Chuck Pennacchio on KDKA Radio Tonight

Chuck Pennacchio will be on KDKA Radio (AM 1020) tonight at 8:00 PM with John McIntire.

You can live stream this at:

http://www.kdkaradio.com

58th Annual Global Solutions Education Fund Dinner with John Nichols

Global Solutions announces their 58th annual Global Solutions Education Fund - Pittsburgh Spring Dinner

WHEN: Thursday evening, April 20, 2006
WHERE: Omni William Penn Hotel in Downtown Pittsburgh.

This year they will be hosting John Nichols, who will present "The Perils of Empire: How Unilateral 'Nation-Building' by the United States Undermines Democracy Abroad and at Home."

The evening’s events will begin with a reception at 6:00 pm and continue with dinner at 7:00 pm, followed by a presentation from John Nichols at 7:30 pm.

Guest Speaker:
John Nichols, Washington Correspondent for The Nation

The Perils of Empire: How Unilateral "Nation-Building" by the United States Undermines Democracy Abroad and at Home.

This year, John Nichols, The Nation's Washington correspondent, will speak at their 58th Annual Spring Dinner. Nichols has covered progressive politics and activism in the United States and abroad for more than a decade. Formerly a writer and editor for The Toledo Blade and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspapers, he is now editorial page editor for The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. He has covered electoral politics for The Progressive for a number of years. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and dozens of other newspapers.

Nichols has covered four presidential elections in the United States, along with elections and political activism in Britain, Ireland, Israel, India, Palestine, El Salvador, Jamaica and South Africa. He has interviewed Bill Clinton, Al Gore, George Bush, Bill Bradley, John McCain and Patti Smith. His editorials on corporate responsibility have been honored by the Inland Press Association as the best in the country and his columns on presidential politics have been acclaimed by Women in Communications International as the best appearing in a daily newspaper.

He is the author, with Bob McChesney, of It's the Media, Stupid (Seven Stories), which features introductions by Ralph Nader, Barbara Ehrenreich and Paul Wellstone, and Jews for Buchanan, on the 2000 presidential election, published in November 2001 by New Press.

Reservations:
Reservations are $40 per person and $280 for a table of eight. Student reservations are $15.
To RSVP or for more information, please email rsvp@globalsolutiospgh.org , call 412-471-7852 or visit www.globalsolutionspgh.org/sd2006.html .

*****************************************

And, yes, Global Solutions has sponsored an ad on this blog, but I've subscribed to The Nation for years and read John Nichols, so I would have posted this any way.

Run, Baby, Run & LUPEC Happy Hour Tonight!

WHAT:Run, Baby, Run & LUPEC Happy Hour
WHEN: Tuesday March 21, 2006, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
WHERE: Tonic - Liberty at 10th St., downtown Pittsburgh

Join Run, Baby,Run and LUPEC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) as they celebrate Women's History with LUPEC's special style.

It's Gin & Sin time!

Everyone is welcome.

Twofer! Help "Greet" Bush & Santorum in Sewickley!

WHAT: Candlelight Antiwar/Peace Rally
WHEN: Friday, March 24, 2006, 7:00 PM
WHERE: The corner of Beaver and Broad in Sewickley at the Gazebo

The evening of 3/24 George W. Bush will be in town for a fundraiser for Rick Santorum at the Simmons on Quaker Hollow 5-7. (General Reception is $1,000.00, Photos with the president: $10,000.00 per person/couple***.)

At 7:00 PM there will be an antiwar/peace rally at the corner of Beaver and Broad in Sewickley at the Gazebo. (Permits have been issued.)

Please come with friends (spread the word) with candles and signs.

After the rally, a gathering will be held in Osborne at 1315 Linden St. (For more information, contact: natashasoroka@aol.com )

Western PA has a history of making a stand for what is right -- let's once again set a national standard!

***Or you can break your piggy bank, RSVP the fundraiser for PA's -- and the Nation's -- shame, and get a way kool snap with you and Bushie!

Plight Deepens for Black Men, Studies Warn

From yesterday's NY Times:

BALTIMORE — Black men in the United States face a far more dire situation than is portrayed by common employment and education statistics, a flurry of new scholarly studies warn, and it has worsened in recent years even as an economic boom and a welfare overhaul have brought gains to black women and other groups.

