Oct. 21: Katrina Benefit and Justice Fair

(Photo: Bay to Gulf People's Pipeline)

Oct. 21: Katrina Benefit & Justice Fair; Concierto y Festival de Justicia para Katrina You're Invited!


SHOUT OUT DOWN SOUTH!

Oct. 21,
Justice Fair & food start at 6pm,
concert from 8-11pm

Riverside Church main sanctuary,
122nd & Claremont
contacts: Taleigh Smith, 646-245-9931, katrina@nycispes.org, Arelis
Figeroa, 646-258-0985, arelismelania@hotmail.com

Solidarity Donation between $10 - $50

THE ARTISTS...

Welfare Poets:
The Welfare Poets are a collective of activists, educators, and artists together since 1990. Through teaching residencies and workshops, through activism around community struggles and through sharp-edged performances of music that incorporates Hip Hop, Bomba y Plena, Latin Jazz and other rhythms, the Welfare Poets bring information and inspiration to those facing oppression and those fighting for liberation.

Pa'lo Monte:
Pa' Lo Monte is a musical ensemble that performs the traditional rhythms and melodies of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We are keeping alive the musical styles of palo, salve, gag•, congo and sarandunga, rhythms that have been passed down to us from our ancestors. We honor and celebrate the history and culture of resistance of our ancestors against the horrors of slavery, a history of colonial oppression, and the current domination of the Dominican Republic and Haiti by wealthy Northern countries.

& Arelis Figeroa & Juaquim Maria, Paul Hernandez, Guillermo Cardenas & possibly others

Proceeds will be sent south & distributed through:
the Pastors for Peace caravan, the Common Ground Relief Collective, the
People's Hurricane Relief Network & the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement regional offices

Sponsoring organizations:
NY CISPES:
Riverside Church Latino Ministry
IFCO/Pastors for Peace:
NY Friendshipment Committee (local volunteers supporting IFCO work)
NY Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, NYC:


 

Oct. 7: Songs Against the Wall benefit

(An artist paints a red handprint at the mural near the checkpoint at northern Bethlehem. The artists were stopped by private security agents of the wall's construction company near the checkpoint in Bethlehem and later by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF).(Omar Tesdell/The International Center of Bethlehem (ICB))

Oct. 7, 8-11 PM

SONGS AGAINST THE WALL (a Three Cities (Ramallah, Tel Aviv, New York) Against the Wall Benefit)

ABC No Rio
156 Rivington St.
(between Clinton and Sufolk) LES, NYC
(212) 254-3697
Sliding Scale $7-$20

with Music by:

Jeff Lewis and The Ropes
NYC anti-folk musician

Rebecca Moore
NYC vocalist/violinist

Barry Bliss
NYC anti-folk musician

along with Multi Media by:

Seth Tobocman
NYC political comix artist
(with Steve Wishnia and Eric Blitz)...

Mushon Shual
Israeli digital artist


 

Oct. 5: Wednesdays Against War series

(by John Brown News From Babylon [US]Sept. 25, 2005)

One of the questions that has been troubling me is: What are the limitations of building a movement for social change around ending a war? All wars end. Then what? The War in Vietnam, which we fought against so successfully, ended. Then what happened? If that question weren't relevant today, we wouldn't be marching against a war in Iraq. We wouldn't once again be crying, "Bring the troops home."
It seems to me that the organizers of the Brecht Forum, as they often do, are asking the right questions and providing a space to begin to answer them.
Dan

At least 102,000 dead in Iraq
At most 500,000 marched in DC
Are we doing enough?
What next?

Oct. 5, 7.30 pm

WEDNESDAYS AGAINST WAR

BRECHT FORUM
451 West Street
(that's the West Side Highway) between Bank & Bethune Streets
(A, C, E or L to 14th St. & 8th Ave. Walk down 8th Ave. to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left 1, 2, 3 or 9 to 14th St. & 7th Ave. Get off at south end of station, walk west on 12th St. to 8th Ave. Left to Bethune, turn right, walk west to the River, turn left.)

After the March: A Reflection Space for the Anti-War Movement This event will be a town-hall meeting, a space in which members of the audience will be able to carry on a discussion with a panel of activists involved in organizing events related to the Sept. 24-26 weekend in Washington DC, as well as organizers from other efforts such as the anti-militarist, anti-racist, anti-globalization, and Palestine solidarity movements. It is intended to be a space for reflection --the kind of space normally unavailable to the anti-war movement at mass rallies and mobilizations to discuss the issues that come up in organizing events such as the DC mobilization, including questions regarding "leadership," decision-making, and accountability in the movement.

Come join us this Wednesday,
Invited panelists from: ANSWER, Blue Triangle Network, Campus Anti-War Network, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Palestine Activist Forum of New York, The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, St. Patricks Four, Troops Out Now Coalition, United for Peace and Justice, World Cant Wait, and Others.

We cant get no satisfaction going from one anti-war mass rally to the next, building momentary alliances that rarely go beyond a solidarity of one-liner banners and slogans, leaving much untouched, undiscussed, and in need of debate! As much as we appreciate the immense efforts spent towards building spaces where we celebrate our numbers, we feel with despair the lack of spaces for substantial political discussion among anti-war activists and around anti-war actions.

The questions are grave and call for a series of collective in-depth conversations between activists as diverse as the anti-war movement itself: What is the nature of the Iraqi resistance and how do we build solidarity with the resistance given the dilemmas and rightful hesitations around the issue? What are the implications and limitations of building an anti-war mobilization around military families?

What is it that were missing when we take "Bring the Troops Home" as our common slogan, the one most easily spelled out and most widely heard?
What is the nature of the economic colonization currently at work in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and how do we begin to address it and continue to resist it even after the troops are out?
How do we engage with the "we broke it, we bought it" tendency among many who want U.S. troops out of Iraq but feel that they are somehow necessary to prevent chaos? Why have we forgotten Afghanistan? How do we bring Guantanamo home? What are the possible areas of convergence, interdependence and mutual influence between the anti-war and the anti-capitalist movements?

The Wednesdays Against War series at the Brecht Forum is an initial attempt at building such a conversation. We have a lot to learn from one another, thus the events are planned as roundtable discussions, town-hall meetings and intensive workshops.
Invited guests include but are not limited to: Diana Dolev, Antonia Juhasz, Lisa Lynch, Barbara Olshansky, Anthony Arnove, Rahul Mahajan, Sinan Antoon, Eve Ensler, Dahr Jamail, Yanar Mohammad, Adam Shapiro, David Graeber, Herbert Docena, Baher Azmy, Asli Bali, and Mahmood Mamdani.

Karen Hughes: Another incompetent Bush appointment?

Under Secretary of State Karen P. Hughes Wednesday in Istanbul.
(Osman Orsal/Associated Press)

Turkish Women, Too, Have Words With U.S. Envoy (on Iraq War)

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN
(Published: Sept. 29, 2005)

ISTANBUL, Sept. 28 - Under Secretary of State Karen P. Hughes, seeking common ground with leading women's rights advocates in Turkey , was confronted instead on Wednesday with anguished denunciations of the war in Iraq and what the women said were American efforts to export democracy by force.
It was the second day in a row that Ms. Hughes found herself at odds with groups of women on her "public diplomacy" tour, aimed at improving the American image in the Middle East. On Tuesday, she told Saudi Arabian women she would support efforts to raise their status but was taken aback when some of them responded that Americans misunderstand their embrace of traditions.

