Progressive Calendar 04.27.07
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu)
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 04:05:26 -0700 (PDT)
             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    04.27.07

1. Animal testing      4.27 4pm
2. Palestine vigil     4.27 4:30pm
3. Venezuela film      4.27 6pm
4. NonV communication  4.27 7pm

5. Minneapolis plans   4.28 10am
6. Venezuela           4.28 10am
7. Right not to kill   4.28 10:30am
8. NWN4P Minnetonka    4.28 11am
9. GPMN move to StP    4.28 11am
10. Divest from Israel 4.28 1pm
11. Northtown vigil    4.28 2pm
12. Terror             4.28 2pm
13. MayDay/labor       4.28 3pm
14. MayDay [at] MayDay      4.28 6pm
15. Cafe Intifada      4.28 7pm
16. Impeach demo       4.28 7pm
17. Moore/socialism/TV 4.28 9pm

18. Ty Moore      - Military recruitment in our schools
19. Jim Fuller    - Times, and reporters, have changed
20. Cindy Sheehan - The Yellow Badge of Cowardice
21, Dave Lindorff - Kucinich files impeachment bill
22. Leah Fishbien - Women under siege: abortion rights & the Roberts Court


--------1 of 22--------

From: Isaac Peter <minnesotaprimatefreedom [at] gmail.com>
Subject: Animal testing 4.27 4pm

Friday, April 27th
4:00-7:00 PM
Washington Ave S.E and Harvard St. S.E, In front of Moo's Tower on the U
of M West Bank

We will be holding a protest against the University of Minnesota's use of
non-human primates in biomedical research.

If you can't make it, you can still help! Please call the University of
Minnesota's president Robert Bruininks at 612-626-1616 and tell him that
you want primate research at the U of M stopped immediately. Please keep
all correspondence with Robert Bruininks polite and informative.

If you would like more information, please contact us at
minnesotaprimatefreedom [at] gmail.com.


--------2 of 22--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Palestine vigil 4.27 4:30pm

Friday, 4/27, 4:30 to 5:30 pm, vigil to end the occupation of Palestine,
Snelling & Summit Aves, St Paul.  Karen, 651-283-3495.


--------3 of 22--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Venezuela film 4.27 6pm

Friday, 4/27, 6 pm, filmmaker Fiorella Ormeno Incio screens his film
"Democracy in Venezuela," Resource Center of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha
Ave, Mpls.  www.americas.org


--------4 of 22-------

From: "Krista Menzel (Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace)" <web [at] mppeace.org>
Subject: NonV communication 4.27 7pm
by Marshall
    Rosenberg


2 1/2 hour introduction to nonviolent communication (NVC) with Marshall 
Rosenberg

Friday, April 27, 2007
7:00-9:30 p.m.
Brady Education Center, University of St. Thomas

Peace activist Marshall Rosenberg will provide a FREE lecture on
nonviolent communication as an introduction to the weekend NVC workshop at
St. Thomas.

This may be Marshall Rosenberg's last visit to the Twin Cities.  In 2008,
he is choosing to dramatically cut back his travel schedule from previous
years. Seating is limited and registration is required to attend.

http://www.stthomas.edu/justpeace/nvcevent/

The introductory lecture s FREE, but they are accepting donations to help
promote Marshall's work and present more of these events.

Event Sponsors: John Myser, UST Peace and Justice Program, Wisdoms Ways
Center for Spirituality


--------5 of 22--------

From: Darrell Gerber <darrellgerber [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: Minneapolis plans 4.28 10am

The City of Minneapolis has begun the process of updating its
Comprehensive Plan. Join City leaders at a Community Forum to learn about
the process and to discuss three themes that will shape the Minneapolis of
the future: sustainability, heritage preservation and urban design.

The same material will be discussed at all three forums. Following a
general overview of the update process, we will divide into three groups,
one to discuss each theme. Forum dates are:

* Saturday, April 28, 10:00 a.m. to noon, Minneapolis Central Library, 300
Nicollet Mall
* Tuesday, May 1, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Midtown YWCA, 2121 East Lake St. (near
Hiawatha)
* Thursday, May 17, 4:00-6:00 p.m., Capri Theater, 2210 Oliver Ave. North
(at Broadway)

All locations are wheelchair accessible; if you need other disability
related accommodations, such as a sign language interpreter or materials
in alternative format, please contact Krista Bergert at (612) 673-5015 (V)
or (612) 673-2626 (TTY). Updated information, including other
opportunities to participate, will be available on the Web at:
www.minneapolisplan.info <http://www.minneapolisplan.info/>

For more information about the Comprehensive Plan and update process, you
can review the Frequently
<http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/planning/docs/070330_CP_Update_FAQ.pdf>
Asked Questions (PDF), call (612) 673-2098, or email comments and
questions to update [at] minneapolisplan.info


--------6 of 22--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Venezuela 4.28 10am

Saturday, 4/28, 10 am, filmmaker Ormeno Inico discusses democracy and the
Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, Resource Center of the Americas, 3019
Minnehaha Ave, Mpls.  www.americas.org


--------7 of 22--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Right not to kill 4.28 10:30am

Saturday, 4/28, 10:30 am, longtime peace activists (some would say saints)
Marie and John Braun, speak on "The Right Not to Kill," Plymouth
Presbyterian Church, 3755 Dunkirk Ln N, Plymouth.  763-559-2946.


