State governments are justifying massive tuition hikes as a necessary evil in the face of growing state budget deficits. But the real question is one of priorities.
Congress recently passed the largest military budget in US history, [3] while Wall Street enjoyed a massive $14 trillion bailout. [4]
Our members of Congress must prioritize education above endless wars and subsidies for corporate profits.
The future of our nation depends on making quality education available for our young people.
Went to my Congressman's District Office, this past Monday, March 15, 2010.
Asked to speak to whoever it was that one could speak to when the Congressman was not there.
Out came a young man, his Deputy District Administrator. I had met this young man about two years previously, but he did not recall me.
"What did you come to talk about?"
"I came to talk to you about the health care reform. I would like to know why the Congressman has changed his position with respect to the public option. He promised that he would not sign any health care reform bill that did not contain a public option. He was a signatory to this letter stating just that. So, why has he changed his position?" [I held in my hand a letter of August 17, 2009, with 60 Members of Congress, who had signed on, as an attachment to the letter, stating their position with respect to the public option, i.e., that they would NOT sign any health care reform bill without a public option. This was a letter to The Hon. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, signed off on be Raul Grijalva, Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, representing the Congressional Progressive Cause and the Congressional Black Caucus.]
"He can change his position if he wants."
"You know about Cong. Grayson's bill H.R. 4789, don't you? The Medicare Option for anyone under 65 who wants to join and pay for it?," I asked. "What are the Congressman's feelings on that?"
"He's against it - there aren't enough votes for it."
"Well, I can tell you that since he introduced it, plenty of Americans have signed up in a matter of a couple of days, they are signing up endlessly - it's phenomenal."
"It doesn't matter," he says, "the votes are not there and the Congressman is going to sign the bill as it is."
"One song which would really tear the house down was 'Tutti Frutti.' The lyrics were kind of vulgar. White people, it always cracked 'em up, but black people didn't like it that much. They liked the blues." --Little Richard
"If rock and roll has to be only one thing, then you might as well say it can only be Little Richard." --Bono
Like many struggling rock stars, I've endured all kinds of cheap taunts and envious smears in the foul underbelly of the music industry. It comes with the territory--when making the quantum leap from bleating opinionated man-child to Serious Ball-Busting Artist, the attendant fallout irrevocably mutates many observers into one-note projection machines. These poor souls are called "critics," and I know how they think, because I used to be one myself.
This is going to be an action packed weekend in DC and around the nation. On Friday, there will be protests of Yoo. On Saturday, there will be a massive antiwar demonstration (there will also be demonstrations in Philly, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and South Dakota, among other places). On Sunday, there will be a large march for immigration reform. And there will be other related events around the country, along with the small protests and events that happen all the time.
So join me below the fold to see how you can effect change this weekend.
In a recent diary by Cassiodorus, one point of his in particular struck me:
Thus the comparison between the Great Depression and the current Great Recession falls flat, because the popular upheavals of the 1930s are only in evidence today among the least helpful segments of the population. This of course is a major reason why we can expect no FDR-like President to save us from the...economic collapse...
...During the 1930s...intellectual figures such as John Dos Passos, John Steinbeck, Kenneth Burke, and Richard Wright were actual socialists and not just mere liberals offering occasional plugs for John Kerry.
Another prominent socialist, albeit a bit later than the Depression, was Albert Einstein. He was an all around brilliant man, someone whom I admire greatly. And he wisely said this, although today it would probably be considered way too radical for anyone respectable to utter:
(Dennis Kucinich is demonstrating his leadership again by calling for "The Medicare Public Option", the proposal to allow people under 65 to buy into Medicare, to be passed in reconciliation of the current health care bill.
Though as originally introduced on the House floor, Representative Alan Grayson did not expressly ask that the Medicare You Can Buy Into Act (HR4789) be passed immediately, in reconciliation of the current Senate health care bill, he has since suggested that he is interested in this, and there is already a movement growing to do exactly that.
