The God, Guns, Gays Agenda

In what may be a passing era, the Republican party has been very successful (until now) in mobilizing support behind their candidates because of their "conservative" positions on abortion, same-sex marriage, sex education, and many other related issues. The films "Friends of God" and "The Education of Shelby Knox" describe the strong sentiments of people who support conservative stances on these issues as well as those who take more liberal positions.

Where do you stand on these issues? How important are these issues to you? You may reference either of the films or the discussions that we had in class. Be sure to comment for yourself and to comment on someone else's comment.

Takin' Care of Business

America has always been somewhat of a plutocracy, to one extent or another, ruled by the rich. Yes, there are those moments in history when the working people have shared some of that power, but it was won by blood and tears. We'll take a look at some of these struggles in the coming weeks, including examples from history and from more recent years and the present.

The Bush administration is not yet totally irrelevant, and given the damage they've done it will be quite some time before they will be. In the last days of their lame duck administration, limping toward the finish line, they are pushing through a wide range of bureaucratic changes that will make things easier for big business at the expense of working people. OMB Watch has compiled a list of changes that the Bush admin is attempting to push through, it includes these provisions :

" A rule to ease restrictions on mountaintop mining companies was first proposed in January 2004. The rule would allow the companies to dump the waste generated by mountaintop mining into rivers and streams. "

"For a rule that would exempt factory farms from reporting air emissions from animal waste, officials from the White House and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met with representatives from the poultry, pork, and turkey farm lobbies."

"An upcoming rule that will make it more difficult for employees to claim unpaid leave for family and medical emergencies mirrors part of the request of the National Association of Manufacturers, a lobbying group."

" While some rules have been rushed, others have been in development for years. Critics have long feared upcoming rules that will make it easier for power plants to avoid installing pollution controls or allow trucking companies to force their drivers to work 11-hour shifts."

Every administration does crazy things at the end of its tenure, remember that Clinton, on his last day in office, pardoned notorious white collar criminal Marc Rich. What Bush is attempting to do with his last days in office will be far more harmful to working people in ways that may be hard for Obama or Congress to overturn.

For more information on this issue see this report from Democracy Now!

John Q & Joe "the plumber"

In what ways does the film John Q represent the struggles of real working people? Is John Q's militant action justified? In what ways does the film's portrayal of the health care crisis in this country exemplify our study of poverty and the working poor? Other topics to consider: what stereotypes does the film employ? Do you agree with the use of these stereotypes? Comment briefly on these topics, and then respond, at least once, to someone else's comment.

Winning the Hearts and Minds of the People? Part II

Here we go again? Is there anyone, not completely insane, who thinks that this strategy of willy nilly bombing inside of allied and neutral countries will actually kill more "terrorists" and "militants" than it will create? The above picture is a non-violent demonstration in Syria denouncing American "terrorism." These demonstrations are a reaction to the US raid inside of Syria about a week ago, in which 8 people were killed; of course the "Defense" Department claimed these individuals were all "militants" (i.e. males over the age of 12). In what way do these actions compare to US policy in Iraq, specifically in the April '04 siege on Fallujah? Respond...

Winning the Hearts and Minds of the People?

Another US bombing inside of Pakistan kills more children. Pentagon defends its actions by claiming the school "has links to the Taliban." See the footage from the bombing here.

one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country

In the third and final Presidential debate, John McCain said: "We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy." This was a shameless attempt to distract Americans from the real problem of Republican voter suppression and get them to focus on the imaginary problem of false registrations.



ACORN is a community organization that represents mostly poor people of color, particularly in urban areas. They work as "advocates for low- and moderate-income families by working on neighborhood safety, voter registration, health care and other social issues." What makes ACORN so subversive to the right-wing is, not only that they represent poor Americans, but that they also work with people in South America. This makes ACORN one of the few institutions left that attempts to build international solidarity among working people. The Right-Wing has always worked to demonize solidarity movements of working people. After all, remember that Americans celebrate "Labor Day" basically because the Government feared the fact that American workers were celebrating the traditional "May Day" in concert with the workers of the world. On "Labor Day" workers in America take the "day off" to "rest." The rest of the world's workers on "May Day" march, demonstrate, and agitate for better wages, conditions, and rights. That's simply unacceptable to the American ruling class and their pals, the US Government; hence, the creation of the bourgeois "Labor Day" (see this piece for a bit more on that topic). The demonization of ACORN is part of a long chain of events of suppression of working class movements in this country.

ACORN is guilty of very minor election law infractions. They were paying people to register other people to vote. Naturally, some of these people registered make-believe people in order to get paid more. This is illegal, no doubt. But it hardly will tip an election. Do imaginary people show up and vote? Daffy Duck? Mickey Mouse? I'm not too worried.

The attacks on ACORN make sense though. The Republicans need to associate "community organizing" with sinister activities (remember Barack Obama was a "community organizer"). ACORN is generally is associated with poor, people of color as well. The attacks on ACORN offer the Republicans a chance to bring the issue of race in through the back door, so to speak. Furthermore, attacking ACORN for the simple issue of false voter registrations provides a red herring. Republicans need to distract Americans from their, far worse, practice of "voter suppression." Generally, in the words of Christian Conservative Republican Paul Weyrich, Republicans do better in elections when there is low voter turnout. One way to keep the turnout low is to "purge" low-income, urban, people from the rolls, thus getting rid of likely Democrat voters. This has been done in 2000 in Florida and in 2004 in Ohio. There have been recent reports that this is being done right now in several states. One need only look at the work of Robert Kennedy, Jr., Mark Crispin Miller, and Greg Palast for voluminous amounts of evidence on this issue. (If you click on Kennedy and Miller you can see interviews with them on the topic)

McCain's comments on this issue were simply another distraction in a campaign (McCain for President) that has been defined by one red herring after another. What else do you do when you know the people disagree with you on nearly all the issues in the election?