WEDNESDAY MOVIE

Deadwood

I would have reviewed Batman Begins, which was the Father’s Day family outing, and really quite good as comicbook hero movies go, but I discovered something much yummier in the TV series Deadwood, supplied to my door by Netflix. In Batman Begins, you want to use Photoshop to lighten up the action at least part of the darn time. Gotham City by flashlight. In Deadwood, there are dark scenes too, and plenty of mud and dreck. But it’s a whole different crime location. Something about it glows. It’s real history and for some fascinating trivia about the characters, click here. It’s the Sopranos meets the Old West. (And both are HBO products – a channel I don’t get). The central characters are a saloon owner, the penultimate villain, who does not have Saving Grace One, played by Ian McShane (a veteran British actor) and a former marshall looking to set up a hardware store, played by Timothy Olyphant, a relative unknown who has been in films less than 10 years. In the first few DVD’s of the series, another main character is Wild Bill Hickok, played by David Carradine. (So glad the fabulous Carradine brothers are enjoying so much success lately.) In 1876, Deadwood, South Dakota was without law, and in the days post the Custer massacre filled with prospectors hoping to strike it rich mining gold. In fact, it became the scene of the largest gold strike in United States history. Hickok and his buddy, Calamity Jane were in the vicinity because Hickok had been a scout for Custer. As we know, both are buried there side by side, and therein lies some of the tale. The photography is topnotch, the acting the pure quill, and there’s never a dull moment. Be prepared for some Serious Swearing and mayhem, plenty of humor, and just plain smart writing (kind of sounds like the Sopranos formula, doesn’t it?). There are so many off the wall characters you almost wouldn’t be surprised to see Batman pay a visit. Disc 3 is on its way to my house and I can’t wait.

Deep Thought: “If you ever discover that what you’re seeing is a play within a play, just slow down, take a deep breath, and hold on for the ride of your life.”
Today I am grateful for: The word plethora
Guess the Movie: “Somestimes what seems like surrender isn’t surrender at all. It’s about what’s going on in our hearts. About seeing clearly the way life is and accepting it and being true to it, whatever the pain, because the pain of not being true to it is far, far greater.” Answer: The Horse Whisperer, 1998.
Iraq: A Bloody Mess
by Patrick Cockburn
A year ago the supposed handover of power by the US occupation authority to an Iraqi interim government led by Iyad Allawi was billed as a turning point in the violent history of post-Saddam Iraq.
It has turned out to be no such thing. Most of Iraq is today a bloody no-man’s land beset by ruthless insurgents, savage bandit gangs, trigger-happy US patrols and marauding government forces. (Rest of article here.)

MONDAY BOOK

Pale Male and Lola

My favorite article in this month’s Vanity Fair is a love story with a happy ending. The lovers just happen to be raptors – actually red-tailed hawks – and oh yes, bird lovers of Central Park, New York City. Twelve years ago, the residents of 927 Fifth Avenue, a very posh 12-floor limestone apartment building overlooking the park woke up to find that a crowd was gathering and telescopes were training on their home, specifically focusing on the ornate molding that framed the top center window. Most hawks migrate between late summer and late fall, but a few stay year-round. Pale Male, with his four-foot wing span and unusually light chest-feathers, was the first red-tailed hawk of record to nest in Central Park with his original mate, First Love. On this molding the hawks built a nest with sticks and various other building materials that was protected from weather and predators. That year the nest was dismantled by the building’s residents, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent a stern reprimand that this violated the Migratory Birds Treaty Act that forbids destroying migratory birds, their nests, or their eggs and was punishable with a stiff fine. And so the hawks were allowed to rebuild, which they did and this peace treaty continued for another 10 years until 2003. By then, Pale Male had his present mate, Lola, and they were beginning to raise families. The residents were striking back by flashing the blinds of the window next to the nest and installing spikes around it that kept the birds from perching. The stress caused one brood to die. The residents found a legal loophole that allowed them to once again vote on removing the nest, and in early December 2004, they did the dirty deed. Now the hawk-lovers began to swing into gear. They alerted the newspapers, enlisted the aid of Mary Tyler Moore (a noted animal activist) who just happened to live in the building, and began to vigil (see photos). To make a long story short, the wealthy tenants of 927 Fifth Avenue met and hassled with each other until eventually they hired an architect to add a spiky stainless steel basket and metal cradle to the pigeon spikes already there to hold the nest and keep debris from falling on the street, costing them in the end around $100,000. On December 28, 2004, the barriers were removed and Pale Male and Lola began to rebuild. As of this month, they are trying to make babies again and you can visit them here. Some say Pale Male is about 15 years old already, giving him probably another 5 years to live. Hopefully, the humans who live on the other side of the wall from his family will leave them in peace – one small step for two hawks and a “giant leap for mankind.”

