| Progressive Calendar 03.06.09 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Thu, 5 Mar 2009 23:25:19 -0800 (PST) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 03.06.09 1. Law/health/science 3.06 8:30am 2. f'Funch 3.06 11:30am 3. Green jobs 3.06 1pm 4. Immigrants/poetry 3.06 6pm 5. Water/HOBT 3.06 7:30pm 6. Moyers 3.06 9pm 7. Central corridor 3.07 9am 8. Peace walk 3.07 9am Cambridge MN 9. Mothers/disappeared 3.07 10am 10. Unfair MN cuts 3.07 12noon 11. Northtown vigil 3.07 2pm 12. Green Green Water 3.07 8pm 13. Sweet Honey/Rock 3.07 8pm 14. Solomon Moore - One in every 31 adults in prison 15. George Monbiot - The proceeds of crime 16. John Pilger - War comes home to Britain 17. Marjorie Cohn - The Yoo-Bybee blueprints for a police state 18. William R Pitt - The Laugher Curve - Rush Limbaugh 19. ed - Rushublican (poem) 20. ed - Our wise masters (poem) --------1 of 20-------- From: Consortium on Law & Values and JDP Program <lawvalue [at] umn.edu> Subject: Law/health/science 3.06 8:30am What's Next in Law, Health & the Life Sciences? Debating Openness, Access & Accountability Friday, March 6, 2009 8:30 am - 5:30pm Cowles Auditorium, Humphrey Center University of Minnesota REGISTER HERE! [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102485365507&e=001IkgP6yp0VpSbdM5I8axROTVvg2_6OESbmgTuQX48F0qvEfT1_B6HW1K_Lr70RuAQq-4Rf2zVBZ_TcnD8UrFQdru2baNYcvIHVKXrtju7w9dSIDmBm6ZCQzBSz1IamaB49peFbseR1o_bBtaoi7y62sobCfFtNAUkB5kEy0p_y7Xd942zTCnLwg==] Walk-in registration welcome! Join us as the Consortium and Joint Degree Program celebrate their 10th anniversary by hosting a day-long conference on what issues the next 10 years will bring in law, ethics, health, and the life sciences. Top national speakers will address emerging issues in genomic, neuroscience, and environmental research, as well as science oversight. The conference also includes a competitive call for papers presentations of the top selected papers. This event is intended for faculty, students, researchers, scientists, policymakers, patients, healthcare professionals, and community members. CME credits have been requested. Determination of credit is pending. 7.75 hours of standard CLE credits are available (event#127385). RCR credits are available. --------2 of 20-------- From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu> Subject: f'Funch 3.06 11:30am Holy Hannity it's FFUNCH time again! Ffunch 3.06 11:30am Meet the FFUNCH BUNCH! 11:30am-1pm First Friday Lunch (FFUNCH) for progressives. Informal political talk and hanging out. Day By Day Cafe 477 W 7th Av St Paul. Meet on the far south side. Day By Day has soups, salads, sandwiches, and dangerous apple pie; is close to downtown St Paul & on major bus lines Holy right wingnut, how can you resist?? As thru life you go along, remember, it's fFunch, first and foremost. --------3 of 20-------- From: Russ Adams <russ [at] metrostability.org> Subject: Green jobs 3.06 1pm Alliance for Metropolitan Stability 2009 Regional Equity Series: The Emerging Green Jobs Movement "No community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other." - Majora Carter on the definition of environmental justice Please join the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability for a stimulating afternoon forum headlined by award-winning environmental justice activist Majora Carter. Regional Equity Series: The Emerging Green Jobs Movement 1 - 4:30 pm Friday, March 6 Minneapolis Urban League 2100 Plymouth Avenue N Minneapolis This event is free, but registration is required. RSVP now! A new administration in Washington is pledging to fundamentally alter our national energy policy. The newly passed stimulus bill will be freeing up billions of dollars in an unprecedented attempt to jump start our economy, with a major emphasis on investing in green industries and technologies. Not since the Great Depression have we seen such recognition that government at all levels can play a major supporting role in creating an entirely new set of jobs. Large, multi-sector coalitions across the nation and in Minnesota are calling for a dramatic shift to a cleaner, green energy economy - one that can generate thousands of new jobs at livable wages, end our dependence on fossil fuels and effectively respond to the root causes of climate change. But questions remain: * Can the promise of green jobs overcome longstanding market realities? * What role can government play in producing a coherent plan for strategic investments to incent industry innovation, research and development? * Can advocacy groups form new alliances with public and private sector leaders to move this agenda forward? * And most importantly, who will have access to those jobs? How will lower income communities and communities of color benefit from this effort? Majora Carter, one of the nation’s pioneers in successful green-collar job training and placement systems, will present the keynote address. She founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 to achieve environmental justice through economically sustainable projects informed by community needs. Her work has garnered numerous awards and accolades including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, one of Essence Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African-Americans in 2007, and one of the New York Post’s Most Influential NYC Women for the past two years. She now advises cities, foundations, universities, businesses and communities around the world on unlocking their green-collar economic potential to benefit everyone as president of the Majora Carter Group, LLC. A panel of local and national experts will discuss how tensions in the movement can be addressed, highlight climate justice principles, point to best practices and model campaigns, and recognize the future opportunities for collaboration and coalition building. A reception will follow. This event is the first of the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability’s 2009 Regional Equity Series. The series will bring local and national