| Progressive Calendar 07.04.07 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Wed, 4 Jul 2007 23:16:59 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 07.04.07 1. Issue biking/KFAI 7.06 11am 2. Bob Bowman/KFAI 7.06 11:30am 3. Ffunch 7.06 11:30am 4. Palestine vigil 7.06 4:30pm 5. BushBad/musical 7.06 8pm 6. IRV in StPaul 7.07 10am 7. Homeless vets 7.07 10am 8. NWN4P Minnetonka 7.07 11am 9. GreenParty StP 7.07 12noon 10. F# [at] $ the system 7.07 7pm 11. Michael Albert 7.07 9pm 12. Luck bash 7.07 Luck WI 13. Cam fund plan 7.08 12noon 14. Ellison/9-11 7.08 12:30pm 15. StillwaterVigil 7.08 1pm 16. LRT info mtg 7.08 2pm 17. Vets4peace 7.08 6pm 18. Cindy Sheehan - I'm not backing off / call out the instigator 19. Paul Edwards - Timid Democrats need to stand up or get lost 20. Howard Zinn - Put away the flags 21. Russ Bynum - McKinney rips fellow Democrats for supporting war 22. Steven Argue - Beyond rightist lies, the real legacy of Che Guevara --------1 of 22-------- From lhowell [at] visi.com Wed Jul 4 16:41:34 2007 Subject: Issue biking 7.06 11am FRIDAY JULY 6, 11am TUNE IN TO AN HOUR OF POWER = People Power, that is - on KFAI RADIO 11am to NOON KFAI 90.3fm Mpls 106.7fm St.Paul ALL shows archived for 2 weeks after broadcast at www.kfai.org CATALYST politics and culture hosted by Lydia Howell has moved from Tuesdays to FRIDAYS 11am, followed by Don Olson's long-running program NORTHERN SUN NEWS. Friday, July 6, 11am; CATALYST; Get some inspiration from JERRY SEDGEWICK and his sons, LUC and LEVI, as they talk about their upcoming bike ride from St. Paul, Minnesota to Washington,DC to bring attention to a variety of issues that are impacting children and future generations; global warming, the state of public schools, corporate media and more. --------2 of 22-------- From lhowell [at] visi.com Wed Jul 4 16:41:34 2007 Subject: Bob Bowman/KFAI 7.06 11:30am Friday July 6, 11;30 NORTHERN SUN NEWS Hear Dr. Bob Bowman speaking at Macalester on June 20th. Dr. Bowman is on his national TAKE BACK AMERICA Patriots Tour, talking about a new vision to address the huge damage of the last 20 years. Bowman had an Air Force career and he ran for Congress in 2006 in Florida. He's also part of the 911 Truth Movement. IN JULY; CATALYST will also have reportbacks from the first UNITED STATES SOCIAL FORUM in Atlanta and hear from U OF MN Prof AUGUST NIMTZ talking about the Supreme Court REVERSAL of the BRWN decision. --------3 of 22-------- From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu> Subject: Ffunch 7.06 11:30am Meet the FFUNCH BUNCH! 11:30am-1pm First Friday Lunch (FFUNCH) for Greens/progressives. Informal political talk and hanging out. Day By Day Cafe 477 W 7th Av St Paul. Meet in the private room (holds 12+). Day By Day has soups, salads, sandwiches, and dangerous apple pie; is close to downtown St Paul & on major bus lines --------4 of 22-------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Palestine vigil 7.06 4:30pm Friday, 7/6, 4:30 to 5:30 pm, vigil to end the occupation of Palestine, Snelling & Summit Aves, St Paul. Karen, 651-283-3495. --------5 of 22-------- From: _leahecooper [at] gmail.com_ (mailto:leahecooper [at] gmail.com) <_ Subject: BushBad/musical 7.06 8pm Can't Wait Til '08 Productions invites disgruntled and disgusted voters, activists and politicians alike to come drink, sing and laugh together at the Minnesota premiere of the hilarious New York hit, "Bush is Bad", a cabaret and political event that finds the humor and song in all that is wrong with the current administration - celebrating the fact that our long national nightmare is almost over. The show takes place in an intimate cabaret setting, and the theater's cafe and wine bar will be open before and after the show. So it's the perfect place to bring a group for a night out. There are great discounts for groups. New York's hit political cabaret comes to the Heartland! He's made you cry. Isn't it time he made you laugh? Bush is Bad: The Musical OPENS FRIDAY, JULY 6 Sing and dance your way through six painful years with your least-favorite political figures... Featuring Dick Cheney, Ann Coulter, Condoleeza Rice and, of course, the president in... BUSH IS BAD: THE MUSICAL Starring Bonni Allen, Bill Scharpen and Ross Young Concept, Music, and Lyrics by Joshua D. Rosenblum Direction/Musical Direction by Michael Erickson Old Arizona Theater 2821 Nicollet Ave. S., Mpls. BEER! WINE! DESSERTS! FREE PARKING! July 6 through August 12 Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Happy hour drink specials, 7 to 8 p.m. Sundays at 2 p.m. Ice cream and hot dogs on the patio, 1 to 2 p.m Tickets: $25 all shows $20 seniors, students and Karl Rove Groups of 10+ get 10% off Groups of 25+ get 20% off Groups of 50+ get 25% off Or buy out the whole performance (up to 150 people) for $2,008 To purchase tickets visit _https://www.ticketturtle.com/index.php?theatre=oas_ (https://www.ticketturtle.com/index.php?theatre=oas) or for more information, call (612) 871-0050 ext 104. _www.bushisbadminneapolis.com_ (http://www.bushisbadminneapolis.com/) --------6 of 22-------- From PRO826 [at] aol.com Thu Jun 21 17:05:38 2007 Subject: IRV in StPaul 7.07 10am Clever New Ways to Sign the Petition: Every Saturday morning at 10 am, the campaign will be at Cahoots Coffee Shop at Selby and Snelling to gather petition signatures and answer questions about Instant Runoff Voting. The campaign website now features a "Sign the Petition" button! <http://www.fairvotemn.org//stpaul/signpetition%3F_qf_Edit_next%3DSign%2Bthe%2BP etition> --------7 of 22------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Homeless vets 7.07 10am Saturday, 7/7, 10 to 11:30 am, meeting of Homeless Veterans for Peace, Peacehouse, 510 E Franklin, Mpls. Bob 612-789-9020. --------8 of 22-------- From: Carole Rydberg <carydberg [at] comcast.net> Subject: NWN4P Minnetonka 7.07 11am NWN4P-Minnetonka demonstration- Every Saturday, 11 AM to noon, at Hwy. 7 and 101. Park in the Target Greatland lot; meet near the fountain. We will walk along the public sidewalk. Bring your own signs. --------9 of 22-------- From: ed Subject: GreenParty StP 7.07 12noon All people interested in finding out more about the Green Party of St. Paul are invited to: Our monthly meeting First Saturday of every month Mississippi Market, 2nd floor Corner of Selby/Dale in St. Paul noon until 2 pm <http://www.gpsp.org> --------10 of 22-------- From: Brian Payne <brianpayneyvp [at] gmail.com> Subject: F# [at] $ the system 7.07 7pm Brian Payne, brianpayneyvp [at] gmail.com, 612-859-5750 COALITION OF IMMOKALEE WORKERS SOLIDARITY EVENT IN THE TWIN CITIES (please forward far and wide) 6th Annual "F# [at] $ the System, Start the Revolution" Party Fundraiser for Farmworker Justice!! Saturday, July 7th, 7pm - ??? The Greenhouse, 2915 James Ave. S., Minneapolis Fundraiser to send Twin Cities representatives to the 2007 SFA (Student/Farmworker Alliance) Encuentro in Immokalee, Florida. The F# [at] $ the System, Start the Revolution Party is all about throwing a wrench in the current system (i.e. "f# [at] $ the system"), and creating a new system based on community (i.e. "start the revolution"). BYO T-shirt for stenciling with original art-work from local activists ($5 if you bring your own t-shirt; $10 otherwise). Snacks will be provided, and beer will go for donations. For more information about the Encuentro, see: www.sfalliance.org For more information about the party, contact Brian Payne, 612-859-5750, brianpayneyvp [at] gmail.com --------11 of 22-------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Michael Albert 7.07 9pm Revered Minneapolis Television Network (MTN 17) viewers: "Our World In Depth" cablecasts weekly on MTN Channel 17. Households with basic cable can watch. "Our World In Depth" is on Saturday at 9 pm and the following Tuesday at 8 am (as well as other times). 7/7 and 7/10 "Michael Albert: From SDS to Life After Capitalism" Recent talk at Macalester College. Part 1. --------12 of 22-------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Luck bash 7.07 Luck WI Saturday, 7/7, all day, 20th year anniversary party at Anathoth Community Farm, a peace and sustainable community in Luck WI (these are the folks who brought us Nukewatch, straw bail construction and composting toilets), with music from Buckwheat Zydeco, Devon Evons, Floydian Slip, Command Zulu, as well as camping, biking, food, tours of the eco village, etc. FFI contact Mike Miles at anathoth [at] lakeland.ws or or www.anathothcommunityfarm.org or 715-472-8721. -- From: PRO826 [at] aol.com 20 Year Anniversary Party--7/7/07 Can you believe we've been ten miles out of Luck for 20 years? So it's time to have a party like no other. Saturday, July 7--7/7/07 is party day, the same day as _Live Earth_ (http://liveearth.msn.com/) --Al Gore and friend's day of concerts to call attention to the problem of global warming so we are jumping on the bandwagon. World class concerts will be happening in Sydney, Shanghai, Tokyo, Johannesburg, London, Istanbul, Hamburg, Rio de Janerio, New York, and LUCK! You can go to a soccer stadium and see Bon Jovi, or you can come to Luck and see world class music in an eco-village where the future of energy will be right before your eyes: photovoltaic electricity, solar thermal hot water, passive solar heating, phytoremediated graywater, solar/LED street lights, greenhouses, composting toilets, solar ovens, and more. See link for more info: _Anathoth Community Farm - Home_ (http://anathothcommunityfarm.org/) About Anathoth Farm Located on 57 acres in rural northwestern WI, Anathoth Community Farm is an international community, dedicated to peace through nonviolent action. Founded in 1986, and placed in a land trust in 1992, the farm's five homes include two which are off-grid (one made of strawbales), two greenhouses and lots of low-tech, energy-saving devices. The farm began as a Catholic Worker Farm and has evolved into a model of sustainable living. The homes were built with donations and ongoing costs ar paid by their current occupants. Nine people now live a