This from the August 18, 2003 program.
Jim Hightower is the author of a new book:
Thieves In High Places.
Jim Hightower On Texas Democrats Voting With Their Feet (Excerpt)
(Small – 4 MB)
Jim Hightower On The Daily Show – Complete (Small – 13 MB)
The Daily Show (The best news on television.)
There’s an introduction in the beginning by Jon Stewart with a clip of Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman saying “have you ever seen the United States take the blame for anything?”
According to Stewart, the US tried to blame Canada for the Blackout at first — before it was discovered that it was a problem with the US side of the grid after all.
Samantha Bee — Canadian Beacon (Small – 11 MB)
The Daily Show (The best news on television.)
Flash mobbers hit Brazil again
On Ananova.com
A Brazilian flash mob has hit the busiest road in Sao Paulo.
Around 100 people gathered in Avenida Paulista and pointed remote controls at a giant screen, as if they were trying to change channels.
After exactly three minutes they put the controls away and walked off as if nothing had happened, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reports.
The first Brazilian flash mob happened last week when a crowd converged on a Sao Paulo street corner, removed one shoe each and beat it on the pavement several times.
The flash mob phenomenon, in which crowds organised by email and websites perform pointless stunts, started in the US and has spread around the world.
I sure hope he’s not our next Governor, but his story is a pretty interesting one.
Schwarzenegger’s Next Goal on Dogged, Ambitious Path
By Bernard Weinraub And Charlie Leduff for the NY Times.
Thirty-five years ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger, an unknown Austrian bodybuilder who spoke only a few words of English, had little money and no acting experience, came to the United States and soon made a prediction: He would become a movie star, make millions of dollars, marry a glamorous wife and wield political power…
By all accounts, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s drive to succeed was not merely an immigrant’s classic up-by-the-bootstraps obsession. It was a calculated effort to turn himself into an invulnerable and powerful (physical and otherwise) figure. He was also a far cry from the skinny Austrian boy whose father, Gustav, a policeman and a one-time member of the Nazi Party, intimidated and sometimes beat him, favoring his other son, Menhard, according to published accounts of Mr. Schwarzenegger’s life. (Mr. Schwarzenegger did not attend the funeral of his father in 1972, or that of his brother, who died in a car crash in 1971.)…
But the scrutiny of Mr. Schwarzenegger has only begun. So far he has not clarified his positions on most public issues, including offshore oil drilling, the state’s budget crisis and immigration.
On abortion, however, he has said that he is for women’s right to choose. On business, he has said he would bring more of it to the state to generate more revenue. And as for his economic view, Mr. Schwarzenegger was quoted in The Sacramento Bee as saying, “I still believe in lower taxes – and the power of the free market.”…
The Los Angeles Times, in a recent investigation of his finances, estimated that his fortune far exceeded $200 million. This included real estate investments and a significant ownership in Dimensional Fund Advisors, a mutual fund company in Santa Monica that manages about $40 billion.
Mr. Schwarzenegger has climbed a social as well as political ladder. He used his early fame to get acquainted with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. When “Pumping Iron,” was released, Mr. Schwarzenegger told the film’s publicity agent, Bobby Zarem, that the one person he wanted to meet was Mrs. Onassis. Mr. Zarem spoke to a friend who worked for Mrs. Onassis. A luncheon meeting was arranged at Elaine’s in New York to introduce the relatively unknown Mr. Schwarzenegger to Mrs. Onassis, Andy Warhol and others. A photograph of Mr. Schwarzenegger talking to Mrs. Onassis was widely distributed, and his celebrity grew…
Mr. Butler, who still keeps in touch with Mr. Schwarzenegger, put it another way. “Arnold is one of the most political people I’ve ever met,” Mr. Butler said. “Everything he does is political. He has an uncanny ability to go to a meeting, get into an elevator, sit down with people in a restaurant, and immediately assess their strengths and weakness. He manipulates.”…
Mr. Schwarzenegger’s campaign team for the run for governor consists of Mr. Wilson, a Republican whose support for rigid measures to combat illegal immigration contrasted with his moderate approach to abortion and other social issues, and some senior members of his old Sacramento crew, including Bob White, his longtime strategist.
Mr. Schwarzenegger has drawn other powerful and well-know figures to his cause. Warren Buffett, the billionaire financier and a friend of Mr. Schwarzenegger, came aboard as a financial consultant, and George P. Shultz, secretary of state under President Reagan and friend of Mr. Wilson from the Hoover Institute, is helping the campaign…
Mr. Schwarzenegger did not vote in the last two presidential elections, according to election records. And over the last 20 years he has given more money to Democrats than Republicans, albeit all of the Democrats are Kennedys…
Some Republican conservatives have held back in supporting Mr. Mr. Schwarzenegger’s candidacy. On social policies, at least, Mr. Schwarzenegger seems to hold views that conflict with hard-cover conservatives in the party. His outlook can best be summed up in an interview he gave to The Sunday Telegraph magazine in November 1999 in which he admonished his party members to alter their approach.
