Time Warner Dumps 12 Millions Viewers fr Al Jazeera

Time Warner Cable Dumps Current TV Faster Than You Can Say 'Al-Jazeera America'

Cable giant pulls channel just hours after announcement of acquisition

- Jon Queally, staff writer

Following news on Wednesday that Qatari-based Al-Jazeera would acquire Current TV in the United States, cable giant Time Warner Cable dumped the channel.
Just hours after the announcement, subscribers to TWC found only this message when they switched to what was Current: "This channel is no longer available on Time Warner Cable."
Al-Jazeera—which has won numerous U.S. and international awards for its journalism and has more than 70 bureaus across the globe—said the launch of its new U.S.-based news channel will provide both domestic news and international news for American audiences.
The network has one of the largest bureau footprints and news-gathering operations of any news outlet in the world.
“For many years, we understood that we could make a positive contribution to the news and information available in and about the United States," said the network's director Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani. "By acquiring Current TV, Al Jazeera will significantly expand our existing distribution footprint in the U.S., as well as increase our news-gathering and reporting efforts in America."
But as the Huffington Post reports:

[...] while the new channel will soon be available in 40 million households, Al Jazeera faced a setback when Time Warner Cable -- which reaches 12 million homes -- announced it was dropping the low-rated Current, which occupied a spot that could have been switched to Al Jazeera America.
Joel Hyatt, who co-founded Current TV with former Vice President Al Gore, told staff in a Wednesday night memo that Time Warner Cable "did not consent to the sale to Al Jazeera."
"Consequently, Current will no longer be carried on TWC," Hyatt wrote. "This is unfortunate, but I am confident that Al Jazeera America will earn significant additional carriage in the months and years ahead."
A Time Warner Cable spokesman said in a statement that "our agreement with Current will be terminated and we will no longer be carrying the channel."
Some media observers interpreted the move as motivated by politics.
"Time-Warner cable shows abject political and journalistic cowardice by dropping Current because of Al Jazeera deal," tweeted Dan Gilmor, a technology writer and founding director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University.

The New York Times adds:

With a handful of exceptions (including New York City and Washington), American cable and satellite distributors have mostly refused to carry Al Jazeera English since its inception in 2006. While the television sets of White House officials and lawmakers were tuned to the channel during the Arab Spring in 2011, ordinary Americans who wanted to watch had to find a live stream on the Internet.
To change that, Al Jazeera lobbied distributors and asked supporters to write letters to the distributors — but accomplished next to nothing.
Some activists accused distributors like Comcast and DirecTV of blacklisting a channel that is widely respected elsewhere in the world.

Idle No More

What started as a murmur in early October from First Nations People in Canada in response to Bill C45 has become a movement that echoes the sentiments of people all over the world, a battle cry of love for the planet, "Idle No More." At first glance it might appear that this movement is isolated and doesn't effect you if you are not native or if you don't live in Canada, yet it does. It may appear that this resistance is not related to The Occupy Movement, The Arab Spring, The Unify Movement, Anonymous, or any of the other popular uprisings sparked by social unrest, but it is.(Image by Andy Everson)
At its very core, all of these movements have very common threads and are born from common issues facing people everywhere. Those who represent financial interests that value money over life itself, that are devoid of basic respect for human decency, and for nature have dictated the future for too long and people everywhere are standing up to say, "No more." This non-violent social uprising is viral in the minds and hearts of everyone across the planet determined to bring healing to our troubled communities, our planet, and the corruption that is eroding the highest places of governments around the world.
Flashmobs with dancing and drumming at a malls in Olympia, Wash. Tempe, Ariz., Denver, Colo., a giant circle dance blocking a large intersection in Winnipeg, rail blockades in Quebec, this movement is using cultural expression combined with modern activism to get attention, and it is working. From their website, "Idle No More calls on all people to join in a revolution which honors and fulfills Indigenous sovereignty which protects the land and water. Colonization continues through attacks to Indigenous rights and damage to the land and water."
Idle No More was started in October by four ladies; Nina Wilson, Sylvia McAdam, Jessica Gordon & Sheelah McLean who felt it was "urgent to act on current and upcoming legislation that not only affects First Nations people but the rest of Canada's citizens, lands and waters." On December 11 Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence launched a hunger strike requesting a face-to-face meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss broken treaties and protection of natural resources. Spence is staying in a teepee on the frozen Ottawa River facing Parliament Hill and has gained the support from many natives and non-natives who are in solidarity with this movement.
Chief Arvol Lookinghorse from South Dakota recently expressed his support in a letter posted on Facebook that states, "As Keeper of our Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe, I would like to send out support for the efforts of Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation, for giving of herself through fasting with prayers for the protection of Mother Earth." He goes on to say,

