September 3, 2007. Volume VI, Number 36
A PROJECT OF THE CASCOGREENS
Paul Stephens, Editor and Publisher 406.216.2711 greateco@3rivers.net
Much of the content of this Bulletin is now being posted at http://greateco.blogspot.com/
and http://www.myspace.com/greateco
Table of Contents:
UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
Do We Have the Courage to Stop War With Iran?
ACTION PAGE ON CHENEY IMPEACHMENT:
http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php
FROM DEMOCRACY RISING
Join the nationwide effort next Thursday, September 6th, to flood the offices of our members of Congress with calls demanding an end to the U.S. war in Iraq.
FROM LONGSTANDING BEAR CHIEF, BLACKFOOT NATION
Time we outgrew the White system
Message From the Hopi Leaders
Conyers Now Says Impeachment is NOT Off His Table
By Ann Wright, Colonel, US Army Reserves (retired),
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26257
A WORD FROM THE GOVERNOR
Montana is on the move!
GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
The Death of Princess Di
A Saint, A Princess, and a Maestro
It's a blue dog-eat-dog world out there
PEOPLE AND PLACES
Novi Bribir, Montana
KUCINICH ROCKS!
Kucinich shafted by ABC news after winning Democrat debate
http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2007/08/special-report.html
ZNET COMMENTARY
How Market-Democracy Keeps the Public and "Populism" At Bay
By Edward Herman
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-08/13herman.cfm
FROM HARPER'S MAGAZINE, August, 2007
Washington Babylon by Ken Silverstein
http://harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000764
FROM DEMOCRACY NOW!
On 109th Anniversary of U.S. Invasion of Puerto Rico, Acclaimed Photojournalist Frank Espada and Poet Martin Espada Reflect on Ongoing Struggle for National Rights
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/25/145218
Lucy in the Big Sky with Blood Diamonds?
AT THE NATIONAL GUARD CONVENTION IN PUERTO RICO
Oread Daily http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/
FROM RABBLE.CA http://rabble.ca/columnists.shtml
COAL AND ENERGY ISSUES Here comes the sun...
Forecast for solar power: Sunny
By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/environment/2007-08-26-solar_N.htm
THE CAMPAIGN FOR HEALTHIER EATING IN AMERICA
Healthy Eating Means No GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) By Jeffrey M. Smith http://www.ResponsibleTechnology.org
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/utility/showArticle?objectID=1458
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH http://qumsiyeh.org
Book Reviews
FROM THE COMING GLOBAL OIL CRISIS website http://www.oilcrisis.com/
The Coming of Deindustrial Society: A Practical Response by John Michael Greer
http://www.oilcrisis.com/whatToDo/DeindustrialAge.htm
A NOTE ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION
WEBSITES AND OTHER RESOURCES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE GREENS SUPPORT:
HEALTH CARE DOLLARS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS -- NOT INSURANCE COMPANIES AND CORPORATE PROFITS http://www.pnhp.org
STOP THE WARS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW! WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ARE NOT A LOCAL GROWTH INDUSTRY! http://www.antiwar.com/
COAL DEVELOPMENT MUST BE MINIMIZED, NOT MAXIMIZED: GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL! http://www.ipcc.ch/ http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/
END CORPORATE DOMINATION AND PREDATION: CORPORATIONS AREN'T PEOPLE, AND THEY DON'T HAVE "PROPERTY" OR OTHER RIGHTS! http://reclaimdemocracy.org/
For an introduction to Green Party philosophy and programs, go to http://www.gp.org/welcome.shtml
You can join the Montana Green Party at the NEW MONTANA GREEN PARTY WEBSITE!!
http://www.mtgreens.org
Please read the Platform to find out what we support and oppose:
http://www.mtgreens.org/node/25
New section on Instant Runoff Voting with model bills/initiatives:
http://mtgreens.montanalinux.org/node/22
Please help us circulate petitions to regain our ballot status. Information is available at http://www.mtgreens.org/node/112
If you would like to join the Missoula, Billings, or Great Falls Green Party forums/listserves, here are the links:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GLMG_discussion/ (Missoula)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YCGForum/ (Billings)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CascadeCoGreens/ (Great Falls) phone 216-2711
We have reactivated the Great Falls listserve, in hopes of establishing an official local Green Party group. Click on or paste the link, and join! (Spammers are now excluded).
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
Wednesdays, 5:30 to 6 pm, on the Great Falls Civic Center steps. Join the Quakers Peace Vigil.
______________
Why join the party?
We are circulating petitions to regain Green Party ballot status
Please help us circulate petitions to regain our ballot status. Information is available at http://www.mtgreens.org/node/112
The petitions and other information sheets are printable from the website. You must register or log in first. For assistance, call 216-2711 or send me an e-mail greateco@3rivers.net , and I'll send you one to print out or copy, or contact Chris Frazier, MGP Secretary in Billings greenfuture2000@yahoo.com or Steve Kelly, MGP Coordinator in Bozeman at 586-0180 botanica@imt.net
______________
HELENA Montanans for Corporate Accountability launches its third lecture and film series on Monday, September 17th, with the film "In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts", a 90 minute documentary by Danny Schechter. The film will be shown at 7 PM at the Neighborhood Center off Cruse Ave.
________________
Ray McGovern | Do We Have the Courage to Stop War With Iran?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/083107R.shtml
Ray McGovern, writing for Truthout, says that Americans must begin organizing against a war with Iran that Bush and Cheney are already planning: "It is going to happen, folks, unless we put our lawn chairs away on Tuesday, take part in some serious grass-roots organizing, and take action to prevent a wider war - while we still can."
(excerpt)
President George W. Bush's speech Tuesday lays out the Bush/Cheney plan to attack Iran and how the intelligence is being "fixed around the policy," as was the case before the attack on Iraq.
It's not about putative Iranian "weapons of mass destruction" - not even ostensibly. It is about the requirement for a scapegoat for US reverses in Iraq, and the White House's felt need to create a casus belli by provoking Iran in such a way as to "justify" armed retaliation - eventually including air strikes on its nuclear-related facilities.
Bush's August 28 speech to the American Legion comes five years after a very similar presentation by Vice President Dick Cheney. Addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars on August 26, 2002, Cheney set the meretricious terms of reference for war on Iraq.
Sitting on the same stage that evening was former CENTCOM commander Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, who was being honored at the VFW convention. Zinni later said he was shocked to hear a depiction of intelligence (Iraq has WMD and is amassing them to use against us) that did not square with what he knew. Although Zinni had retired two years before, his role as consultant had enabled him to stay up to date on key intelligence
findings.
"There was no solid proof that Saddam had WMD.... I heard a case being made to go to war," Zinni told "Meet the Press" three and a half years later.
