Progressive Calendar 09.22.07
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu)
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 04:17:06 -0700 (PDT)
             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     09.22.07

1. Peace rally       9.23 1pm
2. Have at Ellison   9.23 1pm
3. Stillwater vigil  9.23 1pm
4. Agee Cuba CIA     9.23 2pm
5. KFAI/Indian       9.23 7pm

6. Boycott WUnion    9.24 4pm
7. Taiwan/atrocity/f 9.24 6:30pm
8. Earth warming/f   9.24 7pm
9. Amnesty Intl      9.24 7pm
10. Phil Steger      9.24 7pm
11. New public tools 9.24 7pm

12. GLBT homeless    9.25 6pm
13. Girl/Cafe/film   9.25 6:30pm
14. EconHitMan/book  9.25 6:30pm
15. Impeach 4 peace  9.25 7pm
16. Palestine/film   9.25 7pm

17. Michael Cavlan - 9.15 rally: alternate report
18. Steve Fournier - It's never too late to quit the Dem party
19. Robert Fantina - The deadly pattern of US imperialism
20. Phil Rockstroh - A conservative's garden of false narratives
21. Gary Corseri   - Revolution  (poem)

--------1 of 21--------

From: "wamm [at] mtn.org" <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Peace rally 9.23 1pm

"Voices for Peace" Rally
Sunday, September 23, 1:00 p.m. Minnesota State Capitol, 75 Reverend
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, St. Paul.

Voices for Peace war in Iraq. The vote will come shortly after the
September 15 Petraeus report. With two-thirds of Americans opposed to the
war, this is a tipping point. It is a time to stand up and be counted.
Please join an impressive array of faith, labor and community partners
calling on Congress to end the war in Iraq." Sponsored by: Americans
Against Escalation in Iraq, Americans United for Change, AFSCME Council 5,
Church in Society Ministry Team, Minnesota Conference, United Methodist
Church, Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council, Minnesota AFL-CIO, Office
for Social Justice, Progressive Majority, SEIU Minnesota State Council,
St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly, Sierra Club, North Star Chapter,
TakeAction Minnesota, Wellstone Action, Win Without War.


---------2 of 21---------

From: Impeach <lists [at] impeachforpeace.org>
Subject: Have at Ellison 9.23 1pm

Town Hall with Rep. Ellison & Rep. Conyers

URGENT: SHOW UP AT THE HEIGHTS THEATER AT NOON THIS SUNDAY TO GET IN
LINE FOR THE CONYERS/ELLISON TOWN HALL MEETING!
CALL EVERY IMPEACHMENT ADVOCATE YOU KNOW AND GET THEM TO SHOW UP AS WELL.

This Sunday, September 23rd from 1-3 p.m. at The Historic Heights Theater
(763-788-9079, at 3951 Central Avenue NE, Minneapolis, MN 55421 (Columbia
Heights)

Congressman Keith Ellison is hosting a Forum on "Health Care for All
Americans" with special guest Congressman John Conyers, Jr. As we know, no
decent health care policy will make it past Bush's veto until his criminal
administration has been held accountable through impeachment.

Conyers is the chief sponsor of HR 676, the United States National Health
Insurance Act and is also the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee,
where any impeachment process of President George W. Bush and/or Vice
President Richard B. Cheney must be initiated and where H. Res. 333 to
impeach Cheney sits in the subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights
and Civil Liberties. Both Ellison - who has cosigned 333 and Conyers - who
has not, sit on that subcommittee.

Our health is in grave danger as long as the health of our democracy is
ignored. With all respect to the intended focus of the event, full
accountability for the crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration
is of graver and more immediate concern. We have requested a meeting with
Rep. Conyers and are awaiting a reply from his offices. The tone of our
participation in this event should reflect the degree to which Rep.
Conyers commits to honor his oath of office to defend the Constitution
against the domestic enemies to it residing in our White House.

 Please set aside all other plans for early Sunday Afternoon and join us
in demanding full accountability from the single man who has the most
power to initiate that accountability through impeachment: Rep. John
Conyers, Jr.  Join us and dress as a doctor or nurse and hand out the
above "prescription". We'll have extra copies available for you to hand
out!

Please forward this to your e-list as well as committing to invite five
friends directly.


--------3 of 21--------

From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Stillwater vigil 9.23 1pm

A weekly Vigil for Peace Every Sunday, at the Stillwater bridge from 1- 2
p.m.  Come after Church or after brunch ! All are invited to join in song
and witness to the human desire for peace in our world. Signs need to be
positive.  Sponsored by the St. Croix Valley Peacemakers.

If you have a United Nations flag or a United States flag please bring it.
Be sure to dress for the weather . For more information go to
<http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/>http://www.stcroixvalleypeacemakers.com/

For more information you could call 651 275 0247 or 651 999 - 9560


--------4 of 21--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Agee Cuba CIA 9.23 2pm

ONE MAN'S STORY: PHILIP AGEE, CUBA, AND THE CIA, Exclusive screening with
the director

A new documentary by Bernie Dwyer and Roberto Ruiz

After the screening, an international telephone hookup to Cuba will be
made to bring Philip Agee together with the audience (for security reasons
he will not return to the US while Bush is president.).

2:00, Sunday, September 23,
John B. Davis Lecture Hall, Campus Center, Macalester College,
St. Paul (near corner of Snelling and Grand)
Admission Free
Posted information at
http://groups.msn.com/minnesotacubacommittee/upcomingevents.msnw

Note:  The MN Cuba Committee website also lists an additional showing
7:30, Monday, September 24, Alumni Lounge, Main Quadrangle Building, St.
John's University, Collegeville, though it is not clear if there will be a
call-in to Agee at the Collegeville campus showing.)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION Bernie Dwyer, award-winning Irish filmmaker who
directed the film along with Roberto Ruiz will accompany their latest work
featuring one of the most important whistle-blowers of our time.  Philip
Agee, who has been hounded by the CIA since his resignation in 1968,
joined the CIA based on his Catholic idealism to fight communism, but quit
in disgust after 12 years because of what he was ordered to do to
undermine movements for social justice in Latin America. His book, Inside
the Company, became an international best seller. Now he tells his story
on film. Using archival footage and citing example after example, Agee
leaves no doubt as to the nature of the CIA: to covertly intimidate,
blackmail and even terrorize popular movements and governments throughout
the world in support of US corporate interests.

