Progressive Calendar 10.28.10 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu) | |
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 03:25:30 -0700 (PDT) |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 10.28.10 1. Colombia/lunch 10.28 12noon 2. Human rights 10.28 4pm 3. Eagan peace vigil 10.28 4:30pm 4. Northtown vigil 10.28 5pm 5. Erlinder/Rwanda 10.28 5pm 6. Antiwar potluck 10.28 6pm 7. River design 10.28 6:30pm 8. Jerusalem women 10.28 7pm Northfield MN 9. RNC8 benefit 10.28 7pm 10. Ellison v Cavlan? 10.28 7pm 11. Palestine vigil 10.29 4:15pm 12. Halloween/FBI 10.29 6pm 13. Peace walk 10.30 9am Cambridge MN 14. Subject: Colombia 10.30 10am 15. CUAPB 10.30 1:30pm 16. Northtown vigil 10.30 2pm 17. New Mumia film 10.30 4pm 18. Free Gaza benefit 10.30 6:30pm 19. Should we vote? 10.30 7pm 20. Hmong Village 10.30 21. Grace Kelly - Sheriff Fletcher has horrible performance numbers 22. Michael Schwalbe - When drones come home to roost 23. Clancy Sigal - The sissy left/ wimps can't win 24. Bill Quigley - The rich getting richer/ the class war at home 25. ed - bumpersticker --------1 of 25-------- From: WAMM <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: Colombia/lunch 10.28 12noon Thursday October 28, 12 noon - Dialogue Lunch Father Alberto Franco from Colombia. He spoke last year at the SOA. He is a human rights advocate who is the executive secretary of the Colombian Interchurch Commission for Justice and Peace, founded 21 years ago. Reservations encouraged, Holy Trinity 612-729-8358. --------2 of 25-------- From: Vicky Nguyen <humanrts [at] umn.edu> Subject: Human rights 10.28 4pm October 28, 2010 - FORUM FROM THE VERY BEGINNING: EDUCATION, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS; HUMAN RIGHTS FOR LEADERS, EDUCATORS, PARENTS. Location: Mondale Hall Room: 40 (229 19th Ave. S. Minneapolis MN 55455) Time: 4:00 pm - 6:30 pm. Cost: RSVP-requested at mroan [at] tandemproject.com. You are invited to participate in a Forum for Places of Worship, From the Very Beginning: Education, Religious Beliefs; Human Rights. The Forum is for Leaders, Educators, Parents and others on how religious beliefs and traditions are taught to children. Roundtable Discussion will include obstacles and strategies to teaching children human rights principles on freedom of religion or belief, without compromising their own faith-based traditions. Since 1986 The Tandem Project has built support for Human Rights and Freedom of Religion or Belief simultaneously from top down and ground up, understanding one cannot succeed without the other. In 1986 top down was the U.N. Human Rights Commission, now its successor the U.N. Human Rights Council. The Tandem Project approach from the ground or local level up for national Universal Periodic Reviews; Freedom of Religion or Belief includes; Forums for Places of Worship, Academic Discourse, Schools, Women and Civil Society. Each Forum begins with a proposal from an expert on a diverse issue. Discussion includes response to the proposal, the meaning of freedom of religion or belief, the obligations and responsibilities for international human rights law on freedom of religion or belief. PROPOSAL Our educational systems need to provide children with a broad orientation: from the very beginning, children should be taught that their own religion is one out of many and that it is a personal choice for everyone to adhere to the religion or belief by which he or she feels most inspired, or to adhere to no religion or belief at all. - Piet de Klerk: Ambassador-at-Large of the Netherlands for Human Rights, Speaking to the 25 Year Commemoration in 2006 of the 1981 U.N. Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief. PANEL The Tandem Project Representatives of Minnesota Places of Worship Representatives of Minnesota Human Rights NGOs Panel members will moderate a Roundtable Discussion by leaders, educators and parents from Minnesota Places of Worship on the purpose and proposal for the forum. ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION Leaders, Educators and Parents from Minnesota Places of Worship will discuss From the Very Beginning, how religious beliefs from multicultural religious traditions are taught to children. Interfaith dialogue includes strategies and obstacles in Places of Worship to teaching children human rights principles on freedom of religion or belief without compromising their own faith-based traditions. --------3 of 25-------- From: Greg and Sue Skog <family4peace [at] msn.com> Subject: Eagan peace vigil 10.28 4:30pm PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends south of the river speaking out against war. --------4 of 25-------- From: EKalamboki [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 10.28 5pm NORTHTOWN Peace Vigil every Thursday 5-6pm, at the intersection of Co. Hwy 10 and University Ave NE (SE corner across from Denny's), in Blaine. Communities situated near the Northtown Mall include: Blaine, Mounds View, New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, Spring Lake Park, Fridley, and Coon Rapids. We'll have extra signs. For more information people can contact Evangelos Kalambokidis by phone or email: (763)574-9615, ekalamboki [at] aol.com. --------5 of 25-------- From: Erlinder, Peter Subject: Erlinder/Rwanda 10.28 5pm On Thursday, Oct 28 at 5-6:30 pm in Rm 231, I will be discussing "The Politics of Rwanda Genocide Denial and Victors' Justice at the UN Tribunal: A View from a Rwanda Detention Cell." You may have noted that the Rwandan Chief Prosecutor has stated he intends to continue to seek to prosecute me. Since there has not been an opportunity to discuss these matters with the College Community provided by the College, I thought it best to arrange some sort of venue to permit some discussion and interchange on my own. Prof. Peter Erlinder Wm. Mitchell College of Law St. Paul, MN. USA 651-290-6384 --------6 of 25-------- From: Meredith Aby <riot369 [at] gmail.com> Subject: Antiwar potluck 10.28 6pm Politics and Potluck with the Anti-War Committee Thursday, October 28th @ 6pm @ Walker Church, 3104 16th Ave. S., Minneapolis Join us for a laid-back discussion of what's next for the anti-war movement. Bringing a dish to share is appreciated but not required. Hope you