Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 07.16.06

[David Shove (shove001]

            P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     07.16.06

1. Social forum rpt   7.16 3pm
2. Immigrants' rights 7.16 4pm
3. KFAI Indian        7.16 4pm

4. Abortion diaries   7.17 6pm
5. 911/LooseChange/f  7.17 6:30pm
6. Holocaust/film     7.17 6:30pm
7. Pentel governor    7.17 7pm

8. Jam with Cam       7.18 9:30am
9. Jason Leopold      7.18 11am
10. Middle East/film  7.18 7pm
11. KFAI/GlobalMarket 7.18-28 7pm

12. Lydia Howell   - Who killed the electric car (review)
13. Tom Mackaman   - IL Dems try to block third party ballot status
14. Bill Van Auken - Hillary "woos Wall Street" and health industry
15. Bill Van Auken - Hillary & gay marriage: a calculated bow to the right

--------1 of 15--------

Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 13:12:11 -0500 (CDT)
From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net>
Subject: Social forum rpt 7.16 3pm

Ideas to Mobilize People Against Corporate Tyranny (IMPACT) hosts:
a Midwest Social Forum Report Back
Sunday, 7/16, 3-5pm

at Black Bear Crossings: (Como Lakeside Pavilion - the big white building
on Como Lake, just off of Lexington Parkway, 2.5 miles north of I-94) 1360
North Lexington Pkwy, St. Paul

Listen and participate in a discussion about the Midwest Social Forum,
held last weekend in Milwaukee.  Minnesota had a large delegation
participate in the successful Midwest Social Forum last weekend.  All are
welcome (bienvenidos!) to hear about the events and participate in
brainstorming on how we can help build another world.

FFI: Karen Redleaf vegan14ever [at] riseup.net or 651-283-3495

IMPACT (Ideas to Mobilize People Against Corporate Tyranny) is a
grassroots group of concerned citizens whose purpose is to raise awareness
about the impact of corporations on our society, promote sustainable
lifestyles, and mobilize ourselves and our communities to take cooperative
action.  We believe another world is possible: a world where people and
the earth are more valued than profits!


--------2 of 15--------

From: Brian Payne <brianpayneyvp [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Immigrants' rights 7.16 4pm

Fundraiser for Immigrants' Rights
Sunday, July 16, 4-11pm
At the back of the Bastille Day Block Party, Greenhouse (2915 James Av S)
Fundraiser for MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee

$2 donation for a beer or water (or whatever donation you wanna give)

So come on out, enjoy the festivities and music of the Bastille Day Block
Party, and give your beer $ to a good cause rather than whatever other bar
you were gonna head to.


--------3 of 15--------

From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org>
Subject: KFAI Indian 7.16 4pm
 Uprising, July 16, 2006

KFAI's Indian Uprising, July 16, 2006

MYSTERY OF WHY INDIANS STILL DON'T TRUST 'WHTE MEN' RESOLVED by Harold
Monteau (Chippewa-Cree) for Indian Country Today, June 30, 2006.  Or:
Kemosabe, why do you make rules so Tonto never wins the race?  ''Our [BIA]
research revealed that most Native Americans view the white man as a
deceitful, avaricious, exploitive mass murderer, just as their ancestors
did. It remains unclear why, in an age when so much of their culture has
been lost to time, this tradition remains as strong as ever.'' - James
Cason, Interim Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs (''The Onion,'' May
4, 2006)

Dear Assistant Secretary Cason: First of all, let me allay your fears that
we all hate ''white men.'' We don't. What we do hate are the policies and
restrictions foisted upon us and our homelands by the lawmakers of the
prevalent race of human beings in the United States, and that just happens
to be people of the Anglo persuasion, particularly, males of the species.
Monteau is a partner at Monteau & Peebles, LLP, a national law firm
specializing in federal Indian law, www.ndnlaw.com.
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096413241

COBELL VS. KEMPTHORNE: Statement by Elousie Cobell (Blackfeet) lead
plaintiff.  WASHINGTON, July 11 -- Today's decisions reaffirmed the basic
tenets of our case: that the government owes substantial fiduciary duties
to the more than 500,000 individual Indian Trust beneficiaries, that the
Interior Department has been and continues to be in "egregious" breach of
those duties and that the courts play a critical role in remedying that
breach.  http://www.indiantrust.com/.  Indian Trust ListServ
<listadmin [at] list.indiantrust.com>

WE HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE by Nicole Bowman (Mohican), July 10, 2006.
We need the passion, courage, and political will to do so.  But these
atrocities continue because Indians and non-Indians are comfortable with
or silent against the status quo, some enjoy the power/privilege in the
positions they hold in governments and government agencies so being
courageous is stifled by potential political costs, and/or academic and
professional gate keeping happens all the time so that all Indian voices
aren't heard/respected.  Acting this way certainly isn't the "Indian way"
from a traditional standpoint and as given by our teachings.  Bowman
Performance Consulting LLC.  www.nbowmanconsulting.com.  See attached.

* * * *
Indian Uprising is a one-half hour Public & Cultural Affairs program for,
by, and about Indigenous people broadcast each Sunday at 4:00 p.m. over
KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul.  Producer and host is
Chris Spotted Eagle.  KFAI Fresh Air Radio is located at 1808 Riverside
Avenue, Minneapolis MN 55454, 612-341-3144.