This effort to protect Mother Earth is all Humanity's responsibility, not just Aboriginal People. Every human being has had Ancestors in their lineage that understood their umbilical cord to the Earth, understanding the need to always protect and thank her. Therefore, all Humanity has to re-connect to their own Indigenous Roots of their lineage -- to heal their connection and responsibility with Mother Earth and become a united voice... All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer.

Society and nature work in similar ways to our own body's immune system. We are given a symptom that causes us to be aware that there is an illness that needs to be addressed. We can try to suppress the symptom, but that does not heal the illness. Popular uprisings with very core commonalities are spreading all over the planet. Exploitation of our environment, as well as the exploitation of people and cultures for the sake of financial gain is immoral and must be stopped at the highest levels of our governments. It is possible to have a thriving economy and environmental ethics.
It is a simple choice: continue to be part of the cancer that slowly destroys our water, our air and the resources that are the fabric of life by staying unconscious, or become the conscious antidote that slowly kills the cancerous disease which threatens the existence of life on the planet.
Here in America, the response to Occupy is tucked into NDAA as Washington prepares ways to suppress the symptoms of social discord. Without addressing the illness at its root nothing will change. It is like the mythical Many-Headed Hydra, if you cut one head off, two more will grow back. Popular uprisings will continue here and all over the world until leaders understand that people want real fundamental change in policy. Governments should lead by example if they want to be respected.
With Twitter, Facebook and the internet, these separate movements are finding solidarity with each other and converging as a global super-movement for the planet and all people. The quote used at Unify is, "Everyone, Everywhere, Together" and it is beginning to resonate more than ever.
Each of these movements share a commitment to non-violent revolution in their call to end the exploitation of people and the exploitation of natural resources. Sustainability can be applied to all aspects of social rights, economics and the environment. Social, economic, cultural, and environmental movements, resistance, civil disobedience, flash mobs and more will continue until this is addressed at home and abroad. Whether it is Anonymous and Wikileaks exposing the corruption of governments, or Indians with drums dancing and chanting in a local mall, people everywhere are awakening, speaking up, and acting for the needed changes. It's time for politicians and religious leaders to get the message everywhere.
It is a simple choice: continue to be part of the cancer that slowly destroys our water, our air and the resources that are the fabric of life by staying unconscious, or become the conscious antidote that slowly kills the cancerous disease which threatens the existence of life on the planet. Is the disease capitalism, corruption, ignorance, greed, The Illuminati, or some combination of all of these things spiralling out of control? It doesn't matter because it is becoming obvious that there are people from all nationalities, religions, and cultural backgrounds who are determined to resist the progression of imminent destruction. A factory producing monkey wrenches for the gears of the machine which is at the center of our collective demise.
Will the leaders wake up to this in order to play the roles they have sworn to uphold or will they further discredit their position, their institutions, and help to destroy the very systems that they have been entrusted to maintain? Every time Congress represents the will of a few wealthy people over the interests and the well-being of the planet and the people, they do more to subvert and destroy the state than ten thousand people protesting in the streets. When leaders fail, they destroy the trust that holds society together.
Is Harper cold and callous enough to ignore a constituent on hunger strike a short distance from his office? Can he afford to ignore these issues? Can any of us afford to ignore this call to be idle no more?
Take a moment and listen to the eloquent words of an 11-year-old girl in the video below. If a child can understand this, how come world leaders are still silent on making real changes to address these urgent issues?
Please support Idle No More, learn more about the movement, how it effects all of us and get involved. All of our futures depend on it.

