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June 29, 2005
06.29.05 Edition | New Phase for the EZLN; Plutonium 238 Production; Deleting Ads in Vienna
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June 29, 2005
Edition |
| "The Best of the Rest of the Web" |
THiS WEEK: Zapatistas about to launch new political phase; the vicious military crackdown in Uzbekistan last month came courtesy of US "anti-terrorism" trainings, new reports show; top cases of the Bush administration doctoring facts to suit its agenda; cheery news from Tim Kreider; documentary profiles several leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in Palestine; religious camps try to "cure" teens of homosexuality; US planning to start up production of plutonium 238 for the first time since the Cold War; Viennese artists "delete" ads in their city for two weeks; a look at the world of private contractors in Iraq; the problem with trying to "reframe" the abortion debate; and much, much more.
This Week's Picks:
- Zapatistas Launch New Political
Phase
After issuing a "red alert" and holding meetings with over 10,000 indigenous and Mexican members of the EZLN, the Zapatistas have released a cryptic communiqué that suggests some major strategic shifts-though the exact nature of those shifts isn't defined. Some have suggested that the EZLN is preparing to deescalate their armed struggle, embarking instead on a more mainstream political life; others argue that they're trying to stake out a clear position before the Mexican presidential elections. Or is it something else entirely?Reuters Alertnet
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N27 328575.htmTo read the communiqués in English or Spanish, and to read updates on the situation in Chiapas as it happens, check out the Chiapas IMC: http://chiapas.mediosindependientes.org
- Uzbek Ministries in Crackdown
Received US Aid
Uzbek law enforcement and security ministries implicated by witnesses in the deadly crackdown in the city of Andijon last month have for years received training and equipment from the US, according to American officials and Congressional records—under the name, of course, of anti-terrorism training.C. J. Chivers and Thom Shanker | The New York Times / Truthout
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061805A.shtml - The White House's White-Out
Problem
The Bush administration has gotten into the nasty habit of doctoring its reports whenever the facts don't match its preconceived agenda. Here are some instances of the White House's magic pen at work.Think Progress Blog
http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=1127 - CARTOON | Cheering News
Artists's Statement: "For several weeks we've been in this weird summer lull where there's been no real news whatsoever. The New York Times has been running borderline-tabloid stories about the trivial and the grotesque: a feature on "Meth Mouth," a really unphotogenic syndrome afflicting habitual users of crystal methamphetamine, a human interest fluff piece about an aspiring actress playing Curious George at a book fair whose fake head deflated, even an article about a bag of garbage on the Upper East Side that smelled really bad..."Tim Kreider | The Pain
http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly050622a.htm - VIDEO | Hunted Everywhere
Leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Palestine describe their lives as the most wanted men in the West Bank, discussing how to avoid capture, dealing with the constant possibility of death, and why they became fighters in the first place.Balata Film Collevtive
ht tp://video.indymedia.org/download/%5BIndymedia%5D_(2005-04-25)_huntedeverywhere-balatacamp.mpg - The Onion's 300th Anniversary
Issue: 1756—2056
"Democratic Middle Eastern Union Votes to Invade US"; "Abraham Lincoln's DNA No Available Over the Counter"; "SOLOPEC Nations Warn Sun's Output May Fall Short of Demand," and other hilarious stories adorn this special issue. Maybe such humor advances nothing that's politically useful, but are you really reading the Onion for politics in the first place? If so, you're probably also one of those people who thinks getting your news from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a good idea...The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/2056-06-22 - Ron Howard's "Cinderella Man:"
The Crass Slipper Fits
With the Depression era boxing film Cinderella Man, producers had the opportunity to examine the complex racial and labor issues facing people at the time. Instead, they've presented a watered down and simplistic 1930s.Dave Zirin | Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/zirin06212005.html - Setting Him
Straight?
Zach is a gay teen whose parents forced him to attend "religious camp" to "make him straight." But these camps are better at psychologically hurting teens than at changing their sexuality.Mubarak Dahir | Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/rights/22280/ - US to Produce Deadly Isotope
The United States is planning its first production since the cold war of plutonium 238—one of the most deadly forms of the element—for use in secret missions, possibly including spy satellites and undersea devices.Jamie Wilson | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1516341,00.html - Artists "Delete" Ads in Vienna
for Two Weeks
The Starbucks signs are covered by bright, canary yellow fabric and plastic. So are the placards outside a soup restaurant, a jewelry shop, a bank and all other businesses on a stretch of a popular Vienna shopping street. The coverings are part of a two-week art project dubbed "Delete!"—created by artists Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf to spark public debate about just how much advertising society can take.AP/MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8233615/For more pictures, check out the Delete! Website (mostly in German): http://www.steinbrener-dempf.com/delete.php?cat=pr esse
- AUDIO | I'm From the Private Sector and I'm Here to
Help
In this episode of This American Life, Nancy Updike goes to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone. Private contractors are a part of this war in unprecedented numbers, but we don't know that much about the people doing these jobs - why they chose to come to Iraq, and what they're seeing that we can't. [RealPlayer]This American Life
Abridged Version: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ra/266.ram
Uncut Version: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ra/266_bonus.ram - Spies Implicated in Indonesian
Activist's Death
A team investigating the murder of an Indonesian human rights activist has found indications that the country's intelligence agency was involved. - If the Frame
Fits...
In the wake of the 2004 election, Democrats have embarked on an orgy of what the linguist George Lakoff calls "reframing"—repositioning their policies linguistically to give them mass moral appeal. Prime candidate for a values makeover? Abortion, of course. But there's a word that doesn't show up much in the new abortion frames: women. "Reframing" abortion is actually a kind of deframing, a way of taking it out of its real-life context, which is the experience of women, their bodies, their healthcare, their struggles, the caring work our society expects them to do for free.Katha Pollitt | The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=200507 11&s=pollitt - Torture
Fatigue
"The Christian in me says it's wrong," Army Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr. said of torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "But the corrections officer in me says I love to make a grown man piss himself." Photos taken of him demeaning captives at Abu Ghraib exposed Graner as the sadist that his surroundings allowed him to be. But are the differences between brutal correctional officers like Graner and other Americans as stark as we would like to think?Silja J.A. Talvi | In These Times
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2 179/ - VIDEO | Salt of the Earth
A unique achievement in activist film making not only for its progressive portrayal of issues relating to labor, race and gender but also in that the filmmakers were victims of the Hollywood blacklist. The film, made in 1954, tells the tale of a real life strike by Mexican-American miners for safe working conditions.DemandMedia.net
In MPEG4, DVD and VCD formats | [229 MB]
http://demandmedia.net/story/2005/3/30/161036/183
- Media Picks Contributing Editor: Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin
Wiegand and Brian Awehali
Posted by erin at June 29, 2005 01:02 PM