Bill Moyers provides some closing comments on Rove's resignation from the Bush Administration.

Bill Moyers Journal provides many links additional reading including a transcript of this commentary. Also check out the PBS 2005 documentary titled "The Architect"

Looking back at Hurricane Katrina, this is quite scary...or at least I find it scary.

So this is how I digested Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater story. After Katrina, with no orders Erik Prince sends 600 Blackwater troops (a couple battalions) into New Orleans to patrol the streets. Within a week they were given a contract to provide security.

Bill Moyers Journal

Bill Moyers ponders about the media and what they choose to report.

Why wasn't it news last weekend when more than 100,000 people turned out in 11 cities across the country to protest the occupation of Iraq...Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Orlando, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Jonesborough, Tennessee. but if you blinked while watching the national news, you wouldn't have known it was a story. We found less than two minutes of scattered mentions on television, and not even the Associated Press reported on other demonstrations in smaller cities...Read More on PBS..

On April 27th Jon Stewart appeared on PBS to speak with Bill Moyers. The full half hour interview can be seen here on PBS.org. The conversation ranges to topics like Politics and Media, they also touch on the Virginia Tech shootings. However I found this segment fascinating where Jon speaks about his encounter with John McCain. The McCain interview took place on April 24th. If you have not seen it the full 11 minutes can be viewed here, otherwise here is the first 5 minutes provided by Comedy Central.
As you know John McCain is running for President, you can learn more about him on Wikipedia..did you know he was born in Panama?

Jeff Hoard informs us that Bill Moyers is one of his heroes. So far, so good; everyone is entitled to pick their heroes and, if they think it matters, to inform us who they are. But Hoard goes further and tries to take Michelle Malkin to task for claiming that Moyers is a left-wing propagandist. Hoard does so without addressing the substance of Michelle's claim. Apparently, he believes that a reference to his high regard for Moyers, coupled with a recitation of the cost of the war in Iraq, is an adequate substitute for argumentation.

In point of fact, Moyers is a leftist who uses his forum at PBS to push his political beliefs. In other words, he's a propagandist. Here's a typical example of Moyers' left-wing utterances. In it, he claims that Republicans favor using "the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich," an absurd claim inasmuch as no serious Republican advocates increasing taxes on working people or otherwise taking their wealth.

Moyers also claims that the Republican "agenda" includes includes "giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment." Moyers cites no evidence for this leftist talking point, which will come as a shock to corportations and the lawyers who are helping them comply with the multitude of environment laws and regulations the Bush adminstration is enforcing. One can argue that the Bush administration's enforcement effort hasn't been aggressive enough, but to assert that its agenda includes freeing corporations from regulation is, well, propaganda.

Moyers also asserts that the Republican agenda includes putting "God in government," and in a particularly paranoid rant, tells us to "get ready for the Rapture." As usual, Moyers has no evidence to support this claim.

Moyers tried to combine his environmental and religious paranoia when he alleged that James Watt, a former Secretary of the Interior in the Reagan administration, believes "that protecting natural resources is unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ." Moyers claimed that Watts had given public testimony that "after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

This claim was flatly false. As John Hinderaker demonstrated, Watt never said any such thing -- the charge was purely an invention. Eventually, Moyer apologized to Watt though, according to his own account, he used the occasion to tell Watt how much he deplored Watt's tenure as Interior Secretary and how the policies Watt promoted are inconsistent with Christianity, properly understood.

Hoard is right about one thing, though, Moyers is "an American media icon." But that's more a reflection on the American media than on the merits of Moyers' overwrought, uninformed, and borderline paranoid contributions to the public understanding.

Paul, I hoped we could get to know each other a little before we start bashing each others heroes. I see that my Bill Moyers post provided you with an opportunity to blog more about Bill Moyers, you pointed out an error he made in the past, I had no idea Bill made this error, I learn't something, thank you. Boy is my face red eh, giving the new kid the gears or what?

When you were a kid, were you ever a boy scout?
Were you part of a troop?
If a new kid joined your troop and perhaps mentioned one of his heroes, how would you reply?

"Some Hero"

That probably never happened, I can tell you were never a boy scout. But that scenario is quite similar to what just happened here between me and you.

Nice guy.. I hope Mo likes me. "I'm Jeff, pleasure to be working wth ya Let me get this straight, never mention Hannity or Mirengoff is all over you."

