Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 10.09.06

[David Shove (shove001]

              P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    10.09.06

1. Kolstad/no MPR       10.10 8:30am
2. KFAI/Bioneers        10.10 11am
3. Cop/brutality/chief  10.10 3:30pm
4. Genocide tribunals   10.10 4pm
5. CCHT housing         10.10 4:30pm
6. Bryn Mawr vigil      10.10 5pm
7. Rita Webb            10.10 5pm
8. Kolstad/AG/health    10.10 6:30pm
9. Iraq/film            10.10 7pm
10. Iraq/film           10.10 7pm
11. Candidate forum     10.10 7pm
12. Cancer/philanthropy 10.10 7pm
13. Impeach for peace   10.10 7pm

14. Papa John signs/$$

15. Manuel Valenzuela - America the tyranny/the road to authoritarianism
16. ed                - Enemy combatant from hell  (poem)

--------1 of 16--------

From: Krisrose02 [at] aol.com
Subject: Kolstad/no MPR 10.10o 8:30am

Our Green Party candidate, Papa John Kolstad, is being excluded from the
Attorney General candidate debate on MPR on the Midmorning show 9 am --
Tuesday the 10

This show will have a LIVE Audience!  get tickets at www.mpr.org, click on
"events".  You will have to register to get tickets.

Action Alert:: Let's all get to this to stand in solidarity with Papa
John. Be in the audience, more info to follow. Even if you can't go ==
Register.  This is important.  Even if you can't attend please register
anyway.

Kristen Olson 651-210-0789


--------2 of 16--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: KFAI/Bioneers 10.10 11am

Tue.OCT. 10, 11am,on "Catalyst",VANDA VADEN, of the Northland Bioneers
will talk  about the upcoming Conference(OCT.20-22 @
MCTC).As people increasingly become aware of the environment, they want
to know what they can do about:
- global warming
- designing energy efficient, non-toxic homes
- eating healthy -- learning about organic foods
- living a vibrant, sustainable life
These people are called Bioneers, and they will be gathering in the Twin
Cities at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College Oct. 20-22.
Press release: http://www.nbconference.org/080606-release.html

This annual event held for 17-years out of San Rafael, California, the
Bioneers Conference is all about gathering visionary environmentalists and
scientific innovators to explore practical solutions to today's most
pressing environmental and social challenges.  Due to it's increasing
popularity, they offer regional satellite conferences and Minneapolis has
been selected to host the first Northland Bioneers Conference, drawing
people from the five-state region. http://www.nbconference.org

Bioneers are scientists and artists, gardeners and economists, activists
and public servants, architects and ecologists, farmers and journalists,
priests and CEOs, policymakers and citizens. They are everyday people in
our community committed to preserving and supporting the future of life on
Earth. "Catalyst:politics&culture",hosted by Lydia Howell Tues.11am, KFAI,
90.1fm Mpls 106.7 fm St Paul, all shows archived for 2 weeks after
broadcast @ http://www.kfai.org


--------3 of 16--------

From: Michelle Gross <mgresist [at] minn.net>
Subject: Cop/brutality/chief 10.10 3:30pm

TIM DOLAN: WRONG CHOICE FOR CHIEF
RALLY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY AND
FOR A BETTER CHOICE FOR POLICE CHIEF
Tuesday, October 10
3:30pm
City Hall
4th Street at 4th Avenue, Minneapolis

After a virtually non-existent selection process with no opportunity for
input from the community, Mayor RT Rybak has nominated Tim Dolan, interim
chief, to take over the role permanently.  Many in the community are angry
at both the process and the candidate.  Dolan is a cops' cop who seems to
think that cops own this town and can do no wrong.

Tim Dolan is the wrong guy for the job for lots of reasons (and these are
just a few):
    * Dolan was in charge of the 4th precinct during the Terrell Oliver
and Julius Powell shootings - which sparked the uprising that led to
federal mediation and a class-action lawsuit against the city.
    * Dolan flat refuses to implement the terms of the federal mediation
agreement.  After the city's police psychologist (who conducts
psychological screenings of candidates) was outed as a racist and
homophobe, the PCRC demanded he be fired and the city agreed.  Dolan
claims to have had a private conversation with him, after which he was put
him back into the same job where he blocked perfectly good candidates and
contributed to decreased diversity in the department.
    * Dolan has played a key role in the practice of not disciplining
sustained Civilian Review Authority complaints, leaving the community no
recourse against brutal cops.
    * Dolan dismisses sustained Internal Affairs cases.  In one case,
officers were caught on tape kicking out the teeth of a handcuffed man.
Internal Affairs recommended the officers be fired but Dolan overrode the
recommendation and dismissed the case.
    * Dolan was complicit in giving a medal to killer cop Dan May for
shooting unarmed teenager Tycel Nelson in the back, even posing with May
for pictures after the awards ceremony.
    * Under Dolan, Jason King and Lawrence Loonsfoot - cops who have been
involved in other outrageous police brutality incidents and
shootings-gunned down unarmed, mentally disturbed Dominic Felder after his
family called seeking help.  Both of these killer cops are back on the
street, thanks to Dolan.
    * The police chief is supposed to live in the city but Dolan doesn't
think Minneapolis is good enough for him.  Rybak is giving him special
dispensation to continue to live in Edina. After criticism by the
community over the process and the candidate, Rybak and Co. went to work
to prop up their boy - aided and abetted by the city administration's
mouthpiece, the Star Tribune.  The Strib was all ready to publish a
nice-guy puff piece on Dolan when the Felder killing went down.  That
killing and a subsequent PCRC vote of "no confidence" in Dolan seriously
threatened his nomination.  The Strib temporarily pulled back that piece
but launched a series of articles reporting the cops' version of the
Felder incident as if it was gospel fact, and included references to
community leaders and the family that attempted to make us all look loony
for demanding justice.  The way that paper does Rybak's bidding is truly
shameless.

