News from the North Texas Progressive May 16 2011

 

North Texas Progressive Newsletter
...bringing North Texas news and discussion since 2004



May 16, 2011

Dear nancy,

Good Morning!

Fire up the television and make sure you watch a couple of great upcoming programs, watch HBO's Too Big to Fail and PBS's Freedom Riders.
You can also attend a Drinking Liberally get together and read some articles you may have missed.

Thanks,
Nancy Cunningham

Email /Webpage /Facebook /Twitter /Newsletetter archive

 

 

In This Issue

America Held Hostage -By PAUL KRUGMAN...

Democracy Now

Al Franken Holds Hearings on Smart Phone Privacy

Faith Seeking Understanding:..

North Texas Progressive Book Suggestion

North Texas Democrats : Notes and News

Drinking Liberally Addison This Thursday.

Fracking chemical disclosure bill passes Texas House

HBO' s "Too Big to Fail" the movie, debuts May 23 on HBO

6 State Battlegrounds in the Right-Wing War Against Teachers,

 

 America Held Hostage -By PAUL KRUGMAN

Six months ago President Obama faced a hostage situation. Republicans threatened to block an extension of middle-class tax cuts unless Mr. Obama gave in and extended tax cuts for the rich too. And the president essentially folded, giving the G.O.P. everything it wanted.

 

Now, predictably, the hostage-takers are back: blackmail worked well last December, so why not try it again? This time House Republicans say they will refuse to raise the debt ceiling - a step that could inflict major economic damage - unless Mr. Obama agrees to large spending cuts, even as they rule out any tax increase whatsoever. And the question becomes what, if anything, will get the president to say no.

 

The debt ceiling itself is a strange feature of U.S. law: since Congress must vote to authorize spending and choose tax rates, why have a second vote on whether to allow the borrowing that these spending and taxation policies imply? In practice, however, legislators have historically been willing to raise the debt ceiling as necessary, so this quirk in our system hasn't mattered very much - until now.

 

read on 

 

Democracy Now

also :Democracy Now! to Launch Smartphone-Friendly Website

"Making Art in America is a Political Statement in Itself": Grammy Award-winning Singer Steve Earle on Music, Writing and Acting

Singer-songwriter, actor and author Steve Earle joins us in the studio to talk about his art and perform two songs from his new album, I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive. He is being awarded an honorary degree today from the City University of New York School of Law. Last year, he was honored by the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty for his years of involvement with the anti-death penalty movement. Watch/Listen/Read

Rep. Luis Gutierrez: Obama Has Discretionary Authority to Advance DREAM Act, Humane Immigration Reform

Senate Democrats have reintroduced the DREAM Act for the first time since Republicans blocked its passage late last year. Under the measure, immigrant youth would obtain permanent residency with a chance for citizenship, provided they attend college for at least two years or enlist in the U.S. military. We speak to Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Watch/Listen/Read

Historian Adam Hochschild: Lessons for the Antiwar Movement from the Pacifists of World War I

As the Obama administration continues to engage in military operations abroad, we turn to the making-and sustaining-of war from a historical perspective. How do politicians galvanize populations to support wars? Why do people continue fighting in unpopular conflicts even after nationalist fervor has waned? In his new book, the historian Adam Hochschild examines these questions and many others through the prism of one of the world's bloodiest conflicts, World War I. The book is called To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918. Watch/Listen/Read

 

Al Franken Holds Hearings on Smart Phone Privacy

Minnesota Senator Al Franken is currently hearing testimony on mobile privacy, after hearing that both Apple and Google-backed smart phones carry location tracking data in unencrypted forms. The hearings are underway as Congress considers legislation on location-specific smart phone data, Reuters reports. Franken said he was looking for a balance between privacy considerations and the benefits ...

  

read on.

 

 

Faith Seeking Understanding:  The Death Penalty           

Sunday, May 29th  12:15-2:00 pm   

Faith Seeking Understanding:  The Death Penalty           

Sunday, May 29th  12:15-2:00 pm   

Fellowship Hall, First United Methodist Church of Hurst, 521 W. Pipeline Road, Hurst (south side of Pipeline between Brown Trail and Precinct Line)

Divine Connection Sunday School Class welcomes Dr. Rick Halperin, distinguished scholar on human rights and death penalty matters.  SMU Adjunct Lecturer of History, Professor of the Practice of Human Rights and Director of the Human Rights Education Program.  Dr. Halperin earned both a PhD and MA in Southern U.S. History at Auburn and SMU, respectively. 

