Ann Coulter Defends White Supremacist Group

SPLC on Coulter

In her latest foaming-mouth tome — Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, released on Jan. 6 — Coulter spends the better part of three pages defending a group called the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which The New York Times had described as a “thinly veiled white supremacist organization.” Coulter begs to differ. The CCC, Coulter opines, is “a conservative group” that has unfairly been branded as racist “because some of the directors of the CCC had, decades earlier, been leaders of a segregationist group.” “There is no evidence on its Web page that the modern incarnation of the CCC supports segregation,” she says. “Apart from some aggressive reporting on black-on-white crimes — the very crimes that are aggressively hidden by the establishment media — there is little on the CCC website suggesting” that the group is racist. Indeed, its main failing is “containing members who had belonged to a segregationist group thirty years earlier.”

Coulter could hardly be more wrong. And even if she can’t find time to read beyond a page of the CCC’s website, she really ought to know — after all, the organization where she frequently speaks, the Conservative Political Action Committee, has publicly banned the CCC from its annual gathering because it is racist. Also in the late 1990s, Jim Nicholson, then-chairman of the Republican National Committee, asked GOP members to stay away from the CCC because of its “racist and nationalist views.”

How could conservative Republicans be inspired to say such ugly things? Let us count the ways.

The CCC’s columnists have written that black people are “a retrograde species of humanity,” and that non-white immigration is turning the U.S. population into a “slimy brown mass of glop.” Its website has run photographic comparisons of pop singer Michael Jackson and a chimpanzee. It opposes “forced integration” and decries racial intermarriage. It has lambasted black people as “genetically inferior,” complained about “Jewish power brokers,” called gay people “perverted sodomites,” and even named the late Lester Maddox, the baseball bat-wielding, arch-segregationist former governor of Georgia, “Patriot of the Century.”

One day, the CCC ran photos on its home page of accused Beltway snipers John Muhammad and John Malvo, 9/11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui and accused shoe-bomber Richard Reed. “Notice a Pattern Here?” asked a caption underneath the four photos. “Is the face of death black after all?” On another occasion, its website featured a photo of Daniel Pearl, the “Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter” who had just been decapitated by Islamic terrorists. In the photo, Pearl was shown with his “mixed-race wife, Marianne.” The headline above the couple’s picture was stunning even for the CCC: “Death by Multiculturalism?” The CCC Arkansas chapter ran an essay waxing nostalgic for the days “when racial separation was the norm.”

But to Ann Coulter, there is “no evidence” on its website that the CCC “supports segregation.” Mostly, she says, the group — which was formed from the debris of the White Citizens Councils that Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once called “the uptown Klan” — is about “a strong national defense, the right to keep and bear arms, the traditional family, and an ‘America First’ trade policy.” Indeed, she says, The New York Times and other critics of the CCC are simply liberals “who have no principles.”

Muslim Friends of Genocide

What is the connectin between Arabs and Muslims, on the one hand, and Terrrorism on the other was the ostensible subject of a meeting at Wichita Stat Monday evening? My busy schedule prevented me from attending, so only a few quick observations and a recent news story.

Stereotyping all Muslims or all Arabs as terrorists is wrong and should be resolutely opposed. Repressing people because of their religioius views is wrong--whether it is Muslims who are being repressed or Muslims who are being repressed.

The reality is that there is a powerful, transnational movement in the Arab and Islamic worlds that is profoundly anti-democratic, imperialist, and, openly genocidal in its aims.

Via Mick Hartley

A delegation of senior Middle Eastern leaders has travelled to Sudan to express international support for Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, who is accused of war crimes in Darfur.

Officials from Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah joined Syria's parliament speaker and the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group for talks with al-Bashir in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, on Friday.

The visit comes days after the International Criminal Court at The Hague issued a warrant for al-Bashir's arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region.

Ali Larijani, Iran's parliament speaker and a member of the international delegation in Khartoum on Friday, said the ICC arrest warrant is an "insult directed at Muslims".

Not that any of them ever expressed any concern for the Muslims killed or raped in Darfur - or those thrown off their land and forced to live in camps, maintained by humanitarian groups funded almost entirely by the West. Or their fate if the aid agencies threatened by al-Bashir are forced to leave.

Though fellow Muslims aren't Bashir's only friends:

The UN Security Council, at its first meeting since the arrest warrant was issued, failed on Saturday to agree on a statement asking Sudan to reverse the decision to expel the aid agencies.

The key powers at the UN Security Council - Russia, China, France, the US and Britain - met to discuss a statement which called on Sudan to reverse the expulsions.

But diplomats say China, which buys Sudan's oil and sells it weapons, objected.

A delegation from the African Union and the Arab League is due to ask the Security Council to suspend the war crimes case against Sudan's president.

International Women's Day

March 8 is International Women's Day. Here are four items which might be of interest.

New Report Shows Global Gender Pay Gap Bigger Than Previously Thought

A new report released by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) for March 8, International Women’s Day, has revealed that the pay gap between men and women worldwide may be much higher than official government figures. The report, “Gender (in)Equality in the Labour Market“, is based on survey results of some 300,000 women and men in 20 countries. It puts the global pay gap at up to 22%, rather than the 16.5% figure taken from official government figures and released by the ITUC on March 8 last year.

AFL-CIO Calls for Global Charter for Working Women’s Rights

The AFL-CIO Executive Council, at its recent Winter meeting, took several actions related to International Women’s Day. It called for establishment of a global charter guaranteeing the rights of working women around the globe.

Click here to read the global charter statement and here for the statement on working women’s rights in a global economy. For a new report on the inequality faced by working women around the world, click here.

The Origins of International Women's Day

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

1908
Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

1910
In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named a Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

1911
Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. However less than a week later on 25 March, the tragic 'Triangle Fire' in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events. 1911 also saw women's 'Bread and Roses' campaign.

1913-1914
On the eve of World War I campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. In 1913 following discussions, International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Wommen's Day ever since. In 1914 further women across Europe held rallies to campaign against the war and to express women's solidarity.

1917
On the last Sunday of February, Russian women began a strike for "bread and peace" in response to the death over 2 million Russian soldiers in war. Opposed by political leaders the women continued to strike until four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. The date the women's strike commenced was Sunday 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia. This day on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere was 8 March.

1918 - 1999
Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For decades, IWD has grown from strength to strength annually. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as 'International Women's Year' by the United Nations. Women's organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women's advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

Women In Labor History Timeline

To honor International Working Women’s Day March 8, New York State United Teachers released a women in labor history timeline.

The timeline includes:

1765

The first society of working women, the Daughters of Liberty, is organized as an auxiliary of the Sons of Liberty, a workingman's association.

1824

Women workers strike for the first time, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. 102 women workers strike in support of brother weavers protesting the simultaneous reduction in wages and extension of the workday.

1825

The first union for women only formed: The United Tailoresses of New York.

1899

The National Consumers League is formed with Florence Kelley as its president. The League organizes women to use their power as consumers to push for better working conditions and protective law for women workers.

