Tidbits and Announcements - May 15, 2012

 * Breaking: Common Cause files historic filibuster challenge 
 * Re: Occupy Isn't About Electing Democrats--It's About
   Exposing a Broken System (Ethan Young, David McReynolds,
   Gordon Fitch)   
 * Re:  Natural Selection Is Still With Us (Steve Lane, Lorna
   Salzman)   
 * Re: The Reports of Dinosaurs Dying of Farts Are Greatly
   Exaggerated (Thad Williamson)   
 * Nurses and Tom Morello Heal America, Tax Wall Street,
   May 18 in Chicago.   
 * Re: Oregon Attorney General election (Jim Greig)

 ==========

 * Breaking: Common Cause files historic filibuster challenge

 Common Cause has taken historic action to restore common
 sense in Washington. We have gone to federal court to file a
 constitutional challenge to the Senate's filibuster rules.
 In addition to Common Cause, our plaintiffs include four
 members of Congress, and three distinguished young people
 whose hopes of citizenship were dashed by the filibuster of
 the DREAM Act.

 Once used to extend debate, the filibuster has become a
 partisan weapon that now is routinely used to block action -
 and even debate - on hundreds of bills and nominations.

 No other democracy in the world gives a minority effective
 veto power over all legislation. It's a recipe for disaster,
 and puts America at a big disadvantage in the new world
 economy.

 We need your support to restore the principle of majority
 rule and get America moving again. Sign the petition and
 tell the Senate - end the gridlock and fix the filibuster!
 http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=8090653&en=jkLOJ0ONJkKRJ0MJLiJTL1MKLkKYI2NKKiI2JgOWJsK7IpI

 Most Americans have lost confidence in Congress and its
 ability to act in the best interest of the 'we the people.'
 And for good reason. The Senate is mired in gridlock that
 puts politics over the public interest, and the filibuster
 is a major weapon in that partisan warfare.

 America can't wait any longer for Congress to tackle the
 issues facing our nation - whether it's the student loan
 debt crisis, creating jobs, reining in Wall Street, or
 keeping the wealthy and huge corporations from drowning out
 our voices in elections.

 Sign the petition today. Tell the Senate: get America moving
 again.
 http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=8090653&en=fqLGIOPxGgIJJOPtGeLLLPPuFgLQJQPuHeJUK4NGLoIZIdK

 Thanks for all that you do,

 Bob Edgar
 and the rest of the team at Common Cause

 ==========

 * Re: Occupy Isn't About Electing Democrats--It's About
 Exposing a Broken System

 I agree with Max Berger about Occupy, but electoral
 activists (and others) must keep trying to replace incumbent
 blue dogs with social movement-backed progressives. Of
 course it will take time to build popular support and raise
 money - what else is new? But compared to the real damage
 the Right and their Centrist enablers are doing,
 confrontations with power outside politics are just for
 show. Inspiring, but not much use in putting food on the
 table or defending democratic rights.

 The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, his big example,
 did NOT succeed, as he claims. Their courageous stand and
 defeat in 1964 exposed the corruption of the Democratic
 Party, but others had to take their demands forward. And
 still do.

 ethan young

 ===

 Excellent piece - on to a couple of my lists.

 David McReynolds

 ===

 As long as there has been a thing called Occupy Wall Street,
 there have been people who've suggested it should become the
 left's version of the Tea Party. ...

 Here's [what] someone (N R Cisi) wrote as a comment on
 Alternet:

   I think it's quite an accomplishment to write an article
   about the general politics of the Occupy movement(s)
   without once mentioning anarchism. Most of the core group
   who started Occupy Wall Street are anarchists.  They
   aren't interested in getting us a nicer set of lords and
   masters, but doing away with lordship and mastery.  One
   way of doing this, they thought, was to point out (in a
   way that couldn't easily be ignored or coopted) that our
   lords and masters are a tiny minority who are, by and
   large, cruel, ineffectual, and corrupt -- including those
   who call themselves Democrats.

   There is also a positive politics of constructing a new
   world within the shell of the old which is apparently
   invisible to the author as well as to social democrats and
   other capitalism fans.  That is probably just as well.
   When it arrives it'll be another big surprise and maybe
   the established order won't be able to kill it.

   There is nothing to stop non-anarchists from starting or
   promoting the kind of movements they believe in, for
   example the Green Party or the Rebuild the Dream movement.
   It is very odd that they can't do this, but keep asking
   Occupy to do it for them. Can some of you reformist types
   answer this question? What's your problem?

