Thursday, December 3, 2009

Civil rights movement (continued)

For seminar 9, the lecture I suggested is : Clayborn Carson's lecture on Stokeley Carmichael


or downloadable from i-tunes ( Stanford : The modern freedom struggle, lecture number 13 on Stokeley Carmichael).

All of his lectures can be watched on youtube. He is a very engaging speaker and I've found his lectures informative and thoughtful. He has also invited activists from the civil rights movement to speak about their experiences.



For more songs and different versions from the ones we've heard in class :


And it's all perfectly legal !

You'll notice that these recordings are even more authentic (the sound isn't perfect).
'If you miss me from the back of the bus' is the original version referring to the desegregation of buses.
There are a few good examples of medleys, where you can hear the singers switching to another song midway through, prompted by the song leader, an early version of mixing?




Friday, November 27, 2009

SEMINAR 8

Listen to the sermon of Reverend Campbell to fill in the gaps in the text :

http://dl.free.fr/getfile.pl?file=/Ni8xfgP2





Download the file onto your computer. Contact me if you're having trouble :
audedemezerac@gmail.com

Thursday, November 26, 2009

FDR and the New Deal

First as promised :
You can read the text and hear the inauguration speech of Franklin D. Roosevelt and get an idea of his oratory.
There are more audio documents of speeches and fireside chats by President Roosevelt available for free.

Finally, I was listening to a podcast from NPR ( Shuffle, November 18, 2009) when I heard a story about the assessement of the number of jobs created or saved by the stimulus spending of the federal governement. This reminded me of what I told you about the difficulties in assessing the New Deal. It's very difficult for historians to identify the benefits of each ND programmes.
The Obama adminstration has created a website that allows the public to find out how and where the stimulus dollars are being spent: visit www.recovery.org to see it for yourself.

To read or listen to this five minute report, click here.

This piece was triggered by the criticism of the stimulus package by its opponents who consider that the massive spending (add additional debt) incurred by the governement is certainly not as efficient as the administration claims it to be.
Vice President Joe Biden was on Jon Stewart's Daily Show to defend the impact of the stimulus on employment. You'll hear a few allusions to the New Deal and some of the wasteful spending that occurred under FDR.



The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Joe Biden Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealth Care Crisis

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Songs and History : Sacco and Vanzetti

A very interesting post on a French blog on the song by Joan Baez on the Sacco & Vanzetti cause célèbre.
The same blog offers a selection of songs and an analysis of their historical context. I strongly reccommend visiting it.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

To the students of the Oral expression class:

As promised, I've put the song We shall overcome on the google group. It is here sung by the original Freedom Singers ( CD2 : Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, Balck American Freddom SOngs 1960-1966).

Nobel Prize

The reactions to Obama's Nobel Prize are mixed. It seems to have excited the criticism from right-wing conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

The liberal branch of the Democratic party see the prize as a recognition of the symbolic significance of Obama's election and the promises that it holds for the future of America.
The NYTimes summarizes these reactions along with the humble acceptance by Obama of the prize as an encouragement to pursue his policy of nuclear disarmement and his role as a facilitator of the peace process in the Middle East.


Monday, September 28, 2009

i-pods, music and war

I've missed the blog although I felt too busy to keep posting. By way of return of ASY2, here's a short contribution.

I've just read an interesting article of the use of music and MP3 players by soldiers in the Irak war. There are a few good tidbits to listen to as well as a downloadable podcast. Some of the most listened to artists are Eminem and Metallica which seem to simultaneously numb and galvanise the soldiers and sustain them on their perillous missions. The famous scene of Apocalypse now is also revived by a unit: the sound system they had fixed on their vehicle blared out the Walkyrie's march when they were on the job.



Thursday, February 5, 2009

the administration's teething troubles

Being in government proves at least as difficult as the kill-joys had imagined. I'll just highlight a few of the stumbling blocks over which the Obama adminsitration has ... well, stumbled. 

1. The failed/failing bi-partisan approach
One of the mishaps that attracted the new administration the most flak from the liberal (left-wing media) such as MSNBC is the governement's failure to attract a single House Republican vote on the "stimulus package". Actually, what Rachel Meadow was most upset about was that : the Democrats didn't need Republican votes to pass the bill but that, because of his commitment to bi-partisanship, the president tried to get political opponents on board by making compromises (including a significant tax cut into the bill for instance). However, this proved completely useless, since in the end, and after meeting with Obama in person, not a single Republican voted for the president's bill. Left-wing commentators consider that Obama changed the proposed package for the worse and to no political avail. 
The bill went to the Senate and was voted, with three Republicans voting with the Dems. 
On the bi-partisan front, another problem has arisen : Judd Gregg, the Republican nominee for Commerce Secretary (after B. Richardson withdrew) backed out probably for several reasons ( fear of political backlash from his party, and officially because of a  disagreement over the Census methods - NB: keep in mind how important the Census is for redistricting and other political vote related shenenigans). 

