Backtalk
China Eats the World
Jacques Leslie's "The Last Empire" is the best article I've read in the last 10 years—on any subject—in any magazine. It brings to focus the huge problem we have: China's massive population becoming more and more Westernized and how any decision it makes is compounded 1.3 billion times. Scary, indeed.
david drell
Mundelein, Illinois
"The Last Empire" unfairly characterizes Armstrong's wood-purchasing policies. Armstrong is the country's largest manufacturer and seller of wood flooring. We are absolutely committed to protecting the resource base that is so important to our livelihood. We require our suppliers to provide documentation certifying that flooring is made from legally harvested logs and produced in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations (national and international), including those covering raw materials and labor. For example, we sell merbau flooring—in an amount that is equivalent to 110 trees per year. Given the substantial evidence of illegal logging of merbau, we engaged an independent third party, the Tropical Forest Foundation, to audit our purchases and tff confirmed that the lumber used to manufacture Armstrong's merbau flooring was acquired in accordance with Indonesian law.
meg graham
Vice president, corporate communication
Armstrong World Industries, Inc.
The editors respond: The story stated that Armstrong "sells endangered Indonesian merbau, and declines to join the certification plan." Both are correct. Regarding the merbau logging audit, it should be noted that an Armstrong ceo sits on the Tropical Forest Foundation's board of directors.
Blame Us, Dodd
In "Assume the Position" you give Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards each a column and then one to "Other Democrats." I suspect you followed the mainstream press' pernicious presumptions that equally covering the candidates is a waste of time because voters can't process so many choices, and that most will drop out soon enough. In so doing, Mother Jones furthers this self-fulfilling prophecy.
paul lachelier
Somerville, Massachusetts
Cheap Trick
Regarding Nicole McClelland's "SugarDaddy.com" I'm extremely disappointed that Mother Jones would print such an article. I can think of a vast number of reasons why prostitution is wrong, but I suppose we're not allowed to list any "moral" reasons. I find it tragic that after women fought so hard to win the rights to vote, to an education, and to fair wages, they would feel that prostitution is a career alternative. P.S. And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I'm pretty, and no one pays my bills!
rose titus
Andover, Massachusetts
Citizen Pain
As a former community-newspaper editor who effectively resigned in protest, I could have written a nearly identical essay regarding the sorry state of newspaper journalism in America. While the industry faces understandable cost cutting, it's unfortunate that what suffer are the editorial divisions. Gone is the copydesk and the graphic-design department. A handful of editors and reporters must do everything, without regard for the toll this takes on the staff and the finished product. I have witnessed executives lauding the benefits of "citizen journalists" as a solution to an underpaid, understaffed newsroom. In recent years the public has lost such respect for the "media" that many feel they could do a better job. What many readers and newspaper ceos forget is that journalism is a profession with very real societal responsibilities. News reporting is not a hobby. It is serious work for serious people. Any other approach does a grave disservice to our democracy.
blaine crimmins
Frisco, Texas
You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again
Nick Baumann's review praises my book Free Lunch for exposing hidden giveaways to the rich, but then goes off track with a factual error. I didn't write that ceos worry about sullying their reputations. The line is about think tanks like Cato and Heritage that spout about the horrors of government spending while relying on donors who gorge at hidden troughs of government largesse. Baumann also dismisses the fundamental reform I propose to free Congress from the political-donor-class' grip. Corporate jet trips, meals, and other favors give corporations and the superrich access to pitch more laws favoring them. This costly free lunch is unhealthy for the vast majority. Free Lunch suggests that we pay all the costs of Congress, require detailed disclosure—and in return impose prison terms on those who take any gift, even a shot of free whiskey. Call it zero tolerance for legalized bribery. I hope Mother Jones will stimulate debate on this crucial issue.
david cay johnston
Rochester, New York
I have just completed my opus magnum, a book on our Republic, the Constitution and our corrupted monetary system (as the direct cause of our current economic situation). The work, resulting from 40 years of effort, is titled "Insolence of Office", and I would like to send you copy (in pdf). There is no charge, and this is not a solicitation of any kind, but simply an encouragement for you to read a very revealing coverage of "where we've been... where we are... and where it looks like we are going. PLEASE... send me a "hand-shake" email... to ronnieg@ezax.net... and I will send back a copy of the book. If you want to know more about me, personally, please review my website... www.ezax.net. Thank you
Just heard Debra Dickerson of Mother Jones, on or is it in the New York Times telling how hard it is to get to the position one is in if a person of color. Tell me, Michele Obama went to Princeton, was it very easy for her white counterparts. What is this bull, there are more poor white people in the United States or people that cannot afford a college education and work very hard to get to a university. What is Michele Obama crying about she is full of it. Tired of wanting others to take care of you, take care of your self, get over it,I worked for Civil Rights tired of the crying, did I make childeren have children, NO! I started working at the age of 10 when did Michele start?
