Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 08.30.05

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    08.30.05

1. Anti-war/KFAI        8.30 11am
2. Support NWA strike   8.30 11:30am
3. Dickinson meet/greet 8.30 5:30pm
4. Metro IBA/event      8.30 6:30pm
5. No nukes=good nukes  8.30 6:30pm

6. Health care          8.31 7:30am
7. Anti-torture         8.31 3pm
8. Shoreham pollution   8.31 7pm
9. Library candidates   8.31 7pm
10. Dickinson/forum     8.31 7pm
11. Fidel/film/talk     8.31 7pm
12. Vigil/Cindy         8.31 7:30pm

13. Dave Lindorff     - Depleted Uranium (DU) use in Iraq
14. Seth Sandronsky   - Pat Robertson: big oil's televangelist
15. PC Roberts        - Does anyone know what we're doing in Iraq?
16. Norman Solomon    - Liberals and Cindy Sheehan: triangulation for war
17. Gilles d'Aymery   - The noble cause: oil
18. Charles Sullivan  - Nation of fools: the age of reason in eclipse
19. Richard Broderick - Keeping faith (for Cindy Sheehan)  (poem)

--------1 of 19--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Anti-war/KFAI 8.30 11am

KFAI: Tuesday Aug 30 @ 11am on my show Catalyst/KFAI Radio: there was a
tech glitch so that an imoprtant edition of DEMOCRACY NOW! wasn't
broadcast (except @ 5am the next day) which included voices of Gold Star
Military Families for Peace. Includes poetry & music. Host:Lydia Howell
KFAI Radio 90.3fm Mpls 106.7 fm St Paul all shows archived for 2 weeks at
www.kfai.org


--------2 of 19---------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Support NWA strike 8.30 11:30am

Tues Aug 30 @ 11:30am: Stand With NWA Mechanics on Strike!
Raddison Hotel, on Washinton Ave.S. near Oak Street, Stadium Village,U
of M, East Bank, Minneapolis

The scabs that NWA trained (at cost of $100Million) are being put up at
several local hotels and striking mechanics are pciketing at one of them
on Tuesday morning.

People need to udnerstand that NWA has PLANNED for 18 months to do what
they're doing. While they say that the concessions they demanded from
mechanics ($170+Million) were CRITICAL for the company to not go bankrupt
consider this: $100M already spent to train replacement workers (who NWA
is already saying they may hire permanently!); plus, whatever they're
spending to put these people in hotels. Also the CEO makes over $4Million
in salary---so, are the guys at the TOP taking the kind of HUGE pay CUTS
they demand of ordinary workers? NO!

We must remember the lessons of the Hormel P9 strike:that a defeat can
mean the END OF UNIONS IN AN INDUSTRY.

The ultimate aim of the Corporate Militarist elites is to BREAK ALL UNIONS
and return us to the PRE-New deal gains for ordinary working people. We
must stand with the airline mechanics now--for their future and our own. I
urge all progressives to consider what they can do to SUPPORT this
strike...and ask the DFL --who expects that labor will automatically
work/vote for them at election time, what the DFL will do to support the
strike. The Green Party is already ON the side of the mechanics. -Lydia
Howell,Minneapolis


--------3 of 19--------

From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Dickinson meet/greet 8.30 5:30pm

Dickinson for Mayor
Meet & Greet in Merriam Park
Tuesday August 30
5:30-7:30pm
Home of Roger Meyer and Dana Murdoch, 1692 Dayton Avenue, St. Paul


--------4 of 19--------

From: Craig and Merritt <cdsmith [at] alum.mit.edu>
Subject: Metro IBA/event 8.30 6:30pm

Dear Members and Friends of the Metro Independent Business Alliance,
Please join us for the following event, and as always, bring friends!

Metro IBA Members and Friends Event
Tues August 30, 6:30pm at Molly Quinn's Pub
3300 East Lake St, Minneapolis

Topic: What Can Metro IBA Do For You?

These events are an important way for business and individual members and
interested persons to meet and talk about our organization and its goal of
promoting locally-owned, independent businesses in the Twin Cities.  Food
and drink will be available for purchase. We hope you can attend!

Merritt Clapp-Smith Executive Director Metro IBA 785 Goodrich Ave St Paul,
MN 55105 651.222.6533 merritt [at] metroiba.org

-
Since our Metro IBA breakfast event on June 23rd at The Downtowner, a
number of new members have joined our organization: I've enjoyed visiting
a number of these businesses and have found a great toasted turkey,
cheddar and blueberry sandwich, beautiful local arts and crafts, a place
for my husband's budding beer brewing hobby, a warm and friendly
bookstore, and more. I encourage all of you to look at our Metro IBA
member directory [ http://www.metroiba.org/memberdirectory ], and
patronize other Metro IBA member businesses. This is part of what our
organization is all about.

Metro IBA Website
 Check out our new and improved website at http://www.metroiba.org. Our
website is intended as a central point of communication for the
organization, with information about member businesses, upcoming meetings,
recent press attention, and forum discussions on issues important to Metro
IBA members.

