Wiki blackout

Maybe you've seen this. Wikipedia explain their actions here:
Wikipedia’s community calls for anti-SOPA blackout January 18

Now Wikipedia is a huge web presence, and this blackout may call more attention to the nefariousness of SOPA and PIPA than the mealy-mouthed and vague descriptions of them that you'll get from most major journalistic media portals.

From their statement:

It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

In making this decision, Wikipedians will be criticized for seeming to abandon neutrality to take a political position. That’s a real, legitimate issue. We want people to trust Wikipedia, not worry that it is trying to propagandize them.

But although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. As Wikimedia Foundation board member Kat Walsh wrote on one of our mailing lists recently,

We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world’s knowledge. We’re putting it in context, and showing people how to make to sense of it.

But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or, if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.

I've written about this before, here and here. My impression is that a lot of people just don't understand the gravity of the threat. Possibly this is partly due to a general unease people have with the rapidly changing pace of technology, and they revert to an "if in doubt, better trust authority" mindset.

...

Friday at Cal Davis

photo: Louise Macabitas

Angus Johnston at Studentactivism.net has a detailed narrative of the pepper spray incident at Cal Davis from Friday.


via Lili Loofbourow, who writes:

Even against an institutional backdrop that’s becoming more and more famous for meting out unnecessary violence to peaceful people, his behavior must be understood as somewhat exceptional. Look at his face as he sprays them (as best you can–he’s partially hidden behind a mask). Then fast-forward to the end of the clip (around 6:15), when the students announce to the officers that they are offering them “a moment of peace,” that is, the option of leaving without further escalating a truly horrible situation. They cry (in one of the most moving instances of the human mic I’ve ever seen) “You can go! You can go!”

It’s transcendently brilliant, this tactic–the students offer an alternative in a high-pressure situation, a situation that no one wants, but which seems inevitable in the heat of the moment. It’s an act of mercy which, like all acts of mercy, is entirely undeserved. Watch the other officers’ surprise at this turn in the students’ rhetoric, after they had (rightfully) been chanting “Shame on you!” Watch the officers seriously consider (and eventually accept) the students’ offer.

At around 6:15-6:30 they say "you may take your weapons and our friends, and go." What is "winning" in this instance? Letting them leave, but without the people they arrested? That was probably unrealistic. Getting Pike investigated, and possibly suspended or fired? I assume he was following orders issued, formally or not, from much more powerful people, although that is by no means a justification. If the Cal Davis chancellor(see below) is made to resign, big deal, she'll just go be a chancellor or university president somewhere else. People who hold such offices tend to be careerists who jump from one city and one gig to the next every 5 or 6 years anyway. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be made to resign or be fired. Ian Welsh recently described the OWS movement as necessary but insufficient. Maybe disciplining cops who do things like this falls under the same category.



I also wonder how many regular people are even all that aware of these kinds of things, or buy the spin they are likely to hear from establishment news sources about how the cops had no choice, etc. (I'm reminded of the bumper sticker I still see from time to time that says "I don't believe the liberal media." Which of course could mean more than one thing these days, including the traditional reactionary stance, but also a mistrust of faux progressives, or an ironic or nihilist stance.)

But I still wonder, why did they do this? I tend to assume the cops, and by extension UCD, want the students to react violently, so they may look bad, and to do this the made themselves look bad, at least to people who are open to holding such a view, and don't automatically give authority figures a pass.

But of course many do give authorities a pass, and assume they mean well in practically all instances, apart from the usual few bad apples, etc. So I wonder to what degree the Occupy movement serves as a sort of Rorschach for people, whether they're "low-information voters" or troglodytes who want to know what their favorite talk radio blowhard thinks before they decide, people who want NPR to tell them what to think, people who'd rather watch Dancing With the Stars, and so forth.



More from Johnston:

UC Davis chancellor Linda Katehi released a statement last night in which she said she “deeply regretted” students’ actions yesterday, actions that “offer[ed] us no option but to ask the police to assist in their removal.” But of course you can’t regret something that someone else did, something you had no control over.

