Progressive Calendar 08.05.06 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu) | |
Date: Sat, 5 Aug 2006 04:29:13 -0700 (PDT) |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 08.05.06 1. LWVoters 8.05 9am 2. Cabaret face lift 8.05 9am 3. Wamm book club 8.05 10am 4. Workplace justice 8.05 10am 5. Homeless Vets4P 8.05 10am 6. GreenParty StP 8.05 12noon 7. Lebanon/Gaza rally 8.05 1pm 8. Wetback/film 8.05 3pm 9. Mortenson party 8.05 6pm 10. Hiroshima events 8.05-06 6pm 11. Hiroshima walk 8.05 7:30pm Duluth MN 12. Ball/bad puppets 8.05 8pm 13. Bar crawl 8.05 time? 14. DeptPeace/fest 8.05-06 Dunnell MN 15. Fringe festival 16. Max J Castro - As Lebanon burns, US leaders cheer 17. John Conyers - The Constitution in crisis 18. ed - I'd like to write a haiku (poem) -------1 of 18------- From: erin [at] mnwomen.org Subject: LWVoters 8.05 9am Also Saturday, August 5: League of Women Voters of Minnesota Voter Service Training 9 AM. Lunch and informal discussion at noon, followed by Moderator Training from 12:30-3 PM. Hamline University School of Law. To reserve 651/224-5445. www.lwvmn.org. --------2 of 18-------- From: April Sellers <april [at] patrickscabaret.org> Subject: Cabaret face lift 8.05 9am The renovations at the cabaret are under way and we need your help!!!! On August 5th and 6th we will be painting the theater, and making room for the new risers and chairs. We need volunteers on August 5th and 6th to help us paint. There are two time slots that we are looking to fill From 9:00 am to 12:30 pm from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm What will you get in return??? Tickets to an upcoming show, Great Company Free Food and Good Karma! We are willing to barter so let me know your ideas. Please respond with your name, email, phone number, and which time slot you can come and paint; send to april [at] patrickscabaret.org --------3 of 18-------- From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: wamm book club 8.05 10am Saturday, August 5, 10am to Noon Residence of Lucia Wilkes Smith, 2615 Park Avenue, Minneapolis. Book: "Losing Moses on the Freeway" by Chris Hedges. Open for people to join at any time. FFI: Email <rabbas [at] usinternet.com>. --------4 of 18-------- From: erin [at] mnwomen.org Subject: Workplace justice 8.05 10am Saturday, August 5: Workplace Justice Support/Networking Meeting. 10AM-Noon. Minnesota Women's Building, 550 Rice Street, St. Paul. Also held August 19, same time and place. 952/996-9291. --------5 of 18--------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Homeless Vets4Peace 8.05 10am Saturday, 8/5, 10 to 11:30 am, homeless Veterans for Peace meeting, Peacehouse, 510 E Franklin, Mpls. Wayne at 651-774-4008 --------6 of 18------- From: ed Subject: GreenParty StP 8.05 12noon All people interested in finding out more about the Green Party of St. Paul are invited to: Our monthly meeting First Saturday of every month Mississippi Market, 2nd floor Corner of Selby/Dale in St. Paul noon until 2 pm <http://www.gpsp.org> --------7 of 18-------- From: tracymolm <molm [at] umn.edu> Subject: Lebanon/Gaza rally 8.05 1pm End the Attacks on Lebanon and Gaza: Protest and March Sat, August 5, 1pm Jackson Square Park - 23rd Ave & Jackson St NE, Mpls - one block west of Central Ave on 23rd, near Lowry Ave Israel has launched an all-out war on the Lebanese people. Nearly 600 Lebanese people have been killed (mostly women and children), hundreds injured, and 750,000 have been driven from their homes. Entire villages lie in rubble, as does much of the capitol city. At the same time, more than 100 Palestinians have died in Israeli attacks on Gaza. The planes dropping bombs on Beirut and Gaza, the tanks crossing into Lebanon, and the guns shooting at civilians in Gaza and Lebanon were made in the USA and paid for with US taxpayer dollars. Israel is the largest recipient of US financial aid, every year receiving over $3 billion in military and economic aid. Thus is it critical that we not remain silent while the US government supports, both financially and diplomatically, these crimes against humanity. Israel has already laid claim to the southern Lebanese strip with thousands of Israeli troops occupying the region. Thus we must stand with the people of Lebanon and Palestine, as well as the Iraqi people, who are fighting to be free of foreign occupation. With this protest and march, we join with the national call for action and demand: * An End to the attacks on Gaza and Lebanon * The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination * The Right of Return of all Palestinian refugees * The end of Military Aid to Israel Organized by the Coalition for Palestinian Rights, endorsed by Al-Aqsa Institute, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Anti-War Committee, Arab Community Center, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Iraq Peace Action Coalition, Jews for an End to the Occupation, Mayday Books, Middle East Peace Now, Muslim American Society -- Minnesota