Noam Chomsky On What Next After The Election
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This Is Change?
20 Hawks, Clintonites and Neocons to Watch for in Obama's White House
By Jeremy Scahill, AlterNet
A who's who guide to the people poised to shape Obama's foreign policy.
U.S. policy is not about one individual, and no matter how much faith people place in President-elect Barack Obama, the policies he enacts will be fruit of a tree with many roots. Among them: his personal politics and views, the disastrous realities his administration will inherit, and, of course, unpredictable future crises. But the best immediate indicator of what an Obama administration might look like can be found in the people he surrounds himself with and who he appoints to his Cabinet. And, frankly, when it comes to foreign policy, it is not looking good.
Obama has a momentous opportunity to do what he repeatedly promised over the course of his campaign: bring actual change. But the more we learn about who Obama is considering for top positions in his administration, the more his inner circle resembles a staff reunion of President Bill Clinton's White House. Although Obama brought some progressives on board early in his campaign, his foreign policy team is now dominated by the hawkish, old-guard Democrats of the 1990s. This has been particularly true since Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the Democratic primary, freeing many of her top advisors to join Obama's team.
"What happened to all this talk about change?" a member of the Clinton foreign policy team recently asked the Washington Post. "This isn't lightly flavored with Clintons. This is all Clintons, all the time."
Amid the euphoria over Obama's election and the end of the Bush era, it is critical to recall what 1990s U.S. foreign policy actually looked like. Bill Clinton's boiled down to a one-two punch from the hidden hand of the free market, backed up by the iron fist of U.S. militarism. Clinton took office and almost immediately bombed Iraq (ostensibly in retaliation for an alleged plot by Saddam Hussein to assassinate former President George H.W. Bush). He presided over a ruthless regime of economic sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and under the guise of the so-called No-Fly Zones in northern and southern Iraq, authorized the longest sustained U.S. bombing campaign since Vietnam.
Under Clinton, Yugoslavia was bombed and dismantled as part of what Noam Chomsky described as the "New Military Humanism." Sudan and Afghanistan were attacked, Haiti was destabilized and "free trade" deals like the North America Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade radically escalated the spread of corporate-dominated globalization that hurt U.S. workers and devastated developing countries. Clinton accelerated the militarization of the so-called War on Drugs in Central and Latin America and supported privatization of U.S. military operations, giving lucrative contracts to Halliburton and other war contractors. Meanwhile, U.S. weapons sales to countries like Turkey and Indonesia aided genocidal campaigns against the Kurds and the East Timorese.
The prospect of Obama's foreign policy being, at least in part, an extension of the Clinton Doctrine is real. Even more disturbing, several of the individuals at the center of Obama's transition and emerging foreign policy teams were top players in creating and implementing foreign policies that would pave the way for projects eventually carried out under the Bush/Cheney administration. With their assistance, Obama has already charted out several hawkish stances. Among them:
-- His plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan;
-- An Iraq plan that could turn into a downsized and rebranded occupation that keeps U.S. forces in Iraq for the foreseeable future;
-- His labeling of Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a "terrorist organization;"
-- His pledge to use unilateral force inside of Pakistan to defend U.S. interests;
-- His position, presented before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), that Jerusalem "must remain undivided" -- a remark that infuriated Palestinian officials and which he later attempted to reframe;
-- His plan to continue the War on Drugs, a backdoor U.S. counterinsurgency campaign in Central and Latin America;
-- His refusal to "rule out" using Blackwater and other armed private forces in U.S. war zones, despite previously introducing legislation to regulate these companies and bring them under U.S. law.
Obama did not arrive at these positions in a vacuum. They were carefully crafted in consultation with his foreign policy team. While the verdict is still out on a few people, many members of his inner foreign policy circle -- including some who have received or are bound to receive Cabinet posts -- supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Some promoted the myth that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. A few have worked with the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, whose radical agenda was adopted by the Bush/Cheney administration. And most have proven track records of supporting or implementing militaristic, offensive U.S. foreign policy. "After a masterful campaign, Barack Obama seems headed toward some fateful mistakes as he assembles his administration by heeding the advice of Washington's Democratic insider community, a collective group that represents little 'change you can believe in,'" notes veteran journalist Robert Parry, the former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter who broke many of the stories in the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s.
Read the rest at Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/audits/107666/this_is_change_20_hawks%2C_clintonites_and_neocons_to_watch_for_in_obama%27s_white_house/
Image: Fiona Connor Outside In 2008
In Breaking News...
Currently transforming the Open window space at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery , is Fiona Connor’s project Outside In.
Connor instigated three actions for Outside In: the daily delivery and display of front pages from the Taranaki Daily News, The New Zealand Herald and The Dominion Post; the extension of the terracotta tiles from the adjacent footpath into the space and the removal of the door that usually separates the window space from the gallery café entrance.
Together these gestures enhance the permeability of the space, engaging with a conversation about the relationship an institution like the Govett Brewster Art Gallery has with the outside world.
As Connor describes, “Again and again when I get invited to show in a space I just want to bring the outside in, fill the gallery with the streets that surround it.”
Open Window curator Melanie Oliver says “Outside In is being enacted over an opportune time - that of the build up, resolution and subsequent discourse around both the American and New Zealand elections.”
Connor is a practicing artist who lives and works in Auckland . She is a founding member of Gambia Castle a gallery co-operative located on K Rd.
Open window is the site of a series of contemporary art projects featuring a range of emerging artists offering art to the public 24/7. The works engage with the commercial nature of the shop-front window and the attributes particular to window gazing.
Outside in is the sixth installation in the Open window series and will continue until 30 November.
http://www.govettbrewster.com/
Connor instigated three actions for Outside In: the daily delivery and display of front pages from the Taranaki Daily News, The New Zealand Herald and The Dominion Post; the extension of the terracotta tiles from the adjacent footpath into the space and the removal of the door that usually separates the window space from the gallery café entrance.
Together these gestures enhance the permeability of the space, engaging with a conversation about the relationship an institution like the Govett Brewster Art Gallery has with the outside world.
As Connor describes, “Again and again when I get invited to show in a space I just want to bring the outside in, fill the gallery with the streets that surround it.”
Open Window curator Melanie Oliver says “Outside In is being enacted over an opportune time - that of the build up, resolution and subsequent discourse around both the American and New Zealand elections.”
Connor is a practicing artist who lives and works in Auckland . She is a founding member of Gambia Castle a gallery co-operative located on K Rd.
Open window is the site of a series of contemporary art projects featuring a range of emerging artists offering art to the public 24/7. The works engage with the commercial nature of the shop-front window and the attributes particular to window gazing.
Outside in is the sixth installation in the Open window series and will continue until 30 November.
http://www.govettbrewster.com/
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Electronic Super Highway - Nam June Paik
Pecha Kucha Night Wellington #04
PKN_WGN_04 // 25 November 2008 // Paramount Cinema, 25 Courtenay Place, Wellington City // doors open 7.30pm / start 8.20pm // $9 on the door (cash only)
Come and join us for our last Pecha Kucha Night in Wellington for the year 2008.