For the actions she did have control over, and will have control over in the future — the violence of her police — Katehi expressed no regret. She was, she said, “saddened.” She was “saddened to report that during this activity, 10 protestors were arrested and pepper spray was used,” and “saddened by the events that subsequently transpired to facilitate their removal.” No regret. Not even an active voice.
[...]
Lt. Pike has received a salary in excess of $100,000 from the people of California each of the last three years. More than 40% of his 2010 salary came from student fees.

Gawker:"Here's a cop, just casually pepper-spraying peaceful protesters"



2.Keiser Report: Vampire Banker Hunter (E212)




Uploaded by RussiaToday on Nov 19, 2011
Every week Max Keiser looks at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines. This week Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert discuss the tiny rule changes and the Zombies behind the collapse of MF Global. Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, a Keiser-Celente 2012 bumper sticker spotted! In the second half of the show, Max Keiser interviews Barry Ritholtz about the big lie that bankers did not cause the crisis and what MF Global means to the markets.

...

Ray Lewis at OWS

You may have heard of how the NYPD broke up Occupy Wall Street Thursday night, and how similar police actions, possibly federally co-ordinated, occurred at other Occupy cities. The photo above by Johnny Milano is of retired Philadelphia cop Ray Lewis being arrested at OWS, via The New York Observer. A commenter at Facebook wrote,

"It seems as if they wanted to humiliate him before putting him in the van. I've seen a lot of different NYPD faces since this started and I've begun to notice a schism of late, between nervous and unsure in one group and smug and disdainful in the other. I don't know how smart it was making an example out of him because I think a lot of police are likely ashamed at how this has proceeded, and this couldn't have helped."

see also

Two items from Think Progress:

1.Tanya Somanader,"New York Churches Shelter Occupy Protesters, Now Monitored By New York Police"

2.Zaid Jilani, "The Daily Caller's Michelle Fields faced abuse from the NYPD and help from protesters"

"Daily Caller reporter Michelle Fields — who faced off with actor Matt Damon earlier this year over education policy — and videographer Direna Cousins both claim they were attacked by the New York Police Department (NYPD) while covering the raucous protests in the Financial District today."

from Fields and the Daily Caller:

“The protesters came up to me right away and asked if I needed any medical assistance. They were actually very kind and helpful. It was the police officers who were very aggressive,” Fields added.

Cüneyt, "Square One":

And, to be nasty, I look at capitalism and I see the Congo. I look at Marxism and I see despots. I look at liberal democracy and I see raped Vietnamese women. I look at conservatism and I see lebensraum and Manifest Destiny. I look at anarchism and I see futility. I look at libertarianism and I see privilege confused for principle. I see the world’s ideologies, like its faiths, and I see ugliness, ruin, waste, and error. I pick from their corpses and I go back to work.

[via Abonilox]


...

Roy Casagranda teach-in

Occupy Austin teach-in on Monday, Oct. 31 featured Roy Casagranda, Political Science Professor, Austin Community College, on "Major Changes Are Necessary"

Produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala

via zgraphix

and But I did everything right, "Law School's a Complete Waste of Time and Money"


Ok, this is pretty long, relative to our being accustomed to video clips embedded at blogs being 5 to 10 minutes tops, but when you can I encourage you to watch the whole thing. (His characterization of American liberalism is particularly interesting. Also, I think he's right that FDR was trying to save capitalism, and about why Warren Buffet wants his taxes to go up.)

I do have one minor quibble: Casagranda suggests it was the same group of people he characterizes as left-wing Christian activists in the '50s and early '60s who subsequently morphed into folks like the Moral Majority, et al, in the '80s, and I don't think that's correct. Even in the earlier era we had various right-wing social conservatives, although there's no question that the political impact of the Christian right is much stronger today. But as I said it's a minor point, and you should definitely watch this.


see also

Constitutional Daily, Cruel and Unusual Soy Beans

John Caruso, "Israel's Other Airline"

No Caption Needed, "Seeing Beyond American Exceptionalism"

Cüneyt, "Ethos"


...

