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April 2007 Articles
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DV Articles
November 2003
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While Kent State and
Virginia Tech are venues of physical assault on students, almost no one is
aware of the myriad levels on which, in other venues and without the
spilling of blood, students are being massacred. Carolyn Baker discusses
the crushing load of skyrocketing student debt, the scandal-plagued
student loan industry, the de-emphasis on critical thinking and logic in
favor of standardized testing (the massacre of minds), and what this bodes
for the future of today's young generation and the nation......
AIPAC and the Anti-War Movement: Missing
in Action?
It is becoming clear, if it ever wasn’t, that the Democratic Congress does not have what it takes to end the war in Iraq, or to stop any escalation that the Bush administration might contemplate. Congress will not cut funding. Congress will not even expressly forbid Bush to attack Iran. All the major Democratic presidential hopefuls have taken mushy, watered down nominally anti-war positions, but essentially endorse the indefinite continuation of U.S. military presence in Iraq. Obama, Clinton and Edwards are even more hawkish on Iran than Bush is. If any of them gets elected in 2008, he or she is set to continue and possibly escalate the conflict. Why do the Democrats so brazenly ignore their base? According to Paul Krugman, Democrats are “off base” because they are haunted by unreasonable and outdated fears and do not grasp that the electorate would welcome a firmer anti-war stance. Krugman is the one who is off base. The Democrats read the same poll data as everyone else. They do not listen to their base because their first commitment is to their donors and the interests of the corporate kleptocracy to which they belong. Far from being spineless, their continuing disregard for the wishes of their grassroots is evidence of nerves of steel.....(full article)
Rick Anderson, a reporter for Seattle Weekly, opens his book, Home Front: The Government’s War on Soldiers, by referring to then US Secretary of Defense [sic] Donald Rumsfeld’s jaw-dropping rant about Vietnam draftees “adding no value, no advantage” to the US forces. This rant belongs with the government sentiment expressed toward soldiers previously by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who considered them to be “dumb, stupid animals,” mere pawns to achieve oligarchic aims abroad. Why would anyone expect a regime that shows no care or compassion for the lives of others to show compassion for its soldiers? President George W. Bush does not even deign to pay last respects for fallen US soldiers. Bush’s administration even charged combat troops in Afghanistan for their meals while hospitalized. But Bush had made clear who his constituency was: the haves. But Bush pushes cuts to the Veterans Affairs staff and an increase in cemeteries, to which Anderson sardonically quips, “Apparently, in a Superpower, you can never have too many boneyards.”......(full article)
On Thursday, the mainstream media took up the question that we unwashed Vinnies (I hereby proudly adopt Brian Williams’ contemptuous term for unpaid, solo bloggers) have been asking since Day One: What is the responsibility of the authorities (Virginia Tech and the State of Virginia) in this tragic business? According to some people that question is off-limits. How can you be so lacking in compassion, someone asked me. I guess because I'm too busy feeling compassion for the poor kids who got blown to bits -- and for their families -- to waste too much sympathy on guilt-or-angst-or-litigation-induced pangs among bureaucrats. Had Virginia Tech’s bosses been CEOs, I doubt whether progressives would be so sympathetic. Bottom line is people at the top of organizations are paid a lot of money to take responsibility to see that things like this don’t take place. And so far, I haven’t see anyone stepping down from their posts -- which in the old days would be de rigeur. One would assume that that would be the first act of individuals prone to taking responsibility for their actions.....(full article)
Many days after the mass killings at Virginia Tech, grisly stories about the tragedy still dominated front pages and cable television. News of carnage on a vastly larger scale -- the war in Iraq -- ebbs and flows. The overall coverage of lethal violence, at home and far away, reflects the chronic evasions of the American media establishment. In the world of US mainline journalism, the boilerplate legitimacy of official American violence overseas is a routine assumption. “The first task of the occupation remains the first task of government: to establish a monopoly on violence,” George Will wrote on April 7, 2004, in the Washington Post. But three years later, his Newsweek column laments: “Vietnam produced an antiwar movement in America; Iraq has produced an antiwar America.” Current polls and public discourse -- in spite of media inclinations to tamp down authentic anger at the war -- do reflect an “antiwar America” of sorts. So, why is the ghastly war effort continuing unabated? A big factor is the undue respect that’s reserved for American warriors in American society......(full article)
Recently, a friend moved to the US from China. She had never seen the Tiananmen Square demonstrations, including that famous scene of the lone demonstrator standing in front of the Chinese tank. I thought how amazing that a billion people can be kept ignorant of something so important. Then, a week after the events described below, I saw an amazing video about a peaceful demonstration in Tacoma, WA that turned violent when police opened fire with tear gas and firing rubber bullets at close range on the demonstrators. The video, one of many, showed how extreme the militarism of the United States had become. It has also shown how the establishment media does not cover all the news; indeed, sometimes the most important news is not covered at all. As far as I know, the video was never shown on CNN, MSNBC or any of the major networks -- hundreds of millions of Americans were kept ignorant of what occurred. Would seeing the videos of such aggressive police action have enlightened Americans about the militarization of our country? In an effort to expand knowledge about this event I interviewed Caitlin Esworthy, a resident of Olympia, WA, who participated in the demonstrations. She is a student at The Evergreen State College, a member of Port Militarization Resistance of Olympia and the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace. These are two of the four organizations involved in this project. The others were Students for a Democratic Society and United for Peace, Pierce County. Descriptions of the organizations and their contact information follow after the end of the interview......(full article)
In a February 2007 press release, Abraxis BioScience reported record revenue of $765 million in 2006 versus $521 million for 2005. They made that money selling a new version of an old cancer drug at $4,200 per dose. That new drug is called Abraxane and it has pushed Abraxis BioScience stock from $5 in 2002 to $27 in 2007. The lofty stock price has made Abraxis CEO and Chairman, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong a billionaire; Dr. Soon-Shiong owns 84 percent of the stock, today worth about $3.8 billion. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has been criticized for hyping his research results and he has been accused of ripping off investors. Even his own brother, an early backer, sued him for fraud and fired him -- twice -- from the company they started. Their fight lasted two years and destroyed their relationship. But in the end, it is Dr. Soon-Shiong who has prevailed. Today, Dr. Soon-Shiong is making money hand over fist. After all, his “new” drug costs 25 times more than an older, generic version (paclitaxel). There is, however, little difference between the new drug and older therapy; in fact, they both use the same active molecule. The only difference is that in Abraxane paclitaxel is bound to a protein, to make it easier to inject. And Abraxane doesn’t help patients live longer than the old, generic, version of the drug.....(full article)
Is the questioning of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales evidence that the Democratic Party leadership is finally scrutinizing the Bush administration? Or does it provide a useful illusion to distract from the Democrats' continued failure to raise questions about long-standing, deeper issues? (full article)
Since February 26, the Cucapa Tribe in El Mayor, Baja California has organized an historic Zapatista peace camp to defend their fishing rights against harassment and intimidation by the Mexican government on the Colorado River Delta. The idea for the camp originated during a visit by Subcommandante Marcos, spokesman for the EZLN (Zapatista Army of National Liberation), to El Mayor during the Zapatista “Otra Campana” (Other Campaign) in October 2006. “We have decided to send an urgent message to the Mexicans and Chicanos north of the Rio Grande to come in order to maximize the number of people here, create a safe space, and protect the Cucapa and Kiliwa community during the fishing season,” said Marcos, also known as “delegado zero,” in announcing the initiation of the camp after a meeting with the Cucapa and Kiliwa community leaders......(full article)
It's not double standards, it's no standards
at all. The world has let scofflaw Morocco ride roughshod over
international law and the UN Charter. It helps to have friends! Their
territory split by a huge wall built at enormous expense, an occupied Arab
population suffers under police raids and arbitrary imprisonment while the
occupiers try to swamp the territories with settlers from their own
population. In response, the locals are beginning an intifada, but face a
much larger, better-equipped military force, the beneficiary of
substantial overseas aid. Refugees living in camps are refused the right
to return to their homes. Despite clear decisions of the International
Court of Justice and the UN Security Council, the occupiers hedge whenever
it comes down to the question of a peace settlement that grants
independence even when American emissaries try to nudge them towards
serious talks. Welcome to Western Sahara, the occupation that admittedly
has lasted only three decades compared with Israel's occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza, but which has excited much less media interest.....
