El Salvador's Sister City Program

Women jewelry makers in El Papaturro

Since the 1980´s, Sister Cities has built people-to-people solidarity relationships between the United States and El Salvador.  These relationships are the core of their work and the foundation upon which the Sister City project works for human rights, social justice, and cultural exchange.  This important work only happens through hundreds of dedicated volunteers in cities around the United States who maintain “sister city” relationships with Salvadoran communities. 

On this week’s show, we hear from Sara Bishop, national coordinator of the US - El Salvador Sister City Project, about the Sister City program. Then we hear from Sofia Pablo-Hoshino, Shahna Campbell and Ivone Damian, three of the fourteen K-State student who when to El Papaturro, the Salvadorian community coupled with the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice since 1995 through the Sister City program. The students talk about their experiences with in El Salvador and the plans to return in 2012.

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Belief as Community - Panel 4

In 2007 Community Bridge hosted a series of panels discussing how belief systems help create community. Each panelists was asked to prepare a written statement about how their beliefs affected how they understood community. After reading the prepared statements, the panelists then compared and contrasted each other statements with their own looking for common ground and how that contributed to how we understand the community we live in. Panelist for this show include: Kathy Dzewaltowski, Susan Marshall, Rev. Michael Nelson, and Flordie Pettis.  This podcast is release to honor the memory of Flordie Pettis, who died on October 2, 2010.

To read the all essays prepared for this series, visit: http://beliefascommunity.blogspot.com/.

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Clippings for 30 June 2010

Sticking the Public With the Bill for the Bankers' Crisis

Naomi Klein writes for The Nation: "My city feels like a crime scene and the criminals are all melting into the night, fleeing the scene. No, I'm not talking about the kids in black who smashed windows and burned cop cars on Saturday. I'm talking about the heads of state who, on Sunday night, smashed social safety nets and burned good jobs in the middle of a recession. Faced with the effects of a crisis created by the world's wealthiest and most privileged strata, they decided to stick the poorest and most vulnerable people in their countries with the bill."  Image: Vince O'Farrell/Illawarra Mercury

Treasury’s ‘Point Man’ on AIG Bailout That Benefited Goldman, Owned Goldman Stock
Karen Weise reports for ProPublica: "Deep in an article today on the government's bailout of AIG, The New York Times cites sources saying that the Treasury Department's "point man" on AIG, Don Jester, was a former Goldman Sachs employee who owned stock in the bank even as he was making decisions on the bailout that ultimately channeled billions of taxpayer dollars to Goldman."

G20: Paving the Way for a New Great Depression?
Peter Grier reports for The Christian Science Monitor: "World leaders have pledged to slash the government deficits of industrialized countries by half over the next three years. Is that goal, set at the just-concluded G20 summit in Toronto, fiscal prudence - or the prelude to the next Great Depression?"

We Can't Afford War

Amy Goodman writes for Truthdig.com: “'General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts,' began the MoveOn.org attack ad against Gen. David Petraeus back in 2007, after he had delivered a report to Congress on the status of the war in Iraq. George W. Bush was president, and MoveOn was accusing Petraeus of 'cooking the books for the White House.' The campaign asked 'General Petraeus or General Betray Us?' on a full-page ad in The Washington Post. MoveOn took tremendous heat for the campaign, but stood its ground." Photo: AFP, Alex Wong.

Summer in Iraq
William River Pitt writes for Truthout: "Afghanistan has been getting all the ink lately, and for good reason. General Stanley McChrystal's act of self-immolation by way of Rolling Stone magazine kicked off a genuine no-bones-about-it constitutional crisis over civilian control of the military, until President Obama sacked him at pretty close to the speed of light. The number of troop deaths has reached 100, making June the deadliest month for the coalition since this war began eight years ago. Civilians continue to die all over the place, the poppies continue to flourish, and there's talk about talks with the Taliban, but nobody really wants to talk about that. The so-called "mainstream" media was kind enough to wait for a Democrat to be in the White House before publicly coming to the conclusion that the war looks unwinnable. Somewhere, George W. Bush is smirking over that one, but that's just par for the course."

