Interactive political map of the West Bank
This Guardian interactive map of the occupation of the West Bank is a beautiful exposition of the extent of the occupation. It leads the viewer through a series of clicks which turn on map elements revealing the dominance of the Israeli occupation one aspect at a time.
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Corporate Collective Consciousness
Isn't it lovely that corpoations, basically people like the rest of us, can edit wikipedia. Use Wiki Scanner to see what your least favorite Fortune 500 company has been using their free speech for.
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If you try to save the life of one person today - make sure it is Kenneth Foster
We can save Kenneth Foster, we might even be able to set him free, and in my wildest dreams I could see him getting reparations for having spent 10 years on Death Row for driving a car - BUT it will take action. The state of Texas is serious about killing people. We have to make it politically impossible for them to commit this legal lynching. That means making some noise. Pass it on.
The State of Texas plans to kill Kenneth Foster on August 30, 2007. Kenneth didn't rape, kill or maim anyone. He didn't reveal a CIA agent, or price gauge the state of California, he certainly didn't start a war for oil in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.
He was the driver of a car, from which Mauriceo Brown, one of the passengers, exited, got in an altercation with Michael LaHood and shot and killed him. (Long story, made short) Kenneth was 85 feet away from the crime scene listening to music with the windows rolled up. Kenneth went to leave without the other passenger - but ended up picking him up as he left the scene.
Texas has a Law of Parties which means that accomplices in crimes may be charged with the crime itself and sentenced accordingly - in this case to death. Even if you were so backward as to think that might be a just kind of law - it shouldn't apply in this case. Kenneth did not know the crime was going to happen. It is not clear than anyone knew it was going to happen in advance including Mauriceo Brown.
How could this happen? There must be more to the case, right? Well there is - read up on it, the more that you read, the closer to the ground your jaw will drop. It seems each injustice in this case is riddled with more astounding injustices.
No really, how could this happen? Racism. Kenneth is Black. Young Black men are looked at by the criminal justice system as crimes waiting to happen. So what if Kenneth didn't actually do anything this time, it was just a matter of time right? That is racism.
What can you do to help Kenneth Foster? Make some noise. You write a blog about information graphics? - find a way to write about Kenneth Foster. You have an Aunt that works for a paper? Tell her the story. You have friends? Tell them to do the same. Don't have many friends but have money? Send some to:
Velocity Credit Union
PO BOX 1089
Austin, Texas 78767-9947
Acct. Name : To Save Kenneth Foster
Acct #: 831766.1
Saving Kenneth Foster, is about saving Kenneth Foster, but it is also about fighting racism, ending the law of parties, and ending the death penalty.
Links:
Save Kenneth Blog
Free Kenneth Foster website
Meeting: If you are in San Francisco, come to hear Barbara Becnel and Elizabeth Terzakis from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty speak about Kenneth's case. If you haven't heard Barbara speak before then you have been missing out, if you have then you will know that this is an event not to be missed. There will be a discussion afterwards - so come and have your say. That will be 7.00 pm Wednesday August 1st at 110 Capp St, Buzz 202, near 16th Street Bart. Sponsored by the International Socialist Org.
You can email me: josh@theyrule.net for more info.
Video from the blog:
Mario Africa makes the case so well...
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War Game
Pandemic Studios make hate games. The BBC reported about a forthcoming of their game Mercenaries (build your own private military forces)which is based on a very possible US attack on Venezuela.
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Invisible 5
Listen to the Invisible 5 Environmental Justice Audio Tour as you travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles or vice versa. Hear the stories of people who live near the I5 and deal with environmental racism - battling toxic waste dumps, incinerators and smog. You can download the mp3s and listen on your mp3 player - or save it for the trip.
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Cryptome
Boing Boing had a link to Cryptome Cryptome this morning. According to Wikipedia Cryptome is: "a controversial website, hosted in the United States by its owner John Young, that functions as a repository for information that is prohibited or suppressed by various governments."
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Disappeared in America
From Site:
DISAPPEARED is a project by the Visible Collective that uses technology-art, sculpture-installations and lectures to humanize post 9/11 "disappeared" Muslims. The majority of migrants detained in recent security hysteria were from the invisible underclass of cities like New York. They are the recent immigrants who drive our taxis, deliver our food, clean our restaurant tables, and sell fruit, coffee, and newspapers. The only time we "see" them is when we glance at the hack license in the taxi partition, or the ID card around the neck of a vendor.
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Exploring Enron
From the site: :Using the Enron e-mail archive as a motivating dataset, we are attempting the marriage of visual and algorithmic analyses of e-mail archives within an exploratory data analysis environment. The intent is to leverage the characteristic strengths of both man[sic] and machine for unearthing insight. Below are a few sketches from a preliminary exploration into the design space of such tools." Site by Jeffrey Heer - thanks to Michael Dale for sending me the link.
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First By the Floods, Then By Martial Law: Trapped in New Orleans
There are many accounts of people's devastating experiences in New Orleans, but this story really gave me a sense of the callous ineptitude of the authorities. After reading it I saw this photo and got really mad. My guess is that the people who took that post office truck were heroes, that should have been the guess of the armed officers too. It should be apparent to all that we need a system with a whole other set of priorites. I suggest reading The Case for Socialism by Alan Maass. I am reading it right now and although I was already convinced at the outset, I am sill finding it very compelling reading!
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Board to Death
Adbusters reviews California’s Sonoma State University examination of the resumes of the 118 people who sit on the boards of directors of America’s ten largest media organizations.
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More Billionaires - just what we need
This article outlines some of the details of the new Forbes rich list. Guess what? The rich are getting richer.
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A wave of political documentaries.
The phenomena of Fahrenheit 9/11 is turning out people out in droves to see a political documentary is not a completely isolated event. There is a thirst for political explanations for the general situation that we live in. The fact that there is enough to go around and yet we live in a system that creates scarcity and demands war requires some analysis. The last couple of years have seen a spate of excellent political documentaries. Here are a few:
Thirst is a film about the global resistance to the privatization of water.
The Corporation looks at the entity of the corporation. They have the legal staus of a person - but what sort of 'people' are they?
Control Room takes a look at the coverage of the American War on Iraq, concentrating on the network news station Al Jazeera.
Forth World War documents global resistance to imperialism, colonialism and privatization.
The Revolution will not be Televised tracks the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, through an attempted coup on his presidency. You see the poorest people of the country rise up to defeat the coup.
John Pilger's recent films 'Palestine is still the issue' and 'Breaking the Silence' can not go without mention. Pilger has a knack for getting interviews with politicians and powerful individuals and then asking them very direct questions that completely break their attempts to appear calm.
Battle Ground is a film from GNN that is coming out soon. I am not sure how left wing it will be - as they claim it: "will challenge the orthodoxies of Left and Right." If by left wing orthodoxies - they mean they right wing policies of the Democratic Party that voted for the war - then it could be good.
Please suggest more that should be on this list.
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