Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 02.10.07

[David Shove (shove001]

          P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    02.10.07

1. Janitors win     2.10 11am
2. Young MLK/play   2.10 2pm
3. Sullivan school  2.10 3pm

4. Jug band battle  2.11 1pm
5. YAWR/no recruit  2.11 3pm
6. Court/terror/TV  2.11 4pm/7pm
7. Supreme Court/TV 2.11 5pm
8. Vets for peace   2.11 6pm
9. Prayer for peace 2.11 6:30pm

10. MSP Picket      2.12 2pm
11. Spirit progs    2.12 7pm
12. New Orleans/TV  2.12 8pm

13. Joe Bageant - Pissing in the liberal punchbowl again
14. Joe Bageant - Neurological biocaste blues
15. Joe Bageant - Our national sociopathy
16. SatireWire  - High schoolers demand wars in easier-to-find countries
17. Pandora     - Priorities (poem)

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

From: Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council <jgeorge [at] mplscluc.com>
Subject: Janitors win 2.10 11am

As you probably know the SEIU Local 26 janitors have agreed in principle
on a new contract with their employers. Significant gains were made in the
areas of wages, full-time status for employees, and most importantly the
affordability of health care.

The workers will vote on the contract this Saturday, February 10th, at
11am, at Labor Centre room 218.

All community, labor, and political allies that supported the workers in
their struggle are invited to attend. There will also be an informal
celebration at the restaurant downstairs after the vote.

Details:
Janitors contract vote and celebration
11am - Saturday, February 10th
Room 218 Labor Centre - 312 Central Avenue, Minneapolis 55414


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

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Young MLK/play 2.10 2pm

Young MLK..and a Child Shall Lead Them, Stepping STone Theatre, ST. Paul

Stepping Stone Theatre works with young actors, presenting plays of depth
and enjoyment for children, youth and families.For this year's Black
History Month, they present 'Young MLK...and a Child Shall Lead'. This is
Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King as you've never seen him: as a boy growing up
in the segrated South and taking his first steps towards becoming a leader
who would inspire not only African-Americans but, the nation to 'live up
to the meaning of its creed'.Young MLK...And a Child Shall Lead.' is
written by Davida Adedjouma, with music by Patricia Lacy and Vance Holmes,
and a sparkling cast of Twin Cities young people.

Performances are through February on these dates:

10th2:00pm;11th 2:00pm;12th and 13th 9:30am,11:00am, 12:45pm;
14th,9:30am,11:00am 12:45pm; 15th 9:30am, 11:00am, 12:45pm;16th 7:00pm;
17th 2:00pm; 18th 2:00pm; 19th and 20th 9:30am, 11:00am, 12:45pm; 21st
9:30am, 11:00am, 12:45pm; 22nd 9:30am, 11:00am, 12:45pm; 23rd 7:00pm; 24th
2:00pm. SteppingStone Theatre performs in the F.K. Weyerhaeuser
Auditorium, which is located on the lower level of Landmark Center.
Landmark Center is located at 75 West 5th Street on the corner of the 5th
and Market Streets in downtown Saint Paul. Tickets are $11 for adults, $9
foir children and $6 for groups of 20 or more.For more information, call
(651)225.9265 or http://www.steppingstonetheatre.org


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

From: Carmela Kranz <C.Kranz [at] mmf.umn.edu>
Subject: Sullivan school 2.10 3pm

We (parents of my children's public K-8 school) are hosting six hours of
toe-tapping music from local bands this Saturday, February 10 from 3 to 9
p.m. at the Eagles Club in Minneapolis (2507 25th St. E.) to benefit Anne
Sullivan School's band program.

Last year you brought band back to Anne Sullivan after almost 2 years of
no music due to budget cuts. Now we're trying to keep our band director
and grow the program to 8th graders for next year. Without fundraising
there is no chance of retaining the program. Last year you and the
community contributed over $9,000!

Tickets can be purchased at the door the day of the event ($10 adult, $5
kids 6 and over, $25 families) and parking is free. The Eagles have
generously donated their venue, the performers are contributing their
time, many parent volunteer hours will be logged, and Sullivan students
will be there to say thanks and make a little music themselves.

Please tell a few others about our Bands for Band event -- that is an
important contribution too. For those who can come--see you there!


