Lou Dobbs: Pure Class

by matttbastard

Apparently at least one American has difficulty participating in the National Conversation About Race without resorting to racial slurs. 

Quelle surprise.

h/t Melissa

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Quote of the Day: Undeniable Logic

by matttbastard

You know, I actually get the perplexity about why those of us defending [Senator Clinton's] right to keep campaigning don’t concede that it’s “obvious” she can’t win and should drop out, and about why we don’t see the “undeniable logic” that, even though Obama might not be able to win outright, either, he’s closer than she is. I really do get the bewilderment. I do.

And I don’t know if I can properly explain why that “obvious” conclusion and “undeniable logic” don’t appeal to or persuade us, but here’s the thing: Lots of us are women who have been told “You can’t” for much of our lives, or had seemingly unnavigable barriers put in our way by people who didn’t want us to succeed. Lots of us are women who, had we played by The Rules, wouldn’t have gotten where we are—because The Rules are designed so that we fail. The odds have been against us our whole lives; everything we’ve ever done has been in defiance of the distinct likelihood—and expectation—that we would settle for less than we wanted.

Our routes have been nontraditional, our strategies neither obvious nor logical by traditional standards. By design, and by necessity.

What if we’d all taken our boobs and gone home, when someone who saw the perfect logic of it told us to…?

Melissa McEwan, Take Your Boobs and Go Home Watch

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Popcorn Sunday: The Fog of War

by matttbastard

This is an amazing film that opens the door into what was really going on when the Kennedy Administration handled the Cuban Missile Crisis… as well as how Vietnam policy dramatically changed once Kennedy was no longer in office. Robert McNamara gives us 11 lessons that America needs to learn so that we don’t make the same mistakes twice.

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A Superficial Antidote to Maxim’s Mindless Misogyny

by matttbastard

Perhaps it won’t heal SJP’s pain, but The Boston Phoenix’s annual 100 Most Unsexiest Men of the Year list does offer some choice smackdowns on a number of decidedly ineligible dickheads (most of whom have likely read Maxim at least once in their lives–solely for the articles, of course).

Re: aging glam metal reality show reject Bret Michaels:

Once accustomed to sloppy seconds, Michaels is now just sloppy: lumpy and oily, headband wound tight to cloak oddly shaped ears and rat’s-nest hair extensions. He resembles Goldie Hawn on steroids, or maybe a swollen bear cub tangled up in a camper’s leftover potty bandana.

And former Fox News blowhard John Gibson:

They say after age 40, you get the face you deserve. And Gibson’s— smirking mouth of yellowy, Chiclet-sized teeth; sallow skin; beady eyes framed by unstylish glasses; hair a cross between that of a televangelist’s and Eraserhead’s — is the perfect match for his twisted personality. It’s not that the Fox News host is conservative; it’s that he’s a prick.

Giggity.

h/t Roxanne

Update: Ok, is it that difficult to spread the sweet, sweet schadenfreude without resorting to cheap shots re: weight and gender identity? Sheesh.

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PSA: CanWest SLAPPs Free Speech

by matttbastard

Via Canadian Dimension Blog:

SERIOUSLY FREE SPEECH COMMITTEE.
Don’t Let Canwest SLAPP* Briemberg and YOU !
Imagine you go to a public meeting on the Middle East; you see a humorous parody of the local daily, pick up a few copies and hand them out. Six months later you are served with a writ of summons that charges you with producing the parody, that threatens to cost you tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, that takes up hundreds of hours of your time and aims to prevent you from expressing your opinions in future. Impossible? A Kafkaesque fantasy? This is what is happening to Mordecai Briemberg in Vancouver today and we need your help to stop it.

In early June, 2007, a parody of The Vancouver Sun newspaper was produced and copies distributed. The parody, a slim four-page edition, coincided with the 40th year of the continuous Israeli occupation of territories it conquered in the 1967 war. The parody focused on the biased media coverage of Israel/Palestine in The Vancouver Sun.

What happened?

Mordecai Briemberg attended a meeting at the Vancouver Public Library to commemorate the event and to oppose the continuing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. At the end of the meeting, on a table, was a pile of tabloid sheets- one sheet, four sides, which parodied The Vancouver Sun — Vancouver’s leading daily and a Canwest publication. We cannot show you the parody without risking being sued ourselves, although we can send you the text of what was in it. So the chill begins.

The banner at the top of the front page dates the issue as “Occupation Day, June 2007”. In place of the usual “Seriously Westcoast since 1912” appears “Seriously Zionist since 2001”, the first full year of Canwest ownership. The parody has a lead article by “P. Rupa Ghanda” titled “Celebrating 40 Years of Civilizing The West Bank” Another article by “Cyn Sorsheep is titled “Study Shows Truth Biased Against Israel”. In these and other articles, including mock ads, there are criticisms of Israeli policies in occupied Palestine and a critique of the Canwest media’s pro Israel policies. On the inside page there is a box with the headline- “Who Produced This Vancouver Sun Parody and Why?” It attributes the authorship of the tabloid to the “Palestine Media Collective, a group of direct action media critics concerned about mainstream media coverage of the situation in the Middle East”. It includes a list of “Some Alternative Media Sources on the Middle East”. It is cleverly done, although it is not a very challenging exercise in media analysis to realize this is not the ‘real’ Vancouver Sun, any more than the “Jean Chrétien” or “Stephen Harper” heard on CBC’s Air Farce were or are the Prime Minister.