1903

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones leads a protest march of mill children, many of who were victims of industrial accidents, from Philadelphia to New York.

November 14, at the AFL convention in Boston, women unionists unite to form the National Women's Trade Union League and elect Mary Morton Kehew president and Jane Addams vice-president. The National Women's Trade Union League is established to advocate for improved wages and working conditions for women.

1909

"Uprising of the 20,000" female shirtwaist workers in New York State strike against sweatshop conditions

the real issue in international trade--it's not protectionism

Maybe it was just the sound-byte the media picked, but British PM Gordon Brown was off-target when he warned against protectionism. Europeans like to castigate Americans for (American) protectionism, but they often like to practice Eruopen protectionism.

In the present international crisis, the real issue is unequal Keynesianism. There needs to be a coordinated and vigorous expansion by every country.

Here's a good explanation from Ezra Klein

Following on the Gordon Brown post, a reader e-mails a link to the Brooking Institution's comparison of various international stimuli. They warn:

In an integrated world economy, the effectiveness of stimulus is contingent on how coordinated it is across countries. If the sizes of the stimulus packages (relative to domestic GDP) are very different across countries or if the effects of some countries’ stimulus packages are backloaded, then there could be “leakage” of stimulus from countries that act early and forcefully...large frontloaded stimulus packages that are coordinated internationally could not only be more effective directly but also boost consumer and corporate confidence.[...]

In 2010, the U.S. accounts for over 60 percent of planned stimulus. China and Germany are the next largest contributors with China contributing 15 percent of G-20 stimulus and Germany contributing 11 percent. The U.S. stimulus package amounts to 2.9 percent of 2008 GDP, China’s 2.3 percent, and Germany’s 2.0 percent....Some countries like China and the U.S. have responded forcefully, with impressive packages. But the execution, both in terms of size and speed, leaves much to be desired in some of the G-20 countries.

In other words; We're doing a lot. China is doing a lot. Everyone else isn't. In practice, that means that they will reap some of the rewards of our stimulus spending in the form of increased demand for their exports, but we won't reap many rewards from their stimulus spending. And overall, the global economy will be slower than it needs to be, which means national economies will be slower than they need to be (if Caterpillar's international sales sag, they'll cut U.S. jobs).

Also, that picture atop this post? The one that doesn't look like anything? Click on it. It's an an awesome table comparing G-20 stimulus packages.

Sirota: Too Big To Fail

If It's "Too Big to Fail," Then It's Too Big to Be Private

By David Sirota
Campaign for America's Future, 3/3/09

I appeared yesterday at the top of Neil Cavuto's Fox News show to discuss the potential for financial industry nationalization. You can watch the clip here:



I tried to use the opportunity to float a fairly simple - and old-fashioned - concept that has been almost entirely missing from the media/political debate: If something is "too big to fail," then it's too big to be in private hands.

The term "too big to fail" is a euphemism for any institution that is so important to the entire nation's most basic well being, that society cannot let that institution fail. This is why one of the foundational principles of civilized society has always been nationalization - ie. government control - of the institutions that are "too big to fail": institutions like the military, whose failure would mean a basic loss of national security; law enforcement, whose failure would mean a basic loss of civil order; and infrastructure construction, whose failure would mean the crumbling of commerce. The government, as the most powerful representative of society as a whole, runs these institutions/services because they are too important to be allowed to fail.

Unfortunately, as of hard-right and center-right ideologues have ran our government for three decades, they gutted the basic laws and enforcement mechanisms (financial regulations, anti-trust prosecutions, etc.) that prevented a myriad of financial institutions from becoming "too big to fail."

The American Insurance Group is the best example of this - a company that, as the New York Times notes, essentially based its business on a risky scheme to sell insurance to other corporations against colossal housing market failure.

To read the full article, go to:

Washington Days Photos

It was one ofthe better Washington Days, I've been to. Very good Labor Caucus meeting, thanks to the leaderhip of Pat Lehman.

Why Castro Sucks, Reason #1,169

This happened in August but I only learned about a couple of days ago. When the mis-named Pastors for Peace come through your town on their propaganda tour for a dictator, represser of labor rights, presecutor of gays, enemy of democracy, I suggest you organize a punk rock concert for Gorki Aguila.

From The Daily Telegraph

Cuban rocker Gorki Aguila on trial for 'social dangerousness'

A Cuban punk rocker is being charged with "social dangerousness" because his songs denounce the communist government.

Gorki Aguila, lead singer of Porno para Ricardo, has been in police custody since Monday.

He is due to appear at the Playa municipal court in western Havana charged with subverting "communist morality."

Should he be convicted, he faces up to four years in prison for openly defying the revolution and poking fun at Fidel Castro and his brother Raul, who became Cuba's president in February.

Police arrested 39-year-old Aguila at his home where he was putting the finishing touches to a new album which was provisionally called Geriatric Central Committee, a reference to the ageing Castro regime.

His arrest has sparked protests from artists and human rights groups with supporters due to assemble at Havana's Malecon promenade to protest.

The government often applies the "social dangerousness" charge in cases of public drunkenness or as a way to keep large groups of unemployed Cubans - or those simply skipping work - from congregating on city streets during business hours.

Porna para Ricardo, formed 10 years ago, are banned from official airwaves, and make up part of an underground music movement.

The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an illegal but tolerated group, said in a statement: "Gorki Aguila has not committed any specific crime as defined by the current criminal code."

The rock star has asked for "diplomatic observers" to attend the trial but refused legal help from US-based Cuban American National Foundation.

Ciro Diaz, the band's guitarist, said: "These kind of trials are very biased. It's difficult for someone to be absolved.

"A lawyer can do very little because there's no evidence of criminal activity presented, only what the police say."

Fortunately, Gorki was found innocent of the most serious charges.

SPEEA Engineers Rally for a Fair Contract

This photo was taken Monday during a rally by Boeing engineers. members of SPEEA. Their contract expired in November. Usually, after engineers in Seattle reach a deal, a contract in Wichita is easy to finalize in a few day. Not this time. A few weeks back, the Wichita engineers rejected the company's offer by a 88%-12% margin. On Monday, the talks resumed, with the aid of a federal mediator. But on Tuesday, they broke down. SPEEA say it will take another vote on the contract and will add a strike authorization vote.

I'm not an engineer, not a member of SPEEA, and this is just my opinion, it looks like the company is toying with provoking a strike. Making a substandard offer, that they know the workers can't accept.

Some people seem to think the engineers make too much money and should  be happy just to have a job in such trying times. This is envy combined with subservience. For if the corporations can get away with stomping highly educated and skilled workers, what chance to the rest of us have.

New Kansas Blogger Gets A Scoop

Ks-1 is a new blogger to me and he has got a scoop. KS-1 has poured over the campaign finance records of hard right Tim Huwlskamp, a leadering contender to take the seat of Congressman Jerry Moran who is running for the Senate.

Here's what he found

Records now in Kansas01's possession, some of which are pictured above behind Dr. Timothy Huelskamp's photo and some of which are available for download, confirm that Huelskamp's immediate family has pocketed over $18,000 of his contributors' dollars over the past several years. At least $15,000 of this was spent on reimbursements for mileage (which would be a lot of driving, even in Kansas); for "Republican retreats;" for hotels and other miscellaneous items.

