Archive: Michael Munk's Portland Messages

Last week: 325 US combat casualties by Michael Munk Wed, Sep 1, 2010

Friday: ILWU Local 5 strike fund rasier party by Michael Munk Wed, Aug 25, 2010

Friday, August 27, 5pm-2am ILWU Local 5 10th Anniversary Party! Album Release Party, Strike Fund Fundraiser, at the Cleaners, 1022 SW Stark visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Tommorow Aug. 24: Dorothea Lange's Oregon Images. by Michael Munk Mon, Aug 23, 2010

REMINDER A Special Oregon Encyclopedia History Night in Partnership with = The Washington County Historical Society. Tuesday, August 24, 7:00 pm McMenamins Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, Hillsboro=20 "Slices of Cinema on Dorothea Lange and the Great Depression," = presented by Gloria Myers and David Horowitz.=20 In 1939, photographer Dorothea Lange came to Oregon to document = the lives of migrant workers for the Farm Security Administration, = taking over 500 photographs. The Washington County Historical Society is = currently exhibiting some of these images, and filmmaker David = Milholland and the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission have created a = film, "Slices of Cinema on Dorothea Lange and the Great Depression." = Join us for a look at scenes from one of the movies examined in the film = (The Grapes of Wrath) and a slideshow of many of Lange's iconic = photographs of Depression-Era Oregon, accompanied by dramatic readings = of Lange's own notes and captions by Dr. David Horowitz and historian = Gloria Myers. =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Aug 23 ILWU Hall: Trumka stumps for Kitzhaber by Michael Munk Sat, Aug 21, 2010

Progressive Party of Oregon Candidates for November by Michael Munk Sat, Aug 21, 2010

League of Women Voters exposed as Blumenauer enabler by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 17, 2010

Last week: 121 US combat casualties by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 17, 2010

More on Tuesday's Fire Fund benefit at the Crystal by Michael Munk Sun, Aug 15, 2010

THE STORY A neighborhood block was cordoned off with yellow tape and all the = neighbors were out on the sidewalk. It could have been a block party, = except for the thick ashy smoke and the heavy hearts.=20 The source of the smoke was the books and building which had been Phil = Wikelund's Great Northwest Bookstore, and his life's work of the past 33 = years.=20 Phil left the golden flat lands of Indiana for the towering evergreens = of the Pacific Northwest to attend Reed College in 1963. In 1977 he = created the Great Northwest Bookstore which specialized in rare and = out-of-print books about the Northwest.=20 Most recently located in the 1890-built First Presbyterian Church in the = Lair Hill Neighborhood, the building and books were uninsured when = destroyed by the fire on May 3.=20 Phil is known for a generosity and kindness that pours out much as the = smoke which spread through the neighborhood and beyond on that sunny = day.=20 Friends are joining forces to support Phil with a benefit which will = help raise the funds he needs to complete demolition of the church. An = extravaganza of music, poetry, comedy and a silent auction will be held = at the Crystal Ballroom, which is one block from the first location of = Phil's book store.=20 More information can be found at Facebook under Phils FireFund. Silent Auction As you enjoy the entertainment you will be able to bid on many fine = items:=20 - Silent Auction Donations include something for everyone, from signed = books to weekend get-away packages.=20 - There will be fine art available including a watercolor by Bue Kee and = a print by Marina Gayle, both local WPA artists, a painting by one of = the Runquist brothers, an original work in Ink by Joel Heidel, a = painting by Portland mural artist Angelina Marino, and a signed, = numbered (3/13) print of Portland artist Icky's cover ilustration for = the Portland Red Guide, depicting local radicals and landmarks.=20 - For those with literary interests there will be several William = Stafford broadsides (including one illustrated by Hank Pander), and = signed editions by several northwest authors.=20 - Other items of local interest include a Bill Plympton Documentary = about Walt Curtis, rare musical recordings of Gus Van Sant, and a signed = Dr Demento vinyl record. Schedule of events 5:00 Doors / auction open 5:20 John Silliman Dodge 6:00 Casey Bush (acc. by a Didgeridoo Master and Percussionist Charles = Sorgie) 6:10 Stuck Runnin' 6:55 Walt Curtis the Un-Official Poet Laureate Invocation=20 7:05 Michael Manning sans The Carolina Pump Station 7:50 The Spangles - Doug and Christine perform spoken word and songs = accompanied by guitar --- Break --- 8:20 Tim Barnes - Spoken word including both his work and the work of = William Stafford=20 8:30 colorfield 9:20 Dan Rafael - The "Barefoot Poet" takes off his shoes and word = slings 9:30 Dave Frishberg and Rebecca Kilgore - jazz 10:30 David Loftus=20 10:40 Comic Dwight Slade 11:05 Julianne Johnson

Last week:Obama/Bush war casuaties rise to 95,826 by Michael Munk Fri, Aug 13, 2010

Aug. 17th: Frishberg/ Kilgore at Phil's Fire Fund Benefit by Michael Munk Thu, Aug 12, 2010

Exchange with OPB's chief news editor by Michael Munk Thu, Aug 5, 2010

Protest OPB's Fox-style report on 66 and 67. by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 3, 2010

August events calendar by Michael Munk Sat, Jul 31, 2010

The Portland Alliance Lockout by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 29, 2010

Republiicans pass Obama's war money by Michael Munk Tue, Jul 27, 2010

CORRECTION: 166 combat casualties last week by Michael Munk Tue, Jul 27, 2010

Last week: Obama's wars cost 263 US combat casualties by Michael Munk Tue, Jul 27, 2010

How will your rep vote on Obama's war? by Michael Munk Tue, Jul 27, 2010

3 Oregon House members for Public Option redux by Michael Munk Sat, Jul 24, 2010

Olympia coop honors Rachel Corrie, boycotts Israel by Michael Munk Tue, Jul 20, 2010

APA: cancel torture psychologist's liscence by Michael Munk Sun, Jul 11, 2010

A prominent board member of James Mitchell' s Spokane torture firm, Mitchell Jensen Associates, was Joseph Matarazzo, emeritus psychology professor at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, and a former president of the APA. Psychology group backs CIA detainee abuse claim By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS Associated Press Writer. July 10, 2010 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/7102655.html VIA http://www.legitgov.org COLUMBUS, Ohio - Psychologists in the United States have been warned by their professional group not to take part in torturing detainees in U.S. custody. Now the American Psychological Association has taken the unprecedented step of supporting an attempt to strip the license of a psychologist accused of overseeing the torture of a CIA detainee. The APA has told a Texas licensing board in a letter mailed July 1 that the allegations against Dr. James Mitchell represent "patently unethical" actions inconsistent with the organization's ethics guidelines. If any psychologist who was a member of the APA were found to have committed the acts alleged against Mitchell, "he or she would be expelled from the APA membership," according to the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. APA spokeswoman Rhea Farberman confirmed its contents. The letter is the first of its kind in the board's history, Farberman said. "The allegations put forward in the complaint and those that are on the public record about Dr. Mitchell are simply so serious, and if true, such a gross violation of his professional ethics, that we felt it necessary to act," Farberman said. Mitchell is a retired Air Force psychologist who participated in the 2002 CIA interrogation of detainee Abu Zubaydah, according to a 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report on the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. Mitchell is not a member of the American Psychological Association. Interrogators in Thailand subjected Zubaydah to severe cold, food and sleep deprivation, confinement in a narrow box and, with Mitchell participating, a simulated form of drowning known as waterboarding, according to the complaint filed with the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists. "Regardless of what legal categories these techniques fall within, one conclusion is clear: a psychologist who helps inflict such cruel and shocking abuse on a defenseless human being would appear to have violated basic standards of conduct of the profession," according to the complaint by Northwestern University law professor Joseph Margulies and filed on behalf of a Texas psychologist. "Obviously, I'm not free to discuss any work I may have done for the CIA," Mitchell told the AP. He called the complaint libelous and said it is "riddled throughout with fabricated details, lies, distortions and inaccuracies." Sherry Lee, the Texas board director, said complaints are shielded under Texas law and she could not comment. The APA is monitoring similar filings in Ohio and New York made Wednesday against psychologists who oversaw detainee interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, but has no plans to back those efforts. The accusations against Mitchell are "at a level of seriousness and credibility that we think is different than any other allegations against other psychologists that we know of," Farberman said. The San Francisco-based Center for Justice & Accountability filed a complaint against Dr. John Leso with the New York Office of the Professions, alleging professional misconduct. Leso led a behavioral science consultation team at Guantanamo in 2002 and 2003. The complaint said Leso developed abusive interrogation techniques based on Army survival methods. Those methods, "Survive Evade Rescue and Escape" or SERE, teach soldiers how to withstand physical and psychological abuse they might face if captured by the enemy, according to the complaint against Leso. In a second complaint, Harvard University's International Human Rights Clinic alleges that retired Army Col. Larry James observed abusive interrogations and didn't do anything to stop them. The complaint says James, dean of professional psychology at Wright State University in Dayton, oversaw abuse at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in 2003, 2007 and 2008 when he served with the base's Behavioral Science Consultation Team. The complaint against Leso says he is stationed at Fort Rucker, Ala. He could not be immediately reached. Messages were left Wednesday and Friday with the fort's public affairs office. James has declined to comment. The Ohio board declined to pursue a similar complaint filed against James in 2008. Boards in California, Louisiana and New York have rejected similar complaints in the past. But new sources of information, such as the 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report, provide details that make the new complaints stronger, said Kathy Roberts, staff attorney with the Center for Justice & Accountability. In 2008 the APA voted to ban its members from taking part in interrogations at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other military detention sites where it believes international law is being violated. The APA has also condemned the use of sexual humiliation, allegations of which are included in both the James and Leso complaints. As a result, the Harvard clinic expects the APA to follow suit with those complaints, said Deborah Popowski, of the clinic. Steven Reisner, a New York psychologist who brought the complaint against Leso, urged the APA to support an investigation, saying the case was similar to the Mitchell complaint. Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan in March 2002 on suspicion of being a top al-Qaida official. He was the first detainee subjected to Bush administration-approved harsh interrogation techniques, which included waterboarding, slamming the suspect into walls and prolonged period of nudity. Zubaydah later told a military tribunal he suffered physical and mental torture and nearly died four times. Zubaydah claimed that after many months of such treatment, authorities concluded he was not the No. 3 person in al-Qaida as they had long believed. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

July 11: Local 5's Portland Red Guide Walking Tour by Michael Munk Wed, Jul 7, 2010

International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 5 (Powell's Books) is = hosting my "Portland Red Guide" early evening walking tour downtown on = Sunday July 11. A limited number of non members are welcome as long as space is = available. Sign up (first come, first served) via email to shop steward = Chris Phillips phillipsccw@gmail.com . Local 5 is asking a for a $3 donation to its strike fund, and tourers = will get more from the experience if they first review the relevant = sites in the book. The tour begins at 6 PM at the PGE Park Tri Met station (Red Guide p. = 27), includes the destroyed Murnane Memorial on the waterfront and ends = about 7:30 at the former Harbor Club (pp 215 & 233), now Paddy's Bar & = Grill, 65 SW Yamhill..=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Only Schrader holds out against Obama's war by Michael Munk Fri, Jul 2, 2010

July 3: Abolish nukes at the Red & Black by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 1, 2010

Today (Thur, July 1): voices from Gaza, Afghanistan, and Iraq by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 1, 2010

Details attached=20 The People's Journey will be presented in Portland at the First = Unitarian Church this Thursday evening, July 1, at 6:30 pm. =20 Kindly spread the word far and wide!!! visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

This evening (Wed) Dorothea Lange OR photos & PCC show to 9/11 by Michael Munk Tue, Jun 29, 2010

OCHC presents a visual tour of Lange's Oregon photos together with her field notes. Wed, June 30, 7:30 Ecotrust Building 721 NW 9th Ave, 2nd floor conference center ------------------------------------------------------------------- ALSO: for thos who missed the Lange exhibit at PSU and The Museum of Poeples Art in Bay city, it can be seen at the Washington County Historical Museum at Portland Community College's Rock Creek campus and stays up until Sept 11. Photographer Dorothea Lange's Farm Security Administration work during the Great Depression helped redefine the field of documentary photography. The traveling exhibit Dorothea Lange in Oregon represents work conducted in late summer/fall 1939 all over the state. The exhibit was produced by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission and contains large framed photographic selections drawn from the Library of Congress. The Museum is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 10:00am to 4:00pm except major holidays. Admission is $3.00 for adults, $2.00 for Seniors and Children ages 6-17; no charge on Mondays. Groups of more than five people are asked to call ahead, (503) 645-5353 The museum is always free for members as well as faculty, staff and students of PCC. The museum is located on the Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus, NW Springville Road, 1/2 mile east of 185th. Tri-Met buses #52 and #67 connect the museum with Westside Max. . visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

City council caves for foreign corporation by Michael Munk Fri, Jun 25, 2010

Did you notice the council was unanimous in granting the German company exemption from environmental protection for its riverfront property? Nick Fish was absent but gave no indication he would have opposed his colleagues. I guess the city's environmental movement is pretty weak... Portland council exempts Siltronic from River Plan By James Mayer The Oregonian, June 24, 2010 http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/06/portland_council_exempts_siltr.html The Portland City Council voted this morning to approve a deal that exempts a portion of Siltronic's property in Northwest Portland from environmental protections under the city's River Plan. The deal gives the city a conservation easement connecting the property to Forest Park. "My hope for this stretch of the river is we have economic development and environmental protection," said Mayor Sam Adams. Siltronic, a German company, employs about 850 people in Portland making silicon wafers for semiconductors. Under a 1978 agreement with the city, the company has built two fabrication plants on about half of its 84-acre riverfront property, and seeks to develop the other half. The River Plan is a comprehensive blueprint for balancing environmental, industrial, residential and recreational use of the Willamette River. Siltronic told city officials that the environmental protections could derail expansion prospects by requiring a development review. Adams said city officials and the company spent months negotiating a compromise that leaves developable land on Siltronic's site out of River Plan protections due to take effect next January. The deal does call for restoration efforts at Doane Creek, which runs across Siltronic's property, and a conservation easement to allow for wildlife to move from the river to Forest Park. A year ago, Siltronic told the Portland Development Commission that it was pursuing a $1.1 billion project that could bring as many as 2,000 new jobs to the site. However, company officials have declined to say whether any specific development is under consideration at the moment, and the PDC has said it is not actively working on any project with Siltronic. The council vote was unanimous, with Commissioner Nick Fish absent. Commissioner Amanda Fritz acknowledged the fears of some environmental groups that the protections were inadequate, but she argued that an easement provided better protection than the zoning called for in the River Plan. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Blair, Blumenauer among only 8 against Obama's Iran sanctions by Michael Munk Fri, Jun 25, 2010

Following a unanimous vote in the Senate earlier today, the House of Representatives tonight voted 408-8 to approve the massive new sanctions against Iran earlier this week, which center on forcing non-US companies to participate in the US embargo on Iran's energy industry. In the House of Representatives only two Republicans, Reps. Ron Paul (R - TX) and Jeff Flake (R - AZ), and six Democrats, Rep.s John Conyers (D - MI), Pete Stark (D - CA), Brian Baird (D - WA), Tammy Baldwin (D - WI), Earl Blumenauer (D - OR) and Dennis Kucinich (D - OH) opposed the bill. Read the entire article at http://news.antiwar.com/2010/06/24/congress-overwhelmingly-passes-new-iran-sanctions/ visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Tues June 29: McCarthyism in Oregon at McMennamin's Edgefield by Michael Munk Thu, Jun 24, 2010

Protest deficit scare: Defend SS and cut war spending by Michael Munk Wed, Jun 23, 2010

David Brooks exposed by Michael Munk Sat, Jun 19, 2010

Since fewer people read the Oregonian anymore, I recommend this letter for exposing David Brooks, who many liberals see as a "respectable" conservative, as the ignorant ideolog he is. To the Editor, The Oregonian June 19, 2010 http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2010/06/letters_prison_costs_arizona_i.html Defining capitalism I was intrigued to read David Brooks' attempt to divide the world into two distinct camps: democratic capitalism and state capitalism ("A post-Cold War world still split into uneasy camps," June 16). He defined state capitalism as using markets that "create wealth that can be directed as political officials see fit." Ahem. How is this different than our very own capitalism? Our "state" invests, bails out and subsidizes many industries, with particular emphatic attention to the defense industry. To say that our officials act on democratic principles with regard to steering capital betrays a naivete that threatens our very survival. Capitalism, whether democratic or state, is the engine that is insatiably consuming the planet right out from under us. It is not a juggernaut acting out of some inherent natural selection. It is invented by humans and protected by the very interests that Brooks attempts to divide. And contrary to his argument, the threat to capitalism is not authoritarianism, but democracy itself. DAVE EDGAR Southeast Portland visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Stop the City's deal with Siltronic by Michael Munk Sat, Jun 19, 2010

6/22: Open House for Metro Council President Candidate Stacey by Michael Munk Thu, Jun 17, 2010

June 29: McCarthyism in Oregon at McMennamin's Edgefield by Michael Munk Tue, Jun 15, 2010

Tomorrow: Oppose CRC boondoggle by Michael Munk Mon, Jun 14, 2010

Wobbly monument for Ashland area by Michael Munk Mon, Jun 14, 2010

=20 =20 100 years after they 'hit the grits' Local historian tells of Wobblies' 150-mile trek on foot through the = Siskiyous to support Fresno workers in 1911 By Paul Fattig, June 13, 2010=20 =20 After being kicked out of the box cars at the Ashland depot, members of = the Industrial Workers of the World labor group walked south along the = railroad tracks through snow-covered mountains in the winter of 1911 Jackson County residents no doubt were concerned when they saw the = headline in the Mail Tribune on Feb. 16, 1911. "Army of 'Boes Headed This Way," it warned. Some 200 members of the Industrial Workers of the World had left = Portland earlier that day on freight trains bound for California, = "intent on joining the fight against the citizens of Fresno," the = article reported of radical activists known as "Wobblies." "The local police department has been advised of the expected advent of = this army and will be ready," it noted. Yet it was no army of hoboes nor was this a fight with Fresno residents, = observed Jay Mullen, 70, a longtime U.S. history professor at Southern = Oregon University who lives in Medford. Rather, they were believers in the right of free speech of fellow IWW = members who supported a strike by working stiffs in Fresno, he said. "These were a bunch of young working men willing to die for free = speech," said the 1957 graduate of Medford Senior High School. "Yet they = have been forgotten. Most people have no sense of this history." Not only were they in danger of being beaten by strike breakers, they = risked their lives when they began walking south through the = snow-covered mountains from Ashland after being kicked out of the box = cars, Mullen said. Mullen wrote a research paper on the trek, "A Wobbly Walk Through the = Siskiyous," in anticipation of its 100th anniversary next year and plans = to write a book about it. An effort also is under way to create a Wobbly Walk Free Speech Monument = to be placed in the mountains along their historic route in 2011. The effort is sponsored by Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice (contact = member Wes Brain at brain@mind.net or call 541-482-6988 = begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 541-482-6988 = end_of_the_skype_highlighting). "I am just amazed by the courage it took to face one of the coldest = winters on record in the Siskiyou Mountains, walking over the pass = through three feet of snow," Mullen said in an interview. "And if they didn't perish in the mountains, they were heading toward = jail," he added. Contrary to the newspaper report, the Wobblies, who began hopping = freight trains in Washington to rendezvous in Portland, started south = from Oregon's largest city with 112 participants but 10 turned back at = Ashland, Mullen said. One dropped out in Yreka after suffering frostbite = in the mountains, and three others quit after that, he added. But 98 hoofed their way south through the mountains, overcoming cold and = hunger in a quest to support free speech, he said. Mullen said researching the trek was difficult - the Wobblies did not = give their names to outsiders and burned their records afterward - but = he was able to put together their story by relying on memoirs later = penned by one participant and newspaper coverage of the event. "They were astonishingly disciplined," he said. "They wouldn't use their = names. They referred to each other by number. They wouldn't talk (to = non-Wobblies), except through the five executive committee members. "Their cause wasn't individuality," he continued. "It was solidarity and = collective action. They used the 'new' civil rights tactic of filling = the jails up. They said, 'We're going to Fresno to go to jail.' " While they were opposed by those in power, as well as the larger = newspapers en route, the Wobblies found plenty of support, he said. "Even though most of the newspapers were against them, there was a = reservoir of support along the way," he said. "They knew how to find it. = And they knew how to capitalize on it. "A lot of them were itinerate workers in the woods, basically young men = who were pretty damn strong," he added. "Most were single men so they = could afford to be a little more radical. There weren't a lot of old = guys." Although they were often mistaken for communists, IWW leaders subscribed = to a lesser-known political concept known as syndicalism, he explained. "They were advocating the replacement of the existing economic system," = he said. "They believed that working people were the producers. But they = weren't Marxists who advocated violent revolution. "They thought that if you could organize all the workers, you could stop = the economy, and once it stopped, the whole system would collapse and = they would step in and take over." Still, most of the young men involved in the hike through the mountains = didn't know much about syndicalism, he said. "Most of them were just common guys," he said, noting many were of = Scandinavian extraction. "I don't think they were steeped in syndicalist = philosophy. They were more like Protestant church members who got their = theology from their songs. I doubt if they had a very good sense of what = syndicalism represented." In Portland, hundreds of IWW supporters paraded to show their support = for their counterparts in Fresno. Before leaving the city, the IWW and = the local Socialist Party met to organize an executive committee, boot = out unwelcome observers and raise funds. They decided to refer to = themselves by number rather than names and to communicate with outsiders = through designated spokesmen, Mullen said. Under the banner headline "Army Goes South," the Portland Oregonian = added "Loaded Cars Broken Open" in a subhead. "The train crews were helpless to prevent the aggression," the paper = reported in its Feb. 16 edition. The next day, the Oregonian's headline announced, "Troops May Block = March of Malcontents To Fresno," referring to a call by the California = governor to marshal that state's National Guard troops to stop the IWW. Down in Eugene, the Eugene Daily Guard newspaper informed its readers = that the Wobblies had "captured a freight train," Mullen said. But a late afternoon stopover in Roseburg found the Wobblies dining on = bologna and cookies, then parading through town during a fundraiser that = netted eight bucks, he said. In Grants Pass, the Daily Courier newspaper was tolerant of the = Wobblies. "The editor there said, 'People may not like radicals but if it weren't = for radicals, there wouldn't be any changes,' " Mullen said, = paraphrasing an editorial. "Southern Oregon was much more tolerant in = many ways than the rest of Oregon." In fact, Ben Hur Lampman, publisher of the Gold Hill News in the early = 20th century, who later joined the staff of the Oregonian newspaper and = became the poet laureate of Oregon, was a socialist, Mullen said. "There was sort of a Socialist-Wobbly symbiosis going on that worked = against the power structure," he said. When the train arrived in Medford, town constable J.P. Hittson, who had = called out his deputies that night to meet the train, encountered only a = few quiet greetings, Mullen said. "It was once they got to Ashland, that was part of the Shasta division, = the California branch of the South Pacific - that's where they ran into = resistance," Mullen said. "They had sort of passed quietly through = Oregon until they hit the stone wall in Ashland." Indeed, it was there the division officials gave them the boot. "Thrown off a freight train in Ashland this morning by special police in = the employ of the Southern Pacific railroad, nearly 200 members of the = Industrial Workers of the World are encamped just south of the city = limits of Ashland," the Mail Tribune reported on Feb. 17. "So far they have not made a single hostile demonstration," the article = continued. "The police are on guard against their entering the city." The Wobblies eventually decided to walk along the tracks - hit-the-grits = in hobo parlance of the day - to Steinman, a railroad watering site some = 10 miles south of Ashland, Mullen said. When they arrived, hungry and without shelter, railroad section boss = A.W. Nell loaned them shovels to clear an area in the snow and axes to = cut wood and build warming fires, the historian said. Nell's wife gave = the Wobblies apples and crackers, albeit not enough for all, he said. In a Feb. 19 article in the Mail Tribune, a reporter who had spent the = night with the Wobblies found no weapons, despite declarations to the = contrary by the Ashland police. "The railroad has given orders that no trains shall stop at Steinman, = and mountaineers who know the Siskiyou pass say there is grave danger = that the wayfarers may perish in the storm and snow," the journalist = wrote. "Our mission is solely to go to jail, and we are deliberately walking = into prison doors peaceably," the group's leaders told him. "We are not = boisterous, and in order to guard against rowdyism have our own police = force in the party and at no time have tolerated the bringing into our = camps any spirits." They hiked on to Tunnel 13, where they hoped to board another southbound = freight near the summit. They bought vegetables from the little store at = the Siskiyou stop and cooked a "mulligan" stew, Mullen said. Railroad detectives arrived at the Siskiyou stop and said they wouldn't = allow the Wobblies to board any southbound trains but could provide them = a train ride back to Portland, Mullen said, noting the offer didn't sway = them. Nor did they take a passenger train south. Freight box cars back in the = day were considered to be a fair means of travel but hopping aboard a = passenger train with its paying customers was not, Mullen said. "They knew people paid to do that and that it would be a theft of = services," he said. So they continued their trek south through the snow. Meanwhile, the railroad had notified California's governor, who, = apparently upset with Oregon officials' failure to stop the Wobblies, = ordered Maj. Gen. W.H. White to alert the National Guard's Second = Regiment with companies in Redding and Chico. "Yet the Siskiyou County sheriff said, 'Boys, as long as you behave, = nobody is going to bother you,' " Mullen said. "What that goes back to = is, the year before, there had been a strike in McCloud, and the = governor had sent the National Guard in without checking with the = sheriff. So a year later the sheriff tweaked the governor." Montague residents provided the Wobblies with two days' worth of = firewood to keep warm and let them stay at the baseball park during the = extremely cold winter, he said. When they arrived in Dunsmuir, the fellow who owned a tavern opened it = to the Wobblies. The Eagles hall also was made available, Mullen said. Many of the towns in far Northern California opened their doors and = hearts to the travelers, he said. In fact, the owner of the Temple Hotel in Redding offered them free = beds, as well as five hot meals, he noted. It was Chico that seemed to be the most adverse to the coming Wobblies. "Big Army of 'I Won't Work' Men Huddle Beside Water Tank," the Chico = Record newspaper informed its readers in a front-page story of their = southern advancement. However, an article on Page 5 of the same edition = noted that media accounts of the Wobblies were "needlessly alarmist," = Mullen said. When the Wobblies prepared to leave Red Bluff, the confrontation in = Fresno ended, putting an end to the young men's mission, as well, he = said. Other than the dozen miles from Mount Shasta to Dunsmuir when they were = able to hitch a ride on a private train car owned by May Roberts, leader = of a theatrical company, they had walked the roughly 150 miles south = from Ashland. As a historian, Mullen expressed regret they elected to burn their = minutes and that their names were never made known, depriving more = insight into their personal experiences. "History forgets more heroes than it remembers," he said. "Those = Wobblies warrant memory." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 541-776-4496 or e-mail him at = pfattig@mailtribune.com.

Another giveaway to Portland speculators by Michael Munk Thu, Jun 10, 2010

For a Wobbly monument in Oregon by Michael Munk Wed, Jun 9, 2010

WOBBLY FREE SPEECH MONUMENT WHAT: Free Speech Monument Proposed for State of Jefferson WHEN: 2011 -- the Centennial of the Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous WHO: Wobbly Walk Free Speech Committee WHY: "Those Wobblies warrant memory" The project of establishing a monument is inspired by the research of =20 Southern Oregon University History Professor Jay Mullen and his work =20 "Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous" which has now been digitized and =20 is available to the public. Find it attached in both WORD and PDF =20 format. "Wobbly" is the nickname for a member of the labor union known as the =20 Industrial Workers of the World. Founded in 1905 the IWW rose to =20 distinction during the progressive era of the early part of the 20th =20 century. Professor Mullen's story about brave men of conviction whose =20 solidarity stand for free speech is absolutely amazing and it needs to =20 be remembered. Once you know the history you will understand why a =20 blue ribbon committee has been assembled to commemorate the 1911 =20 Wobbly Walk Through the Siskiyous. Committee Members are from around =20 Oregon and represent a very diversified group that includes labor =20 educators, folk singers and even current dues paying Wobblies. The list of committee members follow: Jay Mullen, Nancy Spencer, =20 Gerry Cavanaugh, Marko Bey, Brenda Gould, Derek Volkart, Brendan =20 Phillips, Ross Rieder, Wes Brain, Ivend Holen, Mark Ross, Barbara =20 Byrd, Patrick Dodd, Rich Rohde, and Scott Fife. Two elected =20 politicians have been asked to be on the committee in an "advisory" =20 role, Oregon State Representative Peter Buckley and Oregon's Senator =20 in Congress Jeff Merkley. The following words come from Jay Mullen's written research =20 documenting the miraculous events which unfolded nearly 100 years ago: This nation often esteems those who hazard their lives to promote and =20 secure its liberty. Monuments often celebrate those offering their =20 last full measure of devotion, including conscripts and bounty-induced =20 volunteers, as well as volunteers motivated by conviction. Perhaps a =20 monument should be raised......to those men of conviction who =20 voluntarily, for the cause of free speech, hit-the-grits and =20 disappeared into the snowfall to confront possible death, not in the =20 face of hostile gunfire, but in the face of an indifferent nature's =20 blizzard. History forgets more heroes than it remembers. Those Wobblies warrant =20 memory. Watch for future press releases and reports on the progress of the =20 campaign to create Wobbly Free Speech Monument in the Siskiyou =20 Mountains. The Wobbly Walk Free Speech Monument is a campaign of Southern Oregon =20 Jobs with Justice http://www.sojwj.org For more information contact Wes Brain, brain@mind.net 541-482-6988 visit my websirte www.michaelmunk.com

Oregon schools soft on capitalism by Michael Munk Sat, Jun 5, 2010

Rewriting social studies: Bash Texas' curriculum, but is Oregon's much better? By Bill Bigelow The Oregonian, June 5, 2010 http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/06/rewriting_social_studies_bash.html You've probably read the horror stories coming out of Texas about its new social studies standards. The Texas Board of Education has rehabilitated Sen. Joe McCarthy, erased the 1848 Seneca Falls women's rights declaration, and required that the inaugural address of Confederate President Jefferson Davis be taught alongside Lincoln's. No doubt, the victory of right-wingers on the Texas Board of Education is troubling. With 4.7 million students, the Texas market is huge and the Lone Star State's standards exert a powerful influence on the nation's textbook industry. But all this Texas-bashing implies that standards everywhere else are good and fair and true. In fact, other states have their own conservative biases and deserve the same critical scrutiny that Texas' new standards are receiving. Oregon's social studies standards -- adopted by the Oregon State Board of Education in 2001 and currently being revised by the state's Department of Education -- are no exception. Oregon's standards reveal no recognition of the social emergency that we confront: a deeply unequal and unsustainable world, hurtling toward an ecological crisis without parallel in human history. They fail to explore issues of race, social class, gender, or the impact of human activity on the environment. And they deal in only a token manner with the social movements that have made this a more decent world. Instead, the social studies standards portray U.S. society as fundamentally harmonious, with laws designed to promote fairness and progress. The first benchmark in Oregon's standards requires that third-graders begin a nationalistic curricular journey as they learn to "identify essential ideas and values expressed in national symbols, heroes, and patriotic songs of the United States." By the time third-graders reach high school they'll "understand how laws are developed and applied to provide order, set limits, protect basic rights and promote the common good." Capitalism is presented as a well-oiled machine. Eighth-graders learn "how supply and demand respond predictably to changes in economic circumstances." The economics standards include not a single mention of social class. And what about the inequality that students can observe on their way to school? Eighth-graders should: "Understand that people's incomes, in part, reflect choices they have made about education, training, skill development, and careers." No mention of the other factors that determine income: race, gender, social class, nationality. Labor unions make only one parenthetical appearance. In fact, in most instances, Oregon's standards do not ask teachers to alert students to the power of collective action -- which, in the real world, is when people's lives actually get better. Instead, students are told to get ahead by making smarter individual choices. And that's the standards' message in a nutshell: In the United States we wend our way through society as individual choice-makers. For example, in grade 8: "Identify the responsibilities of citizens of the United States and understand what an individual can do to meet these responsibilities." In the standards, individuals may have social efficacy, but for the most part, only as individuals, not as members of organizations or social movements. And, in these times of ecological crisis, the standards include no mention of human-caused climate change -- only a line about how climate change can affect human activity. The standards encourage students to view the Earth as a playground and a source of wealth. By grade 5, students will: "Understand how the physical environment presents opportunities for economic and recreational activity." There is also a crucial pedagogical bias in the standards. In some instances they require coverage of so much material that teachers can succeed only if they adopt a stand-and-deliver rush through the ages. For example, Oregon's world history standards require students to learn about: how the agricultural revolution contributed to and accompanied the Industrial Revolution; concepts of imperialism and nationalism; "how European colonizers interacted with indigenous populations of Africa, India, and Southeast Asia and how the native populations responded"; Japanese expansion during the 20th century; the impact of the Chinese revolution of 1911 and the cause of China's Communist Revolution; causes and consequences of the Russian Revolution; causes and consequences of the Mexican Revolution of 1911-1917; causes of World War I and why the U.S. entered; World War II; the Holocaust; the Cold War; the causes and impact of the Korean and Vietnam wars. I'm not joking. In one year. Obviously, the only way a conscientious -- well, obedient -- teacher could handle such a curricular task is to start talking fast in September and not stop until June. Sorry, kids, no time for role plays, simulations, imaginative writing, small-group discussion, short stories, poetry or anything else that will slow us down. It's December, and we haven't even gotten to Mao's Long March. Social studies should help students grasp knowledge and tools of analysis so as to make the world a better place. Social studies should help students name and explain obstacles to justice, peace, equality and sustainability. Instead, social studies standards like Oregon's are simply about covering material. The real story is not that Texas has become some curricular outlaw. Yes, the state has adopted some especially obnoxious standards. But, as historian Eric Foner pointed out in a recent article in The Nation, Texas harms its students not so much by inserting or erasing particular facts or individuals, but in its overall framework -- one that uncritically endorses "free enterprise" as it "ignores those who have struggled to make this a fairer, more equal society." And in this respect, the Texas standards more likely resemble other states' social studies standards. So by all means, let's monitor and critique Texas' awful standards. But let's also revisit our own state's social studies standards and not just shake a scolding finger at Texas. Bill Bigelow is the curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools magazine. A version of this article appears in the summer issue of Rethinking Schools, www.rethinkingschools.org. Reach the writer at bill@rethinkingschools.org visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Israeli pirates kill US citizen by Michael Munk Thu, Jun 3, 2010

American Citizen Killed by Israeli Navy Posted on June 3, 2010 by Juan Cole=20 Hey, Tea Party. A foreign navy boarded an unarmed ship flying the flag = of a NATO member in international waters and shot dead Furkan Dogan, a = 19 -year old American student with four bullets to the head and one in = the chest in the chest on Memorial Day. It did this while the head of = the belligerent state was on his way to a state visit to Washington, DC, = to be awarded a further $200 million in aid on top of the $3 billion of = American taxpayer money the US gives away to him every year. Furkan Dogan If you are not upset by this, your tea is weak, man. Weak.=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

June 4: BOOK POWER!!! by Michael Munk Wed, Jun 2, 2010

From: Jim Lommasson=20 Now Showing at 23 Sandy Gallery:=EF=BF=BDBook Power! Above Image Credits:=EF=BF=BDJessica Walker=EF=BF=BD(left),=EF=BF=BDElsi = Vassdal Ellis=EF=BF=BD(center),=EF=BF=BDLauren Jacobs=EF=BF=BD(right) 23 Sandy Gallery is proud to present, Book Power, an important = exhibition of artist books addressing social, political and = environmental issues. Over 40 artists from across the country and from = as far away as Canada, Ecuador, China and Cuba have demonstrated that an = artist book can be a powerful vehicle to shed light on the problems we = face in the world and can also be a strong call for change. War, racism, = politics, revolution, violence, environmental, economic and political = upheaval are but a few of the issues that these concerned artists have = used to engage their readers in an effort to raise consciousness, call = for justice and provoke action. Preview an online catalog of Book Power show here. Artists Reception, First Friday, June 4, 5-8:00 p.m. Please join us for an artists reception for Book Power on First Friday = from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. =EF=BF=BD623 NE 23rd Avenue, Portland, OR 97232 Also Open First Thursday Now that 23 Sandy is a member of PADA we are also open late for First = Thursday each month for a preview reception from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Stop = by on your way to the Pearl. Book Power Artists Walkthrough Saturday, June 12, 4:00 p.m. Above image:=EF=BF=BDI Wouldn=EF=BF=BDt Wish War on My Worst = Enemy=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD Jim Lommasson.=EF=BF=BDPreview Jim's book here. Join us on for an very special event with several Book Power artists who = just happen to live in the area including Mary Bennett, Stewart Harvey, = Diane Jacobs, David Kearns, Jim Lommasson, Edgar Papazian, Randi = Parkhurst and more. The artists will tell us the stories behind their = fascinating and compelling books. Bring tissues, Jim Lommasson's book, = which contains the words and images of returning Iraq war veterans is = especially moving. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Photos from today's PDX protest of Israel's bloody piracy by Michael Munk Mon, May 31, 2010

5PM (in 2 hours!) Protest Israeli piracy and massacre by Michael Munk Mon, May 31, 2010