can join us! Kids welcome. --------7 of 25-------- From: Saint Paul Riverfront Corporation <sprc [at] riverfrontcorporation.com Subject: River design 10.28 6:30pm In 2009, Saint Paul received funding from the Minnesota Legislature to create a new vision for how we live, work, play, commute and connect with the Mississippi River. A master plan for Saint Paul's 17-mile river valley will deliver a prioritized list of projects that will restore natural habitat and ecology, create economic vitality and provide better connections to the river. Saint Paul Parks & Recreation is leading a Great River Park Master Planning design team, made up of national and local partners and consultants. Click here for a list of team members. For more information: greatriverpark.org City of Saint Paul Parks and Recreation and SAINT PAUL RIVERFRONT CORPORATION Community Design Forum #2: River Gorge and Valley Thursday, October 28 6:30-8:30pm Ohage Boulevard, Harriet Island, Saint Paul (directions) With tremendous citizen input from the first Community Design Forum held October 11-14, the Great River Park Design Team will now focus on the Gorge and Valley stretch of the Mississippi River in Saint Paul, which runs from the I-94 Bridge to the High Bridge. Review how the Design Team brings your ideas to life at Thursday night's Concept Review session. --------8 of 25-------- From: Charles & Hertha Lutz <chlutz1 [at] comcast.net> Subject: Jerusalem women 10.28 7pm Northfield MN Thursday, Oct. 28, 7-9pm, at First United Church of Christ, 300 Union St., Northfield: ³Jerusalem Women Speak - Three Women, Three Faiths, One Shared Vision.² Participants: Ruth Hiller, Israeli peace activist and mother of three sons who refused service in Israeli military, founder of New Profile, feminist group working to de-militarize Israeli society; Reem Mustafa, Muslim Palestinian from East Jerusalem who has worked for UNESCO, Terre des Homess, Hands of Peace, and Seeds of Peace; Marianna Khoury, a Christian Palestinian Israeli who has interned at American Association for Palestinian Equal Rights. Co-sponsored by Northfielders for Justice In Palestine/Israel and Partners for Peace. More info: Jenny Hartley, 507-645-6877. --------9 of 25------- From: info [at] rnc8.org Subject: RNC8 benefit 10.28 7pm As we were gearing up for trial, we made plans with lots of our friends to put on super fun events to help raise the funds we needed for trial. Our plans for court have changed, but our plans for fun have not! All the fundraisers we had scheduled will still happen as planned, but now all the funds will be going to other great causes around the nation (no proceeds will be going to the RNC 8 Defense Committee). Mark your calendars now! Thursday, October 28, 7-9pm Walker Community Church, 3104 16th Ave S, Minneapolis "We the People" Benefit Concert, featuring Jerry Rau, Larry Long, Louis Alemayehu, Van Nixon, Barb Tilsen, Tim Sparks, Papa John Kolstad, Patches & Gretchen, Tou Saiko Lee, "Cadillac" Kolstad, Eskit, Joe Savage, Kathy & Leo Lara, McDonald Sisters, Melvin James, Tom Lieberman, and Doug Lohman. With special guests: Marv Davidov, Karen Clark, Ken Tilsen, Polly Mann, Laura Waterman Wittstock, Ed Felien, Cheryl Fields, Shayna Berkowitz, David Tilsen, Peter Rachelff, Mordecai Specktor and representatives from the RNC 8. Suggested donation of $20. Proceeds will go to establish the RNC 8/In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre Youth Social Justice Internship. --------10 of 25-------- From: Michael Cavlan greenpartymike <ollamhfaery [at] earthlink.net> Subject: Ellison v Cavlan? 10.28 7pm Our campaign has just received word that Congressman Keith Ellison will be speaking at the Drinking Liberally group, located at the 331 Club, located at 331 13th Ave NE. It is located on the corner of 13th Ave and University Ave in north Minneapolis. It will be this Thursday, October 28th and is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.. We intend to show up and yet again challenge the Congressman to a debate. If you have wondered why their has been no real debate in this election or indeed have any questions for any candidate for Congress, this is your opportunity. Since I am working till 7 p.m., I will be unable to get there till 7:30 p.m.. This may afford the Congressman the ability to slip away. Or he may, yet again renege on his commitments to speak to the people of the 5th CD. He may also yet again refuse to engage in a debate. However, if he does then this is your opportunity to hold him accountable. However, he also may decide to debate. If so then get ready for real, good old fashioned open, fiery democratic debate. I think our democracy is worth that. How about you? See you all there Thursday. Michael Cavlan www.cavlanforcongress.org --------11 of 25-------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Palestine vigil 10.29 4:15pm The weekly vigil for the liberation of Palestine continues at the intersection of Snelling and Summit Aves in St. Paul. The Friday demo starts at 4:15 and ends around 5:30. There are usually extra signs available. --------12 of 25-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: Halloween/FBI 10.29 6pm Halloween Festival for Peace and Justice Friday, October 29, 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. Midtown YWCA, Gymnasium, 2121 East Lake Street, Minneapolis. Come enjoy snacks and beverages, games for kids, music, costume contests for kids and adults, and dancing. Prizes awarded for best overall costume, most creative, scariest, cutest, and best political costumes. Suggested Donation: $5.00 to $10.00. Proceeds will fund the legal defense of local anti-war activists targeted by the FBI. Co-Sponsored by: WAMM and the Anti-War Committee. FI: Visit stopfbi.net or call 612-827-5364. -- From: kim defranco <kimdefranco [at] yahoo.com> Oct 29 Scare the Spooks! Halloween Festival Fundraiser Friday, October 29 6-10 pm Midtown YWCA - Lake Street & 21st Ave, Minneapolis Help support peace activists suffering FBI intimidation! Suggested donation: Child $5, Adult $10, Family $20 FREAKY FUN FOR ALL: * Games & activies * Costume Contest * Fortune Telling * Finger foods * Dancing * Cavorting Also practicing * Free speech * Free association * - and other Silly Liberties More