Deep Thought: “I don’t think God put me on this planet to judge others. I think he put me on this planet to gather specimens and take them back to my home planet.”
Today I am grateful for: The sea
Guess the Movie: “Hey, whataya gonna do, nice college boy, eh? Didn’t want to get mixed up in the Family business, huh? Now you wanna gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped ya in the face a little bit? Hah? What do you think this is the Army, where you shoot ‘em a mile away? You’ve gotta get up close like this and bada-bing. you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C’mere…” Answer: The Godfather, 1972. Winner: thenarrator.
Senators call for Congress to set rules for Guantanamo detainees
By Matthew Daly
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:40 p.m. June 27, 2005
WASHINGTON – Two Democratic senators, just back from Guantanamo Bay, said Monday that Congress should come up with concrete rules for handling detainees at the U.S. prison there. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:48 pm
+ = Rain supposedly ending tomorrow.
- = Have to wait 3-4 weeks for results of biopsy for cancer.

FRIDAY FIVE

Appetizer – What time do you usually wake up each day? If you could choose your wake-up time, when would it be?
4 a.m. Actually, it would stay the same on work days because it means I get out of work early enough in the day to have a reasonable amount of time for My Life. On other days, 6 a.m. would be better. However, when you have pets, they get used to a certain time for breakfast and make your life miserable if you don’t get up and feed them. I do wish I could ever get 8 hours of sleep a night.
Soup – When was the last time you bought groceries? What store did you go to? Name 3 things you purchased.
Unfortunately, I tend to hit the grocery store for something or other almost every other day. I used to try to do the main shopping on Friday when I regularly had my grandchildren on Saturdays. That has changed. So let’s see. Yesterday I stopped in on the way home from work and bought Horizon Organic Low Fat Milk Vitamins A & D added, Nestle Crunch Ice Cream Bars Reduced Fat Vanilla No sugar added, and a tiny plastic tin of seafood salad from the grocery deli. How pallid is that! Oh, and it was QFC.
Salad – How many books have you read so far this year? Which was your favorite and why?
Well, I didn’t count but I can think of 7. My favorites were the autobiograhical efforts of Dylan and Fonda. Agewise we’re peers so listening to their stories is kind of like reinforcing my own. Except they traveled in very rarified circles, celebrities were their intimate friends and enemies, and of course they both were drowning in talent. Realized talent. It was a first-time blab for both and well worth the wait.
Main Course – What is something you consider to be very elegant? In particular, what about that item/place/person conjures up the feeling of elegance?
Oh brother, when I think of elegance I think of grace, I think of rich people with fine clothes and swan necks, and I think what starving person would even care what elegance was? I also think of swans themselves. What would THEY care? Can you be poor and elegant? Chaplin’s little clown comes to mind in his suit and top hat. I guess elegance is just not on my top 10 of important life values.
Dessert – Who taught you how to drive?
This is back in the dim prehistorical mists of my life, but I think I took a class at school and probably my dad. I failed the driving test the first time because I didn’t stop for a pedestrian who stepped off the sidewalk in the middle of the block. Ok, it was a small town.

