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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Topics > News > Commentary |
Commentary: Thoughts from the peanut gallery. |
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In response to the intifada and the Hamas official statement:
Friday 22 June @ 14:56:37 (Read: 1501) |
by DAVID GOLDSTEIN
published 6.20.07
Is the cause of the problem that Israel and the U. S. didn�t listen to Hamas, or is it that Hamas denies the right of Israel to exist and would like to wipe them off the face of the earth and continues to terrorize Israelis.
Hamas had a right and responsibility to establish peace in Gaza, and there were assassinations and horrific violence on the part of Fatah and Hamas.
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In response to the intifada and the Hamas official statement:
Wednesday 20 June @ 15:50:34 (Read: 1509) |
by DAVID GOLDSTEIN
Is the cause of the problem that Israel and the U. S. didn’t listen to Hamas, or is it that Hamas denies the right of Israel to exist and would like to wipe them off the face of the earth and continues to terrorize Israelis.
Hamas had a right and responsibility to establish peace in Gaza, and there were assassinations and horrific violence on the part of Fatah and Hamas.
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The continuing dialog at Pulse:
Wednesday 20 June @ 15:42:16 (Read: 1655) |
"Tell the Palestinians to stop killing Israelis and tell them to recognize the right of Israel to exist,"
David Goldstein, Sales Director.
"O. K., I'll do that. And you tell the Israelis to stop killing Palestinians and recognize Palestine,"
Ed Felien, Editor/Publisher.
"O. K., I'll do that,"
David.
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Contradictions in the gay community
Tuesday 19 June @ 16:23:08 (Read: 1916) |
by
PHIL WILLKIE
As a radical gay man who ditched the DFL decades ago, I find it very curious that the Left, that is, the Greens and a few socialist groups, take the same position on gay marriage, gays in the military and hate crimes legislation as does the Human Rights Campaign and the Democrats.
This platform was crafted to trap Queers in the Democratic Party. None of these reformist proposals will bring equality. But if these are people's priorities, why would Queers support Greens? Greens can't deliver on these issues but the Democrats can.
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Class action lawsuit settlement rankles City officials
Monday 11 June @ 12:43:30 (Read: 1555) |
 (The following is a statement from Andrea Jenkins, policy aide to City Council Member Elizabeth Glidden.)
After years of hedging on their obligation to protect people from airport noise pollution, lawyers for the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) have now negotiated a backroom deal with the attorneys for the class-action lawsuit. The class-action lawsuit is separate from the lawsuit filed by the cities of Minneapolis, Richfield and Eagan and the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority.
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The “naked” truth could help Congress end the war
Monday 04 June @ 11:51:58 (Read: 1933) |
by POLLY MANN
In casual conversations regarding the inability of Congress to achieve the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Democratic Party apologists will tell you that they “simply don’t have the votes.” So it appears that the country and the world will have to wait for peace until there are enough Democrats holding office who are more concerned about ending war than losing campaign funds. That could be quite a while.
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Mute Lute: The Superfluous General
Friday 01 June @ 12:27:54 (Read: 1596) |
by JOE LAKE
Apparently there is no limit to the number of asinine decisions the Bush administration can make. A recent asinine decision is the appointment of a “War Czar” to oversee the debacle in Iraq, and the increasingly volatile war in Afghanistan.
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Nation of gulags in land of the free
Thursday 31 May @ 13:41:12 (Read: 1414) |
One in every 136 U.S. residents is living behind bars.
by RONALD FRASER
MYTHS have a way of hiding what we don’t want to see.
Americans, for example, are quick to charge third world dictators with abusive prison policies. But prison incarceration rates tell a different story. Recent reports show that 45 of the 50 democratically elected state governments in the U.S., including New Jersey, imprison their citizens at a faster pace than any of the foreign governments headed by dictators.
Rulers in Libya, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan made Parade Magazine’s 2005 world’s worst dictators list. And the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, located in Oakland, Calif., has issued a report, “U.S. Rates of Incarceration: A Global Perspective,” showing the incarceration rates for these five dictatorships—the number of persons in prison for every 100,000 population—ranging from a low of 57 in Pakistan to a high of 207 in Libya.
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New state law will reduce unnecessary mercury use in products
Wednesday 30 May @ 12:05:28 (Read: 1520) |
by CARIN SKOOG
The last day of Minnesota’s legislative session marked another big win for the environment, public health, and anyone who likes to eat fish from our lakes and rivers. On May 21, 2007, Governor Pawlenty signed into law a measure that regulates the use of mercury-containing products in Minnesota in favor of safer, mercury-free alternatives. The law, sponsored by Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, and Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, targets the second largest emissions source of the toxic metal in Minnesota.
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The Original Cutter & Runner
Tuesday 29 May @ 13:04:42 (Read: 1825) |
Ronald Reagan: The Original Cutter & Runner
by JOE LAKE
Ronald Reagan is the frequent subject of hagiographic works by a range of people. His admirers continue to push for renaming all sorts of buildings, airports, schools and roads with his name. John Kline wants to get Reagan’s face on money, some want his mug on Mt. Rushmore, and the Republicans running for president mention his name more than their own! Where will it end?
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A LETTER FROM MEXICO
Tuesday 29 May @ 12:49:43 (Read: 1603) |
Wherever We Go, There We Are
by STAN GOTLIEB
Oaxaca, Mexico
Almost every year, Diana and I make the trek to California to consult with our medicos and visit with family and friends. By the time you read this, we will have left California to return to our home in Oaxaca. We will return with medicine, a few new pieces of clothing, some books and CDs, and news for our friends about “life on the other side.” By and large, it will not be an uplifting scenario.
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The new Parade Stadium
Wednesday 16 May @ 13:32:23 (Read: 1655) |
by KATIE SIMON-DISTICH & ARLENE FRIED
On Jan. 3, 2007, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) approved $1.24 million for an artificial turf field to be constructed on the site of the former Parade Stadium.
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And the score is--Stadium: 1, Democracy: 0.
Wednesday 02 May @ 13:38:33 (Read: 1841) |
by LYDIA HOWELL
With the inevitable cost overruns big projects always seem to have, and interest on a 30-year debt, the $522 million new Twins stadium will ultimately cost Hennepin County citizens $1 BILLION. But Minnesotans have already paid an even bigger price.
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The pros and cons of the Ellison vote...
Wednesday 28 March @ 15:08:12 (Read: 1756) |
Editor's note: Last Friday's House vote, especially the one cast by newly-elected Congressman Keith Ellison, rocked the Twin Cities. Pulse is presenting both sides of the controversy within the local peace movement.
Ellison does the right thing
by PHIL WILLKIE
I had not closely followed the debate in the Democratic caucus until last Thursday evening. Then, I could see the dilemma that Ellison and other freshmen faced. Many of them, like Ellison, have called for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and had pledged not to fund this war.
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An odyssey of armaments
Thursday 22 March @ 12:18:16 (Read: 1685) |
Editor's note: The following article was submitted to Pulse as a favorable response to last week's article by Jow Lake, entitled, "Only a Pawn in Their Game."
by KEN LARSON
In 1968, I came home from serving two U.S. Army tours in Vietnam, having been awarded five medals, including a Bronze Star. During my second tour I acquired Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as well as depression. Treatment would not become available for either ailment until the mid to late ’70s. Returning to the University of Minnesota at Morris, I found that most of my former classmates were either facing the military draft or were violently against the war. I was not their favorite person.
