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POPS"You Furnish the Pictures and I'll Furnish the War"
Both repeatedly called for armed intervention, then later, all-out war. The atrocities General Weyler committed in Cuba were massively hyped and sensationalized in the US newspapers, then engaged in a practice known as "yellow journalism". The two kingpins of the press at the time were William R. Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, who were embroiled in a vicious circulation war, in which Hearst even "stole" Pulitzer's most popular writers by convincing them to defect through promises of money and positions. Hearst's major publication was the New York Journal and Pulitzer's publication was the New York World. In order to grow their circulations, both men were willing to go so far as to make up stories. The Spanish-American War was not the height of Hearst's power. Afterwards, he continued to grow his media empire for several decades, and even successfully ran for a seat in Congress. Hearst was the rough basis for the wealthy journalist-baron in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.
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POPSBlack-White Differences in Attitudes Toward Homosexuality and Gay Rights This article uses responses from almost seven thousand blacks and forty-three thousand whites in 31 surveys conducted since 1973 to give more definitive answers on black-white attitudinal differences and their demographic roots. Despite their greater disapproval of homosexuality, blacks' opinions on sodomy laws, gay civil liberties, and employment discrimination are quite similar to whites' opinions, and African Americans are more likely to support laws prohibiting antigay discrimination. Once religious and educational differences are controlled, blacks remain more disapproving of homosexuality but are moderately more supportive of gay civil liberties and markedly more opposed to antigay employment discrimination than are whites. Yet religion, education, gender, and age all have weaker impacts on black than on white attitudes, suggesting that black and white attitudes have different roots.
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POPSChristians demand removal of 'satanic' 10 Commandments Christians can't seem to be able to figure out the difference between "public property" and "private property." You can put any damn monument you want on private property, but NOT on public. Jebus H. Crist how hard is this to understand?
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POPSFiat Money Inflation in France Notes: 1. Well-informed people will notice this "special request" edition was published only two years prior to the third affliction upon the American people and their currency of a "national bank", this time re-named the "Federal Reserve", and thus adding irony to the hoax by characterizing it as something other than a privately owned bank with an unlimited license to create money out of thin air by simply turning on the printing press (it's only significant asset) upon the agreement of 12 persons. # This work was plainly issued to discourage Congress from indulging the age-old fantasy of rulers that they can "control" the monetary unit in a responsible way. That no government has ever accomplished this does not dissuade elected dreamers from entertaining this fantasy. We took this work from a publicly available "text" source, obviously generated by word processing software and thus clutttered with unreadable special characters.
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POPSWhite House used FoxNews to shape public opinion Hannity, O'Reilly implicated. "Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow point out that in the US, the government is forbidden to propagandize the public. Fox Cable News head Roger Ailes (a former Republican Party official) and other high executives routinely sent memos to the newsrooms instructing them to spin stories in particular ways"
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POPSMultilateralism Comes With A Price We must work with our allies, but we also must recognize that multilateralism comes with a price. Coalitions can dilute effectiveness. The European concept of multilateralism is Washington's obeisance to European positions. Western Europe exists in a bubble of stability and affluence, unable to fathom how dangerous extremist ideology in Tehran and Pyongyang can be. Multilateral organizations are not the answer; at best, they are ineffective soap boxes, at worst cesspools of venality. Rose petals and well-digging have never stopped bombs, racism or genocide. A strong military has. Obama says, "Let us remember this history." Let us hope he first learns it. Leadership is about more than rhetoric.
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POPSPelosi: The Power Of One "In the House, the power rests in the speaker, the power of recognition, of setting the agenda. . . . Very different rules," Pelosi said. Acknowledging her ability to influence decision-making, Pelosi said in the CNN interview that she gets to operate differently than her Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Reid must reach out to Republicans to muster 60 votes — enough to stop a filibuster — to get anything done. It's an example of the vast power placed in the office of the speaker, who sets the agenda for the 435-member House. Members can force a vote if enough of them sign a petition, but that's a rarity because it requires rank-and-file Democrats to line up against their boss. In this case, Pelosi is going against a rising tide of public opinion. Faced with rapidly increasing gasoline prices, 73 percent of Americans now favor offshore drilling, according to a poll conducted by CNN/Opinion Research Corp.
