Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 11.09.06

[David Shove (shove001]

            P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    11.09.06

1. War on terror     11.09-10 1:15pm
2. Eagan peace vigil 11.09 4:30pm
3. Northtown vigil   11.09 5pm
4. CivilLib/Gitmo    11.09 5:30pm
5. CO status         11.09 5:30pm
6. FBI/WoundedKnee   11.09 7pm
7. Steger/peace      11.09 7pm
8. Kristallnacht     11.09 7:30pm
9. Hinchcliffe/white 11.09 8pm

10. Coffee/film      11.10 7:15pm?
11. Afterwar/photos  11.10 7pm

12. Cockburn/StPlair - Voters say No to Bush, war and free trade
13. Joshua Frank     - The Democrats won, big deal
14. Dave Lindorff    - What's next? Election postmortem
15. Dr Susan Block   - American voters say, "Bush sucks!"
16. Charles Sullivan - Now kick out the corporate interests

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

From: "Human Rights Center @ the U of MN" <humanrts [at] umn.edu>
Subject: War on terror 11.09-10 1:15pm

November 9-10 - War on Terror: International and Interdisciplinary
Perspectives.
Cost: $50, free for U of M Students and Faculty.
2006 Minnesota Journal of International Law Symposium
War on Terror: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
November 9th & 10th 2006
University of Minnesota Law School
Walter F. Mondale Hall
Room 25
7 CLE credits applied for

Tentative Schedule:

Day 1 (Thursday November 9, 2006):

1:15-1:45 Registration

1:45-2:00 Welcome
-University of Minnesota Law School
-Minnesota Journal of International Law
-Transitional Justice Institute
-Minnesota Center for Legal Studies

2:00-2:30
 Keynote Address
-Tom Sullivan, Senior Vice President and Provost, University of
Minnesota Law School

2:30-4:30
 Panel: International Law and the Use of Force in the 21st Century
-Ruth Okediji, Moderator
-David Wippman, Cornell University Law School
-David Luban, Georgetown University Law School
-Oren Gross, University of Minnesota Law School

4:30-6:00
 Reception (Auerbach Commons)

Day 2 (Friday November 10, 2006):

8:30-9:00 Registration

9:00-10:45 Panel: Law, Repression, and Social Movement Theory
-Brian Bix, Moderator
-David Kennedy, Harvard Law School
-Christian Davenport, University of Maryland   College Park
-Colm Campbell, University of Ulster School of Law

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-12:45 Panel: Hegemony, Conflict, and the War on Terror
-David Weissbrodt, Moderator
-Achilles Skordas, University of Bristol School of Law
-Ian Lustick University of Pennsylvania
-Fionnuala Ni Aolain, University of Minnesota Law School

12:45-2:00 Lunch (Robins-Kaplan Concourse)

2:00-3:45 Panel: Peace and Exit Strategies
-David Kretzmer, Moderator
-Shane Darcy, University of Ulster School of Law
-Christine Bell, University of Ulster School of Law
-Brendan O Leary, University of Pennsylvania

6:00-9:00 Banquet (Campus Club)

*Please direct any questions to Stuart Nostdahl, Symposium Editor at
stu_noz [at] hotmail.com

Location: Room 25, University of Minnesota Law School (Mondale Hall),
229 19th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55455


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

From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 11.09 4:30pm

CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest
corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs
and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends
south of the river speaking out against war.


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

From: EKalamboki [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 11.09 5pm

NORTHTOWN Peace Vigil every Thursday 5-6pm, at the intersection of Co. Hwy
10 and University Ave NE (SE corner across from Denny's), in Blaine.

Communities situated near the Northtown Mall include: Blaine, Mounds View,
New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, Spring Lake Park,
Fridley, and Coon Rapids.  We'll have extra signs.

For more information people can contact Evangelos Kalambokidis by phone or
email: (763)574-9615, ekalamboki [at] aol.com.


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

From: "Human Rights Center @ the U of MN" <humanrts [at] UMN.EDU>
Subject: CivilLib/Gitmo 11.09 5:30pm

November 9 - Civil Liberties at [Guantanamo] Bay.
5:30-8pm
Cost: students: $15.

19th Annual Awards Celebration
with guest speaker Joseph Margulies

Please join the Minnesota Justice Foundation to honor this year's winners
of the Annual Awards for Outstanding Service and hear speaker Joseph
Margulies - a leading lawyer working to protect the rights of Guantanamo
detainees.

Joseph Margulies is an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center and a
clinical professor at Northwestern University Law School. He was lead
counsel in Rasul v. Bush, involving the detentions at Guantanamo Bay Naval
Station and is the author of "Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential
Power" (Simon and Schuster 2006). In 2002, Margulies was the Distinguished
Practitioner in Residence at Cornell University Law School. He joined the
faculty at the MacArthur Justice Center in 2004. He remains actively
involved in post-9/11 detention litigation, and writes and lectures widely
both on the Administration's detention policy and on the state of civil
liberties in the wake of September 11.

