This is Your Nation on White Privilege

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in it the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."


White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while if you're black and believe in reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), you're a dangerous and mushy liberal who isn't fit to safeguard American institutions.


White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.


White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful.


White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college and the fact that she lives near Russia, you're somehow being mean, or even sexist.


White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a "second look."


White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.


White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still be viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is unquestionable, and whose "next door neighbor" qualities make her ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for president and you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you're irresponsibly exploiting them.

White privilege is being able to give a 36-minute speech in which you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being too vague about what he would do if elected.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.


White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.


White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep school, then to Yale and Harvard Business School (George W. Bush), and still be seen as an "average guy," while being black, going to a prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and then Harvard Law, makes you "uppity" and a snob who probably looks down on regular folks.

White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of your college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.), and that's OK, and you're still cut out to be president, but if you're black and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she's disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you then go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black and married for nearly 20 years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called "terrorist fist bumps."

White privilege is when you can develop a pain-killer addiction, having obtained your drug of choice illegally like Cindy McCain, go on to beat that addiction, and everyone praises you for being so strong, while being a black guy who smoked pot a few times in college and never became an addict means people will wonder if perhaps you still get high, and even ask whether or not you may have sold drugs at some point.

White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements with them, makes you dangerously naive and immature.

White privilege is being able to say that you hate "gooks" and "will always hate them," and yet, you aren't a racist because, ya know, you were a POW, so you're entitled to your hatred, while being black and noting that black anger about racism is understandable, given the history of your country, makes you a dangerous bigot.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently among the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin explained in her convention speech.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain…
 White privilege is, in short, the problem.

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the U.S., and has been called, "One of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege.

The Apologists for Chiselers

Give Us a Lecture

On Bailout Economics

.

When Wall Street laid an egg in the 1920s to precipitate the Great Depression, the shorn millionaires and double dealers whose uncontrolled greed spread misery and poverty across the land leaped out of tall buildings and slit their wrists.

The good and privileged life was over. Living in disgrace without maids and footmen was not an option.

Today it's easier. They contact the Secretary of the Treasury and by-pass those messier options. They also contact Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve Bank, and the message loud and clear through these distinguished megaphones of high finance was this :

Save our cherished market place and the thrills and payoffs of speculation; forgive the shady off- the- books deals and transfers and the wreckage of millions of mortgages; forgive our brothers who invented those phantom hedge funds; they didn't know what they were doing, which was okay because the investors and the bankers didn’t know what they were doing, either, and the White House didn’t care. Just fix this now and shut up. We’re in danger.

“Who’s in danger?”

America. The world. Wall Street. George Bush’s legacy. The Republican campaign.

“What about those millions of American taxpayers from the towns and farms and the pension plans and the fading value of their houses, the ones who are paying for the wars and the profit obsessions of Wall Street. Are they in danger, too?

Yes, but now we need them more than ever.

“Why is that?”

Because the country is going broke. The dollar has gone to hell. All that stands between the country and another Depression are the pockets of the taxpayers.

“Let’s say the reasons for that are the following: A needless war deceitfully and recklessly sold to the American public, kept alive with a shameless, flag-waving campaign of manipulation calculated to convince Americans they weren’t supporting the troops unless they loved the war. And let’s say American industrialists, some of the corporate pirates and stockholders made millions on the export overseas of hundreds of thousands of American jobs; and let’s say the speculators and investors of Wall Street and some of the bankers went crazy scooping up profits while the political hacks in the regulator agencies of the Bush government played Scrabble and let chiselers make any deal that came in over the transom. And the game went smash when the mortgage market caved in.”

That is correct, the architects of the bailout now before the country tell us. What we need now is speed. We don’t have time to deliberate. The Secretary of the Treasury tells us the economy is on the brink of collapse. We need to railroad this right now. It is so urgent that we have to swallow it without looking twice at what we’re swallowing. The Secretary of the Treasury tells America this is too urgent to allow discussion. Not by the courts. Not by any other agency of the country. It is like what? Well, Iraq.

Trust us. This from the people who have put America on the edge of bankruptcy with wars and threats of wars and by cherry-picking or actually stealing the easy fruit available to them while the regulators of the Bush government dozed or winked.

