Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 02.04.06

[David Shove (shove001]

              P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    02.04.06

1. Bolivia/water      2.04 9am
2. Langrage program   2.04 9am
3. Caucus training    2.04 9am
4. Chiapas            2.04 10am
5. Vets for Peace     2.04 10am
6. Living green conf  2.04 11:30am Duluth MN
7. StPaul Green Party 2.04 12noon
8. Northtown vigil    2.04 1pm
9. Poetry             2.04 7pm
10. Cuba/doctors      2.04 8pm

11. Sensible vigil    2.05 12noon
12. MLK music         2.05 4pm
13. KFAI/Uprising     2.05 4pm

14. Bob Burnett    - The Democrats' response - welcome to weenie world
15. Review         - Ralph Nader documentary, An Unreasonable Man
16. Gore Vidal     - President Jonah
17. Manski/Myerson - Who will be the peace candidate in 2008?
18. ed             - Pro-war Dems (poem)

--------1 of 18---------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Bolivia/water 2.04 9am

February 4 - Jim Shultz speaking on Bolivia and Water.  9am, Cost: Free
and open to the public.

As part of a series of public talks and panels about Bolivia, Jim Shultz
will be speaking about Bolivia and resistence to water privatization at
Unity Unitarian Church.

Location: Unity Unitarian Church, 732 Holly Avenue, St. Paul, MN


--------2 of 18--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Langrage program 2.04 9am

February 4 - Building and Maintaining a First Class Language Program: What
You Can Do. 9-3pm.  Cost: $25, includes lunch.

First class language programs that help students achieve higher levels of
language proficiency are not always large.  Building and maintaining a
quality program is possible, even if you are a department of one. Teachers
participating in this workshop will learn about key components of good
programs and what they can do to build or maintain the quality of their
program. Presenter: Donna Clementi teaches at Appleton, WI Public Schools
is dean of Teacher Seminars at Concordia Language Villages and a frequent
CARLA/MDE presenter.

Registration forms can be found at: www.carla.umn.edu/conferences.
Location: University YMCA, 1801 University Avenue


--------3 of 18---------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Caucus training 2.04 9am

Precinct caucus training sessions:
The following training sessions are held to help citizens understand the
process for participating in the March 7 statewide and all party precinct
caucuses, how to introduce a resolution, how your party picks candidates,
how the process works.  Training programs sponsored by Minnesota
Participation Project are noted as "Participation" and further info may be
obtained at 651-642-1904 ext 250 or josh [at] mncn.org  Training programs
sponsored by the DFL Progressive Caucus are identified as DFL-PC and further
info may be obtained at messenger [at] progressivecaucus.net
  Feb. 4, 9 to 11 am at Como Elementary, St. Paul. "Participation"
  Feb. 4, 10:30 to 12:30, Cafe Tempo, 4161 Grand, St. Paul. DFL-PC
  Feb. 6, 7 to 9 pm, Wolves Den, 1201 Franklin E, Mpls. DFL-PC
  Feb. 11, 10:30 to 12:30, Wolves Den, 1201 Franklin, Mpls. DFL-PC
  Feb 11, 10 to noon at Johnson High, St. Paul. "Participation"
  Feb. 13, 7 - 9 pm, Diamonds Coffee Shop, 1618 Central Ave NE, Mpls. DFL-PC
  Feb. 16, 6:30 - 8:00, Sabathani Center (w/Neva Walker), 310 E. 38th St,
Mpls. DFL-PC
  Feb. 16, 7 to 9 pm at Carondelet Center, St. Paul.  "Participation"
  Feb. 18, 10 to noon at Central High, St. Paul. "Participation"
  Feb. 18, noon to 2 pm, Sabathani Center (w/Neva Walker). DFL-PC
  Feb. 20, 7 - 9 pm, Cafe Tempo, 4161 Grand, St. Paul. DFL-PC
  Feb. 25, 10:30 to 12:30, Diamonds Coffee Shop, 1618 Central NE Mpls.
DFL-PC


--------4 of 18--------

From: Mary Turck <mturck [at] americas.org>
Subject: Chiapas 2.04 10am

Saturday, February 4 Change and Challenge in Chiapas [Part of weekly
coffee hour series, with a talk by a featured speaker and discussion.
Saturdays, 10-11:30 a.m. $4 includes first cup of coffee. Resource Center
of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis 55406 FFI: 612-276-0788]
Just back from Mexico, Teresa Ortiz will speak on La Otra Campaņa and
other developments.


--------5 of 18--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Vets for Peace 2.04 10am

Saturday, 2/4, 10 to 11:30 am, Veterans for Peace chapter 127 meets at
Peacehouse, 510 E Franklin, Mpls, to discuss issues of homeless vets.  Wayne
Wittman, 651-774-4008.


--------6 of 18--------

From: carrie [at] eagle-ecosource.org
Subject: Living green conf 2.04 11:30am Duluth MN

14TH ANNUAL LIVING GREEN CONFERENCE

Duluth, MN - Listen to a speech by best selling author and "Air America"
radio personality Al Franken, hear live music by Charlie Parr, attend
workshops on topics such as health, environment and renewable energy, and
view exhibits of local organizations and businesses that promote the green
lifestyle, all at the 14th annual Living Green Conference.

