LiP Media Blog: August 2005 Archives

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August 31, 2005

08.31.05 Edition | More Journalists Killed in Iraq Than Vietnam; The Economic Basis of US Empire; Flying Spaghetti Monsterism;

	August 26, 2005 Edition
"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: The death toll for journalists in Iraq, over the past 2 years, has already surpassed that of twenty years in Vietnam; meanwhile, soldiers killed in the Iraq War are rewarded with Pentagon slogans on their gravestones; no honor in "redface"; why Flying Spaghetti Monsterism must be allowed a place in public schools, alongside evolution; dissecting the economics of US imperialism, in two parts; the two faces of Canadian foreign policy; the whiteness of wi-fi; Jon Stewart has some customarily humorous things to say about Pat Robertson's call for the assassination of Hugo Chavez; the growth of alternative education in the US; locked-out radio workers on strike across Canada decide to keep working on their own terms—through their own podcast shows; and more.

This Week's Picks:

More Journalists Killed in Iraq than Vietnam
The death of Reuters soundman Waleed Khaled—who was shot in the face and chest by a US sniper—brings the death toll to 66 for journalists in Iraq since the beginning of the war, according to Reporters Without Borders. That surpasses the 63 killed in over 20 years of conflict in Vietnam.
Reuters / Truthout
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/082905I.shtml
Reporters without Borders 2005 Report: http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=509

Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans
Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.
David Pace | AP / Commondreams
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0824-07.htm

'Red Face' Does Not Honor Us
Sports teams aren't the only culprits of the negative images of Natives in American society, just as negative imagery are not the sole reason that we face the problems that we do. But the NCAA's decision to no longer use American Indian imagery is an important first step. And we must not stop pushing for more.
H. Mathew Barkhausen III / SNAG Magazine
http://www.snagmagazine.com/index.php?s=23&a=32

Touched by His Noodly Appendage
In an open letter to the Kansas State Board of Education, 25-year-old Bobby Henderson argued that although science students should indeed be taught "multiple viewpoints" of how the universe came to be—as the BoE has given preliminary approval for teachers to do—he is concerned about students hearing only one theory of "intelligent design." After all, there are many such theories, including his own fervent belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Sarah Boxer | NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/arts/design/29mons.html
Henderson's letter, responses, and more information on the Church of the FSM: http://venganza.org

Captions Based on Pigmentation
The difference between "looting," "finding," and "shopping."
Dustin3000 | Flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewall/38725768
http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewall/38797241

AUDIO | Financing Empire
We're in an age of American empire—that's something on which most of the left seems to agree. But how does this empire work? Political economists Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin talk about the American imperial order that arose following WW2 and the role that finance has played in binding it all together.
Sasha Lily (host) | Against The Grain
http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio8.17.05.mp3

US Defense Firms Feast on Bush's "War on Terror"
Analysts say that a significant part of the American's national life is determined by the financial interests of the "mighty 10."
Al Jazeera
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/review/article_full_story.asp?service_ID=9528

The Two Faces of Foreign Policy
Canada has often been widely praised for its commitment to extending the rule of international law. But looking at some of the major initiatives of the past 50 years presents a very mixed picture. What you find is that Canadian businesses, and transnational corporations in particular, have made a significant amount of coin from the government's support for one idea publicly and a different one behind the scenes.
David Evans | This Magazine
http://www.thismagazine.ca/issues/2005/07/chart_foreign.php

VIDEO | Pat Sounds
Who would take Pat Robertson seriously, anyway?
Jon Stewart | The Daily Show
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/videos/headlines/index.jhtml

Weapons of Mass Instruction
When it comes to education, people are fed up. Modern education has come down to a limited set of choices, like Pepsi or Coke, or Wal-mart or Costco. And with the indoctrination of Bush's "No Child Left Behind" Act, and more recently, his highly endorsed, "Intelligent Design" theory, state schooling is fast becoming a less enticing choice for our children's education, provoking many people to seek other alternatives.
Paul Rathgeb | Resist!
http://resist.ca/story/2005/8/21/224211/149

CBC Workers Launch CBC Unplugged and Studio Zero
Imagine a bunch of locked-out auto workers standing outside the factory gates and saying, "All right, let's build our own cars." Across Canada, locked-out CBC employees are working together to put out their own radio programs, under the collective name of CBC Unplugged.
Peter Tupper | The Tyee
http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2005/08/22/CBCUnplugged

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

Posted by erin at 12:47 AM | Comments (0)

August 26, 2005

08.26.05 Edition | Kanye West on Homophobia & Hip Hop; A Tale of Two Fundamentalisms; The "Grieving Mom" Frame

	August 26, 2005 Edition
"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Kanye West dares to say homophobia in hip hop is wrong; a slightly hopeful global warming warning; why we should be skeptical of environmentalism and science rooted in spirtuality or religion; a tale of two fundamentalisms; and quite a bit more of possible interest...