Grow up people of color time to take responsibility like Bill Cosby has always said.
Just heard you endorsed nuclear energy; your "smart, fearless journalism" is now neither. Nuclear energy is posited as a solution to global warming, based on the proponents' need to maintain a lifestyle and a level of population that are pathologic to begin with. Go to the heart of the problem: overpopulation. Educate, equip, reach out, free the slaves to reproduction (women) and we could ease the pain in two generations. One woman, one child (if that).
How individual citizens got their vote back
In 2008 a massive movement will be started by individuals
who are fed up with the election process that exists in
the United States.
This is what will happen:
The citizens in this group will start mailing out envelopes
filled with small amounts of various powdered substances
normally found around the house.
These envelopes will be sent to the addresses available on
the Internet for all the candidates that the persons
are NOT in favor of.
This is why:
In 1991 an engineer, working in Boca Raton, Florida
wrote an e-book about this different form of terrorist
warfare (available Free on web site www.farviewu.biz).
Ten years later, just after the 9-11 event another event
occurred (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks).
Based on this post 9-11 their envelopes will close up the
candidates offices and possibly even the post office.
It may even shut down the 2008 election.
The individuals involved in the act will spend about
50 cents for each envelope mailed out. As long as they are
careful to not leave finger prints on/in the envelopes or
stamps and use bogus return addresses they will not be traceable.
While reading your latest issue, I was taken aback by the disparaging tone taken by Paul Roberts in "The Seven Myths of Energy Independence". If any or all of these had been instituted seven years ago, we would be better off. Let us dream a little, if Reagan hadn't dismantled the solar panels on the White House roof and gutted the CAFE standards, laughingly increased recently to a point they should have been a decade ago, we might not be squandering our "blood and treasure" in an ultimately pointless war in Iraq and quite possibly Iran if Cheney has his way. There is no quick fix for this problem, only incremental fixes that should be taken immediately, if only to give us a fighting chance.
I also would like to take exception to Joshua Kulantzick in his article "Put a Tyrant in Your Tank". Let's review, Chavez of Venezuela has promoted literacy programs and social improvement in his country. He helped subidize oil sales to his allies and helped stabilize the Argentine economy. Helped other countries to build their national oil firms, thus making more money, and increased his national defense capabilities. What an S.O.B! And then he has the temerity to "dole" out tens of millions of gallons of heating oil to poor Americans! When can I vote for this guy for president. At least he has an energy policy that spends some of it's largesse on helping people, and not on multi-hundred million dollar golden parachutes for retiring CEO's.
It's a dark day for women's choices in childbirth -- a midwife loses her license and it's announced that the US maternal mortality rate in pregnancy and birth has doubled in the US. So to "protect" women in California from "negligent midwives," the California Medical Board suspends her license. Of course, thousands of OBs maim and otherwise screw up women's labors to the point of nearly killing the babies from drugs -- but that's OK! BRAVO Calif. Medical Board and Calif. RN Board -- I for one DO NOT FEEL SAFER!
When will women stand up to say "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH -- I WANT MY MIDWIFE!"
safe_birthing_midwife@yahoo.com
To Paul Roberts on C-Span
Thanks. How can Del Monte justify the use of the world's resources to make "Jell-o" in plastic cups in China and ship them to Michigan?
What is that?
Nancy Sanders
yes i agree
“Home is Where the Squat Is”
I read with interest the article regarding the organization “Take Back the Land” that refurbishes abandoned property for use by homeless folks. The article recalls to my mind the time in the early 1990s when the U.S. government, via finds distributed by USAID to non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), supported a program for squatters to gain legal title to the vacant lots they occupied in Jakarta (known as “kampungs,” or squatter villages) in exchange for assisting with uban-improvement projects.
Every evening as the sun set we “bule” (white-faced) expatriates, comfortably ensconced in our walled compounds, would experience a “brown-out” caused by “innovative ways to connect to electricity.” We also usually paid for more bottled water than my family actually consumes in our home – our maid generally gave some arcane explanation in bahasa when we asked her about the disparity. We did not begrudge the sharing of electricity and water with the kampung residents because they were good neighbors – vastly preferable to the “Texas ‘49” gang that would otherwise use the vacant lot as a hangout.
The brown out signaled that it was time to take an evening stroll with my children, which invariably included passage through the kampung to chat with some of our maid’s extended family, recently arrived from their mountain village, before dodging cars on the main street. While dodging the kamikaze buses, I would warn my children to avoid jumping into the disease-laden and rat-infested “binjo-ditches” (open sewers) that lined the streets.
