February 11, 2008 Volume VII, Number 7
A PROJECT OF THE CASCOGREENS
Paul Stephens, Editor and Publisher 406.216.2711 greateco@3rivers.net
THIS BULLETIN IS NOT AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF ANY GREEN PARTY (see disclaimers and selected resources at end)
Much of the content of this Bulletin is now being posted at
and
Table of Contents:
UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
GPCA Green Focus newspaper, Winter 2008 issue, is posted here:
http://cagreens.org/greenfocus/pdfs/GreenFocus.2008.Winter.pdf
Winona LaDuke to speak in President's Lecture Series at UM Missoula
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH News/Comments
Gaza Diary: Not a life for children By Omar, a humanitarian worker in partnership with Oxfam http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=40931&s2=08
Insightful and sober analysis of the US/Israel self-destructive partnership from an ex-CIA analyst http://www.counterpunch.org/christison02072008.html
Israel "Democracy for Jews Only" http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/864734.html
Only One Presidential Candidate Talks of True Legacy of Dr Martin Luther King
by Michael Cavlan
Only one U.S. President really understood "the energy crisis" - in 1977
The President's Proposed Energy Policy Jimmy Carter* April 18, 1977 http://www.mnforsustain.org/energy_speech_president_carter.htm
LABOR SHORTAGES
Wind Farms Need Techs to Keep Running By DAVID TWIDDY - http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQyWv7yuS4TNB8kFrF93tue9Q3rwD8UI0ND00
GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
The Dead Poet's Society, continued
Teaching death penalty issues
THE MONTANA DEMOCRATIC-NECKTIE PARTY TRADITION - CONTINUED
FROM GREEN LISTSERVS
1000 Green Candidates in 2008
The election is over - we lost by Sam Smith
KENT STATE NOW THE RULE, NOT THE EXCEPTION
Repress U
by MICHAEL GOULD-WARTOFSKY
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080128/gould-wartofsky
FROM GPUS AFFAIRS LIST
Are we missing the Big Green Picture?
FROM RABBLE.CA
Mythbusting Canadian Health Care
By Sara Robinson OurFuture.org http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020508HA.shtml
ZNET COMMENTARIES
Obama vs. Clinton, A Second Thought February 10, 2008
By Ted Glick
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2008-02/10glick.cfm
In Honor of My Mother and the Power of Love January 31, 2008 By Norman Solomon http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2008-01/31solomon.cfm
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 USE MUST BE MINIMIZED, NOT MAXIMIZED: GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL! http://www.ipcc.ch/ http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/ http://www.realclimate.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
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UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS
GPCA Green Focus newspaper, Winter 2008 issue, is posted here:
http://cagreens.org/greenfocus/pdfs/GreenFocus.2008.Winter.pdf
Cheers,
Lisa Taylor
Los Angeles City Greens
http://losangelesgreens.org/
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Beneath the Surface today/ Monday 5-6pm (6-7 Mountain time) on KPFK 90.7FM, streaming live and archived at http://www.kpfk.org
John Nichols www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=283443: With primaries in Wisconsin and the Potomac this week, we talk to John about delegates, super-delegates, brokered conventions, John Edwards' possible endorsement and more -- everything you wanted to know about how democracy can (and has been) subverted, and how -- as well as how the primaries and not the insiders may still decide who will be the candidates.
Thousands of striking writers met at the Shrine Auditorium yesterday to discuss the deal that will end the three and a half month old Writers strike. Tomorrow they vote, but already the union has declared a huge victory. Howard Rodman http://cinema.usc.edu/faculty/rodman-howard.htm does the heavy lifting for us as he discusses the deal, the strike, the victory and more.
Author Laura AgustÃn http://www.nodo50.org/conexiones/Laura_Agustin/ talks to us about her new book, Sex at the Margins:
Suzi Weissman Beneath the Surface, Mondays 5-6 Pacific (6-7Mountain time) KPFK 90.7FM in Los Angeles; 98.7 Santa Barbara
streaming live and archived at www.kpfk.org http://www.kpfk.org/
Podcast information, audio archives and more at http://www.suziweissman.com/
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Winona LaDuke to speak in President's Lecture Series at UM Missoula at 8pm on Monday, Feb 25 in the Montana Theater on the UM campus. The topic is "Creating Just Societies: The Environment, the Economy and Human Relations in the Next Millenium." Earlier that day, from 3:10 to 4:30 pm, LaDuke will give a seminar titled "Indigenous Thinking on sustainable Development: Strategies for the Northern Plains-Great Lakes Region." It will be held in Room 123 of the Gallagher Business Building. Both events are free and open to the public.
[I have yet to see any mention in the press releases and announcements for these events that Winona was the Green Party Vice-Presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000, or, for that matter, any mention of the Green Party whatsoever. According to the Wikipedia article below, Winona first supported Dennis Kucinich in 2004, and later endorsed John Kerry in that campaign. No doubt, this reflects the sad state of the Green Party and its Presidential nominating convention and campaign in 2004, plus the fact that the GPUS did virtually nothing to support or organize Native Americans in the 2000 campaign. I believe it was Nader, himself, who selected La Duke as his running mate, and there was no real Green Party organization behind her. That may still be the case, today, although I would hope that some Missoula Greens (if there are any) might talk with her, and find out what she thinks about all this. -- PHS]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winona_LaDuke
Winona LaDuke (b. 1959) is a Native American activist, environmentalist, economist, and writer. In 1996 and 2000, she was the Green Party candidate for Vice President of the United States, on the ticket headed by Ralph Nader.
Biography
LaDuke was born in Los Angeles, California to Vincent and Betty LaDuke. Her father was part Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or "Chippewa") from an Indian reservation of Minnesota. He was an actor with supporting roles in Western movies, an activist, a writer, and at the end of his life, a spiritual guru under the name Sun Bear.[1] Her mother was a Jewish artist, employed as an art professor at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon. LaDuke is the mother of five.
LaDuke was raised in Ashland,[2] but after graduating from Harvard in 1982 with a degree in rural economic development, she accepted a job as principal of the high school on the Ojibwe White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. She soon became an activist, involved in the struggle to recover lands promised to the Ojibwe by an 1867 treaty. She helped the Ojibwe buy back thousands of acres of ancestral land.
She worked with Women of All Red Nations to publicize the alarmingly high level of forced sterilization among Native American women.
LaDuke was named Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine in 1997 and won the Reebok Human Rights Award in 1998. She is the founder of the White Earth Land Recovery Project in Minnesota, the Indigenous Women's Network, and Honor the Earth.
LaDuke is the author of the novel Last Standing Woman (1997), the non-fiction book All our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life (1999), and Recovering the Sacred: the Power of Naming and Claiming (2005), a book about traditional beliefs and practices.