Kanye West Rewrites Hip-Hop's Gay Record
Last week Roc-A-Fella recording artist and producer extraordinaire Kanye West did something most would think to be career suicide for a Black hip-hop artist, and just days before dropping his sophomore effort, "Late Registration."

Kenyon Farrow | Black AIDS Institute
http://blackaids.org/ShowArticle.aspx?pagename=ShowArticle&articletype=SITEFEATURE&articleid=118&pagenumber=1
McCarthyism Watch
Santorum's people toss young women out of a Barnes & Noble book signing, using a state trooper to threaten them with prison.

Matthew Rothschild | The Progressive
http://progressive.org/?q=mag_mc081905
Global Warming: Will You Listen Now, America?
Two of the leading contenders to contest the next US presidential election have delivered an urgent warning to the United States on global warming, saying the evidence of climate change has become too stark to ignore and human activity is a major cause.

Andrew Buncombe | UK Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article306881.ece
AUDIO | A Tale of Two Fundamentalisms
What might the politics of Hindu fundamentalism, or Hindutva, tell us about the nature of the Christian fundamentalist right and the attack on secularism in the United States? Philosopher of science Meera Nanda talks about the dangers of secularism without secularization of the society as a whole -- and why we should be skeptical of environmentalism and "science" that is rooted in spirituality or religion.

Sasha Lilly (host) | Against the Grain
http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio8.15.05.mp3
CARTOON | Too Much Coffee Man
Just who is Saddam Hussein, again?

Shannon Wheeler
http://www.tmcm.com/comics/tmcm050627.gif
Animal Comment Triggers Equality Debate in Sweden
Sweden was recently ranked the most gender-equal country in the world. But feminists there say there's been a backlash. They're forming a new political party to put women's issues high on the agenda.

Jerome Socolovsky | Women's eNews
http://www.womensenews.com/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2417

VIDEO | License Illegal
Yo! Youth Outlook goes to Sacramento, where bus loads of people went to protest the Governator's plan to mark the licenses of illegal immigrants.

Min Lee | Yo! Youth Outlook
http://youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=875bd91c202159ccc1c2c37d70321ccd
The 'Grieving Mom' Frame
In broad terms, the success of the 'grieving mom' phrase indicates that Americans are now thinking about the War in Iraq through the frame of the family, rather than thinking about Iraq through the frame of 'terrorism' or 'ideology.'

Jeffrey Feldman | Frameshop
http://www.frameshopisopen.com/
Local Fighters Usually Win
A truth ''that has been largely forgotten in the post-9/11 frenzy is that terrorism is a technique, not an ideology or a country. It is a technique that any group can pick up and use, without distinction of ideology, creed, or cause, and the people wielding it could as easily be fanatical anti-government Americans, Trotskyists, Germans, (or) Islamist Arabs.''

Sean Gonsalves | AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/24166/
Preaching Justice, Slaying Demons
In anticipation of a battle fit for Christian soldiers, the planners of Justice Sunday II went big, booking a Nashville, Tennessee, megachurch and arranging the broadcast of their event to millions of homes and thousands of churches across the country through SkyAngel and the Trinity Broadcasting Network. When Justice Sunday II arrived, however, its intended galvanizing message seemed to have evaporated in the sweltering Tennessee night.

Max Blumenthal | The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050829&s=blumenthal2
The Christian Paradox
America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox - more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese - illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture.

Bill McKibben | Harper's
http://www.harpers.org/ExcerptTheChristianParadox.html
AUDIO | Enduring Choice
A growing number of women are seeing the link between their reproductive health, their civil liberties, the environment and economics.

Sarah Olsen (host) | National Radio Project
http://www.radioproject.org/archive/2005/3305.html

- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Adam Barker and Erica Wetter
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand, Brian Awehali & Emma Sherwood-Forbes

Posted by erin at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)

August 18, 2005

08.18.05 Edition | The Farce of the Gaza Evacuation; New "Intelligent Falling" Theory; Why American Apparel Sucks

	August 18, 2005 Edition
"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: Why the evacuation from Gaza is a big Israel-US PR campaign; Mike Davis has customarily cheery news about avian flu; evangelical scientists refute gravity with "intelligent falling" theory; Katha Pollitt asks if it's time for Roe v. Wade to go; yet more reasons American Apparel just sucks; bloodthirsty, warmongering...Canadians?; Why the "War on Terror" looks like the "Dirty Wars" of the '70s to South Americans; and much more, of course.