Chapter, National Lawyers Guild -- Minnesota Chapter, Women Against Military Madness. For more information you can contact the AWC at 612-379-3899 / info [at] antiwarcommittee.org --------8 of 18-------- From: Corey Mattson <coreymattson [at] maydaybookstore.org> Subject: Wetback/film 8.05 3pm Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary Join Nayo, Milton, Luis, Oscar, and Ana on a harrowing journey from Latin America and Nicaragua across the U.S. border in this documentary film about undocumented immigration. Learn about the dangers, hardships, and obstacles faced by thousands of Latino immigrants seeking a better and more dignified life across the border today. Stay for a discussion after the film. Hear other points of view; express your own. Mayday Bookstore (301 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis) Saturday, August 5th, 2006 @ 3 pm For more information, contact: twincitiesysa [at] yahoo.com Sponsored by Socialist Action and Youth for Socialist Action www.socialistaction.org --------9 of 18-------- From: Chris Macgowan <macgowan [at] pobox.com> Subject: Mortenson party 8.05 6pm House Party for Jesse Mortenson! Green Party - Minnesota House of Representatives seat 64A http://www.jessemortenson.com/ We'll have air conditioning and chocolate cake from Cafe Latte and MORE! 952 Linwood Avenue Saturday, 5 August 6-9pm Come and Meet Jesse Mortenson! {More important - let Jesse meet YOU! -ed] I'm running for Minnesota House of Representatives seat 64A in order to represent the just and sustainable future that so many of my neighbors believe in: a strong and unique local economy, adequate health care for all, bringing our troops home from Iraq, and more. I'm running because I believe that we need a representative who will use elected office first and foremost to build stronger grassroots movements for change." -- Jesse Mortenson, http://www.jessemortenson.com/ Chris Macgowan 952 Linwood Avenue Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105 United States 651.225.9743 (h) 952.882.4557 (w) macgowan [at] pobox.com http://www.macgowan.com --------10 of 18-------- From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Hiroshima events 8.05-06 6pm Hiroshima Nagasaki Commemoration Events: August 5-6 Weekend in Minneapolis The Hiroshima Nagasaki Commemoration Committee announces a full weekend of events commemorating the 61st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Summary of events: All held at Lyndale Park Peace Garden near Lake Harriet in Minneapolis unless otherwise indicated. · Saturday, August 5, 6 p.m.: Commemorative tea ceremony. · Sunday, August 6, 7:30 a.m.: Traditional Ceremony of Cranes, featuring Dr. Kosuke Koyama. · Sunday, August 6, 2:30 p.m.: Family Event at the Spirit of Peace sculpture to honor Sadako, the girl of 1000 cranes. · Sunday, August 6, 4:00 p.m.: Women in Black procession along the Pathway to Peace, from W. 40th St. and Bryant Ave. S. to the Peace Garden. · Sunday, August 6, 5:30 p.m.: Concert for Peace, featuring Kairos Intergenerational Dance Theatre, Rabbi Sim Glaser and the Social Action Figures, and Nick Jordan, at the Lake Harriet Bandshell. Detail of events: On Saturday, August 5, at 6pm, John Brisson, a member of the Yukimakai (meaning amid the snow) tea study group, will lead a meditative tea ceremony at the time when people are gathered in Hiroshima to remember the bombing and its victims. A major purpose of the Yukimakai is to explore new ways of bringing the four principles of Chanoyu, Harmony, Respect, Purity, and Tranquility, into our daily life. Mr. Brisson has studied the tea ceremony with Patricia Katagiri for 11 years. People are invited to bring their lawn chairs to observe this almost silent ritual. At 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, August 6, the Ceremony of Cranes begins with music and reflection and ends at 8:15 a.m. with a moment of silence at the time of the dropping of the bomb. Participants then lay origami peace cranes on trees and bushes at the Peace Garden. This year, Yumiko Yoshikiyo, a native of the Hiroshima, will read the peace proclamation by the mayor of Hiroshima. Ms. Yoshikiyo is spending six months in the Twin Cities talking with student and civic groups about Japanese culture and the effects of the atomic bombing with the NEVER AGAIN campaign. The keynote speaker is Dr. Kosuke Koyama, who was a 15-year-old boy in Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This ceremony has been held at the Peace Garden for over 20 years. At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, a Family Event with music, dance, storytelling, and crane-folding will occur at the new, and yet unfinished, Spirit of Peace sculpture in the upper part of the garden near the cascade. Designed by St. Paul artist Caprice Glaser, there is a step that shows how to fold the crane on each of the boulders surrounding the sculpture. Larry Johnson of Key of See storytellers will emcee the afternoon. Mumin, a Japanese