“Land, Food and the Fight for Justice� with Raj Patel

This week, Eric sits down with world renowned author and activist Raj Patel to discuss a number of important issues affecting all of us. Raj provides his insights and analysis on the growing global conflict between powerful multinational corporations and small farmers. Raj explains how this fundamental conflict is part of the larger issue of the globalization of food production. However, Eric and Raj broaden the conversation to discuss the role of land and water grabbing, commodity speculation and big Agribusiness in shaping this conflict. During their discussion, they also pay specific attention to the issue of class and the way in which, at its root, this is an extension of class conflict. While corporations and George Soros and his fellow financiers continue to buy up land and dominate resources, there is a growing resistance movement. May we all be part of that resistance…

Raj Patel is the bestselling author of The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy and Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power, and the Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System. He is an activist and educator, currently serving as a visiting scholar at the Center for African Studies at the University of California Berkeley. Visit his website rajpatel.org.

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Corporate-Funded Lap-Dog Watchdogs, AntiWar.Com, Whistleblowers & Bradley Manning

Last year, in our series ‘Mega Corporate Foundations’ Lap-Dogs’ we took on pseudo-whistleblower watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and their consistent betrayal of legit government whistleblowers, their corporate sugar-daddies such as Soros-Rockefellers-Carnegie, and their incestuous relationship with the Executive Branch, especially the White House. You can read our coverage here, here, and here.  We also produced a video report on POGO begging the obvious question: Who’s Watching the Watchdogs: Read more È

Revealing Desperation of the Establishment’s Jokers

Update: Well, we did it. iWatch News corrected the order. Now Ron Paul is third from the top-as he should always have been. Not only that, they were ‘forced’ to correct the numbers as well, and use the correct quarter.The only thing left: changing that picture!

Update: Thanks to vigilant readers and their pressure, iWatch News has been scrambling since 3:00 PM EST, and the numbers on the post have been mysteriously changing …of course not the ‘order’ of listing, or the picture selection, or any explanation for such colossal belligerence …

Yesterday, as part of my daily news comb, I visited “iWatch News,â€� one of several dozen websites on my list of news outlets on government related scandals-revelations. I usually skim the headlines and stories to see whether anything gets my attention as coverage-worthy. Well, their top headline yesterday fit what I was looking for: “Candidate Super PACS.â€� It was brief, but boldly showcased data on how much money each major presidential candidate has raised and how much each has spent to date. I was happy to find an important but quick and hassle-free read without too many embellishing words or subjective spicing. So I began reading the list. Starting from the top they had the number 1 candidate based on money raised and spent: Read more È

They Say it all Starts with ‘Informing’ …

Those of you who’ve been listening to our podcast series know how impatient I sometimes get when the question boils down to ‘what do we do? Where do we go from here?’ Look, I understand and agree with the general consensus out there among the intellectuals and activists: We must educate the people- We must inform. After all, isn’t it what we’ve been doing with our podcast series, investigative video reports, hard-hitting editorials, bold and eye-opening editorial cartoons, and propaganda-free real news? Right. But that doesn’t make me any less impatient and restless. I simply can’t stand the idea of spending decades to just  keep informing, meanwhile have no idea or even a certain degree of consensus on the next two important steps: organize & action.

If you’ve listened to our last podcast, our first episode on the making of a police state, you know exactly what I mean. I frankly admit to being very naïve once-upon a time when I wasted time and energy organizing whistleblowers, went around collecting petition signatures, held rallies in the congressional corridors here in our own little Red Light-District …Yah, all that jazz; futile jazz. So yes, one side of me understands and sympathizes with those who are engaged in all that waste of time and energy, yet, another side of me gets impatient and exasperated. It ain’t gonna happen with sending thousands or millions of petitions to the sold-out Congress, which happens to be one of  the main players-actors responsible for the terrible state we are in. Why do you think the corporate moguls-Soros, Rockefellers, Ford …put so much money into NGO operatives who have been re-channeling people’s restlessness-dissatisfaction-anger into writing and signing petitions to Congress-President and the rest of the enemy cabal, or lobbying to pass more ridiculous legislation? Look, last year alone, those red light  district porkies drafted and passed 40,000+ new laws-legislation. With each legislation-law adding further links to the chains that have turned us into slaves. Read more È