 Gordon Fitch

 ==========

 * Re:  Natural Selection Is Still With Us

 This article says "Almost half of the people died before age
 15, for example, suggesting that they had traits disfavored
 by natural selection, such as susceptibility to disease."

 It is certainly not shown, and in fact not even suggested,
 that Finns who died early had disfavored traits. Early death
 might have been strictly accidental - there is no way to
 tell from the data. In that case natural selection would
 play no role in their decedents' characteristics, contrary
 to what the article says. Other claims that natural
 selection is still with us are similarly unsubstantiated.

 I believe in natural selection, because it's backed by
 science. This article's  claims are not.

 Steve Lane

 ===

 John Davison was a creationist (cretinationast of the
 Cretinaceous period) plus: my comments on David Loye's book
 Darwin's Lost Theory

 In 1984, biologist John Davison published a paper in the
 Journal of Theoretical Biology about semi-meiosis being the
 mechanism for evolutionary change (as opposed to natural
 selection). He proudly boasted that it was anti-Darwinian.
 His paper prompted rebuttals in that journal, which I
 attempted to find but could not (the main one being by
 Marjorie McGuire in 1986).

 Fast forward to Brian Martin's Blog, Suppression of Dissent,
 which archives whistleblower complaints as well as
 censorship and discrimination. Martin teaches at the
 University of Wollongong in Australia; I met him in 1989 at
 the EcoPolitics IV conference in Adelaide where I gave a
 paper on deep vs. social ecology. He later published my
 article, The Decline and Fall  of Friends of the Earth in
 the journal Philosophy and Social Action (available on my
 web site, www.lornasalzman.com)

 On this Blog I read Davison's complaint that the University
 of Vermont where he taught biology had prohibited him from
 teaching his semi=meiosis theory to his classes as an
 alternate explanation of natural selection. The fact that
 his paper, one of a series apparently, had been published in
 a peer reviewed journal lent some credibility to his
 complaint. However, I sensed (as I often do with debates on
 evolution) there was more to the story than what he wrote in
 his complaint, so I tried to track down the journal, and
 indeed I did locate references to the McGuire rebuttal
 though not the article itself. What I also found via google
 was a long set of exchanges between Davison and other
 biologists, in the course of which I found the quote below.
 It is quite revealing....unlike his complaint on the Blog.

 There will be no more of these because Davison died on April
 26, 2012. What is disturbing is that in his complaint to the
 Suppression of Dissent Blog that the University of Vermont
 wrongly canceled his course where he was teaching his anti-
 Darwinian theory, he managed to cleverly conceal the fact
 that he believed in Intelligent Design and creationism.
 Luckily the university probably figured it out by reading
 more of his articles. It seems that they had no clue about
 his beliefs when they hired him, which is strange.

 The statement below clearly indicates that Davison never
 read Darwin or any other evolutionary treatise, including
 Dawkins' book, The Blind Watchmaker. If he read them, he
 dismissed them as improbable, in the tradition of William
 Paley. Below he is essentially parroting what the
 creationists believe is their best argument: that the lack
 of any intermediary forms disproves evolution. One wonders
 just how a university could allow a creationist to teach
 biology and evolution at all. But of course this is quite
 common.

 Davison is hardly alone in this country and even in the UK.
 I recently screened some of Richard Dawkins' videos in which
 he interviews science teachers at public (i.e. not religious
 or private) schools in the UK. My reaction was the same as
 Dawkins; while he maintains a civil tone and attitude, the
 expression on his face is about as close to physical terror
 as one would expect from a living  person about to be
 beheaded by the Taliban. I imagine his stomach was churning
 and his brain straining to prevent him from choking the
 teachers, some of whom are lily-livered PC practitioners
 fearful of being called atheists but others who are overtly
 and proudly creationists and determined to teach their point
 of view. These interviews are among the scariest things I
 have ever witnessed, even on video. I admired Dawkins' self-
 control but shared his terror. The teachers are right out of
 the Dark Ages, getting their curriculum from hooded monks
 poring over Latin manuscripts. Their influence has not
 disappeared.