Presented by the Minnesota Justice Foundation. Student tickets are $15,
non-student tickets start at $40. To purchase tickets, please contact
Kerry Walsh at 612-626-9366 or kerry [at] mnjustice.org Location: International
Market Square Atrium, 275 Market Street, Minneapolis, MN


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: CO status  11.09 5:30pm

Thursday, 11/9, 5:30 to 8 pm, Vets for Peace classes to prepare families
for conscientious objector status, basement of St Stephens school
building, 2123 Clinton Ave S, Mpls.  $10/family.  RSVP Kim at
612-721-6908.


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

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: FBI/WoundedKnee/book 11.09 7pm

Author, Steve Hendricks will be at BirchBark Books on Thursday, November
9th at 7:00 p.m. to talk about his new book,/ *The Unquiet Grave: The
FBI and the Struggle for the Soul of Indian Country*/*.*  BirchBark
Books <_http://www.birchbarkbooks.com/_> is at 2115 West 21st Street,
Minneapolis.  Contact Susan White, 612-374-4023.

"An excellent book that reopens the wounds of Wounded Knee/In the
Spirit of Crazy Horse../. A blistering, important work..."</Kirkus
Reviews/ (starred review)

"Hendricks's swift narrative is riddled with judicial travesties,
coverups, vigilantism, COINTEPRO-style tactics, mounting paranoia and
lawlessness on both sides... Hendricks is careful throughout this harsh,
heart-thumping account never to lose sight of the larger
context."<*/Publishers Weekly/* (starred review)


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Steger/peace 11.09 7pm

Thursday, 11/9, 7 pm, Friends for a Nonviolent World director Phil Steger
speaks on "If Not War,What?  A Nonviolent National Security Strategy for the
United States," Parish Community of St Joseph, SW corner of Boon and 36th
Ave N, New Hope.  carydberg [at] comcast.net


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

From: Stephen Feinstein <feins001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Kristallnacht 11.09 7:30pm

"Kristallnacht Commemoration."

Thursday, November 9, 7:30 p.m.
Saint Paul Jewish Community Center
1375 Saint Paul Avenue
St Paul, MN 55116

The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies along with CHAIM, JCRC and
Saint Paul JCC and Special Events Fund from the University of Minnesota's
Special Events Fund will present a special commemoration for the memory of
Kristallnacht, the first organized pogrom against German and Austrian Jews
in 1938.

A short commemorative ceremony featuring Berlin survivor Henry Oertelt and
members of CHAIM will be followed by a poetry reading by Charles Fishman.

Charles Fishman created the Visiting Writers Program at the State
University of New York at Farmingdale in 1979 and served as director until
1997. Fishman's books include "The Firewalkers" (Avisson Press, 1996),
"Blood to Remember: American Poets on the Holocaust" (Texas Tech
University Press, 1991, re-release planned for 2007), "Country of Memory"
(Uccelli Press, 2004), "5,000 Bells" (Cross-Cultural Communications,
2004), and "The Death Mazurka" (Texas Tech, 1989), which was nominated for
the 1990 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and listed by ALA Choice as one of the
outstanding books of the year (1989).

His sixth booklength collection, Chopin's Piano, was published by Time
Being Books in February 2006.

Event is free and open to the public.

For more info contact: Marijana Mladinov, St Paul Jewish Community Center
www.stpauljcc.org


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

From: Ellen Hinchcliffe <ehinchcliffe [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Hinchcliffe/white 11.09 8pm

Please join me for my solo performance piece...Dirty the Bones- On Being
White and Other Lies (History as Medicine) that is part of the amazing
Naked Stages program at Intermedia Arts. I am sharing the night with
another great performer- Katie Herron. See attached flyer for more info on
her show too. Please forward to anyone who might be interested. Hope to
see you there!

Peace, ellen marie

Naked Stages
New Performance Work
November 9-11, 2006 8pm
Thursday November 9Th is sliding scale $1-$12
The 10Th and 11Th are $12 ($6 Intermedia
Members/youth)
2822 Lyndale Avenue S.
Minneapolis, MN (612) 871-444
http://intermediaarts.org

Ellen Marie Hinchcliffe
Dirty the Bones-On Being White and Other Lies (History as Medicine)

With humor, history, an eye towards the spirit world and 37 years
experience living as a white person in a white supremacy in hand, Ellen
Marie Hinchcliffe uses video, surrealist game shows, dancing, ritual and
stories to go digging in her closet for skeletons. Dirty the Bones-On
Being White and Other Lies (History as Medicine) is neither a confessional
piece- a place to admit racial "sins" and ask for redemption from people
of color- nor a piece where the "good white" can tell the "bad white" how
really bad they are. Laugh your ass off, cry your eyes dry, tell yourself
the truth the best you can, all together now survive.