I normally don't send out emails with 3 hours notice--but this is an emergency response to the Israeli raid on a humanitarian aid flotilla that happened early today. Thanks to Will from PPRC for pulling this together with other folks listed below. I'll try to keep you posted about any follow up --dan handelman peace and justice works EVENT: Protest of Israeli Military Assault on Humanitarian Aid Ships TIME: 5:00 PM DATE: Monday, May 31, 2010 LOCATON: SW Yamhill & Broadway, downtown Portland, Oregon Contact: Portland Peaceful Response Coalition - 503-344-5078 Local human rights, solidarity and peace group organizers hold demonstration to protest Israeli assault on humanitarian ships. Today, Monday, May 31st, at 5:00PM, there will be a demonstration to protest the Israeli military assault on the FREE GAZA humanitarian aid ships off the coast of the Gaza Strip. The protest will take place at the corner of SW Yamhill & Broadway at Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland, Oregon. "This is shocking and tragic, but sadly, it is not unusual for Israeli policy," said Mazen Malik, of the Palestine Arab American Association, "I think Palestinians are in general, unfortunately, used to this kind of action, which is why it is not a surprise to us." "Our hope is for the US, which has the most leverage with Israel, to push Israel more towards recognizing the rights of the Palestinian people, and engage more seriously with the peace process." "I feel as though I was on those ships and as though I'm in Gaza being slowly strangled, and my heart is pained right now, pounding 'justice, justice, thou shall pursue,' said Ned Roach, a volunteer with Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights. "It is past time for the United States to look seriously at the unconditional support that this country gives to the state of Israel." The attack on the humanitarian aid ships has resulted in the deaths of at least 10 activists on the ships, and the wounding of many others. The assault has been condemned internationally and has once again put the spotlight on Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza and on Israel's consistent use of violence against civilians. "We are calling on all people who care about bringing an end to this tragic conflict to contact their representatives in Washington, DC, to demand an investigation, to demand an end to US support for these criminal policies by the Israeli military, to demand an even-handed approach to initiate a genuine effort to find a just peace for the people of Palestine and Israel," said William Seaman, a volunteer with Portland Peaceful Response Coalition. "Our country, the United States, funds and provides cover for the worst excesses of the Israeli military, and our country can do the most to bring an end to these crimes." For more information, please contact the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition at 503-344-5078. STATEMENT BY Portland Peaceful Response Coalition: The Portland Peaceful Response Coalition strongly condemns the Israeli military assault on the civilian ships attempting to bring humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. The Israeli assault has led to the deaths of up to 19 international activists (the lowest estimate is that there were 10 fatalities), along with injuries to many others aboard the vessel that was attacked. This attack occurred in international waters and thus appears to be consistent with Israel's long-standing policy of gross violations of human rights, war crimes and indiscriminate attacks on civilians. The Portland Peaceful Response Coalition again demands an end to United States military aid to Israel until there is an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank and an end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza; the illegal Israeli occupation is the root cause and the fundamental underlying injustice that fuels this conflict. There must be a vigorous response from the Obama Administration and from the United States Congress condemning this brazen act of aggression against a civilian humanitarian mission attempting nonviolent defiance of the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those killed by the Israeli military assault and we send our hopes for speedy and complete recovery to those wounded. We send our deepest condolences and hopes that their sacrifices will bring the attention and compassion needed finally progress towards a lasting, just, peaceful resolution to this decades-old conflict. The Portland Peaceful Response Coalition calls on all people of Oregon and Washington to immediately contact the United States Mission to the United Nations at 212-415-4062 to demand that the US Ambassador the United Nations, Susan Rice, vote to support a UN Security Council Resolution condemning Israel's action and initiating a thorough and impartial investigation. In addition, PPRC is asking Oregonians and Washingtonians to contact their representatives in Congress and Obama Administration to demand a vigorous response condemning the Israeli assault and initiating a Congressional investigation into the incident. Contacts for the Oregon representatives can be found at the PPRC website at www.pprc-news.org - END -

OSU publishes W.A. Williams novel by Michael Munk Sat, May 29, 2010

Oregon State University releases unpublished William Appleman Williams = novel online=20 Ninety Days Inside the Empire May 27, 2010 CORVALLIS, Ore. - A previously unpublished novel written by William = Appleman Williams, one of the most acclaimed historians of the 20th = century, has been newly released online by Oregon State University in an = effort to make the manuscript as widely available as possible to = scholars and others. Titled Ninety Days Inside the Empire, the novel touches upon themes that = were important to the author's life and work, perhaps best exemplified = in his masterpiece, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy. Set in Corpus = Christi, Texas, and written in the 1980s, Williams' newly released book = tells the story of racial strife and civil rights mobilization through = the eyes of military servicemen following the close of World War II. A veteran of the United States Navy, Williams served as a line officer = during the second world war. Following the close of hostilities, = Williams was stationed in Corpus Christi, where he joined the NAACP and = participated in local civil rights activities. The web version of Ninety Days Inside the Empire spans 125 pages over 14 = chapters. The text is enhanced by a number of illustrations and is = introduced by Kerry Ahearn, chair of the OSU English department. "Like millions of other veterans, [Williams] was moving from a life of = following orders to one of making large choices," writes Ahearn. "In = his case, there was the predictable option of using his Annapolis degree = and his connections to enter the military-industrial complex, or some = other undefined option in an America whose definitions of community had = been altered during the war: Women and minorities had been moved by = necessity into much broader areas of economic production and created a = social context that called into question the old rules of exclusion." Williams, who joined the OSU faculty in 1968 after more than 20 years as = a nationally prominent historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, = developed Ninety Days Inside the Empire substantially enough to share it = with colleagues, with his agent and even with fellow author Gore Vidal, = "who is said to have remarked that it would make a better movie than a = novel," writes Ahern. But for whatever reasons, he didn't aggressively = seek to publish the novel. In failing health, he retired in 1986 and died in 1990, leaving his = papers to OSU Special Collections, which oversaw preparation of the = manuscript for its online release. "This is a completed manuscript," said OSU Special Collections head = Clifford S. Mead. "We didn't edit it, but divided it into chapters that = seemed appropriate for a web-based presentation, and included images = drawn from multiple sources." This innovative web-based project underscores new possibilities at OSU = for making books available to students, scholars, and the wider = community using e-books, digital printing and print-on-demand = technologies. All are areas already being explored by Oregon State = University Press, the state's only academic press, which, like OSU = Special Collections, is part of the university's Valley Library. In addition to the Williams papers, OSU Special Collections is home to = the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, including a treasure trove of = personal memorabilia from the only two-time winner of individual Nobel = Prizes, and the Bernard Malamud papers, and many other collections. It = is part of the Valley Library. About the Valley Library: Oregon State University's main reference = center and information repository, the Valley Library is home to more = than 1.4 million volumes, 14,000 serials and more than 500,000 maps and = government documents. Media Contact Todd Simmons, 541-737-4611=20 Source Clifford Mead, 541-737-2083=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

ORr-WA senators vote for Feingold Amendment by Michael Munk Thu, May 27, 2010

June 11-13: Labor history conference in Portland by Michael Munk Wed, May 26, 2010

The Pacific Northwest Labor History Association's annual conference will be held June 11-13 at the new U. of Oregon center in the former White Stag building at 70 NW Couch Street. Several of the conference sessions will focus on Oregon, including one on Dorothea Lange's 1939 photos of rural and small town Oregon, the union organizing campaign at the Virginia Garcia Health Center in Corneilius, and my paper and panel discusssion on Francis Murnane and the history of racism in the Portland local of the ILWU. The Murnane Wharf was the only public memorial to a labor leader in Oregon until it was destroyed by the city's move of the Saturday Market last year. Advance registration (recommended) closes June 2, and in-person registration begins 5:30PM opening day June 11. Details and registration form available at http://www.uoregon.edu/~lerc/ visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

May 28: concert to protect Portland by Michael Munk Sat, May 22, 2010

The Portland concert=20 May 28 (Friday) Three Legged Coyote CD Release Concert 7:00pm, First Unitarian Church SW 12th Avenue & Salmon Portland Benefits Protect Portland From Hanford Price: $10 ($3 kids) A benefit for Protect Portland From Hanford as a Nuclear Waste Dump: = Heart=20 of America Northwest & Alliance for Democracy, Portland Chapter =20 Casey Neill on back-up guitar in Portland =20 =20 =20 =20 Three Legged Coyote CD Release Concerts Portland, May 28 Vashon, June 12 "Our State is a Dumpsite" Returns! The Song With a Half Life of 250,000 Years Sustainable Living Conference in Olympia, May 22 Evergreen President, Dr. Les Purce, opens the show for = Dana =20 =20 =20 =20 Upcoming Shows =20 Please see details at bottom. May 22: Olympia, WA May 28: Portland, OR June 12: Vashon Is, WA Aug 12: Bellingham, WA Aug 14: Coupeville, WA Aug 14: Fort Flagler, WA Aug 15: Bellingham, WA Aug 29: Langley, WA (details below)=20 =20 Forward to a Friend If you think a friend or family member would = like Dana's music, please send this newsletter on to them. Thanks! Forward this email to a friend=20 =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com=20 Howdy Friends and Family, After a lovely tour of the San Juan Islands and = Walla Walla, the fourth leg of the Three Legged Coyote World tour is = continuing with more shows in Washington State and finally making it = across the border into Oregon for a Portland show on Friday, May 28. "Our State is a Dumpsite" is back! The Song With a Half Life of 250,000 Years Thanks go out to the US Department of Energy for = helping to resurrect my song 'Our State is a Dumpsite,' as the US once = again tries to make the Hanford Nuclear Reservation here in Washington = State into the nation's largest nuclear waste dump. 'Dumpsite' was = introduced to be Washington's State Song back in 1986 when 84% of = Washington voters rejected the proposed dump. Some ideas (and songs) = don't seem to die easily, so it looks like we may have to reject the = dump again. "We're singing here in Washington, the Everglowing State" Listen to 'Our State is a Dumpsite' for free at: = http://www.cowswithguns.com/cgi-bin/listen_dumpsite.cgi Portland Concert, May 28 Casey Neill on Back-Up Guitar I'm honored to have old friend and producer of = Three Legged Coyote Casey Neill joining me for the Portland CD release = concert. Casey plays guitar on every song on the Three Legged Coyote CD = and we'll be doing a bunch of the tunes from the album at the Portland = show. My concert in Portland is a fundraiser for Heart = of America Northwest & Alliance for Democracy, Portland Chapter, two = groups that are working to stop the proposed Hanford nuclear dump. There = will be information about the nuclear dump situation at the show. The = reason Portlanders are concerned is because the site of the proposed = nuclear dump is on the Columbia River, which happens to flow through, = you guessed it! Portland. = http://www.hoanw.org/blog/index.cfm?Fuseaction=3Dblog=20 =20 =20 =20

June 4-6: Book Sale for Phil and Walt by Michael Munk Sat, May 22, 2010

June 19-20: Dill Pickle tour of Chinatown by Michael Munk Fri, May 21, 2010

Oil conservation vs leaf blowers by Michael Munk Sun, May 16, 2010

The notion of wasteful leaf blowers and power mowers reminds that the gulf disaster is a consequence of the dependence of our consumer economy on oil consumption. That's why for- profit companies use --and their political allies allow --ever riskier sources of production. Just before the latest explosion, Obama announced his new "Drill, Baby, Drill!"policy. The current debate over which company or the government is responsble is fundamentally irrelevant but par for the course of our dumbed-down media. This article suggests the best remedy is reducing consumption-- not more wars for oil, expensive alternatives, or more inaccessible sources for oil. The oil lobby is correct, reducing consumption in a market economy will indeed cost profits and jobs. Socialism is the only answer. Leaf-blower logic: Fouling of Gulf fixes focus on liability limit By JULES BOYKOFF Guest Columnist The Oregonian May 16, 2010, http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/05/leaf-blower_logic_fouling_of_g.html As the ruptured BP well relentlessly hemorrhages oil into the Gulf of Mexico, experts now predict that by mid-June, the spill will exceed the amount the Exxon Valdez unleashed on Prince William Sound in 1989 when it dumped 10.9 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude into Alaskan waters, the biggest spill in U.S. history. And while some records just aren't meant to be broken, it turns out we're quietly breaking this one year after year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, as people across the United States refuel their leaf blowers and lawnmowers, we slop approximately 17 million gallons of gasoline onto the ground each summer, gas that seeps into the water we drink and evaporates into the air we breathe. Ah, leaf blowers. Each year, approximately 6 million U.S. households purchase the wind-blowing noise machines. The shrill tool du jour for groundskeepers has caused many a quibble between neighbors, with numerous localities passing ordinances that proscribe its use. But leaf blowers not only rankle upscale NIMBYs in search of quietude. The machine's influence extends much further. In fact, leaf blowers have blustered their way into our collective conscience, making a significant imprint on how we think and relate to each other. The leaf blower is not simply a garden tool you can drop on your foot, but a frame of mind. It's not so much that we impose our will on the leaf blower, making it do our work for us, as the leaf blower imposes its out-of-sight-out-of-mind reasoning on us. Let's call it "leaf-blower logic." Like fumes rising from the leaf blower and into the air for all to breathe and the atmosphere to choke on, leaf-blower logic clears a path for passing along to the general public unwelcome environmental and economic side effects. Economists rather clunkily call this "externalizing costs" or "externalities," but they're pinpointing the logic of the leaf blower, which transforms discrete social and political problems into everyone's problems. In effect, this socializes capitalism's ugly underbelly, and without a democratic referendum. Nowhere is leaf-blower logic more obvious right now than along the Gulf Coast, where a finger-pointing festival is temporarily relocating the epicenter of litigation nation to point south. President Barack Obama has placed the blame for BP's underwater oil geyser squarely on the corporation's shoulders, asserting the firm will foot the entire clean-up bill. "BP is responsible for this leak," he said. "BP will be paying the bill." If only it were that simple. While BP is on the hook for direct clean-up costs, there's also a law on the books, passed in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill, that places a $75 million limit on non-clean-up liability damages. For a company that earned more than $6 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2010 alone, this is a drop in the corporate bucket. No one's more aware of this legalistic wriggle room than the BP CEO, Tony Hayward. When he speaks you can almost hear the rev of a leaf blower ghosting in the background, readying to spread the costs to the general public. He recently asserted BP would pay for "legitimate" claims, a notoriously slippery term from which legions of lawyers make their living. More recently, Hayward has uttered unadulterated leaf-blower logic, claiming BP is actually not to blame: "The real issue is the failure of the safety equipment, the critical safety equipment called the blowout preventer. That is a piece of equipment owned and operated by Transocean, maintained by Transocean. They are absolutely accountable for its safety and reliability." Thankfully, however, leaf-blower logic is not inescapable. To avoid future catastrophes of the Old Testament variety, the Obama administration obviously needs to revamp the leaf-blower-logic-laden oversight program that's supposedly keeping a watchful eye on offshore oil drilling. For too long the Minerals Management Service -- the regulatory unit within the U.S. Interior Department that oversees environmental reviews for offshore drilling projects -- has acted like Big Oil's own private rubber-stamp factory, waiving environmental analyses as if they were banal formalities without consequence. But it turns out we can turn back the clock on leaf-blower logic, too. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and 11 co-sponsors have introduced a bill in the Senate they're dubbing the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act. The bill would hoist the liability cap to $10 billion and make it retroactive to mid-April, just before the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion. The Exxon Valdez-era law that limits liability to a measly $75 million should be seen as Exhibit A of standard-issue pre-economic meltdown corporate pandering. But we're in the post-economic meltdown era now and there's no need to kowtow to the bigwigs anymore, especially when they've botched things with such seismic ineptitude. Congress has an opportunity to switch off the leaf blower, and it shouldn't squander it. ==================================================================================== Jules Boykoff is an associate professor of political science at Pacific University. This article first appeared in The Economist. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

OREGON RED DIES AT 96 by Michael Munk Wed, May 12, 2010

OREGON RED DIES AT 96 Hank Curl was a life long Communist Martina Gangle Curl and Hank Curl read their = favorite newspaper A long struggle for a better world ended when William Henry (Hank) Curl = died quietly in Bay City on Mothers Day May 9 at the age of 96. Hank was = a working class Communist who joined the party in 1937 and, though = briefly expelled, stuck with it to the end of his life. Hank was born in 1913 in the Grande Ronde Indian community, amidst = poverty which forced him to leave school after the eighth grade. As a = boy, his neighbors taught him Indian hunting techniques, a skill he used = during the historic longshore strike of 1934. After strikers loaned him = a gun and car, he delivered fresh venison to their soup kitchen. Hank = was a sometime seaman, shipyard and dock worker but his trade was that = of shipwright (he called himself a=A0"ships carpenter"). During the McCarthy Era, Hank was turned down, evidently because of his = Communist beliefs, for membership in Portland Local 8 of the = International Longshore and Warehouse Union.=20 =A0 In 1975 Hank and his wife, the prominent artist Martina Gangle, opened = the John Reed Bookstore in the Dekum Building downtown and later moved = to SW Hawthorne Boulevard.=A0 As a cooperative, the John Reed became = Portland's center for Marxist and other radical literature and was also = known for its Sunday evening get togethers of local radicals. Hard times = for its constituency forced it to close in 1992, and Martina died three = years later at age 88. =A0 After the store closed, Hank and Martina embarked on a new mission: = distributing and selling the Peoples Weekly World, the Communist = newspaper. After her death, Hank continued alone. Every week, rain or = shine, he could be found on Portland's docks, factory gates and union = halls urging sometimes skeptical workers to learn about the "real issues = and solutions" of the day. Often enough to raise $1,000 a year, they = would greet him and hand over a=A0$5 bill as a contribution. On a = rainy=A0day when=A0a visitor accompanied him, The Oregonian (November = 20, 1996) reported:=A0At 83,=A0Hank Curl "takes the bus to a Swan Island = parking lot and gives the paper to anyone who will take it." =A0 In his last years, Hank left his Portland home (originally owned = by=A0artist Harry Wentz and later by Hank and Martina's friends and = political allies, the radical painters Arthur and Albert Runquist) for = Bay City, where he lived with Craig and Trisha Kaufman, proprietors of = the=A0Museum of=A0Peoples Art and Artspace gallery which he = helped=A0them maintain as long as he was able. Hank was not drawn to radicalism through Marxist texts but learned from = his own experience of capitalist exploitation that workers like himself = can only be liberated when the wealth they produce is widely and more = equally shared among them. Hank Curl dedicated his long life and hard = work to that new and improved world.=20 =A0 Hank is survived=A0by=A0a brother Tommy Curl in Canada=A0 A memorial will be announced later. Contributions in=A0memory of Hank = Curl can be sent to the Peoples World, 235 W. 23rd St., New York, NY = 10011, and the Museum of Peoples Art, P.O. Box 3268, Bay City, OR = 97107. A long struggle for a better world ended when William Henry (Hank) Curl = died quietly in Bay City on Mothers Day May 9 at the age of 96. Hank was = a working class Communist who joined the party in 1937 and, though = briefly expelled, stuck with it to the end of his life. Hank was born in 1913 in the Grande Ronde Indian community, amidst = poverty which forced him to leave school after the eighth grade. As a = boy, his neighbors taught him Indian hunting techniques, a skill he used = during the historic longshore strike of 1934. After strikers loaned him = a gun and car, he delivered fresh venison to their soup kitchen. Hank = was a sometime seaman, shipyard and dock worker but his trade was that = of shipwright (he called himself a=A0"ships carpenter"). During the McCarthy Era, Hank was turned down, evidently because of his = Communist beliefs, for membership in Portland Local 8 of the = International Longshore and Warehouse Union.=20 =A0 In 1975 Hank and his wife, the prominent artist Martina Gangle, opened = the John Reed Bookstore in the Dekum Building downtown and later moved = to SW Hawthorne Boulevard.=A0 As a cooperative, the John Reed became = Portland's center for Marxist and other radical literature and was also = known for its Sunday evening get togethers of local radicals. Hard times = for its constituency forced it to close in 1992, and Martina died three = years later at age 88. =A0 After the store closed, Hank and Martina embarked on a new mission: = distributing and selling the Peoples Weekly World, the Communist = newspaper. After her death, Hank continued alone. Every week, rain or = shine, he could be found on Portland's docks, factory gates and union = halls urging sometimes skeptical workers to learn about the "real issues = and solutions" of the day. Often enough to raise $1,000 a year, they = would greet him and hand over a=A0$5 bill as a contribution. On a = rainy=A0day when=A0a visitor accompanied him, The Oregonian (November = 20, 1996) reported:=A0At 83,=A0Hank Curl "takes the bus to a Swan Island = parking lot and gives the paper to anyone who will take it." =A0 In his last years, Hank left his Portland home (originally owned = by=A0artist Harry Wentz and later by Hank and Martina's friends and = political allies, the radical painters Arthur and Albert Runquist) for = Bay City, where he lived with Craig and Trisha Kaufman, proprietors of = the=A0Museum of=A0Peoples Art and Artspace gallery which he = helped=A0them maintain as long as he was able. Hank was not drawn to radicalism through Marxist texts but learned from = his own experience of capitalist exploitation that workers like himself = can only be liberated when the wealth they produce is widely and more = equally shared among them. Hank Curl dedicated his long life and hard = work to that new and improved world.=20 =A0 Hank is survived=A0by=A0a brother Tommy Curl in Canada=A0 A memorial will be announced later. Contributions in=A0memory of Hank = Curl can be sent to the Peoples World, 235 W. 23rd St., New York, NY = 10011, and the Museum of Peoples Art, P.O. Box 3268, Bay City, OR = 97107.

May 12, 13 &14: Help Phil & his destroyed bookstore by Michael Munk Tue, May 11, 2010

Columbia Crossing by Michael Munk Sat, May 8, 2010

To the editor, The Oregonian RE: "Getting the Columbia Crossing right" (Mike Francis commentary, May 2). Let's call it what is: The Tax-Free Shopping and Truckers' Bridge and dump the $4B boondoggle in history's garbage can. If its real purpose is to ease "the sloth's pace" of rush-hour traffic then an obvious "Plan B" is to place rush-hour tolls on both the existing I-5 and I-205 bridges. Let their impact on the shoppers and truckers simultaneously reduce congestion and pay to improve public transportation over the river. Michael Munk visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Mystery disease kills 6 in OR,WA, ID by Michael Munk Fri, May 7, 2010

Although this is a NW story, I haven't seen it before. Has anyone else? Mystery Disease Linked to Missing Israeli Scientist May 7, 2010 by: H.P. Albarelli Jr., t r u t h o u t | Report=20 (Photo: chickeninthewoods; Edited: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t)=20 Media outlets across the Northwest United States began reporting on = April 24 that a strange, previously unknown strain of virulent airborne = fungi that has already killed at least six people in Oregon, Washington = and Idaho is spreading throughout the region. The fungus, according to = expert microbiologists, who have expressed alarm about the emergence of = the strain, is a new genotype of Cryptococcus gatti fungi. Cryptococcus = gatti is normally found in tropical and subtropical locations in India, = South America, Africa and Australia. Microbiologists in the United = States are reporting that the strain found here, for reasons not yet = fully understood, is far deadlier than any found overseas. Physicians in the Pacific Northwest are reporting that an undetermined = number of people in the region are ill from the effects of the strange = strain. Physicians also say that the virulent strain can infect domestic = animals as well as humans, and symptoms do not appear until anywhere = from two to four months after exposure. Symptoms in humans include a = lingering cough, sharp chest pains, fever, night-sweats, weight-loss, = headaches and shortness of breath. The strain can be treated = successfully, if detected early enough, with oral doses of antifungal = medication, but it cannot be prevented, and there is no preventative = vaccine. Undiagnosed, the fungus works its way into the spinal fluid and = central nervous system and causes fatal meningitis. The estimated mortality rate is about 25 percent of 21 cases analyzed. = Several newspapers and media outlets in the US and overseas quote a = researcher at Duke University's Department of Molecular Genetics and = Microbiology, Edmond Byrnes, as stating: "This novel fungus is worrisome = because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people. = Typically, we see this fungal disease associated with transplant = recipients and HIV-infected patients, but that is not what we are = seeing." Microbiologists and epidemiologists studying the strain say the mystery = fungus came from an earlier fatal fungus that was first found on British = Columbia's Vancouver Island in the fall of 2001, and perhaps as early as = 1999. There the fungus infected and killed dogs, cats, horses, sheep, = porpoises and at least 26 people. The disease spreads through spores = carried by breezes and wind and when people and animals encounter = infected ground where the fungus is present. A number of microbiologists = say that the disease has "the potential to essentially travel anywhere = the wind or people can carry it." Reads an alarming study authored in = part by Duke University's Edmond Byrnes: "The continued expansion of C. = gatti in the United States is ongoing, and the diversity of hosts = increasing." Several researchers in California also note that the Cryptococcus gatti = fungus has been researched for decades, extending back to the 1950's, at = the US Army's biological warfare center, Fort Detrick, in Frederick, = Maryland. One microbiologist at the University of California at Los = Angeles recounted that the fungus was first brought to the attention of = Fort Detrick researchers by British scientists experimenting with the = bark of eucalyptus trees from Australia. Army biological warfare reports = obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal that beginning = around 1952 the Army mounted a huge research program involving numerous = plant and fungi products, and that well over 300 long-term contracts and = sub-contracts were let with over 35 US colleges and universities to = carry out this multifaceted research. Examples of this early research in = California included experiments and projects at Camp Cooke; Port = Huemene; Harpers Lake; Oceanside, and extensive experimentation with = wheat stem rust and "various spores" including "several from tropical = locations" and cereal rust spores and dyed Lycopodium spores. Several = Army reports reveal that private-sector corporations that participated = or assisted in these projects were the American Institute of Crop = Ecology; the American Type Culture Collection Inc.; University of = California; Bioferm Inc. and the Kulijian Corporation. The same microbiologist, who declined to speak on the record and who = recounted extensive fungus work at Fort Detrick, also stated that = researchers at Israel's Institute for Biological Research, located in = Ness-Ziona about 20 km from Tel Aviv, have worked with the Cryptococcus = gatti fungus. They also report that mysterious Israeli-American = scientist Joseph Moshe, 56 years old, may have conducted covert studies = with the fungus while he was recently living in California. This report = concerning Moshe is especially interesting because Moshe was briefly in = the international spotlight in 2009 when he was the subject of a = spectacular chase and arrest by the LA police department and SWAT team, = assisted by the FBI, Secret Service, CIA, US Army and several other = unidentified federal officials. That highly unusual arrest has never = been fully explained to the media, and the whereabouts of Moshe has = remained unknown since its occurrence. Compounding the mystery = surrounding the Moshe case is that there is another scientist named = Moshe Bar-Joseph who works in Israel and who looks remarkably like = Joseph Moshe, except that he is about 20 years older. Why Moshe was pursued and apprehended by the police is a largely = unanswered question. According to the Los Angeles media, which recorded = the entire incident by helicopter and ground cameras, Moshe claimed to = be "a former Mossad microbiologist" who had telephoned a police dispatch = number before his pursuit and had made "threatening statements about the = White House and the president." Reportedly, Secret Service spokesman Ed = Donovan confirmed this when he spoke with several Los Angeles reporters. On August 14, 2009, several Los Angeles police cruisers and an unmarked = armored vehicle pursued Joseph Moshe as he drove his red VW automobile = several miles through downtown Los Angeles before his car's engine was = reportedly knocked out by an electromagnetic pulse. Moshe refused to = exit his car when ordered several times by the police, and after the = driver's window of his VW was smashed out by a robotic arm and several = rounds of tear gas and pepper gas were fired into the vehicle, he still = remained behind the wheel, refusing to move. At the time, police = officers on the scene were stunned that Moshe was able to withstand = three tear gas shells and hosing with pepper spray without moving. Later = that day, a Los Angeles law enforcement official said: "I can't explain = that; there's no way to explain that." After his apprehension, Moshe was taken to the Patton State Mental = Hospital and then to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los = Angeles. Sometime about 60 days later, Moshe was quietly released and = his current whereabouts are unknown. Since his arrest became public, = reports about Moshe's activities in the US have spread like wildfire, = especially across the Internet. Many of these reports are unconfirmed, = but a few come from credible sources and have linked Moshe to the = grossly underreported outbreak of flu in the Ukraine. Other reliable sources, including two former Fort Detrick biochemists, = have also linked Moshe to a mysterious disease that is becoming = alarmingly common in Vermont and other states, including California. The = disease is known to have killed or incapacitated at least 10 to 20 rural = dwellers and farmers. This disease is said to be Morgellons disease or = "a rare, mutated form of Morgellons disease." Former Fort Detrick = scientists, speaking off the record, say that the disease is one that = was "experimented with intensely" in the late 1960's at several "test = sites in New England." Morgellons causes patients to suffer horrible = skin problems as well as fatigue, confusion and serious memory problems, = as well as joint pain and the strange sensation that pins and needles = are piercing the body or that something is crawling beneath one's flesh. = Some researchers and physicians believe that Morgellons is actually a = psychiatric condition called "delusional parasitosis." Other physicians, = who are familiar with treating the disease, say it may be caused by "an = airborne, unidentified spore" and that it was developed in the = laboratory from an affliction that was first identified in the 1700's. = Regardless of its origin, some researchers say that Morgellons is = becoming "a very real medical problem in some parts of the country." visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Iraq war horors claim another Oregonian by Michael Munk Mon, May 3, 2010

Iraq Vet killed in Eagle Point Arrmed standof:f : He brandished a firearm, fired shots inside apartment By Chris Conrad Medford (OR) Mail Tribune, May 2, 2010 EAGLE POINT - Two and a half years ago, Adam Elsman Wehinger held a .357 pistol to his throat and begged police to kill him. On Friday night, the 34-year-old man's wish was fulfilled when Jackson County sheriff's deputies shot him dead following a 90-minute standoff in downtown Eagle Point. The standoff began after Eagle Point police responded to a 9-1-1 report of a domestic dispute at about 9:45 p.m. at an apartment building on Royal Avenue. "They encountered a male subject armed with a pistol who barricaded himself in the apartment complex," said Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters. Police flooded the area, surrounding the complex and evacuating nearby apartments. At some point, Wehinger's girlfriend, the other half of the domestic dispute, was safely removed from the apartment complex, Winters said. Wehinger refused to comply with officers' commands, threatened officers and fired several shots inside the apartment, Winters said. At around 11:20 p.m., Wehinger brandished a firearm at the deputies, who fired at him in self defense, Winters said. Wehinger's death at the hands of police did not come as a surprise to many who knew him, including his mother, Laura Wehinger, and ex-wife Gretchen Schwarz. Schwarz described Wehinger as a kind father toward their two children - a young boy and girl. "He loved his children," she said of the Eagle Point High School graduate. "It's a shame that he had so much trouble in his life that he couldn't spend more time with them." Schwarz said her ex-husband struggled with alcoholism and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, after returning from Iraq, where he served on a mortar crew, dropping bombs on Iraqi cities. "He wanted to be in the military since he was little," his mother said. "He tried so hard to pass the tests to get in and when he finally did we were so happy for him." Wehinger joined the Marine Corps in the mid-90s and was discharged after four years. He then joined the Army just in time to be shipped off to Iraq for the beginning of the war. "I think he got a lot of help from the military when he came back, but he did a lot of things to mess that up," his mother said. "He was just a lost soul who couldn't find a way to be happy, even though there were plenty of people who cared for him and tried to help him." Wehinger's former father-in-law, Jim Krois, said he heard many stories from Wehinger of the horrors he witnessed in Iraq. "He spoke about some of the things he saw over there," Krois said. "It was enough to chill your blood." The war, coupled with heavy drinking, set Wehinger adrift when he returned to Eagle Point after being discharged from the service. He struggled to find work and often became violent when he drank, Schwarz said. In September 2007, he threatened to kill Schwarz because she had asked to take custody of their children following their divorce, she said. Eagle Point police reported Wehinger held officers at bay with a .357 pointed at his throat. All the while he was demanding that police kill him, police said. Wehinger eventually surrendered and was taken to Rogue Valley Medical Center's 2-North unit for evaluation. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of pointing a firearm at another and was given 18 months probation and court-mandated counseling. He also tried to seek treatment for his alcoholism, but was unable to give up drinking for any period of time, Schwarz said. In the past two years Wehinger was convicted on two counts of driving under the influence of intoxicants, Jackson County Circuit Court records show. Schwarz said her ex-husband sporadically attended the court-mandated counseling meetings and sank into depression last summer. "He was suicidal but couldn't do it himself," Schwarz said. "He wanted the police to do it for him, and that's what happened." It is now up to police detectives to piece together Wehinger's final hours. The sheriff's office has turned the investigation to outside agencies, per Oregon law. As of Saturday night, police had not released the names of the officers involved in the shooting or details about how many times Wehinger was shot. "We are bringing a lot of resources to this investigation," Medford police Lt. Tim George said. "It might take some time to determine exactly what happened that night." Winters believes the evidence will show his deputies were justified in shooting Wehinger because they felt he was a deadly threat. Regardless, the events that transpired Friday night held an air of inevitability for many who knew Wehinger. "It's awful to say, but this was kind of how he wanted it," Schwarz said. "But despite his problems this was not how we wanted it to end for Adam." Reach reporter Chris Conrad at 541-776-4471 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 541-776-4471 end_of_the_skype_highlighting; or e-mail cconrad@mailtribune.com. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

More on our Oregon ballot by Michael Munk Mon, May 3, 2010

My tentative take on the Oregon ballot needs at least one correction. I now understand that Maurer is actually "anti-choice, anti-public school, homophobic." So for me the SPI choice becomes another "no choice" since Castillo is a weak, do-nothing incumbent who transmits the conventional wisdom of school employes that schools need more money. What that actually means is more money for those employes-- not necessarily better schools. My model of a teacher's union is the 1930s radical one in NYC (destroyed during the McCarthy Era by the ancestors of the today's UFT) whose priority was improving education rather than the incomes and perks of its members. So far, the Stacy and Metsger choices are holding up. Metro Chapter Pacific Greens supports: Ed Garren candidate for Salztman City Council seat (although Garren supports the I-5 bridge boongoogle) Also endorsed by Letter Carriers Branch 82 Union. Check him out at www.EdForPDX.com In the November election: Michael Meo candidate for Blumenauer's congressional seat: Rick Staggenborg for Wyden's US Senate seat More at http://staggenborgforussenate.org/ visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Not much to vote for--or against by Michael Munk Sat, May 1, 2010

A poem for May Day by Michael Munk Fri, Apr 30, 2010

May 8: Nader speaks in Portland by Michael Munk Fri, Apr 30, 2010

Archdiocese calls Portland Catholics to May Day demo by Michael Munk Wed, Apr 28, 2010

Oregon History Comics by Michael Munk Wed, Apr 28, 2010

Saturday: March on Mayday by Michael Munk Tue, Apr 27, 2010

Join us for May Day 2010 -- this year's International Workers' Day celebration. JOBS FOR ALL! Immigrants' Rights Are Workers' Rights. Saturday, May 1, 2010 SW Park Blocks (SW Salmon and Main) 11am: Art and Entertainment 12pm: Rally 1pm: March On Saturday, May 1, Portlanders will come together once again to celebrate International Workers' day with a rally and march for jobs and immigrant rights. People will gather in the South Park Blocks at SW Salmon and Main beginning at 11 AM, with a rally at Noon and a march starting at 1 PM. May Day has a rich history in the US going back to the fight for an eight-hour workday in Chicago.. In Portland in 2006 we saw the largest mobilization in Portland's history with estimates of up to 40,000 people in attendance. Now, faced with a deepening economic crisis and increasing attacks on workers and immigrants, it is time for our movements to come together and support each other in the struggle for economic justice. With the recent passage of the anti-immigrant bill SB1070 in Arizona, which gives police the authority to stop anyone who looks undocumented, Portland labor, immigrants' rights, and community groups will be gathering in solidarity with people all over the world facing economic crisis, discrimination, and police brutality. Organizers aim to draw attention to alarming developments locally: Already programs aiming to use police as an arm of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) are underway, starting in Clackamas and threatening to spread across the metro region. Their role is largely unregulated and unchallenged, resulting in programs that lack transparency, accountability, and oversight. *Solidarity Statement* * We stand together against racism, police violence, and attacks on immigrants through ICE raids and detentions. No one is illegal. We aim to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Through solidarity we will reform our immigration, criminal justice, and economic systems to meet human needs. We demand an increase in public spending, not more cuts to education, public transportation, and social services. We demand decent affordable housing, not foreclosures and evictions. We demand single payer health care for all. We demand living wage jobs, full employment, and the restoration of our right to organize workplaces. We can achieve these goals by taxing the rich and corporations instead of bailing them out. We can stop free trade agreements that have outsourced jobs and kept wages low here while creating sweatshops and destroying resources elsewhere. We can end the wars and occupations as well as environmental catastrophes that serve to keep the corporations rich and the people in poverty. Solidarity Forever. Si se puede.* We would love to see you there! The Portland May Day Coalition is made up of grassroots community organizations, labor unions, faith communities, and individuals. Contact us by email at maydayoutreach@gmail.com or the Voz office at 503-233-6787. Find out more about the Mayday Coalition and updates at http://maydaypdx.blogspot.com Friends Below is a stitched-together announcement for this year's May Day event. There are a lot of people and groups working hard on the annual pro-labor, pro-human rights celebration and we've recieved several versions of the announcement. I think what I have below reflects the May Day Committee's call to action accurately.... I've put "12 noon" in the header of this message because that's when the rally starts, but they're having people gather at 11 AM if you're stalwart enough to start that early. Neither of the announcements lists the groups participating, but I know that the main organizations coordinating are VOZ Workers Rights and Portland Jobs with Justice. PJW is not officially involved in organizing--because our project group, Portland Copwatch will be there to observe police conduct, we need to be neutral. However, we still want to let our supporters know about the event... note in particular that their "Solidarity Statement" calls attention to the billions being mis-spent on two wars of occupation, as well as the problem of police violence. Thanks --dan handelman peace and justice works ---------------------- visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Sunday the 25th: Protest AIPAC in Portland by Michael Munk Fri, Apr 23, 2010

AIPAC event in Portland Sunday -Show your support for Israeli security = by protesting AIPAC support for apartheid and oppression Sunday, April 25, Mittleman Jewish Community Center at SW Vermont and = Capitol Highway. Even if you are not involved in the movement to encourage Israel to stop = provoking anger toward itself and endangering peace-loving Israelis who = want to negotiate in good faith with Palestine for a just solution to = their mutual problems, please come to support those of us who are = passionate about this cause. =20 I had a ticket to go inside but was just informed that after they did a = background check on me, they revoked it. I had been torn between = attending and doing an internet based radio interview, so I guess this = decides it. I am going to do the show from outside the event. Please = come and join me, and bring all your friends. See details below if you are interested. =20 In solidarity, Rick Rick Staggenborg, MD Founder, Soldiers For Peace International Pacific Green Party candidate for US Senate Member, Alliance For Democracy National Executive Committee =20 =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -------

