The Largest Minority

February 23rd, 2009 by Manila Ryce

The Obama administration has surprised many of its supporters (while confirming the suspicions of many rational people) by embracing key parts of the Bush administration’s illegal policies, including indefinite detention, kidnapping, and invoking state secrets privileges. Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald joins Democracy Now! to address this abuse of power while Jane Mayer of the New Yorker plays the role of standard Obama apologist as she begs the audience to give the president the benefit of the doubt while hypocritically denouncing the very same policies when they occurred under Bush.

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December 3rd, 2008 by Allison Kilkenny

Written beside the American creed of hating terrorists and loving the Irish and Italians should be the footnote and we ignore poor people. Poor people always get the shit end of every deal usually because they can’t get the attention of politicians or pundits, and because of this the poor people in New Orleans and India have a lot in common.

India has more than 100,000 millionaires, and is creating new ones at a rate rivaled only be Russia. Meanwhile, nearly half of Mumbai’s 14-18 million residents live in slums. In the United States, poor people suffer under a specialized caste system that masquerades as a functioning democracy. In the good ole’ US of A, the top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.

Yet, in the 2008 election, neither major candidate uttered the word “poor” in the thousands of hours clocked speaking into cameras. But the sickness of ignoring the poor goes beyond John McCain and Barack Obama. The United States government and the corporate media systematically ignore the suffering of the poor, too.

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September 10th, 2008 by evmonk

Rarely does the entire world agree, but Obama v. McCain has produced a global consensus! Okay, there were only 22 countries polled, but still…

If we can momentarily put aside our obvious preference for neither of the major party candidates, we’ll see that something important and perhaps unprecedented is happening. The world, speaking in unison, is pleading with Americans to elect Obama. The American people, like all people, are prone to manipulation by clever media campaigns, scare tactics and political chicanery. But I genuinely believe that while we were dumb enough to elect Bush…twice, 2008 is the last straw. Let’s make sure that this clear conviction from the rest of the world becomes a theme over the next two months. If Americans understand the depth and passion behind public opinion around the world, they won’t make the same mistake thrice.

Anyway…I’ve pulled out what I feel are the highlights of the poll below and after the break, and the full report (PDF) is definitely worth skimming if you’re interested in this type of thing.

All 22 countries in a BBC World Service poll would prefer Democratic nominee Barack Obama elected US president instead of his Republican rival John McCain. Obama is preferred by a four to one margin on average across the 22,000 people polled.

The margin in favour of Obama ranges from just 9 per cent in India to 82 per cent in Kenya. On average 49 per cent prefer Obama to 12 per cent preferring McCain. Nearly four in ten do not take a position.

The poll also explored the expected impact of the US election. In 17 of the 22 countries surveyed the most common view is that, if Barack Obama is elected president, America’s relations with the rest of the world are likely to get better. If John McCain is elected, the most common view in 19 countries is that relations will stay about the same as they are now.

A similar poll conducted for BBC World Service by GlobeScan ahead of the 2004 US presidential election found that, of 35 countries polled, 30 preferred to see Democratic nominee John Kerry, rather than incumbent George Bush, elected president. At the time, the Philippines, Nigeria and Poland were among the few countries to favour Bush’s re-election. All three now favour Barack Obama over John McCain….

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July 2nd, 2008 by John Geraghty

The South Central farm is a great model to look back on when we talk about self sufficiency in an urban climate, the creation of community democracy, and the race to save the environment. However, there are always forces to overcome when we dare to take steps towards true independence.

Being an Irishman, the creation of a community farm in the heart of South Central L.A. was not a scheme that I was previously aware of, but something that I can definitely digg. The farmland was unfortunately demolished to make way for a Wal-Mart warehouse. Yes, as if we needed more of those in the world…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH7wA5Olo18

June 28th, 2008 by D.C.

Warning: This post may contain a Canadian point of view.