--------4 of 15--------

From: erin [at] mnwomen.org
Subject: Abortion diaries 7.17 6pm

Monday, July 17: Planned Parenthood MN/ND/SD Action Fund Documentary: The
Abortion Diaries. $20. 6-8 PM. Suburban World Theater, 3022 Hennepin Ave
So., Mpls. RSVP to www.ppaction.org


--------5 of 15--------

From: altera vista <alteravista [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: 911/LooseChange/f 7.17 6:30pm

Do you believe the governmentıs explanation for 9/11?
Did you know that three world trade center buildings collapsed on that
date?

Come see a FREE MOVIE
LOOSE CHANGE (2nd Ed. 2006)
about the events of 9/11 and the impossibilities of the official story.

Monday, July 17, 6:30 pm, Maplewood Library
1670 Beam Ave., Maplewood

Comments about this film:

" a brilliant piece of research presented cinematically with great
effectiveness. It's one particular selection of the mountains of evidence
that are available about what happened on 9/11.

"even a small portion of it is enough to convince you that the official
story is nowhere near true."

Presented by MN911 Group http://9-11.meetup.com/253/ 651-633-4410


--------6 of 15-------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Holocaust/film 7.17 6:30pm

WAMM Free Third Monday Movie and Discussion: "Paperclips"

Monday, July 17, 6:30pm. St. Joan of Arc Church, Hospitality Hall, 4537
Third Avenue South, Minneapolis. Parking is close, free and easy.

"Paperclips" is a story of today about students in a small Tennessee
community learning about the Holocaust of 6 million people during World
War II. During the war, Norwegians wore paper clips to demonstrate their
sympathy for the Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other groups being
persecuted by the Nazis. Struggling to grasp the concept of 6 million
Holocaust victims, the students decide to collect 6 million paper clips to
better understand the extent of this crime against humanity. This
illuminating and moving film about the Holocaust is also about compassion,
learning, respect, and change. Sponsored by: WAMM.


--------7 of 15--------

From: Ken Pentel <kenpentel [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Pentel governor 7.17 7pm

Next Ken Pentel for Governor Campaign Meeting is:
7.17 7pm
Painter Park, 3400 Lyndale Ave S. Mpls

Agenda:
--Assess the petition drive and hopefully announce we are on the ballot.
--Shift petition organizing energy to developing the STATEWIDE campaign.
--Planning Creative Arts retreat for the 27th-30th (If your a
artist/performer or know artists and they believe in this campaign-invite
them to this meeting.)

People can send donations to:
Ken Pentel for Governor, PO Box 583091, Mpls, Mn 55458
First $50 is refundable. (If not yet used in 2006.)


--------8 of 15--------

From: Cam Gordon <CamGordon333 [at] msn.com>
Subject: Jam with Cam 7.18 9:30am

Cam Gordon, Council Member, Second Ward 612-673-2202 (w) 612-296-0579 (c)

Office Hours: every Tuesday morning in the Second Ward 9:30-11am.
The locations will rotate as follows, so that I can meet with residents in
their own neighborhoods:

Third Tuesdays:
Southeast Como neighborhood
SECIA office, 837 15th Ave SE


--------9 of 15--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Jason Leopold 7.18 11am

See PULSE Newspaper, WED. JULY 5th, 2006 edition.

Truthout.org writer Jason Leopold, (in)famous for allegding that Karl Rove
was about to be incidcted by Patrick Fitzgerald in the "Phlame-gate"
investigation, is relevent because of the role in MAKING the news that
corporate media plays (through uncritical stenography of Bush
Adminsitration statements) as well as more deeply, the role of a free
press to a functioning democracy and journalistic ethics applied to all
elements of media - including those journalists termed "progressive".

I''ve been working on a story about Jason Leopold for about 10 days. I
taped a one hour interview with him at KFAI Radio on June 26th, after some
digging on the Internet. His memoir "News Junkie" was not availble before
the interview (which I had about 72 hours notice of) and so, I read the
book after the interview. His publisher provided an extenisve "timeline"
of basic facts about Leopold life. I've continued to dig for facts -
especially as they relate to Leopold's Rove indictment story and the most
recent allegations, published in the Washington Post by a "Joe Luria" who
claims that Leopold used his name as a way to reach sources in the Rove
story. It's proved impossible to verify "Joe Luria" as the "freelance
journalist for the London Sunday Times" his Washington Post op-ed claims
he is. On the other hand, his allegations gain crediblity based on
Leopold's past of journalistic short cuts, plagerism, regular use of
anonymous sources and outright lying - much of which Leopold documents in
his memoir "News Junkie".

Subsequently, discovering the complete truth about Jason Leopold when it
comes to his reporting is a huge challenge. He's a perfect example of the
immutable truth: ALL a journalist has is his/her crediblity. When that is
unreliable, ALL of one's reporting comes into question. I hope intersted
readers will check out my story in the Wed. July 5th, 2005 edtion of PULSE
Newspaper. http://www.pulsetc.com I will be broadcasting my interview with
Jason Leopold in 2 parts Tues. July 18th and 25th on KFAI Radio(all shws
archived for 2 weeks after broadcast www.kfai.org)

Lydia Howell, independnet journalist/host-prod/"Catalyst", Tue.11am KFAI
Radio


--------10 of 15--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Middle East/film 7.18 7pm

I've reviewed Spearhead's lead singer, Michael Franti's wonderful debut
film for an upcoming ONE NIGHT ONLY Minneapolis screening. It's his
journey to Baghdad, the Occupied Territories & Israel. An amazing film!
Please share this with others.

