Press Action

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Weather Bombings

Dan Berger, in his 2006 book Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity, writes about the bombing campaign waged by the Weatherman/Weather Underground in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The bombings were targeted strikes against American centers of power involved in committing horrific, systematic, large-scale violence in Vietnam, Chile and here in the United States. The only Weatherman bombing that turned deadly occurred when explosives in a Greenwich Village townhouse accidentally ignited on March 6, 1970, killing Weatherman members Diana Oughton, Terry Robbins and Ted Gold.

Berger examines the group’s 1973 release of Prairie Fire, a book that, according to group member Bill Ayers, sought “to consolidate our political organization and to forge unity with progressive activists.”

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Comments (0) | Posted on 04/20.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Nader's In: Let the Whining of the Democrats, Liberals and Leftists Begin

Which side are you on?

The corporate criminals, the big banks, Wall Street, the credit card companies, the nuclear power industry, the war profiteers, the agribusiness giants, the health insurance industry, the polluters, the drug companies, the unionbusters, Big Oil, the corporate Democrats and corporate Republicans?

Or with people fighting back?

Apparently, many Democrats, Liberals and leftists are on the side of the former. Here’s what some folks are saying about Ralph Nader’s announcement today that he is once again running for President:

KellyVision

I hate Ralph Nader. I really do. I mean, here’s the thing, he has to know that he’s never going to be elected and all he’s going to do is hijack votes from the real candidate.

I have a theory that he’s actually a Republican/blackmailed by Republicans.

And you can tell me that crap about voting your conscience instead of your fears all you want, but my conscience says that we do not need another four years of Republican leadership. (Need proof? I submit George Bush.)

Yes. This may actually be my bitchiest post ever.

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Comments (2) | Posted on 02/24.

Who Killed the U.S. Anti-Globalization Movement?

In a recent interview with the Spanish anarchist website Alasbarricadas, Infoshop’s Chuck Munson comments on how the Workers World Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, and the International Socialist Organization worked to shut down the U.S. anti-globalization movement in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks:

One thing that is probably unknown to people outside the U.S., and even most American anarchists and activists, is that some of the people leading the anti-war movements deliberately worked to kill off the U.S. wing of the anti-globalization movement in the hours after the September 11 attacks. It was inevitable that this would happen, as there were groups such as the Workers World Party, the Revolutionary Communist Paty USA, and the International Socialist Organization who had been frustrated by the anarchist nature of the anti-globalization movement. They had all notoriously “missed” the Battle of Seattle and the movement had resisted all of their attempts at entryism. The WWP responded to the September 11 attacks by quickly forming the ANSWER coalition, which started as a front group packed with their front groups and allies. They correctly guessed that the U.S. response to the attacks would lead to a war which would generate a new peace movement, As a small authoritarian organization, they were able to organize a “coalition” without having to deal with any democratic messiness. The WWP was able to position ANSWER as the leading anti-war coalition through a series of mass protests in Washington, DC and San Francisco. These protests didn’t make much news, nor did they do anything to stop the war, but they impressed an American left which was feeling powerless after the U.S. invaded Iraq. ANSWER stuck with a series of mass mobilizations every six months, which were conducive towards building credibility for their organization, but ANSWER never strayed outside a comfort zone that limited itself to permitted spectacles in large cities.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/24.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

The Cult of the Military

From Berkeley to Washington to one’s own family, there’s no escaping the Cult of the Military.

Donna Saggia explained it well in an article published on Counterpunch last fall:

The “troops” have become the “human face” of the military-industrial complex and the moral camouflage for the administration’s war agenda. For this reason, “support the troops” represents an essential dilemma and denial within American culture. Were we to look beyond these human faces, we would have to confront the reality they stand for: the military as an institution that has grown to monstrous proportions, endangered our security by conducting unjust wars, robbed us of our children, squandered our taxes on obscene war technology, and protected the interests of greed-driven multinational corporations.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/13.

Terror Royalty

The headline on CNN.com’s story about the killing of Imad Mughniyeh read: “Death of a Terror King.” The story, like all the other news articles about his death, claims Mughniyeh was the mastermind behind many of the best-known attacks against U.S. interests in the Middle East of the last 25 years.

My question is, will CNN.com carry a similar headline about the death of George W. Bush or Donald Rumsfeld or Bill Clinton or William Cohen or Robert McNamara or any other U.S. “terror king” who still hasn’t drawn his or her last breath? (I could be wrong, but I think McNamara’s still around. I don’t recall reading a “Death of a Terror King” obituary on CNN.com, fondly remembering McNamara’s role in the U.S. atrocities in Vietnam.)

