dru's blog

Dave Zirin: "I would also add that half the [Baseball Hall of Fame] is made of players who operated under the ultimate 'performance enhancer', not having to compete against people with dark skin."

For those not familiar, Dave Zirin writes a great column about sports and politics at EdgeofSports.com. He's also got a new book coming out. Check out this bit from his latest piece on Muhammed Ali:

Ali could have recanted, apologized, or signed up on some cushy USO gig boxing for the troops and the cameras, ultimately to go back to making money. But he refused. At one press conference later that year, he was expected to apologize for his "un-American" remarks. Instead he said, "Keep asking me, no matter how long. On the war in Vietnam, I sing this song, I ain't got no quarrel with the Vietcong. Clean out my cell and take my tail to jail. 'Cause better to be in jail fed than to be in Vietnam dead."

Counterpunch has good pieces about similar dynamics in two different US political movements, environmentalism and anti-war.

Jeffrey St. Clair on the green movement's disconnection from the grassroots, and the unfortunate accuracy of right wing claims that environmentalists are Washington elitists:

To quote Jospeh Heller: Something happened. Somewhere along the line, the environmental movement disconnected with the people, rejected its political roots, pulled the plug on its vibrant and militant tradition. It packed its bags, starched its shirts and jetted to DC, where it became what it once despised: a risk-aversive, depersonalized, hyper-analytical, humorless, access-driven, intolerant, centralized, technocratic, dealmaking, passionless, direct-mailing, lawyer-laden monolith to mediocrity. A monolith with feet of clay.

Tim Rourke sent along these thoughts on guaranteed income:

--

There is a world wide movement for a citizen’s income; 'an unconditional, non-withdrawable income payable to each individual as a right of citizenship'. Many countries are moving toward implementation. Yet most Canadians have never heard of it. It is time the movement to separate income and survival from employment took hold in Canada.

Not many people in Canada have heard of ‘citizen’s income’. The other names that the same general concept is known under ring few bells, either; basic income, mincome, guaranteed annual income.

Some government-funded folks at U of T are organizing a conference about investing in the new, "western friendly" Serbia.

The region has already seen some high-profile investment from Canadian companies. Organizers say that participants can expect a frank assessment of the potential for the region as whole as it moves towards political and economic stability along with membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the European Union.

Democracy Now did what media are supposed to do when contentious topics are in play, and hosted a debate about the granting of "rule by decree" powers by Venezuela's legislative assembly to President Hugo Chavez.

A week ago, we republished an excellent little opinion piece about microcredit.

As a followup, here's an older, and more harshly critical take on the phenomenon of microcredit, which makes some interesting points.

h/t: Nik Barry-Shaw

The Globe notes in passing that Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Canada's old Chief Electoral Officer, is off to join the International Federation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Dominion contributor Anthony Fenton has done a fair bit of work exposing IFES and its role in the overthrow of Haitian democracy. A little background:

IFES successfully co-opted human rights groups, lawyers, and journalists, and "set the groundwork" for the creation of the Group of 184 business-led political opposition to Aristide.

For those keeping track of the millions in funding for "pro-western" journalists and political activists flowing from the US State Department, CIDA, and others, this article is worth reading. It seems that in the case of Iran, US funding has resulted in fewer freedoms, because the regime of the day feels threatened by the use of media for US foreign policy ends.

Many observers and activists say the crackdown on intellectuals and government critics has worsened since the U.S. State Department declared last February that it was creating a 75-million-dollar fund to "reach out to the people of Iran".

The New Yorker has something of a literate puff piece on Hillary Clinton qua politician. Here's a little insight into the mechanics of being a Democrat (or Liberal, or politician, really):

After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a group of black students on campus were threatening a hunger strike if the Wellesley administration did not address their demands. It was the kind of situation in which, as a classmate recalled, “Hillary would step in and organize an outlet that would be acceptable on the Wellesley campus.

Legendary Haitian organizer, grandmother, folksinger and former political prisoner Annette "So Ann" Auguste was in Montreal this week. Cafe Toc Toc was packed last night for her appearance there, where Dominion contributor Isabel Macdonald's short documentary film, "Our Arms do Not Kill," an investigation into the role of the UN military occupation of Haiti, was also shown, and members of Kalmunity performed.