Gotcha. Is it true? Did Bill Moyers misquote a guy in an article a couple years ago. My heart is broken, however I have to concede, my Hero, Bill Moyers made a mistake.
And now I have to argue with a lawyer on a blog... Damn you Moyers!

What does this say about me? I will be up all night wondering.. are all my heroes wrong? Has Jon Stewart ever misquoted somebody? You have caused me to do inventory my heroes and to second guess them. James Burke? Could some of his connections be wrong? Has David Attenborough ever mislead me during one his nature adventures? Should I stop listening to Al Gore because he isn't the real inventor of the environment? Is Wayne Gretzky imperfect? Monty Python? Bill Maher? Matt Groening? Richard Dawkins? Mo Rocca? Joe Carter? Not Jumping Joe! Maybe my problem is that I have a too many heroes, which means there is a greater chance for error....Damn you Moyers.

Turns out David Attenborough called this bird the "Arfak Perotia." Silly Attenborough, it's actually called the "Western Perotia." Another one of Hoard's Heroes bites the dust. Hunter S.. your next.



So what now, being brutally honest here, I do not like arguing on the internet. Hannity, Malkin I could give a rats ass about them, but they were smearing the Moyers documentary, hence why I included them in the post. I have a hunch I will say many things that you will disagree with, just roll with it. Save, me and the audiences both time. If something is really bugging ya by all means, email.

Hoard does so without addressing the substance of Michelle's claim. Apparently, he believes that a reference to his high regard for Moyers, coupled with a recitation of the cost of the war in Iraq, is an adequate substitute for argumentation

I am sure you are correct with everything you said in that sentence, boy did you pick me apart...woohoo... The Bill Moyers documentary "Buying the War" was about how the media sold the war to the American people. Five years and $456 Billion later, is it not a bad idea to start asking questions about the misinformation during the lead up to war?

Moyers also claims that the Republican "agenda" includes includes "giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment." Moyers cites no evidence for this leftist talking point

Who really cares, I get it, my hero is an asshole. Maybe he subscribes the Knight Ridder? They did write up this relevant article back in 2003.

The first Bush administration averaged 195 citations a month. The Clinton administration averaged 183. This administration, through 33 months, has averaged 77 a month, and that's falling every month. The Bush average in 2001 was 90 violations a month. The 2002 average was 79. For 2003 through October, the average is 51, but October 2003 saw a record-low 35 violation notices.

I think it's safe to say we have come full circle, as Knight Ridder is one of the interesting stories brought up in the documentary "Buying the war"- by Bill Moyers. Either way Paul, it's been lovely meeting you. Cheers. Peace. Enjoy the clip, and for anybody who is still interested in checking it out, its streaming full length right here.

How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?

This is the question Bill Moyers asked in his latest documentary documentary "Buying the War" (you can watch it at full length here.) The segment below features the journalists of Knight Ridder and how they covered the lead up to war correctly, when all others got it wrong.
This documentary must be the the work of the "Far left"? Well it is! according to Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin, Bill Moyers is a "Propagandist"...Listen to Malkin attempt to discredit Moyers in the clip below and to your left. The clip on the right (also from Fox News) consists of Sean Hannity complaining that his Tax Dollars produce PBS "Propaganda". This might be a wise moment to note more Americans Trust PBS over Fox News.

I get the feeling Hannity is trying make my head explode, currently Irony bleeds from my eyes. You see, Sean is complaining about the Tax Dollars he spent that allowed PBS to produce a documentary that analyzes how the media contributed to a war that could reach the price tag of $456 Billion. I think Sean Hannity needs to get his priorities straight. I guess it's easier to fight the "far left" PBS instead of questioning the Government that mislead America to war?
Maybe I have a soft spot for Bill Moyers, he has been a hero of mine for some time. Fox News concentrates on smearing the character of an American media icon instead of listening to the issue he is presenting.

Oh.. If you are interested in seeing where you Tax Dollars are going I found this fun map titled "Death and Taxes"

Sorry you took my criticism of Moyers so hard. But please don't be deterred. Some of your heroes undoubtedly are cool. If you keep listing them, people wiil like you, maybe even Mo. You might even become the most popular kid in the boy scout troop.