(For complete article)

 

George W. Bush: Liar, liar, pants on fire

The lies, both big (WMDs) and small (whose banner was it anyway?) just keep going on and on and on.
A "Mission Accomplished" banner graced the island of the carrier Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003. In a speech to the ship's crew, President Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq.
At an October, 2003 press conference, Bush said his staff had nothing to do with the "Mission Accomplished" banner. Later in the day, the Navy acknowledged the banner had been printed by the White House.
(photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP)

 

Gen. Meyers toadies up to Bush and the boys

(Bush lands on the U.S.S. Lincoln, May 2, 2003 to announce "Mission Accomplished")

I think this article from The Smirking Chimp is well worth reading:

General Richard Myers: Bush toady, shameful liar

By Richard A. Stitt:

"The outcome and consequences of defeat in Iraq are greater than World War II."
-- Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

Myers is no different from most of the top Pentagon brass and career political hacks who make up Bush's coterie of obedient sycophants. He's just another lap dog for the Bush pro war mob and has no concern for the enlisted grunts who are dying in Iraq for a failed Bush war policy and for which there is no good solution or exit.

It is far too late to take the advice given to Bush and Rumsfeld by General Eric Shinseki prior to the preemptive bombing of Iraq. General Shinseki said then that we would need between 300,000 and 500,000 troops on the ground to put down any resistance and restore Iraq's infrastructure.

For offering his honest, professional evaluation of the needed troop strength, General Shinseki was forced to retire shortly after giving his congressional testimony and assessment of what it would take to secure the peace in Iraq and minimize both Iraqi civilian and U.S. military casualties.

Myers's comparison of Iraq with World War II is an insult to the over 400,000 U.S. military who died in that war, a war that was fought against powerful and formidable foes, Germany and Japan.



First, unlike Iraq, neither Germany or Japan was divided into thirds by a No Fly zone imposed by the U.S. and Britain for a twelve-year period preceding Bush's preemptive war which was based on the lie that Iraq possessed WMD and the equally false claim that Iraq had direct ties to the al Qaeda airline hijacker bombers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Second, the United Nations imposed severe economic sanctions against Iraq for that same twelve-year period. During those twelve years thousands of children died due to malnutrition and neglect, partly because of graft and corruption by corporations and countries which exploited the oil for food program. One such company was Bay Oil, a Houston-based oil company in Republican Congressman Tom DeLay's district and one of his largest political campaign contributors.

Third, Germany and Japan, unlike Iraq, had powerful air forces, submarine and naval armadas, well trained, well equipped and well-disciplined armies. It took the United States and our allies three years to achieve military parity before the war turned in our favor. Iraq had no navy, didn't launch a single missile as they did in the Gulf War, didn't put up a single aircraft fighter and had a ragtag, undisciplined, untrained, under equipped army, most of which simply retreated into the civilian population once Bush's "shock and awe" laser-guided missiles and bombs rained down on the Iraqi people, killing and maiming over 100,000 men, women and children.

The comparison between World War II and Iraq is just another one of the endless lies and myths perpetrated by a dysfunctional, failed, out-of-control group of war hawks whose fantasies for altering the entire Middle East have evaporated as quickly as the budget surplus bequeathed to Bush before he occupied the Oval Office.

Now, faced with gargantuan deficits as far as the eye can see, an endless war in Iraq with no clear exit strategy (since they had no clear entrance strategy to begin with), they are frantically spinning their lies, trying once again to reestablish the glory days of the Bush 9/11 media moment when he stood on the pile of rubble where once stood the twin towers of the World Trade Center, bullhorn in one hand, arm around a firefighter, exploiting a tragedy for political capital and personal vainglory. No matter to remind the media that Bush was nowhere to be seen for three days after the 9/11 attacks. But they are the ones who constructed the visual image to begin with in compliance with the well-scripted, Karl Rove-orchestrated made-for-media photo opportunity.

As for General Richard Myers, like all the giddy generals who euphorically thirst for war because it is their catalyst for quick promotions and their ticket to lucrative lifetime retirements, all courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers, he will assume the usual reward and revolving door top brass position on a corporate board. As a typical Bush Bootlicker and loyalist he will use his influence to guarantee no-bid defense contracts for the political cronies and K Street lobbyists who helped advance his career by continuing to propagate what Dwight D. Eisenhower accurately described and warned against as the military industrial complex.

If there is a lesson to be learned it is one that every voter should keep in mind when going to the polls to restore our democracy. This Republican administration and this Republican-controlled U.S. Congress are the most corrupt, corrosive syndicate of thieves and swindlers that this country has ever witnessed. When we hear the phrase, "Bush lied and people died" we will know that this is the Bush legacy. But it is a legacy which can still be cut short by the voice of the people in November 2006.

Unless and until we have fair elections and jettison this evil, pathetic tableau of Republican flotsam that is sinking into the abyss of Hell, democracy will be but a distant and fading image in the rearview mirror.

 

If we don't learn fom history, are we not destined to repeat it

(Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking on Sproul Plaza.(U.C.-Berkeley) Helen Nestor photo.)

There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.
Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.

(From Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence, a speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City
 

Next Week at Blustockings

BLUESTOCKINGS Bookstore & Cafe CALENDAR
172 Allen Street @ Stanton
(1 block south of Houston)
212.777.6028
(You will not be turned away from an event at Bluestockings for lack of $)

Oct. 4, 7PM - Free
Reading: Joe Conason The Raw Deal

In his book The Raw Deal: How the Bush Republicans plan to destroy Social Security, Joe Conason exposes the faulty claims, deceptive methods, and ideological zeal of those who would 'save' Social Security by weakening it. Conason is the bestselling author of "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How it Distorts the Truth" and the national correspondent for the New York Observer.

Oct. 5, 7PM - Free
Reading: Larry Bogad Electoral Guerilla Theatre

In liberal democracies across the globe, the right to vote is framed as both civil right and civic duty. So where does the use stand-up comedy, drag, sarcasm, and other iconoclastic performance fit into electorial politics? Extensively researched, the book Electoral Guerilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements explores satirical election campaigns, in which the goal is not 'winning', but undermining the legitimacy of the electoral system itself.

LaSara FireFox 

Oct. 7, 7PM - $5 to $10 Suggested
Salon: LaSara FireFox Sexy Witch

Join sex positive activist and author of Sexy Witch LaSara FireFox for a soulfully sexy evening. She'll open with a presentation on social engineering (i.e. marketing) on sexual self-image and then lead an open conversation about building a non-self-referential-sense-of-self that affords both personal growth and a claiming of one's sensual personae.

Oct. 8, 7PM - Free
Reading: Leora Skolkin Edges

In Leora Skolkin-Smith's new novel Edges, narrator Liana Barish is fourteen years old when her father's suicide forces her family from their New York suburban life and to her mother's native Jerusalem. In this new world of beauty and turmoil, Liana discovers startling truths and, with her young lover, escapes the stifling ties of home and family to live in the Palestinian world beyond Jerusalem's border.

Oct. 9, 7PM - Free
Book Release: Robyn Chapman True Porn 2True Porn is back!

Please join Robyn Chapman, the editor of the critically acclaimed anthology of autobiographical sex stories, in a look at the second volume of funny, heart-breaking, and sexy all-true comics. True Porn 2 is chock full of the real-life exploits of Sam Henderson (Magic Whistle), Rich Tommaso (Perverso!), Glenn Head (Snake Eyes), Hope Larson (Flight Volume Two), Kaz Strzepek (Redingk Weekly), and dozens of other great talents. From the highs to the lows of our most basic urge, True Porn Volume 2 is frank, honest, and always entertaining!