What Price for Defense?
William D. Hartung writes for The Nation: "There's no question that President Obama's new National Security Strategy, released late last month, is an improvement over the 'shoot first, ask questions later' approach favored by the Bush/Cheney administration. But it is not different enough.  On the positive side of the ledger, the Obama administration's strategy document pledges to increase funds for diplomacy and foreign assistance, and to favor strong alliances over go-it-alone approaches. It defines the spread of nuclear weapons as 'the gravest danger' facing the United States, and reiterates the administration's pledge to seek a world free of nuclear weapons. And it acknowledges that some of the most urgent threats we face have nothing to do with terrorism."

Pentagon Shifts Its Story About Departure of Leader of Brain Injury Center
T. Christian Miller, ProPublica, and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR, report for ProPublica: "The Pentagon has pledged in recent days to improve its care for soldiers with mild traumatic brain injury -- and one place that might need some attention is communications at the top. Earlier this month, we reported that the military was routinely failing to diagnose such injuries, which are the most common head wounds sustained by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also found that soldiers had trouble getting adequate treatment at one of America's largest military bases, Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas."

How Many Americans Are Targeted for Assassination?
Glenn Greenwald writes for Salon.com: "When The Washington Post's Dana Priest first revealed (in passing) back in January that the Obama administration had compiled a hit list of American citizens targeted for assassination, she wrote that 'as of several months ago, the CIA list included three U.S. citizens.'  In April, both the Post and the NYT confirmed that the administration had specifically authorized the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki.  Today, The Washington Times' Eli Lake has an interview with Obama's top Terrorism adviser John Brennan in which Brennan strongly suggests that the number of U.S. citizens targeted for assassination could actually be 'dozens'..."

Is the Obama Presidency Unraveling?

The SocialistWorker.org comments: "THE SIGNS stapled to telephone poles and houses along Louisiana's Gulf coast said it all: 'President Obama, BP took my money. Where's my change?' The BP eco-catastrophe--and the utter failure of the federal government's response--are certainly driving discontent with Barack Obama and his administration. But they aren't the only issues where disappointment with a president who represented the hopes and expectations of millions of people is keenly felt--not by a long shot."

Big Footsteps for Elena Kagan
John Davidson writes for the Huffington Post: "The U.S. Senate begins its consideration of the nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court on June 28th, just two days after the seventh anniversary of the high court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas. The juxtaposition of these events points to critical issues that senators and the nation need to consider about the legacy of the position Kagan has been nominated to fill and the responsibilities of all our country's top justices."

Michael Steele's Thurgood Marshall Fail

Suzy Khimm writes for Mother Jones: "During confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, it almost seemed as if the late and legendary Justice Thurgood Marshall was the one being vetted—rather than Kagan, who once clerked for him. Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee have tried to turn the civil rights icon into ammo for their assault on Kagan, attacking Marshall as a 'judicial activist' and suggesting that the same could be expected of Kagan. This wasn't a surprise. Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, kick-started this bash-Marshall campaign last month by pouncing on Kagan for praising a 1987 Marshall speech in which the ex-justice said the Constitution, "as originally drafted and conceived," was 'defective.' Marshall had been referring to the Constitution's definition of slaves as three-fifths of 'free persons.' But Steele's oppo gang at the RNC seized on this and zapped out a memo hammering Kagan: 'Does Kagan Still View Constitution 'As Originally Drafted And Conceived' As ‘Defective’?'" Photo illustration based on photo by Flickr user Cory Brown (Creative Commons).