information: Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression | mnstopfbi.wordpress.com | 612-379-3585 | stopfbi.net --------13 of 25-------- From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Peace walk 10.30 9am Cambridge MN every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street --------14 of 25-------- From: Jason Stone <jason.stone [at] yahoo.com> Subject: Colombia 10.30 10am Coffee Hour: Human Rights in Colombia 10/30/10 10:00am-11:45am At the Resource Center of the Americas Presented in Spanish w/English interpretation Padre Alberto has been a featured speaker for the World Council of Churches in front of the UN in NYC 2009, as well as a featured speaker at the 2009 School of the Americas Watch protest. In 207 and 2008, he lobbied in Brussels in front of the European Parliament and the European Commission. Also in 2008, he testified at the Alternative Network Against Impunity and Market Globalization in Spain, the Public Hearing of the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes and a session for the Ethics Commission for Truth in France regarding exiled Colombians. For his extensive human rights work, Padre Alberto has received multiple death threats, which to him illustrates that repressive powers are threatened by his work and symbolizes that he is doing something right. Although he has been receiving threats for years, starting in 2008 they began to intensify, popping up in pages all over the internet and in graffiti all around the capital. Those responsible for most of the threats are the people with business interests in the Curvarado and Jiguamiando River Basins. Despite all the danger he faces to defend the rights of the communities, death threats do not faze him. He stresses the importance of recognizing it is not just his personal safety that is being jeopardized through these threats, rather it is the Commission as a whole that is targeted. The Inter-church Justice and Peace Commission, founded in 1988, is a leading NGO for community organizing and human rights in Colombian. It provides accompaniment to Afro-Colombian, Indigenous, and mixed race communities who have been victimized and affirms their rights without the use of violence in zones of armed conflict. It supports concrete processes that seek truth, justice, and reparation, and favors political negotiations that seek to end the internal armed conflict. It has an inter-discipline approach focused on the psycho-social, judicial, environmental, and theological preservation of memory and gender aspects of the community processes, to help communities rebuild their social fabric. Speaker: Padre Jess Alberto Franco is a renowned leader in the Colombian human rights movement. He is a Colombian missionary priest, as well as the executive secretary of the Colombian human rights NGO Inter-church Commission for Justice and Peace (Comision Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz). He has spent the last 3 years in his current role accompanying the resistance processes of Afro-Colombian, Indigenous and mixed race farmers, overseeing the operations of the commission, and coordinating and overseeing the work of the teams that accompany the processes of the community. He has been part of the commission for over 21 years and helped to support the NGOs founders in the creation of the commission. He was born and raised in Aranzazu, Caldas in Colombia. His work as a missionary brings him all over Colombia. Contact Information: Witness for Peace Upper Midwest --------15 of 25-------- From: Michelle Gross <mgresist [at] visi.com> Subject: CUAPB 10.30 1:30pm Meetings: Every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Walker Church, 3104 16th Avenue South http://www.CUAPB.org Communities United Against Police Brutality 3100 16th Avenue S Minneapolis, MN 55407 Hotline 612-874-STOP (7867) --------16 of 25-------- From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 10.30 2pm Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm --------17 of 25-------- From: Joan Malerich <joanmdm [at] iphouse.com> Subject: New Mumia film 10.30 4pm Mumia/new documentary being shown at Mayday Books, Saturday, October 30 MUMIA ABU-JAMAL FACES HAVING DEATH PENALTY REINSTATED Big Noise Documentary: Justice on Trial: The Case of Mumia Abu Jamal SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30, 4:00 PM TO 6:00 PM MAYDAY BOOKSTORE 301 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis (Cedar Ave and S 3rd Street), Next to 19th Avenue Parking Ramp, one block north of Riverside Ave. If need more direction, call Mayday Books at (612) 333-4719For bus route information, Call Metro Transit at 612-373-3333 Directed by Kouross Esmaeli, produced by Johanna Fernandez and edited by Aljernon Tunsil (see below for short bio of each) Justice on Trial navigates the tempest of the Abu-Jamal trial by reviewing the known facts of the case. It demonstrates that the major violations in the Abu-Jamal case - judicial bias, prosecutorial misconduct, racial discrimination in jury selection, police corruption and tampering with evidence to obtain a conviction - are not special to this case. Instead, they are commonly practiced within the criminal justice system and account for the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans and Latinos in the United States. The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is a microcosm of greater problems in the criminal justice system in the United States today. The attention that its many violations have received make the Abu-Jamal case one of the most important civil rights cases of our time. On Tuesday, January 19, the US Supreme Court granted the Philadelphia DA's petition for a writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court has vacated the lower federal courts' 2001/2008 rulings which had overturned Mumia's death penalty and granted a new sentencing-phase jury trial if the death penalty was to be reinstated. The case has now been remanded to the Third Circuit Court, which will now decide whether or not to re-impose the death sentence without the sentencing trial The hearing before the Third Circuit will be held November 9, 2010, in Philadelphia. The prosecution is fighting very hard to have the death penalty reinstated on Mumia. Though the