Tag Archives: Media

Business/Economics, U.S.

Media Incompetence: CNN & other main stream media keep touting no new U.S. refineries built since 1976. But oh yes Virginia, there are new refineries in the United States!

05 October 2012, once again I read a mainstream news media article about high gas prices, and they state that: “Given that a new refinery has not been built since 1976…..”-CNN/Fortune

CNN, you’re a big FAIL!  You moronic U.S. main stream media, yes, there have been new refineries built since 1976!

The information concerning new fuel refineries in the United States comes directly from the U.S. Energy Information Agency!

According to the USEIA, at least 12 refineries have been built since 1976!  The latest refinery to go online is in Douglas, Wyoming, in 2008!!!

Those 12 refineries are all ‘simple’, meaning they convert oil into fuels on the ‘first run’.  A ‘complex’ refinery uses hydrocracking (which uses the hydrogen, usually from natural gas, aka Feedstock) to squeeze more fuel out of ‘first run’ fuels.

And there are more refineries in the works (as I’ve said before, Obama is a true oil man), like the new DSO (Diesel/naptha) refinery being built 16 miles south of Williston, North Dakota!

According to Dakota Oil Processing LLC, the new Williston refinery could pump out a max of 8,000 barrels per day of ultra-low sulfur DSO (this is good news for the trucking industry, and people with efficient Diesel cars)!

Dakota Oil Processing hopes to have the refinery up and running by the end of 2013.

And it’s not just new refineries, but several older refineries that had been closed for years, have been rebuilt and restarted!

Examples: The Orion Refinery in Louisiana, upgraded and reopened in 1998.  And a refinery in Corpus Cristi, Texas, upgraded from a ‘simple’ refinery to a ‘complex’ one in 1983.

As of 01 January 2012, there are 144 operating refineries in the U.S.  However, there could be a lot more.

According to the USEIA, the oil industry has “permanently” shut down approximately 69 U.S. refineries (including Puerto Rico). The majority of those closings took place in the 1990s.

And that’s the kicker, it’s the oil industry that shut those plants down, not the government!  The website, Public Citizen, states that it’s all about getting more of your money: “…the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) concluded in March 2001 that oil companies had intentionally withheld supplies of gasoline from the market as a tactic to drive up prices—all as a ‘profit-maximizing strategy.’ A May 2004 U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) report also found that mergers in the oil industry directly led to higher prices—and this report did not even include the large mergers after the year 2000, such as ChevronTexaco and ConocoPhillips. Yet, just one week after Hurricane Katrina, the FTC approved yet another merger of refinery giants—Valero Energy and Premcor—giving Valero 13% of the national market share.  These actions, while costing consumers billions of dollars in overcharges, have not been challenged by the U.S. government.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Corporate/Government Evil: More proof Al Jazeera is the Tool of the West, yet another employee quits over pro-U.S. policies, anti-Syria reporting is a sham

“There is no independent media anymore. It is whose agenda is paying the money for the media outlet. Politicization of media means that media outlets are today like political parties. Everyone is adopting a point of view, fight for it and bring all the tools and all the means they have in order to make it reach the biggest amount of viewers.”-Ali Hashem, former Al Jazeera reporter

More proof of something I’ve suspected for a long time, Al Jazeera is a proxy for the United States.  Think about it, where did the U.S. get most of the doctored videos (and other “evidences”) of Osama bin Laden after 9/11? Al Jazeera.

Hashem quit specifically over Al Jazeera’s refusal to present unbiased accounts of what’s happening in Syria.  I’ve watched some of their reports, and they are so obviously one sided against the Syrian government, and in some cases they even demand the West attack the Syrian government.

But the resignation of Ali Hashem, involving pro-U.S. news policies, is the not the first for Al Jazeera.  In September 2011, Wadah Khanfar, News Director for Al Jazeera, resigned after WikiLeaks revealed he was doing the bidding of the U.S. government.  Also, in April 2011, Al Jazeera’s Lebanese bureau chief, Ghassan Bin Jiddo, resigned in protest of their pro-U.S./Israel news policy.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Oil & Gas Prices: Proof the Main Stream Media doesn’t have a clue

The following are headlines from the past 17 hours:

“OIL FUTURES: Crude Near Flat Ahead of Weekly Oil Data”-Fox Business

“Oil Fluctuates Before Report Projected to Show Crude Inventory Increase”-Bloomberg

“Oil Rises above $105 in Europe amid optimism US economy, demand will improve.”-Washington Post

“Oil Falls on Iran talks, economy worries”-Reuters

“Oil Slides to $106 on Global Growth Concerns”-NPR

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Media Incompetence or Complicity? Olympus not first Japanese company to lose billions, and then try to hide it. It happened before, in the 1990s, but the reporter who was about to blow the whistle was literally sent out of the country.