Around Town News for Independents
In each newsletter, we wish to include information about things happening
in the Twin Cities that impact the locally-owned, independent business
scene. Please let me know if you have a story or news item you want
shared. The news this time is about Grand Avenue in St. Paul. Grand
Avenue, long identified as a successful and attractive independent
business corridor, continues to bristle as more national businesses move
in. The recent news of CVS moving into the new development at Grand and
Oxford, across the street from the neighborhood's only remaining
independent pharmacy, Bober Drug, has been upsetting to small business
people, residents, and visitors to Grand. The additional news that CVS is
making a tempting offer to buy out Bober Pharmacy is even more
disheartening.

People are asking if the trend towards national stores on Grand Avenue is
appropriate and if something can be done to retain a strong independent
business presence. The key question is whether consumer awareness and
loyalty to independent businesses alone can stem the tide of displacement
on Grand Avenue, or whether some kind of new zoning measures are needed.
This may be an good discussion topic for one of our upcoming member
events.


--------5 of 19--------

From: patty guerrero <pattypax [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: No nukes=good nukes 8.30 6:30pm

Hi, the Salon for next Tuesday, Aug 30, will have Liza Ledwedge as the
guest.  Lisa is the Outreach Director for US Institute Energy and
Environmental Research.  Her topic will be "Getting Rid of Nuclear
Weapons:  Can it be done?  If yes, how?"

The following week, September 6, Elizabeth Dickinson , who is the Green
Party Candidate for Mayor of St Paul will be the guest.

Salons are held Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Mad Hatter's Tea House, 943 W
7th, St Paul, MN

Salons are free but donations encouraged for program and treats.
Call 651-227-3228 or 651-227-2511 for information.


--------6 of 19--------

From: erin stojan <erinstpaulissues [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Health care 8.31 7:30am

For those of you interested in learning basics about many levels of public
finance (woohoo!), the Citizens League is offering breakfast workshops in
St. Paul.  They are reasonably priced, and have many great topics and
speakers.  The last event, on Sept. 14, talks about the impact of public
safety spending on city finances, and how to get more out of St. Paul
safety dollars, presented by Matt Smith, Director of Financial Services,
City of Saint Paul.

(BTW, what you see below is what I know; all questions should be directed
to the Citizens League
(http://www.citizensleague.net/html/mind-openers.html)).

Public financing is hardly exciting stuff, but these decisions
dramatically affect the services available to citizens.  Check it out if
you have the chance.

Show us the money! Public finance event series hosted by the Citizens
League

All events will be held at 7:30am @ Four Points Sheraton (Midway) - I-94 &
Hamline, St. Paul.  Breakfast served; $15 nonmembers, $10 members.
Check, credit card, cash accepted.

Preregistration and more info at
http://www.citizensleague.net/html/mind-openers.html

Wednesday, August 31
The 800-Pound Gorilla in Minnesota: Health Care with Dan McElroy, Chief of
Staff to Governor Tim Pawlenty
With costs ballooning and demographic trends becoming more troubling, how
can state spending maximize efficiency and quality in health care?


--------7 of 19--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Anti-torture 8.31 3pm

Wednesday, 8/31 (and every Wednesday), 3 to 4 pm, meeting of anti-torture
group Tackling Torture at the Top, St. Martin's Table, 2001 Riverside,
Minneapolis.  lynne [at] usfamily.net


--------8 of 19--------

From: Shoreham Area Advisory Committee <saac-mpls [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: Shoreham pollution 8.31 7pm

STATE OF MINNESOTA TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING ON NORTHEAST MINNEAPOLIS
POLLUTION
YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED!
POLLUTION IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD:
HEAR WHAT¹S IN STORE FOR SHOREHAM YARDS IN NORTHEAST MINNEAPOLIS.

 How will Minneapolis¹ largest polluted site be cleaned up?
 What impact will this have on our community?
 What contamination has been found, and how will the cancer-causing
substances be removed from our soil, groundwater and air?
 How far has the pollution spread into our community?
 Will the proposed clean-up plan be the best for our community now and
into the future?
 When will the rest of this polluted site be cleaned up?

The State of Minnesota wants to hear from you about this polluted site.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will conduct a public meeting to
discuss the proposed clean-up of a portion of the eastern side of the Soo
Line Railroad Shoreham Yard site on Central Avenue between 29th Avenue NE
and St. Anthony Parkway.

WEDNESDAY, AUG 31, 7pm
MEETING LOCATION: COLUMBIA MANOR, 3300 CENTRAL AVE. NE, MINNEAPOLIS

Representatives of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and responsible
parties will be on hand to present details, answer your questions and
listen to your comments.

The proposed plan can be found at the Minneapolis Public Library Northeast
location (2200 Central Ave. NE). Text portions are online at the Shoreham
Area Advisory Committee (SAAC) Web site, www.shorehamyards.org.

Questions? Need more info? Contact SAAC at (612) 782-8241 or the state at
(651) 297-5573. Or join SAAC for its monthly meetings on the second Monday
of each month, 7 p.m. at the Holland neighborhood office, 2516 Central
Ave. NE, Minneapolis.


--------9 of 19-------

From: scott marshall <scottethan [at] mac.com>
Subject: Library candidates 8.31 7pm

And let's not forget that Getting to the Bottom of the Ballot (GetBoB)
is hosting two GREAT opportunities to get to know library board
candidates (and candidates for all other city offices).

