Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 02.04.11

[David Shove (shove001]

              P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R   02.04.11

1. FFunch amok      2.04 11:30
2. Islam/law/rights 2.04 3pm
3. Palestine vigil  2.04 4:15pm

4. Bolivia          2.05 10am
5. CUAPB            2.05 1:30pm
6. Northtown vigil  2.05 2pm
7. Antiracism       2.05

8. Existentialism   2.06 9am
9. Stillwater vigil 2.06 1pm
10. Humanism        2.06 3pm

11. John Stanton     - Egypt's protesters will spark global mass movements
12. William Hathaway - Anarchists for peace
13. Vijay Prashad    - The empire's bagman: Frank Wisner in Cairo
14. Ralph Nader      - What about free and fair elections in the US?
15. ed               - Liberal miracles  (haiku)

--------1 of 15--------

From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: FFunch amok 2.04 11:30

Run amok with fellow ffunchers!
11:30am-1pm
First Friday Lunch (FFUNCH) for progressives.
Informal political talk and hanging out.

Day By Day Cafe 477 W 7th Av St Paul.
Meet on the far south side.

Day By Day has soups, salads, sandwiches, and dangerous
apple pie; is close to downtown St Paul & on major bus lines


--------2 of 15--------

From: Vicky Nguyen <humanrts [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Islam/law/rights 2.04 3pm

February 4, 2011: Launching Ceremony for the Islamic Law & Human Rights
Program
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

University of Minnesota Law School Room 25
Reception to follow in Auerbach Commons
Walter F. Mondale Hall
229 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Cost: Free and Open to the Public.

The Islamic Law & Human Rights Program will engage in research,
scholarship, and educational and practical activities on issues of Islamic
law, human rights, rule of law, and terrorism.

FEATURED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
 Rep. Keith Ellison, U.S. House of Representatives
 Meredith McQuaid, Associate VP & Dean, Office of Int'l Programs,
University of Minnesota
 Professor David Wippman, Dean, University of Minnesota Law School
 Professor Ahmed Ismail Samatar, Dean, Institute for Global Citizenship,
Macalester College
 Judge (ret.) LaJune Lange, President, Int'l Leadership Institute
 Zainab Hassan, Program Officer, the Minneapolis Foundation
 Hussein Samatar, Director, African Development Center

LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED

EVENT CONTACT: Mr. Abdulwahid Qalinle
Director, Islamic Law &amp; Human Rights Program
Adjunct Professor, University of Minnesota Law School
Email: shei0038 [at] umn.edu
Tel: 612-501-7384


--------3 of 15--------

From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net>
Subject: Palestine vigil 2.04 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.


--------4 of 15--------

From: Kiera Coulter <kcoulter [at] macalester.edu>
Subject: Bolivia 2.05 10am

Coffee Hour: Higher Education for Indigenous Youth in Bolivia (2/5/11)
Saturday, February 5/2011
Resource Center of The Americas
From 10:00am to 11:45am

Description:
The Unidad Acadmica Campesina-Carmen Pampa (UAC-CP) is a college in rural
Bolivia that provides access to higher education for poor, indigenous
youth. The UAC-CP, internationally recognized for both its unique approach
and ability to address and dissipate root causes of poverty, is partially
funded by Carmen Pampa Fund (CPF). CPF is a non-profit organization based
in St. Paul, Minnesota that generates resources to assist the growth and
development of the UAC-CP.

Biographies:
Jessica Bellock and David Flannery are two Twin Cities residents who have
lived and worked at the College (Jessica in 2009 and David in 2010). As
former volunteers, they will talk about the Colleges work to educate
students in one of the poorest areas of Bolivia.

Contact Information:
Sarah Mechtenberg
Communications Liaison
Carmen Pampa Fund
www.carmenpampafund.org
www.uchumachi.blogspot.com


--------5 of 15--------

From: Michelle Gross <mgresist [at] visi.com>
Subject: CUAPB 2.05 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)


--------6 of 15--------

From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 2.05 2pm

Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday
2-3pm


--------7 of 15--------

From: Margery Otto <motto [at] hobt.org>
Subject: Antiracism 2.05

Event: ASDIC Antiracism Circle
Join an ASDIC Antiracism Study-Dialogue Circle this spring.

