Progressive Calendar 05.11.06 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001![]() |
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Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 17:27:06 -0700 (PDT) |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 05.11.06 1. Counter recruit 5.12 12noon 2. Phalen Park 5.12 2:30pm 3. Palestine vigil 5.12 4:15pm 4. Cavlan/CTV 5.12 5pm 5. Schultz/AM950 5.12 5pm 6. Smokefree bowl 5.12 6pm 7. Colombia/film 5.12 6pm 8. R McGovern/Iraq 5.12 7pm Duluth MN 9. AmInd/hip hop 5.12 7pm 10. WalMart/yuk/film 5.12 7pm 11. Palestine/film 5.12 7:30pm 12. Co-op plant sale 5.13 9am 13. Cuba/Miami 5.13 10am 14. MomsWalk4Peace 5.13 10:30am 15. SocialistAlt/conf 5.13 11am 16. GP 5CD meeting 5.13 12noon 17. Global warming 5.13 1pm 18. Jack Pine center 5.13 3pm 19. GP candidates/CTV 5.13 6pm 20. Full moon walk 5.13 7pm 21. MothersDay bash 5.14 2pm 22. Protest McGuire 5.14 2pm 23. KFAI's Indian 5.14 5pm 24. Capitol Hlll Blue - Uhoh! Bush thinks brother Jeb should be President 25. Michael Parenti - The hidden politics of deficit spending 26. Mark Morford - Want to change the world? Make gas $10 a gallon 27. Greg Palast - Kerry won in '04 --------1 of 27-------- From: sarah standefer <scsrn [at] yahoo.com> Subject: Counter recruit 5.12 12noon Counter Recruitment Demonstration Our Children Are Not Cannon Fodder Fridays NOON-1 Recruiting Office at the U of M At Washington and Oak St. next to Chipolte for info call Barb Mishler 612-871-7871 --------2 of 27-------- From: RJFKramer [at] aol.com Subject: Phalen Park 5.12 2:30pm It is with great pleasure that we extend to you and your friends and neighbors an invitation to the upcoming event to celebrate the installation of the new signage at Phalen Regional Park. On Friday, May 12th, at 2:30 PM, we will gather at the intersection of Larpenteur Avenue and East Shore Drive. Joining us will be Mayor Chris Coleman, Councilmember Dan Bostrom and other community leaders and officials to celebrate this reinvestment in Phalen Park, the Eastside, and Saint Paul. We realize that this is during the work day, but we are hoping for a beautiful day that will make a good excuse for you to slip away from work a bit early on Friday, or at least quick break. In 2002, the City Council approved the STAR Board's (Sales Tax and Revitalization Board) grant to install new "marker" signs at Arlington and Larpenteur Avenues along East Shore Drive and a new main park entrance sign at Phalen Drive and Wheelock Parkway (the main park entrance). Finally, after many challenges of design, funding, and even the transportation logistics of moving some giant stones you will read about below, we are ready to proceed. It has taken that long to bring this project to fruition, and it has a unique twist that we hope will interest the media, as well. Let me explain.... As Phalen Boulevard was constructed, the Burr Street Bridge was removed. The underpinnings of that bridge were made of giant Kasota Limestone blocks. The Saint Paul Department of Public Works carefully saved a number of these immense stones for use elsewhere in the city....and two of them are coming soon to Phalen Park. Each stone weighs over two and a half tons. Public Works has already poured the foundation for these new "markers" at Arlington and Larpenteur, along East Shore Drive. And on Friday, May 12th, you will see these giant stones set in place. The signage panels will be added to the signs later this season. The larger park entrance sign at Wheelock Parkway and Phalen Drive, which will be made up of smaller pieces of Limestone, we hope to build before the end of the year. A drawing of the signs to be installed can be viewed here: http://forums.e-democracy.org/stpaul/groups/stpaul-issues/files/Signs___Billbo ards/get_file?id=16959 It is a great story of history, reuse and reinvestment, and we would like you to be there to be a part of this "reuse of history". We are planning on some small surprises, perhaps. So please attend if you can, and feel free to pass along this invitation as you wish. RICH KRAMER for the Friends of Lake Phalen LakePhalen [at] aol.com --------3 of 27-------- From: peace 2u <tkanous [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Palestine vigil 5.12 4:15pm Every Friday Vigil to End the Occupation of Palestine 4:15-5:15pm Summit & Snelling, St. Paul There are now millions of Palestinians who are refugees due to Israel's refusal to recognize their right under international law to return to their own homes since 1948. --------4 of 27-------- From: DoriJJ [at] aol.com Subject: Cavlan/CTV 5.12 5pm There will be several opportunities to see and hear Michael Cavlan, GP for US Senate, on public television in the near future. Fri May 12, 5pm, ch.17 Sun May 21, 6pm ch.17 This is an interview by Suzanne Litton done in January of this year on White Bear Community TV. I hope you watch and enjoy. --------5 of 27-------- From: David Schultz <dschultz [at] gw.hamline.edu> Subject: Schultz/AM950 5.12 5pm Fridays from 5:00 - 6:00 PM, David Schultz hosts "Minnesota Matters," on Air America Minnesota radio, 950 AM. Progressive discussion, interviews, and call in. David Schultz, Professor Hamline University Graduate School of Management MS-A1740 1536 Hewitt Avenue St. Paul, Minnesota 55104 651.523.2858 (voice) 651.523.3098 (fax) http://davidschultz.efoliomn2.com --------6 of 27-------- From: Jeanne Weigum <jw [at] ansrmn.org> Subject: Smokefree bowl 5.12 6pm Free Bowling At Midway Pro Bowl A.T.T.A.C. & Celebrate Smoke-Free Air Como Park Senior High School Anti-Tobacco Teen Advocacy Crew (A.T.T.A.C), the American Heart Association & Ramsey Tobacco Coalition invites you to bowl smoke-free! Midway Pro Bowl 1556 University Ave, St. Paul 55104 (651) 646-1396 May 12, 2006 6-9pm Celebrating Smoke-Free bowling in St. Paul! FREE Games & SHOES on us! For more information contact: BARBARA.QUADE-HARICK [at] spps.org --------7 of 27-------- From: humanrts [at] umn.edu Subject: Colombia/film 5.12 6pm May 12 - Film: "Maria llena eres de gracia". 