Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 03.30.06

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     03.30.06

1. Clean energy       3.30 11am
2. Katrina poets      3.30 4pm
3. McDonalds/workers  3.30 4pm
4. Community policing 3.30 4pm
5. Eagan peace vigil  3.30 4:30pm
6. Palestine banners  3.30 5pm
7. Northtown vigil    3.30 5pm
8. Sami/Iraq          3.30 7pm
9. V mil in schools   3.30 7pm
10. Rowley/law        3.30 7pm Red Wing MN

11. Section 8 housing 3.31 8:15am
12. Silenced voices   3.31 9am
13. Huzzah smoke-free 3.31 11:30am/6:15pm
14. Counter recruit   3.31 12noon
15. Water/developers  3.31 12noon
16. Palestine vigil   3.31 4:15pm
17. Right/travel/Cuba 3.31 7pm
18. Homeless/vigil    3.31 7pm
19. Born to brothels  3.31 7pm
20. Darfur diaries/f  3.31 7pm
21. Trudell/film      3.31 7:15pm
22. Funk jam          3.31 8pm
23. Dance/holocaust   3.31 9:30pm
24. SophieScholl/film 3.31

25. Radio Havana Cuba - Brazilian pres lashes out at rich nations
26. Ralph Nader       - A call to all good Americans
27. Norman Solomon    - Why are we here?
28. ed     - Capitolism (poem)

--------1 of 28--------

From: clay0092 <clay0092 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Clean energy 3.30 11am

Thursday (3/30)
Knock Out Big Business, Clean vs. Dirty Energy Boxing, presented by MPIRG
11am-1pm, Northrop Plaza, UMN
Jump in the ring against Dirty Energy and help push for the Renewable
Energy Standard in Minnesota!


--------2 of 28--------

From: dorindamoreno <dorindamoreno [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Katrina poets 3.30 4pm

"Poetry of Witness/Poetry as Witness"
Thursday March 30, 4pm
125 Nolte Center, 315 Pillsbury Drive SE. University of Minnesota east bank

John Gery and Biljana Obradovic, poets and professors from New Orleans

Event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

Poetry reading and discussion with John Gery, Department of English,
University of New Orleans; and Biljana Obradovic, Department of English,
Xavier College. Reading and open discussion of poems by these two poets
that explore the delicate interaction between private experience and
socio-political crises, including the Persian Gulf war, NATO bombing of
Serbia, urban crime in the U.S., the war in Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina,
among others.

Biographies:

John Gery and Biljana Obradovic are poets displaced by Hurricane Katrina
who are residential fellows this spring at the Institute for Advanced
Study at the University of Minnesota. John Gery, Research Professor of
English at the University of New Orleans and Director of the Ezra Pound
Center for Literature, Brunnenburg, Italy, is a poet and critic of modern
and contemporary American poetry. His ongoing research involves cultural
identity, parody, and American poetry at the turn of the twenty-first
century. Biljana Obradovic, poet, translator, and Associate Professor of
English at Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, who survived
hurricane Katrina (although her house did not), is working on a
multi-genre memoir (poems, dreams, prose, letters...) of a diasporic poet
from ex-Yugoslavia who has lived and studied on three continents, trying
to establish her identity - as she says, "I see myself hanging above the
Atlantic ocean between my two homelands, unwanted in both, not belonging
to one, not belonging to the other; suspended in air, I don't know whether
I will land or plunge in deep, and never come out alive."

Gery and Obradovic have been visiting residential fellows at the Institute
for Advanced Study since January. Their house was destroyed by Hurricane
Katrina. Through the support of the McKnight Foundation, they have found
an institutional and academic home at the University of Minnesota while
their home in New Orleans is being rebuilt. They hope to return to New
Orleans this May.

The Institute for Advanced Study hosted three additional displaced
scholars during fall semester 2005.


