Global
What would happen if politically active progressive Americans suddenly stopped devoting their energies to drafting better sound bites, and instead directed all that time and passion into a serious and strategic campaign of civil disobedience?
I know, I know, we're constantly told that we're being out-framed and out-messaged. Horse shit. We're smarter than they are, wittier, pithier, more attuned to the perspectives of those we're speaking to. But we don't own the networks and the newspapers. They do. Mammoth corporations with an agenda that usually lines up with that of right-wing gangsters control the microphones. Stop the masochism! Break a frame over your knee. Spit out the sound bites. Ask not how you can save a political party that doesn't want your help in a single sentence. Ask what in your life you can sacrifice, what you can put at risk to force our government to do what we the people demand.
I know, I know, we're constantly told that we're being out-framed and out-messaged. Horse shit. We're smarter than they are, wittier, pithier, more attuned to the perspectives of those we're speaking to. But we don't own the networks and the newspapers. They do. Mammoth corporations with an agenda that usually lines up with that of right-wing gangsters control the microphones. Stop the masochism! Break a frame over your knee. Spit out the sound bites. Ask not how you can save a political party that doesn't want your help in a single sentence. Ask what in your life you can sacrifice, what you can put at risk to force our government to do what we the people demand.
Is President Bush guilty of war crimes?
To even ask the question is to go far beyond the boundaries of mainstream U.S. media.
A few weeks ago, when a class of seniors at Parsippany High School in New Jersey prepared for a mock trial to assess whether Bush has committed war crimes, a media tempest ensued.
Typical was the response from MSNBC host Tucker Carlson, who found the very idea of such accusations against Bush to be unfathomable. The classroom exercise “implies people are accusing him of a crime against humanity,” Carlson said. “It’s ludicrous.”
In Tennessee, the Chattanooga Times Free Press thundered in an editorial: “That some American ‘educators’ would have students ‘try’ our American president for ‘war crimes’ during time of war tells us that our problems are not only with terrorists abroad.”
To even ask the question is to go far beyond the boundaries of mainstream U.S. media.
A few weeks ago, when a class of seniors at Parsippany High School in New Jersey prepared for a mock trial to assess whether Bush has committed war crimes, a media tempest ensued.
Typical was the response from MSNBC host Tucker Carlson, who found the very idea of such accusations against Bush to be unfathomable. The classroom exercise “implies people are accusing him of a crime against humanity,” Carlson said. “It’s ludicrous.”
In Tennessee, the Chattanooga Times Free Press thundered in an editorial: “That some American ‘educators’ would have students ‘try’ our American president for ‘war crimes’ during time of war tells us that our problems are not only with terrorists abroad.”
What a contrast between the French demonstrations and the vast and exciting marches here against proposed immigration laws, as against the limp turnouts against the U.S. war on Iraq!
Across a few explosive weeks the first two series of protests have surged up in numbers and political impact. In France earlier this week there were a million on the streets. Just in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, half a million. In Paris, Dominique de Villepin, the author of the hated law loosening curbs on employers' right to fire new hires, is fighting for his political life. In Congress, U.S. senators revised the language of their bill in step with the magnitude and passion of the rallies.
Meanwhile, though two out of three here in the United States disapprove of the war in Iraq, there's no energetic political leadership from above, no irresistible shove from below.
Across a few explosive weeks the first two series of protests have surged up in numbers and political impact. In France earlier this week there were a million on the streets. Just in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, half a million. In Paris, Dominique de Villepin, the author of the hated law loosening curbs on employers' right to fire new hires, is fighting for his political life. In Congress, U.S. senators revised the language of their bill in step with the magnitude and passion of the rallies.
Meanwhile, though two out of three here in the United States disapprove of the war in Iraq, there's no energetic political leadership from above, no irresistible shove from below.
Ohio is reeling with a mixture of outrage and hilarity as Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has revealed that he has owned stock in the Diebold voting machine company, to which Blackwell tried to award unbid contracts worth millions while allowing its operators to steal Ohio elections. A top Republican election official also says a Diebold operative told him he made a $50,000 donation to Blackwell's "political interests."
