Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 09.20.05

[David Shove (shove001]

              P R O G R E S S I V E    C A L E N D A R    09.20.05

1. Anti-torture         9.21 3pm
2. Bridge vigil         9.21 4:30pm
3. Intercultural/school 9.21 4:30pm
4. Mpls Park Board      9.21 5pm
5. Peacekeeper training 9.21 7pm
6. Yugoslavia war/film  9.21 7pm
7. Vegetable car fuel   9.21 7pm
8. Peace one day/film   9.21 7:30pm

9. Holocaust/teaching   9.22/23 10am
10. 9-11 filmmaker       9.22 12noon
11. Eagan peace vigil   9.22 4:30pm
12. Small is beautiful  9.22 5pm
13. Book discussion     9.22 6pm
14. JohnsonLee/Samuels  9.22 6pm
15. Vote fraud/film     9.22 6:30pm
16. ViennaTribunal/film 9.22 7pm
17. African film/free   9.22 7:30pm

18. Joshua Frank      - NYPD unplugs Cindy Sheehan
19. Mickey Z          - Lords of war
20. Jorge Mariscal    - Military recruiters: counselors or salesmen?
21. Mike Whitney      - The Gitmo hunger strikers
22. Sharon Olds       - No place for a poet at a banquet of shame
23. Stephen Fortunato - Judge Roberts - Bad on the basics
24. ed                - Rich credo: men of steal

--------1 of 24--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Anti-torture 9.21 3pm

Wednesday, 9/21 (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


--------2 of 24--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Bridge vigil 9.21 4:30pm

Wednesday, 9/21, United Nations International Day of Peace.  Various
activities including expanded vigil 4:30 to 5:30 on the Lake/Marchall
bridge.  www.worldwidewamm.org


-------3 of 24---------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Intercultural/school 9.21 4:30pm

September 21 - Universal of Cultures workshop: Effective Use of
Intercultural Resources in the Classroom.  Time: 4:30-8:30 p.m..  Cost:
$75 (Includes 3 free presentations by an international speaker, dinner, a
yearlong complimentary membership to MIC, and .4 CEUs).

The International Classroom Connection (ICC) program of the Minnesota
International Center would like to invite you to attend an innovative
training workshop for K-12 teachers and educators who seek effective ways
to use international resources that complement the existing curriculum.
The workshop is designed to focus on Universals of Culture as a model to
compare and contrast cultures with students.

Please consider joining ICC if you are looking for an opportunity to help
your students freshen and expand the way they view the world, foster a
global and intercultural mindset in students, bring an international
perspective into your classroom, and encourage face-to-face interaction as
a means to learn about other cultures.  After the workshop, teachers will
be able to invite MIC International Speakers to visit their classrooms and
provide first-hand information to their students.

ICC has limited space, so sign up soon!  Send e-mail to icc [at] mic.umn.edu,
call 612- 625-4421, or see www.micglobe.org for more information.
Location: Minnesota International Center, 711 East River Road on the U of
M East Bank, Minneapolis. Limited free on-site parking.


--------4 of 24--------

From: Chris Johnson <issues [at] chaska.org>
Subject: Mpls Park Board 9.21 5pm

Please attend tonight's Park Board meeting, Wednesday, September 21.
5pm
2117 West River Road (just north of the Broadway intersection).

Agenda:

As is typical, the agenda is sparse.  But one never knows what may
actually be discussed.

The official agenda documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format can be found at
this link:
http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=314

Agenda Items of note:
* Approval of the Schematic Design for Phase 1, West Bank, Above the Falls --
a Master Plan for the upper river in Minneapolis, Plymouth Avenue to the BNSF
railroad bridge.

* Introduction of Dawn Sommers, the pricey new PR person, busily putting
positive spin on the controlling faction incumbents achievements to help
their election campaigns.  Oh wait, she's presumably working for the Park
Board and hence that taxpayer.  It's just a coincidence that a bunch of
recent PR and advertising items directly address items the controlling
faction promoted, and for which the board has been roundly criticized.

Don't miss the fun and excitement as your tax dollars are spent on
somebody else's "budget priorities."


--------5 of 24--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Peacekeeper training 9.21 7pm

Peacekeeper Training for "Bring Them Back from Iraq!" Twin Cities
Rally

Wednesday, September 21, 7pm, St. Mark's Catholic Church, 1976 Dayton
Avenue, St. Paul (one block south of Marshall, two blocks east of
Cleveland, northwest entrance, on the east side of the rectory, in the
basement).

This is a great way to be involved with the "Bring Them Back from Iraq!:
Twin Cities Rally" on September 24th in St. Paul (peacekeepers will need
to be at there at 1:00 p.m.)!! There are a variety of roles that
peacekeepers can play:  peacekeeping at the rally, march, for the sound
system, runners/ears/dissemination. This is a great skill to have. New
peacekeepers will be paired with experienced peacekeepers during the
rally. We need as many peacekeepers as possible. FFI: Call the WAMM office
at 612-827-5364.


--------6 of 24--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Yugoslavia war/film 9.21 7pm

Wednesday, 9/21, 7 pm, free film "Yugoslavia: the Avoidable War" (2 hours,
45 min), home of Joan Malerich, justnad [at] comcast.net or 651-451-4081.


--------7 of 24--------

From: Wyn Douglas <wyn_douglas [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Vegetable car fuel 9.21 7pm

VEGETABLE OIL: A NEW FUEL FOR CARS (9/21)
7pm at the Rockford Road Library Meeting Room, 42nd Ave & Douglas Drive in
Crystal

Meet Dave Viksna, who has turned vegetable oil into a fuel to run cars. By
modifying a diesel engine, he has been able to get 100 miles per gallon,
using vegetable oil. Hear him speak and see one of his vehicles.

