| Progressive Calendar 06.17.10 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:33:02 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 06.17.10 1. War/Klobuchar 6.17 4:30pm 2. Erlinder case 6.18 11am 3. Oceans/film 6.18 11:30am 4. Peace/community 6.18 2pm 5. Palestine vigil 6.18 4:15pm 6. Merriam potluck 6.18 6:30pm 7. Massey coal 6.18 7pm 8. Harvey Wasserman - The time for solar is now 9. Ralph Nader - The scourging of Helen Thomas 10. James Rockefeller - Helen Thomas: A casualty of Zionist duplicity --------1 of 10-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: War/Klobuchar 6.17 4:30pm Protest: Stop Funding the War in Afghanistan and Bring the Troops Home Now! Thursday, June 17, 4:30 p.m. Senator Klobuchar's Office, 1200 Washington Avenue South, Suite 250, Minneapolis. Since last summer's surge, there has been a dramatic increase in civilian casualties in the U.S. war on Afghanistan. Despite the Obama administration rhetoric of concern for civilian casualties, U.S. forces and drones have killed hundreds of civilians - including children this year. President Obama has announced an offensive on Kandahar this June. This attack will further devastate Afghanistan - a country already troubled with occupation, a refugee crisis, and extreme poverty. Kandahar, a city of half a million people, is about to become the latest victim of U.S. warfare. Come stand with us to say NO to the bombing of Kandahar and to furthering the U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan. Tell Congress to stop funding the war and to bring the troops home now! Organized by: the Anti-War Committee. Endorsed by: WAMM. FFI: Call 612-379-3899 or visit www.antiwarcommittee.org. --------2 of 10-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Erlinder case 6.18 11am Fri.June 18, 11am Erlinder case/KFAI Radio Twin Cities human rights & civil liberties lawyer, PETER ERLINDER is being held by the government of Rwanda on charges of "genocide denial". Erlinder is a past president of the National Lawyers Guild and has worked on international law cases as well as defended prisoners of U.S. death row, victims of police brutality and other violations of human rights. Hear three NLG colleagues discuss Erlinder's case in the context of civil liberties and human rights: Rachel E. B. Lang, Bruce Nester and Sara Grant. On "CATALYST: politics & culture" hosted by Lydia Howell, KFAI 90.3 fm Mpls/106.7 fm St.Paul ONLINE: live-streaming & archived on the CATALYST page at http://www.kfai.org ***Important note:KFAI RADIO is making program schedule changes effective JULY 1. "Catalyst" will be on THURSDAYS, 9am, beginning JULY 1. For other program changes go to: http://www.kfai.org --------3 of 10-------- From: Lydia Howell <lydiahowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Oceans/film 6.18 11:30am thru 6/24:film OCEANS @ Riverview Theatre,Minneapolis Given that the "debate" about the BP Oil disaster is largely focued on MONEY, seeing this new film about our OCEANS reminds us of what is actually at stake - something priceless. see the new documentary film OCEANS @ RIVERVIEW THEATER in thru JUNE 24 3800 42nd Avenue South, MInneapolis TRAILER at: http://www.riverviewtheater.com/show/show/1358 Directors Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud dive deep into the very waters that sustain all of mankind - exploring the harsh reality and the amazing creatures that live within. Narrated by Pierce Brosnan and featuring spectacular never-before-seen imagery captured by the latest technology. Runtime: 85 mins. Showtimes: Friday (Jun 18th): 11:30AM Saturday (Jun 19th): 11:30AM Sunday (Jun 20th): 11:30AM Monday (Jun 21st): 11:30AM Tuesday (Jun 22nd): 11:30AM Wednesday (Jun 23rd): 11:30AM Thursday (Jun 24th): 11:30AM --------4 of 10-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: Peace/community 6.18 2pm Community Peace Celebration: "Growing Peace by Strengthening Our Community Roots" Friday, June 18, 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. Ober Community Center, 376 Western Avenue, St Paul. Attend the 14th annual Community Peace Celebration with the theme and goal of "Growing Peace by Strengthening Our Community Roots." This event continues a grassroots tradition of bringing communities together around the common goal of peace and solidarity in our neighborhoods. There will be free food, live local music and speakers, activities for all ages, and community resources - including WAMM. Sponsored by: the Community Peace Builders. Endorsed by: WAMM. FFI: Email thomasguettler [at] msn.com. --------5 of 10-------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Palestine vigil 6.18 4:15pm The weekly vigil for the liberation of Palestine continues at the intersection of Snelling and Summit Aves in St. Paul. The Friday demo starts at 4:15 and ends around 5:30. There are usually extra signs available. --------6 of 10-------- From: "Krista Menzel (Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace)" <web [at] MPPeace.org> Subject: Merriam potluck 6.18 6:30pm 2010 Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace Potlucks We also hold a monthly potluck at a member's home or go out to dinner together - usually on a Friday at 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 18, 2010 Please e-mail info [at] mppeace.org or call Anne at (651) 647-0580 or Krista at (651) 641-7592 for more information. http://www.mppeace.org/events/ --------7 of 10-------- From: Christine Frank <christinefrank [at] visi.com> Subject: Massey coal 6.18 7pm STOP MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL COAL MINING * FILM SHOWING * SPEAKER: CHARLES SUGGS, ANTI-MTR ORGANIZER * AND FUNDRASING PARTY FOR ACTVISTS ARRESTED DURING NON-VIOLENT DIRECT ACTIONS IN WEST VIRGINA AGAINST MASSEY ENERGY FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 7:00 PM 3031 CHICAGO AVENUE SOUTH, MINNEAPOLIS SPONSORED BY GROUND ZERO www.climategroundzero.org <http://www.climategroundzero.org/> All Proceeds Go to Climate Ground Zero's Legal & Action Expenses --------8 of 10-------- The Time for Solar is Now The Gusher and the Sun By HARVEY WASSERMAN June 17, 2010 CounterPunch BP's apocalyptic Gulf gusher has put our ability to survive in serious doubt. We have no reason to believe an end to the crisis is near---or even in sight. Nor can we begin to calculate the damage to our Mother Earth.to her oceans, to the core of her being.and to each of us as individual organisms. Only one thing IS clear: we cannot ultimately survive without a rapid conversion to a Solartopian economy that is totally green-powered. That transformation will be forced by biological imperatives, not money or markets. The powers that be studiously avoid the core reality that this disaster stems from the ability of large corporations to make all of us pay for their irresponsible greed. The black poisons killing our global body gush from a system that grants corporations human rights but does not demand human responsibility. It is suicidal to allow corporations to deploy technologies they cannot mange or insure and then make us pay for their greed. >From banking to industry to energy, the system privatizes profits and socializes disaster. It is the essence of what Mussolini called "corporate control of the state." Liability at the Deepwater Horizon was set at a paltry $75 million. Had BP been forced to account beforehand for the scale of harm now being done, that well would never have been drilled. The $20 billion Obama wants BP to ante up won't cover a fraction of the damages. In fact, BP does not have sufficient assets to pay for what it has done, any more than any owner of any nuclear power plant could cover the downwind horrors of a major meltdown. The liability pool for an atomic reactor disaster stands at a scant $11 billion. These reactor pushers all claim such an accident is virtually impossible. Just like BP. The Obama Administration supports these nuclear loan guarantees. But it could no more meet the monetary and logistic challenges of a melt down than it's done at Deepwater Horizon. As always, society as a whole, not the corporate perps, would be forced to pay. For us to survive, technologies that can't be insured must be replaced with ones that can. That means wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, ocean thermal, sustainable biofuels, wave energy, current energy and a massive push for increased efficiency and conservation, including a restoration of mass transit. All the above bear risks of some sort. But all can get liability insurance. None threaten our survival. Fossil/nukers say such technologies are years away from meeting our needs. But the barriers are not primarily technological---they are defined by the corporate-run world of money, markets and bureaucratic corruption. Remove socialized risk while taxing ecological impacts and Solartopian technologies would eventually force fossil/nuclear fuels to extinction. But could the market make that happen before we terminally pollute our planet? The BP gusher says: not likely. After Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt set completely "undoable" goals for armaments production. All defied a market economy and sober assessments of what we could actually accomplish. And all were met. In crisis, we've conjured military mobilizations, the New Deal, Manhattan Project, Marshall Plan, stimulus package, bank bailouts, public works projects and whatever else it took to survive. Now energy consumption must plummet as efficiency and green production rise to supplant the fossil/nuclear technologies that are killing us. Our basic biology demands the twain meet before BP and its buddies kill us all. The Solartopian scenario requires not just a shift in energy production and consumption. It means an end to war, which is not sustainable anywhere, for any alleged cause. Real peace in turn demands social justice, which can come only with true