Progressive Calendar 10.16.07
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu)
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:51:10 -0700 (PDT)
           P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     10.16.07

1. Migration/Europe  10.16 2:30pm
2. Soup/world hunger 10.16 4:30pm
3. Protest WalMart   10.16 4:30pm
4. Iran/US/CTV       10.16 5pm
5. Environment/RIP   10.16 5:30pm
6. Kids health vigil 10.16 7pm
7. Maya Angelou      10.16 7pm
8. CD training       10.16 7pm
9. Rendition/film    10.16 7:30pm
10. Nonprofit ethics 10.16
11. VernonBellecourt 10.16

12. Broadband        10.17 8:30am
13. Racism/KFAI      10.17 11am
14. Kolstad CD sale  10.17 4pm
15. Bush war lies    10.17 7pm
16. Maquilapolis/f   10.17 7pm

17. NWN4P New Hope   10.18 4:30pm
18. Eagan vigil      10.18 4:30pm
19. Northtown vigil  10.18 5pm
20. Govt info access 10.18 5pm
21. Home energy      10.18 6pm
22. FairVote party   10.18 6pm
23. Impeach/pro/con  10.18 7pm
24. Amnesty Intl     10.18 7:15pm

25. Joan Malerich  - Anti-imperialism groups
26. Michael Cavlan - On Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize and Academy Award
27. Joshua Frank   - Nobel Gore? A prime time hypocrite
28. Cindy Sheehan  - Leadership void
29. Gary Younge    - The land of optimism is in the dumps

--------1 of 29--------

From: Stephen Feinstein <feins001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Migration/Europe 10.16 2:30pm

Topic: "Contemporary Migration Politics in Europe"
Speaker: Anja Rudiger
Former Executive Coordinator, UK Secretariat, European Monitoring
Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC), London

Tuesday, October 16, 2007
2:30 PM - 3:45 PM
115 Blegen Hall
269 19th Avenue S., Minneapolis
Free and open to students, faculty, and the public.


--------2 of 29--------

From: Elizabeth Dickinson <eadickinson [at] mindspring.com>
From: "Christi Anderson" <canderson [at] neighb.org>
Subject: Soup/world hunger 10.16 4:30pm

We will have soups from around the world!!  Just to tempt you're
appetite here are just a few Acorn squash and Apple, Columbian,
Chicken and Matzo Ball, 15 Bean and Ham, Vegetarian Lentil, Chili,
Spicy African Peanut and Beef Minestrone. Hope you can join us for
the soup supper to benefit the food shelf.
Call if you have any questions 651-789-2503 Christi Anderson

World Hunger Day Soup Supper
To Benefit the Neighborhood House Food Shelf
Join us for good soup and conversation as we fight hunger on World
Hunger Day
Tuesday October 16
4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Menu:  Soup, bread, bars, and coffee
Cost: Suggested donation of $5 to $10

Neighborhood House is serving an average of 30 families every day.
We're giving out more than 1,400 pounds of food a day!
To RSVP or for questions, contact Christi Anderson at 651-789-2503
or Canderson [at] neighb.org

Neighborhood House 179 Robie Street East Saint Paul MN 55107
www.neighb.org


--------3 of 29--------

From: Andy Hamerlinck <andy [at] macgrove.org>
Subject: Protest WalMart 10.16 4:30pm

Local Activists to Warn Shoppers of "the Ultimate Joint Venture"
between Wal-Mart and China

WakeUpWalMart.com Members in St.Paul, MN and Across the Country Draw
Attention to Dangerous Products Pulled from Wal-Mart shelves
New National Television Ad Asks Why Wal-Mart Chooses to Protect its
Chinese Suppliers, Not its Customers

St. Paul, MN - This week, community activists and members of
WakeUpWalMart.com, America's campaign to change Wal-Mart, will gather
outside of the Wal-Mart store at 1450 University Ave W, to alert shoppers
to the dangerous relationship between Wal-Mart and China that puts
families, children and pets at risk.

Wal-Mart is the number one importer of Chinese goods, and the country's
sixth largest trading partner, surpassing even Germany and Britain. More
than 70 percent of goods on Wal-Mart's shelves come from China.

WakeUpWalMart.com members will arm Wal-Mart shoppers with a list of more
than 20 products the store sold that were so dangerous they had to be
pulled from some Wal-Mart shelves.

Also this week, WakeUpWalMart.com will release a national television ad
that warns of the "growing influx of foods and produce from China, sold at
Wal-Mart." The ad questions why Wal-Mart chose to put suppliers ahead of
consumers when it lobbied against laws requiring new disclosure of where
food comes from.

What: The Ultimate Joint Venture
Where: Midway Wal-Mart at 1450 University Ave W
When: 4:30pm on Tuesday, Oct. 16 , 2007

CONTACT: Meghan Scott (202) 721-8014, National Contact
Bernie Hesse (651) 216-3827, Local Contact


--------4 of 29--------

From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net>
Subject: Iran/US/CTV 10.16 5pm

St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN 15) viewers:

"Our World In Depth" cablecasts in St. Paul on Tuesday evenings and
Wednesday mornings.  All households with basic cable can watch!

10/16 5pm and midnight and 10/17 10am "Iran and the US: Myths and Reality"
Interview of Nasrin Jewell, Iranian born professor at the College of St.
Catherine.  Co-hosted by Karen Redleaf and Eric Angell. (a repeat of last
week's show)


--------5 of 29--------

From: Tim Erickson <tim [at] e-democracy.org>
Subject: Environment/RIP 10.16 5:30pm

A friendly reminder about our three upcoming events: Policy and a Pint:
The Death of Environmentalism, the Policy Analysis Conference and the
Citizens League Annual Meeting: Policy Happens Here!

Please note: We expect next week's Policy and a Pint to sell out - and we
are already nearing capacity. Sign up now to guarantee yourself a spot!
(And check out reviews of the book we'll be discussing, Break Through:
From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, from
Wired Magazine, Grist, The New Republic and the New York Review of Books.)

Policy and a Pint: The Death of Environmentalism
Tuesday, October 16
Doors at 5:30 p.m., program at 6:00 p.m.
Varsity Theater, 1308 4th Street SE, Minneapolis

$10, $5 for students with valid ID
Appetizers from the Loring Pasta Bar included

Join the Citizens League and 89.3 The Current for our next Policy and a
Pint, featuring Michael Shellenberger, co-author of Break Through: From
the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility.
Shellenberger and co-author Ted Nordhaus stirred up controversy a few
years ago when they released an essay called "The Death of
Environmentalism." They argue that the old ways of talking about pollution
and acid rain won't change how people go about their lives, and that
"environmentalism" has to die in order for real change to happen - that we
need to come up with new models that take into account economics, job
creation and people's quality of life.