Contact: Barb Sadler 763-535-1220
Sponsored by the Northwest Metro Green Party


--------8 of 24--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Peace ond day/film 9.21 7:30pm

Wednesday, 9/21, 7:30 pm, film "Peace One Day" at St. Martins Table, 2001
Riverside, Minneapolis.  Kathleen Olsen 612-339-3920.


--------9 of 24--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Holocaust/teaching 9.22/23 10am

September 22 - Symposium on the Memory and Teaching of the Holocaust.
Time: (see below).  Cost: Free, but Registration required..

Thursday, September 22 at the Eden Prairie Campus:
A special day of training designated for Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities instructors and High School Teachers.

 -10:00 - 11:50 a.m. - Stanlee Stahl, the Executive Director of the Jewish
Foundation for the Righteous located in New York City will be the guest
lecturer. Her morning presentation will address the topic of Jewish Rescue
in Poland.
 -12:00 p.m. to 12:50 p.m. (Bring your own lunch or dine in HTC cafeteria)
 -1:00-3:00 p.m. - Stanlee Stahl's afternoon presentation will stress the
importance of teaching about Rescue during the Holocaust
 -3:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Presentation of new 27-minute video produced by CHGS
and TPT-Channel 17, Minnesota Public Television, "Holocaust Aftermaths,"
which features survivors and their children speaking about how to tell the
story, an important issue for teachers as well. Teachers attending will be
given a free copy of the DVD or VHS Video.
 -7:00-9:00 p.m.  The Holocaust and Hidden Children. A community forum
featuring a 2-hour Holocaust discussion by Dr. Miriam Klein KIassenoff,
director of Holocaust Education for the Miami-Dade Public School System.
Dr Kassanoff was a hidden child on the run during the Holocaust. Free and
open to the public.

Friday, September 23 at the Brooklyn Park Campus

A special day of training designated for Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities instructors and High School Teachers

 -8:30 -9:30 a.m. - Stanlee Stahl, the Executive Director of JFR will
speak about her organization's efforts to honor Righteous Gentiles
(Non-Jews who saved Jews) and the promotion of public knowledge of
Holocaust Rescue.
 -9:45- 11:15 a.m.  Breakout Sessions
 -Miriam Kassenoff facilitates a teachers training session about using
film to teach the Holocaust
 -Judyth Lessee, Arizona Holocaust Educator conducts a presentation about
the unexpected rescue efforts organized by Japanese diplomat, Chiune
Sugihara
 -Jodi Elowitz, Educational Director of the Jewish Community Relations
Council Minnesota & Dakotas will discuss History and Persistence of
anti-Semitism.
 -11:15-11:50 a.m. Lunch
 -12:00--1:30 p.m.  Breakout Sessions
 -Miriam Kassenoff facilitates a teachers training session about using
literature to teach about the Holocaust
 -Mary Sorenson shares a story about her father, a liberator of Dachau in
1945, the first concentration camp established by the Nazi regime in 1933.
 -Dr. Robert Fisch, Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota
and Holocaust Survivor highlights the important role artistic expression
plays in promoting the public s knowledge of the Holocaust.
 -1:45 - 3:15 p.m.  A Holocaust Survivor s Story with Margot DeWilde
 -3:30 - 4:30 p.m. - A panel of Minnesota educators describe their
teaching practices and fitting Holocaust education into the Minnesota
Teaching Standards.
 -4:30 - 5:00 p.m. Final wrap-up, present CEU's and complete final
evaluations

CEU s provided. Sponsored by Hennepin Technical College and the University of
Minnesota s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Institute for Global
Studies.

RSVP for symposium - name, address and phone number - to
admissions [at] hennepintech.edu. For more information contact Jared Laabs at 952-
995-1444 or jared.laabs [at] hennepintech.edu.
Location: Hennepin Technical College (Eden Prairie and Brooklyn Park campus)


--------10 of 24--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: 9-11 filmmaker 9.22 12noon

September 22 - Conversation with 9-11 Filmmaker.  12noon
Westminster Presbyterian Church, 12th at Nicollet, Minneapolis

Mira Nair, filmmaker, who was only one of eleven filmmakers who were each
commissioned to create a short film on the September 11 tragedy, will
speak.  Mira is an adept storyteller who challenges cultural assumptions,
stereotypes and prejudices in her filmmaking.


--------11 of 24--------

From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 09.22 4:30pm

CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest
corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs
and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends
south of the river speaking out against war.


--------12 of 24--------

From: Jesse Mortenson <jmortenson [at] Macalester.edu>
Subject: Small is beautiful 9.22 5pm

9.22 5pm
Cahoots coffeehouse
Selby 1/2 block east of Snelling in StPaul

Limit bigboxes, chain stores, TIF, corporate welfare, billboards; promote
small business and co-ops, local production & self-sufficiency.


--------13 of 24-------

From: Coreopsis Poetry Collective <coreopsispoetry [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Book discussion 9.22 6pm

Our first book discussion/gathering was great and we hope you can join us
the 2nd time around!