A veritable army of attorneys on all sides of Ohio's political spectrum will soon report whether Blackwell has violated the law. But in any event, the revelations could have a huge impact on the state whose dubiously counted electoral votes gave George W. Bush a second term. Diebold was the vendor in three Ohio counties in 2004. Because of Blackwell's effort, 41 counties used Diebold machines in Ohio's highly dubious 2005 election, and now 47 counties will use Diebold touchscreen voting machines in the May 2006 primary, and in the fall election that will decide who will be the state's new governor.
A veritable army of attorneys on all sides of Ohio's political spectrum will soon report whether Blackwell has violated the law. But in any event, the revelations could have a huge impact on the state whose dubiously counted electoral votes gave George W. Bush a second term. Diebold was the vendor in three Ohio counties in 2004. Because of Blackwell's effort, 41 counties used Diebold machines in Ohio's highly dubious 2005 election, and now 47 counties will use Diebold touchscreen voting machines in the May 2006 primary, and in the fall election that will decide who will be the state's new governor.
AUSTIN, Texas -- In general, I'm against kicking 'em when they're down ... unless really awful people are involved. I figured Tom DeLay is so awful, plenty of people would gang up on him and I could pass.
Imagine my surprise when the toughest question one famous TV tough guy could come up with was, "Do you think you invested too much in the Republican Party?" Another inquired whether DeLay could think of any mistakes he'd made. I waited with bated breath for the immortal, "I wish I could learn not to work so hard," but no, he couldn't think of a single one.
Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay first came to power promising to restore democracy to the House of Representatives, supposedly suffering from then-Speaker Jim Wright's tyrannical regime. Even after the Rs drove Wright from office, however, bipartisanship was out of the question for DeLay. In the budget fight and government shutdown of 1995, for instance, DeLay rejected compromise and famously said, "It's time for all-out war."
Imagine my surprise when the toughest question one famous TV tough guy could come up with was, "Do you think you invested too much in the Republican Party?" Another inquired whether DeLay could think of any mistakes he'd made. I waited with bated breath for the immortal, "I wish I could learn not to work so hard," but no, he couldn't think of a single one.
Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay first came to power promising to restore democracy to the House of Representatives, supposedly suffering from then-Speaker Jim Wright's tyrannical regime. Even after the Rs drove Wright from office, however, bipartisanship was out of the question for DeLay. In the budget fight and government shutdown of 1995, for instance, DeLay rejected compromise and famously said, "It's time for all-out war."
Can't you get an extremely large group of Ohio
voters,especially Blacks, who were disenfranchised to
come together to sue Kenneth Blackwell for preventing
them from voting which is a part of the American
Constitution. He committed a federal offense by
interfering with their right to vote. He should be in
prison along with Katherine Harris of Florida but
nobody has the balls to pull them both into court.
I would if I had a valid reason but neither one did
anything to me personally except to help get George W
Bush in office.
Now that 9/11 defendant Zacarias Moussaoui has been cleared for the death penalty, the din will rise for his immediate execution.
But if he really is guilty, and is now seeking martyrdom, the death penalty goes too easy on him. We should sit him in front of a "Scream Screen" instead.
The last mass murderer to face the death penalty in this country hastily embraced it. When faced with a choice between life in prison or death, Timothy McVeigh chose death. Perhaps many of the families of the 180 people he slaughtered at the federal building in Oklahoma City found closure in that.
But so did McVeigh. In existential terms, he got off easy. He may be roasting in Hell right now, but we can't know that. And if he is, he would have gone anyway, without taxpayers footing the bill for his assisted suicide.
But if he really is guilty, and is now seeking martyrdom, the death penalty goes too easy on him. We should sit him in front of a "Scream Screen" instead.
The last mass murderer to face the death penalty in this country hastily embraced it. When faced with a choice between life in prison or death, Timothy McVeigh chose death. Perhaps many of the families of the 180 people he slaughtered at the federal building in Oklahoma City found closure in that.
