Democracy gone Astray

Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.

This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Aboriginal day of protest a qualified success

The aboriginal day of protest did what it was supposed to do.

No, it didn’t grind the country to a halt. There was no apocalypse.

Protests didn’t derail the national economy. The Alberta oilsands continued to produce bitumen. In spite of some border-crossing slowdowns, most truckers trucked and most workers worked.

Paul Martin has a keen interest in the issues raised by the Idle No More movement.

As Canada's 21st prime minister, Martin oversaw the signing of the 2005 Kelowna Accord, which envisioned the investment of $5 billion over 10 years for education and social welfare programs for aboriginal Canadians. The project fell apart when Stephen Harper took over that year as prime minister, and cut the funding.

First Nations demonstrators stopped passenger railway traffic lines between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal today, while others stalled major highways and rail lines in parts of Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario as part of the Idle No More Movement's national day of action.

Protesters also gathered in Windsor, Ont., near the Ambassador Bridge to Michigan, slowing down traffic to North America's busiest border crossing for several hours, the CBC's Allison Johnson reported.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is proposing legislation to nullify President Obama's executive actions on gun policy, claiming that the president's actions are a breach of constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.

During a Wednesday appearance on Fox News' "Hannity," the Republican senator outlined his plan to challenge Obama's anti-gun violence package.

Mali’s conflict spilled across its borders Wednesday, as Islamist militants stormed a gas facility in Algeria, reportedly taking as many as 41 foreign hostages, killing two people and wounding others.

Details of the attack remain uncertain but it is believed the hostages include French, American, British, Japanese, Irish and Norwegian citizens.

OTTAWA - Opposition MPs say it's time for Parliament to take a critical look at the politicization of the public service following the latest example of a Conservative minister overstepping the bounds of bureaucratic neutrality.

Two provocatively partisan letters by Julian Fantino, the minister responsible for the Canadian International Development Agency, were pulled from CIDA's website late Tuesday after they raised a stir on social media.

Outrage is growing over the U.S. Justice Department’s prosecution of the 26-year-old who committed suicide last week just weeks before he was to go on trial. Pioneering computer programmer and cyber activist Aaron Swartz was facing up to 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted for using computers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to download millions of academic articles provided by the nonprofit research service JSTOR. As the chief prosecutor Carmen Ortiz defends her actions, we speak to Swartz’s partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, and computer security consultant Alex Stamos, who would have been the chief expert witness at Swartz’s trial. We invited representatives from the U.S. attorney’s office and MIT to join us, but they declined.

Video
Source: Democracy Now!
Author: --

Darrell Issa Probing Prosecution Of Aaron Swartz, Internet Pioneer Who Killed Himself

WASHINGTON -- House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is investigating the Justice Department's prosecution of Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide on Friday after fighting felony hacking charges for two years. Issa's inquiry comes amid bipartisan expressions of sympathy for Swartz on Capitol Hill, including a statement from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

The National Rifle Association blasted out an urgent fundraising appeal by Executive Director Wayne LaPierre Tuesday night, hours ahead of President Barack Obama's announcement of 23 executive actions on gun control.

"I warned you this day was coming and now it’s here," LaPierre wrote. "This is the fight of the century and I need you on board with NRA now more than ever. My strength, and the strength of our entire NRA organization comes from you and your strong commitment to our membership. I need you in our corner TODAY.”

Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) has revealed his own plan for combating America's violence problem -- and it differs from President Barack Obama's on a key point. Specifically, the former presidential candidate said that instead of enacting tougher gun control legislation, Americans should simply pray for protections.

Democracy gone Astray