Thursday September 22, 6pm
Black Dog Cafe
308 Prince Street
St. Paul, MN
(651) 228-9274

This month we will discuss "She Says" by Venus Khoury-Ghata

If you have any questions please call Erin at (612) 501-9427 or e-mail us
at coreopsispoetry [at] yahoo.com

*Coreopsis Poetry Collective* We exist to cultivate a community of diverse
local artists and poets which integrates all art forms centered around
poetry. Erin Lynn Marsh / Barbara Tarrant


--------14 of 24--------

From: megan goodmundson <goodponyz [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: JohnsonLee/Samuels 9.22 6pm

Interested persons can hear Don Samuels and Natalie Johnson-Lee on
Wednesday Sept 22 6-8pm at the Urban League, corner of Plymouth Ave & Penn
Ave North.


--------15 of 24-------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Vote fraud/film 9.22 6:30pm

Thursday, 9/22, 6:30 to 8 pm, free film "Invisible Ballots" re vote fraud,
Sumner Library, 611 Van White Memorial Blvd, Minneapolis.  612-724-1736.


--------16 of 24--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Vienna tribunal/film 9.22 7pm

September 22 - Film:  The Vienna Tribunal.  7pm.  Cost: Free.

The Vienna Tribunal, a documentary of the 1993 international human rights
conference at which women from around the world presented powerful
personal testimonies about violations of women s human rights.  Cheryl
Thomas, Director of the Women s Program, will host the screening and
facilitate a discussion afterwards.

This film is part of the Women s Women s Human Rights Film Series,
presented by the Human Rights Program at Minnesota Advocates and The
Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library.

Sign language interpretation and other accommodations are available with
advance notice.  To request this service, contact The Friends at
651-222-3242 or friends [at] thefriends.org.

For more information, contact Mary Hunt at 612-341-3302, ext. 107,
mhunt [at] mnadvocates.org, or visit The Friends at www.thefriends.org.
Location: Rice Street Branch Library, 1011 Rice Street


--------17 of 24--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: African film/free 9.22 7:30pm

Global Lens
September 15­October 1
Walker Cinema

Free African Films The Free Thursday Nights screenings at 7:30 pm on
September 15, 22, and 29, feature introductions by local scholars.

Thursday, September 22, 7:30 pm FREE
Hollow City (Na cidade vazia)
Directed by Maria Joćo Ganga
Introduced by Fernando Arenas, associate professor in the Department of
Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Minnesota

Following a massacre in his village, 11-year-old orphan N¹dala is
airlifted to safety in Luanda, the capital of Angola. Rejecting help from
the nuns who initially saved him, he warily relies on other street
children as he transitions into life in a big city that proves to be as
dangerous as his war-torn village. 2004, Angola, color, 35mm, in
Portuguese with English subtitles, 88 minutes.

There will be a repeat morning screening of this film on Friday,
September 23, at 9:30 am. Tickets are $8 ($6 Walker members; $4 students).


--------18 of 24--------

But Not the Anti-War Movement
NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan
By JOSHUA FRANK
CounterPunch
September 21, 2005

They can't stop the antiwar movement, but that doesn't mean they aren't
trying. On Monday Sept. 19, Cindy Sheehan spoke in New York City's Union
Square to a group of supporters and onlookers when police rushed in to
break up her speech as it was winding down.

"I was speaking and someone grabbed my backpack and pulled me back pretty
roughly," Sheehan told the Associated Press. "I was shoved around."

Police arrested organizer Paul Zulkowitz, who was charged with disorderly
conduct as well as for using an unauthorized sound device. For anybody who
has been through Union Square in the past few weeks, you've probably seen
Zulkowitz (AKA Zool), who heads up "Camp Casey NYC," a small group of
local activists who set up an encampment over a month ago to show their
solidarity with Sheehan's quest to end the Iraq war. Zool's arrest was
most likely a coordinated effort meant to disrupt the ongoing antiwar
vigil.

"Since when can't you talk out here in Union Square?" an Upper West Side
social worker told the Village Voice following the incident. "I've seen
everyone and their mother come out and speak nonsense out here in this
park, and for them to shut down Cindy Sheehan is just not right."

There is no question that the New York Police Department overreacted. I
can't tell you how many times I've personally shuffled through Union
Square where musicians and others were plugged into (unauthorized, I am
sure) amplifiers - singing their tunes or spewing their political
propaganda. And never once I have I seen a police officer run in and pull
the Bob Dylan or Abbie Hoffman wannabe from his microphone. No, there's a
reason why they targeted Cindy Sheehan and not these fellows.

Quashing Cindy is a different issue altogether, and it carries a lot more
weight. For starters, Sheehan is actually being heard and getting her fair
share of media coverage. She is proof that the antiwar movement is gaining
speed. And that's a dangerous predicament for those who support Bush's
dubious war, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is clearly plotting
his own trajectory within the Republican establishment. Unplugging Sheehan
undoubtedly scored Bloomberg a few brownie points with the Bush cartel -
as if jailing 1,800 protesters during the Republican National Convention
wasn't enough.

Silencing Cindy Sheehan in Union Square should show us all what we are
really up against. Over 1,900 U.S. troops have died thus far in Iraq, not
to mention countless civilians. And for what? The NYPD and government
officials don't want us to ask that important question, which means we
have to be even more vigilant in our efforts to expose Bush's war for the
fraud that it is.

Joshua Frank is the author of the brand new book, Left Out! How Liberals
Helped Reelect George W. Bush, published by Common Courage Press.