Pecha Kucha - which originated in Tokyo - is a unique, rapid-fire format in which each speaker shows 20 images, each for 20 seconds. With each presentation lasting just 6 minutes and 40 seconds, the audience experiences an exhilarating variety of ideas and projects.
We put together a great line-up of speakers for you to enjoy:
Craig Stevens // Scientist // Environmental turbulence - or how to capture ephemera for a living
Suzanne Tamaki // Fashion designer // about natives in fabulous frocks
Heather Galbraith // Curator // A wish list for an exhibition which may never happen (here)
Roger Walker // Architect // 'IRREVERENT INSERTIONS' ?
Simon Hames // Prop maker // about making props and world of wearable art costumes
Duncan Sarkies // Writer
Natalie Robinson // Oceanographer // A life on ice
Christopher Kelly // Architect // the coral reef -the aggregation of an architecture culture
Dick Whyte // Musician
Rhys Morgan // Animator // The Gravy: making a TV show about creative New Zealanders
Andy Morley-Hall // Photographer // Witnessing The Woolshed
Tim Bollinger // Writer/Cartoonist // On the life and philosophy of W.B. Sutch
Ron Hanson // Writer // Nam June Paik the legendary Korean multi media artist
Kent Blechynden // Photographer // capturing musicians
check out our website for updates:
http://www.pechakucha.co.nz/
Check out The Life and Times of Walter Benjamin from the last Wellington Pecha Kucha at the City Gallery....
DENNIS KUCINICH GRILLS NEEL KASHKARI ON BAILOUT
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Wall Street's Bailout is a Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene -- Why Aren't the Dems Doing Something About It?
by Naomi Klein, The Nation.
Washington's handling of the bailout is not merely incompetent. It may well be illegal.
The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington's handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal.
In a moment of high panic in late September, the U.S. Treasury unilaterally pushed through a radical change in how bank mergers are taxed -- a change long sought by the industry. Despite the fact that this move will deprive the government of as much as $140 billion in tax revenue, lawmakers found out only after the fact. According to the Washington Post, more than a dozen tax attorneys agree that "Treasury had no authority to issue the [tax change] notice."
Of equally dubious legality are the equity deals Treasury has negotiated with many of the country's banks. According to Congressman Barney Frank, one of the architects of the legislation that enables the deals, "Any use of these funds for any purpose other than lending -- for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc. -- is a violation of the act." Yet this is exactly how the funds are being used.
Then there is the nearly $2 trillion the Federal Reserve has handed out in emergency loans. Incredibly, the Fed will not reveal which corporations have received these loans or what it has accepted as collateral. Bloomberg News believes that this secrecy violates the law and has filed a federal suit demanding full disclosure.
Despite all of this potential lawlessness, the Democrats are either openly defending the administration or refusing to intervene. "There is only one president at a time," we hear from Barack Obama. That's true. But every sweetheart deal the lame-duck Bush administration makes threatens to hobble Obama's ability to make good on his promise of change. To cite just one example, that $140 billion in missing tax revenue is almost the same sum as Obama's renewable energy program. Obama owes it to the people who elected him to call this what it is: an attempt to undermine the electoral process by stealth.
Yes, there is only one president at a time, but that president needed the support of powerful Democrats, including Obama, to get the bailout passed. Now that it is clear that the Bush administration is violating the terms to which both parties agreed, the Democrats have not just the right but a grave responsibility to intervene forcefully.
I suspect that the real reason the Democrats are so far failing to act has less to do with presidential protocol than with fear: fear that the stock market, which has the temperament of an overindulged 2-year-old, will throw one of its world-shaking tantrums. Disclosing the truth about who is receiving federal loans, we are told, could cause the cranky market to bet against those banks. Question the legality of equity deals and the same thing will happen. Challenge the $140 billion tax giveaway and mergers could fall through. "None of us wants to be blamed for ruining these mergers and creating a new Great Depression," explained one unnamed Congressional aide.
More than that, the Democrats, including Obama, appear to believe that the need to soothe the market should govern all key economic decisions in the transition period. Which is why, just days after a euphoric victory for "change," the mantra abruptly shifted to "smooth transition" and "continuity."
Read the rest at Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/107000/wall_street%27s_bailout_is_a_trillion-dollar_crime_scene_--_why_aren%27t_the_dems_doing_something_about_it_/
-------------------------------------------------------
Wall Street's Bailout is a Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene -- Why Aren't the Dems Doing Something About It?
by Naomi Klein, The Nation.
Washington's handling of the bailout is not merely incompetent. It may well be illegal.
The more details emerge, the clearer it becomes that Washington's handling of the Wall Street bailout is not merely incompetent. It is borderline criminal.
In a moment of high panic in late September, the U.S. Treasury unilaterally pushed through a radical change in how bank mergers are taxed -- a change long sought by the industry. Despite the fact that this move will deprive the government of as much as $140 billion in tax revenue, lawmakers found out only after the fact. According to the Washington Post, more than a dozen tax attorneys agree that "Treasury had no authority to issue the [tax change] notice."
Of equally dubious legality are the equity deals Treasury has negotiated with many of the country's banks. According to Congressman Barney Frank, one of the architects of the legislation that enables the deals, "Any use of these funds for any purpose other than lending -- for bonuses, for severance pay, for dividends, for acquisitions of other institutions, etc. -- is a violation of the act." Yet this is exactly how the funds are being used.
Then there is the nearly $2 trillion the Federal Reserve has handed out in emergency loans. Incredibly, the Fed will not reveal which corporations have received these loans or what it has accepted as collateral. Bloomberg News believes that this secrecy violates the law and has filed a federal suit demanding full disclosure.
Despite all of this potential lawlessness, the Democrats are either openly defending the administration or refusing to intervene. "There is only one president at a time," we hear from Barack Obama. That's true. But every sweetheart deal the lame-duck Bush administration makes threatens to hobble Obama's ability to make good on his promise of change. To cite just one example, that $140 billion in missing tax revenue is almost the same sum as Obama's renewable energy program. Obama owes it to the people who elected him to call this what it is: an attempt to undermine the electoral process by stealth.
Yes, there is only one president at a time, but that president needed the support of powerful Democrats, including Obama, to get the bailout passed. Now that it is clear that the Bush administration is violating the terms to which both parties agreed, the Democrats have not just the right but a grave responsibility to intervene forcefully.
I suspect that the real reason the Democrats are so far failing to act has less to do with presidential protocol than with fear: fear that the stock market, which has the temperament of an overindulged 2-year-old, will throw one of its world-shaking tantrums. Disclosing the truth about who is receiving federal loans, we are told, could cause the cranky market to bet against those banks. Question the legality of equity deals and the same thing will happen. Challenge the $140 billion tax giveaway and mergers could fall through. "None of us wants to be blamed for ruining these mergers and creating a new Great Depression," explained one unnamed Congressional aide.
