Saturday, March 31, 2007

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Why We Fight

I have returned from being out of town for a week. I caught this and wanted to come back to it because of its importance.

From Kmareka...

This documentary, Why We Fight, is over an hour and a half long, and worth every minute. If you ask yourself this question daily, which many Americans do, you owe it to yourself to consider the arguments made in this video and what they mean to our long-term survival as a nation.



Is American foreign policy dominated by the idea of military supremacy? Has the military become too important in American life? Jarecki's shrewd and intelligent polemic would seem to give an affirmative answer to each of these questions

The American Documentary Grand Jury Prize was given to WHY WE FIGHT, written and directed by Eugene Jarecki. http://festival.sundance.org/2005/docs/05Awards.pdf

What are the forces that shape and propel American militarism? This award-winning film provides an inside look at the anatomy of the American war machine.

He may have been the ultimate icon of 1950s conformity and postwar complacency, but Dwight D. Eisenhower was an iconoclast, visionary, and the Cassandra of the New World Order. Upon departing his presidency, Eisenhower issued a stern, cogent warning about the burgeoning "military industrial complex," foretelling with ominous clarity the state of the world in 2004 with its incestuous entanglement of political, corporate, and Defense Department interests.

Deploying the general's farewell address as his strategic ground zero, Eugene Jarecki launches a full-frontal autopsy of how the will of a people has become an accessory to the Pentagon. Surveying the scorched landscape of a half-century's military misadventures and misguided missions, Jarecki asks how--and tells why--a nation ostensibly of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war.

Jarecki, whose previous film, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, took such an unblinking look at our ex-secretary of state, might have delivered his film in time for the last presidential election, but its timing is also its point: It does not matter who is in charge as long as the system remains immune from the checks and balances of a peace-seeking electorate. Brisk, intelligent, and often very, very human, Why We Fight is one of the more powerful films in this year's Festival, and certainly among the most shattering.— Diane Weyermann

http://www.whywefightmovie.com/

Friday, March 16, 2007

Weekend Iraq anniversary events

> MARCH 18 RALLY IN PROVIDENCE:
>
> The RI Community Coalition for Peace is sponsoring an anti-war march
> and rally in Providence on Sunday, March 18, the fourth anniversary of
> the invasion of Iraq. The march will start at 1:30 PM at Central High
> School on Broad Street. We will march downtown to the Federal
> Building at Kennedy Plaza, then up Westminster Street to the
> Beneficent church on Weybosset Street for a rally from 3:00 to
> 5:30 PM. The program for the rally includes:
> • The Raging Grannies singing anti-war songs
> • Rev. Jon Almond from the Mathewson Street United Methodist Church
> • Jacque Amoureux from the RI chapter of Military Families Speak Out
> • Elliott Colla, Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University
> • Steve Kelly from the Kelly Peace group and RI MFSO
> • Chris Murphy from the International Socialist Organization
> • Jeff Toste from the Green Party of Rhode Island
>
> ROUNDUP OF MARCH ANNIVERSARY EVENTS:
>
> This roundup of upcoming March events is provided as a service to the
> local peace community. These events have not necessarily been
> endorsed by RICCP unless otherwise stated.
> • Barrington, March 18: The East Bay Citizens for Democracy is
> planning a forum on Iraq from 2:30 – 6:00 PM at the Barrington
> Congregational Church. For more information, please contact: Pat
> Smith at sampa@cox.net.
> • Newport, March 18: The RI Progressive League is planning a peace
> rally in Newport starting at noon at Washington Square. For more
> information, please contact Gracious Audette at
> graciousaudette@aiconnect.com .
> • Providence, March 18: The local Declaration of Peace group is
> sponsoring a Gathering and Planning for Nonviolent Action from
> 5:30-7:00 PM, Beneficent Church, following the peace rally at the
> Church. For more information, please contact the AFSC office at
> 401-521-3584.
> • Providence, March 19: During the week of March 19, Declaration
> of Peace and other groups are planning nonviolent actions in the local
> area. For more information, please contact the AFSC office at
> 401-521-3584.
> • Providence, March 19: Brown Students for a Democratic Society and
> other groups will be staging a street-theater die-in at the Textron
> Tower in downtown Providence on Monday. They are planning to meet at
> Kennedy Plaza at 1:30 and walk the short distance to their
> headquarters. For more information, please contact Jonathan Rogers at
> Jonathan_Rogers@brown.edu .
> • Providence, March 19: For Move On.org, Christine Lindin is
> hosting a vigil at the Providence State House on Monday at 7:30 PM.
> For more information, please contact: Pat Smith at sampa@cox.net.
> • Providence, March 20: The RI chapter of the ACLU is sponsoring a
> film screening on Tuesday at 7 PM at the Columbus Theatre on Broadway
> in Providence. They are showing "Road To Guantanamo", and will be
> having a panel discussion with Nick Schmader and Carl Kreuger. For
> more information, please contact Megan Young at MYoung@riaclu.org .
> • Providence, March 20: Col. Ann Wright, who resigned from the
> diplomatic service in 2003 in protest of the war with Iraq, will be
> speaking on "The Coming War with Iran" at 7:00 PM in Smith-Buonanno
> 106 at Brown University, located at 100 Brown Street at Cushing
> Street. For more information, please contact Randall Rose at
> Randall_Rose@brown.edu .
>

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Concrete Plant Fight

PLEASE ATTEND THIS IMPORTANT MEETING IN SUPPORT OF OUR CAUSE
[If you have a sign, bring it!]