The Republican Party, Mr. Schwarzenegger said, “is going to lose until you become a party of inclusion.” He went on to say, “that you love the foreigner that comes in with no money, as much as a gay person, as a lesbian person, as anyone else – someone who is uneducated, someone who’s from the inner-city.”
Lisa’s voting NO on the Recall and YES on Cruz Bustamante.
Arnie and Kenneth Lay and Dick Cheney had meetings together during the California Energy Crisis/Scandal. How interesting.
Ahnuld, Ken Lay, George Bush, Dick Cheney and Gray Davis
By Jason Leopold for Commondreams.org.
Arnold Schwarzenegger isn
RIAA Subpoenas and the Final Failure of the DMCA
By Ed Foster, Section The Gripelog
(via techlawadvisor.com)
The original intent of Congress was to prevent ISPs and other Internet services from having to police their users
Utility Officers Gave to Bush
By Mike Allen for the Washington Post.
The top two executives of FirstEnergy Corp., the Ohio-based utility that is a focus of investigations into last week’s cascading blackouts, are key financial supporters of President Bush, according to campaign records.
H. Peter Burg, chairman and chief executive, was one of three hosts of a $600,000 fundraiser for Bush’s reelection campaign in Akron, Ohio, on June 30. Vice President Cheney was the featured speaker.
Anthony J. Alexander, FirstEnergy’s president and chief operating officer, was a “Pioneer” for Bush’s last campaign, meaning he raised at least $100,000. Alexander also contributed $100,000 to Bush’s inaugural committee.
The Energy Department has dispatched teams of investigators to the Midwest and Northeast. Democrats have questioned whether Bush’s administration coddled electric companies because of his long personal ties to the energy industry.
FirstEnergy’s ties could increase Capitol Hill scrutiny of the White House handling of the blackout aftermath.
Bush’s campaign had no comment.
Records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show that FirstEnergy executives contributed about $50,000 to Bush’s last campaign. Energy and natural resource interests gave the campaign more than $3.6 million, according to the group’s figures.
This clip has footage of the Shrub explaining the lesson we were supposed to learn from the blackout: we need to upgrade our power grid! (Of course.)
Funny, a friend of mine was telling me this morning that all the conspiracy theorists were speculating on the Shrub saying this before the week was out, and that Halliburton would probably get the contract. I guess the Stewart heard the same rumours. (Or started them 🙂
This is from the August 18, 2003 program.
Daily Show On The Blackout Of 2003 (Small – 3 MB)
The Daily Show (The best news on television.)
Here’s Donna Wentworth on Friday, July 4, 2003, telling us what she thought of the conference.
Of course, Donna was sort of a special attendee — she took incredible notes and posted for them in near-real time all week long.
Her favorite session (when forced to choose) was the Future of Entertainment: Music panel with the EFF’s Fred von Lohmann.
Donna Wentworth On ILAW 2003
The Crime and the Cover-Up
By William Rivers Pitt for t r u t h o u t.
The simple fact is that America went to war in Iraq because George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and virtually every other public face within this administration vowed that Iraq had vast stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. America went to war because these people vowed that Iraq had direct connections to al Qaeda, and by inference to the attacks of September 11.
“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised,” said Bush on March 17, 2003.
“We know now that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons,” said Cheney on August 26, 2002.
“There is no doubt” that Saddam Hussein ”has chemical weapons stocks,” said Powell to FOX News on September 8, 2002.
“Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda,” said Bush in his State of the Union address. On September 26, 2002, Don Rumsfeld laid the groundwork for Bush’s statement by claiming that America had “bulletproof” evidence of Iraqi involvement with al Qaeda.
These public statements, augmented by hundreds more in the same vein, stoked fears within an already shellshocked American populace that Iraqi nuclear weapons and anthrax would come raining out of the sky at any moment, unless something was done. This same information was delivered in dire tones to Congress, which voted for war on Iraq based almost exclusively on the testimony of CIA Director George Tenet.
None of it was true. Not one ounce of chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry has been found in Iraq in the 82 days since “hostilities ceased” on May 1, 2003. Not one ounce of chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry has been found in Iraq in the 124 days since the shooting in Iraq officially started on March 19, 2003. Not one ounce of chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry has been found in Iraq in the 230 days since the UNMOVIC weapons inspections began in Iraq in late November of 2002. No proof whatsoever of Iraqi connections to al Qaeda has been established.