Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 10.01.06

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     10.01.06

1. Green Party fun    10.01 2pm
2. Mortenson campaign 10.01 2pm
3. Kid's cabaret      10.01 2pm
4. Czech republic     10.01 2pm
5. Social justice     10.01 2pm
6. KFAI/Indian        10.01 4pm
7. Peace concert      10.01 6:30pm
8. WalMart/yuk/film   10.01 7pm
9. Bioneers/register  10.01

10. AlliantACTION     10.02 7am
11. Oppose Bridges    10.02 6pm
12. Pental campaign   10.02 7pm
13. Global warm/film  10.02 7pm

14. Marjorie Cohn - A constitutional shredding: rounding up U.S. citizens
15. Ralph Nader   - White House on a rampage against the Constitution
16. P C Roberts   - How the US government planned America's downfall
17. Dave Lindorff - "America": new lyrics for a New Dark Age

--------1 of 17--------

From: drashleyjames <ajames123 [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: Green Party fun 10.01 2pm

Green Party Fun Day!! 10.01.06

Fundraiser for the GP candidates on October 1
at Wildwood Park in Mahtomedi, MN , from 2-6 pm.
1 Old Wildwood Road
Mahtomedi, MN

The park is beautiful with trails, fire pits, gorgeous flora and fauna. We
will meet at the Wildwod Park Picnic shelter.

For directions to the park, use this link:
http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.adp?do=nw&go=1&r=f&aoh=&aot=&aof=&1a=621%20W%20LAKE%20ST&1c=MINNEAPOLIS&1s=MN&1z=55408%2d2949&1y=US&1l=FsCEhT%2b2b7s%3d&1g=otbTK0722Yg%3d&1pn=&1pl=&1v=ADDRESS&1ffi=&1n=HENNEPIN%20COUNTY&1qn=&2a=&2c=Mahtomedi&2s=MN&2z=&2y=US&2l=XLiQwZss4jU%3d&2g=8Z0cB3X26vk%3d&2pl=&2v=CITY&2ffi=&2n=Washington%20County&2qn=wildwood%20park&panelbtn=2&1qc=&q=wildwood%20park&2pn=wildwood%20park&2sb=Wildwood%20Park%7c1%20Old%20Wildwood%20Rd%7cSaint%20Paul%7cMN%7c55115%7c450507%7c%2d929644
%7c%7cUS&2qc=Parks

There is a sizeable parking lot, and no charge to enter the park. There
will be a $15 door charge that will go directly to the campaign/s of your
choice (12 and under free).

There will be a group yoga workshop, led by our own Paul Busch,
storytelling, Native American Drummers, and perhaps some acoustic folk
music. There will be food provided (and folks are encouraged to bring a
dish to share.) Grills are available. We'll have a keg of Root Beer, and a
sugar free option. If you want to bring beer or wine, you are welcome to
bring your own.

The GP candidates will make appearances that day. It's going to be a
wonderfully relaxing, rejuvenating, fun, community centered, family
friendly event!

I am hoping some wonderful Green volunteers will step up to help out with
the event. We need about four to volunteer with set-up, break-down. Also,
a door person, and help with serving food.

Please contact me if you can volunteer to help!
Kristen Olson 651-210-0789


--------2 of 17--------

From: Jesse Mortenson for 64A <jesse [at] jessemortenson.com>
Subject: Mortenson campaign 10.01 2pm

Dear Friends,

The maxim of any campaign for office is: it's never been closer to the
election than it is today. With each day, it gets more important to get
out and talk to people face-to-face, to let them know how much we can do
together to transform the landscape of Minnesota politics. I firmly
believe that we'll only turn back the budget cuts, the close calls with
destructive policy proposals, and the lack of progressive momentum by
working around the calendar to involve ordinary people in principled,
grassroots politics.

Nearly a month before the election, I need your help to broaden our reach
so we can get out the vote across the district. We've got two new tools to
do it:

    Deliver our new literature piece to key precincts
    2pm this Sunday, Oct. 1
    Cahoots Coffee Bar (1562 Selby Ave)

Join us to walk through a neighborhood and deliver our new, color flyer
for a couple of hours. Are you already booked this Sunday? E-mail
paul [at] jessemortenson.com and we'll make sure you get a kit to deliver
literature on your schedule.

Anybody interested in helping hand some flyers out and make a little bit
of a visible appearance at the "Stop the Merchants of Death" conference
organized by a number of left/anti-war folks that will be at St. Thomas
this weekend? http://www.warresisters.org/smod/smod_hp.shtml
Specifically, at the rally Sunday night (6:00pm or so) at St. Kate's.

    Donate to support our district-wide mailing
    We can take up to $500, and you may qualify for a $50 refund
    find out how: http://www.jessemortenson.com/contribute

We need to raise $1900 to get a mailing to every household in the district
close to the election, so we can give everyone a chance to vote for
universal, single-payer health care, keeping jobs with local businesses in
our communities, and human rights for immigrants in Minnesota. Can you
help?

Finally, I'm proud to announce our first debate for our final slate of 64A
candidates. It will be held at 7:45pm on October 12 at the Linwood
Community Center, by the Summit Hill Association. Hope to see you there!
We're working on establishing a few more debates - e-mail
paul [at] jessemortenson.com if your community or advocacy organization might
be interested!

Sincerely, Jesse Mortenson Green Party Candidate for Minnesota House of
Representatives District 64A www.jessemortenson.com

Please contact Jesse (651-442-5734) directly if you're able to help out.


--------3 of 17--------

From: April Sellers <april [at] patrickscabaret.org>
Subject: Kid's cabaret 10.01 2pm

Come to the first ever Cabaret for Kids
at Patrick's Cabaret
Sunday October First, 2006
2-3:15pm
3010 Minnehaha Ave Minneapolis

tickets $8 at the door ($7 for 12 and under)
$6 in advance from the artists ($5 for 12 and under)

Paulino hosts the first Cabaret 4 Kids at Patrick's Cabaret. Voyages
to distant places, boats, puppets, dragons, Chinese dancers, storytelling
and more!