leaders together to talk about emerging issues that are critical to creating an equitable Twin Cities region. The 2009 Regional Equity Series is produced with the generous support of the McKnight Foundation. Thank you to the Minneapolis Urban League and Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota for co-hosting this event. P.S. You can learn more about how to secure green jobs for low-income people and people of color at the HIRE Minnesota Town Hall Meeting at the Sabathani Community Center on March 10. Don't miss this chance to become a part of the green jobs movement in Minnesota! --------4 of 20-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Immigrants/poetry 3.06 6pm FRI.MAR.6:READING "NATION OF IMMIGRANTS?" CD poets EQUILIBRIUM: SPOKEN WORD AT THE LOFT'S CD, /¿NATION OF IMMIGRANTS? MINNESOTA SPOKEN WORD ARTISTS AND POETS QUESTION THE WORLD Special Reading by Selected Poets at the University of Minnesota Friday, March 6, 6 p.m. At the Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222-21st Ave SRoom 120ABC (*Not to be confused with the Anderson Hall*)* Free and Open to the Public. Catered reception follows. CDs will be on sale for $10 Co-sponsored by The Institute for Global Studies, The Immigration History Research Center, and the Loft Literary Center This free event will feature short performances by Marcie Rendon, Juliana Hu Pegues, Tatiana Ormaza, Ibe Kaba, Preeti Kaur, Lorena Duarte, Tish Jones, Diego Vazquez, and Charlotte Albrecht. A reception follows the reading, and CDs will be on sale for the discount price of $10. The Loft Literary Center's Equilibrium series' first compilation CD, "Nation of Immigrants? Minnesota spoken word artists and poets question the world", was a smash hit in the late Winter of 2008. Curated by Equilibrium's Program Director (and Minnesota Spoken Word poet) Bao Phi, the work featured on the CD seeks to question, challenge, and explode the notion that we are a 'nation of immigrants' -- a political buzz phrase that often buries the histories of those it pretends to represent. The CD is made up wholly of work by Minnesota spoken word and performance poets of color/indigenous artists, particularly those artists who do not yet have a CD of their own work produced. The standing room-only release event drew over 300 people, and the CD itself garnered critical acclaim in the /Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, City Pages/, and the /Minnesota Spokesman Recorder/. --------5 of 20-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Water/HOBT 3.06 7:30pm In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre presents Beneath the Surface Beneath the Surface/, a splashy and beautiful circus, returns to In the Heart of the Beast Theatre (HOBT) March 3-8. Featuring magic toilets, dancing pipes and roaring rain, at this show's core is an investigation of contemporary water issues and a celebration of our everyday drinking water. At turns hilarious and poetic, /Beneath the Surface/ mixes live performance, music, and video projection to engage and inspire all ages. Water quality, availability, and stewardship are increasingly relevant to our lives, even in water-rich Minnesota. The "Circus of Wonderments" that bubbles up from /Beneath the Surface/ is an entertaining exploration to these issues that face our world, and our communities, about water. The question, "Where does the water come from, and where does it go?" leads to a fun-filled look at the water cycle, the bottled water phenomenon, and the Mississippi watershed that is a part of us all. School matinee and public performances available. PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION Public shows: Friday, March 6 at 7:30pm Saturday, March 7 at 2pm Sunday, March 8: 2pm Tickets: $17/person; $12 for seniors, children, students IN THE HEART OF THE BEAST PUPPET AND MASK THEATRE 1500 E. Lake Street, Minneapolis 612.721.2535 www.hobt.org --------6 of 20-------- From: t r u t h o u t <messenger [at] truthout.org> Subject: Moyers 3.06 9pm Bill Moyers Journal | Actor John Lithgow http://www.truthout.org/030409U Bill Moyers Journal: "He's played heroes, villains, saints, sinners, a ballet-dancing elephant, and a space alien, now actor and children's author John Lithgow - best known as Dick Solomon from NBC's hit show 3rd Rock from the Sun - reveals a new side of himself ... poetry lover. Award-winning stage and screen star Lithgow shares his favorite poems, insights into acting, and thoughts on the enduring power of art." --------7 of 20-------- From: Joan Vanhala <joan [at] metrostability.org> Subject: Central corridor 3.07 9am Saint Paul - Minneapolis Central Corridor Community Summit March 7 & 8, 2009 Central Corridor Resource Center 1080 University Avenue W., Saint Paul March 7 - all day community meeting to draft the Community Statement (start 9 AM) March 8 - afternoon meeting to flesh-out and refine the Community Statement (Schedule and Full Invitation to Coming Soon) Summit Goals Gather together community members, small businesses, and organizations to share visions, issues, and solutions - new and in motion - so we can speak with a Unified Voice about the future of our neighborhoods and business communities in the Central Corridor. Use our Community Statement as the basis for a written agreement among governmental entities, community members, businesses and organizations that coordinates efforts and holds everyone accountable. Who should attend? Community members, small business owners, organizations -anyone who is concerned and has solutions to suggest about: Jobs and Training Small business retention and development opportunities Business mitigation Construction mitigation Minority and Women Contracting Community Participation Affordable Housing Affordable Commercial Space Greening the Corridor Increases in neighborhood traffic Missing LRT stations Safe and pleasant streets for walking and biking Bus service LRT design and operations Othersâ Summit Planning Group - We welcome you to join us. Alliance for Metropolitan