In
Part 1
of this Cogitation, I suggested that we are often plagued by uncontrolled
thoughts, and asked if it might be possible to train our minds and bring
them under greater control. Before turning to possible solutions, it’s
worth considering how our society trains us to seek happiness in a
particular direction, and to understand the power of this
conditioning.....
If you plan on celebrating this Earth Day, April 22, by taking a short shower, wearing a “Save Our Oceans” T-shirt, riding a bus or a bike instead of driving a car, collecting recyclable cans, and chowing down on fried chicken or cheeseburgers -- such as I used to do -- you may be doing more harm than good. If you want to green the planet, start by greening your diet. All the recycling in the world can’t undo the environmental damage done by animal agriculture.....(full article)
Two years ago, anyone who wrote about the housing bubble was dismissed as a conspiracy nut. Now hardly a day goes by that the headlines aren’t splattered with the details of the massive meltdown in the real estate market. What changed? The facts are essentially the same today as they were back then. In fact, the Economist -- as well as many independent journalists -- had already shown that the Fed’s low interest rates had inflated the biggest equity bubble in history, which could potentially bring down the entire economy. Now, all of a sudden, the media is acting as if the problem sprouted up overnight? Why? The notion that the media was unaware of what was going on is ridiculous. The business pages in America’s newspapers are written by some of the country’s “best and brightest”; most of them have MBAs that they earned at our finest universities. Is it possible that they were oblivious to the trillions of dollars that were funneled into the real estate market to unqualified loan applicants? Or that they didn’t know that the rising prices had no relation with GDP, increases in wages or productivity. Is it possible that some of our best-educated business prognosticators don’t understand the effects of low interest rates or the speculative bubbles they naturally create? (full article)
Now that we know that the massacre at Virginia Tech (33 dead and 22 injured) was perpetrated -- apparently -- by a South Korean male, Cho-Seung Hui, rather than a black one, people might at last let up on the hip-hop industry as the chief and only architect of the pervasive violence of American culture. Oh, sorry, someone already has. Maybe in deference to the upcoming April 20 anniversary of the Columbine high school shootings -- which the popular press inaccurately pinned on the video game “Doom,” Marilyn Manson and the Goth culture -- Florida attorney Jack Thompson has already concluded that it’s the electronic game industry that’s to be blamed. Now, a good argument can be made that video games, and indeed every piece of electronic entertainment, has an impact on the human psyche qualitatively different from that of the print media, but there is no evidence yet that, whatever role they played at Columbine, they had any part to play here. But God forbid that the words “we don’t know” should ever come out of the mouths of the popular press.....(full article)
I just received a detailed and thoughtful letter from a reader of my recent book, Capers in the Churchyard. The letter is signed by Ava Barcelona, who’s with a Chicago-based group called Action Volunteers for Animals. Barcelona examines the book’s critique of militant and undercover actions against industries that use animals, its endorsement of vegan education over coercive acts, and its emphasis on integrity in activism -- that is, its call for activists to integrate their vision into their methods, and model the kind of respectful society we’re hoping to bring about. Inspiring people to consider fundamental lifestyle changes is difficult, unspectacular, and patient work. Suggest a vegan lunch at your next progressive book reading, green gathering, or anti-war meeting and you’ll see for yourself. Barcelona insists, however, that asking people to give up their medicines may well be harder than asking them to give up their meat. So how do vegan campaigns address the reality that people will buy and use drugs whose market-worthiness is proved through animal testing? (full article)
It took almost a week to generate "public outrage" about the remarks that Don Imus and producer Bernard McGuirk made about the Rutgers Women's basketball team. In that same week the media consistently reported that three white lacrosse players from Duke University were found innocent of the charges against them. It's true that the charges of rape/sexual assault against the three white Duke players have been dropped, but they are not innocent of either misogynist or racist acts. After all, these young men whom, I suspect, like most young white men of their class have very little social interaction with black people or, at least, little social interaction with black people of vastly different class and circumstances, hired these young black women from the other side of the tracks to dance at their party. The two women hired to dance agree on this: the players subjected them to racial and sexist abuse. And, let’s not forget that after Ms. Roberts’ accusations became public, a number of women on the Duke Campus came forward to say that they believed her because they, and other women they knew, had been assaulted as well......(full article)
When I had cable, I found myself using CNN
as a kind of background music, deluding myself that I could tune out the
nonsense and tune in when something important came up, and thus, I
thought, I was staying “informed.” But after a while I realized that I was
not informed; I was simply distracted by side-show stories, and lulled by
the repetitiveness of dull reporting. I also found that, like a junkie, I
needed a bigger and bigger “fix” to keep me going, to excite me, to make
me feel connected to the bigger world. But a couple of years ago, I gave
up cable and reclaimed a morsel of my sanity. Thus, I got the news about
the slaughter at Virginia Tech little by little during the day, gauging
the progress of the unfolding tragedy with a picture here, a sound byte
there -- much as we gauge the progress and lack thereof in Iraq......