--------6 of 29--------

From: Leah Olm <minnesota5 [at] iraqsummer.org>
Subject: Kids health vigil 10.16 7pm

SCHIP VIGIL AT BACHMANN'S OFFICE- TUESDAY!
LIGHTING THE WAY FOR REPRESENTATIVE BACHMANN TO STAND UP FOR HEALTHCARE
FOR KIDS

President Bush vetoed expanded health insurance coverage for our nation's
children. Will Representative Bachmann stand with Bush? Or stand with our
children?

Join us for a candlelight vigil!
Tuesday, October 16th at 7:00 PM at Michele Bachmann's Woodbury Office
Just off of I-94 6043 Hudson Road, Suite 330 Woodbury, MN 55125
Everyone is encouraged to attend, children included.

For more information, go to:
http://volunteerforchange.org/e/1102?refcode=o572
or call Iraq Campaign at (612) 465-8803


--------7 of 29--------

From: Stephen Feinstein <feins001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Maya Angelou 10.16 7pm

Temple Israel, 24th and Hennepin, Minneapolis
announces
Dr. Maya Angelou as Speaker on Tuesday evening October 16 at 7:00 PM.
$36.00 Reserved seats all sold on first come first sold basis Other seats
sold out.

Dr. Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of
the great voices of contemporary literature.  As a poet, educator,
historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights
activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world,
spreading her legendary wisdom.  Within the rhythm of her poetry and
elegance of her prose lies Angelou's unique power to help readers of every
orientation span the lines of race and Angelou captivates audiences
through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.

Contact for purchase of tickets:: Temple Israel Organizing Committee
maxfallek [at] aol.com


--------8 of 29--------

From: Meredith Aby <awcmere [at] gmail.com>
Subject: CD training 10.16 7pm

Civil Disobedience Training
TUES 10/16 @ 7pm @ May Day Books (301 Cedar Ave, Mpls)
Interested in ending the war?  Want to learn to use civil disobedience to
take a stand?  Come learn how to use this tactic in an upcoming
demonstration.


--------9 of 29--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Rendition/film 10.16 7:30pm

Tuesday, 10/16, 7:30 pm, free sneak preview of film "Rendition" wherein an
American wife investigates her Egyptian-born husband's disappearance and
unorthodox interrogation, Oak St Cinema, 309 Oak St SE, Mpls.
http://www.mnfilmarts.org


--------10 of 29--------

From: Tim Erickson <tim [at] e-democracy.org>
Subject: Nonprofit ethics 10.16

I just heard about a series of free workshops in nonprofit leadership
offered by Hamline University and the Greater Minneapolis Council of
Churches. Registration is required but there's no fee. Word following the
first on Tuesday is that it was excellent.

More info:  http://gmcc.org/Compassionworkshops.htm

Here are some of the sessions coming up:
   Oct 16 - Nonprofit ethics
   Oct 23 - Human resources performance appraisals
   Oct 30 - Marketing & communications
   Nov 6  - Nonprofit accountability & transparency
   Nov 13 - Strategic planning for board & management
   Nov 20 - Conflict resolution
   Nov 27 - Nonprofit fundraising: research methods
   Dec 4  - Grant writing


--------11 of 29--------

From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org>
Subject: Vernon Bellecourt

Vernon Bellecourt (WaBun-Inini) passed over into the spirit world earlier
today, October 13, 2007. Minneapolis, Minnesota surrounded by his friends
and family.

Vernon Bellecourt
(WaBun-Inini)
Anishinabe/Ojibwe Nation
1931 - 2007
  
Vernon was a principal spokesman for the American Indian Movement and a leader
in actions ranging from the 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in
Washington to the 1992 Redskin Superbowl demonstrations. He Co-founded and was
the first Executive Director of the Denver AIM Chapter. His involvement at
Wounded Knee in 1973 led to a Federal indictment. He was a special
representative of the International Indian Treaty Council and helped organize
the first Treaty Conference in 1974. He was jailed for throwing his blood on
the Guatemalan Embassy to protest the killing of 100,000 Indians. He was
elected to a 4-year term in his White Earth tribal government and developed a
model program for the spiritual education of Indian prisoners. Vernon was
President of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media and recipient
of the City of Phoenix, Martin Luther King Human Rights Award 1993
  
Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - Wake
Circle of Life School, White Earth Reservation, MN
  
Wednesday Morning, October 17, 2007 - Burial
White Earth Reservation, MN
  
Vernon had no medical insurance plan and the Bellecourt family is collecting
donations to help pay for medical and burial costs.
Donations and cards can be sent to: Clyde Bellecourt 3953 14th Avenue
South Minneapolis, MN 55407


--------12 of 29--------

From: mary treacy <mtreacy [at] onvoymail.com>
Subject: Broadband 10.17 8:30am

Blandin Broadband is sponsoring a a series of webinars of possible
interest. "Community Broadband: Making the Right Choices."  Sessions
include Global Trends in Broadband (Oct 3), The Economic Impacts of
Broadband & Technology (Oct 17) and Web 2.0 applications (Oct 31).  All
8:30-9:30 a.m. Free and open.  Take one or all three. Join the webinar at
https://umconnect.umn.edu/blandinwebinar.  Conf call dial 866 316 1519
passcode 14223904.  Register by sending a note to
dpfeifer [at] minnesotaruralpartners.org.


--------13 of 29--------

From: Andy Driscoll <andy [at] driscollgroup.com>
Subject: Racism/KFAI 10.17 11am

OCTOBER 17:  Truth to Tell discusses Racism, Resegregation, and Remedies in
Education

Studies and statistics show urban core schools more segregated than ever.
This was not the plan back in 1960s, 70s, and 80s when court ruling and
policymakers combined to invoke the means to bring white kids and students
of color into the same educational settings. Why haven't they come
together? What dynamics are at play in the palpably re-segregated systems
of the Twin Metro Area? The answer is that there is no one answer - and no
one remedy. Many good people bring wide-ranging perspectives to the
discussion about what to do to improve achievement and reduce the social
isolation that comes from segregated housing patterns and schools.

Truth to Tell's Andy Driscoll and new co-host, Lynnell Mickelsen will ask
proponents of four perspectives.

