Shared Sacrifice Weekend: Dahr Jamail on Veterans and Resistance 1/23/2010 - Shared_Sacrifice on Blog Talk Radio

Shared Sacrifice Weekend Dahr Jamail on Veterans and Resistance 1/23/2010 - Shared_Sacrifice on Blog Talk Radio

Our guest on Shared Sacrifice Weekend is Dahr Jamail. Mr. Jamail is the author of 'The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.' Call in, stand up and speak out at (347) 327-9615

Goodbye, John

John Edwards is done for. The only one of the big three in the Dem primaries whom I even remotely agreed with was Edwards. His moral arguments against class inequality were a refreshing contrast to DLC-inspired centrist free trade rising tide lifts all boats BS coming from Clinton and Obama. Sad that he turned out to be even more lecherous than Bill Clinton--which is saying a great deal. Now, if Elizabeth Edwards (bless her) were able to beat the odds and recover, and then decided to run for office, that might be enough to make me reconsider my disinterest in the Democratic Party.

And as a parent, I just have to say that I can't imagine the state of mind under which one would deny the existence of one's own child (and Edwards ain't the only politician who's done that).  Did he think that, because he lost a child, he enjoyed some kind of special status?  Who knows? More importantly, we must continue to struggle for a world where such a decision is truly unfathomable. 

Brown the Creepy

Thanks to my old friend Steve Herro for bringing this one to my attention. Ewwww....
The Buzz Log - The Scoop on Scott Brown - Yahoo! Buzz: "During his victory speech, with his wife and daughters standing behind him, Brown thanked his family for their support. And then things got a little awkward. As his shocked daughters looked on, Sen. Brown said that both of his daughters were 'available.'
Quoting Dad: 'Just in case anyone who's watching throughout the country, yes, they're both available.' He then backed off his comments as the crowd hooted and hollered. 'No, no. No. Only kidding, only kidding. Only kidding, only kidding,' he said. 'Arianna... Arianna's definitely not available.' He then added, 'But Ayla is.'"

Class, Life and Death in Post-Earthquake Haiti

Tom Eley, who has been covering the rescue efforts (both real and fake) in Haiti for the World Socialist Web Site, reports that if you have enough money, you can get in and out of Haiti, but otherwise, you're screwed. From Washington shuts door on Haitian refugees: "The State Department has exempted private charter flights from Haiti from the “anti-terror” requirements. These firms can call in the names of passengers who rent airplanes for as much as $4,000 an hour or can afford $1,000 for a one-way ticket to Florida.
The sheer indifference and cruelty of the US embargo against Haitians coming to the US was underscored by an on-the-spot report broadcast Tuesday by CBS radio news describing thousands of Port-au-Prince residents crowding the beach in a desperate effort to board already overcrowded ferries."

the immediate implications

The Brown victory underscores the need for progressives to become progressives. And that means we need to become unapologetic egalitarians--conscientiously pointing out that the Liebermans, Browns, and Emmanuel-Obamanians are corporatists, explaining why that's wrong and calling them out for it. If you're in the Democratic party, it's a lot harder to do that. We need to rally behind pols like Bernie Sanders, Tony Weiner, Dennis Kucinich, and build, build, build the Greens. We need to encourage all these groups that adhere to socialist theory and practice (SWP, SEP, SPUSA etc) to form a large coalition, multiplying their numbers from a few hundred each to several thousand--a good-sized socialist education corps. And we need to develop street theater and performative protest tactics that politically and aesthetically outshine the tea parties.

And we need to do it now. This is not a "reform versus revolution" question, at least not now. It's a question of immediately re-establishing an egalitarian message and presence in politics and culture.

MLK didn't dig capitalism

And one day we must ask the question, “Why are there forty million poor people in America?” And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society... ~Martin Luther King

Happy MLK day! Toward the end of his life, Dr. King came to realize (and declare publicly) that the real barrier to human emancipation was poverty, capitalism and the gap between the rich and the poor. The best way to continue his legacy is to develop and debate about new egalitarian economic models.

Have a great day.

why the right can't join the fight

Over at the Shared Sacrifice FB page, and elsewhere, there is a discussion occurring about whether tea party participants can be brought over to the side of anti-corporatist struggle. 

Here's the problem: The right can't rebuke racism. They can't rebuke it pragmatically because they'll lose their numbers if they do. They can't refute it philosophically because at the core of conservatism is a desire to return to the way life used to be, which is more racist...and at the core of libertarianism is the belief that people have a right to be racist, and even to build their communities around their racism--they believe anti-discrimination laws, for instance, are a greater evil than racism itself. The very structure of right-wing ideology is stacked against doing what would be necessary to move beyond racism.