As our racial-political climate changes, we are called to better identify
and address the racism operating in and about us.  Through the intensive,
highly interactive process of an ASDIC Circle, we deepen the
understandings, obtain the resources, and form the supportive
relationships we need in order to be part of strong, just community.

Members of an ASDIC Circle commit to meeting together twelve times for a
shared meal and three hours of study, dialogue and action-planning.  This
spring an ASDIC Circle will be forming on Saturday mornings in Saint Paul,
beginning on February 5, continuing through May 21. ASDIC Circles are
offered on Give What You Can basis.  For more details, see the attached
flyer. To register, contact Rev. Tim Johnson at 651-227-4275 or
cpuc [at] usfamily.net

ASDIC Circles have proven to be highly empowering and transformative. The
ASDIC Antiracism Study-Dialogue CircleŽ program is the recipient of: the
2010 Facing Race Ambassadors Award, given by The Saint Paul Foundation,
and the 2010 Touchstone Award for Inclusiveness, given by the Duluth
Superior Area Community Foundation.  For more information about ASDIC, see
www.asdic-circle.org <http://www.asdic-circle.org>


--------8 of 15--------

From: Minnesota Atheists <web [at] mnatheists.org>
Subject: Existentialism 2.06 9am

Sunday, February 6, 9:00am-10:00am "Atheists Talk" Radio AM 950 KTNF in
the Twin Cities or stream live at http://www.am950ktnf.com.

Mike Haubrich (http://quichemoraine.com/category/mikehaubrich) hosts. uest
Nick Pease discusses existentialism. Contact us during the show with
questions or comments at (952) 946-6205 or [20]radio [at] mnatheists.org.
  Links:    20. mailto:radio [at] mnatheists.org.Sunday


--------9 of 15--------

From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Stillwater vigil 2.06 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


--------10 of 15--------

From: Minnesota Atheists <web [at] mnatheists.org>
Subject: Humanism 2.06 3pm

Sunday, February 6, 3:00pm  [21]Humanist Inspiration: Finding Value and
Meaning in Humanism
Common Roots Cafe, 2558 Lyndale Ave S, Minneapolis MN 55405

Let's talk about what humanism means to us - instead of what it is not or
what it excludes - what it does look like, what it does feel like, what it
does inspire in belief and action!


--------11 of 15--------

Egypt's Protesters Will Spark Global Mass Movements
Internet and Globalization's Positives
Dissident Voice
by John Stanton / February 2nd, 2011

Americans remain largely ambivalent to the tectonic shifts taking place in
Egypt, Jordan, Albania, Lebanon and Tunisia. What's worse is that most
Americans 40 years and under have an oh-hum view about their own
government employees (soldiers, diplomats), and contractors, who are
fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq. Do they know that US Special
Forces engage in Foreign Internal Defense operations in 65 countries
around the globe supporting "friendly governments" like Egypt, Jordan,
Thailand, Iraq and Israel through training and, if necessary, combat
support? Pew Research reports that only 11 percent of the American public
is following the historic people movement in Egypt. [Lesser-evil liberals
like the way things are and detest revolutionary change so they don't want
to hear about it. -ed]

Don't the Egyptian people deserve the same support from Americans given to
the Iranian Green movement in 2009?

Given the indifference of the American public, it is no surprise that its
political, military, and business leaders - and academia in think tanks
and universities - remain blind and unprepared for game changing street
movements taking place in the most heavily armed region of the world, the
Middle East/Central Asia. The USA lacks agility in policy making and
execution. More's the pity; it lives still in the Cold War era longing for
the grand enemy and having to settle for impoverished
insurgents/terrorists.

Yet the governing and policy setting elite in the USA are simply
reflections of the apathetic will of the American people. [Indeed. ed]
Zbigniew Brzezinski captured it best in an interview with Der Speigel in
2010:

I am very worried that most Americans are close to total ignorance about
the world. They are ignorant. That is an unhealthy condition in a country
in which foreign policy has to be endorsed by the people if it is to be
pursued. And it makes it much more difficult for any president to pursue
an intelligent policy that does justice to the complexity of the world.
[American exceptionalism] is a reaction to the inability of people to
understand global complexity or important issues like American energy
dependency. Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and
clarity. And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak,
the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly
ignorant.

