Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 09.12.05

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     09.12.05
                          VOTE TOMORROW!

1. Court watch         9.12 10am
2. Dickinson/press     9.12 10:45am
3. Peace one day/film  9.12 6pm
4. A-bomb reading      9.12 6:30pm
5. WAMM book club      9.12 7pm

6. Primary! Vote!      9.13 7am
7. CCHT                9.13 7:30am
8. Superior hiking     9.13 10am
9. Women/color/co-op   9.13 6:30pm
10. Mike Malloy        9.13 7pm RiverFalls WI
11. Mpls GP electparty 9.13 8pm
12. Slam/Katrina       9.13 8pm
13. 9-11/empire/CTV    9.13 8:30pm

14. Katrina/help

15. Charles Sullivan - It's not easy being king; Gucci to the rescue
16. Caroline Arnold  - Katrina, Iraq and directed democracy
17. Michael Klare    - Katrina and the coming world oil crunch
18. Robert Scheer    - The real costs of a culture of greed
19. Eric Foner       - The power of outrage
20. ed               - Fascism clock
21. ed               - Let there be dark (poem)

--------1 of x--------

From: Michelle Gross <mgresist [at] minn.net>
Subject: Court watch 9.12 10am

DONTE ST. JAMES CASE GOES TO COURT--BE THERE!
Picture this: You're at a block party for people in your apartment
building.  People are barbequing, socializing, dancing.  Suddenly cops
roll up and start threatening, grabbing and arresting people.  You run
into the apartment building with your friends and make it to safety
behind your locked apartment door.  Next thing you know, a cop who
witnesses say appeared to be hyped up on drugs, starts shooting through
your door.

Think this couldn't happen?  Well, folks, it did.  Minneapolis police
shot Donte St. James THROUGH his locked apartment door.  Luckily, he
wasn't badly hurt.

Accountability is not the Minneapolis police department's strong
suit--covering up for dirty cops is more their style.  True to form,
they've CHARGED Donte with "assault with a deadly weapon" to cover their
own outrageous actions.

Donte's case goes to court starting Monday, September 12 at 10:00 a.m.
and we need to be there with him.  With lawyers Jill Clark and Jill Waite
at the helm, this promises to be a fascinating case.  Please come out and
stand with Donte.


--------2 of x--------

From: Christopher Childs <worldgarden [at] igc.org>
Subject: Dickinson/development 9.12 10:45am

DICKINSON WILL HOLD FINAL PRE-PRIMARY PRESS CONFERENCE MONDAY A.M.;
WILL FOCUS ON DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNITY BENEFIT AGREEMENTS

Elizabeth Dickinson will hold a short press conference on development
issues in St Paul at 10:45am Monday, September 12, above the Mississippi
in Kellogg Park, across from the Radisson Hotel.

With the proposed site of the massive Bridges of St. Paul project visible
across the River, she'll describe how the city of Milwaukee has used
Community Benefit Agreements as part of a combined carrot-and-stick
approach to developers, and revisit the need for community involvement in
development planning that has been a constant theme of her campaign.

She will close with a brief review of the other major themes of her
campaign to date.

WHAT: Press Conference on St. Paul development issues, Community Benefit
Agreements

WHO: Elizabeth Dickinson,
Green Party Endorsed , Minnesota NOW Endorsed,
and MN Women's Political Caucus Endorsed Candidate for Mayor

WHERE: Kellogg Park, Kellogg Blvd. near Wabasha St., across from
Radisson Hotel

WHEN: 10:45 a.m., Monday, September 12

CONTACT:

Mary Petrie, Campaign Manager (651) 226-3527 (cell)
Christopher Childs, Campaign Communications, (651) 312-1216

Elizabeth Dickinson for Mayor ~ 384 Hall Avenue ~ Saint Paul, MN ~ 55107
www.elizabethdickinson.org (651) 312-0616


--------3 of x--------

From: Sheila Sullivan <aiisullivan [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: PeaceOneDay/filmn 9.12 6pm

Monday, September 12 at 6pm Como Park Neighbors for Peace will show "Peace
One Day."  Also, I will be selling tickets to see Jonathon Schell at the
Fitzgerald Theatre on Sat Sept 17 at 8pm.  They are $25. See ya Monday!
Sheila

Peace One Day about English actor Jeremy Gilley's accomplishment in
changing a United Nations Resolution concerning the United Nations
International Day of Peace. This is an inspiring film, with commentary by
people like the Dalai Lama, and many others.  Details to come FFI Madeline
Simon Madeline-mpls [at] msn.com. Visit www.peaceoneday.org and learn a bit
about Jeremy Gilley, the young English actor who got it in his mind that
the United Nations should have a fixed date for its annual Day of Peace
and succeeded.  His documentary, Peace One Day, is one which should have a
very broad audience.  You can order through the site.


