GLOBAL POLITICAL AWAKENING

Authorities Seek to Destroy Couple's Immaculate Edible Landscape
Woman Sues City of Tulsa For Cutting Down Her Edible Garden
Charges NOT Dropped For Growing Garden
Ocean Fertilization: Will Polluting our Waters Cause Another Ice Age?
Syria Update: What the News Isn't Reporting
The New York Times Admits That Virtually Every Major News Outlet Allows Censorship By Government Officials
Is Galactic Perspective Missing in Climate Change Debate?
New Killing and Suspicious Actions by Anaheim Police Follow Previous Day Chaos
Growing Change Food Revolution Trailer
The Government is Sick (Video)

Authorities Seek to Destroy Couple's Immaculate Edible Landscape

Posted: 25 Jul 2012 03:39 AM PDT

Will international activism save this couple's garden from a town code?

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

People are hungry, economies everywhere are tanking. The answer to that problem used to be "do what you can on your own." In America, it was the now iconic Victory Gardens. In Montreal, Canada there is a move to defeat such self-reliance.

For some strange reason, helping yourself is the very last thing the governments in both the U.S. and Canada will "allow" you to do; not even on your own land. Stranger still, it is the lower-rung, local governments that show up in news stories extinguishing property rights in the name of almighty municipal code.

Josée Landry and partner Michel Beauchamp decided to start an urban garden for both economic and health reasons, and they even have documented its progress via their family blog since its beginning. They proudly gave their new passion a name - Rosa - in memory of civil rights icon, Rosa Parks, who refused to take her place as ordered by the tyrannical bureaucracy of the day.

Now it seems that they find themselves forced to take a stand for another basic civil right: food freedom. Instead of allowing this garden to flourish and nourish, local officials in Canada now want to make any new front yard gardens completely illegal by autumn, along with uprooting Rosa.
The crackdown on home gardening has been marching across the first world at a rapid pace of late. In the U.S. we have seen a woman threatened with jail for 93 days for front yard tomatoes and aTulsa, OK woman sued after coming home to find her yard full of herbal remedies and vegetation ripped up and taken. Oftentimes, it's a power play, and only when enough negative attention is garnered, do the code enforcers back down, usually citing their targets for some other minor infraction.

This latest move in Canada follows a similar pattern; by enforcing an arbitrary code that front yard gardens (also called kitchen gardens) are only allowed, at the bare minimum, less than 30% vegetation. Who in Drummondville, Quebec would create such a code and why? Also, shouldn't other factors be considered: they own their home, they offer the food to the community without profit, it is aesthetic and has attracted worldwide media attention, as well as some celebrity garden bloggers.

Not only does the city want most of the couple's garden uprooted and tossed, but they are seriously discussing outlawing all future front yard gardens! The only stipulation being that old gardens can apparently stay as long as it meets the "under 30% of the yard" code.

The couple was facing fines of between $100 and $300 per day if they did not comply by yesterday. According to CBCNews, "The couple said they had no intention of complying with the city's request."

As per usual, the local authorities love to vaguely claim that there have been neighbor complaints. CEO of Drummondville, Claude Proulx, called it a question of "uniformity of the urban fabric."

But, Beauchamp has been open with his neighbors, and they have shared the fun and eats. He has had no inkling of anyone disliking the tidy and delicious landscape, adding, "They love it. Everybody is surprised by the kind of taste we can have from fresh vegetables." (Source)

And no doubt the neighbors may also be impressed by the changes they see in the urban farming couple: both growing and eating the garden goods has helped Landry and Beauchamp lose a combined 100 pounds!

Take some tips from this video of their garden's formation:

Urban kitchen garden activist and blogger Roger Doiron got behind the fight and organized an impressive worldwide petition called Stop the War on Front Yard Vegetable Gardens. As of Sunday, they had 800 signatures, yesterday 8,000, and today almost 11,000 and counting. The couple's "bed-in" peaceful protest, Lennon-Ono style, also garnered much support and media attention.

By the way, Doiron is the one who apparently encouraged Michelle Obama to grow the Presidential garden. No sooner had he featured the Canadian garden on his site when they get slammed with threats of hundreds of dollars in fines if they didn't rip it out and replant grass. Do you think he wonders why the White House shows the world about gardening, and then municipalities everywhere start simultaneously cracking down on their residents?