I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE
Tues July 18, 7pm
Bryant-Lake Bowl
810 West Lake St, Mpls ($5)
part of Rob Nelson's series of GET REAL! films

I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE: Michael Franti sings a film for peace
reviewed by Lydia Howell

In June 2004, the U.S. occupation of Iraq was a year old, when Spearhead's
singer/songwriter Michael Franti arrived in Baghdad. He went with an
accoustic guitar, a camera crew and his luminous spirit .

The result is Franti's first film I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE. It has no
distributor and screenings are being made possible by grassroots efforts.
City Pages film critic, Rob Nelson, hosts a screening Tues. July 18th.

Franti's musical career is 20 years old. Blending hip hop, soul, reggae
and recent accoustic ventures, Franti always expressed consciousness. His
first band The Beatnigs sang tribute to Malcolm X. Disposable Heroes of
Hip-Hopcrisy produced one album, but, it's songs remain current. Franti
film is woven with songs from Spearhead's last album "Everyone Deserves
Music" and the new one, "Yell Fire!". The songs become Franti's personal
meditations about his Middle East journey.

Visiting an Iraqui family's home, merchants, the first independent Baghdad
radio station, a hospital, the first tattoo parlor and,of course,
musicians. People open up to Franti, talking with weary frustration,
longing and sometimes anger.  He hangs out with an Iraqui heavy metal
band. And everywhere he goes, children follow him like the Pied Piper.

Franti also connects with American soliders, playing his magnificient song
"Bomb the World" in their bar. He observes that all the soldiers he meets
say they just want to come home.

Gunfire and explosions sometimes pierce Franti's one-man peace mission.
He's not 'embedded" with U.S. forces, but, relies on gut-instincts of two
Iraqui men who are his drivers and translators - and become friend.

To simply give us a glimpse of the country our military is occupying,
would have been enough. But, Franti then goes to Israel and the Occupied
Territories, to what many see as the most intractable conflict in the
world. He connects with the grief-stricken fear both Israelis and
Palestinians live with. From a Palestinian mother in her bombed-out Gaza
Strip home to Israelis at a cafe that was the site of a Palestinian
suicide bomber to peace activists and Israeli soldiers, Franti reaches out
to everyone with his gently insistant voice.

He finds hope when both sides come together: a circle of Israelis and
Palestinians, who've all lost loved ones to the violence and a group of
Palestian and israeli musicians who play together.

Franti occassionally inserts "factoids" on a black screen. For example,
the number of estimated Iraqui (mostly civillian) casualties by Novemember
2005: 150,000, along with U.S. General Tommy Franks' quote, "We don't do
body counts."

But, primarily, it's music and unforgetable images that Franti speaks
with: the basement where one Iraqui family stayed for 11 days when the
U.S. invaded; the tenacity of Iraqui and Palestinian everyday life amid
war-rubble; so many beautiful faces. Franti is a conduit bringing
Americans the humanity of people CNN never shows and reconnects us with
our own humanity. Only a heart of stone could prevent tears at some
moments, but, somehow Franti leaves you with the sense that peace really
is possible. If only - as said by a 20-something Palestinian farmer
struggling daily to get through the checkpoint to his land - we could get
the politicians out of the way.

To get past the language barrior, Franti created a song around one Arabic
word: Habbibi. It means 'beloved friend', referring to a lover or one's
closest friends. 'Habbibi' becomes almost an incantation that Franti
raises to the delight - and accompaniment of - Iraquis. It's a song more
Americans must learn. Michael Franti is an inspired teacher.

I KNOW I'M NOT ALONE, Tues.July 18, 7pm, Bryant-Lake Bowl, 810 West Lake
St. Minneapolis $5 For more information on Franti's creative endeavors
www.stayhuman.org

Lydia Howell is a MInneapolis journalist, poet, activist and host/producer
of "Catalyst" Tues. 11am on KFAI Radio. All shows archived for 2 weeks
after broadcast www.kfai.org


--------11 of 15--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: KFAI/Global Market 7.18-28 7pm

[This schedule will be printed ONCE, NOW. If interested, SAVE - ed]

KFAI TO BROADCAST LIVE FROM THE GLOBAL MARKET AT MIDTOWN EXCHANGE
July 18 through July 28

KFAI (90.3FM Minneapolis and 106.7FM St. Paul) "Radio Without Boundaries,"
will broadcast live from the newly opened Global Market located in the
Midtown Exchange.  The station will bring its eclectic programming into
South Minneapolis to help celebrate the opening of this new community
gathering place.

Broadcasts will take place between Tuesday, July 18 and Friday, July 28,
2006.  The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, July 18 and Tuesday, July 25 (7-8:30pm)
"Somali Voices"
Hussein Samatar, host of KFAI's Somali Voices, founder of the African
Development Center, and a member of the Minneapolis Library Board, takes
his radio program to the Global Market.  Hussein and guests will discuss
Somali youth in Minnesota (7/18) and the recent turmoil in Mogadishu,
Somalia (7/25).

Saturday, July 22 (9am-1pm)
"Mostly Jazz" and "Sabados Alegres"
KFAI presents a morning of music from the Global Market.  From 9-11am,
it's classic jazz with Bill Cottman of Mostly Jazz.  At 11am, Willie
Dominguez plays the best of Tex-Mex on Sabados Alegres.  Both Willie and
Bill will also interview business owners from the newly opened market.

Monday, July 24 (11am-noon)
Fifth District Candidate Forum
Al McFarlane, Editor at Insight News, will facilitate a forum with
candidates for Minnesota's Fifth District congressional seat.

