DNCeenies

The Rocky's Gen. William T. Sherman (aka Kevin Vaughan) looks at corporate sponsors of the Democratic National Convention:

Everything is for sale, and this summer's Democratic National Convention in Denver is no exception.

More than four dozen national corporations have signed up as sponsors of the convention - everyone from Allstate to Xerox. And almost all of them have the same thing in common: They either have business with the federal government or they lobby on pending issues.

To date, the Democratic National Convention Host Committee has lined up 56 corporate sponsors.

It is not a phenomenon unique to the Democrats or Denver. A slew of corporate donors have lined up for the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis, and 20 of them also are sponsoring the DNC.

They include companies like 3M, Allstate, AstraZeneca, AT&T, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co., Ford, Merck, Qwest, the Service Employees International Union, US Bank, Visa and Xcel Energy.

Quite a public-spirited bunch, as Vaughan details.

More:

The committee staging the Democratic National Convention is concerned that Denver's fundraising efforts have been hampered because local officials also are raising money for several cultural events that are expected to be part of the week-long event.

The host committee was about $5 million short of its March fundraising goal of $28 million, and is supposed to have about $40 million raised by June. Meanwhile, the city is planning and trying to raise additional money for several cultural events.

"Every host city can and should develop a plan to showcase its culture, diversity and attributes on the international stage that a political convention offers," the DNC Committee said in a prepared statement Friday. "Numerous host cities from conventions past have had tremendous success in this regard, and we think that's a good thing.

"But to ensure a successful convention for all parties, fulfilling the contractual obligations that brought this convention to Denver in the first place must remain the top priority.

"Given all the host committee and the city have to support during convention week, we would hope they would be very selective in limiting both the number and costs of any auxiliary events requiring their support."

Extra public events around convention week, Aug. 25-28, could cost as much as $4 million, according to documents obtained by The Denver Post, though Hickenlooper's convention liaison, Katherine Archuleta, provided new figures Friday that she says are more current. Those costs include:

• $2 million for greening initiatives in conjunction with convention week.

• $1 million for an arts event and a film festival, known as DialogueCity and Cinemocracy, though Archuleta says only half that much is needed.

Don't you dare touch Cinemocracy!

• $550,000 for symposia the mayor hopes to use to woo additional private and corporate donors. Archuleta says the event can be held for $415,000.

• Up to $250,000 for a "Green Sunday" concert at Red Rocks the Sunday before the convention featuring "world famous entertainers." A "Green Sunday Expo" also is in the works. Archuleta says concessions at these events should largely cover the costs.

Host committee spokesman Chris Lopez said officials there remain focused on their convention obligations, and that other city departments and organizations, such as the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs and the Denver Film Society, are raising the money needed to fund the public events.

"Any dollars the host committee has raised have gone to the convention expenses," Lopez said.

Archuleta says the extras are meant to give more people an opportunity to participate in the convention, and that care has been taken to keep the host committee freed up to fulfill its goals.

"The fundraising (for the extras) is not in competition at all with the fundraising that is going on with the host committee."

Gimme

The amazing Chuck Plunkett goes multimedia to explain the growth of private financing for presidential nominating conventions.

More: Denver pop historian Tom Noel on the 1908 Democratic convention:

Denver had raised $100,000 to woo the Democrats, outbidding Atlantic City, Chicago, Louisville and St. Paul. . . .

[Security] in 1908 consisted of only a few Pinkerton detectives and 16 extra police officers. They faced no protesters, only pickpockets and a snowball fight — in July.

What, no mint levitation? On the other hand, the 2008 convention will almost certainly lack one draw the last one had:

Since the nomination of [William Jennings] Bryan was a foregone conclusion, Denver tried to provide other enticements. So the city hired 40 Apache Indians to entertain an estimated 40,000 conventioneers. Their dances and war whoops made it difficult to distinguish wild Indians from celebrating Democrats, reporter Damon Runyon wrote, except that the latter were "wearing a lot of badges" and "yelling all the time." . . .

Maybe Ward Churchill . . . never mind. But even without Recrea!te68, the 1908 convention had at least one mass arrest:

Making good on Denver's promises to provide a cool escape from sweltering lowland cities, the Moffat Railroad Company daily hauled in wagons filled with snow and pulled by donkeys. Locals piled the white stuff up outside the Denver Municipal Auditorium (now a restored landmark) at 14th and Curtis so delegates could cool off. When one snowball fight turned rowdy, police arrested 50 feuding Democrats.

More: A piece on the potential benefits and drawbacks of the media focus on Denver during the DNC that doesn't mention protests. Weird.

