When Right is Wrong! began in July of 1999 it was done out of a sense of frustration. The major media, either by design or incompetence, had refused to report on the rapid rise of the right throughout the world. In addition, right wing groups were using the Internet to spread their messages. Voices presenting alternative views to this right wing barrage were few and far between.
Right is Wrong! was dedicated to tracking the right in all its guises. News of the militia movement, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, anti-abortion thugs, union busters, gay bashers, misogynists, racists, anti-Semites, and fascists were featured each day both on the web site and in a daily e-mail digest.
With the theft of the presidential election of 2000 and the horror of 9-11 a change of focus gradually took place. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the consolidation of ownership in all of the media were beginning to bear fruit for the forces of evil. The media was no longer asking key questions after 9-11. The Patriot Act, Homeland Security, and the rush to war in Iraq were steamrolled through with little real debate in the media.
The primary threat to freedom was internal. Right Is Wrong! began to feature news and analysis from new sources. Lines seemed to become blurred. Some sources from the left were shying away from asking important questions, while sources from the right were not.
It became abundantly clear that no source was "pure." Each story had to be judged on its merits regardless of its source. Information was being unearthed by both right wing and left wing sources while that very same news was being "ignored" by the mainstream.
The search for the truth is a tough one. It means asking the hard questions. It means examining the words and deeds of those you have grown comfortable with over the years as well as those you have learned to despise. There are no sacred cows.
Looking for connections leads us to seeing some horrific truths. We all would love to have faith in our leaders. But recent events force us to look for the big picture. And as we delve into what has really caused recent events, Right is Wrong! has developed a real problem with "coincidence" theorists.
It is unknown who first coined the coincidence theorist phrase first, but whether it was Michael Parenti, John Judge or someone else, the fact remains that the search for truth brings us beyond coincidence.
Right Is Wrong! is not about being a liberal or leftist alternative. Right Is Wrong! is about searching for the truth, wherever that quest may take us.
Consonant Vowells
Sarah Vowell on This American Life
"She is, I believe, the only writer in America who feels equally strongly about the guys in Hansen ... and the Andrew Jackson Administration. Not many writers, especially young writers, have much interest these days in writing about the idea of America and whether our nation is living up to that idea, or ever has."
--Ira Glass, This American Life
Q:Who is Majikthise?
A: Majikthise the philosopher is a minor character in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Q: Why name a blog after him?
A: The supercomputer Deep Thought announced that he was going to work out the answer to life, the universe and everything. Initially, Majikthise called a wildcat strike on behalf of "working thinkers everywhere." Majikthise was afraid that outsourcing to DT would put philosophers out of work. But Deep Thought won him over. The answer wouldn't be ready for millions of years, and in any case:
"It occurs to me that running a programme like this is bound to create an enormous amount of popular publicity for the whole area of philosophy in general. Everyone's going to have their own theories about what answer I'm eventually going to come up with, and who better to capitalize on that media market than you yourselves? So long as you can keep disagreeing with each other violently enough and slagging each other off in the popular press, and so long as you have clever agents, you can keep yourselves on the gravy train for life. How does that sound?" --Deep Thought
Sounds good to me.
Q: Who are you?
A: My name is Lindsay Beyerstein. I hold an MA in philosophy from Tufts. Eventually I hope to enroll in a PhD program, but for the time being I support my contemplative lifestyle as a freelance pharmaceutical writer.
Interests
Analytic philosophy, liberal politics, science
Kevin is a Majority Report Radio blogger. This is his own news blog.
Grade the News is a media research project focusing on the quality of the news media in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are affiliated with Stanford University’s Graduate Program in Journalism.
We aim to provide timely critiques and in-depth, systematic analyses that allow the public to compare newspapers and local television news broadcasts on equal footing. Think of us as a kind of Consumer Reports for news.
Our signature service is a periodic survey of thousands of local print and broadcast stories. For each story, we determine the newsworthiness, number and expertise of sources, thematic approach, number of people affected, fairness and other traits. The end product is a letter grade for the newsroom -- anywhere from A to F.
Currently, we grade the most popular local news media -- three newspapers and five television news broadcasts. These are: the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, KTVU Channel 2, KRON Channel 4, KPIX Channel 5, KGO Channel 7 and KNTV Channel 11.