Meanwhile, as it became apparent that the Felder shooting would not be an
easy killing to justify, Dolan's band of thugs went into their own brand
of crisis management.  MPD cops and Hennepin County sheriff's deputies
began a campaign of intimidation against the family and community.  There
were telephone calls made to restaurants on the southside alleging a
"black gang" plot to shoot cops in their establishments.  A known gang
member, Stephen Banks, was arrested but then released.  Lamar Felder,
20-year-old brother of Dominic and a witness to his killing, was also
arrested and charged with "making terroristic threats."  Cops managed to
find a judge on Sunday who would issue a $50,000 bond to hold him.  When
these charges were proven to be groundless, prosecutors flipped the script
by dropping them and putting him on a parole hold.  He is STILL in
Hennepin County jail - a dangerous place for a witness to a police murder.
There have been other actions toward the family in an effort to intimidate
them, along with widespread police harassment of the community on the
southside as the cops scrambled to clamp down on the righteous anger of
the community.

In the meantime, city council members were up to their own brand of
foolishness.  While the southside was turning into a tinderbox, council
members on the executive committee threw gasoline on the fire by voting
4-1 to move Rybak's nomination of Dolan forward.  While we expect such
behavior from some of the chronically out-of-touch-with-reality members of
that body, we are damned disappointed that Cam Gordon went along with the
majority, despite receiving letters telling him the situation and begging
him to at least hold off on the vote.  Afterwards, he issued a simpy reply
to the community about why he would not use his power as a member of the
executive committee - "I don't support that kind of delay."  If he and
other members who claimed to oppose Dolan's nomination had voted the way
they talk, they would have sent Rybak back to the drawing board.  Rybak
could have renominated Dolan two weeks later but a no vote would have sent
a clear message to Rybak and if it happened repeatedly would have forced
him to come up with another candidate.

Gordon somewhat redeemed himself by co-authoring - along with Elizabeth
Glidden and Betsy Hodges - a memo to Rybak outlining concerns over Dolan
and proposing a list of reforms.  A copy of the memo can be viewed at
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/717439.html To quote the memo, "we
have unanswered questions and concerns about Interim Chief Dolan's ability
to move the Minneapolis Police Department in the right direction."
Problem is, Gordon didn't exercise his power in his very key role as a
member of the executive committee when he had the chance.  You can shout
your issues from the rooftop but if you don't act on them, it does little
good.  Further, he added in his letter on why he voted for Dolan that
during the next round of voting, "I have not decided whether I will vote
for him then or not."  Not exactly a guy we can count on in a crunch.

Rybak defended Dolan in his own memo, filled to the brim with
mischaracterizations if not outright lies.   That memo can be found at
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/717446.html The part about Tim Dolan
being a change agent is a real hoot.  Dolan's complicity in awarding Dan
May a medal for shooting  Tycel Nelson in the back, his dismissal of
Internal Affairs complaints and his refusal to discipline sustained CRA
complaints gives a pretty good indication of the kind of "change agent" he
is likely to be if the gets the job.  Let's take action NOW to make sure he
doesn't.


--------4 of 16--------

From: Stephen Feinstein <feins001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Genocide tribunals 10.10 4pm

A CHGS AND Institute for Advanced Study event:
"Genocide Tribunals: Native Human Rights and Survivance"
A talk by Gerald Vizenor
Tuesday, October 10, 4pm
125 Nolte Center

A lecture by author Gerald Vizenor, Professor of American Studies at the
University of New Mexico and Professor Emeritus at the University of
California, Berkeley, who proposes establishing formal tribunals in
various states to indict and prosecute alleged perpetrators, in absentia,
of crimes against humanity and Native American Indians, according to
international conventions and declarations.


--------5 of 16--------

From: Philip Schaffner <PSchaffner [at] ccht.org>
Subject: CCHT housing 10.10 4:30pm

Learn how Central Community Housing Trust is responding to the affordable
housing shortage in the Twin Cities. Please join us for a 1-hour Building
Dreams presentation.

Minneapolis Sessions: Oct 10 at 4:30p
St. Paul Sessions: Oct 18 at 4:30p

We are also happy to present Building Dreams at your organization, place
of worship, or business. Space is limited, please register online at:
www.ccht.org/bd or call Philip Schaffner at 612-341-3148 x237

Central Community Housing Trust 1625 Park Avenue Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 341-3148 www.ccht.org


--------6 of 16--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Bryn Mawr vigil 10.10 5pm

New Vigil: Bryn Mawr Peace Vigil Vigil Every Tuesday, 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Penn Avenue Just North of 394. Vigil for Peace during rush hour in the
Bryn Mawr neighborhood.


--------7 of 16--------

From: Nonviolent Peaceforce <MelDuncan [at] NonviolentPeaceforce.org>
Subject: Rita Webb 10.10 5pm

Tuesday Oct 10, 5PM -7PM to meet Nonviolent Peaceforce field team member,
Rita Webb who is in town for a short vacation from her work in Sri Lanka.
Rita,who is from Eau Claire Wisconsin, has been a team member since the
summer of 2003. In 2005 her husband Marty, retired from his work and moved
to Sri Lanka to join her. Together they will share stories and bring to
life the work the NP team members are doing.

At the
Nonviolent Peaceforce office
425 Oak Grove
Minneapolis, 55403
Parking in St Marks Cathedral lot next door
or Episcopal Community Services lot behind the building.
wine and cheese

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From shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu Mon Oct  9 00:56:17 2006
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 23:29:37 -0500 (CDT)
From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
To: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Meet team member Rita Webb  Oct 10 (fwd)





---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 23:11:44 -0500
From: Nonviolent Peaceforce <MelDuncan [at] NonviolentPeaceforce.org>
To: David E Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Meet team member Rita Webb  Oct 10

       Please Join Us

Tuesday Oct 10, 5PM -7PM  to meet Nonviolent Peaceforce field team member,
Rita Webb who is in town for a short vacation from her work in Sri Lanka.
Rita,who is from Eau Claire Wisconsin, has been a team member since the
summer of 2003. In 2005 her husband Marty, retired from his work and moved
to Sri Lanka to join her. Together they will share stories and bring to
life
the work the NP team members are doing.

