Hi. Sorry for the late announcement about David Barsamyan. I just got word of this very special person's coming here. Brilliant, honest, plain- speaking, informed and passionate, is how I and many others know him to be. So, if you're in any of the areas, tonight thru Thursday, go! ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?th&emc=th Gore Derangement Syndrome By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: October 15, 2007 On the day after Al Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize, The Wall Street Journal's editors couldn't even bring themselves to mention Mr. Gore's name. Instead, they devoted their editorial to a long list of people they thought deserved the prize more. And at National Review Online, Iain Murray suggested that the prize should have been shared with "that well-known peace campaigner Osama bin Laden, who implicitly endorsed Gore's stance." You see, bin Laden once said something about climate change - therefore, anyone who talks about climate change is a friend of the terrorists. What is it about Mr. Gore that drives right-wingers insane? Partly it's a reaction to what happened in 2000, when the American people chose Mr. Gore but his opponent somehow ended up in the White House. Both the personality cult the right tried to build around President Bush and the often hysterical denigration of Mr. Gore were, I believe, largely motivated by the desire to expunge the stain of illegitimacy from the Bush administration. And now that Mr. Bush has proved himself utterly the wrong man for the job - to be, in fact, the best president Al Qaeda's recruiters could have hoped for - the symptoms of Gore derangement syndrome have grown even more extreme. The worst thing about Mr. Gore, from the conservative point of view, is that he keeps being right. In 1992, George H. W. Bush mocked him as the "ozone man," but three years later the scientists who discovered the threat to the ozone layer won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In 2002 he warned that if we invaded Iraq, "the resulting chaos could easily pose a far greater danger to the United States than we presently face from Saddam." And so it has proved. But Gore hatred is more than personal. When National Review decided to name its anti-environmental blog Planet Gore, it was trying to discredit the message as well as the messenger. For the truth Mr. Gore has been telling about how human activities are changing the climate isn't just inconvenient. For conservatives, it's deeply threatening. Consider the policy implications of taking climate change seriously. "We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals," said F.D.R. "We know now that it is bad economics." These words apply perfectly to climate change. It's in the interest of most people (and especially their descendants) that somebody do something to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, but each individual would like that somebody to be somebody else. Leave it up to the free market, and in a few generations Florida will be underwater. The solution to such conflicts between self-interest and the common good is to provide individuals with an incentive to do the right thing. In this case, people have to be given a reason to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions, either by requiring that they pay a tax on emissions or by requiring that they buy emission permits, which has pretty much the same effects as an emissions tax. We know that such policies work: the U.S. "cap and trade" system of emission permits on sulfur dioxide has been highly successful at reducing acid rain. Climate change is, however, harder to deal with than acid rain, because the causes are global. The sulfuric acid in America's lakes mainly comes from coal burned in U.S. power plants, but the carbon dioxide in America's air comes from coal and oil burned around the planet - and a ton of coal burned in China has the same effect on the future climate as a ton of coal burned here. So dealing with climate change not only requires new taxes or their equivalent; it also requires international negotiations in which the United States will have to give as well as get. Everything I've just said should be uncontroversial - but imagine the reception a Republican candidate for president would receive if he acknowledged these truths at the next debate. Today, being a good Republican means believing that taxes should always be cut, never raised. It also means believing that we should bomb and bully foreigners, not negotiate with them. So if science says that we have a big problem that can't be solved with tax cuts or bombs - well, the science must be rejected, and the scientists must be slimed. For example, Investor's Business Daily recently declared that the prominence of James Hansen, the NASA researcher who first made climate change a national issue two decades ago, is actually due to the nefarious schemes of - who else? - George Soros. Which brings us to the biggest reason the right hates Mr. Gore: in his case the smear campaign has failed. He's taken everything they could throw at him, and emerged more respected, and more credible, than ever. And it drives them crazy. *** ----- Original Message ----- From: "evan davis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 8:58 PM http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/14/bellecourt.obit.