Natalie e-mailed to note Jill of Third Wave Agenda has a column up at NYU News:

The first time I volunteered for the Haven Coalition, I met a 14-year-old girl and her mother. The girl was pregnant and had traveled to New York for a second-trimester abortion because the restrictive laws in her own state wouldn't allow her to obtain one there. She was unable to get an earlier procedure in the first place because her family is very low-income, and those same restrictive laws bar state funding from subsidizing abortions, even for the poorest women.
She talked about her dreams of eventually going to business school. In many ways, she was just like most other 14-year-olds: English was her favorite school subject, she said her mother was her best friend and she liked doing her friends' hair for fun.
In other ways, though, she wasn't: She had an older sister who had given birth at a young age, and she didn't want that for herself. She changed my life.
Haven provides free housing in volunteers' homes for low-income women coming to New York City for second-trimester abortions. It was founded after activists in the city learned that women were traveling here for abortions, and then sleeping on park benches and in Port Authority while they went through the two-day-long procedure because they couldn't afford to pay for a hotel. Haven is activism at its best: It's hands-on. It directly helps people. It transcends rhetoric and politicking, and deals with real people and real issues. If we want to change minds and truly understand the values we espouse, we have to get into the thick of it. While there is value in political action on all levels, one of the most important things we can do as activists is to directly assist those who need it.

On the subject of abortion, I've wanted to highlight an early Third Estate Sunday Review article all week. Like most things I hope to find time to do, it falls by the wayside. (Even with help from Ava, Kat and Dallas. Thank you all.) It's called "Abortion: Why It Still Matters" and it's the story of "Karla" who ended up pregnant while an underage teenager (incest victim) and needed the help of her aunt. From the article:

In a new area, with no family other than her parents, Karla didn't feel she had any options. She also kept hoping her mother would start defending her. But that never happened.
"I think maybe it was losing the house and feeling that in moving, she was at risk of losing her friends. She always brought that up when I'd say, 'I can't go on like this.' 'Joanne will never understand!' she'd scream at me. That was a woman who was really big at her church."
Realizing her own mother had no intention of ever stopping the repeated rapes, Karla found herself trapped in the situation and the silence.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]
 

Heads up to a DVD:

New Video Tells Dahr's Story Testimonies From Falluja
http://images.indymedia.org/imc/seattle/media/2005/04/245474.mov

*Eyewitness in Iraq: Dahr Jamail, an Unembedded Report
*A Pepperspray Production, 28 minutes Dahr Jamail recognized that Americans were being misled about the US occupation of Iraq, so he went to Iraq to find the truth.
After being*un*embedded in Iraq totaling over 8 months, he returned to the States to tell what he discovered.
In this video Dahr Jamail speaks of the horrors of occupation, the use of illegal weapons by American forces, the rip-off of American taxpayers by Bechtel and other US corporations, the shabby and biased media coverage of the situation by US media, and of the resilient determination of the Iraqi people to be free fromforeign occupation.

A portion of the price of this video goes to support Dahr in his ongoing efforts.
See the preview!
http://images.indymedia.org/imc/seattle/media/2005/04/245474.mov

Buy the video from the Pepper Spray Productions website
http://peppersp.server312.com/videos.htm

More writing, photos and commentary at
http://dahrjamailiraq.com


So check out the video and if you're interested and able to afford to purchase the video, consider doing that.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]
 

The Sunday Chat & Chews, for those with strong stomachs.

ABC's This Week has these guests:

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, House Minority leader
The Rev. Pat Robertson, founder and chairman, Christian Broadcasting Network
Tom Brady, New England Patriots quarterback

Yes, you read that correctly. A football player, a preacher (whose business dealings don't seem to follow the teachings of Jesus -- see Greg Palast) and Nancy Pelosi. At least they have Pelosi.

On NBC's Meet the Press:

ANDREW CARD
White House Chief of Staff
SEN. GEORGE ALLEN (R - VA)
Foreign Relations Committee
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D - CT)
Foreign Relations Committee

Two Republicans and one Democrat. That balanced Tim Russert. He'd probably have had three Republicans but then he'd been left without anyone to beat up on.