GUESTS:
* MYRON ORFIELD - Director, Institute on Race and Poverty, UofM Law School
* CARLA BATES ­ education activist and member of the MPS District Parents
Advisory Committee
* HASHI ABDI ­ Somali Action Alliance
* NADYA PARKER, Executive Director, Urban Teacher Program, Metropolitan State
 University


--------14 of 29--------

From: PRO826 [at] aol.com
To: discuss [at] mngreens.org
Subject: Kolstad CD sale 10.17 4pm

At Mill City Music we now have a retail section open for selling CDs and
some books.  We are open Wed - Thurs 4- 6 and Saturday 11 to 2 (although
we'll probably be here later than 2).

I've got over a thousand CDs that I'm selling for $1.00 and many hundreds
that I am selling $2 to $9, plus we have our regular inventory that we
sell at list price.  Every kind of music you can imagine.  Located at 3820
East lake Street [8 Blocks West of the Lake Street Bridge], Minneapolis.
Drop by some time. John Kolstad


--------15 of 29--------

From: Polly Jo Peterson <peter089 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Bush war lies 10.17 7pm

THE CASE FOR WAR - WAS IT FRAUDULENT?
THE UNITED STATES v. GEORGE W. BUSH et al.

First Unitarian Society, 900 Mount Curve Ave, Minneapolis
Wednesday, October 17 at 7:00 P.M.  Free admission

Dinner at 5:45 with a suggested donation of $7 for adults.  Please RSVP if
you are coming to dinner to madeline-mpls [at] msn.com or 952-854-2976 (leave a
message).

No matter what our political affiliation or stand on the war happens to
be, our government officials must be held accountable for upholding their
oath of office. The task often boils down to the people having to pressure
Congress to perform their oversight job.

Based on Elizabeth de la Vega's book, six readers present the evidence for
an indictment of top government officials charging they tricked the nation
into war, or, in legal terms, conspired to defraud the United States.
While the grand jury is hypothetical, the facts presented here are real.
They were compiled by a former federal prosecuting attorney of 20 years,
Elizabeth de la Vega.  Having prepared for hundreds of grand juries like
this one, she devoted two years meticulously sifting through mountains of
facts, and throwing out any evidence that was not corroborated by two or
more reliable sources.

All the facts and circumstances in this reading can be found in her book,
U.S. v.  George W. Bush et al.  Learn the staggering scope and depth of
the alleged crime; when it started, how it evolved, and the people
involved. Then decide if there's enough evidence to indict.


--------16 of 29--------

From: dgr [at] umn.edu
Subject: Maquilapolis/film 10.17 7pm

Don't miss the next film in the 2007-2008 Labor & Community Film Series:
Maquilapolis (city of factories).

Wednesday, October 17th 7 PM
Waite House Community Center
2529 13th Ave S. in Minneapolis

A film by Vicky Funari & Sergio De La Toree (2006)
68 minutes. Bilingual in Spanish and English.
Free and open to all. For more information on the film series, visit
www.workdayminnesota.org or www.laboreducation.org or call 612-626-2034.
Sponsored by the University of MN Labor Education Service & Waite House
Community Center.

Carmen works the graveyard shift in one of Tijuana's maquiladoras, the
multinationally-owned factories that came to Mexico for its cheap labor.
After making television components all night, Carmen comes home to a shack
she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no sewage
lines or electricity. She suffers from kidney damage and lead poisoning
from her years of exposure to toxic chemicals. She earns six dollars a
day.  But Carmen is not a victim. She is a dynamic young woman, busy
making a life for herself and her children.

To create MAQUILAPOLIS, the filmmakers brought together Carmen and other
factory workers in Tijuana with community organizations in Mexico and the
U.S. to collaborate on a film that depicts globalization through the eyes
of the women who live on its leading edge. This process merges
artmakingwith community development to ensure that the film's voice will
be truly that of its subjects.


--------17 of 29--------

From: Carole Rydberg <carydberg [at] comcast.net>
Subject: NWN4P New Hope 10.18 4:30pm

NWN4P-New Hope demonstration every Thursday 4:30 to 6 PM at the corner of
Winnetka and 42nd.  You may park near Walgreens or in the larger lot near
McDonalds; we will be on all four corners.  Bring your own or use our
signs.


--------18 of 29--------

From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 10.18 4:30pm

CANDLELIGHT 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.


--------19 of 29--------

From: EKalamboki [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 10.18 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.


--------20 of 29--------

From: mary treacy <mtreacy [at] onvoymail.com>
Subject: Govt info access 10.18 5pm

Access to accurate, timely and reliable government information is the very
essence of a democracy -- more honored in the breach than in the
observance.... Anyone interested in the right to know and transparency in
state government is welcome to participate in this unique discussion of a
topic that too often slips between the proverbial cracks:

Minnesota Secretary of State
Mark Ritchie
Management of Minnesota's Renewable Asset
Thursday, October 18, 2007
5-7pm.

Secretary of State's office, Retirement Systems of Minnesota Building 60
Empire Drive, St Paul, MN

Recent events underscore that state and local government transparency is
both essential and threatened.  Government views information as a powerful
resource to assure an informed democracy - or as a commodity to be
shielded, sold, available only to the privileged.  Ubiquitous dependence
on the internet coupled with data storage and telecommunications options,
presents unprecedented challenges for thoughtful policy development,
integrated planning and citizen participation in the process.
 As Minnesotaâ's Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie is in the middle of it
all.

Sponsored by the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information (MnCOGI),
Telecommunications and Information Policy Roundtable (TIPR)  Minnesota
Chapter, American Society of Information Science & Technology (ASIST)
Minnesota Independent Scholars' Forum


--------21 of 29--------

From: AmiVoeltz DoItGreen <mngreenguide [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Home energy 10.18 6pm

free community workshops
FREE Do It Green! Workshop Series
Visit doitgreen.org or call 612-345-7973 for workshop updates and to RSVP.
OCT./NOV. Home Energy Conservation

Learn ways to reduce your home energy costs and contribution to global
warming. Walk-through an energy audit of a home, learn tips on insulation,
alternative energy and take home a fluorescent bulb!

