The Largest Minority

July 3rd, 2009 @ 4:33am by Manila Ryce

from International Marxist Tendency.

Alan Woods, editor of marxist.com, speaks to a meeting in London on June 25, 2009.

June 30th, 2009 @ 6:24pm by Manila Ryce

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today made the following statement regarding the announcement that U.S. troops have left the cities and towns of Iraq and turned over formal security to Iraqi security forces.

“The withdrawal of some U.S. combat troops from Iraq’s cities is welcome and long overdue news. However, it is important to remember that this is not the same as a withdrawal of U.S. troops and contractors from Iraq.

“U.S. troop combat missions throughout Iraq are not scheduled to end until more than a year from now in August of 2010. In addition, U.S. troops are not scheduled for a complete withdrawal for another two and a half years on December 31, 2011. Rather, U.S. troops are leaving Iraqi cities for military bases in Iraq. They are still in Iraq, and they can be summoned back at any time.

“This is not a great victory for peace. On May 19, the Christian Science Monitor reported that Iraqi and U.S. military officials virtually redrew the city limits of Baghdad in order to consider the Army’s Forward Operating Base Falcon as outside the city, despite every map of Baghdad clearly showing it with in city limits. In fact, according to Section 24.3 of the “SOFA” U.S. troops can remain at any agreed upon facility. The reported reason for this decision is to ensure U.S. troops are able to ‘help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war.’

“This troop movement should not be confused with a troop withdrawal from Iraq. In reality, this is a small step toward Iraqi sovereignty as Iraqi security forces begin assuming greater control over security operations, but it is a long way from independence and a withdrawal of the U.S. military presence.”

source
via AlterNet

June 26th, 2009 @ 2:15am by Manila Ryce

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador is unlike career politicians in the United States. He actually sees his job as not an end in itself but as a means to accomplish social justice. Correa is also an economist who was educated in the US and has displayed his Chavez-sized balls by rejecting his nation’s national debt as illegitimate and pledging to fight creditors in international courts. Democrats, take note. This is what an actual liberal looks and sounds like.

The president of Ecuador has criticised capitalism for its role in the global financial crisis, in a speech to delegates attending a United Nations conference on the state of the world economy.

Raphael Correa also suggested on Thursday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, two bodies within the group of so-called Bretton Woods institutions, be dismantled.

“Patching up the Bretton Woods system, which we do not control, makes no sense for [developing] countries,” Correa said on the second day of the summit at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Making changes to the IMF and World Bank “would be an insufficient stop-gap solution,” he said.

“We are faced with a crisis unlike those [previously] provoked by capitalism.”

If the Bretton Woods bodies, which were set up in the aftermath of World War II, cannot be abolished they should at least hold less power over the world’s poor countries, Correa said.

Decisions on how to manage the global economy should instead be transferred to the United Nations, he said.

The three-day UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis is being attended by 140 developing nations, with most of them calling for changes to be made to the global economic system.

Scores of countries attending the conference have argued that the global downturn is due to reckless economic liberalisation and de-regulation of financial systems by Western nations.

But not a single representative of a developed country is attending the summit, highlighting the divide between richer and poorer nations on how the global financial system should be managed.

“We are now dealing with the consequences of excluding the majority from the decision-making process, but it is the majority that has to pay the worst consequences and the worst price for the errors made by - I’m sorry to say it - a greedy minority,” Miguel D’Escoto, the president of the UN General Assembly, told Al Jazeera.

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June 24th, 2009 @ 6:44pm by Manila Ryce

h/t Rebel Reports

June 24th, 2009 @ 4:43pm by eejipshuness

The soulful Bill Withers was born in the unfortunately named city of Slab Fork, West Virginia in 1938. He is the youngest of 6 children, his father died when he was only 13, and he served in the US Navy for almost a decade before starting a career in music. He was almost immediately successful in the music industry, earning his first Grammy within 2 years of his demo audit with Clarence Avant of Sussex Records. Booker T. Jones (also of Sussex Records) produced his first album, which featured the chart-topping hit, “Aint No Sunshine”.

