This time I have to lift one of Ah2's posts because it is so good,

"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouKJixL--ms

http://www.newshounds.us/2008/08/07/fox_news_still_trying_to_portray_obama_as_a_muslim.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bbgsYV9DXk&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhWaiULqkp4

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201111100020

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/23/gop-group-head-calls-obam_n_137282.html

Anyway. Pick your lie. He was born in Kenya. He's a socialist. All of it is lies. None of it true. None of it news.

The clip I can't find is of Limbaugh (I think) talking on his show about how Obama is a Muslim because his father was a Muslim and in the Islamic faith, relgion is passed through the father and what not. He literally goes on about it for almost 10 minutes.

Additionally, Fox News uses a rhetorical question technique in virtually all of their broadcasts. They do this for two reasons: 1) deniability. They can simply say, like you are here, "Well I never said that." 2) There is actually a psychological strength to questions. They have shown this in psychological studies of the effects of media. For some reason, when someone asks a question, people are less likely to challenge the premise of the question and direct their attention toward answering it, even if the premise of the question makes no sense. You did it in this thread, in fact. I spend half of my time in these forums challenging the premise of the question conservatives write on here. It is a skill you have picked up from the bullshit you watch.

So, this is a lesson to all the liberals who are still reading this post and found themselves actually trying to answer rigels question on his terms = whenever a conservative asks you a question, assume the premise on which the question is based is completely false. This may not always be true but it will get you out of the habit of debating conservatives on their terms - one of the things the Democratic Party has NOT figured out yet.

Let me go back up to that deniability thing, too, because I think it is really important to understand how this works. When Fox News (or anybody for that matter) asks a question to which they have already indicated the answer in the context in which the question was asked or in the form of the question itself, then it is NOT a question. These are rhetorical turns that are sometimes called command conversions and claim conversions.

The example of what Fox does in this case: "Obama's Father was Muslim. He was raised a Muslim. He went to a Muslim school. Is Obama a Muslim?" They are asking a question but it is clear from the context that the point of the question is to lead the listener to provide the answer the speaker is already indicated or looking for. This is not really a question, it is a test for compliance. People who work in law enforcement and psychology use this rhetorical device all the time. Fox "News" simply applies it to media.

Another way to do this is without context: "Are the policies of the democrats killing jobs, ruining the economy, and wrecking your life?" NOT A QUESTION. It is a rhetorical device. If they were really asking a question, this would be, "What are the effects of democratic policies on the economy? Hmm.... Let us investigate and support every claim we make with well established and supported facts." But they don't sat that. They say the first one and then throw a bunch of bullshit at you like it is real information.

This, again, is not news.

The only reason you don't want me to respond to this post rigel1 is because I see through your bullshit and because I raise the one question you really don't want to have to try to answer. Because it's the one that actually matters and it is the one that requires you to think about ETHICS and DEMOCRACY rather than a profit margin.

Maybe there is something to those stories of FEMA detention camps being built for US citizens. The Raw Story is that the Israeli model underlies the militarization of US police forces.
It make me wish that we could restore the constitution prior to The Patriot Act when we thought that privacy was a right and habeus corpus was a good thing.

On to economics. Poly says it so well that I'll just quote him,

Say's Law, simplified is this:

production cost (materials, energy, etc.) - wages - money supply = aggregate. The sum of an economy. The money supply without inflation or deflation will equal all costs of production. Everything that is produced can be bought. Profit extractions that are so high they aren't re-spent back into the economy upset the equation. Then everything that is produced can't be bought. Production slows or ceases.

We make up for the profit extractions with credit. Infusions into the money supply Credit reaches a ceiling where further credit can't be re-paid. Infusions into the money supply to make up for profit exractions slow or cease. Production then slows or ceases.

Say's Law doesn't address the structural requirement for continual expansion. It doesn't address that while all production can be bought, if Say's Law was adhered to, it sometimes isn't.

It doesn't address what happens when people feel they have everything they need and stop spending...as in Japan..Production then slows or ceases.

In a monastery, when we produce all we need, we stop work and stop production,. We enjoy the leisure time, and simply distribute the surplus until production is once again required.

You don't do it that way.. When production stops, and work stops because there is no need for additional goods to be produced, your distribution of required goods stops. The surplus isn't simply distributed until production is once again required.. What should be enjoyable leisure time becomes a personal economic horror known as unemployment..

Different economic system. Ours doesn't have your structural flaws.

Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease""

Egality

The Democratic Reformation. We'd like a little more egality, thanks. Yeah, I hoping that an Arab Spring leads to an American Autumn to a European Winter to an eventual Star Trek future when the realization of the Cree and we don't bother with the money anymore. I just love those Utopian visions. You can click here to read more about the specifics in the productions.

We're not there yet so you might want to check some facts about our nations biggest banks or some facts about the wealthiest among us.

worming our way to truth

A new study finds federal employees are a better deal than private contractors. Gee, we had to have a study to figure that out? The parasites may be bad for governments bottom line, but they may do a body good so we might want to start microbe-managing our health in ways that may seem rather distasteful.

From 75 to 83 percent in one year is the change in percentages of people believing in global warming. I didn't think the numbers were that high.

Here is a really nice piece from Sam Harris titled, What's the Point of Transcendence. Looks like he might be my go to guy in the SNR department. He even wrote about spiritual truths as if they are real things.

Rep Rush Holt is my kinda congressman, he likes science. Saw him on Dylan Rattigan who claims to be mad as hell and has something on the burner. I like his framing.
Good plug for Jimmy Williams too. Lobbying reports may be helpful.

Make sure to review After Capitalism, it looks like a must.

The Populist Party

It's time for the Populist Party to resurrect. There's a fair amount of information to be found concerning a Peoples Party , but not as much for a Populist Party, at least on wiki. Here we can find some original wording here in The Omaha Platform where history matters, but that's too sophisticated for today's TV people. Where should I begin with this idea, this effort? Right here and I did post this at Hartmann's site. We'll see where that goes.

Hey check it out, the Simultaneous Policy is still alive.

Food Inc

Occupy Wall Street

Today might be Labor Day, but it's still The End of Work for lots of people. How much work do people really need to do? If you are a CEO you might be making more money than your entire corporation pays in taxes? That's just wrong, isn't it? Just how rich is too rich? Don't we all know that inequality is unhealthy?

Hurray, finally got to see Food Inc. It's not exactly The World According To Mansanto, but it does point us to The Future of Food. Perhaps they are what will kill us all.

There are Millions Against Montsanto...maybe this will be the October surprise. But before that happens, there will be people trying to take over Wall Street on September 17, Adbusters.

Put these guys on your list of professional bullshitters...LearnLiberty.org pisses me off. He's right about Hong Kong though.

same ol'

Here we are in dangerous times when hundreds are being arrested in front of the White House because the pipeline could mean Game Over according to our top climate scientist. We don't see anything about the protests in corporate media. Perhaps that's because fossil fuel industries are investing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising/propaganda. 350.org reports that we're up to 392ppm

Note: try not to miss The Last Heart Attack with Dr Sonja Gupta (or something like that) on MSNBC. It's about switching to a vegetarian diet.

The "news" reports that there were no jobs created and unemployment remains at 9.1%. Geez, I thought we required 200,000+ jobs/months to keep up with population growth caused by immigration. Something isn't adding up.

Here some stuff about food, like The Future Of Food and the evils of Monsanto and a nice NGO for good food which is Food Freedom and.. senate bill S510 that does harm to the people and the environs in favor to corporations and greed...or should I say harm to Eaarth.\