[snip]

These were among the recent findings:

¶The share of young black men without jobs has climbed relentlessly, with only a slight pause during the economic peak of the late 1990's. In 2000, 65 percent of black male high school dropouts in their 20's were jobless — that is, unable to find work, not seeking it or incarcerated. By 2004, the share had grown to 72 percent, compared with 34 percent of white and 19 percent of Hispanic dropouts. Even when high school graduates were included, half of black men in their 20's were jobless in 2004, up from 46 percent in 2000.

¶Incarceration rates climbed in the 1990's and reached historic highs in the past few years. In 1995, 16 percent of black men in their 20's who did not attend college were in jail or prison; by 2004, 21 percent were incarcerated. By their mid-30's, 6 in 10 black men who had dropped out of school had spent time in prison.

¶In the inner cities, more than half of all black men do not finish high school.

[snip]

According to census data, there are about five million black men ages 20 to 39 in the United States.

Terrible schools, absent parents, racism, the decline in blue collar jobs and a subculture that glorifies swagger over work have all been cited as causes of the deepening ruin of black youths. Scholars — and the young men themselves — agree that all of these issues must be addressed.

[snip]

Arrests of black men climbed steeply during the crack epidemic of the 1980's, but since then the political shift toward harsher punishments, more than any trends in crime, has accounted for the continued growth in the prison population, Mr. Western said.

The high levels of incarceration among Blacks also leads to disproportionately fewer Blacks being able to vote.

A reminder that the Pennsylvania General Assembly recently passed a bill making it hard for those with a felony conviction to vote which was fortunately vetoed by Governor Rendell.

Further surpression of the Black vote can be expected in New Orleans. As ColorOfChange.org notes:

On April 22nd, New Orleans will hold it's first mayoral election since the storm. Everyone watching knows what will happen if elections go forward without a change--the Black vote will be suppressed and the ability for Black New Orleanians to claim their future compromised. During Iraq's election, the U.S. government provided polling places in U.S. cities with large numbers of Iraqi-Americans. Why won't it do the same for thousands of mostly Black displaced New Orleanians?

You can join ColorOfChange.org in calling on Governor Blanco to protect the voting rights of Katrina survivors by demanding satellite voting and, if necessary, postponing the election to do so HERE.

OffQ

I am very pleased to announce that I'll be the "guest panelist" on this week's OffQ.

For those who've never seen the program, it's a lively discussion on current events between Ruth Ann Dailey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Alan Cox of 105.9, Fred Honsberger of KDKA and a guest panelist.

This week, as I stated above, the guest panelist is little old me.

Is that a kick in the pants or what? I get to sit next to The Honzman himself.

Oh, yea. I almost forgot - Bush is still breaking the law.

IMPEACH

SAFEGUARD OUR ELECTIONS !

NO PAPER, NO PROOF, NO WAY!
VOTER-VERIFIED PAPER BALLOTS (V-VPBs)

*** CONTACT THE BOARD OF ELECTION
Dave Fawcett, John Defazio, Dan Onorato
dfawcett@county.allegheny.pa.us
jdefazio@county.allegheny.pa.us
executive@county.allegheny.pa.us

*** CONTACT COUNTY COUNCIL
Phone: (412) 350-6490
council@county.allegheny.pa.us
http://www.www.county.allegheny.pa.us/council

*** SPEAK TO COUNTY COUNCIL
MARCH 21st AT COUNTY COUNCIL, 5:00 PM
Request to speak before County Council at: http://www.TINYURL.COM/M3TV3
County Courthouse
436 Grant Street
4th Floor - Gold Room
Pittsburgh PA

NO PAPER, NO PROOF, NO WAY!
http://www.www.votepa.us


************************************
You can view a 60 second video on this subject by Democracy for America at:
http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/petition/paperballot
And sign a petition there!

test

Is it just me or is the formatting all screwed up?

UPDATE: Nevermind. Seems to be back to normal.

Can someone please show the White House the 4th Amendment?

