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June 01, 2005

06.01.05 Edition | Liberals vs. The Empire; Soldiers of Christ; Hymen Repair Surgery
June 1, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Guantanamo Bay detainees say they were sold into capture; Normon Solomon weighs in on the rituals—and ritual silences—of Memorial Day press coverage; puppets vs. the Death Star; Mos Def speaks out against the $1 million bounty recently placed on Assata Shakur; the free market approach to the divine; colonial policies (past and present) in Kanehsatake, Canada; private airlines become the CIA's personal prisoner rendition service; Czech filmmakers fool a nation with an elaborate, anti-consumer ad campaign—and naturally, document the whole process; the new home censorship kit; the tricky business of hymen restoration; and more.


This Week's Picks:

  1. The Buying of Prisoners
    Following a Freedom of Information Act request, the US government has released testimony from Guantanamo Bay detainees who say that they were sold into capture, at bounties ranging from $3,000 to $25,000.

    Michelle Faul | Associated Press / Washington Post
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053100754_pf.html


  2. The Silent Media Curse of Memorial Day
    Why does nobody ever really talk about war at the end of May?

    Norman Solomon | Common Dreams
    http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0526-24.htm


  3. CARTOON | Liberals vs. The Empire
    Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Emperor Palpatine has got to go!

    Tim Kreider | The Pain
    http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly050525a.htm


  4. Assata Shakur: The Government's Terrorist is Our Community's Heroine
    Earlier this month the federal government issued a statement in which they labeled Joanne Chesimard, known to most in the Black community as Assata Shakur, as a domestic terrorist. In so doing, they also increased the bounty on her head from $150,000 to an unprecedented $1,000,000. Viewed through the lens of U.S. law enforcement, Shakur is an escaped cop-killer. Viewed through the lens of many Black people, including me, she is a wrongly convicted woman and a hero of epic proportions.

    Mos Def | Allhiphop.com
    http://www.allhiphop.com/features/?ID=1075


  5. Soldiers of Christ
    Colorado Springs, The New Life Church, and the "free market" approach to the divine.

    Jeff Sharlet | Harpers
    http://harpers.org/SoldiersOfChrist.html


  6. Surviving Canada, May 21: Kanehsatake
    These days, when spokespersons for the ongoing maintenance of colonial policies towards indigenous nations try to justify the same, they do so by discussing the matter as one of the past and not the present. In previous times the colonialist discourse could, with a little wrangling, be whittled down to the simple question of land. The question of taking land was not of either race or establishing a settler colony, we are assured—rather, it was couched in the very same language of "inevitability" that has earmarked so much pro-colonial discussion around indigenous nations' resistance. Much like war, a settler colony has a self-perpetuating, cyclical logic—one argument bolsters the other, and the second lie is referred back to the first to rationalize it.

    Such a language is an eerily familiar dialect in Kanehsatake, the territory adjoining the village of Oka, north-west of Montréal, Québec.

    Macdonald Stainsby | Surviving Canada
    http://independentmedia.ca/survivingcanada/2005-05-may_21_kanehsatake.html


  7. CIA Expanding Terror Battle under Guise of Charter Flights
    The airplanes of Aero Contractors Ltd. take off from Johnston County Airport here, then disappear over the scrub pines and fields of tobacco and sweet potatoes. Nothing about the sleepy Southern setting hints of foreign intrigue. Nothing gives away the fact that Aero's pilots are the discreet bus drivers of the battle against terrorism, routinely sent on secret missions to Baghdad, Cairo, Tashkent and Kabul. While Aero Contractors poses as a private charter outfit, it is in fact a major domestic hub of the CIA's secret air service.

    Scott Shane, Stephen Grey and Margot Williams | The New York Times / Truthout.org
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/053105Y.shtml


  8. VIDEO | Czech Dream
    In Czech Dream, Filip Remunda and Vit Klusak set out to explore the psychological and manipulative powers of consumerism by creating an ad campaign for a supermarket that didn't exist. At the store's "opening," over a thousand people showed up at a field to find only a canvas façade. The hoax itself took place last summer; now, their documentary on the process is being released.

    Czech TV
    http://www.czech-tv.cz/specialy/ceskysen/en/index.php

    Watch the trailer (sorry, Windows Media Player only): http://www.czech-tv.cz/specialy/ceskysen/video/engtit01hi.wmv


  9. National Advertising Board Launches 'Advertising: Get The Message!' Campaign
    New campaign promises to be even more successful than 2004 campaign, 'Advertising: Look At It.'"

    The Onion
    http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4121


  10. Your Handy Home Censorship Kit
    A new device allows consumers to cleanse their DVDs of sex, profanity and violence. Directors and copyright holders call foul—and the battle between moralists and filmmakers is on.

    Zack Pelta-Heller | Alternet
    http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/22027


  11. Adding Insult to Injury
    Contractors working through Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR)—the largest military contractor in Iraq—are being denied unemployment and insurance benefits. Some have reported being denied medical leave or a chance for a second diagnosis. And the stress and close encounters with death faced by such contractors are often treated dismissively: "In a war zone," says KBR spokeswoman Cathy Gist, "these jobs require courage, resolve and skill."

    David Phinney | CorpWatch
    http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12286


  12. Industry Aims to Strip Local Control of Food Supply
    Legislation aiming to prevent counties, towns and cities from making local decisions about our food supply is being introduced in states across the nation. These highly orchestrated industry actions are in response to recent local decisions to safeguard sustainable food systems. (Includes a list of resources for further action.)

    Britt Bailey & Brian Tokar | ZNet
    http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=13&ItemID=7942


  13. Restoring Virginity Becomes Risky Business
    Many women who seek hymen-repair surgery do so under threat of death if family members in religious fundamentalist households find out they are not virgins. Now, the US doctors who help them are also being intimidated.

    Sandy Kobrin | Women's eNews
    http://www.womensenews.com/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2304/context/cover/



- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Rebecca Onion, Adam Barker, and Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali

Posted by erin at June 1, 2005 10:01 AM

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