Anathoth (pronounced Anna-thoth) with a large extended community of supporters. Some of the ongoing community work includes: *Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) *Nukewatch (also published Nukewatch Quarterly) *The "Wheels of Justice" bus rolls out of Anathoth touring cmpuses nation-wide educating thousands on the crisis in the Middle East, war and human rights. *The Northwoods Peace Initiative is an on-line organizing tool and news service. NPI includes a great regional peace events calendar. *Participation in human rights campaigns and ongoing activities by sister organizations. *Advocacy journalism involving research and writing as well as prompting media coverage of peace and justice issues. Visitors have included: Alternative Spring Break students, National Youth Leadership Conference, Nonviolent Peace Force, college groups, faith-based organizations, elementary school trips, environmental groups, The Coalition to Stop Project Elf, and Christian Peacemaker Teams. --------13 of 22------- From: robingarwood <robin.garwood [at] ci.minneapolis.mn.us> Subject: Cam fund planning 7.08 12noon You're cordially invited to a planning meeting for the first annual Council Member Cam Gordon summer fundraiser, this SUNDAY, June 8th, at noon at the Seward Cafe, 2129 E Franklin Ave. The fundraiser you'll be helping plan will be at the same location on July 28th. In the '05 campaign, Cam committed to putting out newsletters to the people of the Second Ward, and not at taxpayer expense. Each newsletter costs us around $1,000 to put out, and that money has to come from campaign donations. We're looking to cover these costs and prepare for the likely DFL challenge in '09. So come have a plate of the best hashbrowns in town and a cup of the best coffee in town, and help us plan a successful event. --------14 of 22------- From: Leslie Reindl <alteravista [at] earthlink.net> Subject: Ellison/9-11 7.08 12:30pm CHANCE TO ASK KEITH ELLISON TO SUPPORT THE CALL FOR A NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION Keith Ellison will be the speaker at the Atheists For Human Rights meeting on Sunday, July 8th between 12:30 and 1:30 P.M. The meeting will be at the Southdale Library, 7001 York Avenue South. This is your chance to discuss 9/11 issues with Keith Ellison and lobby him to support the call for a new investigation. --------15 of 22-------- From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net> Subject: Stillwater vigil 7.08 1pm A weekly Vigil for Peace Every Sunday, at the Stillwater bridge from 1- 2 p.m. Come after Church or after brunch ! All are invited to join in song and witness to the human desire for peace in our world. Signs need to be positive. Sponsored by the St. Croix Valley Peacemakers. If you have a United Nations flag or a United States flag please bring it. Be sure to dress for the weather . For more information go to <http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/>http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/ For more information you could call 651 275 0247 or 651 999 - 9560 --------16 of 22-------- Cc: Andy Driscoll <andy [at] driscollgroup.com>, Subject: LRT info mtg 7.08 2pm [LRT down University Av would be a disaster - a boondoggle for developers and big boxes. Let's not buy the line that it's a "done deal" - they always say that, trying to ram it down our throats. -ed] PLEASE JOIN US and the Met Council on Sunday, July 8, 2007 from 2-4 for an information meeting about what is already in the plan & how you can be a part of the process. THIS EVENT IS OPEN AND ENCOURAGED TO THE COMMUNITY! Please invite your friends and family to learn more about it. The meeting will be held at the CHAT office 995 University Avenue, Suite 220 Saint Paul, MN 55104. --------17 of 22-------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Vets4peace 7.08 6pm Sunday, 7/8, 6 pm (and the 2nd Sunday of each month), Veterans for Peace chapter 27 meeting, St Stephens School basement, 2130 Clinton Ave S, Mpls. waynewittman [at] msn.com --------18 of 22-------- I'm Not Backing Off Call Out the Instigator By CINDY SHEEHAN CounterPunch July 4, 2007 Call out the Instigator Because there's something in the air We got to get together sooner or later Because the revolution's here You know it's right! -- Thunderclap Newman I'm not backing off. I tried to remove myself from the political realm of the US, what BushCo is turning into an Evil Empire, but the blatant audacity of George commuting Scooter's sentence (he's not ruling out a full pardon - and you know he will) has dragged me kicking and screaming back in. I can't sit back and let this BushCo drag our country further down into the murky quagmire of Fascism and violence, taking the rest of the world with them! I have sat quietly back these past five weeks as the slaughter in Iraq sorrowfully surges along with George's bloody escalation - and as the philosophical opposition to the war has soared to almost four out of every five Americans. I have remained silent when Senator Barack Obama said that