When your grandchildren ask what you did to stop the genocide in Darfur, what will you say? Join the Utah community on Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 3pm in front of the City County Building located at 451 South State Street to rally support and urge President Bush to help stop the Genocide in Darfur. The rally will be one hour long and include speakers, drummers, and a “call-in” to the White House. Please bring a cell phone.

The rally is part of the “Million Voices for Darfur” campaign to generate one million postcards for delivery to President Bush, who recently pledged to push for additional U.N. and NATO help to protect the people of Darfur. The UN calls it the “greatest humanitarian crisis in the world,” yet the slaughter continues – 400,000 dead, 2.5 million displaced, thousands raped. History has shown that silence in the face of unspeakable evil equals death. We must take a stand. We applaud the President’s leadership, but the work is far from done. We are urging President Bush to take steps necessary to end the genocide and build a lasting peace for the people of Darfur.

The “Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide” is part of a National Rally organized by the Save Darfur Coalition. Locally the program is organized and supported thus far by National Council of Jewish Women Utah Section, the I.J. & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center, the United Jewish Federation of Utah, Greater Salt Lake City Hadassah, Salt Lake Community College’s Sudanese Student Association, the International Rescue Committee, and the National Council for Community and Justice.

Stop Genocide in Darfur – Because We Must!

Ripped from the Utah state Democratic Party’s weekly newsletter:

Today, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) read this bit of poetic genius from the floor of the House. Fantastic.

“Mr. Speaker, investigators have recently uncovered a letter from the Republican Leadership to special interest lobbyists — I’d like to share it with you today.

Dear K Street Lobbyists,
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth of thy oil wells,
For thou shall have $14.5 billion to drill them.
I love thee to the heights of thy drug profits,
For the Medicare bill gives you $139 billion.
I love thee for thy golf courses, and for thy private jets.
I love thee for thy donations, libations, and vacations.
For now we must part, and I’ll call it reform,
But remember, in December, once we get past November,
The travel ban expires, and I’ll meet you at the tees.
“Yours forever, ’cause I can’t quit you,
“The Republican Congress.”

Yesterday afternoon, a House committee caved to the narrow interests of telecom companies and voted to strip Net Neutrality from a bill moving through Congress.

Network Neutrality is the Internet’s First Amendment — without it companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast will move to control what you do, where you go, and what you watch online.

The vote was an outrage, but the fight for Internet freedom is far from over. More important votes are coming in Congress — and we have the momentum.

You are one of more than 250,000 people who wrote and called Congress in the past five days. Because you raised public awareness of this threat to Internet freedom, no member of Congress can in good conscience vote with the telecom cartel.

Politicians take action when they realize the public is paying attention. Yesterday’s vote was much closer than predicted. Call your members of Congress to let them know that no bill should become law without meaningful protections for Network Neutrality:

Sen. Orrin Hatch: (202) 224-5251

Rep. Jim Matheson: (202) 225-3011

Tell them that the public is now watching this issue, and we will not stand for any law that threatens Internet freedom. Network Neutrality must be protected by Congress.

We have ignited a prairie fire of protest. In less than one week, our SavetheInternet.com Coalition has lit up the phones in Congress. We’ve rallied more than 600 blogs to write about this issue. We’ve formed a diverse, bipartisan coalition of more than 75 organizations banding together to fight for a free and open Internet.

Congress needs to hear from you right away. Please call and send a letter to your elected representatives. And don’t forget to spread the word to your friends, colleagues and family:

Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide

When your grandchildren ask what you did to stop the genocide in
Darfur, what will you say? Join the Utah community on Sunday, April 30, 2006
at 3pm in front of the City County Building located at 451 South State
Street to rally support and urge President Bush to help stop the
Genocide in Darfur. The rally will be one hour long and include speakers,
drummers, and a “call-in” to the White House. Please bring a cell phone.

The rally is part of the “Million Voices for Darfur” campaign to
generate one million postcards for delivery to President Bush, who recently
pledged to push for additional U.N. and NATO help to protect the people
of Darfur. The UN calls it the “greatest humanitarian crisis in the
world,” yet the slaughter continues – 400,000 dead, 2.5 million displaced,
thousands raped. History has shown that silence in the face of
unspeakable evil equals death. We must take a stand. We applaud the
President’s leadership, but the work is far from done. We are urging President
Bush to take steps necessary to end the genocide and build a lasting
peace for the people of Darfur.

The “Save Darfur: Rally to Stop Genocide” is part of a National Rally
organized by the Save Darfur Coalition. Locally the program is
organized and supported thus far by National Council of Jewish Women Utah
Section, the I.J. & Jeanné Wagner Jewish Community Center, the United
Jewish Federation of Utah, Greater Salt Lake City Hadassah, Salt Lake
Community College’s Sudanese Student Association, the International Rescue
Committee, and the National Council for Community and Justice.