Over at CBS's Face the Nation, Blinky continues to at least try:

Topics:
Social Security; The Filibuster Fight;
The Bolton Nomination
Guests:
Sen. Chuck Hagel
Foreign Relations Committee
Republican - Nebraska
Rep. Sam Brownback
Judiciary Committee
Republican - Kansas
Sen. Dick Durbin
Minority Whip
Democrat - Illinois
Karen Tumulty
TIME Magazine

Two Republicans, one Democrat. That appears to be proportional representation this Sunday on NBC and CBS. Check your local listings for when the shows air (they're morning shows in almost all markets -- one member advised me that Meet the Press is sometimes on in his area early Monday morning).

And yes, for those wondering, the about page at Meet the Press still has "Gloria Steiner" and not Gloria Steinem. It's supposed to be a news show, right? It's supposed to be factual. They're aware of the problem, they just don't want to correct it. Anyone want to say conservative bias?


The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

 

Headlines for April 29, 2005
- Gas Prices Near All
-Time Highs as Gas Co.'s Report Record Profits
- Bush Calls For Construction of New Nuclear Power Plants
- Baghdad Bombings Kill 22
- LA Times: U.S. Allied with Sudan Despite Role in Darfur Genocide
- Court Rules Against Police in Pepper Spay Trial
- Guantanamo Prisoners Subjected to Mock Interrogations
- Pentagon Releases 700+ Photos of War Dead
- Rep. Waters Calls Questions U.S. Role in Arming Haiti Police

Bush Social Security Plan Cuts Future Benefits
In a prime-time news conference, President Bush for the first time proposes to cut Social Security benefits as part of his plan to overhaul the retirement system. We get reaction from Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA). [includes rush transcript]

Latin America in Revolt: Rice on Four-Country Tour As Leftist Victories Sweep Region
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embarks on a five-day tour of Latin America, we take a look at recent developments in the region with several countries increasingly moving towards to left of the political spectrum. [includes rush transcript]

Real ID Act Attached to "Must-Pass" Spending Bill Imposes Anti-Immigrant Measures
Congress is poised to pass a law billed as an antiterrorism measure that would have a significant impact on immigrant rights in this country. The bill is attached to a "must-pass" appropriations measure for troops in Iraq and tsunami relief. We take a look at the "Real ID Act" with Aarti Shahani of Families for Freedom. [includes rush transcript]

Rallies Planned Ahead of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Meeting
On May 2, nearly all of the governments in the world will meet at the UN to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - a review conference that takes place every five years. We take a look at some of the rallies and marches planned ahead of the meeting to demand global nuclear disarmament. [includes rush transcript]

Jim (Third Estate Sunday Review) and Julia both e-mailed about Bob Somerby's The Daily Howler today:

MASLIN'S FOLLY: Bear with us, folks--we love this stuff. On Tuesday, we discussed Janet Maslin's New York Times review of Ann Coulter's kooky best-seller, Slander (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 4/26/05). In her review, Maslin cited a part of Slander where Coulter assembled six troubling "liberal" quotes; in one of the quotes, Peter Jennings said that health care was one of the Castro regime's "success stories." Maslin praised Coulter for "having a field day" at the expense of Jennings' "egregious loose talk." In so doing, Maslin extended the part of her review which praised Coulter's assiduous scholarship. "A great deal of research supports" Coulter's claims, Maslin said, and yes, she counted Coulter's 780 footnotes and praised Coulter for her "measured reasoning." When Maslin scolded Jennings' "loose talk," she continued to push the secondary theme of her review. Slander's author may be driven by bile, but by gum she did do her homework!
But Coulter didn't do her homework; in an astonishing number of kooky cases, she didn't do her work at all. In RE Jennings, there was nothing obviously wrong with his statement about Cuban health care, and in the rest of the report from which this statement was cadged, he portrayed a crumbling Cuban economy and a Cuban human rights nightmare. But so what? Coulter cadged the health care quote and used it to rail against Jennings' rank liberalism. And Maslin was
right there cheering her on--and failing to fact-check Coulter's work.
How inept were Maslin's claims about Coulter's diligent scholarship? Since Maslin praised the part of Slander where Coulter cadged that quote from Jennings, we decided we'd fact-check the five other quotes which comprise Coulter's "loose talk" six-pack. And remember what we’ve always told you--there seems to be no part of Coulter's book which stands up to the simplest fact-check. Did Coulter do a "great deal of research" when she slapped this book together? Should Coulter be praised in the Times for those footnotes? Hardly. Consider the kooky cracked pottery we stumbled across when we fact-checked Coulter's "quote" from Keith Kelly.
Yes, Coulter lists six naughty quotes on page 117 and invites us to marvel at their foolishness. One of the "quotes" is attributed to Kelly, a long-time reporter for the New York Post. Here's the text, as it appears in Slander. Kelly’s "quotation" comes with a critique from triumphant Coulter:
COULTER (page 118):"[T]he media consortium...decid[ed] on October 22--for the sake on national unity in the current political crisis--not to release an in-depth analysis of the Florida election...which, according to inside sources, gave the state election to Al Gore."
Keith Kelly, the New York Post, December 5, 2000 [129](The media consortium study was not completed for another year, at which point it was promptly released, showing that Bush had won on every count.) [130]
That's the "quotation," as it appears in Slander, along with two of those Famous Footnotes and a pithy Koulter Kritique. This passage appears on page 118 of the hardback edition--and on page 149 of the paperback version. Amazingly, no part of this passage was amended when Slander came out in paper. We say that's amazing because--as is the norm with Coulter's work--every single part of this passage is wrong, right down to those highly-praised footnotes.
To start with: No, Keith Kelly didn’t make this statement, nor did anyone else at the New York Post. According to Coulter's footnote 129, this quotation comes from a 12/5/00 Post report headlined "No President, but Election Books are Coming." Yes, there was a report with that headline that day, and yes, the report was written by Kelly. But Kelly's story didn't discuss the consortium vote count in Florida--which, of course, hadn't yet been completed--and no, Kelly's story didn't include the statement which Coulter attributes to it. As usual, her attribution is totally wrong; Kelly had nothing to do with the quoted statement. Like so much of her work in Slander, this presentation by Coulter isn't just wrong; it's bizarrely wrong. And of course, it comes in a part of the book which Maslin specifically praised.

Julia notes that she started using the search engine today to look up Cokie Roberts and "too much to read at lunch! People should be using this resource and he [Bob Somerby] is very funny. It could be really depressing without his humor because you start realizing how screwed up our media is. You think you know. But when you're using that search engine and going through all of his documented evidence, you realize it's much worse then you could ever picture."

Jim said The Daily Howler gets a link this weekend when the next Third Estate Sunday Review edition goes up, a permalink, and that Maslin really is something. I'll add, if you haven't read the book Maslin's "reviewing," you may get taken in. But if you've read it . . . I asked if she'd even read all of Carrie Fisher's last book (The Best Awful). I'd already read My Life So Far, by Jane Fonda, and the review by Maslin was a joke. Maslin wasn't reviewing the book and she rarely does. She gives a summary. When she offers her opinions on a book (check out Bob Somerby for her review of Sidney Blumenthal's The Clinton Wars) she has no idea what the book is about other than the publicity for it. From the publicity, she apparently decides whether she likes it or not and then skims for a few examples to back up her view. When she reviewed films (after the brief flash at the beginning), she was lazy and gave you summaries instead of film reviews with a few "facts" tossed in to round up her "This is what happens" summary. The nicest term is "pedistrian" for what Maslin tosses off in her I-can't-be-bothered way.

With Slander, she apparently knew the publicity, had decided she liked the book based on that, and then decided to praise footnotes that she never checked out. As Somerby points out elsewhere (use the search function), she praised a book that trashed her own paper. Now who knows what she thinks of the Times, but you'd think most people reading some of Coulter's nonsense, most people working for the Times, would be struck by the fact that it seemed wrong and check out the footnotes. Not Maslin. She appears to just want to rush through her book reports, slap them down on the teacher's desk, and rush out to the parking lot for a smoke.

Which is why she's a "reviewer" for non-readers only. People who seriously read, who enjoy it, have no use for Maslin because it's hard to read anything she's "reviewed" and not think, "Good Lord, did she even read it!" (There was a review last week on a book that Lyle was impressed with. Then he read the book. Lyle: I thought, wow, she's actually doing her job. Then I read the two books she was comparing and it was as though she'd skimmed the same section in both.)

