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"There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."

What do you do when you live in Kansas, are the twin sons of disgraced Kansas Congressman Jim Ryun and you have access to a whole lot of money? What else? Start a non-profit organization to raise up a 'grassroots army'. Meet American Majority, the newest right wing non-profit on the block. If you actually click that link you'll get a big overlay asking "Do you want your country back?" American Majority was born in 2008 (keep that date in mind), and its stated purpose is as follows: American Majority, Inc.s' purpose is to create a national political training institute dedicated to recruiting, identifying, training and mentoring potential political leaders.

Do you believe that it is in Americans' interest to allow a small group of U.S. leaders to unilaterally murder, maim, imprison and/or torture anyone they choose anywhere in the world, without the knowledge let alone oversight of their citizens or the international community? And, despite their proven record of failure to protect America -- from Indochina to Iran to Iraq -- do you believe they should be permitted to clandestinely expand their war-making without informed public debate? If so, you are betraying the principles upon which America was founded, endangering your nation, and displaying a distinctly "unamerican" subservience to unaccountable authority. But if you oppose autocratic power, you are called to support Wikileaks and others trying to limit U.S. Executive Branch mass murder abroad and failure to protect Americans at home.

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What amazes me most whenever I write about this topic is recalling how terribly upset so many Democrats pretended to be when Bush claimed the power merely to detain or even just eavesdrop on American citizens without due process.  Remember all that?  Yet now, here's Obama claiming the power not to detain or eavesdrop on citizens without due process, but to kill them; marvel at how the hardest-core White House loyalists now celebrate this and uncritically accept the same justifying rationale used by Bush/Cheney (this is war! the President says he was a Terrorist!) without even a moment of acknowledgment of the profound inconsistency or the deeply troubling implications of having a President - even Barack Obama - vested with the power to target U.S. citizens for murder with no due process. Also, during the Bush years, civil libertarians who tried to convince conservatives to oppose that administration's radical excesses would often ask things like this: would you be comfortable having Hillary Clinton wield the power to spy on your calls or imprison you with no judicial reivew or oversight?  So for you good progressives out there justifying this, I would ask this:  how would the power to assassinate U.S. citizens without due process look to you in the hands of, say, Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann?

When someone talks about pushing you off a cliff, it's just human nature to be curious about them. Who are these people, you wonder, and why would they want to do such a thing?

You don't know Orwellian until you know Frank Luntz The guy who told the GOP to brand financial reform a "bailout"? Every word he speaks seems to be a lie The guy who told the GOP to brand financial reform a "bailout"? Every word he speaks seems to be a lie"

Assuming philosophy should be relevant to the way we choose to live our lives, three questions guide this paper. What are some moral foundations for revolution? Do you realize what is happening? Are you willing to do anything about it?

Development economics expert Ha-Joon Chang visits the RSA to dispel the myths and prejudices that have come to dominate our understanding of how the world works.

In a piece reminiscent of classic "60 Minutes," USC journalism student Matt Schrader exposes the dirty side of parking enforcement and street cleaning in downtown Los Angeles. Schrader found that while parking enforcement is out in droves ticketing cars, and mostly on street cleaning days (making the city $15,000 an hour!), the streets they're patrolling aren't even being cleaned. The best line of the piece is from a guy who got ticketed on one of those streets: "They have the manpower to ticket you, but they don't have the manpower to actually do the job."

In a piece reminiscent of classic "60 Minutes," USC journalism student Matt Schrader exposes the dirty side of parking enforcement and street cleaning in downtown Los Angeles. Schrader found that while parking enforcement is out in droves ticketing cars, and mostly on street cleaning days (making the city $15,000 an hour!), the streets they're patrolling aren't even being cleaned. The best line of the piece is from a guy who got ticketed on one of those streets: "They have the manpower to ticket you, but they don't have the manpower to actually do the job."

Occupy Wall Street: The Beginning Joe Rogan on Occupy Wallstreet:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjMcDXGkR8I Network -- Corporate Cosmology:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEcLlp_Big THE CORPORATION [1/23] What is a Corporation?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pin8fbdGV9Y What CNN doesn't want you see ever again:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_2aTzC_4kY Poll: Americans Distrust Governmenthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylEEnEp0Lbg Elizabeth Warren: Death of the Middle Classhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBf70qX1sBw Dylan Ratigan (rightfully) loses it on air:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcqb9hHQ3E GREEN WAR:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ864ucbR_4 Network - Mad as hellhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90ELleCQvew In the House, In a Heartbeat - John Murphy:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2H8FWDvEACategory:News & Politics

YOU can't beat doubt as a corporate strategy - especially if your product is life-threatening when used as directed. These days we don't have to speculate as to whether industries have manufactured doubt. They have admitted it too many times.

Why can't President Obama stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? Why can't he get the Israelis and Palestinians to stop squabbling and make peace? Why can't he get the Europeans to contribute more troops to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan? Why can't he forge a global treaty to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases? Why can't he . . . well, you get the point. Obama, it turns out, is not Superman.