whitebeard

Don't curse the darkness, light a candle.

The chasm between Berlusconi and reality

This time Silvio Berlusconi seems to have gone too far; last week he unleashed his pitbull courtiers in an attempt to gag the few remaining opposition media. But the autumn offensive got off to a bad start as the hounds and their master bit off more than they could chew. The Roman Catholic Church and a coalition of Italian and foreign papers are too much even for Mr Berlusconi’s overblown ego.
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posted by: Whitebeard at 21:29 | link | comments |
italy

Journalism in the future

Speech di Robert Peston (BBC Business Editor) al MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Public service journalism

What I am talking about here, as you know, is the importance of public service journalism, about informing and educating the public so that there is democratic participation in big decisions about the future of capitalism. Now at a time when the future of the financial underpinning of the economy is in question, so too is another part of the fabric of our society - the part that transmits not money but the news and information we need to hold powerful institutions to account. And for me, the issue is all about securing the greatest access for the greatest number of people to a diversity of competing high quality news sources.
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Very intersting.

posted by: Whitebeard at 14:36 | link | comments |
chile

Afganistan's war

August 30, 2009 

American Antiwar Movement Plans an Autumn Campaign Against Policies
on Afghanistan 

By JAMES DAO 

A restive antiwar movement, largely dormant since the election of Barack
Obama, is preparing a nationwide campaign this fall to challenge the
administration´s policies on Afghanistan. Anticipating a Pentagon request
for more troops there, antiwar leaders have engaged in a flurry of meetings
to discuss a month of demonstrations, lobbying, teach-ins and memorials in
October to publicize the casualty count, raise concerns about the cost of
the war and pressure Congress to demand an exit strategy.

But they face a starkly changed political climate from just a year ago, when
President George W. Bush provided a lightning rod for protests. The health
care battle is consuming the resources of labor unions and other core
Democratic groups. American troops are leaving Iraq, defusing antiwar
sentiments in some quarters. The recession has hurt fund-raising for peace
groups and forced them to slash budgets. And, perhaps most significant,
many liberals continue to support Mr. Obama, or at least are hesitant about
openly criticizing him.

"People do not want to take on the administration," said Jon Soltz,
chairman of VoteVets.org. "Generating the kind of money that would be
required to challenge the president´s policies just isn´t going to happen."
Tom Andrews, national director for an antiwar coalition, Win Without War,
said most liberals "want this guy to succeed." But he said the antiwar
movement would try to convince liberals that a prolonged war would
undermine Mr. Obama´s domestic agenda. Afghanistan, he said, "could be
a devastating albatross around the president´s neck."

But there is also a sense among some antiwar advocates that Mr. Obama´s
honeymoon with Democrats in general and liberals in particular is ending.
As evidence, they point to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll
showing that 51 percent of Americans now feel the war in Afghanistan is
not worth fighting, a 10-point increase since March. The poll had a margin
of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. "We´re coming
out of a low period," said Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the antiwar group
Code Pink. "But as progressives feel more comfortable protesting against
the Obama administration and challenging Democrats as well as
Republicans in Congress, then we´ll be back on track."

The Obama administration has opposed legislation requiring an exit
strategy, saying it needs time to develop new approaches to the war. "Given
his own impatience for progress, the president has demanded benchmarks
to track our progress and ensure that we are moving in the right direction,"
a White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The October protest schedule is expected to include marches in
Washington and elsewhere. But organizers acknowledge that it may be
difficult to recruit large numbers of demonstrators. So groups like United for
Peace and Justice are also planning smaller events in communities around
the country, including teach-ins with veterans and families of deployed
troops, lobbying sessions with members of Congress, film screenings and
ad hoc memorials featuring the boots of deceased soldiers and Marines.

"There are some that feel betrayed" by Mr. Obama, said Nancy Lessin, a
founder of the group Military Families Speak Out. "There are some who feel
that powerful forces are pushing the president to stay on this course and
that we have to build a more powerful movement to change that course."

The October actions will be timed not only to the eighth anniversary of the
first American airstrikes on Taliban forces and the seventh anniversary of
Congressional authorization for invading Iraq, but also an anticipated
debate in Congress over sending more troops to Afghanistan. Gen. Stanley
A. McChrystal, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, is widely
expected to request additional troops, beyond the 68,000 projected for the
end of the year, after finalizing a policy review in the next few weeks. The
antiwar movement consists of dozens of organizations representing
pacifists, veterans, military families, labor unions and religious groups, and
they hardly speak with one voice.

Some groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War have started shifting their
focus toward Afghanistan, passing resolutions demanding an immediate
withdrawal of troops from there. Others, like VoteVets.org, support the
American military presence in Afghanistan, calling it crucial to fighting
terrorism. And some groups, including Moveon.org, have yet to take a clear
position on Afghanistan beyond warning that war drains resources from
domestic programs. "There is not the passion around Afghanistan that we
saw around Iraq," said Ilyse Hogue, Moveon.org´s spokeswoman. "But there
are questions."

There are also signs that some groups that have been relatively quiet on
Afghanistan are preparing to become louder. U.S. Labor Against the War, a
network of nearly 190 union affiliates that has been focused on Iraq, is
"moving more into full opposition to the continuing occupation" of
Afghanistan, said Michael Eisenscher, the group´s national coordinator. 

"President Obama risks his entire domestic agenda, just as Johnson did in
Vietnam, in pursuing this course of action in Afghanistan," Mr. Eisenscher
said. Handfuls of antiwar protestors can still be seen on Capitol Hill, outside
state office buildings and around college campuses. Cindy Sheehan, for
instance, has set up her vigil on Martha´s Vineyard while Mr. Obama
vacations there.

But many advocates say a lower-key approach may be more effective in
winning support right now. An example of that strategy is an Internet film
titled "Rethink Afghanistan," which is being produced and released in
segments by the political documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald. In six
episodes so far, Mr. Greenwald has used interviews with academics,
Afghans and former C.I.A. operatives to raise questions about civilian
casualties, women´s rights, the cost of war and whether it has made the
United States safer. The episodes, some as short as two minutes, are
circulated via Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and blogs.

Antiwar groups are also screening them with members of Congress. Mr.
Greenwald, who has produced documentaries about Wal-Mart and war
profiteers, said the film represented a "less incendiary" approach influenced
by liberal concerns that he not attack Mr. Obama directly. "We lost funding
from liberals who didn´t want to criticize Obama," he said. "It´s been lonely
out there."

Code Pink is trying to build opposition to the war among women´s groups,
some of which argue that women will suffer if the Taliban returns. In
September, a group of Code Pink organizers will visit Kabul to encourage
Afghan women to speak out against the American military presence there.
And Iraq Veterans Against the War is using the Web to circulate episodes
of a documentary, "This Is Where We Take Our Stand," filmed in 2008 at
its Winter Soldier conference, at which veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan
testified about civilian casualties, combat stress and other tolls of the wars.
The group´s leaders say they do not expect many people to take to the
barricades against the administration any time soon.

But that will change, they argue, as the death toll continues to rise. "In the
next year, it will more and more become Obama´s war," said Perry O´Brien,
president of the New York chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War. "He´ll   
be held responsible for the bloodshed."

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posted by: Whitebeard at 00:11 | link | comments |
chile, civil rights

Videocracy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9AXQGGkgK8&NR=1

posted by: Whitebeard at 10:13 | link | comments |
civil rights