The Pro-Israel Lobby Debate A lively and informative debate between James Petras and Norman Finkelstein on the power of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, hosted by KPFK radio's Hagit Borer......(full transcript)
If there is one bright spot in the bleak absurdity of slogging along in our new totalist American state, it is that ordinary working Americans are undisciplined as hell. We are genuine moral and intellectual slobs whose consciousness is pretty much glued onto an armature of noise, sports, sex, sugar and saturated fats. Oh, we nod toward the government bullhorns of ideology, even throw beer cans and cheer when told we are winning some war or Olympic sports event. But when it comes right down to it, we could generally give a rat's ass about government institutions and are congenitally more skeptical of government than most nations, especially nations that get things like good teeth and free higher education for their tax dollars. Surely, there are governmental facts of life no working American can escape, like the IRS, but no ordinary person is dumb enough to actually trust political parties, banks, the courts or the news media. Born with the organizational instincts and global awareness of a box turtle, we take the most torpid political path -- we call it all bullshit, pay lip service, vote occasionally, then forget about our government altogether until April 15th of the next year......(full article)
It wasn't a new study and it didn't reverse the Women's Health Initiative findings. It was a reanalysis of an existing study and it tweaked the Women's Health Initiative findings. But that didn't stop medical reporters from a new round of gee whiz journalism about HRT following an article in the April 4 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The article, "Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease by Age and Years Since Menopause," found that HRT only causes stroke and breast cancer in women under 59 -- not stroke, breast cancer and heart attack. HRT still causes stroke, breast cancer and heart attack in women over 59. And blood clots, lung cancer, colon cancer, ovarian cancer, gall bladder cancer, endometrial cancer, lupus, asthma, scleroderma, hearing loss, dementia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in all ages according to other reports. But overnight headlines like, "New Study Clears Use of Hormones for Women in Their 50s," "Review study reverses 2002 caution against HRT," and even, "HRT reduces the risk of heart disease," appeared......(full article)
Does it take much to imagine the following conversation? Hillary Clinton: I’m starved. John Edwards: Me too. What’s on the menu? Barack Obama: Same here. What’s on the table? HC: I told them to leave all Iranian options on the table. My goodness, some folks want them off the table. They want to starve us. I have said, “No option can be taken off the table.” BO: At the AIPAC dinner the Iranian options were all on the table. They looked scrumptious. The folks there were ready to feast on them. I have said, "We should take no option, including military action, off the table." JE: Me too. I went all the way to Israel and told them that I would keep the Iranian options on the table. I have said, "We need to keep all options on the table."......(full conversation)
A couple of my recent articles have directly challenged the concept of unconditional support for our (sic) troops. It should come as no surprise that this sentiment is typically greeted with unrestrained hostility. The most predictable knee-jerk reaction involves the accusation that I might hurt the "movement" by alienating soldiers and their families. Some go even further and declare that returning soldiers are doing more for the "movement" than anyone else (especially obscure writers like your truly). These critiques are flawed for many reasons.....(full article)
In the growing twilight, two dozen plump deer are grazing at the far edge of a meadow. Suddenly they look up, alert. Two humans are sneaking along the edge of the forest pretending to stalk the deer, playing a game of predator and prey. Welcome to Wild Earth. What started as a one-week campout on Vancouver Island in 1999 has grown to include more than 800 people and 75 workshops on tree-sitting techniques, blockade tactics, indigenous rights and campaigns, herbal first aid, green anarchy, and more. Operating on a shoestring budget -- in some years, no budget at all -- a few volunteers put on an event that participants call “amazing.”......(full article)
Marine Mom Tina Richards was arrested at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office on Monday, April 16, 2007. She was seeking to deliver a letter on behalf of a “Women’s Delegation for Peace” (see letter below with bios of the delegation members). The event was organized by Code Pink to welcome Congress back and urge an end to the war. Also participating were members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Vets for Peace, Voters For Peace, Iraqi Voices for Peace, Democracy Rising, Washington Peace Center, Grassroots America and other organizations and individuals. The arrest occurred in the hallway outside of the Speaker’s office as the delegation was protesting the media being forced to leave the Speaker’s office. Advocates reacted by reading the First Amendment of the Constitution, “Congress shall make no law abridging the Freedom of the Press,” and were shouting that phrase as well as urging an end to the war.....(full article)
Forget Imus. All this fuss will be just so
much wasted outrage unless we use it to direct public attention to the big
picture: the way the media information cartel has rigged journalism in
this country. We need to agitate to break up and re-regulate the media,
beginning with restoration of the fairness doctrine.....(full
article)
Straussian Exoterica
Explained Folks I know say Cheney, Bush and Wolfowitz are just natural-born liars but they’re missing the entire point. There’s nothing natural-born about it. When a neocon lies, there’s a whole damned philosophy to it. There was this Professor Leo Strauss down at the University of Chicago back in the '60s, who had it figured out that folks like you and me are too stupid to understand what's going on, so it's up to the government to lie to us for our own good. So when you go home tonight and the TV says the war in Iraq is making America safer and that America is promoting liberty around the world and the wife says well ain’t that a sweet load of crap back to the TV, you just look over and say, honey that ain’t just any old crap, that’s Straussian exoterica. If that don't impress her, I’d just like to know what will. I have taken the time to look into this subject and I will explain it. Leo Strauss was a philosopher and a big fan of Plato. Now I’m not up to speed on my Plato. I even got him mixed up with Goofy that time we took the grandkids down to Disney but the gist of Professor Strauss’ philosophy is that sometimes the government needs to hide the true nature of things from the common people, for the common good....(full article)
Though Don Imus has called them "nappy-headed hos" and agreed they are "jiggaboos," the Rutgers University women basketball players are being more gracious than he deserves. They call him "Mr. Imus." My instinct would be to fire back and say his Mama is the ho. But the Rutgers women are leading by good example, even though Imus delivered to them that bolt of lightning from which black parents have never been able to fully protect their daughters because racism and sexism are so deeply embedded -- in fact, institutionalized -- here and around the world. Imus' apologies are meaningless because he isn't singularly at fault. He grew up in America, and already, his white media buddies, both liberals and conservatives, are circling the wagons. They're arguing, as Imus has, that he was given license to call black women nappy-headed hos by misogynistic black rappers.....(full article)
For many years I considered America as my
promised land. As a young Jazz musician I was pretty convinced that sooner
or later I would end up living in NYC. My Jerusalem was Downtown Manhattan
and of course my holy scriptures were the old Blue Note vinyls. My Rabbis
were named Coltrane, Bird, Miles, Duke, Dizzy, Bill Evans and naturally,
there were many others. I was convinced of this reality for a while, and
in fact, it took time before I realized that Jazz was far more than mere
music. It took a while before I gathered that Jazz was something else,
that it was actually a form of resistance. Nowadays I realize that Jazz is
no different from Jihad, accordingly, playing Jazz is my personal Jihad. I
do grasp that some people in this room may already find my ideas
nostalgic, some may even be convinced that I am either totally deluded or
just out of my mind. I can live with it. I do realize that ‘things have
changed’, they’ve changed for you as much as they’ve changed for me. I do
realize that Jazz is not exactly a form of resistance anymore. May I
mention that America isn’t my promised land either. In fact, at the time
of writing this talk, I wasn’t even sure whether I would be allowed entry
into your country. As much as Jazz, the classical music of America, has
been a call for freedom, America is not a free place anymore. I often
argue that before liberating others, it is the American people who should
first liberate themselves. I am pretty sure that sooner or later they
will......(full article)
The Host: Apocalyptic Humor for
the 21st Century
Well, I finally got to see Korean director Joon-ho Bong's third cinematic installment, The Host (Gwoemul), his horrific and humorous ode to monsters and the working class. I have been dying to see this movie and was going to be horribly depressed and enraged if it didn't come to Tucson, where I live and go to movies. So yes, the minute it came to to town, I went to see it. How could I not? I mean, it's like Godzilla as High Art for the 21st Century. Sure it's about a slimy monster from the deep who devours a whole lot of innocent South Koreans and wreaks havoc on Seoul, but this movie is more than your run of the mill sci-fi horror fest. It's art! I mean, it made the cover of Artforum for christsakes: Not only is it art, but it's Apocalyptic Art (my favorite). But it's not your standard nihilistic apocalyptic vision. The Host is Apocalypse with a sense of humor. Besides being awesomely atmospheric, horrific, and politically scathing, The Host is funny. It's like slapstick political horror for the new millennium......(full review)
