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Apr. 9th, 2009
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Apr. 9th, 2009 11:23 amWhat exactly does Obama's budget do? With 1,000 jobs being lost every hour and a tax system that favors the wealthy, our guests discuss what’s in the new budget and the limits to progressive reform.
David Cay Johnston former New York Times reporter and the author of Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense, Irasema Garza president of Legal Momentum, and Joel Berg Executive Director of New York City Coalition Against Hunger and the author of All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America? discuss the budget battle.
Chris Bowers of Open Left on the netroots and Obama’s budget. Did they make a difference? And why healthcare will be at the heart of upcoming deliberations.
A report from Warehouse Workers in California organizing for living wages and fair treatment. Finally, the senate race that may at last be coming to an end. Part II of the Uptake’s documentary on Franken v. Coleman.
Thanks to the Uptake for video in tonight’s show.
Obama’s War: Is It Any Different?
It's a persistent notion: we're not like them, we're better, we're different.
As you heard on this program, it's the insidious notion from which genocides are made.
It also lies at the heart of what the Rev. James Lawson called the plantation capitalism on which our economy's based. The idea that some are expendable, that some are less human, that we are simply different, is wrapped up in our Afghanistan policy too.
The US, for example, since 9-11, seems to have believed that lives lost here in 9-11 were worth avenging even at a cost many times that of other people's lives. Each year that the combat mission continues, more Afghan civilians are caught in the combat. The US tried a troop surge in 2007 -- the number of US and NATO troops was increased by 45 percent. More civilians were killed than in the previous four years combined. MORE
In his new book, Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror, Columbia University Professor Mahmood Mamdani argues that the use of the word genocide is as political as ever and strategic ignorance about the history and current day politics of post-colonial Africa is just as great. Mamdani discusses the crisis in Darfur, the nature of Save Darfur advocacy, and what he sees as a dangerous collusion of colonialism and Anti-Terror rhetoric. Then, just in time for tax season, Robert Gates has reminded us just how much money we spend of foreign wars. Tax resisters, however, say that you don’t have to fund the imperial budget. Andy Heaslet of the Peace Economy Project, Ed Hedemann author of War Tax Resistance: A Guide To Withholding Your Support From the Military, and Robert Weissman editor of the Multinational Monitor and Co-Director of Essential Action discuss what you can do with your money and why it doesn’t have to end up as part of the defense budget.
Finally, part I of the Uptake’s documentary on the Al Franken/Norm Coleman senate race.
From Times online
AMERICAN drone attacks on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan are causing a massive humanitarian emergency, Pakistani officials claimed after a new attack yesterday killed 13 people.
The dead and injured included foreign militants, but women and children were also killed when two missiles hit a house in the village of Data Khel, near the Afghan border, according to local officials.
As many as 1m people have fled their homes in the Tribal Areas to escape attacks by the unmanned spy planes as well as bombings by the Pakistani army. In Bajaur agency entire villages have been flattened by Pakistani troops under growing American pressure to act against Al-Qaeda militants, who have made the area their base.
...
Pakistani forces say they have killed 1,500 militants since launching antiTaliban operations in Bajaur in August. Locals who fled claim that only civilians were killed. MORE
this happened yesterday
Apr. 9th, 2009 03:48 pmConcord - By a single vote, the New Hampshire House today reversed itself and passed a bill that bars discrimination on the basis of gender identity. The proposal was dubbed the "bathroom bill" by its opponents. The bill, House Bill 415, allows individuals to bring actions at the Human Rights Commission when they feel they have been discriminated against on the basis of their sexual identity, or the way they express it, such as with their clothing or makeup.
After more than three hours of debate that opened today's session, the House voted 188-187 to pass the bill.
Early in the debate, Speaker of the House Terie Norelli, D-Portsmouth, took the unusual step of leaving her podium and speaking in favor of the bill. She said she was disappointed in debate two weeks ago, and by "the muddying of the waters" on the issue.
