Carnival of the Liberals #13

Hello and Welcome to a special Carnival edition of LWG.  In honor of the Cannes Film Festival we have rolled out our red carpet, lined up our paparazzi, and shined up our lucky awards for blogs across the blogosphere. Tonight's events warrant a special guest host (sorry we couldn't get Al Gore he's on some book signing thingy and couldn't be with us) : Gil.  And co-hosting from the beautiful land of mountains and rainforests, the Lucky White Girl herself: barb!

We had a great response and it made for some tough decisions on which entries got into this week's carnival.   If you didn't get in this week's please submit to the next carnival over at Expert Opinion!

It looks like our first limo is arriving lets get down to Gil and barb at our red carpet.

barb: This really is an exciting time.  We received a ton of submissions and GIL did such a great job of reading through them all and picking his favorites I just have to take this opportunity to thank him for all his hard work!

GIL:  Thanks barb!  And now our first lucky winner is stepping out on the red carpet.  It's hard to get a look over the crowd but I think its ... Yep it's Atheist Ethicist who won our special "You're not paranoid they really are out to get you" Award with his post Signing Statements. 

barb: Gil, I think this entry shows once again that Bush doesn't need the constitution or congress to remake laws just his trusty Bic pen and lack of conscience.  He grows more insidious every day!

GIL:  You said it, barb!  And right behind Atheist is another limo arriving. It's In This Moment, winner of our "Most likely to be mistaken for a deer by Dick Cheney" Award posted  The life of an American Lesbian. To take the most basic tenant of love: marriage, and then to deny gays is not only wrong on a legal level but also, more importantly, wrong on moral grounds.

barb: You know gays and lesbians have really been struck hard by the Republicans these past few years.  More and more states are passing anti-marriage laws....  It is just looking pretty scary out there to a lot of folks right now.   Good thing we have carnivals to lighten things up for us!

GIL:  That's right, barb.  And pulling up now is our "Bruce Banner: Don't make me angry, You won't like me when I am angry" Award winner World Wide Webers.  Their post, Sometimes We Have a Good Reason to be Angry shows that anger is sometimes the right response to an intolerable situation.  Sometimes It is outrage that brings justice and compromise which secures our chains.

barb: Like the bumper sticker says, "if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention"

GIL: The crowd has begun doing the wave as our next winner The Bipolar View steps onto the red carpet.  Her entry: Liberals Do NOT Have My Back won the "The kids gloves are off award" Award for reminding us that when one person struggles we all struggle.  I don't usually like to get involved in other people's arguments but her post make an important point about liberal struggles:  We cannot free anyone if we leave one person in chains.

GIL:  Next up is our "Dorothy: We're not in Kansas anymore" Award winner Angry White Kid.  His post Bush's immigration plan: War and servitude shows that compassionate conservatism doesn't extend to everyone.  Does 3000 immigrant deaths make us safer? Can we really punish people fleeing the poverty we created through NAFTA?

barb: This country would collapse without our immigrants.  I don't know by what logic anyone can argue that we are not a nation of immigrants, GIL!

GIL: I don't know either, barb, but our next winner is The Boston Progressive who won our "All the news the media will never find fit to print" Award.  The post "Murdered while Black" = "Spike the Story"  shows once again that corporate media think death is only news when it happens to white people.  So many people suffer in silence while we worry about the next American Idol. It is no surprise how this country got its dysfunctional label.

GIL:  Now on the red carpet is the Neural Gourmet winner of the "Dead Poets Society: Captain my Captain" Award for the post: Carpe Diem.  It takes courage to lead and we need to take the chance of "looking bad" in order to do the right thing.  If we let the conservatives run the show like the Times suggest we may end up with no show left.

barb: Anyway to whom do we look bad in the first place?  To some people human rights and democracy looks bad.  Doesn't mean we don't work towards those things.

GIL:  Next up we have Don't Floss with Tinsel  whose post It's All Tied Together won our "Don't shop till children drop" Award. 

barb: Any kid can tell you that the legacy of Wal Mart is exploitation so turn that smile upside down!

GIL: It is the corporate greed of companies like this that have driven our modern economy.  And as we are shown in this blog, the cost of that cheap T-shirt is often your own community.

barb:  You said it GIL, what kind of world do we want to live in, anyway?  Hey, I'm having some trouble seeing the next winner over the large beach ball the crowd has begun batting around. 

GIL: Wait! I see it!  There's the limo.  It's No Right Turn whose post For Freedom of conscience won our "War what is it good for" Award.  Through non-violent protest conscientious objectors have led the struggle to end War.  The imprisonment and beatings they have suffered for their moral beliefs without sacrificing what they stand for is a testament to their courage.

GIL:  Well I'm going to let barb have the honor of introducing our last winner of the evening here...

barb: Thanks GIL, last but not least, GIL has selected have our "picture is worth a thousand words" Award go to Reyonthehill for his post But, mom.

GIL:  Yep, I liked that one because . . .  well, I thought it was just kinda funny.

barb:  LOL GIL, well there you have it our winners for COTL #13 and don't forget:

  The next Carnival of the Liberals (the 14th edition) will be at Expert Opinion on June 7th!  Send your submissions in asap!

Technorati tags: carnivals, liberal, liberalism, politics, carnival of the liberals

Comments

[tng]

What a fantastic and diverse edition! Thanks for the extra hard work Barb and Gil.

[J.R.]

Looks great! Thanks for including me.

[Debt Free]

GIL - For sure, NAFTA may have it's share(some would argue more) of problems, but we didn't create poverty in Mexico. Their government, at all levels, suffers from endemic corruption. I can hear your next remark "Ours does too." But actually, compared to our neighbors to the south, it doesn't. In almost every case, government corruption has a high coorelation with the lack of economic development. Mexico, for example, has diverse and plentiful natural resources and hard working people, yet languishes in poverty. Why? Not because of NAFTA. Mexico's had these problems for long before NAFTA was ever signed. Corruption equals poverty. Look at Africa.

[GIL]

Debt Free,

While corruption in Mexico's government is well documented under the PRI, we should not also forget this government was supported among other clearly bad regimes (Pinochet for example) by the US. However, to state that South America, Central America, and Africa all suffer from poverty because of bad government is not even a statement die-hard conservatives are willing to support.

First there are the public health issues of Africa. When over a third (in some instances) of your population are unable to work because of AIDs, Malaria, or other diseases , even the best governments would fall into poverty. Has corruption compounded these issues? I am sure instances can be found. Yet one must also include the west own colonial policies: rampant exploitation of there resources, social degridation of thier populations and traditions, the arbitrary establishment of borders to have a far more broad impact on thier economic stability.

In the Americas it is much the same. First Spanish, and then American Imperialsm are signifigant factors in thier economic struggles. We have attempted assination, destabalized governments, and supported Overthrows throughout our southern nieghbors. We have often helped dictatorships and other forms of oppression so long as they served United States intrests. NAFTA, GAT, and the polices of the WTO have forced governments to take policies often ad odds where thier own peoples needs... witholding much needed loans until they support programs that serve the United States and corperate positions. These positions often cut social welfare programs, increase debt .... in effect creating poverty.

Argentina is often chastized for being Anti-American for it's rejection of NAFTA and the WTO, and often the government is labled corrupt. Yet there economy is recovering far faster than those who submit to our demands.

In short Economic opportunity is why most immigrants come to this country. Yes corruption has played a part, but as a minor actor, not the lead.

[barb]

great response GIL!

:-)