“If we had published the story, the result for Yamaichi shareholders and people connected with the company might have been very different.”– Shigeo Abe, investigative journalist

Right now the Olympus scandal is still making headlines in Japan.  Partly because many people find it hard to believe that a company could lose so much money on “investments” then try to cover it up with more bogus investments and company take overs.  Yet something similar happened in the mid 1990s, but then it was deliberately hushed up by the Japanese media!

In 1994 journalist Shigeo Abe, and a few other reporters, did some investigating and discovered that one of Japan’s biggest securities firms, Yamaichi, had hidden millions in losses by creating fake companies.  The deception started in 1992.

Shigeo Abe’s bosses at his newspaper didn’t jump for joy at the thought of having such a scandalous story, instead they ordered him to leave the country! (shimanagashi, the feudal practice of sending political troublemakers away)

“The Yamaichi president had called the Nikkei president and pressured him to not run it. He said: ‘If we go bankrupt it will cause chaos in the economy.’ And that was that.”– Shigeo Abe, investigative journalist

He was gone for three years.  It was at the end of that three years that Yamaichi Securities finally went bankrupt, despite the story not being published (there’s a lesson for you who believe in the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” philosophy). Japanese taxpayers got stuck with a debt bill equal to several million U.S. dollars (not to mention the huge losses for stockholders).

Shigeo Abe says what is going on with Olympus is similar. He said the Japanese media knew Olympus was in trouble at least one year before it was reported (guess who reported it first?).  He says nothing in the mainstream media is reported without official consent from the government or corporations: “There are no real scoops in Japanese newspapers. They are almost always authorized leaks.”

As a former TV news producer (six years), I can say the same applies to the mainstream U.S. media.

What happened to Shigeo Abe? He decided that the mainstream media is totally ineffective so he create an independent magazine called FACTA (not to be confused with the so called Fair and Accurate Credit Reporting Act). It was his 100% subscriber supported magazine that revealed the Olympus scandal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S.

Media Favoritism & Incompetence: CNN caught doctoring their interview with Ron Paul. Intentionally brow beat him, regardless of his answers, inorder to discredit him

“I understand. It’s how the system works.”-Ron Paul, as he walks off interview, letting CNN’s Gloria Borger know that he’s figured out CNN’s anti-Ron Paul agenda

CNN recently aired an interview with Ron Paul, in which they claim he stormed off after getting upset about their questions.  However, the unedited interview made it on the internet and shows that CNN was deliberately trying to upset him.

Wolf Blitzer sets up the manipulated interview by confirming with CNN’s chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, that Ron Paul has been contentious towards their questions.

But even in the edited interview you can hear Ron Paul trying to make the point that’s he’s answered the very same CNN questions before, in fact for years they’ve asked him the same questions.  See it here.

Blitzer and Borger then continue their banter by accusing Paul of running “negative” ads, never mind that Mitt Romney has run the most negative ads so far.

They go back to the interview, where Paul explains that he’s simply showing the track record of Newt Gingrich, and doesn’t consider that negative.  Paul actually criticizes CNN because the media should have been revealing to the public the behavior of politicians!

The unedited interview shows that Paul did his best to answer their questions. It’s clear that the interviewer, Borger, has a personal agenda, and Ron Paul finally figures it out and cuts the interview short, storming off.  See it, and the whole eight and a half minute interview, here.

The look on Borger’s face is interesting, as Ron Paul leaves.  Almost like someone who’s successfully accomplished a covert mission.

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? New York Times sells off 16 regional newspapers to sinister foreign company, hundreds of layoffs planned

“The sale of our Regional Media Group will enable The New York Times Company to continue our transformation to a multi-platform media company and further sharpen our focus on the development of our brands nationally, globally and in the northeastern U.S.”-New York Times, memo to employees

The New York Times has been in business since 1851, it even survived the Great Depression, now it has sold off its Regional Media Group to raise much needed cash!  But was it for economic reasons?