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

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Jug band battle 2.11 1pm

Here's what Lydia Howell wrote in her weekly arts column TEN DAYS OUT
the online Twin Cities Daily Planet:
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net

Battle of the Jug Bands
February 11th
The Cabooze, Minneapolis

It's heartwarming to realize that jug bands, making a form of music with
roots in 19th century, poor and rural communities, have survived (and are
thriving) into the 21st century. Jug bands get their name from the
crockery jugs a musician would blow into in a rhythmic manner. That was
just one of the daily objects pressed into musical service: washboards
became percussion instruments and "washtub bass" was a wire strung on a
stick set into a washtub and plucked. Add in banjos, guitars and
harmonicas with harmonized human voices and you've got American acoustic
at its best. Some of the first musicians ever recorded were jug bands,
some with a "back in the hills" feeling, others with early jazz elements.
The 25th annual Battle of the Jug Bands is packed with 20 bands playing
for seven hours, all with hopes of being chosen this year's keeper of the
traveling trophy: a waffle iron with each year's winner engraved on it.
This delightful event also includes the most massive potluck supper you've
ever seen (and are encouraged to add your fave hot dish to).

Some of the returning competitors are: Kolstad's Broasted Mother Cluckers,
Fat Chance Jug Band, Hungry Hungry Hippies, The Half-Fast Players, Don't
Try This At Home, Belly Roll Morton and the Mortifiers, Jug Band Heroes,
Jack and the Jug-Offs, The Phleshtones, Pattycake Flakes, Dingleberry
Whine, Hegel and the Noumenal Antithesis Boys, Old Deluder Satan, The
Dictatorship of the Proletariat, and last year's champs, Grandma's Saggy
Jug Band, defending their title.

[I have taken the liberty of adding, to the above list of bands, names of
bands that don't exist yet, but should. -ed]

February 11. 1-8 p.m. Entrance is by donation (you choose the amount)
with all proceeds divided between KFAI community radio and Bedlam
Theatre. The Cabooze, 917 Cedar Avenue South, Minneapolis.

This message was sent to you by David D. David is hosting the 25th Annual
Battle of the Jug Bands event on Care2 Connect.

Click here to view the event home page or to RSVP for this event:
http://www.care2.com/c2c/gettogether/2971


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: YAWR/no recruit 2.11 3pm

Sunday, 2/11, 3 pm, city-wide meeting of Youth Against War and Racism (primo
anti-recruitment student group) to talk about recent work at St Paul Central
High and Jefferson High, plus planning for March 18th, 3024 Chicago Ave,
Mpls.


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

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Court/terror/TV 2.11 4pm/7pm

Trial lawyers, investigators, and reporters who worked on the
Zacarias Moussaoui case discuss the complexities of trying terrorists in
federal court. Co-produced with William Mitchell College of Law.
Justice Matters
tpt2 Sunday, February 11 at 4PM
tpt17 Sunday, February 11 at 7PM

As a companion show to PBS's The Supreme Court, don't miss this look at
the Minnesota Supreme Court and how its major decisions have affected
Minnesotans' lives. Co-produced with the Minnesota Supreme Court.


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

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Supreme Court/TV 2.11 5pm

The Supreme Court
tpt2 Parts 3 & 4: Sunday, February 11 at 5PM

It is one of the most powerful institutions in the country, yet the
Supreme Court remains an enigma to most Americans. In the final two
episodes of this compelling, intimate history of the court, learn about
the landmark cases of the 20th century, the legal dramas behind them, and
the personal stories of the justices who decided them.


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Vets for peace 2.11 6pm

Sunday, 2/11, 6 pm (and the 2nd Sunday of each month), Veterans for Peace
chapter 24 meeting, St Stephens School basement, 2130 Clinton Ave S, Mpls.
waynewittman [at] msn.com


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Prayer for peace 2.11 6:30pm

Sunday, 2/11, 6:30 to 7:15 pm, Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet present
11th day prayer for peace, Presentation Chapel, 1880 Randolph Ave, St Paul.
www.csjstpaul.org or 651-690-7079.


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

From: chaosdtw [at] comcast.net [mailto:chaosdtw [at] comcast.net]
Subject: MSP Picket 2.12 2pm

Association of Flight Attendants- CWA
Northwest Airlines Local Executive Council 95 - MSP

Dear Union Sisters and Brothers . . .

Since July 31, 2006 the Northwest Airlines flight attendants have been
working under an imposed set of work rules that represent a 40 % reduction
in salary and benefits and an increase of as much as 20% in additional
work hours. Under the Railway Labor Act these unilateral changes to the
contract trigger the flight attendants right to strike.

On September 15, 2006, at the request of NWA management, U.S. District
Court Judge Victor Marrero issued a Preliminary Injunction against the
Association of Flight Attendants, blocking us from engaging in CHAOST, our
trademarked strike strategy.  AFA-CWA has appealed that decision. The
right of a union to strike while a company is under bankruptcy protection
has never been tested in the courts until now. This legal challenge poses
a major concern to the labor movement in the United States.

