Conference: Examining Agenda of the Religious Far Right

"Until progressives come to understand what [fundamentalists] read, hear, are told and deeply believe, we cannot understand American politics, much less be effective."

- Joe Bageant

Conference: Examining the Agenda of the Religious Far Right
April 29-30

There will be a two-day conference co-sponsored by the NY Open Center and CUNY Graduate Center Public Programs, to be held at CUNY Graduate Center (Fifth Ave & 34th St, Manhattan) on April 29 and 30.

The conference, called Examining the Real Agenda of the Religious Far Right, will include some of my favorite political activists.

Speakers: Karen Armstrong, Joan Bokaer, Chip Berlet, Katherine Yurica, John Sugg, Hugh Urban, Frederick Clarkson, Jeffrey Sharlet, Skipp Porteous, Charles Strozier, Robert W. Edgar, and Joseph C. Hough Jr.
(presenter bios here)


Susan at Suburban Guerilla has a blog-post about a Mo-Jones interview with Jim Wallis (of Sojourners).

Betsy Cronkite

"They had a great relationship, a partnership in the real sense of the word."

- Kay Barnes, Mayor of Kansas City, cousin of Walter Cronkite, speaking of Walter and his wife Betsy

Betsy Cronkite

Kevin Hoffman did a very nice job on this article about Betsy (Mary Elizabeth) Cronkite, the beloved wife of Walter Cronkite. Last week, Betsy died after a long struggle with cancer. Walter and Betsy would have celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary later this month

My thoughts and prayers go out to Walter and his family.

Arrogant Blackwell Refuses to Admit Ohio Mistakes

Blackwell Gives the Finger to Concerned Voters
......but he won't give U.S. Congresswoman his hand to shake.

Yesterday, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell appeared before a Congressional field committee and had the audacity to state, simply, that "everything went smoothly" in the Ohio election last November.

He called citizens' concerns - your concerns and mine - "fabrications and exaggerations". He even jabbed at people like me, who are talking about him on this blog. (Read the linked Toledo Blade story by Jim Provance).

I guess he cannot take criticism in a constructive or non-defensive manner. Regardless, I don't see how he thinks he can just sweep all these concerns away with his horrid accusations, arrogant insults, and closing his eyes and pretending the problems aren't there. Unless we allow him to do so.


"What you don't want to hear, or what you are not hearing, is that Ohio..had one of the best election administration performances in the country." said J. Kenneth Blackwell.

U.S. Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D., CA.), countered: "Irrespective of that, there have been allegations put out there. Again, you don't want to hear that, but they're out there."

According to U.S. Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D., OH.), the arrogant Blackwell refused to shake her hand outside the committee room.

The divisive Blackwell is going to run for Governor in Ohio. The cause for his rise to national prominence? Delivering Ohio to George W. Bush, thus hijacking the election.

In January, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who prepared a report on election problems in Ohio, said that an improper fund-raising letter for Blackwell's gubernatorial run supports suspicions that Blackwell's actions as secretary of state during the election "stemmed from partisan political motivations" to help Bush.

Funny Photo

"Mini-Me" Tumor Appears on President's Head

"Just how's he gonna manage, lugging that extra dome around?" a bystander was reported to have asked.

Originalism

"More improbable than unique..".
Originalism has some incredible photography and prose.

I saw a joke I liked at the blog - from the Edinburgh festival:

"I joined a dating agency and went out on a load of dates that didn't work out. And I went back to the woman who ran the agency and said: "Have you not got somebody on your books who doesn't care about how I look or what job I have and has a nice big pair of boobs?" And she checked on her computer and said: "Actually, we have one, but unfortunately, it's you."

N.Z. Bear To Wed

N.Z. Bear To Wed



Sorry, girls. He'll soon be out of the running. N. Z. Bear is getting married. He's also known as Truth Laid Bear, owner of the Ecosystem. I'm very happy to hear the good news about Bear and his Lady M.
Here's wishing the best of luck and love to them both.

Brandenn

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

- Marcus Aurelius

Brandenn

There are some things that make me profoundly sad.
This is one of them.