NYT Attacks "Border" With False Rant of Pro-Coup Reporter
Robert Naiman comments for Truthout: "No reasonable person would have bet serious money that news editors at The New York Times would be huge fans of Oliver Stone's new documentary about South America, 'South of the Border.' A key point of the film is that mainstream US press coverage of South America in recent years has generally followed State Department priorities more than objective news standards."

Oliver Stone Responds to the New York Times

Oliver Stone writes for Truthdig,com: "Larry Rohter attacks our film, “South of the Border,” for “mistakes, misstatements and missing details.” But a close examination of the details reveals that the mistakes, misstatements, and missing details are his own, and that the film is factually accurate. We will document this for each one of his attacks. We then show that there is evidence of animus and conflict of interest, in his attempt to discredit the film. Finally, we ask that you consider the many factual errors in Rohter’s attacks, outlined below, and the pervasive evidence of animus and conflict of interest in his attempt to discredit the film; and we ask that The New York Times publish a full correction for these numerous mistakes."
For more from Oliver Stone about his new documentary and clips from “South of the Border,” click here.

Drugsters in Academia: How Big Pharma “Educates” American Doctors
James Ridheway writes for Unsilent Generation The pharmaceutical industry has wormed its way into the hearts and minds of the medical professions in any number of ways—wining and dining doctors, sending them off to vacation in splendid spas, and even buying their names to put on industry-written articles promoting different drugs.

Unhinged on the Right
Ruth Marcus writes for Truthdig.com: "The campaign video is such a transparent ploy, the temptation is to ignore it. After all, tea party candidate Rick Barber is a long shot in his July runoff race for the Republican nomination for an Alabama congressional seat. But then you hit replay, and see again the iconic images you think you must have imagined. They last a fraction of a second, but they are so imprinted on the modern brain that is all it takes to recognize the photographs. Arbeit Macht Frei, spelled out in cold metal on the concentration camp gates. And the skeletal survivors, packed naked in bunks four tiers high."



BP in the Gulf - the Persian Gulf

Stephen Kinzer writes for TomDispatch: "To frustrated Americans who have begun boycotting BP: Welcome to the club. It's great not to be the only member any more! Does boycotting BP really make sense? Perhaps not. After all, many BP filling stations are actually owned by local people, not the corporation itself." Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: ali reza_parsi, visionshare.

BP's Ombudsman Gave Congress Wrong Information About Employee Retaliation
Jason Leopold reports for Truthout: "Last January, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-California) and Bart Stupak (D-Michigan) sent a letter to John Minge, BP's Alaska president, seeking information about how the company was managing its Prudhoe Bay operations on Alaska's North Slope, as well as internal reports about the circumstances behind five serious incidents dating back to September 2008."

EPA’s Initial Testing Finds Dispersants Roughly Equal, But Raises Questions

Marian Wang reports for ProPublica: “After ordering BP last month to find and switch to a less toxic chemical dispersant than Corexit — which BP has sprayed in record quantities into the Gulf of Mexico -- the EPA announced today that based on initial testing, all eight dispersants the agency is studying 'are roughly equal in toxicity.'” Photo: USAF

Is Washing Out Sandwich Baggies a Waste of Time?
Kiera Butler writes for Mother Jones: "Is it environmentally efficient to wash all of our Ziploc bags for reuse, or do we use more resources than it is worth? And do the bags maintain their integrity for continuous washing, or does the hot water affect their chemical structure? —Econundrums reader Susan B."

Live Dangerously: Ten Easy Steps to Becoming a Radical Homemaker
Shannon Hayes writes for YES Magazine: "When Shannon Hayes made a list of easy steps for becoming a radical homemaker, she didn't realize just how revolutionary they were. When I first released Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture, I was advised to make a list of 'easy steps for becoming a radical homemaker' as part of my publicity outreach materials. My shoulders slumped at the very thought: Three years of research about the social, economic, and ecological significance of homemaking, and I had to reduce it to 10 easy tips?"

