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June 21, 2005

06.21.05 Edition | A White Bill Cosby?; The Dark Side of American Policing; Military Recruitment in Middle School
June 21, 2005 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Musings on what a Billy Graham sermon might sound like if he was capable of white self-criticism; US army rebuilds ties with Indonesian military under the guise of humanitarian aid; how to create your own podcast; cheap foreign chicken driving Ghanaian poultry farmers out of business; how American Indians are using food to fight diabetes and revive cultural tradition; former police chief Norm Stamper talks about the institutionalized racism in the police force; Israeli army uses new sound weapon, "The Scream," to suppress protest; middle-schooler asks why the federal guard is in her school; and much more.

This Week's Picks:

  1. If White America had a Bill Cosby
    It's often taken for granted that extremely harsh black self-criticism is par for the course. After all, African American intellectuals, from jackleg preachers and political organizers down to eminent scholars and critics like Harold Cruse, John Henrik Clark, and Amiri Baraka, as well as our Nobel laureate in literature, Toni Morrison, are famous for never holding any punches when analyzing all backwardness among the people, such as misogyny, anti-democracy, provincialism, covetousness, opportunism, fatalism, dependency, and laziness. But when was the last time you heard a big white celebrity with moral authority raining down critical bombs on white people's heads? What would, say, the Rev. Billy Graham sound like if he was a little more like a white Bill Cosby?

    Jonathan Scott | The Black Commentator
    http://www.blackcommentator.com/142/142_white_cosby.html


  2. The Tsunami's Deadly Fallout
    In the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami last December, the US military has been exploiting the call for humanitarian aid to rebuild military ties with the Indonesian armed force, notorious for serious human rights abuses in East Timor.

    John M. Miller | World War 4 Report
    http://www.ww4report.com/node/568?PHPSESSID=66ec14d1e07679c6bb84c5efb7b4a15a


  3. AUDIO | Podcasting 101
    Follow the Promiscuous Bullet team as they show a novice just how it's done—podcasting, that is. This production covers the basic tools for creating audio content for distribution through internet subscription channels.

    Stephen Bates | Benchmark Video Productions
    http://www.archive.org/download/pbullet/podcast-streaming.mp4


  4. Playing Chicken: Ghana vs. the IMF
    For the last few years the Ghanaian market has been flooded with cheap imported chicken from the European Union and the United States. These are usually fatty chicken parts that come in packages without labels. Nonetheless, demand for local poultry has collapsed, threatening the livelihoods of over 400,000 poultry farmers in the small West African nation.

    Linus Atarah | CorpWatch
    http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12394


  5. Got Tradition?
    American Indians use native foods to fight diabetes and revive Indian culture.

    Daisy Hernandez | ColorLines
    http://www.arc.org/C_Lines/CLArchive/story8_2_01.html


  6. INTERVIEW | Seattle Confidential
    Former police chief Norm Stamper, author of a new book called Breaking Rank, opens up about the dark side of American policing, from institutionalized racism to misogyny and homophobia.

    Laura Barcella | AlterNet
    http://www.alternet.org/story/22196


  7. The Army Is Screaming
    The Israeli army has put an unusual new weapon into service, one that produces an unbearable sound that causes acute dizziness and nausea in its victims. Dubbed "The Scream," the device is being lauded as a welcome, non-lethal addition to the IDF's arsenal of means to control and suppress violent protest. But what most commentators have failed to note about this and other so-called non-lethal weapon technologies is that, from a military perspective, they are all about improving optics rather than reducing fatalities. While using lethal force to respond to protests is likely to attract the attention and indignation of the international community, non-lethal options can be deployed more frequently and more widely, often with total impunity. Thus, the temptation is great to use such weapons to suppress non-violent protests, political gatherings that would have been left unmolested in the absence of non-lethal means.

    Adbusters
    http://adbusters.org/blogs/content/view/55/47


  8. AUDIO | Acting Collectively
    Most of the social and economic gains we have in the US have come from the struggle of social movements. But what makes some movements successful? At a recent conference, Raj Jayadev talks about the challenges in organizing young temp workers in Silicon Valley, while sociologist Kim Voss argues that the weakness of the American labor movement has aided the spread of neoliberalism internationally.

    C.S. Soong | Against the Grain
    http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio6.13.05.mp3


  9. Class of 2010: The Next Generation of Soldiers?
    A middle schooler asks why the National Guard is in her school—and why recruitment programs like this one, which purport to "keep kids off the street," are required in order for schools to receive federal funding.

    Eliza Leas | Left Hook
    http://www.lefthook.org/Ground/Leas061605.html


  10. VIDEO | Hijacking Catastrophe
    A clip excerpted from a documentary highlighting the conditions that produced the Downing Street Memo and the Bush administration's attempts to "fix" pre-war intelligence.

    http://hijackingcatastrophe.org/downingstreet


  11. US Agency 'Giving Green Light' to Human Toxin Tests
    Congressional Democrats recently accused the US government environment body of opening the door to tests of pesticides on humans that "appear to routinely violate ethical standards."

    Julian Borger | Guardian UK
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1508652,00.html


  12. In Colombia, Indigenous Peace Initiatives Under Attack
    In recent weeks, the government of President Alvaro Uribe has launched a major counter-guerilla offensive called the Patriot Plan, in apparent emulation of the U.S. anti-terrorist legislation. One frontline in this contest is Toribio, a Nasa Indian village in the mountains of conflict-torn Cauca department, where residents have proclaimed their own right not to participate in the war.

    Bill Weinberg | Pacific News Service
    http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=eb8daa7206caa448e6e3fe54353b938d

    Posted by erin at June 21, 2005 12:21 PM

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