AMERICAblog: French protesters derail Olympic Torch carry in Paris
SINGING_TROLL
· 1 year ago
The French can teach us a few things.
If I had to choose just one thing Americans could learn from the French it would be the GENERAL STRIKE!!
Morpheus
· 1 year ago
The Oympics were once a great sporting event that was known for it's athletes and sportsmanship. Now it is just a way for the media and corporations to make $$$$ at the expense of the athletes.
Morpheus
· 1 year ago
Great point singing troll!
Hack
· 1 year ago
The General strike is awesome. Americans will never do it. It actually works.
HeartlandLiberal
· 1 year ago
Vive la belle et bonne France! Ca tout dit!
Filo
· 1 year ago
"Morpheus Great point singing troll!"
General strikes would solve most of our problems. The only way to speak to money is to shut down its ability to make more of it.
msirt
· 1 year ago
If China were smart, they'd enter into negotiations with the Dalai Lama (whom has gone so far as to offer to relinquish full Independence for Tibet and accept autonomy under Chinese rule), come to a framework agreement, and then invite him to the opening ceremonies, in fact, let him speak at the ceremony about satygraha (non-violence and the Buddhist teaching of ending suffering in the world). How in the Olympic spirit would that be?
Hell, they wouldn't even need a splashy show if they did that.
And I could stop trying to avoid buying Chinese made stuff.
Can you just imagine!
Valentine Frey
· 1 year ago
So seriously - why is it so easy to imagine the French pulling this off? And more importantly why can't Americans do this anymore? Is it, as George Carlin says, because they've gotten us hooked on cell-phones that make pancakes?
nicho
· 1 year ago
test
DeppFan
· 1 year ago
It took a lot of guts to climb the cables of the Golden Gate bridge to hang this banner "several dozen feet above traffic":
Hack 15 minutes ago The General strike is awesome. Americans will never do it. It actually works.
It is awesome and it does work -- and it used to work in the US. This is why the first business of the fascists was to destroy the labor movement in the US. It began after WW2 with the Taft-Hartley Act and continued until Ronald Reagan put a bullet in the head of the unions.
You can't have general strikes without unions -- or great civil unrest. When you have massive unemployment like we have, companies would just fire people who didn't show up for work, and hire some of the hundreds of thousands that are out of work.
Without some protections for workers or organizing entity, you can't have general strikes.
SINGING_TROLL
· 1 year ago
OT-Good opinion piece from Buzzflash. -- Mark Penn and Senator Clinton: It's a Matter of Trust BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
Mark Penn did not get "demoted" from being Clinton's chief strategist for meeting with the Colombian government. He got officially "pushed" aside for getting caught, which had the danger of once again exposing Senator Clinton's hypocrisy and deception on fair trade and union issues. Of course, he will still be "consulting" for the Clinton campaign. Natch.
Consider this April 4th Clinton campaign statement "inoperative" now: "Today, the Clinton campaign was asked about the [Colombian] meeting, and a spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said that Mr. Penn’s work had nothing to do with the campaign and that he did not see any conflict or perception problem."
BuzzFlash has a homework assignment for our readers. Examine the following excerpts from articles this past week about what was clearly a Clinton campaign overture to Colombia to get involved in the U.S. primaries by denouncing Obama. But there’s more to it than that. Despite all the ongoing Mark Penn apologies, he’s the poster boy for the corporate lobbyist destructive infestation of our government – and he is Clinton’s lead strategist.
Clinton can’t ever distance herself from Penn, because she chose to put a guy so compromised that he represents some of the worst corporate violators in the world as head of Burson-Marsteller as the chief strategist of her campaign. As Senator Clinton keeps telling us, actions speak louder than words. And the Senator fired Patti Solis Doyle and kept Mark Penn on in her campaign, to this day. (See update at bottom of commentary. Sunday evening, Penn formally got the heave-ho as official lead strategist, but apparently he'll still be doing polling and consulting. His crime: he got caught by the Wall Street Journal.)
This speaks volumes about how the corporations and "K Street" lobbyists will be running the White House if Clinton were to be the Dem nominee and get elected. Clinton’s campaign is so compromised ethically and in terms of contradictions to her stated public policies by the RepubliCrat Penn – and her "centrist" policies before the primaries started -- that it leaves you breathless.
