Commercialization of our National Parks

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From Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

The National Park Service is getting ready to adopt new policies that would dramatically increase the commercialization of our National Parks. Under the new plan, the Park Service would aggressively seek corporate sponsorship of park projects and facilities. In return for financial sponsorships, the plan will give corporate donors naming rights to park facilities (but not the parks themselves) and allow use of National Park symbols and personnel in advertising.

Please take a moment to tell the Park Service not to pollute our national treasures with advertising and corporate sponsorships. Comments should be sent to partnerships@nps.gov. Please act today – the deadline for comments is December 5.

NATIONAL PARKS TO SEEK CORPORATE SPONSORSHIPS — Corporate Funds Will Alter Park Landscapes and Sway Policies

Washington, DC — In a quiet but far-reaching change, the National Park Service is poised to adopt a new policy of aggressively seeking corporate sponsorship of park projects and facilities. In return for financial sponsorships, the plan will give corporate donors naming rights, use of National Park symbols and personnel in advertising and much greater influence over park managers, according to public comments filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

“This starts a slow motion commercialization of the national park system,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch. “What will be allowed stops just short of licensing ads for ‘The Official Beer of Yosemite’ or ‘ Old Faithful, Brought to You by Viagara.’”

The Park Service has put forward a draft directive encouraging active pursuit of potential financial donors and repealing the agency’s current passive posture of merely accepting donations. Public comment on the plan closes this week. Interior Secretary Gale Norton has hailed the plan as an “exciting” new approach for broadening the funding base for national parks.

Park managers would be encouraged to offer packages that attract big corporate donors, including –

Liberalized naming rights for trails, benches, rooms and other facilities (but not parks themselves), as well as display of logos and slogans on park literature, computer screens, and plaques; Exclusive media advertising rights to the official NPS Arrowhead symbol, the term “Proud Partner” of the National Park Service and the use of uniformed park employees in ads; and Flexibility to negotiate customized recognition deals that “meet the needs of individual donors.”
The plan jettisons bans against accepting or soliciting donations from vendors, concessionaires, permittees and others doing business with a park. Alcohol, tobacco and even gambling companies would also be eligible park sponsors. The only up-front review of major gifts would be a subjective “totality of circumstances” test applied by top officials to determine whether the donation is “appropriate.”

The plan is designed so that private donations develop into a much more significant factor in overall park budgets, as well as high-profile capital projects and improvements. Currently, the Park Service raises an estimated $17 million from outside sources each year.

“This is a thinly disguised scheme to subject the public commons to corporate branding campaigns,” added Ruch, pointing to related effort by both the Bush administration and House Republicans to sell naming rights of certain park facilities, as well as some parks in their entirety. “Will anyplace be off-limits to the Nike swoosh or the McDonald’s arches?”

Read the PEER comments on the proposed donation solicitation policy

Compare the proposal with current restrictions

Howard Dean A Failure...

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... as a boogeyman!

I thought I would point out this post at the Daily Kos commemorating the one-year anniversary of Howard Dean's election to chairman of the DNC.

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We're now at the rough one-year anniversary of the DNC chairmanship battle, in which us netroots hooligans helped propel Dean to the top of the DNC. We outmaneuvered Kerry, who wanted to install Vilsack and then Sheehan by fiat. We outmaneuvered Reid and Pelosi, who wanted Tim Roemer. We outmaneuvered Mark Brewer of the Association of Democratic State Chairs, who wanted Donnie Fowler. (Here's Ryan Lizza's take on the whole affair.)

This was the first tangible "victory" for the netroots in its struggle for supremacy of the Democratic Party. But I don't bring this up to gloat. Rather, I bring it up to point out how little of the Dean Doomsday Scenario actually played out.

More specifically, the notion that Dean would be a boon to Republican propaganda efforts has completely fallen flat. Remember those? Dem insiders were quaking in their shoes, Republicans were salivating at the chance to remind America how far-left and craaazzzyy those Democrats were with Dean at the top....

While the true measure of Dean's success will be the 2008 elections (rebuilding the party takes time, regardless whether we make gains in 2006 or not), the early praise from his fiercest Democratic detractors and the unilateral ceasefire from the Republican side proves that he's not the Scary Liberal Boogeyman many feared he'd be.

