The Largest Minority

September 21st, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Not only does this song rock your grandma hard, but the video is especially brilliant and meaningful.

“Empty Walls” is off Serj Tankian’s debut solo album, Elect the Dead. Serj is not only a better singer than you as lead vocalist of System of a Down (currently on hiatus), but he’s also a founding member of the Axis of Justice, along with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. Axis of Justice was formed by the two musicians because they wanted to offer an option for young fans who always seemed to inquire, “I agree with your message, but how can I actually get involved?” As I’ve stated in my bio, I believe that everyone in the public eye, especially artists, have a moral obligation to address the injustices in our world. As Henry Moore once said, “To be an artist is to believe in life.” Serj Tankian is the epitome of what a good artist is – an activist.

August 31st, 2007 by Manila Ryce

August 31st, 2007 by evmonk

It’s a safe bet that Mike Gravel will never be president of the United States. He’s too old, too poor, and too…grumpy. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore him. As anyone who thinks seriously about what’s going on in the world knows, he has a very, very good reason to be grumpy. While the media has focused on Gravel only to poke fun at his disturbing and “cantankerous” demeanor, it’s the major (i.e. wealthy) candidates — nonchalant and unaffected as they are when discussing war and the role the U.S. military machine plays in the world — who are truly disturbing.

Thousands of innocent Iraqis and young coalition troops are maimed or killed each month, millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes (producing the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world), and every single presidential candidate except Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul refuses to even consider whether offensive war should continue to be an instrument of U.S. policy. Whether we like it or not, we are responsible for this madness. We bear some responsibility for each and every life that is extinguished before its time in Iraq. Just thinking about it makes me grumpy too.

If the media and more Americans took Gravel seriously — not necessarily as a candidate, but as a moral leader — our country and our democracy would transform in ways we never thought possible. Instead, even “far left” sites like DailyKos, and their moral leader Markos Moulitsas, write articles which proclaim with the authority of the internet’s most popular political blog, “Mike Gravel is a Waste of Our Time.” Like I said at the beginning, Gravel probably isn’t going to be president. But to say he is a waste of our time — without even considering the courage it took for him to read the Pentagon Papers into the public record during Vietnam, or the courage it takes for him to speak the truth today as best as he can, or how central his warnings are to the future of our democracy — is, well, sad.

This isn’t about voting for Gravel. It’s not about voting for Kucinich or Paul either. It’s about rising above the corporate-sponsored and prepackaged political discourse to make our own decisions about what is right, and what is wrong. Bravo to Gravel for doing just that in his latest, and greatest, message to Americans. (cross-posted on 35 Percenters.) (h/t Truthdig):

July 27th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Taalam is one of my favorite poets. This amazing piece was featured in the documentary “American Blackout” by GNN. It was released in 2006. Animation by Haik Hoisington.

June 26th, 2007 by Calypso

A broken down Iraqi army tank that children have painted on as a colourful protests against war. It sits in the middle of the road from Kirkuk to Suleimaniya.

see more pictures…

June 23rd, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Recently, Steven Spielberg and Maya Angelou came out in support of pro-war candidate, and all-around horrible person, Hillary Clinton. I think most people could care less who Spielberg�s voting for, but Angelou�s endorsement may actually cause a stir among other influential people. Now I know I�m not going to make any friends by being harsh on Maya Angelou, but artists, especially the celebrated ones, need to be critiqued often. Here�s an excerpt from Angelou�s video endorsement which I found to be ridiculously patronizing, especially to women voters. It�s delivered as if she�s speaking to Hillary Clinton.

�Be in this thing to win. You’ve got a lot of help and a lot of people care for you — not just admire you, but really have profound affection for you… ever since you stood up as a woman and said, �Yes, I�m a woman�, phenomenal woman, that�s my mothers and all your mothers, and my grandmothers, and all your grandmothers, and my great grandmothers and yours, and great greats and great greats and all you women here along with Hillary Rodham Clinton AND ME!�

Yes, very profound. I too know why the caged bird sings. It�s telling us to get the hell out of that coal mine. As I’ve asked before, can we look past the fact that Hillary Clinton is a “strong woman” and recognize that she’s actually a terrible candidate? Though perhaps this endorsement isn�t so surprising. In the past, Angelou�s also given her endorsement to Butterfinger and Fruit Loops.

June 8th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

If you look beneath the news coverage of Paris Hilton, you’ll occasionally be relieved to find a story about youths who are actually intelligent, passionate, and propelled by the same motives of the Weathermen of the 60’s and 70’s, to “bring the war home”. In this case, the Iraq Veterans Against the War are achieving this goal in a non-violent manner.

The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, CA is a wonderful place to reenact these scenes. The promenade is a consumer’s paradise for anyone with the ambition it takes to step over the few dozen homeless people they’ll encounter between their car and the Gap. Other than that, it’s a lovely place to detach from reality.

h/t Live FOR the Revolution

May 19th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Jim Kenefick has had an unhealthy obsession with Michael Moore for years, even setting up Moorewatch.com, which sadly boasts that it is �Watching Michael Moore�s every move�. However, the right-wing blogger is much more than pathetic, he�s also a hypocrite. Kenefick recently wrote about the difficulty he was having paying his wife�s medical bills, to which his followers guided him toward a cheaper health insurer. However, he still had trouble making payments.

“Someone e-mailed me and asked if an ‘anonymous’ benefactor could offer to pay my first year’s premiums - $12,000,” Kenefick wrote on his site.

He was skeptical when the check arrived. “I opened a whole new account at my bank, waited for it to clear, checked twice with bank personnel to make sure it wasn’t a scam, and waited a full 60 days before spending the money. At that time, I started drawing on it and paying the monthly premiums until it was gone.”

Now Kenefick has discovered through the NY Daily News that the generous donation came from Michael Moore himself. Moore couldn�t be reached to confirm the revelation, but a friend of his did say, “We sure are happy Jim’s wife received the care she needed.”

Kenefick admitted the 12 grand “was like manna from heaven at that time. … My business was almost dead, my wife was very, very ill, and I was racking up a few little health problems of my own. That money made it possible for us to begin to turn our lives around.”

Still, Kenefick seems to hate the liberal filmmaker even more now that he’s accepted his charity. On his blog, he viciously complains that the money he accepted was pocket change to Moore, and �equal to his ding-dong budget for the week�. Kenefick says he suspected the anonymous patron was Moore from the very start. “I knew he was using me,” said Kenefick. “Moore is going to try to make me into one of his little puppets.”

So if he thought that Moore was using him to promote “Sicko”, then why accept the money in the first place? And how do unpayable medical bills and accepting handouts fit in to Kenefick’s conservative-based denouncement? So far, it�s been Kenefick, not Moore who has blabbed on about the donation. With no word from Moore, and plenty of soundbites from Kenefick, who exactly should we assume is using this donation to further their agenda?

This blogger is the worst kind of human being whose pointless hatred is so deep that he can�t even say “thank you” when his enemy helps him back to his feet. Ironically, if it weren�t for Moore�s $12,000, Kenefick wouldn�t have the resources to continue attacking him. What a douche.

source
h/t Truthdig

I thought it rather relevant to post this HMO clip from the 1st season of Moore’s short-lived 1999 TV show, “The Awful Truth”.