(Zinni is a straight shooter with considerable courage, and so the question lingers: why did he not go public? It is all too familiar a conundrum at senior levels; top officials can seldom find their voices. My hunch is that Zinni regrets letting himself be guided by a misplaced professional courtesy and/or slavish adherence to classification restrictions, when he might have prevented our country from starting the kind of war of aggression branded at Nuremberg the "supreme international crime.")
Cheney: Dean of Preemption
Zinni was not the only one taken aback by Cheney's words. Then-CIA Director George Tenet says Cheney's speech took him completely by surprise. In his memoir, Tenet wrote, "I had the impression that the president wasn't any more aware than we were of what his No. 2 was going to say to the VFW until he said it."
Yet, it could have been anticipated. Just five weeks before, Tenet himself had told his British counterpart that the president had decided to make war on Iraq for regime change and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
When Bush's senior advisers came back to town after Labor Day, 2002, the next five weeks (and by now, the next five years) were devoted to selling a new product - war on Iraq. The actual decision to attack Iraq, we now know, was made several months earlier, but, as then-White House Chief of Staff Andy Card explained, no sensible salesperson would launch a major new product during the month of August - Cheney's preemptive strike notwithstanding. Yes, that's what Card called the coming war: a "new product."
After assuring themselves that Tenet was a reliable salesman, Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dispatched him and the pliant Powell at State to play supporting roles in the advertising campaign: bogus yellowcake uranium from Niger, aluminum tubes for uranium enrichment, and mobile trailers for manufacturing biological warfare agents - the whole nine yards. The objective was to scare or intimidate Congress into voting for war, and, thanks largely to a robust cheering section in the corporate-controlled media, Congress did so on October 10 and 11, 2002.
This past week saw the president himself, with that same kind of support, pushing a new product - war with Iran. And in the process, he made clear how intelligence is being fixed to "justify" war this time around. The case is too clever by half, but it will be hard for Americans to understand that. Indeed, the Bush/Cheney team expects that the product will sell easily - the more so, since the administration has been able once again to enlist the usual cheerleaders in the media to "catapult the propaganda," as Bush once put it.
___________________
FROM DEMOCRACY RISING
Join the nationwide effort next Thursday, September 6th, to flood the offices of our members of Congress with calls demanding an end to the U.S. war in Iraq.
*Welcome Back Congress *
*National Call-In Day*
*Thursday, September 6, 2007
*Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121*
Dear Peace Stalwarts,
Let's make it clear: there cannot be "business as usual" in Washington until effective action to bring all the troops home is taken!
Call your Representative and both Senators on Thursday, September 6th.
Tell them: "I want you to act now to end the war and occupation of Iraq.
The Congress has the Constitutional right and a moral responsibility to use the power of the purse to withdraw all U.S. soldiers and contractors from Iraq on a responsible and binding schedule."
Four and a half years of this war is too long - it has to end now!
Not sure who represents you in Congress?
Look Here. http://capwiz.com/fconl/directory/congdir.tt?action=myreps_form
*Background: In September, Congress will focus on the war in Iraq. They will vote on the President's request for continued funding of the war. At this writing, the request stands at $142 billion, but President Bush will probably ask for an additional $50 billion, for a total of more than $190 billion dollars!
Congress is not required to give President Bush any of this money, or even to bring the request to a vote. Congress can also put restrictions, firm withdrawal timelines and other conditions on any funding in order to force an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR SEPTEMBER 6TH.
Ask your family and friends to join in.
Together we can end the war in Iraq and bring our troops home.
Kevin Zeese
Executive Director
Democracy Rising
DemocracyRising.US
P.O. Box 18485
Washington, DC 20036
USA
____________
FROM LONGSTANDING BEAR CHIEF, BLACKFOOT NATION
Time we outgrew the White system
I am very serious about starting a political party made up entirely of Indians, their relatives and friends. There is not evidence that white dominated Republican, Democrat, Libertarians, etc. will ever accept us as anything but a voting block they can rely on to support THEIR agenda. If so the Democrats who hold sway in Montana are not about to help us with the justice we seek as Indians in matters related to water in the St. Mary/Milk River drainages. NOT ONE Indian member of the Democrat Indians in the State Legislature raised their voice in opposition to Max Baucus's getting the white irrigators millions of dollars in aid to fix the St. Mary Canal system. And the Republicans have written us off years ago.
And as for new parties like the Green Party in Montana they are off in the clouds somewhere and we do not know what the hell they are about. I do not know of one Indian recruiter for the Green Party. I have written things for the Green Party in Great Falls, and have never gotten so much as a peep out of them.
So what do you say folks, let us start our own party and be the powerful swing vote that decides finally what the whites do when they are in a tight vote, and believe me more tight political races are on the horizon.
Contact me at LongStandingBearChief@blackfoot.org or call me at 406-338-2882. It is time we stopped being the minions of the white system of government! Lets all grow up and be our own people!
_____________
TO LONGSTANDING BEAR CHIEF AND FRIENDS,
Bravo! Right On! Does that count as a peep?
You can join the Montana Green Party at http://www.mtgreens.org
Your letter was in the spam filter. Maybe that's where the stuff I send you ends up! And I've reprinted essays, stories, and news from you many times in this Bulletin, including most of your speech on the water rights issue and the St. Mary's canal last year.
We're having trouble getting any white people to join the Green Party. Maybe we should all "turn Indian". We also blame the Baucus people for destroying the Green Party statewide, and you and I have often discussed his deplorable record in years gone by. Most of us agree that defeating Baucus in 2008 is our highest priority. He is a man without honor, principle, or common sense. He lies practically every time he opens his mouth. All of his policies support the corporate elite, and Republicans like him so much that they refuse to run anyone against him who could win. In return, the Democrats leave Rehberg alone, who in most respects is even worse. We mean to bust that "deal" wide open in the 2008 election.
As for us sending "an Indian recruiter" to Browning, that's not going to happen. We're not allowed to follow in the footsteps of the Blackrobes. We want you to stay loyal to your own tribe. You'll have to "recruit" and organize yourselves. I've put you in touch with other Greens several times. Apparently, nothing happened. Maybe you scared them away, but we're gaining courage as we continue to oppose global capitalist imperialism. Come join the struggle. It's a good day to die.
The real answers are grass roots democracy, the 7th generation rule (although that's not long enough - nuclear waste and global warming will still be here for 70 generations - at least), tribal sovereignty, secession from the white man's government, and reclaiming all the land controlled by corporations and the federal government which was stolen from Native Peoples. Small farmers and other landholders can be evaluated on an individual basis, but most commercial/private land ownership is clearly illegitimate.
I've long supported these things (for at least 25 years) as a descendent of the European conquerors, but I've found very few Native Americans who do. Political action, like charity, begins at home. Let us know how we can help.
-- Paul Stephens
______________
Message From the Hopi Leaders
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered.
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold onto the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly
Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore,
push off into the middle of the river,
keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you and celebrate.
