Global
By now, across the progressive spectrum, some familiar storylines tell us
the meaning of the Obama campaign. In a groove, each narrative digs its
truths. But whether those particular truths are the most important at this
historical moment is another story.
We can set aside the plotline that touts Obama as a visionary pragmatist who has earned the complete trust of progressives. The belief has diminished in recent months -- in the wake of numerous Obama pronouncements on foreign policy, his FISA vote to damage the Fourth Amendment and the like -- but such belief was never really grounded in his record as a politician or his policy positions.
A more substantial narrative concedes that Obama has "compromised" on numerous fronts but assumes he has done so in order to get elected president, after which time his real self will emerge. This kind of dubious projection is as old as the political hills, and inevitably becomes a kind of murky exercise in armchair psychology. All in all, projection is not useful for assessing where political leaders are and where they’re headed.
We can set aside the plotline that touts Obama as a visionary pragmatist who has earned the complete trust of progressives. The belief has diminished in recent months -- in the wake of numerous Obama pronouncements on foreign policy, his FISA vote to damage the Fourth Amendment and the like -- but such belief was never really grounded in his record as a politician or his policy positions.
A more substantial narrative concedes that Obama has "compromised" on numerous fronts but assumes he has done so in order to get elected president, after which time his real self will emerge. This kind of dubious projection is as old as the political hills, and inevitably becomes a kind of murky exercise in armchair psychology. All in all, projection is not useful for assessing where political leaders are and where they’re headed.
Dear Activist Friends,
The Battle in Seattle film starring Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liota and 50,000 Seattle WTO protest activists will open in select cities September 19. Ohio cities are not on the list…..yet!
Here's the deal: Corporate America does not want the real story of the outrage of corporate globalization, the WTO or how motivated activists won against impossible odds to tell their story. The Hollywood studios loved the script - written by actor Stuart Towsend after three years of research - but refused to make the film even as they complimented the script as entertaining and compelling. Townsend persevered. Six years in the making, once complete the movie got rave reviews at film festivals, but there were no distribution offers from major film companies.
As Stuart noted in a recent interview: "None of the corporations wanted to buy. It's a movie with stars. It's a movie they normally would buy in a heartbeat. Not to get too conspiratorial, but it hasn't been an easy ride making a movie like this."
So ultimately, Townsend decided to distribute the film independently.
The Battle in Seattle film starring Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Ray Liota and 50,000 Seattle WTO protest activists will open in select cities September 19. Ohio cities are not on the list…..yet!
Here's the deal: Corporate America does not want the real story of the outrage of corporate globalization, the WTO or how motivated activists won against impossible odds to tell their story. The Hollywood studios loved the script - written by actor Stuart Towsend after three years of research - but refused to make the film even as they complimented the script as entertaining and compelling. Townsend persevered. Six years in the making, once complete the movie got rave reviews at film festivals, but there were no distribution offers from major film companies.
As Stuart noted in a recent interview: "None of the corporations wanted to buy. It's a movie with stars. It's a movie they normally would buy in a heartbeat. Not to get too conspiratorial, but it hasn't been an easy ride making a movie like this."
So ultimately, Townsend decided to distribute the film independently.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- The world's newest international fugitive from arrest is a wealthy, square-faced man with a PhD. in criminal justice from a university in Texas, and a former hand-holding ally of U.S. President George W. Bush.
But Thailand's ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a bloodless September 2006 coup, blithely strolled the streets of Surrey, England, shopping with his family this week after dodging Bangkok's supreme court.
Seeing Thaksin and his family in Surrey, prompted a local Web site, getsurrey.co.uk, to stress he "is not the first wanted international leader" to appear in their neighborhood.
"Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet holed-up in a mansion near Egham as he awaited extradition to his home country, to answer human rights abuse charges," it said.
Bangkok's attorney general, meanwhile, was considering a seizure of Thaksin's frozen assets -- worth an estimated two billion U.S. dollars.
