Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 6:04 PM
To: Mitch Berg, the self-avowed king of right-wing talk radio
Cc: 'stpaulteaparty@gmail.com'; 'pata@mnfreemarketinstitute.org'; 'dgjohannes@comcast.net'; 'margaretlee@amblerLLC.com'; 'toni@movingmn.com'
Subject: Worker rights, human rights, working class issues and the Minnesota Tea Parties
Mr. Mitch Berg, the king of sling on right-wing talk radio,
I am forwarding you this to remind you about my initial concerns surrounding your “Tea Parties.”
You seem bent on trying to evade real debate on the real issues.
As for how I did on the Chris Baker Show I feel just fine about it considering the massive number of calls and e-mails I have received.
Thousands of people who never really considered the consequences of having over 800 U.S. foreign military bases dotting the globe now understand they are paying for these bases instead of getting a world-class public health care system with health care free for everyone (including you).
These same thousands of people tell me they never thought of the consequences to the health of over forty-thousand of their fellow Minnesotans suffering as the result of working in these smoke-filled casinos.
You may not particularly like the Chris Baker show; however, from the responses I am still getting, lots of people listen and for them, they say, this is the first time Mr. Baker has ever met his match.
I ask people who call me if my voice is like the voice they heard on the air and they all say no. They wonder why this is. And, I explain to them that you folks in right-wing talk radio use all kinds of gimmicks to suck people in; including using digital methods to try to make callers sound illiterate. Well, anyone speaking to me on the telephone soon learns the meanness of your business and how unethical those of you in right-wing talk radio really are.
People are not as stupid as you and Mr. Baker seem to think they are.
People who have heard me speak and know my voice know that during the time I was on the air with Mr. Baker my voice was digitally altered through electronics… sheer deceit… a few right-wing nut-cases might truly appreciate your antics; most people are highly offended and resent your undemocratic methods.
As for how Mr. Baker did in relation to how I did; I got out much of what I intended to, knowing full well the tactics you right-wing talk hosts use and the limitations.
Let us not confuse what took place on Mr. Baker’s program with what constitutes real debate where the same sound system--- unaltered between participants--- is used and there are time limits agreed to before hand for opening statements, rebuttals, etc.
Mr. Baker did not debate me… he succumbed to his own racist, anti-communist, anti-working class arrogance and took my bait.
I assume you are fully in agreement with the “issues” as has been reported by yourself and the news media as to what the issues are which are fairly well defined surrounding the “Tea Party” movement which you tea baggers are trying to entice people into believing you provide some alternatives when in fact you provide no alternatives.
It is those issues which I issued a challenge to the organizers of the Tea Party to debate at real debates.
I am aware you use your own dictionary; but most of humanity accepts my definition of what constitutes a “debate” since I haven’t seen any challenge to the definition provided in the Oxford Dictionary where I get the meaning of the word: debate.
Now, I have been more than willing to continue exchanging meaningless barbs with you as long as it was part of a more purposeful effort… it is “fun” isn’t it?
Especially when I am winning at playing the game you invented the rules to and you change the rules as you go along... it takes quite a dummy to lose a game playing by their own rigged rules… suffice it to say you have managed to accomplish this feat with quite a little effort on your part and dozens of right-wing talk radio hosts from across the country who tried to pitch in to help you out.
However, I do take great offense at you suggesting that it is appropriate to use people for the sake of pleasuring yourself at the problems so many people are experiencing in this country at this time… and, it is those problems consisting of the issues which I made the challenge to the organizers of the Minnesota Tea Party to have a debate on. Those cowardly and gutless bigots are listed in the “Cc” line of this e-mail. More chicken shit patriots like you.
Since Mr. Chris Baker refused to discuss any of the issues I said I would be happy to debate him, or anyone else on; I won. He lacked any ability or competence to address these issues.
Perhaps too many issues have been brought forward by the organizers of the Minnesota Tea Parties, and those of you bigots with pea-sized bird-brains are not able to “chew gum and walk or talk at the same time.”
I note that you have yet to respond to me with one single issue with which you disagree with me. I am left thinking that it would be unfair to take advantage of you by debating you… but, my offer stands.
Obviously you fear a real debate or if time was really the problem you would have suggested one debate where the debate would be hosted by a disinterested third party where rules for the debate are established and agreed to by each side. You could even bring your children to the debate so they could watch their daddy get pummeled.
From the e-mails and phone calls I have received from people who have been reading our communications most people agree with me that you and Chris Baker really are “chicken shit patriots” who have fun--- for pay--- promoting wars that neither of you are willing--- nor have the courage--- to fight… let alone sit down side by side at a table to debate these issues with those who disagree with you.
I don’t know your background; but, I would venture to guess you come from a fairly well-heeled family living in an upscale neighborhood--- perhaps in one of St. Paul’s “better neighborhoods,” or one of a few similar wealthier neighborhoods someplace else in this country. Usually when I come across very arrogant people like you who lack empathy for working people experiencing problems, I find they often had some kind of education in private or parochial schools where they were taught that they are better than everyone else and they ended up believing this bigotry they were taught… if this isn’t true, why would you make fun of me or any other working class person attempting to express our views about our problems?
