The Largest Minority

October 2nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Obama and McCain both voted to fuck us over with this latest attempt to protect the rich (as if FISA wasn’t enough), but that’s not what’s really surprising given the record and policies of these criminals. What is surprising is that Dennis Kucinich still cares about the common worker but insists on calling himself a Democrat.

Anytime an armchair political expert argues that Nader would be more effective as a Democrat I point to Dennis Kucinich, that scrappy little leftist who’s consistently silenced and neutered by his own party. Time to lose those shackles brother and enact some real change. Drop your support for that corporate shill we all know you hate, stop taking orders from Pelosi, and join your counterpart below. You know you want to Dennis. Walk into the light already.

September 29th, 2008 by Allison Kilkenny

Despite the importance attached to these Presidential debates, the format of the corporately-sponsored bickerfest remains remarkably tame.The debates are hardly in the vein of town hall meetings, John McCain’s bread and butter, and the format he particularly prides himself on. As we learned from Jim Lehrer’s scolding, these debates exist on the opposite end of the debating spectrum where the candidates stand - formal and rigid - behind podiums and refuse to make eye contact with one another.

If we’re to believe that Presidential debates aren’t just another area of the country for the Democrats and Republicans to repeat their stump speeches, then this whole thing must be an exercise in democracy, or something. Except, third party candidates aren’t allowed into the debates ever since the nonpartisan Women League of Voters was ousted by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

In 1988, the Commission was formed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. and then-Republican National Committee Chairman Frank H. Fahrenkopf Jr. The Commission is adorably called “nonpartisan.” Actually, the opposite is true. Though Democrats and Republicans are represented in the group, that means the Commission is partisan toward the interests of Democrats and Republicans. Independents are all but shut out of their meetings.

The new Commission immediately began soaking up donations from mom and pop businesses like Anheuser-Busch and Phillip Morris, and the independence of the debates virtually evaporated overnight.

The sovereignty of the debates is all but gone now, and they are now an exclusive club where the Democrats and Republicans hoard the power of the media between themselves. When Ross Perot managed to scare the shit out of the establishment in 1996, the Commission claimed Perot didn’t have a “realistic chance of winning,” which is the same argument they are now using to keep Nader out of the debates.

Third parties can bust their asses to get 15% of the national polls and hope that they can then get on a nationally-televised debate. However, even then, most surveys don’t list third party candidates as an option, and the media begins the shut-out of thirty party candidates early in the season. Without media coverage, third party candidates are doomed to anonymity. And without media coverage, there’s no chance of getting their 15%.

What we are now left with is an icy, formal debate stylized as a modern Orwellian Hate Week where Obama and McCain will rail against various enemies to our state — something about Osama hiding in a cave…somewhere…probably Afghanistan. Maybe Pakistan. Maybe France. Throughout, the two candidates rarely engage one another, and the audience isn’t even permitted to clap, heckle, or should they feel the need, protest the illegal wars.

That is, if one can even get into the debate. A student at Tennessee Tech University told me the Belmont University debate is being held at the Curb Event Center, which seats 5,500, a much higher capacity than the 500, or so, which is the new cap on attendance. Of that 500, only 50 students are being let in from a waiting list. The rest is reserved for media and those connected enough to score tickets.

Students should take solace in the possibility that they won’t miss much. Between silencing the public and shutting out third party candidates, the Commission on Presidential Debates has done a fine job of breeding dissent from the Presidential debates.

September 27th, 2008 by Allison Kilkenny

Poor Jim Lehrer.

All he wanted was some presidential eye-contact last night during the debates. After the months of smears and vicious ads, Jim pleaded for Obama and McCain to man-up and be forthright with one another.

The candidates seem mystified by their disciplinarian’s insistence they they address each other like human beings and not robots regurgitating their programming codes.

LEHRER: Say it directly to him.

OBAMA: I do not think that they are.

LEHRER: Say it directly to him.

OBAMA: Well, the — John, 10 days ago, you said that the fundamentals of the economy are sound. And…

MCCAIN: (to Lehrer) Are you afraid I couldn’t hear him?

LEHRER: I’m just determined to get you all to talk to each other. I’m going to try.

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September 25th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

While I didn’t get all my edits for our video collaboration with Barely Political into the final product, I do think we were still able to sneak some substance into the normally vacant minds of the adolescents most likely to view this video. The guys at Barely Political were actually quite accommodating to our requests without trying to advance any political agenda. I’m hoping this video will go viral so that we’re able to reach new demographics with a spoonful of sugar. Please share it.