Surely, these Americans are far more deserving of this royal honor than Mughniyeh. The American “terror kings” are responsible for the brutal killing of millions around the world, while Mughniyeh can lay claim to only hundreds.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/13.

Less Evil than Macaca Man? Jim Webb Surrenders Our Freedom

Don’t act surprised. Democrats love our society’s culture of control as much as any other political thug in Washington. They took control of both houses in Congress in 2006, but that hasn’t stopped the U.S. government’s move toward expanding its totalitarian control over all aspects of society.

Former Repubican Jim Webb won election to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Virginia in 2006, defeating Republican George Allen who was videotaped a couple months prior to the election referring to a Webb campaign volunteer as “macaca.”

Democrats were high-fiving because Webb’s victory helped them to retake control of the Senate. The change in power mattered to the bullies who crave to become committee chairs. But the 2006 victory has not resulted in a rollback in the U.S. government’s move toward absolute control.

Yesterday, the U.S. Senate approved a bill to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Webb and 16 other Democrats joined all but one Republican—South Carolina’s Lindsay Graham, who did not vote—to pass the bill.

“The Senate overwhelming voted Tuesday evening to legalize President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program and grant amnesty to the phone companies that helped out with the domestic spying,” Ryan Singel writes.

Singel continues:

The bill, which expires in six years, allows the government to install permanent wiretapping outposts in telephone and internet facilities inside the United States without a warrant. However, if those wiretaps are used to target Americans inside or outside of the country, the government would have to get a court order. However, if the target is a foreigner or a foreign corporation, and they call an American or an American calls them, no warrant is required.

Prior to this summer, the intelligence community was forbidden by law from wiretapping phone and internet switches inside the United States, unless they had a particular target in mind and applied for a court order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. That court largely rubber stamps such applications—it approved 2,072 in 2005 and required modifications to only 61 of those.

Here are the Democrats who voted for the bill:

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/13.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Complete Control

Europe and the United States are fighting over who can be more totalitarian. According to a draft proposal expected to go before the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, non-Europeans would need to submit biometric data like fingerprints and facial scans before being allowed to enter Europe.

“It’s the only way to be really sure about identifying people. With biometric data, it’s much easier to track people,” an unnamed European Commission functionary told the Washington Post.

“Not only do we support these measures, we applaud them,” Russ Knocke, spokesman for the U.S. Ministry of Homeland Security, told the Washington Post.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/12.

Monday, February 11, 2008

V for Vanquished

Peter Gelderloos writes:

Instead of raising a fist, pacifists raise their index and middle fingers to form a V. That V stands for victory and is the symbol of patriots exulting in the peace that follows a triumphant war. In the final analysis, the peace that pacifists defend is that of the vanquishing army, the unopposed state that has conquered all resistance and monopolized violence to such an extent that violence need no longer be visible. It is a Pax Americana.

from How Nonviolence Protects the State, South End Press, 2007, p. 63.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/11.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Presidential Scorecard for 2008

As in 2004, Rick Wilhelm has compiled a list of the candidates who are still in the race and has completed a chart based on their voting records and their public stances on the issues. If a candidate says one thing now, but voted a different way, the voting record is what is counted. However, with former Sen. John Edwards now out of the race, there is not much difference between what the candidates now say and their actual records. Perhaps Edwards was sincere, but he is no longer in the race anyhow.

Wilhelm notes:

Ron Paul actually ends up with a slightly more “progressive” stance than Senators Clinton and Obama, based on his opposition to the war in Iraq and its continued funding, and his opposition to the Patriot Act. His stands as far as helping the poor are usual Libertarian nonsense. Just follow the Constitution and everything will be OK. Even some Republicans believe we should help poor families with winter heating bills.

Clinton and Obama each scored 20 points on a scale of zero to 100. Former Representative McKinney scores a 90, which could be 100 perhaps if her position on an interest freeze on home mortgages for those who are in peril of foreclosure were known. All other issues of McKinney’s are known as far as the issues covered in the chart.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/10.

Will Matt Taibbi Pull a Christopher Hitchens?

I won’t be surprised when the day comes that Matt Taibbi, the bomb-throwing columnist for Rolling Stone, pulls a Christopher Hitchens and throws his support behind a future White House decision to ramp up the United States’ already hyper-interventionist foreign policy. Or when he announces his support for a bipartisan-endorsed draconian crackdown on civil liberties. Bombings in the United States similar to Madrid in 2004 or London in 2005, I suspect, would send Taibbi to the corner of those policy-makers and pundits who support sending U.S. Muslims and political dissidents to concentration camps and suspending the Constitution.