6pm. Cost: Free. Free film "Maria llena eres de gracia" (Maria full of grace) about a Colombian flower grower who becomes a "mule". FFI: http://www.americas.org Location: Resource Center of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis 55406 --------8 of 27-------- From: Mike Miles and Barb Kass <anathoth [at] lakeland.ws> Subject: McGovern/Iraq 5.12 7pm Duluth MN Friday, May 12 --Duluth, MN Ray McGovern Forum: McGovern is a retired CIA agent speaking out against the war in Iraq. He'll be speaking at 7pm at the Peace Church in Duluth.1111 N. 11th St. $5 at the door. Sponsored by Loaves & Fishes and the Northland Anti-War Coalition, Grandmothers for Peace, Vets for Peace. Retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern has been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, has a keen analysis of the danger the world faces due to the ongoing destabilization of the Middle East, and calls for accountability by the Bush Administration for their criminal activity. Ray was a member of the CIA for 27 years and worked under 7 presidents. He is now a member of the "Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity" (VIPS), a group of former agents who have opposed the use of flawed and manipulated intelligence to justify war in Iraq. Please join us, pass the word, and invite a friend. Contact: MICHELE NAAR-OBED, 728-0629 --------9 of 27-------- From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org> Subject: AmInd/hip hop 5.12 7pm Friday, May 12 7-10:30pm) 2006 American Indian Education Hip Hop Fest featuring DJ Abel and Mysnikol, Minneapolis Community & Technical College, 1501 Hennepin Avenue, Open mic for poets, MCıs, Spoken word artists and rappers, This alcohol-free event will take place in the MCTC gym and targets ages 14 to college-age, Free and open to the public, Pre-register by email for the dance battles to reserve your spot to: tony.morrow [at] minneapolis.edu by April 30th, FMI visit: www.minneapolis.edu <http://www.minneapolis.edu/> and click on the button at the bottom right hand side of the page, or visit DJ Abelıs blog at: www.myspace.com/djabel <http://www.myspace.com/djabel> --------10 of 27-------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: WalMart sucks/film 5.12 7pm Friday, 5/12, 7 pm, flim "Walmart: the High Cost of Low Price" followed by discussion, Open Circle Church, 2400 Highland Dr, Burnsville. www.mnpact.org --------11 of 27-------- From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Palestine/film 5.12 7:30pm THIRST, directed by Tawlik Abu Waol PALESTINIAN/Israel Fri.May 12, 7:30pm Walker Art Center This stark and sublte film makes the Israel/Palestinian the 'backdrop' of this family drama. A rural Palestinian family, headed up by a singleminded and authoritarain father, labors to keep their farm going in spite of challenges: having to 'steal' wood from Israeli-occupied land to make charcoal for income, building an 'illegal' pipe in ordre to get water and worries about the IDF or settlers harrassing them. But, that's the 'shadlow' overhanging the main focus which is each member of the family straining against patriarchal rule, while remainng loyal to the father's tenacity to keep his land--and his dignity. Cinematically, THIRST reminds one of Ingmar Bergmen's films: silence perhaps speaks louder than much of the dialogue, the stark landscape and objects in a room reveal mood and character. The struggle between father and son, coupled with the roles for daughters and wife, have universal resonance. --------12 of 27-------- From: Ginny or Stephen <riverannex [at] earthlink.net> Subject: Co-op plant sale 5.13 9am Eastside Food Co-op plant sale The Plant Sale Cometh! Don't miss the Eastside Food Co-op Spring Plant Sale, this Mothers' Day weekend! Saturday, May 13 and Sunday, May 14, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., In the parking lot. We'll have a great selection of veggies, herbs, annual flowers and foliage, native plants, and perennials. There will be Master Gardeners on site all weekend long to answer your plant questions, and a native plant expert to help you design your yard with natives! New this year: soils, peat, mulch, and natural fertilizers, as well as several kinds of natural pest control. And BOOKS-gently used gardening books and cookbooks. WHY: Because it's spring! --------13 of 27-------- From: Minnesota Cuba Committee <mncuba [at] usfamily.net> Subject: Cuba/Miami 5.13 10am "Eso es Cuba y Más Nada" Things a "Cuban" from Miami Discovered during His First Trip to Cuba or What One Can Buy with $9 if He Spends Wisely [Saturday, May 13, 10:00 am, Coffeehour talk and discussion Cuba: What Miami Does Not Want You to Know Join Sundiata Ojeda, author of "Eso es Cuba y Mas Nada," a unique perspective recently printed in La Prensa de Minnesota for a frank and open discussion on Sundiata's experiences and observations in Cuba. If you think you know Cuba or know someone that does, neither of you will want to miss this exciting Mothers' Day weekend edition of the Coffee Hour. Event takes place at Resource Center of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55406-1931, (612) 276-0788. --------14 of 27-------- From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: MomsWalk4Peace 5.13 10:30am Mothers Walk for Peace: Our Children are Not Canon Fodder! Bring the Troops Now!!! Saturday, May 13, 10:30am. Lake Harriet United Methodist Church, 4901 Chowen Avenue South, Minneapolis. Our children are not cannon fodder. Bring the troops home now. The walk will begin and end at the church. Short program following the walk. Child care and snacks provided at the church. Parking available in church lot. Peacekeepers and drummers are needed and are invited to meet at the speaker system outside of the church at 10am. Organized by: the Twin Cities Peace Campaign-Focus on Iraq, WAMM, and others. --------15 of 27-------- From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com> Subject: SocialistAlt/conf 5.13 11am SAT.MAY 13: Resisting War and Racism, Socialist Alternative Conference, May 13th, 11am-6pm. Coffman Union, room 324 University of Minnesota (directions: http://www.coffman.umn.edu/about/directions.php) We are now entering a historic period in the United States. The anti-war movement, which has brought millions into the streets in opposition to the Iraq war, is still going strong. There is now also the MASSIVE immigrant rights movement that has blossomed in the last month. This is combined with massive strikes and protest movements around the world. How do we take these struggles forward? How can we organize to best defeat the big business agenda of war and imperialism? Come to a daylong educational conference with Socialist Alternative to discuss these issues and more. Planned Topics: 10:30am Show up early for coffee and snacks 11:00am-1pm The New Civil Rights Movement: the immigrant rights movement is the largest mass movement in at least a generation, and possibly ever. What is the best way forward for the millions of immigrants in the United States to end harassment, deportations and achieve a decent quality of life? Speaker: Theodros Shibabaw Theodros is an Ethiopian immigrant and labor activist as well as a member of Socialist Alternative. 