chorus, will sing two songs. Marcia Sanoden, a music teacher who grew up in Japan, will teach the audience some traditional Japanese songs. Larry, Elaine Wynne, and their granddaughter Renee Weeks-Wynne, will tell the Sadako story. The Sansei Yonsei Kai, a multigenerational dance troupe led by Linda van Dooijeweert, will perform dances and teach everyone a line dance from Nagasaki. Everyone will have the opportunity to fold cranes. At 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) will lead a ritual walk of the Women In Black along the Pathway to Peace. The Pathway to Peace was designed and created by Greg Ingraham and Teri Kwant as part of the City of Minneapolis Art in Public Places program. The procession will begin at the first of seven cairns located at the corner of 40th Street and Bryant Ave. South and will proceed to each of the six other cairns leading to the Peace Garden. Each cairn conveys a message related to an aspect of peace: the nature of conflict and peace, the politics of peace, peace in relationships, peaceful actions, inner peace, the future of peace, and the responsibility of peace. During the procession brief remarks at each cairn will pose questions pondering ways to seek peace in a nuclear age. The public is invited to join the Women In Black in this procession as part of the activities of the annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration. At 5:30 p.m., the final event of the weekend is the third annual Peace Concert at Lake Harriet Bandshell, as part of the Lake Harriet Bandshell summer concert series. Kairos Intergenerational Dance Theatre will open the program, followed by Rabbi Sim Glaser and the Social Action Figures. This group performs rock and roll songs primarily from the 1960s. The final group on the program is Light of the Moon, led by Nick Jordan. This country and bluegrass group will have people dancing in the aisles. Location and more information: The Lyndale Park Peace Garden is located on Roseway Road across from the Rose Garden on the northeast side of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. For general information, contact JoAnn Blatchley at 952.922.0308 or Jab229 [at] cs.com. For more information about the storytellers, contact Elaine Wynne at elent [at] comcast.net. For more information about the dance group, contact Linda van Dooijeweert at Linda [at] urbantraveler.com. For more information about the music, contact Marcia Sanoden at squarecat4 [at] yahoo.com. For more information about Women in Black, contact Marilyn Cuneo at mcuneo77 [at] aol.com. For more information about the tea ceremony John Brisson at jrbrisson [at] tmail.com. The Hiroshima Nagasaki Commemoration Committee offers these events to the community to encourage reflection on the past and hope for the future through action in the present. It calls for the total abolition of nuclear weapons throughout the world as one measure of ensuring a just and lasting peace. --------11 of 18-------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Hiroshima walk 8.05 7:30pm Duluth MN Saturday, 8/5, 7:30 pm, walk of Hiroshima/Nagasaki remembrance from Leif Erickson Park to Endion Beach at Canal Park along the Lakewalk, Duluth. anathoth [at] lakeland.ws --------12 of 18-------- From: Erik Forman <eforman [at] macalester.edu> Subject: Ball/bad puppets 8.05 8pm On the occasion of the 214th birthday of poet, artists, and radical Percy Bysshe Shelley, Rise Like Lions cordially invites you to attend: A Masquerade Ball in the Den of Thieves Saturday, August 5th, 8pm 2021 27th Ave. S in Minneapolis Suggested donation of $5-12 (though no one will be denied for lack of funds) Come one, come all, from far and wide, to the masquerade ball of the century, featuring the world-renowned reggae/hip-hop sensation PeeWee Dread and le Cirque d'Indecence. Join us for an evening of music, dance, and drink, fire-breathing, tap-dancing, hula-hooping, poetry-reading, general merry-making and a thoroughly indecent erotic silhouette puppet show! Come in your finest costume and bring everyone you know! Event hosted by Rise Like Lions, a collective of individuals committed to establishing cooperative, sustainable, and affordable community living options in the Twin Cities. All proceeds will contribute to the establishment of a housing cooperative in St. Paul, fall 2006. For more information about the event and cooperative living options, visit www.riselikelions.org. [Finally! A thoroughly indecent erotic silhouette puppet show! What we've all needed but didn't know we needed! It better be (ahem) _thoroughly_ indecent; we wouldn't want to be stiffed, although some may be into bait and switch... -ed] --------13 of 18-------- From: hare [at] tcfreenet.org Subject: Bar crawl 8.05 time? Where do you go to find anything and everything happening in Saint Paul? AllSaintPaul is the place to discover and share all that Saint Paul has to offer. Nightlife, District Councils, artists - and coming soon, retail and