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Coffee/film 11.10 7:15pm?

11/10 to 11/14, film "Black Gold" about eye-opening contrast between
impoverished coffee growers and $3 cappuccino, Bell Museum, 10 Church St SE,
Mpls.  www.mnfilmarts.org


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Afterwar/photos 11.10 7pm

Friday, 11/10, 7 pm, panel discussion including Lori Grinker and others
regarding MN Center for Photography exhibit "Afterwar" about wounds of wars
from WWI to current Iraq conflict,  165 - 13th Ave NE, between Marshall &
University, just north of Boradway, Mpls.  www.mncp.org


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

Santorum Gone! Pombo Gone! Burns Gone! Rumsfeld Gone!
Count Your Blessings: NeoCons and NeoLibs Take a Big Hit, as Voters Say No
to Bush, War and Free Trade
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
CounterPunch
November 8, 2006

Wherever they were given the opportunity, voters across the country went
strongly for antiwar candidates. True, the national Democrats, led by Rahm
Emanuel of the Democratic Congressional Campaign, had tried pretty
successfully to keep such peaceniks off the ballot, but in a few key races
the antiwar progressives romped home. The Democrats won, despite Emanuel.
If the Clintonites weren't still controlling most of the campaign money,
and more openly antiwar populists had been running, the Democrats today
would probably be looking at a wider majority in the House and one
committed solidly to getting out of Iraq.

Take the sixth district in Illinois, in the Chicago suburbs. This was
where the national Democrats threw money at Tammy Duckworth, the prowar
double-amputee running in the primary against antiwar Christine Cegalis,
who almost took down Republican Henry Hyde in 2004. Flush with Emanuel's
campaign cash, Duckworth narrowly beat Cegalis. But yesterday Duckworth's
clouded message on the war failed to rouse the voters and she went down to
defeat.

In northern California, another of Emanuel's Democrats was Charlie Brown,
an Iraq vet. The race looked like a landslide for the Republican but in
the last weeks it began to tighten up. Then in a debate, Doolittle, the
Republican, tried to bait Brown with supposed ties to Cindy Sheehan.
Instead of standing his ground and denouncing the war, Brown quavered that
he had no ties to Sheehan and Mrs Brown later told Sheehan to stay away.
Confronted with this craven performance voters gave up on Brown and the
awful Doolittle cantered home.

In the nearby district around Modesto it was a different story. Here was a
ripe target, an implacable foe of nature called Richard Pombo, who had
spent his entire career campaigning against the Endangered Species Act,
and any enjoyment of nature other than the enrichment of cotton and rice
farmers. In the primary season Rahm Emanuel and George Miller put the
party's resources behind a Pombo lookalike who was duly trounced by Jerry
McNerney, an antiwar foe of corporate agriculture. National Democrats
chafed at McNerney's effrontery and predicted victory for Pombo.

But on Tuesday the voters leaped at their opportunity. They booted out
Pombo and sent McNerney to Washington. In the upset's aftermath, the
Contra Costa Times marveled, "It will go down in California history as a
massive upset in a congressional district where the incumbent held a 6
percentage point party registration advantage. No other district in the
state has ever flipped parties with such a large registration gap."

In northern Kentucky another progressive Democrat opposed by the Emanuel
Machine, John Yarmuth, an alternative newspaper publisher, was nonetheless
able to survive the primary. On Tuesday he defeated Anne Northrup, a
popular Republican incumbent.

So the Democrats have taken the House, but Emanuel should not be crowing
too loudly. The Democrats' victories were clearly driven by antiwar
sentiment across the country. Furthermore the contour of success in states
like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, send a very clear message that if the
Democrats keep on pushing the old Clinton neoliberal recipe as now
purveyed by Emanuel and the others, they will not recapture the White
House in 2008, or even bolster their position in the Senate.

If you look at where the Democrats picked up their seats, there's a line
running from Pennsylvania, through Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri,
Iowa, Kansas and Montana. The common thread is economic populism. In
Indiana, the most Republican state, three seats turned over to Democrats.
all of whom offered roughly the same political silhouette: fairly
conservative on social issue, anti-globalization, tough on illegal
immigration, and helped to victory by general hostility to the war on the
part of many voters.

What happened to Kansas? It's been crushed by the Clinton-Bush economy and
by the war. Two red flags for the Democrats, who are already disdaining
the clear message. Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean
mumbled in victory's aftermath, "We can't leave Iraq now. We need to
stabilize the situation." They never learn.

If there's one single object lesson for progressives to follow, it's
Sherrod Brown's successful bid for the US Senate in Ohio, a state
Democrats have to win to capture the White House. Brown was vehemently
against the war in Iraq and an economic populist who zeroed in on those
very counties in Ohio where Kerry feared to tread and where Bush won in
2004, despite the fact that one in three people had been laid off during
Bush's first term. These were mostly in coal country along the West
Virginia line and up towards lake Erie. Brown stormed through, calling for
a jobs plan and railing against the free trade pacts that have desolated
the region. He romped to victory, overwhelming two-term Mike DeWine.

