Two more now confirmed war crimes to add to Bush’s tally via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
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McCain tries to bash Obama, ends up looking like a fool via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
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The U.S. embargo against Cuba was never about ‘democracy’ via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
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Bush names terrorist sympathizer as new ambassador to Nicaragua via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
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Is Harper trying for a record? 3 instances of hypocrisy in 3 weeks. via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
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Tariq Ali on Chavez, Venezuela and the struggle against neoliberalism (audio) via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
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Naomi Wolf on the end of America and the rise of fascism (audio) via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
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Left-wing podcasting is here via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
Paulitics: Paul’s Socialist Podcast
You can now click on the sidebar to be taken to the new official podcast companion to the Paulitics: Paul’s Socialist Investigations blog.
The podcast is devoted to presenting unique discussions, debates, news commentary and academic lectures to the public from a broadly left-wing or socialist perspective. Occasionally podcasts will be hosted by myself and my lovely co-host (AKA girlfriend) Kimberlee. At other times, the podcasts will feature academic or activist speeches or talks on a variety of subjects ranging from resisting the U.S. Empire to capitalism to media propaganda to philosophy to socialism and to many, many, other topics. Notable featured figures that I’ve already lined up include Noam Chomsky, Alex Callinicos,... Kettle calls the teapot black: Bush calls Cuba “criminal” via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
Yesterday, U.S. President George W. Bush took Orwellian audacity to a new level by calling the Cuban government “criminal.”
In a speech, Bush stated that “America will have no part in giving oxygen to a criminal regime victimizing its own people…. The operative word in our future dealings with Cuba is not ’stability’. The operative word is ‘freedom’.” (source)
To the surprise of no one, the fact that this statement was akin to the kettle calling the teapot black was lost on the members of both the United States and the Canadian press.
So, just to re-cap:
U.S.: One of the few countries left in the world which still executes children. Moreover, “The country which has carried out more documented executions of child... Propaganda in Action: Government-Fed News in the Turkey/Iraq Crisis via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
Is it state-sponsored propaganda yet?
I was reading up on the recent offensive Turkish incursion into Iraq in the New York Times (here) and at first I didn’t notice too much out of the ordinary (other than, of course, that the Turkish government is portrayed as angels having done nothing themselves). But, as an interesting exercise, then I decided to look at the sourcing that the putatively ‘liberal’ New York Time newspaper — the publication ‘of record’ — used to file this story. Needless to say, if you are interested in looking, you’ll find that, if this is the situation in the supposedly ‘best’ publication in the U.S., the situation is much the same, if not worse, in most other ‘lesser’ publications.
What’s...
Che Guevara: Cuban revolutionary or puppy-eating serial murderer? via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
Okay, here’s a fun little intellectual exercise to try out:
Let’s see if we can spot the irrational, blinded-by-ideology individual amongst these two writers using only a writing sample from each on a similar topic.
Keep in mind, that some characteristics of irrational people are that they tend to:
1) Be incapable of using even-headed arguments without resorting to ad hominem attacks.
2) Unable to give an account of their opponent’s behaviour without using over-simplification or straw-men.
3) View those they disagree with as inherently evil, often attributing sadistic and/or even satanistic motivations to their opponent’s actions.
4) Ignore evidence which suggests that the subject of their attack is not the embodiment of pure evil seeking to destroy all of...
Peace is overrated via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
I just came back from a talk given by a fairly standard, run-of-the-mill civil servant who’s specialization is the new, over-hyped field of ‘conflict management’. In the two hours I spend there, I think I must have heard the word ’peace’ used so much that it lost all meaning. This got me thinking about how obsessed liberals are with ‘peace’ as some sort of idealized pancea that ought to be sought above all else.
Surely, if we think about it critically, we can realize that, while nobody obviously wants conflict, peace, in and of itself is not necessarily a good thing if it serves to merely solidify other exisiting horrific social conditions.
For instance, one could easily take this current liberal obsession with ‘peace’ and do... What should Paul do? via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
Help, I need my readers’ advice.
As my regular readers will know, I’ve been contemplating expanding Paulitics: Paul’s Socialist Investigations now for some time.
I’ve been wanting to develop an American Empire Encyclopedia – possibly as a wiki, but at the very least with a clickable map containing links to academic scholarship documenting the democratically-elected governments the U.S. has overthrown throughout history and the brutal dictatorships they’ve supported.
I’ve also been wanting to develop a home for far left bloggers to put their feeds all in one place and read what each other thinks. I figure if libertarians, Liberals, Tories, and New Democrats each have one, there’s no reason why can’t we anarchists, Marxists...