Lest anyone forget how and why these "bottom of the ballot"  positions and
issues are so important, join us for a panel discussion of how the
independent boards and their members impact all of our lives and what
kinds of questions we should be asking our candidates:

August 31 from 7-9pm
Temple Israel
2324 Emerson Ave S (24th and Emerson)
Panelists include:
--Colin Hamilton, ED of the Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library
--Jim Bernstein, Chair, Minneapolis Charter Commission (to talk about
Minneapolis government generally)
--Vivian Mason, Outgoing MPRB Commissioner
--Wally Swan, Outgoing Board of Estimate & Taxation VP


--------10 of 19--------

From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Dickinson/forum 8.31 7pm

Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Elizabeth Dickinson in a
Candidate Forum at The Pointe of St. Paul Condominiums
7pm
78 East 10th Street, St. Paul


--------11 of 19--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Fidel/film/talk 8.31 7pm

Wednesday, 8/31, 7 pm, Cuba film "Comandante: Oliver Stone Interviews Fidel"
and discussion group at home of Joan Malerich,  FFI: justnad [at] comcast.net or
651-451-4081.


--------12 of 19--------

From: Lennie Major
Subject: Vigil/Cindy 8.31 7:30pm

7:30pm Wed August 31
NE corner of Co. Highway 10 and Co. Rd. H (in front of Saturn Auto
Dealership) Mounds View, MN

This is one of the places people gathered 2 weeks ago when vigils
supporting Cindy Sheehan were held across the contry.  When it was over,
many of us were so energized and encouraged that we decided to continue
holding vigils there.  Mounds View is a 3rd-tier suburb, north of New
Brighton, and Co. Hwy. 10 is a heavily used commercial artery in the north
metro area.  During our vigil on Aug. 17th, the positive responses from
passers by outnumbered the negative by at least a 10-to-1 ratio.
Opposition to the Bush oil war in Iraq is not confined to St. Paulites and
Minneapolitans!

Contact Lennie at 763-717-9168 if you have any questions.


--------13 of 19--------

Radioactive Wounds of War
Tests on returning troops suggest serious health consequences of depleted
uranium use in Iraq
By Dave Lindorff
August 25, 2005
In These Times

Gerard Matthew thought he was lucky. He returned from his Iraq tour a year
and a half ago alive and in one piece. But after the New York State
National Guardsman got home, he learned that a bunkmate, Sgt. Ray Ramos,
and a group of N.Y. Guard members from another unit had accepted an offer
by the New York Daily News and reporter Juan Gonzalez to be tested for
depleted uranium (DU) contamination, and had tested positive.

Matthew, 31, decided that since he'd spent much of his time in Iraq
lugging around DU-damaged equipment, he'd better get tested too. It turned
out he was the most contaminated of them all.

Matthew immediately urged his wife to get an ultrasound check of their
unborn baby. They discovered the fetus had a condition common to those
with radioactive exposure: atypical syndactyly. The right hand had only
two digits.

So far Victoria Claudette, now 13 months old, shows no other genetic
disorders and is healthy, but Matthew feels guilty for causing her
deformity and angry at a government that never warned him about DU's
dangers.

U.S. forces first used DU in the 1991 Gulf War, when some 300 tons of
depleted uranium - the waste product of nuclear power plants and weapons
facilities - were used in tank shells and shells fired by A-10 jets. A
lesser amount was deployed by U.S. and NATO forces during the Balkans
conflict. But in the current wars in Afghanistan and, especially, Iraq, DU
has become the weapon of choice, with more than 1,000 tons used in
Afghanistan and more than 3,000 tons used in Iraq. And while DU was fired
mostly in the desert during the Gulf War, in the current war in Iraq, most
of DU munitions are exploding in populated urban areas.

The Pentagon has expanded DU beyond tank and A-10 shells, for use in
bunker-busting bombs, which can spew out more than half a ton of DU in one
explosion, in anti-personnel bomblets, and even in M-16 and pistol shells.
The military loves DU for its unique penetration capability - it cuts
through steel or concrete like they're butter.

The problem is that when DU hits its target, it burns at a high
temperature, throwing off clouds of microscopic particles that poison a
wide area and remain radioactive for billions of years. If inhaled, these
particles can lodge in lungs, other organs or bones, irradiating tissue
and causing cancers.

Worse yet, uranium is also a highly toxic heavy metal. Indeed, while there
is some debate over the risk posed by the element's radioactive emissions,
there is no debate regarding its chemical toxicity. According to Mt. Sinai
pathologist Thomas Fasey, who participated in the New York Guard unit
testing, the element has an affinity for bonding with DNA, where even
trace amounts can cause cancers and fetal abnormalities.

Dr. Doug Rokke, a health physicist at the University of Illinois who
headed up a Pentagon study of depleted uranium weapons in the mid '90s
after concerns were raised during the Gulf War, concluded there was no
safe way to use the weapons. Rokke says the Pentagon responded by
denouncing him, after earlier commending his work.

No one knows how many U.S. soldiers have been contaminated by DU residue.
Despite regulations authorizing tests for any military personnel who
suspects exposure, the U.S. military is avoiding doing those tests - or
delaying them until they are meaningless.

"When we asked to be tested at Ft. Dix, they wrongly told us we didn't
have to worry unless we had DU fragments in our body," says Matthew. His
buddy, Sgt. Ramos, who exhibits symptoms resembling radiation sickness and
heavy metal poisoning, adds that at Walter Reed Medical Center he was
grilled for hours about why he wanted to be tested and was then branded a
troublemaker by his own unit. Matthew says Walter Reed "lost" his sample.

