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Louis Proyect | 1 Sep 01:36
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Welcome to the Panopticon

The other week something called Altiris was installed on our computers 
at work. This has led to a certain amount of anxiety since the software, 
supposedly intended to monitor and administer software configurations, 
can also be used to check what we are doing on our computers–including 
what websites we visit and how often. Some programmers have sworn off 
checking their bank accounts or train schedules online at work because 
they are afraid that big brother is watching.

Altiris, which was purchased a while back by Symantec, does not really 
give any inkling on its website that the software is designed for 
workplace surveillance. However, a 2005 article from www.processor.com does:

     Most IT admins certainly do not relish the thought of having to 
access co-workers’ email accounts, files, or online activities. However, 
policy or legal liability issues may one day necessitate that you 
monitor your network users’ workstations. A plethora of tools exists to 
make the process relatively painless, if applied correctly.

     Pedestal Software’s Altiris SecurityExpressions audits desktops, 
laptops, and servers to ensure adherence to either specific enterprise 
or best practices policies. The system security policy audit and 
compliance software also offers hundreds of preset configurations from 
which IT admins can select.

full: 
http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/08/31/welcome-to-the-panopticon/

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Louis Proyect | 1 Sep 01:54
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Michael Perelman comments on Panopticon

Very interesting.  I like Zuboff.  I have a new book that is about 1/2 
finished -- The Heavy Manacles of Capitalism.  Here is a brief mention 
of her:

	In a less dramatic example of the irrationality of absolutism in 
managerial control, Shoshana Zuboff, a professor at the Harvard Business 
School, reported on her experience as a consultant for a number of paper 
factories at a time when computer controls were first being introduced 
throughout the industry.  In one factory, which she called Tiger Creek 
Mill, the computer system was initially accessible by everybody, 
including the workers on the production line.  Workers could see the 
same information on costs and prices as management.  At first, the 
workers used their new found information to make very profitable 
modifications of the production process (Zuboff 1988, pp. 255 67).
	Economic theory and business logic would have us expect that management 
would reward these workers for contributing to the profitability of the 
corporation.  Instead, management, horrified by the possibility that 
workers were going to make managerial control at least partially 
irrelevant, quickly cut off the workers' access to the system.  Control 
turned out to have more allure than profits.

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William T. Lynch | 1 Sep 04:37

Call to Fight Denial of Access to Higher Education

Dear Michael Moore,
I wanted to let you know about an effort to shut out working adults from education in the city of Detroit. You
probably already know about the massive cuts imposed on higher education by Michigan legislators, with
extra cuts doled out to Wayne State University for having the temerity to be in Detroit, a working class
city with a majority African American population. I teach in the Interdisciplinary Studies program,
which the administration, in an end-of-summer secret assault, has just been recommended for
destruction (without any consultation or due process, I might add). We are THE open access program at
Wayne State, which means that our students are not penalized for the lousy education they may have
received in Detroit's underfunded public schools. Get yourself a high school degree or e
 quivalency and we will take you in and nurture you in a writing-intensive, critical thinking-based
curriculum. Our students come out on the other end with an appreciation for knowledge and culture and the
opportunity to advance their career and life.

Our institution is currently infested with professors and administrators that would prefer to be taking
drinks at the faculty club at Harvard. The last thing that they want is to take in working adults
representative of the city of Detroit and surrounding community: solidly working class, majority
African American, and many single, working parents. You may know about our predecessor program,
Monteith College, that went all over the state to educate auto workers and Vietnam vets--they killed this
innovative program, and they have killed the last two colleges we were a part of--the College of Lifelong
Learning and the College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs. Now they are killing our department
and program, a program that offers night and weekend classes leading to Bachelor's and Ma
 ster's degrees.