--------3 of 28--------

From: Brian Payne <brianpayneyvp [at] gmail.com>
Subject: McDonalds/workers 3.30 4pm

Protest for Farmworkers' Rights
March 30, 4pm
1650 W. 82nd St. (McDonald's Midwest Regional HQ)
Contact: Brian Payne, brianpayneyvp [at] gmail.com, 612-859-5750

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has hit the road for the McDonald's
Truth Tour 2006 - check out their website for some great photos and
descriptions of the actions so far: www.ciw-online.org

As part of the National Student Labor Week of Action, a group of folks
here in the Twin Cities are organizing a local protest in solidarity with
the CIW.  This Thursday (March 30) we'll have a protest in front of the
Midwest Regional Headquarters for McDonald's (1650 W. 82nd St.,
Bloomington - 35W South to the 82nd Street exit and turn right) at 4:00pm
to be able to be there at rush hour traffic.

Spread the word to everyone you know!

There is also still room in the Twin Cities caravan to join the CIW in
Chicago on April 1st.  If anyone is interested in going, let me know ASAP
so we can make sure there's enough room for everyone.

Fair food that respects human rights, not fast food that exploits human
beings. www.sfalliance.org


--------4 of 28--------

From: Cam Gordon <CamGordon333 [at] msn.com>
Subject: Community policing 3.30 4pm

You're invited to an Update On The Community Policing Initiative

What has been learned from focus groups, listening to the community,
police, and elected officials:
* Proposed next steps
* Getting reactions from you about the initiative
* Where do we go from here

Thursday, March 30, 2006
4-6pm
Zuhrah Shrine Center
2540 Park Avenue
Parking on Oakland between 25th and 26th Sts.

CONVENERS:
Mayor R.T. Rybak
Chief William McManus

PRESENTERS:
Robert Wasserman, Chairman and Elizabeth Watson
Strategic Policy Partnership

PLEASE JOIN US. YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS IMPORTANT TO THIS PROCESS.
Those who can't attend but wish to comment, send an e-mail to
police [at] ci.minneapolis.mn.us

A summary of the report will be posted on the City Website on March 30.


--------5 of 28---------

From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 3.30 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.


--------6 of 28--------

From: Tracy Molm <molm [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Palestine banners 3.30 5pm

Please join us Thursday 3.30 to commemorate Palestinian Land Day, one of
the most important dates for Palestinians.  We join with people around the
globe and Palestinians around the world to protest for self-determination,
the right of return and Palestinian national liberation.

Palestinian Land Day Bannering

Thursday 3/30 @ 5-6pm, Mayday Plaza (above Mayday bookstore, 301 Cedar
Ave, Minneapolis)

Land Day commemorates the bloody killing of six Palestinians in the
Galilee on March 30, 1976 by Israeli troops during peaceful protests over
the confiscation of Palestinian lands. It has since become a painful
reminder of Israeli injustice and oppression against the Palestinian
people, and a day for demonstrations linking all Palestinians in their
struggle against occupation, for self-determination, national liberation
and the right of return. This year, our protest will mark the three-year
anniversary of the killing of Rachel Corrie with a reading of her own
words, which have been censored in the US. Rachel was a US peace activist,
run over by a bulldozer, when trying to prevent a Palestinian home from
being demolished.


--------7 of 28--------

From: EKalamboki [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 3.30 5pm

We have changed time and day of the NORTHTOWN Peace Vigil to 5 to 6 pm, 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.


--------8 of 28--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Sami/Iraq 3.30 7pm

Sami Rasouli Presentation: Northwest Suburban Citizens for Peace

March 30, 7pm, St. Joseph Parish Community, 36th Avenue North &
Boone, New Hope.

Sami Rasouli is an Iraqi American, who has spent the last ten out of
twelve months working in Iraq in a nonpartisan manner to help the Iraq
people (his second time in Iraq after Shock and Awe.) He has been
throughout Iraq, in Fallujah and many other cities and towns, helping
where he could.  He helped form the Muslim Peacemaker Team to work with
the Christian Peacemaker Teams (The Quaker Tom Fox was a friend and
colleague of his in this work.) FFI: carydberg [at] Comcast.net


--------9 of 28--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: V mil in schools 3.30 7pm

"Leave My Child Alone!"
Thursday, March 30, 7pm. Cherokee Park United Church, 371 Baker St., St.
Paul

Brief film about military recruitment plus school board members explain
federally-mandated military recruitment of children in schools. Sponsored
by Veterans for Peace-Chapter 27. Endorsed by WAMM.


--------10 of 28--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Rowley/law 3.30 7pm Red Wing MN

March 30 - National Security and the Law.  7-9pm.

