1 Comment »

ReddHedd at Firedoglake blogs eloquently about the death of the twelve miners. She’s from a mining family, and a lawyer now. Her parents sacrified so she could get an education, but she hasn’t forgotten where she came from or those still there. This is blogging at its best.

No, what I’m talking about goes deeper into who we are, into issues of where we ought to be. And these are issues that Democrats used to be for, in the not so distant past, but they have all but disappeared from the discussion in the last few years. I’m going to talk about this more as time goes on toward the elections in the Fall, but this morning it is eating at me as I listen to local news updates from the mine and find out that the miners left notes for those they left behind — those notes cry out to me to get off my butt and do something

The bottom line is this: there are some really tough choices facing this nation, and we need to approach them carefully because the results of our action or inaction have long-term ramifications for our children. Democrats used to own these issues because they listened to the voices of those people who needed help, who needed a hand up, and who were willing to do the work on their end to get the job done. And they spoke up for them, gave them a voice in the halls of power.

Well, I’ve had it with this divide and conquer strategy, and I’m standing up today to say that this nation deserves better. My child deserves better, and so does yours.

Democrats did used to own those issues. Supporting unions, the poor and minorities. Striving for equal justice. Preserving the social net. But the Democratic leadership, starting under Clinton, have deliberately abandoned those issues in their brain-dead attempt to ‘grab the center’ from the Republicans. All it’s gotten them is less seats in Congress as they cozy up to the Republican agenda.

C’mon Democrats, you can do it. Be a real opposition party. Go back to your roots. Then you will own the halls of Congress again. But this will only happen if you really mean it.

As ReddHedd says, the working class needs a voice in D.C. And it sure doesn’t have one now.  

No Comments »

Why does Amy Goodman (of DemocracyNow)  invite ringtwing pundits for "debates" and "discussions"? Not just a few times, but lately quite regularly. Don’t the Rightwing propagandists have almost all the other platforms already? A majority of people are thirsting for some truthful explanation of their social environment, they are dying for some new ideas, and sick and tired of the same old mainstream typecasting of reality in stupefied, simplified journalism of "two sides of the story." So, why does Amy Goodman mimic the corporate media?

If a clash of opposing ideas is an absolute (and rightful) necessity, then why not have a real, free flowing debate between a Leftist and an extreme Leftist? There are precious few places still standing, where American journalism can save its soul (meaning, seek the truth), so it becomes absolutely imperative to establish as a tenet that government officials do not represent truth, but are agents for maintaining the current system. The journalistic Left should not have any problem reflecting that tenet in the content of its professional activities.

Robert Fisk best put it, "When covering the Sabra and Shatila massacres, I did not give equal time to the murderers who carried out the massacres."

We must create and expand a sense of rightful audacity, such as Cindy Sheehan’s. Who cares what right wing propagandists think of our programs and our views? 

Goodman also appears allergic to having anyone on the show who might speak from a socialist viewpoint. Since she interviews right-wingers whose views she presumably doesn’t agree with, why not socialists too? I find this odd, but perhaps it fits her reformist viewpoint, ie, things have gone very wrong in the system, so let’s fix what’s broken - without any real critique or condemnation of the system itself as being the problem.

1 Comment »

Tyco acknowledges past payment to Abramoff

Manufacturer admits it was source of $1.6 million pocketed by lobbyist

Tyco International, whose former CEO became a symbol of corporate corruption, acknowledged Thursday it is the Jack Abramoff client referred to as "Company A" in court documents describing the lobbyist’s scheme to funnel millions of dollars in lobbying fees to himself.

No Comments »

‘Business as usual,’ says Sue (who researched this post.)

Just over two years ago, the Kenyan trade minister walked out of the World Trade Organisation’s fifth ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

Claiming that he and other delegates from poor nations were being bullied into signing up to an agreement that would have a disastrous effect on development in their countries, he declared that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal.’

In October this year, a mere two months before the sixth WTO ministerial in Hong Kong, a member of the current Kenyan trade delegation was using depressingly similar language.

‘Why should we sign up to something that doesn’t benefit us in any way?’ he asked Christian Aid at a pre-summit session in Geneva.  ‘If there is nothing of interest to us on the table why should we open up any more of our markets or services?’

It was not supposed to be like this.  Rich countries, shocked by the collapse of the Cancun talks, had designated this as the ‘development round’ of trade talks in which poorer countries would at last reap some of the benefits of the free-trade agenda flowing out of Washington and Brussels.  …

Spending time in Geneva, talking to representatives of developing nations, the truth became clear:  rich countries are about to derail another ministerial meeting by trying to force through a series of unacceptable demands.

– Christian Aid News, Winter 2005 Issue 30. (article not on the web)

More from Christian Aid from a few months back on the WTO talks.

Poor nations’ concerns ‘will be ignored‘ by World Trade Organisation

Servicing the rich: How the EU will wreck the WTO talks (pdf)

No Comments »

Deep-sea historical records show abrupt ocean-circulation reversal

Research funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) shows that global climate change quickly may have disrupted ancient ocean processes and could lead to drastic shifts in environments around the world.

This from the loony eco-terrorists at the US State Dept.

1 Comment »