“But what about protections for the taxpayers? The ordinary people of Americans. Shouldn’t they be protected from the multi-millionare supplicants who have now squeezed themselves to the table en masse and created and unsightly food fight to make sure they get theirs? And if we’re going to be pushed into this de facto socialism to save capitalism, shouldn’t there be some language in there that gives the public a share in the benefits that ultimately accrue?”

The knights from the counting houses say there isn’t time. Pass it now. The way it’s written. Either that or you get the blame for mess the chiselers created.

Call it Democracy in America, 2000 to 2008.

By Jim Klobuchar

PROTEST

To sin by silence, when we should protest makes cowards out of men. Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Finally,The Debate

John McCain blinked. I guess he wasn’t as needed in Washington as he thought. John McCain made reference several times to past Washington ghost Ronald Regan. The debate shown like I thought it would, a lot more people will come to the conclusion he isn’t needed in Washington.
This past evening I joined a lot of Obama supporters at a neighbor's for a debate party. Obama was able to trigger McCain’s anger. America saw how volatile he really is. Obama was in his comfort zone that of a diplomat. We need to connect with all the World Leaders which I feel confident Obama will shine . We Americans are on to the mind games that the Bush Regime has attempted to weave Us into their web. Bush the spider, is no different than the German's Symbol in WWII. GREED ,GREED, GREED is the most common denominator

Torture is un-American

The case against torture of war prisoners that Congress and many of the American public have backed can be easily disproved by the experience of one of our own candidates for President John McCain. He was tortured by the North Vietnamese and forced to confess to being a war criminal and signed a document to that affect when he was a prisoner of war. He lied, of course, to stop the torture. That's the kind of false information we also get and will continue to get by using torturous methods. It's just simply un- American. signed Dick Flor , retired cartoonist

Charges Against Journalists at RNC Dropped; Questions Remain

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: September 19, 2008
Contact: Jen Howard, Free Press, (202) 265-1490, x22 or (703) 517-6273

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Local authorities in St. Paul announced today that they will not prosecute journalists who were arrested on misdemeanor charges during the Republican National Convention earlier this month.

"This is an important first step, but many questions remain," said Nancy Doyle Brown from Twin Cities Media Alliance. "We still need answers about why and how journalists got swept up in these arrests in the first place. And more than anything else, we need to ensure that this never happens again. We’ll never know how many important stories never got told because their authors were behind bars, not in the streets."

Nearly two dozen reporters were arrested during the four-day event, including Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two of her producers, Associated Press reporters, student journalists, and local TV photographers, among others. Other journalists were pepper-sprayed, and reporters with I-Witness were held at gunpoint during a "pre-emptive" police raid aimed at disrupting protesters. The press release from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's office noted that the city's attorney will use a "broad definition and verification to identify journalists who were caught up in mass arrests during the convention."

"We’re pleased that the St. Paul authorities ultimately acted to uphold the rights of all journalists -- including those citizens using blogs, cheap cameras and cell phones to report news as it happens," said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, the national media reform organization. "Our task now is to ensure that our press remains free to report on the events, issues and stories that matter to our country, our communities, and our democracy."

Less than three days after the initial arrests, more than 60,000 people across the country signed on to a letter from Free Press, demanding that Mayor Coleman and local authorities immediately "free all detained journalists and drop all charges against them." These letters were delivered to St. Paul City Hall the day after the convention following a press conference that included local citizens and many of the journalists who had been arrested earlier in the week.

"The news from St. Paul City Hall is certainly welcome regarding the decision to drop charges against journalists who were arrested and cited during the RNC," said Mike Bucsko, executive officer of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild Typographical Union, who spoke at the press conference. "However, it is essential the elected officials in St. Paul and Ramsey County examine the circumstances that led to the needless detention and harassment of journalists to ensure this type of indiscriminate behavior on the part of law enforcement does not happen again."

Local advocates and independent journalists from KFAI Community Radio, National Lawyers Guild, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Twin Cities IndyMedia, Twin Cities Media Alliance and The Uptake were joined by national groups the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Newspaper Guild, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Writers Guild of America, East, in condemning the unusually harsh treatment by city authorities.

Watch the press conference: http://qik.com/video/270176

McCain in another uproar

McCain in uproar with the greed and careless captains of Wall Street. Fire chairman of the SEC says John. But John why didn't you do this when all this was happening on your watch in the Senate? This is ex post facto, John you are a has been. Recommendation you and Sarah get Cheney's gun and go shoot wolves from the State of Alaska's Helicopter.This would be a good TV spot for the NRA. Bring a case or two of Budweiser it will help improve your aim.