Late December 27, the New York Times announced it made a deal to sell Regional Media Group to Halifax Media Holdings (aka Halifax Media Group), for $143 million in cash.

Regional Media Group consists of 16 regional newspapers and other related businesses.  Those newspapers and other publishing businesses are spread from the southeastern U.S. to California.

Halifax Media Holdings is reportedly a foreign company, but is listed as based in Florida. The State of Florida’s Division of Corporations says Halifax Media Holdings didn’t register with them until October 2009.  Since the news of the deal was first leaked last week, Halifax Media Holdings removed their website from the internet (website was listed as Halifax Media Group)!

Even though the State of Florida shows Halifax Media registering in October 2009, the Daytona Beach News Journal (owned by Halifax Media) claims the corporation was founded in 2010: “Founded in 2010, Halifax Media is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. The company’s investment group includes Stephens Capital Partners LLC, Jaarsss Media, and Redding Investments. Halifax’s strategy is to invest long-term capital in quality companies positioned in strong markets that are closely connected to the community.”  

The various forms of company names using ‘Halifax Media’ in the title adds to the sinisterness.  There is also a Halifax Media Co-op in Nova Scotia, Canada, which began in February 2009.  It claims to be part of a grassroots socialist media movement started by The Dominion News Cooperative in 2003.

The Dominion News Cooperative does not have any corporate headquarters, they are decentralized and operate ‘guerrilla’ style.  They claim to be anti-corporation which would make them unlikely to be part of the Halifax Media Group.  However their stated purpose of conducting media operations at grass roots level is similar to the Halifax Media Group’s desire to take over media operations “…that are closely connected to the community.”

Whether or not Halifax Media Holdings (aka Halifax Media Group, aka Halifax Media Acquisition) is connected to Halifax Media Co-op, it’s interesting that since 2009 (when Halfax Media Co-op started in Canada) this secretive, possibly foreign controlled corporation, has been quietly buying up U.S. newspaper publishers.

Halifax Media has also given warning to the hundreds of employees of Regional Media Group.  The Atlantic published an article with the full New York Times memo to its employees, which include statements like:“…you will be notified within the next 48 hours whether the buyer will be offering you employment. The New York Times Company has not been involved in that decision.”

Also, in the official New York Times memo, company officials stated they did not put Regional Media Group up for sale, it was Halifax Media that came to them demanding to buy it: “While it [the sale of Regional Media Group] was not planned, we were approached by Halifax Media Holdings LLC.”

Mmmm

 

International, U.S.

Government Incompetence & Word War 3: Iran & Lebanon capture dozens of U.S. spies. CIA official says Lebanon’s spies better than the old KGB. This happened back in June, U.S. media just now talking about it, may be part of plan to justify war with Iran.

“Hezbollah’s security is as good as any in the world’s. It’s the best. It’s better than that of the KGB.”-Bob Baer, former CIA operations officer

“Beirut station is out of business.”-unnamed CIA official

Call it a major set back for the United States, in their espionage of Iran and Lebanon.  The U.S. media says more than a dozen undercover agents working for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were caught.  Iranian media say it was at least 30 spies in Iran, and at least 42 in other countries!  To show you how incompetent our government has become, CIA officials learned of the espionage catastrophe while watching an Iran Today newscast.

Normally U.S. officials always play down anything reported by the Iranian media, but this time CIA officials say the info presented was hardcore CIA tactics, the Iranians could only know about it because they did indeed catch the undercover spies.

ABC News quoted a U.S. official as calling the situation an “occasional setback”.  During the Cold War this would have been a major embarrassment, to say the least!

The Iranian program that reported the U.S. spy disaster is called Iran Today, it’s presented by the news service PressTV. According to Iranian media the arrests of the U.S. paid spies began back in May!  In Lebanon, Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, announced the arrest of several spies working for the CIA back in June!

You can watch the two Iran Today programs here and here.

But arrests of spies in Lebanon actually go back to April 2009, when hundreds of spies were arrested, many working for Israel’s Mossad.  Where was the U.S. media then?

ABC News has been reporting that most of the spies were executed.  Since the U.S. is now ‘blind’ in Lebanon and Iran, the only way U.S. officials can assume their undercover agents are dead, is because their actions resulted in the deaths of Iranians and Lebanese.

