FreePress Second Saturday Salon

You are invited to the:

Second Saturday Salon

February 13 - 6:30pm (until midnight)

The band Miller-Kelton will play "on the stairs" at 8pm. Hear and read about the origins of the Free Press in honor of our 40th anniversary year. Art, refreshments and progressive political networking. Meet new friends.

1021 E. Broad St., side door, parking in rear.
253-2571, truth@freepress.org

Freepress invites us to see two movies

You are invited to see the movie
FOOD, Inc.

Free Press Readers receive $2.00 off General Admission and $1.00 off Student/Senior Admission.
You are invited to see the movie
FOOD, Inc.

Free Press Readers receive $2.00 off General Admission and $1.00 off Student/Senior Admission

Wednesday, July 22 – 7:30pm showing only

Just bring this email with you
Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Broad St., Bexley

FOOD, INC. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil off our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

A panel discussion will follow the screening and will broadly focus on issues raised in the film, eating locally produced food, growing food, and indentifying and supporting local food resources. Panelists will include Bill Dawson, Growing Green Program Coordinator, Franklin Park Conservatory; Michael Jones, Executive Director Local Matters; Darren Malhame, partner, Northstar Café; Annerose Schaffrin, General Manager, Bexley Natural Market; and Warren Taylor, owner and fresh milk advocate, Snowville Creamery, Pomeroy, Ohio. Carol Goland, Executive Director, Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association will be moderator. The audience is invited to see the film and stay to join in the discussion.

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Free Press Free Film Night
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 – 7:30pm

A Sense of Wonder
Rachel Carson’s love for the natural world and her fight to defend it

When pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, the backlash from her critics thrust her into the center of a political maelstrom. Despite her love of privacy, Carson’s convictions and her foresight regarding the risks posed by chemical pesticides forced her into a very public and controversial role. The film is an intimate and poignant reflection of Carson's life as she emerges as America's most successful advocate for the natural world. Sponsored by the Free Press, Sierra Club, Central Ohio Green Education Fund, and Drexel Theater.

Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley
253-2571 – truth@freepress.org

California should pay its people in pot

Here's another one from Harvey. I really like it. -charlie

California should pay its people in pot
by “Thomas Paine”
July 9, 2009

California’s state finances have gone to pot, and that’s what it should use to pay its employees.

Right now the state is issuing I.O.U.’s to those who work for it. Sacramento says they are worth the paper they’re printed on, but most Californians know that’s true only if they are used to roll joints.

The state’s key available assets are in its farms and fields….and in its prisons and legal system.

Medical marijuana is legal in California. Estimates put last year’s traffic in prescription-approved pot at around a billion dollars. If the state were properly organized to tax that and non-medical marijuana---whose dollar volume is many times greater---it might actually have enough money to pay its employees.

By legalizing marijuana, California could immediately free tens of thousands of prisoners at a savings of tens of millions of dollars. Those quick savings could be a down payment on the salaries of its employees (and cover the unemployment benefits that will be due prison builders and guards who will be laid off).

But they, in turn, could go to work GROWING marijuana. With its huge agricultural resources, California could immediately become the world hub of the legal marijuana trade. (Mendocino and other counties are already vying for this title).

It could also pay its employees if not in dollars, then in pot. Here’s how:

Once the legislature decides to legalize marijuana, the state could go into the business of growing its own. (The offices of the Department of Agriculture are not that far from the Bureau of Prisons).

Various California cities, including Oakland, are already raising pot to keep prices down for the legal medical trade. So official expertise is readily available. Like the current and previous two Presidents of the United States, the current Governor of California is known to have extensive first-hand knowledge about the many uses of this precious weed.

Thus the state could grow its own leafy payroll. Some marijuana will be immediately available from the confiscated stashes that have traditionally been consumed by arresting officers.

But there will obviously be a gap between the moment of legalization and the moment the first officially grown buds are ready to pick.

So while California waits, it can issue marijuana futures as pay instead of I.O.U.’s. The futures would include a special dispensation to sell the existing stashes many of the state employees may already be holding (of course, no state employee would break the law, so these will all be MEDICAL stashes).

Being the first state to legalize, California pot would skyrocket in value. Once the actual buds arrive from the government, state employees would be free to sell their redeemed futures in other states, which will then face a dilemma.

In these hard times, the tourist dollars from those “Okies in reverse” fanning out with their pot to sell will be hard to turn down. So will the potential tax revenues. So the other 49 states will be forced to choose between seeing those hard-earned pot proceeds headed to the Pacific in the pockets of previously impoverished California state employees---or legalizing it, taxing it, freeing their own prisoners, and growing it at home.

