Becuase Everything Else Sucks

Carnival of the Liberals #59 - Liberalism at its Liberalist

By Manila Ryce
Published Wednesday, February 27th, 2008, 3:33 am
Filed under: Personal Posts, World Issues

Welcome to the Carnival.

Before we get started, allow me to briefly explain the content of this particular carnival. As you can imagine, during this election season I received many well-written posts about why Hillary sucks and why Obama sucks. Being the great unifying force that I am, I must insist that we find some common ground in agreeing that they both suck, and that no real liberal is honestly happy with the conservative platform of either senator. This article on election madness is a must read.

Rather than regurgitate the hollow arguments of party leaders and pundits, the posts below focus on real liberal issues. No disrespect is intended towards anyone, but lets remember that this is the “Carnival of the Liberals”, and not simply the “Carnival of the Democrats”.

So, without further Apu, let’s get started.

  1. Alicia Morgan reminds us that our government is potentially democratic. If we don’t like it, we can change it. The same is not true of the tyranny of business, which conservatives praise as their true messiah. This authoritarian viewpoint has infecting all politics and threatens to dismantle the progress we’ve made over the past hundred years.
  2. By expelling liberal issues from the political arena, the system remains unchallenged as we dishonestly speak of change from within our narrow spectrum of debatable topics. The Ridger explains why former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is now getting McKinney’d from congress by the Democratic Party, and why every liberal should care.
  3. Atheist Ethicist examines the moral relativism employed by the Bush administration to justify its use of mock execution. It’s not just the action itself which is troubling, but the fact that their lack of remorse equals a lack of conscience. The same can be said of those who supported the death of over a million Iraqis and still refuse to apologize.
  4. Capital punishment is deemed “murder” when committed by the individual, and “justice” when committed by the state. Though the vast majority of cases are never reopened, the ratio of people being found innocent on death row through DNA testing alone is 1 in 7. ExecutedToday brings us the story of Cameron Willingham, just one of the hundreds of victims of the death penalty.
  5. The extrajudicial killing of a suspected terrorist, which is an accepted tool of American and Israeli government policy, is in direct violation of international law. The only real difference between bombing a suspected terrorist and executing them in Guantanamo is that the latter group has to endure years of torture before they are killed. What do we have to gain by killing them now? Omyma of Thinkbridge has an answer.
  6. The largest terrorist caches ever found were those of just two white US citizens, who possessed a great deal more chemical weapons than have ever been discovered in Iraq since the US-led invasion. Um, so why is Homeland Security only interested in violence committed by non US citizens?
  7. Though sexism and racism have been at least superficially glazed over as topics of discussion during this electoral season, ageism is a topic rarely covered because its victims have little power. Phil B takes a look at the stratification of rights afforded to American citizens according to age.
  8. We’re told that Qassam rocket attacks, which have only killed about a dozen people since 2001, are enough of a threat to warrant the collective punishment of 1.5 million Gazans. Those actually affected by the Qassam attacks are low-income Jewish families, relegated to border cities like Sderot, who’ve also had enough of the Zionist regime.
  9. To borrow an argument from Howard Zinn, the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, may have been promised to us by the Declaration of Independence, but without the right to food, housing, and health care, those rights are meaningless. Gavin R. Putland asks the question: Can you stop paying the mortgage and keep your house?
  10. Feminism is a philosophy of liberation for a historically oppressed group of people, and just like most liberation theory, has been demonized by those in power as a Nazi-esque philosophy of superiority. Menstrual Poetry debunks the feminist myth. True liberal movements which denounce tyranny in all its forms, like Anarchism, are inherently feminist. If you’re a true liberal, you just might be a feminist.


That’s all the chewy goodness Manila Ryce has for you today. Using the carnival submission form, submit your blog article for the next edition of the Carnival of the Liberals. Thanks for visiting.

Peace.

Related Posts

10 Responses to “Carnival of the Liberals #59 - Liberalism at its Liberalist”

  1. Nice carnival, L.M., and thanks for the link (and the welcome dearth of election links). I have to give credit for the wrongful execution post you linked to my friend at Abolish the Death Penalty … he’ll be guest-posting again tomorrow on another troubling modern execution.

