Two week break

Wow. What a difference two weeks makes. The last update to this iste was May 25. Two weeks later, more than 30 more U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq, a great peace rally was held at Cameron Park Market and Chip DeNure is running against Ron Kind for the Third Congressional district seat.

Yikes.

Summer is busy and updates will be coming, but not every day. We hope the calendar will be updated more often and apologize for missing posting info about the June 2 Rally for Peace.

Others are invited to post here. Please email us for info.

On the radio

Mike Hayes was defending the extra-judicial government data-mining of phone records recently. "If it will help catch a terrorist," he, and many of his listeners, are up for anything.

Greg Palast details how spying on phone records is not in any way intended to catch terrorists. Rather,

... now ChoicePoint and George Bush want your blood. Forget your phone bill. ChoicePoint, a sickened executive of the company told us in confidence, "hope[s] to build a database of DNA samples from every person in the United States ...linked to all the other information held by CP [ChoicePoint]" from medical to voting records.

But it won't stop, despite Republican senators shedding big crocodile tears about "surveillance" of innocent Americans. That's because FEAR is a lucrative business -- not just for ChoicePoint, but for firms such as Syntech, Sybase and Lockheed-Martin -- each of which has provided lucrative posts or profits to connected Republicans including former Total Information Awareness chief John Poindexter (Syntech), Marvin Bush (Sybase) and Lynn Cheney (Lockheed-Martin).

But how can they get Americans to give up our personal files, our phone logs, our DNA and our rights? Easy. Fear sells better than sex -- and they want you to be afraid. Back to today's New York Times, page 28: "Wider Use of DNA Lists is Urged in Fighting Crime." And who is providing the technology? It comes, says the Times, from the work done on using DNA fragments to identity victims of the September 11 attack. And who did that job (for $12 million, no bid)? ChoicePoint, Inc. Which is NOT mentioned by the Times.

"Genetic surveillance would thus shift from the individual [the alleged criminal] to the family," says the Times -- which will require, of course, a national DNA database of NON-criminals.

Get with it, people. This is administration is NOT INTERESTED in "catching terrorists." Heck, they are busy creating new ones every day.

Remember, Richard Clarke said,

“[O]n June 21, I believe it was, George Tenet called me and said, 'I don't think we're getting the message through. These people aren't acting the way the Clinton people did under similar circumstances.' And I suggested to Tenet that he come down and personally brief Condi Rice, that he bring his terrorism team with him.

“And we sat in the national security adviser's office. And I've used the phrase in the book to describe George Tenet's warnings as ‘He had his hair on fire.’ He was about as excited as I'd ever seen him."

Former Democratic Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado also directly told senior Bush officials loudly and clearly that, in his words, "The terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming."

Hart was co-chair (with former Sen. Warren Rudman, R-N.H.) of the U.S. Commission on National Security, a bipartisan panel that conducted the most thorough investigation of U.S. security challenges since World War II. After completing the report, which warned that a devastating terrorist attack on America was imminent and called for the immediate creation of a Cabinet-level national security agency, and delivering it to President Bush on January 31, 2001, Hart and Rudman personally briefed Rice, Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell. But, according to Hart, the Bush administration never followed up on the commission's urgent recommendations, even after he repeated them in a private White House meeting with Rice just days before 9/11.

“And he said, ‘Something is going to happen.’”

Security? Security!?

Here's Air Force Colonel P.J. Crowley (ret.)

The Bush administration has not matched its homeland security rhetoric with the resources that actually make us more secure. As in other areas vital to homeland security, port security is an unfunded federal mandate. The administration talks the talk of a genuine public-private partnership involving federal, state and local governments and the private sector. However, it does not walk the walk. In the face of growing federal budget deficits, the Bush administration is attempting to push most of the cost of these new security standards down to states and the private sector.

What about the journalists who are now having their phone calls monitored? What about the claim by Governor Bill Richardson (NM) that his calls were monitored?