More than that, the Democrats, including Obama, appear to believe that the need to soothe the market should govern all key economic decisions in the transition period. Which is why, just days after a euphoric victory for "change," the mantra abruptly shifted to "smooth transition" and "continuity."
Read the rest at Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/107000/wall_street%27s_bailout_is_a_trillion-dollar_crime_scene_--_why_aren%27t_the_dems_doing_something_about_it_/
Australia Responds to the New Zealand Election
Jill Singer in the Herald Sun
New Zealand Change As Good As A Holiday
NEW Zealanders have voted for change - a leap from Left to Right - with all the enthusiasm and reasoning power of a doped slug.
As the rest of the world struggles with the excesses of capitalism and free-market worship, our dearly beloved neighbours suddenly think a former investment banker can make them ruch, as well as thuck.
Think of the dazzling US election - then think of its antithesis, and you have the Kiwis' "defining moment".
You might not have noticed their election campaign, let alone Saturday's "historic" and "fascinating" (as claimed by Sky News) election.
Don't feel guilty -- it resembled a domestic squabble over whose turn it was to put out the garbage, only without the heat and sense of urgency.
New National Party PM John Key managed to oust Labour's Helen Clark without offering any major policy differences.
Come his victory speech though, and the inevitable conservative patois heated up - John Key had been a poor little boy who became very, very rich all on his own as an individual.
As John Key beamed with unbridled self-satisfaction, and thanked those who voted for him, his wife and two children were left to shuffle nervously at the back of the stage like shags on a rock; his young son endearingly clad in shorts and runners, his daughter the image of a teenager on the verge of rebellion.
No doubt this self-important squillionaire eventually remembered them, but it was well after TV broadcasts had exhausted any manufactured interest in the smug one's lacklustre vision for NZ's future.
Bring Barack Obama to mind -- strip him of charisma and vision, then douse him in White King -- and you've got NZ's new PM.
This wasn't about desperately needed change, as in the US, but change for change's sake.
New Zealanders just got bored.
Instead of doing the sensible thing about it, like reading a good book or moving to Australia (which 11 per cent of Kiwis have already done) they decided to turn out in their tens and vote for a new government.
The leader of the NZ Maori Party had a stab at analysing his country's collective thinking by suggesting the nice weather (mild and dry with a light breeze) got people off their sofas and into voting booths.
Apparently it rained last election and so they "just stayed home and swutched chunnels on their tullys".
Such passion.
Outgoing PM Helen Clark warns that NZ could now "go up in flames in a bonfire ignited by the Right wing of politics".
Her concern is justified. The global financial crisis is yet to swamp New Zealand, but a hard rain is surely coming.
When it does, New Zealanders will be demanding more, rather than less, government intervention in their vulnerable economy.
They might well come to miss Helen Clark, the woman who gave them nine years of relative economic and social stability (steady growth and improved family benefits), and who made her small nation's voice heard (no to invading Iraq, yes to tackling climate change) on the international stage.
I might be proved wrong. I hope I am.
taken from the Herald Sun: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24625807-5000117,00.html
Invisible scapes
An exhibition by Ai Sasaki, Wellington Asia Residency Exchange Programme artist-in-residence
20–28 November 2008, Toi Pōneke Gallery
Watch Ai Sasaki at work from 1–3pm and 4–7pm from 20–21 November and 10-4pm on 24 November. All welcome.
Toi Pōneke Arts Centre
61 Abel Smith Street
Te Aro, Wellington
Gallery hours: 9am–7pm, Monday–Friday
About the exhibition:
Invisible scape is a series of landscapes influenced by the plants and patterns that Ai has discovered during her time in New Zealand. Using royal icing, a hard white icing made with icing sugar and egg whites, Ai makes intricate landscapes made all the more astonishing to the viewer when the medium of their construction is revealed. After a work is completed, it is erased and vanishes, so that the landscape returns into the memories of the people who viewed it. Ai is interested in the way in which our daily surroundings are informed by things invisible to the eye: the air, time and temperature but also the energy of other living things. In Invisible scape, Ai attempts to preserve, albeit momentarily, those landscapes that cannot be seen.
An exhibition by Ai Sasaki, Wellington Asia Residency Exchange Programme artist-in-residence
20–28 November 2008, Toi Pōneke Gallery
Watch Ai Sasaki at work from 1–3pm and 4–7pm from 20–21 November and 10-4pm on 24 November. All welcome.
Toi Pōneke Arts Centre
61 Abel Smith Street
Te Aro, Wellington
Gallery hours: 9am–7pm, Monday–Friday
About the exhibition:
Invisible scape is a series of landscapes influenced by the plants and patterns that Ai has discovered during her time in New Zealand. Using royal icing, a hard white icing made with icing sugar and egg whites, Ai makes intricate landscapes made all the more astonishing to the viewer when the medium of their construction is revealed. After a work is completed, it is erased and vanishes, so that the landscape returns into the memories of the people who viewed it. Ai is interested in the way in which our daily surroundings are informed by things invisible to the eye: the air, time and temperature but also the energy of other living things. In Invisible scape, Ai attempts to preserve, albeit momentarily, those landscapes that cannot be seen.
About the artist:
Born in 1976, Ai Sasaki graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Design from Kanazawa College of Art in 2001 and has had a number of solo exhibitions in Osaka. Ai Sasaki was selected for the WARE programme on the advice of Japanese curator Hisako Hara.
About the residency:
About the residency:
During her three month stay (8 September – 4 December 2008), Ai has been living at the Bolton Street Cottage and working each day in her studio at Toi Pōneke. WARE is an exciting new initiative which is forging important creative and cultural links between Wellington and the Asian region. Japanese artist Ai Sasaki is the third artist in the Wellington Asia Residency Exchange (WARE) programme. WARE programme organised by Wellington City Council in partnership with Asia New Zealand Foundation.
For more information please contact Frances Speer, Arts Advisor, City Arts, Wellington City Council, frances.speer@wcc.govt.nz or 803 8711
Rose Beauchamp and Helen MoulderThe Legend Returns and CYNTHIA'S CHRISTMAS AT CIRCA
Circa Theatre is pleased to announce that Miss Cynthia Fortitude and Miss Gertrude Rallentando will be gracing our stage in Circa Two this Christmas with not ONE, but TWO presentations - The Legend Returns and A Vote for Cynthia, under the banner of CYNTHIA’S CHRISTMAS AT CIRCA. This is the fifth time that Miss Fortitude, described by the Mongolian Morning Tribune as “the greatest living soprano of all time” has returned to us. In The Legend Returns she will be accompanied on the piano by her indefatigable and long-time companion Miss Gertrude Rallentando, but Miss Rallentando will not appear in A Vote for Cynthia - Miss Fortitude’s enthusiastic bid to become Prime Minister one day.
