Remembering the Warsaw Uprising

Leonard Zeskind reminds us that we must re-tell the story

On April 19, 1943—the day of the first night of Passover sixty five years ago—the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto launched an armed revolt. Faced with little material help from the non-Jewish populations surrounding them, as well as open opposition from Polish anti-Semites, these Jews fought with pistols, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails the heavy artillery, noxious gas, fire and air power of the German army and its minions. Despite the fact that this was the first open urban revolt against Nazi rule in Europe, the bravery of these Jewish fighters was met with less than an enthusiastic response by the Allied command. These acts of armed opposition, and others like it, should put an end forever to the myth that the Jews of Europe walked quietly and without protest to their deaths. And their story must be told and retold in every generation.

Cesar Chavez Celebration

About 60 people gathered on Sunday March 30 to celebrate Cesar Chavez birthday ( a day early) at Connie's Mexico Cafe in Wichita. I took some picture and created this slide show on Photobucket, a photo-sharing site. It's the first slide-show I've created there. It's a pretty cool tool.

For more on Chavez, read this tribute by Duane Campbell on the Talking Union blog and the Cesar Chavez Information and Action Center created by the United Farm Workers.

Langston Hughes Peformance at WSU

Wichita State University is hosting a performance of a "Ask Your Mama" Langston Hughes project this Wednesday. It sounds like it'll be worth catching.

The Langston Hughes Project "Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz" is a College of Fine Arts Connoisseur Series bonus event with the WSU Office of Multicultural Affairs as co-sponsor.

"Ask Your Mama" will open at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, in Miller Concert Hall.
Langston Hughes

Its mood is set in an 800-line suite of poems written by Hughes in the 1960s that reflect the writer's vision of the global struggle for freedom during the early years of the decade.

Illustrated by voice and accompanied by music from the nationally known McCurdy/Wright Consort, it will be lit up by on-screen visual illustrations of Hughes' Harlem Renaissance world by such collaborators and contemporaries as Gordon Parks, Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden.

I don't expect to to sound as great as the commercials on KMUW which feature some stirring Charles Mingus. Sounds to me like it is from Blues and Roots, the first Mingus LP I ever bought and one of his finest. Mingus did collaborate with Hughes on The Weary Blues, so it's not totally inappropriate.

Still, Hughes is one of the great American poets, so it should be a good show.

Congrats to the Jayhawks

It was a squeaker, but I'm sure glad they pulled it out. On the final four.

New or newly discovered blogs

I've been busy with other projects-web and otherwise-- and posting has been unexcusably light. So let's start with a round-up of websites I've just recently discoverd.

Sisyphus Sharp political analysis of international events and great jazz videos. From Richmond, Virginia.

Vietnamese workers abroad Launched to support Vietnamese workers in Jordan working in a Taiwanese-owned factory. One of the new and most pernicious forms of exploitation.

The Pump Handle public health and worker safety issues.

Third Party Watch

Consider the Evidence Lane Kenworthy is a professor of Sociology and Political Science at the
University of Arizona. His blog has great stuff on the causes and consequences of poverty, inequality, mobility, employment, economic growth, and social policy in the United States and other affluent countries.

Slattery might be back in Senate Race

I've argued that there is a real chance for a Democrat to upset Kansas Senator Pat Roberts. And, I still think so. The latest Survey USA shows Roberts with a less than stellar approval rating. But I was beginning to think I was the only one who saw it that way. First, Jim Slattery decided to pass. Then, businessman Greg Orman entered the race and had a good month of fundraising--$450,00 or so, probably several times what recent Democratic sacrificial lambs have had, but he rather abruptly left the race.

