Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Bush's New Bracero Program
President Bush is back on his effort to create a guest worker program to "fill jobs that Americans will not do." Rather than letting market forces adjust the terms and conditions of these jobs - hours, pay, health care, education, upward growth, etc. he proposes to flood the supply of labor with a new and expanded Bracero program.
The Bracero Program (1942-1964) was an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments that permitted Mexican citizens to take temporary agricultural work in the United States. When US farmworkers protested poor wages or working conditions, farm owners brought in braceros, undercutting the bargaining power of the American farmworkers.
Many of the braceros lived in poverty conditions - without adequate food, water, or shelter. Additionally, many of the barceros were forced to pay a portion of their pay to so called manditory savings programs that were never paid to them. The program was ended to prevent further abuse of braceros and US farmworkers.
Bush's Guest worker program will not only include agricultural workers, but workers from all sectors of the economy. What will make it work this time? And who will pick up the tab for the health, education and welfare of their children? Will Bush convince Vincente Fox to create a high-tech jobs program in Mexico to provide jobs for all the unemployed high tech workers desiring a better climate and lifestyle?
wow never knew that thanks and what did the goverment do with the charges to the workers sence it was closed whos pockit it go to makes me wonder
Littlebitofsonshine,
A total of $34 million was deducted from bracero earnings between 1942 and 1946; savings deductions ceased in January 1946. Several class-action suits have been filed seeking to recover the forced savings, plus interest, from the Mexican and US governments. These lawsuits were for the 35-50 millon that was never returned, plus an additional $500 billion in punitive damages.
see http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=508_0_4_0
Sunday, November 27, 2005
HEARTS VS PASSPORTS
He would be considered a fool here in Mexico, a nation which retains the native life ethic. That is something to which America can never aspire, having murdered those who could teach it.
A quote often repeated in describing difference between Americans and Mexicans is "Americans live to work while Mexicans work to live". It is well understood by Mexicans, but the meaning usually passes over the heads of Americans.
Suppose a Mexican and an American met for the first time. The American might say "I am a doctor, engineer, bricklayer, truck driver, salesperson, etc., etc., etc..", and the Mexican, "I live in the small town of Xtlahuacan with my wife, mother, two sons, a daughter, and an uncle". The American would question "But what kind of work do you do?" The Mexican would then think "Who is this man, and why in the hell would he want to know that?"
The American defines himself in terms of how his work benefits those he considers superior. The Mexican considers no one superior and views himself a part of those near.
A Mexican friend once succinctly described the difference another way. "Mexicans have more heart." Normally lacking in that, most Americans would not understand. I learned something about myself in realizing I did.
A passport issued on basis of a first 56 years in America claims I am of it. But hearts trump passports every time. The subsequent 19 in Mexico ensure mine's final beats will tap a mariachi rythm.
To be able to leave America behind and to leave behind what one becomes there is an oppurtunity everyone should take. If you let Mexico just take you over, it is not long before that missing heart replaces itself. And speaking from decades of experience here, people with heart make life look beautiful and very very worthwhile.
Pocho,
I might add that Americans really lack a real culture of their own (other than the uniform McCulture that makes one suburb undistinguishable from any other suburp or town). In Mexico, I find that each village has its own culture. Perhaps this is why it's so important where a person is from rather than what they do.
HighTechVagabond
Ok not sure how i feel now but im american and im proud to be one im proud to be trying to make changes in a resionable way and im tired of being called ever name bad because im american when im told o not you sonshine but yet the hate and name calling continuses and all people are being ahead acountable for the things happening in the USA and not all america i guess then all people where evel happens are just as bad as there goverments and i guess thats why so much cheep slave labor is in some countrys and not all .I thanks god i have some rights even if not as many as i would like in america even if the usa goverment sucks me as a amercian who dont run away im trying to stand and make a differance dont count .Im not sure now what to think of so many things so much hate im a woman of peace not blind hate to people in a country run by a corupt goverement i rather stay and try to make changes instead of running to another country and talking about my home land lke a dog But then who am i to judge another human by what someone else does by the standers i am seeing me im evil im corupt because the usa sucks thay them standards i do also Im no more special or crule as another i guess "BE safe walk in peace allways" im sorry im tired of being hated when change is wanted but it like no mater what anyone does im evil and all in america are north ,cental and south america to bad people cant see differance in the land and the goverments it s the usa goverment not all the people and i dnt think being in usa or being born here makes all humans evil
Sonshine, you have a beautiful outlook on life and people, and any country should be called proud to have you wanting to help guide it. I listen to your pain of not wanting to be identified with the wrongs of your government and not wanting to be a target for the hate it brings on. I know you stand brave in the middle of this crisis and do all thats in you to bring about the healing of your crippled nation. For your own sake, I wish you could seperate the hate your country deserves now, from who and what you are that does not deserve it. I have seen other good and caring people like you hurting too, because they are not the evil force, just victims of their birth and love for the people and the land. But the urgent message is, Beware of America, Protect yourself, Stop them. And this message needs to be loud and clear, Look at what they have become. You are good, and your goodness connects with people all around the globe. I know your loyalties are to your country, but you are also a citizen of the world, by the rights of the way you care. How sad it really is, but America is hated. But you are not hated, you are needed, as all good people are needed regardless of country.
I too was born in America, but left part way through my teenage years, and taught it was a country that was coming to an ugly inefitable end. The world is mine and I do my good there, preferably in places that have a worthwhile future. But I understand and admire you for why you stay. You have chosen a strong path, the red one, and it makes you part of what always was. You need to care for what is yours. I have no country, just the world.