Tuesday's polling results have confronted and answered two questions that
the national Democrats tried to dodge throughout Campaign 2006. They
didn't want to take a clear position on the war and they didn't want to
attack the Clinton-Bush free trade consensus. On Tuesday antiwar and
anti-free trade candidates prospered. The voters want the US out of the
Iraq and they want decent jobs. Who are the Democrats who will speak to
these concerns? Not Hillary Clinton. Not Joe Biden. Not Barack Obama.
Maybe John Edwards, if he listens to his wife. What triumphed on Tuesday
was not the Rahm Emanuel platform but something far closer to what Ralph
Nader spoke for in 2000 and 2004.

The furthest the national Democrats have wanted to go on the war has been
to attack its management. Not the principled position of Cut and Run as
urged by Jack Murtha just over a year ago. Not Howard Dean's "stabilize"
message on Wednesday morning. What may well happen now is what we
satirically predicted at the start of the week: a bipartisan consensus by
the national leadership of both parties around the McCain position,
calling for fresh troops and better manangement of the war. This is what
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden all endorse. What's need now
is a de facto alliance between the antiwar Democrats bolstered by
Tuesday's results, and the antiwar Republicans led by Chuck Hagel who no
longer have to be beholden to the neocons and who have no desire to go the
way of Santorum or Burns. Hagel-Edwards in 2008! (We mean Liz Edwards of
course.)


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

Election Hangover
The Democrats Won, Big Deal
By JOSHUA FRANK
CounterPunch
November 8, 2006

Thank goodness it's finally over. Well almost, anyway. Recounts are still
going on out in Montana where Jon Tester holds a slight lead over
incumbent Senator Conrad Burns. The Democrats swept the House last night
and now they are oh-so-close to controlling the United States Senate. And
the message voters sent Bush is being heard loud and clear: the
Republicans and this war are not popular in America.

Pundits are claiming that it was the antiwar vote that helped usher the
Dems back into power. It's just too bad that the Democrats aren't going to
repay their constituents with anything worthwhile. For the war in Iraq
will rage on.

Third party antiwar candidates didn't fare as well as they would have
liked. Aaron Dixon, who ran as a Green in Washington State, garnered a
little over 10,000 votes. Green candidate Howie Hawkins, who ran against
Sen. Hillary Clinton in New York, scored a little over 51,500 votes.
Independent candidate Kevin Zeese of Maryland, who made his way into a
series of debates in the state, cashed in over 23,700 votes, while Green
Todd Chreiten of California topped 106,000 in his bid to take on Sen.
Dianne Feinstein. Overall, it could have been worse - as all
aforementioned candidacies were virtually ignored by the mainstream
antiwar movement.

Whether or not you're feeling good about last night's results, you can
rest assured that the Empire is still intact. Impeachment of this outlaw
administration isn't going to fall down within the next two years. Nancy
Pelosi, the new House leader, has promised as much. Deaths in Iraq will
continue to mount and no exit strategy will play out in the coming months.
Global warming will still not be addressed. Nor will our position on
Israel, the war on drugs, free trade, or privatized health care. Basically
things are still damn bleak despite the liberal take over of Washington.

As I sat at the bar last night watching the tallies roll in, cheers from
across the room would interrupt my daydreaming - another Democrat had won.
I have to admit, I too felt good about the defeat of Rick Santorum and a
few other filthy Republicans. It's nice to see a rabid homophobe go down
in flames now and again. But it is just too bad that nothing substantial
will come out of it. Bob Casey, Santorum's replacement, is pro-life and
anti-gay himself. But the lesser-evil won, so shut up and be happy about
it.

In New York, K Street watchdog Eliot Spitzer was victorious in his quest
for the governorship. And like Barack Obama, Spitzer is seen as a beacon
of hope within the Democratic establishment. But like Obama, Spitzer has
his sour issues. Aside from supporting the death penalty and the war in
Iraq, Spitzer was one of the chief architects of New York's own version of
the PATRIOT Act.

It was an exhibit of what's to come in 2008. Centrism in the Democratic
Party is back. Not that it ever left, it's just in power again. The
Democrats won last night, not because they offered voters any real choices
- they won because people were fed up with the Republicans and their
deceitful ways.

Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George
W. Bush and edits www.BrickBurner.org.


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

What's Next?
Election Postmortem
By DAVE LINDORFF
CopunterPunch
November 8, 2006

Here's the way to look at the Election Day outcome: If the U.S. were a
parliamentary democracy, Bush would be history. Our self-proclaimed "war
president" has lost a vote of confidence, not by the members of his party,
but by the people of the United States.

