Guest: Journalist Adele Stan
Happy President’s Day and welcome back from the weekend. And what a weekend it was in the US and around the world. The workers are rising against the plutocrats as there were 100,000 people filling the streets in Madison, WI, with more protests in cities across the country – people are finally fighting back against the ongoing austerity.
Breaking News: WI Governor will not compromise.
Around 400 Tea Partiers showed up in Madison, WI to counter-protest and Andrew Breitbart was there to claim the protesters are anarchists and are now engaged in a civil war. (Here’s the clip, but be careful, it links to Breitbart’s website. Make sure you have all your inoculations.)
Scott Walker’s budget delayed (a lot of up-to-date information is at this link also).
Are state employees really responsible for this crisis?
Big news over the weekend in Libya also. At least 500 people were reportedly killed as protests grow against Muammar Gaddafi’s 40-year rule. Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, said that the protesters were just tribal factions or drunken or drugged Islamists acting on their own agendas and if the protesting did not stop soon there is going to be civil war (sounds like some Tea Partier leader in Madison… Go figure).
Sam welcomes AlterNet’s Washington bureau chief Adele Stan to the show. She discusses how the billionaire Koch brothers are using Wisconsin as a battleground to break labor’s back. She explains that this attack is less about bringing down public workers and more about breaking the unions.
Listen to the interview with Adele Stan
David Gregory makes an ass out of himself falling for Chris Christie’s BS regular guy act.
And as we warned you last week today is the first day the Members Only Show is sequestered and only available to Majority Report Members. If you are not a member you missed Sam discuss some Creation Museum stories, a little behind the scenes on some of Sam’s movies and a few more news stories that did not fit in the free show. Become a member today so you don’t miss an extra 45 minutes of MR!
11:14 am
Good morning!
Message to Wisconsin –
http://politicallyme.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/a-message-to-wisconsin/
(Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I will have time to throw together a proper video)
11:32 am
Wanna participate in The Majority Report?
===> check this out <===
11:33 am
Shared sacrifice…. Ha!, more like one of the Kock brothers saying, “Heads, I win; tails, you lose!”
11:43 am
AndrewKroll Andy Kroll
RT @evale72: On daily rundown walker now even objecting to ideas from R senators, he’s getting quite out on a ledge. #wiunion
AndrewKroll Andy Kroll
On Fri, @GovWalker: “Collective bargaining is fully intact” in bill. PolitiFact’s verdict: “Pants on fire.” http://bit.ly/gKuAw5 #wiunion
11:44 am
AndrewKroll Andy Kroll
RT @rortybomb: @GovWalker’s bill allows him to sell state energy assets with no-bids: wp.me/phuIc-2fz Good for Koch bros @wiunion
11:55 am
Wow! There really *is* a ton of stuff hidden in that bill.
11:47 am
Good morning, everybody!
Can someone tell me the name of the song Sam has been playing at the end of most shows? Thank you.
11:48 am
AFLCIO AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO Now Blog | Indiana Working Families Jam the State Capitol http://bit.ly/fYPsfX #StateSOS #INunion #SolidarityWI #WIunion
11:49 am
dailykos Daily Kos
Wisconsin, Ohio public employees are not overpaid http://bit.ly/dWgabK
11:57 am
Just had to watch MSNBC’s program (Jansing & Co) declare that public employees are paid much more than “their private counterparts.” No qualifications, no explanation of the numbers. And this was MSNBC, so I hate to imagine how this is all being spun on Faux News.
11:51 am
RT_America RT America
Tom Morello (@tmorello) to play for #Wisconsin protesters http://ow.ly/40ruJ Tom Morello interview with RTAmerica [VIDEO] http://ow.ly/40rj1
11:59 am
nicolesandler Nicole Sandler
RT @peterrothberg: New from StudentNation: The Future of Public Education, as Much as Unions, Is at Stake in #WI http://bit.ly/fZ1IBN #p2
The Rethugs want to give vouchers for education now. Build up those private schools so people have to pay for all education and if you can’t afford it…no schooling!
11:59 am
Protest Events around the country…
http://action.seiu.org/page/s/solidarityaction
They say they’re updating the list as new events are organized.