services, too! http://www.allsaintpaul.com/ To celebrate the launch of the site and summer in Saint Paul, AllSaintPaul will sponsor a bar crawl on August 5. Visit: The Downtowner, Tom Reids, Chico Chica, or McGovern's, get an ASP button and receive generous drink specials. At each of these fine bars, all within a 2 block stretch of W 7th you will also find live music and door prizes. Promoting the artist community is a large part of AllSaintPaul's goal. To truly feature this aspect of the site on Aug 10 at the Minnesota Museum of American Art ASP is co-sponsoring a Patio Nights. A group of local artists including M.J, Huebach, Justin Olson, Robyn Priestly, Kara Hendershot and more will show pieces to illustrate the variety and depth or the art scene here as it comments on community and society. Erik Brandt and the Urban Hillbilly Quartet will also perform on the patio. This event is all ages with a cash bar, cover is $5 or wear your button and get in for the member price ($3). We're still adding a lot of features day by day, so stay with us - and let us know what you'd like to see. You can reach us at: info [at] allsaintpaul.com or 651-330-1762 See you at the launch! Saint Paul is fun. Saint Paul is home. AllSaintPaul is Saint Paul. Erik Hare West End (Irvine Park), Saint Paul More info: http://forums.e-democracy.org/stpaul/contacts/erikhare --------14 of 18-------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: DeptPeace/fest 8.05-06 Dunnell MN 8/5 and 8/6, "Cornstock" music/peace/art festival to benefit the Dept of Peace Campaign, 437-40th Ave, Dunnell, MN. $20/1 day or $30/2 days. www.cornwoman.com or heidi [at] cornwoman.com --------15 of 18-------- From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com> Subject: Fringe festival Preview of the FRINGE FESTIVAL:Progressive Recommendations by Lydia Howell The Fringe festival is amazing--and overwhelming. I suggest picking up this week's PULSE (AUG.2 edition) for a sharp idea of hwo to proceed. Also, keep an eye out for the Fringe Festival Guide. I'm writing a piece w/reviews of particluar Fringe Festival plays to appear in PULSE Wed. Aug.9th editon. Will be seeing plays all weekend! http://www.fringefestival.org (for days/times) http://www.pulsetc.com Here's some advance recommendations: BAGHDAD BURNING:Electronic Postcards From Iraq 2003-2006: Four actresses do a readers' theatre of the eyewitness accounts by Baghdad's ONLY woman bloger - known as "Riverbend". She began telling the world what the US 'liberaton' of Iraq was like from an educated Iraqui woman's persepctive in August 2003...and continues now. Her voice is powerful, scathing with wit and anger, with observations CNN will never make.(Intermedia Arts) BENT Two Gay men endure in Hitler's concentration camps--and find love with one another. A profound play about the human spirit.(Bryant-Lake Bowl) THE SPIRITUAL FRINGE: plays dealing with religion and spiritual quests, all shows @ Lake harriet United Methodist Church (This is a new addition to the Fringe). Some of the ones that look intriguing: ALL YOU CAN EAT SPIRITUAL BUFFET. Explores how religon has beomce devisive--rather than a force that reconcilles and connects us. INTO THE DARKNESS, INTO THE LIGHT: Jay Hornbacher's one-man show about humanity's quest to know God GODDESS: Drawing on "The Da Vinci Code", a comic exploration of female divinity THE 9/11 TAPES: How the attacks impacted teenagers and their view of the future. (RARIG/Experimental Theatre, West Bank, U of M campus) STRUGGLE: THE TRUE STORY OF EX-INMATES. Prisoners have been some of the most silenced people in America. But, as Mumia Abu Jamal (a political prisoner on Pennsylvania's Death Row) has certainly revealed that these are voices we need to hear. (Both @ RARIG/Experimental Theatre, West Bank, U of M campus) AFRICAN ROADS, AMERICAN STREETS Dance! I saw this show opening night and it's utterly EXHILERATING. Drumming with African dance and American hip hop creates a joyous tribute these Black forms of art. Adult and youth dancers that thrilled the audience. A true 'feel good' experience!(Southern Theatre, West Bank) VIVA VENEZUELA! More dance and percussion to give you a glimpse of Hugo Chavez country! (Rarig/Procenium Theatre, UofM, West Bank) ROCK,SHOCK & AWE: Rock-musical thatlooks at the current state of war, current political leadres and religious thinkihg--toold throughn a solider & his wife. (RED EYE) And this is just a taste of this year's Fringe festival. --------16 of 18-------- As Lebanon burns, U.S. leaders cheer And the media goes along with the official story By Max J. Castro Progreso Weekly - Jul 27, 2006 http://www.progresoweekly.com/index.php?progreso=Max_Castro&otherweek=1153976400 In light of the absolute imperative of stopping the carnage of civilians - and independent of whether there is a general cease fire and without regard to what the United States, Israel, or the international community do - Hezbollah should announce and carry out an immediate halt of its missile attacks