Keep up the good work Sonshine, as I know you always will
Im glad you can be of the world the goverments would wide require papers says you from here or where to bad we cant take a test and have humanity papers to be free to be who you are and to not harm the world but help heal it but till that time my papers say im a usa other in america and my prayer will all ways be for peace harmony balance in true health and the best for all not the some on anything
Friday, November 25, 2005
BUSH - A Clear and Present Danger
If BUSH does not like what you say or do... Bush makes a couple quick phone calls. This is why no network will carry pictures of dead bodies or caskets from the war. In foreign countries where he does not have political control over the news source, he simply orders a Clear and Present Danger style shut-up hit.
According to a recent article in the Daily Mirror, Bush ordered the bombing of al-Jazeera's headquarters building in Doha for reporting behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims. Yesterday, he followed-up with a gag order on publishing further details on the story.In 2001 the al-Jazeera's Kabul office was demolished by two 500-pound "smart" bombs.
On April 8, 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad office.
On April 8, 2003, more journalists, Julio Anguita Parrado and Christian Liebig were killed south of Baghdad.
On September 12, 2004, Mazen Al-Tomaizi, a Palestinian television journalist working for Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbariya and Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, was killed yesterday by an American missile as he was reporting live from Baghdad on deadly clashes between US forces and insurgents.
On June 24, 2005 Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for the news agency Knight Ridder, was asassinated by a single bullet to the head for investigating US-backed death squads in Iraq.
How many more of these were Clear and Present Danger style shut-up hits?
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
How many Clear and Present Danger style shut-up hits happen here in our country?
In a land of freedoms how could are leaders be so scared and dangerious to people of the truths .Why is it only goverment allowed to lied and kill harm others of other countrys and get away with so much evil are we the usa the east in the east because the capitial is on the east coast but what would i know im not into understanding world places but just makes me want to scream at them how could you kill so many who want to be like the usa is sapost to BEEEEEEEE how can the world allow this how can we as humans how could are military fallow such a human what have we become animals do we attack the weak to kill the maimed????just makes want to cry seeing all these truths come to LIGHT
Thursday, November 24, 2005
BASTARDS ATTEMPT KATRINA II
Their chief cowboy will be at his Texas ranch pretending to do the same. He isn't really a cowboy, but a spoiled rich kid from the eastern USA state of Connecticut. His daddy established fake residence in Texas because it does not have an income tax and profits from his CIA drug running wouldn't have to be shared with ordinary people. Little Georgie's contribution to family empire continuance was to garner votes by mimicking the accents of white Texas bigots.
You have never seen a picture of him on a horse. Falling off bicycles, yes, but a horse, no. The ranch isn't even a ranch but a pig farm purchased for photo opportunity effect. Construction of its "ranch house" was completed the day after the "election" took place. "Cowboy" Bush will be there through the weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Others will be there too and so can you. Anti war protesters were arrested yesterday for violating a new law prohibiting anyone who opposes the war from spitting or going to the toilet within a ten mile radius of the pig farm. There is another way. Enter 31.530399, -97.544391 in Google Earth's upper left search box, and you will quickly be looking down on the fake ranch house. Enlarge the image until the house fills the window and get ready to join the rest of us BASTARDS.
Bloggers Against Stupid Tyrants And Reprehensible Dictatorial Sonsobitches (BASTARDS) will conduct an experiment to determine if psycho kinesis can be used to see if there really is a god. The action will occur at exactly midnight Universal Mean Time. That is 6 pm Texas time for Americans unaware of other places and times besides those of their latest invadee. All BASTARDS will have computer screens focused on the fake ranch house at that moment and spit in unison on their computer screens.We may then see if inundated Texas bushes fare any better than the downtrodden of New Orleans.
well not that i advicate harm of anyone but that was cold so many who knew what was to happen from prez and new in charge security force let so many and many still with out seams to me a real leader who was that rich would be haveing a major turkey day with all the people who realy needed good food much less a holiday dinner to celabrate there alive.But then who am i to say anything i only do the moons seasions and such o and i love giving day i give when i want not on a day someone tells me i have to for a man maid saint holiday chanded into a day of christ birth whos a jew and thay dont even DO birthdays so humm when in rome do as the romans who was here first ???? ok now holiday historys just confuse me doggoneit o and i love the truth ty and bless you pocho why not blow on the screen im sure wind can do damage as water can and then i dont have to clean my screen so if ok ill blow in my mind a s i pray for a better world
Chilling thought, that I can spit on my screen on the Bush juntas ranch house. How close this technology brings us, and to what uses does our future put them.
Disgusting holiday, pigs eating turkeys. It is more than I want to think about on yet another beautiful morning in Mexico. But I admit to totaly enjoying your post. Thank you Pocho.
Mexico city today. They should try this in Crawfrawd
http://www.corriere.it/Media/Foto/2005/11_Novembre/24/fdg/MESSICO.jpg
Well, here it is the next day. I did my bit and the computer screen is clean. It was a nice try by us BASTARDS, but there are no news reports of flooding in CrawlForward, Texas, not even the drowning of a single bush.
Lack of news can't be chalked to censorship. We would have felt the world shake from spread of near universal cheers if it had been the case.