What does it ultimately take to stop the rolling boulder of unyielding municipal power? As evidenced above and in other cases, a negative spotlight, lots of outraged people, and the threat of losing an election (and salary and pension) speaks volumes. The culmination of which recently bought Landry and Beauchamp till September 1, before the officials decide what to do with them. Activism works!

That allows them to harvest their garden, but then what? Will people forget the original intention to outlaw all such yard gardens? That's a problem when things get pushed back - the officials hope that people do not stay so riled up, and that the media moves on. And what of the gardening soldiers? Will they be slapped with other arbitrary code violations?

Let's try to revisit these plights to make sure we don't leave them behind in the big fight for all of our food freedom.

If this garden is deemed illegal, we're in deep you-know-what. - Roger Doiron

Sign the petition: http://www.causes.com/causes/11991-plant-healthy-gardens-feed-a-hungry-world/actions/1667714

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Potager-urbain/404082506296711

Personal website of Josée Landry and partner Michel Beauchamp:http://www.lepotagerurbain.com/

Roger Doiron's Kitchen Garden organization with over 24,000 in the online community:http://kgi.org/

This ultra-sleek video was professionally produced by a friend of the couple:

ROSA | Potager Urbain from Samuel Gaudreau on Vimeo.

Read other articles by Heather Callaghan HERE
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Woman Sues City of Tulsa For Cutting Down Her Edible Garden

Posted: 25 Jul 2012 03:15 AM PDT

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Charges NOT Dropped For Growing Garden

Posted: 25 Jul 2012 03:11 AM PDT

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

While it only appears that the City of Oak Park, MI dropped charges toward Julie Bass for planting a vegetable garden in her front yard, she wants to clarify that charges have not been dropped. She may not be spending 93 days in the slammer for growing veggies, but she faces similar punishment - for her dogs! But the garden fiasco is not over, more on that below.

Did the canines have run-ins with the police and attack pedestrians? No, they were simply unlicensed at the time she was ticketed for the garden. So the Bass family immediately got licenses after being cited for them, showed proof to the prosecutor and then it seemed that the issue was cleared. That is, until the case was recently reinstated. Even though her pets are current and licensed, she faces two misdemeanors and possibly over 93 days in jail. Political posturing at its finest.

Be sure to watch the news clip below. Their attorney is going to subpoena all other city citations regarding these ordinances to find out just how selectively enforced they really are.

Listen to Oak Park Prosecutor Eugene Lumberg digress and ask the news anchor if she would like to have her neighbors plant corn stalks next door (or have a chicken coop!). Kudos to the interviewer for setting him straight and directing the conversation back to the point.

Fox 2 News Headlines

Another reason the garden charges are not necessarily dropped is because they were strangely "[not dropped but] dismissed by some judge we have never heard of or seen. we hope this person is a real judge, and had the real authority to dismiss our case, but we are going to double-check on that today." Also, a "dismissal without prejudice means that the prosecutor can come back at any time and reinstate the garden charge" as witnessed with the reinstatement of the dog case. Julie says, "there has been no final disposition of the case, so we can't take a deep breath and relax." She continues, "the prosecutor wants more time to review the ordinance. not that he has given up on the garden charge. to the contrary, he wants more time to look things over."

So, it is still mysteriously unclear whether the vegetable garden charges have actually gone into complete remission.

Julie shares more on her blog:

i can't think of anything else to clarify, but please keep the word out there that we are not off the hook. a lot of places have been printing and posting "charges were dropped!"- but that's only part of the story, and gives the incorrect impression that we have won. that's not true, and i really worry that if the focus goes away, they will renew their prosecution/persecution of us. please take it upon yourself to correct errors in other places and to spread the truth.

we can't do this without you!!!! thank your continued support!!!!!!!!!!!! -julie

Is Oak Park targeting her? The city prosecutor says "it's all about being fair" and "nothing personal."But lo and behold, the standards do not apply to everyone in Oak Park. We truly hope the defending attorney, Soloman Radnar, finds more on how and who the city decides to punish and why. Then, just maybe, the city will back off and peace can be restored in the Bass home. Julie truly appears to be a victim of selective enforcement.
While she may or may not go to jail for a garden, they can't let this renegade go unpunished for nothing. After the story became an internet sensation known the world over complete with blogs, websites, and petitions, the city needed to cool the flames. They have to slap her around with extra "dirt" they dug up in the form of unlicensed dogs. The ol' switcheroo…or bait-n-switch?