She appeared in the documentary film Anthem, directed by Shainee Gabel and Kristin Hahn. The film was first released in the United States on July 25, 1997. Both directors were awarded by the 1997 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival. LaDuke also appeared in the TV documentary The Main Stream, first released on December 17, 2002. The film was directed by Roger Weisberg who is better known for winning the 2002 Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject as director of Why Can't We Be a Family Again?.
LaDuke appeared as an actor in the film "Skins", first released on January 14, 2002. The film depicted the problems of unemployment, alcoholism and domestic violence within the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation through the eyes of two Lakota Sioux Native American brothers. The main fictional characters were police detective Rudy Yellow Lodge (Eric Schweig) and his brother Mogie Yellow Lodge (Graham Greene) the latter with an apparent tendency toward self-destruction. LaDuke played secondary character Rose Two Buffalo. The film was awarded the 2003 Prism Award. Graham Green won the Best Actor Award of the 2002 Tokyo International Film Festival and was nominated for a Best Male Lead award in the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards.
In Sept 2007, LaDuke was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
===============
The other famous member of the White Earth Band is Vernon Bellecourt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon_Bellecourt
Bellecourt was a long time leader in the American Indian Movement. His brother, Clyde Bellecourt, helped found AIM as a militant group in 1968, and Vernon soon became involved as well. He co-founded the AIM chapter in Denver, and was its first Executive Director.
Bellecourt took part in the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties caravan, then served as a negotiator during AIM's occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which took place following the caravan's arrival in Washington, D.C. Bellecourt was present briefly during the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation in South Dakota, serving mostly as an AIM spokesman and fundraiser during the 71-day standoff with federal agents.
After Wounded Knee, Bellecourt worked with the International Indian Treaty Council, which advocates on behalf of Indigenous rights throughout the Western Hemisphere. He became a leader of AIM’s work abroad, meeting with foreign leaders like Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, and Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat.[3]
Bellecourt was active for many years in the campaign to free AIM activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in 1977 of killing two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Final days
In August 2007, Bellecourt accepted an invitation from the Venezuelan government to attend the First International Congress of Anti-imperialist Indigenous Peoples of America and visited with President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The two discussed the possibility of Chavez providing aid to Native American groups. According to his brother, Clyde, Bellecourt fell ill soon after the trip and was hospitalized. He died of pneumonia at age 75, in Minneapolis, where he lived.
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The White Earth Band of Ojibwe to which LaDuke and Bellecourt belong is closely related to the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Montana. Here is a Wikipedia link to that:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembina_Band_of_Chippewa_Indians
Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians are a historical band of Chippewa (Ojibwe), originally living along the Red River of the North and its tributaries. Through the treaty process with the United States, the Pembina Band were settled on reservations in Minnesota and North Dakota. Few tribal members refusing settlement in North Dakota relocated westward, eventually settling in Montana. The successors inherent of the Pembina Band are:
Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boys Indian Reservation (in part)
Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana (in full)
Red Lake Band of Chippewa (in part)
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (in full)
White Earth Band of Ojibwe (in part)
_________________
Do you support the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement?
Some local municipalities get it on the climate crisis and have been working to meet these objectives. There are now over 500 city, town and county governments representing over 50 million people that have signed onto the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement, http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/climate/
As explained on the website of Greg Nickels, the Seattle mayor who initiated this effort over two years ago.... [Billings and Missoula are already signed on to this. Tell your mayor to sign on, too!] http://www.usmayors.org/climateprotection/
________________
GF Conservation Council
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NEW MEETING PLACE: Penny's Gourmet (Central Avenue between 8th and 9th), Thursday's at noon.
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2/14/2008 - Round table discussion
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FROM TAPS, BUTTE
"INCIDENT IN I CORPS" is TUESDAY FEB. 12 DOCUMENTARY
Filmmaker Paul Edwards of Helena will come to Butte in a personal appearance to
present his Vietnam War film to our audience as part of the ongoing Citizens
Education Project of the Montana Tech Peace Seekers Club with TAPS and Sacred
Ground. Paul Edwards was the director of Bobby Kennedy's personal film crew in
1968. He worked in Vietnam for nearly three years from 1965-67 and came to know
the country and the war in depth and detail. He was a screen and TV writer for
30 years, starting with Gunsmoke in 1970 and ending up doing "Tecumseh", one of
the badly botched Indian series that Turner made and wrote 40 movies in
between. He is presently Chair of the Progressive Democrats of Montana and was
Dennis Kucinich's Montana campaign manager both in 2004 and again this year.
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"UNCOUNTED" film and national teleconference WEDNESDAY FEB. 13
"Did you think the 2000 election was stolen? And that maybe something was wrong
in 2004 as well? Are you wondering what effect election fraud had in 2006? Do
you want to know what really happened and how it'll affect this year's
election?"
PLEASE RSVP !!! Click on this link or else paste it into your browser.
(Democracy for America provides the film free of charge if a certain number of
people are registered to attend.)
http://www.dfalink.com/register.php?c=e&id=696479e63b38b34a&eid=27249&email=%%EMAIL%%
=============================
Excellent overview from Davos Economic Summit last week...
THE GLOBAL BATTLE FOR FOOD, OIL AND WATER
By Gideon Rachman Financial Times January 312, 2008
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d3cde844-cdb7-11dc-9e4e-000077b07658,dwp_uuid=cc90227a-20ae-11db-8b3e-0000779e2340,print=yes.html
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Welcome to the February 2008 MTCoH e-News Update and thank you for your interest in homelessness in Montana.
Upcoming Events
The Billings Mayor’s Committee on Homelessness is sponsoring a Social Enterprise Conference on February 13 – 14. Pioneer Human Services from Seattle will be presenting. This is a phenomenal model that has a real chance to make a sustainable difference. For more information, contact Doris Cole at 247-8675 or coled@ci.billings.mt.us
Honoring Those Who Die as a Result of Homelessness
Homelessness dramatically elevates the risk of illness, injury and death. At every age, homeless persons are three times more likely to die than their housed peers - the average age of death is about 50, compared to 78 for housed Americans. Homeless people suffer the same illnesses experienced by people with homes, but at rates three to six times higher. They die from illnesses that can be treated or prevented. The difficulty involved in getting rest, staying on a medication schedule, eating well, staying clean and warm prolong and exacerbate illnesses, sometimes to the point where they become life threatening. Dying as a result of having been homeless does not necessarily mean dying while homeless. Even though dozens of people throughout Montana died in 2007 as a result of having been homeless, no one is formally tracking them. Please help us honor them. If you know of someone who dies as a result of homelessness, please follow the link on the
Please Help Us – Take 10 minutes to take the 2008 Survey on Homelessness in Montana.
• Please help by telling what you are seeing in your community. Go to:
• Or go to www.MTCoH.org
Send us your news
• We are currently seeking articles for the next edition of the MTCoH e-News Update. Contact Sherrie@mtcoh.org with ideas for articles.