At last, somebody takes off the gloves

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight....


* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you're the quintessential American story.


* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* Name your kids Bristol, Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.


* Graduate from Harvard Law School, and you are unstable.
* Attend five different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.


* If you spend three years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend eight years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend four years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is local weather girl, four years on the city council and six years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.


* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.


* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.


* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If your husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DUI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.


--- OK, much clearer now!

War on Terror

Dear Tim,

I was only 14 years old when I read an article in The New York Times about the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Reading about these horrible things happening in an American-run prison made me feel sick and disgusted. Weeks passed and I couldn't get that story out of my head. Eventually, I realized it was too important to ignore and decided to do something about it.

My name is Brian Glasscock, and I've been a member of Amnesty International for 4 years now. I've just begun my senior year in high school in Walnut Creek, California, but in my free time I also volunteer in Amnesty's Bay Area office—working to build support for their life-saving work with more young activists like me.

Please stand with me by joining Amnesty International today. When you become a member, you'll be helping to end illegal detention at Guantánamo prison, halt the abuses in Darfur and protect human rights in so many other parts of the world. And best of all, if you give this month a generous Amnesty donor (with deeper pockets than me) will match your gift!

By joining Amnesty International, you and I can make a difference everywhere people are still being jailed, beaten, and even killed for attempting to defend their human rights.

Volunteering with Amnesty International has opened up a whole new world for me—and has inspired my parents to get involved, too. And though I'm still unable to comprehend how human beings can commit such horrible acts of violence against each other, I know that if citizen activists like you and me can make enough noise, we can convince our government to do what is right.

Will you help put an end to our government's frightening involvement in torture and abuses in the "war on terror" by joining Amnesty International today?

This may be one of the most important battles Amnesty has taken on—and we can't do it without your support.

Sincerely,
Brian Glasscock
Amnesty International member since 2004

McCain's Health Records

Dear Tim,

The state of John McCain's health is an issue of grave concern for all Americans, regardless of political persuasion. Given the fact that he has been treated for an invasive melanoma and other maladies, it is important that he release his full health records.

For a very brief three hours in May, McCain released 1,173 pages of his medical records to a carefully selected group of reporters. They were not allowed to make any copies or phone calls. Why such secrecy?

We have enlisted a group of doctors from around the country to lead the effort to make sure the public is able to see and make judgments for themselves. Secrecy is not of service to our democracy, transparency is. Please have other doctors sign the open letter.

Watch the video and sign the open letter.

Cancer is a serious issue. That's why 30 medical doctors have already signed our open letter telling McCain to issue a full, public disclosure of all his medical records. Send this video far and wide to request that McCain release his full health records. Ask every medical doctor you know to sign onto the letter, and don't forget to sign the letter yourself! McCain's records must be made public and soon.

While McCain doesn't really care about our health care, we all should care about the health of McCain.

Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and everyone at Brave New Films

Journalists detained/arrested:

Tom Aviles, WCCO photojournalist
Charlie B, MTV Think blogger (full last name unknown)
Anita Braithwaite, New York-based Glass Bead Collective
Wendy Binion, Portland IndyMedia
Geraldine Cahill, The Real News
Eileen Clancy, I-Witness Video, a New York-based media collective
Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent
Amy Forliti, Associated Press reporter
Ben Garvin, Pioneer Press photographer
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! host
Art Hughes, Public News Service
Suzanne Hughes, The Uptake, volunteer coordinator
Ted Johnson, Variety managing editor
Olivia Katz, Glass Bead Collective
Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! producer
Alice Kalthoff, MyFoxdfw.com editor
Jon Krawczynski, Associated Press reporter
Joseph La Sac, Pepperspray Productions journalist
Ed Matthews, University of Kentucky photojournalism student
Jonathan Malat, KARE-11 photojournalist
Stephen Maturen, Minnesota Daily assistant picture editor
Britney McIntosh, University of Kentucky photojournalism student
Matt Nelson, University of Iowa student
Jason Nicholas, New York Post freelance photographer
Mark Ovaska, Rochester freelance photographer
Elizabeth Press, Democracy Now!
Matt Rourke, Associated Press photographer
Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet
Lambert Rochfort, Pepperspray Productions journalist
Seth Rowe, Sun Newspapers, St. Louis Park community editor
Jeff Schorfheide, Madison, Wis. Badger-Herald photographer
Mark Skinner, University of Nevada Las Vegas Rebel Yell reporter
Ania Smolenskaia, The Real News
Matt Snyders, City Pages
Nicole Salazar, Democracy Now! producer
Vlad Teichberg, New York-based Glass Bead Collective
Dean Treftz, U-Wire, national college news service
Nathan Weber, photographer, Chicago-area freelancer
Tony Webster, Twin Cities independent media professional
Jim Winn, University of Kentucky journalism adviser
John P. Wise, MyFox national editor
Dawn Zuppelli, Rochester IndyMedia

