Bill Maher-- Middle Eastern Fashion Show

Scahill on the Rachel Maddow Show: "The War is in Pakistan"

We've known for a long time that Blackwater has basically been functioning as an appendage of the US military, but Erik Prince (its owner) has never been so publicly forthright in discussing it as he recently was with Vanity Fair. Here, Blackwater buff Jeremy Scahill puts it in perspective for us.

It: "Kiss Me, Fatboy!"

Come and get It!

The Murder of Fred Hampton

40 years ago today, Chicago police and F.B.I agents shot and killed 21-year old chairman of the Black Panther party, Fred Hampton. Also killed was Black Panther, Mark Clark. For a more in depth look at this story, I would suggest the documentary, "The Murder of Fred Hampton."

2BG2FAIL License Plate

Holy Jew-jumping Christ! This is the License plate on the Porsche of Morgan Stanley Vice-Chairman , Rob Kindler . Am I supposed to laugh, cry, or slash his tires?

Protesting the WTO: PDX & Beyond

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the famous Seattle protests, which succeeded in temporarily shutting down World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. The implications of its success were considerable, but I mention it now primarily for irony's sake. For on December 5th there will be nation-wide protests against the policies of the WTO in remembrance of the Battle of Seattle. One of the larger gatherings has been put together in Portland by an organization called D5. Okay...so far, so good.

Now let's take a look at the itinerary:
12pm- Meet under the Hawthorne Bridge
1pm- March to the World Trade Center
2pm- Indoor Rally and Concert at Portland State Univers-

--wait, what!? An indoor concert at PSU? Why would we want to cut our own protest short by having a concert inside a building 10 blocks away from the World Trade Center? What a half-ass attempt at activism. I wonder if we think listening to certain music will directly change the world, or if we've simply given up.

Another thing that makes me wonder is the D5 website. They advertise the after-party to be held at a local bar: "Celebrate the day's successes and the 10-year anniversary of the Seattle protests..." They're obviously optimists if they've planned their own victory party ahead of time. If you set your standards low enough, it's easy to be successful. I'd rather celebrate the Seattle protests by emulating them, not by going to a pseudo-protest--whose aim is to be "family-friendly"--so as to purge myself of any pending guilt.

The suits don't feel bad for us. They don't feel guilty about sending our jobs to other countries, and they probably don't think twice about taking advantage of the impoverished. If protests go as planned on December 5th (at least in Portland), we won't be any closer preventing the monstrous actions of the WTO, and we won't be any closer to saving our jobs.

I don't mean to keep belittling the peace movement. They're good people. I'm really impressed with the exhaustive list of groups and organizations that endorse D5, and it's obvious that a ton of work has been put into this event. But the more impressed I am by this, the more disappointed I become when I remember how the time and energy will essentially be wasted due to a lack of specificity and valor.

We're basically going to wave our signs around for a while, catch a show, and then get drunk. It sounds like a perfect day to me, but I don't a perfect day. I want a day of convictive resistance that brings us closer to job security and symbiotic international trade. I want a day that's as peacefully and effectively disruptive as those three days were in Seattle in 1999.

However, I'm still gonna to go, and I encourage others to as well. If nothing else, it'll be informative and sociable, and it can't be any more dull than the anti-war rallies that went down early in the week. Check back with me to find out how it went. I hope I'm surprised.

Ron Paul Speaks Out About the Fed

PDX Protests Afghan War

I was initially disappointed when I got to the anti-war rally in downtown Portland yesterday. A three mile walk got me to the deflated intersection of Madison and SW 3rd, where a small crowd of lackadaisical protesters held up signs in opposition to the Afghan war. People were lounging around and chatting amongst themselves, letting their signs do all the work. In short, it was the most lifeless political rally I've ever been to.

Evident was the toll of our lengthy "War on Terror." Lately it seems war protesters are worn out and frustrated. And they be should, too. If a demonstration of 800,000 at the RNC (as estimated by NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne) back in 2004had so little impact, what can 80 people holding signs hope to accomplish? Who were we even protesting to?

So many peace rallies are vague and passive in this way. I may as well have posted a fucking facebook status about the war sucking balls (Santos thinks the war sucks balls). World saved. Rallies simply can't be this aimless. There has to be a specific and realistic goal, as there was at the Battle of Seattle in 1999 when activists prevented the WTO meeting from taking place. And it's not just about causing a ruckus either: the 2004 RNC protest was a freak show (one of the biggest gatherings ever), with approximately 1,800 arrests being made. Even that event that got us nowhere. If there is no objective, failure is the only possible result.

However, I did leave Portland's modest rally with a glimmer of hope: hardly anyone showed. Obviously this could mean that people are even more apathetic than they were before, but maybe...just maybe...it could mean that we more collectively understand now that we've been fighting the wrong fight. Because most of our problems aren't the problem. Health care, war, bailouts...we address these topics individually, but they're really the same issue. It's the insurance companies for health care, the oil companies for war, the bankers for bailouts. This is our problem. Politicians cannot be on our side and their side at the same time because these institutions make money off of our poverty. One piece of legislation capping campaign spending or prohibiting donations from massive corporations would alleviate this situation. It is my hope that we are mobilizing in this direction. I'm not even close to the first (or 500th) person to suggest this, but for the love of money, don't let me be the last.

Chomsky: War, Peace, and Obama's Nobel

In light of Obama's escalation of the war, let's take a look back Noam Chomsky's article "War, Peace, and Obama's Nobel," from last month.

Kucinich on Afghan War