    Executed Today
    02/27/08 at 7:46 am

  2. Great post Manila. Interesting articles and unique perspectives all around. Not reading about Hillary or Obama was a refreshing change of pace.

    Loved today’s Nader video too — everyone should watch that. Everyone, including Nader, knows he doesn’t have a shot at the presidency (which Obama should win in a landslide). But the hope is that Nader can push Obama to stop censoring himself. It’s not happening so far, as videos like this one make clear, but Nader’s just getting started. Now if we can just get him into some of these debates…

    evmonk
    02/27/08 at 11:18 am

  3. I surely do hope for an Obama landslide. It would nice to not have to worry about losing another one.

    Comrade Kevin
    02/27/08 at 2:06 pm

  4. @Comrade Kevin

    What do you mean “lose another one”? Corporate America won the last election and they’ll win this one too with an Obama landslide. There is no loss for liberals when we’re not even contenders.

    Manila Ryce
    02/27/08 at 3:08 pm

  5. […] new Carnival of the Liberals is OUT! This one is number #59. One article to which I payed particular attention is from the Atheist […]

    Carnival of the Liberals | Tangled Up in Blue Guy
    02/27/08 at 6:52 pm

  6. As we all know, a Carnival isn’t complete without a stupid comment from Doctor Biobrain. This is it.

    Enjoy!

    Doctor Biobrain
    02/27/08 at 7:11 pm

  7. What do you mean “lose another one”? Corporate America won the last election and they’ll win this one too with an Obama landslide. There is no loss for liberals when we’re not even contenders.

    What you say is true in so far that an Obama win will not likely result in the kind of progress on social and economic issues that you or I might like to see. I think though that almost any Democrat in the White House will do is stop the backslide this country has taken into the 19th C. and prevent it from going all the way back to the 12th C.
    Is that an “anybody but Bush” argument? Perhaps. I think though that what many people have lost sight of is that the period from WWII through to the start of the 1980s was an anomaly in so far as advancements in civil, social and economic justice. What happened during that period happened because of two factors: 1) the people willed it to happen and 2) we had Presidents who if not entirely on our side were at least open to doing the will of the people (even if it wasn’t for the right reasons — after all, Nixon did many fine things in office, such as starting the EPA but rarely because he believed in them). I think 1) is still in place, even if patriotic fervor was co-opted after 9/11 and we need to make 2) a reality again. Anyway, that’s my overly simplistic presentation of my opinion on the topic. I rather suspect I’ll hate a lot of the things either Obama or H. Clinton do as much as I detested some of the things the first B. Clinton did. I just think if we’re to have any hope, then we need to get the lesser of two evils elected. I’d rather have a neo-Liberal in the White House than a fundy Calvinist moron. And believe me, it hurts to write that.

    neuralgourmet
    02/28/08 at 10:52 am

  8. @neuralgourmet

    I am certainly not arguing that there is no difference between Obama and McCain, or in general, the Democrats and Republicans. The Democratic Party accuses liberals who don’t drink their kool-aid as having that overly-simplistic mentality. We see the difference, but more importantly, we see the similarities. The Democrats have become enemies of liberalism, and it should be recognized openly if we ever hope to change it.

    The goal of third-party liberals is not to get a Republican in office. The goal is to stand up as a measure of what liberalism is so that we don’t lose it from sight under neo-liberal Democratic rhetoric. I’ve encouraged my readers in swing-states (if there are any this time around) to adopt the lesser of two evils strategy. However, if you’re in a red or blue state, then not voting for a more liberal third-party is a wasted vote in my opinion. The Dems have never had a more sure victory. If they can’t win this one I suggest they start looking in the mirror before hastily blaming real liberals for voting for real liberals.

    Manila Ryce
    02/28/08 at 12:48 pm

  9. […] The 59th Carnival of the Liberals at The Largest […]

    Daylight Atheism > For Your Reading Pleasure
    03/9/08 at 7:56 am

  10. […] next Carnival of the Liberals will be at Tangled Up in Blue on Wednesday, March 12. Time to get those submissions in! The […]

    Last Call for Submissions | Tangled Up in Blue Guy
    03/10/08 at 3:38 am

Leave a Reply

Tired of filing this information out everytime you leave a comment at the Largest Minority? Why not register as a user? You also get full access to our forum!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>