Panel discussion "National Security and the Law" with former FBI agent
Coleen Rowley, St Thomas peace prof Michael Andregg, William Mitchell law
prof John Radsen and maybe a former CIA agent.

FFI: tuvecino [at] redwing.net
Location: First Lutheran Church, 615 W 5th St, Red Wing


--------11 of 28--------

From: Joanna Dornfeld <jdornfeld [at] mhponline.org>
Subject: Section 8 housing 3.31 8:15am

Current Challenges Facing the Section 8 Program

Please join us for a conversation with Barbara Sard, Director of Housing
Policy for the Washington D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities.

The Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program enables 30,000 low-income
Minnesota families, seniors and persons with disabilities to have
affordable housing. President Bush's recently released 2007 budget again
proposes to use an outdated formula to distribute funding, causing cuts at
many local agencies. Rather than modify the funding policy, the Bush
Administration aims to alter program rules to make it easier for local
housing agencies to respond to funding shortfalls.

As one of the nation's foremost experts on the Section 8 program, Ms.
Sard will present her perspectives on current challenges facing the
program and prospects for change. Additionally, a panel of Minnesota
stakeholders including representatives of local housing authorities, a
property owner and a tenant whose housing costs are subsidized through the
Section 8 program will respond to Ms. Sard's comments.

Friday, March 31
8:45-11:30am (Registration begins at 8:15am)
Cowles Auditorium Hubert H. Humphrey Center 301 19 Av S Minneapolis

This event is free, but space is limited. Please RSVP to Barbara
Kennedy at (651) 649-1710 ext. 112 or bkennedy [at] mhponline.org.

This event is co-sponsored by Minnesota Housing Partnership, Family
Housing Fund and Greater Minnesota Housing Fund.

Joanna Dornfeld Field Manager HousingMinnesota (651) 649-1710 ext. 108
www.housingminnesota.org
HousingMinnesota is an initiative of the Minnesota Housing Partnership.



--------12 of 28--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Silenced voices/vid 3.31 9am

March 31 - VIDEO REPLAY of "Silenced Voices" Conference.

VIDEO REPLAY of "Silenced Voices:  The Constitutionality and Legality of
Felon Disenfranchisement Provisions" conference, which took place at the
University of Minnesota Law School on Saturday, January 28, 2006 beginning
at 9 a.m.

The conference/CLE explored racial disparities with regard to
incarceration.  There will be video replays at the Law School on Friday
February 10th and 24th and March 31st, 2006.  We will be applying for 5.6
CLE/CJE credit hours with 1.0 hour eligible for Elimination of Bias
credit.

University of Minnesota Law School, 229 19 Av S Minneapolis.


--------13 of 28--------

From: Jeanne Weigum <jw [at] ansrmn.org>
Subject: Huzzah smoke-free 3.31 11:30am/6:15pm

Start your day of celebration Friday March 31 between 11:30 and 1:00 at
Sweeney's on Dale street.  Go back to the office then bring in the weekend
with a Pub Crawl to welcome smoke-free Saint Paul bars

Visit some of Saint Paul's finest pubs with a few of your best friends.
Saint Paul luminaries will travel by trolley among these establishments.
The estimated time of arrival of the trolley is listed below.  We invite you
to check out:

Schroeders Bar and Grill, Front and Dale Street appetizers 5:00 on.
Dubliner Pub, 2162 University Avenue.  6:15 - 7:00 pm
Bonfire/Café Latte, 830 Grand Avenue 7:15 - 8:00 pm
Joseph's Grill, 140 South Wabasha, 8:15 - 9:00 pm
The Liffey, 175 West 7th Street 9:15 - 9:50 pm
Glockenspiel, 605 West 7th Street, 10:00 pm

End the evening with music and dancing at Big V's at University and
Snelling.  , Death in Small Doses, the New Red and the Ugly Fat Kids. ($5
cover, 21 plus)

If you are still up for some fun stop by the Half Time Rec on Saturday
night April 1 for the Irish Brigade. ($4 cover)

Jeanne Weigum Merriam Park, Saint Paul


--------14 of 28--------

From: sarah standefer <scsrn [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Counter recruit 3.31 12noon

