Economic Hit Man
January 18, 2008
Interview with John Perkins.
Obamarama
January 7, 2008
The following is Ralph Nader’s hilarious take on ‘The Politics of the Smooth Mood‘.
The Obamarama Campaign Express was roaring down a New Hampshire highway near Nashua when an aide spotted the sprawling No Holds Barred Sports Bar. “Let’s stop the bus,” she urged, “and do some random schmoozing.”
Obama and his entourage poured out of the bus and headed for the front door, over which hung a large sign: “HOME OF THE POLI-BEER: WHERE BOOZE, POLITICS AND SPORTS MIX IT UP!”
Inside the packed bar, the guys and gals were gathering for the Big Game to start. Before the game, however, there was an hour for political talk time. Their eyes widened in amazement when they saw Barack, bounding through the doorway with his secret service detail.
The bar had a big pit, with a huge crackling fireplace, where the patrons have their regular give and take. Obama was ready for some of that.
Edwards Reconsidered
January 3, 2008
Sadly, Dennis Kucinich has once again proved that he does not have the resolve to follow through on his convictions. In a chicken move he has conceded defeat and asked his supporters to consider the warmongering Barack Obama as their second choice (which is highly hypocritical since he had earlier claimed that he would never support someone who is for war — well, Obama has repeatedly voted for war funding). Normon Solomon makes a good case for US progressives to pick up John Edwards — the Most Improved Candidate? — instead. Edwards may not be the ideal candidate but he has been outspoken on the corporate domination of Washington and has already received the endorsement of Ralph Nader because of that. Recall also that the lobby had soured on Edwards for pointing out Israeli intransigence as the biggest threat to the middle east.
There have been good reasons not to support John Edwards for president. For years, his foreign-policy outlook has been a hodgepodge of insights and dangerous conventional wisdom; his health-care prescriptions have not taken the leap to single payer; and all told, from a progressive standpoint, his positions have been inferior to those of Dennis Kucinich.
But Edwards was the most improved presidential candidate of 2007. He sharpened his attacks on corporate power and honed his calls for economic justice. He laid down a clear position against nuclear power. He explicitly challenged the power of the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical giants.
Here’s to the Land
December 27, 2007
Eddie Vedder gives Bush Administration the finger. (cheers aLLy)
(Until I figure out how the above works, you can see the video here)
Here’s to the judges of John Roberts,
Who wear the robe of honor in their phoney legal fort.
and justice is a stranger when the partisans report,
When the court elected the president it was the beginning of this war.
Whoa here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,
John Roberts, find yourself another country to be part of!And here’s to the government of Dick Cheney,
With criminals posing as advisors to the crown
And they hope that no one sees the sights and no one hears the sounds
‘Cause the speeches of the president are the ravings of a clown
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Dick Cheney, find yourself another country to be part ofAnd here’s to the churches of Jerry Falwell,
Where the cross, once made of silver, now has turned to rust
And the Sunday morning sermons pander to the fear of men in lust
God only knows in heaven they must trust
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Jerry Falwell, find yourself another country to be part ofAnd here’s to the laws of Alberto Gonzalez,
Congress will pass an act in the panic of the day
While the Constitution is drowning in an ocean of decay
And freedom of speech is dangerous, I’ve even heard them say
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Alberto Gonzalez, find yourself another country to be part ofAnd here’s to the businessman of George W.,
Who want to change the focus from Halliburton and Enron
And their profits, like blood money are spilling out on the White House Lawn
TO keep their hold on power they’re using terror as a gun
While the bombs that fall on children don’t care which side that they’re on
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
George W., find yourself another country to be part of
Death of the Dollar
December 22, 2007
If you can overlook the antics of the reporter, it is a pretty decent report from Al Jazeera, including interviews with Paul Craig Roberts and others. (via Information Clearinghouse)
Norman Solomon v CNN
December 21, 2007
Dennis Kucinich Wins IndependentPrimary.Com
December 20, 2007
Another proof that the corrupted public sphere created by the MSM is an alternative reality with little to do with the real preferences of the people.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the clear favorite of independent-minded voters in the IndependentPrimary.Com internet poll.
Over 110,000 people voted in IndependentPrimary.Com.Kucinich [the original email mistakenly said Paul -- M.I.A] won over 75% of the votes cast on the Democratic side. (And Rep. Ron Paul won overwhelmingly on the Republican side).