Assorted OWS related clips 5 Nov 2011

The video above, "Gov. Scott Walker gets checked, Mic Checked!" is from a meeting this past Thursday, but the rest are from October:

Uploaded by IOccupyFor on Nov 4, 2011: When Wisconsin Governor gave a speech at Chicago's Union League Club the morning of Nov 3rd, he has some unexpected guests: Stand Up! Chicago

via newshoggers.com and Avedon Carol

below, October 21, 2011 McLaughlin: Occupy Wall Street Demands Are Preposterous!

I've heard of OWS protesters demanding free college tuition and demanding student loans being canceled, but I've never heard them demanding a 20 dollar/hour minimum wage as McLaughlin suggests they have, so I am skeptical. Have you heard or seen anything about this?



Naomi Klein @ Occupy Wall Street 10-06-2011




And here's a video of Naomi Wolf being arrested a week or so later[via Occupy Cyberspace, where she offers some comments about the events.]



And finally, here's snarky Sam Seder, "Prediction: Occupy Wall Street Will Outlast Erin Burnett's Show. Seriously." Uploaded by Seder on Oct 7, 2011. I tend to think he will be wrong, and the authorities will become more aggressive before the year is over, and this first round of OWS style protest will disperse, but we'll see.

Oakland, October 2011: Scott Olsen

Huffington Post, Oakland Police Critically Injure Iraq War Vet During Occupy March

The local police's use of force seriously injured an Occupy activist and Iraq War veteran. Scott Olsen, 24, remains sedated on a respirator, in stable but critical condition at Oakland’s Highland Hospital after being hit in the head with a police projectile. Olsen's roommate, Keith Shannon, 24, told The Huffington Post that Olsen is still in the emergency room.
[...]
Activists staged Tuesday night’s march through downtown Oakland in response to a violent police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment earlier that day, during which officers rained tear gas and rubber bullets on the activists in an effort to clear the camp. Police arrested scores of protesters during the eviction.

When reached at her Wisconsin home, Sandra Olsen, Scott's mother, told HuffPost that her son's condition was serious. "He has a head injury," she said. "They are still trying to figure it out with him. I don't want to tie up the phone line. He's not in the best shape."

San Jose Mercury News, Marine Scott Olsen injured during Occupy Wall Street confrontation in Oakland

Yahoo/AP: Iraq war vet injured during Oakland protests
(also here: Boston Globe)

Scott Olsen, 24, suffered a fractured skull Tuesday in a march with other protesters toward City Hall, said Dottie Guy, of the Iraq Veterans Against the War. The demonstrators had been making an attempt to re-establish a presence in the area of a disbanded protesters’ camp when they were met by officers in riot gear.

It’s not known exactly what type of object struck Olsen or who might have thrown it, though Guy’s group said it was lodged by officers. Several small skirmishes had broken out in the night with police clearing the area by firing tear gas and protesters throwing rocks and bottles at them.

What hit him? Who knows. Who threw it or launched it? Also unclear. But evidently the protesters definitely threw rocks and bottles. It's plausible that they did, or at least some of them did, but still.

Oakland: 25 October 2011

The first clip, from RT, seems to be from earlier in the day, while the second was posted around 11 pm or midnight Pacific Time.

Yahoo/AP: "Patience with protester waste, crime wears thin across U.S." MEGHAN BARR - Associated Press

Also here: Boston Herald, ABC News

Whose patience is unspecified, at least in the headline. Possibly it's unimportant.

Tuesday, Oct 25, 2011
Justin Elliott, Salon: "Police in riot gear raid Occupy Oakland And tear down protesters' tent city"

Alternet.org: An eyewitness account of the protesters' eviction from Frank Ogawa Plaza


2 things from Facebook:

2. somebody else: Incredible!!! I just listened to the audio of an Oakland TV station talking about the crackdown there tonite. So why, one flak asked, do you think the violence started here in Oakland when there are so many other locations?Was that jerk kidding? He's got the most violent police force in the country, with that track record established over many YEARS, and he wants to know why the violence started there? Here's a clue, jerkwad. Look for the guys wearing uniforms. They're the perps.