--------19 of 24--------

Lords of War
by Mickey Z
September 20, 2005
Znet

"I hope they kill each other ... too bad they both can't lose."
.Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger (on the U.S. arming both sides of the
Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s)

"Do not support dictators. Do not sell them weapons."
-Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta, East Timorese peace negotiator

It's not every day Amnesty International asks me to go see a Nic Cage
movie. So, when I got their e-mail about "Lord of War," I promptly caught
a bargain matinee at my local multiplex. This is not a movie review but,
by Hollywood standards, "Lord of War" rates R for radical...and I was
pleased to witness a film about the governments and freelancers supplying
the weapons that kill men, women, and children every minute of every day.

According to the Federation of American Scientists (http://www.fas.org):

 *Half of the world's governments spend more on defense than health care.
 *The U.S. share of total world military expenditures per year has been
roughly 36 percent, while comprising under 5 percent of the world's
population.
 *The U.S. Arms Industry is the second most heavily subsidized industry
after agriculture.
 *2001 world military expenditures topped $839 billion, while at the same
time an estimated 1.3 billion people survive on less than the equivalent
of $1 (U.S.) a day.
 *The International Red Cross has estimated that one out of every two
casualties of war is a civilian caught in the crossfire.
 *The United Nations estimates there to be over 300,000 child soldiers
around the world, now serving as combatants in over 30 current conflicts.
 *The Center for International Policy estimates that around 80% of U.S.
arms exports to the developing world go to non-democratic regimes.
 *There are more landmines planted in Cambodia than people.  Cambodia is
just one of 64 countries around the world littered with some 100 million
anti-personnel landmines. Intended primarily to maim, landmines can lie in
wait years after a conflict ends, causing 500 deaths and injuries per
week.
 *The U.S. government is training soldiers in upwards of 70 countries at
any given time.

"Since the end of the Second World War, tens of millions of people have
been killed by conventional weapons, mostly small arms such as rifles,
machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers," reports Lowell
Bergman of Frontline. "Low-tech, handheld weapons and explosives do the
vast majority of the killing today. There are more than 550 million small
arms currently in circulation, many of them fueling bloody civil strife in
countries from Sri Lanka to Sierra Leone."

And the home of the brave is the number one merchant of death. In 2004,
the #2 and #3 weapons-exporting nations were France ($4.4 billion) and
Russia ($4.6 billion). At #1 was the United States at $18.5 billion...and
if that number alone isn't enough to provoke action, consider where those
weapons are going.

"The U.S. has a long-standing (and accelerating) policy of arming,
training, and aiding some of the world's most repressive regimes," says
Frida Berrigan, Senior Research Associate with the Arms Trade Resource
Center of the World Policy Institute. "The U.S. transferred weaponry to 18
of the 25 countries involved in active conflicts in 2003, the last year
for which full Pentagon data is available."

I walked to the movie theater with no concern for landmines, snipers, or
IEDs...but every foot that steps on a landmine somewhere in the Third
World is blown off on our watch.

If nothing else, "Lord of War" shines a much-needed light on this
situation. Anyone can take issue over certain aspects of the film, but
what the mediocre reviews this film is garnering knowingly ignore is the
daily price of the arms trade and how Hollywood plays a role in
fetishizing the use of such weapons. Governor Arnold once said, "I have a
love interest in every one of my films.a gun." I say, as a tiny first
step, go see "Lord of War" instead of "The 40-year-old Virgin" this week
and encourage others to do so. Do this not only to experience what
Hollywood could do if it wanted but to vote with your movie dollar for a
little less spectacle and a little more rabble-rousing at a theater near
you.

Mickey Z. is the author of several books, most recently "50 American
Revolutions You're Not Supposed to Know: Reclaiming American Patriotism"
(Disinformation Books). He can be found on the Web at
http://www.mickeyz.net.


--------20 of 24--------

Another Pentagon Fantasy
Military Recruiters: Counselors or Salesmen?
By JORGE MARISCAL
CounterPunch
September 21, 2005

With the Army still short of its 2005 quota by some 16,000 recruits and no
end in sight to the disastrous occupation of Iraq, the new school year
promises to be one in which military recruiters step up their activities.
Pressures to meet their "mission" create the potential for increased
recruiter abuse. The New York Times reported that last year the Pentagon
investigated over 1,000 recruiting "improprieties," and after one
enterprising young man in Denver tape-recorded a recruiter suggesting that
he lie about his background the recruiter was demoted one pay grade. The
general stand-down (one-day suspension of all recruiting activities)
called by the Recruiting Command last May was an implicit admission that
more than a few recruiters were using unethical tactics to get young
people to enlist.

In light of growing evidence of recruiter dishonesty, it is interesting to
contrast the realities on the ground with the image of the ideal recruiter
crafted by the Pentagon. The Army Recruiting Command's manual "The Army
Interview" (USAREC 3-01-1) released last April depicts a fantasy image of
the perfect recruiter. At once a piece of inflated nationalist rhetoric
and a mundane description of tips and techniques for the successful
salesman, the manual describes how the "art and science of recruiting" is
designed to "keep the Army connected to America" by "exploiting all
available assets in such a manner as to dominate every market area."

Recruiters, according to the manual, are "the Army's best and brightest
leaders." Citations from organizational psychology textbooks pepper the
manual in an attempt to lift the spirits and self-image of the new
recruiter as someone skilled in "transformational leadership" rather than
the more prosaic method of "transactional leadership" based on rewards
associated with salesmanship.

In effect, the ideological thrust of the manual turns on the myth that
military recruiters are not enlisting young people but rather "counseling,
coaching, and mentoring" them. After an opening recognition that "there
are many similarities between 'sales' and 'leadership,' the manual invokes
the Declaration of Independence in order to show that the "profession of
arms" is a noble one and that recruiters are "leaders" not salesmen. Only
the most inept recruiter, the manual suggests, would lapse into becoming
"nothing more than a talking-head salesman, who could be replaced by an
electronic kiosk in a mall."