The Montreal Mirror covered So Ann's visit in their last issue. In a press conference on Monday, So Ann said that Canada was to blame for her imprisonment without trial. During her 800+ days in jail, Paul Martin visited Haiti and claimed that "there are no political prisoners in Haiti", and CIDA provided funding for NCHR and other organizations that took the lead in building bogus cases against So Ann and hundreds of other political prisoners. Many remain imprisoned.

Today's Ottawa Citizen cover story about JTF2 contains a few nuggets of information:

The government wants the country's special forces units to be able to work more closely with similar units in the United States when reacting to incidents that potentially threaten North America. Canada's special forces will also play more of a role in training foreign militaries.

Emphasis added. JTF2's operations are completely secret, however, so there's no way of knowing who they're training, unless the government deigns to reveal it.

The Globe's Business section reports that the new CRTC chief is "pro-consumer". No word about his stance on human beings or their ownership of the airwaves.

In a long backgrounder, Bloomberg notes that Bono is a tax-dodging capitalist.

Diana Johnstone wonders if the International Criminal Court is a worthwhile endeavour, in Counterpunch. Is the ICC capable of finding anyone innocent? Johnstone argues that it's not set up for that purpose. That, and the small matter that the "justice" meted out by the court is selectively applied.

The überculture kids are videoblogging from their tour with the Waltown film, which is taking them from Victoria to Whitehorse to Saint John's.

The press has repeated, ad nauseum, that the Serbian Radical Party, which won a plurality of seats in yesterday's election, is "ultra-nationalist", and in a few cases "far right". Unfortunately, there's almost no information about their positions or policies, other than they're against European integration and the extradition of General Ratko Mladic to the Hague.

On the second point, it's hard to argue with them. If one wishes to enforce international law, the way to do it is not to set up a US-funded kangaroo court that refuses outright to try war criminals on both sides. That's not justice, that's a farce. Enforcing international law is a great idea; enforcing it selectively just means it's not law and it's not international. And it's hard to get excited about non-international non-law.

Credit to the BBC for not only not using (at least in that article) the term "ultranationalist" to deride the Serbian Radical Party, which appears to be on its way to winning the elections (but probably not the government) in Serbia today, as many outlets undoubtedly will. The BBC gets extra points for alluding to the small fact that NATO dropped 20,000 tonnes of bombs on the country might have an effect on whether the majority of Serbs are willing to sacrifice their well-being to join the EU.

A former Israeli Justice Minister, now the chair of a national holocaust memorial, had some fairly harsh words for the West Bank settlers. He compared the situation of the Palestinians to that of the Jewish diaspora in Europe before WWII:

"It was not crematoria or pogroms that made our life in the diaspora bitter before they began to kill us, but persecution, harassment, stone-throwing, damage to livelihood, intimidation, spitting and scorn," he said. "I was afraid to go to school, because of the little anti-Semites who used to lay in ambush on the way and beat us up. How is that different from a Palestinian child in Hebron?"

In today's Globe, Bruce Konviser hits all the major notes of Globe and Mail foreign coverage: unspecified "pro-western reforms" are good, "nationalism" is "destabilizing", and why should any facts get in the way of us reporting that story once again.

I forgot the most important one: history doesn't exist, and if it does, it doesn't matter.

(For a long, fascinating, historical take on whether Serbia should join the EU, check out this essay of sorts by John Bosnitch)

Poya, a member of No One Is Illegal Montreal, is in Iran, and recently sent back a rather interesting report about life there and the country's political situation.

The Associated Press and AFP are reporting that four workers are dead and twenty-five injured in a major construction accident.

What none of the agencies (so far, that I've seen) are saying is that an accident this bad was pretty much inevitable, given the sub-human treatment of migrant workers who are building Dubai, and the incredibly strenuous conditions and long hours they are forced to work.

This Reuters story starts by saying...

Villagers in Shebaa were grateful to Hezbollah guerrillas for forcing out Israel. Now, some say Nasrallah's image has been damaged by the campaign he is leading against a government which they support.

