A Word From the Wise - Tim Wise's Blog

because he's the education president, don't forget!

Thanks to the ill-named No Child Left Behind Act, and economic sluggishness (not to mention cuts in federal funding to the states for a wide variety of purposes), state and local governments are now having to cut back on their education budgets...

Then again, education is only important if you value literacy, which, as the President has demonstrated, is a take-it-or-leave-it kinda thing anyway...

capitalists for government intervention???

By now, many of you have probably heard about the Alabama woman who was fired from her job for sporting a Kerry/Edwards sticker on her car. Today, you may also have heard, the Kerry campaign has hired her, essentially taking her former boss up on his demand to her that she could "either work for him or work for Kerry." So far so good, and all's well that ends well.

But what I actually found fascinating about this story was what the employer said to his workers in a memo sent around a while back, basically explaining to them why he loved the President's policies, and why they should too. According to the memo:

"Just so you will know, because of the Bush tax (cut):

I was able to buy the new Hammer Mill
I was able to finance our receivables
I was able to get the new CAT skid steer
I was able to get the wire cutter
I was able to give you a job"

What is amazing about this, is that it exposes the fallacy of the so-called free market. After all, here is a guy who basically is saying, had it not been for a tax cut, he wouldn't have been able to expand plant and equipment or hire workers. But basic market economic theory says that any investment that is efficient and productive will be made under capitalism, with or without the equivalent of a tax subsidy. If hiring workers makes sense, or expanding plant and equipment makes sense, economically, then those decisions will be made, no matter the existence of a tax cut. To the extent he says he could only do these things because of the cut, either means he is lying, or admitting his utter incompetence as a capitalist.

Now some might say, "but Tim, if his taxes were too high to begin with, then that would distort the market and make him unable to hire and expand without the cut, not owing to his own talents, but to intrusive tax burdens." But while this might make some sense in a much higher-taxed state, or if the relative business tax burdens were truly huge, it makes no sense in low-tax Alabama, or in a nation where the tax burden on businesses has been falling like a rock for more than 40 years, relative to other taxes (on workers, for example), or relative to the overall size of the economy.

In other words, to the extent we believe this yahoo, we have to conclude that his ability to run a business is dependent, entirely, on preferential tax treatment from the gov'mnt...the same gov'mnt he probably curses whenever it seeks to provide opportunity to others, like workers (with minimum wage hikes or labor protections), or social service provisions.

Capitalists: the primary opponents of Capitalism...God bless em.

Kerry Discovers Racism: a Little Late, Dont'cha Think?

So, John Kerry has apparently come to the conclusion that the GOP may seek to suppress black voter turnout in the upcoming election. This, he has concluded, a mere four years after they managed to do just that in Florida (and elsewhere) in 2000, after which time, Kerry the Senator DID NOTHING and said NOTHING about it, as with the rest of the white Democratic Party establishment, from Al Gore on down.

Amazing how nice white liberals like Kerry become indignant only when that indignation might help THEM, and not when it's needed to correct a grievous wrong done to others. Also, note that Kerry has only raised this issue publicly in front of the Congressional Black Caucus, but has yet to bring this issue up prominently in front of white audiences. Like most white liberals, challenging other whites on racism, and the ways in which power is maintained via racial domination and subordination, is something Kerry is far too afraid to do. So he goes before a friendly crowd and holds church, while downplaying the GOPs race politics every other day...If Kerry had any real guts, or principles on this issue, he'd run a commercial about racial/racist disenfranchisement, and not just talk about it at politically safe meetings...

And, not to put too fine a point on it, but Kerry's own votes in favor of Clinton-era crime legislation, resulted in the incarceration of tens of thousands of African Americans--mostly for non-violent and disproportionately for drug related offenses--thereby contributing to the very loss of voting rights about which he now complains. Not to mention the difficulties then experienced by many of these individuals after being released, in terms of finding steady employment, housing, etc.