There is a long and honourable history of satire and parody as a tool of political criticism and comment from Hogarth and Daumier in the 19th century to Rick Mercer and Stephen Colbert.

Mordecai was amused by the parody, picked up a handful of copies from a table and distributed them at a bus stop near his home. That was the sole extent of his involvement.

Legal Suit

The Canwest suit lists a print shop and Mordecai as named defendants, and then pads the list out with six unnamed defendants: John Doe #1, John Doe #2, John Doe #3, and Jane Doe #1, Jane Doe #2, Jane Doe #3. While ostensibly centering on a commercial violation of trade mark, the charges read like a political attack. They assert that Mordecai and the six John/Jane Doe defendants have been involved in “anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian media activities”, and have written or spoken “harshly critical of the State of Israel and of the plaintiff and anyone who publishes articles or views which the defendants perceive to be contrary to their own views”. In Canwest’s Writ of Summons Mordecai’s name is repeatedly linked to Canada Palestine Support Network, a group that is not even alleged to have anything to do with the parody. They demand a sweeping variety of remedies including an injunction restraining the defendants from “publishing injurious falsehoods by way of newspapers or other publications, on the internet or otherwise”.

Is Canwest to be the arbiter of “falsehood”? Imagine the implications of that for the Charter right to free speech. Galileo had a similar problem with the Pope on the question of whether the sun revolved around the earth or vice versa.

Answering the accusation of being involved with the creation of the parody, Mordecai responds- “I have always been proud to publish anything I have to say under my own name, and to hold myself accountable for my words, ideas and actions. But, I had nothing to do with the conception, creation, production and financing of this satire and have no idea who did”. The lawyer for Canwest has confirmed in writing that they have no documents whatsoever showing Mordecai Briemberg’s involvement in any of the allegations made against him. Yet Canwest still refuses to drop their suit! So… for the act of picking up and distributing a handful of parodied copies of the Vancouver Sun, lying on a table at a public meeting, Mordecai has been taken to court by a media giant with unlimited financial resources and a big time grudge against any criticism of Israel.

Why Mordecai Briemberg?

Mordecai Briemberg is a long time activist in peace and social justice causes. His activism goes back to the early sixties when he joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as a student in the UK on a Rhodes scholarship. Continuing this anti-nuclear work, he was a public part of the international campaign to free the Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu and contributed to the creation of a professional theatrical production about him. He has a long involvement with anti-racism work: in Canada combating racism against first nations peoples and immigrants, internationally against apartheid in South Africa. And this includes combating the racism of Israeli state policies and practices against Palestinians.

Mordecai has written for magazines and papers, published research, spoken at union conventions, churches, peace forums, universities and colleges, been interviewed on television and radio, interviewed others on radio, organized demonstrations, organized public meetings for, among many others, internationally renowned Palestinians like the poet Mahmoud Darwish and the intellectual activist Dr. Naseer Aruri, Jewish-Israelis like the late Professor Israel Shahak, chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights and Michel Warshawsky founder of the Alternative Information Center. In short, Mordecai has been a prominent, vocal and effective voice in the intense debate about how to achieve peace and justice for Palestinians and Jews in historic Palestine. That is why they are going after him!

Who is CANWEST?

Canwest is the largest media conglomerate in Canada. What they don’t own is a shorter list than what they do. They describe themselves as “Canada’s largest publisher of paid English-language paid English-language daily newspapers with an estimated weekly readership of 4.8 million people. Our papers include the National Post, ten major-market dailies and several community newspapers.” They own the Global television network, the History, Food and Showcase channels and through various shareholdings are involved with many more outlets in every medium. If you read or watch the news, chances are just about certain, you read or watch Canwest news. In Vancouver, where this case is based, they own about seventy percent of the news outlets- from dailies to weeklies to television.

The company is owned by the Asper family of Winnipeg. Founder Israel (Izzy) Asper died a few years ago and the company is now in the hands of his son Leonard. Father and son were/are passionate Zionists and make sure that what they own echoes what they think. In an interview in the Jerusalem Post in August of 2003, Izzy Asper stated: “In all our newspapers…we have a very pro-Israel position…we are the strongest supporter of Israel in Canada”. For more about these folks and their political views you can look for The Asper Nation- a book by Marc Edge, published by New Star Books or The Tyee on line issue of Nov, 23, 2007- “The Asper Slam on News Media,” one of three Tyee excerpts from Marc Edge’s book.

Why should I care?

If you believe in freedom of expression on any topic and have ever expressed a view contrary to the status quo you should care a whole bunch. This is what has been called a *SLAPP suit- Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. The concept and acronym were coined in the eighties to describe a tactic used by the rich and powerful, governments or corporations, to bully critics and shut down public discussion by threatening dissidents with legal costs and broad prohibitions against speaking out.