Stop Genocide in Darfur – Because We Must!

Miro Marinovich
Resettlement Director
International Rescue Committee
Salt Lake City

1800 South West Temple Suite 421
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
Tel: (801) 328-1091 ex: 114
Fax: (801) 328-1094
Email: MiroM@theIRC.org
Web: www.theIRC.org

Join us for our weekly meet-up, and help us promote democracy in Utah, one pint at a time.

Where: The loft of the Desert Edge Brewery. B/W 500S and 600S on cross streets 600E and 700E
When: 6:30-9:30

Markos of DailyKos

Click the photo for more.

It’s not often we get a veritable Internet superstar out in our parts, let alone a liberal one. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga came out to promote his book, Crashing the Gates, and showed us that he’s just as articulate in person as he is in dailykos.com.

Although the co-author of Crashing The Gates, Jerome Armstrong of mydd.com couldn’t make it out, Markos was a gracious speaker and spent quite a bit of time both before and after his speech chatting with people individually and signing copies of the book. Many people had their own copies of Crashing the Gates, but in case someone showed up without a copy, Sam Weller’s Books was on hand, selling a good chunk of their stock.

Democracy for Utah made a good showing, bringing along a good amount of Democratic candidates and office-holders (be sure to read the post and comments here). A few of the local liberal bloggers showed up- oneutah.org has a good list of the bloggers in attendance.

If there was one main point about Markos’ speech that I came away with, it was that a shift back to a Democratic majority is going to take time. The fact that conservatives have this huge Republican machinery behind them that they’ve built over multiple decades, and they’re still only winning by small margins is a good sign of hope in the future, even if it isn’t the immediate future.

Update: Markos posted about his visit here

This weeks issue of Rolling Stone has not only a very good piece by historian Sean Wilentz asking if George W. Bush might just be the worst President in history (along with a front cover caricature of Bush sitting in a corner wearing a dunce’s cap), but also a great don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-ass piece to Tom DeLay by Matt Taibbi. A good, funny, straight to the point read:

THANK YOU, TOM DELAY
You were the Hammer- the most brutal and feared of all Republican leaders- but only your rank incompetence saved us from your revolution.

The halls of congress already feel different. Under the old House majority leader, the Rayburn Building had the Kubrickian feel of the Full Metal Jacket barracks – heels audibly clicking, something evil hissing in the background. Now it just feels like a building.

I ran into a Democratic staffer friend. “Admit it,” I said. “You’re going to miss Tom DeLay.”
He frowned at me. “Taibbi, you ever have a hemorrhoid?”
I shrugged. “Sure,” I said.
“You miss it?” he asked, then walked away not waiting for my answer.

There are some people out there who think that Tom DeLay is too easy a target, that it’s cheap to hit him now, while he’s down. It makes sense on the surface. DeLay is a short guy with a paunch and an ass-crack face who spent most of his pre-congressional life cutting rat bait and growing the state of Texas’ silliest set of sideburns. He was ugly outside and in: His religious conversion came while watching a video-taped James Dobson sermon, which means that the most important moment of his spiritual life occurred as he sat in front of a television. In a hilarious example of petty capitalist parasitism, he bought his pest control company, Albo, in order to feed off the dubious largess of the Alpo dog food company. Like our current president, he’s an ex-drunk (he claims he used to suck down twelve martinis a night) given to preposterous rhetorical excesses (he once compared the Audubon Society to the Klan), making him a sort of cartoon version of a shameless, pig-hearted right-wing hypocrite.

APRIL 22 8:00 A.M. (DON’T BE DRINKING TOO HARD ON FRIDAY NIGHT)
HIGHLAND HIGH SCHOOL
2166 SOUTH 170O EAST

If you haven’t received your notice “Call to Convention” and are a delegate, call the Salt Lake county office and tell them. Precinct chairs are invited as well, it is fun to see what is going on and to meet other Democrats.

Please Join Leaders and Representatives from

The Sierra Club
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
Utah Open Lands
Save Our Canyons
The Young Democrats of Utah
And More!

And learn about Environmental Issues in Utah!

Cup of Joe’s
(353 W 200 S)
Just Kiddy Corner to the Gateway

Wednesday, April 19th
6 to 8pm

Tuesday April 25, we’re pleased to host Markos of the DailyKos and Jerome from MyDD.com. If you’re a liberal blog reader, you already know who these guys are. If not, here’s a brief blurb from their book’s website:
“Crashing the Gate is a shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington, DC and a call to re-democratize politics in America.
Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement that is changing the way political campaigns are waged.”

This event will be held at the Fiddler’s Elbow, 1063 E 2100 S in the Sugarhouse area. 6:30pm.