At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do,
our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle
from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done
in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
Dr. Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer
Hopa Mountain, Bozeman
/\/\/\/\/\
Conyers Now Says Impeachment is NOT Off His Table
By Ann Wright, Colonel, US Army Reserves (retired),
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26257
US Congressman John Conyers said in Pontiac, Michigan, on August 28, 2007 that, while Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi may have impeachment off her table, he has NOT put impeachment off HIS table!
At a gathering of over 500 citizens of the Detroit and Pontiac, Michigan area gathered to "Take a Stand" against the war on Iraq sponsored by Iraq Summer, Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that citizens must bring to an end "sad and tragic war."
Conyers said that citizens must reject the "imperial" government of the Bush administration. Conyers listed torture, Geneva Convention violations, abuse of national security letters, and voters' rights violations as parts of the "imperial system," and that members of the administration have "inherent contempt" for the Congress. Conyers said he has no reticence or reluctance to "use the tool of impeachment," when he "feels it is appropriate."
I spoke to the gathering prior to Congressman Conyers. I called for accountability for the invasion and occupation of an Arab, Muslim, oil-rich country that had not attacked the United States and for other Bush crimes such as torture, kidnapping, illegal detention and warrant less wiretapping. I said accountability for illegal actions is critically important to our country as if the Bush administration escapes accountability, future administrations will attempt to do the same.
I asked Congressman Conyers to "Take a Stand" for accountability for the deaths of 3760 US military and 1000 US civilian contractors killed in Iraq, for the 700,000 Iraqis killed in the US occupation of Iraq and for the 770 persons imprisoned for almost 6 years in Guantanamo with only one charged and convicted by the US military commission.
I emphasized that investigations of allegations of criminal actions by President Bush and Vice-President Cheney were the right of citizens, that investigations that could lead to impeachment, were a part of the US Constitution that could not be taken away by individual Congressmen or women.
And, I reminded Congressman Conyers that I was one of 400 persons who came to his office on July 23 and one of 47 who were arrested in his office when he would not agree to consider initiating investigations on articles of impeachment. Conyers has said frequently that "we don't want to jeopardize the 2008 elections with impeachment" and "we don't have time before the 2008 for impeachment."
I also promised to organize the "protection of the House Judiciary committee" if Nancy Pelosi attempted to take the chairmanship of the Judiciary committee from Conyers if he initiated investigations for possible impeachment.
The 500 citizens in the audience were committed to putting further pressure on the Congress for ending the war on Iraq and were enthusiastic about holding the Bush administration accountable for its crimes through impeachment.
September is a critical month for ending the war. We need as many people as can come to Washington to put pressure on the Congress to end the war and to impeach those in high offices who have broken domestic and international law. The Petraus/Crocker/White House report will be presented in mid-September, marches will be on September 15 and 29. The Iraq Moratorium Day is September 21. Come help in DC!!!
STOP THE WAR and Demand Accountability through IMPEACHMENT!
------------------------------------------------
About the Author: Ann Wright is a retired US Army Reserves Colonel and a US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in US Embassies Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. She was on the team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan in December, 2001. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience" which will be published in October, 2007.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
CORPORATE POWER -&- DEBT in AMERICA
Montanans for Corporate Accountability launches its third lecture and film series on Monday, September 17th, with the film "In Debt We Trust: America Before the Bubble Bursts", a 90 minute documentary by Danny Schechter. The film will be shown at 7 PM at the Neighborhood Center off Cruse Ave.
"In Debt We Trust" documents, through real-life examples, how the credit card industry operates and how families get trapped in debt
According to Schechter, "this problem is downplayed and rarely discussed in all of its disastrous dimensions. It’s about the transfer of wealth from working people into the vaults and accounts of a relatively small number of financial institutions and real estate interests. The lenders are profiting by charging usurious rates and doing so legally, in part, because they have mastered the art and science of marketing products and then manipulating media, politicians, and political institutions."
Although the film focuses on personal debt, it also raises some key issues regarding our runaway national debt.
Following the film, Donna Shaffer and Angela Heffern from Consumer Credit Counseling Service will lead a discussion about the local nature and dimension of these problems.
This event is free and open to the public.
For more information call 442-5506 x18 or email corp@mhrn.org
___________________
FROM THE GOVERNOR
Montana is on the move!
Montana has a record number of people working, the lowest unemployment on record, over 1500 jobs per month being created, the nation’s 7th fastest growing economy over the last 3 years, a doubling of oil production, more new electrical energy than the previous 16 years combined, one of the nation’s best business tax climates, and one of the lowest combined state & local tax burdens!
Now, the respected Business Facilities magazine has ranked Montana’s pro-business climate as #1 in the nation. Here is an excerpt from the article:
"You’d be hard pressed to find a location that doesn’t use an adjective like "great" or "top-notch" to modify the words "business climate" when describing itself to potential companies. So what makes a business climate great? Compared to the factors that contribute to quality of life, the variables that define a business climate are substantially less ambiguous. Our business climate ranking gets at the heart of what makes a location good for business: business costs, economic climate, and labor force."
"Interestingly, four out of the five Rocky Mountain States landed in the top 10, headed up by Montana, our top business climate for 2007."
The article and rankings can be found at:
http://www.businessfacilities.com/bf_07_07_cover1a.php
Thanks for your part in this positive Montana success story.
Best personal regards,
(s) Brian
___________
COMMENT
I saw news stories on TV last week showing a huge $400 "check" written on the account of "The Montana Democrats" being given to a local fireman and his family. It was said that some 200,000 homeowners can claim a similar check for that amount - no more, no less. Nothing for the homeless, apparently.
I wondered, where is this money coming from? Between Baucus and Schweitzer, they've already raised over $10 million for their 2008 campaign "war chests," contributed by corporations and other wealthy special interests. (The Green Party doesn't accept such contributions). But that's only about 25,000 $400 checks. Isn't the legislature going back into session next week to appropriate $50 million (already spent) for fighting forest fires? Shouldn't these "Montana Democrats" pay for that, first?
Where is the rest of the money going to come from? Surely not the taxpayers! If that were the case, "the Montana Democrats" couldn't be signing the checks! Only the casino owners have that kind of money, but I didn't hear anything about them paying higher taxes! They continue to rob the working class, poor, and retirees of a billion $ or so a year (and slot machines are quite illegal in Montana!) When we complained to the legislature about that, Sue Dickenson (one of many Democrats who took a lot of money from casino interests for her campaign) told us to "go circulate a petition!"
There are some other "records" we should mention, too. Global warming, mostly from burning coal and oil, are creating record high average temperatures and drought, fires, and water shortages. Montana also boasts a record number of people in prison, with a record increase in prison bed construction - all sponsored by the Democrats! (The Republicans finally lost their taste for supporting the largest prison population in the world, and they're starting to gripe about other corporate welfare, as well -- especially agribusiness subsidies. But not the Democrats!)