The Board of Governors Budget and Finance committee voted us out of existence and the full board meets to
vote on the question September 6. We have put together a web site with further details and a petition to sign
that I hope you will share with your readers (www.is.wayne.edu). I have to tell you, this is right up your
alley. I sat through the meeting and was sickened by the lies and disinformation alleging that this is a
cost-cutting move--it is not. I will not lose my job--the tenured jobs will move to other departments and
the small administrative savings will be offset as most of our 700 students take their tuition dollars
elsewhere (or nowhere).
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Dbachmozart | 1 Sep 05:39
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The Israel Lobby and liberal hysteria


<_http://tonykaron.com/2007/08/31/mearshimer-walt-and-the-erudite-hysteria-of-
david-remnick/_

(http://tonykaron.com/2007/08/31/mearshimer-walt-and-the-erudite-hysteria-of-david-remnick/) >

<_http://tonykaron.com/2006/12/22/israel-and-apartheid-in-defense-of-jimmy-car
ter/_ 
(http://tonykaron.com/2006/12/22/israel-and-apartheid-in-defense-of-jimmy-carter/) >

************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at 
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
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Mike Friedman | 1 Sep 07:25
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Subject: Re: AlterNet: Is George Bush Restarting Latin America's 'Dirty Wars'?

> Message: 21
> Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 09:58:14 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Debordagoria <phantasmagorias <at> yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] AlterNet: Is George Bush Restarting Latin
> America's 'Dirty Wars'?

http://www.radiolaprimerisima.com/noticias/general/19072
from Granma Internacional

by Lidice Valenzuela

United States Restarts its Dirty War Against Nicaragua

"Eight months after taking office, the government of Daniel Ortega faces
fierce opposition from reactionary sectors, both domestic and
international, led by the United States, determined to prevent the
structural changes begun in this new national political stage."

EEUU retoma su guerra sucia contra Nicaragua
Fecha: septiembre 1, 2007

A ocho meses de su asunción, el gobierno del presidente de Nicaragua,
Daniel Ortega, enfrenta una férrea oposición de los sectores
reaccionarios, tanto nacionales como internacionales, encabezados por
Estados Unidos, empecinados en evitar los cambios estructurales
emprendidos en esta nueva etapa política nacional.

Por Lídice Valenzuela

Se trata de una lucha ideológica, radicalizada en los últimos meses, en la
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Owen Davies | 1 Sep 09:59

Re: Theory of Violence

Haines,

So far in this discussion you have outlawed deductive logic, indentified 
realism and materialism, trashed the work of Clausewitz, had a go at 
Trotsky, invented free-floating government with no connection to the class 
struggle and whilst accusing me of metaphysics kept going on about some 
mysterious notion of `force' which really is metaphysical.

Finally you say `explanatory theories in history don't transcend time and 
cirumstance'. Where, I must ask, does this leave historical materialsm?

Going back to the metaphysics point.  Violence is the continaution of 
politics by other means but there are many other ways of continuing politics 
from diplomacy to negotiation, to economic pressure, to incentivising, to 
sulking and so on and so forth so I'm not proposing violence as some kind of 
uber principle to life.  As far as formalism and emergence is conccerned, if 
I had said that violence is politics you might have had a point.

Anyway, if I do write something on this subject you have certainly given me 
some material to flush it out with.

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Owen Davies | 1 Sep 10:08

Re: Theory of Violence

Well, I was just saying that if there is less politics within primitive 
communist societies then there would be less, possibly no, violence.  I read 
Fromm's book a long time ago and it is probably time for a re-read but 
wasn't he connected with the Frankfurt School in some way?

> Daniel wrote:
>
> "I most emphatically said that my theory proves that violence is not
> a part
> of human nature though obviously we have the capacity for it.  In fact I
> said that there is more politics in a monkey troop than in primitive
> communist human societies."
>
> I would agree strongly with the first sentence, and disagree as
> emphatically with the second.  In fact, I see little relationship
> between the two sentences, and perhaps you would care to flesh it out
> a bit. I read it as a non sequiter.
>
> But rather than get into a debate on the subject, which I frankly
> consider to be old material, I would like to urge you to read Erich
> Fromm's "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness". Let me just list some
> of the appropriate chapters:
>

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Fred Feldman | 1 Sep 12:53

Brit troops leave Basra: "God has blessed us with victory over the occupation"

GI Special:
 thomasfbarton <at> earthlink.net
 9.1.07
 GI SPECIAL 5I1: BASRA FALLS

"On The Streets, There Is A Sense Of Jubilation And Victory Over British
Forces"

17,000 Strong Mahdi Army Assures British Soldiers "Safe Departure"

"God Has Blessed Us With Victory Over The Occupation"

Resistance Prisoners Set Free 

The Mahdi Army, which according to one estimate, numbers about 17,000 in
Basra and is divided into about 40 sariyas (company-size military unit), is
the strongest among its rivals in the militia-infiltrated police force and
it has influence over vital sectors such as health, education, power
distribution, and ports. 