"New Hampshire and the New Hampshire General Court has always stood against discrimination. Somewhere along the way, that message got lost on this bill," she said. "We're not asking you to open up bathrooms to sexual predators. We're asking you to stand tall against discrimination."MORe
Washington Oks Inclusion of transgender in Hate Crimes Laws
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Attacks against transgender people could be prosecuted as hate crimes under a bill approved Wednesday by Washington's Legislature.
The state's hate-crime law says it's a felony to threaten, damage the property of, or physically injure someone because of ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, disability or sexual orientation.
At present, the hate-crime definition of sexual orientation covers gay, straight or bisexual people. The bill approved Wednesday adds "gender expression or identity" to that definition, making the law apply to attacks on transgender people.MORe
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Apr. 9th, 2009 09:03 pmWole Soyinka
Twelve Canticles for the Zealot ...
I
He wakes from a prolonged delirium, swears
He has seen the face of God.
God help all those whose fever never raged
Or has subsided.
II
Perched on church steeple, minaret, cupola
Smug as misericords, gleeful as gargoyles
On gables of piety, the vampire acolyte
Waits to leap from private hell
To all four compass points -- but will not voyage alone.
His variant on the doctored coin reads: Come with me or --
Go to -- hell!
III
He craves a parity
Beyond the contents of his skull.
A hundred thousand
Vacuities of mind are soon
Cowed beneath the grace and power
Of one gossamer quill -- yet
Beware the mute! Beware the furtive power
Of the mutant's blade.
IV
The trade of healing takes strange turns.
Doctor and reservist, seeks the lethal path
To hearts of devotees in East Jerusalem,
Makes cadavers of believers turned
Eastwards in devotion -- then turns the barrel
Inwards -- still in hot pursuit?
For there are no post-mortems in the after-life
Though rigor mortis settles on the breath
Of peace.
V
They would be killers anyway, and anywhere.
Their world's a hiatus. Jerked to life,
They suck the teats of piety, briefly shed
A long cocoon of death. Dead eyes,
A death humility, death wish, dead end,
A death asymmetry that befits
A death-bound unbeginning.
Their mentors live, and thrive, instruct.
Behold their vengeance for a living death --
Wielding infantile gums but --
Teethed at school.
VI
It was his own kind, nailed
Yitzak Rabin to crossroads of the Orient
Arms extended to the Heights
Of peace. Across the Suez, the ghost
Of his precursor on the viewing stand
Watched the grim replay of a familiar reel.
VII
Ogun came riding through the streets
Of Jerusalem. The Chosen barred his way.
His bright metallic lore was profanation,
Railed the wandering tribe, custodian now
Of streets and pathways, closed on hallowed days
To songs of iron and steel, even a child's meandering
Bicycle, or infant's crib.
Come war, will they deny
The aid of iron? Come death
Can they delay the caller's blade
By plea of Sacred Feast?
The zealots' hands
Are stretched to rock the erring vehicle,
But not as rock the cradle of an infant peace.
Claws of hate, and clasp of closure reach
From pole to pole, embracing
Convertites of every faith. The maiming,
Killing act is all.
VIII
A god is nowhere born, yet everywhere.
But Rama's sect rejects that fine distinction --
The designated spot is sanctified, not for piety but --
For dissolution of yours from mine, politics of hate --
And forced exchange -- peace for a moment's ecstasy.
They turn a mosque to rubble, stone by stone,
Condemned usurper of Lord Rama's vanished spot
Of dreamt epiphany. Now a cairn of stones
Usurps a dream of peace -- can they dream peace
In iconoclast Uttar Pradesh?
IX
The meek shall inherit the earth ...
Blessed are the peacemakers ...
Shalom ... Shalom ... Shalom ...
Irosu wonrin, irosu wonrin.
Salaam ailekum, ailekum
Shanti ... shanti ... shanti ...