If they can bully Mordecai, they can bully you! Whatever the subject, whatever you say, Canwest’s actions set a dangerous precedent for any and all who express an opinion someone with money disagrees with. Canadian troops in Afghanistan? Environmental issues? Aboriginal rights? Tasers in the hands of the police? You name it; they can sue you. They may not win but it will cost you plenty in time, money and the stress of wondering if that article or speech will land you in a whole mess of trouble. Its intent is to bully those who don’t own media conglomerates and have legions of lawyers on retainer, i.e. YOU!

What can I do?

• Don’t let Canwest intimidate you into silence. Get this document, electronically and in hardcopy, out to as many people as you can, in all walks of life, so that those who share a commitment to defend, maintain, and use the democratic right of free speech know of this case.
• Sign our statement demanding Canwest drop its legal suit against Mordecai Briemberg and stop its harassment. Circulate the petition far and wide, amongst friends and coworkers. Encourage others to do likewise. You can sign-up on line at info@seriouslyfreespeech.ca .
• Write letters to Canwest and mail them c/o their lawyer: David Church, Church & Company, 900-1040 West Georgia Street, Vancouver British Columbia, V6C 3H4, Canada. Please copy Seriously Free Speech Committee with your letters.
• Join the Seriously Free Speech Committee if you live in greater Vancouver.
Contact us at:
Seriously Free Speech Committee,
PO Box 57112,
RPO East Hastings Street,
Vancouver, B.C.,
V5K 5G6
Email: info@seriouslyfreespeech.ca
Website: www.seriouslyfreespeech.ca
• Contribute financially to help defray the unavoidable legal costs. Make donations payable to: “Seriously Free Speech Committee” and mail them to the address noted above.

Where can I find out more?
We have a dossier on the case which includes the text of the parody, the writ, background materials on Canwest and the Aspers, etc. We will be happy to send it to you in either electronic or hard copy. This and more information will be posted on our web site noted above.

In solidarity,

Brian Campbell and Jef Keighley
Co-Chairs, Seriously Free Speech Committee

———————————————————————————————————-

Who is the Seriously Free Speech Committee?

The Seriously Free Speech Committee (SFSC) has been formed specifically to counter a politically motivated campaign by the Canwest media group to punish and silence Mordecai Briemberg because of his long-time public advocacy for what he believes to be the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. The founding core of the SFCC are individuals within Greater Vancouver involved in progressive political work both domestically and internationally The SFSC does not advocate for any particular analysis of the contentious issues concerning Israeli and Palestinian rights and practices; nor are we proposing some single, specific resolution of this humanly costly conflict. Rather the committee unites around a commitment to advocate for open and public discussion of these issues. When a broad spectrum of perspectives and information are made available for consideration — free of harassment, intimidation or censorship — people at large can reflect on these and draw their own conclusions. The SFSC recognizes that monopolization of media ownership in our society is antithetical to the expression and sharing of diverse opinions. The Seriously Free Speech Committee welcomes all who broadly agree with our aims and perspective to support and join this work to achieve success.

h/t Toedancer @ Bread and Roses

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Re: the Rise of the Right (Major League Asshole Edition)

by matttbastard

Dubya and Deadeye’s favourite political correspondent, Adam Clymer, talks about his new book, Drawing the Line at the Big Ditch: The Panama Canal Treaties and the Rise of the Right.

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Say It Ain’t So

by matttbastard

Why, Mike, Why?

Seriously, over the past several weeks I could feel the Gravelmentum building up within the ranks of the Democratic grass roots. If only he’d waited till the convention. The superdelegates may have come to their senses and chosen the *ahem* most experienced candidate, the only one who had a chance of beating McCain at shuffleboard, the only white male Democrat left in the race!

Now we’ll never know what might have been.

Sigh.

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The Southern Surge

by matttbastard

This is interesting:

According to senior sources, the offensive [in Basra] was launched three months before [Lieutenant-General Mohan al-Furayji, the Iraqi commander leading the battle against the Mehdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr] had wanted it to, and despite him warning that going in too early would result in the fighting spreading to other Shia strongholds. It was not the first time the general had been at odds with the Baghdad government. Mr Maliki had considered removing him from his post four weeks ago, but desisted after lobbying by the British.

British commanders were unaware of the operation until just before it began, although the Iraqi government’s national security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, had spent half an hour discussing the plan with General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, on Saturday evening. This was followed by Mr Maliki ordering two extra Iraqi infantry battalions to Basra that night.

[...]

 

Last week, Lt-Gen Mohan was in Baghdad, putting forward his case for establishing security in Basra before taking on the Shia militias. As well as additional resources and securing the Iranian border, it would have involved Mr Maliki announcing a weapons amnesty for the militias in June, possibly lasting as long as six weeks, as opposed to the 72 hours given when the offensive began on Tuesday.

As Laura Rozen noted this past Tuesday, al-Furayji announced the impending southern operation last wee, although he kept the timing vague (“soon”). Apparently his preferred schedule was stepped up against his wishes. One can’t help but wonder if the timing is somehow related to the next Crocker/Petraeus report, scheduled to be presented to Congress April 8-9.

Cernig also observes the following:

“The security situation is worsening.” Well, if retired General Jack Keane, one of the architects and chief propagandists for the Surge, says it’s so, then it must be.

Indeed, one would think. Of course, one should never reflexively discount positive White House spin (unless one is secretly rooting for the terrorists):

The Bush administration hailed an Iraqi offensive against Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra as a ``bold decision” that shows the country’s security forces are capable of combating terrorists.

