Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
Promoting democracy in Utah one pint at a time.
This week Drinking Liberally hosts our 2nd Environmental Panel Discussion. Join our invited guests as we discuss the politics surrounding environmental policies. In case you have forgotten: 6:30 onward on the back patio of the Piper Down (1492 So State).
Our panelists are:
* Ted Wilson - Utah Rivers Council - http://www.utahrivers.org/
* Vanessa Pierce - HEAL Utah - http://www.healutah.org/
* Ashley Patterson - Green Building Center - http://www.greenbuildingcenter.net/
* Trent Lenz - Tree Utah - http://www.treeutah.org/
If you missed Ted Wilson and Vanessa Pierce on RadioActive this month, you can listen to their shows online at:
Utah Rivers:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/krcl/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1258395§ionID=1
Heal Utah:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/krcl/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1265028
Remember, walking and biking is encouraged! The Piper Down is just 1 mile from the 13th South TRAX stop. It’s eco-friendly AND helps to burn off those beer calories.
I just received this from MoveOn; sounds like an event worth attending.
Anybody who has Thursday noon free could go, and so could anyone who works downtown and can visit for lunch:
“Dear MoveOn Member,
On Thursday, we’re making major news at events in Salt Lake City and around the country. We’re unveiling a new poll showing that local voters want to stop wasting billions in Iraq, and want to help the economy by investing those resources here at home.
In Salt Lake City, we can make an even bigger splash if there’s a crowd at the press conference—ten or twelve folks to show that voters in your community care about this issue.
This event is short—likely less than 45 minutes—and all you have to do is be there. Can you come?
Host: Richard L—fellow MoveOn member
Where: Federal Building Plaza (in Salt Lake City)
When: Thursday, Apr. 24, 2008, at 12:00 PM
Here’s the link to RSVP:
http://pol.moveon.org/event/recessionreport/46351?id=12488-6296802-ZIbxLp&t=4
These press conferences are key part of our larger “Iraq/Recession” campaign to highlight the links between the war and the struggling economy—and put heavy pressure on pro-war Republican senators who keep voting to continue this costly war.
MoveOn members have already stepped up to host events nationwide…”
|
Impeach Bush and Cheney for On Friday, George Bush told ABC News he “Yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this In the wake of this shocking and appalling confession, Either you’re for torture or you’re against it. And if Tell Congress to Impeach Bush and Cheney for Dr. Martin Luther King famously said of the Vietnam War, When our President and Vice President personally approve _______ Iraq Town Halls
We have fabulous coalition
_______ $3 trillion That is what Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz Please buy gifts for your all your friends and loved ones, ##### Forward this message to everyone you know! |
April 12, 2008
It’s Occupation, Not War
http://www.antiwar.com/reese/?articleid=12680
by Charley Reese
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ended some
years ago. In Iraq, the war ended with the fall of Saddam Hussein’s
government; in Afghanistan, with the fall of the Taliban government.
What’s been happening since is occupation and resistance to
occupation.
It’s always helpful to call things by the right name. One of the ways
using the wrong word can trip us is illustrated by John McCain’s campaign
theme. We have to win the war in Iraq, he keeps saying. Ending a war
implies either winning or losing. No such baggage is attached to an
occupation. You can end an occupation without either winning or losing.
You just withdraw your troops.
The fact that what is going on in Iraq is an occupation is proven by
the nature of the conflicts. They are between factions of Iraqis. Our guys
are caught in the crossfire or killed by Iraqis who oppose our presence.
There are no large-scale attacks directed against us.
Those who want to continue the occupation paint a horrific picture of
what they claim will happen if we withdraw - a massive civil war, genocide
or a regional war. There is no hard evidence to support any of those
suppositions. But even if they happen, they need not concern us. Lots of
factions in different parts of the world decide to kill each other from
time to time, and we don’t interfere. As long as there are no Americans to
get caught in the crossfire, let the Iraqis have their civil war if that’s
what they want.
On the other hand, there’s never been civil war in Iraq. There were
rebellions against the Baathist government and, before that, against the
British-sponsored governments, but before our occupation, Sunnis and Shia
intermarried and lived side by side. There were always Christians in Iraq
and, until the state of Israel was created, Jews. That was, in fact, true
throughout the Middle East.
Bob McCarthy the owner of Stoneground Restaurant here in Salt Lake is in the process of opening a new bar in the Marmalade District (750 North 300 West). The location of the bar is where the original “Hideout” used to be. The “Hideout” was just a tavern/beer bar. Bob is trying to change the license from a tavern to a private club. This has become a very debated issue and he is getting a lot of opposition from the local community. He is need of people who live in the Capitol Hill District to sign a petition in support ASAP. Please contact me via email at mmmerrill (at) hotmail (dot) com for petition locations.
Why have None of our Senatorsand Representatives voted in favor of the GI Bill if they Support theTroops
Ask them Why:
http://www.house.gov/matheson/
http://chriscannon.house.gov/
http://robbishop.house.gov/
http://bennett.senate.gov/
http://hatch.senate.gov/public/
Mayor Corroon invites you to celebrate the tremendous environmental achievements of the past four years and asks you to support his campaign for re-election.
Place: Squatters Pub Brewery. 147 W. Broadway (300 S.), Salt Lake City
When: Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008. 5:00 – 7:30 pmEntry: $35 per person, $25 per student, *includes appetizers and two drink tickets.
Movement: We encourage carpooling, walking, riding a bike, taking the bus, or using TRAX to get downtown for this event. Please consider your options.Help us minimize paper use for this event and buy your tickets now by clicking here. https://www.votecorroon.com/index.php?option=com_netinvoice&action=orders&task=order&cid=2&Itemid=16
Please RSVP to ‘elise at votecorroon.com’ if you plan on buying tickets at the door.
