Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 03.12.06

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    03.12.06

1. Palestinians      3.12 8:45am
2. Sensible vigil    3.12 12noon
3. March marshalls   3.12 1pm
4. Medicare part D   3.12 2pm
5. Artist talk/tea   3.12 2pm
6. Immigration/march 3.12 2:30pm
7. KFAI/Indian       3.12 4pm
8. YAWR concert      3.12 5pm
9. Wangara Matthai   3.12 6pm
10. Vets for peace   3.12 6pm

11. Transportation   3.13 10am
12. Nobel/Augsberg   3.13 10:30am
13. ComoPark N4Peace 3.13 6pm
14. C4CR             3.13 6:30pm
15. Just war/absurd  3.13 6:30pm
16. Net/spirit/progs 3.13 7pm
17. S Aftica/film    3.13 7:30pm

18. BBC News       - Forbes reports billionaire boom
19. Forbes         - Billionaire bacchanalia
20. Molly Ivins    - Enough of the DC Dems
21. Doug Thompson  - We don't burn our sources
22. Gar Alperovitz - Another world is possible
23. ed             - Golden geese (poem)

--------1 of 23--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Palestinians 3.12 8:45am

Sunday, 3/12, 8:45am, Dr. Debra Ricci speaks on "Palestinians: Why Doesn't
Anybody Care? following her 10-month stay on the West Bank, Pilgram Lutheran
Church (Adult Forum), 1935 St. Claire Ave, St. Paul.  651-699-6886.


--------2 of 23--------

From: skarx001 <skarx001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Sensible vigil 3.12 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.


--------3 of 23--------

From: braun044 <braun044 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: March marshalls 3.12 1pm

The Twin Cities Peace Campaign-Focus on Iraq is helping to organize the
March 18 anti-war march and rally on the third anniversary of the war on
Iraq and we are in need of peacekeepers.

Please come to a volunteer training, Sunday, March 12!
We need 50 peacekeepers.  We need you!
Help make the March 18 event happen!

Volunteer training:
Sunday March 12, 1pm
St. Joan of Arc Church 4537 3rd Ave. South Minneapolis

Volunteers peacekeepers are needed to help make the March 18 event a
successful and powerful experience. On March 12th, the March 18th
Coalition will provide training for peacekeepers (a.k.a. marshalls)for the
Saturday March 18 demonstration. Volunteers will help with many tasks on
the day of the event, including helping get the march started, keeping it
safe, helping with set-up and more.

This year's demonstration will mark the 3rd anniversary of the start
of the war and we are expecting many many people to join this
demonstration.

Please come to the March 12 training - even if you haven't helped with
these tasks before - so you can help  make this event possible.

--
THE MARCH 18 INFORMATION IS BELOW:
Protest & March On the 3rd Anniversary of the U.S. War On Iraq
Saturday 3/18, 1pm
Library at Lagoon/Hennepin Aves. S.
Minneapolis
March begins at 1:30 pm
March will end with an indoor rally at the Basilica of St. Mary

Not one more death!  Not one more dollar!  Act now for peace!  Bring the
Troops Home Now! Stop the U.S. War 0n Iraq!

The weekend of March 18/19 will mark the third anniversary since the start
of the U.S. war on Iraq. Thousands of protests, vigils, forums and other
events will be held in cities across the U.S. and around the world that
weekend to call for an end to the war. The three major U.S. anti-war
coalitions, United for Peace and Justice, the ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War
and End Racism) Coalition and the Troops Out Now Coalition have initaited
calls for actions that weekend. Bring your friends, family, co-workers and
others to have the largest possible expression of opposition to the
continuing war.

Sponsored locally by the March 18th Coalition which includes the Iraq
Peace Action Coalition, the Anti War Committee, the Twin Cities Peace
Campaign, WAMM, Veterans for Peace and other local anti-war and
progressive groups.

Marie Braun for Twin Cities Peace Campaign-Focus on Iraq 612-522-1861


--------4 of 23--------

From: Dick Strohl <djstrohl [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Medicare part D 3.12 2pm

March 12, 2pm.
Medicare Part D Forum
Walker Methodist 3737 Bryant Av S Mpls


--------5 of 23--------

From: Mnartistsatwork [at] aol.com
Subject: Artist talk/tea 3.12 2pm

Croatian artist Branko Gulin will discuss his work and give a live
performance.

"Just War" "New York 2001" "Global Ideological Storms I II and III" make
up only part of the more than 40 works of this show currently on exhibit
at Gallery 13. Please join us for tea, talk and viewing. This event is
free and open to the public.

Sunday March 12, 2pm
Gallery 13
302 13 Av NE Minneapolis
651-592-5503
_www.gallery13.com_ (http://www.gallery13.com/)
_infor [at] gallery13.com_ (mailto:infor [at] gallery13.com)


--------6 of 23--------

From: Amanda Tempel <atempel [at] visi.com>
Subject: Immigration/march 3.12 2:30pm

March to the Governor's Mansion for Immigration Reform

Sunday March 12, 2:30pm, St. Lukes Catholic Church, Summit and
Lexington, St. Paul

Join with Isaiah, Jewish Community Action and hundreds of immigrants in
support of comprehensive immigration reform and then march across the
street to the Governor's mansion on Summit.Let's send a strong message to
Governor Pawlenty and the Minnesota Congressional delegation to support
comprehensive immigration reform and oppose any legislation that will
criminalize immigration status and focus only on enforcement.