--------8 of 22--------

From: Carole Rydberg <carydberg [at] comcast.net>
Subject: NWN4P Minnetonka  4.28 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: Andy Hamerlinck <iamandy [at] riseup.net>
Subject: GPMN move to StP 4.28 11am

The Green Party of MN will be moving out of its current office at 621 W.
Lake St., Suite 205, Mpls at the end of the month. Our five year lease
expired and we did not want to commit for another five years. Our new
office location will be at University and Raymond in St. Paul on the 2nd
level of 2115 University Ave.  It is cheaper and twice as large, so keep
this in mind for future meetings/gatherings.  If you are able to help out
(and yes we need help with the larger furniture especially), please show
up at the current office on Saturday, April 28th at 11am.  If you have a
two-wheeler/dolley and a truck or van, that would be a plus.

current address:
Green Party of MN 621 W. Lake St.  Suite 205 Minneapolis, MN 55408


--------10 of 22--------

From: Meredith Aby <awcmere [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Divest from Israel 4.28 1pm

A28: Divest from Apartheid Israel Organizing Conference

Saturday, 4/28, 1-6 pm @ Carlson School of Management, U of M West Bank,
Rooms L110, L114, L118 and L122.  Attend any of a variety of working
groups to discuss how labor, student, religious, and political groups can
work towards justice for the Palestinian people.  The key notespeaker is
Farid Esack who is a veteran of the struggle against Apartheid in South
Africa and a former national commissioner on gender equality appointed by
President Nelson Mandela. Farid Esack is currently the William Henry
Bloomberg Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School.

After the conference join us for a "Cafe Intifada", an intellectual salon
with interactive theatre, where the audience becomes the occupied and
occupier. Learn about the Israeli occupation of Palestine like never
before.
  The "Café" will be from 7-9 pm at the Bedlam Theatre Fireplace Room,
1501 South 6th St., West Bank, Minneapolis. Sponsored by the Coalition for
Palestinian Rights (CPR) For more information:
coalition_for_Palestinian_rights [at] yahoo.com


--------11 of 22--------

From: Lennie <major18 [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Northtown vigil 4.28 2pm

Mounds View peace vigil EVERY SATURDAY from 2-3pm at the at the southeast
corner of the intersection of Co. Hwy 10 and University Ave NE in Blaine,
which is the northwest most corner of the Northtown Mall area. This is a
MUCH better location.

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

For further information, email major18 [at] comcast.net or call Lennie at
763-717-9168


--------12 of 22--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Terror 4.28 2pm

Alternate Saturdays, 1/13 to 6/9, 2 to 4 pm, interfaith dialogue
organization Northern Lights Society presents series Understanding Islam,
2469 University Ave, Suite 110 E. St Paul.  bilgin [at] nlight.org  Series
includes topics: terror and suicide attacks on 4/28, other faiths according
to Islam on 5/12, diversity in Islam on 5/26 and Islamic art on 9/9.  RSVP
to rsvp [at] nlight.org


--------13 of 22--------

From: Meredith Aby <awcmere [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: MayDay/labor 4.28 3pm

May Day Celebration: Reclaiming the People's Holiday to honor Heroines and
Heroes

Saturday, 4/28 @ Spirit of the Lakes Church, 2930 13th Ave (Lake & 13th) @ 3
PM.

In Chicago in May 1886, workers fought and died for the 8-hour work day.
This battle gave rise to May Day, and its tradition of demonstrations,
strikes and celebrations by working people around the globe. 121 years
later, real heroes of the world are still fighting back against attacks on
our lives and for a better future. Join with our sisters and brothers
around the world to celebrate May Day. Leaders from the labor, anti-war,
immigrants rights, student and poor people's movements in the Twin Cities
will speak about what we've done this past year to stand up and fight
back. With speeches, a meal and a special program from kids, this event
will recognize great working class fighters and celebrate Sponsored by
Freedom Road Socialist Organization. For more info call: 612-823-2841,
www.frso.org.


--------14 of 22--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: MayDay [at] MayDay 4.28 6pm

Come celebrate the International Workers day that got its start in the
USA! MAY DAY...at MAY DAY BOOKS.