As for whether the Tea Party movement can become an anti-corporatist movement, the reality is that the right does not hate corporate power, and corporations are funding the tea party movement, so it can't really become anti-corporatist.

There is one thing rightists could do to fight racism, corporatism, and help build a cooperative, non-hierarchical world: They could become leftists.

WPR Article | Tensions Rise as Voting Looms in Sudan

WPR Article Tensions Rise as Voting Looms in Sudan: "A massacre in Warrap state on Jan. 7, that left at least 139 dead and nearly 100 injured, was the latest clash between the two dominant tribes in the South -- the Nuer and the Dinka. While ostensibly due to a dispute over cattle, Sudan watchers say that the clashes have taken on an ominously political bent. Women and children are figuring prominently among the deaths reported in villages around South Sudan, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres, which suggests that settling political scores, not stealing cattle, is the primary objective of the raids."

Google to stop censoring Chinese searches

The systemic analysis and ideological criticism can wait. We should be pleased with Google's decision, wait to see what the Chinese misleaders' reaction is, and do everything we can to support democratization at grass roots and working class levels. I was fortunate enough to work with mainland Chinese university students at the Asian Debate Institute in Seoul in 2008. There was nothing "programmed" about them. Like all of us, they were conditioned by their contexts, but my conversations with them then, and my continued contact with them on social networking sites now (they negotiate around their restrictions) reminds me that we are all more alike than different, and that people like speaking their minds and sharing information.

It is true, as one comment points out, that Google is merely placing the burden on Chinese internet service providers. Fair enough. Sometimes you have to say "we won't be complicit." And certainly one wonders whether Google would have made this dramatic move if they hadn't been hacked -- their reasoning for this decision is two parts security and one part principle. 

It is true that the busting open of closed societies serves the needs of multinational capitalism. That such a sociological fact could ever serve as a warrant for discouraging the transition from totalitarianism to democracy --even imperfect, bourgeois democracy-- seems unfeeling to me, a kind of prioritization of theory before human understanding. But I may be arguing against opponents who don't exist in this case; I haven't seen any "Google acted in the service of multinational capital" yet. I mean, they did, no doubt. But they also took a defensible stand, and that means something, however safe they were in doing so.

"Yeah, you lay down, I'll get the tennis racket."

This is the funniest thing I have seen in the blogosphere, possibly ever. That it made its way into sudden fame and glory is part of the reason I love social networking. I laughed so hard at some of Adam's outbursts that I was laugh-crying. And Karen's faithful, objective commentary barely hides her sense of mischief--as well as her affection for her husband.

the problem with equivocation

Over on Facebook, Chuck Todd asks: "Why is Reid surviving while Lott didn't? Dems are rallying around Reid; GOPers let Lott wither on vine."

I am no fan of Reid, and no fan of Lott. But to equate either the context or the substance of their respective blunders strikes me as intellectually lazy. Lott publicly said we'd be better off under a Dixiecrat presidency. Reid privately said Obama lacked negative sterotypical traits. Reid's insensitivity is deeply disturbing. But it was a far cry from praising the Dixiecrats.

no words

It speaks for itself, doesn't it?

...a South Carolina Congressman announced this week that he will introduce legislation which would require the deportation of all Iranians living in America.
The Stop Terrorists Entry Program Act (STEP) was first introduced by Rep. J. Gresham Barrett (R-SC) in 2003 [PDF link]. The updated version, he explained in a media advisory, would bar citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Syria from entry into the United States. It would further require citizens of those nations who are legally visiting or residing in the United States to be deported within 60 days.

We'll see where this goes; obviously it's going nowhere in the House, but pay attention to how other pols and parties react to it.

asking stuff

The news stories about allied troops killing Afghani students keeps referring to the scene as a "remote village in Kunar province." Does this village have a name? If so, couldn't someone ask around? Like, a reporter or someone, you know, who gets paid to go places and ask stuff?

For your edification: Song for Arab-Israeli Peace

This speaks for itself, and as long as people like this continue to exist and struggle against the cynical misleadership that threatens them, I will continue to stand up for them.

Former Bush counsel charged in Conn. with trying to kill wife after she sought divorce - latimes.com

Former Bush counsel charged in Conn. with trying to kill wife after she sought divorce - latimes.com

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