French Vote Today: Polls Show Fear of Change, “We Are Not That Kind Of A People”
May 6th, 2012 - by: Danny
New Book Now From Cosimo Books Commentaries, Analysis, Rants, DIssections
This morning at 9 EST: I join Reverend Jesse Jackson on his weekly radio program: Keephopealiveradio.com
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Dwight David Eisenhower, former General and President
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Politics
•Daily Beast: Voting to Begin in French Election
Guardian: Final Polls Show Swing To Sarkozy in French Elections
•NYT: Obama’s Challenge in 9 Key Swing States
•Reuters: Greeks Vote in Angry Elections
Iran: Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has suffered a fresh setback in run-off parliamentary polls.
Mr Ahmadinejad’s supporters won only 13 of the 65 seats up for election in Friday’s vote, further reducing his power base in the 290-seat parliament.
•Fox News: Occupy A Big Hit In Iran
•Libertarians Pick Gary Johnson For President
LAS VEGAS – The Libertarian Party nominated former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson for President of the United States, expressing confidence he will be able to find effective small-government solutions to the country’s most pressing problems and mount a strong challenge to his major party rivals.
Mr. Johnson was declared the party’s Presidential nominee after he won 70% percent of the vote in the first round of balloting by the 595 delegates of the National Libertarian Convention held at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, NV.
•South Africa, M&G: President Jacob Zuma has stealthily started his campaign for a second term by handing out tractors and homes in a charm blitz on KZN and the E Cape.
•Economist: Malawi’s new president: Rejoice, it’s Joyce
Fluent on War” ‘U.S. abandons consulate site in Afghanistan, citing threat risk’
ICH Global Views
Uri Avnery, ICH: Putsch Against War
Israeli generals and secret police chiefs get together for an attack on the politicians.
Glenn Greenwald, The Fraud of “Humanitarian Wars”
All wars, even the most unjustifiably aggressive, are wrapped in the same pretty rhetorical packaging.
Paul Craig Roberts, Disinformation On Every Front
It is interesting that it is only presidents who work to reduce conflict who become targets for assassination.
•Naked Capitalism: How did Quebec Students Mobilize Hundreds of Thousands for Strike?
It’s telling that the fact that hundreds of thousands of people in Quebec have been striking for over two months has gone virtually unreported in the US. This Real News Network interview helps explain how protests against tuition hikes have evolved into a broad based effort to reverse the neoliberal policies of the incumbent provincial government.
LBN: Egypt: Protests in Egypt on Friday ended in violence with one person dead and more than 300 injured. Demonstrators threw rocks at security forces, and water cannons were used to control crowds after Egyptians filled the streets to voice their frustration with the slow rate of reform in the country’s military-led government. The military has imposed a curfew on Abbasiya Square in the Cairo neighborhood where the demonstrations took place. Similar protests Wednesday led to 11 deaths and dozens of injuries. The Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been active in the protests.
LBN, CHina:Despite China’s announcement Friday that it would allow blind human-rights activist Chen Guangcheng to leave the country for the United States with his family, other critics of the Chinese government say they don’t expect to see much improvement in the country. I think that after the Chen Guangcheng incident, the situation for us will just become worse and worse, said a supporter of Chens who said he may have been assaulted by plainclothes police while going to see Chen in the hospital last week. Another activist, Liu Feiyue, said that Chen was lucky to have the U.S. step in to defend him. Not all dissident cases can become international issues, Feiyue said.
Economy:
BI: Mauldin’s Graphic Look At The Economy
•SN: Noam Chomsky: America’s Economic Suicide
Fluent: ‘The Other Student Loan Slow Jam: Is It Time for a National Service Corps?’
News Not Fit To Print: From NYT Examiner.com http://www.nytexaminer.com/2012/05/occupy-coverage-marginalized-as-new-york-times-staffers-mount-campaign-for-economic-justice/
The Times reports it was a chaotic scene as the Guantanamo Trials got underway
•This is a useful Interactive Guide to the Trials and the charges,
Essay: Dan De Walt: The latest from ThisCantBeHappening: So Then Who in the Hell Are We?
“This is not a reflection of who we are or what we stand for.”
— Jeff Gearhart, Wall-Mart general counsel, on the firm’s Mexico bribery
[Torture] “is not the norm.”
— Mike Pannek, Abu Ghraib prison warden.
“This is not who we are.”
— Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the US massacre of 16 Afghan villagers.
“This is not who we are.”
— General John Allen, commander of forces in Afghanistan, on Koran burning
“This is not who we are.”
— Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on troops posing with enemy body parts
“This is not who we are.”
— Secretary of State Clinton, also on troops posing with enemy body parts
Spying by the New York Police on Muslims in Newark, NJ, which the Newark Police Chief was alerted to, is “not who we are”
— Newark Mayor Cory Booker
“I can tell you something all of you know already – that using pepper spray on peaceful protesters runs counter to our values. It does not reflect well on this university and it absolutely is not who we are.”
— UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who ordered campus police to use force to clear peaceful student occupiers from the campus, leading to pepper spraying of students
Ripping families apart by deporting the undocumented parents of American-born children is “not who we are.”
— President Barack Obama
“This larger notion that the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everybody’s money, and let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone they’re on their own — that’s not who we are.”
— President Barack Obama
“You can’t say, well, we developed trade and the economic relations first and the disregard of human rights. That’s not who we are. We are the United States of America.”
— Sasha Gong, director of the China branch of Voice of America
*Mashable: 10 iPhone Cases That Help Support Good Causes:
Too bad, the cloud cover blocked the “Supermoon” in New York last night. Thanks for being here. Please share the blog with friends. Check out my new book Blogothon. Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
- About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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