Counter Recruitment Demonstration
 Our Children Are Not Cannon Fodder
Fridays   NOON-1
Recruiting Office at the U of M
At Washington and Oak St.  next to Chipolte
for info call Barb Mishler 612-871-7871


--------15 of 28--------

From: Unny Nambudiripad <unny [at] metrostability.org>
Subject: Water/developers 3.31 12noon

IMPAIRED WATERS - ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT

The Unfolding Court Battle to Protect Our Region's Rivers, Streams & Lakes
From The Adverse Impacts Of Sprawling Development

This Roundtable Discussion is about a court case and its implications on
urban development.  During the summer of 2005, the Minnesota Court of
Appeals blocked the construction of a water treatment plant for Annandale
and Maple Lake, two growing Twin Cities suburbs.  They ruled that
permitting the project violated the federal Clean Water Act because of the
additional phosphorus pollution that would be added to the Crow River and
thus, Lake Pepin.  This legal challenge to the treatment plant was brought
forward by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA).  The
case is currently on appeal to the Supreme Court.

Join our discussion with staff from MCEA to talk about where and how the
Twin Cities should grow, what the implication of the court case is, and
how to effectively do public messaging about this issue.

The roundtable will take place at the Alliance for Metropolitan Stability
(2525 E. Franklin Ave.  #200 , Minneapolis - @ 26th Ave. S. and E.
Franklin Ave. in the Seward Neighborhood) office on Friday, March 31, from
noon-1:30.

Contact:
Unny Nambudiripad Organizer, Alliance for Metropolitan Stability Phone:
612-332-4471 / Fax: 612-338-2194 <mailto:unny [at] metrostability.org>
unny [at] metrostability.org / <http://www.metrostability.org>
www.metrostability.org 2525 Franklin Ave E, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN
55406


--------16 of 28--------

From: peace 2u <tkanous [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Palestine vigil 3.31 4:15pm

Every Friday
Vigil to End the Occupation of Palestine
4:15-5:15pm
Summit & Snelling, St. Paul

There are now millions of Palestinians who are refugees due to Israel's
refusal to recognize their right under international law to return to
their own homes since 1948.


--------17 of 28--------

From: Minnesota Cuba Committee <mncuba [at] usfamily.net>
Subject: Right/travel/Cuba 3.31 7pm

The Fight for the Right to Travel to Cuba
Friday, March 31 at 7pm
Macalester College, Room 06, Carnegie Bldg.

The U. S. government has imposed a ban on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba
for over 40 years.  In the last 5 years the Bush administration has moved
to drastically tighten this unconstitutional, anti-human measure aimed at
strangling Cuba in an effort to overthrow the revolution.  It has carried
out thousands of "investigations," and most recently over 200 participants
in the Pastors for Peace caravan and the Venceremos Brigade have received
letters from the Treasury Dept. demanding "information" about trips to
Cuba.  7 members of the Venceremos Brigade have received "penalty notices"
declaring a fine of $6,750. These are the first attempts to fine activists
participating in open challenges to the travel ban.

Come hear from some of the activists who have received these letters and
join in discussion and in the fight.

Hear Kathe Karlson - national leader of the Venceremos Brigade, received a
penalty notice of a fine of $6750

Brock Satter - Twin Cities black rights activist and musician, received
letters from the Treasury Dept. after trip to Cuba

Marv Davidov- founder of Honeywell Project, traveled to Cuba 8 times

Video - "Free to Fly"

For more information, 612-724-6150, or MNCuba [at] usfamily.net;
Sponsored by Minnesota Cuba Committee


--------18 of 28--------

From: Dave Bicking <dave [at] colorstudy.com>
Subject: Homeless/vigil 3.31 7pm

Friday  (March 31)
7pm until 8am the next day:  Vigil against homelessness, MLK park, 42nd &
Nicollet

This is in conjunction with a national day of vigils and sleepouts against
homelessness.  The organizers of this local vigil are very explicit that
ours is NOT a sleepout - bring no more than what would be comfortable for
sitting on and keeping warm.  Anyone is welcome to come for the entire
vigil, or any period of time during it.  Please at least stop by in
solidarity!