(BTW, I'm using the old style "he" instead of "he or she" or "he/she." I don't know KS-1's idenity.)

US Peace Activists Defend Shirin Ebadi

I've added my name to this letter from the Committee for Peace and Democracy.

We are writing to invite you to sign the open letter below from American peace activists in defense of Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate and defender of women's rights and human rights for all. Your support can make a difference.

We believe that peace and democratic rights are deeply intertwined, and we defend freedom of expression whether or not we agree with the views being expressed. As peace activists, however, we are particularly concerned about the persecution of Shirin Ebadi, who has on many occasions repeated her opposition to the use of or threat to use U.S. military force against Iran. For example, on February 4, 2009 Ebadi was interviewed by Amy Goodman on her Democracy Now! television program. Goodman asked, "If the United States were to attack Iran, and when you look at the repression that you and others have suffered, would that help the democratic movement in Iran?" Ebadi replied firmly, [translated] "A military attack on Iran or even a threat of a military attack on Iran will deteriorate the situation of human rights and women's rights, because it gives an excuse to the government to repress them more and more often."


If Shirin Ebadi has no security inside Iran, then all peaceful civil society activists are at great risk. Indeed, the recent attacks on Ebadi take place against a background of stepped-up government repression. Trade union leaders, including Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Maddadi, are currently in prison; two women labor activists, Sussan Razani and Shiva Kheirabadi, were flogged on February 18, 2009 because of their participation in a May Day celebration. Women's rights defenders, including those involved in the "One Million Signatures Campaign" have been unfairly prosecuted and sentenced. Privacy and personal dignity are under siege. People who defy patriarchal codes prescribing how men and women should behave, and people who are suspected of homosexual conduct, have been routinely victimized, often violently. Students, including most recently students from Amir Kabir University in Tehran, have been persecuted and brutally attacked. Mothers for Peace protesting the war in Gaza were attacked by plain clothes security agents on January 11 of this year.

These developments strengthen warmongering voices on both sides and thus threaten to set back the peace movement opposing military action against Iran.

Initial signers include Ervand Abrahamian, Janet Afary, Medea Benjamin, Noam Chomsky, Ariel Dorfman, Martin Duberman, Carolyn Eisenberg, Daniel Ellsberg, John Feffer, Arun Gupta, Adam Hochschild, Doug Ireland, Kathy Kelly, Assaf Kfoury, Naomi Klein, Jesse Lemisch, Kevin Martin, Scott McLemee, David McReynolds, Charlotte Phillips MD, Katha Pollitt, Danny Postel, Matthew Rothschild, Stephen Shalom, Alice Slater, David Swanson, and Chris Toensing.

If you would like to add your name or make a tax-deductible donation to publicize the following statement, please go to our website www.cpdweb.org -- if for any reason you have difficulty at the website, just send us an email at cpd@igc.org. And please circulate the statement to your colleagues and friends.

Sincerely,

Joanne Landy Tom Harrison
Co-Directors, Campaign for Peace and Democracy

HERE IS THE LETTER:

IRANIAN HUMAN RIGHTS LEADER SHIRIN EBADI IN DANGER

Peace Activists Call on Teheran to Ensure Her Safety

To:

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Ayatollah Shahrudi, Head of the Judiciary
Mohammad Khazaee, Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations

Islamic Republic of Iran

We are writing to protest in the strongest terms the threats that have been mounted against Shirin Ebadi, co-founder of the Defenders of Human Rights Center and the Organization for the Defense of Mine Victims. Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Laureate, has spoken out vigorously and repeatedly for women's rights and human rights for all in her own country. She has also been a vocal and effective advocate for peace and against military attacks on Iran in international forums.

Ebadi today is in considerable danger. On December 21, 2008, officials prevented a planned celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and forced the closure of the Defenders of Human Rights Center (DHRC), which Ebadi helped found. The Center provides legal defense for victims of human rights abuses in Iran. The group had invited nearly 300 human rights defenders and supporters to the private celebration. A few hours before the start of the program, members of state security forces, and plainclothes agents entered the DHRC building. They filmed the premises, made an inventory, and forced the center's members to leave before putting locks on all entrances.

On December 29 officials identifying themselves as tax inspectors arrived at Ebadi's private law office in Tehran and removed documents and computers, despite her protests that the materials contained protected lawyer-client information.

Ebadi's former secretary has been arrested, and on January 1, 2009 a mob of 150 people gathered outside her home, chanting slogans against her. They tore down the sign to her law office, which is in the same building, and marked the building with graffiti. The police, who have been quick to close down unauthorized peaceful demonstrations, did nothing to stop the vandalism.

In similar cases, Iranian authorities frequently have followed office raids and other harassment with arbitrary arrests and detention, often leading to prosecutions on dubious charges

As peace activists, we have a special concern for Shirin Ebadi. Ebadi has spoken out, as we have, against any U.S. military attack on Iran. In 2005, Ebadi wrote, "American policy toward the Middle East, and Iran in particular, is often couched in the language of promoting human rights. No one would deny the importance of that goal. But for human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause." ("The Human Rights Case Against Attacking Iran" by Shirin Ebadi and Hadi Ghaemi, The New York Times, Feb 8, 2005).

We oppose any military attack on Iran by the United States or any other nation. We reject too the hypocrisy of the U.S. government when it protests repression in Iran while turning a blind eye to or actively abetting comparable or worse repression in countries with which it is allied like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or Israel in the Occupied Territories. And we condemn as well Washington's double standard in criticizing Iranian repression while itself engaging in torture and undermining civil liberties at home. But that in no way deters us from protesting in the strongest terms the denial of basic democratic rights to the people of Iran. We protest because we believe in these rights, and also because we see social justice activists in Iran and all countries as our natural allies in building a peaceful, democratic world.

We call on you to cease and desist from the threats to Shirin Ebadi, to move immediately to prevent any further harassment, and to ensure Shirin Ebadi's safety and security.

You can sign on here.

EPI at the Entitlements Conference

The following is a statement outlining recommendations of the Economic Policy Institute’s president, Lawrence Mishel, before participating in today’s White House meeting on the economy:

“Over the last 30 years, the United States has seen an unprecedented transfer of income and wealth. Trillions of dollars of income that formerly were shared with all income classes have been captured by the top 1% of Americans, leaving the middle class squeezed and lower income Americans suffering real hardships.

“In fact, since 1979, the share of national income going to the top 1% has more than doubled, thereby allowing them to enjoy more than $1 trillion a year in extra income. It is clear that when the government looks for revenue to redress our fiscal imbalance that it should look first to those who have profited so disproportionately from the nation’s past economic growth. An estate tax (affecting only the wealthiest 5% of Americans),top marginal tax rates, and the taxation of capital gains and dividends can be the primary source of additional revenue needed both for continued public investment and to attain a reasonable deficit level of about 3% of GDP.