Yes, "stunningly ignorant". The US Congress has become a loony bin with
the arrival of the Tea Party, and the Oval Office hosts a President who,
looking caring and liberal on paper and in the virtual world, has
continued and even accelerated the Reagan-Bush I-Clinton-Bush II 80/20
program: 80 percent of the wealth is to be owned by 20 percent of the
people. That process continues as more Americans (human capital) are
written off the books. The ranks of the American unemployed, homeless,
benefitless, and temporary work force continues to swell. It also includes
many formers members of the US military.

In the face of all this, the US Congress finds it difficult to extend
unemployment benefits but, with Presidential support, approves a trillion
dollars to salvage banks and financial houses. Yet, American consumers are
called upon by leaders to borrow and spend to stimulate the economy.
Perhaps a better plan would have been to have the US government pay off
all the mortgages of American homeowners and buy out other consumer debt.

And the USA continues its slide into some sort of
military-capitalist-democracy as the eloquent Andrew Bacevich has pointed
out. There is an important lesson from Egypt here: as the Egyptian Army
maintains an environment where protesters can demonstrate without
reprisal, they are showered with praise by commentators and government
officials alike. Images of lovey-dovey military members and civilians in
solidarity are all over the Net. But make no mistake; the armed forces are
employees of the government and their interests are quite clear: If not
overly, then covertly retain power and position.

Angels do not sit in the turrets of Abrams tanks.

The public would do well not to deify, further, the military. The armed
forces of nations constantly at war, operating under a state of
emergency - like the USA - and whose military machinery is nearly
indistinguishable from civilian government should be viewed cautiously. As
President Eisenhower pointed out, a robust military and defense industrial
base is necessary but "the problem in defense is how far you can go
without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from
without".

Socialists with Keen Observations

As the writers at the ever observant World Socialists recently stated, the
USA clearly has interests many government and business officials, pundits
and commentators do not want to discuss. Life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness for the Egyptian people is not first among those interests.

The policy being developed in Washington has, in the short term, two aims:
to shore up the Egyptian military and intelligence apparatus - hence the
appointment of intelligence chief and former general Omar Suleiman as vice
president - and to prepare a political alternative to Mubarak if his
removal proves necessary. But any replacement sanctioned by Washington
will be nothing more than a puppet providing pseudo-democratic window
dressing for a new military regime. [Thanks Obama. -ed]

As the Obama administration confronts a growing revolutionary movement in
Egypt, its tactics will flow from two overriding and inseparable strategic
aims: defending the Egyptian capitalist state and maintaining the country
as the linchpin of American imperialist operations in the Mediterranean,
North Africa and throughout the Middle East. The working class in Egypt
and its allies among the insurgent masses must not permit themselves the
slightest illusions in the intentions and plans of President Obama. The
president and his advisors in the Pentagon and the CIA are determined to
contain the revolutionary movement.

The demonstration of the working class's immense social power has shaken
the ruling class and its spokesmen in the mainstream media. As the New
York Times decried that the protests are becoming "open class warfare,"
CNN explained the collapse in stocks of US oil companies with investments
in Egypt by fears that "a new government could expropriate their land
concessions. The financial aristocracy, however, fears far more than the
loss of an oil field - or even of a sea-lane like Egypt's Suez Canal,
which is critical to world commerce. More fundamental political issues are
at stake.

Leaders in every nation are now watching their backs as well they should.
But the masses, the people, are ultimately responsible for whom they
choose for figureheads/leaders. Concrete change that alters the course of
a nation must come from The Street. It is there where 80 percent of the
people work their lives away for the 20 percent who rule - whether through
the voting process or brutal oppression.

The Egyptian people have shown that the Net and Globalization can be used
for more than fun and games. As the Egyptian government shut down the Net
and other communications channels to disrupt protesters, it was engaged in
a cut-off-the nose to spite-the-face policy. For example, millions of
dollars in lost business revenue for telecommunications companies has
taken place. The ripple effect must be enormous.

The Net and Globalization have given people everywhere the ability to see
past the statements/data of their governments and corporations. Wikileaks
Cables, of course, confirmed that there are methods and madness in a
diplomatic corps, intelligence agency, contractor or military service.

Thanks to the Net and Globalization, leaders everywhere may well yet be
held to account in a timely manner. The Egyptian protesters (and to a
degree the Wikileaks case) have shown that it is possible to create a
Global Virtual Mass Movement in support of a political/labor cause. Al
Jazeera, Facebook, Twitter, TOR and Anonymous and a host of hackers,
computer technicians, et al, have, from a distance, accelerated the demise
of Mubarak's government.