"Every leader in the Army has counseled a Soldier during their career,"
the novice recruiter is told, as the language of the manual subtly shifts
from the "art and science of recruiting" to the "art of effective
counseling." For anyone familiar with the training of sales personnel in a
business environment, however, "leadership" and "counseling" as defined by
the authors of the manual sound remarkably like selling. Required skills
include "active listening, studying human behavior, sharpening effective
communication techniques, becoming self-aware, and developing valuable
interpersonal skills." The ideal recruiter will know how to read the
customer's body language and interpret his ethnic-based biases. This
latter point is emphasized in a short vignette in which an Army recruiter
loses a prospect because he failed to recognize that for "Hispanics" the
family is an important value.

In another fictitious vignette, a recruiter is about to land a new recruit
when a friendly policeman who happens to know the boy informs the
recruiter that only a few days earlier the prospect had been arrested for
a controlled substance. The recruiter immediately drives to the boy's
house to inform him that he cannot enlist, an act that exemplifies "Army
values" according to the manual but one that is contradicted by recent
stories of recruiters advising prospects on how to successfully mask their
drug use.

On the one hand, then, the manual represents the ideal recruiter as a
counselor and confidant who consistently follows Army regulations. But in
other sections of the manual we sense the intense pressure on recruiters
to view the recruiting context as a battlefield: "A recruiter's adherence
to Army values and commitment to do his best is the basis of the warrior
ethos. It is this frame of mind whereby recruiters will not quit until
they have accomplished their mission. It compels recruiters to work
through any condition to achieve victory, regardless of how long it takes
and no matter how much effort is required."

In an extended vignette at the end of the manual, we meet Sgt. Dawson the
perfect recruiter. An Iraq combat veteran who has dedicated his career to
his fallen comrades, Dawson has transferred "many of the personal
qualities that enabled him to succeed on the battlefieldto his recruiting
efforts. Just as in combat, he would not accept defeat or allow his fellow
recruiters to accept defeat."

At numerous points in the manual, the fantasy of the recruiter as ethical
teacher, counselor, and "transformational leader" breaks down and the
bottom line is more clearly stated. The recruiter is fighting a different
kind of war in which he must "gather intelligence" on prospects," "gain a
commitment from the prospect to join the Army," and "engage the prospect's
emotional side; get the prospect enthusiastic, motivated, and involved."

Sgt. Dawson insinuates himself into the culture of the local high school,
and tells a young female prospect that her desires to travel, "be part of
something bigger," and "help people" will be fulfilled most easily in the
army. When asked by the prospect's parents about possible deployment to a
combat zone, Sgt. Dawson replies that she will have the best training in
the world and that she can rely on "the Army values and warrior ethos to
get you through." He then shows the family a travel video about Europe.

Perhaps the most truthful moment in "The Army Interview" is the following:
"Let's face it, the prospect is being faced to make a difficult decision.
He does not have the leadership experience or training recruiters
possess." With only slight modifications, this is precisely the reason the
counter-recruitment movement is struggling to demilitarize public schools.
Young people are intelligent and have many dreams. What they lack is
sufficient life experience to handle high-powered salesmen disguised as
amiable mentors. Lupus et angus: Haec propter illos scripta est homines
fabula qui fictis causis innocentes opprimunt (The wolf and the lamb: This
fable was written about men who exploit innocents with false promises-
Aesop).

Jorge Mariscal teaches Chicano Studies at the University of California,
San Diego. He is a member of Project YANO (San Diego), a
counter-recruitment and anti-militarism organization. Visit his blog at:
jorgemariscal.blogspot.com/ He can be reached at: gmariscal [at] ucsd.edu


--------21 of 24--------

Let Them Die or Let Them Go
The Gitmo Hunger Strikers
By MIKE WHITNEY
CounterPunch
September 20, 2005

I have a word of advice I would like to offer Donald Rumsfeld and the
Pentagon chieftains who currently preside over the 200 or more
hunger-strikers at Guantanamo Bay, 20 of whom are near death. For God's
sake, let them die.

What more could you possibly want from them?

They've already provided you with the subjects you needed for your
newly-perfected sense-deprivation techniques and your sadistic methods of
torture. They supplied you with the lab-rats for your new drugs, your
improved methods of psychological torment, and your sexually-deviant
abuses. Now, let them die. The experiment is over. Show that there is some
speck of humanity left in your withered heart by allowing these men to
pass away with dignity; the dignity you deprived them of in life.

The hunger-strike has been going on for 6 weeks. That means that a
considerable number of the prisoners are undergoing the latter phases of
physical deterioration. Many are probably vomiting blood by now and too
weak to either walk or stand on their own. Their liver and
kidney-functions have begun to fail and their vision has begun to weaken;
putting additional pressure on the heart to continue working while the
body is slowly devouring itself.

Let them die.

If the Pentagon allowed the media to visit Guantanamo, they would see the
emaciated, skeletal victims of Bush's war on terror, the proof that
America now oversees Nazi-like death camps. But, the media has shown
little interest in the suffering of the prisoners even though it is widely
acknowledged that many were randomly rounded up by warlords in Afghanistan
and ransomed to the Americans.