Every day a new lie is uncovered. What about the Quakers who've been spied upon? or the peace groups spied upon? or the animal rights groups spied upon? or the grandmothers spied upon?

It's really no surprise that WIZM listeners would be ok with this. The six plus hours of daily propaganda from spinmeister Rush and Spinnity Hannity, the FOX News of the radio, is hard to resist. We can't blame them for being ill-, mis- and un-informed.But being ignorant does not trump the Constitution. Yet.

Where will "if it catches a terrorist" end?

Coming this week

Monday, May 15 at 7 p.m. at the La Crosse Public Library: A free screening of the film WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION by award-winning independent filmmaker, Danny Schechter. FREE AND OPEN TO ALL. Bring your own comfy beanbag or lawn chair. Sponsored by Open Eye Documentary and Independent Film Society.

Wednesday, May 17 at 4:30 p.m. a RIDE OF SILENCE to honor those who have been killed or injured in bike-car collisions. If you know someone who has been killed, please wear a black arm band. If you have been injured please wear a red armband. Ride begins at 4:30 at the UW-L Clocktower and will go down La Crosse Street to City Hall. Please email Cathy for more info.

Thursday, May 18 at 7 p.m. in the Cleary Alumni and Friends Center at UW-L: The Struggle Against Myths, Propaganda, Violence and Annexation in Palestine and Israel - Long time Nonviolent peace activists and Christian Peacemaker team members, Jerry and Sis Levin, will report on the nonviolent Struggle against Israel’s continuing the U.S.-encouraged effort to dismantle the land of Palestine.

Be there!

Coming events

This week it's time to write your letters to the editor and gear up for a summer of activism.

TONIGHT at 7:00 p.m. in the Ward Room, Wisconsin State Senator, Dan Kapanke will be at a form presented by WISPIRG and UW-L Progressives talking about Wisconsin's new Energy Efficiency and Renewables law. BE THERE!

Coming events in May include a May 12 fundraiser for Chris Danou, candidate for Wisconsin's 31st Senate district, a May 15 movie, Weapons of Mass Deception, at the La Crosse Public Library; the May 13/14 Campout for Peace in Viroqua; and a May 17 Ride of Silence to remember those who have been killed or injured in bike-car accidents.

Read more at the Progressives' Calendar.

Anti-war music

This came from Jim:

The La Crosse Choral Union will Perform Ralph Vaughn Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem at their May 7 concernt at 7:30 p.m. at the Cathedral, 530 Main Street. Dona Nobis Pacem is a powerful and moving piece of anti-war music. Ralph Vaughn Williams wrote it in 1937 just as it appeared that the world would be engulfed in another global war. Vaughn Williams had experienced the incredible carnage of WW I serving as a ambulance driver and wrote Dona Nobis Pacem (from the Latin Mass meaning "Grant us Peace") as a plea to avoid the hatred, suffering, and destruction of another war.

Tickets for the concert may be obtained at the door for a suggested donation of $10 for adults, $8 for senior citizens, and $5 for students. Tickets may also be purchased in advance from Choral Union members.


Also featured on the program are Nancy Matchett’s new setting of the Quaker hymn “How Can I Keep From Singing On?” and Tom Benjamin’s “O Sing a New Song.” These pieces won the first and second prizes in the Choral Union’s recent composition contest, which honors the memory of soprano Sigrid Mount.

The Choral Union is the University’s symphonic chorus, made up of UWL students, faculty, staff, and community singers from throughout the Coulee Region. The Choral Union will be accompanied by an orchestra of faculty, student and community musicians, under the leadership of Dr. Paul Rusterholz.

Vocal soloists in “Dona Nobis Pacem” are sopranos Nancy Matchett, Katharina Schneider, Linda Zoerb, and baritone Hans Laping. For more on Vaughn Wililams' Dona Nobis Pacem click here.