The Red and the Black

Monday, April 10, 2006

Brokeback Mountain Banned in Barbados, China, a Prison in the US

Half a Million March in Dallas Against Reactionary Immigration Laws

All out for today's nation-wide marches. The size of the Dallas march suprises many. African-American churches joined in the march widening the base of this human rights struggle.

Irish Wake Under Threat By EU

New rules by the EU could end the use of certain embalming chemicals that allow the beloved, and the flow of Guiness, to last longer than the rest of Europe.

The Irish Wake.

A Victory for All of Europe!

The French government capitulates on rewriting French labor laws. Democracy wins here and the race to the bottom, in France at least, has hit a major speed bump.

Every three years or so I re-watch The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Last summer I read le Carre's Absolute Friends and was blown away after having very mediorce reactions to a couple other books I had read of his. TSWCIFTC is probably one of the best thrillers I have ever seen. Burton is brilliant. Martin Ritt is no idealist and watching it you realize how crude the 007 series is in its sexy cold warriorism. Strong recommendation for the film about the Cold War in Europe.

Friday, April 07, 2006

Out Now! Exxon That Is!

"All right, what do we have to do, wait for a pack of crazed Latinos to crash a hijacked airliner into Disneyland before we realize that Venezuela and its power-crazed presidente cum dictator Hugo Chavez have declared war on the United States?"

Invade Venezuela now.

US mad that envoy is pelted with eggs.

Why we read the Cock!

"There is some sort of slow motion, semi-mutiny going on in the Democratic Party in bits of the country at the moment, and much of its rather tepid steam comes from the antiwar movement, aghast at the complicity of so much of the Democratic leadership in the war. But set the tempo of this mutiny next to what has been happening in France or on the streets of Los Angeles, and like Swindell one feels numbness in one's guts. The peace movement hasn't got fire in its belly. If it had, Obama, the rising star, would have passed up the invitation to go pitch for Lieberman, and two-thirds of the crowd would have hissed him when he did. As things are, they gave the new star a big cheer, instead of treating him the way the folks in Lancashire did Condoleezza Rice."

The entire article.

Urban Blight

The crisis in Black America, particularly young black males, has been making a minor stir in intellectual circles these days. Orlando Patterson's article in the Times a week back in particular has got social scientists exercised over his not exactly novel idea that culture has an influence on the cycle of poverty that has lead to high incarceration rates, endemic violence, low academic achievement, etc... in the Black community. He is not dismissing socio-economic forces, he believes they actually create culture, but he wants social scientists at least to incorporate culture into analysis as a variable, something many have shied away from.

Not claiming social scientist status here and these comments are purely anecdotal but the strengths of the arguments seem obvious, culturally speaking there certainly is a pose for many African-American males, call it a hip hop ascetic, that celebrates violence, crime, defiance of any sort of authority and crass materialism. As a high school teacher in a city where 50% of the youth don't graduate from high school, pants rarely stay at waist level and mother fucker is the adjective and noun of choice. And I teach in the second best school in the city. By the way, our school is disproportionately female as we lack male applicants.

The weakness, in Patterson's article, is his belief that economic conditions have somehow improved in central cities since African-Americans have had access to traditional stepping-stone jobs like bus drivers, cops, fireman, teaching, etc... He seems to over estimate the depth of the late nineties, for political reasons?, "economic boom." While some new immigrants have certainly raised their lot in the last 40 years the real condition of the urban United States and the working class, of all ethnicities, has been trending down as a result of the collapse of the industrial base. The union entry level jobs just aren't there any more for 16 year olds in the city and if you don't have at least a college education there is very little social mobility for anyone.

I actually think we know what will work; jobs, health care, equal opportunity, equal pay, etc...

Bob Woodward is Mad!

David Corn says BW misses the bigger issues in his book "Plan of Attack." Woodward replies, no I didn't you big fat doodie head (I paraphrase).

Another Choice for Left-Populism In LA

Peruvians go to the polls this weekend. The choices once again pit traditional parties against an ex-military officer with left wing populist rhetoric.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Wisconsin Votes Out Now!

Act locally.

A Prisoner Of Capitalism

"You want to issue a decree to help the poor, the indigenous people, the popular movements, the workers... but there's another law. Another padlock. It's full of padlocks that mean you can't transform things from the palace... I feel like a prisoner of the neo-liberal laws."

President Evo Morales on political power and state power within an international capitalist system. Very good article on the problems Bolivians face with their new radical government.

Dog Wagging

Chomsky has responded to an article making the rounds these days about
the Israeli Lobby. Always scary territory given the reflexive charge of anti-semitism when raised, The Red and the Black has always thought the idea of a small colonial outpost of ethno/religious zealots and their minions as puppeteer of the US empire as preposterous. It just goes against all logical analysis of history, institutional behavior and our favorite, economic determinism.

The view from these shores sees a well organized lobby no doubt with high levels of monetary contributions to the war parties, particularly the Democrats, and lots of voters (high turnout for a small group of people) in the Northern suburbs and cities in strategic states, New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois, Florida, etc... As well as high voter turnout pro-Zionist Jews have organized well with AIPAC being one of the most powerful organizations in Washington as well as lots of Israel supporters willing to do battle on campus, in letters to the editor, at the Rotary Club or any other venue that will hear them. This gives you power particularly when the interests of Israel and the US merge in the Middle East and other places, say Guatemala or Argentina, where the US doesn't want its fingerprints on the slaughter.

The current regime, since the 1940's, has seen the liberal democratic state of Israel as a kindred spirit and in the end more trustworthy than the Arab or Persian mass and although there are dissidents here in there that are Arabist the foreign policy elite believe that Israel will do what the US wants.

Co-interests internationally seem to be the drivers of US support for Zionism as well as domestic considerations but if Israel steps out of line, like they did at Suez or with Bush I, the US will say so and Israel will quickly change course.

No tail waging here.

Michael Nuemann weighs in.

A discussion of the issue at MaxSpeak.

More from Paul Woodward.