Proof of Big Brother tactics at SPP protest (pics + vid) via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
It was easy to miss, but here are three examples of Big Brother tactics at the SPP protests this week in Quebec. One of which is your standard George W. Bush doublethink, the second of which gives some interesting circumstantial evidence of government conspiracy to crack down on protesters (and has become an internet sensation), and the third of which proves the culpability of the government and police but which hasn’t been reported anywhere that I am aware of.
#1. As many of you know, the leaders of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico (”The Three Amigos”) met yesterday and the day before to negotiate a backroom, undemocratic deal to harmonize regulations at the behest of North America’s CEOs.
This summit took place, behind closed doors and meetings were carefully... The difference between who pays for war and who dies [pic] via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
I recently came across these two maps of the world which pretty much demonstrate much of what’s wrong with the world (original source).
These maps try to show what the world would look like if maps were drawn based on something other than geographic mass.
As you can see, there is a complete disjunction between who pays for war and who gets to die for war.
Map: Military spending per country – 2002 (BEFORE the Iraq War!)
Surprise, surprise, the U.S. takes up approximately 45% of the world’s landmass with everyone else — by far and away comprised mostly of Europe – together making up the remainder.
But when we shift over to see who actually receives the crappy end of this equation, we see more or less the same countries who either are currently or have... Conspiracy theories, a North American Union, and other B.S. via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
My mother enjoys torturing me by e-mailing me the incoherent rants of right-wing malcontents from time to time. I suppose it’s part of a game she plays with me which I claim to hate but actually in reality secretly don’t mind. But I guess, on the other hand it could also be because maybe she believes that angering up the blood and having your face turn red with frustration periodically is somehow therapeutic.
Either way, she stumbled across this gem of a video and decided that I should have to share in her pain and so she passed it along to me today. (And I’m in an apparently sadistic mood today and thus feel that you, my reader, should also suffer along with me as well… it’s a vicious cycle, it really is.)
(The original link to the video was...
The kiss of death for Ron Paul’s Presidential run via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
Those of you who know me are aware that I’m no fan of Ron Paul’s parochial brand of right-wing libertarianism. However, to be fair, there was a time when what he had to say on foreign policy issues really spoke to much of the issues which matter to me.
Now, obviously, as a socialist, it’s never been exceptionally important to me that a candidate be the most popular candidate in a given race.
So, given that, I didn’t really consider it a strike against the candidate that his supporters had deluded themselves into thinking that their own spam was evidence of a widespread, grassroots movement despite the fact that polls show Ron Paul within the margin of error of having zero support at all.
But afterwards, I started to suspect that Ron Paul didn’t have... The American Empire Encyclopedia (work-in-progress) via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
For some time now, I’ve been extremely interested creating something of an encyclopedia documenting all instances of the United States’ imperial adventures. Specifically, I’ve been interested in countries in which the U.S. either overthrew a democratically-elected government, or countries in which the U.S. helped to keep an existing brutal dictatorship in power despite democratic opposition.
That the U.S. regularly overthrows democratically-elected governments should come as no real surprise to most people who are literate and somewhat familiar at all with global history. However, in all my searching, I have never found a single exhaustive source which compiled all instances of U.S. imperialism along with proper academic citations for future reference, so I have... How to appear tough on terrorism without doing anything via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
In a move to appear ‘tough on terrorism’, the Democrats in the U.S. Senate have successfully moved a bill to double the bounty on bin Laden’s head from $25 million to $50 million.
Sounds tough doesn’t it?
I mean, wow, $50 million!
The Democrats must be tough on terrorism since they proposed such a bold strategy to bring bin Laden to his knees. The Republicans couldn’t even come up with the testicular fortitude to double his bounty. Right?
Actually, if you put it into perspective, this move by the Democrats is more evidence that they are just as completely ignorant as Republicans and equally as unable to see past their pax americana ideology long enough to offer up any intelligent solutions.
So, to put this into perspective (and, incidentally,... The myth of humanity as naturally violent via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
Howard Zinn debunks the myth that it is human nature to be aggressive, kill and initiate wars.
This short answer wouldn’t be even half as powerful if Zinn himself hadn’t been a participant in WWII and had come to the hard conclusion on his own that even the putative ‘good war’ was less than good and his part in it, was less than heroic.... Megalomania and the problem with U.S. politics via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
No amount of writing or blog posting could be able to better prove the point that the elite-centred cult of personality which is the American political system corrupts than this quote.
This quote is from current New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg after announcing that he is leaving the U.S. Republican Party.