The Environmental Association for Great Lakes Education (EAGLE) and the
Lake Superior Greens are sponsoring the highly anticipated event.  "We
have amazing speakers this year," said Living Green Coordinator Carrie
Slater. "We've got a great line-up of workshop presenters and Al Franken
is one of the best-known political commentators of our time."

In addition to keynote speaker Al Franken, there will be eleven workshops
in all: Climate Change, Clean Water Act, Neurotoxicity in Prescription
Medicines, Raising Chickens in Your Backyard, Green Building and
Renovation, Sustainable Schools, Living off the Grid, Biodiesel, Practical
Tips for Healthy Living, Mining Without Harm, and Energy Realities for the
New Century.

The Living Green Conference has grown in popularity over the last fourteen
years, and is now one of the premiere environmental events in the region.
Dozens of environmental organizations and earth-friendly retailers will be
exhibiting their information and wares. Live music, chair massages,
organic food and refreshments will also be available.

The 14th Annual Living Green Conference
Saturday, February 4th - 11:30am to 5:00pm
First United Methodist "Coppertop" Church, 230 E. Skyline Parkway, Duluth

SPONSORED BY: EAGLE and the Lake Superior Greens COST: Tickets are $10,
children under 10 years of age admitted free Tickets are on sale now at
the Black Cat Coffeehouse in Ashland, Twin Ports Brewing Company in
Superior, and in Duluth at Positively Third Street Bakery and the Green
Mercantile. CONTACT: Carrie at 218-726-1828 or email
carrie [at] eagle-ecosource.org

Carrie Slater Coordinator of Volunteers EAGLE - The Environmental
Association for Great Lakes Education 394 Lake Ave S #222 Duluth, MN 55802
218-726-1828 carrie [at] eagle-ecosource.org www.greatlakesdirectory.org


--------7 of 18--------

From: ed
Subject: StPaul Green Party 2.04 12noon

All people interested in finding out more about the Green Party of St. Paul
are invited to:

Our monthly meeting
First Saturday of every month
Mississippi Market, 2nd floor
Corner of Selby/Dale in St. Paul
noon until 2 pm


---------8 of 18---------

From: Lennie <major18 [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Northtown vigil 2.04 1pm

We will now be peace vigiling EVERY SATURDAY from 1-2pm at the at the
southeast corner of the intersection of Co. Hwy 10 and University Ave NE
in Blaine, which is the northwest most corner of the Northtown Mall area.
This is a MUCH better location.

We'll have extra signs.  Communities situated near the Northtown Mall
include: Blaine, Mounds View, New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, Arden
Hills, Spring Lake Park, Fridley, and Coon Rapids.

For further information, email major18 [at] comcast.net or call Lennie at
763-717-9168


--------9 of 18--------

From: Coreopsis Poetry Collective <coreopsispoetry [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Poetry 2.04 7pm

February 4
7pm Coreopsis Poetry Collective
(coreopsispoetry [at] yahoo.com)
presents an evening of poetry, featuring Michael Kincaid, Leslie
Adrienne-Miller, & Juliet Patterson at Black Dog Café in lower town St.
Paul, 308 Prince St. (651) 228-9274. Donations graciously welcomed.

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, Co-founder Barbara Tarrant , Co-founder


---------10 of 18---------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Cuba/doctors 2.04 8pm

8pm Saturday, February 4.

Cedric Edwards is the first U.S. graduate of the Latin American School of
Medicine in Cuba, where young people from around the world are given a
free medical education in exchange for their agreement to return to
practice in underserved areas of their countries. A former resident of
Slidell, Louisiana, Cedric and his family were victims of Katrina days
after his medical school graduation.

Cedric is trying to fulfill U.S. examination and residency requirements so
that he can become a doctor here in a U.S. location where medical care is
most needed. Members of the National Network on Cuba and others are
helping to raise money for Cedric and for the upcoming graduates of the
LASM.

8pm Saturday, February 4
Heritage Park Community Room
Olson Memorial Highway & Bryant Avenue
North Minneapolis
Refreshments, music, food, auction, Cuban videos
$10 donation at door (no one turned away for lack of funds)


--------11 of 18--------

From: skarx001 <skarx001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Sensible vigil 2.05 12noon

The sensible people for peace hold weekly peace vigils at the intersection
of Snelling and Summit in StPaul, Sunday between noon and 1pm. (This is
across from the Mac campus.) We provide signs protesting current gov.
foreign and domestic policy. We would appreciate others joining our
vigil/protest.


--------12 of 18--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: MLK music 2.05 4pm

Join us for a FREE concert to honor the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

SUN FEB 5, 4pm
Ted Mann Concert Hall
2128 4th Street S
West Bank campus

The University of Minnesota Office for Multicultural and Academic Affairs
and the School of Music present "Music for Martin", the 25th annual
concert celebrating the life and achievements of the Reverend Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.

The Ted Mann Concert Hall will come alive at 4 pm on February 5th
featuring Twin Cities' favorites Bruce A. Henry with Debbie Duncan and
Gwen Matthews. The University of Minnesota's African Music Ensemble, led
by Sowah Mensah and the University's student-run a cappella group, 7 DAYS
will also perform in the 90 minute program.