CYNTHIA’S CHRISTMAS AT CIRCA is a unique opportunity for theatre goers to experience Miss Fortitude as an opera singer AND aspiring prime minister and although the longsuffering Miss Rallentando only appears in one show, she has a great influence on the happenings of the other. Every week from Thursday to Sunday, The Legend Returns and A Vote for Cynthia will have two nights each, but alternating each week, so fans will need to check the dates.
This is the first time in the history of Circa Theatre, that two completely different shows involving the same character will be played in repertory. In 1983 King Lear and The Dresser were presented on alternate nights, but although some of the actors were the same, the characters in each play were quite different.
Helen Moulder and Rose Beauchamp have been touring New Zealand with The Legend Returns for over ten years now, in fact this could be seen as their tenth anniversary celebration. They have even taken the show to San Francisco and an hilarious recording of the show is often broadcast on National Radio. A Vote for Cynthia on the other hand is a new piece, first presented this year at Circa on three Sunday nights in July. Since then it has been touring the country, playing in theatres, country halls, wineries and other small spaces.
CYNTHIA’S CHRISTMAS AT CIRCA is a unique opportunity for theatre goers to experience Miss Fortitude as an opera singer AND aspiring prime minister and although the longsuffering Miss Rallentando only appears in one show, she has a great influence on the happenings of the other. Every week from Thursday to Sunday, The Legend Returns and A Vote for Cynthia will have two nights each, but alternating each week, so fans will need to check the dates.
This is the first time in the history of Circa Theatre, that two completely different shows involving the same character will be played in repertory. In 1983 King Lear and The Dresser were presented on alternate nights, but although some of the actors were the same, the characters in each play were quite different.
Helen Moulder and Rose Beauchamp have been touring New Zealand with The Legend Returns for over ten years now, in fact this could be seen as their tenth anniversary celebration. They have even taken the show to San Francisco and an hilarious recording of the show is often broadcast on National Radio. A Vote for Cynthia on the other hand is a new piece, first presented this year at Circa on three Sunday nights in July. Since then it has been touring the country, playing in theatres, country halls, wineries and other small spaces.
The Legend Returns
A heartwarming and wickedly funny look at a fading opera diva and her longsuffering accompanist
This double-act, written by Helen Moulder in collaboration with Rose Beauchamp and Michael Wilson, who also directed the piece, defies description. The celebrated opera singer and musical snob, Cynthia Fortitude, with her expressively silent and long suffering companion/accompanist, Gertrude Rallentando, devote their lives, so Cynthia says, to "taking our concerts of serious music to all corners of the globe …. mainly third world countries." After tumbling their way through snippets of arias, anthems to virgins and other vocal meanderings, they premiere their triumphant first and unfinished opera - "Stan" - with all its gods, goddesses, atomic particles, cloned sheep and Pinus Radiata forests. This is Monty Python, Edna Everidge, Hinge & Bracket and Victor Borge - all rolled into one.
The Legend Returns, premiered at Circa at the 1998 Fringe Festival. The show arose from the characters Helen and Rose developed over many years in Hens’ Teeth. Since the premiere, The Legend Returns has toured New Zealand with Arts on Tour, played at various festivals, been broadcast many times on Radio NZ, (in fact is one of their most popular requests) has had seasons at Josie's Cabaret (San Francisco) 1999, Centrepoint Theatre 2001, the Court Theatre 2002, a return sell-out season at Circa 2003, and in 2004, played in Taupo, Hastings and Hamilton. It has just returned from a tour of Nelson and Marlborough.
This double-act, written by Helen Moulder in collaboration with Rose Beauchamp and Michael Wilson, who also directed the piece, defies description. The celebrated opera singer and musical snob, Cynthia Fortitude, with her expressively silent and long suffering companion/accompanist, Gertrude Rallentando, devote their lives, so Cynthia says, to "taking our concerts of serious music to all corners of the globe …. mainly third world countries." After tumbling their way through snippets of arias, anthems to virgins and other vocal meanderings, they premiere their triumphant first and unfinished opera - "Stan" - with all its gods, goddesses, atomic particles, cloned sheep and Pinus Radiata forests. This is Monty Python, Edna Everidge, Hinge & Bracket and Victor Borge - all rolled into one.
The Legend Returns, premiered at Circa at the 1998 Fringe Festival. The show arose from the characters Helen and Rose developed over many years in Hens’ Teeth. Since the premiere, The Legend Returns has toured New Zealand with Arts on Tour, played at various festivals, been broadcast many times on Radio NZ, (in fact is one of their most popular requests) has had seasons at Josie's Cabaret (San Francisco) 1999, Centrepoint Theatre 2001, the Court Theatre 2002, a return sell-out season at Circa 2003, and in 2004, played in Taupo, Hastings and Hamilton. It has just returned from a tour of Nelson and Marlborough.
LENGTH One hour 20 mins. No interval.
A VOTE for CYNTHIA
Cynthia Fortitude for Prime Minister!
Cynthia Fortitude for Prime Minister!
With Helen Moulder as Cynthia. After an illuminating experience on Paekakariki Beach, Miss Fortitude has decided to form a political party and stand for parliament. Come and hear for yourself Cynthia’s Five Point Plan for the Glorious Transformation of New Zealand Culture and Society. With Operatic Highlights by Verdi, Handel, Puccini, Haydn, Donizetti, Sullivan and Miss Fortitude herself. Written by Helen Moulder and Alison Holcroft and directed by Jeff Kingsford-Brown, A Vote for Cynthia will be available in 2009 for homes, halls, libraries, shearing sheds, galleries, fundraisers etc. Call Helen in 0274 987 580 or email: opera@xtra.co.nz
WILLOW PRODUCTIONS
Supported by Creative New Zealand, Willow Productions was formed in 2002 by Helen Moulder, Sue Rider and Sir Jon Trimmer for the creation of Meeting Karpovksy, which opened at the Court Theatre in November 2002. This was followed by a season at Circa in 2003 and a tour of New Zealand in 2004. In 2006 they wrote and produced Playing Miss Havisham, a solo piece for Helen Moulder, which has toured NZ extensively and has recently returned from a tour of Queensland. In 2007 Willow Productions created Cynthia Fortitude’s Farewell – her first, with the Wellington Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Vinten with Helen Moulder and Jeff Kingsford-Brown. They also tour The Legend Returns.