“I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead my city.” (source)
That’s right folks: “my” city.
The city belongs to him.
He owns it.
The irony is that some U.S. Democrats will probably jump on this quote as evidence that their Republican counterparts are just so full of themselves that they lead themselves to belive things like this.
But the fact of the matter is the Bloomberg has been a Democrat...
Top 13 dumbest comments on the Iraq War ever… and other awards via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
As most of you will probably be aware, I made a post last week comparing the U.S. to Al Qaeda which generated nearly 450 comments and 14,000 hits.
However, the bulk of these comments were spread out over this blog, facebook, reddit.com and digg.com. So, since I just finally got aroud to reading all of the comments now (my girlfriend and I have been apartment hunting together, so I haven’t had time to blog lately), I figured I’d have some fun and take all of the comments from all websites and come up with a series of awards for the comments generated by this post.
I’m calling it the Paulies and the categories are: Dumbest comment. Best comment. The greatest one-post response to a previous comment and, lastly, the greatest overall exchange.
Much like the Oscars,...
Top 13 dumbest comments on the Iraq War ever… and other awards via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
As most of you will probably be aware, I made a post last week comparing the U.S. to Al Qaeda which generated nearly 450 comments and 14,000 hits.
However, the bulk of these comments were spread out over this blog, facebook, reddit.com and digg.com. So, since I just finally got aroud to reading all of the comments now (my girlfriend and I have been apartment hunting together, so I haven’t had time to blog lately), I figured I’d have some fun and take all of the comments from all websites and come up with a series of awards for the comments generated by this post.
I’m calling it the Paulies and the categories are: Dumbest comment. Best comment. The greatest one-post response to a previous comment and, lastly, the greatest overall exchange.
Much like the Oscars,...
Reality Check: What you’re not supposed to think about via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
“655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?”
-Rosie O’Donnell from The View comparing U.S. activities with Islamic terrorism
Since Rosie O’Donnell has recently “got quit” from her job on The View (or rather, had her pre-existing plans for departure greatly accelerated) because of uttering this sentence, it is worth taking a second to explore the voracity of Rosie’s statement.
If we take the total confirmed attacks by Al Queda against the West (broadly understood) we have 5 acts of terrorism in total. The 1993 WTC Bombing which killed 6. The 2000 bombing of the U.S.S. Cole which killed 17. The September 11th attacks which killed 2974. The 2004 Madrid bombings which killed 191. And, lastly, the 2005 bombings in London, England... Who’s afraid of human rights? Conservatives apparently via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
I recently came across Sam Carson fantastic posts (available here) on the 2007 Amnesty International Report (available here). If you haven’t taken a look, it’s well worth the read.
In his post (actually it’s a series of posts) Sam draws attention to the sad cricism of Amnesty International by right-wing figures and organizations such as Alan Dershowitz, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the U.S.-based Capital Research Center.
I’ve always found Dershowitz et al’s claims that Amnesty International is biassed to be disingenuous at best and I think Sam’s done a great job bringing this issue to the fore.
Specifically, the intellectually dishonest position of Dershowitz et al needs to have a better airing amongst true progressives so that the absurdity...
The crime against humanity that is Afghanistan via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
I have a confession to make which may shock many of my readers and even some of my close personal friends.
Many people do things in the hastiness of youth which later goes on to serve as a deep embarrassment for them.
Some get tattoos.
Some experiment with drugs.
I once took out a membership in the old Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
But, allow me to explain. I met two-time PC Party leadership Candidate David Orchard on a couple of occasions and even had lunch with him and his long-time friend and advisor Maraleena Repo a few years back during one of his Ottawa trips.
I joined the PC Party (the only party of which I have ever been a member) due in large part to the principled policy positions of Orchard on NAFTA, U.S. foreign policy, Canadian foreign policy and his impressive...
Movie Review: “Bobby” via Paulitics: Paul's Socialist Investigations
The new-to-DVD Emilio Estevez picture “Bobby” is a fictional re-telling of approximately 25 characters surrounding the early June assassination of Democratic Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
From the get-go, I had high hopes for this picture.
Among the reasons for my high hopes were, firstly, the highly pertinent character of the Vietnam-era when compared with the current era. Secondly, there was the depth of casting which was, at times, almost comical in terms of the sheer number of celebrities taking part in the ensemble cast.
William H. Macy.
Christian Slater.
Martin Sheen.
Helen Hunt.
Laurence Fishburne.
Anthony Hopkins.
Demi Moore.
Sharon Stone.
And just when you think you’ve seen the last celebrity appearance, you’re confronted with a...