This from USNews:

In the dark days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a small group of lawyers from the White House and the Justice Department began meeting to debate a number of novel legal strategies to help prevent another attack. Soon after, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to begin conducting electronic eavesdropping on terrorism suspects in the United States, including American citizens, without court approval. Meeting in the FBI's state-of-the-art command center in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, the lawyers talked with senior FBI officials about using the same legal authority to conduct physical searches of homes and businesses of terrorism suspects--also without court approval, one current and one former government official tell U.S. News. "There was a fair amount of discussion at Justice on the warrantless physical search issue," says a former senior FBI official. "Discussions about--if [the searches] happened--where would the information go, and would it taint cases." [Emphasis added.]

Here again, our 4th Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

How much more evidence do we need to conclude that this administration is hostile to our civil liberties? Hostile to the Constitution itself? They wanted something expressly forbidden by the 4th Amendment.

The article describes this administration's now familiar flim-flam of misusing the testimony of Jamie Gorelick to bolster it's illegal actions. Then it calls in an expert:

But John Martin, a former Justice Department attorney who prosecuted the two most important cases involving warrantless searches and surveillance, says the department is sending an unambiguous message to Congress. "They couldn't make it clearer," says Martin, "that they are also making the case for inherent presidential power to conduct warrantless physical searches."

Doesn't matter, I guess that the 4th Amendment bans them.

The article does point out that they weren't able to find out whether any searches were conducted. They did add the story of a defense attorney Thomas Nelson. He wrote to US Attorney Karin Immergut that there were strong indications that his house and office were searched.

The searches, if they occurred, were anything but deft. Late at night on two occasions, Nelson's colleague Jonathan Norling noticed a heavyset, middle-aged, non-Hispanic white man claiming to be a member of an otherwise all-Hispanic cleaning crew, wearing an apron and a badge and toting a vacuum. But, says Norling, "it was clear the vacuum was not moving." Three months later, the same man, waving a brillo pad, spent some time trying to open Nelson's locked office door, Norling says. Nelson's wife and son, meanwhile, repeatedly called their home security company asking why their alarm system seemed to keep malfunctioning. The company could find no fault with the system.

In October, Immergut wrote to Nelson reassuring him that the FBI would not target terrorism suspects' lawyers without warrants and, even then, only "under the most exceptional circumstances," because the government takes attorney-client relationships "extremely seriously." Nelson nevertheless filed requests, under the Freedom of Information Act, with the NSA. The agency's director of policy, Louis Giles, wrote back, saying, "The fact of the existence or nonexistence of responsive records is a currently and properly classified matter."

How convenient.

But don't go away tyranny-fans, there's more!

White House lawyers, in particular, Vice President Cheney's counsel David Addington (who is now Cheney's chief of staff), pressed Mueller to use information from the NSA program in court cases, without disclosing the origin of the information, and told Mueller to be prepared to drop prosecutions if judges demanded to know the sourcing, according to several government officials. Mueller, backed by Comey, resisted the administration's efforts. "The White House was putting pressure on Mueller to broadly make cases with the intelligence," says one official. "But he did not want to use it as a basis for any affidavit in any court." Comey declined numerous requests for comment. Sources say Mueller and his general counsel, Valerie Caproni, continue to remain troubled by the domestic spying program. Martin, who has handled more intelligence-oriented criminal cases than anyone else at the Justice Department, puts the issue in stark terms: "The failure to allow it [information obtained from warrantless surveillance] to be used in court is a concession that it is an illegal surveillance." [Emphasis added.]

So they know it's illegal, they know that if the sourcing of the illegal intelligence were made public it could endanger the prosecution of terrorists - but they wanted to do it anyway.

I'll say it again.

IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH

Overkill at the Antiwar Rally/March?

As reported here, Pittsburgh held a rally and march to mark the third anniversary of the Iraq War. The main sponsor was the Thomas Merton Center which has received national attention recently when proof was offered demonstrating that the FBI had been spying on this pacifist group.

I and the Other Political Junkie attended the rally but not the march, but I didn't bring a camera (I was toting some largest posters for Democracy for Pittsburgh).

