» Archive: September 2005
250,000 in DC
Norman Solomon: "It's reasonable to estimate that more than a quarter of a million people demonstrated against the Iraq war on Saturday in Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other U.S. cities. The next day, the Washington Post front-paged a decent story that described "the largest show of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the conflict in Iraq began." But more perfunctory back-page articles were typical in daily papers across the country. And over the weekend, many TV news watchers saw little or nothing about the protests."
JTF2 Kills People
Canada admitted that JTF2 kills people in Afghanistan.
The quote of the week is in the last paragraph:
"The difference, and this is a significant difference, is the willingness of the political elite to talk about what they're using the military for and share that with the Canadian public," said Rob Huebert, a political scientist in Calgary.
Podur in Haiti
Justin Podur is in Haiti, and is filing updates on his weblog.
The registration cards are not designed to please civil libertarians. Haitians registering to vote give fingerprint, signature, and photo information which will eventually be collected in a single database. They will get a single identification card that will be good for 10 years. They may not get breakfast, but they can get some high-tech identification. And they will need it - from social services to the tax office, no Haitian will be able to do without the new identification card. Or so it is planned.
West Bank
The IDF evacuated two West Bank settlements yesterday, leaving behind a pile of rubble. Jon Elmer was there and filed a report and photos.
Basra
WSWS: British troops in pitched battle in Basra
"The fact that the British Army, when it feels its interests are threatened, is ready to shoot police officers and demolish prison facilities gives the lie to such claims. It underscores that any authority that is developed in Iraq will only be allowed to govern so long as it abides by US and British diktat."
The WSWS has an interesting rundown of the reaction of the international press to the German election results.
You want to assassinate me? I'll help your poor. So there.
A few weeks after Pat Robertson urged his assassination (something that US officials didn't condemn, noting simply that it wasn't official policy), Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is supplying low-income communities in the US with cheap oil.
In an exclusive interview yesterday, the Venezuelan leader said his country will soon start to ship heating oil and diesel fuel at below market prices to poor communities and schools in the United States. "We will begin with a pilot project in Chicago on Oct. 14, in a Mexican-American community," said Chavez, who was in town for the United Nations sessions. "We will then expand the program to New York and Boston in November."
Mohammad Mahjoub's Hunger Strike: Day 75
Security Certificate detainee Mohammad Mahjoub day 75 of a hunger strike for basic improvements in his jail conditions. According to doctors, he is pretty close to death. The Ontario government has refused to make any concessions.
Chavez
LA Times: "U.S. policymakers striving to curb the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are confronting a dilemma: Like a prizefighter, he seems to get stronger with every sparring session."
Starving them out
Mitchel Cohen: "Let me say this again: The government intentionally did not (and still does not) allow food or water in."
Naomi Archer: "It's Not That the Government Isn't Responding, They are Obstructing the Response"
Algiers, New Orleans
The sign referred to in the article in the previous post.
Student Report from NO
Counterpunch: CAN: a Student Report from Louisiana:
What are all these cops and soldiers doing in New Orleans? We certainly didn't see any of them distributing food, water, or any other supplies. They seemed to be more interested in setting up checkpoints. With the streets totally abandoned by ordinary people, and with debris and wreckage everywhere, we almost could have been driving through Fallujah or Baghdad.
In Canada
The LockedOutCBC headline Stephen Lewis offers support for Mulroney, but I'd say it's more along the lines of "the Liberals are worse than Mulroney". It's a case that has been made before, I think, by Murray Dobbin (among others).
There's another silly study about binge drinking among students. No mention of the intensive, university-sanctioned emphasis on alcohol during university activities.
Estonia
Hi,
The weblog (from me, anyway) will be slow over the next two weeks because I'm in Estonia. But my personal site has a lot of posts from my travels.
dru
(Ahem, guest weblog editors?)
Blackwater Mercenaries Stalk New Orleans
According to the hired guns themselves, the US Department of Homeland Security has hired heavily armed mercenaries from Blackwater to patroal the streets of New Orleans:
Blackwater mercenaries are some of the most feared professional killers in the world and they are accustomed to operating without worry of legal consequences. Their presence on the streets of New Orleans should be a cause for serious concern for the remaining residents of the city and raises alarming questions about why the government would allow men trained to kill with impunity in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to operate here. Some of the men now patrolling the streets of New Orleans returned from Iraq as recently as two weeks ago.
Ukraine's Orange Losing its Hue
Globe and Mail: "On the streets of Kiev yesterday, people were wondering what happened to their revolution."
Yulia Tymoshenko, who apparently favours more social spending and favours reexamining privatization policies, got kicked out of the PM's seat, and is poised to run against Yushchenko in the next election. Yushchenko's government, meanwhile, is "unravelling", quickly declining in popularity, and besot by corruption charges.
No mention of the millions of dollars spent by European and North American governments (including Canada) on pro-Yushchenko NGOs.