So far, only one newspaper in the country, "The Minnesota Daily", has
spoken out on behalf of the prisoners on their editorial page. The
newspaper stated:

"While morality and ethics are abstract ideas, justice is more concrete,
hence why there are laws. Guantanamo and the actions that have been taken
by our government against the detainees violate the Geneva Convention, the
Bill of Rights, and our Constitution. Justice is not merely a conditional
idea."

The Minnesota Daily is the solitary voice in the media-wilderness to
defend the essential rights of these casualties in Bush's war, but with
little effect. Washington's justice has nothing to do with mercy or
rehabilitation, but with punishment alone.

There won't be any cameras or journalists at Guantanamo. The face that
America sees is the tan-and-rested visage of President Fraudster offering
his soothing commentary on another part of the globe destroyed by his
recklessness. The pictures of Bush's dungeons are left on the cutting-room
floor with the other unflattering footage of American brutality. That
certainly won't change now.

The prisoners follow in the long tradition of hunger-strikers from Gandhi
to Bobby Sands. Their demands are simple. They want the ability to
challenge the terms of their imprisonment in court.

That's it; the most basic of all human rights, to be informed of the crime
for which they are being held and the opportunity to defend themselves
against those charges. It's a right that they are entitled to under
international law, but have been denied by Washington.

The Pentagon has done nothing to address the inmates' demands and
steadfastly refuses to meet with their leaders. Instead, they have taken
the low-road by hand-cuffing and putting leg-irons on the sickliest and
force-feeding them intravenously or through nose-drips.

Let them die.

The United States has established itself well-beyond the rule of law; a
rogue state that refuses to comply with even the minimal standards of
decency required under the Geneva Conventions. Guantanamo Bay is the
administration's ultimate achievement; a torture-gulag devoted to the
cruel and inhuman treatment of its enemies; an icon to lawlessness and
savagery.

The administration now asserts its power over death-itself; a final means
of humiliating its victims and perpetuating their suffering. Rumsfeld's
feeding-tubes are the last slim thread that tethers these men to a
lifetime of detention, abuse, and hopelessness. Let them die or let them
go!

Mike Whitney can be reached at: fergiewhitney [at] msn.com


--------22 of 24--------

No Place for a Poet at a Banquet of Shame
by SHARON OLDS
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/olds
[from the October 10, 2005 issue]

For reasons spelled out below, the poet Sharon Olds has declined to attend
the National Book Festival in Washington, which, coincidentally or not,
takes place September 24, the day of an antiwar mobilization in the
capital. Olds, winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award and
professor of creative writing at New York University, was invited along
with a number of other writers by First Lady Laura Bush to read from their
works. Three years ago artist Jules Feiffer declined to attend the
festival's White House breakfast as a protest against the Iraq War ("Mr.
Feiffer Regrets," November 11, 2002). We suggest that invitees to this
year's event consider following their example.  --The Editors

Laura Bush
First Lady
The White House

Dear Mrs. Bush,

I am writing to let you know why I am not able to accept your kind
invitation to give a presentation at the National Book Festival on
September 24, or to attend your dinner at the Library of Congress or the
breakfast at the White House.

In one way, it's a very appealing invitation. The idea of speaking at a
festival attended by 85,000 people is inspiring! The possibility of
finding new readers is exciting for a poet in personal terms, and in terms
of the desire that poetry serve its constituents - all of us who need the
pleasure, and the inner and outer news, it delivers.

And the concept of a community of readers and writers has long been dear
to my heart. As a professor of creative writing in the graduate school of
a major university, I have had the chance to be a part of some magnificent
outreach writing workshops in which our students have become teachers.
Over the years, they have taught in a variety of settings: a women's
prison, several New York City public high schools, an oncology ward for
children. Our initial program, at a 900-bed state hospital for the
severely physically challenged, has been running now for twenty years,
creating along the way lasting friendships between young MFA candidates
and their students - long-term residents at the hospital who, in their
humor, courage and wisdom, become our teachers.

When you have witnessed someone nonspeaking and almost nonmoving spell
out, with a toe, on a big plastic alphabet chart, letter by letter, his
new poem, you have experienced, close up, the passion and essentialness of
writing. When you have held up a small cardboard alphabet card for a
writer who is completely nonspeaking and nonmoving (except for the eyes),
and pointed first to the A, then the B, then C, then D, until you get to
the first letter of the first word of the first line of the poem she has
been composing in her head all week, and she lifts her eyes when that
letter is touched to say yes, you feel with a fresh immediacy the human
drive for creation, self-expression, accuracy, honesty and wit - and the
importance of writing, which celebrates the value of each person's unique
story and song.

So the prospect of a festival of books seemed wonderful to me. I thought
of the opportunity to talk about how to start up an outreach program. I
thought of the chance to sell some books, sign some books and meet some of
the citizens of Washington, DC. I thought that I could try to find a way,
even as your guest, with respect, to speak about my deep feeling that we
should not have invaded Iraq, and to declare my belief that the wish to
invade another culture and another country - with the resultant loss of
life and limb for our brave soldiers, and for the noncombatants in their
home terrain - did not come out of our democracy but was instead a
decision made "at the top" and forced on the people by distorted language,
and by untruths. I hoped to express the fear that we have begun to live in
the shadows of tyranny and religious chauvinism - the opposites of the
liberty, tolerance and diversity our nation aspires to.

I tried to see my way clear to attend the festival in order to bear
witness - as an American who loves her country and its principles and its
writing - against this undeclared and devastating war.

But I could not face the idea of breaking bread with you. I knew that if I
sat down to eat with you, it would feel to me as if I were condoning what
I see to be the wild, highhanded actions of the Bush Administration.