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POPSDNA Evidence Clears Ramsey Family of JonBenet Death This family has endured so much tragedy. I hope they find the killer. It's hard to imagine that he has not killed others over the years. Sexual predators seem to never stop until they are caught. Check your local Sexual Predators Website; you will be amazed at how many live near you.
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POPSWhy The Brits Are Setting Terrorists Free It is surely no accident that this failure to grasp the true dimensions of the Islamic terrorist threat is so pronounced among the British elite. For these are the people whose education and careers embody the key attribute of Britain's liberal society – the belief that the world is governed by rational agents acting in their rational self-interest. The British ruling class just doesn't get religious fanaticism. That is why its judges and politicians are finding it so difficult to fight Islamic terror. Not just Britain but the whole world is less safe as a result.
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POPSJDRockerfeller on the prohibition of alcohol It continually amazes me that people were so clear on alcohol but just don't get it with drugs.The fact that propaganda and lies brought about an intense fear of drugs that lasted for 45 years is undeniable.That's been over now for another 40 so where's the disconnect?
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POPSFlorida Gov.Crist Calls For End To Feds Moratorium On Drilling
Public opinion started to move in favor of oil drilling off Florida after Hurricane Jeanne in 2004 forced many Floridians to wait in long lines for gas, said David Mica, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, a lobbying group. Jeanne and other powerful hurricanes that battered Florida in 2004 and 2005 left millions of Floridians struggling to fill their gas tanks because of a lack of electricity to pump the fuel and difficulties getting fresh supplies into Florida. A business group that supports oil drilling release a survey on Thursday saying 61 percent of Florida respondents support increased exploration and production of oil and natural gas off the Florida coasts. "Public opinion is supportive .... t's time to give it a try (drilling) and watch it very closely,'" Mica said. Environment Florida, an anti-drilling advocacy group, said it got an unprecedented response from supporters to a write-in campaign after Crist changed his position.
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POPSA Simple Guide To Public Relations * “No comment” translates into “I’m guilty” as a response to a crisis situation. * Dealing with bad news quickly means it will most likely go away quickly. We have very short attention spans. * What you actually did may not be as bad as what you stand accused of, but there’s a huge difference between the court of public opinion, which will next-to-never believe you were set up, and a court of law. *There is no substitute for a heartfelt apology. *Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. "Everyone knows this stuff. If you ask people around the water cooler what they would do if such-and-such happened to them, unless they have absolutely no grounding in reality, they can usually give you a plausible, socially acceptable response. The problem comes when something bad actually happens to you, and your natural inclination is to bury your head in the sand, hide under your desk or otherwise avoid dealing with it."
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POPSState of Emergency: The US in the Final Six Months of the George W. Bush Administration Despite time constraints, there are clear signs that the president, the vice-president and their neocon collaborators are not finished. The constant saber-rattling toward Iran, with strong support from Israel, should send a chill down the spine of any peace-loving American. Military chiefs who oppose the president are “retired,” as observed most recently with the March dismissals of CENTCOM commander Admiral William Fallon and 6th Fleet commander Vice-Admiral John Stufflebeem. Public opinion counts for nothing. In a March 24 interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, vice president Dick Cheney responded to a question about the war weariness of Americans with a languid “So?”
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POPSObama's Plan For Defeat But Obama and the Democrats would forfeit every one of these successes to a declared policy of fixed and unconditional withdrawal. The disconnect between what Democrats are saying about Iraq and what is actually happening there has reached grotesque proportions. Obama will keep pulling out his 2002 speech opposing the war. But McCain's case is simple. Is not Obama's central mantra that this election is about the future not the past? It is about 2009, not 2002. Obama promises that upon his inauguration, he will order the Joint Chiefs to bring him a plan for withdrawal from Iraq within 16 months. If McCain cannot take to the American people the case for the folly of that policy, he will not be president. Nor should he be.