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Read the rest of the post for a rather funny set of press releases put out by the Virginia GOP set out to associate "now governor-elect" Tim Kaine with the "boogeyman" Howard Dean.

(I hope I didn't ruin too many lunches with my post title.... )

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Men.Style.Com/GQ

Sinclair Broadcast Group receives another lengthy review.  If you haven’t yet read the great piece from Le Monde, you should.   Now, GQ provides another view of the same phenomenon. 

By Wil S. Hyton

Chances are you’ve never heard of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sure, it might be the largest independent owner of television stations in America, an empire of sixty channels spread across thirty-seven cities with a signal that reaches nearly a quarter of the TV-watching public, but even if you happen to receive that signal and watch it every night, getting your Sinclair news and Sinclair weather and Sinclair commentary from a Sinclair station, chances are you’ve still never heard of Sinclair and have no idea you’re watching it.

You won’t see the word Sinclair on your screen, and you’ll probably just think you’re watching ABC or CBS or NBC, whichever network you thought you tuned in. Right there on the screen, you’ll see the old familiar logo—a peacock, an eye, the ABC bubble—and the anchors will look the same as ever, and the fact that the station has been purchased by Sinclair will be no more apparent than the fact that twenty or thirty minutes into the program, the real news will suddenly fade to black and Sinclair’s news will take over.

It may be a glowing interview with a defense contractor or a fiery commentary on the evils of the French, something brief and punchy lasting two or ten or fourteen minutes, then slipping back into the regular news as quietly as it came. Not so much as a blip or a bleep to let you know that what you just witnessed was not the local NBC or CBS broadcast but just a little insert from the guys who own the station.

That’s the goal at Sinclair: to be seen without being seen.


(click here to read the entire article)


(Click here to listen to the latest FreePress Media Minute)


(Click here to find out if your station is owned by Sinclair)

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Click here to sign our petition to the FCC

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IBLTV.Org

Iowans for Better Local Television, Iowa's grassroots media reform group, is now leading an effort to ask the FCC to hold a hearing to review whether Iowans are being well-served by our Sinclair-owned station KGAN.  This year, all of Iowa's TV stations are up for license renewal which provides a rare opportunity for the public to have input.  We must act now, because the next license renewal is eight long years away.    
 
IBLTV has spent the past year getting organized and taking action.  After joining with the successful , nation-wide Sinclair advertiser boycott last fall, IBLTV co-sponsored the successful FCC Town Meeting on the Future of Media in October which drew over 500 Iowans.  IBLTV has also met with Congressman Leach, published columns in newspapers, made appearances on radio and TV, and has even drawn the attention of national media with a feature story in the broadcast industry publication, Broadcasting and Cable magazine.  
 
Here is what we are asking you to do:
 
(1) Sign our on-line signature petition asking the FCC for a meaningful license review.  Just click here:  "Sign the IBLTV Petition." If everyone takes this quick, simple action, it will help us enormously to demonstrate citizen support for this effort.
 
(2) Please let us know if you have a personal anecdote that illustrates an example of how you feel our Sinclair-owned station has not served the public interest.
 
P.S.  Like all organizations we need members and financial support.  It is not a condition of your participation in this project.  But if you are able and willing please consider  joining IBLTV.  Our group is focused on ACTION, not sitting around and complaining.  If you would like to get more  involved in media reform, there are many oopportunities available.  Bring your ideas!  You can sign up to be on IBLTV's online discussion group by contacting us at feedback@ibltv.org.    
 
Even small contributions help.  You can make checks payable to:  IBLTV, PO BOX 578, Iowa City, Iowa  52242. (Donate $25 and receive a bonus gift, the DVD Outfoxed while supplies last)!
 
IBLTV would like to thank you for your concern about media issues and we appreciate whatever you can do.  Please feel free to contact us at:  feedback@ibltv.org.

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  Why the Campaign to change Walmart is so Important

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by Caroline Vernon

The last time I shopped at Walmart was about a year ago. I remember thinking how wonderfully convenient it was that I could purchase my groceries, my household items and get my film developed in one full swoop, and get a bargain to boot! But then something happened that really burst my bubble... I got a crash course in Walmart Economics. The more I learned about Walmart’s philosophy and business practices, the more concerned I became, and ultimately, the more committed I chose to be toward sharing all that I’ve learned with as many people as possible.