 

He has been involved in the effort to abolish the death penalty in the United States for over 30 years and is former chair of Amnesty International USA.  He works with capital defense attorneys, communities of faith, victims' rights groups, families of the condemned, and many death row inmates throughout the country.  You will not want to miss his presentation and the opportunity to dialog with him on this important topic.  Guests are welcome.

 

Box lunches available for $6.  Childcare with reservation.  Call Susie Stonecipher at 817-481-6707 or merasuph.jr@verizon.net for information and to reserve a lunch.

 

North Texas Progressive Book Suggestion

The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves, and the Looting of America

By Jonathan Tasini

BUY HERE 

List Price:       $15.95

Price:      $10.85 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25 

 

Product Description  

"Jonathan Tasini is one of the country's premier labor writers. Not just a reporter, he brings a wealth of firsthand, frontline, experience to every issue he tackles."-Barbara Ehrenreich

 

"This is must reading for anyone who wants to know how we got us into this financial mess-and what it will take to get out of it."-Katrina vanden Heuvel

 

North Texas Democrats : Notes and News

Dallas County Democrats Precinct Chair Training May 18

There will be another session of Precinct Chair Training on Wednesday, May 18, from 6:30 to 9 PM, at the Pleasant Grove Eastfield Campus, room 108, 802 S. Buckner, Dallas. For more information please call the party office at 214-821-8331.

 

Dallas County Democrats Picnic with Lake Highlands White Rock Democrats May 21

The Lake Highlands White Rock Democrats will hold their annual picnic on Saturday May 21, at 11 AM, at the Flag Pole Hill Pavilion, Northwest Hwy and Buckner, Dallas. There will be legislative update; hotdogs, chips, and drinks provided. Bring your favorite side or dessert to share. Spirited conversation on upcoming elections. Pick up voter information. $5 donation requested [kids 12 and under no charge].

 

Stonewall Democrats

Denton May 26, 7:00

Banter Restaurant /219 W. Oak St.  /Denton, 76201

 

Democracy for America   

Denton June 1, 7:00  

Chilitos Mexican Restaurant  / 619 S. Denton Dr. / 

Drinking Liberally Addison This Thursday

Thursday May 19th starting at 6pm at The Quarter, 15201 Addison Rd in Addison. We'll be on the patio, weather permitting.

 

Join your fellow liberal drinkers for some political discussion. New mayor of Dallas. New and old city council people? Maybe some school board stuff. Any and all will be on the plate of topics. Come hang out with the longest continuously running chapter in DFW.

 

 

Fracking chemical disclosure bill passes Texas House

Fracking chemical disclosure bill passes Texas House

 

The Texas House gave tentative approval Wednesday to a bill requiring natural gas drillers to publicly disclose the chemicals they use in the controversial practice known as hydraulic fracturing.


read on

 

 

HBO' s "Too Big to Fail" the movie, debuts May 23 on HBO!

Major stars pack the upcoming film version of Andrew Ross Sorkin's best-seller "Too Big to Fail," but Charlotte viewers will find their hometown banks to be minor characters.

The movie, which debuts May 23 on HBO, focuses mostly on the Washington officials who scrambled to save the financial system in the fall of 2008, according to a copy previewed by the Observer. Much of the drama revolves around the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.


Read more:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/05/13/2292494/too-big-to-fail-coming-to-hbo.html#ixzz1MX1fQYHS

 

http://www.hbo.com/movies/too-big-to-fail/index.html  

6 State Battlegrounds in the Right-Wing War Against Teachers, Firefighters, Caregivers and the Entire Middle Class by Jim Hightower 

 

 

Our nation has devolved into a new and nasty civil war, with moneyed elites now charging into legislatures and courts to establish themselves as a de facto plutocracy.

