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Today I was invited to the Hispanic Caucus for a morning of tribute, blogging and comraderie with the Hispanic legislators of our country at the invitation of fellow Kossack, Obama Super Delegate from Colorado, fellow garden blogger and Colorado DNC committeewoman...Green Chile Democrat.  

John and Ken Salazar were the featured lead-off speakers which included a visit by Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton. Speakers included Senator Menendez of New Jersey, Congressperson Loreta Sanchez of California who all spoke of the dynamics of increased voter registration for the emerging  Hispanic communities and demographics in America.

Good Afternoon Kossacks.

I hope today's post finds you all well. Apologies for not posting "The Week in Indigenous Peoples Rights" last week, I wasted three or four days trying to remember how many homes I own, and just couldn't get around to it (turns out the answer is none; turns out I rent an apartment).

Anyways, this week we'll be looking at what's going on in the Peruvian Amazon and West Papua.

First, an update on the study Oil, Biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples in the Western Amazon, that I wrote about a week ago Wednesday: In the first week since releasing the study, there have been about 200 news stories about it; from South Africa, to London, to Italy, Germany, Poland, Peru, Brazil,... Even Time is covering it! They've got a great interview with my co-author, Dr. Matt Finer, on their podcast.

Now, to this week's news.

Despite the violent threats of the Israeli Occupation forces to the boats, the two boats with 44 human rights activists protesting the illegal and brutal siege of Gaza have reached Gazan waters.  

A main strength of nonviolent activism is that it challenges the opponent with very difficult options, making a violent response by the oppressor less likely. In this specific case, it is clear with the media attention these boats have received worldwide (even some limited coverage in the US) have made a violent response by the Israeli military politically impossible. So despite the threats of the Israeli military to "stop this provocation", it seems the mighty Israeli military has caved to boats filled with rubber balloons for the children of Gaza.

The siege of Gaza, for today, has been broken.
This is truly an historic day for the people of Palestine, for nonviolent struggle, for bringing peace to the Middle East.

Dear Olympic National Committee,

I would like to thank the Chinese dictatorship for sponsoring a spectacle worthy of a nation with an unlimited budget and a surging inferiority complex . A large tacky affair with some local costumes, like other nations have traditionally produced, would not have been a proper coming out party for the new China. Only proper totalitarian countries can marshal thousands to perform in machine like precision for the pride of the nation. China has proven worthy of a Gold Medal leaving North Korea a distant silver. This is an achievement that is as much historical as it is Las Vegas.

We have to go back several generations since one of Belgium's neighbors proudly created the medium, but with that unpleasantness set aside, we can all agree we had seen nothing like it and will have to wait until China gets another opportunity to see something like it again.

Note to London: please don't try to coordinate 2,012 Brits to do anything this precise especially if there is anything on tap nearby.

Why the HE** aren't people on this board up in arms over T. Boone Pickens greenwashing a plan to tear apart the lower Midwest's underground and above-ground environmnent?  Plutonium Page?  Jerome de Paris?  Devilstower?  Swarm of lesser-known contributors?

As you may recall, the brains heading up the British Israel Communications and Research Centre claimed in a recent(ish) letter to the Guardian that the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana (pictured below) was "accidental" (see my earlier response here).

I used to teach college-level Composition. It wasn't something I was entirely fond of and I'm glad to be done with it (for now anyway), but one of the things I enjoyed most each Semester was teaching critical thinking skills. I asked my students to write papers on the question - "Who owns the body?" - they could choose from among several topics under that subject. Obviously reproductive choice was one of those options, but there was also the question of military drafts, personal drug use, stem cell research, in-vitro fertilization, organ donorship, etc. The topics weren't easy - the question wasn't easy. They had to argue towards the middle ground regardless of their personal opinion.

One requirement in writing the essay was to first define each extreme side. I referred to this as - following the consequences. In other words, how would our reality change if we actually enacted this particular change. What would the specific changes be? Who would be affected and how? Some students found this difficult, some had a great time and really worked out their imagination, but everyone eventually got to the point where they understood the point -- that most of the time, we tend to come to conclusions about our opinion before we ever really think about where we stand.

I know it is much now in US because of the presidential election. And it is much about it here in Sweden too. The result is important for the whole world. But: still: there is to much silence about the loss of human rights in Iran. I got an urgent message about this today and want to forward it to the rest of the progressive world.