Stability Aurora Saint Anthony NDC Community Stabilization Project District Councils Collaborative of Saint Paul and Minnea-polis ISAIAH Jewish Community Action (March 8 only) Just Equity Ramsey Chapter of MICAH Saint Paul NAACP Transit for Livable Communities UFCW Local 789 University Avenue Business Association University UNITED Others Invited For more information, contact: Carol Swenson, District Councils Collaborative of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, 651.249.6877 or carol [at] dcc-stpaul-mpls.org --------8 of 20-------- From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Peace walk 3.07 9am Cambridge MN every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street --------9 of 20-------- From: Stephanie Bates <sbates928 [at] gmail.com> Subject: Mothers/disappeared 3.07 10am Coffee Hour Saturday March 7th, 2009 10am-11:30am* Resource Center of the Americas 3019 Minnehaha Ave S Suite 20 Minneapolis, MN Saturday March 7th, 2009 10am-11:30am* Resource Center of the Americas 3019 Minnehaha Ave S Suite 20 Minneapolis, MN Join us for a preview of local photographer, Sylvia Horwitz's photo-exhibition: "Desaparecidos: Mothers of the Disappeared. Sylvia will be showing her photos and a brief film on the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo. There will also be time for questions and answers. Sylvia's work will be on display at the Sabes Jewish Community Center, located at 4330 S. Cedar Lake Road, Minneapolis. The exhibit will run from March 12 to April 23, 2009, with a reception on March 15 that is free and open to the public. Horwitz's work was funded in part by Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council and the Howard B Brin Jewish Arts Endowment Fund. The exhibit is a photographic tribute to the Desaparecidos, those who "disappeared" during the military regime of Argentina's Dirty War (1976-1983). Under this dictatorship, an estimated 30,000 student activists, young professionals, writers and artists were tortured and killed as political prisoners; a disproportionate number were Jewish. The work of Minnesota-based photographer Sylvia Horwitz chronicles the stories of Jewish women within an organized group of mothers and grandmothers still actively protesting after 30 years. They march weekly on the Plaza de Mayo for memory, truth and justice. The purpose of this exhibit is to bring awareness and greater solidarity between our communities and here in Argentina. ---------10 of 20-------- From: Anni Simons <asimons [at] arcmn.org> Subject: Unfair MN cuts 3.07 12noon Thousands of Minnesotans to protest unfair cuts to services that aid state's poorest and most vulnerable citizens Advocates for people with disabilities, older Minnesotans, and children to rally at the State Capitol in March to oppose Governor's proposed cuts. On Saturday, March 7th from 12 noon to 1 p.m., thousands of Minnesotans from all corners of the state will gather in front of the Capitol to let policy makers know that further cuts to Health and Human Services Programs are simply not acceptable, and that balancing the state's budget on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens does not reflect Minnesotan values or good judgment. Governor Pawlenty's proposed budget slashes the Health and Human Services (HHS) budget by 15% over the next biennium, adding to previous cuts piled on those who depend most on Health and Human Services - Minnesota's elderly citizens, persons with disabilities, and children. Legislators and people affected by the proposed cuts will speak at the rally about how slashing the Health and Human Services budget will jeopardize their safety and quality of life. "Make no mistake, elderly citizens, persons with disabilities, and some of our most vulnerable children will suffer and lives will be placed at higher risk if the Governor's proposal to slash HHS spending passes," says Pat Mellenthin, Executive Director of The Arc of Minnesota. "Denying people critical services and supports will only end up costing taxpayers more in the long run. We need to tell our legislators and the Governor to say 'no' to cuts that target the most vulnerable among us." To read more examples of how Gov. Pawlenty's budget cuts negatively impact Minnesota's vulnerable citizens, please go to www.arrm.org/summit. MEDIA CONTACT: Steve Larson, 651-334-7970 --------11 of 20-------- From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 3.07 2pm Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm --------12 of 20-------- From: Green Green Water Update <info [at] greengreenwater.com> Subject: Green Green Water 3.07 8pm US Cable Premiere!!!! (Spring 2009) We are pleased to announce that Green Green Water will broadcast across the US on Saturday, March 7th @ 9pm Eastern (8pm Central) on Free Speech TV! We are honored to be partnering with Free Speech TV, a television network that strives to reflect the diversity of our society, providing perspectives that are under-represented or ignored by the mainstream media. In celebration of this important broadcast on Free Speech TV, we are reducing or DVD prices in order to make the film more accessible to more people. Please check out our new prices and consider multiple purchases for friends, families, colleagues, or even your local library. Since Green Green Water premiered, the screenings, critical acclaim, international controversy, and overall impact continue to stack up. Below we have included highlights of this exciting history as a reminder of the impact that our work on the film and its subsequent outreach in collaboration with our supporters has made to create a global dialogue. Film is a powerful tool to make change! Overall, we would like to again express our gratitude to all of you for your continued support of this project. We hope you will join us in celebrating this broadcast by watching it with friends, purchasing a DVD, and continuing to stay informed on the source of your energy. If you wish to learn more about energy issues, we strongly recommend you check out the