U of MN Professor Reginald T. Buckner began a tradition of celebrating the
life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King, Jr. through the performing
arts 25 years ago.  His death in l989 left us without his personal
dedication and artistic genius, but not without an inspiring legacy-the
annual celebration we present each year.

Join us for this signature event that is free and open to the public.
SUN.FEB.5, 4pm
Ted Mann Concert Hall
2128 4th Street S
West Bank campus

Parking is available in the 21st Avenue ramp, one block southwest of the
concert hall.


--------13 of 18--------

From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org>
Subject: KFAI/Uprising 2.05 4pm

KFAI's Indian Uprising for Feb 5, 2006

Prerecorded - AUDREY THAYER, COORDINATOR OF THE GREATER MINNESOTA RACIAL
JUSTICE PROJECT OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTY UNION OF MINNESOTA.  She is
a member of the White Earth band of Ojibwe and lives in Bemidji,
Minnesota. Thayer shares with us her experiences and observations of
cultural conflict and white domination in Northern Minnesota.  She talks
about the injustices, racial profiling and egregious violations of Indian
peoplešs civil rights occurring on and off the reservations in Northern
Minnesota.

The GMRJ Project, in addition, is looking for volunteers to participate in
a court-monitoring program in several northwest Minnesota counties.  It
will monitor the criminal justice system to increase public education and
combat racial injustice against American Indians in rural Minnesota
counties, especially in those with high Indian conviction rates, said
Thayer.

Volunteers will be asked to attend courtroom proceedings for four hours
each day and write down their observations.  Thayer said they expect
observers to gain a better understanding of the judicial system, recognize
unfair pattern in sentencing guidelines and share their experience with
other community members.

"It has been proven that the presence of observers in the courtroom can
promote accountability and serve as a reminder that the public has a
vested interest in what happens in the court system and our community,"
Thayer said.

Observers will be identified clearly so judges know they will be taking
notes and recording ruling patterns.  "We want people that have not been
exposed to the judicial system," she said, "because they may see a
perspective we don't see because we are involved in it all the time."

Once a week, observers meet to discuss their findings.  Questionable
sentencing guidelines regarding gender, class, race or income are
forwarded to attorneys working for The Greater Minnesota Racial Justice
Project, Thayer said.  FFI call (218) 444-2285 or e-mail
athayer [at] aclu-mn.org.

The ACLU of Minnesota offices are at 450 Syndicate Street, Suite 230, St.
Paul, MN 55104, 651-645-4097, http://www.aclu-mn.org/.

Note: This program was previously broadcast on November 20, 2005.

* * * *
Indian Uprising is a one-half hour Public & Cultural Affairs radio program
for, by, and about Indigenous people & all their relations, broadcast each
Sunday at 4:00 p.m. over KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul.
Current programs are archived online after broadcast at www.kfai.org, for
two weeks.  Click Program Archives and scroll to Indian Uprising.


---------14 of 18---------

The Democrats' Response - Welcome to Weenie World
by Bob Burnett

Weenie: A person, especially a man, who is regarded as being weak and
ineffectual.

If you've had the misfortune to be a registered Democrat the last few
years, to stubbornly cling to the belief that one day the Dems will stand
up to the Republicans, you're all too familiar with the "weenie" effect.
This is the dramatic transformation that happens when Senators,
Representatives, or Governors get tapped to represent the entire Party.
They may have exhibited great strength of character in their home
territory, but once they step onto center stage, they turn into weenies.
Their backbone disintegrates and rather than speaking plainly, they fall
into political gibberish.

Tuesday night brought us another example of the weenie effect. George Bush
gave his State-of-the-Union Address. Newly elected Virginia Governor, Tim
Kaine, followed with the Democratic response. Kaine may be a dynamo as
Governor of Virginia, but as the national spokesman for the Democratic
Party he was an instant weenie.

Having observed this phenomenon for the past five years - it reached its
nadir with John Kerry - it appears that Democratic speakers are obligated
to follow four rules of weenie world.

The first is Never, never reveal what the Democratic Party stands for.
Apparently, since the end of the Clinton Administration, Party insiders
have decided that speakers should under no circumstance say what the Dems
stand for. They believe that it is sufficient to state, "We're not
Republicans."

Governor Kaine followed in this tradition with the theme of his response.
"As Americans, we do great things when we work together. Some of our
leaders in Washington seem to have forgotten that." Which leaders? Was
Kaine talking about President Bush or someone else? What great things do
the Dems propose?

The second rule is Pick a wimpy slogan and say it over and over until
everyone knows that it sucks. On Tuesday night, Kaine repeated "There is a
better way." In doing so, Kaine implied he actually knows this better way,
that managing the US is just like managing the State of Virginia. "In
Virginia we're moving ahead by focusing on service, competent management
and results.  That's how we in Virginia earned the ranking of America's
'Best Managed State.'" Hmm, I haven't been in Virginia recently, but I
don't believe that managing it is like running the US. Virginia doesn't
have to worry about little things like an imminent Al Qaeda attack.