If one considers a face without wrinkles to be better-looking than one with them, than they might consider using Botox to remove any wrinkles they might have on their face. For those who know, Botox is a poison that is injected into a person's face, thereby puffing out the flesh to remove wrinkles and other lines humans usually get as they age. The ultimate result is that people look younger than they are, all thanks to the fact that they are poisoning themselves. Saul Landau's recent book, A Bush and Botox World ((Counterpunch/AK 2007), suggests that today's United States is injecting its body politic with the political and social equivalent of Botox. In other words, this country is not what those who run it would like us to think it is. The fact that it presents itself to the world as a just and democratic society that values human rights is just so much Botox in the face of the aged Empire that the US has become. Like Botox, the public relations lies not only cover up the ugliness of Washington's wars and rapaciousness, they are composed of poison that add their own element to the death the United States is creeping towards.....(full article)
“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” -- Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007)
Women are facing widespread sexual harassment and even rape by their male comrades in the military. The threat of sexual violence against female soldiers by their male colleagues is so great that women are warned not to go out to the bathroom alone at night. This has led women to stop drinking fluids at 3:00 in the afternoon and has even led to deaths due to dehydration. How common are these problems? It is difficult to tell since the military has not published a complete survey, but indications are that 80% have faced sexual harassment and 30% have been raped. This is a disgrace that should be resulting in hearings on Capitol Hill, independent investigations, policy changes and loud cries by women’s rights activists. It should be a bigger scandal than the problems at Walter Reed, but so far there is mostly silence.....(full article)
On January 24, 2003, National Guardsman Sean Baker, stationed as a military policeman at Guantanamo detention center, volunteered to be a mock prisoner, donning an orange suit and refusing to leave his cell as part of a training exercise. As planned, an Immediate Reaction Force team of MPs attempted to extract him from the cell. When he uttered the code word, "red," indicating that this was a drill and that he'd had enough, one of the MPs "forced my head down against the steel floor and was sort of just grinding it into the floor. The individual then, when I picked up my head and said, ‘Red’, slammed my head down against the floor," says Baker. "I was so afraid, I groaned out, ‘I’m a U.S. soldier.’ And when I said that, he slammed my head again, one more time against the floor. And I groaned out one more time, I said, ‘I’m a U.S. soldier.’ And I heard them say, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’" Even though, unlike if Baker had been a real prisoner, the "extraction" was called off part-way through, he was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and was left with permanent injuries, including frequent epileptic-style seizures . . . . This detention facility is one of the environments in which psychologists serve as consultants to interrogations. The American Psychological Association sees no ethical problems with psychologists serving there. We psychoanalysts know that understanding requires a historical perspective. The abuses being perpetrated on America's detainees in the War of Terror, and psychologists' roles in those abuses have a long history......(full article)
One year after the mass marches for
immigrant rights that challenged repressive legislation proposed by
congressional Republicans, the Bush administration is set to unveil harsh
new proposals to supply Corporate America with cheap and vulnerable
immigrant labor, ratchet up enforcement, and make it extremely difficult
for undocumented workers to become U.S. citizens . . . . Many in the
immigrant rights movement have looked to the new Democratic Congress to
provide an alternative to Bush and the hardliners. Instead, the Democrats
are seeking a compromise palatable to the ultra-conservatives in the
Republican Party.....(full article)
Bill McKibben, Step it Up!
This weekend will see the largest gathering of environmental activists in the US since the first Earth Day held almost 37 years ago. It may even be larger. Tens upon thousands will be assembling in all 50 states, demanding that Congress act now to reduce carbon emissions. Organizers will be asking for an 80% reduction by the middle of the century in hopes of curbing the effects of global warming. The actions, led by celebrated author Bill McKibben and his team, want our government to Step it Up! -- which is what they are calling the day’s festivities. While the organizational magnitude of McKibben’s efforts is truly astounding, one has to wonder if it all will even make a bit of difference, even if Congress takes heed. Is McKibben even calling for the right kind of measures? (full article)
The Pentagon’s most
likely next target is Iran. Hillary Clinton says “no option can be taken
off the table.” Barack Obama says that the Iranian government is “a threat
to all of us” and “we should take no option, including military action,
off the table.” John Edwards says, “Under no circumstances can Iran be
allowed to have nuclear weapons.” And: “We need to keep all options on the
table.” A year ago, writing in The New Yorker, journalist Seymour
Hersh reported: “One of the military’s initial option plans, as presented
to the White House by the Pentagon this winter, calls for the use of a
bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, against
underground nuclear sites.” For a presidential candidate to proclaim that
all “options” should be on the table while dealing with Iran is a horrific
statement. It signals willingness to threaten -- and possibly follow
through with -- first use of nuclear weapons. This raises no eyebrows
among Washington’s policymakers and media elites because it is in keeping
with longstanding U.S. foreign-policy doctrine. This year, with their
virtually identical statements about “options” and “the table,” the
leading Democratic presidential candidates -- Clinton, Obama and Edwards
-- have refused to rule out any kind of attack on Iran. If you’re not
shocked or outraged yet, consider this....(full
article)
We Join Kilgore Trout in Mourning: Kurt
Vonnegut Moves On It was 1972. I was a junior in high school. A number of my friends and I were sitting in the audience at the Amerika Haus in Frankfurt am Main, Germany waiting for the speaker to appear. A few minutes after 8:00pm, a gray-haired man who looked a little like Mark Twain in the shadowy light of the stage sauntered out. "Good evening," he began. He arranged his drink on the podium. Then he leaned the top half of his lanky frame on the podium's wooden top. Kurt Vonnegut's court was in session for the night. I don't recall everything he talked about that evening, but do recall that he spoke rather critically about the nature of young people. It was his belief at the time that they were too interested in the short term solution. Hence their fascination with mood modifiers like LSD and other psychedelics. Unknown to us in the audience at the time, Kurt Vonnegut's son Mark was being institutionalized for a bout of some kind of mental illness. Mark wrote in his book about the experience that it was probably brought on because of psilocybin mushrooms. Like good kids, we sat there taking the scolding from this man who was as old as our fathers, only a lot hipper......(full article)
As the media fills with whimsical good-byes to one of America's greatest writers, lets not forget one of the great engines driving this wonderful man---he HATED war. Including this one in Iraq. And he had utter contempt for the men who brought it about. Kurt Vonnegut was a divine spark of liberating genius for an entire generation. His brilliant, beautiful, loving and utterly unfettered novels helped us redefine ourselves in leaving the corporate America in the 1950s and the Vietnam war that followed. Having seen the worst of World War II from a meatlocker in fire-bombed Dresden, Kurt's Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, cut us the intellectual and spiritual slack to seek out a new reality. It took a breathtaking psychic freedom to merge the interstellar worlds he created from whole cloth with the social imperatives of a changing age. It was that combination of talent, heart and liberation that gave Vonnegut a cutting edge he never lost......(full article)
Beit Arabiya is the name of the home of Salim and Arabiya Shawamreh, a family of nine whose home has been demolished four times. Any day now, the Civil Administration, Israel's military government over the Occupied Territories, could order the home demolished for the fifth time. The Shawamreh home in the village of Anata, in the West Bank but just meters over the Jerusalem municipal boundary, has become the symbol of the Palestinian struggle against Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian homes -- and of resistance to the Occupation in general.....(full article)
Don Imus and his ilk are the price you pay
for living in a freewheeling democracy. If you want your media and speech
regulated by authority figures, move to some despotic country of your
choosing. Sharpton speaks of regulating the public airwaves, as though he
comprises the public itself. As hard as it is to believe, some people
enjoy Don Imus and his brand of racist-grandpa humor. That’s their right,
whether you agree with it or not. Although Don Imus is most likely a
racist, this was not an instance of racism. No action was taken; Imus
didn’t deny these girls a loan; he didn’t banish them to the back of the
bus. He insulted them, plain and simple. In my experience, it’s probably
best to let insults roll off your back. If not, you’ll spend the whole of
your life being offended. Shouldn’t a full time college student have more
important things to worry about than what some walking corpse has to say
on a radio program that they most likely didn’t listen to in the first
place? (full article)
Imus and Lady Hoopsters
Don
Imus definitely picked the wrong team to call “nappy-headed hos.” And now,
amazingly, the infamous radio personality is paying for it and losing his