As a person of conscience, there came a time when I was forced to reconcile all that I had learned and accept responsibility for it. That meant taking a stand... and that meant standing on the principal, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. It’s really as simple as that.

As a single mom on a fixed income, with three children at home, I full well know the importance of being as frugal as possible but I do not what to be responsible for the grief that someone else has to endure as a way of life in order to make ends meet in my own life. How anyone can justify this is beyond my understanding.

The truth is, Walmart can afford to offer some of the low prices that they do because they are paying sweat shop wages, sometimes as low as 3 cents an hour, to manufacture the same goods that were once manufactured here at home. The effect of this has resulted in the loss of good paying jobs at home as well as a lowering of a work standard and ethic that had once made America great. Rather than raising standards throughout the rest of the world, Walmart is systematically lowering standards at home -  all this in the name of the almighty dollar, with no regard to the impact that such detrimental practices have on individuals, families, and communities throughout, not only this country, but the world.

Walmart currently has 3700 stores throughout the country and has ambitious plans to raise that number to 6,000 within the next 5 to 6 years. Is this in line with your vision of America? Where Walmart is the only place to shop... where the nostalgia of our historic downtown communities no longer exist because Walmart intentionally sets out to annihilate all competition? Where Walmart is one of the few places left in our communities to work? Where our brothers and sisters are denied good benefits, a decent living wage, respect and dignity on the job, and the right to organize and form a union?

How can we forget the sacrifices of our forefathers who gave their lifeblood to ensure our way of life?  Yes, we live in a capitalist society but does that mean that everything we are, everything we believe, must be reduced down to the “bottom dollar?” Is this not the same as worshiping mammon? Does the bible not warn us against the “love of money?” At what point do people matter more than profit? What happened to “we are our brother’s keeper?” These are the many questions that continue to make my head spin and my heart ache and I for one, cannot ignore them.

This philosophy of profit at any cost, is undoing America, and every one of us who chooses to turn a blind eye to what is happening right under our noses, is partly responsible for the harm that is being done. As the largest corporation in the world, Walmart has the power to do right, and to do good, and sometimes they do, but all things considered, when you step back and look at the big picture, Walmart is responsible for doing far more harm than good. It seems strikingly apparent to me that The Walmart Corporation chooses to live by the old adage, “he with the most gold make the rules”, and given the millions of dollars they spend lobbying for subsidies and other favors, it seems they are well on their way to doing exactly that. Other small businesses don’t get subsidies so why should Walmart? Isn’t America supposed to represent fairness, equality, freedom and justice for ALL? We should have a fair and level playing field with everyone being held to the same standard.

America may be financially wealthy, but if we allow corporations like Walmart to continue to choose profit over people, what does that say about the wealth of our collective spirit? We can no longer afford to rationalize unto ourselves at the expense of others, here at home or abroad. As a matter of principal, we can no longer allow greed to trump need. Wake up America! Wake up Walmart!

www.wakeupwalmart.com

www.walmartwatch.com

A SLAUGHTERHOUSE AND CONFINEMENTS WITH AMMONIA AND HYDROGEN SULFIDE COMING TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU

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Today a press conference was held in Moline, IL.  It was to notify the press that TWO PUBLIC MEETINGS WILL TAKE PLACE NEXT SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3RD.

 The meetings (ONE IN MOLINE AND ONE IN ELDRIDGE, IOWA) are to INFORM THE PUBLIC THAT A HOG SLAUGHTEHOUSE IS PROPOSED CLOSE TO BARSTOW, IL ON A FLOODPLAIN.  The site is on land that this year was annexed by the city of East Moline, IL.  

If the slaughterhouse is built, word is that 16,000 HOGS A DAY OR OVER 4,000,000 HOGS A YEAR…THAT'S RIGHT 4 MILLION… ARE EXPECTED TO BE KILLED.  THIS MEANS AN EXPLOSION OF HOG CONFINEMENTS IN EASTERN IOWA AND WESTERN ILLINOIS COUNTIES WILL FOLLOW.

THE PUTRID AIR THAT EMINATES FROM LARGE HOG CONFINEMENTS (ALSO KNOWN AS "FACTORY FARMS") CAUSES AN INCREASE IN ASTHMA RATES, DISORIENTATION, LOSS OF MEMORY, UNCONSCIOUSNESS, AND DEATH.  