Starring:
Paulino Brener
        barcos de papel - paper boats (excerpt)
Clint Jackson Baker The Prince of Fun! Presents
        The Adventures of Gallant Lad (excerpt)
Margo McCreary
        Fool Circle (excerpt)
Twin Cities Chinese Dance Center
        "A Dragon Odyssey"


--------4 of 17--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Czech republic 10.01 2pm

October 1 - Martin Palous: Role of the Czech Republic and Other Small
States in the Sea of Large Nations.  Time: 2:00 p.m.. Cost: $5 donation.

Ambassador from the Czech Republic to the UN Martin Palous speaks on "Role
of the Czech Republic and Other Small States in the Sea of Large Nations."

FFI: www.micglobe.org
Location: CSPS Sokol Hall, 2nd floor, 383 Michigan Street, St. Paul.


--------5 of 17--------

From: David A. Greene <greened [at] obbligato.org>
Subject: Social justice 10.01 2pm

Sunday, Oct. 1, ISAIAH will hold a large public meeting and action in St.
Paul called "Faith in Democracy: Renewing the Promise."  ISAIAH is an
interfaith coalition of churches in the metro and St. Cloud that advocate
on issues of social justice.

We will be gathering a large number of people together with our public
officials and candidates to put forward an opportunity agenda to
strengthen our communities and make shared abundance a reality.

The event is from 2-4pm Oct. 1 at St. Pascal Baylon Catholic church (1757
Conway St., right on White Bear Ave. just a few blocks north of I-94).

ISAIAH has four regional legislative issues we are tackling and will be
active on during the 2007 session:

- Increased funding for public education
- Increased funding for public transit
- Funding for services and resources for victims of domestic violence
- Civil rights for immigrants

This St. Paul meeting is one of 7 meetings happening in the metro and
St. Cloud.   The St. Paul meeting will include a focus on two important
issues relevant to the city:

- The living wage ordinance
- The opportunity to use federal transportation dollars to provide
   construction job training and career possibilities to low-income and
   disadvantaged people.  These are good, well-paying careers.

Mayor Coleman will be there along with several candidates for the many
offices that are up for election this year.  Several members of the city
council will be there as well.

This is your opportunity to join your voice with many others to tell
our political leaders that these issues matter, that we want to build
a more just society.

Please let me know if you are interested in attending.  I'm happy to
answer any questions off-list.

If you want to support our neighbors in Minneapolis as well, they are
holding their own meeting Oct. 8 from 3-5pm at Westminster Presbyterian
Church, 1200 Marquette Ave. in Minneapolis.

David Greene The Wedge, Minneapolis More info:
http://forums.e-democracy.org/stpaul/contacts/davidgreene


--------6 of 17--------

From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org>
Subject: KFAI/Indian 10.01 4pm

KFAI's Indian Uprising for October 1st

PART 3 - COWBOYS AND INDIANS: TOYS OF GENOCIDE, ICONS OF AMERCIAN
COLONIALISM (essay) by Michael Yellow Bird , a Sahnish and Hidatsa First
Nations citizen.  Colonialism is the invasion, subjugation, and occupation
of one people by another.  In Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction
(2001), Robert J. C. Young concludes that the United States of America,
the world¹s last remaining significant colonial power, continues to
dominate external territories without the consent of the indigenous
inhabitants. However, one does not have to go abroad to analyze the
practice of American colonialism since the exploitation and control of
Indigenous Peoples in the United States continues unabated.

Yellow Bird's essay examines cowboys and Indians as part of the colonial
canon asserting white supremacy and Indigenous inferiority. He began by
telling how his encounter with a bag of toy cowboys and Indians reminding
him that Indigenous Peoples face the humiliation of American colonialism
on a daily basis. He next recounted how a master cowboys and Indians
narrative is used to support and maintain the oppression of people in the
tribal community where he was raised...and ends with a discussion
concerning the importance of decolonizing cowboys and Indians. PDF
attached. Part 3, Decolonizing Cowboys and Indians and Epilogue, the last
of three parts.

Professor Michael J. Yellow Bird is the founder and director of the Center
for Indigenous Peoples' Critical and Intuitive Thinking and Associate
Professor of Indigenous Nation Studies Indigenous Nations Studies Program,
The University of Kansas, Lawrence, at mybird [at] ku.edu.

WE NEED PARTNERS, NOT BOSSES (address to the United Nations) by President
Evo Morales (Aymara), Counter Punch, September 22, 2006

It is an enormous satisfaction to be here present, representing my people,
from my homeland, Bolivia and especially the indigenous movement.  I want
to tell you, that after 500 years of be looked down upon, at times
considered to be savages, animals, in some regions condemned to
extermination, thanks to this consciousness and this uprising and to the
struggle for the rights of the peoples, we got here to repair the historic
damage, to repair 500 years of damage.

During the republic, we were equally discriminated against, marginalised,
they never took into account this struggle of the peoples for life, for
humanity during the last 20 years, with their application of an economic
model--neoliberalism--that continued the looting of our natural resources,
the privatisation of our basic services.  Convinced, and we are convinced,
that the way of privatisation of basic services is the best way of
violating human rights.

Juan Evo Morales Ayma, popularly known as Evo, is the President of Bolivia
and has claimed to be the country's first indigenous head of state since
the Spanish Conquest over 470 years ago.  He is also the first indigenous
president in South America.
http://www.counterpunch.org/morales09222006.html

* * * *
Indian Uprising is a one-half hour Public & Cultural Affairs program for,
by, an 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.


--------7 of 17--------

From: sarah standefer <scsrn [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Peace concert 10.01 6:30pm

Stop the Merchants of Death Rally and Concert

Sunday, October 1 6:30pm
O'Shaughnessy Auditiorium, St. Catherine College, St. Paul, on Randolph
near Cleveland.
Tickets $12, $10 students.

 featuring
 JOANNE SHEEHAN, chair of War Resister International
 VERNON BELLECOURT AIM with Native Drum
 FRIDA BERRIGAN Arms Trade Resource Center NY-New School
 The PRINCE MYSHKINS, singers, songwriters, performed at SOA
 MEDEA BENJAMIN, Cofounder of Global Exchange and Code Pink
 MARV DAVIDOV founder of Honeywell Project
 UTAH PHILLIPS folksinger, storyteller, Wobbly
 PAUL KRASSNER comedian, cofounder of the YIPPIES with Abbie Hoffman
 JACK NELSON PALLMEYER U of St. Thomas Justice and Peace Studies
 TOM BOTTOLENE, a leader of Alliant Action
 PEPPERWOLF, a leader of Alliant Action
 WINONA LaDUKE, chair of White Earth Land Recovery Project


--------8 of 17--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: WalMart/yuk/film 10.01 7pm

October 1 - Film: "Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price".  7pm

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy presents film "Wal-Mart:
the High Cost of Low Price."