I guess the effort shows there is no god, or at least not a merciful one.
well maybe cause we not all bastards my mom and dad where married a bastard is someone whos parents wert acknolaged to be married and does not carry fathers name sence its a english word i think but what i know im just a unedgamacated me
I do admit imaginining what spitting and dropping a box of pennies from the point of view offered by the aerial photo would do.
But hey not so fast. Cindy Sheehan did show up about a mile from the Skull and Bones 322 pig ranch. And, she's getting loads of press for it. Maybe the Katrina II we get is figurative and not literal.
Hopefully, the other residents of Crawford would not be affected by this political storm.
Maybe there is a G_D afterall.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Falling Down Fast
Bush carried his $3,000 bike to China in order to seize the moment for a photo op, one which would show the Chinese he was a regular good old guy, just like them.Like most of his misadventures, it didn't work out that way.
Newspapers carried a photo of the venture's start in front of a sign of the olympic mascot symbol at the trail bike course. The photo provided impetus for an unintended national joke.
"Which one is the American dummy?"
Answer:
"Keep watching. He'll be the one that falls off".
Now that is what i call a great pic lol good thing he cant remember how ride a bike or is it he never road one before to bad price of bike cant stop u from falling off he should have wore training wheels .
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Haitians get it
References:
Two presidential candidates ruled out of Haitian election due to American nationality by Vario Sérant
Caribbean Net News Haiti November 10, 2005
Haiti election body bars US citizens from ballotReuters
Nov 11, 2005
Haiti's Pre-election fight goes on Heartbeat News November 14, 2005
Two Haitian-U.S. citizens barred presidential vote Tehran Times November 13, 2005
and to think the u.s.a. wont let anyone not born here much less someone who even has a cita-sin-ship here to run for presidant so who are thay the usa goverment to say who can run for office anywhere in the world and why do thay have a say any way?????WELL UNLESS THAY CHANGED SOME MORE LAWS AGAIN AND THE PEOPLE BORN OR LIVE HERE DONT UNDERSTAND YET
USA Considers Another Terror Attack
A confidential memo circulating among senior US ruling party leaders suggests creating another attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as his party and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring his party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could "validate" the President's war on terror and allow Bush to "unite the country" in a "time of national shock and sorrow." The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the next elections.
The memo circulates as disastrous election defeats have left an already dysfunctional White House in chaos, Insiders say shouting matches are commonplace and the blame game is escalating into open warfare. "This place is like a high-school football locker room after the team lost the big game," grumbles one Bush administration aide. "Everybody's pissed and pointing the finger of blame at everybody else."
Party insiders who have seen the memo admit it's a risky strategy. Some worry that such a scenario carries high risk, pointing out that an attack might suggest the President has not done enough to protect the country. "We also have to face the fact that many Americans no longer trust the President," says a longtime strategist. "That makes it harder for him to become a rallying point."
US politicians no longer talk of "victory" in Iraq but use the term "successful resolution. A successful resolution would be getting out intact and civil war not breaking out until after the midterm elections, Suggests one "Declare victory and run like hell".
"In 30 years of sampling public opinion, I've never seen such a free fall in public support," admits one party pollster. Another says "None of the old tricks work." One legislator admits the ruling party is mired in its rural (read racist) base in a country that's becoming less and less rural. "You play to your rural (read racist) base, and you pay a price," he says. "Our issues blew up in our face."
As party political strategists scramble to find a message "any message" that will ring true with voters, leaders in Congress admit privately that control of the country by right-wing extremists makes recovery all but impossible. "We've made our bed with these people," admits one "Now it's the morning after and the hangover hurts like hell."
Sad to even think its true but knowig how this goverment has worked from the beginning i believe it not much from them i dont realy besides when thay open there mouths
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
We Are The Message
Public information about early native confrontations in the eastern US spread slowly over years by mouth. Ignorant accounts of the western phase of the genocide took weeks or months to print. Early US manifest destiny adventures in Mexico, the Philippines, and Cuba shortened reporting time but little. People could read within a week what they were supposed to believe of the last century's first War To End All Wars. The next, World War II, featured make believe movie news reels lying about and glorying one side's heroes. The people of the US were treated to early television coverage during their Korean defeat, but that was so restricted, few not directly engaged realized there were so many Chinese.Rapid rapes of smaller nations since received quick mention and that's about all. Vietnam was an exception because of its length. Real credit for ending it goes to the Vietnamese in victory, but reports and films in the US of just a few of its uglier moments helped cut through and harness America's self glorifying craziness. Today's commercial media propagate pre written fairy tale chapters almost concurrent to the underlying events on which they are tagged. The times are changing by speeding communication's stop watch.
A steadily expanding crowd now grows beyond fairy tale age and knows to look elsewhere for the story. I learned a short wave antenna and radio could pierce the fictional shield when the US was in Vietnam. Voice of Havana, Radio Moscow, CBC, and BBC radio were as self serving as the CIA's Voice of America. Taken together however, one could make more informed guesses as to what was really happening. The internet is the short wave radio of today.
There are those that would try control the internet. A conference is in session at this moment in Tunisia fussing over not whether it should it controlled but rather how by who. Whatever schemes are developed will be but sneezes in the wind as wishful masters of manipulation try to determine which computers connect to which others.
The only way the internet could be controlled would be by banning computers. There is too much profit and selfish interest for that. A salesperson without a customer earns no commission. Propagandists lacking audience effectively say nothing. The sellers and the liars need the internet and see their future enhanced by the number of its users. The concern of the various competing interests is that they are no longer alone in fabricating content. They would like to expand the audience but fence the podium. It can't be done. You and I and our friends have voices too. Though we shout from backstage, more and more of the crowd is taking the stroll behind.