After the screening, an international telephone hookup to Cuba will be
made to bring Philip Agee together with the audience (for security reasons
he will not return to the US while Bush is president.).

ARTICLE ON DOCUMENTARY FROM HAVANA, CUBA
Circles Robinson Online - Dec 13, 2006 11:15 am ET
http://circlesonline.blogspot.com/2006/12/philip-agee-documentary-at-cuba-film.html

Philip Agee Documentary at Cuba Film Fest
By Circles Robinson

The Cuba-Irish connection of directors Roberto Ruiz and Bernie Dwyer has
once again teamed up on a documentary: "One Man's Story: Philip Agee, Cuba
and the CIA", which focuses on the dark side of United States foreign
policy.

The 33-minute film had its premiere screening at the Havana Film Festival
taking place through December 15th in the Cuban capital. It will now
become a valuable teaching tool on US attempts to destroy the Cuban
Revolution using mercenaries and US taxpayer's money.

Filmed in Havana with excellent archive material of numerous US covert and
direct involvements in Latin America, One Man's Story allows Agee, who
betrayed big brother and paid the price, to tell his captivating story.
Agee, like several repentant Vietnam Veterans, is obsessed with getting
the record straight for a country, the United States, where recent history
is barely taught and what is comes through a fine sieve.

"I entered the CIA as a patriotic conformist from a comfortable family,"
explains Agee, now 71, in the documentary.

"I was only 22 and had romantic views towards things and it wasn't until I
got down to Ecuador and had been working there for a year or two that I
began to get a political education."

In all, Agee worked for 12 years in the Company (CIA) joining in 1957 and
working in Washington, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Mexico until he resigned in
1968.

He has since become one of the most important whistle blowers about US
support for the installation and maintaining of brutal dictatorships
throughout the Western Hemisphere and beyond.

His first book, "Inside the Company" published in 1975, and the Covert
Action Information Bulletin, betrayed many heinous secrets of US
Intelligence and his passport was taken away in 1979, "to protect national
security."

Agee has lived in Europe and the Cuban capital of Havana, where the
interviews for One Man's Story were made by directors Bernie Dwyer and
Roberto Ruiz.

One Man's Story gives us first hand testimony that should send up smoke
signals to people questioning the motives and actions of current US policy
in Iraq and Afghanistan, Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia, to name a few. For
years Agee has also been an outspoken critic of the US Blockade on Cuba,
encouraging US citizens to find a way to continue doing business with the
island and traveling there.

Part of the Big Picture

In their last co-production, Ruiz and Dwyer screened "Mission against
Terror;" the story of how the Cuban Five followed the trail of US-based
terrorism against their country, and were cruelly imprisoned while the
Cuban-American terrorists they monitored enjoy freedom on the streets of
Miami, Florida.

After outlining different terrorist acts perpetrated by the CIA against
Cuba since its 1959 revolution, in One Man's Story, Agee justifies Cuba's
need to send agents, like the Cuban Five, to Florida in order to protect
the island.

For Cubans, both documentaries contain much information that is well known
and rehashed often in the media and education centers and might seem
redundant to some people in a country where political history is a
constant.

However, for North American and European viewers, the film feeds curiosity
about the sinister role the super power has played in the world and may
serve as a way to reach young people still unsure with what being
patriotic means.

The terrifying events at Abu Ghraib, the US Naval Base and offshore prison
at Guantanamo Bay, and other clandestine cites, can be put into context
with a better understanding of the CIA operations as told by Agee. Hats
off to Dwyer and Ruiz for telling a story that needs to be told again and
again. The man they chose to tell it clearly knows his stuff.

Dwyer is an Irish filmmaker and journalist who lives and works in Havana
as a radio reporter for Radio Havana Cuba. Ruiz hails from the far eastern
Cuban province of Guantanamo and is a graduate in English and Spanish
literature. He works extensively making documentaries for Cuban TV.

The duo has now made 5 documentaries. 1998: Che, the Irish legacy (traces
Che Guevara's Irish links); 2001: Che in Ireland (Che Guevara's visit to
Dublin in 1964); 2002: The Footprints of Cecilia McPartland (Irish mother
of Cuban revolutionary martyr Julio Anotonio Mella); 2004: Mission Against
Terror (Case of the Cuban Five) and now One Man's Story: Philip Agee, Cuba
and the CIA.

In their next project, Ruiz and Dwyer hope to document events relating to
the Barbados Sabotage, when a Cuban commercial airliner was blown out of
the sky in 1976 killing all 73 persons on board.


--------5 of 21--------

From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org>
Subject: KFAI/Indian 9.23 7pm

KFAI¹s Indian uprising for Sept. 23rd, 2007 from 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. CDT #232

Native Indigenous people utilize creative expression and participate in
contemporary theater, performance, writing and visual arts to include mass
media such as radio, television and film.  Given that ignorance and
stereotypical ideas that are prevalent throughout the dominant society
about Native peoples in the U.S., there are questions.  What defines such
expression and content as Native and non-Native?  What are the cultural,
political, social and artistic responsibilities of Native players and why?
Where does one draw the line, if any, between self-serving Natives vs.
serving the greater good of Indigenous people?