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Local company, Alliant Techsystems, should stop making cluster bombs
Wednesday 28 February @ 13:44:17 (Read: 1828) |
by MARC DAVIDOV
Forty-six nations met last week in Norway to ban production and use of anti-personnel cluster bombs, with the United States, Russia and China saying NO to a ban.
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Sincere condolences to the staff at the Strib
Wednesday 03 January @ 17:28:39 (Read: 1810) |
BY ED FELIEN
Editor/Publisher, Pulse of the Twin Cities
I've always loved the Star Tribune even when I've hated it. I loved the writing. I felt proud delivering it as a child: morning, evening and Sunday. Will Jones' column, “After Last Night,” seemed like the coolest thing happening, and Cedric Adams' “In This Corner” seemed so big-hearted it defined the best in all of us.
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Tony Bouza on petitions, protests & presidents
Thursday 28 December @ 15:23:46 (Read: 1836) |
by TONY BOUZA
(Publisher’s Note: The following article, by former Police Chief Tony Bouza, eloquently describes how he stood up to the Secret Service during the Reagan Presidency to defend our Constitutional right to peacefully assemble and petition our government for redress of grievances. As far as I know, he is the only Chief to have successfully faced off against the Secret Service and won.
The precedent he won is very important for those of us planning to welcome the National Republican Convention to St. Paul in 2008. He established our right (by asserting it) to confront the President directly. It does not fulfill our rights under the Constitution to be allowed to demonstrate a half a mile away from the doors of the Convention Hall. We have a right to be across the street, so that our signs can be seen. This is what it means to live in a free country, where all people are equal.
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Spoiling for a good election
Wednesday 22 November @ 14:46:27 (Read: 1877) |
by MAX SPARBER
This past election, Minneapolis voters elected to use Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) for all major offices beginning in 2009. The measure was a popular one locally, winning with 65 percent of the votes.
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Is the Democratic Party as good as it gets?
Wednesday 08 November @ 14:01:55 (Read: 2099) |
BY TY MOORE
Is it possible to transform the corporate controlled Democratic Party into a vehicle for peace and justice, or should we struggle to build a working class political alternative?
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Commentary: The power of eco-ideas
Friday 27 October @ 11:50:35 (Read: 1708) |
by DANIEL EMERSON
Anyone who doubts the power of ideas to change the world should talk to Ray Anderson, a corporate player who had a road-to-Damascus experience.
Anderson had made his company, Interface, the world’s largest commercial carpet manufacturer. But when customers began asking about what the company was doing to the environment, Anderson had little to say in response. Then he read Paul Hawken’s book “The Ecology of Commerce,” about how the world was seeing an extinction of species at a pace not seen since the dinosaur era, about pollution changing the climate, about the world’s forests being destroyed—about, as Hawken put it, “the death of birth.”
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Commentary: Some clowns to the left of you, and some jokers to the right
Thursday 12 October @ 12:16:59 (Read: 2447) |
by SID PRANKE
Up until a week ago when I moved, I rode the No. 21 bus to Chicago & Lake, where I still needed to walk another two blocks to the Pulse offices at 32nd & Chicago.
Since Lake Street reconstruction began some time ago, residents have noted that prostitution activity has moved south. Coincidentally, I need to walk south for those two extra blocks each workday morning, and it has upset any illusions I had about being protected from or being above any unsavory elements in my community.
A few examples:
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Support Dean Zimmermann by writing a letter to Judge Montgomery
Wednesday 04 October @ 15:43:01 (Read: 2187) |
 Publisher's Note: If you know Dean Zimmermann, if you know the progressive work he has done on civil rights, anti-war and environmental issues, if Dean has stood by you for the last 30 years in those struggles, then please stand by Dean and take just a few moments to write a letter to Judge Ann Montgomery. It shouldn't be a long letter. Three or four sentences would be great, and your voice could make a difference in his sentencing.
Address your letters to: The Honorable Ann Montgomery; Via Dan Scott, Attorney-at-law; Center Village Offices, 431 South 7th St., #2530; Minneapolis, MN 55415.
Be sure to sign your letter and include your name and address. ||
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Statewide elections on Nov. 7
Thursday 28 September @ 13:29:18 (Read: 3186) |
 Don’t waste your vote!
by ED FELIEN
Editor/publisher
Pulse of the Twin Cities
On Tuesday, Nov. 7, you will have the opportunity to vote, if you’re eligible, for candidates for Congress, governor, state offices and other important positions all the way down the ballot to Soil and Water District Commissioner. The Republican Party, through its 5th District Congressional candidate, has been waging a vicious campaign of bigotry and hate against Keith Ellison. It is important to understand that this campaign is not just directed against Ellison (they’ve probably given up any possibility of taking that seat), it’s meant to depress the vote in the 5th District to give the rest of the Republican ticket a chance to win statewide. Don’t let ’em get away with it.
First, we need to send Keith Ellison to Congress to fight to end the war in the Middle East and work for single payer national health insurance. He needs a solid and strong majority to give him a clear mandate for change.
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Commentary: Debate discrimination is undemocratic
Thursday 28 September @ 12:12:43 (Read: 2111) |
by "PAPA" JOHN KOLSTAD
If the electorate is only allowed to hear from some of the candidates for office, is that democracy? Who decides who the public will hear and who will be shut out? Should publicly subsidized media be allowed to discriminate regarding which candidates have access to the public? Essentially, campaigns are job interviews for important public jobs. How do we know we are getting the best, the brightest, the most capable if the public is not allowed to hear from all the applicants?
MN elections are managed and controlled. The two major parties and the media control who gets to speak and who gets coverage of their campaigns. This is all subtly done behind the scenes by power players with vested interests, then painted with a patina of democracy and civic pride.
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Zimmer-gate: How it looks from here
Wednesday 16 August @ 14:54:00 (Read: 2556) |
by DAVID TILSEN
 The establishment in Minneapolis didn’t really like Dean on the City Council. He was too popular, he was effective in supporting the homeless, the city health department, and opposing giveaways to dues paying members. The last straw may have been his opposition to the Twins’ stadium, or it may have been something else.
Anyway, the city was redistricted to put Dean’s house out of his ward. At the same time, the only other Green Party-endorsed council member was forced to run against the only other African American on the Council.
Dean had to move to run in his ward. He also had to run against Robert Lilligren, another popular Southsider, Native American, good looking. They figured they had taken care of him. He didn’t have money to move and run a campaign. But that darn Zimmermann. He did it—moved and ran a successful campaign. What’s an establishment to do?
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Week No. 1— United States vs. Zimmermann
Sunday 13 August @ 23:02:42 (Read: 2294) |
by DAVID TILSEN
(Editor’s Note: At press time, Dean Zimmermann’s trial in U.S. District Court was set for final arguments on Wednesday, August 9. Following is a summary of the prosecution’s case.)
The prosecution’s main evidence is testimony of the developer who was sent in by the FBI to bribe Dean, and the various video and audio tapes that were made of these meetings and phone conversations. There were over 15 different video and audio tapes showing Dean in conversations with Gary Carlson. It was clear that Mr. Carlson was coached by the FBI in these situations to say just the right thing to give the impression that he was bribing Dean, so given this, we need to ignore his statements, and look at what Dean actually says.
Dean did accept first $5,000, then $1,200, and later $1,000 from Carlson. Dean has never denied this. Dean was accepting donations both for his campaign, and to pay off bills for a suit the Green Party had filed against the City of Minneapolis in regard to its redistricting.
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How did the latest Israeli/Palestinian conflict begin?
