Today In New York - Swimming Up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with Iraq

Tonight at the Brecht Forum, a discussion about Barbara Nimri Aziz's new book, "Swimming Up the Tigris", which "reveals disparities between news reports of unfolding events and what Iraqi men and women were actually experiencing in the months preceding the U.S.-led invasion in 2003" by "[d]rawing on intimate sources inside Iraq."

Details:

The Brecht Forum

7:30 p.m.

451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets)
New York, NY 10014
Tel: 212-242-4201

Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers

Today In New York - Viva Che! Behind and Beyond the Icon

Tonight at the Brecht Forum, a conversation on Che Guevara featuring Tariq Ali, Chesa Boudin, Juan Gonzalez & Greg Grandin.

Details:

The Brecht Forum

6:30 p.m. Exhibit Opening & Reception
7:30 p.m. Forum

451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets)
New York, NY 10014
Tel: 212-242-4201

Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers

Christopher Columbus: Brave Explorer or Cruel Conqueror?

Conventional wisdom in the United States hails Christopher Columbus as a great explorer who sought a shorter route to the eastern world by traveling west at a time when most people believed the world to be flat. He is credited with 'discovering' the Americas, though it is difficult to imagine how a land can be discovered when it is already inhabited.

Today, in honor of Columbus Day, we should take a moment to reflect upon the realities of the historical events surrounding Columbus' journey. October 12, 1492 marked the beginning of a long and violent oppression of the native population of America that led to their near complete eradication, and we should not let this day pass without acknowledging this tragic reality.

Historian Howard Zinn has written at length about the largely untold story of American history in his acclaimed "A People's History of the United States" and its supplement, "Voices of a People's History of the United States", which includes many of the primary historical documents that Zinn references in the former.

It is important-- not only with regards to Columbus, but for other critical topics as well-- to question the 'official' story fed to children by their teachers, to citizens by their media, and to people by their governments. 'History is written by the victor', as they say, but we would do well to remember another history as well-- that of the loser. By learning the stories of the oppressed and the subjugated we can be better equipped to oppose similar atrocities in the future.

Today In New York - Who is the Terrorist? A Critical Conversation on Empire and Resistance

Tonight at the Brecht Forum, a conversation and film about the July 2006 War on Lebanon.

Bilal El-Amine, a current resident of Beirut, Lebanon, will be sharing personal experiences of Israel's War on Lebanon last year.

Also, A Summer Not To Forget, a film by Lebanese film maker Carol Mansour, tells the story of yet another devastating war on Lebanon.

Details:

The Brecht Forum

7:30 p.m.

451 West Street (between Bank & Bethune Streets)
New York, NY 10014
Tel: 212-242-4201

Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers

Elections in America: You can vote for anyone you want to... except 'those' guys

We have already seen how limited our choice really is at the polls. Examples of the 'pre-filtering' process that candidates are forced through are all around us.




In the latest instance, online right-wing news outlet Pajamas Media recently removed Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul from their weekly straw polls. Kucinich and Paul were consistently winning their straw polls-- to the point where "many readers [had] been complaining to [Pajamas Media] about the increasing inutility of the poll because of vote-swarming by second tier candidates."

"Second tier" candidates winning polls? Maybe "second tier" isn't quite the appropriate label, huh?

So they removed Kucinich and Paul. Go to their website right now, scroll down... the poll lives just below the skyscraper banner ad in the right margin. No Dennis Kucinich, no Ron Paul.




Online music magazine and liberal news outlet Lost At Sea is another perpetrator. They host a similar straw poll on their homepage, but the choices are severely limited-- only Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney make the cut.

If you are so inclined, feel free to contact Pajamas Media and Lost At Sea to express your disappointment. Of course, your feedback will be most effective if you are professional and respectful.

These are but minor symptoms of a much broader issue-- and only two examples of many-- and the chicanery shows no signs of stopping. If you know of a similar instance of voter disenfranchisement, leave it in the comments!

Fool Me Once...

It's no longer a surprise to anyone paying the least bit of attention to the actions of the Bush administration and their rubber stamping comrades on Capitol Hill that citizens of the United States and of the world were severely misled-- about almost everything-- in the build up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In January of 2003, for example, "White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush continues to work with other countries on a peaceful solution [for Iraq].

'But if Saddam Hussein will not disarm peacefully and it becomes necessary to disarm him by force, then what we would be doing is not only disarming a real and growing threat, but liberating Iraqi people from a brutal, oppressive regime,' McClellan said."

Almost a year before-- in July of 2002-- according to the Downing Street Memos, "Bush had made up his mind to take military action [in Iraq]" and to facilitate this "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Now, in 2007, there is growing tension between the US and Iran. Yesterday, Helen Thomas asked White House spokesperson Dana Perino if President Bush would consult congress before attacking Iran.

    HELEN THOMAS: Did [President Bush] consult -- would
    he tell Congress before attacking Iran -- before he attacks Iran?

