August 16, 2011
He was the first Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt to secure a second term. http://www.WatchMojo.com learns more about the life and accomplishments of Bill Clinton.
2011/12/15
Biography of George W. Bush: From the Military to the White House
July 6, 2011
He is best known as Dubya. http://www.WatchMojo.com learns more about the life and accomplishments of President George W. Bush.
2011/10/29
DPR Korea food crisis, UN aid chief urges world to not ‘turn our backs on the people’
21 October 2011 — The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) cannot feed its people for the “foreseeable future,” the United Nations relief chief reported today, urging the world to step up humanitarian support and not “turn our backs” on a population where an estimated six million people now depend on food aid.
Valerie Amos, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, told journalists after a five-day visit to the DPRK this week that the country remains “highly food insecure,” with daily rations recently reduced, unreliable food supplies, restricted agricultural production and many children left stunted.
2011/10/29
How marijuana is smuggled across the Mexican border
The border fence that was built to keep illegal immigrants and narcotics out of the United States ends a couple of metres into the Pacific ocean. Captain Dave Myers shows Alastair Good where he has picked up swimmers, surfers, and boats laden with marijuana from Mexico.
“That’s Mexico over there,” says Captain Dave Myers, pointing to the Tijuana bullring 100 yards away from where he is sitting in his patrol car in Imperial Beach, San Diego.
“We used to come up here all the time as kids, go surfing, eat street tacos in Tijuana and then come back across.”
Those days are gone now. Two fences run along the Mexico-US border and video cameras mounted on 20ft poles monitor the barren strip of land 24 hours a day, giving the area the air of a demilitarised zone.
During his first week at Imperial Beach police station, Capt Myers joined a patrol at the border fence during severe fog. “All you could hear was the clink, clink of metal on metal, all around,” he said. “You couldn’t see the hand in front of your face but you could hear this noise everywhere, it was eerie.”
The noise was made by Mexicans putting ladders up to the fence and throwing their cargo and/or themselves over into America.
It is this determination that means law enforcement activity on the border is only likely to lead to the displacement of smuggling, rather than its eradication.
In 1996, Californians voted to pass Proposition 215, a law which paved the way for medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.
On November 2, California will be voting whether to approve Proposition 19, a law that would legalise the drug for personal recreational use.
2011/08/18
French farmers protest over cheap imports
French farmers on Thursday staged a protest in Paris, calling on the government to introduce protectionist measures against cheaper imports.
Fruit growers set out their stalls on the capital’s Place de la Bastille to sell their products at cut prices.
They say big supermarkets are destroying their livelihoods by buying non-French produce.
Raymond Girardi, secretary-general of the MODEF trade union, said the government should introduce a social tax on imports “to balance the price of imported products with the price of ours.”
2011/08/12
The world’s longest ongoing war
For more than 60 years, Karen rebels have been fighting a civil war against the government of Myanmar.
2011/05/27
In Guatemala, Human ‘Experiment’ Brings Outcry
An experiment in Guatemala in the 1940s that included U.S. doctors now has victims there seeking legal recourse. People were infected with syphilis to test the effectiveness of penicillin. (May 27, 2011)
2011/04/15
Don’t Be a Sucker (1947)
This film warns that Americans will lose their country if they let themselves be turned into “suckers” by the forces of fanaticism and hatred. This thesis is rendered more powerful by the ever-present example of Nazi Germany, whose capsule history is dramatized as part of this film. There’s a great deal of good sense in this film and more than a bit of wartime populism: “Let’s not think about ‘we’ and ‘they.’ Let’s think about ‘us’!”
It’s interesting to think of this film in the light of Cold War anti-Communist politics, which really came into their own in the year this film was made. Were the witch-hunting politicians and citizens of the late Forties and early Fifties protecting the people, or were they themselves acting like “suckers?”
Producer: U.S. War Department
Sponsor: U.S. War Department
2011/04/10
Anti-Muslim Demographic Propaganda
“We must prepare ourselves for the reality that in 30 years there will be 50 million Muslims living in America.”
DJ Academe loves bullshit, especially offensive bullshit.
The video presents mostly legitimate fertility and migration stats showing decline in Europe and growth among Muslims. The narrator’s dire tone indicates exactly how we should feel about too many Muslims. (Not good.)
The stats are presented with a laughable framework based vaguely “on research.” According to this video, no culture in history has ever maintained itself after falling to a fertility rate of 1.9. Several European countries have fertility rates below 1.9, and Muslims have high fertility rates, so Muslims are taking over the world from Europeans (or Christians or white people or something).
This argument is based on so many distortions of demography, history, and culture that dissecting them would make for a great homework assignment.
2011/04/07
New York Jewish Director Makes Pro-Palestinian Film
“Miral,” a new film by acclaimed director Julian Schnabel, is based on a book by Palestinian author Rula Jebreal. It chronicles the lives of four Palestinian women – from 1948 when the state of Israel was created to the 1990s. Through the four women, and especially Miral, the youngest, the film tells the story of the ongoing Israeli – Palestinian conflict. Director Julian Schnabel, a Jewish American, looks at that conflict through Palestinian eyes and that has sparked controversy among Jews in America. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
2011/04/03
Mexican drug crime goes global
Drug gangs in Mexico fuel the violent trade in narcotics around the world, affecting populations in West Africa, Europe, Afghanistan and Australia.
The huge revenues from the global operation are used to purchase weapons, ensuring the bloody fighting surrounding the industry continues – leading to further instability in some of the world’s poorest countries.
2011/03/28
Italy’s Tunisian immigrants problem
April 13, 2011
Desperate Tunisian migrants have staged a mutiny at a detention centre. Faced with imminent deportation from the Italian island of Lampedusa, they started a small fire and made a bid for freedom. Thousands fleeing political turmoil in Tunisia have made the crossing to Lampedusa this year. And they are determined not to go back….
Italy’s Tunisian immigrants problem
March 28, 2011
As thousands of immigrants flood into Italy, residents, while hospitable to the newcomers, blame Rome for not doing more to help.
Migrants wait for passage to Sicily
Thousands of migrants from Tunisia wait to leave Lampedusa for Sicily.