gig. It was 1980 when Coach Vivien Stringer, then coach at the
African-American school,
What Don Imus said on the airwaves was offensive, no question. But for decades now we have been interpreting free speech laws to extend to coarse, offensive language -- even when it’s without noticeable value as political or religious speech. Why make an example of one man at the expense of principle and consistency? (full article)
What Don Imus did isn't unusual. Shock jocks, national and local, habitually make racist remarks and sexually humiliating comments about women -- as "jokes". I always wonder why these guys are so oblivious to minimal standards of courtesy. Is it that they really think that only white men, like themselves, deserve basic respect? Or, is it that making degrading comments about people of color and women is their attempt to "put THOSE people BACK in their place"? As a woman, I'm absolutely clear that when men talk about women in disgusting ways, it communicates not only hostility, but also has another message: "You think you're equal -- but, you're still just p--sy." Even today, some long for the old hierarchy, where white men were privileged in every situation. Now, they have to share the field with the rest of us. Some point out that African-Americans use the 'N-word" and "ho" is hip hop vernacular -- as if that gets Imus off the hook. It doesn't.....(full article)
Now that NBC has shlocked shock jock Don Imus, I can think of a number of great job opportunities for this trash-talking racist/sexist/anti-Semitic S.O.B. Here are the jobs I think Imus would be great for from best to worst...(full list of available jobs)
When British marines were captured by the Iranians, we were told they were in Iraqi waters, as though that was completely natural. Several thousand miles from their own country, sailing an area subject to border dispute, their captain having told British TV that they might be picking up intelligence about Iran; nothing unusual there. Especially for an arrogant former imperial power reduced to snuggling up to the USA and acting as its junior partner in arousing hatred for the western world.....(full article)
Good! After four years of legalistic futzing around, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former aide to Vice President Cheney, was convicted on March 6 of perjury and obstruction. Of course, Libby’s trial was about much more than one high-placed politician’s felonies. Its glaring subtext was the government’s lies about the Iraq war and the U.S. media’s collusion in that deception. Did this government tell bald-faced lies to justify invading Iraq? Has it continued to do so through the course of the carnage? Is the mainstream media the mouthpiece for those lies? In the opinion of many, "Yes, yes, and yes." The Libby trial certainly added weight to that case......(full article)
The American people are in La-la land. If they had any idea of what the Federal Reserve was up to they’d be out on the streets waving fists and pitchforks. Instead, we go about our business like nothing is wrong. Are we really that stupid? What is it that people don’t understand about the trade deficit? It’s not rocket science. The Current Account Deficit is over $800 billion a year. That means that we are spending more than we are making and savaging the dollar in the process. Presently, we need more than $2 billion of foreign investment per day just to keep the wheels from coming off the cart. Everyone agrees that the current trade imbalances are unsustainable and will probably trigger major economic disruptions that will thrust us towards a global recession. Still, Washington and the Fed stubbornly resist any change in policy that might reduce over-consumption or reverse present trends......(full article)
The eruption of demonstrations in the south
of Iraq this week could rob the occupation forces of what was considered a
critical bastion of support. The southern areas of Iraq have long been
said to be secure, and people there peaceful towards the occupation
forces. Iraqis living in the south were also believed to be cooperative
with the occupation to the extent that they supported administrative steps
taken by successive Iraqi governments. The majority of the population of
the south are Shia Muslims, and Iraq has had Shia-dominated governments
under the occupation. But demonstrations against the occupation and the
United States by hundreds of thousands of angry Shias in Najaf, Kut and
other cities across the south April 9 mark a sharp break from a policy of
cooperation. Protesters demanded an end to the U.S.-led occupation, burnt
U.S. flags and chanted "Death to America!"......(full
article)
Iran May Be the Greatest Crisis of Modern
Times John Pilger evokes the memory of Germans “looking from the side” at Bergen-Belsen to describe the challenge facing us in the West as the Bush/Blair “long war” becomes “perhaps the greatest crisis of modern times.”.....(full article)
One has to admit, it's certainly a landmark. On Monday, Rolling Stone announced that the world's 100 millionth iPod was sold. Up until a few years ago, the concept seemed little more than a fantasy, while massive chains like Tower Records kept their fingers crossed that it would stay that way. Predictably, Apple guru Steve Jobs is being showered with a terabyte of praise as an innovator and icon. RS even compiled a clever faux-playlist of songs that Jobs is listening to on his own pod, including such tunes as Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World," and NoFX's anti-record industry anthem "Dinosaurs Will Die." Ha ha. But the question has to be asked; does Jobs deserve such praise? Is he a man who made our music more accessible? Or is he simply a man with undeniable savvy who figured out a way to keep the price tag on an evolving market? The answer to that question goes deep into the true nature of the music industry......(full article)
Last week, in a telephone interview from his undisclosed location, Vice President Cheney spoke with reliably deferential commentator Rush Limbaugh on Fox News. Limbaugh noted that the House Armed Services Committee now under Democratic leadership has decided to abandon the phrase “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) from its defense budget documents because it “doesn’t like the phrase.” Actually it’s because the leadership feels that it tendentiously connects the (Afghan War) response to the 9-11 al-Qaeda attack with the separate war in Iraq, which has of course been the neocons’ intention all along. But you know how Limbaugh likes to simplify things for his viewers.....(full article)
Whether one believes the impeachment of George W. Bush is a realistic possibility or is simply a vehicle for expressing outrage and educating the public about the crimes of the powerful, any such talk starts with the U.S. Constitution and Article II, Section 4, which speaks of “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Few suggest that Bush is guilty of treason, nor is there evidence of bribery -- unless we’re speaking of the routine way in which campaign contributions are a kind of bribery, but that’s hardly unique to Bush. That leaves us to ponder the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which somehow seems inadequate to describe this administration. “High crimes,” yes, but these are not “misdemeanors.” We’re talking about repeat felony offenders.....(full article)
The precipitous decline of antiwar sentiment within the Democratic Party has been on grand display over the past few months. The majority of leading Democrats say they oppose the war in Iraq, but still refuse to cut funding. And when Bush vetoes the pork-swollen appropriations bill, which he's promised to do, the Democrats have pledged to compromise, rewrite the bill, and grant President Bush exactly what he wants: more cash and no timetable for troop withdraw from Iraq.....(full article)
When it comes to the Mexican drug scene,
there is usually far more than meets the eye. The Bush-Calderon drug war
is as much operatic as it is functional. In Mexico, President Felipe
Calderon may be the constitutionally-elected leader of the nation, but in
reality, drug cartels and warlords exercise de facto authority over much
of the area. During President Bush’s two-day stopover in Mexico as part of
his recent Latin American tour, he wasted no time in praising the
accomplishments of the Calderon administration in combating drug
trafficking. At a joint press conference with the Mexican leader in Merida
(March 14), Bush said that: “President Calderon is taking a tough stand
against organized crime and drugs, and I appreciate that.” He went on to
say that: “I recognize the United States has a responsibility in the fight
against drugs. And one major responsibility is to encourage people to use
less drugs. When there is demand, there is supply.” Now that Calderon is
firmly installed as president of Mexico, after having survived the Andres
Manuel Lopez Obrador’s strong post-electoral challenge, the new leader has
shown, at least on the surface, that he is ready to tackle his country’s
major problems: organized crime and gross impunity. Drug trafficking
overwhelmingly is the prevailing social malady throughout the country,
particularly along the border with the U.S. In spite of lengthy
declarations by government officials in Mexico City and Washington, and
their insistence that important battles are being won against drug
trafficking, criminal organizations like the Tijuana cartel continue to
thrive, ruling over whole sections of the Mexican countryside like
sectoral feudal lords.....(full
article)
The New Power in Iraq
It will probably be a long time before the
world again witnesses the downfall of a dictator, captured dramatically by
the
toppling of an imposing statue in the glare of TV cameras -- as
happened to Saddam Hussein's bronze image in Baghdad on April 9 2003. But
little did global viewers of this historic event imagine that the collapse
of the ostensibly secular Saddam would be followed by the rise -- unseen
-- of
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a reclusive 73-year-old Shia cleric
based in the holy city of Najaf. For all practical purposes, Sistani is
the single most important leader in Iraq today. To add insult to injury,
it has been established that the dramatic event of four years ago was far
from a spontaneous action by the Iraqis celebrating their liberation from
Saddam's tyranny by the benevolent troops of America and Britain....
