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Religion? Romney Worships 2011’s False Idol: Paul Ryan | NationofChange

Paul Ryan’s ideas reached their sell-by date in 2011, as tens of mil­lions of Amer­i­cans rec­og­nized that his pro­pos­als would per­ma­nently dam­age and ul­ti­mate de­stroy So­cial Se­cu­rity, Medicare and Med­ic­aid.

But as the year came to a close and his ran­cid schemes were start­ing to pu­trefy, Ryan sud­denly found a new buyer: Mitt Rom­ney.

The Re­pub­li­can pres­i­den­tial con­tender is so des­per­ate to sell him­self as the “con­ser­v­a­tive leader” he never was that Rom­ney’s “clos­ing ar­gu­ment” ap­peal to Iowa cau­cus goers fea­tures quotes from colum­nist Ann Coul­ter.

Those Rom­ney radio ads, which are more ubiq­ui­tous in Iowa than Geico gecko in­sur­ance com­mer­cials, tout the for­mer gov­er­nor of Mass­a­chu­setts as a “con­ser­v­a­tive busi­ness­man” with a “con­ser­v­a­tive plan.” They com­pare him with Ronald Rea­gan. They fea­ture Coul­ter quotes.

But the cen­ter­piece of Rom­ney’s ad­ver­tis­ing in Iowa (and New Hamp­shire) is an at­tempt to as­so­ci­ate the can­di­date’s eco­nomic agenda with House Bud­get Com­mit­tee chair­man Ryan’s “Roadmap for Amer­ica’s Fu­ture.”

via www.nationofchange.org

See link above for more.

The Rise of the Tea Party : The Big Lie - Where Did They Really Come From?

US press coverage has usually cast the Tea Party as an authentic expression of popular anger against Washington insiders. Anthony DiMaggio’s new book, Rise of the Tea Party, shatters such myths, demonstrating that the Tea Party has never been a genuine social movement or political outsider but rather an elite-dominated group that was closely linked to the Republican establishment from its inception three years ago. The Tea Party’s goal has been to aid a struggling Republican Party in its efforts to further roll back the social safety net and funnel more wealth and power from workers to the rich. The book’s relevance extends well beyond just the Tea Party, though. DiMaggio uses the group as a case study to explore broader issues of corporate media bias, the rightward shift of US politics in recent decades, and the effects of material and non-material factors in shaping people’s attitudes. The study is really two books in one: an authoritative examination of the Tea Party phenomenon and “a grand theory of public opinion and the larger social forces that influence it” (p. 29).

via www.commondreams.org

More at link above.

Coffee Party USA Celebrates 2011 Accomplishments | The Coffee Party's Top 10

In 2011, we chose to spend more time doing stuff, and less time
tooting our own horn (the latter is actually more expensive).  So, as we welcome our newly elected Board of Directors and begin 2012, let’s take a look back at ten important ways that Coffee Party volunteers helped to bring about the cultural and narrative shifts that made 2011 a year of progress despite many obstacles.  Please join us as part of our "Class of 2012" Membership Drive so we can build on the following accomplishments.

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10.  417,572,792 Post Views on Facebook  

If have any doubt that everyday Americans can have an impact on political discourse, consider the fact that a small team of volunteers shared the Coffee Party's civil, fact-based, and solutions-oriented approach to information gathering and civic engagement more than 417 million times in 2011.  [Click here to see our Facebook statistics for 2011, and read more about how we did it.]  417 Million post views from a single Facebook fan page is pretty impressive considering that it cost us zero dollars and zero cents to operate it. If a handful of volunteers can do so much with so little, maybe We the People have a fighting chance in 2012 — Super PAC's or no.

Facebook page is not our only communication network — we have a YouTube channel that's reached 892,000 viewers, an email network of 85,000, and a Twitter network of 14,000, not to mention 175 other Facebook pages.

But “Join the Coffee Party Movement” is the virtual town hall that started it all.  Total post views for the year (actually, through Dec. 28) include views resulting directly from Facebook.com/CoffeeParty, and views resulting from our users sharing posts to their own walls (and those posts being shared by their friends, and so on).

