The Blue State

Scholastic to use ABC film to teach students about media literacy

Thanks to all of you for your e-mails, comments and letters to newspapers and talk shows.  Your outrage about the biased ABC docudrama "Path to 9/11," whose screenwriter is friends with Rush Limbaugh, is causing at least one group to reverse course.

Originally, the educational media giant Scholastic had planned to work with ABC to send 100,000 letters to high school teachers nationwide urging them to show the film to their classes.  They also produced guides for teachers to help facilitate class discussions about this controversial film.  Now, thanks to the national outrage, scholastic is backing down, saying that their classroom discussion guide "did not meet our high standards for dealing with controversial issues."

Now, what they have decided to do instead is distribute guides to teachers that focus on media literacy -- helping children understand the difference between real documentaries and fiction.  The blog TPMmuckraker was given Scholastic's proposal:

The new materials, Scholastic said, will stress three issues:

1. Media Literacy - what is a docudrama; how does it differfrom a documentary; what are the differences between factual reportingand a dramatization?

2. Background to 9/11 - what are some of the causes of unrest inthe Middle East and other parts of the world that give rise to attackson the U.S. and other countries?

3. Geography and Culture -- there is a long history of conflict inthe Middle East. How well do students understand each of the countriesinvolved and what influences their behavior?

"[D]eveloping critical thinking and media literacy skills is crucialfor students," the release quoted Scholastic CEO Robinson as saying."‘The Path to 9/11’ provides a very ‘teachable moment’ for developingthese skills at the high school level."

This sounds a lot better.  As a young adult who grew up reading various scholastic material when I was a grade school student, I thought it was uncharacteristic of Scholastic to be part of something like this.  But now that they reversed course and decided to use the biased film as an example to teach students the difference between fact and fiction, this seems a lot like the Scholastic company that I grew up respecting.

Yes, of course, you can bet that some biased teachers without any background in the field of political science will use this film as an opportunity to promote their vile hatred of the Clinton Administration, regardless of the material supplied by Scholastic.  On one hand, most of us think that Scholastic should not be encouraging any teacher to screen this movie at all.  But on the other hand, if ABC does end up showing this film on Sunday and Monday, then many of these children are going to watch it with their families anyway.  So when they go to school to watch it again, this kind of media literacy discussion might be more beneficial than had Scholastic not agreed to show the film in the first place.

In this age that is dominated by infotainment and attention deficit programming, children now more than ever need to learn how to respond when they are confronted with various forms of media on a daily basis.  Many kids today are even unaware that most so called "reality television" is actually scripted.  Students need to be taught at an early age about media literacy so that they are not made into slaves by whatever corporation happens to be targeting their demographic.

In summary, while it is unfortunate that ABC/Disney would want to invade classrooms and showcase this biased piece of fiction, I definitely applaud Scholastic for at least gearing their class resources that they plan to distribute to teachers towards teaching kids about media literacy -- a very relevant issue in a new media era that has thus far been dominated by dummed down corporate infotainment.

As a netroots community, our work is not finished.  We need to continue pressuring ABC News to drop this prime time show.  Because this docudrama will probably affect the November elections, the Democratic Party has set up a petition to stop the show.  If you sign it, your personal information will remain private.  Click here to sign the Democratic Party's petition.  If ABC News does indeed run the film on Sunday, please join the other million netroots activists and boycott the network for good.
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Other sites blogging about this issue: TPMmuckraker, Patterico's Pontifications, Daily Kos, Sister Toldjah, Taylor Marsh, Pam's House Blend, The Poor Man's Institute, Faithful Progressive, The Carpetbagger Report, The Next Hurrah, Liberal Values, Courage Makes a Majority, Maine Democrats, Donkey Digest, One America Committee, The Power of the Schwartz, Thats Another Fine Mess, Angry Bear, Democratic Daily, Dem Bloggers, Hot Air, Newsvine, Dean's World, Northwest Progressive Institute, The VIew From Down South, The Liberal OC. 

When corporate greed trumps fairness

Earlier this summer, a story ran on the Daily Show that explained how AllState Insurance was beginning to charge higher insurance prices for customers in Brooklyn, NY because of hurricane dangers.  College history students like myself immediately tried to recall the last time that a hurricane touched down in the Big Apple.