I was just trying to watch the swimming.

Instead I found myself watching George W. Bush, the human turd in the punch bowl that is the Beijing Olympics, being interviewed by Bob Costas on NBC.

I was just trying to watch the fucking swimming!!!

Good Morning Kossacks. This is the first in what I hope to be a weekly series. As noted in yesterday's diary by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, yesterday was World Indigenous Peoples Day.

Today's diary will focus on two urgent situations that happened yesterday. One in the Peruvian Amazon, the other in West Papua. Please read on and take action.

Mr. Olbermann, you have a unique opportunity that perfectly suits your ability and interest.

The world is watching China’s presentation of the Olympics for the next two weeks.  In the United states, NBC provides the lens for this focus, and you anchor the most popular public affairs show on NBC’s news network.  You are an editorialist who prides himself on challenging hypocrisy and injustice.  I ask that you spend at least one minute during each episode of Countdown during this Olympic period holding China to account.

On August 9, 1936, Jesse Owens won the last of his four gold medal at the Olympics.

Hitler declined to congratulate him.

That's the story you're told.

The stories you aren't told paint a far more strife-filled picture, and one well worth looking at in the infancy of another already-controversy-filled Games.

This is another diary critical of the West's position on Georgia.

Just as a bit of background, let me state here for the record that I wrote my PhD on the independence of Ukraine, and have thus studied how Russia behaves with its neighbors rather intensively. Following that, I worked for several years financing oil&gas projects in Russia and the Caspian; in particular, I worked on te financing of the BTC pipeline that goes from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia (I wrote about it on DailyKos 3 years ago). Oil companies don't need the money: what they want is for other parties like banks to share the political risks associated with their projects. Which means that in turn, the job of a banker working on these projects is to understand those political risks. And it is quite obvious that the relationship between Russia and the Caucasus countries, including Georgia, was at the heart of my work.

But if you think I am just a "lefty European apologist of Soviet atrocities", feel free to move on and ignore this diary.

Last year, I took a course entitled simply "Genocide." It covered the origin of the crime and cases of it throughout the 20th and 21st century. Among crises covered was Darfur, which does not legally meet the definition of genocide. My professor, however, said it is really hairsplitting to between "crimes against humanity" and genocide. The basic fact remains that hundreds of thousands have been brutally murdered and millions displaced into surrounding regions inciting regional conflicts. Our main course grade was based on a research paper on a topic of our choosing. Mine was over the United Nations, genocide, and impediments to humanitarian intervention. I also analyzed the idea of the "national interest" in considering intervention and argued that no matter the circumstance, prevention and punishment of genocide is preferable. In analyzing flaws UN culture, I focused primarily on China and its actions in relation to Darfur. I wanted to post some excerpts from my paper so some people understand why I am so pissed that people are enamored with the Olympics and why we must overlook the grandstanding and fireworks.

Simply put, China is complicit is crimes against humanity and we have rewarded them with the Olympics games.

Tonight will be "China's night", won't it? If all goes according to the meticulously scripted plan, the entire world will see just how far China has come under the austere guidance of the Communist Party. The party and the corporate sponsors especially, have been spending orchestrating the ceremony to insure that it goes off without a hitch.

However, cracks are turning into chasms and the real story of the Chinese human rights situation has begun to seep out.

I'll try to delve into that further as a means of showing you why tonight's pomp and circumstance is a hollow guise designed to distract the world from the actual truth.

Several years ago, when the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games of the XXIX Olympaid to the city of Beijing, I remember thinking that it was a bad call. I was in no way surprised - the IOC has made bad calls before, and will do so again.

I was 14 years old in the spring of 1989. Despite my youth, I was moderately politically aware. Throughout most of the month of May, I recall coming home from school and turning on the television and seeing something very special happening in Tiananmen Square. Thousands upon thousands of young people had gathered together demanding greater freedoms, which as a young American I took for granted as something of a birthright.  

This will be short and sweet.  At least one other diarist has called for a boycott of watching the Beijing Summer Olympics on TV.  To that I say Right On!

But, there's also another way to show your displeasure with China being selected to host these games..  More below the fold..

The AP just picked up a week-old story in which Prince George's Country police raided the home of a local mayor in a bizarre case of identity theft, and shot his dogs dead:

Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table. Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/200...

This was by no means the first time the PG police have violated its citizens.