on Israel. These attacks kill and injure Israeli civilians and are violations of international humanitarian law. This is the principal reason they must cease: they are wrong and illegal. In addition, Hezbollah rocket attacks have no military significance, they provide a pretext for Israel's continued attacks against Lebanon, and they create the appearance that the situation there is a two-sided military contest rather than a case of naked aggression. This plea for an end to Hezbollah attacks is not made out of any illusion or expectation of reciprocity by Israel or its supporters in the United States. The reaction of the political elites and the media in this country to Israel's ferocious assault on Lebanon is a scandal and a sad spectacle. For, as the toll of dead and wounded civilians in Lebanon climbs and the country's infrastructure and social fabric is demolished, what do virtually all the top members of the U.S. political class, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, legislative and executive branch, do? They cheer. There is no other way to describe the situation after last weekend's overwhelming Congressional approval of twin resolutions praising the Bush administration's support of Israel's attack on Lebanon. The Senate was so monolithically united on the issue that it passed its version by unanimous consent. The resolution passed in the House of Representatives by a 410-8 vote "commends the President... for fully supporting Israel as it responds to these armed attacks by terrorist organizations and their state sponsors." As the toll of civilians killed in the conflict approached 400 in Lebanon and 20 in Israel - a ratio of 20 Lebanese civilians killed for every Israeli - the House resolution condemns Hamas and Hezbollah for "continuing to indiscriminately target Israeli civilian populations with their rockets and missiles" without a word for the awesome civilian toll taken by Israel's much more powerful bombs, rockets and missiles. It is thus with the full and enthusiastic endorsement of Congress that the Bush administration is aiding and abetting Israel in perpetrating a colossal catastrophe against a defenseless people. This U.S. support involves more than just political and diplomatic backing; it includes rushing to deliver "precision-guided" U.S.-manufactured weapons to the Israeli military. The unanimity does not stop with the government. Virtually the entire mainstream media are reporting the war from the U.S. and Israeli perspective. For example, with few exceptions, journalists for CNN and other cable channels, when reporting on the human and physical damage in Beirut, incorporate Israeli talking points and rationalizations into their reporting, including the argument that Hezbollah is really who is responsible for civilian casualties because it "hides" in the midst of the civilian population. What the media fail to mention is the fact that Hezbollah is a military, political, religious, and welfare organization woven deeply into the fabric of Lebanese society - geographically, politically, economically and culturally. There is no way to destroy Hezbollah or deeply wound it militarily without destroying many innocent Lebanese lives and devastating vast areas of Lebanon. This is a cold fact U.S. and Israeli leaders know and consider an acceptable cost. As for the media, a rare exception to the general practice of framing reporting of the devastation of Lebanon through the Israeli spin was a Sunday piece by CNN's medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Gupta described the damage inflicted by Israeli air raids on a hospital nursery and other medical facilities and emergency vehicles. As Anderson Cooper tried to weave in to the story the Israeli narrative of not targeting civilian targets, Gupta stuck to his guns and said, "I don't know if they are targeting them or what but they are certainly not avoiding them (medical facilities)." Israeli authorities issued public disclaimers and, by Monday, Gupta seemed to be reluctantly including parts of the Israeli justifications in his accounts, and CNN announced that the doctor would be going to Israel to report on the medical situation there. The media tilt in favor of Israel is so massive that it is difficult for U.S. media critics like Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz to ignore. Instead, the talking points the Israelis use to justify civilian casualties provide Kurtz a convenient rationale for the media's tilt: "Since Israel has inflicted far more damage on Lebanon than it has sustained, a heavy focus on the more than 300 civilian victims in that war-ravaged country could help tilt public opinion against the Jewish state. But that would overlook two key facts: that Israel retaliated only after Hezbollah crossed a U.N.