Oct. 23: ABC No Rio 25th Anniversary gala

Oct. 23, 4 - 8pm
ABC No Rio 25th Anniversary Gala Benefit & Silent Art Auction

Deitch Projects
18 Wooster Street

(On-Line Auction Preview and Reservations: Beginning Oct. 8)

ARTISTS
Participating artists include Jonathan Berger, Jennifer Berklich, Mike Bidlo, Kathe Burkhart, Mary Campbell, Amy Chan, Patty Chang, Paul Clay, Ernest Concepcion, Maureen Connor, Thom Corn, Peter Cramer, Crash, Jody Culkin, Peggy Cyphers, Daze, Mike Diana, Eric Drooker, Stefan Eins, Mike Estabrook, Peter Fend, Ebon Fisher, Fly, Robert Flynt, David B. Frye, Chitra Ganesh, Robert Goldman, Judy Glantzman, Day Gleeson, Mike Glier, A. Banks Griffin, Mimi Gross, Bob Gruen, Hans Haacke, Julie Hair, Gibby Haynes, Geoffrey Hendricks, Brian Higbee, Becky Howland, Bill Jacobson, Stephen Lack, Leslie Lowe, Noah Lyon, Anne Arden McDonald, Mac McGill, Manny Migrino, Joseph Nechvatal, Pierre Obando, Yoko Ono, Tom Otterness, Francis Palazzolo, Kembra Pfahler, Philli, Rick Prol, Carlo Quispe, Ted Rall, James Romberger, Christy Rupp, Max Schumann, Scott Seaboldt, James Sheehan, Ethan Shoshan, Zak Smith, Kiki Smith, Swoon, Tabboo! Stephen Tashjian, Seth Tobocman, Marguerite Van Cook, Anton Van Dalen, Tom Warren, David Wells, John White, Dale Wittig, Virgil Wong, and Ricardo Zuluetta.
Carl Andre (courtesy Sur Rodney Sur), Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Carl George), Peter Moore (Barbara Moore), Claes Oldenburg (ABC No Rio/Allied Productions), Hugh Steers (Carl George), Pat Steir (Joan Moore)

PERFORMERS
Circus Amok
The Hungry March Band
Guest DJs
Dan Cameron, Carlo McCormick and other curators, writers, gallerists and artists!

BENEFIT COMMITTEE
Participating Benefit Committee Members include Penny Arcade, Stanley Aronowitz, Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Paul Bartlett, Holly Block, Dan Cameron, Paul Castrucci, Jeffrey Deitch, Harvey Epstein & Anita Eliot, William Etundi, Ronald Feldman, Jim Fleming & Lewanne Jones, Barry Friar, Lia Gangitano, Carl George, Mateo Gomez, Phil Hartman, Sander Hicks, Barbara Hunt, Lisa Levy, Gracie Mansion, Carlo McCormick & Tessa Hughes-Freeland, Dave McWater, Marc Miller, Alan Moore, Barbara Moore, Rebecca Moore, Richard Nash, Wendy Olsoff, Al Orensanz, Karen Ramspacher, Karen Ranucci & Michael Ratner, Walter Robinson, Neil Rosenstein, Howie Seligman, Greg Sholette, Sur Rodney Sur, Frederieke Taylor, Nato Thompson, Julie Trotta, Jack Waters, Bill Weinberg and Martha Wilson.

SPONSORS
71 Clinton Fresh Food and Alias
Two Boots and Mo Pitkin's
Floral design by Evelyn Tonry
 

Oct. 6: Film screening and party: Bloqueo: Looking at the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba

Oct. 6, 7:30 PM

Bloqueo: Looking at the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba
By Cinematic Sisters ~ Rachel Dannefer and Heather Haddon

New York City Screening and Party
After the film, stay for DJ and Drinks 'til 11 PM

the Brecht Forum451 West Street
(between Bank & Bethune Sts. Below 12th Street along the West Side Highway)
(Take the A, C, E, L, 1, 2, 3 trains to 14th St)
Suggested Donation Sliding Scale $6, $10, $15; No one turned away

Bloqueo: Looking at the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba is a newly-released documentary by two young filmmakers that offers some answers.
Featuring voices from the streets of Havana and the Cuban countryside, Bloqueo (or blockade) lets Cubans speak for themselves about how they have been affected by the blockade, and what it means to live in Cuba today. The 45-minute documentary also features analysis from activists traveling with the Pastors for Peace Caravan—an annual journey calling attention to this controversial policy.

 

Oct. 1: Rent protest rally

Oct. 1, 12 Noon-1:30 pm

Home Rule Protest Rally at Mayor Bloomberg's Town House

17 East 79th St.
(between Fifth & Madison Avenues)

Mayor Mike Bloomberg has FLIP-FLOPPED on the issue of "home rule" over our rent laws.
Until recently Bloomberg said he favored repeal of the state Urstadt Law and restoration of home rule powers over rent control and rent stabilization to the City Council and Mayor.
But he recently changed his tune: now he says that Albany hould control the rent laws that impact 2.5 million households in New York City - one in three New Yorkers lives in a rent-regulated apartment.
Bloomberg now thinks it is fine for Joe Bruno and the Republican State Senators from upstate to dictate how much rent and eviction protection we can have.

Without restoration of home rule, the city will continue to lose tens of thousands of affordable rent-regulated apartments to decontrol in the coming years.
We need a Mayor who will fight for home rule. A Mayor who understands why it is essential to the future health of the city to reverse the phase-out of our rent and eviction protection laws - before it is too late!

Please join the Coalition for the Homeless, Met Council on Housing, Tenants
& Neighbors, and many local organizations for a protest rally at Mayor
Bloomberg's town house this coming Saturday.

Met Council is a membership driven city-wide tenant union. Join Met Council to support tenant rights.

For further info: active@metcouncil.net


 

Sept. 30: Lecture: Abu Ghraib and the Hidden History of CIA Torture

Lynndie England,22, the U.S. soldier notorious for holding a naked inmate by a leash in Abu Ghraib prison, was sentenced by a US military court yesterday after being found guilty of six counts of abuse.
Iraqis claim the punishment would have been far harsher if her crimes had been committed against Americans.
"America should be ashamed of this sentence. This is the best evidence that Americans have double standards," said Akram Abdel Amir, a retired bus driver from Baghdad.
"There are Iraqis in jail without any charge, just based on suspicion. But when it comes to Americans, the matter is totally different."

Although this is all quite true, it would seem that she is being made into a sacrificial lamb to protect those who were in charge and clearly share responsiblity. 


Sept. 30, 5:30 -10:00 pm

1st ANNUAL HARVEY GOLDBERG LECTURE & DEDICATION OF THE HARVEY GOLDBERG CLASSROOM
The Road to Abu Ghraib: The Hidden History of CIA Torture

Alfred W. McCoy

The Brecht Forum
451 West St.
(Betw Bank & Bethune)
(212) 242- 4201

(#1,2,3 A,C,E to 14th st.
14A and 14D buses to Abingdon Square/12th Street
L to 8th Ave @14th st.
F,V to 14th St. B,D,Q to W. 4th)


Doors open at 5:30 for registration & veiwing of the Harvey Goldberg Classroom.
At 6:00 pm, promptly, the First Harvey Goldberg lecture
At 7:30 pm we will dedicate the Harvey Goldberg Classroom and have a reception with light refreshments.

