fil512's Friends
[Most Recent Entries]
[Calendar View]
[Friends View]
Below are the most recent 14 friends' journal entries.
| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
10:27p |
Maxine Waters criticizes Haitian Elections Council
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters is criticizing a decision by Haiti's electoral council to exclude more than a dozen political parties from next year's legislative elections.
In a letter sent Wednesday to President Rene Preval, she urged the president to ensure the provisional electoral council provides a complete, public explanation for the disqualifications and to reinstate unlawfully banned parties before parliamentary elections Feb. 28.
The California representative's letter, sent via the Haitian Embassy in Washington, lends outside support to political groups frustrated by Haiti's nine-member, presidentially appointed electoral council.
Opposition groups accuse the council of trying to help Preval's newly created Unity party win majorities in parliament so he can push through constitutional reforms and expand executive power. Some have threatened to disrupt voting if the council is not replaced.
"I am concerned that these exclusions would violate the right of Haitian citizens to vote in free and fair elections and that it would be a significant setback to Haiti's democratic development," Waters wrote.
Preval's press office said it was not aware of the letter as of Wednesday afternoon. The electoral council has not responded to the criticisms against it.
A U.S. State Department spokesman did not comment on the letter, but said the Obama administration is nearing completion of a review on its policy toward Haiti with results expected early next year.
The most prominent faction excluded from the vote is former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's Fanmi Lavalas party, which has organized protests and discussed a possible boycott of the vote.
Waters provided prominent support for Aristide in the wake of his 2004 ouster to Africa aboard a U.S. plane, leading a delegation that returned him briefly to the Caribbean before his ultimate exile in South Africa.
— US lawmaker criticizes Haiti election exclusions
|
bcholmes
|
9:35p |
Thought for the Day
For the capitalist system to continue ruthlessly grinding on (or for the capitalist system to "succeed," as you would say) those of us bred for stupid and/or dangerous work must believe we're not as smart as the people who boss us around. It's critical. Capitalism needs simple explanations about why poor people with lousy jobs take orders from men in suits. Lack of brains fits the bill. (So does the lie that rich people work harder. I'll tackle that in another essay.) Any noticeable class divisions stem from differences in intellectual capacity. Connected to this is the touting of "American ingenuity" as the doorway to upward mobility. It's as untrue as the existence of a whole class of stupid people, but if enough people believe it -- even partially believe it -- this idea will reinforce and strengthen capitalism. After all, if we believe brains lead to success, we'll blame ourselves for not getting ahead. Personal failure, not systemic oppression, explains why we're going nowhere so very fast.
— Thinking Class: Sketches from a Cultural Worker, Joanna Kadi
|
| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
9:49a |
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
"If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he's illegal, we can make him disappear." Those chilling words were spoken by James Pendergraph, then executive director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of State and Local Coordination, at a conference of police and sheriffs in August 2008. Also present was Amnesty International's Sarnata Reynolds, who wrote about the incident in the 2009 report "Jailed Without Justice" and said in an interview, "It was almost surreal being there, particularly being someone from an organization that has worked on disappearances for decades in other countries. I couldn't believe he would say it so boldly, as though it weren't anything wrong."
Pendergraph knew that ICE could disappear people, because he knew that in addition to the publicly listed field offices and detention sites, ICE is also confining people in 186 unlisted and unmarked subfield offices, many in suburban office parks or commercial spaces revealing no information about their ICE tenants -- nary a sign, a marked car or even a US flag. [...] Designed for confining individuals in transit, with no beds or showers, subfield offices are not subject to ICE Detention Standards.
— "We Can Make Him Disappear": Immigration Officials Are Holding People In Secret, Unmarked Jails
via ![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) piranha |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
11:38a |
|
| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
8:33a |
Let's not talk about that...
Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice just finished his press conference and he dismissed the hoax press releases, saying "I am here to negotiate." The Minister's press people distributed a release for a photo-op of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Prentice to occur shortly after the press conference, outside of the offices of the U.S. delegation.
I showed up there and noticed Steve Kelly, Prentice's chief of staff, having a raised voice exchange with a member from the U.S. delegation. The problem was the U.S. delegation hadn't given the green light for a photo-op, just for closed bilateral meeting between the two.
