Reuters: "U.S. counterterrorism officials are looking at an emergency proposal on the legal steps needed to postpone the November presidential election in case of an attack by al Qaeda, Newsweek reported on Sunday."

Justin Podur gets asked for advice, and comes up with two essays of the "advice for young radicals" variety.

George Monbiot: Choose Life

How many times have I heard students about to start work for a corporation claim that they will spend just two or three years earning the money they need, then leave and pursue the career of their choice? How many times have I caught up with those people several years later, to discover that they have acquired a lifestyle, a car and a mortgage to match their salary, and that their initial ideals have faded to the haziest of memories, which they now dismiss as a post-adolescent fantasy? How many times have I watched free people give up their freedom?

Peter Kropotkin: An Appeal to the Young

Let us first try to understand what you seek in devoting yourself to science. Is it only the pleasure - doubtless immense - which we derive from the study of nature and the exercise of our intellectual faculties? In that case I ask you in what respect does the philosopher, who pursues science in order that he may pass life pleasantly to himself, differ from that drunkard there, who only seeks the immediate gratification that gin affords him? The philosopher has, past all question, chosen his enjoyment more wisely, since it affords him a pleasure far deeper and more lasting than that of the toper. But that is all! Both one and the other have the same selfish end in view, personal gratification.

I have tried, for a while, but running two different weblogs doesn't seem to be working. For anyone who was holding out for a resurgence, I hereby officially place misnomer on the back burner, and indefinite hiatus.

Most of my commentary and news coverage will be directed towards the Dominion Daily Weblog.

I'll occasionally post a few times a month here, but without the expectation of regular readers.

Now that the PaulMartinTime.ca democratic deficit tour is wrapping up, most of my time will be dedicated to the Halifax Symposium on Media and Disinformation, to be held from June 30 to July 4.

It should be of interest to anyone with an interest in building a free press and media in Canada. If you can't make it to the conference (and also if you can), please consider endorsing the call for participation.

For those who think I've disappeared from the planet, or at least dropped offline: I'm on the road with PaulMartinTime.ca. We raised enough cash to travel across Canada, starting discussions, providing independent coverage of the coming Canadian federal election, interviewing people that the corporate press won't, and causing a bit of mayhem.

There's a tour weblog, and there will soon be video and photos and other coverage.

We're in Minnesota now, on our way to the west coast throught the US, where the scenery is different and the gas is cheap (thanks, imperialism!).

The Democratic Deficit Tour officially starts on the 11th.

Body and Soul: "Will the war exist for Americans if reporters are all in their hotel rooms?"

(I should note, as I periodically do, that all of my international issues-related posting is happening over at the Dominion Weblog.)

Want to stop "terrorism" (the action formerly known as guerilla warfare)? Clearly, the best way to do that is to fire rockets at a mosque during prayer.

To continue the press' gardening metaphors, the US is uprooting terror, while tilling the soil of despair and sowing thousands of seeds of rage. An effective strategy, if the desired outcome is genocide.

From an Indymedia feature:

The US media are groping in the dark for a new narrative. Even for supporters of the occupation, it is no longer believable to suggest that Iraq is on an inevitable path towards democracy; that the Iraqi people are overwhelmingly grateful for the American presence in their country; that attacks against American forces are the work of a few "dead-enders" or Islamic extremists allied with al Qaeda. This is clearly a popular uprising against an illegitimate occupying army.

Update: David Grenier compiled some views from the ground in Iraq.

Books I've picked up, read completely, or something in between in the past few months. Posted here mostly for my future reference, but they're all pretty interesting books.

Oh, and feel free to start a discussion about any of these, or tangental topics.

Politics of Reality: essays in feminist theory, by Marilyn Frye

Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre

In Search of Islamic Feminism, by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea

The Social Shaping of Technology, Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman, eds.

Information Feudalism, by Peter Drahos and John Braithwaite (essential stuff if you have any interest in the politics of IP law)

The Uses of Haiti, by Paul Farmer

Mind in Society, by L.S. Vygotsky

History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides

Barney's Version, by Mordechai Richler

The Art of Art Works, by Cyril Welch

Basic Writings, Martin Heidegger

St. Urbain's Horseman, by Mordechai Richler

Safe Area Gorazde, by Joe Sacco

On History, Immanuel Kant

Modern Sociological Theory, by George Ritzer (old textbook; a high-level hack job that still manages to be worthwhile as an overview)

When Words Deny the World, by Stephen Henighan

Upheavals of Thought, by Martha Nussbaum

Discipline and Punish, by Michel Foucault

History of Sexuality, vol. I, by Michel Foucault

Aesthetics, Epistemology, Method, Michel Foucault (collection)

"Society Must be Defended": Lectures at the Collège de France, 1975-1976, Michel Foucault

Titans: How the new Canadian establishment siezed power, by Peter C. Newman. (Former T-Star editor fetishizes power from a distance.)