At the war's start, the United States refused to allow U.N. or other
environmental inspectors to test DU levels within Iraq. Now the United
Nations won't even go near Iraq because of security concerns.

"It doesn't seem right that we are poisoning the places we are supposed to
be liberating," Ramos says.

The Pentagon continues to insist, on the basis of no field evidence, that
DU is safe. To date, only some 270 returned troops have been tested for DU
contamination by the military and Veterans Affairs. But even those tests,
mostly urine samples, are useless 30 days after exposure, because by that
time most of the DU has left the body or migrated into bones or organs.

Gonzalez and the Daily News paid for costlier tests for nine Guardsmen -
tests that could pinpoint uranium inside the body and identify the special
isotope signature of man-made DU. Four of the nine tested positive for DU;
all had symptoms of uranium poisoning.

Even harder evidence may soon arrive. Connecticut State Representative Pat
Dillon (D-New Haven), a Yale-trained epidemiologist, has crafted
state-level legislation that Connecticut and Louisiana have unanimously
passed, authorizing returned National Guard troops to request and receive
specialized DU contamination tests at the Pentagon's expense. This
approach bypasses the Pentagon's feet-dragging because National Guard
troops fall under state, rather than federal, jurisdiction.

"This was not a Democratic or a Republican issue," Dillon says. "These are
our kids and someone needs to protect them." She says that since passage
of her bill, which takes effect this October, military groups and family
organizations, state legislators, and even National Guard unit commanders
have contacted her for copies of her bill to promote in their states. Bob
Smith, a veteran in Louisiana who got hold of Dillon's bill and
spearheaded a successful effort to pass similar legislation in Louisiana,
claims that 14 to 20 other states are considering similar measures.

If enough Guard troops avail themselves of the testing - and start testing
positive for contamination - it seems likely that reservists and active
duty troops and veterans will demand similar access to rigorous tests,
which can cost upwards of $1000 per person.

One way or another, the Pentagon will pay a price. "DU is a war crime.
It's that simple," Rokke says. "Once you've scattered all this stuff
around, and then refuse to clean it up, you've committed a war crime."

Dave Lindorff, an In These Times contributing editor, is the author of
This Can't Be Happening: Resisting the Disintegration of American
Democracy. His work can be found at This Can't Be Happening.


[ED - To stay rich for a few more years, the rich poison the earth for
billions of years. And for some reason we don't seem to mind. Well, if the
*rich* want it, it must be OK, right? Wouldn't we all rather die and see
life on earth destroyed, than, god forbid, take on the rich?]


--------14 of 19--------

Sermon on the Wellhead
Pat Robertson: Big Oil's Televangelist
By SETH SANDRONSKY
CounterPunch
August 29, 2005

You know U.S. Christian televangelist Pat Robertson of the Christian
Coalition is tight with God. Such tightness has its privileges. One
grabbing headlines now is the privilege to call for the U.S.-led
liquidation of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, redistributing oil
revenue to his nation's low-income majority.

Further, he is looking to change Venezuela's commercial relations with
some of the world's people, including low- and middle income Americans
facing record gas prices this summer. Chavez also backs below-market oil
prices for Caribbean nations. In sum, his energy economics threatens the
unlimited expansion of prices and profits for Big Oil.

It has a big problem in Chavez, whose energy ideas would be wonderful for
ordinary Cuban people (two-thirds of whom are blacks). Briefly, their
daily struggles flow from the 40-plus years of the U.S. economic blockade
and the fall of the former Soviet Union. Thus Robertson, with his juice
card on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, backs more blood for Big Oil, which must
"grow or die" in all of its decadent grandeur.

For Robertson and the barons of Big Oil he speaks for, Chavez threatens to
limit the growth of prices and profits for this valuable commodity. For
the Christian televangelist, then, Chavez' privileging of people over
profits is a sin. For that this sinner must go, and quickly.

So we find Robertson of the neo-con choir basically shilling for Big Oil,
a leading sector of the U.S. economy under the Bush White House. His role
is to push the American political spectrum more to the decadent extreme.
Some call this the right wing.

Big Oil's profits are at record levels and headed up - but that is not
enough. More profits are needed by investors. It matters not to them who
or what feels the pain from rising oil prices and profits.

Even Wal Mart Stores, Inc., whose shoppers and workers are low-income
Americans generally, is feeling the bite from Big Oil in the form of
slower rates of profit. Millions of U.S. Wal-Mart shoppers and workers are
spending less due to increases in gas pump prices. Here, we see a conflict
between sectors of capital (retail vs. energy), which does not break its
over-all unity against wage earners and their families.

Accordingly, it falls to Robertson, who funds George W. Bush and the GOP
with big bucks, to demonize Chavez, democratically elected more than once
to lead his nation. Decadent capital breeds decadent mouthpieces.
Robertson is simply one of them.

Seth Sandronsky is a member of Sacramento Area Peace Action and a
co-editor with Because People Matter, Sacramento's progressive paper. He
can be reached at ssandron [at] hotmail.com.


--------15 of 19--------

Mission: Unknown
Does Anyone Know What We're Doing in Iraq?
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch
August 29, 2005

President Bush is out of touch with the American people, the US military,
and international political reality.