website for Fresh Energy (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102472402363&e=001H0rq8QHKtYlLiQuMFz21UJalqqHtktOGQTXaHb5dVDhEgSXs-bLykkSLqraJVeX1RWONdIrDVRIN-jzTtiVbdKiKBNj6L1UMWp_GJEJjSFezwlzxnb_jCA==), a nonprofit organization leading the transition to a clean, efficient and fair energy system. Peace, Dawn Mikkelson & Jamie A. Lee Director & Co-Director Green Green Water (http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102472402363&e=001H0rq8QHKtYkTVbX2aUy7cnsKvsat50vVGS1OHmTe8OdWrj_2_jkIz3p71utV4kt-4ABG27Sp_-VuYxoNhwES0odMC3qaTM2THMHbyI7XjGoZCIb_MC6Avg==) --------13 of 20------- From: Fred H Olson <fholson [at] cohousing.org> Subject: Sweet Honey/Rock 3.07 8pm "Social Change Artists" Sweet Honey In The Rock 35th Anniversary Celebration Saturday March 7th 8 pm The O'Shaughnessy, at College of St Catherine St Paul Celebrate our nation's premiere peace and social change artists. Sweet Honey raises her voice in hope, love, justice, peace and resistance. Information and tickets call AVA 612-673-9230 for Workshops, Educational Performances and Public Concert. The sound is of sisters sitting around the fireplace singing songs of social commentary, a female choir in rehearsal, a congregation of Wednesday evening prayer services, or village that has come together to sing through happiness, trials or death. As the melodies, harmonies and rhythms soar, one is immediately struck by the message of the songs, for the message is what Sweet Honey is all > about. Arlana Vaughan, AVA Special Events Sweet Honey in the Rock Project in the Twin Cities Iluminadas Performing Arts 612-408-6781 avaspecial [at] avaspecial.com www.avaspecial.com --------14 of 20-------- One in Every 31 Adults in Prison; Prison Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid by Solomon Moore Published on Monday, March 2, 2009 by The New York Times One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study. Correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance, based on state and federal data. Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades, according to the report today by the Pew Center on the States, the first breakdown of spending in confinement and supervision in the past seven years. The increases in the number of people in some form of correctional control occurred even as crime rates sharply declined, by about 25 percent in the past two decades. At a time when states are facing huge budget shortfalls, prisons, which hold 1.5 million adults and cost far more per convict than community supervision, are driving the cost increases. Yet states have shown a preference for prison spending even though it is cheaper to monitor convicts in community programs, including probation and parole, which require offenders to check in regularly with law enforcement officers. Over all, two-thirds of offenders, or about 5.1 million people in 2008 were on probation or parole. Pew researchers say that as states trim essential services like education and health care, prison budgets continue to grow. Those priorities are misguided, the study says. "States are looking to make cuts that will have long-term harmful effects," said Sue Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States. "Corrections is one area they can cut and still have good or better outcomes than what they are doing now." The study found that states are failing to increase spending for community supervision in proportion to their growing caseloads. About $9 out of $10 spent on corrections goes to prison financing. A person in community supervision costs far less: a survey of 34 states found that states spent an average of $29,000 a year on prisoners compared to $1,250 on probationers and $2,750 on parolees. One in 11 African-Americans are under correctional control, one in 27 Latinos, and one in 45 white people are in prison, jail, or under correctional supervision. Only one out of 89 women is behind bars or monitored, compared to one out of 18 men. States with the highest proportion of people under some form of punishment regimen include Georgia (1 in 13), Indiana (1 in 26), Louisiana (1 in 26), and Ohio (1 in 25). Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/02-10 [Yes but, on the other hand, there are, for the major prison investors, longer yachts. -ed] --------15 of 20-------- The Proceeds of Crime by George Monbiot March 3rd, 2009 Dissident Voice It's a staggering case; more staggering still that it has scarcely been mentioned on this side of the ocean. Last week two judges in Pennsylvania were convicted of jailing some 2,000 children in exchange for bribes from private prison companies. Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan sent children to jail for offenses so trivial that some of them weren't even crimes. A 15-year-old called Hillary Transue got three months for creating a spoof web page ridiculing her school's assistant principal. Mr. Ciavarella sent Shane Bly, then 13, to boot camp for trespassing in a vacant building. He gave 14- year-old, Jamie Quinn, 11 months in prison for slapping a friend during an argument, after the friend slapped her. The judges were paid $2.6 million by companies belonging to the Mid Atlantic Youth Services Corp for helping to fill its jails.1 This is what happens when public services are run for profit. It's an extreme example, but it hints at the wider consequences of the trade in human lives created by private prisons. In the US and the UK they have a powerful incentive to ensure that the number of prisoners keeps rising. The United States is more corrupt than the UK, but it is also more transparent. There the lobbyists demanding and receiving changes to judicial policy might be exposed, and corrupt officials identified and prosecuted. The UK, with a strong tradition of official secrecy and a weak tradition of scrutiny and investigative journalism, has no such safeguards. The corrupt judges were paid by the private prisons not only to increase the number of child convicts but also to shut down a competing prison run by the public