Of course, we don't live in a parliamentary democracy, so we're still
stuck with the same megalomaniacal leader, even though the control of the
Congress appears to be passing to the opposition party. (As of this
writing, the new House will be firmly in the hands of the Democrats by a
bigger margin than the current House is in the hands of Republicans, and
the Senate appears headed towards Democratic control also, albeit by the
narrowest of margins: 1 Lieberman.)

So the question is: what next?

We're already hearing a lot from the mainstream media about how this was
all about voters wanting less extremism and more civility in government.

Bull!

This was about voters who have had it with neocon imperialist militarism,
had it with government lying, had it with corruption, and had it with
campaign tactics that equate opposition to the president with support for
terrorism.

We'll also be hearing a lot about how a change of 30 or 32 seats in the
House from one party to another is no big deal.

Nonsense! Not only is it a big deal by historical standards - it is an
especially big deal given the historically unprecedented extreme to which
the Republicans in control of state legislatures had gerrymandered
districts over the last decade to insure their candidates' re-election. It
is also an unusually big turnover to occur at a time when the nation has
over 160,000 troops tied down in bitter fighting in two countries - Iraq
and Afghanistan. To have the public undercut the president at such a time
is an extraordinary act by the voters, who normally tend towards
jingoistic support of presidents when American troops are dying.

Of course it's true that some of the Democrats who will be replacing
Republican office-holders are conservative (some are liberal, too). That's
not the point, though. They are almost all honorable people who entered
their races as underdogs earlier this year, not expecting to win, and who
ended up winning because the voting public, whether liberal or
conservative, wants them to clean the Stygian Stables, which have filled
up with six years with of crap and bullshit.

Now the Democratic leadership in Congress doesn't see it that way. They
seem to be buying into the media illusion that what the public wants is
civility in government and respect for the president. That's certainly how
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the likely new House majority leader, puts it (even
though her home district in San Francisco voted 61 percent for an
impeachment resolution).

But civility and respect are not going to get the job done.

First of all, let's consider that there are still two possibilities: one
is that the two houses of Congress both go narrowly Democratic; the other
is that only the House goes Democratic, while the Senate ends up more
narrowly Republican, or perhaps tied, with Dick Cheney holding the
tie-breaking vote as President of the Senate. In the latter two scenarios
civility would be death, since Senate Republicans would be anything but
civil. The only way Democrats could have any power would be by acting as
obstreperously and obstructively as possible, to prevent more damage, by
using their investigative power in the House to lay out the crimes of this
administration as clearly as possible. If both houses of Congress end up
in Democratic hands, they will be in the position to start passing
legislation. But they will not be able to undo the damage caused over the
past six years to the Constitution and to the nation because Bush will be
able to veto their bills. Worse yet, even if they can manage in some cases
to get enough Republican support on some issues to override a veto, Bush
will use his "signing statement" ploy to block them, as he has already
done over 800 times to legislation passed by a Republican Congress.

Clearly, in either event, the only appropriate response is for a
Democratic House to initiate serious investigations into administration
abuse of power, criminality, deceit and incompetence, and ultimately, to
initiate impeachment proceedings.

It is perhaps wishful thinking to believe that Bush, as richly as he
deserves it, will be impeached for war crimes. We can leave that to future
prosecutors, either in a better post-Bush America or in other nations,
since war crimes don't have a statute of limitations, and Bush has a good
20 years left in him if he manages to stay off the bottle.

That said, there are crimes and constitutional violations that even
Republicans should agree call for his impeachment (and in some cases
Cheney's). Among these are:

* The signing statements, in which Bush claims that as commander in chief
he does not need to accept or enforce laws passed by the Congress. This is
such an egregious abuse of power and undermining of the Constitution that
if it is allowed to continue, with future presidents continuing the
practice and citing Bush as precedent, Congress will cease to have any
real constitutional function.

* The NSA warrantless spying. Democrats need to take a leadership role and
demand to know what this program is all about. Clearly it's not about
spying on suspected terrorists, as Bush claims, because the secret Foreign
Surveillance Intelligence Court judges would have no problem approving
warrants for that. It has to be something so outrageous that Bush is
afraid to present it to those famously accommodating judges. The case
needs to be made that this is a flat-out felony and a breach of the Fourth
Amendment, and that it has already been so ruled by a federal judge.

* The outing of CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame and the selective
release of the Iraq National Intelligence Estimate in an effort to damage
a critic - Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. This was
exactly the kind of abuse of government power that led to an impeachment
article being voted in the House Judiciary Committee against President
Richard Nixon. Moreover, Democrats need to make the case that this attack
on Wilson was motivated by a darker goal: the need to discredit someone
who was exposing one of the Bush administration's gravest crimes - namely
faking evidence of an active Iraqi nuclear weapons program.