The day should be near when the disenfranchised in one country can call on
the public of many countries to protest/strike against governments and
industry in virtual and physical space. A Global Mass Movement, or strike,
is just around the corner that will bankrupt a corporation or weaken
another government.

John Stanton is a Virginia based writer specializing in political and
national security affairs. He can be reached at: camus666ster [at] gmail.com.


--------12 of 15--------

Anarchists for Peace
by William T. Hathaway
February 2nd, 2011
Dissident Voice

It costs 50 million dollars to kill each Taliban, but when dead he becomes
a martyred hero to recruit new replacements, so the numbers of Taliban are
increasing. In Iraq the terror our invasion unleashed still rages
unabated, with hired mercenaries and local soldiers unable to stop it, as
our troops before them were unable to. Yet we continue the fighting, and
Obama the peace candidate has morphed into a war president. We are trapped
in endless war.

To break out of this death trap, anarchists have turned to radical
tactics. They've moved beyond demonstrations and petitions into direct
action, defying the government's laws and impeding its capacity for mass
murder. Some of them have become domestic insurgents, helping soldiers to
desert, destroying computer systems, trashing recruiting offices, burning
military equipment, and sabotaging defense contractors. As criminals for
peace, they are defying the Patriot Act and working underground in secret
cells to undermine the US military empire. They are convinced the only way
to bring peace now is to bring the system down.

They tell their first-person experiences in a new book, Radical Peace:
People Refusing War, just published by Trine Day. Noam Chomsky called it,
"A book that captures such complexities and depths of human existence,
even apart from the immediate message".

The book profiles several saboteurs. Trucker is the code name of a man who
burns military vehicles. He sees his sabotage as nonviolent because it
doesn't harm human beings, only things. He states, "It's only because our
culture worships property that we see destroying war machines as violence.
What I'm doing is depriving the military of their tools of violence. I'm
decreasing their ability to harm people. Since they refuse to disarm, I'm
doing it for them. I'd never set fire to a building because someone might
be inside. I even look inside the trucks to make sure no one is sleeping
there".

Radical Peace also profiles a janitor who has destroyed computers at a
defense contractor with electrical surges. "I'm sure the lost work and
equipment has set back the war effort," he states, "and I'm looking
forward to my next surge for peace".

A college student relates how she threw a rock through the window of an
army recruiter after her friend returned from Iraq crippled. She plans to
do it again but says, 'I wouldn't throw a rock at the recruiter. I don't
have anything against him as a person".

Other domestic insurgents are cutting phone and electricity wires into
recruiting offices, slashing their tires, painting over their billboards.
At universities they are attacking military research projects and ROTC
offices: stealing their mail, squirting glue into their door locks,
hacking into their computers. An autonome tossed a log under the wheels of
an arms train and derailed it, but he was careful to do it in the middle
of the train so no one would be injured.

The anarchists in the book agree that such resistance must be nonviolent,
that it not injure living creatures. Setting bombs and burning buildings
where people could be inside can't achieve anything worthwhile. It just
reproduces the same mentality that we're trying to change.

Rather than randomly smashing windows and torching autos, they restrict
their activities to institutions that support or profit from the war.
Their goal is to make the war too expensive to continue. A few acts of
sabotage won't do that, but thousands can. Government and corporate
resources are limited. Taxes and the deficit are already so high that
they're crippling the economy. Every dollar the government has to spend
keeping things running here is one they can't spend killing people
overseas.

The militants believe that direct actions like these aren't a substitute
for traditional organizing, but in critical situations like the present
they can supplement it. Sabotage won't build a new society, but it can
help weaken the old one so the new one can be built.

Chapters of Radical Peace are posted on the publisher's website .

William T. Hathaway's other books include A World of Hurt (Rinehart
Foundation Award), CD-Ring, and Summer Snow. He is an adjunct professor of
American studies at the University of Oldenburg in Germany.