---------4 of x---------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: A-bomb reading 9.12 6:30pm

September 12 - Program: Dramatic Reading.  6:30pm

Bimonthly potluck of Every Church a Peace Church. Program: Dramatic
reading of Fr. McCarthy s interview with the chaplain to those who dropped
atom bombs on Japan.

FFI: ecapctc [at] yahoo.com
Location: First Presbyterian, 4821 Bloom Ave, White Bear Lake


--------5 of x--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: WAMM book club 9.12 7pm

WAMM (Action!) Book Club

Monday September 12, 7pm.  Sabathani Community Center, WAMM Office,
310 East 38th Street, Suite 222, Minneapolis.

Fall is a great time to join a reading group. Announcing: New WAMM group
(or groups) will read, discuss, and write on a regular schedule. We will
read a book or article, meet for discussion, and - individually or
collaboratively - write a book review or letter to the editor to be
printed in a local publication. Let's meet to figure out a process. We'll
talk about a framework and plunge ahead from there. If you have questions,
ideas and opinions, please bring them along. FFI or to say you can help
with the incubation of this proposal: Contact the WAMM office at
612-863-5364 or Lucia Wilkes Smith at 612-871-4823 or
<clydelucia [at] aol.com>.


--------6 of x---------

From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Primary! Vote! 9.13 7am

Vote in the Primary on September 13!

Regardless of party, the top two vote-getters in the non-partisan primary
on September 13 will advance to the November general election. Remember to
cast your vote - and remind your St. Paul friends and neighbors to cast
their votes - for Elizabeth Dickinson for Mayor of St. Paul!


-------7 of x--------

From: Philip Schaffner <PSchaffner [at] ccht.org>
Subject: CCHT 9.13 7:30am

Learn how Central Community Housing Trust is responding to the affordable
housing shortage in the Twin Cities. Please join us for a 1-hour Building
Dreams presentation.

    Minneapolis Sessions:
    Sept 13 at 7:30a * Sept 22 at 4:30p * Oct 11 at 7:30a

    St. Paul Sessions:
    Sept 21 at 8:00a * Oct 19 at 4:30p

We are also happy to present Building Dreams at your organization, place
of worship, or business. Space is limited, please register online at:
www.ccht.org/bd or call Philip Schaffner at 612-341-3148 x237
(pschaffner [at] ccht.org)


--------8 of x--------

From: GibbsJudy [at] aol.com
Subject: Superior hiking 9.13 10am

Many miles of trail have been built in the city of Duluth this summer.
Here is your opportunity to be a part of building 40 miles of trail
through the city. More than 200 people have donated their time to create
the trail. Please pass along this announcement.

The Superior Hiking Trail seeks volunteers to build 14 miles of trail in
the City of Duluth during the summer of 2005. No experience is needed,
tools provided. Bring a lunch and plenty of water and dress for the
weather.

Here are the upcoming dates, times and locations:
September 13, 14 and 15, 10-3 pm. Meet at the corner of W. 10th Street
and 27th Ave. West.

September 18, 12-5 pm. Meet at corner of W. 8th St. and 20th Ave. W. To
get there, Use Highway 53 (Piedmont) and turn onto W. 10th St. (if going
north on 53, turn right, if coming south, turn left) Go about three
blocks on 10th onto a graveled road that widens into a parking area.

For more information or registration, contact gibbsjudy [at] aol.com or
218-391-0886 or go to the SHTA website at www.shta.org.


--------9 of x--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Women/color/co-op 9.13 6:30pm

Women of Color Cooperative for Economic Justice is a newly formed
nonprofit organization with a primary mission to develop opportunities for
women of color, supporting economic wellness for themselves, their
families and their communities.

In interviewing a number of women of color from the Minnesota area, many
women felt their biggest need was to be able to have an appropriate
income, as well as money management skills to successfully support
themselves in the present day economy.

Many felt that their voices are not really heard in the political arena,
simply because they are limited income citizens, and the focus is
primarily on big business, white males, and reducing the tax budget as
much as possible, primarily affecting families of color, often single
women of color as heads of households.

On Tuesday, September 13, from 6:30-8:30 pm, women from all cultural,
social/economic backgrounds are invited to come together to begin a
comprehensive dialogue on "Breaking the Chains of Poverty for Community
Women of Color: A Health Disparities Dilemma," held at North Commons
Communty Center, 1801 James Ave. N., Minneapolis. Admission is free.

Guest speakers include: Mpls 5th Ward Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee,
and Rev. Norma Patterson.

Women of Color Cooperative for Economic Justice is looking for
visionaries, goal setters, women with development and building experience,
who would be willing to work with them as they develop opportunities to
support the economic advancement of women of color.

For more information on the September 13 event, or on Women of Color
Cooperative for Economic Justice, please call 612-708-6931.