12:12 pm
Howdy and question – does anyone have the sammy cam on their member’s only page – I am logged in but don’t. ? – those of you who are members…thanks for answers in advance
12:17 pm
The Sammy Cam IS on the Members Page,
for me.
You have to click Sammy Cam within the black menu bar
at the top.
12:26 pm
I logged out and am still getting the video, and audio streams.
So It must be for the downloadable podcast.
12:43 pm
Ditto what JMach said, above.
I’m logged in as a member, and the ‘SammyCam(tm)!’ is on the black menu bar, third item from the left, and *did* take me to the SammyCam page.
12:24 pm
How do you feel about Gov. Walker’s plan for the public workers’ unions?
Gov. Scott Walker wants to help fix state finances by cutting benefits for union workers and wiping away their ability to negotiate over anything but their wages, setting up a potentially explosive battle in the Capitol.
Walker is winning the poll. No surprise but give him a run for money here:
http://tinyurl.com/5twxce8
12:46 pm
My brother, who lives outside Milwaukee, refers to that paper as ‘The Urinal Sentinel.’ And those poll choices demonstrate why.
12:26 pm
Did you catch the irony? You and your guest talked about progressives needing large-scale funding of media outlets to broadcast our perspective; the very next sentence was about becoming an MR member so we can hear the progressive message! I need to become a member of MR, Ring of Fire, Thom Hartman, The Young Turks. . . and on and on and on. How many separate commentators can we little people support so we get to hear liberal points of view? You don’t see the right making individuals pay to hear their vitriol–they spew it for free day and night. No wonder their lies permeate our culture.
12:44 pm
That’s because they own all the media right now. Until there is a real progressive media that has advertisers paying for it someone has to pay. I understand your point and it IS valid but these people have to earn a living too and it’s better than nothing right now.
12:49 pm
I think Sam would agree with your view, considering how long he hung with Air America. But Sam and others are doing what they can, in the space that’s left for them, to try to get a message out.
12:52 pm
p.s. But let’s be clear…
Sam is both providing a free podcast, minus the members-only “confidential” bonus, as well as continually letting listeners know that he’s willing to work with them if they are truly unable to afford a membership subscription.
I’d say Sam’s definitely doing what one man can.
1:21 pm
No argument there. I commend Sam and the others for doing their part and don’t blame them for the situation. I’m just saying that until the progressive message is unavoidable whenever you tune in to TV, radio, the internet, then the right has a distinct advantage, because you’ll never get the kind of audience they do when you’re asking each person to pay. Advertisers–definitely, but also rich patrons who don’t care about making a profit on the shows per se.
2:11 pm
As long as they spread their message of fear and hate, the’ll always have more media. Fear sells. Fox News is so big because it plays on people’s fear or hate.
But your suggestion that Sammy or any other podcaster are somehow being unfair or not furthering the progressive message by asking people to pay for content has no basis in fact. Go listen to Rush Limbaugh online. Oh wait, he charges. How about Glen Beck? Nope he charges too. It costs money to produce content.
8:51 pm
Sorry about that. I misspoke out of my own ignorance. I assumed they didn’t charge because they have advertisers, and I’ve heard Murdick didn’t care if his shows made a profit. His real payoff comes when listeners drink Beck’s and Limbaugh’s kool aid and vote against their own interests to elect people who work for the corporations. I’m actually surprised to learn they charge people to listen. Thanks for the correction.
2:18 pm
Wait a second… that was Bieberbart speaking. I thought it was some old lady. I have nothing against old ladies, but he needs to see a throat specialist.
2:37 pm
Amazing that Breitbart is going on about Anarchists.
Isn’t that what the Tea Party is? No government is good government?
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3:02 pm
i’m delighted to see new people posting here.
welcome to the blog gang.
ultimately we are the media.
8:01 pm
Two Pennsylvania judges get $2.9M in kickbacks for sending juveniles to privatized prisons.
http://www.workers.org/2011/us/kids-for-cash_0224/
“To keep the private centers busy, for over five years they handed down harsh sentences to nearly 4,000 children as young as 10, largely for minor offences.”