On February 2, 2007 the AFA Negotiations Committee presented a proposal to
Northwest that would reduce the amount of concessions that the Company was
authorized to impose. AFA's proposal is based primarily on the fact that
Northwest's actual performance exceeds the projections contained in the
business plan it created back in November 2005.  The growth in revenue
that Northwest management anticipated over the next four years has been
achieved in the first eleven months of 2006, adding more than $700 million
in additional revenue each year through 2010.

On Friday AFA issued a press release explaining that if Northwest does not
change its position that $195 million in annual concessions is still
necessary, the union intends to file a motion asking Judge Gropper, of the
Bankruptcy Court, to set aside the Order that authorized Northwest to
impose these concessions.

Our negotiators will be returning to the table as early as next week. To
bring attention to the issue and to give support to our negotiators at the
table, Northwest flight attendants will be holding an informational
picket:

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL INFORMATIONAL PICKETING
Lindbergh Terminal
Monday, February 12, 2007
Time: 2:00pm-3:30pm
Meet at 1:45 P.M. for briefing at the MSP Airport Transit Center-Bus Stop
Level

Please dress appropriately for the weather.
Contact: Willie Wilcox 952-241-4128 lecvp95 [at] nwaafa.org
You have all been incredibly supportive of us in the past and we are once
again inviting you to join us for this picket.
If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me.

In Solidarity,
Willie Wilcox
Local Executive Council 95 Vice-President
Association of Flight Attendants-CWA
952-241-4128 lecvp95 [at] nwaafa.org


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

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Spirit progs 2.12 7pm

Monday, 2/12 (and each month's 2nd Monday), 7 pm (socialize 6:30), Network
of Spiritual Progressives meeting, Plymouth Congregational Church, 1900
Nicollet, Mpls.  brucelissem [at] aol.com or www.nspmn.org


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

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: New Orleans/TV 2.12 8pm

American Experience/ New Orleans
tpt2 and tpt2 Monday, February 12 at 8PM
tpt17 Tuesday, February 13 at 8PM

This historical portrait explores New Orleans' distinctive culture,
humor, fatalism and rebelliousness, while raising critical questions
about what lies ahead.


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

Pissing in the Liberal Punchbowl Again
The Democratic Conga Line in the American House of Lords
Joe Bageant | November 13, 2006 | Category: Essays

Saw the talking heads today, speaking the priestly tongue. Saw them
nodding seriously, using words like 'gravitas' and a few others that
originated in the bosom of Americana. Heard one of the newly elected
basically state that things would be business as usual, don't expect a lot
of changes. Rather scornfully and testily the idea of impeaching W was
dismissed. Well, why the hell not? No answer, just the satisfied, mildly
contemptuous smile. Oh, yes, and there'll be a lot of 'bipartisan' things
going on.
-- Key Bugle, Internet denizen, retired army seargent

By Joe Bageant

Democrats are dancing around the head of Donald Rumsfeld like a scene
from Lord of the Flies, heating up the tar buckets and plucking the goose
in eager, nay, wild, anticipation. Personally, I love the smell of tar and
feathers in the morning and am quite willing to march on the White House
as we speak. I like revenge as well as the next guy. But I also consider
myself a compassionate man, one perfectly willing to let Bush's cabinet
choose whether they wanna play the mommy or the daddy in the Big House,
then move on to the real problems, such as the fact that a gallon of Old
Grandad is nearly 50 bucks here in Virginia, or the fact that we are still
a nation of people, half of whom were happy to elect a bunch of war
criminals - TWICE! - and still are.

Ah, but lo and beshit, the Democrats have rescued us. If you can call
running around like chickens with their heads up their asses while the
Republicans did what they always do - get caught stealing the national
silverware, while bombing the hell out of some miserable piece of dirt as
a distraction, thereby self-destructing in 12 years as usual, but getting
obscenely rich in the process.

Pardon my cynicism, but the view is pretty damned sorry from here in the
cheap seats. From down here it looks like every Yankee liberal north of
Virginia seems convinced they are now shitting in such tall cotton, that
all they need do from here on out is foist Hillary Clinton on the many
poor miserable bastards unfortunate enough to be called heartland
Democrats because we don't have the balls to become heavily armed
libertarians. Nominating Hillary might just drive us to it.

Meanwhile, we watch the only woman who can give the ambitious Hillary a
run for the money when it comes to "the sneer behind the smile," Nancy
Pelosi. (Sorry Nancy, I used to get hot in unmentionable body areas when
you stepped in front of the cameras, before I saw your financial reports
and the shiv in your stockings. Now, call me a chauvinist, but somehow,
you come off much the same as Condi Rice and Hillary.) Then it's on to the
main act, in which we watch Honey Boy Obama "pass" in elite liberal
society as a goddamned negro, for christ sake! Will wretched wonders never
end?