As soon as the corruption strikes, it's their problem. The very possibility that a governments sending millions of dollars into a country where they have definite interests to "build democracy" might itself be a corrupting influence is apparently not worth examining. It's not even worth dismissing.
Here's what I wrote in December, during the much-hyped Orange revolution:
While the press provides plenty of arguments to depict Yuschenko as one of the good guys, Ukraine is not the first place that a "democratic revolution" has been enthusiastically embraced by the Canadian and American press, only to go awry after the media spotlight fades. The combined effects of privatization and inequality have had devastating effects throughout the post-Soviet world, but there is little or no criticism--much less awareness--of Yuschenko's advocacy of massive privatization of the Ukrainian economy.
It appears that the Canadian media is strictly above discussing its own government's role. Which is to say, the media will not question anything that there is a broad consensus (complicit or active) on. It's only when a body with significant power is on the other side of a debate that the possibility of the existence of a debate is even recognized.
Political participation
The T-Star has an interesting piece on political participation that cites a recent poll as saying that Canucks want influence in government, but aren't willing to sign petitions, protest, or join a party to do it. This immediately suggests that people are lazy and don't understand politics (the latter is almost certainly the case to a significant degree), but it could be that there's some unseen alternative (as the article suggests).
It's hard to imagine political influence being gained without either a) a lot of effort or b) a lot of money being spent to pay people to put in a lot of effort, so it's tempting to take the cynical view.
Still, the article is interesting for folks who want to understand Canadian politics.Canadians are frustrated at not having more influence over the country's politics, yet one in four voters surveyed in a recent poll admitted to never undertaking grassroots activities like signing a petition, joining a party or marching in a demonstration.
SES Research conducted the poll for the Crossing Boundaries National Council and the Public Policy Forum, a pair of Ottawa-based think-tanks, to assess Canadians' attitudes toward political activism and governance.
Pollster Nik Nanos said the findings demonstrate voters are keen to play a greater role in government decision-making, but are frustrated with traditional ways of becoming involved.
"People want more input, but not based on the political paradigm that exists right now," said Nanos, who is president of SES.
But why do they hate you?
Lots of good history and commentary at Counterpunch.
Jonathan Feldman: "We now must ask ourselves, isn't the U.S. a failed state?"
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz: John Wayne and the New Orleans Indians
For days I have been thinking of Sitting Bull's observation that the United States knows how to make everything, but doesn't know how to distribute it. He was being generous in attributing the lack of equitable distribution of goods to benign ignorance rather than to design. But, he knew better. Once in Chicago while performing with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West, Sitting Bull spoke through his translator to the huge crowd of ragged white men, women, and barefoot children: "I know why your government hates me. I am their enemy. But why do they hate you?" The U.S. Cavalry, the 7th to be exact, Custer's old regiment, massacred Sitting Bull's unarmed, starving people in December 1890 at Wounded Knee, a few days after Sitting Bull himself had been shot and killed by the federal Indian police.
Locked out CBC workers providing news coverage
Apparently, some locked out CBC reporters have begun publishing news coverage (and not just about the lockout) online.
War on Hurricanes
If you think about it, it's probably just as well that Katrina wasn't a terrorist. Because if she was, she'd probably still be hiding out in the North Atlantic, periodically smuggling out bombastic videotapes ("Death to puny mammals and their infidel cave hives!") and occasionally sending violent thunderstorms to blow down train stations and beach resorts outside the United States.
"War on Hurricanes" actually has quite a bit of explanatory power in terms of understanding the (equally dubious) "war on terror/[terra]".
It's obvious, for example, that we can't go after the root causes of the storms; no, we have to root out the storms before they attack... by finding where they come from in the Atlantic and... preemptively attacking them with bigger and more powerful storms, so as to overpower them!
Yup.
Being Poor.
Body and Soul: Being poor
Must read.
Citizen on Pettigrew
While the press in general is unwilling to say anything when Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew contradicts verifiable facts (sometimes referred to as lying) in a press conference, the Ottawa Citizen recently did a little hit piece on Pettigrew and his propensity for spending all his time in Paris.
It's a basic fact of power relations in the press, which seems to have few exceptions: you can cover a controversial topic if there is a substantial division within one of the parties, or between parties.
But if there's a broad consensus on an issue (even if its a consensus that we should not talk about it, as in the case of Canada's involvement in Haiti), then there is no issue, and the basic facts about that issue, however incontrovertible or shocking are not acknowledge as being of this world.
However: if it's a case of an internal squabble in the cabinet, then all kinds of speculation (Pettigrew might be replaced by Dion, might end up being the ambassador to France) and investigation (the Citizen staked out his Paris apartment) are warranted.
Grassroots Relief Efforts
Food Not Bombs is accepting donations. They're feeding people.