April 23: Lew Frederick fund raiser by Michael Munk Tue, Apr 20, 2010

.Jazz Fundraiser Friday, April 23rd at Billy Webb's Elks Lodge 6 N. Tillamook 7:00 PM Join in for food and music and help raise a little dough to support the campaign and the District office. (Music by N-Touch ) More details to come. $20 suggested donation at the door. The special session is over and a great deal was accomplished. I continue to be inspired by the opportunity to serve my community and serve with this outstanding group of Oregonians. Sen. Shields, Rep. Kotek and I had a very successful Town Hall at PCC on March 6. I look forward to many more conversations about our community and our State. It has been fascinating to see how the media portray the session, as it often is when something you're a part of hits the news. What I saw was a mixture of party-line votes, near unanimous votes, and votes in which party lines were crossed, both directions; in other words, about what I'd expect. I also saw hard work, civility and deep love for this State. The bill I sponsored passed unanimously in both houses: HB 3646 - Build America Bonds: Benefits Oregon by helping us invest in local communities and create more jobs. The bill allows the State of Oregon to take advantage of Build America Bonds (BABs) and expands the type of programs the Oregon Facilities Authority (OFA) may finance. And thirteen more bills were passed just to support business and employment. Now the campaign gets under way in earnest. I will be on foot in the district talking to voters in their homes and businesses, and attending as many community meetings as possible. There is a reason we campaign for re-election for each session. It gets us out talking to people in the district. This is not just a means to the end of being elected; it is part of the job of representing. I look forward to talking with you in the coming months. And of course campaigning means money. Now that the session is over, the DONATE button is working again. Please help. Lew Frederick Lew and Rep. Tina Kotek Speak on the House Floor Regarding Police Incidents in North and Northeast Portland Lew rose to speak during the Remonstrances portion of the House floor session on Wednesday, February 17. Video is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXeJsHh2xr4 The text of his remarks is below: A twelve year old I've known all his life told me several days ago that he no longer wanted to be a police officer. And he wanted me to know that he would not call police if he had a problem because he was not sure "If they would shoot him." Our community's trust in the Portland police was already limited. The two recent incidents (12 year old girl and Campbell) set things back more than two decades. The video showing the officer Humphreys stalking the 12 year old before shooting her, and the fact that Campbell was shot in the back confirmed for many that there is little respect for the community on the part of the police. Portland's Black Community has felt under siege, and has seen the police as an occupying force for many years. Sizer and her predecessors have tried to build bridges. But the way the police union responded to the bean bag incident, as well as the repeated incidents, have undermined those efforts. And every time another member of our community dies and the use of force is characterized as "consistent with procedures and training," our confidence in the system sinks even lower. I am not surprised by Bernie's editorial. In fact I'm betting he wrote a much more inflammatory one and chose to tone it down. I am also not as encouraged as I'd like to be by the response from the rank and file of the police union. A number of officers, black and white, have talked with me on the street and in the grocery store, very upset about the attitudes of their fellow police officers, but also very clear that they would be ostracized if they went public with their concerns. They've seen it happen before. There is a belief among some of the rank and file that they can do whatever they want. While we all acknowledge the incredible stress and dangerous nature of police work, there is clearly a need to rein in the "cowboys" and get rid of the cowboy attitude. We are not just worried about the actions of the police officers; we're also worried about their training and motivation. "Us vs. Them" is clearly a primary orientation in their training. I understand why and why it works. But I also understand that it sets up whole groups of folks as "Them." And "Them" includes anyone with darker skin who is not wearing a blue uniform. Those with darker skin who do wear a blue uniform have to prove themselves every day. Those without a uniform are approached with suspicion and fear. And suspicion and fear lead to overreaction. And let me just say one more thing: I realize that the day to day interactions of community policing are just not interesting to a many reporterjournalists. But the constant drumbeat of outrageous attacks and actions in mainstream media (news and drama series) do not help. If the primary narrative is that every encounter with police is a gun battle, it can only lead to escalated tension on both sides. It gets past the idea of being prepared for the worst and moves towards the idea that the worst is normal. That feeds on itself. It means that any encounter with a non-police person is seen as a threat. Any encounter with a police officer by a citizen is seen as a potential disaster. Neither helps bring tensions down. Lew Frederick. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

April 20: The People Speak! Hollywood Theatre by Michael Munk Sun, Apr 18, 2010

You are invited to a special screening of THE PEOPLE = SPEAK, the documentary feature film produced by Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, = Chris Moore, Anthony Arnove, and Howard Zinn, about the radical = traditions that have forged U.S. history. Narrated by the late, acclaimed historian Howard Zinn, = and based on his best selling books, A People's HIstory of the United = States and, with Anthony Arnove, Voices of A People's History, THE = PEOPLE SPEAK (http://www.thepeoplespeak.com), uses dramatic musical = performances of the letters, diaries and speeches of everyday Americans = who fought for equality and justice from the bottom up.=20 This film, which includes 20 minutes of never-before = aired footage, is co-directed by Moore, Arnove and Zinn and features = dramatic and musical performances by Allison Moorer, Benjamin Bratt, Bob = Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Chris Robinson, Christina Kirk, Danny Glover, = Darryl "DMC" McDaniels, David Strathairn, Don Cheadle, Eddie Vedder, = Harris Yulin, Jasmine Guy, John Legend, Josh Brolin, Kathleen Chalfant, = Kerry Washington, Lupe Fiasco, Marisa Tomei, Mart=EDn Espada, Matt = Damon, Michael Ealy, Mike O'Malley, Morgan Freeman, P!nk, Q'orianka = Kilcher, Reg E. Cathey, Rich Robinson, Rosario Dawson, Sandra Oh, Sean = Penn, Staceyann Chin, and Viggo Mortensen. The Los Angeles Times called THE PEOPLE SPEAK "striking, = exhilarating...the performances are thrilling" and The Boston Globe = said: "The documentary...works beautifully. Each passionate reading = flows out of the previous one." Watch the trailer here: = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D6hUQ657XR7Y ONE NIGHT ONLY! Date: Tuesday, April 20th Time: 7pm Place: Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland, = OR Ticket Information: $6 at the door ($10 solidarity = price) Local contact information: pdxiso@gmail.com _____________________________ Screenings of THE PEOPLE SPEAK will be taking place = across the country in April. For information on other screenings, please = visit www.socialistworker.org Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization publisher of Socialist Worker newspaper www.socialistworker.org visit my website www.michaelmunk.com =20 =20

How strong are Oregon banks? by Michael Munk Sat, Apr 17, 2010

A commercial company, The Street, ranks US banks and S&Ls (but not the big chains) on financial strenght. It ranks 38 Oregon banks, and lists only two as "excellent," five as "good" and 15 as "fair". But 10 are "weak" and five are "very weak". One is "unrated" for insufficient information Since the Oregonian does not publish this information, you can check on individual banks (Washingtonians go to that state's listings) at http://www.thestreet.com/bank-safety/index.html?src=ratingsindex&tab=3 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Another China-bashing article by Richard Read by Michael Munk Sat, Apr 17, 2010

Radio Golf extends! best show .. in town by Michael Munk Fri, Apr 16, 2010

April 24-26 Mother Jones events: Salem & Portland by Michael Munk Thu, Apr 15, 2010

Check the attachment for time and place details Mother Jones=20 Raising Cain and Consciousness=20 Simon Cordery =20 A life touched by tragedy and deprivation=97childhood in her native = Ireland ending with the potato famine, immigration to Canada and then to = the United States, marriage followed by the deaths of her husband and = four children from yellow fever, and the destruction of her dressmaking = business in the great Chicago fire of 1871=97forged the stalwart labor = organizer Mary Harris =93Mother=94 Jones into a force to be reckoned = with.=20 Radicalized in a brutal era of repeated violence against hard-working = men and women, Mother Jones crisscrossed the country to demand higher = wages and safer working conditions. Her activism in support of American = workers began after the age of sixty. The grandmotherly persona she = projected won the hearts and her stirring rhetoric the minds, of working = people. She made herself into a national symbol of resistance to = tyranny. Sometimes exaggerating her own experiences, she fought for = justice in mines, factories, and workshops across the nation. For her = troubles she was condemned as =93the most dangerous woman in America.=94 = At her death in 1930 at the age of ninety-three, thousands paid tribute = at a Washington, D.C., memorial service, and again at her burial in the = only union-owned cemetery in America in the small mining town of Mount = Olive, Illinois. As noted in The New York Times, the Rev. W. R. McGuire, = who conducted her burial, said, =93Wealthy coal operators and = capitalists throughout the United States are breathing a sigh of relief = while toil-worn men and women are weeping tears of bitter grief.=94=20 The courage of Mother Jones is notorious and admired to this day. = Cordery effectively recounts her story in this accessible biography, = bringing to life an amazing woman and explaining the dramatic times = through which she lived and to which she contributed so much.=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

TAX Day : 6PM at the Unitarian Church by Michael Munk Thu, Apr 15, 2010

WHAT: Conscience in Action WHERE: First Unitarian Church, 1211 SW Main, Portland, Oregon WHEN: April 15th, 2010, Doors open at 6PM with live music by General Strike. Main speaker Brian Willson at 7PM. How does conscience inform action, in particular civil disobedience in resistance to violence? Responses to this question will be explored on a day as important as any first Tuesday in November - America's Tax Day, April 15th. The keynote speaker will be the noted conscientious objector to war, Brian Willson. Brian has participated in lengthy fasts, and other acts of nonviolent civil disobedience - including tax refusal. In 1987 he lost his legs while protesting US arms shipments to Central America. Other presenters will be from Iraq Veterans Against War and Portland's local tax redirection community. A public act of civil disobedience to paying for war will be made as refused taxes are redirected (presented) to Coffee Strong and Food not Bombs. Coffee Strong, a new GI coffeehouse outside Fort Lewis in Washington state, is a project of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Donations to Coffee Strong's lending library, as well as children's toys and books will be accepted. (Due to a recent break in, all of the children's things were lost and must be replaced.) Food not Bombs collectives span the globe and are dedicated to nonviolent social change. Their signature activity is preparing free vegan meals for everyone. The new film "Death and Taxes" will also premiere. A donation of $5. to $10. is suggested, but no one will be turned away due to lack of funds. For more information please call Pam Allee, 503-285-6371. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Tax day: you've paid $7,334 for Iraq , AfPak wars by Michael Munk Wed, Apr 14, 2010

If you can't make it to Hood River this weekend... by Michael Munk Tue, Apr 13, 2010

April Events for Metro Pacific Green Party by Michael Munk Tue, Apr 13, 2010

MID- April Calendar of Events for Metro Chapter of the Pacific Green = Party:=20 LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS CANDIDATE FORUM April 13 6:30-9:30 Multnomah County Building 501 SE Hawthorne Boulevard KBOO - Candidate Interview Listen at April 14th 8AM Second debate scheduled for 3rd district congressional candidates Three of the congressional candidates in Oregon's 3rd district have = agreed to meet in debate at Benson Polytechnic High School at 546 NE = 12th Avenue on Saturday evening, April 17th, at 7:00 pm. Pacific Green Party of Oregon nominee Michael Meo will meet = Libertarian Jeff Lawrence and Democrat John Sweeny for the second of a = series of pre-primary debates, the topic for the debate being health = care. Republican candidate Delia Lopez, who participated in the first of the = debates on April 3, has not yet committed to appear. Incumbent Earl Blumenauer has been invited to join. Mr. Sweeny is challenging Mr. Blumenauer for their party's nomination. A moderator for the debate is yet to be named. Candidate excluded from City Club debates I am a registered Pacific Green Party member. I thought you would be = interested to know that the City Club has excluded Ed Garren from the = debate between City Council seat 3 candidates. The Pacific Green Party = has endorsed Ed in this election. =20 I think it would be good for the Green party to show support and let the = City Club know that Ed should be included in the debate. =20 The contact at the City Club is Amy Harris, amy@pdxcityclub.org =20 Here is a link to the news story: http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/04/candidate_ed_garren_= shut_out_o.html =20 Here is a link to Ed's campaign Website: =20 http://www.edforpdx.com/cms/ =20 Thanks, Matt Smith 503-593-7006 ------------------------------------------=20 Metro Chapter supported candidate calendar:=20 Ed Garren, endorsed by the Portland Chapter of the Pacific Green Party = for Portland City Commissioner Seat #3, has a fabulous website = www.edforpdx.com - read his position on issues, news, blogs, and = upcoming events! You can also become a fan of his campaign on Facebook = and follow him on Twitter!=20 =20 Candidate Dr. Rick Staggenborg for US Senate I am currently very engaged in political activities. Now that health = care reform is off the table this year, I am very hopeful that we can = take out key Senators in 2010 and 2012 and get single payer health care = by 2014. I am busy building Soldiers For Peace International, a group of veterans = and active duty military working to end war forever. We have developed a = very good start on membership and a tremendous network of supporters = with similar goals. We have established the 501c.3 Take Back America for = the People to support our work and our website will soon be up at = www.soldiersforpeaceinternational.org, though it may not be up by = Christmas as hoped, due to a recent cyber attack. The key to restoring democracy to America is to abolish corporate = personhood. I have met some wonderful people actively engaged in this = through both challenging the Supreme Court decision circa 1906 that = created fictitious Constitutional rights for corporate "persons" and by = means of introducing a Constitutional amendment to reverse the Court's = deliberate perversion of the meaning of the due process clause. This = country cannot any longer be enslaved by the very Act of Congress = intended to make free citizens of us all. =20 =20 =B7 If you have a neighborhood event in the tri-county area with = a Green theme, political or environmental please let us know, and it = will be included in the next newsletter, we support all activism, = campaigns supporting the key 10 values of the party - even though we are = the political wing, we lend our support to direct grass roots activism. This is your newsletter.=20 =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Health Care Bill Does Not Fix Health Care System by Michael Munk Mon, Apr 12, 2010

Health Care Bill Does Not Fix Health Care System By Peter Shapiro Peter Shapiro is a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Branch 82 in Portland, Oregon. He also co-chairs the Health Care Committee of Portland Jobs with Justice. This article was originally distributed by FightBack News Service at fightbacknews.org. Passage of President Obama's health care reform in late March made for great political theater. Here was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, skillfully maneuvering the bill through Congress after many had given it up for lost. Here was House minority leader and Republican point man John Boehner, reduced to ranting about 'Armageddon' and predicting the end of civilization as we know it if the bill passed. Here were Republican legislators egging on the mob of teabaggers who massed outside the Capitol, hurling racist and homophobic slurs at Representatives John Lewis and Barney Frank as they went inside. I'll admit the scene worked on my emotions. The Republicans' tactics were ugly and cynical and I was happy to see them fail. Now that the dust has settled, however, a hard look at the legislation that prompted all the fuss suggests that, far from 'fixing our broken health care system,' it merely reproduces some of its worst features. The bill does nothing to lessen the grip of the private insurance industry on our health care system. It won't bring exploding health care costs under control. It does little to change the shameful disparities in access to treatment in a society that treats medical care as a commodity to be bought and sold, rather than as something all of us need and deserve. What it will do is require everybody to buy health insurance, with federal subsidies for those who can't afford the premiums on their own. The price tag of these subsidies is $447 billion over the next ten years. That's money that could have gone to pay directly for medical treatment but which will, instead, wind up in the pockets of the insurance industry - one more corporate bailout at taxpayers' expense. To help pay for it, public hospitals that treat the uninsured will have their federal funding slashed by $36 billion. Eight years down the road, union health plans and other job-based health insurance will be slapped with a 40% 'excise tax.' Protests from organized labor succeeded in getting this tax modified somewhat, but not eliminated from the bill. The bill does expand eligibility for Medicaid, the federal health care program for the poor. And it is supposed to make it harder for insurance companies to deny legitimate claims or refuse to cover 'high-risk' patients. Insurance industry lobbyists, who actually helped draft the bill, swallowed these reforms in part because they'll get 30 million new customers out of the deal, and in part because over the years the industry has proved adept at evading every government attempt at regulation. Physicians for a National Health Program, which has led the fight for a single payer system comparable to what other developed countries have, likens the bill to morphine for a cancer patient. It lessens the pain for a while, but it doesn't stop the cancer from spreading. Health care in the U.S. costs twice as much as in most other countries, mainly because the administrative costs of maintaining a private insurance system soak up nearly one in every three dollars we spend on it. And a big chunk of that money goes to buy politicians. The health care industry spent a record $266.8 million last year making sure nothing got into the bill that would seriously threaten its profits. I've heard some interesting arguments over whether we're better or worse off with this law on the books, but it's really beside the point. The battle for universal, equal access to care still lies ahead, and it won't be won until those of us who are victimized by the health care system have more political clout than those who profit from it. The law's shortcomings will provide ample organizing opportunities in the fight for true reform. Here are a few: 1. Medicaid. It's financed with matching state and federal funds, and while the federal government may have the money to pay for expanded eligibility, most states don't. Oregon, where I live, already has a very liberal program of health care for the poor, but the state is so strapped for cash that it actually has to hold a lottery to determine which eligible people get benefits. And because an underfunded Medicaid program compensates doctors so poorly, many doctors are already reluctant to take Medicaid patients. The new law promises to make it easier for poor people to get care; we should be prepared to hold politicians' feet to the flames if it doesn't happen. 2. Rate hikes. Since everyone will now be required to buy insurance or pay a fine, insurers are likely to take advantage of their captive market by jacking premiums up even more. There should be organized, angry protests every time it happens. 3. Underinsurance. Before the law passed, a woman with 'pre-existing' breast cancer was apt to be refused coverage. Now she can't be denied coverage - but she may find that her new policy won't pay for the extra round of chemotherapy or surgery she needs. Nothing in the law spells out what benefits must be offered for insurance plans to qualify for the government-run 'health insurance exchanges' that will be set up in 2014. The requirement that everybody buy insurance will mean a proliferation of cut-rate policies that are of no use when you most need them. When policies like that go on the market, we should read the fine print and expose them for what they are. 4. Inadequate regulation. Supporters of the new law boast that it outlaws 'rescissions,' the practice of cancelling a policy as soon as a policyholder files a claim. But rescissions were already illegal! State regulators simply didn't enforce the law. We need to keep a close eye on them and demand that they do their job. 5. Employer mandates. "If you like the coverage you have, you can keep it," says Obama. But it's really your boss's decision, not yours. The penalties for employers who cancel their coverage are too small to discourage them from cancelling or cutting back on increasingly costly employee benefits. Unions can expect continued brutal fights over health insurance at contract time. Whenever it happens, they shouldn't hesitate to point out that health benefits shouldn't even be on the bargaining table - the government should be picking up the tab for everybody, regardless of where they work or how much they make. Only by advocating for health care for all can unions win public sympathy when their own coverage is under attack. 6. Penalizing the uninsured. A lot of people who can't afford to buy coverage, even with federal subsidies, will get stuck with stiff fines for remaining uninsured. They need to become organized and visible and demand relief. 7. Discrimination. Denying coverage to immigrants is a particularly ugly and pointless feature of the new law. Preventing sick people from going to the doctor doesn't 'secure our borders' or discourage people from coming here, as anti-immigrant propagandists claim. It just means more needless and untreated illness and more pressure on overburdened hospital emergency rooms. Full access to health care is a key component in the battle for immigrant rights. 8. Federal deficits. As costs keep rising, subsidizing insurance premiums will inevitably add to an already huge federal deficit. There will be intense pressure to cut necessary social programs, including Medicare, to pay for it. In defending those programs, we should be prepared to raise the issue of single payer - pointing out that a universal government-funded health care system would save the taxpayers billions and make those cuts unnecessary. It's common for politicians like President Obama to say they support single payer 'on principle' but don't consider it 'realistic.' The truth is that it's the only realistic solution. Nothing else will solve our health care crisis. We have to keep the heat on until we get it. #30# Distributed by: Kay Tillow All Unions Committee For Single Payer Health Care--HR 676 c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO) 1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218 Louisville, KY 40217 (502) 636 1551 Email: nursenpo@aol.com http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

the knife that made an armed policeman kill a man by Michael Munk Thu, Apr 8, 2010

=20 a.. Collins' X-Acto knife. I used to make model planes with one of those when I was about 10 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Friday 11PM; Bloody Thursday Doc on OBP Plus by Michael Munk Wed, Apr 7, 2010

Fri, Apr 9, 11:00 pm on OPB Plus:· Bloody Thursday Documentary . This doc does not seem to include anything from Portland, where on "Bloody Wednesday" July 11, 1934 at Terminal 4 in St Johns, four striking lonshoremen were shot and wounded by Portland pol;ice trying top break the strike. See pp 99-102 in my Portland Red Guide. But probably worth seeing anyway.. The film is set in the midst of the depression, Bloody Thursday shows how longshoremen were fighting for their rights at the very same time that most of their families weren't sure where their next meal would come from. At the same time, many mainstream newspaper publishers, fearful of unionization efforts at their own papers, launched attacks against the dockworkers and drove public sympathy against them with accusations that they were communists. In addition, politicians and the police openly used their resources to side with the shipping companies against the striking dockworkers. Bloody Thursday shows how against all of these odds the West Coast longshoremen were able to band together to form the ILWU (International Longshore Warehouse Union). Jack Baric, a life long resident of the harbor area and documentary film maker, recently completed "Bloody Thursday," This documentary tells the story of how West Coast dockworkers overcame huge obstacles to form the ILWU. In addition to telling the details of what happened on July 5, 1934 in San Francisco, our film is the first to provide a strong spotlight on the contribution of local dockworkers in San Pedro and Wilmington to the 1934 strike. The film will have will recognize the murder by police of two local longshoremen, Dick Parker and John Knudsen. Longshoremen on the West Coast fought for their rights during the Pacific Waterfront Strike of 1934. 56 minutes [ CC Stereo TVPG ] visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

April 16-19 :Hood River challenge to drone warfare by Michael Munk Wed, Apr 7, 2010

=20 a.. 7: Contact=20 b.. 10: Conference Info=20 c.. 11: Program & Registration Form=20 =20 Columbia River Fellowship for Peace (CRFP) is a = not-for-profit peace and justice group serving communities in the = Mid-Columbia region of Oregon and Washington. =20 =20 =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

John Reed bench scene of shouts and howls by Michael Munk Tue, Apr 6, 2010

Lange's Oregon photos held over (again) in Bay City by Michael Munk Sun, Apr 4, 2010

Turns out the exhibit of Dorothea Lange's Oregon photos at the Peoples Museum of Peoples Art in Bay City has been held over again until May 31, with extended hours every day from 8AM to 3PM. Highway 101 & 5th Street, Bay City . Info atb 503.377.2782. The exhibit then moves to the Washington County Historical Museum June 10- August 10. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Neo-Nazis shot anti-racist activist? by Michael Munk Fri, Apr 2, 2010

Anti-Racists Say Sunday's Shooting Was Politically Motivated Brian Stimson and Lisa Loving of The Skanner news April 1, 2010=20 http://www.theskanner.com/article/view/id/11810 Luke Querner, left, and his dog Bo Anti-racist activists say the Sunday morning shooting of Luke Querner = was likely committed by neo-Nazis motivated by the victim's well-known = political activity.=20 "There's a few distinct reasons why we believe it was local neo Nazis = rather than a robbery, or as the police are portraying it, a possible = gang related shooting," said Alicia, a spokesperson with Anti-Racist = Action who did not want her full name used for this story. "We believe = that this was a political act, and an attempted murder." Querner, 30, was shot by an unknown assailant at 12:20 a.m. early March = 27 on Southwest 5th Avenue between Stark and Washington streets. = Portland Police Spokesperson Det. Mary Wheat declined to comment on = allegations that the shooting could be politically motivated. He remains = in critical but stable condition. "This is an ongoing investigation and detectives are continuing to work = on the case," she told The Skanner News. Alicia said Querner was a well-known figure in Portland's anti-fascist = and anti-racist community and said he's been specifically targeted by = racist groups such as Volksfront in the past. Alicia told The Skanner = News that she and others in Anti-Racist Action monitor the activity of = White supremacist groups and said various hate groups have begun sharing = resources and information. "They've been organizing with each other and sharing information more = than in the past and they've also been targeting leftists," she said. = "Now the shooting of Luke is a huge escalation and we believe it's = incredibly significant." In a release, Anti-Racist Action said they believe Volksfront, Northwest = Front and National Socialist Movement are becoming closer than in the = past. Alicia criticized authorities for releasing Querner's name, saying = it would put him in greater danger. Police, however, did not release the = location of where Querner was being hospitalized. Anti-Racist Action also criticized police for releasing news about the = shooting in conjunction with another, unrelated shooting across town. = The possibility of gang affiliation was raised in the release, an act = that Alicia says obscures the theory that this was a political = "assassination." Many law enforcement officers consider racist skinhead = organizations to be gangs, although commonly the term "gang" is = affiliated with Black or Hispanic drug gangs. More information can be found at www.rosecityantifa.org =20 visit my website www.michaelmuink.com

Radio Golf opens April 2-3 at Portland Playhouse by Michael Munk Fri, Apr 2, 2010

John Reed in Oregon Encyclopedia by Michael Munk Thu, Apr 1, 2010

My entry on John Reed has just been published by the online Oregon Encyclopedia. Those interested can check it out at http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/entry/view/reed_john_jack_1887_1920_/ visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

March 31: MLK on KOPB by Michael Munk Wed, Mar 31, 2010

Oregon vet asks Thanks for what? by Michael Munk Mon, Mar 29, 2010

A veteran asks: Thanks for what? The Oregonian, March 29, 2010 http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2010/03/letter_a_veteran_asks_thanks_f.html To the editor: I write many commentary pieces critical of warmaking, and sometimes I conclude by stating that I'm a vet who served in the U.S. Special Forces. Invariably, those who respond thank me for my service before trashing my opinion. It's clear that no one cares what that service comprised. It matters not whether I saved a buddy's life or rolled a hand grenade into a hut, killing women and children -- always the knee-jerk "thank you." Within most of our living history, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan are the nations we've invaded and killed their citizens, and we receive "thanks" for that service. MSNBC's Chris Matthews calls Sen. John McCain a war hero, even though the service he provided was dropping bombs on men, women and children from 20,000 feet. Does Matthews think McCain was defending America from a tiny war-ravaged nation with no planes, ships or missiles capable of threatening us? Does he care? The point is that we have been trained not to question what those who serve in war were actually doing. Matthews and his ilk don't ask. But the 12,000 American vets who attempt suicide each year because they cannot live with the behavior their service required of them do ask. The robotic "thank you" from the American citizenry matters naught to the 6,000 vets who actually commit suicide every year because they know their service betrayed their sense of decency, and they experience this final, fatal pain alone -- another betrayal. Do we really not know Vietnam was not about Communist dominoes, nor Iraq about weapons of mass destruction? What insidious rationales represent the true motives for these wars? If we spoke these reasons loudly and clearly, would we still thank our vets for their service to those unstated goals? The best worst reason given for these military assaults on the citizens of other nations is that it will make us safer. Dr. Ira Katz, the Veterans Administration's head of mental health, acknowledges that 12,000 vets attempt suicide each year and half of those succeed. Many more return home and live destructive lives impacted by drugs, violence and divorce, imparting pain to families and communities and making clear that the violence incurred "over there" cycles home. If we sacrifice our children in this uniquely depraved way to make ourselves feel safe, what then is the value of safety? It's difficult to draw a clear, straight line between a simple "thank you for your service" and a young vet driving his motorcycle into a tree. The light from 300 million candles will illuminate those connective threads. Does anyone hear me? DON SCOTTEN Sprague River, Oregon visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

April 2 & 3: Ellsberg at Cinema 21 by Michael Munk Mon, Mar 29, 2010

Daniel Ellsburg brings his message of action to Portland 'Most dangerous man' is still warning about government wrongdoing By Jim Redden The Portland Tribune, Mar 29, 2010 http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=126964439806679700 Daniel Ellsburg, perhaps the most famous whistleblower in American history, is coming to Portland this week with a warning about the federal government - it's still lying to you. Ellsburg became a First Amendment cause célèbre in 1971 when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the media. The papers, the Pentagon's secret history of the Vietnam War, showed the presidents from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon lied to the public about the country's involvement there. The federal government charged Ellsburg with crimes ranging from theft to conspiracy to violating the Espionage Act of 1917, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. But all the charges against Ellsburg were dismissed when it was revealed that burglars authorized by Nixon broke into his psychiatrist's office looking for information on him. The same burglars got caught breaking into the Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex a short time later, and the resulting scandal forced Nixon to resign in disgrace. The momentous events are documented in the Oscar-nominated film, "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsburg and the Pentagon Papers," The title refers to what Henry Kissinger said about Ellsburg when he first leaked the papers. The movie starts a one-week run at Cinema 21 on Friday, April 2. Ellsburg will speak after the 4:30 and 7 p.m. shows on Friday, April 2, and after the 7 p.m. show on Saturday, April 3. [More at Trib's website] visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

March 30: Working Families Party party by Michael Munk Tue, Mar 23, 2010

Sun March 28: Music in the morning by Michael Munk Mon, Mar 22, 2010

300 in today'sPortland peace demo by Michael Munk Sat, Mar 20, 2010

Portland protests that the US occupation of Iraq continues after seven years: But first, an observation on Seven Years of the US occupation of Iraq. David Corn on how US media avoid the fact that the Bush/Obama regimes are responsible for the death of at least 150,000 Iraqi civilians and injury to many more (see the entire article at http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/15/iraq-war-triumphalism-ignores-a-key-matter-dead-civilians/ "The Iraqi civilians who were killed or who lost relatives or homes were not asked their consent for the invasion. Bush and Cheney decided their fate. Yes, Iraqis were living within a repressive state. But, no doubt, many of them had made their accommodations and were not willing to sacrifice a family member for possible regime change. Most citizens of tyrannical states manage to get by. (Ask the Chinese.) At times, populations do rise up, and in these instances, people knowingly assume risks and make sacrifices. (See Iran.) Yet in one of the most anti-democratic actions imaginable, Bush decided that he knew what was best for the Iraqi people -- and more than a hundred thousand perished." --------------------------------------------------------- From Dan Handelman at Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Groupiraq@pjw.info Friends Today's rally, march and teach in lifted spirits and spread the message that the war in Iraq is not over, but there are plenty of people who want it to be. The rally at Terry Schrunk blossomed from a smaller crowd to over 100 when a feeder march arrived from Portland State University. Host Darleane, AKA "Black Butterfly" welcomed the crowd and entertained with some spoken word prformance; John Grueschow of War Resisters League talked about countering military recruitment in the schools, and Mireaya Medina of AFSC brought up the AFSC youth group, most of whom were attending their first rally, to emphasize the importance of youth for peace. The music of "Loose Change" got people ready to march--for the first time in memory, we were ready to go before the permit said we could so the police wouldn't let us start till 12:30, where they usually are bugging us to get started. Oh well, at least they were generally hands-off and invisible during the march. The No War Drum Corps led the way most of the route (I won't bother you with the deatils because it makes up a good chunk of the Oregonian article I attached, below), with chants about Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, some of that also spelled out below, energizing the crowd. At the First Unitarian Church people socialized, ate food (note: get more food next time!), checked out the many literature tables, and headed up for the panel discussion on US Foreign Policy. Our host, Shizuko Hashimoto of PCASC, did a great job laying the groundwork and keeping things moving. I ended up speaking about Iraq as many of our Iraqi friends were busy or feeling worn down from so many years of war and occupation. I talked about the history of the sanctions and "Gulf War I" as well as the preeent situation with almost 100,000 US Troops still there. Grant Farr of PSU spoke about Afghanistan and the mess that the US has made, including an increase in corruption and opium trade ... American Iranian Friendship Council covered the US policy in Iran, also talking about the people in Iran who have been organizing themselves for a democratic future. Wael Elasady of Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights described the somewhat hopeful recent news that the US has condemned Israeli settlement expansion in Palestinian East Jerusalem, but noted that was just a blip in the status quo and we must keep struggling to end that US-funded occupation. Taj Suleyman of Center For Intercultural Organizing described the unique situations of Somalia, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, talking not only about how the contries interact with one another but how and why the US is involved in their affairs. Ann Huntwork used a baby doll to illlustrate the brutality of torturers in Central and South American trained by the US School of the Americas. Josh Simpson of Coffee Strong described his background as a GI resister after his first tour of duty in Iraq, but then detailed US policy in Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras and Haiti, which is under yet another apparent form of occupation. Wrapping up the panel was Adele Kubein of Military Families Speak Out, who urged people to think about the effects of war on families here and in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the years of hard work it takes for activists to win their struggles--though we eventually do. Thanks to everyone who helped plan, physically put things together today, and all the participants. While the press never responded to our multiple news releases and calendar listings prior to the event, we still showed that Portlanders want the troops home now! Peace Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group PO Box 42456 Portland, OR 97242 (503) 236-3065 (Office) iraq@pjw.info http://www.pjw.info/Iraq.html ------------------ http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/03/anti-war_marchers_snake_throug.html Anti-war marchers snake through downtown Portland By Allan Brettman, The Oregonian March 20, 2010, 2:57PM About 200 people walked through downtown Portland streets this afternoon, protesting the continuing U.S. military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. "We're simply tired of these wars. They're wrong, of course," said Rob Ranta of the Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, one of 15 organizations listed as co-sponsors of the event along with five "endorsing" organizations. Shortly after saying that, a Portland police officer called out to Ranta: "Rob? We ready?" And then the march began at 12:30 p.m., heading south on Southwest Third Avenue from its Terry Schrunk Plaza starting point, then heading west on Jefferson Street, then turning north on Fourth Avenue, west on Southwest Taylor, south on Broadway Avenue, then west on Southwest Main Street where it concluded at the First Unitarian Church. The event was held to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the conflict in Iraq, but protesters also directed their signs and chanting at conflicts in Afghanistan and U.S. policies toward a Palestinian state, as well as in Central America. "Occupation is a crime, from Iraq to Palestine!" marchers were urged to chant. Another: "Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!" Enterprising activists saw the march as an opportunity. As the throng moved west on Main, a handful of vegetarians stood along the side of the street holding signs saying, "Be Veg! Go Green! Save the Planet!" and "The Great American Meatout" and "Albert Einstein was a Vegetarian." A similar war protest began earlier in the day at Portland State University, with marchers making their way to Terry Schrunk Plaza. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Sat: Iraq 7 yeasrs later Rally by Michael Munk Thu, Mar 18, 2010

Portlanders to Protest 7 Years Since Iraq Invasion with Rally, March and Teach-In Saturday, March 20, 2010 12:00 Noon Terry Schrunk Plaza/First Unitarian Church *Friday Rally to Promote Saturday Event Friday March 19, 5 PM, Pioneer Square* With the still uncertain outcome of the March 7 elections continuing to have the potential to delay the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq, Portlanders are gearing up to protest the ongoing presence of the US military and "contractors" on the anniversary of the 2003 invasion. On Saturday, March 20, an event titled "Iraq, Seven Years Later: Change US Foreign Policy--Bring All the Troops Home!" begins with a rally at Terry Schrunk Plaza at 12 noon (SW 3rd and Madison), continues with a march through downtown Portland at 12:30 PM, followed by a "teach-in" at First Unitarian Church from 1:00 to 3:30 PM (SW 12th and Main). The events are coordinated by the Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group. Peace and Justice Works is also cosponsoring the weekly Friday Rally at Pioneer Courthouse Square on March 19 at 5 PM, an event which has been organized weekly by Portland Peaceful Response Coalition (PPRC) since November, 2001. The Friday Rally will also focus on the many years of occupation and war, and promote Saturday's event. "We've been at war for seven years and we're supposedly bringing Iraqis democracy, but is it worth the many lives that were lost, the destroyed infrastructure and 4 million displaced people?" asked Rob Ranta of PPRC, a member of the March 20 organizing committee. The themes addressed throughout the day on Saturday will include the expansion of US military presence and US support for military occupations throughout the Middle East: End the Occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine Stop the Expanding Attacks in the Middle East: No Drone Strikes in Pakistan No War on Iran US Out of Latin America! There will be a few speakers and musicians at the noon rally; Portland's No War Drum Corps will play on the march. Speakers at the Church will address the issues affecting various areas of the globe. There will be light refreshments, literature tables, and a Q&A session with the panelists. Saturday's events are being coordinated by Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group and cosponsored or endorsed by at least 21 other organizations. Cosponsors include: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-Portland; Portland Peaceful Response Coalition; Center for Intercultural Organizing; American Iranian Friendship Council; Women in Black; American Friends Service Committee; International Socialist Organization; Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER); Metanoia Peace Community; Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility; Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC); Crosstrade Solidarity; War Resisters League-Portland; Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights (AUPHR) and The Peace Project--New Directions for American Foreign Policy. Endorsers include Recruiter Watch PDX; Freedom Socialist Party; IUPAT Painters Local 10; Workers Action; Portland Jobs with Justice and Communities for Alternatives to Starbase in Education (CASE). For more information contact Peace and Justice Works at 503-236-3065 or check www.pjw.info . visit muy website www.michaelmunk.com,

Mar. 27 Conference on Community Health, Well-Being and Equity at WSU Vancouver by Michael Munk Tue, Mar 16, 2010

FW: March 27 Conference on "Community Health, Well-Being and Equity" at = Washington State University Vancouver--please help circulate!Detailed = schedule attached VIA Mercier, Laurie K=20 Announcing the Center for Social and Environmental Justice's Spring = 2010 Conference on=20 Community Health, Well-Being and Equity at Washington State University = Vancouver=20 Saturday, March 27 from 8:45 am to 4:30 pm = (with registration beginning at 8 am outside = Admin 110) With major sponsorship from:=20 Clark County Public Health Coalition for a Livable Future =20 Co-sponsors: * Cowlitz Tribal Health Clinic * NAACP Vancouver * OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon * Portland Central American Solidarity Committee * Portland VOZ With thanks to the YWCA Clark County=20 Attached is a complete schedule of the day's events for the March 27 = Conference, including panels focused on: =20 The State of Equity in greater Vancouver/Portland Metropolitan Area Building a Portland/SW Washington Bus Riders Union=20 Unlearning White Privilege Racial Profiling Targeting and Detention of Immigrants The Columbia River Crossing Health Care Reform Strategies for Overcoming Achievement Gaps in K-12 The Impact of Transportation Gaps on Health Care Access in=20 Clark and Cowlitz Counties Supporting Housing for the Homeless Through Faith-based Networks Implementing Equity Strategies in County and City Governments Prison Reform and Reentry And including an Interactive Poverty Simulation Space is limited so please reregister early.=20 More Information, including information on how to register can be found = at: =20 http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/marcomm/health/. No one will be turned away for lack of means.=20 The conference will culminate with a 4:30 press conference and the = release of the Center's first report on the "State of Equity in Clark = County." =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

As socialists age... by Michael Munk Sat, Mar 13, 2010

Letters to the editor, The Oregonian, March 13, 2010 http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2010/03/letters_gays_in_the_military_b.html Confused at heart? (ed.) Al Tate ("Slaves of the state," Letters, March 7) asks us to believe the old bromide, "A man who isn't a socialist at 20 has no heart, and a man who is a socialist at 40 has no head." As a socialist who evidently lost my head many years ago, I suppose Tate must wonder why most 20-something Americans have no hearts -- they sure aren't socialists. MICHAEL MUNK Southwest Portland visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Wu, Blumenauer & Schrader vote for war, DeFazio against by Michael Munk Thu, Mar 11, 2010

Fw: See Lange's Oregon photos at Bay City to March 28 by Michael Munk Sun, Mar 7, 2010

The Big O on the PSU weapons controversy by Michael Munk Sat, Mar 6, 2010

The Sunday Oregonian will publish a lenghty article on the issue at PSU over a dual Israel/US citizen who proudly served in combat with the IDF and evidently also as a mercenary in Afghanistan. He has been accused by students and a (suspended) professorof bringing weapons to campus and discussing violent acts with other students. Check it out and comment at http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/confrontation_between_student.html Thanks to Larry Cwik" for the link visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

March 18: Portland's Black Panther party history by Michael Munk Sat, Mar 6, 2010