impeachment is only reserved for "grave, grave" breeches! Well, BushCo has created hundreds of thousands of graves dug by their lies and greed. For cripes' sake, George admitted to breaking the FISA Act (which is a felony) that also breeched the 4th Amendment to our Constitution that already prohibited illegal search and seizure. How was Bill Clinton's offense graver than George's, Dick's, or Scooter's? Did we ever think that the criminality and arrogance of the Nixon White House would be eclipsed in our time with nary a "baaaah" from the Sheeple in Congress? George has said that America doesn't "do torture" when we have all seen the images of torture from Abu Ghraib (don't believe your lyin' eyes) and know that hundreds of people sold to the US Army for an immoral bounty are incarcerated within the inhumane confines of Guantanamo Prison which is right in our own back yard. I have had to bite my tongue - HARD - as the George and Dick crime cabal, (formerly known has the executive branch) have claimed that their offices are not to be held up to the same standards of accountability and control as any other entity in the human race, governmental or private. It has been recently reported that Nancy Pelosi said that impeachment is not "worth it." Her faulty reasoning is that impeachment would take too much time because they don't have the votes. If they could "whip" their own Democratic caucus into shape to defend and protect our Constitution and the people of Iraq and our soldiers as they whupped, cajoled, threatened and browbeat the caucus into attaching "non-binding" time lines onto the last war funding bill, then impeachment would not only be possible, but likely. The recent commutation of I. Scooter Libby's sentence, however, was the straw that broke my camel's back of exhausted ennui. Patrick Fitzgerald is a thoughtful and thorough prosecutor who did a heroic job of bringing at least one of the Bush Crime Mob to justice. Even though we were all very pleased, we knew that it was not enough and that Mr. Fitzgerald would delve deeper into the feces infested executive branch. The lawlessness of the Bush Administration has reached wild west proportions and the inmates definitely have control of the US(A)sylum. A very dear friend of mine, Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, is being harassed by the Air Force for "Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman" because "The Rev" fulfills his duty as an Officer and a Gentleman honorably by protesting Iraq and the Fascist Bush Regime almost constantly. The Rev is still in Individual Ready Reserve so the Air Force believes it is within its parameters to pursue the charges, although every "Officer and Gentleman(woman)" should be protesting the atrocious mistakes in the Middle East. After The Rev's hearing on July 12th, (in Macon, GA) he is going to begin a "symbolic" walk from the Reverend Martin Luther King's grave (Atlanta, GA) to DC - I am going to be there for him and to begin the march, but I am not going to make it symbolic. We are going to walk from Atlanta, GA to Congress beginning July 13th and ending up in DC on July 23rd to send the mis-leaders back home to face the music of justice in their own districts. It is about time us "peasants" (in the eyes of the Fascist Ruling Elite) march on DC with our "pitchforks" of righteous anger and our "torches" of truth to demand the ouster of BushCo. I have a dream of the detention centers that George has built and filled being instead filled with Orange Clad neo-cons and neo-connettes. If Congress won't dig BushCo's political grave, it is the People's job to do so. Thomas Jefferson said that we need a Revolution every 20 years, or so, to keep our Republic honest. Over 225 years have passed since our last Revolution (if you don't count the War Between the States) and we are long overdue for one. Turn off your TVs, kiss your pets goodbye, bring the kids and flock to the federal seat of corruption, or join us on our walk there, for a People's Accountability Movement to be in the face of the Criminal BushCo and the Complicit Congress for the last week of session before they go on their undeserved vacations (why do they get vacations when the Iraqi parliamentarians don't?) On the eve of our first revolution: You know it's right! Author's note: Please, I already see "Attention Whore Back." If anyone thinks that I am going to walk hundreds of miles in the Deep South during July for attention, then please join us! We will be publishing our route and plans for Accountability events along the way, within the next few days. Stay tuned. --------19 of 22-------- Timid Democrats Need to Stand Up or Get Lost End It Now! By PAUL EDWARDS CounterPunch July 4, 2007 The horrific disaster inflicted on Iraq and America by the most cynical, dishonest, and incompetent President in our history and his Lamebrain Trust must be made to end now. Not some time later, not in months, not after the useless deaths of hundreds more young soldiers, but immediately, with as much efficiency and security