Thaksin's enemies suspect he and his wife will apply for asylum in England where he owns Manchester City Football Club.
That could complicate a possible future extradition request.
But Thailand's ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a bloodless September 2006 coup, blithely strolled the streets of Surrey, England, shopping with his family this week after dodging Bangkok's supreme court.
Seeing Thaksin and his family in Surrey, prompted a local Web site, getsurrey.co.uk, to stress he "is not the first wanted international leader" to appear in their neighborhood.
"Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet holed-up in a mansion near Egham as he awaited extradition to his home country, to answer human rights abuse charges," it said.
Bangkok's attorney general, meanwhile, was considering a seizure of Thaksin's frozen assets -- worth an estimated two billion U.S. dollars.
Thaksin's enemies suspect he and his wife will apply for asylum in England where he owns Manchester City Football Club.
That could complicate a possible future extradition request.
While eastern Canada suffers unseasonable rains, the west enjoys its average warm/hot summer. In the Middle East however, the heat is rising in the geo-political field.
I noticed an article in the local paper (The Province, Friday, August 15, p. A41) concerning Prime Minister Harper and his claim that Russia is returning to a Soviet-era mentality. That may well be true, but it is only because the Americans adopted their own unilateral, interventionist, first-strike, supreme military "full spectrum dominance" ethos that has proven so disastrous around the world, but specifically in military terms in the Middle East.
I noticed an article in the local paper (The Province, Friday, August 15, p. A41) concerning Prime Minister Harper and his claim that Russia is returning to a Soviet-era mentality. That may well be true, but it is only because the Americans adopted their own unilateral, interventionist, first-strike, supreme military "full spectrum dominance" ethos that has proven so disastrous around the world, but specifically in military terms in the Middle East.
Peace is no more — and no less — than the audacity of sanity, reaching past the dubious geopolitics of national self-interest and standing, as Hank Brusselback did, underneath the ancient bridge in Esfahan, Iran, listening to the men who had gathered to sing.
It's called civilian diplomacy, and it is one way we will create the peace our leaders don't believe we're ready for.
It's called civilian diplomacy, and it is one way we will create the peace our leaders don't believe we're ready for.
Columbus Dispatch articles explaining the 2004 election irregularities all embrace the same formula: ignore the more than 1000 signed affidavits and sworn testimonies of disenfranchised voters; rely only on the word of OSU Law Professor Dan Tokaji who has no background in statistical analysis and who always tells the Dispatch whatever they want to hear; and then apologize for former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and fail to mention what is routinely reported in every other major newspaper in the state of Ohio.
We can't just think we voted and hope we voted. We have to know we voted. And, under present circumstances, most people have no clue as to whether they voted or not. –Journalist Lynn Landes, in STEALING AMERICA
The most difficult part of making a quilt takes place inside the creator's imagination, before she ever picks up her scissors. Every step is meticulously planned; each thread, scrap, color, design, and texture has a specific role to play in the overall scheme. The skill of the quilter emerges in how well the overall design holds together, and how it connects the disparate elements into a unique and aesthetic whole.
STEALING AMERICA is just such a quilt and Dorothy Fadiman is the master artisan. She pieces together an incredible number of details to give us a stunning new perspective on what has been happening to our elections. What we might have originally thought were random events are, in fact, critical parts of an almost invisible but comprehensive plan to subvert democracy by systematically disenfranchising millions of us voters.
The most difficult part of making a quilt takes place inside the creator's imagination, before she ever picks up her scissors. Every step is meticulously planned; each thread, scrap, color, design, and texture has a specific role to play in the overall scheme. The skill of the quilter emerges in how well the overall design holds together, and how it connects the disparate elements into a unique and aesthetic whole.
STEALING AMERICA is just such a quilt and Dorothy Fadiman is the master artisan. She pieces together an incredible number of details to give us a stunning new perspective on what has been happening to our elections. What we might have originally thought were random events are, in fact, critical parts of an almost invisible but comprehensive plan to subvert democracy by systematically disenfranchising millions of us voters.