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covers the march here and Pittsburgh Indymedia covers it here with LOTS of pictures including these two:




But the most interesting coverage may be a Recommended Diary at Daily KOS by Yellow Canary here.

Like, I said, I didn't do the march, but Yellow Canary did and took loads of photos, including these two:




The photos illustrate the point Yellow Canary makes in his diary:

Not so bad. Then I got the crowd itself. A nice drumbeat was being tattoo'd by an active group in the center, but mostly people were just milling around. Not the police. They had formed an impenetrable cordon. And I'm not kidding. The crowd was dressed in jeans, sweaters, jackets. It was a cold, sunny day. These police were in FULL RIOT GEAR.

That's a block-long line of police in full riot gear. High-tech stuff: shields, shin, knee, elbow, shoulder protectors, pads everywhere. About every eighth officer had an earset with a microphone. Notice that the crowd is not particularly menacing.

[snip]

Did you notice the arms? This was a significant show of force for the police state.



He wasn't unfriendly. Told me the gun fired "non-lethal crowd control rounds". That leaves, well, most everything.

I didn't get any pictures of the "greens". They were a team of riot police staying out of the way half a block to the north. They ALL had those nice canister launchers, and one guy -- luck of draw, he was the munitions mule -- was wearing a long vest covered front, back, and sides with five inch by two inch aluminum canisters.

That's a lot of cops, probably on overtime. Pittsburgh, by the way, is in receivership (it can't pay it's bills). But it sure can pull out all stops to keep an anti-war rally from turning ugly. The city of Pittsburgh has contributed more than $950,000,000 in federal taxes for Bush's illegal war of aggression in Iraq. We sure could use that money to pay for the schools (property taxes are forcing people out of the city). Or invest in the local economy. Paying Bush to kill Iraqis when you can't afford to pay your bills seems a misguided. But then we pay extra to show peace marchers the newest in police equipment.

As one person commented after viewing the pictures:

nonlethal crowd control rounds like the one that killed the young lady celebrating in Kenmore Square after the Red Sox won the Series? These pictures are straight out of V for Vendetta. The police are up-armed for tactical assault at the mere presence of peaceful citizens exercising their constitutional rights. We need to stop this. We cannot have local police rigged out as storm troopers. They will act like what they are dressed out to do. What in the hell happened to my country? Who are these police that stand ready to kill and maim with lethal non-lethal rounds in peaceful gatherings? Woe is this nation, woe, and in peril.

What is missing from the above diary is any mention of the incident that happened at the same recruiting station back in August 2005 when tasers, dogs, and chemical weapons were used to subdue protesters. In that protest, six were arrested, two hospitalized, and many were injured including a grandmother who was bitten by a police dog. However, that protest was organized by POG, not the Merton Center.

Pittsburgh City Council held a Post Agenda hearing on the incident, the police response, and the guidelines for use of force.

At the time, Chief Robert W. McNeilly, Jr., when asked and how much force should be used during group protests "declined to release those policies, saying sophisticated anarchist groups might use them against police."

We seem to have gone from perhaps too few police who seemed overeager (felt threatened?) and ill-equipped to handle a situation to something that resembles a phalanx of troopers out of Star Wars.

[sigh]

But, by all means, go to Daily KOS and Pittsburgh Indymedia and make up your own mind.

Local Girl Makes Good

Hey check out today's P-G.

Sue Kerr, John McIntire's "official lesbian correspondent" and local blogger, made it into our local rag today.

The story revolves around Sue's efforts to stop a local company from illegally dumping in her neighborhood.

Sue Kerr - sticking it to the man!

No, wait can I really say that??

With Religion and no brains

An eleventh century blind Syrian poet named Abul'-Ala' al-Ma'arri wrote:

The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts:
Those with brains, but no religion,
And those with religion, but no brains.

And I normally think the lines a bit (ok more than a bit) unfair as he distiction between those with brains and those with religion is too harshly drawn.

However, every now and then I stumble across something that makes at least ponder whether our blind poet was onto something.

Read. It's from last February.

When Wendy DeVore, the drama teacher at Fulton High here, staged the musical "Grease," about high school students in the 1950's, she carefully changed the script to avoid causing offense in this small town.