Garden City’s Racial Diversity Is a Look at America’s Future

David Klepper writes for KansasCity.com: "Your home can be your birthplace. Or where you raise a family. Or where you bury your kin. For a growing number of immigrants, home is far west Kansas in a city of 28,000, a world away from Mogadishu, Mexico City and Myanmar. It’s where women in burqas stroll down a Norman Rockwell Main Street festooned with early Fourth of July banners. And where a Buddhist temple sits alongside grocery stores selling Mexican soft drinks and 50-pound bags of jasmine rice." Photo: Crossroads of Fremont, CA. 

Beyond Pride
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand writes for Pam's House Blend: "It was on June 28, 1969 that a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender New Yorkers stood up, fought back, and openly challenged a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Sheridan Square.  Gay New Yorkers, for the first time, took to the streets and publicly identified themselves and the modern gay rights movement was born.  The Stonewall Uprising was an act of unheralded bravery that kicked off a battle for LGBT equality, a fight that we are still waging to this day."

Opponents of Net Neutrality Attending Congressional Telecom Meetings Spend More on Lobbying
Paul Blumenthal writes for The Sunlight Foundation: "Last Friday, two congressional committees held closed door discussions with 31 representatives from industry and activist groups to discuss writing a new broadband Internet policy, largely focused on whether and how to implement net neutrality rules, into the Telecommunications Act of 1996. While the meeting contained more proponents of net neutrality, opponents of implementing the policy hold a lop-sided advantage in lobbying spending and contributing to political campaigns."

The Battle for Broadband

Wally Bowen writes for the Daily Yonder: "The definitive battle for the future of the Internet is underway. On June 17, the Federal Communications Commission, now with a 3-2 Democratic majority, moved to reclaim its authority over broadband Internet service; a federal court had overturned FCC action – using a weaker telecom rule – to prevent abusive practices by broadband providers."

White House Plans Explosion in Mobile Broadband by Making Spectrum Available
David Dayen writes for FireDogLake: "Yesterday (June 28, 2010), the President issued a memorandum making available 500 MHz of spectrum over the next ten years, to be offered at auction for wireless broadband services. It’s part of the implementation of the national broadband strategy laid out by the FCC in a policy document earlier this year."

Recommended Audio: U.S. Broadband Numbers Don't Lie, Just Confuse

Joel Rose reports for NPR: "President Obama signed a memorandum on Monday committing the federal government to expand America's access to high-speed Internet by increasing the amount of broadband airwaves owned by the government and private sector.  The announcement throws White House support behind part of the Federal Communications Commission's ambitious National Broadband Plan. It also follows closed-door meetings between the FCC and the country's biggest broadband Internet companies — an effort to smooth ruffled feathers over the commission's plans to regulate broadband Internet access." Photo: iStockphoto.com

Abandoned Agencies
Jodi Enda reports for the American Journalism Review: "In the late 1990s, AJR began to systematically track coverage of federal departments and agencies through the Project on the State of the American Newspaper. One of the goals was to determine how coverage by newspapers and wire services had changed over time.  To do that, AJR selected departments and agencies that deal with everyday issues such as food safety, taxes, airline policy, the economy, veterans' benefits and workplace rules. Four times--in 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004--we checked to see whether they were covered by full-time beat reporters and, if so, by which news outlets. We defined full time as two- thirds of a reporter's time covering the department and closely related issues."
Click to see an interactive chart and spreadsheet of news organizations covering federal agencies

Recommended Audio: The Real News Network Journalist Jessie Freeston on Canadian Police's Brutal Treatment of Journalists

Real News journalist Jessie Freeston talks about his experience covering the protests at the G-20 Summit in Toronto, where he was hit in the face by police while wearing his reporter credentials: "Freedom of press doesn't go away during a crisis; it is precisely for crises that it exists."