death penalty was previously removed, Mumia has never left death row because of on-going appeals. Mumia has been on death row for 28 years, during which time he has not been allowed physically to touch his children nor any other human being and the rare time he is allowed outside is in a cage that separates him from others. Mumia was targeted by both the FBI and the Philadelphia police and falsely accused of killing a policeman, Daniel Faulkner. The Fraternal Order of Police and the widow Faulkner have made it a lifetime mission to kill Mumia. They want all of the evidence that shows Mumia's innocence to die with Mumia. TWO UPDATED ARTICLES REGARDING MUMIA'S CASE ARE: Media Justice On Trial In Philadelphia -- The duel of two films about Mumia Abu-Jamal http://phillyimc.org/en/media-justice-trial-philadelphia-duel-two-films-about-mumia-abu-jamal by Jamal by Hans Bennett and Michael Schiffmann | 09.19.2010, editors of Journalists for Mumia Abu Jamal http://abu-jamal-news.com/ The 'Mumia Exception' - Explaining Injustice By Linn Washington Februrary 12, 2010 http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Mumia-Exception--Ex-by-Linn-Washington-100212-280.html Go to Journalists for Mumia Abu Jamal http://abu-jamal-news.com/ for many articles and videos related to Mumia's case, as well as to other political prisoners. About the Justice on Trial team Director: Iranian-born Kouross Esmaeli has been a member of the Big Noise Films Collective since 2007. His international and domestic news dispatches and documentary work have appeared on MTV, Current TV, Al Jazeera and Democracy Now, among others. A board member of the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association, his co-production of the documentary on Iraq for MTV's True Life won the RTNDA's Edward L. Murrow Prize for Best Television Documentary in 2005. Kouross' last production with Big Noise, Yo Soy el Army: America's New Military Caste, details the heightened recruitment of Latinos by the U.S. military. It debuts next month. Kouross is currently finishing his doctorate in media studies at New York University. Producer: Johanna Fernandez has a Ph.D. in history and teaches 20th-century America, the political economy of American cities and African-American history at Baruch College of the City University of New York. She has published in the Journal of Urban History, in Race and Reason, and in field-defining anthologies on the Civil Rights movement. Her book on the history of the radical Puerto Rican organization, the Young Lords, will be published in 2011. In Spring 2011, she will travel to Jordan as a Fulbright scholar where she will teach graduate courses in American history. The broader message of this film was inspired, in part, by the intrepid reporting of Northwestern journalism students, who in the 1990s scrutinized the work of Chicago prosecutors and police, exposed the practice of tortured and coerced confessions that sent countless innocent and predominantly black men to death row unjustly, and led to a moratorium on executions in Illinois. She believes that the problem of mass and wrongful incarceration is one of the gravest civil rights problems of our time. Film Editor: Aljernon Tunsil has been editing documentaries for the past 15 years. Recently he edited several films for Firelight Media, which were presented on PBS as part of its American Experience series, they include: Freedom Riders, Wounded Knee (Episode 5 of the We Shall Remain series) and Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. In addition to his work on long format historical documentaries, Aljernon has edited numerous short format films and trailers. Aljernon was as the assistant editor on several Academy Award-nominated documentaries including The Smartest Guys In the Room: The Enron Story, Sound and Fury, and The Farm. --------18 of 25-------- From: Charles & Hertha Lutz <chlutz1 [at] comcast.net> Subject: Free Gaza benefit 10.30 6:30pm Saturday, Oct. 30, 6:30-8pm, at Fadia/Yusuf Abul-Hajj home, 1716 Dupont Av. S., Mpls: An Evening with Huwaida Arraf, benefiting Free Gaza Movement, which Arraf chairs. Enjoy wine, cheeses, desserts, and exceptional conversation. RSVP by Oct. 29: philbenson#warrenbensonlaw.com or 612-240-4397. ³Keep the Flotillas Sailing!² --------19 of 25-------- From: jtmiller jtmiller <jtmiller [at] minn.net> Subject: Should we vote? 10.30 7pm Working Democracy Discussion Forum: "SHOULD WE VOTE? Can political elections change the economic system? Should workers vote for Democrats to keep the Republicans out? How will the Workplace Vote make America a true democracy? Saturday, Oct. 30, 7:00 pm MayDay Bookstore, 301 Cedar, Minneapolis --------20 of 25-------- From: Kimberly Nightingale <editor [at] saintpaulalmanac.com> Subject: Hmong Village 10.30 Opening of Hmong Village on Saturday 30th Chris Havens at the Star Tribune reports the grand opening of Hmong Village: a labyrinth of indoor merchant stalls, fresh produce vendors, bustling kitchens and offices geared toward the region's tens of thousands of Hmong residents, many who live in St. Paul. A trip to Hmong Village isn't like going to Southdale. It's similar to other ethnic marketplaces, such as the multicultural Midtown Global Market or Somali Karmel Square in Minneapolis, where many small family-run businesses rent smaller spaces to sell goods and services. It's perhaps the most local of local economies. There are 40 offices, 35 produce booths, 17 restaurants and 230 merchant stalls. Visit Hmong Village at 1001 Johnson Pkwy, just south of Lake Phalen, 10 minutes drive from Downtown. --------21 of 25-------- From: "Grace Kelly (nicknamed Kelly)" <thegracekelly [at] q.com> Subject: Sheriff Fletcher has Horrible Performance Numbers In every election, our current Ramsey County Sheriff Fletcher touts his great successes on crime. Well, actually his performance numbers on crime are horrible. No wonder Sheriff Fletcher will not debate or answer questions in public. One of the performance measures of law enforcement is clearance rates. Clearance is the successful resolution of a case which can mean arrest or it can mean clearing everyone of wrong doing. A 100% clearance rate would be a perfect score. Sheriff Fletcher's department had a clearance rate of 