Anyone with but little facility can take from the Internet and add to it. Even limitation of differing language is surmounted. Though most in ruling nations absorbed in self satisfying arrogance speak only their own tongue, that self imposed wall of communicative isolation is punctured by much of rest of the world's multilingual capability. The con artists have become their own worst enemy in teaching intended marks to follow the pitch.
Wars and other abuses of power depend in large part on secrecy to insure ignorant supporting populations as well as cannon fodder. That doesn't work well anymore, and we, here and now, are one small example of the reason. What we do here adds to and spreads not only personal belief but information gathered and blended from unfettered sources the world over. Its value is much more than an outlet for political frustration. We know what papers in France and Italy report because of Nur-el Cubical's blog. The thoughts and attitudes of yabasta's Mexican neighbors are spread through her blog, forum contributions, and chat room comments. The more frequent users of our chat room express views and news gained in Argentina, China, England, Germany, India, Mexico, Romania, Thailand, and USA. We transend not only space but time through perspective of ages varying from old to young.
If those we oppose are secretive or lie, we can and will provide what it takes to expose them. Collectively, we can't be stopped. If one of us departs from this partucular chorus, others will arrive to take up the tune. If a site goes down, similar ones will rise. We are heard. We do have an effect. We are the message.
Emiliano Zapata stated "It is not only by shooting bullets in the battlefields that tyranny is overthrown, but also by hurling ideas of redemption, words of freedom and terrible anathemas against the hangmen that people bring down dictators and empires." They arranged to have Zapata killed but not his revolution for the words remained in the hearts of those who continued his dream.
So, what can you tell us today that may help the world out?
As long as the hippys help teach and the caring people the ones who tell lies will be sean so much more easer im glad the truths are coming out yeahhhhhhh world
Nothing like reading truth on Sunday morning, it always feels so good in the stillness of this day. The big They, or It, cannot silence us. And their modern technology has now given us a chance to turn one of their weapons against them. With the net we are free and freedom is a powerful force when used with truth. Our best weapons and we must use them well to win.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Another Perspective
They are not unaware of what goes on around them and may understand it more than those closer to events.
Purepecho art is distinctive in its bright colors and often exagerated humorous topic. We recently attended an artisan exibit that hosted several tables of Purepecho figurines. One two foot tall piece in particular caused raised eyebrows and frowns from passing gringos but brought approving smiles from Mexicans. As my laughter subsided, I asked if I could return the next day and photograph it. The lady graciously granted permission in what seemed to have been her pleasurable surprise to encounter a gringo who empathized with the outlook of her people.
Pocho,
Call me sick, but I would have bought it.
Actually, I think this piece insightfully points out a large similarity in our cultures and some large differences. The Purapechos surely must of heard of the 9/11 tragedy and in turn created this artwork in order to understand it better. But in our consumeristic culture, we'll explain it away as just a foolish attempt to make a buck.
But consider this. We say we try to wipe bad events out our minds. But then we tune into the TV channel that plays the most images of 9/11 over and over again. With TV we can watch billions of images in just a short time. It has nearly replaced art where the individual creates only a single image at a time. TV is a spectator sprot that has robbed us of our ability to make art to communicate and try to understand horrible events. We as a people no longer communicate, we just watch TV. It's the TV that does the communication to us. ... or you can explain it away in that TV is attempting to make something people talk about and are interested in buying.
Why is this so shocking?
Remember after 9/11 when nearly everyone bought american flag window stickers and support our troups bumperstickers for their cars? What if there were no mass production of anything? What if we lived in a land where people can laugh off catastrophes instead of launching hugely expensive wars against innocent people? What kind of art would we be producing in a peaceful society to react to an event like 9/11. I would suggest in a sane society, we would actually have art that would help us laugh off such a catastrophe and help us change the conditions that led up to that event.
If I understand these people, there will be others such as a modern windmill cutting through a nuclear power station in a Cervantes / Don Quixote depiction, or a hummer eating a gas pump.
p.s. also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pur%C3%A9pecha
Was 9/11 a tragedy, or was it, if not a victory, at least a predictive message of one yet unfolding?
Might depend on who is doing the labelling.
Excellent observations HiTek. And the meaning of this piece of artwork. To make a person think and grow and accept what is. It is to lose the battle to succumb to the horrors America, and it's imitators, constantly rejuvenates and prepetuates and glorifies. Just another form of oppression. One would do best to set their mind free and look at what is, from all sides. Expressing with art the signs of defeat of evil has always existed, and if it hits close to home, it is no less valid.
Friday, November 11, 2005
America's New Enemy
Latin Americans have spent the past few years finding their voices. Now they may have the strength to defy their northern neighbour. By John Pilger
I was dropped at Paradiso, the last middle-class area before La Vega barrio, which spills into a ravine as if by the force of gravity. Storms were forecast and people were anxious, remembering the mudslides of 1999 that took 20,000 lives. "Why are you here?" asked the man sitting opposite me in the packed jeep-bus that chugged up the hill. Like so many in Latin America, he appeared old, but wasn't. Without waiting for my answer, he listed why he supported President Hugo Chavez: schools, clinics, affordable food, "our constitution, our democracy" and "for the first time, the oil money is going to us". I asked him if he belonged to the MVR (Movement for the Fifth Republic), Chavez's party, "No, I've never been in a political party; I can only tell you how my life has been changed, as I never dreamt."