If Kerry wants to boost black voting, the easiest way to do it would be to stop supporting laws that criminalize drug use and prop up the entirely racist war on drugs: a war that results in blacks being 35 percent of those arrested for drug use (despite being only 13 percent of users), and 75 percent of those incarcerated for drugs. These black inmates then lose voting rights while in jail, in most all states, and even lose their rights after release in several (including the key electoral state of Florida, of course). Yet, according to Kerry's own website, he is proud of his get tough on crime/drugs record, so don't expect a change of tune anytime soon.

Sorry for the long absence

Although I have no idea if anyone is really reading this blog (one can always hope!), I want to apologize for the long absence. I've been on the road for speeches a bunch, and was also having problems with my entries, due to the shitty microsoft-inspired browser I had been using. That has now been resolved and I will begin entering new material very soon, and daily (I hope). So check back often...thanks.

tim

What's a little fraud between friends?

Remember the last time you tried to get a loan, perhaps for a car, or a house, or just a new credit card, for that matter, but your credit score was too low to allow you to qualify? Maybe you had been late with previous loan or credit card payments. Maybe not even that late--a week or so, perhaps twice in the past year? The idea, of course, is that you were too big a credit risk, and that extending you yet more credit might result in some kind of loss to the company or bank extending it to you...

Well, it's nice to know that some folks "creditworthiness" and lack of honesty isn't held against them--at least, if their name is Halliburton.

According to the New York Times: (I won't post the link 'cuz you have to register to read their stuff anyway)

"The Army reversed a decision late Tuesday to withhold payment on 15 percent of future payments to the Halliburton Company on its contracts in Iraq and Kuwait, giving the company more time to resolve a billing dispute.

The Army had said earlier Tuesday that it had decided that starting Wednesday it would withhold 15 percent of payments on future bills from the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root because it had not issued paperwork justifying its costs. But the Army later indicated it would continue to reimburse the company in full."

Government contractors normally cannot be paid more than 85 percent of their invoices until they fully account for their costs. Twice this year, the Army set this rule aside for Halliburton as the company cataloged its costs and explained how it was billing the government. The most recent reprieve expired Sunday.

This is, of course, far more significant than paying credit card bills late...it's tantamount to you being contracted to build a house for someone, and then not being able to explain the costs, and the homeowner saying, "gee, that's ok, just keep building, and I'll keep paying...it's all good."

No, no it's not...not really

Internalized Racism and the "Model Minority"

Amidst the regular conservative blather about how Asian Pacific Americans have "made it" in the U.S. (the subtext being that blacks and Latinos should be more like Asians, and stop griping about racism), the ongoing discrimination faced by Asian Pacific Americans and Pacific Islanders often gets overlooked, despite its prevalence. So too, the destructive, internalized racism that sometimes mutates throughout the APA community (and amongst Asians in Asian nations themselves), as the result of the ubiquity of white supremacy as a cultural, political and economic force.

This fantastic piece discusses a disturbing trend--and resistance to it--whereby some Asian youth are opting for plastic surgery to "fix" their eyelids, making them appear more Caucasian as a result. Just as with rhinoplasty for Jews who weren't "white enough," and skin bleaching among blacks and even continental Africans who desire to fit in with dominant standards of beauty, this phenomenon indicates that no matter how "model" a given minority may be (at least in the eyes of cynical racists seeking to use the model group for their own purposes), white supremacy still does what it has always done: define the "other" as inferior...a process that not only effects the minds of whites, but even those who are its targets. Especially those, in fact, as it is much more difficult to effectively colonize those who haven't first taken to thinking of themselves as inferiors first.

Big Chief W explains tribal sovereignty with his usual flair

During the Q&A period after his speech to journalists of color at a recent conference, the President was asked about tribal/national sovereignty for indigenous persons in the U.S. and what the concept means in the 21st century. With any number of tribal nation issues to choose from (fishing and land rights, criminal justice treatment of indigenous persons, inadequate BIA services, mining and mineral rights, etc), surely the leader of the free world would have a plethora of things to say. Well, not exactly. Instead, the exchange went like this, verbatim:

"What do you think tribal sovereignty means in the 21st century?" (Asked by a Native-American editor from a Seattle newspaper)

Bush's Answer:

"Tribal sovereignty means that -- it's sovereignty...I mean, you're a -- you're a -- you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity."