Julie Bass still has the same court date as before, July 26th. But this time it will be for two misdemeanors for the dogs, instead of one for the garden.

One more word to city planner Mr. Rulkowski who deemed that Webster found the word "suitable" means "common." We're not sure what copy you're using, but it actually means "appropriate." Common might be a random synonym but I haven't come across it in a definition (or a synonym yet). Another main definition is "adapted to a use or purpose" as in this dirt and land is suitable for growing.

Note: It appears that "suitable" is becoming one of the most checked out words on meriam-webster.com. There are 62 comments, as of now, from people explaining what made them look up the word suitable.

We leave with you with a poem of her plight by a gifted poet known as the Bard of Murdock:

The Oak Park Outlaw

The scofflaw, Julie Bass,
Rejected trees and grass,
And took to life of crime
With parsley, sage and thyme.

Her crime is avant garde:
The beds in her front yard
Contain illegal greens,
Like peppers, peas and beans.

Thank God the planner saw
Within the public law,
A means to prosecute
Before she planted fruit.

The plaintiff, Kevin R.,
The Oak Park planning czar,
Will see the line is toed
By pointing to the code.

But folks can misconstrue
What's 'suitable' to do,

So Kevin has deferred
To 'common' as his word.

And what is more unique
Than cucumber or leek,

When planted in a bed
Where grass should grow instead.

Uncommon as they are
Outside a mason jar,
She'll need to clear her yard
Of broccoli and chard.

Then justice will prevail,
And Oak Park can exhale,
Devoid of squash and kale,
With Julie safe in jail.

Sources:

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/oak-park-drops-charges-against-julie-bass-and-her-vegetable-garden_20110714_dk
http://oakparkhatesveggies.wordpress.com/
http://www.oakparkhatesveggies.com/
http://www.thebardofmurdock.com/search?updated-max=2011-07-10T03%3A00%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=6
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suitable
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Ocean Fertilization: Will Polluting our Waters Cause Another Ice Age?

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 10:33 AM PDT

Susanne Posel, Contributor
Activist Post

The hoax of man-made climate change was reached a new low. Alarmists are now supporting the UN scheme to dump iron into our oceans claiming that this will bury CO2 and reduce the impact of global warming.

Alarmist scientist Dave Reay, a senior lecturer in carbon management at the University of Edinburgh, comments:

If the 50 percent figure for algal bloom biomass sinking to the deep ocean is correct then this represents a whole new ball game in terms of iron fertilization as a geo-engineering technique.

Maybe such deliberate enhancement of carbon storage in the oceans has more legs than we thought but, as the authors acknowledge, it's still far too early to run with it.

Back in 2010, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), which is part of UNESCO,published a study that approved of ocean fertilization as a "preventative" measure of sequestering CO2 in the deep oceans.

Dr. Michael Lutz, lead author of the study, said:

This discovery is very surprising. If, during natural plankton blooms, less carbon actually sinks to deep water than during the rest of the year, then it suggests that the Biological Pump leaks. More material is recycled in shallow water and less sinks to depth, which makes sense if you consider how this ecosystem has evolved in a way to minimize loss. Ocean fertilization schemes, which resemble an artificial summer, may not remove as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as has been suggested because they ignore the natural processes revealed by this research.

Geoengineering techniques have "unintended" consequences and mostly negative effects on our environment.

Victor Smetacek, professor at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, who has led research teams supporting ocean fertilization asserts:

The time has come to differentiate: some geoengineering techniques are more dangerous than others. Doing nothing is probably the worst option.

The Royal Society, a globalist think-tank, released a study in 2009 that surmised that cutting man-made CO2 emissions is the first priority over safely dealing with our changing environment. Geoengineering, although a drastic measure, is justified because different attempts to mitigate carbon in our atmosphere will solve all of our problems.

John Shepard, professor and head scientist of the study on geoengineering claims:

It is important that we continue to research these technologies but governance of this research is vital to protect the oceans, wider environment and public interests.

In 2004, a team of scientists released 7 tons of iron sulfates into the ocean near Antarctica. This caused plankton to bloom exponentially. After monitoring the project for a month, the researchers concluded that with the bloom of plankton they could assume that large amounts of CO2 had sunk to the depths of the ocean.