Wednesday 26 July @ 17:49:03 (Read: 2514) |
 by John Berger, Noam Chomsky, Harold Pinter, José Saramago
The latest chapter of the conflict between Israel and Palestine began when Israeli forces abducted two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from Gaza. An incident scarcely reported anywhere, except in the Turkish press. The following day the Palestinians took an Israeli soldier prisoner and proposed a negotiated exchange against prisoners taken by the Israelis—there are approximately 10,000 in Israeli jails.
That this “kidnapping” was considered an outrage, whereas the illegal military occupation of the West Bank and the systematic appropriation of its natural resources—most particularly that of water—by the Israeli Defence(!) Forces is considered a regrettable but realistic fact of life, is typical of the double standards repeatedly employed by the West in face of what has befallen the Palestinians, on the land allotted to them by international agreements, during the last 70 years.
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Commentary: Who’s afraid of Keith Ellison?
Thursday 20 July @ 13:16:18 (Read: 3309) |
by Jordan S. Kushner
The Republicans, with the help of the Star Tribune, seek to generate fears related to Keith Ellison’s racial and religious identification in order to destroy his candidacy without ever addressing his constructive accomplishments and substantive political agenda. In a political culture where candidates for office change political views all the time, and the executive branch is committing crimes against humanity, discrete actions and statements in the course of Ellison’s genuine political development and evolution are taken out of context to prevent any honest understanding of what he really represents as a person and candidate.
Outside of their invocation of racial and religious prejudice, the rightwingers really fear Ellison’s commitment to social justice. This being the source of their real fear, they seek to cover it up by continual character assassination.
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John Townsend
Thursday 06 July @ 12:15:04 (Read: 2096) |
BY JOHN TOWNSEND
When I first began writing for the “gay/lesbian” press 16 years ago, I wasn’t snared by marriage and military rights issues. It was wiser, I thought, to focus on privacy rights in an age of technological advancements, employment protection, censorship of queerness in arts and education, and investigating the murky origins of AIDS.
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Bush and Cheney are pigs!
Thursday 15 June @ 15:57:29 (Read: 4188) |
by Ed Felien
A pig is a marvelous animal, but never come between a pig and dinner. They will trample down fences, fight viciously, move quickly and persevere with obsessive dedication in pursuit of food. All they care about is dinner. The unparalleled greed of Bush and Cheney is so remarkable it rivals the uncomplicated and subhuman aspirations of a hungry pig in pursuit of its next meal.
No doubt at the urging of the President of the Senate, Dick Cheney, Senator Arlen Specter has begun hearings on the Asbestos trust fund bill. The bill would establish a $140 billion trust fund paid for by the asbestos industry to compensate the more than 2 million victims of asbestos poisoning. Susan Vento, the widow of Bruce Vento, the former congressman from St. Paul who died from asbestos poisoning, said, “This bill was already a bad bill for asbestos victims. It has now become considerably worse.” (Star Tribune, June 8, 2006) Now the chair of the Committee to Protect Mesothelioma Victims, she said the revised bill would “cruelly and coldly” force victims to settle for reduced compensation before they die.
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Commentary: On seeing dead people
Friday 09 June @ 17:26:11 (Read: 2602) |
 Gruesome:
Thumbs down.
by Sid Pranke
I hear CBS has a new pilot in the works—“CSI: Anoka”—a spin-off of CSIs New York, Miami and Special Investigations. “CSI: Anoka” will be tested on Cable Access channels locally—and promises to mutilate, spindle and otherwise deform real fake bodies to help showcase the solution of fictional crimes by a team of crack investigators/actors.
Parts of the above paragraph aren’t real, just like the bodies used (at least so far) by the triad of hit shows on the Columbia Broadcasting System—programs shockingly (to me) listed consistently in the nation’s weekly top ten Nielsen ratings.
The death trend, rather than waning, appears to be pushing the envelope. Websites depicting dying people or the already-dead (blown up, decapitated), according to internet research reports, are on the rise. Now, traveling exhibitions of dead humans, like Body Worlds and its imitators, are taking off—often to sold-out crowds.
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Commentary: On seeing dead people
Friday 09 June @ 17:26:05 (Read: 2252) |
 Edifying:
Thumbs up.
by Max Sparber
There is little room for subtlety in the examination of the human body. We are, after all, essentially a connected series of bags of fluid, and these bags don’t take well to prodding or cutting—they have a disquieting tendency to respond in the manner of a water balloon, collapsing with an alarming rush of liquids. This has been the recurring problem in the study of anatomy: Digging around in a dead body tends to be something like rummaging through a trunk filled with foul-smelling, fluid soaked, formless rags. Anatomy students have been willing to do so for centuries, knowing that we couldn’t properly treat the body’s many ills if we don’t know precisely what the body is made of. But for the non-scientific audience, if they wanted to learn more about their own inner workings, they were limited to leafing through Grey’s Anatomy, with its perplexing illustrations of systems of bones covered by pink, fibrous muscles.
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Highest priorities took a back seat in 2006
Tuesday 30 May @ 21:14:56 (Read: 2266) |
 Special to Pulse of the Twin Cities
by Becky Lourey
I cannot help but conclude that Minnesota has allowed its high standards for excellent public policy to slip in recent years. We managed to get through the 2006 Legislative session without partisan gridlock or a major meltdown, so we see headlines claiming this year was a success. Relatively speaking, this is true.
Never mind that the stadium discussion overshadowed the quest to meet fundamental needs in health care, education, energy, environment, transportation, property tax relief and public safety. Since 2001, we have slipped a very long way in every one of these key categories and we have lost some opportunities to get our state on the right track. In essence, we still have a state deficit.
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Commentary: And the score is -- Stadium: 1, Democracy: 0
Tuesday 30 May @ 20:50:35 (Read: 2398) |
by Lydia Howell
With the inevitable cost overruns big projects always seem to have, and interest on a 30-year debt, the $522 million new Twins stadium will ultimately cost Hennepin County citizens $1 BILLION. But Minnesotans have already paid an even bigger price.
We the People were summarily dismissed by those who are elected to represent us. State law says citizens must weigh in on the ballot, and vote on any expenditure of more than $10 million on such a project. It’s called a referendum, and in public opinion polls right up to the end, more than 70 percent said they didn’t want public money going to Carl Pohlad’s stadium dreams. That’s been the public’s stand for a decade, so, every legislator who voted for this massive Corporate Welfare project can’t say they didn’t know.
They just didn’t give a damn.
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Postscript to the Fifth Congressional District DFL endorsing convention
Thursday 11 May @ 12:46:41 (Read: 3510) |
 by Jordan Kushner
As to the ultimate outcome, the main surprise was how easily Keith Ellison got the endorsement. The explanation: His campaign was masterful in appealing to the two main constituent groups among the delegates: 1) activists motivated primarily by progressive issues—in this election aggressive opposition to the war was of course the dominant issue within this group; and 2) the party regulars/old guard—those motivated primarily by loyalty, alliances/friendships, or favors. In his political ascendancy, Keith has been able to keep the support of both these groups. He came into politics as a community activist, but got elected to the state legislature primarily by linking up with the Northside political machine. He continued to champion progressive causes as a legislator but maintained his machine support. His ability to appeal to large portions of the two groups that pretty much constitute the DFL caucus system made him unstoppable. Keith is probably the most progressive candidate possible from the DFL process, and certainly the most progressive candidate for Congress ever to be advanced by the Minnesota DFL. The question for the future will be when and to what degree Keith’s commitment to the regulars will erode his ability to meet his commitment to the progressives.