Also, the jerks on that TV station were all agog over what they said were tear gas explosions, and how much further they were being launched this time. I could only hear what they were seeing, but that crap wasn't tear gas. That was the percussion bombs, and those dorks didn't even know the difference. No wonder the public ends up stupid.

I don't know what teargas canisters sound like when they discharge, nor what percussion bombs sound like, but it's definitely true that the Oakland P.D. has a bad reputation. Maybe it's ironic that I hear a helicopter overhead as I type this. Maybe police forces all over are a bit nervous right now.


see also
"Oakland police Sgt. Derwin Longmire sues city" April 7th, 2010

"Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts quits" October 11th, 2011

23 October 2011

Where Do We Go From Here? Occupy Wall St. from Ed David on Vimeo.

This video above from OWS is from earlier today, here.

Below: Keiser Report 200, October 22nd



The subject of discussion above, at 5:00-6:00 regarding BofA, is also referred to here:

Federal Reserve and Bank of America Initiate a Coup to Dump Billions of Dollars of Losses on the American Taxpayer | www.zerohedge.com

Bloomberg reports that Bank of America is dumping derivatives onto a subsidiary which is insured by the government – i.e. taxpayers. Yves Smith notes: If you have any doubt that Bank of America is going down, this development should settle it...

Below: Keiser Report 196,"Dog & Pony Show"(Oct 13th)





see also Speculum Criticum Traditionis, "The liberal bias of American media" [via Jack Crow]


Two from CNN:
Six-figure salaries, but homeless,
Foreigners are buying U.S. homes

Oh, why can't those *&%$in' OWS protesters lay off the bongo drums and comb their hair when there are TV reporters lurking nearby?

Occupy Wall Street! From: theresident| Oct 7, 2011



2 updates below

Lori Harfenist("the resident") writes: "You know I wouldn't be doing my thing if I didn't have a little fun, but in all seriousness, I very much am in support of what these folks are doing."

Maybe this is true, but I'm skeptical; I've posted other videos of Harfenist's before, generally appreciating them, but in at least one she comes across as a bit of a reactionary. Obviously she doesn't have to be supportive in her stance towards OWS to report on them, but I wonder if her interview subjects were mostly chosen to make OWS look like a bunch of flakes.

I get the impression this is a common establishment media tactic. I couldn't help but notice that lots of more clean-cut looking persons kept passing by in the background during the first 30 seconds while she talked to the guy who said he intended to stay until there was change or "the world blew up." The older man she talks to in the very next sequence suggests that the younger people who are there aren't in need of work, which sounds in context like a criticism of the first subject, who never mentions jobs, and the narrative sequence suggests he has all the time in the world. Finally, I would have been interested in seeing more of the person interviewed in 1:45-2:10, as he seemed articulate and thoughtful. (Note there's a jump cut in the middle of the segment which makes you wonder what was taken out.)


By contrast, there's this from Occupy LA from this past Saturday October 15th, uploaded by "wrestlingdivanewyork"

Look at those decadent Californians, trying to fool us by looking so...normal.

You know they're up to something.


wrestlingdiva:I heard them coming in, and had to catch this for you all to see, the estimate is there are 10,000+ people here.



Occupy Austin(Texas):
WHEN : 10/6/2011 @10am - 12/6/2011 @10pm


Occupy Portland(Oregon):


Occupy Columbus


Occupy L.A.


October 8th: "Democracy is for those who show up"

Let me be clear: I'm not saying the "hippie-looking" and "flaky-looking" protesters are less important or that their views have less validity. It's just that the reporters seem to zero in on them as an editorial strategy designed to make OWS seem foolish, and it needs to be noted. It's not just Lori Harfenist by any means. Her report reminded me of the CNN clip from Erin Burnett I posted the other day, and if anything Burnett's piece seems even more brazenly slanted.

update:

Ms Xeno in comments writes,

When it comes to reality shows or sports, the mass media can't get enough of funny outfits or goofy behavior. Why shouldn't they duplicate such priorities in their coverage of OWS? After all, the media's real job is to trivialize an important event and render it as disposable as they possibly can. What better way to do this than to use the same techniques they use to cover trivial, disposable events that are meant to be consumed like popcorn and then promptly forgotten...

also, Rob Payne mentions this from Pam Martens in Counterpunch:

Meet the “Lower Manhattan Security Initiative” Wall Street Firms Spy on Protestors In Tax-Funded Center

update 2:

Also, as I mentioned in comments, you should really check out Jodi Dean's recent posts regarding OWS.