1-2pm LUNCH 2-3:30pm Choose from one of the following sessions a. Class Struggle in Latin America: From Bolivia, to Venezuela and around the region, Latin Americans are fighting against the rule of multinational corporations and corrupt oligarchs. What can we learn from their struggle? b. Iraq in Crisis and the Next Steps for the Anti-war Movement: the Iraq war has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and billions of dollars. Everyday the situation gets worse as support for Bush and the war drops. What is the solution to the Iraq quagmire? How can the anti-war movement mobilize most effectively to put an end to this madness? c. Outfoxing the Corporate Media: Obviously the corporate media has massive influence in American life, reporting news that supports the rule of profits. How can we counter this big business propaganda? Are there alternatives? 3:30-4pm BREAK 4-6pm A Socialist World is Possible: The major events of the past few years have all clearly shown one thing; the world today is in crisis. Are wars, poverty, racism, and environmental destruction an inevitable part of human nature? Is an alternative to capitalism achievable? Speaker: Philip Locker Philip is an activist with Socialist Alternative's Seattle branch and editor of /Justice/ newspaper. For more information: www.socialistalternative.org <http://www.socialistalternative.org/> 612-760-1980 mn [at] socialistalternative.org <mailto:mn [at] socialistalternative.org> --------16 of 27-------- From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu> Subject: GP 5CD meeting 5.13 12noon 5th Congressional District Green Party Membership Meeting Saturday May 13 Golden valley Library 830 Winnetka Av N, Golden Valley Library: 952-847-5475 For transportation call Becki: 612-378-0081 More info online at 5cd.mngreens.org Or Becki at 612-378-0081 --------17 of 27-------- From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Global warming 5.13 1pm SAT. May 13:Global Warming Townhall Except for a few crackpots on Big Oil Corporatoins' payroll, scientists agree that global warming is real, environmentally destructive and a result of human actions. Intensified storms like Hurricane Katrina and the December 2004 tsunami seem to be one result, as are more severe droughts. Viable solutions are being developed and can be implemented on a state level (which is where all national environmental protections have originated). The Climate Change Coalition hosts a diverse panel that includes: Will Steger, Arctic explorer;Rick Kupchella, KARE 11 reportre; Mn. State Re. Keith Ellison, co-founder of EJAM/Environmental Justice Advocates MN; Lynn Hinckle, UAW 879, author of the "Ford Green Proposal";Chad Kister, author of "Arctic Melting" and more. FREE Sat. May 13, 1pm-4pm, Hennepin Ave. Unitede Methodist Church, 511 Groveland Ave. (across from Walker Art), Minneapolis (Lydia Howell) --------18 of 27-------- From: madeline [at] riseup.net Subject: Jack Pine center 5.13 3pm The Jack Pine Community Center is having its grand opening this Sat 5.13. It's a drop in: design our mural at 3, Danza Mexica Cuahtemoc at 4, dinner at 5 and bands and DJs after 7... 2815 E Lake St. Mpls 3-10pm The Jack Pine COmmunity Center is a collectively run, intergenerational free space committed to popular education, anti-oppression, and the fight for justice, liberation and autonomy. We seek to foster self-expression, self-representation and radical activism by providing a family-friendly space for skill sharing, events, meetings and art. --------19 of 27-------- From: Julie Risser <julie.risser [at] visi.com> Subject: GP candidates/CTV 5.13 6pm See Green Party Candidates on Channels 16 & 17 An hour-long "Green Candidates" show is scheduled for broadcast at the following times: Saturday, May 13th, 6 pm, Channel 17 The show includes seven candidates seeking Green Party endorsement Mike Cavlan, Jesse Mortenson (endorsed), Farheen Hakeem, Julie Risser (endorsed), Doug Mann, Dave Berger, and Jay Pond. --------20 of 27-------- From: Sue Ann <mart1408 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Full moon walk 5.13 7pm FULL MOON WALK GEOLOGY of the COLDWATER AREA Saturday, May 13, 2006 at 7 pm Gather at the South End of Minnehaha Park in the Pay Parking Lot at 54th Street in south Minneapolis. Fossil collector and rock hound Alan Olson will walk us through 450-million years of geologic history down the Mississippi bluff from Coldwater to the river. Learn more about historic Coldwater Spring and the struggle to protect and preserve this last sacred spring in the Twin Cities. And join in our monthly group howl! DIRECTIONS: Minnehaha Park, from Hwy 55, turn East at 54th St. & circle left into the parking lot. A free public event. Info: www.FriendsofColdwater.org Alan says, "I am a lifelong rock and mineral collector, and a goldsmith by profession. My interest in Earth sciences began when I was a child, collecting agates and fossils in the Twin Cities area, and it never left me. When I was in my 20s I became interested in the story told by the fossil record , and how that applies to the current extinction event. This eventually led me to spend four years as a volunteer interpreter in the Paleontology Hall of the Science Museum of Minnesota. In 1996 I started Lifestone Fossil Co. I have spent the last ten years as a field collector of dinosaur fossils in eastern Montana. I am active in the local rockhound and Earth sciences communities. I have served a term as Vice President, and a term as President of the Minnesota Mineral Club." --------21 of 27-------- From: Betty Tisel <betty [at] tiselfarley.com> Subject: MothersDay bash 5.14 2pm MOMbo Inc. hosts A MOMbo Motherıs Day Celebration Motherıs Day, Sunday, May 14 at 2 p.m. Lake Harriet Bandshell Free event at Lake Harriet will celebrate the stories and history of motherhood. We are all accustomed to celebrating Motherıs Day privately, with our own mothers. At this unique family event, Twin Cities families can celebrate motherhood together. Radio host and producer Nanci Olesen will celebrate Motherıs Day with a live event at the Lake Harriet Band Shell, 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 14, 2006. The one-hour event will feature a reading of The Motherıs Day Proclamation for Peace (written by Julia Ward Howe in 1870). The proclamation will be read by Twin Citiesı actresses Sally Wingert and Isabell Monk OıConnor. The Brass Messengers, The Twin Cities Womenıs Choir, and songwriter/fiddler Linda Breitag will fill the hour with music. Olesen will emcee the event, sharing stories and history of motherhood. ³A MOMbo Motherıs Day,² a one-hour public radio special with commentaries, interviews and reports, will air on KFAI (90.3 FM Minneapolis, 106.7 FM St. Paul) at 3 p.m. on May 14. MOMbo Board member Betty Tisel urges people to bring their portable radios to the lake and ³as we finish the live event, weıll hear MOMbo in stereo on our radios!² ABOUT MOMbo MOMbo is a non profit organization that produces hour-long specials for public radio, a website (http://www.mombo.org <http://www.mombo.org> ), commentaries, and weekly podcasts. MOMboıs mission is to ³broadcast the everyday truth about motherhood (in order to save the world).² --------22 of 27-------- Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 15:40:38 -0700 (PDT) From: joel albers <joel [at] uhcan-mn.org> Subject: Protest McGuire 5.14 2pm Dear Health Care Activists, Please attend and get the word out to friends and organizations, list serves (see bottom for previous post w/ basic info). Meeting time and Place: Because the students will be lining up to process into Northrup at 2PM, we should meet at 2PM also. The meeting place Eric and i came up with is on the south east corner of the Northrup Mall area (includes the big grassy lawn) in front of Ford Hall. (It's the end of the Mall nearest to Coffman Union and Washington ave).The actual program begins at 3PM, including McGuire's Speech. Parking: is at meters nearby or possible Dinkytown for free. There's a couple of parling ramps nearby on washington and right next to Northrup. Eric and Tina will be coordinating, bringing some signs, and an informational leaflet to hand out to students, parents, anybody. Tina is contacting some u of MN students. Perhaps you can inform students the day of about McGuire's exploitation of illness for private profit. And maybe folks can disrupt his speech. Eric can take 3 people in his car. call for that and other questions, cell 847-202-0034 Note: Other universities in the U.S. protesting commencement speakers. See yesterday's NYT, "Protesters Object to McCain as a Commencement Speaker". Do folks want to have a picnic somewhere after the picket/protest. What: Bill McGuire,Profiteering HMO CEO, speech, U of MN Commencement, College of Liberal Arts, When: Sunday, May 14, 3PM (1st half of class) and 7 p.m. (2nd half of class). Where: Northrop Auditorium, 84 Church St. S.E. Minneapolis. Speaker: William McGuire, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, United Health Group. Program format: This is a free event. No tickets required. Students line up outside Northrup Auditorium at U of MN (East Bank, Mpls Campus). Then a lot of speeches, including McGuire's. Then 100s of students are handed the piece of paper. Total program est. 2 1/2 -3 hrs. McGuire's speeech is closer to the beginning. --------23 of 27-------- From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org> Subject: KFAI's Indian 5.14 5pm KFAI's Indian Uprising for May 14, 2006 WATER IS LIFE: SACRED AND PRECIOUS by Steven Newcomb for Indian Country Today May 5, 2006. Indigenous nations and peoples have always understood water to be one of the most vitally important sacred elements of life. To underscore this point, Hopi runners ran 2,000 miles, over a period of two weeks, from the Hopi Nation in Arizona to Mexico City. They ran to deliver a message at the World Water Forum, hosted by the University of Puebla in Mexico. Part of the message that the Hopi runners wanted to convey, say writers Roberto Rodriguez, and Patrisia Gonzales, is that ''water is a living sentient being, 'the first living spirit on Earth.'' Without water there would obviously be no life on earth. Before the European colonizers arrived in this hemisphere, water was pristine in comparison with today's contaminated water. Steven Newcomb is Indigenous Law Research Coordinator at Kumeyaay Community College on the reservation of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, co-director of the Indigenous Law Institute and a research fellow at the American Indian Policy and Media Initiative at Buffalo State College in New York. http://www.Indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412942 GREAT LAKES FOR SALE! MICHIGAN'S ODAWA INDIANS LEAD ANTI-NESTLE FIGHT by Brian McKenna for The Free Press, April 22, 2006. If water is the oil of the 21st century, then Michigan, smack dab in the middle of the Great Lakes, is Saudi Arabia. And after banging their strawsat the Big Dipper for years, Nestle Corporation has finally succeeded in plunging into the liquid gold. On February 28th Michigan Governor Granholm signed a bill that will, for the first time, permit a multinational corporation to scoop up given amounts of the Great Lakes and sell bottled water across the world. For the first time in history the concept of the Great Lakes as a commons for all to enjoy has been breached. And NAFTA, as we'll see, might insure a run on the Great Lakes. http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/3/2006/1935 * * * * 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. --------24 of 27-------- Uh oh! Bush thinks brother Jeb should be President By Staff and Wire Reports May 11, 2006, Capitol Hlll Blue http://www.capitolhillblue.com President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he thought his younger brother Jeb would make "a great president" but