Saturday, November 13, 2010

US 2010 Mid-Term Elections: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy Or Lessons For Fiji?

Croz Walsh latest posting comments on the US 2010 Mid-term elections and the lessons need to be learnt by Fiji, is a thought provoking post, on which SIFM could not resist to offer some minor additions to the narrative.

Croz Walsh -- The American Mid-Term Elections Ask Questions about...: "The cartoons tell all by Crosbie Walsh Two years ago Americans elected their first Black president and the world looked, very briefly, as..."

While Croz posting, did have some truths to it, there are some clarifications to be made, from a perspective of a US based political observer.
Croz alluded to the global recession's catalyst, as the mortgage meltdown:
The President had hardly been installed than the American world turned pear-shaped, taking most of the rest of the world with it. Banks had lent billions of mortgage and other money to people with no collateral's and who could not afford them, re-bundled these shaky moneys with others equally shaky and passed them on, disguised, to other bankers and insurers.

Other views on this episode of greed, is an award winning radio documentary "The Giant Pool of Money" produced by 'This American Life' and the movie "Inside Job" (trailer posted below).



Coupling the voter disenchantment with the bank bailout, (in the context of mid-term elections) come from Pop and politics, a radio program and online magazine, which analyzes the outcome of the Nov 2nd 2010, mid term elections and confronts the contentious issue of post-racial America and the dissatisfaction with the incumbents prior to Nov. 2nd elections.

Croz is also on mark when he points out the electorate anger on a variety of concerns, whether real or perceived:
And then BP caused a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The President had nothing to do with the granting of the BP drilling licence or the spill but his critics blamed him for not doing enough.
The troops are coming home from Iraq but the situation looks no better there; the situation in Afghanistan remains bad; as does the Israeli-Palestine conflict. The President tried but the problems are too big to resolve in ways American voters wanted and expected.

One loose string that connected Obama with BP, was the political donations his campaign received, according a POLITICO article, "[Obama was] one of the biggest recipients".

This unethical alliance was addressed in Greg Pallast's forum discussion on his published book: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", outlining the corporate tentacles in the U.S political scene.

Croz also highlights the controversial issue of campaign financing, during the campaign run up to the mid-terms:
But even if direct financial contributions to election campaigns were limited, it really would have had little effect. There are so many ways of making indirect contributions, and so many ways of “discouraging” counter-contributions.


While Croz questions how Obama lost his popularity among independent voters, pointing to the absence of the young generation of voters. The turn out of young voters during mid terms, are historically not high; a stat featured in a (CIRCLE) Youth Civic advocate group article.

It seems that this group of independent voters may have been turned off by Obama's unfulfilled campaign promises, among these are: Closing Guantanamo prison facility, ending the Afghanistan war and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't tell" bans in the army.

Croz's cross references to the role of the media prior, during to the U.S mid-term elections, is a cogent correlation point:
The key to all this — and the key to democracy — lies with the media. The media need to be free to publish views contrary to those of their owners. But not so free that they seldom publish information to keep the voting public uniformed on important issues.

And that is where American democracy falls down. The media is a business owned by big business. The fact that one news channel competes with another means little. The competition is between businesses for better ratings and more advertising earning, not for more informative or investigative news of any consequence.
It is becoming an embarrassing stain on American politics, when the issues of money, elections, media subjects intersect on many different levels and many different occasions.

Volumes have been written on the subject on one or two or the subjects. Not all 3 with respect to their roles of influencing the citizenry, whereby affecting the election result, using the powerful tool of the media; and their tri-symbiotic affairs.

A clear example of these immoral behaviors were unraveled by a NPR investigative report (Part 1). (Part 2 of NPR investigative report.)


The NPR article uncovers the influence of lobbying private Prison developers with Arizona legislators, who basically drafted the controversial Arizona law SB 1070, currently being disputed in court.

Croz also broadly segments the use of money and its force-multiplying effects in an election. That particular statement will have to be reconciled with the results of California's Governor and U.S Senate race featuring Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina respectively; both multi-millionaires and outspending their political opponent lavishly.