We also monitor and occasionally write about a variety of other Bay Area print and broadcast outlets that provide daily news.
Our mission is to:
Help Bay Area residents recognize their dependence on news -- democracy’s most essential commodity, assess news organizations’ success in meeting those ends, and secure quality news across the region’s diverse communities.
The problem -- market-driven journalism
In the past two decades, business values -- essentially market values -- have become more prominent in newsrooms, which have increasingly become owned by large corporations.
Subtly but surely, market values are redefining news. Journalism’s ideal of maximizing public understanding of important current events and issues is eroding, in favor of the commercial goal of maximizing return to owners.
This economic rationalization has gone further in some news organizations than in others. It is most evident in the medium more Americans turn to for news than any other -- local television. But is spreading among newspapers as well.
As a result, society is steadily losing access to the information necessary for self-government.
One solution -- change marketplace demand
If one of the markets shaping the news is for readers and viewers, the public has a chance to influence the quality of the news it receives. If newspapers and TV stations in the Bay Area were to gain or lose audience because local residents could readily distinguish quality and insist on it, there would be a financial incentive to upgrade the news.
Our job is to acquaint Bay Area citizens with what they should be able to expect from the news and alert them to differences in quality that may be difficult to evaluate if they don't have the time to really study the news.
We have no political ax to grind, although we do have a bias -- that the primary purpose of journalism is to maximize public understanding of current issues and events, not maximize return to owners.
A visual look at where your tax dollars go.Most people are unaware of how much of their taxes fund our military, and those aware are often misinformed. Well here it is. Laid out, easy to read and compare. With data straight from the White House.
I hope this makes people think and ask questions.
Why do we spend more on jets than we do on public housing?
Why is the Endowment for the Arts so small?
Whats with all this foreign military financing?
I'm sure you can come up with numerous questions of your own.
Unfortunately i dont have any answers.
Our leaders do.
Your president, his cabinet and your congress person have these answers. Ask them for the answers or better yet, demand them.
1. George W. Bush
2. Frank Luntz
3. Tom DeLay
4. Brian Wilson
5. Tom DeLay
6. Ted Nugent
7. Pope Benedict XVI
8. Tom Davis
9. Bill Frist
10. Rush Limbaugh
How can we suggest impeaching a President who just "won" the popular vote? Well, many popular celebrities have broken the law and had to face justice. Bush has broken several laws including the US Constitution, the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Charter, and the Geneva Convention. His illegal and imprudent actions have killed many tens of thousands of people and threaten the security of our great nation. An American President is given so much power that we cannot allow them to disregard the law. We must impeach George Bush now!
Our country's strength flows from its willingness to innovate and improve upon the American experiment. Our generation must continue this tradition through achieving greater inclusiveness in the political process, unfettered access to the right to vote and fairer electoral systems. Founded in this spirit in 1992, FairVote seeks elections that promote voter turnout, fair representation, inclusive policy and meaningful choices. As a catalyst for electoral reforms such as instant runoff voting, proportional representation, direct election of the president and automatic voter registration, we conduct research, analysis, education and organizing to ensure all Americans can exercise their right to vote and elect representatives who reflect our racial and political diversity.
FairVote has six program areas: the Political Empowerment Project (reforms to represent racial and political diversity, in particular full representation voting methods); IRV America (supporting majority winners, meaningful choices and better campaigns through instant runoff voting); Voting and Democracy Research Center (research and analysis of our elections through the lens of our goals for elections); Election Services Group (consulting on electoral systems, with a focus on non-governmental elections); and the Democracy USA initiative (creating a stronger, more strategic network of national and state pro-democracy advocates that can nimbly pursue a comprehensive reform agenda). We pursue special initiatives, including an effort being launched this spring in support of direct election of the president.
Third Party is a documentary film that makes a comprehensive survey of today's major United States third party efforts.
Interviews with leaders in the Libertarian, Green, Reform, Labor, Communist, Socialist, Working Families, and Workers World parties are interspliced with commentary from activists and academics including Ronnie Dugger, Francis Fox Piven, Howard Zinn, Jeremy Brecher, Noam Chomsky and others. The film looks carefully at what motivates and inspires parties vying for a foothold in a country so dominated politically by the Democrats and Republicans. This feature length film explores their strategies, their issues, and their thoughts on the obstacles they face.