sector. Taking bribes to bang up kids might be novel; shutting public facilities to help private companies happens - on both sides of the water - all the time. The Wall Street Journal has shown how, as a result of lobbying by the operators, private jails in Mississippi and California are being paid for non-existent prisoners.2 The prison corporations have been guaranteed a certain number of inmates. If the courts fail to produce enough convicts, they get their money anyway. This outrages taxpayers in both states, which have cut essential public services to raise these funds. But there is a simple means of resolving this problem: you replace ghost inmates with real ones. As the Journal, seldom associated with raging anti-capitalism, observes, "prison expansion [has] spawned a new set of vested interests with stakes in keeping prisons full and in building more. . . . The result has been a financial and political bazaar, with convicts in stripes as the prize".3 Even as crime declines, lawmakers are pressed by their sponsors to increase the rate of imprisonment. The US has, by a very long way, the world's highest proportion of people behind bars: 756 prisoners per 100,000 people, or just over 1% of the adult population.4 Similarly wealthy countries have around one-tenth of this rate of imprisonment. Like most of its really bad ideas, the last Conservative government imported private jails from the US. As Stephen Nathan, author of a forthcoming book about prison privatization in the UK, has shown, the notion was promoted by the Select Committee on Home Affairs, which in 1986 visited prisons run by the Corrections Corporation of America. When the corporation told them that private provision in the US improved prison standards and delivered good value for money, the committee members failed to check its claims. They recommended that the government should put the construction and management of prisons out to tender "as an experiment".5 Encouraged by the committee's report, the Corrections Corporation of America set up a consortium in Britain with two Conservative party donors, Sir Robert McAlpine Ltd and John Mowlem & Co, to promote privately financed prisons over here. The first privately-run prison in the UK, Wolds, was opened by the Danish security company Group 4 in 1992. In 1993, before it had had a chance to evaluate this experiment, the government announced that all new prisons would be built and run by private companies. The Labour party, then in opposition, was outraged. John Prescott promised that, "Labour will take back private prisons into public ownership - it is the only safe way forward".6 Jack Straw stated that, "it is not appropriate for people to profit out of incarceration. This is surely one area where a free market certainly does not exist". He too promised to "bring these prisons into proper public control and run them directly as public services".7 But during his first seven weeks in office, Jack Straw renewed one private prison contract and launched two new ones. A year later he announced that all new prisons in England and Wales would be built and run by private companies, under the private finance initiative (PFI). Today the UK has a higher proportion of prisoners in private institutions than the US.8 This is the only country in Europe whose jails are run on this model. So has prison privatization here influenced judicial policy? As we discovered during the recent lobbying scandal in the House of Lords, there's no way of knowing. Unlike civilized nations, the UK has no register of lobbyists; we are not even entitled to know which lobbyists ministers have met.9 But there are some clues. The former home secretary, John Reid, previously in charge of prison provision, has become a consultant to the private prison operator G4S.10 The government is intending to commission a series of massive Titan jails under PFI. Most experts on prisons expect them to be disastrous, taking inmates further away from their families (which reduces the chances of rehabilitation) and creating vast warrens in which all the social diseases of imprisonment will fester. Only two groups want them built: ministers and the prison companies: they offer excellent opportunities to rack up profits. And the very nature of PFI, which commits the government to paying for services for 25 or 30 years whether or not they are still required creates a major incentive to ensure that prison numbers don't fall. The beast must be fed. And there's another line of possible evidence. In the two countries whose economies most resemble the UK's - Germany and France - the prison population has risen quite slowly. France has 96 inmates per 100,000 people, an increase of 14% since 1992. Germany has 89 prisoners per 100,000: 25% more than in 1992 but 9% less than in 2001. But the UK now locks up 151 out of every 100,000 inhabitants: 73% more than in 1992 and 20% more than in 2001. Yes our politicians have barely come down from the trees, yes we are still governed out of the offices of the Daily Mail, but it would be foolish to dismiss the likely influence of the private prison industry. This revolting trade in human lives creates a permanent incentive to lock people up; not because prison works; not because it makes us safer, but because it makes money. Privatization appears to have locked this country into mass imprisonment. 1 Amy Goodman, .How Two Former PA Judges Got Millions in Kickbacks to Send Juveniles to Private Prisons,. Democracy Now!, 17th February 2009; .Bad judges: the lowest of the low,. The Economist, 26th February 2009; Stephanie Chen, .Pennsylvania rocked by .jailing kids for cash. scandal,. CNN, February 24, 2009. [.] 2 Bryan Gruley, .Prison Building Spree Creates Glut of Lockups,. Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2001; Joseph T. Hallinan, .Going Backwards,. Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2001. [.] 3 Bryan Gruley, ibid. [.] 4 The total prison population at the end of 2007 (see above) was 2,293,157. The most recent figure for the adult population I can find . 