Tom Joad will have returned to roost, driving the ghost of a Volkwagen bus.

A dozen states have already legalized medical marijuana, Many are having state budgetary problems of their own.

But California is the only one now issuing I.O.U.s to state employees. Its topography, resident expertise and gubernatorial brain cell history make it an ideal candidate for what is bound to come, sooner or later. Why not now?

Yippie!

A $50 Billion Nuke Power Bomb is Dropping Toward Obama’s Stimulus Package

By Harvey Wasserman


The desperate, dangerous nuclear power industry has dropped a $50 billion stealth bomb meant to irradiate the Obama Stimulus Package.

It comes in the form of a mega-loan guarantee package that would build new reactors Wall Street wouldn’t finance even when it had cash. It will take a healthy dose of citizen action to stop it, so start calling your Senators now.

The vaguely worded bailout-in-advance provision was snuck through the Senate Appropriations Committee in the deep night of January 27. It would provide $50 billion in loan guarantees for “eligible technologies” that would technically include renewable sources and electric transmission. But the handout is clearly directed at nukes and “clean coal.”

The Stimulus Package is explicitly meant to create jobs within the next two years. But according to sources at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, no new reactors could be licensed for construction within that time. Nor could any new coal plants. And thus the funds in this rider are to "remain available until committed." That means their "stimulus" might not go into effect for many years.

But the nuclear industry does have the ability to spend large sums of money on “site preparation” and other busy work prior to being licensed. Though the guarantees could technically be used for truly green sources such as wind and solar, the provision’s backers, including Senators Robert Bennett (R-UT) and Thomas Carper (D-DE), have made it clear that this money is meant to go for new reactor construction.

In late 2007, nuclear power's Congressional Godfather, then-Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), stuck a similar $50 billion loan guarantee package into that year’s energy bill. A grassroots uprising, joined by virtually all national environmental organizations, helped defeat the package. Among other things, the fight inspired a music video from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Keb Mo and Ben Harper (www.nukefree.org).

In late 2008 the industry came back again with a blank check package that went down in flames along with the stock market.

Still unable to get private financing, the industry is back yet again. In the interim, the projected cost of building new reactors has soared to more than $10 billion each, and continues to climb steadily. Many of the previous generation of reactors came in hugely over budget. According to the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, one DOE study places the overall average overruns at 207%. But reactor projects such as Seabrook, in New Hampshire, New York's Shoreham, Pennsylvania's Beaver Valley, California's Diablo Canyon, and many others, far exceeded that.

The Congressional Budget Office now predicts that half the nuclear utilities using such a loan program will go into default. Some $18.5 billion in loan guarantees has already been approved, apparently for such use. But its legality is being hotly disputed, and the money has not been distributed by the Department of Energy.

Washington insiders believe this latest attempt at a pre-arranged bailout has again come from Domenici, who has stayed in Washington to lobby for his radioactive benefactors after apparently retiring from the Senate in January.

This guarantee package was not part of the Stimulus Package that passed the House. Its secretive, late night inclusion on the Senate side is reminiscent of how former Vice President Dick Cheney did business for the fossil/nuclear corporations that funded much of the Bush Administration. The reappearance of this kind of back door dealing has not been well received, especially in the House.

Numerous national groups, including the Nuclear Information & Resource Service (www.nirs.org) are providing sign-ins for sending e-mails to the Senate. They also urge that you call your Senator at 202-224-3121.

Time is fast slipping by for the nuke power industry. As the popularity of renewables and efficiency escalates, the most obvious source of new jobs and prosperity has become truly green technologies. Atomic power has long since been priced out of the market. Only massive federal and ratepayer subsidies could bring it back, to the direct detriment of the revolution in renewables.

Defeating this latest money grab will help drive another nail in the coffin of the 20th century’s most expensive failed technology. It is an essential step toward a truly green-powered future.

Free Press Free Film Night - Tuesday, January 27 at 7:30pm

MEAT THE TRUTH: The massive impact of livestock farming on climate change"

Sponsored by the Drexel East, Central Ohio Greeen Education Fund and the Columbus International Film & Video Festival
Drexel East Theater, 2254 E. Main St., Bexley

For more info:
253-2571

Columbus Free Press Events

On Sunday, JANUARY 25 @ 7PM, come hear our friend
Dave Lippman Singer - Satirist - Social Justice Advocate
and George Shrub the world's only singing CIA agent
Free Press office – 1021 East Broad Street
Donation requested $5-$10

AND DON'T FORGET:
Free Press Free Film Night - Tuesday, January 27 at 7:30pm
"MEAT THE TRUTH: The massive impact of livestock farming on climate change"
Sponsored by the Drexel East, Central Ohio Greeen Education Fund and the Columbus International Film & Video Festival

For more info:
253-2571
truth@freepress.org

In Memoriam: Sue Urbas

The sad notice below came to me from Harry Farkas.