* Lying the country into a deadly, costly and interminable war in Iraq. It
is clear now that Bush knew the uranium ore story, the aluminum tubes
story, the Saddam links to Al Qaeda story and the germ weapons story, were
all lies. It is clear that Bush had plans to invade Iraq from before he
even assumed office in 2001, that 9/11 was just a pretext to do it, and
that his claims to the American people and to Congress that he wanted a
"diplomatic solution" to Iraq's alleged WMD threat was a lie and a fraud.
He must be impeached for this bloody travesty.

* Obstruction and lying to the Congress and the 9-11 Commission. The
president, in what is an abuse of power and possibly even an act of
treason, refused to provide testimony and evidence demanded by the Senate
Intelligence Committee and by the 9-11 Commission, and himself refused to
testify under oath or with any record being made of his answers, and had
members of his administration lie to both bodies. This willful obstruction
has put the nation in jeopardy, since without knowing what went wrong or
even what went on before and on 9-11, there is no way to prevent another
such attack. This is a clear impeachable crime.

* Bribery. For some time it was not clear whether the stench of money
scandals would reach into the White House. Bush claimed he didn't even
know Jack Abramoff, even as members of Congress were falling like 10-pins.
Now, however, we have learned that there are myriad pictures of Abramoff
and his buddy Bush together, that Abramoff visited the White House so
often it was practically a second home, and that he even managed to have
his own secretary move over to work for Bush's closest confident (and
"brain" by some accounts) Karl Rove, the better to facilitate the
money-for-favors exchanges. This is corruption on the scale of the Warren
Harding administration, and it calls for impeachment, not respect. While
they"re at it, Democrats in the House should also investigate the oil
industry's and Halliburton's financial tentacles in the White House and
Blair House.

* The Loss of New Orleans. Bush's disastrous inaction as Katrina headed
for New Orleans, and his even worse inaction after the disaster was
apparent, is a classic violation of the presidential oath to "take care"
that the laws are faithfully administered. The president had a duty to
initiate drastic emergency action that only he could authorize, and
instead he campaigned, played golf and guitar, and entertained Sen. John
McCain, while over a thousand Americans were allowed to die and a major US
city drowned. That is a clear impeachable offense.

American voters don't want politeness. We want our country back. We have
just proved to Republicans that we will punish lying and corruption. In
the next election, Democrats should be on notice that we will also punish
cowardice and inaction.

A great start for newly empowered Democrats would be to revoke or rephrase
the September 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was
passed to authorize Bush to invade Afghanistan and to pursue Al Qaeda.
Bush has been claiming ever since that the 2001 AUMF made him permanent
"commander in chief" in an unending "War" on Terror, with the right to
ignore the courts and acts of Congress. It is clearly in Congress's power
to redefine that AUMF more clearly, to make it unambiguously clear that it
did not authorize the president to be generalissimo, that it was referring
exclusively to combat outside the U.S., that it expects him to stay within
the law and the Constitution under the resolution, and that the AUMF
itself in any case has an expiration date. This is a move that even some
Republicans - especially after their recent drubbing - will support.

The new Congress should also promptly revoke the military commissions law,
and especially the parts that revoke habeas corpus, that grant the
president and his gang retroactive immunity from prosecution for
authorizing torture, and that undermine the Posse Comitatus Act, making it
easier for a president to declare martial law. Again, it should be
possible to get significant Republican support for this effort.

Although it doesn't deserve it, the Democratic Party has by default been
given a chance in this off-year election. So far, the leadership is
showing every sign of preparing to blow it.

That means it's up to us voters to make sure elected Democrats in Congress
get the message, first by voting them into power, and then by riding them
hard to make sure they take aggressive action to put the administration in
the dock and rescue the Constitution and the country. A good start would
be to go to Starting an Impeachment Movement.

Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the
Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His new book of CounterPunch columns
titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press.
Lindorff's new book is "The Case for Impeachment",
co-authored by Barbara Olshansky.

He can be reached at: dlindorff [at] yahoo.com

--
[The respect for the president we must all have means we must NOT say:
  Bush smells bad
  Save us from the criminal president
  Up Bush's butt
  Bush sucks big time
  George is a clueless cretin
or anything like them, even though many of us may think them every day and
twice on Sunday.
  No, this is all about superficial bourgeois niceness, so that we don't
start using similar blunt words about the ruling class. If we disrespected
them more, we might give them the finger (crude!) whenever they attempt to
pick our pockets to pay for champagne and caviar. And we all know that God
wants the rich to have lots and lots of champagne and caviar, paid for out
of our rent and bread money. Imagine if people were running around saying
"Eat the rich!" - what would happen to Carl Pohlad's billion dollar
"gift"? Why, we'd probably spend the money on schools and libraries
instead, clearly *disrespecting* Carl and his waiting tribe of heirs. And
we wouldn't want that. -ed]


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

[The following is a good example of what happens when you let people
liberate their language and speak outwardly as they think inwardly. It
leads pretty directly to the unforgivable sin of disrespecting the only
unelected US president we have right now. I am shocked, and I hope you are
too. I mean, what if you or I actually *said* what we *think*? I cringe to
think of it. -ed]

The Table Turns
American Voters Say, "Bush Sucks!"
By Dr. SUSAN BLOCK
CounterPunch
November 8, 2006

The votes are in. America has spoken. And what do we say? Bush sucks!