8%, when statewide clearance rate is 49%. White Bear Lake is similar to the areas that Sheriff Fletcher serves. White Bear Lake had a clearance rate of 43%. The Hennepin County Sheriff had a clearance rate of 53%. These are valid comparisons because the very point of these reports is to have comparable numbers because crime is required to be reported in uniform way to the FBI and Minnesota BCA. Sheriff Fletcher has 36 deputies to cover these areas in Ramsey county: Arden Hills Gem Lake Little Canada North Oaks Shoreview Vadnais Heights White Bear Township All the other areas like St Paul, Maplewood and White Bear Lake have their own police forces that do patrolling, investigations and arrests. So Sheriff Fletcher only provides the patrol service for about 80,000 out of the 510,000 people who live in Ramsey County. The other areas of responsibilities for the Sheriff's department include courts, waterways and jails. A recent lit piece touted "23,024", the only way to reach that number is by using all of Ramsey county, most of which Sheriff Fletcher is not responsible for. He is taking complete credit for the work of the police chiefs in Ramsey County! In looking at the BCA 2009 crime reports, one has to notice that Sheriff Fletcher's department has one of the lowest numbers of arrests in the state - 24 arrests. White Bear Lake has similar qualities to the areas that Sheriff Fletcher serves, with only about a third of the population. White Bear Lake has 1110 arrests. Sheriff Fletcher was in the news in 2009 during reports of mismanagement and misdeeds by the Metro Gang Task Force. Sheriff Fletcher's office was the fiscal agent for the task force and in prior elections, Sheriff Fletcher claimed credit for the performance of Metro Gang Task Force. The Metro Gang Task Force was cited for sloppy record keeping among other things. So are these numbers real performance numbers or sloppy record keeping? If only we could publicly ask Sheriff Fletcher that question. In current literature, Sheriff Fletcher claims to reduce serious crime by 20%. "Sheriff Fletcher implemented several programs to help reduce serious crime in Ramsey County by 20%." And this theme is repeated in a recent interview: "Why are you the best candidate for Ramsey County Sheriff? I have extensive experience and success in combating crime in Ramsey County which includes implementing several new initiatives which have helped reduce crime by 20 percent in the last 16 years." (White Bear Press) Here is the problem with that 20 percent. Crime rates have been falling all across the United States due to factors beyond the management of any particular law enforcement. So to claim success, one should do better than the national averages. But Sheriff Fletcher's 20 percent is below every measure of serious crime reduction by the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting done in 2010: Larceny-Theft 32% Burglary 35% Motor Vehicle Theft 57% Aggravated Assault 40% Robbery 48% Rape 29% Murder 47% So these numbers are why I think Sheriff Fletcher will not debate or answer questions in public. In the corporate world, performance numbers like these would mean exit out of a job. Since Sheriff Fletcher is elected, we - the public - have to provide Sheriff Fletcher an exit out of a job by electing Matt Bostrom, the law enforcement leader with 28 years of experience and the best performance numbers! [Bostrom is not as bad but not very good - hardly worth the enthusiasm expressed. -ed] Complete graphs and links are in the full article here: http://tinyurl.com/2crmo95 --------22 of 25-------- Monsters, Human and Mechanical When Drones Come Home to Roost By MICHAEL SCHWALBE Octobe 27, 2010 CounterPunch The age when war was limited to a clearly defined battlefield is long past. In modern wars, civilian populations are bombed, targeted for genocide +and terrorism, and made to suffer by wreckage of infrastructure. The dogs of war, once loosed, respect no fences. We can expect things to get worse. New remote combat technologies - drones and robots controlled by operators far from any delimited battlefield - will bring violence home in ways that will destroy the feelings of safety and security Americans once took for granted. Militarists who tout these technologies claim that they will mean fewer dead soldiers. This is likely to be true, at least for the side that holds a technological edge. When neither side has better killing tools, the death toll will even out and resume ratcheting upward. Militarists see other advantages to remote combat: less popular opposition to war if there are fewer body bags coming home; an easier job of teaching recruits to kill if "combat" is as familiar and bloodless as a video game; and more discord among the ranks of enemy leaders because drone strikes often rely on tips from insiders who are trying to eliminate rivals. The forces driving the development and use of remote combat technologies are partly military and mainly economic. These are enormously profitable technologies for which there will be unlimited demand as nations strive to keep up with each other in a new high-tech arms race. This will be an arms maker's fantasy come true. As always, ordinary citizens will pay the bill, and not only with tax dollars. We will pay with more fear, fatalism, and isolation. The feel of daily life will change. The eventual equalization of technological capability will mean the use of drones and robots to strike at targets in the United States. There will be no need to hijack planes or plant car bombs. Drones, some as small as a suitcase, will be launchable from offshore or just outside U.S. borders. These killing machines will be nearly impossible to stop, as is the case with the drones the U.S. now uses in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. But the problem is not just technological equalization and blowback. The problem is that remote combat technologies have changed the rules of engagement. Stealth assassination anywhere at any time, collateral deaths, and explicit targeting of militarily-employed civilians are the new norms. When U.S. military and political leaders tell us that a Taliban or al Qaeda leader has been taken out by a drone attack, they would have us believe this will seriously weaken the