How to pare down a 752-page book into a 2-hour cable television event must have been a challenge for the producers of The People Speak, but those behind The People Speak succeed beautifully in presenting a tableau of Zinn's revolutionary piece of nonfiction.

Celebrity personalities come together and read lyrics, prose, and literature that, for the most part, is ignored by the American population especially the nation's leaders.

Each of the readings come from The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, a book that has sold over 2 million copies.

The special television event lays out concisely how what freedom and democracy people of this nation enjoy is enjoyed because people in history had the courage and moral fortitude to struggle, to be troublemakers and act out because they believed they should stand for a world that ought to be and not simply a world rife with injustice and inequality.

Harris Yulin reads a Columbus Sun Editorial, "The Class That Suffers," which holds an extreme amount of poignancy and relevance when you consider the current growing economic injustice in America. [Text to be posted if I can find it on the Internet.]

The reading that Rosario Dawson gives of the "Women's Declaration of Independence" and the exchange that occurs between Christina Kirk and Josh Brolin who portray a court scene between Susan B. Anthony and Judge Hunt remind us of how far women have come in this nation yet compel us to not forget that women's reproductive rights regularly become bargaining chips in legislative reform battles in this nation.

[JOSH BROLIN as JUDGE HUNT]: The sentence of the Court is that you pay a fine of one hundred dollars and the costs of the prosecution.



[CHRISTINA KIRK as SUSAN B. ANTHONY]: May it please your honor, I will never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I possess is a debt of $10,000, incurred by publishing my paper "The Revolution" the sole object of which was to educate all women to do precisely as I have done, rebel against your man-made, unjust, unconstitutional forms of law, which tax, fine, imprison and hang women, while denying them the right of representation in the government; and I will work on with might and main to pay every dollar of that honest debt, but not a penny shall go to this unjust claim. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim, "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."

Viggo Mortensen brought an anti-war perspective of an International Workers of the World (IWW) member to life:

[VIGGO MORTENSEN as IWW MEMBER] If you were a bum without a blanket; if you had left your wife and kids when you went west for a job, and had never located them since; if your job had never kept you long enough in a place to qualify you to vote; if you slept in a lousy, sour bunkhouse, and ate food just as rotten as they could give you and get by with it; if deputy sheriffs shot your cooking cans full of holes and spilled your grub on the ground; if your wages were lowered on you when the bosses thought they had you down; if every person who represented law and order and the nation beat you up, railroaded you to jail, and the good Christian people cheered and told them to go to it, how in the hell do you expect a man to be patriotic? This war is a business man's war and we don't see why we should go out and get shot in order to save the lovely state of affairs which we now enjoy.

Each element of The People Speak is a reminder of (or for some Americans, an introduction to) how government has only ever been moved to act by the actions of organized citizens. Pure sentiments or feelings or public opinion has rarely translated into any kind of meaningful change.

Out of all that is read, perhaps, the people's reading that may hold the most significance in these times is Langston Hughes' "Ballad of Roosevelt" written in November of 1934. Read the words of this poem or view Danny Glover reading them:

"Ballad of Roosevelt"

Striking and rebellion all over this country is what eventually forced Roosevelt to pass the New Deal, which so many Democrats now celebrate. Plug in Obama for Roosevelt and you will start to wonder how many households are telling their loved ones they are tired of waitin' on Obama.

You will wonder how much longer people will ask, "What's the matter?" before they get organized and act to fight injustice, claim dignity, and further emancipate humanity.

Some of the celebrity personalities who supported Obama's election lent their support to the creation of The People Speak. For example, Bruce Springsteen sang, "This Land is Your Land" during the special, a song that was sung at Obama's Inaugural Celebration earlier this year by musicians like Pete Seeger.

Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, John Legend, Bob Dylan, and others involved no doubt voiced support for Obama at some point in the last couple of years (which leads one to wonder if any of them asked the president to watch this special event Sunday night).

There's a level of discord occurring when actors and musicians read the words of heroes in the people's history of America after they have voted for a president to bring the American people change, something past presidents historically have fought to prevent from happening for the people when president.

Viewing The People Speak, one might realize the arguments and differences we have over who will be a good or bad leader, the different conceptions of what one can and cannot do as a leader in government, and the different ideas on how the people can benefit from and share in the power these leaders may enjoy in government upon being elected to office prevent us from the real organizing that has led to real action and real social movements for better laws, policies and programs in America.