The 21st Century Foundation has a fund dedicated to "strategic grants for relief, recovery and advocacy efforts that promote long term equitable solutions."
The Sparkplug Foundation offers a list of grassroots organizations who are "directed by, or accountable to, poor people and people of color", and which "foster the democratic involvement" of affected people.
Infoshop has a list of mutual aid efforts set up by anarchist and anti-authoritarian groups and individuals.
An email with a list of addresses and organizations you can send donations and supplies to.
If you know of others, email me (dru at dominionpaper.ca).
(Thanks to William Thake for sending links.)
Press takes a nose dive
Body and Soul: Can I take back everything good I said about the press this week?
Hassan Almrei and Mohammad Mahjoub on Hunger Strike for basic rights
Samir Shheen-Hussain: "according to a statement read at a rally held in Toronto today (September 3, 2005), Hassan Almrei, on the 73rd day of his hunger strike, expressing his sorrow that the government will not give him his rights, expressing his faith in the people of Canada, said that the outcry following his hunger-strike has given him enough new hope that he will end his hunger-strike, but not the struggle for his life. Mohammad Mahjoub continues with his hunger strike, having completed his 59th day today."
More info: Campaign to stop secret trials in Canada
Nationalize Gas?
CBC: "The Canadian Press said Monday a Leger poll suggested 49 per cent of respondents want petroleum resources nationalized while 43 per cent said they would like to see the same fate for gas companies."
67% of Quebecois polled supported nationalization of petroleum, while 59% of Albertans opposed it.
Stealing the Bus
An eighteen year-old New Orleans native stole a school bus, picked up 100 strangers, and drove them out of the city.
AP has photos of hundreds of New Orleans school buses that weren't used for evacuation efforts as hundreds of thousands of people remained stuck in the city. (Keeping in mind that folks did in fact know that the Hurricane was on its way.)
Talking Heads Gone Wild
Jack Shafer: "In the last couple of days, many of the broadcasters reporting from the bowl-shaped toxic waste dump that was once the city of New Orleans have stopped playing the role of wind-swept wet men facing down a big storm to become public advocates for the poor, the displaced, the starving, the dying, and the dead."
CNN's Spine
In story after story, CNN is going after the Bush Administration in a way that both seems totally justified, yet makes you wonder why the press was so completely lacking in its ability to question in recent years.
Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.Anyone taking bets on how long CNN and others will continue to have a spine?
But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years.
I have to admit, it's remarkable that journalists pointing out obvious facts is somehow praiseworthy. But somehow, it is. I suppose it'll last as long as the overwhelming, incontrovertible, horrific, constantly replenished evidence that something is terribly, terribly wrong.
Talking Points
Joshua Micah Marshall: "So, just to recap, Brown had no experience whatsoever in emergency management. He was fired from his last job for incompetence. He was hired because he was the new director's college roommate. And after the director -- who himself got the job because he was a political fixer for the president -- left, he became top dog. And President Bush said yesterday that he thinks Brown is 'doing a helluva job'."
Michael Albert
Michael Albert: Business As Usual
So why didn't the government act quicker and more aggressively?
The answer gaining credence by the hour is that the suffering people were, and are, black and poor. That is overwhelmingly true and intensely relevant, particularly to the instant news coverage, to the shoot to kill rhetoric, to the belief that politicos could ride out being callous, and to the endless indignities imposed at the gathering places where acres of hungry, disheveled blacks are harassed by surrounding police forces - not to mention to the prior history of New Orleans. But however central racism has been, it is not the whole story.
Albert argues, essentially, that the proper response to a humanitarian disaster like Hurricane Katrina would not be allowed to be implemented -- even temporarily -- under American capitalism.
Criminal
San Francisco Bayview: NCM > 'This is criminal': Malik Rahim reports from New Orleans
That's a must read.
Ray Nagin radio interview
New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin did a heart-wrenching radio interview about the disaster. Recommended.
Looting vs. Finding
You've likely heard about the photo captions where white people in flood-devastated Louisiana "find" food, while black people "loot". Yahoo News has sort of apologized for the photos.
The Poor of New Orleans
The destruction of New Orleans represents a confluence of many of the most pernicious trends in American politics and culture: poverty, racism, militarism, elitist greed, environmental abuse, public corruption and the decay of democracy at every level.
Much of this is embodied in the odd phrasing that even the most circumspect mainstream media sources have been using to describe the hardest-hit victims of the storm and its devastating aftermath: "those who chose to stay behind." Instantly, the situation has been framed with language to flatter the prejudices of the comfortable and deny the reality of the most vulnerable.
It is obvious that the vast majority of those who failed to evacuate are poor: they had nowhere else to go, no way to get there, no means to sustain themselves and their families on strange ground. While there were certainly people who stayed behind by choice, most stayed behind because they had no choice. They were trapped by their poverty and many have paid the price with their lives.