Des Moines, Iowa –Occupy the World Food Prize

Melody Byrd — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:18:55 -0700

Please visit www.occupytheworldfoodprize.com for more information.

Indianola, Iowa – Simpson College

Melody Byrd — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:11:53 -0700

More information to come.

Madison, Wisconsin – Fighting Bob Fest

Melody Byrd — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:07:41 -0700

Come to the 12th Annual Fighting Bob Fest!
Saturday, September 7th, in Madison, Wisconsin
Join 5,000-10,000 activists in the biggest annual gathering of progressives in the country!

Speakers include:
Sen. Tammy Baldwin
Sen. Bernie Sanders (invited)
Jim Hightower
Rep. Gwen Moore
Rep. Mark Pocan
Will Durst
Ruth Conniff
John Nichols
Ed Garvey

8:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. at the Alliant Center
Fighting Bob Fest, founded by Ed Garvey, is co-sponsored by
The Progressive magazine and the Madison Capital Times.

Santa Fe, New Mexico – KSFR Radio Fundraiser

Melody Byrd — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:04:13 -0700

More Information to come. Please vista www.ksfr.org

Chicago, Illinois – Coalition to Overturn Citizens United

Melody Byrd — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:01:29 -0700

More information to come.

Corrales, New Mexico – Keep Sandoval County Blue

Melody Byrd — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 07:32:30 -0700

Please Join
Marg Elliston, Chair
and the Democratic Party of Sandoval County,
for a FUNDRAISER TO KEEP SANDOVAL COUNTY BLUE
featuring famous, fiery, fun, and factual Texas Populist
Jim Hightower and with Special Guests
U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich and former Lt. Governor Diane Denish

Suggested contribution: Host: $100 Guest: $25

Home of Marg Elliston and Fred Harris
Please RSVP to 505/898-0860 or fh1985@aol.com

The biggest shock of NSA's secret domestic spying

Jim Hightower — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

It's good to know that our friendly, über-secret National Security Agency is out there every day, protecting our freedom. By violating it.

A whistleblower has literally blown the lid off NSA's seven-year, super-snoop program of rummaging electronically through about a billion phone calls made every day by us average Americans. This revelation even prompted Al Gore to tweet: "Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?" It's definitely not just you, Al – this latest explosion of the Fourth Amendment is so mega-awful that authorities had to invent a new word for the process: Metadata mining.

Most shocking, however, is the tin-eared, who-cares reaction by both Republican and Democratic leaders to this outrageous meta-surveillance of our private lives. For example, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham blustered that, "It doesn't bother me one bit that NSA has my number." Hey, Lindsey, it's not your number we're worried about – it's NSA's collection of our entire country's numbers. Then came Sen. Saxby Chambliss: "We have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint," he blathered. Hello, Sen. Clueless, no one knew to complain since y'all kept the program secret from us!

And President Obama was even more ridiculous. He tried to rationalize his wholesale invasion of our privacy by declaring that Congress knew about the program, as did a special spy court, that routinely reviews and blesses it, so it's all legit. In a perplexed voice, Obama said" If people don't trust the White House, Congress, and federal judges, "then we're going to have some problems here."

Gosh sir, We the People have now learned that all three branches of government have furtively conspired for seven years to violate our privacy – so, no, we don't trust any of them. And, yes, that is a biiiiiiig problem.

She'll be gone, but her spirit will linger

Jim Hightower — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Let the church bells peal somberly, for we progressives have suffered an unexpected and tragic loss that leaves an awful void in our movement. I speak, of course, about the recent passing from America's political scene of a lady who truly was a shooting star: Michele Bachmann.

So perkily quirky, so ridiculously right-wing, so piously hypocritical, so incoherently pontifical – the Minnesota Congresswoman, tea party sparklie, and flash-in-the-pan presidential pretender was a gusher of good news for the progressive cause every time she opened her mouth. Alas, though, faced with likely defeat in her own district next year and an ethical mess involving her campaign finances, Bachmann has announced she'll not run again, prompting a nationwide pity party among progressives.