How We Differ from the Rest & Why We Need ‘You’

If a few years ago someone had told me that I was going to start a blog, gather a team of like-minded irate partners, expand, and turn the site into an alternative news and information site with daily news, top-notch editorials, independent analyses, weekly podcast programs and investigative video reports, commentaries, political cartoons and more, I’d say ‘are you nuts?!’ Don’t get me wrong. I was one of the major advocates for truly alternative news and information sites to challenge the illegitimate, stinky, completely dependent and sold-out, meek, weak, government propaganda machine, corporate pet-boys mainstream media. However, as a very private recluse foreign to the blogging-forum sphere with zero technical knowledge or abilities, I never saw ‘me’ in that scenario. You know, I was one of those a bit lazy ‘they’ should do this, ‘they’ should start that, ‘they’ must challenge it … cases. See, I admit. Read more È

The Manas Air Base, situated near the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, has played a key role in the increasingly important Central Asian region since its inception. First opened in December 2001 to support the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the Manas Air Base plays host to the US Ninth Air Force and serves primarily as a transit point for US goods and personnel coming and going from Afghanistan. As part of the so-called Northern Distribution Network, a key supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan that bypasses the now-blockaded Pakistani borders, Manas continues to be a strategically vital asset for the US. At the same time, the base has also been a point of contention with the locals for years, and the controversy doesn’t seem likely to die down any time soon.

As important as the base is to the Kyrgyz people, the true nature of Manas remains an open question. For years, it has been at the centre of a string of allegations revolving around drug-running, terrorism and stage-managed revolutions.

This is our EyeOpener Report by James Corbett, presenting Kyrgyzstan’s Manas Air Base, and exploring its reported position as a center where the US conducts covert meetings and operations with various militant Islamic groups such as Pakistani Jundullah, its importance as a major transit point for Western controlled and routed Afghan heroin, the true nature of the Tulip Revolution, the incoming Kyrgyz president’s latest threats to close the base, and the nation’s position on a fault line in the tectonics of geopolitics.

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*The Transcript for this video is available at Corbett Report: Click Here

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And this one:

Also numerous documented reports and article previously provided to Antiwar.Com; here are a few:

POGO: Mastering the Art of Lap-Dancing for Mega Sugar Daddies

A Watch-Dog for All Seasons

The Journey from Watch-Dogs to Lap-Dogs

The Tentacles of Megas

I have been a supporter of AntiWar.Com for many years. We have common readership with them here at Boiling Frogs Post. Granted, it’s been highly annoying to find more and more mainstream media (especially NY Times & Washington Post) generated news roundups at their website in the last few months, and less and less presentation of alternative voices. However, this one really goes beyond the level of my tolerance; as it should with many of their readers who have been dishing out $400,000 a year for them to remain an alternative. I hope their contributors will take this into consideration two months from now when they start beating the ‘help sustain us’ drum.  I know I am not going to support the next round until I see some signs of positive change…at least back to where they were before.

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We began our series with a snapshot of Mega Corporate Foundations extending their tentacles to organizations and entities involved in government watchdog practices and grassroots activism. We summarized the classic story of the transformation from Government Watchdogs to Mega-Corporate Lapdogs. We presented to you the profile of “An Ideal Watch-Dog Lap-Dog� from the perspective of a well-known Mega Corporate Foundation-Carnegie: A Government Watch-Dog Lap-Dog that is loved & cherished by the entire government. Now it is time to take a look at the profile of a mini watch-dog lap-dog: the sugar daddies pouring large sums into their panties, how much money they get, who conducts and choreographs the lap-dance shows internally, and what they show and market as ‘performance’ to the public .