Grouping of copyright and Supporting PaperworkCopyright Symbol and Supporting Paperwork Printed copyright symbols over registered copyright forms, document frames

GH Wise ©2007

Did you ever wonder why Canada introduced a new Copyright Bill recently even though in the past the public disapproval of a similar bill caused it to be squashed? Well there is a very good article on Canada.com that purports the United States has a hand in getting the maple leaf nation to quickly pass a controversial copyright law.

Michael Geist (the very same Michael Geist that started a Facebook group petitioning against the original changes to the Copyright legislation) argues:

The public campaign was obvious. U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins
was outspoken on the copyright issue, characterizing Canadian copyright law as
the weakest in the G7 (despite the World Economic Forum ranking it ahead of the
U.S.).

The U.S. Trade Representatives Office (USTR) made Canada a fixture on
its Special 301 Watch list, an annual compilation of countries that the U.S.
believes have sub-standard intellectual property laws. The full list contains
nearly 50 countries accounting for 4.4 billion people, or approximately 70 per
cent of the world’s population.

Most prominently, last year U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and John
Cornyn, along with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, escalated the
rhetoric on Canadian movie piracy, leading to legislative reform that took just
three weeks to complete.

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June 27th, 2008 by evmonk

Global Voices, a unique blogging project started by Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, is holding their yearly conference in Budapest for the next two days. Today the conference panels are focused on the censorship and freedom of expression online. Tomorrow there will be a number of panels on citizen media and the use of web2.0 to improve the political process, build community, and bridge the language barrier. The entire even is being streamed and liveblogged, and archived video of every panel is available here. If you’re interested in this stuff, there are some great speakers and discussions. But remember that these are bloggers and technophiles, so their presentations aren’t always the most entertaining.

If you haven’t heard of Global Voices, check them out. They aggregate and review blogs from around the world and then organize the best posts by region and topic, in addition to having a general feed.

May 18th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

I’m a day late, but it’s important to celebrate the third anniversary of MP George Galloway giving US lawmakers a much-needed ass kicking. Galloway is a real anti-war hero and proponent for human rights. He not only spoke up when it was politically inconvenient, but went head first into the belly of the beast to do so directly to the US Senate. Fearless public figures like him are responsible for real change (not meaningless Obama-esque “change” that looks nice on a bumper sticker). For the first 6:30 minutes Galloway’s blood is brought to a slow boil. Enjoy the magic once they finally allow him to speak.

April 15th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Unlike two cowardly former American presidential candidates, leftist Mexican candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador refused to accept the results of a stolen presidential election in his country in 2006. There have been two separate governments in Mexico ever since.

Last week, the legitimate leftist government of Mexico stormed both chambers of Congress to protest a bill pushed through by illegitimate President Felipe Calderon, which would open Mexico’s national oil company to privatization. Mexico’s oil industry was nationalized in 1938, but now Calderon wants to allow US corporations in. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador drew a line in the sand, saying Mexico was not for sale and that the opposition government would not allow the privatization.

Since last week, leftist deputies and senators have been camped out on the floors of both upper and lower houses of Congress. Calling off a brief hunger strike, the protesters rejected a proposal by members of President Felipe Calderon’s National Action Party and the Institutional Revolutionary Party to debate the privatization for 50 days followed by a vote in an extraordinary session. They instead demanded that a wide open national debate take place. Why, that crazy idea almost sounds like democracy.

Mexico is the fifth largest producer of oil, a resource which constitutes 40% of the nation’s federal budget. The US-backed bill to privatize Mexico’s oil industry will threaten the country’s sovereignty even further, but that is hardly of concern to Mexico’s corrupt politicians who are amongst the highest paid in the world and immune from criminal prosecution.

Rather than give a brief mention to the two conflicting governments in Mexico and the building potential for a revolution, American corporate media channels like CNN have instead decided to play reruns of Obama’s pastor. Oh, that guy sure is scary America. Know what’s even scarier? All of Mexico is plotting ways to leave their country and steal your job, and that’s all you need to know about the country.