“With this historic rise in inequality in mind, it is also clear that Social Security, America’s most important and successful social insurance program, is the wrong place to look for savings. Like Medicare and Medicaid, which have done so much to end poverty among the elderly and ensure basic medical care for the most vulnerable among us, Social Security should be strengthened, not cut. The most serious long-term threat to fiscal balance comes from the rising costs of health care, but that problem is economy-wide and in no way caused by the so-called entitlement programs. Medicare does a better job of controlling costs than private insurance, and the best hope for the future depends on creating the option of a large Medicare-like plan that employers and individuals can choose as an alternative to costly private medical insurance. EPI and the Lewin Group have shown that such a plan could lower the cost of health care by a trillion dollars over 10 years while guaranteeing coverage to every American.”

See also a very good statement from the Democratic Socialists of America.

Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band

Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band headlined the closing concert of Friends University's Jazz Festival and did a great job.

Opening acts "Soulstice" and the Friends Jazz Band I also did a very good job.

Here's video of the Phat Band, I found on You Tube.

Be patient through the introductions, you'll be rewarded.

Two Anti-Fred Phelps Protests in Wichita on Tuesday

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Karl Marx's Letter to Abraham Lincoln

In observance of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, NAR thought it might be timely to recall the letter that Karl Marx as a leader of the International Working Men's Association sent to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America

It was presented to U.S. Ambassador Charles Francis Adams on January 28, 1865


Sir
We congratulate the American people upon your re-election by a large majority. If resistance to the Slave Power was the reserved watchword of your first election, the triumphant war cry of your re-election is Death to Slavery.

From the commencement of the titanic American strife the workingmen of Europe felt instinctively that the star-spangled banner carried the destiny of their class. The contest for the territories which opened the dire epopee, was it not to decide whether the virgin soil of immense tracts should be wedded to the labor of the emigrant or prostituted by the tramp of the slave driver?
When an oligarchy of 300,000 slaveholders dared to inscribe, for the first time in the annals of the world, "slavery" on the banner of Armed Revolt, when on the very spots where hardly a century ago the idea of one great Democratic Republic had first sprung up, whence the first Declaration of the Rights of Man was issued, and the first impulse given to the European revolution of the eighteenth century; when on those very spots counterrevolution, with systematic thoroughness, gloried in rescinding "the ideas entertained at the time of the formation of the old constitution", and maintained slavery to be "a beneficent institution", indeed, the old solution of the great problem of "the relation of capital to labor", and cynically proclaimed property in man "the cornerstone of the new edifice" — then the working classes of Europe understood at once, even before the fanatic partisanship of the upper classes for the Confederate gentry had given its dismal warning, that the slaveholders' rebellion was to sound the tocsin for a general holy crusade of property against labor, and that for the men of labor, with their hopes for the future, even their past conquests were at stake in that tremendous conflict on the other side of the Atlantic. Everywhere they bore therefore patiently the hardships imposed upon them by the cotton crisis, opposed enthusiastically the proslavery intervention of their betters — and, from most parts of Europe, contributed their quota of blood to the good cause.
While the workingmen, the true political powers of the North, allowed slavery to defile their own republic, while before the Negro, mastered and sold without his concurrence, they boasted it the highest prerogative of the white-skinned laborer to sell himself and choose his own master, they were unable to attain the true freedom of labor, or to support their European brethren in their struggle for emancipation; but this barrier to progress has been swept off by the red sea of civil war.

The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world. ^[B]
 

Signed on behalf of the International Workingmen's Association, the Central Council:

Longmaid, Worley, Whitlock, Fox, Blackmore, Hartwell, Pidgeon, Lucraft, Weston, Dell, Nieass, Shaw, Lake, Buckley, Osbourne, Howell, Carter, Wheeler, Stainsby, Morgan, Grossmith, Dick, Denoual, Jourdain, Morrissot, Leroux, Bordage, Bocquet, Talandier, Dupont, L.Wolff, Aldovrandi, Lama, Solustri, Nusperli, Eccarius, Wolff, Lessner, Pfander, Lochner, Kaub, Bolleter, Rybczinski, Hansen, Schantzenbach, Smales, Cornelius, Petersen, Otto, Bagnagatti, Setacci;

George Odger, President of the Council; P.V. Lubez, Corresponding Secretary for France; Karl Marx, Corresponding Secretary for Germany; G.P. Fontana, Corresponding Secretary for Italy; J.E. Holtorp, Corresponding Secretary for Poland; H.F. Jung, Corresponding Secretary for Switzerland; William R. Cremer, Honorary General Secretary.

_____________

Here's a recent article on Marx and the American civil war.

Leonard Zeskind on the Society of St. Pius and St. Mary's Kansas

Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen the local media note the Kansas connection to the controversy over the Pope's recent move to bring Catholic traditionalists back into the fold.

Leonard Zeskind discusses the connection in his latest blog post.

I am looking at a copy of the title page from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious Czarist forgery that has been part of the anti-Semitic stock in trade for more than a century. This particular edition was translated into English by “Victor E. Marsden,” and was published in 1934. And it was “Item: 6012,” its price was listed as $5.00, and it was sold by the “Immaculata Bookstore” in St. Mary’s, Kansas in 1993. The Immaculata Bookstore being part of St. Mary’s Academy & College, which described itself as one of the “Traditional Catholic Schools of the Society of St. Pius X.

Zeskind concludes

In an interview with Salomon Korn, the vice-president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Korn concludes that, “As long as Pope Benedict XVI doesn’t send a clear signal that all Catholics must support the Second Vatican Council, things simply cannot return to normal.”

And it is on that small patch of ink that the truth of the matter resides.

"Generational Theft" Nonsense from the GOP

The GOP's latest talking point against President Obama's recovery program is that it is "generational theft."


Building schools that will educate not only today's children, but another generation or two. Generational theft--Not

Providing health insurance of laid-off workers and their families. Generational theft--Not

Building and repairing roads and bridges. Generational theft--Not

Promoting green energy and jobs. Generational theft--Not

Providing aid to states so that school budgets aren't cut and teachers fired. Generational theft--Not

Sebelius Leads Moran and Tiahrt

Daily Kos and Research 2000 have just released a startlingly good poll for a potential Kathleen Sebelius race against either of the Republican Congressmen who have announced for the GOP Senate nomination. (Hat tip to Moti)

Both Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt trail Sebelius by significant margins.

Sebelius (D) 47
Tiahrt (R) 37

Sebelius (D) 48
Moran (R) 36

Here's what Kos says

Kansas is an exceedingly difficult state for Democrats to compete in. Note that despite Obama's huge popularity around the country, he clocks in only at 48-41 in Kansas. Sure, it's a net positive, and it's numbers that George W. Bush would kill for, but they lag far behind Obama's national numbers. This isn't a hospitable place for Democrats.

Yet here we have Gov. Kathleen Sebelius coming in with a solid 56-37 approval rating, including a surprisingly good 42-54 among Republicans, which is important given that Republicans make up half the state's voters. In the head-to-head matchups, Sebelius, gets about a third of those voters. Independents, another quarter of the voter pool, like her at a 63-27 clip. If those numbers held up, she'd make history by having a Democrat represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1939.