I’m also interested in what you think of Ralph doing videos like this. We obviously don’t want him to look like a clown, but utilizing unconventional means like this are often the only way to get media coverage. Nader can make speeches about policy and strategy all day long (and he does), but finding a way to preach to more than just the choir when both major parties and YouTube itself are actively trying to suppress your message is more than a bit difficult. Surely there is a fine line to walk which I’m constantly in fear of stepping over, as I’m sure other indy and third party campaigns are. Some of you may think we’ve gone over that line already. Feedback is appreciated.

September 24th, 2008 by evmonk

Say what? Here’s the story, straight from the Army Times:

….It is not the first time an active-duty unit has been tapped to help at home…[but] this new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities….

“Right now, the response force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NorthCom, that could change in the future,” said Army Col. Louis Vogler, chief of NorthCom future operations. “Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.”

….They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack….

The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them….

“I don’t know what America’s overall plan is — I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if they’re called,” Cloutier said. “It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has dedicated a force to come in and help the people at home.”

Well that’s nice. The only problem is that I’m pretty sure deploying an active-duty military force within the United States without an extreme scenario that would necessitate it is illegal, and for good reason. It’s not clear what the army will be used for, if anything, but it puts us on a slippery slope, especially if the army is used to repress “civil unrest” and enforce domestic law in instances where state and local authorities are capable of doing so. As the Departments of Justice and Defense jointly stated in 1979:

“The [Posse Comitatus Act of 1878] expresses one of the clearest political traditions in Anglo-American history: that using military power to enforce the civilian law is harmful to both civilian and military interests. The authors of the [PCA] drew upon a melancholy history of military rule for evidence that even the best intentioned use of the Armed Forces to govern the civil population may lead to unfortunate consequences. They knew, moreover, that military involvement in civilian affairs consumed resources needed for national defense and drew the Armed Forces into political and legal quarrels that could only harm their ability to defend the country. Accordingly, they intended that the Armed Forces be used in law enforcement only in those serious cases to which the ordinary processes of civilian law were incapable of responding.”

September 23rd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Listening to hours and hours of McCain and Obama speeches for matching 2 second soundbites is a hellish torture I don’t wish on anybody. Enjoy my latest vid for the Nader campaign or I’ll cry. A lot of soul-crushing work went into this.

h/t to fellow pinko commie scum John Geraghty who provided me with some footage from his Futurama video.

Want to see Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader in the debates? Here’s what you can do about it:

Call Barack Obama at 866-675-2008.
Hit 6 to speak with a campaign volunteer and insist that Ralph Nader and other ballot qualified third party candidates be included in the upcoming Presidential debates.

Then, e-mail the executive director of the Commission on Presidential Debates Janet Brown at jb@debates.org

Tell her to end the exclusionary restrictions and allow Ralph into the debates.

September 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Pepe Escobar picks apart McCain, from his lobbyists, to the economy, to foreign policy.

September 22nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

The following article was written by John Kusumi for OpEdNews

When did everything begin to go wrong in, or with, America? –We will all have different answers for that. There are older Americans who are adamant that the assassination of JFK (President Kennedy, who served 1961-1963) was the turning point when everything went south. As someone who is younger than that, I may be adamant that things went wrong with the presidency of Ronald Reagan (1981-1989). If you are one generation younger than me, you may believe that everything went wrong on September 11, 2001 (when the World Trade Center fell to that day’s deadly attacks).

Mainstream news rarely says anything negative against the legacy of former presidents. As if they are all heroes. I may feel that George Washington was a good president, but that his successor — John Adams, the second president — was lousy. The second U.S. President put into place the PATRIOT Act of its day. (The Alien and Sedition Acts made political prisoners out of those who wrote and published in opposition. Similar to the PATRIOT Act, the Alien and Sedition Acts were overreaching measures, contrary to the spirit of America and the letter of the Constitution. Adams became a one-term president, and the next president repealed the Alien and Sedition Acts.)

But sooner or later, history brings out the truth. The attacks on Pearl Harbor? Roosevelt knew. He knew in advance that the Japanese were coming for that action, and he let it happen. Even though many Americans were killed by leaving Pearl Harbor undefended, it was convenient for Roosevelt to paint the picture of a naked, unprovoked, sneak attack. This made the American people outraged and ready to enter World War II. Looking back, it begins to seem like our entry into war was occasioned by a lie.

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