The photos from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison are snapshots, not of simple brutality or a breakdown in discipline, but of CIA torture techniques that have metastasized, over the past 50 years, like an undetected cancer inside the U.S. intelligence community.
From 1950 to 1962, the CIA led massive, secret research into coercion and consciousness that reached a billion dollars at peak. In 1963, their work was codified in a succinct, secret instructional booklet on torture-- the "KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation" manual. In the following decades these techniques were spread through the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Public Safety program to train police forces in Asia and Latin America as the front line of defense against communists and other revolutionaries.
McCoy will explore the history of U.S. involvement in the practice of torture and its implications in the post-9/11 political climate.

McCoy is director of the Harvey Goldberg Center and professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of The Politics of Heroin, an examination of the CIA’s alliances with drug lords, and Closer Than Brothers, a study of the impact of the CIA’s psychological torture method upon the Philippine military.

This is a Benefit for the Brecht Forum

Tom DeLay indicted, resigns

From the Campaign for America's Future:

Tom DeLay and two of his close political associates were indicted on criminal conspiracy charges by a Texas Grand Jury earlier today (Wed.). This is the same Tom DeLay who 11-years-ago this week signed the so-called "Contract with America" and pledged to end Congress' "cycle of scandal and disgrace."

The indictment against Tom DeLay has immediate political consequences -- he has just stepped down as House Majority Leader. This is a tremendous victory for everyone fighting to make Congress work again for the American people. But, it does not go far enough. Tom DeLay is the personification of the corrupt, pay-to-play politics that is the hallmark of today’s Republican-controlled Congress. To return honor and dignity to the legislative branch, and restore Congress' accountability to the American people, Tom DeLay must resign from Congress.

Congress is no place for scoundrels like DeLay who blatantly abuse their power for personal and corporate gain. He and his co-conspirators in Congress have consistently pushed measures that benefit the wealthy elite at the expense of the American people. It’s time to clear the air of corruption that Tom DeLay has brought into the House of Representatives. Please write your Representative and demand that they call for Tom DeLay's resignation from Congress.

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Is Impeach Bush! The next step for the anti-war movement

(Posted by anonymous on DC Indymedia)

News from the Impeach Bush movement:

On September 24th, The People Spoke!
Now Tell Congress: Impeach Bush Now!

We were hoping that 100,000 people would surround the White House on Sept. 24 for the big demonstration. But more than three times that number came out in a march that was so big that it lasted over five hours. Thousands upon thousands of marchers chanting "Impeach Bush" strode down Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. The turn-out of the impeachment campaign from all around the country in was fantastic. The call to Impeach Bush was heard across the U.S. as tens of thousands more people from the impeachment movement also joined anti-war demonstrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and elsewhere.
Ramsey Clark's call for impeachment resonated as perhaps the most popular chant of the day. The chorus of 300,000 people directly in front of the White House chanting, "Impeach Bush, Impeach Bush" was heard all over downtown Washington D.C. This was a peace demonstration but it was also perhaps the largest demonstration calling for impeachment in U.S. history. Much of the media coverage reported the strong sentiment for impeachment.
Everyone in the ImpeachBush.org movement thanks the hundreds of volunteers who helped this happen. The ImpeachBush.org/VoteToImpeach.org Tent on the Ellipse was a gigantic success. Thousands of people stopped by to pick up leaflets, placards, signs and Impeachment petitions. The beautiful bright yellow impeachment signs could be seen everywhere. Volunteers collected many thousands of new names from people who wanted to join this grassroots referendum.

With the names collected Saturday we are now over the 600,000 mark of people who have called on Congress to take actions against Bush and other high officials for their criminal conduct. The most important thing now is to keep the pressure on Congress. Although more than 300,000 people personally participated in the Sept. 24 demonstration they actually spoke for the many millions of people who would have joined the demonstration if they could have made it to Washington D.C.

On Monday we launched the "Tell Congress to Impeach Bush Now" mass email campaign. We have created an on-line communications instrument called "Tell Congress." It is for the millions of people who may not have be able to come to Washington D.C. but who support the goal of the demonstration. It allows everyone to join the demonstration from home and work by sending a message directly to their elected officials that they, like the marchers in Washington last weekend, insist that Bush should be impeached now! It is becoming so successful that we are extending the campaign - so if you haven't voted DO IT NOW! Ask your friends and family to participate if they also want to see Bush impeached.
Where an easy to use mechanism will let you quickly send your customized message directly to the politicians. There is sample language provided which you can edit, and there is also a "tell-a-friend" page which lets you easily send a message to several friends urging them to participate.

The impeachment movement wants to thank every person who made a donation to help the September 24 demonstration become such an historic event. Because the price of bus tickets was kept low many people were able to come to Washington D.C. Without the continued contributions from people who believe in impeachment the signs and leaflets and other publicity materials could not have been printed.
The Sept. 24 mass demonstration is not really over. We can keep it going with your help. The "Tell Congress" campaign can spread all over the internet by impeachment members forwarding and circulating the call to join the campaign so that their friends, family members, co-workers and fellow students can also send a message directly to their elected officials calling for impeachment. We are also preparing to launch the next round of newspaper ads around the country and begin doing radio spots. In the past we have placed full page ads in the New York Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and in other newspapers.

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Bill O'Reilly, a modern day reincarnation of Joe McCarthy?

(This cartoon by Bill Handlesman appeared in Newsday)

The following quote appeared in a July 20, 2004 review of OutFoxed by NYT film critic A.O.Scott:

Watching Bill O'Reilly's belligerent, boorish "interview" with Jeremy Glick, whose father died in the attack on the World Trade Center and who came to oppose the administration's military response to 9/11, is enough to make you wish that the ghost of Joseph Welch would enter the studio and inquire, at long last, after Mr. O'Reilly's sense of decency. But those days - when Welch undid Senator Joseph R. McCarthy on live television, and when that medium was new enough to bring a promise of transparency and truth-telling into the public consciousness - are long past.

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Top Republican Tells Post: Laura Has Taken Away Bush's Swagger

The following appeared on The LeftCoaster blog last Friday (Sept. 24, 2005):


The vultures, aye, the vultures....

A Washington Post Page One story in Saturday's edition tells us that Bush's trip to Northern Command this weekend is designed to help Bush look like he is in command once again while trying to regain his swagger. But we also get these money paragraphs, which tell you everything:

(A) growing number of Republicans inside and out of the White House have noticed an administration less sure-footed and slower to react to the political environment surrounding them.
A top Republican close to the White House since the earliest days said the absence of a "reelection target" and pressure from first lady Laura Bush and others to soften his second-term tone conspired to temper Bush's swagger well before Katrina hit. "A reelection campaign was always the driving principle to force them to get things together," said the GOP operative, who would speak candidly about Bush only if his name was not used. He said the "brilliance of this team" was always overstated. "Part of the reason they looked so good is Democrats were so discombobulated." Since the election, this official said, White House aides reported that Laura Bush was among those counseling Bush to change his cowboy image during the final four years.
William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, said the psychological turnabout started with the failed Social Security campaign, billed as the number one domestic priority six months ago. "The negative effect of the Social Security [campaign] is underestimated," Kristol said. "Once you make that kind of mistake, people tend to be less deferential to your decisions." This coincided with a growing number of Republicans losing faith in Bush's war plan, as Republicans such as Sens. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) openly questioned the president's strategy.
In a series of private conversations over the past few months, aides began second-guessing how they handled the Social Security debate, managed the public perception of the Iraq war and, most recently, the response to Katrina. The federal CIA leak investigation, which has forced Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove and others to testify before a grand jury, seemed to distract officials and left a general feeling of unease, two aides said. Aides were calling reporters to find out what was happening with Rove and the investigation. "Nobody knows what's going to happen with the probe," one senior aide said.

