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Welcome to the March 15, 2011 edition of the Progressive Post. While we hope you find this information useful, you can unsubscribe at any time by replying to this email with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line.

Power Concedes Nothing Without a Demand OK, all you liberals -- This is the hard truth. This is what you have to do to WIN! A wake-up editorial by Chris Hedges Read More

Event Reminders: Great Antiwar Demonstration in Balboa Park Saturday, 03/19/2011 An antiwar demonstration is planned for March 19 from 12:00 pm to 3 pm at 6th Ave & Grape St in San Diego. Please come and join the effort to end the wars! We are part of scores of rallies nationwide. OFA Rally for Worker Rights in Temecula, Mar 19 Saturday, 03/19/2011 OFA will lead a sidewalk rally in Temecula on March 19. We invite all Democrats, union groups, and many others to join is for protecting the middle class, our jobs, and to say "enough is enough" to all the political extremism rampant and escalating. We will support the fundamental right to collective bargaining. March on prison to support Bradley Manning Sunday, 03/20/2011 A major demonstration against the imprisonment of Bradley Manning, will march on the prison at Quantico, Virginia, on March 20, anniversary of the start of the Bush War against the Iraqi people. Martin Luther King died fighting for labor rights Monday, 04/04/2011 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 43 years ago in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He was there to join the long and bitter fight for labor rights and a living wage and human dignity for the sanitation workers in Memphis. Why are we having to fight this war all over again in Madison, Wisconsin? Why is the Republican Party trying to set back labor-management relations over 50 years, revoke the hard-won laws and rights, and the destroy the labor peace in our land? Will we have to fight Dr. King's battle all over again with Gov. Scott Walker -- in Wisconsin, in Indiana, in Ohio -- and even in Michigan? Join the fight! Save The Dream - Rally for labor in SD, Mar 15 Tuesday, 03/15/2011 Supporters of workers rights are streaming together to a rally in downtown San Diego on Tuesday, March 15 at 6:00 PM at the County Admin Building. In support of teachers, nurses, police & firefighters, public workers, collective bargaining rights. Intermediate Wildlife Tracking Class #1 Wednesday, 03/16/2011 This is part of the series of classes conducted by the Los Penasquitos Tracking Team (LPTT) of the SDTT. Intermediate class will increase your ability to recognize and interpret animal tracks, and much more. RSVP is required. Two free lectures at Mira Costa College Friday, 03/18/2011 These free lectures are part of the Mira Costa College series of lifelong learning classes. At 1:00 pm hear Dr. Renee Rivard on Bird Beaks and What They Eat. At 2:00 PM it will be Dave Bittner, Director of the Wildlife Research Institute on Burrowing Owls in Southern California and Salton Sea Wildlife. Intermediate Wildlife Tracking Class #2 Saturday, 03/19/2011 This is part of the series of classes conducted by the Los Penasquitos Tracking Team (LPTT) of the SDTT. Intermediate class will increase your ability to recognize and interpret animal tracks, and much more. RSVP is required. NC Film Club Features The Extra Man Sunday, 03/20/2011 The Winter-Spring Season 2011 rolls out The Extra Man, a comedy. Forced to quit his prep school job after a humiliating incident, would-be dramatist Louis Ives (Paul Dano) heads to New York City, where he rents a room from has-been playwright Henry Harrison (Kevin Kline) -- who earns a living escorting rich dowagers about town. Despite their huge age difference, the two develop a bond as Henry takes Louis under his wing and leads him on a series of wild adventures. Katie Holmes and John C. Reilly also star. Free Monthly E-Waste Collection in Encinitas Saturday, 03/26/2011 Make room for your new electronic gadgets and toys! Bring your discards to The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. The Solana Center is holding monthly electronic waste drop offs at their site at 137 N. El Camino Real. These events are co-sponsored by the city of Encinitas and Recycle San Diego. Fundraiser - first pediatric cancer unit Palestine Sunday, 03/27/2011 Benefit for the construction of the first pediatric cancer unit in Palestine. Dinner and entertainment. La Jolla, March 27th, at Torrey Pines Christian Church. List of Democratic events in San Diego County Wednesday, 03/30/2011 This is a list of Democratic and progressive events in San Diego County: CLICK HERE To read the best progressive newsletter west of the Mississippi, click on Jellison's EZINE here Special Program on Butterfly Gardening Wednesday, 03/30/2011 Seiko Sudo will talk about the butterfly life cycle, interesting butterfly behaviors, and how to attract these loveliest of pollinators to your garden by using native plants. NC Film Club Screens Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky Sunday, 04/10/2011 The Winter-Spring Season 2011 continues with Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, presented in French, Russian and English. Seven years after she was inspired by the bold debut of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," famed fashion designer Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis) -- reeling from the death of her beau, Boy Capel (Anatole Taubmann) -- meets and falls for the Russian composer (Mads Mikkelsen) in 1920s Paris. A forbidden romance ensues in Jan Kounen's sumptuous period drama, the closing film of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. List of Democratic events in San Diego County Friday, 04/15/2011 This is a list of Democratic and progressive events in San Diego County: CLICK HERE To read the best progressive newsletter west of the Mississippi, click on Jellison's EZINE here Calavera Wildflower hike Saturday, 04/16/2011 Calavera Wildflower hike with James Dillane. More details, time and location will be provided as they become available. Art, Wine & Wildlife Event Saturday, 04/16/2011 Art, Wine and Wildlife (golden eagles) will all be at the Second Annual Wildlife Research Institute Fund Raiser at Highland Valley Studios. The event will include art exhibits, wine tasting, beer, live music, wonderful food (last year they served fantastic paella and Julian apple pie) and a huge silent auction. Free Monthly E-Waste Collection in Encinitas Saturday, 04/23/2011 Make room for your new electronic gadgets and toys! Bring your discards to The Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. The Solana Center is holding monthly electronic waste drop offs at their site at 137 N. El Camino Real. These events are co-sponsored by the city of Encinitas and Recycle San Diego. This 'N That Alan John Percivale Taylor - Unknown In all things it is better to hope than to despair. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold - brothers who know now they are truly brothers. - Archibald Mc Leish There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence. - Cesar Chavez Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. - Henry David Thoreau In April, we cannot see sunflowers in France, so we might say the sunflowers do not exist. But the local farmers have already planted thousands of seeds, and when they look at the bare hills, they may be able to see the sunflowers already. The sunflowers are there. They lack only the conditions of sun, heat, rain and July. Just because we cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist. - Thich Nhat Hanh None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. - Johan W. von Goethe An act of love, a voluntary taking on oneself of some of the pain of the world, increases the courage and love and hope of all. - Dorothy Day Non-violence is a very powerful weapon. Most people don't understand the power of non-violence and tend to be amazed by the whole idea. Those who have been involved in bringing about change and see the difference between violence and non-violence are firmly committed to a lifetime of non-violence, not because it is easy or because it is cowardly, but because it is an effective and very powerful way. - Cesar Chavez In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? - St. Augustine The pens which write against disarmament are made with the same steel from which guns are made. - Aristide Briand, French statesman, Nobel Peace Prize, 1926 What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. - Robert E. Lee, in a letter to his wife, 1864 What good is a house, if you haven't got a decent planet to put it on? - Henry David Thoreau Nothing is so strong as gentleness; nothing so gentle as real strength. - St. Francis de Sales Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance. - Nikola Tesla In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. - Orson Welles Non-violence is not inaction. It is not discussion. It is not for the timid or weak...Non-violence is hard work. It is the willingness to sacrifice. It is the patience to win. - Cesar Chavez If you want peace, work for justice. - Pope Paul VI Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me. To see reality--not as we expect it to be but as it is--is to see that unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily; that there can really be life only where there really is, in just this sense, love. - (Carl) Frederick Buechner Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is. - Will Rogers Dust turned to hope. - Elie Weisel Do all the good you can, - By all the means you can, The point of nonviolence is to build a floor, a strong new floor, beneath which we can no longer sink. A platform which stands a few feet above napalm, torture, exploitation, poison gas, A and H bombs, the works. Give man a decent place to stand. - Joan Baez Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. - Martin Luther King, Jr. If peace . . . only had the music and pageantry of war, there'd be no wars. - Sophie Kerr In 1989, thirteen nations comprising 1,695,000 people experienced nonviolent revolutions that succeeded beyond anyone's wildest expectations . . . If we add all the countries touched by major nonviolent actions in our century (the Philippines, South Africa . . . the independence movement in India . . .) the figure reaches 3,337,400,000, a staggering 65% of humanity! All this in the teeth of the assertion, endlessly repeated, that nonviolence doesn't work in the 'real' world. - Walter Wink The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God. - Cesar Chavez Peace is not the product of a victory or a command. It has no finishing line, no final deadline, no fixed definition of achievement. Peace is a never-ending process, the work of many decisions. - Oscar Arias Our friends show us what we can do; our enemies teach us what we must do. - Goethe To resort to power one need not be violent, and to speak to conscience one need not be meek. The most effective action both resorts to power and engages conscience. Nonviolent actions does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences. Nor does it have to petition those in power to do something about a situation. It can face the authorities with a new fact and say: Accept this new situation which we have created. - Barbara Deming

Articles & News: The Torture of Bradley Manning Article Bradley Manning is accused of humiliating the political establishment by revealing the complicity of top U.S. officials in carrying out and covering up war crimes. In return for his act of conscience, the U.S. government is holding him in abusive solitary confinement, humiliating him and trying to keep him behind bars for life. The lesson is clear, and soldiers take note: You're better off committing a war crime than exposing one. By Medea Benjamin Army of Liberals rebukes Obama for Manning torture News By Glenn Greenwald - The forced "resignation" of State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley -- for the mortal sin of denouncing the abusive detention of Bradley Manning -- has apparently proven to be a clarifying moment for many commentators about the President's approval of Manning's inhumane mistreatment. Michael Moore News VIDEO of Michael Moore - Calls for Renewed Pro-Democracy Movement as Anti-Union Bills Approved in Wisconsin and Michigan. What happened in Egypt and Tunisia springs from the same human spirit as Madison, Wisconsin. DEMOCRACY NOW video here. Top head rolls over Bradley Manning criticism News Hillary Clinton's top spokesman for the State Department, P.J. Rowley just fired for labeling the harsh treatment of prisoner Pvt. Bradley Manning as "counterproductive and stupid". GOP Hate erupts in Orange Co against Muslims News At Orange County Hate Rally, GOP Councilwoman Says She Wants Marines To Send Muslim Families To 'Paradise'. One has to wonder if, as elected officials in the United States Congress, Royce and Miller truly approve of such vile hate speech being used against Muslim Americans like those in Orange County. [See two YouTube videos elsewhere on the left on this website.] Take Nuclear Giveaways Out of the Budget! News The world has been watching nervously as those living near the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan have been evacuated because of the possibility of a nuclear meltdown. Nuclear power is inherently dangerous and always will be. But that hasn’t stopped President Obama from putting $38 billion worth of giveaways to the nuclear industry in his latest budget proposal to Congress. Tell Obama no to nukes! ISSA EXPOSED - Info websites on Darrell Issa News These websites shines light and puts the heat on Darrell Issa, the Grand-Inquisitor congressman from the CA 49th District. It posts the history, corruption, hypocrisy and bad politics of Issa, and gives a wealth of material for writing letters to the editor. The Japan Nuke Problem No One's Talking About Article Could the spent nuclear fuel sitting in a nearby storage pool pose an even bigger threat to people and the environment? At the 40-year-old Fukushima plant, which was built by General Electric, the fuel rods are stored at a pool about three stories up, next to the reactor. Now come warning that any release of radioactivity from the spent-fuel pool could make the releases from the reactors themselves pale in comparison. Hate by any other name Article OP-ED by Kit-Bacon Gressit of Fallbrook. "Rape culture is so pervasive, it seems innocuous to many and is ignored by most, except some in academia and alternative news media -- and, of course, those in rape and domestic violence programs. Oh, and in the psyches of the culture's victims." The rape culture is tacitly downplayed and smirked at in TV comedy - even in the "news" media. Rape is never funny. Ever. CA leader in new LGBT legislation News From Geoff Kors - The 2010 election brought California a pro-equality Legislature, Governor, Attorney General and more. We swept it. California moves into the future, while across the nation, many states are going backward. Here are three important bills that will dramatically improve the environment for youth: Cartoons of the Week News Gaddafi and Collective Bargaining Gaddafi writes a letter to Gov. Walker Shutting down the government The ghost of McCarthyism returns Gov. Walker wants the whole cow! Missing in Wisconsin Newt bumper stucker Unions & the Middle Class Obama plays poker with GOP 3 GOP Leaders attack Muslim women's charity Three Republican CA elected officials supporting attack against Orange County Muslim charity for women. Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) said to the raucous and hateful crowd, "I'm proud of you, I'm proud of what you’re doing." Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) said that the multiculturalism "has paralyzed too many of our citizens to make the critical judgment we need to make to prosper as a society." (See also 2nd YouTube video of event] Transition from Afghan warrior to American mother Article SAN DIEGO - Ann Reeder, 46, spent nearly 20 years in and out of homelessness after she was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1987. The return to civilian life was difficult for Reeder, who said she struggled with the psychological effects of a rape while she was in the military. Though women are still a small percentage of homeless veterans, they're at much higher risk of homelessness than their male veteran counterparts, and their numbers are growing. It doesn't take an earthquake to cause a meltdown Article Sweden almost had a nuclear power plant meltdown in 2006, caused not by an earthquake but a simple power failure. On July 25, a power outage occurred at Forsmark, throwing the plant's control room into a state of chaos. As the power failed, so did two of the plant's four emergency backup generators. The numbers on the controls started to go berserk, and it took a full 23 minutes before the workers, who for a time had no idea what was happening inside the reactor, were able to bring Forsmark 1 back under control. Lawyers: Assault on Collective Bargaining illegal Article The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal. The ICLR identified the right of "freedom of association" as a fundamental right and affirmed that the right to collective bargaining is an essential element of freedom of association. Tell Senate Democrats: Stand Up and Fight! News Senator Majority leader Harry Reid took less than 12 hours to signal the Senate was willing to cave on Republican cuts to the budget. After two bills failed to pass the Senate, Reid announced early the next day that "We accept the lessons of yesterday's vote. We know we'll have to make a sacrifice to reach consensus, and we are willing to do that." Sign the petition to tell the Democrats to stand up and fight! NY Times: Gay Marriages should start NOW News The New York Times has joined the LA Times with an editorial insisting on lifting the stay on Proposition 8, and allowing same-sex marriage immediately. BRAVO!! LA Times: Gay marriages should begin NOW. News California's largest newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, published a powerful editorial which argued that gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to marry, starting immediately. "Enough already," the Los Angeles Times editorial board wrote. "...Every day that the case drags on, gay and lesbian couples who would like to marry are being deprived of their civil rights." READ EDITORIAL Support EPA's Curbs on Carbon Pollution News The EPA is about to change (lower) the amount of carbon polluters currently emit. Thanks to New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), they are working to limit the amount of carbon Big Polluters can send out. However, these same dirty polluters are doing everything they can to stop EPA from curbing carbon. Please consider signing a petition to tell the EPA you support their efforts to protect our air quality today! Tell Congress: We want our NPR/PBS! News In a recently released budget proposal, House Republicans announced plans to zero out all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the nonprofit responsible for funding public media including NPR, PBS and more. Please consider signing a petition now to stop Republicans from destroying public media. Escondido Rally for Women's Health News Approximately 40 activists took to the streets of Escondido Friday, February 25 in support of Planned Parenthood and women's health. GOP Hate riot against Muslims in Orange County The local chapter of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) held a fundraiser in Orange County, CA to raise money for a womens' shelter and for services for the homeless in Southern California. Hundreds of far-right protesters descended on the event and jeered at and maligned the events' attendees, who were mostly Muslim families who lived in the area. Two CA Republican congressmen were among the agitators. Vista Offers Proper Disposal of Prescription Drugs News The San Diego County Sheriff's Department's Vista Patrol Station is now offering drop-boxes, a safe and anonymous method of disposing of unwanted, unused and expired prescription drugs. Believe it or not, some people often flush their unwanted drugs down the toilet, and the result is insoluble substances from those drugs have been detected in our drinking water supply (Bleckkk!)-Nina Hall, Enviromental Editor. List of home disaster preparedness supplies: News This is a list of supplies and items every household should have assembled and quickly available in case of a natural disaster: Entire town turns out to boo Gov. Walker News Wisconsin governor Scott Walker was greeted at the small town of Washburn fundraiser by a crowd double population of the town. Walker spoke at an invitation-only event and was greeted by at least 2,000 angry protesters outside. The My Lai Massacre - our Vietnam day of ignomy Article One of the worst war crimes ever committed by the United States was the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, 43 years ago. From that day came a monster villain, Lt. William Calley, and a noble hero, Hugh Thompson, who stopped the mass killing. Thompson is hero to many vets. The San Diego Veterans for Peace named their chapter after him. By Chuck Palazzo Hillary doesn't even blink at abuse of protester Watch as Army and CIA veteran Ray McGovern is hauled out and bloodied by unidentified security during Hillary Clinton speech, merely because he stood silently, and turned his back to her. He was wearing his Veteran for Peace T-shirt. Ironically Hillary was speaking about how great freedom is for other countries. Very short clip. Many viewer COMMENTS HERE Late-breaking news: This just in ... News News that did not make our deadline: Manning Video:American troops slaughter civilians Army intel analyst Bradley Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking this video of a U.S. helicopter attack killing 11 civilians and wounding two children in Baghdad, Iraq. The Army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime "justified". Now they say that exposing the massacre is criminal. INFO CLICK HERE: Ted Olson Interview With Fox News Chris Wallace Wallace, insinuating that Gay Marriage is judicial activism, asks where is it in the Constitution that permits gay mariage. "Where is the right to interracial marriage in the Constitution" asked Ted Olsen of Wallace. Brilliant arguments by Olson. When Wallace insists the voters have the right to outlaw gay marriage, Olson asks if it would be constitutional for the voters to force blacks to drink at separate water fountains.

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