Off With Their Heads
By Peter Keough, The Phoenix
A slew of new films (Marie Antoinette, The Last King of Scotland, Death of a President, to name a few) all have a prominent central theme — the removal of greedy, incompetent, and/or deceitful powers that be. Peter Keough suggests this Hollywood zeitgeist has everything to do with massive disapproval of the Bush Administration. It’s happened before, Keough argues, pointing back to the early 70s, when a wave of authority-questioning flicks hit movie screens during the tenure of another reviled president: Nixon. It could be, Keough writes, that recent films are as indicative as polls of things to come in American politics. — Rachel Anderson
http://thephoenix.com/article_ektid25248.aspx
Okay, Don’t Vote…
By Jeremy Meister, The Conservative Voice
There’s a growing movement of conservatives, so disgruntled with the current administration’s overspending and illegal immigration policies that they might even boycott the 2006 election. The idea, Jeremy Meister writes in The Conservative Voice, is that conservatives could knock the wayward Republicans out of power and ‘teach them a lesson’ by not showing up at the ballot box. Meister fiercely pleads for his party cohorts to at least vote against the ‘punks’ and their liberal agendas — if anything, to prevent the ‘unbiased, non-partisan, activist Communist university professors’ from gloating about their victory, or having to watch U2 and Green Day’s ‘Common Sense’ tour. — Rachel Anderson
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/19534.html
Untruth in Advertising
By Adele M. Stan, The American Prospect Online
A doublespeak ad campaign in the American ProspectOnline stirred contributor Adele M. Stan to sound off on the ‘feminist’ ad running amidst her colleagues’ articles. The ad baits the liberal site’s readers to sign up for ‘pro-woman answers to pro-choice questions’ without mentioning that once readers have given up their email addresses, they’ll receive regular notes spouting pro-life rhetoric. The sponsor, Feminists for Life, seeks to outlaw all abortion and takes no position on contraception. It is a freaky advertising tactic, but no one can claim they’re preaching to the choir. — Suzanne Lindgren
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=12133
Children of Undocumented Immigrants Sue Government
By C?ndida Portugu?s, Indy Press NY (translated from El Diario/La Prensa)
Nora Sandigo is fighting for a group of Americans often overlooked in the immigration discussion — children born in the United States to undocumented parents. On October 4, Sandigo, founder of the Miami organization American Fraternity, filed a class action lawsuit on the behalf of 60 minors, in an attempt to postpone the deportation of their parents until Congress makes a final decision on immigration reform. Sandigo calls the deportation of such parents ‘a grave violation of the children’s civil rights.’ The first hearing on the suit will take place in early November in a US District Court in southern Florida. — Suzanne Lindgren
http://www.indypressny.org/article.php3?ArticleID=2963
Make It Visible Campaign
By Staff, The Center for Humane Sexual Culture
The Center for Humane Sexual Culture sees shame as the root cause for many of our nation’s problems regarding sexual health and violence. The nonprofit is battling ‘the abuse and propagation of sexual shame’ through projects like the Make it Visible Campaign — a forum for telling stories of sexual shame, commenting on media attitudes toward sexuality, and creating a sexually healthy society. Topics range from the overt display of sexuality in Christina Aguilera’s Dirrty music video, to the embarrassment felt by 30-year-old virgins. By making the ‘unseen problem of sexual shame visible,’ the center hopes to move beyond current harmful attitudes toward sexuality. (Thanks, Bitch News.) — Suzanne Lindgren
http://www.shamefree.org/
Walking the Cradle
By Allison Milionis, Grist
If you’re a little fuzzy on what Cradle-to-Cradle (C2C) technology is, think modern technology mimicking nature to create the smallest possible ecological footprint. Last year Utne Reader pointed to the winners of the international C2C sustainable home design and construction competition. This year, the architecture firm that ran the contest with the plan to spruce up one of the oldest neighborhoods in Roanoke, Virginia, opted to go with a proposal for its inaugural house that better fit the neighborhood, instead of the first place design. Construction is slated to begin this November. — Jenna Fisher
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/10/18/milionis/index.html
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