Sat April 28, 6pm--?
Dinner (meat & vegatarian) open mic RANT! and party with comrades!
Wobblies! Reds1 Greens! labor organizers! anarchists1 peace protesters!we
want YOU to come celebrate with us!

mAY DAY BOOKS 301 Cedar, basement of HUB Bicycle, WEST BANK, Minneapolis
(6120333-4719


--------15 of 22--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Cafe Intifada 4.28 7pm

Saturday, 4/28, 7 to 9 pm, "Cafe Intifada," an intellectual salon with
interactive theater where audience becomes occupied and occupier, Bedlam
Theater Fireplace Room, 1501 S 6th St, W Bank, Mpls.
coalition_for_Palestinian_rights [at] yahoo.com


--------16 of 22--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Impeach demo 4.28 7pm

Saturday, 4/28, 7 pm, spell out "IMPEACH" with flashlights under bedsheets
at Riverside Park on West side of Mississippi riverbank near the Route 122
bridge near U of M campus, Mpls.  www.impeachforpeace.org or
http://volunteerforchange.org/org/show/547


--------17 of 22-------

From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net>
Subject: Moore/socialism/TV 4.28 9pm

"Our World In Depth" cablecasts weekly in Minneapolis on MTN!  Households
with basic cable can watch.  MTN shows are on Channel 17 Saturdays at
9 pm and the following Tuesday at 8 am.

Sat, 4/28, 9 pm "Challenging the Profit System" Interview of Ty Moore,
national organizer of Socialist Alternative. Co-hosted by Eric Angell and
Karen Redleaf.

"Our World In Depth" features analysis of public affairs with
consideration of and participation from Twin Cities area activists.  The
show is mostly local and not corporately influenced! For information about
future programing of "Our World In Depth", please send an e-mail to
eric-angell [at] riseup.net.  (PS It might be better than PBS!)


--------18 of 22--------

Military recruitment in our schools: What can school boards do to stop it?
By Ty Moore, organizer with Youth Against War & Racism

In late March, at a closed committee meeting, the St. Paul Board of
Education rejected student demands to substantially restrict military
recruitment in their schools, citing a series of minor logistical
complications.

In an open letter to the Board last November, the Central High students
explained their case: "[T]he Pentagon is sending more and more of its
recruiters into our schools, searching among us for fresh cannon fodder.
They are at Central High every week now. [Youth Against War & Racism]
believes military recruiters should not be present in school at all, but
due to the No Child Left Behind act, public schools are threatened with
loss of federal funding if they enact an outright ban on recruiters. That
is why we have launched a new petition drive at school around three
demands that, while remaining within the law, will substantially restrict
recruiters' ability to prey on our fellow classmates. We hope you will act
rapidly to make the following demands official policy at Central and
district-wide."

The petition demanded an end to military recruiters setting up their
elaborate lunch-room tables, instead restricting them to career resource
centers; that all student contact with recruiters be supervised to cut
across well documented patterns of dishonesty and misconduct; and that
recruiters be prevented from visiting schools more frequently than
colleges.

They collected over 300 student signatures in three weeks, and at the
Board's December 20th meeting, over 60 YAWR students and supporters,
carrying signs reading "Demilitarize Our Schools," packed the public
comment section with powerful testimony against military recruitment in
schools. However, after two months of "investigations" the Board rejected
all our main demands.

The Board's decision is clearly a set-back. On the other hand, it has been
a valuable education in the way official politics works (or does not
work!). There is overwhelming opposition in this country to the Iraq war,
and if put to a vote in St. Paul there is little doubt YAWR's demands to
restrict military recruitment in schools would be supported. But as in
Congress so also in the St. Paul Board - fear of rocking the boat with a
clear antiwar stand is deemed politically risky.

School board elections

Several Greens and others have approached us in the last weeks, suggesting
we explore finding candidates to stand for the four open Board of
Education seats in November. The idea is exciting but, aside from the
logistical hurdles, a deeper set of questions are raised. What kind of
candidates - and what kind of school board - do we want?

Our experience with the current Board raises serious concerns. Few of us
would support candidates who, like most current Board members, give lip
service to our concerns on military recruitment, but refuse to take a
determined stand against the use of our schools as recruiting stations for
this horrific, unjust war.

The St. Paul Board members went about the entire discussion in a galling
business-as-usual manner. There was no sense of indignation over the
economic blackmail of No Child Left Behind, allowing Pentagon employees to
roam our schools promoting a criminal war based on naked lies. The Board
showed no moral outrage at their students being recruited into a war where
one in five return with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, were one in three
women are sexually assaulted, and where youth are asked to subjugate and
kill another people to steal their oil.

Even Board member Ann Carroll, who at first supported our demands and met
separately with students to coach them on their presentations, strongly
emphasized taking out anything "political" in their statements. Military
recruitment in schools was to be treated as simply a local logistical
issue, as if it had nothing to do with the U.S. war machine, which, in the
still-true words of MLK is "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world
today."

Hiding behind the false idea that school boards have no voice in national
policy, that political neutrality is the responsible approach, the Board's
casual rejection of our demands is no surprise.

St. Paul vs. George Bush

Last fall, when Youth Against War & Racism (YAWR) activists and supporters
were discussing our campaign tactics, we considered simply calling on the
Board to enact an outright ban on military recruitment in schools, in open
defiance of the No Child Left Behind Act. NCLB forces schools to provide
the Pentagon nearly unfettered access to students on pain of losing
federal funds.