One can find numerous other instances of the empowered establishment vilifying and attacking the “wretched refuse,” but let’s rewind a few years for a revealing look at a specific example of the pernicious machinations of the opulent. Concurrently, we will also explore a potential solution to the cancer of American Capitalism which plagues the Earth and nearly every living being on it. Free at last? Liberation Theology, a movement widely embraced by Central and South American priests and bishops in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, traces its roots back to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor who was hanged in 1943 for his resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. Interpreting Christ’s teachings as a clarion call to devote their lives to the struggle for social justice and human rights, people like Don Helder Camara, Leonardo Boff, Dorothy Stang, and Oscar Romero faced harassment, punitive action from the Vatican, persecution, and assassination in their quests to uplift the exploited, violated, and destitute....(full article)
The article about autism, "No Know Cause, No Cure" by Jennifer Chancellor in the Tulsa World on April 1 got my attention. It wasn’t because we were again told that no one knows for sure why one in every 150 U.S. kids is now autistic, or that experts have no idea how to cure them. That’s pretty much the way autism is covered in the press. What stood out to me was the first part of the statement, “The CDC has called autism a national public health crisis.” As someone who has read news reports on autism for several years, I’ve yet to see the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention use the term “crisis” when talking about autism. Maybe I missed it somewhere, but after several days searching through CDC press releases on autism, it just wasn’t there.....(full article)
Tax day is upon us, and you wonder how to
mark this probably sunny day in a memorable fashion. I have an idea. Four
years ago, under the auspices of SUSTAIN (Stop U.S. Tax Funded Aid To
Israel Now!), I was involved in making a flier, reproduced below, that
lists some useful tidbits of information in a mock 1040 form, which we
dubbed 1040WAR. We distributed it at central post offices, and found
people on tax day unusually receptive to new information. Go figure! The
form was printed and re-used in subsequent years by many other folks all
over the US.....(full article)
April 9
--The
Anti-Empire Report--
William Blum ruminates on Australian
prisoner David Hicks and Guantanamo, Al Gore, Microsoft and the NSA, and
the myth of the "Good War".....
Americans on the “Fenceline” Have No Defense
Recycling events, neighborhood cleanups, awareness festivals, lectures series, and other activities are slated throughout the nation to mark the 37th anniversary of Earth Day April 22. While there is much to celebrate, there is also good reason to raise the red flag that all is not well in America. This is especially true for the physical environments where people of color live, work, play, worship, and attend school. Let us all celebrate Earth Day 2007, but let’s not forget that there is still much work to be done to ensure that the environment of all Americans is protected -- without regard to race, ethnicity, income, or the ability of individuals to hire lawyers, technical experts, and “vote with their feet” to escape unhealthy environments. Some communities have the wrong complexion for protection. A 2005 Associated Press analysis found that Africans Americans are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health danger.....(full article)
Americans have always accepted a certain level of economic inequality as the inevitable consequence of an open capitalist society where some people through their own efforts do better than others. The presumption is that there is fairness in the marketplace and economic system. What a quaint, outdated belief. Do most Americans really believe that the game is not rigged by rich powerful elites to preferentially benefit them? As certain as the law of gravity, the game IS rigged, and more than ever.....(full article)
Near the end of the Civil War, during his second inaugural address President Abraham Lincoln spoke the words that would become the motto of the Veterans’ Administration: “[L]et us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan…” If VA healthcare is judged at the level of services provided by the individual physicians, nurses and staff who work day to day with veterans’ at one of the Nations’ VA district facilities, then in most cases the care could be considered compassionate and commendable. It is not a coincidence that this is also the image that advocates of the Veteran’s healthcare system rush to portray when yet another veteran’s healthcare scandal brings them under the threat of public scrutiny.....(full article)
Vietnam veteran Tim Origer describes the US government’s insouciance to the troops who are injured while “serving the homeland” but without addressing the fact that the troops are violating international law and morality in killing Iraqis and destroying their country [see article above]. The treatment of the vets is atrocious. The appalling cruelty and disdain shown to yesteryear’s Bonus Army veterans and, more recently, to the veterans who suffer from Gulf War Syndrome adduces that the current mistreatment of veterans is not a historical aberration. That the troops are just pawns and cannon fodder and that their “patriotism” and “heroism” are not actually valued by the government demands widespread criticism. But there are higher principles to honor than just securing proper medical care for the professional destroyers of people and their country . . . . Origer was 19-years-old when he lost his leg fighting in Vietnam. He also suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, from which it took years to recover. Origer is dedicated to helping veterans who are victims of their government. Origer’s compassion runs deeper than just helping the veterans. The following is an interview conducted by e-mail.....(full interview)
The main British editorials happen to agree
that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won points in this latest
naval round. I find it rather disappointing. With over 650.000 innocents
dead in Iraq and a war against Iran on the horizon, it is about time
British columnists stop telling us about tactical gains and losses.
Instead they should once and for all endorse a humanist and ethical
discourse grounded on genuine responsibility. The battle between
Ahmadinejad and Blair is not a political or diplomatic one, it is not
about points. It is actually a clash between civilizations, a fight
between humanism and cold pragmatism. As it emerges, in this battle, it is
Ahmadinejad rather than Blair who reminds us where goodness rests.
Seemingly, a man who has been repeatedly presented by our deluded Western
media as a "radical", "fundamentalist" and "Islamofascist" has proved
beyond doubt that it is actually him who knows what forgiveness and grace
are all about. It was Ahmadinejad who has pardoned the enemy, it was
Ahmadinejad that evoked some prospects of a peaceful future.....