About the Council
• The Montana Council on Homelessness was appointed by Governor Brian Schweitzer. The Council was originally created under Executive Order in 2004, and continued by Governor Schweitzer in 2006. The MTCoH Mission is to develop and implement strategies to prevent and reduce homelessness in Montana overall and to end chronic homelessness by 2014.
Download the Newsletter
• The e-newsletter can be downloaded from the MTCoH website: http://www.mtcoh.org/images/stories/february_2008_mtcoh_e-news_update.pdf.
• The newsletter is in PDF format, which must be accessed with Acrobat Reader. Download the free reader at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
============
FROM MAZIN QUMSIYEH
News/Comments
Gaza Diary: Not a life for children By Omar, a humanitarian worker in partnership with Oxfam
Insightful and sober analysis of the US/Israel self-destructive partnership from an ex-CIA analyst
Israel "Democracy for Jews Only"
------------------------------
ACTION ALERT FROM WHEELS OF JUSTICE
Dear Friends and Supporters of The Wheels of Justice!
The Spring 2008 tour is about to start on February 25th in Olympia, WA! We have a great line-up of stops along the way going through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa. Our itinerary is posted below. There are still some tentative stops, as well as other stops still on our wish list. Take a look and see if there's any way you can help bring us to any of these places listed with a ? after it.
Along the way we'll be participating in a variety of important commemorations and national observances, from the Nakba in Palestine (60 years and counting), to the 5th anniversary of the US invasion in Iraq (March 19). We have a great pool of speakers, listed below, who will be joining us throughout the route, as well as some other tentative speakers later in the season. The bios of all our speakers can be found on our website,
Thank you to all for your continued support. I have confidence that this will be a highly successful tour this spring, and hopefully many of you will be a part of it. Again, please let me know if your town falls along our route so we can make sure to stop there. If not, you can always support us by making donations via our website!
It's an honor to be working with all of you, and I hope we can continue doing this valuable work together.
In solidarity,
Abbie Coburn
Wheels of Justice
abigail.coburn@gmail.com
Itinerary
Feb 25-27 Olympia, WA
Feb 28-29 Vancouver, WA
Feb 29-March 2 Portland, OR
March 3-6 Eugene, OR
March 12-13 Boise, ID
March 13-15 Sun Valley, ID (?)
March 16-19 Boise, ID
March 20-24 Jackson, WY (?)
March 25-28 Salt Lake City, UT
March 28-30 Riverton/Dubois, WY
Cheyenne, WY (?)
Nebraska (?)
April 10-14 Manhattan, KS
April 15-17 Lawrence, KS
Wichita, KS (?)
Des Moines, IA (?)
Cedar Rapids, IA (?)
Speakers
Iraq: Mike Miles, Salam Talib, Ed Kinane, Gene Stoltzfus, Kathy Kelly
Palestine: Mazin Qumsiyeh, Mark Turner, Hannah Mermelstein, Nora Burrows-Friedman
http://justicewheels.org
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Only One Presidential Candidate Talks of True Legacy of Dr Martin Luther King
by Michael Cavlan
While there is a lot of talk of the legacy of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., there is only one presidential candidate who is actually speaking on the issue that drove Dr. King. That issue, of course, is the right for black people to vote in America. She is also the only presidential candidate speaking of the violations of the 1965 Voter Rights Act that were seen during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Rep. Cynthia McKinney goes into this issue on the campaign trail and in her movie American Blackout.
It is also true that Cynthia McKinney is the only candidate who is truly looking out for the interests of the poor in our nation. Cynthia McKinney is willing to face the military industrial complex on the issue of the war also and stand up to the war profiteers. In all these aspects, McKinney is the only candidate for president who actually follows the legacy of Dr. King.
We progressives must note a sense of irony in that Rep. McKinney is getting no coverage by the mainstream media on this issue, which is central and critical to the future of our democracy. We also notice, with a further sense of irony, that while Rep. McKinney is talking about the very direct violations of the 1965 Voter Rights Act there are other candidates for president who are not. That includes Barack Obama, John Edwards who was the vice-presidential candidate who "conceded" in Ohio 2004, and, sadly, even Dennis Kucinich, whose own constituents in Ohio were targeted and disenfranchised in the 2004 election.
Just as there was an American Blackout on the issue of Voter Fraud in the 2000 and 2004 elections and the issues surrounding it by the corporate, so-called mainstream media, now that blackout is surrounding the Cynthia McKinney for President campaign. For far too long, progressives have been aware of the corporate bias of the so called "liberal" corporate media. These is now a way to break past that corporate media blockade on information to the American public. There is only one candidate, with the integrity and courage to tell the American people the simple, unvarnished truth about where we truly are in our democracy. There is only one presidential candidate who has the moral fortitude to actually work on getting our nation and our democratic republic back on track. That candidate is Cynthia McKinney.
If you believe in the integrity and future of our democracy, if you want to end the war on the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, if you want a new independent investigation into the events of September 11th, if you want accountability and Impeachment for the criminals in the Bush Regime, then your only presidential candidate is Cynthia McKinney. Have the courage to support her if these issues are important to you.
Stop letting the media and corporate shills run the elections. Let us decide the future direction of our democracy.
For more information on the McKinney for President campaign, visit http://www.runcynthiarun.org/ and meet a presidential candidate with the courage, integrity, smarts and organizing skills to make a real difference instead of giving us rhetoric and corporate tested, empty slogans such as "change" or "experience."
Then join us, as we work on building a better tomorrow. For all of us.
Michael Cavlan , RN, is an Official Green Party Observer for the 2004 Ohio Re-Count. He was the Green Party Candidate for US Senate 2006 and is a Candidate US Senate 2008 Seeking Green Party Endorsement in Minnesota. See www.michaelcavlan.org http://www.michaelcavlan.org
===============
FROM MINNESOTANS FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Only one U.S. President really understood "the energy crisis" - in 1977
The President's Proposed Energy Policy
Jimmy Carter*
April 18, 1977
http://www.mnforsustain.org/energy_speech_president_carter.htm
Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem unprecedented in our history. With the exception of preventing war, this is the greatest challenge our country will face during our lifetimes. The energy crisis has not yet overwhelmed us, but it will if we do not act quickly.
It is a problem we will not solve in the next few years, and it is likely to get progressively worse through the rest of this century.
We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren.
We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now, we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.
Two days from now, I will present my energy proposals to the Congress. Its members will be my partners and they have already given me a great deal of valuable advice. Many of these proposals will be unpopular. Some will cause you to put up with inconveniences and to make sacrifices.
The most important thing about these proposals is that the alternative may be a national catastrophe. Further delay can affect our strength and our power as a nation.
Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern. This difficult effort will be the "moral equivalent of war" -except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not destroy....
The oil and natural gas we rely on for 75 percent of our energy are running out. In spite of increased effort, domestic production has been dropping steadily at about six percent a year. Imports have doubled in the last five years. Our nation's independence of economic and political action is becoming increasingly constrained. Unless profound changes are made to lower oil consumption, we now believe that early in the 1980s the world will be demanding more oil that it can produce.