Shannon Gibney Managing Editor Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder 3744 4th Ave.
S. Minneapolis, MN 55409 (612) 827-4021 (phone) (612) 827-0577 (fax)


--------10 of x--------

From: PRO826 [at] aol.com
Subject: Mike Malloy 9.13 7pm RiverFalls WI

Mike Malloy of Air America Talk Radio (950am 9-12pm) speaks at the
University of Wisconsin in River Falls, WI in the North Hall Auditorium

September 13 at 7pm
Cost is $10
7-9 p.m - Mike Malloy

"For nearly 20 years, Mike Malloy has been making talk radio like this:
caustic, abrasive, inventive, confrontational and resolutely left of
center. It has won him admirers and awards, and it has cost him jobs. At a
time when the very genre of talk radio is widely seen as synonymous with
strident conservatism, his career both ratifies and belies that premise."
- Salon Magazine Malloy is the Winner of the 2005 Achievement in Radio
Award, is a former writer for CNN and his radio experience includes WSB-AM
in Atlanta and WLS-AM in Chicago.

Tickets may be purchased  through any member of the College Democrats or by
contacting Paul at  paul.e.bladl [at] UW-RF.edu
Sponsored by the UW-River Falls College  Democrats
Fee: $5 for students, $10 for adults
Location: North Hall  Auditorium

Directions:
94 east, cross border into WI, take 35 south exit
Take first River Falls exit which will take you onto Main St.  Go  through
town and at the end of Main St. is the college
For map, see:
_UW-River  Falls_ (http://www.uwrf.edu/public-safety/general_parking.html)


--------11 of x--------

From: Stephen Eisenmenger <Stephen [at] MNGreens.org>
Subject: Mpls GP electparty 9.13 8pm

We're having an election night party on Tuesday September 13, starting at
8:01pm at The Cabooze, 917 Cedar Avenue (just north of Franklin), near the
Franklin Street LRT Stop.  This is an 18+ event.

Andrew "Cadillac" Kolstad and others will be providing musical
entertainment.

Tell your friends and family to come on out and Celebrate the Politics of
Joy with your 10 Green Party Endorsed candidates!  This event is open to
the public.

~Stephen Eisenmenger Chair, 5thCDGP 612-823-3955


--------12 of x--------

From: lynette <lynette [at] prettyhorses.net>
Subject: Slam/Katrina 9.13 8pm

Tuesday, September 13

SlamMN! Poetry Slam starts out the season with all proceedsto benefit
evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Donations of cash or clothing and school
supplies or other needed items will be collected at the door. Featuring
the Mighty Mike McGee. McGee is the 2003 National Poetry Slam Champion.
7:30 pm doors, 8 pm Slam, hosted by Cynthia French. Kieran's Irish Pub,
330 2nd Ave S, downtown Minneapolis.  For more info, www.slammn.org.


--------13 of x--------

From: leslie reindl <alteravista [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: 9-11/empire/CTV 9.13 8:30pm

September 13, 8:30pm, St. Paul SPNN Channel 15:  Altera Vista presents
"9/11 and the American Empire," a talk by David Ray Griffin, Emeritus
Professor of Religion and Theology, Claremont School of Theology, San
Francisco; given at University of Wisconsin, Madison, on April 18, 2005 and
broadcase on C-SPAN2 on April 30, 2005.  Included:  The American Empire as
real and not benign; evidence that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the
Bush Administration to expand this empire.
 [New Orleans makes this even more likely. The usual uncommittal mugwump
inactions will only let BushCo consolidate even more anti-democratic
power. These are serious times -ed]


--------14 of x--------

From: Trish K. <tkanous [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Minnesota Coalition to Aid Hurricane Katrina Survivors

WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW! [Best to check if this need still exists - ed]
WHO:  The Minnesota Coalition to Aid Hurricane Katrina Survivors has formed
to provide relief assistance to survivors of hurricane Katrina who are now
residing in refugee shelters in  Louisiana and surrounding states.  We are
in the process of collecting donations of desperately needed supplies and
volunteer assistance, which we  will personally deliver to the shelters.
These are areas not currently being served by the large relief organizations

We are a coalition of community based, activist, faith, and political groups
and individual activists.  Some of us have missing family in the hurricane
ravaged southern states, some of us have friends there, and colleagues, some
of us just want to help.  We believe the best way to help is directly.  We
ask for your assistance.

WHAT:  A large space (warehouse, empty building, garage) where we can have
donations stored and sorted (we would need regular access.)

            Drivers with a class B License.

If you can help please contact me tkanous [at] hotmail.com
Trish Kanous
www.mncahs.org


--------15 of x--------

Gucci to the Rescue       [savage humor]
It's Not Easy Being King
By CHARLES SULLIVAN
CounterPunch
September 9, 2006

Many of you who read this will remember a minor incident involving Poppy
Bush that occurred during his presidency. Bush visited the checkout line
of a grocery store and marveled at the scanner that priced the goods. I do
not recall the reason for Bush's visit to the grocery store. Like any good
king, I suppose he felt the impulse to see how the poor folk live. Perhaps
he sought to enrich their miserable lives by moving among them for a few
moments. In that awkward moment it was clear that Bush and his ilk in
America's ruling class had no clue about the lives of ordinary working
people.