A record number of Montanans cannot pay for medical care, and record numbers are home-schooling, abandoning the public schools for religious education, or just dropping out of school and rejecting education entirely. College tuition costs are at near-record highs (frozen in the last legislature for a year, instead of being reduced). The Republicans tried to reject the Bush Administration's disastrous "Let no child get ahead" program, but the Montana Democrats insisted we surrender to the Federal takeover of Montana schools, disguised as "aid." ("Federal Aid means Federal Control" -- remember?)
The 2007 forest fire acreage may set a record, as well. Utility bills (and profits for Northwestern and PPL) keep going up while wages and incomes for Montanans are near record lows, as are the number of people working two or more jobs. No wonder "unemployment" is at a record low! People would starve, otherwise. Is the low-wage economy "good for business?" Apparently the "business lobby" thinks so! But is it good for the workers, and the country as a whole? No comment!
Healthcare costs continue to increase by double-digits, aided and abetted by Democrats in the last Legislature, paid off by the "insurance" industry and Benefis lobbyists, who insisted that the existing price regulation, saving Great Falls residents $20 million or more in hospital bills per year, was "unfair." The percentage of money spent in locally-owned stores and businesses is at record lows (remember all those Wal-Marts, Home Depots, Costco's, Walgreens, and even theater and restaurant chains everyone was clamoring for?), as is the percentage of Montana-produced food consumed locally.
We could blame it all on the Republicans, except that the Schweitzer and Baucus Democrats adopted their program, many parts of which the Republicans had already abandoned (as described above). Therefore, the Montana Democrats will have to take at least half the blame. So much for "bi-partisanship."
We prefer to call it "The two-party system of denial and blame." It's time for a Green Revolution. -- PHS
/\/\/\/\/\/\
GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
The Death of Princess Di
[I wrote the following for the short-lived "Great Times" weekly independent newspaper in September of 1997. Only a paragraph or two of it was published, with none of the deeper context and analysis. It is published here for the first time, in anticipation of Sir Elton John's completion of Princess Diana's planned visit to Missoula 10 years ago. Not a word of it has been changed. -- Paul Stephens]
Early last Spring, the news came that Princess Di would be visiting Missoula in August for some charitable purpose. Although it wasn't big news, and the prospective visit was soon cancelled "for scheduling reasons", it was of some interest to those of us who follow British politics and culture, and nurture hopes that progressive elements in England and Montana may continue to interact and support each other. Not only are there many British-born residents of Montana, but many Montanans live and work in England at some point in their lives. The death of Diana, the mother of Britain's future King, raises many interesting issues for the media which made such a star of her, and in the last minutes of her life, it was representatives of the media who harried her and her companions to a premature death.
Celebrity is an issue which never troubles the vast majority of people. Most of us wish we had more of it. And certainly very little of the press attention which Princess Di received could be called "negative." Yet, for someone whom nearly everyone professed to love, she was treated more like a fallen woman than a princess. One remembers seeing her on television years ago, begging reporters and photographers to leave her and her children alone so that they could have a few quality hours together without being mobbed by an all too offensive corps of "paparazzi" - the free-lance photographers who sell to the sensationalist tabloids. It didn't matter if she was with her husband and children, or with some imagined lover or other celebrity. Current pictures were worth a lot of money, and the competition to get them was fierce and completely unprincipled.
The actual events of her death are now well-known. The fatal step was to allow an inebriated driver for the hotel where she was staying substitute for her regular chauffeur who was on a decoy mission which obviously failed. Presumably her bodyguard, paid for by the British government, and the sole survivor of the crash, will have to answer for that tactical mistake. But at this point, the main culprits are taken to be the photographers who were pursuing her on motorcycles. Why not the French police, who surely could have protected her and her party from harassment, and escorted them wherever they needed to go? One can hardly imagine anyone else of her stature being forced to flee into the night with a totally drunk driver behind the wheel. Perhaps with her recent divorce and liaison with the heir to an Egyptian fortune, her popularity was not what it once had been, although in France, at least, one would expect that it would now be even greater!
Journalism has a long history of Republicanism (which originally meant the abolition of monarchies), and most regicides can be attributed to political unrest. It is difficult for Americans to understand the role of a Royal Family in a country's history and current cultural life. They are the ultimate role models, usually loved and revered, but in the present case, the Royals themselves were clearly outclassed by the young woman who married into them. To be sure, she and her family were of the nobility, and even distantly related to the Prince she married. Her vision for England was probably not so very different from theirs, and since the British monarchs have often married German or other nobility, Princess Di was actually more "English" than Prince Charles, or so it could be claimed.
Although none of them could be called "egalitarian" or even "progressive" without stretching the terms beyond recognition, all pretend to be "humanitarian" and champion a number of causes from historic preservation to AIDS relief and helping disadvantaged children. Princess Di actually worked in a kind of pre-school or kindergarten before her marriage, and her most recent cause was to help lead the campaign against anti-personnel mines, a military device which has killed or maimed millions of civilians in many parts of the world over the past few decades.
It is particularly ironic that Princess Di's life as a princess and role model should have endured through the Thatcher and Major years, and only now, with the beginning of a progressive Labor government of her own generation, should her work be prematurely terminated. Now that she was free -- domestically, emotionally, and politically -- what might she have accomplished in advancing the humanitarian causes she espoused? Why is it that the good so often die before their time? By her choices and her spirit, she made herself into a lightning rod, and lightning finally struck. Let's hope the light of her message lives on.
_________________
[Note from 2007- The latest news is that the French EMT people may have been responsible for Princess Diana's death. She was conscious when they got there. All of their "triage" attention went to the driver and Dody Fayd, who were already dead. It was more than an hour before she was taken to a hospital (10 minutes away) and was discovered to have severe internal injuries and bleeding. If I heard the news story correctly, she was even refused admittance at the closest hospital! Shades of street people dying outside of emergency rooms in the U.S. We're not considered the "world leader" for nothing, I guess. -- PHS]
____________
A Saint, A Princess, and a Maestro
[This was also written for The Great Times, and also unpublished. I never did understand what the purpose of The Great Times was, but it certainly wasn't to promote any sort of cultural awareness or socio-political analysis. Anyone for basketball scores? -- PHS]
Within a week of Princess Diana's death, two others passed away who bear comparison with her. Mother Teresa, the Albanian nun who went to India and started what may be the only rapidly-expanding Catholic Order in the world today, passed away after a long illness and at an advanced age. The other "Great Death" for the week was the Hungarian-born symphony conductor Georg Solti, who stood out even among the greatest conductors, living or dead. How to draw connections or relationships among them and their followers?