Now there is another insurance company gouging customers, and it's State Farm.  Two whistle-blowers inside the insurance company told ABC News that their supervisors tried to alter damage reports last year following hurricane Katrina.  Some documents were shredded:

State Farm Insurance supervisors systematically demanded thatHurricane Katrina damage reports be buried or replaced or changed sothat the company would not have to pay policyholders' claims inMississippi, two State Farm insiders tell ABC News.

Kerri and Cori Rigsby, independent adjusters who had worked forState Farm exclusively for eight years, say they have turned overthousands of internal company documents and their own detailedstatement to the FBI and Mississippi state investigators.

...the Rigsby sisters say they saw "widespread" fraud at the State Farm offices in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss.

"Katrina was devastating, but so was State Farm," says Cori Rigsby.

At one point, they say State Farm brought in a special shreddingtruck they believe was used to destroy key documents. State Farm saysshredding is standard to protect policyholders' privacy.

The sisters say they saw supervisors go to great lengths to pressureoutside engineers to prepare reports concluding that damage was causedby water, not covered under State Farm policies, rather than by wind.

They say reports that concluded that damage was caused by wind, forwhich State Farm would have to pay, were hidden in a special file andnew reports were ordered.

Cori Rigsby says she recalls a senior coordinator ordering that anengineering company be told to alter the findings in its report so thatState Farm would not have to pay.  "Tell them if they don't changetheir report, we're not paying their invoice," she remembers thesupervisor saying.

So like a good neighbor, State Farm was there -- shredding documents.

NBC Nightly News ran a similar report about this yesterday.  Of course, the right-wing blog NewsBusters came to the defense of the insurance industry.

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Other sites blogging about this issue: The Blotter, That's Another Fine Mess, This Canadian, Linkfilter, SGLSpace.

Cheney linked to Halliburton bribery scandal

The UK's Serious Fraud Office is investigating a plot by Halliburton, which occurred last decade, to pay $170 million in bribe money in order to get a contract at a Nigerian gas plant.

The Financial Times has more:

The Nigerian bribery allegations arose three years ago, when a formerexecutive of the consortium working on the gas plant told a Frenchjudge the consortium had operated an offshore slush fund to wincontracts since the mid-1990s.

The consortium is quarter-owned by KBR, through its 55 per cent-controlled British joint venture, MW Kellogg.

KBR is a subsidiary of Halliburton.  As we all know, current Vice President Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton during the mid-90s.  MoneyWeb's columnist Barry Sergeant notes that Cheney had to have been involved:

The most substantial political dimension of the case, so far, is thatit relates in part to the period between 1995 and 2000 when Halliburtonwas headed by Dick Cheney, incumbent US vice-president. Halliburtonbecame involved in the Nigerian consortium through its 1998 takeover ofDresser Industries, after the first gas plant building contract wassigned but before later project expansion deals were agreed.

How could Cheney not have been aware about what was going on?  Lucky for us, he took his corrupt  corporate ways to Washington in January of 2001, and we see what a father-like influence he has been on President Bush.
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Other sites blogging about this issue: Crimes and Corruptions of the New World, Thought-Criminal, The Daily Sandwich, Mind Advocate, 10Q Detective.

BP's carelessness affecting economy

Oil prices surged today to $77 a barrel following BP's announcement that its Alaska pipeline has been damaged.  This caused transportation stocks like Southwest Airlines Union Pacific railroad to fall sharply.

For all those supply-side economics who contend that the President has almost no control over the economy, just look at the affect that our petroleum-dependent energy policy is having on the airline industry.  The word circulating around the country is that if you have airline points, you had better cash them in now because a number of major airlines are about to declare bankruptcy.

Back to the oil pipeline malfunction.  This angered Democratic lawmakers, who think that BP and other oil companies, which just finished making record profits last quarter, can afford to clean and maintain their oil-pumping infrastructure.  Hearings may be held in the House:

"It is appalling that BP let this critical pipelinedeteriorate to the point that a major production shutdown wasnecessary," said Rep. John Dingell,the top-ranking Democrat onthe House Energy and Commerce Committee, in a statement.

"The United States Congress has an obligation to holdhearings to determine what broke down here and what laws andregulations need to be improved to ensure problem pipelineslike these are found and fixed earlier," Dingell said.

Democratic Rep. Edward Markey, who also serves on the Housecommittee, said the shutdown reflects BP's chronicmismanagement of its U.S. drilling operations and that thecompany had been earning enough money to prevent the problem.

"With oil above $70 per barrel and BP making recordprofits, it can afford to properly clean and maintain itspipelines," Markey said in a statement.