    DANA PERINO: Helen, we are pursuing a diplomatic
    solution with Iran.

    HELEN THOMAS: I'm asking you, does he feel committed
    to ask Congress for permission?

    DANA PERINO: We are pursuing a diplomatic solution in
    Iran.

Déjà vu.

Have we learned our lesson? Previous disasters have an uncanny tendency to slip the minds of Americans, but it's been a mere four years. The warmongers continue to push for military action in Iran while spewing lies about their 'diplomatic efforts'.

Congress certainly won't curb the executive's war plans. It's up to the American people to speak out in any forum and by any means available to them if we are to avoid a sequel to the Iraq debacle.

Judge Rules Part of PATRIOT Act Unconstitutional

A federal judge ruled yesterday that two components of the USA PATRIOT Act-- the controversial legislation rushed into law in late 2001 that has been compared to Nazi Germany's Enabling Act-- are unconstitutional.

    U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign
    Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act,
    "now permits the executive branch of government to
    conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens
    without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the
    Fourth Amendment."

Is this the beginning of a larger movement to check the executive's post-9/11 power grabs or will this ruling be brushed aside by the White House as a mere nuisance?

Democracy Now! on Ahmadinejad's Visit

Today's broadcast of Democracy Now! featured excellent coverage of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly and his appearance yesterday at Columbia University.

Democracy Now! - Tuesday, September 25 2007

* Watch (128k)
* Watch (256k)
* Listen (mp3 - right click to download)

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in New York

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in New York today. The front page headline in the New York Daily News this morning read "The Evil Has Landed" in massive block letters ('Evil' was in red) and the New York Post called him "madman Iran prez" and "guest of dishonor".

Coverage of Ahmadinejad's visit in the New York Times was, predictably, significantly less sensational and more professional. The Times ran a story on page A4 purportedly discussing the head of state's visit to the U.S. from a Iranian perspective, as well as a story on page B1 (The Metro Section) about New York City's often reluctant diplomacy and hospitality towards 'controversial' visitors. There was no front page coverage.

Ahmadinejad has recently sparked controversy in the Big Apple after he requested permission to lay a commemorative wreath at Ground Zero during his visit.

All the hype surrounding Ahmadinejad-- today or otherwise-- is unfounded, however, when a few important factors are taken into account:

1.) Though Ahmadinejad is the highest directly elected official in Iran, his power and influence pales in comparison to that of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It appears that Ahmadinejad is more of a figurehead than anything else.

2.) Ahmadinejad's inflammatory remarks allegedly calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map" (and repeated ad nauseam by the mainstream media) may have been largely exaggerated and mis-represented.

3.) Mainstream pundits and politicians in the U.S. greatly exaggerate (again, ad nauseam) Iran's potential nuclear threat.

4.) If the 'principle of universality' is accepted (the principle that we should hold ourselves to the same standards that we apply to others), Ahmadinejad and his government's threat to the West or to 'stability in the Middle East', real or perceived, is laughable when compared to the actions of the U.S. regime. Who are Bush and Co. to deny Iran their right to nuclear weapons when the United States itself stockpiles nearly ten thousand nuclear warheads (not to mention that the U.S. is the only nation in history to use nuclear weapons on their fellow humans, and against civilian targets no less)? One would be hard pressed to find a more explicit example of hypocrisy.

Watch Ahmadinejad's speech:
More videos from Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia University.

Save The Clocktower Internet!

"Net Neutrality", the basic principle that all Internet users have equal access to all internet destinations, has been under attack for some time now. Net Neutrality, a founding principle of the Internet, ensures that all websites-- from Google to MySpace, from DemocracyNow.org to FOXNews.com, from The Daily Kos to Surf The Gerf Turf-- are treated equally.

Imagine one day opening your browser to log onto your favorite website only to encounter a frozen progress bar or a "Server not found" notice. Checking your internet connection, you find everything to be in order. You click 'refresh' and wait... but, alas, still nothing.

You then navigate to a different site. Say, for example, a popular search engine like Yahoo or Google. The page loads immediately. Ok, you think, my connection is fine. You then attempt yet again to view your favorite website, but to no avail.

This imagined scenario is likely what many internet users will experience if Net Neutrality were to go the way of the dinosaurs. For a more familiar example of what Internet access may look like in the absence of Net Neutrality, think of your Cable Television access, which is 'tiered'. Access to certain channels is only available at higher price points.

[Click image to enlarge]

Look familiar?

As the world moves away from the local and isolated model of the past to the global and increasingly-connected paradigm of the future (whether this is to our collective benefit or not is the subject of another conversation), the explosion of the Internet has increasingly become a tool for democratic movements and an instrument of grassroots activism, communication, and progress.

Without Net Neutrality, the Internet will lose its value as a vehicle for democracy, and that is simply not something that we can allow to happen.



Visit SaveTheInternet.com for more information.