Entries Tagged as 'Politics'
Two Good Documentaries
Hulu has two free documentaries which are necessary viewing whether you’re conservative, liberal, radical, communist, or an independent weirdo.
- The Corporation – The beginning of “too big to fail” which is anathema to capitalism. It starts out sounding heavily left and critical but gives a fairly balanced view. The film was made by Canadians.
- Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky’s voice is usually censored from mainstream media which is anathema to free speech. Interestingly, also largely made by Canadians.
You have to put up with ads but that’s free TV. Feel free to discuss anything in these documentaries here or on hulu.
Uncle Wiggly’s Talk
(This photo means a lot to me because at the time it was taken, a friend was inside.)
On Obama’s SOTU speech, he sounded good but he is a tool of the village. He could have remade politics in his first year but he chose status quo. The U.S. presidential pulpit is more powerful than the pope’s and he chose to rubberstamp a lot of what George W. Bush did. The financial industry is lord because of their bonuses and political contributions and even taxes on those bonuses. They rule because money equals speech and those with the most money speak the loudest. Given the continuing war obligations pledged, I don’t see how there is anything left for the American infrastructure, energy, and job creation talked about.
The European Worker Perspective
I picked this up from the comments of a Huffpo story about a court ruling that you can’t fire someone over a slice of cheese.
Unions are un-American. That is why the American worker will go lower and lower to be a good American. Working for peanuts is the American dream, from dishwasher to millionaire. Over here in Europe we have socialism; that is really bad. You are fully covered health insurance wise, get 4-6 week mandatory fully paid vacations and other goodies. While we travel the world in our free time, the American worker has to have up to 2 jobs to make ends meet. As long as you keep believing whatever bull you are fed, you will be happy in the land of the fee and the home of the slave.
But wait! This is America where Fox News is the most trusted news source and Jay Leno’s funniest [saddest] bits are when he’s jay walking.
Feeling Better
It’s nice to be over it more or less especially since I never meant to turn this blog into a mere status report (see Twitter). A couple things: The Wall Street Journal is actually making good sense. All of the endless posturing, fear-mongering, and overspending on the War on Terror™ has got to stop if we’re going to make any progress at all in the 21st Century.
On Haiti, you probably already know how you can text “HAITI” to 90999 so AT&T will donate $10 to the Red Cross for you. Please also consider texting “YELE” to 501501 which donates $5 to Wyclef Jean’s nonprofit organization specifically benefitting Haiti. Thanks.
The Skimmer Industries
This stuff is important. We’re still giving money away to people who don’t really make anything except money: finance and health insurance. I’m not seeing much support for small businesses and Main Street.
A Year of More BS
Tom Engelhardt and Nick Turse put together a sobering top ten of things to watch for in 2010. One jerk makes going to the airport that much worse for millions of people and forces the U.S. to open another propaganda-plus (more foreign aid and saber-rattling) front in Yemen. I am bewildered at the machinations of empire that fail to learn from history. We’re spending more on war, defense, guns, and killing people (whatever you want to call the military) than the next 25 countries combined. Are we a nation of peace or are we becoming the evil we deplore?
… only diamonds are forever. Sooner or later, like great imperial powers of the past, we, too, will find that the stress of fighting a continuous string of wars in distant lands in inhospitable climes tells on us. Whether we “win” or not in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and now Yemen, we lose.
Crack Door
I got sucker-punched on 106th Street some years back. Nothing major until now. Random violence in your neighborhood makes you wonder who your friends are. This is the sort of thing that makes wingnuts such assholes. They would just say I’m a hippie living in an urban hellhole.
Thanksgiving Jozz
I am thankful for a year of mostly no work and having a lot of time to think and read and watch movies, but now I really need some work. My health is great thanks to a mostly vegan diet. I very much enjoyed the PeTA ad that got rejected by NBC. The heavy-handedness is getting a lighter touch. I don’t believe humans will ever be all vegetarians but I think we can maybe go for a more humane and healthy approach to food.
I added a couple more hundred CDs to the pile at Amazon.
Everyone knows how to win the mid-term elections except for Democrats.
Sunday Blabfest
I have luggage that needs to be sorted and I don’t mean I took a trip. I was disappointed that Bill Moyers is retiring before Oprah. If you want a great talking heads fest with Bill, check out this web exclusive with Glenn Greenwald. Find out why I’m disillusioned with Barack Obama and politics in general. It’s around 40 minutes so go get some popcorn if you decide to watch it.
Huffington Post Censors Itself
I don’t have the screen shot but for a little while yesterday afternoon, the Huffington Post lead story was “PEACE PRIZE?” and linked to a story at the Washington Post about how Obama already secretly sent 13,000 additional troops to Afghanistan. I went to look for the Huffpo story again and it’s gone.
The WaPo story talks about how the additional troops are not combat-oriented but no matter how you slice it, it’s military personnel above and beyond what was initially announced back in March. The story also goes into detail about troop increases since the U.S. first invaded. Mercenary troops and security hiring probably continue apace so I put it out there again: PEACE PRIZE? Really?
War = Peace, Failure = Success, Taxpayer = Treasury
The conservatives essentially say that the Nobel Peace Prize was given to a man who has done nothing to deserve it and they’re far less than half-right. The part they were right about was lampooned on SNL a little over a week ago.
The Nobel Prize committee says Barack Obama has created “a new climate in international politics.” In reality, Obama’s rhetoric has largely cloaked a continuation and extension of Bush’s foreign policy.
Apart from the diplomatic rhetoric, there has been no meaningful reversal of US foreign policy in relation to the George W. Bush presidency, which might have remotely justified the granting of the Nobel Prize to Obama. In fact quite the opposite. The Obama military agenda has sought to extend the war into new frontiers. With a new team of military and foreign policy advisers, the Obama war agenda has been far more effective in fostering military escalation than that formulated by the NeoCons.
Since the very outset of the Obama presidency, this global military project has become increasingly pervasive, with the reinforcement of US military presence in all major regions of the World and the development of new advanced weapons systems on an unprecdented scale.
Granting the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama provides legitimacy to the illegal practices of war, to the military occupation of foreign lands, to the relentless killings of civilians in the name of “democracy”.
Notwithstanding, we have a domestic policy that rewards catastrophic financial failure and ineptitude courtesy of the taxpayer. (This episode of Bill Moyers Journal is must-see TV.) If there were any true conservative brains in media land, they would be praising Obama’s foreign policy, mocking the Nobel Prize committee for giving it to a warmonger in their camp, and focusing on the socialist policies governing U.S. finance. It’s sad and tragic that connecting the dots is such a scorned skill amongst the DC Villagers.