--------19 of 28--------

From: Bonnie [at] mnwomen.org
Subject: Born to brothels 3.31 7pm

Friday, March 31, 7pm, Twin Cities NOW hosts Feminist Film Series showing
"Born into Brothels." Seating is limited and shown in a private residence.
Call 612/987-7132 in advance to reserve a space.


--------20 of 28--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Darfur diaries/f 3.31 7pm

March 31 - Human Rights Center Film Series: Darfur Diaries: Message from
Home.  7-9pm.

In October and November 2004, after watching woefully inadequate media
coverage on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, a team of three independent
filmmakers trekked to Darfurian refugee camps in eastern Chad and, with
the help of the rebel movement, snuck across the border into Darfur. Aisha
Bain, Jen Marlowe, and Adam Shapiro met hundreds of Darfurians. They
interviewed refugees and displaced people, civilians and fighters
resisting the Sudanese government, teachers, students, parents, children
and community leaders. The documentary Darfur Diaries: Message from Home
chronicles the history, hopes, and fears of the people of Darfur and the
tragedy they are living. A book is under development.

Filmmaker Jen Marlowe introduce the film s screening: sharing experience,
providing the basic facts about the history of the region, and showing
footage of crowded refugee camps, burned-out villages, and eyewitness
accounts of the slaughter and oppression.

Jen Marlowe spent four years coordinating and directing the program at the
Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence in Jerusalem, creating and
implementing co-existence programs for hundreds of Palestinian and Israeli
youth. In addition, she was the program director for Seeds of Peace in
Afghanistan, and facilitated conflict groups of youth from India and
Pakistan, the Balkans, and Turkish and Greek Cypriot youth.

For more information on the Human Rights Center Film Series, please
contact Patrick Finnegan at humanrts [at] umn.edu OR 612-626-0041.

For more information about Darfur Diaries: Message from Home we invite you
to visit our website at www.darfurdiaries.org

Room 25, Mondale Hall, University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN


--------21 of 28--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Trudell/film 3.31 7:15pm

Fri Mar 31-Apr 6: "Trudell" film @ Bell, Mpls

As Missisippi was central to African-Americans' civil rights struggle, the
Midwest was central for Indian people, with the American Indian Movement
(AIM) begun in Minneapolis.

In 1968 onward, John Trudell issued calls for honoring treaties (the
highest law of the land), redressing corporate incursions into
reservations and addressing the deepest poverty in America. Trudell is
central to the revival of Indigenous traditions of spirtuality,language
and way of living.

Film-maker Heather Rae spent a decade documenting Trudell's continued
vision with archival film, initiating the early 1970s Indians of All
Tribes, which seized Alcatraz and held it for 21 months, earning the FBI's
designation that he was a danger to the government.

Since the 1980s, Trudell performed with Grafitti Man, poetry readings and
acting in films. Interviews with family, friends and AIM allies, plus
concert footage from around the world, make "Trudell" a rich portrait that
mirror what Trudell calls his "coyote nature".

$8 gen/$6.50 students,seniors/$5 members Fri, Mar.31-Thur.April 6, 7:15,
9:15 nightly, plus 5:15 Sa./Sun., Bell Aud.  in Bell Museum, 10 Church St,
SE off intersection University/17th, East Bank, U of M, Minneapolis
(612)331-7563 www.filmarts.org (Howell)


-------22 of 28--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Funk jam 3.31 8pm

Support young Black journalists:Funk Jam is almost here!

This is gonna be a cray-fun event, so please show up, bring a friend or
two, and get ready to groove! The best thing about it? ALL the money
raised goes towards TCBJ's scholarship fund for aspiring Black journalists.

If you don't think you can make it, but still want to support aspiring
young Black journalists, you can always just buy a ticket, and your money
will go to the scholarship. --Shannon

Funk Jam 2006, the Twin Cities Black Journalists annual scholarship
fundraiser
Pick a Decade (music and stylings from the '60s, '70s, '80s or '90s)

Friday, March 31, 8pm - 1am
Sweeney's Saloon and Cafe, 96 Dale St. N., St. Paul, 651-221-9157
TICKETS: $12 before, $15 at the door

WHY: Because you want to shake your groove thang AND support aspiring
young Black journalists in their educational and professional pursuits.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Duchesne Drew, at ddrew [at] startribune.com
<mailto:ddrew [at] startribune.com>, or 612-673-7111