My quarrel is with Moyers, not you. That's why I didn't consider writing you an email. I wanted readers to know that the man is a propagandist who often makes stuff up. Like Republicans wanting to raise taxes on working people; or wanting to bring God into the government; or giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment (it was valiant of you to try to prop up Moyers us on that one, but issuing 35 to 90 environmental citations a month isn't giving corporations a free hand). His slander of James Watt wasn't an innoncent mistake. It was his attempt to roll his pet paranoid theories -- insane religious conservatives and evil political conservatives are combining to destroy the environment -- into a neat package. I guess fact-checking isn't required when a media icon is onto something that's to good to be true. Just ask Dan Rather.

You have decided to use this blog, in part, to expose what you consider to be incorrigible bias on the part of Fox News, in the hope (you say) of driving down its audience. Fair enough. But please try not to take offense when I expose bias on the part of Bill Moyers or others in the news business you consider heroic.

Sincerely,

Paul

Newsbloggers is a shared blog where people from different walks of life are blogging the news (funny guys, lawyers, radio show hosts, authors). Although my bio indicates that I am an "influencer", I was given that title because statistically I had an extremely large following on the web, not just on the old TayTV but through several social networks online. At the same time the Guardian UK said I was "high brow". I am very careful not resort to arguing on the internet and my work days are very enjoyable because of that.

As we all know I am from the labour class, just a working class Joe, it's well documented that I worked in a warehouse before I went full time here on the web I've also worked in grocery stores and at a Ski Resort in my short work life. I enjoy earning a simple living paycheck to paycheck. My latest job, this blogging job at AOL, allows me to practice my passion full time... Think of what your dream job is? Well that's where I currently sit and I would like to do it for a long time. I am here because of my interest in the media and how it shapes our society. I think many are dependent on the TV to find understanding in the world. I find this understanding through social media and for the last 10 years I have following the media through social networks starting with Yahoo Chat when I was 15 years old through to Reddit.com now at the age of 25. I think it is safe to say the generation directly below me is growing up in a similar manner in much larger numbers. (Not that long ago few kids had computers/Internet)

So, a week into this new job I find myself arguing with Paul Mirengoff (a lawyer) over things like Bill Moyers and Hate Crime laws, I don't want to make a career out of that. I never really cared to win any debates and frankly nobody should be taking anything I say too seriously. I don't blog to convert minds, I blog because it gives me the opportunity to be myself and to explore the mass realm of the internet daily. I know that I don't have to be an arguing pundit to survive on newsbloggers.

I said in my introduction post that I am like Marmaduke, the difference is Marmaduke is a character in the newspaper, I am a character on the internet. I am the mind blown guy fascinated with this endless sea of knowledge. For the last year and a bit I developed a craft of browsing the web and presenting my findings in a way that caught the attention of the right people. I am a conductor to time wasting and Paul Mirengoff is wasting his time trying to argue with me. And I will be honest I am a little taken a back from the daily criticism pointed towards me. This is not the type of attention I want to attract.

"I confirm (to) you that there is no agents provocateurs in the Surete du Quebec... It doesn't exist in the Surete du Quebec," spokesperson Const. Melanie Larouche told The Canadian Press.

Well, that was the Quebec police position on August 22nd. But with pressure mounting, the Quebec police finally admitted that the three provocateurs were in fact, undercover police.

Authorities initially denied claims from protesters that officers had infiltrated their ranks but later acknowledged the three men were police officers.

Hat Tip to both Eric and Derek for dropping this in my inbox this morning.

It's a sad day for activists everywhere knowing that within protests are police officers, not there to protect you, but with large rocks, possibly trying to incite riots, turning peaceful protests into dangerous ones. If you think this is an isolated event, again I ask you to watch this Bill Moyers documentary entirely about agent provocateurs in America.

In the video below, Bill Moyers describes the "Spectacle of Spin" that has been provided by Blackwater leader, Erik Prince and the media during the past week. Almost everyday a new revelation about Blackwater is revealed and American citizens are starting to protest the private army.

For good reason, as it is American citizens who pay for Blackwater to exist with their tax dollars. I may have used the quote below before, but it continues to blow my mind. (Bold mine)

Federal contracts account for about 90 percent of the revenue of Prince Group holdings, of which Blackwater is a subsidiary. Since 2001, when it made less than $1 million in federal contracts, Blackwater has received more than $1 billion in such contracts - including at least one with the State Department for hundreds of millions of dollars that was awarded without open, competitive bidding.