Over the course of 10 minutes, Kelly repeatedly asked the U.S. delegation official to reconsider, to which the U.S. delegation official replied, negative. When Kelly asked for this to be taken up the chain of command, the U.S. delegation official replied "it came from pretty high up. It's not going to happen."
The U.S. official said he didn't understand why the photograph was so important, to which Kelly replied "we were carpetbagged this morning by (environmental non-governmental organizations) with a false press release, I gotta change the story."
— US Snubs Canada (a blog title which, in my opinion, puts entirely the wrong emphasis on the events).
Ah, such leadership. If you don't like what the press is talking about, you just gotta change the story. |
bcholmes
|
12:15a |
Copin', Hoggin'
[Toronto Mayor David Miller] also accepted two "Fossil of the Day" awards on behalf of Canada. The prize is awarded by a coalition of 400 non-governmental organizations to countries viewed as blocking progress at the climate summit.
"Like most Canadians, I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed that our government continues to be one of the biggest obstacles to reaching agreement," Mr. Miller said before accepting the award.
— "Toronto Mayor David Miller from Copenhagen", The Globe and Mail
|
| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
10:11p |
|
| Monday, December 14th, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
11:01p |
Coolest 'F' word ever...
Context is for the weak. Okay, I give in. It's over here.
Poll #1499116
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 62 Do you consider yourself a feminist? Would you call yourself a radical feminist? Some other option? What kinds of beliefs go hand-in-hand with radical feminism in your mind? I like the something else answers... Do you think that radical feminists are necessarily anti-trans? Some other option? Do you think of yourself as a trans ally? If you were hassling your bosses to get you pie, what kind of pie would it be? Tell us about the pie! |
bcholmes
|
10:38p |
|
bcholmes
|
9:43p |
|
bcholmes
|
8:16p |
Thought for the Day
Late last month, Haiti's government took the undemocratic and dangerous step of excluding 15 political parties, including Haiti's most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas, from parliamentary elections scheduled for February and March 2010. The decision threatens not only Haiti's democracy and stability, but billions in foreign investments financed by taxpayers in the United States and elsewhere.
The Obama administration, along with the United Nations and the Organization of American States, needs to step up and head off this disaster by refusing to finance the electoral charade.
The February/March elections are important because one-third of Haiti's Senate and the entire House of Deputies is at stake. Fanmi Lavalas' participation is important because the party is by far Haiti's most popular. It has won every election it has contested, including 90 percent of the seats in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Haiti's Provisional Electoral Council (PEC) claimed that a mandate sent by the party's exiled leader, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, from South Africa, is not authentic. In fact, Fanmi Lavalas presented an original mandate, authenticated by a Haitian notary that complies with Haitian law. Aristide sent a fax of the mandate directly to the PEC, and confirmed its authenticity in a radio interview.
The PEC not only lacks a good reason for removing Fanmi Lavalas from voters' ballots, it also lacks the constitutional legitimacy to do so. The Council is a Provisional Council hand-picked by Haiti's President, René Préval, not the independent Permanent Council required by Haiti's 1987 Constitution.
Credibility in doubt
The PEC tried the same thing earlier this year, and got away with it. The Council disqualified Fanmi Lavalas and other parties from elections held in April and June for 11 Senate seats. When the disqualifications were first announced, the United States, the U.N. and the OAS denounced them as undemocratic.
The U.S. Embassy warned that the exclusion would "inevitably" raise questions about the election's credibility.
But the PEC called the international community's bluff and kept the excluded parties out. The international community blinked by not only accepting the flawed elections, but paying for them, too: International donors supplied $12.5 million, 72 percent of the election's cost.
[...]
— Brian Concannon and Ira Kurzban, "Don't honor tainted election"
|
| Saturday, December 12th, 2009 |
girl_at_play
|
12:49p |
|
| Friday, December 11th, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
8:55p |
I'd like to point out...
...that the TTC takes advertising dollars from Nestle. And I find that ickier than the "Life is short. Have an affair" ads. |
| Thursday, December 10th, 2009 |
bcholmes
|
7:10p |
Meme on the beach
If I came with a warning label, but it was badly worded and you thought it said one thing when really it said something else, and then you were trying to tell someone else about but you couldn't get the details right and you got it all wrong as you were trying to repeat it, what would be the best music to filk this whole experience to? |
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fil512's Friends Page
41 (66.1%)