Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Battling LDS Bigotry
Gay Mormons petition church to end homophobic bigotry.
Preening Pride
Some might ask what it is we love about San Francisco. Today's San Francisco Weekly article about what vehicles San Francisco elected officials will be riding in this weekend's (Gay) Pride Parade pretty much says it all.
Advancing Equality
Forty years since Stonewall, the fight for equality continues. Watch the video documenting the highpoints of gay liberation.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Fighting Military Recruitment
Northern California leads the way in fighting military recruitment of minors, despite opposition from the US Department of Defense.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Breaking the Bank
The FRONTLINE special Breaking the Bank, while perhaps factually correct, proposes a meta-narrative at odds with reality.
While it may be true that the Secretary of the Treasury is exercising plenary powers with a heavy hand, it isn't like the Congress and White House weren't in it up to their necks for the last thirty years. The deregulation that led to Ponzi schemes, bailouts, bribes and bonuses -- exceeding by far all other corruptions in our history combined -- wasn't accidental; it was bought and paid for by lobbyists in the halls of Congress. And that didn't end when the banks were "forced" to take hundreds of billions of tax dollars to supposedly avoid economic Armageddon.
While FRONTLINE is to be commended for naming names, it should be chastised for creating false illusions about the corrupted state of our federal government.
While it may be true that the Secretary of the Treasury is exercising plenary powers with a heavy hand, it isn't like the Congress and White House weren't in it up to their necks for the last thirty years. The deregulation that led to Ponzi schemes, bailouts, bribes and bonuses -- exceeding by far all other corruptions in our history combined -- wasn't accidental; it was bought and paid for by lobbyists in the halls of Congress. And that didn't end when the banks were "forced" to take hundreds of billions of tax dollars to supposedly avoid economic Armageddon.
While FRONTLINE is to be commended for naming names, it should be chastised for creating false illusions about the corrupted state of our federal government.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Obama the Fraud
Equality California looks at Obama the fraud.
Self Defense
The million plus indigenous peoples of Colombia plan to establish a 100,000-member pan-tribal police force to protect indigenous communities from armed violence by the army, vigilantes, guerrillas and drug-dealers.
The Price of Ponzis
A graphic representation of wasted wealth.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Welcoming Criminal Enterprise
In 2003, the United States and Israel bullied Belgium into abolishing universal jurisdiction used to prosecute war criminals and perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Today, the United States, Israel and China are pressuring Spain to do the same. The plan of these perpetrators of international crimes is logical: if no country will hold them accountable, they can continue to act with impunity; the world then becomes a welcoming place for transnational criminal enterprise.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Report from Peru
Center for World Indigenous Studies correspondent Mirjam Hirch -- attending the Traditional Medicine and Mental Health conference -- reports from Tarapoto on the tense situation between the Peruvian government and the indigenous communities of the Western Amazon.
Separate and Unequal
Chicago teachers file suit against Obama's plan to privatize public schools. In perhaps his greatest betrayal of people of color, Obama has colluded with financial moguls to create separate and unequal private schools with public money that would be allowed to discriminate against under-performing and special needs students. Yet another example of Obama's commitment to Wall Street and abandonment of main street.
Doing Their Part?
Human Trafficking Project examines the role of state level policy and education in bolstering federal level enforcement of anti-trafficking laws.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Equality California
Equality California is fighting back. Give them your support.
Seriously Screwed
As California schools and health clinics lay off teachers and nurses in the wake of President Obama's banking scandal, San Francisco's Nancy Pelosi strong-arms Democrats to support Obama's warmongering. Ironically, the $100 billion bonus to the war industry proposed by Pelosi and Obama would easily prevent the health and education crisis in California and much of the country. Seems Obama and Pelosi's priorities are seriously skewed; meanwhile, average Americans are seriously screwed.
Close Wars Open Doors
The war parties have had their way for far too long; the earth is destroyed and humanity extinguished. We need health and education, not wealth and incarceration. Close the wars and open the doors; give the peace parties a chance.
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Troubles
BBC lays out the main events of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. RTE provides background to the struggle for civil rights in Ulster.
Indispensable Enemies
For those having difficulty getting their minds around the behemoth bipartisan betrayal now catapulting us into calamities of Soviet proportions, there is help available. As noted in this synopsis by Sanders Research, if you only read one book about the American political system, it should be Indispensable Enemies by Walter Karp.
Colonial Roots
Michela Wrong talks about the corruption of Kenya, the role of the World Bank in sustaining African tyrants, and the colonial roots of the present pattern of political relationships.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Time to Stir It Up!
Imagine their surprise when Obama supporters found out he was closer to Clarence Thomas than to Bob Marley. Now, following President Obama’s lead, Governor Schwarzenegger proposes turning California into Argentina. Everything for the criminal banking industry, nothing for the working poor.
Time to stir it up!
Time to stir it up!