On the subject of My Life So Far, Krista e-mailed to note that it debuted on the Times best sellers (hardcover) list Sunday at number one. Krista encourages everyone to check out and asked when Monster-in-Law opens? It opens May 13th.

Maureen Dowd slammed Jane Fonda's book Sunday in the Times. A number of you wanted this site to address it. I passed. Dowd read the book. She didn't like it, but she read it. I'm not surprised by her opinion of it. You can read Rebecca's take here. But she's entitled to dislike it. I'm not interested in a back and forth or with everyone agreeing with me. But I do think that a requirement for a book review is to read the book. Unless, you hate it so much and note that in your review. Pauline Kael would do that in her film reviews from time to time. If she couldn't get through a movie, she'd note that in the review and why. Maslin appears to skim sections of a book (at best, "sections") and then wants to write a "review" (report) and act as though she's read it. It strikes me as dishonest. Praising Coulter for her footnotes, to go back to Somerby, is dishonest. Not just because Coulter's footnotes are wrong, but also because when praising Coulter's footnotes, Maslin's creating the impression that she's checked them out. Why praise them if you haven't checked them out? Maslin leaves readers with the impression that she's done her work but reading the books she's reporting on, it's hard to believe that claim.

The Times appears to be okay with that.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This entry originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

Dahr Jamail has an article "This is our Guernica: Ruined, cordoned Falluja is emerging as the decade's monument to brutality" which he co-wrote with Jonathan Steele (article ran in The Guardian):

Robert Zoellick is the archetypal US government insider, a man with a brilliant technical mind but zero experience of any coalface or warfront. Sliding effortlessly between ivy league academia, the US treasury and corporate boardrooms (including an advisory post with the scandalous Enron), his latest position is the number-two slot at the state department.
Yet this ultimate "man of the suites" did something earlier this month that put the prime minister and the foreign secretary to shame. On their numerous visits to Iraq, neither has ever dared to go outside the heavily fortified green zones of Baghdad and Basra to see life as Iraqis have to live it. They come home after photo opportunities, briefings and pep talks with British troops and claim to know what is going on in the country they invaded, when in fact they have seen almost nothing.

From Newsweek (as noted by Rachel Maddow on her show this morning), note Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball's "Another Lost Opportunity: A convicted terrorist was providing U.S. officials with very specific information about a terrorist attack three months before 9/11:"

In the spring of 2001, one of the U.S. government’s most valuable terror informants gave the FBI a far more alarming account of Al Qaeda plans to attack inside the United States than has ever been publicly disclosed, according to newly available court documents.
Algerian expatriate Ahmed Ressam, whose sentencing for a Millennium-eve plot to blow up the Los Angeles airport was unexpectedly postponed today, told bureau interrogators nearly four years ago that Al Qaeda commander Abu Zubaydah had been discussing plans to smuggle terrorist operatives and explosives into the country for the purpose of launching a strike on U.S. soil, the documents show.
The fresh documents, released in federal court in Seattle in recent days, shed new light on an issue that dominated last year’s hearings by the September 11 commission: precisely how much did the U.S. government know about Al Qaeda plans to strike inside the country in the summer of 2001 when the attacks on the World Trade Towers and Pentagon were in their final stages?

Over at NOW, please note "House Passes Anti-Abortion Legislation Endangering Teen Health:"

"By passing this deceptive legislation, the House took another step toward final passage of a law that will endanger a women's health and safety," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "It is not for anyone else but the woman and her doctor to decide how or when she should get an abortion."
In a 250 to 157 vote, the House passed a teen endangerment bill which restricts a young woman's ability to obtain an abortion outside of the home state by punishing any adult who accompanies her, even if the closest city is across state lines.

Go to NOW to read more and note that the ACLU has several items of interest. For those following the Sibel Edmonds case click here and the Patriot Act is dealt with here.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This post originally appeared at The Common Ills.]

House Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones continues to fight the brave, noble (and too often lonely) fight for democracy and our voting rights. From The Free Press, we'll note Case Ohio's "Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections teach-in:"

Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-OH 11) will be fighting for democracy again on May 7th when she opens the CASE (Citizens' Alliance for Secure Elections) teach-in in Columbus, Ohio. CASE, along with many watchful Americans, is convinced the full story has not been told about the elections in Ohio in November of 2004. So they are working with other local groups (including Americans for Democracy) to bring concerned people together for this teach-in about Fighting for Election Justice and Integrity.
The people who have led the battle for discovery and reform will work closely with concerned individuals to tell their stories. They will explain why they are concerned, what they have done, and how they have done it. They will ask that people in the workshop groups stay networked, keep informed, and continue to work with the workshop leader to broaden the work already begun.
The plan is to build a more informed public core and enlarge the group of activists working on election issues. CASE began when concerned citizens gathered to testify before the Ohio Joint Committee on Ballot Security in March 2004. As the committee heard 22 hours of testimony about the need for a VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail), several individuals who were there to witness and testify, saw others there that shared a common interest. Fourteen met after the second session in the basement cafeteria of the statehouse and formed the association of activists that has been successful in keeping the issue of fair and open elections before the public for much of the past year.
After the Joint Committee on Ballot Security voted 8 to 1 in favor of VVPAT the newborn CASE thought for a few days that their work was done. They quickly realized that many obstacles remained. Even after the Ohio Senate voted unanimously for VVPAT in HB262 and the House followed with a nearly unanimous vote, it was clear that there were many forces set against the election. The new legislation did not require VVPAT implementation until 2006 and many counties were set to purchase equipment in 2004 that they could upgrade if upgrades were available.
CASE kept the issue before the public and Secretary of State Blackwell and the county boards backed down and decided to wait.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.

[Note: This post originally appeared at The Common Ills.]
 

We'll note that BuzzFlash has an interview with Robert McChesney that's a wide ranging discussion on the media:

BuzzFlash: You are the founder of Free Press, which is the organization sponsoring the National Conference for Media Reform May 13 - 15 this year in St. Louis, Missouri. The title is "The Media Are in Crisis. The Time To Act Is Now." What will people get out of attending this conference?
Robert W. McChesney: It's going to be a large and heterogeneous conference with two or three thousand participants, so no two people will experience the exact same thing. The unifying thread is that we need to organize politically to change media policy. We will address three planks of media activism. Even though our conference is aimed primarily at emphasizing the political organizing that has to go on and the full range of media policies, we also pay attention to people who do independent media, and the experts who critique lousy media coverage.
People will come here to learn about media policy issues and how groups are working on them at every level, from local to global. People who are active will get a chance to talk to each other, interact and share ideas. A great conference will enable us to share one or two or three years of work in one weekend. A lot of people will be interested in policy and want to learn about it, but the other aspects will be independent media and media criticism. There also might be activists in areas such as campaign finance, environmental issues, civil liberties, et cetera, who can link up with like-minded people. There will be a huge division of people doing independent media who will be able to get out there, to talk to and meet with each other. Likewise, a lot of the people who do the great media criticism of our times will be present.
This conference will bring together people who are devoted and are thinking about the issues in a lot of different ways, so only good things are going to happen. It's about raising the knowledge level of everyone. We know from our first conference, you can't really predict exactly what’s going to happen. It's like popping popcorn.
BuzzFlash: You're a professor of communications at the University of Illinois, focusing on the mass media. And you're in practically every DVD on the media BuzzFlash has
offered as a premium. You're sort of the lead act on media reform. Free Press has offices in Northampton, Massachusetts and in Washington, D.C. Is the media reform movement growing?Robert W. McChesney: I think the obvious answer is yes. You know, MoveOn and True Majority each polled their membership in recent months about what issues their groups should be working on and putting energy into over the next couple of years. In both surveys, media reform ran second, ahead of environment, education and many other great, pressing issues. There's a growing recognition by people that, unless they do something about media in this country, they're going to have a lot of trouble winning all the other issues they care about. Part of the process of changing this globe for the better, and democratizing society, is to go through changing the media. It's a very important part of our work.