And, here some surprising news. Neither of the right-wing Congressmen does that well in his home district against Sebelius.

In Moran's first distirct
Sebelius 40
Moran 46

In Tiahrt's fourth district
Sebelius 38
Tiahrt 47

Kansas political junkies have been speculating the either Moran or Tiahrt will get cold feet and give up the Senate race for the comfort of safe House seat. Looking at this poll, maybe they'll both decide they don't want to go down as the first Republican since 1932 to lose a Senate seat.

KC Rally "Save Our Jobs" Sunday February 8

U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver and other elected officials will join the United Auto Workers and the Automobile Dealers Association at a “Save Our Jobs” rally at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, in the gymnasium of Penn Valley Community College. 3200 Southwest Tfwy, In Kansas City.
Thousands of residents from both sides of the state line will convene in the 3,000-seat gym to stress the impact auto manufacturing has on the region.

“The global financial crisis is crippling the availability of credit for the automakers, their suppliers, their dealers and consumers,” said Cleaver. “As our local auto plants extend their work stoppages, it is quite possible one or more of the domestic automakers could collapse.

“No one can afford American automakers going bankrupt, least of all the 7,200 men and women who work at the Fairfax and Claycomo plants, the thousands who work for the auto dealers in the area or the tens of thousands of retirees,” Cleaver continued. “Those are our neighbors, friends and family and they are in trouble.”

Other elected officials expected to attend the rally—which is scheduled to last one hour—include Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond, and U.S. Rep Dennis Moore of Kansas. Kansas City, Kansas Mayor/CEO Joe Reardon also will attend.

SPEEA engineers reject Boeing Offer

Engineers delivered a resounding “NO” to a contract offer from The Boeing Company in voting today, a move that sends both sides back to the bargaining table.

Following the recommendation of union negotiators, members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, voted down the Boeing offer at a special meeting held at Curtis Middle School. The tally showed 88 percent of the voting members rejected the offer, with 209 voting “No” and 28 voting “Yes” to accept Boeing’s offer for a new contract covering engineers at Boeing’s Wichita Integrated Defense Systems (IDS). Union tellers counted the votes at SPEEA’s Midwest office following the meeting. The ballot did not include a strike authorization vote. “This is a very clear message to Boeing corporate that engineers in Wichita will not tolerate being treated as second-class,” said Joe Newberry, chair of the SPEEA Wichita Engineering Unit negotiating team and a 35-year employee at the plant. “We’re anxious to get back to the table.”

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Warren's 3-D Rip-off

3-D movies are all the rage and going to be more so. But there's been a debate about who is going to pay for the expensive equipment required--the movie houses or the Hollywood studios.

Dumby, it's going to be you the consumer. At least, if Bill Warren has way.

There's a notice on the Warren Theater website

Because these shows are special engagement shows and the equipment to display the 3-D film is very expensive, tickets for 3-D shows cost an additional $3.00 per ticket. In addition, no passes/vips/discounts will be accepted for these shows.

So, if you just have to go see Coraline, FIGHT BACK. Don't buy popcorn and a soda.

KPTS documentary on Dockum Sit-in

The Dockum Sit-in: A Legacy of Courage - Thursday, Feb. 5 at 7:00 p.m.

In the summer of 1958, two dozen young people from the Wichita Branch of NAACP Youth Council staged what would become the first successful student-led sit-in of the Civil Rights movement.

This documentary will air on KPTS, Channel 8, on Thursday, February 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Tiahrt Flunks Macroeconomics

Wichita Congressman and Senate candidate had an op-ed in the Eagle this week rationalizing his opposition to President Obama's economic recovery program.

Tiahrt wrote

Studies have shown and history has proved that when consumers get extra money in their pockets, they do one of three things: They save it, spend it or invest it. All three options would help to quickly increase growth in our economy.

Sorry, Todd, but increased saving --in the midst of a depression--will not increase growth in the economy. It will do exactly the opposite.

Here's a quick explanation from Wikpedia

If a population saves more money (that is the marginal propensity to save increases across all income levels), then total revenues for companies will decline. This decrease in economic growth means fewer salary increases and perhaps downsizing. Eventually the population's total savings will have remained the same or even declined because of lower incomes and a weaker economy.

Sadly, the stimulus debeate shows that for Todd Tiahrt and the modern Republican Party, the operative program is Party First! The Rich First!

Gallup Poll: Dems nearly equal Republicans in Kansas

Gallup has just released some poll results that should be extremely encouraging to Kansas Democrats. Just two percent more of Kansas adults identify themselves as Republicans than as Democrats.

Democrats 41.4%
Republicans 43.4%

Kansas Jayhawk has a good take on what these figures mean

there are potentially huge numbers of registered Republicans in this state who aren't really Republicans at all, who, instead, think of themselves as- and vote as- Democrats. Or that two-thirds of the unaffiliated voters in Kansas are really secret Democrats. Or something.

What this number really does tell members of both political parties in Kansas is that the Democratic Party has huge potential for registration growth- remarkable, remarkable potential- because the people of this state identify with the Democrats almost exactly as often as they do the Republicans. All it takes for a Democrat to capitalize on that fact and win is a smart campaign based on good ideas...

Here's the method behind Gallup's poll.

In 2008, Gallup interviewed more than 350,000 U.S. adults as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. That includes interviews with 1,000 or more residents of every U.S. state except Wyoming (885) and North Dakota (953), as well as the District of Columbia (689). There were more than 15,000 interviews conducted with residents of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Florida.

This large data set provides the unique ability to give reliable estimates of state-level characteristics for 2008. Each sample of state residents was weighted by demographic characteristics to ensure it is representative of the state's population.

In order to rank the states on partisanship, Gallup analyzes "leaned" party identification by state. This measure adds partisan-leaning independents to the percentage who identify with either of the parties. Thus, the Republican total includes Republican identifiers and independents who lean Republican, and the Democratic total likewise includes Democratic identifiers and independents who lean Democratic.

What I'll Do on Final Friday

Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nickolas Muray

5 to 8 pm Final Friday Take one last look at Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nicholas Muray and Realistic Pluralism: The Art of Nicholas Trabue as WAM participates in Final Friday festivities. Also take time to view the colorful hand-made clothing in Central American Textiles from the collection of Jerry Martin. Enjoy live music with a Latino flair, light hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar. Free and open to the public.

December 7, 2008 – February 1, 2009

This intimate exhibition features photographs of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, taken by Nickolas Muray during their close relationship. His photos pose Frida in native costumes and with the artists Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias. Many of the photos are in the lush color process favored by Muray.

West Bank village has Holocaust exhibit

At a time when Muslim Brotherhood and other extremists are openly calling for another holocaust against the Jews and when Western pseudo-leftists invoke the hoocaust to demonize Israel, it is extremely refreshing and encouraging to read this story


Naalin holds Holocaust exhibit

As the world commemorated the Holocaust Tuesday, a small village in the West Bank held a surprising exhibit memorializing the most tragic event in modern Jewish history.