M. COCHISE ANDERSON (Chickasaw/Choctaw) is an actor, musician, poet,
playwright and educator. Cochise confronts stereotypes by refusing to
allow his art to fit into a single category. Standout tracks include the
title song, "The Kemosabe Therapy," a clever confrontation of the way
Native people are portrayed in the media.  His album, "The Kemosabe
Therapy" an eclectic ensemble of "word songs", was nominated for the 2005
Indian Summer Music Awards in the category of Spoken Word. He has
performed at the Smithsonian national Museum of the American Indian and
the Playwright Center of Minneapolis, Minnesota, among others.

CARL GAWBOY (Ojibwe), a visual artist, taught art in high schools and
colleges. He also served as a museum intern for the 1972 Walker Art Center
exhibition American Indian Art: Form and Tradition. Carl taught for twelve
years at the College of St. Scholastica and another six years at the
University of Minnesota, Duluth, teaching American Indian Studies and
watercolor painting. He is currently retired and devotes much of his time
to painting. Carl Gawboy's work is primarily concerned with defining
Ojibwe culture between 1850 and 1950, an era that best synthesizes Ojibwe
activities with European technology. He does not paint religious symbols
or spirituality. He focuses on the spirit of everyday life as depicted in
rituals such as harvesting, ricing, hunting, canoeing and story telling.
His work celebrates healthy, peaceful, sustainable living.

RHIANA YAZZIE (Navajo) is a playwright whose work has been performed from
Mexico to Alaska.  This young woman is quickly being recognized for
bringing a new generation of stories from the Native American experience
to the American Theatre.  She moved to the Twin Cities after receiving a
Playwrights¹ Center Jerome Fellowship for emerging playwrights in 2006 and
has written and developed plays at The Kennedy Center¹s 2006 New
Visions/New Voices conference, Native Voices Theatre, East West Players,
Stepping Stone Theatre for Youth Development, and Mixed Blood Theatre
among others.  She is also a co-host of WomenSpeak at KFAI. * * * * Indian
Uprising a one-hour Public & Cultural Affairs program is for and by Native
Indigenous People broadcast each Sunday at 7:00 p.m. CDT on KFAI 90.3 FM
Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul.  Producer and host is volunteer Chris
Spotted Eagle. KFAI Fresh Air Radio is located at 1808 Riverside Avenue,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55454, 612-341-3144.

For internet listening, go to www.kfai.org and for live listening, click
Play under ON AIR NOW or for later listening via the archives, click
PROGRAMS & SCHEDULE > Indian Uprising > STREAM.  Programs are archived for
two weeks.


--------6 of 21--------

From: John Peterson <jp [at] handsoffvenezuela.org>
Subject: Boycott WesternUnion 9.24 4pm

Boicott Western Union .Sept 24 4:00 pm, Saint Paul MN. Cesar Chavez and
State 55107

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 24, 2007 4pm
CESAR CHAVEZ ST. AND STATE AVE. SAINT PAUL MN. 55107

Minneapolis, MN-On Monday, September 24th,United Steelworkers Associate
Member Program, immigrant and community organizations: The Somali Action
Alliance, Centro Campesino and MIRAc will join the Transnational Institute
for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA) to support an international
boycott against money transfer giant Western Union .

Groups accuse Western Union of charging exorbitant fees while failing to
adequately reinvest in immigrant communities.  We call on Western Union to
reduce their fees, offer a fairer exchange rate, and commit $1 of every
transaction to a community reinvestment fund.  A year's worth of
negotiations with the company has not yielded results.  Immigrants demand
that Western Union abandon its predatory financial practices or face an
ongoing boycott.  "Western Union is one of the symbols of unfair trade and
this is why we are inviting students, workers, and the unemployed sectors
of all cultures, without borders to participate in this movement"  Said
Gerardo Cajamarca, Colombian Immigrant, Organizer for United Steelworkers
Associate Member Program.

Contacts: Hashi Abdi, Director, Somali Action Alliance: (English)
Gerardo Cajamarca:
gentelatinauswa [at] 
yahoo.com<http://e1.f533.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=gentelatinauswa [at] 
yahoo.com>612-386-6190
(Spanish)
Western Union Boycott Campaign website: www.boycottwesternunion.net
 Immigrant Groups Launch Western Union Boycott


--------7 of 21--------

From: Stephen Feinstein <feins001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Taiwan/atrocity/f 9.24 6:30pm

Monday Septmber 24   7:15PM
Reception beginning at 6:30
"Accountability and Redemption: Cinematic Representation of Atrocity in
Taiwan": a film and discussion with Sylvia Li-chun Lin, Ph.D.

Sponsored By:  Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Additional
Sponsors:  Consortium for the Study of the Asias, Department of
History,Institute for Advanced Study

Room 125
Nolte Center for Continuing Education
315 Pillsbury Drive SE  (EAST BANK, NEXT TO BELL MUSEUM OF NATURAL
HISTORY)
University of Minnesota-Minneapolis Campus
Free and open to the public
Paid parking in nearby lots

In the heyday of anti-Communist hysteria in Taiwan ruled by Chiang
Kai-shek's Nationalist government, an estimated twenty thousand people
suspected of subverting the government were tried in secret, military
courts and tortured into confessing crimes they never committed. Some were
summarily executed and hastily buried, without notifying the families.
After the lifting of martial law (1987), the people in Taiwan finally were
free to reflect upon this ignoble period, the White Terror Era, with
fiction writers and filmmakers recreating this page of their country's
past.

Wan Ren's Super Citizen Ko, explores the functions of memory and its
cinematic re-creation in the form of flashback. The indictment of
government thought police, which was a hallmark of the White Terror, comes
through most powerfully when the public and the private clash, when one's
passion for the future of one's country results in eighteen years of
imprisonment and a broken family. With its cinematic subject and
techniques, this film raises such issues as accountability,
responsibility, and recovering from trauma, all of which have been
de-emphasized in Taiwan's search for truth and reconciliation.