Plus ça change . . .

Rich Lowry on the "Spirit of '68":

We remember the '60s protesters as beatific flower children, aching idealists opposed to the Vietnam War. Airbrushed from the popular imagination is the nihilism, the thrill of the wrecking ball, that animated the vanguard of the New Left.

Means relate to ends. If a movement thrives on the takeover of buildings, non-negotiable demands and threats of violence, it is an unmistakable sign it is coercive and illiberal, no matter how vehemently it invokes "liberation."

Stilted

Codepink requests:

Hi Everyone!

Please join us tomorrow in Boulder for the annual Mother's Acting Up Reclaim Mother's Day Event. . . . [T]here is a parade at 1:00 which begins at the Main Library and then ends up in front of the courthouse for the celebration (probably around 1:30). We will table [sic] and join in the festivities. We will be offering Gift of Peace Certificates for people to give to their mothers (or others) to support our peace work or refugees in Iraq. Hope to see you there!

Peace to you all,

Anne

Colorado Daily has the horrifying details:

The environment is ailing, there's a war raging in Iraq, and there are children living in poverty around the globe. What's a concerned mother to do? Why, strap on a pair of stilts, of course.

At least that's the thinking for Mothers Acting Up (MAU), a Boulder-based global network of "mothers and others, on stilts or off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller." The group, which lists "Be Exuberant" as one of its guiding principles, seeks to mobilize that most primal of instincts--a mother's love--and turn it into a political force to be reckoned with. The stilts are just a unique way to bring attention to MAU's message of positive activism.

Stilts are "really the perfect metaphor for what we do," says Joellen Raderstorf, executive director and one of MAU's four founders. "Because getting up on stilts you're very visible, and this is what this is about, getting comfortable with being visible in our communities and speaking up on behalf of the world's children."

She adds, "Also, when you're on stilts, you need to keep moving forward, you really can't stop. And you have far-reaching vision, which I think is something that we really need in our leadership in the world these days, to have that far-reaching vision to see how our actions today impact our children, their children, and future generations.". . .

MAU's biggest event is the annual Mother's Day Parade, which takes place this Sunday, May 11. The festivities kick off with stroller and wagon decorating at 11:30 a.m. at the Boulder Public Library. The parade begins at 1 p.m. and winds its way from the library to the Pearl Street Mall, where there will be cake and activities for the children. The Raging Grannies and Ancestral Voices will provide music, all in keeping with the celebratory nature of the event.

Those poor kids. The MAUists' blog (linked above) is a treat. They venerate Julia Ward Howe for her 1870 Mother's Day Proclamation. Here's MAU's startlingly realistic re-enactment:

Exuberant.

Update: Looked for gift of peace certificates, found these.

Must-see

Rocky theater critic Lisa Bornstein summarizes The Denver Project, a new play at the Curious Theater:

The Denver Project incorporates poetry, gospel and jazz, interspersed with the central story of a man intent on dressing up Denver's parking meters - in clothing - for the Democratic National Convention. His home is the street, and he wants it to look its best.

The Denver Project opens tonight with an address by Mayor Hickenlooper (whose ten-year plan to end homelessness in Denver has become a national model, he's said over and over). Tickets are $75. Bornstein:

[Steve] Sapp and his wife [Mildred Ruiz] have made their career taking theater into unfamiliar corners.

Their theater company, Universes Poetic Theatre Ensemble [I'm gonna go lie down], is based in the South Bronx, about five miles and a light year from Times Square. Rather than traditional scripts, they blend music, spoken-word poetry and movement in a style the two have evolved since they met at Bard College more than 20 years ago.

Got any aspirin?

Over the past year, Sapp and Ruiz not only researched the lives of homeless people in Denver, they worked with Curious actors through a number of workshops. Some caught on immediately; others "really didn't get it," Sapp says.

"In their minds, it's this hip-hop thing from New York. Strip all this stuff away, and we're just artists."

Just artists, you cowtown kulaks.

In addition to meeting with Denver's homeless population, Ruiz and Sapp dove into the research. She read 10-year plans, studies and magazines. He rode the bus, walked the streets and sat in on a city committee meeting.

Gritty.

"I sat there for three hours and watched all these people talk around a big table, and nothing was done," he says.

Hard to believe.

"Every place is different, so I'm trying to get a sense of Denver. I just kind of roam around during the day and night. The first night I ever spent in Denver I ended up on Colfax and I thought, 'Oh good God, here's where the drama is.'"

