Obama Feels No Pain

Sicking the Department of Justice on California medical marijuana dispensaries may seem like good electoral strategy to Obama, but attacking the sick and disabled could backfire on Goldman Sach’s golden boy. After all, California voters approved medical relief for people dealing with chronic pain, and Obama’s decision to unleash U.S. attorneys against pot clubs because he thinks people still hate hippies is misplaced. I mean, even Sarah Palin says pot should be legal.

Apartheid Report

A report on the status of Palestinian Bedouin by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes pervasive insecurity and instability due to administrative practices of Israeli authorities. The report warns that some Bedouin communities and culture may disintegrate and disappear altogether.

Poisoning the Water

Responding to the scientific evidence that the level of fish consumption by Indian tribes is unhealthy under existing water pollution standards, the state of Oregon this summer took dramatic steps to increase its water quality.  Meanwhile, in the neighboring state of Washington, Governor Gregoire just signed into law a major exemption from clean water standards for the agricultural industry.

Seems like common sense ends at the Columbia River boundary between two states in what was once a bountiful region of salmon-laden streams. As a cancer survivor and former director of the Department of Ecology, you’d think Governor Gregoire would be more sensitive to the plight of indigenous peoples at risk of cancer and other diseases from simply eating their traditional foods.

Apparently not.

Kalahari

The Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve have an interesting website.

Rio Tabasara

In his article on the indigenous Ngobe people of Panama, Richard Arghiris documents the resistance of Panama’s forgotten people to destruction of their homeland by the Government of Panama and mining corporations.

Nineveh Plains

In the fact-finding mission report The Last Generation?: The Situation of Assyrians in Northern Iraq, the Assyria Council of Europe examined prospects for provincial autonomy within the Nineveh Plains of Kurdistan. As Christian communities in the Kurdish region of an Islamic state, the survival of Assyrian culture depends in part on the establishment of governance structures that provide security and a future for their ancient society. With the high level of violence and emigration, this ethnic minority within a region of autonomous indigenous peoples may someday cease to exist.  Given the brain drain of Assyrians to surrounding countries and Europe, their capacity for self-governance is already imperiled.

Smoke It

I read an op–ed yesterday that wondered what we’re going to do when there are no more newspapers. The obvious answer is to think for ourselves.

Of course, the columnist probably meant he wondered where informative content would come from as mainstream media discontinues that function in favor of advertising and press releases from corporate PR firms. That’s easy: the Internet.

But online versions of corporate newspapers will continue, even if the print versions fold. Advertisers aren’t going away any time soon, nor are corporate think tanks whose task it is to keep us misinformed. After all, an informed citizenry might just decide it’s had enough. The difference is that there are many more voices on the Internet than in the newspaper, and some of them are already surpassing professional journalists in both quality and quantity of content. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Lia Pootah

Tasmanian Aboriginal culture is a heritage that extends through three ice ages. As a result of missionaries and governments that knew an extinct race solves all problems of land alienation, all their ancestors died in shame, sorrow and pain forbidden to practice their way of life. The aboriginal Lia Pootah people of Tasmania believe no reconciliation can happen without education. Toward that end, they have a website where educational services about their aboriginal heritage are available.

Everything You Got

One can feel empathy for the Tea Party rage against government corruption without condoning their vengeful attitude toward scapegoats. In fact, one can treat the entire anti-democratic movement — from the Constitution Party to the DLC — with the contempt they deserve, without demonizing fanatics like Palin or opportunists like Obama.

But whether they are acting out of greed or vengeance for imagined and real grievances, one is foolish to treat the anti-democratic movement — fundamentalists and sycophants alike — as anything short of enemies. After all, they are out to destroy everything remotely generous, fair, or sane.

Protests and diplomacy have their place in the world, but when your society is under attack, you fight back with everything you got. In politics, that means gathering intelligence on your enemies, analyzing their vulnerabilities, and organizing interventions to defeat them. Anything less is doomed to fail.

Obama’s CEOs

Thirty years ago, the Savings and Loan scandal generated 1,800 convictions for felony fraud, with 1,000 of those resulting in jail time. By contrast, the Wall Street meltdown of 2007, that has crippled the entire US economy, has not resulted in one conviction of a banking CEO. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, that has a lot to do with President Obama’s fear of prosecuting the Wall Street titans for the largest fraud in US history. Likewise his timid Attorney General Eric Holder, who seems more comfortable conducting police raids against peace activists than investigations against his boss’ benefactors.