FFI: www.iatp.org
Location: Bryant Lake Bowl, 810 W Lake St, Minneapolis


--------9 of 17--------

From: Scott Cramer <scott [at] northernsun.com>
From: Northland Bioneers [mailto:nbconference [at] gmail.com]
Subject: Bioneers/register 10.01

Northland Bioneers 1st Annual Conference
Register by October 1st and Save!

Please mark your calendars for October 20-22, 2006 as Northland
Sustainable Solutions gears up to host the first annual Northland Bioneers
Conference at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College.

The 2006 Northland Bioneers Conference <http://www.nbconference.org/> to
be held in Minneapolis, MN is THE five-state region event highlighting the
necessity of interdependence around our most pressing environmental and
social issues.

Following the Bioneers tradition ( www.bioneers.org
<http://www.bioneers.org/> ) , we will feature "beamed" plenary sessions
from the National Bioneers Conference along with stimulating locally
produced participatory forums featuring keynote speakers, workshops,
artists, exhibitors, youth programming, and World Café community dialogue.

Register Today!  <http://www.nbconference.org/register.html> and join a
vibrant network rich with inspiring ideas, models, tools, and resources.

To register on-line for the conference go to nbconference.org
<http://www.nbconference.org/register.html> (on-line registration will be
available soon) or print a registration form and mail it in today!

Discover for yourself all that the 1st annual conference has to offer -
Program & Schedule <http://www.nbconference.org/schedule.html>
Volunteer Opportunities <http://www.nbconference.org/volunteer.html>
Sponsors/Partners/Exhibitors <http://www.nbconference.org/partners.html>
Register by October 1st and Save!


--------10 of 17--------

From: David Strand <mncivil [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: AlliantACTION 10.02 7am

Demonstrate the Gandhian power of nonviolence,
AlliantACTION at ATK, Monday morning Oct. 2, 7 am
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 20:54:19 -0500

On the Tenth Anniversary of Nonviolent Civil Resistance at ATK Join
AlliantACTION in Celebrating the Birth of Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi while
demonstrating the Power of Nonviolence in Stopping the Merchant$ of Death

Monday morning, October 2nd - 7am at the Largest Minnesota-based Military
Contractor, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), maker of dU Munitions, Landmines,
Cluster Bombs, Trident II.

Support OR Participate in the Gandhian Spirit of Nonviolent Direct Action
at ATK HQ, 5050 Lincoln Drive, Edina

Directions to ATK: Take the Hopkins 5th Street/Lincoln Ave. exit from
Highway 169. Turn East. (online directions and map at
www.alliantaction.org)

A COALITION ACTION AlliantACTION WAR RESISTERS LEAGUE: Stop the Merchants
of Death Learn More or Contact Us www.AlliantACTION.org Action Info:
612.701.5227 Rally Info: 612.874.7715


--------11 of 17--------

From: Elizabeth Dickinson <eadickinson [at] mindspring.com>
From: sue rich <srich [at] fmr.org>
Subject: Oppose Bridges 10.02 6pm

Dear River Activists & West Siders,

The Bridges proposal will soon go before the St. Paul Planning Commission
and City Council. If you are concerned about this mega-development's
impact upon the river and the community, we need your help at one (or
both) of the following special action-nights. (To find out more about The
Bridges, please visit http://www.fmr.org/update.html#20060901 )

WHEN:
Monday, Oct. 2, 6-9 p.m. &
Tuesday, Oct. 3, 6-9 p.m.

WHERE:
FMR, 360 North Robert St., Ste. 400
Corner of 5th Street & Robert St. in The Empire Building downtown St. Paul.
Enter through the revolving door and take the elevator to the 4th floor;
you'll see the office. On-street parking is free and readily available after
4:30.
Note: If you arrive after 6 p.m. and the revolving door is locked, use the
call-up box to the right (south) of the door. It rings to the office and
we'll come to meet you.

WHAT:
Call FMR members and others predisposed to supporting our position to ask --
and inspire -- them to call their council representative regarding this
important issue ... before it is too late.

BEFORE YOU ARRIVE:
Please contact Michael Guest at mguest [at] fmr.org or 651-222-2193 x22 to
pre-register.

Should you be able to make it,  we look forward to seeing you!

Regardless -- thank you, as always, for your time and dedication to the
river.

sue rich Volunteer Coordinator Friends of the Mississippi River 360 North
Robert Street Saint Paul, MN 55101 Phone: 651/ 222-2193 ext. 14 Fax:
651/ 222-6005 For the latest updates on FMR events and programs, visit us
on the web at http://www.fmr.org


--------12 of 17--------

From: PRO826 [at] AOL.COM
Subject: Pental campaign 10.02 7pm

The Ken Pentel for Governor campaign will be coordinating Literature Drops
each Monday evening.  Meet at Bryant Square Park building located at 3101
Bryant Ave in Minneapolis by 7pm.  Come help Ken and Danene spread the
Green vision of a honest democracy (MN is 4th highest in the country for
entrenchment of lobbyist money, 1st in the nation per capita for a total
of $54 million last year), single-payer universal healthcare for all and a
strong energy efficient and renewable energy policy.  Be part of the Green
Global movement active in over 90 countries.

Danene Provencher Green Party of MN Lt. Governor candidate Ken Pentel for
Governor campaign www.kenpentel.org


--------13 of 17--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Global warm/film 10.02 7pm

October 2 - Film: "Global Warming: What You Need to Know".  7pm.
Followed by discussion.
Mayday Books, 301 Cedar Ave, Minneapolis, MN
FFI: Christine at 612-879-8937.


--------14 of 17--------

A Constitutional Shredding
Rounding Up U.S. Citizens
By MARJORIE COHN
Counterpunch
September 30 / October 1, 2006

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 governing the treatment of detainees
is the culmination of relentless fear-mongering by the Bush administration
since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Because the bill was adopted with lightning speed, barely anyone noticed
that it empowers Bush to declare not just aliens, but also U.S. citizens,
"unlawful enemy combatants."

