The Largest Minority

June 5th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Stephen is dead on with his characterization of the comically out of touch Libertarian Party, and even goes on to expose why even Libertarian candidate Bob Barr is a shitty libertarian… though from my experience most Libertarians are shitty libertarians. You’ve gotta love the audacity of a man who says people should vote Libertarian because the Republican/Democratic monopoly has ruined this country with bills like the ones he’s voted for.

It’s ashame Mike Gravel didn’t get the nomination, but his National Initiative scared the crap out of the privileged white males in that party who want anything but true democracy in this country.

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May 29th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

South African archbishop Desmond Tutu was sent to Gaza earlier this week by the UN Human Rights Council to lead a long-awaited investigation into the shelling of a Palestinian house in Beit Hanoun by Israeli security forces, in which 19 members of a the same family were killed in November 2006. Archbishop Tutu was sent only days after the incident in 2006 to conduct the inquiry, but was denied a visa by the Israeli government who said the council would politicize the issue by criticizing Israel.

Tutu and his team visited Beit Hanoun on Wednesday to interview witnesses of the attack. In 2006, the Israeli military drastically reduced their ’safety’ margins, despite being warned of an inevitable increase in Palestinian civilian deaths and injuries. This resulted in 19 members of the Athamna extended family being killed by Israeli tank shells as they slept. Tutu will prepare a report to present to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

All 19 of those killed were asleep in their house when the shells struck early in the morning. 14 of the 19 Athamna family members killed were women and children. As the family poured out of their house they were hit by six or seven waves of Israeli shells. The massacre came only a day after the Israeli military had ended an illegal six-day incursion into the town, which had left another 50 Palestinians dead.

After much delay and obstruction, the Nobel Peace Prize winning Archbishop Tutu was finally granted a visa to enter through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Tutu said the 2006 incident was a “violation of human rights in the fact that civilians were targeted,” and also came out against the current Israeli blockade on Gaza, which he said had turned the occupied territory into a “desolate and scary” place.

The blockade, which has resulted in shortages of fuel and basic goods, is a form of collective punishment which Tutu has described as another “gross violation of human rights”. Tutu also said that from his experience in South Africa as an anti-apartheid activist, that “peace came when former enemies sat down to talk”.

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May 16th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

American hero Ralph Nader speaks at Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters on May 12th as part of the Policy Talks@Google series.

May 7th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Senior Editor Paul Jay sits down with economist Leo Panitch to discuss participatory economics. In a truly democratic society, democracy isn’t simply limited to the political process but is incorporated into every aspect of daily life. Workers must essentially own the means of production because capitalism is fundamentally opposed to democracy. Anything less than real socialism in America will equal the collapse of our country, not to mention our environment. For more info on democratizing society, check out the forum on Participatory Society for the 21st Century.

May 3rd, 2008 by Allison Kilkenny

In case you didn’t know, the loss of 20,000 American jobs in April is actually good news. You see, economists had predicted 73,000 jobs would be lost last month, so thank God we dodged that bullet, right?!

In fact, the unemployment rate fell to 5.0% from 5.1% in March. Therefore, the unemployment rate is going down!! Surely, a .1% drop in the unemployment rate means America’s determined locomotive is chugging toward the dawn of a new economic renaissance…right?

These kinds of figures can mislead citizens, particularly when delivered in sound bites by an ignorantly defiant leader. Let’s first consider the possibility that less people are losing jobs because so many people are already unemployed. People can’t lose jobs they don’t have, and I know very few people that have been laid off the same job twice. These kind of polls also rarely consider the underemployed, who are in as much danger of bankruptcy as unemployed citizens due to medical bills.

Finally, the government doesn’t count everyone who is unemployed. Only people who are actively looking for employment are considered unemployed.

Contrary to the philosophy of Reagan Republicans, these unemployed-and-not-looking citizens aren’t all welfare queens. They’re also spouses, veterans, the disabled, and the retired, all of who have nothing in common other than being screwed by the Bush administration. The “unemployed-and-not-looking” also includes the independently wealthy. Yes, believe it or not, some rich people refuse to contribute to the work force. What do we call those people — Trust Fund Queens?
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April 30th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Everyone knows that Jon Stewart is our most important Jew (place that reference), so it was a fairly big deal for him to have Jimmy Carter on his show right after Israel and the Bush administration had denounced him. In the second part of the interview below, Carter disabuses the ignorance commonly held by Americans by first stating that Hamas is eager to talk and possibly recognize Israel. That’s the exact opposite of what you’d expect from the characterization of a fundamentalist terrorist group proliferated in the Western media.

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April 26th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

April 25th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The Axis of Evo is at it again! At a UN forum on indigenous issues, Bolivian President Evo Morales called for a global economic overhaul.

Anyone with even a basic understanding of the forces destroying our planet knows that Morales is exactly right when he says: “If we want to save the planet earth, to save life and humanity; we have a duty to put an end to the capitalist system.” As much as Al Gore and GE would like you to believe, we can’t simply purchase our way out of this problem by buying more efficient products.

Capitalism depends on consumption, but the future of our species depends on conservation. We must embrace a democratic economic system which does not rely on the exploitation of workers and resources if we want to survive. Like watermelons, true environmentalists are green on the outside and red on the inside.

What do the capitalists propose we do to save the environment? Strict property rights. And they say socialists are crazy (well maybe, but at least we’re not stupid).