The third rule in weenie world is Don't push back. Apparently, Democrats
feel that it hurts their public image to go after President Bush when he
goes on the offensive. They seem to believe that the public expects Dems
to be passive, intellectual, even effete. (That's why John Kerry won the
hearts of Americans.)

If you watched Bush's State-of-the-Union address, you'll recall that he
spoke passionately about two subjects: Iraq and eavesdropping. The
President went on the offensive about Iraq: "We are in this fight to win,
and we are winning; the road of victory is the road that will take our
troops home. As we make progress on the ground, and Iraqi forces
increasingly take the lead, we should be able to further decrease our
troop levels - but those decisions will be made by our military
commanders, not by politicians in Washington, D.C." Of course, this is a
familiar theme and the Dems could have pushed back by saying, "we are not
winning" and "all the decisions in Iraq are being made by politicians in
the White House." But then the respondent was the Governor of Virginia.
All he could say was - you guessed it - "There's a better way."  And,
"Working together, we have to give our troops the tools they need to win
the war on terror."

Bush also strongly defended his eavesdropping initiative, "To prevent
another attack - based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by
statute - I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to
aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected al Qaeda
operatives and affiliates to and from America. Previous Presidents have
used the same constitutional authority I have, and federal courts have
approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress have
been kept informed. The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent
terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America."
Dems might have pushed back by saying "None of this is true: the President
doesn't have the authority and the courts haven't approved it.  Congress
hasn't been informed and the program hasn't helped prevent attacks."
Governor Kaine chose not to respond at all.

The fourth rule in weenie world is When in doubt, imitate the Republicans.
Tim Kaine was selected to give this response because he's an outspoken
Christian; the Dem "brain trust" thought that he'd convince the electorate
that Democrats actually have values.

Kaine began his speech by reminding Americans that he worked as a
missionary when he was young. He ended it with, "Tonight we pray for the
day when service returns again as the better way to a new national
politics." In between, he didn't talk about values. More specifically, he
didn't respond to any of the coded messages in Bush's speech; the key
phrases that were inserted to assure the Religious Right that Bush is
looking out for their interests: "Wise policies, such as support for
abstinence and adoption, have made a difference in the character of our
country;" "Activist courts that try to redefine marriage;" and "prohibit
the most egregious abuses of medical research: human cloning in all its
forms, creating or implanting embryos for experiments." Kaine ignored
these.

Tuesday night, Democrats blew another chance to define their Party
positively. Instead, they took what they thought was the safe course. The
course no doubt recommended by the herd of D.C. consultants who hang
around the Democratic leadership. Those who ordered Governor Kaine to
deliver a vapid response to the President's State-of-the-Union address.

Why should Democratic loyalists expect otherwise? It's D.C. business as
usual. Welcome to weenie world.

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer and activist. Email to:
bobburnett [at] comcast.net.


--------15 of 18--------

Ralph Nader Documentary, An Unreasonable Man
(http://www.anunreasonableman.com/)
Who Is The Traitor... Us Or Ralph Nader?

An Unreasonable Man takes us into the Ralph Nader story, from birth to
last week. And it is, like The Fog of War and Robert McNamara, one of
those opportunities to step back, take a breath, and remember the seething
power of recent history.

As in Errol Morris' doc, the film has to account for a parade of people
who want to string the central figure up these days. And even though it
comes late in the film, I will address it first here, because it really
speaks to the whole movie... and for me, it very much speaks for the
current battle between old and new media.

What is most fascinating about the battle over the two Nader presidential
runs is that Nader's initiating proposition is that the two parties have
become very much like the big businesses he has spent a lifetime trying to
force to play by the rules, and that the response of the parties and of
many prominent Democrats has been almost exactly like the response of
those corporations.

Arrogance. Abusiveness.  Misleading Information. Self Delusion. The
filmmakers, who are definitely pro-Ralph, lay it out simply and then with
increasing complexity. The first fact is that in what became the key swing
state in the 2000 election, Florida, at least half a dozen candidates had
enough votes to turn the count.  Nader had the most. But any one of the
non-2-party candidates could have turned the election. So why all the
Nader rage?

Another myth busted by the doc is that Nader promised not to campaign in
battleground states and broke that promise, swinging the election. An Ivy
League professor, who self-identifies himself as a lifelong Democrat,
actually looked at Nader's schedule and found the accusation that Nader
targeted Gore in battleground states to be groundless.  As both the
professor and Nader point out, Nader spend the vast majority of his last
campaign months in uncontested states.

But still, Nader has been attacked, harassed, threatened, and endlessly
mocked for staying in the 2000 election until the end. Left-wing lunatics
(yes, there are tied and suited nutcases on both sides), also well
represented in the documentary, argue that Nader was more responsible for
Gore's defeat than was Gore's inability to carry his home, Tennessee, or
Clinton's home, Arkansas, which would have swung the election for Gore and
made Florida irrelevant.

The Democrats' inability to accept that the election was lost, rather than
stolen or crushed by Nader's 5 percent ends up explaining a lot about 2004
as well. Nader brings up a discussion with John Kerry about finding three
issues that they could share and which Bush could not counter so they
could deliver a somehow united front. These were issues with which Kerry
agreed. Still, no deal.

