Published today by the New York Daily News (definitely not my choice of headline over there). The photo below happens to be the first one that comes up in a Google image search for Jean.

My grandmother sent me a short but sweet e-mail this morning, asking if I’m doing okay here in Haiti, where I work as a freelance journalist. She said the country has popped up in the news again because Wyclef Jean, a Haitian-born musician, is running for president.

“He has no political affiliations, only celebrities, so people are wondering about him,” she wrote to me.

She’s been duped by shallow media coverage portraying Jean as a fresh face on Haiti’s political scene. Jean likened himself to Barack Obama, a new hope for the earthquake-hit country, in front of a throng of enthusiastic supporters here on Thursday.

Look closely at his record. Jean more closely resembles Sarah Palin -incoherent, incompetent and in it for himself. Read More…

This is my reply to an open letter and response concerning the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism in Mexico, which I attended as a student. It’s written in the same spirit as my open letter to Democracy Now!: we must continually evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of independent media in order to be effective. Read More…

I don’t think that any of the hundred individuals who marched in protest under the blazing sun six weeks ago thought this would happen so soon, which makes the news all the more exciting. Immigrant detention policies are changing. After a few years of activism in the courts, media and on the streets, children will no longer be held behind bars at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas. Now it will hold only women, many of whom will likely be separated from their children. More info.

I would have finished and posted this last night if I hadn’t felt rather sick. I recorded most of this podcast yesterday; it runs under 5 minutes long.

Apparently Clinton invited a bunch of liberal bloggers to his New York office yesterday to talk about politics, Haiti, and his foundation’s work. Wish I could have been there. One blogger asked about Dr. Paul Farmer, who incidentally I refer to below. AP photo above.

MP3. Full transcript below. Read More…

My first second-ever feature story for Free Speech Radio News looks back at the 81st Texas legislative session, which ends today. What’s “chubbing?” You can Google it if you want, or you can listen here.

On the night of November 2, 2004, I was standing outside a polling station with Mark Strama, handing flyers to citizens rushing in to vote before the election ended. Read More…

I really should get back to studying for an exam, but I wanted to get this interview I did last night with Rosa Clemente, longtime hip-hop journalist and organizer and 2008 Green Party Vice-Presidential candidate, up here at Mediahacker.  When I have some time I’ll split this is up into clips, but in the meantime take a listen below – we discuss differences between the Green candidacy and Nader, hip-hop’s role in the campaign, racism in the corporate and progressive media, and more…

Torrentfreak reports that President Bush signed into law a new “draconian” anti-piracy bill on Monday.  The new statute is a wet dream for the movie and film industry lobbies: it creates an “intellectual property czar” to oversee efforts to intimidate citizens out of pirating copyrighted material, as well as stiffer penalties for piracy.  See Lawrence Lessig’s TEDtalk for a thorough critique of intellectual property law.