It is raw witness like this, which I have heard over and over again in Venezuela, that smashes the one-way mirror between the west and a continent that is rising. By rising, I mean the phenomenon of millions of people stirring once again, "like lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number", wrote Shelley in The Mask of Anarchy. This is not romantic; an epic is unfolding in Latin America that demands our attention beyond the stereotypes and cliches that diminish whole societies to their degree of exploitation and expendability.
To the man in the bus, and to Beatrice whose children are being immunised and taught history, art and music for the first time, and Celedonia, in her seventies, reading and writing for the first time, and Jose whose life was saved by a doctor in the middle of the night, the first doctor he had ever seen, Chavez is neither a "firebrand" nor an "autocrat" but a humanitarian and a democrat who commands almost two-thirds of the popular vote, accredited by victories in no fewer than nine elections. Compare that with the fifth of the British electorate that reinstalled an authentic autocrat in Downing Street.
Chavez and the rise of popular social movements, from Colombia down to Argentina, represent bloodless, radical change across the continent, inspired by the great independence struggles that began with Simon BolIvar, born in 1783 in Venezuela, who brought the ideas of the French Revolution to societies cowed by Spanish absolutism. BolIvar, like Che Guevara in the 1960s and Chavez today, understood the new colonial master to the north. "The USA," he said in 1819, "appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty."
At the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001, George Bush announced the latest misery in the name of liberty in the form of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) treaty. This would finally allow the United States to impose its ideological "market", neoliberalism, on all of Latin America. It was the natural successor to Bill Clinton's North American Free Trade Agreement, which has turned Mexico into a US sweatshop. Bush boasted it would be law by 2005.
On 5 November, Bush arrived at the 2005 summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, to be told his FTAA was not even on the agenda. Among the 34 heads of state were new, uncompliant faces and behind all of them were populations no longer willing to accept US-backed business tyrannies. Never before have Latin American governments had to consult their people on pseudo agreements of this kind; but now they must.
In Bolivia, in the past five years, social movements have got rid of governments and foreign corporations alike, such as the tentacular Bechtel, which sought to impose what people call total locura capitalista - total capitalist folly - the privatising of almost everything, especially natural gas and water. Following Pinochet's Chile, Bolivia was to be a neoliberal laboratory. The poorest of the poor were charged up to two-thirds of their pittance-income even for rainwater.
Standing in the bleak, freezing, cobble-stoned streets of El Alto, 14,000 feet up in the Andes, or sitting in the breeze-block homes of former miners and campesinos driven off their land, I have had political discussions of a kind seldom ignited in Britain and the US. They are direct and eloquent. "Why are we so poor," they say, "when our country is so rich? Why do governments lie to us and represent outside powers?" They refer to 500 years of conquest as if it is a living presence, which it is, tracing a journey from the Spanish plunder of Cerro Rico, a hill of silver mined by indigenous slave labour and which underwrote the Spanish empire for three centuries. When the silver was gone, there was tin, and when the mines were privatised in the 1970s at the behest of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), tin collapsed, along with 30,000 jobs. When the coca leaf replaced it - chewing it curbs hunger - the Bolivian army, coerced by the US, began destroying the coca crops and filling the prisons.
In 2000, open rebellion burst upon the white business oligarchs and the US embassy whose fortress stands like an Andean Vatican in the centre of La Paz. There was never anything like it, because it came from the majority Indian population "to protect our indigenous soul". Naked racism against indigenous peoples all over Latin America is the Spanish legacy. They were despised or invisible, or curios for tourists: the women in their bowler hats and colourful skirts. No more. Led by visionaries such as Oscar Olivera, the women in bowler hats and colourful skirts encircled and shut down the country's second city, Cochabamba, until their water was returned to public ownership.
Every year since, people have fought a water or gas war: essentially a war against privatisation and poverty. Having driven out President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in 2003, Bolivians voted in a referendum for real democracy. Through the social movements, they demanded a constituent assembly similar to that which founded Chavez's BolIvarian revolution in Venezuela, together with the rejection of the FTAA and all the other "free trade" agreements, the expulsion of the transnational water companies and a 50 per cent tax on the exploitation of all energy resources.
When the replacement president, Carlos Mesa, refused to implement the programme he was forced to resign. Presidential elections are scheduled for 4 December and the opposition MAS (Movement to Socialism) may well turn out the old order. The leader is an indigenous former coca farmer, Evo Morales, whom the US ambassador has likened to Osama Bin Laden. In fact, he is a social democrat who, for many of those who sealed off Cochabamba and marched down the mountain from El Alto, moderates too much.
"This is not going to be easy," Abel Mamani, the indigenous president of the El Alto Federation of Neighbourhood Associations, told me. "The elections won't be a solution even if we win. What we need to guarantee is the constituent assembly, from which we build a democracy based not on what the US wants, but on social justice." The writer Pablo Solon, son of the great political muralist Walter Solon, said: "The story of Bolivia is the story of the government behind the government. The US can create a financial crisis; but really for them it is ideological; they say they will not accept another Chavez."
