November 2006

Veronica Rhodes
Leader-Post
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

An advocate for the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry says the widening gap between the rich and the poor is being recognized by Canadians but not by politicians.

Peter Gilmer said a poll released Monday by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives confirms that Canadian residents in general and Saskatchewan residents in particular are worried the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. But Gilmer said he is concerned that people seem to be ahead of politicians on the issue.

“The question of economic inequality is not really on the political radar even though it is certainly of great concern to the majority of Canadians,” he noted.

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By Jennifer L. Pozner
AlterNet
November 11, 2006

On Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire.

No national newspaper, magazine or network newscast reported this attempted suicide bombing, though an AP wire story was available. Cable news (save for MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann) was silent about this latest act of terrorism in America.

Had the criminal, David McMenemy, been Arab or Muslim, this would have been headline news for weeks. But since his target was the Edgerton Women’s Health Center, rather than, say, a bank or a police station, media have not called this terrorism — even after three decades of extreme violence by anti-abortion fanatics, mostly fundamentalist Christians who believe they’re fighting a holy war.

(more…)

by Sarah Ferguson
Village Voice
November 14th, 2006

The last time I saw independent journalist and activist Brad Will was in September in an East Village yoga studio. I turned my head and found him lying on the mat next to me in the darkened room, his pale, flat stomach rising and falling serenely with the rhythm of his breathing. So on October 27, when I saw the photos posted on the Internet showing the 36-year-old Will’s mortally wounded body laid out on a street in Oaxaca, Mexico, I cringed. There was that same pale, flat stomach now punctured by a bullet.

Around the world, activists and friends who knew Will

By Murray Dobbin
November 13, 2006
TheTyee.ca

For millions of Americans and Canadians, it was a huge sense of relief to see the most corrupt, amoral and incompetent Congress, possibly in American history, go down to defeat. Those days, we can hope, are over, as the political agenda is now in the hands of a Democratic Congress.

For a few weeks, at least, we can enjoy that relief and not dwell on the fact that things may not get a whole lot better. Given the general state of American duh-mocracy (poisoned by money, gerrymandered seats, defective voting machines and dirty tricks), we have to keep our expectations in check. A lot of the new Democrats look a lot like Republicans. We can focus on the fact that for the first time, a woman — and one with smarts and heart — will be the Speaker of the House, and that for the first time, both a socialist, Bernie Saunders, and a Muslim were elected. These are not small things. And Americans — despite being shamelessly lied to by the Republicans and abandoned by their media — came through in the end. They said enough is enough. Bless them.

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Laura Carlsen
International Relations Centre
November 8, 2006

The Oaxacan rebellion is proof that for many people, even physical preservation can become secondary to fighting for a conviction. With only the raw material of their own lives in their hands, they have set out to mold a different future. Although demands today center on the governor’s resignation and fair pay for teachers, the new forms of organization and consciousness created will endure long after this movement and become the seeds of future movements.

In regional lore, Oaxacans have a reputation for being like the tlacuache. A recurring figure in Mexican mythology, the tlacuache plays dead when cornered. But woe to the enemy who thinks the battle is over. The small but fierce creature merely awaits a more propitious moment to fight back.

The Oaxacan protest movement burns slow, but deep. Read the rest of this entry »

Marines Get the News From an Iraqi Host: Rumsfeld

By Chris Floyd

11/07/06 “Information Clearing House” — – Ortega back in power, early poll results show

From the Guardian: The Sandinista leader and former Marxist revolutionary Daniel Ortega appeared to have mounted a spectacular political comeback last night after preliminary results showed he had won Nicaragua’s presidential election in the first round. Mr Ortega led by a margin which seemed wide enough to avoid a run-off and to deliver a stinging rebuke to Washington, which had openly campaigned against him…Roberto Rivas, the head of Nicaragua’s top electoral body, said the vote was clean and transparent. An army of 17,000 observers, including the former US president Jimmy Carter and EU officials, was expected largely to endorse that view.

Ortega ran and won with the backing of several prominent ex-Contras, including Jamie Morales, his own running mate. Morales had been the Contras’ spokesman in Washington during the Reagan years when, with the direct involvement of VP George Bush, the Administration joined hands with the mullahs of Iran and the druglords of Central and South America to fund, arm and train a terrorist army to overthrow the Sandinista government. Although this exercise in mass state terrorism failed on the battlefield, the Reagan-Bush policy of economic terror managed to reduce Nicaragua to dire poverty, with the open threat that the stranglehold would go on until the Sandinistas were gone.

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By MURRAY CAMPBELL
The Globe and Mail
Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Dalton McGuinty wants to join the club started by Gordon Campbell and Ralph Klein, but if he’s smart he will look closely at the membership rules first.

The Ontario Premier has been waxing enthusiastic about the free-trade agreement signed this year by British Columbia and Alberta. “I think it’s a step in the right direction for us to move toward ultimately a state where there is free trade actually within this country,” he said recently.

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This month, the Dominion takes a hard look at
Canada’s foreign policy. Check it out, and consider
ordering some bulk copies to distribute in your
area.