I don't know a single black person who is nearly as impressed with Barack
Obama as they are with Bill Clinton, and yes, most of them DO understand
that Clinton fucked everybody who works for a living with his shell game
called NAFTA. Not to mention the cruel farce of "workfare." Obama, the
child of a black/white student tryst in Honolulu, (natural daddy was from
Kenya and a Harvard man) was raised in Indonesia by a diplomat step-father
and white mother, then he was sent off to Punahou School, Hawaii's
equivalent of Sidwell Friends in DC, where Chelsea and similar children of
royalty go. B.O. just doesn't fool American blacks into believing he
sweats bullets every time a police car lights up behind him in the
traffic. Unlike Clinton, he does not gain weight easily and does not even
attempt to play the sax. To Obama's credit, he does have at least as many
body guards as any hiphop star ... and let's face it, he only has to pass
with white urban liberals to be deemed the great mocha hope of urban
liberal Americans who swear they have not an ounce of race consciousness.

Aw shit. Now I've gone and pissed in the liberal punch bowl again, so I
guess it's no more fancy little water crackers with brie and truffle
preserves for me at the next Democratic fundraiser. I'm too fat anyway.

I nevertheless rooted for the Democrats just like everybody else. How
could anyone in their right mind and possessing a smidgen of morals not
have been pulling for the Democratic Westchester Country Club Pussy Mafia,
sheerly out of revulsion for the other choice - a real mafia. It's the
old American political pendulum thing, back and forth between parties.

Americans take comfort in the spoonfed "pendulum" theory of politics. No
matter that the pendulum smacks them in the goddamned head at either end
of the swing, because supposedly, it achieves some democracy preserving
balance. To my mind, it merely offers a different faux target for citizen
discontent every four years, so the same powers behind the powers can
continue to extract wealth and sucker the public into consumer confidence
and the latest Wall Street Ponzi scheme, or fighting wars to obtain more
wealth and to protect what the elites have already piled up. Yet American
tolerance for this pendulum bullshit, for this set of fake choices between
two powerful groups of political elites who are dancing in the Washington
conga line, asshole to belly button pretending they are alternatives to
each another, seems endless.

Just what on god's green earth do liberals think the Democrats are going
to do after they finish singing "This is the Dawning of the Age of
Aquarius?" Really? What to do after they spend a few more years indexing
the Republican crimes? The Republicans have the stolen geet, the Dems have
a two-year ticket to ride, and the working guy and the middle class are
pretending they are not about to get the worst reaming since Herbert
Hoover was president. What are the Democrats to do, dear Nelly, pray tell?
Well, it would be nice if they would immediately move to dismantle the
police state that is so well under construction. And ideally they might
begin to address the real problems that constitute the very shaky stage
upon our delusional "American lifestyle" movie is being played out - peak
oil and the collapse of the environment. When it comes to the peak oil
crisis, their best shot seems to be Al Gore telling us to hang our clothes
on lines and turn down the thermostats, never once mentioning, much less
blaming, the corporations that keep our nation addicted to oil, and are
responsible for bankrolling the Bush/Cheney junta that brought us this
ongoing national nightmare in the first place.

If Dems have not learned from what nearly happened to America's
constitution in the past six years, we are in deep shit. We are still in
deep shit even if they did learn, but at least have cause for fresh false
hope. But we may assume, until they prove otherwise, that the elites of
the Democratic leadership are immune to the real life consequences of
their economic and political decisions. I seriously doubt that they will
push for any of the things inherent to a civilized post-industrial
society, such as ABSOLUTELY FREE universal health care, or ABSOLUTELY FREE
universal higher education, or even letting the tens of thousands of poor
hapless fucking potheads out of this nation's now privatized prison
system. Or kicking McDonald's and Coke out of the nation's school lunch
programs. And do you actually think they are going to address America's
unspoken class system? Nope! But they will use the word class a bit more,
just for its resonance of authenticity, but only should it become
absolutely necessary.

On the other hand, the Democrats are going to raise the minimum wage. They
will do so because even the Republicans are willing to do it now. And they
will raise it to somewhere around seven bucks, which is half of what it
takes to eat and shit with any regularity in this country, and they will
do it in three timid steps stretching out over hell only knows how long.

To be fair here, the Democrats have fifty-one seats. Fifty-one ain't
sixty, which is what it takes to accomplish anything by fiat at the
syndicate headquarters on East Capitol Street. Still, they can accomplish
much if they have enough hair on their asses to fight the good fight. If
they get out of their limos and set out on foot without their entourage of
royal eunuchs to find the good fight.