Let's hear it for Blue Values! Let's hear it for Eros over Thanatos! Hope
over fear.

Yes indeed, Brothers and Sisters, Lovers and Sinners. America has spoken.
If we can't get a divorce, we'll just sit on your face, George.

Amen and Awomen. Eat Me, Bushites! Eat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Just
seeing a woman (even if she isn't exactly Emma Goldman) poised to take
over control of the United States House of Representatives saying "Today
we have made history, now we must make progress!" makes my cheeks wet with
possbility. Good old South Dakota came through too, rejecting a proposed
law that would have banned nearly all abortions. And seeing Republican
Senator Rick "Man-On-Dog-Sex" Santorum forced to get down on his knees to
Bob Casey Jr. in my home state makes me want to sing, "Pennsylvania,
Pennsylvania, land where liberty was born, Pennsylvania the keystone state
where the bonds of tyranny were shone!" Then there was the fabulously
flamboyant Republican Gay Sex Scandal Double-Hitter of Mark Foley and Ted
Haggard which made a considerable number of well-spanked Evangelicals hold
their noses and eat Democratic Party Pie.

But yesterday's election was not so much about the individuals running for
office in the House and Senate, and it certainly wasn't a vote of great
love for the Democratics. This was a Lesser of Two Evils rally. It was a
referendum on the flabbergastingly evil reign of George II, the craven
Bushites and the putrid, crony-riddled, page-diddling, mostly Republican
War Machine.

Several months ago, I asked America (and myself), "How much longer are we
going to suck Bush's Dick?" For six years, America has just been
swallowing this bastard's lethal lies, as he pushed our heads down on his
blatant load of crap. Many have died from this political throat rape.
Others contracted political herpes. Some just kept their mouths shut.

But not now! Not this election. At least, now - finally! - the tables are
turned. Maybe, if we can help them locate their spines, these Democrats
can get the Bushman into a nice cozy headlock and make him eat some humble
pie. Make him stop the war. Stop the torture. Stop the killing. At least,
make him fire Rummy NOW. Make him get his head out of the hayseeds (where
the few Bushites left are still scattered) and go downtown. And stop the
Peeping Tomfoolery. Stop all the hypocritical faith-based baloney.

Yes, indeed. Praise the Lord and the Lady. Hip, hip hooray for the USA, at
least for today. My bush tastes better than your Bush.

I know, I know, my democratic-secular-humanist-ethical-hedonist-anti-war
chochita ma is too good for Dubya's lying lips to even graze. After all,
the President is not a very cunning linguist. But table-turning is sweet,
and I'm enjoying this Bush-licking even more just knowing that he'd rather
be sucking Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert's manly military-style republican
member. This election renders Dubya a truly lame duck, a Presidential limp
dick, and we ladies know what a guy like that can do: Swallow our squirt
(though it's too way good for you).

Perhaps I will have to eat these words, if and when the Dems disappoint.
Perhaps that's why, in the sweet afterglow of victory, I say let's
celebrate! Let's spread our legs and our wings and savor the pleasure.
It's a little late in coming, this popular slap in George Jr.'s smug
little Common Chimp face, especially for those of us who have opposed his
bullying, bankrupt policies from the first Crusade. But better late than
never. So let's enjoy the electoral orgasm of the moment, Brothers and
Sisters, Lovers and Sinners. Because it feels good, yes indeed. Then let's
see if we can make our new representatives follow through on their
promises to change, which does involve politically sitting on Bush's face
and not let him get up for air. Of course, we should do this with
"civility," like Nancy says. But we should do it now.

It's time for America to follow the Bonobo Way of peace, pleasure,
diplomacy and community. It's time to wash the blood off our hands.

Dr. Susan Block is a sex educator, cable TV host and author of The 10
Commandments of Pleasure. Visit her BRAND NEW BLOGGAMY & POST COMMENTS at
http://www.drsusanblock.com/blog/blog.asp Send comments to
liberties [at] blockbooks.com.

[ed trusts that, if you ever see him flipping Bush the bird, or calling
him degenerate mildewed pondscum, you know that he means it only in a good
sense. -ed]


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

Now Kick Out the Corporate Interests
Voting in the Absence of Choice
By CHARLES SULLIVAN
CounterPunch
November 8, 2006

Too many Americans harbor the illusion that we live in a democracy simply
because we have the right to vote. But let us be clear about something:
voting matters only where real choices are allowed. It is universally
understood that special interest money runs the American political system
and thus defines what the choices will be. So we are left to choose
between candidates who are financed by special interest money, which any
fool can see, is no choice at all.

