Thursday, August 31, 2006 

New Solidarity Website

Solidarity has lunched a new website. It looks good...but did y'all steal my colors?
(just kidding, kinda)

Wednesday, August 30, 2006 

War Profiteers are Profiteering from Wars

Merely restating the obvious, right? However, in a new report United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies have provided us with actual figures. And they're striking (read: the kind of figures with lots of zeros).

Since 9/11 CEO pay at 34 publicly traded U.S. corporations where defense contracts make up more than 10 percent of revenues has practically doubled. At the same time, the salaries of CEOs of other publicly traded corporations that aren't heavily involved in military-industrial spending rose only 6 percent. Oil Barrons are making out super nice also.

UFE spokesperson Betsy Leondar-Wright, quoted by Fox News explained the problem succinctly enough: "Why not say that if it's a contract with taxpayer dollars, they can't go to excessive CEO pay...In past wars, there were efforts to limit war profiteering. We're having the reverse here. We're having people treating it as their own little bonanza."

Wednesday, August 16, 2006 

Questions Concerning the Israeli/Lebenese Casus Belli

I am not one for conspiracy theories, and I like CounterPunch less and less for their insistence on running stories that promote various "alternate explanations." It is wacky and ultra-left; and does much more to hurt the left's intellectual reputation than help it.

That said, if there is anything of truth in this piece by Trish Schuh it needs to be in the realm of "known-knowns" and leftists and revolutionaries have an obligation to introduce these may-be facts to our friends, co-workers, class-mates and larger communities.

One little excerpt:
AP also ran changed versions. On July 12, at 5:41AM Joseph Panossian wrote: "The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbor to look for them."

At 7:09 AM, Panossian had altered his report: "The Hezbollah militant group captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes along the Lebanese border on Wednesday."

By late afternoon, at 4:13 PM, AP's Panossian had completely shifted location: "Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel on Wednesday and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded in southern Lebanon with warplanes, tanks and gunboats, and said eight of its soldiers had been killed in the violence."

Again, the full article can be found on CounterPunch's website here.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006 

Good Writer, Good Friend Ceases Blog

As I'm sure everyone who might happen to come by my blog already knows, our comrade CelticFire has chosen to cease writing on his blog (http://celticfire.blogspot.com/) in favor of devoting more time to other political endeavors. Although I didn't make it onto his list of shout-outs (*sniffle* just kidding), his perspective and thoughtful commentary will be certainly missed in my day to day internet browsing.

I would also like to commend him for 1) putting other political work outside of the blogsphere at the front and center of his political attention; and 2) for having the discipline to focus his energies in order to do some things very well instead of many things at a level that he seems to feel was unsatisfactory and/or unsustainable. As someone who has a very hard time focusing on one or two key areas of work, and who is coincidentally posting for basically the first time in a month, this is an example that perhaps others of us should look at more closely.

CelticFire, thank you for you comradely friendship, your principled debate and you earnest commitment to study, debate AND action in building a real movement for social transformation.
Loves, Nelson H.

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