The scientists turned the Antarctic region into a giant "test tube".

Victor Smetacek, of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany, said: "I am hoping that these results will show how useful these experiments are."

Smetacek says ocean fertilization should be controlled by the United Nations. He also believes that private corporations should not be allowed to conduct experiments unless mandated by the UN. Under current treaties for carbon credit tax schemes, this mode of sequestering CO2 should be combined with solar geoengineering efforts.

Bill Gates has been funding David Keith's Carbon Engineering corporation while funneling millions of dollars into solar geoengineering experiments. Making money on the actual scheme, as well as the manufacturing, Gates claims this inexpensive method of slowing down global warming effects. Keith disregards his peers who assert that this action will alter Earth's natural weather patterns, while environmental groups decry that geoengineering nullifies their efforts to purport their campaigns to convince the public that man-made climate change is directly causational to human emissions of CO2.

In their study, the researchers claimed that this experiment proved the ocean fertilization could be effectively used to sequester CO2 in the ocean and be used on a regular basis as a viable geoengineering technique. They now plan to use ocean fertilization to bury 1 gigaton of CO2 annually as greenhouse gas emissions rise. These alarmists use the fear of a climate "tipping point". As these scientists continue to use the ocean waters in the Arctic as experimentation grounds, they disregard the problems they could be causing.

Professor Rosemary Rayfuse, expert in International Law and the Law of the Sea at the University of New South Wales, Australia, asserted that ocean fertilization is not approved under carbon credit regulatory schemes and sale of its offsets on unregulated markets results in fraud.

The "dumping" of CO2 into the oceans amounts to polluting the waters. Rayfuse, citing the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) stated that:

There is no point trying to ameliorate the effects of climate change by destroying the oceans — the very cradle of life on earth. Simply doing more and bigger of that which has already been demonstrated to be ineffective and potentially more harmful than good is counter-intuitive at best.

John Cullen, an oceanographer with Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has analyzed the data on ocean fertilization and published his findings. He concludes that these experiments are dangerous on large scales that globalists are insisting take place. We will be polluting our oceans and this will have drastic consequences on ocean life and the delicate balance of our biosphere.

In essence, if ocean fertilization is pursued, they scheme would cause an Ice Age because of the effect of extreme cooling on our planet.

This week it became clear just what the consequences of ocean sequestering and other forms of geoengineering would be.

According to NASA satellites, an iceberg the size of Manhattan broke from the Greenland glacier. Alarmists are claiming that this proves man-made global warming is real; however, since the globalist scientific community has been polluting the oceans in the Arctic, it is quite possible that they have created the problem they claimed was happening.

Scientists are looking to take advantage of the oceans to justify natural cycles and contributions to the Earth's climate, while simultaneously finding new ways to exploit this resource for their globalist agendas. Under the guise of using plankton for CO2 sequestering, data is being entered into computer models to see how this new integration can be used to maximize carbon credit profits.

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

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Syria Update: What the News Isn't Reporting

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 10:29 AM PDT

Wider UNSC dissension, Turkish offensive against its own "rebels," and Iraq's rejection of latest "Arab League" statement before massive Al Qaeda attacks.

Tony Cartalucci, Contributor
Activist Post

Scratching just below the surface of the Western media's headlines are stories carrying greater implications - stories the West believes are better left untold.

"Operation Damascus Volcano" Followed Weeks of Warnings of Impending NATO Psy-Op.

Beginning last week, headlines were overrun by a coordinated NATO-backed "Free Syrian Army" (FSA) offensive and an assassination bombing in Damascus, timed so close to each other and the UN Security Council vote on sanctions, the vote was pushed back a day.

The attacks dubbed, "Operation Damascus Volcano" were clearly coordinated with the assassination bombing, designed for psychological impact, and when Syrians reacted with resolve, they quickly collapsed.