Dennis Kucinich has a new radio spot on this issue ready to go:
"Hi, this is Dennis Kucinich, on REAL health reform. We all know what really needs to be done, to expand what's REALLY working, which is Medicare, in a way that makes common sense, and is fiscally sound. That's why I'M pushing for an up or down vote on The Medicare Public Option, to give people younger than age 65 the OPTION to buy into Medicare, at a fair price, if they WANT to. I don't KNOW what the rest of Congress is going to do, I just want you to know, that as YOUR representative I'm fighting so that you can have a REAL DEAL. I'm Dennis Kucinich, and I approved this message." - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Jane Hamsher, again, says it quite eloquently when she calls out MoveOn.org for attacking Dennis Kucinich for sticking with his promise to not vote for a HCR bill that did not have a Public Option. Rep. Kucinich is being attack by the so-called "liberal" blogosphere that has now veered fo far right that it is unrecognizable to true progressives like Ms. Hamsher.
Last August, progressive groups including MoveOn, DFA and blogs across the country came together to raise over $430,000 for 65 members of Congress who pledged to vote against any health care bill that doesn't have a public option.
Now every excuse made by the President and Congress for not including a public option has crumbled. MoveOn is against Kucinich for keeping that promise, and far from supporting members of Congress who keep that pledge, the unions are them with primaries.
A real financial reform package must include an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency, restoration of the Glass-Steagall Act, and strict new limits on the derivatives market.
To protect citizens from rapacious banks, we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to stop abusive mortgages and credit card terms, and other predatory financial schemes.
The Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial and investment banking, was enacted after the financial crash of 1929, but it was repealed in 1999. It is crucial to preventing the reckless investing by commercial banks that caused some of the greatest financial disasters in U.S. history.
Rampant speculation in the unregulated derivatives market was a major factor in the collapse of the global financial system. We need tough new restrictions on the derivatives market, or speculators will continue to imperil our country's economic stability for short-term profit.
Michael Walzer's piece entitled "Missing the Movement" is so relevant and smartly written that I felt inclined to read it through four times before beginning to thinking about formulating an adequate response that would do it justice. I am overjoyed to find someone who has managed to put forth a strong, sound hypothesis as to why recent reform efforts tied to a resurgent liberalism have been so limited while setting out cogently what we ourselves ought to do to fix the problem. Having identified what went wrong, let us now proceed to take on the hard work and soul searching necessary to get past it. For as it is written, "Prepare your work outside; get everything ready for yourself in the field, and after that build your house."
Walzer writes,
Liberalism is the American version of social democracy, but it lacks a strong working-class base, party discipline, and ideological self-consciousness. None of these are in the offing, but we need to be aware of what we are missing, and we need to begin at least the intellectual work of making up for it. European social democrats are on the defensive right now, but they have a lot to defend. Liberals here are in catch-up mode, and not doing all that well. We know more or less what we have to do, but we haven't managed to give the American people a brightly colored picture of the country we would like to create. There is a lot of wonkishness on the liberal left, among American social democrats, but not much inspiration. We haven't found the words and images that set people marching. As an old leftist, I can talk (endlessly) about citizenship, equality, solidarity, and our responsibility to future generations, but someone much younger than I am has to put all this in a language that resonates with young Americans-and describe a "city upon a hill" that may or may not be the same hill that I have been climbing all these years.
It is this section in particular which resonates most strongly with me. I notice this kind of stultifying dullness among those who have, for reasons unknown, exchanged wonkery for truly impassioned discourse and inspirational rhetoric. The result produced is robotic and bloodless, for one. For another, it's downright Pharisaical. In this circumstance, Dictionary.com defines Pharisaical as "practicing or advocating strict observance of external forms and ceremonies of religion or conduct without regard to the spirit." I have noted, sometimes with anger, sometimes with frustration, never with satisfaction, that this is true not just in gatherings of religious liberals, but also quite evident in multiple settings and causes comprised of vocally secular liberals. Going through the motions without understanding the passion will never serve anyone's cause well and indeed, it is partially why we find ourselves in the mess in which we are now. Layering laws upon laws, formalities upon formalities, and procedures upon procedures might seem to be helpful upon first glance, but they end up separating ourselves from each other, not pulling us together.
