Friday, October 19, 2007

“I’ll take ‘D.) For well over 250 years,’ John.” (5:18 pm)

Thanks to all those who chimed in regarding the seemingly awkwardly timed congressional attention to atrocities committed against Armenians. Initially, it appeared that the United States Congress was exhibiting yet another exercise of moral nearsightedness (think of the genocidal acts within our own borders!), behavior that speaks volumes about the circumvented and selective means of addressing domestic human rights violations. Then things became a bit clearer.

The acknowledgment of genocide is always a progressive thing to do. The drafting of a resolution officially declaring the Turk violence against Armenians takes things one step further. It’s easy to understand the Bush Administration’s dissatisfaction with this resolution: It came from a Democrat-led congress. The resolution spells possible ruin for the key factors enabling a continued U.S. military presence in Iraq. Turkey is more than just another friendly ally to the Bush Administration; it’s a gateway and launch pad for the ongoing war.

In getting back to the issues of moral nearsightedness, it’s imperative that the drafting of resolutions that label mass murderous behaviors as genocidal acts be available for all, namely Native and African Americans. It’s a shame that these two groups should have to continue to be deprived the healing and reparations that having the injustices against acknowledged as genocidal could initiate.

by Davie Williams, publishing intern

posted by Intern | 3 comments

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Virulent anti-gay movement on the rise globally (5:38 pm)

A group calling itself the Watchmen on the Walls has built a following on the U.S. West Coast, mainly among Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking evangelical immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that the Watchmen have surfaced in California’s Sacramento Valley, and its members are increasingly active in several other gay-friendly cities, including Seattle and Portland, Ore.

As the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Casey Sanchez writes:

Scott Lively [of the anti-gay Oregon Citizens Alliance] identifies “the enemy” as not only homosexuals, but also what he terms “homosexualists,” a category that includes anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, who “actively promotes homosexuality as morally and socially equivalent to heterosexuality as a basis for social policy.”

A sad by-product: anti-immigrant sentiments are growing in these areas, especially against Russian and Slavic immigrants.

posted by Sanhita Sinharoy | start the discussion

The President and The Vice-President Have An Understanding (4:14 pm)

If you missed the Frontline episode, Cheney’s Law, last night you definitely should try to catch it when it is re-broadcast over the next few weeks. This was a disturbing, damning portrait of a man (and his like-minded legal proxy, David Addington) who has spent a life in full loathing of Congressional oversight, a man hell-bent on the radical agenda of dismantling constitutional law and cavalierly asserting full executive privilege. Also, it depicts in stark detail how fully we’ve been living under a Cheney-Addington administration for the last 7 years - not a Bush-Cheney administration - and any rancor directed at Bush, particularly over warrantless wiretapping, torture, and the war, is misplaced. The country lives, for the time being, under Cheney’s Law.

Question for the Democratic presidential candidates: do you intend to run with the ball in terms of executive privilege as it has been unapologetically implemented by the legal and illegal wiles of Cheney/Addington, or will this unconstitutional, arrogant lawlessness be eradicated forcefully and without question?

posted by Jarrett | 2 comments

Enough is Enough (1:54 pm)

Today, October 17, 2007, is the 20th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Bas Bauhat Ho Chuka (loosely translated from Urdu: enough is enough) is a Pakistani organization that is taking the initiative to raise awareness for poverty in Pakistan. According to the Dawn, the English-language newspaper of Pakistan, the organization will display a 10km long banner (6.21 miles) in honor of the International Day of Eradication of Poverty. According to the Inter Press Service, “people from every group of the society are signing this banner and 135 organizations around the country” have helped in gathering signatures from different areas in Pakistan. All this is being done to send a message to the Pakistani government that it has failed to achieve its Millennium Development Goals established in 2000 as “a promise to take solid steps to eradicate poverty” in Pakistan.

For more information about the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty visit the U.N.’s related site.