Peace and Freedom
Celebrating its 42nd anniversary, the Peace and Freedom Party of California -- founded during the Summer of Love -- is holding a National Organizing Conference on Saturday August 1, 2009 in San Francisco. Donations welcome.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Bipartisan Betrayal
Bipartisanship is a criminal enterprise. It can't be reformed anymore than garbage can be rehabilitated into fresh, wholesome food.
Watching Sinn Fein climb from an outlawed party in the final colony of Great Britain, to the strongest party in Northern Ireland, gives me hope that a party of liberation may yet emerge in America to defeat our corrupt bipartisan military state.
At present, there is not even a public discussion about liberating ourselves from this corporate tyranny. Maybe as the bipartisan betrayal creates homelessness and hunger on a scale not seen since the 1930s, Americans will muster the gumption to assume their responsibility.
Watching Sinn Fein climb from an outlawed party in the final colony of Great Britain, to the strongest party in Northern Ireland, gives me hope that a party of liberation may yet emerge in America to defeat our corrupt bipartisan military state.
At present, there is not even a public discussion about liberating ourselves from this corporate tyranny. Maybe as the bipartisan betrayal creates homelessness and hunger on a scale not seen since the 1930s, Americans will muster the gumption to assume their responsibility.
Chinese Totalitarian State
Human Rights in China documents the recent suppression of lawyers who represent clients denied human rights. The government of China has responded to this unwelcome phenomenon by not renewing their license to practice law. Like the many jailed writers in China, lawyers are now experiencing detention and harassment by the Chinese totalitarian state.
Freedom Writers
Some people lead the way into the battles for freedom with oratorical or organizing skills; others use charisma and courage to inspire and show the way. Less visible, while in plain sight, are the writers who attack the ideological barriers to freedom, articulating the grounds for the defiance that follows. These voices of the human spirit are what I will call the Freedom Writers.
Margaret Atwood
James Baldwin
Vine Deloria
Nadine Gordimer
Friday, June 12, 2009
Justified Turmoil
As the governments of Peru, the United States, and Canada attempt to defeat the indigenous peoples of the Amazon with military violence, the media netwar takes on new dimensions. While Peruvian government propaganda attempts to red-bait the indigenous movement, Real News exposes the North American oil and mining corporations behind the Peruvian state violence, and answers the question about who really benefits from unregulated Free Trade. As indigenous communities prepare to defend themselves from further massacres, a general strike and student uprising in support of indigenous sovereignty has Peru in justified turmoil.
Private Hearing Public Lynching
On the continuing saga of Professor Perry Mills, the appellate court ruling in his favor has forced the Western Washington University board of trustees to mobilize mainstream media for a public lynching. The trustees, caught with their pants down in violation of the Washington State Administrative Procedures Act, are now attempting to avoid an investigation into the official cover-up that culminated in the private hearing used to secretly convict an innocent whistle-blower.
Western's legal counsel did not make a mistake, she made an example. As a state attorney, following the Administrative Procedures Act is one of the first things taught in law school. Her harping on the faculty handbook is merely a means of throwing up flack to confuse the issue.
But she is just a mouthpiece for the WWU Trustees, doing their bidding to silence a whistle-blower. By making an example of Professor Mills, they have clearly signaled other faculty that criticizing the top brass will be severely punished.
Western's legal counsel did not make a mistake, she made an example. As a state attorney, following the Administrative Procedures Act is one of the first things taught in law school. Her harping on the faculty handbook is merely a means of throwing up flack to confuse the issue.
But she is just a mouthpiece for the WWU Trustees, doing their bidding to silence a whistle-blower. By making an example of Professor Mills, they have clearly signaled other faculty that criticizing the top brass will be severely punished.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Restoring Community
Decolonization is a spiritual battle for the restoration of community. Creating an authentic life requires consistency and a commitment to traditional ways of being. There is no easy pathway.
--CWIS associate and Victoria University professor Gerald Taiaiake Alfred, Joe DeLaCruz Chair for Indian Government Development, speaking at Arizona State University, March 23, 2009 on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community.
Half of a Yellow Sun
With the Shell settlement for complicity in murdering Nigerian human rights activists in the news this week, we thought that readers might enjoy getting to know the country on a more personal level. We can think of no better way of doing so than by reading Half of a Yellow Sun, one of the best novels ever written.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Laughing to High Heaven
Every now and then, Patrick "Kidman" Hartburg would blow through Whatcom Falls, or we would travel the backroads of Puget Sound to the Forest Service office in Darrington where he worked, and the rest of the day would be history. Whether listening to his tunes on the concertina, or following one of his stories about backwoods mule etiquette, or simply enjoying the splendor of an autumn day in the woods, Patrick always brought unbridled good cheer to a gathering. My favorite image of him is bucking back and forth in the front yard on our feisty Mexican bronco, all the while laughing to high heaven. God bless ya, Pat.