With every poll showing smaller and smaller minorities approving of Bush
and his war in Iraq, with top US generals sending signals that they want
to reduce US troops in Iraq, and with the world at large viewing Bush as a
fanatic who cannot acknowledge his blunders and mistakes, Bush announced
in his weekly radio address that "our efforts in Iraq and the broader
Middle East will require more time, more sacrifice and continued resolve."

Does Bush think he is a dictator?

The polls show that it is the American people's resolve that Bush bring
his Iraq venture to an end, an orderly end if possible, but to an end.
Every explanation Bush has given for his invasion of Iraq has proved to be
false. Yet, Bush still speaks of "our noble cause," while taking great
care to avoid Cindy Sheehan and her question, "What is the noble cause?"

Perhaps Bush supplied the answer in his reference in his weekly radio
address to "our efforts in . . . the broader Middle East."

What are our efforts "in the broader Middle East"?

The only American efforts "in the broader Middle East" that have been
defined are in the policy writings of Bush's neoconservative advisers who
cooked up the invasion of Iraq. For the neocons, our efforts are in behalf
of Israel's security.

The neocons' belief that Israel is made more secure by US military
aggression in the Middle East is delusional. How is Israel made secure by
an invasion that turns the Muslim world against America as all polls show
and Iraq into a training ground for al Qaeda, as the CIA says has
happened?

The US has been defeated in Iraq, both militarily by a limited insurgency
drawn from only 20 percent of the population and politically by Iraqi
divisions as the "constitutional process" demonstrates.

As Knight Ridder reported on August 25: "Insurgents in Anbar province, the
center of guerrilla resistance in Iraq, have fought the US military to a
stalemate. After repeated major combat offensives in Fallujah and Ramadi,
and after losing hundreds of soldiers and Marines in Anbar during the past
two years--including 75 since June 1--many American officers and enlisted
men assigned to Anbar have stopped talking about winning a military
victory in Iraq's Sunni heartland."

"I don't think of this in terms of winning," said Col. Stephen Davis, who
commands a task force of about 5,000 Marines . . . The frustrating part
for the (home) audience, if you will, is they want finality. They want a
fight for the town and in the end the guy with the white hat wins."

That's unlikely in Anbar, Col. Davis said.

Frustrated by a determined insurgency, Bush administration officials
predict that improvements will follow the Iraq constitution. However, the
constitution may be leading to civil war.

Sunnis say they will reject the constitution because it leaves them out of
the oil wealth, which goes to the Kurds in the north and the Shiites in
the south, and because it is punitive toward the old ruling party, that
is, toward Sunnis.

Perhaps it is the neocon plan for Shiites and Kurds to join the US
military in a war to the death against Sunnis.

But what comes next? How would Turkey regard a largely autonomous oil rich
Kurdistan on the border of its own Kurdish province?

And how would a war in Iraq between Shiites and Sunnis play out in the
Middle East divided along those lines? Does the US want to wed itself to
Iranian Shiites against Saudi Sunnis?

It sounds like a lot of long term instability. Perhaps the old Islamic
divisions are what the US government is relying on to enable it to
continue to rule the Middle East. Muslims might consume themselves in
their internal hatreds while the US builds its bases to control the oil.

That's been the tried and true practice of Western colonialists since the
fall of the Turkish empire after World War I.

Can it work this time? US ambitions are too much of a threat to other
countries which are well positioned to cause us grief. Will the world be
able to resist the opportunities to undermine an over-extended and
self-righteous United States?

Sooner or later, too, Shiite and Sunni leaders will realize that they are
pawns in American hands bleeding themselves in behalf of American power.
Sooner or later Muslim humiliation at the hands of the US and Israel will
permit an Osama bin Laden to reunify the Muslim world.

These are, of course, speculations. But history has few events without
unintended and unrecognized consequences.

Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has
contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate
economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of
California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The
Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts [at] yahoo.com


--------16 of 19--------

Liberals and Cindy Sheehan
Triangulation for War
By NORMAN SOLOMON
August 29, 2005

Over the weekend, a spectrum of liberal responses to Cindy Sheehan came
into sharper focus.

The message is often anti-Bush... but not necessarily anti-war.

Frank Rich spun out his particular style of triangulation in the New York
Times. While deriding President Bush's stay-the-course stance, Rich also
felt a need to disparage the most visible advocate for quick withdrawal of
U.S. troops from Iraq.

Putting down Sheehan -- and, by implication, the one-third of the U.S.
public that wants all American troops to exit Iraq without delay -- Rich's
column on Sunday mocked "her bumper-sticker politics" and "the slick
left-wing political operatives who have turned her into a circus."

Rich criticized "the utter bankruptcy of the Democrats who had
rubber-stamped this misadventure in the first place." Yet, in effect, he
was willing to help rubber-stamp continuation of the "misadventure" in the
present tense.

The president, Rich lamented, "pretends that the only alternative to his
reckless conduct of the war is Ms. Sheehan's equally apocalyptic retreat."

Equating what George W. Bush is doing with what Cindy Sheehan is
advocating? Is there really an option for non-reckless "conduct of the
war" that would be better than ending the U.S. war effort in Iraq?

Rich praised Sen. Russell Feingold's "timetable theme" -- along the lines
of getting U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of next year. That would be
a "target date," Rich explained approvingly, "as opposed to a deadline."