Whitman, almost spending in the ballpark of US$140 million of her personal money to campaign for a $US200,000 salaried job with perks and power; undoubtedly foot steps away from the stairway to heaven .

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Wednesday, October 06, 2010

The Talk Of The Town: News Corp & Its Political Intent.

Café Pacific | Cafe Pacific blog, from David Robie, a Pacific Media Professor; republished a posting from Croz Walsh's blog: Media freedom and transparency: Pacific 'dictatorship of the publishitariat'?: "Crosbie Walsh plays Devil's Advocate with the media SPEAKING at the 2010 Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) conference in Auckland on..."

Following up on the interesting review of the freedoms of the media in Croz's post and the issue of News Corp relinquishing control of " The Fiji Times", is best seen in the light of the repeat offenses of the conglomerate.

Another important take on the legacy of New Corp International, is in the political arena, of both the U.S and the U.K.
A recent article from the Columbia Journalism Review highlights these wanton and willful intentions.
The act of News Corp's $1 million dollar donation to the Republican party in the U.S, as reported by Washington Post piece seem to buttress those claims.

The excerpt of C.J.R article:

The Audit — October 04, 2010 12:49 PM
Murdoch’s Threat to Democracy

Direct influence via the power of the purse—here and in the UK

By Ryan Chittum

Politico astutely pointed out the other day that Fox News now employs four of the leading Republican presidential candidates: Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum.

It’s hardly news that Fox News is more propaganda outlet than news organization. But this ought to be a more troubling development than it seems to have been thus far. Here’s the broader media angle from Politico:

With the exception of Mitt Romney, Fox now has deals with every major potential Republican presidential candidate not currently in elected office.

The matter is of no small consequence, since it’s uncertain how other news organizations can cover the early stages of the presidential race when some of the main GOP contenders are contractually forbidden to appear on any TV network besides Fox.

C-SPAN Political Editor Steve Scully said that when C-SPAN tried to have Palin on for an interview, he was told he had to first get Fox’s permission — which the network, citing her contract, ultimately denied. Producers at NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC all report similar experiences.

And here’s the more insidious one Paul Krugman points out today:

Now, media moguls have often promoted the careers and campaigns of politicians they believe will serve their interests. But directly cutting checks to political favorites takes it to a whole new level of blatancy.

Rupert Murdoch: Never subtle.

Murdoch, at least, is a naturalized American citizen, and who can forget the heart-warming story of why he became one: To get past legal requirements so he could snap up TV stations here.

But I’ve never understood why the UK allows a foreigner like Murdoch to have so much control over its press—he controls some 40 percent of newspaper circulation and has huge influence over television, too, with his big stake in BSkyB. Here’s The Observer:

Blair’s deputy director of communications, Lance Price, called Murdoch the 24th member of the cabinet. “His presence was always felt,” he wrote. “No big decision could ever be made inside Number 10 without taking account of the likely reaction of three men – Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Rupert Murdoch. On all the really big decisions, anybody else could safely be ignored.” That is almost certainly true of the new government and Andy Coulson is seen as the key facilitator of Rupert’s habitual privilege.

Andy Coulson is the former News of the World editor who headed the paper while it hacked the royal family’s—and hundreds’ and perhaps thousands of others’—phones and listened to their voicemails.

That News of the World scandal and cover up continues to unravel, and Murdoch’s influence is one of the key stories there. It looks for all the world as if Scotland Yard was so in debt to and/or scared of News Corporation that it wouldn’t investigate the crimes properly—and even helped cover them up.

Guess who’s also on the Murdoch payroll? The Scotland Yard cop who headed up the failed investigation.

The Guardian quotes from an upcoming Channel 4 documentary, which reports that the influence is hardly limited to the indirect “you-don’t-know-what-I-might-do-so-watch-out” variety:

Adam Price, one of the MPs from the media select committee which last year investigated the phone-hacking scandal, described how he stopped voting to compel News International’s chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, to be called as a witness.