Bush & Co. has portrayed the bill as a tough way to deal with aliens to
protect us against terrorism. Frightened they might lose their majority in
Congress in the November elections, the Republicans rammed the bill
through Congress with little substantive debate.

Anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on Bush's list of
"terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's
policies could be declared an "unlawful enemy combatant" and imprisoned
indefinitely. That includes American citizens.

The bill also strips habeas corpus rights from detained aliens who have
been declared enemy combatants. Congress has the constitutional power to
suspend habeas corpus only in times of rebellion or invasion. The
habeas-stripping provision in the new bill is unconstitutional and the
Supreme Court will likely say so when the issue comes before it.

Although more insidious, this law follows in the footsteps of other
unnecessarily repressive legislation. In times of war and national crisis,
the government has targeted immigrants and dissidents.

In 1798, the Federalist-led Congress, capitalizing on the fear of war,
passed the four Alien and Sedition Acts to stifle dissent against the
Federalist Party's political agenda. The Naturalization Act extended the
time necessary for immigrants to reside in the U.S. because most
immigrants sympathized with the Republicans.

The Alien Enemies Act provided for the arrest, detention and deportation
of male citizens of any foreign nation at war with the United States. Many
of the 25,000 French citizens living in the U.S. could have been expelled
had France and America gone to war, but this law was never used. The Alien
Friends Act authorized the deportation of any non-citizen suspected of
endangering the security of the U.S. government; the law lasted only two
years and no one was deported under it.

The Sedition Act provided criminal penalties for any person who wrote,
printed, published, or spoke anything "false, scandalous and malicious"
with the intent to hold the government in "contempt or disrepute." The
Federalists argued it was necessary to suppress criticism of the
government in time of war. The Republicans objected that the Sedition Act
violated the First Amendment, which had become part of the Constitution
seven years earlier. Employed exclusively against Republicans, the
Sedition Act was used to target congressmen and newspaper editors who
criticized President John Adams.

Subsequent examples of laws passed and actions taken as a result of
fear-mongering during periods of xenophobia are the Espionage Act of 1917,
the Sedition Act of 1918, the Red Scare following World War I, the
forcible internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II, and
the Alien Registration Act of 1940 (the Smith Act).

During the McCarthy period of the 1950s, in an effort to eradicate the
perceived threat of communism, the government engaged in widespread
illegal surveillance to threaten and silence anyone who had an unorthodox
political viewpoint. Many people were jailed, blacklisted and lost their
jobs. Thousands of lives were shattered as the FBI engaged in
"red-baiting."

One month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, United States
Attorney General John Ashcroft rushed the U.S.A. Patriot Act through a
timid Congress. The Patriot Act created a crime of domestic terrorism
aimed at political activists who protest government policies, and set
forth an ideological test for entry into the United States.

In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the internment of
Japanese and Japanese-American citizens in Korematsu v. United States.
Justice Robert Jackson warned in his dissent that the ruling would "lie
about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can
bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need."

That day has come with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It provides
the basis for the President to round-up both aliens and U.S. citizens he
determines have given material support to terrorists. Kellogg Brown &
Root, a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, is constructing a huge
facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of
undesirables.

In his 1928 dissent in Olmstead v. United States, Justice Louis Brandeis
cautioned, "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment
by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding." Seventy-three
years later, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, speaking for a
zealous President, warned Americans "they need to watch what they say,
watch what they do."

We can expect Bush to continue to exploit 9/11 to strip us of more of our
liberties. Our constitutional right to dissent is in serious jeopardy.
Benjamin Franklin's prescient warning should give us pause: "They who
would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither
liberty or security."

Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is
president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative
to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. Her new
book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, will be
published in 2007 by PoliPointPress.


--------15 of 17--------

White House on a Rampage Against the Constitution
Torturer-in-Chief
By RALPH NADER
Counterpunch
September 30 / October 1, 2006

The messianic, authoritarian George W. Bush and the minds of his cohorts
have further collapsed the rule of law with his bulldozing through a
divided Congress more dictatorial powers in his increasingly self-defined,
self-serving and failing "war on terror."

The normally restrained New York Times in an editorial titled "Rushing off
a Cliff" condemned Bush's "ghastly ideas about antiterrorism that will
make American troops less safe and do lasting damage to our 217 year-old
nation of laws-while doing nothing to protect the nation from terrorists.
Democrats betray their principles to avoid last-minute attack ads. Our
democracy is the big loser."

Bush has concentrated so much arbitrary power in his Presidency that he
can be described in the vernacular as the torturer-in-chief, the
jailer-in-chief and the arrestor-in-chief. Who needs the courts? Who needs
the constitutional rights to habeas corpus for defendants to be able to
argue that they were wrongfully arrested or capriciously imprisoned
indefinitely without being charged?

The only light at the end of this Bush tunnel comes from many law
professors and knowledgeable members of Congress, such as Senator Pat
Leahy (D-VT), who believe that when this law reaches the Supreme Court,
its offending and vague provisions will be declared unconstitutional. But
that will take two years and in the meantime King George can continue
expanding his massively losing tally of arrests, detentions and
imprisonment of innocent people who are tortured or mistreated, isolated
and defenseless.

As both military attorneys and civilian pro bono attorneys for those
imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have declared-the vast majority of the
nearly 700 "detainees" were innocent from the get-go, victims of bounty
hunters in Afghanistan and neighboring countries who "sold" them for cash
to intermediaries who turned them over to the U.S. military for transfer
to Cuba. All these "catches" made George W. Bush look like he was really
rounding up all those evil terrorists  like cab drivers, British tourists
of Pakistani descent and so forth.

Timed for the November elections, Bush moves on Congress, complete with
his minions there issuing McCarthyite press releases accusing opposing
Democrats, in the words of House Speaker, Dennis Hastert (R  Ill.), of
voting "in favor of MORE rights for terrorists." (His emphasis)

All this shameless, anti-American unconstitutional bile from the Bushites
comes in the midst of his own top intelligence people reporting that their
President's war in Iraq is providing a recruitment and training ground for
growing numbers of terrorists in Iraq and from other countries. Earlier,
Bush's own CIA Director, Porter Goss, told a Senate Committee the same
thing. Bush's own generals in Iraq also agree. Critics call it pouring
gasoline on a raging fire.