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Commentary: Nuclear power can’t rescue the world from climate change
Wednesday 03 May @ 16:03:42 (Read: 3700) |
 by Michelle Boyd
Global warming is an undeniable and urgent problem, and support for taking federal action is increasing. Now, a debate is raging about the proper course of action; what will produce the greatest gains in the shortest time? The nuclear industry is attempting to hijack the issue to revive a dying technology, crowding out renewable energy in the process. However, nuclear power cannot rescue us from climate change.
The vast majority of public interest and environmental groups are adamantly oppose nuclear power. Over 300 national, state and local organizations have endorsed a statement clearly outlining their reasons for continuing to oppose to nuclear power as a solution to global warming. Not a single environmental group is advocating for more nuclear plants.
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Commentary: Follow the money for stadiums
Friday 28 April @ 14:25:05 (Read: 3068) |
 by John Marty
The Pohlad family has given well over $200,000 in campaign contributions since 2000.
Despite consistent public opposition to taxpayer subsidies for the owners of professional sports franchises, the Twins’ and perhaps the Vikings’ stadiums have picked up strong momentum.
The governor and the Legislature appear poised to provide hundreds of millions of tax dollars for a stadium, letting the team owners keep 100 percent of the proceeds from the new stadium—even the naming rights to a stadium that taxpayers pay for!
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Weapons to die for:
Friday 28 April @ 14:24:27 (Read: 17550) |
 from that Pentagon Death Star and the University that poisoned the world
by Leuren Moret
Two images changed my life when I visited the Peace Museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 2000, on my first trip to Japan. I had worked as a geoscientist in two U.S. nuclear weapons labs—Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Lawrence Livermore National Lab—but I never knew what a nuclear weapon really was, nor the horrific effects of radiation on the environment and biological systems. Now I know.
In the Hiroshima Museum, as a nuclear weapons lab whistleblower I wandered through the exhibits with TV cameras in my face, keeping it together by stuffing my emotions. I walked past the mangled lunch boxes and tricycles, thinking of the school children as I looked at the watches and clocks stopped at the moment the first thermonuclear weapon detonated on a human population.
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The case against our leaky president
Thursday 13 April @ 13:32:33 (Read: 2491) |
 by Greg Palast
It’s a crime. No kidding. But the [major] media has it all wrong. ‘Scooter’ Libby finally outed ‘Mr. Big,’ the perpetrator of the heinous disclosure of the name of secret agent Valerie Plame. It was the President of the United States himself—in conspiracy with his Vice President. Now the pundits are arguing over whether our war-a-holic President had the legal right to leak this national security information. But, that’s a fake debate meant to distract you.
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Commentary: What do you get when you put a politician in a black robe?
Thursday 06 April @ 11:41:59 (Read: 3301) |
by Jack Baker
The recent apology by Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson is unfortunate. I believe every word he spoke. Perhaps some history will illuminate how the Minnesota Supreme Court operates.
At its meeting of Dec. 4, 1970, the board of the Minnesota Newspaper Association unanimously agreed to sponsor and take steps to set up a press council. Robert M. Shaw, manager of the Minnesota Newspaper Association, approached Justice C. Donald Peterson, a former legislator. Shaw wanted to cure ethical problems among newspaper editors and publishers. Faked circulation numbers, gouging and double billing were some of the practices that especially bothered him.
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How the U.S. and Israel Set Up the Hamas Victory in Palestine
Wednesday 29 March @ 17:24:33 (Read: 2667) |
(Originally published July 25, 2002, as “U.S. is Repeating Mistakes of the Past in Mideast” in the St. Paul Pioneer Press ~ web.ed)
by DAVID RUBENSTEIN
Watching the Bush administration Mideast policy evolve is a bit like watching a freeway accident unfold in front of your eyes: First horror and fascination, then the unabashedly selfish hope it's not going to involve you.
With the joint Israeli-U.S. declaration that Yasser Arafat is out, we're seeing the replay of a policy that has already failed twice. The first time was in the early 1980s, when the United States and Israel made the strategic decision to undercut the PLO and strengthen the hand of the Islamists in Palestine. Israel probably figured it was buying some time, plus it already had a long-standing grudge against Yasser Arafat.
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Commentary: How do we judge the judges?
Monday 27 March @ 12:44:40 (Read: 2091) |
by Steve Butcher
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor recently gave a speech in which she criticized attacks upon the integrity of the country’s judges. O’Connor cited death threats, public comments by U.S. legislators, and actual physical assaults as reasons to fear the erosion of judicial independence. O’Connor agreed that court decisions are often mystifying, “but if we don’t make [people] mad some of the time we probably aren’t doing our jobs as judges.”
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Commentary - Marv Davidov: Strib’s shoddy war coverage
Thursday 16 March @ 17:42:35 (Read: 3362) |
We praise the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for consistent editorial opposition to the Iraq War. But there is little coverage about who profits from the war, and the coverage that does exist makes opposition look silly, crazy and marginal. I speak of course of the reality of Alliant Tech Systems, and the opposition by AlliantACTION.
When Honeywell couldn’t sell its “Defense Division” in 1990, it created Alliant Tech Systems, bastard offspring of Honeywell. The Honeywell Project began in 1968 and ended in 1990. Over a period of 22 years we created a worldwide movement to pressure Honeywell management to stop making cluster bombs, land mines and guidance systems for long- and short-range nuclear missiles. After 2,200 arrests at Honeywell headquarters, and nearly 100 trials, Honeywell reduced its dependence on weapons systems. We were—thousands of us—a major factor in the decision. But the permanent war economy allowed Honeywell to create Alliant Tech Systems.
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Commentary - Willkie: DFL is a cesspool
Thursday 09 March @ 15:35:00 (Read: 3417) |
by Phil Willkie
I told Michael Cavlan months ago I knew he had principles and good intentions with his desire to run for the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat. I questioned his experience and stature to endure a major political race. Since then he has gone on acting as if he is “the” Green Party-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate. Not one single elected Green officeholder past or current has endorsed his campaign! The Minnesota Greens are like a dysfunctional family—where no one wants to hurt anyone else’s feelings. Michael Cavlan is not a credible candidate for United States Senate and this needs to be discussed publicly as soon as possible.
A brief historical assessment:
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Brave New Skies: Is the Government trying to control the weather??
Thursday 09 March @ 15:34:41 (Read: 7162) |
by Jaye Beldo
The powers that be want to own and control everything under the sun these days. Consider the fact that Monsanto currently brandishes a patent on what they call “Terminator technology,” which forces farmers to actually buy the next growing season’s supply of seeds from the company, instead of using ones from the plants they cultivate.
It appears that the earth’s weather, too, is up for grabs. While such a prospect may seem impossible if not absurd to most of us, signs that weather is being co-opted are becoming more apparent.
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Publisher’s Note: The greatest sleazeballs of the 21st century
Wednesday 08 February @ 14:33:30 (Read: 5597) |
by Ed Felien
Dick Cheney is trying to push through the Senate a bill that would create a national trust fund for victims of asbestos poisoning. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? It does until you realize he’s doing it to cover his and Bush’s butts.
A little background:
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Commentary: Confrontation underutilized in current political landscape
Wednesday 01 February @ 13:10:57 (Read: 5961) |
by Steve Butcher
When Green Party member David Baldwin wrote, in a recent commentary for Pulse, that the United States is currently “a partisan battlefield,” and is undergoing the kind of crisis not seen since “the decade immediately preceding the Civil War,” I almost fell out of my chair. Other than a few mild but subdued grumblings, there is nothing on today’s political landscape that even remotely approaches the legendary period of the 1850s, when the nation endured the fugitive slave laws, Bleeding Kansas, the Pottawatomie Massacres, or the Harpers Ferry attack. There is nothing resembling the 1852 beating inflicted upon Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner by South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks; no effort equivalent to the one undertaken by New York Times publisher Horace Greeley, who personally financed a gun-running operation in support of Kansas free-staters; and certainly nothing to rival the election of 1860, which resulted in the dissolution of the United States.