Deep Thought: “They were a proud people. In fact, some said they were too proud. If you asked them why they were so proud, they’d just laugh and say, “We’re not even going to answer that.”
Today I am grateful for: Sculpture
Guess the Movie: “I’m 36 years old, I love my family, I love baseball and I’m about to become a farmer. But until I heard the voice, I’d never done a crazy thing in my whole life.” Answer: Field of Dreams, 1989. Winner: thenarrator.
Bringing Troops Home a Nonpartisan Idea
by John Nichols
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee, was the first member of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation to sign on as a co-sponsor of a new bipartisan proposal to bring the troops home from Iraq. On Tuesday, Moore added her name to “Withdrawal of United States Armed Forces From Iraq Resolution of 2005 – Homeward Bound” legislation, which was introduced last week and is likely to become the primary vehicle for expression of anti-war sentiment in Congress. (Rest of article here.)

MONDAY BOOK

Reading in the Dark
by Seamus Deane

Thanks to one of our resident Real Writers, thenarrator’s, ongoing saga set against the backdrop of Ireland and its political history, I decided to brush up on my sadly lacking grasp of recent Irish drama. And of course right away and begorrah I’ve been reminded just how complex and feisty a tiny country can be over time. Just in this century, they’ve had The Troubles, which came in two parts – the Irish War of Independence back in 1919-21 (think Easter Rising, Michael Collins, black-and-tans) and the violence that sprang up again in the 1960’s and lasted into the ‘90’s when an uneasy peace process began (think Bloody Sunday, the Provisional IRA, and Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein). This book is a novel broken into tiny poetic particles that added up tell the story of a boy growing up in Derry in that restless period in between as he discovers his family has a secret dating back to the first “Troubles.” Here is a little excerpt:

For long after, I would come awake in the small hours of the morning, sweating, asking myself over and over, “Where is the gun? Where is it? Where is the gun?” I would rub the sleep and fear that lay like a cobweb across my face. If a light flickered from the street beyond, the image of the police car would reappear and my hair would feel starched and my hands sweaty. The police smell took the oxygen out of the air and left me sitting there, with my chest heaving.

Seamus Deane was himself born in Derry in 1940 and he has said, when asked if it was autobiographical: “A lot of it. I wouldn’t want to give a percentage, but in effect it’s an interpretation of my own family’s history. However, the novel in some ways is not just about one particular family, but also about Northern Ireland and what the Northern Irish state was like from the 1920s to the 1970s. It’s the history of the Northern Irish, of minority experience, as well as the history of the family.” He was educated at Queen’s University in Belfast and earned his doctorate at Cambridge University. A poet and literary critic, he taught literature for many years at University College Dublin and was the general editor of the three-volume Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. He is currently Keogh Professor of Irish Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Deep Thought: “It seemed to me that, somehow, the blue jay was trying to communicate with me. I would see him fly into the house across the way, pick up the telephone, and dial. My phone would ring, and it would be him, but it was just this squawking and cheeping. “What?! What?!” I would yell back, but he never did speak English.”
Today I am grateful for: X-rays
Guess the Movie: “If only I could meet someone new. I guess my chances of that happening are somewhat diminished, seeing that I’m incapable of making eye contact with a woman I don’t know.” Answer: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004. Winner: tearsign.
June 2005: Phase II of the Anti-War Movement
by Medea Benjamin
For the history books, mark down June 2005 as the moment the US movement against the occupation of Iraq got its second wind. In June, the US public became solidly anti-war, Bush’s approval rating took a nosedive, and a significant number of Congresspeople started to call for an exit strategy. This marks a seismic shift from just one month ago, when Congress overwhelmingly passed another $82 billion for war-with only 44 members of the House and not one Senator dissenting. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:56 pm
+ = Lots of practice socializing today.
– = Still like Kafka at work.

FRIDAY FIVE

Appetizer
What’s one word or phrase that you use a lot?
What in the….?!*~ Followed by either “jeezoman!” or “namaste.”
Soup
Name something you always seem to put off until the last minute.
Getting my hair cut. It’s such an ordeal to face yet another cheery or grumpy cosmetologist who is going to destroy your already shaky image.
Salad
What was the last great bumper sticker you saw?
The more people I meet the more I love my cat.
Main Course
If you could be invisible for one day, how would you spend your time?
If I was at work I’d listen in on conferences the bosses are having to see if I’m going to get fired. If not, I’d pick out the best cultural events in town and enjoy them free, one after another, since all plays and concerts and such are now unbelievably expensive.
Dessert
Describe your hair.
Usually in a state of disarray thanks to the above-mentioned cosmetologists. Ornery. Fast-growing. Beloved.