The issue of bureaucratic arrogance continues to the presidential debate.
Not only was Nader disallowed from debating, but he was thrown off the
University property, even though he had a ticket to watch the debate in an
adjacent hall on video feed. Who issued that order? The Committee on
Presidential Debates... a private organization run by two formers heads of
the DNC and RNC.

Even though a journalist hosts, the affair is run not by a public interest
group, but by the two parties, whose interests are the only ones served.
Of course, acolytes who pretend to be open minded, like Michael Moore and
Bill Maher, just play it out the way the Democratic Party has positioned
it all. Ralph Nader is a kook. Just the way GM would have had it. Just the
way food companies that liked to produce food without ingredients would
have it. Just the way auto makers who didn't want to deal with airbags or
seatbelts would have it.  And on and on and on. Ralph Nader is associated
closely with over 200 pieces of important safety legislation.

And now, because of 2000, even the interest groups he founded decades ago
are abandoning him.

Who exactly disagrees with his actions... aside from Gore losing? And
isn't changing the rules of the game to prioritize the outcome you prefer
the stuff of fascists and dicators, not Americans?

This speaks to another beauty about Nader that I admire. He truly believes
in the principles of our society. He doesn't think we have achieved the
best version of those principles.  But his fight is to reach that place.
His fight is out of love for those principles. His relentlessness, his
tirelessness, his self-denial of a wife and a family... all to fight for
something that we, as Americans, were meant to be, at least on paper, for
lo these last 230 years.

My sense of the man was shady until yesterday. I looked backward to his
achievements, many of them nearly as old as I am. But a man still fighting
the fight on principle and not allowing himself to be distracted by
opportunity or attack, the machine or the anarchist, comfort or distress.

I am no Ralph Nader.  I am not that focused. I am not that strong. But I
do admire the vision. I do identify with the endless fight to bring
legitimacy to a new medium that competes more than effectively with the
old media... and which often slips below old media as well. The fight for
standards and the fight to strive to be the best is brutal. And I feel the
slings and arrows of those who see the future coming and rage against it.

Thanks to Ralph Nader, I feel emboldened and, actually, proud of being
subject to those attacks today. Nader and the filmmakers who really did a
great job here (though it really is a TV doc) gave me sustenance for the
road all unreasonable men must travel. They have reminded me that the road
must be traveled without malice, without pettiness, and without the
comforts that always seem to be on the other side of the shiny window.

I thank them for that. And I pray that there is another Ralph Nader out
there, just waiting to fight the fight, to love the framework he so
believes in that he will give his life to it, to be right, to be wrong,
but to be strong in a way so few of us are these days. Our lives have
become so easy compared to the past. Easy, in great part, because of Ralph
Nader.


--------16 of 18--------

President Jonah
By Gore Vidal, Truthdig
Posted on January 28, 2006, Printed on January 30, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/31321/

While contemplating the ill-starred presidency of G.W. Bush, I looked
about for some sort of divine analogy. As usual, when in need of
enlightenment, I fell upon the Holy Bible, authorized King James version
of 1611; turning by chance to the Book of Jonah, I read that Jonah, who,
like Bush, chats with God, had suffered a falling out with the Almighty
and thus became a jinx dogged by luck so bad that a cruise liner, thanks
to his presence aboard, was about to sink in a storm at sea. Once the crew
had determined that Jonah, a passenger, was the jinx, they threw him
overboard and - Lo! - the storm abated. The three days and nights he
subsequently spent in the belly of a nauseous whale must have seemed like
a serious jinx to the digestion-challenged whale who extruded him much as
the decent opinion of mankind has done to Bush.

Originally, God wanted Jonah to give hell to Nineveh, whose people, God
noted disdainfully, "cannot discern between their right hand and their
left hand," so like the people of Baghdad who cannot fathom what democracy
has to do with their destruction by the Cheney-Bush cabal. But the analogy
becomes eerily precise when it comes to the hurricanes in the Gulf of
Mexico at a time when a president is not only incompetent but plainly
jinxed by whatever faith he cringes before. Witness the ongoing screw-up
of prescription drugs.

Who knows what other disasters are in store for us thanks to the curse he
is under? As the sailors fed the original Jonah to a whale, thus lifting
the storm that was about to drown them, perhaps we the people can persuade
President Jonah to retire to his other Eden in Crawford, Texas, taking his
jinx with him. We deserve a rest. Plainly, so does he. Look at Nixon's
radiant features after his resignation! One can see former President Jonah
in his sumptuous library happily catering to faith-based fans with
animated scriptures rooted in "The Simpsons."

Not since the glory days of Watergate and Nixon's Luciferian fall has
there been so much written about the dogged deceits and creative
criminalities of our rulers. We have also come to a point in this dark age
where there is not only no hero in view but no alternative road unblocked.
We are trapped terribly in a now that few foresaw and even fewer can
define despite a swarm of books and pamphlets like the vast cloud of
locusts which dined on China in that '30s movie "The Good Earth."