Reforming Journalism: The Rest of the Story
Burton St. John and Jeff South write for The Quill: "By now, it’s clear that traditional journalism outlets — especially daily newspapers and local television — are witnessing a continual erosion of their audiences. The Pew Research Center provided a clear summary of this decline in late 2008. In the previous decade, local TV news had lost 12 percent of declared viewers. Newspapers fared worse: In just two years, print editions saw a 9 percent decline in readership. Not surprisingly, journalists and scholars have issued a slew of recommendations on how the industry can regain its financial footing."

Art and Diversity in the Little Apple

This week's Community Bridge opens with Elliott Pujol and Gerry Craig. Pujol is a master metalsmith and is one of six receiving the 2010 Governor's Arts Award from the Kansas Arts Commission.

Pujol is recognized as one of the most important metalsmiths working in the United States. With over 200 exhibitions and 18 solo exhibitions to his name, he was chosen the Master Metalsmith in 2005 by the National Ornamental Museum in Tennessee, and was selected as and Outstanding American Craftsman in 2004 by the National Endowment for the Arts. As a metals professor at Kansas State University, he has published extensively on metalsmithing and craftsmanship, tirelessly taught students, guided the metals program and served as an integral member of the university community.

As part of our on-going series for African American History Month, for the second half of this show, Christopher Renner welcomes Tiffany Powell, PhD, Coordinator of the Office of Diversity at USD 383, to discuss the challenges she faces in closing achievement gaps, supporting student involvement and making sure our district reflects the diversity of its student body.

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Clippings for 11 February 2010

Chris Hedges on the Zero Point of Systemic Collapse: We stand on the cusp of one of humanity’s most dangerous moments.
Chris Hedges writes for Adbusters - the journal of the mental environment: "Aleksandr Herzen, speaking a century ago to a group of anarchists about how to overthrow the czar, reminded his listeners that it was not their job to save a dying system but to replace it: “We think we are the doctors. We are the disease.” All resistance must recognize that the body politic and global capitalism are dead. We should stop wasting energy trying to reform or appeal to it. This does not mean the end of resistance, but it does mean very different forms of resistance. It means turning our energies toward building sustainable communities to weather the coming crisis, since we will be unable to survive and resist without a cooperative effort."

The New Deal in Reverse: How the Obama Administration Ended Up Where Franklin Roosevelt Began
Steve Faser writes for TomDispatch.com: "On March 4, 1933, the day he took office, Franklin Roosevelt excoriated the 'money changers who 'have fled from their high seats in the temples of our civilization [because...] they know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision and where there is no vision, the people perish.' Rhetoric, however, is only rhetoric. According to one skeptical congressional observer of FDR’s first inaugural address, 'The President drove the money-changers out of the Capitol on March 4th -- and they were all back on the 9th.'”

Not About Sarah Palin
David Norlin writes for the Kansas Free Press: "This is not about Sarah Palin. Instead, let's talk petro-states. Like Oman. And its sister state, Alaska. In 2007, Alaska produced approximately 719,000 barrels of oil per day. That puts it in the same ballpark as Egypt (710,000), Oman (718,000) and Malaysia (755,000). Its economy parallels Oman's. Its oil revenues account for about 75 percent of export earnings."

Globalization Is Killing The Globe: Return to Local Economies
Thom Hartman writes for the Huffington Post: "Globalization is killing Europe, just as it's already wiped out much of the American middle class. Spain and Greece are facing immediate crises that many other European nations see on the near horizon: aging boomer workers are retiring with healthy benefit packages, but the younger workers who are paying for those benefits aren't making anything close to the income (or, therefore, paying the taxes) that their parents did."

Wall Street Wants a Refund
Robert Scheer writes for Turthdig.com: "'Buyer’s remorse' is the way Sen. John Cornyn, the Senate Republicans’ fundraiser, gleefully refers to Wall Street moguls’ current disenchantment with the U.S. president they thought they had bought. They didn’t like it when Barack Obama, after a year of throwing trillions of American taxpayer dollars into the bailout sinkhole, dared remark that he had hoped there might be some return for ordinary folks trying to save their jobs and homes. Not just huge bonuses for the folks the president dared refer to as 'fat cats.'”