Unemployment in the United States is a heart-wrenching problem, with 14.8 million Americans seeking work.1
Yet the same U.S. senators who gave trillions to bail out Wall Street are now offering a paltry $15 billion for a jobs bill that won't create many jobs.
What an insult. In effect, senators are telling unemployed Americans that they matter little compared to Wall Street.
With unemployment so high, it's time for a Green New Deal to tackle economic and ecological problems at the same time.
We should put Americans back to work with living-wage green jobs: retrofitting homes for energy efficiency, building modern mass transit systems, installing renewable energy technology, and conserving our irreplaceable ecosystems.
Instead, the Senate's current bill fails to offer even a short-term solution to joblessness.
After bailing out Wall Street at a cost of trillions, all that the Senate Democratic majority will offer 14.8 million unemployed Americans is a jobs bill that union leaders have called "puny" and "like sticking a band-aid on an amputated arm".2
In Part 3 Cohen talked about the struggle for power and direction within the Democratic Party from the days of the Viet Nam War to the present, and wound up with "Frankly... I would love to see a primary challenge to Obama when he's up for re-election... Because unless you build a base through elections and then you hold the officials accountable, then you'll never get anywhere."
Here in the conclusion of the interview Cohen expands on those ideas and fills in some of the outlines to draw a rough set of guidelines or roadmap of how to get from where things stand now with the Democrats as out and out corporatists to a world of the kind of progressive populism they have been well known for at various points in history, and how it is going to take a no more Mr. Nice Guy approach from progressives and a lot of very hardnosed and fearless aggressiveness, of the kind that I think Muhammad Ali meant when he noted so many years ago "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."
Lately there has been a spate of diaries at such web sites as FireDogLake and "Open" Left wherein lay members - typically under attack from site moderators, who act as Democratic Party hacks and gatekeepers - have sought ways to bring back the Progressive Party, or join the Greens, or build up some other institution, that will allow progressives to act together as a cohesive political unit. (I posted an entry there myself, only to end up being attacked by site moderators, threatened with banishment, and ultimately banned when I refused to back down against their incessant bullying.)
Fellow FDLer TalkingStick points out the wisdom of studying the teabaggers for ideas about how we progressives can rebuild our own movement.
Mason calls for progressives to join him in building a Progressive Party from the ground up, apparently not aware that it already exists in states such as Vermont and Washington, and as Green Party affiliates inMissouri and Wisconsin. He is joined in this effort by MadHemingway, who posted the 1912 platform the Progressive Party ran on.
FDL members are not alone in Left Blogsylvania in expressing their utter disgust with the Democrats; at "Open" Left, such lay members as Arthur Lukas gripe about where progressives are and asks where we should go from here. Even at the Daily Obama, whereupon I also post, a poll I put up asking if it is time for progressives to break away from the Democratic received a fifty percent yes-vote.
Such discontent is often met by moderators and site owners with derision, insults, threats, and banishments of the "offending" members. Nevertheless, it has grown more difficult for the access-bloggers to bully progressives into submission, a lesson FDL's Jason Rosenbaum refused to learned after the beat-down his contemptuous post before the Massachusetts special election received. In short, no one on the left is buying into the Big Lie that Democrats are any different from Republicans in terms of substantive policies, nor are we responding to threats and insults anymore for "failing" to be bullied into supporting Democrats no matter what.
This discontent and refusal to be bullied has created an opening for progressives seeking to organize the left back into a cohesive and more importantly, effective movement in opposition to the far right. There are angry voices aplenty, people outraged by the betrayals of the man they though they were electing president in '08 and the endless capitulations to the GOP made by Democrats. Here we have an advantage.