There's so much to read there, worth reading, but I'll highlight this section below because members who've read Bonnie Anderson's book really love it:

BuzzFlash: We interviewed Bonnie Anderson, author of NewsFlash, who had worked for CNN for many years. One of the things she mentioned was that the first obligation of a corporation is to the shareholder of the company that owns it.
Robert W. McChesney: Bonnie's book, by the way, is terrific. I just read it. And now we have bookshelves filled with books like Bonnie Anderson's, by high quality, greatly respected journalists. The point of all of them is that corporate pressure has destroyed journalism in this country, period. There's no other way to read it. We have to radically change our media system. We have to think boldly. We cannot let journalism be the province of these companies. They've lost their right to control our journalism. They've abused that phenomenal privilege that they have been given. And we've gotten answers. We've got creative ways to come up with enlightened democratic policies to promote viable journalism, to promote a free media. I think in the long term we want policies that can promote more competitive markets, and much more local ownership. We've got to think creatively about encouraging and expanding nonprofit and non-commercial media and creating a more heterogeneous nonprofit sector. These are the institutional steps we've got to put in place to build the sort of press system that can do the job that has to be done if democratic government's going to amount to a hill of beans in this country.

Also on the topic of the media, Robert Parry is addressing what's prompted some Dems to find a spine? From "Mystery of the Democrats' New Spine:"

But another part of the answer lies with the Democrats. They appear less defensive, more willing to make their arguments without so many equivocations. Though there are still flashbacks to the old Democrats -- for instance, Sen. Joe Biden's reference to Alberto Gonzales as "old buddy" at the Attorney General’s confirmation hearing -- those examples are rarer.
One explanation for the Democrats' turnabout is the rise of progressive media, most notably progressive AM talk radio which has expanded rapidly over the past several months. Finally, Democratic leaders can go on sympathetic radio shows and make their case directly to listeners.
Before, Democrats almost always would find themselves speaking in unfriendly territory. Sometimes they would appear on conservative media, such as Fox News, or they'd face mainstream pundits eager to prove they weren't liberal by being tougher on Democrats than Republicans, the likes of NBC's Tim Russert.
Faced with hostile questioning, national Democrats often sought a safe middle ground, which made them look weak or indecisive, opening them to attacks as "flip-floppers" or "lacking conviction." On the other hand, Republicans could count on friendly receptions from conservative hosts and mostly deferential treatment on mainstream programs.
Limbaugh's Value
For more than a decade now, conservative talk radio has had the Republicans' back.
Republicans could count on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, et al to go out on the nation's air waves and organize support for conservative positions. Whenever Republicans were in a tough spot, they knew they had defenders.
That, in turn, meant Republicans had more margin of error when making their case. An overstatement -- or even an outright falsehood -- wouldn't be a political death knell. So, Bush could talk loosely about Democratic senators as "not interested in the security of the American people" or pretend that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had barred U.N. weapons inspectors before the war and expect little fallout. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Reality on the Ballot."]
By contrast, Democrats could expect any clumsy remark to be turned into a huge controversy both by mainstream and conservative news outlets. In Campaign 2004, John Kerry got pummeled for saying that he had supported one version of an Iraq War appropriations bill but opposed another, when it was barely mentioned that Bush had opposed the first version and supported the second.
Four years earlier, Al Gore saw his words twisted beyond recognition to make him out to be a liar or delusional, a crucial factor in Election 2000. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Al Gore v. the Media."] During the run-up to war in Iraq, Gore was savaged again for his thoughtful critiques of Bush's unilateralist foreign policy. [See Consortiumnews.com's "Politics of Preemption."]
The liberals simply lacked a media that could defend Democrats when they took tough stands or when they made innocent mistakes. They were pretty much on their own, helping to explain their timidity.

Cedrick e-mails to highlight, from The Black Commentator, "

A crack has opened in the historical Black continuum. 2005 will be recorded as the year that the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) came apart at the seams, the victim of an unprecedented rightwing money and media offensive in Black America, rank treachery by a hardcore handful of Caucus members, and the indiscipline and gross irresponsibility of many more.
The CBC's collective failure to stand for its constituents and the struggle-birthed legacy of African Americans is also, ironically, a product of historical Black political practice and instinct: the imperative toward unity, which has up to now been the salvation and defining characteristic of the African American polity.