At the
Nonviolent Peaceforce office
425 Oak Grove
Minneapolis, 55403
Parking in St Marks Cathedral lot next door
or Episcopal Community Services lot behind the building.
wine and cheese


--------8 of 16--------

From: Patty Guerrero <pattypax [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: Kolstad/AG/health 10.10 6:30pm

This Tuesday, Oct 10, the salon will have John Kolstad as our guest.
John, or Papa John Kolstad as he is well known) will come and talk about
Single Payer Health Care, starting small businesses, and perhaps his run
for Minnesota Attorney General.  John is a pro on single payer issues, and
most of us are not clear on this topic and need all the help we can get to
understand it so we can get better health care in this state and country.

Next Tuesday Oct 17 we will have a 4th Anniversary Party.  Yes, it has
been 4 years since the salons were started, once a week for 4 years.  A
party is in order.  Come and help celebrate and if you want bring some
dish to share.  thanks, patty

Pax Salons ( http://justcomm.org/pax-salon )
are held (unless otherwise noted in advance):
Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm.
Mad Hatter's Tea House,
943 W 7th, St Paul, MN

Salons are free but donations encouraged for program and treats.
Call 651-227-3228 or 651-227-2511 for information.


--------9 of 16--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Iraq/film 10.10 7pm

Tuesday, 10/10, 7 pm, film "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers" from director
Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed, Uncovered, High Cost of Low Price),
Hamline-Midway Library, St Paul.  www.twincities.indymedia.org


--------10 of 16--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Iraq/film 10.10 7pm

Tuesday, 10/10, 7 pm, film "Iraq for Sale" at Chanhassen Library, 7711
Kerber Dr, Chanhassen.  952-443-0697.


--------11 of 16--------

From: Angela Trnka <evolution823 [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Candidate forum 10.10 7pm

Nokomis East Neighborhood Association Candidate Forum
Tuesday, October 10, 7:00-9:00 pm
3701 East 50th Street, South Minneapolis

Nokomis East Neighborhood Association is planning a Candidate Forum, in
cooperation with Minnehaha United Methodist Church (MUMC).

This post-primary Forum will include the candidates on the General
Election Ballot for the 5th District Congressional Race and the Hennepin
County 4th District Race, including Green Party Endorsed candidate Farheen
Hakeem.


--------12 of 16--------

From: Write On Radio <writeonradio [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Cancer/philanthropy 10.10 7pm

7pm Samantha King discusses her book, Pink Ribbons, Inc. Breast Cancer and
the Politics of Philanthropy, a critical analysis of breast cancer
philanthropy. Amazon Bookstore Cooperative, 4755 Chicago Ave. S., Mpls;
612-821-9630.


--------13 of 16--------

From: admin <lists [at] impeachforpeace.org>
Subject: Impeach for peace 10.10 7pm

Minnesota Action Steps:

Come to our Organizing Meeting this Tuesday, October 10th from 7-9 p.m in
room 175 of the Lehmann Center at 1006 West Lake Street in Uptown,
Minneapolis (West Lake Street and South Colfax Avenue):

Review photos and reports of the Mass Mobilization protest in Minneapolis
on October 5th: http://impeachforpeace.org/events/oct5.html

Things you can do right now: http://impeachforpeace.org/ActionSteps.html


--------14 of 16--------

From: Sue Kolstad <sue [at] millcitymusic.com>
Subject: Papa John signs/$$

PJK Lawnsigns and Fundraiser

Papa John Kolstad has lawn signs available for those who support his
campaign for Minnesota Attorney General.  If you have a spot for a lawn
sign and want to show your support, call 612-321-2007 to arrange for a
sign.  Or email to inf [at] papajohnkolstad.org We would like to get all ofthe
signs placed as soon as possible.

This is the only way to let people know he is running because Papa John is
being prohibited from participating in the debates.  Minnesota Public
Radio refuses to allow Papa John in their debate. [So don't send them any
money. I don't listen. -ed]

It is helpful if you can pick the lawn sign up at Lawn Sign HQ.  We will
tell you locations when you call. If you cannot pick signs up we will
arrange to drop off your sign.  Call 612-321-2007 or 612-321-9118 for
signs and other information.

We appreciate donations to cover the cost of the signs if you can.
http://www.papajohnkolstad.org/ <http://www.papajohnkolstad.org/>

Fundraiser * Fundraiser * Fundraiser * Fundraiser * Fundraiser *
Fundraiser * Fundraiser

Phil Wilkie is hosting a fundraiser for Papa John at his house on
October13, 7:00 to 9:00PM Come talk to the candidate 3853 Pleasant Ave.
Minneapolis 612-822-0522


--------15 of 16--------

Manuel Valenzuela is a social critic and commentator, international
affairs analyst and Internet essayist. His articles as well as his archive
can be found at his blog, http://www.valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com and
at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info as well as at other
alternative news websites from around the globe. Mr. Valenzuela is also
author of Echoes in the Wind, a fiction novel. Mr. Valenzuela welcomes
comments and can be reached at manuel [at] valenzuelas.net

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article15208.htm

America the Tyranny
The Road to Authoritarianism
By Manuel Valenzuela

10/03/06 "Information Clearing House" -- -- Behold and bear witness to
what has become of America, in this era of uncertainty and bewilderment,
in this time of fear and intimidation, that since towers were brought down
and demolished has methodically fallen into the viper pit of neocon
decadence, becoming, as it stands today, an authoritarian's heaven and a
corporatist's promised land, its people ignorant, as always, to the
barrage of waves systemically eroding centuries of rights, freedoms and
liberties.

From sea to shining sea, despotism is what today those who pay attention
see.

The road to fascism is being paved at a clandestine yet alarming velocity,
across valleys, prairies and forests, surrounding cites, towns and states,
from Atlantic to Pacific, immersing 300 million individuals into a fog of
engendered tyranny, who without a care or whisper or concern remain
trapped by comfortable surroundings born through perpetual indebtedness.
Even as their rights and freedoms and liberties are made to disappear,
even as their Constitution is burned, even as their nation hangs on the
precipice of despotism, even as their collective destiny is being
destroyed those residing inside the belly of the beast hear no evil, see
no evil and feel no evil, preferring to gossip about pedophile politicians
and celebrity failings than informing themselves to the last throes of the
American republic.