She softened the language, substituting slang for profanity in places. Instead of smoking "weed," the teenagers duck out for a cigarette. She rated the production PG-13, advising parents it was not suitable for small children.

But a month after the performances in November, three letters arrived on the desk of Mark Enderle, Fulton's superintendent of schools. Although the letters did not say so, the three writers were members of a small group linked by e-mail, all members of the same congregation, Callaway Christian Church.

Those three members of the Calloway Christian Church must be very proud of themselves. They stomped their feet and got their way. Who cares about free speech? Who cares about free thought? We have to protect the children!

But now here's what they call the ironical part.

Dr. Enderle watched a video of the play, ultimately agreeing that "Grease" was unsuitable for the high school, despite his having approved it beforehand, without looking at the script. Hoping to avoid similar complaints in the future, he decided to ban the scheduled spring play, "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller.

"That was me in my worst Joe McCarthy moment, to some," Dr. Enderle said.

Do you think he understood his own joke? That cancelling The Crucible would be a Joseph McCarthy moment? In a letter to the editor Enderle tries to explain himself:

My decision was made in an attempt to help our students prepare for their spring production absent any residual criticism and attention that may have resulted from the problems experienced with the fall production. It should be clarified that no community group or members had contacted me in an effort to halt production of “The Crucible.” My decision was intended to be entirely preventative in nature.

Isn't that the scary part? No community group contacted him about The Crucible but he banned it rescheduled it anyway to avoid any future controversy - from the local Christian community, no doubt. Now why would a conservative Christian community object to a play that uses the 17th century witch trials as a metaphor for the McCarthy anti-communist scare tactics of a half century ago?

And guess how many of the three protesters actually saw the play?

Two.

Mark Miller, a 26-year-old graduate student, said he was moved to complain after getting an e-mail message about the show from Terra Guittar, a member of his church. Her description of the pajama party scene offended him, he wrote, adding that one character should have worn a more modest nightgown. Mr. Miller did not see the play.

And then there's this:

Dr. Enderle said he did not base his decision to cancel "The Crucible," which was first reported by The Fulton Sun, a daily, just on the three complaints and the video. He also asked 10 people he knew whether the play crossed a line. All but one, he recalled, said yes.

And this:

Others learned"The Crucible" was off limits through an internal school district newsletter. In it, Dr. Enderle said he dropped the play after seeing this summary on the Web: "17th century Salem woman accuses an ex-lover's wife of witchery in an adaptation of the Arthur Miller play."

Did he even read the play? Between the lines, it doesn't look like it. But something about the line struck me as odd: were they performing the play or an adaptation of the play? Out of curiousity, I googled the quotation. And first on the list is this. Did he really base this whole thing on one sentence from the Internet Movie Database?

Here's some background commentary that will become important in a minute:

"Grease" and "The Crucible" are hardly unfamiliar; they are standard fare on the high school drama circuit, the second-most-frequently-performed musical and drama on school stages, according to the Educational Theater Association, a nonprofit group. The most performed now are "Seussical" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Ms DeVore chose a Midsummer Night's Dream as a replacement for The Crucible.

Here's how the Times piece ends:

For the moment, Dr. Enderle acknowledged, the controversy has shrunk the boundaries of what is acceptable for the community. He added that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was "not a totally vanilla play."

But asked if the high school might put on another Shakespeare classic about young people in love, "Romeo and Juliet," he hesitated.

"Given the historical context of the play," the superintendent said, "it would be difficult to say that's something we would not perform."

So high school students shouldn't see "Romeo and Juliet" either?

That was back in February.

Take a look at what's happened recently:

A central Missouri high school drama teacher whose spring play was canceled after complaints about tawdry content in one of her previous productions will resign rather than face a possible firing.

And:

But after a handful of Callaway Christian Church members complained about scenes in the fall musical "Grease" that showed teens smoking, drinking and kissing, Superintendent Mark Enderle told DeVore to find a more family-friendly substitute.

DeVore chose Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," a classic romantic comedy with its own dicey subject matter, including suicide, rape and losing one's virginity.