We made a tactical decision at the time to limit our demands to
restrictions within the law. But maybe it.s now time, with the Board
elections coming up, to revisit the idea of demanding an outright ban.
Does the threat of losing federal funding make such a campaign a lost
cause? Not at all! Like other unjust laws in history, NCLB can be broken
and defeated under the impact of a mass mobilization.

Imagine if a new St. Paul Board was elected in November publicly committed
to challenging the economic blackmail of No Child Left Behind. Imagine
they took the bold step of ending military recruitment in our schools.
Across the country, millions of students, parents, teachers, and community
members are outraged at Bush's war in Iraq and the growing presence of
recruiters in schools. They could be rallied to our support and inspired
to launch similar campaigns to ban recruitment in school districts across
the country.

Especially with the Republican National Convention coming to town, the
political room for Bush to retaliate by cutting off federal funds to our
schools would be limited. Such a move would be met with a storm of popular
outrage, locally and nationally.

In this context, with the national spotlight focused on our stand-off,
YAWR and the broader antiwar movement could organize mass student strikes
and demonstrations of tens of thousands. In this David vs. Goliath story,
a firm and determined St. Paul Board of Education, who skillfully linked
their stand against the war with demands for redistributing Pentagon money
toward education and the social needs of youth, could prevail over a
weakened White House.

Social movement candidates?

Unfortunately, current members of the Board will no doubt view this
political approach as little more than the silly dreaming of a young
radical, far from the realm of political possibility. Such sourness
reveals the awful deficit of political courage, the lack of a vision for
real change, which afflicts our sick nation.

Are there any candidates who will position themselves as the political
voice of the antiwar movement, as well as wider struggles for youth rights
and education funding? Will any candidate publicly embrace the youth
protest movement, the walkouts and direct actions, and use their campaign
to help promote our grassroots struggles for a peaceful, just future?
Unless we have real social movement candidates running for office, don't
expect most young people to pay much attention to Board elections. But
maybe, as our social movements grow, the resources and room for expanding
into the political arena is growing too. Maybe there is already space for
the Twin Cities counter-recruitment movement, in coalition with Greens or
other groups, to run candidates this fall for the Board. Anyone
interested? Then get in touch (612-760-1980).


--------19 of 22--------

Sunday, April 15, 2007
Times, and reporters, have changed
by Jim Fuller

In the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, reporters, copy editors,
photographers and some lower-level line editors - assistant city editors,
assistant news editors and others - at the Minneapolis Tribune raised a
lot of hell with their employers.

There were at least two byline strikes - reporters exercising their right
under the Newspaper Guild (union) contract with the publisher to withhold
their names from stories they wrote because of what we regarded as ethical
lapses by our bosses.

Once, the news staff chipped in to buy a full-page ad in our own newspaper
to berate the publisher for allowing an advertiser to run an ad falsely
accusing a reporter of factual errors in an article that had the potential
to harm the advertiser's business.

Another time, staff members wore black armbands for a couple of weeks to
protest the refusal of the newspaper's editor in chief to publish a series
of well-documented stories that, again, had strong potential to damage
some advertisers' businesses. The businesses were blatantly cheating
customers through bait and switch and other tactics, and using full-page,
full-color ads in the Tribune to do it.

I was the reporter/author of the series. Molly Ivins wrote about the
incident, and some others, when she left the Tribune. The businesses in
question have long since been shut down by local and state governments.

The staff, incidentally, won about two-thirds of those battles. In the
case of the advertiser who slandered the reporter, the Tribune's publisher
and editor apologized in print.

At the time, the Tribune was consistently rated as one of the top 20,
sometimes best 10, newspapers in the country.

For a while, some of the news staff met weekly on their own time in homes
or the back rooms of bars to talk about journalism, particularly as
practiced at our newspaper. Attendance at the meetings varied from about
12 or 15 to as many as 40 or 45.

Organizers of the discussions included to-be-famous Ivins, a talented
photographer called Skip Heine (now long out of newspapers), a hardnosed,
Mike Wallace sort of reporter by the name of Bernie Shellum who later went
to the Detroit Free Press, and one Jim Fuller, a rather dour young man who
had a reputation for making complex topics understandable and for pursuing
the kind of crook who wore hand-tailored suits and belonged to the most
exclusive clubs.

Bear with me. This has a purpose other than nostalgia.

After the first three or four unofficial staff meetings, some of the
newspaper's senior editors asked permission to attend. They had heard
about the discussions and wanted to participate, or at least listen.
Permission was readily granted, with the understanding that their
positions at the paper gave them no privileges at our meetings.

We were quite successful in avoiding the kind of day-to-day bitching that
filled countless hours at the Little Wagon, a bar just down the street
from the Tribune's (and Minneapolis Star's) offices and plant.