What went unreported until over a week later, were warnings of a potential NATO psychological warfare operation, matching hijacked satellite channels broadcasting false reports with an initially violent but ultimately futile militant offensive to stampede the Syrian government out of power on a wave of confusion and panic. It appears "Damascus Volcano" was just that operation.
The Western media would not cover this story until a week later, when security operations in Damascus concluded in the favor of the government; and Syrian state television repeatedly made warnings to its viewers about further potential disinformation campaigns. Even then, reports were limited to "Tweets" by Western journalists and headlines in China's English news.
Dissent in the UN Security Council Not Confined to Only Russia and China

Another big story was the UNSC resolution that was vetoed by Russia and China. The US and UK were quick to condemn the two nations, portraying them as the sole obstructions to resolving a conflict of the West's own creation. But, what has gone largely unreported by the West, is theabstention of Pakistan and South Africa - revealing wider opposition upon the Security Council than was portrayed, illustrating an erosion of Western influence its media houses would rather not discuss.

Image: We all know that Russia and China vetoed the US-British backed UNSC resolution paving way for military intervention. What many do not know is that Pakistan and South Africa abstained in protest of the resolution.

Arab League Ultimatum Rejected by Syria.... and Iraq. Al Qaeda Promptly Punishes

There is also the Arab League which, speaking on behalf NATO, attempted one last chance to lure Syria into quick capitulation, offering sanctuary to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad if only he would step down immediately. Ultimately Syria rejected these demands, illustrating its state institutions are not as near "crumbling" as the West insists.

What has gone largely unreported is the fact that the "Arab League's" demands were made by the despotic governments of mainly Qatar and Saudi Arabia who are openly arming and paying the salaries of the FSA - essentially Gulf State mercenaries - to whom the League is asking Syria to surrender. Tunisia, under the US-installed President Moncef Marzouki had been the one specifically to offer President Assad "safe haven," further illustrating the absurdity of the Arab League's proxy demands.

Image: Sadr City, Baghdad - the aftermath of Monday, July 23, 2012's bombing & shooting spree, which Al Qaeda has taken responsibility for. It is designed specifically to spark off another destructive and divisive sectarian conflict - similar to the one the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are fueling in Iraq's northern neighbor, Syria. The attack was carried out the same day Iraq rejected the Arab League's (primarily Saudi Arabia and Qatar) demands that Syria's president step down immediately.

Furthermore, Iraq wholly rejected the "Arab League" demands made on Monday, and almost immediately suffered the consequences as sectarian extremists under the Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) banner declared a new campaign of violence against the Iraqi government, beginning with a bombing and shooting spree leaving over a hundred dead in one day. It should be noted by readers that Al Qaeda was initially created by the United States and Saudi Arabia and has since been used to execute Western foreign policy up to and including both NATO's recent operations in Libya, and now in subverting Syria.

Al Qaeda's campaign most likely was inevitable, as Iraq drifts ever further away from US, Israeli, and Saudi influence, but its public condemnation of the Arab League's demands verses Syria made for impeccable timing as AQI launched its most recent strike.

Turkey Crushes Own Rebels While Backing FSA Terrorists in Syria

Finally, reports of a Turkish military helicopter going down in the Hakkari province, just north of Iraq in operations against Kurdish rebels located there, indicates that another Turkish military operation against its own Kurdish population is underway - albeit very quietly.

Image: A Turkish Blackhawk (reported as an S-70 Sikorsky) like the one pictured above was downed in the Hakarri province where security operations are targeting Kurdish rebels there, and across the border with northern Iraq.

Turkey has pursued an exceedingly hypocritical foreign policy as of late - arming, funding, training, and sheltering FSA terrorists in their efforts to undermine and destroy neighboring Syria, while carrying out a brutal campaign against Kurdish rebels rising up against the Turkish government. Turkey over the last 10 years has rolled tanks against Kurdish rebels, and strafed suspected rebel towns from the air, both within Turkey, and astonishingly deep within northern Iraq. The latest airstrikes being carried out as late as last week.

A recent deployment of military equipment along the Turkish-Syrian border by the Turkish military arrived in Mardin, the province facing Syria's Kurdish dominated northeast, not the fighting taking place toward the West in Aleppo and Idlib.

Photo: Turkish tanks entering Iraq to raid Kurdish towns and hunt suspected rebels in 2008. More recently, Turkey has been bombing "suspected" rebel bases in both Turkey and Iraq, as well as conducting mass nationwide arrests.

It would appear that Turkey is engaged in combat operations against its own population, while disingenuously berating the Syrian government over its security operations against the FSA. It would also appear that Turkey has repeatedly violated Iraqi airspace in recent weeks to pursue rebels over its borders - a scenario it and NATO have stated would constitute a war provocation should Syria pursue a similar policy.

