| Subject: News from the North Texas Progressive
| | | | North Texas Progressive Newsletter
...bringing North Texas news and discussion since 2004 | | | | | Dear nancy, Good Morning!
Today we have some great articles that you may have missed and also some great local events and meetings. How about a road trip to Austin to attend the Molly ( Ivins) Journalism Award ?
Please make sure that I am on your groups mailing list (northtexasprogressive@gmail.com), please forward this newsletter today to one person in North Texas that you think might not already be a subscriber and recommend that they subscribe and have a great week!
Thanks,
Nancy Cunningham
Email /Webpage /Facebook /Twitter /Newsletetter archive | | Rep. Alan Grayson | The War Is Making You Poor Act | | 
by Congressman Alan Grayson, Michael Moore.com
Let's see how long the Generals want to fight if the wars have to be paid for out of the Pentagon's budget.
Next week, there is going to be a "debate" in Congress on yet another war funding bill. The bill is supposed to pass without debate, so no one will notice.
What George Orwell wrote about in "1984" has come true. What Eisenhower warned us about concerning the "military-industrial complex" has come true. War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape, so much so that no one notices it anymore.
But we're going to change this. Today, we're introducing a bill called 'The War Is Making You Poor Act'. The purpose of this bill is to connect the dots, and to show people in a real and concrete way the cost of these endless wars.
READ MORE and watch video | | Hightower's "Icky" Awards -- Who Are the Greediest, Grossest Corporate Hogs? | | 
This coveted corporate prize goes to the group of CEOs whose performances in the past 12 months exhibit the best combination of greediness, goofiness and grossness. Gas from the damaged Deepwater Horizon wellhead is burned by the drillship Discoverer Enterprise in the Gulf of Mexico on May 16, in a process known as flaring. The United States Tuesday closed off a large chunk of the Gulf of Mexico to fishing as fears a giant oil slick could be swept to Florida's beaches and coral reefs overshadowed progress in stemming the spill. It's not nearly as well known as an Emmy or Grammy, but the annual awarding of the "Icky" often produces high drama, fierce competition and gasps of surprise.
This coveted corporate prize goes to the group of CEOs whose performances in the past 12 months exhibit the best combination of greediness, goofiness and grossness.
read on | | Democracy Now | |  Denied Entry: Israel Blocks Noam Chomsky from Entering West Bank to Deliver Speech
On Sunday afternoon, Noam Chomsky was stopped by Israeli border guards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan. After over three hours of questioning, Chomsky's passport was stamped with "Denied Entry." He was scheduled to deliver a lecture at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah and was scheduled to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. No reason was initially given for the decision, but the Interior Ministry later told Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz that officials were now trying to get clearance from the Israel Defense Forces. Noam Chomsky joins us now from Amman, Jordan.
Listen/Watch/Read
Audio from 1998: Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) Hangs Up on Amy Goodman When Asked If He Has Ever Had an Affair
Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) resigned his House seat today after acknowledging he had an affair with a female staffer earlier this week. Long an advocate for "family values," Souder called for former President Bill Clinton to resign over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. On Sept. 17, 1998, during the Clinton impeachment scandal, Democracy Now! invited Rep. Souder and Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL) to discuss by phone a recent House vote on combating drugs. In the spirit of the times, Amy Goodman asked both men if they have ever had extramarital affairs. McCollum said, "I am -- I am not, and I'm not, at this present time, involved in anything whatsoever, have not been." When Souder was asked, he hung up the phone.
Listen/Watch/Read
| | "When do we ask the Sierra Club to pick up the tab for this leak?" | | 
On Monday, Rush Limbaugh called us out. Asking "when do we ask the Sierra Club to pick up the tab for this leak" and blamed "the greeniacs" for driving oil drilling offshore.
Yes, Rush Limbaugh wants us, the Sierra Club's 1.3 million supporters, to pay for the damages from British Petroleum's negligence in the Gulf.
Well, Rush, here's your answer: we've heard you loud and clear, and we'll heed your call. We'll clean up the mess of our addiction to oil--we've got a plan to move us off oil and to do it in the next 20 years. We've got real solutions - a clean energy economy that relies on renewable energy, new green jobs, and NO offshore drilling.
Our plan to move us off oil starts with you. Help us send Rush Limbaugh a message by donating today to end dependence on dirty oil.
