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 Barbwire Archives |
César Chávez, Thurgood Marshall and Thomas Jefferson
Expanded from the 3-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune
Updated 3-22-2010, 3-28-2010
Barbwire wins second straight Nevada Press Association first-place award
SUING FOR SCHOOLS: Click here to view the new Barbwire show on your desktop
If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions —new power to the people on the public airwavesThe program premiers were available to every television set in the region because of a high-mileage media hybrid.
The shows appeared on both commercial and community stations. The non-corporate entity produced the events, commercial TV greatly expanded distribution.
Thus began an ongoing series of sane public interest programs which generate both entertaining heat and more than a little light.
Please spread the word and consider contributing to the cause online at ReSurge.TV.
You may also take the public option known as the U.S. Postal Service and send a check or money order to ReSurge.TV, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.
Your contribution will help fund the distribution of the Dec. 6 and Feb. 21 programs as well as ongoing efforts at developing new media, including a regional, non-corporate community radio station.
You are present at the creation of what I hope can become a new media model where the programming accurately reflects what's happening on the ground and the media impact is powerful enough to forcefully pass the message upward.
Thanks.
Be well. Raise hell.
Andrew
Barbwire column on the depredations of Charter Communications and the Reno City Council wins 2009 Nevada Press Association first-place award
Past 12 months
Use the search tool you will find at page right at the above link. It will return the 19 newest TV programs. You may also search by date — M-F for the past year save holidays.Click here for on-demand re-runs
from the 2009 legislative sessionBarbwire.TV:
15-year overnight success
Daily Sparks Tribune 2-10-2008The Barbwire's Greatest Hits
Highlights from radio days
mp3 fileIn the same week that actor Fess Parker died, Nevada Gov. Jim the Dim offered bus rides to a teabagger demonstration in exchange for campaign money.
The self-styled "education first" governor once again lampooned himself. The anti-tax teabaggers are so dumb that they have named themselves after a demonstration staged to oppose a tax cut. And Jim Gibbons will go down in history as the governor who gutted education.
Alas and alack, no one will read history if right right-wing moonhowlers have their way. Among their many criticisms of public schools, they complain about the dumbing down of textbooks into boring pablum. They never mention that the dumbing is often their own doing.
The worst perpetrator is the Texas board of education. Bushyland is the second-largest market for school books in the country. As a result, publishers let Texas yahoos slice and dice.Last year, they tried to eliminate labor leader César Chávez and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. This year, they voted to wipe out President Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the late Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. The human rights advocate was assassinated in 1980 by a U.S.-backed death squad while he celebrated mass. Romero was eliminated from approved Texas history because, as Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart put it, "he wasn't famous enough" for them.
The dumbing down of our history books allowed Walt Disney to make Davy Crockett a national hero in the 1950's. Parker, who portrayed Crockett in Disney TV and movies, became an American icon in a coonskin cap.The fictionalized Crockett died heroically at the Alamo. More than half a century later, Americans remain largely unaware of the reason Texas wanted to secede from Mexico: the country had just outlawed slavery.
Davy Crockett died fighting to keep black people in chains.
The current governor of Texas has advocated treason if health care reform passes — he wants to secede from the union. Rick Perry has some cockamamie idea that it's allowed under the original deal that allowed Tejas in.
Guess he never heard of The Civil War. Perhaps it was deleted from the history books at his school.
Better that than the actual alternative: The Lone Star Snake can break into FIVE states anytime it wants, effectively giving those yahoos effective control of the country with 10 — count 'em — 10 U.S. senators.
Aaarghhh.
Last Friday, I was privileged to say a few words before a Sparks meeting of United Auto Workers Union members and retirees.
I talked about César Chávez and Thurgood Marshall and their relevance today.
These guys were gimlets in the ribs of the system and remain so decades after their deaths. They can still drive the bad guys crazy.
That's why I'll be celebrating what would have been César Chávez's 83rd birthday on March 31 at Circus Circus.
SUBMIT SOON. Any Nevada student may enter the César Chávez video competition. It's very simple. Produce a 60-second public service announcement on any issue, Chávez or not. Upload same at YouTube.com and send me the URL so that the judges may review it. The decisions of the judges will be final.
We will show the winners at the César Chávez celebration. We will also produce a TV show to air on Sierra Nevada Community Access Television featuring the winners and best runners-up.I know time is short, so anyone who has something already uploaded, even if it's a bit longer than 60-seconds, please submit. Spanish language entries are cool. I have help there. Any other language, I'll need a translation. Winners will get nice prizes, as always.
Nominations are still open for the inaugural César Chávez Silver State Public Service Awards. Categories include labor organizer of the year, employer of the year, humanitarian of the year and union project of the year. We are again inviting members of César Chávez's immediate family plus federal, state and local officials.
On March 31, doors will open at 5:30 with dinner at 7:00 p.m. Contact me for ticket and sponsorship information or go to CesarChavezNevada.com
¡Sí se puede!
SUING FOR SCHOOLS, my latest TV program, will rebroadcast this week on Reno-Sparks-Washoe Charter/SNCAT digital channels 16 and 216 and hi-def 80-295. Tune in at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 22; 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24; and 2:25 p.m. on Friday, March 26.
It's also available online at NevadaLabor.com, along with If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs and Unions.
UPDATE
CARSON CITY Charter Ch. 210
Health Care 3/22-3/27, 3/29-4/3
Suing for Schools 4/5-4/10
5:30 p.m. Mondays
7:30 p.m. Wednesdays
8:00 a.m. Thursdays
8:00 p.m. Saturdays
Both will be running in Carson-Douglas-Tahoe and Las Vegas. Check local listings.