“I was told by a senior Conservative member of the committee, who I knew was in direct contact with executives at News International, that if we went for her, they would go for us – effectively that they would delve into our personal lives in order to punish them.”

The Labour MP Tom Watson said he was threatened in 2006 after he called for Tony Blair to resign at a time when News International was supporting him.

“A very senior News International journalist told me that Rebekah would never forgive me for what I did and that she would pursue me through parliament for the rest of my time as an MP,” he said.

Adam Price: a modern-day Profile in Courage! But I digress.

This is the corporation that has more than half of the leading candidates for president of the United States on its payroll.



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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fair & Softly Goes Far In A Day!

Croz Walsh's Blog -- Fiji: The Way it Was, Is and Can Be: Beyond the Gibberish, Possible Crusher Sabotage: "Commonwealth Gibberish Opinion Crosbie Walsh I don't really know why the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group¹ needed to meet in New York t..."


Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State's recent meeting with Fiji's Foreign Affairs Minister as pointed out by Croz blog post on the intent of America to engage with Fiji, seemed to have caught the usual naysayers flat-footed, with much chagrine from the Trans-Tasmanians.

Kurt M. Campbell, the Assistant Secretary for Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs follow up and re-affirmation to the premise of "lifting their game" in the Pacific region and the re-engagement with Fiji recognizing its strategic importance within the region, was reflected in the hearing conducted by US House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee on Asia, Pacific and Global Environment.

The video of the opening statement by Campbell to the sub-committee.


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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Every Little, Helps.

Radio Australia (ABC) article regarding Fiji's MDG obligations were misconstrued (intentionally or not) by the article heading: "Fiji boasts it's ahead on UN MDGs" and conveniently glosses over the significance of the achievement and barely uses a snippet of the entire statement.

MDG Debate, statement by H.E. Mr. Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Civil Aviation of Fiji (UN video posted below):



Campbell Cooney, the ABC Pacific correspondent, finished off the radio segment with the following vindictive statement:

COONEY:
And while this summit is being held to look at MDGs, national politics have not been far from the surface. Since the 2006 coup Fiji has been criticised by UN members and other bodies for not keeping its promise to hold elections last year, and for scrapping the country's constitution.

The interim regime has said Fiji is not ready to return to democracy and that it won't be until 2014. Ratu Inoke might have been in New York to debate the Millennium Development Goals. But he was not missing the opportunity to promote the regime's position and also link those goals to its plans for Fiji's future.

What the Radio Australia web article did not bother to comment on, was the statement from Australia's nascent Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd who seemed to be nursing a back injury-a stabbing wound so to speak.

Although, Rudd had highlighted the usual diplomatic rhetoric on the benevolent qualities of the MDGs, used the heart wrenching narrative of a poor Soweto girl and an unnamed beggar boy.

In the same speech, Rudd swept the dismal report card on Australia's MDG obligations, under the proverbial rug (UN video posted below):



Rudd called on the richer and developed donor nations to assist in the eradication of poverty (as he termed "self-evident" truths) and outlined the intent of Australia to double its aid program by 2015; itemizing their sectors of interest coupled with the donation amount.

Rudd ended his speech quoting again from an unnamed child. This time a letter a girl from Australia and Rudd quoted her words ad verbatim. What Rudd forgot to mention, was that the letter the girl wrote (whom he quoted), was addressed to the Prime Minister of Australia.

Oddly enough, even Radio Australia did not draw attention to the final communique of the MDG summit.

The UN Summit regarding Millennium Development Goals (MDG), was held between 20-22 September 2010, New York, during the High-Level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly.



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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

From Croz Walsh's Blog : Wharf Heist, PM Talks Priorities, Ro Teimumu, Ratu...

Croz Walsh's Blog -- Fiji: The Way it Was, Is and Can Be: Wharf Heist, PM Talks Priorities, Ro Teimumu, Ratu...: "INSIDE JOB? Half a million dollars in $20 notes intended for the Reserve Bank were stolen from Kings wharf, Suva, last weekend.  The thieves..."

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