Thurs, Oct 18th 6-8pm
West 7th Community Center (in class workshop) 265 Oneida St, St Paul


--------22 of 29--------

From: BethMarie Ward <bethmarieward [at] comcast.net>
Subject: FairVote party 10.18 6pm

FairVote Biennial Fall Election Party Fundraiser
Thursday, October 18, 2007 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Home of Brian Melendez, 1777 Dupont Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN  55403
Suggested donation:  $25, $50, $100, $250
Questions Contact:  FairVote MN, 763-807-2550 or info [at] fairvotemn.org

Description:  Join us for an evening of delicious food, wine and
conversation, featuring Jon Pratt from the MN Council of Non-Profits to
speak about The Future of Elections.  This is a multi-partisan event. Join
friends and supporters of Instant Runoff Voting who share the common
desire for Better Democracy in Minnesota!


--------23 of 29--------

From: Joe Schwartzberg <schwa004 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Impeach/pro/con 10.18 7pm

THIRD THURSDAY GLOBAL ISSUES FORUM
Free and open to the public.
Thursday, October 18, 7:00 - 9:00 pm.
Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church,
511 Groveland Avenue, Minneapolis (at Lyndale &
Hennepin) Park in church l

TO IMPEACH, OR NOT TO IMPEACH?

Article II, Section 4 of the federal Constitution states that civil
officers of the US may be impeached for commission of "Treason, Bribery or
other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."  Determining whether sufficient
grounds exist for impeachment is the prerogative of the House of
Representatives, while the actual trial subsequent to impeachment is
entrusted to the Senate. Relevant questions relate to whether the alleged
criminal actions were knowingly and deliberately committed and the
political judgment as to whether impeachment - or the failure to impeach
-- will serve the best interests of the nation.

Presenters: TIM PENNY and MIKAEL RUDOLPH. Arguing for impeachment will be
Mikael Rudolph, founder of the Minneapolis Chapter of The World Can't Wait
and co-founder of Impeach for Peace. Mr. Rudolph served on the impeachment
panel at the 2006 Veterans for Peace convention in Seattle and spoke for
impeachment at the DFL 5th Congressional District meeting in Minneapolis,
subsequent to which Keith Ellison cosigned the Kucinich impeachment
resolution in the US House of Representatives.

Opposing impeachment will be Tim Penny, a senior fellow and co-Director of
the Humphrey Institute Policy Forum. After representing Minnesota's First
Congressional District from 1982 to 1994, Mr. Penny served on the
transition team of Governor Jesse Ventura and, in 2002 was himself the
Independence Party candidate for governor of Minnesota. Author of three
books, including The 15 Biggest Lies in Politics (1998), Mr. Penny is a
regular public speaker, radio commentator, and editorial writer on topics
of political importance at both the federal and state level.


--------24 of 29--------

From: Gabe Ormsby <gabeo [at] bitstream.net>
Subject: Amnesty Intl 10.18 7:15pm

AIUSA Group 315 (Wayzata area) meets Thursday, October 18th, at 7:15 p.m.
St. Luke Presbyterian Church, 3121 Groveland School Road, Wayzata (near
the intersection of Rt. 101 and Minnetonka Blvd). For further information,
contact Richard Bopp at Richard_C_Bopp [at] NatureWorksLLC.com.


--------25 of 29--------

Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:21:29 -0500
From: Joan Malerich <joanmdm [at] iphouse.com>
Subject: Anti-Imperialism Groups

Re:YOUTH ANTI-IMPERIALISM GROUP
Ages 16-23--some exceptions possible
Tentative Start Date Sunday, October 28, 2007
Each session will meet one night a week for eight weeks.  Those
interested need only commit to the first eight weeks and then can decide
if they want to commit to the second and/or third eight-week session.

Contact:  Joan, 651-451-4081 or joanmdm [at] iphouse.com

To develop leadership and establish unity with the ammunition of
knowledge, strategy and commitment.  Leaders are not for hire; they lead
by desire and a search for truth and reality.  To form a People's
resistance movement based on human rights and stopping wars.  Knowledge
and strategy are key to stop wars.

TRIAL EIGHT WEEK SESSION: 6-10 PARTICIPANTS
HISTORY OF US TERRORIST INTERVENTIONS AROUND THE WORLD
WHY STUDY US INTERVENTIONS?  So youth can learn the tactics and strategy
the US has used militarily and economically to occupy foreign countries
such as:

   1. Media infiltration and control:  False propaganda that creates fear.
   2. Infiltration of youth groups, labor groups, women's groups
   3. Assassination of political leaders
   4. Control of elections, setting up puppet regimes friendly to US
      imperialist policy
   5. Fear of socialism (social programs) and participatory democracy as
      opposed to US representative democracy

RESOURCES:  Several videos (such as Panama Deception), articles from
truth sources (such as Global Research) and a special emphasis on
William Blum's book, Killing Hope:  US Military and CIA Interventions
Since WW II

CONTACT:  Joan  651-451-4081 or  joanmdm [at] iphouse.com  Sessions will be
held in apartment six blocks north of Macalester college in St. Paul and
near Marshall, Snelling and Selby.


--------26 of 29--------

Michael Cavlan for US Senate Campaign Statement On Al Gore recieving the
Nobel Peace Prize and Academy Award.

It was under the Clinton/Gore administration that Depleted Uranium
weaponry was first authorized. It was under was the Clinton/Gore
administration that 1,000,000 innocent Iraqi children died from the
sanctions, which is still a greater death toll than the Bush
administration, although the Bushies are catching up quickly.

The Clinton/Gore administration first authorized "extraordinary rendition"
and signed the 1996 Telecommunications Act which has further consolidated
the corporate media, which is, in my opinion the biggest risk to democracy
we face today.  Let us also not forget "Welfare Reform" and the "War On
Drugs", both an attack on poor people.  Clinton/Gore again.

Then let us not forget that Gore actually won the 2000 election and
instead of standing up for those who voted for him, including the 90,000
illegally purged from the voting rolls, Al Gore told the Congressional
Black Cacaus to "sit down and be quiet", as noted in the Michael Moore
movie Farenheight 9-11.

The WTO protests of Seattle in 1999 were targeting the policies of the
Clinton/Gore administration. This includes signing up for NAFTA, GATT, the
WTO, the IMF, massive give-a-ways of public land to the Mining Industries
and of large tracts of our forests to the Lumber Industries.

None of this was mentioned in his cute little film. Instead of targeting
the corporate responsibility for the crisis of global warming, he tells us
what "we little people" can do. Buy a Prius, change a light bulb etc, not
what General Motors should be forced to do. Just us "little people"
changing bulbs etc. He also obviously did not target the policies started
under his vice-presidency. No talk of NAFTA or corporate globalization in
his movie.