Contact Vic Rosenthal at
<mailto:vic [at] jewishcommunityaction.org>vic [at] jewishcommunityaction.org for
more information.


--------7 of 23--------

From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org>
Subject: KFAI/Indian 3.12 4pm

KFAI's Indian Uprising for March 12, 2006

Replay of part two: THE NEWEST INDIANS by Jack Hitt, The New York Time
Magazine, August 21, 2005.  More and more people are claiming to have
discovered their indigenous ancestries.  But what, exactly, makes someone
a Native American?

A lot of Indians haven't looked ''Indian'' for quite a while, especially
in the eastern half of the country, where there is a longer history of
contact with Europeans. That fact might not have been the source of much
anxiety in the past, but in the post-Civil Rights era, the connotations of
the word ''white'' began to shift at the same time that the cultural
conversation progressed from the plight of ''Negroes'' to the civil rights
of ''blacks.'' Suddenly ''white'' acquired a whiff of racism. This
association may well account for the rise of more respectable ethnic
descriptions like ''Irish-American'' or ''Norwegian-American,'' terms that
neatly leapfrog your identity from Old World to New without any hint of
the Civil War in between. According to the work of Ruth Frankenberg and
other scholars, some white people associate whiteness with ''mayonnaise''
and ''paleness'' and ''spiritual emptiness.'' So whatever is happening in
Indian Country is being aggravated by an unexpected ethnic pressure next
door: people who could be considered white but who can legitimately (or
illegitimately) find an Indian ancestor now prefer to fashion their claim
of identity around a different description of self. And in a nation
defined by ethnic anxiety, what greater salve is there than to become a
member of the one people who have been here all along?

The reaction from lifelong Indians runs the gamut. It is easy to find
Native Americans who denounce many of these new Indians as members of the
wannabe tribe. But it is also easy to find Indians like Clem Iron Wing, an
elder among the Sioux, who sees this flood of new ethnic claims as
magnificent, a surge of Indians ''trying to come home.'' Those Indians who
ridicule Iron Wing's lax sense of tribal membership have retrofitted the
old genocidal system of blood quantum -- measuring racial purity by blood
-- into the new standard for real Indianness, a choice rich with paradox.
The Native American scholar C. Matthew Snipp has written that the
relationship between Native Americans and the agency that issues the
C.D.I.B. [Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood] card is ''not too
different than the relationship that exists for championship collies and
the American Kennel Club.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/magazine/21NATIVE.html.  See attached

NATIVE AMERICAN JOKES AND HUMOR, http://home.att.net/~native-jokes/

* * * *
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.


--------8 of 23--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: YAWR concert 3.12 5pm

Sunday, March 12th
Triple Rock Social Club
(629 Cedar Av S Mpls)
Doors at 5pm
$6 - proceeds go to benefit Youth Against War and Racism's mobilization
for a massive student walkout against the war on April 28th.

PERFORMANCES BY:
* El Punkeke and the Aliens
* Noncompliance
* Kick Face Smile
* Black Plague
* Four Minute Warning
* Baby Guts


--------9 of 23--------

From: Elizabeth Dickinson <eadickinson [at] mindspring.com>
Subject: Wangara Matthai 3.12 6pm

Lecture by Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai
by Aaron Smith

Dr. Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan woman who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
for her efforts in her countryıs struggle for democracy, human rights and
environmental conservation, will give a public lecture, ³Sowing the Seeds
of Change,² at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 12, in OıShaughnessy Educational
Center auditorium at the University of St. Thomas.

Maathai, 55, was elected to Kenya's parliament in 2002 and was appointed
Kenya's assistant minister for environment and natural resources in
2003. She earned a bachelorıs degree in biology in 1964 from Mount St.
Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas; a master of science in biological
sciences in 1966 from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. in anatomy
from the University of Nairobi in 1971. She was the first woman in east or
central Africa to earn a doctorate and went on to teach and chair the
Department of Veterinary Anatomy at the University of Nairobi as well as
to direct the Kenya Red Cross.

In 1976, while serving in the National Council of Women of Kenya, she
introduced the idea of a reforestation movement for her country. In 1977
she launched the Green Belt Movement. GBMıs main activity involved womenıs
groups planting trees to conserve the environment and empower themselves
by improving their quality of life. The organization since has helped
women plant more than 30 million trees on their farms and in school and
church compounds across Kenya .

In 1986, the organization expanded to launch similar initiatives
throughout Africa, including tree-planting programs in Tanzania, Uganda,
Malawi, Lesotho, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, among others.

Maathai was named to the International Womenıs Hall of Fame in 1995, has
received four honorary degrees and has received honors from numerous
organizations throughout the world. She won the United Nations Africa
Prize for Leadership in 1991, is listed in the UN Environment Programıs
Global 500 Hall of Fame, and in 1997 was named by Earth Times as one of
100 people who have made a difference in the environment.

[Wangari Maathai belongs to the Green Party].

