a “lawful stop” to detain you and discover your true identity. In short, this opening clause of the law is both sweeping and overreaching in terms of the authority it grants. In this language alone that law has isolated undocumented workers from seeking police services should they be attacked or threatened in their safety for even requesting police services: a 911 call is nothing more an invitation to legal harassment and then deportation.

“… where reasonable suspicion exists that a person is alien and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made … to determine immigration status of the person”

Many advocates for this draconian law claim it mirrors the existing federal immigration law, but this is completely false. No standing U.S. law fails to define what exactly “reasonable suspicion” is to be recognized as in regards to infraction in question. You may have heard the phrase: “What does an illegal look like?” This is what these people are referring to. There is no standard set within any part of this law as to what exactly is the definition of “reasonable suspicion” of being here under undocumented (“alien”) status. This failure to define what the terms of “reasonable suspicion” entail creates a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against “unreasonable search and seizure” which requires “probable cause” be clearly established prior to such “reasonable attempt”s of the Arizona law to toss you in a cell or search your person in any manner. Furthermore, the Fifth Amendment also protects any person, be they citizen or not, from incriminating themselves so this very act of having state authorities asking a person to identify their status with the federal immigration bureau is a “reasonable attempt” to force the affected party to admit to a minor misdemeanor. Which still ultimately amounts to a form of self incrimination. Another way to understand this is know that if a undocumented worker knew their rights at the time of a “lawful stop” taking place they would be within their rights to claim the Fifth Amendment protections while being asked by a state official their federal immigration status.

“… may not consider race, color or national origin in implementing the requirements of the subsection …”

This clause was added after the initial drafting of the law and fails to clarify just exactly how an officer is to determine immigration status without the use of “race, color and national origin” as the primary factor is raising the question. Had the misguided authors of this law inserted their media commentary that “clothing” was a factor to be decided upon it would have held more weight than this rather self defeating clause. As I stated above, without the method of attaining “reasonable suspicion” of being here under undocumented status outlined in the this law it remains the only standard in which to enforce such a law would be racial profiling. This clause turned a simply unconstitutional law into a literally unenforceable law.

The greatest layer of the unconstitutionality of AZ SB 1070 is the very top layer:

It is not the business of state authority to tread upon the direct charge of federal agencies. Even when they have a false charge of “inaction” on behalf of the federal government, the state laws never supersede federal authority on existing issues. Before any of the other elements of unconstitutionality would be considered this first brazen disregard for the Constitution will get this anti-civil liberties and pro-racial profiling law thrown out of court.

My point from the beginning is it is disgusting and un-American of all involved with this law to even have to drag this veiled racism mixed with an unconstitutional power-grab into our courts in the first place. Striking down this law effectively and immediately is the only course of action that will save both money and freedom in one swift movement.

==================================================

Colbert knows what to do with those Tony Hayward types…

What I myself find especially funny lately is this strange group of people out there, I guess we’ll call them the “Blame No One Party” because that seems to be their game here. They are trying to convince us that blaming someone for the catastrophe that they oversaw and helped create is some act of mad lunacy. That we all should be looking forward. To what exactly I’m not too clear. The next environmental disaster that Big Oil will bless us with? I’ll be over here with my burning Tony Hayward effigy and “Boycott BP” signs, thank you very much.

Don’t forget this is the “worst oil spill in U.S. history” and has turned the Gulf of Mexico “into a dead zone.”

I’m for cutting all our government contracts with BP, and cutting their jet fuel arrangement with the Pentagon as well. A company like BP has no place working under federal auspices of any sort. They have effectively destroyed America. Were this deliberate and not rampant greed and arrogance it could easily be classified as some form of terrorist or economic attack on all of America.

It seems when extremists blow people up: it’s a crime and everybody is mobilized to catch the criminals. But when careless suits at BP blow people up: it’s something to be ignored and just accepted as part of modern life.

UPDATE:

IPC has backed my statements here in their Q&A Guide.