The only thing lacking in the new political environment is effective leadership among progressives. We will not find it among the self-appointed "leaders" of the 'netroots, the access-bloggers like Chris Bowers, Markos Moulitsas, and the aforementioned Rosenbaum whose only real goal is to gain access for themselves - and only themselves - to the inner circles of "serious" political power and corporate media recognition. It is therefore up to us to take on leadership roles and organize the left.
If we can take charge, we the progressive base, then we can finally begin the work of taking back America from the fascist elements that have usurped it for their own ends to the detriment of everybody else. The Full Court Press is one tool for doing that, and it's a very good start.
As they say, "just one individual CAN make a difference."
"Prof. Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois College of Law, of Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A., has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.), in The Hague, against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleeza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the Accused)." The Complaint is based on the "criminal policy and practice of 'extraordinary renditions' perpetrated upon about 100 human beings," which practice represents "Crimes against Humanity" and are "in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C." * (emphasis mine)
The Honorable Luis Moreno-Ocampo
Office of the Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM, The Hague
The Netherlands
Fax No.: 31-70-515-8555
Email: OTP.InformationDesk@icc-cpi.int
January 19, 2010
Dear Sir:
Please accept my personal compliments. I have the honor hereby to file with you and the International Criminal Court this Complaint against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice , and Alberto Gonzales (hereinafter referred to as the "Accused") for their criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition." This term is really a euphemism for the enforced disappearances of persons, their torture, severe deprivation of their liberty, their violent sexual abuse, and other inhumane acts perpetrated upon these Victims. The Accused have inflicted this criminal policy and practice of "extraordinary rendition" upon about one hundred (100) human beings, almost all of whom are Muslims/Arabs/Asians and People of Color. I doubt very seriously that the Accused would have inflicted these criminal practices upon 100 White Judeo-Christian men. . . . .
[Note:A reading of the entirety of the Complaint can be found here.
I originally posted this interview with Howard Zinn back in April 2009 following the then recent revelations of President Obama's DOJ under Eric Holder betraying Obama's campaign promises to instead embrace the Bush administrations claims for immunity and "states secrets" in the case of clear FISA violations and illegal wiretapping.
So much more has gone down since then, including his troop increases in Afghanistan, his expansion of drone strikes, his coddling and enriching of Wall Street investment bankers at your expense, and his effective sellout of the American people to the health insurance industry.
And Obama has turned his back on so many of his campaign pledges to make his administrations policy decisions so far essentially a direct extension of the policies of the the Bush/Cheney years, with most of the bigger points outlined in Paul Street's recent article The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left that I thought that in light of Obama's SOTU speech that this might be a good time time for revisiting what Zinn had to say in this interview.
I also suspect that Zinn would be honored to have us honor his ideas more than himself.
RIP Mr. Zinn. We'll do our best.
In part three of what was a series of interviews, historian, political scientist, social critic, activist, author and playwright Professor Howard Zinn talks here with Real News CEO Paul Jay about why so many people seem to be convinced that Obama is anything more than what he appears to be given his actions and policies implemented since inauguration, and about how to create a mass popular movement to pressure Obama for progressive results in a supportive way, and concludes that social turmoil is not only not bad but necessary if it leads to something good in the sense of creating real change.
As aid trickles into Haiti and news trickles out, and as the extent of the horror unfolding there following the earthquake becomes more widely known, decisions are already being made that will affect the kind of country surviving Haitians will live in that emerges from the disaster.
In this video from The Real News today independendent journalist Ansel Herz reports live from Port-Au-Prince on the role that the deployed US troops are playing, while author Peter Hallward weighs in on the role that the US has played in Haiti's recent history and shares his concerns that post-earthquake Haiti will further cement the domination of the Haitian people by foreigners.
Ansel Herz is an independent journalist and web designer originally from the United States but currently based in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. His personal website can be found at www.mediahacker.com.