 I highly recommend Dawkins' wonderful videos on evolution,
 creationism, etc. We are lucky to have such a forceful and
 brilliant advocate for truth and rationality. His decision
 to leave academia and go on the road to speak to students
 and the general public is one of the most encouraging
 actions in our time. Along with the remaining Horsemen (Sam
 Harris, Daniel Dennett), and the wonderful legacy of the
 late Christopher Hitchens,  we have powerful defenders. And
 we desperately need them.

 Lorna Salzman

 ==========

 * Re: The Reports of Dinosaurs Dying of Farts Are Greatly
 Exaggerated

 On the bright side of this story, at least Fox is admitting
 the world is more than 6,000 years old and conceding that
 evolution happened.

 Thad Williamson

 ==========

 * Nurses and Tom Morello Heal America, Tax Wall Street - 
May 18 in Chicago.

http://youtu.be/gNele9F3NmI
 May 14, 2012 by NationalNursesUnited

 Nurses are rising up and joining forces to demand a Robin
 Hood Tax on Wall Street. Join us and special guest Tom
 Morello at our rally in Daley Plaza, Chicago on May 18th at
 12 noon. Let's tell the world it's time to tax Wall Street
 to heal our sick economy. Even a small tax on Wall Street
 transactions would generate more than 350 billion dollars a
 year that can go to healthcare, jobs, housing and education.

 See you May 18 at 12 Noon in Chicago's Daley Plaza

 ==========

 * Re: Oregon Attorney General election

 There has never been an opportunity like the current race
 for Oregon Attorney General that pits two Democrats with
 decidedly different views on medical marijuana. This AG
 campaign and the media it has generated is important for the
 national perception it creates that

 1) there is a medical marijuana movement and
 2) that our movement will act unified enough to make a
 difference in an election.

 This campaign is the first time any of the US Attorneys who
 led attacks on state legal co-op gardens has ever had to
 consider the marijuana vote.  Dwight has consistently sided
 with the tough on crime crowd and boasts endorsements from
 the group responsible for passing Oregon's mandatory minimum
 sentences law.

 Judge Ellen Rosenblum - with 22 years on the bench and 14
 more as a prosecutor and an attorney - says she will protect
 patients and uphold Oregon's voter-approved law. That law
 passed in 1998, five years before her opponent Dwight Holton
 moved to Oregon.

 Recent polls show Rosenblum with a healthy lead. But with
 60% of the vote still out there, Holton can still make a
 comeback.

 Every vote matters in this race. It's too late to mail in
 your ballot. You must find one of Oregon's drop-off sites in
 your community. Vote Rosenblum for Oregon Attorney today.

 Jim Greig
 Oregon Organizer, Americans for Safe Access
http://safeaccessnow.org/blog/

 ==========

 * Breaking: Common Cause files historic filibuster challenge

 Common Cause has taken historic action to restore common
 sense in Washington. We have gone to federal court to file a
 constitutional challenge to the Senate's filibuster rules.
 In addition to Common Cause, our plaintiffs include four
 members of Congress, and three distinguished young people
 whose hopes of citizenship were dashed by the filibuster of
 the DREAM Act.

 Once used to extend debate, the filibuster has become a
 partisan weapon that now is routinely used to block action -
 and even debate - on hundreds of bills and nominations.

 No other democracy in the world gives a minority effective
 veto power over all legislation. It's a recipe for disaster,
 and puts America at a big disadvantage in the new world
 economy.

 We need your support to restore the principle of majority
 rule and get America moving again. Sign the petition and
 tell the Senate - end the gridlock and fix the filibuster!
 http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=8090653&en=jkLOJ0ONJkKRJ0MJLiJTL1MKLkKYI2NKKiI2JgOWJsK7IpI

 Most Americans have lost confidence in Congress and its
 ability to act in the best interest of the 'we the people.'
 And for good reason. The Senate is mired in gridlock that
 puts politics over the public interest, and the filibuster
 is a major weapon in that partisan warfare.

 America can't wait any longer for Congress to tackle the
 issues facing our nation - whether it's the student loan
 debt crisis, creating jobs, reining in Wall Street, or
 keeping the wealthy and huge corporations from drowning out
 our voices in elections.

 Sign the petition today. Tell the Senate: get America moving
 again.
 http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=8090653&en=fqLGIOPxGgIJJOPtGeLLLPPuFgLQJQPuHeJUK4NGLoIZIdK

 Thanks for all that you do,

 Bob Edgar
 and the rest of the team at Common Cause

 ==========

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