Project on Government Oversight (POGO)

Like many grassroots and government watchdog entities out there POGO started small and passionate with noble intentions and objectives: Read more È

In the spring of 2010 the Carnegie Corporation issued a glowing report on their favorite government watchdog Project on Government Oversight (POGO). The report was meant to justify and showcase the large grants given to POGO by the corporation over the last few years. In 2008 and 2009 alone the corporation had given over $700,000 to this pet-project (lap-dog aka watch-dog). After reading the report one can’t help but wonder at the miscalculation that went with this report’s intention. What was intended to be a glowing report ends up being a major indicator as to the real nature of this corporate-foundation funded government watch-dog turned lap-dog. Allow me to explain further:

Real government watchdogs, if they are doing what they are supposed to be doing, if they are engaged in what they say they are engaged in, become the object of the government’s wrath and hatred. There is no way around this. No way. The executive branch agencies would be up in arms against them: digging their graves as ferocious and as fast as they can; overtly and covertly. And this includes the office of the United States President; the White House.

The legislative branch would be extremely wary of real government watchdogs. After all, real separation of powers ceased to exist a long time ago. Not only that; the last thing the US Congress wants is the existence of whistleblowers in their own backyard. Considering the level of corruption in Congress (think foreign lobby influence; think various methods of going around campaign finance laws; think campaign donors and conflicts of interest when it comes to the congressional decision and legislation making process) how many whistleblowers have we had coming out of congressional offices with reports of corruption, bribery, and other related misdeeds? I believe I have made the case here; suffice to say, Congress has never liked whistleblowers or genuine watchdog groups, evident by their resistance to providing real protection for whistleblowers, holding real hearings on legit whistleblower cases, and holding the executive branch accountable based on proven reports provided to them by whistleblowers.

I’ll go even further: The corporate mainstream media has never been very kind to government whistleblowers, and they usually perceive a genuine watchdog group as a real threat exposing their own cover-up or biased-filled reporting tainted by their masters in corporate and government. I mean, come on, what happens if a genuine watchdog group issues a report exposing illegal wiretapping by the government, when a giant media group, per order of their bosses, chooses to bury and sit on that same revelation? You see what I mean? The reason for the dislike goes beyond a ‘competitive’ relationship; way beyond it.

Now what should be the first thing, first inference, first conclusion, to come to mind (a rational mind that is) when one comes across a self-proclaimed tax-exempt mega corporation-funded watch-dog that happens to be adored by mega corporations, intensely liked by the Congress, truly liked by the executive branch including the White House, and very much admired and complemented by the tainted corporate media? Do you see something extremely disturbing yet very revealing with this picture? Then, with that in mind, let’s read the glowing report issued by the mega corporation, Carnegie Foundation, on their favorite watch-dog, POGO: Read more È

Last month, the EyeOpener investigated the “transparency award� that was bestowed on Obama this past March by a bevy of government watchdog NGOs who are ostensibly advocating for more government openness. As we saw in that report, dozens of high profile government whistleblowers and organizations have launched a petition at takeawardback.org calling on these NGOs to rescind the award in light of the Obama Administration’s abysmal record of government secrecy and unprecedented levels of whistleblower prosecution.

 In response to the petition, one of the NGOs named in our report posted a reply defending its decision to honor Obama on the transparency issue and questioning the motives of those opposing that decision. In the rebuttal, Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) wrote:

“It is undeniable that the Obama administration has achieved more openness than any other recent president,� adding that “Public debate and disclosure is often healthy. But there is so much to be done to safeguard our rights and expand openness – our community just doesn’t have the luxury to waste time on distractions.�

A new investigation into the funding sources of the very NGOs who are supposed to be holding the government’s feet to the fire reveals some alternative explanations for why these organizations are so reluctant to call out the Obama administration for its egregious expansion of government secrecy.

The new series on Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and Corporate-Foundation Sugar Daddies looks further into corporate-foundations and Watch-Dogs turned Lap-Dogs. Here are the first two parts in our series:

Part I. The Tentacles of Megas: Reaching from the Government to the Emasculated Watchdogs

Part II. The Journey from Watch-Dogs to Lap-Dogs

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