Topics included some inside baseball, such as use of photographs to help
tell a story rather than merely decorate it, the construction of headlines
and English usage standards. But the majority of discussion was on issues
of broad significance.

One session I recall led to consensus on a subject that had long been
skirted. The large majority of the staff, somewhat in opposition to the
position of the newspaper's editor, held that mere title - be it president
of the United States or board chairman of a corporation - did not
automatically carry with it the right to exposure on the front page of the
newspaper, or, indeed, anywhere in it.

More specifically, we were strongly against giving prominent display to
statements or claims repeated for a third, fourth or fifth time. If it
ain't news, it ain't news, in other words. We weren't in the business of
flacking for politicians or other big shots.

Although there wasn't one of us who didn't love to be first with a story,
we came down hard for giving accuracy powerful precedence over quick
coverage. If the facts weren't certain, we should hold until they had been
verified, even if the story already was on the air. (That hurt, but we
meant it.)

We also required of ourselves and our bosses that statements by the
powerful be as thoroughly checked as those by lesser beings. A mere
statement of something as fact didn't mean it was fact until it was
checked and contrary interpretations were solicited and evaluated.

There was quite a lot more along those lines.

We sometimes slipped, of course, and some of the people we worked for,
solicitous of the powerful and their own positions, occasionally slipped
something in on us. But for the most part those discussions helped keep us
honest and working hard to achieve real balance, fairness and honesty in
our reporting. The battles with our bosses helped keep them at least
mostly honest. And the truth is, they mostly wanted to be honest and to
foster excellent journalism.

And the point of talking about this now?

There is no chance whatever - absolutely none - that such activity
involving the staff of a large American newspaper will be seen again, and
there is no chance that such concerted striving for unattainable levels of
performance in news reporting will return.

The often arrogant and mostly intellectually timid members of today's news
staffs would scoff at such activities. Too idealistic, too high school.

Newspapers and broadcast outlets of 2007 are owned and supervised by
people whose essential goals have almost nothing to do with the quality of
journalism. They are about making money, and almost nothing else.

The staffs of today's newspapers are almost entirely made up of people of
upper middle class (or economically higher) background who live in
affluent suburban neighborhoods and have little or no acquaintance with
anyone different from themselves. And, yes, that includes most of those of
racial or other ethnic minorities. They were raised to believe, and do
believe, that this country is pretty much run by those who should be
running it. They tend to believe that although the Bush crowd is too far
to the right, it's biggest crime is mere incompetence.

They are people who reject many ideas and potential truths without
examination as being "too far out" and, perhaps, born of "conspiracy
theories" - a favorite way of dismissing ideas and possible facts that may
prove uncomfortable or difficult to deal with.

Most certainly, those who inhabit today's news rooms would never consider
banding together to butt heads with the people who run things.  It just
isn't done, doncha know.

Anyway, they much more resemble a basketball squad of would-be individual
stars than, say, a baseball team on which everyone strives for the good of
the team, standing ready to lay down a sacrifice bunt when useful although
a double would look better in the individual stats.

We need some way to get facts, including facts that run contrary to the
stances of those who rule, to the people of this country. We're not going
to get much help from today's corporately owned newsrooms. We must
recognize that and look elsewhere, perhaps establish our own journalism
outlets - blogs don't cut it - or invent new approaches. Maybe we need to
go back to the days of the American Revolution and the pamphleteers and
start over.

And we'd damned well better get going.


--------20 of 22--------

The Yellow Badge of Cowardice
by Cindy Sheehan
Published on Wednesday, April 25, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

There was an unbelievable story in The Cove Herald last week that comes
from near where George Bush and I own property: Copperas Cove, Texas.
Apparently two residents: Bill and Georgia Thomas decided that the
Resident in Chief deserved one of the three Purple Hearts that Bill earned
in Vietnam for: "emotional wounds and scars" because people all over the
world talk so badly about poor George.

This story stunned me on a day when nine US soldiers and 20 were wounded
in a car bomb attack in the Iraqi province of Diyala. Over 500 Iraqis were
killed or found decomposing in Baghdad last week and April '07 is shaping
up to be one of the deadliest months for US troop fatalities. This is also
a day when there is a hearing into the Army's exploitation of Pat
Tillman's death to use him as a poster boy for patriotic fervor and
unfounded hero worship. Why can't we talk about our soldier's heroic lives
and not their tragic deaths as victims of the military industrial complex?

At the funeral of my son, Casey, a one-star General presented me with a
Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for bravery awarded to Casey posthumously.
The Thomas' can do whatever they want with Bill's medals, but I believe
giving one to George Bush demeans Casey's brave and honorable sacrifice.
Little Georgie used his Daddy (the Congressman's) connections to avoid
serving in Vietnam and George even went so far as to go AWOL from the
Alabama Air National Guard.

Casey didn't want to go and kill people and die in his commander in
chief's war of aggression. Like the vice-commander in chief, Doomsday
Dick, he had "other priorities" besides dying. Casey's Man-Scout Badges
are sitting in my grandmother's cedar chest right next to his baby book
and hand-print from pre-school.

