Radical media, politics and culture.

An anonymous coward writes:

"Eye for an Eye:

Bush Braining Storms"


President Bush addressed the nation today from the oval office, “My fellow Americans, due to the grave threat posed by future hurricanes like Charlie and Frances, I have asked Congress to declare war on hurricanes and they have done so.”

The move comes as a surprise to many. A senior administration official familiar with the matter said, “We had no choice. We face a canny enemy. Hurricane Frances targeted Florida and Ohio and appears to be an attempt to alter the result of November's election.”

Anonymous Comrade submits:

Wolfowitz Corrupts Directive Regulating Political Activity by Military


Department of Defense directive 1344.10 regulates political activity on the part of active-duty military personnel. On August 2, Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, amended directive 1344.10.

A comparison of the previous and revised versions of 1344.10 can be found on the Daily KOS, a blog frequented by Democratic Party activists and professionals/operatives:


More on Active Duty Military Attending the RNC

Additional Daily KOS commentary and discussion

"Depleted Uranium:

Dirty Bombs, Dirty Missiles, Dirty Bullets"

Leuren Moret, SF BayView.com

“Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” — Henry Kissinger, quoted in “Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW’s in Vietnam”

Vietnam was a chemical war for oil, permanently contaminating large regions and countries downriver with Agent Orange, and environmentally the most devastating war in world history. But since 1991, the U.S. has staged four nuclear wars using depleted uranium weaponry, which, like Agent Orange, meets the U.S. government definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction. Vast regions in the Middle East and Central Asia have been permanently contaminated with radiation.

"9/11: The Day the World Ended, Three Years On"

John Chuckman

A lot can happen in three years.


In the United States since 9/11, about 4,000 children died from child abuse and neglect; in more than 80 percent of cases, parents were the perpetrators. About 36,000 Americans died from unnecessary surgery. Another 21,000 died from medication errors in hospitals, along with another 60,000 from other errors in hospitals. Adverse reactions to prescription drugs killed about 100,000. Roughly 10,000 Americans died from accidental drowning. About 2,100 died from bicycle accidents. Homicidal Americans killing other Americans took another roughly 60,000 lives. Suicide took more than 90,000. Traffic deaths amounted to well over 120,000.

Rob Eshelman writes:

"American Lawyer Finds New Evidence of Recent Torture in Iraq"
Lisa Ashkenaz Croke, The New Standard

August 30 — While the latest reports investigating the widely condemned events at Abu Ghraib prison attempt to close the book on the Pentagon's culpability with a somber critique, new evidence gathered for a class action lawsuit filed against two US-based private contractors could prove that the scandal at Abu Ghraib was far from an isolated series of incidents perpetrated by a few rowdy "bad apples" working the night shift during Ramadan.

hydrarchist writes: this article is really about p2p power and bit torrent. Jo ta ke!

Must-Download TV:
The Latest Developments in TV-Show-Trading Technology Mean You Don't Need
TiVo To Watch What You Want, When You Want

Farhad Manjoo

When the Federal Communications
Commission gave its blessing on Aug. 4 to a new TiVo service that Hollywood has opposed, the
decision was widely hailed as a triumph for techies. The news was both
unexpected and unlikely -- these days, government officials rarely move
against the wishes of giant media companies.


The Trouble With Electing Caesar


John Chuckman


America's campaign for Emperor is becoming nasty.


What shameful accusations are being tossed around: an ambitious, privileged young John Kerry, who spent a brief stint in Vietnam beefing up the hero section of his resume, never actually did some of the things he claims or at least didn't do them under the circumstances he claims. Since his heroic deeds included chasing after a wounded man and shooting him in the back and skippering a machine gun-mounted speed boat that ran up and down rivers shooting peasants desperate enough to appear in their own fields, there is reason for concern.

This is beautifully produced and provocative, check it out. For full coverage of the RNC check out our dedicated feed.

midwest unrest writes: A new 10-page comic book attack on the elections. Read and laugh. Print out and distribute. Available at http://www.taktic.org/~grafikatak/

http://www.midwestunrest.net/comic.pdf

low res version for web viewing:
http://www.taktic.org/~grafikatak/comicbook.pdf

hi res version for printing:
http://www.taktic.org/~grafikatak/comicbookhires.p df"

Flint writes "When a state is determined to pursue war, and all forms of indirect symbolic protest actions have failed to sway politicians to halt their imperialist aggression, the only remaining option is direct action by the working class. One option is a general strike by workers that can effect the production and transpiration of military capital, that is the materials essential for the war machine. The other is to deprive the military of the labor it needs to fight the war. The slogan from the Vietnam War protests deliberately speaks to this, "What if they had a war, and no one came?" The U.S. military is overwhelmingly recruited from the working class, and convincing our class as a whole to refuse to work for this blood money may be our best chance for both ending the war in Iraq and limiting the imperialist ambitions of the U.S. for future decades.


Blood Money:

The Human-Capital Equation of the U.S. Occupation of Iraq


by Stephen "Flint" Arthur


"Endless development of armed force. Every day we hear of fresh inventions for the more effectual destruction of our fellow-men, fresh expenditure, fresh loans, fresh taxation. Clamorous patriotism, reckless jingoism; the stirring up of international jealousy have become the most lucrative line in politics and journalism. Childhood itself has not been spared; schoolboys are swept into the ranks, to be trained up in hatred... drilled in blind obedience to the government of the moment, whatever the colour of its flag, and when they come to the years of manhood to be laden like pack-horses with cartridges, provisions and the rest of it; to have a rifle thrust into their hands and be taught to charge at the bugle call and slaughter one another right and left like wild beasts, without asking themselves why or for what purpose. Whether they have before them starvelings... or their own brothers roused to revolt by famine-the bugle sounds, the killing must commence."
Peter Kropotkin - War!

"An Artist Under Occupation:


Gaza Stripped"


Eric Drooker,
Counterpunch


It was simultaneously a very good thing, and a very bad thing.


Neither Susan nor I expected to be allowed to enter Gaza in the first place. All of our Palestinian friends told us it was impossible and, at any rate, too dangerous these days....


But here we were, walking through the goddamn check point, with a two hundred pound suitcase full of acrylic paint and two dozen brushes. Pleasantly surprised to be entering the Gaza Strip, on a hot mid-east morning, our euphoria proved to be as short lived as water on desert sand.


Oh shit...we're entering Gaza.

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