This Week's Picks:

The Shame of It All
A great charade is taking place in front of the world media in the Gaza Strip. It is the staged evacuation of 8000 Jewish settlers from their illegal settlement homes, and it has been carefully designed to create imagery to support Israel's US-backed takeover of the West Bank and cantonization of the Palestinians.
Jennifer Loewenstein | CounterPunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein08172005.html

The Coming Avian Flu Pandemic
The first bar-headed geese have already arrived at their wintering grounds near the Cauvery River in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Over the next ten weeks, 100,000 more geese, gulls, and cormorants will leave their summer home at Lake Qinghai in western China, headed for India, Bangladesh, Myanmar/Burma, and Australia.

Mike Davis | TomDispatch
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=56&ItemID=8523
Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory
"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University.

The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2
Should Roe Go?
Should prochoicers just give up and let Roe go? With the resignation of Sandra Day O'Connor, more people are asking that question. Democratic Party insiders quietly wonder if abandoning abortion rights would win back white Catholics and evangelicals. A chorus of pundits—among them David Brooks in the New York Times and the Washington Post's Benjamin Wittes writing in The Atlantic—argue that Roe's unforeseen consequences exact too high a price: on democracy, on public discourse, even, paradoxically, on abortion rights.
Katha Pollitt | ZNet
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=91&ItemID=8351

Towards a Better Food Aid System: An Interview with Sophia Murphy
The main reason reform is so difficult is that there aren't strong domestic political constituencies that have an interest in moving to an all cash based system. The nongovernmental organizations would seem to be the most likely to push for these changes. But they are happy to be getting any aid at all, and worry about endangering the flow of food by pushing too hard for reform. And because many of these organizations get funds that they need from monetization of food aid, they actually have an interest in perpetuating the system.

Interview by Clint Hendler | Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2005/08/food_aid.html
Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Sexist antics and union-busting cast doubt on American Apparel's progressive cred.

Ari Paul | In These Times
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2270/

Killing the Peace-Keeping Myth:
Canadian Forces on the Road to Kandahar
The prevailing image of Canadian military interventions as benevolent, or at least neutral, though, should have been shattered any number of years ago in Vietnam when it produced Agent Orange (and sprayed it on its own unwitting soldiers at CFB Gagetown), in Somalia, or in Iraq during the Gulf War and the subsequent sanctions regime.

Derrick O'Keefe | Seven Oaks
http://sevenoaksmag.com/commentary/73_comm4.html

Terror's Greatest Recruitment Tool
Hussain Osman, one of the men alleged to have participated in London's failed bombings on July 21, recently told Italian investigators that they prepared for the attacks by watching "films on the war in Iraq," La Repubblica reported. "Especially those where women and children were being killed and exterminated by British and American soldiers...of widows, mothers and daughters that cry."

Naomi Klein | The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050829&s=klein
For South Americans, War on Terror Looks Like 'Dirty War'
The recent turns in the war on terror look, to South American eyes, eerily like the Dirty Wars of the 1970s, when thousands of dissidents and rebels were imprisoned, tortured and often "disappeared."

Marcelo Ballvé | Pacific News Service
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=0c905a77e6c284dc0ab81cc704bb0cbf

AUDIO | Water Woes
Access to clean water is a matter of life and death for poor people across the globe. And that's the reality over one billion face today.

National Radio Project
http://www.radioproject.org/sound/050810.ra

Weird Science on the Religious Right
Seven of the greatest hits (or misses) of conservative Christian 'science' show just how little fact goes into these beliefs, and how much damage they can cause.

Stan Cox | Alternet
http://www.alternet.org/story/24000/
Murdering the Poor: Canadian Tax Dollars at Work
A fast-growing movement in Canada is demanding that the Canadian government support the return of constitutional democracy in Haiti.

Isabel Macdonald | Rabble
http://www.rabble.ca/news_full_story.shtml?sh_itm=4b4fd8e2d89608b03b4881bdee525a81&rXn=1&
Junk Food Nation: Who's to Blame for Childhood Obesity?
In recent months the major food companies have been trying hard to convince Americans that they feel the pain of our expanding waistlines, especially when it comes to kids. Kraft announced it would no longer market Oreos to younger children, McDonald's promoted itself as a salad producer and Coca-Cola said it won't advertise to kids under 12. But behind the scenes it's hardball as usual, with the junk food giants pushing the Bush Administration to defend their interests.

Gary Ruskin & Juliet Schor | The Nation
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050829&s=ruskin
Fearing Backlash, Pentagon Moves to Block New Abu Ghraib Photos
The Pentagon has moved forcefully to block the release of new video evidence of prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, arguing it would help recruit new Islamist insurgents and endanger American lives.