democracy---paper ballots and all. Our food needs to be raised organically. Our numbers can only be controlled by freely educated, empowered women in bio-conspiracy with our Mother Earth. Above all, the corporate structure that rules our world must be replaced with a means of organization that serves people and the planet, not the reverse. BP's black death pouring through our oceans says we cannot afford the free market illusions of a corporate-sponsored apocalypse. A system that is peaceful, just and totally green-powered is the only way we survive. Let's hope we have the time, wisdom and will to get there. Harvey Wasserman, a co-founder of Musicians United for Safe Energy, is editing the nukefree.org web site. He is the author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030, is at www.solartopia.org. He can be reached at: Windhw [at] aol.com --------9 of 10-------- A Deep Regard for People's Right to Know The Scourging of Helen Thomas By RALPH NADER June 16, 2010 CounterPunch The termination of Helen Thomas. 62-year long career as a pioneering, no-nonsense newswoman was swift and intriguingly merciless. The event leading to her termination began when she was sitting on a White House bench under oppressive summer heat. The 89-year old hero of honest journalism and women's rights, the scourge of dissembling presidents and White House press secretaries, answered a passing visitor's question about Israel with a snappish comment worded in a way she didn't mean; she promptly apologized in writing. Recorded without permission on a hand video, the brief exchange, that included a defense of dispossessed Palestinians, went internet viral on Friday, June 7. By Monday, Helen Thomas was considered finished, even though she embodied a steadfast belief, in the praiseworthy words of Washington Post columnist, Dana Milbank, "that anybody standing on that podium [in the White House] should be regarded with skepticism". Over the weekend, her lecture agent dropped her. Her column syndicator, the Hearst company, pressed her to quit "effective immediately," and, it was believed that the White House Correspondents Association, of which she was the first female president, was about to take away her coveted front row seat in the White House press room. Then, Helen Thomas announced her retirement on Monday, June 10. No doubt she's had her fill of ethnic, sexist and ageist epithets hurled her way over the years - the very decades she was broadly challenging racism, sexism and, more recently, ageism. Although the behind the scenes story has yet to come out, the evisceration was launched by two pro-Israeli war hawks, Ari Fleischer and Lanny Davis. Fleischer was George W. Bush's press secretary who bridled under Helen Thomas' questioning regarding the horrors of the Bush-Cheney war crimes and illegal torture. His job was not to answer this uppity woman but to deflect, avoid and cover up for his bosses. Davis was the designated defender whenever Clinton got into hot water. As journalist Paul Jay pointed out, he is now a Washington lobbyist whose clients include the cruel corporate junta that overthrew the elected president of Honduras. Both men rustled up the baying pack of Thomas-haters during the weekend and filled the unanswered narrative on Fox and other facilitating media. Then, belatedly, something remarkable occurred. People reacted against this grossly disproportionate punishment. Ellen Ratner, a Fox News contributor, wrote - "I'm Jewish and a supporter of Israel. Let's face it: we all have said things - or thought things about - other groups of people, things that we wouldn't want to see in print or on video. Anyone who denies it is a liar. Giver her [Helen] a break.. Apparently, many people agree. In an internet poll by the Washington Post, 92% of respondents said she should not be removed from the White House press room. As an NPR listener, R. Carey, e-mailed: "D.C. would be void of journalists if they all were to quit, get fired or retire after making potentially offensive comments". Listen to Michael Freedman, former managing editor for United Press International: "After seven decades of setting standards for quality journalism and demolishing barriers for women in the workplace, Helen Thomas has now shown that most dreaded of vulnerabilities - she is human. Who among us does not have strong feelings about the endless warfare in the Middle East? Who among us has said something we have come to regret?.... Let's not destroy Ms. Thomas now." Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, wrote: "Thomas was the only accredited White House correspondent with the guts to ask Bush the tough questions that define a free press.. Her remarks were offensive, but considering her journalistic moxie and courage over many decades - a sharp contrast to the despicable deeds committed by so many littering the Washington political scene - isn't there room for someone who made a mistake, apologized for it and wants to continue speaking truth to power and asking tough questions?" [Not when vile Israel is on the blitzkreig; no mercy for any obstacle to stealing other people's land. -ed] Last week, in front of the White House, people calling themselves "Jews for Helen Thomas" gathered in a small demonstration. Medea Benajmin - cofounder of Global Exchange, declared that "We are clear what Helen Thomas meant to say, which is that Israel should cease its occupation of Palestine and we agree with that.. While another demonstrator, Zool Zulkowitz, asserted that "by discrediting Helen Thomas, those who believe that Israel can do no wrong shift attention from the public relations debacle of the Gaza Flotilla killings, and intimidate journalists who would ask hard questions about the Israeli occupation of Palestine and American foreign policy". Helen Thomas, who grew up in Detroit, is an American of Arab descent. She is understandably alert to the one-sided U.S. military and foreign policy in that region. Her questions reflect concerns about U.S. policy in the Middle East by many Americans, including unmuzzled retired military, diplomatic and intelligence officials. In 2006 when George W. Bush finally called on her, she started her questioning by saying "Your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of Americans and Iraqis. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true". Or when she challenged President Obama last month, asking "When are you going to get out of Afghanistan? Why are we continuing to kill and die there? What is the real excuse?" Asking the "why" questions was a Thomas trademark. Many self-censoring journalists avoid controversial "why" questions, thereby allowing evasion, dissembling and just plain B.S. to dominate the White House press room. She rejected words that sugarcoated or camouflaged the grim deeds. She started with the grim deeds to expose the doubletalk and officialdom's chronic illegalities. What appalled Thomas most is the way the media rolls over and fails to hold officials accountable. (British reporters believe they are tougher on their Prime Ministers.) This is a subject about which she has written books and articles - not exactly the way to endear herself to those reporters who go AWOL and look the other way, so that they can continue to be called upon or to be promoted by their superiors. The abysmal record of the New York Times and the Washington Post in the months preceding the Iraq invasion filled with Bush-Cheney lies, deception, and cover-ups is a case in point. As usual, she was proven right, not the celebrated reporters and columnists deprecating her work, including the Post's press critic, Howard Kurtz. Thomas practiced her profession with a deep regard for the peoples' right to know. To her, as Aldous Huxley noted long ago, "facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored". Lastly, there is the double standard. One off-hand "ill-conceived remark," as NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard stated, in praising Ms. Thomas, ended a groundbreaking career. While enhanced careers and fat lecture fees are the reward for ultra-right wing radio and cable ranters, and others like columnist Ann Coulter, who regularly urge wars, mayhem and dragnets based on bigotry, stereotypes and falsehoods directed wholesale against Muslims, including a blatant anti-semitism against Arabs. (See http://www.adc.org/education/educational-resources/ and Jack Shaheen.s book and companion documentary about cultural portrayal of Arab stereotypes, Reel Bad Arabs.) Ms. Thomas'. desk at the Hearst office remains unattended a week after her eviction. One day she will return to pack up her materials. She can take with her the satisfaction of joining all those in our history who were cashiered ostensibly for a gaffe, but really for being too right, too early, too often. Her many admirers hope that she continues to write, speak and motivate a generation of young journalists in the spirit of Joseph Pulitzer's advice to his reporters a century ago - that their job was to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". Ralph Nader is the author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, a novel. --------10 of 10-------- White House Correspondent Helen Thomas: A Casualty of Zionist Duplicity by James Rockefeller June 17th, 2010 Dissident Voice Zionist operatives ambushed veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas, a friend and a great American. When they won, America lost When reviewing the unedited video of her "interview," what you see is a rabbi rephrasing her answers to a question about Israel. Her response: "They should get the hell out of Palestine". The United Nations long ago endorsed that stance. It was not Thomas but the rabbi that offended the Jewish community. Language cited as "anti-Semitic" came not from her but from responses that the rabbi restated as leading questions. She simply spoke the truth: Jewish settlers