 

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9.  For the People Summit | Jan. 21, 2011

America's more informed citizens and our most responsible good-governmen

via coffeepartyusa.com

Big Hat Tip and more (including many videos at the link above. Are you still sitting on the sidelines? Are you mad enough yet? What will you do this year to help solve the problems of the Nation?

Japan Nuclear Event(s) Fears Realized in United States: U.S. excess deaths linked to Fukushima - UPI.com

14,000 excess U.S. deaths may be linked to the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, two researchers say.

Study authors epidemiologist Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, and Dr. Janette Sherman, an adjunct professor at Western Michigan University, said six days after the nuclear reactor meltdowns struck four reactors at Fukushima March 11, scientists detected the plume of toxic fallout had arrived over American shores.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found levels of radiation in air, water and milk hundreds of times above normal across the United States, the researchers said.

via www.upi.com

Full article and source at UPI article linked above (hat tip, too).

The worst political gaffes of 2011 - Hat Tip: The Week

Only one GOP candidate will get to face off with Obama in 2012's general election. But plenty participated in 2011's contest for biggest goofup

posted on December 30, 2011, at 9:58 AM

Sure, Michele Bachmann

via theweek.com

There are a bunch of them; follow the link.

The Last War Crime movie: Censorship Action Alert

The Last War Crime movie
















A MESSAGE FROM THE PEN

Last week we were stunned to receive an email from YouTube.com, that they had preemptively censored one of our preview clips from the upcoming feature film, "The Last War Crime". The notice didn't give a specific reason and provided no avenue for appeal.
Then we tried to log onto our YouTube page and were confronted with this notice, accusing the clip of containing nudity.

Of course it does NOT! The actor playing the detainee wore a swimmer's style bathing suit the entire time, and we positioned the female interrogator character so that view of his midriff was blocked entirely in any case. And if they are complaining this scene is sexually suggestive, they need to ban half the rest of the movies on their site.

In point of fact, the purpose of this scene is to CONDEMN the practice of waterboarding, long recognized to be a form of torture unequivocally. And in particular, we wanted to remind everyone that the sexual taunting of helpless and mostly innocent captives in places like Abu Ghraib was a deliberate part of a de facto program to degrade people in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Shame on YouTube for censoring this clip, which we believe, and we think you will agree, is part of an important cultural and artistic statement of social commentary. And shame on them further for doing so in such a summary and authoritarian manner, with no provision anywhere to challenge this outrageously wrongful act of unilateral censorship.

Please submit the form to the right, which will send your message of protest to YouTube, and you can add any personal comments of your own you like. And we'll see you in real theatres real soon for the world premiere of the movie with the courage to speak these truths, "The Last War Crime".


The Pen (writer, director)

**********

PENDING FILM FESTIVAL SUBMISSIONS

Santa Barbara Int'l Film Festival
Cinequest Film Festival
Ann Arbor Film Festival
SXSW (South By Southwest)
Cleveland Int'l Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
San Francisco Int'l Film Festival

Please note: a submission is no assurance that a submitted film will be selected for competition by a particular film festival. Watch this space for future announcements.






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WATCH THE VIDEO YOUTUBE CENSORED, AND SUBMIT A PROTEST TO THEM ABOUT IT!








See for yourself the waterboarding scene from the soon to be released full-length feature film, "The Last War Crime" . . .


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4,212 Submissions so far






















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We don't have acres of servers like YouTube, but if you allow a couple extra seconds this player will fully load and cache the clip
and it will play and replay smoothly. If we get a lot of hits it may slow down, but please be patient and you will get the whole thing.



Please submit the form below to send your message of protest to all the recipients below.
This is the basic petition,
and you can add whatever additional personal comments you like.
























Message Sender:


















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NY
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Recipients:




 YouTube





 My nearest daily newspaper I'd like to choose No paper











Your personal comments:











If one of your recipients is also a newspaper there is a
minimum of 10 and a maximum of about 250 words.
Your signature will be added automatically. Submission of
this form constitutes authorization to publish your letter in
your local newspaper if that option is selected above.















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View last 25 messages sent













Submit the email addresses of friends to invite to protest as well:







[this textbox will extract the email addresses from any text you paste or type in here]









I would like to hear more about this and other issues.





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  Just click once

If you need help with the form or for a simplified version of this action page click here.





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"The Last War Crime"
A new feature film written and directed by The Pen

Email The Pen





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