General admission tickets are $10 and available beginning Monday, March 6,
at the St. Thomas Box Office, lower level, Murray-Herrick Campus Center .
Tickets are free for St. Thomas students, faculty and staff with ID (limit
two). For ticket information, call (651) 962-6137.


--------10 of 23--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Vets for peace 3.12 6pm

Sunday, 3/12, 6 to 8pm, Veterans for Peace monthly meeting, St. Stephans
school basement, VFP office, 2030 Clinton Ave, Mpls.  waynewittman [at] msn.com


--------11 of 23--------

From: Tim Nelson <frip909henn [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Transportation Day 3.13 10am

It's that time again, transportation day is March 13th in the Capitol
rotunda. The speeches are to start at 10am and an awful time is sure to be
had by one and all. Take the day off, and, like me, do your duty to the
cause again this year. Invest an hour, to an hour and a half, of your
valuable time to cheer on the great strides the State of Minnesota is
making in meeting our transportation needs, now, and in the future.
Parking may be a hassle, but that's only going to spur you on, you are now
a regular dynamo, like a scene out of "Network", you are here to make a
point to no one in particular.


--------12 of 23--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Nobel/Augsberg 3.13 10:30am

Monday, 3/13, 10:30 to 1:30, annual Nobel Peace Prize Festival featuring
2004 winner Kenyan environmental and peace activist Wangari Maathal,
Augsburg College, Mpls.  www.augsburg.edu/peaceprizefestival/


--------13 of 23---------

From: Sheila Sullivan <aiisullivan [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: ComoPark N4Peace 3.13 6pm

Just a reminder that our next meeting will be at the Coffee Grounds on
Monday, March 13th at 6pm.  We will be discussing Peace First at the
Precinct Caucuses and the upcoming Peace March to be held on the 19th.


--------14 of 23--------

From: John Karvel <jkarvel [at] comcast.net>
Subject: C4CR 3.13 6:30pm

C4CR General Meeting
Monday, March 13thth, 6:30 PM
2369 Doswell Aveue, St. Paul, MN 55108
VISITORS ARE WELCOME.
See our website for a map: http://www.c4cr.org/nextmeeting.html
http://www.c4cr.org


--------15 of 23--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Just war/absurd 3.13 6:30pm

March 13 - The Absurdity of Just War. 6:30pm
StMary' s Episcopal Church, 1895 Laurel Ave, St. Paul

Every Church a Peace Church bimonthly potluck and program on The Absurdity
of Just War.


--------16 of 23--------

From: brucelissem [at] aol.com
Subject: Net/spirit/progs 3.13 7pm

The Minnesota Chapter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, formed to
pursue the ideas set forth in Michael Lerner's new book, The Left Hand of
God, meets the second Monday of each month from 7-9pm at Plymouth
Congregational Church, 1900 Nicollet Ave. in south Minneapolis.

We are a grassroots movement creating a culture of purpose and meaning
deeper than the mere pursuit of money and power. We are working to reshape
our economic, political, and social life in accord with a new bottom line
of love, compassion, community, fairness and peace. We invite everyone who
believes in the power of love and generosity to join us in this process of
healing and transformation.

Questions can be directed to me at this email address,
brucelissem [at] aol.com. Thanks. Bruce Peterson


--------17 of 23--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: S Aftica/film 3.13 7:30pm

On March 13th, just days after the expected Academy Award win for
³Tsotsi², the Oak Street Cinema will host a special, FREE screening of
this extraordinary South African film in which a young man running with a
criminal gang on the streets of Johannesburg finds a chance for
redemption.

Set to open more broadly in the weeks to follow, this special event will
mark the Twin Cities first chance to experience what has been heartily
described as a ³stunning², ³remarkable², ³superb², ³genuine², and
³perfect² film.  ³Tsotsi² is already the winner of numerous awards,
including those for Audience Choice at the Santa Barbara, Denver, St.
Louis, Los Angeles, and Toronto Film Festivals.

³Tsotsi² screens at 7:30pm on March 13 only, and is FREE, with donations
to the theater accepted.  The Oak Street Cinema is located at 309 Oak
Street SE, at the corner of Oak and Washington in Stadium Village.
Parking is available on street and in area lots.


--------18 of 23--------

FORBES REPORTS BILLIONAIRE BOOM
BBC News
Friday, March 10, 2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4791848.stm

A worldwide economic boom has yielded a record number of dollar
billionaires in the past year, according to Forbes.

Their number rose by 15% to 793 with India taking the lead in Asia and new
Russians lining up to fill the gap left by jailed Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Microsoft's Bill Gates tops the list for the 12th year running, with a net
worth of $50bn (£29bn).

The combined net worth of the 793 is $2.6 trillion and US billionaires
account for just under half the amount.

"A billion just isn't what it used to be," said Luisa Kroll, Forbes
magazine's associate editor, revealing the 20th annual list in New York.

But she noted the figures were conservative estimates for different
reasons.

A very positive spreadsheet could indicate a desire to sell a business,
she told reporters, while somebody about to divorce might seek to downplay
their worth.

