The Dusty Dog

The News That Didn't Make The News

This entire heads-up article comes from a website called Project Censored. Every year they post a listing of the top 25 news stories that did not make mainstream media news. However, most of us who follow the Blogosphere are already aware of most of these stories. The problem lies in the fact that most of America does not even know what the Blogosphere exists, its main purpose, and in my opinion, where the real and accurate news reporting takes place.

This article is a heads-up listing of this years "non" stories, that are really mind benders. And, those who complain that mainstream media is left wing biased certainly have their collective heads up thier asses. But, I digress..........

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
Throughout 2005 and 2006, a large underground debate raged regarding the future of the Internet. More recently referred to as “network neutrality,” the issue has become a tug of war with cable companies on the one hand and consumers and Internet service providers on the other. Yet despite important legislative proposals and Supreme Court decisions throughout 2005, the issue was almost completely ignored in the headlines until 2006.1 And, except for occasional coverage on CNBC’s Kudlow & Kramer, mainstream television remains hands-off to this day (June 2006). 2 Most coverage of the issue framed it as an argument over regulation—but the term “regulation” in this case is somewhat misleading. Groups advocating for “net neutrality” are not promoting regulation of internet content. What they want is a legal mandate forcing cable companies to allow internet service providers (ISPs) free access to their cable lines (called a “common carriage” agreement). This was the model used for dial-up internet, and it is the way content providers want to keep it. They also want to make sure that cable companies cannot screen or interrupt internet content without a court order.

#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
According to journalist Jason Leopold, sources at former Cheney company Halliburton allege that, as recently as January of 2005, Halliburton sold key components for a nuclear reactor to an Iranian oil development company. Leopold says his Halliburton sources have intimate knowledge of the business dealings of both Halliburton and Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies.

#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
Oceanic problems once found on a local scale are now pandemic. Data from oceanography, marine biology, meteorology, fishery science, and glaciology reveal that the seas are changing in ominous ways. A vortex of cause and effect wrought by global environmental dilemmas is changing the ocean from a watery horizon with assorted regional troubles to a global system in alarming distress.

According to oceanographers the oceans are one, with currents linking the seas and regulating climate. Sea temperature and chemistry changes, along with contamination and reckless fishing practices, intertwine to imperil the world’s largest communal life source.

#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
The number of hungry and homeless people in U.S. cities continued to grow in 2005, despite claims of an improved economy. Increased demand for vital services rose as needs of the most destitute went unmet, according to the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors Report, which has documented increasing need since its 1982 inception.

.......... snip ..........

As urban hunger and homelessness increases in America, the Bush administration is planning to eliminate a U.S. survey widely used to improve federal and state programs for low-income and retired Americans, reports Abid Aslam.
President Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal 2007, which begins October 2006, includes a Commerce Department plan to eliminate the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). The proposal marks at least the third White House attempt in as many years to do away with federal data collection on politically prickly economic issues.

#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
The world’s most neglected emergency, according to the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, is the ongoing tragedy of the Congo, where six to seven million have died since 1996 as a consequence of invasions and wars sponsored by western powers trying to gain control of the region’s mineral wealth. At stake is control of natural resources that are sought by U.S. corporations—diamonds, tin, copper, gold, and more significantly, coltan and niobium, two minerals necessary for production of cell phones and other high-tech electronics; and cobalt, an element essential to nuclear, chemical, aerospace, and defense industries.

These abrieviated synopses are only the first 5 of 25 neglected stories that are listed on the Project Censored website. I urge everyone to go there, read these stories, make them election year issues, whenever possible. This is critically important. It's important because, as the lastest controversy over the "Path To 9/11" movie has so clearly illustrated, the mainstream media is biased. They are bought and paid for by the right wing scheme machine. They control what they want us to believe and what they don't want us to know. Left wing bias, my ass.

A simple list of the rest, wherein you can go read the reports here:

#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
#7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

What I find particularly interesting about this list is not that the stories generally highlight misdeeds and wrongdoings by the dubya camp, but rather how these are stories that would highlight how the dubya cockroach camp and their associated mainstream media cronies are working in cahoots to prevent the world, and of course, Americans, from learning how intricately tied this administration is to corporate interests and thier profits. A great site to check out that is all about this very issue is CorpsWatch. A friend of mine mentioned to me this past thursday that his brother, who is a die-hard republican, complained that "we've got to get big oil out of Washington." And, this guy doesn't even know the half (quarter, eighth, zillionth) of it.

posted by Dusty Dog at 9/09/2006