Once in a Lifetime

Ellison: US Must 'Get on the Right Side' of Middle East Democracy Wave

Congressman Keith Ellison (DFL-MN) is one of the few elected officials to clearly and consistently stand up for the princple of democracy in the Middle East.  From The Nation: 

President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have been at times embarrassingly cautious in the remarks regarding the Egyptian street protests that may yet topple Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak—one of the more unsavory of the US government's many unsavory clients—while Vice President Biden has actually gone around claiming that Mubarak is not a dictator.

Congressional leaders on both sides of the partisan aisle have not been much better.

But Ellison—who because of his "first Muslim in Congress" status is a better-known figure on the international stage than in the US—has emerged as an unblinking champion of the best of America's historic ideals: democracy, self-determination and freedom.

His messages in official statements, interviews and Twitter have been consistent and clear. The message is summed up by a tweet the congressman sent: " Ppl of Egypt DESERVE freedom; I stand w/ them."

After Mubarak's forces arrested Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize–winning former head of the United Nations' nuclear monitoring agency, was detained, Ellison urged Americans to tell President Obama to put more pressure on the Egyptian leader. "Let's do something," Ellison tweeted. “10k ltrs [letters] to WH urging pressure on Egyptian govt to release of M. El-Baradei, stop violence against protestors. C'mon!"

Ellison's message, for domestic and international consumption, boils down to an argument that the Mubarak government should accept calls for reform and democracy, and just as importantly that the United States government should signal its strong support for protests against authoritarian regimes—rather than shoring them up.

"The Middle East would be a much more powerful and dynamic place if there were less authoritarian regimes, and historically the U.S. has supported all of them,” argues Ellison. “We’re always on the side of 'stability' rather than justice. So let’s get on the right side this time.”

Minneapolis should be proud of Keith Ellison, who is one of the best members of Congress in my view, and as the newly elected Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives hopefully the volume of his megaphone will increase in this new Congress.

The Youth

What's next?

• Thousands of people took to the streets in Jordan today.  Protesters are demanding that Samir Rifa, the Prime Minister of Jordan, step down.  Protesters also are demanding the government curb food prices, unemployment and inflation.
• Protests continue to build in Yemen.
• The King of Saudi Arabia, a US ally, and one of the most human rights violating states in the world according to Amnesty International, condemned the protests in Egypt and elsewhere.  Saudi Arabian political leaders have expressed growing concern protests could start in Saudi Arabia as well.
• Here's a song by a Tunisian rapper who helped overthrow the Tunisian government.
• Follow the developing events in Egypt.
• Rich Fulcher, of Bob Fossil fame, talks to Craig Ferguson about some simple ways to fight the man.  George Carlin had a few more.
• Wikileaks Co-Founder Julian Assange to appear on 60 Minutes tomorrow night.  Will it be a hit piece or a fair shake?  

Revolution in Egypt

Wikileaks is releasing more Egyptian cables--> follow here.

Internet and Mobile Phone access is down in Egypt.

Numerous protesters have been killed.

Pro-Democracy leader detained.

Reports of some police now taking the side of protesters.

Vice President Joe Biden calls Julian Assange "a terrorist" and says US backed dictator Mubarak should not step down.  Assange to be on 60 Minutes Sunday.

Follow the events throughout the day here.

Watch events happening here.

What the Revolutions Mean to America

The information provided by the publication of leaked diplomatic cables, classified war logs, corporate memos, transcripts of leaders backroom meetings, and the rest by Wikileaks and others have largely backed up the Chomsky view of the world. Put simplistically, the biggest obstacle to promoting a more fair and just world, at the present moment, is the United States of America.

Taking a wide angle view of what these documents reveal is really what many already knew. Some of the world’s most oppressive, human rights violating states are being supported and in some cases totally propped up by the United States. Democracy for the world is not in the best economic interest of the United States, or at least for a certain economic class in the United States. Therefore our leaders, both political and corporate (if there is any need to make a distinction), over many years have invested a lot of resources (i.e. your tax dollars) to keep dictators in power. Why would our leaders want dictators instead of truly representative government? Capitalism is all about maximizing profit. It’s much easier for ExxonMobil, for example, to not only gain access to, but receive the most profit possible, from the natural resources they exploit from poorer nations, when leaders of those poorer nations are corrupt.