Turkey is not only conducting security operations against its own Kurdish population, but against Kurds in Iraq, and is staging military equipment across the border from Syria's Kurds. That this is not being covered in the Western media, demands further scrutiny and indicates that a wider conflict is already beginning - not because of Syria's President Assad, but because of NATO and Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan.

Tony Cartalucci's articles have appeared on many alternative media websites, including his own at
Land Destroyer Report. Read other contributed articles by Tony Cartalucci here.

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The New York Times Admits That Virtually Every Major News Outlet Allows Censorship By Government Officials

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 10:23 AM PDT

Michael Snyder, Contributor
Activist Post

In one of the most shocking articles that the New York Times has ever put out, a New York Times reporter has openly admitted that virtually every major mainstream news organization allows government bureaucrats and campaign officials to censor their stories.

For example, almost every major news organization in the country has agreed to submit virtually all quotes from anyone involved in the Obama campaign or the Romney campaign to gatekeepers for "quote approval" before they will be published.

If the gatekeeper in the Obama campaign does not want a certain quote to get out, the American people will not see it, and the same thing applies to the Romney campaign. The goal is to keep the campaigns as "on message" as possible and to avoid gaffes at all cost.

But this kind of thing is not just happening with political campaigns.According to the New York Times, "quote approval" has become "commonplace throughout Washington". In other words, if you see a quote in the newspaper from someone in the federal government, then it is safe to say that a gatekeeper has almost certainly reviewed that quote and has approved it.

This is another sign that "the free and independent media" in this country is a joke. What we get from the mainstream media is a very highly filtered form of propaganda, and that is one reason why Americans are turning away from the mainstream media in droves. People want the truth, and more Americans than ever realize that they are not getting it from the mainstream media.
The following quote comes from the recent article in the New York Times mentioned above and it is absolutely jaw dropping....

The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative.

They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be quoted and attributed by name.

Most reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the president's top strategists, grudgingly agree. After the interviews, they review their notes, check their tape recorders and send in the juiciest sound bites for review.

The verdict from the campaign — an operation that prides itself on staying consistently on script — is often no, Barack Obama does not approve this message.

This is an article that everyone needs to read. If you have not read it yet, you can find it right here.

What all of this means is that both the Obama campaign and the Romney campaign essentially have "veto power" over any quotes from those campaigns that we see in the newspapers.

According to the New York Times, virtually every major news organization has agreed to submit their quotes for "quote approval"....

It was difficult to find a news outlet that had not agreed to quote approval, albeit reluctantly. Organizations like Bloomberg, The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, Reuters and The New York Times have all consented to interviews under such terms.

This is absolutely disgusting, and it goes against everything that our media is supposed to stand for.

The following is what Joseph Farah had to say when he learned about this story....

All I can say about these people I once considered "colleagues" is that I am so ashamed of them. I am mortified. They are humiliating themselves and a vital institution for any free society.

It seems the biggest threat to the American tradition of a free and independent press is not government coercion. It's the willing submission of the press to being handled and managed by government and politicians.

Keep in mind that Joseph Farah has been working in the world of journalism for decades. He is deeply saddened to see what is happening to a profession that he deeply loves.

But he is not the only one.

Just check out what Dan Rather had to say during a speech back in 2009....

'At my age and stage I've finally reached the point where I don't have to kiss up to anybody,' he said. 'What a wonderful feeling it is.'

Even so, his talk emphasized what he believes is the erosion of quality journalism, because of the corporatization, politicization, and "trivialization" of news. Those three factors, Rather argued, have fueled the "dumbing down and sleezing up of news" and the decline of "great American journalism."

Likening media consolidation to that of the banking industry, Rather claimed that "roughly 80 percent" of the media is controlled by no more than six, and possibly as few as four, corporations.

And Dan Rather is right. The control over the media in the United States is more tightly concentrated than ever before.

Back in the early 1980s, approximately 50 corporations essentially had nearly total control of the media in the United States.

Today, just six monolithic media corporations dominate virtually everything you watch, hear and read.

These six gigantic corporations own television networks, publishing houses, movie studios, newspapers, radio stations, music labels and video game companies. Most Americans are absolutely addicted to information and entertainment, and those six massive corporations supply the vast majority of the information and entertainment that Americans take in.