We can't keep pushing the blame for this spill on others. BP has to be held accountable. They ignored safety standards that could have prevented this catastrophe and they - along with the rest of Big Oil - have poured millions of dollars into lobbying to maintain dirty energy use for the sake of their profits. Despite what Rush says, there is no safe way to drill our coasts - that's why we're proposing to stop all new offshore oil drilling once and for all. Donate today to move us toward a clean energy future. | | North Texas Progressive Book Suggestion | | 
Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women Are Transforming the Middle East
By Isobel Coleman List Price: $26.00
Price: $17.16 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
BUY NOW HERE ( you help support this newsletter!) Product Description
Over the centuries and throughout the world, women have struggled for equality and basic rights. Their challenge in the Middle East has been intensified by the rise of a political Islam that too often condemns women's empowerment as Western cultural imperialism or, worse, anti-Islamic. In Paradise Beneath Her Feet, Isobel Coleman shows how Muslim women and men are fighting back with progressive interpretations of Islam to support women's rights in a growing movement of Islamic feminism.
There is no mistaking that women and women's issues are very much on the front lines of a war that is taking place between advocates of innovation, tolerance, and plurality and those who use violence to reject modernity in Muslim communities around the world. Ultimately, Paradise Beneath Her Feet offers a message of hope: Change is happening-and more often than not, it is being led by women.
Local Event :
Paradise Beneath Her Feet: Women and Reform in the Middle East by Isobel Coleman
Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations; Author, Paradise Beneath Her Feet
When King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia opened the country's first fully integrated co-ed university last year, he declared it would be a "beacon of tolerance" in an area better known for its deeply conservative society. Saudi Arabia, like many countries in the Middle East, has strict rules and traditions regarding gender segregation and women's rights. Recently, an Islamic feminist movement has started gaining support from Middle Eastern leaders and is challenging narrow religious interpretations used to define the role of women in society...learn more .
WEDNESDAY, MAY 26 Time:11:30 AM
12:00 PM Registration
Program, Luncheon & Book Signing: Place: Rosewood Crescent Hotel
400 Crescent Ct. Dallas, TX 75201Tickets:$45/$60
Registration | | North Texas Democrats : Notes and News | | 
Thursday, May 27: North Dallas Texas Democratic Women Texas State Board of Education Member Mavis Knight (a Democrat). This year the Republican majority on the SBOE voted to require textbooks to emphasizing "the dangers of overregulation" and to de-emphasize Thomas Jefferson, FDR and the establishment clause to the Bill of Rights. (6:45 PM, Northhaven United Methodist Church, 11211 Preston Road [between Forest and Royal], Dallas)
Friday, May 28: Fundraiser for the Future: Bill White for Texas with Senator Wendy Davis and State Representative Paula Pierson. Hosted by the Mid-Cities Democrats. $20 ticket includes Mexican dinner and dessert. Seating is limited. Reserve tickets by email to RSVP AT midcitiesdemocrats.com. (6 - 8 PM, First United Methodist Church, 5601 Pleasant Run Road, Colleyville)
Tarrant County Democrats
Mon, May 24 7:00PM-SW New Democrats
WHERE: Olive Garden Restaurant, 4700 SW Loop 820, Fort Worth (northwest corner of Hulen St. & I-20/Loop 820).
WHEN: Fourth Monday of Every Month, 7PM (please come at 6:30PM if you plan to eat)
Fri, May 28 2:00PM -Bill White Rally
FRIDAY MAY 28th 2-3 PM
UAW Local 218 Union Hall, 98 W. Hurst Blvd. featuring candidate BILL WHITE for Governor
bring a friend!! refreshments - indoor event - free!!
| | Texas Social Studies Textbooks Get a Conservative Makeover | | 
Brad Knickerbocker, The Christian Science Monitor: "In a move that has potential national impact, the Texas State Board of Education has approved controversial changes to social studies textbooks - pushing high school teaching in a more conservative direction. The Dallas Morning news reports that the curriculum standards adopted Friday by a 9-5 vote along party lines on the elected board have 'a definite political and philosophical bent in many areas.'"
Read the Article
| | Neil Durrance first major fundraiser | |  From Neil Durrance:
On Thursday, May 27, our campaign will be hosting its first major fundraiser of the election cycle as we work to take the 26th Congressional District back on behalf of hard-working North Texas families.
Raising funds for our race is critically important. During this election cycle alone, my opponent has reported raising more than $660,000 dollars! He's so sure that District 26 voters will fail to hold him accountable for his terrible voting record that he's been spending campaign cash all around the nation--from Hawaii to New York--by giving donations to help other Republican candidates.
It is time to show Michael Burgess that the citizens of the 26th Congressional District are ready to hold him accountable for his record. Please take a moment to RSVP for our May 27 fundraiser today. Nearly half a million dollars of what my opponent has raised this cycle has come from powerful political action committees representing the insurance industry, drug companies, and the electric power industry.