Nonetheless, the closed mind of Mr. Bush, whose foreign-military policies
have upset his mother and father deeply, according to a new book by Bob
Woodward, tells Americans that our country will be in Iraq doing what it
is doing right through his Administration's term ending in January 2009.

Never mind the mounting American casualties, which Bush and Cheney
deliberately undercount (see www.democracyrising.us); never mind the
destruction of Iraq, its enormous civilian casualties and a growing
insurgency and sectarian violence that would not be there without the Bush
occupation. Never mind Bush's sectarian preferences, the Bush economic
decrees, puppet politics and the widely reported Bush blunders and massive
corruption-waste registered by his corporate contracting friends engaged
in reconstruction-so called.

So long as the lawyers and their bar associations in America do not
challenge the advancing dictatorial powers of George W. Bush, so long as
citizen groups, labor unions and libertarians, conservatives and liberals
avoid uniting together, these constitutional crimes against due process,
probable cause, habeas corpus, together with torture and indefinite
imprisonment at the whim of the Executive branch, will worsen and erode
American jurisprudence with serious consequences for both the nation's
security and its liberties.

The White House is on a rampage. The President is a documented lawless,
reckless, arrogant politician whose policies are fueling more terrorism in
the Middle East. Nonetheless, he then turns around and demands more
flagrant over-rides on constitutional safeguards in order to let him fight
terrorism. Quite a convenient vicious circle by him to hoist his daily
politics of fear on the country.

Remember that telling thought by the British Parliamentarian, Edmund
Burke, at the time of the American Revolution: "All that is necessary for
the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

[All that is necessary for the triuimph of good is that evil men do
nothing. -ed]


--------16 of 17--------

How the US Government Planned America's Downfall
The New Face of Class War
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch Special Report
September 30 / October 1, 2006

The attacks on middle-class jobs are lending new meaning to the phrase
"class war". The ladders of upward mobility are being dismantled. America,
the land of opportunity, is giving way to ever deepening polarization
between rich and poor.

The assault on jobs predates the Bush regime. However, the loss of
middle-class jobs has become particularly intense in the 21st century,
and, like other pressing problems, has been ignored by President Bush, who
is focused on waging war in the Middle East and building a police state at
home. The lives and careers that are being lost to the carnage of a
gratuitous war in Iraq are paralleled by the economic destruction of
careers, families, and communities in the U.S.A. Since the days of
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s, the U.S. government has
sought to protect employment of its citizens. Bush has turned his back on
this responsibility. He has given his support to the offshoring of
American jobs that is eroding the living standards of Americans. It is
another example of his betrayal of the public trust.

"Free trade" and "globalization" are the guises behind which class war is
being conducted against the middle class by both political parties.
Patrick J. Buchanan, a three-time contender for the presidential
nomination, put it well when he wrote1 that NAFTA and the various
so-called trade agreements were never trade deals. The agreements were
enabling acts that enabled U.S. corporations to dump their American
workers, avoid Social Security taxes, health care and pensions, and move
their factories offshore to locations where labor is cheap.

The offshore outsourcing of American jobs has nothing to do with free
trade based on comparative advantage. Offshoring is labor arbitrage. First
world capital and technology are not seeking comparative advantage at home
in order to compete abroad. They are seeking absolute advantage abroad in
cheap labor.

Two recent developments made possible the supremacy of absolute over
comparative advantage: the high speed Internet and the collapse of world
socialism, which opened China's and India's vast under-utilized labor
resources to first world capital.

In times past, first world workers had nothing to fear from cheap labor
abroad. Americans worked with superior capital, technology and business
organization. This made Americans far more productive than Indians and
Chinese, and, as it was not possible for U.S. firms to substitute cheaper
foreign labor for U.S. labor, American jobs and living standards were not
threatened by low wages abroad or by the products that these low wages
produced.

The advent of offshoring has made it possible for U.S. firms using first
world capital and technology to produce goods and services for the U.S.
market with foreign labor. The result is to separate Americans' incomes
from the production of the goods and services that they consume. This new
development, often called "globalization," allows cheap foreign labor to
work with the same capital, technology and business know-how as U.S.
workers. The foreign workers are now as productive as Americans, with the
difference being that the large excess supply of labor that overhangs
labor markets in China and India keeps wages in these countries low. Labor
that is equally productive but paid a fraction of the wage is a magnet for
Western capital and technology.

Although a new development, offshoring is destroying entire industries,
occupations and communities in the United States. The devastation of U.S.
manufacturing employment was waved away with promises that a "new economy"
based on high-tech knowledge jobs would take its place. Education and
retraining were touted as the answer.

In testimony before the U.S.-China Commission,2 I explained that
offshoring is the replacement of U.S. labor with foreign labor in U.S.
production functions over a wide range of tradable goods and services.
(Tradable goods and services are those that can be exported or that are
competitive with imports. Nontradable goods and services are those that
only have domestic markets and no import competition. For example, barbers
and dentists offer nontradable services. Examples of nontradable goods are
perishable, locally produced fruits and vegetables and specially
fabricated parts of local machine shops.) As the production of most
tradable goods and services can be moved offshore, there are no
replacement occupations for which to train except in domestic "hands on"
services such as barbers, manicurists, and hospital orderlies. No country
benefits from trading its professional jobs, such as engineering, for
domestic service jobs.

At a Brookings Institution conference in Washington, D.C., in January
2004, I predicted that if the pace of jobs outsourcing and occupational
destruction continued, the U.S. would be a third world country in 20
years. Despite my regular updates on the poor performance of U.S. job
growth in the 21st century, economists have insisted that offshoring is a
manifestation of free trade and can only have positive benefits overall
for Americans.

Reality has contradicted the glib economists. The new high-tech knowledge
jobs are being outsourced abroad even faster than the old manufacturing
jobs. Establishment economists are beginning to see the light. Writing in
Foreign Affairs (March/April 2006), Princeton economist and former Federal
Reserve vice chairman Alan Blinder concludes that economists who insist
that offshore outsourcing is merely a routine extension of international
trade are overlooking a major transformation with significant
consequences. Blinder estimates that 42-56 million American service sector
jobs are susceptible to offshore outsourcing.3 Whether all these jobs
leave, U.S. salaries will be forced down by the willingness of foreigners
to do the work for less.