August 28, 2007 By Sam Dagher, Correspondent of The Christian Science
Monitor [Excerpts]

The last contingent of British soldiers based in the center of this southern
city will leave by Friday, says a senior Iraqi security official, adding
that a deal has been struck with leaders of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army to
ensure their safe departure. 

As they pull back to a base outside Basra, the British will leave a vital
provincial capital in the throes of a turf battle between Shiite factions -
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Fred Feldman | 1 Sep 14:55

"Except for hypocrisy, nothing Craig did should be objectionable"

Of course, it is hard to avoid a touch of hilarity in the string of Republicans opposed for the crime
(according to THEM) of gay sexual activity of one kind or another.  Of course, to be a candidate for office as
a Republican, you have to be crouched fearfully in the closet.  The antigay stance of the party requires it.
Some Democrats, on the other hand, can make it at least into the House of Representatives as gays or without
proclaiming any sexual orientation.

Since homosexuality is about as common in the Republican party as in the Democratic Party and the
population, the disproportionately more closeted Republicans are more vulnerable to the current
slaughter now diminishing their congressional ranks. Democratic gays are considerably  likely to be
less tightly locked in the closet, and (where lower offices are concerned) have sometimes been very much
out. Former Gov. McGreevey in New Jersey might actually have survived his coming-out if he had not been
using it as a dignified way out of a mounting corruption scandal.

But the more important fact to liberation fighters should be the fact that the cops around the country are
pursuing an aggressive program of entrapping and arresting gay men for revealing their interest in
having sex.  Underlying this. I am willing to bet that underlying the publicized arrests, since the
campaigns are focused on relatively defenseless closeted gays, is a thriving blackmail industry.

This article does a good job of explaining why, in this confrontation with a seedy and bathroom-haunting
cop on the lookout for gay men, we should be firmly on the side of Larry Craig, hateful though he may be as a politician.
Fred Feldman

www.thenation.com
BLOG | Posted 08/31/2007 @ 5:16pm 
Larry Craig Resigns 
Richard Kim 

  
Updated: Shortly after I posted, Senator Larry Craig ☼ (R, Idaho) announced that he would resign on
Saturday.
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Greg McDonald | 1 Sep 15:09
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Re: Theory of Violence

Owen Davies argues that politics leads to violence. Obviously,  
therefore,  less politics means "less, possibly no violence".

  I was offering Fromm as a useful source to support part of your  
argument, and to make it more nuanced.  Fromm argued against the  
Freudian view of a universal aggressive tendency as part of human  
psychology. He examined the ethnographic record to support his  
argument.  I like Fromm's book because it takes the anthropological  
record seriously. He draws from Quincy Wright's 1,600 page analysis  
of warfare among our forebears, which examined 653 different  
cultures. Fromm then used Wright's conclusions as a benchmark in his  
reading of other ethnographies which he consulted. He found  
commonality on the following conclusion: "The collectors, lower  
hunters and lower agriculturalists are the least warlike. The higher  
hunters and higher agriculturalists are more warlike, while the  
highest agriculturalists and the pastoral cultures are the most  
warlike of all" (Wright, Q. 1965. " A Study of War").

Fromm  comments on Wright's data:  "the more division of labor there  
is in a society, the more warlike it is, and that societies with  
class systems are the most warlike of all peoples. Eventually his  
data show that the greater the equilibrium among groups and between  
the group and its physical environment, the less warlikeness one  
finds, while frequent disturbances in the equilibrium result in an  
increase in warlikeness. Wright distinguishes among four kinds of  
war--defensive, social, economic, and political." According to Fromm,  
Wright's research "confirms the thesis that the most primitive are  
the least warlike and that warlikeness grows in proportion to  
civilization".
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