The Northwest History Network presents "We're going to defend ourselves": The Portland Chapter of the Black = Panther Party & Local Media Response A presentation by Jules Boykoff & Martha Gies (Publication planned in = the Oregon Historical Quarterly) with special guests Kent Ford & Percy Hampton, original members of the = Portland chapter, Black Panther Party Thursday, March 18 at 7:00 pm Free and open to the public. Poster = attached=20 Architectural Heritage Center 701 SE Grand Avenue visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

March 11: Dill Pickle celebrates Portland music history by Michael Munk Tue, Mar 2, 2010

Dill Pickle Newsletter #002 CONTENTS: 1. NORTHWEST PASSAGE KICKS OFF NEXT THURSDAY! 2. UPCOMING LECTURES IN APRIL & MAY 3. 2010 FIELD TRIPS & DILL CENTRAL 1. NORTHWEST PASSAGE KICKS OFF NEXT THURSDAY! Hello all. It's been a while since you've heard from us. We're excited = to tell you about a new program: NORTHWEST PASSAGE, a 3-part dinner = lecture series examining the history of independent music in the NW. A = collaborative between the Dill Pickle Club and PDX Pop Now!, the series = celebrates the origins of Portland=E2=80=99s vibrant music community. = Taking place the second Thursday of each month for the next three = months, the series kicks off NEXT THURSDAY, MARCH 11th at the Waypost.=20 Attached is a poster for the first event; please forward to your friends = and colleagues. Our programs can't be successful without your word of = mouth. So we appreciate your spreading the word and thank you in = advance. Here=E2=80=99s the line-up for the first event; it should be great! ++++++++ THURSDAY, MARCH 11th | 7PM (Presentations @ 7:30PM) The Waypost | 3120 N Williams Ave $12/ 10 members (includes vegetarian dinner) * Seating limited to 75 people Purchase tickets: Seating limited to the first 75 people!=20 General Admission & Dinner $12.00 Member Price $10.00 Admission = + One Year Membership $60.00 Admission + Six Month Memberhship $40.00 =20 =20 Or buy in-person (starting March 1) at: Mississippi Records and The Waypost ++++++++ =E2=80=9CA Life in Soul=E2=80=9D URAL THOMAS Longtime Portland R & B and soul singer =E2=80=9CRock n=E2=80=99 Roll, Race & Poster Art=E2=80=9D JOE KREGAL Slide lecture of 60s/ 70s Portland rock posters w/ music clips =E2=80=9CHippies, psychedelics and the 60s Portland folk/ acid rock = scene=E2=80=9D VALERIE BROWN Writer and cultural historian Guest interviewer ERIC ISAACSON Founder and proprietor of Mississippi Records ++++++++ PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES URAL THOMAS began his musical career at the tender age of 5 years old, = singing in his family=E2=80=99s church. He has played as a backup = musician for some of the Northwest=E2=80=99s most well-known bands, = including the Kingsmen, Paul Revere and the Raiders, the Cavaliers, the = Vikings, Billy Larkin and the Delegates and Neil Diamond, as well as = performing as a solo act, and as lead singer with The Invaders, Monorays = and Mumble Gumbo. His music repertoire spans blues, funk, jazz and = country. He was recently featured in the documentary film = Wheedle=E2=80=99s Groove: Seattle=E2=80=99s Sacred Soul of the 1960s and = =E2=80=9970s. JOE KREGAL has been a longtime member of Portland music community, = having played in rock bands since the late 1950s. In the unique position = of being a white musician playing in mostly African American R & B = groups in its formative years, Kregal has been actively working to = archive and preserve the history of early rock n=E2=80=99 roll through = his personal collection of posters and ephemera. VALERIE BROWN, now a freelance science journalist, was a professional = musician in Portland during the 1970s and 1980s. She is the author of = Music on the Cusp: From Folk to Acid Rock in Portland Coffeehouses, = 1967=E2=80=931970, published in the Summer 2007 issue of the Oregon = Historical Quarterly. ERIC ISAACSON has co-run Mississippi Records, a record shop specializing = in hard-t0-find vinyl releases since 2003. Also a record label, = Mississippi Records=E2=80=99 releases have focused on historical and = archival material. The label has released 52 records to date, all on = vinyl-only format. ++++++++ 2. UPCOMING LECTURES IN APRIL & MAY THURSDAY, APRIL 8th =E2=80=9CEchoes of the Past=E2=80=9D with FRED & TOODY COLE (The Weeds, Dead Moon, The Rats, Pierced Arrows, etc.) on the birth of garage punk and DIY in the Rose City + Plus a live set in tribute to DEAD MOON by MYSTERY SURPRISE MUSICAL = GUESTS ++++++++ THURSDAY, MAY 13th =E2=80=9CWhat Was Me=E2=80=9D CALVIN JOHNSON (K, Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic Sound System, the Hive Dwellers, etc.) Playing songs and talking on =E2=80=9880s / =E2=80=9890s / =E2=80=9800s = / =E2=80=9810s punk / independent music scene VANESSA RENWICK (Oregon Dept of Kick Ass) New =E2=80=9CHouse of Sound=E2=80=9D audio project (w/ Erin Yanke) on a = closed record store in North Portland =E2=80=9CBigger Than Hip-Hop=E2=80=9D COOL NUTZ Tells us the origins of PDX beats ++++++++ 3. 2010 FIELD TRIPS, & DILL CENTRAL Now that WORK | PROGRESS is over, the Dill Pickle is moving out of the = Eyeful Gallery, and looking for an inexpensive office space or = storefront. Know of a good deal? Let us know. We've been busy planning out the 2010 season, and have six trips plotted = out over the next calendar year, all with the theme Forgotten Histories. = We're just confirming the last logistics of these trips and will be = releasing the full schedule, with a new brochure, in the next few weeks. = Stay tuned! Thanks once again for your support and hope to see you soon! Marc Moscato Director, The Dill Pickle Club --=20 Want more updates? Follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Want less updates? Let us know and we will unsubscribe you. --=20 The Dill Pickle Club is a creative cultural center dedicated to = providing an experimental forum for critiquing contemporary culture, = politics and humanities in Portland, OR. For more information, visit us = online at: http://dillpickleclub.com/. --=20 dill pickle club creative cultural center portland, ore. http://dillpickleclub.com/ 625 nw everett #104 portland, or 97209 p: 503.235.2159

PGE profit up but Big O reports them down by Michael Munk Fri, Feb 26, 2010

Business editor, The Oregonian As a strong supporter of public over private power, you can imagine my concern over the news conveyed by your hede "PGE earnings hit by econony, outages, weather"..."(Feb 27). However, you can also imagine my relief when, reading into the story, I realized that you actually reported PGE's earning rose last year to $95 M on revenue of $1.8B from a paltry $87 M on revenue of only $1.75B in 2008. I gather your concern was with lower per (diluted) share earnings or the erroneous predictions of our estimed Wall Street analysts--not PGE's actual profits. Mike Munk NOTE :The story on The Oregonian's website .http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/pge_posts_steep_falloff_in_q4.html has a different and less misleading hede than the print edition) visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Before Yoo and Bybee, an Oregon torture lawyer got off by Michael Munk Thu, Feb 25, 2010

Tom Hayden speaks for peace in Portland & Eugene by Michael Munk Wed, Feb 24, 2010

Oregon torture taxi finally named by Porland by Michael Munk Mon, Feb 22, 2010

Oregon World Affairs Coiuncil disgraces itself by Michael Munk Fri, Feb 19, 2010

Attached is a video of the Karl Rowe protest from Joe Walsh-Lone Vet Individuals for Justice Veterans Against Torture

Tomorrow! Work, religion and the Common Good by Michael Munk Wed, Feb 17, 2010

The Skanner News Story - Rev. Jackson in Portland Tuesday at Maranatha to Protest Police Shooting by Michael Munk Tue, Feb 16, 2010

Check out accused PSU student's website by Michael Munk Mon, Feb 8, 2010

Was the PSU dustup another provocation? by Michael Munk Sat, Feb 6, 2010

Students dissent from Vanguard's spin on Prof. Hall by Michael Munk Thu, Feb 4, 2010

Suspended PSC Prof charged student spied for the FBI by Michael Munk Wed, Feb 3, 2010

Daily Vanguard Feb 3, 2010 Professor banned from teaching following verbal confrontation PSU econ professor accused student of trying to incite violence and of = spying By Virginia Vickery and Theodora Karatzas Vanguard staff =20 Photo courtesy of PSU John Hall =20 Zachary Bucharest Adam Wickham/Portland State Vanguard A tenured Portland State economics professor is currently suspended from = teaching after he publicly accused a student during a class lecture of = being an FBI informant and of trying to sell guns to students. Professor John Hall, during his 2 p.m. "Economics 445/545: Comparative = Economic Systems" class on Jan. 14th, verbally harangued student Zachary = Bucharest for nearly half an hour, according to students in the class. Hall, who has taught at PSU for 24 years, began the class with a lecture = relevant to the course material but about halfway through the two-hour = long class, he began to describe his experiences with law enforcement in = places including Eastern Europe, according to a student who wished to = remain anonymous. Hall claimed to have been surveilled at times throughout his life and = then told the class that an FBI informant and agent provocateur was in = their midst. Hall said this person served as a sniper in the Israeli = army and called him a killer with access to a personal arsenal. He then pointed at Bucharest and identified him as the informant in = question, according to the unnamed student. Bucharest, a student at PSU since the fall of 2006 and the current chief = of staff for ASPSU, sat silently throughout the ordeal, according to = students in the class.=20 Hall accused Bucharest of trying to organize students to participate in = violent acts against the university, according to the unnamed student.=20 Hall also said he believed that Bucharest is at times armed while on = campus. He then put a letter on the document projector that he wrote to = the FBI's Portland Field Office. In the letter, Hall claims to know = Bucharest's identity as an agent. He then handed Bucharest a copy of the = letter and told him to give it to his superiors. After a time of silence, Bucharest got up and said that some of Hall's = claims about his military background were true, but that other claims = the professor made were not. Bucharest left the classroom after being = told by Hall to leave and not to come back to PSU, according to = students. In an e-mail to students in the class on Jan. 17, economics department = chair Randall A. Bluffstone said that he was aware of Thursday's = incident. "I would especially like to assure you that this incident is being taken = seriously and that the appropriate university administrators are fully = involved," he said. On Tuesday, Jan. 19-the next day the class was scheduled to = meet-Bluffstone, Mary Beth Collins, director of Student Health and = Counseling, and Carol Mack, vice provost for Academic Administration and = Planning, met with the class. Hall was not present. According to students in the class, many asked administrators why Hall = was not there and what the administration would do to keep students = safe. They were told that if they feel unsafe, they should contact the = Campus Public Safety Office. Students were encouraged by Bluffstone during the class and later via = e-mail to meet with himself, Mack or Dr. Marvin Kaiser, Dean of the = College Of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for private 30-minute meetings to = discuss the incident. Bluffstone reportedly said that the FBI informed the university that = Bucharest does not work for them. A formal complaint has been filed against Hall since the incident, = according to PSU Communications Director Scott Gallagher. "Hall has been relieved of teaching duties but he has not been = suspended," Gallagher said.=20 EC 445/545 is now taught by Dr. Charles Grant, according to Bluffstone = in an e-mail to students on Jan. 25. "There are no sanctions out on [Hall] as of yet because the situation is = under investigation," Gallagher said. =20 Hall is still classified as a paid employee while the incident is under = investigation, though he is not allowed on campus. He is still working = on university-related projects, said Phil Lesch, executive director of = PSU's chapter of American Association of University Professors.=20 According to Hall, he has been verbally banned from campus. Lesch said it's not uncommon for someone to be barred from coming to = campus during an investigation so that the outcome is not influenced by = the person's presence. "He had his reasons for doing what he did and I can't speculate or put = words in his mouth," said Lesch, who identified himself as Hall's union = spokesperson. "The investigation will determine if he acted = appropriately." Students were told that they could drop EC 445/545 for a full-tuition = refund or register for another class without penalty. According to = students still enrolled in the class, only a handful of the nearly 40 = original students remain. No determination has been made whether or not Hall will be back to teach = in the spring, Lesch said. "Based upon my students' reports, I cannot help but to think that the = process currently is being shaped in order to end my tenure at PSU," = said Hall in a statement delivered to the Vanguard by Allison Faris, a = student enrolled in one of Hall's classed. "I decided to take a stand. I observed the situation becoming extremely = dangerous, not only for me but for about eight of my very finest = students," Hall said in the statement. "I felt that what I had to do = should not have been my responsibility." Faris said Hall is one of the best professors she has had in her five = years at PSU and that "any allegations [against Hall] of instability are = absolutely ludicrous." "I understand the students' privacy is to be respected, as defined by = the codes governing PSU," Hall said in the statement. "I felt the level = of danger had grown to such an acute level that I felt it fully in order = to engage in an 'emergency exemption' of student privacy." The unnamed student said Hall was just trying to protect his students. "Zaki seemed normal," said Brett Condron, EC 445/545 student. He = believed Bucharest posed no threat. Bucharest made a statement made through his attorney, Elden Rosenthal. "I have never been affiliated with the FBI in any way, and I have never = been an informant," the statement reads. "I have never in any way done = anything to incite violence at PSU. I have admired Professor Hall since = I first took a class from him, and cannot imagine what I did or said to = cause him to treat me the way he did. I truly hope that the university = will take steps to clear my name, and I also hope that something like = this will never again happen to a PSU student."=20

Feb 7: Poems and essays of Portland's political history by Michael Munk Tue, Feb 2, 2010

From Kaia Sand: My ongoing Remember to Wave poetry walk is now out as a book from the = good people at Tinfish Press. This poetry/essay/mixed media collection = is locally based (investigating the political history of Portland Expo = Center--internment of Japanese Americans in 1942, the Vanport flood in = 1948--as well as present day goings-on such as trade shows, Rose City = Roller Derby action, and commerce near the Expo Center).=20 I am grateful that many people in Portland are supporting the work in = various ways:=20 * This week, Street Roots newspaper features Remember to Wave. Carmel = Bentley wrote beautifully about the book and the Vanport flood and the = internment of Japanese Americans at the Expo Center. Issues can be = purchased from vendors around town (who all earn money by selling the = paper--75 cents on every dollar--a wonderful micro economy), and, as = always, there are many reasons to read Street Roots (including an = interview with Street Roots vendor George Mayes about his participation = in the San Francisco march for federal affordable housing funding and = rights of the homeless). I will be participating in some events around town to celebrate the = release of the book, and I'd be happy for your company: * Feb. 7 (Sunday) 4 p.m. I'll read from the book at Powell's on = Hawthorne (3723 SE Hawthorne Ave, Portland) * Feb 19 (Friday) 7 p.m. I'll read at St. John's Booksellers (8622 N. = Lombard St., Portland) in the neighborhood near the book's focus. I'll = be reading with Allison Cobb, who's kicking off her new book, = Green-Wood. Our books both investigate political history of particular = places (the Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn NY for Allison), and both = mix essay and poetry. This reading is especially significant to me = because Allison and I launched our first books together six years ago = (with Carol Mirakove in New York), so I think two times qualifies as a = tradition! * March 29 (Monday) 7:30 p.m. Allison Cobb and I will read at Pacific = University in Forest Grove. * April 10, noon, I'll lead a poetry walk starting at the Portland Expo = Center MAX stop. This walk is hosted by Pacific Northwest College of Art = (PNCA) and its new Submit Literary Magazine.=20 Links to more info for all this and other events that will come up are = at http://www.pen.org/members/sand/ and more info about the book itself = is below.=20 Many of you supported this work, and continue to do so. Thank you. My = poetry work is never completed in isolation.=20 All best, Kaia=20 http://www.pen.org/members/sand/ http://www.archiveofthenow.org/authors/kaiasand/home.html http://www.oregonauthors.org/authors/author.php?author_id=3D317 **** "Woooo weee!--this book is really something! It's both "too much" and = the "total package," and then some--sort of like an "All You Can Eat" = site--a "smelter"--in a rock-alcove below petroglyphs. "Sand" plus = "Wave" plus "Tinfish"--that's the cool combo, combined with Vision, = Heart, Smarts, Reach, Diligence, Direction, and good doses of downhome, = downright Whimsy! Are you ready? Step lively now. Be on alert. Keep up = with Kaia. And REMEMBER TO WAVE!" Lawson Fusao Inada, Oregon Poet Laureate Kaia Sand=92s Remember To Wave maps the temporal palimpsests and = traumatic political history of Portland, Oregon. Sand writes the seen = and unseen city in the spirit of William Carlos Williams=92 Paterson, = Charles Olson=92s Gloucester, or Barbara Jane Reyes=92 San Francisco. = She reads the geography of Portland for its displacements, exclusions, = migrations, disappearances, ruins, and hauntings. Sand asks: =93Do we = need our ruins visible?=94 The answer resonates throughout Remember to = Wave as poetry creates a deeply felt awareness of past and present = injustices. In this profound and threaded mapping, Sand composes =93an = ode of accretion=94=97a song of our ruins rendered visible. Craig Santos Perez, author of from unincorporated territory =93Do we need our ruins visible?=94 asks Kaia Sand. =93I carry old = maps, but sometimes the space seems illegible because reclaimed wetlands = and construction changed the shape of the land. I cross-check books and = oral histories and photographs. I imagine.=94 Sand takes the reader on = a guided tour of Portland, Oregon's hidden histories=97those of the = internment of Japanese-Americans, the shunting of African Americans into = the part of the city that floods. Her book is composed of essays, a = poetry walk, and poems that rise out of documents like histories from a = nearly-forgotten past. Sand shows us how a past can be re-visioned = through research and the poetic imagination. =95 Remember to Wave =95 By Kaia Sand =95 2010 =95 $16 Design by Bao Nguyen Kaia Sand is the author of a poetry collection, interval (Edge Books = 2004), a Small Press Traffic Book of the Year, and co-author with Jules = Boykoff ofLandscapes of Dissent: Guerrilla Poetry and Public Space (Palm = Press 2008), and she has created several chapbooks through the Dusie = Kollektiv. Her poems lotto and tiny arctic ice comprise the text of two = books in Jim Dine=92s Hot Dreams series (Steidl Editions 2008). She = lives in Portland, Oregon, with Jules Boykoff and their daughter, = Jessica. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Feb 10: Karl Rove comes to Portland by Michael Munk Fri, Jan 29, 2010

As some of you know, the World Affairs Council of Oregon is sponsoring Karl Rove in debate with Howard Dean about "America's Role in the World." It is scheduled for Feb 10, 7PM at the Schnitz. I have received several complaints about the invitation to Rove and have sent this note to the Council president. Maria Wulff, President World Affairs Council of Oregon Dear Maria, Perhaps because of my late father's founding role at the World Affairs Council,* I have received several protests about your sponsorship of Karl Rove. I understand he was invited to debate, not lecture. But could you not find someone to represent his position who was not a leading participant in decisions that led to America's recent foreign policy disasters? I believe it is perfectly appropriate to invite speakers who hold controversial opinions but when a reputable organization like the Council sponsors people who can be arguably charged with war crimes, it confers an undeserved respect and legitmacy on them. I regret that it also reflects on the organization. With regards, Michael Munk *From the World Affiars Council's website: http://www.worldoregon.org/more/mission.php History In the wake of America's growing isolationism after World War II, a group of Reed College professors and friends organized an informal group in 1947 to encourage discussion of international issues. The group flourished under the leadership of Dr. Frank Munk and was incorporated as the World Affairs Council of Oregon in 1950. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Feb 1 & 18th Anne Feeney in PortlandR-WA by Michael Munk Thu, Jan 28, 2010

Oregonians repudiate The Oregonian by Michael Munk Wed, Jan 27, 2010

Oregon Voters Approve Tax Increase Recommend By WILLIAM YARDLEY New York Times: January 27, 2010 Two ballot measures that would raise taxes on businesses and higher-income residents in Oregon appeared headed for approval late Tuesday. [The tax measures passed easily, with late returns showing a 54 percent to 46 percent ratio.] The tax increases, which would raise about $727 million largely for public education and social services, were approved last year by the Legislature, but later put to a public referendum after opponents gathered signatures in a petition campaign. The Legislature, controlled by Democrats, has already put the $727 million into the current budget. So if the ballot items, known as Measures 66 and 67, had been rejected, lawmakers would have been forced to hold a special session to find other ways to reduce spending or raise revenue. Tax measures have frequently failed at the polls in Oregon, one of only five states without a state sales tax. The state depends largely on income and property taxes to raise revenue. Experts noted that, given the broader recession and Oregon's 11 percent unemployment rate, Measures 66 and 67 had been carefully drawn to focus on wealthier residents and businesses. Measure 66 raises income taxes on individuals who earn more than $125,000 and on couples who earn more than $250,000, less than 3 percent of the state population. Measure 67 raises taxes and fees on most businesses. While some large businesses could see taxes increase by tens of thousands of dollars per year, many would pay an extra $140 in state fees. Business groups opposed Measure 67 but they were outspent by unions for teachers and public employees. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

McMinnville firm gets $160M for AfPak war by Michael Munk Wed, Jan 27, 2010

I could not find any local reporting on this 8 month old story. Evergreen Helicopters wins $158,397,403 Air Force contract Your Industry News, April 7, 2009 http://www.yourindustrynews.com/evergreen+helicopters+wins+$158,397,403+air+force+contract_28843.html Evergreen Helicopters, Inc., of McMinnville, Ore., is being awarded a $158,397,403 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for rotary wing aircraft, personnel, equipment, tools, material, maintenance and supervision necessary to perform passenger and cargo air transportation services. Work will be performed in Afghanistan and is expected to start Apr. 3, 2009, to be completed by Nov. 30, 2013. This contract was a competitive acquisition with four offers received. The contracting activity is United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Ill. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Blumenauer, DeFazio, & Baird ask Obama to help Gaza by Michael Munk Tue, Jan 26, 2010

But not Wu or Schrader! This letter was iniated by Reps Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn) and endorsed by J Street and Americans for Peace Now Jan 26, 2010 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Obama, Thank you for your ongoing work to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and for your commitment of $300 million in U.S. aid to rebuild the Gaza Strip. We write to you with great concern about the ongoing crisis in Gaza. The people of Gaza have suffered enormously since the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt following Hamas' coup, and particularly following Operation Cast Lead. We also sympathize deeply with the people of southern Israel who have suffered from abhorrent rocket and mortar attacks. We recognize that the Israeli government has imposed restrictions on Gaza out of a legitimate and keenly felt fear of continued terrorist action by Hamas and other militant groups. This concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip. Truly, fulfilling the needs of civilians in Israel and Gaza are mutually reinforcing goals. The unabated suffering of Gazan civilians highlights the urgency of reaching a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts. The current blockade has severely impeded the ability of aid agencies to do their work to relieve suffering, and we ask that you advocate for immediate improvements for Gaza in the following areas: * Movement of people, especially students, the ill, aid workers, journalists, and those with family concerns, into and out of Gaza; * Access to clean water, including water infrastructure materials, * Access to plentiful and varied food and agricultural materials; * Access to medicine and health care products and suppliers; * Access to sanitation supplies, including sanitation infrastructure materials; * Access to construction materials for repairs and rebuilding; * Access to fuel; * Access to spare parts; * Prompt passage into and out of Gaza for commercial and agricultural goods; and * Publication and review of the list of items prohibited to the people of Gaza. Winter is arriving and the needs of the people grow ever more pressing. For example, the ban on building materials is preventing the reconstruction of thousands of innocent families' damaged homes. There is also a concern that unrepaired sewage treatment plants will overflow and damage surrounding property and water resources. Despite ad hoc easing of the blockade, there has been no significant improvement in the quantity and scope of goods allowed into Gaza. Both the number of trucks entering Gaza per month and the number of days the crossings have been open have declined since March. This crisis has devastated livelihoods, entrenched a poverty rate of over 70%, increased dependence on erratic international aid, allowed the deterioration of public infrastructure, and led to the marked decline of the accessibility of essential services. The humanitarian and political consequences of a continued near-blockade would be disastrous. Easing the blockade on Gaza will not only improve the conditions on the ground for Gaza's civilian population, but will also undermine the tunnel economy which has strengthened Hamas. Under current conditions, our aid remains little more than an unrealized pledge. Most importantly, lifting these restrictions will give civilians in Gaza a tangible sense that diplomacy can be an effective tool for bettering their conditions. Your Administration's overarching Middle East peace efforts will benefit Israel, the Palestinians, and the entire region. The people of Gaza, along with all the peoples of the region, must see that the United States is dedicated to addressing the legitimate security needs of the State of Israel and to ensuring that the legitimate needs of the Palestinian population are met. Sincerely, Members of Congress Arizona Raul Grijalva California Lois Capps Sam Farr Bob Filner Barbara Lee Loretta Sanchez Pete Stark Michael Honda Lynn Woolsey Jackie Speier Diane Watson George Miller Connecticut Jim Himes Indiana Andre Carson Iowa Bruce Braley Kentucky John Yarmuth Maryland Elijah Cummings Donna Edwards Massachusetts Michael Capuano William Delahunt Jim McGovern John Tierney John Olver Stephen Lynch Michigan John Conyers John Dingell Carolyn Kilpatrick Minnesota Keith Ellison Betty McCollum James Oberstar New Jersey Donald Payne Rush Holt Bill Pascrell New York Yvette Clarke Maurice Hinchey Paul Tonko Eric Massa North Carolina David Price Ohio Mary Jo Kilroy Marcy Kaptur Oregon Earl Blumenauer Peter DeFazio Pennsylvania Chaka Fattah Joe Sestak Vermont Peter Welch Virginia Jim Moran Washington Jim McDermott Adam Smith Jay Inslee Brian Baird West Virginia Nick Rahall Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin Gwen Moore Virginia Glenn Nye visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Activists! US Social Forum, Detroit June 22-25 by Michael Munk Mon, Jan 25, 2010

Attention activists! Dan Leahy, organizer of the Northwest Regional Roundtable Discussion, = has posted a report on planning for the US Social Forum in Detroit June = 22-25. Together with the following organizers from OR, WA and ID, he attended a = planning meeting in Alberquerque earlier this month. His report is = attached Arthur Stamoulis, Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, Portland OR Amy Dudley and Cara Shufelt, Rural Organizing Project, Scappoose OR Ramon Ramirez, Pineros y Compesinos Unidos Noroeste, Woodburn OR Heather Day, Community Alliance for Social Justice, Seattle WA Kiondra Bullock, VOICES, Spokane WA Octavio Sanchez, Inmigrantes Unidos de Shelton, WA Pam Baldwin, The Interfaith Alliance, Boise ID Rowena Pineda, Idaho Community Action Network, Boise ID Delmar Stone, Idaho Chapter, National Association of Social Workers, = Nampa ID =20 Dan can be reached at 707 NW 19th #102, Portland Oregon 97209 (360) 402-0441 (cell) :=20 The World Social Forum has just opened in Brazil: Leftists slam capitalism at Social Forum in Brazil = http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_brazil_social_forum AP =E2=80=93 People gather to march during the World Social = Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil on Monday.=20 By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press Writer Alan Clendenning = Jan 25, 2010 PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil =E2=80=93 Thousands of leftists massed = Monday to kick off five days of railing against unfettered capitalism at = the World Social Forum, a gathering that protests the bankers and other = leaders who attend the World Economic Forum at a Swiss ski resort. Accompanied by thundering drumbeats and samba blaring from sound = trucks, a crowd of exuberant activists estimated by police to number = 25,000 marched through Porto Alegre waving communist flags and shouting = socialist slogans. They assailed corporate greed as the main reason the = world plunged into an economic slump. Organizers hope to attract as many as 15,000 people to the 10th = annual version of the event in this city near southern Brazil's border = with Uruguay. Participants said the forum is especially important this year = now that governments from the United States to Europe are moving to play = bigger roles in managing the global economy. In contrast, the World Economic Forum that starts Wednesday in = Davos is expected to see fewer leaders than in years past, and U.S. = President Barack Obama's plan to clamp down on the size and activity of = banks is sure to be on the minds of many of the rich and powerful = heading to Switzerland. "They have driven the capitalist system into chaos," said Sergio = Bernardo, a Brazilian human rights activist sporting a bright red shirt = emblazoned with the words "Bourgeoisie Stinks!" "We're letting them know = we can create a world free of exploitation that will help the poor." Lingering fallout from the financial crisis is proof that the = world economy must be retooled to benefit people, not big companies, = said Francisco Whitaker, a Roman Catholic activist and co-founder of the = World Social Forum who was exiled from Brazil during its 1964-1985 = dictatorship. He said that last year's Davos conference was similar to a = "wake" and that the lackluster turnout expected this year "gives the = impression that capitalism is on the downfall and hitting its limits." Leftists are increasingly energized by the prospect of = persuading governments to tackle corporate excess and spread more wealth = to the needy, he said. "We're in the midst of true enthusiasm," Whitaker said. "We may = not change the world completely and all at once, but the change now can = come from the bottom and spread. It's surging and getting toward a = critical mass." The World Social Forum serves as a platform for leftists to = exchange ideas, though no proposals are formed following days of debate. = Instead, participants are expected to take strategies back to their home = countries and push for change locally. While the economic crisis provided a perfect platform for = advancing leftist movements, many failed to grasp the opportunity when = the slump was at its worst, said Nandita Shah, co-director of India's = Akshara Centre, which supports women's rights. "I think there's a crisis in the left and in our voice," she = said. "I hope these five days will bring us out of this visionless = tunnel." visit my website www.michaelmunk.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ =20 =20 =20

Jan 31- Feb 1: Important Health events in Portland by Michael Munk Mon, Jan 25, 2010

Wyden demands DOJ memo on illegal spying by Michael Munk Sat, Jan 23, 2010

Oregon war contractor flying drones in Haiti? by Michael Munk Fri, Jan 22, 2010

CIA Contractor Now Flying Spy Drone Over Haiti=20 By Noah Shachtman =20 Wired January 19, 2010=20 http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/cia-contractor-now-flying-spy-dro= ne-over-haiti/ VIA http://www.legitgov.org Photo: Evergreen Unmanned Systems A controversial CIA contractor has found new work in Haiti, flying = drones on disaster recovery duty. When last we heard from Evergreen International Aviation, the = McMinnville,Oregon-based firm with multiple subsidiaries was offering to = post sentries at local voting centers during the 2008 election, = "detaining troublemakers" and making sure voters "do not get out of = control." Now, company vice president Sam White tells Aviation Week that the firm = is flying at least one ScanEagle surveillance drone over Haiti. "The = company has a fleet of 747s and a fleet of large and small choppers, and = has begun ferrying in supplies to Port au Prince," the magazine's Paul = McLeary notes. "White wouldn't say who the company is moving cargo for, = saying only that 'we're working with different agencies, and we have one = plane coming in tomorrow full of humanitarian supplies.'" Over the years, Evergreen has had all sorts of interesting clients over = its five-plus decades in operation. Back in the late '80s, the company = "acknowledged one agreement under which his companies provide occasional = jobs and cover to foreign nationals the CIA wants taken out of other = countries or brought into the United States." In 2006, Evergreen's = parent company flew Bill O'Reilly into Kuwait in 2006, according = toSourceWatch. Last April, the company won a $158 million contract to = supply the Air Force with helicopters in Afghanistan. Haiti wouldn't be Evergreen's first disaster-response mission, however. = In September, the State of California chartered Evergreen's 747 = supertanker, to help put out forest fires there. UPDATE: Brian Whiteside, executive vice president of Evergreen Unmanned = Systems, denied that his company is flying drones for the earthquake = recovery operation. "We have no UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] in Haiti = - nothing currently in Haiti, and nothing in the region,"he tells Danger = Room. Whiteside acknowledged that "we do have teams over there that are = trying to help." But Whiteside isn't sure what, exactly, they've been = able to accomplish. "We don't have very good comms with them." And when = I asked him which government agency or charity Evergreen was trying to = support, he ducked the question, and referred me to his spokesperson. UPDATE 2: McLeary went back and posted the quotes he got from = Evergreen's Sam White. "We also have some UAVs here that we're bringing = in to, uh, probably work with the press to help out downloading live = video links and aerial shots of the devastation," he said. "We also have = 747 cargo airplanes, and so we're working with different agencies there = and uh, we have a plane landing here tomorrow to bring in a lot of = humanitarian supplies. So we'll be here for quite some time." So which Evergreen exec is telling the truth? Read More = http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/cia-contractor-now-flying-spy-dro= ne-over-haiti/#ixzz0dKNSpUt7 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Tax Fairness Protest @ US Bank in Oregon by Michael Munk Thu, Jan 21, 2010

We should own our wars by Michael Munk Mon, Jan 18, 2010

Prominent names host Portland's J Street Local Kick Off by Michael Munk Fri, Jan 15, 2010

Jan 15: Free Patrice Lumumba Ford by Michael Munk Mon, Jan 11, 2010

Tuesday 7:30: Joe Sacco at Powells's Burnside by Michael Munk Mon, Jan 11, 2010

Portlander offers protection against attacks by Michael Munk Sun, Jan 10, 2010

Airline hysteria is all wrong To the editor, The Oregonian January 9, 2010 http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2010/01/airline_hysteria_is_all_wrong.html I appreciate Suzanne Brownlow's Jan. 8 letter ("Nuts to those scanners"). I, too, am sick of the hysteria and racist paranoia surrounding air travel, and I avoid travel by airplane as much as possible these days. I believe that the increasingly stringent airport security checks do little to stop terrorism while they hassle and humiliate innocent travelers. Most politicians support increased airport security because it gives the appearance that they're doing something to protect public safety. The most effective way to protect the public and end terrorist threats is to turn around our foreign policy. If the U.S. government was building schools and hospitals in Afghanistan instead of chasing jihadists and murdering innocent civilians, we might actually have a chance to win hearts and minds of the people both there -- and throughout the world. JOHN GRUESCHOW Southeast Portland Mr Grueschow and I seem to agree I had sent this to my "national" list before I saw that letter. HOW TO PROTEST AGAINST ATTACKS The political/media complex has framed the Detroit incident as a intelligence failure that requires bureacratic and technological fixes. While it's surely true that the $75 billion we waste on pathetically ineffective "intelligence" (mainly fancy technology and big salaries for Langley desk riders and NSA technocrats), the complex ignores why the "heimat" is attacked in the first place and so the proposed fixes are irrelevant In fact, almost every attack is an attempted retaliation for a consequence of US foreign policy. 9/11 and the earlier attacks on New York were declared by their perps to be "punishment" for US support for Israeli supression of Palestinians.* The US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan generated both armed resistance and retaliations (like the attack on the Cole). Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and the "torture taxi" kidnappings inspired revenege. The Detroit bomber is said to have been trying to avenge US cruise missile attacks on Yemen; the Jordanian doctor who attacked the CIA base by Israeli war crimes in Gaza.. I would expect that if Obama would stop implementing neocon foreign adventures through military occupations, subsidies to Israel and CIA death squads, its victims would soon experience reduced motiovation to retaliate and would receive far less support from the people they claim to be retaliating in the name of. There would still remain a small group of genuine nutcakes, but they could be controlled by their own people and the improved human intelligence generated from them. *"Allah knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers but after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed -- when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way (and) to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women." - Osama bin Laden The Guardian UK). Oct 30, 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/oct/30/alqaida.september11. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Saturday noon: Rally for Gaza at Pioneer Courthouse Square by Michael Munk Thu, Jan 7, 2010

Gaza March-Rally & Report Back Saturday, January 9 - 12 Noon Gather at Pioneer Courthouse Square march to Portland State University Show your solidarity for the people of Gaza who have been suffering a brutal seige for over a year. And hear from Oregon college students who have just returned from the Gaza Freedom March from Egypt to the Israeli border. Noon-Gather at Pioneer Court House Square 1 pm- March to Portland State University 1:30 pm- Indoor Rally at Portland State University Smith Building #296/298 Performers: Political Folk Musician - David Rovics Palestinian-American Poet - Shady Athamneh Bethlehem Theater Presentation Speakers: Sarah Hassouneh- Portland State University Jessica Campbell- Oregon State University Michael King- Lane Community College Allison Weir- of ifamericansknew.org Peter Miller - of AUPHR.ORG Saed Bannoura- of IMEMC.ORG Rosa M. Navarro - American University in Cairo Sponsored by: Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Portland Peaceful Response Coalition, Palestine Action Group, PDX Peace, and the International Socialist Organization Portland Peaceful Response is shifting its 2nd Saturday Counter-Recruiting action to support the rally and march in support of the Gaza Freedom marchers (email wael@liberalarab.com for further information, tables available for organizations) visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Jan 16: Pacific Grenn Party convention in Portland by Michael Munk Thu, Jan 7, 2010

Pacific Green Party of Oregon Next Convention January 16 The next Pacific Green Party of Oregon convention will be held at = Metanoia House NE 18th & Tillamook) in Portland on Jan. 16, = 2010--9AM-4PM. Prospective candidates for state or federal offices are urged to seek = nomination at this time. We will be looking for peace, single-payer, campaign finance reform = candidates for federal and state Attend, kibbutz, self-nominate or = otherwise participate. Forward to your "usual suspects." It should be = an interesting collectioin of reds, pinkos, greens, rainbows, peaceniks, = war tax resisters and what-have-yous of our common-public-interest = movement. We'll lunch together.) New, significantly increased fees for voters' pamphlet statements have = been partially mitigated by new provisions for publication of candidate = statements based on registered voter signatures. Some candidates may = wish to seek early nomination in order to gather such signatures in = advance of critical campaign activities. January's convention will not be the only nominating convention to be = held in 2010. Further details on the convention schedule and agenda will = be announced in the next few weeks. Season's Greetings and warm regards, George Hutchinson, Corvallis 541-207-3291=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Lange Oregon photos featured in OHQ by Michael Munk Mon, Jan 4, 2010

If you missed the exhibit of Lange's Oregon photos at PSU, it is at the = Museum of Peoples' Art/Artspace in Bay City (just north of Tillamook on = the coast) at least to the end of January. Call 503.377.2782 for = details Winter 2009, Volume 110, #4,.pp 570-597 Dorothea Lange's Oregon Photography: Assumptions Challenged by Linda Gordon In October 2009, distinguished NYU professor and Dorothea Lange = biographer Linda Gordon gave a talk in conjunction with the fall = exposition at Portland State University of Dorethea Lange's 1939 Oregon = photographs. Gordon highlighted the significance of Lange's Oregon, = making arguments about how the photographer was changed by her time in = the state. That talk, along with numerous Lange photographs from Oregon, = are included here. They reflect the great depth and scope of Dorethea = Lange's work for the Farm Securities Administration during two trips to = Oregon in 1939, and Gordon's analysis expands their significance to = Lange's legacy by noting that multiple facets of her politics and vision = are evident in the Oregon images. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Jan 14: Rethink Afghanistan at Clinton Theater by Michael Munk Mon, Jan 4, 2010