Software engineers and information technology workers have been especially
hard hit. Jobs offshoring, which began with call centers and back-office
operations, is rapidly moving up the value chain. Business Week's Michael
Mandel4 compared starting salaries in 2005 with those in 2001. He found a
12.7 per cent decline in computer science pay, a 12 per cent decline in
computer engineering pay, and a 10.2 per cent decline in electrical
engineering pay. Marketing salaries experienced a 6.5 per cent decline,
and business administration salaries fell 5.7 per cent. Despite a
make-work law for accountants known by the names of its congressional
sponsors, Sarbanes-Oxley, even accounting majors, were offered 2.3 per
cent less.

Using the same sources as the Business Week article (salary data from the
National Association of Colleges and Employers and Bureau of Labor
Statistics data for inflation adjustment), professor Norm Matloff at the
University of California, Davis, made the same comparison for master's
degree graduates. He found that between 2001 and 2005 starting pay for
master's degrees in computer science, computer engineering, and electrical
engineering fell 6.6 per cent, 13.7 per cent, and 9.4 per cent
respectively.

On February 22, 2006, CNNMoney.com staff writer Shaheen Pasha5 reported
that America's large financial institutions are moving "large portions of
their investment banking operations abroad." Offshoring is now killing
American jobs in research and analytic operations, foreign exchange
trades, and highly complicated credit derivatives contracts. Deal-making
responsibility itself may eventually move abroad. Deloitte Touche says
that the financial services industry will move 20 per cent of its total
costs base offshore by the end of 2010. As the costs are lower in India,
the move will represent more than 20 per cent of the business. A job on
Wall Street is a declining option for bright young persons with high
stress tolerance as America's last remaining advantage is outsourced.

According to Norm Augustine, former CEO of Lockheed Martin, even McDonald
jobs are on the way offshore. Augustine reports that McDonald is
experimenting with replacing error-prone order takers with a system that
transmits orders via satellite to a central location and from there to the
person preparing the order. The technology lets the orders be taken in
India or China at costs below the U.S. minimum wage and without the
liabilities of U.S. employees.

American economists, some from incompetence and some from being bought and
paid for, described globalization as a "win-win" development. It was
supposed to work like this: The U.S. would lose market share in tradable
manufactured goods and make up the job and economic loss with highly
educated knowledge workers. The win for America would be lower-priced
manufactured goods and a white-collar work force. The win for China would
be manufacturing jobs that would bring economic development to that
country.

It did not work out this way, as Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach, formerly
a cheerleader for globalization, recently admitted. It has become apparent
that job creation and real wages in the developed economies are seriously
lagging behind their historical norms as offshore outsourcing displaces
the "new economy" jobs in "software programming, engineering, design, and
the medical profession, as well as a broad array of professionals in the
legal, accounting, actuarial, consulting, and financial services
industries".6 The real state of the U.S. job market is revealed by a
Chicago Sun-Times report on January 26, 2006, that 25,000 people applied
for 325 jobs at a new Chicago Wal-Mart.

According to the BLS payroll jobs data,7 over the past half-decade
(January 2001 - January 2006, the data series available at time of
writing) the U.S. economy created 1,050,000 net new private sector jobs
and 1,009,000 net new government jobs for a total five-year figure of
2,059,000. That is seven million jobs short of keeping up with population
growth, definitely a serious job shortfall.

The BLS payroll jobs data contradict the hype from business organizations,
such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that offshore outsourcing is good
for America. Large corporations, which have individually dismissed
thousands of their U.S. employees and replaced them with foreigners, claim
that jobs outsourcing allows them to save money that can be used to hire
more Americans. The corporations and the business organizations are very
successful in placing this disinformation in the media. The lie is
repeated everywhere and has become a mantra among no-think economists and
politicians. However, no sign of these jobs can be found in the payroll
jobs data. But there is abundant evidence of the lost American jobs.

During the past five years (January 01 - January 06), the information
sector of the U.S. economy lost 644,000 jobs, or 17.4 per cent of its work
force. Computer systems design and related work lost 105,000 jobs, or 8.5
per cent of its work force. Clearly, jobs offshoring is not creating jobs
in computers and information technology. Indeed, jobs offshoring is not
even creating jobs in related fields.

U.S. manufacturing lost 2.9 million jobs, almost 17 per cent of the
manufacturing work force. The wipeout is across the board. Not a single
manufacturing payroll classification created a single new job.

The declines in some manufacturing sectors have more in common with a
country undergoing saturation bombing during war than with a
"supereconomy" that is "the envy of the world." In five years,
communications equipment lost 42 per cent of its work force.
Semiconductors and electronic components lost 37 per cent of its work
force . The work force in computers and electronic products declined 30
per cent. Electrical equipment and appliances lost 25 per cent of its
employees. The work force in motor vehicles and parts declined 12 per
cent. Furniture and related products lost 17 per cent of its jobs. Apparel
manufacturers lost almost half of the work force. Employment in textile
mills declined 43 per cent. Paper and paper products lost one-fifth of its
jobs. The work force in plastics and rubber products declined by 15 per
cent.

For the five-year period, U.S. job growth was limited to four areas:
education and health services, state and local government, leisure and
hospitality, and financial services. There was no U.S. job growth outside
these four areas of domestic nontradable services.

Oracle, for example, which has been handing out thousands of pink slips,
has recently announced two thousand more jobs being moved to India.8 How
is Oracle's move of U.S. jobs to India creating American jobs in
nontradable services such as waitresses and bartenders, hospital
orderlies, state and local government, and credit agencies?

Engineering jobs in general are in decline, because the manufacturing
sectors that employ engineers are in decline. During the last five years,
the U.S. work force lost 1.2 million jobs in the manufacture of machinery,
computers, electronics, semiconductors, communication equipment,
electrical equipment, motor vehicles, and transportation equipment. The
BLS payroll jobs numbers show a total of 69,000 jobs created in all fields
of architecture and engineering, including clerical personnel, over the
past five years. That comes to a mere 14,000 jobs per year (including
clerical workers). What is the annual graduating class in engineering and
architecture? How is there a shortage of engineers when more graduate than
can be employed?