Corporate Welfare Roulette
Jim Hightower comments for Truthout: "One thing that governors and mayors absolutely love to do is win a prize in the national game called 'Corporate Welfare Roulette.' It's a simple casino-style game in which politicos put down a big stack of taxpayers' money on an out-of-state corporation as an 'incentive,' hoping that their bet outbids other states and cities trying to lure that same corporation to move to their area and hire some people."

Recommended Audio: ProPublica podcast - Olga Pierce on the Unemployment Insurance Crisis

With the nation’s unemployment rate hovering around 10 percent, ProPublica reporter Olga Pierce discusses how many states mismanaged their unemployment insurance funds.  Pierce explains why the U.S. has the system it does, how she was able to predict when states’ funds would go broke [1], and why seniors in Virginia may get their benefits cut.
Pierce has been covering the issue for nearly a year and most recently helped create our “Unemployment Insurance Tracker [1],” which lets you see just how much trouble your state’s unemployment insurance system is in.  Download Podcast.

The US Economic Crisis: Jobs Continue to Vanish While the Media Applauds “Recovery”
Shamus Cooke writes for GlobalResearch.ca: “At first glance it appeared there was a typo in the headlines. The national media reported that, in January, another 20,000 more jobs were lost. Somehow, the unemployment rate dropped, from 10 percent to 9.7 percent. Nobody thought this paradox was worth explaining; instead, the media’s attitude was 'more good news' about the economy.”

Budget Lies Aren’t Helping the Deficit
David Sirota writes for Truthdig.com: “Last month, President Barack Obama proposed to freeze government spending on everything other than defense, veterans’ benefits, homeland security, Medicare and Social Security. The New York Times reported that administration officials depicted the initiative as proof of the president’s 'seriousness about cutting the budget deficit.' Such spin may fly in Orwell’s Oceania or Washington, D.C., but if you happen to live in the real world, basic arithmetic tells a far more accurate tale about what is 'serious'—and what is not.”

Give Peace Spending a Chance
Maya Schenwar comments for Truthout: "Last week, when President Obama requested the largest-ever military budget since World War II, hardly anyone batted an eyelash. The Bush years immunized many of us to the shock of colossal defense spending bills skating across the table - and zipping through Congress to sure passage - regardless of shriveling public approval."

Chart of the Day
Kevin Drum writes for Mother Jones: "The Project on Defense Alternatives sent me this email a few minutes ago:

We’ve just opened the web page Trillions to Burn? A Quick Guide to the Pentagon Budget Surge — please have a look.  It’s a quick read with 9 charts that explain why the DoD budget has risen to over 700 billion and what it implies for other federal spending and the national debt.

Hey, you had me at "charts"! So here's your chart of the day: a look at Pentagon spending since World War II, adjusted for inflation. Right now we're spending more than we did during the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or the Reagan military buildup. And there's no end in sight. More at the link."

The 700 Military Bases of Afghanistan Black Sites in the Empire of Bases
Nick Turse writes for TomDispatch.com: "In the nineteenth century, it was a fort used by British forces. In the twentieth century, Soviet troops moved into the crumbling facilities. In December 2009, at this site in the Shinwar district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province, U.S. troops joined members of the Afghan National Army in preparing the way for the next round of foreign occupation. On its grounds, a new military base is expected to rise, one of hundreds of camps and outposts scattered across the country."

Details of British Resident's Brutal Torture by CIA Officers Released
Andy Worthington provides the following analysis for Truthout: "Three senior UK judges on Wednesday ordered the British government to publicly disclose previously highly classified information that reveals how Binyam Mohamed, a British resident, was brutally tortured by the CIA while in Pakistani custody in April and May 2002."