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Commentary: The dream is dead? Long live the American dream
Thursday 26 January @ 13:17:56 (Read: 2490) |
by Holly Sklar
The American Dream doesn’t need to go on a diet in the new year. It’s been shrinking for years. We are becoming a nation of Scrooge-Marts and outsourcers—with an increasingly low-wage workforce instead of a growing middle class. Even two-paycheck households are struggling to afford a house, college, health care and retirement.
The American Dream is becoming the American Pipe Dream. “The vast majority of American workers (70 percent) think ‘the American Dream’ has been or will be harder for them to financially achieve than it was for their parents’ generation,” according to the Principal Financial Well-Being Index.
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Commentary: The Green moment
Thursday 19 January @ 20:17:40 (Read: 6862) |
by David Baldwin
It has become proverbial, even a cliche, to observe that this nation is now fiercely divided politically. But how far back in history would one have to search to find anything like the partisan battlefield that Americans wake up to every day? The Vietnam era? The Great Depression? Try the decade immediately preceding the Civil War. In that age of political dissolution, both parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, stood helpless before a crisis—slavery—so divisive that the forces it unleashed severely wounded the former organization and smashed the latter one to splinters. That was also the era in which the Republican Party was born. Its vigor and uncompromising stance on the most important issue of the day attracted, among many others, an ambitious ex-congressman named Lincoln.
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Commentary: Publicly-owned broadband much better for Minneapolis
Wednesday 11 January @ 18:23:56 (Read: 3916) |
by Becca Vargo Daggett
Minneapolis is currently moving forward with a plan for a new, privately owned and operated, citywide broadband network. This plan was formulated essentially without public input, and without evaluating the benefits of public ownership. In the past month, eight neighborhood associations have expressed their concern about the City’s lack of transparency on this issue.
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Commentary: Who are you, who am I, really?
Wednesday 04 January @ 17:56:08 (Read: 2684) |
by Don Irish
When persons first meet, initial impressions are gleaned by each one. However, these usually superficial insights/conclusions are quite unreliable as portrayals of the “other’s” full personality. Attire, manner, fragments of information are insubstantial bases for knowing who the other person really is. For convenience, we tend to determine /judge prematurely and categorize the fuller nature of the “other.” Our society involves much mobility. Many of us live quite individualistic lives in an atomized society of quite fleeting relationships. A Danforth Foundation study contended that we Americans have many acquaintances and relatively few friends, confidantes. Developing deeper relationships is often not feasible in a “here again, gone again” society.
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Commentary: How Minneapolis is planning to spend our money in 2006
Wednesday 04 January @ 17:56:13 (Read: 4335) |
by David Tilsen
Last week ( Dec. 19) the Minneapolis City Council adopted our mayor’s 2006 budget. This budget increases the total budget by a little over 30 million dollars. It will result in increases in rent and property taxes for everyone who lives in or owns property in Minneapolis.
This budget is a statement of priorities for the city, and the priorities are clear. The middle class and wealthy people are going to be taken care of, and the poor, well we don’t really have any poor people to worry about, do we?
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Addiction’s so bad you even feel sorry for Rush
Wednesday 14 December @ 20:38:40 (Read: 2784) |
by Sid Pranke
I have said no to prescription drugs several times in my life after suffering severe back pain—chiropractic work and ultrasound therapy are more my speed. However, when a ruptured appendix landed me at Regions and nearly took my life a few years ago, I required morphine, percoset, the works for about five days. Stuck in bed for all that time, I began to watch the Cartoon Network on cable to fill my time. I began to realize that the drugs were affecting me when the cartoons I was watching started giving me advice and generally getting involved with my life. Horrified, I clicked off the television, “hopped” into my wheelchair, and took a long ride.
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More U.S. humiliation in Argentina and beyond
Wednesday 07 December @ 21:42:54 (Read: 3174) |
(Editor’s Note: Part two of Hazard’s article about Mexico, Venezuela and trade policy in Latin America, and who’s in bed with whom. In last week’s installment, we saw that readers of a progressive newspaper overwhelmingly believed that Venezuelan President Hugo Chàvez “told the truth” when he called Bush a lackey in the wake of Sunday’s Congressional elections, which were boycotted by many opposition parties and which appear to give the Chàvez government a mandate to expand socialist policies.)
The Venezuelan reaction, from the president as well as from Vice President José Vicente Rangel and foreign secretary Alí Rodríguez, has been varied: at one moment conciliatory (Our fight is with the U.S., not with Mexico), at the next, fanning the flames, most notably Chávez´s comment that “Fox had better not mess with me.” On Thursday, Nov. 17, Chávez, trying to focus attention once again against the king and not his pawns, asserted on prime time national television that the United States “is governed by an assassin, a practitioner of genocide, a crazy man.” (Viewers of the documentary “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” may recall that the failed coup against Chávez in 2002 occurred very soon after Chávez showed pictures of children maimed by U.S. air power in Afghanistan and said: “This is not the way to fight terrorism.”)
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U.S. humilated in Argentina: soccer or real life?
Thursday 01 December @ 22:30:24 (Read: 3737) |
The strongest opposition to U.S. policies under Bush comes, not from the Democrats (surprise, surprise), but from Latin America. Of the three world presidents least afraid to criticize U.S. domination, all are from Latin America (Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina).
Soccer star Diego Maradona embarrassed the United States earlier this month, but not on the field. Wearing a “Bush is an assassin” T-shirt, he said that if he got hold of Bush on the field he would “rip his head off.” He then participated in the biggest demonstrations ever against Bush on the occasion of the Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The event, held to cement the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, turned out to be its burial, as presidents of five countries (the four of the Mercosur: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, plus Venezuela) refused to go along with the show of unanimity. (Cuba was not allowed to participate in the summit.)
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Commentary: U.S. illegally uses chemical weapons in Iraq
Wednesday 23 November @ 19:10:30 (Read: 4897) |
by David Tilsen
In what should have been one of the major news stories of the year, the Pentagon finally has admitted what it has been denying—that it used a chemical called White Phosphorus, also known as WP or Wikey Pete, against people in the assault on Faluja in Iraq. Pentagon spokesman Barry Veneble admitted on Nov. 22 that White Phosphorus was used in Faluja as an “incendiary weapon” against enemy combatants.
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Fear and loathing in Moundsview:
Wednesday 16 November @ 16:54:04 (Read: 9283) |
Mark Kennedy wannabes with their own kind
by Cyn Collins
I was in a Hunter S. Thompson novel as I passed the dark, neon-lit bowling alley of Moundsview’s Mermaid Entertainment and Event Center, entering the hornet’s nest of Republicans. Out of curiosity and a birthday challenge to myself on Nov. 12, I attended the 6th Congressional District Republican Candidate Forum. What I heard that day (when they were among their own kind) was far more frightening than any factless, fearmongering rhetoric these Republicans could spew in any attempt to gain support among the general public.
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Camping out on the Northside:
Wednesday 16 November @ 16:53:57 (Read: 3554) |
"Will Work 4 the Community" election time and beyond
(Editor's Note: Green Party candidate Aaron Neumann, in the waning days of his 3rd Ward City Council bid, decided to camp out in the Northside neighborhood he wanted to serve. He tells us what happened.)
by Aaron Neumann
As this year's local political season winds down, it's an apt time to reflect on why Green candidates, like myself, run for public office as viable alternatives to the status quo. I chose to run for Minneapolis City Council in the the redistricted 3rd Ward (which includes parts of the Northside, Northeast and Southeast Minneapolis) because I - like many Greens and Green-leaners - deeply believe in creating a world fit for our great-grandchildren, of building a legacy of a peaceful city and a "clean & green," sustainable Minneapolis.
I camped out in the ward's most challenging neighborhood on the Northside not only to bring attention to the campaign, but to ultimately bring attention to the social and economic conditions that many people face every day.
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Commentary: Vin Weber — A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing
Thursday 10 November @ 22:12:31 (Read: 5237) |
[see also the Pulse cover story, "Is CACI off the hook? Pulse’s response to CACI" by Rubenstein, December 21-28, 2005.]
by DAVID RUBENSTEIN
The last week of October, with the indictment of Scooter Libby, the conclusion of the Harriet Miers fiasco, and the 2,000th U.S. death in Iraq, was arguably the worst week for the Republican party since Watergate. But it was a spectacular success for one Minnesota politician: our man inside-the-beltway, political operative par excellence and former six-term Republican Congressman, Vin Weber.
First New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks writes that Weber is just what the floundering Bush administration needs to steady itself. Three days later, Weber is in the New York Times again, this time on the front page, same subject, and quoted as an expert. (“You cleared the board of a couple big problems,” he says. “It gives us a chance to start rebuilding.”)
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Commentary: The Agnew Factor - Clearing the Impeachment Path
Wednesday 02 November @ 02:19:30 (Read: 2943) |
by Jack Random
As we wait to see if further indictments are to be handed down by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the Plame Gate case, we are struck by the parallels to Watergate. Yes, Watergate. This is no Monica Gate. This is not the story of over-zealous prosecutors investigating crooked real estate deals or the sexual escapades of the chief executive. At its very core, Plame Gate is the story of an abuse of executive power, involving the critical national security matter of exposing a covert agent for political retribution.
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Commentary: Soldiers who refuse to go back to Iraq are justified in decision
Thursday 27 October @ 19:28:18 (Read: 2903) |
by Chante Wolf
With more and more news filtering through the White House censors about torture and senseless killing of children and other Iraqi civilians, I ponder about what are the real images of American values?
Have we encouraged our men and women in uniform to sink below Saddam Hussein? What is the difference between Hussein using torture at Abu Ghraib or U.S. soldiers doing the same thing? What is the difference between Hussein using chemical weapons during his eight-year war with Iran (purchased from the U.S. Commerce Department) or our military using napalm, microwave devices, depleted uranium bombs and bullets, cluster and sound bombs, and 800 cruise missiles?
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Do Americans realize 40 countries make up the Americas?
Thursday 13 October @ 03:19:58 (Read: 2511) |
by Evelyn Dye-Garcia
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in search of new lands, gold and the wealth and power that it would bring him. He “discovered” the already inhabited islands of the Caribbean where millions of Taino people had been living for 2,000 years. He fell to his knees and 'claimed' their land for Spain. Columbus wrote in his journal that they were strong, well-built people and so generous you had to see it to believe it. He also wrote that with his weapons and 50 men he could take over the entire population.
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Did Bush administration attack peace movement with military-grade biological bac
Thursday 13 October @ 03:48:05 (Read: 2651) |
by Bob Fitrakis
What do we make of the Saturday, Oct. 1, Washington Post headline “Poison Found in Air During Anti-War Protest”?
Washington, D.C., Public Health Director Gregg A. Pane posed the right question in the Post article, “Why that day? That's what is not explained.” Pane pointed out that it was “just this 24-hour period and none since.”
The Post noted that Pane found “. . . it was puzzling that the finding was from a day when the mall was packed with people.”
Puzzling? Indeed. Biohazard sensors detected tularemia bacteria at the mall on Saturday, Sept. 24.
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commentary: Do people in Mexico hate Africans?
Wednesday 31 August @ 05:32:26 (Read: 3031) |
by Stan Gotlieb
President Vicente Fox, a “lame duck” executive with five years into his one and only six year term—Mexican laws do not allow for re-election—has been a lackluster and ineffective voice for internal change. Hampered by a strong opposition bloc in the legislature, his plans for further globalizing Mexico have not fared well, nor has the welfare of his people.
Only when raising his voice to defend the Mexican culture against “Yankee Cultural Imperialism” does he resonate with the electorate, and nothing illustrates this better than the recent flap over Memin Pinguin.
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commentary: Mann commentary was anti-Israel
Wednesday 31 August @ 05:18:54 (Read: 4006) |
by Cheryl Fields
On the eve of 9,000 Jews being forcibly relocated from Gaza (because no Jews will be allowed to live in the future Palestinian state—so be it), WAMM co-founder Polly Mann chose to talk about alleged maltreatment of two Palestinian protestors in an incident that occurred months ago. (Pulse, 8-4-05).
As the local paradigm of “peacemaker,” some of Mann’s views are bound to be believed, although even the words she chooses to express her views are far from conciliatory. For example, Mann continues to refer to Israel’s security barrier (a more neutral term) as an “apartheid wall” (them’s fightin’ words) perpetrating what is a long since discredited analogy. It is neither a “wall,” although small but contentious segments are made of concrete, nor is it “apartheid”—economic hardships being an unfortunate secondary effect but not the purpose for the barrier.
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commentary: Feds close sacred spring to visitors
Friday 26 August @ 05:42:32 (Read: 3274) |
Coldwater an ongoing source of controversy
by Susu Jeffrey
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has closed historic Coldwater Spring to visitors except for one hour per week, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays. Coldwater, south of Minnehaha Park, is the last major spring in the Twin Cities and a sacred site, with 100,000 gallons a day flowing out to the river.
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commentary: Cultures of illusions
Friday 26 August @ 04:42:32 (Read: 2536) |
by Jessica Thoennes
Peace Corps Volunteer
With olive trees galore, amidst red rocky highlands, I see the natural beauty of this Jordanian village which lies in close proximity to the Palestinian and Syrian borders. Past my eyes which seek nature’s peace and tranquility, I feel I have learned a great lesson about stereotypes, images, and illusions created between two opposing cultures of truly similar people. At a time in history of great unrest and misunderstanding between the civilized and uncivilized, developed and undeveloped, third world and first (or whatever you choose to call the other), it is ever more crucial to understand one another.
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Commentary: E-mail can be an agent of change
Wednesday 03 August @ 18:26:27 (Read: 3856) |
by Polly Mann
Many of us complain about the lack of U.S. media that is not beholden to the U.S. consumer society. I do. My news sources are Amy Goodman and the British Guardian. But there is a news source that is even interactive—e-mail. To prove the veracity of e-mails requires, of course, analysis as to origin and authenticity. But this is also true of the corporate media.
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Commentary: How to run an indie political campaign
Thursday 28 July @ 15:17:39 (Read: 2862) |
by Paulette Corona
When you hear of a candidate running for an election, it is all too easy to think that all candidates are the same with little variance in positions on issues. The Democrat and Republican parties are established systems that are very difficult to beat.
However, Samantha Smart—running for Minneapolis Library Board—is not your average independent candidate. She has been endorsed by the Union of Radical Writers and Workers, Minnesota National Organization of Women (MN NOW), Minnesota Women’s Political Caucus and the Minnesota Women’s Campaign Fund.