Minnesota ACLU Takes Legal Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: (212) 549-2666; media@aclu.org

ST. PAUL - In response to reports of widespread civil liberties abuses in connection with mass arrests, police raids on private homes and the detention of several journalists during the Republican National Convention (RNC), the American Civil Liberties Union renewed its call for an investigation into the actions of law enforcement there.

"Attempts by law enforcement to squelch lawful political speech and stifle the press have no place in our democracy and are unacceptable," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "Political conventions should be a showcase for free expression, not a venue for bullying and intimidation."
The ACLU specifically called for an investigation into possible violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, including:

• the arrest of reporters trying to gather the news;
  Publish Post
• the mass arrest of hundreds of peaceful protesters;
• the surveillance and subsequent raids on several activist groups and private homes; and
• the confiscation by law enforcement agents of constitutionally-protected private property.

The ACLU affiliate office in Minnesota has assembled legal counsel for many of the reporters and peaceful protestors arrested since Monday. The ACLU of Minnesota has also filed a lawsuit in federal court calling for the release of boxes of literature that were confiscated during Monday's raids.

Hottest places in Hell

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crisis maintain their neutrality. Dante, Italian poet 1265-1321 http://web.eku.edu/flash/inferno/

The Lady Flies On Stage in a Cloud of Smoke

About 12 days ago the Republican Party discovered women.

This put the Grand Old Party approximately 100 years behind the learning curve of most of the recognizable institutions in America, but in time for their national political convention in St. Paul.

Until then Republican Party’s leadership gave women a public significance that pretty much began and ended with the story of Eve and the apple.

But this is 2008, boys, the GOP potentates in charge of John McCain warned. There is trouble. Right now in this here election. The country is a basket case and we’re responsible. We’re laying off thousands of workers every day and tinkering with another war in the Middle East and our candidate for president seems to be thrilled by that idea. We need something to take the voters’ minds and the TV cameras off our candidate and the mess we've made from ocean to ocean.

“What about a woman to save us, like Joan of Arc?” somebody said. And the response was electric. “That’s it. We, the party of George Bush, Tom Delay and Dick Cheney, need something to distract the voters. We need to do this in the honored tradition of Willie Horton, the stolen election in Florida and our Swift Boat predators of 2004.

So Sarah Palin flew in or, if you want to accept the growing mythology, swept in from Alaska on her Zamboni.

And here we are. The polls show John McCain inching ahead of Barack Obama. The explanation of the pollsters is the new energy Sarah Palin has pumped into McCain’s once-wheezing campaign.

It would be foolish to deny it. She is advertised as a hockey mom, an unswerving anti-abortionist, a woman of great faith whose pastor believes God led us into Iraq, the heroine of the Bridge to Nowhere saga and the Hillary Clinton of the Klondike.

And this is only the second week.

For all of her qualities, the attractive ones and the invented ones, she was brought into the campaign carrying one primary identity. She was going to be a distraction from the economic and political chaos and ruin the Republicans have created in the eight years of the Bush government.

And she is suddenly the principle player in the smoke and mirror strategy that was the one hope of the demoralized Republican cadres looking at an almost certain defeat.

Now, we are told by the pollsters, they are not.

The irony in this is that if they’re right, and the Republicans can pull this out amid the growing befuddlement of the American public, the country will be putting the keys to power back into the hands of the same invisible manipulators who have been running it into the ground for eight years, victimizing millions of powerless people and driving the richest country in the world to the edge of bankruptcy.. In other words, the Republicans want voters to re-elect the agents of their misery.