“Aint No Sunshine” alone has been covered by over 100 established artists, including Al Green, BB King, Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, Otis Redding, The Police, The Temptations, and, you guessed it, Akon. “Use Me” has also been covered by some popular people like D’Angelo and Isaac Hayes, but I mostly picked it because it’s pretty awesome (especially on headphones) and Chico Brenes skated to it. (That’s how my boyfriend found it for me.)

Some other popular songs by Mr. Soul — I mean Withers — are “Lovely Day”, “Lean on Me”, “Just the Two of Us”, and “Grandma’s Hands” (which was sampled in the legendary old school hit “No Diggity” by Blackstreet).

In conclusion, Bill Withers is the shit.

June 24th, 2009 @ 2:22am by Manila Ryce

If this isn’t love I don’t know what is. Spec Boogie puts original lyrics to classic films.

June 23rd, 2009 @ 12:11pm by Guest

A universal health care system based on the single-payer model appears to be a bridge too far for President Barack Obama.

A single-payer system, such as Medicare for everyone, would provide health care for all.

President Lyndon Johnson had the courage to weigh in with all his clout to win passage of Medicare and Medicaid.

President Roosevelt put all his chips on the table to win passage of the Social Security Act that makes the elderly more secure.

All around the world, governments have long made medical care available for their citizens. Why not us?

Obama clearly has no stomach for the political battle that any single-payer plan would ignite. So he’s endorsed a step that would allow the government to provide health insurance coverage — not health care — to eligible people. Such government-sponsored health insurance is being considered in Congress as it writes health care reform legislation.

While the public plan option gets full consideration in Congress, the single-payer model has been unwelcome at the White House or on Capitol Hill.

Obama said part of the fierce opposition to health care reform has been fueled “by some interest groups and lobbyists — opposition that has used fear tactics to paint any effort to achieve reform as an attempt to, yes, socialize medicine.”

He made it clear that his idea of health care reform would allow patients to choose their own doctors and keep their own health plans.

Somehow government bailouts have been more palatable for Wall Street plutocrats who happen to be needy.

Obama stressed in a speech to the AMA in Chicago last week that he does not favor socialized medicine.

Some 47 million Americans are uninsured — many because some employers have dropped coverage in the economic downturn. Others lack insurance because pre-existing illnesses deny them access to private insurance. There also are millions with no way to pay for soaring health insurance payments because they have lost their jobs.

Nearly all Republicans and some moderate Democrats oppose any public plan option. These are the same lawmakers who receive many government-provided perks including health insurance.

In his remarks to the AMA, Obama warned against “scare tactics” and “fear mongering” by opponents of the public plan option, which the President said should be available to those who have no health insurance.

Obama rejected the “illegitimate concern that’s being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.”

Obama should tear a page out of LBJ’s vote-getting manual and shame the heartless opponents.

The health of all Americans is our business.

source

June 21st, 2009 @ 12:57am by Manila Ryce

When you combine two legends in their respective genres - Communist rapper Boots Riley and anarchist guitarist Tom Morello - you’ve got a dangerous mixture of passion and creativity poised to reclaim American youth culture from the bourgeois entertainment industry and their one dimensional focus group creations. Get Breckin Meyer to play the antagonist for your video and things are guaranteed to get awesomely weird.

After following up his role in Rage Against the Machine with the more mellow Audioslave and a subsequent solo career, Morello once again takes up his beloved role in Street Sweeper as the front and center DJ who uses a guitar rather than turntables. To compliment that foundation, Boots delivers the ammunition like only a genuine rapper who’s perfected his craft can, spitting thoughtfully condensed imagery with every line.

This is the soundtrack of the revolution. Bump it loud enough for the walls of capitalism to come crashing down (lyrics available below the fold).
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