Even in her passing, however, she left us with some typical Bachmann bon mots, including this promise: "I will continue to work vehemently and robustly to fight back against what most [Democrats] want to do, to transform our country into becoming." Yes, "Stop America from Becoming!" is her battle cry, which I think means she's robustly against the future and will vehemently fight to stop it.

The good news for progressives is that as Michele fades into the past, several new tea party popinjays in Congress have emerged as top contenders for Bachmann's Silver Tongued Babbler crown. One has spurted to an early lead: Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas. He warns that sex education classes are teaching bestiality to school kids and insists that, "The best thing about Earth is if you poke holes in it, oil and gas come out." Oh, Steve also asserts that, "If babies had guns they wouldn't be aborted."

Now that is deeply Bachmannesque! So, take heart, progressives – Michele may be dearly departed, but her spirit will still be with us.

Monsanto Frankenwheat crops-up in Oregon

Jim Hightower — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Bob Dylan once sent a two-word lyric to Ben Harper, a talented songwriter he admired. "Well well," was the lyric, and Dylan challenged Harper to make a song of it.

He did! By adding another "well" to the title, Ben wrote "Well, well, well" – a stinging lament about America's clean-water well going dry, due to waste and greed. I thought of his song when I heard that a wheat farmer in Eastern Oregon had gotten an unpleasant surprise in May: Some of Monsanto's unapproved, genetically-manipulated wheat suddenly cropped-up in his field. He had never planted any of these Frankenseeds, which have a foreign DNA spliced into them by Monsanto's bio-tamperers. Field tests of the altered wheat were last done in Oregon in 2001, and the seeds never have been cleared for commercial use anywhere in the world. But there they are, sprouting like weeds.

Well, well, well. Ever since Monsanto, backed by its political protectors, began messing with the very DNA of our food supply two decades ago, the company line was that it was all perfectly safe and under tight control. Farmers, however, warned that these corporate and political powers were a bunch of profiteering ignoramuses who knew nothing about such basic realities as pollen drift. Pollen from mutant plants can – and does – move many hundreds of miles across state and national borders to contaminate the crops of unsuspecting farmers living far away.

Ninety percent of the wheat grown by Oregon farmers is exported to Japan and other nations that do not let their consumers be lab rats for agribusiness hucksters. So the escape of Monsanto's wheat into the wild endangers both wheat exports and the purity of organic corps – not to mention human health and our environment.

To follow the drift of this story go to Organic Consumers Association: www.organicconsumers.org.

The facades of Enniskillen

Jim Hightower — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

These are hard times in Northern Ireland, where unemployment is rampant and Prime Minister David Cameron's corrosive austerity medicine is killing hope.

Yet, the people of a depressed town named Enniskillen are rubbing their eyes in disbelief at a remarkable revitalization of their town centre. Practically overnight, a blight of abandoned stores has been transformed into a vibrant scene of reoccupied, fully-stocked shops enjoying a business boom. But wait: Having rubbed their eyes and peered closer, the denizens of Enniskillen see that this is not a miracle – it's a mirage. The spiffy new streetscapes are nothing but posters plastered over the old vacant buildings.

Why this lie? Because Cameron, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, and other heads of state are coming to the G8 Summit being held this month at a five-star, luxury golf resort just down the road from Enniskillen. Yes, extravagance adjacent to depression. Organizers, however, don't want the eyeballs of these world leaders to be singed by economic reality. Thus, they have put a half-million dollars into the town centre to create a Potemkin Village so that G8 participants will not have unpleasant memories from passing through Enniskillen on their way to the resort, where they will discuss the magic of austerity for the masses and more tax cuts for the superrich.

"It is essential that town centres appear as attractive and welcoming as possible," declared Northern Ireland's social development minister. And a regional official explained that the half-million dollar fluff-up of Enniskillen will "address the poor physical and unattractive appearance of properties."

So, if you wonder why the world economy is in the ditch and our leaders are so clueless, unconcerned, and unwilling to take action look no further than the facades of Enniskillen.