SNCAT is the non-profit beneficiary of this year's Chávez event. The station airs programming in various languages on any subject, including many of interest to the burgeoning Latino community.
Regular readers know that I have been raising money for SNCAT toward a matching foundation grant of $40,000. If you can help, give me a holler at 882-TALK (775-882-8255) or drop me a line.
And thanks to readers who have called with Chávez award nominations.
MORE TUBULAR TIME. I'll be doing Sam Shad's pundit panel on Nevada Newsmakers this Tuesday, March 23. The statewide show has its first run at 12:30 p.m. PDT (19:30 ZULU) on KRNV TV-4. For northern Nevada Charter cable victims, it reruns at 9:30 p.m. PDT (04:30 ZULU March 24), then online and in Gomorrah South later in the week. My fellow panelists will be Sparks Republican true believer Bill Brainard and Wayne Frediani, Executive Director of the Nevada Franchise Auto Dealers Association. Sam's guest in the first two segments (pundits get the back of the bus) will be Dr. Stephen Wells, President of the Desert Research Institute. [ARMAGEDDON AVOIDED, thank God. See below.]
SOAKED AND WET. The City of Sparks has found Sparks Marina subcontractors guilty of violating Nevada wage laws but has asked the state labor commissioner to waive fines totaling more than $30,000 which would go to the city's bankrupt treasury. Who's in charge over there? Many more wage complaints are in the pipeline. Keep an eye on Cabellyup.com.
TEAMING UP. On the Ides of March, a group of 95 workers at both Stead and Reno-Sparks-Tahoe International airports voted to affiliate with Teamsters Local 533. They had been a solo union for 31 years but felt they needed Teamsters representational experience.And before you write, yeah, I know the official name of the main airport, but Sparks has been screwed into anonymity for years, so it's payback time.
Be well. Raise hell.
______
Andrew Barbano is a 41-year Nevadan, second vice-president of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.
Smoking Guns...
From Sam Shad's weekly e-mailed program schedule
3-27-2010"Armageddon has not ensued; they are not in war in the valley of Megiddo in Northern Israel. No one's been raptured up, I don't feel any earthquake, and life seems to be going on pretty well. — Andrew Barbano, publisher of NevadaLabor.com, on the passing and signing of the Obama health care legislation. Tuesday, March 23, 2010.
Shad editor's note: Megiddo — an important archeological site of the Israelite kingdom, and location of many battle scenes, according to Jacqueline Schaalje, Jewish Magazine.
Barbano editor's note: Megiddo is where the final battle between good and evil known as Armageddon is prophesied to take place.
Nevada Press Assn. annual award winners announced
And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?
The Dean's List
The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.
RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006
The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners
Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL
Barbwire / 11-30-2008
Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry
Barbwire / 8-3-2008
Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here?
Barbwire / 6-15-2008
The price of a piece / 6-17-2007
Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007
The Lady in the Red Dress
10-28-2007
BARBWIRE Nevada Corporate Welfare Archive
Propaganda fuels gasoline price fixing
Barbwire 8-14-2005Donate to the cable ratepayer legal defense fund at our PayPal-enabled ReSurge.TV Consumer War Room
Phillips, Kevin; Numbers Racket: Why the economy is worse than we know
Harper's Magazine; May 2008; page 43
Phillips has authored numerous books on history and politics over the past 40 years. His most recent, Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, was published by Viking on April 15, 2008.NAOMI WOLF: Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps
There are some things common to every state that's made the transition to fascism. Author Naomi Wolf argues that all of them are present in America today.
Alternet 5-20-2007Johnson, Chalmers; REPUBLIC OR EMPIRE? A National Intelligence Estimate on the United States; Harper's magazine; January, 2007. I love it when heavy hitters validate what I've been saying for years in the tiny Sparks Tribune.
Barlett, Donald L. and Steele, James B.; America: What Went Wrong? (1992); America: Who Really Pays the Taxes? (1994); America: Who Stole the Dream? (1996) ; Andrews & McMeel/Universal Press Syndicate.
Review of Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy:
Propaganda in the US and AustraliaThe Orwell Diversion by Alex Carey
Excerpted from the book available below
ORDER Taking the Risk Out of Democracy
Corporate Propaganda versus Freedom and Liberty
By Alex Carey
Edited by Andrew Lohrey
Foreword by Noam Chomsky
University of Illinois Press
SEE ALSO: Lapham, Lewis H.; Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, A Brief History; Harper's Magazine cover article; September, 2004, page 32.
By one conservative estimate, the corporate right has spent about $3 billion over the past three decades manufacturing public opinion to suit big business goals. Lapham's number covered the early 1970's to the present day. Alex Carey noted that by 1948, anti- New Deal corporate propaganda expenditures had already reached $100 million per year, not adjusted for inflation, for advertising alone. (Carey, ibid; page 79)
Adjusted for inflation, that 1948 $100 million becomes $801,659,751.04 in 2005 dollars.
Conservatives Help Wal-Mart, and Vice Versa
As Wal-Mart struggles to rebut growing criticism, it has discovered a reliable ally: conservative research groups.
New York Times 9-8-2006; Free registration may be required.BARBWIRE: Labor Day '94: People vs. corporate con job, 9-4-94
Chilling forecasts from Alex CareyBARBWIRE: The Nevada Republican Party Becomes Communist, 3-30-97
A prescient Plato on the dangers of oligarchyThe sands of time do not cloud the long memories of the sheiks of Araby
Barbwire 9-10-2006
Rinfret, Pierre A.; Peace is Bullish; Look magazine, 5-31-1966
Copyright © 1982-2010
Andrew Barbano
Andrew Barbano is a 41-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as second vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.
Barbwire by Barbano premiered in the Daily Sparks (Nev.) Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in those parts ever since. Tempus fugit.
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