And from Good Media, "Fox News Won't Air Wall Street Protester Who Humiliates Fox News"


...

Throwin' eggs at th' IMF

CNN video:IMF speaker egged by students

CNN|Added on October 14, 2011
The International Monetary Fund's Western Turkey Representative Mark Lewis is egged during a lecture in Turkey.

See what fun you missed out on, when you blithely erased that email invite from the IMF with your usual "Ankara is so unbearable this time of year"?

see also "Is Time Ripe to Abandon the IMF?"
via Reality Zone.

...

Days of Rage, Evenings of Indifference

above: uploaded 17 Sep 2011, below: 20 September 2011



below CNN:Erin Burnett: Wall St. protesters vague on details 4 October 2011



Slate, "Even the Protesters at Occupy Wall Street Are Confused About What They’re Protesting"
(This article was also titled: Vacant: The Occupy Wall Street protests and the creation of the post-Obama left. By David Weigel Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, at 3:24 PM ET)

Douglas Rushkoff, CNN: "Think Occupy Wall St. is a phase? You don't get it"
updated 1:09 PM EST, Wed October 5, 2011

Peter Hart, Fair.org, "Erin Burnett Hears the Critics--But Still Misses the Point"
10/05/2011


Dennis Perrin writes:

I admire these kids. They're off their asses. Agitating. Arguing. Providing a living example. There's passion and feeling in their dissent. They're willing to be punished. It's easy to mock them, but how many of you would take their place? Primarily when the cops attack?
[...]
Our owners fear any rustling from below. They'll throw whatever they have at those unsatisfied with our paradise. There are signs that the Wall Street protests will expand nationally. If so, get ready for serious shit slinging.

Yet I have doubts. The class war from above demoralizes as much as it incites. Countless people have surrendered. Faded from view. To demonstrate or occupy corporate turf doesn't seem like a wise option. You'll get beaten and arrested. For what? Making mortgage payments is tough enough.

I've been checking Pollingreport.com for signs of any thing related to Occupy Wall Street. They have links dedicated to Nancy Pelosi, Chris Christie, "Is the Supreme Court too liberal?", "Kids of illegal immigrants", even "Is Social Security constitutional?" But Occupy Wall Street? Thus far, zilch.

There are, admittedly, some items that may be peripherally related: "Can you trust Washington?" and "Distribution of money and wealth" but these are summaries of older and unrelated polls. You'd think the establishment media was blithely unaware of 'OWS',(Ha!) but one assumes they've been hoping the kids would just go away. I'm not even sure how accurate it is to characterize them as all or mostly kids but either way they didn't just go away, at least they haven't yet. One assumes the powers that be have a certain patience threshold with respect to how long OWS may go on, but it hasn't been reached yet. They recognize it's in their interest to seem indifferent at this point.

Finally, CNN released a poll today about OWS, saying that roughly half the population has heard of the protests going on. If a poll conducted after this has been going on for over two weeks shows 49% of respondents still haven't even heard of "Occupy Wall Street", how many do you suppose were even aware of the various one-day demonstrations in D.C. over the years, whether related to the Iraq war or other things ? 20%? 15%?

(I mean the noncommercial ones of course, mounted by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and their ilk, as opposed to those media spectacle faux demonstrations sponsored by Fox News or Comedy Central.)

It reminds me of the conceit of looking for "untainted" jurors for high-profile murder trials. I've always wondered about that, why it's supposed to be preferable to have incurious lunkheads as stewards of the juroring, or whatever you call it.