Otherwise, they will or will not fight the good fight in the marble royal
citadel where three out of every 100 people are homeless. And in a fit of
high dudgeon, they will order blanket subpoenas for half the Republican
Party to testify, which is not going to put a single blanket over their
bruised asses of the nearby homeless as they rustle around on damp
cardboard under the watchful eye of the city's several thousands of
security cameras, cameras that manage to catch the average DC resident
some 250 times a day (nanny cams excluded), cameras that document
protesters with facial recognition software, cameras that make 81 percent
of residents "feel safer, according to surveys - even though they do not
reduce crime, according to the police chief himself. Like the Republicans,
the Democrats understand that people now believe their chances of being
attacked by swarthy terrorists are greater than their chances of being
mugged by the crackhead on the corner. The residual fear of our 12-year
ordeal will be there a long time, if it ever disappears at all. Democrats
believe they must continue to play to that irrational fear to get elected.
Which will only perpetuate the fear. Meanwhile, President Sparky fiddles
with his veto pen in the Oval Office, while Rove and Cheney plot to leave
the Dems with as many unpaid bills on the table as possible. Nobody said
it would be easy.

Internationally speaking, the picture is no better. It's pretty doubtful
anyone will publicly fess up to the fact that the whole damned world hates
us, and that a recent poll found that just about everybody but the
Japanese and the South Koreans consider us far more dangerous than Kim Il
Sung's North Korean nuclear zoo. The soon-to-come investigations of Cheney
and Rumsfeld may make jolly spectacle for the American public, even
entertain the Europeans for a while, with its examination as to how our
illegal invasion, complete destruction and occupation of a sovereign
country was "mishandled" - if the actions of a rogue nation can be said
to be mishandled - which will distract the citizenry for a while longer.
But the Democratic Party will never challenge the militarism that has made
war the resort of first option so acceptable to so many Americans. Cutting
defense spending by half remains unthinkable, even though it would still
leave us with one quarter of all the world's weapons and four fifths of
the world's viable nuclear firepower. Despite that the savings would
rebuild every school in then nation, or send every American child through
college or technical school, or wipe out homelessness in one fell swoop,
or pay for nationalized health care for all, (if the insurance company
leeches are dumped in the process) or public transit.

Democrats like being THE liberal party. They like being the only game in
town for anyone who thinks that maybe, just maybe, a police state might
not be the best idea we can come up with, or that the Bible may not have
been written as a physics or biological treatise. For anything to change
at all, Democrats are going to have to actually lead the liberal tribes,
make liberal Americans understand that there is too much at stake to let
the divisiveness of gender, identity, and single issue politics keep us so
divided. Otherwise, when the cheap oil fiesta is over, which will be
within most people's lifetimes, if not my own, when real economic collapse
is on the horizon, Americans will switch on the same reptilian survival
brain they did when they elected Bush. Assuming they ever turn it off.

If so many other nations can come to understand what is really at stake in
our times, and modify their national programs and ambitions to accommodate
the Kyoto Agreements or energy reductions, or cleaner fuel standards, or
land mine bans, or the need for a world court on atrocity, or even the
Geneva Conventions for crap sake, there is no reason we cannot do the
same, other than lack of international leadership by the people we elect
(or presume to elect.) Some domestic leadership would be nice too. Hell,
18 states have a higher minimum wage than the fed standard, 12 states have
tried to modify coal fired emission standards on their own (only to be
stymied by our elected government). Is there any will at all to do the
right thing?

It may be possible the will is exists within the American public to do the
right thing, a rather dodgy assumption given that they we been fed on a
complete diet of supremacy and misinformation for three decades. But even
if it is still possible, it will take leadership. And by leadership, we
don't mean such crap as "We will deliver a better plan than Bush for the
war in Iraq." We bombed the fuck out of a sovereign nation, killed
hundreds of thousands of innocents, instituted an illegal occupation that
makes Germany's French occupation look like a bridge party (Really! Go
read about it sometime). And we made the world a more dangerous place in
the process. We don't need a fucking plan. We need to admit our guilt to
the world, then beg forgiveness and demonstrate our sincerity through
reparations. THAT is the right thing to do. But we won't.

The Democratic Party does America not one bit of good by sustaining the
hubris that has brought us to the point where our high officials and
former officials such as Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales (and others yet to
be charged, we suspect) cannot travel in countries like Germany because of
war crime indictments. Someone has to ask, "How did we come to this?" Ask
"How can we not only change our course, but also make amends and prove to
the world that we are worthy of trust?" It would be of great help if we
were actually worthy of trust.