As long-time independents we decided to do this poll because we were very concerned that Kucinich, Paul, and Gravel were excluded from some of the televised debates by the corporate media. We believe elections should be competitive and that the voters should decide at the polls! We want to give voters the authority to vote with their hearts.
Independents can swing the 2008 primary elections.
Read the rest of this entry »
Hold the Ham N’ Eggs
December 3, 2007
Globalization and terror. The two often go hand in hand. Here my friend toni solo looks at Euro-American efforts to derail the possibility of an emerging alternative.
Efforts by the Bush regime to destabilize and overthrow governments resisting corporate globalization in Latin America, and everywhere else too, will persist whoever wins the next US Presidential election — assuming no attack is launched on Iran and the election does in fact take place. The monolithic plutocracy that runs the United States is supported in those destabilization efforts by the governments of their European and Pacific allies. Analysing a list of the world’s top corporations, leaders in their respective industries, explains why this should be so.(1).
One finds that companies from the United States and its European and Pacific allies account for well over 80% of the total. One can also note that the Latin American, African and Asian corporations in the list are all State owned companies, with the exception of China Mobile and Brazil’s CVRD mining company (privatized from 1997 onwards). The consolidation of monopoly corporate capitalism over the last decade through mergers and acquisitions is certain to continue. So the only chance for less developed countries to defend the rights and needs of their impoverished majorities against the ravages of monster multinational companies is to integrate and to invest in their future together.
Strike Until You Drop
November 30, 2007
An excellent glimpse into the insulated, conformist world of US TV and Film writers from the Real News Network. Had some of them not been asked these questions by the RNN anchor, it is unlikely that they would have ever looked at these issues beyond immediate self-interest. After all, how much empathy or nuance can you expect from people who write garbage like 24?
Fore this reason and more, Christopher Ketchum sees no reason why the strike should have anyone’s support.His Memo to Striking Entertainment Writers reads: ‘Strike until you drop‘.
Dear Entertainment Writers on Strike: Recently returned to so-called civilization from the canyons of Utah, I had the opportunity, after long hiatus, to enjoy the product of some of your writing as it gets shoveled into the American maw via television (no TV in my house–shoot ‘em if they get close to the porch). What a feat, this writing. It evidenced so much that was stale, false, crass, violent, foolish, salacious, gimmicky, irrelevant, sycophantic, complacent, compliant –it was, in short, the perfect distraction in a dying republic fast on its way to tyranny, the gift that keeps on giving to a government that would hope to turn the screw on free-thinking citizens. In other words, writers–you keep on striking! Behold: The entertainment will grow cold and grey as the corpse that it already is, with no new cadavers to puppeteer for the newness of each season, where nothing is as new as the recycled dead from the last season. Like Plato’s chained slaves in the cave of shadows, let the viewers wake up, walk into the light, starved for reality–oh writers, let no new entertainments issue from your minds! You may just save the Republic.
The Quaint Contradictions of Dubai
November 30, 2007
A friend of mind described Dubai as a Xanadu-meets-Disneyland architectural abomination. But the reality of Dubai is even more surreal. The condition under which immigrant workers in U.A.E work is by now well know, but the veritable police state that this dazzling facade conceals is not. The Guardian recently published an interesting story from a British-American academic who was subjected to a 13 hour investigation by the Secret Police for his research work on expatriates in Dubai. The following part of the story is noteworthy:
Good cop also came to the nub of what I’d got myself into when he told me he liked me, but had doubts about my funding. “What do you mean?” I asked. “I think it is the Jewish,” he said. “Why would ‘the Jewish’ be funding me, a Muslim American, to ask questions of people in Dubai?” “I do not know, but I think it is them … and maybe the CIA.”
In many Middle-Eastern countries distrust of Jews is quite widespread since the representative face of Judaism for them has always been the Israeli occupation soldier brutalizing a fellow Arab. But in Dubai this couldn’t be much of a consideration since in 2006 when Israel launched its brutal assault on Lebanon, UAE joined Saudi, Egypt and Jordan in condemning the Lebanese resistance instead. But more interestingly, YNet is now reporting that Dubai will now be home to the first Israeli store in the region. ‘Ml clothing chain, which specializes in large sizes, to open four stores in prestigious Dubai shopping areas’, it reports.