Now it appears that former Congressman Jim Slattery may be re-thinking his decision not to take on Roberts. The KC Star's Prime Buzz blog reports

Slatts just called. He's looking. He's thinking. "It's not going to take long," he said of making a decision.
He'd like some clarity on the presidential race before pulling the trigger. "That's not the sole consideration, but it's certainly a factor, as you can imagine."
***
Former 2nd District Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery tells Prime Buzz he's reconsidering his decision not to challenge two-term incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts this year.
Slattery, a Democrat, weighed the race last year before backing away.
The only Democrat in the race now is Lee Jones, a 56-year-old railroad engineer from Overland Park who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2004.
Insiders say Jones is not positioned to give Roberts, a Republican, a major challenge.

Jonathon Singer comments on My DD

With Slattery in, this would likely be another one of those races that wouldn't be in the top-tier but would nevertheless potentially be competitive by November

Leonard Zeskind on Minuteman in KC

I left Wichita about 6 AM Saturday to drive up to Kansas City to attend an all-day conference on immigration and racism and got back to Wichita around 9:00 PM. A very long day, but well worth it. I'll try to find time to write up some observations, but for now I want to bring to your attention an analysis of the recent national Minuteman conference held in Kansas City and the impetus for yesterday's conference.

For those who don't know Zeskind, he is a legendary observer and analyst of the racist, far right.

He recently started a website, which has his writings over the years.

Zeskind promises new articles as part of the Zeskind fortnight, with the Minuteman report being the first.

Zeskind reports that at the Minuteman public rally, attended by over 500.

[Minuteman founder Chris] Simcox urged, first, an executive order to secure the borders (and build a bigger thicker fence line). Second, he wanted to put several thousand National Guard troops on the border. Both ideas were met with mild applause. When he proposed making English the official language, the crowd was a bit more enthusiastic. But the idea to abolish “birthright citizenship” for the children of “illegal aliens” made the crowd go wild.

And, this Zeskind points out is where the claim that the Minutemen and the anti-immigrant is not racist falls apart.

Any person or organization that advocates turning citizens into non-citizens, or that seeks to abridge the Fourteenth Amendment is, by any fair standard, a racist person or organization. They need not parade around in white sheets or swastika armbands; or spout racist obscenities like a barroom bigot; or make clever statements about the biological or cultural inferiority of certain peoples. They need only touch one hair on the Constitutional Amendment that guaranteed the citizenship rights of freed slaves after the Civil War, and they are ipso facto a racist.

And, there's reason to be worried.

... the Minutemen were well pleased with their performance at the Uptown Theater. Since that meeting they have been pushing hard for legislation in Kansas sponsored by Sen. Peggy Palmer (R. Augusta) entitled the “Kansas Illegal Immigration Relief Act.” A set of publicity ads they produced have been airing over the radio waves in southern Kansas, and they are gearing up for a recruitment drive at gun shows in the bi-state area.

Stephen Marglin's Heilbroner Memorial Lecture

Just came across this interesting lecture on Fora.tv, which looks like You Tube for intellectuals.



View Stephen Marglin on the Future of Capitalism on FORA.tv

"The Future of Capitalism: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community with Stephen Marglin.

This was the third annual Robert Heilbroner Memorial Lecture at the New School in New York. Heilbroner wrote, "Capitalism's uniqueness in history lies in its continuously self-generated change, but it is this very dynamism that is the system's chief enemy." In recognition of what Heilbroner identified as "the deep human need to be situated with respect to the future," The New School is sponsoring a lecture series in his memory that focuses on capitalism's future. This year, we will host Stephen Marglin, Walter S. Barker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and author of The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community - New School

KC Conference on Immigration and Racism

There's an interesting conference next Saturday in Kansas City.

Saturday March 8 9 am- 4 pm
Cristo Rey School 211 West Linwood Kansas City Missouri

Learn the truth about immigration and the rise of groups that target immigrants and people of color and practice the politics of division. Hear ideas on how to fix our broken immigration system and how to stop the hate spread by the Minutemen and FAIR.

Download a flyer
Para un volante en español

Plenaries .
Voices of KC Immigrants
Strategizing & Framing
How to Get Involved

Bilingual Workshop Who’s Stealing Whose Job?

