German farmers deploy the milk weapon

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

This is a story that I found on my my Google Reader. Published on Foreign Policy - Passport, and inserted into this blog with my Windows Live Writer, this story is important to me for it's content, as well as it's dubious status as my first effort using a new blogging technique.

I spent much of my youth on a farm in the American mid-west and I maintain a close relationship with my family that still lives and works on that farm. Through the years, much effort was made by my Grandfather to establish 'Collective Bargaining' in American Agri-business. Resistance to these efforts frustrated that man his whole life, and I have spent decades trying to understand those forces at work in this nation.

Read this article, and ask yourself; Is this information, or propaganda? Education, or Indoctrination? Does it appeal to your mind, or your emotions? Farmers world-wide have encountered publicity of this type, that always portrays the farmer as insensitive, and rarely mentions the total lack of control that farmers have over the market.

German farmers deploy the milk weapon

Johannes Simon/Getty Images

HOFSTETTEN, GERMANY - MAY 27: Farmer Jakob Moesl (C) blocks the access to his farm with a empty milk tank and a placard reading 'Stop milk delivery!!! For a fair price' on May 27, 2008 in Hofstetten near Landsberg am Lech, Germany.

Germany's dairy farmers are furious. Many have them have stopped shipping milk to factories because they want 43 eurocents a liter, rather than the 28 to 34 cents they get now. But there's a problem: What to do with all the milk they are still producing? The cows don't go on strike just because the farmers do.

According to Deutsche Welle, "the unsold milk is being fed to calves or dumped in farm-waste tanks."

It's a shame when so many people around the world are struggling to buy food, but Romuald Schaber, who heads an association of some 30,000 dairy farmers, says the boycott is the only tool in the farmers' arsenal:

All we can do now is use our milk as a weapon.... Milk is might, and we have the milk."

The Pentagon's 'Information Dominance' Program

Saturday, May 24, 2008

House Passes Amendment Calling for an Investigation of the Pentagon’s “Information Dominance” Program


Last month, the New York Times published an article outlining how the Pentagon set up private briefings for a network of “military experts,” who often held financial stakes dependent on continued Pentagon access, in order to achieve “information dominance” in the American media. As Chairman Skelton stated in April, “it all comes down to [...]

It all comes down to 'Propaganda'.

On April 20, 2008 the New York Times published Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand. After the Times successfully sued the Defense Department to gain access to 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records, DAVID BARSTOW discovered the new term for propagandists; “message force multipliers”. And the major news sources totally ignored the most important story since the 'Pentagon Papers'.

On May 8, 2008 Politico published 'Deafening' silence on analyst story, and credited bloggers for keeping the story alive.

“We are in a time when stories can have a second life,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. A few years ago, if a story did not generate attention after a week, it could be considered dead, said Rosenstiel, who cited the instance of how bloggers revived the U.S. attorney firings story.

Rosenstiel’s organization tracked the mainstream media for a week after the Times story and found that out of approximately 1,300 news stories, only two touched on the Pentagon analysts scoop — both airing on PBS’s “NewsHour.”

Representative DeLauro says, "...you have betrayed the public trust..." as she spoke to the House;

Rep. DeLauro:“This is propaganda, it is a military and industrial complex in which military analysts, many who have ties with the contractors making money off of the war and parroting DOD talking points on the air to mislead the American public and the TV networks did nothing to prevent it. And I would just tell my colleagues that if you voted for the DOD Appropriations Bill last year, you voted to prohibit this. You’ve done it since 2002. Donald Rumsfeld met with these guys 18 times, told them what to say, and then, my friends, DOD hired a company to track their remarks on the TV networks.”

This story is not going away, and will have a great influence on the up-coming Presidential Election. While the major news sources are focused on which candidate mis-spoke, which church they attend, and what pin they wear in their lapel bloggers will continue to expose would-be tyrants.

At some point, hopefully before the election, bloggers will bring 'America the Empire' to the front of public debate. A Democracy does not not need to practice propaganda, and the news-media in a Republic is not afraid to publish the truth.

I am a proud citizen of the Empire, and as such despise hypocrisy.

St. Louis - Gateway to the west

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

800px-St. Louis on the Mississippi Jefferson National Expansion - Daniel Schwen - GNU Free Documentation license

The arch of St. Louis, Gate-way to the west. A most appropriate symbol for the American Empire.

The Mississippi, a modern Rubicon. The die was cast many years ago, while Europe's Aristocracy pondered their belly-buttons. From these wharfs a flotilla was launched against rebellion. From this city, a ribbon of rails was laid to connect the seas, and establish dominion over a continent. Through this portal commerce bloomed in a Capitalistic Eden.

The seat of power is here, in the Heart-land of America. Those pioneers knew full well geography, their position in world affairs, as well as Providence. Dominion is, and always has been the objective.

Don't be fooled, by the slender profile of the arch, it is concrete wrapped in steel. Flexible strength to weather any storm, any tremor of the ground and even lightning from heaven. It is Pride incarnate.

Let Europe and Asia know the truth, they will be split up the middle, and sold as salvage. There treasures will pass under this arch as tribute, and their posterity will be pilgrims in it's shadow ( a small fee will be acceptable ) if they persist in their folly.

For too long, the Empire has been slandered, and assaulted. When the election is done ( and no other election has been so widely and eagerly witnessed ) sovereignty and law will join hands with dignity and justice under this monument dedicated to a great people.

Three score and three years of peace have been enjoyed in St. Louis, as well as all the Capital Cities of Europe as direct result of Manifest Destiny. Don't give credit to any other. Thank God for your Liberty, and fear the Empire for if you descend again into the hell of war the only peace you will know will be a long rest with your ancestors.

Today, the President of the United States of America is touring a war torn world. This may very well be an opportunity to negotiate a lasting peace. He, like his father is a son of pioneers. He means what he says, and he says what he means. Like the Gate-way Arch in St. Louis, he is concrete, wrapped in steel. Flexible, strong, and proud.

Consider this post a challenge, and show me your leader. Is he a winner? Is he honorable? Has he brought you peace, or prosperity? Show me your Gate-way City. I want to see your arch.

A WELL-KNOWN MOUNTAIN

Monday, May 5, 2008


On May 2, 2008, I spent the evening at a friend's place, on the 10th floor of a well-known building on a well-known street which was named after a well-known artist of this well-known nation of which this is the little-known capital city. Of course, well-known or little-known depends on where you live, and where you were born, and who you are, and what you do, and what are your interests, etc. Why am I writing this?

In the distance stands one of the most well-known mountains of all times: Mount Ararat. Next to it, to the left, is Little Ararat. To the far left, there is where Iran begins.

I didn't retouch the picture in any way, so what you see in that picture is very much what you would have seen, had you been standing on that balcony, early in the evening, on May 2, 2008. It was too late to see the swallows ; the birds are usually flying there, numerous, and noisy, and happy.



FREEDOM SQUARE, MAY 2


Two months after the bloody events of March 1st, 2008, in Yerevan, Armenia, the men in blue are still occupying the so-called Freedom Square which I have always called La Place de l'Opera, because that's really what it is.

There one can rent a bicycle or a little electric vehicule for their child, for a short time... The place used to be alive with city folks of all ages, but now it's just a sad desert of asphalt. In the picture (which isn't great, but it shows what it shows) the Opera building stands in the background.