Uh-oh, just like "Romeo and Juliet" there's trouble in "Midsummer Night's Dream." Better fire the director.

Lord what fools these mortals be! - A Midsummer Night's Dream (III, ii, 115)

MO GOP Lawmakers Promote Abortion

Republican & Religious Right Jihad Against Women, Families & Privacy Proceeding as Planned

From KansasCity.com by way of Fired Up! Missouri by way of AmericaBlog:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - An attempt to resume state spending on birth control got shot down Wednesday by House members who argued it would have amounted to an endorsement of promiscuous lifestyles.

Missouri stopped providing money for family planning and certain women's health services when Republicans gained control of both chambers of the Legislature in 2003.

But a Democratic lawmaker, in a little-noticed committee amendment, had successfully inserted language into the proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 that would have allowed part of the $9.2 million intended for "core public health functions" to go to contraception provided through public health clinics.

The House voted 96-59 to delete the funding for contraception and infertility treatments after Rep. Susan Phillips told lawmakers that anti-abortion groups such as Missouri Right to Life were opposed to the spending.

[snip]

Others, including some lawmakers who described themselves as "pro-life," said it was illogical for anti-abortion lawmakers to deny money for contraception to low-income people who use public health clinics.

"It's going to have the opposite effect of what the intention is, which will be more unwanted pregnancies and more abortions," said Rep. Kate Meiners, D-Kansas City.

The other alternative is for low-income women to give birth to more children, which is only likely to drive up the state's costs to provide services to them, said Democratic Rep. Melba Curls, also of Kansas City.

[snip]

Missouri Right to Life said it was concerned with the contraception language because it was loosely written and could have included emergency contraception - often referred to as the morning-after pill.

The Missouri Catholic Conference also opposed the birth control funding.

"State taxpayers should not be required to subsidize activities they believe are immoral or unethical, relating to contraceptives or abortions," said Larry Weber, executive director of the state Catholic Conference.

So what have we learned from this article? We've learned:

1. Because some poor single women may get birth control, Missouri Republican Lawmakers will not pay for family planning services for any poor Missouri families, including for married Missourians.

2. Missouri Republican Lawmakers believe that not paying for family planning services will prevent the poor in Missouri from fucking.

3. Missouri Republican Lawmakers would rather not pay for family planning services for the poor in their state then dare to offend the Religious Right.

4. The Religious Right believes that contraceptives, and not just abortions, are immoral and unethical.

5. Missouri Republican Lawmakers and the Religious Right would rather ensure that more abortions occur when poor people inevitably do have sex than pay for family planning services.

6. Missouri Republican Lawmakers and the Religious Right are either complete idiots or are members of some sort of Cult of the Blastula.

7. Missouri welcomes it's new Uterus Gestapo Overlords.

You're all invited to my Birthday Party! / Pittsburgh still says "NO" to war!

WHEN: SATURDAY, MARCH 18, 1:00 PM
WHERE: Corner of Penn and Highland
WHAT: Birthday Party for Me!/ Something about a war... ***

THREE MILES FOR THREE YEARS

This Saturday, March 18th, the Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee is organizing a permitted mass rally and march that begins at 1:00 pm at the corner of Penn and Highland. The event kicks off with performances by Soma Mestizo, Short Dark Strangers and poet Debra Bowen followed by a few brief remarks by local activists. MARCH! Then, at 2:30 pm we will lead a three mile march that spans three neighborhoods, marking three years since the U.S.-led war on Iraq began. The march will proceed from the East Liberty Presbyterian Church to the Shadyside shopping district before terminating at Oakland military recruiting station on Forbes Avenue. (If you're worried about getting back to East Liberty note that there are several buses that can take you there: 71C, 77C, 78C and the 81B.)

BLOCS: Throw on your pink attire and join regional Codepink chapters for their fiesty Pink Bloc. Look for the big "Impeach Bush" banner...Or, join Pittsburgh Organizing Group's raucous Youth/Counter-Recruitment contingent. Look for the Youth Against Militarism banner at Baum and Liberty. Other contingents include Anti-Racist Action's Radical Pro-Choice Contingent and the free-wheeling Drop Bikes not Bombs protest ride that meets up in Friendship park at 1pm.