Drama: two drunks arguing over a cigarette butt. With Bornstein apparently in tow, Sapp explains the project to Flower, a former Colfax Avenue prostitute:

"My wife and I don't do it traditional. It's not what we call on-the-couch plays. We're poets, and we're from the blocks, from the streets," he says.

The streets of Bard College. Ticket prices for the rest of the run range from $13 to $32.

Cars

There was a car show today at the voc-ed high school near here, so I went over and took a few pics. You probably don't know this about your darling D-blog, but he is one honkin' hunk o' man, and an expert in all things car and car-related.


Here's a beauty. A '68 Dodge Humpback. The apparatus on the hood sucks up bugs before they moosh themselves on the windshield.



Truck of some sort.



1923 Model T. A little note on the driver's seat said, "Feels like a 100 miles an hour when you're going 40." Hell, my car does that.




The trend in colors these days is definitely toward the candied:

Weird Bird Friday

I had wanted to do an encore of the birds-wearing-clothes Weird Bird Friday, but couldn't find any from my google search of "birds in clothes." I couldn't even find the original chicken in a suit (but eventually did). What I found, however, on a blog coincidentally named The Clothes Horse, was a picture of nice tattoo of two birds. It inspired me to google "bird tattoo," but I didn't find anything I liked better than this one:


From The Clothes Horse

Exploring this blog and clicking on a few of her blogroll sites introduced me to the strange new world of fashion blogs. The Clothes Horse seems to mostly be pictures of the blogger herself, as opposed to the others which consist of pictures of celebrities and models and such. Can you spell "narcissist"? Nice tattoo, though, don't you think?

--Drunkawife

Organization anarchists

In Human Events, the Independence Institute's Jessica Peck Corry on Re!create68's unofficial home office in Denver's Capitol Hill:

R-68 organizers, representing several different grassroots groups, meet weekly at the Gypsy House Café, a family-owned coffee shop located four blocks from my house in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The place overflows with self-denying capitalists eager to make a quick buck. A dread-locked man named Nottidreads will provide you your "short numerology chart analysis" for only $10.

According to Nottidreads, who completed Barack Obama's chart, the Democratic presidential candidate "secretly dreams of having a big impact on the world. . . .It is the paradox of [his] Heart's Desire that [he] receives by giving. Both [his] material success and spiritual satisfaction are made possible through service and sacrifice to others." Wow, that's deep.

Yes, it is. Corry, by the way, doesn't think an over-organized R!68 ("Hippies, Inc.") or its camera-eager leader Glenn Spagnuolo will cause violence:

[W]hile the prospects of 50,000 radicals coming together in Denver was enough to make radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh sing with glee on his radio show late last month, the fact of the matter is that whatever happens in Denver this August will likely disappoint those eager for a Democratic convention meltdown.

The main reason: The anarchist-hippies in charge are downright organized, committed to an institutional structure that would be the envy of most corporations. As a disclaimer on the R-68 Web site proclaims, "Recreate 68 is not a throwback group trying to relive some vision of glory days long gone." This is whole new kind of protesting. . . .

Can't agree, but read whole thing. (Confidential to Human Events: get a copy editor.)

Thursday Night at the Radio!

Three reports: Edward R. Murrow on Buchenwald (15 April 1945); Richard Dimbleby from Belsen (19 April 1945); and Sigrid Schultz in Ravensbruck (27 April 1945).

And, for a complete change of pace, Gunsmoke. This one's called "Gonif" (24 April 1953). Every time I listen to one of these I think what a well-written, well-produced and well-acted show it was. The sound effects are great. Listen to the dog barking at the beginning, and the guy tunelessly whistling "Home on the Range" in the background while Matt and Kitty are talking in the saloon.

Abstract of the Week!

From Cultic Studies Journal:

Residence Halls and Cults: Fact or Fiction?

This article examines the perceptions of 414 chief housing officers of residence hall (dormitory) systems across the United States with regard to cult activity on college and university campuses. These individuals are in a unique position to see first-year students struggle with the need to belong. Sometimes this need leads to the college student joining a cult. The results of the survey indicate that only about one-half of the responding chief housing officers understand the cult issue on college campuses. The need is apparent for further cult education for these college and university administrators.

Liberal guy: Limbaugh not as bad as Hutus' genocide radio

At the Huffpo, Jeffrey Feldman compares Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos"--and his "dream" of riots in Denver--to Radio Rwanda's broadcasts calling for genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, in the runniest pile of moral equivalence you'll see this month:

For weeks, now, Rush Limbaugh has been trying to incite political violence by giving on-air military-sounding orders, effectively 'commanding' his listeners to wage war against the U.S. electoral system.