In fact, Charles Black who runs McCain’s campaign, works as a lobbyist for a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, of which Penn is still CEO (he didn’t even take a leave of absence). On top of that, Penn is paid millions of dollars by the Clinton campaign to even another firm: his own consulting company.
So do your homework. I will be back tomorrow with some comments on this cesspool of corrupt campaign relationships, known as the K Street lobbyist/DLC/RepubliCrat ruling elite.
[BuzzFlash has italicized a select few key sentences.]
From the Tuesday, April 1, Wall Street Journal re a Monday meeting between Senator Clinton’s lead strategist and the Colombian Ambassador to the United States. It is important to note that the spokesman for the Colombian Embassy refers to the meeting as a political one:
"Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate opposes.
Attendance by the adviser, Mark Penn, was confirmed by two Colombian officials. He wasn't there in his campaign role, but in his separate job as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, an international communications and lobbying firm. The firm has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, among other things, according to filings with the Justice Department
Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Mr. Penn's campaign-consulting firm, received more than $10 million in payments from the Clinton campaign as of the end of February, according to federal election filings.
"Mr. Penn declined to comment. Howard Wolfson, communications director for Sen. Clinton's campaign, said in an email that "Mark was not there on behalf of the campaign" and referred further questions to Burson-Marsteller. "Sen. Clinton's opposition to the trade deal with Colombia is clear," Mr. Wolfson added. http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/077
Bubbles
· 1 year ago
I agree with the sentiments expressed here. Ours is a non-functioning democracy, largely because we allow for collective ownership, but discourage collective labor and bargaining. This one sided relationship destroys much of the purpose and meaning of democracy.
I think it's brilliant work done by the protestors. But I wonder about back lash. Even Tibetans have warned us. There are a billion, mostly proud Chinese, who see this as their coming out party, and they're seeing it tarnished. If they blame their own government, then maybe its a good thing, but if the blame lands somewhere else, like upon the Tibetans themselves, their could be some ugly blow back, come the fall.
James
· 1 year ago
Throwing rocks, breaking windows, turning over cars, starting fires, pissing off cops, paralyzing cities. These are the things a good protest accomplishes. They don't stop wars, they don't free people from jail, they don't address injustice. In a practical sense, they just make a huge mess and ultimately accomplish nothing.
I mean, you can bully the guy running with the torch all you want, but think --really think-- about how that's going to help Tibet.
Indigo
· 1 year ago
Vive la France!
tlsintx
· 1 year ago
c'est la vie, China.
i hope world opinion will have some effect...maybe this Olympic spectacle and all the protests will impress upon China what the rest of the world thinks about their reprehensible treatment of brave, little Tibet.
a nony mouse
· 1 year ago
I thought chapeau was hat ... ? o_O
msirt
· 1 year ago
"Chapeau" as in "hat tip"
Emily
· 1 year ago
I think the US needs some cops on inline skates.
paulbe
· 1 year ago
I presume this concern for humanity so evident against China, is transferable to other parts of the world where Governments practice brutality against citizens. So on that basis, we can expect to see some angry protests outside the Israeli embassy? Aipac offices, ADL, JDL, JINSA etc etc?? Thought not. What a lot of crap is this sudden, engineered concern for Tibet from the country that sponsors Israeli atrocities in the Palestinian lands.
All Comments
If I had to choose just one thing Americans could learn from the French it would be the GENERAL STRIKE!!
Americans will never do it.
It actually works.
Great point singing troll!"
General strikes would solve most of our problems.
The only way to speak to money is to shut down its ability to make more of it.
Hell, they wouldn't even need a splashy show if they did that.
And I could stop trying to avoid buying Chinese made stuff.
Can you just imagine!
"Olympic Torch Protesters Scale Golden Gate"
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/07/world...
The General strike is awesome.
Americans will never do it.
It actually works.
It is awesome and it does work -- and it used to work in the US. This is why the first business of the fascists was to destroy the labor movement in the US. It began after WW2 with the Taft-Hartley Act and continued until Ronald Reagan put a bullet in the head of the unions.