opposing force - so much so that the deaths of nearby friends and family members are an acceptable, if officially regrettable, cost. Whether this kind of remote killing truly weakens an opposing force is a matter of dispute. What seems clear, however, is that such attacks strengthen the resolve to pay us back in kind. It's not hard to understand why. Drone attacks often strike people in their homes, away from active battle zones. Which is why these attacks have killed thousands of innocent bystanders, mainly women and children. What better fuel for revenge? As others have noted, for every alleged Taliban or al Qaeda leader killed by a drone attack, ten recruits are created. Americans too, we can imagine survivors thinking, must learn what it feels like to see their loved ones killed by assassination machines. They must experience this in times and places where they thought they were safe. This retaliation, when it comes, will be justified as necessary, given that Americans have chosen to wage war with killing machines operated from their homeland. The person who flies a drone from a base in the U.S. will be seen as a combatant, hence a legitimate target - and not only while at work but at any time, preferably when most vulnerable. Perhaps while standing next to you at your daughter's soccer game. University-based researchers who devote their talents to inventing new remote combat technologies - like the shapeshifting ChemBot developed at the University of Chicago - will also become targets. Technicians in a laboratory, students in a classroom, and anyone else nearby will become collateral damage. War will come to campus in a way it never has. "Ironic" is too weak a word to describe the situation toward which the inventors and deployers of remote combat technologies are taking us. We will be told that we must use sophisticated machines to kill at a distance to keep violence at bay, even as the inevitable diffusion of this technology brings violence closer to home. We will be told that we are fighting to preserve the rule of law against the forces of lawless terrorism, even as presidents and their minions assume the prerogative to carry out remote assassinations as they deem fit, with no judicial oversight or public accountability. We will be told to be grateful that remote combat technologies make it possible to limit war, even as we exhaust our treasury to pay for it, even as our society becomes more militarized, and even as we experience more fear of dying in conflicts that seem to have no end. Most Americans have not yet learned a lesson well known to partisans of anti-imperialist struggles: from the standpoint of political and economic elites striving for global dominance, no one who might someday oppose them is innocent, and the deaths of the innocent are not important, except when such deaths become ideological liabilities. The inevitable use of drones and robots against us will perhaps force Americans to learn this lesson. When violence arrives at our door, we should ask, Who invited it? The answer is not simplemindedly "us". The answer is, Those who have purported to lead and protect us, while profiting from the invention and use of ever more powerful killing technologies. When that day of awakening comes, Americans might begin to see that what we needed is not just a new set of leaders but a new society, a society that is radically democratic and in which human monsters cannot create mechanical ones to keep the rest of us under control. Michael Schwalbe is a professor of sociology at North Carolina State University. He can be reached at MLSchwalbe [at] nc.rr.com. --------23 of 25-------- The Sissy Left Wimps Can't Win By CLANCY SIGAL October 27, 2010 CounterPunch When did the American left become such sissies? We are shocked, shocked! We throw up our hands in horror, cowering behind prissy words like "divisive" and "sexist" and "uncivil" when frothing-mad homophobic Republican smut-emailers like the New York governor's candidate Carl Paladino hurls verbal excrement at gays, or serial philanderer Newt Gingrich insults President Obama as a treasonous Kenyan mole for "the ideology of Luo tribesmen", or someone in Jerry Brown's campaign calls Meg Whitman a "whore" or a Colorado billboard accuses Obama of being an Islamist suicide bomber as well as a gay Mexican bandit. "Sickmaking" and "the worst I've ever seen," my friends call the current wave of corporate-financed attack ads. A little perspective, please. We Americans have a wonderfully slimy history of "negative campaigns" that goes back to George Washington in 1789 if not even earlier to Plymouth Rock Puritans who probably accused each other of unChristian heresies if not downright bestiality. To refresh our memories: In 1800 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once warm friends, tore each other apart because President Adams found himself running against candidate Jefferson. Adams's hacks called Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived son of a half-breed Indian squaw sired by a Virginia mulatto father". (Race mattered even then.) Jefferson's PR man, a proto-Karl Rove, slammed Adams as a "repulsive pedant" and "hideous hermaphroditical character". That's before the mud slinging got really ugly, Tom labeling John as a hypocrite, criminal and tyrant anxious to drag us into war with France and John calling Tom a sex-mad atheist and coward. Mud stuck, and Tom stole - er, won - the election. A few years later John Quincy Adams was called a pimp, and Andrew Jackson's wife a slut and his mother a Negro-loving prostitute. Davy Crockett accused Martin van Buren of wearing women's corsets. Of course Abe Lincoln was for slave-loving Democrats the "gorilla tyrant" - and he had stinky feet too. In the 1884 elections Republicans accused nominee Grover Cleveland of fathering and abandoning an illegitimate child with the party slogan "Ma, ma, where's my pa?". (And when Cleveland won the presidency the Democrats paid back with, "In the White House, ha ha ha!") Closer to modern times, Teddy Roosevelt running against obese William Howard Taft called him "a rat in a corner", and William McKinley's supporters tagged candidate William Jennings Bryan a crazy degenerate. In my time, President Roosevelt was compared