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD and PORTLAND PEACEFUL RESPONSE present a screening of RETHINK AFGHANISTAN A Brave New Films Production A GROUNDBREAKING DOCUMENTARY EXPLORING THE ISSUES SURROUNDING THE UNITED STATES’ CURRENT AND FUTURE ROLE IN THE AFGHANISTAN WAR Followed by a conversation with Director Robert Greenwald JANUARY 14, 2010 7:00 p.m. Clinton Street Theater SE 26th and Clinton TICKETS SOLD AT THE DOOR FOR $10 A BENEFIT FOR THE NLG’s LEWIS & CLARK MILITARY COUNSELING PROJECT visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Jan 6: David Swanson and David Rovics at Powell's by Michael Munk Wed, Dec 30, 2009

Oregon in January: David Swanson and David Rovics Jan. 6 Portland, OR Jan. 7 Newport, OR Jan. 8 Corvallis, OR David Swanson speaking about his new book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union." http://davidswanson.org/book Portland, OR, January 6, 2010 7:30 p.m. at Powells Burnside & 11th Portland, OR http://www.powells.com/events CONTACT ORGANIZER: Barbara Ellis barbaragellis@earthlink.net visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Cuba sends back Portland Unitarians by Michael Munk Mon, Dec 28, 2009

Reply to Rothstein: Yip Harburg's politics by Michael Munk Sat, Dec 26, 2009

Oregon doc: start over on health care reform by Michael Munk Wed, Dec 23, 2009

Health care reform: We can do better By Paul Gorman=20 December 23, 2009 VIA Steve Weiss As an Oregon physician for over 25 years, I know we can and must do = better on health care reform. What we have seen in the Congress over = recent months indicates how pointless it has been to compromise with = those who really oppose any reform. The health reform process began with = the president giving in on essential goals such as universal access, and = now it ends with a bill that preserves and solidifies the worst of our = current system. The opposition played a cynical political game all = along, whittling away at proposed reforms through the summer and fall = until little is left, and now opposing the final bill anyway. We were = played.=20 What they ended up with is a bill where the government will require = people who can't afford health insurance to buy it, pouring billions = into an insurance system that clearly does not work. Millions of new = customers for insurance companies at taxpayer expense, without achieving = the fundamental goals of reform:=20 -We still won't have universal access: Millions will be left out and = thousands will die every year because they have no access to care. = According to a Harvard study, over 120 Americans die every day for lack = of access to care.=20 -We still won't have free choice: Big insurance companies will still = dictate what doctor or hospital you can go to, what treatments you can = have and what you will pay for them.=20 -We still won't have affordability: Billions will still be wasted on = claims-processing paperwork. Premiums, co-pays and deductibles will = still be set to guarantee profits for insurance companies, while = individuals, businesses large and small, and even governments go = bankrupt.=20 Those are the big three. To add insult to injury:=20 -We still won't have portability: Anytime you switch jobs, get laid off = or start a small business, you'll be changing insurance plans, changing = doctors (those included in the plan), changing treatments (drugs covered = by the plan). This guarantees discontinuity and poorer outcomes.=20 -We still won't have accountability: Private insurers will set health = policy in private, without the transparency and accountability that a = public process guarantees. You will still have no recourse, no say in = the matter.=20 -We still won't have quality: We pay twice what most modern nations are = paying but we have worse outcomes. This new legislation does not = fundamentally change an insurance system that's seen health outcomes = falling and costs rising for decades. Why can't Americans have the best = health care in the world?=20 What we must do now is start over. Most of us can agree on certain = goals, and we must tell the president and Congress that we expect any = reform package to meet these goals:=20 -Health care for every American, no exceptions, cradle to grave.=20 -Free choice of doctors and hospitals, like Medicare patients have.=20 -Patients and their doctors make decisions about care.=20 -Health policy must be public policy, with accountability and = transparency.=20 -No one should go bankrupt because of health care costs - not patients, = not businesses, not state and local governments, not our country.=20 We should accept nothing less.=20 Paul Gorman is a Portland physician and belongs to Physicians for a = National Health Program. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

from the Dill Pickle Club by Michael Munk Wed, Dec 23, 2009

red tour =3D success By marc moscato | Published: December 14, 2009 You'd be sorry to have missed Mike Munk's "Red Tour of Portland" this = past Sunday. Among highlights were locations of labor strikes, union = organizing halls, the office of Dr. Marie Equi and drinks below the = balcony of Paddy's (where the all the action happened at Portland's = first gay bar). We've posted a few pics here. As one tour participant stated, "I think my favorite part was all the = jaywalking en masse. I like how Micheal Munk treated downtown like a car = free zone." Special thanks goes out to our tour leader. We still have copies of = Munk's book Portland Red Guide available at the shop, or order one with = the link below. =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Oregon earth activist free after 8 years by Michael Munk Sun, Dec 20, 2009

As this October story notes, he was first released "by mistake" in October But finally a Lane Co judge ruled that his 23 year sentence was "too harsh" and he walked out of prison on Dec 16. Oregon prison springs eco-saboteur 'Free' by mistake, then takes him back By Bryan Denson, The Oregonian October 02, 2009, 4:39PM The man who drew the longest prison sentence in U.S. history for eco-sabotage walked out of prison this morning. After years of appeals, Jeffrey M. Luers, known to Eugene's anarchist clan as "Free," was just that. But just as quickly, he was sent back to prison. The Oregon Department of Corrections acknowledged today that it mistakenly allowed Luers to take advantage of a new law, House Bill 3508, which grants reduced sentences for certain classes of inmates. Luers' sentence for arson made him ineligible for early release, said prisons spokeswoman Jennifer Black, in Salem. "It's a mistake we wish hadn't happened," she said. "We're reviewing processes and hoping that it just does not happen again." Luers was released from Columbia River Correctional Institution in Northeast Portland this morning and given 24 hours to check in with his parole officer in Lane County. He checked in this afternoon, where he learned of the error. Authorities took the 30-year-old radical environmentalist back to prison, a rude reversal for those who worked years to get Luers out. The day began with Luers' supporters writing on the Friends of Jeff Luers Web site: "We are still pinching ourselves." Luers' appellate lawyer in Salem, Shawn Wiley, weighed in with an e-mail comment to The Oregonian: "This day is long overdue. Jeff is a kind, thoughtful, intelligent young man, and our community benefits much more from his presence in it rather than behind bars." But their joy was short lived. Luers' saga began in 2001, when Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure sentenced him to 22 years, 8 months in prison after finding him guilty of two crimes in Eugene -- attempting to set fire to a gasoline tanker owned by a petroleum distributor, then firebombing three pickup trucks at a Chevy dealership. The sentence drew gasps because it was by far the stiffest punishment handed to an eco-saboteur in the United States. Across the nation, environmental activists and civil libertarians expressed outrage. At that time, Luers' crimes were paltry compared to those committed by better known eco-saboteurs. Rod Coronado, for instance, who waged a multi-state arson campaign against the fur industry, was sentenced to less than five years in federal prison. After Luers was sent to prison, arsons by underground groups such as the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front ceased in Oregon, once a hotbed of environmentally motivated firebombings and vandalism. Law enforcement authorities said Luers' long sentence served as a deterrent to those who might consider setting fire to SUVs, mink ranches or Forest Service installations. In a phone interview from prison in September 2001, Luers told The Oregonian that the gravity of his sentence did not strike him until he lay in a prison bunk one day realizing his parents might die before he is freed. Luers told the newspaper that he set fire to the pickups to protest gas-guzzling vehicles and the disproportionate amount of pollution they belch into the air. He described the arson at Eugene's Romania Chevrolet as a final, desperate act of an environmental crusade that began benignly with letters to politicians, door-to-door work with the Sierra Club and tree sits to prevent logging. "It was an escalation to a level I'd never gone before and I could never live down," Luers told The Oregonian. "At that point, for me, I could no longer say I was an activist. In my mind, I'd taken it to the next level." The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled in February 2007 that Lane County must re-sentence Luers because Velure erred by convicting him of two counts of arson and imposing consecutive prison terms under Oregon's mandatory-minimum sentencing law. Lawyers negotiated an agreement that re-sentenced Luers to 10 years in prison, which would have brought him home this Christmas. Passage of House Bill 3508 this year gave Luers even more good news. He was one of the roughly 2,000 Oregon prisoners to get notice recently that they were eligible for a fractional reduction of their sentence, Black said. For Luers, this meant freedom a few months early. But today's foul-up nixed his freedom. Luers is scheduled for release on Dec. 16. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Blumenauer and Schrader vote for war, Wu against by Michael Munk Fri, Dec 18, 2009

PGE forced to refund part of Trojan profits by Michael Munk Thu, Dec 17, 2009

Dill Pickle's Sunday Tour of Red Portland photos by Michael Munk Wed, Dec 16, 2009

a..=20 Red Tour of Portland with Mike Munk Thumbnails Detail Comments=20 =20 P1017700 P1017699 P1017698=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 =20 P1017696 P1017692 P1017690=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 =20 P1017688 P1017682 P1017679=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 =20 All rights reserved=20 Uploaded on Dec 14, 2009=20 0 comments=20 Thanks to the participants in this past Sunday's "Red Tour = of Portland." It was great to see all of you and learn about the city's = working class traditions. We still have copies of Michael's book, The Portland Red = Guide: Sites & Stories of Our Radical Past available in our shop (open = Wed - Sun 12-6), or you can purchase with the handy link below. =20 =20 =20

Blumenauer 1 of 12 against more Iran sanctions by Michael Munk Wed, Dec 16, 2009

Portlander's new comic of Gaza by Michael Munk Sun, Dec 13, 2009

Nonfiction: 'Footnotes in Gaza' By Steve Duin, The Oregonian=20 http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/12/nonfiction_footnotes_in= _gaza.html December 12, 2009, 11:00AM View full sizeJoe Sacco"The people were afraid. There was no shouting = there. No screaming." Families look for their relatives after a massacre = in the Gaza Strip in 1956. Joe Sacco, a Portland writer and artist, = investigated the incident in his new book, "Footnotes in Gaza."=20 When Abed El-Aziz El-Rantisi sat quietly and listened to the memories of = the massacre at Khan Younis, he could still hear the screaming and = wailing over the body of his uncle.=20 "I couldn't sleep for many months after that," El-Rantisi told Joe Sacco = three years before the Hamas official was assassinated by an Israeli = missile. "It left a wound in my heart that can never heal.=20 "They planted hatred in our hearts."=20 After spending three months examining the roots of that hatred, and more = than six years getting his graphic thoughts in order, Sacco doubts that = peace will break through the scorched earth of the Gaza Strip.=20 "I hold out less hope now than ever," the Portland cartoonist said.=20 Yet as you quietly make your way through "Footnotes in Gaza: A Graphic = Novel," and the murderous echoes of the Israeli purges at Khan Younis = and Rafah, what hope and optimism remains for journalism and comics.=20 Sacco first became curious about the extraordinary events of November = 1956 when Harper's Magazine enlisted journalist Chris Hedges and Sacco = to report on how Palestinians in Khan Younis were dealing with the = Israeli occupation in 2001.=20 During the Suez Canal Crisis, a United Nations document suggested, the = Israelis killed 275 Palestinians in the camp. Nine days later, Sacco = discovered another 111 Palestinians were killed in Rafah.=20 For young Palestinians who don't have "the luxury of digesting one = tragedy before the next one is upon them," Sacco's curiosity about "the = events of 1956 (was met) with bemusement. What good would tending to = history do them when they were under attack and their homes were being = demolished now?"=20 But Sacco, 49, didn't want all trace of the carnage visited upon those = villages to vanish with raw memories of the survivors. He understood the = killings in Khan Younis and Rafah were mere "footnotes to a sideshow of = a forgotten war."=20 He wanted to raise their profile, if only for the sake of "the = grandchildren and great-grandchildren of refugees who arrived with = nothing and for whom nothing fundamental has changed."=20 "Footnotes to Gaza" is a milestone of comics and journalism. When Sacco = was researching this graphic history in Gaza in 2002, his guide, Abed = Elassouli, would often introduce the cartoonist to potential interviews = by presenting them with a copy of "Palestine," Sacco's first (1991) swan = dive into the Middle East.=20 "When they opened the book," he said, "they got a view of what they were = living." Had his portrait been in prose, Sacco added, "They wouldn't = have gotten what I was doing. Because it was comics, they got it right = away."=20 The experience should be no different for Sacco's American audience.=20 As the United States was gearing up for the war in Iraq -- and Israel = and the Palestinians swapped the lead role in their endless = murder-suicide pact -- Sacco interviewed dozens of the aging = Palestinians who lived through the 1956 massacres.=20 Although he dutifully reports the rationale that Israeli Foreign = Minister Golda Meir forwarded to Dag Hammarskj=F6ld, the U.N. secretary = general -- the United Nations' food depot was "attacked by an unruly = mob," Meir insisted, "and Israel authorities were compelled to take = action to prevent large-scale looting and destruction" -- Sacco's = exhaustive research reaches dramatically different conclusions.=20 One Palestinian after another remembered Israeli troops pulling their = fathers and uncles from their homes on Nov. 10, 1956, lining them up = against the walls of Khan Younis' Mamluk castle, and gunning them down.=20 Two days later, the soldiers ordered all the young males into the = streets of Rafah and marched them down to the local schoolyard, beating = them with baseball bats as they ran the gauntlet into the school, and = shooting any Palestinian who tried to break away.=20 "There was an attempt to screen for Palestinians who were in the = Egyptian Army," Sacco said, "but it also seemed they were trying to = terrorize the military-age male population.=20 "They did terrorize people. Who knows what that spawned in the long = run?"=20 Beyond, of course, a generation of Abed El-Aziz El-Rantisis.=20 Sacco's attention to detail in his drawing and his journalism is = extraordinary. He is, he argues "a newspaperman at heart," in endless = pursuit of "the facts, the definitive version, not a bunch of 'on the = other hands' and 'possibles' or even 'probables.'"=20 And the disdain for "objective journalism" that he acquired at the = University of Oregon is largely rooted in his early exposure to media = coverage of the Middle East conflict.=20 "When I was growing up, the only time Palestine was mentioned on = television was when there was a hijacking, a bombing or a rocket fired = at Israel," Sacco said. "In my mind, I associated Palestine with = terrorism."=20 Gaining a more balanced view of the deep-seated -- and deep-seeded -- = hatred, and the context of the atrocities committed by both sides, = required "a long self-education," Sacco said. "It took reading. It meant = spending time in Europe. Europeans have a more nuanced perspective about = the Palestinians. They don't have the filter of American journalism."=20 Sacco makes no apologies for a viewpoint that is sympathetic to the Gaza = refugees, and no concession that he sacrifices one speck of truth to = that perspective. When the eyewitness testimony is flawed, and a tower = of memories collapses, he is fastidious in negotiating the rubble. When = he hears the ring of trauma, not truth, he closes his notebook.=20 "It's up to us," he writes during one of his evening gut-checks with his = Palestinian guide, "to fill history's glass with as much truthful, = cogent testimony as we can."=20 "Footnotes in Gaza" is energized by Sacco's relentless reporting, = self-deprecating asides ("And thus begins the aggravating mismatch = pitting hapless cartoonist against wily ex-guerrilla,") and the design = sense that he brings to each of its 389 pages. The graphic investigation = provides essential context for the bitterness that keeps Palestinians = and Israelis at one another's throats.=20 And it rescues the terrible events of November 1956 from the "pile of = obscurity" that is the final, silent resting place for the refugees who = lack a champion and a voice.=20 FOOTNOTES IN GAZA=20 Joe Sacco =20 Metropolitan Books=20 $29.95, 389 pages =20 =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Last international brigades vet in Oregon dies by Michael Munk Sat, Dec 12, 2009

No Oregon Dems stand up against Obama's wars by Michael Munk Mon, Dec 7, 2009

Dec 13; Red Tour of Portland by Michael Munk Sat, Dec 5, 2009

Last Chance to Bid for Portland Red Guide by Michael Munk Fri, Dec 4, 2009

Peace prize for a warmonger by Michael Munk Fri, Dec 4, 2009

Last chance to speak up for realt health reform by Michael Munk Thu, Dec 3, 2009

Dec 13: Dill Pickle's radical walking tour by Michael Munk Thu, Dec 3, 2009

Almanac singer dies in Portland by Michael Munk Wed, Dec 2, 2009

Dec 13 : Portland Red Guide Walking Tour by Michael Munk Wed, Dec 2, 2009

Only Wu and Walden back Obama's war escalation by Michael Munk Tue, Dec 1, 2009

War tax debate begins by Michael Munk Tue, Dec 1, 2009

Wed: PDX, Eugene, Corvallis oppose Obama's wars by Michael Munk Mon, Nov 30, 2009

[ PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS OF OREGON ] State affiliate of Progressive Democrats of America Oppose Escalation in Afghanistan! Dear friends , On Tuesday evening President Obama will announce the deployment of tens of thousands of new troops to Afghanistan. Demonstrations against this escalation will be taking place across the country on Wednesday, December 2, 2009. I n Oregon there are demonstrations scheduled Wednesday in Portland, Corvallis and Eugene. Portland: 5:00 p.m., Terry Schrunk Plaza (SW 3rd & Madison, across from Federal Building). More info here Corvallis: 4:00 p.m., Benton County Courthouse (4th St & Monroe). More info here Eugene: 12 noon rally, Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza, 8th Ave. & Oak St. 4 p.m. peace vigil, Old Federal Bldg, 7th & Pearl St. More info here Progressive Democrats of America opposes the occupation and war in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. PDA calls on the Obama administration to "bring the military home to their families and redirect wasteful military spending to meet human needs at home and abroad." Please attend these events if you can and spread the word. If you know of other anti-escalation events that PD Oregon should publicize, please send information to pdaoregon@igc.org Progressive Democrats of America is a grassroots PAC that works both inside the Democratic Party and outside in movements for peace and justice. Our goal in 2009: Expand progressive influence in Congress as we build on our 2008 electoral successes. PDA's advisory board includes seven members of Congress and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden, Medea Benjamin, Thom Hartmann, Jim Hightower, and Lila Garrett. Join a PDA Issue Organizing Team; learn more here . visit my website www.michaelmunk.comW Progressive Democrats of Oregon State affiliate of Progressive Democrats of America [http://pdamerica.org/] Oppose Escalation in Afghanistan! Dear Michael, On Tuesday evening President Obama will announce the deployment of tens of thousands of new troops to Afghanistan. Demonstrations against this escalation will be taking place across the country on Wednesday, December 2, 2009. In Oregon there are demonstrations scheduled Wednesday in Portland, Corvallis and Eugene. Portland: 5:00 p.m., Terry Schrunk Plaza (SW 3rd & Madison, across from Federal Building). More info here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=19275 Corvallis: 4:00 p.m., Benton County Courthouse (4th St & Monroe). More info here: http://oregonprogressivenetwork.org/actions/?id=3581 Eugene: 12 noon rally, Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza, 8th Ave. & Oak St. 4 p.m. peace vigil, Old Federal Bldg, 7th & Pearl St. More info here: http://oregonprogressivenetwork.org/actions/?id=3579 Progressive Democrats of America opposes the occupation and war in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. PDA calls on the Obama administration to "bring the military home to their families and redirect wasteful military spending to meet human needs at home and abroad." Please attend these events if you can and spread the word. If you know of other anti-escalation events that PD Oregon should publicize, please send information to pdaoregon@igc.org ------ Become a Change makes Change sustaining partner: http://pdamerica.org/articles/misc/2008-01-24-01-07-46-misc.php Progressive Democrats of America is a grassroots PAC that works both inside the Democratic Party and outside in movements for peace and justice. Our goal in 2009: Expand progressive influence in Congress as we build on our 2008 electoral successes. PDA's advisory board includes seven members of Congress and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden, Medea Benjamin, Thom Hartmann, Jim Hightower, and Lila Garrett. More info: http://pdamerica.org Find Chapters: http://pdamerica.org/orgs/findstate.php | Find Local Events: https://www.thedatabank.com/dpg/309/mtglist.asp?formid=meet&mtgview=L Spread the progressive word--Shop PDAstore! https://www.pdamerica.org/pdastore Make http://pdamerica.org your home page! To unsubscribe: http://www.thedatabank.com/smSub.asp?aacwc=37155309561478102353659879122 To view our Privacy Policy: http://pdamerica.org/misc/privacy-policy.php ------=_Part_444292_1402023664.1259614482662--

Health care in Yamhill County by Michael Munk Mon, Nov 30, 2009

How about a WAR TAX to pay for Obama's wars? by Michael Munk Fri, Nov 27, 2009

Wu among 53 Dems denying you Cuba visit by Michael Munk Tue, Nov 17, 2009

Emma Goldman is Portland by Michael Munk Sun, Nov 15, 2009

=20 November 15, 2009 = http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/11/oregons_trails_firebrand_em= ma.html Oregon's Trails: Firebrand Emma Goldman left mark in Portland By John Terry, Special to The Oregonian=20 Emma Goldman was in no way someone that Portland's early 20th-century = patricians could embrace or even tolerate.=20 Library of CongressEmma GoldmanEach time the most outspoken anarchist in = America -- perhaps the world -- graced the Rose City, she inflamed local = moralists to the boiling point.=20 Goldman, after all, advocated aggression to strip society of = governmental encumbrances and capitalism. She practiced free love; = railed against oppression of the poor; defended workers rights; and = preached female equality, birth control and abortion. She rallied = against World WarI draft laws and opposed all war as unnecessary and = destructive.=20 The self-educated product of an abusive Russian/German home, she came to = the United States in December 1885 and soon cultivated credentials as a = revolutionary firebrand. She first visited Portland in May 1908 at age = 49. Despite her 4-foot-10, 120-pound frame, she was by all reports an = awesome presence.=20 Goldman proved a perfect fit for Portland's radical element, which = included communist sympathizers John Reed and Louise Bryant, avant-garde = artists Carl and Helen Walters, Dr. Marie Equi and errant lawyer Charles = Erskine Scott Wood, among others.=20 Historian Michael Munk, author of 2007's "The Portland Red Guide," = suggests it may have been a Goldman lecture that brought together Reed = and Bryant, later famous for their roles in the Russian Revolution. = Nonetheless, "the outcry against (Goldman) was overwhelming," Robert = Hamburger wrote in his 1998 biography of Wood, "Two Rooms: The Life of = Charles Erskine Scott Wood."=20 Wood, attorney for some of Portland's most moneyed residents, was solid = with the establishment. But at heart, he was bohemian and anarchist.=20 When the YMCA and the Arion Society reneged on contracts to rent Goldman = halls for her lectures, Wood "denounced the YMCA and took the press to = task for misrepresenting her as an advocate of guns and bombs and = violence," Hamburger wrote.=20 Goldman tried to calm fidgety locals. "Do not be alarmed," she told a = reporter for The Oregonian. "I have no dynamite in my pocket. ... = Education is the only bomb sanctioned by true anarchism, which stands = for freedom in the truest and highest sense."=20 Wood found Goldman a hall and introduced her at her first lecture. = Goldman continued to visit Portland.=20 In July 1914, "as usual, she showed up with no money," Hamburger wrote. = "She counted on Wood to look after her, to pay the advance on her hall, = to pay for advertising fliers and to use his influence to publicize her = talks. Emma expected Wood's indulgence. Wood understood. Though she = sometimes irritated him, he continued to support her with affectionate = loyalty and bemused forbearance."=20 Munk says Goldman viewed Wood "as not quite radical enough but a big = help in setting up her Portland lectures."=20 On Aug. 6, 1915, Goldman took the stage at Turn Verein Hall at Southwest = Fourth and Yamhill to speak on "Birth Control: How and Why Small = Families Are Best." A plainclothes officer interrupted with a warrant = charging her with distribution of immoral circulars.=20 "Wood presented himself as her attorney and insisted the officer read = the warrant aloud to the audience," Hamburger wrote. "Then Emma = surrendered to the officer, descending the stage to a rousing cheer from = the crowd."=20 The next day, Goldman and fellow activist Dr. Ben Reitman were charged = with dispensing "literature of an illegal character." Wood mounted a = spirited defense, arguing that the issue was not salacious material but = free speech. Goldman and Reitman were found guilty and fined $100.=20 Wood appealed in Multnomah County Circuit Court. On Aug. 13, Judge = William N. Gatens ruled in Goldman's favor.=20 "The trouble with our people today is that there is too much prudery," = the judge said. "We are all shocked by many things publicly stated that = we know privately to ourselves, but we haven't got the nerve to get up = and admit it."=20 In 1917, Goldman and fellow anarchist/longtime paramour Alexander = Berkman were arrested in New York and convicted of conspiracy against = the U.S. Selective Service Act. They served two years in federal prison = and were deported to Russia. =20 Disillusioned by the cruelty of the Soviet regime, Goldman retreated = first to France then to Canada and continued to preach pacifist anarchy. = She was granted one visa to lecture in the United States but never again = visited Portland. She died of a stroke on May 14, 1940.=20 -- John Terry=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Oregon congressional delegation on AfPak war by Michael Munk Wed, Nov 11, 2009

The Big O reported today = http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/oregon_lawmakers_weigh_i= n_on_a.html written opinions of Oregon's congressional delegation about = whether Obama should escalate the AfPak war for the second time. Here are the bolltom lines: Sen. Ron Wyden: "The president has a big hill to climb to convince me we = ought to send more troops."=20 Sen. Jeff Merkley: " I have major reservations about our current = strategy...I am going to be asking the Obama administration a lot of = questions.".=20 Rep. David Wu, 1st District : I would support what McChrystal and the = president decide going forward. This is not a popular position in = Oregon. Oregon is anti-war, and we all should be. .. (But) the = methodology (McChrystal) laid out sounds like a reasonable set of = approaches to go forward." Rep. Greg Walden, 2nd district :" The president needs to clearly define = the mission and provide the necessary resources for that mission and our = troops to succeed."=20 Rep. Earl Blumenauer, 3rd District: "I have concerns about committing = more U.S. troops. I am deeply skeptical that a military solution is what = is called for or even possible."=20 Rep. Peter DeFazio, 4th district: "I think it would be a mistake to add = a bunch more troops. " Rep. Kurt Schrader, 5th district: "I am opposed to a military strategy = that includes an increase in troops deployed to Afghanistan"=20 Perhaps the lack of enthusiasm showed by the delegation may be reflected = in this report=20 Official: Obama wants his war options changed http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091112/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_afghanistan visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Big O ignores; Al-Jazeera covers Oregon war protest by Michael Munk Tue, Nov 10, 2009

Nov 15: Mad As Hell Doctors Town Hall by Michael Munk Mon, Nov 9, 2009

Oregon's very own Mad As Hell Doctors are back from their whirlwind road = trip to Washington DC. We educated the public in over two dozen cities = and over forty venues. We heard the stories of hundreds affected by our = broken non-system and listened to the fears of others. Now we want to = share what we learned on our trip with the Portland community. Please pass this event info on and use the below flyer to let your = community know about this opportunity to hear about the doctor's journey = and learn about Single Payer. =20 WHAT: Mad As Hell Doctors Town Hall=20 WHEN: Sunday November 15, 2009 7-9PM WHERE: First Unitarian Church 1034 SW 13th Ave. Portland, OR =20 All across the country we met with thousands of supporters who demand = Single Payer Now! We made the front page of newspapers, got on local TV = networks, did dozens and dozens of radio appearances, and broke through = the national media blackout, on the Ed Show, Democracy Now, and = Countdown. We have begun a movement and now we must cultivate it for = the next journey. The long term journey for a single payer system of = healthcare delivery. With the House having passed their bill, it is more important than ever = to continue educating and advocating about Single Payer. It is an = inevitable solution to our healthcare crisis and there is still hope for = a Senate vote on Bernie Sanders' Single Payer bill and we must continue = to push for the inclusion of the Kucinich Amendment during = reconciliation of the final bill. Please join us in continuing the fight for healthcare for all and = building a system where patient's care is given precedence over profit. Thanks and we hope to see you on the 15th. Philip Kauffman MAHD Grassroots Coordinator pmkauffman@gmail.com visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Single payer advocate caves to Obama, Pelosi, Waxman! by Michael Munk Sat, Nov 7, 2009

Only Schrader suppresses discussion of UN war crimes report by Michael Munk Wed, Nov 4, 2009

The AIPAC denunciation (HR 836) of the UN war crimes report passed the House 344-36 with 22 voting "present" ( a mild protest) and 30 not voting. The only Oregon Dem to support this despicable resolution was the Blue Dog wantabe Schrader. Baird and Blumenauer ruighteously stood up against it, while DeFazio and Wu voted "present." Voting NO were: Baird Baldwin Blumenauer Boustany Capps Carson (IN) Clarke Clay Davis (KY) Dingell Doggett Edwards (MD) Ellison Filner Grijalva Hinchey Johnson, E. B. Kilpatrick (MI) Kucinich Lee (CA) Lynch McCollum McDermott McGovern Miller, George Moran (VA) Olver Pastor (AZ) Paul Price (NC) Rahall Snyder Stark Waters Watt Woolsey ---- ANSWERED "PRESENT" 22 --- Becerra Cooper Dahlkemper DeFazio Delahunt Duncan Eshoo Farr Heinrich Hirono Honda Johnson (GA) Jones Kaptur Loebsack Lofgren, Zoe Luján Obey Speier Tierney Welch Wu ---- NOT VOTING 30 --- Abercrombie Ackerman Bachmann Barrett (SC) Boucher Brady (PA) Capuano Conyers Davis (AL) Davis (TN) Deal (GA) Gordon (TN) Gutierrez Hall (NY) Holt Meeks (NY) Murphy, Patrick Nunes Pallone Pascrell Payne Pingree (ME) Price (GA) Sánchez, Linda T. Sires Souder Stupak Towns Velázquez Wamp -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Does your Rep oppose discussion of the UN war crimes report? by Michael Munk Sat, Oct 31, 2009

Nov 13-14: Centralia Commenmoration by Michael Munk Fri, Oct 30, 2009

A COMMEMMORATION OF THE CENTRALIA TRAGEDY OF 1919 On November 13 and 14 at Centralia College, there will be a commemoration of the Centralia Tragedy of 1919, a major event in labor history in which four Legionnaires and one member of the Industrial Workers of the World lost their lives. Lewis County residents, members of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, staff and faculty from Centralia College and The Evergreen State College, and rank-and-file union workers are organizing the commemoration. The year 2009 is an anniversary year for several significant labor events: the Centralia Tragedy in 1919, the Spokane Free Speech fight in 1909, the Seattle General Strike in 1919, the West Coast Waterfront Strike in 1934, and the World Trade Organization demonstrations in 1999. Commemorations of all these events have been or are being organized in several locations around Washington State. While it long remained a painful event that community members were reluctant to discuss, this began to change in 1997 with the creation of a mural, "The Resurrection of Wesley Everest," on the side of a former Elks Lodge. The making of the mural is one of the subjects of Anne Fischel's documentary film, "Lewis County: Hope and Struggle." The film also examines the events of 1919 and interviews community residents about economic changes in Lewis County since that time. "Lewis County: Hope and Struggle" will be screened at Corbet Hall at Centralia Community College on Friday, November 13, at 7:00 p.m. as the kick-off for the commemoration. Also shown will be a trailer for "The Forgotten: Armistice Day 1919," an upcoming film by Michael Duffy. The screening will be preceded by a music performance from folk legend Mark Ross and followed by a discussion, and is free to the public. Events continue at 10:00 am on Saturday, November 14, with several workshops and panels that bring relevance to today's labor and workplace issues. Subjects include jobs in the woods, organizing in retail jobs, the I.W.W. today, excerpts of Ursula Richards-Coppola's forthcoming feature-length film, "The Ghost of Hangman's Bridge," and music of the labor movement. Guests leading the panels include author and historian Sandy Polishuk, Gary Lyle of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Steve Fluke and Bill Street of the International Association of Machinists, Chip Elliott of the Industrial Woodworkers of America, Josh Simpson of Iraq Vets Against The War, musicians Brendan Phillips and Mark Ross, and labor historian Aaron Goings. The workshops will be held at Washington Hall on the Centralia College campus, followed by a 1:30 p.m. walking tour of historic Centralia Tragedy sites. The day will conclude with a visit to Wesley Everest's gravesite, located in the pauper's section of the local cemetery. All events are free to the public and no registration is necessary. Mark Ross and Brendan Phillips will perform in Olympia at the Alexander Berkman Collective at 8:00 p.m. as a fundraiser for local-area I.W.W. members. For more information contact Brendan Maslauskas Dunn at maslauskas84@gmail.com For more information on the commemoration, contact Peter Kardas, Director of The Evergreen State College Labor Center, at 360-867-6526 or kardasp@evergreen.edu visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Nov 13-14: Centralia Commenmoration by Michael Munk Fri, Oct 30, 2009

A COMMEMMORATION OF THE CENTRALIA TRAGEDY OF 1919 On November 13 and 14 at Centralia College, there will be a commemoration of the Centralia Tragedy of 1919, a major event in labor history in which four Legionnaires and one member of the Industrial Workers of the World lost their lives. Lewis County residents, members of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association, staff and faculty from Centralia College and The Evergreen State College, and rank-and-file union workers are organizing the commemoration. The year 2009 is an anniversary year for several significant labor events: the Centralia Tragedy in 1919, the Spokane Free Speech fight in 1909, the Seattle General Strike in 1919, the West Coast Waterfront Strike in 1934, and the World Trade Organization demonstrations in 1999. Commemorations of all these events have been or are being organized in several locations around Washington State. While it long remained a painful event that community members were reluctant to discuss, this began to change in 1997 with the creation of a mural, "The Resurrection of Wesley Everest," on the side of a former Elks Lodge. The making of the mural is one of the subjects of Anne Fischel's documentary film, "Lewis County: Hope and Struggle." The film also examines the events of 1919 and interviews community residents about economic changes in Lewis County since that time. "Lewis County: Hope and Struggle" will be screened at Corbet Hall at Centralia Community College on Friday, November 13, at 7:00 p.m. as the kick-off for the commemoration. Also shown will be a trailer for "The Forgotten: Armistice Day 1919," an upcoming film by Michael Duffy. The screening will be preceded by a music performance from folk legend Mark Ross and followed by a discussion, and is free to the public. Events continue at 10:00 am on Saturday, November 14, with several workshops and panels that bring relevance to today's labor and workplace issues. Subjects include jobs in the woods, organizing in retail jobs, the I.W.W. today, excerpts of Ursula Richards-Coppola's forthcoming feature-length film, "The Ghost of Hangman's Bridge," and music of the labor movement. Guests leading the panels include author and historian Sandy Polishuk, Gary Lyle of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Steve Fluke and Bill Street of the International Association of Machinists, Chip Elliott of the Industrial Woodworkers of America, Josh Simpson of Iraq Vets Against The War, musicians Brendan Phillips and Mark Ross, and labor historian Aaron Goings. The workshops will be held at Washington Hall on the Centralia College campus, followed by a 1:30 p.m. walking tour of historic Centralia Tragedy sites. The day will conclude with a visit to Wesley Everest's gravesite, located in the pauper's section of the local cemetery. All events are free to the public and no registration is necessary. Mark Ross and Brendan Phillips will perform in Olympia at the Alexander Berkman Collective at 8:00 p.m. as a fundraiser for local-area I.W.W. members. For more information contact Brendan Maslauskas Dunn at maslauskas84@gmail.com For more information on the commemoration, contact Peter Kardas, Director of The Evergreen State College Labor Center, at 360-867-6526 or kardasp@evergreen.edu visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Nov. 8: Willamette Reds Event in Salem by Michael Munk Wed, Oct 28, 2009

Progressive Portland: White Flight: in disguise? by Michael Munk Tue, Oct 27, 2009

The White City=20 by Aaron M. Renn 10/18/2009=20 Aaron M. Renn is an independent writer on urban affairs based in the = Midwest. His writings appear at The Urbanophile. Among the media, academia and within planning circles, there's a = generally standing answer to the question of what cities are the best, = the most progressive and best role models for small and mid-sized = cities. The standard list includes Portland, Seattle, Austin, = Minneapolis, and Denver. In particular, Portland is held up as a = paradigm, with its urban growth boundary, extensive transit system, = excellent cycling culture, and a pro-density policy. These cities are = frequently contrasted with those of the Rust Belt and South, which are = found wanting, often even by locals, as "cool" urban places. But look closely at these exemplars and a curious fact emerges. If you = take away the dominant Tier One cities like New York, Chicago and Los = Angeles you will find that the "progressive" cities aren't red or blue, = but another color entirely: white.=20 In fact, not one of these "progressive" cities even reaches the national = average for African American percentage population in its core county. = Perhaps not progressiveness but whiteness is the defining characteristic = of the group.=20 The progressive paragon of Portland is the whitest on the list, with an = African American population less than half the national average. It is = America's ultimate White City. The contrast with other, supposedly less = advanced cities is stark. . This raises troubling questions about these cities. Why is it that = progressivism in smaller metros is so often associated with low numbers = of African Americans? Can you have a progressive city properly so-called = with only a disproportionate handful of African Americans in it? In = addition, why has no one called these cities on it? As the college educated flock to these progressive El Dorados, many = factors are cited as reasons: transit systems, density, bike lanes, = walkable communities, robust art and cultural scenes. But another way to = look at it is simply as White Flight writ large. Why move to the suburbs = of your stodgy Midwest city to escape African Americans and get = criticized for it when you can move to Portland and actually be praised = as progressive, urban and hip? Many of the policies of Portland are not = that dissimilar from those of upscale suburbs in their effects. Urban = growth boundaries and other mechanisms raise land prices and render = housing less affordable exactly the same as large lot zoning and = building codes that mandate brick and other expensive materials do. They = both contribute to reducing housing affordability for historically = disadvantaged communities. Just like the most exclusive suburbs. This lack of racial diversity helps explain why urban boosters focus = increasingly on international immigration as a diversity measure. = Minneapolis, Portland and Austin do have more foreign born than African = Americans, and do better than Rust Belt cities on that metric, but = that's a low hurdle to jump. They lack the diversity of a Miami, = Houston, Los Angeles or a host of other unheralded towns from the Texas = border to Las Vegas and Orlando. They even have far fewer foreign born = residents than many suburban counties of America's major cities. The relative lack of diversity in places like Portland raises some tough = questions the perennially PC urban boosters might not want to answer. = For example, how can a city define itself as diverse or progressive = while lacking in African Americans, the traditional sine qua non of = diversity, and often in immigrants as well? Imagine a large corporation with a workforce whose African American = percentage far lagged its industry peers, sans any apparent concern, and = without a credible action plan to remediate it. Would such a corporation = be viewed as a progressive firm and employer? The answer is obvious. Yet = the same situation in major cities yields a different answer. Curious. In fact, lack of ethnic diversity may have much to do with what allows = these places to be "progressive". It's easy to have Scandinavian = policies if you have Scandinavian demographics. Minneapolis-St. Paul, of = course, is notable in its Scandinavian heritage; Seattle and Portland = received much of their initial migrants from the northern tier of = America, which has always been heavily Germanic and Scandinavian.=20 In comparison to the great cities of the Rust Belt, the Northeast, = California and Texas, these cities have relatively homogenous = populations. Lack of diversity in culture makes it far easier to = implement "progressive" policies that cater to populations with similar = values; much the same can be seen in such celebrated urban model = cultures in the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Their relative wealth also = leads to a natural adoption of the default strategy of the upscale = suburb: the nicest stuff for the people with the most money. It is much = more difficult when you have more racially and economically diverse = populations with different needs, interests, and desires to reconcile. In contrast, the starker part of racial history in America has been one = of the defining elements of the history of the cities of the Northeast, = Midwest, and South. Slavery and Jim Crow led to the Great Migration to = the industrial North, which broke the old ethnic machine urban consensus = there. Civil rights struggles, fair housing, affirmative action, school = integration and busing, riots, red lining, block busting, public = housing, the emergence of black political leaders - especially mayors - = prompted white flight and the associated disinvestment, leading to the = decline of urban schools and neighborhoods.=20 There's a long, depressing history here. In Texas, California, and south Florida a somewhat similar, if less = stark, pattern has occurred with largely Latino immigration. This can be = seen in the evolution of Miami, Los Angeles, and increasingly Houston, = San Antonio and Dallas. Just like African-Americans, Latino immigrants = also are disproportionately poor and often have different site = priorities and sensibilities than upscale whites. This may explain why most of the smaller cities of the Midwest and South = have not proven amenable to replicating the policies of Portland. Most = Midwest advocates of, for example, rail transit, have tried to simply = transplant the Portland solution to their city without thinking about = the local context in terms of system goals and design, and how to sell = it. Civic leaders in city after city duly make their pilgrimage to = Denver or Portland to check out shiny new transit systems, but the = resulting videos of smiling yuppies and happy hipsters are not likely to = impress anyone over at the local NAACP or in the barrios. We are seeing this script played out in Cincinnati presently, where an = odd coalition of African Americans and anti-tax Republicans has formed = to try to stop a streetcar system. Streetcar advocates imported = Portland's solution and arguments to Cincinnati without thinking hard = enough to make the case for how it would benefit the whole community. That's not to let these other cities off the hook. Most of them have let = their urban cores decay. Almost without exception, they have done = nothing to engage with their African American populations. If people = really believe what they say about diversity being a source of strength, = why not act like it? I believe that cities that start taking their = African American and other minority communities seriously, seeing them = as a pillar of civic growth, will reap big dividends and distinguish = themselves in the marketplace. This trail has been blazed not by the "progressive" paragons but by = places like Atlanta, Dallas and Houston. Atlanta, long known as one of = America's premier African American cities, has boomed to become the = capital of the New South. It should come as no surprise that good for = African Americans has meant good for whites too. Similarly, Houston took = in tens of thousands of mostly poor and overwhelmingly African American = refugees from Hurricane Katrina. Houston, a booming metro and emerging = world city, rolled out the welcome mat for them - and for Latinos, = Asians and other newcomers. They see these people as possessing talent = worth having.=20 This history and resulting political dynamic could not be more different = from what happened in Portland and its "progressive" brethren. These = cities have never been black, and may never be predominately Latino. = Perhaps they cannot be blamed for this but they certainly should not be = self-congratulatory about it or feel superior about the urban policies a = lack of diversity has enabled. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Where Oregon Dems stand on Afghan war escalation by Michael Munk Sat, Oct 24, 2009