Unsurprisingly, George W. Bush's
announcement of a "surge" in Iraq came despite the firm opposition to any
such move of Americans and the even stronger opposition of the (thoroughly
irrelevant) Iraqis. It was accompanied by ominous official leaks and
statements -- from
Washington and Baghdad -- about how Iranian intervention in
Iraq was aimed at disrupting our mission to gain victory, an aim which is
(by definition) noble. What then followed was a solemn debate about
whether
serial numbers on advanced roadside bombs (IEDs) were really
traceable to Iran; and, if so, to that country's Revolutionary Guards or
to some even higher authority. This "debate" is a typical illustration of
a primary principle of sophisticated propaganda. In crude and brutal
societies, the Party Line is publicly proclaimed and must be obeyed -- or
else. What you actually believe is your own business and of far less
concern. In societies where the state has lost the capacity to control by
force, the Party Line is simply presupposed; then, vigorous debate is
encouraged within the limits imposed by unstated doctrinal orthodoxy. The
cruder of the two systems leads, naturally enough, to disbelief; the
sophisticated variant gives an impression of openness and freedom, and so
far more effectively serves to instill the Party Line. It becomes beyond
question, beyond thought itself, like the air we breathe.....(full
article)
The Spurious, Curious Case for Tax Breaks
on Capital Gains
These are heady times for backers of low
taxes on capital gains. Presidents Clinton and Bush both cut the capital
gains rate, bringing the current levy on long-term gains down to 15%.
That’s the lowest in more than 70 years, and it means that profits on
stock market transactions are now taxed at a lower rate than the wages of
average Americans. There’s no good reason for this preferential treatment,
and powerful reasons to end it. Leading the list is the simple fact that
stock market “investors” are almost never real investors in the first
place. The argument for a low rate on capital gains is invariable (and in
recent years, invariably effective): it holds that investments in the
stock market grow jobs, grow businesses, and provide vital fuel for the
United States economy. Partly as inducement and partly in gratitude, the
argument goes, it behooves government to reward investors with low capital
gains taxes. A potent blend of myth, propaganda and misimpressions. Let’s
look instead at some truths.....(full article)
Behind Boston’s “Crime Wave” Recent spate of homicides in Boston’s Black and Latino neighborhoods has prompted city newspapers and politicians to begin talking about the need to crack down on street violence. In reality, the murder rate in Boston is at the average level for a city of its size. Nonetheless, many people are concerned about the murders and want to understand why all of this is happening.....(full article)
The Following did not occur but by god how
much do I wish it did. The place where it does not occur is in a TV
studio...
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California silently resigned from her post on the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) late last week as her ethical limbo with war contracts began to surface in the media, including an excellent investigative report written by Peter Byrne for Metro in January. MILCON has supervised the appropriations of billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts since the Bush wars began. Feinstein, who served as chairperson and ranking member for the committee from 2001-2005, came under fire early last year in these pages for profiting by way of her husband Richard Blum who, until 2005, held large stakes in two defense contracting companies. Both businesses, URS and Perini, have scored lucrative contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last four years, and Blum has personally pocketed tens of millions of dollars off the deals his wife, along with her colleagues, so graciously approved.....(full article)
On April 2, 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney chastised Congressional Democrats for attaching "time limits, deadlines, or other arbitrary measures" on emergency funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he might have revealed far more than he intended, perhaps a Freudian slip, when he observed: "You cannot win a war if you tell the enemy you are going to quit." Simply consider the following......(full article)
Pfizer's Pharmacia & Upjohn Company Inc. unit has pled guilty to offering a kickback in connection with the sale of its human growth hormone product. The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post ignored the story. Why is unclear. The settlement was a complicated one, negotiated by Jeremy Sternberg and Susan Winkler of the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston and by Pfizer attorney Ethan Posner. Posner is a partner at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. Posner did not return calls seeking comment for this story. A second Pfizer unit, Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement for illegally promoting its human growth hormone drug Genotropin for such off-label uses as anti-aging, cosmetic use and athletic enhancement.....(full article)
Beer-Sheeva, Israel: In the wake of the 1967
Israeli-Arab war, eight Arab heads of state met in Khartoum, Sudan, to
decide how to react to the humiliating defeat. The leaders’ message was
straightforward: There would be no peace with Israel, no recognition of
and no negotiations with the Jewish state. Following the summit, most Arab
countries adopted the three no approach as their official policy, and for
many years Israel was considered to be an illegitimate entity. Much has
changed in the Middle East since that fateful summit, and just last week,
during the Arab League’s meeting in Riyadh, one got a sense of just how
radical the change has been. Leaders from almost all of the League’s
twenty-one member countries (as well as the Palestinian Authority)
attended the meeting, and together they agreed to “reaffirm their call to
the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept the Saudi peace
initiative and seize the opportunity to resume the process of direct and
serious negotiations on all tracks.”.....(full
article)
300: Proto-Fascism and
Manufacturing of Complicity
We are living in one
of the most ideological epochs in the history of humankind. In a
postmodern age where grand narratives have lost their validity,
proto-fascism, a totalitarian paradigm devoid of complexity, is on the
rise. So it seems. The new hybrid movie 300, based on a so-called
“graphic novel,” which is a “depiction” of the ancient battle of
Thermopylae, was released with much fanfare and financial success. I
endured with horror the two-hour stylized blood and gore orgy. Conversely,
the majority of the audiences (18 to 24-year-olds) present in the theatre
were truly enjoying themselves, so it seemed. If you are concerned about
human rights, sexism, militarism, women’s rights, homophobia and gay
bashing, cronyism and corruption, suppression of intellectualism, media
consolidation, anti-Semitism, Islam phobia, and general xenophobia, you
ought to be concerned about 300 and other media like it. If you
seek multiculturalism, egalitarianism, and planetary thinking, you ought
to disrupt the current trend in American cinema and speak truth to power.
If you want social justice, you must speak up against the kind of
proto-fascism 300 promotes.....
In January, Circuit City employee Bobby Young received a certificate of excellence for his twenty years of loyal service at the company’s Roanoke, Virginia store. On March 28, he received a pink slip. When the 47-year old father of two arrived at work that morning, he was handed a letter inexplicably addressed “to whom it may concern,” explaining that the company had terminated his employment, effective immediately. That same day, 3,400 workers at Circuit City stores across the country were greeted with the news that they had been fired -- before management quickly escorted them out of the building. Company spokesman Bob Cimino bluntly announced that the mass firings targeted the most experienced and highest paid in-store workers as part of a “wage management initiative” to replace them with low-wage new hires. “It had nothing to do with their skills or whether they were a good worker or not,” Cimino said.....(full article)
Despite calls by federal prosecutors to jail two priests protesting against torture training at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, a federal judge has allowed them to remain free until their trial, which is set for June 4, 2007. Fr. Louis Vitale, a 74-year-old Franciscan priest, and Fr. Steve Kelly, a 58-year-old Jesuit priest, were arraigned in federal court in Tucson on federal and state charges of trespassing and refusal to follow police orders at an anti-torture protest at Ft. Huachuca......(full article)
It's become a TV ritual: Every year on April 4, as Americans commemorate Martin Luther King's death, we get perfunctory network news reports about "the slain civil rights leader." The remarkable thing about these reviews of King's life is that several years -- his last years -- are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole. What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968). An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet King didn't take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever. Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they're not shown today on TV. Why? (full article)
On March 31, the President of the United
States made a statement pertaining to the 15 British sailors and marines
unfortunately detailed in Iran: “The Iranians must give back the hostages.
They’re innocent. The Iranians took these people out of Iraqi waters. It’s
inexcusable behavior.” But since the American people don’t trust George W.