The waves of autocracy are upon the shores of America, the demons of the
past find themselves resurrected once again, free to unleash fear,
intimidation and enslavement onto hundreds of millions of human beings.
The high tide of tyranny has returned from the unlearned lessons of
history, again engulfing humankind with human wickedness and Machiavellian
rule, soon to subjugate the masses in the slavery endemic throughout man's
brief ­ yet thoroughly destructive ­ reign over Earth.

Authoritarianism has woken from its dormant slumber, ready to terrorize
yet one more human generation, for while it meticulously rises and
stretches out its arms, ready to spread its omnipotent disease, it has
lived and thrived since the dawn of man, accompanying humankind wherever
we might go, since man alone creates and grants it life. Indeed, it is
those who have seen it rise before that today see it birthed again. Its
symptoms are apparent, its dangers known; the stages of tyranny are
remembered, for they are never forgotten. It is those who have been
witness to and victims of its malevolence that see the approaching storm
clearest; it is they whose experienced eyes and mature minds that are
sounding alarms. Fascism, under the guise of protection, freedom and
security, is upon us.

To those paying attention, the evolution of the coming tyranny has been
apparent since 9/11, when the Twin Towers, America's Reichstag Fire, were
pulverized into nothingness by demolition explosives, in a declaration of
psychological war upon the American people. On 9/11 the Earth stood still,
as if the collective consciousness of the world awoke to a most ominous
catastrophic and catalyzing event that would send the world entire down a
vicious circle of death, destruction and despotism. On that day, the
future course of human civilization was altered, spawning the birth pangs
of authoritarianism rising, freedom dying, and of perpetual warfare
breathing its devastating repercussions onto the realities of six billion
human beings.

Almost immediately after those in power had imploded and brought down the
World Trade Center towers upon their own footprints the initial stages of
imposing authoritarianism upon the people were implemented, beginning
first with a Patriot Act whose sheer volume and length betray its
existence pre-dating 9/11. Brought out of the fascist closet and dusted,
it was rushed through the Congress even as the Twin Towers still smoldered
and, for good measure, in the terrifying wake of the still unsolved
anthrax attacks that served both to threaten legislators into compliance
and scaring the populace even further into obedience. The assault on the
lives of Americans had begun and, out of the bowels of our collective
fear, despotism once more breathed life.

                    In Enemies Tyrants Find Life

What was 9/11 but a direct declaration of war against the freedoms, rights
and liberties of America's most cherished documents and principles? What
was it if not the death throes of the Bill of Rights? The New Pearl Harbor
was as much an opportunity to wage war in the Middle East as it was to
eradicate tyranny's impediments in America. The complete assault on the
U.S. Constitution and on 200 years of laws has been possible by the inside
job of 9/11, for it became the catalyst needed to introduce fear into the
populace and authoritarianism into government.

What was the passage of the original Patriot Act if not the first shots
fired in the half-decade long war against our rights and liberties and
freedoms? Make no mistake, for the last five years we have been shocked
and awed into remaining passive and acquiescent automatons as the fascists
in power eradicate ­ slowly but surely ­ what was once a plethora of
enumerated and implied rights, freedoms and liberties. A government
concerned with preserving freedoms and liberties would not try to
eradicate them under the rubric of fighting terrorism. A government
wanting to protect our way of life would not try its hardest to destroy it
as well.

Conveniently, then, in typical fascist behavior, it is the Bush cabal that
tells us terrorists hate us for our freedoms and rights, that they want us
destroyed for our way of life, even as it is the cabal itself that hates
us for our freedoms and rights, wanting to destroy our way of life. By
imputing their desires and wishes onto the fictional barbarian horde, an
unknown dark-skinned entity of alien religion, and knowing the ignorance
and gullibility of the American masses, the fascist cabal can at once
generate fear and hatred among the people while acting to devastate the
nation's freedoms and liberties under the guise of fighting the evildoers.

In reality, terrorism is but the excuse used to curtail our rights; the
dismantling of the Constitution is justified by the fictional threat of
dark-skinned bogeymen, and explains why the government, as well as its
corporate media collaborators, has been relentless in the perpetual
dissemination of propaganda trying to convince us of our imminent peril.
The tyrants and their collaborators depend on the fear of the masses to
grant sustenance to the momentum used to demolish the foundations of the
republic. The emotional fortification created by fear thus ensures that
the primitive human brain will cease to think logically and analytically,
enabling the wisdom of reason to be usurped by the reptilian and mammalian
desire for survival. Without some semblance of thinking by the masses, who
by fear are relegated to the role of sheep, the authoritarians in power
are free to pursue the evisceration of all burdensome rights and freedoms
that interfere with their long-held goals.

Under the guise of fighting terrorism ­ a terrorism the government itself
creates, perpetuates, expands, nurtures and helps grow ­ the Constitution
as we know it is being dismantled, not by terrorist evildoers intent on
destroying us, but by our own government intent on destroying our way of
life. For a government need not eviscerate a nation's laws, protections,
guarantees, rights, freedoms and liberties to guarantee security. It need
not introduce a police state that destroys the way of life for 300 million
individuals. This government is pursuing the dismantling of the
Constitution and our laws not for fighting terror but to fight the
American people. It is doing this in a methodical, some would say
obsessive, desire to erode rights and freedoms, grant unlimited powers to
the executive and silence dissent because in doing so it is removing the
barriers that have for decades impeded authoritarians and corporatists
from implementing their vision of the world. As such, the last remaining
vestiges of American freedoms and rights are all that stand between
fascists and their despotic nirvana. With the relative ease by which they
have eviscerated so many laws and rights since 9/11, it is these few
liberties left that will be targeted next, becoming easy pickings on the
road to full fledged American tyranny.