According to Iranian media, spies who’re not connected to the death of one of their citizens will be sentenced to hard labor.  Only if they are found to have been involved with the assassination, or killing, of a citizen would they be executed.  If you’ve paid attention to news from Iran you’d know that many Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in the past few years, as well as many seemingly random explosions that have killed Iranian civilians.

Why is the U.S. media now running with this story?  Could it be that the failed FBI sting operation, that was presented as an attempted Iranian assassination of a Saudi Arabian official, has failed to rouse enough support for war with Iran, so now the Obama administration has decided to somehow use this major CIA FAIL to generate support for war with Iran?

 

 

 

 

 

Idaho, Opinion, U.S.

United Police States of America: Idaho bars media from executions, violating Federal rules

“To determine whether lethal injection executions are fairly and humanely administered, or whether they ever can be, citizens must have reliable information about the ‘initial procedures’ which are invasive, possibly painful and may give rise to serious complications.”-9th U.S. Circuit Court,  2002 ruling

On November 18, Idaho will execute a man using lethal injection, for the first time.

Attorney’s have protested saying lethal injection has been proven to be inhumane.

Now, the Idaho Department of Correction is barring all the media, in full violation of the Federal court’s ruling, from witnessing the execution: “The procedures were developed so that we would preserve the dignity of the offender.”-Jeff Ray, Idaho Department of Correction

Can you say: Bull Crap on that?   “Preserve the dignity” of a guy convicted of killing three people in three separate incidents, my ass!  Prison officials don’t give a rat’s ass about prisoners’ dignity, there’s plenty of evidence of that!  More like keep the fact that lethal injection has turned out to be a highly painful way to die (it’s described as similar to people who are undergoing operations, and are fully conscious, and can feel everything yet can’t move or talk, even though the doctors think they’re under the effects of anesthesia).  Some witnesses to lethal injection executions say they could see the convict crying after the injections had taken effect.

Several other groups have been barred as well.  The American Civil Liberties Union is also protesting.  The Associated Press is joining almost all of Idaho’s major media organizations in official protest.  Idaho officials claim the Federal Court ruling applies only to California.

I still say a bullet to the head is the fastest most humane way to execute someone.

Business/Economics, International

United Police Kingdom: British Bobbies demand reporters hand over all video of recent riots

Scotland Yard is demanding all media outlets in London turn over video of riots.

The bobbies say it will help them arrest even more people, as if the video from the thousands of city surveillance cameras isn’t enough.  Even British Prime Minister David Cameron wants the media to give in.

The bobbies are asking for all “unpublished” videos and pics.  Here’s the thing, the media has published lots and lots of video and pics that clearly show looters’ faces, so why do the bobbies need more?

“They act almost like they are above the law. They have got 40,000 hours of CCTV footage to go through. And it seems to me they are getting bored with that and are trying to co-opt the press in Britain [into being] evidence gatherers for the police.”-Tony Gosling, investigative journalist

 

International

United Police Kingdom: Right Wing Controlled Media lied about official inquiry, Independent Police Complaints Commission forced to restate that Police did the only shooting, video of police beating 16 year old girl

Because of incorrect reporting, by the mainstream right wing controlled media, of the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s initial conclusions about the shooting, that led to the English riots, the commission has restated that the police were the only ones who fired their weapons.

There was no exchange of gunfire, as the right wing media continues to report: “Any reference to an exchange of shots was not correct and did not feature in any of our formal statements, although an officer was taken to hospital after the incident.”-latest IPCC statement

The commission also stated that any shots that hit police, came from police.  They pointed out that the police radio that was hit, was hit by a jacketed police issue bullet.

The right wing media has also been reporting that police claim the shooting victim had a pistol that was illegally converted to fire live ammo.  As I reported earlier, the Independent Police Complaints Commission said there is no evidence the victim shot at police, and that he was not armed!

The commission stated in its latest press conference, that the pistol police claim to have belonged to the shooting victim, was no where near the scene of the shooting.

The riots started after a a crowd of about 200 people gathered to protest he shooting.  A 16 year old girl approached the line of police officers and was beaten by them (right wing reports say she attacked police).  That’s when the peaceful protesters went violent.

There’s video on YouTube, it’s a little dark, but you can hear someone yelling at the British Bobbies that they’re beating a “F**cking girl!”.  Of interest is that YouTube has been blocking some earlier posts of the video, as “potentially offensive” even though it’s hard to see what’s happening in the video.