217.8 million . was produced by the US Census Bureau in 2004. [.] 5 Stephen Nathan, 2003. Prison Privatization in the United Kingdom. Published in Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization & Human Rights. Clarity Press, Inc., Atlanta. [.] 6 John Prescott, 1994, quoted by Stephen Nathan, ibid. [.] 7 Jack Straw, 8th March 1995, quoted by Stephen Nathan, ibid. [.] 8 7.2% in the US, 11% in the UK. [.] 9 The Committee on Standards in Public Life, cited by the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, 5th January 2009. Lobbying: Access and influence in Whitehall. Volume I, para 187. [.] 10 .G4S Appoints John Reid As Group Consultant,. Security Oracle, 18th December 2008. [.] George Monbiot is the author of the best selling books, The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order and Captive State: the Corporate Takeover of Britain; as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed and No Man.s Land. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper (UK). --------16 of 20-------- War Comes Home to Britain by John Pilger March 4th, 2009 Dissident Voice Freedom is being lost in Britain. The land of Magna Carta is now the land of secret gagging orders, secret trials and imprisonment. The government will soon know about every phone call, every e-mail, every text message. Police can willfully shoot to death an innocent man, lie and expect to get away with it. Whole communities now fear the state. The foreign secretary routinely covers up allegations of torture; the justice secretary routinely prevents the release of critical cabinet minutes taken when Iraq was illegally invaded. The litany is cursory; there is much more. Indeed, there is so much more that the erosion of liberal freedoms is symptomatic of an evolved criminal state. The haven for Russian oligarchs, together with corruption of the tax and banking systems and of once-admired public services such as the Post Office, is one side of the coin; the other is the invisible carnage of failed colonial wars. Historically, the pattern is familiar. As the colonial crimes in Algeria, Vietnam and Afghanistan blew back to their perpetrators, France, the United States and the Soviet Union, so the cancerous effects of Britain's cynicism in Iraq and Afghanistan have come home. The most obvious example is the bombing atrocities in London on 7 July 2005; no one in the British intelligence mandarinate doubts these were a gift of Blair. "Terrorism" describes only the few acts of individuals and groups, not the constant, industrial violence of great powers. Suppressing this truth is left to the credible media. On 27 February, the Guardian's Washington correspondent, Ewen MacAskill, in reporting President Obama's statement that America was finally leaving Iraq, as if it were fact, wrote: "For Iraq, the death toll is unknown, in the tens of thousands, victims of the war, a nationalist uprising, sectarian in-fighting and jihadists attracted by the US presence". Thus, the Anglo-American invaders are merely a "presence" and not directly responsible for the "unknown" number of Iraqi deaths. Such contortion of intellect is impressive. In January last year, a report by the respected Opinion Research Business (ORB) revised an earlier assessment of deaths in Iraq to 1,033,000. This followed an exhaustive, peer-reviewed study in 2006 by the world-renowned John Hopkins School of Public Health in the US, published in The Lancet, which found that 655,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the invasion. US and British officials immediately dismissed the report as "flawed" - a deliberate deception. Foreign Office papers obtained under Freedom of Information disclose a memo written by the government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Roy Anderson, in which he praised The Lancet report, describing it as "robust and employs methods that are regarded as close to 'best practice' given [the conditions] in Iraq". An adviser to the prime minister commented: "The survey methodology used here cannot be rubbished, it is a tried and tested way of measuring mortality in conflict zones". Speaking a few days later, a Foreign Office minister, Lord Triesman, said, "The way in which data are extrapolated from samples to a general outcome is a matter of deep concern". The episode exemplifies the scale and deception of this state crime. Les Roberts, co-author of the Lancet study, has since argued that Britain and America might have caused in Iraq "an episode more deadly than the Rwandan genocide". This is not news. Neither is it a critical reference in the freedoms campaign organized by the Observer columnist Henry Porter. At a conference in London on 28 February, Lord Goldsmith, Blair's attorney-general, who notoriously changed his mind and advised the government the invasion was legal, when it wasn't, was a speaker for freedom. So was Timothy Garton Ash, a "liberal interventionist". On 9 April, 2003, shortly after the slaughter had begun in Iraq, a euphoric Garton Ash wrote in the Guardian: "America has never been the Great Satan. It has sometimes been the Great Gatsby: 'They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things. . . '". One of Britain's jobs "is to keep reminding Tom and Daisy that they now have promises to keep". Less frivolously, he lauded Blair for his "strong Gladstonian instincts for humanitarian intervention" and repeated the government's propaganda about Saddam Hussein. In 2006, he wrote: "Now we face the next big test of the west after Iraq: Iran". This also adheres precisely to the propaganda; David Milliband has declared Iran a "threat" in preparation for possibly the next war. Like so many of New Labour's Tonier-than-thou squad, Henry Porter celebrated Blair as an almost mystical politician who "presents himself as a harmoniser for all the opposing interests in British life, a conciliator of class differences and tribal antipathies, synthesiser of opposing beliefs". Porter dismissed as "demonic nonsense" all analysis of