Eat Some Truth, Liar!

(A Response to the Idiot, Andy Borowitz of borowitzreport.com)

Dear Andy,

Nice piece on Nader and Bloomberg. Wow, I just laughed and laughed til my sides hurt. Ha ha ha. The way you vilified that guy .... Wow, ha ha ha .... Gosh, I am still laughing!

It is due to people like you and propaganda like yours that so many illiterate Democratic Party sheeple are mad at this great and honorable (and anything but egotistical) American. If you feel well-informed enough that you regularly publish your opinion on the web then you must also be aware that you are simply touting the corporate Dem line. That would make you a pretty evil guy in most people's book, but just in case you really are writing from some kind of info-vacuum (or just don't read much outside of People Magazine and the Sunday Times), let me fill you in on some facts.

You know what facts are right? You know, those little things that make up a bigger thing I like to call ... the truth? After reading and absorbing and analyzing and questioning my facts and my truth, you will be better informed. Then, when you write your next bonehead missive excoriating Ralph, we can all skip the pleasantries and KNOW that you are a fully informed evil propagandist and not just an idiot who doesn't know any better.

1 - Gore won (as did Kerry). Why did these cowards back down and concede? Read some Palast for Christ's sakes!

2 - The difference in 2000 in Florida was 537 votes. More than 50,000 blacks were purged from the Florida voter roles. Do the math! Who's a bigger racist felon? Bush for stealing the vote from Black Floridians or Gore for allowing him to?

3 - There were SIX other indie or third party candidates on the Florida ballot in 2000. ALL of them had more than 537 votes. Gee, why was Ralph singled out?

4 - Ralph is not allowed in corporate media debates. He would slaughter the corporate stooges you are such a proud apologist for. I guess its not in an idiot's best interest to have real debate.

5 - Ten times more Dems voted for GW than voted for Nader in Florida.

Explain yourself or just eat some truth, you liar!

No Surprises Here

Looks like McCain and Hillary in 2008 - Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, again? There really are no surprises in national politics! Have we really learned absolutely nothing over the last four decades about how we are all manipulated?

The two major political parties will once again nominate Presidential candidates from the corporate wings of their parties and that will leave us ... corporate control as usual.

When this happens, we all have two choices - throw in the towel .... Or fight back.

If you choose to fight back, here's a good option: Join with a person whose life is one of dedicated service to the public interest.

To help him organize a political campaign in every state against corporate control over our lives.
Luckily, that person - Ralph Nader - is considering such a campaign. But he will need active and informed citizens in every Congressional district in the country.

He will need volunteers.

He will need funds.

He will need dedication.

That's why I've already signed on at Nader's exploratory web site: http://www.naderexplore08.org

Check it out. Donate money if you can. And spread the word.

In 2008, it's either sit back and watch the drift .... Or get off the couch and fight back.
I hope you will join with us in actually fighting back this time.

Thank You To MLK Day Committee

My Dear Friends,

I just can't thank you enough for all of your hard work in planning and organizing and putting together this year's Martin Luther King celebration. The Post-Star's Alyson Martin asked me afterwards why I thought it was a "success". I told her that I would never measure an event to honor such an amazing human being in such simple terms. I told her that anytime people from many diverse backgrounds and communities; churchgoers, activists, farmers, musicians, insurance salespeople, public servants, writers, readers, young and old, differing skin tones (and weights and ideologies and languages) can all join with each other to sing hymns and to celebrate the clear and powerful message of love and good work that the Reverend Doctor had, literally, flowing through him, is certainly a SUCCESS, at least in my book.

Although Alyson could in no way hope to encapsulate last night's happening in a short column in the Post-Star, she did do a pretty good job. I would only fault her for not attempting to capture the preaching of Reverend Leonard Oates (thunderous and emotive and honest and full of the spirit as it was). That said, she did a pretty good job. I just want to say to you all that "I" did not do this. "We" did this and I humbly thank you for allowing me to be part of it.

Peace,

Matt

P.S. For those on the committee (or for those who wish to serve on next year's), we have all talked about having a dinner meeting to start planning next year's event. Please send me suggestions and we'll figure it out. I will go ahead and suggest Glen Street Bistro. They now have a private upstairs dining room (and we all know they have great food at very reasonable prices). Please tell me what weeknights are good for you and where you'd like to have dinner and we'll try to accommodate everyone we can in planning it out.

MLK Day - Glens Falls Style

MEDIA RELEASE

Local Commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Matt Funiciello (518) 793 - 0075 or mattfuniciello@earthlink.net

January 14, 2008 - The Glens Falls Martin Luther King Committee announced today that the 2008 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Commemoration will be held Monday, January 21, 2008 in Glens Falls.