Of course, many new graduates take jobs opened by retirements. We would
have to know the retirement rates to get a solid handle on the fate of new
graduates. But this fate cannot be very pleasant , with declining
employment in the manufacturing sectors that employ engineers and a
minimum of 65,000 H-1B work visas annually for foreigners plus an
indeterminate number of L-1 work visas.

It is not only the Bush regime that bases its policies on lies. Not
content with moving Americans' jobs abroad, corporations want to fill the
jobs remaining in America with foreigners on work visas. Business
organizations allege shortages of engineers, scientists and even nurses.
Business organizations have successfully used pubic relations firms and
bought-and-paid-for "economic studies" to convince policymakers that
American business cannot function without H-1B visas that permit the
importation of indentured employees from abroad who are paid less than the
going U.S. salaries. The so-called shortage is, in fact, a replacement of
American employees with foreign employees, with the soon-to-be-discharged
American employee first required to train his replacement.

It is amazing to see free-market economists rush to the defense of H-1B
visas. The visas are nothing but a subsidy to U.S. companies at the
expense of U.S. citizens. Keep in mind this H-1B subsidy to U.S.
corporations for employing foreign workers in place of Americans as we
examine the Labor Department's job projections over the 2004-2014 decade.

All of the occupations with the largest projected employment growth (in
terms of the number of jobs) over the next decade are in nontradable
domestic services. The top ten sources of the most jobs in "superpower"
America are: retail salespersons, registered nurses, postsecondary
teachers, customer service representatives, janitors and cleaners, waiters
and waitresses, food preparation (includes fast food), home health aides,
nursing aides, orderlies and attendants, general and operations managers.9
Note than none of this projected employment growth will contribute one
nickel toward producing goods and services that could be exported to help
close the huge U.S. trade deficit. Note, also, that few of these job
classifications require a college education.

Among the fastest growing occupations (in terms of rate of growth), seven
of the ten are in health care and social assistance. The three remaining
fields are: network systems and data analysis with 126,000 jobs projected,
or 12,600 per year; computer software engineering applications with
222,000 jobs projected, or 22,200 per year; and computer software
engineering systems software with 146,000 jobs projected, or 14,600 per
year.10

Assuming these projections are realized, how many of the computer
engineering and network systems jobs will go to Americans? Not many,
considering the 65,000 H-1B visas each year (bills have been introduced in
Congress to raise the number) and the loss during the past five years of
761,000 jobs in the information sector and computer systems design and
related sectors.

Judging from its ten-year jobs projections, the U.S. Department of Labor
does not expect to see any significant high-tech job growth in the U.S.The
knowledge jobs are being outsourced even more rapidly than the
manufacturing jobs. The so-called "new economy" was just another hoax
perpetrated on the American people.

If outsourcing jobs offshore is good for U.S. employment, why won't the
U.S. Department of Commerce release the 200-page, $335,000 study of the
impact of the offshoring of U.S. high-tech jobs? Republican political
appointees reduced the 200-page report to 12 pages of public relations
hype and refuse to allow the Technology Administration experts who wrote
the report to testify before Congress. Democrats on the House Science
Committee are unable to pry the study out of the hands of Commerce
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. On March 29, 2006, Republicans on the House
Science Committee voted down a resolution (H.Res. designed to force the
Commerce Department to release the study to Congress. Obviously, the facts
don't fit the Bush regime's globalization hype.

The BLS payroll data that we have been examining tracks employment by
industry classification. This is not the same thing as occupational
classification. For example, companies in almost every industry and area
of business employ people in computer-related occupations. A recent study
from the Association for Computing Machinery claims, "Despite all the
publicity in the United States about jobs being lost to India and China,
the size of the IT employment market in the United States today is higher
than it was at the height of the dot.com boom. Information technology
appears as though it will be a growth area at least for the coming
decade."

We can check this claim by turning to the BLS Occupational Employment
Statistics.11 We will look at "computer and mathematical employment"12 and
"architecture and engineering employment".13

Computer and mathematical employment includes such fields as "software
engineers applications," "software engineers systems software," "computer
programmers," "network systems and data communications," and
"mathematicians." Has this occupation been a source of job growth? In
November of 2000 this occupation employed 2,932,810 people.14 In November
of 2004 (the latest data available), this occupation employed 2,932,790,
or 20 people fewer. Employment in this field has been stagnant for four
years.

During these four years, there have been employment shifts within the
various fields of this occupation. For example, employment of computer
programmers declined by 134,630, while employment of software engineers
applications rose by 65,080, and employment of software engineers systems
software rose by 59,600. (These shifts probably merely reflect change in
job title from programmer to software engineer.)

These figures do not tell us whether any gain in software engineering jobs
went to Americans. According to professor Norm Matloff, in 2002 there were
463,000 computer-related H-1B visa holders in the U.S. Similarly, the
134,630 lost computer programming jobs (if not merely a job title change)
may have been outsourced offshore to foreign affiliates.

Architecture and engineering employment includes all the architecture and
engineering fields except software engineering. The total employment of
architects and engineers in the U.S. declined by 120,700 between November
1999 and November 2004. Employment declined by 189,940 between November
2000 and November 2004, and by 103,390 between November 2001 and November
2004.

There are variations among fields. Between November 2000 and November
2004, for example, U.S. employment of electrical engineers fell by 15,280.
Employment of computer hardware engineers rose by 15,990 (possibly these
are job title reclassifications). Overall, however, over 100,000
engineering jobs were lost. We do not know how many of the lost jobs were
outsourced offshore to foreign affiliates or how many American engineers
were dismissed and replaced by foreign holders of H-1B or L-1 visas.

Clearly, engineering and computer-related employment in the U.S.A. has not
been growing, whether measured by industry or by occupation. Moreover,
with a half million or more foreigners in the U.S. on work visas, the
overall employment numbers do not represent employment of Americans.

American employees have been abandoned by American corporations and by
their representatives in Congress. America remains a land of opportunity
but for foreigners not for the native born. A country whose work force is
concentrated in domestic nontradable services has no need for scientists
and engineers and no need for universities. Even the projected jobs in
nursing and school teaching can be filled by foreigners on H-1B visas.

The myth has been firmly established here that the jobs the U.S. is
outsourcing offshore are being replaced with better jobs. There is no sign
of these jobs in the payroll jobs data or in the occupational employment
statistics. When a country loses entry-level jobs, it has no one to
promote to senior level jobs. When manufacturing leaves, so does
engineering, design, research and development, and innovation itself.