When reading his invective, one struggles to determine what Taibbi truly believes. He talks a tough game in his articles and essays, but when the shit truly hits the fan again here in the United States, will he have the balls to stand up to the fascists, or will he transform into a “pussy,” an epithet he has used to describe Democrats too frightened to fight the Republican brownshits in Washington?

Until the day comes when Taibbi loses his backbone, I will continue to enjoy the contrarian spirit he exhibits in much of his writing. Here’s a fun passage from a few years back:

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Comments (1) | Posted on 02/10.

Redskins Hire Another Christian Fundamentalist as Head Coach

Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has picked another Christian fundamentalist as the team’s head coach. Christian fundamentalist Jim Zorn will replace Christian fundamentalist Joe Gibbs.

Snyder is attracted to religious zealots in his business affairs. He is business partners with Church of Scientology ultra-advocate Tom Cruise.

Snyder’s politics lean to the far right. He is a big donor to the Republican Party, a supporter of President George W. Bush and close friends with George Allen, the former far-right-wing senator from Virginia who lost his Senate re-election bid to Jim Webb in 2006 primarily because he was caught on videotape referring to a Webb campaign volunteer as “macaca.”

Zorn is active with Pro Athletes Outreach, a group that aims “to recruit and equip an army of coaches, professional athletes and their families to make a positive impact in the world for Jesus Christ.”

While Zorn’s religious beliefs are well known, his political leanings are less understood. However, based on his close friendship with Steve Largent, an extreme right-wing former congressman and born again Christian from Oklahoma, it can be safely assumed that Zorn leans to the far right.

Zorn also is close friends with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. Zorn coached Hasselbeck for the past seven years while serving as the Seahawks’ quarterback coach. Like the majority of NFL players and professional athletes, Hasselbeck leans to the right in his politics. Hasselbeck’s brother Tim, a former Redskins quarterback, and sister-in-law Elizabeth Hasselbeck also hold far-right-wing poitical views.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/10.

Freedom Sunday

Free these people ...

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/10.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

As Spygate Scandal Grows, Will NFL Run Interference?

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican, plans to dig deeper into speculation surrounding the NFL engaging in some form of cover-up over the so-called Spygate scandal.

It’s outrageous that U.S. lawmakers are wasting taxpayer money looking into whether the NFL conspired with the New England Patriots to sweep under the rug certain information related to the Spygate scandal, just as it’s ridiculous that Congress has once again scheduled hearings into the use of steroids in baseball. These congressional investigations are examples of how the federal government loves to meddle in areas where it has no business poking its nose.

Having said that, it is curious how the Spygate scandal has unfolded. After the league investigation into the original Spygate incident following New England’s victory over the New York Jets in Week 1 of the NFL season, Goodell fined Patriots coach Bill Belichick $500,000, the maximum amount, and docked the team $250,000 and a first-round draft pick.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/03.

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Anti-Empire Preachers

William Blum on what to do about a politically unsophisticated American populace:

As cynical as others may think they are, the choir is frequently not cynical enough about the power elite’s motivations. They underestimate the government’s capacity for deceit, clinging to the belief that their government somehow means well; they’re moreover insufficiently skilled at reading between the media’s lines. And this all applies to how they view political candidates as well. Try asking “anti-war” supporters of Hillary Clinton if they know what a hawk she is, that—as but one example—she’s promised that American forces will not leave Iraq while she’s president. (And Obama loves the empire as much as Clinton.) When Ronald Reagan was president, on several occasions polls revealed that many, if not most, people who supported him were actually opposed to many of his specific policies.

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Comments (0) | Posted on 02/02.

Fun in the Arizona Sun

With the Super Bowl taking place tomorrow in the western suburbs of Phoenix and the PGA Tour making its annual stop in Scottsdale, Ariz., I thought it might be a good time to see what the future holds for this desert paradise beyond this weekend:

James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency, writes:

The Southwest will suffer in proportion to the degree that it prospered during the cheap-oil blowout of the late twentieth century. I predict that Sunbelt states like Arizona and Nevada will become significantly depopulated, since the region will be short of water as well as gasoline and natural gas. Imagine Phoenix without cheap air conditioning.

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Comments (1) | Posted on 02/02.