Sylvia Li-chun Lin, Ph.D. is The Notre Dame Assistant Professor of
Chinese Dept. of East Asian Languages & Literatures.


--------8 of 21----------

From: Christine Frank <christinefrank [at] visi.com>
Subject: Earth warming/f 9.24 7pm

There will be a screening of THE GREAT WARMING, a film about climate
change narrated by Alanis Morissette and Keanu Reeves on Monday, September
24th at 7:00 PM, Mayday Books, 301 Cedar Ave. S., West Bank, Minneapolis.
A discussion on solutions to the climate crisis will follow the showing.
The event is sponsored by the Climate Crisis Coalition of the Twin Cities
(3CTC)and is free & open to the public.  Prior to the forum, 3CTC will
have its regular monthly business meeting at 6:00 PM, same location.  All
our welcome.  SAVE EARTH!  SEE YOU THERE!  For further information,
christinefrank [at] visi.com 612-879-8937.


--------9 of 21--------

From: Gabe Ormsby <gabeo [at] bitstream.net>
Subject: Amnesty Intl 9.24 7pm

Augustana Homes Seniors Group meets on Monday, September 24th, from 7:00
to 8:00 p.m. in the party room of the 1020 Building, 1020 E 17th Street,
Minneapolis. For more information contact Ardes Johnson at 612/378-1166 or
johns779 [at] tc.umn.edu.


--------10 of 21--------

From: Carole Rydberg <carydberg [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Phil Steger 9.24 7pm

St. Luke's Presbyterian Church, 3121 Groveland School Road in Minnetonka,
55391. Groveland School Road is just west of Highway 101; the church is
one block north of Minnetonka Blvd.

Phil Steger spoke to our NWN4P in November 2006 in a program that was very
well received.  At that time Phil was the Executive Director of Friends
for a Non-Violent World. He has since returned to St. Johns University
where he oversees digital preservation of the ancient hand-written
documents.

He has been actively speaking out, however, on the topic, "Leaving Iraq
Now: Why It's the Best Chance for Peace and Why September Is Our Best
Chance to Make It Happen."  For those who are concerned about the war, but
aren't sure what should be done, this will be a very well-informed,
solidly reasoned argument that leaving is really the best available option
for all involved - i.e., it's the key action needed: 1) to precipitate
Iraqi political reconciliation and economic reconstruction, 2) to undercut
Al Qaida's and Iran's gains in Iraq, 3) to put the US in a position to
cooperate with the rest of the world on genuine issues of global security,
and 4) to free desperately needed energy, attention and resources for
urgent issues of domestic freedom and security.

Phil has travelled three times to Iraq on peacemaking delegations before
the present war and appeared widely as a commentator on the war on network
TV, MPR, AM talk radio, and both the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the St.
Paul Pioneer Press.  If you have not heard him speak ... this is your
chance.  If you have heard him, please come and hear him again ... or pass
this information on to your frinds and neighbors.


--------11 of 21--------

From: Jonathan Barrentine <jonathan [at] e-democracy.org>
Subject: New public tools 9.24 7pm

NEW TOOLS FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Rondo Library (University and Dale)
Monday, September 24
7:00 - 8:30 pm
FREE

As part of our ongoing E-Tools For All series at the Rondo Library, the
SPED-Outreach committee will be offering a workshop on New Tools for
Public Participation this Monday, September 24, 7:00 - 8:30 pm.

This workshop will feature demonstrations of powerful internet tools for
organizations and individuals wishing to be more active in their
communities.  Also, be sure to bring your own ideas and questions!

As always, the workshop is free, all are welcome to attend, and no
registration is required.

Please go to http://pages.e-democracy.org/SPED_Rondo_Outreach_Program for
a complete schedule.


--------12 of 21--------

From: hosthome [at] avenuesforyouth.org
Subject: GLBT homeless 9.25 6pm

On any given night in Minnesota, there are 204-215GLBT youth who are
homeless. (Wilder Research 2006)

One of the ways that the Twin Cities' community is addressing this problem
is through the GLBT Host Home Program of Avenues for Homeless Youth, which
offers an exciting approach to providing homeless gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgender youth with safe homes. As volunteers of the program,
adults open their homes and their hearts to young people who need and are
looking for a healthy and nurturing connection.  If you are interested in
hearing more about this community-based program, please come to one of the
following informational meetings:

Tuesday, September 25, 6-8pm
@ Avenues for Homeless Youth
1708 Oak Park Avenue North, Mpls, 55411
www.avenuesforyouth.org

OR

Wednesday, September 26, 6-8pm
@ Midtown YWCA
2121 East Lake Street, Mpls, 55407
www.ywca-minneapolis.org

OR

Thursday, September 27, 6-8pm
@ YouthLink
41 North 12th Street, Mpls, 55403

Come learn about the history of the GLBT Host Home Program and about the
application and screening process for potential volunteers. You will also
have an opportunity to hear from hosts who shared their homes with youth.
See you there!

Questions?  Call Raquel (Rocki) at Avenues for Homeless Youth:
612-522-1690, ext. 110.


--------13 of 21--------

From: patty <pattypax [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: Girl/Cafe/film 9.25 6:30pm

Tuesday, Sept. 25, we will see the film, The Girl in the Cafe.  A young
girl get a chance at the G8 Conference in Iceland where all the world
leaders have gathered to speak up for the world's poor.  Isolation,
work-alcoholism, and poverty are themes.

Pax Salons ( http://justcomm.org/pax-salon ) are held (unless otherwise
noted in advance): Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Mad Hatter's Tea House, 943
W 7th, St Paul, MN

Salons are free but donations encouraged for program and treats.
Call 651-227-3228 or 651-227-2511 for information.