The United States was not founded as a capitalist state. There is no mention of capitalism in our Declaration of Independence or our Constitution. The most farsighted of our nation’s forebears dreamed America would one day become a beacon in the world for the principles of liberty, equal opportunity, and democratic government. We have strayed from those ideals.

Capitalism, at least the style of capitalism that currently dominates our society and culture, is not compatible to the concept of democracy. Democracy is about giving equal weight, equal voice to every citizen. Capitalism is about trying to take as much as you can for yourself. We as a nation, and as individuals, must decide what our nation should be and should become. Should we stand for democratic government? Should we stand for human rights? Against genocide? Should we stand for liberty and equal opportunity? Or should we abandon and/or forget those lofty ideals? Should we now conclude our experiment of having a country based on rights, freedoms and principles, as opposed to blind loyalty to a King, a failure?

I’ll end this rant with a quote from the end of an old speech by the late United States Senator from Minnesota, Paul Wellstone:

Can I conclude on this personal note? As I get older I learn more. When our first child was born, I was only twenty years old. Now we have three grandkids now and our oldest has just turned eight. When she was a baby, I held her in my hands and I thought to myself "I know what I believe in." What I believe is that whatever infant I hold in my hands - it doesn't matter the color of skin, doesn't matter rich or poor, doesn't matter religion, doesn't matter boy or girl, doesn't matter urban or rural - every child in our country, the greatest country in the world, should have the same opportunity to develop her full potential, and his full potential. That is the American dream, that is the goodness of our country, that is what unites and binds and ties all of us together as Americans, and that is the principle of economic justice. That is why I come here as a United States Senator to honor your hard work and to tell you that we have our work cut out for us.

Reminds me of a great speech given by Wendell Phillips, an abolitionist in the 1840s. You might remember from your history that both political parties then were worried about taking on slavery, because it would create uncomfortable cleavages in each party. But not Wendell, he would not equivocate. He was speaking at this gathering and he said, "slavery is a moral outrage, it should be abolished." That Wendell Phillips, he wouldn't give an inch. And he finished speaking and a friend came up to him and said "Wendell, why are you so on fire?" My favorite quote. Wendell came up to his friend and said "Brother May, I'm on fire because I have mountains of ice before me to melt." We have mountains of ice before us to melt and we will do it in the spirit of solidarity. Thank you brothers and sisters.

Egypt

Yesterday protests broke out across all of Egypt. Protesters have three demands-

One: Raising the minimum wage to 1,200 EGP and providing subventions to the unemployed.

Two: Ending the State of Emergency which has been caused a long paralysis to the Egyptian civil and political life for more than three decades, and releasing all the detainees who are prisoned with no definite charges.

Three: Dissolution of the People’s Assembly of Egypt, the Egyptian Parliament, and changing the constitution to limit the presidential terms to two only.

Some highlights of the day's events, from the Guardian's live blog of the protests:

• Massive numbers of anti-government protesters have clashed with police in Cairo and other cities in the largest demonstration in Egypt in a generation. Demonstrators want an end to the authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak's near 30 years of power.
• Waves of protesters filled Cairo's central Tahrir Square, vowing to remain in place until the government fell, however police used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the area at around 1am. Protesters fled to side streets and bridges across the river Nile, some pledging to continue protesting on Wednesday.
• The Egyptian government has reportedly blocked Twitter – which protester used to coordinate movements – and shut down mobile phone and internet networks.
• US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Mubarak's government is stable despite the demonstrations. Mubarak is an important US partner in the Middle East.
• As night falls in Egypt protests have also broken out in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria. Roads are also being blocked by demonstrators in the Sinai Peninsula, and large rallies are being reported across the Nile Delta and the Suez Canal region.
• Gamal Mubarak, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's son who was to be his successor, has reportedly fled to London with his family.

Videos:

The State of the Union

I know very little about politics. That's Justin's domain. That being said, here are my thoughts during Applause-fest 2011, also known as the State of the Union.

Boehner looks uncomfortable back there. He looks like he's thinking: "How long is this thing going to last? Man, I want to get out of here."

