I used to teach college-level Composition. It wasn't something I was entirely fond of and I'm glad to be done with it (for now anyway), but one of the things I enjoyed most each Semester was teaching critical thinking skills. I asked my students to write papers on the question - "Who owns the body?" - they could choose from among several topics under that subject. Obviously reproductive choice was one of those options, but there was also the question of military drafts, personal drug use, stem cell research, in-vitro fertilization, organ donorship, etc. The topics weren't easy - the question wasn't easy. They had to argue towards the middle ground regardless of their personal opinion.

One requirement in writing the essay was to first define each extreme side. I referred to this as - following the consequences. In other words, how would our reality change if we actually enacted this particular change. What would the specific changes be? Who would be affected and how? Some students found this difficult, some had a great time and really worked out their imagination, but everyone eventually got to the point where they understood the point -- that most of the time, we tend to come to conclusions about our opinion before we ever really think about where we stand.

I know it is much now in US because of the presidential election. And it is much about it here in Sweden too. The result is important for the whole world. But: still: there is to much silence about the loss of human rights in Iran. I got an urgent message about this today and want to forward it to the rest of the progressive world.

I was just trying to watch the swimming.

Instead I found myself watching George W. Bush, the human turd in the punch bowl that is the Beijing Olympics, being interviewed by Bob Costas on NBC.

I was just trying to watch the fucking swimming!!!

Good Morning Kossacks. This is the first in what I hope to be a weekly series. As noted in yesterday's diary by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, yesterday was World Indigenous Peoples Day.

Today's diary will focus on two urgent situations that happened yesterday. One in the Peruvian Amazon, the other in West Papua. Please read on and take action.

Mr. Olbermann, you have a unique opportunity that perfectly suits your ability and interest.

The world is watching China’s presentation of the Olympics for the next two weeks.  In the United states, NBC provides the lens for this focus, and you anchor the most popular public affairs show on NBC’s news network.  You are an editorialist who prides himself on challenging hypocrisy and injustice.  I ask that you spend at least one minute during each episode of Countdown during this Olympic period holding China to account.

On August 9, 1936, Jesse Owens won the last of his four gold medal at the Olympics.

Hitler declined to congratulate him.

That's the story you're told.

The stories you aren't told paint a far more strife-filled picture, and one well worth looking at in the infancy of another already-controversy-filled Games.

This is another diary critical of the West's position on Georgia.

Just as a bit of background, let me state here for the record that I wrote my PhD on the independence of Ukraine, and have thus studied how Russia behaves with its neighbors rather intensively. Following that, I worked for several years financing oil&gas projects in Russia and the Caspian; in particular, I worked on te financing of the BTC pipeline that goes from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia (I wrote about it on DailyKos 3 years ago). Oil companies don't need the money: what they want is for other parties like banks to share the political risks associated with their projects. Which means that in turn, the job of a banker working on these projects is to understand those political risks. And it is quite obvious that the relationship between Russia and the Caucasus countries, including Georgia, was at the heart of my work.

But if you think I am just a "lefty European apologist of Soviet atrocities", feel free to move on and ignore this diary.

Last year, I took a course entitled simply "Genocide." It covered the origin of the crime and cases of it throughout the 20th and 21st century. Among crises covered was Darfur, which does not legally meet the definition of genocide. My professor, however, said it is really hairsplitting to between "crimes against humanity" and genocide. The basic fact remains that hundreds of thousands have been brutally murdered and millions displaced into surrounding regions inciting regional conflicts. Our main course grade was based on a research paper on a topic of our choosing. Mine was over the United Nations, genocide, and impediments to humanitarian intervention. I also analyzed the idea of the "national interest" in considering intervention and argued that no matter the circumstance, prevention and punishment of genocide is preferable. In analyzing flaws UN culture, I focused primarily on China and its actions in relation to Darfur. I wanted to post some excerpts from my paper so some people understand why I am so pissed that people are enamored with the Olympics and why we must overlook the grandstanding and fireworks.