The National Anthem - and Why We Need Health Care Reform So Desperately
Robert Reich, RobertReich.org: "My health insurer here in California is Anthem Blue Cross. When I first opted for it, it was just called Blue Cross. Then, a year or so back, I was notified that an entity called 'Anthem' would now be running my insurance policy. I didn't think much about it at the time. I've had the usual problems most people have with their health insurers - confusing bills, co-payments and deductibles that never seem to add up, a bureaucracy that gives every impression of being more interested in fighting me than helping me - but nothing more."

Fear of a ‘Multicultural’ Nation
Marcia Alesan Dawkins writes for Truthdig.com: “Last Thursday night former Congressman and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo made opening-night remarks at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Tancredo fired verbal shots at Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain and 'the cult of multiculturalism,' stating that people who 'could not spell the word vote or say it in English” had elected the president. And that Obama’s election reveals the need for us to “have a civics [or] literacy test before people can vote in this country.'”

Republicans at Highest Levels Really Want to Do Away with Democracy for All
Mark Ames writes for AlterNet.org: "While Tea Party movement followers ran around Nashville last week dressed up in their Paul Revere period costumes, blathering about their heroic struggle against Obama's Islamosocialist tyranny, the right-wing elite that nurtures them, and their paid libertarian ideologues, have been openly advocating the abolition of America's democracy in favor of a free-market junta, because, as they say over and over, voters cannot be trusted to rule themselves."

Scalia v. The World: On Antonin Scalia
Michael O'Donnell writes for The Nation: "The dean of the modern conservative legal movement, Justice Antonin Scalia, is neither an intellectual nor a primitive. He is both. Scalia has fused the cerebral and the atavistic strains of conservatism in a manner that leaves one wondering if they were ever distinct at all. For decades Scalia has beguiled conservative law students with his abhorrence of compromise and the colorful, take-no-prisoners style of his opinions. More than any other contemporary jurist, he claims to abide by a host of scrupulous legal principles: strict fidelity to a statute's text, adherence to the Constitution's original meaning, respect for the nation's federal structure of government. But notwithstanding these "neutral" principles and his habit of adorning his defense of them with intellectual flourishes, Scalia writes his opinions in boiling ink, mixing prodigious citations and vast learning with callous disregard for others and bursts of derision bordering on bigotry."

Brain Trust to Nowhere: Meet the Advisers Behind the Sarah Palin Road Show
Justin Elliott writes for Talking Points Memo: "As Sarah Palin relaunches her image for the next stage of her political career, there's a small set of advisers who are shaping the former governor's policy positions and public persona."

Climate Catastrophe: Surviving the 21st Century
Ronnie Cummins and Will Allen write for the Organic Consumers Association: "The climate, energy, and political catastrophe we are facing is mind-boggling and frightening. Yet there is still time to save ourselves, to move beyond psychological denial, despair, or false optimism. There is still hope if we are willing to confront the hydra-headed monsters that block our path, and move ahead with a decisive plan of action. The inspirational message we need to deliver is that we're not just talking about drastically reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution, but rebuilding society, creating in effect a New Woman and a New Man for the 21st Century. What we are witnessing are the early stages of a mass grassroots consciousness-raising and taking back of power from out-of-control corporations, banks, corporate-controlled media, and politicians. This cultural and political revolution will empower us to to carry out a deep and profound retrofitting of industry, government, education, health care, housing, neighborhoods, transportation, food and farming systems, as well as our diets and lifestyles."

The Press after Citizens United
Clint Hendler writes for the Columbia Journalism Review: "Over the last two weeks, reporters covering campaign finance have ably chronicled the scope and effects of the bitterly divided Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. They’ve filed stories reporting that decades, perhaps a century, of regulations governing campaign finance have been rolled back, and that corporations would now be entitled to spend unlimited amounts of money in support of any candidate they desire. Observers predict a weakening of party organizations, and a massive new cudgel for lobbyists seeking to influence legislation."