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Commentary: Another village under threat
Thursday 30 June @ 14:35:48 (Read: 3579) |
by K. Flo Razowsky
The mountains of Palestine form a sharp edge that plunges into the Jordan Valley as if cut by a knife. Almost to the rim of this drastic landscape lies the village of Al Aqaba, located in the farthest Palestinian lands of the Jenin region. It is almost a no-man’s land, nestled in the soft rolling foothills of the towering mountains, stirred by the strong breeze cooling the hot spring day.
We went to Al Aqaba to speak with Haj Sammy, the mayor. When he was 16, Sammy was shot twice by the Israeli military as he walked across the land to see his family. One of the bullets he still carries in his body, too near his spine to safely remove. The military uses the land around Al Aqaba for their training practices, having killed eight and wounded 50 since 1971. Haj Sammy’s wound is one such example. He has been paralyzed since.
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Commentary: Richard LaFortune, Renaissance Man
Wednesday 15 June @ 15:04:41 (Read: 4275) |
Gay Pride parade Grand Marshal is also community leader, conservationist
by David Tilsen
There are so many interesting exciting people in this world, and I just met several more. Their name is Richard LaFortune.
OK, I am being a little cute, but you see, when I sat down to interview the Grand Marshal for the Minneapolis Gay Pride parade, I had no idea this was the same Native environmentalist I had known almost 20 years ago fighting the storage of nuclear waste at Prairie Island.
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Commentary: Protestors demand terrorist be punished
Wednesday 15 June @ 14:47:23 (Read: 3326) |
by Ed Felien
On Monday, June 13, about two dozen demonstrators gathered in front of the new Federal Building on 4th Street to protest the U.S. handling of Posada Carriles. Venezuela is requesting extradition of Posada in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion airliner in which 73 people died.
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Commentary: Not For Sale: Resisting prostitution and porn
Wednesday 15 June @ 14:41:40 (Read: 4938) |
by Samantha Smart
“Prostitution is the colonization of women.” This passage of Melissa Farley and Jacqueline Lynne’s essay, “Prostitution in Vancouver: Pimping Women and the Colonization of First Nations,” part of the brand new anthology “Not For Sale: Feminists Resisting Prostitution and Pornography,” is stunning in its stark simple truth. Conquest of any sort is predicated on the objectification of all that stands in the way of ownership, so that the slaughter can begin with rationalization greasing the wheels.
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Commentary: Fair to focus on local independent media
Wednesday 01 June @ 03:07:55 (Read: 3298) |
by Burt Berlowe and John Slade
The rumblings of a revolution are moving and shaking the quiet, hallowed halls of Hamline University.
Come this Saturday, the college’s summer hiatus will be interrupted by the noise of ordinary people speaking truth to power. The “power” in this case, is the mainstream media, with its well-earned reputation for deception and dominance. Leaders of the “truth” squad range from the in-your-face Counter-Propaganda Coalition and the activist Free Media Greens to the newly-formed Twin Cities Media Alliance, founded by journalist Jeremy Iggers.
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Commentary: Peter Bell’s crocodile tears
Wednesday 18 May @ 21:38:39 (Read: 3268) |
New proposal could create $5 bus fares, bust unions
by DAVID RUBENSTEIN
Here’s something to think about if bus fares go up by a quarter this summer. If Minnesota Republicans do what they’ve said they want to do, the day will come when a lot of people in the metro area will be dropping their entire first hour’s wage into the fare box just to get back and forth to work.
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Commentary: A real political convention
Wednesday 18 May @ 21:24:15 (Read: 3204) |
by David Tilsen
I have always argued with people who tell me they don’t do politics, or they avoid politics. Politics is simply the way that people in groups interact to make decisions. There is politics in your church, synagogue or mosque committees, politics in classrooms and, of course, politics at political conventions. When people need to make decisions, they do it with all of their honesty and intelligence (or lack of it). That is why I enjoy large political gatherings; they are full of real people forcing themselves to interact with each other to make a decision.
The DFL city conven tion last Saturday was amazing. There were about 2,000 delegates and many more volunteers. Sure it was disorganized and was run by volunteers without almost no budget, but they did get everyone registered, and in their seats.
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Commentary: My Rainbow Sash experience
Wednesday 18 May @ 14:14:45 (Read: 4862) |
by Michael J. Bayly
My experience as part of the Rainbow Sash action at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Pentecost Sunday was actually quite a positive one. I felt totally in communion with those around me and with God—even though the priest presiding at the mass, Father Michael Skluzacek, denied the Eucharist to all who were wearing the sash—myself included.
My friend Eduard and I arrived a half hour before mass started. We joined the other Rainbow Sashers at the cathedral’s side entrance and donned our sashes in the late morning sunshine. I was interviewed by KARE 11 News and by a reporter from the Pioneer Press.
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Commentary: Is there a dime’s worth of difference?
Wednesday 11 May @ 17:02:53 (Read: 5690) |
by Ed Felien
In the interest of complete disclosure, I confess I’ve run against Peter McLaughlin on at least two occasions: 20 years ago I competed against him for the DFL endorsement for an open seat in the Legislature, and two years ago I ran against him for County Commissioner. I had hopes of beating him both times, but, realistically, I’m a radical, Peter’s a liberal, and in both contests liberal was as far out as most people wanted to go. Peter’s unabashed support for Pohlad’s baseball stadium was an issue I trumpeted two years ago. There was some traction with voters on the issue, but not enough to get me even 20 percent of the votes in the General Election.
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Commentary: DFL endorses this weekend
Wednesday 11 May @ 16:49:12 (Read: 3336) |
by David Tilsen
If you live, work, own property or recreate in Minneapolis, regardless of your party affiliation (or lack of it), the Democratic city convention coming up this weekend (May 14) will affect you. It is a good bet that most of the candidates endorsed by the DFL in the month and a half ending with the city convention will collectively govern your city.
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Commentary: Hey Peter! Hey RT! We get to vote on it!
Wednesday 27 April @ 22:01:25 (Read: 4580) |
by Ed Felien
On two occasions the voters of Minneapolis have amended their City Charter to say they want a vote on any expenditure of money used to build a sports stadium. In the past, city officials have found ways around this embarrassing demand of the people. They’ve set up Metropolitan Sports Commissions, etc. The newest proposal by the county proposes to spend sales tax revenue to build the stadium. This means the most regressive tax (the one that disproportionately taxes poor people) will be used to subsidize a local billionaire’s playground for his millionaire boys in pajamas.
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Commentary: Mexican politicians persecute populist
Wednesday 13 April @ 00:12:56 (Read: 5926) |
by John Hazard
Editor’s note: Pulse of the Twin Cities writer John Hazard is currently in Mexico City, where the popular mayor is under arrest.
Within a few hours of the time I write this, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the populist mayor of Mexico City, will be stripped of his official immunity and removed from the job for a technicality after a congressional “trial” of about 10 hours. Or less.
The Partido de Accion Nacional (PAN), one of the largest political parties, accuses him of having violated a restraining order regarding construction around an expropriated property. The definition of the property is not clear, and is not the point. The point is the desire of the political right to execute a pre-emptive coup against the person who leads his nearest rival 2 - 1 in a three-way race for the presidency next year.
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Commentary: A is for Apple, D is for Drug-Test
Tuesday 12 April @ 23:47:00 (Read: 3690) |
Our War @ Home
A is for Apple, D is for Drug-Test
by Aaron Neumann
Remember the innocence of middle school – gym class, lunch hours, detention, fitting in, girls liking boys etc., and...random urinary drug tests? OK, maybe you don’t remember being forced to pee in a cup for analysis after recess, but if the Bush Administration gets it’s way, the next generation of middle and high-school students will have “fond” memories of being subjugated to random and humiliating drug tests in our public schools.