Ted Honderich: The Principle of Humanity

Ted Honderich: The Principle of Humanity

I've been reading a book on free will and determinism by Ted Honderich. A fascinating philosopher, Honderich speaks of the series of causal lines which create our life narratives. I've been thinking about one particular point he made. He says that your own inner world, it can be argued, is no less "real" than the perceived part of the physical world. If the latter is not to be made into "mysterious stuff in the head" by its dependence on PERSONS generally, then why should your world of perceptual consciousness be degraded into such stuff by its dependency upon YOU?

While it seems that some people are "living in their own head", it's far too easy to consider them anti-social eccentrics (some call them 'geeks'). Think about the wisdom they could impart, by their (admitted) hyper-dependence upon their own neural system versus reliance upon persons, generally. Who are we to judge which is of more value - to that individual and what could be of value to the physical world by that person's very neural existence?

Since I cannot send you the entirety of his rather complex book "How Free Are You?", I thought I would share an online paper of Professor Honderich's, which is a politics-related philosophy. In it, he provides us with 10 observations about familiar principles, rules, maxims, and propositions mentioning equality, of which he says are reflective of "ordinary enlightened convictions and feelings."

He says:

The fundamental question to which liberalism, conservatism and other such things give answers - or should give answers - and arguments for the answers, is sometimes called the question of justice. It is the question not of what laws there are, but of what laws there ought to be, how societies ought to be. Better, it is the question of who ought to have what.
An answer needs first to decide on a prior question. Of what ought who to have what shares or amounts? My answers are given in this paper.

The first, to the prior question, has to do with our great desires, and the wretchedness or other distress of having them unfulfilled. Other answers have to do with bad answers to the main question, and then the right one. Morality has a majesty. Despite ourselves, and yet to ourselves, it stands over the rest of our existence, in particular over our self-interest in its various forms.

To my mind it is the Principle of Humanity above all that has that majesty.

Happy reading, should you decide to take the dive into Honderich's world of ideas.

______________

Other recent references from the reality-based philosopher:
Counterpunch- On Being Persona Non Grata

The Need for a New Disrespect:

"Murdoch of The Sun in England [and FOX News] has a thousand or ten thousand times greater control over the alternatives scheduled for debate and decision in a national election than you do. He is about that much more free to get what he wants for himself and the people with whom he identifies. You can safely say that they, some millions of them, are at least 100 times freer than the rest of us."

Iraq - The 2nd Anniversary from Azania's View

Iraq - The 2nd Anniversary from Azania's View

Helioith has a downloadable MP3 of a radio broadcast by Azania Al-Shabazz, a 6th grader at Crossroads Middle School in Harlem, New York. As part of the Radio Roots series, this particular segment deals with the child's own thoughts and the thoughts of his community members about the war in Iraq and its affect upon the community.

Archy's Liberal Coalition Blogsketches

Archy's Liberal Coalition Blogsketches

Hmmmm- just what does an Iddybud and a Scrutiny Hooligan look like?
Check out some of John's groovy blogger-sketches.

Stribley on Quashie

- from the O.J.Simpson Coloring and Activity book, downloadable here.

Stribley on Quashie

At Hitched to Everything, Robert Stribley talks about meeting artists Colin Quashie and Colbert Mashile at Charlotte's McColl Center for Visual Art.

Your Vote: Worthless in the Eyes of Media

Your Vote:
Worthless in the
Eyes of Media
Judging from the lack of news media coverage, you probably haven't heard about today's House Committee hearing


"There's reason to suspect that our 2004 election was stolen."

That's a strong accusation. Daring to utter such a statement has gained citizens little more than a label of "paranoid conspiracy theorist". The news media has shied away from talking about it, apparently afraid to be seen as "liberal media" and having a massive advertising-boycott campaign mounted against them by right-wing activists.

In January, Senator Barbara Boxer (D CA) stood up to vote against the certification of the Ohio Electors. In the House, Republican Representatives accused her of aiding terrorism and betraying our troops in Iraq.

Recent developments will show you that this is not a matter which revolves around delusion, nor does it indicate antiAmericanism.

A House Administration Committee field hearing will be held today in Columbus, Ohio. You can access information about it online: "Committee to Continue Oversight on Election Reform with a Field Hearing in Ohio on Monday."