One realizes the people of this country do not need the leader of this nation to be on their side to rule. The president does not need the consent of the governed to defend this nation's ruling class' interests at the expense of lower classes.

And, the president will take little note of public opinion as he works to control public unrest in times of economic strife and civic arousal.

The people have no interest in being a part of the decision-making process that leads to more brutalizing and maiming of civilians in Afghanistan, that sends tens of thousands more troops to countries in the Middle East to kill and be killed physically or psychologically, that defends the right of health insurance companies to sell a flawed product to consumers, that will bail out banks before bailing out people facing home foreclosure crises, economic rape from credit card companies, or joblessness on an obscene scale, that fights meaningful action to halt global warming and restore and protect Mother Earth in the face of corporate domination and exploitation, etc.

The People Speak shows the people have an interest in food, shelter, health, education, a job with a decent income, family, community, and all other things are things people have been duped into believing they want or need in the consumer society we live in or the empire we live under.

Hopefully, the wider audience that saw Zinn for the first time takes note and begins to confront themselves and their role in this country. It is us who hold the answers and power to our future. Whatever future we get has always been up to us, and that's how it always will be.

See video of Zinn's appearance on Bill Moyers (w/ transcript)

There's more...

How to pare down a 752-page book into a 2-hour cable television event must have been a challenge for the producers of The People Speak, but those behind The People Speak succeed beautifully in presenting a tableau of Zinn's revolutionary piece of nonfiction.

Celebrity personalities come together and read lyrics, prose, and literature that, for the most part, is ignored by the American population especially the nation's leaders.

Each of the readings come from The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, a book that has sold over 2 million copies.

The special television event lays out concisely how what freedom and democracy people of this nation enjoy is enjoyed because people in history had the courage and moral fortitude to struggle, to be troublemakers and act out because they believed they should stand for a world that ought to be and not simply a world rife with injustice and inequality.

Harris Yulin reads a Columbus Sun Editorial, "The Class That Suffers," which holds an extreme amount of poignancy and relevance when you consider the current growing economic injustice in America. [Text to be posted if I can find it on the Internet.]

The reading that Rosario Dawson gives of the "Women's Declaration of Independence" and the exchange that occurs between Christina Kirk and Josh Brolin who portray a court scene between Susan B. Anthony and Judge Hunt remind us of how far women have come in this nation yet compel us to not forget that women's reproductive rights regularly become bargaining chips in legislative reform battles in this nation.

[JOSH BROLIN as JUDGE HUNT]: The sentence of the Court is that you pay a fine of one hundred dollars and the costs of the prosecution.



[CHRISTINA KIRK as SUSAN B. ANTHONY]: May it please your honor, I will never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I possess is a debt of $10,000, incurred by publishing my paper "The Revolution" the sole object of which was to educate all women to do precisely as I have done, rebel against your man-made, unjust, unconstitutional forms of law, which tax, fine, imprison and hang women, while denying them the right of representation in the government; and I will work on with might and main to pay every dollar of that honest debt, but not a penny shall go to this unjust claim. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim, "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."

Viggo Mortensen brought an anti-war perspective of an International Workers of the World (IWW) member to life:

[VIGGO MORTENSEN as IWW MEMBER] If you were a bum without a blanket; if you had left your wife and kids when you went west for a job, and had never located them since; if your job had never kept you long enough in a place to qualify you to vote; if you slept in a lousy, sour bunkhouse, and ate food just as rotten as they could give you and get by with it; if deputy sheriffs shot your cooking cans full of holes and spilled your grub on the ground; if your wages were lowered on you when the bosses thought they had you down; if every person who represented law and order and the nation beat you up, railroaded you to jail, and the good Christian people cheered and told them to go to it, how in the hell do you expect a man to be patriotic? This war is a business man's war and we don't see why we should go out and get shot in order to save the lovely state of affairs which we now enjoy.

Each element of The People Speak is a reminder of (or for some Americans, an introduction to) how government has only ever been moved to act by the actions of organized citizens. Pure sentiments or feelings or public opinion has rarely translated into any kind of meaningful change.

Out of all that is read, perhaps, the people's reading that may hold the most significance in these times is Langston Hughes' "Ballad of Roosevelt" written in November of 1934. Read the words of this poem or view Danny Glover reading them:

"Ballad of Roosevelt"

Striking and rebellion all over this country is what eventually forced Roosevelt to pass the New Deal, which so many Democrats now celebrate. Plug in Obama for Roosevelt and you will start to wonder how many households are telling their loved ones they are tired of waitin' on Obama.