Did you know Mayor Corroon’s vision and leadership have given us:LEED Silver rating on the Salt Palace Convention Center Extension.TWO solar photovoltaic installations at the Clark Planetarium and the Salt Palace.FOUR Thousand acres of preserved open space.1,000,000 Tree Planting Initiative.
Please join us to support Mayor Corroon in his re-election campaign so he can continue his sound environmental policy over the next 4 years.
This event is sponsored by Squatters Pub and Brewery. Squatters is a Wind Powered Business, that promotes water and energy conservation within their business practices.
CAN 350 CYCLISTS ALL
BE WRONG?
Healthy Planet March and Rally Spurs Cyclists to
Action
Cyclists in Salt Lake City will lead the pack this Saturday,
April
5th, at a march and rally to promote a healthy planet beginning
and
ending at the city government building, 451 South State Street.
Riders
will take to the streets at 12noon to call for peace, health care
and healthy
air.
Rocky Anderson, former Salt Lake mayor, is just one speaker slated
to
raise public awareness and support. The April 5th Healthy Planet
Rally
aims to spotlight three causes: ending the occupation in Iraq,
providing
universal single payer health care for all citizens and
reducing carbon
emissions to halt global warming.
Carbon emissions are exactly where the
350 cyclists come in. They
will represent the 350 parts per million of CO2
needed to create a
sustainable atmosphere. We are currently at 383 parts per
million.
Cyclists, walkers and one electric car will drive the message
home:
to protect our planet, we need to reduce CO2 emissions
now.
Saturday’s march will also launch Bill McKibben’s global
350
Campaign. Environmentalist and author McKibben, who spoke in Salt
Lake
City last month, encouraged local activists to round up 350
cyclists to kick
off the April 5th rally. Salt Lake will be the first
U.S. city to host a 350
event with our own CO2 cyclists.
The one o’clock rally, led by moderators
Troy Williams of KRCL and
Diana Lee Hirschi of the Salt Lake Quakers and
Nader for President,
features live music by Rich Wyman and Orion, speeches by
Green Party
activist Peter Miguel Camejo and Iraq War veteran Chris Conway.
Poets
Shea, Repo and Flora will join Rocky Anderson, along with
Barbara
Toomer from Disabled Rights Action Committee and Brian Moench
from
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.
I went to see the movie “Stop Loss”. I
went to the matinee on opening day which might explain why the theater was
nearly empty, but the weekend box office was disappointing as well.
So, I’m left to wonder, are we disinterested and disaffected, or was this simply
another Iraq war movie that failed to connect? Some could rightly
argue this movie unfairly contributes to the stereotypical portrayal of
enlisted men as beer guzzling, wife beating, uneducated neer do wells. But, the
overarching story is one that needs to be told, and I left the theater with a
renewed determination to tell it, yell it if I have to. Granted, this issue is
personal to me, as my own son is facing this very conundrum
but it also begs the
question, are we as nation paying attention to the burdens and sacrifices
being made for all, by too few? After two tours in Bush’s Iraq,
10 years in the Army as a Black Hawk pilot, his military obligation fulfilled,
my son is looking down the barrel of “stop loss”, even as he prepares, and
hopes to go on with his life as a civilian. While few would
disagree that national security is important, how many of us
really believe we are safer because of the bloodshed
in Iraq? To that point, what do we take away from the fact that so many
able bodied patriots who supposedly support this Presidents war, are not
stepping up to participate, especially in redder than red Utah? That it is up to
someone else? Why after 6 years do we continue to be an Army at war and not an
entire nation? We
havent been compelled as a citizenry to participate I realize, but at a time of
war, how is it we havent overwhelmingly volunteered?
Hence, over 80,000 soldiers (since 2003) have been held hostage, prisoners of
war if you will, past their enlistment obligation in order to be
re-deployed for their 3rd, 4th even 5th tour of duty. That this
policy even exists speaks to the reality that contrary to those who would have
us believe we have an “all volunteer Army”, we have over extended and
over obligated our military through an egregious breech of faith by this
government and it’s civilian leadership. It is reprehensible that our soldiers
are expected, with no relief in sight, to bear the burden of those who’ve failed
to use their service carefully and judiciously. Placing undue hardships on those
who have given their all is by far the worst recruiting tactic imaginable.
Bottom line, stop-loss is an unethical policy. It exposes the lack of
decisive action on the part of our elected officials who refuse to be held
accountable, and refuse to recognize that they have broken our economy, and
broken our military with their negligent missteps. It is long past time to move
beyond “debate” and actually “support our troops” with solutions that offer
light at the end of this endless tunnel. The very mindset and ideology that
created the mess we find ourselves in tragically continues to be the primary
influence driving the policies that dig us deeper in to the morass. We must
draw attention to the “back door draft” that is being used as a substitute for
conscription, and if it takes a Hollywood movie to engage us in the
conversation, then shame on us. Stop-loss needs to end. We need to get
the heck out of Iraq, begin re-deploying our soldiers home, engage the
region diplomatically, and get our own nation that has been torn to
shreds, back on track.
[powered by WordPress.]
Welcome to Drinking Liberally Salt Lake City. We meet at 6:30 p.m. every Friday in the back room of Piper Down [Map] and go to 9:30. All are welcome.
click here to learn more
E-mail saltlakecity [at] drinkingliberally.org if you want your event added to the calendar, or send your Gmail address to get editing abilities.
35 queries. 0.859 seconds
Help organize a Town Hall Meeting on