Naalin, a village that has become the symbol for the Palestinians' battle against Israel's construction of a separation fence in the West Bank, erected a display of photographs purchased from Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and invited the public to learn more about the persecution of the Jews.

Residents gaze at Holocaust images in Naalin (Photo: Khaled)

Mohammad Amira, a member of the village's Land Defense Committee, said hundreds of people visited the exhibit by early afternoon. He said many had praised the initiative.

"People are surprised at what they see here; there are people who are seeing images of the suffering in the Holocaust for the first time. There are people who didn't know anything about Jewish history," Amira said.

Regarding the decision to present the exhibit to residents of Naalin, many of who have been harmed by the construction of the separation fence, Amira said, "We thought the public should understand the pain and suffering the Nazis caused the Jews.

"Unfortunately, we are paying the price for the immense pain suffered by the Jews during the Holocaust. There is no comparison between our suffering and that of the Jewish people in the Holocaust, but everyone should understand that we are suffering too, as a result of what the Germans did to the Jews."

'Jewish pain has strength'
Khaled Mahmid, who heads the Arab Institute for Holocaust Research and Education in Nazareth, said he believes the Arabs "must understand the Holocaust – the power and strength that the Jews' pain has."

He added, "All violence Palestinians perform on the Israelis is not effective, causes suffering, and summons Holocaust anxiety among the Jews."

"The Holocaust," Mahmid said, "was a horrible and methodical murder of six million innocents, which affects all of the citizens of Israel even today. The Palestinians need to understand that the Jews have a defense mechanism deriving from the horrid murder in the Holocaust."

He said the two-state solution would only have a chance to succeed if the Palestinians made an effort to understand this "profound pain", and relinquished all acts of violence "that stirs existential anxiety in the Jews." Mahmid added that the violence exhibited by both sides is a direct result of the Holocaust.

Regarding the exhibit Mahmid said, "The Koran orders us to acknowledge the Holocaust and understand it. The Jews must remember that many of them were saved during the Holocaust thanks to their brothers in the Arab lands. We must overcome Hitler's affects together."

Merle Haggard writes a song for Obama

The music is available yet, put Merle Haggard wrote in honor of Barack Obama just before inaugural day and posted them on his website. Maybe the Prez should have invited the poet of the common man to be part of the celebration.

Hope’s are High
Hope’s are high, faith is strong
If we all try we can get along
Cause there’s a new day and a brighter day
with a new song to sing along
And there’s Sunshine and blue sky
And Hope’s are high
There’s a blue bird atop a tree
singing loud for you and me
he’s got a new note and a brighter note
That we should sing and let ring
cause there’s sunshine and blue sky
and hope’s are high
We’ve got bad times behind us
and the good times up ahead
bet your money on the promise land
and the good things that he said
We got a new style with a sincere smile
and a new song to sing along
and we got sunshine and a new guy
and hope’s are high
Hope’s are high
We’ve got bad times behind us
and now we’ve got good times up ahead
Put your money on America
and the good things that He said
Cause there’s a new day and a brighter day
and a new song to sing along
And there’s sunshine and blue sky
and Hope’s are high

Hillary's smart move

Hilary Clinton made a deft verbal move during her Secretary of State hearing. Instead of talking about the importance of using "soft power" to achieve US foreign policy goals, she taled about smart power.

If you aren't familiar with soft power check out the link above or keep in mind this short definition

Soft power is the ability to obtain what you want through co-option and attraction rather than the hard power of coercion and payment.

George Strait is cool and Charlie Haden is country

My brother Kent tells the story that he realized our family elders weren't hopelessly square when, as a teenager, he discovered a Bob Wills record in an uncle's collection. I'm not sure how my brother knew that Bob Wills was cool. After all, our tastes were typical of teenagers at the end of the sixties. Rock was in and we wouldn't be caught listening to country, except for Johnny Cash, but he didn't count. But somehow he (and I) knew Bob Wills was cool.

Which leads me to praise George Strait, who has drawn on, revitalized, and renewed the honky tonk and Western Swing traditions. Strait is not a Western Swing revivalist in the vein of Ray Benson's Asleep at the Wheel. My sense is that Strait is under-appreciated by non-country fans. I've just got his 1995 4-CD box set Strait Out of the Box. It richly deserves its 5 star rating from Allmusic. The only problem with the box set is that Strait has recorded 13 years of music since then and now on-and-off country fans like myself have to figure out how to easily catch up on that period in his great career. I guess George Strait is a country artist that even people who aren't country should listen to.

I've known that Charlie Haden is cool for a long time. He was the bassist on Ornette Coleman's revolutionary free jazz Atlantic albums in the early 1960s. He's recorded in a variety of jazz idioms and settings--from the politically charged Liberation Music Orchestra and Not In Our Name, to Haunted Heart (lyrical mainstream small group of Quartet West) to duos (Steal Away an album of African American spirituals with pianist Hank Jones).

Now Haden has done something entirely different--a country CD. Not country-twinged jazz or some hybrid. But straight out country. Rambling Boy is not even contemporary country, the music harks back to an older time, circa 1930s-1940s. Haden grew up in a family that was sort of a Midwest Carter family, making a radio debut at age two.

Here's what Allmusic says

Saying that Charlie Haden's Rambling Boy is a personal album is an understatement. In essence, this album is a tribute to his mother and father whose own vocal group -- made up of Haden and his siblings -- performed on radio programs in both Shenandoah, IA and Springfield, MO, where they hosted the live variety show Korn's-A-Krackin (sic), which was modeled on the Grand Ole Opry. Haden began his musical career at the age of two, singing live on the radio; he was fortunate enough to have Mother Maybelle Carter play in his living room, and to have met the rest of the Carters, Porter Wagoner, Chet Atkins, and numerous others on their way through town to play the show.

This 19-song set features all the members of his immediate family -- daughters Petra, Rachel, and Tanya, as well as son Josh. The players and vocalists are numerous but they include guitarist Pat Metheny, Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas, the Whites, Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, and Russ Barenberg, among others. Despite the wide range of players here, this album can only be called Americana in the strictest sense of the term as its selections are new readings of mostly traditional folk and country songs. There are numerous connections interwoven here too: highlights include Cash's moving and plaintive reading of "Wildwood Flower," a song that has roots in her own family -- via Mother Maybelle -- and Haden's, as well, as his mother had it in her repertoire. Metheny's and John Leventhal's guitars are devastatingly beautiful here

Kansas House and Senate Democrats Launch Pro-Worker Agenda

On January 22, members of the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses joined together to unveil a collaborative series of bills and priorities, all crafted specifically with the Kansas worker in mind. The Democrats for Working Kansans agenda addresses a number of important issues facing the everyday people who contribute and invest in the State of Kansas, including: improved worker benefits, fair wages, promoting Kansas-made products, guaranteeing health and safety in the workplace, implementing new immigration reform, and expanding educational and training opportunities.

