AD.

Oaxacan textile museum, photo by Lady

Chess Term: Skewer

“A skewer is a tactical device where an enemy piece is attacked by a line piece and forced to move, thereby exposing a second enemy piece to capture. It is also widely known as an Xray.”

Here are some skewers I’m thinking about lately:

Leftist intellectuals such as my idol Noam Chomsky dare not consider 9/11 conspiracy theories lest they are branded as hokey (the marginalization of people who ask questions)…

The skewering of progressives between the Democrats and losing all if they vote for the Greens–for pissy marginal benefit if the Dems win…

The skewering of freedom of press or illegal war planning via Judith Miller and freedom of press, protection of sources versus the crime perpetrated against Valerie Plame and Iraq…

The skewering of our attention between stuff like this and the sad, quickly worsening plight of the environment.

* * *

Marginalization is a process of framing the debate to limit the realm of “serious” debate to a scope which is acceptable to those in power. Anything that the power cannot accept is marginalized, censored, scorned by television personalities, “news” men.

What is this thing called news? What’s happening in Iraq? Why does the CNN newsroom look like a game show set? If I want to use television or a national newspaper to inform myself, can I? Do you remember when newspapers used to be interesting? Do you remember when NPR was enlightening? In just ten years much has changed, friends, much.

* * *

Pretty decent encapsulation of the zeitgeist:

“We cannot differentiate between illusion and reality. We trust courtiers wearing face powder who deceive us in the name of journalism. We trust courtiers in our political parties who promise to fight for our interests and then pass bill after bill to further corporate fraud and abuse. We confuse how we feel about courtiers like Obama and Russert with real information, facts and knowledge. We chant in unison with Obama that we want change, we yell “yes we can,” and then stand dumbly by as he coldly votes away our civil liberties. The Democratic Party, including Obama, continues to fund the war. It refuses to impeach Bush and Cheney. It allows the government to spy on us without warrants or cause. And then it tells us it is our salvation. This is a form of collective domestic abuse. And, as so often happens in the weird pathology of victim and victimizer, we keep coming back for more.”

-Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for the New York Times who sez he’s gonna vote for Ralph Nader this time

Read the complete article here:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/23/9822/

Article about Conyers and Impeachment:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/19/9740/

Article about Dems continuing extreme war funding:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/23/9829/

Article about Dems expanding spying:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/23/9840/

Article about being near the tipping point for global warming:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/24/9850/

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