Hell, the press is making Bush out to be a cartoon character who needs to go to a military base to regain his image, while top Republicans are openly blaming Laura Bush for neutering her husband. To top it off, and as we have been saying for awhile now, this same top Republican says that team around Bush was never really that good to begin with; they only appeared good because the Democrats were so worthless.
Bigfooter Kristol now says what we knew months ago: if you could stop Bush on Social Security, and were able to mix that with growing unease over Iraq, then his first term signature event and his second term priority would both drag him down. Add to that the uncertainty over Plame, and what you get is the typical second term banana peel.
And now it's happened. It must be fun around the house now, with a top Republican saying openly that Laura's got Bush's balls in her pocket. If Skippy wasn't drinking before, he is now.

(Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a credit for the photo)


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Sept. 30-Oct.1: Benefit for victims of Katrina

(Photo:STAR-TELEGRAM/Ian McVea)

Sept.30 + Oct.1

BOWERY POETRY CLUB AND ST. MARK'S POETRY PROJECT UNITE TO PRODUCE MASSIVE
TWO-DAY BENEFIT FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA.

Performances by Toni Morrison, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Cecil Taylor, Eric Bogosian, Yusef Komunyakaa, Anne Waldman, Marc Ribot, Suheir Hammad, Beau Sia, Eddie Bobe, Denize Lature, Willie Perdomo, Dael Orlandersmith, Edwin Torres, and New Orleans' "People's Poet" Kalamu ya Salaam, many more.

In the deafening wake of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina, performers, poets and artists of all colors and shapes are gathering for a weekend of roof-busting fund and fist-raising at the Bowery Poetry Club and St. Mark's Poetry Project.

Sept. 30, 6pm until 4am,

Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery (between Bleecker and Houston)
1-212 614 0505

"Shelter from the Storm"
including performances by groups from the Anti-Folk scene, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Marc Ribot, New Orleans poet Kalamu ya Salaam, Eric Bogosian, Bob Holman, Anne Waldman, Peter Stampfel, Sonny Boy, John Kruth, Suheir Hammad, Willie Perdomo, Reverend Jen, A Brief View of the Hudson, Kevin Powell, Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, The Georgettes, Beau Sia, Taylor Mead, The Howl, Jose Angel Figueora, Ewuare Osayande, Wallace Rooney, the O'Debra Twins, Third Party (Say Word?!?), and Surf Burlesque hosted by Miss Angel Drake featuring Liz Maher, Sarabella, Nasty Canasta, Bunny Love, Belle Morte and Velocity Chylde, plus many, many more.
Booze-n-Yarn will also be conducting a special "Knit for New Orleans"
session throughout the evening in the Cafe;
Master Lee will be offering 'psychic readings' for donations as well.
Slainte, next door to the Club, will be hosting a N'awlins buffet complete with jambalaya, cornbread and more, donated by Sage American Kitchen.
Admission for Friday night is $25 for performances only; $40 including food. Tickets are available

Oct. 1st, from 1pm-7pm,

Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church
131 E. 10th St (at Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003
1-212 674 0910

featuring performances by Toni Morrison, Cecil Taylor, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dael Orlandersmith, Anne Waldman, Denize Lauture, Suheir Hammad, Roger Kamenetz, Steve Cannon, Bill Martin, Eddie Bobo, Moira Crone, Hal Sirowitz, Patricia Spears Jones, and others,
Books and New Orleans-themed food, including pralines, gumbo, red beans and rice, and chicory coffee will be for sale, with proceeds going to the 21CF Hurricane Katrina Recovery Fund.
The Poetry Project is also asking for donations of books, journals, artworks, and clean clothing in good condition to go to Hurricane Katrina survivors. The evening is co-sponsored with A Gathering of the Tribes and The Federation of East Village Artists

100% of the proceeds will be donated to 21CF Hurricane Katrina Recovery, ACORN, the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic, Texas Childrens Hospital Katrina Fund, and Kalamu ya Salaam's Neo-Griot project.


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Oct. 6: Publication party for World War 3 Illustrated

( Art by Sue Coe)

Oct. 6,6-8 pm

World War 3 Illustrated's 25th Anniversary Issue/Issue #36 Release Party/Art Exhibit Opening!

EXIT ART
548 Broadway (2nd Floor)
Tel: 212.966.7745
Fax: 212.925.2928
exitart@interport.net

World War 3's
25th Anniversary Issue
A Platform for Political Art

Co-founded by Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper, WW3 has become a premiere platform for political art and the latest issue, World War 3: (#36) "Neo Con" does not disappoint.
Edited by Ryan Inzana and Peter Kuper, the new release features a wraparound cover by Sue Coe and articles and comics by "the usual gang of agitators" including Eric Drooker, Seth Tobocman, Sabrina Jones, Mac Mcgill, Inzana, James Romberger, Chuck Sperry, Nicole Shulman, and Spain Rodriguez, who illustrates a nine-page story by Justin Wertham.
Special highlights of the Neo Con issue include Joe Sacco's account as an embedded journalist in Iraq and Eric Laursen's article on the history of the Neo Cons. For the first time in its history WW3 includes a color section with a new installment of Kuper's Richie Bush comics and Penny Allen's War is Hell, a photo comic assembled from photos taken by an American sgt. in Iraq, with his running commentary.

World War 3 Illustrated (#36): Neo Cons is 64 pages with a cover price of $5 and is available from Top Shelf Productions, FM International, and Diamond Comic Distributors.

PRESS CONTACT:
Seth Tobocman, WW3 Illustrated Co-founder
T: 1-212-505-6457
E: sethbusiness@yahoo.com

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The Dover, PA "monkey trial" or The second time as farce

(Photo::Ryan Donnell for The New York Times)
Steven Stough and Bryan Rehm, right, are among 11 parents suing the district over the policy. The case is to open Monday in Harrisburg, Pa.

According to New York Times reporter Laurie Goodstein
(Sept. 26, 2005)

Eleven... parents in Dover [PA.] were outraged enough to sue the school board and the district, contending that intelligent design - the idea that living organisms are so inexplicably complex, the best explanation is that a higher being designed them - is a Trojan horse for religion in the public schools.
With the new political empowerment of religious conservatives, challenges to evolution are popping up with greater frequency in schools, courts and legislatures. But the Dover case, which begins Monday in Federal District Court in Harrisburg, is the first direct challenge to a school district that has tried to mandate the teaching of intelligent design.
What happens here could influence communities across the country that are considering whether to teach intelligent design in the public schools, and the case, regardless of the verdict, could end up before ...[a newly reconfigured] Supreme Court.
Dover, a rural, mostly blue-collar community of 22,000 that is 20 miles south of Harrisburg, had school board members willing to go to the mat over issue. But people here are well aware that they are only the excuse for a much larger showdown in the culture wars.

The argument of the Dover 11 has been strongly reinforced by recent scientific findings that support evolution; but,then this battle isn't over scientific evidence, is it? It's really a con game being perpetrated by a few very slick snake oil sellers. If you have any doubts about this listen to[Dover school] board member William Buckingham, who urged his colleagues to include intelligent design in ninth-grade science classes.

"Nearly 2,000 years ago, someone died on a cross for us, ... Shouldn't we have the courage to stand up for him?"