-sanctioned border to kill and capture several Israeli soldiers, and that Hezbollah fighters hide - and hide their weapons - among civilians to make counterattacks more difficult." This would seem to imply that the media's job is not to report the news but to ensure that the public's opinion does not go against Israel. Given the scenes of rubble and devastation, that is a hard job for a medium that thrives on pictures. But the U.S. media is doing its best. With few exceptions, U.S. editorial boards, opinion writers and commentators mirrored the lockstep reaction of the political class and the reporting. Editor & Publisher columnist Greg Mitchell aptly critiques the prevailing U.S. editorial attitude: "While it's not surprising that nearly every editorial page in the U.S. has offered support for Israel's right to retaliate against Hamas and Hezbollah, it's a disgrace that few have expressed outrage, or at least condemnation, over the extent of death and destruction in and around Beirut - and the attacks on the country's infrastructure, which harms most citizens of that country." One might have thought that the media might at least question the Israeli air force's destruction of Lebanon's television towers, including not only the Hezbollah station but the Lebanese state station and other stations that broadcast to the northern area of Lebanon, where there is little support for Hezbollah. What possible military justification could this have? Except for one reporter, the media did not ask the question nor raise an obvious possibility: the Israelis want to prevent those Lebanese who are not sympathetic to Hezbollah from witnessing how Israel is ravaging their country. If this is the Israeli motivation for blowing up the television towers, it is a cynical but not irrational move, for the Israeli attack against Lebanon risks uniting the entire country against Israel, turning what was a sectarian political and military organization into a national resistance movement. In contrast to the utter lack of opposition to Israel's crushing of the Lebanese nation in elite political and media circles in the United States, some prominent international voices of protest are beginning to be heard. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said Israel's disproportionate reaction deserves to be condemned. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland used even stronger language, characterizing Israel's actions as criminal under international humanitarian law. "Bombing civilian populations is wrong, destroying civilian infrastructure is wrong," said Egeland. Egeland and Annan have called for an immediate cease fire. The United States and Israel almost surely will ignore the pleas of UN leaders at the same time that they cite a UN resolution calling for the disarming of Hezbollah as justification for the need for Israel to continue its attacks and for the United States to refrain from calling for a cease fire. Arab allies, such as Saudi Arabia, which Monday called for the United States to bring about a cease fire, may be harder to ignore. Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies in the region earlier expressed their opposition to Hezbollah's attack on Israeli soldiers. But, as they watch the catastrophe in Lebanon, these key U.S. allies risk serious domestic political problems if they are seen as complicit in the destruction of an Arab nation. The restlessness of Arab allies and the scale of the social cataclysm brought on by the Israeli attack on Lebanon - as many as 700,000 refugees in a population of 4 million - may have been what persuaded Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to pay a surprise visit to Beirut on Monday. Without a trace of irony, the New York Times reported on the visit: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Lebanese officials here today to try to prop up the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and to reassure Arab allies who have become increasingly impatient with the Israeli bombardment, which has killed close to 400 people, mostly Lebanese civilians." Only in the universe of distortions, blame-shifting, tortured rationalizations, and media spin surrounding the U.S.-supported Israeli attack on Lebanon would it seem anything other than surreal for the patron of the country perpetrating the aggression to seek to "prop up" the government of the nation being victimized. As a complement to this impossibly twisted policy, the Secretary of State offered some contorted language, speaking of an urgent need for a sustainable cease fire, code words for an end to hostilities based on U.S. and Israeli terms and timetables, not one based on the imperative of stopping the wholesale destruction of human life and property. All of this suffering is unlikely to produce a lasting peace; only a fair settlement of the Palestinian question, a two-state solution based on 1967 borders, will open the door for real peace. Rather, all of the scenarios being proposed by Israel and the United States involve no more and no less than the introduction of some type of occupation force into Lebanon. And, as in Iraq, the result will be, in all probability, even fiercer resistance