as can be managed, and as much assistance and support as can be had from a world community that has long been sickened and appalled by Mr. Bush and his blundering falsity and shameless fraud. It is now established fact that the attack on Iraq was made on the basis of outright lies. 1. There was no connection between the destroyers of the Twin Towers and Iraq: none. 2. There were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and never had been: none. 3. Iraq had no capacity to attack America and no intention to do so: none. The Bush regime's complex of lies caused us to launch an unprovoked blitzkrieg on an enslaved people in a militarily impotent country. Its staggering ignorance and wanton incompetence have created bloody chaos, guerrilla civil war, and profound hatred of America where none of that existed before, while destroying Iraq and its people. Its determination to steal the vast Iraqi oil potential for American Big Oil has caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of non-combatant Iraqis and thousands of our soldiers. And still, in the face of its humiliating, catastrophic failure, the psychopathic Bush regime would have us continue this unconscionable, inhuman, sanguinary insanity. In the idiot process of this metastasizing horror, we Americans have suffered assault after brutal assault on our own civil liberties and social well-being, and all for nothing - for less than nothing - since we are now unquestionably more hated and loathed around the world as well as throughout Islam, and are therefore far less safe, now and in the time ahead. We have seen the slipshod Patriot Act cut chunks out of our Bill of Rights in the name of national security when those officials and agencies trusted to manage it have knowingly subverted our most basic laws and safeguards to spy illegally on guiltless Americans. We have seen our high officials openly advocate torture and abuse of prisoners, permit secret renditions of uncharged captives to third-world torture dungeons, and whitewash high command for the obscenities and degradations of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. We have endured a stream of hysterical nonsense about plots, terror cells and jihadis loose among us, made on trumped-up grounds, leading to bungled trials and dismissals. In short, we Americans have been victimized by the perjured, deceitful Bush regime to an extent unparalleled in our history, and we have taken it lying down in support of an act of raw, cynical, brutal imperialism that, if allowed to continue in its fatal trajectory, has the potential to destroy us entirely as a nation of laws and a viable republic. All this must stop. For the sake of our viability as a nation, it must stop: now. Democratic leadership in the impossibly divided Congress has made feeble, floundering attempts to engineer a gradual end to the occupation. Their timid, tentative maneuvering has won their party nothing but obloquy from Republican know-nothings defending the indefensible, and contempt from the public which elected them to end the carnage. This has been richly deserved. They know why they were elected and what was expected, hoped for, yearned for from them by most Americans and they have not done it. Why not? The reason is clear: they have put ducking responsibility for a painful, ethical act ahead of doing what principle, reason and humanity demands of them. The argument used to justify this moral cowardice is that they must "support the troops". There could not be a more blatant and cynical falsity than the delusion that continuing this brutal, bloody, failed occupation somehow "supports them". Those troops are being crippled and killed daily in a country that hates and rejects them, in a lunatic effort that can not and should not succeed: to secure the oil fields of Iraq and Central Asia for obscenely profiteering American oil companies. They are there for no other reason. None. Forcing young men and women soldiers to do arbitrarily extended combat tours, requiring them to go back again and again, and to pay with their lives and limbs in this insane, murderous, and larcenous effort is not, by any reasoning, "supporting them". Congressional Democrats need to summon their moral courage and take the only action that actually "supports the troops: to end the occupation now and bring them home. It will be said that they don't have the numbers to override a veto, which is true but irrelevant. They need not create a bill to cut funding. As Congressman Dennis Kucinich has repeatedly pointed out, all they have to do is deny all further funding requested by the disgraced and discredited Bush regime. They have the strength in numbers to do that. It will be said by the swiftly shrinking cadre of deranged Bush backers that they want America to "cut and run," but imbecilic taunts have no force in the face of hard truth. In the disordered minds of those vastly wealthy old draft dodgers of the Vietnam era - Bush, who evidently did his service in cushy country club bars on the Gulf Coast, and Cheney, who