According to the 2006 list:

- The youngest billionaire is a Lebanese woman, 22-year-old Hind Hariri,
who inherited $1.4bn from her assassinated father, former Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri

- India's 23 billionaires have a combined net worth of $99bn, surpassing
former Asian leader Japan's 27 billionaires with their total worth of
$67bn

- Russia's 33 billionaires now have a combined wealth of $172bn, based
largely on oil and gas prices, compared to a total of $68bn for oil-rich
Saudi Arabia's 11 billionaires.

'Whiff of inflation'

"Russia continues to astound us," said Ms Kroll, as seven new billionaires
were recorded from that country.

Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos chief executive convicted of fraud and tax
evasion last year, is now in a Siberian prison which allows its inmates to
earn less than a dollar a day.

However, Forbes estimates he "still has somewhere below $500m", said Ms
Kroll.

While New York has the highest number of resident billionaires with 40,
Moscow is second with 25, and London comes third with 23.

Steve Forbes, Forbes' chief executive and editor-in-chief, attributed the
global rise in the number of billionaires to an economic boom.

"The global economy has been growing the last two years at rates not seen
since World War II, fuelled by a commodities boom with a whiff of
inflation," he said.

............

TOP FIVE BILLIONAIRES:

Bill Gates (US, Microsoft) - $50bn
Warren Buffett (US, investor) - $42bn
Carlos Slim (Mexico, industrialist) - $30bn
Ingvar Kamprad (Sweden, Ikea) - $28bn
Lakshmi Mittal (India, steel) $23.5bn

TOP FIVE BRITISH BILLIONAIRES:

Duke of Westminster (real estate) - $6bn
Reuben Brothers (real estate) - $3.6bn
Bernie Ecclestone (Formula One) - $3.4bn
Barclay Brothers (media/retail) - $2.8bn
Richard Branson (Virgin) - $2.8bn

COMPLETE LIST:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/Rank_1.html


--------19 of 23--------

THE WORLD'S BILLIONAIRES
BILLIONAIRE BACCHANALIA
Forbes
Edited by Luisa Kroll and Allison Fass
March 27, 2006

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0327/111.html

Canadian playboy Calvin Ayre went down to Costa Rica a decade ago and
began taking illegal bets over the Internet.

Now heıs worth $1 billion (see cover story). Making a billion just isnıt
what it used to be. In its inaugural ranking of the worldıs richest people
20 years ago FORBES uncovered some 140 billionaires. Just three years ago
we found 476. This year the list is a record 793, up 102 from last year.
Theyıre worth a combined $2.6 trillion, up 18% since last March. Their
average net worth: $3.3 billion.

Strong stock markets around the world (the U.S. being the notable
exception) contributed to this surge in wealth. India, whose BSE SENSEX
market was up 54% in the past 12 months, is home to 10 new billionaires,
more than any other country besides the U.S.

Notable newcomers include Tulsi Tanti, a former textile trader whose
alternative energy company owns Asiaıs largest windfarm; Vijay Mallya, the
liquor tycoon behind Kingfisher beer; Kushal Pal Singh, Indiaıs biggest
real estate developer; and Anurag Dikshit (pronounced ³dix-sit²), another
online gaming mogul, who made his fortune when he and two Americans took
their PartyGaming poker company public in London last June.

Russia, whose RTS stock exchange was up 108%, benefited from strong gains
in commodities prices. The surge swelled the fortunes of its 33
billionaires, including 7 newcomers who join the list. China now has 8
billionaires, four times as many as last year. The U.S. is home to 44 new
billionaires and commands nearly half of the fortunes on the roster.

Bill Gates retains his title as the worldıs richest person for the twelfth
straight year, proving that while itıs getting easier to make a billion,
the same canıt be said for making $50 billion.

Twelve people return to the list. Thirty-nine people depart from it. Seven
fortunes were broken up among family members, usually siblings, adding 15
individuals to the ranks. Seventy-eight women make the list, 10 more than
last year, though only 6 are self-made. Hind Hariri, daughter of slain
Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, who is eight months younger than
Germanyıs Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis, is, at 22, the listıs
youngest member.

REPORTED BY Cristina von Zeppelin, Tatiana Serafin, Suzanne Hoppough,
Kiyoe Minami, Helen Coster, Kerry A. Dolan, Russell Flannery, Evan Hessel,
Megan Johnston, Matthew Miller, Matthew Swibel.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY Kiri Blakeley, Justin Doebele, Chandrani Ghosh,
Lea Goldman, Naazneen Karmali, Maxim Kashulinsky, Josephine Lee, Forbes
Russia, Nathan Vardi, Kirill Vishnepolsky, Chaniga Vorasarun.

RESEARCH BY Phyllis Berman, Heidi Brown, Tomas Kellner, Ritu Kalra, Susan
Kitchens, Deborah Orr, Forbes Poland, Forbes Turkey.

PHOTO EDITOR Gail Toivanen.

DATABASE Mitchel Rand.

COMPLETE LIST OF CURRENT BILLIONAIRES:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/Rank_1.html

[And, as a result, how many more millions are stuck in abject poverty, or
dead? Where are the Forbes stories on them? Being a billionaire should be
recognized as a crime against humanity, with everything over as a fine,
and life in jail if it goes over again. -ed]


--------20 of 23--------

Enough of the D.C. Dems
By Molly Ivins
March 2006 Issue, The Progressive: http://progressive.org/mag_ivins0306

Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to
come to the aid of the party. I don't know about you, but I have had it
with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every
calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son
of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear
stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues
where you reach out to the other side and try to split the difference. You
want to talk about lowering abortion rates through cooperation on sex
education and contraception, fine, but don't jack with stuff that is pure
rightwing firewater.