Or march with Democracy for Pittsburgh (one of the sponsors)/Allegheny for Pennacchio. We'll meet up at PNC office on 5934 Baum Boulevard at 12:30PM. It's about 2 blocks from the rally, has a parking lot and the bank itself closed on Saturday. (Mapquest -- Please note, there is also a PNC bank located on the corner of Penn & Highland. This is NOT the location that DFP will meet at, but instead we'll meet at a nearby PNC bank with a parking lot.) We will then walk together a couple of blocks to the rally at Penn and Highland. There will also be some of us with signs/support for Chuck Pennacchio, who is the only candidate in the race for Pennsylvania Senator, who actaully has an exit strategy for our troops to bring them home from this terrible war. (Any questions, please email or call Janis Williams at 412-680-1626/janis.jmw@comcast.net . ) Please make a sign!!!

AFTER THE MARCH: we invite you to join us for a post-march chill-down at the Shadow Lounge (5972 Baum Blvd., East Liberty) from 5:30 to 8:00 pm. Or join us for a special screening of Why We Fight at the Regent Square Theater (1035 S. Braddock Ave, Edgewood) at 9:15pm. Why We Fight is Eugene Jarecki's new must-see documentary about the military industrial complex. Representatives of the Thomas Merton Center will be present to introduce the film and lead a discussion afterwards.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: If you'd like to help out on the day of the event, come to a meeting at 12:30 pm at the rally site. Complete details can be found at http://www.pittsburghendthewar.org/.

***More than 300 events are being held across the country for my birthday! Check for one in you area here!


SPY-IN TO RESIST FBI & PENTAGON SPYING AND INTIMIDATION

You've heard of sit-ins, sleep-ins and die-ins. Well, you are invited to resist the FBI and Pentagon spying on local anti-war activists and join us for a SPY-IN on Tuesday, March 21st, 12-1pm at the Federal Buildling downtown (Grant and Liberty). Dress in spy gear––trench coats, black suits/fedoras (a la Abramoff), sunglasses, etc., try your local thrift shop. Bring cameras, toy cameras, note pads, binocs, telescopes. Organized by Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee and Pittsburgh Bill of Rights Defense Campaign.

Also consider filing your own Freedom of Information Act request to find out if the Feds have been watching. Attend the "File your own FOIA" party at the Thomas Merton Center on Wednesday, March 29th, 7pm.

Learn more about the recent release of documents which show that Thomas Merton Center anti-war efforts are being targeted by the FBI.

Bush Responds to Ever-dropping Poll #'s

(Atrios may have his ponies, but we have our melting Bushie.)

Garrison Keillor is still my favorite

Check it out.

The Republican Revolution has gone the way of all flesh. It took over Congress and the White House, horns blew, church bells rang, sailors kissed each other, and what happened? The Republicans led us into a reckless foreign war and steered the economy toward receivership and wielded power as if there were no rules. Democrats are accused of having no new ideas, but Republicans are making some of the old ideas look awfully good, such as constitutional checks and balances, fiscal responsibility, and the notion of realism in foreign affairs and taking actions that serve the national interest. What one might call "conservatism."

Geez, the man can write.

Over the course of time, the Chief Occupant has been cruelly exposed over and over. He sat and was briefed on the danger of a hurricane wiping out a major American city, and without asking a single question, he got up from the table and walked away and resumed his vacation. He played guitar as New Orleans was flooded. It took him four days to realize his responsibility to do something. When the tsunami killed 100,000 people in Southeast Asia, he was on vacation and it took him 72 hours to issue a statement of sympathy.

How long will it take for the Republican Noise Machine to denounce Garrison Keillor as a traitor?

He openly, brazenly, countenanced crimes of torture at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram. He engaged in illegal surveillance, authorized the arrest of people without charge and "disappeared" them to foreign jails. And he finagled this war, which, after three years of violence, does not look to be heading toward a happy ending. And now it's up to Republicans to put their country first and call the gentleman to account.

It's up to THE REPUBLICANS TO PUT THEIR COUNTRY FIRST?

Now that's depressing.

33%

He's at 33%.