It ain't gonna happen because, just like George Bush, we as a people never
admit our mistakes. Not as long as we are packing more heat than all the
rest of the world combined. We are the five percent of the planet
consuming a quarter of its resources on the grounds of divine entitlement
as Americans. And the heat we pack. Think the Dems are gonna address that?
Address that belligerent two-ton rhino in the sandbox called the American
Lifestyle? Nobody will, and that refusal will ensure our downfall. Rhinos
can be taken down, and you don't have to be Hemingway to do it. Ask any
12-year-old Syrian or Palestinian boy. It's their dream. Any bookie will
tell you that odds are good that at least one of those millions of boys
will accomplish his dream. Providence is like that.

We haven't got forever. So, come next election, every ordinary working
American should ask themselves this: "What have Democrats done that made
the world better? What have they done to make my life measurably and
observably healthier and more humanly secure, reduced my toil and
increased my daily happiness?" The answer probably won't be good. And the
Democratic leadership will not care anyway, except to the extent that it
disrupts the party conga line. Because they know one thing: You don't have
any other choice. It's either them or the Republicans, and we all now know
what the GOP is capable of, given the opportunity. In the end, it is only
our indecisiveness and misinformation, our lack of courage and our
willingness to live smaller, morally diminished lives in one political
camp or the other, that keeps the American public evenly split into the
two non-choices that represent our political system.

We let the Republicans bitch slap the hell out of us for a few years while
they pick our pockets, then we elect the Democrats who refuse to slap
anyone publicly, but allow the same corporate- military- financial gang to
continue picking our pockets while we are recuperating.

You know it. I know it. But until we unlearn our gratitude for momentary
perceived relief, unlearn our helplessness, until we quit the hypnotic
myth of the pendulum, and openly resist the pretense together, regardless
of whether we are white, black, queer, middle class or poor, tenured
professor or illegal immigrant student, Southern Scots-Irish redneck or
well-heeled New York Jewish professional, nothing will change.

Best to forget the conga line up there on the media stage - this ain't
the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. It's just another rest stop on the
long march toward that too well known destination no free human being ever
chose of his or her own accord. Democratic victory or not, Americans still
lead ever smaller lives, in belief that a low profile and the right party
allegiances will preserve them, and that someone else, someone with less
to lose, will take the risks necessary to right some of the most terrible
wrongs the world has seen.

Men live small lives because they believe it offers them safety. Nothing
could be further from the truth.

Ask any German or Old World Jew.


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

Neurological Biocaste Blues
By Joe Bageant
January 12 2007

As most of the world has noticed by now, very few Americans are critical
thinkers. Most suffer from a collective learning disability based on the
complete commodification of our consciousness by consumerism and
electronic media. In this case, learning disability is a nice way of
saying that we have become collectively stupid, muchless capable of
insight.

Insight is scary to Americans so conditioned to rote consumption and
substituting entertainment and illusion for actual involvement. When they
realize something, and I mean genuine higher understanding of what the sum
of the parts mean, not simply what they appear to be, their consciousness
is altered and they become different inside. Suddenly the world is no
longer the solid consumer state sonambulation they are accustomed to. They
have no tools to deal with it. Beyond that least half of us are so
conditioned we are incapable of human insight at all. We have the past two
elections as proof.

But for artists and creative people not hammered down by our national
self-projections, new insights are merciful release from the stage managed
totalitarian consumer experience. Alcohol and drugs can also help break
free of this iron theater, which is why one is highly taxed, the other
illegal and both made artificially expensive. Prolonged and concentrated
Artistic exploration is another way out. But most are happily subdued by
the smell of a new car, televised sports or movie tickets.

Meanwhile, here we are, you and I, prowling the archaic text-based
"information community" of the internet where we will find only what we
are looking for and what we more or less know. The internet is a non-place
where information is invited to be filtered through an already developed
set of perceptions governing what we think we know, believe or want to
believe. I am participating in it right now, even though I haven't the
slightest idea why. But it probably has something to do with the
neuro-psychology of a genetically determined "symbols dissemination"
biocaste. Our species produces writers and journalists in the same manner
bee and ant societies produce hive members whose sole purpose is to run
between all other members, issuing a group security signal: "I'm OK. Are
you OK? Or the hive is in danger. The queen bee is dead. Terrorists are
inside the hive." Etc.

I am convinced that much of our predisposition toward certain perception
filters and community (hive) roles is hardwired into us. Even at age six I
could read well and had the compulsion to write down what I saw around me,
or memorize it in the form of a story, then deliver it to others.
Minstrels and troubadors and nomadic story tellers of the dark ages did
the same, and I consider it sort of a bardic hardwiring. (My family simply
attributed it to "bad nerves." They may prove right.)