Glad we've got someone as sharp as this guy to clear everything up for us.

Here is a full story about Bush's incoherent presentation to the UNITY conference. Worth the read.

Taliban falling? What year is this?

Back to the Future for a second...today we learn that "The Taliban seems to be falling apart" in Afghanistan. But wait...I thought we defeated the Taliban almost three years ago? Wasn't that the Administration's claim? That they had defeated the evil Taliban after 9/11? Now it appears that they are just beginning to fully crack, having retained loyalty and control over large sections of the nation all this time...

And yet even the story today makes clear that when it comes to to deepening fissures between Taliban figures and the public, and what that means for the unfolding resistance to U.S. domination of the country:

According to Major Scott Nelson...

"That fissure is widening -- we see that. Specifically what that means we're still looking into it," he said.

Glad we cleared that up

You know things are bad when your own toadies are starting to hate you

Amazing. Only the U.S. could manage to piss off and alienate our own hand-picked boot-licking lackeys...and indeed, we have apparently done so in Iraq, as explained in this story from al-jazeera.

President AWOL

Here's a great column from Jeff St Clair over at Counterpunch, detailing all the sordid details of President Bush's military "service" (which is to say, how he went AWOL, pulled strings to avoid combat, scored barely above idiot on his flight exam, but somehow was allowed to fly planes with the TX Air National Guard anyway, etc.) Makes for good reading, and provides some context for Ws duplicity.

Of course, the fact that Bush effectively dodged the draft in Vietnam is just about the only good thing he ever did. At least it kept him from killing Vietnamese (something Kerry can't say), but to dodge it while supporting the war is an especially putrid form of hypocrisy (see Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, William Bennett, etc)

Articles About Tim Wise

Article about Wise debate with Dinesh D'Souza at SF State University, 1996

Teen Speak article on Wise, "Confronting Racism"

University of Idaho article about Wise speech, 2004

Article in Boston University paper (2003) about Wise speech on Affirmative Action

Article from Washington State University (2002) on Wise speech re: racism in education

San Diego State article on Wise speech, November 2003

Speeches by Tim Wise

An MP3 of Tim Wise's 2003 speech at All Saints Church, Pasadena, CA

October 2001 speech (real media) at University of New Mexico, on "Racial Scapegoating, Before and After 9/11"

Real Audio debate on affirmative action with Tim Eyman, conservative activist in WA State, 1998 at University of Washington

Real Media Video of debate on aff action with Tim Eyman at UW-Seattle, 1998

Audio Only - (Real Audio) Debate on Affirmative Action with Dinesh D'Souza, at Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA (1996)

Video Version (Real Media) Debate with Dinesh D'Souza at Evergreen, 1996

Links to Articles by Tim Wise

In response to several requests, and to make these easily findable from my blog, here are links to all of my articles online. Some of the pieces on ZNet are also found, in slightly different form in the Alternet archive.

MY ZNET COMMENTARY ARCHIVE (Lots and lots of articles from 1999 to the present)

ADDITIONAL Z PIECES (Not Part of the Commentary/Sustainer System)

No Ribbons, No Flags, No Fireworks: An Open Letter to Pro-War Americans

We are All Collateral Damage Now: Reflections on War as Mental Botox

The Moral Calculus of Killing: "Precision Bombing" and the American Definition of "Innocence"

Of Lies, Liberation and American Self-Delusion

Liberation or Libation? Media Images, State Propaganda and "Happy Iraqis"

Parable of the Bad Samaritan: Some Reflections on Collateral Damage Control

The Same, Only Different: Reflections on the Myth of American Exceptionalism

Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat: The Supreme Court and the Future of Affirmative Action

Cleaning up the Funk: Commencement Speech at Grinnell College, 2003

For Black History Month, Remember the True MLK