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Electoral Politics

October 2, 2003 - 2:05pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"Is It Just About Schwarzenegger?"

Mike Davis

LOS ANGELES — Voters in California are set to go to the polls on October 7. The two-part ballot will ask whether state governor Gray Davis should be removed. It will then ask voters to choose from among 135 candidates, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, to replace Davis. Every candidate in California's dark recall election comedy should be obliged to answer the question, “Whither Duroville?”. Duroville is the California visitors never see and that pundits ignore when they debate the future of the world's sixth-largest economy.

September 19, 2003 - 8:49am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"California Reaming"

Mike Davis

Voters in California were set to go to the polls on 7 October, until the election was postponed this week. When it does take place, the two-part ballot will ask whether state governor Gray Davis should be removed. It will then ask voters to choose from among 135 candidates, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, to replace Davis. Mike Davis, whose books include City of Quartz and Late Victorian Holocausts, writes on the issues which the media's election coverage has ignored.

EVERY CANDIDATE in California's dark recall election comedy should be obliged to answer the question, "Whither Duroville?" Duroville is the California visitors never see and that pundits ignore when they debate the future of the world's sixth largest economy.

September 6, 2003 - 11:40am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

Anonymous Comrade submits:


"The Perfumed Prince and Other Political Tales"

John Chuckman, September 5, 2003

The Perfumed Prince declared himself a Democrat. Many Americans may not recognize the nickname bestowed upon Wesley Clarke by British colleagues as he strutted around Serbia with his set of platinum-plated general's stars carefully repositioned each day to a freshly-starched and ironed camouflage cap, wafting a thick vapor trail of cologne. His lack of judgment demonstrated in Serbia -- including an order to clear out Russian forces that British general, Sir Michael Jackson, had to ignore for fear of starting World War III -- should be enough to utterly disqualify him as a candidate for President. But this is America, land of opportunity.

September 2, 2003 - 11:01am -- jim
News
Electoral Politics

Anonymous Kumquat submits:

"Schwarzenegger's Sex Talk"

The Smoking Gun

AUGUST 27--Arnold Schwarzenegger once told a magazine interviewer about participating in an orgy with other bodybuilders, noting that "everybody jumped on" the woman involved and "took her upstairs where we all got together." The California Republican added that not every muscleman participated in the gang bang, "just the guys who can fuck in front of other guys. Not everybody can do that. Some think that they don't have a big-enough cock, so they can't get a hard-on."

August 21, 2003 - 10:57am -- jim
Announcements
Electoral Politics

California trend goes national:

Bush Recall

August 13, 2003 - 3:22pm -- jim
News
Electoral Politics

Anonymous Comrade submits:

"Camejo, Huffington Form Unorthodox Alliance"

By Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times , August 13, 2003

SAN FRANCISCO - Green Party gubernatorial candidate Peter Camejo
announced Tuesday that he and nonpartisan Arianna Huffington will
jointly campaign for issues in the coming months, then decide
together near the end of the race which candidate is better prepared
to sprint to the finish line.

August 3, 2003 - 3:52pm -- nolympics
News
Electoral Politics

hydrarchist submits "Whilst our values diverge radically from those advnaced by bthe Economist, weekly epistle from the church of free-trade dogma, it is noetheless interesting to read their latest attack on the arch clown Berluska. Note that this is the third vituperatoive of this type in two years. Clashes amidst the dominant class how are you..... Berlusconi's reposne is that he has not ime to read the article but his lawyers will respond. He of course is too busy 'looking after his responsibilities' to pay attention to those who 'fear his new Italy' (sic).


Economist on Berlusconi
Dear Mr Berlusconi...

Jul 31st 2003 From The Economist print edition
Why we are sending an open letter to the Italian prime minister
TO HIS many other talents, Silvio Berlusconi has recently added that of ironist. The Italian prime minister entered the role of president of the European Union's Council of Ministers with a bang, by likening a German member of the European Parliament to a Nazi-era concentration camp guard. Many failed to see the joke. And the resulting imbroglio with the German government had a paradoxical effect: it distracted attention from the very accusation that the German MEP had been noisily making, namely that Mr Berlusconi has exploited his parliamentary majority in Italy to put himself beyond the reach of the law.
For that is indeed what he has done. Dogged by a series of judicial investigations and court cases when he entered office in 2001, Mr Berlusconi has managed to defeat the prosecutors and the courts. He secured the downgrading of the charge of false accounting for private companies, with retrospective effect, thus making accusations against him barred under the statute of limitations. He tried to change the rules on the admissibility of documents obtained from across the border in Switzerland, and tried to get the jurisdiction of his big remaining criminal trial moved. Finally, having failed with those measures he managed to bring in a law making Italy's prime minister, along with the country's other top officials, immune from prosecution during their time in office. As a democratically elected leader, with grave and onerous responsibilities to the people, Mr Berlusconi argued that he should not be made subject to the indignity of a trial. His justice minister, Roberto Castelli, went even further, causing a furore within the governing coalition last week by trying to block a judicial investigation into alleged tax fraud at Mr Berlusconi's biggest media company. (This week he was forced to relent.) It is beyond the prime minister's dignity even to be investigated.
July 26, 2003 - 4:32pm -- nolympics
News
Electoral Politics

Italian comrades submit


Following the racist round-up of immigrants by the carabinieri on Monday 30th June at Piazza Risorgimento in Pordenone (north-east Italy), we, together with other activists and anti-racists, organized an inter-ethnic street party with music, speeches, food and films for the following Saturday (5th July).


The protest, which was peaceful and colourful and which included
the particpation of many immigrants, served to demonstrate our determined opposition to the Bossi-Fini Law and also to retake public spaces and areas for socializing.


Everything was going smoothly with many taking advantage of the open mike, when a serious incident took place - through a form of practice which is by now commonplace in the North-East [of Italy.


While chatting to other comrades, one comrade from the Circolo Libertario E. Zapata was head-butted in the face out of the blue by one of the "disobbedienti" who had just finished talking on the mike.

July 7, 2003 - 5:11pm -- jim
News
Electoral Politics

Anonymous Kumquat submits this campaign press release:

The Kucinich for President Campaign takes a big step forward today with
the announcement of "Feminists for Kucinich." Eight diverse feminist
writers and organizers have initiated a statement in support of
Kucinich, which will be widely circulated to attract new supporters.

July 2, 2003 - 8:33pm -- jim
Reviews
Electoral Politics

nolympics submits:

"Secret History of the IRA"

Anthony McIntyre, The Blanket


Anthony McIntyre is a former republican prisoner from Belfast, a founder of the Republican Writers Group and a harsh critic of Sinn Fein and its leadership (from the left). Here he recounts a lecture given by Ed Moloney in Galway. Maloney wrote A Secret History of the IRA, published last year. The book provides a narrative of the peace process and IRA cease fire at odds with both the IRA version and that of the relevant states. The central argument of the book suggests that Gerry Adams had been involved in negotiations towards a ceasefire with the British as early as 1986, and that those negotiations led to the IRA and Sinn Fein abandoning the central tenets of modern republicanism, (refusal to recognise the northern state, the right of the Irish people as a whole to self determination not subject to loyalist veto, the right of the Irish people to resist occupation under arms, etc).

This piece was published by The Blanket, "a journal of protest and dissent" from the north of Ireland. Read it at the link.

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