"No workers are more productive than ours... we're the home to the world's best universities..." I have a hard time believing this is true. But sure, we're #1! We're #1!

Obama's talking about the space race. What is our moon? The moon! We're going there again, baby! Woo! I'd like to see Osama do that!

"We need to eliminate the billions of dollars we give to oil companies." Well, that didn't get a very warm round of applause. Shocker.

"Become a teacher. Your country needs you!" I'm sick of this bullshit. How come nobody says that about engineers, huh? We're just as important as teachers or doctors or whatever. I demand respect, damn it!

"America's the nation that built the trans-continental railway!" [Cut to shot of chinaman].

I kind of like this mixing up the democrats and republicans idea. The problem is that it's really obvious who the democrats are because they're the only ones standing up.

On reorganizing the government: "I will submit a bill to congress and work to get it passed" (or something like that). Boehner's reaction: "Good luck getting that passed, asshole."

Ok, it's over now. Hope you kids out there enjoyed it. Just remember, talk is cheap. Let's see some action.

Pat is crazy.

Good Night and Good Luck

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Palestine Papers

Whoa. Breaking: Another massive leak, this time not coming from WikiLeaks, but rather the Guardian UK and Al Jazerra. Essentially, the documents show the Middle East Peace process is a sham.

From the Guardian:

The biggest leak of confidential documents in the history of the Middle East conflict has revealed that Palestinian negotiators secretly agreed to accept Israel's annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in occupied East Jerusalem. This unprecedented proposal was one of a string of concessions that will cause shockwaves among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world.

A cache of thousands of pages of confidential Palestinian records covering more than a decade of negotiations with Israel and the US has been obtained by al-Jazeera TV and shared exclusively with the Guardian. The papers provide an extraordinary and vivid insight into the disintegration of the 20-year peace process, which is now regarded as all but dead.

The documents – many of which will be published by the Guardian over the coming days – also reveal:

• The scale of confidential concessions offered by Palestinian negotiators, including on the highly sensitive issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.

• How Israeli leaders privately asked for some Arab citizens to be transferred to a new Palestinian state.

• The intimate level of covert co-operation between Israeli security forces and the Palestinian Authority.

• The central role of British intelligence in drawing up a secret plan to crush Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

• How Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders were privately tipped off about Israel's 2008-9 war in Gaza.

The world is on fire.

Unrest in Yemen

In response to the uprising in Tunisia, mass protests broke out yesterday in Yemen.  Protesters are demanding the removal of dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for the past 32 years.

In other news:

• In Albania, police clashed with over 20,000 protesters, leaving 3 dead and 55 injured.  Tensions have been rising in Albania over the exposure of government corruption.
• The FCC and the Justice Department have approved Comcast's takeover of NBC/Universal, a move further concentrating media in the United States.  Senator Al Franken was one of only a few elected officials who really tried to stop the merger.  Franken on the merger: 

With approval of this merger, the FCC has given a single media conglomerate unprecedented control over the flow of information in America.  This will ultimately mean higher cable and Internet bills, fewer independent voices in the media, and less freedom of choice for all American consumers. And it will leave Minnesotans at the mercy of a shrinking number of very powerful media conglomerates.  We count on competition in this country to keep corporations in check, and we have designed antitrust laws to ensure that companies do not become too big or too powerful. I fear this is only the first domino in a cascade to come. By approving this merger, the FCC may have just given a green light to AT&T and Verizon to pursue similar mergers with ABC/Disney or CBS/Viacom. But, this does not mean the fight is over. A growing number of Americans stand behind me ready to fight any further media consolidation of this kind.

• In an "unrelated" note, NBC has made a financial settlement with Keith Olbermann ending his program on MSNBC.  Olbermann had grown increasingly upset with executives interference with his show and there are rumors Olbermann may try to start a new media program on the Internet.  Countdown with Keith Olbermann was the highest and most profitable program on MSNBC.  Ironically, Olbermann replaced Phil Donahue in 2002, who at the time also had the highest rated program on MSNBC.  A leaked NBC memo from 2002 stated Donahue was fired for being too questioning of a possible war in Iraq.  Executives felt it would not make good business sense for General Electric (which in addition to owning NBC and making microwaves, is a defense contractor) to give a platform to an anti-war voice.
• If Sarah Palin visits Australia she may face prosecution for inciting violence.  Palin, and a number of other high profile politicians, have called for violence against journalists, including for the assassination of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange.   
• More on the Swiss Bank leak: 
  Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Assange slams whistle-blower's arrest.