Anyone can see that you and Mr. Baker have met your match in me.
You seek out the well-heeled crowd for whom politics is just a game--- be these people leftists, liberals or conservatives; for all of you it is as you describe it yourself: “fun.” How sad, sick and pathetic that you are able to have “fun” at the expense of fostering the kind of bigotry that keeps the problems of working people from being resolved.
I don’t see anything “fun” about people getting foreclosed on and evicted nor having to work in smoke-filled casinos only to have some cowardly bully sitting in control manipulating the sound from an “On Air” room at some radio station--- talking over someone after asking for an explanation and then ridiculing a person they claim is less adept at expressing themselves as you are even when the issues are what is important.
The fact that you and Mr. Baker have been dragged into this “confrontation” with me on my terms constitutes a victory for me putting forward some important issues in most everyone’s eyes.
Everyone, including those small business people who Fox and the other right-wing media brought into the “Tea Parties” to make a few bucks is being exposed slowly but surely… this “Tea Party” movement is going nowhere.
Once people figure out they have been had by those of you seeking to turn these “Tea Parties” into one more racket to profit from the stupidity of bigotry, the “Tea Party” movement will go the way of the religious right-wing movement… although, I seriously doubt it pans out as far as the religious right was able to go simply because it has been organized by a bunch of rinky-dinky shysters like you, Mr. Baker, Shawn Hannity and Rush Limbaugh..
I knew from the beginning of your initiating communication with me, that you never intended to engage in a real debate because you are just a hot-air wind-bag making a buck having “fun.” I did know and understand your slimy business well enough that I would be able to entice a sucker from another of your colleagues to jump to the bait in order to beat you to it… Mr. Baker was the first sucker in prime-time to come along... now I caught two suckers on one worm.
It is not everyday that someone from the left gets an entire letter read on prime-time right-wing talk radio and now the focus is on what is in that letter that you and the other organizers of the “Tea Parties” of the right-wing talk radio circuit are having to respond to since my letter, thanks to you, has been picked up far and wide--- and it was the contents of that “Open Letter to the Organizers of the Minnesota Tea Party” that I wanted circulated widely.
I think you have figured out by now you have been had.
I now have no more use for you so I would appreciate it if you will now end all communication with me unless you decide to sit down at a table with me for a real debate--- the time and place of your own choosing, as long as there is an impartial moderator prepared to enforce the rules of the debate on each participant in a fair manner.
Please note for the record: I have never, neither ever contacted, nor sought out, participation in your program or the program of any other right-wing radio talk show host… you and Mr. Baker came to me when I dangled the bait; the problem is, for some reason you got the bait when it was meant for the “Organizers of the Minnesota Tea Party” and I dangled this bait in front of them--- is there a reason you were in the same school of suckers?
Now, it is you and Mr. Baker along with the rest of the idiots hosting right-wing talk radio who are caught on a very sharp and barbed hook… I wish you the best of luck in getting free. Of course to get set free, you will have to explain how it is you took bait sent to, and intended for, the Organizers of the Minnesota Tea Party. You and Mr. Baker are in fact, along with the other hosts of right-wing talk radio, the only organizers of the Minnesota Tea Party.
I find your complaint about my “spamming” to be hilarious coming from someone pretending to be part of a movement dating back to the days of the American Revolution and its traditions of leaflets and broadsides… perhaps the British would have lodged the same complaint against Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin.
You seem to be working (if I can call your form of having “fun” working) under the illusion that all speech has to be filtered through you, and with your consent and permission, for it to be legitimate. You are more like some arrogant British colonel sipping tea with the King than a revolutionary participant in the Boston Tea Party.
By the way, talking about a waste of tax-payers’ money--- an issue you like to talk so much about… you might want to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the United States Department of Justice to find out why they spent so much of your tax-dollars creating a massive dossier now consisting of over 15,000 pages on me after J. Edgar Hoover testified that I was one of “the most dangerous persons in America” because he claimed I was “one of the most articulate and knowledgeable people in the international Communist movement.” Now, if your conclusion that I am just a dunce of some kind is correct, you might want to find out just how much of your tax dollars have been wasted by the National Security Agency, military intelligence (now there is an oxymoron if I ever heard one) and the FBI and various local and state police agencies and even the gendarmes of several Caribbean Nations and Canada’s RCMP and CSIS.
If you want to find out how tax-dollars are really being wasted, maybe you should invite FBI Director Mr. Mueller and me to appear on your program to discuss whether watching me for over 40 years has paid off for American tax-payers; and, if so, how?
