Tucson shootings

The shootings of six people including a US senator a federal judge and a 9 year old child in Tucson sent a shock wave around the country and created a media storm. Everything in sight was blamed including the fact that not enough American politicians carry guns!

The deadly shooting in Tucson has not deterred a nearby gun show from continuing as scheduled exactly one week later. Organizers of the Crossroads of the West gun show say their event will proceed at a site just 13 miles from where the shooting took place. The gun show was moved to Pima County after Los Angeles officials decided organizers have promoted irresponsible gun use. Crossroads’ logo depicts a crosshairs inside the letter "O" of "gun show."

Palin has called it a "blood libel" that her extreme rhetoric is a factor in the violent attempt on one of her opponents. Palin has not been a shrinking violet when it comes to explicitly inciting the killing of political opponents.
For example she wrote about Julian Assange:

"First and foremost, what steps were taken to stop Wikileaks director Julian Assange from distributing this highly sensitive classified material especially after he had already published material not once but twice in the previous months? Assange is not a "journalist," any more than the "editor" of al Qaeda’s new English-language magazine Inspire is a "journalist." He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands. His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban. Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?"

It's worth noting that there is no evidence that Assange has "blood on his hands." In a review of a previous round of leaks on Afghanistan, the Pentagon found no evidence that anyone had been endangered.

Palin having "blood on her hands" is a more apt figure of speech.
For the gun lobby in the USA it is an understatement.

Megalomaniac Murdoch

News Corporation - the misnamed Rupert Murdoch empire - is launching a million dollar lawsuit against Skype. The lawsuit concerns the first three letters of its name.

Murdoch's lawyers claim this word is Murdoch's personal property and want money from anyone else who uses it! To quote the Sun - another Murdoch property - "you couldn't make it up."

The inhabitants of the Isle of Skye could be in trouble here and Murdoch's lawyers will have their sights on "The Sky's the Limit", "Blue Skies thinking" and the Skye Boat Song.

So next time you sneak a peak at that thing...you know that blue thing up there...Murdoch could be after your money.

And as for you Trotskyists...watch out!

Socialist Alternative in America

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LA Teachers End 24-Day Hunger Strike

In Los Angeles, a group of teachers have ended their twenty-four-day hunger strike to protest budget cuts. The teachers said they will now organize a campaign to recall some members of the Los Angeles Unified School Board. Thousands of Los Angeles teachers may soon be fired as the district faces a $700 million budget gap.

News story from Democracy Now - online news TV programme from America

Bush's punishment by Muntadar al-Zaidi

I can see why people think Muntadar al-Zaidi is a hero when
the puppet government in Iraq are such pussies. The brave
security services are beating up a defenceless man in
custody. And they do it to grovel to the American occupying
power.

Since the war millions of Iraqis are still waiting for the
electricity and water supplies to be restored to normal. It
is hardly surprising they experience frustration and any
sign of resistance to Bush is welcomed.

The politicians stay well away from Iraqis, keeping
themselves locked up in what Rajiv Chandrasekaran called "The
Emerald Palace" of the Green Zone. So it was only because
Bush wanted the media to see him on his farewell tour that
Muntadar had a chance to strike a small blow on behalf of
the women and children whose blood is on Bush's hands.

I don't condone throwing shoes but compared to bombing
civilians, the massacre at Fallujah, torture at Abu Ghraib
and Guantanamo, Bush's punishment is mild.

Torture counterproductive in Iraq

Democracy Now! interviewed a former special intelligence operations officer who led an interrogations team in Iraq two years ago. His nonviolent interrogation methods led Special Forces to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. He has written a new book, "How to Break a Terrorist: The US Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq."

The publication date for the book was delayed for six weeks due to the Pentagon’s vetting of it. The soldier wrote it under the pseudonym, Matthew Alexander, for security reasons. He says the US military’s use of torture is responsible for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers by inspiring foreign fighters to kill Americans.

Click here to read more

McCain has had his chips

Millions of Americans genuinely voted for change. McCain represented more of the same and Obama represented the audacity of hope.

The Democrats and Republicans are essentially one party and we can hardly celebrate the victory of one capitalist party over another. The Democrats are the worst kind of manipulative machine politicians.