and more dying. Are the NATO countries willing to provide the bodies in order to satisfy the U.S. and Israeli agendas? If not, who will? After the Israeli attack, will Lebanese soldiers be willing to die for this cause? If not, who will? One way or another, as with the Iraqi adventure, the United States is likely to pay a very heavy price for yet another attempt - this time by proxy - to remake the map of the Middle East through the force of arms. --------17 of 18-------- The Constitution in Crisis from truthout.org By Rep. John Conyers The Huffington Post Friday 04 August 2006 Six Years of Unchecked Abuses - Had Enough? To view the full report: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/iraqrept2.html Today, I am releasing the final version of my report, the "Constitution in Crisis." The report, which is some 350 pages in length and is supported by more than 1,400 footnotes, compiles the accumulated evidence that the Bush Administration has thumbed its nose at our nation's laws, and the Constitution itself. Approximately 26 laws and regulations may have been violated by this Administration's misconduct. Our Constitution established a tri-partite system of government, with the notion that each branch of government would act as a check on the other two. Unfortunately, for the last six years, the Republicans in Congress have largely viewed themselves as defenders of the Bush Administration, instead of a vital check on overreaching by the Executive Branch. By doing so, I believe they have acted to the detriment of our Constitutional form of government. We have seen so many transgressions by this Administration that it is easy to forget last week's scandal amid this week's new outrage. I am hopeful that compiling all of these events of the last few years will help wake all of us up to the gravity of these matters and the cumulative damage to our country. We have a mountain of reports that strongly indicate that this Administration was well aware that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, even as they told the Congress and the American people the opposite in order to satisfy a predetermination to go to war. The "smoking gun" of these reports is the Downing Street Memoranda, contemporaneous reports from the highest reaches of the British government recounting meetings with their American counterparts, meetings where the facts were being fixed around the policy of going to war. We have a mountain of statements from Administration officials making claims designed to conflate Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda, and corresponding mountains of reports that credible intelligence officials in our government disputed such claims. We also have evidence showing that government officials instituted policies which endorsed the use of torture in violation of U.S. law and international treaties. We have scores of sources indicating the Administration engaged in a concerted effort to discredit and defame anyone who came forward to expose these outrages, and have largely done so without consequence. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson dared to question whether Iraq had a nuclear weapons program, Administration officials retaliated against him by outing his wife as an undercover C.I.A. operative. When General Eric Shinseki and others in the military dared to dispute the Administration's wildly optimistic assessments of what was needed to pursue the Iraq conflict, he was summarily replaced. The pattern repeats itself with former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Economic Adviser Larry Lindsey. And Cindy Sheehan. And the list goes on and on. The American people have paid the price for this strategy of deception followed by, in the words of one anonymous Republican official, "slime and defend." We have paid with the lives of more than 2,500 of our sons and daughters in uniform and in hundreds of billions of dollars of our taxes. The Administration also appears to have used the war on terror as an excuse to eviscerate the basic protections afforded to us in the Constitution. There have been warrantless wiretaps of law-abiding Americans, in clear contravention of federal law, not to mention the creation of a huge unchecked database of the phone records of innocent Americans. All the while, the Republican Congress sits idly by. Rather than performing its constitutional duty as a co-equal branch, it has chosen to stymie any and all efforts at oversight. After six long years of deceptions, attacks and yes, outright lies, I am convinced the American people have had enough. [Now if Mr Conyers would only report on his own lacklustre war-sactioning party... - ed] --------18 of 18-------- I'd like to write a haiku, but all too soon I'm out of room at the More than seventeen syllables and the haiku nazi snips off the ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - 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
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