Humanity Extinguished
As US oil corporations (with the eager assistance of criminalized governments) murder indigenous peoples in the Canadian Prairies, the Niger Delta, and the Amazon Basin, American consumers face a moral dilemma: Is driving for recreation a value-free activity, or is it creating demand for innocent bloodshed? As much of the First World driving habits are by choice rather than necessity, the answer seems clear. If tribal peoples are expendable in that consumer choice, then humanity has been extinguished from our relations.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Money for Murder
Shell settles for complicity in murder of Ogoni. Niger delta struggle continues.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Colonial Pie
Phil Lucas, the late and legendary Choctaw filmmaker, once remarked that American Indians -- after five centuries of colonialism -- have learned very well how to divide and conquer themselves. The most effective way, the one taught in Christian boarding schools and reinforced in racist legal regimes, is to deny other Native Americans their inherent identity, thereby limiting those who can have a slice of the colonial pie.
But beyond the dysfunctional value of greed instilled by the European Americans, the systematic division of enrolled Indians and recognized tribes from unenrolled Indians and unrecognized tribes, has been a malicious method of subverting solidarity between all who share a Native American identity.
Identity is an important thing to protect and nourish if we want to create a healthy society from the ruins of bigotry and genocide. I may not be an Irish citizen, but my Irish heritage is vital to my sense of belonging in this world; living in their tribal homeland without tribal citizenship or recognition must be devastating for someone raised as Native American.
If tribes want to limit enrollment by blood quantum or other means, that is up to them, but attacking those who want to honor their heritage from Native America without attempting to claim benefits is a serious mistake, especially when the values of indigenous peoples worldwide are assailed by church and state and markets bent on destroying everything they hold sacred. Finding ways of generating greater unity is what we need, not further division.
We are only as strong as our friendships.
But beyond the dysfunctional value of greed instilled by the European Americans, the systematic division of enrolled Indians and recognized tribes from unenrolled Indians and unrecognized tribes, has been a malicious method of subverting solidarity between all who share a Native American identity.
Identity is an important thing to protect and nourish if we want to create a healthy society from the ruins of bigotry and genocide. I may not be an Irish citizen, but my Irish heritage is vital to my sense of belonging in this world; living in their tribal homeland without tribal citizenship or recognition must be devastating for someone raised as Native American.
If tribes want to limit enrollment by blood quantum or other means, that is up to them, but attacking those who want to honor their heritage from Native America without attempting to claim benefits is a serious mistake, especially when the values of indigenous peoples worldwide are assailed by church and state and markets bent on destroying everything they hold sacred. Finding ways of generating greater unity is what we need, not further division.
We are only as strong as our friendships.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Fossil-Fueled Mobility
This paper on the Western Amazon describes the relatively intact bioregion as one of the, if not the, most biologically diverse areas on the planet. It also describes the relationship between the four states, U.S. oil corporations, and the indigenous inhabitants under international law. As consumers of 90% of Amazon oil, Americans might want to know the imminent devastation and likely genocide is part of the price paid for their fossil-fueled mobility.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Obama Supports Genocide
While Obama does a photo op in Germany with President Merkel commemorating the Jewish Holocaust, the Obama Administration back home continues to block recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples of America under international law. By ignoring the American Indian Holocaust, President Obama supports genocide through US agencies like the Department of Interior, where theft of Native American mineral resources continues to this day. Obama's Department of Justice could end this criminal enterprise that perpetuates poverty on reservations, but instead chose to follow his predecessor in fighting resolution of Indian trust accounts.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Separation from Reality
Four decades later, Guy Debord's 1967 treatise Society of the Spectacle remains one of the most profound analyses of modern humanity. Oblivious to the deepening separation of industrial civilization from reality, even scholars of ongoing social disintegration rarely mention Debord's penetrating insights and ideas. As another generation of state-educated children lose the capacity to think for themselves, keeping the intellectual fires burning remains a formidable task.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Outrage
Outrage, the new documentary on gay Republicans in Congress reveals the hypocrisy of the anti-Gay movement in America. Using homophobia as a tool for acquiring political power, while simultaneously hiding their own homosexuality, may soon be a thing of the past for fundamentalist Christian politicians. Gay America is fighting back.
Spotting Che
As you can see, I left a comment on Che Spotting. Then, when walking my dog, I spotted a Che window decal in green, not the usual red and black. Must be the Northern California version. I also came across a photo of Che Guevara, M.D.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Shining a Light
Nicolas Dot-Pouillard examines the Anti-American, Anti-Israeli, Christian-Islamist alliance in Lebanon, and its potential for redefining national interests in the Middle East. Making sense of the multiplicity of authentic constituencies that comprise Lebanon's political landscape, Dot-Pouillard presents a world of autonomies negotiating their own future, a reality completely outside the experience of most Israelis and Americans. Historically a religiously tolerant region, the indigenous peoples on the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean are shining a light on the religious bigotry imposed on the Middle East by European and American colonialism.
Monday, June 01, 2009
American Chernobyl
In three weeks, I'll be visiting the most contaminated site in North America for a family reunion. According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation contains 60% of the highly radioactive and chemical waste in the United States, and one million gallons of that waste has already leaked into the groundwater. That groundwater is moving into the Columbia River, where one million people live downstream in communities that rely on the river as the source for their municipal water supply. American Scientist has the details.