Poll: Half the country has heard about the Occupy Wall Street protests

An ORC International Caravan Poll released Monday[pdf link] indicates that 51% of Americans say they've heard about the Occupy Wall Street movement, with 49% saying they haven't heard about the demonstrations, which started in New York City 24 days ago and have spread to cities across the country.

According to the survey, 27% say they agree with the movement's overall position on the financial system and social change, with 19% saying disagree with Occupy Wall Street on those issues. Fifty-four percent of those questioned have no firm opinion about Occupy Wall Street.

The pdf link CNN provides barely scratches the surface. Maybe there were many other questions. I'm curious how people's views correlate to age, whether or not they usually vote, to level of education, and obviously viz-a-viz employment status and income. The perennial drum-beating about how persons with bachelor's degrees making so much more over the course of a lifetime than high school grads has struck me as a bit fishy for some time, and I wonder about how those numbers are derived.


A detour, of sorts: Discussing Slavoj Žižek means you get to use diacritical marks, which is always fun. I've read people like John Caruso and BDR saying he's an overblown fraud, but have tried to reserve judgment because I haven't read any of his books, just an occasional essay in The Guardian or Counterpunch. But he comes across as a clueless, egocentric jerk in this linked 2 part Youtube video [via] of his visit to OWS from this Sunday. Why do the kids co-operate with his insistence that they repeat everything he says, like extras in The Life of Brian? So Fox News can make fun of them?


Cain: Not rich? No job? Blame yourself (CNN Political Ticker)


Herman Cain: "Don't blame Wall Street. Don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself."

( And he's supposed to be one of the less wacky candidates.) I hope somebody asks him about the phenomenon of CEOs occasionally getting performance bonuses for trimming their workforces, in light of the above.

He's right though, that ultimately the Occupy Wall Streeters represent a critique of capitalism, but I suspect that now that the establishment media has their angle of "the liberal tea party", this critique will be increasingly difficult to discern for people watching on television. At any rate, it probably behooves us to mistrust our own reactions sometimes, when we are convinced

"the American People are so...[insert quality x]"

because the media often works to make us give up on each other.

from Wikinews 3 October 2011

A study in the journal Nature reports record ozone depletion over the Arctic during the winter of 2010–2011. Seven hundred people from the Occupy Wall Street protest are arrested and subsequently released after obstructing traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge (pictured) in New York City.

Micah talks about The Simpsons, but can't come up with a title

The notable artist Bansky provided the vision for the memorable couch gag on last night’s edition of The Simpsons. In Bansky’s vision, Our Favorite Family’s rush to couch is produced by anguished Korean, presumably South Korean, animators working in dry and literally toxic conditions. And that is the good life as we also see the sweatshop, complete with animal chipper, necessary to produce the Simpsons products that I love, and frankly can’t find in stores much anymore. A panda is whipped and the horn of a shackled unicorn is used to poke holes in the center of DVDs. All of this done in a giant 20th Century Fox building that is guarded by a barbed wire fence like it is a prison. (You can see the intro by going here.)

Now obviously Banksy does not understand how modern capitalism works. A unicorn would be paraded around from city to city and also forced to breed with other stallions to give horse racing a much-needed boost. Hollywood would of course do what is presently unthinkable and make movies about horses that didn’t die over 20 years ago.

I also wonder how accurate the bleak portrayal of the production of The Simpsons is. There is a significant range of conditions in the factories of less developed (or whatever other term you want to use) countries, and I have never been able to find out much about the conditions in the Chinese factories that Homer Simpson clocks and such. As for the animation of the show, it is done in South Korea, which I believe has relatively good working conditions as these things go.

There are probably some out there who would respond to my unqualified response of Fox by saying that exaggeration was used in this opening to make a comedic point. To them, I say exaggeration for comedic purposes is tired and old fashioned. Unless Bret Michaels is to be a star again, I need sincerity and this opening makes me uncomfortable because it makes me question not only my love all things related to The Simpsons, but how I consciously realize that I love this show in an unquestioning way. I don’t worry all that much about the conditions used to produce my action figures and Burger King toys, nor do fear the social outcome of my actions. It is a release from the examinations of everyday life that plague me in all but a dozen or so areas of my existence. Moreover, I hate what makes me uncomfortable almost as much as I hate what I don’t understand.