[...]

“This is what we have been wanting to see the Iraqis do,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters in Washington yesterday. “This is one of the first times that they’ve had such an entrenched battle and we’ll be there to support them if they need it.”

The fighting is a test for Iraqi forces, who took over responsibility for security in Basra from the U.K. military in December. Iraq’s ability to tackle extremists will influence the pace at which the U.S. withdraws its forces from the country, as the conflict enters its sixth year.

Despite the feigned optimism re: Iraqi forces coming from Washington, Keane believes the Brits should hold off their planned withdrawal from Basra until the security situation stabilizes. However, according to David Axe, the likelihood of UK troops playing a significant future role in the region isn’t great–and the US knows it:

With no forward bases, no intelligence apparatus in the city of Basra, less nimble equipment and no political will to suffer a single additional casualty in Iraq, the roughly 3,000 Brits remaining in the country can do little but wait out the current fighting.

Which means any Western intervention in Basra…will have to be mostly manned by U.S. forces. Specifically, U.S. Marines, according to one AFP report.

There were signs that U.S. planners were preparing for this eventuality months ago. Despite steady cuts to British forces at Basra air station, construction continued on new facilities, including dining halls capable of feeding thousands of troops. British soldiers openly speculated that the new buildings were for the Yanks who might one day replace them in southern Iraq.

In other words, expect a heavy US troop presence in Iraq for the near future (ie, at least the rest of ’08).

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Quote of the Day: Paradise Lost

by matttbastard

There’s an old saying. You can never go home again. In a sense, I have always beleived it to mean that “home” will never be the same as you remember it. Home is the time in which you live. This is our time.

We have pretty much fucked up the environment, along with the generations that came before. There are some who want to regress the social advances we have made.

They want to return to a time where wimmens “knew their place” (dictated by men, of course) and have no control over thier own bodies. Where we shut down immigration to only those they “approve” of. The rich would get richer, while the middle class dissapears and the poor become poorer and more beholden to those who have complete power over them. Where they own all of us.

Its pretty obvious just by reading history that no matter how much control the Church has exerted over people, people pretty much still do what people will do.

Who wants to go back there with them?

- pale, You can never go home again

RTWDT (Read The Whole Damn Thing) rules apply.

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Lakoff: “This authoritarian model of the family is a disaster”.

by matttbastard

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‘This is a Billy Joel Song’

by matttbastard

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Opposition

by matttbastard

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Also, George Bush is still a dickhead, and the surge’s “success” may not be all it’s cracked up to be. Don’t act so shocked.

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On Beavers and Stallions (or Why I’m So Afraid That Erica Jong Has Lost It)

by matttbastard

Huwhut?

We have two great candidates–one a hard working, never give up eager beaver, and one an inspiring, heart-leapingly brilliant stallion. Both have their merits. Both care for what Democrats are best at caring for–working people, children’s and women’s rights, financial realism.

[...]

The stallion makes heart-stopping speeches. And the beaver just beavers along. remembering how she won over upstate New York when everyone called that impossible. And called her a carpetbagger. And the stallion is drunk on his own rhetoric. Why not? It’s great rhetoric.

We need beavers and we need stallions. Beavers get the work done. Stallions inspire us. And they both have limitations. Stallions have fragile legs (think Barbaro). And beavers are nothing without their teeth.

Jesus. It’s carrot sticks and onion rings all over again, substituted with vagina dentata and mandingo. Much like everybody’s favourite tenured floor-pisser, I think we’d all be better off if, in the future, Erica Jong kept her id zipped up, too.

h/t Zuzu @ Feministe

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Popcorn Sunday: Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada’s Genocide

by matttbastard

“…This documentary reveals Canada’s darkest secret – the deliberate extermination of indigenous (Native American) peoples and the theft of their land under the guise of religion. [A] never before told history as seen through the eyes of this former minister (Kevin Annett) who blew the whistle on his own church, after he learned of thousands of murders in its Indian Residential Schools…”

hiddenfromhistory.org

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John McCain on “Bomb Iran” Controversy: “Get a life.”

by matttbastard

So sad to see that Muckraking Journalist™ John King is apparently still being forced to lob softballs at the Maverick by the powers-that-be. I feel your pain, brother. Cry freedom!

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Typical Vultures

by matttbastard

Elle wins the internets:

For all the people holding on to Obama’s “typical white person” comment as if it prize carrion and you are starved vultures… Stop fronting. You are not as much concerned with what that comment meant as you are:

1) glad to have an acceptable excuse for why you can’t possibly vote for him (knowing damned well you weren’t in the first place)

2) peeved (as I read over and over) that neither HRC nor McCain “could make that comment about a person of color.”

In fact, you’re so up in arms over point number two that you fail to realize that saying that reveals what kind of comment you’d like to make; that you do, indeed, have some notions about a “typical person of color.” I mean Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton wouldn’t be as upset as you predict if you said something positive about the “typical black person.”

And though it seems Obama’s comment has been taken out of context, even if he had been saying the typical white person has “racist issues”… Stop fronting. You haven’t been spouting that “I’m colorblind” line so long that even you actually believe it now, have you? You don’t believe that the vast majority of white Americans can have been born in a country founded, in part, on white supremacist ideology (ideology that has been reinforced, perpetuated, upheld, SUSTAINED!) and emerged into adulthood having neither benefited from nor internalized any of that?