Workshops In Spanish

Your Workplace Rights
Your Immigration Rights

Workshops (selected)

Why Don’t They Just Get Legal?
The Political Climate That Discourages Inclusion
Retreat from Civil Rights
How To Get Involved
The Minutemen & FAIR
Youth Activism & Civil Rights
Immigration Wedge Politics
Immigration History

Cost: $15 or $5 low income Donations needed Lunch included

Spanish translation
Children welcome
Register ! Call 816-235-1470 Email: ancelj@umkc.edu


Sponsors: All Souls Immigration Taskforce, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Cristo Rey School, Cross Border Network, Institute for Labor Studies, Interfaith Worker Justice, Latino Civil Rights Task Force, Missouri Immigrant & Refugee Advocates, New Sanctuary Movement, Sons and Daughters of Immigrants, Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

March 6 Day of Acton in Solidarity with Iranian Workersi

On 6 March, trade unions around the world are holding an international day of action in solidarity with the workers of Iran. The day will include protests, meetings, and other actions. An on-line petition has been launched to support the campaign.

The Iranian government has been arresting workers who have stood up and tried to organize unions -- including Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi, who both languish in jails despite continuing health problems. There is a YouTube video which tells the story of Osanloo and the bus drivers of Tehran.

Castro steps down

Wise comments from Dave Osler, a British leftist who spent time in Cuba last year

Stay in one of the five star hotels, and Cuba is a fabulous place for a holiday. Sit down by that swimming pool and bask in the Caribbean sunshine, light up a cigar from beyond the wilder shores of Freudian symbolism and knock back cocktails blended from the finest rum on earth. And if it’s nightlife you want, there’s hot jazz and salsa clubs that stay open until four am. That’s on the weeknights. Convertible pesos only, of course.

But for most ordinary Cubans, life is pretty damn grim. I saw that for myself two years ago, when I spent four weeks in an ordinary home in Havana while studying Spanish. Even such basic foodstuffs as rice are rationed. Water supplies are sporadic, and power cuts regular occurrences. The housing stock is badly run down. Many everyday items are simply unobtainable.

Yes, of course the US blockade and the economic effects of the collapse of the USSR are part - although by no means all - of the explanation. But there is no getting away from the conclusion that Cuban society is deeply polarised.

Beyond a layer of older people who lived through the revolution in the late fifties, there are few strong supporters of the government. The younger a person is - and the darker the colour of their skin - the more likely they are to be hostile. Many of those at the sharp end of the multiple hardships would rather be living in Miami, and don’t think twice about saying that to a foreign journalist.

David Corn on the Mother Jones blog

Please, no tears for Comrade Castro, as he finally gives up power in Cuba. It's a good thing he's going. But his departure has taken far too long (in fact, decades too long) and, alas, in all that time he did little to ease the transition to the free society that Cuba will eventually be. His exit leaves Cuba a repressive state and a nation not prepared for the future.

Sam Farber, in an interview last year in Solidarity, detailed the indications that after Fidel Castro's death Cuba may follow the path towards the world capitalist market initiated by Deng Xiaoping in China.

Farber reported that Raul Castro (Fidel's presumed successor) has praised the "Chinese model", and notes "the role of the Cuban army, Raul's stronghold, as a big player in joint enterprises, including the tourist industry."

Message of the Kansas Caucuses

Everybody knows that Barack Obamma and Mike Huckabee were the big winners in the Kansas caucuses last week, but there were some other winners and losers.

Big losers were citizens of Kansas who were denied the opportunity to vote in a primary. Secretary of State Ron Thornburg estimated that 800,000 would have voted in a primary. That's 20 times that number that took part in the caucuses. The projected cost to taxpayers was a measly $ 2 million.

Looking at the caucus data shows that Democrats may have been big winners and Republicans big losers.

Nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans caucused in Kansas--and the Democrats did it on a weekday night in the middle of a snowstorm instead of a warm-for- winter Saturday morning.