THE IMPACTS DO NOT JUST AFFECT THE RURAL COMMUNITIES IN OUR COUNTIES, BUT MUST ALSO BE CONSIDERED BY MEDIUM AND LARGE URBAN AREAS SUCH AS THE METRO QUAD CITIES. Just last Wednesday while I was in Moline, the strong winds from the north (over 40 mph) brought the smell of manure from somewhere out there.

So, our ENVIRONMENTAL/SUSTAINABILITY/ENERGY group of the PROGRESSIVE ACTION FOR THE COMMON GOOD (PACG), thought it was time for more citizens to be informed.

The morning meeting on Saturday, December 3rd will be held in Moline, IL at Riverside United Methodist Life Center, 2420 41st St. from 10AM -12 Noon.

The afternoon meeting the same day will be held in Eldridge, IA in Scott County in the Eldridge Public Library/First Amendment Room from 2 - 4PM.  

Speakers will be KAREN HUDSON AND TERRY SPENCE of GRACE (GLOBAL RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT).  They are part of a national organization that helps others who may not have the funding to educate others on the hazards of CAFO's (CONFINED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS).

Come if you can and tell others about the meetings.  Get active in your county and keep track of what is going on.  As I said in an earlier article, once you step outside and are slapped in the face with the stench, it will be too late.

So check these web sites to gain further knowledge: www.farmweb.org
And www.thenation.com by searching for "Meatpacking" where you will find "The Shame of Meatpacking" by Karen Olsson and "Bad Meat" by Eric Schlosser.

Keep up the good work you all do in helping to CPR…CONSERVE/PARTICIPATE/RECYCLE

 How Things Work in Washington

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Consortium News

It is sadly ironic that Bob Woodward, who in his early career was a role model for investigative journalists, appears now to have been corrupted by power and Washington politics. 

By Robert Parry 

In his book, Secrecy & Privilege, Robert Parry tracks how the Washington press corps changed from the Watergate/Vietnam era of the 1970s, when journalists took some pride in challenging the powerful, to the Iraq War, when many national news outlets cowered and fawned before a White House that equated skepticism with disloyalty.

This gradual but unmistakable shift in the ethos of Washington journalism marked a hard-fought victory for conservatives who invested billions of dollars over the past three decades in building a media/political machine for gaining as much control as possible of the information flowing through the nation’s capital to the American people.

Journalists who bucked the trend confronted ugly attacks from right-wing media “watchdogs,” almost inevitable betrayal by news executives, and dashed careers. Journalists who played along were rewarded with fame, money and access.

Today, no journalist personifies this transformation more than Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, who made his name unraveling Richard Nixon’s Watergate cover-up but now has been caught misleading the public while protecting the Bush administration’s cover-up of a scheme to smear an Iraq War critic.

(click here to read the entire article)

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Sign our petition to the FCC

 Sign now...Time is running out!

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What We're Thankful For

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American Progress - The Progress Report

This Thanksgiving, progressives have a lot to be thankful for. Here's our list:

We're thankful for Rep. Jack Murtha for showing us it's patriotic to speak your mind.

We're thankful for 79 Senators who demanded the Bush administration detail a plan for Iraq.

We're thankful that Sen. Bill Frist is not our physician.

We're thankful all Americans can still rely on Social Security.

We're thankful for American Airlines, Verizon, and Nissan, who all agreed to Drop the Hammer.

We're thankful for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for conducting a "very serious" and "very dignified" investigation.

We're thankful for the success of progressive talk radio.

We're thankful to the voters of Colorado for putting priorities like education, health care, and fiscal sanity over right-wing ideology.

We're thankful Judy Miller won't be reporting on Iran's WMD program for the New York Times.

We're thankful we don't live in Samuel Alito's America...yet.

We're thankful for HorsesAss.org, for exposing (in such ironic fashion) ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown's checkered past at the International Arabian Horse Association.

We're thankful we're not Scott McClellan.

We're thankful for the residents of Dover, Pennsylvania for doing the right thing for their kids' education. (Don't listen to Pat, we've got your back.)

Happy Thanksgiving! – The Progress Report Team.

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And I'd like to add, we're thankful to the loyal and hard-working Blog for Iowa team - Trish, Caroline, Molly, Chad, and our new guy, Arron - who keep this thing up and running and do it in style.

Linda Thieman
Editor, Blog for Iowa