Peter Hallward is a Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University in England. In 2007 he published the acclaimed historical account of post-1990 Haitian politics, Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment. He is the editor of the journal Radical Philosophy and a contributing editor to Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities.
... then give us some small tactics. You'd find a lot of folks would join in, well at least I would. I am not experienced at this. I'm not even sure I understand it! But I'm ready to help even if I'm not yet ready to lead in this kind of project. I'd love an essay from you with concrete action items that illustrate these "small tactics."
I responded to Ground with a tactic for a group of maybe 10 people that begins thus:
Go to your representative's office, present your demands, and insist on seeing him or her. Staffer tells you congressperson is in Washington and isn't available. You say, we'll wait here until he/she comes back on the next plane. Staffer says that's ridiculous. You say you're staying. Staffer threatens to call police. Fork: If police come, you treat them politely, explaining the justice of your position, then you leave, having provoked a response that provides a news hook. If police don't come, you stay 5 minutes past closing time, then leave. You have defied authority, stayed out of jail. And upset the staffer.
You could also come back when the rep is in town.
Another I've toyed with is for a small group of people to prepare a flier and go to a jobs fair (New York State even gives a schedule of them here). These grotesque spectacles give the illusion that you could get a job. The flier could say any number of things. If the small group included unemployed people, the flier could advocate not leaving until jobs were offered to all. Tactically, you could back down when pressured by security. Having to be forced out by security or police becomes an issue all by itself. If the group were all employed, it could have a general statement about unemployment and call a meeting. Give a phone number and web page (not that expensive since the traffic would not be massive). The very act of trying to organize at such events could provoke a reaction, and that reaction, however small, then becomes an issue. Then you could take your group and "Go to your representative's office ..." as above, demanding the right to organize at these events. (Organize for what? You'd have to figure that out.) Some of the fairs listed are for government jobs, and thus the issue would be more sensitive than if the jobs were private sector.
PDA takes a courageous, principled stance against typical democratic cronyism. I offer this diary as a continuation of Tom P's recent essay discussing Winograd, Waxman, and Harmon, and primarily as an example of real courage and standing on principle rather than compromise.
PDA founder Tim Carpenter and the executive board members have signed a letter asking Lynn Woolsey, co-founder of the CPC and a PDA board member herself, to cancel her scheduled speaking engagement at a campaign event for Harmon.
Tim Carpenter writes;
We have heard from many progressives, both inside and outside PDA, expressing disapproval of PDA advisory board member Lynn Woolsey's decision to headline a fundraising event for Jane Harman this coming Saturday in Venice, California. As you probably already know, PDA has endorsed Marcy Winograd in California's 36th Congressional District, the seat currently held by Jane Harman.
The letter follows, and there is a link for you to become a co-signer at the end of the letter:
In another arrogant collusion to once again deny us any possibility of what we want -- real health care reform, single payer, public option -- those who do what they want, but not what we want, have decided to scrap the conference committee to reconcile the Senate and House versions. Instead, they have decided to have a secret meeting of the 3 major players, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, behind closed doors without reporters or C-Span.
This is a call to action. We need to call congress and tell them we are furious. Like modern day Paul Reveres, we need to ride through the countryside on our internet horses and yell from the rooftops, "The fascists are coming. The fascists are coming." And we aren't gonna take it any more. No we aren't.
It's time for the Second American Revolution. We need to let Congress know we aren't going to take this any more. No taxation without representation. No mandates to force us to buy junk health insurance when we don't have a democratic say in what is being put into law.
To the rooftops, to the tubes, to Congress, say NO! We won't take it any more. The Second American Revolution is coming. The Second American Revolution is Coming.
Follow below for more to do and a very cogent letter from PDA.
I have recently been calling for a large social movement (or, more realistically, an expansion of the social movements for justice already in existence) and here are a few ways we can all get started on being part of this movement.
(Included: Cindy Sheehan's thoughts on recent events and a list of upcoming action events you can get involved with.)
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