Lizz Brown, talk show host on St. Louis radio station WGNU. Watt urged Brown not to read too much into the fact that ten of 41 CBC members voted for the Republican bankruptcy bill, since the Caucus as a whole "did not take a position" on the legislation. But of course, the Caucus could not take a position on bankruptcy, if unanimity or near-unanimity were required. Therefore the CBC, as an institution, sat out a "bright line" vote on an issue of monumental consequence to their core constituency: the predatory lender-besieged Black community.
The CBC also disappeared as a political entity in the fight over repeal of the estate tax, a Republican measure that benefits less than one-half of one percent of Blacks, weakens the nation's capacity to maintain a social safety net for all the rest of us, and reinforces wealth privilege. Eight Caucus members sided with the rich, and against their constituents -- with not a hint of sanction from the CBC, which "did not take a position" on the matter. (See BC, "Black Caucus Losing Cohesion," April 21, 2005.)

Tori e-mails to note "Six Congresspeople call for US Justice Dept. inquiry regarding the RNC" by Gideon and from NYC Indymedia:

Six Democratic members of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Hon. John Conyers, Jr., Hon Robert C. Scott, Hon. Sheila Jackson Lee, Hon. Jerold Nadler, Hon. Melvin Watt, and Hon. Linda Sanchez wrote a letter dated April 25, 2005 to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales regarding "credible and troubling reports of police misconduct and perjury in connection with the arrests and prosecution of demonstrators at last year's Republican National Convention in New York City." They called for "immediate federal scrutiny by the Justice Department" of possible "criminal deprivations of rights under color of law and civil violations of the police pattern and practice laws." A copy of the letter is attached.

Boyd e-mails to highlight (from Boston's IMC) CE Campbell's "

Last night, the National Voting Rights Institute and Lesley University hosted Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. to speak to the issue of a constitutional right to vote for all US citizens. Speaking to a packed audience at the Marran Theater, Congressman Jackson made it abundantly clear that there is no specific guarantee providing the right to vote under the US Constitution, and so he has filed House Joint Resolution 28 to remedy this.
BOSTON -- Last night, the National Voting Rights Institute and Lesley University hosted Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr. to speak to the issue of a constitutional right to vote for all US citizens. Speaking to a packed audience at the Marran Theater, Congressman Jackson made it abundantly clear that there is no specific guarantee providing the right to vote under the US Constitution, and so he has filed House Joint Resolution 28 to remedy this. The 15th, 19th, and 26th Amendments provide protection against discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and age respectively. But with regard to national elections it is the 10th Amendment that provides for states, not the federal government, to determine the right to vote and how elections may be conducted. Since national elections are shaped by a state's rights system, Congress does not have the authority to define entitlements of suffrage or impose election procedures. Some states do not allow convicted felons to vote until their time is served, while others prohibit voting for life. States like Vermont and Maine allow felons to vote while in prison. The methods of marking, casting and counting votes varies widely from state to state, and within states themselves. "Voting in America is overseen by 13,000 different election administrations, all separate and unequal," Congressman Jackson states. Legislation like the Help America Vote Act of 2002 cannot contend with many of the irregularities and problems plaguing US elections for this reason. By implication, the current Carter - Baker Election Commission will serve more as a facade of official inquiry than affect true reform.

A Constitutional amendment will "provide Congress with the authority to craft a unitary voting system that is inclusive of all Americans and guarantees that all votes will be counted in a complete, fair and efficient manner," Jackson also states. Fighting to shift power away from state and local governments will likely be met with significant resistance. While such an amendment may help to curb practices that disenfranchise voters, it could also have severe consequences for how elections are conducted and certified. When asked what voting methods he preferred, Congressman Jackson said the simple answer is that he does not have one. His issue, he said, is fighting for this Constitutional provision to vote, because all other questions about voting must follow from this. By what methods and technologies an election is conducted is a matter of heated debate, with advocates for total computer voting at odds with those who fight to preserve paper ballots counted by hand. The passing of House Joint Resolution 28 and its impact remain to be seen.

