Left Out Program Notes for November 14, 2006

Welcome to Left Out, reality-based independent radio broadcasting on WRCT 88.3FM and podcasting on the worldwide web at leftout.info. Left Out discusses the news from a perspective left out of the mainstream media. Left Out is co-hosted by Bob Harper and Danny Sleator. Today's program is produced by Matt Hornyak. Listeners are invited to call the program at (412) 268-WRCT (9728), or to send email to bob@leftout.info.

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Announcements

New to WRCT: Law and Disorder is now broadcast at 9am on Mondays after Democracy Now. This is a program about how our rights are being eroded featuring four prominent civil rights lawyers.

Also, remember to listen to Your Health, Tuesday at 6pm when we're not on. Also check out the other great public affairs programs on WRCT at 6pm Sunday and weeknights.

Guest: David Eckhardt

David teaches computer science at CMU. He's also a Judge of Elections in Mount Lebanon. And he's also been very active in an organization called VoteAllegheny.Org, which has been working to improve our elections here in Allegheny County. Primarily so far they've been trying to influence the county to purchase good voting machines. This has not happened yet. Instead the county chose ES&S iVotronic machines (paperless DREs).

Topics:

Questions for Our Listeners

  1. According to the Bush administration's reading of the New Millitary Commissions Act, how long can the Bush administration hold an immigrant to the US without charge?

    Answer: Forever.

  2. The Kyoto accord has been ratified by 163 nations, starting in 1998. Its purpose was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions grew by 0.8 per cent from 1990 to 1999. Question: How much did they grow by between 2000 and 2005?

    Answer: 3.2 percent. Read the article for the chilling details.

    One expert was quoted: "This is a very worrying sign. It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed."

    Another expert: "This is more very bad news. We need a 60 to 70 per cent cut in emissions, but instead, emission levels are spiralling out of control. The sum total of our meagre efforts to cut emissions amounts to less than zero."

    It really is looking like this humanity-destroying catastrophe is going to happen in our lifetime, or certainly within our children's lifetimes. How will this destruction of society unfold? Call and give us your scenarios.

  3. What major corporation has continued to fund PR groups that attempt to debunk global warming?

    Answer: Exxon Surpise suprise suprise.

    By the way, today's Democracy Now had an excelent piece on VNRs -- Video News Releases. These are short "news" pieces produced by for the government or corporations. They look like news. They're played on local news broadcasts. Frequently without any indication that they're coming from a corporate or government source with an agenda.

    Also, check out StopFakeNews.org for more information about VNRs and what you can do about them.

Sources

Truth Out
Common Dreams
Information Clearinghouse
Cursor
Tom Paine
The Independent
The Guardian
Consortium News


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Last modified: Tue Nov 14 23:10:20 2006