Already, the government has been granted the right to enter our homes
without a warrant and without our knowledge. It can ask for and get
library records when it chooses. It has the right to pick us off the
street and take us into custody without probable cause. It can wiretap any
phone it wants, as well as listen in to any voice message in the country,
monitoring our private conversations. Today we are regularly surveilled
upon, our histories deciphered, our lives dissected. Our Internet
activities are frequently monitored, our emails read and scrutinized.
Technology has allowed the government the capacity to overlook our
movements using the ever-expanding public cameras, as well as each and
every activity we do using our credit or debit cards. It can track our
financial records as well as our purchases, all the while gathering files
with our complete, bio-metric information. It can do all this in secrecy,
without transparency, without accountability, without needing the color of
law as a guiding instrument nor the legality of honest governance for
inspiration. Activists and dissidents are spied upon and harassed, their
activities monitored. Enemies of the state have their names placed on
various lists, prohibiting them from enjoying the daily rights afforded to
millions.

Free speech is oftentimes relegated to small corrals, called free speech
zones by the fascists. The right to assemble is oftentimes denied, as the
state tries to prevent the people from protesting and massing in numbers.
More and more, to question the actions of governance is to be called a
traitor, treasonous, an abettor of the enemy, a terrorist appeaser. To
dissent and protest is to risk being labeled unpatriotic, un-American, an
enemy of freedom. Yet it is those few thousands, out of a total population
of 300 million, scattered in small clusters throughout the vast lands that
comprise America, that are the true patriots, the true Americans, fighting
for their nation, their rights and freedoms, fighting the real evildoers
and terrorists. They are the real brave heroes of the republic, escaping
the culture of cowardice, sacrificing beautiful minds full of Kool-Aid and
comfort in order to confront the distressing truths of emerging tyranny.
It is they fighting evil, trying to stop its carnage upon the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights, trying to prevent it from triumphing, from
destroying everything we hold dear, and take for granted. It is they who
are Americans and they who are the new patriots. Yet it is also they who
will be first to suffer the ramifications of a despotic America, for
authoritarians hate dissent, protest and truth.

For those paying attention to the reality of America today and not to the
distractions of a 500 ring circus saturated with distraction, gossip,
celebrity, inconsequential political news of typical Republican debased
behavior, and mind-numbing entertainment, the road to tyranny has
continued on its seemingly unstoppable momentum, with each new year since
9/11 presenting new attacks on civil liberties, human rights and our
cherished freedoms.

Every year has seen an attempt at expanding the powers of the executive,
to the point where the President is today, for all intents and purposes, a
dictator. He is free to interpret the law as he sees fit, using the over
700 signing statements to ignore laws passed by the legislature. He has
reigned over an era of untold secrecy, where the state is no longer
transparent and accountable. He has expanded greatly illegal wiretaps,
warrants and domestic spying, increasing the mechanisms needed by a
budding police state to thrive and grow. Congress has become but a rubber
stamp legislature, as has the Supreme Court, itself now controlled by Bush
yes-men. Using the presidential bully pulpit, he has transformed millions
of Americans into quasi-authoritarians, followers one and all, ready to
follow tyrant's folly straight into human wickedness.

Today, the president claims himself the unitary executive, the Dictator in
Chief, possessing absolute power, doing what he wants, when he wants and
without a care in the world that he will ever be held to account. This is
dictatorship. This is the end of America as we knew her and the birth of
an America we wish never to know.

          Tyranny Nurtured Through the Bosom of Lady Liberty

Such is the power of the president that the corporate media ­ today's
Ministry of Truth ­ serves his every wish, protecting him from truth being
exposed, incompetence being discovered and his authority being questioned.
The executive branch has not seen this level of unfettered and untouched
power since the establishment of the republic. Indeed, it is the executive
branch that has facilitated the rise of fascism since 9/11, from the
Department of State to the Attorney General to the Department of War,
through the CIA, NSA and FBI, with authoritarians at the helm prevalent in
the various departments pursuing the establishment of despotic policies.

It is inside the executive branch where tyranny is being nurtured and
raised, where it is feeding off the bosom of Lady Liberty, making her
weaker by the day, growing ever stronger from its parasitic usurpation of
governance, protected and guided until that time when its strength and
maturity is ready to extend its power into omnipresent perpetuity. In the
halls of power fascism rises; throughout Washington the last vestiges of
freedom are under direct assault. Despotism is being set in motion, it is
being prepared and orchestrated, slowly yet surely being implemented
throughout the mechanisms of the state. It is being molded according to
American culture, according to American thought, growing at its own pace
and under different conditions, evolving like organisms do, differing from
other forms of despotism according to blood and environment, according to
time and place. Yet approaching it remains, like a gathering storm of
unnerving energy ready to strike relentlessly throughout the landscape,
transforming an America we knew into a nation of wickedness and
malevolence, of the worst in the human condition. Its tentacles are now in
place, freedoms and rights have been made weak, it is now only a matter of
time before what has arrived makes itself fully known and what is about to
be made fully known eradicates an America that has only existed in the
delusions and dreams of the brainwashed.

Unlike Hollywood reality and events move at their own accord and pace,
possessing the patience fictional movies cannot afford, developing fully
in time and through the magic of fantasy, their creation almost never the
perfection portrayed by acting and editing. As we can see, American
fascism is both completely different than its Nazi counterpart yet eerily
similar in its characteristics. No two forms of tyranny are crafted out of
the same mold. No two systems are born under the same stars, and each
takes into history's cauldron its own personality and traits, its own
crimes and punishments. Yet under the guise of "freedom and democracy,"
under the illusion of the so-called "war on terror," tyranny is being
birthed inside America, born through the hemorrhaging of the World Trade
Center and reared by the incessant fear of hundreds of millions of
American citizens. In the death of 3,000 humans, fascists found new life;
in the demolition of two 110 story monoliths to the nadir of Ground Zero,
criminals and murderers reached the zenith of their power. From Reichstag
Fire to World Trade Center demolition, the more things change the more
things stay the same, and again and again New Pearl Harbors will be
orchestrated from which to usurp power from the People and once again
granting sustenance to tyranny.

Despotism arrives in many forms, under many disguises, and in America,
along with all previous carriers of the disease, the virus has infiltrated
into the consciousness of the ignorant masses under the rubric of waging
peace, bringing security, and under the false assumption that scapegoat
enemies must be defeated in battle, lest they destroy everything we stand
for. That tyranny fails to achieve each measure is never discussed, nor
the fact that authoritarians rely on waging war, fostering insecurity,
concocting ever-newer enemies and destroying everything the people stand
for in order to assure for themselves of greater and absolute power. It is
fascism, after all, that enables authoritarians to control entire
populations through the oppression and subjugation of the citizenry,
usually at the behest of the state and usually using the intimidating
presence of the barrel of the gun and the brute force of the omnipresent
police state.