 

You're not likely to have known Robert Clark, Ruth West, Chet Newall, Webb Kamp, or Darrell Odom, but I wouldn't be who I am without them. And you might have a similar honor roll of those who spurred, inspired, lured, intrigued, goaded, and otherwise motivated you to do more than you might otherwise have done -- a list of your special public school teachers. The junior-high, senior-high, and college teachers on my list largely sparked my lifelong interests in language, history, politics, and how (and for whom) government really works.


read on

 

 

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!

banner-new
Sponsor an edition today


 

Donate today to the North Texas Progressive using PayPal




Please sponsor a newsletter today!

To send a check, email me.
northtexasprogressive@gmail.com

 

Freedom Riders May 16th PBS- tonight!

Freedom Riders May 16th PBS

 

 

 

FREEDOM RIDERS is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives-and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment-for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.

 

Commentary: The courage of the Freedom Riders

When he was 21, Ernest "Rip" Patton made out his will. He didn't have much beyond an old set of drums he used in the jazz club gigs that helped him pay his way through college. He willed them to his parents, then climbed aboard a freedom bus bound for Jackson, Miss.


read on


 

Michael Moore, Ken Burns Tapped As Contributors For Keith Olbermann's  

Current TV Show

Michael Moore, Ken Burns Tapped As Contributors For Keith Olbermann's  

Current TV Show   

 

 

 

Countdown will return to TV on Current June 20, and host Keith Olbermann is lining up a stable of contributors to appear regularly on the program. TVNewser has learned that filmmaker Michael Moore, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, comedian Richard Lewis, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, and National Association of Free Clinics executive director Nicole D. Lamoureux are among those on board. Adweek: The lineup of contributors is no minor announcement, since they serve as a backbone of his show format.


read on

 

Sam Seder- Majority Report

You are listening every day aren't you ??



Sam Seder: Breaking Down Alan Simpson's Social Security Lies

http://majority.fm/  

 

 



 

This email was sent to cunningb@flash.net by northtexasprogressive@gmail.com |  

North Texas Progressive | http://www.northtexasprogressive.org/ | Dallas | TX | 75201

News from the North Texas Progressive May 9 2011

 

North Texas Progressive Newsletter
...bringing North Texas news and discussion since 2004



May 9, 2011

Dear nancy,

Good Morning!

Remember early voting ! You are invited to attend a very special local screening of the film, Restrepo.
Get involved with your local Dem group !

Thanks,
Nancy Cunningham

Email /Webpage /Facebook /Twitter /Newsletetter archive

 

 

In This Issue

Special screening of Restrepo...

County Elections...Election Day is May 14th....

Grumpy Republicans await Obama in visit to Texas.

Democracy Now

eith Olbermann | The Death of Bin Laden

North Texas Progressive Book Suggestion

North Texas Democrats : Notes and News

Texas Tribune...Dear friend of the Tribune,

Free Bradley Manning Rally at Leavenworth, KS...Saturday, June 4 ·

Dallas Peace Center: Bin Laden Death A Turning Point.

The Unwisdom of Elites...By PAUL KRUGMAN NYT..

 

Special screening of Restrepo

You are invited to the Texas Theater for  a special screening of Restrepo on Wednesday, May 11th at 7:30pm. This is in conjunction with the photo exhibit next door at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center called XXI Conflicts in a New Century that Dee Mitchell and Cynthia Mulcahy and Tim Hetherington. One of the directors who was killed in combat was supposed to be here for the screening and it will be in his honor.

 

Before seening the film you should see "Diary," a film he made about being in war zones , which you can see here:

http://vimeo.com/18497543 

 

 

County Elections

 

Election Day is May 14th.   

 

You must vote at the polling place assigned to your precinct (www.dalcoelections.org/ elections.dentoncounty.com), and the polls are open 7am-7pm.

