Politics

Apple tools used to promote bigotry, company ignores problem

Written by MJ Olahafa

When it was announced two weeks ago that Apple approved an app by anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA, it quickly became clear that it was part of a pattern of controversial material promoted using the company’s platforms.

Apple’s online store has many apps pertaining to immigration including one for Arizona’s immigration laws and several for US citizenship tests, but disturbingly one can also find an app called ‘Illegal Immigration Game.’ This lovely app, which has a free and paid version, is described as a “fun and educational trivia game about illegal immigration and securing the nation’s borders.”

Visitors can also find the aforementioned app called NumbersUSA, created by the anti-immigrant organization of the same name. NumbersUSA… Read more

Politics

Fox News Steps in Own Trap Over New Obama Book

Written by Eric Ward

Excuse the pun but an old British proverb reminding us that “a fox should not be of the jury at a goose’s trial” certainly applies to a recent controversy surrounding Fox News.  One of my favorite Yahoo News bloggers, Michael Calderone, reports that during Fox’s most recent installment of “I’ve Never Met an Obama that I like,” Fox News threw a tantrum over a recent children’s book written by the President to his daughters.

The book “Of Thee I Sing: Letters to my daughters” is Obama’s praise of values, ethics, and gifts that he sees within his children.  The President then introduces his daughters to historical figures that he perceives as having… Read more

Politics

Cross-Post: Five Reasons to Care about Haiti’s Sham Elections

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Originally published on BuzzFlash on November 27, 2010 by Bill Quigley and Nicole Phillips.

Haiti needs legitimate leaders right now.  Unfortunately, the elections set for November 28, 2010 are a sham.  Here are five reasons why the world community should care.

First, Haitian elections are supposed to choose their new President, the entire House of Deputies and one-third of the country’s Senate.  But election authorities have illegally excluded all the candidates from the country’s most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas – and other progressive candidates.  Lavalas, the party of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, has won many elections in Haiti – probably the reason it was excluded.  If this were the US, this

… Read more

Politics

Cross-Post: How Militias, Racists and Anti-Semites Found a Home in the Tea Party

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Originally published on Alternet.org/The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute by David Neiwert. November 21, 2010 | Research support for this article was provided by The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute.

In places like rural Montana, the Tea Party is working hand-in-glove with Patriot movement radicals — including some with close ties to white supremacists and armed militias.

Maybe it’s the gun-making kits that are being raffled off as door prizes. Or maybe it’s the fact that nearly everyone inside this hall at the Ravalli County Fairground is packing heat. But most of all, it’s the copy of Mein Kampf sitting there on the book table, with its

… Read more

Food Justice

Discerning between cheap and inexpensive food

Written by Garat Ibrahim

Over the past few years I have turned a critical eye on American agribusiness and the corporate food industry. Giant companies increasingly turn profits by cheapening the nutritional value of food and selling it inexpensively. High fructose corn syrup and sodium are major contributors to this process whether they appear in Big Macs or turkey sandwiches or vegetable broths.

It is one thing to eat these foods on occasion as a choice, but for folks using the SNAP CARD or as it was formerly known, EBT, this is the only option. Is it any wonder that diet related illnesses like obesity; hypertension and diabetes are epidemic, especially among poor people? What are the long… Read more

Food Justice

Improve working conditions for those who bring you your turkey

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

Originally published by The Progressive Media Project on November 22, 2010.

Before you carve into your Thanksgiving turkey, please pause to reflect on the workers who brought the holiday feast to your table.

After twenty-one years of grueling, hard labor at the same Midwest turkey processing plant, one worker — let’s call him Alberto — is today earning $12.45 an hour.

He handles as many as thirty turkeys a minute as they speed along the processing line. Every shift, he makes some 20,000 cutting motions.

Alberto and thousands of other poultry workers — mostly immigrants, refugees and workers of color — feed the nation this Thanksgiving — and every day of the year.

… Read more

Culture

A Thanksgiving with Gran

Written by Rebecca Poswolsky

For years, my family’s Thanksgiving tradition has been getting take out from New York’s 2nd Avenue Deli.   While many think of 2nd Avenue Deli as a place to get a pastrami sandwich or matzoh ball soup, to me it represents the best Thanksgiving can offer.  Picking out what kind of pickles and rugalach to order is not easy.  My family usually settles on an assortment of sour tomatoes and pickles, along with both chocolate and raisin rugalach.  Thanksgiving is the one day each year I give in to our annual ritual of making hard menu choices, and enjoying eating around my grandmother’s crowded one bedroom apartment in New York City.

Referred to everyone… Read more

Food Justice

A vision for a new harvest

Written by Charlotte Williams

It’s that time of year again when people are busy planning and hosting seasonal celebrations that honor various cultural, religious and social traditions. Over the next six to eight weeks, gatherings will be held in homes, banquet halls, and houses of faith.  Although the meaning of these celebrations may vary, rest assured, there will be plenty of good food on hand including ham, vegetables, fruits, nuts, dairy products of all kinds, and lots of turkeys.

While some families prepare to make their traditional holiday trek to enjoy time with family and friends, hundreds of thousands of low wage, immigrant food workers are sequestered in meatpacking, poultry processing and dairy plants, and laboring in fields… Read more

Politics

Video on Organizing for Inclusive Democracy

Written by Jessica Acee

On July 30, 2010 I was lucky enough to hear a panel discussion on the resurgence of the right and how to successfully organize for an inclusive democracy.  Speaking were Suzanne Pharr, author, organizer and co-founder of Southerners on New Ground; Tarso Ramos, Executive Director, Political Research Associates; Eric Ward, National Field Director, Center for New Community; Marcy Westerling, founder, Rural Organizing Project; Rachel Carroll, Researcher, Montana Human Rights Network.

Combined, these speakers have been organizing against the right for almost 100 years.  While there are hundreds of Americans who could have sat at this table, these five did an insightful job of analyzing where we’ve been and laying… Read more