Activism

Image by Pantone801, found at Flickr.com

This is so mindboggling it defies commentary. Up until the 1st of July of 2008, Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by the United States.

Bush Removes Nelson Mandela from Terror Watch List
By VOA News
01 July 2008

U.S. President George Bush Tuesday signed a bill that allows Nelson Mandela to enter the United States without special clearance.

The measure officially removes Mr. Mandela and his African National Congress from a U.S. terror watch list.

The former South African president may now visit the United States without the U.S. secretary of state having to certify that he is not a terrorist.

Mr. Mandela was placed on the list because of his work with the African National Congress (ANC), which fought to end white minority rule in South Africa.

Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in prison for his work with the ANC to fight apartheid rule in South Africa.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner turns 90 on July 18.

Un.

Be.

lievable.

Last time you heard me rant about the Associate Press was in relation to Rogers Cadenhead's plight, where he was hit with more than 7 take-down demands and threatened with a lawsuit. Please read "AP has their legal vampires chasing bloggers. I blame Hilary Rosen" and "More about the AP copyright takedowns against Rogers Cadenhead" for the back story.

Well, within hours there was a boycott of the Associated Press by a big chunk of the single and community blogs that form the "netroots". Why? Because we have back channels of communication through which we talk to each other for either political or business purposes.

That was the case this past weekend.

Barack Obama was there on 1 May 2006. Will you join in on 2008?

AfterDowningStreet.org has an amazing historical overview on why tomorrow there will be massive demonstrations and labor union strikes all across the country : 122 years of the 8 hour week and end of child labor, 5 years of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, 3 years since the discovery of the Downing Street Minutes, 2 years since the nation-wide immigration rallies of 2006, almost 2 years ago when Nanci Pelosi and Democrats in Congress and the Senate took the impeachment of George Bush for misleading the country to war, "off the table". Yet in one of the most mindboggling examples of the Bush Administration's information war against Americans, May 1st has been declared Loyalty Day.

And here's the thing : You and I know that when it comes down to it, the war against immigrants is a war against labor which is part of a larger attack from the only people who benefit from the other kind of corporate-led violence like the occupation of Iraq.

As my friend Roberto Lovato said earlier, paraphrasing ActUP, "Silence = Death". If you are like me, you hate marches but you go to them because you know that as a symbol of solidarity in dissent you need to go.

So dust off your walking shoes and get your arse to the streets and square.

Baratunde Thurston, Some Rights Reserved

Baratunde has been going to Philadelphia almost every weekend for the past weeks. So yesterday, thinking what I am going to do with the kids this week --they are in Spring Break. I decided to rent a car and drive down to Philadelphia to help out the Obama campaign any way we can and in the process, be a part of history.

I'll post later today updates and definitely come back here after 10pm when we'll have the chatroom open while waiting for the results.

C'ya later!

Robert Shales is right on the money when he says, To this observer, ABC's coverage seemed slanted against Obama. Memeorandum exploded in posts from irate liberals and journalists who saw nothing but a thinly vieled hatchet job against the front-runner of the Democratic Party.

Close to fifteen thousand people have sounded off at the ABC News post about the debate (which, by the way, they changed from "Clinton, Obama find brotherly love at Philly Debate" to "Philly Fight Night : Democrats Spar over Electability").

I suggest you add to the comments over there as well as give a ring to their offices :

Call 818-460-7477
Press 2,
Press 1

Then you can press one of these two choices :

967 (News wth Charles Gibson) or
199 (other news)

As I wrote at the chat last night, it's as if ABC News wanted to outfox FOX News. It was an incredibly embarrassing scene to watch.

Not only that, George Stephanopoulos should not have been one of the moderators. As the former speech writer of Bill Clinton and still a Clintonista, if you are going to have someone so biased, then you ought to create balance. Which is why I shall forever refer to him as "Clinton's Boy".

We need something nice and smooth here. It's been kind of a drag of a week, and it's just Wednesday! Who better to groove to than Marvin Gaye.

"What's Going" is one of the most perfect "artivist" protest songs ever created. And it is a work of art, so much so, that the Gaye's record label rejected it as being uncommercial.