Monday, July 24-Friday, July 28 (1-3pm)
Global Music from the Global Market
KFAI presents Global Music from the Global Market.  Hosts from the
station's weekday World music programs will broadcast live from the Global
Market plaza.

The Global Market is located on the first floor of the Midtown Exchange
(formerly the Sears building) located at 920 East Lake Street in
Minneapolis.  For more information, you can go to www.kfai.org.

KFAI is a volunteer-based community radio station that exists to broadcast
information, arts and entertainment programming for a Twin Cities audience
of diverse racial, social and economic backgrounds. By providing a voice
for people ignored or misrepresented by mainstream media, KFAI increases
understanding between peoples and communities, and fosters the values of
democracy and social justice.  KFAI programming features eclectic music,
news and public affairs, and cultural programming in more than a dozen
languages.  KFAI can be heard at 90.3FM in Minneapolis, 106.7FM in St.
Paul and is on the web at www.kfai.org.


--------12 of 15---------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Who killed the electric car (review)

"Who Killed The Electric Car?": murder mystery with environmental twist
reviewed by Lydia Howell
http://www.pulsetc.com

Film-maker Chris Paine wasn't a car guy and he thought the electric car
was an urban myth.

"I'd heard about Paul McCreddy who did the bicycle-powered airplane and
the solar-powered car in the early '70s, had designed an electric car.
We heard rumors." Paine wears black-frmaed glasses straight out of
Army-issue and reminds me of the eccentric science-genious boy I knew in
9th grade, who'd take onver the family garage for his 'inventions'.

"Finally. the California legislature forced the car companies to put an
electric car on the road. Everybody - Ford, GM, Toyota. GM's EV1 was the
cream of the crop. I was skeptical at first - but, it knocked my socks
off!

It was so FAST - 184 MPH in the desert tests!" his voice gets excited. It
could excelerate off the line faster than a Viper or a Porsche. They don't
tell you that about the electric car!"

Watching Paine's film "Who Killed The Electric Car?", you see the sleek
vehicle in action and it's impressive. What strikes you even more is how
much people LOVED the EV1. They loved it enough to fight for it when GM
recalled the cars in 2002 and destroyed them - except for one in a car
museum. "Who Killed The Electric Car?" encompasses car-lovers' daydream,
accessible ideas about alternative energy and a who-done-it corporate
crime story.

Paine leased his EV1 from Chelsea Sexton, who was one of the EV1
specialists who promoted the car, organzing events, publicity and leasing.
Paine got his EV1 from her and she's in his film giving the inside scoop
on the rise and fall of one of the solutions to global warming.

"The only thing that GM did most right was to say 'If we're forced to make
this, let's make it really cool'. What they didn't count on was it
catching on and being as popular as it was," Sexton enthusiastically
remembers the EV1. "It was a new paradigm...but, people took to it faster
than you'd think: 30 seconds explaining...and people bought it as a
commuter car or as a second vehicle. Then, they'd call me up and say'The
battery in my primary car is dead because I don't drive it anymore.' EV1
drivers made early Saturn drivers look tame!"

How did it work? Come home, plug it into the wall. Drive it the next
morning and never worry about looking for a gas station. It got about 80
miles per charge. Sexton says EV1-owners renewed California culture.

"They started driver clubs, had road rallies. They were trying to figure
out how to plug their palm pilots into the car!"she laughs. "It knit
together a diverse group of folks who might not be so close."

From Tom Hanks on late night TV to Mel Gibson looking like an Old
Testament prophet (what movie was he gearing up for?) to ordinary people,
Paine's film with its eclectic bunch of EV1 environmentalists, is a stark
contrast to Al Gore's grim lecture movie. Paine proves that solving
environemtal problems can be fun.

"When they started taking the EV1 off the road, between three and five
years, after people leased them, we asked 'What's going on?' We kept
waiting for 60 Minutes to do a big expose on why GM would do that when the
car was doing so well," Paine said, with a waver of bereft bewilderment.
"But, they never did, so, we decided to make the film."

All the auto-makers were taking back their electric cars. Sexton describes
the sponstaneous uprising of electric car-owners who decided no to give up
their beloved anti-global-warming vehicles without a fight. They had press
conferences and pickets. winning a victory with Ford. GM was toughest.

"They had a parking lot in Burban. We held a press confernce and didn't
leave," says Sexton. "We stayed 24-hours-a-day for a month. We raised $2M
in two days, offering to buy out the fleet, release them of all liability.
They'd never have to hear from us, again."

After their month-long protest, GM took away all the EV1 cars.

"The EV1 was the only car that just had the GM logo on i. Yet, they
rounded up and crushed them, "Sexton echoes Paine's sense of loss. "It was
like they were afraid one would get away."

The EV1-supporters actually held a funeral for the EV1. "Frankly, at first
the funeral sounded like great comedy at first. Only in California would
you hold a funeral for a car,"Paine says. "But, it was a tragedy."

Why would a company destory a successful product that could help solve the
planet's climate change crisis? As you might guess big economic interests
are implicated in the crime. Spineless politicians are, as prosecutors
say, "persons of interest". I'm not going to tell you who killed the
electric car, but, there are plenty of suspects.

Chris Pain takes you on a roadtrip, that's an enjoyable and suspenseful
ride, that also makes a solid case for why corporations need to be taken
out of the driver's seat of our democracy.

"Our template was Agatha Christie's 'Murder On The Orient Express'.
There's one body. Who did it? Everyone's in the room. Someone's guilt,"
Chris Paine grins. "Maybe more than one person."

