The Largest Minority

March 26th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Body of War, directed by Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue, is a documentary which tells the story of Tomas Young, a paralyzed Iraq War veteran and anti-war activist coming to terms with his disability. On Tomas’ fifth day in Iraq his unit came under fire in Baghdad. He was paralyzed, released from medical care three months later, and returned home where he became an active member in Iraq Veterans Against the War. The National Board of Review named Body of War Best Documentary of 2007. Previous winners include An Inconvenient Truth, March of the Penguins, Born Into Brothels, The Fog of War, and Bowling for Columbine.

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February 13th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

As my fellow baby-eating pinko readers know, I often post favorably about the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. On Monday, we expanded our vision of South America by delving into an analysis of Bolivia’s revolution with Pepe Escobar. Now ladies and gentlemen, I present you with a documentary from almighty investigative journalist Greg Palast regarding Ecuador’s struggle against The Man.

Palast interviews an indigenous tribe which is suing Chevron for $12 billion for destroying large areas of the Amazon rainforest. Apparently, they got that figure from Doctor Evil, but I sure as hell hope they get every penny. You can’t put a high enough price tag on the Amazon. In fact, there’s a certain paradox I just made up which states that the exact amount of money required to purchase the Amazon would require the Amazon itself to be cut down to provide enough lumber for the paper money. Okay, enough of this jibba jabba. Watch the videos.

In part 2, Palast interviews Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa regarding the lawsuit against Chevron, foreign debt, and his relationship with the US and Venezuela. After marinating in the plastic rhetoric of Obama and Clinton for so long, hearing Correa speak is almost like coming into contact with an alien (the outer space kind you racist bastards). If you want to observe a real liberal in office, you’ll have to look south. We ran out of those in this country decades ago.

February 6th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The ever-elusive Banksy is one of my favorite artists. Unless you’re completely lame, he should be one of yours too.

January 23rd, 2008 by evmonk

Last month I mentioned a site I’ve been working with, Glassbooth.org, which focuses on that critical element of any functioning democracy: information. It’s a fun and intuitive resource for finding out more about the ‘08 presidential candidates, so you should check it out if you haven’t already.

Last week, Current TV started airing a short doc I produced/directed on the young founders of the website. If you’re interested in a quick look at how the site was built, why, and by who, then watch it and let me know what you think.

January 1st, 2008 by J. Milton

The League of Noble Peers has released Steal This Movie II just before the dawn of 2008! For those who have not seen the original Steal This Film, it was an excellent documentary on intellectual property and the Swedish pirate culture. Part two doesn’t really focus on piracy. It is more of a retrospective on the role that information-sharing has played in human culture, as well as a study on the motives of those who try to control that flow of information. You can download the film for free from their website using Bittorrent, or watch it on Google Video. There are some subtitles that get compressed on Google Video, so if you really want the full experience you should download it.

And don’t forget about Part one, also available for download via Bittorrent!

December 29th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

This is the last half of a short 20 minute movie titled The Secret Evil of 9/11. I’m not sure how secret that evil has ever been, but this video does remind us how and why we are where we are today. Like Afghanistan, Iraq is also becoming a forgotten war due to the media focusing our attention on their presidential soap opera of Barack vs Hillary and Britney Spears’ sister getting knocked up.

December 17th, 2007 by Manila Ryce

Our good friend in the struggle and fellow 35%er Davis Fleetwood has been doing some investigative journalism lately into why Dennis Kucinich was excluded from the Des Moines debate. In the great tradition of Greg Palast and Michael Moore, Davis goes straight to the source with a camera to ask some tough questions.

It’s hard to believe the Democratic Party when they say they had nothing to do with Kucinich’s exclusion. Their strategy of capitulation has undermined democracy and consolidated power into the hands of their corporate backers throughout the decades. Inaction has proved to be very profitable. It’s also rather outrageous that a private power can even exclude a presidential candidate with its own criteria to override the constitutional criteria of a country which claims to be a democracy. The process ceases to be democratic the moment business takes control of it. Not only was the criteria of the corporate media based on the financial ability of a candidate to set up a storefront office, but Davis Fleetwood reveals that it wasn’t even consistently applied to all candidates.

Due to this blatant level of fraud, the following did not come as a surprise:

The Des Moines Register’s editorial board has endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton for the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

The Register, Iowa’s statewide newspaper, calls McCain and Clinton the candidates it believes are most competent and ready to lead…

…The Register’s editorial board members who participated in the endorsement process were: Laura Hollingsworth, publisher; Carolyn Washburn, editor; Carol Hunter, editorial page editor; Linda Lantor Fandel, deputy editorial page editor; Rox Laird, editorial writer; and Andie Dominick, editorial writer.

This injustice needs to be further exposed until every citizen is aware of it. Please share this video with everyone you know and sign the petition to the Democratic Party to keep Dennis in the debates. If you’d like to have a word with the Des Moines Register, their contact numbers are listed below:

Editor Carolyn Washburn (515) 284-8502.
Laura Hollingsworth President and Publisher (515) 284-8041
Randy Brubaker Managing Editor (515) 284-8590
Randy Evans Assistant Managing Editor (515) 284-8118
Letters to the editor e-mail: letters@dmreg.com

December 2nd, 2007 by Manila Ryce

To mark the vote taking place today on constitutional reform, I thought I’d offer a little more information on the situation - especially since so many Americans feel the overwhelming desire to bash Chavez over affairs they really know nothing about. The CIA has been fomenting unrest throughout Latin America since the organization was created. A recent memo from a CIA operative in Venezuela confirms that a US-backed coup is in play against the Chavez government. James Petras joins Democracy Now! to discuss the reality of the situation, and what the privileged opposition is actually fighting against.

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