Imagine my delight when I noticed that the kampung residents were constructing cement panels to cover over the binjo-ditches! Not only did it cover over the stench of the ditches, but it also provided us a sidewalk – safe haven from the wild-eyed bus drivers (if not the bajas’s, otherwise known as motorcycle taxis). Chatting with one of my U.S. Embassy buddies, who worked for USAID, I learned that the U.S. government was paying for the binjo-ditch project. It seems that the squatters were supplying the labor, and their reward would be that they would gain legal title to the vacant lot where they squatted and legal residence in the city of Jakarta. They not only performed a valuable service to the community, but they also gained valuable job-skills and legal residency, which paved a way out of homelessness and poverty. As for me, I was happy that we quit experiencing brown-outs, our water bill declined, and my children now had a safe place to walk. Talk about a win-win scenario!
If we can use our tax dollars to fund such a worthwhile and successful project in another country, why can’t we do the same for our own country?
Sincerely,
Brent E. White
417 E. 6th St.
Kinsley, KS 67547
Bwhite61@cox.net
FROM CONSERVATIVE/LIBERTARIAN READER.PEAK OIL IS HERE,WE ARE SO SCREWED.CHECK WEBSITE(HAENERBLOCK.COM).SMALL,SUPERINSULATED,DURABLE COTTAGES WILL KEEP YOU ALIVE. THOUSANDS OF THEM BUILT IN MEXICO. Gburnett@aol.com.
KPFA, “The Alternative Home Shopping Network?” aka “The Privatization of Public Affairs by a Non-Commercial Station.”
Recently Michael Eric Dyson spoke in Oakland about the Jeremiah Wright controversy. He is a dynamic and entertaining speaker. This speech was about a hot topic in national politics and race relations. It is the kind of progressive commentary that should have been broadcast live or shortly thereafter given its current public affairs importance. KPFA recorded his speech. Has KPFA played it on the air for our listeners? NO! KPFA management has played a portion of it to promote it for sale! So instead of tens of thousands hearing it when it was current, the few that could or would spend their money have purchased it and will get it some weeks or months later when it is no longer current.
Each of us may have our own interpretation of the Pacifica Mission. I do think we would all agree that getting public affairs, news and culture, that the corporate media won’t broadcast, out to the people, is the essence of Pacifica’s Mission. Educate and activate.
Pacific Bylaws, Article One, Section 2, in part:
“In radio broadcasting operations to promote the full distribution of public information…” (Emphasis added.)
In March 2007 KPFA recorded another Dyson speech. Was it played for the KPFA listening audience? NO! It too was sold on multiple occasions and never played entirely on the air! This is also true of a Howard Zinn speech, April 2007,the “God is Great” debate,May 2007, and a Bill Moyer’s speech recorded and sold last year with some others. This year we have “Rachel Corrie Speaks”, the Left Forum and the recent Dyson speech among others not broadcast except for a tease portion. KPFA management holds them back, creates scarcity, and sells them, like any other corporate operation.
If you wanted to hear the complete program for all of the above it would cost you several hundred dollar$!! Doesn’t Pacifica and KPFA exist so that we can hear such speeches and programs as they happen? This is starting to look like cable TV. Basic Service for all, with only teaser portions of great new speeches and programs and Premium Service that gets you the complete speeches/programs at significant additional cost. The current management has created two classes of listeners! What happened to our Mission? I ask you to see through their spin and look at what they have done to our Mission! The Mission is now incidental to fundraising.
What does this say about the management’s commitment to diversity? It is common knowledge that people of color and women make up a larger proportion of low income people given the racism and sexism in our society. Instead of helping to end this situation, KPFA’s pay for knowledge approach to public affairs will only perpetuate this societal oppression.
I have no problem with selling the speeches and programs to support the station, as long as they play them for all to hear, preferably in a timely fashion. The corporate media has a political wall to stop progressive speeches, programs and culture from getting to the people. KPFA has a gla$$ sound barrier, stopping those that don’t have the money from hearing these important speeches and programs. Unlike the corporate media, KPFA lets us know of them so they can sell them. How do you think this makes our low-income listeners feel, excluded, not good enough, not deserving? This is one of the hidden injuries of class. Does KPFA’s management think this creates loyal listeners? Do they care? This has been raised many times and they don’t seem to give a damn about our low-income listeners or our Mission. Instead of playing these speeches for tens of thousands of KPFA listeners, they sell them to a small number of people. Is this what Pacifica is about?
Last year I made a motion at the Local Station Board to require that the station play the speeches that they sell so everyone could possibly hear them. It was voted down by the “Concerned Listener” majority, the group that is in bed with management on issues like this. They have fought together against transparency, unpaid staff representation, fair elections and Democracy Now! in prime time, etc.