Oom ... oom ... oom ... ooom ...
Seek havens of peace on ocean floors,
Submarine depths, in lost worlds, black holes
Collapsed galaxies, in hermit caves
In jungle fastnesses and arctic wastes
Thorns of crowns and hairy shirts, beds of nails,
The saintly cheek that turns the other side, but --
Not in texts, not by learned rote. It's there
The unmeek prove inheritors of the earth.
They are the scripture grooms, possessive
To the last submissive dot. Punctilious
Guards of annotations, they sleepwalk blind to all
But the fatal hiatus:
Boom for oom and -- sword for Word.
What is missing is -- fulfilled!
X
Ile gbogbo nle orisa ee, ile gbogbo nle orisa
Ile gbogbo nle orisa ee, ile gbogbo nle orisa
Enia lo m'orisa w'aiye oo
Ile gbogbo nle orisa ee*
Invent your god and forge his will
The home of piety is the soul.
I come from Ogun's land where
Women plant and teach and cure
Mould and build and cultivate,
Bestride the earth on sturdy thighs
Wipe sweat off open faces.
I come from Ogun's land where
Women spurn the veil, and men
And earth rejoice!
XI
Cast the sanctimonious stone
And leave frail beauty shredded in the square
Of public shame. This murder
Is the rock of sin, the wayward veil
A mere pebble's glint.
XII
Orunmila! Eleri ipin
Ibikeji Olodumare
Ajeju oogun
Obiriti, Ap'ijo iku da ...**
Some words are coarse, obscene, indecent.
They make a case for censorship, such words as
Pagan, heathen, infidel, unbeliever, kafiri, etc.
The cleric swears he'll sweep the streets clean
Of the unclean, armed with Book and Beard. Both
Turn kindling, but overturn the law of physics.
For the fire consumes all but the arsonist. He lives
To preach another day. The promised beast
Of the Apocalypse left me unbeliever
Till a rambling cleric apportioned death on CNN --
Surely that devil's instrument! -- on Taslim Nazreem.
She wrote of an equalising God, androgynous
Who deals, ambidextrous, with the Left and Right.
XIII
...and a thirteenth for the merely superstitious.
This thirteenth canticle for you, and let
Ill-luck infest your dreams awhile, stress your fears.
Not one but both -- Friday and thirteen
Joined to press the entry of my world
Onto your calendar. Would I could boast
A triple six, a Grand Slam by Satan's reckoning --
I would have long submerged the world
In cosmic laughter!
* All earth is the home of deities
All earth is the home of deities
It was mortals who brought the gods to the world
All earth is home of deities
** Orunmila, Hand that apportions Fate
Second only to the Supreme Deity
He who swallows the potency of herbs
Immense One, who turns aside the day of death
Twelve Canticles for the Zealot ...
I
He wakes from a prolonged delirium, swears
He has seen the face of God.
God help all those whose fever never raged
Or has subsided.
II
Perched on church steeple, minaret, cupola
Smug as misericords, gleeful as gargoyles
On gables of piety, the vampire acolyte
Waits to leap from private hell
To all four compass points -- but will not voyage alone.
His variant on the doctored coin reads: Come with me or --
Go to -- hell!
III
He craves a parity
Beyond the contents of his skull.
A hundred thousand
Vacuities of mind are soon
Cowed beneath the grace and power
Of one gossamer quill -- yet
Beware the mute! Beware the furtive power
Of the mutant's blade.
IV
The trade of healing takes strange turns.
Doctor and reservist, seeks the lethal path
To hearts of devotees in East Jerusalem,
Makes cadavers of believers turned
Eastwards in devotion -- then turns the barrel
Inwards -- still in hot pursuit?
For there are no post-mortems in the after-life
Though rigor mortis settles on the breath
Of peace.
V
They would be killers anyway, and anywhere.
