UI Black Student Union Calls Allies to Join May 2 March against Discrimination

On Friday, May 2 at 1:30pm the BSU is marching from the African-American Cultural Center to the Pentacrest.
They are marching against discrimination and have sent out an open call and invitation for all allies to march with them.
It is my sense that a prime or the prime trigger for this is the acquittal of those [...]

Talking points for you to write to Gazette about banning Torture

Talking Points From Human Rights First

It has been four years since we learned of the torture at Abu Ghraib and our government still has not acted to restore America’s honor by unequivocally banning torture and other forms of cruel treatment.
Now we’ve even learned that some very senior Bush administration officials were meeting to approve “enhanced” [...]

What You Need to Know about “Military Keynesianism”–Must-Read Article

http://www.alternet.org/story/83555/
The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke

By Chalmers Johnson, Le Monde diplomatique. Posted April 26, 2008.
Even if this article were only about Military Keynesianism, I’d urge you all to read it, but that interesting dynamic is just one important component of the destructiveness of our egregiously excessive military [...]

Speaker discussing Iran May 4th, 2008

SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2008
COE COLLEGE
HICKOCK HALL 2:30 PM
Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz, Prof. & Chair of Asian & Near
Eastern Lang. & Lit. Washington University
WILL SPEAK AT COE COLLEGE
“THE IRAN THAT SMILES”
She is an award winning poet & novelist and will sign
her latest book “Jasmine & Stars: Reading More than
Lolita in Tehran”. She was invited to speak [...]

Draft of a letter for the Gazette–give me feedback, please!

An enormous 71 per cent of Americans in an early April poll expressed a belief that their country is going in the wrong direction.  And no wonder.
But what are we doing about it?  If people imagine we’ll get some stunning transformation from electing any of three senators seeking the presidency, I’d like to suggest another [...]

Top Ten Signs We Finally Have an Anti-Torture President

(I got this in an email from Human Rights First.)

Top Ten Signs We Finally Have an Anti-Torture President
10)  The President goes waterskiing instead of waterboarding.
—Jill – Redding, Connecticut
9)   Grand opening of the “Sandals Guantanamo Bay Beach Resort”.
—James – South Orange, New Jersey
 ”Stress Positions” are only for Corporate CEOs, and the phrase “torture memo” refers [...]

How Cure Apathy?

I have recently had a couple of experiences that have left and lingering but not a very happy impression. One was in one of my courses at Mount Mercy, the other was tonight after a Linn Co. Greens viewing and discussion of Naomi Klein talking about the ideas in her book “Shock Doctrine.” [...]

Small Turn-out for Local King Remembrance

On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King, the civil rights leader who had become an increasingly unwelcome critic of war and empire and exploitation, was felled with a single bullet in Memphis. On April 4th, 2008, about 30 people turned out to mark the 40 year milestone.
By the eternal flame outside of the African [...]