But at least Feldman's fair, quickly coming to the conclusion that Rush isn't quite as bad as Radio Rwanda, which:

directly engaged [in] using false reports as propaganda, the goal of which was to encourage listeners to commit acts of violence. The effort worked, and subsequent investigations linked the violent language to the actual deaths, thereby including the broadcasts within the framework of the genocidal action both legally and morally.

In stark contrast, Limbaugh's broadcasts were removed from encouraging direct acts of violence, focusing instead on creating the conditions for violence--what Limbaugh described as 'chaos.'

In stark contrast. Never listened to Limbaugh much (though somehow I was the day he made the riots-in-Denver comments, and believe I was the first blogger to post on them--send me money) but even I know the goals of "Operation Chaos," and "creating the conditions for violence" ain't among them. No matter, Feldman gets a column out of it. His conclusion (Conclusion: Limbaugh Broadcasts Violence) is utterly clue- and humor-free:

When a prominent radio figure begins systematically calling for his listeners to engage in acts that intended [sic] to bring about political violence, citizens have a responsibility to examine the implications of such a development.

Feldman's own no-doubt-unintended implication: Democrats are so lacking in self-control they're liable to fall upon each other in murderous frenzies (are there any other kind?) at the DNC because of a stunt by a drug-addicted shock-jock.

In Limbaugh's case, the comparison to Rwandan hate radio shows the right-wing pundit's differences and similarities to past uses of broadcast media to incite violence [sounds like the conclusion of a 7th-grader's essay]. Limbaugh does not call for direct violent action, but he defines the American Left in ways that suggest violent action against them may be warranted.

Dem will cut down Dem, and Nazis will wade in to kill the wounded.

Moreover, Limbaugh specifically claims that calling for citizens to create chaos leading to violence is a healthy part of the Democratic process, but that holding Liberal political views is a threat to democracy's survival--thereby leading his listeners to see the political opposition as a civil enemy.

Should Limbaugh be free to continue these broadcasts? Of course. But that freedom does not release journalists from analyzing Limbaugh's violent-rhetoric [sic] in a broader context and discussing the implications it holds for Americans.

Gee, isn't he broad-minded: "Of course." Oddly, not once in the piece does Feldman mention the only folks who've even hinted (and more than hinted) that they'd actually commit violence during the DNC: Recreat!e68.

(via Hawkins)

Paper: ACLU should chill out on DNC plans

The News editorialates:

What are the city of Denver and the Secret Service thinking? Don't they know their concern for the safety and security of delegates and others at this summer's Democratic National Convention is seriously crimping the style of any number of protesters?

Plans have to be made, after all. The anger of everyone from Re-create 68 to the American Indian Movement to Troops Out Now, not to mention CodePink and Americans for Safe Access (to marijuana, that is), must be accommodated. It's guaranteed by the Constitution, for goodness' sake, that protesters be informed months before the event where they'll be allowed to go. . . .

But seriously, folks:

Up to a point, we're sympathetic. But here we are nearly 3 1/2 months from the event. If the ACLU is right that the Secret Service might not settle on its plans until July - and we can scarcely imagine the logistical nightmare a security operation of this magnitude must present - that still leaves demonstrators nearly two months to arrange their activities or protest whatever strictures will be placed on them.

The trouble comes if an early-July decision is substantially delayed. Then the situation really would approach the intolerable. So, we understand the anxiety of the ACLU and those for whom it's fighting. Until July, though, we think the ACLU should shelve its lawsuit and exercise something other than its free-speech rights - a little patience.

Never!

Time recreates the year that changed the world, 19 (bet you can't guess the next two digits!) 68!


Found it at Wal-Mart.

It's exactly what you'd expect: a hundred or so pages divided into little sections on politics and fashion and sports and Bobby Kennedy and MLK and Chicago ("With the whole world watching, Chicago police bust the heads of protesters at the Democratic National Convention") and the Columbia takeover and TV ("The Mod Squad") and rock music (the Beatles go to India!) and riots and every other soul-withering cliché that's been beaten into the human race over the last 40 years.