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText I knew and really liked this man and, although I had no specific plans to see him or interview him again I guess I unconsciously thought such an encounter was inevitable and was looking forward to it. Now I am recalling so many o the things he said in my presence and un-finished stories he began that I hoped to hear him conclude - like the massive demonstration he attended in Mexico City as part of a Native American delegation where all the streets leading to the Zocalo were filled with demonstrators calling for socialism or at least progressive reform. He had very recently broken his leg and speakers placed him in the from tow of the seated section but even at that close distance the cheering of the crowds prevented him from clearly hearing the speeches. He told me of how in that moment he could feel the world beginning to awaken and change like a sudden warm Spring breeze. Vernon spoke at Kent State one year for the May 4 memorial and shared the stage with Julia Butterfly Hill, Ramona Africa and Noam Chomsky. Vernon's speech was impassioned and indignant as he compared the assault on the students to repression of protesters of all stripes including the Native Americans who occupied Alcatraz, and how the shootings on that campus had a parallel to those at Pine Ridge and at Wounded Knee. He said that the treaties the American government offered Native Americans with no intention of ever honoring them were broken again in spirit when the civil rights of the students at Kent and Jackson were shattered with bullets. Vernon spoke in Winona LaDuke's stead at a conference I helped organize after Winona canceled on less than 24 hour notice. I had VErnon's number and called him at about 10:30 the night before the conference. He was on a plane the following afternoon and arrived in time to attend the weekly Women in Black vigil with Amy Goodman. He spoke that night for nearly 3 hours. Ryme Khatkouda and Errol Maitland ere there to record it and web-cast it. At another conference on the same campus where Vernon spoke on the plight of occupied Palestine I recall how furious he got when some rabid Zionist hecklers tried to shout down another Native American friend who was speaking in his capacity as an army veteran. Vernon raised his walking cane and bellowed at them that they had no right to be in America and that they were guests who were behaving discourteously toward their hosts. He actually shut them up, at least until their bussed-in reinforcements arrived. I also regret all the more the several times when I urged Vernon to wrap up one of his lengthy speeches. I always found his orations very engaging, but, like Castro his concept of time related only to how much he had to say and how long he felt like taking to say it. One of the things that upset me about the popularity of Ward Churchill, a man who Bellecourt insisted was a fraud, when Vernon was easily as articulate and insightfull, and, in my opinion far more astute.Vernon had an optimism about him that glimmered through his deep abiding frustration and disappointment with America in twilight of empire. Evan === From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Emily Kunstler Subject: Vernon Bellecourt Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 With a heavy heart I am writing to inform you that our dear friend Vernon Bellecourt (WaBun-Inini) passed over into the spirit world earlier today, October 13, 2007. Vernon died in Minneapolis, Minnesota surrounded by his friends and family. Sarah, Margaret, and I had the privilege of visiting Vernon in the hospital last Tuesday with his brother Clyde while we were in Minneapolis. The Kunstler family sends its sincere condolences to the Bellecourt family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. Vernon will be deeply missed. *Please read below to see how you can help the Bellecourt family during this difficult period.* Vernon Bellecourt (WaBun-Inini) 1931 - 2007 Anishinabe/Ojibwe Nation Vernon was a principal spokesman for the American Indian Movement and a leader in actions ranging from the 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington to the 1992 Redskin Superbowl demonstrations. He Co-founded and was the first Executive Director of the Denver AIM Chapter. His involvement at Wounded Knee in 1973 led to a Federal indictment. He was a special representative of the International Indian Treaty Council and helped organize the first Treaty Conference in 1974. He was jailed for throwing his blood on the Guatemalan Embassy to protest the killing of 100,000 Indians. He was elected to a 4-year term in his White Earth tribal government and developed a model program for the spiritual education of Indian prisoners. Vernon was President of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports & Media and recipient of the City of Phoenix, Martin Luther King Human Rights Award 1993. *The Bellecourt family has asked us to share the memorial and bury plans.* Monday, October 15, 2007 - 5pm - Celebration of Vernon's Life All Nations Indian Church 1515 E 23rd Street Minneapolis, MN 55404 Tuesday, October 16, 2007 - Wake Circle of Life School, White Earth Reservation, MN Wednesday Morning, October 17, 2007 - Burial White Earth Reservation, MN *Vernon had no medical insurance plan and the Bellecourt family is collecting donations to help pay for medical and burial costs.* Please give generously. Donations and cards can be sent to: Clyde Bellecourt 3953 14th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55407 *** ----- Original Message ----- From: C Kaffen To: jan27action David Barsamian in SoCal David Barsamian - Targeting Iran - SoCal Speaking Schedule Tuesday, October 16, 8pm Glendale, CA Luna Playhouse, 3706 San Fernando Rd Contact: Maro- 818-512-3112 Wednesday, October 17, 7:30pm Los Angeles, CA Skylight Books, 1818 N Vermont Ave Contact: 323-660-1175 Thursday, October 18, 7pm Los Angeles, CA UCLA, Bunche Hall, Room 2209 Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] David Barsamian, Director Alternative Radio 2129 Mapleton Boulder, CO 80304 USA 303 444 8788 http://www.alternativeradio.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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