You will wonder how much longer people will ask, "What's the matter?" before they get organized and act to fight injustice, claim dignity, and further emancipate humanity.

Some of the celebrity personalities who supported Obama's election lent their support to the creation of The People Speak. For example, Bruce Springsteen sang, "This Land is Your Land" during the special, a song that was sung at Obama's Inaugural Celebration earlier this year by musicians like Pete Seeger.

Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Danny Glover, John Legend, Bob Dylan, and others involved no doubt voiced support for Obama at some point in the last couple of years (which leads one to wonder if any of them asked the president to watch this special event Sunday night).

There's a level of discord occurring when actors and musicians read the words of heroes in the people's history of America after they have voted for a president to bring the American people change, something past presidents historically have fought to prevent from happening for the people when president.

Viewing The People Speak, one might realize the arguments and differences we have over who will be a good or bad leader, the different conceptions of what one can and cannot do as a leader in government, and the different ideas on how the people can benefit from and share in the power these leaders may enjoy in government upon being elected to office prevent us from the real organizing that has led to real action and real social movements for better laws, policies and programs in America.

One realizes the people of this country do not need the leader of this nation to be on their side to rule. The president does not need the consent of the governed to defend this nation's ruling class' interests at the expense of lower classes.

And, the president will take little note of public opinion as he works to control public unrest in times of economic strife and civic arousal.

The people have no interest in being a part of the decision-making process that leads to more brutalizing and maiming of civilians in Afghanistan, that sends tens of thousands more troops to countries in the Middle East to kill and be killed physically or psychologically, that defends the right of health insurance companies to sell a flawed product to consumers, that will bail out banks before bailing out people facing home foreclosure crises, economic rape from credit card companies, or joblessness on an obscene scale, that fights meaningful action to halt global warming and restore and protect Mother Earth in the face of corporate domination and exploitation, etc.

The People Speak shows the people have an interest in food, shelter, health, education, a job with a decent income, family, community, and all other things are things people have been duped into believing they want or need in the consumer society we live in or the empire we live under.

Hopefully, the wider audience that saw Zinn for the first time takes note and begins to confront themselves and their role in this country. It is us who hold the answers and power to our future. Whatever future we get has always been up to us, and that's how it always will be.

See video of Zinn's appearance on Bill Moyers (w/ transcript)

There's more...

Following the "reality" theme set by susanhu in her January 14, 2008, MyDD diary Reality: Why Obama Is Exploiting Racism, let's explore the "reality" of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)'s antiwar stance prior to his run for the U.S. Senate with a focus on the date of that much-touted October 2002 speech given in Chicago's Daley Plaza.

Obama's website BarackObama.com provides a copy of his speech entitled "Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq", dated October 2, 2002.

Elsewhere on the internet, however, the date for the speech delivered in Chicago is stated as October 26, 2002, including the text of the speech published at Wikisource and by The Network Journal (September 2004), for example.

On January 13, 2008, DemocraticUnderground forum commenter stillcool47 posted the speech dated October 26, 2002, with the source link cited as barackobama.com/pdf/warspeech.pdf. The date on the pdf document now reads October 2, 2002.

Alegre, a well-known blogger at The Daily Kos, as recently as January 11, 2008, hyperlinked to the October 26, 2002, speech at EnwikiSource.org. It is now an inactive link.

In February 2007, Obama supporters cited the date of the speech as October 26, 2002. In his February 12, 2007, post, Lawrence Jones included the text of the speech—dated October 26, 2002 on his Obama community page and, on February 13, 2007, an Obama diarist at SouthernDemocrats.us posted the text of the speech under the heading October 26, 2002.

Even the Wikipedia article Political positions of Barack Obama dates his speech to October 26, 2002. The date, cited in Footnote 52, originally linked to Obama's 2010 U.S. Senate re-election campaign webpage Obama2010.us/2002/10/26/iraq_war.php. When clicking on the link now, one is redirected to BarackObama.com.

Why is this important?

There's more...