Al Gore is a well packaged, corporate friendly "environmentalist." Al Gore
is a "green-washed" corporate prostitute who has been green-washed just as
surely as British Petroleum or any other corporate polluter. My fullest
apologies to prostitutes for comparing you to Al Gore.

Now that is really an "inconvenient truth" and I can guarantee that this
is something you will never hear from the Sierra Club, Dennis Kucinich or
any of the local versions of him here in Minnesota. That is another
"inconvenient truth."

In other words, wake up people. Pay attention to the actions instead of
the words. You are being lied to, again.

Come join us on the peace, truth and accountability campaign.

We shall meet at the Blue Moon Coffee Shop, 3822 East Lake St, Minneapolis
at 6 pm, Thursday October 18th

for more information contact Dori Ullman (612)414-9528


--------27 of 29--------

A Prime Time Hypocrite
Nobel Gore?
By JOSHUA FRANK
CounterPunch
October 15, 2007

Al Gore has returned to the political spotlight in exalted fashion with a
Nobel Peace Prize in hand, propping himself up for a potential
presidential bid in 2008. Front and center in Gore's new rhetorical
entourage is the state of nature, and in particular, global warming. And
while Gore may be delivering an important message about the fate of our
fragile ecosystems, one must be weary of the messenger's past. For Gore's
own environmental record leaves much to be desired.

Al Gore's reputation as the Democratic standard bearer of environmentalism
dates back to the early 1990's when his book Earth in Balance outlined the
perilous threats to the natural world. Gore also showboated his green
credentials at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, which garnered the newly
minted Senator great respect among Beltway greens who praised him for his
willingness to take sides on controversial issues. While serving as vice
president under Bill Clinton, Gore was put in charge of the
administration's environmental portfolio, but had little to show for it.

As the Center for Public Integrity writes in their book The Buying Of The
President 2000, "Personally and professionally the vice president has
profited from Occidental largess. To this day he still draws $20,000 a
year from a land deal in Tennessee brokered between his father and [former
Occidental chairman Armand] Hammer. The total amount is more than
$300,000."

This relationship between Hammer, who was close with Al Gore Sr. as well,
matured greatly during the late 1980s while Gore served in the Senate,
including Kenneth Lay style trips on Hammer's private plane and monster
campaign contributions.

Oil companies during the 20th Century, reports the Center for Public
Integrity, "have tried unsuccessfully to obtain control of two oil fields
owned and operated by the federal government: the Teapot Dome field in
Casper, Wyoming, and the Elk Hillsfield in Bakersfield, California."

When Clinton and Gore took office in 1992, that was about to change.
Perhaps only outdone by George W. Bush's connections to Big Oil, Al Gore
pressed President Clinton to approve handing over these public lands to
the oil companies. The land, managed by the Navy, had held emergency oil
reserves since 1912.

It took five years of lobbying on behalf of Big Oil, but Gore and
Occidental were victories. In the fall of 1997 the Energy Department sold
47,000 acres of the Elk Hill reserve to Occidental.

Continues The Center for Public Integrity:

"It was the largest privatization of federal property in U.S. history, one
that tripled Occidental's U.S. oil reserves overnight. Although the Energy
Department was required to assess the likely environmental consequences of
the proposed sale, it didn't. Instead it hired a private company, ICF
Kaiser International, Incorporated, to complete the assessment. The
general chairman of Gore's presidential campaign, Tony Coelho, sat on the
board of directors.

"The very same day the Elk Hills sale was announced, Gore delivered a
speech to the White House Conference on Climate Change on the
"terrifying prospect" of global warming, a problem he blamed on the
unchecked use of fossil fuels such as oil."

Other than his alleged environmental convictions, Gore was a political
coward when push came to shove in Washington. During Clinton's campaign
for president in 1992 Gore promised a group of supporters that Clinton's
EPA would never approve a hazardous waste incinerator located near an
elementary school in Liverpool, Ohio, which was operated by WTI. Only
three months into Clinton's tenure the EPA issued an operating permit for
the toxic burner. Gore raised no qualms. Not surprisingly, most of the
money behind WTI came from the bulging pockets of Jackson Stephens, who
just happened to be one of the Clinton/Gore's top campaign contributors.

Perhaps Al Gore's greatest blunder during his years as vice president was
his allegiance to the conservative Democratic Leadership Council and their
erroneous approach to environmental policy. Gore, like Clinton who quipped
that "the invisible hand has a green thumb", extolled a free-market
attitude toward environmental issues. "Since the mid-1980s Gore has argued
with increasing stridency that the bracing forces of market capitalism are
potent curatives for the ecological entropy now bearing down on the global
environment," writes Jeffrey St. Clair in Been Brown So Long It Looked
Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature. "He is a passionate disciple of
the gospel of efficiency, suffused with an inchoate technopilia."

Then came the first of the Clinton administration's neoliberal wet dreams:
NAFTA. After the passage of NAFTA, pollution along the US/Mexico border
dramatically increased. And Gore should have known better; NAFTA allowed
existing environmental laws in the United States to be undermined.
Corporations looking to turn a profit by skating around enviro statutes at
home moved down to Mexico where environmental standards and regulatory
enforcement were scarce.

These follies were followed by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's
destructive deal with the sugar barons of South Florida, which doomed vast
acreages of the Everglades. Then Gore and Clinton capitulated to the
demands of Western Democrats and yanked from its initial budget proposals
a call to reform grazing, mining, and timber practices on federal lands.
When Clinton convened a timber summit in Portland, Oregon, in April 1994,
the conference was, as one might expect, dominated by logging interests.
Predictably, the summit gave way to a plan to restart clear-cutting in the
ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest for the first time in three
years, giving the timber industry its get rich wish. Gore, again, said
nothing.

Forests under Clinton and Gore's watch didn't fare all that well. The
Clinton administration's Salvage Rider, known to radical environmentalists
as the "Logging without Laws" rider, was perhaps the most gruesome
legislation ever enacted under the pretext of preserving ecosystem health.
Like Bush's "Healthy Forests" plan, Clinton's act was choc full of
deception and special interest pandering. "When [the Salvage Rider] bill
was given to me, I was told that the timber industry was circulating this
language among the Northwest Congressional delegation and others to try to
get it attached as a rider to the fiscal year Interior Spending Bill,"
environmental lawyer Kevin Kirchner says. "There is no question that
representatives of the timber industry had a role in promoting this rider.
That is no secret."