Shannon Gibney Executive Director, Ananya Dance Theatre
www.ananyadancetheatre.org <http://www.ananyadancetheatre.org> President,
Twin Cities Black Journalists (TCBJ) www.nabj.org <http://www.nabj.org>


--------23 of 28--------

From: Stephen Feinstein <feins001 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Dance/holocaust 3.31 9:30pm

Zekher "A Short Dance about the Holocaust":

This Friday and Saturday you should come see Anat Shinar's senior dance
piece. It's about 30 minutes long about the Holocaust and her family's
struggle through The music and will be performed live on piano for the
performance. The performances are Friday, March 31st at 9:30pm and
Saturday, April 1st at 4pm both shows are in Barbara Barker Center for
Dance (west bank of the U of M campus), Studio 100.


--------24 of 28--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: SophieScholl/f 3.31

3/31 to 4/6, (time TBA) film "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" about last 6
days of anti-Nazi student, Edina Cinema, 3911 W 50th St, Edina.
651-649-4416.


--------25 of 28--------

Brazilian Pres Lashes Out at Rich Nations
Radio Havana Cuba
http://www.radiohc.cu

Rio de Janeiro, March 29 (RHC)-- Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da
Silva has strongly criticized the wealthy and technologically advanced
countries of the world for failing to live up to their responsibility in
tackling poverty and environmental degradation on the planet.

Speaking with participants at a major international conference on
biological diversity, the Brazilian president said he was concerned about
cutbacks in funding for development. The Eighth Biannual Conference of
Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity in Curitiba, Brazil, is being
attended by more than 4,000 officials including scientists and
conservationists from around the world.

Lula da Silva said that despite repeated pledges, most developed countries
have not achieved the targets set for official development assistance to
poor countries. At the two-week Conference, many delegates from other
underdeveloped nations have also voiced similar concerns.

In his speech at a ministerial-level meeting on biodiversity, the popular
Brazilian leader also criticized the West for what many economists
consider unsustainable patterns of consuming the world's resources, which
are contributing to an alarming level of poverty. Lula said that 25 years
ago, in 1980, the rich had 30 times more wealth than the poor. Now that
ratio has almost doubled to 60 times.

The Brazilian president said: "The industrialized nations spend about 900
billion dollars to defend their national borders. But they allocate less
than 60 billion dollars for development in poor countries, where hunger
has become a silent weapon of mass destruction."

Lula told delegates that the developed world is willfully neglecting the
widening gulf between the rich and poor because it continues to cling to a
model of development that has no room for collective sharing of resources
and lacks concern for environmental degradation.

"Biodiversity is our planet's greatest treasure. Anything that is contrary
to its conservation and to fair benefit sharing must be rejected," Lula
said. "It's time to act. It's time for change."

Last weekend, over 100 environment ministers arrived in Brazil to discuss
how they can reverse the adverse effects of unsustainable development on
the earth's biodiversity. The U.N. Convention on Biodiversity has already
set targets, which are due to be achieved by 2010. The Convention's
implementation requires accessibility to genetic resources, fair and
equitable share in ecosystem benefits and funding for technology transfers
to underdeveloped countries.

The environment ministers are scheduled to hold a series of interactive
dialogues in Curitiba, Brazil over the next several days as part of the
conference on biodiversity


--------26 of 28--------

A Call to All Good Americans
by Ralph Nader

Attention please, good people! Adjust your routines and come to the aid of
your country, and your children with your thoughtful patriotism. Don't
just hope for impeachment, demand the resignation now of the mad hatters
in the White House - George W.  Bush and Richard Cheney.

Already, a large majority of you do not consider this shifty duo
trustworthy. By more than two to one you disapprove of Bush's war in Iraq.
Similar majorities believe this is also a President whose administrative
incompetence - note the post-Katrina debacles compared to his promises
last September in that devastated New Orleans - nearly matches his
penchant for daily fabrications.

The precipitous drop in Bush's polls (Cheney's are even lower) is not
coming from liberals who long ago registered negative in these national
surveys. The drop is coming from millions of erstwhile Bush supporters,
Bush voters, Bush-loving conservatives.