I can't see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth
considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in
hock to this system of legalized bribery they can't even see straight.

Look at their reaction to this Abramoff scandal. They're talking about "a
lobby reform package." We don't need a lobby reform package, you dimwits,
we need full public financing of campaigns, and every single one of you
who spends half your time whoring after special interest contributions
knows it. The Abramoff scandal is a once in a lifetime gift-a perfect
lesson on what's wrong with the system being laid out for people to see.
Run with it, don't mess around with little patches, and fix the system.

As usual, the Democrats have forty good issues on their side and want to
run away from thirty-nine of them. Here are three they should stick to:

1) Iraq is making terrorism worse; it's a breeding ground. We need to
extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by
staying.

2) Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from
the halls of Washington.

3) Single-payer health insurance.

Every Democrat I talk to is appalled at the sheer gutlessness and
spinelessness of the Democratic performance. The party is still cringing
at the thought of being called, ooh-ooh, "unpatriotic" by a bunch of
rightwingers.

Take "unpatriotic" and shove it. How dare they do this to our country?
"Unpatriotic"? These people have ruined the American military! Not to
mention the economy, the middle class, and our reputation in the world.
Everything they touch turns to dirt, including Medicare prescription drugs
and hurricane relief.

This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for
a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.

Who are these idiots talking about Warner of Virginia? Being anodyne is
not sufficient qualification for being President. And if there's nobody in
Washington and we can't find a Democratic governor, let's run Bill Moyers,
or Oprah, or some university president with ethics and charisma.

What happens now is not up to the has-beens in Washington who run this
party. It is up to us. So let's get off our butts and start building a
progressive movement that can block the nomination of Hillary Clinton or
any other candidate who supposedly has "all the money sewed up."

I am tired of having the party nomination decided before the first primary
vote is cast, tired of having the party beholden to the same old
Establishment money.

We can raise our own money on the Internet, and we know it. Howard Dean
raised $42 million, largely on the web, with a late start when he was
running for President, and that ain't chicken feed. If we double it, it
gives us the lock on the nomination. So let's go find a good candidate
early and organize the shit out of our side.

Molly Ivins writes in this space every month. Her latest book is "Who Let
the Dogs In?"


--------21 of 23--------

WE DON'T BURN OUR SOURCES
By DOUG THOMPSON
Capitol Hill Blue - Mar 9, 2006
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/blog/2006/03/we_dont_burn_our_sources.html

One of the questions frequently raised by critics of this web site is "how
can you guys have sources the mainstream media doesn't have?"

Good question. We often quote confidential sources in our stories. We have
a choice of depending on such sources or not publishing the story. If I'm
satisfied the sources are accurate I go with the story.

It's a question of trust and, during my 23 years in Washington as both a
journalist and a political operative, I built up a network of sources I
trust and who trust me to protect their identity and not put them in
harm's way. More than 40 years in journalism taught me to protect such
sources at all cost.

Many of those same sources don't trust the so-called "mainstream media"
outlets because they've been burned by journalists who put the story ahead
of protecting those who provide them with the information.

Even worse, the mainstreamers can be downright sloppy when it comes to
protecting those who have such information.

On Monday, I outlined how the Bush Administration has launched an all-out
war on the press, directing attorney general Alberto Gonzales to go after
reporters with subpoenas, wiretaps, monitoring of emails and surveillance
to try and stop leaks about the many questionable activities of the White
House.

I learned about the efforts because the FBI made the incredibly stupid
mistake of sending one of their "National Security Letters" to a company I
own demanding information on one of its clients - me.

Then I confirmed the story with my administration sources and ran with it
on Monday, knowing that even acknowledging receipt of a National Security
Letter could lead to trouble. The letter was withdrawn after my attorney
negotiated a deal.

On Tuesday, an email arrived from Dan Eggen, Justice Department
correspondent for The Washington Post. Dan wanted a copy of the letter and
more information on the story.

That's right I write a story about how the Bush administration is
monitoring the email of journalists and a journalist fires off an email
asking me to violate the USA Patriot Act and risk certain jail time by
providing him with a copy of a letter that I'm not even supposed to admit
I have. In fact, I don't have it. I never did. The letter went from the
employee who received it straight to my attorney and he dealt directly
with the feds. I do not know what happened to it and am not privy to
details of what it said. I don't want to know. That's why I'm still
sitting here and not on my way to Gitmo.

Then I checked my voice mail to find a call from Robert O'Harrow Jr.,
another Post reporter, wanting information on my sources. Hmmm. I write a
story about how the Bush administration is monitoring phone calls of
reporters and a reporter calls me on the phone to obtain information on my
confidential sources. Anyone see a pattern here?

Next, I get both a phone call and an email from David Armstrong of the
National Security News Service saying he is working with 60 Minutes on a
story about domestic spying by the National Security Agency. He wants info
on my sources.