"Who Killed The Electric Car?" opens July 14, for one week at Landmark's
Edina Cinema,3911 West 50th, Edina (651)649-4416


--------13 of 15--------

SEP Illinois candidate holds press conference on Democrats' bid to block
ballot status
By Tom Mackaman
13 July 2006
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/conf-j13.shtml

On Wednesday, the Socialist Equality Party held a press conference at the
Illini Student Union on the campus of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. The press conference was called to discuss the efforts
of the Illinois Democratic Party to bar Joe Parnarauskis, the SEP's
candidate for State Senate for Illinois' 52nd Legislative District, from
the ballot.

Tom Abram, the Green Party candidate for State Representative in the 103rd
District, was also in attendance. The Democrats are also challenging the
entire statewide slate of the Illinois Green Party.

The press conference was attended by two local television stations, three
radio stations, and the University of Illinois student newspaper, the
Daily Illini.

Joe Parnarauskis was introduced by Jerome White, the SEP's candidate for
Congress in Michigan's 12th Congressional District. In his remarks,
Parnarauskis discussed the preliminary hearing held the previous day in
Chicago by the State Board of Elections to review the Democratic Party's
objections to the SEP nominating petitions. (See "Attorney for SEP
candidate calls on Illinois election board to throw out Democrats' ballot
challenge")

At Tuesday's hearing, SEP legal counselor Andrew Spiegel submitted a
"Motion to Strike and Dismiss," calling on the State Board of Elections to
throw out the Democrats' objections as a bad-faith challenge. In 2004, the
Democratic Party waged an unsuccessful attempt to remove the SEP from the
ballot for state representative in Urbana and Champaign.

Parnarauskis began his statement by pointing to the historical
significance of the attempt to remove the SEP from the ballot:

"It is ironic that yesterday's hearing took place a week after the Fourth
of July, which celebrates the birth of the United States as a democratic
republic, and just days after the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, which lifted long-standing legal infringements on the democratic
rights of African Americans to vote.

"There is another irony. Illinois proudly calls itself the 'Land of
Lincoln. ' Yet Lincoln was the standard-bearer of a third party that
challenged the old two-party consensus that defended slavery.

"Serious defenders of democracy believe that the electoral process should
be a forum for the widest possible discussion and debate on important
issues of the day, including the life-and-death question of war. Yet in
America, a country with a population of nearly 300 million, with the most
diverse social, regional and political interests, there are only two
political parties, whose differences on these matters are minimal, at
best. The entire political process is rigged to prevent the participation
of third party candidates and to narrow the spectrum of political choices.

"Over the course of two months, my supporters gathered nearly 5,000
signatures in Champaign and Vermilion counties, far more than the 2,985
signatures required to place my name on the ballot. The objection filed on
July 3rd by Gregory Lietz and John Dreher - two Democratic Party precinct
committeemen in Danville - charges that more than half of the petitions I
submitted are invalid."

Parnarauskis then pointed to the results of the SEP's preliminary analysis
of the Democrats' objections, which has already demonstrated that the
entire affair is a bad-faith attempt to obstruct the SEP campaign.
Parnarauskis explained that this was a transparent attempt not to reveal
the veracity of the signatures, but to keep him off the ballot in order to
avoid discussion of the war in Iraq and the attack on democratic rights
and living standards in the US.

"The Democratic Party wants no discussion," Parnarauskis continued,
"because they are in collusion with the Republicans behind the war in
Iraq, the attack on democratic rights, and the assault on living standards
in this district, state and nation. While the Democratic Party grovels
before the Bush administration's national and international agenda, they
spare no effort, legal or not, to block third party candidates from the
ballot.

"During our petition gathering campaign, we spoke with thousands of
people. The vast majority of them expressed opposition to this criminal
war, the government attack on democratic rights, and the looting of wealth
by the corporate aristocracy that controls both parties.

"The cynical attempt to remove my name from the ballot only demonstrates
how this two-party system colludes to block the aspirations of the vast
majority of the American people."

Parnarauskis concluded by noting that the SEP stands together with the
Green Party in its attempt to push back the Democratic Party's effort to
remove its entire slate of statewide candidates from the ballot.

Tom Abram, speaking for the Green Party, noted that the Greens had
gathered over 39,000 signatures to put their candidates on the ballot
statewide, far more than the 25,000 required by law. He also distributed
examples of the dubious methods used by the Democratic Party against the
petitions of third party candidates, showing reporters a number of
petition sheets in which the Greens had recovered far more than 80 percent
of the signatures challenged.

White then opened the conference for questions from reporters. A
television reporter asked White whether or not the SEP and Greens should
not simply "expect" these challenges, since they happen regularly.

"It is indeed the modus operandi of the Democratic Party," White
responded. "But it is not well known among the American people that their
democratic rights are so trampled upon. We're saying that election fraud
is taking place. It is your job, the job of the press, to investigate
this.

"There was a deep sentiment among the 5,000 people who signed Joe's
petitions to put another choice on the ballot, to expand political
discussion. An election should be a period when there is an open
discussion of the most pressing political questions. But because the
Democratic and Republican parties conspire to remove third parties from
the ballot, politics is reduced to the lowest gutter level of
mudslinging."

Responding to another question, Parnarauskis vowed to continue to fight
the Democratic Party's attempt to remove him from the ballot and to expose
as widely as possible the dangerous implications of this assault on basic
democratic rights.

We call upon WSWS readers to support Parnarauskis and the SEP by
continuing to send letters of protest to the State Board of Elections at
webmaster [at] elections.state.il.us.