In raw numbers that was 37,089 Democrats versus 19,432 Republicans. The State GOP had predicted a turnout of 35,000. State Senator Phil Journey, a leader in the Republican right-wing went even further saying he expected a turnout of 50,000. This may have been more spin than real expectations; some caucus sites were overwhelmed and said they had many more than expected.

The contrast is even more striking when compared to party registration. 8.4 percent of Demorats participated as compared to 2.6 percent of Republicans. That's 1 of 12 Democrats and 1 of 38 Republicans.

Blog humor

Every once in a while, I stumble across some humorous posts on blogs. Here's some recent one's


Taner Edis writes a "cynic's guide to academic departments" on Secular Outpost

The Official Judeosphere Drinking Game (TM)

Requirements: A bottle of your favorite libation

Rules:

Drink one shot whenever...

• An opinion piece opens with the declaration, “You can’t criticize Israel without being accused of anti-semitism” (Note: Drink a second shot when the rest of the article inevitably degenerates into anti-semitism)

• Someone mentions the “cover-up” of the attack on the USS Liberty

• An author of a best-selling book criticizing Israel says that it’s impossible to publish a book or article criticizing Israel

Bigotry in Kansas athletics

It's no longer our state Board of Education which is giving Kansas a black eye, now it's our sports teams which are giving the state a bad reputation.

First, a "traditionalist Catholic" high school refuses to play if a women serves as referee. ("Traditionalist Catholics" regard the Catholic Church as having gone the wrong track ever since Vatican II.)

Then, the winning basketball coach at Heston College, a small Mennonite college, is reportedly told that his team with seven African American players looks "too much like a community college team and not enough like a Mennonite college team." The coach is told his contract won't be renewed. There are 14 African American students among the 430 at Heston.

Cain's Ballroom celebrates Bob Wills birthday

This is great. Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa has two special shows on Feb 29 and March 1 to celebrate Bob Wills birthday. Cains was--and is--known as the home of Bob Wills. His actual birthday was March 6.

Bob Wills is one of the giants of American music. Not quite the creator of Western swing, but certainly its most prominent and enduring pioneer.

I just recently got the 2-CD set Boot Hill Drag: the MGM Years. This 50 track set from 1947-1954 is really great stuff, though not rated his best.

And, if you can't make the drive to Tulsa, Ray Price, who kept Western Swing alive and evolving, though sometimes straying to other styles, will be at Wichita's Cotillion on April April 18. I don't know much about Price's shows. He's one of the great singers in American--not just country--music--so it ought to be very worthwhile.

Kansas Caucus Report

Wow. It was an amazing evening. Turnout at my caucus was about six times the 2004 turnout. And this was with very bad weather. The picture to the right is at the end of the night. It was this bad when the evening began. My candidate John Edwards dropped out of the race before Super Tuesday. I decided to go to the caucus anyway, even though I haven't yet been persuaded to back either Hillary or Barack.

Four years ago, on a Saturday afternoon, there were about 80 people who turned out for the 28th Senate District caucus. It was held at a mid-sized church. This year, our caucus was moved to the Machinist Hall on south Meridian.

And good thing it was. There were 502 people registered to participate. There were a handful of die-hard Edwards supporters--and some other folks I know who told me the had been Edwards supporters but had decided to caucus with one of the big candidates.

We had a very close caucus 253 Barack 249 Clinton (if I wrote it down correctly). Barack got 4 delegates to the next level, and Clinton got three.

Woody's turning in his grave: Arlo endorses Ron Paul

I heard this when briefly listening to one of the idiot, ring-wing radio hosts and thought it was just a joke, but I checked it out and it is sure enough true.


Arlo Guthrie, son of the legendary folksinger and songwriter, has endorsed Ron Paul for President.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Arlo said

“I love this guy,” Guthrie declared in a press release issued by the Paul campaign. “Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of the United States had he been there.”

Really? It's just as likely that Ron Paul would have opposed the Constitution and supported the Articles of Confederation.