The world now uses about 60 million barrels of oil a day and demand increases each year about 5 percent. This means that just to stay even we need the production of a new Texas every year, an Alaskan North Slope every nine months, or a new Saudi Arabia every three years. Obviously, this cannot continue.
We must look back in history to understand our energy problem. Twice in the last several hundred years there has been a transition in the way people use energy.
The first was about 200 years ago, away from wood -which had provided about 90 percent of all fuel- to coal, which was more efficient. This change became the basis of the Industrial Revolution.
The second change took place in this century, with the growing use of oil and natural gas. They were more convenient and cheaper than coal, and the supply seemed to be almost without limit. They made possible the age of automobile and airplane travel. Nearly everyone who is alive today grew up during this age and we have never known anything different.
Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power. [This speech was given at a time when the dangers of CO2 pollution - the "Greenhouse Effect" - were only suspected and not yet quantified. Thus, the advocacy of more coal development was not nearly so irrational then as it would be, today. -- PHS]
The world has not prepared for the future. During the 1950s, people used twice as much oil as during the 1940s. During the 1960s, we used twice as much as during the 1950s. And in each of those decades, more oil was consumed than in all of mankind's previous history.
World consumption of oil is still going up. If it were possible to keep it rising during the 1970s and 1980s by 5 percent a year as it has in the past, we could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade....
But we do have a choice about how we will spend the next few years. Each American uses the energy equivalent of 60 barrels of oil per person each year. Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth. We waste more energy than we import. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan and Sweden.
One choice is to continue doing what we have been doing before. We can drift along for a few more years.
Our consumption of oil would keep going up every year. Our cars would continue to be too large and inefficient. Three-quarters of them would continue to carry only one person -the driver- while our public transportation system continues to decline. We can delay insulating our houses, and they will continue to lose about 50 percent of their heat in waste.
We can continue using scarce oil and natural to generate electricity, and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process....
If we wait, and do not act, then our factories will not be able to keep our people on the job with reduced supplies of fuel. Too few of our utilities will have switched to coal, our most abundant energy source.
We will not be ready to keep our transportation system running with smaller, more efficient cars and a better network of buses, trains and public transportation.
We will feel mounting pressure to plunder the environment. We will have a crash program to build more nuclear plants, strip-mine and burn more coal, and drill more offshore wells than we will need if we begin to conserve now. Inflation will soar, production will go down, people will lose their jobs. Intense competition will build up among nations and among the different regions within our own country.
If we fail to act soon, we will face an economic, social and political crisis that will threaten our free institutions.
But we still have another choice. We can begin to prepare right now. We can decide to act while there is time.
That is the concept of the energy policy we will present on Wednesday. Our national energy plan is based on ten fundamental principles.
The first principle is that we can have an effective and comprehensive energy policy only if the government takes responsibility for it and if the people understand the seriousness of the challenge and are willing to make sacrifices.
The second principle is that healthy economic growth must continue. Only by saving energy can we maintain our standard of living and keep our people at work. An effective conservation program will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
The third principle is that we must protect the environment. Our energy problems have the same cause as our environmental problems -wasteful use of resources. Conservation helps us solve both at once.
The fourth principle is that we must reduce our vulnerability to potentially devastating embargoes. We can protect ourselves from uncertain supplies by reducing our demand for oil, making the most of our abundant resources such as coal, and developing a strategic petroleum reserve.
The fifth principle is that we must be fair. Our solutions must ask equal sacrifices from every region, every class of people, every interest group. Industry will have to do its part to conserve, just as the consumers will. The energy producers deserve fair treatment, but we will not let the oil companies profiteer.
The sixth principle, and the cornerstone of our policy, is to reduce the demand through conservation. Our emphasis on conservation is a clear difference between this plan and others which merely encouraged crash production efforts. Conservation is the quickest, cheapest, most practical source of energy. Conservation is the only way we can buy a barrel of oil for a few dollars. It costs about $13 to waste it.
The seventh principle is that prices should generally reflect the true replacement costs of energy. We are only cheating ourselves if we make energy artificially cheap and use more than we can really afford.
The eighth principle is that government policies must be predictable and certain. Both consumers and producers need policies they can count on so they can plan ahead. This is one reason I am working with the Congress to create a new Department of Energy, to replace more than 50 different agencies that now have some control over energy.
The ninth principle is that we must conserve the fuels that are scarcest and make the most of those that are more plentiful. We can't continue to use oil and gas for 75 percent of our consumption when they make up seven percent of our domestic reserves. We need to shift to plentiful coal while taking care to protect the environment, and to apply stricter safety standards to nuclear energy.
The tenth principle is that we must start now to develop the new, unconventional sources of energy we will rely on in the next century.
These ten principles have guided the development of the policy I would describe to you and the Congress on Wednesday.
Our energy plan will also include a number of specific goals, to measure our progress toward a stable energy system.
These are the goals we set for 1985:
Reduce the annual growth rate in our energy demand to less than two percent.
Reduce gasoline consumption by ten percent below its current level.
Cut in half the portion of United States oil which is imported, from a potential level of 16 million barrels to six million barrels a day.
Establish a strategic petroleum reserve of one billion barrels, more than six months' supply.
Increase our coal production by about two thirds to more than 1 billion tons a year.
Insulate 90 percent of American homes and all new buildings.
Use solar energy in more than two and one-half million houses.
We will monitor our progress toward these goals year by year. Our plan will call for stricter conservation measures if we fall behind.
I cant tell you that these measures will be easy, nor will they be popular. But I think most of you realize that a policy which does not ask for changes or sacrifices would not be an effective policy.
This plan is essential to protect our jobs, our environment, our standard of living, and our future....
But the sacrifices will be gradual, realistic and necessary. Above all, they will be fair....
The citizens who insist on driving large, unnecessarily powerful cars must expect to pay more for that luxury.
We can be sure that all the special interest groups in the country will attack the part of this plan that affects them directly. They will say that sacrifice is fine, as long as other people do it, but that their sacrifice is unreasonable, or unfair, or harmful to the country. If they succeed, then the burden on the ordinary citizen, who is not organized into an interest group, would be crushing.
There should be only one test for this program: whether it will help our country.
Other generation of Americans have faced and mastered great challenges. I have faith that meeting this challenge will make our own lives even richer. If you will join me so that we can work together with patriotism and courage, we will again prove that our great nation can lead the world into an age of peace, independence and freedom.
_____
* Jimmy Carter televised speech April 18, 1977.
Jimmy Carter, "The President's Proposed Energy Policy." 18 April 1977. Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. XXXXIII, No. 14, May 1, 1977, pp. 418-420.
Courtesy of Jimmy Carter, the American Experience, PBS.
See original at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/filmmore/ps_energy.html .
=========
The World's Rubbish Dump
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020608EB.shtml
Kathy Marks and Daniel Howden, of The Independent UK, report, "A 'plastic soup' of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said."