The best way to begin is to note the similar stature each had in his or her respective field. All three of them were media celebrities whose personal lives and life stories were constantly being scrutinized. Solti was notorious for his passionate love affairs, and actually judged harshly by biographers and critics on that account. Christopher Hitchens, a leftist British journalist and commentator, wrote a scathing biography of Mother Teresa, claiming that she needlessly prolonged, glorified, and made a career out of other people's suffering, eschewing modern medicine and science in pursuit of a holy vision. He didn't question her sincerity, but severely criticized her religious dogmas and methods.
The lesson may well be that one needn't be a beautiful princess to be hounded and condemned by the press. And yet, the press or media often holds together to protect its own, and to promote broader humanitarian causes, although we've seen much less of that, lately. Watching Ronald Reagan through his years as President reminds us that style is of much greater interest than substance. He never got the press popularity in California which he received from the national press in Washington, D.C. The latter immediately recognized a man who'd spent his whole working life in front of a microphone and camera, and they embraced him as a father or a brother: "the Great Communicator!?" Even Alzheimer's couldn't dim their enthusiasm for his every malapropism.
By the same standard, the small-town, rural, 110% traditional American Annapolis graduate, Jimmy Carter, was treated like a freak and a criminal by the national press. His small-town friends were characterized as "The Georgia Mafia", and his brother's drinking and outspoken red-neckism was finally run into the ground when he became a spokesperson for the People's Republic of Libya. It was left to President Reagan to send a carrier over there to kick their butts.
Mother Teresa was run out of New York City because she refused to spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars necessary to make her facilities wheel-chair accessible. Buying a new elevator did not have priority over caring for the suffering, or some such thing, so she departed from that city, and shook the dust from her feet. Apparently, she did better in Washington D.C., and maintained an organization there to meet various social needs which the fattest welfare budget in the world was not able to take care of.
Georg Solti was not so well known to most Americans, but among record collectors and concert-goers, his work was valued as highly as any. Originally a protégé of Arturo Toscannini, another conductor who would get a lot of votes as the greatest of this century, Solti first came to my attention, and that of other audiophiles, with his definitive recording of Wagner's entire Ring cycle (about 16 hours of music) in the mid-1960's. His readings of Mahler were also definitive, as was his Beethoven and Liszt. He was a "music of the future" specialist -- the school of Beethoven, Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner. A great opera conductor, and especially well-suited to guide us through the vast emotional landscapes of a Mahler symphony. A Hungarian like Liszt and Bartok, he continued many of the same traditions into our time.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which Solti conducted for 22 years, was already one of the best orchestras in the country, and one of less than five which were truly world-class. But under Solti's leadership, it became even bigger, brighter, and more precise in its reading of the great Romantic scores.
________________________
MORE GREEN SOLUTIONS
It's a blue dog-eat-dog world out there
I think they ought to make Michael Vick Attorney General, and put Alberto Gonzales in prison. Obviously, Vick is much better-placed to eliminate threats to Republican candidates from Blue Dog Democrats than Gonzales is. Plus, Vick has a lot more money to contribute to Republican campaigns. Surely Dubya will pardon him before he ever gets to prison. It's only right.
Doesn't Ted Turner own the Atlanta Falcons? This could provide some complications. But he's pretty much non-partisan anyway, and probably enjoys a good dogfight as much as anyone - provided they're blue, rather than gray. Who let the dogs out, anyway? And shouldn't all those beer-swilling and environment-hating Republican sports fans get upset when a football star's future is sacrificed for a few pit-bulls? I'm sure Anne Coulter will have something to say about this! After all, the vicious muts, put here for man's pleasure, are only fulfilling their destiny as God and dog breeders meant for them to do. Tell the bleeding heart liberals to butt out!
These are killer dogs. What do they expect the owners to do with them -- release them into a schoolyard after the fight? Give them open-heart surgery?
Let them die as warriors! I'm sure a Chinese restaurant could make good use of the carcasses. Native Americans considered dog a delicacy, as well. Charlie Russell even told a story about a man who ate his own dog's tail, just to survive ("Dog-eater," p. 129ff in Trails Plowed Under, Doubleday, 1927). He made a stew out of it, and shared it with the dog. The next day, an elk showed up, so they ate well for the rest of the winter. The Lord helps those who help themselves - to dog meat.
Bull fights, dog fights, cat fights, cock fights -- it's all the same to me. Kill them humanely? Sure. But when they fight, they're killing each other. It's none of we human's business.
As for politics, follow the money. I guarantee, it will lead straight to the White House. In fact, yesterday's paper reported that Sen. Craig has just hired the same law firm which plea-bargained Vick out of $135 million dollars! There must be a conspiracy involved, somewhere!
-- PHS [The above is satire. Please don't take it TOO seriously (except the part about putting Alberto Gonzales in prison)].
____________________________________
Sandra Kobrin | Beat a Woman? Play On; Beat a Dog? You're Gone
Writing for Women's eNews, Sandra Kobrin says, "National Football League superstar Michael Vick is in big trouble with the NFL, which has said he might never play professionally again.... I just wish the NFL had the same outrage toward spousal abuse and other forms of domestic violence. But they don't."
________________
Late, breaking news:
Hotel magnate Leona Helmsley left her dog $12 million, and nothing for her grandchildren. Such is the decadence of family relationships under capitalism. The grandchildren will be grateful someday, for not having to carry the burdens of the Ruling Class. It's all gone to the dogs, anyway. -- PHS
_______________
Novi Bribir, Montana
http://www.bribir.net/html/english.html
Have you ever heard of Bribir, Croatia? If so, you probably live in Great Falls, Montana. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of people in Montana who trace their ancestry to that small town. I'm told that after some sort of political or economic crisis early in the last century (the Austrians invaded, or something), virtually the whole town (or what was left of it) packed up and moved to Great Falls, Sand Coulee-Belt (where the coal mines were), or the area north of the Missouri which was then called "Little Chicago" (now Black Eagle), home of the Boston and Montana (later Anaconda) copper smelter. Milton Doles, who reads and often comments on this Bulletin, is one of them. I have known a number of Bribiri all of my life, and back three more generations, when my great-grandmother ran a boarding house in Little Chicago (my grandmother never called it "Black Eagle"). Milton told me I could find it on the internet, so here is the text of what I found. (There are also some nice pictures).
Some of the family names include Tuss, Strizich, Vukasin, Kalafat, Kralich, Pancic, Masor, Antonic, Stipec, Stanic, Drazic, Broze (Brozecevic), Blazevic(h), Tonkavic, Krsul, Corr (1st postmaster of Black Eagle), and Marreta. John Krsul was a highly respected Sheriff of Cascade County for many years through the 1960's and '70's. I was arrested by his deputies a couple of times, with no major damage to my reputation or self-esteem.