Stop!

h/t Melissa

Related: More on The Rules from David Neiwert (Rev. Sun Myung Who?)

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No Torture, No Exceptions

by matttbastard

In the wake of September 11, the United States became a nation that practiced torture. Astonishingly-despite the repudiation of torture by experts and the revelations of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib-we remain one… . What once was shocking is now ordinary.

Steve Xenakis, Peter Bergen and Carl Ford discuss the essays they wrote for a special issue of The Washington Monthly (PDF here) that calls upon the US to end its current pro-torture policy.

Related: Justine Sharrock has more on the impact ambiguous US interrogation policy had on soldiers who served in Iraq and became unwitting participants in a real life Stanford Prison Experiment.

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“Two Hours of Obama Bashing”

by matttbastard

Hmm–sounds like Mike’s boy might be trying to opt out of his contract. Also, I don’t think Gretchen Carlson really wants to delve into the subject of double standards. She just wants to drop a retaliatory ‘n’-bomb on Obama (“OMG so not fair!!11″)

Yep, this is about as deep as the National Conversation About Race™ (aka “WTF Obama’s Black?!!1) gets on Fox & Friends.

More from HuffPo and Think Progress.

Update: John Amato isn’t buying Chris Wallace’s newfound journalistic ethics:

[B]eing kind of cynical about FOX, I wonder if Wallace is speaking out because he’s been crying that Obama won’t go on FNS.

Considering the positive reception Wallace’s remarks have received from the Obama campaign, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the junior senator from Illinois show up on Fox News Sunday in the near future.  Let’s just hope he considers the consequences of dealing with the devil. (Ease up, kids–that was a Marlowe reference, not Nation of Islam rhetoric.)

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Unsustainable Mythology

by matttbastard

Anti-racist activist Tim Wise slices through the bullshit re: Jeremiah Wright’s “controversial” sermons with surgical precision:

What Jeremiah Wright knows, and told his flock–though make no mistake, they already knew it–is that 9/11 was neither the first, nor worst act of terrorism on American soil. The history of this nation for folks of color, was for generations, nothing less than an intergenerational hate crime, one in which 9/11s were woven into the fabric of everyday life: hundreds of thousands of the enslaved who died from the conditions of their bondage; thousands more who were lynched (as many as 10,000 in the first few years after the Civil War, according to testimony in the Congressional Record at the time); millions of indigenous persons wiped off the face of the Earth. No, to some, the horror of 9/11 was not new. To some it was not on that day that “everything changed.” To some, everything changed four hundred years ago, when that first ship landed at what would become Jamestown. To some, everything changed when their ancestors were forced into the hulls of slave ships at Goree Island and brought to a strange land as chattel. To some, everything changed when they were run out of Northern Mexico, only to watch it become the Southwest United States, thanks to a war of annihilation initiated by the U.S. government. To some, being on the receiving end of terrorism has been a way of life. Until recently it was absolutely normal in fact.

But white folks have a hard time hearing these simple truths. We find it almost impossible to listen to an alternative version of reality. Indeed, what seems to bother white people more than anything, whether in the recent episode, or at any other time, is being confronted with the recognition that black people do not, by and large, see the world like we do; that black people, by and large, do not view America as white people view it. We are, in fact, shocked that this should be so, having come to believe, apparently, that the falsehoods to which we cling like a kidney patient clings to a dialysis machine, are equally shared by our darker-skinned compatriots.

As they say, read the whole goddamn thing.

h/t Racialicious

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With a Name Like That Yr Never Gonna Make It Big!

by matttbastard

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Quote of the Day: The Vortexes of Rancor

by matttbastard

A racial divide, once lived, dwells in the deepest parts of the psyche. This is what was captured by Barack Obama’s pitch-perfect speech on race. Slavery was indeed America’s “original sin.” Of course, “the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow” lives on in forms of African-American humiliation and anger that smolder in ways incommunicable to whites.

[...]

It takes bravery, and perhaps an unusual black-white vantage point, to navigate these places where hurt is profound, incomprehension the rule, just as it takes courage to say, as Obama did, that black “anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.”

Progress, since the Civil Rights Movement, or since apartheid, has assuaged the wounds of race but not closed them. To carry my part of shame is also to carry a clue to the vortexes of rancor for which Obama has uncovered words.

I understand the rage of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, however abhorrent its expression at times. I admire Obama for saying: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.”

Honesty feels heady right now. For seven years, we have lived with the arid, us-against-them formulas of Bush’s menial mind, with the result that the nuanced exploration of America’s hardest subject is almost giddying. Can it be that a human being, like Wright, or like Obama’s grandmother, is actually inhabited by ambiguities? Can an inquiring mind actually explore the half-shades of truth?

Yes. It. Can.