But no realistic explanation is available as to what conditions will exist
in December 2006 that won't exist in December 2005 in Iraq. Are we
supposed to believe that all the Americans who die next year -- and all
the Iraqis they kill and all the Iraqis who die at the hands of other
Iraqis incensed by the U.S. occupation -- should be ultimately sacrificed
so that pundits, politicians and their reliable sources can wait a decent
interval before (in Rich's words) "our inexorable exit from Iraq"?

For that matter, we should question just how "inexorable" a U.S. exit from
Iraq is. After all, it's hardly certain that the worst and dumbest or the
best and brightest in Washington will opt for evacuation of the U.S.
military bases in Iraq. And can we really assume that the president will
order complete withdrawal from a country with so many billions of barrels
of oil under the sand?

While many anti-GOP pundits insist that a fast withdrawal is no way to go,
numerous leaders of the Democratic Party are even more eager to
triangulate. "Senior Democrats sought to distance themselves Sunday from
Sheehan's protest," the Washington Post reports. On a Fox network show,
Sen. Byron Dorgan said: "If we withdrew tomorrow, there would be a
bloodbath in Iraq. We can't do that." Yet a bloodbath is already well
underway in Iraq and shows no sign of abating under the U.S. occupation.

Meanwhile, a more overt pro-war position is explicit from the Washington
Post, which seems bent on replicating its blood-soaked history of
editorial support for the Vietnam War.

In August 1966 the Post's owner, Katharine Graham, discussed the war with
a writer in line to take charge of the newspaper's editorial page. "We
agreed that the Post ought to work its way out of the very supportive
editorial position it had taken, but that we couldn't be precipitate; we
had to move away gradually from where we had been," Graham was to write in
her autobiography. Many more deaths resulted from such unwillingness to
"be precipitate."

In August 2005, while noting the latest setbacks for the U.S. agenda in
Iraq, the Post's editorial on the last Saturday of the month did not waver
-- and was certainly not precipitate: "There is no cause for despair, or
for abandoning the basic U.S. strategy in Iraq, which is to support the
election of a permanent national government and train security forces
capable of defending it with continuing help from American troops. But it
is dispiriting, and damaging to the chances for success, that President
Bush still refuses to speak honestly to the country about the challenges
the United States now faces, or how he intends to address them."

This is an inventive proclivity of the Washington Post and many other
corporate media outlets that are eager to advise the president on how to
build a better war trap.

Meanwhile, by any measure in this country, the summer has brought a
grassroots upsurge of insistence that the Iraq war is not suitable for
tinkering or for a long goodbye. On Monday, two days after the Post
published its editorial claiming that "there is no cause for despair," a
news article in the paper quoted one of the activists who has been working
for years against this war. Nancy Lessin, a co-founder of Military
Families Speak Out, is working on preparations for bus tours that will
soon depart from Crawford and travel various routes to Washington, with
activists aboard from MFSO, Gold Star Families for Peace, Iraq Veterans
Against the War, and Veterans for Peace.

"The questions that Cindy Sheehan has for George Bush are now questions
for members of Congress and decision-makers across the country," Lessin
said. "We are not here to make deals with the lives of our children. We
will be calling on all decision-makers to bring the troops home now."

Commentators who dismiss such a plea as "bumper-sticker politics" have
failed to truly grasp the significance of the Vietnam War and its somber
memorials, including the one in Washington. Those pundits do not
comprehend the writing on the wall.

Norman Solomon is the author of the new book "War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death."


--------17 of 19--------

The Noble Cause: Oil
by Gilles d'Aymery

Swans - August 29, 2005)  With no disrespect for Frank Rich's acumen, the
war in Iraq is far from over. "So long as I'm the President," Mr. Bush
said on August 24, 2005 in Nampa, Idaho, "we will stay, we will fight, and
we will win the war on terror." We are not leaving anytime soon. We plan
to be in the Middle East, permanently, for a "noble cause" that is never
laid out to the public. Cindy Sheehan, all the military families for
peace, and the Iraq War veterans against the war look like David fighting
a Goliath made of not just W., but the entire establishment; not just
Republicans, but the Democrats as well, and the "liberal" institutions
such as Mr. Rich's employer, the New York Times, or moveon.org, the front
Democratic organization attempting to co-opt Mrs. Sheehan's message, which
is straightforward: leave Iraq NOW; bring the troops home NOW. Now means
not tomorrow or next year, or the year after, or whenever in the ethereal
future; it means NOW! The prospect of David defeating Goliath in the
current stage of affairs is rather bleak. Yet, only military families and
past and present soldiers will stop this folly.

Mr. Bush went to Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 22, 2005, where he
addressed the attendees of the Veterans of Foreign Wars' National
Convention (and a national audience). Two days later, in Idaho, he
replicated his scripted message in "honor of America's National Guard And
Reserve." Mr. Rich should parse Bush's words carefully. W. was on stage
for 30 minutes in Utah, and 43 minutes in Idaho, including many applauding
interruptions. In each instance, about one quarter of the pet-talk was
about the audience and the local (political) celebrities, as is customary
in such settings. This left about 20 and 30 minutes, respectively, for W.
to deliver his "message" - an instructive one to say the least.