Unlike most of us, the Bush's do not have to buy food from grocery stores.
They do not have to stand in long lines at checkout counters like us. They
have servants who do life's mundane chores for them. They are better than
us and have to live by other creeds than we do. Why should a ruler have to
be subjected to such banal affairs? Their time is more valuable than ours.
They have sovereign nations to invade - fortunes to be made. There is golf
to be played; wealthy friends to be entertained. Their clean, white,
grasping hands cannot be soiled with the flesh and banalities of ordinary
people like you and I. Life among the gods does not allow descent into the
joyless lives of the multitudes very often. The minds of the rich and
powerful cannot be sullied with the trivial. It's not easy being King.

But that was long ago. Times have changed. The Supreme Court and Diebold
have planted a new Bush in the White House and it has born new fruit. Now
we have the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that recently devastated the
Gulf Coast. Among the areas hardest hit by Katrina was the city of New
Orleans, whose population is, or was, seventy percent black.

In the prelude to Hurricane Katrina, the people of means were evacuated to
areas of safety. Only the poor - those without means - were left to suffer
and die horribly in the rising flood waters of Katrina. The body count is
rising as the flood waters gradually recede. Upwards of ten thousand dead
appears likely. We may never know with any degree of certainty.

But all is not bleak. Thank goodness we had George Bush, silver spoon in
hand, to look after the safety of the nation's working poor. No doubt, the
plight of these people, most of them people of color, weighed heavily upon
his mind during his five week vacation in Crawford, Texas, while those
vicious peace mongers protested outside the ranch. No doubt, the victims
of Katrina troubled him deeply as he endured eighteen grueling rounds of
golf in Arizona, while the flood waters washed away the lives and
possessions of the poor. We are fortunate to have such a wise, humble, and
empathetic president. The people of Bangladesh probably are not nearly as
fortunate as those lucky people who once lived along the Gulf Coast. It's
not easy being King.

Mr. Bush, like all great leaders with high moral integrity, had the
foresight to surround himself with people no less caring and empathetic to
the plight of others than himself. An example of the Bush regime's
rigorous screening process is the head of FEMA, Michael Brown. Mr. Brown's
extensive experience at helping the victim's of natural disasters are
revealed in his qualifications for the job. This is why things have gone
so well. As Americans, we can all be proud of Mr. Brown's many years of
experience of working with Arabian Horses. What could have prepared him
better for this Herculean task of saving the lives of poor Americans in
the wake of Katrina?

The caring does not stop there. While Mr. Bush was playing golf in
Arizona, Secretary of State Condi Rice was on the case. While she was
unable to be in the vicinity of the dead and dying due to more pressing
engagements, no doubt the plight of these working folk weighed heavily
upon her beautiful mind. She was shopping for one thousand dollar pairs of
shoes in New York and looking for shows to attend. What does one wear to a
flood, anyway? It is an important question; and there are no easy answers.
Personally, I think you cannot go wrong with Gucci.

Thankfully, there was Dick Cheney, a man who has always represented the
interest of the poor and disenfranchised. Without his careful tutelage,
Halliburton, Brown and Root, would not be what they are today. All of the
billionaires would have remained mere millionaires if not for the selfless
efforts of Mr. Cheney. Where was Dick during the carnage? No one seems to
know for certain. Theories abound. Reports have emerged that he was
sucking the blood out of corpses in Iraq, like any good Turkey Vulture
would do. Has anyone but me noticed that Mr. Cheney bears a striking
physical resemblance to this scavenger? But I do not wish to denigrate
this noble bird with comparisons to the Vice President. Fortunately, Dick
got his friends and colleagues at Halliburton contracts to help with the
cleanup. They have done such a fine job in Iraq and Afghanistan at keeping
costs down while plundering and stealing the resources of once sovereign
nations that they were an obvious choice for the job. Who is better
qualified to help the people of the Gulf Coast than Dick Cheney and his
buddies at Halliburton? It makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?
Where is my flag? Where are my Support Halliburton bumper stickers? Let us
show our support for the good people who are looking after the welfare of
our nation. Strike up a chorus of 'God Bless America' and 'Stars and
Stripes Forever.' Where are my dancing shoes?

Then there was Barbara Bush, little George's mom, whose breasts were
swollen with pride at what a fine job her son is doing for the people
whose lives have been turned upside down by Katrina. Of course, many of
them are no longer alive; but that hardly matters. George has his eye on a
shiny new set of golf clubs. A momentous decision has to be made before
the next round of golf erupts somewhere in the deserts of America. The
pressures of the job are enormous. But George has the Bush family
tradition of empathy for the poor to uphold. Mrs. Bush, bless her wise,
empathetic soul, observed that the refugees from Katrina didn't have
anything to begin with. So they were happy to live in the filth and
squalor, not to mention the crime, of the failing Houston Astrodome.
Watching televised news coverage of the event, those people lucky enough
to have survived the hurricane could hardly contain their glee at their
good fortune. They are so happy that they will probably settle down in the
Houston Area in order to be nearer the Bush family. It was more than
generous of Mrs. Bush to take time from her busy social calendar to lift
the spirits of all those poor folk. But that is what the Bush family has
always done. Just look at the record. It speaks for itself.

