Archive for August, 2004

Social programmes in Venezuala

Wednesday, August 18th, 2004

Following on from the previous discussion about Venezuala, authoritarianism, and poverty in general, this article by Medea Benjamin outlines just what it is that Chavez has been doing right.

From the “You can’t be serious” department

Tuesday, August 17th, 2004

I've just had an interesting (off-line) discussion with Zwichenzug of the Bellman about land reform, poverty, and populist politics (partly in response to his post about Chavez and Venezuala. He has a good point, in that producing good rhetoric and being disliked by TPTB (the powers that be) isn't necessarily ...

Poverty in Venezuala

Sunday, August 15th, 2004

Courtesy of ZNet we get the following figures for inequality in various nations (in the context of an essay on Venzuala):According to UN figures, the richest 10 per cent of the Venezuelan population has 62.9 times the yearly income of the poorest 10 per cent. (The comparable ratio for the ...

Is this real?

Friday, August 13th, 2004

If this is photoshopped, they've done a good job:

Torture OK, as long as you get someone else to do it?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

Wow. The UK Appeals Court has ruled that evidence gained by torture can be used as long as the torture is not committed by British agents. As the article says, this supports the 'contracting out' - or, I suppose, 'outsourcing' - of torture that the US is already experimenting with.

CJR on evoting

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

The Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk has a summary and critique of the electronic voting debate in the United States, and media coverage of it.

Internships and class divisions

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

Amazing to see the NYT actually pay attention to the class bias implicit in unpaid internships, especially in politics. I must say that I was very lucky to be living at home while I was an undergrad - it allowed me to, for example, work with Flirt FM without being ...

Flash Radiojacking

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

I wonder if this will work.

Preparing for Preparedness

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

Are you ready for National Preparedness Month?

Kerry’s war record

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

By chance I read two pieces about John Kerry's service in Vietnam side by side - one in the Telegraph of London and another in Counterpunch. Obviously the authors come from different political perspectives. Steyn, in the Telegraph, pokes holes in Kerry's narrative of his service in Vietnam, exposing flaws ...