The skyrocketing energy prices contributed to the record consumer borrowing in June.  During that month, consumer debt rose by $10.3 billion.  Meanwhile back in oil land, executives are celebrating their record surpluses.

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Other sites blogging about this issue: Huffington Post, The Daily Sandwich, Winter Patriot, Explore for Truth, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, The Ugly Truth, Political Warzone, Moral Equivalent of War, True Blue Liberal, News you Can Abuse.

Video: Who killed the electric car?

Chris Paine, the director of the new documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" appeared on the Daily Show last night.  It is really fascinating to learn about why those cars just all of a sudden disappeared.  Instances like that make wacko conspiracy theorists seem normal:

Click to watch video clip

----- Partial Transcript -----

STEWART: "They would literally say, 'We can't tell you what we're going to do with them?'"

PAINE: "Well, like with my car, I took it in because my brake light went off.  And this is the first time I had any mechanical issue.  And I call up and go, 'Hey is my car ready?'  And they go, 'Well, we took it back.'

It gets more interesting:

STEWART: "So did you find out where they're keeping the bodies?"

PAINE: "We got a tip that...the cars are being taken down to Arizona.  We spent our big three-thousand dollar documentary budget..to rent a helicopter.  And we flew over GM's headquarters in the middle of the desert, and there they were crushing the cars."

I am definitely seeing this movie!

• Click to watch the trailer
• Click to check to see where it is playing near you

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Other blogs writing about this movie: Environmental Valuation, Link Filter, Elena's Journal, Liam Keane.

Video: AllState raises insurance costs for Brooklyners due to hurricanes

Last night on the Daily Show, correspondent Jason Jones filed a report on how citizens in Brooklyn, yes Brooklyn, are facing higher insurance costs because of hurricanes.  Jones makes a supply-side economist look heartless:

Click to watch video clip

---- Partial Transcript ----

STEPHEN MOORE: "There's no law that says Allstate has to provide you with insurance.  Companies are in business to make money."

JASON JONES: "I spoke to this guy Steinfeld, and he was all like, (in a Jerry Seinfeld voice) 'What's the deal with Allstate?  They're supposed to cover all the state.'"

STEPHEN MOORE: "All the what?"

JASON JONES: "All the state."

STEPHEN MOORE: "Right.  Well, if you want to talk about victims here, what about the victims -- the millions of shareholders who own Allstate?  Shouldn't we care about them too?"

JASON JONES: "When I think about what those poor insurance companies went through with Katrina."

STEPHEN MOORE: "Right.  Well, I mean --"

JASON JONES: "Can't you just picture them all cooped up in their boardrooms huddling for wealth?"

What a fool.  I think Moore just hurt his business friends by taking that rhetorical route.

Bush thinks Ken Lay was a "generous person"

President Bush's comments about the death of former Enron CEO Ken Lay should not surprise people.  After all, the President has been in the pockets of people like Ken Lay from the very beginning.  This is what President Bush said he will remember about the corporate criminal:

"I was really surprised," Bush said on CNN's "Larry King Live." "Youknow, my hope is that his heart was right with the Lord and I feel realsorry for his wife. She's had a rough go and she's now here on earth tobear the burdens of losing her husband, a man she loved.

..."One of the things I respected him for was he was such a contributor toHouston's civil society," Bush said. "He was a generous person. I'mdisappointed that he betrayed the trust of shareholders."

A generous person?  if Lay was generous, he would not have lied to all his company's workers, made them lose their retirement and drive at least one person to suicide.  Again though, as I mentioned, the President's praise of Ken Lay does not surprise me.  Bush is the guy that allowed Lay to be included in the group of energy industry executives that helped Dick Cheney write the Administration's now infamously pollution-friendly energy policy.  They say the buck is supposed to stop with the president.  Well, not this time.  Lay also donated a total of $122,500 to George W. Bush's Gubernatorial races.  So the two went way back together.

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Other blogs writing about this issue: The Sheep's Crib, The Existentialist Cowboy, Life is Crap, D-Day, Grouchy's Liberaltopia, The Common Ills, The Daily Clips.

Wikipedia went into hyper mode over Ken Lay's death

Let me put it this way: if you went to sleep for 20 years and missed every historical event between July of 1986 and July of 2006, you would not hire your best friend to write a history book for you.  My guess is that you might listen to your friend's quick briefing of history, but also go off on your own and read an objective view of the way things went down.