the two-term governor of Florida had given no hint about his intentions. "I have no idea what he's going to do. I've asked him that question myself. I truly don't think he knows," Bush said in an interview with Florida reporters posted on the St. Petersburg Times Website. The president said he had pushed his "independent minded" brother fairly hard about his plans after leaving the governor's office next January. He predicted Jeb could have a "very bright" political future. "I would like to see Jeb run at some point in time, but I have no idea if that's his intention or not," Bush said. Asked if Jeb should run for president, Bush said, "I think Jeb would be a great president. But it's up to Jeb to make a decision to run." Jeb Bush, 53, has said repeatedly over the past year that he will not run for president in 2008. He has not said anything recently to indicate a change in his thinking. In an interview with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel published in mid-April, he was asked about his future when he leaves the governor's office. Bush said: "There are two things politically that I won't do. I won't run for the Senate and I'm not running for president. I don't know what I'm going to do." Jeb Bush's gubernatorial term ends in January 2007. George W. Bush's second presidential term ends in January 2009 and he cannot run again. There has never been a case in U.S. history of two brothers serving as president. İ Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue We welcome reader comments: [Since the last election I have predicted a Jeb Bush/Hillary Clinton 2008 race. It is won by Jeb via Diebold cheating; Hillary plays her assigned role and rolls over half an hour after CA polls close. The Bush Dynasty. Why have democracy, when we can have a ruling family of moral incompetents? And what are we going to do about it? So far I see most of us willing to put up with anything, and do nothing except what we're told; so we deserve it when the Dynasty is declared to us slaves and serfs. Perhaps CIA doctors have been sneaking into our bedrooms at night and giving us all gut-ectomies. So we will do the same old same old lesser-evil thing, Hillary this time, and then - too late - wonder why we were so dumb. -ed] --------25 of 27-------- The Hidden Politics of Deficit Spending By Michael Parenti May 11, 2006 ZNet Commentary http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-05/03parenti.cfm When government expends more than it collects in revenues, this is known as deficit spending. To meet its yearly deficits, it borrows from wealthy individuals and financial institutions in the United States and abroad. The accumulation of these yearly deficits constitutes the national debt. Conservative leaders who sing hymns to "fiscal responsibility" have been among the wildest deficit spenders. The Reagan administration in eight years (1981-88) tripled the national debt from $908 billion to $2.7 trillion. In the next four years, Bush Sr.'s administration brought the debt to $4.5 trillion. The Clinton administration (1993-2000) slowed the rate of debt accumulation, and even produced a substantial budget surplus in its last three years, projecting a huge surplus that supposedly would retire most of the debt within a decade. But the Bush Jr. administration reversed that trend with massive tax cuts and record deficit spending, increasing the national debt from $5.8 trillion to almost $9 trillion in less than six years. The debt should stand close to $10 trillion by the time Bush leaves the White House in January 2009. In 1993, the federal government's yearly payouts on the national debt came to $210 billion. By 2006, payments had climbed to about $430 billion. Several things explain the national debt: First, the billions of dollars in tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations represent lost revenue that is made up increasingly by borrowing. The government borrows furiously from the big moneyed interests it should be taxing. Second, there is the budget busting impact of military spending, also the added operational costs of actual wars. Thus in 2003-2006, Bush Jr. was spending $5 billion a month on his war in Iraq in addition to the standard military budget that had climbed to over $420 billion for fiscal 2006. Third, the growing national debt itself contributes to debt accumulation. As the debt increases, so does the interest that needs to be paid out. Every year, a higher portion of debt payment has been for interest alone, with less for retirement of the principle, the debt itself. By 1990, over 80 percent of all government borrowing went to pay for interest on money previously borrowed. Thus, the debt becomes its own self feeding force. The interest paid on the federal debt each year is the second largest item in the discretionary budget (after military spending). Fourth, the greater the debt, the more excuse do rightwing rulers have to defund human services. So we hear that with such a big deficit there just isn't enough money for such frills as hospital care, housing and education. To borrow money, the government sells treasury bonds. These bonds are promissory notes that are repaid in full after a period of years. Who gets the hundreds of billions in yearly interest on these bonds? Mostly the individuals, investment firms, banks, and foreign investors with money enough to buy them. Who pays the interest (and the principle)? Mostly ordinary U.S. taxpayers. Interest payments on the federal debt constitute an upward redistribution of wealth from those who work to those who live off personal wealth. It is a hidden form of private taxation. As Karl Marx wrote almost 150 years ago: "The only part of the so called national wealth that actually enters into collective possessions of modern peoples is their national debt." The debt serves the capitalist class well. Instead of capitalists investing their accumulated wealth in new production that would glut the market and remain unsold, they invest in U.S. Treasury notes. Lending money to the government becomes a relatively risk-free but profitable investment. Predictions of large budget surpluses also overlook the additional but hidden deficits that exist. First, there is the "off budget" deficit, an accounting gimmick that allows the government