Not merely an academic exercise, the film weaves in the story of the third party candidacy of Mike DeRosa, one of the thousands of everyday Americans who run for office each year under a third party banner. DeRosa's story, as a member of the Green Party of Connecticut running for State Senate in 2002, illustrates what it's like to run as a political alternative in a system and culture design for two.
An educational and inspiring mosaic of the lesser-known political visionaries fighting to bring serious change to an actual democracy in danger of slipping into a virtual one.
MyDD.com is a political blog. The bloggers, Jerome Armstrong and Chris Bowers, with guest blogs by Matt Stoller and others, provide their own analysis and commentary on campaigns, elections, and world affairs.
Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary, Tell the Truth and Run, the dramatic story of muckraking journalist George Seldes (1890-1995), is a piercing examination of American journalism.
Eighty years a newspaperman, Seldes was a noted foreign correspondent who became America's most important press critic. Through Seldes's encounters with Pershing, Lenin and Mussolini; the tobacco industry, J. Edgar Hoover and the "lords of the press," Tell the Truth and Run provides a fresh perspective on Twentieth-Century history while raising profound ethical, professional and political questions about journalism in America.
Seldes at age 98 is the centerpiece of the film: remarkably engaging,witty and still impassioned about his ideas and ideals. Ralph Nader,Victor Navasky, Ben Bagdikian, Daniel Ellsberg, Nat Hentoff and Jeff Cohen, among others, provide incisive commentary. Stunning archival footage and over 500 headlines, photographs and articles provide a rich historical backdrop.
Tell the Truth and Run raises fundamental questions about the recorded history of the Twentieth Century; about freedom, fairness and diversity in the media; about power and abuse of power; and about public citizenship and the democratic process.
Why Third Parties? Your Guide, Robert Longley
They rarely win, but 3rd party candidates are essential
While their presidential candidates stand little chance of being elected, members of America's third parties have historically promoted concepts and policies that have been incorporated as important parts of our social and political lives. Here are some major examples:
Women's Right to Vote
Both the Prohibition and Socialist Parties promoted women's suffrage during the late 1800's. By 1916, both Republicans and Democrats supported it and by 1920, the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote had been ratified.
Child Labor Laws
The Socialist Party first advocated laws establishing minimum ages and limiting hours of work for American children in 1904. The Keating-Owen Act established such laws in 1916.
Immigration Restrictions
The Immigration Act of 1924 came about as a result of support by the Populist Party starting as early as the early 1890's.
Reduction of Working Hours
You can thank the Populist and Socialist Parties for the 40-hour work week. Their support for reduced working hours during the 1890's led to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Income Tax
In the 1890's, the Populist and Socialist Parties supported a "progressive" tax system that would base a person's tax liability on their amount of income. The idea led to ratification of the 16th Amendment in 1913.
Social Security
The Socialist Party also supported a fund to provide temporary compensation for the unemployed in the late 1920's. The idea led to the creation of laws establishing unemployment insurance and the Social Security Act of 1935.
"Tough on Crime"
In 1968, the American Independent Party and its presidential candidate George Wallace advocated "getting tough on crime." The Republican Party adopted the idea in its platform and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 was the result. (George Wallace won 46 electoral votes in the 1968 election. This was the highest number of electoral votes collected by a third party candidate since Teddy Roosevelt, running for the Progressive Party in 1912, won 88 votes.)
Modern Third Parties
While the following is far from all of the recognized third parties in American politics, the Libertarian, Reform, Green and Constitution Parties are usually the most active in presidential elections.
Libertarian Party
Founded in 1971, the Libertarian party is the third largest political party in America. Over the years, Libertarian Party candidates have been elected to many state and local offices.
Libertarians believe the federal government should play a minimal role in the day-to-day affairs of the people. They believe that the only appropriate role of government is to protect the citizens from acts of physical force or fraud. A libertarian-style government would therefore limit itself to a police, court, prison system and military. Members support free market economy and are dedicated to protection of civil liberties and individual freedom.
Reform Party
In 1992, Texan H. Ross Perot spent over $60 million of his own money to run for president as an independent. Perot's national organization, know as "United We Stand America" succeeded in getting Perot on the ballot in all 50 states. Perot won 19 percent of the vote in November, the best result for a third party candidate in 80 years. Following the 1992 election, Perot and "United We Stand America" organized into the Reform Party. Perot again ran for president as the Reform Party candidate in 1996 winning 8.5 percent of the vote.