 

 

Grumpy Republicans await Obama in visit to Texas

Grumpy Republicans await Obama in visit to Texas

President Barack Obama may be visiting Texas on Tuesday, with stops in El Paso and a fundraiser in Austin, but he won't be feeling the love - at least not from a growing chorus of unhappy GOP lawmakers who see the administration's refusal to designate the wildfire-battered state a disaster area the latest slap in the face to the very Republican Lone

 

read on 

 

 

Democracy Now

Jeremy Scahill on Killing of Bin Laden: Obama Has "Doubled Down on Bush Administration Policy of Targeted Assassination"

The manhunt for Osama bin Laden is over. Nearly 10 years after the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, U.S. forces are said to have assassinated the Saudi-born founder of al-Qaeda inside Pakistan. We speak with Jeremy Scahill, the national security correspondent for The Nation magazine, who has followed the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts closely as well as reported on the covert war inside Pakistan. Watch/Listen/Read

Did Pakistani Gov't Know Where Osama bin Laden Was Hiding?

"The idea that bin Laden got from Tora Bora to that house over the last seven or eight years without a single element of the Pakistani state knowing about it just doesn't ring true," said Pakistani journalist Mosharraf Zaidi, who has been reporting in Abbottabad. Pakistani writer Tariq Ali questions how bin Laden could have been living inside a fortified compound within a mile of Pakistan's premier military academy. Watch/Listen/Read

 

Keith Olbermann | The Death of Bin Laden

 

Keith Olbermann, FOK News Channel · May 3, 2011 

 

Olbermann comments on the politics of the death of Osama bin Laden, of the end of Sarah Palin's presidential hopes, and about the air being sucked out of Peter King's anti-Muslim congressional hearings. Keith also points out that the search for Bin Laden began and ended with Democratic Presidents.

 

watch here  

 

 

North Texas Progressive Book Suggestion

How about this ? Maybe no book this week and  a great way listen to your favorite progressive talkers anywhere in your house.

Logitech Squeezebox Radio Music Player with Color Screen (Black)

From Logitech

List Price:       $179.99

Price:      $149.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

 

BUY ONE HERE   

 

North Texas Democrats : Notes and News

Dallas Young Democrats

Please join us at our next General Meeting, this coming Tuesday, as we discuss the current legislative session's impact on school funding on both a state and local level, as well as the proposed district maps.

 May 10, 2011 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Brooklyn Jazz Cafe /1701 S Lamar St /Dallas, TX 75215  

Happy Hour starts at 6:30, and the meeting begins at 7:00. We look forward to seeing you there!  

PS: Be sure to visit www.DallasYoungDemocrats.org to keep up with our event and meeting schedules!

Texas Tribune 

Dear friend of the Tribune,
 We are building a community of everyday insiders, one Texan at a time. Nonpartisan news and information on Texas government, politics and public policy is delivered through our destination website, interactive databases and public events. It's not easy to cover the nearly 300,000 square miles in Texas, but we do it every day because we believe smarter Texans make a
better Texas. Join the conversation we're having about our state.
Become a member today. 
Twitter <
http://www.twitter.com/texastribune> !
Front Page <
http://www.texastribune.org> | Data

 

 

Free Bradley Manning Rally at Leavenworth, KS

Saturday, June 4 · 11:30am - 2:30pm  

Rally to protest the indefinite detention and unconstitutional torture of Bradley Manning.  

Car pools are being formed in Minneapolis, Texas, Wichita, Tulsa, Kansas City, Colorado. If you can't attend due to transportation, please post here, we'll get you hooked up.

 

Enthusiasm for this event has been amazing in the few short hours since we posted it. We want to get 100,000 people to show up. We'll be coordinating room shares, fo...od, and water, as well as shade sites.

 

We ask that you be open minded about the other people who may attend this event, coming from various personal, political, and religious backgrounds. We are currently drawing up a policy paper asking that people who attend this event do *not* bring: guns, explosives, fireworks, illegal drugs, or other sources of likely disruption. If you feel very strongly that some other items should not be involved in this event, you should feel free to join the MO-KAN support group here on Facebook and make inquiries of the organisers there. Thank you.

 

If you cannot attend, here are some things you *can* do to help. Please invite your friends to this event. Please post a link to this event on your profile, or to a group you are in. Please consider writing a letter to the editor to the Leavenworth, Kansas newspapers: The Leavenworth Times, the Fort Leavenworth Lamp. They are at leavenworthtimes.com and ftleavenworthlamp.com respectively. Be pleasant, say what you believe about Bradley Manning, and let's lay some groundwork in the local community.