But so did McVeigh. In existential terms, he got off easy. He may be roasting in Hell right now, but we can't know that. And if he is, he would have gone anyway, without taxpayers footing the bill for his assisted suicide.
AUSTIN, Texas -- On the premise that spring is too beautiful for a depressing topic like Iraq, I thought I'd take up a fun subject -- global warming.
Time magazine warns us to "Be Worried. Be Very Worried." On the other hand, my sister is on the Global Warming Committee of the Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, N.M. They go around replacing old light bulbs with more energy-efficient models. My money's on my sis.
It's a good thing the phrase "the tipping point" became a cliche just in time to help us describe global warming. Just a few years ago, we were more or less cruising along on global warming, with maybe 50 years or so to Do Something about it. Suddenly, the only question is how soon to push the panic button, and 10 minutes ago appears to be the right answer.
Time magazine warns us to "Be Worried. Be Very Worried." On the other hand, my sister is on the Global Warming Committee of the Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, N.M. They go around replacing old light bulbs with more energy-efficient models. My money's on my sis.
It's a good thing the phrase "the tipping point" became a cliche just in time to help us describe global warming. Just a few years ago, we were more or less cruising along on global warming, with maybe 50 years or so to Do Something about it. Suddenly, the only question is how soon to push the panic button, and 10 minutes ago appears to be the right answer.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Despite an opposition boycott of Sunday's (April 2) nationwide poll, Thailand's billionaire prime minister expects to be re-elected but then suffer insults, allegations and condemnation by thousands of protesters determined to cripple his government and snarl Bangkok's streets.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hoped this Southeast Asian nation's rural and urban poor would help re-elect his welfare-friendly Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais") party, which thrust him to power in 2001 and endorsed him in February 2005 with 19 million votes.
Clean-shaven Thaksin has been portrayed as Adolf Hitler by his enemies in speeches, published commentary, and huge posters caricaturing him with a swastika on his forehead and a black moustache -- prompting a public complaint by Israel's embassy.
After the election, Thaksin may unleash lawsuits against his critics, whose speeches mixed legitimate issues with rants and unproven allegations.
The boycott by opposition candidates could deprive Parliament of its necessary 500 members, because the three biggest opposition parties told Thais to vote "no" instead of avoiding the polls.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra hoped this Southeast Asian nation's rural and urban poor would help re-elect his welfare-friendly Thai Rak Thai ("Thais Love Thais") party, which thrust him to power in 2001 and endorsed him in February 2005 with 19 million votes.
Clean-shaven Thaksin has been portrayed as Adolf Hitler by his enemies in speeches, published commentary, and huge posters caricaturing him with a swastika on his forehead and a black moustache -- prompting a public complaint by Israel's embassy.
After the election, Thaksin may unleash lawsuits against his critics, whose speeches mixed legitimate issues with rants and unproven allegations.
The boycott by opposition candidates could deprive Parliament of its necessary 500 members, because the three biggest opposition parties told Thais to vote "no" instead of avoiding the polls.
I liked the Hackwell article. He also has played a role in what was done to destroy us. He knew about it. We spoke to his office on more then a few occasions. He helped the snakes cover this hole thing up!
I wish the whole truth for once could be told. One day all these evil people will be brought to the light of justice, I am certain of this. It's just that in my life I have never seen justice work, ever. The truth is always hidden and twisted. Oh well, maybe one day.
Bob, when the truth is this obvious and people refuse to listen and or act on it, I always long to check their pockets for a receipt. They are usually involved or covering for somebody!
I wish the whole truth for once could be told. One day all these evil people will be brought to the light of justice, I am certain of this. It's just that in my life I have never seen justice work, ever. The truth is always hidden and twisted. Oh well, maybe one day.
Bob, when the truth is this obvious and people refuse to listen and or act on it, I always long to check their pockets for a receipt. They are usually involved or covering for somebody!