Why? Just look at or read the news every day. There goes Bush and Cheney
insisting that conditions in Iraq are getting better and better, when they
are getting worse and worse. And Americans also know this because hundreds
of thousands of soldiers and other personnel are rotating from Iraq back
into every state and community and telling millions of people the truth.

Repeated reports from diverse official, media and eyewitness accounts say
that there is less electricity, more disease, less drinkable water, less
housing, far less street security, less health care, less gasoline, fewer
jobs and far more violence against civilians after the
Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld invasion in March 2003 than before the sanctioned,
tottering, besieged dictator, Saddam Hussein, was toppled.

With Bush's own ambassador to Iraq warning of a possible civil war and
Bush's handpicked interim Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi saying "We are
in a terrible civil conflict now," the serial delusionists, Bush and
Cheney, having lied five ways into their war, go around daily as smarmy
pollyannas spouting what Bush calls "a strategy that will lead to victory
in Iraq".

Why, didn't you know about all the progress in Iraq? If only the media
would report it, they both say again and again.  Really! What about all
the corruption by the many contractors, all the brutal militias that now
often do their work wearing Iraqi soldier or police uniforms, all the
bogus reconstruction, paid with billions of American taxpayer money? What
about the spreading chaos that Bush has no intention of confronting, as
international law requires invading occupiers to remedy. Remember Colin
Powell's tight phrase, "We broke it, we own it,"  that sums up the global
law on this subject.

Massive separation from reality frequently involves ordinary personalities
with psychotherapy. Read the words of the The Washington Post's respected
columnist, Eugene Robinson:

The people running this country sound convinced that reality is whatever
they say it is. And if they've actually strayed into the realm of genuine
self-delusion - if they actually believe the fantasies they're spinning
about the bloody mess they made in Iraq over the past three years - then
things are even worse than I thought.

He described Bush as "divorced from reality".

[Ah, if only Bush were divorced from all of our realities - ed]

Worse still is the delusion that claims the Bush-Cheney War is not
generating more terrorists. Mr. Bush doesn't listen to intelligence,
military and diplomatic officials, or even to his CIA Director Porter
Goss. Mr. Goss has testified that the U.S. occupation is a magnet and a
training ground for even more terrorists from outside and inside Iraq.
Thereby, setting up a boomerang against our national security in the
future.

One area, however, in Iraq is proceeding on schedule - the building of
four massive, permanent super-bases, complete with American suburban
amenities such as Pizza Hut, Burger King, miniature golf courses,
theaters, swimming pools and even a football field. There is almost a news
blackout about Balad Air Base, al-Asad Airbase and others, thought not
quite the blockage that the two White House draft-dodgers have placed on
reporters trying to cover the return of the fallen soldiers to Dover,
Delaware.

Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware) spoke about the growing opposition by both
Republican and Democratic Senators, to what can deliberately be called
disinformation coming out of the Bush administration.  Not to mention the
refusal to respond at all to serious inquiries by members of Congress.

Unlike the Presidential ordering of military invasions that violate our
domestic laws, our Constitution and international treaties to which the
U.S. is a signatory, massive delusion in the White House is not an
impeachable offense. But it should be a cause for resignation driven by
popular bipartisan demand. Bush and Cheney have arrayed their no-fault
power, their political egos against the interests of our country. They are
obsessively-compulsed.

Bush recently traveled to West Virginia and did not speak to the poverty
among some of the hardest workers in America. He went to Ohio on Air Force
One and ignored the huge loss of manufacturing jobs there to Mexico, China
and other authoritarian nations. No, instead, he brings his gigantic sign,
"Plan for Victory", stands in front of it and, as befits the Mayor of
Baghdad, talks about his delusions in that oil-rich, devastated country.

Reality, good citizens, can fairly describe the dictatorial Bush and
Cheney as psychiatrically challenged. Send them to the unemployment lines,
where Halliburton and Exxon will certainly pick them up.


--------27 of 28--------

Why Are We Here?
By Norman Solomon
ZNet Commentary
March 29, 2006
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-03/21solomon.cfm

On March 18, during her national radio response to the president, Senator
Dianne Feinstein accused the Bush administration of "incompetence"in the
Iraq war.