Please send copies of all messages to the WSWS.
https://www.wsws.org/phpform/use/comments/form1.html


[Often, usually just a few months before an election, Dems approach Greens
seeking a "common front". This is one where the Green Party as a party is
to endorse Dems for all the higher offices, green-washing them, and not
running Greens against them.

What are Greens supposed to get in return?  Not party endorsement of, and
standing aside for, lower-level Greens - the Dem charter forbids that. Nor
is the Dem party going to tell any of its lined-up seekers of office not
to run and be endorsed by the Dem party. They will endorse for all
possible offices.

So what's in it for Greens, then?  Not much - a few +individual+ Dems
promise support - a statement, a house party, voting for Greens for lower
offices (hard to verify, and would it be honored if the Dem might lose?)

Meanwhile, MN state law requires minor parties, to keep that status, to
get 1% of the vote for a state-wide office (eg governor) every 4 years;
the deal the Dems offer implies the end of even minor party status.

At other times the DP redistricts Greens out of office or makes access to
the ballot line harder. The GP is supposed to forget this, be "open",
"cooperative", etc, and volunteer for imminent liquidation.

Greens offer to cooperate in +issues+ - but Dems say, yes, but +now+ we
need the GP to make an electoral deal. And usually after elections, the DP
has no interest in what the GP might say or in its issues. This is why the
GP started, and continues; it knows no one else has recently carried or
will carry most of its issues. The DP used to do it, decades ago, but that
time is long past.

Meanwhile, there's Hillary... -ed]


--------14 of 15--------

Hillary Clinton "woos Wall Street" and health industry
By Bill Van Auken
13 July 2006
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/clin-j13.shtml

On July 10, the Financial Times of London, the authoritative voice of
British finance capital, reported that "Hillary Clinton has been cosying up
to Wall Street in recent weeks with a series of meetings with top executives
that could help her follow the path blazed by her husband ahead of his first
presidential run."

The article, entitled "Hillary Clinton seeks to woo Wall Street," notes that
New York's incumbent Democratic senator has become the beneficiary of
millions of dollars in campaign fund donations from major Wall Street firms
and financiers generally regarded as Republican.

Two days later, the New York Times carried a piece entitled, "Once an enemy,
health industry warms to Clinton." The article noted that Clinton has
received $854,462 in campaign funding from the health care industry, the
largest amount that the pharmaceutical giants, HMOs and hospital groups have
doled out to any politician, with the exception of Senator Rick Santorum,
the right-wing Republican from Pennsylvania.

The two reports are both based on a compilation of campaign contributions
done by the Center for Responsive Politics, which reports that the New York
Democrat has raised a whopping $27.5 million in the 2006 election cycle.
Together, they provide a portrait of a politician who is thoroughly trusted
and controlled by the biggest financial interests in the country,
indistinguishable on all fundamental economic and social questions from the
Republicans she claims to oppose. This is why money is pouring in to her
campaign coffers, much of it aimed at buying influence prior to an
anticipated run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

According to the Financial Times, one of her recent forays on Wall Street
included a meeting at Morgan Stanley, hosted by its chief executive, John
Mack, who gave $4,000 to her Senate campaign last year. It was the largest
donation that Mack gave to any politician, with his only other donation to
an individual candidate going to Senator Santorum. In 2004, when he was the
co-CEO at Credit Suisse, Mack raised more than $200,000 for Bush's
reelection, earning him the title of "Ranger," bestowed on the Republicans'
top big business donors.

Clinton is also planning meetings at Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and
other major finance houses. According to the Financial Times, part of the
senator's outreach to Wall Street is aimed at reassuring top financiers
that she is committed to furthering their economic agenda and to calm any
concerns raised by her right-wing nationalist attack on the Bush
administration over the DP World of Dubai deal to purchase a company
controlling operations at some US ports. According to the paper, she is
swearing her allegiance to "free trade."

In many respects, Hillary Clinton is retracing the same route taken by her
husband Bill in the run-up to his successful 1992 campaign for the
presidency. While he made a vaguely populist appeal against the "greed" of
the wealthy and expressed sympathy for "forgotten middle class" people who
"played by the rules" but failed to "get ahead," he conducted his own series
of meetings with Wall Street principals, making it clear that his economic
policies would be tailored to the needs of the stock and bond markets.

Once elected, Wall Street CEOs Robert Rubin and Roger Altman were brought in
to ensure that the administration did not veer from this commitment.
Slashing deficits and downsizing government became the focus of the
administration's fiscal policy. Meanwhile, it carried out the largest-ever
cuts in federal domestic social spending, implementing "welfare reform" and
other regressive social measures that greatly accelerated the transfer of
social wealth from working people and the most oppressed layers of the
population to the super-rich.

In his book The Agenda, Bob Woodward quoted Clinton saying of his economic
policy just weeks after winning the election, "We help the bond market and
we hurt the people who voted us in."

The last vestige of reformism maintained by the incoming Clinton
administration was in the area of health care, with Bill Clinton naming
his wife Hillary as chair of a President's Task Force on Health Care
Reform. The proposal provoked frenzied opposition from the Republican
right, backed by the big health care and drug companies, which financed a
lawsuit challenging the legality of the First Lady's appointment and a
subsequent ad campaign aimed at whipping up fear over the proposal and
deriding it as "Hillarycare." The Clintons swiftly caved in to this
right-wing, corporate-financed opposition.

