Condi goes to Liverpool
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2006 16:54 - Category: Anti-war ;
Archive for March 31st, 2006
Abramoff - little reform coming
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2006 16:21 - Category: Unfiled ;
Clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff spent $72 million on political influence, including contributions to about 500 members of the U.S. Congress.
But the Senate isn’t about to reform itself
It is fitting that, on the day that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to jail, a U.S. Senate supposedly jolted into recognizing the need for major lobbyist reform by the Abramoff scandal passed a bill that scrapes a little of the muck off the Capitol building and then engaged in self-satisfied congratulation. Mr. Abramoff earned his roughly six years in jail, but one of the legislative bodies on the receiving end of his illegal overtures still can’t come to grips with its addiction to money and perks.
The system itself is corrupt. That’s why piecemeal reform like that proposed in Kos’ “Crashing the Gate” won’t work. Bringing reformists into a corrupt system in hopes of changing things, yet relying on the same old fundraising system to do it, is doomed from the start. Band-aids do little when the patient has been poisoned, and that’s what D.C. has become, a system poisoned by special interests and money.
As long as profits can be ensured by buying off politicians, politics will be dirty and corrupt. This is a fundamental feature of government under capitalism. It is necessary to go beyond the confines of the bourgeois discourse about the Abramoff scandal and use it to expose the rotten nature of capitalism.
To get rid of people like Jack Abramoff and everyone he was able to buy and sell throughout his career, a new system is neededâ€â€one where no profit motive or ultra-rich ruling class exists.
‘Classic global warming’ over Antarctica
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2006 16:20 - Category: Climate change ;
In the winter sky over Antarctica, scientists have detected a vast cap of steadily warming air, in the first sign that record levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may be trapping heat above the ice sheets of the South Pole.
The temperature of the winter air over Antarctica has been rising at a rate three times faster than the world as a whole, the researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.
Immigration and White Racism
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2006 07:27 - Category: Immigrant rights ;
The Ghost of George Wallace
Sancredo, Sensenbrenner and the extreme, racist, right wing elements they represent were on the verge of a major legislative victory. They were so close they could taste it.
Until La Gran Marcha in Los Angeles.
L.A. - Rally for Immigrant Rights
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2006 07:26 - Category: Immigrant rights ;
Stop Attacks on Immigrants! No to Police-Migra Cooperation!
This Saturday, April 1, 10 am
Costa Mesa City Hall
77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa (Corner of Fair Drive and Fairview Ave.)
From ANSWER LA
Join pro-immigrant and community groups, including the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, at a community rally to protest the city of Costa Mesa’s anti-immigrant policies. Costa Mesa is having the police and Orange County sheriffs cooperate with federal immigration authorities to arrest and deport people due to their immigration status. Following the massive pro-immigrant protest in Los Angeles and student walkouts throughout the week, it is more important than ever to come together in unity to stamp out racist government policies that seek to criminalize immigrants.
Supported by March 25 Coalition, Latino Movement USA, Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, Mexican American Political Association, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and many others.
Costa Mesa is a city with an increasing Latino population governed by a mayor who is an “honorary” Minuteman.He is deliberately implementing anti-Latino policies and among other things, brought an author of neo-Nazi literature into the government.
Humberto Caspa, writer for La Opinion and adjunct professor at CSULB, documents this in the following articles.
Why Things are falling apart in Costa Mesa
Considering the number and size of the groups endorsing this demo, I expect it will be large.
Headzup
Bob Morris @ Mar 31st 2006 07:24 - Category: Unfiled ;
HeadZup.tv, “the first video comic strip for cell phones and iPods”
You can view them on your PC too. Check it out, these are fun, politically-edged 5-10 second mini-videos. I met HeadZup Head John Shay last year at Gnomedex. He was wondering if this idea of his would get traction, now he’s getting distribution deals and award nominations.