Twitter Is Not Killing Journalism, Journalists Are Killing Journalism
Tim McGuire writes for The Media Channel: "Twitter is not killing journalism, journalists are killing journalism. This rather cheap play on that ugly bromide 'guns don’t kill people' is indirectly prompted by the constant uproar in  popular media over the horrors of Twitter. The latest tempest was started when George Packer in the New Yorker wailed, 'Twitter is crack for media addicts. It scares me, not because I’m morally superior to it, but because I don’t think I could handle it.'”

Conservative Activists Rebel Against Fox News: Saudi Ownership Is ‘Really Dangerous For America’
Lee Fang writes for Think Progress: "Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns a 7 percent stake in News Corp — the parent company of Fox News — making him the largest shareholder outside the family of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. Alwaleed has grown close with the Murdoch enterprise, recently endorsing James Murdoch to succeed his father and creating a content-sharing agreement with Fox News for his own media conglomerate, Rotana."

Build Better Media
Megan Tady writes for In These Times: "Across the country, community media projects have been sprouting out of a dying traditional media system that has often failed to deliver what the public really wants: local news and information. Now, more than ever before, citizens are taking the media back, using this time of media chaos to forge ahead with news projects that serve their interests—regardless of whether they graduated from J-school or not."

Why Public Access Television Is Important and You Should Fight For the CAP ACT
Tracy Rosenberg writes for the Huffington Post: "In May of 2009, I became a public access television producer. Couldn't have picked a worse time. Not because I don't enjoy hosting and co-producing Media News. It's a great joy to interview guests and try to shed a little light on the issues closest to my heart including: net neutrality and the digital divide, coverage of turmoil abroad and at home, the loss of local public affairs coverage and the rise in citizen journalism. I feel privileged to bring voices that need to be heard onto my local TV dial."

Cable Comcast: Al Franken Says Hell No on the NBC Takeover
KAtrina vanden Heuvel writes for The Nation: "The 'I will mess you up' Senator is what Keith Olbermann is now calling Al Franken. He also added that 'orientation' for Minnesota's Senator is now over.  Franken's toughness and savvy was on display last week at a hearing on the proposed $30 billion mega-merger between Comcast and NBC Universal."

Google’s Announcement of High-Speed Broadband Experiment Should Inspire FCC to Think Big
Responding to Google’s announcement today of a plan to build new, ultra high-speed broadband networks, Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, said:

Google’s proposed experiment with building ultra-fast, open broadband pipelines in a handful of communities follows a trail already blazed by Verizon’s FiOS network, which has fiber optic cables capable of speeds comparable to what Google proposes. The FCC should use these examples to set forward-looking goals for the future of broadband throughout the United States. In the coming years, all Americans should have access to a world-class broadband network. The world’s most advanced broadband nations already have networks capable of these speeds -- we are years behind in the race to create a national infrastructure that can support the next generation of e-commerce, e-government, health and education technologies, and much more.

10 Sept 09 - CCHW, Sex Ed @ ECM, Aggiefest

Community Bridge welcomes back Doug Benson and Bea Stoney of Community Cultural Harmony Week's planning committee to discuss this year's planned activities. CCHW will take place the week of September 20th. For the complete calendar visit: http://www.k-state.edu/cchw.

Then we will hear from Rev. David Jones of Ecumenical Campus Ministry about a human sexuality course being offer to K-State students beginning on September 14th. The nine-week, non-credit course will be taught by Dr. David E. Thompson, KSU Department of Family Studies and Human Services. For more information contact Rev. David Jones at: dajones@ksu.edu.

Finally we will close out this week's show with a return of the ever popular Evan Tuttle, Manhattan Music Coalition, to talk about the up-coming "4th Annual Multi-Genre Live Music Festival" otherwise known as Aggiefest, September 18 & 19, 2009, in Aggieville.

MP3 File