I have the same view about Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that allows any person to add their own content.  You can get quick information.  But it is not always reliable.

Immediately after the sudden death of corporate criminal Ken Lay, who has yet to be sentenced, conspiracy theories floated around on Wikipedia.  Reuters goes through what was written and when:

Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit,added news of Lay's death to his online biography shortly afternews outlets began reporting it at around 10 a.m. EDT (1400GMT).

At 10:06 a.m., Wikipedia's entry for Lay said he died "ofan apparent suicide."

At 10:08, it said he died at his Aspen, Colorado home "ofan apparent [heart attack] or [suicide]."

Within the same minute, it said the cause of death was "yetto be determined."

At 10:09 a.m., it said "no further details have beenofficially released" about the death.

Two minutes later, it said: "The guilt of ruining so manylives finally (sic) led him to his suicide."

At 10.12 a.m., this was replaced by: "According to Lay'spastor the cause was a 'massive coronary' heart attack."

By 10:39 a.m., Lay's entry said: "Speculation as to thecause of the heart attack lead many people to believe it wasdue to the amount of stress put on him by the Enron trial."This statement was later dropped.

By early Wednesday afternoon, the entry said Lay waspronounced dead at Aspen Valley Hospital, citing the Pitkin,Colorado sheriff's department. It said he apparently died of amassive heart attack, citing KHOU-TV in Houston.

Officials at Wikipedia did not immediately return phone ande-mail requests for comment. Its Web site warns users that"newer articles may still contain significant misinformation,unencyclopedic content, or vandalism." Wikipedia says it has13,000 active writers and editors.

In other words, if you want to learn about an already established concept that was not recent, then fine, go to Wikipedia.  But on election day in 2008 when Ohio or New Mexico is too close to call, that might not be the place to go.

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Other blogs writing about this issue: Bloggers Blog, Cyberjournalist, The Other Cheek, News Coma, Fark, Real Art, Sue's Place, Begging the Question, On the Left Tip, The North Texas Liberal.

Norquist unveils GOP strategy to kill Social Security

When most people think of the GOP's recent downward trend in the polls, issues such as Iraq, gas prices, corruption, Katrina and health care come to mind.  But the first crack in the GOP's reign on Capitol Hill came last year during the fight over Social Security.  After months of debate and an outright rejection of Bush's proposal by senior citizens, the Republican effort to dismantle FDR's Social Security system went cold last summer.  Ever since then, no Republican has talked about it, fearing a backlash from senior voters -- which has consistently shown to be the demographic most likely to show up at the polls on election day.

But all of a sudden, there is a slight murmur of chatter among the top levels of the Washington GOP establishment.  Famous GOP strategist Grover Norquist is saying that if the Republicans hold the Senate, or even pick up five more seats, they will go after Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security program and dismantle it for good.

Marie Cocco of the Washington Post Writers Group has the low-down on the GOP Social Security attack plan:

Plans to resuscitate President Bush's stone-cold proposal to turnSocial Security from a guaranteed insurance program into a patchwork ofprivate savings accounts already are in the works. All it will take,says Grover Norquist, conservative strategist extraordinaire, is theelection of another five conservative Republican senators -- enough tosurmount procedural roadblocks by Democrats or those tremulousRepublican moderates who would try to preserve the nation's mostsuccessful and best-loved government program.

     ``I believe that when there are 60 Republican senators we willmove Social Security from the present Ponzi scheme to a fully funded,individually held system,'' Norquist told journalists brought togetherby The American Prospect magazine.

Obviously, as you probably know, Norquist is referring to President Bush's Social Security plan, which would privatize the system.  It would do away with giving guaranteed benefits to retirees and add more than $2 trillion worth of transition costs to the National Debt.

Now you know what is bound to happen if the Democrats do poorly this November.

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More blogs writing about this issue: Angry Bear, Streak's Blog, Life is Crap, TPM Cafe, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, A Taxing Matter, Change for Missouri, FCDC, Zag Pol Blog.

The Republican filibuster on working Americans

For the ninth time since 1997, the Republicans in the Senate have blocked efforts by the Democrats to raise the minimum wage.  The vote was 52 to 46 in support of raising the $5.15 per hour national minimum wage.  But the Democrats fell short of the 60 votes needed to prevent a Republican filibuster.

Ironically, this vote against the minimum wage came just one week after Republican Senators voted overwhelmingly in favor of increasing their own wages, as they have done almost every year for the last decade.