Rabble

Beka Economopoulos, a member of the Brooklyn-based group Not An Alternative, interprets a moving sculpture by artists at the Toronto G20 using the “Black Bloc” method of sculpting.

The piece entitled “The Sculpture of Exception,” ironically turns political theorist Carl Schmitt’s “state of exception” on its head. The state of exception, according to Schmitt, frees the executive from any legal restraints to its power that would normally apply in a given crisis situation or any situation where power needs self-legitimization.

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Hey folks...episode 51 continues The Ruckus' wandering through Canada's rock and roll past, with the second of a three-part series on Thrush Hermit. They were one of the finest bands to erupt from the mid-90s Halifax alt-rock scene. For those of you who aren't quite sure who they were, you may know their most famous member, Canadian folk-rock-poet Joel Plaskett.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Joel, Ian McGettigan, and Rob Benvie at a tea shop in Ottawa before they did their soundcheck during their quickie reunion tour in March 2010.

In this episode, you'll hear all about how they signed with Elektra Records for their Sweet Homewrecker album, and you'll also hear all about their infamous Steve Miller set.

Enjoy!

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"Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege." - Tommy Douglas, 1942

Lack of corporate accountability is a bedrock issue for the anti-globalization movement, as I am beginning to understand in a whole new way.

There is nothing new about political and business elites making (or not making) deals behind fortified doors. It is the old way, and it has got to go.

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A collection of some of Victoria's favourite sounds from Honduras and Guatemala.  Chickens, birds, kids, really noisy birds, raking coffee and a Lenten pageant complete with monks, grotesque statuary and sousaphones.

* Cambodian police attack women garment workers

* Massive strike of public employees in South Africa

* Ukrainian unions fight doubling of gas prices

* Ikea fights unionization in the United States

* Migrant workers protest new law in Arizona, U.S.

* ICEM meets with ACFTU in China

* Labour wants a fair transition to greener economies

The same conservatives who spent the past year senselessly screaming about the U.S. budget deficit are now demanding an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. The extension simply doesn’t make sense, and the policies implied are a recipe for massive job loss in the middle of the worst employment crisis in 75 years.

Deflation nation

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OK, the fledgling Alberta Party says it's moving onward and upward from meeting, greeting and eating in kitchens and living rooms throughout the province, and that now is the time for Momentum-with-a-Capital-M. Big Momentum.

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Most Americans do not know it. When they hear it, many people do not believe it. Since the early 1980s, in the U.S., most income gains have gone to the top one per cent of income earners. From 2002-07, two-thirds of new income went to one per cent of Americans. From 1993 to 2008, 99 per cent of U.S. residents got the same increase in income as the top one percent (defined as those earning over $308,000 in 2008).

Indeed, most new income has gone to the top one per cent within the one per cent (0.1 per cent, or about 150,000 families). Within that top 0.1 percent, the top one per cent (0.01 percent) of the U.S. population now gets one dollar for every US$17 earned by the entire population.

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"There's a cartoon where activists march bearing placards. ‘No more motorways,' says one. ‘Stop the War,' demands another. ‘Down with the corporations,' shouts a third. And, finally, the guy at the end proclaims, ‘I hate my dad!'"
- Andrew Harvey

While personal pain is probably not the sole motivation for why activists do what we do, we probably all have to admit that it plays some role, even if only to sensitize us to the suffering of others. Perhaps, however, we are unaware of just how much personal pain we carry with us into our work.

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A U.S. group has unveiled a billboard campaign urging Americans to reconsider their travel plans to Alberta because of the province's tar sands development. We speak with Michael Marx, executive director of Corporate Ethics International.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

Farms have operated in Canadian prisons for more than 100 years. The farms provide meaningful work experience for inmates and contribute to local food sustainability. But they are all slated to close. Jon Steinman of Deconstructing Dinner on Kootenay Coop Radio has been following this story since the closures first started in 2009.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

When a South Korean military vessel off the coast of North Korea in March, fingers were pointed at North Korea. Erich Weingartner says the evidence isn't there to support these claims. Weingartner is editor of the CanKor website.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

Longtime readers of this blog may remember that a couple of years ago, I was regularly running long compilations of civilian deaths at the hands of foreign forces (see, for example, here and here). Deadly incidents occurred every few days for months on end. More than once did the tally of civilians killed by western troops exceed that of civilians killed by the Taliban.

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News from Around the Region: Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Indonesia and PNG.

Interview with Farooq Tariq from the Labour Party, Pakistan on Workers, Religious Fundamentalism and War.

Richard Steiner was deeply involved in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He is a retired professor at the University of Alaska and he just returned from working at the site of BP's Deepwater Horizon gusher and on the Gulf Coast.

To find out more about Redeye, check out our website.

It is becoming clearer, that prisons are where a lot of people living with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) are ending up. And prison is the last place they should be to find the support and interventions they need.

Stark Raven spoke with Vancouver lawyer, David Boulding about FASD and its relationship to the criminal justice system.

David became an advocate and educator on FASD, after many years of making mistakes working with clients in the system who had FASD. In the past decade he has done dozens of workshops, presentations and written papers on FASD and the law.

For more information on his work, check out davidboulding.com

Dear Sasha,

I am a 31-year-old straight male, fairly experienced with long-term relationships but much more experienced being single. Single guy wants threesome -- like what guy doesn't?

I've had a few experiences but definitely want more. Relationship threesomes are always awkward, and she never really wants to "share" her boy friend, no matter what she says beforehand. I'm single and looking for that perfect threesome I had once before when I was single, but I don't know where to start looking. I can't go to a bar and approach some cute girl, saying, "Hey, I'm looking to have a threesome with you and another girl."

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We should ban these outside energy experts. Every time one shows up at a Utility and Review Board hearing to remind us how muddled our energy practices are, it makes us look bad. This time it's about the planned $200-million-plus wood-burning power plant at Port Hawkesbury.

As if it wasn't enough that the project will devastate the forest even more than it already is, that burning wood is apparently as bad as burning coal and won't reduce greenhouse gas, and that a similar plant in New England was apparently built for half the projected cost, along comes U.S. renewable energy consultant Barry Sheingold to tell us that Nova Scotia Power Inc. hasn't done its homework on the project.

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I recently found my way into a media and technology industry conference where I "accidentally" bumped into the chair of the CRTC, Konrad von Finckenstein, who was surprisingly charming. Our conversation couldn't have been more different from the experiences I've had at CRTC hearings, where commissioners bear down on you with condescending glares, like feudal lords against the backdrop of a row of flags, the CRTC logo hanging overhead in place of a medieval coat of arms.

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