The Congressional investigation found that Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day for each private military operative - more than six times the wage of an equivalent soldier. And still it uncovered instances of overcharging. It reported that an audit in 2005 by the State Department's inspector general found Blackwater was charging separately for "drivers" and "security specialists" who were, in fact, the same people.

After digesting the above, also keep in mind that Erik Prince was once an intern for George H. Bush...

Without further adieu, here is the Bill Moyers clip as promised. Tip to C&L.

*Edit, I posted this yesterday but it looks like more information has come out, the Canadian Press (CP) has picked up the story, and Canadian Bloggers are covering this non-stop. the interesting note is that although the three protesters were handcuffed and taken away, they were actually *not* arrested and there is no record of the event, that is bullshit, the cops should release the names of the provocateurs.

Something that many are unaware when watching protest footage on television is that within the protest group are undercover agents, many police officers. For reasons I can't explain (but you can use your imagination) these police officers try to provoke riots. In this case three alleged police officers were outed by a crowd of peaceful protesters at the SPP meetings in Montebello Quebec. The provocateur were armed with rocks and sticks and were likely going to use them to try to start a riot.

The facts aren't in yet whether or not these men were actually police officers but the protest group has good reason to suspect. Here is an old Bill Moyers exposé on police provocateurs..

I come to the newsbloggers after blogging on a website called Throwawayyourtv.com since October 2005.

There has to be a method to the madness of participating in the social web, sometimes you have to wonder why and how you can dedicate yourself to so much work, in such a bizarre fringe field like Video Researching. Sure it's fun "my job is finding interesting videos", but why does somebody like myself feverishly hunt through the depth of the web looking for things that I think others will find interesting? I believe it's wanting to be part of the greater media revolution that is unfolding before me through this bright window in my bedroom, I enjoy following this interesting world of technology and media, since I threw away my TV I have always been in the market for great entertainment, I have to fulfills that need moving pictures, I was raised in the 80s, I watched lots of TV as kid. It feels great to be a part of this media movement.

I am just an average blogger, there are millions out there like me. As the web audience grows more and more new people and ideas will surface, I try to stay humble over the fact that my hard work has earned me great opportunities. To anybody who is a regular to TayTV, understand I just got a job blogging, unlike my other job at Netscape, at Newsbloggers I will be doing what I did on the old TayTV. This evening I spent some time to look back at how I got to this point and I would like to share some of the "types" of posts I do.

1. Example Clips - Some people don't understand why they need to throw away their TV's, so I try to provide examples of horrible programming. My favourite target is Fox News only because I have seen the documentary Outfoxed. The documentary points out some very true points about how horrible the media has become. Take this Fox News clip, is this news or America's most wanted? (note: the zooming and twisting mug shots of Bill Moyers) Fox News is an easy example, the reality that many news agencies have literally used Fox News as a model for programming should be disturbing everybody. But there are always other examples to throw away your TV, like shitty advertisements, reality TV, Tabloid television, more shitty advertisements, American Idol.. I can go on. TV numbs your brain, it's loud, it's obnoxious, it's dumbing down the population...watching hockey is still ok. At Newsbloggers, I will use that Hannity clip in a post about Bill Moyers, but not because I want people to watch Sean Hannity bash on Bill Moyers, but because I think that clip is an example of bad TV...and a good excuse to link to the Bill Moyers documentary.

2. Rare clips - Ok so you abandoned TV for the Internet. You find yourself on youtube. How is this any better then TV? Right now on May the 5th three of the four top videos on youtube consist of David Hasselhoff drunk. Ok, so Hasselhoff has an alcohol problem, who gives a flying fuck. The poor fella went through a divorce, has been separated from his kids and has been in and out of treatment, what has Hasselhoff ever done to deserve this public treatment? Honestly, I don't really give a fuck because if you refer to Point #1 - I mentioned I hate tabloid TV.calm. But this is how the social networks work, so there is a lot of work to be done to end the idiocracy in our world. Besides if you want to make fun of David Hasselhoff do it because of this video, not because of his alcoholism. ET Insider and whore websites like it are the biggest contributor to our idiocracy. Fuck there better be no tabloids in Jeff heaven.calm. Dave, I'm on your side, you've done nothing but brought laughter and boobies to the world. I was going to pay tribute by posting a "rare" clip but because It think this is a cheap marketing stunt for your King of the Internet campaign, I will tribute KITT.
Sorry.. Understand, I sometimes I type directly what I'm thinking, during various states of soberness or intoxication...anyway... The reason people enjoyed the old TayTV was because I actually dug into the youtube sites to find rare documentaries and interesting clips, then of course presenting them with related information, like wikipedia pages.