--------14 of 21--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: EconHitMan/book 9.25 6:30pm

Tuesday, 9/25, 6:30 pm, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
initiates a book club with discussion of "Confessions of an Economic Hit
Man."  FFF and location, CorinKagan [at] aol.com


--------15 of 21--------

From: Impeach <lists [at] impeachforpeace.org>
Subject: Impeach for peace 9.25 7pm

Impeach for Peace
We meet Tuesdays at 7pm at Joe's Garage (Restaurant along Loring Park)
1610 Harmon Pl Minneapolis, MN 55403 (612) 904-1163


--------16 of 21--------

From: Human Rights Events Update <humanrts [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Palestine/film 9.25 7pm

September 25, 2007 - Human Rights Film Series: EncounterPoint.  Time:
7pm.  Cost: free

Encounter Point is an 85-minute feature documentary film that follows a
Palestinian ex-prisoner, a former Israeli settler, a bereaved Israeli
mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and
public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict.

Post-film discussion featuring Director/Producer Ronit Avni, Ziad Amra of
the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and Architecture
Professor Wendy Pullan of Cambridge University

This film screening is part of the Cities in Conflict: Exploring
Palestinian-Israeli Partnerships event series presented by the Space &
Place Interdisciplinary Research Project

Sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study, the Office for the Vice
President for Research, the Institute for Global Studies, the College of
Liberal Arts, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the
Department of Geography, the Human Rights Center, Al-Madinah Cultural
Center, the Department of Jewish Studies, and the Minnesota Chapter of
Brit Tzedek V Shalom (the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace).

Location: 25 Mondale Hall (Law School), 229 19th Ave S, Minneapolis 55455


--------17 of 21--------

Fri, 21 Sep 2007
From: Michael Cavlan - greenpartymike <ollamhfaery [at] earthlink.net>
Subject: 9.15 rally - alternate report

While there have been glowing reports of anti-war protests in Minnesota on
TC Indy Media, with pictures of happy, contented middle-class people
holding signs, there is another perspective that is so rarely covered.
Could it be that Cindy Sheehan has been proven right in her critiques of
the American peace movement yet again?

This is your Indy Media journalista's investigative report.

It was a beautiful day for a protest September 15th. The sun was out, it
was warm and the crowd gathered at the St Paul Cathedral was boisterous
and cheerful. Speeches were made, poems read and lots of brave talk in
opposition to the war machine.

We started off the march passing a group of right wing, pro-war
"counter-protesters" spewing their usual, hate filled rhetoric. Typical
reactions to them by the peace protesters were of laughter, making fun of
them and their antics. This seemed to make the right wingers even more
angry, which was fine by us.

Provided a police escort, we marched to the site of the 2008 Republican
Convention at the Excel Center. This was a very good and smart move as it
sends a message to the political leadership in St Paul and Minnesota that
we will not be caged into "Free Speech Zones" and that we will indeed show
up at their Convention and protest their policies on our terms, not
theirs.

Heading on the the capitol, the crowd continued with it's chanting. Our
section of the crowd gave a rousing chant of

Who is the terrorist?
Bush is the terrorist!
and
Who funds the war?
Pelosi funds the war!
and
What do we want?
Impeachment!
When do we want it?
Now!

More on these chants and their message later.

The crowd wound its way to the state capitol where there was a speaker
system set up. The crowd listened to speaker after speaker talk on the war
and related social issues. A pattern quickly developed of Bush bashing,
bad George Bush, bad Senator Norm Coleman, bad Republicans. Even in the
midst of this "radical" talk, there were two distinct themes blatantly and
obviously missing.

Discussion of the Democratic Party's complicity in the war and occupation
of Iraq with their willing to fund this illegal and immoral war:  This
includes great "liberal" hero Keith Ellison who had spoke at another
rally, signing the Peace First pledge in a Thursday and then signed a Bill
the very next Tuesday, the Nancy Pelosi War Funding Bill. Which it must be
stated also gave the Bush Administration the legal ability to attack Iran.
Ellison then spoke to activists of, to quote him directly "the need to be
thankful of the brave leadership of Nancy Pelosi." However, nary a word on
this or any of the long list of betrayals of the peace movement were
spoken at this rally. There was no accountability spoken of or even hinted
at.

Also missing was speakers talking of the need for Impeachment to save
what is left of our democratic Republic. Brave talk of Bush bashing, yet
not one word on what We The People can do about it. That thing of course
is the course of Impeachment. While there is an active Impeachment
movement in Minnesota, none of the speakers reflected that perspective or
the possibilities and need for Impeachment.

Needless to say, there was also no mention of Cindy Sheehan or her
message, including her running against Speaker Pelosi or indeed her and 50
other patriots being arrested by Representative John Conyers simply
because they exposed his series of lies and empty rhetoric on Impeachment.

Then, to add insult to injury a group of us, including Heidi Sheen and
myself involved in the Impeachment movement asked if we could make a quick
announcement on our plans to push the Impeachment process here in
Minnesota. We were told "no, that is not in our political agenda."
Likewise, a group of Minnesota 9-11 Truthers were present, yet I feel sure
that they also would have not had their views being "part of the political
agenda." Same goes for those young people present from the Jack Pine
Center or from Youth Against War and Racism.

In other words, those of us who really speak truth to power are shut out,
again. It is bad enough when the corporate media shuts our voices out and
when the corporate political establishment shut us out. It really shows
where we are at in our nation when it happens by those who label
themselves "peace and justice" and "activist" and even "radical."

Yet again, the words and analysis of Cindy Sheehan has been proven right.
Claiming to speak truth to power should never be used as a ploy to provide
political cover to those in power. It has gotten so bad that some of us
have considered the idea of doing a "counter-protest" only from the left.

Let us not allow these words continue to be true.

Cindy Sheehan Is Right

--Michael Cavlan


--------18 of 21--------

It's Never Too Late to Quit the Party
Ex-Dems, Sign Up Here
By STEVE FOURNIER
CounterPunch
September 21, 2007

I just launched xdem.org, which I'm billing as an organizing tool for
democrats who have left the Democratic party behind.