Roger Cohen, Beyond America’s Original Sin

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Five Fncking Years.

by matttbastard

I don’t have anything coherent or constructive to offer; my desire to comment upon this godforsaken war evaporated several months ago. I’ll just echo Hil’s suggestions:

[T]his might be a good occasion to donate to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, Fisher House, the Wounded Warrior Project (for veterans and their families); or the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Direct Relief, or the American Friends Service Committee (for Iraq and Iraqi refugees.) The AFSC also has a list of refugee resettlement agencies in this country. There aren’t a lot of Iraqi refugees here, much to our shame, but if someone from Darfur or the Congo is trying to start a new life in your community, it would be worth giving them a hand.

Finally, if you didn’t get around to it before, you can still send a check to the Capt. Thomas Casey Children’™s Fund, P.O. Box 1306, Chester, CA 96020. That’s the fund set up for the children of CPT Thomas Casey, who was killed with Andy in Iraq.

Killed.

With Andy.

In Iraq.

Five years on and the motherfuckers still sing the same goddamn song. And still the cycle continues.

“Noble”?

“Necessary”?

“Just”?!

Fuck you, George. And the horses.

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RIP Arthur C. Clarke 1917-2008

by matttbastard

(click image for BBC obituary)

“All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom that they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.”

- The City and the Stars (1956)

Update: Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Gerald Jonas on Clarke’s passing.

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Completely Unrelated to the Presidential Election Campaign (Alas)

by matttbastard

Hey, remember those missing CIA interrogation tapes?

Anyone?

Er…Bueller?

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The Speech

by matttbastard

Seems like everyone and their dog has something to say about The Speech, including nu-school academic racist Charles Murray, who *gasp* loved it (buh?!):

Has any other major American politician ever made a speech on race that comes even close to this one? As far as I’m concerned, it is just plain flat out brilliant—rhetorically, but also in capturing a lot of nuance about race in America. It is so far above the standard we’re used to from our pols…. But you know me. Starry-eyed Obama groupie.

The end is nigh.

John Derbyshire, responding to a portion of Obama’s speech that references school segregation, provides a more traditional National Review perspective on race (h/t Mini-Marty @ The Plank):

It’s true that there is widespread school segregation today. In my state, 60 percent of black students attend schools that are at least 90-percent black. From what I can see, the main reason for this is the great reluctance of nonblack parents to send their kids to schools with too many black students (emphasis added). Do you think that they — actually we, as my wife and I share this reluctance — are wrong to think like this?

Perhaps sensing that he may have crossed the fine line between dog whistle and rape whistle (oopsie), Derb has since quietly updated his post:

From what I can see, the main reason for this is the great reluctance of nonblack parents to send their kids to schools with too many black students, which they assume are beset by all the problems associated with poorly run public schools.

O…k…thanks for clearing that up. Now step away from the shovel, asshole–slowly. Oh, and put down the well-thumbed copy of Lolita too while you’re at it.

Best comment goes to DDay @ Hullabaloo (h/t Tom Watson):

I have a problem with these expected blog posts on expected speeches that the dynamics of 21st-century campaigns demand. This election has turned into some kind of bizarre series of rituals, like an season of Greek theater where everybody knows the plot and the audience is left to judge the work on the presentation. The parade of comment, counter-comment, conference call about comment, distancing from comment, and major speech incorporating remarks about comment is the real distraction in this campaign, diverting from a looming economic recession (a recession at BEST) and a tragic stalemate in Iraq. Rarely does anything good for the country come out of this exchange.

Furthermore, I’m sick and tired of this “action figure” conservatism where a bunch of stay-at-home bloggers decide for others what they should do in particular situations. “If I were Obama, I would have stood up during the sermon and fired a poison dart at Rev. Wright and talked about the need to cut the capital gains tax!” The imagined fantasies of these clowns resemble a Chuck Norris movie, when the realities involve far more Cheetos and nasal spray.

Can I get an amen?

Elsewhere: More analysis from Pam Spaulding, Melissa, Kyle, dnA (who was pleasantly surprised by the content of The Speech), publius, Steve M., Taylor Owen, Steven Taylor, Jill Hussein C. and the usual shit-load of citizen pundits @ Memeorandum.

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‘Arrogant’: The New Uppity

by matttbastard

dnA’s broadcasting on the same frequency re: Ron Fournier:

You know, if there’s anything that can keep Barack Obama from being president, it’s the downright smoldering resentment some people feel at seeing a black person in a position of authority–let alone the position of authority.

It’s kind of like they way white sportscasters talk about black athletes–they hate the swagger, the confidence borne of jumping the extra hurdles America tosses in your path. Professional sports organizations have spent more than a century trying to cut that swagger and style out of the sport by changing the rules at every opportunity, so it’s no surprise that they’d do the same thing in politics.

So John McCain saying he’s doing “The Lord’s work in the city of Satan” is sincere and down to earth, while Obama joking about his charisma is “arrogant”.

Or, as Steve M rhetorically puts it, “[j]okes, Ron. Jokes. Or are only white people allowed to be ironic?”

(Must. Resist. Simple. Answer.)

Also see John Cole and Robert Stein, both of whom also heard Fournier’s whistle blowing loud and clear.

Elsewhere: Attaturk provides some other recent examples of thinly-veiled insinuations from mainstream pundits that Obama is just another uppity negro arrogantly oozes entitlement, while this Kos Diary from February 2007 (OMGWTFBBQ?! someone took the kid gloves off prematurely?!) screen-captures Salon with its slip showing (oops!):

So much for Bill Bennett’s backhanded post-Iowa compliments.