Let's see. A reporter uses both the telephone and email to request the
names of confidential sources on a story about how the National Security
Agency monitors telephone and email use of, you guessed it, reporters.

Sorry guys. I'm not about to burn my sources when you take so little
precaution in seeking information from me. Besides, I wouldn't help 60
Minutes if they were the only news outlet left on the face of the planet.

In 1981 I served on a panel discussion with Fred Graham, then legal
correspondent for CBS News. During a break I told him about a paper I once
worked for, The Alton Telegraph in Illinois, which had lost a landmark
libel suit for something they never published. I thought it might make a
good story about injustice.

Instead, Graham turned the story over to Morley Safer and 60 Minutes and
they put together a hatchet job on the newspaper and told the story from a
trial lawyer's point of view. Instead of defending freedom of the press,
Safer and his crew sensationalized the story for ratings.

Some years later, we would learn again just how 60 Minutes and CBS News
hangs people out to dry. Jeffrey Wigand, a fired corporate vice president
for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., blew the whistle on the company's
campaign to hide the true dangers of nicotine. But 60 Minutes and Mike
Wallace caved to corporate pressure and shelved the story after revealing
Wigand's identity. His reputation was ruined by the network's
incompetence.

Given such track records, why should any source trust the mainstreamers?
The Washington Post sends an unsecure email openly asking me to violate
federal law by turning over a classified document and I'm supposed to
believe they will protect sources that I've cultivated and protected for
more than two decades?

When Mark Felt, the number two man in the FBI, served as Post reporter Bob
Woodward's primary source on Watergate, he insisted that Woodward avoid
contact by telephone and devised a scheme of planted messages in a
newspaper left at Woodward's door and meetings in an underground garage in
Arlington. Felt knew using the telephone or other standard communications
means of the time would lead the secrecy-obsessed Nixon White House to his
door. Felt's identity remained a secret for 31 years.

My sources know better than to use phone lines and email to contact me.
We've worked out elaborate, and always changing, methods for sharing
information. I'm not about to risk their confidentiality with reporters
who are less careful.

I've been hauled in front of grand juries by overzealous prosecutors who
wanted names of sources. They didn't get them. As a journalist, I was
trained to develop my own network of sources, not call other reporters and
ask them to give up theirs.

Maybe I'm too old-fashioned for today's pop-culture journalism. Maybe it's
out of style for reporters to do their own legwork and research instead of
depending on Google and others to do it for them.

Or maybe I'm just too old to change and too damn suspicious to get trapped
by youngsters. My mama drowned the dumb ones.


---------22 of 23--------

ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE
By Gar Alperovitz
From: Mother Jones, Jan. 31, 2006

Beyond the remains of yesterday's politics, the change you're looking for
has already begun.

Where is America headed? It's not hard to find pessimists. Author and
former Nixon adviser Kevin Phillips believes the nation is dominated by a
new "plutocracy" in which wealth reaches "beyond its own realm" to control
government at all levels. The writer Robert Kaplan predicts that our
society could soon "resemble the oligarchies of ancient Athens and
Sparta." Sociologist Bertram Gross has predicted a "friendly fascism."
Imagine what another 9/11 would do.

It's also not hard to find optimists. Bush is in trouble, the GOP is
struggling to recruit candidates in many races, and liberals are beginning
to smell blood. After all, if 70,000 votes had gone the other way in Ohio
-- and if voters hadn't been forced to wait in line for endless hours-we
might have a Democrat in the White House right now. The Dean campaign,
America Coming Together, MoveOn, Wellstone Action, and many other efforts
show new energies beneath the surface. The Iraq war is becoming
increasingly unpopular. The pendulum will surely swing.

My own view is that both these judgments are almost certainly wrong. Both
assume that the crisis we face is a political one, pure and simple. But
what if it is something different? There are reasons to believe we are
entering what can only be called a systemic crisis. And the emerging
possibilities are not easily described by the conventional wisdom of
either left or right.

The institutional power arrangements that have set the terms of reference
for the American political-economic system over roughly the last half
century are dissolving before our eyes -- especially those that once
constrained corporate economic and political power.

First, organized labor's capacity to check the giant corporation, both on
the shop floor and in national politics, has all but disappeared as union
membership has collapsed from 35 percent of the labor force in the
mid-1950s to a mere 7.9 percent in the private sector today. Throughout
the world, at the heart of virtually every major progressive political
movement has been a powerful labor movement. Liberalism in general, and
the welfare state in particular, would have been impossible without union
money and organizing. The decline of labor is one of the central reasons
traditional liberal strategies are in decline.

Second, globalization has further enhanced corporate power, as the threat
to move jobs elsewhere erodes unions' bargaining capacity, while at the
same time working to reduce taxation and regulation. (The corporate share
of the federal tax burden has declined in eerie lockstep with union
membership -- from 35 percent in 1945 to 10.1 percent in 2004.) This in
turn has intensified the nationwide fiscal crisis, further undercutting
efforts to use public resources to solve public problems ranging from
poverty and hunger to energy conservation and even simple repair jobs such
as fixing decaying roads, bridges, and water systems throughout the
nation.