(quoted by Josh Getlin, LA Times Staff Writer)


According to Washington Post staff writers Rick Weiss and David Brown
(Sept. 26, 2005; Page A08)

Evolution's repeated power to predict the unexpected goes a long way toward explaining why so many scientists and others are practically apoplectic over the recent decision by a Pennsylvania school board to treat evolution as an unproven hypothesis, on par with "alternative" explanations such as Intelligent Design (ID), the proposition that life as we know it could not have arisen without the helping hand of some mysterious intelligent force.
Today, in a courtroom in Harrisburg, Pa., a federal judge will begin to hear a case that asks whether ID or other alternative explanations deserve to be taught in a biology class. But the plaintiffs, who are parents opposed to teaching ID as science, will do more than merely argue that those alternatives are weaker than the theory of evolution.
They will make the case -- plain to most scientists but poorly understood by many others -- that these alternatives are not scientific theories at all
"What makes evolution a scientific explanation is that it makes testable predictions," Lander said. "You only believe theories when they make non-obvious predictions that are confirmed by scientific evidence."

It is extremely hard to believe that this battle is going on in the 21st century. But it is important to remember "...that all great incidents and individuals of world history occur, as it were, twice. ...the first time as tragedy, the second as farce."
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Hey Bill, can you say "Martha Stewart?"

According to Washington Post staff writers Charles Babington and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
(September 25, 2005; Page A06)

Two federal inquiries into Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's stock sales have handed Democrats a chance to broaden their long-stated claim that Republicans push ethical boundaries and focus on laws that help the rich, political analysts said yesterday.

In carefully worded statements, Frist's office has said the senator instructed managers of his "qualified blind trust" in June to sell his family's shares in HCA Inc., the nation's largest hospital chain, founded by Frist's father and brother. A month later, the stock's price dropped 9 percent after the company predicted weakening earnings. It is illegal to trade stocks based on inside information. Frist, a wealthy surgeon, "had no information about the company or its performance that was not available to the public when he directed the trustees to sell the HCA stock," his office said.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.), second from right, enters the Senate chamber with House counterpart Tom DeLay (Tex.), left, in March. (Photo Credit: By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images Photo)

More bulletins from the front in DC: Cindy Sheehan and others arrested

Sheehan Arrested During Anti-War Protest
By JENNIFER C. KERR, AP

WASHINGTON (Sept. 26) - Cindy Sheehan...was arrested Monday while protesting outside the White House.

Sheehan and several dozen other protesters sat down on the sidewalk after marching along the pedestrian walkway on Pennsylvania Avenue. Police warned them three times that they were breaking the law by failing to move along, then began making arrests.

Sheehan, 48, was the first taken into custody. She stood up and was handcuffed, then led to a police vehicle while protesters chanted, "The whole world is watching."

Others who were arrested also cooperated with police. Sgt. Scott Fear, spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, said they would be charged with demonstrating without a permit, which is a misdemeanor.

Park Police Sgt. L.J. McNally said Sheehan and the others would be taken to a processing center where they would be fingerprinted and photographed, then given a ticket and released. The process would take several hours, he said.

Voices from the Front in DC

Frank Medina in a reddish baseball cap, and on his shoulders, his young daughter in a pink shirt and bright yellow dress. As I ask for his name, she leans over and shouts out with delight: "Claire Elizabeth Medina!" He's a lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission. "

I was at the demonstration before the war," he tells me. "And now, this is just an appalling circumstance. That's why I'm back. It's an appalling war and it needs to end immediately. There needs to be a coherent plan to turn the country back over to the Iraqis, with definite dates for the return of American troops. What can't be done is to continue to justify the war there by the sacrifices that have already been made. It's like saying that, when you've lost everything at the casino, you're going to double-down. At some point, you need to cut your losses.
"However, it's an administration that can't admit its mistakes, that can't admit the truth, and consequently that can't change. So there is no hope."

Why bother to come then, I ask.

"It's important," he says firmly, "to express your views, to protest."

Photo by Tam Turse

The above is an excerpt from TomDispatch. It clearly makes liars out of the right-wing knee-jerk bloggers who claim everyone at the weekend demo was a "Commie." But we should not be surprised by the "Swift-boating" of the anti-war movement as it grows in size and influence. Well anyway, here's a further excerpt from Tom's Dispatch (for the complete article:

"No Iraqis Left Me on a Roof to Die"
Katrina and Cindy Blow into Town
By Tom Engelhardt
Photos by Tam Turse

George was out of town, of course, in the "battle cab" at the U.S. Northern Command's headquarters in Colorado Springs, checking out the latest in homeland-security technology and picking up photo ops; while White House aides, as the Washington Post wrote that morning, were attempting "to reestablish Bush's swagger." The Democrats had largely fled town as well, leaving hardly a trace behind. Another hurricane was blasting into Texas and the media was preoccupied, but nothing, it seemed, mattered. Americans turned out in poll-like numbers for the Saturday antiwar demonstration in Washington and I was among them. So many of us were there, in fact, that my wife (with friends at the back of the march) spent over two hours as it officially "began," moving next to nowhere at all

This was, you might say, the "connection demonstration." In the previous month, two hurricanes, one of them human, had blown through American life; and between them, they had, for many people, linked the previously unconnected -- Bush administration policies and the war in Iraq to their own lives. So, in a sense, this might be thought of as the demonstration created by Hurricanes Cindy Sheehan and Katrina. It was, finally, a protest that, not just in its staggering turnout but in its make-up, reflected the changing opinion-polling figures in this country. This was a majority demonstration and the commonest statement I heard in the six hours I spent talking to as many protesters as I could was: "This is my first demonstration."

In addition, there were sizeable contingents of military veterans and of the families of soldiers in Iraq, or of those who were killed in Iraq. No less important, scattered through the crowd were many, as I would discover, whose lives had been affected deeply by George Bush's wars.

Sept. 27: Demos@5 - Fifth Anniversary Celebration

(Bill Moyers)

Sept. 27, 6-8pm

Demos @ 5 - Fifth Anniversary Celebration
Featuring special guest: Bill Moyers

New-York Historical SocietyHenry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture
170 Central Park West,

For more information:
Becky Lee at 212.633.1405 x425 or mailto:5@demos.org


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Through Oct. 22: Exhibit: If You See Something

(Krzysztof Wodiczko)

Through Oct. 22
TUE-SAT, 10-6 pm

Exhibition: "If You See Something."

Artist Krzysztof Wodiczko's dialogue on the marginalization largely initiated & perpetuated by a society's fear of "the stranger."

Galerie Lelong,
528 W 26 St.
Info: 212-315-0470, Wodiczko@aol.com


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Through Oct. 8: Photo exhibit: The Democratic Republic of the Congo: The Forgotten War

Through Oct. 8
Photo exhibit: The Demopcratic Republic of the Congo - The Forgotten War
Ron Haviv . Gary Knight . Antonin Kratochvil Joachim Ladefoged . James Nachtwey

Engine 27,
173 Franklin St.,
(between Hudson & Greenwich, Subway 1, A, C, E, N, R)

Viewing Hours: Thurs. - Sat., 12 - 6pm
Free, wheelchair accessible, and open to the public
for more information, call (212) 763-5797

An exhibition of photographs by world-renowned VII Photo Agency photographers who recently traveled with Doctors Without Borders/ Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) in Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to shed light on the suffering of the Congolese people as they struggle to survive through a war that remains virtually invisible to the outside world.

Curated by Alison Morley Exhibit
space & lighting concepts by Jack Weisberg

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Oct. 6: Voices From Death Row

(Ryan Matthews and Mom)

Oct. 6, 7:30PM

VOICES FROM DEATH ROW
a national speaking tour calling for an end to the death penalty

City College - Harlem
137th St. & Amsterdam Avenue
NAC Building/1st Floor

Hear the stories of men and women who have survived the horrors of death row. Former death row prisoners, family members and activists reveal the truth about the death penalty and the injustices of our criminal justice system. Their stories give voice to the voiceless and put a human face on the death penalty.