unfavorably to Hitler, had committed "the crime of the century" by giving Federal money to the jobless, was a demented paralytic cripple and probably Jewish ("Rosenfelt" was a common slur) and had a lesbian wife. It follows that Jack Kennedy had to be the Pope's captive, Barry Goldwater a dangerously psychotic warmonger, thrice-wounded Lt John Kerry "swiftboated" as a cowardly liar, and in the 2000 presidential primaries John McCain effectively lost the nomination when South Carolinians were leafleted that he had fathered an illegitimate black baby. This year, the Supreme Court's ridiculous Citizens United vs Federal Election Commission ruling that corporations can unload any amount of money on conservative candidates (the real meaning of the court's decision) has unleashed a tsunami of ugly personal racist ads on the hapless Democrats running for cover. Dirt is not a GOP monopoly. Lest it be forgotten, Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, who has led the charge against the Chamber of Commerce's dirty-secret funding of Republican candidates, himself in 2004 ran a miserably low TV ad attack against the Democratic front runner Howard Dean, merging images of Dean with Osama Bin Laden. The fact is, "claims that 2010 is the most negative election to date may be premature", reports the Wesleyan Media Project. Compared to 2008 there's only a "slight" increase in personal attacks. The point of the Republican ads I've seen is to bully voters - to reach deep down into our guts to re-channel our (often justified) rage away from the rich and powerful onto the most vulnerable citizens and their champions. There's always a barely disguised code, and the code is pure impotent hatred. What we know of bullies from schoolyard brawls is that they're never satisfied until you knock them down and step on them, hard. That seems to be beyond the imagination and capabilities of sweet-tempered, passive, over-educated, please-play-nice Obama's men and women whose Democratic-controlled Congress has just stripped $12 billion from a long term food-stamps program precisely at the time when more Americans than ever literally hunger for such assistance. By the end of next year 10 million homes will be lost to (often fraudulent) foreclosure - ten million! Yet Obama refuses to honor his campaign pledge to declare a moratorium because he fears the bankers' fury. The Democrats fold to appease their unappeasable Republican enemies. Across the country, in tight races in Florida, Oregon, Ohio and Colorado, they're even running away from their own at-risk Democratic candidates who loyally voted for ObamaCare health insurance. Moral: You turn tail from bullies and they chase you into a dark alley and kick you to death. When did we on the left forget how to fight back in dark alleys and call our enemies what they are, degenerate psychopaths who wear women's corsets, have smelly feet and hermaphroditic tendencies? Clancy Sigal is a novelist and screenwriter in Los Angeles. He can be reached at clancy [at] jsasoc.com --------24 of 25-------- The Rich Getting Richer The Class War at Home By BILL QUIGLEY CounterPunch October 25, 2010 The rich and their paid false prophets are doing a bang up job deceiving the poor and middle class. They have convinced many that an evil socialism is alive in the land and it is taking their fair share. But the deception cannot last - facts say otherwise. Yes, there is a class war - the war of the rich on the poor and the middle class - and the rich are winning. That war has been going on for years. Look at the facts - facts the rich and their false paid prophets do not want people to know. Let Glen Beck go on about socialists descending on Washington. Allow Rush Limbaugh to rail about "class warfare for a leftist agenda that will destroy our society". They are well compensated false prophets for the rich. The truth is that for the several decades the rich in the US have been getting richer and the poor and middle class have been getting poorer. Look at the facts then make up your own mind. The official US poverty numbers show we now have the highest number of poor people in 51 years. The official US poverty rate is 14.3 percent or 43.6 million people in poverty. One in five children in the US is poor; one in ten senior citizens is poor. Source: US Census Bureau. One of every six workers, 26.8 million people, is unemployed or underemployed. This "real" unemployment rate is over 17 per cent. There are 14.8 million people designated as "officially" unemployed by the government, a rate of 9.6 per cent. Unemployment is worse for African American workers of whom 16.1 per cent are unemployed. Another 9.5 million people who are working only part-time while they are seeking full-time work but have had their hours cut back or are so far only able to find work part-time are not counted in the official unemployment numbers. Also, an additional 2.5 million are reported unemployed but not counted because they are classified as discouraged workers in part because they have been out of work for more than 12 months. Source: US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics October 2010 report. The median household income for whites in the US is $51,861; for Asians it is $65,469; for African Americans it is $32,584; for Latinos it is $38,039. Source: US Census Bureau. Fifty million people in the US lack health insurance. Source: US Census Bureau. Women in the US have a greater lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related conditions than women in 40 other countries. African American US women are nearly 4 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women. Source: Amnesty International Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA. About 3.5 million people, about one-third of which are children, are homeless at some point in the year in the US. Source: National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. Outside Atlanta, 33,000 people showed up to seek applications for low cost subsidized housing in August 2010. When Detroit offered emergency utility and housing assistance to help people facing evictions, more than 50,000 people showed up for the 3,000 vouchers. Source: News reports. There are 49 million people in the US who live in households which