The political elements of opening are also worth looking at. Fox Broadcasting will go about its business after this aired without a touch of change. This suggests that books such as the John Alberti edited Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture and Mark I. Pinsky’s The Gospel According to The Simpsons are right about the impotence of The Simpsons as an agent of dissent. (Alberti’s work is more nuanced on this point, FWIW.) Then again, one only needs to look at a copy of Juxtapoz to see that major titans of capitalism such as Nike are more than willing to pay for artwork that the average person often can neither understand nor appreciate. Does that mean that art itself is ineffective at commentary? Perhaps, and perhaps there is no effective way to critique the world as it currently exists.

2 from Al Jazeera US

from Al Jazeera's Youtube channel.

Interview with Omar Barghouti, cont'd

Here is the conclusion, parts 4 and 5(below,) of Paul Jay's interview with Omar Barghouti.

Parts 1-3 are here.

from the ANSWER coalition: April 15th, 2000

a press release from the ANSWER Coalition:

IF that link doesn't work, they're also here:
www.actionsf.org

"After 10 long years of litigation filed by the attorneys from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund on behalf of those of us who were arrested, a huge civil liberties victory has been achieved, resulting in the largest protest arrest settlement in U.S. history.

This victory was due to the amazing diligence and expertise of the Partnership for Civil Justice, who worked pro bono for a decade, and the steadfastness of those who had been arrested.

Everyone who was arrested at 20th St., NW between I and K st, on April 15, 2000, is now eligible to collect $18,000, but they must file their claim by May 17, 2010.

... the urgent email from the Partnership for Civil Justice on how people who were illegally arrested on April 15, 2000, can collect their $18,000. If people do not file the claim by May 17, 2010, that money will revert back to the government."

(No, I wasn't there, and in fact I've never attended an ANSWER coalition event. On the face of it the amount strikes me as high but I don't know what happened, and it may partly reflect the enormous cost it took to wage a legal battle for so many years. (I note that April of 2000 through April of 2010 takes us through the last months of Clinton's 2nd term, the entire Bush II era and the first year of Obama's term in office, and apparently all three Justice departments ran up the government's tab rather than settle, which probably would have been much cheaper for the taxpayers 10 or 9 or 8 years ago. )

At any rate, I am posting this in case someone reading this knows someone who knows someone, etc. Unlikely, but you never know. I'm also impressed by the legal effort described and thought it deserved a mention.-JV)

Haitian abduction story, Pt 2

from CNN:

"I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking," Carlos Castillo said he told the group's leader, Laura Silsby, during a meeting Friday.

Four hours later, Silsby and nine other Americans were turned back from the border. They were arrested and taken to a jail in Port-au-Prince.

"This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal," Castillo said.

A CNN reporter attempted to get reaction to Castillo's comment from the jailed Americans, but they would not discuss the matter, responding to questions by singing "Amazing Grace" and praying.

some links for a saturday afternoon

via jay taber-

An interview with Cindy Sheehan

Cindy: “The ones that upset me the most are the so-called leaders of the “progressive” movement like Tom Hayden, CODEPINK and Michael Moore who very enthusiastically endorsed, worked for, voted for, and raised money for Obama, and NOW are beginning to speak out against his carnage, when in fact, Obama has always been very pro-war. Once the horse is out of the barn, it’s hard to get him back in.”

Ian Welsh: Nice country you have there, be a shame if anything happened to it


FBI Unbound: How National Security Letters Violate Our Privacy (2008) [video link 25:18 min]

from wikinews: Turkmenistan gains a new route to export its natural gas production to Iran with the opening of the Dauletabad–Sarakhs–Khangiran pipeline.


Avedon Carol:

I listened to yesterday's episode on Who’s Better Organized Post-Obama: the Left or the Right? - which only barely scratched the surface of why the right is so much better organized, but made the point I've been trying to stress that with nowhere to go on the left, an awful lot of people are connecting with the right because the right-wing is the only place they find disaffection with the obvious wrongness in the country being given any kind of voice. Meanwhile, the "organized left", by which we mean people who can still bring themselves to support Obama, thinks they are part of a grassroots movement because they get listened to on their ideas - as long as their ideas are about how to support Obama's agenda.