Third -- and most important -- the Republican "Southern Strategy" has now
completed the transformation of a once (nominally) Democratic South that
at least voted for Democratic presidents into a reactionary bastion of
corporate power based on implicit racism and explicitly religious
divide-and-conquer fervor. Bill Clinton's brief moment occurred just
before the full consolidation of this Southern stranglehold. Very few
observers have grasped the full implications of this shift: The United
States is the only advanced political economy where the working class is
fundamentally -- not marginally -- divided by race. It is also the only
one where a massive geographic quadrant is now essentially beyond the
reach of traditional progressive politics. George Bush, though extreme, is
no accident; nor can the core political relationships that now define the
South be easily unraveled. Hence, yes, a Democrat might be elected
president one day. But no, such a shift is not going to nurture an era of
renewed liberal or progressive reform. The system of power that once
allowed this no longer exists. Period.

Some who have sensed the far-reaching character of these system-wide
changes have despaired of any hope for the future. Perhaps the end of one
set of structural relationships -- he ones we have come to take for
granted in our own lifetimes -- spells the end of all potentially positive
systemic possibilities.

Perhaps.

But I am a political economist and a historian, one for whom the best way
to understand current events is to think of them as an ongoing movie, not
a snapshot. What is interesting is not simply the current reel, but the
previous one, and above all what both suggest about the next one. Even
though I think times are likely to get worse before they get better, let
me explain why I am a prudent optimist about the long haul -- even
allowing for the profound changes taking place (and in some ways because
of them).

There have been other times when change seemed impossible. During the
McCarthy era of the mid-1950s, for instance, they shot anything that moved
politically, especially in my (and Joseph McCarthy's) home state of
Wisconsin. Fear erased any suggestion of progressive ideas, and anyone who
dared to even say as much was obviously a fool. What came next, of course,
were the multiple -- and totally unpredicted -- political explosions of
the 1960s. Clearly, those who viewed the 1950s simply as a depressing
snapshot were missing something very important.

Similarly, we tend to recall Martin Luther King Jr. and the great civil
rights moment of the 1960s as if they'd arisen easily, almost naturally.
We forget that for many decades prior, there was very little to suggest
the possibility of momentous change. Those who thought otherwise, who did
attempt to organize in the South, risked their lives. The challenge of
George Bush pales in comparison with the challenge of Mississippi in the
1940s and 1950s.

The idea that environmental concern might one day become important also
seemed far-fetched only a few decades ago. When I directed legislative
work for Senator Gaylord Nelson, the founder of Earth Day, everyone knew
environmentalism was a political non-starter until, seemingly out of
nowhere, a powerful movement forced Richard Nixon to create the EPA and
sign the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

We also tend to forget that the feminist movement produced what became the
most important cultural revolution in modern history after decades of
seeming quietude once the franchise was achieved in 1920.

Even more broadly: The Soviet Union collapsed, apartheid retreated
abruptly, the French Revolution overthrew the monarchy, a handful of minor
American colonies defeated the great British Empire -- all against huge
odds, and all unexpected by the experts.

Such reminders of historical possibility do not guarantee that a future
progressive revival is building up beneath today's surface calm. They
simply suggest that the pessimists may -- or may not -- be right, and that
those with their noses glued to the window glass of the immediate present
commonly miss the changing weather patterns in the distance.

It is the nature of a systemic crisis to create pain -- from loss of jobs
and lack of health care to trouble paying for college or even secure
housing -- especially (as Katrina revealed) at the state and local levels.
Which also means that this -- not national politics, where progressives so
often feel impotent -- is the place to look for longer-term hope of
change.

In almost every era of American history, the ideas, experiments, programs,
and organizing that ultimately fueled major societywide reform were
developed first at the state and local levels -- and they were usually
developed, we might add, out of pain. Moreover, in almost every instance,
ordinary people -- not saints, not national leaders -- were central to the
process. Poor farmers in Mississippi slept with shotguns next to their
beds during the civil rights era. Nineteenth- century women organized to
demand the right to vote at a time when the mere idea seemed laughable --
and slowly, agonizingly succeeded in state after state until they built up
enough momentum to enact constitutional changes. The workers and farmers
who laid the groundwork for the populist and progressive eras faced
organized violence, Pinkerton goons, armed troops deployed against
strikers, but in the end they, too, achieved system-wide reforms. And
during the hysteria of the McCarthy era, ordinary people in Wisconsin --
teachers, college students, factory workers -- quietly laid the foundation
for an ultimately successful "Joe Must Go" effort. I vividly remember one
of my high school English teachers stuffing pamphlets into mailboxes at
night. He would have lost his job had he been discovered -- not for
participating in politics, which at least in theory was his right, but for
daring to defy a senator who brooked no challenge.

It is a commonplace of serious historical research worldwide that the
unsung actions of people where they live and work are central to
large-order change. Regulatory commissions for railroads and other
industries, minimum-wage laws, food- and drug-safety laws, the estate tax,
the eight-hour workday, Social Security and related forms of public
insurance, child labor laws, laws to increase factory safety, workers'
compensation, the preservation of national parks and other conservation
measures, and many, many other national policies at the heart of modern
American reality built upon precedents first developed and refined by
local citizen effort.

IS THERE ANYTHING IMPORTANT and potentially system-changing going on at
the grassroots today? Yes -- but you have to look beyond conventional
media reporting, and even beyond the traditional New Deal and progressive
policy paradigms.