Let's work together to show Michael Burgess that voters are ready, willing, and able to hold him accountable! I look forward to seeing you on May 27!
For other ways to get involved and learn about health care in our country, go to www.durranceforcongress.com to find how you can do your part to return government to the people!
| | The 'Randslide' and Its Discontents by Frank Rich NYT | | 
IF there is one certain outcome to recent American elections, it's this: The results will invariably prove most of the Beltway's settled political narratives wrong.
Tuesday's pre-midterms were no exception. We were told that all incumbents and Washington insiders were doomed, but Exhibit A, the defeat of Arlen Specter, was hardly a test case. The sui generis opportunist Specter lost to another incumbent, a congressman who has been a Democrat far longer than he has. We were also told - as we were, incessantly, in 2008 - that blue-collar white men in western Pennsylvania would flee the Democrats. But in the special House election there - Tuesday's only Republican-vs.-Democrat battle - a million G.O.P. dollars and countless anti-Obama-Pelosi ads proved worthless. Not only did a Democrat win big, but that winner was a Washington insider's insider, a longtime aide to the seat's previous occupant, the quintessential pork baron John Murtha.
read on | | | | | More Than Just an Oil Spill
By BOB HERBERT NYT | | 
| |
The warm, soft winds coming in off the gulf have lost their power to soothe. Anxiety is king now - all along the coast.
"You can't sleep no more; that's how bad it is," said John Blanchard, an oyster fisherman whose life has been upended by the monstrous oil spill fouling an enormous swath of the Gulf of Mexico. He shook his head. "My wife and I have got two kids, 2 and 7. We could lose everything we've
been working all of our lives for."
I was standing on a gently rocking oyster boat with Mr. Blanchard and several other veteran fishermen who still seemed stunned by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. Instead of harvesting oysters, they were out on the water distributing oil retention booms and doing whatever
else they could to bolster the coastline's meager defenses against the oil making its way ominously and relentlessly, like an invading army, toward the area's delicate and heartbreakingly vulnerable wetlands.
read on
| | The Errington Thompson Show | | 
Do you want to hear a great Progressive Talk Radio show ?
Listen to Dallas native Dr. Errington Thompson on Revolution 880 from Asheville, NC live Saturdays 3-4pm cst
Read blog & listen to free podcasts
| | North Texas Progressive Newsletter Nancy Cunningham
Editor
Contact: Nancy This newsletter is a project of the North Texas Progressive , which is an umbrella organization for the Dallas Air America group, which was founded in 2004 to promote and support progressive talk radio and independent media in North Texas. Visit the North Texas Progressive web pages to get more information. Newsletter archive Sponsor the newsletter here ! | | | We need you to be a sponsor! | | 
Sponsor an edition today
| | Support the Dallas Peace Center Join or renew today! | | 
Dallas Peace Center needs YOU! | | Donate today to the North Texas Progressive using PayPal | |
Please sponsor a newsletter today!
To send a check, email me.
northtexasprogressive@gmail.com
| | Neil Durrance for Congress | |
Return Government to the People
26the Congressional District of Texas
-Keep American jobs in America
-Make health care affordable for all U.S. citizens
-Increase Pell Grants and decrease tuition
940.239.0380
www.durranceforcongress.com
| | American Library Association releases 2009 Legislative Scorecards | | 
"The American Library Association (ALA) Washington Office has released the association's 2009 Legislative Scorecards for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. The Legislative Scorecards outline votes and support of legislation that is important to and has an impact on the library community. The ALA provides the scorecard as a tool to ALA members for gauging their elected official's support of library related legislation. The 2009 scorecards are available here."
| | CALLING ALL LAWYERS! The Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program | | 
CALLING ALL LAWYERS! The Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program
(DVAP) is an organization dedicated to increasing and enhancing pro bono legal services to the poor in Dallas through the recruitment, training, and support of volunteer attorneys. DVAP's vision is to create a pro bono program through which all Dallas attorneys provide legal services to the poor and ensure equal access to justice. Currently, DVAP is in need of volunteer attorneys to staff neighborhood clinics, which are held several times a month throughout Dallas. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Bill Didlake at bill@didlakelaw.com or (972) 841-9610.
| | | | | |  We invite you to join us for the
MOLLY National Journalism Prize Awards Dinner
Purchase tickets now · Sponsorships available
KEYNOTE | Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Thursday, June 10, 2010
6:30-7 pm Cocktail Reception | 7 pm Seated Dinner
Four Seasons Hotel | 98 San Jacinto Boulevard, Austin, Texas | | | | North Texas Progressive | http://www.northtexasprogressive.org/ | Dallas | TX | 75201 | |