For George, the Vietnam War Resister cum Iraqi occupation War Criminal, to
say that he didn't "deserve" the medal is an under-statement. Bush doesn't
feel emotional scars or pain, he deals them. There are many soldiers who
are missing arms, legs, eyes, and souls who actually had to earn their
medals under a corrupt regime that used their honor and bravery to pump up
the bottom line of such companies as Doomsday Dick's Halliburton. There
are mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandmas
and grandpas, sons and daughters who are emotionally scarred because their
loved one won't be coming home alive from a war that never had to happen.
Our arms will be aching forever because we can't hug our loved ones. Our
hearts are scarred with the pain of burying someone too early and our
lives are empty with the longing to see our dear one just one more time.

The Thomas' belong to the Fox News generation that still condones and
supports a murderous regime. Mr. Thomas belongs to a generation that was
scarred, maimed and killed with a genocidal fever by its corrupt regimes
and he still thinks that George deserves a medal for his incompetence and
callousness?

What do we do in a world where black is white? War is peace. Two and two
equals five and cowardice is bravery?

We rise up and become more powerful than the special interests which use
both parties to keep this nation on a constant war footing. We use our
voices to be mouthpieces for peace and accountability. We march on the
Capitol on May 14th to demand that there is no more business as usual and
that Congress realizes that every single one of them (Democrat or
Republican) who voted to fund George's war are complicit in the bottomless
pain that accompanies each death, dismemberment, or disability; without
sharing in one iota of the same pain.

If George likes to receive medals that he didn't earn, Gold Star Families
for Peace is going to present him with one on April 25th, (or try to) that
he does deserve and has earned abundantly: the Yellow Badge of Cowardice.
It doesn't take any courage to march other people's children off to war.
George didn't exhibit any courage when he was put to the top of the Texas
Air National Guard line by his family's friends. George puts on his smiley
photo-op face to take something from a good-hearted, yet deluded couple,
that he stridently avoided earning. It doesn't take any courage to meet
with a bereaved mother, but he also refuses to do that. He travels in
America with more armor and fire power than a banana republic dictator,
and if he is not stopped by impeachment or other peaceful means, then we
will descend into that tyranny of empire - if we aren't already there.

Join Cindy, Gold Star Families for Peace, The Camp Casey Peace Institute,
CODEPINK, Congress Reps John Conyers (D-Mi) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Ca) as we
march on the Capitol on May 14th to demand our country back!Cindy Sheehan
is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was KIA in Iraq on
04/04/04. She is a co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for
Peace and the author of two books: Not One More Mother's Child and Dear
President Bush.


--------21 of 22--------

Kucinich Files Impeachment Bill
Dropping the First Shoe
By DAVE LINDORFF
CounterPunch
April 25, 2007

Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and a candidate for the Democratic presidential
nomination, has dropped the first impeachment shoe, filing a bill calling
for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

Kucinich, defying the leadership of the Democratic Party, and House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who have been struggling mightily to prevent
impeachment from occurring during the waning years of the Bush presidency,
on Tuesday filed three articles of impeachment, claiming that Cheney
violated his oath of office and the Constitution, for deceiving Congress
and the American people about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, about
alleged but nonexistent links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, and
finally for making threats to invade Iran.

The bill now goes to the House Judiciary Committee, where Chairman John
Conyers (D-MI) and the rest of the committee's members will have to decide
whether go hold formal hearings on the charges.
The move by Kucinich comes as impeachment is gaining ground among the
broader public. Today, the Vermont House of Representatives will hold a
floor debate and vote on a resolution calling for Congress to initiate
impeachment proceedings against both President Bush and Cheney. That
measure would be a companion to a similar resolution passed last week by
Vermont's state Senate. If the state's lower house passes its version,
Vermont will be the first state in history to pass a bi-cameral resolution
on impeachment.

Under Thomas Jefferson's Manual for the Rules of the House, under which
the US House of Representatives has operated for over 200 years, such a
resolution would require the House to take up the impeachment issue, just
as would a member's bill of impeachment.

The speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, Lynn Symington, had
strenuously opposed the resolution, and has been keeping it bottled up in
the House Judiciary Committee, but following passage of the resolution in
the state Senate, and a massive grassroots campaign by Vermont impeachment
activists, she has been forced to relent and let the measure go forward.
Passage is not a sure thing, however.

Similar measures are being pushed in at least 10 other state legislatures,
while two such efforts, in New Mexico and Washington state, were killed
thanks to pressure from the national Democratic Party leadership.

On April 28, demonstrations are planned in Washington, DC and all around
the nation, calling for impeachment to begin against both Bush and Cheney.
To find the location nearest you, click on the Impeachment banner to the
right of this article.