-- PHS
___________
Bribir
A little town built on the hill, administrative and religious centre of medieval Vinodol. Bribir has been developed around the medieval fortification built by the Frankopans in 1302. The only remains of it is the square tower and part of the town walls. The church of St. Paul and Peter was built in 1524. Bribir has a rich cultural tradition. The public library was founded in 1883, and the school in 1787. There are several inns where you can try local specialities. Private accommodation.
The first evidence of life in this area dates from the earliest period of the Stone Age. In the 2nd century B.C. Romans came to the area where the Liburns lived. In the 7th century Croats came to this territory. They translated Roman names (Vallis vinearia - valley of wine - Vinodol). From the 13 th century the Frankopans ruled in the Vinodol valley and in the 16 th century it was given to Zrinskis family. After the tragic death of Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan in 1671 Vinodol suffered a long economic and cultural stagnation.
The community of Vinodol comprises the places Drivenik, Tribalj, Grizane-Belgrad and BRIBIR, which is the administrative seat of the community. These small localities developed within the medieval fortifications built by the family of princes of Frankopan. Their cultural development is also attributed to that family and numerous monuments of considerable cultural value are connected with the name of the Frankopans.
Geographically, Vinodol is the valley lying between Krizisce in the north-west and Novi Vinodolski in the south-west and the coast along the Vinodol channel. The characteristics of the climate in this region are sunny, hot and dry summers and mild winters like in the coastal region. Average temperature in the valley is 14°C. In the forest region there is the continental climate. By its very name Vinodol proves the vine growing tradition from Roman times (Vallis vinearia). The valley was in the past the centre of this region.
The architecture in the Vinodol valley is based on the specific way of building in the area influenced by climate and the way people used to live. The houses and their gates were built of stone, the basic building material. In front of the house is the yard that is walled in and the gate of the yard was the decoration of the house. This architecture has harmony and beauty that also effect today´s architecture.
The surrounding forest area of the Vinodol valley is very interesting to hunters. Here you can find numerous hares, rabbits, partridges, foxes, martens, badgers, deer, wolves, bears or large grouse. Hunting is specially attractive in spring, autumn and winter. Game specialities are offered in several hunters' lodges and inns. The highest mountain is Visevica 1428 m above sea level. In the forest you can also walk and pick forest fruits, herbs and mushrooms. The lake in Tribalj is rich with fish.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bribir lies in the interior of the Vinodol valley, 6 km from the sea and the well-known tourist center Novi Vinodolski. This historic town is a popular destination with lovers of antiques and art historians. A 13th century rectangular tower, massive fortification walls, Baroque edifices and Renaissance churches are what is left of the Count Fortress. Besides its rich cultural heritage, there are also excellent hunting grounds in the vicinity, as well as several restaurants offering traditional dishes. Bribir is also popular with hikers and trekkers, who often visit this area with marked trails Bribir - Lukovo - Ravno - Zagradski vrh. Therefore, we recommend it to those who like tranquility and nature, and do not consider the immediate vicinity of the sea a precondition for a nice holiday.
______________
HOPE FOR THE BEST, PREPARE FOR THE WORST
I read a postulation the other day, wish I could remember where, that stated that we are already too far behind the curve on global warming, and we should start preparing for the eventualities that will come with it. This was not about giving up on putting out less CO2, but to prepare by moving away from coastal areas and enforcing water conservation and all of the other remedial steps we will have to take and prepare for. After all, Southern Florida and Manhattan will not be moved overnight. - M.D.
[After Katrina, I observed that any money spent on rebuilding the Gulf Coast and most of New Orleans was throwing good money after bad. Anything less than 10 feet (3 m.) above sea level should be declared a National Seashore, wetlands, or whatever.
Back in the 1970's, when some of us were first worrying about global warming, a science fiction writer (I think it was Frederick Pohl) offered an interesting solution: paint Texas white. By increasing the albido (reflected light), which is being diminished with shorter winters, less snow and ice caps, etc., we could cool the earth back to normal. I don't think Texans cared much for the idea, but did they ever get a chance to vote on it? They might very well do so, today. -- PHS]
/\/\/\/\/\/\
KUCINICH ROCKS!
Kucinich shafted by ABC news after winning Democrat debate
August 26, 2007, updated
Special Report:
WashPo and Time Help ABC Bury Treatment of Kucinich
http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2007/08/special-report.html
Following last Sunday's Democratic presidential debate on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Dennis Kucinich's campaign asked ABC News to address issues it had with treatment Rep. Kucinich (D-Ohio) received both during the debate and afterward in ABC's online coverage. In an email sent out to supporters on Wednesday, the campaign said it "submitted objections and inquiries to ABC News representatives on Monday and Tuesday. ABC News representatives have failed to respond - or even acknowledge - those objections and inquiries." I confirmed with the Kucinich campaign yesterday that it has subsequently been forwarded the same response ABC News Executive Director Andrea Jones sent to The Washington Post and Time magazine.
ABC News representatives felt it necessary to answer the Kucinich campaign's objections when Time magazine's National Political Correspondent Karen Tumulty queried them. Writing on the Time blog Swampland
While I give Tumulty credit for contacting ABC News, her investigative journalism unfortunately ends there. Once she receives the email from Jones, Tumulty slips into stenography mode. Jones' "point by point" response to the Kucinich campaign's complaints does not in itself exculpate or dispel any of ABC's wrongdoing. Tumulty fails to assess the accuracy and logic of Jones' answers.
First, just so we're all up to speed, here are the issues (an aggregate of the thousands of complaints received during and after ABC's debate coverage) that the Kucinich campaign asked ABC News to address:
* Congressman Kucinich was apparently deliberately cropped out of a "Politics Page" photo of the candidates.
* Sometime Monday afternoon, after Congressman Kucinich took a commanding lead in ABC's own on-line "Who won the Democratic debate" survey, the survey was dropped from prominence on the website.
* ABC News has not officially reported the results of its online survey.
* After the results of that survey showed Congressman Kucinich winning handily, ABC News, sometime Monday afternoon, replaced the original survey with a second survey asking "Who is winning the Democratic debate?"
* During the early voting Monday afternoon and evening, U.S. Senator Barack Obama was in the lead. By sometime late Monday or early Tuesday morning, Congressman Kucinich regained the lead by a wide margin in this second survey.
* Sometime Tuesday morning, ABC News apparently dropped the second survey from prominence or killed it entirely.
* AND, as every viewer of the nationally televised Sunday Presidential forum is aware, Congressman Kucinich was not given an opportunity to answer a question from moderator George Stephanopoulos until 28 minutes into the program.
[this is just the introduction. Read entire story at: http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2007/08/special-report.html ]
/\/\/\/\/\
ZNet Commentary
How Market-Democracy Keeps the Public and "Populism" At Bay
By Edward Herman
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2007-08/13herman.cfm
It was interesting to see the New York Times editorialize against the growing role of money in elections, pointing to "the sheer volume of money it [the current election campaign] is generating," and the "ludicrously premature handicapping of the race based on the ability to raise cash" (ed., "Running for Dollars," April 5, 2007). The editors note that the "political industry" is "ordaining mega-fund raising as the sine qua non of a credible candidacy," when "in principle" a political race should be a "competition, if not of ideas, then at least of personalities and positions."