2. The unpaid-tax stumbling block.
The administration has also been running into difficulties as it tried to get certain nominees confirmed. Some have had to drop their nomination; the most spectacular case is Tom Daschle's withdrawing as Health Secretary nominee due to unpaid taxes amounting to $140,000. Only a few hours earlier, Nancy Killefer (considered for the position of deputy for management at the Office of Management and Budget + as chief White House officer for contolling spending) withdrew as well on similar but much smaller grounds.
Meanwhile, Tim Geithner, the administration choice for Treasury Secretary is having problems nailing the nomination in the Senate with.... tax issues : he didn't pay $34,000 in tax and there is a slight legal mixup about the status of his foreign housekeeper. 
Geithner was employed in the Treasury and earlier for the IMF, he presented the Bush financial bail-out in September and thus stands for continuity rather than change. 
So far : 2 major screw ups in the vetting process for nominees : B. Richardson and T. Dashle. 

3. What about substance? 

I'll just address a question that might interest you : why is there such a fuss over the "stimulus package", although apparently all agree that stimulus is needed. 
So what's wrong? 
The Republicans vocally denounce a bill that they consider to be not a stimulus package but a spending bill with a slant in favour of "social engineering", what they mean by that is that the President would be using spending programs to advance leftist political agendas (such as abortion rights or the welfare handouts). A good example of this type of discourse is Bill O Reilly who has a radio and a TV show on Fox News.
It is true that there are some major spending items in the stimulus bill, many commentators think that perhaps this was not the best way to get the stimulus package through but probably efficient in getting spending on clean energy,  long term investment ( such as  the debated provision for broadband internet) and endowment for the arts (always controversial, see The West Wing season 3, episode 7 : Gone Quiet). 
On the left, many doubt that the tax cuts included in the package will be useful to stimulate the economy. And as always, I think that this is the politically most contreversial point : listen to the point of view of many non-Republicans on NPR's website

Next, I think I'll be discussing President Lincoln and the way his example and legacy is being used by both sides. Any thoughts on that? 

Monday, January 12, 2009

Happy New Year & news round-up


Happy New Year to all of you and thank you for visiting my blog. 

With everyone waiting with bated breath for the inauguration and the festivities it will entail in Washington, DC ( the recommended means of transportation is walking, even for people living more than a few miles away!), it's time to find out what has been going on in the last couple weeks. 

1. The Blagovich story is still alive and kicking or rather picking. 
The governor of Illinois, despite being indicted for corruption in the 'pay to play' scheme for the nomination of President Elect Obama's successor, has nominated Rolland Burris to the Senate. On Meet the Press Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader had made clear that he would not seat Blagojevich's appointee, who ever s/he may be, because, regardless on the capacities on any appointee, the appointment process is tainted by the appointor. 
 But Roland Burris who was denied his credentials once and thrown out of the Capitol under the rain, is making his voice heard and basically daring Harry Reid not to seat him, with rather clear undertones of accusations of racism. So it now seems that the Senate Leader will have to give in and accept Blagojevich's appointee. 
Meanwhile, the Illinois House has voted to impeach the governor with a majority of 114 to 1 ! However, Blagojevich was still operating as the governor for several weeks. 
On Thursday, the governor was impeached and has now been replaced by Patrick Quinn


2. What happened to Bill Richardson, the humourous governor of New Mexico? 
He had been nominated by the Obama administration to be commerce secretary but decided to step down because of a pending investigation into potential misconduct from administration; i.e. the awarding of a lucrative contract to a political donor. Without admitting any wrong doing, Bill Richardson decided not to seek confirmation since the inquiry could lenghthen the hearing process in the Senate and thus hinder the government's tackling of the economic crisis which should be highly prioritized. Obama did not encourage Richardson to drop out, nor did he try to stop him. Whether the incoming administration knew anything about this is uncertain. How good is President Obama's vetting process? ( more on that soon!)

3. The Minneasota Senatorial race reached an end with the election of the Democrat Al Franken, with a margin of only 200 votes and with criticism from the Republicans that the votes were not counted fairly, that is the ambiguous ballots were overwhelmingly counted in favour of Al Franken. If you want to see for yourself why the attribution of some ballots is difficult, check this out; you'll see you different American ballots are from their French counterparts. Norm Coleman, the Republican incumbent has challenged the election through the State justice system we will see how this plays out : click here for fresh news ( February, 3).

I hope this prolonged break has not cost me all me readers, and I am looking forward to your questions to spur me on...
All the best for 2009