3. Highlights - Because my heroes consist of people like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart I am constantly up to date with the current events. Naturally you can't help but to blog about those current events even if you have no idea wtf is going on. In those cases I try to find news articles and clips that can best describe the news in terms that I can understand...hence the comedians. I always enjoyed watching these comedians and then further researching the real news that they were addressing. When Stephen Colbert the other day talked about Jessica Lynch it was easy to find more information about what he was talking about.
Highlights clips are not exclusive to current events, they can be highlights from any video. Anybody who knows me best knows that my favourite hobby is watching documentaries and finding the most mind blowing clips. I have always been a documentary lover. Sometimes is hard to convince people to sit down for 40 minutes and learn something...C'mon America's next top model or David Attenborough? The average person on the street probably doesn't even know who Attenborough is. So through my blog I have always had a place where I could share interesting snippets from awesome documentaries. This simple segment from Robert Greenwalds Outfoxed has been viewed over 300,000 times since May 7th 2006.

The more people who learn about how horrible Fox News is, maybe less people will watch it. So there you have it, that is the less complex explanation, right now my mind is buzzing with inspiration and excitement so it's difficult to plan ahead but I right now I plan on devoting a lot of attention to the Newsbloggers as they have given me the opportunity to develop this craft. Anyway, I am spent, maybe i'll just start doing cheesy webcam videos from now just to save my time....save me jebus.

Keith Olbermann comments on President Bush's historic disapproval ratings in the video below. Olbermann speaks with Bruce Fein who argues for impeachment. Earlier in the month Fein sat down with Bill Moyers and talked more in depth about this topic.

Every day we hear in the media new reasons WHY Bush should be impeached but we barely see any action. A massive list of reasons for impeachment can be found on this wikipedia page titled: Movement to Impeach George W Bush. And here is a list of the top ten reasons. With a list that long and scary, I really hope Americans can show the world that this person no longer represents the American people.

In the meantime I am curious, what makes George W Bush unpopular?
I could only fit 20 reasons into this poll, choose as many as you like.

What makes the Bush Admin Unpopular to Americans
	NSA Wiretapping
	Authorizing Torture
	Ongoing War in Iraq
	Ongoing War in Afghanistan
	Unable to catch Bin Laden
	Signing Statements
	Rich getting Richer
	Friends get no bid contracts
	Hurricane Katrina Response
	Bush lied about the levees
	Cheney is a bad Quail hunter
	Outing a CIA Agent
	Sketchy Elections
	Violations to the Geneva Conventions
	Alberto Gonzales
	Hiring a Fox News guy as Press Secretary
	Bush's Speech Impediment
	Conditions at Walter Reed
	Paying Journalists to Promote Administration Policies
	Silencing Science

A week ago I posted Tag Series XIV. The Beauty of Tag Series that you the reader can vote on what type of videos you want to see posted. In this edition The Ron Paul Tag won with 53% of the vote.

There is a lot to like about Paul, he writes for antiwar.com, he's against the "War on Drugs", he's Bill Maher's hero, among other things he also opts to pony up his own money when it comes to handing out Congressional Gold Medals.

I did a lot of searching and the only bad things that I could find were these bizarre comments about black children and his lack of vision on environmentalism.

But there is a "Revolution", if you don't believe me just check out the number of votes his stories are getting on Digg.com (the largest Social Network) Or check out the number of views his Youtube videos are getting, well over a million.

Personally, as a Canadian, I don't really care about Ron Paul, on AOL I have gotten messages blasting me for "being Ron Paul supporter"... but remember I'm Canadian. In these early stages of the American election I also liked Gravel, but only because he's was a quotable old coot. Ron Paul however is fascinating, his supporters have turned to the social web to get his name out, and as far as I can see it's working (geez, he beat HST in Tag Series). So have a beer for Ron Paul and give him props for making this early stage of the American 2008 campaign somewhat interesting.

So far I have collected 33 links so far and 14 videos for Paul in my archive. If you have anything to add about Ron Paul, by all means, the floor is yours.

Generally the point of Tag Series is to find rare videos, well here is Ron Paul speaking with our dear friend Bill Moyers back in October 2002 about the Iraq War. Stay Tuned, on Monday I will begin a brand new Tag Series.