I realize that some ungrateful people would think these great Americans -
the ruling elite - do not care about the multitudes. Someone has to set
the record straight. It is my hope that this brief look into the actions
of these great Americans will dispel such myths and bring them all of the
respect and praise they so richly deserve. Jesus will be so happy.  Can't
you just feel the love? It's not easy being King.

Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance writer
living in the eastern panhandle of geopolitical West Virginia. He welcomes
your comments at: earthdog [at] highstream.net. Only the civil need respond.


--------16 of x--------

Katrina, Iraq and Directed Democracy
by Caroline Arnold
Published on Sunday, September 11
Kent-Ravenna Record Courier
commondreams

"Adviser to President: "Mr. President, I have good news and bad news. The
good news is that you have been re-elected. The bad news is that nobody
voted for you."
--post-Soviet joke quoted by Andrew Wilson in "Virtual Politics: Faking
Democracy in the Post-Soviet World" (2005)

Wilson describes various "political technologies", "administrative
resources", and "dramaturgy" shaping the "performance politics" that have
kept former Soviet strong-men in power in what he calls "directed
democracies."

Tampering with balloting - adding or discarding votes; inventing
regulations or shortages of equipment or staff to limit voting - is just
the beginning. Other methods include infiltrating opposition groups to
foster disputes and divide the organization; "kompromat" - information or
misinformation circulated to discredit or compromise a rival, often put
between neutral statements in a "poisoned sandwich" to infect public
opinion with fear, uncertainty or doubt; using the media to distribute
"virtual dramas" that praise or assail politicians and policies;
artificial polarization of people and of public choices.

Sound familiar?

9/11 was an unnatural disaster executed by a few terrorists. Hurricane
Katrina has been a deadlier natural disaster revealing that the
comfortable realities we've been living in don't match up very well with
the real world. Nature burst through our carefully scripted and
stage-managed illusions, strewing dead bodies about and washing away the
scenery and props that have fooled us into thinking we Americans all have
freedom, opportunity, security, prosperity, responsible leaders and a
democratic government.

After a lifetime of believing in democratic government that serves the
common good for all people, I find myself uncomfortably recognizing that
our democracy is now "directed" like a ventriloquist's puppet, and that
our government has been replaced by media production units, complete with
scriptwriters, actors, musicians and dancers, all directed from the top.
Our concepts of government have been undermined, persuading us that
government is costly, inefficient, unnecessary, corrupt, and amoral.

As the realities of Katrina and the waste of life in Iraq were shown
concurrently people started making connections. At the Kent U-U Church,
after collecting over $1500 for the Red Cross during Sunday services, a
double dozen people gathered in the church basement to talk about what
else we should do. We agreed to three statements: "The war in Iraq is
wrong. We support our troops. Bring them home now." We had to talk a lot
to agree that "now" was necessary: first, we wanted to make it plain to
present and aspirant national leaders that we must end our military
involvement in Iraq before any more lives are lost or damage done; second,
the word "now" was necessary because without it there is no challenge to
think and talk about the "why", "how" and "when" of withdrawal, and no
pressure for discussion, dissent or debate.

At Friday's Scottish dancing in another church basement, Maggie maintained
: "Our soldiers in Iraq are the only things that's keepin' those
terrorists over there - they'd be right here, killin' us. The President is
right." Another evening, playing quartets, my old friend Evan openly
declared that the blacks in New Orleans were too dumb to evacuate when
told, and added that it was their own fault if they were poor.

Interestingly, most of those in the U-U Church basement knew that Homeland
Security had not allowed the Red Cross to go into New Orleans, and that
the reason given was that if the Red Cross took food inside the flooded
area, the victims would not want to be evacuated. (check it out:
http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html)

And Maggie and I and Evan and I are friends and dance and make music
together in a common reality, despite our differing ideas, without blaming
one another.

Ultimately, the homeless and bereft of the Gulf Coast, the Bush
administration, the people of Iraq, and the plain folk gathered in church
basements all over this nation are one people and live in the same reality
- the physical world. Katrina should teach us that we can't "manage" the
physical world. The Corps of Engineers can't make a better river than
Nature, and the Bush administration can't make us safer from hurricanes by
ignoring global warming.

Katrina also teaches that if we want a safe, peaceful and prosperous
world, we can't exclude anyone, any group or gender, any faith, any race,
any ethnic group; especially we can't exclude the poor.