The people, however, will not accept another Washington quisling. The lesson is Ecuador, where a helicopter saved Lucio Gutierrez as he fled the presidential palace in April. Having won power in alliance with the indigenous Pachakutik movement, he was the "Ecuadorian Chavez", until he drowned in a corruption scandal. For ordinary Latin Americans, corruption on high is no longer forgivable. That is one of two reasons the Workers' Party government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is barely marking time in Brazil; the other is the priority he has given to an IMF economic agenda, rather than to his own people. In Argentina, social movements saw off five pro-Washington presidents in 2001 and 2002. Across the water in Uruguay, the Frente Amplio, socialist heirs to the Tupamaros, the guerrillas of the 1970s who fought one of the CIA's most vicious terror campaigns, formed a popular government last year.
The social movements are now a decisive force in every Latin American country - even in the state of fear that is the Colombia of Alvaro Uribe Velez, Bush's most loyal vassal. Last month, an indigenous movement marched through every one of Colombia's 32 provinces demanding an end to "an evil as great as the gun": neoliberalism. All over Latin America, Hugo Chavez is the modern BolIvar. People admire his political imagination and his courage. Only he has had the guts to describe the United States as a source of terrorism and Bush as Senor Peligro (Mr Danger). He is very different from Fidel Castro, whom he respects. Venezuela is an extraordinarily open society with an unfettered opposition that is rich and still powerful. On the left, there are those who oppose the state in principle, believe its reforms have reached their limit, and want power to flow directly from the community. They say so vigorously, yet they support Chavez. A fluent young anarchist, Marcel, showed me the clinic where Cuban doctors gave his girlfriend critical emergency treatment. (In a barter arrangement, Venezuela gives Cuba oil in exchange for doctors.)
At the entrance to every barrio there is a state supermarket, where everything from staple food to washing-up liquid costs 40 per cent less than in commercial stores. Despite specious accusations that the government has instituted censorship, most of the media remains violently anti-Chavez: a large part of it in the hands of Gustavo Cisneros, Latin America's Rupert Murdoch, who backed the failed attempt to depose Chavez in April 2002. What is different is the proliferation of lively community radio stations which played a crucial part in Chavez's rescue then by calling on people to march on Caracas.
While the world looks to Iran and Syria for the next Bush attack, Venezuelans know they may well be next. On 17 March, the Washington Post reported that Feliz RodrIguez, "a former CIA operative well connected to the Bush family", had taken part in the planning of the assassination of the president of Venezuela. On 16 September, Chavez said, "I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela. Furthermore, we have documentation: how many bombers will over-fly Venezuela on the day of the invasion . . . the US is carrying out manoeuvres on Curacao Island. It is called Operation Balboa." Since then, leaked internal Pentagon documents have identified Venezuela as a "post-Iraq threat" requiring "full spectrum" planning.
The old-young man in the jeep, Beatrice and her healthy children, and Celedonia with her "new esteem", are indeed a threat - the threat of an alternative, decent world that some lament is no longer possible. Well, it is, and it deserves our support.
"Only he (Chavez) has had the guts to describe the United States as a source of terrorism and Bush as Senor Peligro (Mr Danger)". A great quote from this article.
America has outlived its image of great and now should only be seen for the evil criminals they are.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Give this guy 5!!! It can be done....
High School Student in Michigan wins write-in campaign for mayorAccording to a Detroit News article, Michael Sessions, an 18-year-old high school student, was elected mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan by a 732 to 668 margin after mounting a write-in campaign to oust the 51-year-old incumbent Mayor Doug Ingles.
Sessions was 17 and not yet qualified to get on the ballot in the spring. The day after his birthday, on Sept. 22, he registered to vote. The next day, he signed up as a write-in candidate.
He funded his race from a mere $700 he earned from a summer job. Sessions put up signs all over the town and campaigned door-to-door.
Sessions wants to attend Hillsdale College next year to study political science.
HiTekVagabond
way coolness way to go shows anyone can be it i pray he has a great team or one shows up and works with him to be the best one for the peopl ehe can be and not let greed and power corept him bless him
Frankly, I believe this guy deserves a scholarship.
I've drawn some interesting conclusions from the story:
1) Anyone can run
2) age is only a minor issue and can be overcome
3) It does not cost a lot of money to run for political office in a small town
4) Don't under-estimate the power of a write-in candidacy
5) A handshake is worth more than an empty promise
6) They don't pay mayors enough in some towns; $250 per month is not enough to keep an adult interested in the job.
7) When Michael graduates from college, he will have had four years of on-the-job training as a mayor.
HiTekVagabond
So far this story shows we have a chance of making this the usa most who where sheep thought it was the whole time now can a native born silly with no schooling and a great honest fair team whos not lead by religion and junk run for presadent on a write in lol and can there team be from around the world ????
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Privacy Advocates Help Correct Wireless Passports
According to a warning on new passport applications, all new passports will have a chip embedded in them containing all the information available inside of the passport. 99% percent of the public responding earlier this year to the government's proposed rule to equip U.S. passports with required RFID chips were opposed to the idea, but the State Department finalized the rule anyway.The chip also contains small tranceiver which will enable reading devices to "ping" or interrogate the data on the chip. The government had long maintained that the passport chips to be used could be read from only 10 cm away. But at least one test showed that a reader could read a passport chip from 30 feet away. Privacy advocates said anyone with a portable reader could remotely read, or "skim," a passport holder‘s personal information from a distance. Also advocates insisted the data should be encrypted over the air to prevent snooping of personal data as its being read.