Nothing in the White House is essentially going to change, of course, if that happens. It may worsen.With McCain fumbling in the White House while reminding us daily of his biography, the Pentagon’s favorites will still hog the money. The financial industry, whose greed plunged millions of people into de facto poverty and out of their homes, will continue basically unregulated. A Democratic Congress can act, but today it needs 60 votes to pass anything of substance and you can usually subtract Joe Lieberman.

None of this has to happen if the American public looks seriously at the spreading ugliness of the country’s condition today. The government bureaus are filled with hacks whose primary condition of employment is to undermine the regulatory powers they were supposed to enforce. So the mortgage and credit card industries went wild and turned customers into paupers. Profiteers raided the people’s treasury. Failing financials and businesses demanded a bailout by the taxpayers. Shameless tax cuts to millionaires and endless war have shredded the schools’ ability to compete with the rising powers of China and India in the technical skills not only of the future but in the here and now.

The same behind- the-scenes operators who ran the government under George Bush will be back in a McCain White House, one likely to be even more inept and clueless. So essentially it will be guided by the same ventriloquists who will do most of the governing. The victims will be the same—the uninsured, the unemployed, the fading middle and working classes, and the faith all of those people put in the hands of a government once dedicated to the common good. There is a reason why American veterans, who fought to preserve that ideal or were put in harm’s way needlessly, are looking increasingly to Obama to bring the country back to its senses.

That is the case that has to be made to the American public in the next seven weeks. If it isn’t, by the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party, on television and in the flesh, the strategy of smoke and mirrors will work one more time.

The good news: There are seven weeks left. The endgame—and its consequences for the country-- shouldn’t be that hard for the voters to see through the smoke.

Keep your lenses clear. It will get thicker.

By Jim Klobuchar

c Jim Klobuchar

Seven years later

If you look closely at the picture , you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That's because they're praying. This incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. 'These are federal employees,' says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU , 'on federal property and on federal time. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately.' When asked about the ACLU's charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), 'Screw the ACLU.' GOD Bless Our Warriors, Send the ACLU to France May God Bless America , One Nation Under GOD! What's wrong with the picture? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Wrong place, wrong time, wrong lessons from the RNC

Olivier Douliery, Abaca Press

Colin Dunn, right, a trained EMT and an Air Force veteran, was one of five medics arrested Sept. 1 in St. Paul. Also in his group: two legal observers and two protesters.

SUNDAY MORNING FUNNYS

"Are you kidding me, the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska? Yeah, that's who you want in the White House during a time of crisis. When she got a phone call at 3 in the morning, it was because a moose had gotten in the garbage can." -Bill Maher
"There was some breaking news out of Dayton, Ohio today, where Republican presidential candidate John McCain introduced the world to his third wife." -Jon Stewart
"Actually, it was kind of a smart choice. McCain went with a woman because he didn't want to have to be in a position to have to get CPR from Mitt Romney." -Jay Leno
"Palin and McCain are a good pair. She's pro-life and he's clinging to life." -Jay Leno

"In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." - Mark Twain

Patriots can't stay home

OPINION

Published August 18, 2008

I finally figured out what that old Simon and Garfunkel song meant by warning about the "Sounds of Silence." It doesn't take much to chill people from exercising their First Amendment rights. Just look at the lead-up to the RNC in St. Paul, which has unfortunately been characterized by misinformation, not so much by police or city authorities, but by right-wing talk radio, anonymous sources and the rumor mill.

What kind of a democracy is this if we let citizens become unnecessarily intimidated about being tasered, pepper-sprayed, infiltrated, spied on or photographed by cameras installed on public streets?

We can prove the talk wrong and counter this threat to participatory democracy by simply showing up in great numbers for all the marches, rallies, concerts and artistic, "unconventional" expressions during this time of national focus. Martin Luther King was certainly right that there are times when silence is complicity. Therefore patriots cannot stay home and keep quiet.

Coleen Rowley, Apple Valley

60,000 Letters Demanding St. Paul Drop Charges Against Journalists

September 5, 2008

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Nancy Doyle Brown, Twin Cities Media Alliance, (612) 374-9380
Jen Howard, Free Press, (202) 265-1490, x22 or (703) 517-6273
TODAY: Delivery of 60,000 Letters Demanding St. Paul Drop Charges Against Journalists

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- This morning, local advocates and independent journalists will deliver 60,000 letters to St. Paul City Hall calling on Mayor Chris Coleman and local law enforcement officials to drop all charges against journalists arrested while covering protests outside the Republican National Convention.