To Save a Forest: Grand Plan to Preserve Trees, Protect Climate
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020608EC.shtml
Michael Casey, of The Associated Press, writes: "For decades, a flood of aid and an army of conservationists couldn't save Indonesia's rain forests from illegal loggers, land-hungry peasants and the spread of giant plantations. Now the world is looking at a simpler approach: up-front cash."
Barbara Ehrenreich | The Boom Was a Bust for Ordinary People
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020608LA.shtml
In The Washington Post, Barbara Ehrenreich says: "It begins to sound a bit naughty - all this talk about the need to 'stimulate' the economy, as if we were discussing how to make a porn film. I don't mean to trivialize our economic difficulties or the need for effective government intervention, but we have to face a disconcerting fact: For years now, that strange stimulus-crazed beast, the economy, has been going its own way, increasingly disconnected from the toils and troubles of ordinary Americans."
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LABOR SHORTAGES
Wind Farms Need Techs to Keep Running
By DAVID TWIDDY – Feb 1, 2008 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQyWv7yuS4TNB8kFrF93tue9Q3rwD8UI0ND00
LINCOLN, Kan. (AP) — The line of towering wind turbines stand motionless on the ridgeline above Interstate 70 in central Kansas, Y-shaped silhouettes amid the swirling snow.
Despite the weather, dozens of technicians are working to get the 10-mile-long Smoky Hills Wind Farm ready to begin producing electricity.
Jason Martinson, who is supervising the 56-turbine operation on behalf of Enel North America Inc., said after almost a decade in the industry he's still amazed by how fast wind farms like Smoky Hills are going up across the country. But he also said workers like those braving the blizzard-like conditions outside his office are becoming increasingly rare.
"Finding experienced techs is impossible with wind growing as fast as it is," Martinson said. "You get one year's worth of experience and it's like dog years."
Considered a cheap source of renewable power, wind farms have taken off amid concerns over greenhouse gases produced by coal-fired electric plants and the increasing cost of natural gas and other petroleum products. Some states have encouraged their development by requiring a certain portion of their future energy be created through renewable resources.
Last year, wind farms installed almost 3,200 turbines, boosting the nation's wind energy capacity by 45 percent and cranking out an additional 5,200 megawatts, or enough electricity to power 1.5 million homes for a year. The industry, which now accounts for a little more than 1 percent of the U.S. electric supply, expects to repeat that surge in 2008.
Critics of wind power have called the mammoth turbines eyesores and environmentalists have fought against them, warning the giant rotors could pose a hazard to migratory birds and other wildlife.
But wind power officials see a much larger obstacle coming in the form of its own work force, a highly specialized group of technicians that combine working knowledge of mechanics, hydraulics, computers and meteorology with the willingness to climb 200 feet in the air in all kinds of weather.
That work force isn't keeping up with the future demand, partly because the industry is so new that the oldest independent training programs are less than five years old.
The American Wind Energy Association, a Washington, D.C-based trade group, estimates the industry employs about 20,000 people, not including those making turbines or other equipment.
Future need is harder to quantify, given the uncertainties of the industry's growth. But with two-man teams generally responsible for seven to 10 turbines, the industry would need up to 800 technicians to serve the turbines expected to be installed this year alone.
Park developers, turbine manufacturers and utilities are investing in training programs, attempting to lure workers with wages of up to $25 an hour, or teaming up with the growing number of wind energy training programs being offered at community and technical colleges.
At Columbia Gorge Community College in The Dalles, Ore., seven wind companies are working with the school as academic advisers. Several of the companies are also supporting the college financially, including a three-year $150,000 grant from PPM Energy and donated equipment from Arlington, Va.-based wind developer AES Corp....
read more>> http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jQyWv7yuS4TNB8kFrF93tue9Q3rwD8UI0ND00
Russell L. Doty, CEO/General Counsel, New World WindPower LLC
3878 N Tanager Ln
Billings, MT 59102-5916
Phone: 406-656-2763 http://www.newworldwindpower.com/
===========
Water Shortages Drive Conflicts Worldwide
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020808HA.shtml
UN News Centre: "Many of today's conflicts around the world are being fuelled or exacerbated by water shortages and climate change is only making the situation worse, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly today."
Studies Say Clearing Land for Biofuels Will Aid Warming
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020808EA.shtml
Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post: "Clearing land to produce biofuels such as ethanol will do more to exacerbate global warming than using gasoline or other fossil fuels, two scientific studies show."
Activists Not Happy Campers With Logging Rule
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020808EB.shtml
The Associated Press: "In its ongoing effort to boost commercial logging, the Bush administration on Thursday proposed giving managers of the nation's 155 federal forests greater discretion in letting timber companies cut down more trees on the federally controlled land."
Court KOs Administration's Relaxed Emissions Policy
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020808EC.shtml
The Associated Press: "A federal appeals court struck down a Bush administration policy exempting power plants from certain environmental regulations. The court said the policy was unlawful."
Wars Dwarf Warming in US Budget
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020108EA.shtml
Jim Lobe for the Inter Press Service reports, "Despite growing recognition in the Pentagon and the intelligence community that global warming poses serious national security threats to the United States, Washington is spending $88 on the military for every dollar it spends this year on climate-related programs, according to a new study released Thursday by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS)."
/\/\/\/\/\
GREEN SOLUTIONS by Paul Stephens, CasCoGreens
The Dead Poet's Society, continued http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/
I couldn't remember seeing "The Dead Poet's Society" since its original release in 1989. (It was actually on Turner Classic Movies channel yesterday, Feb 10, but since I don't have cable, I watched a tape of it.). It caused a sensation in the education community, on a deeper level than, say, "Teachers" (1984) or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982). And it was a true "cultural barometer". Only the "good guys" liked it, while the usual fascist control-freaks found it "troubling", "disturbing," or outright subversive (no pun intended).
My thoughts on seeing it, again, were extensive. First, it was no doubt the immediate stimulus for my trying teaching as a job and potential career in September, 1989. I would work as a substitute for the next seven years, and earn a teaching credential from what was then Northern Montana College in Havre, MT. At that point, I got my own chance to "live the example," by teaching for a year at Montana's only "exclusive prep school", Headwaters Academy in Bozeman. It is eerie, in retrospect, to see how closely my experience there corresponded to that of John Keating in Dead Poet's Society. Fortunately, no one committed suicide, unless it would have been the school, itself, which abandoned its progressive, child-centered curriculum and structure during the year that I was there, resulting in my departure.
Supposedly, the character of Keating was based on a real teacher who did lose his job - not after the first year, but after decades of faithful service after the film came out. Apparently, he had been able to conceal his real character and intentions from the administration for that long. I couldn't find any references to that story, however. -- PHS
____________
According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Poets_Society
Sources and inspirations
The inspiration for Robin William's character is University of Connecticut English professor Samuel F. Pickering Jr., a former teacher of author Thomas Schulman at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, TN. Williams, however, partly based his portrayal of the character on the late John C. Campbell (d. 2007), Williams' history teacher at Detroit Country Day School. On the first day of class it was customary for Campbell to dump the AP American History textbook in the trash and to commence lecturing extempore.