I have read many of these descriptions of our fallen estate, looking for
one that best describes in plain English how we got to this now and where
we appear to be headed once our good Earth has been consumed and only
Rapture is left to whisk aloft the Faithful. Meanwhile, the rest of us can
learn quite a lot from
"<http://alternet.bookswelike.net/isbn/0393058662>Dark Ages America: The
Final Phase of Empire," by Morris Berman, a professor of sociology at the
Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

I must confess that I have a proprietary interest in anyone who refers to
the United States as an empire since I am credited with first putting
forward this heretical view in the early '70s. In fact, so disgusted with
me was a book reviewer at Time magazine that as proof of my madness he
wrote: "He actually refers to the United States as an empire!" It should
be noted that at about the same time Henry Luce, proprietor of Time, was
booming on and on about "The American Century." What a difference a word
makes!

Berman sets his scene briskly in recent history.

"We were already in our twilight phase when Ronald Reagan, with all the
insight of an ostrich, declared it to be 'morning in America'; twenty-odd
years later, under the 'boy emperor' George W. Bush (as Chalmers Johnson
refers to him), we have entered the Dark Ages in earnest, pursuing a
short-sighted path that can only accelerate our decline. For what we are
now seeing are the obvious characteristics of the West after the fall of
Rome: the triumph of religion over reason; the atrophy of education and
critical thinking; the integration of religion, the state, and the
apparatus of torture - a troika that was for Voltaire the central horror
of
the pre-Enlightenment world; and the political and economic
marginalization of our culture.... The British historian Charles Freeman
published an extended discussion of the transition that took place during
the late Roman empire, the title of which could serve as a capsule summary
of our current president: "The Closing of the Western Mind."

"Mr. Bush, God knows, is no Augustine; but Freeman points to the latter as
the epitome of a more general process that was underway in the fourth
century: namely, 'the gradual subjection of reason to faith and
authority.' This is what we are seeing today, and it is a process that no
society can undergo and still remain free. Yet it is a process of which
administration officials, along with much of the American population, are
aggressively proud."

In fact, close observers of this odd presidency note that Bush, like his
evangelical base, believes he is on a mission from God and that faith
trumps empirical evidence. Berman quotes a senior White House adviser who
disdains what he calls the "reality-based" community, to which Berman
sensibly responds: "If a nation is unable to perceive reality correctly,
and persists in operating on the basis of faith-based delusions, its
ability to hold its own in the world is pretty much foreclosed."

Berman does a brief tour of the American horizon, revealing a cultural
death valley. In secondary schools where evolution can still be taught too
many teachers are afraid to bring up the subject to their so often
un-evolved students.

"Add to this the pervasive hostility toward science on the part of the
current administration (e.g. stem-cell research) and we get a clear
picture of the Enlightenment being steadily rolled back. Religion is used
to explain terror attacks as part of a cosmic conflict between Good and
Evil rather than in terms of political processes.... Manichaeanism rules
across the United States. According to a poll taken by Time magazine
fifty-nine percent of Americans believe that John's apocalyptic prophecies
in the Book of Revelation will be fulfilled, and nearly all of these
believe that the faithful will be taken up into heaven in the 'Rapture.'

"Finally, we shouldn't be surprised at the antipathy toward democracy
displayed by the Bush administration.... As already noted, fundamentalism
and democracy are completely antithetical. The opposite of the
Enlightenment, of course, is tribalism, groupthink; and more and more,
this is the direction in which the United States is going...Anthony Lewis
who worked as a columnist for the New York Times for thirty-two years,
observes that what has happened in the wake of 9/11 is not just the
threatening of the rights of a few detainees, but the undermining of the
very foundation of democracy. Detention without  trial, denial of access
to
attorneys, years of interrogation in isolation -these are now standard
American practice, and most Americans don't care. Nor did they care about
the revelation in July 2004 (reported in Newsweek), that for several
months the White House and the Department of Justice had been discussing
the feasibility of canceling the upcoming presidential election in the
event of a possible terrorist attack."

I suspect that the technologically inclined prevailed against that extreme
measure on the ground that the newly installed electronic ballot machines
could be so calibrated that Bush would win handily no matter what. [Read
Rep. Conyers'
<http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohiostatusrept1505.pdf>report
(pfd) on the rigging of Ohio's vote.]

Meanwhile, the indoctrination of the people merrily continues. "In a
'State of the First Amendment Survey' conducted by the University of
Connecticut in 2003, 34 percent of Americans polled said the First
Amendment 'goes too far'; 46 percent said there was too much freedom of
the press; 28 percent felt that newspapers should not be able to publish
articles without prior approval of the government; 31 percent wanted
public protest of a war to be outlawed during that war; and 50 percent
thought the government should have the right to infringe on the religious
freedom of 'certain religious groups' in the name of the war on terror."

It is usual in sad reports like Professor Berman's to stop abruptly the
litany of what has gone wrong and then declare, hand on heart, that once
the people have been informed of what is happening, the truth will set
them free and a quarter-billion candles will be lit and the darkness will
flee in the presence of so much spontaneous light. But Berman is much too
serious for the easy platitude. Instead he tells us that those who might
have struck at least a match can no longer do so because shared
information about our situation is meager to nonexistent. Would better
schools help?

Of course, but, according to that joyous bearer of ill tidings, the New
York Times, many school districts are now making sobriety tests a regular
feature of the school day: apparently opium derivatives are the opiate of
our stoned youth.