It is clear that Ron Paul has allied himself with racists, that he supports a reactionary interpretation of the Constitution, opposes unions, and anti-discrination legislation, social security, the TVA, the Grand Coulee Dam.

It's hard to think of anyone more removed from the spirit of Woody Guthrie than Ron Paul.

Favorite English-language novelists

It's time to take part in the latest Normblog poll--this time it's favorite English-language novelists. Not only are the polls always interesting, but they are a good ocassion for a blog post. Norm emphasizes that it is "favorite" not best. Now my friend G. W. Clift who has kept a list of all the books he has read since college, who reads all of Dicken's novels--in order, and who reads when he walks his dog, might be better qualified to make a favorites list that could claim to be the best. But his list wouldn't be my list, though it would probably contain someone I'll inadvertently leave off. But that doesn't excuse me from trying.


At first, I thought a favorite lists would be easier, but I've changed my mind. Do I pick novelists that I was once crazy about (Kurt Vonnegut, Norman Mailer, Tom Robbins), but haven't read in years? I've gone through periods when I've read lots of detective and crime novels, should I include them. On the positive side, my list of favorite crime novelists would have a better gender balance than this list is going to have. But it's going to hard to include Sue Grafton and leave out Sarah Paretsky, not to mention Evan Hunter, Lawrence Block, Elmore Leonard, or James Elroy. Well, there's a good chance Norm will do another poll on crime writers. Do I include Ralph Ellison? His Invisible Man is a classic, but he never finished another novel.

So here's my criteria. Favorites have to have written more than one novel and I have to read and really enjoyed at least two of their novels. I was going to add without having hated or been unable to finish reading one or more, but that's really not fair. I'm thinking that every great novelists, whether for money or to fulfill a contract, has written a howler. Crime novelists are out. I would be interested in reading more novels by author and would be interested in re-reading.

So, at long last, here's the list. Norm asked for up to 10. I've come up with 8. You're also supposed to pick your top three and rank them. (They'll get extra points

1.Mark Twain
2. James Cain
3. Jane Austin
John Updike
Joseph Conrad
Charles Dickens
William Kennedy
George Orwell

PS: Wikipedia has list of American and British novelists

"Canadian " is the new N-word

The persistence and adaptability of racism in American life has been much in evidence recently. Some of it is familiar. Minister and Republican contender Mike Huckabee makes a totally crass appeal for white racist votes in South Carolina by defending the Confederate flag and, in the process, the anti-gay preacher expressed his desire to stick his pole up the a** of flag critics. Ron Paul, popular among some self-styled leftists, as well as freaked out libertarians.

Some of it is totally new.

According to an article in the National Post, a leading Canadian newspaper , it turns out that racists in the South and elsewhere have taken to using "Canadian" as code-word for African Americans.

a blogger in Cincinnati going by the name CincyBlurg reported that a black friend from the southeastern U.S. had recently discovered that she was being called a Canadian. "She told me a story of when she was working in a shop in the South and she overheard some of her customers complaining that they were always waited on by a Canadian at that place. She didn't understand what they were talking about and assumed they must be talking about someone else," the blogger wrote.

"After this happened several times with different patrons, she mentioned it to one of her co-workers. He told her that ‘Canadian' was the new derogatory term that racist Southerners were using to describe persons they would have previously referred to [with the N-word.]"

Brownback and Moran: what part of the frist amendment don't you undersrtand

According to an article in today's Kansas City Star, Senator Sam Brownback and Congressman Jerry Moran have gotten earmarks to give money to religious organizations.

Sam Brownback and Kit Bond used earmarks last year to direct about $1 million to an area group “empowering the un-churched urban poor for the kingdom of Christ.”
On the surface, the taxpayer-supported appropriations for World Impact Inc. raise constitutional questions about the separation of church and state.,,,

Brownback earmarked $850,000 to renovate the group’s Morning Star Ranch in Florence, Kan., and U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran, a Hays Republican, set aside $50,000 more. In the end, that money was whittled to $600,000.