What would be a competent way to pursue the war in Iraq? How would you
drop huge bombs on urban neighborhoods in a competent way? How would you
deploy cluster munitions that shred the bodies of children in a competent
way? How would you take hundreds of thousands of people from their home
land and send them to a country to kill and be killed -- based on lies --
in a competent way?

How do you ravage the housing and health care and education of communities
across the United States, while war-profiteering corporations post bigger
profits -- how would you do that in a competent way?

Senator Feinstein went on to say that it's so important, for the war in
Iraq, for the United States government to "do it right."

How does one do this war right, when every day it brings more carnage? The
only way to do this war right is to not do it at all.

Reporting on a new assault by the U.S. military in Iraq, a headline on the
March 17 front page of the San Francisco Chronicle said: "Biggest air
attack since the invasion seen as delivering a message."

Delivering a message.

Forty years ago, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara said it was
necessary to drop bombs on North Vietnam in order to deliver a message to
the Communist leaders in Hanoi. The former war correspondent Chris Hedges,
in his book "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," recalls that when he
was reporting from El Salvador, one morning he and other reporters woke up
at their hotel and discovered that death squads had dumped corpses in
front of the building overnight, and in the mouths of those corpses were
written messages threatening the journalists.

In Yugoslavia, during the spring of 1999, the bombs fell with the U.S.-led
NATO forces delivering a message. And when, at noontime one Friday in the
city of Nis, cluster bombs fell courtesy of U.S. taxpayers and ripped into
the body of a woman holding a bag of carrots from the market, that too was
an instance of sending a message.

Time after time, leaders send messages by inflicting death. On September
11, 2001, Osama bin Laden sent a message at the World Trade Center. And in
the fall of 2001 the U.S. military sent a message to Afghanistan, where
the civilians who died, if we are going to count numbers, were at least as
numerous as those who died at the World Trade Center.

And now, George W. Bush continues to send a message with the bombs and the
bullets. And we're encouraged -- if not to avidly support -- to be
passive. To defer. To be inactive.

When people across the United States gather to oppose this war, they are
refusing to participate in sending the message of death.

Almost 40 years ago Martin Luther King talked about what he called "the
madness of militarism." And it's with us, here and now; it's with us in
the United States every time a child is malnourished, every time people
need medical care and don't get it and suffer and sometimes lose their
lives, while the military budgets of this country -- over half a trillion
dollars a year -- are spent not on defense but on military expenditures,
which dwarf anything that could be accurately described as defense. The
madness of militarism that Dr. King talked about is expressed every day by
the likes of Senator Feinstein, who demands "competence" in war and says
that it must be done right.

We need a peace effort, not a war effort, from the United States. Instead
of doing a better job of killing, there's a movement around this country
to compel what is said to be our own government to do a much much much
better job of sustaining life -- instead of taking it.

The problem isn't that this war may not be winnable. The problem is the
war was and is and always will be wrong, and must be stopped.

At every demonstration for peace and social justice, why are we here?
Because those are values we want to live for.

And why are we here on this earth? Why are any of us here? Not an easy
question to answer. But activism is a way of insisting that we're not here
to be part of war machinery. We're not here to be part of the killing,
we're not here to aid and abet or enable those like George W. Bush who
lead the charge to slaughter in the name of freedom to serve profit. We're
here with a very different mission.

This article is excerpted from Norman Solomon's speech to an antiwar rally
in Sebastopol, California, on Sunday, March 19. His latest book is "War
MadeEasy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death." For
information, go to: www.WarMadeEasy.com


--------28 of 28--------

 Capitolism

 Our sadly depleted uranusiums
 the DC Dems
 strut bravely around Congress
 one finger in their noses
 one finger in their butts
 switching every hour on the hour
 tasting and muttering
 Might this mean something?
 Might we do something soon
 next year perhaps
 well that's too soon
 perhaps after I retire
 in 2024
 or maybe after I'm dead
 Yes, that's it!
 I'll cast a Profiles in Courage
 posthumous vote!
 Let them try to
 get back at me then!
 Meanwhile I ask you
 what's the point
 of making waves?
 It's so unCongress
 It just isn't done
 Not if you know
 what's good for you
 Oh and the country too
 yes for the country too.
 Mustn't forget that.
 Right, time to switch fingers.
 Hmm, interesting vintage -
 Best yet!


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