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May 04, 2006

05.04.06 The "Race Card"; Organic Milk Goes Corporate; Cuban Hip Hop
May 4, 2006 Edition

"The Best of the Rest of the Web"

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THiS WEEK: why the immigrant rights movement needs to step up its challenge to racism; Bolivia sends troops to oust foreign-owned companies from its gas fields; New Zealand dog food manufacturer proposes feeding its product to hungry Africans; Tim Wise takes on the notion of the "race card;" when organic milk goes corporate; a look at the world of Cuban hip hop; the suggestion that the US take a critical look at its love affair with the Israeli state sends a lot of people into a tizzy; Stephen Colbert is customarily hilarious at the White House Correspondents Dinner; and several other items of interest, lovingly hand-picked, in this week's Media Picks.

This Week's Picks:

  1. The Price of the Ticket
    There is little question that the current immigration debate, though coded and contrived otherwise, is entirely about race. Yet, the framing made popular by immigrants and their advocates is so hostile to Black people and our American experience that it seems impossible for us to stake a claim with this movement. Today's immigrants will find that without Blacks, and a commitment to challenge racism beyond the reach of immigration policy alone, their movement will lose both its moral authority and the practical victory it hopes to achieve.

    Andre Banks | ColorLines
    http://www.arc.org/content/view/432/1/


  2. Excerpt: Conned
    In this excerpt from his new book, Sasha Abramsky reveals what really happened during the 2000 Election voter 'purge.'

    Sasha Abramsky | AlterNet
    http://www.alternet.org/rights/34774/


  3. Bolivia Takes Over Foreign-Owned Gas Fields
    Althought president Evo Morales had had always made clear his intentions when he was elected with 54% of the vote last December, the peaceful arrival of troops on foreign-owned gas fields (on May Day, no less) still made a dramatic international statement. Companies were told to turn production over to the state firm and given six months to comply.

    Duncan Campbell and Terry Macalister | The Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,1766225,00.html


  4. Africans: Eat Dog Food!
    There are many causes of hunger in Africa: land rights and ownership, diversion of land to non-productive use, drought, increasing emphasis on export-oriented agriculture, inefficient agricultural practices, war and others. Western countries and their conveyors of food aid have increasingly moved into solving hunger in the conventional sense—donating food, a way to perpetuate poverty and dependency. Now comes the ultimate insult: The offer of dog food by a New Zealand dog food manufacturer.

    Sifelani Tsiko | Black Star News / Interactivist Info Exchange
    http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=06/04/23/2012220&mode=nested&tid=17


  5. What Kind of Card is Race?
    Recently, I was asked by someone in the audience of one of my speeches, whether or not I believed that racism—though certainly a problem—might also be something conjured up by people of color in situations where the charge was inappropriate. In other words, did I believe that occasionally folks play the so-called race card, as a ploy to gain sympathy or detract from their own shortcomings?

    Tim Wise | CounterPunch
    http://www.counterpunch.org/wise04242006.html


  6. Organic Milk Goes Corporate
    Can mega-dairies whose cows rarely get out to pasture still be called "organic"?

    Cameron Scott | Mother Jones
    http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2006/04/organic_milk.html


  7. VIDEO | Inventos—Something from Nothing
    Eli Jacobs Fantauzzi is the man behind this intimate look at Cuban Hip Hop culture. YO!TV chops it up with Eli about family, culture and Cuba.

    Tasin Sabir//Min Lee + footage from Inventos | Youth Outlook
    http://www.youthoutlook.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=bd8f79133787bb3c58d43327b1f8a9c6
    Check out the documentary's website for more info and to see the trailer: http://www.clenchedfistproductions.com


  8. Ferment Over "The Israel Lobby"
    The shock waves continue to resonate from the article suggesting that a coalition of pro-Israel groups (including neoconservatives, Christian Zionists, leading journalists and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) exert a "stranglehold" on Middle East policy and public debate.

    Phillip Weiss | The Nation
    http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060515/weiss


  9. Bush Challenges 750 Laws Since Taking Office
    The Bush administration has spent the past five years quietly working to concentrate ever more governmental power into the White House. "There is no question that this administration has been involved in a very carefully thought-out, systematic process of expanding presidential power at the expense of the other branches of government," said Portland State University law professor Phillip Cooper. "This is really big, very expansive, and very significant."

    Charlie Savage | The Globe
    http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/


  10. VIDEO | Stephen Colbert at the White House
    Whether you think Stephen Colbert's address at the White House Correspondents Dinner was subversive or inconsequential—it's still pretty damn funny. "As excited as I am to be here with the president, I am appalled to be surrounded by the liberal media that is destroying America, with the exception of Fox News. But the rest of you, what are you thinking, reporting on N.S.A. wiretapping or secret prisons in Eastern Europe? Those things are secret for a very important reason. They're superdepressing."

    Stephen Colbert | White House Correspondents Dinner
    PART ONE: http://video.freevideoblog.com/video/AAC7FA18-2DDC-4D3E-B1BB-9D6CBD83E27F.htm
    PART TWO: http://video.freevideoblog.com/video/C91DDBB4-28AD-4E6F-BD52-822BC77DF696.htm


  11. Colombia’s Secret Narco-Police
    Though it has barely registered in the US press, a national scandal is currently unfolding in Colombia, where a jailed high official of the Administrative Department for Security (DAS, in its Spanish initials) has been speaking freely with journalists about the extensive collaboration between the secret police agency and right-wing paramilitary groups.

    Dan Feder | Narco News
    http://www.narconews.com/Issue41/article1747.html


- Media Picks Contributing Editors: Adam Barker, Justin Park
- Media Picks compiled and edited by Erin Wiegand and Brian Awehali


Posted by erin at May 4, 2006 11:14 PM

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