Their world's a hiatus. Jerked to life,
They suck the teats of piety, briefly shed
A long cocoon of death. Dead eyes,
A death humility, death wish, dead end,
A death asymmetry that befits
A death-bound unbeginning.
Their mentors live, and thrive, instruct.
Behold their vengeance for a living death --
Wielding infantile gums but --
Teethed at school.
VI
It was his own kind, nailed
Yitzak Rabin to crossroads of the Orient
Arms extended to the Heights
Of peace. Across the Suez, the ghost
Of his precursor on the viewing stand
Watched the grim replay of a familiar reel.
VII
Ogun came riding through the streets
Of Jerusalem. The Chosen barred his way.
His bright metallic lore was profanation,
Railed the wandering tribe, custodian now
Of streets and pathways, closed on hallowed days
To songs of iron and steel, even a child's meandering
Bicycle, or infant's crib.
Come war, will they deny
The aid of iron? Come death
Can they delay the caller's blade
By plea of Sacred Feast?
The zealots' hands
Are stretched to rock the erring vehicle,
But not as rock the cradle of an infant peace.
Claws of hate, and clasp of closure reach
From pole to pole, embracing
Convertites of every faith. The maiming,
Killing act is all.
VIII
A god is nowhere born, yet everywhere.
But Rama's sect rejects that fine distinction --
The designated spot is sanctified, not for piety but --
For dissolution of yours from mine, politics of hate --
And forced exchange -- peace for a moment's ecstasy.
They turn a mosque to rubble, stone by stone,
Condemned usurper of Lord Rama's vanished spot
Of dreamt epiphany. Now a cairn of stones
Usurps a dream of peace -- can they dream peace
In iconoclast Uttar Pradesh?
IX
The meek shall inherit the earth ...
Blessed are the peacemakers ...
Shalom ... Shalom ... Shalom ...
Irosu wonrin, irosu wonrin.
Salaam ailekum, ailekum
Shanti ... shanti ... shanti ...
Oom ... oom ... oom ... ooom ...
Seek havens of peace on ocean floors,
Submarine depths, in lost worlds, black holes
Collapsed galaxies, in hermit caves
In jungle fastnesses and arctic wastes
Thorns of crowns and hairy shirts, beds of nails,
The saintly cheek that turns the other side, but --
Not in texts, not by learned rote. It's there
The unmeek prove inheritors of the earth.
They are the scripture grooms, possessive
To the last submissive dot. Punctilious
Guards of annotations, they sleepwalk blind to all
But the fatal hiatus:
Boom for oom and -- sword for Word.
What is missing is -- fulfilled!
X
Ile gbogbo nle orisa ee, ile gbogbo nle orisa
Ile gbogbo nle orisa ee, ile gbogbo nle orisa
Enia lo m'orisa w'aiye oo
Ile gbogbo nle orisa ee*
Invent your god and forge his will
The home of piety is the soul.
I come from Ogun's land where
Women plant and teach and cure
Mould and build and cultivate,
Bestride the earth on sturdy thighs
Wipe sweat off open faces.
I come from Ogun's land where
Women spurn the veil, and men
And earth rejoice!
XI
Cast the sanctimonious stone
And leave frail beauty shredded in the square
Of public shame. This murder
Is the rock of sin, the wayward veil
A mere pebble's glint.
XII
Orunmila! Eleri ipin
Ibikeji Olodumare
Ajeju oogun
Obiriti, Ap'ijo iku da ...**
Some words are coarse, obscene, indecent.
They make a case for censorship, such words as
Pagan, heathen, infidel, unbeliever, kafiri, etc.
The cleric swears he'll sweep the streets clean
Of the unclean, armed with Book and Beard. Both
Turn kindling, but overturn the law of physics.
For the fire consumes all but the arsonist. He lives
To preach another day. The promised beast
Of the Apocalypse left me unbeliever
Till a rambling cleric apportioned death on CNN --
Surely that devil's instrument! -- on Taslim Nazreem.