What slippery slope does KPFA’s commodification of public affairs lead to? Here are a couple of the many examples I could give. Dr. Stephen Bezruchka gave a speech called “Is America Driving You Crazy?” His thesis is that there are more mental health problems in America given our great disparity in wealth. How ironic that KPFA replicates this class divide by making the entire program available only to those that can afford to BUY it!
It gets worse. During the winter fund drive the Morning Show folks proudly proclaimed three times during the pitching that “ The Great and Mighty Walk was not available anywhere else”. I easily found it on the web and purchased a copy for 1/3 of KPFA’s price. The entire program has never been played on the air! Shouldn’t honesty be a fundamental principle at Pacifica? Or are they approaching the used car dealer mentality?
When my motion was debated on an LSB Show last year, Brian Edwards-Tiekert, of “dismantle the LSB” fame, argued that it would be difficult to play many of these speeches since they are longer than most program times. This raises a fundamental question: does the airtime belong to the current holder of a time slot or does it belong to all of us as a commons? When a good speech comes along the station should find room for it to be promptly played and programmers should be willing to share their time to make it happen. In the words of Robbie Osman, from his 2004 paper on the DN! time change struggle, (www.peoplesradio.net Pro Democracy paper): “We will have to choose whether to defend the station's mission or defend our own turf.”
Unlike the KPFA of old, where programmers produced specials for the fund drives, now most fund drive programs are recorded speeches, or DVDs or CDs that are bought and resold and never completely played on the air. If these speeches and programs are as great as they promote them to be when asking for your money, why aren’t they played on the air for all to hear?
I yearn for the days before the August, 1995 purges, (over 100 community activist programmers fired, including many from communities of color, and the beginning of the Healthy Station format with strip programming etc). The station was more spontaneous back then. When a prominent person gave a speech we heard it live or shortly thereafter, we didn’t have to pay for it and get it some weeks or months later. I donated much more then than I do now!
KPFA’s management is afraid that if speeches are played on the air no one will buy them or donate. If there was more excitement on the air, live or current speeches, and the news wasn’t straight off the AP wire, and more like the Knight Report, and the listeners felt that their concerns mattered, I know I would donate much more and I believe many others would also. If the station is dedicated to bringing the best to the listeners when things happen then I believe the listeners will strongly support the station.
Instead of pitching “this is a great speech, we have played part of it for you and you can have the entire speech for $100.00”, why not “We played this great speech for you live (or when it was fresh) and this is why you need to support KPFA, we bring you what is happening, when it is happening, please donate to keep us going, if you want a copy of this speech you can have it for a donation of $100.00 or make a donation of the size you can to keep KPFA on the air.” KPFA needs money to exist and yet selling out or ignoring the Mission to raise money defeats the reason for its existence.
KPFA could be so much better with progressive management that puts the Mission first! This management group has run the station since 2003 and has lost 5,000 subscribers during the Bush regime, while increasing the paid staff 50%.
There are many other problems that need to be addressed if our struggle to save the network in 1999 is to mean anything.
Richard Phelps, Chair, KPFA LSB, 10-05 to 12-06
Attorney/Mediator
405 14th Street, Suite 508
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 268-9919
May15, 2008
To whom it may concern.
Enclosed are two sites that require examination. I have visited both sites and am both amazed and appalled at the information contained therein...If only 5% of what is spoken here is true, we have lots to question...
I am hoping that Motherjones will, at the very least, assign an investigative reporter to delve into this expose of the "Energy shortage" that is threatening to turn the United States into a third world country..The author, Reverend Lindsey Williams, appears to be honest in his convictions and extremely well informed on a topic that is on everyone's mind nowadays. We are seeing many of his predictions coming true. He talks about $3.00 - $5.00 per gallon for Gasoline, the devaluation of the dollar and how the Oil Companies are being taken to task for causing the above..He presents a scary scenario for the future of this Country. I think there is enough legitimate information on these two sites to cause Nationwide concern and, hopefully, Motherjones to become involved with finding the "rest of the story"..
There are very serious allegations and concerns on these two sites and I am sure Reverend Williams thought long and hard before he went public with what he knows. I hope that he hasn't put himself and his family in jeopardy for nothing..
Here are the sites:
http://www.reformation.org/energy-non-crisis.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3340274697167011147
I know both of the sites are enormous in scope but please do your best to evaluate them.
Thanks,
Louis Albano
Nonna Gorilovskayas' article about defending G.W.Bush when she's abroad.
Sorry lady, I spent all of 2007 in South East Asia from Borneo to Burma and Vietnam. In answer to anyone whom asked me about the Bush Admin. I told them the entire Bush Admin. belongs in The Hague for War Crimes trials. Tis sad that you do not have the cajones to speak the truth to the Natives of Foreigh lands.
I'd like to see MORE regards RFK assassination and the AFTERMATH