The End of the Peace Process, by Edward Said

Antarctica, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau (still plucking out pages here and there and dwelling)

The Great Fires, poems by Jack Gilbert

Looks like the global anti-occupation protests went off fairly well, though not with anything like the millions that came out on February 15, 2003, which was a historic event by any reasonable standard.

Still, it's good to see the global local protest continue as a practice. If a few million people had come in cities around the world as they did today outside the context of last Feb 15, it would have been an indisputably profound event.

As it stands, over a few million in total total came out in cities across Canada, the US, all over Europe, Baghdad, and Australia, Japan, East Timor and many others as well.

I wrote a short account of the Halifax demo, and there is coverage from Fredericton and Charlottetown on the Indymedia Maritimes wire.

Indymedia Global has some great photos from Baghdad, where Shias and Sunnis marched together in an apparently significant show of unity against the occupation. And google news will provide good overviews in the coming days.

According to the Financial Times and the Christian Science Monitor, the US is pulling an old-style intervention in El Salvador's presidential elections, which happen today (Sunday).

And some analysts say that the comments by US officials may be bolstering ARENA's message. Last Sunday, White House Special Assistant Otto Reich gave a phone-in press conference at ARENA headquarters. According to local newspapers, he said he was worried about the impact an FMLN win could have on the country's "economic, commercial, and migratory relations with the United States."

To put it mildly. It may be obscure to the folks in the power centres up north, but I suspect that Salvadoran voters received the message loud and clear: elect Marxist, and we'll fuck you up good. Roger Noriega, who apparently pushed hard for the recent US-sponsored coup d'etat in Haiti, went even farther, and not without consequences:

In February, Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega told voters to "consider what kind of a relationship they want a new administration to have with us." He met with all the candidates except Mr. Handal. Last week, 28 US Congress members sent a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell saying Mr. Noriega "crossed a boundary" and that his remarks were perceived as "interference in Salvadoran electoral affairs." This week two US congressmen blasted Reich's comments as inflammatory.

Of course, the right-wing candidate is playing to the fear of losing ties with the US, as well he might:

More than a quarter of El Salvador's 6.5 million citizens live in the US, and Salvadoran economist Robert Rubio estimates that remittances account for 16 percent of the country's economy. He likens the flow of remittances to a life-support system for the country's poor economy

He can also accurately claim that relations with the US would be way better under his government. The reason this is the case, however, remains obscure. It's not that a lefty government would break off ties with the US. Quite to the contrary, it would not be in their interests to do so. However, what they might do, is begin acting in the interest of the majority of the people of El Salvador, which would guarantee that the US would flip right out, impose sanctions, deny aid, delay or block remittances, and maybe even fund terrorists to knock some sense into the poor of El Salvador.

Indeed, it's no surprise that Otto Reich was involved with funding the contras back in the 1980s.

Dennis Kucinich, who is apparently still a US presidential candidate, showed up on the sane side of the question of El Salvador. That's more than we can say for the NDP about Haiti or Venezuela, for example.

"Unfortunately, what is going on in El Salvador is representative of a Latin American policy that is not about promoting healthy democracies, but instead focused on making Latin American nations bend to U.S. commercial interests."

"The people of El Salvador have a right to free and fair elections without interference from the United States. The U.S. cannot claim to be a leader in promoting democracy worldwide and at the same time hinder democracy by attempting to influence the outcome of elections abroad," Kucinich said.

Sylvia Nickerson has a nice little web site up, with her recent artwork and some commentary inspired by the worlds of math and art.

PaulMartinTime.ca: Is Democracy in Haiti the First Victim of Paul Martin's "Deep Integration"?

PaulMartinTime.ca: Inequality and Paul Martin

PaulMartinTime.ca: Does Martin Know What National Missile Defense Is?

PaulMartinTime.ca: Ethics 101: Should Martin be participating in government?

Dominion: Privatization in South Africa: Starting Over

Dominion: Paul Martin, Ethics and Democracy: An Interview with Democracy Watch's Duff Conacher

Dominion: Media Coverage of Haiti Flawed: Analysts

My theory: if you have time to read this right now, you have time to take 2 minutes to call Alexa McDonough and ask her to take a strong stand in support of democracy in Haiti.

Her constituency office: (902) 426-8691

My reasoning: Calling Bill Graham is necessary but useless, because he won't change Canadian policy without a fight. The only way to make that fight happen is to convince McDonough, who is the NDP's Foreign Affairs critic, to loudly and publicly criticize Graham.

She already has the information. She just needs to know that you think she should stand up and say something.

A quick summary of what I think should be advocated, from this excellent analysis:

The current crisis is not about supporting or opposing Aristide the man, but about defending constitutional democracy in Haiti. In a democracy, elections-and not vigilante violence-should be the measure of 'the will of the people.' Aristide has repeatedly invited the opposition to participate in elections and they have refused, knowing that they cannot win at the polls

Keep in mind, of course, that Haiti is facing a very likely military coup in the coming days, and that it can still be stopped with an absolute minimum of effort on the part of the US and Canada.