The film was also inspired by the book Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton, which has been adapted for television or film at least four times.
The introductory essay that Keating has his students read from their poetry textbook near the beginning of the movie is taken nearly word-for-word from an early chapter of Laurence Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, which is still occasionally used by AP English classes in the United States.
Charlie Dalton writes his poem on the image of a centerfold; she is Elaine Reynolds, Miss October 1959 in Playboy magazine. In another reunion, the centerfold for Miss March 1959 Audrey Daston is seen briefly.
In one scene, a bagpipe player stands on the docks in the middle of the night. The song played is "The Fields of Athenry", an Irish ballad that tells the story of a man who stood up against 'the famine' and 'the crown' was arrested for it and dispatched to Botany Bay. This echoes the boys' actions: they stood up against the school and were punished, even though they did it for the right reasons. The song was composed in the 1970s.
The uniform of the fictional Welton Academy shares characteristics with that of director Weir's real high school, The Scots College, including the use of the rampant lion on blazer breast pocket. The major difference is that Welton's uses red and blue, while Scots' uses a gold and blue colour system.
The quotation from Henry David Thoreau read at the beginning of each meeting is incorrect. It actually reads
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms..." (Walden, 1854).
Neil Perry recites the words of Puck's soliloquy at the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
==============
Teaching death penalty issues
[One of the key "litmus test" issues in politics and social philosophy is whether or not one supports the death penalty, or state-sponsored executions. Indeed, this is the issue which separates traditional vengeance and punishment-based societies from what we think of as "modern" civilized and humane governments. And many recent American political campaigns have foundered on this very issue. Gov. Dukakis's campaign effectively ended in 1988 when he was asked a hypothetical question about whether or not he would support the death penalty for someone convicted of raping and killing his wife. He didn't have an adequate response to this "trick question."
In fact, the issue is a very simple one, but difficult to teach or effectively communicate in political campaigns. I recently received an e-mail from an anti-death penalty activist who teaches college courses on the subject - she claims, successfully. So I asked her to send me a short summary of her curriculum or lesson plans. Here they are. -- PHS]
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I am very fond of the sites below which provide great death penalty lesson plans and curriculum development strategies. Keep in mind that these resources are impartial and do not take one side or another. They are basically on state facts, policies, statistics and procedures.
http://deathpenaltycurriculum.org/teacher/index.html
http://www.aclufl.org/take_action/students/case_of_the_month/2002/lessonsdec2002.cfm
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?&did=2337
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/socialstudies/juvenile_deathpenalty.html
Below please find a short piece on TEACHING AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY.
D.L.
The Basics of Teaching Against The Death Penalty
By Professor D.L. Carcara
So many educators wonder how to go about teaching college level students that the death penalty is indeed a failure in social policy. Well, it is much simpler than one would think. All a teacher needs to do is present the scientific facts. Whether it be qualitative research (via intensive interviews with the personally involved) or quantitative research (by way of collecting statistical data through survey), there is no other way to interpret the results but to say that capital punishment is both ineffective and purposeless. The research speaks for itself. As an educator, you need not persuade your students into siding toward abolition because after you present the facts, they will sway this way naturally on their own. It is simply logical to do so....
Numerous researchers have concluded that the death penalty fails to deter murderers from killing. To name one social scientist, Richard Lempert’s United States- based, fifteen-year long study of the relationship between the number of executions and the number of killings showed that a relationship does not exist. After the completion of his research project, he reported, "The death penalty in general and executions in particular do not deter homicide" (Lempert, 1983). While some research simply proves that the death penalty does not deter, other research goes a step further to show the exact opposite of what deterrence theorists want us to believe. This research shows that wherever the death penalty exists, murders are more numerous. It also shows that wherever the death penalty does not exist, murders are less in number. In fact, over a twelve-year study span from 1973 to 1984, social scientists Ruth Peterson and William Bailey compared states with socio-economic similarities. The basic difference in these states were that some practiced executing their convicted murderers while others did not. Collaboratively, the two found that for every hundred-thousand people, states that executed their convicted murders had a murder rate of a whopping 8.64, while those states that did not had a murder rate of a much lower 5.35 (Peterson & Bailey, 1984). Back in the 1960’s, sociologist Thorsten Sellin’s findings resembled those of Peterson and Bailey for the years 1920 through 1955....
Moving onward from Deterrence Theory, I go ahead with asking students whether or not physical cruelty and unusualness is present while state sanctioned executions are being administrated. [Note: The Constitution prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment" -- one of the sections shredded or effectively repealed by the USA PATRIOT ACT and the Military Commissions Act. -- PHS]
ELECTROCUTION
"In 1985, Alpha Otis Stephens was strapped into the electric chair in Georgia. Stephens had to be hit with three separate 1,900-volt surges of electricity. After the first surge he ‘struggled for breath for eight minutes’. When the second surge was applied, ‘his body slumped when the current stopped… but shortly afterward witnesses saw him struggle to breathe. In the six minutes allowed for the body to cool before doctors could examine it, Mr. Stephens took about 23 breaths.’ When the doctors declared that he was still alive, the third jolt finished him off ten minutes later… Also in 1985, William Vandiver needed five separate charges of electricity and seventeen minutes to die" (Costanzo, 1997, p. 45 and Amnesty International, 1989). Let’s not fail to mention the time execution team errors led to the agonizing display experienced by the condemned Albert Clozza. There was such an abundance of steam pressure within Albert Clozza’s skull that during his electrocution, his eyeballs exploded and his chest covered with blood that was draining downward from the eye sockets....
GASSING
Dr. Richard Traystman of John Hopkins University verifies the truth regarding the condemned’s physical pain during the gassing process. He states, "The person is unquestionably experiencing pain and extreme anxiety. The pain begins immediately and is felt in the arms, shoulders, back and chest. The sensation is similar to the pain felt by a person during a heart attack, where essentially the heart is being deprived of oxygen" (The Gas Chamber, 2005). On the second day of 1983’s ninth month, Jimmy Lee Gray was seated in Mississippi’s gas chamber. After the gas had been released into the chamber for about eight minutes, Jimmy Lee Gray was convulsing so that officials removed the execution witnesses from the observation windows. Jimmy Lee Gray reportedly gasped eleven times and ultimately expired while slamming his head against the steel pole that was behind the chair he was strapped into.
LETHAL INJECTION
If it were only as simple as it is on the movie screen. People being executed via lethal injection are not necessarily in a state of restfulness and serenity as portrayed by Sean Penn’s character in the movie Dead Man Walking. "Although technological features of lethal injection create the appearance of a more humane and efficient form of execution, not all lethal injections occur without a hitch. In some cases, the drugs invoke violent choking, gasping, and writhing - forcing the condemned to squirm grotesquely under the leather straps of the gurney" (Welch, 1996, p. 311)....