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Pac-Man Is Loving It

by matttbastard

CHOON!

Update:

This is tha REmix!

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Race Bait and Dog Whistles

by matttbastard

Shorter Ron Fournier: “The boy’s a bit too uppity for my liking. Doesn’t know his place, if you know what I mean.”

Jesus wept. Talk about walking a thin line.

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Popcorn Sunday: Why We Fight

by matttbastard

WHY WE FIGHT, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. It is an unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a [who's] who of military and beltway insiders. Featuring John McCain, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnson, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle and others, WHY WE FIGHT launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise of the American Empire. Inspired by Dwight [Eisenhower's] legendary farewell speech (in which he coined the phrase military industrial complex), filmmaker [Eugene] Jarecki (THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER) surveys the scorched landscape of a half-[century's] military adventures, asking how and telling why a nation of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war. The film moves beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why…does America fight? What are the forces political, economic, ideological that drive us to fight against an ever-changing enemy? Frank Capra made a series of films during World War II called WHY WE FIGHT that explored Americas reasons for entering the war, Jarecki notes. Today, with our troops engaged in Iraq and elsewhere for reasons far less clear, I think its crucial to ask the questions: Why are we doing what we are doing? What is it doing to others? And what is it doing to us?

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The Rules: Hagee Rewind

by matttbastard

My selekta:

“White evangelical Ministers are free to advocate American wars based on Biblical mandates, rant hatefully against Islam, and argue that natural disasters occur because God hates gay people. They are still fit for good company, an important and cherished part of our mainstream American political system. The entire GOP establishment is permitted actively to lavish them with praise and court their support without the slightest backlash or controversy. Both George Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sent formal greetings to the 2006 gathering of Hagee’s group.

By contrast, black Muslim ministers like Farrakhan, or even black Christian ministers like Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are held with deep suspicion, even contempt. McCain is free to hug and praise the Rev. Hagees of the world, but Obama is required to prove over and over and over and over that he does not share the more extreme views of black Ministers.“

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A “stunning lack of clarity and consensus”.

by matttbastard

As the lily-white political class continues to evaluate Obama’s denouncing rejection of Angry Scary Negro du jour Sister Soulja Rev. Jeremiah Wright (while remaining curiously silent about Rod Parsley, McCain’s virulently racist and homophobic “spiritual guide”), Kai Chang takes a wide-ranging, nuanced look at how race (and racism) have played out thus far in this primary season.

A sample:

It seems to me that one of the principal sources of confusion when it comes to racial disourse is the stunning lack of clarity and consensus regarding the exact meanings and definitions of the words “racism” and “racist”. Those of us who spend significant time doing anti-racist work end up developing a variety of nuanced concepts surrounding these words, but many people never explore those meanings and instinctively respond to talk of racism with strong emotions and weak understandings. Racism is a complex multi-dimensional interdisciplinary subject which cannot be reduced to an absurdly-shallow bifurcation of the populace into laudable “not racists” and condemned “racists”. Racism is an overarching, interlocking set of economic, political, social, and cultural structures, beliefs, and actions which systematically advantage one racial group at the expense of all others. A statement, thought, belief, assumption, or action can be described as racist when it plugs into the overarching grid of racism, like a node which lights up once it plugs into its compatible network, thus transcending an individual act of bigotry or prejudice and fusing into broader institutions and societal forces.

As for defining what makes an individual person “a racist”, I think it’s a pretty fuzzy area, and not a particularly fruitful intellectual direction. Most anti-racists are much more concerned with identifying, understanding, and dismantling racism, than in exposing any individual as “a racist”, whatever that means. Clearly, there are hate-crime types out there who organize their lives around advancing white supremacist violence and such; but most of the racism that people of color deal with in our day-to-day lives — especially those of us who interact with a lot of white liberals — is far more subtle and covert, more of a background buzz than an in-your-face threat. White liberal racism tends to manifest in unspoken assumptions, attitudes, and social dynamics which normalize and center white privilege, while deprioritizing, marginalizing, and dismissing the voices, perspectives, experiences, histories, cultures, agendas, and initiatives of people of color. White liberals who engage in these behaviors aren’t “racists” in the same sense as the hate-crime types, but they are nevertheless participating in the replication and perpetuation of racism. Pointing this out is not “playing the race card”; it is accurate socio-political observation. Pointing this out is not the same as running around indiscriminately shouting “racist!” at every white person within earshot in some kind of rageful frenzy; it is constructive anti-racist critique aimed at illuminating an important but dimly-lit pattern, for the purpose of healing wounds which continue to bleed our society and our own humanity.

Of course, as briefly intimated by Chang, there are certain individuals out there who proudly fly the flag of prejudice (and ignorance/indifference) in a manner that defies nuance and complexity.

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Ah, the Romance!

by mattttbastard

Just when you thought Dubya couldn’t get anymore douchier:

“”I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy [Afghanistan] succeed.”

“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.”

As Hilzoy notes, the lame-duck-in-chief previously expressed a chicken-shit hawk perspective re: frontline service that is completely at odds with his recent Churchillian pose:

“I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment, nor was I willing to go to Canada, so I chose to better myself by learning to fly airplanes.”