Agence France | Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0813-02.htm

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

Posted by erin at 12:36 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2005

08.10.05 Edition | Interactive Map of Iraq Fatalities; Patenting the Pig; Diversity in Kid Lit

	August 10, 2005 Edition
"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

THiS WEEK: 60th anniversary of the atomic bomb attacks on Japan; graffiti artist Banksy takes on the West Bank Wall; Monsanto attempts to patent the pig; why religious extremism and political terrorism shouldn't be confused; fighting homophobia in schools; the white, white world of children's literature; Telesur brings alternative television to Latin America; and more.

This Week's Picks:

VIDEO | A Tale of Two Cities
Last weekend marked the 60th anniversary of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This 1946 propaganda film describes the glorious destructive power of The Bomb, yet is careful to show no actual deaths. Chilling and fascinating.
Archive.org
http://www.archive.org/details/TaleofTw1946

Art Prankster Sprays Israeli Wall
British graffiti artist Banksy, who managed to hang anti-war art pieces in four New York museums (see the BBC report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/438 2245.stm), has now taken to illustrating the wall in the West Bank, spraypainting satiric pictures of life "on the other side."
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/47480 63.stm

See more pictures on Banksy's website: http://www.banksy.co.uk/news/index2.html

Disengagement and Diaspora
Diaspora is not a simple thing, or even a single, tangible event. If it's about exile, it's not simply about physical exile. To be in Diaspora is to be withdrawn from the world, disconnected from the basic joy of the human experience. The most terrible consequence of continued violence is this disconnection--the destruction of even the memory of community. "Disengagement" is not its antidote.
Ramzi Kysia | Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/kysia08022005.html

Monsanto Files Patent for New Invention: the Pig
It's official. Monsanto Corporation is out to own the world's food supply, the dangers of genetic engineering and reduced biodiversity notwithstanding, as they pig-headedly set about hog-tying farmers with their monopoly plans. We've discovered chilling new evidence of this in recent patents that seek to establish ownership rights over pigs and their offspring.

Brian Thomas Fitzgerald | Greenpeace
http://www.greenpeace.org/inte rnational/news/monsanto-pig-patent-111

Blaming the Mosques For the Sins of Governments
If Islamic religious extremism truly produced terror in a complete vacuum, it would make little sense for an Iraqi woman to be the first suicide bomber following the invasion in March 2003, considering that most extremists forbid women from taking part in physical jihad. It would be equally baffling if one recalls that communist Palestinian revolutionaries are the ones who spearheaded Palestinian terrorism in the 1970s, decades before Hamas was even conceptualized.

Ramzy Baroud | ZNet
http://www.zmag.org/content/sh owarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=8460

AUDIO | Homophobia In Schools
Many LGBTQ youth encounter homophobia and transphobia in school. Fellow students, school staff, and sometimes outside anti-gay groups can make life difficult or downright intolerable. Lai-San Seto of the GSA Network, the ACLU's Tamara Lange, and student Drew Espanol discuss what's at stake.

C.S. Soong | Against The Grain
http://www.againstthegrain.org/audio8.03.05.mp3

Diamonds in the Rough
The white, white world of kid's books, and the search for truly diverse, multicultural children's literature in an industry that usually reduces the inclusion of brown faces to a mere trend or market niche.

Janine Macbeth | ColorLines
http://www.arc.org/C_Lines/CLArchive/story8_3 _03.html

The Twilight Era of Petroleum
Several recent developments—persistently high gasoline prices, unprecedented warnings from the Secretary of Energy and the major oil companies, China's brief pursuit of the American Unocal Corporation—suggest that we are just about to enter the Twilight Era of Petroleum, a time of chronic energy shortages and economic stagnation as well as recurring crisis and conflict.

Michael T. Klare with commentary by Tom Engelhardt | Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/ commentary/columns/2005/08/twilight_oil.html

INTERACTIVE MAP | Fatalites in Iraq
This map charts US and coalition military fatalities in Iraq from the beginning of the war in 2003, and is updated regularly. Run back the clock, or check to see how many fatalites Slovakia has suffered thus far.

Obleek
http://www.obleek.com/iraq/index.html

Bush Vows to Eliminate US Dependence on Oil by 4920
Bush called on both Democrats and Republicans living 1,200 years from now to work together to pass the program.

The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4132

TeleSur Takes to the Airwaves
Spanish-language TV both in the US and in many Latin American countries is perhaps best known for its sensational, sex- and drama-soaked telenovelas (soap operas) and variety shows, soccer games and news segments heavy on the blood and gore of accidents or street crime. But now, there is a new and controversial alternative available throughout the region, which eschews glitzy entertainment for hard reporting on the destruction of rain forests, the effects of globalization and poverty issues, along with promoting Latin American traditional and contemporary arts and culture.

Kari Lydersen | Infoshop News
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/art icle.php?story=20050805124307140

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

Posted by erin at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)