To Dec 18: Photos and words of Iraq-Afghan vets by Michael Munk Wed, Oct 21, 2009

"Exit Wounds" Exhibit at The City Club of Portland Exit Wounds:Life After War - Soldiers' Stories Words and 2000 photographs by American Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars organized by Portland photographer Jim Lommanson September 24 - December 18, 2009 City Club of Portland: 901 SW Washington Street, Portland, Oregon 97205 Monday-Thursday, 9:30AM-4:30PM (closed when meetings are in session). for details go to http://exitwoundshomecoming.blogspot.com/ visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

If it matters to Oregon, read the NYT by Michael Munk Sat, Oct 17, 2009

.Frustrated Liberal Lawmaker Balances Beliefs and Politics By CARL HULSE New York Times: October 18, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/us/politics/18liberal.html?_r=1&hp WASHINGTON - Representative Earl Blumenauer should be experiencing the most fulfilling days of his more than 35 years in public service. The liberal Democrat from Portland, Ore. - known for his bowties, his Trek bicycle and a pragmatic brand of progressivism - embraced Barack Obama's presidential candidacy early in 2008 and campaigned hard alongside him, steadily gaining confidence that the young senator from Illinois was the ideal liberal remedy to eight years of conservative dominance. Now political reality has set in, testing Mr. Blumenauer's faith that Mr. Obama's election and big Democratic majorities in Congress would yield quick advances in the progressive agenda. Instead of forging ahead, Mr. Blumenauer, 61, finds himself fighting to retain one of the touchstones for liberals this year, a public insurance option in the health care overhaul, and is watching his hopes of curbing global warming grow cold in the Senate. Mr. Blumenauer, a seven-term congressman, is bracing for a tough vote on sending more troops to Afghanistan while he frets about the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay remaining open. "It has been a hard landing for a lot of the people that I represent," Mr. Blumenauer, referring to his largely liberal constituency, said as he assessed the first months of the Obama administration. As health care legislation moves to the floor with other major issues close behind, the question for Mr. Blumenauer and those who share his ideology will be whether they relent on some of their core beliefs to support less satisfying compromises, despite being in what, on the surface, is a commanding political position. "It is still something that I am struggling with," he said. Mr. Blumenauer is just one example of what might be called the Frustrated Left, a substantial caucus of Congressional Democrats who dreamed that Mr. Obama would usher in a new era of liberal problem-solving only to see Congress and the new administration collide with the old problems of partisanship, internal disagreement and the challenge of mustering 60 votes to get just about anything done in the Senate. While Congressional leaders try to appease moderate and conservative Democrats who can provide the crucial votes for passage, more liberal Democrats from safer districts sometimes simmer, feeling that they are being taken for granted while it is assumed they will get on board when the time comes. On health care, Democrats are growing more optimistic that they can find a compromise approach to creating a government-run insurer to compete with the private sector - an issue that as much as any other has split the party's liberals and moderates - even as progressive voices outside of Congress insist that there be no compromise. "The fact is that Earl Blumenauer could stop a bill going through that does not have a public option in it," said Jane Hamsher, founder of the progressive blog firedoglake.com. "Is it his loyalty to the party, partisan politics over principle? We are going to get to see that." Mr. Blumenauer strongly favors a public option and in late July was one of more than 60 Democrats who signed a letter to the leadership saying that, essentially, they would not back a final bill without an acceptable public plan. But on health care - as on other domestic issues, global warming and foreign policy - he must weigh whether it makes more sense to take what he can get as opposed to standing firm and perhaps seeing the overall effort collapse. "It would be very hard for me to do," Mr. Blumenauer said of voting for a final health care overhaul without a public plan. "But if it gets to the point where the choice is doing some things that will make a significant difference without a public option or letting the whole thing die, that too would be hard." Mr. Blumenauer got on board early with Mr. Obama after concluding that he offered the chance for a more decisive change in course than Hillary Rodham Clinton could provide. He first met Mr. Obama at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston and endorsed him in late January 2008. "There was something going on here, this guy has got some real capacity being able to, I think, connect, communicate," remembered Mr. Blumenauer. Mr. Obama won Oregon and Mr. Blumenauer's district going away, setting sky-high expectations among his followers in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Blumenauer, a member of the tax-writing and climate change committees with a devotion to trying to improve the livability of American cities, said he did not think Mr. Obama had shifted his ideological stance since his election and did not blame the president for the problems slowing the liberal agenda. He said he saw a combination of factors - the troubled economy, the sheer scope of the nation's problems and an unexpected level of Republican opposition - as the culprits. "The combination of the economic shock and frankly the political upset and outrage has changed the landscape," Mr. Blumenauer said. "The Barack Obama that I campaigned with is pretty much the same guy. But it is an environment that is unprecedented and would press anyone's skills." Back home, Mr. Blumenauer said his constituents had shown patience with the pace of things, partly, he suggested, because they were so disenchanted with the Bush administration. Activists and pollsters in Oregon said that they agreed but that the patience of Mr. Blumenauer's liberal base was not unlimited. "I think people realize you can't do everything precisely all at once," said Steve Novick, a Democratic advocate in Portland who lost a Senate bid in 2008. Senator Ron Wyden, whose move to the Senate opened up the House seat for Mr. Blumenauer in 1996, said Oregon residents grasped the complexity of the problems facing the country. "Look at what is coming at us: Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran," he said. "There is a sense that there is going to be a lot of heavy lifting, but people want to stay at it until it happens." Even with his frustrations, Mr. Blumenauer said that having a Democratic administration had paid tangible benefits. The secretaries of the housing and transportation departments have visited Portland, and he recently hosted Lisa P. Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in his office. "They want to be a partner on the cleanup rather than ignoring it," he said, referring to environmental cleanup projects in his state. And though some of his preferred legislative approaches might be stalled or fall victim to compromise, Mr. Blumenauer said he believed that Mr. Obama and the Democratic majorities in Congress would ultimately be successful in advancing a liberal agenda on the major issues. "We are going to be working on climate, on health care, on the economy for every minute of the next two Congresses and beyond," he said. "Will the public be patient enough? Will the political process hold together? "This is not going to be easy," he said, "but I think we are seeing a process that makes me actually optimistic, even though it is not exactly like I would have liked." visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Blumenauer to vote for single payer by Michael Munk Fri, Oct 16, 2009

Oregon's socialist beaches by Michael Munk Thu, Oct 15, 2009

To the editor The Oregonian Oct. 14, 2009 http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2009/10/letters_to_the_editor_remove_t.html Socialist beaches I just returned from a fabulous two days in Neskowin and had this thought. A huge "socialist experiment" has been going on in Oregon for many decades. All Oregonians -- and visitors of all stripes -- relish an opportunity to use it and promote it. It's the beaches of the Oregon Coast. All owned by the people -- no private beaches. Many private businesses depend on the dynamics of the public good (free access) and their own entrepreneurship. Come and enjoy the partnership of public and private effort. RICHARD WHITE Northwest Portland visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

If you want real health reform, act now! by Michael Munk Wed, Oct 14, 2009

More on Oregon CO camp book by Michael Munk Sun, Oct 11, 2009

Jeffrey Kovac, a graduate of Sunset High School and Reed College, is a = professor of chemistry at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and = the author of "Refusing War, Affirming Peace: A History of Civilian = Public Service Camp #21 at Cascade Locks" (Oregon State University = Press, $21.95 paperback, 192 pages). He will discuss his book at 7 p.m. = Thursday at the Hood River County Library Meeting Room and at 7:30 p.m. = Friday at Powell's City of Books in Portland.=20 WWII pacifists served, too, in Oregon=20 By Jeffrey Kovac=20 The Oregonian October 11, 2009 http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/10/wwii_pacifists_served= _too_in_o.html Lewis & Clark College Digital CollectionsUnidentified members of = Civilian Public Service Camp #21 construct a rock wall at the Cascade = Locks Ranger Station. =20 =20 By JEFFREY KOVAC=20 =20 Largely overlooked and unmentioned in the discussion of America's = military entanglements in Iraq and Afghanistan is the story of some = 12,000 conscientious objectors who refused to fight in World War II and = instead performed free labor in Civilian Public Service camps across the = United States.=20 Motivated primarily by their religious beliefs, these men at 152 camps, = including eight sites in Oregon, worked in areas such as soil = conservation, forestry, firefighting, agriculture, social services and = mental and public health. Some served as subjects in a variety of = medical experiments.=20 The Civilian Public Service program operated from 1941 to 1947 and = provided a unique structure for COs to do "work of national importance = under civilian direction" as an alternative to military service. You = might find a conservative Mennonite from the Midwest bunking next to a = Harvard Ph.D. Collectively, however, these men stood fast to their = pacifist principles even in the face of widespread criticism.=20 =20 View full sizeCPS was an uneasy compromise between conscientious = objectors and the government during a popular war. As a country built on = the principles of religious and personal freedom, the United States has = always been a haven for dissenters, including those opposed to war for = religious, moral or political reasons. Yet, during times of war, there = is a natural tendency to close ranks behind the military, to support the = troops.=20 The emergence of the CPS program as a partnership between the federal = government and historic peace churches that ran many of the camps seems = all the more remarkable, given the spectrum of alternatives that COs = have faced during past wars, ranging from jail time to draft dodging. = Uncle Sam accepted that these men had a moral objection to military = service but at the same time let it be known they still had a duty to = serve their country.=20 One of the most notable CPS camps was right here in Oregon in the = Columbia Gorge. On Dec. 5, 1941, two days before Pearl Harbor, 71 = conscientious objectors, nearly all from California, arrived by train at = CPS Camp #21 at Cascade Locks to begin their alternative service, = expecting to serve for a year.=20 View full sizeAfter the U.S. entered the war, their term of service = became the duration of the war plus six months, the same as those in the = military. Eventually, the camp, which was actually seven miles east in = Wyeth, housed nearly 200 men, who, despite long hours of physical labor = on work projects for the Forest Service, were able to build a vibrant = pacifist community that came to be known as the "Athens of CPS." About = 550 men spent some time at Cascade Locks during the war.=20 Under the leadership of camp director the Rev. Mark Y. Schrock, a young = Church of the Brethren minister from Indiana, the COs developed a strong = educational program that included a systematic attempt to create a = philosophy and strategy for building a postwar pacifist world, a project = called the School of Pacifist Living. They also nurtured the arts = through concerts, plays and the publication of a literary magazine, The = Illiterati.=20 As World War II progressed, some combatants employed tactics that were = morally questionable, yet few civilians in the United States objected. = The men of CPS #21, however, showed remarkable moral courage both in = withstanding enormous pressure to join the military, and then taking = strong public stands against the more extreme tactics used during the = war.=20 The removal and incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry, both = citizens and noncitizens, along the West Coast, provoked a protest among = the men at Cascade Locks. Specifically, they objected to the attempt by = the War Relocation Authority to remove George Kyoshi Yamada, a = California college student and Japanese American CO, and send him to an = incarceration camp.=20 Schrock wrote letters to his superiors on the church's Brethren Service = Committee and to the U.S. Selective Service, stating that he would not = sign Yamada's discharge papers because in doing so he would be = "participating in what fair minded men of today and all future ages must = see as a crime and an insane inhumanity to man."=20 The COs wrote their own letter, signed by Camp President Charles Davis, = himself a recent college graduate who later served twice as Oregon's = public utility commissioner, in which they expressed their willingness = to engage in nonviolent direct action to prevent Yamada's removal from = camp. The War Relocation Authority ultimately reconsidered and allowed = Yamada to remain in CPS, although it reassigned him to an inland camp at = Colorado Springs, Colo.=20 In publishing a literary magazine, the COs directly raised the question = of the importance of art for pacifism. Their answer was that it was = important for the pacifist to "present his philosophy to the haunters of = libraries, concerts and galleries."=20 Mainly a poetry magazine, The Illiterati included the early work of = William Stafford, who would later become Oregon's poet laureate. The = Illiterati and the other artistic efforts were attempts by those with = creative impulses to make sense of both the war and their own situation = in CPS.=20 The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, by atomic bombs = outraged the men at Cascade Locks, who immediately formed a group to = study the issue of atrocity bombing and began to send telegrams and = letters to pacifist leaders around the country. The bombings effectively = ended the war, but many COs continued their efforts and became = anti-nuclear activists during the 1950s.=20 The story of CPS #21 shows that even in a time of war it is possible to = follow the dictates of conscience and take a positive stand for peace. = Regarded as unpatriotic cowards by the public, the COs served their = country, even as they continually looked for ways to make the world a = better place by objecting to actions and policies that they felt were = immoral.=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Oct 16: new book on Cascade Locks CO camp by Michael Munk Sun, Oct 11, 2009

Jeff Kovac introduces his new book, "Refusing War, Affirming Peace: A History of Civilian Public Service Camp #21 at Cascade Locks " at the main Powell's on Burnside on October 16 (Friday) at 7:30 PM. The camp in the Columbia Gorge held C.O.'during World War II. Jeff jkovac@utk.edu is professor of chemistry at the U. of Tennessee

Oct 15: Civil disobedience for single payer in Portland by Michael Munk Sat, Oct 10, 2009

Dorothea Lange exhibit open in Portland by Michael Munk Wed, Oct 7, 2009

Portland State University Daily Vanguard=20 October 7, 2009 Dorothea Lange in Oregon The Littman Gallery reveals a treasure trove of the photographer's = rarely seen work shot in Oregon By Joel Gaddis, Vanguard Staff =20 photo courtesy of Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission=20 Dorthea Lange:The iconic female photographer had a knack for capturing = candid reflections of day to day life during the Depression.=20 A man on horseback holds a child, his face obscured by shadows. In the = background, we see a woman standing beside a ramshackle tent, staring = off into the distance. All around them, a landscape of open plains and = scrub brush stretches out, seemingly infinite. This is a snapshot of the = Fairbanks family, taken in Malheur County, Ore., during the 1930s. The = woman behind the camera was Dorothea Lange, a photographer whose iconic = images have come to define our understanding of the Great Depression. = Throughout October and November, the Littman Gallery will be hosting = Dorothea Lange in Oregon: 1939 Farm Security Administration Photos, an = exhibition commemorating Lange's work in the region that is rarely = displayed. Born in 1895 in Hoboken, N.J., Lange developed a passion for = photography at an early age. After a series of classes and internships, = she eventually opened her own photo studio in San Francisco. It was = here, amid the onset of the Depression, where Lange looked to the = streets and used her camera to capture the widespread dejection of a = working class without work.=20 Photographs such as "White Angel Bread Line," which depicted a group of = unemployed men waiting for food, illustrated Lange's aptitude for = distilling the human condition with striking and poignant intensity. = This skill did not go unnoticed and, in 1935, she was commissioned as a = field photographer for the Resettlement Administration (later called the = Farm Security Administration, or FSA). This was a program enacted by = President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the aim of improving conditions for = farmers and migrant workers. Lange's task was to document firsthand the = ameliorative effects of the FSA's efforts. In 1939, her work with the = FSA brought her to Oregon, where she produced the images that comprise = the Littman Gallery display. =20 This will be the first time that the photographs have been displayed in = a gallery setting, as they were previously only available through the = Library of Congress. According to Linda Gordon, author and professor of = history at New York University, the relative invisibility of Lange's = Oregon photography was what prompted her to get involved with the Lange = project.=20 Gordon recently completed a biography of Lange's life and will be = providing an introductory speech for the exhibition. She will also be = giving a presentation on Lange's 1940s-era photographs documenting the = internment of Japanese-Americans on Friday, Oct. 9 at Reed College.=20 "Lange was really the first person who showed that it was possible to = create documentary photography that was simultaneously great art," said = Gordon. "The political impact was greater because of the quality of her = photos." Gordon attests that Lange's work helped bolster support for = Roosevelt's New Deal. =20 Yet, in spite of their great significance, the photos that Lange took in = Oregon-a total of over 500 images-have remained in relative obscurity = for some time. Organizations such as the Oregon Cultural Heritage = Commission and PSU Friends of History are now helping to bring a number = of these important cultural documents back into the light.=20 It hasn't been easy. For the last eight years, Michael Munk, historian = and member of the OCHC, has been trying to foster interest in a showing = of Lange's pictures of the Pacific Northwest. Munk claims he had no idea = that Lange had photographed in the area until he stumbled upon a shot = she had taken along an Oregon highway. Inspired by this discovery, he = became dedicated to bringing wider attention to this little known = treasure trove of local history.=20 For a while, Munk and the OCHC were unable to drum up enough support to = launch an exhibition. Munk says he was "perplexed by the unenthusiastic = response," but persevered in his efforts.=20 With financial backing and the assistance of photographer Rick Regan, = who has made high-quality prints of the photos from the Library of = Congress' digital archives, the project has finally come to fruition. = David Milholland, president of OCHC, is thrilled to be unveiling the = pictures. He believes they provide a valuable window into a past that = may seem distant to the postwar generation, but has a great deal of = relevance to contemporary society. On Oct. 10, a series of speakers will = present dramatic renditions of Lange's notes, accompanied by a slide = show presentation of the related pictures. The event will even include = popular music from the Depression era to create authentic ambience.=20 David Horowitz, a history professor at Portland State who helped = organize the workshop, will be taking part in the dramatic readings. = Horowitz discovered Lange through his studies of populism and forms of = expressive culture in the 1930s, and clearly has a great deal of respect = for the message behind Lange's photography.=20 "Her work brings out the strength of ordinary people," Horowitz says. He = also emphasizes the connection between Lange's work and our current = economic situation. =20 The exhibition could hardly be timelier. The anniversary of the 1929 = stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression falls on Oct. = 28 and the reality of our present recession weighs heavily on the minds = of most Americans. Lange's powerful portraits serve as a reminder that = hard times can bring out some of humanity's most admirable attributes: = fortitude, tenacity and a deep sense of kinship. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Nader's Oregon Progressive Party by Michael Munk Mon, Oct 5, 2009

The last Oregon Progressive party was formed to support Henry Wallace's = 1948 campaign. =20 =20 =20 a.. HOME =20 Ralph Nader for President National Campaign Oregon Campaign News Common Dreams CounterPunch Huffington Post OpEd News Dissident Voice=20 Peace Groups Portland Alliance for Democracy Beyond War Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon Oregon Peaceworks International Shadow Project Portland Peace & Justice Coalition Yamhill Valley PeaceMakers=20 Contact Us info@progparty.org Navigation a.. Recent posts =20 Oregon Peace Party becomes Progressive Party On September 18, 2009, the Peace Party changed its name to the = Progressive Party. The paperwork was filed with the Oregon Secretary of = State (SoS), who will very soon be ordering new voter registration cards = that will reflect the name change. "Progressive" more accurately reflects the party's positions on = social justice, consumer advocacy, environmental protection, and = worker's rights, in addition to its dedication to peace. Unfortunately, the Oregon Legislature demands that, when a minor = party changes its name, it loses its entire membership. Everyone who was = registered with the Peace Party now needs to re-register as a member of = the Progressive Party. Click the link below to download Oregon's voter registration form. = Mark the circle next to Other: Progressive Party. Sign it. Mail it to = your county elections office (addresses are on the form). Don't forget = the 42 cent stamp! =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

City Council votes for single payer by Michael Munk Fri, Oct 2, 2009

Are Blumenauer, Wu and Schrader listening? Portland council approves resolution urging passage of health care reform By Mark Larabee, The Oregonian http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/09/portland_council_approves_reso.html September 30, 2009, 11:42AM The Portland City Council passed a resolution today urging the U.S. Congress to enact the United States National Health Care Act sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., which calls for a national taxpayer-funded health care system. The council resolution was co-sponsored by Mayor Sam Adams and Commissioners Randy Leonard and Amanda Fritz. It passed 4-0 with support from Commissioner Nick Fish. Commissioner Dan Saltzman was absent. Leonard said 50 million people living in the United States lack health insurance, and he pointed out that people in most developed countries have better care than that available here. "America's health system faces a deepening crisis," Leonard said. "All other developed countries cover everyone at a lower cost than the U.S. We fail to include everyone and we get worse results. This is the last frontier in the fight for rights for all in this country." Fish said the broken health care system is conspiring with the bad economy, putting in danger the increasing number of low-income and homeless people. "Whose voices will we listen to?" Fish said. "The voices of the people or the voices of the large pharmaceutical companies? It is essential that all Americans enjoy health care" Labor unions and other workers rights group, doctors, nurses and people with health issues spoke in support of the council resolution. The council directed the city attorney to copy the resolution to President Barack Obama and members of the Oregon congressional delegation accompanied by letters urging them to work to adopt and implement comprehensive health care coverage for all U.S. residents. The resolution also states that the council will encourage Portland residents to participate actively in the debate by informing their elected officials of their wishes and expectations on health care reform. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Nader in Portland Sunday for single payer by Michael Munk Fri, Oct 2, 2009

Friday Peace Rally Demands End to Afghan war by Michael Munk Wed, Sep 30, 2009

Below is the news release we just sent out about Friday's rally and march. If you are interested in being at the Square tomorrow (Thursday) morning to help with bannering (arrive at 6:15 AM, stay till 7 or 7:30 AM...or later?) please get back to me asap!! I am reminded that when Barack Obama was elected, this was part of his acceptance speech: "I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices," Obama said. "I need your help and I will be your president, too." What this means to us at PJW is that whether or not you voted for President Obama, he wants to hear your voice and your opinion, even if you disagree with him. This is a particularly important time to say "No!" to the occupation of Afghanistan, as he weighs General McChrystal's request for even more troops. Please circulate this information and we will see you on Friday at 5 PM for the rally and march! --dan handelman for Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group iraq@pjw.info For Immediate Release Wednesday, September 30, 2009 What: "The Invasion of Afghanistan, 8 Years Later": Expanded Friday Rally and March for Peace and Justice When: Friday, October 2, 2009, 5:00 PM Where: Pioneer Courthouse Square, SW Yamhill and Broadway Who: Portland Peaceful Response Coalition (PPRC), Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group, the First Unitarian Church, and other groups Contacts: PPRC (503) 344-5078 pprc@riseup.net www.pprc-news.org Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group (503) 236-3065 iraq@pjw.info Peace Groups Gear Up to Call for End of War in Afghanistan Expanded Friday Rally and March for Peace and Justice Friday, October 2, 2009, 5:00 PM Pioneer Courthouse Square, SW Yamhill and Broadway As President Obama considers his top General's request for more U.S. soldiers to risk their lives, Portlanders will call for an end to the occupation of Afghanistan this Friday. At an expanded Friday Rally and March for Peace and Justice on October 2, 2009 at 5 PM at Pioneer Courthouse Square (SW Yamhill and Broadway), protestors will consider "The Invasion of Afghanistan, 8 Years Later." Banners promoting the event have been parading about Portland on Burnside and near the Hawthorne and Morrison Bridges. Early morning "human billboard" bannering is also expected at 6:30 AM this Thursday, October 1, at Pioneer Courthouse Square to greet early morning commuters (weather permitting). Speakers, including several who are in town for a conference on the economic and enviromental crises, will tie the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, the bombardment of Pakistan, the threats against Iran and other foreign policy issues together. Just some of these concerns are US dependency on oil, use of depleted uranium and other toxic weapons, and the skyrocketing costs of the occupations. The US has now spent over $1 trillion on these occupations, which would have been much better spent on human needs. The US invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, ostensibly to capture Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda members suspected of planning the attacks of 9/11. The current government of Afghanistan has welcomed US and NATO's military presence while complaining bitterly of the hundreds of civilian casualties caused by airstrikes and ground troops. Since the US is now allied with the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan after having driven out those who were in power in each country in 2001 and 2003, these conflicts should not be labelled "wars." "Traumatized by 9/11, the people of the United States were hounded and defrauded into war and occupation in Afghanistan eight years ago," said Will Seaman, a volunteer with Portland Peaceful Response Coalition. "We said no then, we say no today, and we will not rest until the United States rejects this nightmare of empire, until all the troops are home, and until we have paid reparations for the terrible crimes our country has committed against the people of Afghanistan." The October 2 event is an expanded Portland Peaceful Response Coalition (PPRC) Friday rally in cooperation with Peace and Justice Works Iraq Affinity Group, and the First Unitarian Church. Supporters include Freedom Socialist Party, War Resisters League- Portland and others. Endorsers include Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House, Rural Organizing Project, PDX Peace, Center for Intercultural Organizing, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom-Portland Chapter. Portland's Friday rallies for peace and justice have been an institution since late 2001. A march will commence at about 5:30 PM, winding through downtown to engage rush hour commuters, ending at the First Unitarian Church. That evening at 7 PM, political analyst Noam Chomsky is speaking at the conference, known as EcoNvergence. The rally is being coordinated in conjunction with the EcoNvergence, which runs from October 2-4: more information on the gathering is at http://www.econvergence.org . The rally and march are also in solidarity with other actions happening nationwide to end the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. For more information, contact Peace and Justice Works at 503-236-3065 or PPRC at (503) 344-5078. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Sept 30: Econvergence opens in Portland by Michael Munk Sat, Sep 26, 2009

The Northwest Gathering on the Economic and Ecological Crises will begin = in less than a week. Please visit the conference website, = www.econvergence.org, to see what an amazing event has been organized = with the help of an amazing group of organizations here in the Northwest = region. The conference has always been run on a shoe-string budget. Only because = the First Unitarian Church and the Sociology Department at PSU provided = the space needed free of charge, only because of the generosity of Noam = Chomsky who is donating the entire proceeds from ticket sales to his = keynote address, only because many traveling to speak at the conference = are paying their own way, only because many here in Portland are housing = guests coming from out of town, and only because conference organizers = have all worked on a voluntary basis without payment is a truly = magnificent program stretching over more than four days now ready to = unfold. What remains is to be sure the word gets out so as many people as = possible will know to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to = learn more about the nature of the economic and environmental crises we = face and what can be done about them. Unfortunately our budget provided little money for publicity and has = been exhausted by the posters, flyers, and handouts we have already = printed up. Our best way to get the word out is through all the = organizations who have participated in building the conference, many of = whom have also organized panels or workshops featuring their own = activities. If all 56 participating organizations use their own means of = communicating with their own members to let them know about the = conference, there will be strong attendance at everyone's panels and = workshops and not just at the keynote and major plenaries. And if others = included in this emailing who work with organizations who could not = formally affiliate for a host of reasons also helped us to get the word = out now, the regional response to the crises we are all dedicated to = overcoming will be even stronger. We believe our website sells the conference well. This means the key is = getting your members to visit www.econvergence.org. Anything else you = tell them or sent them about the conference, of course, is that much = more helpful. I have attached a pdf file with our flyer. I have also = attached a Microsoft word file with a shortened version of our press = release which also appears below. I hope to see you all -- and many, many of the members of your = organizations -- at Econvergence in just a few days. In Solidarity, Robin Hahnel, on behalf of the Econvergence Steering Committee Author and Activist Noam Chomsky Presents Keynote at Econvergence = Conference Three day conference hosted by over 50 Northwest labor, environmental, = and social justice organizations features international experts on = challenges of current environmental and economic crises. Portland, Oregon - Over 50 Northwest labor, environmental and social = justice organizations are inviting the public to join them to explore = ways to respond to the current global economic and environmental crises = at the Northwest Gathering on the Economic and Ecological Crises hosted = at the First Unitarian Church of Portland and the Smith Student Union at = Portland State Univeristy. Events begin with a rally for a real economic = recovery on Wednesday, September 30 and run through Sunday, October 4. Information about the conference -- including the locations and times = for events, information about speakers, the schedule for Chomsky's = keynote, 9 major plenaries, 93 panels and workshops, 2 rallies, a = special art exhibit and poetry reading, a film premier, and a band = concert - is all available on our website: www.econvergence.org. = Admission to the conference is FREE. Noam Chomsky will give his keynote, "When Elites Fail," at 7 PM on = Friday, Oct. 2. Derrick Jensen will speak at 6:30 PM on Sat., Oct. 3. = Tickets for both speakers can be purchased from Tickets West through the = conference website. Chomsky and Jensen will be joined over the weekend = by other nationally known speakers including Tom Palley, Eric = Holt-Gimenez, David Korten, Cindy Corrie, Danny Schechter, Barbara = Garson, John Bellamy Foster, Laura Carlsen, Jo Ann Bowman, Martin = Sanchez, Laura Regan, Jonathan Skinner, and Lisa Sullivan. About the Conference - "Our ministry has a long history of aiding = campaigns that promote social justice and environmental preservation. = The goal is to inform and inspire the participants to rise to new = heights in addressing the dual challenges facing the economy and = environment," said Rev. Kate Lore, Social Justice Minister of the First = Unitarian Church of Portland.=20 "This gathering will explore ways to break through the political = gridlock that brought on the crises and so far has weakened legislative = responses to the point where they have been largely ineffective." said = Robin Hahnel, economics professor and a conference organizer.

Tomorow (Sat): Israeli feminist in Portland by Michael Munk Fri, Sep 25, 2009

From: "Anne McLaughlin" Gila Svirsky in Portland Saturday, September 26 We are so lucky to have this great activist visiting Portland this weekend. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear her speak! 7 pm First Unitarian Church 1011 SW 12th Ave, Buchan Building Grassroots Paths to Peace in Palestine/Israel: perceptions of an Israeli Activist.Followed by a discussion of local work for Middle East peace and justice by a panel of Portland activists Gila Svirsky is an Israeli writer and peace activist, who has headed Israel’s major peace and human rights organizations. In 2000, she co-founded and led the Coalition of Women for Peace, which brings together nine Israeli women’s peace organizations, raising the visibility and volume of the feminist peace movement in Israel. Svirsky has been an activist with Women in Black since its inception in 1988, helping grow the movement into a network of vigils spanning the globe. She is currently chair of B’Tselem, Israel’s foremost human rights organization in the Occupied Territories. sponsors: Peace Action Committee of First Unitarian Church, Friends of Sabeel, Lutherans for Justice in the Holy Land – Central Lutheran Church, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Jewish Voice for Peace, American Jews for a Just Peace

Tomorrow Sept 24: PDX Rally for Honduras by Michael Munk Wed, Sep 23, 2009

From: David Delk=20 =20 Portland Central America Solidarity Committee (PCASC) has called for a = rally to support the constitutional, democraticallly elected president = of Honduras, who was overthrown by a military junta betwen two and three = months ago. President Zelaya's crime seems to have been enacting a new = higher minamum wage and to support the preasents and working class of = Honduras. The president has now returned to Honduras and is at the = Brazilian embassy. =20 =20 Rally to support President Zelaya on Thursday, Sept 24 at 6 PM in = Pioneer Square.=20 David e. Delk, Alliance for Democracy - Portland Chapter 503 232 5495 = www.afd-pdx.org =20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- EMERGENCY RALLY- Thursday 9-24-09, 6pm, Pioneer Square=20 Democratically elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was = overthrown in a US backed military coup; an overt threat to the social = movements of Latin America. In Zelaya=92s absence a large social = movement, based on unions and community groups has challenged the = authority of the coup government by waging national strikes and weekly = mass protests. Now President Zelaya has covertly returned to his = homeland after nearly 3 months in exile and has taken refuge at the = Brazilian embassy.=20 The coup government is attacking protesters who have gathered around the = Brazilian Embassy to protect Zelaya. The de facto regime imposed a = military curfew resulting in the arrests of hundreds of protesters. = Dangerous quantities of tear gas are being used on protesters as well as = rubber bullets and at least 24 people have been hospitalized. Several = deaths have been reported.=20 The people of Honduras are screaming out for international support! Meet = at Pioneer Square Thursday 9-24-09 at 6pm for an emergency rally! Alert from yesterday from SOA Watch: President Zelaya is Back in Honduras! SOA Graduates Fire Rubber Bullets and Tear Gas at Zelaya Supporters Call the State Department (202-647-4000) and the White House = (202-456-1111) Photo: Honduran President Manuel Zelaya addresses thousands of = supporters who have gathered in front of the Brazilian embassy on = Monday, September 21, 2009 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. President Manuel Zelaya, after over eighty days in exile, has returned = to Honduras. In a BBC interview, Zelaya said "[We travelled] for more = than 15 hours... through rivers and mountains until we reached the = capital of Honduras, which we reached in the early hours of the morning. = We overtook military and police obstacles, all those on the highways = here, because this country has been kidnapped by the military forces."=20 The coup regime has imposed a curfew for the entire country from 4pm = yesterday afternoon until 6pm this afternoon. Media outlets are being = silenced and cell phone and email correspondence is being limited, in a = repeat of the tactics immediately following the June 28 military coup by = SOA graduates. Thousands defied the orders and gathered in front of the = Brazilian embassy, where Zelaya is currently staying. Radio Globo = reported from the convergence in front of the Brazilian embassy: "We are = here peacefully, unarmed because we are the people and don't fear the = military. The military must serve the people and their democratically = elected president, Mel Zelaya." However, the SOA graduate-led Honduran military and the police moved = this morning against the peacefully assembled crowd in front of the = Brazilian Embassy and disbursed them with bullets and water tanks. = Supporters of the constitutional president of Honduras are being = attacked and beaten. The embassy is now surrounded by the military. The = coup regime leader, Roberto Micheletti, threatened to cancel the = embassy's immunity if Zelaya were not handed over to the de facto = regime. An overall atmosphere of insecurity is now being imposed. = President Zelaya called on the armed forces not to attack their own = people and encouraged the Honduran people to continue mobilizing for = peace and the restoration of constitutional order. The National = Resistance Front Against the Coup has sent out a call for a national = strike today, and for people to come from all parts of the country to = the capital to continue the show of popular support for the return of = the democratically elected president. Our fear that the coup authorities would crack down even harder, now = that their end is near, is materializing. Click here to contact your Member of Congress to demand that they take a = stand for democracy and against the SOA-graduate-led military coup. Please take a couple minutes and call the State Department at = 202-647-4000 to deliver the following message: "Work for the = unconditional immediate reinstatement of President Zelaya and pressure = the SOA graduate-led Honduran military to stop the violence against the = people and their democratically elected president, Mel Zelaya. Ensure = that the coup plotters will be held responsible for their actions. Any = bloodshed will be on the hands of the coup government and security = forces." Call the White House comment line at 202-456-1111 with the same message. = Visit NarcoNews for a detailed report back of yesterdays events. Visit www.SOAW.org for updates throughout the day.=20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ------- visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Sept 30: City Council votes on 676 by Michael Munk Wed, Sep 23, 2009