The committee is chaired by Rep. Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio. I have my doubts about the progress that will be made by this committee, having already read Rep. Ney's comments about the 2004 election:

“Despite the formidable challenges faced by election administrators and notwithstanding the predictions of the skeptics, the 2004 election was a tremendous success and there is growing evidence that this was due in large part to the bipartisan Help America Vote Act. To paraphrase Mark Twain, the rumors of the demise of the American election system were greatly exaggerated and those who still continue to insist otherwise are not only wrong on the facts, but their baseless criticisms are a disservice to the thousands of state and local election workers who did a very good job.."

There are currently TWO (2) stories about the Congressional field hearing available on Google search.

It would appear, if you look at the media coverage, that no one cares about the integrity of our electoral process. Yet, I know that is not true. In an Annenberg poll taken on election eve, only 62% of voters felt that they could trust the integrity of the process. (*And voters committed to Bush were far more confident).

When - and why - did news-reporting about the fight for the right to vote leave the forefront?

At Daily Kos, a diarist named 'Freedom' has said that all the problems we see in America and the world today will mean "NOTHING if, come next election, the people are not given the means to exercise their right to vote."

At the Common Ills blog, there is disappointment and frustration at the lack of media and blog coverage. They report that electiononline.org was one of the only online information outlets that cited the hearing in an Associated Press story in yesterday's New York Times ("Counting of 2004 Provisional Ballots Varied Widely, Study Finds").

I think it's high time we started talking about this. We need to pressure the news media to talk about it as if it means something - because it means everything.

As it just so happens, the front pages of most of today's newspapers are slathered with heartstring-twanging news about Terry Schiavo and the fight to save what little life she has left in her. Meanwhile, the life of our democracy is nearly as fragile and brain-dead as Mrs. Schiavo. I cannot help but think this is a very convenient way for the mainstream news editors to avoid giving too loud of a voice on news that is material to our most important right as citizens - the right for our voice to be heard through our vote in elections we can trust.

The media's negligence allows people like Ohio's Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell to virtually thumb his nose at concerned citizens. In the recent past, Blackwell
- has refused to be deposed about the Ohio election,
- has refused to appear before Congress ( Lawmakers were frustrated with Blackwell when he did not attend a Feb. 9 hearing in Washington, especially when they discovered that he was in the area that day)
- has refused to answer questions from members of the House Judiciary Committee who have been investigating allegations of election fraud.

Even today, Blackwell is expected to defend Ohio's electoral process and try to slink away with nothing more than a simple accusation of partisanship.

From the Beacon Journal:

A report prepared by the Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee accused Ohio election officials of disenfranchising minority and Democratic voters by misallocating voting machines in their districts and restricting the use of provisional ballots. Blackwell's order that registrations must be on a certain weight of paper also drew fire in the staff report.

Blackwell has denied the staff's allegations.

"It was a stunning and disgraceful display demonstrating that there are those in Congress who are very willing to cast aside the Constitution and the lawfully certified vote of the people to wage a nasty and disingenuous partisan attack," Blackwell said in his testimony.

Political writer Christopher Hitchens has a new article in Vanity Fair entitled "Ohio's Odd Numbers." The lead-in states

"No conspiracy theorist, and no fan of John Kerry's, the author nevertheless found the Ohio polling results impossible to swallow: Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines."

Hitchens forwards the belief that the thinking-caps Democrats have been wearing are not composed of "tin foil":

"..there is one soothing explanation that I don’t trust anymore. It was often said, in reply to charges of vote tampering, that it would have had to be “a conspiracy so immense” as to involve a dangerously large number of people. Indeed, some Ohio Democrats themselves laughed off some of the charges, saying that they too would have had to have been part of the plan. The stakes here are very high: one defector or turncoat with hard evidence could send the principals to jail forever and permanently discredit the party that had engaged in fraud.

I had the chance to spend quality time with someone who came to me well recommended, who did not believe that fraud had yet actually been demonstrated, whose background was in the manufacture of the machines, and who wanted to be anonymous. It certainly could be done, she said, and only a very, very few people would have to be “in on it.”