Now, in case you forgot; here are my original two letters to the “Organizers of the Minnesota Tea Party (also, further below I have included information about the plight of casino workers). Also, please take note, the “Organizers of the Minnesota Tea Party” are clearly against socialism--- I doubt that you will find anyone to dispute that I am the most open and articulate advocate of socialism in Minnesota, so if they can’t debate me for fear of losing this argument their entire case is very weak, I would think:
What I see in your Tea Party “movement” is:
1. racism
2. vicious anti-communism
3. warmongers
4. people sucked in by Wall Street
5. a gross distortion of “patriotism.”
I would encourage all of you to read “Citizen Tom Paine” by Howard Fast and his other historical novels on the American Revolution to get some kind of basic grounding and understanding as to what constitutes fighting for freedom, justice and liberty.
You really have a very shallow understanding of the issues.
For instance—
Why no mention of this “little” fact:
Our government is wasting trillions of dollars maintaining over 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe in countries where we have no business when, instead, we should be establishing 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States providing free health care for everyone.
It is easy for you all to say things like you do using assumed names and monikers… I am wondering if you would dare to say such pathetically stupid, harmful and hurtful things if you had to sign your real names and provide contact information?
I would challenge any of you to debate these issues: anytime, anyplace anywhere.
Any takers?
Bak, bak, bak, bak, baaakkk, bak, bak, bak, baaaaakkkkkkkk.
Just a bunch of chicken shit patriots.
Give me a call if you can converse intelligently.
Alan L. Maki
218-386-2432
I have also sent this e-mail to the "Tea Baggers:"
At their e-mail addresses:
'stpaulteaparty@gmail.com'; 'pata@mnfreemarketinstitute.org'; 'dgjohannes@comcast.net'; 'margaretlee@amblerLLC.com'; 'toni@movingmn.com'; 'stpaulteaparty@gmail.com'
An open letter to:
The organizers of the “Minnesota Tea Parties.”
What kind of ideas do you people have if you are afraid to debate and fear the ideas of others?
You are no better than, certainly no alternative to, Barack Obama and the pathetic Democrats and the even more corrupt and disgraced Republicans.
Come on, put your ideas up against a real socialist.
I challenge you to hold debates in every one of the Minnesota communities where you had your big-business/Wall Street financed “Tea Parties.”
Just give me the dates and times and I will be there to debate any of you on the issues you claim to be so concerned about.
It is easy for you to rant and rave against the perverted caricature of socialism you have created without having to sit side by side with a socialist and debate the issues.
Here I am… let’s have at it… or are you afraid to put your ideas out where they can be challenged in the “public square.”
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 10:03 AM
To: 'peterb3121@hotmail.com'
Cc: 'WCS-A@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: Re: National Lawyers Guild human rights forums in Minneapolis
(Please feel free to circulate and distribute widely)
Mr. Peter Brown--- National Lawyers Guild;
I saw your notice in Shove’s “Progressive Calendar” for your upcoming discussions on human rights in the Twin Cities.
I just wanted to let you know one of the most massive denial of human rights in the United States involves the two-million casino workers employed at over 350 casinos where workers are employed in a smoke-filled workplace at poverty wages with NO rights under state or federal labor laws protecting all other workers under terms of “Compacts” creating the Indian Gaming Industry.
I have noticed the National Lawyers Guild and your speaker has not addressed this issue in the past or present… thought you might want to consider changing this here in Minnesota where over 40,000 Minnesotans are now employed in these unjust and deplorable conditions--- many of whom are undocumented workers, people of color and young women of child-bearing age for whom this smoke-filled work environment is especially pernicious. I addition, many pensioners are increasingly forced to work in these smoke-filled environments as they are forced to supplement their meager Social Security checks which is another human rights abuse in its own right.
I would note that it has been the Democratic Party that developed these “Compacts” in order to keep huge amounts of campaign contributions flowing their way from the mobsters who manage these casino operations which many Native American communities have been sucked into fronting for under the guise that everyone is going to become extremely wealthy. To be sure, some have become extremely wealthy beyond the imaginations of most Native Americans… but, for most Native American communities these casinos have resulted in tremendous debt which exacerbates poverty and despair--- bringing everything from loan-sharking and prostitution to drug dealing and the family violence which accompanies this kind of government authorized working and living environment.
Rather than alleviating the deplorable racist and genocidal conditions including all kinds of abuse imaginable spun by years of U.S. governmental repression and oppression intentionally carried out by the government of the United States, this Indian Gaming Industry operating under the Draconian terms of these “Compacts” has added a vicious anti-labor element and dimension as most Native Americans are working class and require the protections of state and federal labor laws more than any other segment of our society.
I would hope that you would consider the fact that workers who are employed under the conditions of having NO rights or voice at their places of employment have NO rights in the communities where they reside.
The Mystic Lake Casino empire with over 5,000 employees is a case in point. Workers are forced to sign a statement which is part Minnesota’s legislated “at-will hiring and firing policy” taken to the extreme. As a condition of employment, workers are forced to sign statements acknowledging that they will not engage in union organizing activities in any way. This casino management has fired workers for the act of maintaining blogs--- even when those blogs have nothing to do with their employment. And these are typical of the human rights abuses centered around democratic rights and human rights.