At no point have American freedoms, rights and liberties been under such
duress than in the last five years, as the Bush cabal has taken full
advantage of 9/11 to wage perpetual, preemptive, illegal and immoral war
upon both Afghanistan and Iraq, the former with its geostrategic location
and pipeline accessibility, the latter with its vast petroleum fields and
geopolitical circumstance, each of vital importance to the Pax Americana
in its pursuit of imperial hegemony, their conquest a long held goal of
the military-energy-industrial complex. Of course, using 9/11 as the
perfect Pearl Harbor-like event from which to launch imperial invasions in
lands deemed vital and strategic, the fascists and corporatists in power
lay claim to both nations under the rubric of the fictional war on terror.

The invasion of Afghanistan had nothing to do with fighting terrorism ­
since 9/11 was an inside job ­ and everything to do with American
controlled oil and gas pipelines running through Afghan territory. In the
same way, Iraq's decimation and occupation by America's military had
nothing to do with WMD or with bringing freedom or democracy ­ to give
just two of the myriad number of lies to justify invasion ­ and everything
to do with control of Iraq's petroleum, Israel's hegemony and strategic
gamesmanship.

Just as Bush's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were brought to fruition based
on lies, deceptions, manipulations and distortions, so too has the erosion
of American rights and freedoms been implemented based on lies,
manipulations and cynical deceptions of the American people, with the lies
of war and the lies of authoritarianism oftentimes intertwined in an
enormous knot of convenience. Thanks to the two invasions and subsequent
occupations of Arab and Muslim lands, the executive branch has been able
to expand its power in the homeland through the methodical erosion of
rights and liberties, both of citizens and foreigners, using as pretext
the prosecution and imprisonment of captured or kidnapped "unlawful enemy
combatants," as well as all ambiguous yet unfound evildoer terrorists, to
destroy the basic tenets and principles of the American republic.

Under the rubric of the so-called war on terror, therefore, the executive
has laid claim to supreme powers in the detention, treatment and
prosecution of those deemed "unlawful enemy combatants," invariably
dismantling the freedoms and rights and liberties of the American people.
For in lowering and ultimately altering the rights of so called enemy
combatants, the executive branch has in essence also destroyed those same
rights afforded American citizens. In pursuing the so called enemy
combatant, who in any civilized society invariably must, in his
prosecution by the state, be afforded the same rights and privileges as
any suspect charged in the nation, the Bush cabal has instead ignored the
rule of law as well as the central tenets of the Bill of Rights. This, of
course, is not by accident.

In the last five years, Bush and his cabal of corporatists have triumphed,
legislatively and through the sheer powers of the executive, to rewrite
the laws of the nation enumerated for two centuries in the founding
documents of the republic, as always arguing that the Constitution stands
in the way of prosecuting enemy combatants and waging the perpetual war on
terror. It has argued that to maintain security, to protect the American
people from the Arab evildoers, the laws of the land, the cherished rights
and liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the precedent of the
judiciary, must all be altered according to the vision of the executive.
The Bill of Rights, after all, interferes severely in the successful
waging of war against the terrorists. It has thus rewritten laws and
regulations, ignored statutes and rules, created new standards of law and
enforced, without opposition, any and all opinions and laws it has
unilaterally decided to enact. The Bush cabal has used the prosecution of
enemy combatants to both erode the Bill of Rights as well as to give life
to its totalitarian mechanisms for dealing with enemies of the state.

Once the "unlawful enemy combatant" excuse to destroy the Constitution is
complete, all done in the name of national security, what is left of the
Bill of Rights and of the freedoms and rights Americans once had will be
insignificant, leaving it anemic and impotent, and what was once
considered a vital "tool" for fighting the so called terrorist will fall
like a gauntlet at the neck of the American people, severing at once the
last vestiges of an America we once thought everlasting. For what is being
done today to prisoners in the vast American gulag system will tomorrow be
done to Americans themselves. The experiment is first perfected upon the
guinea pigs, then it is unleashed upon the intended victims.

For the last five years the Bush cabal has successfully conditioned the
population to its "New Normal," the new America. It has manipulated both
society and laws to accept gross violations of human rights, a suppression
of liberties, and an authoritarian paradigm of disturbing wickedness. It
is preparing us to incorporate into American law and culture the
mechanisms used in totalitarian states. Using the incomprehensible
ignorance and apathy of the American people against us, it has
clandestinely destroyed the foundation of our principles and virtues.
Using its vast power, its legions of authoritarians, its army of
stenographers and it great arsenal of tools at its disposal, it has
inexplicably made the American people tolerant and even acceptant of
torture, rape, humiliation, illegal imprisonment, disappearances and
criminal malfeasance, something thought unthinkable just years ago. The
New Normal has become a reality, the new America now routinely tortures
and inflicts horrible pain and suffering on human beings, all to the
indifference and acceptance of the American people.

Without the notice or attention of the vast majority of Americans, most
too busy addicted to the television and its 500 ring circus, the Congress,
being the bunch of idiots, prostitutes, pedophiles and criminals that they
usually are, have granted the executive, and by consequence the state, the
unfettered power to make extinct the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
In one giant swoop of criminal culpability, in one hypnotized vote during
a fascist's wet dream, our so-called representatives eviscerated habeas
corpus, the centuries old right to challenge the state regarding
imprisonment, as always under the fictional guise of protecting national
security from enemy combatants, as well as destroying the judicial review
needed to fight and appeal detention. In an orgy of despotic glee, our
elected leaders gave the Bush cabal the ability to detain suspects or
"enemy combatants" into perpetuity, without ability to challenge
incarceration, and to keep in ignorance those it chooses to detain,
without ever divulging any information. Of course, the executive itself
decides who and what is an "enemy combatant".

