Progressive Calendar 10.27.12 .3
From: David Shove (shove001umn.edu)
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2012 11:27:17 -0700 (PDT)
*P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R   10.27.12*

1. Socialist conference 10.27 11-6
2. Northtown vigil         10.27 2pm
3. Cheri Honkela         10.27 1 & 4:30pm
4. Silent Spring           10.27 7pm

5. Ralph Nader - Capitol Hill’s rabid, ravaging Republicans
6. ed               - three mitt poems

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Socialist conference 10.27 11-6

SOCIALIST MINNESOTA
Conference Hosted by Socialist Alternative
Saturday, October 27th
11am - 6pm
University of Minnesota
Carlson School of Management Rm L-110
321 19th Ave S, Minneapolis

FEATURED SPEAKERS
CHERI HONKALA,Green Party vice presidential candidate, on challenging the
two-party system
GLEN FORD,Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, on Obama's corporate
education agenda
STEPHAN KOCH, Committee for a Workers International, London office, on the
revolt against capitalism in Europe
MICHAEL BRUNSON, Chicago Teachers Union, Recording Secretary, on their
historic strike to save public education

OTHER TOPICS INCLUDE
Resisting Voter Suppression | Marriage & LGBT Liberation
Labor in Politics | Women Fighting Back

$5 - $10 sliding scale donation requested. No one turned away for lack of
funds.

SCHEDULE for SOCIALIST MINNESOTA
Join us all day or for whichever sessions interest you

11:00am: HOW to FIGHT the RIGHT
Panel discussion featuring TEDDY SHIBABAW on resisting voter suppression,
KELLY BELLIN on women fighting back, NICK SHILLINGFORD on marriage & LGBT
liberation, RYAN TIMLIN on stopping the assault on labor

1:00pm: RESISTING the CORPORATE EDUCATION AGENDA
GLEN FORD Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, on Obama's corporate
education agenda
MICHAEL BRUNSON, Chicago Teachers Union, Recording Secretary, on their
historic strike to save public education
** This session organized in coalition with Public Education Justice
Alliance of Minnesota (PEJAM)

3:00pm: REVOLT AGAINST CAPITALISM in EUROPE
STEPHAN KOCH, representative from the Committee for a Workers
International, London office, reporting from the mass workers struggles
against austerity and capitalism in Europe

4:30pm: CHALLENGING the TWO PARTY SYSTEM
CHERI HONKALA, Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate, and veteran
community organizer for welfare and housing justice.


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From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 10.27 2pm

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


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Cheri Honkela 10.27 1 & 4:30pm

Green Party candidate for US vice president

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm - A House Party for Cheri in Minneapolis, hosted by Phil
Willkie and Cam Gordon
Home of Phil Willkie, 2625 Newton Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55405
Contact Tori Johnston (tori_j [at] msn.com) for more details.

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm - Cheri will be speaking at the Socialist Minnesota
conference
U of M, Carlson School, L–110, 321 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Go to http://socialistmn.tumblr.com/ for more details about the conference.

For more information about the complete list of events, go to
www.jillstein.org/events.


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From: Amber Garlan
Silent Spring 10.27 7pm

The Green Party book club is reading “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson this
month.  I am blown away that this book which was written 50 years ago could
have been written yesterday.

“I do contend that we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals
indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of
their potentials for harm.  We have subjected enormous numbers of people to
contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their
knowledge.  If the Bill of Rights contains no guarantee that a citizen
shall be secure against lethal poisons distributed with by private
individuals or by public officials, it is surely only because our
forefathers, despite their considerable wisdom and foresight, could
conceive of no such problem.”
“Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, page 12

Rachel Carson makes the connection between money and government.
“It is also an era dominated by industry, in which the right to make a
dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged…It is the public that is being
asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate.”
“Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, page 13

The Green Party book club will meet Saturday, October 27th at 7:00 in the
community room between 161 and 163 Erie Street in St. Paul.

I will bake cookies,
See everybody Saturday, 10/27/12, Peace,Amber


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Capitol Hill’s Rabid, Ravaging Republicans
by Ralph Nader
Published on Friday, October 26, 2012 by Common Dreams

Has there ever been a more crazed, cruel, anti-people,
corporate-indentured, militaristic and monetized Republican Party in its
154-year history? An about-to-be-released list of some of the actual
brutish votes by the House Republicans, led by Speaker John Boehner and
Rep. Eric Cantor, will soon be available to you from the House Democratic
Caucus.Left to right: Eric Cantor House Majority Leader, John Boehner the
61st Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy the Republican Majority Whip.
(Credit: DonkeyHotey / Flickr / Creative Commons license)

Lest you think this is just partisan propaganda, these are real, recorded
votes in the House of Representatives.