the 9/11 attacks that suggested there were specific causes: the consequences of violent actions taken by the powerful in the Middle East. Such thinking, he wrote, "exactly matches the views of Osama bin Laden . . . with America's haters, that's all there is - hatred". This, of course, was Blair's view. Freedoms are being lost in Britain because of the rapid growth of the "national security state". This form of militarism was imported from the United States by New Labour. Totalitarian in essence, it relies upon fear mongering to entrench the executive with venal legal mechanisms that progressively diminish democracy and justice. "Security" is all, as is propaganda promoting rapacious colonial wars, even as honest mistakes. Take away this propaganda, and the wars are exposed for what they are, and fear evaporates. Take away the obeisance of many in Britain's liberal elite to American power and you demote a profound colonial and crusader mentality that covers for epic criminals like Blair. Prosecute these criminals and change the system that breeds them and you have freedom. John Pilger is an internationally renowned investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. His latest film is The War on Democracy. His most recent book is Freedom Next Time (Bantam/Random House, 2006). --------17 of 20-------- The Yoo-Bybee Memoranda Blueprints for a Police State By MARJORIE COHN CounterPunch March 4, 2009 Seven newly released memos from the Bush Justice Department reveal a concerted strategy to cloak the President with power to override the Constitution. The memos provide "legal" rationales for the President to suspend freedom of speech and press; order warrantless searches and seizures, including wiretaps of U.S. citizens; lock up U.S. citizens indefinitely in the United States without criminal charges; send suspected terrorists to other countries where they will likely be tortured; and unilaterally abrogate treaties. According to the reasoning in the memos, Congress has no role to check and balance the executive. That is the definition of a police state. Who wrote these memos? All but one were crafted in whole or in part by the infamous John Yoo and Jay Bybee, authors of the so-called "torture memos" that redefined torture much more narrowly than the U.S. definition of torture, and counseled the President how to torture and get away with it. In one memo, Yoo said the Justice Department would not enforce U.S. laws against torture, assault, maiming and stalking, in the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. What does the federal maiming statute prohibit? It makes it a crime for someone "with the intent to torture, maim, or disfigure" to "cut, bite, or slit the nose, ear or lip, or cut out or disable the tongue, or put out or destroy an eye, or cut off or disable a limb or any member of another person." It further prohibits individuals from "throwing or pouring upon another person any scalding water, corrosive acid, or caustic substance" with like intent. The two torture memos were later withdrawn after they became public because their legal reasoning was clearly defective. But they remained in effect long enough to authorize the torture and abuse of many prisoners in U.S. custody. The seven memos just made public were also eventually disavowed, several years after they were written. Steven Bradbury, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in Bush's Department of Justice, issued two disclaimer memos - on October 6, 2008 and January 15, 2009 - that said the assertions in those seven memos did "not reflect the current views of this Office". Why Bradbury waited until Bush was almost out of office to issue the disclaimers remains a mystery. Some speculate that Bradbury, knowing the new administration would likely release the memos, was trying to cover his backside. Indeed, Yoo, Bybee and Bradbury are the three former Justice Department lawyers that the Office of Professional Responsibility singled out for criticism in its still unreleased report. The OPR could refer these lawyers for state bar discipline or even recommend criminal charges against them. In his memos, Yoo justified giving unchecked authority to the President because the United States was in a "state of armed conflict". Yoo wrote, "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully". Yoo made the preposterous argument that since deadly force could legitimately be used in self-defense in criminal cases, the President could suspend the Fourth Amendment because privacy rights are less serious than protection from the use of deadly force. Bybee wrote in one of the memos that nothing can stop the President from sending al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners captured overseas to third countries, as long as he doesn't intend for them to be tortured. But the Convention Against Torture, to which the United States is a party, says that no country can expel, return or extradite a person to another country "where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture". Bybee claimed the Torture Convention didn't apply extraterritorially, a proposition roundly debunked by reputable scholars. The Bush administration reportedly engaged in this practice of extraordinary rendition 100 to 150 times as of March 2005. The same day that Attorney General Eric Holder released the memos, the government revealed that the CIA had destroyed 92 videotapes of harsh interrogations of Abu Zubaida and Abd al Rahim al Nashiri, both of whom were subjected to waterboarding. The memo that authorized the CIA to waterboard, written the same day as one of Yoo/Bybee.s torture memos, has not yet been released. Bush insisted that Zubaida was a dangerous terrorist, in spite of the contention of one of the FBI's leading al Qaeda experts that Zubaida was schizophrenic, a bit player in the organization. Under torture, Zubaida admitted to everything under the sun - his information was virtually worthless. There are more memos yet to be released. They will invariably implicate Bush officials