Some additional background information and news:


Twenty three House members have endorsed a vote-tabulation devistiture campaign known as the Velvet Revolution. The House members signed on to Waters/Conyers' letter to voting machine companies, which have been given until April 15th to reply. Members vow to withhold HAVA funding from companies who do not comply with standards set forth in the campaign. Click here for list of signers, the full letter to the voting companies, and a letter to VR from John Conyers. Brad Friedman, founder of the campaign, says that he expects to gain support from some "big names" in the Senate.

Last week, David Cobb, who was the presidential candidate for the Green party, sent a letter to the voting machine companies of America, formally endorsing the Velvet Revolution's campaign. Mr. Cobb's attorneys, along with Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, have jointly requested a Ohio election recount. The case is still pending in the Eastern Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, before Judge Sargus.

John Kerry and John Edwards, through their Ohio attorney, have filed a one sentence statement with the Judge which supports the Cobb and Badnarik position. John Kerry's attorney has also filed a short, two page summary charting inconsistencies observed by Democratic Party witnesses to the recount.

Additional information about the recount and the entire 102 page report by the House Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff can be found at http://www.votecobb.org.

When four attorneys in Ohio sued that state to discover details of how voting was conducted in that state, they report they were slapped with a massive and expensive lawsuit engineered by Ohio's Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell (also co-chair of the Ohio Bush For President campaign) and Ohio Attorney General, Republican Jim Petro. The Ohio lawyer/activists have launched a legal defense fund (information available at http://freepress.org/store.php#donate) to help them fight both for an exposé of Ohio irregularities and to defend themselves against this attack by the Republican officials who control the voting systems in that state.



There's logic and reason behind the suspicion that our election was hijacked again in 2004


Sometimes it seems like we're living in a world I like to call Bushworld - a topsy-turvy rightwing-heavy universe where everything that truly matters is given the lowest priority. Our elections mean everything to the survival of our republican democracy. The Washington Times has given a big megaphone to Ferrell Blount, Republican North Carolina state chairman, who is whining about John Edwards getting some free "visibility" at Chapel Hill, but stop a moment to listen to their deafening silence about John Edwards' "media-invisiblity" in relation to today's Congressional Committee investigation about the state of the American electoral process.

"There's reason to suspect that our 2004 election was stolen."

This is our trust in the right to vote we're talking about, people.

Our one and only vote.

Pay attention to what's happening today in Columbus, Ohio.


- Jude

On my CD player this afternoon

On my CD player this afternoon

Karsh Kale - Realize

Loreena McKennitt - Live in Paris

Jim Lauderdale with Donna the Buffalo - Wait 'Til Spring


I can't wait for the next
Grass Roots Festival in Ithaca
Hope you'll join me.
I'm sure some EcoFolk will be there.

Steve Earle - The Revolution Starts Now

Planet Chant - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Lama Gyurme, Choying Drolma, Angelite (The Bulgarian Voices), Russian State Symphony, Saraband

Paul Hillier/His Majesty's Clerkes - Ghoostly Psalmes/Anglo American Psalmody

Kronos Quartet - Mugam Sayagi/Music of Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

Eleni Karaindrou - Euripedes / Trojan Women

Push Stars - Meet Me At the Fair


Push Stars and are friends
Hear part of one of my favorite Push Star songs, "Freedom".


Oops - can't forget Scott Leslie

Push Stars will be at Nietzsche's in Buffalo on April 13.

I will be listening to Larry Hoyt's Common Threads from 2-5 on WAER Jazz 88 in Syracuse.

A calendar of upcoming concerts in the Syracuse/Central NY area are here.

The F-Word: Examining Our Nation's Character

The F-Word: Examining Our Nation's Character

Take a look at this video and think about it.

*Thanks to Hamilton for this referral

Blog fever is spreading

Blog fever is spreading

I've recently heard and read a lot about people who are getting bored with mainstream media stories about blogging. While I sympathize, I think it's important to realize that most people out there haven't even heard of blogs and the fever is just catching on out there in America.


Where's Kevin?

Freelance journalist/blogger Kevin Sites has been mentioned by young bloggers as an inspiration. I've been wondering where he's been lately. He did a fantastic blog-story about post-Tsunami Banda Aceh, and he hasn't blogged since then. Come back, Kevin! We miss you. Congratulations are overdue to Kevin for his recent Rave's Best New Blogger Award from Wired magazine.

Dave Winer on Blogging

photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell

Journalists, Step Inside!
The Blog-gospel According to Dave


Dave Winer on Blogging

There was a conference on Blogging, Journalism, and Credibility, which was held in late January at Harvard. It featured an invitation-only group of fifty journalists, bloggers, news executives, media scholars and librarians.

Dave Winer , who was in attendance, makes blogging sound a bit like an evangelist's tent meeting. I think that's a pretty accurate description, if you understand the zeal of the committed blogger.

We're going to change the world, you know.

Here are Dave's words:

"If you want to understand the blogger mentality, think of us as evangelists. We're zealots. We want to bring you in. We want you to use our tools. We want you to learn what we have learned and then make the world a better place. We are the idealists. We are into, you know, truth and justice and so forth. We have a passion for news, and maybe that can act as a reminder to the professionals that somewhere deep inside of your core is that same passion. That's the thing that unites us. That's the bond that we share. Rather than looking at it as an adversarial relationship, let's look at the ways we can help each other, because God knows we have much bigger problems to solve."

- From an article by Rebecca MacKinnon at The Nation, March 17, 2005

*Sorry to hear Rebecca has the flu. Heal, Rebecca!

Photo - Art

photo by Jude Nagurney Camwell


"In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love."

- Marc Chagall

Unhappy Anniversary

Iraq: Unhappy Anniversary
Worldwide protests
Fog of War
Fayetteville
Drain
Brian
shh

$2500 Buys An Iraqi Civilian Unjustly Killed

"Two thousand five hundred dollars," said a relative of the deceased Mr Dulaimi derisively. "Twenty-five million would not pay for a hair of his head. I have experience in fighting, and my friends have offered to fight with me. God willing, we will make an example of them."

Blood Money - $2500 Buys An Iraqi Civilian Unjustly Killed Under Current Rules of Engagement

Jimmy Massey's story is given factual support in a March 18 Financial Times report.

Link: Shoot first, pay later culture pervades Iraq by Awadh al-Taee and Steve Negus

Read what happened to Abd al-Naser Abbas al-Dulaimi and his family.

What if he'd been your son?
Your brother?

Is it time for a rethink by US commanders of their rules of engagement in Iraq?

Bush has yet to stand behind Blair on poverty

Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (1939)
Gerard Sekoto

Bush has yet to stand behind Blair on Poverty

"Tony [Blair] and Gordon have to prepare to ring up George [Bush] and say, 'Do this, George, do this one thing for me, it's going to cost you [nothing], do it for me," [Bob] Geldof said. Any thoughts that Mr. Blair would disapprove of Mr. Geldof's rant were dispelled when the prime minister walked on stage and backed the aging rocker. "Because I'm a politician in a suit, I wince at the occasional word, but, actually, what he said is really what I think."

Tony Blair stood behind George W. Bush on the Iraq war, but Bush has yet to stand behind Blair on poverty.

___________________

The Financial Times Commentary/Analysis

A report that sees Africa is changing. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala [Nigeria's finance minister]. Financial Times. March 10 2005.

Amnesia and self-interest cloud debate on Africa. Michael Peel. Financial Times. March 11 2005

Top-level call for radical change in Africa aid. David White. Financial Times. March 11 2005.

Let them eat words. Editorial. Financial Times. March 12 2005

The business case for helping Africa. Niall Fitzgerald. Financial Times. March 13 2005

Europe should take the lead in Africa. Martin Wolf. Financial Times. March 15 2005



The Guardian Commentary/Analysis

I believe this is Africa's best chance for a generation ... Our report is an ambitious call for action, but it's rooted in the real world. Tony Blair. The Guardian. March 12, 2005

Leader: The next step is action. Editorial. The Guardian. March 12 2005

Time to help, not hinder Too many plans to aid Africa create problems by assuming that the west knows best, says ActionAid's Taaka Awori.

Larry Elliott: No gain without pain

The greatest tragedy of our time: how the world can help, and why it must do so now