...but ends by saying that "some" are religious leaders who are probably getting paid to oppose Hezbollah:

In Shebaa, some Sunni clerics and other local leaders have started criticizing Hezbollah, villagers said. "They are trying to impose sectarianism under financial incentives or ideological pressure," Ali said. "Frankly, it's political money."

Mark Mackinnon sent in the highlighted article excerpt in response to the ongoing discussion about Mark MacKinnon's coverage in Lebanon.

For his remarks, read the discussion.

* * *

From "Hezbollah protestors rally against government," by Mark MacKinnon.

Published in The Globe and Mail on Dec. 2, 2006.

(snip)
The demonstrators accused the government, which has supported international calls for Hezbollah to surrender its weapons, of being run by the U.S. embassy. "Down with Feltman's government!" was a popular chant, referring to Jeffery Feltman, the U.S. ambassador.

The following is a list of all the quotes (or near-quotes) I could find in nineteen articles written by Mark MacKinnon about the situation in Lebanon over a three week period. This serves as an appendix of sorts to our response to MacKinnon's response to the recent analysis of MacKinnon's reporting. But it also provides a degree of insight into how systematically MacKinnon avoids any discussion of the motivation factors behind the massive demonstrations that are still occupying downtown Beirut.

Yesterday, the Globe and Mail published a half-decent piece about the sit ins in Beirut. I can't help but wonder if the sudden improvement in coverage (which is to say, conformity with well-established facts) had something to do with this analysis that the Dominion published two weeks ago of Mark Mackinnon's wildly misleading coverage of the same protests.

The crux of that analysis was that Mark Mackinnon probably wouldn't mind telling the truth, but likes having his job and pleasing his editors better than he likes telling the truth. (Not unlike a lot of people, probably...) And that, given the opportunity, Mackinnon probably wouldn't have a personal problem with reporting accurately. It's just that when his editors want something different, his career takes precedence.

Haiti Analysis is a new website featuring writing and, well, analysis about the political situation in Haiti. They're off to a good start, with a decent article on So Ann's visit to New York by Kim Ives.

“We are wasters of power,” she said of the Lavalas movement generally. “Several times we have taken it and each time we waste it.”

She reproached Préval for consorting with imperialism and playing into Washington’s game of repressing the masses and implementing neoliberal reforms such as privatization of key state-owned companies.

There has been some fuss about the Venezuelan government's plan to remove the license for the Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) network. Rabble.ca even linked to it.

The main problem seems to be that an organization that receive funding from the US State Department, the National Endowment for Democracy and the International Republican Institute (and then refuse to disclose the details) is calling it a crackdown on freedom of speech.

Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, and Hassan Almrei have sent an open letter to Canadians about their indefinite detainment.

There is a mounting campaign to "Close Guantanamo North", a reference to the "prison within a prison" at the Millhaven Institution. It's where the Canadian government is indefinitely detaining non-citizens under "security certificates", an "anti-terror" provision which allows the government to suspend the civil liberties of foreign nationals and hold them without granting access to evidence against them, if it exists.

Murray Dobbin has revised his assessment of Stephane Dion as "progressive". As unlikely as it is, it would be neat if this signaled a much faster turnaround in the public's willingness to take the hype of a supposedly progressive Liberal Party at face value. I confess to having very little faith that Canadians will ever stop voting Liberal unless they're really pissed off, but could it be that they'll do so without believing that for which there is no evidence?

At least then we could be reassured that Canadians are actually in

After 30 years, Steve Jobs still has the ability whip lot of people (well, journalists and geeks, anyway) into a frenzy of anticipation and speculation. The famed reality distortion field is stronger than ever. Why, I remember being a junior high kid compulsively reloading the MacWeek web site in a beta version of Mosaic on similar occasions. And "why?" is indeed the operative question. There's no rational reason to get riled up about this stuff, excepting perhaps that shiny things are neat. Oooh, shiny.

According to this interesting analysis by Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired News, major labels may be getting reading to take their drops when it comes to online digital distribution. Buskirk cites a coming massive drop in CD sales and a desire to end Apple's and iTunes' dominance in digital music distribution as the main reasons. The analysis is optimistic to say the least, but it's fun to think that things like better treatment of artists, lower prices (read: prices circa 1970s) and cool new features are just around the cor