I love the song because the lyrics and music are almost trance like, turning subverting the radical antiwar message of the song. It's almost subliminal the way the grooves hook you while the words slip into the unconscious.

It's as if Gaye becomes with this song an R&B shaman.

Last night I saw a flurry of emails blanket my inbox with a series of "unbelieavable", "still in shock" and the not so occasional "I'm angry".

I had spent most of the afternoon trying to sort out my thoughts fast enough for an Op/Ed, and I would always come back to the misgivings I've had since he took office a little over a year ago. That Eliot Spitzer's problem and weakness has always been his success because he never really needed anything other than a vote from you or me to get elected.

Eliot Spitzer didn't really need a million New Yorkers giving $5 or $10 donations to his campaign to get elected. He never needed to learn how to get people out on the streets to support his campaign to get him elected. He never needed to swallow his pride and shut up and take criticism from his own base in order to gain political influence. And he certainly never had to pound the pavement and get people out on election day to make sure people would get out of their homes and offices to cast a vote.

Metro newspaper just published Voices: Spitzer floated on air, but lack of roots did him in, my Op/Ed on the Spitzer debacle.

Here's the money quote :

For netroots activists like me, who have had the chance to take a peek at the mechanical beast, the New York State Democratic Party, Eliot Spitzer was nothing but a political insider’s rock star that only needed “The (little) People” to vote so the “politics as usual” could rock New York and roll into Albany. Yet there’s a reason why “politics as usual” is losing the fight in the Democratic Party’s presidential primary.

Eliot Spitzer’s weakness has been the lack of a true grassroots base. He never had his feet held to the fire by his own party base, by The People who ended up voting for him. The Republicans have known this all along, and it’s not a coincidence that they tried to scare him last year by astroturfing the Internet with fake attack blogs.

Go read the whole thing.

Baratunde, political vigilante and stand-up comedian extraordinaire, is in Texas working as a volunteer poll worker and tweeting whatever he can.

I'll update more as it comes in.

Kenneth Cole on blogging :
So why have I jumped on the blogosphere bandwagon? Well, throughout most of my adult life, I have been a reasonably successful, designer, businessman, parent, and philanthropist but I've always been a frustrated activist. This venting arena is the perfect venue for personal expression and for encouraging genuine change (not to mention taking some of the pressure off of my pharmacologist). Over the last 25 years, through my Company and personal pursuits, I've attempted to be topical and relevant to our ever-changing society and raise social awareness, but the fact that you're reading this is proof of how the world is changing. I realize that my monologist approach of the past is as appropriate as wearing socks with sandals - today's must-have is dialog. Sure, I can always help you with what you wear but now you can help us all be more aware.

I am a huge fan of Kenneth. First because I am a shoe whore and I LOOOOOOOVE his style, especially his boots. I used to have a pair of boots of his that I basically wore down to the bone. They just felt like butter and I haven't been able to find a pair like that, although I might actually go out and buy this pair to wear with jeans. Although, OMG, I am totally feeling these, these, these and these as well.

As I said, if there are shoes involved, I am there. And don't get me started with the handbags ... yes, yes, I know ... the truth is, I am really shallow deep down inside.

Yet it's the company's history of ad campaigns that totally rocks my world. As with the Benneton fashion house, Kenneth Cole the fashion designer and company has never shied away from voicing their politics. And grock knows we need that in a realm of culture and society not necessarily oozing with consciousness raising and committed activism.

Who can forget, for example, the "We All Have AIDS Campaign"? How about the infamous black and white posters that just stopped you on their tracks with slogans like : The Homeless Got What They Deserve. And, of course, there's the t-shirts. I am totally feeling this one.

So when I received an email from David Hershkovits, one of the publishers of Paper Magazine asking me if I'd be interested to blog for KC, I was more than flattered. Smelling salts and an EKG were involved in my efforts to say yes.

I have to give a huge shout out to Ron Mwangaguhunga of The Corsair blog fame for this opportunity. We've had blog crushes on each other since forever and it was he who recommended to David to work with his team. The other team is composed by the fine people of Electronic Artists, the company that manages the blog.

So without further ado, let me give you a looky of one of my posts (featured on the front page of the blog).