Friday, July 30, 2004

Ride The Donkey FEATURED ARTICLES - Links to text & video of the Dem Convention Speeches,  dems2004.org - Vietnam Veterans Find Validation in Kerry,  Washingtonpost.com - The Greenest Convention Ever,  Grist Magazine - Dem Souvenirs are MADE IN THE USA,  by Union Workers, AP - Some Notes For The Kerry Campaign, If Wanted,  by Wendell Berry QUOTE OF THE DAY "However obscured by a history that has fallen short, our religious principles are justice, mercy, peaceableness, and loving kindness toward fellow humans and the gifts of nature; as our political principles are freedom confirmed in law, honesty, and public accountability. These are not the principles of a party. They are our free inheritance as human beings and as citizens living under the Constitution of the United States." - - Wendell Berry KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JULY 30th 1881 -- US Marine General Smedley Butler is born. Best remembered for his book "War is a Racket." Smedley Darlington Butler was one of the most conscience-driven & controversial men ever to wear the uniform of the U.S. Marines. Although he rose to the rank of Major General and was a two-time winner of the Medal of Honor, Butler is remembered today as a vocal critic of colonialism & American foreign policy.  By the time of his retirement in 1931, in bitter reflection on a 33 year military career, he realized that far from "making the world safe for democracy" he had spent his entire adult life fighting dirty little wars all over Asia and Latin America whose true purpose was to enrich a handful of wealthy industrialists.   - BleedsterCamy "War Is A Racket" Online http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html 1944 -- The New York Times reports "labor-management antagonisms which forecast a post-war period of great turmoil..." Business was set to break de facto control of production won by workers during the war. The real question was not whether there would be strikes, but whether they would be union-controlled or wildcat. During the 44 months from Pearl Harbor to V-J Day, there were 14,471 strikes involving 6,774,000 strikers. In 1944 alone there were 369,000 steel & iron workers, 389,000 auto workers, 363,000 other transportation equipment workers, & 278,000 miners involved in strikes. RHINO HERE: If you didn't catch some or all of the speeches given at The Democratic Convention this week, most of them are posted online at the Dems2004.org site.  There were many that Rhino thinks are worthy of your time.  Some are available in streaming video.  My fave's? Barack Obama, Max Cleland, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, John Edwards, and, as they say, "The next President of The United States, John Kerry." Links to text & video of the Dem Convention Speeches at: Speeches Al Sharpton was brilliant, getting flack from the tri letter mike stands for going twice as long as he was allotted, but Rhino loved every second of it. Answering the shrub's question, which he put to The Urban League last week, "Hasn't the Democratic Party taken the black vote for granted?" Sharpton reminded that  while Republican Abe Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation, most black folks never got the 40 acres & a mule that the proclamation had promised. Consequently, they had decided to ride this here donkey. Unfortunately, the copy of his speech posted online is merely a rough outline of what he actually said. Max Cleland's introduction of the nominee was an intelligent, emotional & brilliantly crafted handoff to Senator Kerry who, entering the hall soundtracked by Springstein singing "Born To Run," proceeded to deliver a tour de force oratory as strong as any I've ever heard. He spoke in behalf of the homeless & the middle class, women & labor, soldiers & veterans and children & teachers. He evoked the best of what America has been & can be. If he means all of what he said, and intends to really do what he said, the I believe him when he said, "Hope is on the way." Say what you will, but at several points, Rhino was brought to tears. At the end of the speech, they played U2's "Beautiful Day." Below are links to some convention related stories, like that all souvenirs were US Union made, and that this was the greenest political convention ever in terms of biodegradable balloons & recycled confetti and such. RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is by Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry, the 2004 recipient of the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Award for his recent book, "Citizen's Dissent: Security, Morality, and Leadership in an Age of Terror."  Here he offers sagacious advice to the Kerry Campaign. Rhino thinks, in spite of a successful united convention, the Democrats are in for a fight and will need all the wisdom the can muster. Vietnam Veterans Find Validation in Kerry Nomination symbolizes generational affirmation for many By David Maraniss, WashingtonPost.Com, July 29, 2004 BOSTON, July 28 - Since the searing spring day in 1968 when a grenade blew away his legs and left only a stump of his right arm, Max Cleland has been on what he calls a long and discomforting search for meaning. He has wondered about the purpose of his time in Vietnam, the lessons of his wounds, the reasons for his survival. For seven minutes on Thursday night, when he rolls his wheelchair to center stage at the Democratic National Convention and introduces his friend John F. Kerry to the nation, Cleland thinks he will be closer than ever to answering those timeless questions. It promises to be the most emotional scene of the convention:... MORE POSTED AT: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5542805 The Greenest Convention Ever by Amanda Griscom, Grist Magazine, July 28, 2004 Environmentalism descended on the Democratic National Convention this week in the form of biodegradable balloons and recycled confetti - and that's just the beginning. All of the electricity powering the festivities at the Democratic National Convention has come from renewable sources or an onsite fuel-cell generator. Local Massachusetts farms are supplying food for a handful of the convention events, and leftovers are being donated or composted. Greenhouse-gas credits will offset the carbon-dioxide emissions generated by convention delegates as they travel to and from Boston, and hybrid gas-electric buses are shuttling people between events.  This is the handiwork of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Conventions, a new organization that has collaborated with the city of Boston and the Democratic National Convention Committee to pull off what CERC executive director Daniel Ruben boasts is "certifiably the greenest presidential convention that's been organized in modern history!"... MORE POSTED AT: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19392 Unlike the GOP's Sweatshop Items, Dem Souvenirs are MADE IN THE USA - by Union Workers By LEIGH STROPE, Associated Press, 7/29/04 (via Democrats.com) "The official convention souvenirs are made in America - and with union labor, of course. Look closely and you can even see which union toiled on the T-shirts, bumper stickers and dog tags touting John Kerry and John Edwards. No sweatshops here. Conventioneers snapped up Kerry-Edwards T-shirts made by Windjammer in Bangor, Pa., with labor by the union UNITE-HERE, formerly the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees. The shirt tags have special UNITE labels. Union President Bruce Raynor said Thursday that he approached Kerry soon after he emerged as the nominee, asking that the campaign use UNITE-made T-shirts and other union-made trinkets. "We've worked closely with the Democrats to make sure that happened, and we're proud of that," he said. "I think you'll see a big contrast when Republicans convene in New York."... MORE POSTED AT: http://tinyurl.com/66pjo 11:16:43 AM    comment