The only difference 60 years later is that I have added a comedy routine
to offset the increasingly bad news. You cannot keep pointing out to
fellow travelers in your cybernetic affinity group the obvious signs of
increasing doom whizzing by without at least saying: "Hey guys, let's stop
for a beer and a few jokes along the way." Nevertheless the cybernetic
bundling of perception groups on the Internet may be leading to insight of
the aggregated information sort, if not observable human progress -- yet.
Here's hoping.

At the same time, a financial, military, governmental entity drives for
ultimate propertization and monetization of civilization and life itself.
What or who is behind this seemingly unstopable totalism? Although
anti-monolith leftists and eco-realists want to find bad guys and evil
manipulators behind the curtain -- and certainly there are candidates
enough -- it is the inevitable outcome of the Newtonian World Machine. It
has now propertized, financialized genes, the songs from our mouths,
ideas, inspiration, the forests, the fish beneath the seas, all of nature
and even images of nature, atomizing them into millions of moving parts,
profit units.

With the entire world sold and mostly devoured, and six billion folks in a
Darwinian death match for what's left .- half of them drinking sewerage
and the other half living for the new xBox to come out -- I'll make a wild
guess here and say it's a helluva long way "back to the garden." Things
are not going to turn around, Fritjof Capra be damned. You can't turn a
battleship around in a shrinking mud puddle.


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

Our National Sociopathy
By Joe Bageant
January 24 2007

There is a dark side to any state induced oblivion -- in this case, our
national and international sociopathy, our unacknowledged inner and outer
violence. By now it should be clear that our national and personal
sociopathy stems more from our environment and culture than anything our
mamas and daddies did to us in childhood, lousy as those things may have
been for some. This ain't Kansas anymore and besides, our parents were
products of the same culture, only less so.

When researchers dive into the subject, they find far more pearls in the
interaction of our innate neurological wiring with the kind of society we
live in than they ever did in the waters of family abuse -- though family
abuse is at least partly a result of the state produced reality -- or
attachment disorder. American culture makes more families than families
make culture, chicken or the egg proposition as that is. Your mama may
have been a drunk and your daddy may have been pawing over your
cheerleading squad, true, but people have been boozing and leching for a
long, long time.

On the other hand, if you have absorbed directly into your little sugar
charged neuro-system the bread and circus offerings of the Empire, some
100,000 shootings, stabbings, stranglings, abductions, robberies, murders,
car wrecks, stalkings, war footage and combat scenes, not to mention high
pressure sales for video games of war and mayhem, well, mama back there in
the bedroom sleeping off a fifth of Jack Daniels may not be the worst
problem you had as a developing child. Only a fool would argue that
American television makes does not make its viewers, particularly
children, more aggressive, fearful of the world around them and less
sensitive to pain and suffering of others -- especially these days of
swarthy Middle Eastern peoples and for a while there, even the hapless
French. Even so, there are plenty of Americans who still say television
has no effect. We might ask: "Then why the hell do corporations spend
billions on television advertising so they can reach you?" And that's just
the TV side of the violent culture problem.

Throw in politicized fundamentalist religion, with its unwarranted
persecution complex (We cain't let Stacy Sue git that abortion, that
feetus might be another Billy Graham or at least a Trent Lott, fer heaven
sake!) religion with a vengeful, repressive Calvinist bent, and corporate
media sucking up to the government for campaign ads, government issued
bandwidth and corporate concessions, and you have a perfect cultural
storm, where resentment turning to hatred becomes the national identity.

It seems doubtful that logic or reason will ever provide the answer to
this, our people's dilemma. A culture wrought so completely in
unquestioned contradiction isn't likely to be persuaded by logical
argument, no matter how compelling. The answer is most likely, like the
problem, to be found within the culture itself -- perhaps within latent
anti-authoritarian and anti-aristocracy inclinations once more obvious in
Americans (if any germ of it remains). The same inclinations that have
been reframed by authoritarian Leo Straussians new transnational
capitalist class elites as restraints on freedom and prosperity. One hopes
so. After all, the anti-authoritarian American myth, for better or worse,
and though it may be buried so far down in then national psyche it's gonna
take dynamite to get it out, is not dead. In fact, it is what the
corporcracy currently uses both to beat us all into submission, and to
display the imaginary golden carrot to the unwashed.

Which is why so many ordinary working people honestly believe that by
voting Republican they just might yet become rich. They see it as a party
of the rich and want to be associated with it. They like the small
government platform or the family values platform or because they are
born-again.