The Bush administration has systematically divided Americans into "with us
or against us" and into Us & Them: the smart, successful "Us" get fine
homes, government contracts, health care and tax cuts, and the dumb,
unworthy "Them" get poverty, prisons, and cuts to public health and
safety, education and welfare.

So there's bad news and good news. The bad news is that We the People
almost allowed "political technologies" and "performance politics" to
take over our nation. The good news is that we're no longer going to vote
for virtual politics and directed democracy. We are going to learn to be
friends, make music and dance together, and manage our own democracy.

P.S. to Congress: The estate tax and confirmation of Supreme Court
appointments can wait until we untangle reality and democracy from their
scripted, virtual, artificial duplicates, clean up the messes in Iraq and
in our nation, and you remove the incompetents and political strong-men
from office, starting at the top.

Caroline Arnold (csarnold [at] neo.rr.com) served 12 years on the staff of
Senator John Glenn and is now active with Family & Community Services of
Portage County http://www.portagefamilies.org/start.html and the Portage
Democratic Coalition (http://www.pdcohio.us/).

 2005 Kent-Ravenna Record Courier


--------17 of x--------

Katrina and the Coming World Oil Crunch
by MICHAEL T. KLARE
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/klare
[posted online on September 6, 2005]

More than any other domestic disaster, Hurricane Katrina has significant
implications for America's foreign and military policies. There is, of
course, the obvious connection to the war in Iraq: National Guard troops
that were desperately needed to conduct rescue operations in New Orleans
and southern Mississippi were instead fighting a pointless war in the
Middle East, and a President whose attention should have been focused on
hurricane relief was instead trying to put a positive spin on the Iraqi
Constitution debacle. The international coverage of the human tragedy of
New Orleans has also torpedoed the Administration's just-announced
campaign to enhance America's image abroad.

But far more important than any of these is the impact of Katrina on the
global oil supply and the resulting increase in US dependence on foreign
petroleum. To appreciate the significance of all this, it is first
necessary to conduct a quick review of the pre- and post-Katrina oil
situation, both in this country and abroad.

Before Katrina, the United States was consuming 20.4 million barrels of
oil per day; some 44 percent of this was being refined into gasoline for
use by motor vehicles, while another 30 percent was used to make diesel
and jet fuel. Continuing a long trend toward increased dependence on
foreign oil, imports accounted for 58 percent of America's total petroleum
supply in 2004. And here's the kicker: Of the 5.5 million barrels of oil
produced every day in the United States, 28 percent (or 1.6 million
barrels) came from Louisiana and adjacent areas of the Gulf of Mexico. One
cannot underestimate the importance of the Gulf area in America's overall
energy equation. While oil output is dropping everywhere else in the
United States, it has been increasing in the Gulf, with new wells being
drilled in ever-deeper waters. "Generally speaking," the Department of
Energy reported in January, "Lower-48 onshore production, particularly in
Texas, has fallen in recent years, while offshore (mainly Gulf of Mexico)
production is rising." The Gulf Coast also houses approximately 10 percent
of the nation's refining capacity and a significant share of its natural
gas production.

Meanwhile, the global oil equation has become increasingly dire. While
international consumption has been rising at a torrid pace, with much of
the new demand coming from China and India, the frenzied search for new
fields has largely come up empty. At the same time, many older fields in
Mexico, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and even the Middle East have gone into
decline. These developments have led some analysts to conclude that the
world has reached the moment of "peak," or maximum sustainable daily oil
output; others say that we have not yet reached peak but can expect to do
so soon. This is not the place to elaborate on the matter, except to say
that there was widespread worry about the future availability of petroleum
before Katrina struck, as demonstrated by record high prices for crude.
(For background on "peak" oil, see Klare, "Crude Awakening," November 8,
2004.)

And then came Katrina. In the course of a few hours, the United States
lost one-fifth of its domestic petroleum output. Some of this is expected
to come back on stream in the weeks ahead, but it is doubtful that all of
the offshore rigs in the Gulf itself will ever be operational again. On
top of this, most of the refineries in the Gulf Coast area are shut down,
and imports of oil have been hampered by the damage to oil ports and
unloading facilities. How quickly all of these installations can be
repaired is not currently known. With no idle facilities elsewhere in the
nation to replace lost Gulf capacity, supplies are likely to remain sparse
(and prices high) for months to come.

But it is not the short-term picture that we should worry about the most;
it is the long-term situation. This is so because the Gulf was the only
area of the United States that showed any promise of compensating for the
decline of older onshore fields and thus of dampening, to some degree, the
nation's thirst for imported oil. There has been much discussion about the
potential for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in
Alaska, but energy professionals scoff at the prospects of obtaining
significant amounts of crude there; instead, all of their attention has
been on the deep waters of the Gulf. Spurred by the Bush Administration's
energy plan, which calls for massive investment in deep-water fields, the
big oil firms have poured billions of dollars into new offshore drilling
facilities in the Gulf. Before Katrina, these facilities were expected to
supply more than 12 percent of America's Lower 48 petroleum output by the
end of 2005, and a much larger share in the years thereafter.