As the New York Times article makes clear, all has been forgiven from this
bitter battle waged 13 years ago. One executive - a Republican who was a
key organizer of the campaign to derail the Clinton's proposal - told the
newspaper that the confrontation is seen as "ancient history" within an
industry that is the biggest lobbyist in Washington, dispensing some $356
million in 2005.

The Times article attributes this reconciliation to the fact that Senator
Clinton has "moderated her positions from more than a decade ago." In other
words, she has adopted the agenda of the big insurance firms, the hospital
associations and the major drug companies as her own, and they are
reciprocating with large amounts of cash. One of her key fundraisers, the
paper notes, is William R. Abrams, executive vice president of the Medical
Society of the State of New York and a prominent Republican. One of the
biggest contributors to Clinton's campaign fund is the drug giant Pfizer,
which in the 2004 election directed 70 percent of its donations to
Republicans.

The Times quoted Republicans expressing exasperation over Clinton's ability
to secure ample funding from corporate interests that have long leaned
heavily towards the GOP. "This reveals that Hillary Clinton is a politician
more concerned with campaign contributions than policies she claims to
support," Tracey Schmitt, a Republican National Committee spokeswoman told
the paper.

What it really reveals is that Clinton is seen within the financial elite as
a reliable defender of their interests. They are capable of understanding
that the "policies she claims to support," to the extent that she has
attempted to win support by posing as a liberal, are meant merely for public
consumption and that, like her husband, she will put the profit interests of
Wall Street, the big pharmaceuticals and the rest of corporate America
first.

These interests are, after all, her own as well. Since leaving the White
House in January 2001, the Clintons have amassed a huge personal fortune.
According to disclosure forms issued by the New York Democratic senator last
month, the Clintons had an income of more than $8 million last year, the
bulk of it coming from huge "speaking fees" collected by Bill Clinton for
addressing audiences put together by corporations and ruling elites both at
home and abroad.

This disclosure substantially underestimates the real income of the couple,
because it does not require full amounts to be spelled out. For example,
Mrs. Clinton was compelled to reveal only that her husband made $1,000 or
more last year off his book deal for his memoir, My Life. When it was
published in 2004, it was estimated that the book would produce up to $12
million in income. Similarly, she was required to report only that Clinton
made $1,000 or more for serving as an "adviser" to Yucaipa Companies, a
private equity firm run by one of his close associates, billionaire Ronald
Burkle.

The Clintons are prime examples and beneficiaries of what some Democrats
have demagogically labeled the "culture of corruption," attempting to
portray the shameless sale of government policy and votes to corporate
interests through the system of legalized bribery known as "campaign
contributions" as an exclusively Republican problem.

In the final analysis, the Clintons' political and personal evolution
reflects more fundamental trends at the base of society, in particular the
huge transfer of wealth from the great majority of the American people -
those who depend upon a paycheck for their living - to the portfolios of
the multimillionaires and billionaires at the top. This process
accelerated enormously under the Clinton administration and has continued
unabated under George W. Bush. This relentless drive by a narrow,
privileged layer to accumulate ever-larger mountains of personal wealth
corrupts every aspect of political life, blocks any solution to pressing
social problems and makes any genuine form of democracy impossible.


[And yet most Dems will enlist in her army in 2008. Jeb will be "so bad"
all progressives will be told they must form a "common front" and back
ideal-free dream-free Hillary.  The RP will cut off two of your limbs;
Hillary will cut off only one, or maybe one and a half, what's another
half-limb among friends? -ed]


--------15 of 15--------

Hillary Clinton and New York's gay marriage ruling: a calculated bow to the
right
By Bill Van Auken
15 July 2006
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/clin-j15.shtml

Last week, New York's highest court handed down a shameful ruling
upholding the state's law barring same-sex marriages. This decision
repudiated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law
and endorsed bigotry and discrimination as a matter of "tradition."

Just as shameful as this judicial sanction for discrimination and the
denial of basic democratic rights was the silence of New York's Democratic
Senator Hillary Clinton, who refused to condemn the ruling.

This is not merely a matter of Clinton opportunistically adapting herself
to prevailing political winds in New York state, instead of basing her
position on democratic and constitutional principles. On the contrary,
recent polls have indicated that a clear majority of New Yorkers favor
affording same-sex couples the same right to marry as anyone else.

Rather, the New York Senator is positioning herself for a run for the 2008
Democratic presidential nomination and is therefore attempting to curry
favor with the political right.

The New York decision is one in a series of judicial and legislative
actions nationally aimed at denying the right of gays and lesbians to
marry. On the same day as the New York State Court of Appeals issued its
ruling, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the recently passed amendment to
that state's constitution banning such marriages.

And this week, in Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court - which
legalized same-sex unions in 2003 - gave the green light for a proposed
amendment to that state's constitution banning them in the future. The
state's Republican Governor Milt Romney, a potential candidate for his
party's 2008 presidential nomination, has been the most prominent advocate
of the ban. The state's Democratic-controlled legislature, however,
delayed a vote on the measure, preventing it from being placed on the
ballot in November. Some 8,000 same-sex couples have been married in the
state - the first and only to issue licenses for such marriages - in the
last two years.

Some 20 states have already enacted amendments to their constitutions
banning same-sex marriages, while six more will vote in November on such
bans. Two states - New Jersey and Washington - are awaiting decisions by
their high courts on whether such unions will be legalized. In Washington,
lower courts ruled that marriage was a fundamental right that could not be
abridged on the basis of sexual orientation, while in New Jersey they
found that no such constitutional right exists. In both cases, the
decisions were appealed.