Adirondack Native Dr. Alice Green will be the Keynote Speaker of the day’s events with a speech entitled “Doctor King: From Dreamer to Revolutionary.” Dr. Green is the co-founder and Executive Director of The Center for Law and Justice, a non-profit community organization that monitors criminal justice activities, provides legal assistance and criminal justice advocacy, organizes efforts to change social policy and empowers poor people and people of color. She entered the 2005 Mayor's race in Albany running as the Green Party's candidate in which she garnered an impressive 28% of the vote.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most important leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Dr. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech during the March on Washington in 1963. Dr. King vociferously opposed the Viet Nam War and became the youngest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Peace Price. He was assassinated forty years ago this April 4 while in Memphis, Tennessee, to support striking black sanitary public works employees, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Dr. King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Although James Earl Ray was arrested, convicted and imprisoned for Dr. King’s murder, in 1999 Dr. King’s widow Coretta Scott King, along with the rest of King's family, won a wrongful death civil trial against Loyd Jowers and “other unknown co-conspirators.” Jowers claimed to have received $100,000 to arrange King's assassination. The jury of six whites and six blacks found Jowers guilty and that “governmental agencies were parties” to the assassination plot.

Martin Luther King Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986, but it wasn’t until 2000 that all 50 states officially observed the holiday for the first time. Before 2000 the holiday was not observed by New Hampshire, Arizona, or South Carolina and in Virginia, the holiday was added on to Lee-Jackson Day, a day meant to honor confederate generals, and became Lee-Jackson-King Day. Although the day is now a universally celebrated federal and state holiday, it is usually not observed by American corporations.

The event will begin at 4:30 pm on the steps of Glens Falls City Hall with remarks from local politicians, including Glens Falls Mayor Roy Akins and Assemblywoman Theresa Sayward. At 5 pm, following their brief remarks, marchers will proceed to Christ Church at 54 Bay Street where a public program commemorating and celebrating the life, work, and message of Dr. King will be held beginning at 5:30 pm.

The public event at Christ Church will feature an opening prayer, music and hymns by a community choir and local musicians, readings from Doctor King and the keynote speech given by Dr. Alice Green. A reception with baked goods and hot beverages donated by local businesses will follow.

[END]

Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic

Contact Information: Matt Funiciello (518) 361-6278 mattfuniciello@earthlink.net

Tuesday February 5th ** SPECIAL EVENT **
Author/Journalist, Paul Hockenos, will be in the area and will read from and discuss his latest book, "Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic", at the Rock Hill Cafe, 19 Exchange Street in Glens Falls, N.Y. (Elm & Hudson near G.F. Hospital).

Paul Hockenos is an American Berlin-based author and political analyst who has written about Europe since 1989. His articles and commentaries have appeared in dozens of periodicals in Europe and North America. Hockenos is also the author of Free to Hate: The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe and Homeland Calling: Exile Patriotism and the Balkan Wars. He is presently the editor of Internationale Politik-Global Edition, a foreign affairs quarterly published in Germany.

JOSCHKA FISCHER AND THE MAKING OF THE BERLIN REPUBLIC: An Alternative History of Postwar Germany
Over the course of his long and controversial career, Joschka Fischer evolved from an archetypal 1960s radical--a firebrand street activist--into a shrewd political insider, operating at the heights of German politics. In the 1980s he was one of the first elected Greens and went on to become Germany's foreign minister from 1998 to 2005. His famous challenge to Donald Rumsfeld's case for invading Iraq--"Excuse me, I am not convinced"--won him worldwide recognition, and the Bush administration's contempt.

Here is both a lively biography of Joschka Fischer and a gripping history 'from below'of postwar Germany. Paul Hockenos begins in the ruins of postwar Germany and guides us through the flashpoints of the late sixties and seventies, from the student protests and the terrorism of the Baader-Meinhof group to the evolution of Europe's premier Green party, and brings us up to the present in the united Germany. He shows how the grassroots movements that became the German Greens challenged and changed the republic's status quo, making postwar Germany more democratic, liberal and worldly along the way. Despite the ideological twists and turns of Fischer and his peers, the lessons of the Holocaust and the Nazi terror remained their constant coordinates. Hockenos traces that political journey, providing readers with unique insight into the impact that these movements and the Greens have had on Germany.

Informed by hundreds of interviews with key figures and fellow travelers, Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic presents readers with one of the most intriguing personalities on the European scene, and paints a rich picture of the rebellious generation of 1968 that became the political elite of modern Germany.