to borrow additional billions outside the regular budget. A nominally "private" corporation is set up by the government to borrow money in its own name. For instance, monies to subsidize agricultural loans are raised by the Farm Credit System, a network of off budget banks, instead of being provided by the Agriculture Department through the regular budget. Congress also created an off budget agency known as the Financing Corporation to borrow the hundreds of billions needed for the savings and loan bailout, instead of using the Treasury Department. These sums are taken out of the general revenue, compliments of the U.S. taxpayer. Another hidden deficit is in trade. As we consume more than we produce and import and borrow from abroad more than is exported, the U.S. debt to foreign creditors increases. Interest payments on these hundreds of billions borrowed from abroad have to be met by U.S. taxpayers. Social Security also is used to disguise the real deficit. The Social Security payroll deduction a regressive tax soared during the Reagan years, and today produces a yearly surplus of over $120 billion. By 1991, 38 percent of U.S. taxpayers were paying more in Social Security tax than in federal income tax. Many Americans willingly accept these payroll deductions because they think the monies are being saved for their retirement. On paper, the Social Security surplus fund was about $1.8 trillion by early 2006. But all those funds have been used to offset deficits in the regular budget, paying for White House limousines, wars, FBI agents, corporate subsidies, interest on the debt, and other items in the federal budget. Since the surpluses are not invested, but are expended on behalf of other purposes within the federal budget, some politicians maintain that the Trust Fund is "empty" or has been spent. Bush himself says nothing about the existent (or nonexistent) $1.8 trillion. U.S. political leaders have assiduously ignored the surest remedies for reducing the astronomical national debt: (a) sharply reduce individual and corporate tax credits, deductions, and shelters, (b) cut back on the huge subsidies to big business and agribusiness that do little to create jobs and much to fatten the coffers of the very rich, (c) reintroduce a progressive income tax that would bring in hundreds of billions more in revenues, and (d) greatly reduce the bloated military budget and redirect spending toward more productive and socially useful sectors of the economy. To summarize: In almost every enterprise, government has provided business with opportunities for private gain at public expense. Government nurtures private capital accumulation through a process of subsidies, supports, and deficit spending and an increasingly inequitable tax system. From ranchers to resort owners, from brokers to bankers, from auto makers to missile makers, there prevails a welfare for the rich of such magnitude as to make us marvel at the corporate leaders' audacity in preaching the virtues of self reliance whenever lesser forms of public assistance threaten to reach hands other than their own. Michael Parenti's recent books include Superpatriotism (City Lights), The Assassination of Julius Caesar (New Press), and most recently, The Culture Struggle (Seven Stories Press). For more information visit: www.michaelparenti.org. --------26 of 27-------- Want to Change the World? Make Gas $10 A Gallon. by Mark Morford Common Dreams No wait, not 6. To hell with that. Make it 10. Ten bucks a gallon, no matter what the going rate for a barrel of light, sweet crude. That would so completely, violently, brilliantly do it. Revolutionize the country. Firebomb our pungent stasis. Change everything. Don't you agree? Here's what we could do: Give gas discounts to cabdrivers (at least initially), metro transit systems and low-income folks, those who have to drive their busted-up '78 Honda Civics to their jobs scrubbing restaurant toilets and flipping burgers and vacuuming the residual cocaine from the seat cushions of numb SUV owners. Everyone else, 10 bucks a gallon, across the board. Eleven for premium. It would take some finessing. Maybe also give a price break to some truckers and trucking companies (so vital to the economy), but not so much to global delivery companies (FedEx, DSL, et al), because that would force them to raise shipping rates and force you (and me) to reconsider buying everything online and hence encourage you to shop locally, thus reviving a stagnant local economy. Voila - gas crisis, oil crisis, warmongering agenda, pollution issues, road rage, traffic congestion, urban decay, oil profiteering - all completely, almost totally, somewhat solved. Or at the very least, dramatically, gloriously shifted toward ... I don't know what. Something better. Something more humane, less greedy, more sustainable. Could it work? How outraged would you be to have to pay that much for gas? How long would that feeling last? Take it one logical step further. Set up a national system whereby if you want to buy a vehicle that gets less than 20 mpg in the city, you pay a $1,000 Global Warming Surcharge and that money goes straight to a local organic farm, or school, or environmental think tank. And if it gets less than 12 mpg, make it 3 grand, plus a slap to your face from a small, angry child. Got yourself a shiny new Hummer? You pay 5 grand extra, you can only buy gas once a month and all the truly beautiful women of the world will shun you like Charlie Sheen. (Oh wait, that already happens.) See? Revolution is easy What, too far-fetched? Too implausible? Not at all. Sure, 10 bucks a gallon would be extremely painful for a while. Citizens would wail. Commuters would scream and stomp and die. But then we would do what we always do. We would evolve. Adapt. Systems would quickly transform, habits would shift. It would be easier to implement than the mess that is Medicare reform, far easier than Lots of Children Left Behind, more viable and livable than the toxic existence of Homeland Security and the disgusting Patriot Act. But, of course, such an idea is also, right now, absolutely impossible. It will never happen - not 10 bucks, not 6, not even a buck more per gallon - and not just because no politician on either side of the aisle has the nerve to come out and suggest