Simply put, China is complicit is crimes against humanity and we have rewarded them with the Olympics games.

Tonight will be "China's night", won't it? If all goes according to the meticulously scripted plan, the entire world will see just how far China has come under the austere guidance of the Communist Party. The party and the corporate sponsors especially, have been spending orchestrating the ceremony to insure that it goes off without a hitch.

However, cracks are turning into chasms and the real story of the Chinese human rights situation has begun to seep out.

I'll try to delve into that further as a means of showing you why tonight's pomp and circumstance is a hollow guise designed to distract the world from the actual truth.

Several years ago, when the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games of the XXIX Olympaid to the city of Beijing, I remember thinking that it was a bad call. I was in no way surprised - the IOC has made bad calls before, and will do so again.

I was 14 years old in the spring of 1989. Despite my youth, I was moderately politically aware. Throughout most of the month of May, I recall coming home from school and turning on the television and seeing something very special happening in Tiananmen Square. Thousands upon thousands of young people had gathered together demanding greater freedoms, which as a young American I took for granted as something of a birthright.  

This will be short and sweet.  At least one other diarist has called for a boycott of watching the Beijing Summer Olympics on TV.  To that I say Right On!

But, there's also another way to show your displeasure with China being selected to host these games..  More below the fold..

The AP just picked up a week-old story in which Prince George's Country police raided the home of a local mayor in a bizarre case of identity theft, and shot his dogs dead:

Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table. Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package.

http://apnews.myway.com//article/200...

This was by no means the first time the PG police have violated its citizens.

I suppose most DK readers and diarists are tired of yet another story of Bush II's hypocrisy. The Emperor's current trip to China, and his humble kow tow before his Chinese Communist masters at the Olympics, points out the multifarious contradictions of American imperialism under Bush II.

Yahoo! Sports carried the story today of Joey Cheek, a former gold medalist speedskater Joey Cheek, whose visa to attend the Olympics in Beijing has been revoked, likely for his outspoken condemnation of human rights violations in the Darfur region of Sudan (and by extension, China's complicity through support of the Sudanese government and its affiliated militias).

China revokes visa of gold medalist, Darfur activist Cheek

While Cintas laundry workers’ Painful Truth Tour was pulling into the Bay Area, political appointees in the Department of Labor were hard at work on a "secret rule" to delay federal safety agency's process for assessing the risks chemicals and toxins pose to workers.

This episode reminds me of an earlier Bush administration regulation-— one the Cintas Corporation lobbied for— that allows industrial laundries to process shop towels used to sop-up industrial solvents. Cintas workers say they need stronger not weaker protection from chemical exposure on the job.

After enduring almost eight long years of Bush’s failed policies in everything from economics to the environment to civil liberties to education, we’ve all had plenty of time to think about what we would do differently if we were in charge.

Well we finally have a chance to put our heads together and write our own progressive platform. There’s a lot of issues and ideas out there – so we’re tapping the community’s wisdom to express our collective ideals.  Check it out and speak your mind!

http://netrootsplatform.org

If you’re thinking that you just don’t have time to write a political platform during your lunch break, don’t worry – you can still get involved! If you have a couple of minutes, you can look at what’s out there and rate the planks that best represent your point of view.  If you have ideas but don’t want to start from scratch, you can edit and remix what others have written to make them even better.  If you’ve already thought about your ideal policies, you can submit a new plank.  This is a democratic system that’s completely people-powered, so if the community agrees with you, your language will be used in the final platform.

Granting the 2008 Olympics to Beijing was a mistake that will haunt the Olympic movement for decades to come

Only 2 days left to submit new planks to the Netroots platform!!!! Come on by and add your $.02 to the process:

www.NetrootsPlatform.org

You can find the current top planks below.  These were developed by the Netroots community - democratically, collaboratively, transparently, and entirely online.

Most of the planks are really strong, but everything (even the good stuff) can still be improved. There's still time for YOU to add your voice before we submit this to the Obama Campaign and the DNC!

(For more info, see here, here, here, here and here.)

Click on to see the current platform: