I didn't bother to read past a few sentences. Been there, seen that.
Pinging Howard Dean.
Fighting Bob Fest gets progressive juices flowing
http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.php?ntid=98327&ntpid=0
By Ellen Williams-Masson
Correspondent for The Capital Times
BARABOO - The nip of fall was in the air, but the flicker of hope fanned by the fifth annual Fighting Bob Fest on Saturday warmed progressive hearts yearning for social justice and government accountability.
Event organizers estimated that more than 5,000 people gathered for the daylong event, which trumpeted the fight for true democracy and economic fairness in the spirit of Robert "Fighting Bob" La Follette.
La Follette, a Republican who represented Wisconsin as a congressman (1884-1890), governor (1901-1906) and U. S. senator (1905-1925), fought corruption and was a fierce champion of progressive reforms. "Mere passive citizenship is not enough." - "Fighting Bob" La Follette
Ed Garvey is the editor and publisher of FightingBob.com, an online journal that provides a progressive voice in the mainstream media.
Photo by Ellen Williams-Masson
Advocating government accountability, Senator Tom Harkin, D-IA, chastised Democrats for failing to support a resolution to censure President Bush during the 5th annual Fighting Bob Fest last Saturday in Baraboo.
View all 4 images in this gallery
"One of the most important things you can do in politics is to get people involved in the process, to turn off the cynicism and turn on the idea that there is hope," Garvey said.
A progressive activist and founding organizer of the Fighting Bob Fest, Garvey believes that inspiring people to participate in democracy is the key to change.
"So many people are disgusted with the two political parties, thinking that they are part of the same moneyed interests," he said. "Publicly financed campaigns would take care of virtually all these problems, because then third-party candidates would have a chance, and voters would have a choice."
"Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely." - La Follette
Saturday's program was packed with progressive heroes, including award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, host and executive producer of the national radio and TV news program "Democracy Now!"
"Democracy Now!" plays locally on WORT/FM 89.9 and WYOU Channel 4. The Capital Times will begin carrying Goodman's new column, tentatively titled "Breaking the Sound Barrier," beginning Oct. 23.
In her speech Saturday to a packed grandstand, Goodman derided the "ascendancy of the oiligarchy" in the top echelons of power in American politics, citing the connections of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and others in the Bush administration to the oil industry.
"Is it any surprise that we are at war in Iraq?" she asked. "They are hungry for oil."
Goodman believes that it is up to the news media to provide a forum for individual voices so that majority opinion can be heard.
"In this high-tech digital age, what we get from the media is static - a veil of distortion, lies, omissions and half-truths that obscure reality," she said.
"We need a media that creates static. That is defined by the dictionary as 'criticism, opposition, unwanted interference.' We need a media that covers the movements that create static and make history."
"Let no man think we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves." - La Follette
Gail Lamberty of Roxbury has personified La Follette's wife, Belle Case La Follette, as well as the spirit of the Fighting Bob Fest since the progressive rally's inception.
Dressed in period garb, Lamberty said she was honored to portray a woman who was a leader in the women's suffrage movement.
"It's most important to me to look at Bob and Belle as models of believing in the citizenship, because if there's a time that we ever needed people to take personal responsibility of democracy, it is now more than ever," she said.
Lamberty encouraged people to "get off your behind and do something" to take back control of democracy in the spirit of the La Follettes.
"Take that legacy and make it come alive," she said. "The most radical thing you can do is talk to your neighbor."
"If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another ... after the war is on." - La Follette
A young speaker from Milwaukee gave hope that the progressive torch will be carried by a new generation of Americans.
Fourteen-year-old Andrew Dunn-Bauman participated in the state tournament for middle school forensics last year with a speech titled "Back to the Progressive Future," in which he argued why he should be elected president on the Progressive Party ticket.
"I don't like the Republicans because they are the party of bad ideas, and the Democrats are the party of no ideas," he said after his speech. "It's time for a party of good ideas."
Chris Knief and his wife, Ann Durst, of Madison brought their young daughters to the Fighting Bob Fest in the hopes that "something might seep in" for Lucia and Rosa.
"Sometimes kids might resist your views if you do it too heavy-handedly," Knief said. "This is a great event, and it's nice to be around people who care in the same ways we do. I don't want to proselytize to my kids, but it's something that I want them to see that I care about."
"Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly." - La Follette
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, won standing ovations for his criticism of the Bush administration's "fear-mongering" and squandering of global support.
Stating that Americans have a "massive case of buyer's remorse" after re-electing President Bush, Harkin urged progressives to "provide some adult supervision" by electing a new Congress in November.
"Tell your friends and your neighbors that all they ever needed to know about this election this November, they learned in driver's education," he said. "If you want to go backward, you put it in R. If you want to go forward, you put it in D."
Published: September 11, 2006
L
I've heard it refered to as "The fringe 60%"
I want violence that is well planned out to destroy our enemies.
I desire violence, as long as it is directed towards the enemy. I don't want a proportionate response, I want to overwhelm the enemies of America, and send them to allah. I don't want to stand our ground, I want to keep pushing, always, never stopping. Make them hold their ground, make them run. I desire total victory.
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -- John Stuart Mill
Big lie. It is fractured.
Terrorist recruitment is, by all accounts, on the rise,
Proof?
and international anger over administration policies makes the United States and Americans traveling abroad ever more vulnerable.
Oh gee! The Germans and the French are mad at us! Shudder. They might get violent on us as a result! (snicker)
Iraq is experiencing a chaotic civil war.
Lie.
Afghanistan is degenerating toward a similar circumstance.
Even bigger lie.
"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."--Mohandas Gandhi
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mohandas_Gandhi
Barf is spelled B A R F. And alert, well, you can look that one up yourself. Thanks!!!!!
This filth has no place in our discourse on this day.
I read your article on the Internet. I conclude that you either are totally ignorant of the history of the Munich Pact of 1938, or that you are aware of it but are lying to your readers.
If you have the honesty to publish this letter, this is for the benefit of your readers. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Britain, believed that it was possible to "negotiate" with Adolf Hitler. He did so, and returned with the Munich Pact, which provided "peace for our times," as he announced.
A year later, Hitler invaded Poland, and WW II was on, in Europe. At least 50 million people died in that conflict, lives that might have been saved if Chamberlain had been ignored, in favor of Winston Churchill, who had been warning about the global dangers of Hitler, for years.
You at the Capital Times are deep into the same suicidal denial that animated Chamberlain, and led directly to tens of millions of dead Americans and Europeans.
I condemn your deadly ignorance.
John Armor, Esq.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo!)
"And yes, a not insignificant minority of Americans hold these views."
It is a minority of airheads.
After reading this I can only visualize a bunch of sheep being lead to the slaughter.........
Mark
The Capitol Times staff would hurriedly walk past a woman being raped by two felons rather than "resort" to the violence required to stop them.
That same staff would let an aircraft full of people be rammed into a skyscraper full of even more people, rather than dare to use "violence" to stop such a crime.
Thus, the Capitol Times staff is evil...infected with a brand of extreme pacifism that makes their very presence on Earth detrimental to civilization.
They are not leaders. They are not worthy of being called "men" or adults or citizens. They are, at best, animals...beasts who care not if harm comes to you or to your children.
I am intrigued that in your attempt to make your case for non-violence,you start by painting an unduly pessismistic picture of the success of our efforts in the War on Terror. It suggests to me that what is presented as an idealistic hope is really a counsel of despair.The facts, unpopular as they may be, are that since the 9-11 the frequency of terrorist acts on American Soil has declined greatly from the frequency of such events in the 1990's. The picture is far more hopeful than you portray it. And if you will attempt a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" argument in alleging that violence has provoked failure, I will use the same kind of reasoning to suggest that the controlled violence of our military response has not only caused considerable success in this country, but has caused our enemy to confine their barbaric brutality to sites far from the United States.
War and violence are indeed horrible. But they beat the heck out of defeat.
The first editorial takes words and reverses their meaning. It is Bush that took a serious response and liberals that act cavalier about these terrorists. The liberals can try their soviet style projection tactics and some will fall for it. But I believe over time the liberals will lose by being on the wrong side of this. The terrorists will eventually attack again and will be viewed as fools on this issue. But we have to win minds on this issue.
As Walter Wink, professor emeritus of biblical interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary, has written, "nonviolence was elaborated by Jainism and Buddhism, given political bite by Jews like the prophets and Jesus, (and) articulated by Christians like Saint Francis."
Hmmmmm. No mention of Islam in there, don't think the Mahatma would do so well as a nonviolent Dhimmi.
These people are sick. Afraid of their own shadow.