Bush, let’s seek a second opinion. A credible authoritative one. Let’s ask
the top Iraqi military officer in charge of guarding the Shatt al-Iraq
waterway where the Brits were actually apprehended. This man is working
for the US-backed regime and probably not inclined to make up stuff to
embarrass the US president, who gives him his paycheck. So his opinion
should be relevant here. Let’s ask Brigadier General Hakim Jassim.....(full
article)
Bunk: The Danger of Writing Without
Thinking OR Malcolm Gladwell, well known author of pop sociology mind candy, has a new thesis. But it contradicts the one he proposed in his best-selling Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking (Little, Brown and Company, 2005). Thinking, said Gladwell circa 2005, is not very useful; far better to go on first impressions. But now it turns out that first impressions were precisely what misled everyone who got bullshitted by one-time California energy giant Enron’s fast line of talk and Potemkin village accounts. They should have thought more, concludes Gladwell circa 2007. Ooops. We wish he would take his own advice.....(full article)
On Monday, March 26, 2007 in Northern Gaza,
a river of raw sewage and debris overflowed from a collapsed earth
embankment into a refugee camp driving 3,000 Palestinians from their
homes. Five residents drowned, 25 were injured and scores of houses were
destroyed. The New York Times, Washington Post and the
television media blamed shoddy infrastructure. The Daily Alert
(the house organ of the Presidents of the Major American Jewish
Organizations) blamed the Palestinians who they claimed were removing sand
to sell to construction contractors thus undermining the earth
embankment. The disaster at Umm Naser (the village in question) is
emblematic of everything that is wrong with US-Israeli politics in the
Middle East. The disaster in this isolated village has its roots first
and foremost in Washington where AIPAC and its political allies have
successfully secured US backing for Israel’s financial and economic
boycott of the Palestinian government subsequent to the democratic
electoral victory of Hamas. AIPAC’s victory in Washington reverberated
throughout Europe and beyond -- as the European Union also applied
sanctions shutting off financing of all new infrastructure projects and
the maintenance of existing facilities. At the AIPAC conventions of 2005
through 2007, the leaders of both major American parties, congressional
leaders and the White House pledged to re-enforce AIPAC’s boycott and
sanctions strategy. AIPAC celebrated its victory for Israeli policy and
claimed authorship of the legislation. In addition to malnutrition, the
policy undermined all public maintenance projects.....
As we’ve watched autism grow to epidemic
levels in the US, we have been given one hard-to-swallow explanation after
another. For instance, we have been continuously told that there is no
real increase in the number of kids who are autistic, it just seems that
way. What’s really going on is “better diagnosing” by doctors. And while
we rarely hear the term “controversy” connected to a disease or disorder,
more and more the words “autism controversy” appear in the press. Why this
endless debate over autism?
One by one, the helium-inflated excuses for arresting and imprisoning Suzi Hazahza have been popped and now lie on the ground. And the single memory humanizing the government that still holds her unlawfully behind bars is the look on one Federal Magistrate's face Thursday in Dallas when he was told by a US Attorney that Congress has stripped the federal bench of any right to order Suzi Hazahza freed until a full six months of illegal detention have passed. Anguish is the word that some observers have used to describe the look on the judge's face as he wrestled with the impotence of his authority before the power of Homeland Security to arrest and detain innocent immigrants.....(full article)
I am fascinated by the differences that separate peoples and cultures. If human beings are the animal for which life is a problem requiring an answer -- liberated, as we are, from the autopilot of instinctual programming -- then what could be more interesting than answers to life developed by radically different cultures over thousands of years? Other cultures, after all, provide us with an entry point for investigating the nose-on-our-face problems, the nose-on-our-face mistakes that bedevil us individually and as a society. In one of his most telling observations, Thoreau wrote: "Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new." (Thoreau, Walden, Penguin, 1983, p.68) When we encounter, and quite possibly laugh at, foreign cultures, the precious opportunity also arises of laughing at our own. This is a laughter of liberation -- not just from the disco flares and bowler hats of “the old fashions,” but from the worship of the flag, of the “fatherland”, from hatred of the official ‘enemy’. As I will discuss below, it is also an opportunity to laugh at our notions of how best to make ourselves happy.....(full article)
Larry Kramer was one of the very first people to recognize the AIDS epidemic for what it was. While the Reagan administration refused to acknowledge the burgeoning epidemic and gay men didn’t want to believe it, Kramer helped found the legendary group ACT-UP, whose motto was Silence=Death. Twenty years later, Larry Kramer has re-ignited ACT-UP to wake us up to another grim reality we’d rather not face. “The needs are different now. Then it was AIDS, and now” he says, “it is utter sheer hate hurled at us right and left.” As blunt and confrontational as ever, Kramer began an open letter to straight people in the Los Angeles Times with the question, “Why do you hate gay people so much?” Put another way, why do those who claim to hate the sin but love the sinner often seem, instead, to love the hate but hate the h word. For example, when former NBA player Tim Hardaway came right out and said, “I hate gay people,” Concerned Women for America immediately issued a press release condemning not his bigotry but his language.....(full article)
Venezuela is changing. Fast. No other word captures the speed and magnitude of change as well as that weighty word -- revolution. This is indeed the word used by many of the Venezuelans I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing during ten days in March. Venezuela is undergoing a 'Bolivarian' revolution. But what does 'Bolivarianism' entail? (full article)
The Independent posed a question about the confession by the British captive, Faye Turney, on Iranian television: “A genuine confession or humiliation and cynical abuse of international law?” The Independent claimed, “Film footage of the servicewoman taken prisoner in the Persian Gulf, wearing a black headscarf, as she ‘admitted’ to trespassing on Iranian waters, will become one of the iconic images of the crisis between Iran and the West.” I do not know where in the Shatt al-Arab waterway the British navy ship was when it was intercepted by the Iranian navy. I do know that it was a long, long way from Britain and that it was engaged in the evil of a genocidal occupation that has claimed the lives of approximately one million Iraqis. I do not know if the appearance of British seaman Turney on Iranian television was coerced or not. I do not know if her confession was genuine. But of humiliation, that can be analyzed.....(full article)
In response to my last article, I received an e-mail from someone saying that, if education were free, then no one would have to be trapped in a job they didn’t like. While I agree that, in a good society, education should be available to all at public expense, even free education can’t eliminate undesirable labor.....(full article)
On May 17, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of internationally renowned black death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. The court will consider four different issues that it has already certified for appeal. It will then decide to either grant a new trial, affirm the life sentence, or re-instate the death sentence. Immediately after this date was announced last week, supporters of Abu-Jamal around the world began mobilizing to support Abu-Jamal at the hearings. Explaining the urgency, Pam Africa (coordinator of Abu-Jamal’s support network) says that “Mumia can still be executed. Further, since the Supreme Court is unlikely to hear Mumia's case, this is realistically his last chance to get a new trial. As the history of his case shows, we need public pressure to ensure the court's fairness.”.....(full article)
Dr. Azzam Tamimi is founder of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London and author of "Hamas: Unwritten Chapters" (2006). He was a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies of Kyoto University for six months from April 1st to September 30, 2004, and later a visiting fellow at the Graduate School of International Development at Nagoya University for three months, from January 1st to March 31, 2006. On March 11 of this year, he spoke at a small colloquium in Tokyo organized by the NIHU Program Islamic Area Studies, University of Tokyo Unit, on the historical roots of Hamas, its internal structure and political objectives, and the factors that led to its rise to power within Palestinian society in recent years. The following is a transcript of his lecture, tentatively titled "Hamas and the Future of the Palestine Question" by organizers of the event (originally posted at gyaku.jp)......(full article) |
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