One of the most important trends involves an array of new economic
institutions that transform the ownership of wealth in ways that benefit
"small publics," groups of citizens whose efforts feed into the well-being
of the community as a whole. Here are a few little- known facts:

** More people are now involved in some 11,500 companies wholly or
substantially owned by employees than are members of unions in the private
sector.

** There are more than 4,000 nonprofit community development corporations
that build housing and create jobs in cities across the nation.

** Both Democratic and Republican city officials have begun to establish
municipally owned public companies to make money for their communities
(and often to solve environmental problems).

** Numerous quasi-public land trusts that stabilize housing prices now
exist.

** Cities and states regularly invest in job-creating efforts, often using
large-scale public pension assets. In Alaska, the state's Permanent Fund
invests oil revenues and provides each citizen with dividends. In Alabama,
the public employee retirement system finances a broad range of
job-stabilizing and moneymaking industries, including many employee-owned
businesses. Numerous other local and state activist efforts to shift the
way wealth accumulates and moves around are under way, from "living wage"
campaigns to Wal-Mart challenges and beyond.

Not surprisingly, in case after case, ordinary citizens have taken the
lead in developing these new strategies, because they often represent the
only way to solve real-world problems in the face of national- level
failure.

Put another way: The systemic crisis is systematically driving unsolved
problems to the local level -- and systematically, too, forcing the
development of (and opening the way for) new approaches.

The emerging strategies point toward a quietly developing "commonwealth
tier" of the economy.

At the same time, in quite another realm, there has also been what might
be called a "populist vector" of change -- a push to create more economic
equality, not by taxing the middle-class suburbs (as in much traditional
liberal policy), but rather the top 1 to 3 percent who, amazingly, own
more than half of all of America's investment capital. (The top 1 percent
alone has twice the income of the bottom 100 million Americans!)

These new strategies move the political divide, putting 97 to 99 percent
of the population together on the side that has much to gain from
progressive politics.

In November 2004, for instance, California voters overwhelmingly approved
tax increases for people making more than $1 million, and earmarked the
proceeds for mental health programs. New Jersey has enacted legislation
taxing those making more than $500,000, and designating the money to
offset property taxes that fall disproportionately on the middle class and
the poor. In Connecticut, a recent poll found 77 percent of voters,
including 63 percent of Republicans, in favor of a tax on those making
more than $1 million. A 2006 initiative in California would tax the top 1
percent (individuals making more than $400,000 and couples making more
than $800,000) to pay for quality preschool for all four-year-olds. As the
fiscal crisis deepens, many other states are beginning to look in this
direction.

If the national policy process remains deadlocked and the pain continues
to build, it is not unreasonable to predict that both the wealth-building
and populist trends will accelerate -- and might ultimately explode, New
Deal-style, in a fireworks of national policies based on the steady
accumulation of local and state experience and political networks.

What makes the wealth and tax trajectories particularly interesting is
that they involve institutional change. This takes us to the deeper
meaning of the systemic crisis. In fact, it is not simply that the
traditional balancing forces in the corporate system have collapsed.
Rather, the very nature of that system -- especially its rules for how
wealth is owned and managed -- appears to be coming into focus.

The truly defining characteristic of any political-economic system centers
always on the issue of property: In the feudal era, massive land ownership
was central to who had power. In 19th-century capitalism, modest-size
enterprise ownership (of farms as well as businesses) was central. In
modern capitalism, corporate and elite ownership is key. In socialism,
state ownership is the hallmark.

What is striking is that taken together, the various emerging strategies
offer the possible outlines of a different answer to the central question
of who should own wealth. That longer-range vision is a very
decentralized, community-benefiting economic system. Variations on the
Alaska and Alabama precedents (and many other state investment programs)
even suggest a larger-scale federal ownership option -- and, ultimately, a
populist commonwealth alternative to both socialism and capitalism. If so,
the current realities we assume to be inevitable and immovable just might
be neither. And, just possibly, the kind of systemic change that is common
throughout world history may not have stopped dead in its tracks at the
outset of the 21st century.

I am a historian, not a utopian. It is possible that things will never
change, or that times will get worse. It is, of course, also obvious that
the only way to find out if major change is possible is to roll up one's
sleeves and get to work. (Besides, there is little to lose; good things
get done no matter what.)

For skeptics in general and progressives in particular, it is useful to
recall one other case study of how very large-order change (not simply
electoral victory) can sometimes be achieved against huge odds: In the
1940s and 1950s, conservative thinkers and activists were regarded as
antique and ridiculous by the mainstream press, by most serious academics,
and by the nation's political leadership. They were far more marginal than
today's liberals; the idea that you could change the system in their
direction seemed absurd. Long before Goldwater in 1964 and Reagan in 1980,
however, serious conservatives got down to the work of putting together a
movement that would come to dominate every major institution of national
governance. For the moment, that is -- until we see the next reel of the
movie.

Gar Alperovitz is a professor at the University of Maryland, and the
Author of America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty,
and Our Democracy.


--------23 of 23--------

 Golden geese rot in
 the streets; golden eggs ride on
 stretch limousine grilles.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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