Some Notes For The Kerry Campaign, If Wanted "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" Some Notes For The Kerry Campaign, If Wanted by Wendell Berry, Orion Online, July-August 2004 FACING THIS YEAR'S presidential election, our people are bitterly divided. This division is perhaps as great a threat to our future as is the possibility of a second term for Mr. Bush. And so the paramount question for Sen. Kerry's campaign is how to oppose Mr. Bush effectively without so exacerbating the country's political differences as to reduce the possibility of effective government should Sen. Kerry win the election. One answer, I believe, is to base the campaign solidly and clearly upon our traditional principles of politics and religion. (I am reluctant to say that religion ought to be a political issue in the United States, but it is unstoppably an issue in this campaign.) If the campaign is based soundly enough on principles, then it can be carried out, at least by Democrats, as a reasoned argument, and thus without sensationalizing personal and emotional differences. The further great advantage is that the Bush administration can be shown all too handily to be in violation of many of our country's traditional political and religious principles. Our government was understood by its founders, and it is understood by many of us still, as a government of laws -- of laws based in part on the laws of God. But the Bush administration, by various arrogations of power, has led us dangerously in the direction of autocracy. A government of laws cannot pardonably ignore either the rights of its citizens or its international treaties. A lot of people now long for national officials who are constantly and strictly mindful of our Bill of Rights. Our government has a long -- though imperfect and incomplete -- history of international cooperation, the good results of which are now seriously threatened by Mr. Bush's unilateralism and his doctrine of preemptive war. MORE: http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/Patriotism/index_Wendell_Berry.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 10:19:54 AM    comment

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