that Americans might actually need to drive less, conserve and change their gluttonous habits. This is, of course, absolute death for a politician. Tell Americans what to do? Dare to suggest that they're doing something wrong or that their behaviors are destructive and irresponsible? Are you insane? This is America! We're flawless! No, the primary reason such reform won't happen is because, simply put, we are the most entitled nation in the world, perhaps in the entire galaxy. Americans are trained from birth to believe we deserve as much as we desire of every exploitable resource on the planet, be it water or natural gas or oil, coal or salmon or steaks, Big Macs or diapers or iPods or bizarre varieties of blue ketchup. It is, in a word, perilous. It is also, in another, slightly more devastating word, our downfall. Look, I adore cars. I adore driving and I cherish open roads and smooth horsepower and a musical exhaust note, and I fully believe most German automotive engineers should be sent gifts of candy and Peet's coffee. I would, like most everyone else, be absolutely loathe to give much of it up. But you know what? Big freaking deal. I could learn to live without so much. I like to think I would be able to step back and see the bigger picture, realize what is and isn't essential, what does and does not absolutely define my identity and my life and modify accordingly. In other words, I could make it work. And so could you. Ever been in a citywide blackout? One that lasted for more than a few hours and stretched on into the night? Ever see people suddenly shift gears and become astoundingly helpful and polite and sharing? Happens in a matter of moments. Disasters do it. Katrina did it on a scale we haven't seen in years. Sept. 11 did it, emotionally speaking, before BushCo whored that tragedy and turned it into the most vile political poker chip in American history. Shocking change brings people together. Brings out the best in humans. Or at least makes you rethink what's truly important in your life. Another example: You know what would happen if guns - all guns, everywhere - were banned outright tomorrow? Well, right off, nothing much. Criminals would still commit crimes. Lawsuits would skyrocket. The NRA would shoot itself in the face in screaming protest. Crime rates would dance all over the map. It would be a little ugly. But then something remarkable would happen. Over a short blip of time - say about 10 or 20 years, as gun manufacturing ceased and the culture of gun violence died down and our favorite death object was less visible in the news and in video games and on TV and in every aspect of modern life, well, guess what? Guns would begin to disappear. From the culture, from the drug dealers, from the streets, from public consciousness. They would turn into a sad relic, like eight-track tapes, like the bubonic plague, like the Miami Sound Machine. Think 20 years is too long? It is but an eye blink, a twitch. This is the unappreciated, underreported magic of the human animal. We are infinitely adaptable. We can accommodate far more than politicians, pundits and the morally knotted Christian right would ever have you believe. Ten bucks a gallon. Imagine the mad scramble by carmakers to invent new ultra-gas-sipping, enviro-friendly technologies. Imagine communities coming together for ride sharing and mass transit. Bike sales would skyrocket. Walking shoes would be the new bling item. We would mourn the loss of cool car culture even as we celebrated the birth of, say, moped culture. Telecommuting would explode. Sure, the superrich would still tool around in their bloated Escalades, oblivious to the world. So what? The rest of us can simply roll our eyes and laugh, evolve and sharpen and sigh, and wonder what great change we can embark upon next. Mark Morford's column appears Wednesdays and Fridays in Datebook and on sfgate.com. E-mail to: mmorford [at] sfgate.com. İ 2006 San Francisco Chronicle --------27 of 27-------- Greg Palast: Kerry won in '04 Excerpts from new book Armed Madhouse http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_greg_pal_060510_greg_palast_3a_kerry_.htm KERRY WON IN '04 ... LARRY DAVID TELLS YOU THE STONE-COLD EVIDENCE THAT, YEP, GEORGE BUSH STOLE IT IN 2004. AGAIN. From Armed Madhouse, the new book by Greg Palast Wednesday, Release date June 06,2005 Kerry Won. Now Get Over It . . . ...because they're putting '08 in their pocket. Republicans just seem to have that winning spirit. They also have caging lists, felons of the future, rotting ballots, snuffed canaries, and a lock on the votes of Kissinger-Americans and the undead. WARNING! There are cranks and kooks and crazies out there on the Internet who say that George Bush lost the 2004 election, like one titled, "Kerry Won" published on the TomPaine.com web site two days after the election. I wrote it. On November 11, a week after TomPaine.com published it, I received an e-mail from The New York Times Washington Bureau. Hot on the investigation of the veracity of the vote, The Times reporter asked me pointed questions: Question #1: Are you a "sore loser"? Question #2: Are you a "conspiracy nut"? There was no third question. Investigation of the vote was, for The Times at any rate, complete. The next day, the paper's thorough analysis of the evidence yielded this front-page story, "VOTE FRAUD THEORIES, SPREAD BY BLOGS, ARE QUICKLY BURIED." As America's self-proclaimed Paper of Record had no space for the facts, I thought I'd share some with you here. "Kerry Won" was not a two-day inquiry à la Times. It was the latest in a series of investigative reports coming out of a four-year team examination, begun for BBC Television's Newsnight, Britain's Guardian papers and Harper's Magazine, dissecting that greasy sausage called American electoral democracy. And, by the way, the answer to Question #1: I didn't lose, so I'm not sore. This investigation isn't about John Kerry. As a journalist, I don't give a toss which rich white kid won the game. But I'm not so blasé that I don't care about the disappearance of American democracy. And I really wanted to know how the Bushes swallowed the sausage. How'd they do it? Again. And how will they do it in '08? The answer arrived just after midnight on October 8, 2004, three weeks before