by his own admission, "had better things to do than to fight in Vietnam - it is far better that the children of America's poor continue to bleed and die killing thousands of Iraqis who want their country back than that America withdraw from the horrid bloodbath Bush/Cheney caused and turn the light of diligent investigation on the blatantly criminal and treasonous machinations of these two contemptible sociopaths that got us there. Democrats must honor their mandate or face abandonment by the millions of us who trusted them as well as the certain, unequivocal condemnation of history. End it now! Paul Edwards is the chair of the Progressive Democrats of Montana. He can be reached at: hgmnude [at] bresnan.net --------20 of 22-------- Put Away The Flags by Howard Zinn July 03, 2007 Countercurrents.org On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed. Is not nationalism - that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder - one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? These ways of thinking - cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on - have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power. National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours - huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction - what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves. Our citizenry has been brought up to see our nation as different from others, an exception in the world, uniquely moral, expanding into other lands in order to bring civilization, liberty, democracy. That self-deception started early. When the first English settlers moved into Indian land in Massachusetts Bay and were resisted, the violence escalated into war with the Pequot Indians. The killing of Indians was seen as approved by God, the taking of land as commanded by the Bible. The Puritans cited one of the Psalms, which says: "Ask of me, and I shall give thee, the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession." When the English set fire to a Pequot village and massacred men, women and children, the Puritan theologian Cotton Mather said: "It was supposed that no less than 600 Pequot souls were brought down to hell that day." On the eve of the Mexican War, an American journalist declared it our "Manifest Destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence." After the invasion of Mexico began, The New York Herald announced: "We believe it is a part of our destiny to civilize that beautiful country." It was always supposedly for benign purposes that our country went to war. We invaded Cuba in 1898 to liberate the Cubans, and went to war in the Philippines shortly after, as President McKinley put it, "to civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people. As our armies were committing massacres in the Philippines (at least 600,000 Filipinos died in a few years of conflict), Elihu Root, our secretary of war, was saying: "The American soldier is different from all other soldiers of all other countries since the war began. He is the advance guard of liberty and justice, of law and order, and of peace and happiness." We see in Iraq that our soldiers are not different. They have, perhaps against their better nature, killed thousands of Iraq civilians. And some soldiers have shown themselves capable of brutality, of torture. Yet they are victims, too, of our government's lies. How many times have we heard President Bush tell the troops that if they die, if they return without arms or legs, or blinded, it is for "liberty," for "democracy"? One of the effects of nationalist thinking is a loss of a sense of proportion. The killing of 2,300 people at Pearl Harbor becomes the justification for killing 240,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 3,000 people on Sept. 11 becomes the justification for killing tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan and Iraq. And nationalism is given a special virulence when it is said to be blessed by Providence. Today we have a president, invading two countries in four years, who announced on the campaign trail in 2004 that God speaks through him. We need to refute the idea that our nation is different from, morally superior to, the other imperial powers of world history. We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation. Howard Zinn, a World War II bombardier, is the author of the best- selling "A People's History of the United States" (Perennial Classics, 2003, latest edition). This piece was distributed by the Progressive Media Project. Email to: Progressive Media Project using our contact form. --------21 of 22-------- Former Rep. McKinney rips fellow Democrats for supporting war By RUSS BYNUM - Associated Press Writer -- SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney ripped her fellow Democrats in a fiery speech Saturday that accused them of failing to stop the Iraq war, ignoring the victims of Hurricane Katrina and failing to impeach President Bush. McKinney, who lost her House seat last year after becoming the first black woman elected