Due process and right to counsel have been thrown into the heap of waste,
as has the right to question and analyze the state's evidence. Evidence
based on hearsay, forced confession and torture can now be used against
the accused, even, as likely, it has no merit in truth. Trials must be
held in military tribunals, using only military attorneys. Regarding the
Geneva Convention, that stalwart monument protecting human rights, the
executive now has complete discretion in deciding what constitutes torture
as well as cruel and unusual punishment. The president, it appears, can
now torture when he wants, whoever he wants, whenever he wants, without
concern or transparency.

The Decider in Chief has become the Torturer in Chief. Suspects deemed
enemies of the state can, for all practical purposes, be sent to rot in
the dungeons of the Commander in Chief, without ever seeing the light of
day, without ever challenging their imprisonment and without ever to hear
or fight the charges against them. In short, enemies of the executive can
be made to disappear.

                       American Enemy Combatants

In an even more ominous development, the definition of "enemy combatant"
has been expanded to include those who "have purposefully and materially
supported hostilities against the United States." As has been mentioned in
many other recent articles, this devolution into classifying those hostile
to the executive branch, or to the policies of the state, as possible
enemy combatants, in many cases regardless of citizenship, is the weapon
the fascists need to silence dissent, protest and debate throughout the
nation. The threat of new ideas and opinions, which tyrants abhor, can now
be managed and controlled, for in the broad language of the law virtually
anyone can now be imprisoned and disappeared, forever. Since the executive
branch determines who is being hostile against the United States, or who
materially supports these so-called hostilities, it is easy to see that
anyone at odds with the president, his administration or the government of
the United States can be persecuted for expressing views no longer
protected. Under this provision, any speech or activity deemed hostile to
the state can be used to permanently imprison a person indefinitely.

This new interpretation and expansion of police powers virtually assures
that American dissent and opposition to the state's policies will be seen
as hostile to the national security of the nation. What other reason
exists to include such broad language into this provision other than to
declare a war on dissent and on the opposition. Ostensibly this law is
being marketed by the Ministry of Truth as a necessary tool to fight the
evildoers, but in reality, can the imprisonment of dissenters and
protestors, activists and intellectuals be far behind?

This gigantic step in the direction of totalitarianism is clear evidence
the direction the Bush cabal is heading towards, with the American people
being hijacked straight into despotism, our ankles slowly being shackled
to the instruments of oppression. Already dissent is equaled to treason
and of being unpatriotic in an age when being patriotic is almost
compulsory. In certain authoritarian circles dissent and activism is seen
as rendering aid and comfort to the enemy, while in others challenging the
state is seen as wrongfully aiding the enemy. Activists seeking
accountability and the truth are labeled terrorists, while others are seen
as appeasers of terror. With such exaggerated language being used,
oftentimes under complete levels of seriousness, can the accusations of
supporting hostilities against the state be far behind, possibly leading
to now legal and permanent imprisonment and torture?

The road less traveled is being paved with the concrete tablets of
tyranny, and slowly, but most certainly surely, the caravan of
authoritarians is approaching our towns and cities, eager to unleash their
chained beast of oppression onto the most powerful nation on Earth. The
momentum is theirs, as is the power and control to determine events and
circumstances that can accelerate the approaching storm. Our destiny is in
their hands, for they can do as they wish, counting the days when their
plans and goals can be fully implemented. America as we once knew her is
no more, thanks to the tyrants in power, thanks to our own ignorance and
indifference.

Soon it will matter not that 9/11 was an inside job, for any talk of its
truth will be severely punished, even banned, to be whispered in closets
or over the sound of loud music. In fact, so much momentum is the movement
gaining, so much traction among the People is its truth creating, that
sooner rather than later the authoritarians may begin imprisoning truth
seekers under the guise of "purposefully and materially supporting
hostilities against the United States." Such is the threat of
exponentially growing numbers of Americans taking the red pill of reality,
that the state's handlers may very well deem the entire movement a
terrorist organization, the easier to suppress and intimidate the truth
from ever being exposed. It is only a matter of time until tyranny
unleashes its instruments of repression against both truth seekers and
America's real patriots, dissenters and activists.

Already the Constitution has been dealt a death knell, meaning it has no
more significance or worth. The Constitution has become, for all intents
and purposes, just "another god damn piece of paper," a relic of history,
an obstacle overcome by America's authoritarians. It will soon be said, as
it always is, that at first the state came for the scapegoats, the
marketed enemy, the chalice used to make drunk the masses, the bread used
to destroy the system. Later it will come for its citizens, its threats,
its People. Once everything is in place, once all the kinks have been
ironed out, once all obstacles have been erased, the totalitarian
evisceration of the Constitution will devastate a population conditioned
to follow the letter of the law, now left unprotected, bewildered and
condemned for the gross negligence it has allowed itself to perpetuate.
Ironically, the People's anger and hatred at the enemy scapegoat are
themselves the catalysts for its own decimation, oppression and
enslavement. In the end, we are our own worst enemies, both our Judas and
our cyanide, not knowing what we do to ourselves, and each other.

When the masses finally see what has transpired in their country, when
they finally wake to the morning fog, unable to see beyond the limits of
their existence, they will see a landscape dark and ominous, a police
state under the control of tyranny, a nation under the grip of repression.
The America of their past and present gone, ignorant as any society has
ever been, the masses will evolve to their new reality, their new normal.
Most will welcome authoritarianism, for most are followers. The
brainwashed will become tools of despotism, adapting to the brave new
world of sheep oppressed and subjugated. Many will never really notice
that freedom and rights and liberties no longer exist. Millions will teach
their children to be good Americans, as fate has decided tyranny should
rule. Imprisoned in their own minds, the masses will inevitably be
conditioned to follow and obey the dictates of their masters.

Those who question authority, those who use their mind and those who see
the slavery and oppression that has been birthed at the expense of liberty
will become enemies of the state, threats to the system of tyranny,
dissidents aiding and abetting the enemy, commissioned to never see light
again. These dissidents the state will imprison and make disappear, to be
erased from memory and time, their quest for truth and accountability
buried six feet underground. To the obedient sheeple whose blind faith
guides them in myth and state, totalitarianism will come naturally,
becoming a nirvana to life-long followers; to free thinkers, independent
minds, progressives and those who have escaped the incessant brainwashing
from birth, it will be hell on Earth.