Deep Thought: “If you think a weakness can be turned into a strength, I hate to tell you this, but that’s another weakness.”
Today I am grateful for: Rocking chairs
Guess the Movie: “I know what you’re thinking. “Did he fire six shots or only five?” Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”
House Votes to Curb Patriot Act, Defies Bush
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday defied President Bush by approving a measure making it harder for federal agents to secretly gather information on people’s library reading habits and bookstore purchases. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: OK, what in the….?!*~ jeezoman! Xanga said it would be down for an hour and it’s still down the next morning.

THURSDAY WHATEVER

What do you make of the Deaner these days? Here’s three recent quotes:

Dick Cheney (Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes”):
“I’ve never been able to understand (Howard Dean’s) appeal. Maybe his mother loved him, but I’ve never met anybody who does. He’s never won anything, as best as I can tell.”
“So far, I think he’s probably helped us more than he has them. That’s not the kind of individual you want to have representing your political party.”

Karen Finney (a spokeswoman, Democratic National Committee):
“Governor Dean must be doing something right if the vice president of the United States would stoop so low as to use the governor’s mother as a way to deflect from answering the concerns of the American people. It’s no wonder President Bush’s approval ratings are at an all-time low.” 
Howard Dean (Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa):
“We need to be blunt and clear about the things we’re going to fight for. I’m tired of lying down in front of the Republican machine. We need to stand up for what we believe in.”

As we know, that same machine creamed him in the last election run-up just by manipulating his image in the media. I’m fully expecting them to pull the same thing again and the Democrats had better stand firm behind him, or we’re all sunk. Wishy washy isn’t going to cut it.
(nullwinkle comments that Dean supports the death penalty, which was news to me so I looked up and here‘s a page that tells where he stands on many issues including that one, plus how other candidates stand on the death penalty issue. Food for thought.)

Deep Thought: “To my way of thinking, there’s nothing that can’t be cured by a big ol’ pot o beans. Except maybe bean fever.”
Today I am grateful for: Breathing
Guess the Movie: “Do you know what this is?” “Oh, that’s my heart.” “No, actually, it’s Fuzzy’s. There’s nothing wrong with your heart.” Answer: The Cider House Rules, 1999. Winner: tearsign.
Bipartisan Coalition Of Members To Hold Press Conference To Announce Legislation Calling on President to Set Plan For Beginning Phase-out of US Troops in Iraq
Reps. Jones (R-NC), Paul (R-TX), Abercrombie (D-HI), Kucinich (D-OH) To Hold Press Conference Thursday at 10:30am In House Radio TV Gallery (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:13 pm
+ = Got living room ceiling painted to cover up 10 years of soot accumulation from the fireplace.
- = I’d give that painter about a C-.

WEDNESDAY MOVIE

House of Flying Daggers
(watch trailer)

Oh lordy, I’m running late for work but I’ll just slap this up here. This is kind of a new genre for us Western folks – the incredible flying leaping fighting in the treetops genre in gorgeous gleaming color. Once you’ve seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – like most of us did several years ago – you can’t go back. In some ways, it’s like Rocky – you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all but they’re magnificent and you’d watch forever. This one has a historical backdrop (like they all do actually) – during the reign of the Tang dynasty in China, which god knows when that was (a long time ago is good enough), when a secret organization called “The House of the Flying Daggers” rises and opposes the government. They send a spy in the form of a blind incredibly beautiful female dancer/warrior (what else), and two local policemen (wearing the dashing long hairstyles and uniforms of the time) decide to trail her back to her source in order to wipe out the whole group. In the process, a great love triangle is born and there are magnificent battles and love scenes and dances and weather changes and horses and all of it in blindingly beautiful cinematography. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory. If you have a romantic bone in your body you’ll just want to swoon. Enjoy.

Deep Thought: “I think a new, different kind of bowling should be “carpet bowling.” It’s just like regular bowling, only the lanes are carpet instead of wood. I don’t know why we should do this, but my God, we’ve got to try something!”
Today I am grateful for: The concept of letting go
Guess the Movie: “I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind, I just choose not to indulge certain appetites; like my appetite for patterns; perhaps my appetite to imagine and to dream.” Answer: A Beautiful Mind, 2001. Winner: dustmite.
Feingold Resolution Calls on President to Create a Timetable for Achieving Goals and Withdrawing American Troops from Iraq
Feingold Resolution to be Introduced Today in the Senate (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:23 pm
+ = Big relief from a minor physical ailment.
- = More rain on the way – it’s June for cripes sake!

MONDAY BOOK(S)

The Tipping Point and Blink
Author – Malcolm Gladwell

Out of curiosity I checked the current New York Times Bestseller List to see what America is reading and noticed one author’s name appearing twice in the top 5 nonfiction categories – The Tipping Point #1 in paperback nonfiction and Blink #4 in hardcover nonfiction. These two books and their author hadn’t hit my radar before so I looked him up and found out the following: He’s 41, half black and half Jamaican with stick-your-finger-in-the-lightsocket hair. He was raised in a home in Canada with no TV by parents who were both authors and won a writing competition himself by age 16. He was also a track star. He got his start in journalism by publishing a “zine” in high school called “Ad Hominem: A Journal of Slander and Critical Opinion.” He graduated from the University of Toronto with a history degree and landed his first job as an editor for the conservative magazine, An American Spectator. Fired for oversleeping, he then worked for the Washington Post for 9 years, becoming the New York bureau chief. From there he jumped to being a New Yorker generalist staff writer. You can read his work here at his very own web site. A “Malcolm Gladwell story” is apparently a combo of the commonplace and the bizarre that uses both research and personal moments to change the way you think about an idea. In 2000 he produced his first book, The Tipping Point, which spent 28 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list and reveals a map for how ideas, products, and behavior become contagious within a culture. Companies have built their business practices around his ideas. His new book, Blink, came from the experiences he had when he let his hair grow out several years ago to its current “fro” length. Suddenly, he began receiving speeding tickets and was mistaken for a rape suspect. He decided to give split-second decisions a closer look and thus, Blink, a book about “rapid cognition.” So today he is a much sought-after speaker and is courted by business firms, but really describes himself as part of a bigger movement. “I feel like there’s been a kind of intellectual awakening in the business world in the past 20 years or so, where people began to realize that there was an enormous amount to be learned from the world outside of business,” he says. “I think of myself as one of the many people who are trying to feed that curiosity.” So there you have it, now we’ve heard of Malcolm Gladwell and I expect – his being bright, young, and charming – we’ll hear a lot more. I hope it will be good news.

Deep Thought: “I’d like to see a movie where a guy is going to die when the sand runs out of an hourglass, but then at the last minute an ant stops the sand from running out. Then the rest of the movie is about the ant.”
Today I am grateful for: Fire
Guess the Movie: “ “That groupie”? She was a Band-Aid! All she did was love your band. And you used her, all of you! You used her and threw her away! She almost died last night while you were with Bob Dylan. You guys, you’re always talking about the fans, the fans, the fans; she was your biggest fan, and you threw her away! And if you can’t see that, that’s your biggest problem. And I love her! I love her!” Answer: Almost Famous, 2000. Winner: nullwinkle.
House to Vote on Sanders’ Patriot Act Amendment to Protect Americans’ Reading Records
WASHINGTON – June 10 – On Tuesday, June 14, the U.S. House will vote on Congressman Bernie Sanders’ amendment to limit Section 215 of the Patriot Act in order to keep the federal government from accessing Americans’ reading records without a traditional search warrant. The amendment has the support of a large bipartisan coalition that believes that Section 215 obstructs Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed right to read and access information without governmental intrusion or monitoring. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 9:03 pm
+ = My grandson is now an 8th grade graduate!
- = Boy was it hot in that gym.

PEOPLE WHO KNOCK ME OUT
(See sidebar for others)

Neil Young 1945-

If for no other reason than creating this song back in 1988 (which won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video of the year in 1989 after MTV originally refused to run it because it mentioned products by name), you gotta love Neil Percival Kenneth Robert Ragland Young.