A simple example is the response to the story of Obama's aunt.

The use by muckrakers of the corporate media of the fact that Obama's "half aunt" was classed as an illegal immigrant was an ideal opportunity to point out the plight of the illegals in the US. After all when the illegals staged a one day strike on May Day 2006 many everyday services in the USA ground to a halt. The prejudice against illegals is nonsensical.

Instead we were told that Obama was "of course concerned that the law should be complied with". Would he have told Rosa Parks, would he have told all those who broke the law to achieve civil rights the same thing? If he is prepared to make concessions like this before the election what other compromises will he be prepared to make in the future?

Many in America see Obama as a fresh hope after eight years of Republican rule but their disappointment will be so much the greater if the new boss turns out to be the same as the old boss.

Initially people who supported Obama will make excuses - he couldn't help the poor because of the economic crisis. He is intent on managing capitalism and helping the poor and disadvantaged. Socialists might be tempted to say "I've told you before you can't do that!"

And every government which has tried - sincerely or otherwise - to do so has been blown off course like Wilson in 1966. The corporations will not relinquish their power without a fight - and usually a fight to the finish with no holds barred.

John Pilger commented on the election of Obama, "Well, it comes down to, I suppose, asking an Afghan child how they feel when their family has been destroyed by a 500-pound bunker-busting bomb dropped by the United States and dropped by President Obama, as he continues that war. I think that’s the reality that we really have to begin to discuss now, having celebrated, and rightly celebrated, the ascent of the first African American president of the United States. "

Change big donors can believe in

Democracy Now's Amy Goodman reports that "Regardless of who the winner is, the next president will enter the White House with a long list of major donors to thank. "

And the media do not report on this.

Researcher Bill Buzenberg explains:

“Every local television station I have been to, I say, ‘How do you do in election years?’ They say, ‘We buy new cameras, new sets.’ It is a huge benefit to them. The commercial broadcasters are cleaning up this year like never before, and you’ll never hear them questioning the system that allows so much money to come back to them.”

Click here for details

Arrest of journalist - BBC does not protest

Democracy Now! Host Amy Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention.

Democracy Now! is a radio and TV show available on the internet at HTTP://democracynow.org. It aims to represent the “silenced majority” in American society. To their shame, BBC journalists have failed to raise the issue of Amy Goodman's arrest or to protest.

Sheer self-preservation would suggest that journalists should oppose the targeting of journalists by the police in the United States. Democracy Now has been a thorn in their side because of their refusal to use “embedded” journalists who simply reproduce the government line.

As Amy Goodman says “journalism is telling a story somebody doesn't want told. Anything else is advertising.”

It is in the interests of all workers in the media (and out of it!) to protest the arrest of journalists who seek to undermine the lies of the corporate media.

New Labour and torture

An astonishing 30 percent of Americans in a recent poll thought that torture was justified. The British government does not torture but it exports the job of torturing to other governments which is just as bad....arguably worse.

It is everybody's nightmare to be tortured but a democratic government which hands over the job to undemocratic governments is disgusting beyond belief.

I can't believe I used to be a member of the Labour Party. What has the party of Keir Hardy become?

300

I saw 300 today and the short review would be "don't".

The battle scenes are well choreographed but the cartoon-like violence becomes repetitive when you have seen the fifteenth beheading. I found myself murmuring, "I've had worse than this, this is just a flesh wound." which seemed to send my daughter into fits of laughter.

The dialogue is forced and false. It is a bit of an insult to the Greeks who invented rhetoric to make them sound like neocon yahoos.

And Xerxes was a bit of a stereotype I think. The big bad black guy with an army of rhinos, giants and elephants.

And it is just the film to get Bush baby dropping 300 hundred troops into Iran just to see if it works.


No it was not history. To be fair, historical drama seldom is. Shakespeare (for example) certainly isn't. Having said which this certainly ain't Shakespeare!

BBC lose 9/11 coverage

The BBC have lost their coverage of 9/11

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/02/part_of_the_conspiracy.html

The head of BBC news claims on the BBC website that is a cock-up not a conspiracy. If it is a cock-up it is a monumental one. The phrase "heads will roll" springs to mind. When they refer to Richard Porter as the head of news...it is still attached to his body is it?