But it is even more interesting to observe how the New York Times falls in line with the standards of the "political industry" in their treatment of potential candidates and thrusts aside the "principles" that would give weight to "positions" and perhaps even "ideas" as well as personalities. Day after day the paper features Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, with lesser attention to John Edwards, including their history, fund-raising achievements, political strategies, and swipes at one another, with minimal attention to their "positions" or "ideas." And there has been minimal attention to how their fund-raising is related to their "positions" currently or possibly in the future. The Times is hardly unique in featuring the candidates that have the bucks, marginalizing both their positions and ideas, and paying negligible attention to the candidates who are not raising much cash, but the paper is notable for pointing out the principles being sacrificed as it sets them aside and joins the media crowd in following the money!
So the process of selecting leaders via supposedly democratic elections in the United States starts with the flow of money to candidates--and the size and direction of that flow depends on who has the money and uses it to fund election campaigns. In this country, with a highly developed and profitable corporate community, the money comes disproportionately from Wall Street and a broad array of business interests. Enormous sums are needed these days as TV ads are expensive and necessary and the competition among candidates for the necessary funds is intense-many candidates who are already in office have complained about the great proportion of their time they need to devote to just raising money.
Those that provide the money are investors in candidates and elections, and credible theories have been developed on the extent to which the parties serve particular investor groups who focus heavily on particular parties, though almost always hedging their bets and building good will with the less favored party. (See Thomas Ferguson, Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995]). The investor-businesses must consider this use of capital a profitable one, with rates of return high enough to justify this form of investment. The payoffs may be specific and large, as where the investment helps bring with it a large government contract, or it may just be a broadly based but still substantial payoff in reduced tax rates, eased environmental constraints, benefits from reduced or impaired regulation, wars and rising military budgets, and other payoffs. Market-based democracy has proven to be very profitable in recent years.
Clearly, if the relative size of the flow of funds from investors to candidates defines election "credibility," the investors effectively vet the candidates before the voting public has any say in the matter, vetoing those who they disapprove, and exercising a huge influence on the success of those who pass through the vetting filter. The investors also operate indirectly through funding party bosses, party thinktanks, and party activities, as in the case of the Democratic Leadership Council and Progressive Policy Institute, whose officials strongly influence the selection and advance of candidates within their own party--candidates who must be acceptable to the underlying investor community. AIPAC and other organizations and investors focused on support of Israel are reputed to provide 40 percent or more of Democratic Party election funds, and are therefore a highly important investor block who represent only a subset of the U.S. Jewish community, which in total constitutes something like 2 percent of the population.
The vetting and support power of election investors means that a market democracy is not a real democracy as the public participates only indirectly in choosing their leaders, and their choices are restricted to the set approved by the monied elite. In economics terminology, voters have free consumer choice but not consumer sovereignty in the electoral process, the latter resting with the party leaders and, most importantly, their funders in the investor community. This also means that extremely well qualified potential candidates, and candidates running on minor party tickets, will not be able to compete with the vetted "credible" candidates for lack of money. Thus, by this selection process improper "ideas" and "positions" either won't make it into the serious election competition (e.g., Kucinich and Gravel), or as minor party candidates will be underfunded and underreported (e.g., Nader in 2000 and 2004).
The electoral process would not work in this highly undemocratic fashion without the full cooperation of the mainstream media in allowing financial support to define credibility and determine coverage, as the New York Times does in contradiction with its editorial admonitions on the importance of have competition based on substance other than money support. The media do this because they are part of the same corporate community as the election investor-funders: their owners are rich, their advertisers have strong pro-business political interests, their leading sources are members of the government, the flak they worry about is from powerful people and the rightwing, and they work on the basis of establishment ideology. They accept or are frightened into cooperation with the pro-Israel donors and organizations. Their editors, having internalized all of these considerations, gravitate to allowing money flows to dominate, with a focus on the horse-race, and, importantly eschewing tendencies toward "populism," which is generally anathema to the investor community.
It may be argued that the public's sentiments are really tapped ex ante because the vetted candidates pulling in the money usually have high poll ratings, which they must have-along with the money-to stay in the competition. This misses two important points. One is that high poll ratings are strongly related to media attention and media spin, so that money, the associated credibility and substantial media coverage, mean good poll ratings, assuming a positive or at least neutral spin. Another point is that the vetted and credible candidates quickly become "electable," whereas those poorly funded and not credible are soon seen, even by those who prefer them in substance, as not electable. The non-electables lose poll status for those anxious that their party win, even with a second- or third-best candidate.
Investors don't like populists who, by definition, want to serve popular forces rather than elite interests. Populists are likely to seek more progressive taxes-and higher taxes for the election investors--support for labor organization, more money for education and infrastructure improvement, a building up of the sagging benefits of the welfare state, and a sharp cutback in resources for the warfare state and "security." (The latter are the elite's preferred form of resource waste and "make work"-and in contrast with, say, the New Deal's WPA, derided at the time by the elite but which built huge numbers of schools, roads, dams and museums-in fact the last major surge of infrastructure construction in this country-- the elite's preferred form of waste produces only debt, fear, and dead and mangled bodies.)
Paralleling the elite's dislike of populism is that of the elite representatives or proxies in the mainstream media. This is reflected in the media's regular hostility to populist candidates, their frequent claims that the Democrats have lost elections because of populist tendencies and a failure to attract centrist independents, and their regular suggestions that the Democrats must combat their lack of adequate attention to "national security." In a classic illustration, the New York Times defended the exclusion of Ralph Nader from the 2000 pre-election debates on the grounds that the two major candidates provided adequate options (editorial, "Mr. Nader's Misguided Crusade," June 10, 2000). Both candidates called for more arms and neither featured any items on the populist agenda. In the present campaign, it has been noted that the media are already impatient with the inclusion of populists like Kucinich and Gravel in organized debates, while at the same time they laud the "diversity" in Republican debates that include marginal candidates (see Peter Hart, "Clear the Stage," EXTRA!," July/August 2007). An exception: the pundits are furious at the lesser-known Republican contender Ron Paul, an antiwar candidate!
