[Iowa-dx] Not Beating My Own Drum

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:18:35 -0600

Thanks for the report and for the publicity, Ron!

Quoting GreenParty Ron <greenpartyron@mail.org>:

> I am not in the least intending to "beat my own drum" for my own
> egocentric pride in saying this, however, in the past half week, I
> have spoken at two radio-broadcasted book readings wherein I
> mentioned Green Party in asking my question.
>
> The first was three nights ago, at 7:00 PM on November 12, 2007.
> I attended the=A0on-radio book review of U.S. Congressman
> (Washington) Jay Inslee's new environmental energy book,
> APOLLO'S FIRE.=A0 The author's book reading-review=A0was held at
> the Prarie Lights Book Store in on=A0south=A0Dubuque Street, here
> in=A0Iowa City, Iowa, with about two to three dozen people in the
> audience.
>
> The first audience question to Congressman Inslee was from me,
> and I prominently referred to Green Party in asking my question.
> I hope everyone who hears this broadcast will approve of how I
> represented myself as a member of our Green Party over the
> radio waves.
>
>
> This program is called "Live From Prairie Lights", and will be
> broadcast at 8PM sometime on=A0a future Saturday=A0on WSUI,
> whose frequency is 910 AM in Iowa City, and=A0as a member of
> Iowa Public Radio, this program probably (usually) is also
> broadcast=A0on other=A0Iowa radio stations.=A0 More on WSUI in a
> moment.
>
> Tonight,again, at 7:00 PM, I attended the same IPR radio
> program, this time held at Englert Theater on Washington
> Street here in Iowa City.=A0 Julie Englander very wisely
> held this night's reading in the 1912-built movie theater, rather
> than upstairs=A0in the small=A0Prarie Lights=A0Book Store,=A0because
> of the expected large turnout for their nationally-known guest,
> Paul Krugman, who gave a dissertation on his new book "The
> Conscience of a Liberal".=A0 Indeed, the theater was nearly
> filled to capacity in the lower level,=A0with the upper balconies
> being closed off.
>
> Again, I got to the front of the line.=A0 This time, Julie Englander
> traded question time with the audience, so I was third in line
> to ask my question, again, beginning by identifying Green
> Party's key values including grass roots democracy to pose
> my question.
>
> So twice this week, Green Party has made its presence be
> known in public, to the theater audience=A0and at the same
> time, will also make a presence be known=A0over=A0Iowa Public
> Radio at a future date, although within about three days of
> each event, it is made available on the WSUI website through
> mainstreaming.
>
> I hope that I have presented the image these past nights that
> we must all provide to our fellow citizens and natizens as
> Green Party members: that we will, indeed, all=A0make the
> presence in public that Green Party is here and we are here
> to stay and THAT WE ARE!=A0 That we are very intelligent,
> knowledgeable, dedicated, and that as we do make legitimate,
> responsible public interaction, we prove that Green Party is a
> legitimate political entity that deserves everyone's associating
> themselves with us.
>
> Being as WSUI is a member of Iowa Public Radio, many
> "Live=A0From Prairie Lights"=A0programs are rebroadcast over
> other public radio stations as far away as Souix City, so
> your area may have a duplicate broadcast.=A0 If you are
> interested, check your local IPR station on the internet for
> the broadcast time and topic of Live From Prairie Lights,
> hosted by julie Englander, and look for a) Congressman
> Jay Islee and his book Apollo's Fire, and b) for Paul
> Krugman and his book The Conscience of a Liberal.
>
> Here is a brief recap of tonight's presentation by Paul
> Krugman, and, although I did not see John Deeth in the
> audience (I was deliberately third into the theater and sat
> in the second row center aisle by the audience microphone):
>
> Paul Kruger said this book is an echo of a previous=A0book by
> Barry Goldwater (Republican Arizona U.S. Senator and
> presidential candidate wannabe), titled The Conscience of
> a Conservative.=A0 What Goldwater wrote was the start of a
> new tragic direction in US politics, the take-over of the
> Republican Party by right-wingers.
>
> There were two themes in Paul Kruger's book:
> 1)=A0 The fall and rise of economic inequality: the "second
> Gilded Age" of the 1920s:
> 1a.=A0 inequality of income
> 1b.=A0 Greenwich Connecticut mansions too large to be
> maintained economically being bought up and torn down to
> be replaced by even bigger mansions by the upper rich class;
> 1c.=A0 a growing new society of enormous inequality, where the
> industrial leaders previous 40-times-average-working class
> income grew to 240-times-average-working class income.
>
> 2)=A0 The creation of "Movement Conservativism" - where the
> Republican Party is taken over by right wing extremists,
> linked by a common agenda and common funding sources
> of greatly wealthy family foundations.
> 1a.=A0 What they cared about most is economics - undoing the
> New Deal (now I think he referenced Howard Jarvis in a quote,
> but his name does not appear in the index of his book, only
> Jacob Javits who I do not think made the quote referencing
> the philosophy of shrinking government down to a size where
> it can be drowned in a bathtub.)
>
> Today's elections are fought over divergent issues: national
> security and defending morality.=A0 The election of 2004 was
> not typical, and both the 2002 and 2004 elections were both
> based on phony issues of national security and suprficial
> issues on morality.=A0 But much of the 2002 and 2004 elections,
> and even back to the Nixon election, were actually based on
> racial issues most of all!=A0 Underlying all of the campaign issues
> was a theme that was based upon minority race wellfare abuse
> and middle class exploitation of wellfare provisions for the poor.
>
> One of the key indicators of how the Republicans managed to
> grow is in the process of how they won elections.=A0 Look at how
> white males voted:=A0 (these figures may not be faithful to Mr.
> Kruger's oration):
> in 1952 52% (?) of white males outside of the deep south voted
> Democratic Party
> in 2002 40% (?) of white males outside of the deep south voted
> Democratic Party.
>
> The Republican message was racially oriented against minorities:
> the message was indirectly in reference by inuendo=A0about urban
> riots (black racial strife) and crimes which were linked
> ultimately to race (all minorities).
>
> Reagan began his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia and Florida,
> speaking of "States Rights" over federal protective oversight.
> This was the sign of when the radical right wing took over the
> Republican Party.
>
> In 1947, President Harry S. Truman failed to get national
> universal health care because southerners were afraid of
> forced integration, and so we were on the verge of having
> national health care but lost it.
>
> Over the past decade, public opinion is increasingly leaning
> toward progressiveness, because the people is aware of the
> need for universal health care and of the inequality of wages
> because:
> a) big business gets whatever it wants in Washington D.C.
> b) big government has forgotten the middle class.
>
> Today Mr. Kruger sees similarities with the Guilded Age:
> When Democratic Party candidates and incumbents did
> succeed, it was because they were indistinguishable from
> "the other major party": they were labled "More Than
> Democrats";
>
> As I went in line for the audience quesitions, I stopped
> taking notes.  Here is Live From Prairie Lights' own
> information:
>
>
> How to Listen to Live from Prairie Lights
> ?
> Tune into WSUI AM910 to listen to readings=A0taped during
> the week. Broadcast times are Saturday from 8-10 p.m. and
> Sunday from 7-8 p.m. You can also stream the program
> using Real Audio here.
>
> ? Attend the readings at Prairie Lights Bookstore in
> Downtown Iowa City. The complete reading schedule is
> available here.
> ? Listen to the readings live on the internet. Internet
> streaming is provided by the University of Iowa Writing
> University website here. You can access direct streaming
> using almost any streaming audio player here.
> ?  Listen to archive readings of the program, usually
> posted on this webpage within a few days of the actual
> reading time. Archives for earlier years of the programs
> are provided by the links in the left column of this
> webpage.
>
>
> Ronald Kinum
> a.k.a. Libris Fidelis
>
>
>
>
> --
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>
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