In the aftermath of the Dubai ports deal, President Bush's approval rating has hit a new low and his image for honesty and effectiveness has been damaged.

33%

Bush's overall approval measure stands at 33%, the lowest rating of his presidency.

33%

The president's ratings for handling of several specific issues, particularly terrorism, have also declined sharply. Just 42% now approve of Bush's job in handling terrorist threats, an 11-point drop since February. In January 2005, as Bush was starting his second term, 62% approved of his handling of terrorist threats.

33%

Bush's personal image also has weakened noticeably, which is reflected in people's one-word descriptions of the president. Honesty had been the single trait most closely associated with Bush, but in the current survey "incompetent" is the descriptor used most frequently.

33%

INCOMPETENT

The FBI's been naughty!

The Post-Gazette is reporting that the Thomas Merton Center and the ACLU released documents claiming that the FBI has spied on peace activists in duh 'Burgh.

The FBI issued a statement that said that the agent involved wasn't investigating the group, but were investigating someone at a rally.

Here's the ACLU's page on this.

The P-G says there'll be more on this on Wednesday.

IN PGH COUNCIL DISTRICT 3? VOTE FOR KRAUS TODAY!

If you're in Pittsburgh City Council District Three, don't forget to come out and vote today for: Bruce A. Kraus Endorsed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the South Pittsburgh Reporter!

Russ Feingold, American Hero

Senator Feingold stood up on the floor of the Senate and after being interrupted a couple of times by some childish Republicans delivered a historic speech. He began this way.

Mr. President, when the President of the United States breaks the law, he must be held accountable. That is why today I am introducing a resolution to censure President George W. Bush.

He must be held accountable.

The President authorized an illegal program to spy on American citizens on American soil, and then misled Congress and the public about the existence and legality of that program. It is up to this body to reaffirm the rule of law by condemning the President’s actions.

Bush authorized an illegal program.

All of us in this body took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and bear true allegiance to the same. Fulfilling that oath requires us to speak clearly and forcefully when the President violates the law. This resolution allows us to send a clear message that the President’s conduct was wrong.

The President violates the law.

I wondered what our two Pennsylvania Senators had to say about the resolution. Let me amend that. I really don't know yet, but I am pretty sure Senator Man-on-Dog will say something idiotic and embarrass himself and every other citizen of this Commonwealth.

But what did the sane half of our Senatorial duo say? Here's a "live blogging" description from thedailybackground.

4:52 Specter takes the floor. Says subject matter is worth debate. Wants Feingold to stay on the floor, and asks him to return to debate with him. Describes Feingold’s speech as a “long sollioquy”.

4:54 Specter says that although he agrees with many of the statements made in Feingold’s resolution, he thinks the censure resolution is “way over the top”. Feingold doesn’t seem to be returning.

4:58 Specter seems to be saying that the President has the power to do what he is doing, under the Constitution. He says that the President’s constitutional rights are above statute (FISA). Specter says that if Attorney General Gonzales is correct, then the President is legally okay.

5:00 Specter is basically saying that Article 2 of the Consitution superceeds any laws that the President may have broken. Specter says either the President should brief the Senate and House intelligence committee, or ask them to change laws about briefing, which require them to do so. He says there should be no in between. He says regarding not leaking– yes, Congress leaks, but that the White House leaks too, and neither have a perfect record.

5:04 Specter conceeds that he doesn’t “know what the [NSA] program is” and that Gonzales wouldn’t tell him at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearings.

So our "sane" Senator's rebuttal is this: Bush couldn't be guilty of breaking the law because the law in question is unconstitutional. The law is almost 30 years old - and good ole Arlen is just discovering its unconstitutionality now? Georgia10 at dailykos is absolutely correct:

Specter's arguments are nothing more than strained and baseless legal tripe meant to distract the public from the gravity of the President's crimes. The Constitution unequivocally gives Congress the right to regulate all powers "vested" in the Constitution, and that includes the inherent power claimed by President Bush. Congress chose not to abdicate its constitutional powers in 1978, and it cannot chose to do so now.

Oh Arlen, I am so dissappointed in you.

IMPEACH

Russ Feingold, Arlen Specter,