Much more fun are the six writers who recount their memories of 1968 in City Journal, among them Christopher Hitchens on being a "sixty-eighter," Kay S. Hymowitz on how women got screwed ("Sex and its Discontents"), Guy Sorman on Paris, Stefan Kanfer on Mark Rudd and the takeover of Columbia and Harry Stein on how 1968 corrupted the media. Not surprisingly, only Hitchens and the fwenchie Sorman seem remotely nostalgic. One quote, Kanfer on an exchange he had with Mark Rudd:

Rudd had two expressions, blank and furious, and the first now appeared. “In the 1930s,” I shouted over the increasing crowd noise, “there were all sorts of insurrectionists who promised a New World, come the Revolution. You know what? The Revolution never arrived. A little later, the marchers abandoned their cause and wound up with real jobs. And they were damned glad to get them. Read some history now and then.”

“Never!” declared Rudd. It was unclear whether he meant getting a job or reading a book. “Never!” His admirers joined in, “Never! Never!” They crossed the street, broke the few intact windows, yelled at the cops, and started marching around the block urging student action, beginning with a refusal to attend classes. “Strike!” they shouted, like the chorus in a Clifford Odets play. “Strike! Strike!”

Anyhow, no pictures from Time. We're all doomed to see them over and over again this year anyway. Okay, just one, and only because it's the most perverted picture I've ever seen:


No caption necessary.

Tent State dumps R!ecreate68

What's more common for lefties than splitting amid infighting and charges of hypocrisy? Nothing! The Post:

A close ally with the local war protest group Re-create 68, which is organizing for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, is severing its ties, the group told R-68 today.
Tent State University, a national group represented locally by Adam Jung, says it is having trouble organizing support and bands to perform because of the violent imagery associated with R-68's name, and with recent heated rhetoric from R-68 organizer Glenn Spagnuolo, who has been the face of the local effort to date.

To date?

From the outset, Spagnuolo's group has attracted criticism because of its name, which suggests for many the violence outside the convention hall in Chicago in 1968.

"We don't feel that Re-create-68 is working well with the anti-war left," Jung said.

Less than two weeks ago, in a comment at El Presidente's place on a Troofer piece calling into question Spagnuolo's commitment to non-violence, Jung sounded very different:

After reading the smear piece written by jonathan, I was of course concerned. But upon reading the full text of the article, not only the parts some bloggers are using to create this picture, I saw this as the best example of fabled Cointelpro tactics I've personally seen.

We work with Recreate 68, and we've attended most of the meetings, and I know for a fact nothing of this sort is being discussed. For one thing, our organization has a strict non-violence commitment. . . .Tent State University will continue to work with Recreate 68 and others and will rightfully ignore this obvious smear piece. I'd encourage others to do a little research themselves before jumping in with the likes of "jonathan."

Apparently Jung took his own advice. The Post continues:

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the national group CodePink, seconded concerns over R-68's message and image, saying she wanted to portray the anti-war message as positively as possible. But Benjamin didn't rule out working with R-68, as long as the group's message conformed with CodePink's.

You look lovely in a pink tutu, Glenn. Now, dahnce! Dahnce!

Spagnuolo, in anger weeks ago, said the city was creating "a very dangerous situation" because it had given a permit - in a blind lottery - to the committee hosting the convention for use of Civic Center park on the Sunday before the convention. He has since vowed the group would be peaceful.

"We feel like a more positive message would be more attractive to people and we prefer it to be a more positive message," Benjamin said. "We fully intend to work with all the groups, but we want our message to be more positive."

Spagnuolo said Jung's call today was "disappointing."

"This is typically what happens when you have these conservative liberal groups who come in and pressure the smaller groups with their resources," Spagnuolo said. "It's a shame. It's not going to stop us from what we're doing. We have upwards of 40 groups working with us."

When asked to elaborate about what he meant concerning the "conservative liberal groups" Spagnuolo said he would rather refrain from further comment and work to resolve any issues internally.

Spagnuolo refrain from comment? It is to laugh.

After reading a press release that Tent State issued Monday afternoon, Spagnuolo said he thought Jung's decision was "hypocritical," because the name "Tent State" conjures up images of college students who died at Kent State during protests of the Vietnam War.

"They really need to look in the mirror," Spaguolo [update: sic] said. "This is something we talked about for quite a while. ... We look at this as a mutual split."

So there.

More DNC (grab your wallets, Denveroons):

Before Denver landed the Democratic National Convention, Mayor John Hickenlooper promised that taxpayers wouldn't have to underwrite the four-day event.

But now the city is going to have to fork over at least $1.85 million upfront for liability and workers compensation insurance policies to cover the outside law enforcement agencies Denver needs to help with security during the DNC.

Council members, who have to approve the expenditure, first want assurances that the city will be reimbursed, which the mayor's office anticipates will happen but says it can't be 100 percent sure.

"We haven't gotten a firm answer on that," Katherine Archuleta, a senior adviser to the mayor, said Monday.

"We anticipate that we will be," she said. "We've had several discussions with (the Department of Justice) about whether they'll be reimbursable or not, and I think we're feeling positive about it."

Feeling positive.

Update: More revo sniping in the News:

Glen Spagnuola [sic--Ward Churchill couldn't have spelled it worse], an organizer with Re-create 68, described the split as a mutual one. Spagnuola said that his group had concerns over the images that the name Tent State seemed to convey, because it suggested Kent State, the university where four students were shot to death by National Guardsmen during a Vietnam War protest in 1970.

"There's been so much confusion over the last couple of months. People keep insinuating that we're going to be violent when we've been organizing for a nonviolent protest," he said. "We don't want the image of dead students on a lawn being associated with the positive message that we're putting forward."

Pease countered that Tent City's name has nothing to do with Kent State. It's so named because students taking part in the protest sleep in tents.

She called that fact that tent rhymes with Kent an "immature argument" and said it was not an issue that had come up between the two groups.

So there.

Update II: El Presidente at Slapstick Politics notes Jung and Spagnuolo being utterly ridiculous on the city's purchase of police equipment ahead of the convention:

"I'm worried about the message they're sending, but I'm not worried about it actually being used," said Adam Jung, an organizer with the protest group Tent State University. "It sends a message that they're trying to criminalize nonviolent demonstrators."

Glenn Spagnuolo, an organizer with the Recreate 68 Alliance, another protest group, agreed."There's no need to overmilitarize our community and utilize these military weapons on a civilian population," he said.

Tough

Fascinating but ultimately unsurprising piece in TimesOnline:

The Color Purple brought Alice Walker global fame, but her strident views led to an irreconcilable rift, her daughter tells

Alice Walker was, and remains, an icon of the American civil rights movement. “People adore her. I can’t tell you how many people have said to me, ‘Your mother saved my life’ and ‘I have an altar to your mother in my bedroom’. They feel a connection to her and revere her greatly,” says Rebecca. . . .

[Walker's marriage to civil rights lawyer Mel Leventhal] did not last but it produced Rebecca: a living, breathing, mixed-race embodiment of the new America that they were trying to forge. The problem was that, during her childhood, Rebecca felt precisely that — a political symbol rather than a cherished daughter. . . .

“My father had come out of world war two [sic] and the Holocaust, my mother from the segregated South. Their attitude was, ‘The Gestapo isn’t after you, you’re not getting beaten up by mobs just for sitting at the lunch counter — what’s your problem?’ ” she says.

Walker had also joined the early feminist movement — Gloria Steinem is Rebecca’s godmother — and it was her politics, more than anything, that shaped mother-daughter relations. The so-called “first wave” feminists believed that housework was another form of slavery and that women did not have an innate need to nurture but had been conditioned into their subordinate role as wives and mothers through centuries of patriarchy.

“My mother is very ideologically based, and her ideology is much more important in many ways than her personal relationships,” says Rebecca.

When Rebecca became pregnant at 14, Walker wasn’t shocked: she calmly picked up the phone and arranged an abortion. “Her feminist thing was about empowering me to have an active sexuality and to be in control of my body, and that trumped any sense of boundaries,” Rebecca says.

“Her circle were questioning power relationships and whether a mother had any more knowledge than a child. Some friends of hers were living on communes. I know those kids and they’re totally screwed up.

“Some were sexually abused, all kinds of bad stuff happened, but even those who survived intact don’t want to create communes for their children. They didn’t want to be raised by 10 different parents — again, it was this ideological thing trumping the maternal instinct.”. . .

"I keep telling people feminism is an experiment. And just like in science, you have to assess the outcome of the experiment and adjust according to your results, but my mother and her friends, they see it as truth; they don’t see it as an experiment.

“So that creates quite a problem. You’ve got young women saying, ‘That didn’t really work for me’ and the older ones saying, ‘Tough, because that’s how it should be’.”

Never read The Color Purple (I claim), but I've seen the movie several times. Stink-o.

(via Arts 'n' Letters Daily, which I've been remembering to check lately)

Judge fast-tracks DNC lawsuit

Former Try-Works scumbaggette Erin Rosa at Colorado Confidential reports:

A U.S. District Court judge has ordered the city of Denver and the Secret Service agency to respond within 10 days to an American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado lawsuit over security plans during the Democratic National Convention in August.

The ACLU is seeking information pertaining to where parade routes will be located, the number of times parades will be permitted and procedures connected to demonstration zones adjacent to the Pepsi Center, where the convention will be held.

The ACLU filed its lawsuit Friday morning on behalf of 12 groups who are planning to hold parades and demonstrations during the convention. That afternoon, District Judge Marcia S. Krieger gave the city and federal officials 10 business days to respond. Judge Krieger has not yet set a court date, which would be the next step in the process.

"It's not clear how the judge is going to proceed," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado. "But the fact that the judge wanted a response right away indicates that the judge agrees that the case needs to be moved on a fast-track and that the concerns being articulated in our papers should get attention."

NorthDenverTribuneWatch!

Last NDTW post noted reporter Ed Mickens' piece on an upcoming forum at North High School to discuss the Democratic National Convention's effects on the neighborhood. This week Ed has a frontpage story on the forum in which, after the jump, lurks this paragraph:

Days after my previous story, announcing this forum, appeared in this paper, I was attacked in a local blog for alluding to the phrase "the whole world is watching" (which, for those unaware, was the chant of demonstrators at the Chicago Convention in 1968). And I was criticized for trying to be funny. Now, this was not a significant blog . . .

That's when I realized he was talking about this very D-blog.

. . . and I've taken my hits in the past (usually from right-wing fundamentalists).

You got me dead to rights, Ed. But wasn't this supposed to be, you know, a news story?

But I didn't spend decades in various movement politics [aha!] without becoming acutely aware of the dangers of free-floating anger.

Say what, Bubba?

Confrontation is useful, even essential, in a healthy democracy; just sniping at whatever moves does more damage than good.

Yeah. I think I finally get it. If I'm not part of the solution, I'm part of the problem!

But seriously, Ed. Here again is the post you're referring to. Sadly, it's not very funny*, but there's absolutely nothing snipish about it. I just give you a hard time for your dorky writing and willful (one hopes) nai--sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt your chastening:

Perhaps an even more important volunteer program we could all engage in, starting right now, is to encourage everyone we know--of whatever viewpoint or position--to stop and think before we spout, to respect others, to listen and allow. Maybe in this small way we coulde all train ourselves and each other to elevate civil discourse, and separate it from emotional chaff. That could really make Denver shine.

Oh, Ed.

*Actually it's not funny at all.

Update: By the way, Ed, I've been making gentle fun of the North Denver Tribune longer than you've been writing for it. Do a blog search for "NorthDenverTribuneWatch." You'll be glad you did.

Update II: And thank you for not using the word "divisive."

Update III: Just for comparison purposes, Ed, here's some civil discourse R!68 honcho Glenn Spagnuolo has "spouted" my way. If you can't hear the difference in tone, in attitude and in language from what I write (including about your piece), forget it. This blog is (however ineffectually) snarky; Spagnoodles & Co. are just plain nasty, and they explicitly disdain civil discourse (that's why they're takin' it to the streets, baby.)

I'm there

Just received from the Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance:

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Greetings from the Center for Asia Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP) and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (UN-ISDR)!

Hey.

We are pleased to invite you to the Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance which will be held on October 19-22, 2008 at the Dusit Hotel, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines. The theme of the congress is “Gender and Climate Change”.

It's, it's like a dream come true!

Women and environment experts have raised concern over the absence of women in the discourse and debate on climate change, a global mainstream issue that is currently impacting the entire world.

Funny, I said that very thing to the little woman the other day. "Maude," I said (even though her name is Susan), "I'm concerned over the absence of women in the discourse and debate on climate change, a global mainstream issue that is currently impacting the entire world. Get me a beer."

The involvement of women in areas of environmental management and governance should not be perceived as an afterthought. Women's roles are of considerable importance in the promotion of environmental ethics. The current imperative is for women to understand the phenomenon of climate change and its impacts and implications at the individual, household, community and national levels. Studies show that women have a definite information deficit on climate politics and climate protection.

A definite information deficit. Guess you can say that if: a) you're a woman; and b) you base it on "studies."

Invited to this congress are women parliamentarians, women in decision - making and governance, environment organizations, youth Leaders and Media Practitioners.

Media Practitioners. That must be why I got the e-mail (I'm a self-described blogger). But youth Leader? Is that different from Youth leader? Or, for that matter, Youth Leader?

The Congress will have the following objectives:

Who cares! Money graf (literally):

The registration fee for the four day congress is One thousand five hundred fifty US Dollars (US$ 1,550.) per person for twin room sharing accommodations (two persons in one room) and one thousand nine hundred fifty US Dollars (US$ 1,950.) per person for single room accommodations (one person in one room).