NYC SPEAKERS
Lawrence Hayes, former New York death row prisoner & Black Panther

Monique Matthews, sister of exonerated Louisiana death row prisoner Ryan
Matthews

Billy Sothern, anti-death penalty lawyer from New Orleans, Louisiana

SPONSORED BY Campaign to End the Death Penalty 212-387-0611

Endorsing organizations:
Advocacy Institute, American Friends Service Committee - Austin, AmnestyInternational - USA, California Prison Focus, California People of Faith Working Against the Death Penalty, Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Criminal Justice Action Network - Columbia University Law School, Death Penalty Focus, 8th Day Center for Justice, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition - New York City, Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, International Socialist Organization, Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, Justice Coalition of Greater Chicago, Leadership for a Changing World, Mobilization to Free Mumia, Millions More Movement Local Organizing Committee - Park Manor Christian Church, Murder Victims Families for Human Rights, NAACP South Suburban Chicago, National Lawyers Guild - CUNY Law School, New Jersey Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine, New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty, No Death Penalty for Zolo Committee, Probation Challenge, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition South Suburban Chicago, Socialist Action, Southern Center for Human Rights, Reprieve - USA, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Texas Moratorium Network, University of Chicago Human Rights Program, William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice


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Oct. 7-9 & 14-16: Burning Bush: Extended Run

BURNING BUSH: A FAITH-BASED MUSICAL
Written and Directed by Noah Diamond and Amanda Sisk
Based on a presidency by Karl Rove

Oct. 7, Oct. 8, Oct. 9, Oct. 14, Oct.15, and Oct. 16, 8:30 pm.
HERE Arts Center,
145 Sixth Avenue
(between Spring and Broome),
Tickets, $15, are available at noahdiamond or smarttix, and (212) 868-4444.

Last weekend, BURNING BUSH: A FAITH-BASED MUSICAL had a beautiful and successful world premiere. The Friday and Saturday shows were completely sold out, and sadly there were still a lot of names on the waiting list when the lights went down. In the audience there were huge laughs, there was political outrage, there was shock...even standing ovations. The whole experience was better than any of us expected. To those of you saw it, thank you so much for being there. And to those of you who didn't -- if October finds you in New York, you have another chance.

Starring Amanda Sisk, Corey Moosa, Ellie Dvorkin*, Kim Moscaritolo, Noah Diamond, and Brian Louis Hoffman* as George W. Bush. Songs accompanied by members of the rock band Death Mask: Mike Biskup, Drew Brady, Steve Dans, and Boris Veysman.

This production is being presented through HERE's Supported Artist Program, which provides artists with subsidized space, as well as technical and administrative support.

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Racism in baseball

(Florida Marlins pitcher Dontrelle Willis delivers a pitch in the first inning against the New York Mets, Saturday, May 28, 2005, in Miami.)

Some random thoughts on Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins winning his 21st game of this season. Dontrelle Willis is African-American. Why is that important? Because of what it tells us about baseball.
Since 1987 there have been 56 20-game winners. How many of them have been Black? Two. Dave Stewart in 1987 and Dontrelle Willis in 2005.
In the entire history of baseball there have been only 13 African-American 20-game winners. I think baseball needs to enter the 21st Century in terms of race relations.
Obviously I wouldn't know all this if I weren't a baseball fan. But being a fan, doesn't absolve me of concern about racism in the sport.

(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)


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News from the peace demo in D.C.

(from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition)

Washington, D.C. Protest Draws More than 300,000
White House Surrounded by a Sea of
Protestors in Four-Hour Long March

Three hundred thousand people marched through the streets of Washington and surrounded the White House on Saturday, in one of the largest U.S. demonstrations to date against the war in Iraq.
Initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition, the protest was endorsed by thousands of organizations.

"The massive turnout today shows the depth and breadth of opposition to the war in Iraq," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. "The anti-war sentiment is now clearly the majority sentiment in the country."

The morning of the demonstration, train and subway stations in D.C. were jammed as more than 1,000 buses from over 300 cities - including New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Gulfport, Mississippi; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa and elsewhere - arrived in the city for the massive protest.
The rally featured such speakers as former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Cindy Sheehan, actress Jessica Lange, British Parliamentarian George Galloway, civil rights activist Mahdi Bray, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Reverend Al Sharpton, Anita Dennis, mother of Iraq war veteran/resister; human rights attorney Lynne Stewart, A.N.S.W.E.R. national coordinator Brian Becker, civil rights attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Elias Rashmawi, National Council of Arab Americans; Gloria LaRiva, National Committee to Free the Five: Peta Lindsay, A.N.S.W.E.R. Youth & Student Coordinator; and many more.
The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition is the national organization that has organized all of the large-scale antiwar protests in Washington DC since September 2001, which have cumulatively brought over 1 million people into the streets of DC. September 24 represented a broad show of unity among thousands of antiwar and social justice groups in the U.S.

(Photo: Kevin Spidel of Progressive Democrats of America )


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Oct. 11-23: Eyes Wide Open Anti-war Exhibit

Eyes Wide Open
Oct. 11-14 - Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Manhattan
Oct. 16 - Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Oct. 18-20 - Military Park, Newark
Oct. 22-23 - Union Square, Manhattan

Eyes Wide Open is the American Friends Service Committee’s widely acclaimed national exhibition and memorial to the lives lost in the Iraq war. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
WALK among the nearly 2000 pairs of combat boots, tagged with the names of
the U.S. soldiers who have died.
FOLLOW a labyrinth of civilian shoes, representing the Iraqi civilians who
have died, and read their names on a Wall of Remembrance.
EXPERIENCE a powerful visual presentation about the human cost of war.

Volunteer! Many shifts available.
Register online at www.eyes.afsc.org. 212-598-0963 eyes.ny@afsc.org

For More Information

212-598-0961, eyes.ny@afsc.org or www.eyes.afsc.org
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Sept. 24: Global Day of Action Against Fur

If you aren't in Washington today, here's a suggested activity:

Sept. 24,
A GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST JOSEPH

Saks, 611 Fifth Ave. (49th St), 1:00 PM
Joseph, 816 Madison Ave (68th St), 3:00 PM

Join anti-fur activists in New York City as we participate in this global day of action against Joseph. Saks hosts a Joseph concession.
At 2:45 PM we will march to Joseph's flagship store. Imagine all of the Saturday shoppers that will be exposed to our anti-fur message!

If you can't make the protest, call or write Joseph at:

Joseph, 816 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10021…….........Call: 212-570-0077
Joseph, 106 Greene Street, NY, NY 10012…. …........Call: 212-343-7071
Joseph, c/o Saks, 611 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10022........Call: 212-753-4000

For more info, contact: Win Animal Rights/W.A.R.: govegan@optonline.net
call: 646-267-9934 or visit our website



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Robert Parry on "The Bush Problem"

Here's a very interesting take on "What to do about Bush, et al"

What to Do About the Bush Problem
By Robert Parry
(Sept. 23)

Disaster experts will tell you that a key to surviving a catastrophe is to quickly discard the old paradigm of normalcy and to act with urgency and creativity in facing the new reality. There is no time for fretting or wishful thinking; decisiveness and imagination are crucial.
The same holds true for nations. History has taught us that sometimes when a leader has made catastrophic choices, others - from within the ruling elite or from without - must do something to shatter the old paradigm of normalcy and protect the nation.
The U. S. may have found itself in such a predicament. Figuratively at least, the flood waters are surging through the first floor and - while some say the water won't rise much more - others think it's time to grab the kids and seek higher ground.
The stark question now before the country is: Should it sit still for the next three-plus years of George W. Bush's presidency or demand accountability, including possibly the removal of him and his political team from office?