Mister Leonard Pierce proceeds to layeth the smacketh down:

Every living male in my family other than me has fought in a war — Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf or Iraq. None of them exactly regrets his service, and there’s a wide range of opinions among them about politics and the necessity of the various wars in which they fought. It’s not a homogeneous group by any means, with plenty of die-hard liberals and plenty of stone-ribbed conservatives. But not a fucking one of them in a million years would describe their wartime experiences as “romantic.”

Courage; it couldn’t come at a worse more convenient time.

h/t Big Media Matt

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Quote of the Day: ROE Reversal

by matttbastard

“We’re disrupting the lives of our veterans with this occupation, not only the lives of Iraqis. If a foreign occupying force came here to the U.S., do you not think that every person that has a shotgun would not come out of the hills and fight for their right for self-determination?”

- Iraq veteran Jason Hurd, speaking @ Winter Soldier: Iraq/Afghanistan

Related: The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness; Tom Hayden on Lt. Col. David Kilcullen and the revival of the Phoenix Program in Iraq; Tom Engelhardt preemptively commemorates the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War.

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PSA: Fight Back Against Anti-Choice Op-Eds and Articles

by matttbastard

from the ARCC-CDAC

Hi everyone, There’s been a steady stream of anti-choice op-eds and articles published in the media lately, regarding Bill C-484, which passed Second Reading in Parliament on March 5. This bill would create a separate offence for killing a fetus when a pregnant woman is attacked. It endangers abortion rights by creating fetal personhood, and would also interfere with the autonomy of all pregnant woman.

We’d like your help in countering the anti-choice misinformation around this bill. We’d also like to show support to the writers opposing the bill.

Could you please take a moment to write a letter or letters to the editor? Below are links to recently published pieces as well as how to send your letters. If you need the full text of an article, let us know (some papers require that you purchase online articles.)

Letters should be brief, forceful, and meaningful in expression – pithy.
Providing your unique or provocative perspective will increase the chance of publication.

The receipt and publication of many, many letters would certainly send a clear message of opposition to this bill to both the media and the public. Please also cc your letter to your MP.

For further information on the bill, visit our website at http://www.arcc-cdac.ca

From the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada info@arcc-cdac.ca

————–

Today’s bullies – yesterday’s feminists
Barbara Kay, National Post Published: Wednesday, March 12, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/sto … ?id=368477
Letter to the editor:
http://www.nationalpost.com/contact/let … the+Editor

Layton keeping eye on Stoffer regarding unborn-child bill Stephen Maher, The Chronicle Herald, Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/1042959.html
Letter to the editor: letters@herald.ca

Anti-abortion billboard branded ‘misleading, false’
Joe Matyas, London Free Press, Sun Media, Published: Tuesday, March 11 http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegi … 1-sun.html
Letter to the editor:
http://lfpress.ca/cgi-bin/comments.cgi? … &s=letters

Epp elated to see bill head to committee Park MP vows to continue fight to make bill law in spite of NDP axe during second phase Michael Simpson, Sherwood Park / Strathcona County News, March 11, 2008 http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/News/383058.html
Letter to the editor:
http://cgi.bowesonline.com/pedro.php?id=22&x=contact

Canadian women need a fetal homicide law
Suzanne Fortin, National Post Published: Monday, March 10, 2008
http://www.nationalpost.com/todays_pape … ?id=364293
Letter to the editor:
http://www.nationalpost.com/contact/let … the+Editor

A killer of two; Fetus deserves legal status when mother is murdered Posted By Hoy, Claire
http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDi … x?e=939059
Letter to the editor:
http://www.thesudburystar.com/feedback1 … orialemail

IWD 2008: so many butts to kick, so little time Rabble staff, Rabble, Published: March 8, 2008 http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.sh … 328&rXn=1&
Join the online discussion at:
http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb. … 4&t=001355

Bill to protect ‘the unborn’ is the wrong approach Antonia Zerbisias, The Toronto Star, Published Friday, March 7, 2008
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/310182
Letter to the editor: lettertoed@thestar.ca

Unborn-rights bill passes new stage
Mia Rabson, Winnipeg Free Press, Published Friday, March 7, 2008 (also printed in Victoria Times Colonist) http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ … 0088c.html
Letter to the editor:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/info/l … index.html

Pro-choice radicals oppose ‘unborn victims’ crime bill Parliamentary vote stirs up abortion debate Mark Hasiuk, Vancouver Courier Published: Wednesday, March 5, 2008
http://www.canada.com/vancouvercourier/ … =15586&p=1
Letter to the editor:
http://www.canada.com/vancouvercourier/letters.html

Good reasons for all sides to support this unborn bill Lorna Duek, Globe and Mail, Published: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ … login=true
It appears you need to be a ‘Globe Insider’ to write online letters to the editor at the Globe and Mail. But, if any of you are…

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The Rules.

by matttbastard

It’s only worthy of great weeping and gnashing of teeth if a Scary Black Man™ says it. Don’t believe me? Check out John Sidney McCain III’s “spiritual guide”:

First John Hagee, now Rod Parsley; at this rate, McBush could openly court Matthew Hale’s old congregation without consequence. ‘God damn America’? Sounds about right to me.

(Geraldine who?)

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