In response, the State Department says they re-designed the new passports so that the front covers and spines will include an anti-skimming material that blocks the radio waves that could pick up the data when the passport is closed. The RFID only wakes up if the data sent to the passport contains the proper key, which is derrived from the printed data in the passport. According to a recent Harold News Daily article "It will not permit tracking‘ of individuals," the State Department said in making the announcement. "It will only permit governmental authorities to know that an individual has arrived at a port of entry, which governmental authorities already know from presentation of nonelectronic passports."
RFID passports will be required by the Patriot Act for visitors from 27 countries that currently do not need a visa to enter the US. Some people still fear that if a mechanism could be found to detect a passport containing an RFID, that muggers or terrorists could target such passport holders.
HiTekVagabond
and to think with all thay do we are to realy trust that what a joke im sure you can be tracked probly by satalight
Monday, November 07, 2005
The torture they don't do
According to President Bush in a recent speech, "We do not torture". Why then do we need an exemption from the McCain Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill? Isn't this a contradiction?? I believe we, as any other Democracy, should not be involved in torture.I believe that so called black sites should be closed, extraordinary renderings and torture flights should be discontinued. It bypasses our system of checks and balances - judicial overview, the right for people to defend themselves in a court of law, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. Furthermore, these actions only encourage our enemies to kidnap and torture our own service men.
HiTekVagabond
There are differing perspectives on who is to be designated "our enemies" and "our own servicemen". I choose the world view rather than that current in the Untied Slates.
Torture is as old as mankind and for anyone to believe that America does not, or has not, always used torture is delusional. This is what America is all about, kill and destroy for what they want, anyway they can. It was founded on this. Torture is just a part of oppression and that is what America specializes in. No one should be surprised an evil country uses the most evil of methods.
now you see my confussion when we live in a world called new in true learning we dont learn from the mistakes we keep making the same old ones and the ones befor that and o so many new ones this is a old world not a new land or thought new in true learning would work for best of all in peace a simple life in balance with new age and true age i know lets get a face lifed
Naaaaaah we don't torture...
What is really interesting is that President Bush approved forms of torture such as the water-boarding method in an executive order issued in February 2002. Bush's order, which exempted the CIA from compliance with the rules of the Geneva Conventions, was extended seven months later by an August 2002 memorandum signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee. It called for the continuation of CIA interrogation methods, including rendition, and blessed as legal methods of physical and psychological coercion that inflicted discomfort "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death".
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Bush Connected Texan runs for Haiti President
Dumarsais Mecene Simeus, a multi-millionaire from Texas and a naturalized US Citizen is running for President in the upcoming Haiti election on November 13, 2005. This is the first election since democratically-elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a US-lead coup d'etat in Feburary 2004.Simeus is the CEO of the $2 Billion food processing giant Simeus Foods International in Texas and the Chairman of PromoCapital, Haiti's first investment bank. He also is the Chairman of the humanitarian group RepresentAction.
A group of a bout 40 US-based Hatian business and civic leaders have urged him to to run for the Presidency. Some of his ties include the Bush family. He was a member of Jeb Bush's advisory board for Haiti and visited with Condoleeza Rice when she recently made her visit to Haiti. Simeus's campaign is entirely funded by his friends in USA, Canada, France and Germany.
Simeus was allowed to run in this election after he took this issue to the Haitian supreme court, claiming dual US and Haiti citizenship. He still faces charges to his candidacy and false candidacy claims. The US does not recognize dual citizenship.
Last week, during one of his campaign stops in Solino, a suburb of the Haitian Capital Port au Prince, he was met with an agry mob hurling rocks and chunks of concrete.
HiTekVagabond
Now that what i call being 2 faced and not allowed to be is that trision or is that slowly taking over hummm. TY for it something new to watch as the taxes moves all over
MEANS
Every activist has heard "I agree with what you seek but not how you go about it" or "What you are doing will only lead to.....". Perhaps we ought to focus less on desired ends and devote more concern to comparing possible means.
Here are some means that might be chosen.
- armed struggle
- assassination
- sabotage
- riot
- targeted violent confrontation
- non violent civil disobedience
- organize
- picketing
- marches
- vigils
- tatoo a political statement
- wear a political T-shirt
- graffitti
- boycott
- write letters to the editor
- write to government officials
- privately message those in opposition
- privately message those in agreement
- publish anonymous opinions
- donate to work of others
- vote
- pray to some god
- wish
- wait and see what happens
- party while one can
Here are some criteria that could to help guide the choice.
- which stands a better chance of getting the job done
- which would enhance the lives of the most people
- which would cause the least harm to the most people
- which entails the least risk to oneself
- which would detract least from current comfort
- which would cause popular labelling
- which would cause unpopular labelling
- which would cause loss of friends
- which would be easiest
- history and current events
Here are some other means that need to be added to the list:
Strategy
Long term direction and vision
Tactics
Short term
The good fight
New political party
Moose Party
Two Party System
Run for office
Corporate candidates
Lower fees
Media regulation
New media
New fund raising methods
Write a book
Mainstream publishers
Access to corporate shelves
Free publishing
CDs DVDs
Voting systems and method
No audits
Instant runoff
Electoral College
Local Action Groups
Networks for similar actions
Snowball Effect
Blogs
Effective communication of ideas
Cross Posts
Friday, November 04, 2005
Turtles Rabbits and Cockroaches
This picture is stolen from Nur al-Cubical's blog where she titles it "Ninja Turtle Brigade". It appears in her article on the US president's current desperate but certainly go nowhere journey to Argentina. Miguel_x98, a Buenas Aires activist, identified them in our Chat Room as professional smugglers who officially masquerade as the Argentinian coast guard. Whatever their day job, the picture recalled some lyrics whose original intent stand in contrast to what the ninja bosses might desire.