The approaching storm has reached the warm waters of America, rapidly
gaining speed, ready to unleash its torrent of tyrannical laws and
regulations upon our shores, its police state arriving with the sudden
flash of thunder and lightning. The giant tempest has been building for
over five years, granted life through death, rising high and mighty thanks
to destruction and demolition, our own ignorance and sheer indifference
granting it oxygen, our fear giving it power, our hatreds helping seal our
own fate. America the Tyranny has risen to be born, the wickedness of
humankind once more resurrected from the annals of history, free to
repress and subjugate, eager to shackle and control. The destruction of
the World Trade Center has made tyranny a reality; our continued impotence
will allow it to flourish.

                            We Reap What We Sow

Perhaps it is fitting that a People that has cared not an ounce for
systemic torture, preemptive war, illegal invasion, brutal occupation,
mass murder, depleted uranium use, incessant rape, constant humiliation of
human beings, destruction of Iraqi and Afghani society, renditions,
illegal detentions, disappearances and untold levels of suffering should
be made to suffer the realities of living in totalitarianism, under a
police state, under constant paranoia and fear of both the state and your
neighbors. Perhaps it is fitting that a People possessing such levels of
ignorance, indifference and comfort be made to experience a reality that
afflicts hundreds of millions of human beings. Perhaps in time we will
learn humility and suffering, wisdom and the virtues of honor and peace.

America is a land so arrogant it calls itself and usurps as its own the
name belonging to two entire continents; it is the country whose ego has
been so aggrandized that it thinks itself the only nation blessed by the
Christian god; it was a nation once cherished now thoroughly reviled; the
land of the free now a land of tyranny, the home of the brave now nothing
but the culture of cowardice, its bowels putrid with the smell of
authoritarianism; its people enraptured by ignorance and fear, its moral
foundations crumbling under the weight of pervasive corruptions and the
evils of capitalism. The gluttony of comfort and the greed of
excessiveness have made the American people the laughing stock of the
world, our inability to escape the bubble of grandeur condemning us to be
the spoiled child of wealth, unwise, unlearned and arrogant, never forced
to confront suffering or trouble, condemning us to be the mirror image of
our President.

The shining beacon on a hill has had its bright light extinguished,
becoming in the span of half a decade a banana republic rotting from
within, governed by incompetent dictatorship, its national elections
routinely manipulated through the systemic impulses of blatant fraud, with
representatives now nothing more than prostitutes bending over to receive
the full gyrating assault of the corporate world, cannibalized by its own
people addicted to consumerism and materialism, an army of ignorant sheep
unaware of the future destiny they have helped chart, a population
betraying their children's future happiness for their short-term
gratification.

The land of freedom and rights has ceased to exist, replaced by
ever-growing authoritarianism. Perhaps, in the cosmic laws of the
universe, where karma intertwines with fate, we are entering into the
other side of midnight, journeying into exactly what we deserve, a taste
of our own medicine, a taste of what we have exported to tens of dozens of
other nations. We are reaping what we have sowed, and upon our shores now
stands America the Tyranny, perhaps meant to suffer through another
Hitler, another Stalin or Mao, or perhaps simply another Pinochet, Shah,
Suharto or Saddam. America has entered its darkest hour, and as the clock
approaches midnight the nation we once knew vanishes from the grip of the
People. Nobody knows where we are headed, yet we do know in which
direction we go, for the path has been paved, the pattern has begun to
emerge, and through the horizon, no salvation can be found.

Instead of the world confronting the evil emblem of the swastika we must
realize that it is the emblazoned red, white and blue that now represents
despotic thinking and tyrannical rule. It was Old Glory that sprung up
like a giant field of weeds in the aftermath of 9/11, flowing from every
vehicle and every home, every business and every street, giving America
the aura of jingoism and nationalism undoubtedly similar to 1930's
Germany, giving it the appearance, to anyone who cared to look and think,
of what Germany's streets in the 1930's certainly looked like, right
before society turned into barbarism. Perhaps this orgy of fanatical and
jingoistic revelry was but the first sign of things to come, the birth
pangs of America the Tyranny.

Five years later, the red, white and blue still flows proudly in the minds
of followers and quasi-authoritarians, with knuckle dragging
proto-patriots brainwashed to stand behind it in fear and terror of
concocted enemies, their blind loyalty to anybody in power, even a little
man with even smaller understanding. The stars and stripes has become the
new symbol of jingoism, nationalism, xenophobia and blind loyalty and
faith in tyrants, just as the swastika once did, even as it stands smeared
in the blood of thousands, protecting torturers, rapists, war criminals,
murderers and human rights violators, even as it has been besmirched by
the destruction of innocent life and that of entire societies.

Old Glory now stands for the worst abuses of human rights, representing
Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Bagram, the destruction of the Constitution and
of Lady Liberty, the loss of habeas corpus and of the Geneva Convention.
The red, white and blue, sadly enough, has become the symbol of what we
most hate, of what we swore to never become. It has become a flag hijacked
by tyrants, with the American People unconcerned and unwilling, to the
point of embarrassment, to free it from its dungeon, with most too lazy or
apathetic to care, most too ignorant to know. As a result, it has become,
like the wretched symbol of the Nazis, a most reviled and despised emblem,
an image of tyranny rising, wickedness growing and criminality evolving.
Only Americans know how much more reviled and hated it will become in the
coming years.

Manuel Valenzuela is a social critic and commentator, international
affairs analyst and Internet essayist. His articles as well as his archive
can be found at his blog, http://www.valenzuelasveritas.blogspot.com and
at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info as well as at other
alternative news websites from around the globe. Mr. Valenzuela is also
author of Echoes in the Wind, a fiction novel. Mr. Valenzuela welcomes
comments and can be reached at manuel [at] valenzuelas.net

[Your editor doesn't think things are quite as dark or as inevitable as
does MV above. But they soon will be if we do nothing. -ed]


--------16 of 16--------

 Bush, the enemy
 combatant from hell. Hooves, smirk,
 spurs, 666-gun.


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   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
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