DATES:
NOVEMBER
Thur 20 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Fri 21 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sat 22 7pm The Legend Returns
Sun 23 4.30pm The Legend Returns
Thur 27 7pm The Legend Returns
Fri 28 7pm The Legend Returns
Sat 29 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sun 30 4.30pm A Vote for Cynthia
NOVEMBER
Thur 20 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Fri 21 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sat 22 7pm The Legend Returns
Sun 23 4.30pm The Legend Returns
Thur 27 7pm The Legend Returns
Fri 28 7pm The Legend Returns
Sat 29 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sun 30 4.30pm A Vote for Cynthia
DECEMBER
Thur 4 6pm A Vote for Cynthia
Fri 5 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sat 6 7pm The Legend Returns
Sun 7 4.30pm The Legend Returns
Thur 11 7pm The Legend Returns
Fri 12 7pm The Legend Returns
Sat 13 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sun 14 4.30pm A Vote for Cynthia
Thur 18 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Fri 19 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sat 20 7pm The Legend Returns
Sun 21 4.30pm The Legend Returns
Thur 4 6pm A Vote for Cynthia
Fri 5 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sat 6 7pm The Legend Returns
Sun 7 4.30pm The Legend Returns
Thur 11 7pm The Legend Returns
Fri 12 7pm The Legend Returns
Sat 13 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sun 14 4.30pm A Vote for Cynthia
Thur 18 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Fri 19 7pm A Vote for Cynthia
Sat 20 7pm The Legend Returns
Sun 21 4.30pm The Legend Returns
Gerry Fialka In Wellington
Howdy! Lorenzo's old buddy Gerry Fialka will be in Wellington to do some film workshops at BlowFest.
Years ago he founded the club that supports film makers who use PXL cameras... and using them to create mischief of all sorts.
He's asked us to spread the word. I have yet to meet him but i'm going to try to stop by at least one of the workshops.
Take care
Kedron
American media ecologist Gerry Fialka presents an interactive workshop and screening of films by subversive artists and pranksters who inflict brand damage to expose corporate manipulation of America’s mediascape. Fialka probes Marshall McLuhan’s Laws of Media in correlation with revolutionary artists (including Craig Baldwin, Barbie Liberation Organization, Billboard Liberation Front and Bob Dobbs) providing new critical perspectives with surprise, humour and the thrill of transgression. Join this agitprop examination of the motives and consequences of the jammer’s collaboration with the jammee.
Includes: Includes: JAM Z JAMMERZ: SEE, REAPPEAR & BREATHE (14 minutes, 2008) - As agitprop archaeologists, Mark X Farina & Gerry Fialka’s provocative video probes how the 50’s music/comedy icons John Cage (noise as music, side effects in silence), Korla Pandit (the Hammond Organ as drum, fake identity) and others laid the groundwork for contemporary culture jammers.
WHO'S JAMMIN' THE JAMMERS?
DATE: Sat 15 November TIME: 1:30pm - 3:00pm
LOCATION: Museum Building Theatrette
Tim Robbins Has To See A Judge To Be Able To Vote
Real Change Depends on Stopping the Bailout Profiteers
Naomi Klein
To understand the meaning of the U.S. election results, it is worth looking back to the moment when everything changed for the Obama campaign. It was, without question, the moment when the economic crisis hit Wall Street.
Up to that point, things weren't looking all that good for Barack Obama. The Democratic National Convention barely delivered a bump, while the appointment of Sarah Palin seemed to have shifted the momentum decisively over to John McCain.
Then, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed, followed by insurance giant AIG, then Lehman Brothers. It was in this moment of economic vertigo that Obama found a new language. With tremendous clarity, he turned his campaign into a referendum into the deregulation and trickle down policies that have dominated mainstream economic discourse since Ronald Reagan. He said his opponent represented more of the same while he stood for a new direction, one that would rebuild the economy from the ground up, rather than the top down. Obama stayed on this message for the rest of the campaign and, as we just saw, it worked.
The question is now whether Obama will have the courage to take the ideas that won him this election and turn them into policy. Or, alternately, whether he will use the financial crisis to rationalize a move to what pundits call "the middle" (if there is one thing this election has proved, it is that the real middle is far to the left of its previously advertised address). Predictably, Obama is already coming under enormous pressure to break his election promises, particularly those relating to raising taxes on the wealthy and imposing real environmental regulations on polluters. All day on the business networks, we hear that, in light of the economic crisis, corporations need lower taxes, and fewer regulations - in other words, more of the same.
The new president's only hope of resisting this campaign being waged by the elites is if the remarkable grassroots movement that carried him to victory can somehow stay energized, networked, mobilized - and most of all, critical. Now that the election has been won, this movement's new mission should be clear: loudly holding Obama to his campaign promises, and letting the Democrats know that there will be consequences for betrayal.
The first order of business - and one that cannot wait until inauguration - must be halting the robbery-in-progress known as the "economic bailout." I have spent the past month examining the loopholes and conflicts of interest embedded in the U.S. Treasury Department's plans. The results of that research can be found in a just published feature article in Rolling Stone, The Bailout Profiteers as well as my most recent Nation column, Bush's Final Pillage.
Both these pieces argue that the $700-billion "rescue plan" should be regarded as the Bush Administration's final heist. Not only does it transfer billions of dollars of public wealth into the hands of politically connected corporations (a Bush specialty), but it passes on such an enormous debt burden to the next administration that it will make real investments in green infrastructure and universal health care close to impossible. If this final looting is not stopped (and yes, there is still time), we can forget about Obama making good on the more progressive aspects of his campaign platform, let alone the hope that he will offer the country some kind of grand Green New Deal.
Readers of The Shock Doctrine know that terrible thefts have a habit of taking place during periods of dramatic political transition. When societies are changing quickly, the media and the people are naturally focused on big "P" politics - who gets the top appointments, what was said in the most recent speech. Meanwhile, safe from public scrutiny, far reaching pro-corporate policies are locked into place, dramatically restricting future possibilities for real change.
It's not too late to halt the robbery in progress, but it cannot wait until inauguration. Several great initiatives to shift the nature of the bailout are already underway, including bailoutmainstreet.com. I added my name to the "Call to Action: Time for a 21st Century Green America" and invite you to do the same.
Stopping the bailout profiteers is about more than money. It is about democracy. Specifically, it is about whether Americans will be able to afford the change they have just voted for so conclusively.
Naomi Klein is the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, now out in paperback. To read all her latest writing visit http://www.naomiklein.org/
Taken from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-klein/real-change-depends-on-st_b_141122.html
Real Change Depends on Stopping the Bailout Profiteers
Naomi Klein
To understand the meaning of the U.S. election results, it is worth looking back to the moment when everything changed for the Obama campaign. It was, without question, the moment when the economic crisis hit Wall Street.
Up to that point, things weren't looking all that good for Barack Obama. The Democratic National Convention barely delivered a bump, while the appointment of Sarah Palin seemed to have shifted the momentum decisively over to John McCain.
Then, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed, followed by insurance giant AIG, then Lehman Brothers. It was in this moment of economic vertigo that Obama found a new language. With tremendous clarity, he turned his campaign into a referendum into the deregulation and trickle down policies that have dominated mainstream economic discourse since Ronald Reagan. He said his opponent represented more of the same while he stood for a new direction, one that would rebuild the economy from the ground up, rather than the top down. Obama stayed on this message for the rest of the campaign and, as we just saw, it worked.