[Article is noted to be in the public domain and I'm unsure where to cut, so it's posted in full.]

wotisitgood4) "bigtime purge:"

From Ireland's IE Indymedia, Dominick sends Joe Black's "It happened in the Phoenix Park all in the month of May" which is a strong article that we'll excerpt from. We will note all events that are listed in this post. From Black's article:


I stared this piece intending it to be little more than an ad for this Maydays anarchist picnic in the Phoenix park (details follow) with perhaps a little bit of context thrown in. But suddenly I found myself carried away by the political geography of this park which was after all originally built as a Deer park for a discarded mistress of Charles II (hence the high wall). If you know even a little of that history the park becomes a different place and suddenly the events of Mayday 2004 fall into a greater context of political protest and the control of space.
One year ago, on Mayday 2004, the summit of the EU heads of state took place in Farmleigh House in the Pheonix Park. The entire park was filled with surveillance cameras, ringed with fences, draped with barbed wire, buzzed by helicopters, rigged with motion detectors and surrounded with riot police. In the end water cannons were deployed to keep a protestors out of the park.
History is normally written by the winners and it is common to find each new generation of radicals having to rediscover the stories of those who went before them. Thus, it is not surprising that many of those who protested last year probably were unaware of the history of battles between radical movements and the state that the park played host to in the past.
While the park hosts many of the symbols of power in Ireland - past and present - from the monument to the arch-reactionary Wellington, to the US-ambassador's residence and the Garda Headquarters, it has also seen its fair share of opposition. The invincibles assasinated the British Secretary there in 1882, it was the site of many early 20th century trade union ralies and the magazine fort in the park was captured at the start of the 1916 rising and was raided again by the IRA in 1939. The phoenix park is, in many ways, a symbolic battleground for the soul of Ireland. In recent years radical movements in Ireland have re-energised Mayday in Dublin. This year, even without the pomp and grandeur of the EU heads of state, a series of radical events are planned to span the weekend. A festival of radical opposition that is once again bubbling to the surface. And once again the Phoenix Park is on the menu.
Mayday Radical Events: Anarchist 1st of May picnic in Phoenix ParkDCTU May Day Demonstration - Solidarity with Migrant Workers including a Get up stand up block to help organise the unorganisedReclaim the Streets

[Note: The article is worth reading. I'm editing right at this point to drop down and include the other events in Ireland.]

May weekend events in Dublin
* May Day Demonstration - Solidarity with Migrant Workers This years May Day trade union demonstration will take place on Saturday April 30th meeting at 2.30 at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square. The demo will march to Liberty Hall and is on the theme of solidarity with migrant workers. The march has been called by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69176
Join The Get Up Stand Up Bloc And Help Organise The Unorganised
This Mayday weekend, the Get Up Stand Up Campaign will be organizing a block on the Trades Council March In Dublin. After the march we will be returning to the roots of Mayday and parading through the city to distribute leaflets on basic workers' rights to people working in casualised labour. Join us in building the labour movement.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69495
Anarchist 1st of May picnic in Phoenix Park
This Mayday let us go back to the park and have ourselves a picnic free of all the state imposed hassle and madness of last year. This will be (at least) the fourth anarchist picnic held in the park. Meet up at the Wellington Monument at 1pm
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69488
Reclaim The Streets
On Monday, May 2nd, starting from the Spike on O'Connell Street at 1.30pm, Reclaim The Streets and Dissent! Ireland, along with Critical Mass will be holding a free street party to help highlight the effects that the G8 leaders have on the world, and to help people mobolise to take action and travel to this years G8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland on July 6th.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69141
More information
The anarchist origins of Mayday in Chicago -
http://struggle.ws/about/mayday.html
The Peterloo massacre - http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/manchester/trails/TRA25555.html?trailpage=3http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/distress/peterloo.htm
Original texts reporting on Peterloo
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/distress/peter3.htm
The 1820 revolt in Scotland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/scotland/strathclyde/article_1.shtml
Liam Brady and 1939 raid on the magazine fort
http://www.searcs-web.com/brady.html
The Invincibles
http://lark.phoblacht.net/shadowgunman.html
Larkin and the Invincible monument
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/farrell/works/1940s/lestweforget.htm
History of the park
http://www.obeirnefamily.mcmail.com/issue4/History%20of%20Phoeniex%20Park.htm
About the park today
http://mbm.dotnet11.hostbasket.com/iis/zajms/phoenix.htm
A kids game based in the park
http://www.araskids.ie/html/park/

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[Note: This post originally appeared at The Common Ills.]