Finally! Lange's Oregon photos at PSU Oct 1. by Michael Munk Tue, Sep 22, 2009

About eight years ago, I happened across a photo in American Heritage = magazine in an article about social movements of the 1930s It showed a = Technocracy billboard captioned, "Dorothea Lange spotted this sign = beside an Oregon highway in 1939." Really? I had no idea Lange was = taking pictures in Oregon in 1939 but soon learned from her Library of = Congress website that she had traveled to the Northwest in the fall of = that year documenting the impact of Farm Security Administration = programs.with her remarklable eye and camera Over 400 of her archived = photos depicted Oregonians and Oregon sites from Portland to Dead Ox = Flat in Harney County, from Celilo on the Columbia River to Merrill on = the California border--images ranging from Carleton farm women quilting = to and an 11-year working with his grandmother in 105 degree heat in = Polk County hop fields--a panorama of struggling rural Oregonians not = long before World War II pulled them out of the Great Depression. Excited by my discovery, I soon found that local art and history = communities were largely unaware of this treasure. I had assumed our = museums, photo galleries and other cultural institutions would be eager = to be the first to exhibit a world famous photographer's view of Oregon = and was surprised they were not. My colleagues at the Oregon Cultural = Heritage Commission were supportive but our efforts to secure funds to = move ahead were not successful. I was perplexed by the unenthusiastic = response but continued to use every opportunity to generate interest in = the Lange photos for the next eight years. So I am gratified that on October 1, Oregonians will finally have a = chance to experience "Dorothea Lange in Oregon: 1939 Farm Security = Administration Photos" when a small selection of her photos and comments = opens with a public reception at Portland State University's Littman = Gallery. Sponsored by OCHC and PSU's Friends of History, it will run = through November 25. It is free to the public at the Gallery, 250 Smith = Center, 1825 SW Broadway, PSU. The opening: reception will be 5-7 PM = October 1. Other events in connection with the exhibit (all free except = Wordstock) include: October 8: Portland native and New York University History Professor = Linda Gordon will present a lecture, "Dorothea Lange's Depression-era = Photography of Oregon: Assumptions Challenged," at 1pm in 238 at PSU's = Smith Center.=20 October 9: Prof. Gordon, co-author of Impounded: Dorothea Lange and = Japanese Americans in World War II{ 2006) will lecture on "Impounded: = Dorothea Lange and Censored Images of Japanese American Internment" at = 4:30 PM Reed College in the Vollum lecture hall. Part of Reed's 2009 = Public Policy Lecture Series, it is sponsored by its American studies = Program, the Ducey Lecture Fund and PSU's Friends of History. October 10: At 10AM, OCHC multi- media presenters and Prof. Gordon = appear in " Dorothea Lange's Photographic Imagery of Great Depression = Oregon" in 238 Smith Center, PSU. This event is part of the PSU Alumni = Association's October Weekend. At 2PM, Prof. Gordon will mark the release of her new book, Dorothea = Lange: A Life Beyond Limits (W.W. Norton, 2009) at the Wordstock Book = Fair, University of Oregon Non-Fiction Stage. Wordstock happens at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther = King Jr. Blvd. Daily admission (10 am - 6 pm) $5, children 13 and under = free. =20 Lange's comments on these two photos: Grants Pass:"Hop farmers advertise for pickers as far away as = San Francisco," "But they don't say what they pay," a picker told = Lange.=20 =20 Oct 27, 1939 Merrill, Klamath County." Neglected baby, parked = in truck in which they came from Mississippi. Father drunk, mother = sleeping, 3 p.m., in dirty tent. There is another 5-weeks old baby. = (Attention called to this by camp nurse)"=20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20 =20

Oregon senators also abandoned ACORN by Michael Munk Sat, Sep 19, 2009

Dan Handelman reminds us:: "Wyden and Merkley also voted to cut funds". Only 11 stood up (Murray did not vote) On Fri, 18 Sep 2009, Michael Munk wrote: "Congrats" to Oregon Dem representatives DeFazio, Blumenauer, Wu and Schrader (and Baird) who joined Repub Walden in capitulating to the nutcakes and voting to cut off all federal funding to ACORN. Only 75 Dems stood up. Published on Thursday, September 17, 2009 by Salon.com VIA Lloyd Marbet The Distracting Benefits of ACORN Hysteria by Glenn Greenwald Earlier this week, I wrote about how the Fox-News/Glenn-Beck/Rush-Limbaugh leadership trains its protesting followers to focus the vast bulk of their resentment and anxieties on largely powerless and downtrodden factions, while ignoring, and even revering, the outright pillaging by virtually omnipotent corporate interests that own and control their Government (and, not coincidentally, Fox News). It's hard to imagine a more perfectly illustrative example of all of that than the hysterical furor over ACORN. ACORN has received a grand total of $53 million in federal funds over the last 15 years -- an average of $3.1 million per year. Meanwhile, not millions, not billions, but trillions of dollars of public funds have been, in the last year alone, transferred to or otherwise used for the benefit of Wall Street. Billions of dollars in American taxpayer money vanished into thin air, eaten by private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, led by Halliburton subsidiary KBR. All of those corporate interests employ armies of lobbyists and bottomless donor activities that ensure they dominate our legislative and regulatory processes, and to be extra certain, the revolving door between industry and government is more prolific than ever, with key corporate officials constantly ending up occupying the government positions with the most influence over those industries. Exactly as one would expect, the prime beneficiaries of all of that pillaging continue to grow. The banks that almost brought the world economy to collapse but then received massive public largesse because they were "too big to fail" are now bigger than ever; as The Washington Post delicately put it: "The crisis may be turning out very well for many of the behemoths that dominate U.S. finance." Everything involving the government turns out well for these "behemoths" because they own and control the U.S. Government. Just this week, The Post detailed how the government and Wall St. are now so intertwined that banking executives are spending vast resources to increase their presence in Washington: So, too, for [BlackRock Chairman Laurence] Fink, who said much hinges on his relationship with Washington. He often has talked to White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and his predecessor, Henry M. Paulson Jr. Fink was among the first regulators reached out to when they needed urgent advice on pricing exotic securities or predicting the global fallout from the failure of large financial firms like Lehman Brothers. "We are going to be spending more time inside the Beltway, either by helping the government or, if we are asked, shaping policy and decisions," Fink said. "It is beholden on us on behalf of our clients to have input in Washington" . . . Some firms are bringing Washingtonians to them. A year ago, James B. Lockhart III was the top federal regulator overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac when the Bush administration seized the two mortgage finance companies, saving the home loan market from collapse. When Lockhart said last month that he would step down from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, he was snapped up quickly. Today he is vice chairman of WL Ross, which is looking to make money by buying mortgage assets and loans cast off by lenders as unprofitable. Other former federal officials are scrambling for a piece of the action. Joseph J. Murin, former president of Ginnie Mae, which guarantees securities linked to government-backed mortgages, and former Federal Housing Administration commissioner Brian Montgomery, set up a consulting shop on L Street in mid-August. As previously documented, Goldman Sachs itself has a virtual lock on the top Treasury positions no matter which party is in power. The vaunted bipartisan "Baucus plan" was literally written by a Baucus aide who just left her position as Vice President of Wellpoint to write the health care reform plan for the Senate -- a revelation which barely caused a ripple. And the Supreme Court is on the verge of striking down the few limits on corporate involvement in our politics, a ruling which may (or may not be) constitutionally defensible but which will flood American politics with so much corporate money that it will give new meaning to the term "oligarchy." So with this massive pillaging of America's economic security and its control of American government by its richest and most powerful factions growing by the day, to whom is America's intense economic anxiety being directed? To a non-profit group that devotes itself to providing minute benefits to people who live under America's poverty line, and which is so powerless in Washington that virtually the entire U.S. Senate just voted to cut off its funding at the first sign of real controversy -- could anyone imagine that happening to a key player in the banking or defense industry? Apparently, the problem for middle-class and lower-middle-class Americans is not that their taxpayer dollars are going to prop up billionaires, oligarchs and their corrupt industries. It's that America's impoverished -- a group that is growing rapidly -- is getting too much, has too much power and too little accountability. Anonymous Liberal has a superb post on the manipulative inanity of the Fox-generated ACORN "scandal" (h/t D-day): Let's take a step back and consider just what ACORN is. It is a non-profit organization whose mission is to empower and improve the lives of poor people. As with many other organizations, ACORN has a number of legally distinct parts, each of which has different sources of funding and engages in different kinds of activities (ACORN's conservative enemies routinely conflate these various parts to imply that ACORN is using federal money for improper political purposes). Since its founding the 70s, ACORN and its employees and volunteers have fought successfully to, among other things, increase minimum wages across the country, increase the quality of public education in poor areas, and protect people from predatory lending practices. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, ACORN helped rebuild thousands of homes and assisted victims in relocating and finding housing outside of New Orleans. The ACORN activity that has drawn the most conservative ire is its voter registration efforts which, consistent with ACORN's mission, are primarily aimed at low-income voters (who tend to vote Democratic). . . . But even if you take these film-makers at face value and assume the worst, the reality is that ACORN has thousands of employees and the vast majority of them spend their days trying to help poor people through perfectly legal means (and receive very little compensation for doing so). Even before yesterday's Senate vote, the amount of federal money that went to ACORN was very small. This is a relatively insignificant organization in the grand scheme of things, but it's an organization that has unquestionably fought over the years to improve the lives of the less fortunate in this country. That the GOP and its conservative supporters would single out this particular organization for such intense demonization is telling. In September of last year, the entire world came perilously close to complete financial catastrophe. We're still not out of the woods and we're deep within one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. This situation was brought about by the recklessness and greed of our banks and financial institutions, most of which had to be bailed out at enormous cost to the American taxpayer (exponentially more than all of the tax dollars given to ACORN over the years). The people who brought about this near catastrophe, for the most, profited immensely from it. These very same institutions, propped up by the American taxpayer, are once again raking in large profits. But rather than focus their anger on these folks, conservatives choose to go after an organization composed almost entirely of low-paid community organizers, an organization that could never hope to have even a small fraction of the clout or the ability to affect the overall direction of the country that Wall Street bankers have. ACORN's relative lack of political influence was on full display yesterday, when the U.S. Senate (in which Democrats have a supermajority) not only entertained a vote to defund ACORN, but approved it by a huge margin (with only seven Democrats opposing). If one were to watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh -- as millions do -- one would believe that the burden of the ordinary American taxpayer, and the unfair plight of America's rich, is that their money is being stolen by the poorest and most powerless sectors of the society. An organization whose constituencies are often-unregistered inner-city minorities, the homeless and the dispossesed is depicted as though it's Goldman Sachs, Blackwater, Haillburton and combined, as though Washington officials are in thrall to those living in poverty rather than those who fund their campaigns. It's not the nice men in the suits doing the stealing but the very people, often minorities or illegal immigrants, with no political or financial power who nonetheless somehow dominate the government and get everything for themselves. The poorer and weaker one is, the more one is demonized in right-wing mythology as all-powerful receipients of ill-gotten gains; conversely, the stronger and more powerful one is, the more one is depicted as an oppressed and put-upon victim (that same dynamic applies to foreign affairs as well). It's such an obvious falsehood -- so counter-intuitive and irrational -- yet it resonates due to powerful cultural manipulations. Most of all, what's so pernicious about all of this is that the same interests who are stealing, pillaging and wallowing in corruption are scapegoating the poorest and most vulnerable in order to ensure that the victims of their behavior are furious with everyone except for them. UPDATE: John Cole highlights what might be the most telling aspect of all of this: demands for a "Special Prosecutor" into Obama's so-called "relationship with ACORN" from the very same circles that vehemently objected to investigations into torture, illegal government spying, politicized prosecutions, military contractor theft, Lewis Libby's obstruction of justice, and virtually every other instance of Bush-era acts of criminality. Those, of course, are the very same people who, before that, demanded endless inquiries into Whitewater and Vince Foster's murder. © 2009 Salon.com Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book "How Would a Patriot Act?," a critique of the Bush administration's use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, "A Tragic Legacy", examines the Bush legacy. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Oregon Dems voate against ACORN by Michael Munk Fri, Sep 18, 2009

Warmonger Wu backs Obama's war! by Michael Munk Wed, Sep 16, 2009

In this outrageous and uniformed rant, Wu reveals himself on the pro-war side of the Dems and opposed to more thoughful members of his own party as well as to most real experts on Afganistan. You can protest his position at his Portland office (503) 326-2901 or by email from his website http://www.house.gov/wu/email.shtml . Note that he won't respond to emails from people outside his district. War in Afghanistan: an ongoing threat to our security by David Wu, guest opinion The Oregonian: September 16, 2009 http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/09/war_in_afghanistan_an_ongoing.html As someone who has consistently opposed the Iraq war, I find myself in the incongruous position of supporting a concerted military and civilian effort in Afghanistan. I'm aware that eight years is a long time for any conflict, and we're in a precarious situation in Afghanistan because the previous administration chose to focus on Iraq. But we now have new military leadership and a new strategy for Afghanistan. Our troops deserve an opportunity to succeed in this neglected but crucial war. It's vital to remember that we're fighting in Afghanistan because al-Qaida killed almost 3,000 Americans on American soil. That's more Americans than the Japanese killed at Pearl Harbor. Afghanistan's Taliban have given shelter and resources to al-Qaida, which attacked the United States and would love nothing better than to do so again. Our military efforts in Afghanistan have driven al-Qaida and Taliban operations into Pakistan, a nation with nuclear weapons. If al-Qaida acquires a nuclear weapon, where would it be used? Given the regional nuclear tinderbox enveloping Pakistan and India, success in the Afghan war is not only a matter of U.S. national security, but it also has implications for world stability. I recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan. The trip corroborated eight years of reading and study of the Afghan situation and made me even more sensitive to the need to give our troops the resources and time to execute our new strategy. U.S. and NATO forces have two priority missions. First, military resources are being used to secure Afghanistan against a return of the Taliban and al-Qaida to provide a space for the Afghan government to establish effective control. Second, we are training the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police, as well as creating a community defense initiative so Afghan national forces, in concert with local community defense forces, can resist Taliban attack and allow us to wind down our combat mission. At the same time, the strategy seeks to integrate security for the Afghan people with effective local governance and economic development. Programs focusing on limiting corruption, providing local justice and building civil service institutions are crucial to fostering a more accountable government that serves the Afghan people and provides a sustainable alternative to the Taliban. We're also working to create economic alternatives to the insurgency, particularly in agriculture, and grow an economy that provides opportunities for the Afghan people. All these initiatives will help the people and government of Afghanistan build a sufficiently stable state to prevent the establishment of major terrorist sanctuaries. We must give our commanders on the ground the resources and time they need to get the job done. This isn't a blank check. Our patience and our resources are not infinite. The Afghan government must do its part to provide accountability and enhance legitimacy. This must be a cause of the Afghan people. I say this knowing that many Oregonians oppose this war. Frankly, I wish we didn't have to fight it at all, but al-Qaida has killed Americans before and intends to do so again. If we leave Afghanistan now, we leave control of the country open to the hands of the Taliban. They will provide shelter to al-Qaida, complete with training camps for terrorists. The Iraq war was a war of choice. Afghanistan is a war of necessity. Without it we greatly increase the chance of another attack on U.S. soil. We must protect the long-term interests of our nation. We cannot tolerate Afghanistan's Taliban providing a continuing sanctuary for terrorists. This is no Vietnam. The Viet Cong never followed us home. Al-Qaida will visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Full disclosure required for Hovde's I-5 bridge rant by Michael Munk Mon, Sep 14, 2009

To the Oregonian editor: Readers perplexed by Hovde's rant for the $4 billion I-5 bridge boondoogle "Debating the details is fine, but we need a new I-5 bridge" September 13) should know she lives in oil-addicted and public transit-hating Vancouver and earns income and shops sales tax free in Portland. That's why she ignores the necessary toll on any new proposed bridge and the increased congestion its 12 lanes would cause. And if she wants to avoid paying Oregon income tax, she can resign as an Oregonian columnist and work in Washington. Michael Munk visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Oct 2: Chomsky in Portland by Michael Munk Sun, Sep 13, 2009

How about a toll on the Columbia bridges today? by Michael Munk Tue, Sep 1, 2009

Fwd: [pdx] That health care rally tomorrow Saturday by Michael Munk Fri, Aug 28, 2009

That health care rally tomorrow Saturday by Michael Munk Fri, Aug 28, 2009

Why not an I-5 toll now? by Michael Munk Mon, Aug 24, 2009

To the Editor, The Oregonian Your editorial "A straight answer on tolling" (Aug 21) notes the resistance in Vancouver and Clark County to tolls on the proposed new I-5 bridge, and points out that this $4 billion boondoggle won't be built without it. That puts in the spotlight the car and sales tax free shopping-obsessed culture of our neighbors across the river, who caused much of the bridge congestion by voting against light rail.. So here's a suggestion: if, as you write, a toll is a "way to manage congestion" on the bridge and relieving congestion is the purpose of the project, why not impose tolls on the current bridge? If you're right, that would at once help relieve congestion and save billions of dollars for that unnecessary boondoggle. Michael Munk visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Aug 25: Thelma Streat on Ch 10 by Michael Munk Sat, Aug 22, 2009

Thelma Johnson Streat (1912-1959) grew up in Portland and attended the Portland Museum Art School in 1934 on a scholarship from Paul Robeson. Check her out in my Portland Red Guide (p.104). Oregonian A & E, August 21,2009 HISTORY MYSTERY by Kristi Turnquist Those intrepid investigators of the "History Detectives" series travel to Bend in this week's episode to help a woman find out if paintings she inherited are historically significant. When Evelyn Cook's aunt, Thelma Johnson Streat died, Cook inherited six large paintings that Streat created. Cook believes the works are mural studies commissioned by the WPA in the 1930s or 1940s. The subject matter of Streat's paintings is contributions of African Americans to medicine, transportation and industry. "History Detectives" host Elyse Luray is on the case, visiting Oregon, San Francisco and Chicago to find out if the studies became murals and if any of Streat's murals are still extant. The series, co-produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting, airs at 9 p.m. Mondays on OPB. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Blue Dog Schrader ready to vote against health reform by Michael Munk Fri, Aug 21, 2009

No wonder he's been ducking! Let him know your opinion Sept 7 at the Labor Day picnic in Oaks Park. Make sure he knows 30 Oregon unions endorse single payer.. Scratching at the Blue Dogs' door by Rick Attig, The Oregonian August 20, 2009 http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/scratching_at_the_blue_dogs_do.html Congressman Kurt SchraderOregon's freshman congressman, Democrat Kurt Schrader, dropped by the Editorial Board Thursday morning to talk about health care, renewable energy, immigration and his eagerness to join the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 52 fiscally moderate and conservative Democrats in the House. Schrader, a longtime budget chief in the Oregon Legislature, is keen on joining the Blue Dogs and pressing his party leadership to be more fiscally accountable. One of his first surprises in Washington was learning that you can't just join the Blue Dogs, you have to apply for membership and establish a voting record that proves you deserve to run with these particular dogs. Schrader's trying to make his mark: He's now growling about the high cost of the massive health care reform bill before the House. Schrader told us this morning that he's prepared to vote against the health care bill unless Democratic leaders find ways to substantially rein in its anticipated costs. He concedes that the bill includes many promising reforms, and would benefit Oregon and Oregonians in substantial ways. But the costs, he insists, are too high. Schrader argues persuasively that there are straightforward ways to shave tens of billions of dollars from the bill. For example, he objects to the fact that the bill would provide health care subsidies for families with incomes up to 400 percent of the poverty line -- about $88,000 for a family of four. He says that setting the bar at 300 percent of the poverty line would save $50 billion. Lowering it to 250 percent, he says, could save another $50 billion. He says insurance premium subsidies in the bill are "too rich" and the maximum out of pocket cost, limited to $5,000 per person, could be doubled to reduce the bill's high potential costs to taxpayers. Schrader isn't hung up on the issue of a "public option," saying that he envisions less of a "government" plan and something similar to the nonprofit models he is familiar with in Oregon, such as CareOregon, a nonprofit that would compete with private insurers and help drive down costs. Schrader isn't sure how much support there is in the House for the kinds of cost reductions that he wants to see applied to the health care bill. He says that the Blue Dogs are generally skeptical of the health care bill as now written, and so are at least half of his fellow Democratic freshmen in the House, most of whom were elected in districts formerly held by Republicans. If Schrader holds to his position on the health care bill, and joins other more fiscally conservative Democrats to pressure Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House leaders to trim costs, it could lead to a health care bill with much broader support in Congress and the public. It would also lead, presumably, to the Blue Dogs opening their kennel door and inviting in the freshman congressman from Oregon. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Two more unions join 30 Oregon unions for single payer by Michael Munk Thu, Aug 20, 2009

And not a single one of Oregon's six Dems in Congress who count on union support have endorsed HR 676 or S. 703 American Federation of Government Employees Local 2157 and Painters Local 10 have endorsed HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). AFGE Local 2157 represents 600 employees at the Portland VA Medical Center and outlying clinics in Oregon as well as at the Veterans' Benefits Administration offices and Willamette National Cemetery. The local endorsed HR 676 following a presentation by member Betsy Zucker and Jobs with Justice activist Peter Shapiro. Local 2157 President Leonard Fearn said: "We are proud to join the growing number of unions who support single payer healthcare. Private insurance adds cost, but no value, to our health care dollars. Single Payer Now." Local 10 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) also endorsed HR 676. Travis Giobbi, a Local 10 apprentice, submitted the resolution and reports that the local forwarded its resolution to their International Union Convention which meets in September. http://unionsforsinglepayerHR676.org 08/20/09 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Rose and Aaron Director by Michael Munk Thu, Aug 20, 2009

Rose Director Freidman's obit in the NYTimes today http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/business/19friedman.html?ref=obituaries appears in edited form in The Oregonian. Oregonians might be interested in her older brother Aaron's time as director of the Portland Labor College in 1924-26. His radicalism (he invited Communists and Wobblies to speak) got him in trouble with the conservative AFL unions which sponsored the College. He went on to the U of Chicago, where he studied with former Reed econ professor Paul Douglas and where that radicalism was replaced with the conservatism for which he became prominent. He persuaded his younger sister Rose to transfer from Reed to the Chicago in 1932. Read more about the first Portland Labor College in my Portland Red Guide (pp.71-72). visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Schrader and Wu haven't joined Blumenauer and Defazio by Michael Munk Wed, Aug 19, 2009

A Fax To Kurt Schrader and David Wu David Dunning provided this link/article. To: Representative Kurt Schrader Re: standing up for a public option Dear Kurt, Dear David, Here is the text of the FAX that I just sent to your Oregon colleagues, Pete Defazio and Earl Blumenhauer: “THANK YOU for signing on to the list of House Democrats who have committed to vote against any healthcare insurance bill that does not at least contain a public option! Please also consider signing as a cosponsor to HR 676!� I wish I could be sending the same FAX to you! Unfortunately, I did not find your name on the list of now 64 House Democrats who have made such a commitment. An oversight on your part? Just remember, if you stand against the 76% of Americans who want a choice of a public health insurance option, you will stand alone for re-election! Please contact me when you have added your name to this list so I can keep my political contributions file for you up to date. Thanks you. 　 Sincerely, 　 　　 David Dunning, Ph.D. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

California disease by Michael Munk Mon, Aug 17, 2009

In a weird but revealing article only in today's print Oregonian (that is, not on its website) two growth-obessesed Californians discover and warn us against a new disease they name for their state. Joel Kotkin's and Bill Watkins' "California Disease: Migration puts Oregon at rsik of contracting economic malady" (D1) turns out to be a simple, poorly-disguised rant to open Oregon to anarchistic growth exploited by greedy speculators and free of taxes and any enviromental or growth planning. In the course of denouncing California's "general disregard for business and economic activity" (who knew?), they label protection of the environment and human lives as "regulation and red tape that increases the uncertainty for any project and raises the cost." Oregon's land use planning and taxes, they assert, make it harder for communities to "grow." And in their obsession with "growth," they warn Oregonians that migration from California includes "These people," as they call the "large numbers of the retired and semi-retired,." and claim they "generally have little interest in ecnomic growth" and "bring with them political attitudes that could slow down the state's economic recovery."(!). Is that why we need those "death panels"? At the other end of the age scale, California also exports unemployed young people who threaten to make Portland "the slacker capital of the world." Their parting shot imagines the future of the "fair state" of Oregon as one of "devastated communities and wasted opportunities." Until we "check with our doctors" and swallow their magic growth pill, we are condemmed to suffer from the dreaded "California disease." visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Sat Aug 15th: CASCADIA TO CARACAS by Michael Munk Fri, Aug 14, 2009

Wu won't commit to single payer by Michael Munk Fri, Aug 14, 2009

Problems along the Woody Guthrie Trail by Michael Munk Thu, Aug 13, 2009

Reports on Wu's town hall by Michael Munk Thu, Aug 13, 2009

AUPHR president did support AIPAC demonstrator by Michael Munk Wed, Aug 12, 2009

I have received more information about AUPHR's role in the Walsh case that corrects at least part of yesterday's message. It turns out that despite Michael Meo's report that AUPHR did not want to support Walsh, its president Peter Miller did attend the trial and spoke in his defense. I have no idea what that says about the organization, but Meo says he was unaware of Miller's support for Walsh when he sent me his report and gave me permission to send it to my "PDX" list. Glad to make the correction. Meo writes: No decision was taken at the meeting; it was a consensus among the people there that Joe Walsh was not what the group wanted to support. Still, when Peter Miller subsequently attended the trial he couldn't help but be there as the representative of the AUPHR, since he's its president. He had presided at the AUPHR meeting, and brought up the question, of the upcoming trial of Joe Walsh. I'd say that the headline mis-represents the event. Joe Walsh got arrested, AUPHR was not supportive, but its president spoke eloquently and effectively in his defense (a fact of which I was unaware when responding to your news, that Joe had won his trial). Joe was isolated, but not abandoned. Peter Miller, the leader of AUPHR, supported him (among others).

Blumenauer, Schrader, Baird duck town halls by Michael Munk Wed, Aug 12, 2009

Are all these Dems ducking not because they fear nutcakes but because they fear single payer supporters will try to smoke them out on how they will vote on HR 676? To the Edtor, The Oregonian August 12, 2009 I'm writing with some concerns I have about the way Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., conducted his recent town hall meeting in Pacific City. Instead of a town hall forum, attendees were told to wait at tables and then each got two minutes to speak to Schrader. Schrader did not speak to the group as a whole, but sat behind a table while his helpers rounded up people by names and carefully stuck to the two-minute time limit, which gave us barely enough time to get our concerns out. I felt really cheated by the process as there's something to be said for publicly speaking to a group. Also, constituents from outside of Pacific City were denied a two-minute session at the table with Schrader. One of the reasons I heard for this was that the Schrader feared protest from the Americans for Prosperity group. What I missed was a public airing of concerns, the bouncing of ideas off of one another and just working together for solutions like we did at Sen. Jeff Merkley's, health care town hall. Finding common ground and being heard is an important part of Democracy. DEE SUTTON-VELEZ Neskowin http://blog.oregonlive.com/myoregon/2009/08/letters_renewed_calls_for_civi.html visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

AUPHR disgraces itself in AIPAC protester case by Michael Munk Wed, Aug 12, 2009

Yesterday Steve Duin wrote about the legal consequences of Oregon AIPAC's illegal arrest of Jim Walsh by rent-a cops of Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Read it at http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/ Michael Meo sends this follow-up reporting that Portland's American United for Palestinian Humanl Rights refused to support Walsh because they believed he was arrested for not obeying the police. In fact the court found the police violated the law. Michael regrets he did not protest at the AUPHR meeting. I was there, at the AIPAC protest, holding the Pacific Green Party banner. I was in the front line of those shoved aside as the police informed us that we no longer could stand on the sidewalk where we had been standing. I considered getting arrested, but I was employed, as a teacher, and the sole support of a family of four, and I chose to move back. When Joe Walsh got arrested, I thought he had stuck his neck out for nothing. He was very calm about it, when later in the day he reported on his processing through the Police Station; he said it was going to be dismissed as unconstitutional. He was right. A couple of weeks later, I was at the meeting of the Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, when the question came up, whether anyone there wanted to appear at Joe Walsh's trial, in order to express solidarity for someone arrested at a demonstration called for and organized by AUPHR. The consensus in the room was, that by getting arrested for not following the directions of the police, Joe had behaved badly, overstepping the peaceful line and co-operative behavior the organizers wanted to maintain. That's how isolated Joe was, even within the community of protesters; and he alone stood up for our rights. Welch ein Mensch. Michael Meo visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Updated list : Oregon unions for single payer by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 11, 2009

Wu didn't say how he'll vote on singl;e payer by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 11, 2009

Oregon AIPAC's illegal arrest of protester by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 11, 2009

Today, Steve Duin writes about the legal consequences of Oregon AIPAC's illegal arrest of Jim Walsh by rent-a cops of Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Read it at http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/ Better late than never: the Big O ignored the entire protest when it happened back in March. ---------------------------------- Oregonian blacks out AIPAC protestr by Michael Munk Thu, Apr 2, 2009 This 9 minute video seems to be the only coverage of the important protest of the March 31 Oregon's AIPAC fund raiser Among other scenes , it shows the arrest of vet Jim Walsh while protesting murder at a fundraiser for AIPAC. Includes video footage of his alleged "crime". Why is our media silent? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIB4KCAjWP0&feature=channel_page Gordon Sturrock March 29: Protest Oregon's Likudniks by Michael Munk Thu, Mar 19, 2009 Oregon's Israeli war crimes deniers--the American Israel Public Affairs Committee-- are having their annual money raiser Sunday, March 29 at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center. Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights (AUPHR) asks Americans to protest their $7 million daily subsidy to the IDF and at 4pm outside the Center, 6651 SW Capitol Highway near the Hillsdale shopping center. Main fund raisers are rightwing ranter Peter Beinart and Pacific NW AIPAC director Zack Bodner. Oregon's political leaders are almost all in the tank for the Israeli lobby. Last year, the AIPAC fund raiser was attended by these Democrats: Governor Ted Kulongoski, current US Senator Jeff Merkley, State Senators Peter Courtney (Salem), Vicki Walker (Eugene), Ben Westlund (Tumalo), and State Reps.Mitch Greenlick (Portland) and Rep. Brad Witt (Clatskanie). visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Another bamboozle at PGE Park by Michael Munk Thu, Aug 6, 2009

RE: Oregonian front page story today on PGE Park http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/08/renovated_pge_park_will_showca.html Portland taxpayers are still holding the bag for a $28.5 million debt (of the original $38.5 million) their political leaders gave to a gang of rich white guys to renovate civic stadium in 2000. Speculators calling themselves "Portland Family Entertainment" bamboozeled Mayor Vera Katz (and her assistant Sam Adams) to do it for their baseball and soccer teams (Beavers and Timbers). The gang was led by Marshall Glickman, Mark Gardiner and Peter Stott (Crown Pacific)and their main speculators Scott Thomason (Thomason Auto Group), Hank Ashforth, (Ashforth Pacific) John Von Schlegell (Endeavour Capital Managing), Roger Krage (Crown Pacific), Golf entrepeneur Peter Jacobsen and Jay Zidell (ZRZ Realty) plus three silent speculators from Chicago. After piling up losses for a few years, the gang reneged on its contract to operate PGE Park for the City and dumped their debts on the taxpyers.. That opened the door to the Paulson family who bought the teams. The Paulsons call themselves "Perregine Sports LLC".and have hired Don Mazziotti,the former executive of the speculator-friendly Portland Development Commission, to front for them. They are also "working" with Turner Construction and Ellerbe Becket on the stadium plans--who, if they get Paulson's contracts, will be tearning down what they built on the taxpayer's dime in 2000. Their chances are good; Portland has even waived its requirement for open bidding. It now turns out that much of that $38.5 million renovation will be removed so Paulason can take his Beavers out of Portland to bolster any subsidized profits for his Timbers. And bamboozled Portland taxpyers will be on the hook for another $11.2 million in high interest municipal bonds on behalf of another gang of rich white speculators. Is this a crazy scanrio or what? Remember, Adams and every commissioner except Fritz are responsible for it. RECALL ADAMS! visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Town Hall schedules for OR Dems by Michael Munk Wed, Aug 5, 2009

Woody Guthrie Trail in Portland? by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 4, 2009

Rollin' in Woody's shadow Folk singer Woody Guthrie, who spent a month in Lents, could lend his = name to I-205 bike path. By Steve Law,The Portland Tribune, Jul 30, 2009 = http://www.portlandtribune.com/features/story.php?story_id=3D124889622308= 888900 =20 JONATHAN HOUSE / Portland Tribune=20 Nick Sauvie, director of ROSE Community Development, bicycles along the = I-205 bike path. Sauvie is spearheading an effort to name the pathway = after Woody Guthrie.=20 Back in June 1941, Woody Guthrie slung his guitar on his shoulder, = strolled out the front door of his rented house in Portland's Lents = neighborhood, stuck out his thumb and hitchhiked to New York. The 28-year-old folk singer only lived in Lents one month, but created a = musical heritage for the Columbia River and Pacific Northwest that's = arguably second to none. Hired by Bonneville Power Administration to write songs promoting = Columbia River dams and public power, Guthrie penned 26 tunes in 30 = days. For $266.66 pay - $10 a song - Guthrie completed such folk = classics as "Roll on, Columbia," "Pastures of Plenty" and "Grand Coulee = Dam," plus lesser-known tunes such as "Portland Town" and "Talkin' = Columbia Blues." Nick Sauvie, who has long toiled to improve the hardscrabble Lents = community and nearby east Portland neighborhoods, has an idea to honor = Guthrie's local ties and preserve some important history. ROLL ON WOODY Click to hear Woody Guthrie sing "Roll On Columbia." =20 =20 =20 Sauvie is rallying community support to name the foot and bike path = along Interstate 205, which passes through Lents and leads north to the = Columbia River, after the famous onetime resident. "People are interested in building a history of the neighborhood," said = Sauvie, executive director of ROSE Community Development. "East Portland = doesn't have the strong identity and cohesion that a lot of other parts = of Portland have. I just got to thinking about that and said, 'Hey, why = don't we name that the Woody Guthrie Trail?' " Guthrie's brief but productive stint in Lents "is something that's a = source of pride for people that have known about that history," Sauvie = said. After coming up with the idea, Sauvie sent a note to neighborhood = leaders in March to gauge their interest. Lents Neighborhood Association = liked the idea. So did some organized labor leaders and Justin Douglas, = a Portland Development Commission senior project manager spearheading = redevelopment of a Lents parcel alongside the bike path. Peter Yarrow of = the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary also offered to lend his support. Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard, a blue-collar champion for = east Portland, told Sauvie he liked his idea. But Leonard urged a = go-slow approach, in light of community agitation over the renaming of = 39th Avenue for farmworker leader C=E9sar Ch=E1vez. Sauvie's campaign hasn't progressed much beyond the trial balloon stage, = but he's not yet encountered the type of opposition the Ch=E1vez = initiative provoked. "One obvious difference is people don't have any kind of sentimental = attachment to the I-205 Multi-use Path" name, Sauvie said. "And nobody = has an address on the path." Guthrie also had more of a personal connection to Portland than = Ch=E1vez, though it's not well-known. In 1941, the BPA wanted to build popular support for the then-radical = notion of publicly owned dams and hydro power. The agency concocted a = plan to get a ballad singer to narrate a film and sing songs about = Columbia River dams. Steve Kahn, BPA's acting information division = chief,asked Alan Lomax, a musicologist at the Library of Congress, for = ideas, and Lomax suggested Woody Guthrie. The BPA contacted Guthrie, then unemployed in Los Angeles, about taking = a one-year job for $3,200. He hopped in his Pontiac and drove north to Portland with his wife Mary = and three children. Second thoughts Kahn had second thoughts when Guthrie arrived, worried the bearded = radical wouldn't pass muster with the higher-ups in Washington, D.C., = according to biographer Ed Clay in the book "Ramblin' Man: The Life and = Times of Woody Guthrie." Washington bureaucrats had to approve Guthrie's appointment for a = one-year contract, but Portland BPA staff could hire him for a 30-day = gig on their own. Kahn directed Guthrie to be on good behavior and pick his songs = carefully when he visited with Kahn's politically conservative boss, = Paul Raver, Clay wrote. After a 45-minute audition, Raver hired Guthrie on the spot. Before the = day was done, Guthrie penned one verse for "Roll on, Columbia." Guthrie's family rented a house split into four units on Southeast 92nd = Avenue in Lents, a few blocks south of Foster Road and a couple blocks = from the present-day I-205 bike path. After going to work one day at BPA headquarters in the Lloyd District, = Guthrie told Kahn his Pontiac had been stolen, said Michael O'Rourke, = who produced a radio documentary on Guthrie's stint in Portland. They = later realized, however, that the car had been repossessed - Guthrie was = behind on making car payments. Guthrie didn't need a car to get around, because BPA asked employee = Elmer Buehler to play chauffeur, showing Guthrie the sights from = Portland to the Hood River Valley and out into the Columbia River Gorge. Their first stop, Clay wrote, was a homeless encampment, known as a = Hooverville, in Sullivan's Gulch, five blocks from BPA headquarters and = next to the present-day Banfield Freeway. Guthrie was awed by the scenery and farms he saw while touring the area = with Buehler. "I can't believe it; I'm in paradise," he said. After his one-month stint, Guthrie pined to hit the road, but his wife = wanted to stay in Portland a while, according to Clay. Folk singer Pete = Seeger had invited Guthrie to join a new band called The Almanac = Singers. So Guthrie left his family and headed out on the road. Portland lawyer Gus Solomon picked up the hitchhiker on the edge of town = and drove Guthrie as far as The Dalles, O'Rourke said. Solomon, namesake = of Portland's federal courthouse, later became a prominent federal = judge. Film project delayed The BPA never needed the original film it intended to promote public = power. The war effort was popular, and the dams provided electricity for = Portland shipyards, Northwest aluminum plants, and the Hanford nuclear = complex. But after a 1948 flood leveled Vanport, a hastily assembled town for = wartime production workers, Kahn recast the film, Clay wrote, to = advocate for public power, flood control and land reclamation. In 1953, the heyday of McCarthyism, there was pressure from Washington, = D.C., to destroy the relics of Guthrie's stay here. Buehler, Guthrie's = former driver, was asked to gather the materials and chuck them in the = furnace, said Bill Murlin, a former BPA media specialist.He tossed most = of the material, but secretly saved a master copy of the documentary. When the BPA was planning its 50th anniversary in 1984, Murlin suggested = the agency resurrect the songs that had been lost. "I said, 'Let's use = the Woody Guthrie songs; they were written for us,' " Murlin recalled. He wound up locating many of the lost recordings and lyrics, including = the only known recording of Guthrie singing "Roll on, Columbia." An = album of 17 songs, nine of them recorded in Portland, "Woody Guthrie, = Columbia River Collection," was released on Rounder Records. Naming hurdle Naming the I-205 bike path after Guthrie is up to the Oregon = Transportation Commission. But the state has a high hurdle for naming = transportation features after people, and hasn't done it for a decade, = according to Patrick Cooney, Oregon Department of Transportation = spokesman. There has to be demonstrated statewide support, and the = person must have made a lasting and significant contribution to Oregon, = Cooney told Sauvie. Sauvie reasons that the bike path leads to the river so closely = associated with Guthrie's music. Many argue that Guthrie, inducted into = the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, had the most creative month of = his songwriting career here. "Portland can claim to be part of the Guthrie legacy," said O'Rourke, an = oral historian who recently produced a video about Guthrie's local stay = for the Pacific Northwest History Conference. "It's a really colorful chapter of Portland's history," O'Rourke said, = "and it really infused his work in a really big way." stevelaw@portlandtribune.com visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Where to lobby Blumenauer, Schrader and Merkley for 676 in Portland by Michael Munk Tue, Aug 4, 2009

Wed, Aug 5: Obama listening tour in Portland by Michael Munk Mon, Aug 3, 2009

Exposed: The Paulsons bamboozle of Portland taxpayers by Michael Munk Mon, Aug 3, 2009