PA & Hamas Won't Take Palestinian Refugees fr Syria

Just a couple weeks ago, Mahmoud Abbas said that he was prepared to take in Palestinian refugees from Syria.

Abbas said he has asked United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to help in bringing the refugees to the Palestinian territories. This could include the West Bank,where Abbas governs, or the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Yediot Ahronot reports, according to the Times of Israel, that Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are now against the idea.

Hamas and the Palestinian Authority rejected the United Nations’ request that they take in Palestinian refugees who fled Syria during the ongoing brutal civil war, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Thursday. 

…According to the report, head of Hamas in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh told UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, that the Gaza Strip couldn’t take in Syria’s Palestinian refugees due to an ideological issue: If they take in the refugees from Syria, Israel could use it against them when it comes to the Palestinians’ demand for the “right to return” to villages inside present day Israel, by pointing out that the refugees no longer need to return to Israel because they have been relocated to new homes in the Gaza Strip. 

The Palestinian Authority’s refusal stems from a different reason — a financial one. The PA, which, according to the report, initially inquired about absorbing the Palestinian refugees in Syria, has experienced severe budget cuts and has begged Arab leaders for millions of dollars in loans to solve its debt crisis. The PA’s coffers have been hurt following Israel’s decision not to hand over PA tax revenues and other related payments in the wake of President Mahmoud Abbas’s successful UN bid for nonmember observer status in November.

In related news, Hamas recently began a donation campaign for refugees displaced from Syria.

Christie on Sandy relief Disgusted by GOP House

Congress approves fiscal cliff deal — MSNBC

Congress approves fiscal cliff deal — MSNBC

House Republicans approved a bill put forward by the Senate to avoid the fiscal cliff Tuesday night after a long day of discussions and debates. The bill passed with a vote of 257 to 167.
Speaker John Boehner voted yes, while House Majority Leader Eric Cantor voted against it. The bill will now make its way to President Obama, who confirmed Tuesday night that he will sign it.
“This law is one more step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity,” Obama said in a press conference Tuesday after the House’s vote. He added that the deficit was still too high, and said that there will be no more debate over raising the debt ceiling. “We cannot pay bills we’ve already incurred.”

Krauthammer "Complete surrender on everything."

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: It's possible that this is a prelude to a challenge, Thursday, to Boehner's leadership by Eric Cantor. I think it would be quite naked to do it at this late hour as a result of a split over the vote.

Look, there are a lot of conservatives in the Republican caucus in the House who hate the bill, and for good reason. This is a complete surrender on everything. The ratio of tax hikes to spending cuts is 40:1 rather than 1:1, or 1:2 or 1:3. So, it was a complete rout by the Democrats. So it's understandable.

I think what's likely to happen is that the leadership is going to look to get the 218 that it could secure to send the bill back to the Senate with an equal number of spending cuts. If they don’t get it, I think what Boehner will do is have an open vote -- as you say, 'unwhipped.' Republicans will vote as they wish. They'll probably be enough with all the Democrats to pass this. (Special Report, January 1, 2013)

Nazi Propaganda 1932

Explanation: A tied-up Nazi watches while a Jew holding the Berliner Tageblatt, which the Nazis accused of being a Jewish paper, mistreats a Germany chained to the Treaty of Versailles. The Jew is probably supposed to be a journalist, since he is smearing Gemany with his pen. A Black French colonial soldier and a policeman assist. The policeman is likely Polish (since Germany lost territory to Poland as a result of the Treaty of Versailles).

Bourgeois patriotism is the privilege of a class. It is the real reason for its decline. When 30 million are for something and 30 million are against it, things balance out and nothing happens. That is how things are with us. We are the world’s Pariah not because we do not have the courage to resist, but rather because out entire national energy is wasted in eternal and unproductive squabbling between the right and the left. Our way only goes downward, and today one can already predict when we will fall into the abyss.