and lawyers in the commission of torture, illegal surveillance, extraordinary rendition, and other violations of the law. Meanwhile, John Yoo remains on the faculty of Berkeley Law School and Jay Bybee is a federal judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. These men, who advised Bush on how to create a police state, should be investigated, prosecuted, and disbarred. Yoo should be fired and Bybee impeached. Marjorie Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild and author of Cowboy Republic. --------18 of 20-------- The Laugher Curve by William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Columnist Wednesday 04 March 2009 Some weeks ago, I penned an article titled "Dump the GOP," which argued in part, "President Obama can work with the Democratic congressional majorities to pass future legislation, perhaps making sure to get one GOP vote in the Senate to thwart a filibuster. If no such vote is forthcoming, he can dump any quixotic quest for one or any GOP votes and dare the GOP to filibuster widely popular bills. He's not going to get GOP support for anything, so why bother trying? Let them keep it up and lose every time, and let them try to stand on that record for the 2010 midterms." It appears my advice in this matter was a tad premature. President Obama does not have to dump the GOP, for it appears quite evident they are doing just fine dumping themselves without any help from the administration. As it turns out, this has not been a sudden thing, but a long and drawn-out event now entering its third year. The Republican Party's descent from total domination of the entire federal government to a state of utter disorder has come to pass after a clearly identifiable arc of events we will call, for the purposes of explanation and with tongue firmly in cheek, "The Laugher Curve." On Monday, November 6, 2006, the Republican Party was enjoying the fruits it had gained after three victorious election cycles in a row, two presidential and one congressional. Republicans had been in control of the White House for six years, and barring a slight hiccup when James Jeffords woke up on the left side of the bed, they had also held sway over Congress for twelve years. The Executive Branch under Bush so thoroughly dominated the agenda of the Legislative Branch that the two were essentially transformed into that Unitary entity long desired by the likes of Vice President Cheney. That Monday, as it turns out, was the GOP's high-water mark. On Tuesday, November 7, 2006, the Democratic Party took back the House and Senate, and for all practical purposes, the presidential administration of George W. Bush was politically finished, and the power of the Republican Party began to collapse. The writing had been on the wall all year; a multitude of congressional sex-and-bribery scandals had riddled the GOP, a mudfight over immigration had split their coalition, and party leader George W. Bush was garnering the lowest presidential approval ratings in recorded history. The Democrats did not run a particularly sharp or effective campaign to retake Congress in 2006, but the GOP did so good a job at damaging itself that such a campaign was not actually needed. Flash forward to the presidential campaign of 2008, when the chaos that has so overtaken the Republican Party truly began to sink in. Candidates Romney and Giuliani found themselves crippled by the Huckabee campaign's overwhelming popularity with the GOP base. In primary after primary, neither was able earn enough base votes to survive, but Huckabee could not gain enough non-base votes to prevail, either. In the end, all three campaigns annihilated each other, and only John McCain remained. The GOP base, however, reviled McCain's positions on immigration, campaign finance reform, the environment and Bush's tax cuts. McCain had no hope of winning without those base voters, so his campaign spent the entire general election season trying to back its way into the good graces of the GOP base, going so far as to tap Alaska governor and base darling Sarah Palin to join McCain on the ticket. Already burdened by so much bad GOP baggage, the disastrous Palin nomination struck the McCain campaign - and indeed the entire Republican party - like an Exocet missile below the waterline. The whole lot of them have been sinking ever since. Today, the Democratic Party controls both the Legislative and Executive Branches. President Obama, through masterfully delivered public addresses and carefully articulated policy initiatives, now dominates the high ground of American politics. Meanwhile, the GOP has been defending policies only popular within its base to hold what it still has, which marginalizes the party even further. The entire Republican Party, it seems, has spent the last week bending a knee to Rush Limbaugh, whose far-right grandstanding is leading the GOP even further into darkness. Sooner or later the party will re-emerge, for that is the way of things in American politics. In the meantime, however ... hoo, boy, what a glorious mess this is. Dump the GOP? No need; the GOP is doing just fine dumping itself, and neither the Obama administration nor the Democrats need to lift a finger. They are obeying a very old maxim of Chicago politics: never get in the way of a perfectly good train wreck. William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: "War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know" and "The Greatest Sedition Is Silence." His newest book, "House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation," is now available from PoliPointPress. --------19 of 20-------- The Rushublican Party: blubbering blubber, fatuous, farty. --------20 of 20-------- Our wise masters think only full fascism will bring them longer yachts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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 vote third party for president for congress now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8
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