The amount of control that those six corporate giants have is absolutely incredible. For example, the average American watches 153 hours of television a month. If you can beam 153 hours of "programming" into someone's head each month, that gives you an awesome amount of influence over that person.

The six monolithic corporations mentioned above are Time Warner, Walt Disney, Viacom, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., CBS Corporation and NBC Universal.

There are some areas of the media that are not completely dominated by those corporations, but even control over those areas is becoming more highly concentrated than ever.

For example, Clear Channel now owns over 1000 radio stations across the United States. The power that Clear Channel has over the radio industry in America is absolutely staggering.

Even control over the Internet is becoming much more concentrated. Giant corporations such as Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are increasingly controlling what we see and hear online.

But it really is the "big six" that dominate most of what we see, hear and read on a daily basis.

In a previous article, I detailed a portion of the vast media holdings of these gigantic corporations....

_______________________________________________________________________

Today, six colossal media giants tower over all the rest. Much of the information in the chart below comes from mediaowners.com. The chart below reveals only a small fraction of the media outlets that these six behemoths actually own....

Time Warner
Home Box Office (HBO)
Time Inc.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
CW Network (partial ownership)
TMZ
New Line Cinema
Time Warner Cable
Cinemax
Cartoon Network
TBS
TNT
America Online
MapQuest
Moviefone
Castle Rock
Sports Illustrated
Fortune
Marie Claire
People Magazine

Walt Disney
ABC Television Network
Disney Publishing
ESPN Inc.
Disney Channel
SOAPnet
A&E
Lifetime
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Theatrical Productions
Buena Vista Records
Disney Records
Hollywood Records
Miramax Films
Touchstone Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
Buena Vista Games
Hyperion Books

Viacom
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Home Entertainment
Black Entertainment Television (BET)
Comedy Central
Country Music Television (CMT)
Logo
MTV
MTV Canada
MTV2
Nick Magazine
Nick at Nite
Nick Jr.
Nickelodeon
Noggin
Spike TV
The Movie Channel
TV Land
VH1

News Corporation
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Fox Television Stations
The New York Post
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Beliefnet
Fox Business Network
Fox Kids Europe
Fox News Channel
Fox Sports Net
Fox Television Network
FX
My Network TV
MySpace
News Limited News
Phoenix InfoNews Channel
Phoenix Movies Channel
Sky PerfecTV
Speed Channel
STAR TV India
STAR TV Taiwan
STAR World
Times Higher Education Supplement Magazine
Times Literary Supplement Magazine
Times of London
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox International
20th Century Fox Studios
20th Century Fox Television
BSkyB
DIRECTV
The Wall Street Journal
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Interactive Media
FOXTEL
HarperCollins Publishers
The National Geographic Channel
National Rugby League
News Interactive
News Outdoor
Radio Veronica
ReganBooks
Sky Italia
Sky Radio Denmark
Sky Radio Germany
Sky Radio Netherlands
STAR
Zondervan

CBS Corporation
CBS News
CBS Sports
CBS Television Network
CNET
Showtime
TV.com
CBS Radio Inc. (130 stations)
CBS Consumer Products
CBS Outdoor
CW Network (50% ownership)
Infinity Broadcasting
Simon & Schuster (Pocket Books, Scribner)
Westwood One Radio Network

NBC Universal
Bravo
CNBC
NBC News
MSNBC
NBC Sports
NBC Television Network
Oxygen
SciFi Magazine
Syfy (Sci Fi Channel)
Telemundo
USA Network
Weather Channel
Focus Features
NBC Universal Television Distribution
NBC Universal Television Studio
Paxson Communications (partial ownership)
Trio
Universal Parks & Resorts
Universal Pictures
Universal Studio Home Video

___________________________________________________________________________

Please keep in mind that the list above is not exhaustive. It only contains a sampling of the companies that those six corporate giants own.

So are you starting to get an idea of how powerful they are?

If you ever wondered why the version of "the news" that you get is so similar no matter where you turn, it is because control of the news is concentrated in just a very few hands.

So who controls the "big six" media corporations?

Would it surprise you to know that the boards of directors of those big media corporations have a tremendous amount of overlap with the boards of directors of large banks, large oil companies and large pharmaceutical companies?

The following is from the Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting website....