I'm one. I quit in 1992 when Clinton came to Connecticut to trash the
other Democratic candidates with money he got from rich white people in
and around Washington, DC.

It was a clever ploy by Clinton, embracing both the right-wing agenda and
conventional right-wing tactics, and it won him two terms. He got to drop
bombs in foreign countries. He got to pardon some favored crooks. He got
women in abundance. He and his rich friends got richer as a result of his
tenure, and the poor got poorer. Positioning himself politically between
Nixon, to his immediate left, and Reagan, to his immediate right, he was
the first Republican Democrat in the history of the presidency. Since
leaving office, he's been adopted by the Bush family, fulfilling a
lifelong wish.

Clinton exemplifies everything we should despise about today's Democrat.
He's a hypocrite, and his motives are purely venal. He's a Democrat
because being one is a good way for a popular fella to get elected to
office. He's the model for Democratic office-holders, a self-dealing hack
who wears the party label to ingratiate himself with the voting public.

Suckers alone can't keep these con-men in office long, but that's the
audience they're playing to. My representative John Larson was a vocal
opponent of the Iraq war, but he remains prepared to fund its
continuation. He claims to care about the Constitution, but he refuses to
hold the executive accountable for high crimes. Is he for national health
insurance? Not quite yet. And he makes no audible complaint about the
saber-rattling over Iran or the mayhem in Afghanistan.

He's typical of today's Democrat, and his seat is considered safe and
secure from all challengers. Maybe not, if ex-Dems organize to hold him
and his associates accountable. If you're still a Democrat, quit
(including you, Dennis Kucinich), and find a fresh approach to the
redemption of our democratic republic.

Steve Fournier writes at Current Invective. He can be reached at:
stepfour [at] stepfour.com


--------19 of 21--------

From Woodrow Wilson to Bush's Iraq Debacle
The Deadly Pattern of US Imperialism
By ROBERT FANTINA
CounterPunch
September 22 / 23, 2007

While the Government Accounting Office (GAO) issues its pessimistic report
on Iraq, and Mr. Bush puts on his smiley face and spins it to his
advantage, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens continue to suffer, bleed and
die. The war continues.

Mr. Bush has expressed encouragement by the GAO report, which showed three
of eighteen benchmarks met. Republican members of Congress who voted
against ending the war last spring said that some significant progress
must be shown by the September report, or a real 'new way forward'
(differing from Mr. Bush's definition) must be implemented. Now, with Mr.
Bush spinning the dismal news from the GAO into a very positive view,
Pollyanna style, those same Republicans are being far less forceful than
they were just a few months ago.

One can expect little action to end U. S. participation in the war before
the inauguration of new Congress members and a new president in January of
2009, and would be naive to expect too much even then. The pattern has
been set: one president involves the country in a war on the pretext that
it will protect U.S. interests from whatever the current threat is
perceived to be. In the 1960s and 1970s it was Communism; today it is
terrorism. After a time the futility of U.S. involvement will be evident
to everyone, but U.S. leaders will 'stay the course' in order to prove
America's 'commitment to its allies' and to 'keep America safe.' The death
toll of Americans will climb steadily, as the death toll of Iraq's
citizens climbs astronomically. The reputation of the U.S. will
deteriorate around the world, and the dissatisfaction of U.S. citizens
will be manifested ineffectually at the ballot box and in the streets. The
economy of the U.S. will be decimated, with its money being spent to
achieve nothing. Finally, after a generation of suffering, some president
will embrace the inevitable, and will use some incomprehensible logic to
say that American goals in Iraq have been met, and will finally withdraw
U.S. soldiers. Iraq's now long-term civil war will explode by catastrophic
proportions, until some kind of government, or possibly multiple
governments, can be cobbled together.

Back in the U.S., the alcoholism, suicide, crime, homelessness and divorce
rates for Iraq War veterans will spiral out of control, while the rest of
the country, those whose loved ones did not serve in the war, look the
other way. The men and women who Mr. Bush and subsequent presidents sent
to Iraq to protect America from a non-existent enemy will suffer for life,
being deprived of the opportunities that their non-military peers took for
granted. Some of them will, perhaps, be eligible for sub-standard and
generally inadequate care at U.S. veterans' hospitals, but many will
simple suffer with their various afflictions, both physical and emotional.
And another generation will talk about the lessons learned from the Iraq
War, about why those lessons were not learned in Vietnam, and how such a
disaster can be prevented from ever happening again.

Then, as memories begin to fade and U.S. veterans of the Iraq War age and
die, some other president will decide to flex American muscle with the
expendable lives of its young men and women. Perhaps Communism will
resurge, or another terrorist attack will be made upon U.S. soil,
something that would certainly pale in comparison to what the U.S. is
currently doing to Iraq. But various politicians, opportunists to the
last, will rise up in righteous anger and proclaim that the cherished
American way of life is in jeopardy, and some other nation will be
destroyed as the U.S. vents its wrath.

It is a pattern becoming too familiar, and one that never should have
begun. Prior to U.S. entrance into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson
demanded U.S. involvement in the 'war to make the world safe for
democracy.' As that war drew to a close, a disillusioned Mr. Wilson said
this: "Is there any man, woman or child in America - let me say, is there
any child here - who does not know that this was an industrial and
commercial war?" The lofty need to 'make the world safe for democracy'
only camouflaged the real reason for the war.

Little had changed by the last half of the twentieth century. American
involvement in Southeast Asia was nothing short of a disaster for the
United States, Vietnam and several of its neighboring countries. The
Vietnam travesty taught lessons that any casual student of history can
clearly see; why they escape U.S. government officials is a puzzling
enigma. So many of those officials have proven that they haven't learned
the lessons taught a generation ago. And even those that have learned hide
in fear of offending this or that powerful interest group, and mouth
worthless words critical of the war and then fund it, thus signing the
death warrants for countless American soldiers and Iraqi citizens.