The collective power of the peace movement helped the Democrats take control of Congress and turn Nancy Pelosi from Minority leader into Madam Speaker. But in May the new Congress turned its back on the peace movement, granting Bush another $95 billion for war with no timetable for withdrawal. While the Speaker of the House herself voted against the war funding, she failed to put pressure on the conservative Democrats to form a united front against another blank check for war. She also failed to effectively use her power to decide what bills would come up for a vote. In the case of both the unrestricted war funding and the expanded FISA wiretapping, Pelosi had the ability to keep the bills off the floor but refused to do so. This Fall, Congress will be faced with a new Bush Administration request for a mind-boggling $200 billion more for war. The American people have had enough of Congressional capitulation. Pelosi's approval rating plummeted from a high of 48 percent in March to 39 percent by August, putting her on a par with Dick Cheney, and Congress' approval is at an all-time low of 18%. So CODEPINK women and men are descending upon Washington this month to whip Congress into shape. We'll ride our representatives until they start to represent us! Everyday, from the opening of Congress on September 4 until the vote on more war funding, CODEPINK will be in Congressional offices, hearings, press conferences, fundraisers and favorite DC "watering holes" to poke, prod and pester our elected officials. CODEPINK has been a near constant presence in DC since we rented a house a few blocks from the Capitol in March. This Fall we will move at an even faster clip. Each day that Congress does not move to bring our troops home, CODEPINK activists will be on Capitol Hill holding our elected officials accountable for not representing the will of the majority of Americans. We hate to say it, but the Democratic leadership could take a clue from Karl Rove (he might be a nasty guy, but he's no dummy). In a press interview as he left office, he gave the Democrats some free advice. He described his politics as building on the energy of the base of the Republican Party and expanding it outward. He mentioned that the Democrats could build on the energy of their base, like the "Pink Ladies", he said, referring to the Code Pink women who dogged him until the day he left office. Instead, the Democrats have been turning potential allies in the peace movement into adversaries—refusing to meet with us, strategize with us or represent us. This August recess, when CODEPINK activists went on a 2-week hunger strike and camped outside Speaker Pelosi home just trying to get a meeting, she not only refused to meet but screamed at the fasters, calling them "nuts." Our advice? Do what the country asked you to do when you were voted into office on November 2006: Stand up to Bush. Lead us out of Iraq. Don't give this administration another blank check for war. Push the Republicans in Congress to break rank with Bush, but also force the conservative Dems to follow your lead. Only vote for, or put on the floor, legislation that sets a fixed timeline for withdrawal or stipulates that funds be used solely for the safe and speedy withdrawal of our troops. Build on the energy and passion of the anti-war movement. Make us your allies, not your adversaries If you can dialogue with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Asad, you can surely meet with and work with the peace-loving Pink Ladies, the Quakers, Veterans for Peace and others who have been the heart and soul of our nation's efforts to end this shameful war. If Pelosi, Reid and the others in leadership won't whip this Congress into shape, you can bet we will. Take the pledge today to whip Congress into shape at www.codepinkalert.org "Whip Congress Into Shape" animation was produced by CODEPINK and created by Mark Farinas and Bad Monkey Studios (www.badmonkeystudios.com

There's more...

There has been alot of talk lately about a military strike against Iran, specifically the undergound uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.  This FYI diary attempts to briefly outline the 'options on the table' from an operational perspective.

First, a little background.  The USAF and the Navy, at immense cost in material and readiness, enjoy a remarkable tactical capability to 'project' power wherever local air superiority can be established.  Which is basically to say anywhere at all for brief periods, at least.  This capability is totally independent of the apocalyptic potential of the US strategic arsenal, the geopolitical elephant in the room.

Our optical and signals intelligence are peerless.  And there is no place to be seen on the globe that the US isn't, potentialy, watching.  Rogue states, consequently, of which there have been any number in recent history, have yielded the skies to us.  There are several ways for them to deal with this, keep moving, disperse, hide among the civilians or tunnel underground and if you look back at US post-war history you generally find our worst enemies ultimately in a network of tunnels.  Korea, Viet-Nam, Lebanon and Tora-Bora in Afghanistan, to name a few.   And if you are planning sinister mischief that is your best option.

The origin of 'bunker-busting' is epitomised in WWII by the titanic struggle between the massive bombs of the RAF and the U-Boat pens of 3m-7m thick reinforced concrete.

The current generation of bunker-busters emerged when traditional iron gravity bombs, supersonic aerodynamics and laser guidance were married with timed fuses and armour piercing warheads to produce weapons which rendered obsolete conventional bunker engineering, raising the ante on protection, and establishing the type as tactically delivered by fast jets.  The Isrealis succeeded without this technology on a similar sort of mission which destroyed Iraq's Osiriq reactor, a ripping yarn of precision flying and cunning intelligence.

Modern  Earth Penetrating Weapons have refined this technology considerably.  But the obvious counter-measure is to dig deeper and reinforce stronger.

There's more...