The question is now whether Obama will have the courage to take the ideas that won him this election and turn them into policy. Or, alternately, whether he will use the financial crisis to rationalize a move to what pundits call "the middle" (if there is one thing this election has proved, it is that the real middle is far to the left of its previously advertised address). Predictably, Obama is already coming under enormous pressure to break his election promises, particularly those relating to raising taxes on the wealthy and imposing real environmental regulations on polluters. All day on the business networks, we hear that, in light of the economic crisis, corporations need lower taxes, and fewer regulations - in other words, more of the same.
The new president's only hope of resisting this campaign being waged by the elites is if the remarkable grassroots movement that carried him to victory can somehow stay energized, networked, mobilized - and most of all, critical. Now that the election has been won, this movement's new mission should be clear: loudly holding Obama to his campaign promises, and letting the Democrats know that there will be consequences for betrayal.
The first order of business - and one that cannot wait until inauguration - must be halting the robbery-in-progress known as the "economic bailout." I have spent the past month examining the loopholes and conflicts of interest embedded in the U.S. Treasury Department's plans. The results of that research can be found in a just published feature article in Rolling Stone, The Bailout Profiteers as well as my most recent Nation column, Bush's Final Pillage.
Both these pieces argue that the $700-billion "rescue plan" should be regarded as the Bush Administration's final heist. Not only does it transfer billions of dollars of public wealth into the hands of politically connected corporations (a Bush specialty), but it passes on such an enormous debt burden to the next administration that it will make real investments in green infrastructure and universal health care close to impossible. If this final looting is not stopped (and yes, there is still time), we can forget about Obama making good on the more progressive aspects of his campaign platform, let alone the hope that he will offer the country some kind of grand Green New Deal.
Readers of The Shock Doctrine know that terrible thefts have a habit of taking place during periods of dramatic political transition. When societies are changing quickly, the media and the people are naturally focused on big "P" politics - who gets the top appointments, what was said in the most recent speech. Meanwhile, safe from public scrutiny, far reaching pro-corporate policies are locked into place, dramatically restricting future possibilities for real change.
It's not too late to halt the robbery in progress, but it cannot wait until inauguration. Several great initiatives to shift the nature of the bailout are already underway, including bailoutmainstreet.com. I added my name to the "Call to Action: Time for a 21st Century Green America" and invite you to do the same.
Stopping the bailout profiteers is about more than money. It is about democracy. Specifically, it is about whether Americans will be able to afford the change they have just voted for so conclusively.
Naomi Klein is the author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, now out in paperback. To read all her latest writing visit http://www.naomiklein.org/
Taken from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomi-klein/real-change-depends-on-st_b_141122.html
Is The Voting System Ready? - Mark Crispin Miller on Democracy Now
Part One
Part Two
Tell John McCain to FIRE MIKE CONNELL!
by Mark Crispin Miller
Mike Connell, whom Stephen Spoonamore has named as Karl Rove's top election fixer,has been trying desperately to forestall a deposition in Ohio, using an expensive troika of GOP lawyers to quash the subpoena ordering him to sit down, under oath, and answer questions about how he's helped Bush/Cheney "win" since Florida 2000.
Connell's vigorous resistance only reconfirms what Spoonamore has said: that he's the man who (among other things) built and ran the system whereby Bush & Co. stole Ohio in 2004.
And Connell is now working for McCain, once more putting his peculiar talents at the service of the GOP, so as to force Bush/Cheney 2.0 on a national majority that doesn't want it. Word is that Connell has already set things up in six swing states, and has been tasked with running the subversive work there on Election Day.
Here, below, is a new call from Velvet Revolution, calling for McCain to fire Mike Connell, and to do it now.
Surely this is a no-brainer, since McPalin's team has lately pledged itself to honor an ideal of "honest and open elections," even setting up a sort of board of (seemingly) respectable "advisers," mostly (clueless) academics, to provide themselves (McPlain's team) with what looks like a civic seal of approval.
All kidding aside, it's absolutely crucial that we spread the word, right now, about Mike Connell's work for John McCain--because the Bush Repubs have just launched a big propaganda push to charge the Democrats with planning to steal this election.
Here's a piece on FOX News, re: the (non-existent) threat of "voter fraud" among Ohio's early voters:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/07/campaign-dynamics-fraud-potential-impacted-early-voting/comments/#AddComments
And here's a good example of the new Republican attempt to cast ACORN as a major perpetrator of such "fraud":
http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20128338&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8
(As noted yesterday, this effort just got helped along by the Democratic SoS in Nevada, who seems to want to see Obama lose.)
As I've been saying for years (that's no exaggeration, sadly), such pre-emptive and projective jive by the Republicans ought to have been disabled long ago, and would have been, if the Democrats had only told the truth about, and made an effort to confront, the vast election fraud and vote suppression by the Bush machine. But they did not; and so the GOP is trying
now to fill the gap with tons of perfect bullshit.
So let's get out the word about Mike Connell, and McCain's dependence on him for a "victory" next month--and that way we can put McBush's bull about Obama's "voter fraud" plot in its proper context, and thereby completely wipe it out.
MCM
Taken from OpEdNews: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Tell-John-McCain-to-FIRE-M-by-Mark-Crispin-Mille-081009-51.html
-------------------
---------------------------------------
-----------------------
Gore Vidal to Obama: DO NOT CONCEDE!
Gore Vidal et al to Obama: Do Not Concede!
An Open Letter to Senator Obama and the Democratic Leadership:On Election Night, DO NOT CONCEDE!
"Eight years is too much" is how Barack Obama explained why we must win the coming election and begin to restore America. But, even if we receive the most votes, will we win the election?DO NOT CONCEDE!
Both of the last two elections were conceded by the Democratic presidential candidate. The 2004 election was handed to George Bush while votes were still being counted in closely-fought Ohio. While the 2000 election was contested to the Supreme Court, it too was ultimately conceded to Bush "for the good of the country."Some good.
Numerous politicians, investigators and authors, including Robert Kennedy, Jr., agree the 2004 election was stolen, not only in Ohio but in several other battleground states. Tactics included purging of legitimate voters and the use of nefarious voting software--but when even these actions did not yield the required numbers, Republican election officials simply changed the vote tallies in several states, all without a peep from the Democratic Party.DO NOT CONCEDE!
In the time since the last general election the public has learned much about these scandals, which have led some states to reject electronic touchscreen voting (and which caused the infamous Diebold voting machines corporation to hide behind a new corporate name,) yet the Democratic Party seems to have learned nothing.THREE STRIKES AND WE'RE OUT!If we cannot afford another Republican administration, we cannot afford a third concession in the face of election fraud. Already there is evidence of massive fraud such as voter purging and caging of Democratic voters, and "flipping" of votes in early voting on electronic touchscreen machines. It is reasonable to once againexpect further manipulation on election night by some Republican operatives and election officials, as was seen in 2004; should we also expect our Democratic Party leaders and candidates to repeat history, by once again conceding in the face of such blatant fraud?Senator Obama, we need you, our Party and all candidates to stand firm, come what may on election night. You ask us to work for you, contribute to you--and to have your back; we ask that you promise to have our back: We ask that you PLEDGE TO STAND FIRM, AND NOT CONCEDE THE COMING ELECTION in the face of election irregularities, no matter how long it takes to contest such fraud, while there remains any doubt as to any part of the process. Be assured, Democratic voters will be more--not less--energized if we see you promise to stand firm.
Senator Obama, if there is any reason to contest the election, DO NOT CONCEDE!
Signed: (Titles for identification purposes only)
Gore Vidal, Author
Bob Fitrakis, Professor of Political Science, Columbus State Community College, Attorney; Editor of The Free Press (freepress.org)
Harvey Wasserman, Senior Editor, FreePress.org, Author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth
Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, Author of Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Election
Tim Carpenter, Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Mimi Kennedy, Chair, National Advisory Board, Progressive Democrats of America
David Swanson, Co-Founder, After Downing Street
Eric Bauman, Chair, Los Angeles County Democratic Party
Garry S. Shay, Member, Democratic National Committee (CA) Lead Chair, Rules Committee, California Democratic Party
Jo Olson, MD, Co-Chair, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Mal Burnstein, Co-Chair, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Marcy Winograd, Executive Board representative, California Democratic Party, 41st AD, Former Chair, Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
David Earnhardt, Filmmaker, "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections"
Don Goldmacher, Chair, Election Integrity, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Michael Jay, Progressive Democrats of America, Special Projects, Former Delegate, California Democratic Party, 42nd AD
Sheri Myers, Director, "Wake Up and Save Your Country"
Robert A. Feuer, Former Chairman, Stockbridge, MA Town Democratic Committee
Thomas Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Region 3 Vice Chair, Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair, Irish American Caucus, California Democratic Party
Howard Jennings, PDA-Virginia, State Co-Coordinator
Sarah Stott, Chapter Chair, PDA-Virginia
Lisa Pease, Co-editor, "The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X"
Cindy Asner, Former Delegate, California Democratic Party, Member, National Advisory Board, Progressive Democrats of America
Julie Lopez Dad, President, Santa Monica Democratic Club, Chair, 41st AD Committee, Los Angeles County Democratic Party
Dr. Bill Honigman, PDA California State Coordinator and Orange County Chapter Leader, Delegate, California Democratic Party, 73rd AD
Linda Milazzo, Senior Editor, OpEdNews.com, Blogger, Huffington Post
Rady Ananda, Senior Editor, OpEdNews.com
Jan Baumgartner, Managing Editor, OpEdNews.com
Cheryl Biren-Wright, Managing Editor, OpEdNews.com
Sherry Healy, Co-Founder California Election Protection Network, Coordinator, Election Defense Alliance
Laura Bonham, Summit County, UT Democratic Party Chairperson
Albert E. Fairchild, Retired Foreign Service Officer
Dorathea Peters, Precinct Captain, Alexandria, VA Democratic Committee
Sign the Petition
http://afterdowningstreet.org/donotconcede
Part One
Part Two
Tell John McCain to FIRE MIKE CONNELL!
by Mark Crispin Miller
Mike Connell, whom Stephen Spoonamore has named as Karl Rove's top election fixer,has been trying desperately to forestall a deposition in Ohio, using an expensive troika of GOP lawyers to quash the subpoena ordering him to sit down, under oath, and answer questions about how he's helped Bush/Cheney "win" since Florida 2000.
Connell's vigorous resistance only reconfirms what Spoonamore has said: that he's the man who (among other things) built and ran the system whereby Bush & Co. stole Ohio in 2004.
And Connell is now working for McCain, once more putting his peculiar talents at the service of the GOP, so as to force Bush/Cheney 2.0 on a national majority that doesn't want it. Word is that Connell has already set things up in six swing states, and has been tasked with running the subversive work there on Election Day.
Here, below, is a new call from Velvet Revolution, calling for McCain to fire Mike Connell, and to do it now.
Surely this is a no-brainer, since McPalin's team has lately pledged itself to honor an ideal of "honest and open elections," even setting up a sort of board of (seemingly) respectable "advisers," mostly (clueless) academics, to provide themselves (McPlain's team) with what looks like a civic seal of approval.
All kidding aside, it's absolutely crucial that we spread the word, right now, about Mike Connell's work for John McCain--because the Bush Repubs have just launched a big propaganda push to charge the Democrats with planning to steal this election.
Here's a piece on FOX News, re: the (non-existent) threat of "voter fraud" among Ohio's early voters:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/07/campaign-dynamics-fraud-potential-impacted-early-voting/comments/#AddComments
And here's a good example of the new Republican attempt to cast ACORN as a major perpetrator of such "fraud":
http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=20128338&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8
(As noted yesterday, this effort just got helped along by the Democratic SoS in Nevada, who seems to want to see Obama lose.)
As I've been saying for years (that's no exaggeration, sadly), such pre-emptive and projective jive by the Republicans ought to have been disabled long ago, and would have been, if the Democrats had only told the truth about, and made an effort to confront, the vast election fraud and vote suppression by the Bush machine. But they did not; and so the GOP is trying
now to fill the gap with tons of perfect bullshit.
So let's get out the word about Mike Connell, and McCain's dependence on him for a "victory" next month--and that way we can put McBush's bull about Obama's "voter fraud" plot in its proper context, and thereby completely wipe it out.
MCM
Taken from OpEdNews: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Tell-John-McCain-to-FIRE-M-by-Mark-Crispin-Mille-081009-51.html
-------------------
---------------------------------------
-----------------------
Gore Vidal to Obama: DO NOT CONCEDE!
Gore Vidal et al to Obama: Do Not Concede!
An Open Letter to Senator Obama and the Democratic Leadership:On Election Night, DO NOT CONCEDE!
"Eight years is too much" is how Barack Obama explained why we must win the coming election and begin to restore America. But, even if we receive the most votes, will we win the election?DO NOT CONCEDE!
Both of the last two elections were conceded by the Democratic presidential candidate. The 2004 election was handed to George Bush while votes were still being counted in closely-fought Ohio. While the 2000 election was contested to the Supreme Court, it too was ultimately conceded to Bush "for the good of the country."Some good.
Numerous politicians, investigators and authors, including Robert Kennedy, Jr., agree the 2004 election was stolen, not only in Ohio but in several other battleground states. Tactics included purging of legitimate voters and the use of nefarious voting software--but when even these actions did not yield the required numbers, Republican election officials simply changed the vote tallies in several states, all without a peep from the Democratic Party.DO NOT CONCEDE!
In the time since the last general election the public has learned much about these scandals, which have led some states to reject electronic touchscreen voting (and which caused the infamous Diebold voting machines corporation to hide behind a new corporate name,) yet the Democratic Party seems to have learned nothing.THREE STRIKES AND WE'RE OUT!If we cannot afford another Republican administration, we cannot afford a third concession in the face of election fraud. Already there is evidence of massive fraud such as voter purging and caging of Democratic voters, and "flipping" of votes in early voting on electronic touchscreen machines. It is reasonable to once againexpect further manipulation on election night by some Republican operatives and election officials, as was seen in 2004; should we also expect our Democratic Party leaders and candidates to repeat history, by once again conceding in the face of such blatant fraud?Senator Obama, we need you, our Party and all candidates to stand firm, come what may on election night. You ask us to work for you, contribute to you--and to have your back; we ask that you promise to have our back: We ask that you PLEDGE TO STAND FIRM, AND NOT CONCEDE THE COMING ELECTION in the face of election irregularities, no matter how long it takes to contest such fraud, while there remains any doubt as to any part of the process. Be assured, Democratic voters will be more--not less--energized if we see you promise to stand firm.
Senator Obama, if there is any reason to contest the election, DO NOT CONCEDE!
Signed: (Titles for identification purposes only)
Gore Vidal, Author
Bob Fitrakis, Professor of Political Science, Columbus State Community College, Attorney; Editor of The Free Press (freepress.org)
Harvey Wasserman, Senior Editor, FreePress.org, Author of SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth
Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University, Author of Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Election
Tim Carpenter, Director, Progressive Democrats of America
Mimi Kennedy, Chair, National Advisory Board, Progressive Democrats of America
David Swanson, Co-Founder, After Downing Street
Eric Bauman, Chair, Los Angeles County Democratic Party
Garry S. Shay, Member, Democratic National Committee (CA) Lead Chair, Rules Committee, California Democratic Party
Jo Olson, MD, Co-Chair, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Mal Burnstein, Co-Chair, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Marcy Winograd, Executive Board representative, California Democratic Party, 41st AD, Former Chair, Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
David Earnhardt, Filmmaker, "Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections"
Don Goldmacher, Chair, Election Integrity, Progressive Caucus, California Democratic Party
Michael Jay, Progressive Democrats of America, Special Projects, Former Delegate, California Democratic Party, 42nd AD
Sheri Myers, Director, "Wake Up and Save Your Country"
Robert A. Feuer, Former Chairman, Stockbridge, MA Town Democratic Committee
Thomas Patrick O'Shaughnessy, Region 3 Vice Chair, Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair, Irish American Caucus, California Democratic Party
Howard Jennings, PDA-Virginia, State Co-Coordinator
Sarah Stott, Chapter Chair, PDA-Virginia
Lisa Pease, Co-editor, "The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X"
Cindy Asner, Former Delegate, California Democratic Party, Member, National Advisory Board, Progressive Democrats of America
Julie Lopez Dad, President, Santa Monica Democratic Club, Chair, 41st AD Committee, Los Angeles County Democratic Party
Dr. Bill Honigman, PDA California State Coordinator and Orange County Chapter Leader, Delegate, California Democratic Party, 73rd AD
Linda Milazzo, Senior Editor, OpEdNews.com, Blogger, Huffington Post
Rady Ananda, Senior Editor, OpEdNews.com
Jan Baumgartner, Managing Editor, OpEdNews.com
Cheryl Biren-Wright, Managing Editor, OpEdNews.com
Sherry Healy, Co-Founder California Election Protection Network, Coordinator, Election Defense Alliance
Laura Bonham, Summit County, UT Democratic Party Chairperson
Albert E. Fairchild, Retired Foreign Service Officer
Dorathea Peters, Precinct Captain, Alexandria, VA Democratic Committee
Sign the Petition
http://afterdowningstreet.org/donotconcede
Gambia Castle presents:
smashed to pieces(in the still of the night)gestures towards habitual actions while leaving the location vague and the event unpredictable
Amit CharanFrancis AlÿsMichael Stevenson
Curated by Laura Preston
7 - 29 November 2008
Curated by Laura Preston
7 - 29 November 2008
Opening: Thursday 6 November 6 – 8pmScreening and talk at 6pm / musical entertainment afterwards
Lawrence Weiner has recently commented that for him the concept of being an artist is to be 'perplexed in public'. Taking images from the world, photographic and still, cinematic and moving collude to take the form of a belief that reality can be indexically traced and knowable. These traces become more insightful and in turn more perplexing when an understanding of the image as a concept in time is conveyed, particularly when the serial nature of the event is emphasised and its sequential experience confused. Looking back to the man who stopped time in pictures, the motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge act as instants systematically subtracting duration from the event. These early studies of the medium’s potential were based on photographing the same activity from various angles simultaneously. By setting up an alternative reading of the event as a visually discontinuous sequence he presented a fragmented perception of the world, in what musician Karlheinz Stockhausen would later consider a ‘directionless time-field’. Muybridge’s technique in this sense can be read as symptomatic of an early modernity. Stockhausen was also interested in utilising the exponential perplexity of modernity by breaking up and dissecting duration to show it as a malleable material, in this case how sound can undergo a series of transformations independent of its starting point. An extension of this, and what Stockhausen and Muybridge’s work suggests, is that the indexical nature of the image enables reflection on the contradictions of modernity’s workings. In technology’s ability to capture reality, or rather our unreflexive want to innocently believe in its trace of truth, it both realises and captures the failure to perceive the irreducibility of the moment. This paradox signals the collapse of modernity’s ideal for progression towards certainty.
It is also here that the image can be seen as a placeholder creating a space to recognise that all is fiction. It is only in building up arbitrary signs, using short-cut codes, putting frames in motion that objectivity or rather a resemblance of it is formed. For Ludwig Wittgenstein the photographic image was a departure point for many of his philosophical ideas, and at the same time practical proof that for an object to be based in the world and linked to it as perceptual fact then it is reliant on serial or frequently repeated images. To connect Wittgenstein and Weiner then is to consider that the indexical quality of the image produced by the camera is similar to the malleable, sculptural workings of language, in that these signifying systems can only make comparisons to, extrapolate on, fragment what is experienced and what might possibly be seen. There is much to be puzzled by in images that narrate the concept of time. These images operate reflexively like interruptions in the scale and form of an event, de-familiarising what is understood or anticipated about a moment in time. The artists in the exhibition consider the fiction that arises, pausing to lend images the multi-sided, multi-directional dimensions of the event. This series of small yet expansive works draws on the historical ideas and temporal perplexities that can come from a state of process, rehearsal and reoccurrence. In narrating history as a multi-directional sequence of images emphasis is placed on dis-covering the simultaneous workings of time, and implicating the role of the artist as the perplexing narrator. The stories within each work connect through their traces of undermining modernity’s valuing of economic progression and political probabilities, which in turn reveals the disparate yet extensive links between art, political history and social happening. Reflecting upon their status as images, placeholders generating an act of retelling, the works in the exhibition leave the event unresolved, in a fictional state of constant rehearsal. Like the striptease its come-on is never consummated. Though if it were, what indexical image would be captured if we have the power to continually see things differently?
http://www.gambiacastle.net/
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