eat only because they receive food stamps, visit food pantries or soup kitchens for help. Sixteen million are so poor they have skipped meals or foregone food at some point in the last year. This is the highest level since statistics have been kept. Source: US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Middle Class Going Backward: Facts One or two generations ago it was possible for a middle class family to live on one income. Now it takes two incomes to try to enjoy the same quality of life. Wages have not kept up with inflation; adjusted for inflation they have lost ground over the past ten years. The cost of housing, education and health care have all increased at a much higher rate than wages and salaries. In 1967, the middle 60 percent of households received over 52 per cent of all income. In 1998, it was down to 47 per cent. The share going to the poor has also fallen, with the top 20 per cent seeing their share rise. A record 2.8 million homes received a foreclosure notice in 2009, higher than both 2008 and 2007. In 2010, the rate is expected to be rise to 3 million homes. Sources: Reuters and RealtyTrac. Eleven million homeowners (about one in four homeowners) in the US are "under water" or owe more on their mortgages than their house is worth. Source: "Home truths," The Economist, October 23, 2010. For the first time since the 1940s, the real incomes of middle-class families are lower at the end of the business cycle of the 2000s than they were at the beginning. Despite the fact that the American workforce is working harder and smarter than ever, they are sharing less and less in the benefits they are creating. This is true for white families but even truer for African American families whose gains in the 1990s have mostly been eliminated since then. Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America. Rich Getting Richer: Facts The wealth of the richest 400 people in the US grew by 8 per cent in the last year to $1.37 trillion. Source: Forbes 400: The super-rich get richer, September 22, 2010, Money.com The top Hedge Fund Manager of 2009, David Tepper, "earned" $4 billion last year. The rest of the top ten earned: $3.3 billion, $2.5 billion, $2.3 billion, $1.4 billion, $1.3 billion (tie for 6th and 7th place), $900 million (tie for 8th and 9th place), and in last place out of the top ten, $825 million. Source: Business Insider. "Meet the top 10 earning hedge fund managers of 2009". Income disparity in the US is now as bad as it was right before the Great Depression at the end of the 1920s. From 1979 to 2006, the richest 1 per cent more than doubled their share of the total US income, from 10 per cent to 23 per cent. The richest 1 per cent have an average annual income of more than $1.3 million. For the last 25 years, over 90 per cent of the total growth in income in the US went to the top 10 per cent earners - leaving 9 per cent of all income to be shared by the bottom 90 per cent. Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America. In 1973, the average US CEO was paid $27 for every dollar paid to a typical worker; by 2007 that ratio had grown to $275 to $1. Source: Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America. Since 1992, the average tax rate on the richest 400 taxpayers in the US dropped from 26.8 per cent to 16.62 per cent. Source: US Internal Revenue Service. The US has the greatest inequality between rich and poor among all Western industrialized nations and it has been getting worse for 40 years. The World Factbook, published by the CIA, includes an international ranking of the inequality among families inside of each country, called the Gini Index. The US ranking of 45 in 2007 is the same as Argentina, Cameroon, and Cote d'Ivorie. The highest inequality can be found in countries like Namibia, South Africa, Haiti and Guatemala. The US ranking of 45 compares poorly to Japan (38), India (36), New Zealand, UK (34), Greece (33), Spain (32), Canada (32), France (32), South Korea (31), Netherlands (30), Ireland (30), Australia (30), Germany (27), Norway (25), and Sweden (23). Source: CIA The World Factbook: Rich people live an average of about five years longer than poor people in the US. Naturally, gross inequality has consequences in terms of health, exposure to unhealthy working conditions, nutrition and lifestyle. In 1980, the most well off in the US had a life expectancy of 2.8 years over the least well-off. As the inequality gap widens, so does the life expectancy gap. In 1990, the gap was a little less than 4 years. In 2000, the least well-off could expect to live to age of 74.7 while the most well off had a life expectancy of 79.2 years. Source: Elise Gould, "Growing disparities in life expectancy," Economic Policy Institute. Conclusion These are extremely troubling facts for anyone concerned about economic fairness, equality of opportunity, and justice. Thomas Jefferson once observed that the systematic restructuring of society to benefit the rich over the poor and middle class is a natural appetite of the rich. "Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor". But Jefferson also knew that justice can only be delayed so long when he said, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever". The rich talk about the rise of socialism to divert attention from the fact that they are devouring the basics of the poor and everyone else. Many of those crying socialism the loudest are doing it to enrich or empower themselves. They are right about one thing - there is a class war going on in the US. The rich are winning their class war, and it is time for everyone else to fight back for economic justice. Bill Quigley is Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him at quigley77 [at] gmail.com --------25 of 25-------- ------------------ Despise the rich ------------------ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments vote third party for president for congress for governor now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8 Research almost any topic raised here at: CounterPunch http://counterpunch.org Dissident Voice http://dissidentvoice.org Common Dreams http://commondreams.org Once you're there, do a search on your topic, eg obama drones
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