This Note’s for You

Don’t want no cash
Don’t need no money
Ain’t got no stash
This note’s for you.
Ain’t singin’ for Pepsi
Ain’t singin’ for Coke
I don’t sing for nobody
Makes me look like a joke
This note’s for you.
Ain’t singin’ for Miller
Don’t sing for Bud
I won’t sing for politicians
Ain’t singin’ for Spuds
This note’s for you.
Don’t need no cash
Don’t want no money
Ain’t got no stash
This note’s for you.
I’ve got the real thing
I got the real thing, baby
I got the real thing
Yeah, alright.

Out of Toronto, most of us who grew up in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s first knew him from Buffalo Springfield, the band he formed with Steve Stills, another Canadian from the Toronto folk clubs. They lasted 3 albums and Young was already moving from folk-rock to rock and roll by the time they split. He recorded a few solo albums next in 1969 (with Crazy Horse) that did reasonably well but then was recruited to CSNY, performing with them at Woodstock and releasing the great Deja Vu album. He also put out a single called “Ohio” after the Kent State University killings that he has continued to use for years to protest other incidents like the Tiananmen Square massacre. CSNY broke up too soon for those of us who loved their sound, but Neil Young moved on with the massive country rock album Harvest in 1972, after which he crossed the line into hard rock tinged with blues. In 1976, he joined the group who made the great rockumentary The Last Waltz and had to have a great wad of cocaine hanging from his nose edited out of the film afterwards. By the ‘80’s, he was experimenting with all sorts of odd formats, like the use of synthesizers but ended the year with that award-winning MTV video. By the early ‘90’s he began to settle back in to his country-rock roots but was still making political statements, like “Rockin’ in the Free World.” Emerging grunge bands like Nirvana labeled him The Godfather of Grunge. He toured a lot, including with bands like Pearl Jam and put out a dark album called Sleeps with Angels after Kurt Cobain’s death. Cobain’s suicide note had quoted a line from a song of Young’s that read, “It’s better to burn out than fade away.” At the end of the decade, he did a very successful reunion tour of CSNY. After 9/11 he became even more political, writing an anti-Bush rock opera called Greendale that chronicles the saga of a California family torn asunder by post-9/11 America. He toured extensively with the Greendale material in 2003 and 2004 along with intimate acoustic concerts with his wife Pegi. In early 2005, he booked time in a Northern California studio to work on material that is a closely guarded secret and in April suffered a brain aneurysm that was successfully treated. Like Dylan and Clapton and Springsteen, you just can’t put this guy in a musical box. They all reached down deep and pulled out raw, troubled, true spirit music to give us. Neil Young – long may you run.
(Other Achievements: Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1982. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice; first in 1995 for his solo work and again in 1997 as a member of the Buffalo Springfield. Directed three movies, under his pseudonym Bernard Shakey: Journey Through the Past (1979), Human Highway (1982) (starring new wave band Devo), and Greendale (2003). He is one of the founders of Farm Aid, and remains on their board of directors. Each year on a weekend in October in Mountain View, California, he and his wife host the Bridge School Concerts, which have been drawing international talent and sell-out crowds for nearly two decades. The concerts are a benefit for the Bridge School which develops and uses advanced technologies to aide in the instruction of handicapped children (he has a son with cerebral palsy).)

Deep Thought:”I didn’t want to cut down that tree. But I had no choice. It was growing right where I’m going to build my house, if I can ever get enough money together to build it and if I also have enough money to buy the land. That’s another thing: I need to find out who owns that land.”
Today I am grateful for: The color red
Guess the Movie: “All I know is that when I’m not with you I’m a total wreck.” “And when you are with me?” “I’m a different kind of total wreck.” Answer: White Palace, 1990. Winner: led0110.
Feingold Rallies Democratic Convention to Stop CAFTA Now
OSHKOSH, WI – June 10 – As the Democratic Party of Wisconsin opened its annual State convention in Oshkosh today, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold’s Progressive Patriots Fund launched a national effort on its new website, www.progressivepatriotsfund.com, to rally opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
The Bush Administration and opponents of fair trade are pushing Congress for summer passage of CAFTA, patterned after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which has contributed to U.S. job losses and record trade deficits. (Rest of article here.)