Turtle and the Rabbit had a race one day,
Rabbit thought he had it won any old way,
So he lay down and went to asleep.
Well when he woke up,
Why the turtle had him beat,
You know life is a gamble,
People come rain or shine,
You got to keep on a betting,
And you're bound to win sometime.
Related thoughts surface every time I sing La Cucaracha, the revolutionary song deriding government soldiers and sung by Pancho Villa's forces. Satirical verses were often invented on the spot in a contest of seeing who might raise the most laughter. The most common chorus is...
La cucaracha,
La cucaracha,
Ya no puede caminar,
Porque no tiene,
Porque le falta,
Marijuana que fumar.
(The cockroach,
The cockroach,
Still he cannot walk,
Because he has no,
Because he lacks,
Marijuana to smoke.)
The words conjour images of American Soldiers in obvious easily seen environmentally mismatched "camoflauge" clothing with techy crap hanging and sticking out all over them. It would be interesting if a TV producer, in vengful preparation of chucking his job after suffering a career of forced bullshit, made a swan song broadcast of what one of the cockoaches has to do just to take a leak? It is a wonder resistance fighters are effective as they are during breaks from what must otherwise be constant choking laughter. Cucaracha is a fitting name especially in light of what often happens to a cockroach?
Thursday, November 03, 2005
¿ AMIGOS ?
Absolute ill will is easy to overcome. Shallow good will is more difficult. The real enemies in the stride toward freedom are not those who openly so state. They are instead the fair weather self deemed friends whose words signal alliance but who are more devoted to comfort than justice. They are those who proclaim agreement with goals but fail to fight for means of achievement.
They claim something they call "the system" is the enemy and point fingers of culpability at others in it while ignoring their own three fingers pointing back. Their complaints are heard beyond intentionally opaque and close drawn borders as but self serving whines. To see farther than immediate personal concern requires acknowledging what is enjoyed has been and continues to be obtained through pillage and suffering.
As long as such hesitant false friends fail to act to destroy that which grants their position within the system, their words are without substance. They are the system. That makes them the enemy.
They can either join us, get out of the way, or be walked over.
Walking over them is my choice of the three listed. Give them back a little of that trampling they have been giving the world. Down here in Mexico we call it the walking revolution, taking over that country one by one, taking it back and putting it to good use. Peacefully and effectively. Good workers and good family are what America needs and they should be thankful that their southern neighbors bring that. From what I have seen of Americans they long deserve to loose their country to something better.
ALWAYS REMEMBERED ZATIKIA
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Summit of the Peoples
watching it on tv atm. the summit of the peoples seems to be massive. But i dont know if its a good thing. Is it a real debate on how to change things, or is it the way they found to keep people away from the streets, where they can really protest against this summit and the criminal bush?
TERRORISM, INNOCENCE, HEROICS
Slain farmers' families were innocent when they occupied and fenced hunting lands of the Apache Nation that had been cleared by the US army. No! They were usurping from the Apaches. Nat Turner was a terrorist when his guerrillas raided slave plantations. The owners were innocents. Laws said so, but slaves didn't write laws.
Were the mothers and children of Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Hanoi innocents and the bombers terrorists? No. The pilots were heros, and those people weren't innocent. There was a war and lives of tomorrow's heros had to be saved. Besides, the targeted people supported their country's evil. Well, at least some must have. There was a homeland to be saved by destroying another. If not, foreigners would have soon been in hero neighborhoods raping mothers and sisters. Anyhow, all that stuff was long ago and best forgotten.
Well then, let's bring it up to date and consider what has changed. Todays invaders are not now taking anything from anyone. Well, just oil. Camels can't drink it and the price of gasoline is too high. Walk? Don't be silly, I'd never get where I wanted to go and that wouldn't be fun.
Did the people working at the World Trade Center and twin towers generally support or at least not oppose actions of their ultimate employers? Did they accept benefits from the global money handlers housed there? Were they innocent? Is anyone not wearing a military uniform innocent? Are any innocent of the actions of a nation who are not effectively engaged in actions to oppose it? What if there are no means of opposition without risk to oneself? How much risk acceptance buys innocence? Does paying taxes that support that disliked decrease one's innocence?
Were the kids dancing merrily before the boom in a Jerusalem night club innocent while their brothers occupied lands of suicide bombers? Where the kids wearing the bombs innocents, heros, or terrorists when they believed they were defending their homeland and families in the only way they could?
All conflict is ugly and brutal. People are maimed and die. Land is made ruin. There is no right and no wrong. Rules for conduct of warfare and designations of terrorism, innocence, and heroics are formulated in self serving motivation by intellectuals, politicians, and military chiefs not directly risking themselves in struggle. They are ignored by direct participants. For them, there are no innocents, terrorists, or heros, just death, destruction, and attempts at survival.
The jargons of power and war have no inherent meaning and tell more about those uttering them then the intent of their use.
I have read of times a king would lead his men to battle .Some forced to go some happy to go saport him .But still he was there somewhre able to be killed like all others but now there is no honor is the art of war nore is it even a art.It has become blind killing of the scared leaders who never walk on a battle field. who kill everything thay see on a map for greed not freedom because you dont kill the ones your trying to free unless thay trying to free them from life do you?????