He managed to utter the words "terror," "terrorist(s)," and "terrorism" 33
times in Utah and 46 times in Idaho; he repeated the word "freedom" 26
times in Utah and 32 times in Idaho; "enemy" or "enemies" was heard 12
times in both settings; but he said "democracy," "democracies," or
"democratic" - the latest rationale for the war (bring democracy to Iraq
and the Middle East) - only 8 and 9 times, respectively, which is not
particularly shocking. After all, the US military has been in Kuwait since
1991 and for a dozen years in Saudi Arabia...and the democratic process in
those two countries is for all to see. The words "constitution" and
"constitutional" did not fare better: 9 times in Utah - four of which
referred to the US Constitution - and 5 times in Idaho, including one
reference to our Constitutional convention. (A witty reader suggested some
time ago that we give our Constitution to the Iraqis since we were not
using it much anymore!)

No wonder Mrs. Sheehan keeps asking what this "noble cause" is all about.

Interestingly, one word did not pass through W.'s lips - "oil." Not once,
neither in Salt Lake City nor in Nampa. Terror, terrorism, terrorists: 79
times; freedom: 58 times; oil: zero, zilch, nada. In "Gas prices too high?
Try Europe" (Aug. 26, 2005), Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor
reports that according to the International Energy Agency, "European per
capita consumption of gas and diesel stood at 286 liters a year in 2001
compared to 1,624 in the U.S." That's 75.56 and 429.06 US gallons,
respectively...the "noble cause" that never gets mentioned by the
governing elite and the punditocracy. How does one tell a grieving mother
that her son died so that we can keep gulping our petroleum elixir and
must control these natural resources in order to feed our insanely
wasteful way of life?

Simple: Dear Cindy, your son died so that we can drive ourselves into
oblivion, and, incidentally, enrich oil barons and the military-industrial
complex. Casey died for our will to control the universe, whatever the
cost in human lives and historical heritage, so that the American
"experiment" may perdure. And we'll nuke Iran, or China, or any
recalcitrant parties, eventually. We will. This is America.

Meanwhile, when Mr. Bush is off target - talking about reducing the
troops to coincide with the 2006 elections - the New York Times is quick
to point out "Bush's Loss of Faith" (Editorial, Aug. 24, 2005). "The only
rational argument for continuing the American presence in Iraq" is "to
protect the rights of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority and the rights of women,"
to prevent Islam to become "a main source of law," the "fracturing of Iraq
into an all but independent, and oil-rich, Kurdish homeland in the north
and an oil-rich Shiite theocracy in the south, while the oil-poor center
[is] left to the disaffected Sunnis, the terrorists and the American
troops."

Two years ago, the Sunnis were the members of the "axis of evil." Today,
we want to defend their rights. The Iraqi women who enjoyed more rights
than anywhere else in the Middle East have become the latest casualty of
our decision to re-map the Middle East. As the U.S. is ever more dominated
by Christian fundamentalists - subtly manipulated by capital and corporate
interests - we take it upon ourselves to prevent Islam from becoming "a
main source of law." Fundamentalism is only a one-way street;  it's white,
Western, and Judeo-Christian. No major news organization has come forward
with a real, prompt disengagement from Iraq. No minor news organization
has done so either.

None of the Democratic "strategic class," to use The Nation Ari Berman's
expression, has come out in favor of US withdrawal from Iraq. Bill Clinton
talks about staying the course, whatever mistakes may have been. His wife
wants an additional 80,000 boots on the ground. Kerry will settle for
40,000. Joe Biden is gung-ho on the war, more hawkish than even Mr. Bush,
as they all keep an eye on the 2006 mid-term elections. Go all the way
down the pyramid of power, from Albright to Holbrooke and Rubin, from the
"liberal" think tanks (Brookings, Carnegie, Progressive Policy Institute,
Soros's Open Society Institute, etc.) to the "liberal" punditry that
pontificate on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. They all buy into the war.

To co-opt the recalcitrants, the usual set of middle people will muddy the
water. Sure, they'll say. We need to get out. Set a timetable. Be
responsible. But Iraq could fall into chaos or civil war. Women's rights
must be enshrined in the new constitution. We cannot leave just like that.
We need time, and careful examination, and organization; and we need to do
what's right for the Iraqi people (as though it was up to us to do what's
right for them; we, who for two decades have been subjugating them...).
Tom Hayden, or moveon.org, the message is on track...and it's scripted on
staying the course.

We are not leaving Iraq. We'll split the country in three or more entities
if necessary - the smaller, the easier to control (cf. the Balkans).
We'll have a lower footprint in time for the next US elections. We'll have
permanent bases there. Both presidential contenders in 2008 will argue on
the merits of how long we have to stay the course. This futile carnage
will continue unabated.

Remember, the "American way of life is non negotiable." 429.06 US gallons
per capita per year, and counting.

Cindy Sheehan's ordeal is a tall order.

[ED - Let's have all the troops out and home for Thanksgiving 2005]


--------18 of 19--------

Age of Reason in Eclipse
Nation of Fools
By CHARLES SULLIVAN
CounterPunch
August 29, 2005

My entire family is being played for fools by the power brokers in
Washington; and they don't even have a clue about how they are being
manipulated. I am embarrassed for them. The truth is out there; but no one
is bringing it to our door step. You have to look hard. You have to want
to know the facts. You have to care about social justice; and that
requires effort; it requires living with a troubled conscience and trying
to set things right. It requires that you inform yourself and make an
effort to change things. The trouble is that most Americans don't want to
know the truth because it would make them uncomfortable. So they turn
their heads the other way and allow themselves to be distracted from their
civic and patriotic duties. It is easier to display the flag and plaster
their cars with 'Support our troops' stickers. This mode of being requires
no real effort; nor accountability.

