joe lieberman
GRITtv: Douglas Rushkoff: Internet Freedom, Egypt & the US
"If Internet freedoms have to be secured with policy then as far as I'm concerned there are no Internet freedoms," says Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed. He notes that what we've learned from the Internet shutoff in Egypt is that there is too much centralization on the Web, and when people like Joe Lieberman can call Amazon and knock WikiLeaks off their server or convince PayPal not to process their payments anymore, there's too much control. Doug joins us from his home via Skype to talk to us about the problems with the Internet we have, government control over it, and how we can create a 'Net they can't shut down.
Email this pageGRITtv: Feb. 2, 2011
"What we are seeing is nothing less than an Egyptian Tiananmen Square," says Khaled Fahmy of American University in Cairo. He watched today as bands of armed men descended on peaceful protesters in Cairo, heading for Tahrir Square. Some of the people, who Fahmy called "thugs" rode through crowds on horseback and camelback, trying to drive them back. Mubarak "has burned all his bridges with his people," Fahmy notes via phone from Cairo, and the violence today was a last gasp for the regime. "The one predictable thing about revolutions is that they are unpredictable," notes Benjamin Barber, fellow at Demos and author of Consumed and Jihad vs. McWorld. Barber points out that as revolution rocks the Arab world, each country will find its own solution and destiny. The important thing to note, he says, is that autocratic regimes hollow out their states' civil society, leaving little infrastructure in place for citizens to use to govern themselves. Benjamin joins Laura in studio to discuss the situation in Egypt and to update us on the conflict he wrote about in Jihad vs. McWorld years ago, between consumer capitalism and Islamism. Why can we picture no alternative to the two extremes, when revolution comes? "If Internet freedoms have to be secured with policy then as far as I'm concerned there are no Internet freedoms," says Douglas Rushkoff, author of Program or Be Programmed. He notes that what we've learned from the Internet shutoff in Egypt is that there is too much centralization on the Web, and when people like Joe Lieberman can call Amazon and knock WikiLeaks off their server or convince PayPal not to process their payments anymore, there's too much control. Doug joins us from his home via Skype to talk to us about the problems with the Internet we have, government control over it, and how we can create a 'Net they can't shut down. Distributed by Tubemogul.
GRITtv: Alexander Cockburn & Vince Warren: Prosecuting WikiLeaks
"It's the ruling class talking amongst itself," notes Alexander Cockburn of the information that WikiLeaks exposes and governments want to suppress. Meanwhile, Julian Assange is being held without bail, and online it's 4chan versus Mastercard, Xipwire versus PayPal in the fight to keep WikiLeaks open and funded as quickly as the government and corporate entities can shut it down. So what's the real story? Vince Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Alexander Cockburn of The Nation and CounterPunch join Laura to talk WikiLeaks: the charges, real and trumped-up, the free speech issues, and the real news uncovered underneath all the hype.
GRITtv: The F Word: Baby Steps Toward Equality
It's over a year into an Obama administration, and already that word “compromise” has been heard too much. Yet when the news hit Monday night that the administration had agreed to a compromise that would see Congress voting on overturning "Don't Ask Don't Tell", hopes rose again. GRITtv with Laura Flanders brings participatory democracy onto your computer screen and into your living room, bridging the gap between audience and advocates. Watch any show, at any time: http://grittv.org Distributed by Tubemogul.
"Democracy Now!":Thurs. May 13 2010
After many months of debate and delay, on Wednesday Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman unveiled a 987-page draft of a climate and energy bill that aims to cut emissions, reduce oil imports, and create energy-related jobs. But several environmental groups have criticized the legislation. We speak with Phil Radford of Greenpeace USA and Joseph Romm of the Center for American Progress’ blog ClimateProgress.org. In California, a controversy is escalating over claims of abusive and racist treatment in the state prison system. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state senate leaders announced this week they are backing a full-scale investigation of alleged racism and cruelty by guards at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville. Today marks the 25th anniversary of a massive police operation in Philadelphia that culminated in the helicopter bombing of the headquarters of a radical group known as MOVE. The fire from the attack killed 6 adults and 5 children and destroyed 65 homes. We hear from Mumia Abu-Jamal and speak with Ramona Africa, the only adult survivor of the bombing. "Democracy Now!" is a daily independent newshour.
GRITtv: How Will Independents Vote in 2010?
