Tidbits - December 7, 8 or 9, 2010

1. Benefit Concert for Labor Singer Anne Feeney (Pittsburgh)
2. Hundreds of Thousands Watch and Share Sanders' Speech
3. Re: All Quiet on the Western Front - Once Not so Quiet (Isabel Thompson and Hal Nixon)
4. Re: A Voting Reform Finds it Moment (Annabeth Karson)
5. Re: Progressives Must Promote the Alternative to Austerity (Carl Davidson)
6. Re: Paul Krugman: Let's Not Make a Deal (John Case) 
7. Re: Ireland: The Great Hunger Returns (Duane Campbell)

==========

Big Benefit concert for Labor Singer Anne Feeney

Sunday, Dec. 12, in Pittsburgh

As you probably know, Anne Feeney has been fighting
lung cancer since last summer when she got a surprise
diagnosis during a rendezvous with her husband Julie in
Sweden. She's had some nasty complications but now
seems to be pulling past them and doing well.  Benefit
concerts around the country -- Detroit, Bay Area, Fort
Lauderdale - have helped with her medical bills, but
this concert is likely to be the biggest.

If you are anywhere within a day's drive of Pittsburgh,
this is one you don't want to miss.

It features many of Pittsburgh1s best artists,
including - Liz Berlin - Rusted Root - Joe Gruschecky
and the House Rockers - Mike Stout and the Human Union
- Justin Sane of Anti-Flag - Billy Price - The Granati
Brothers - Jack Erdie - Brad Yoder - Robbie Klein - The
Newlanders - Devilish Mary - Henry Doktorski - Mark
Digham - The Armadillos - Sue Powers - Jeff Berman -
Tres Lads - Nelson Harrison - Joe Munroe and ---
stamina permitting --- ANNE FEENEY.

All for just $20.

 The event starts at 7 p.m. at Mr. Smalls Theatre, 400
Lincoln Avenue in Millvale (Phone; 412-821-4447). Get
your tickets online at www.ticketweb.com/mrsmalls or
charge by phone:  866-468-3401. You can also get
tickets by contacting Senator Jim Ferlo/Mikhail Pappas
at 412-621-3006 or [log in to unmask]

Helena Worthen

=============

December 9: Call U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald, demand an
end to Grand Jury Witch Hunt! ?

Submitted by eric on Wed, 2010-12-08 15:53

Date:  Thu, 2010-12-09 02:00 NATIONAL CALL IN DAY

Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against Anti-war and
Solidarity Activists!

Stop FBI Repression!

Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald 312-353-5300, on
Thursday, December 9

Call Off the Grand Jury Witch-hunt Against Anti-war and
Solidarity Activists! Stop FBI Repression!

Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300,
dial 0 (zero) for operator and ask to leave a message
with the Duty Clerk (paralegal).

***

Suggested script:

"My name is __________, I am calling U.S. Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald to demand that he call off the Grand
Jury and stop FBI repression against the anti-war and
international solidarity movements.

I oppose political repression and defend the right to
free speech and right to assembly of the 17 activists
subpoenaed."

***

For more information visit www.StopFBI.net or write to
[log in to unmask] or call 612-379-3585.

http://www.stopfbi.net/take-action/2010/12/8/december-9-call-us-attorney-fitzgerald-demand-end-grand-jury-witch-hunt

December 9: Call U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald, demand an
end to Grand Jury Witch Hunt! | Committee to Stop FBI
Repression

============

* Hundreds of Thousands Watch and Share Sanders' Speech

Dear Portside:

This video of Bernie Sanders' speech on the Senate
floor is getting a lot of attention and would be well
received by Portside subscribers I'm sure.

video --
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5OtB298fHY&feature=player_embedded

or

http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=3A474094-8631-45CE-BE9C-AB9C96C165AF

full text --
http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=c8f26b05-01e7-429f-a5e0-a9a6bd1a0f40

Best.

Phil Fiermonte (longtime Portside subscriber)

==========

* Re: All Quiet on the Western Front - Once Not so
Quiet

Great article.  Is this available in the US?  How about
PBS? - showing it every night!!! Maybe at the end after
the credits, in large enough print and slow enough for
all to read,  there could be the cost in lives, the
cost in family breakdown, the billions spent on war vs
the amount spent on, for example, education of the
young, etc

Isabel Thompson

===

Rather than saying that their armed forces are for
national defense All Quiet of the Western Front - Once
Not so Quiet notes creation of a tough professional
army ready to defend "Germany's trade routes and access
to needed raw materials." I don't know what exactly
that means but it's chilling.

Hal Nixon

==========

* Re: A Voting Reform Finds it Moment

I just read the informative article - A Voting Reform
Finds it Moment by Katrina Vanden Huevel (The Nation -
Dec 3, 2010)

I live in Lake Worth, Fl, where we have achieved a
progressive majority in our city commission for the
past three elections. We have considered going to RVC.
Since we are doing well with the current 51% majority
system, I am wondering if it is better to stick with
what has worked for us so far, although elections have
certainly not been easy. We have seen that the moneyed
candidates are very good at imitating our grassroots
methods, but with more money to spend. I am concerned
that there may be ways that corporate candidates will
learn to use the RVC system against us. Have you seen
any literature addressing this possibility?

Thanks,

Annabeth Karson

==========

* Re: Progressives Must Promote the Alternative to
Austerity

Schakowsky's proposal is a step in the right direction,
but left-progressives could argue a harder and better
package:

Creating jobs and reducing the deficit together is
simple, but hard to win:

1. Take the $106,000 cap off FICA. 2. Transfer tax on
stocks, bond and derivatives 3. Stop the Wars, Bring
the Troops Home 4. End the Tax Breaks for those over
$250,000 5. Replace ObamaCare with Medicare for All 6.
Pass the Conyers Full Employment Act, HR 5204

In fact, if we fight well for these, we might get
Schakowsky's as the compromise. But if we start with
half measures, we end up with crumbs.

Carl Davidson

==========

* Re: Paul Krugman: Let's Not Make a Deal

Paul Krugman is one of the most influential writers on
the Left. Perhaps the most influential, depending on
how one defines 'Left'.  He says "No" to a deal with
the Republicans where the Bush tax cuts for the rich do
NOT expire as stipulated for this year in the original
legislation. Even though income tax rates for working
people will rise 3-5%, and perhaps more for those
workers with any capital gains. Even though saying "No"
also imperils a deal on extending unemployment benefits
(the most immediate requirement) -- also now held
hostage to Republican demands to extend tax cuts for
the rich. Even though, as he admits, it is "politically
risky".

I'll say! Proposing not probable -- but certain -- cash
pay cuts to workers in the middle of this phony
"unemployment- is-still-rising" recovery -- is very
risky indeed, and a tall order for millions of workers
to swallow. His reasons for assuming  the risk are that
the budget really cannot sustain the cuts, without the
tax cuts for the rich expiring. He argues conceding to
Republicans now will guarantee even more fierce attacks
on social security and Medicare and other
"entitlements" (read rights) later.

Krugman, in effect, says: let's go on strike now
(everyone makes a sharp short-term sacrifice toward a
longer term right or security). Suffer the tax rise and
postponed unemployment extension in a soldierly way,
regardless of the stress, over higher taxes for the
rich and the implications of failure there for the
future. My education on strike related matters in the
United Electrical Workers (UE) emphasized carefully
calculating relationships of forces prior to a strike
was always key in determining whether the union would
survive, never mind prevail, in the ensuing struggle.

I say "Yes" to the 'deal'. Having a showdown fight
(where the workers have to take a big hit at the git)
on the tax question is suckers bait, right now. An
invitation to greater divisions. Not because the risks
of letting the rich off the hook are not as Krugman
states. They are indeed high. And extending the cuts
for the rich is fundamentally wrong. But if we are all
going to go on strike, I think has to be on the MOST
important question. That question is jobs. If we are
going to defeat the "austerity" campaign of the
Republicans and financial forces it will be directly on
jobs. Significantly reducing unemployment is also the
acid political  test, IMHO, that will determine if the
President will be re-elected.

Its better to get unemployment extension and tax cuts
for workers passed, even if dirtied, and then use the
latest unemployment numbers to COMPLETELY RESTART the
Jobs debate. The much stronger JOBS-FIRST alternative
budget reports of the Citizens Commission, as well as
several positions of members of the president's deficit
commission who were not in agreement with co-Chairmen
Alan Simpson's and Erskine Bowles' austerity positions,
provide excellent opportunities, and good platforms
from which to make a much more united and broader
stand. It is a solid foundation on which to defeat the
phony deficit and "bond vigilante" diversions. If the
right wing is determined to paralyze the government's
response to the economic crisis, let it all come to a
grinding halt on the most important question -- job
creation.

Monday's call by the AFL-CIO for an Online Day of
Action for the Jobless on Dec 7 -- tomorrow -- is a
good place to start.

John Case

==========

* Re: Ireland: The Great Hunger Returns

Thanks for posting this. It is good history. The title
is over the top. In the Great Hunger over 1 million
died. This is sort of like comparing anti semitic
statements in the U.S. with the holocaust.

Duane Campbell

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