In fact, one can take the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our own Constitution and Bill of Rights and find every single abuse of the very rights on a mass scale that these documents are intended to protect while going through any of these more than 350 casinos spread out across the United States employing some two-million people.
I hope the National Lawyers Guild will finally consider speaking out boldly in defense of the rights of casino workers and the government mandated and legislated abuses they are being subjected to day-in-and-day out; twenty-four hours a day, every single day of the year.
I would further point out that these deplorable conditions have created an industry where a huge turn-over of the workforce is the result of these Draconian and unjust conditions meaning many more than two-million workers employed daily are ultimately at risk; and for many young workers just setting out in the working lives, these casino jobs are their first jobs which sets the stage for a very docile workforce willing to “adjust,” and accept, injustices in other industries.
As the economy heads south, these employers in the Indian Gaming Industry use this as an opportunity to “tighten the screws” in controlling their workers.
Again, in writing, it is my hope that the National Lawyers Guild will end its over twenty years of silence on this question by letting public officials know that these injustices must be set right by renegotiating the individual “Compacts” under which each of these casinos are given authority by state governments and the federal governments to operate. I would further note, the FBI and state agencies like the Minnesota Department of Public Safety are responsible for “policing” these casino operations as far as drug dealing and assuring that slot and table games are operated on the “up-and-up;” so, the issue of “sovereignty” is not the issue here when it comes to the rights of labor… rather, it is a matter of public officials providing these casino managements with labor force of workers who are completely at the mercy of management in terms of employment.
I would also note, also, that these “Compacts” are in fact “contracts.”
As we have seen with the auto industry, public officials right on up to the president of the United States think nothing of using their power and influence to force workers to re-open and renegotiate their contracts.
These same public officials are fully aware that their actions in creating these “Compacts” resulted in the wholesale denial of the most basic and elemental human rights to working people; this wrong and injustice must be set right.
In closing, I would call to your attention that the very same political forces and politicians who have intentionally and systematically denied free access to health care to all people is a double whammy to casino workers for whom second-hand smoke creates all kinds of adverse and catastrophic health problems as has been articulated so well by the American Cancer Society and the Heart and Lung Foundations.
Finally, I would point out that the Canadian Province of Manitoba has put an end to smoking in its Provincially owned and Native owned casinos; if this can be accomplished in Manitoba, it certainly can be accomplished here in Minnesota and across the United States where the government continues to fund more than 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe in countries where human rights are systematically abused instead of creating 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States… it truly is a dirty shame that our own government can’t even match the number of service centers of the auto industry to maintain their “lemons” by a similar number of public health care centers to maintain human health and get people well when sick… something not lost on the two-million coughing casino workers many of whom are contracting employment related cancers, heart and lung diseases.
Casino workers need the independent voice of the National Lawyers Guild to be heard boldly, loudly and clearly in their defense for rights at work and a voice in the workplace so they can fully participate in their communities… we are talking about the intentional and systematic abuse of very basic democratic and human rights by government working hand-in-hand with some of the most violent mobsters like the Fertitta family and the Kansas City Mob who dominate and control the Indian Gaming Industry who have at their disposal huge lawfirms/lobbyists like Brownstein/Hyatt/Farber/Schreck.
I would request that the Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild address this issue at your earliest convenience, request action from the National organization--- perhaps in the form of a letter to all state and federal public officials; and I further request that you pass on my concerns to your guest, noted human rights activist Ajamu Baraka.
Notice I received from David Shove’s “Progressive Calendar:”
--------14 of 19--------
From: Peter Brown
Subject: Ajamu Baraka 4.17 1:30/3/4:30pm
Dear Colleagues for Justice:
We are pleased to confirm three community conversations with Ajamu Baraka, nationally and internationally recognized human rights scholar, advocate, and organizer on Friday afternoon, April 17, 2009, in advance of his keynote address at the National Lawyers Guild-Minnesota Chapter's annual Social Justice Dinner - Saturday April 18, 6PM at William Mitchell College of Law Auditorium ---
1. 1:30PM at Minneapolis Urban League, 2000 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN
2. 3:00 PM at Sabathani Community Center, 310 East 38th Street, Minneapolis, MN
3. 4:30PM at MLK, Jr. Community Center, 270 Kent Street, St. Paul, MN
To give you a more complete view of Ajamu Baraka's activity here in the Twin Cities during these days, I am attaching his full itinerary for these days.
Ajamu is very enthusiastic about this opportunity to meet and speak with you and the other justice activists you gather for this conversation and I'm sure with your help we will make the most of our time together.
I am also attaching the poster previously sent since it contains additional background information about Ajamu Baraka which you may choose to incorporate into outreach you do for this conversation. Peter 612-824-6533
--------15 of 19--------
From: Hamline University Law School in the Twin Cities of St. Paul, and Minneapolis Minnesota (http://law.hamline.edu)
Subject: Natl Lawyers Guild 4.17-19 5:30pm
EVENT: Weekend Program of Events at Hamline Law School
National Lawyers Guild - Hamline Chapter
The National Lawyers Guild Midwest Regional Conference will be held April 17, 18 and 19 at Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.
WE DISSENT: Taking Back our Civil Liberties
Friday April 17th 2009
Sundin Music Hall
5:30 - 7:30 Set Up and Registration
7:00 - 7:30 Meet and Greet ;
7:30 Keynote Speaker ; Ken Tilsen introduced by Bruce Nestor
10:00 - close Rebellious Bar Review ; Bedlam Theatre 1501 S. 6th St. on the West Bank, Minneapolis
Saturday April 18th 2009
9:00 - 10:00
Session 1: Solomon Amendment ; discussion by Phil Duran, staff attorney for OutFront Minnesota
Room: Sorin Hall A
9:45 - 11:15
Session 2: Twin Cities Culture Panel ; with Abigail Cerra, Abdirizk Bihi and Roman Gonzalez.
Room: Sorin Hall B
10:00 - 11:00
Session 3: International Human Rights Applied Domestically ; presented by Peter Brown with Ajamu Baraka, Execitive Director of the US Human Rights Network
Room: Sorin Hall A
11:30 - 1:00
Session 4: Ramona Africa ; Move9
Room: LAW 105
1:45 - 3:15
Session 5: Securing the Human Rights of Arrestees and Detainees: the Right to Medical Attention ; Peter Brown, former MN NLG President and Jordan Kushner, sole practitioner
Room: Sorin Hall B
Session 6: Legal Workers of the World, Unite(d)! (As faculty for lawyers after law school.) ; facilitated by Michael Friedman, Executive Director of Legal Rights Center with Abigail Cerra, Jude Ortiz, Michelle Gross
Room: Sorin Hall A
3:15 - 4:15
Session 8: Inexpensive Legal Research ; Professor Grace Mills, Law Library Dir. and Assoc. Prof. of Law Hamline University
Room: Sorin Hall B
Session 9: Living with Debt While Being an Effective Advocate ; with Heather Rastorver Vlieger and Sharon Fischlowitz of LRAP
Room: Sorin Hall A
6:30
Minnesota NLG Social Justice Dinner
William Mitchell School of Law
Sunday April 19th 2009
9:30 - 10:30
Session 10: TBD
Room: LAW 101
Session 11: Legal Observer Training ; presented by Jennifer McEwen, Rachel Bengston and Carla Magnuson
Room: LAW 04
10:30 - 12:00
Session 12: The Movement For Reproductive Justice: New Strategies For Organizing And Coalition Building ; with Kate Hannaher, founder and chair of Hamline Law Students for Reproductive Justice, and Sara Thome, Legal Aid attorney, founder and former chair of Hamline Law Students for Reproductive Justice.
Room: LAW 101
Session 13: Student Chapter Forum ; facilitated by Micah Ludeke, co-chair of NLG Hamline Chapter
Room: LAW 04
12:00 - 1:00
Session 14: Know Your Rights (and how to explain them) ; presented by Jude Ortiz of Coldsnap Legal Collective
Room: LAW 04
Session 15: TBD
Room: LAW 101
Additional Information
Visitor parking at the Saint Paul campus
Visitor parking is located in the White House lot on Hewitt
Avenue at Pascal Street. Parking is enforced Monday-Friday, 8
a.m.-4 p.m. Visitor parking is enforced as signage indicates.
All parking lots, with exception of the staff/faculty parking
Lot H, are open to visitors without permits after 4:30 p.m.
weekdays and all weekends
Driving Directions
You may also call 651-523-2441 for directions.
Hamline University School of Law | 1536 Hewitt Avenue Saint Paul, MN 55104-1237 | U.S.A. | 651-523-2941
The anti-labor, racist and fascist edge to the “Tea Parties” being held across our country makes it all the more imperative that our concerns be addressed at this time without procrastination.
We wish you well and hope for your success in endeavoring to educate Minnesotans concerning human rights.
Yours in struggle for justice and human dignity;
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Maki [mailto:amaki000@centurytel.net]
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 7:57 PM
To: 'WCS-A@yahoogroups.com'
Cc: 'jan.alswager@educationminnesota.org'
Subject: Tea Parties: Obama has created fertile soil for the development of fascism...
We are requesting that you circulate our concerns as widely as possible so working people have the opportunity to have a full discussion on these issues.
Thank you,
Maggie “Patty” Bird
President,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Contrary to the thinking of the muddle-headed middle class intellectuals posing as progressives, Barack Obama’s campaign and his time in office to date has been nothing but a right-wing, pro-war, pro-corporate agenda which anyone could see was going to result in the right-wing having a field day under the guise of “populism.”
These muddle-headed middle class intellectuals for whom politics is a high-priced game that they play instead of Scrabble, Cribbage, Chess or Checkers have knowingly aided and abetted Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers living like parasites off the wealth created by labor as they used the election of Barack Obama to set the stage to push this country further to the right than anyone could ever have imagined.
Five-hundred of these muddle-headed middle class intellectuals banded together in “Progressives for Obama;” other thousands through outfits like Progressive Democrats of America and Moveon.org who used progressive to make millions of dollars as they, like Obama, engaged in a very selfish, self-serving and self-promoting form of politics to sell their books and magazines… the Nation Magazine has been one of the worst abusers of the progressive label in this regard along with the Campaign for America’s Future which is the “think-tank” for the high-paid, class collaborationist, sell-out leadership of the AFL-CIO.
Anyone can see from reading this article below that these people are hitting at very legitimate issues that the left should have been on top of addressing long ago by becoming the most vocal critics and protesters of Barack Obama’s Wall Street policies and agenda.
What was needed, and is still needed, is for working class liberals, progressives and leftists to come together through some kind of “people’s lobby” to explain what is the real nature and source of the problems the right is bringing forward here.
We cannot wait for these “leaders” from the labor movement, the peace or environmental movements to step forward into this fight of the people versus Wall Street because they have no clue to what is happening in this country… many of them make just as much as the corporate CEO’s and have not an inkling or a clue as to the problems being experienced by working people. Our problems are nothing more than footnotes in some government or think-tank reports that they use to sound good when making speeches, writing books and magazine articles--- which most working people can’t even afford to purchase.
We can see from what has been transpiring on the Internet that many of the participants in these “tea parties” are honest working people just plain fed up; many of whom pay dues to unions that have leaders they don’t trust largely because these union leaders have been complicit in supporting Barack Obama when they should have been opposing Obama on most issues--- and why should working people trust these “leaders” who backed Barack Obama to the hilt while failing to put forward the resources to mobilize the working class in defense of their own interests and to improve their own standard of living.
Working people have no interests in supporting the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Working people have no interests in bailing out the Wall Street bankers and insurance companies.
Working people have no interests in bailing out the auto or steel industries.
Working people have no interests in supporting tax-increases.
Wars are robbing the working class of their sons and daughters along with squandering the wealth workers have created.
Working people had no part in creating this mess; Wall Street bankers and coupon clippers did this all on their own--- now, let them clean up the mess they created.
Wall Street bankers and insurance companies have all the wealth required to bail themselves out of the problems of their own making; they don’t need tax-payer bailouts.
Instead of bailing out Wall Street, tax revenues should be going into socially useful and necessary programs like public health care, public education, public mass transit, public recreation programs for youth, public child care centers and public libraries.
For what Obama has spent bailing out the auto industry--- and what he intends to spend bailing out the steel industry--- the government could purchase the entire industries, lock, stock and barrel; nationalize these industries and bring them under public ownership. Why the government would want to purchase these industries rather than just take them over in the public’s best interest we don’t understand.
All tax-increases should be in the form of capital gains taxes on the super wealthy Wall Street crowd with a tax placed on every single stock and bond transaction.
The one issue that has the very best potential to unite the people of this country and create a real change in direction is the health care issue… there isn’t a single person who doesn’t require access to health care. Yet, those muddle-headed middle class intellectuals, some of the most well-known and preeminent writers in this country, have failed to articulate a clear alternative to the health care mess.
The solution is simple: Close down the more than 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil dotting the globe, and build 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States providing everyone with access to health care.
If anyone doubts that such a call for this kind of initiative would not be overwhelmingly supported by the American people, we suggest that 800 forums on this issue be organized in the very communities where these public health care centers would be located to best serve the health care needs of the American people, and ask the people to come out and provide their opinion on this issue.
Every public school and public library could be turned into voting centers with people using their Social Security card numbers to vote electronically on the question:
Should the United States government close down more than 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil and use the resources saved to build 800 public health care centers stretching out across this country strategically located to provide the American people with free access to all basic health care needs required by human beings?
Barack Obama and these muddle-headed middle class intellectuals posing as liberals, progressives and leftists talk about creating a country linked with state of the art broad-band communication network and people don’t even have access to health care--- where is the logic to this, where is the common sense, where is the basic human decency… first they insinuated this broad-band communications network would be free; now, they say, like health care, it will be “affordable.” Well, we have the technology available right now to see how popular and efficient the Internet can be by holding a nationwide referendum on putting an end to war and militarism and using the wealth and the resources of this country to serve the very best interests of the people by providing free health care for all.
If the “Progressives for Obama,” “Moveon.org,” Progressive Democrats of America and all the labor unions, peace organizations, civil and human rights organizations and environmental organizations were to come together in a massive “people’s lobby” we could force Barack Obama and the politicians to hold a nationwide referendum on this health care issue.
And, as far as economic stimulus and job creation, not a better and more effective way can be found to create jobs faster and pump more money into the economy so working people can purchase those things they need to live decent lives.
Such a vast network of 800 public health care centers serving all of the American people would employ some four-million people while it would require some 3.5 million construction workers to build these public health care centers… talk about your “shovel ready” projects!
Not even considering the jobs that this kind of massive undertaking for the good of the human race would spin off, which would be well over eight-million jobs, we create over 15,000,000 (fifteen-million jobs) which would create a full-employment economy with workers receiving decent pay for decent jobs.
The working class youth now living in the ghettos, barrios and on Indian Reservations would have real futures to look forward to serving the health care needs of their communities and families.
The United States would finally reap the dividends of peace by learning to live in harmony with the rest of the world, too.
With the money saved not being siphoned off by the health insurance and health care industries, we would have billions to spend on clean, green, mass transit systems.
The spin-offs of funding real public health care would be enormous; including a healthier, longer-living, happier population.
There is something terribly wrong when the politicians of this country cannot understand that the primary task is to put people before Wall Street’s profits; this is what is creating such disharmony in our society and is fueling this ultra-rightwing, fascist upsurge of “tea baggers.”
The liberal, progressive and left opinion-makers are doing us a great disservice by failing to add their voices for a real progressive agenda that brings the working class into opposition to the Wall Street policies of Barack Obama.
This country is going to move much further to the right; or, it will move to the left.
The rightwing has a very well-funded organizational structure; apparently abandoned by liberal, progressive and left intellectuals, it is now up to rank-and-file workers to initiate the kind of grassroots effort through education and organization if we are going to move this country left onto the high-road of a politics and economics of livelihood, and we should begin by addressing the primary issues of concern to working people: health care, peace and jobs--- real justice for the working women and men who create the wealth of this country with a great deal of help from Mother Nature.
Ending the obsessive militaristic binge this country has been on since the end of World War II as Wall Street has sought to dominate the entire world in quest of ever greater profits will be a major factor--- the single largest factor--- in bringing global warming under control… something those who are pushing for “greening the economy,” also, completely ignore.
To give this some perspective; scientists estimate that over one-third of all the ore mined on Minnesota’s Iron Range has gone for war and militarization; it doesn’t take a genius to figure out how much fuel the transport and processing of this ore into steel consumes--- the coal, the coke, the electricity and gas.
Our society is paying a terrible price in so many ways for its addiction to militarism which stems from Wall Street’s drive for corporate profits.
William Z. Foster--- the great trade union leader, working class intellectual and activist, and Marxist thinker and writer--- pointed out that the very best education the American people could ever get would be an anti-imperialist education; he was so right.
Minnesota’s two most popular ever governors, Floyd B. Olson and Elmer Benson--- both socialists--- said the very same thing as William Z. Foster.
And, Albert Einstein in his essay “Why socialism?” written in 1949 for the socialist magazine “Monthly Review” clearly articulated why war and militarism sapped our country of its wealth in explaining the nature of capitalism and its most barbaric, parasitic and cannibalistic stage: imperialism.
Instead of a “tea party;” workers need a socialist party to advance an alternative agenda. A “people’s lobby” can get us headed in this direction.
Capitalism is on the skids to oblivion; do we want to be dragged down this dark, scary, bumpy road to perdition?
Let’s talk about health care.
Let’s talk about peace.
Let’s talk about a “people’s bailout.”
Let’s talk about the politics and economics of livelihood--- for real change.
The time has come to make a “left turn.”
Education. Organization. Unity. Action.
With two-million casino workers employed in smoke-filled casinos at poverty wages without any rights under state or federal labor laws, we know a little something about why this country needs a quality, public health care system providing free health care for all… we know that many illnesses and health care problems working people suffer from are directly related to their places of employment--- once again, the bosses get rich; working people suffer and get stuck with the bill.
It is not our intent to speak ill of anyone; but, at some point a line needs to be drawn in the sand. On one side of this line stands the working class; on the other side stand the Wall Street bankers and industrialists. It really is as simple as that.
As workers, we have no interest in saving capitalism; our concern is getting working people through this mess with the required reforms as we struggle to put an end to capitalism while building the socialist alternative.
Together, the working class--- united--- has the power to create real change.
We ask you to read and digest what is in this article below. The dangers ahead cannot be exaggerated; the dangers are very real.
We are firmly convinced that the struggle for real health care reform when combined with the fight for peace can defeat the forces pushing our country precariously to the right, while advancing a progressive working class agenda. We invite your comments and concerns.
Our Organizing Council has allocated some of our limited resources in an attempt to initiate a struggle for 800 public health care centers spread out across the United States instead of continuing to fund 800 U.S. military bases on foreign soil.
We hope you will add your voices to this campaign and join our efforts.
Maggie “Patty” Bird
President,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Check it out…
Tax deadline brings out thousands of protesters
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20090415/D97J44280.html
Apr 15, 4:22 PM (ET)
By JOE BIESK
(AP) Several hundred protesters participate in a tax day protest on the Boston Common in Boston,...
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Thousands of protesters, some dressed like Revolutionary War soldiers and most waving signs with anti-tax slogans, gathered around the nation Wednesday for a series of rallies modeled after the original Boston Tea Party. They chose the income tax filing deadline to express their displeasure with government spending since President Barack Obama took office.
The protests were held everywhere from Kentucky, which just passed tax increases on cigarettes and alcohol, to South Carolina, where the governor has repeatedly criticized the $787 billion economic stimulus package Congress passed earlier this year.
"Frankly, I'm mad as hell," said Des Moines, Iowa, businessman Doug Burnett, one of about 1,000 people, many in red shirts declaring "revolution is brewing," at a rally at the Iowa Capitol. "This country has been on a spending spree for decades, a spending spree we can't afford."
Large rallies were expected later in California and New York.
(AP) Protestors take part in a tea party demonstration, Wednesday, April 15, 2009, in Lafayette Park,...
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In Atlanta, thousands of people were to gather on the steps of the Georgia Capitol, where Fox News Channel conservative pundit Sean Hannity was set to broadcast his show Wednesday night.
In Boston, a few hundred protesters gathered on the Boston Common - a short distance from the original Tea Party - some dressed in Revolutionary garb and carrying signs that said "Barney Frank, Bernie Madoff: And the Difference Is?" and "D.C.: District of Communism."
The tea parties were promoted by FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group based in Washington and led by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, a lobbyist whose corporate clients including Verizon, Raytheon, liquor maker Diageo, CarMax and drug company Sanofi Pasteur.
The group's federal tax returns show its educational and charitable arms received more than $6 million in donations in 2007, the most recent year for which returns are available.
Organizers said the movement developed organically through online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and through exposure on Fox News.
(AP) Five-year-old Elianna Dickens participates in a rally sponsored by West Virginia Concerned Citizens...
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And while they insisted it was a nonpartisan effort, it has been seized on by many prominent Republicans who view it as a promising way for the party to reclaim its momentum.
"It is a nonpartisan mass organizing effort comprised of people unhappy with the size of government. All you have to be is a mildly awake Republican candidate for office to get in front of that parade," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
The movement has also attracted some Republicans considering a 2012 presidential bid.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich planned to address a tea party in a New York City park Wednesday night. His advocacy group, americansolutions.com, has partnered with tea party organizers to get word to the group's members.
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, another likely 2012 GOP presidential hopeful, planned to attend tea parties in Columbia and Charleston. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal sent an e-mail to his supporters, letting them know about tea parties taking place throughout the state.
(AP) Protesters carry signs at a rally sponsored by West Virginia Concerned Citizens to protest...
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There were several small counter-protests, including one in at Fountain Square in Cincinnati, where about a dozen people protested the protesters, one carrying a sign that read, "Where were you when Bush was spending billions a month 'liberating' Iraq?" The anti-tax demonstration, meanwhile, drew about 4,000 people.
In Lansing, Mich., outside the state Capitol, another 4,000 people waved signs exclaiming "Stop the Fiscal Madness,""Read My Lipstick! No More Bailouts" and "The Pirates Are in D.C." Children held makeshift signs complaining about the rising debt.
"I'm really opposed to spending the way out of our problem," said Deborah Mourray, 56, a business administrator from the Detroit suburb of Troy. "How I run my home is I don't spend more money so my situation improves. Save and conserve."
In Connecticut, police estimated 3,000 people showed up at the state Capitol in Hartford and another 1,000 at a rally in New Haven. Many carried makeshift pitchforks and signs with messages aimed at the Democrats who control Congress and the White House.
In Montgomery, Ala., Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" blared from loud speakers as more than 1,000 people gathered at the Alabama Statehouse.
(AP) Russell Wirtalla, dressed as a Colonial soldier, joins tax protesters rallying on the north steps...
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Greg Budell, a radio talk show host, said the tea parties could have the same impact as when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a Montgomery bus during segregation in 1955.
"If one woman could change the world by refusing to move to the back of the bus, we ought to be able to change it by saying we are not going to let our government throw us under the bus and our children and our grandchildren," he said.
In Frankfort, about 250 people gathered at the Capitol, where just a few months earlier Kentucky bourbon producers emptied whiskey bottles on the steps to protest alcohol taxes.
David Ransdell, a 66-year-old retired Baptist missionary from Lawrenceburg, donned an empty tea box as a hat and dangled tea bags around the sides.
"The future does not look real good for our country," Ransdell said. "People are afraid that they're going to be out on the street."
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Associated Press Writers Mike Glover in Des Moines, Iowa, Stephanie Reitz in Hartford, Conn., Beth Fouhy in New York, Kelsey Abbruzzese in Boston, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., Shannon McCaffrey in Atlanta, Terry Kinney in Cincinatti, David Eggert in Lansing, Mich., and Phillip Rawls in Montgomery, Ala. contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
http://taxdayteaparty.com/
Alan L. Maki
58891 County Road 13
Warroad, Minnesota 56763
Phone: 218-386-2432
Cell phone: 651-587-5541
E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net
Check out my blog:
Thoughts From Podunk
http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/
