Yesterday's Phil Ochs film and panel was wonderful, throughout. Turnaway audience, wonderful panel - an honor to be on it - and the film itself is absolutely extrordinary, the best sum up, not only of Phil's life and great art, but of the most meaningful era of most or our lives, the one where people's power actually meant something. I'm hopeful we're entering another which could match or exceed it. The film "Phil Ochs - There But For Fortune - is now playing throughout 60 cities in the U.S., so far; here in So Cal, at Laemmle theaters.
Here are two short, but meaningful items, which can be extended; your choice. The 3rd is not only incalculable, but incomprehensible, outrageous and inhuman, let along unamerican. It has to be read and remembered, as the media and the president cover it up. Ed http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150117/republican_pollster%3A_gop_is_jumping_off_a_cliff%2C_chased_by_tea_party_%22tiger%22/?akid=6597.78931.WxdueI&rd=1&t=5 Republican Pollster: The GOP Is Jumping Off a Cliff, Chased By Tea Party "Tiger." Most Americans -- including independents -- don't want spending cuts. The GOP's agenda is appealing to its far-right base, not the American mainstream. By Steve Benen Washington Monthly : March 3, 2011 If there's any good news for Republicans in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, it's hiding well. Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, says these results are a "cautionary sign" for a Republican Party pursuing deep budget cuts. He points out that the Americans who are most concerned about spending cuts are core Republicans and Tea Party supporters, not independents and swing voters. "It may be hard to understand why a person might jump off a cliff, unless you understand they're being chased by a tiger," he said. "That tiger is the Tea Party." Literally every day for the last few months, GOP officials have argued, ad nauseum, that "the American people" want and expect Republicans to pursue their far-right agenda. The public wants deep spending cuts, they say. Voters are demanding austerity measures, they insist. And yet, the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming -- the party's agenda is appealing to its far-right base, not the American mainstream. On the party's union-busting efforts, for example, a 62% majority believe it's unacceptable to eliminate public workers' collective-bargaining rights as way to deal with state budget deficits. Only 33% think it's acceptable. On national priorities, most Americans believe job creation and economic growth -- not deficit reduction -- should be policymakers' top issue. Similarly, a 52% majority of Americans believe GOP budget tactics "go too far" in "cutting programs and reducing federal spending." But the results that should cause Republican leaders to break out in a cold sweat were the ones on how Americans would like to see policymakers reduce the deficit. The most popular: placing a surtax on federal income taxes for those who make more than $1 million per year (81 percent said that was acceptable), eliminating spending on earmarks (78 percent), eliminating funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says aren't necessary (76 percent) and eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries (74 percent). The least popular: cutting funding for Medicaid, the federal government health-care program for the poor (32 percent said that was acceptable); cutting funding for Medicare, the federal government health-care program for seniors (23 percent); cutting funding for K-12 education (22 percent); and cutting funding for Social Security (22 percent). In other words, the most popular ideas are the one Republicans refuse to even consider, while the least popular ideas are Republican favorites. GOP pollster McInturff added that the numbers should "serve as a huge flashing yellow sign to Republicans." Of course, Republicans aren't likely to see that huge flashing yellow sign if they're busy running from a tiger that's chasing them off a cliff. For the full results from the poll, click on: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A_Politics/___Politics_Today_Stories_Teases/2-24-28-11.pdf.***From:"Portside Moderator" <[email protected]>Corporate 'Education Reform': AMoment of National InsanityBy Diane RavitchEducation WeekMarch 1,2011http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/I'm beginning tothink we are living in a moment of nationalinsanity. On the one hand, wehear pious exhortations abouteducation reform, endlessly uttered by ourleaders in highpolitical office, corporate suites, foundations, andthemedia. President Obama says we have to "out-educate" the restof the worldto "win the future."Yet the reality on the ground suggests that thecorporatereform movement-embraced by so many of those same leaders,includingthe president-will set American education back, byhow many years or decadesis anyone's guess. Sometimes Ithink we are hurtling back a century or more,to the age ofthe Robber Barons and the great corporate trusts.Consider a fewevents of the past week:To read more, goto:http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/***From:[email protected]: Sunday, March 06, 2011 10:21AMhttp://www.zcommunications.org/incalculable-by-kathy-kellyIncalculableByKathy KellyZnet: March 4th, 2011Recent polls suggest that while a majorityof U.S. people disapprove of thewar in Afghanistan, many on grounds of itshorrible economic cost, onlythree percent took the war into account whenvoting in the 2010 midtermelections. The issue of the economy weighedheavily on voters, but the warand its cost, though clear to them and clearlyrelated to the economy intheir thinking, was a far less pressing concern.U.S. people, if they do read or hear of it, may be shocked at theapparentunconcern of the crews of two U.S. helicopter gunships, whichattacked andkilled nine children on a mountainside in Afghanistan's Kumarprovince,shooting them "one after another" this past Tuesday March 1st.("Thehelicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash fromthehelicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round theyhoveredover us and started shooting." (NYT 3/2/11)). Four of the boys wereseven years old; three were eight, one was nine andthe oldest was twelve."The children were gathering wood under a tree inthe mountains near avillage in the district," said Noorullah Noori, amember of the localdevelopment council in Manogai district. "I myself wasinvolved in theburial," Noori said. "Yesterday we buried them." (AP, March2, 2011) GeneralPetraeus has acknowledged, and apologized for, thetragedy. He has had manytragedies to apologize for just counting Kunar provincealone. Last August26th, in the Manogai district, Afghan authoritiesaccused internationalforces of killing six children during an air assaulton Taliban positions.Provincial police chief Khalilullah Ziayee said agroup of children werecollecting scrap metal on the mountain when NATOaircraft dropped bombs todisperse Taliban fighters attacking a nearby base."In the bombardment sixchildren, aged six to 12, were killed," the policecommander In the Bamiyanprovince of Afghanistan, Zekirullah, a young Afghan friendof mine, age 15,rises at 2 a.m. several mornings each week and rides hisdonkey for six hoursthrough the pre-dawn to reach a mountainside where hecan collect scrub brushand twigs which he loads on the donkey in baskets.Then he heads home andstacks the wood - on top of his family's home - to betaken down later andburned for heat. They don't have electrical appliancesto heat the home, andeven if they did the villagers Sadly, more and more of us in America aregetting used to the idea ofchild poverty - and even child labor - as our owneconomy sinks furtherunder the burden of our latest nine years of war, of $2billion per week wespend creating poverty abroad that we can then emulate athome. Things aregetting bad here, but in Afghanistan, children are bombed.Their bodies arecasually dismembered and strewn by machines already lost inthe horizon asthe limbs settle. They lie in pools of blood until familymembers real In October and again in December of 2010, our small delegationof Voicesfor Creative Nonviolence activists met with a large family livingin awretched refugee camp. They had fled their homes in the San Gindistrict ofthe Helmand Province after a drone attack killed a mother thereand her fivechildren. The woman's husband showed us photos of his children'sbloodiedcorpses. His niece, Juma Gul, age 9, had survived the attack. Sheand Ihuddled next to each other inside a hut made of mud on a chillyDecember Next to Juma Gul was her brother, whose leg had been mangled intheattack. He apparently has no access to adequate medical careandexperiences constant pain. The pilot of the attacking drone,perhapscontrolling it from as far away as Creech Air Force Base here in theUnitedStates, knows nothing of this family or of the pain that he or shehelpedinflict. Nor do the commanders, the people who set up the base, thepeoplewho pay for it with their taxes, and the people who persist inelectingcandidates intent on i But sometimes the war is like it was thispast Tuesday March 1. Sometimesthe issue is right in front of us - as it wasto those helicopter crews -it'sup close so there can be no mistake as towhat we are doing. According tothe election polls we see the cost of war,dimly, but, as with thehelicopter crews, it doesn't affect - or prevent -our decisions.Afterwards we deplore the tragedy; we make a pretense ofacknowledging thecost of war, but it is incalculable. We can't hope tocount it* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kathy Kelly ([email protected]) co-coordinates Voicesfor Creative Nonviolence(www.vcnv.org) and has worked closely with theAfghan Youth Peace Volunteers(www.livewithoutwars.org)From: Z Net - TheSpirit Of Resistance Lives--You are currently on Mha Atma's Earth ActionNetwork email list,to be on our list: [email protected] info: www.earthactionnetwork.org"We are dealing with a far more ominousthreat than sickness and death. Weare dealing with the dark side ofhumanity -- selfishness, avarice,aggression. All this has already pollutedour skies, emptied our oceans,destroyed our forests and extinguishedthousands of beautiful animals. Areour children next? . It is no longerenough to vaccinate them or give themfood and water and only cure thesymptoms of man's tendency to destroyeverything we hold dear. Whether itbe famine in Ethiopia, excruciatingpoverty in Guatemala and Honduras, civilstrife in El Salvador or ethnicmassacre in the Sudan, I saw but one glaringtruth; these are not naturaldisaster but man-made tragedies for which thereis only one man-madesolution - Peace."~Audrey Hepburn, April 1989, in aspeech given while serving as goodwillambassador for Unicef ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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