In fact, Mark Rey, a former lobbyist for the timber industry and head of
the United States Forest Service under Bush, authored Bush's forest plan
and Clinton's salvage bill while working as an aide for Republican Senator
Larry Craig of Idaho. "Like Bush's so-called 'Healthy Forest Initiative,'
the Salvage Rider temporarily exempted salvage timber sales on federal
forest lands from environmental and wildlife laws, administrative appeals,
and judicial review," contended the Wilderness Society.

"The Salvage Rider directed the Forest Service to cut old-growth timber in
the Pacific Northwest that the agency had proposed for sale but
subsequently withdrew due to environmental concerns, endangered species
listings, and court rulings. Bush's initiative also aims to increase
logging of old-growth trees in the Pacific Northwest."

Clinton and Gore during the time could have exercised presidential
authority to force the relevant agencies to abandon all timber contracts
that stemmed from the Salvage Rider. But they never flexed their muscle
and instead sat by as the forests were subjected to gruesome annihilation.

An example of the ruin: Thousands of acres of healthy forestland across
the West were rampaged. Washington's Colville National Forest saw the
clear cutting of over 4,000 acres. Thousands more in Montana's Yaak River
Basin, hundreds of acres of pristine forest land in Idaho, while the
endangered Mexican Spotted Owl habitat in Arizona fell victim to corporate
interests. Old growth trees in Washington's majestic Olympic Peninsula -
home to wild Steelhead, endangered Sockeye salmon, and threatened Marbled
Murrelet - were chopped with unremitting provocation by the US Forest
Service.

And the assault on nature continued with Gore's blessing.

Around the same time Clinton and Gore, after great pressure from the food
industry, signed away the Delaney Clause, which prohibited cancer-causing
pesticides and ingredients to be placed in our food products. And after
pressure from big corporations like chemical giant DuPont, the Clinton
administration, with guidance from Gore's office, cut numerous deals over
the pesticide Methyl Bromide despite its reported effects of contributing
to Ozone depletion.

As for Gore's pet project, global warming, he did little to help curb its
dramatic effects while handling Clinton's enviro policies. In fact, Gore
and Clinton made it easy for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to back out of
the Kyoto Protocol by undermining the agreement in the late 1990s. It was
the winter of 1997 when Vice President Gore, who was in direct control of
Clinton's environmental policies, flew to Japan to address the
international delegation about the US's position on the Kyoto Protocol.
Gore and Clinton had just come off an election victory and it was time to
pay back the big oil and gas companies who had handed over $6 million to
their party the year prior.

Gore warmed up his attentive audience by affirming that Clinton and the US
public believed the Earth was in peril and that all global citizens must
act swiftly to save it. But in typical Gore doublespeak, he declared the
United States would not support the agreement because it did not ask
enough of developing nations, even though the US is the leading polluter
in the world.

As Gore put it then, "Signing the Protocol, while an important step
forward, imposes no obligations on the United States. The Protocol becomes
binding only with the advice and consent of the US Senate."

Gore soon returned to Washington only to reiterate his message that the
Clinton administration would not put the Kyoto Protocol before the Senate.
"As we have said before, we will not submit the Protocol for ratification
without the meaningful participation of key developing countries in
efforts to address climate change," he said.

It was at that moment when Clinton and Gore ruined any chances of the
Kyoto Protocol being honestly debated in Washington. Later in November of
1998 Gore "symbolically" signed the accord, likely to appease his
environmental pals like the Sierra Club's Carl Pope.

But the Vice President's tepid gesture couldn't have carried less weight.
The Clinton administration, with Gore's guidance, refused to allow the
Republican controlled Senate to decide on the Kyoto Protocol for
themselves. Gore advised Clinton not to send the Protocol to the Senate to
be ratified. The blame could have burdened the Republican Party, not the
Democrats and the Clinton administration. But instead the buck stopped
with Al Gore and Bill Clinton. Predictably, President Bush followed their
lead.

And there you have it. It was Mr. Global Warming himself who first tried
to kill off the Kyoto Protocol.

And the list goes on.

So while Al Gore flies around the country and overseas with trophy in hand
to preach to the masses about the dangerous effects of global warming and
its inherent threat to life on Earth - you may want to ask yourself
whether the hypocritical Gores of the world are more a part of the problem
than a solution to the dire climate that surrounds us all.

Joshua Frank is the co-editor of DissidentVoice.org, and author of Left
Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, and along with Jeffrey
St. Clair, the editor of the forthcoming Red State Rebels, to be published
by AK Press in March 2008. He can be reached through his website,
BrickBurner.org.


--------28 of 29--------

Leadership Void
by Cindy Sheehan
October 13, 2007
ZNet

"They are advocates. We are leaders."
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in regards to "Anti-war activists."

People of America, this is truly the problem with what was once a
Representative Republic and now is a country run by "elected" officials
who believe that they, individually and collectively, are above any
accountability and are not answerable to their constituents. Our public
servants erroneously believe that they are the leaders!

Ms. Pelosi made this statement to a group of reporters at a luncheon
recently and she also went off on activists who have been participating in
vigils outside of her chi-chi home in the Pacific Heights district of San
Francisco.  The people who are vigiling outside her house regularly, in a
Pelosi Watch are only exercising their rights as American citizens to make
their concerns known to a Rep who was elected from a district that is
wholeheartedly against the occupation of Iraq and for impeaching the liars
who got us into the illegal and immoral situation.

No, Ms. Pelosi, you are not a leader. You have proven time and again in
what you laughably believe is a "mistake" free run as Speaker of a
Democratic House that you will do anything to protect an Imperial
Presidency to the detriment of this Nation and the world, particularly the
people of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This Democratic Congress supported BushCo's disastrous and deadly surge;
handed him over billions of their constituent's tax dollars to wage this
murder; have by their silence and votes countenanced an invasion of
another country; approved more restrictions on the rights of the citizenry
to be protected against unreasonable search and seizure; Ms. Pelosi does
not even know if "torture" (which violates international law and the 8th
Amendment in our Bill of Rights) is an impeachable offense; and worst of
all the impeachment clauses were taken "off the table" in an ongoing
partnership with BushCo to make the office of the presidency a
Congressionally protected crime conglomerate that is rapidly sending this
Nation down a crap-hole of fascism. So, Congress has led us to a few
things: war, poverty, oppression, unemployment, and an inexplicable
continuance of the Bush Regime.