Sue Urbas was a family friend, a community activist, an idealist, provocative, actively anti-war during the Vietnam era, early Free Press contributor, founding member of the community festival now known as Comfest, and many other things too numerous to mention here. Sue also had one of the friendliest smiles as seen in this photograph I took of her at Comfest 04. We will miss her -charlie

As most of you know our dear friend and sister Sue Urbas passed away last Saturday. I have been contacted by John Urbas and want to pass along the following:

A Memorial Gathering for Sue will be held at the Goodale Park Shelter House on Sunday, November 23, from 5 to 7 PM. Candy Watkins is assisting in organizing the memorial and can be contacted at Afoot765@cs.com.

Still tentative, but likely is a gathering later that evening at Dick's Den. Sue's earthly remains are in the process of cremation, though her spirit soars. An obituary will be published in the newspaper prior to the memorial.

Jodi Kushins has indicated a willingness to record stories about Sue either at this gathering or otherwise. She has also volunteered to assist with Sue's memorabilia. There is also a discussion on the Comfest Organizers Yahoo group regarding a permanent memorial to Sue, possibly at 16th and Waldeck. [Some of this duplicates info already on the Comfest Organizers Yahoo group.]

I am available if anyone requires additional information. I can be contacted at hfarkas@wowway.com

Our loss is great, but together we will remember Sue. Please pass this information along to anyone who might not have received it, especially those without email.

Best regards on this sad occasion,

Harry

Stealing America: Vote by Vote now available online

This documentary by Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman, narrated by Peter Coyote, is now premiering online. Will the 2008 Presidential Election stolen? The film presents many samples of evidence of questionable vote totals, illegal purging, machine "glitches" and more.
If, as many believe, they already stole it twice in a row, why couldn't they do it again?
See for yourself? www.stealingamerica.org

Because we fought for them…

Harvey Wasserman is a friend I've known since high school days. He is also a well versed and often published author and social activist who often comes up with one or two wonderful ideas. Here's something he just recently came up with. Read below and enjoy.
-charlie

Harvey Wasserman

Because we fought for them my daughters have cast paper ballots
October 6, 2008

My daughters and I have cast paper ballots in the opening days of the 2008 presidential election. It was their first time voting in a presidential election.

That they have only voted with an African-American atop the Democratic ticket makes this doubly historic for them. The issue of race remains a great unknown in how things will turn out.

But so does the question of whether everyone who wants to vote can, and whether those votes will be accurately counted (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHiCFe2GBjk).

Four years ago this county tried to deny me the right to cast an absentee ballot. After four phone calls and some serious politicking, I finally did get a paper ballot, which I hand delivered to the election board. But was it counted?

My twins are now 21. On Friday, October 3, 2008, we drove to Veterans Memorial in downtown Columbus to cast our ballots under unique circumstances. For a full week, Ohio voters have been able to register and vote at the same time.

It took the focused efforts of thousands of election protection activists---and a legal defense team---to make happen this and other things suitable to a democracy. Such victories will define whether we get fair participation and a reliable vote count in November, and thus who will be the next president.

Since the stolen election of 2000 the Democratic Party and corporate media have studiously ignored the fact that we have been afflicted with an unelected president. A media-based recount in Florida showed Al Gore was the clear winner there eight years ago.

In violation of federal law, 56 of Ohio's 88 counties have destroyed election-related materials, making a comprehensive 2004 recount impossible. No one has been prosecuted. But those of us who watched first-hand how the 2004 election was conducted here know all too well that it was stolen in a "do everything" campaign that the Democratic Party still doesn't comprehend, and does not seem to want to acknowledge.

Nonetheless, we may be entering the 2008 contest in somewhat better shape. Independent reporting on the internet and some talk radio organizing, plus a few major books and articles in places like Rolling Stone and Harpers, have inspired a new grassroots movement for election protection.

We have won important victories, such as removing Ohio's infamous Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the critical point man for Karl Rove's 2004 hijacking. We are pursuing Michael Connell, a shadowy Bush IT operative who has been accused by a Republican insider of working to rig this and other elections.