There is another simpler reason why so many lower-middle-class waitresses
in Kansas and Hispanic warehouse workers in Texas now call themselves
Republicans. They believe American capitalism's longest standing political
and philosophical lie -- that the rich and powerful are most suited to
lead and tell them what is good for them and will lead them to become
rich, or at least richer. Which fits very nicely with the leadership of
American fundamentalism, who are equally convinced that people should not
so much as fart without the blessing of some higher authority. The
affinity between the neo-cons and fundie church leadership is certainly no
mystery. Their Christian leadership is in complete agreement with the
Straussian principle that "perpetual deception of the citizens by those in
power is absolutely necessary, because the people need powerful rulers to
define what is good for them".

One can read this as a kind of black Straussian inflicted comedy, but that
gives Leo Strauss too much credit. American working people have been doing
this -- though not to the present degree -- before Leo Strauss performed
ever buggered Paul Wolfowitz and Bill Kristol. Working folks believe what
cannot be true, which is their chief virtue by Straussian measure. Good
little people, easy to manage and ever optimistic. Yet, while the Chicago
boys may not have entirely created the sorry assed misguided situation we
now have, you've got to give them credit. They sure as hell set about
instituting their loathsome program at an opportune time in history.


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

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DEMAND WARS
IN EASIER-TO-FIND COUNTRIES
"How Come No One Fights in Big Famous Nations Anymore?" They Ask

Washington, D.C. (SatireWire.com) - A delegation of American high school
students today demanded the United States stop waging war in obscure
nations such as Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and instead
attack places they've actually heard of, such as France, Australia, and
Austria, unless, they said, those last two are the same country.

"Shouldn't we, as Americans, get to decide where wars are?" asked
sophomore Kate Shermansky.

"People claim we don't know as much geography as our parents and
grandparents, but it's so not our fault," Josh Beldoni, a senior at
Fischer High School in Los Angeles, told the Senate Armed Services
Committee. "Back then they only had wars in, like, Germany and England,
but we're supposed to know about places like Somalia and Massachusetts."

"Macedonia," corrected committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan.

"See?" said Beldoni.

Beldoni's frustration was shared by nearly three dozen students at the
hearing, who blamed the U.S. military for making them look bad.

"I totally support our soldiers and all that, but I am seriously failing
both geography and social studies because I keep getting asked to find
Croatia or Yemvrekia, or whatever bizarre-o country we send troops to,"
said Amelia Nash, a junior at Clark High School in Orlando, Fla. "Can't we
fight in, like, Italy? It's boot-shaped."

Chairman Levin however, explained that Italy was a U.S. ally, and that
intervention is usually in response to a specific threat.

"OK, what about Arulco?" interrupted Tyler Boone, a senior at Bellevue
High School in Wisconsin. "That's a country in Jagged Alliance 2 run by
the evil Queen Deidranna. I'm totally familiar with that place. She's a
major threat."

"Jagged...?" said Levin.

"Alliance. It's a computer game."

"Well, no," Levin answered. "We can't attack a fictional country."

"Yeah right," Boone mumbled. "Like Grenada was real."

The students' testimony was supported by a cross-section of high school
geography teachers, who urged the committee to help lay a solid foundation
for America's young people by curtailing any intervention abroad.

"Since the anti-terror war began, most of my students can now point to
Afghanistan on a map, which is fine, but those same kids still don't know
the capitals of Nevada and Ohio," said Richard Gerber, who teaches at
Rhymony High School in Atlanta. "I think we need to cut back on our
activities overseas and take care of business at home, and if that means
invading Tallahassee (Fla.) or Trenton (N.J.) so that students learn where
they are, so be it."

"I've always wanted to stick it to Hartford (Conn.)," said Sen. Lincoln
Chafee of Rhode Island. "Oh shit, is my microphone on?"

The hearing adjourned after six hours. An estimated 2,000 more students
were expected to hold a march in the nation's capital, but forgot which
city it was in.

Copyright  1999-2002, SatireWire.


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

 Priorities
 -Pandora

 Napalm, or bomb,
 little hands and little feet,
 (Or leave a land-mine behind
      to do the job)

 Spread a noxious cloud of gas to sear tender throats and lungs
 or conscript the helpless ones
     to use as fodder

 Kill the urchins without pause
 in pursuit of your cause
 (in alliance or uni-lateral)

 Send a stone-faced rambo to emolate a village
 exfoliate and pillage
 (the damage is only collatoral)

 Or, teach young minds of hell,
 which you know of so well
     and wound without lifting a hand

 Damn them before they are born
 doom them to despair

 As con-artist pols and ghouls without souls
 rant from podiums everywhere,
     loudly,
     on how much they care


-Pandora


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
                     over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02
              please send all messages in plain text no attachments