By: Mahreen Mehdi

posted by Intern | start the discussion

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Climate Change and Peace-Keeping (9:36 am)

There’s a great article in Slate on how societal conflict is directly related to climate preservation. The article, of course, analyzes why Al Gore is now a Nobel laureate, but it’s great to see a smart dissection of conflict as it pertains to changing climates (and a scarcity of resources).

[I]n June, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went on record to suggest global warming as a cause for the fighting in the Darfur region of Sudan. He pointed out that warming in the tropical and southern oceans, fueled in some part by climate change, led to a decades-long drought and clashes between herders and farmers over the degrading land. When a rebellion broke out against the central government, Sudan’s leaders fought back by arming and supporting the herders against the farmers—and the entire region fell into war. If global warming did cause the Sudanese drought, then it’s also responsible for the 200,000 to 450,000 lives that have been lost over the last four and a half years. We may very well be watching the first major conflict caused by emissions from our factories, power plants, and cars.

(via)

Think that climate change-related conflict is just for developing countries? Well, what if oil is the diminishing resource? Hmm … sounds a little like our current situation in the Middle East …

posted by Erin Polgreen | 2 comments

Monday, October 15, 2007

Lessig on Corruption (3:37 pm)

This is long, but really, really worth your time:

h/t Chris Hayes

posted by Brian Cook | 1 comment

Stop Saying Americans Don’t Torture (1:05 pm)

Chris Hedges has hit another out of the park. Here he is on a truly modern American marvel, Outsourcing Torture:

We are losing the war in Iraq. We are an isolated and reviled nation. We are pitiless to others weaker than ourselves. We have lost sight of our democratic ideals. Thucydides wrote of Athens’ expanding empire and how this empire led it to become a tyrant abroad and then a tyrant at home. The tyranny Athens imposed on others, it finally imposed on itself. If we do not confront our hubris and the lies we tell to justify the killing and mask the destruction carried out in our name in Iraq, if we do not grasp the moral corrosiveness of empire and occupation, if we continue to allow force and violence to be our primary form of communication, if we do not remove from power our flag-waving, cross-bearing versions of the Taliban, the despotism we empower abroad will become the despotism we soon experience at home.

Also, this is a few weeks old, but don’t miss Greenwald’s recent indictment of the American Public for its total acceptance, and therefore silent condonement, of torture. I could quote the whole thing, but I’ll be selective:

As a country, we’ve known undeniably for almost two years now that we have a lawless government and a President who routinely orders our laws to be violated. His top officials have been repeatedly caught lying outright to Congress on the most critical questions we face. They... read more

posted by Jarrett | 1 comment

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Bridge to D-town (8:18 pm)

I love catching stories about Detroit! Tonight, the Times is reporting on the trouble brewing over the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest commercial border crossing in North America. This connector between SE Michigan and gamble-when-you’re-19 Windsor is pretty unique. More than $122 billion in goods roll over this baby a year, so it’s a big deal, and it’s privately owned.

In a remarkable arrangement for a crossing so major, Manuel J. Moroun, a reclusive billionaire from Detroit’s suburbs who oversees a trucking empire, owns the bridge, one of only two privately owned bridges along the entire northern border of the United States and by far the most economically significant privately owned bridge in the nation.

Considering that the amount of traffic may require the construction of a second, $1 billion crossing, that little fact (rightfully) freaks people out.

“This man is making billions of dollars on that bridge.” said Raymond E. Basham, a Michigan state senator and a Democrat, who said that only a public bridge could ensure the structural inspections and domestic security needed. “When it comes to dollars and cents, there is every incentive for him not to tell us if something is wrong. We have an obligation for the safety of people.”

The obvious conclusion is to assess the traffic patterns and finance a second bride publicly if necessary, right? Well in cash-strapped Michigan, that’s not likely to fly. Plus, residents of SW Detroit are deservedly pissed because more construction would knock down dozens of homes and businesses... read more