Their government is murdering millions of innocent people all around the
planet, torturing people and toppling both democratic and progressive
governments; it is committing acts of terror against the world's working
poor; it is plundering their homelands and stealing their wealth. How can
any person of conscience remain indifferent toward these acts? How can we
wave our flags and support our troops when this is what they are doing? Is
this their idea of liberation? Is this their perception of Democracy? Is
this the kind of nation we want to be?

While this is going on they are concerned only about shopping, mindless
consumption, and watching American Idol. As citizens, they have been
rendered totally useless. Fascism flourishes where citizens are inactive
and uninformed. Where there is apathy there is fascism.

When will the people learn that the interests of big business and
multinational corporations; the interest of the ruling class - are not our
interests? When an American president - it doesn't matter which one -
talks about protecting American interests, whose interest do they mean?
They mean the interest of the ruling class - the Rockefellers, Carnegies,
Murdochs, the Cheneys and the Bushes. They mean the interest of General
Electric, Halliburton, Bechtel, Boeing, Wal-mart, Northrup-Grumman;
Raytheon, Exxon-Mobil; Shell Oil and Texaco. These are not my interests.
Nor are they the interests of ninety-nine percent of the populace. And
they certainly are not noble causes to fight and die for.

Most of my fellow citizens would be as angry as I am about all of this if
they knew what I know. But they don't want to know, damn them! It would
threaten their comfortable existence. It might even activate some spark of
hidden conscience that would force them into action.

It's not that we are a nation of stooges and idiots (though it certainly
appears that way at times); it is that we are a nation of the lazy and
morbidly obese - physically, mentally and spiritually. From cradle to
grave we are exposed to the brave new world of Madison Avenue, the endless
stream of corporate propaganda that dull our senses and wear us down. The
assault upon our sensibilities is constant. Our view of the world is
misshapened, distorted into the grotesque in the mirrors of the corporate
media. We are a nation of addicts. Some of our addictions include: oil,
entertainment, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, conspicuous consumption and
hubris. There is nothing wrong with being entertained, per se. But it must
be in healthy proportions to being informed. As journalist Bill Moyers has
observed, 'We are not getting the information we need to make us free.'

As a result, the age of reason is nearing an end. We are careening back
into the abyss of ignorance and fear that characterized the Dark Ages.
Evidence for this consists in the rise of nationalism, jingoism,
intolerance and religious fundamentalism. If we don't soon wake from our
zombie state, we will no longer teach the truth of evolution in our public
schools. The stage is already set in Kansas for that sorry event to take
place. Science and understanding will be supplanted by religious dogma and
zealotry. No proof, no evidence will be necessary. We will live our lives
by faith - blind faith; deaf and dumb faith. Ecological literacy will
become a forgotten dream, as the earth sinks into irrevocable ruin in the
bilge of consumption and industrial waste we created. Heretics, as was
done in the past, will be subject to persecution; burned at the stake as
blasphemers. Copernicus and Giordano Bruno will welcome the company. Free
thinking and the publication of non-religious books will be banned. White
supremacists (as they do now in the slave states) will hold the reins of
power; and a new era of industrial slavery will be ushered in. Behold the
twelve hour work day; rejoice in the seventy-two hour work week. And it
will be called a free and open society - a Christian Nation. It will be
called the Greatest Nation on Earth. It will be called 'Amerika.'
Religious leaders will openly call for the assassination of democratically
elected presidents of sovereign nations. The CIA and its henchmen will
obediently carry out the orders. Ignorant, supercilious, bumbling stooges
will be our war time presidents. We will exist in a state of perpetual
war. Ours' will be a permanent war time economy, until its collapse in a
few short decades of flaming exuberance. The war machine must be fed with
our babies - those of the working class. Elections will be rigged and
their outcomes predetermined by electronic voting machines that leave no
paper trails. Ignorance will be called truth. Hate will be called love.
Words will have no meaning. The fascist police state is emerging. Take
heed.

Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer and free lance writer
living in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. He can be reached at:
earthdog [at] highstream.net.


--------19 of 19--------

 Richard Broderick
 Keeping Faith
 (for Cindy Sheehan)

 We are the fallen who fell
 to keep faith with the fallen who fell
 to keep faith with the fallen,
 and so on,
 generation upon generation
 of other people's children,
 the only change
 the color of uniforms
 and the weapons that lie
 abandoned in the grass.

 Look at how he smirks
 and squares his shoulders
 before strutting into the lights
 to dispatch another battalion
 to do his killing
 and be killed for him.
 We are the fallen who fell
 to keep faith with the fallen,
 names without faces
 in numbers without reckoning.

 Look at how she bows
 and clutches her side
 from the pain of another womb
 emptied this morning.
 All day in the pitiless sun
 she stands,
 an angel without wings,
 faithful to the fallen who fell
 now turning to stone.

 e-mail: richb [at] lakecast.com


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