the official voting, in a series of extraordinary e-mails. The e-mails were intended for the chieftains of the President's re-election campaign in Washington. Strangely enough, they were misaddressed and ended up in my mailbox. Such things happen. NIGHT OF THE UNCOUNTED: How to Disappear Three Million Votes But the e-mails and their technical attachments won't mean a thing unless you understand some arcane facts about elections American-style. First, consider CNN's Ohio exit polls broadcast just after midnight after the voting ended on Election Day. They show John Kerry defeated George Bush among women voters by 53% to 47%. And among men voters, Kerry defeated Bush 51% to 49%. So here's your question, class: What third sex put George Bush over the top in Ohio and gave him the White House? Answer: The Uncounted. In Ohio, there were 153,237 ballots simply thrown away, more than the Bush "victory" margin. In New Mexico the uncounted vote was fives times the Bush alleged victory margin of 5,988. In Iowa, Bush's triumph of 13,498 was overwhelmed by 36,811 votes rejected. In all, over three million votes were cast but never counted in the 2004 presidential election. The official number is bad enough - 1,855,827 ballots cast not counted, reported to the federal government's Election's Assistance Commission. But the feds are missing data from several cities and entire states too embarrassed to report the votes they failed to count. Correcting for the under-reporting of the undercount, the number of ballots cast but never counted goes to 3,600,380. And there are certainly more we couldn't locate to tote up. Why doesn't your government tell you this? Hey, they do. It's right there in black-and-white on a U.S. Census Bureau announcement released seven months after the election - in a footnote to the report on voter turn - out. The Census tabulation of voters voting "differs," from ballots tallied by the Clerk of the House of Representatives for the 2004 presidential race by 3.4 million votes. This is the hidden presidential count which, excepting the Census' whispered footnote, has not been reported. Unfortunately, that's not all. In addition to the 3 million ballots uncounted due to technical "glitches," millions more were lost because the voters were prevented from casting their ballots in the first place. This group of un-votes includes voters illegally denied registration or wrongly purged from the registries. In the voting biz, most of these lost votes are called "spoilage." Spoilage, not the voters, picked our president for us. Joe Stalin, the story goes, said, "It's not the people who vote that count; it's the people who count the votes." That may have been true in the old Soviet Union, but in the U.S.A, the game is much, much subtler: He who makes sure votes don't get counted decides our winners. In the lead-up to the 2004 race, millions of Americans were, not unreasonably, panicked about computer voting machines, "black boxes," that could flip your vote from John Kerry to George Bush. Images abounded of an evil hacker-genius in Dick Cheney's bunker rewriting code and zapping the totals. But that's not how it went down. The computer scare was the McGuffin, the fake detail used by magicians to keep your eye off their hands. The new black boxes played their role, albeit minor, but the principal means of the election heist-voiding ballots, overwhelmingly of the poor and Black-went unexposed, unreported and most importantly, uncorrected and ready to roll out on a grander scale in 2008. I went to sleep election night with the exit polls showing Kerry ahead in swing states. But between 1:05 am and 6:41 am the next morning, goblins went to work. By dawn, the network's exit poll for Ohio showed Kerry dead even with Bush among women, and down by five percentage points among men. What happened? Were thousands of Bush voters locked in the voting booths, released at 2am, then queried about their choices? Not quite. The network's polling company applied a fancy "algorithm," a mathematical magic wand, to slowly transform the exit polls to match the official count. And that's bad. By deliberately contaminating the exit polls, the networks snuffed the canary that would signal that something was deeply wrong about the vote count. Hunting for a Democrat to defend the Twilight Zone between the exit polls and the "official" polls, media grabbed on Dick Morris, Bill Clinton's old advisor. An expert at walking that fine line between minor criminality and psychopathic ambition, Morris knows which way his next client's wind blows. Morris said: "Exit polls are almost never wrong. So reliable are the surveys that actually tap voters as they leave the polling places that they're used as guides to the relative honesty of elections in Third World Countries. To screw up one exit poll is unheard of. To miss six of them is incredible." His opening was promising, but then he switches into full Morris:"It boggles the imagination how pollsters could be that incompetent and invites speculation that more than honest error was at play here." So, Dick, you're telling us there was an evil cabal among six pollsters, competitors who don't even like each other, conspiring one dark night to make George Bush look like a vote thief. There's another explanation: Kerry won. We've got the body (the wounded elections), we've got the bullet holes (the missing votes), now where are the smoking guns? How does the GOP disappear the vote? And why do Democratic ballots spoil so much more readily than Republican ballots? How's it done? But that little Bill O'Reilly in your head is screaming, Get over it; let's move on already. What they tested in 2000 and practiced in 2004, they are preparing to roll out in 2008 big time. Get the rest of the nasty truth about the election of 2004 and the program to steal '08 -- from Republican "caging lists," the "disappearing Democrats of Area 51," 50 illustrations and even weirder stuff in ARMED MADHOUSE: WHOSE AFRAID OF OSAMA WOLF?, CHINA FLOATS BUSH SINKS, THE SCHEME TO STEAL 2008, NO CHILD'S BEHIND LEFT AND OTHER DISPATCHES FROM THE FRONT LINES OF THE CLASS WAR, Greg Palast's newest exposé of war, oil, elections and class. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments
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