The system is purposely designed to require enormous expense from its
participants. According to the very mainstream USA Today, the non-partisan
Center for Responsive Politics predicts that $2.6 billion will be spent on
Congressional races this year alone, which thus precludes any third party
candidate, as well as ordinary people, from all but token participation.
It requires big money to win political office and big money comes from the
deep pockets of corporate America. In effect, special interest money has
rendered the political process as we know it null and void by restricting
our choices to candidates that have been pre-chosen for us by corporate
America.

The choice is more illusory than real. Plutocrats and workers have nothing
in common. People of ordinary means can no longer ascend to the presidency
or even Congress. The composition of both the state and federal
governments are very different from the socio-economic demographics of the
populations they are supposed to represent, and it is no accident.
Regardless where you look the rich are represented and the great majority
is excluded.

So if the Democrats wrest control of the government from the hands of the
Republicans, it will be because conservative Democrats won some important
races, precluding any progressive mandate from coming into play. On the
whole the nation will remain well to the right of center, and certainly
will not progress toward the left. The bulk of the corporate money will
reverse direction and flow from the Republicans into the coffers of the
Democrats. The corporations will retain control.

One can cast protest votes, as I often do, for candidates who do not
accept special interest money, but they are rarely, if ever, contenders.
It requires huge sums of money to get media exposure, and to get on state
ballots, yet alone contend for the prize. The system is designed to
preclude challenges to the status quo, which leaves us to choose between
Republicrats fielded by corporate backers.

Corporate money so owns the political process that voters are left to
choose only between the finer nuances of the capital system, and between
degrees of corruption. Ultimately the choice is between lesser evils,
which speak volumes about the state of decay of American politics. Good
never springs from evil, so we witness the steady moral decline of a
nation mired in corruption and confusion.

There is nothing benign about corporate financiers who hedge their bets by
supporting candidates of the major parties. Corporate CEOs are not
philanthropists interested in the well being of America. They are
motivated by greed and profits, and when they finance political campaigns,
make no mistake about it; they are renting or buying politicians who will
help them achieve their objectives.

Special interest money is a malignancy that grows in the bowels of
government, and it must be removed lest it kill the host.

A system in which the high rollers and fat cats feed upon the bloated
corpses of the tax payers and is accountable to no one should be an
affront to all decent people of every political stripe. Let us see the
political system in America for what it is, and for the cruel hoax that it
has always been.

The corporate financing of political campaigns is, in fact, a capital
investment in the status quo that benefits the wealthy and marginalizes
those with neither wealth nor property. That explains why substantive
change is rarely accomplished through the vote in America. It also
explains the remarkable consistency and homogeneity of governmental policy
through the decades; domestic and foreign, regardless of which party is in
power.

Those policies have consistently accrued wealth and influence to the rich
by exploiting the working class, and with disastrous results for the
world. It has resulted in war after war, occupation after occupation; and
the systematic overthrow of democracies everywhere.

The corporations and their puppets in government are realizing enormous
profits from the system, and they will not allow significant or radical
change from within the existing order. The system cannot and will not be
reformed; the money changers will not allow it.

Now the great majority of the population is disenfranchised and left out
of the equation. Only those with wealth are allowed to play. Money talks
and those who do not have an abundance of wealth are without voice in a
political system awash in cash and corruption.

If working class people were running the government, rather than wealthy
Plutocrats, we would not be in the current predicament that threatens to
engulf us, and we would have avoided many of the pitfalls that have
trapped us in the past. We would never have experienced a Viet Nam War,
there would have been no invasion and occupation of Iraq; and we would
have socialized health care and decent schools like other industrialized
nations, rather than tax cuts for the rich and massive corporate welfare.

There is a huge difference between a government of the people and
corporate 'for profit' governance. America would be a much better place
without corporate rule, and unquestionably the world would be better off
and much safer.

I am not sure what the solution is to the dilemma we have created for
ourselves through detachment, indifference and apathy. I do know, however,
that doing the same thing over and over will assure a similar result to
what we have gotten in the past. At some point we must acknowledge the
illegitimacy of the political process, and see it for the prostitution and
the sham that it is. It is incapable of producing just results or the
change we need in order to become a Democracy.

There are no easy ways out of the morass we have created. It may be that
another tea party similar to the one enacted at Boston Harbor over two
hundred years ago is the only cure for what ails us. I survive on the hope
that eventually enough good people will arrive at a similar conclusion,
and that we will effect change directly in the streets of America. That is
what I would call participatory Democracy, and it would be a thing of
beauty to behold.

Charles Sullivan is a photographer, free lance writer and social activist
living in West Virginia. He welcomes your comments at
csullivan [at] phreego.com.

[How about, instead of a tea party, a TP party? Rolls and rolls of the
white stuff in all the White House area trees and bushes and powerlines?
To honor the #1 and #2 squeezably soft men in America? -ed]

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   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
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