WHAT: Delivery of 60,000 letters demanding charges against journalists be dropped
WHEN: TODAY: Sept. 5, 10 a.m. CT
WHERE: St. Paul City Hall, 15 Kellogg Blvd.
WHO: Local advocates and independent journalists from KFAI Community Radio, National Lawyers Guild, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Twin Cities IndyMedia, Twin Cities Media Alliance and The Uptake.

On Monday, local law enforcement officials arrested Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two producers from her show, Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke and several independent videographers while they were covering protests outside the Republican National Convention. On Thursday night, another two Associated Press reporters, Amy Forliti and Jon Krawczynski, MyFox journalists John Wise and Alice Kalthoff, WCCO-TV photojournalist Tom Aviles, KARE-11 TV photojournalist Jonathan Malat and more than a dozen other journalists were arrested.

"The targeting and harassment of journalists that we've seen during the RNC sends the message that the Twin Cities don't value the essential role that journalists play in a democracy," said Nancy Doyle Brown of Twin Cities Media Alliance. "From the pre-convention raids to the ongoing harassment and arrests of journalists, these have been dark days for press freedom in the United States. We're bringing Mayor Coleman 60,000 letters from people across the nation demanding that all charges pending against these journalists be dropped."

Following Monday's arrests, Free Press, the national media reform organization, circulated a sign-on letter demanding that Mayor Coleman and local authorities immediately "free all detained journalists and drop all charges against them" -- garnering 60,000 signatures nationwide in less than three days. Their call has been echoed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Newspaper Guild, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Writers Guild of America, East.

Watch the video of Goodman's arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Watch other journalists being arrested, as recorded by The UpTake: http://theuptake.org/

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Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications. Learn more at www.freepress.net

St. Paul in Hot Seat

St. Paul in the Hot Seat over Journalist Arrests

Journalists and St. Paul citizens assembled outside St. Paul City Hall today to deliver more than 60,000 letters to Mayor Chris Coleman and prosecuting attorneys demanding that they immediately drop charges against all journalists arrested this week as they covered the Republican National Convention.

Watch the press conference: http://qik.com/video/270176

By Friday morning, dozens of journalists, photographers, bloggers and videomakers had been booked by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office in what appears to have been an orchestrated round-up of media makers covering protests during the convention.

"From the pre-convention raids to the ongoing harassment and arrests of journalists, these have been dark days for press freedom in the United States," said Nancy Doyle Brown of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, who delivered the letters on behalf of the nonpartisan media reform group Free Press.

She was joined by a crowd of local activists and journalists, including Amy Goodman and Nicole Salazar of Democracy Now!, KFAI-FM radio host Andy Driscoll and Mike Bucsko, executive director of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild.

"Tragically, there are stories that the world needed to hear this week that will never be told," Brown said. "They won't be told because reporters working on them were sitting in the back of squad cars, were stripped of their cameras, or were face down on the pavement with their hands cuffed behind their backs."

On Thursday, the final night of the convention, it appears that authorities ratcheted up their attacks on both protesters and credentialed journalists, lobbing tear gas and percussion grenades into crowds and arresting student journalists, local TV photographers, Associated Press reporters and two MyFox journalists, among others.

Other independent journalists have also been pepper-sprayed, and reporters with I-Witness were held at gunpoint during a "pre-emptive" raid aimed at disrupting protesters last weekend.

Mayor Chris Coleman has refused to reply to Free Press' repeated calls and e-mails asking for his response to allegations that journalists were specifically targeted by authorities.

Watch the letter delivery: http://qik.com/video/270383

A crowd of journalists -- many of whom were arrested earlier in the week -- entered City Hall and delivered the letters into the hands of St. Paul Deputy Mayor Ann Mulholland and City Attorney John Choi, who briefly told them that the legal system will sort out their concerns.

The mayor and public officials "need to do a post-mortem to examine the circumstances of these arrests," said Bucsko, who represents reporters at the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "I hate to think that journalists were being targeted," adding that it appeared that "there was discrimination based upon their jobs."

The signatures were collected in less than 72 hours as people nationwide expressed their outrage over St. Paul's attempts to stifle the many independent journalists documenting events surrounding the tightly scripted spectacle in the city's Xcel Center.

Groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Newspaper Guild, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Writers Guild of America, East, have also sounded the alarm over the unusually harsh treatment by city authorities.

"The city of St. Paul has a black eye right now, and I must say that Paul Wellstone would be rolling in his grave," said Denis Moynihan of Free Speech TV, who spoke outside City Hall today. "Mayor Coleman must salvage the damaged reputation of the state and the city by dropping charges against all journalists immediately."

Read the Free Press blog post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/st-paul-authorities-get-t_b_124293.html

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Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications. Learn more at www.freepress.net

St. Paul

Demands St. Paul Drop Charges

TODAY: Delivery of 60,000 Letters Demanding St. Paul Drop Charges Against Journalists

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- This morning, local advocates and independent journalists will deliver 60,000 letters to St. Paul City Hall calling on Mayor Chris Coleman and local law enforcement officials to drop all charges against journalists arrested while covering protests outside the Republican National Convention.

WHAT: Delivery of 60,000 letters demanding charges against journalists be dropped
WHEN: TODAY: Sept. 5, 10 a.m. CT
WHERE: St. Paul City Hall, 15 Kellogg Blvd.
WHO: Local advocates and independent journalists from KFAI Community Radio, National Lawyers Guild, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Twin Cities IndyMedia, Twin Cities Media Alliance and The Uptake.

On Monday, local law enforcement officials arrested Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two producers from her show, Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke and several independent videographers while they were covering protests outside the Republican National Convention. On Thursday night, another two Associated Press reporters, Amy Forliti and Jon Krawczynski, MyFox journalists John Wise and Alice Kalthoff, WCCO-TV photojournalist Tom Aviles, KARE-11 TV photojournalist Jonathan Malat and more than a dozen other journalists were arrested.

"The targeting and harassment of journalists that we've seen during the RNC sends the message that the Twin Cities don't value the essential role that journalists play in a democracy," said Nancy Doyle Brown of Twin Cities Media Alliance. "From the pre-convention raids to the ongoing harassment and arrests of journalists, these have been dark days for press freedom in the United States. We're bringing Mayor Coleman 60,000 letters from people across the nation demanding that all charges pending against these journalists be dropped."

Following Monday's arrests, Free Press, the national media reform organization, circulated a sign-on letter demanding that Mayor Coleman and local authorities immediately "free all detained journalists and drop all charges against them" -- garnering 60,000 signatures nationwide in less than three days. Their call has been echoed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Newspaper Guild, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Writers Guild of America, East.

Watch the video of Goodman's arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Watch other journalists being arrested, as recorded by The UpTake: http://theuptake.org/

###

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications. Learn more at www.freepress.net

After math of the RNC

September 5, 2008

Dear Tim,

On Thursday night, as John McCain made his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, two CODEPINK women-Liz Hourican and Nancy Mancias-interrupted his speech by calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq. The previous evening, CODEPINK co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans were dragged from the Republican National Convention after disrupting Sarah Palin's speech.

Both CODEPINK teams were shocked by the magnitude of sheer, raw, hatred channeled in their direction. Even before they stood up to say "Palin is Not a Woman's Choice", they felt great animosity emanating from the hall; they felt it in the delegates' chanting of "Drill, Baby Drill" from the floor, and in the vicious rhetoric of the speeches on stage. And of course all of us in St. Paul felt the threat of brutality on the streets as we faced row upon row of police in full riot gear and watched police raid non-violent peace gatherings. Four CODEPINKers were arrested at the RNC, as were hundreds of other protestors, many of whom are still in custody (or whose belongings have not been returned upon release.)

You can provide solidarity and support for those arrested by contacting the Mayor of Minneapolis, R.T. Rybak, by phone (612-673-2100) or email (c/o helen.simrill@ci.minneoplis.mnuf) and the Mayor of St. Paul, Chris Coleman (651-266-8510) to demand the release of detained protestors and their belongings, and the dismissal of all charges against peaceful protesters. Your calls and emails will help keep the voice of protest alive.

The Republican Party may tout itself as "Pro-Life", but it clearly promotes violence against both people and nature. How can you call yourself Pro-Life when you destroy our natural resources and send our children off to die in an unjust, illegal war? How can you speak about being Pro-Life when a US-led air strike killed dozens of innocent children in Afghanistan this week?