should leave the occupied territories and, as she rightly said: "go home". The rabbi, an operative [ie underhanded hitman -ed] for the Anti-Defamation League, knew what he was doing when he ensnared this frail and distinguished 89-year old journalist. The ADL and other Zionist strategists have long sought her removal from this influential position. This operation was carried out as part of Jewish Heritage Week, a first in White House history. Nothing was said about the perils to which America has long been subjected due to its entangled alliance with the Jewish state. The campaign to force Thomas' removal was led by former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. Recall that Fleischer is the Zionist insider who repeatedly insisted that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. How did those seeking recognition for their "Jewishness" repay the trust of a nation and its people? Zionist operatives targeted the only reporter who challenged Israel's nuclear weapons program. By bushwhacking her on the White House lawn, Zionists reconfirmed that they are, in fact, in control. [Achtung! You vill do vhat ve vant! -ed] No one dared mention how Zionist Heritage has ravaged America from within. Or how Zionism was aided by a series of pathetic presidents and advisers offering their unflinching support for an increasingly unstable Israeli leadership. The Tel Aviv Two-Step In the same news cycle when the current White House press secretary portrayed Thomas' remarks as "reprehensible," nothing was said about the Turkish-American teenager shot in the head when Israeli forces boarded a Gaza relief flotilla. As "our" media fixated on Ms. Thomas, the public's attention was diverted from that murder. What is reprehensible is this: no U.S. journalist has shown the courage to challenge a U.S. president on Israel. When President Obama gave his first news conference, it was Helen Thomas who asked which country in the Middle East has nuclear weapons. Rather than reply, he did the Tel Aviv Two-Step and avoided her question. That's a key reason an ADL operative targeted her. The strategic objective: to serve notice that NO ONE can pose honest questions about the many perils that the U.S.-Israel "special relationship" poses to the security of the U.S. and other nations. Why Now? When the latest "terrorist incident" fizzled in Times Square, the U.N. was then advancing an agenda pursued by President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s: a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. In a historic U.N. vote, even the U.S. agreed - over Israeli objections - to make the Middle East a Nuclear Free Zone. That treaty would mandate that Israel dismantle its nuclear arsenal. An idealistic young U.S. president was vigorously pursuing that goal when his life was brought to an abrupt end. As the first woman to serve as a White House correspondent, Helen Thomas knew Kennedy as the first of ten presidents she covered over five decades. This history was well known to those who brought her truth-seeking career to an abrupt end. That's why she was ambushed. She was the last mainstream American journalist who dared question a U.S. President about Israel's nuclear weapons. Had Zionists not removed her, they knew she would have asked President Obama: "When is the U.S. going to pressure its ally to give up a nuclear arsenal estimated to be in excess 200 nuclear warheads?" [Filthy -ed] Zionists won this round. No remaining White House correspondent is likely to ask the hard questions about Israel's impact on America's national security interests. ADL operatives, acting on behalf of a foreign government, made sure of it. Meanwhile, Barack Obama's love fest with the Jewish state continues while Zionist policies persist in undermining America's credibility and endangering U.S. troops abroad. Today's White House resident resembles previous occupants in his inability to say no to Zionist demands. By his silence, he enabled an agent of a foreign government to silence one of America's most trusted voices covering the White House. Helen Thomas knows the scope and scale of Zionist operations inside the U.S. She saw it firsthand through ten presidencies from both major U.S. political parties. By silencing this voice of truth, Israel's goals were advanced. Now the American public can once again be denied the facts they require to make informed choices. First published at Criminal State. "Mel" Rockefeller is an international businessman who resides in Arizona. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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 for governor now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8 Research almost any topic raised here at: CounterPunch http://counterpunch.org Dissident Voice http://dissidentvoice.org Common Dreams http://commondreams.org Once you're there, do a search on your topic, eg obama drones
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