to Congress from Georgia 14 years earlier, took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic presidential candidates and even the Congressional Black Caucus in an address to 350 people at a Georgia NAACP fundraising dinner in Savannah. She accused Pelosi of failing to address Katrina's devastation in her agenda for the Democratic Congress' first 100 hours in office. She bashed the Congressional Black Caucus for voting to continue funding for the war in Iraq. And she criticized the major Democratic presidential hopefuls, as a group, for failing to stake out a clear policy on Iran. "From the Democratic Party to the Congressional Black Caucus to those habitual Democratic voters, we've lost our home team," McKinney said. "Do we even know it?" McKinney didn't say whether she'll run in 2008 to take back her House seat in metro Atlanta. Voters in the 4th District ousted her last year, several months after McKinney's headline-grabbing scuffle with a Capitol Hill police officer. She had previously made a successful election comeback in 2004 after losing re-election two years earlier. Though one of her last acts in Congress last year was to file a bill seeking impeachment of Bush, McKinney hardly mentioned him in her 20-minute speech to the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Instead, the fiery Democrat launched barbs at her own party in an address that otherwise might have sounded like that of a politician gearing up for a comeback. "The war-machine Democrats joined with the Republicans to kick me out of Congress because they were counting their votes," she said of Congress' vote to continue funding the Iraq war. Previously, she has accused Georgia's paperless electronic voting machines and Republicans voting in the state's open primaries for her 2006 re-election loss. She said Pelosi deserved blame as well as Bush for failing to prioritize the reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, noting blacks in the city tend to vote for Democrats. "Please tell me how it is Hurricane Katrina gets no recognition from Nancy Pelosi's first 100 hours program for America?" McKinney said of the California Democrat who became House speaker this year. She also blasted the Democrat-controlled Congress for delivering "no impeachment of a president guilty of lying to the American people, spying on the American people and bankrupting our economy." The staunchly anti-war former congresswoman also ripped "the conscience of the Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus" because its members "voted to fund the war machine and its surge." McKinney also didn't sound pleased with Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and the other Democratic presidential hopefuls - though she singled out none by name. "All the major Democratic presidential Democrats are saying that, on Iran, no options are off the table," McKinney said, though she failed to indicate what policy course she favored. McKinney received rousing applause before and after her speech. Edward O. DuBose, president of the Georgia NAACP, said members are eager to learn if she'll run for office next year. "People want to know her plans," DuBose said. "Cynthia still has a lot of respect around Georgia. She's known as a person who's not afraid to speak her mind." McKinney declined to speak with The Associated Press before her speech. Her father, Billy McKinney, hinted he knows something of her plans. "I have some idea, but it's not ready to be divulged yet," the elder McKinney said. --------22 of 22-------- Beyond Rightist Lies, The Real Legacy of Che Guevara By Steven Argue I posted the following response at the "Activists" site in defense of the legacy of Che Guevara. A series of writings have been posted in opposition to Liberation News at that site. allactivists.tribe.net/thread...1a8c00e And Glen strikes again. Earlier he was blaming "progressives" for homelessness and public urination. In reality it is capitalism that causes homelessness. Here Glen makes the absurd statement, "I'm sure all those peasants Che vmurdered were happy for the help." Che never murdered any peasants, but he did save a lot of their lives. He started out as a doctor traveling throughout Latin America, giving medical care to the poor. Che Guevara was in Guatemala as a doctor in 1954 when the CIA overthrew the Democratically elected Arbenz government. That government was seen as a threat to the profits of the Rockefeller family's United Fruit Company because Arbenz advocated land reform. So U.S. imperialism overthrew Arbenz and put a long series of military dictatorships in power that tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of peasants and kept the people in extreme poverty. At the time of the CIA intervention in Guatemala, Che advocated that Arbenz should arm the people to resist, but Arbenz was not a revolutionary socialist and refusing to arm the people was his downfall. Later Che was in Mexico when he met a dissident in exile, exiled by the U.S. backed Batista dictatorship in Cuba. The name of that young