Our Pro-Life parade in St. Paul was a beautiful demonstration of how we can only truly call ourselves pro-life when we work to protect our planet, promote peace, and make sure everyone has access to good health care, education, and other basic human needs (including reproductive choice!)

All over the RNC, we worked to reclaim the phrase "pro-life" and bring our message of peace--Medea Benjamin even disrupted a Phyllis Schlafly "Life of the Party" talk with a sign reading "Be Pro-Life--Stop War!" To see CODEPINK in action at the RNC, be sure to visit our Flickr page and read our blogs at our brand new Pink Tank.

With love for life on this gorgeous planet,
Alicia, Anne, Dana, Deidra, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jean, Jodie, Liz, Lori, Medea, Nancy, Rae and Tighe

p.s. Sarah Palin may deride grassroots action, but we know that change can only come when the people of the country band together to demand it. Let's use the occasion of this election to grow our activist community--join us to knock on One Million Doors this September 20th. We have less than three weeks-we need your energy now!

Free Press

Dear Tim,

Reports of journalists, bloggers and videomakers being arrested keep rolling in. The St. Paul police department's targeting of journalists, including Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and the I-Witness videomakers, is having a chilling effect on free speech as the city hosts the Republican National Convention.

Many in the mainstream media are ignoring these attacks on journalism -- and some independent media makers are still in jail. But in less than 24 hours, more than 35,000 people have signed our letter demanding that press intimidation cease immediately and that all charges against journalists be dropped.

This is an incredible response. Help deliver the message that a free press will not be intimidated!

Help Us Reach 50,000 Letters: Take Action Now

Thanks,

Josh

What the McCain campaign is really about. Minnesota

"These raids are clearly motivated by politics, not by public safety."
--Minneapolis City Council member Gary Schiff

Folks, think about it, and be ashamed: The Republicans felt they needed
to hide behind FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS of police-state "security" while
nominating John McCain to run for President of the United States. (This
is not to say Democrats are innocent. Reportedly, at the Democratic
National Convention an "ABC reporter [was] grabbed by the throat and
hauled off in handcuffs for covering a meeting of Democrat fat cat donors
and politicians.")

A key point, it seems to me, is to hold McCain responsible for these
abuses. This is his convention.

Of course, those officials who sought to bring the RNC to St. Paul surely
agreed in advance to these progressive measures. They, also, need to be
held responsible.

RNC Update show solidarity

Dear Tim,

Although the majority of CODEPINK actions at the RNC have ended without arrest, yesterday's mass actions, tear gassing, and "impact rounds" saw CODEPINK organizer and University of Central Florida student Kathryn Milholland detained alongside nearly 300 other activists in St. Paul MN. Also last night, approximately 170 riot police and 30 mounted officers surrounded and threatened ten CODEPINK activists with arrest and physical violence. Read the full story on our blog at http://codepinkalert.org/blog/

We are urging supporters to show solidarity by calling the jail at 651.266.9350 and demand that all detainees be given proper medical attention, access to their medication, and are not separated from the larger group! Also, demand that arrestees' charges are dropped and that they are released immediately! You can also call the Ramsey County Sheriff's office at 651.487.5149 or the St. Paul Mayor's office at 651.266.8510, as well your city council member, state representatives, etc. Cold Snap Legal Collective has more information here: http://coldsnaplegal.wordpress.com/

Free Press Calls for Charges to Be Dropped Against Amy Goodman, Independent Journalists

WASHINGTON -- Today Free Press, the national, nonpartisan media reform group, called on St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and local law enforcement officials to drop all charges against all journalists arrested while covering protests outside the Republican National Convention. Those arrested Monday include Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two producers from her show, as well as a photographer from the Associated Press. Other independent journalists have been pepper-sprayed and even held at gunpoint during "pre-emptive" raids aimed at disrupting protesters. This follows the arrest of an ABC News producer at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, made the following statement:
"We condemn the arrest and harassment of journalists before and during the Republican National Convention. We call on the mayor, district attorney and police chief to rein in the overly aggressive -- and even violent -- tactics of law enforcement. Arresting and detaining journalists for doing their jobs is a gross violation of free speech and freedom of the press. We call for the immediate release of any journalists being held in the Twin Cities and for all charges to be dropped immediately. Reporting by independent journalists is the only way for the American public to learn the full story, and they must be free to do their jobs without intimidation."