It is this promise of future oil that is most in question: Even if older,
close-to-shore rigs can be brought back on line, there is considerable
doubt about the viability of the billion-dollar deep-water rigs, most of
which lie right along the path of recent hurricanes, including Ivan and
Katrina. If these cannot be salvaged, there is no hope of slowing the rise
in US dependence on imports, ANWR or no ANWR. This can mean one thing
only: growing US reliance on oil from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Angola, Nigeria,
Colombia, Venezuela and other conflict-torn producers in the developing
world.

And it is this that should set the alarm bells ringing. If recent US
behavior is any indication, the Bush Administration will respond to this
predicament by increasing the involvement of American military forces in
the protection of foreign oil potentates (like the Saudi royal family) and
the defense of overseas oil installations. American troops are already
helping to defend the flow of petroleum in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, the Republic of Georgia, Colombia and offshore areas
of West Africa, producing an enormous strain on the Pentagon's finances
and capabilities. In addition, plans are being made to establish new US
bases in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, two promising producers, and in the
oil-producing regions of Africa. (See Klare, "Imperial Reach," April 25,
2005.) Given the need for even more foreign oil, these plans are likely to
be accelerated in the months ahead. This means that the United States will
become even more deeply embroiled in foreign oil wars, with an attendant
increase in terrorist violence.

Hurricane Katrina has many distressing domestic consequences, and these
should rightfully command our attention and compassion. But we must not
lose sight of its foreign policy implications, as these are sure to spark
new crises and disasters. We must not allow the White House to exploit our
current energy woes to justify the further militarization of America's
petroleum dependency, with all that entails. Along with other critical
measures, we should use this time of reflection and reconstruction to
fashion a new national energy policy, based above all on conservation and
the rapid development of petroleum alternatives.


--------18 of x--------

The Real Costs of a Culture of Greed
column left by Robert Scheer
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/scheer0906
[posted online on September 6, 2005]

What the world has witnessed this past week is an image of poverty and
social disarray that tears away the affluent mask of the United States.

Instead of the much-celebrated American can-do machine that promises to
bring freedom and prosperity to less fortunate people abroad, we have seen
a callous official incompetence that puts even Third World rulers to
shame. The well-reported litany of mistakes by the Bush Administration in
failing to prevent and respond to Katrina's destruction grew longer with
each hour's grim revelation from the streets of an apocalyptic New
Orleans.

Yet the problem is much deeper. For half a century, free-market purists
have to great effect denigrated the essential role that modern government
performs as some terrible liberal plot. Thus, the symbolism of New
Orleans' flooding is tragically apt: Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and
Louisiana Governor Huey Long's ambitious populist reforms in the 1930s
eased Louisiana out of feudalism and toward modernity; the Reagan
Revolution and the callousness of both Bush Administrations have sent them
back toward the abyss.

Now we have a President who wastes tax revenues in Iraq instead of
protecting us at home. Levee improvements were deferred in recent years
even after congressional approval, reportedly prompting EPA staffers to
dub flooded New Orleans "Lake George."

None of this is an oversight, or simple incompetence. It is the result of
a campaign by most Republicans and too many Democrats to systematically
vilify the role of government in American life. Manipulative politicians
have convinced lower- and middle-class whites that their own economic
pains were caused by "quasi-socialist" government policies that aid only
poor brown and black people - even as corporate profits and CEO salaries
soared.

For decades we have seen social services that benefit everyone -
education, community policing, public health, environmental protections
and infrastructure repair, emergency services - in steady, steep decline
in the face of tax cuts and rising military spending. But it is a false
savings; it will certainly cost exponentially more to save New Orleans
than it would have to protect it in the first place.

And, although the wealthy can soften the blow of this national decline by
sending their kids to private school, building walls around their
communities and checking into distant hotels in the face of approaching
calamities, others, like the 150,000 people living below the poverty line
in the Katrina damage area - one-third of whom are elderly - are left
exposed.

Watching on television the stark vulnerability of a permanent underclass
of African Americans living in New Orleans ghettos is terrifying. It
should be remembered, however, that even when hurricanes are not
threatening their lives and sanity, they live in rotting housing
complexes, attend embarrassingly ill-equipped public schools and, lacking
adequate police protection, are frequently terrorized by unemployed,
uneducated young men.

In fact, rather than an anomaly, the public suffering of these desperate
Americans is a symbol for a nation that is becoming progressively poorer
under the leadership of the party of Big Business. As Katrina was making
its devastating landfall, the US Census Bureau released new figures that
show that since 1999, the income of the poorest fifth of Americans has
dropped 8.7 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. Last year alone, 1.1
million were added to the 36 million already on the poverty rolls.

For those who have trouble with statistics, here's the shorthand: The rich
have been getting richer and the poor have been getting, in the ripe
populist language of Louisiana's legendary Long, the shaft.