“Democrats in the House and Senate are committed to Kansas workers, families and business owners,” said House Democratic Leader Paul Davis, D-Lawrence. “These people are counting on us in 2009 and we have a responsibility to offer them the help they need.”

“In the last year alone, 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs, the highest number of job losses our country has seen since the end of World War II. During this difficult economic time, working Kansas families have born the brunt of this heavy burden,” €? said Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka. “As large corporations such as Boeing, Cessna, and the General Motors Assembly Plant -- continue to scale back or go out of business, many more workers will be forced to cut back their hours, work for lower wages, or lose their jobs altogether.”

“Kansas will recover from this recession, but if we don’t protect our hardworking Kansas families now, the long-term impact of this economic downturn will be much more far reaching and have much more damaging consequences to the future of our state,” Davis continued. “That’s why we’ve joined here today -- to stand up for the people of Kansas by enacting responsible, proactive policies.”

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Kansas Blue Green Alliance Formed

On January 8, 2009 in Wichita eleven labor and environmental organizations launched the Kansas chapter of the Blue Green Alliance.

"Wichita lost 1,300 jobs last year alone," said Emil Ramirez of the United Steelworkers. "By supporting a green economy, we want to bring manufacturing jobs back to Kansas."

BGA is an uncommon partnership born of a common goal: to realize the enormous opportunities of a renewable energy economy for the state.

Kansas stands to gain more than 11,000 family-supporting manufacturing jobs in the renewable energy industry, according to a recent report from the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP), a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research organization based in Washington, DC.

The report, which projects $1.97 billion of investment, spurred local labor unions, community and farm organizations, and environmental groups to form a Kansas chapter of the Blue Green Alliance. (See summary link below for full breakdown of the top 20 Kansas counties who would benefit.)

For more on this, click here

Joseph Lowery and Big Bill Broonzy

The right-wing cretin Glen Beck is attacking Joseph Lowrey for calling America racist in his benediction.

Here's what Lowery said that got Beck and other cons all upset

LOWERY: Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.

Beck attacked then Obama, saying he “was shocked” that Obama “actually smiled when he said this and shook your head.”

It's likely that Obama was appreciating the twist that Lowery put on a classic blues by Big Bill Broonzy.

This little song that I'm singin' about,
people, you know that it's true
If you're black and gotta work for livin',
now, this is what they will say to you,

they says, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but if you're black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back"

I was in a place one night,
they was all havin' fun,
They was all buyin' beer and wine,
But they would not sell me none,

they said, "If you was white, You'd be alright,
If you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I went to an employment office,
I got a number and I got in line,
They called everybody's number,
but they never did call mine.

They said, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

Me and a man workin' side by side,
this is what it meant
They was payin' him a dollar an hour,
and they was payin' me fifty cent.

They said, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
If you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I helped build the country,
and I fought for it too,
now, I guess that you can see,
what a black man have to do.

They says, "If you was white, you's alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I helped win sweet victory,
with my little plow and hoe
Now, I want you to tell me, brother,
what you gonna do 'bout old Jim Crow?

Now, if you is white, you's alright,
if you's brown, stick around,
But if you's black, hmmm, hmmm, brother,
get back, get back, get back.

My Year In Music 2008

CDS

The best CDs I bought or borrowed and listened to this year. Unlike the lists from critics it is not restricted to albums issued in 2008.

B. B. King's One Kind Favor, probably the last CD I bought in 2008 and one of the best.

Neo-soul was one my trends this years. From Joss Stone, Amy Winehouse, Betty Lavette and Alice Russell to Ray Charles tributes from David Sanborn and John Scofield and Do the Boomerang, Don Byron's tribute to Junior Walker.

There's not a revival of Southern rock, nowadays it's called alt country rock, red dirt or who knows what. But there's some fine music being made that might remind you of the Allman Brothers. Drive-by Truckers Darker Than Creation's Bright further cements that band's critical reputation. Cross Canadian Ragweed isn't the same darling of the critics but they do some great music with a social consciousness.

In jazz, Bobby Watson's From the Heart is a fine piece of post-bop with a nice romantic touch. Jerry Hahn has an album of Christian hymns. Terrence Blanchard's A Tale of God's Will Carla Bley is known for her big band work, but I really liked her small group, The Lost Chords Find Paulo Fresu. Casandra Wilson did her first album of song book standards in twenty years ahead jazz album in years, Loverly, and it was really nice. Melody Gardot is a newcomer with a dramatic personal story Her Worrisome Heart is a standout. Allmusic says she "straddles the line between lounge jazz, folk, and cowgirl songs." Thanks to a friend at work, I listed to lots of Chase and Maynard Ferguson.


In the department of how did I everlook them, I enjoyed John Mellencamp's 2004 two-CD greatest gits collection Words and Music and his 2007 Freedom Road. Don't know why I never listened much to Nina Simone, but I finally got around to her High Priestess of Soul.


Live Music

Seeing Merle Haggard at the Cotillion was really nice. I took a teenager to see Weird Al at the Cotillion. Bobby Watson's concert with student big bands and combos at Friends University was great. Jimmy LaFave at the Bartlett Arboretum was enjoyable music and finally got me to that regional treasure.

I'm glad I saw Commander Cody at the Sedgwick County Zoo summer series, but wish he had a bigger combo. Soulstice, Friends small group combo, had a CD release party at the Broadview. I heard Steve Hatfield and other jazzers at the B-Side--and bought his excellent CD Just Be Wally-- and Craig Owens and Bodo Ensemble at the Blank Page. The Wichita Historical Museum had a great Final Friday event to conclude their electric guitar exhibit. Cliff Major, Rachel Coba, and Jerry Hahn performed. Dropped by Artichoke's annual Fish Fry to benefit the Kansas Acoustic Arts Association and spent a day at the Walnut Valley Festival.

I made several Wichita Blues Society events, including the Guitar Showdown. And close to the end of the year attended a Riverside Perk concert by friends Aaron Fowler and Laura Dungan celebrating their wedding anniversary.

Music Technology

Even as I've been continuing to convert my massive LP and cassette collection to CDs, I've entered the digital era, with a Iphone and a Sansa Clip.

The Clip comes with a 30-day trial of Rhapsody, a nusic subscription. You pay a monthly fee and get access to their vast music, but you have to pay every month. It will be fun trying it, could be a wonderful way to try out new music. I downloaded Bela Fleck's Christmas CD and some of Alice Russell's CD.

So I wondering if I should put (as much as possible) of my music collection on one of those massive external hard drives. How much sound quality do you lose with MP3s and if you can't tell the difference does that mean you need to upgrade your sound system.

Making use of playlists strikes me as one of the exciting things to do with digital tunes. How about Monk tunes, blues tunes and rock covers.

I like the Social Tunes on Facebook, but don't always keep it up to date and have than one-fourth of my collection entered

Another technology I'm going to try out in 2009 is Shazam the music recognition program for Iphones. My brother and his wife told me about this, but they didn't know the details. I thought it must be based on some sort of tagging, but it's not.