Robert Fantina is author of 'Desertion and the American Soldier:
1776--2006.'


--------20 of 21--------

A Conservative's Garden of False Narratives
Who Are You Calling a Moonbat, Anyway?
by Phil Rockstroh / September 22nd, 2007
DissidentVoice

One would think that from the cries of (feigned) indignation and calls for
repentance arising from conservatives regarding Move-On.org's ad in the
N.Y. Times that the liberal-leaning group had not simply questioned the
insights and intentions of a public servant, promoting, in a public forum,
the policy of an illegal and immoral occupation of a sovereign nation;
rather, the folks of Move-On.org had committed blasphemy against the holy
name of some revered saint - General Mary Petreus, Mother of God.

The false outrage of perpetually offended conservatives serves as cover
for the true outrages of our era, including truncated civil liberties,
rising levels of social and economic inequality and injustice, and foreign
wars of aggression waged by an insular and secretive executive branch and
fought by a permanent underclass. The outrages keep arriving, because the
collective imagination of the citizen/consumers of the US, arbitrated by a
careerist media elite, has been, for decades, in the thrall of false
narratives that serve the interests of the elite of the
corporate/militarist classes.

Concurrently, a sense of unease and despair, due to a sense of personal
and collective powerlessness before exploitive power, has created the tone
and tenor of the times, and begot the phenomenon of supine liberalism and
Viagra conservatism. (In this way, liberals stand fecklessly by, as the
public is, time and time again, screwed by the decrepit schemes of the
right.)

In this way, liberal paternalism is insufferable; worse, it is dangerous.
This has been the right's craftiest accomplishment: inducing "reasonable"
liberals and "sensible" centrists to enable their crimes, from stolen
elections to their present preparation for a massive bombing campaign of
Iran, by intimidating them with the fear that any protest on their part
will cast them among the ranks of America-hating, lefty moonbats, who wish
to see the terrorist win, dumpsters piled high with discarded fetuses and
metro-sexuality made the official state religion.

Moreover, these assaults upon both reason and the republic (what's left of
it) will persist until progressives begin to effectively counter the
narratives of the predatory right. Some call it shameful demagoguery;
although, conservatives call it career advancement. This is not a novel
situation. Throughout history, these kinds of pernicious mindsets have
always been with us; it is our tragedy that they have been allowed to
prevail.

Conservatives are eager to embrace false narratives: The surge is working;
the terrorists hate us for our freedom; Fred Thompson is Ronald Reagan
incarnate, but with a touch of Jed Clampett "folksiness". Accordingly,
when the times are roiled with uncertainty, when thoughts of the future
are tinged with dread, conservatives, like a character in Southern Gothic
literature, will fall into a swoon, longing for the return of an imagined,
purer past that never was. One can picture these rightwing sorts wandering
the streets, wearing a faded prom dress and a broken, prom queen tiara,
twittering and cooing, while repeating over and over again, "the surge is
working; Anbar Province is now a beacon of freedom unto the world".) in an
imaginary dialog with the ghost of their long lost beau, Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Reagan, an ungifted actor, by means of playing the role of a
"resolute" Cold Warrior, was able to gain the approbation and wealth that
had alluded him as a contract player in Hollywood. In truth, Reagan's
greatest accomplishment was convincing himself of his own sincerity.

Constantin Stanislavsky, who is considered the father of modern acting
technique, is reputed to have said that when an actor starts to believe he
is the character he's portraying it is time to escort him from the
theatre. Withal, Fred, Rudy, Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, et al., can you find
the exits on your own or will you need to be medicated, strapped to a
gurney, and wheeled from the public arena? Rather than being candidates
for President of the United States, most of the Republican field seems to
be vying for the title of National Crazy Uncle - the kind of guy who
corners you at a family gathering and rants that the PTA is a terrorist
front group and gangs of illegal aliens are engaged in a vast conspiracy
to steal single socks from his washer-dryer.

The Republican candidates for president and their fantasy-prone
constituents wish to set the Way Back Machine to the golden days of the
1980s when Ronald Reagan was impersonating a man just arrived via the
1940s. This phenomenon is known as the Law of Republican Special
Relativity, which states: When events begin to accelerate forward, the
conservative mind will be cast, at an equal rate of speed, backwards in
time. But the paradox is: they arrive in a parallel universe, an
alternative past that never existed on this earth - a low probability
dimension, comprised of platitudes and false pieties, where white male
privilege is sacrosanct, only for the reason (according to their
reality-proof perspective) that it serves to provide all mankind with all
things good and holy.

This law can be tested by performing the following simple exercise: Engage
a conservative true believer in a dialog regarding the manner by which
"state's rights" was misused in the Jim Crowe dominated Deep South of the
pre-Civil Rights Era in order to propagate and maintain segregation, and
your conservative-minded test subject will respond as if those realities
transpired long ago and far away on a planet that he has never visited.

Yet, paradoxically, rightists have manage to create a Time Retrieval
Device, a device that has summoned from the past wonders, such as the
following: a reversal of many of the rights of working people; the return
of unsafe and unsanitary practices in the food industry; widening gaps of
wealth, health and privilege between social, racial and economic classes;
in short, many the excesses of plutocratic rule inherent to unfettered
capitalism.

As a result, a generation has inherited power who are devoid of the
concept of causation and consequence. Ergo, we have developed a political
class who rule by narratives of denial and shallow self-justification. An
example of this is the blaming of the people of Iraq for the
blood-drenched debacle that has resulted from the illegal and immoral
invasion of their nation. As well as, an enabling cadre of media elitists
who served as cheerleaders for the invasion, because they deemed it to be
good for business, and, to this day, are unwilling to admit their
complicity.