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POPSWhy do displays of compassion differ between East and West?
I am trying to understand A bit more: "In many Asian countries, favors invariably create obligations, which is perhaps why people are sometimes disinclined to interfere in the problems of others. You are obliged to take care of your family, your friends, or even your fellow countrymen. But the idea of universal charity is too abstract, and smacks of the kind of unwelcome interference that Western imperialists — and the Christian missionaries who followed them — practiced in the East for too long. The notion of "Asian values," promoted mostly by Singaporean official scribes, was partly a critique of universalist Western claims. Asians, according to this theory, have their own values, which include thrift, deference to authority, the sacrifice of individual to collective interests, and the belief that countries should not stick their noses into others' affairs. Hence, the hesitant response of Southeast Asian governments — and public opinion — to the Burmese disaster." see source
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POPS Change "He Should Believe In" He would become a responsible voice within his party by challenging his constituents to embrace progress in Iraq. Using his considerable influence to rein in the reflexive and poisonous antiwar rhetoric that has become the Democratic party’s standard rallying cry against Republicans, he would seek to alleviate the bitter divisions that plague our country. Unfortunately, Sen. Obama has not been that kind of candidate. Instead, he has chosen the far easier path of exploiting the existing currents of public opinion for political gain. In his speeches, he downplays the gains achieved through the surge and dismisses as “spin” all evidence of progress, all the while repeating his call for a withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops within sixteen months of becoming president, no matter the conditions on the ground. Even worse, Sen. Obama’s rhetoric on the Iraq war is beginning to jeopardize his stated goal of repairing alliances that he claims are in tatters.
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POPSCheney Enrages Iraqis with Demands for New Laws
* grants the U.S. long-term rights to maintain over 50 military bases in their California-sized country * allows the U.S. to strike any other country from within Iraqi territory without the permission of the Iraqi government * allows the U.S. to conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting with the local government * allows U.S. forces to arrest any Iraqi without consulting with Iraqi authorities * extends to U.S. troops and contracters immunity from Iraqi law * gives U.S. forces control of Iraqi airspace below 29,000ft. * places the Iraqi Defense, Interior and National Security ministries under American supervision for ten years * gives the U.S. responsibility for Iraqi armament contracts for ten years No doubt some key figures in the Bush administration have asked themselves that, and here's what they come up with. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York holds $ 50 billion of Iraq's foreign exchange reserves as a result of the UN sanct
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POPSIslamic Conference for Dialogue Concluded The statement emphasized that dialogue is one of the most important outlets through which Muslims can perceive the world, and achieve a set of goals, the most important of which is to introduce Islam, its legislations and humanitarian principles, in addition to its rich civilization. Dialogue also enables Islam to contribute to the march of human civilization and to respond to and correct the erroneous slanders raised against Islam, and to address the challenges facing the world owing to distancing themselves from religion and its values. Accordingly the world of today fell in the grip of vice and injustice, terrorism and Human rights violation. Dialogue also provides an opportunity for Muslims to defend causes of human rights and legitimate issues, and create a public opinion in its defense. Enemies of Islam are planning to disqualify Muslims from this legitimate area of struggle to pave the way for the dominance of one culture.
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POPSEx-White House Aide Rips Bush In Memoir Too bad he didn't write this 5 years ago, like he should have. The book, coming from a man who was a tight-lipped defender of administration aides and policy, is certain to give fuel to critics of the administration, and McClellan has harsh words for many of his past colleagues. He accuses former White House adviser Karl Rove of misleading him about his role in the CIA case. He describes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as being deft at deflecting blame, and he calls Vice President Cheney "the magic man" who steered policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints. McClellan stops short of saying that Bush purposely lied about his reasons for invading Iraq, writing that he and his subordinates were not "employing out-and-out deception" to make their case for war in 2002. But in a chapter titled "Selling the War," he alleges that the administration repeatedly shaded the truth and that Bush "managed the crisis in a way that almost guaranteed that the use of force would be
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