And yet again, after reading account after account of "executions-gone-wrong", the class offers a collective, "Yes. Physical cruelty and Unusualness does exist while administering state sanction executions".
It really is this simple. All you need are some decent, published, accredited research examples to draw on. The same way a good product sells itself, the truth about capital punishment will reveal itself.
FOR FURTHER TEACHING - After students have completed their first two years, having earned status as a college junior and having fully understood Deterrence Theory and Physical Cruelty and Unusualness, I feel that they have obtained the logic and critical thing skills needed to move on to more complex topics like Psychological Cruelty and Unusualness, Error / Finality / Irreversibility, Moral / Religious Viewpoints, Financial Costs, Bias in Sentencing, Community Protection, Social Solidarity, and the Revenge Reflex. These more in depth topics, from my experience, should only be addressed in higher level courses designed for junior and senior upperclassmen.
CLASSROOM TEXT USED: 15,543 and Counting by D.L. Carcara
___________
COMMENT by Paul Stephens
Although the above is probably necessary in state-sponsored schools, where teachers are supposed to be "unbiased" and not have any opinions of their own (like American journalists, apparently), a real college or university would consider the political (ethical and legal) issues first. The above approach is apparently designed for students who have no background or training in ethics, morality, or "criminal justice" issues (due to failures in the K-12 systems). And so, it is the last section which is most relevant to political campaigns and judicial activism against the death penalty.
Most of us already knew that the death penalty is "cruel and unusual" and that it doesn't deter anyone from committing capital crimes. So much the better, most advocates for the death penalty would claim. The convicted murderer, rapist, terrorist, traitor, spy, etc. SHOULD suffer anxiety, physical pain, etc. That is what provides the alleged "deterrent!" And since it seems to actually increase the number of murders or other capital crimes, that's more work for the "criminal justice system" and an incentive to put "more police on the streets" and otherwise increase funding for the police state.
I would teach this issue mostly on the basis of two concerns. First, should the State be in the business of executing people, and what sort of example does that provide? Does the State have any RIGHT to execute people? If it does, it is taking on the mantle of God or some other ultimate authority (as would be the case in Islamic Republics), able to rightfully decide issues of life and death for certain people. It seems obvious to me that no State except a totalitarian theocracy can claim any such rights.
Another major issue is subsumed under the "Error/Finality/Irreversibility" argument mentioned above for the advanced classes. The State and any judicial proceedings is subject to all sorts of errors, and our present legal system is largely based on excluding various kinds of evidence or testimony which is essential to rendering an accurate decision. I have discussed this issue often in past Bulletins, a trivial example being when I served on a jury involving a traffic citation, and asked if we could see the police car video camera tape of the incident in order to determine what the facts of the situation had been. Both prosecutor and defense attorney agreed that we jurors should not be allowed to see the tape, and I was reprimanded by the judge for even asking to see it! So much for objective justice.
Most court-room verdicts are a carefully orchestrated charade of highly-paid lawyers who are not allowed to actually determine the facts of the case. This would be "judicial activism." All that they can do is to determine whether or not some particular statute, probably purchased by corporate lobbyists or other "special interest groups" (including opponents of the death penalty), has been violated. The merits of the law itself and the facts of the case are not to be discussed or determined in the courtroom, as they originally were under the English Common Law.
And a surprising number of verdicts are dependent on paid "snitches", who are promised immunity or release from their own sentences in exchange for "informing" on others. No prosecutor or her elected bosses wants to be considered "soft on crime," so there is all sorts of political pressure to over-prosecute, over-sentence, and otherwise pack the judicial system with cases and prisoners. This is why the U.S. locks up anywhere from 5-15 times as many people, per capita, as other democracies, and even more than totalitarian societies like Russia and China. It is one of the most obvious and certain characteristics of a police state, and the end of both individual freedom and the democratic process.
And so, my main argument against the death penalty is that the whole process is flawed, and we don't in fact have a real judicial system at this time. And if we did, the ethical, practical, economic, and all other considerations would clearly indicate that the death penalty is totally incompatible with a free and just society, and belongs only in totalitarian theocracies or other dictatorships. Most progressive Left historians see the re-imposition of the death penalty in Soviet Russia (within a year or two of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution) as the end of real communism, as well as socialism as a political ideal. The same sort of thing had happened earlier in the French Revolution, and the subsequent "reign of terror." Thus, it's not real "progress" or reform if the State must resort to the use of the death penalty, for whatever purpose or reasons.
-- Paul Stephens
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Amy Goodman | Felony Disenfranchisement Aids Republicans
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020808T.shtml
Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate: "Since felony disenfranchisement disproportionately affects African-American and Latino men in the US, and since these groups overwhelmingly vote Democratic, the laws bolster the position of the Republican Party."
The New York Times | A Hopeful Year for Unions
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020808LA.shtml
The editorial board of The New York Times writes, "By virtually every indicator, 2007 was a dismal year for American workers. Job growth slowed, unemployment jumped and wages lost what little ground they had gained against inflation since 2003. There is one sliver of good news: the percentage of American workers who belong to a union rose for the first time in three decades."
US Labor Leaders to Visit Colombia as Bush Presses for Vote
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020808LB.shtml
Doug Palmer, Reuters: "US labor leaders opposed to a free trade deal with Colombia will visit that country next week to press for stronger government action to stop killings of trade unionists before Congress votes on the pact."
CDC: Quarter of US Women Suffer Domestic Violence
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020808WA.shtml
Will Dunham, Reuters: "About a quarter of US women suffer domestic violence, US health officials reported on Thursday, with ongoing health problems that one activist likened to the effects of living in a war zone."
===============
THE MONTANA DEMOCRATIC-NECKTIE PARTY TRADITION - CONTINUED
Judy Wallman, a professional genealogical researcher, discovered that Hillary Clinton's great-great uncle, Remus Rodham, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889.
The only known photograph of Remus shows him standing on the gallows. On the back of the picture is this inscription: 'Remus Rodham; horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison 1885, escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton detectives, convicted and hanged in 1889.'
Judy e-mailed Hillary Clinton for comments. Hillary's staff of professional image adjusters sent back the following biographical sketch:
'Remus Rodham was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory . His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1883, he devoted several years of his life to service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation run by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honour when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed.'
....and THAT is how it's done folks.
/\/\/\/\
FROM GREEN LISTSERVS
FROM SCOTT MCLARTY, GPUS MEDIA COORDINATOR
I'm taking the extraordinary step of reposting a message I sent to this list last week about (1) the importance of down-ticket Green races in the 2008 election and (2) the value & winnability of Green campaigns for state legislatures, especially this year.