Only Commissioner Fritz saw through this fraud. Shame on Leonard, Fish and Saltzman and RECALL Adams. The Paulsons' Edifice Complex By Dave Zirin & Jules Boykoff The Nation, August 3, 2009 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/zirin_boykoff For Henry Paulson and his son Merritt, the taxpayers of Portland, Oregon, must look like geese with an infinite supply of golden eggs. .The Paulsons own the Portland Timbers, a second-division soccer club that was recently allocated a much-coveted slot as an expansion team in Major League Soccer (MLS). Merritt, the 36-year-old son of the former treasury secretary, owns 80 percent of the team, while his father owns the other 20 percent. In a story that has had more twists than a David Beckham corner kick, the Paulsons have doggedly pursued public financing to renovate PGE Park, the mass-transit-friendly stadium in the heart of downtown Portland, in order to make it soccer-specific. Initially they demanded $85 million to revamp the stadium and build another one for their other team, the AAA-baseball Portland Beavers. An economic meltdown and grassroots outcry later, the Paulsons have been forced to scale back their stadium-building dreams. Now they intend to relocate the Beavers outside Portland and limit PGE Park renovations to $31 million, with the City of Portland kicking in $11.2 million from its spectator fund, a money pool derived from ticket and parking revenues. It's a stark reversal for the Paulson gang, who claimed repeatedly that public stadium money could be the solution for Portland's economic ills. Unfortunately, they are still playing that tune, and the Portland City Council continues to dance. On July 23 the Portland City Council voted four to one to move forward with the "public-private partnership." Despite Portland's reputation for innovative urban planning, city officials have yet to demonstrate the courage and ingenuity necessary to venture beyond the standard-issue financial model whereby the Paulsons cough up some of their millions and the city uses its bonding power to fund the rest. The junior Paulson recently crowed, "I challenge people to find a better deal out there for the city." As it turns out, numerous alternative funding options exist, as long as Portland is willing to live up to its reputation as a creative city. Call us purveyors of the obvious, but we think one "better deal" for the city would have the Paulsons paying for their own sporty ventures. With Goldman Sachs--Henry Paulson's former firm--making $38 million per day and doling out the heftiest executive bonuses in its 140-year history, it shouldn't be difficult to find investors, especially if Major League Soccer is the money-maker the Paulsons have promised it to be. Perhaps it's time Henry Paulson went out and beat the silver-frosted bushes for some capital. In 2006 he bestowed $100 million to an environmental charity. Why can't he make a much smaller donation to his son? Another option for filling the funding gap is to pursue a better naming-rights agreement. PGE Park is named after Portland General Electric, a Fortune 500 company that had the misfortune of being an Enron subsidiary. In recent times PGE has thrived, raking in $145 million in profits in 2007 alone. Earlier this year CEO Peggy Fowler was handed an $11 million golden parachute upon her departure--coincidentally, almost the exact sum Portland residents are being asked to fork over. PGE secured a decade's worth of http://wweek.com/editorial/3536/12825/">naming rights at a bargain-basement price of $8.5 million, but the deal expires after 2010. If the naming-rights agreements signed recently by other MLS teams are any indication, Portland could get a lot more bang for its corporate buck. In Toronto, the Bank of Montreal paid http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_4619599">$24 million for a ten-year naming-rights deal. The Los Angeles Galaxy scored $70 million over ten years from Home Depot for soccer-stadium naming rights. Real Salt Lake signed a ten-year deal with Rio Tinto for approximately $20 million, while Dick's Sporting Goods agreed to pay the Colorado Rapids $30 million over fifteen years for http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/60140"> stadium naming rights. If PGE were asked to fork over $19.7 million for the next decade of sponsorship--a figure in line with other MLS agreements--there would be no need to finagle the city for money. And using the surplus naming-rights funds to pay for stadium building would help impose a shred of authenticity into what is otherwise a public-relations fleecing festival. The resolution passed by the Portland City Council is riddled with problems. To name only a few of them: . Merritt Paulson has not agreed to pay a fair wage--let alone a living wage--to stadium employees. Rather, the city will "top-up" subpar wages to raise them to fair-wage status. . The agreement relies on zero-coupon bonds, which allow principal and interest payments to be shoved off into the future--2017, in this case. In the world of stadium financing, zero-coupon bonds are the equivalent of subprime mortgages with massive balloon payments, a huge factor in the housing bubble's catastrophic pop. To support public financing for stadium construction using zero-coupon bonds is to advance the same flawed ideas that got us into this economic meltdown in the first place. On top of that, there's no guarantee anyone will want to purchase these taxable bonds, which would bring us back to square one. . The resolution states that the city and the Paulsons "agree to evaluate in good faith opportunities to enhance attendance and fan experience at the MLS Stadium with additional improvements in the future." That sounds more like a threat than a promise, making this $31 million plan sound like phase one of a multiphase project, the gateway drug to a future of addiction to such "public-private partnerships." . The resolution flaunts the falsity that stadium-building will jump-start the Portland economy. Yet there's not a shred of evidence from independent academic sports economists to support this claim. Just because you say something a million times doesn't mean it's true. . The deal hinges on a steady flow of money from the spectator fund. While boosters of the deal argue that fans will pay off the bonds, what happens if this money pool dries up--via a lockout or an economy that continues to sour? Ultimately, the spectator fund is backed by the city's general fund, which is to say it's backed by taxpayers, so the people of Portland would be on the hook, not the Paulsons. Moreover, every penny of bonding power put toward stadium-building is money that could be spent on other programs that benefit a wide range of Portlanders--not just its sports fans--and that actually boost the economy. As the Paulsons pounce on Portland to wrest public funds for their escapades, it's a great time to ask ourselves if this model of "public-private partnership" is the best we can do. The stadium-financing imbroglio in Portland is a test case in the postmeltdown era. Will we see ersatz public-private partnerships continue as before? Or will a new era of equity and vision emerge in which we will cease socializing the costs of business while privatizing the profits? Portland Mayor Sam Adams recently said, "There's a lot more work to be done on this deal, but we are moving forward." The people of Portland should take that as their cue: it's time to get the Paulsons' hands out of our pockets. ---------------------------------------------- Dave Zirin is The Nation's sports editor. He is the author of Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain Politics and Promise of Sports (Haymarket) and A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press). His writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated.com and The Progressive. He is the host of Sirius/XM's Edge of Sports Radio. Jules Boykoff is a former professional soccer player who represented the US Olympic Team in international competition. He is an assistant professor of political science at Pacific University in Foest Grove. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Spy on peace groups exposed at Ft. Lewis by Michael Munk Sun, Aug 2, 2009

Army Looking Into Monitoring of Protest Groups Recommend By WILLIAM YARDLEY New York Times, August 3, 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/us/02army.html?ref=us SEATTLE - The Army says it has opened an inquiry into a claim that one of its employees spent more than two years infiltrating antiwar groups active near one of the nation's largest military bases. The groups say the employee infiltrated their activities under an assumed name and gained access to their plans as well as names and e-mail addresses of some members. The man, John J. Towery, a civilian employee at Fort Lewis, south of Tacoma, Wash., works as a criminal intelligence analyst for the post's Force Protection Division, say officials at Fort Lewis, the nation's third largest Army post. The Army would not disclose the nature of the investigation or address the claim that Mr. Towery had shared information about civilians. It said Mr. Towery was not available for an interview. "Mr. John Towery performs sensitive work within the installation law enforcement community, and it would not be appropriate for him to discuss his duties with the media," the Army said in written statement. "Fort Lewis is aware of the claim with regard to Mr. Towery. To ensure all regulatory guidelines were followed, the command has decided that an inquiry is prudent, and an officer is being appointed to conduct the inquiry." Brendan Maslauskas Dunn said he met Mr. Towery in spring 2007, when Mr. Maslauskas Dunn became involved with Port Militarization Resistance, a group that has frequently tried to disrupt military shipments in Olympia, Tacoma and other ports nearby. Mr. Maslauskas Dunn, who was also active in at least one other group, Students for a Democratic Society, said Mr. Towery had identified himself as John Jacob, using his middle name as his last. He said he worked as a civilian at Fort Lewis doing computer support, Mr. Maslauskas Dunn said. Mr. Towery, he said, frequently attended protests but had not been among those who agreed in advance that they would be willing to be arrested. He said Mr. Towery had often worked as a "watcher" who tracked law enforcement at the protests. At one point early on, Mr. Maslauskas Dunn said, Mr. Towery brought at least one of his children to an event. He said Mr. Towery often spent time at a meeting place for anarchists in Tacoma. Mr. Maslauskas Dunn and another member of the group, Drew Hendricks, said that Mr. Towery had been among a handful of people who ran e-mail lists for some of the groups and that this had given him access to names and e-mail addresses. Mr. Maslauskas Dunn said Mr. Towery would sometimes call group members while he was at work at Fort Lewis and provide information about the movements of some units and equipment. "A lot of information he did give us was easily accessible online," Mr. Maslauskas Dunn said. "You just had to do a little research." Mr. Hendricks said he and other group members did not accept classified information if it was offered by people in the military. Mr. Hendricks, who said he lived in Olympia and repaired printers for a living, said Mr. Towery had drawn his suspicion more than once in the past, including after he posted inaccurate information about a military movement on an activist Web site. Yet he and Mr. Maslauskas Dunn, who said he worked as a janitor at a lumber mill in Shelton, Wash., said Mr. Towery's identity was inadvertently discovered after a public records request made with the City of Olympia. The request yielded an e-mail message Mr. Towery had sent to another person with a military address relating to the protesters' activities. That led Mr. Hendricks and other group members to try to determine who Mr. Towery was. After they learned it was the man they had known as Mr. Jacob, they discussed it at City Council meeting in Olympia last week and posted the information on a Web site. Mr. Maslauskas Dunn said that in a meeting last week, Mr. Towery told him and another group member that he was not reporting information to Fort Lewis and that he genuinely wanted to join "the peace movement" but was under pressure to share some information about protesters with local law enforcement authorities. "What he said is that the world isn't just in black and white, that there are areas of gray and that it's in those areas of gray that he lives his life," Mr. Maslauskas Dunn said. He said Mr. Towery told them that the Army had reassigned him, at least temporarily, and that he was being investigated "for espionage." Mr. Maslauskas Dunn and Mr. Hendricks said they were skeptical of suggestions that Mr. Towery might have infiltrated the group purely on his own, as a so-called renegade without Army approval. Stephen Dycus, a professor at Vermont Law School who focuses on national security issues, said the Army was prohibited from conducting law enforcement among civilians except in very rare circumstances, none of which immediately appeared to be relevant to the Fort Lewis case. Mr. Dycus said several statutes and rules also prohibited the Army from conducting covert surveillance of civilian groups for intelligence purposes. "Infiltration is a really big deal," he said. He said it "raises fundamental questions about the role of the military in American society." Catherine Caruso, a spokeswoman for Fort Lewis, said in a written statement that "the Fort Lewis Force Protection Division, under the Directorate of Emergency Services, consists of both military and civilian employees whose focus is on supporting law enforcement and security operations to ensure the safety and security of Fort Lewis, soldiers, family members, the work force and those personnel accessing the installation." visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

How single payer came back on the table by Michael Munk Sat, Aug 1, 2009

Again: Blumenauer was the only Oregon Dem among the 57 who signed that letter. Will he, Schrader, Wu or DeFazio vote fior 676 next month? As it looks to me, here's a brief sumnmary of the politics that led to the promised House vote on 676 next month. Waxman's Energy & Commerce committee was the scene of the showdown. The seven Blue Dog Democrats on the committee had held up reform for the past several weeks.With a push from Obama whip Emanuel (enabler of many of the Dogs in the last congressional campaign) Waxman struck a deal with four of them --their leader Mike Ross (ARK), Bart Gordon (TN), Baron Hill (IN) and Zack Space (OH). In return for their votes, the deal would (1) delay the full House vote past August, (2) weaken the bill's public health care option and (3) cut $100 billion from health care spending over 10 years, much of it from insurance premium subsidies to uninsured middle income families. Those outrageous concessions finally produced some outrage from House progressives, 57 of whom signed a letter to House leadership threatening to vote against a weak bill. In response, Waxman renegotiated his deal on behalf of Obama with his committee's Blue Dogs and progressives that would (1) delink the public option from Medicare and force it to negotiate its own reimbursement rates, (2) restore the middle-income subsidies by shifting funds from existing federal health care programs and (3) reduce the limit of premiums for the uninsured from 12% to 11% of a household's annual income. But now Waxman faced another challenge from the Left. Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) proposed a single payer amendment that would have forced every member of the committee to vote it up or down--a possible embarrasment to progressive members (including Waxman who was a co-signer of 676 last year but took his name off this year).With the support of Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Mike Doyle (D-Penn.), Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Weiner offered to withdraw his amendment IF Pelosi promised to bring 676 to a floor debate and vote. She agreed and Waxman and Weiner sealed the committee vote at 31-28. In that vote, only three of the original Blue Dogs (Jim Matheson of Utah, Charlie Melancon of Louisiana and Bart Stupak of Michigan) and two other Democrats (John Barrow of Georgia and Rick Boucher of Virginia) held out and joined every Republican to vote no. The four other Blue Dogs honored their deal with Waxman and voted with their party. No one expects 676 to win in September, but it will be a significant test of strenght between the progressives and their opponents in the Democratic party. No Democrat will have anything to lose by supporting it--they can tell their constituents they supported single payer in a losing effort and went on to pass whatever the Rules Committee will decide will be the final version of the Obama bill in the House (which evidently will be heavily influenced by the Senate's version. I confess I am not completely clear on how "robust" the public option is in Waxman's bill is, but the opportunity to watch House Democrats stand up and be counted on single payer 676 is a worthwhile achievment. visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

How Rep. Wu could save the public option by Michael Munk Fri, Jul 31, 2009

Blumenauer only OR rep to demand strong health bill by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 30, 2009

So far, every progressive threat has evaporated to just a handful of House Dems. Let's see how many of the 57 will actually oppose a mild healthcare reform bill if Obama's whip confronts them again. The signers of the letter are: Woolsey, Grijalva, Kilpatrick, Nadler, Hare,Roybal-Allard, Ellison, Blumenauer, Watts, Edwards,Olver, Kucinich,Richardson ,Waters Conyers,Chu, Hinchey,Johnson,Watson,Spier, Pascrell, Doggett, Kaptur, Hirono,Filner,Sanchez, Fudge,Lee, Carson, Lee, Honda McDermott, Clay,McGovern, Clarke, Massa, Pingree, Jackson, Cummings,Thompson, Moore, Payne, Stark,Towns,Brown,Hastings Valezquez, Gutierrez, Napolitano, Sires,Tierney, Capuano, Fattah, Serrano,Farr,l Delahunt, E.B.Johnson Liberal Democrats threaten to reject House healthcare compromise http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-health-overhaul31-2009jul31,0,2426079.story By Noam N. Levey and James Oliphant LA Times, July 31, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- After months of marching in line as senior Democrats worked with the White House to develop healthcare legislation, liberal lawmakers from solidly Democratic districts are threatening a revolt that could doom President Obama's bid to sign a major bill this year. In the House, liberals are furious at their leaders for striking a deal with conservative Democrats that would weaken the proposal to create a government insurance program, a dream long cherished on the left. .On Thursday, 57 of these liberals sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) warning that they would vote against any bill that contained the terms of the deal. "We have compromised and we can compromise no more," an angry Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma) said at a raucous news conference outside the Capitol. Meanwhile in the Senate, a growing number of Democrats and Republicans were taking aim at an effort led by finance committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to develop centrist healthcare legislation that could attract GOP support -- in part by eliminating a government plan entirely. The rising tide of liberal anger sent the White House scrambling, with Obama calling at least one left-leaning lawmaker to offer reassurance before Congress leaves town for its August break. On Thursday afternoon, Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders also met privately with a group of labor leaders, consumer advocates and AARP to enlist their support. Ever since the Democrats won congressional majorities in 2006, party leaders have struggled to balance the demands of their liberal and more conservative members. And although the leadership has more than a month to rally enough votes to pass healthcare bills when Congress returns in September, the latest unrest is raising a menacing specter for the president and his allies. Some worry about a possible repeat of the healthcare debacles in the early 1970s and '90s, when divisions within the party helped doom bids to create universal coverage. "Historically, the good has become the enemy of the perfect," warned Ron Pollack, a veteran of past healthcare battles who heads the consumer group Families USA. "I'm afraid we have seen that repeated a little bit in the past several days." Scores of liberal Democrats favor a single-payer system similar to those in Canada and Britain, where the government controls the delivery of healthcare. (Eighty-six House Democrats are cosponsoring a bill to create a single-payer system in the U.S.) But most, eager to break the decades-long logjam blocking a healthcare overhaul, decided that they would have to compromise this year. During the presidential campaign and after taking office, Obama voiced his support for liberal healthcare principles. And many lawmakers put their faith in liberal leaders such as Pelosi and Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) and George Miller (D-Martinez), the three committee chairmen who wrote the bill being debated in the House. That measure -- and a similar one developed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and his staff -- includes a provision creating a government-run insurance plan as an alternative to private coverage. "What the American people want, very clearly, is a Medicare-type public option in 50 states in this country which will give them the choice against private insurance companies," said Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats. Polls have shown consistently that a large majority of Americans favor such a plan. But senior Democrats in the House and Senate are contending with a growing cadre of centrists in their party, many of whom are uneasy about expanding government's role in healthcare. "It's the moderates that give [Democrats] their majority," said Will Marshall, president of the centrist Progressive Policy Institute. "The bigger the Democratic majority grows, the more moderate it becomes. Democrats are a center-left coalition, so big legislative initiatives need to be shaped accordingly." House leaders bowed to that idea this week. Facing the prospect that a group of conservative Democrats in the 52-member Blue Dog Coalition might block a healthcare bill from moving through the energy and commerce committee, they modified the bill. The backlash was swift and severe. "We're at a point where there's no retreat, and we can and must hold the line," said Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chair of the liberal Congressional Progressive Caucus. In a letter, liberal lawmakers attacked the deal. "We regard the agreement reached by Chairman Waxman and several Blue Dog members of the committee as fundamentally unacceptable," they wrote. "This agreement is not a step forward toward a good healthcare bill, but a large step backwards." In the Senate, John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), a widely respected, longtime advocate of a healthcare overhaul, took aim at a key part of the Baucus efforts to craft a bipartisan bill: a proposal to create a system of insurance cooperatives in place of a government plan. "We cannot afford to hang our hat on any unproven, unregulated or unreliable model for health insurance coverage," said Rockefeller, who also expressed his expectation that Baucus' effort would fail to produce a bill before the August recess. "I have a sense the tide is moving the other way," he said. Pelosi, meanwhile, was left to try to downplay the divisions in her party. "We have tremendous diversity, whether it is generational, geographic, philosophical, ethnic, gender, you name it," she said. "It is a great kaleidoscope." visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Friday July 31: Hawthorne Blvd. March for Single Payer by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 30, 2009

Correction: tonight's opening on SE Stark by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 30, 2009

Thursday July 30: Icky A and others open at Goodfoot Gallery by Michael Munk Wed, Jul 29, 2009

Icky is famous for his pioneering Zine in the 90s, for designing the = cover for the Portland Red Guide and much more. The opening party at Goodfoot, 2845 SW Stark is tomorrow 5-11PM abnd = the show and book, titled The Pack Vol 1, is up until August. The book is $30-$40. Details at 503. 238.9292. Check out WWeek article at http://wweek.com/editorial/3538/12858/ 4. Icky A., Bring the War=20 "I like his interest in using his artistic abilities for social change. = He uses simple, generally flat characters and settings to have a subtle = influence rather than shoving messages down your throat."=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

LA man follows Dr Grossman to Cuba by Michael Munk Sat, Jul 25, 2009

Dr Grossman was also folowed by two OHSU medical students Man trying to challenge Cuba travel ban still free Seattle PI.com July 24, 2009=20 By AMY TAXIN AND WILL WEISSERT ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1110ap_us_cuba_travel_violation.html =20 LOS ANGELES -- A U.S. citizen trying to challenge the ban on travel to = Cuba on Friday bemoaned his inability to get arrested or cited - even = after having his passport stamped in Havana and bringing back Cuban = memorabilia. Mytchell Mora, a 39-year-old freelance entertainment news producer, said = he told U.S. customs officials he broke the law after flying through = Costa Rica home to Los Angeles early Friday. Officials punched some information about him into a computer and sent = him home without punishment, Mora said. They didn't even confiscate his = Cuba T-shirt or postcards. "I am just so surprised nothing happened to me," Mora, who lives in West = Hollywood, said in a phone interview. "What can you really do when = you're saying, 'take me to jail or give me a ticket,' and they do = nothing to you?" Jaime Ruiz, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said = customs officers don't issue citations for violations of the U.S. Cuba = policy, but rather refer cases to the Treasury Department's Office of = Foreign Assets Control. "We'll never deny a U.S. citizen entry," said Ruiz, who wouldn't comment = on the specifics of Mora's case. "If he's in violation of a U.S. law, we = report them to another federal agency." The Office of Foreign Assets Control did not respond to calls and = e-mails seeking comment on Mora's case. Most Americans who travel to Cuba do so on the sly, sneaking in and back = without permission from U.S. authorities. But Mora is trying to make a point, hoping to get arrested or cited = after his fourth trip to Cuba so he could challenge the country's travel = ban, which he says discriminates against anyone who isn't Cuban-American = and punishes Cuba's people, not its government. He traveled to Cuba without permission in 1999 and 2000. About six = months after the second visit, he got a letter from the U.S. Treasury = Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control saying he had to explain = why he went to Cuba, who he stayed with and how much money he spent - = and could face fines or jail time if he failed to respond within 10 = days. He wrote back asking to exercise his Fifth Amendment protection against = self-incrimination and never heard back. Mora returned to Cuba in 2002 and told the Communist Party newspaper = Granma which flight he would take to return to the United States. Upon = arriving in Los Angeles, he was pulled out of line by U.S. authorities = who said they were waiting for him. After answering questions about why he went to Cuba, Mora was released = and his bags were not checked. On Friday morning, Mora said he immediately told U.S. authorities that = he broke the law and should be subject to a secondary inspection and = have his bags checked. Mora said a supervisor was called over and typed = information into a computer, but let him keep his souvenirs and leave = the airport. Mora said he hopes he may still be cited so he can challenge the policy = in U.S. courts. During his eight-day trip to Cuba, Mora spent about $50 in = government-controlled stores on a green and red Che Guevara beret, a = Cuba T-shirt, Cuban flag refrigerator magnets, and postcards featuring a = picture of Fidel Castro shaking hands with author Ernest Hemingway. "They say if you buy these clothes or anything else, it goes to Castro's = hands," Mora said in Havana. "I don't think $30 for a shirt is going to = make or break this guy. The money I spend goes to the people and their = homes, not the government." --- Will Weissert reported from Havana. Ban-Challenging Doc Returns from Cuba Thursday, May 14th, 2009=20 Your move, President Obama. As previously reported, retired 94-year-old Dr. Charles Grossman spent a = week in Cuba as a tourist to challenge America's ban on trade and travel = to Cuba. Grossman returned at 6 am on May 11, was immediately put in = handcuffs and shackles, and thrown in jail with a million dollar bail. = No, not really. He went through customs with very little to-do: "I handed in my card which had Cuba written in big letters," Grossman = says. "And the government official looked at it and said 'welcome home' = and that was my greeting, that was all I got." Which begs the question, if the ban is no longer enforced, why have a = ban at all? Cuba or Bust For This 94-Year-Old Doc Friday, May 1st, 2009=20 On April 13, President Obama lifted a U.S. ban that had made it illegal = for Americans to visit family in Cuba or send them money.While a big = step, it's not enough for Charles Grossman, a 94-year-old retired doc = (and all around nice guy) who held a press conference today in advance = of his law-challenging trip to Cuba. In the early morning hours of May 3, Dr. Charles Grossman boarded a = plane that took him about 2,900 miles away from his Portland home for a = week.=20 The 94-year-old doctor's goal was not a vacation, but to challenge = President Obama by flying to Havana.=20 His challenge goes back a few weeks to when Grossman read in The Wall = Street Journal that Obama had lifted the U.S. ban on Americans visiting = family in Cuba, or sending money to the island.=20 While many saw this as progress in America's 50-year history of = contentious relations with Fidel Castro's Cuba, Grossman says it's an = inadequate step by the new president.=20 Grossman, who retired in 2008 from his medical practice as a general = practitioner and donating his time at a downtown medical clinic, wants = the travel and trade bans on Cuba completely abolished.=20 "I want Obama to lift the ban now," the bowtied Grossman said last week = before leaving. "Not when I'm dead."=20 Some federal lawmakers agree.=20 They have introduced legislation aimed at ending all travel restrictions = to Cuba. The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act was introduced by Sen. Byron = Dorgan (D-N.D.) and is co-sponsored by Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). (Oregon's = other senator, freshman Democrat Jeff Merkley, says he's still reviewing = the legislation).=20 In the House, Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio (both D-Ore.) are = co-sponsors of similar legislation.=20 To draw attention to the legislation and encourage Americans to pressure = their congressmen and senators to pass it, Grossman has intentionally = committed a crime by leaving for Cuba on Sunday, May 3, from Vancouver, = B.C., without a visa. He got to Vancouver from Portland by plane.=20 =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Leaving AFPAC prematurely by Michael Munk Wed, Jul 22, 2009

The Oregonian's editorial begins:, "When the United States launched its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, commentators invoked Rudyard Kipling's memorable poem, "The Young British Soldier." "When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, And the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains An' go to your Gawd like a soldier." read the rest at http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/07/exorcising_kiplings_ghost.html My response: To the Editor Your editorial "Exorcising Kipling's ghost" (July 18) extends The Oregonian's record of never opposing a single one of America's unnecessary and eventually unpopular (did someone say "imperialist"?) wars. From Korea to Vietnam to Iraq and now Afghanistan you have been a reliable cheer leader for the bipartisan, knee jerk reflex to impose our will on any nation labeled unfriendly by force of (very pricey) arms. So now you uncritically justify Bush's and now Obama's Afghan war, by offering that; eight years out, it is somehow still intended to "establish a stable, democratic government." A more honest rendition would exchange those meaningless adjectives with the less attractive purpose of imposing pro-US regimes on "AFPAC" by killing anyone who resists. War enablers should consider that that most of the violence in Afghanistan is resistance to the US invasion and occupation. If our goal was to actually reduce bloodshed among the civilian population as well as our own troops, we would indeed leave "prematurely." And since Obama's proffered goal is will eventually be recognized as unachievable, we are bound to leave "prematurely"--no matter how far in the future that may be. Unfortunately, you will not recognize that and allow your support to expire until many more thousands of human lives and billions of dollars" have been wasted. Michael Munk For a closer reasoing see Chris Hedges http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090720_war_without_purpose/ visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

July 30-31: Labor events in Portland by Michael Munk Wed, Jul 22, 2009

Sisters and Brothers - Attached is a flyer for the July 30 discussion in Portland with Steve = Early, a long-time organizer with the CWA and an astute analyst of = what'd been happening in the US labor movement. Steve has been a strong = advocate for rank-and-file unionism, and has helped to make that = commitment real in various struggles that he's been involved with = through the CWA Please share this information with others, and join = Steve and other Portland-area labor activists: Meet the author of: Embedded with Organized Labor: Journalistic Reflections on the Class War at Home From Monthly Review Press Thursday, July 30 7:30 P.M.Powells Book Store 3723 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland Sponsored in Portland by: ILWU Local 5,CWA Local 7901, Teamsters Local = 206, and Portland Jobs With Justice--plus Monthly Review, WorkingUSA, = and Labor Notes. Find Out More About: = =EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF= =BF=BD Workers and the economic crisis = =EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF= =BF=BD The fight for health care and immigration reform = =EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF= =BF=BD The fate of =EF=BF=BDEmployee Free Choice=EF=BF=BD = =EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF= =BF=BD Current struggles for union democracy and rank-and-file control = =EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF=BF=BD=EF= =BF=BD The future of national labor federations like Change to Win and = AFL-CIO Refreshments will be served. For more information, call: 617-930-7327 To order the book online, visit: www.monthlyreview.org = -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -------------------------------------------------------------------------= -------------------------------------------------------------------------= ---------------- And the next evening, please join us at a very special fundraising = party=20 =20 Friday, July 31, 2009 5:30-9:00 pm =20 Home of=20 Bill Resnick & Johanna Brenner 1615 SE 35th Place (just south of Hawthorne Blvd) =20 Presentations at 6:00 and 8:00. Many labor activists and supporters = are joining together to help the National Union of Healthcare Workers = organize members and create a democratic, member-led union for the = healthcare industry.=20 . Steve Early will be there, and also briefly talk. The 5017 people = are invited. Find out how you can participate. =20 Light refreshments and great conversation guaranteed. Note also that evening the single payer people will be marching to the = Baghdad Theatre to pack an Ed Schultz taping of a show for Air America; = their goal is to generate a discussion of health care reform and = Medicare for All , on which Schultz has been vacillating. So we extended = the NUHW event to 10 PM or later and plan to repeat the program, but = more briefly, if the folks come over from the Baghdad when that event = ends .=20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

OHSU's link to Spokane's torture consultants by Michael Munk Tue, Jul 21, 2009

Thursday: Protest Wyden's delay of healthcare refrom by Michael Munk Mon, Jul 20, 2009

Sen Wyden is one of the reactionary "Gang of Six" who wants to hold up healthcare reform (see *).MoveOn.org will hold a nationally synchronized event at Pioneer Square (just across from Nordstrom) on Thursday July 23rd at 7pm to 7:30pm in support of a strong Health Care Bill with a guaranteed Public Option! Please come, sign our petition that will be delivered to Senator Wyden's office.We are looking to have Tom Hartman from 620AM Radio and KGW Channel 8 TV too, so come on down and show Portland a REAL Public Option Day of Action Pioneer Square - Downtown Portland, SW Broadway Portland, OR 97204 Thursday, July 23th, 6:45 PM Health care reform is at risk in the Senate. Conservative Senate Democrats like Wyden and Nelson have joined Lieberman to escalat their efforts to delay action on health care1-an age-old trick to kill reform. We need to respond quickly to show Wyden that Oregonians stand with President Obama on this: we need real health care reform, and we need it now. So Portlanders are coming together for a R.E.A.L. Public Option Day of Action this Thursday-to make sure Sen. Wyden knows we can't have real reform without a R.E.A.L. public health insurance option-right now. A R.E.A.L. public health insurance option is critical to help lower costs and expand health care coverage across America. To be effective, the public option should meet the following criteria: Right away: Every day we wait on real reform, health care costs continue to rise. A strong public health insurance option right out of the gate is key. Proposals that would delay implementation for years-like the so-called "trigger"-would undermine the public option's potential to help control costs and provide widespread care. Everyone: A strong public health insurance option should be broadly available, and a core piece of an overall reform plan that will help guarantee access to quality health care for everyone in America. Accountable: To ensure it's held to the highest standards, a public health insurance option must be publicly accountable and transparent to Congress and to voters. Large enough to lower costs: In order to truly control costs, a public health insurance option must be available nationwide with a broad network of providers so that it is competitive and able to bargain on a level playing field with private plans. The real public health insurance option is the key to real health care reform and it has overwhelming popular support from the American people. But it will only become a reality if Sen. Wyden hears our voices-and prevents it from being delayed or watered down. * "Gang Of Six Centrist Senators Demands Delay On Health Care Reform."The Huffington Post. July 17, 2009. http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51637&id=16611-8646861-cJo1_6x&t=8 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Oregonian challenged on unemployment rate by Michael Munk Sun, Jul 19, 2009

To the editor, The Oregonian: RE: " Oregon unemployment No. 3 in nation, behind Michigan, Rhode Island" (July 18): Why do you report only the low-ball figure for unemployment in Oregon? As the New York Times' front page July 15 informed us, our actual rate is 23.5%. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/business/economy/15leonhardt.html?scp=1&sq=broader%20unemployment%20rate&st=cse The Labor Department measures unemployment in several different ways but the public is told only about the one that results in the lowest possible figure.The most accurate measurement counts unemployed people who didn't tell an interviewer they had been looking for work during the survey week. Most of them didn't look because they did not believe any jobs were available and were just as unemployed as those who said they looked.. In addition, the low-ball measurement excludes people working part time but seeking full time employment. If you use the low-ball figures, at least note it is about half the broader count. Perhaps its main justification is that it minimizes the true size of what Marx called the "reserve army of the unemployed"-- a necessary component of any economy that calls itself capitalist. Michael Munk visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

July 18-21: Single payer tour in Portland area by Michael Munk Sat, Jul 18, 2009

In case you can't make it at 7:30PM tonight (Saturday, July 18) at SEIU Local 49 Auditorium 3536 SE 26th Ave. Price: donations OR Jobs with Justice is organizing this! Contact Margaret Butler - = margaret(@)jwjpdx.org You can still catch the =20 Sing Out for Single Payer Road Show with Anne Feeney, Al Bradbury, = Pickles, Hunter Paye, Patrick Dodd, General Strike, Bluegrass Dave = Wilmoth, Jason Luckett, Jesse Dalton, Wickline, Dick Weissman and more! In McMinnville, Astoria or Vancouver=20 Schedule below We believe that single payer health insurance is the only real solution = to 50 million uninsured and countless millions of underinsured people in = this country. We're working closely with health care professionals and = activists in all three states. This tour is sponsored and endorsed by = all the groups mentioned above, along with generous contributions from = many doctors, nurses and concerned individuals, including Peter Yarrow = of Peter, Paul and Mary. We hope you'll catch one of these shows and = PLEASE - tell your friends. Call your Representative in Congress today = and thank him or her for sponsoring HR 676. If s/he is not one of the 80 = co-sponsors, ask him/her to sponsor HR 676. Call your Senators and ask = them to sponsor SB 703. Thank you! National Health Care NOW!! read the lyrics and listen to "We're Nursing as Fast as We Can" by Joan = Hill listen to "National Health Care Now!" by Anne Feeney print out a Sing Out for Single Payer Road Show poster as a 8.5x13 .jpg or a 11x17 .png =20 =20 Sunday, July 19th, 2009 2:30 PM McMinnville=20 Sing Out for Single Payer Tour with Raina Rose, Green = Mountain Grass, Patrick Dodd, Wickline, Anne Feeney, Lewis Childs, Jason = Luckett and more! Mc Minnville Community Center - Room 203 600 NE Evans St http://annefeeney.com/specialevents.html Price: donations Contact - lizmarliastein@verizon.net - Sponsored by the = Yamhill County Democrats, the Marion, Polk & Yamhill Counties Central = Labor Council, and USW Local 8378 =20 Monday, July 20th, 2009 7:00 PM Astoria =20 Sing Out for Single Payer with Anne Feeney, Jason Luckett, = Bluegrass Dave Wilmoth, Wickline and more! Blue Scorcher Cafe & Bakery 1493 Duane St Price: donations katree@pobox.com or tduncan@pacifier.com for more = information=20 =20 Tuesday, July 21st 7:00 PM Vancouver=20 Sing Out for Single Payer Road Show with Adam & Kris, Brian = QTN, Bluegrass Dave Wilmoth, Wickline, Anne Feeney and Jason Luckett Unitarian Universalist Chruch 4505 E 18th Street 360-254-8703 Price: donations Cindi Fisher @ cindipacha@gmail.com - Sponsored by Vancouver = Health Care Now! and later that week in Washington (schedule to be sent)=20 =20 =20 =20 visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Wyden joins anti health reform gang of Six by Michael Munk Fri, Jul 17, 2009

Tom Potter blasts Sam Adams in recall letter by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 16, 2009

Saturday July 18: Portland Sings Out for Single Payer by Michael Munk Thu, Jul 16, 2009

Radical historian William Appleman Williams and Oregon by Michael Munk Wed, Jul 15, 2009

Oregon unemployment rate at 23.5% by Michael Munk Wed, Jul 15, 2009

Read it yourself on the front page of the NYTimes (not The Oregonian) today http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/15/business/economy/15leonhardt.html?_r=1&ref=usThat's what Oregon's true rate is as meassured by the Labor Department'availble report-- but one rarely publizied in the media.The latest "official" seasonally adjusted rate, as reported by The Oregonianand other local media, is 12.2%Why is that about half the true rate?Because the "official" rate counts as unemployed only those who told aninterviewer they were actively looking for work during the monthly surveyweek.So if an unemployed person was discouraged from looking because of the lackof jobs, or sick or for whatever reason didn't say they were looking, theyare not officially unemployed.The broader and essentially secret rate includes workers who gave up lookingthat week as well as those who were working part time but were seeking fulltime work.It's all part of the official government effort to minmize the size of whatMarx called "the reserve army of the unemployed", which is required bycapitalism.visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

NW Oregon labor Council endorses Single Payer, Teamsters dissent by Michael Munk Sun, Jul 12, 2009

NW Oregon Labor Council the latest union group to back HR 676 Northwest Labor Press, July 3, 2009 http://www.nwlaborpress.org/2009/0703/7-3-09Health.html The largest central labor council in Oregon has endorsed House Resolution 676, the single-payer health care bill introduced by Michigan Congressman John Conyers. Delegates to the Northwest Oregon Labor Council voted June 22 to back the bill. The resolution was brought to the council by affiliates United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48. The endorsement wasn't unanimous, as a delegate representing Teamsters Joint Council No 37 voted against it. HR 676 would institute a single- payer health care system by expanding the Medicare system to all U.S. citizens. The system would cover every person for all necessary medical care, including prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and preventive care, emergency services, dental, mental health, home health, physical therapy, rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care, hearing services including hearing aids, chiropractic, durable medical equipment, palliative care, and long term care. Its sponsors say HR 676 would end deductibles and co-payments, saving hundreds of billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the private health insurance industry and HMOs. HR 676 has 93 House co-sponsors, in addition to Conyers. Jim McDermott of Seattle is the only congressman from the Pacific Northwest supporting the bill. HR 676 has the backing of 541 union organizations in 49 states, including the Oregon AFL-CIO and Washington State Labor Council. NOLC is the 128th central labor council nationwide to endorse the legislation. Also on board in Oregon are the Southern Oregon Labor Council; Central Oregon Labor Council; and Marion, Polk, and Yamhill Counties Central Labor Council. Nineteen international unions are backing the bill, including United Steelworkers of America; United Auto Workers; National Education Association; International Longshore and Warehouse Union; National Association of Letter Carriers; Machinists; Plumbers and Fitters; American Federation of Musicians; Sheet Metal Workers; Office and Professional Employees; American Federation of Teachers; Service Employees International Union; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; California Nurses Association; Communications Workers of America; Utility Workers Union of America; International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees; United Transportation Union; and United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. For more about the bill, go to: www.unionsforsinglepayer.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- visit my website www.michaelmunk.com

Pastors for Peace: Oregon to Cuba by Michael Munk Sat, Jul 11, 2009