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Thursday, August 26, 2004 |
$134,738,907,992. Check for latest figure.
7:48:01 PM 
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"In Empire corruption is everywhere. It is the cornerstone and keystone of domination. It resides in different forms in the supreme government of Empire and its vasal administrations, the most refined and the most rotten administrative police forces, the lobbies of the ruling classes, the mafias of rising social groups, the churches and sects, the perpetrators and persecutors of scandal, the great financial conglomerates, and everyday economic transactions.
In the first place, there is corruption as individual choice that is opposed to and violates the fundamental community and solidarity defined by biopolitical production. This small, everyday violence of power is a mafia-style corruption.
In the second place, there is corruption of the productive order, or really exploitation. This includes the fact that the values that derive from the collective cooperation of labor are expropriated, and what was in the biopolitical ab origine public is privatized. Capitalism is completely implicated in this corruption of privatization. As Saint Augustine says, the great reigns are only the enlarged projections of little thieves.
In the third place, corruption appears in the functioning of ideology, or rather in the perversion of the senses of linguistic communication. Here corruption touches on the biopolitical realm, attacking its productive nodes and obstructing its generative processes. This attack is demonstrated, in the fourth place, when in the practices of imperial government the threat of terror becomes a weapon to resolve limited or regional conflicts and an apparatus for imperial development."
The above is an extract from Empire, published in 2000 before the advent of Bush. Bush seems to be the epitome of all forms of corruption united in one person. He even stole his presidency.
Corruption can be seen on all levels of our lives, in our streets, at work, in government, the media. Fight it with community, solidarity and sound information.
2:49:46 PM
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NY Times: "State Supreme Court judge in Manhattan ruled today that New York City can ban protesters from using the Great Lawn in Central Park on Sunday for a rally, the largest that has been planned to coincide with the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday."
Is this 1984 in the USSR?
IndyPortland: "The police in NYC are engaged in a heated labor dispute with the mayor and other city officials over what they perceive to be unfair wages. Aside from the obvious logistical implications for the upcoming RNC, this is having some other interesting side effects.
As I listened to several NYC cops complaining about the intimidating and unconstitutional strongarm tactics being used to prevent them from effectively protesting unfair labor conditions, my first impulse was just to laugh. 'Look at them,' groused one cop. 'They're blocking the whole street off, not letting us go by. What's next ... protest pens?'"
To prepare for next monday, here's the Bush Network Link Engine (via CultureKitchen). See this.
Bushville, USA: "We are mothers, fathers, children, and grandparents; we are the unemployed, the working poor, the downsized, the homeless, the victims of welfare reform, the cast-asides of the new economy; we are social workers, religious leaders, labor leaders, students, artists, lawyers, and other people of conscience; we are young and old; we live in rural areas and in urban centers."
Countdown to the RNC.
11:29:49 AM
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Guardian: "MPs are planning to impeach Tony Blair for 'high crimes and misdemeanours' in taking Britain to war against Iraq, reviving an ancient practice last used against Lord Palmerston more than 150 years ago.
A number of Labour backbenchers are considering whether to back the motion, though it could mean expulsion from the party.
The MPs' decision follows the commissioning of a 100-page report which lays out the case for impeaching Mr Blair and the precedents for action, including arguments laid down in Erskine May, the parliamentary bible, on impeachments dating back to medieval times.
... the conduct of the prime minister has left people and parliament with no alternative if we are to preserve the very basis of democracy."
11:06:56 AM
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