Obama

"America, it's time to start bringing our troops home. It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war," Obama said. "That's why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace."

Barack Obama speaking in Springfield.

I have no idea whether Obama is for real but it is interesting he thinks that is a vote-winning position. It is an indication that there is a groundswell of oppositon to to the war and that the American electorate are not happy with vague promises of eventual troop withdrawal - even the most Hawkish Republican can promise that "when the time is right" - Obama feels the need to name the date.

Rumsfeld and Saddam

Saddam Hussein and his co-defendants were convicted for crimes committed in the town of Dujail in 1982.

Saddam shaking hands with a beaming Donald Rumsfeld in Iraq on December 20, 1983. Is it possible that Rumsfeld and his friends were unaware of Saddam's acts the previous year? Not really.

Bush's mid-term defeat cartoon

Alan Hardman's cartoon comment on Bush getting his come-uppance in the mid-term elections.

Animal Rights on BBC2

I have just been watching a scientist on BBC2 comparing Animal Rights protesters with terrorists and explaining that all medical advances have been brought about by animal experiments in the past which proves conclusively that there will never be an alternative in the future.

His case was undermined just a little by the way he was puffing away on a cigarette throughout. Obviously all those experiments proving that beagles get cancer if you force them to smoke were lost on him.

I am not an animal rights supporter - I stroke the cat occasionally but that is about it. I do know that equally serious scientists are seeking alternatives to the old fashioned methods of animal experimentation.

Socialism 2006

Socialism 2006 looks like being an excellent weekend on November 25/26th. We've got a wider range of speakers and debates than ever - something for everyone.

There should also be an opportunity for Socialist Party teachers to meet on the Sunday to discuss union work.

The details of the event are on the website
www.socialism2006.net
You can also buy tickets online at that site.

White poppies

A lot of fuss about newsreaders being made to wear poppies. I thought the idea of charity was it was voluntary. A lot of people choose to wear poppies and they think the money is going to a good cause.

My mother always wore a white poppy. She made it herself. People celebrated the end of the war. It was only later that the generals and the politicians decided to make 11th November into a celebration of the glory of .... politicians and generals.

And the idea that people fought for the freedom to be forced to wear a poppy is not fascism but it is a bit ironic.

The state has money to wage war. To look after the victims of war apparently is a job for charity. What if it were the other way round. What if the state looked out for the victims of war but the generals had to hold charity drives to buy cluster bombs?

Bernie Sanders - first socialist senator?

The victory of Bernie Sanders in Vermont shows the potential for someone who stands against the millionaires to gain support. Right wing republicans cannot afford healthcare, right wing republicans cannot get their kids through college - they want someone to look after their economic interests.

He approved of the idea of millionaires voting against him - it is in their class interests to do so!


Bernie described socialism on Democracy Now! as follows:

"Well, I think it means the government has got to play a very important role in making sure that as a right of citizenship, all of our people have healthcare; that as a right, all of our kids, regardless of income, have quality childcare, are able to go to college without going deeply into debt; that it means we do not allow large corporations and moneyed interests to destroy our environment; that we create a government in which it is not dominated by big money interest. I mean, to me, it means democracy, frankly. That's all it means. And we are living in an increasingly undemocratic society in which decisions are made by people who have huge sums of money. And that's the goal that we have to achieve."

Bernie is not a member of the CWI and his view of socialism is more on the Scandinavian model. Nevertheless his victory does show what is possible.

Cheney on torture

According to the US TV program "Democracy Now!"


"Vice President Dick Cheney has apparently confirmed US interrogators engage in water-boarding – an outlawed practice that creates the sensation of drowning. The admission came during an interview on a right-wing North Dakota radio program on Tuesday. Cheney said he agreed with a listener’s comment that terrorists should be dunked under water if it could save American lives. Cheney added: “that's been a very important tool that we've had to be able to secure the nation." A spokesperson denied Cheney had endorsed waterboarding and said he was referring to broad interrogation procedures. Water-boarding is barred under international treaties that prohibit torture."

Water boarding is a technique the CIA have directly copied from the Gestapo. Don't it make you proud?