Meanwhile, millions of adult Americans, presumably undrugged, have no idea
who our enemies were in World War II. Many college graduates don't know
the difference between an argument and an assertion (did their teachers
also fail to solve this knotty question?). A travel agent in Arizona is
often asked whether or not it is cheaper to take the train rather than fly
to Hawaii. Only 12% of Americans own a passport. At the time of the 2004
presidential election 42% of voters believed that Saddam Hussein was
involved in 9/11. One high school boy, when asked who won the Civil War,
replied wearily, "I don't know and I don't care," echoing a busy neocon
who confessed proudly: "The American Civil War is as remote to me as the
War of the Roses."

We are assured daily by advertisers and/or politicians that we are the
richest, most envied people on Earth and, apparently, that is why so many
awful, ill-groomed people want to blow us up. We live in an impermeable
bubble without the sort of information that people living in real
countries have access to when it comes to their own reality. But we are
not actually people in the eyes of the national ownership: we are simply
unreliable consumers comprising an overworked, underpaid labor force not
in the best of health: The World Health Organization rates our healthcare
system (sic - or sick?) as 37th-best in the world, far behind even Saudi
Arabia, role model for the Texans. Our infant mortality rate is
satisfyingly high, precluding a First World educational system.

Also, it has not gone unremarked even in our usually information-free
media that despite the boost to the profits of such companies as
Halliburton, Bush's wars of aggression against small countries of no
danger to us have left us well and truly broke. Our annual trade deficit
is a half-trillion dollars, which means that we don't produce much of
anything the world wants except those wan reports on how popular our
Entertainment is overseas.

Unfortunately the foreign gross of "King Kong," the Edsel of that assembly
line, is not yet known. It is rumored that Bollywood - the Indian film
business - may soon surpass us! Berman writes, "We have lost our edge in
science to Europe...The US economy is being kept afloat by huge foreign
loans ($4 billion a day during 2003). What do you think will happen when
America's creditors decide to pull the plug, or when OPEC members begin
selling oil in euros instead of dollars?...An International Monetary Fund
report of 2004 concluded that the United States was 'careening toward
insolvency.' "

Meanwhile, China, our favorite big-time future enemy, is the number one
for worldwide foreign investments, with France, the bete noire of our
apish neocons, in second place. Well, we still have Kraft cheese and, of
course, the death penalty.

Berman makes the case that the Bretton-Woods agreement of 1944
institutionalized a system geared toward full employment and the
maintenance of a social safety net for society's less fortunate - the
so-called welfare or interventionist state. It did this by establishing
fixed but flexible exchange rates among world currencies, which were
pegged to the U.S. dollar while the dollar, for its part, was pegged to
gold. In a word, Bretton-Woods saved capitalism by making it more human.
Nixon abandoned the agreement in 1971, which started, according to Berman,
huge amounts of capital moving upward from the poor and the middle class
to the rich and super-rich.

Mr. Berman spares us the happy ending, as, apparently, has history. When
the admirable Tiberius (he has had an undeserved bad press), upon becoming
emperor, received a message from the Senate in which the conscript fathers
assured him that whatever legislation he wanted would be automatically
passed by them, he sent back word that this was outrageous. "Suppose the
emperor is ill or mad or incompetent?" He returned their message. They
sent it again. His response: "How eager you are to be slaves."

I often think of that wise emperor when I hear Republican members of
Congress extolling the wisdom of Bush. Now that he has been caught
illegally wiretapping fellow citizens he has taken to snarling about his
powers as "a wartime president," and so, in his own mind, he is above each
and every law of the land. Oddly, no one in Congress has pointed out that
he may well be a lunatic dreaming that he is another Lincoln but whatever
he is or is not he is no wartime president. There is no war with any other
nation...yet. There is no state called terror, an abstract noun like liar.

Certainly his illegal unilateral ravaging of Iraq may well seem like a
real war for those on both sides unlucky enough to be killed or wounded,
but that does not make it a war any more than the appearance of having
been elected twice to the presidency does not mean that in due course the
people will demand an investigation of those two irregular processes.
Although he has done a number of things that under the old republic might
have got him impeached, our current system protects him:
incumbency-for-life seats have made it possible for a Republican majority
in the House not to do its duty and impeach him for his incompetence in
handling, say, the natural disaster that befell Louisiana.

The founders thought two-year terms for members of the House was as much
democracy as we'd ever need. Therefore, there was no great movement to
have some sort of recall legislation in the event that a president wasn't
up to his job and so had lost the people's confidence between elections.
But in time, as Ecclesiastes would say, all things shall come to pass and
so, in a kindly way, a majority of the citizens must persuade him that he
will be happier back in Crawford pruning Bushes of the leafy sort while
the troops not killed or maimed will settle for simply being alive and in
one piece.  We may be slaves but we are not unreasonable.

One way that a majority of citizens can help open the road back to
Crawford is by heeding the call of a group called the
<http://www.worldcantwait.org/>World Can't Wait. They believe that the
agenda for 2006 must not be set by the Bush gang but by the people taking
independent mass political action.