Reviews

"For years, Paul Hockenos has been a refreshingly independent and tough-minded observer of the politics of Eastern and Central Europe. Now he gives us a lucid, comprehensive account of the rise of Joschka Fischer and the whole panoply of red-green politics in Germany. Filling in many holes, at least for the English-speaking public, he shows how much German democracy owes to post-60s citizens' movements and the '68-ers' proverbial 'long march through the institutions.'"--Todd Gitlin, author of The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage

"This is an ambitious and original book, deeply researched and lucidly written. It should be on the must-read list for anyone interested in late twentieth-century German history and in the history and legacy of the 1968 generation."--Mary Nolan, Professor of History, New York University

"Modern Germany is very different from the uptight and defensive country--with much to be defensive about--that I first visited in the 1960s. The significant role in that transformation played by the 'sixty-eight generation'--and above all by the extraordinarily talented and ever personally evolving Joschka Fischer--is an intriguing story, which Paul Hockenos tells lucidly and well."--Gareth Evans, President, International Crisis Group and Foreign Minister of Australia 1988-96

"Paul Hockenos knows Germany very well, and he is not afraid to tackle ambiguity and complexity. His scholarly and eminently readable biography of Joschka Fischer provides a serious alternative to more conventional accounts of major changes in Germany."--Norman Birnbaum, author of After Progress: American Social Reform and European Socialism in the Twentieth Century

"A refreshingly clear, elegant portrait of the Europe most influenced by the US and most reflective of its ideals and follies. To understand Fischer and Germany's voyage over the last 60 years is to understand America's own. Those who wish to understand how others see the US today should read this book."--Marcia Pally, author of Critique Abandoned: The Ceding of Democracy

Don't Taze Me, Bro!

To the Media Project (WAMC)

Dear Alan, Ira and Rex,

In a recent show, you three were discussing the "biggest story" of 2007 and Ira, who normally displays such wonderful insight, dismissed the Florida University student who was tazed at a John Kerry appearance in Florida as a "wiseguy who wouldn't sit down". I've watched many youtube videos of this occurrence and Andrew Meyer waited calmly in line like everyone else and then asked John Kerry why he had conceded the 2004 election in the face of obvious voter fraud.

While Meyer was certainly insistent, the corporate media's rush to dismiss the guy entirely by calling him a "trickster" also implies that he deserved to be tazed. Watching any full-length video of the event, you can see that the man was a well-informed activist and that he was intent on asking Kerry some very uncomfortable questions but you can also see that there was clearly never a need to taze him.

Kerry's non-reaction (and the non-reaction of most audience members) to the overzealous police is quite frightening to behold. Six or more cops hauled this kid up the auditorium aisle, stopped, pinned him and tazed him twice when he was clearly and completely under their control. The man's supposed reputation as a "trickster" should be irrelevant in the face of such stupidity and excess.

Ira, you know better than to buy the corporate media's spin on anything! I can only ask that you watch the videos and see if you still think the story is that simple. The REAL story is Andrew's
unanswered question and if the corporate press won't ask our mainstream ruling class politicians tough questions, who will? Maybe the "tricksters" among us, like Andrew Meyer, feel they have no choice but to show up and do the press' job? Are they so wrong?

Here are two videos of the event. In the second one you can clearly hear the police telling him that he will be tased (as six of them have him pinned). He responds, "Let me up. I'll walk right out of here".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-PcS-s9WtQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE&feature=related

The Fix Is In (And It Has Been For Over Six Years)

I've been saying for many years that people have to stop pretending that two party primaries aren't fixed. We are nothing more than a country of sleepy consuming dullards being manipulated and marketed to by McDonald's/Federal Government/Military Industrial Complex (insert evil mechanism of choice). Who the two parties "select" to represent us is no different. They offer us choices; "Would you prefer a Whopper or a Big Mac - Hillary Clinton or John McCain" The "sameness" is VERY important. The candidates MUST be the same or, at least, very similar. Only hamburgers are allowed! Those who may want soup or salad or a fruit plate can just piss off. This is America, damn it!

I'm pretty sure that, regardless of all the buzzing bees, Hillary and McCain will ultimately be the candidates and the reason I know this is quite simple. For about six years, the corporate press has been giving both of them tons of free advertising and none of the other candidates have received this kind of constant free national attention because ... the fix is in, as it always is.

When "the dullards" (the kind of people who only follow politics once every four years and who often do so by watching TV) start to decide who they will support in the primaries, they usually resort to voting for whomever they are most FAMILIAR with (with the caveat that this person also be wearing their team's "colors").

For better or worse, Hillary and McCain are those candidates. It is the frightened dullard CENTER who ultimately decide who the two parties will put up and McCain and Hillary have very similar ideals and agendas. After 8 years of impending fascism, the dullards will once again accept one of these well-known Dems or Reps as their champion as if either of them are principled human beings instead of just lobbyist donation receptacles! Stop pretending the two party primaries are real! It just encourages them.