--------13 of 15--------

Frank Wisner in Cairo
The Empire's Bagman
By VIJAY PRASHAD
February 2, 2011
CounterPunch

From inside the bowels of Washington's power elite, Frank Wisner emerges,
briefcase in hand. He has met the President, but he is not his envoy. He
represents the United States, but is not the Ambassador. What is in his
briefcase is his experience: it includes his long career as bagman of
Empire, and as bucket-boy for Capital. Pulling himself away from the
Georgetown cocktail parties and the Langley Power-point briefings, Wisner
finds his way to the Heliopolis cocktail parties and to the hushed
conferences in Kasr al-Ittihadiya. Mubarak (age 82) greets Wisner (age
72), as these elders confer on the way forward for a country whose
majority is under thirty.

Obama came to Cairo in 2009, and said, "America does not presume to know
what is best for everyone." Those words should have been cast in gold and
placed in the portico of the White House. Instead, they drift like wisps
in the wind, occasionally sighted for propaganda purposes, but in a time
of crisis, hidden behind the clouds of imperial interests (or those of Tel
Aviv). America presumes to know, and presumes to have a say equivalent to
those of the millions who have thronged Egypt's squares, streets and
television sets (one forgets about the protests of the latter, too tired
to get to the square, nursing sick children or adults, a bit fearful, but
no less given over to anger at the regime).

The Republicans have their own ghouls, people like James Baker, who are
plucked out for tasks that require the greatest delicacy. They are like
diplomatic hit-men, who are not sown up by too much belief in the values
of democracy and freedom, but to the imperatives of "stability" and
Empire. The Democratic bench is lighter now, as the immense bulk of
Richard Holbrooke has departed for other diplomatic assignments. He had
been given charge of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he found little
traction. The Taliban could not be cowered, and nor would the Pakistani
military. Holbrooke had much easier times in the Balkans, where, according
to Diana Johnstone, he instigated the conflict by refusing the road of
peace. Wisner comes out of the same nest as Holbrooke. He is the
Democrat's version of James Baker, but without the pretend gravity of the
Texan.

Wisner has a long lineage in the CIA family. His father, Frank Sr., helped
overthrow Arbenz of Guatemala (1954) and Mossadeq of Iran (1953), before
he was undone in mysterious circumstances in 1965. Frank Jr. is well known
around Langley, with a career in the Defense and State Departments along
with ambassadorial service in Egypt, the Philippines, and then India. In
each of these places Wisner insinuated himself into the social and
military branches of the power elite. He became their spokesperson. Wisner
and Mubarak became close friends when he was in country (1986-1991), and
many credit this friendship (and military aid) with Egypt's support of the
US in the 1991 Gulf War. Not once did the US provide a criticism of
Egypt's human rights record. As Human Rights Watch put it, the George H.
W. Bush regime "refrained from any public expression of concern about
human rights violations in Egypt." Instead, military aid increased, and
the torture system continued. The moral turpitude (bad guys, aka the
Muslim Brotherhood and democracy advocates need to be tortured) and the
torture apparatus set up the system for the regime followed by Bush's son,
George W. after 911, with the extraordinary rendition programs to these
very Egyptian prisons. Wisner might be considered the architect of the
framework for this policy.

Wisner remained loyal to Mubarak. In 2005, he celebrated the Egyptian
(s)election (Mubarak "won" with 88.6% of the vote). It was a "historic
day" he said, and went further, "There were no instances of repression;
there wasn't heavy police presence on the streets. The atmosphere was not
one of police intimidation." This is quite the opposite of what came out
from election observers, human rights organizations and bloggers such as
Karee Suleiman and Hossam el-Hamalawy. The Democratic and Republican
ghouls came together in the James Baker Institute's working group on the
Middle East. Wisner joined the Baker Institute's head Edward Djerejian and
others to produce a report in 2003 that offers us a tasty statement,
"Achieving security and stability in the Middle East will be made more
difficult by the fact that short-term necessities will seem to contradict
long-term goals." If the long-term goal is Democracy, then that is all
very well because it has to be sacrificed to the short-term, namely
support for the kind of Pharonic State embodied by Mubarak. Nothing more
is on offer. No wonder that a "Washington Middle East hand" told The
Cable, "[Wisner's] the exact wrong person to send. He is an apologist for
Mubarak." But this is a wrong view. Wisner is just the exact person to
send to protect the short-term, and so only-term, interests of Washington.
The long-term has been set aside.