What can we do to work up some enthusiasm, support, & funding for Green statehouse and other local & state campaigns? (Hint: The Coordinated Campaign Committee should really be one of most active committees, with the most members.)
Can we get Greens to understand that a bunch of local & state victories will be a huge step forward for the GP? ... and, conversely, that a lack of such wins in 2008 could be a big step backward?
1,000 GREEN CANDIDATES IN 2008!
Scott
In my opinion, the most important races for 2008 might turn out to be neither the presidential nor congressional races.
It's the state legislative races that might be the real key to the growth of the GP.
Our presidential & congressional campaigns might do okay, with 3-5% for our presidential nominees and 10-30% or more for some of our US House & Senate candidates, and maybe even a congressional win somewhere.
On the other hand, we might do really poorly in these races in 2008, with less than 1% for the presidential candidates and less than 4% for our congressional candidates. In 2006, we had some of our best candidates & best campaigns for Congress ever, but we still got low percentages, because the sentiment of voters was that Congress needed to be handed to the Democrats. (The same sentiment didn't apply to gubernatorial races -- Green candidates Rich Whitney & Pat LaMarche got over 10% in Illinois & Maine.)
We need to win some significant races in 2008. If we don't, it'll be a sign to the public that the GP has reached a ceiling or has passed its time, is no longer capable of becoming a major party, and that we're permanently at the level of other stunted-growth third parties.
The state legislative races are the best way for the GP to show that we really are advancing. We have the ability to win statehouse seats, because we've done it before.
If Green candidates win three, four, five, or more seats in state assemblies & state senates
around the US in 2008, it'll be a major GP victory, regardless of how we do in the races for the White House & Congress.
A couple of months ago, Brent McMillan called for ONE THOUSAND GREEN CANDIDATES IN 2008. If lots of these candidates run for state legislature, and ran solid, well-organized, well-funded campaigns, it's very likely that some will get elected.
It's reasonable that Greens tend to get caught up in the excitement & spectacle (& controversy) of the presidential contest every four years. But it'll be really bad for us if we don't have any real victories to announce on the day after Election Day 2008.
Mayoral & city council races are winnable for Greens, too.
It may turn out that the future of the GP has less to do with Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, et al., and more to do with the 2008 counterparts of John Eder (former state legislator in Maine), Gail McLaughlin (mayor of Richmond, California), and Chuck Turner (council member of Boston).
The national party should set a goal of ten state legislature victories in 2008. If we get even half this number, it'll be a major leap forward for the GP, regardless of what happens at the national level.
Scott
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Sam Smith, a longtime Green, is one of the most interesting political commentators around. Here, from The Progressive Review, are some of his thoughts on the 2008 election.
Peace. Richard Walton, RI.
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THE ELECTION IS OVER: WE LOST
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Sam Smith
That's a headline borrowed from a piece I wrote four years ago when John Kerry locked up the Democratic nomination. The lead: "The winner is a supporter of three of the worst government decisions of our time: the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, and the Bush education law."
It's a little different this time. None of the winning candidates will have been members of Skull & Bones and you can argue, as sadly many do, that Barack Obama's initial opposition to the war cancels his later acquiescence. In politics, the best shift is to do wrong initially and then correct it not the other way around.
There is, to be sure, a great difference between the two remaining major Democratic candidates: Obama has integrity, the Clintons do not; only one alleged crook has showed up on the Obama big backer list; with the Clintons they litter the place like packing peanuts on the floor after opening a package.
But while that provides a choice and an important one, there is another that we also need restoring the First American Republic and ending the second robber baron era which is no longer on the table with departure of John Edwards. We are left with corporatized, conservative compromisers who add mightily to the argument that the Democratic Party should be forced to change its name to end the consumer fraud it purveys.
So what do we do about it? Some will stay home on election day, others will support a Nader or a Green, likely Cynthia McKinney. The Democrats will be, as usual, furious that a certain number of voters still believe we live in a democracy and choose someone other than those assigned to them by the DNC. While Ralph Nader may make what seems to some the wrong political decision, it is a sign of the corrupt, cynical nature of our times to look into the face of moral integrity and dismiss it as an act of ego.
Even from a tactical standpoint, it is no worse than a Democratic Party that has known for eight years that it was unraveling and failed to do anything for progressives and Greens except to insult them. These folks deserve to be treated at least as well as soccer moms or a hedge fund traders, but instead they are ridiculed and scolded and then the party wonders why they don't get their vote.
So whatever happens, don't blame Nader or McKinney. It is absolutely inconceivable that one could have a party doing as poorly as the Democrats and not have a visible and active opposition.
People, including many of my friends, will take markedly different approaches to the dilemma. Some will place priority on personal witness i.e. the Nader or Green approach and some will take a more pragmatic course. My own view is that politics is inherently more of a pragmatic than a moral matter and that, besides, even if you have the most righteous cause, espousing it in the middle lane of Route 95 at rush hour may not be the best way to go about it. I have long considered myself a backyard Green, believing that history clearly shows the strength of such parties is in their local organizing and not in those all too rare chances to make an impact in a national election.
Far more important, though, is an approach to the next few years no matter who wins and what part one plays in the election. One of the biggest problems for progressives has long been the lack of an easily identifiable agenda. A new movement could be launched the day after the election. A broad coalition of groups and individuals could declare itself the real opposition to whoever ends up in the White House. Even those who work hard for the Democrat could make clear their commitment ends with the closing of the polls, after which they will join in the revival of the American republic.
The only ground rule between now and then should be that no one is allowed to argue over election strategy.
The morning after the election, a news conference could be held declaring the new movement and announcing a national conference at which delegates would select a handful of issues to guide the movement.
Two unusual rules could prevent this from turning into the sort of internecine blood bath that progressives seem to love. The first would be that the only issues discussed would be those about which there was a reasonable opportunity of agreement. The second would be that agreement would not be expressed by majority vote but by some form of census.
This is not a fantasy. One of the steps taken that led to the creation of the national Green Party - out of state groups and factions that had plenty of differences with each other - was a national conference attended by 125 members of over 20 third parties ranging from the socialists and one of the last members of the American Labor Party to Greens, Libertarians and members of Perot's Reform party. At the end of the weekend we had full consensus on 17 issues and a high degree of agreement on others. Even some of us who had organized the conference were stunned.
Great movements are not created by arguing over Roberts Rules of Order, by winning narrow parliamentary victories by dubious means against natural allies, by publicly scolding those who don't agree with you and by excoriating those whose view of virtue diverges from your own. They are created by the realization that there is something far greater that we all dream about and that we can only turn the dream into reality by compromising, sharing and talking honestly with others - recognizing that that each of us will be more powerful by marching with these others than if we continue to walk alone. And November 4 is only nine months away.
"The only way out of our crisis (terrorism) is to reduce the anger of the most rational, thus also reducing the constituency of the least rational." Sam Smith.
"When they come for the innocent without crossing over your body, cursed be your religion and your life." Anon. But often quoted by Dorothy Day.
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