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Commentary: Libraries, money and the power of the people
Wednesday 30 March @ 17:50:08 (Read: 3081) |
by Samantha Smart
If you are reading this article in the subterranean comfort of Uptown’s Walker Library, cherish the moment: If the gentrification of the area continues, your spot could be a shiny towering condominium development sandwiched between Starbucks and Gucci.
Right now, however, the library has other problems. Quietly, on March 16, the Library Board terminated the Community Participation Initiative over the lone objections of trustee Diane Hofstede. You may never have heard of the CPI, a group that has met over the past year to feed the board community input.
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Commentary: Reflections on Palm Sunday and the Revolution
Wednesday 23 March @ 01:12:09 (Read: 3323) |
by Ed Felien
On the way to brunch last Sunday, my wife and I passed churches just as services let out. It was Palm Sunday. They had just come from church where they’d been given palm leaves to symbolically spread before Jesus riding a donkey on his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem.
Of course, it didn’t turn out so well for Jesus in 33 AD, or for the Jews, for that matter, in Masada a few years later.
It was shortly after the triumphal march that they arrested and crucified him.
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Commentary - RE: Teens take on military recruiters
Wednesday 16 March @ 18:05:31 (Read: 3985) |
Editor’s note: Pulse recently published an article about Kennedy high school students who organized a counter-recruitment drive in response to military recruiters at their school. The story inspired more than 30 messages to our website, all but two of which were positive. Here is a sampling of the responses, both signed and anonymous:
“How great to read about the courage of the anti-war kids ... it’s just sad to see the fight they have to wage to get the same free speech rights as the military. I’m utterly disgusted that “No Child Left Behind,” among other awful provisions, calls for giving kids’ personal information to recruiters! Thanks, kids, for standing up for all of us!”
— Michigan Mom
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Commentary: High school students won victory
Wednesday 02 March @ 20:26:46 (Read: 6700) |
by Brandon Madsen and Matt Johnson,
Kennedy High students
For weeks, our club at Kennedy High School, Youth Against War and Racism, had planned to set up an anti-war information table at lunch on Wednesday, Feb. 23. This was the day military recruiters were scheduled to visit the school.
But Tuesday morning, our principal, Ron Simmons, was visited by representatives from the American Legion. They threatened to withdraw financial support from our school unless we were forbidden from tabling Wednesday. District Superintendent Gary Prest, also pressured by the American Legion, called Principal Simmons, telling him to shut us down.
However, we were not about to accept this flagrant violation of our right to free speech or allow the American Legion to blackmail our school.
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Commentary: Death of a Gonzo God
Wednesday 23 February @ 00:41:08 (Read: 3527) |
by Carey L. Biron
I was just back into Manila when Hunter Thompson shot himself in the head. I had been up in the northern provinces for a series of interviews, as well as to dry out from a severe MSG addiction raging in the city. I’m assuming Hunter would have approved of all of these.
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Commentary: Iraqis Need Real Democracy
Friday 18 February @ 22:25:19 (Read: 3261) |
by Alan Dale & Kristin Dooley
The elections held in Iraq at the end of last month are being hailed by the Bush administration as a vindication of the U.S. military invasion and occupation of Iraq. There are, however, several alternative views of what the Iraqi vote actually means.
A look at mainstream reporting from Iraq over the past two years reveals a fondness for discovering a new “turning point” in the situation in Iraq and the elections were honored with the label this time around.
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Commentary: Hold On to Your Wallets
Friday 18 February @ 22:21:33 (Read: 3249) |
by David Tilsen
Anyone under 30 should be worried—very worried—about social security reform. Not for the reasons that are stated by the administration’s pundits and the media. The truth is that you are about to be fleeced, and fleeced by millionaires.
This should not be surprising; how do you think they got to be millionaires? They are in the second-oldest profession in the world, that of theft via power, and they have gotten very good at it. No longer does the king ride with his soldiers taking grain and goods from the populace, now they do it with the help of PR firms, lies and bigger lies.
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Commentary: Protest Iraq’s fake elections
Wednesday 02 February @ 17:47:08 (Read: 3207) |
by Meg Novak
At the time of the writing of this article, the results of the Iraqi elections will not yet be in, but the winners—the Bush administration and its wealthy backers—will be clear.
The Iraqi elections are not “free and fair elections” any more than those in Afghanistan. They will be carried out according to laws set by former U.S. viceroy Paul Bremer, before he left office last June. Iraqis are not voting for a party or individual, but rather for a list of more than 111 political parties and 7,700 candidates, most of whom have chosen to remain anonymous due to security concerns. The lists are primarily designed by religious or ethnic affiliation—the Shi’ia list, the Kurdish list and so on so Iraqis will vote not according to the credibility or policies of a person or party but for an ethnic group, a national group or a religious faction.
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Commentary: Stories to tell our children
Wednesday 02 February @ 17:01:19 (Read: 4845) |
by Ed Felien
The groundhog saw his shadow, and, now, we'll have six more weeks of winter. Did you ever wonder where that story came from?
There are four well-known points on the calendar. Summer and Winter Solstice, and the Spring and Fall Equinox. But there are four other points as well. Points on the calendar sacred to our ancestors long before the Christian era. Those are the points midway between the other four. Mayday is one. Midsommer another. And Halloween and Groundhog's Day. Those days celebrate a special time during the year that is between the seasons, when weather and time seem to go in all directions.
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Commentary: Open race in Mpls 8th Ward
Thursday 27 January @ 14:40:20 (Read: 3889) |
Seven from Area Expected to run
by David Tillsen
In just another year, a new city councilmember from Minneapolis’ 8th ward will be sworn in. (And soon after, sworn at, as the cliché goes. Why anyone would agree to take this job is a mystery to me, but fortunately a slew — I think that is the official word for a group of politicians, kind of like a murder of crows—of excellent qualified people are running. Official filing is not until July, but the race for the DFL (local Democratic Party endorsement will likely determine the winner).
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Opinion: Objections to Mideast Story Absurd
Wednesday 08 September @ 14:28:56 (Read: 3748) |
by Lydia Howell
Around the same time that Cheryl Fields wrote her commentary, falsely headlined “Middle East story one-sided,” another horrible Palestinian suicide bombing killed men, women and children. As I write this letter, the Israeli army has launched missiles on a Palestinian neighborhood, killing 17 men, women and children. (Were they all terrorists?)
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Commentary: Tobacco story needs clarifying
Thursday 26 August @ 16:57:04 (Read: 4114) |
by Rep. Ron Latz
I was pleased to see the support for smokefree workplaces in your article, “Who is winning the Tobacco Wars?” However, I need to respond to clarify some of the information in the article. First, you said that the bill was ill conceived and hastily written.
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Commentary: ‘Tobacco firm’ thanks council
Wednesday 14 July @ 14:59:28 (Read: 7553) |
by Rich Fromdeth
Licensed to Kill, Inc., a tobacco company incorporated in Virginia, commends certain Twin City politicians — Minneapolis council members Lisa Goodman, Sandy Colvin-Roy, Barret Lane, Barbara Johnson and Paul Ostrow with St. Paul council members Pat Harris, Dan Bostrom, and Debbie Montgomery — for stalling and questioning efforts to banish tobacco smoke pollution from all workplaces. It is heartening to know there are leaders still willing to delay and compromise when it comes to public health.
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