These are people who have long since been abandoned to their fate. Despite
the deep religiosity of the Gulf States and the United States in general,
it is the gods of greed that seem to rule. Case in point: The crucial New
Orleans marshland that absorbs excess water during storms has been greatly
denuded by rampant commercial development allowed by a deregulation-crazy
culture that favors a quick buck over long-term community benefits.

Given all this, it is no surprise that leaders, from the White House on
down, haven't done right by the people of New Orleans and the rest of the
region, before and after what insurance companies insultingly call an "act
of God."

Fact is, most of them, and especially our President, just don't care about
the people who can't afford to attend political fundraisers or pay for
high-priced lobbyists. No, these folks are supposed to be cruising on the
rising tide of a booming, unregulated economy that "floats all boats."

They were left floating all right.


--------19 of x--------

The Power of Outrage
by ERIC FONER
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050919/foner
[posted online on September 6, 2005]

This time the Bush Administration could not hide the dead bodies - or the
walking wounded, whose abandonment by American society began not in the
hurricane's wake but many years earlier.

The only bright spot in this man-made disaster has been the wave of public
outrage at the Bush Administration's abject failure to provide aid to the
most vulnerable. Indeed, it is hard to think of a time, other than at the
height of the civil rights movement, when the plight of poor black
Southerners so deeply stirred the conscience of the nation. Perhaps
Hurricane Katrina will go down in history alongside Bull Connor's fire
hoses in Birmingham and the Alabama State Troopers' nightsticks at Selma
as a catalyst for a new national self-awareness regarding the unfinished
struggle for racial justice.

But a better historical analogy, although not one that immediately springs
to mind, may be the Lawrence strike of 1912, best-known for giving the
labor movement the slogan "bread and roses." Thousands of poor immigrant
workers walked off their jobs in the city's giant woollen mills to protest
a wage reduction. Bill Haywood, leader of the Industrial Workers of the
World, who had been invited in to help direct the strike, devised a plan
to send the workers' children to live with sympathetic families in other
cities for the duration.

By 1912 the Progressive Era was well under way, but the sight of the pale,
emaciated children marching up Fifth Avenue transformed public opinion
regarding the strike (leading the governor of Massachusetts to pressure
the mill owners to accede to the workers' demands). More important, it
broadened public support for efforts to uplift the poor and placed the
question of poverty, and the federal government's obligation to combat it,
front and center in the presidential campaign of 1912.

"I have worked in the slums of New York," wrote Margaret Sanger, "but I
have never found children who were so uniformly ill-nourished, ill-fed and
ill-clothed." Today, as in 1912, the shameful (and growing) presence of
poverty has been thrust from invisibility onto the center stage of
national discussion.

Let's hope the country finally awakens to the consequences of years of
trickle-down economics, tax cuts for the rich, privatization of public
responsibilities and the demonization of both government and the poor.


--------20 of x--------

ed
Fascism clock

For years there has been a doomsday nuclear clock, see
      http://www.thebulletin.org/doomsday_clock/current_time.htm

"We move the hands taking into account both negative and positive
developments. The negative developments include too little progress on
global nuclear disarmament; growing concerns about the security of nuclear
weapons materials worldwide; the continuing U.S. preference for unilateral
action rather than cooperative international diplomacy; U.S. abandonment
of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and U.S. efforts to thwart the
enactment of international agreements designed to constrain proliferation
of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; the crisis between India and
Pakistan; terrorist efforts to acquire and use nuclear and biological
weapons; and the growing inequality between rich and poor around the world
that increases the potential for violence and war. If it were not for the
positive changes highlighted later in this statement, the hands of the
clock might have moved closer still." ....

I propose a fascism clock.

No, we're not to full fascism in America. Yet. But we're moving that way.
9/11 and the Patriot Act moved the hands closer to total(itarian)
midnight. Torture. Iraq. Now New Orleans. Closer and closer to midnight.
Some say we should not speak the word "fascism" until we have it - in
which case it will be too late to do anything about it. We might prefer to
think fascism is impossible, until the morning (or middle of the night)
when the storm troopers are in the streets and at our doors.

So here is a way to talk about *degrees*. Added or subracted factors. What
we might do to move the hands back a bit.

They are hurrying to pull down the darkening shades.  It can happen here.
It will happen here, unless we fight back. The hands get closer to
midnight every week or two. What can we do to move them back?


--------21 of x--------

 Let there be dark

 Bush says, Let there be
 dark. And monsters. And pain and
 death and fear. And hate.

 Dark monsters crawl forth
 doing pain death fear and hate.
 Bush dances a jig.

 More! Let there be more!
 I am amused! Joy drowns the
 sky in lightless night.

 What? They're all dead? I
 have all the money? How will
 I be amused now?

 Ah, I know! Rerun
 the show! Towers fall. Again!
 Towers fall. Again!


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   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
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