On February 16, 2006, the New York Times reported on a new study presented
to the National Academies that concludes that outsourcing is climbing the
skills ladder.15 A survey of 200 multinational corporations representing
15 industries in the U.S.and Europe found that 38 per cent planned to
change substantially the worldwide distribution of their research and
development work, sending it to India and China. According to the New York
Times, "More companies in the survey said they planned to decrease
research and development employment in the United States and Europe than
planned to increase employment."

The study and the discussion it provoked came to untenable remedies. Many
believe that a primary reason for the shift of R&D to India and China is
the erosion of scientific prowess in the U.S. due to lack of math and
science proficiency of American students and their reluctance to pursue
careers in science and engineering. This belief begs the question why
students would chase after careers that are being outsourced abroad.

The main author of the study, Georgia Tech professor Marie Thursby,
believes that American science and engineering depend on having "an
environment that fosters the development of a high-quality work force and
productive collaboration between corporations and universities." The dean
of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks the
answer is to recruit the top people in China and India and bring them to
Berkeley. No one seems to understand that research, development, design,
and innovation take place in countries where things are made. The loss of
manufacturing means ultimately the loss of engineering and science. The
newest plants embody the latest technology. If these plants are abroad,
that is where the cutting edge resides.

The denial of jobs reality has become an art form for economists,
libertarians, the Bush regime, and journalists. Except for CNN's Lou
Dobbs, no accurate reporting is available in the "mainstream media."

Economists have failed to examine the incompatibility of offshoring with
free trade. Economists are so accustomed to shouting down protectionists
that they dismiss any complaint about globalization's impact on domestic
jobs as the ignorant voice of a protectionist seeking to preserve the
buggy whip industry. Matthew J. Slaughter, a Dartmouth economics professor
rewarded for his service to offshoring with appointment to President
Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, suffered no harm to his reputation
when he wrote, "For every one job that U.S. multinationals created abroad
in their foreign affiliates, they created nearly two U.S. jobs in their
parent operations." In other words, Slaughter claims that offshoring is
creating more American jobs than foreign ones.

How did Slaughter arrive at this conclusion? Not by consulting the BLS
payroll jobs data or the BLS Occupational Employment Statistics. Instead,
Slaughter measured the growth of U.S. multinational employment and failed
to take into account the two reasons for the increase in multinational
employment: (1) Multinationals acquired many existing smaller firms, thus
raising multinational employment but not overall employment, and (2) many
U.S. firms established foreign operations for the first time and thereby
became multinationals, thus adding their existing employment to
Slaughter's number for multinational employment.

ABC News' John Stossel, a libertarian hero, recently made a similar error.
In debunking Lou Dobbs' concern with U.S. jobs lost to offshore
outsourcing, Stossel invoked the California-based company, Collabnet. He
quotes the CEO's claim that outsourcing saves his company money and lets
him hire more Americans. Turning to Collabnet's webpage, it is very
instructive to see the employment opportunities that the company posts for
the United States and for India.

In India, Collabnet has openings (at time of writing) for eight engineers,
a sales engineer, a technical writer, and a telemarketing representative.
In the U.S. Collabnet has openings for one engineer, a receptionist/office
assistant, and positions in marketing, sales, services and operations.
Collabnet is a perfect example of what Lou Dobbs and I report: the
engineering and design jobs move abroad, and Americans are employed to
sell and market the foreign-made products.

Other forms of deception are widely practiced. For example, Matthew
Spiegleman, a Conference Board economist, claims that manufacturing jobs
are only slightly higher paid than domestic service jobs, so there is no
meaningful loss in income to Americans from offshoring. He reaches this
conclusion by comparing only hourly pay and leaving out the longer
manufacturing workweek and the associated benefits, such as health care
and pensions.

Occasionally, however, real information escapes the spin machine. In
February 2006 the National Association of Manufacturers, one of
offshoring's greatest boosters, released a report, "U.S. Manufacturing
Innovation at Risk," by economists Joel Popkin and Kathryn Kobe.16 The
economists find that U.S. industry's investment in research and
development is not languishing after all. It just appears to be
languishing, because it is rapidly being shifted overseas: "Funds provided
for foreign-performed R&D have grown by almost 73 per cent between 1999
and 2003, with a 36 per cent increase in the number of firms funding
foreign R&D."

U.S. industry is still investing in R&D after all; it is just not hiring
Americans to do the research and development. U.S. manufacturers still
make things, only less and less in America with American labor. U.S.
manufacturers still hire engineers, only they are foreign ones, not
American ones.

In other words, everything is fine for U.S. manufacturers. It is just
their former American work force that is in the doldrums. As these
Americans happen to be customers for U.S. manufacturers, U.S. brand names
will gradually lose their U.S. market. U.S. household median income has
fallen for the past five years. Consumer demand has been kept alive by
consumers' spending their savings and home equity and going deeper into
debt. It is not possible for debt to forever rise faster than income.

The United States is the first country in history to destroy the prospects
and living standards of its labor force. It is amazing to watch
freedom-loving libertarians and free-market economists serve as apologists
for the dismantling of the ladders of upward mobility that made the
America of old an opportunity society.

America is seeing a widening polarization into rich and poor. The
resulting political instability and social strife will be terrible.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan
administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal
editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor
of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts [at] yahoo.com

[And what is the Democratic Party doing to fix this? Nothing that I can
see. Yet we will be told we must surrender to it as the "lesser evil".
More years - how many more? - of doing nothing while America burns.
Lesser-evil Dems are *the* obstacle to a better tomorrow.  -ed]


--------17 of 17-------

"America": New Lyrics for a New Dark Age
By DAVE LINDORFF

(with apologies to Stephen Smith)

My country 'tis of thee
Once known for liberty, for thee I weep.
Land where our fathers died,
Now prisoners won't be tried,
Torture and spies abide, while we all sleep.

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free, no longer so;
Presidents now make war,
Don't even say what for;
While Congress hides behind closed doors, and won't say no.

Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees, sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let us our silence break, and right this wrong.

Our Founders now to thee,
Authors of liberty, we make this vow:
No more will tyrants vain
Our Constitution stain
We will our rights regain. That's starting now!

Dave Lindorff lives in Philly.


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