On Jan. 31, the night of Bush's next State of the Union address, they have
called for people in large cities and small towns all across the country
to join in noisy rallies to make the demand that "Bush Step Down" the
message of the day. At 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, just as Bush starts
to speak, people can make a joyful noise and figuratively drown out his
address. Then on the following Saturday, Feb. 4, converge in front of the
White House with the same message: Please step down and take your program
with you.

Novelist, playwright and essayist Gore Vidal is a contributing editor to
<http://www.thenation.com/>The Nation. Visit Truthdig.com to read
<http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/20060124_president_jonah/>the essay in
its original context or listen to an audio file of Vidal reading the
entire piece.

Š 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/31321/


--------17 of 18--------

Who will be the peace candidate in 2008?
by Ben Manski
and Dean Myerson
February 03, 2006
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=90&ItemID=9648

Who will be the peace candidate in 2008? In a desperate era, that is the
question on many lips. The answer flows from another question: Are
anti-war Americans ready to support a peace candidate? In 2004, most did
not. Prominent progressives pledged support to a candidate who did not
represent them. Now, that choice seems to have left a bad taste.

This week, Molly Ivins declared she'd had enough, warning that she, "will
not support Hillary Clinton for president." Arianna Huffington asked,
rhetorically and in all caps, "What The Hell Are They Thinking?" And in
November, The Nation pledged that it would, "not support any candidate for
national office who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq a major
issue of his or her campaign."

These statements are understandable. The Democratic leadership has been
nothing if not consistent. They abandoned their voters a month after the
2000 elections; they held out for just six hours in 2004. They voted for
the "PATRIOT Act." They voted for the invasion of Iraq. They voted for
John Roberts. They voted additional funds for the occupation of Iraq, and
against an immediate withdrawal. They knew of Bush's wiretapping, and did
nothing. They have undercut efforts to filibuster Alito. And they have
stalled the drive for impeachment.

Millions of American progressives knew better, know better. A few dozen
members of Congress knew better, know better. And what's worse, recent
developments within the Democratic Party all but guarantee that it will
not back anti-war candidates in 2006 or 2008. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chair of
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is withholding support
from local and state-level ant-war candidates. The D-triple-C would rather
support a losing pro-war Democrat than a winning peace candidate. No
wonder there is a shift within the progressive community.

Backing peace candidates is a matter of principle. It is also a matter of
practicality. Rodham Clinton this week called for sanctions, and possible
preemptive strikes, against Iran. The failed politics of "Anybody But
Bush" have produced a Democratic presidential frontrunner running to
Bush's right. No wonder progressives are pining to get their surrendered
independence back. No wonder so many have vowed to reclaim it.

Having vowed their independence, some in 2008 may yet look to a candidate
running in the Democratic presidential primaries, the theory being that
what failed for Kucinich in 2004 may yet work for Feingold in 2008.
Reasonable people, however, will remember the history of the Democratic
presidential primaries, littered with the gravestones of Jackson, Harkin,
Sharpton, Dean, and Kucinich, among others. Reasonable people will expect
that after the primaries, the pressure to close ranks will come to bear;
the once insurgent candidate will become the party loyalist and back the
pro-war nominee. Will those now vowing their independence do the
reasonable thing? Will they make their anti-war pledge matter?

In the wake of over 100,000 Iraqi dead, 2,200 American dead, nearly 20,000
walking wounded, and $2 trillion on route to the dump, a majority of
Americans are in the anti-war camp. And according to Zogby International,
52% say Bush's warrantless wiretapping is grounds for impeachment. With
the Democratic leadership demonstrating that once again, it is an obstacle
to popular sentiment, anti-war Americans must look elsewhere. And what
alternative will there be, but that offered by the Green Party?

The Green Party is the only significant progressive party that is united
against the war and for immediate withdrawal. The Green Party need not
make any pledges to back only anti-war candidates; running anti-war
candidates is the party's bread and butter.

But if the Green Party is to run a strong anti-war presidential candidate,
an end-the-war candidate, it must have the support of the broader anti-war
movement. The Greens may not be a party of the political establishment,
but they field state party organizations in most every state, hundreds of
elected officials, and hard-won experience with restrictive ballot access
laws. There is no need for the anti-war movement to start from scratch.

There is not yet a clear standard bearer for the Green presidential
nomination, but party activists are committed to recruiting a candidate.
Support from the anti-war movement will make that recruitment effort much
more likely to succeed. The Greens are a base for organizing; but it will
be up to the broader anti-war movement to call forth a serious anti-war
candidate.

Anti-war activists are recognizing that they cannot again back a pro-war
candidate. But being against something is not enough. There must be an
alternative for there to be an effective opposition. Light a fire, spread
the word, begin to beat the drum for a peace campaign. Pledge not only to
withhold your vote. Let those who could potentially top that peace ticket
know that if they build it, you will come.

Ben Manski is a former Co-Chair of the Green Party of the United States.
He currently serves as a Fellow with the Liberty Tree Foundation for the
Democratic Revolution.

Dean Myerson is a former Political Director of the Green Party of the
United States. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Green
Institute.


--------18 of 18--------

 Pro-war Dems: all too
 buy-o-degradable: gold
 trash-compacts their spines.


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