What kept coming to the fore of my mind was that I would be taking food
from the hand of the First Lady who represents the Administration that
unleashed this war and that wills its continuation, even to the extent of
permitting "extraordinary rendition": flying people to other countries
where they will be tortured for us.

So many Americans who had felt pride in our country now feel anguish and
shame, for the current regime of blood, wounds and fire. I thought of the
clean linens at your table, the shining knives and the flames of the
candles, and I could not stomach it.

Sincerely, SHARON OLDS


--------23 of 24--------

Bad on the Basics
John Roberts' affability masks a callous indifference to some of our most
fundamental rights
By Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. September 19, 2005
InTheseTimes

Absent a political upheaval causing turbulence equal to that of Hurricane
Katrina, John Roberts will be confirmed by the United States Senate as
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on September 22. With a few notable
exceptions, the Democrats have been as befuddled about this nomination as
they have been about war and torture in Iraq, increasing the minimum wage,
tax breaks for the rich, a coherent response to the devastation along the
Gulf Coast, etc., and are without the will or the numbers to derail
President Bush's quest to turn the nation's highest court into a
neo-conservative enclave.

The Democrats can thank themselves for this sorry situation. It must not
be forgotten that William Jefferson Clinton, before he became an
ambassador-at-large for the Bush administration and its failures in the
Katrina disaster, joined forces with his 1996 Republican presidential
opponent, Senator Bob Dole, in calling for the impeachment of a New York
federal judge, Harold Baer, for having suppressed evidence of a large
amount of contraband drugs seized in a case oozing with racial profiling.
(Faced with a political firestorm, Baer would reverse the decision three
months later.) In so doing, Clinton not only trespassed into the domain of
the judiciary, but he aligned himself with the congenitally intemperate
Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas), who makes it a practice to call for the removal
of federal judges when they render decisions he disagrees with. One might
have hoped that as a Yale Law School graduate, Clinton would have acquired
a better understanding of the role of the judiciary than a former
exterminator, but that was not the case.

Democrats across the board have ceded the setting of the parameters of the
"activist judiciary" debate to the right. Democrats argue that a
particular judge under scrutiny is not an activist rather than trumpet the
historically sound position that all judges are activists and that all
judges must sometimes issue orders that curtail the actions of government
officials and the excesses of majorities. This is the case because every
person or group that comes to court, whether a civil plaintiff seeking
monetary damages or a government prosecutor hoping for a conviction in a
criminal matter, requests a remedy from the judge (or the jury). The
claimant may or may not get satisfaction, but the court always acts. Even
when the judge denies the outcome the supplicant would like, the judge has
acted. Put another way, not to decide is to decide. Had the Democrats and
their friends outside Congress successfully blown away the fog of the
"activist judiciary" controversy, the vital question exposed would be
whether the judge, or judicial candidate, has the constitutional and
humanitarian values that comport with the "history and traditions" of a
free people, to paraphrase the words of the distinguished conservative
jurist, the second Justice John Marshall Harlan.

The Democrats now stand on nothing more stable than a wetlands bog as they
confront the affable persona of John Roberts. But affability, like
intelligence, can mask a mean and meager spirit as well as the absence of
a sense of proportion.

Judge Roberts has been quoted as taking pride in his ability to argue
either side of any issue; so it is instructive to look at two important
cases in which he was involved - one as a judge on the United States Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the other as an advocate on
behalf of the United States - to see the dark and inequitable places his
vaunted intelligence and decency led him - and ultimately the rest of us -
regarding individual rights and constitutional protections. These two
cases show that Judge Roberts, despite his Harvard pedigrees, abandons
fundamental precepts of judging when it suits his right-wing agenda.

                       Freedom to intimidate

One criticism directed at Judge Roberts by civil liberties and pro-choice
groups focuses on his successful urging of the United States Supreme Court
to reverse two lower federal court decisions - one by the
ultraconservative Fourth Circuit, no less - that had permitted abortion
clinics to obtain federal restraining orders against Operation Rescue for
its disruptive, destructive and intimidating behavior directed at the
clinics and their patients. The lower courts held that a provision of the
Federal Civil Rights Act, titled Conspiracy to Interfere With Civil
Rights, allowed federal judges to issue injunctions against people who
conspired to physically interfere with women seeking abortions at health
care facilities.

The federal government was not involved in the lower court proceedings,
but when the case reached the United States Supreme Court on the appeal of
the anti-abortion forces, John Roberts and his then superior, Solicitor
General Kenneth Starr, received permission from the Supreme Court to
appear as amicus curiae. John Roberts presented an argument ultimately
adopted by his former mentor, Chief Justice Rehnquist, and five other
members of the Court - that the law did not protect women seeking
abortions from this type of threatening activity. Roberts' successful
argument was that the statute, popularly known as the Ku Klux Klan Act of
1871, was designed to protect blacks from conspiracies directed against
them by white-sheeted racists, but women enjoyed no such federal
protection.

The law as written (42 U.S.C. 1985) (3)) makes no reference whatsoever to
race or gender - or for that matter to the Ku Klux Klan. It plainly states
that a denial of an individual's civil rights occurs if "two or more
persons in any State or Territory conspire or go in disguise on the
highway or on the premises of another, for the purpose of depriving,
either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal
protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the
laws." So we see John Roberts, and the equally bland Kenneth Starr,
concoct their own legally sanctioned conspiracy to lurch the office of the
Solicitor General past the right flank of the Fourth Circuit Court of
Appeals in order to ally the people of the United States with
anti-abortion zealots and their private attorneys who designated
themselves as "Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism."