Update

Here's a rundown of the latest news concerning WikiLeaks:

• In what some are describing as the first WikiLeaks revolution, the dictator of Tunisia has been overthrown. Diplomatic cables, released by WikiLeaks, described widespread corruption and political oppression in Tunisia which helped spark widespread protests and riots throughout the country. Today's Democracy Now! devoted it's entire show to the Tunisian uprising.

• Libyan Dictator Moammar Gaddaffi blamed WikiLeaks for the revolt in Tunisia and stated his worry unrest will spread throughout the Arab world. Keep an eye on Egypt, the democracy movement could hit there next.

• Yesterday a former prominent Swiss banker, turned whistle-blower, turned over to WikiLeaks the banking information of 2,000 of the world's richest individuals and companies. It is alleged the information provided in this leak shows these individuals and companies engaged in tax evasion and other criminal behavior. WikiLeaks will analyze the documents and release the information in a few months.

• WikiLeaks will be partnering with Novaya Gazeta, a Russian weekly newspaper run by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. WikiLeaks has stated it has information showing massive corruption being committed by the Russian state. Russia has been cracking down even more in the past few months on the limited press freedom that exists in that country.

• The Los Angeles Times blasts the "inhumane" and "indefensible" treatment of U.S. soldier Bradley Manning, the person alleged to have leaked the war logs and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.  The United Nations is currently investigating the United States for committing torture against Manning.  Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com has more.

• WikiLeaks has stated it's next "megaleak" will concern a major American bank. It is believed that bank is Bank of America. There is some speculation this leak will show BoA is being kept alive only through accounting tricks and ongoing government subsidies.

• Thus far WikiLeaks and their media partners have only released roughly 2.3% of the U.S. diplomatic cables.

Greetings from Big Sky Country!

Laser Graffiti

h/t Boing Boing:

Downtown LA BLU MOCA Whitewash Protest // 01.03.2011 from jesse trott on Vimeo.

Bat Chain Puller

Banned TV commercial for Captain Beefheart album..

Game 8: That's Warrior Hockey

First off I extend a large thank you to Justin for providing this small corner of the world with insight to global revolutions and the concern thereof.

Taking the reins for this Warrior hockey game review will be myself as I have recently learned how to create a Google* account from my previous blogger account from the early days of PIC.

*When I typed google the red spell-check underline came up, after changing it to Google it was noted as correct. I'm just glad someone was looking out for me otherwise I would have looked like a doofus.)

With Steven at our NHL affiliate in San Jose for the week and John playing cards at a casino or something, there were 2 gaping holes on the HUG line for the game against the Jets. I was left to stick it out centering (you read that right) a line with Shu and Jeff on my wings, which ended much better than I expected (but still below 50% face-off percentage.).

The Warriors came out quick and jumped on the Jets just 20 seconds into the game, and that just about wraps up the positives for the team in white for the game. About a minute later the Jets put a goal in and the bleeding could not be stopped. All things considered the game was played a lot closer than the 8-1 final score, but it simply was not meant to be for the Warriors.

So as I dig for more positives to report on from the game, they would seem to be negatives in most other efforts but it is worth reporting that in this game:

* My line was on the ice for only one of the Jets goals for a staggering team lead of a -1 +/-

* In the faceoff circle, I totally won at least 4 draws, 1 cleanly, and almost broke an opponents stick on a faceoff, which can be summed up as minor success at least. This was after the referee was basically coaching me on how to take a draw for the first 2 faceoffs I took. After the third one it was actually at the point where he said "that's better 21" in note of my efforts.

* That's about all, hopefully we'll see you next Tuesday as we take on the Roadrunners.

The Most Powerful Woman in the World

Brazil has a new President:



2011: the Year of Change.

Do you want to know a secret?

Free Mind = Free People



The people will be free.

______________________________________________________________________________

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Stay informed, some credible news sources:

Guardian UK
Democracy Now!
Der Spiegel
Le Monde (This is in French, but Google allows you to easily translate)