Crystal Lee Sutton and Norman Borlaug

Crystal Lee Sutton died on September 11th of cancer at 68. Norman Borlaug died the next day, also of cancer, aged 95. I'll admit I'd never heard of either. Crystal Lee Sutton, the real life inspiration for Martin Ritt's Carter-era film Norma Rae-- I just assumed she was fictional, but she was real, and apparently the most famous scene from the film really happened:

She received threats and was finally fired from her job. But before she left, she took one final stand, filmed verbatim in the 1979 film Norma Rae. “I took a piece of cardboard and wrote the word UNION on it in big letters, got up on my work table, and slowly turned it around. The workers started cutting their machines off and giving me the victory sign. All of a sudden the plant was very quiet…” Sutton was physically removed from the plant by police, but the result of her actions was staggering. The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union won the right to represent the workers at the plant on August 28, 1974.

-from her website, www.crystalleesutton.com

I don't know if you can film something verbatim per se, but that's a trifling objection. According to the Institute for Southern Studies

Several years ago, Sutton was diagnosed with meningioma, a type of cancer of the nervous system. While such cancers are typically slow-growing, Sutton's was not -- and she went two months without potentially life-saving medication because her insurance wouldn't cover it initially. Sutton told the Burlington (N.C.) Times-News last year that the insurer's behavior was an example of abuse of the working poor:

"How in the world can it take so long to find out [whether they would cover the medicine or not] when it could be a matter of life or death," she said. "It is almost like, in a way, committing murder."


Though Sutton eventually received the medication, the cancer had already taken hold. She passed away on Friday, Sept. 11 in a Burlington, N.C. hospice.

Norman Borlaug was also an incredible person, albeit of a very different cast. After receiving his PhD at the age of 28 he went to work for the US military in WWII, first developing a saltwater-resistant adhesive that allowed US forces to jettison watertight boxes of canned food to troops stranded on Guadalcanal island. In the years after the war he was instrumental in developing disease-resistant high yield crops that helped India be able to produce enough food to feed all her people.

He won the Nobel Peace prize in 1970, and consequently his passing made a lot more news than Sutton's. I don't mean that as sarcasm-- he certainly helped a lot more people. But also it occurs to me that although they were both humanitarians, his story, broadly speaking, has a certain uncomplicated quality, at least from the point of view of corporate news outlets. American scientist helps feed world, is justifiably celebrated, dies after a long rewarding life. Sutton's story is less rewarding for the corporate media to tell, because it is less sunny, underscoring the hostile legal climate that unions inhabit in the US, as well as our vanishing industrial base.(She worked in a clothes factory in North Carolina, and today most domestic clothes production has been exported out from under us.) Even the end, with her conflict regarding her insurance, is a story the corporate media isn't so eager to relate to us. Katie Couric didn't mention that last bit on the CBS news, but at least she mentioned her.

You can find less sunny aspects to Bourlag's story if you are really determined; he was an early proponent of DDT*, for example,but so were a lot of people. Nevertheless he was always trying to help people, and there's no question on balance he did, tremendously. Yes, Borlaug was a booster of genetically-modified foods. But at least until we can figure out how to feed everybody, stop raping the planet, and substantially shrink the world population(through as-yet undiscovered, ethically and socially doable means), I'd say his way is the right way for much of the third world, handily trumping lefty-doctrinaire objections.

I'm not keen on some of the particulars of corporate farming, like counterproductive US subsidies of ethanol or patenting seeds and telling third-world farmers they're intellectual property, but screwy consequences like that were not Bourlag's doing.

I don't have a penetrating, overarching point in discussing Sutton and Bourlag-- my blogging is often simply a record of efforts at my self-education, and I wanted to take note of their passing.


"*Food Security and Agriculture" by Devinder Sharma

not a twitter revolution

from the Real News.