She wrote of an equalising God, androgynous
Who deals, ambidextrous, with the Left and Right.
XIII
...and a thirteenth for the merely superstitious.
This thirteenth canticle for you, and let
Ill-luck infest your dreams awhile, stress your fears.
Not one but both -- Friday and thirteen
Joined to press the entry of my world
Onto your calendar. Would I could boast
A triple six, a Grand Slam by Satan's reckoning --
I would have long submerged the world
In cosmic laughter!
* All earth is the home of deities
All earth is the home of deities
It was mortals who brought the gods to the world
All earth is home of deities
** Orunmila, Hand that apportions Fate
Second only to the Supreme Deity
He who swallows the potency of herbs
Immense One, who turns aside the day of death
Inspired by delux_vivens
Apr. 9th, 2009 09:10 pmWole Soyinka on The Yoruba Religion
...Traditional religion is not only accommodating, it is liberating, and this seems logical, because whenever a new phenomenon impinged on the consciousness of the Yoruba - whether a historical event, a technological or scientific encounter - they do not bring down the barriers - close the doors. They say: Let us look at this phenomenon and see what we have that corresponds to it in our own tradition, that is a kind of analogue to this experience. And sure enough, they go to Ifa and they examine the corpus of proverbs and sayings; and they look even into their, let’s say, agricultural practices or the observation of their calendar. Somewhere within that religion they will find some kind of approximate interpretation of that event. They do not consider it a hostile experience. That’s why the corpus of Ifa is constantly reinforced and augmented, even from the history of other religions with which Ifa comes into contact. You have Ifa verses which deal with Islam, you have Ifa verses which deal with Christianity. Yoruba religion attunes itself and accommodates the unknown very readily; unlike Islam, because they did not see this in the Koran - therefore it does not exist. The last prophet was Mohammed, anybody who comes after this is a fake. And Christianity! The Roman Catholics: until today they do not cope with the experience and the reality of abortion! They just shut the wall firmly against it. They fail to address the real problems of it; they refuse to adjust any of their tenets.
Beier: The Yoruba people have always been willing to look at another mythology and find equivalents in their own tradition. For example: when I first met Aderemi, the late Oba of Ife - that was at Easter 1951 - he told me about the different shrines in his town and he said: "You know, in Yoruba religion we know the story of Mary and Jesus" and he told me the myth of Moremi (Mary) who sacrificed her only son in order to save her town. And he said: "Really, Moremi is Mary." I was impressed, because he could see that there was some basic metaphor that remained valid across a variety of cultures: He knew that the basic truth is the same - only the trappings are different ...
Soyinka: The Yoruba had no hostility to the piety of other people.
Beier: Yoruba religion, within itself, is based on this very tolerance. Because in each town you have a variety of cults, all coexisting peacefully: there may be Shango, Ogun, Obatala, Oshun and many more ...
Soyinka: Even in the same compound!
Beier: Even within the same small family - because you are not supposed to marry into the same Orisha!
But there is never any rivalry between different cult groups; they all know they are interdependent. Because they are like specialists: everybody understands specific aspects of the supernatural world. Nobody can know everything. The Egunguns know how to deal with the dead; the Ogun worshippers know how to handle the forces that are symbolized by iron. But for the Ogun worshippers to function, it is also necessary that Shango worshippers and Obatala worshippers and all the other Olorisha perform their part. Only the concentrated effort of all of them will bring peace and harmony to the town.
So naturally: when the Christians first appeared, the Olorishas could hardly suspect ...
Soyinka: ... how hostile the new religion would be ...
Beier: I think that tolerance is one of the big qualities of Yoruba culture. Even the treatment of handicapped or mentally disturbed people - it all shows how much more tolerant Yoruba culture was than Western cultures.
Soyinka: Yes. Europeans tend to hide such people, whereas Yoruba religion actually accounts for them.2MORE