Progressive breakfast club headlines 12/18/08 12456

 

Progressive breakfast club headlines 12/18/08   U.S. SEEKS U.N. APPROVAL TO MAKE SOMALI A "GLOBAL FIRE-FREE ZONE" IN THE "WAR ON PIRACY."  Chris Floyd so describes the effort to elicit UN sanction for other countries,  with "Somalia government approval" to conduct raids against piracy "hang outs" in Somalia.  Being that the "Somali government" (what is left of it) is U.S. backed (through its Ethiopian surrogate), this approval should be no problem.  Main stream media and even the "progressive blogosphere" have generally failed to inform the public on the U.S. role in creating the very "piracy" activities that the U.S. is now so eager to suppress.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11375  SEE ALSO: http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=935&Itemid=1   IN IRAQ, IT'S BEST NOT TO SHAKE YOUR SHOE AT UNCLE SAM.  The jailed Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at President Bush, Muntadar al-Zeidi, has become a "folk hero" in Iraq, symbolizing popular dissatisfaction with the U.S. occupation.  When students at the university of Fallujah held a rally to protest his detention and some made gestures of lifting their shoes to U.S. troops, they were fired on by those troops, wounding one student.  (Other links to Baghdad's "shoe-thrower are shown).  http://news.antiwar.com/2008/12/17/us-troops-clash-with-fallujah-students-at-shoe-rally/   THE STATELY "PUBLISHING HOUSES" OF YORE HAVE MORPHED INTO "THE SUBBASEMENT OF GIANT ENTERTAINMENT CONGLOMERATES." Tom Engelhardt assays the situation of print media (books and newspapers) and finds the same tendency toward concentration and employee insecurity that one finds in the rest of corporate America.   http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175015/the_time_of_the_book   OBAMA PICKS A "REFORMER" AS SECRETARY OF EDUCATION.  Or, a media watchdog group notes, most of U.S. media would lead you to believe.  His choice of Arne Duncan, chief of Chicago public system, is hailed as a progressive move, though the agenda of his Chicago "reform" is exactly that of the Bush adminstration's No Child Life Behind emphasis on tough accountability and diversion of education from public to private schools.  Linda Darling-Hammond, another prospect who is a critic of the NCLB model, is castigated as an agent of the "status quo," especially of the unions of the teachers who gave Obama so much electoral support.  By going against his "base" and choosing to preserve and enhance the Bush agenda, Obama is credited with a courageous, progressive choice. (Roll over, George Orwell.)  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/17-12 SEE ALSO, BY GREG PALAST:  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/16-10   ORLANDO POLICE CHIEF MAKES A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION: TAKE GUNS OUT OF THE HANDS OF CRIMINALS.  She is responding to an increase of violent crime in Orlando over the last year.  While she says it will "take a lot of people" to accomplish this goal, an Orlando Sentinel article reporting her intention mentions such initiatives as improving living conditions in ghetto areas and enhancing the police system of receiving "tips" on impending crime---but nothing directly on taking away guns: by buybacks, gun dealer enforcement nor any other concrete program. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-opddemings1808dec18,0,1791602.story   Quote of the day:   "Editorials and opinion articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times have described the debate as pitting education reformers against those representing the educational establishment or the status quo. But who the reformers are depends on who is talking. Unfortunately, in most establishment media accounts, only one side has been allowed to do the talking."  Media watchdog group F.A.I.R.'s description of the editorial content typical of the recent controversy on the selection of a Secretary of Education.  http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3663