Barack Obama was able to win the presidency in part because of the strong support of self-identified "independent" voters. Yet the Tea Party movement draws many who also refer to themselves as independents. As the 2010 midterm elections approach, who's going to win over those supposed independents this time? And what about independent candidates for office? Joining us to discuss are Bill Hillsman, author of Run the Other Way: Fixing the Two-Party System, One Campaign at a Time, and Malia Lazu, executive director of The Gathering for Social Justice.
GRITtv: The F Word: Aren't We Cheneyed Out Yet?
At what point do we call them the family of mass intimidation and simply stop playing into the Cheney clan's tired old terror tactics? Liz is the latest. Cheney child number one made the headlines this week, with an innuendo-laced video questioning the loyalty of lawyers who represent Guantanamo detainees. "The Al Qaeda 7: Who are they?" Asks the voice on a video released by Cheney's supposedly nonprofit, non-partisan new hit squad. (They call it an advocacy group?)
Liz is playing from a battered old family play book. Shortly after September 11, it was her mother out there, accusing people of lack of patriotism. Lynne Cheney teamed up with Senator Joseph Lieberman to release a report which accused colleges and universities of being the "weak link in America's response" and naming 117 professors and students whom they called "short on patriotism" and "hostile to the US and western Civilization."
Not to be outdone by his women, barely a month has passed between 2001 and today in which Darth Vader patriarch Dick Cheney didn't accuse some Democrat or another of endangering the homeland. The former vice president's training in bait and snitch dates back to the 60s when when he spied on Students for A Democratic Society meetings, jotting down names for his then-boss Donald Rumsfeld in an attempt to cut government funding for public colleges.
Teachers, lawyers, politicians, In case it's not entirely clear, the Cheneys aren't too hot on the independent professions of a free democracy, but they are red hot for the contemporary equivalent of red-baiting and they've gotten it down pat, how to harness money media to do their bidding.
After all, it's thanks to media that it works. Even concerted attacks on campus progressives, lawyers, and political candidates don't successfully discredit their targets without the help of media who carry the allegations and innuendos. Facts be damned, it's the accusations that do the work: intimidating scholars, chilling freedom of expression, driving lawyers and politicians out of the line of fire.
The media - like FOX - who went ahead this week and obediently printed the names of the Cheney-tagged "7" and place the dead horse heads in the beds. Without them, the Cheney mob are simply name-callers.
It's time the media started greeting Cheneyisms with the reaction they deserve. Snore. And most important of all, silence.
The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.
GRITtv: Media Narratives Still Predictable
No matter what the news is, which country has tensions, who's making threats, the response from TV news seems to be the same: quote Dick Cheney. We saw plenty of that this week, along with pronouncements that Democrats are doomed in 2010, complaints about progressives who've criticized the health care bill, and of course Tiger Woods. Joining us to discuss the good, bad and ugly in this week's media are Marcy Wheeler of EmptyWheel at FireDogLake, Liza Sabater of CultureKitchen and The Daily Gotham, the Rude Pundit Lee Papa, and Dan Gerstein, Forbes columnist and president of Gotham Ghostwriters.
GRITtv: The F Word: Who You Callin' Moderate?
The Senate held a historic vote on health care reform this morning at 1 AM. Splitting exactly along party lines--that is, if you call Joe Lieberman a Democrat--the health care bill made it through a cloture vote and is one step away from final passage and the conference committee. To get so-called moderate Democrat Ben Nelson on board, however, Harry Reid had to agree to a decidedly un-moderate compromise on abortion rights. It's not Stupak language--but it's close. Stupak's staffers, meanwhile, were sending frantic emails to catholic bishops and top republican staffers asking for their help to keep his amendment in the final bill. If that's bipartisanship, they can keep it. So who says these guys are so moderate, anyway? -- Laura Flanders
GRITtv: The Media as Establishment
Joe Lieberman hijacked news coverage for a while this week, but it was Howard Dean's defense of real health care reform that inspired White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to a snarling personal response. Ben Bernanke was anointed Time's Person of the Year despite a hold on his renomination and a bill passing the house to audit the Federal Reserve. Is the Establishment closing ranks around its own? John Nichols, Washington correspondent for The Nation and co-author of the upcoming The Death and Life of American Journalism, thinks so. Karen Fragala Smith of Newsweek and Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting also join us to discuss this week in news.