Media corporations share members of the board of directors with a variety of other large corporations, including banks, investment companies, oil companies, health care and pharmaceutical companies and technology companies.

You can find a list that shows how these boards of directors overlap and interlock right here.

The giant media corporations are not going to criticize the establishment because they are the establishment.

The messages that these media behemoths pound into our heads are going to be the messages that the establishment wants pounded into our heads.

Anyone that believes that the mainstream media is "independent" and that it does not have "an agenda" is being delusional.

Of course it is also worth mentioning that much of what we get from the mainstream media is also often directly controlled by the federal government.

Former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein (of Woodward and Bernstein fame) has discovered that hundreds of American journalists have worked directly for the CIA.

Not that the federal government and the establishment are opposed to one another. The truth is that they very much work together hand in hand. But sometimes the federal government has slightly different priorities than the corporate establishment does.

In any event, the key point to take away from all this is that the news and entertainment that we all enjoy on a daily basis if very highly censored and very highly controlled.

It is imperative that we understand that those that own and control the media are trying to shape society in a certain way. They want to impose their values and their vision of the future on all the rest of us.

You will notice that none of the major news organizations speak out against the "Big Brother" police state control grid that is going in all around us.

Instead, they insist that all of this added "security" will keep us safe even as our liberties and freedoms are being badly eroded.

You will notice that none of the major news organizations speak out against the population control agenda of the global elite.

Instead, they insist that more "family planning" will help the environment and make the world a more prosperous place for all of us.

You will notice that none of the major news organizations speak out against the Federal Reserveand none of them are warning us about the financial collapse that is rapidly approaching.

Instead, they tell us to keep having faith in the system and they promise us that everything is going to be okay.

Well, you can mindlessly believe the corporate media if you want, but I believe that in this day and age it is absolutely imperative that we all learn to think for ourselves.

Don't be a mindless robot for anyone.

Think for yourself and make your own decisions.

The truth is out there and you can find it if you are willing to go search for it.

This article first appeared here at the American Dream. Michael Snyder is a writer, speaker and activist who writes and edits his own blogs The American Dream and Economic Collapse Blog. Follow him on Twitter here.

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Is Galactic Perspective Missing in Climate Change Debate?

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 10:09 AM PDT

Nicholas West
Activist Post

The recorded history of mankind is incredibly limited vs. the vast time of Earth's existence and development. Those who question the man-made climate change argument remember well, for example, the U.N. and Al Gore's alarming hockey stick graph, which proved to be nothing more than a creative way to use a very limited data set to encourage a pre-determined conclusion.

It is for this reason that we should not jump about in panic when we are faced with "nature gone wild" scenarios (such as the current U.S. drought) presented as solid indicators of why we need immediate, knee-jerk actions to be taken. Perhaps a much-needed galactic perspective is required, as is presented in the video below.

Commentary continues below ...
Regardless of what position we take as we are hit from both sides by scientific arguments and deliberate obfuscation, it is the current set of proposals to combat global warming that should makes us all cringe when we see the vast array of globalist institutions that are literally invested in convincing us that humanity is the main source of this supposed problem.

It might ultimately be most effective to continue our investigation, and debate the findings; realize that we are living on a volatile planet that is subjected to the fluctuations of the cosmos; and in the meantime endeavor to prepare ourselves as best as possible to survive the widest range of potential outcomes.

What is your view of the information presented in this video? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Read other articles by Nicholas West HERE

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New Killing and Suspicious Actions by Anaheim Police Follow Previous Day Chaos

Posted: 24 Jul 2012 10:03 AM PDT

Activist Post

The killing of 24-year-old Manuel Diaz has sparked a new wave of protests against police brutality. Just one day after the chaotic scene that followed his death, which involved Anaheim officers releasing a police dog and firing rubber bullets into a crowd of men, women, and children, another incident has come to light today.

Amidst community outrage, Joel Acevedo is the latest to be shot dead; an incident that happened just a few blocks away from the Diaz killing. Witnesses are claiming that Acevedo was already in handcuffs when shot. (Source)

To make matters worse, officers are accused of shining flashlights toward nearby building residents in an attempt to block potential camera footage. This only adds more to the claims by some eyewitnesses of the melee the day before: that police offered to purchase their cell phone videos.

This is an ongoing situation which we hope does not spiral further out of control.

Read other articles by Activist Post HERE