You can't have general strikes without unions -- or great civil unrest. When you have massive unemployment like we have, companies would just fire people who didn't show up for work, and hire some of the hundreds of thousands that are out of work.
Without some protections for workers or organizing entity, you can't have general strikes.
--
Mark Penn and Senator Clinton: It's a Matter of Trust
BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
Mark Penn did not get "demoted" from being Clinton's chief strategist for meeting with the Colombian government. He got officially "pushed" aside for getting caught, which had the danger of once again exposing Senator Clinton's hypocrisy and deception on fair trade and union issues. Of course, he will still be "consulting" for the Clinton campaign. Natch.
Consider this April 4th Clinton campaign statement "inoperative" now: "Today, the Clinton campaign was asked about the [Colombian] meeting, and a spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said that Mr. Penn’s work had nothing to do with the campaign and that he did not see any conflict or perception problem."
BuzzFlash has a homework assignment for our readers. Examine the following excerpts from articles this past week about what was clearly a Clinton campaign overture to Colombia to get involved in the U.S. primaries by denouncing Obama. But there’s more to it than that. Despite all the ongoing Mark Penn apologies, he’s the poster boy for the corporate lobbyist destructive infestation of our government – and he is Clinton’s lead strategist.
Clinton can’t ever distance herself from Penn, because she chose to put a guy so compromised that he represents some of the worst corporate violators in the world as head of Burson-Marsteller as the chief strategist of her campaign. As Senator Clinton keeps telling us, actions speak louder than words. And the Senator fired Patti Solis Doyle and kept Mark Penn on in her campaign, to this day. (See update at bottom of commentary. Sunday evening, Penn formally got the heave-ho as official lead strategist, but apparently he'll still be doing polling and consulting. His crime: he got caught by the Wall Street Journal.)
This speaks volumes about how the corporations and "K Street" lobbyists will be running the White House if Clinton were to be the Dem nominee and get elected. Clinton’s campaign is so compromised ethically and in terms of contradictions to her stated public policies by the RepubliCrat Penn – and her "centrist" policies before the primaries started -- that it leaves you breathless.
In fact, Charles Black who runs McCain’s campaign, works as a lobbyist for a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, of which Penn is still CEO (he didn’t even take a leave of absence). On top of that, Penn is paid millions of dollars by the Clinton campaign to even another firm: his own consulting company.
So do your homework. I will be back tomorrow with some comments on this cesspool of corrupt campaign relationships, known as the K Street lobbyist/DLC/RepubliCrat ruling elite.
[BuzzFlash has italicized a select few key sentences.]
From the Tuesday, April 1, Wall Street Journal re a Monday meeting between Senator Clinton’s lead strategist and the Colombian Ambassador to the United States. It is important to note that the spokesman for the Colombian Embassy refers to the meeting as a political one:
"Hillary Clinton's chief campaign strategist met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate opposes.
Attendance by the adviser, Mark Penn, was confirmed by two Colombian officials. He wasn't there in his campaign role, but in his separate job as chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide, an international communications and lobbying firm. The firm has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, among other things, according to filings with the Justice Department
Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Mr. Penn's campaign-consulting firm, received more than $10 million in payments from the Clinton campaign as of the end of February, according to federal election filings.
"Mr. Penn declined to comment. Howard Wolfson, communications director for Sen. Clinton's campaign, said in an email that "Mark was not there on behalf of the campaign" and referred further questions to Burson-Marsteller. "Sen. Clinton's opposition to the trade deal with Colombia is clear," Mr. Wolfson added.
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/077
I think it's brilliant work done by the protestors. But I wonder about back lash. Even Tibetans have warned us. There are a billion, mostly proud Chinese, who see this as their coming out party, and they're seeing it tarnished. If they blame their own government, then maybe its a good thing, but if the blame lands somewhere else, like upon the Tibetans themselves, their could be some ugly blow back, come the fall.
I mean, you can bully the guy running with the torch all you want, but think --really think-- about how that's going to help Tibet.
i hope world opinion will have some effect...maybe this Olympic spectacle and all the protests will impress upon China what the rest of the world thinks about their reprehensible treatment of brave, little Tibet.