(To read complete article)


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Sept. 26: Protest assassination of Puerto Rican independence leader

Sept. 26, 5PM
PROTEST: Denounce the assassination of Puerto Rican revolutionary leader Filiberto
Ojeda Rios
26 FEDERAL PLAZA
(Subway: 4, 5, 6, J, M to Brooklyn Bridge; A, C, E to Chambers St.; R, N to
Canal St)

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign is calling on all our allies and supporters of justice to join us to denounce the assassination of Puerto Rican revolutionary leader Filiberto Ojeda Rios, leader of the clandestine revolutionary organization called El Ejercito Popular Boricua-Macheteros (The Popular Boricua Army-Machete Wielders)

On Sept. 23, in a massive FBI operation in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, was assassinated by an FBI sniper.
During the ensuing gun battle, Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, Ojeda Rios' wife, was critically wounded and then arrested, along with an F.B.I. agent. Both are presently hospitalized, and a third man has yet to be identified by authorities.
This assassination is an attack against the Puerto Rican Independence movement that cannot go unanswered!! We must mobilize and organize a response to this heinous act of murder. Ojeda Rios represented the revolutionary spirit and morality of the Puerto Rican independence movement.
The FBI chose to assassinate Ojeda Rios on Sept. 23rd (El Grito de Lares, a celebration of the anti-colonial resistance movement in Puerto Rico) as a message to the independence movement; the U.S. government is trying to tell us that if we resist, then we will be murdered like Ojeda Rios, Don Pedro Albizu Campos, Angel Rodrgiuez Cristobal and the many other Puerto Rican patriots that have fallen at the hands of the U.S. governement.

WE WILL RISE, RESIST AND REBEL!!
Join us in our outrage, mourning and resistance!!
Wear a black arm band, wear all black, bring your noise makers, your flags and 25 of your closest friends to the protest!!
MOBILIZE IN THE SPIRIT OF FILIBERTO!!

**FILIBERTO OJEDA RIOS PRESENTE!!
**FILIBERTO VIVE, LA LUCHA SIGUE!!

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Michael Schwartz on immediate withdrawal (certainly not premature)

(If you are going to Washington this weekend to demand immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, you would do well to take Why Immediate Withdrawal Makes Sense By Michael Schwartz with you. It makes the case better than anything I have recently read.) Here's an excerpt from TomDispatch.com (where you can, of course, find the complete article, plus Tom's intro)

But where [staunch opponents of the war, such as Richard] Dreyfuss and [Juan] Cole are mistaken is in concluding that U.S. forces can be part of an effort "to prevent the outbreak of ... a catastrophic civil conflict." Despite the plausible logic of this argument, the U.S. presence doesn't deter, but contributes to, a thickening civil-war-like atmosphere in Iraq. It is always a dicey matter to project the present into the future, though that never stopped anybody from doing so. The future, by definition, is unknown and so open to the unexpected. Nonetheless, it is far more reasonable, based on what we now know, to assume that if the U.S. were to leave Iraq quickly, the level of violence would be reduced, possibly drastically, not heightened. Here are the four key reasons:
1. The U.S. military is already killing more civilian Iraqis than would likely die in any threatened civil war;
2. The U.S. presence is actually aggravating terrorist (Iraqi-on-Iraqi) violence, not suppressing it;
3. Much of the current terrorist violence would be likely to subside if the U.S. left;
4. The longer the U.S. stays, the more likely that scenarios involving an authentic civil war will prove accurate.

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Sept. 24-26: March on Washington-End the War on Iraq

If you are going to Washington this weekend and are planning to shoot pictures of any part of the activities, I will be happy to post them on this blog, if you e-mail (gaelinc@aol.com) them to me-either from DC (over the weekend) or from home after the weekend. Obviously, the sooner, the better.

Sept. 24-26

End the War on Iraq!

Washington, DC

END THE WAR ON IRAQ
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
Leave no military bases behind
End the looting of Iraq
Stop the torture
Stop bankrupting our communities
No military recruitment in our schools

Sat. 9/24
10:00AM All-Day Peace & Justice Festival Begins, Washington Monument Grounds
11:30AM Rally at Ellipse
12:30PM March steps off
3:00PM "Operation Ceasefire" Concert featuring Cindy Sheehan


Sun., 9/25
Interfaith Service
Training for Grassroots Lobby Day
Training for Nonviolent Civil Resistance
National Meeting for Counter Recruitment
Other Activities

Mon., 9/26
Grassroots Lobby Day
Mass Nonviolent Civil Resistance


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Oct. 1-8: Keep Space for Peace

For a full schedule of events
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell phone)
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Our blog)


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Peoples' Voice Cafe: Fall schedule

Peoples'Voice Cafe
45 East 33rd St.,
(between Park & Madison, North side of 33rd St.).

All shows Saturdays, 8 PM,
doors open at 7:30.
(We do NOT accept reservations in advance; come early to be assured of a seat.)

$12 contribution - more if you choose, less if you can't; no one turned away.
(If you are a member of Peoples' Voice or Workmen's Circle, then the suggested contribution is $9. Click here to learn about becoming a Peoples' Voice Cafe member.

Sept. 24:
Open Mic for Peace

Though most of our audience members, volunteers and performers will be going to Washington DC to protest the war in Iraq, there are always some people who have to stay in town. We are opening our venue this night for anyone who wishes to sing songs, tell stories, recite poems or in some other way share their thoughts and feelings. Donations of money and/or food will be gladly accepted.

Oct. 1:
Professor Louie and Fast Eddie

Poet of the Streets: Call it poetry, call it rap--a rapid-fire tongue with a mind to match.

Sarah Pirtle

Sarah's best known and most covered songs include "My Roots Go Down," "Walls and Bridges," and "Two Hands Hold the Earth."

Oct. 8:
Tony Bird

From southeast Africa, Tony Bird, a Malawi-born song man, is a total original with a mesmerizing intensity and a unique vision, voice, guitar-style and persona.

Bruce Markow

A spirited singer and musician (on guitar, piano, mandolin, dulcimer and more), Bruce delivers stirring melodies, engaging stories and colorful lyrics of hope and healing that linger with you long after evening’s end…

Oct. 15:
Eric Andersen

(CD Release- whole evening)

Oct. 22:
Phil Ochs Song Night

featuring: Magpie, Kim & Reggie Harris, Emma's Revolution, Greg Greenway, David Roth and John Flynn

Oct. 29:
Joel Rafael Band's "Woody Guthrie Show"

The Joel Rafael Band has been performing together for the last eleven years. This year, the band: Joel Rafael (vocals & guitar), his daughter Jamaica Rafael (violin & vocals), and Carl Johnson (acoustic lead guitar)--released their fifth CD, Woodyboye, on Jackson Browne's independent label Inside Recordings.

Nov. 5:
Si Kahn
25th Grassroots Leadership Anniversary Justice Tour

Nov. 12:
Songs of Jolie Rickman

Nov. 19:
Brooklyn Women's Chorus

Nov. 26:
Closed for Thanskgiving

Dec. 3:
Charlie King & Karen Brandow

Dec. 10:
Human Rights Day:
Steve Suffet w/ Macdougal Street Rent Party; Voices of Shalom: El-Uriel Barfield & Alfa Anderson

Dec. 17:
Joel Landy and Reno