No, Ms Pelosi, you are not even a leader in the very narrowest of
definitions. We do not elect our Congressional Representatives to be
leaders, not to be used as willing marionettes for the war machine and
other special interests that serve the elite to the detriment of the rest
of us, but to represent the will of the people. We send our elected
officials to DC and pay their salaries and subsidize their benefits to do
the "Will of the People."

No matter how many times Ms. Pelosi and George Bush share tea and giggles
and no matter how often she "prays' for him, George is not the Decider and
she is only the Leader of the House of Representatives not the people. We
are the sovereigns in this country and I tried to demonstrate this when I
demanded a meeting with another haughty public servant: George Bush.

I cannot speak for every Democrat, Independent, Green or disenchanted
Republican (and there are many) in America, but the consensus from my
travels all over this country is that we put Democrats back in power in
both Houses of Congress to be an opposition to the Bush Regime and to stop
the annoying "bobble-headed, rubber-stamping" approval of all things
criminal and murderous. We did not wish to keep heading in the same
direction but desired to go another way, which would have required the
Dems to finally step up and forcefully counter and stop the high crimes of
BushCo. They have failed.

We are sick of excuses. We are tired of the blame being diffused on the
Senate, the Blue Dog Dems, the Republicans or even, incredibly, the people
of Iraq. A true leader accepts responsibility in ways that are not even
dreamed of by BushCo or Congress Inc. A true leader would stand up and do
what is intelligent and what is right and if he/she were a leader then
people would follow. A leader does not wait idly by for a crowd of
sycophants to gather around her before she does her job with integrity and
courage; a leader leads the way and the Democratic Congress with an
approval rating even lower than George's had better wake up to whom they
need to follow: us!

We have countless examples of true leaders throughout American history and
if not for them, women would not have the right to vote, much less be
Speaker of the House; Black Americans would still be slaves or at the very
least still drinking out of separate fountains; workers would not have the
right to unionize and children would still be mining coal; we would still
have troops in Southeast Asia, and we would still be under the aegis of
our close Cousins in Empire: the British. Some of our courageous leaders
have had to pay the ultimate price for their bravery and vision and Ms.
Pelosi should be ashamed of arrogantly whining over her rubber chicken
that Americans exist who want her to do her job because people are dying
and lives are being ruined with her complicity.

We have the right to hold both of the political parties accountable. We
not only have the right, we have the responsibility.

We not only have the right and the responsibility we have the power.


--------29 of 29--------

Published on Monday, October 15, 2007 by The Guardian/UK
The Land of Optimism Is in the Dumps, But Refuses to Accept How It Got
There
by Gary Younge

Not since Watergate has such pessimism afflicted Americans. They want
politicians to lift them without facing the cause

by Gary Younge

On April 27 1968 the vice president, Hubert Humphrey, announced his
presidential candidacy. It was a particularly troubled moment in America's
recent history. Just three weeks after Martin Luther King's assassination,
the cities were still scarred by riots while the country as a whole was
deeply divided over the Vietnam war.

Presumably seeking to capture the mood of the nation, Humphrey started his
speech thus: "Here we are, the way politics ought to be in America, the
politics of happiness, the politics of purpose, the politics of joy; and
that's the way it's going to be, all the way, too, from here on out".
Within six weeks Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated.

America's self-image as the home of unrelenting progress - a nation of
historic purpose and unrivalled opportunity where tomorrow will always be
better than today - is the linchpin of its political and popular culture.
Optimism, it seems, is a truly renewable national resource. It was used to
build Bill Clinton's "bridge to the 21st century" in 1992, and powered the
alarm clocks for Reagan's "new morning in America".

"The American, by nature, is optimistic," said John F Kennedy. "He is
experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon
to build greatly". This optimism is the source for much of what makes the
US simultaneously so revered and reviled, dynamic and deluded, around the
world.

On one hand it articulates a hope, bordering on certainty, that a better
world is not just feasible but already in the making. Released from the
hogties of tradition and formality, such confidence is driven by
possibility rather than the past. Winston Churchill once said he
"preferred the past to the present and the present to the future". An
American politician who wanted to get elected would say precisely the
opposite. This optimism underpins the notions of class fluidity and
personal reinvention at the core of the American dream. Where others might
ask "Why?", it asks "Why not?". Such is the root of so much that is great
about America's economy, culture and politics.

On the other hand this optimism has within it the notion that the US is
the exclusive repository of these hopes and the sole means by which a
better world can be made. Unfettered by history, consensus or empirical
evidence, it is driven by myth rather than material circumstances. Even as
class rigidity entrenches and personal reinvention slips, the dream
remains. Like Stephen Colbert's spoof of George Bush, it has the capacity
to "believe the same thing Wednesday that [it] believed on Monday, no
matter what happened Tuesday". It posits America as the world's future
whether the world wants it or not. Such is the root of so much that is
terrible about America's economy, politics and foreign policy.

This sense of optimism has been in retreat in almost every sense over the
past few years. According to Rasmussen polls, just 21% of Americans
believe the country is on the right track, a figure that has fallen by
more than a half since the presidential election of 2004. Meanwhile only a
third think the country's best days are yet to come, as opposed to 43% who
believe they have come and gone - again a steep decline on three years
ago. These are not one-offs. In the past 18 months almost every poll that
has asked Americans about their country's direction has produced among the
most pessimistic responses on record - a more extended period than anyone
can remember since Watergate.

America, in short, is in a deep funk. Far from feeling hopeful, it appears
fearful of the outside world and despondent about its own future. Not only
do most believe tomorrow will be worse than today, they also feel that
there is little that can be done about it.

There are three main reasons. Closest to home is the economy. Wages are
stagnant, house prices in most areas have stalled or are falling, the
dollar is plunging, and the deficit is rising. A Pew survey last week
showed that 72% believe the economy is either "only fair" or poor and 76%
believe it will be the same or worse a year from now. Globalisation is a
major worry. Of 46 countries polled recently, the US had the least
positive view on foreign trade and one of the least positive on foreign
companies.

The sense that things will improve for the next generation has all but
evaporated. Another Pew poll from last year found that only 34% of
Americans expected today's children to be better off than people are now -
down from 55% shortly before President Bush came to power.

Second is the Iraq war and the steep decline in America's international
standing it has prompted. A global-attitudes Pew poll from last year
showed that 65% of Americans believe the country is less respected by the
rest of the world than it was - double the figure of 20 years ago. The
fact that only half those polled thought this was a problem is telling.