The mainstream corporate media, which has so far been largely ignoring the
issue of impeachment, will have to go to extra lengths of censorship to
block out the popular movement now, with a bill on the floor of the House,
and with impeachment resolutions passing in the Vermont state legislature.
It will be interesting to see how the nation's news gatekeepers handle the
story now that it is breaking out into the open so forcefully.

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

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


--------22 of 22--------

Abortion Rights and the Roberts Court
Women Under Siege
By LEAH FISHBIEN
CounterPunch
April 25, 2007

As many already know, last Wednesday The Supreme Court contradicted its
own 2000 decision to overturn a Nebraska ban on "partial birth abortion"
and upheld the federal abortion ban in the cases of Gonzales v. Planned
Parenthood and Gonzalez v. Carhart. This hearing occurred in response to
the Federal Abortion Ban Act legislation passed by Congress and signed by
Bush in 2003. This decision is an appalling one, and it is furthermore an
unprecedented setback for women and those who care about them. The Supreme
Court has never, in the thirty-plus years since the right to abortion was
won in Roe V. Wade, made a decision restricting women's reproductive
rights without providing for cases in which a woman's health is at stake.

Why you should be concerned

Here is what some prominent people have been saying about this ban:

"I consider the Supreme Court Ban on one type of abortion procedure to be
an annexation of Women's Wombs by the U. S Government and as such should
be viewed by all people of conscience as an act of war against women."
-Merle Hoffman, founder, Choices Women's MedicalCenter, Queens NY on
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

"This ruling shows the true colors of the current Bush-stacked majority of
the Supreme Court: it does not care about the health, well-being, and
safety of American women. This must serve as a wake-up call to women: we
are losing our fundamental rights as Bush continues to stack the courts."
-Eleanor Smeal, Feminist Majority Foundation

"The time is now right to launch aggressive legal challenges across
America to abortion on demandThe court has now said it's OK to ban
procedures. We can do more than just put hurdles in front of women seeking
abortions; we can put roadblocks in front of them."
-Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue (in the past leading
proponents of violence directed at abortion providers and clinics)

"The government has a legitimate and substantial interest in preserving
and promoting fetal life."
-The Supreme Court of the United States, in its decision on the PBABA

For all those who have been waiting for a sign that the Christian right
minority in this country has co-opted our government and society (because
on paper it just "sounds too conspiratorial", or because "they haven't
really made any attempts to change things in a radical way") that sign
appeared yesterday in the form of a ruling dropped by judges intent on
forcing old-school, biblical morality on us, and it dropped like a bomb
onto women's bodies. That ruling spread over this country like a silent
alarm, the opposition and outrage necessary to stop this and further
attacks on women palpably missing from most of the country, at least in
any massive way, at least yet. That ruling slapped us in the face,
challenging a basic assumption that healthcare decisions should be between
doctors and patients rather than outsider religious factions and
politicians, leaving the patient out of the process entirely. That ruling
poured over us like a bucket of ice cold water hopefully waking us up to
the reality that this is the ultimate sign, one that declares that Bush
and his counterparts in the Supreme Court, now holding the majority, do
not value in the least women's health. This consideration is especially
secondary in the face of support from their theocratic political base and
in light of their personal "moral values," (values that don't contradict
with the possibility of free fire zones in Iraq or of using the death
penalty as a conflict-resolution tool). If permitted-if there is not
massive uprising in the face of this ruling-the Christian Right, c/o the
Bush Regime, will move to overturn Roe. V Wade, with the stated goal of
federally outlawing abortion as a whole. Seriously. Just take a look at
any of a number of websites for the National Right to Life Committee,
Focus on the Family, Operation Rescue/Save America and this is easily
understood.

The science of things

Blatantly missing from this whole debate, from the media coverage and the
demands of the Christian fundamentalists and the wobbly democrats'
opinions and public opinion in general, is the science that is an
invaluable tool in understanding why the procedure banned in yesterday's
decision should never have been up for question at all. To clear things
up, we must first understand that the very language of the ban is
confounded by a familiar forgetfulness of the media and of the culture in
this country.

Where are the reports of the origins of this term "partial birth" in light
of the ban? Are we so quick to forget that the very people attempting to
outlaw abortion invented this non-medical term, one not even acknowledged
by the scientific community, to scare people into railing against this
process (really called D&X, or Dilation and Extraction). Coined by the
National Right to Life Committee in 1995 with the hopes that "as the
public learns what a 'partial-birth abortion' is, they might also learn
something about other abortion methods, and that this would foster a
growing opposition to abortion," the term was quickly introduced in the
title of republican-sponsored legislation to ban the new procedure
developed by an Ohio-based physician. The alternate process commonly
utilized after the 20th week of a pregnancy, dilation and evacuation,
performs the necessary dismemberment of the fetus inside the womb, often
causing severe blood loss and also possibly gashing the cervix which can
easily prevent any future possibility for pregnancy-in effect,
sterilization. Likewise, in the event of an attempted c-section in place
of other methods there is a high risk of infection.