Part of that price (one person in one room, please) goes toward buying carbon credits or otherwise reducing the carbon hoofprint of the event, right? Wonder how come they don't mention it. Well, maybe they're just turning the air conditioning down and recycling and using both sides of every piece of paper like the DNC is supposedly doing as the prototype of conventions in the 21st Century. But they don't mention that either.

Participants will be billeted [billeted?] in the Dusit Hotel, the venue of the congress and hotels near the Dusit Hotel, accessible within walking distance. Room accommodations in the Dusit Hotel, the venue of the Congress will be on a first come - first served basis.

We hope that your organization can send participants to the Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance. The Theme of “Gender and Climate Change” is the first time this will be discussed in a forum whose objective is to formulate gender responsive legislation and policies for national governments and parliaments. . . .

We truly hope that the environment organizations will find this forum a good opportunity to advocate gender and climate change policies and programs through gender responsive legislation to the women parliamentarians, decision makers, the youth leaders [aha!], media and the funding agencies/organizations. Let us join hands in promoting gender responsive governance through transformative leadership and citizenship. We are looking forward to your participation.

Jung-sook KIM (Ed.D.)
President
Center for Asia Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP)

Don't forget, that's CAPWIP!

One quote which must be included, from the women's climate change page already linked:

There is a need to be strident to overcome the uninformed view of many involved in climate change that climate change is neutral, and real life examples are needed to make the alternative case clear and convincing.

Thar she blows: Ward Churchill surfaces at Try-Works

Just to take some ill-written, unfunny (though he keeps laughing, ho-ho) and crude potshots at Pirate Ballerina's Jim Paine. And amazingly, for once he comes out from behind his evil-idiot alter ego "Charley Arthur" to do so.

The circumstances are trivial: In mocking a piece Churchill published in the joke po-mo journal Social Text (remember the Sokal hoax?), Paine mentioned that Churchill claimed the president of Hamilton College had stopped his honorarium check for the talk that was canceled when the "little Eichmanns" brouhaha broke. Without contradicting Paine, Churchill now claims that his lawyers eventually forced the college to pay.

Big deal. What's striking is the unimaginative nastiness of Churchill's reply:

What’s really funny—at least in my admittedly twisted estimation—is Paine’s open endorsement of what, under Colorado law, adds up to a criminal act on the part of Hamilton’s “liberal” president, Joan Hinde Stewart.

Ho-ho. Talk about a fella stomping on his own dick. So much for your effort to pose as a “law and order conservative,” eh, Bubba? [Churchill calls Paine "Bubba"--that's funny]. At this point, you’re coming off a lot more like some sort of weird cross between Charlie Keating and Glenn Spagnolo [sic] in drag (i.e., Spagnolo stripped of both his moxie and his balls).

Chutch can't even spell his best bud's name, however much he idealizes his balls. Must be formite poisoning.

Ye gads, man, have you no shame?

It gets better. Since Ms. Stewart’s check-stopping gambit was flagrantly illegal, she—or, rather, Hamilton College—did end up paying me the full and duly-contract [sic] amount. . . .

That was in the fall of 2005, Bubba [can't get over how funny that is, Churchill calling Paine "Bubba"], about six months after the low-rent maneuver rousing all those warm and tingly sensations in your grubby little loins. So stop yankin’ on that pitifully undernourished nub you call a “luv muscle” and listen up. Your miniature woody’s already wilted, and I promise that the tale I’m about to tell will not be told in a manner too turgid [sic] for your notoriously tasteless sensibilities.

He goes on and on like that. I'm just surprised he didn't say Paine should be fucked with a wood rasp. A gentleman and a scholar is our Wart.

Update: Must be fun for Ward to have to spend so much of his dwindling time screwing around with lawyers. Ho-ho.

Update II: Jim Paine is very upset.

Update III: Speaking of fake Indians . . .

(via commenter Clayton Bigsby over at PB)

Ex-smokers!

David Sedaris knows our pain:

It’s popular to believe that every smoker was brainwashed, sucked in by product placement and subliminal print ads. This argument comes in handy when you want to assign blame, but it discounts the fact that smoking is often wonderful. For people like me, people who twitched and jerked and cried out in tiny voices, cigarettes were a godsend. Not only that; they tasted good, especially the first one in the morning and the seven or eight that came immediately after it. By late afternoon, after a pack or so, I’d generally feel a heaviness in my lungs, especially in the nineteen-eighties, when I worked with hazardous chemicals. I should have worn a respirator, but it interfered with my smoking.

(via Arts 'n' Letters Daily)