The Republicans seem to have it in for women and not just against health
insurance covering reproductive health care, Planned Parenthood’s other
services, or privacy for the medical records of victims of rape and incest.
The Republicans en-mass voted to repeal protections to stop health
insurance companies from discriminating on the basis of gender.

On other consumer protections – forget it. The Republicans are indentured
to the worst of their corporate paymasters. The Republicans either do
nothing to help or actually push for rollbacks. No minimum wage to give 30
million Americans the same pay workers got back in 1968, adjusted for
inflation. The Chamber of Commerce says no. So Boehner and Cantor curtsy.

In a frenzy, House Republicans have voted to repeal the “Affordable Care
Act” 33 times. Be assured their hatred for Obamacare is not because they
want full Medicare for all. It is because they want to voucherize Medicare
and hand patients over to the avaricious Aetnas and the Pfizers who return
the favor with campaign cash.

House Republicans rage against any attempts to stop the shipping or
outsourcing of American jobs to communist and fascist regimes abroad that
know how to keep their workers in powerless penury. Why? Because that is
what the non-patriotic U.S. global corporations want them to do. Anything
Big Oil wants, it gets– retain big subsidies, tax breaks, weaken pollution
restrictions, lease everywhere, and even give relief to oil companies when
they damaged the Gulf Coast.

House Republicans have a conflict of interest between their families’ lungs
and their corporatized minds. Resolution? Vote to weaken the Clean Air Act,
drinking water safety standards, cut funding for these cancer preventing,
health protecting programs while pushing for more military weapons and
bloated Pentagon budgets. The Republicans went so far as to vote for
polluters over children, pregnant women and people who live in nursing
homes and assisted-living facilities. These Republicans voted to block the
EPA mercury and air toxics standards that the agency estimated would save
12,000 lives every year and prevent more than one million asthma attacks.

With unseemly fervor, House Republicans want to generally weaken the
National Labor Relations Board and labor laws. But when it comes to
protecting the lowest tax rates and loopholes for the very wealthy, they
are Horatio at the Bridge. When the top two percent engage in financial
fraud (credit cards, mortgages and student loans, abuse of seniors) or urge
privatizing social security, the Boehners and the Cantors are
block-tackling anyone in the House who begs to push law and order for the
Rich and Corporate or keep “the security” in social security.

For the poor, let them eat less. Hunger in America is real. But not real
enough for the Republicans to stop wanting to cut these food programs.
While Republicans campaign against Obama for not doing anything to lower
gasoline prices, they are voting against measures to regulate oil and gas
speculators who drive up gas prices, a fact recognized by the CEO of Exxon
a few years ago in a Senate hearing.

The above are just a sample of what the House Republicans passed or blocked
in the House. Even worse are what many of them wanted to summarily abolish,
such as the EPA, OSHA, and the IRS. The meat-axe Republicans have trouble
telling the public how the important functions performed by these agencies
would be handled. The Republicans dismiss the work of health and safety
agencies as junk science (e.g. regarding climate change). Fortunately, the
Senate has rejected most of their madness.

How do such people get elected? Is it just money and smooth slogans? Is it
a lack of competition in rigged districts? Is it a winner-take-all,
two-party duopoly where more than half the voters sit out the election? Is
it shocking disengagement by the cynical or hopeless public, shorn of any
rigorous expectation levels?

For the time being, go to the Democratic House Caucus website. Ponder the
fate of our Republic. Ask why we have almost unconditionally given up our
enormous sovereign power of “We the People” to those out-of-control, raging
members of Congress.
Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His latest book is
The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future. Other recent
books include, The Seventeen Traditions: Lessons from an American
Childhood, Getting Steamed to Overcome Corporatism: Build It Together to
Win, and "Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us" (a novel).


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three mitt poems

MITT HAPPENS    [expanded version]

The Mitt-faced GOP
is up Mitt Creek without a paddle
but mitt-loads of puddles and piddles.

A Mitt head with Mitt for brains
it smiles its mitt-eating smile
that four out of five times
it can tell, kind of tell,
Mitt from Shinola.

And Mitt, ah, it’s the same old Mitt,
same mold Mitt, deep
and getting deeper,
a deep Mitt hole in
a holy Mitt house.

Think tanks of half-wits have
mitt-fits that won’t quit
till their pit-bull bellows his bull.

Come November
the GOP tells us
where and when you vote
to take a Mitt.
Then either it will be
Mitt out of luck
or we will be.

It boot-camps the Mitt-heads
for after polls day;
either way, when then
The Mitt hits the fan.



LIAR, LIAR

Mitt’s nose grows
faster than Pinocchio’s.
Pants-fire comes and goes
through an ass, darkly.



PET PERSONHOOD

Rich men’s pets
are people, my friend;
and, like slaves, have votes
cast by their owners.


-David Shove 10.09.12
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