With both the money flows and media bias hostile to populism, the "credible" candidates start out with or quickly learn the formulas: steer clear of any firm commitment reorienting taxes, helping labor organization, or spending large sums on infrastructure and welfare, but make clear your financial support of the national security state and your commitment to Israel and the active pursuit of the leading foreign targets (today, Iran and a recalcitrant Pakistan, along with Chavez and Venezuela). For the Democrats, given their mass base, it is common for one or more of the credibles to make populist gestures in the primary competition, but these are usually not very specific, and whether general or specific are likely to be ignored following the election in a process of social-democratic betrayal that has become global (see Edward Herman, "Democratic Betrayal: A Standard Form," Z Magazine, January 2007;
The growth of inequality and the weakening of the union movement, with the associated concentration of economic power, has increased the election vetting power of a tiny elite. The increased concentration of control of the media has had the same effect, and the two factors reinforce one another-that is, they both contribute to a political shift to the right, which produces tax, labor and other policies that increase inequality and that facilitates media concentration, both of which contribute to a further shift to the right, and so on. The vetting process becomes even more built-in, and the same is true of the media's acceptance and normalization of the link between money flows to candidates, their associated credibility, and the attention given to them as opposed to impoverished candidates. There is even reinforcement from court appointments by rightwing politicians, with the help of the vetted Democrats, who make sure that there are no residual "checks and balances" to the triumph of rightwing ideology, including the right of money to "free speech" and electoral domination.
So the system is working well for the investors in the market democracy, even if poorly for the general electorate, and the efforts at mass mobilization in the public interest have made little headway so far in stopping let alone reversing the trend, at least in the United States and other "developed" countries.
/\/\/\/\/\
FROM HARPER'S MAGAZINE, August, 2007
Washington Babylon by Ken Silverstein http://harpers.org/archive/2007/08/hbc-90000764
I regularly receive press releases from one of the two major political parties lambasting the other, and I generally don’t pay them much mind. But the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) sent out a release on August 4 that contained some juicy tidbits about the performance of the current Democratic Congress.
For example, it pointed to the Democrats’ appointment of Congressman Alan Mollohan to chair the subcommittee that oversees the FBI budget. That’s an interesting choice given that Mollohan is currently under FBI investigation for seeking earmarks that benefited his friends and supporters. And how about the inspired decision to appoint "Dollar Bill" Jefferson to a seat on the Homeland Security Committee? Maybe that should have waited until Jefferson finds a better excuse for keeping $90,000 in his freezer, as discovered during an FBI raid on his home.
The press release also cited an outburst of Democratic porkbarrel spending. The legendary Congressman John Murtha http://harpers.org/archive/2006/12/sb-breakfast-for-a-champion-1166042803, chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on defense, recently won a controversial $23 million grant for the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) in his home district. So far, his fellow Democrats have not acted to strip that money from the spending bill despite the stink caused by the grant; nor have they reprimanded Murtha for allegedly threatening to cut projects in the district of Republican Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan after the latter tried to axe the NDIC funding.
Incidentally, the New York Times recently ran an article http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/washington/05earmarks.html reporting that this year Murtha "has obtained $163 million in pet projects-more than anyone else in Congress and more than his own previous record of about $100 million." The story said that House lawmakers have "put together spending bills that include almost 6,500 earmarks for almost $11 billion in local projects," including $63 million worth of projects in or near the district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco. On a smaller scale, the House supported a $2 million earmark to buy a building for Congressman Charlie Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, to have a "well-furnished office," a "Rangel Library," and personnel to organize his "photographs and memorabilia."
Given the large number of Republican lawmakers under federal investigation-with the illustrious Senator Ted Stevens being only the latest example-it’s impossible to take seriously the GOP’s attempt to seize the mantle of morality. (A representative pious quote from NRCC Communications Director Jessica Boulanger: "It’s baffling that the Democrats would so willingly . . . violate the trust of the American taxpayer. After a shameful final sprint of broken rules and broken promises, the House will adjourn for the summer on a low note.") And despite the efforts of Murtha and other kindred spirits, the Democrats aren’t even close to racking up the record levels of pork approved by the GOP-led Congress in recent years. Still, they’re working on it, and the party’s record to date makes it easy for Boulanger to mock the Democratic promise to run the "most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history."
________________
FROM DEMOCRACY NOW!
[Here's the poet I mentioned last week who wrote about General Miles, founder of Miles City....]
On 109th Anniversary of U.S. Invasion of Puerto Rico, Acclaimed Photojournalist Frank Espada and Poet Martin Espada Reflect on Ongoing Struggle for National Rights *
On the 109th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Puerto Rico, debate continues over Puerto Rico's political independence and US military and corporate presence on the island. Puerto Ricans have had US citizenship since 1917, but residents of the island cannot vote for President and lack voting representation in the US Congress. We speak with two prominent Puerto Rican voices: photojournalist and activist Frank Espada has worked for decades documenting the Puerto Rican diaspora, as well as the civil rights movement in the United States. Martín Espada is Frank's son and an acclaimed poet and professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/25/145218
Lucy in the Big Sky with Blood Diamonds?
AT THE NATIONAL GUARD CONVENTION IN PUERTO RICO
Oread Daily http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/
While inside defense contractors peddled virtual simulators, combat-ready laptops and a variety of other wares of war, outside U.S. National Guard Association conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico thousands protested in the street.
"We're here protesting a war circus," said Enrique Romero, an actor who presided over Sunday's protest and quoted at Hispanic Business.
It was the first time in at least 25 years, the association's chairman said, that the National Guard's convention was met with protest.
Hispanic Business reports when the school year began this month, independence activists were posted at high schools around the island getting students to sign "opt-out" forms, which prohibit military recruiters from contacting them.
"We don't want our youth going to war, dying in war or coming back from war ill with post-traumatic stress disorder," said Ivan Broida, a volunteer with Live in Peace who helps circulate the forms.
Nearly 60 percent of Puerto Rican high school students have signed them, compared to the average of 10 percent elsewhere in the United States.
Back inside the convention hall the Governor of Puerto Rico received loud applause and a standing ovation from the gathered guardsmen when he called for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
The following arrived in my e-mail box this AM.
Protest for peace and against "tourism of death" promoted by National Guard Asssociation in Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN. 8/26/07 An alliance of thousands of Puerto Ricans from dozens of religious, labor, environmental and cultural groups; representatives of political parties, anti war and youth organizations, pro- Vieques and pro independence activists held today a peaceful massive demonstration for peace and against the American National Guard Association's 129th Annual Convention, being held in San Juan during this week end.
The protesters also called for peace in Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than seventy Puerto Rican soldiers have died so far, and demanded that local soldiers be brought from overseas.
Coordinators of the event criticized the military Convention that brought to Puerto Rico more than five thousand members of the Association, as well as U.S. Congressmen, armed forces generals and Republican presidential candidate John McCain. With them came the eight most important weapons and battle equipment moguls to exhibit and sell their wares: Lockeed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, EADS and L-3 Communications....
Today's activity was part of a series of events that were held during this weekend to protest war, promote peace and condemn the National Guard Association's presence in Puerto Rico and its military series of events.
Movimiento Independentista Nacional Hostosiano
Comisión Nacional de Comunicaciones
No comments:
Post a Comment