In Ohio, as many as a third of Ohio voters are casting their ballots early. By law a quarter of those coming to the polls will be able to get paper ballots (we are working to make them available to ALL who want them). As my cohort Bob Fitrakis puts it, the choice will be between paper or the plastic of voting machines.

But the specter of disenfranchisement and electronic theft still hangs over this election as a twin curse to endemic racism. Millions of Americans are being systematically eliminated from voter rolls in as many as 19 states. Most of these are inner city and other vulnerable voters known to be heavily Democratic. Among them are African-American soldiers stationed overseas.

Some 300,000 Ohioans were deleted from the registration rolls prior to the 2004 vote count. Had they all voted, John Kerry might have been in the White House these past four years. Another 170,000 were eliminated after 2004 in Franklin County (Columbus) alone.

Throughout the US, Republican operatives are working overtime to decimate the Democratic turnout. The Bush Administration has already fired nine federal prosecutors for refusing to conduct a bogus witch hunt against legitimate voters.

But other attacks are proceeding, and could make all the difference. You who claim concern about our electoral process might spend at least some of this next month monitoring election boards and guaranteeing that those who believe they are registered do not show up at the polls November 4 only to find they have been disenfranchised for the "crime" of leaning left.

We must also have zero tolerance for electronic voting machines. There may actually be thousands more of these election theft devices deployed throughout the US this year than ever before. As always, the big vendors are hiding their software from the public, claiming it is "proprietary."

But as registration activists, poll workers, judges, official observers and Video-the-Vote workers (see "Be a Poll Worker and Save American Democracy,"http://www.freepress.org/ departments/display/19/2008/3205) you may be in a position to exert critical leverage on access to decisions on software, hardware deployment and vote counting that could save thousands of legitimate ballots thoughout the US.

In our next article, Bob Fitrakis, Sheri Myers and I will write in detail about the history of electronic election theft and its long-time master of disenfranchisement, Karl Rove.

In the meantime, it's crucial to remember that favorable polling numbers will not guarantee a fair election. Carefully manipulated racism, plus mass disenfranchisement, rigging of electronic voting machines and additional Rovian dirty tricks are what brought us eight hellish years of George W. Bush. Without taking drastic grassroots action, they could be used again to tack on four more, from which it is not likely this nation would survive.

The good news is that we have won some victories. My daughters have voted in a safe, secure atmosphere, and there's a reasonable chance their ballots will be counted---along with millions more.

But to guarantee a full voter turnout, and a safe reliable, vote count, YOU must get involved. Visit The Free Press (http://freepress.org) and Poll Workers for Democracy (http://act.credoaction.com/pollworkers/index.html).

This year, there is no excuse. We know what has happened, and we know the consequences of inaction. See you in the army….of election protection workers.

--
Harvey Wasserman is co-author, with Bob Fitrakis, of four books on election protection which are available at www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared. His HARVEY WASSERMAN's HISTORY OF THE US is at www.harveywasserman.com along with SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, A.D. 2030.

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New Chinese Shamanic and Tiger Qigong Classes, at Monkeys Retreat

Master Zhongxian Wu

Ro-z and Darryl Mendelson of Monkeys Retreat Tai

Chi and Chi Kung Center will be teaching Chinese Shamanic

Tiger Qigong on Saturdays from 11 am - 12:30 pm,

starting on November 3rd with a free introductory class.

Ro-z and Darryl learned this form directly from

Master Zhongxian Wu who provides detailed instruction

in his book and dvd, Vital Breath of the Dao: Chinese

Shamanic Tiger Qigong (Laohu Gong). Master Wu

(http://www.masterwu.net) has committed himself to the

life-long pursuit of the ancient arts of internal

cultivation.

Qi (Chi) can mean breath or Vital Energy. Qigong is

the science or practice of cultivating the bodies

internal energy and inner knowledge. It is a way to

help people return to the union of the Human Being

with the Universe and to understand the laws of the

universe and how they influence human life.

Chinese Shamanic Tiger Qigong is a uniquely potent

practice designed to bolster health and deepen the

spiritual connection to universal energy. It is a

powerful 24-movement Qigong form, which combines the

traditions of ancient shamanism, Confucianism, Daoism,

classical Chinese medicine, and the martial arts.

The form is easy to learn and can be shown in one

90 minute class.

Don't forget that Monkeys is also offering a Tai Chi class Monday evenings from 7 pm to 8:30 pm. Free introductory class.

We invite and encourage all our friends and those

interested in the healing arts to participate.

Monkeys Retreat

1202 N. High St. (at 5th Ave.)

Columbus, Ohio

614-294-9511

monkeysretreat.com

TigerQigong@monkeysretreat.com