Thursday 3/15 7:00 PM

COUNCIL CHAMBERS, THIRD FLOOR, CITY HALL, CRANSTON

We the people have been silenced!

The Mayor and the City Council have failed to follow through and remove the permit for the concrete batching plant in our neighborhood.

We deserve a Zoning Board hearing.

We have paid $500 for the right to be heard.

We have been canceled twice and cannot be heard until the number of members on the Zoning Board is expanded.

We have not been allowed to present our case to the Zoning Board.

We need to expose the facts to the light of day.

The Mayor and the courts have been unwilling or unable to do so.

We must Expose the dangers to the health and safety of Cranston citizens.

We must Expose the defects in the permit and potential illegalities.

We must Expose the pending damage to the ecosystem, streams, rivers and the Narragansett Bay.

We applaud the Ordinance Committee for addressing this issue by seeking to expand the number of alternates that currently serve on the Board from two to four.

ITEM 2-07-1 http://www.cranstonri.com/pdf/calendar_meetings/Mar15,2007_7488.pdf

Come and support their efforts so we can take this to the next step!

Only then can we, the citizens, be heard.

If you have not already done so, please write to the Mayor, City Council and DEM.

Background Information:

There is a wonderfully written article by GEOFF SHOOS in the Cranston Herald

This is a must read!

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

SAVE THIS DATE:

Thursday 3/22 6:30

CCRZ&D Meeting @ the Cranston Public Library

Sockanossett Crossroad

~ More information to follow ~

--

Cranston Citizens for Responsible Zoning & Development
P.O. Box 20442
Cranston, Rhode Island 02920
(401) 467-6791
e-mail: stopcranstonconcrete@gmail.com
Web Site: http://www.stopcranstonconcrete.org

Friday, March 09, 2007

Monday, March 05, 2007

Barts Fox News Dream

Had enough?

From DKos...


Have you finally had enough? From liberals being terrorists, to whether Bill Clinton should have been impeached or assassinated, to Al Gore being a "total fag," to publicly endorsing the poisoning of Supreme Court justices, to advocating the murder of members of the US House of Representatives, to whether the women whose husbands had died at the World Trade Center were happy because it made them rich and famous -- well, on Friday Ann Coulter did it again.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference, she was introducing Mitt Romney, Republican Presidential candidate, and invoked the word "faggot" again to describe John Edwards, Democratic Presidential candidate. Want to hear for yourself?

http://youtube.com/...

I can't stand the idea that these people are going to try to "swiftboat" more Democratic candidates. I have always wanted to do something about Coulter -- each of her attacks is egregious, some more than others. All are hateful. Whether you think it is better to ignore her, or to implore her Republican colleagues to castigate her, or to urge every Democrat you know to attack back, I think it's always a good idea to let advertisers know exactly how you feel about their sponsorship of hate.

Following is a link to an article in Daily Kos wherein the diarist has collected information on contacting Coulter's advertisers. Please click on it, read it, and let her advertisers know exactly how you feel. I plan to spend some time tomorrow doing just that, and I hope you will too.

http://www.dailykos.com/...

You are undoubtedly a consumer of the goods or services provided by one or more of these businesses:

Google
Verizon Communications
YAHOO
Washington Mutual
YellowPages.com

There are others listed in the article as well, all with contact information. Spend a couple of minutes letting them know how you feel.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Domestic Abuse

The Battle of Forest Hills...

Parking disputes, congested roadways and safety concerns will apparently be continuing indefinitely in the neighborhoods surrounding Reservoir Avenue’s Domestic Bank. At Monday night’s meeting the council voted 5-4 to table an ordinance that would have placed a two-hour maximum on parking on the streets surrounding the bank.


From the Cranston Herald...

Everyone who attended the council meeting Monday night (with the possible exception of the Domestic Bank representatives) left feeling flabbergasted, dismayed and probably more than a little put out. There was a lot of grandstanding, excessive volume and surprisingly little accomplished.


More from the Herald...

Only in the “Kingdom of Council President Garabedian” could you enjoy such an entertaining City Council meeting as this past Monday’s, the results of which were the beheading of a neighborhood and the knighting of Domestic Bank – a company with a demonstrated lack of corporate governance. Only in the “Kingdom of Council President Garabedian” do you see a company rewarded for violating city codes, cease and desist orders and parking bans during snow emergencies.


More...

If you have never attended a City Council meeting, now is the time. In just two short months, the current council, under the leadership of Aram Garabedian, has managed to fashion itself into something resembling a sideshow carnival act.