dissident was Fidel Castro. The Batista dictatorship had murdered tens of thousands of people, many of them student activists. Castro and Che and a number of other Cuban revolutionaries set out in a boat called the Granma from Mexico for Cuba, armed and ready to lead the insurrection against Batista. The day they were set to arrive a general strike was called in Cuba, but the Granma got caught in stormy waters and arrived three days late. When they arrived Batista knew they were coming and most were killed. Che, Fidel, and a few others managed to escape and make their way into the rural Cuban mountains. There the peasants fed them and they began to build the revolutionary army that overthrew Batista in 1959. Upon taking power the Cuban revolution, as in any true revolution, liquidated the old power structure. A new revolutionary government was built and the murderers and torturers of the Batista government were put on trial. Eight hundred were executed for their crimes. Before the Cuban Revolution, Rockefeller's United Fruit Company owned much of the land. Peasants starved in the off-season and lacked medical care and access to education. When the Cuban revolution came to power in 1959, Fidel Castro's promise of land reform was quickly carried out. This made Cuba an enemy of the United States government, and the Cubans have never been forgiven since. Later a broader socialist revolution in the economy was carried out. In addition to land reform the Cuban revolution has provided free access to good healthcare, education for kids even in the most remote rural areas, free education through the university levels, an elimination of hunger, an end to legal discrimination and segregation that existed against Blacks, women's rights including birth control and free abortion on demand, environmental policies that the World Wildlife Fund says are the only passing policies on global warming in the world, and a promotion of culture. For the vast majority of the Cuban people today their lives are much-much better than they were under the Batista government. They are a highly educated people doing much better. For a small minority, the wealthy, that profited from the misery of capitalism, their lives got worse. Most of them are now living in Miami. In Cuba, the Cuban people still come out in their millions at rallies in support of the revolution and socialism. Che didn't kill peasants, he doctored them, and when he decided that wasn't enough, he fought along side them to better their conditions. After helping lead the Cuban Revolution, Che was caught and murdered by CIA and Green Beret trained, equipped, and led Bolivian soldiers in 1967. Yet the model of Che's revolutionary self-sacrifice and dedication continues to live on and inspire new generations of socialist revolutionaries. Likewise, Che's dedication to socialism, including providing medical care to the poor, lives on with the Cuban revolution. It is interesting that tiny poor Cuba under a U.S. economic blockade is able to provide good healthcare for everyone. Cuba, unlike the United States, does not let people die in the emergency rooms without treatment or turn sick people away from receiving healthcare because they lack insurance. Cuba has taken the profit out of illness and injury and provide healthcare as a human right. Likewise, while the United States is sending military troops to set up death squad governments in Iraq and Haiti and to intervene in Afghanistan, the Phillipines, and prop up the death squad government of Colombia, Cuba instead sends doctors. Cuban doctors save lives. They are on the ground in a number of countries providing regular care, and they are also sent to countries in emergencies. A few years back Cuba sent doctors to Central America after a bad hurricane and saved many lives. Likewise they offered to send doctors to New Orleans immediately after Katrina, they were well trained in dealing with that type of situation and would have saved lives, but Bush refused to let them in. A similar thing happened with the Nicaraguan government refusing entry, but that government let the Cuban doctors in due to protests. While I have important arguments with the Cuban government in saying that revolutionary socialism must be democratic, as well as on the essential nature of the theory of permanent revolution in the international program, but it would be the height of socialist sectarianism not to recognize the significant gains that have been made through the Cuban revolution. U.S. Hands Off Cuba! End the Economic Blockade! For The Right of US Citizens to Travel To Cuba! U.S. Out Of Guantanamo! For National Healthcare in The United States! End US Imperialism Through Socialist Revolution! Subscribe to Liberation News: http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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 To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8 impeach bush & cheney impeach bush & cheney impeach bush & cheney impeach bush & cheney
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