As its name implies, Reform Party members are dedicated to reforming the American political system. They support candidates they feel will "re-establish trust" in government by displaying high ethical standards coupled with fiscal responsibility and accountability.
Green Party
The American Green Party's platform is based on the following 10 Key Values:
# Ecological wisdom
# Community-based economics
# Grassroots democracy
# Decentralization
# Gender equality
# Personal and social responsibility
# Respect for diversity
# Nonviolence
# Global responsibility
# Future focus
"Greens seek to restore balance through recognizing that our planet and all of life are unique aspects of an integrated whole, and also through affirming the significant inherent values and contribution of each part of that whole." The Green Party - Hawaii
Constitution Party
In 1992, American Taxpayer Party presidential candidate Howard Phillips appeared on the ballot in 21 states. Mr. Phillips again ran in 1996, achieving ballot access in 39 states. At its national convention in 1999, the party officially changed its name to the "Constitution Party" and again chose Howard Phillips as its presidential candidate for 2000.
The Constitution Party favors a government based a strict interpretation of the Constitution and the principals expressed in it by the Founding Fathers. They support a government limited in scope, structure and power of regulation over the people. Under this goal, the Constitution Party favors a return of most governmental powers to the states, communities and the people.
Proudly providing the reality-based community with the juice on politics, media, religion and culture
We need to make sure that people all across America know how Tom DeLay's scandalous actions entangle all of his Republican colleagues. The DCCC is fighting to clean up the House without DeLay. We need everyone in this fight.
We started TO in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election hoping that we could reach a few people, have some small impact on the dialog, and maybe just maybe try to restore a little integrity. Today TO is visited more than 4 million times per month by readers seeking the straight story and wanting to be involved in building a better tomorrow.
The growth and success of TO can be linked directly to the support our readers have shown for the project. As many of you may know, TO is 100% reader supported. We have no corporate sponsors, no advertising, and no pop-ups. This news source depends upon its readers for its survival. Sure that can be annoying, and at times intrusive, but it's better, because we answer to you.
WordsFromIraq.com serves as an independent, unbiased, compilation of first hand accounts, written by those most affected by the Iraq conflict; both the Iraqi citizens and U.S. soldiers stationed there.
When one of our chosen "weblogs" is updated with a thought or comment, this site automatically shows that update. This makes it easy for one to check numerous weblogs at one location. Additionally, we create a web forum thread for each post, allowing you to easily discuss each weblog post with other readers.
WordsFromIraq.com is maintained by SilenceIsDefeat.org; Chris Brunner and Alex Stram, in an effort to provide first hand information to the general public about the Iraqi conflict. By doing so, we hope to eliminate the trend for public opinion to be based on biased, bureaucratic media sources, and instead a more accurate, independent perspective.
Juan R. I. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the History Department of the University of Michigan. A bibliography of his writings may be found here. He has written extensively about modern Islamic movements in Egypt, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. He has given numerous media and press interviews on the War on Terrorism since September 11, 2001, as well as concerning the Iraq War in 2003. His current research focuses on two contemporary phenomena: 1) Shiite Islam in Iraq and Iran and 2) the "jihadi" or "sacred-war" strain of Muslim radicalism, including al-Qaeda and the Taliban among other groups. Cole commands Arabic, Persian and Urdu and reads some Turkish, knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam, and lived in a number of places in the Muslim world for extended periods of time. His most recent book is Sacred Space and Holy War (IB Tauris 2002). This volume collects some of his work on the history of the Shiite branch of Islam in modern Iraq, Iran and the Gulf. He treated Shi`ism in his co-edited book, Shi`ism and Social Protest (Yale, 1986), of his first monograph, Roots of North Indian Shi`ism in Iran and Iraq (California, 1989). His interest in Iranian religion is further evident in his work on Baha'i studies, which eventuated in his 1998 book, Modernity and the Millennium: The Genesis of the Baha'i Faith in the Nineteenth Century Middle East (Columbia University Press). He has also written a good deal about modern Egypt, including a book, Colonialism and Revolution in the Middle East: Social and Cultural Origins of Egypt's `Urabi Movement (Princeton, 1993). His concern with comparative history and Islamics is evident in his edited Comparing Muslim Societies (Michigan, 1992).