In advancing their anti-abortion beliefs, Roberts and Starr were able to
persuade the Supreme Court majority to abandon the first principle of
statutory interpretation: If the statute's language is clear and
unambiguous, it should be implemented as written. Moreover, the law
assumes that successor congresses to the one that responded to the Ku Klux
Klan activities in 1871 were aware of both the existence of the statute
and the abatement of the KKK threat, but they obviously chose to leave the
statute on the books. Roberts disingenuously claimed that the statute
applied only to conspiracies directed at blacks and six members of the
Court disingenuously agreed.

                          Freedom fried

As a judge, one of his few reported decisions during his short tenure on
the District of Columbia Court of Appeals was equally devastating for a
mother and daughter seeking redress in the federal courts for a
deprivation of federal rights, this time by law enforcement officers. In
2004, Judge Roberts was confronted with the claim of 12-year-old Ansche
Hedgepeth, an African American, that she had been unlawfully arrested and
detained by undercover police officers of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority. Ansche and her mother claimed that the conduct of
the officers violated the Fourth Amendment declaration that people have a
right "to be secure in their persons" and to be free from "unreasonable
searches and seizures."

What was Ansche's crime? Eating food, specifically one French fry at a
Washington, D.C. subway stop, in contravention of a local ordinance.

For her gustatorial effrontery, the police officers took Ansche into
custody, handcuffed her behind her back, searched her body and her
backpack, removed her shoelaces, and then transported her in a windowless
van to a facility for processing and fingerprinting. Throughout this
ordeal, the child was sobbing and crying. She was released to her equally
distraught mother three hours later. In his decision, Judge Roberts noted
the right and responsibility of courts to "inquire into the reasonableness
of the manner in which an arrest is conducted," before he went on to rule
that the police officers had done nothing unconstitutional in dragooning
little Ansche.

We may fairly ask what Judge Roberts thought was reasonable about the
scope and nature of the search and temporary incarceration of this child.
Did he think that the girl was concealing contraband catsup? Perhaps there
was something about her and her overt display of a French fry that led the
officers to conclude that she had a hand-grenade in her knapsack.

To justify this outlandish outcome, Judge Roberts pointed to a 2001 United
States Supreme Court decision holding that it was proper for police to
detain a woman for several hours in a local jail after her arrest for
driving a car without a seatbelt on and without seatbelts around her
toddlers. Though Judge Roberts noted other Supreme Court authority that
said judges could analyze searches and seizures incident to otherwise
lawful arrests if they are "conducted in an extraordinary manner,
unusually harmful to an individual's privacy or even physical interests,"
he manifested a staggering inability to distinguish the potential threat
to life and limb by a failure to "buckle up" from any perceived societal
or individual harm caused by a school child eating a French fry in a
subway station. We can also confidently assume that the average adult is
more fit to endure a temporary restriction of liberty by police officers
than is a 12-year-old child on her way home from school. To construct this
Kafkaesque scenario, Judge Roberts ignored the indisputable fact that the
Founders appended the Bill of Rights to the Constitution to curb and
restrict governmental powers of both the legislature and executive. We are
all in trouble if the right-wing's constantly touted veneration of the
Constitution's authors leads to results like this.

John Roberts' cold indifference to the claims of Ansche Hedgepeth and
women seeking access to legally sanctioned medical procedures is
appalling, but his genial personality conceals where his conscience
resides. The soon-to-be Chief Justice John Roberts mistakenly believes
that James Madison envisioned a Bill of Rights that countenances young
girls being carted away by undercover police officers for eating French
fries and that a Congress once concerned about the savagery visited on
blacks by the Ku Klux Klan now wants women seeking medical assistance to
have no recourse in the federal courts when they are bullied and assaulted
by people who cross state lines to carry out their clearly stated intent
to physically stop abortion.

During his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Roberts,
ever the clever advocate, used an all-American sports metaphor when he
said that he saw himself as an umpire whose duty it was to call balls and
strikes but not set the rules. The trouble is that umpires can vary the
strike zone to make hometown calls - and home for John Roberts is the
right-wing of the Republican Party.

Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. is an associate justice on the Rhode Island
Superior Court.

[Many Democrat spokespeople like to bludgeon Greens and Naderites and
third parties generally. They say all their votes should go to the DP,
because otherwise who but the Dems will defend us from evil? Evil such as,
most prominently, an out-of-control right-wing authoritarian anti-civil
rights Supreme Court. And so here we are, with exactly this evil staring
us in the face, and what is the DP doing? Rolling over. With defenders
like this we don't need enemies. Or, we should now realize we have more
enemies than we had imagined. Some aggressive, some passive-aggressive. I
hope we will not hear this "Suprome Court gambit" in 2008 as the Dems
campaign for Hillary. We don't need yet one more broken promise, yet one
more obstacle to more progressive parties and actions. -ed]


--------24 of 24--------

 Rich Credo

 We are men of steal.

 We rich deserve
 all we can steal.
 Theft is divine.
 Work sucks.
 It is for cows
 and sheep
 and chickens.

 We milk the cows
 We steal their milk.
 We shear the sheep
 We steal their fleece.
 We gather from chickens
 We steal their eggs.
 We feed them
 To each other.

 All are fodder
 for our cannons;
 they fly through the air
 and land upon our foes de jour
 with mighty
 soul-satisfying
 splats.
 War is the sport
 of the ruling class.

 We are men of steal.


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