My Friends Write Books

Several of my friends have books out in 2008 or coming shortly in 2009

Wichtia's Robert Beattie, having written a book that helped breakl the BTK case has a new one out in early January on another intriguing Kansas murder case. The Language of Evil is describes this way

Brilliant linguist, charming professor, and renowned writer Tom Murray had a way with words.

He used them to seduce.

And he used them to get away with murder.

Erudite Kansas City professor Tom Murray seduced, then married his starry-eyed student Carmin Ross. But when Carmin attempted to leave their violent marriage, Tom stabbed her in the throat thirteen times, but left behind no evidence.

Convinced he’d committed a perfect crime, Tom didn’t even solicit a lawyer. But he hadn’t counted on relentless small town deputy sheriff Doug Wood, who refused to be underestimated. What happened next would result in one of the most unforgettable, shocking, and unexpected trials in Kansas state history.

Joseph Schwartz has written a book blurbed by Michael Walzer, Cornell West, and Francis Fox Piven. Not bad. The Future of Democratic Equality: Rebuilding Social Solidarity in a Fragmented America Here's the publisher's description

Why has contemporary radical political theory remained virtually silent about the stunning rise in inequality in the United States over the past thirty years? Schwartz contends that since the 1980s, most radical theorists shifted their focus away from interrogating social inequality to criticizing the liberal and radical tradition for being inattentive to the role of difference and identity within social life. This critique brought more awareness of the relative autonomy of gender, racial, and sexual oppression. But, as Schwartz argues, it also led many theorists to forget that if difference is institutionalized on a terrain of radical economic inequality, unjust inequalities in social and political power will inevitably persist.

Schwartz cautions against a new radical theoretical orthodoxy: that "universal" norms such as equality and solidarity are inherently repressive and homogenizing, whereas particular norms and identities are truly emancipatory. Reducing inequality among Americans, as well as globally, will take a high level of social solidarity--a level far from today's fragmented politics. In focusing the left's attention on the need to reconstruct a governing model that speaks to the aspirations of the majority, Schwartz provocatively applies this vision to such real world political issues as welfare reform, race relations, childcare, and the democratic regulation of the global economy.

UMKC and Levy Institute economist Randall Wray co-authored the introduction to Hyman Minsky's Stabilizing and Unstable Economy.Minsky was a legendary economist who further developed some of John Maynard Keynes idea to explain an inherent tendency toward crisis and instability in capitalist economies. Never more relevant than today!

Max Skidmore, who teaches political science at UMKC, has Securing America's Future: A Bold Plan to Preserve and Expand Social Security

Putting the Warren invocation in perspective

Gay rights groups, liberal organizations like People for the American Way, and the progressive blogosphere are upset that President-elect Barack Obama has picked mega-church pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren to offer the invocation at next month's inaugural.

I can't say I was thrilled when I first heard the news. What was Obama thinking, I asked like many others. One gay rights leader described it as a "slap in the face." It is certainly being portrayed that way in the email blasts and list serves I'm seing.

One Kansas blogger, Moti Rieber who blogs at Fed Reb, has writen several intelleigent and angry posts on the subject. In one he wrote

Someone asked me whom I would have chosen instead. There are many progressive religious figures who have been largely excluded from the public discourse for years now, and who would broadcast a truly inclusive message at the start of the new administration, but just off the top of my head I came up with four

Moti names four fine progressive religious individuals, who I think would make fine invocators in in January. (But many doctrinaire religious progressive think Jim Wallis of Sojourners doesn't pass the grade on abortion or gay rights.)

But he left out the one that Obama has actually picked to be part of the Inaugural ceremonies. Yes, that right. There's a progressive religious figure already invited.

Obama has asked Joseph Lowery to give the benediction Lowery is an icon of the civil rights movement, long-time of the SCLC, tireless advocate of peace and social justice, and a supporter of gay rights.

The first step in putting the Warren invocation in perspective is to realize that it is not Warren but Warren + Lowery.

Understanding that is key to understanding what Obama may be thinking. And key to how the gay rights movements and friends of that movement should respond.

That's a subject for another day.

WSU YDS Featured in December Progressive

The December issue of The Progressive magazine features three photos of an October march organized by the Wichita State Young Democratic Socialists in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in their campaign to get Chipolte!, a leading fast food chain, to give a fair shake to Florida tomato workers. (it's on page 20)

Pick up an issue at your local newstand. There's also a long article on the situation of farmworkers elsewhere in the magazine.

Cadillac Records--quick review

I rarely go to see new movies the first day. Sometimes the first weekend, but not often one the opening night. Tonight I went to see "Cadillac Records," which is loosely based on the legendary Chess Records.

There are lots of excellent stuff in the movie, but lots misses the mark. It could have been a really great movie, but it falls short. The chronology is all mixed up, the narration by Willie Dixon/Cedric the Entertainer doesn't work, there's more melodrama and formula than art at times. One of Chess Records founders--Phil Chess--is erased. The conflict between Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf is fit into a political framework that I'm not sure is at all historically accurate.

The acting is often better than the script--by a big margin

Most of the music is done by the actors. Beyoncé is great as Etta James, Jeff Wright as Muddy Waters and Eamon Walker as Howlin' Wolf are great. Mos Def is not so convincing singing Chuck Berry.

The main thing is the music, we shouldn't forget. If the movie reconnects the younger generation of black and whites to the great legacy of African-American music, it will be a success. If you buy the soundtrack, there's a CD of the Chess originals you should pick up as well. If you can only buy one, get the originals. And if you're really into the music, read the Spinning Blues into Gold history and get the fine documentaries on Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.

At my showing in Wichita, there was a good representation of African Americans--and some brought their youngsters. If you object to foul language, I wouldn't advise that. But if you like blues and early rock, I heartedly recommend the movie, despite its shortcomings.

Kansas Politics Gets Stranger

Hotline reports that Third District Democratic Congressman Dennis Moore won't be running for re-election.

Sources close to Rep. Dennis Moore (KS-03) say he will not run for re-election in '10. It's unclear if he will launch a SEN bid instead; Sen. Sam Brownback (R) is stepping down and is expected to run for GOV.

Via a spokeswoman, Moore said today: "I am honored to be serving the people of the Third District and have every intention of continuing my work in Congress on their behalf."

It could be that Moore will retire or run for Governor, or Hotline could have it wrong. Or it could be that he will run for Senate.

But, if the rumor is true--what a shakeup in Kansas politics.

Here's what could happen. Sam Brownback is stepping down from the Senate to run for Governor, facing Secretary of State Rod Thornburgh with Gov Kathleen Sebelius term-limited. Incumbet Representatives Tiahrt vs. Moran for the GOP Senate nomination, leaving the 1st District and 4th District open. Moore leaving the 3rd District open to ? First-term Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, having won by a narrow margin facing a rematch from Nancy Boyda, or another tough challenger.

Going down the ticket. Attorney General Steve Six running for his first state-wide campaign, having replaced the ethically challenged, Republican-turned-Democrat Paul Morrison. State Treasurer Dennis McKinney having been appointed to replace Jenkins also running his first state-wide campaign.

Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, a moderate Republican, might be the only elected incumbent to run for the same office in 2010.