For if the war in Iraq were going well then this probably wouldn't matter.
But it isn't. All surveys show that for some time a steady majority of the
public believe the war was a mistake, is going badly and that the troops
should be withdrawn. One of the central factors in which America's
self-confidence was predicated - global hegemony based on unrivalled
military supremacy - has been fundamentally undermined.

Last week Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the former top commander of
US troops in Iraq, spelled out the national despair, branding the war a
"nightmare with no end in sight".

Which brings us, finally, to the political class. Once again the American
public have lost faith. The rot starts at the top. Almost as soon as they
elected Bush in 2004 they seemed to regret it. Since Katrina, his
favourability ratings have been stuck in the 30s and show no signs of
moving - or at least not upwards. Bush's only comfort is that public
approval of the Democratically controlled Congress is even worse, hovering
just below where it was shortly before the 2006 elections. In other words,
however Americans believe their country will return to the right track,
they no longer trust politicians to get them there.

Little suggests that anything will change any time soon. After four years
of being told they were winning a war they have been losing and are better
off when they are not, Americans are more wary of political happy talk
than they have been for a long time. But that doesn't mean they want to
hear sad talk instead, even if it happens to be true. For the central
problem is not that they were lied to - though that of course is a problem
- but that they have constantly found some of these lies more palatable
than the truth. Bush may have exploited the more problematic aspects of
this optimism. But he did not create them. Enough of the American public
had to be prepared to meet him halfway to make his agenda possible.

Herein lies the challenge for the presidential candidates in the coming
year - how to respond to this pessimistic mood without reflecting or
discussing its root causes: to lay out a plausible explanation of how
Americans can get their groove back, without examining how they got in
this rut in the first place.

Gary Younge, the Alfred Knobler Journalism Fellow at The Nation Institute,
is the New York correspondent for the Guardian and the author of No Place
Like Home: A Black Briton's Journey Through the Deep South (Mississippi)
and Stranger in a Strange Land: Travels in the Disunited States (New
Press).

 2007 The Guardian





From shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu Tue Oct 16 03:44:49 2007
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 21:50:36 -0500 (CDT)
From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
To: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Why Won't Liberals Join Them?Blacks Turn Against the WarBy JOHN
    WALSH

October 15, 2007

Why Won't Liberals Join Them?
Blacks Turn Against the War
By JOHN WALSH

In these dark days for the peace movement, last Sunday morning brought a
ray of sunshine. "Military sees big decline in black enlistees; Iraq war
cited in 58% drop since 2000" ran the headline atop page one of the Boston
Globe (10/7). To be precise, from 2000 to 2005, the last year for which
the Pentagon provides data, Black enlistees have dropped from 41,185 to
17,399 a year. The biggest declines came in the army and marines as
opposed to navy and air force enlistments; in other words the declines
were in the services most likely to return you home in a box in the dead
of night.

This development is very bad news for the masters of empire who, for a
century, have relied heavily on scarce economic opportunities for Black
youth to drive them into the armed forces. Michael O'Hanlon, military
analyst at the liberal Democrat Brookings Institution laments this
unsettling development: "African-Americans have been a key part of the
modern military. There's obviously been a degree where the black community
in the United States has seen [military service] as culturally valuable
and promoted it. That whole culture and value system (sic) is at risk in
the black community. That is a big, big change. To me it portends a longer
term loss of interest. It can be tough to get it back." Mr. O'Hanlon does
not seem to be rejoicing at the demise of this imperial "value system";
the rest of us should leap for joy.

Young Black men interviewed for the Globe report declared that they do not
believe in the war and therefore won't enlist. They also spoke of
Hurricane Katrina, one saying: "Why should we go over there and help them
(Iraqis), when the US government can't help us over here?" Another said
that the war is "unnecessary," the same word used by Jimmy Carter, and
continued: "It's not our war. We got our own war here, just staying
alive." He then reminded the reporter that his hometown, Philadelphia, has
suffered more than 200 homicides in 2007, most involving Black youth. But
the military are not giving up, redoubling their recruiting effort,
pumping more money and more advertising into it. But it is not working.

Key to this Black Resistance are the "influencers." As the article says,
"Adult influencers of all youths, such as parents, sports coaches, or
mentors, say Iraq makes them less likely to recommend military service,
according to Pentagon surveys. Of all racial groups, African-American
influencers are the least likely to suggest enlistment, according to the
surveys." Now there are solid parents, making certain that their kids are
not turned over to the merchants of death. As the article puts it, "They
(the parents) see it from the aspect of . . . 'I don't care about the
benefits, I don't care about the money, I don't care about nothing. I
don't want my child going to Iraq.'" Other parents have a lot to learn
from this.

The Black Resistance to the war is poetic justice, given the racist roots
of the neocon movement that spawned the war. Recall Norman Podhoretz's
tenet that a neocon is a liberal "mugged by reality." Let's ask ourselves
what is the image of a "mugger" in many white minds, and it is all too
easy to see what the neocon Podhoretz was getting at. It was not simply
racism directed at Muslims and Arabs that informed the neocon project but
racism directed at Blacks and Hispanics from the very first.

Much remains to be done since the Black population is still over
represented in the military. As the Globe article points out: "Despite the
sharp decline in enlistments, the percentage of blacks in the military
still slightly exceeds that of the general population: 14.5 percent in the
military, as of 2005, versus 12.8 percent in the US population.
Nonetheless, recent Pentagon-sponsored surveys suggest that attitudes
among military-age African-Americans may have changed for good." The
creation of non-military economic and educational opportunities for Black
and other minority youth must be an essential part of the antiwar
movement.

At UFPJ (United for Peace and Justice) and related antiwar meetings the
lament routinely goes up that there are few (or more often zero) African
Americans in attendance. And no wonder. Beneath the surface these meetings
have as their agenda keeping the other war party (the Dems) in power. Do
the "leaders" of UFPJ not understand that Blacks readily see through this
ploy? Are these "leaders" so contemptuous of the Black community? They ask
where are the African-Americans. The answer is easy. They are busy. They
are working long and hard to keep their kids out of the death machine
peddled by Dems as well as Republicans. They are striking at the heart of
the military machine whereas the UFPJers are protecting the left wing of
the bird of prey, the Democratic Party. Who are the leaders of the peace
movement anyway? The attendees at those deadly boring and very PC UFPJ
meetings or those Black parents keeping their kids out of the military and
thus undermining the imperial machinery of death.

John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar [at] gmail.com


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