 

more info 

 

 

Dallas Peace Center: Bin Laden Death A Turning Point

KERA News

DALLAS, TX (KERA) - The Dallas Peace Center says the death of Osama bin Laden gives the Obama Administration an opportunity to change U.S. policy - away from military action. KERA's BJ Austin reports.

Peace Center members say the death of bin Laden closes a painful era for the United States, and creates a new opportunity to really promote peace.

listen here  

 

The Unwisdom of Elites

By PAUL KRUGMAN NYT

The past three years have been a disaster for most Western economies. The United States has mass long-term unemployment for the first time since the 1930s. Meanwhile, Europe's single currency is coming apart at the seams. How did it all go so wrong?

 

Well, what I've been hearing with growing frequency from members of the policy elite - self-appointed wise men, officials, and pundits in good standing - is the claim that it's mostly the public's fault. The idea is that we got into this mess because voters wanted something for nothing, and weak-minded politicians catered to the electorate's foolishness.


read on

 

 

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!

banner-new
Sponsor an edition today


 

Thom Hartmann | The People's Masters

 

Thom Hartmann, Berrett-Koehler Publishers: "More than two thousand corporations had been chartered between 1790 and 1860. They helped protect themselves from economic disasters by keeping tight control over the economy and the markets within which they operated. In this they echoed the Federalist ideas of Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. Many companies deal with competition by working hard to earn our business, just as Adam Smith - whose 1776 book The Wealth of Nations summarized many economic principles for the founders of this nation - envisioned. But others don't; they feel that the best way to deal with competition is to eliminate it. And, as the East India Company had shown, two ways to do so were by getting the government to grant a monopoly or special tax favors or by crushing or buying out one's competition."

 

Read the Article

 

The Dallas Peace Center presents the

2011 Summer Dinner Lecture Series

The Dallas Peace Center presents the

2011 Summer Dinner Lecture Series

 

Ken Butigan

Director, Pace e Bene

Another Step toward Mainstreaming Nonviolence

When: Thursday, June 9

 

Where:  Margaux's, 150 Turtle Creek Blvd # 202 (facing Irving Blvd.), Dallas

 

For nearly three decades Ken Butigan has worked with social movements and promoted nonviolent solutions to problems in Central America, East Timor, and the U.S. Ken joined the Pace e Bene staff in 1990. He developed and for several years directed Pace e Bene's From Violence To Wholeness program, and was actively involved in creating Pace e Bene's Engage: Exploring Nonviolent Living program.

 

Dallas Peace Center

5910 Cedar Springs Rd.

Dallas, TX  75235-6806

214-823-7793

www.dallaspeacecenter.org



 

Cenk Uygur | Bin Laden Dead: War Was Not the Answer

 

A lot of people will make the point today that we should leave Afghanistan as soon as possible now that our top goal of going over there has been accomplished. This comes, ironically, eight years to the day after President Bush declared Mission Accomplished in regard to Iraq -- and can anyone remind me what that mission was? We declared two wars to target...


read on


 

2011 SPEAKER SERIES 

FAITH VOICES ON JUSTICE

 

 

Thursday, May 19, 7pm

at Northaven United Methodist Church  

 

Rev. Dorothy Budd,

Episcopal Deacon, Church of the Incarnation, and author of:  

 

Tested: How Ten Wrongly Imprisoned Men Held Onto Hope"

Join us at 6pm for a community meal with Rev. Budd and the exonerated. 

 

www.DallasChristians.org


 

This email was sent to cunningb@flash.net by northtexasprogressive@gmail.com |  

North Texas Progressive | http://www.northtexasprogressive.org/ | Dallas | TX | 75201

 

THIS IS A TEST EMAIL ONLY.
This email was sent by the author for the sole purpose of testing a draft message. If you believe you have received the message in error, please contact the author by replying to this message. Constant Contact takes reports of abuse very seriously. If you wish to report abuse, please forward this message to abuse@constantcontact.com.

About Me

My photo
Subscribe to our great, free, weekly newsletter where you will find all the Progressive news and Democratic happenings in North Texas gathered by and North Texas Progressive. (formerly Dallas Air America )

subscribe

subscribe to newsletter here
http://www.northtexasprogressive.org/











Join Our Mailing List





Email:













For Email Newsletters you can trust