Legal challenges seeking to legalize gay marriage are also pending in
California, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Nebraska and Oklahoma.

An amendment to the US Constitution to ban such unions throughout the
country was voted down by the US Senate last month, despite vocal public
support from President Bush and the Republican leadership. The House of
Representatives is scheduled to conduct its own vote on the amendment next
week.

In a statement issued by a spokesperson in response to the New York court
decision, Clinton declared her support for "full equality for people in
committed relationships, including health insurance, life insurance and
pensions, and hospital visitation and believes we have to keep working to
reach these goals."

This amounted to a reiteration of Clinton's stated support for
state-sanctioned civil unions, such as already exist in Vermont and
Connecticut. California, Hawaii, Maine and New Jersey have more limited
domestic partnership statutes. These are by no means the same thing as
marriage, however, and do not end inequality. The discrimination and
unequal treatment that underlie this distinction are anything but
symbolic.

Civil unions are not recognized outside the states in which they are
sanctioned and have no federal standing, thus denying those who enter them
federal benefits and protections provided under 1,138 statutes and
policies, including Social Security and family medical leave as well as
tax and immigration policies.

The model for the anti-gay marriage statutes and amendments that are being
enacted around the country is the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which
was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. Senator Hillary
Clinton continues to defend this statute enacted by her husband.

The arguments of the majority in the New York high court's 4-2 decision
bordered on the absurd. In concluding that the ban on gay marriage was not
merely a matter of "ignorance and prejudice against homosexuals," the
majority speculated, on the one hand, that the state legislature could
believe - despite a lack of any supporting evidence - that children are
better off in households composed of a mother and a father than in those
formed by same-sex couples. On the other hand, it advanced the novel claim
that affording marriage rights to heterosexual couples while denying them
to gays and lesbians could be justified on the grounds that "it is more
important to promote stability, and to avoid instability, in opposite-sex
than in same sex relationships" because of the likelihood of unplanned
pregnancies.

Dissent: a "tradition of discrimination"

In a dissent joined by one other judge, Chief Judge Judith Kaye wrote that
"Limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples undeniably restricts gays and
lesbians from marrying their chosen same-sex partners... and thus
constitutes discrimination based on sexual orientation." She took apart
the majority's invocation of "tradition" to support the ban, comparing it
to the "tradition" of outlawing interracial marriage in the Jim Crow
South. "A history of tradition of discrimination does not make the
discrimination constitutional ... it is circular reasoning ... to maintain
that marriage must remain a heterosexual institution because that is what
it historically has been."

Kaye also assailed the argument that marriage was "more important" for
protecting children of heterosexual couples, pointing out that there was
no rational argument for denying the same protection to children of
same-sex couples. She concluded that future generations would see the
court's ruling as a "misstep," adding, "This state has a proud tradition
of affording equal rights to all New Yorkers. Sadly, the court retreats
today from that proud tradition."

While advocates of gay marriage have vowed to pursue the issue in state
legislatures, decisions like that of the New York high court and the
failure of Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton to clearly oppose
them have an unmistakable significance. There is no significant section of
the ruling elite and its two major political parties which maintains any
serious commitment to fundamental democratic rights.

The Republican right is deliberately and cynically attempting to whip up
fears, insecurity and prejudice over gay marriage among layers of the
population in order to divert attention from the debacle in Iraq and the
deteriorating economic conditions confronting the majority of working
people in the US.

They base their reactionary appeal very directly upon religion, flouting
the bedrock constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

Why are Democratic politicians like Clinton, who pose as liberals and
count gays among their electoral base, incapable of mounting a principled
defense against this campaign?

Of course, there is the not inconsiderable role of base political
calculations at work here. Clinton no doubt reasons that she does not need
to take a clear stand on this issue, posing the timeworn cynical
Democratic question, "Who else are they going to vote for?"

But, more fundamentally, an effective defense of democratic rights on any
question today is impossible outside of a program that seeks to mobilize
working people - the vast majority of the population - against all forms
of social and economic inequality.

If the Democrats are unwilling and unable to mount such a defense, it is
because as a party they represent not the interest of this majority, but
of the top 1 percent of the population - Hillary Clinton among them -
which has amassed vast personal fortunes precisely through the
unrestrained growth of social inequality.

Moreover, politicians like Clinton are unable to expose the attempts of
the Republicans to utilize so-called "social issues" like gay marriage to
divert public opinion away from issues like the war in Iraq and social
inequality precisely because they pose no political alternative on these
more fundamental questions. Hillary Clinton supports the war and recently
voted to continue the military occupation of Iraq indefinitely. She
represents the interests of the corporations and Wall Street.

She herself has tried to outdo the Republicans by posturing as the
defender of the same dubious "values," co-sponsoring a federal law against
flag-burning and joining right-wing Republican senators Sam Brownback and
Rick Santorum in a campaign against "inappropriate" video games.

Equal rights before the law cannot be realized in a society in which
social and economic inequality are all-pervasive. The defense of such
rights can be advanced only as part of a broader struggle to unite working
people against the stranglehold exercised by a financial oligarchy over
political life and its increasing monopolization of the wealth of society.
In the final analysis, the defense and extension of democratic rights are
inseparable from the independent political mobilization of the working
class in the struggle for the socialist transformation of society.


[People, and it would appear parties and countries, when they age, become
subject to Alzheimer's, which gradually eats up everything they used to be
or stand for, leaving only a husk that no longer recognizes even the
closest of friends. -ed]


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