Wednesday is cartoon day!
Courtesy of Ampersand:
Uncategorized
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Top Stories Wednesday 13 Nov
Lean Left looks at the dangers of socalled free trade pacts which
give multinationals the power to sue governments in their own secret tribunals:
This is a direct challenge to the entire concept of democracy. If your city decides that it wont do business with companies that use poisons in their products, or do business with China, or use slave labor, under the terms of NAFTA and the proposed terms of FTAA, that company could – in secret proceedings – demand money for their “loss”. A secret court becomes more important than the democratic process, and people now have no means to protect themselves from unscrupulous corporations.
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Seeing the Forest is justifiably angry
about the Democratic Party’s betrayal of the unions:
Two Senate Dems sold out the unions. Democrats John Breaux of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted with Bush.
Daschle added to the betrayal, “Though Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat opposed to the department, may try to wage a filibuster against it, Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle has said he would oppose any such delay.” What? The REPUBLICANS filibustered this bill for months AND IT DIDN’T COST THEM A THING IN THE ELECTION! In fact, their tactics energized their base, and their base turned out to vote! Now it’s the Democrats’ opportunity to stand up for workers, and what does Daschle say? I take back what I said defending Daschle. DUMP HIM!
RC3 Daily on ground level politics and doing your share to improve the world:
So, I was reading Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s blog entry the other day about ground level politics and it got me to thinking about something that’s been bugging me since election night. The thing that bugs me is that despite the fact that I cast my lot in the marketplace of ideas here every day, I really don’t do all that much to change this country or this world to be the place that I want it to be. For example, my next door neighbors are three guaranteed Democratic votes. They don’t know a whole lot about US politics, but they hate George W Bush with extreme passion. Unfortunately, they never registered to vote and so they didn’t get to cast their ballots on election night. Had I gotten off my duff back in October (the registration deadline was Oct 11) and gotten them voter registration cards, and then taken them to vote on election day, that would have been three more votes for our losing Democratic Senate candidate. The guy lost by about 200,000 votes — if 1/5 of the Democrats who voted could have found one other person to drag to the polls, he would have won. I could have picked up three without even trying very hard, and they have a lot of friends who probably didn’t vote either. It’s something to remember in 2004.
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New to the Left
Each day I list the blogs new to the linklist. Want to be added? Use the form, Luke. Entry does not guarantee winning. No purchase necessary. Offer void where prohibited. You must either be a fiery liberal spirit or be in
the vanguard of the workers revolution to participate. At a pinch we’ll take dedicated left anarchists and the like as well. No wishy washy centrists need apply. The decision of the judges is final.
By Rafe Colburn. Thoughtful, factual, calm.
Jason writes because his brain is filled with lots of screwed up stuff that
he tends not to say out loud. According to him
anyway.
By science fiction writer, technogeek and old style UK liberal Charlie Stross.
commentary on and song parodies about politics, current events, books, music,
and anything else that inspires her admiration or ire.
Sunny thoughts from sunny Orange County. By Kevin Drum.
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Top Stories Tuesday 12 Nov
Daily Kos thinks of California as the Democrats’ Fortress of Solitude,
several people disagree in the comments:
The Democrats took the governorship despite having one of the most ethically challenged governors in the nation. They also took every single statewide office and the state’s new congressional district. Democrats dominate the state’s Congressional delegation 33-20, have both Senators, and control the state legislature by wide margins.
And how did they do it? Not by coddling President Bush or running to the right. But by pushing a solid progressive agenda.
Nathan Newman considers the implications
of the campaign strategy used to save bilingual education in Colorado:
Instead of merely playing defense with appeals to the good faith of anglo voters, the No side stooped to hitting their fears.
This is a tough story for progressives to ponder, where even I as an arch-pragmatist don’t like all the implications.
But the core strategic insight is more positively that many of the bad policies targetted at the poor and people of color also potentially disrupt the lives of the white majority in most states. And when you want to win and have limited resources in a campaign, targetting the fears of that white majority may be more effective than appealing to their better nature, at least when it comes to the simplicity of message allowed in advertising wars.