All of the above leads to the question: What are present day conservatives
striving to conserve? Historically, conservatives gave their utmost to
conserve institutions such as slavery, Jim Crowe, child labor - and, of
course, the use of leeches for medical purposes. (Perhaps, they simply
couldn't stand the thought of a fellow blood-sucker being deemed
dangerous, and they feared the start of a trend.) At present, the central
paradox of contemporary conservatism is this: How does one practice
conservatism within an all-encompassing economy based on disposability?
This is analogous to establishing a brothel devoted to the goal of
abstinence.

When engaged in a dialog with many conservatives, the question becomes:
Are their reactions and responses evoked therein simply borne of plain
ignorance, willful ignorance, or outright lying? Or are their responses
the result of a group hallucination? All progressives have experienced the
following nonsensical encounter of the conservative kind. Present a
reasoned argument to a conservative - and, all at once, completely
ignoring the tenet, tone and thrust of the point, they begin hallucinating
a creature, only known to exist in the rightwing bestiary, known as a
"moonbat" - a mythological beast that, ironically, seems to appear when a
conservative is confronted with reality.

Accordingly, the time has come for a study of political zoology and to
posit who are the true moonbats now making their habitat in the United
States. Case study: Unregulated, wish-fulfillment-based conservative
economic policy has created those suburban arrays of mold-incubating petri
dishes known as products of the housing boom. Moreover, the bursting of
the whole bubble-prone Ponzi scheme has sent shock waves throughout
international economies and is surging the economy of the US towards
recession. Furthermore, conservative anti-regulatory policies have
rendered us babes in a cheap, plastic Toyland.

What has an era of conservatism wrought? Answer: a culture that has all
the value, integrity, sustainability and safety as a toy manufactured in
China. Apropos, contemporary life, as conceived and manufactured by
conservative "values", is shoddily made, toxic and not a lot of fun.

In addition, it has spawned a culture ridden with public relations
fabulists and media-savvy confidence artists who tell us that the taste of
corporate ass-suck is the ambrosia of the gods. The locked-down,
stultifying mindset and ideological barbarianism of present day
conservatism is directly linked to the steep decline of the quality of
life in the United States.

The recent revelations regarding the "I'm-not-gay-I-simply-engage-in-
same-sex-encounters-in-puplic-restrooms" wing of the Republican Party are
instructive in understanding the rightist's worldview and its effect on
our times. Covert sex in a public bathroom stall is an apt metaphor for
how contemporary conservatism limits and restricts the possibilities of
human life. In the same way that a closet-case gay conservative stunts the
possibilities of his love life, the conservative mindset limits the scope
of a culture's possibilities. Accordingly, economic life must be ruled by
ruthless, unregulated competition, and the nation's meaning can only be
found in war. Hence, under the Bush Junta, we are told, as far as
international relations go, that the nation has few options other than its
present policy of predatory capitalism and "wide-stance" militarism.

Regarding perma-fools such as these, Ernest Becker wrote: "Once you base
your whole life striving on a desperate lie, and try to implement that
lie, you instrument your own undoing". Accordingly, the republic is dead;
it's ghost howls online only in pixelated protests such as this one. This
grim reality will remain, until we rise up and repudiate the false
narratives that have created and continue to comprise these tragic times.

Phil Rockstroh, a self-described, auto-didactic, gasbag monologist, is a
poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living in New York City. He may be
contacted at philangie2000 [at] yahoo.com. Read other articles by Phil.

This article was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 5:05 am and
is filed under Culture, Right Wing Jerks, Democrats and Capitalism. Send
to a friend.


--------21 of 21--------


Revolution
by Gary Corseri / September 22nd, 2007
DissidentVoice

 They gave us democracy,
 But took our freedom.
 We had the right to vote,
 But it didn't matter.
 We had the right to refuse to sing
 "The Star-Spangled Banner".
 But not if we valued our lives.

 We could chant, "Not in my name,"
 But they took our names away.
 We could work hard,
 But they taxed us into the ground.
 We could march against War,
 But they sent us to War
 And taught our children to kill
 Someone else's children.

 We could play music.
 So long as it was approved
 By industry professionals
 who knew what we really wanted.
 We could watch their movies and their television
 But it was always a formula:
 Somebody getting hurt
 And taking revenge:
 The lone gunman - crazed, or justified;
 Or comedies that weren't funny;
 Adolescent humor; adolescent fantasies.

 They gave us burgers to eat for a dollar.
 But everything tasted like cardboard.
 They made sex a game
 Instead of communion.
 Their ministers were pedophiles;
 Their teachers, test-givers;
 Their doctors, pill-pimping chart-readers.

 They taught us to hate terrorists
 Then bombed a million civilians.
 They didn't bother to count the dead
 Or missing limbs or eyeballs.
 They assured us everything they did
 Was for our own protection.
 If only we would try harder,
 We, too, could be like them.

 We could live in Trump's Tower.
 We could shed a tear with Oprah.
 We could laugh with Paris
 Or dance with Britney
 (or stumble through - it didn't matter).

 There was no image of happiness they held up
 That didn't involve hurting someone else.
 It was happiness
 Based on others' suffering.
 Winners and losers.
 They taught us that only a few could win
 And they kept bolting the doors.

 They thought they were Lords of Chaos.
 They thought they could ride the Whirlwind.
 But the honeybees died
 And the frogs stopped croaking.
 The glaciers melted.
 The savannahs burned.

 Under the vaults of their houses
 The plague entered, like a whisper.
 It seeped through underground tunnels,
 Taking their first-born.
 Tumbrils rumbled in alleys.
 Night fell - full of assassins.

 And the burning sun scorched all.
 And the turbulent waters washed away
 The blood of the lamb.
 Earth turned in its orbit.
 New days dawned.

Gary Corseri's work has appeared at CounterPunch, DissidentVoice, The New
York Times, Village Voice, PBS-Atlanta, and elsewhere. His books include
Manifestations and Holy Grail, Holy Grail. He can be contacted at:
corseri [at] verizon.net.


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