I first wrote about Wisner in 1997 when he joined the board of directors
of Enron Corporation. Where Wisner had been, to Manila and New Delhi,
Enron followed. As one of his staffers said, "if anybody asked the CIA to
help promote US business in India, it was probably Frank." Without the CIA
and the muscle of the US government, it is unlikely that the Subic Bay
power station deal or the Dabhol deal would have gone to Enron. Here
Wisner followed James Baker, who was hired by Enron to help it gain access
to the Shuaiba power plant in Kuwait. Nor is he different from Holbrooke,
who was in the upper circle of Credit Suisse First Boston, Lehman
Brothers, Perseus and the American International Group. They used the full
power of the US state to push the private interests of their firms, and
then made money for themselves. This is the close nexus of Capital and
Empire, and Wisner is the hinge between them.

One wonders at the tenor of the official cables coming from Cairo to
Washington. Ambassador Margaret Scobey, a career official, has been once
more sidelined. The first time was over rendition. She is known to have
opposed the tenor of it, and had spoken on behalf of Ayman Nour and
others. This time Obama did an end run around her, sending Wisner. Scobey
went to visit El-Baradei. Similar treatment was meted out to Ambassador
Anne Patterson in Islamabad. Her brief was narrowed by Holbrooke's
appointment. What must these women in senior places think, that when a
crisis erupts, they are set-aside for the men of Washington?

Wisner urged Mubarak to concede. It is not enough. More is being asked
for. Today, Mubarak's supporters have come out with bats in hand, ready
for a fight. This has probably also been sanctioned in that private
meeting. It is what one expects of Empire's bagman.

Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair of South Asian
History and Director of International Studies at Trinity College,
Hartford, CT His most recent book, The Darker Nations: A People's History
of the Third World, won the Muzaffar Ahmad Book Prize for 2009. The
Swedish and French editions are just out. He can be reached at:
vijay.prashad [at] trincoll.edu


--------14 of 15--------

An Open Letter to President Obama
What About Free and Fair Elections in the US?
By RALPH NADER
February 2, 2011
CounterPunch

Dear President Obama:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reflected your sentiments when she
commented on the Egyptian uprising with the words "We want to see free and
fair elections."

But in the District of Columbia, where you and Secretary Clinton reside,
there are no "free and fair elections" for electing representatives with
full voting rights to Congress. There is only the continual
disenfranchisement "unique to all other national capital cities in
purported democracies" for the hundreds of thousands of voting age
citizens in the District of Columbia.

You stated that the United States "will continue to stand up for the
rights of the Egyptian people." Presumably that includes the right to have
members of Parliament, with full voting rights, elected by the Egyptian
voters.

Although you declared in the 2008 election that you supported voting
rights for the District "at the least one voting member of the House of
Representatives if not two voting Senators" but you used little if any of
your political capital or the bully pulpit and muscle to get even the most
modest measure through Congress.

Will you now stand up for the voting rights in Congress for District
voters, especially since the Republicans in the House have just taken away
what Committee-level voting rights Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has had?

Here is a suggestion to get started and one that will enhance a spirit of
solidarity. Why not invite 100 of the exuberant, bi-lingual, peaceful
Egyptian demonstrators to come to Washington, D.C. and help rally District
residents in a massive gathering for their democratic rights in front of
the White House at Lafayette Park? [Ha ha. -ed]

Before you address them, you can look out the window of the White House
and see the colonials' signs, and banners and hear their chants.

They might even announce a staggered General Strike whereby at the
beginning of each month they come to work 30 minutes later in the morning
so that in six months, they go to work at noon. Some employers, especially
non-profits and commercial concerns with a sense of self-respect and human
rights, may actually encourage such commitment and join with them.

During this elevating protest, people can discuss what it means to the
District of Columbia when Congress can over-rule the City Council's
decisions, vanquish referenda results, distort its budget, and decline to
adequately reimburse the District government for incurring many federal
governmental expenses, as precisely outlined recently by Colbert King in
the January 29th Washington Post. Conversely, they can ponder with you
what is not even contemplated by District residents because of their
thralldom to the Congressional veto.

So, come home with your rhetoric, Mr. President, come home to liberate
your District of Columbia. What is your response? [A: "Up yours!" -ed]

Sincerely, Ralph Nader

(Anyone interested in helping voting rights for Congress in D.C. can call
the White House switchboard number at 202-456-1414 and express your
opinion.)


--------15 of 15--------

 It's a miracle
 our liberals can have kids
 when they have no balls.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
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                          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