D&X is a dilation of the cervix in order to pull the fetus out of the
woman's body, with the doctor then puncturing the fetuses' head, often
sucking the fluid out so that the cranial area might compress enough to
pull the fetus out of the woman's body. The American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists indicates that in certain circumstances,
the D&X procedure is the best one for a women's health. The procedure is
not encouraged in other cases. This process is clearly not used lightly,
in fun or by scheming doctors out of spite for "babies". The American
Medical Association bylaws actually explicitly prevent physicians from
performing this procedure unless the patient's health is at risk. This is
the medical community self-regulating to prevent a serious and, yes,
controversial operation from taking place unless completely necessary by
medical standards. But this regulation is not enough for people who are
not concerned with science, medicine or women's rights, people who would
see women's lives chained to the unpredictability of childbearing whenever
their God deems it necessary, people who would rather jeopardize a woman's
health and have her fetus born, free to live its 5 minutes of life-often
the case in situations where this procedure is necessary.

Let's provide some statistical basis for an understanding of the utility
of this process. The Alan Guttmacher Institute research group found that
in 2000, around 15,000 abortions were performed on women 20 weeks or more
along in their pregnancies-those abortions overwhelmingly occurring
between the 20th and 24th week. Of those 15,000, only about 2,200 D&X
procedures were performed--0.2 percent of the 1.3 million abortions
believed to be performed that year. These procedures are almost never
performed after fetal viability, this being so rare that the "pro-life"
movement actually panicked when Congress originally attempted to ban D&Xs
only in cases of fetal viability-according to the "pro-life" movement,
this ban wouldn't even be effective with that stipulation because those
cases hardly exist. This is why this ruling is much more political
propaganda rather than a genuine move for "life."

Many D&X abortions occur because of a fetal condition called
hydrocephalus--which 1 in 2000 fetuses develop--in which the cranium is
abnormally enlarged up to 20" (compared to a normal adult diameter of
7-8"), making delivery dangerous, extremely painful and even fatal for
both the fetus (especially in a caesarean section) and the mother.
Hydrocephalus is hard to detect before or even early in the second
trimester-hence a major part of the justification for the legality of this
procedure. Aside from all of this, it is necessary to understand that
setting the precedent for this exclusion of the patient-the woman-from the
patient-physician relationship is a major violation of human rights and
women's rights. We should have this information, and be confident in a
scientific justification for this procedure, but we must also push forward
with an understanding of the plans of the Christian Right for women and
society and a firm belief in the autonomous power women must hold over
their own bodies and futures in order to have justice, real human dignity
and a future in which all are really equal. Any encroachments on this
autonomy equal a negation of the basic principles it rests on-the equality
of women (we're still working on that one, huh?), the right of women to
any kind of future they might choose, and the inherent human value of half
the world's population.

Painting the bigger picture

In light of the fact that this ban will disproportionately affect working
class people and people of color who already have limited access to family
planning services and are less likely to be able to abort early or prevent
pregnancy with contraceptivesIn light of the fact that for these groups,
this means unsafe, back-alley abortions that often result in severe injury
and death. In light of the Federal Deficit Reduction Act and the
consequent price hike on birth control pills on college campuses (at the
college that the author attends, the price rose 133%, from $15 to $35
dollars without the subsidy)In light of the continuing attacks on RoeIn
light of the fundamentalist Christians refusing to sell women their
prescriptions for birth control or Plan BIn light of the Florida woman who
was raped, then jailed and refused her second emergency contraception pill
by a fundamentalist jail workerIn light of the Keroack appointment to HHS
(and subsequent removal!) and the hundreds of identical appointments that
we don't even hear about, and in light of the FDA appointments, the
reactionary extremist legislation being proposed and even passed all over
on a state level (death certificates for aborted fetuses; public record of
abortion patients--women's names and information; parental notification,
etc...), the pregnancy crisis centers being funded by our tax money,
abstinence only education being funded, the churches being funded to wage
war on women's rightsIn light of all this

This entire set of distasteful and moreover scary events is only the
beginning of what has been going on. The attacks on women's rights under
the Bush Regime could fill pages and pages, but that research is up to
each one of us. What space we have left here is for us to understand that
these attacks are not something the Christian Right is going to let fizzle
as we wait for Bush to be replaced with Bush-lite in 2008. They will push
this through as long as they have disproportionate institutional power,
and they will have that power as long as Bush stays in office.

Not one of us wants to see the end to Roe V. Wade; and this event really
and truly is their second major victory (the first being getting someone
so firmly on their side in office). This is a major decision through which
the Christian right and the Bush Regime are signaling to us. They are
significantly and clearly stepping up this cultural battle, and this
"surge" is now clear to the U.S. and the world. In the war on women, this
is their Sand Creek Massacre, and if we don't revolt because of this, they
will be able to push the rest of this whole program forward whether we
change our minds or not.

Leah Fishbein is an organizer with the World Can't Wait. She can be
reached at: lfishbein [at] oxy.edu

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