We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century.
THIRD WORLD TRAVELER puts up magazine articles and book excerpts that offer an alternative view to the corporate media about the state of democracy in America, and about the impact of the policies of the United States' government, transnational corporations, international trade and financial institutions, and the corporate media, on war and peace, democracy, free speech, social and economic justice, and human rights,in the Third World, and in the United States.
THIRD WORLD TRAVELER also provides information and links to aid international travelers.
If you don't see today's news media fulfilling a meaningful purpose in society, you are in the silenced majority. We intend to fulfill that purpose and break that silence.
The NewStandard is a new and very different kind of news resource. Published by PeoplesNetWorks, a small, nonprofit collective. The NewStandard is one of the only professional, independent, noncommercial hard news sources in the United States.
Unlike most news outlets, which hide the backgrounds and affiliations of their editors and journalists in order create the illusion of "impartiality," we believe honest transparency gives our readers the ability to more fairly and effectively evaluate The NewStandard as a news provider.
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels.
The APPC accepts NO funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by an endowment from the Annenberg Foundation.
The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy, CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies. CDT is dedicated to building consensus among all parties interested in the future of the Internet and other new communications media.
This site began in 1997 as part of a dot-com experiment to have real human beings construct information archives to compete with search engines on a wide variety of subjects.
What is MoveOn all about?
MoveOn is working to bring ordinary people back into politics. With a system that today revolves around big money and big media, most citizens are left out. When it becomes clear that our "representatives" don't represent the public, the foundations of democracy are in peril. MoveOn is a catalyst for a new kind of grassroots involvement, supporting busy but concerned citizens in finding their political voice. Our nationwide network of more than 2,000,000 online activists is one of the most effective and responsive outlets for democratic participation available today.
What does MoveOn do?
When there is a disconnect between broad public opinion and legislative action, MoveOn builds electronic advocacy groups. Examples of such issues are campaign finance, environmental and energy issues, media consolidation, or the Iraq war. Once a group is assembled, MoveOn provides information and tools to help each individual have the greatest possible impact.
"Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence.
Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear."
- William Gladstone
Purpose and Intent of this website:
This website does not suggest that it contains the "truth". The truth is a combination of all information and all facts relating to a topic. It is therefore unachievable (in my opinion) for anyone to say "I know the truth." If you came to this site in search of "the truth" you will be disappointed. That is also true of CNN, FOX , ABC etc. If you came to gather information you may find it a useful resource. Gibran says in the "Prophet" Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth." That brings me to my first point: John Adams said "Liberty can not be preserved without general knowledge among people" this statement points to the absolute necessity of an informed citizenry if our nation is to remain a functioning free society.
This means that each citizen has a civic responsibility to inform himself and share that information with others. The corporate media pumps information into our homes and does a great job of providing the information that our government wants us to know. It has in my opinion become the propaganda arm of government, and a great number of those who call themselves journalists are in fact nothing less than presstitutes. Those who wish to inhibit free access to information are in my opinion a great danger to our nation. Why would any adult interfere with the right of fellow citizens to inform themselves? There is a war going on for the minds of America, those waging this war are determined to control the American people by taking possession of our minds and by controlling our sources of information.
Truth is indefinable.
Information is unlimited.
Inspired by the presidential campaign of Howard Dean, Democracy for America (DFA) is a political action committee dedicated to supporting fiscally responsible, socially progressive candidates at all levels of government—from school board to the presidency. DFA fights against the influence of the far right-wing and their radical, divisive policies and the selfish special interests that for too long have dominated our politics.
Like Kryptonite to Stupid.
The Raw Story is an alternative news nexus. We draw upon a panoply of news sources and select those stories we think most intriguing to a audience seeking news underplayed by the mainstream media.
At the core, our goal is to unearth and spotlight stories underplayed by the popular press, in particular those which highlight betterment and open people’s eyes to injustice throughout the world.
Raw Story Media operates both the The Raw Story and its sister content site, The Blue Lemur.
INN World Report is one of the hardest-hitting news programs on television. We consistently scoop the networks with breaking stories, and produce informative interviews with newsmakers. In our first two seasons, we have reported over 2,000 topics and conducted more than 250 exclusive interviews.
