All sides should stop the violence and meet to work out a diplomatic and political compromise. But aggression, oppression, invasion, killing and wounding of civilians cannot be allowed and must be condemned.

Pray, if you pray. Contact your representatives, and especially President-Elect Obama. I’ll post analysis and action alerts later.

1.
Announcement: There will be a prayer vigil for peace in Gazaand the
world on Saturday evening, January 3, 2009, from 5-6 pm at the
Oklahoma Capitol building in Oklahoma City, OK. If you plan to attend,
you should bring blankets and a flash light, candles are not allowed.

Item 2:

CAIR-OK to Host Press Conference, Vigil for Middle East Peace

(OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - 12/31/08) ­ On Monday, January 5, the
Oklahomachapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK)
will hold apress conference and a “Peace Vigil for Gaza” at the state
Capitol building inOklahoma City.
Vigil participants will call on public officials to help stop Israeli
attacks onthe Gaza Strip, restore the cease-fire and promote peace
with justice in theMiddle East during the coming year.

WHAT: Press Conference on GazaWHEN: Monday, January 5, 2009, 11:30 a.m.
WHERE: Oklahoma State Capitol. 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., Room 432 B.
OklahomaCity, OK

WHAT: Peace Vigil for GazaWHEN: Monday, January 5, 2009, Noon - 1 p.m.
(Please dress warmly and arriveby 11:30 a.m.)
WHERE: South Plaza of the Oklahoma State Capitol. 2300 N. Lincoln
Blvd.,Oklahoma City,
OKCONTACT: Razi Hashmi, CAIR-OK Executive Director,
405-415-6851,rhashmi@cair. com

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the
Palestinianterritories, told the BBC: “Israel is committing a shocking
series ofatrocities by using modern weaponry against a defenseless
population -attacking a population that has been enduring a severe
blockade for manymonths.”

SEE: Gaza Air Campaign ‘a First Stage’ (BBC)http://news. bbc.co.uk/
2/hi/middle_ east/7804218. stm east/7804218. stm>SEE ALSO: Family Mourns 5 Daughters as Civilian
Death Toll Mounts (Wash.Post)http://tinyurl. com/9ckcjo

CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 35 offices
andchapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance
understandingof Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties,
empower AmericanMuslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and
mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-OK Executive Director Razi Hashmi, E-Mail: rhashmi@cair.
com; CAIR-OK Chairperson Lobna Hewedi, E-Mail: lhewedi@cair. com

Razi HashmiExecutive DirectorCouncil on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR)Oklahoma Chapter
CAIR National: http://www.cair. com

The award is presented to Rachel Maddow.

I think Rachel is eclipsed only by Obama in meteoric rise from relative obscurity during 2008. She first got national attention in 2004 on Air America Radio. In 2005, she started providing occasional commentary on Tucker Carlson’s old show (the only good thing that ever came from that), and last January (which seems like ages ago!) began doing political analysis for various MSNBC shows, and subbing for Keith Olbermann during the summer. Her appearances were so popular (the blogosphere followed her every word) that by August the brass were persuaded to give her her own hour, making history as the first openly gay/lesbian anchor to host a prime-time news program. The show was immediately a huge hit, surprising only the suits.

Getting her that hosting spot was apparently Keith Olbermann’s mission in life this year. Hey, good work, Mr. O. He’s seen as a genius for pushing it now, but can you imagine the first meeting at NBC on the subject? To have been a fly on that wall! No, it wasn’t so obvious it would fly, certainly not that it would revolutionize the channel’s stagnant lineup and sent its ratings souring.

Here are a few of the many profiles done on Rach in the past few months when it became apparent that she was on to something with her charming wonkery and progressive intellect.

New York Magazine
The Nation
Washington Post

In addition to promoting progressive ideas with a wider audience, she’s become an unlikely sex symbol, a butch lesbian that makes men and women alike into groupies. By being herself — disarmingly kind and funny — she’s advancing civil rights by huge bounds without breaking a sweat.

She’s taken issues that are otherwise archaic or complex, and broken them into digestable chunks. She keeps up with mainstream news, the blogosphere, the think tanks, and backroom politics, and digests it for the rest of us. It’s almost like she’s a Rhodes Scholar or something. She does need a little help with pop culture, which we all like to help her discover and exclaim over.

So, there was really no other choice for 2008 Progressive Person of the Year. Rachel has been our favorite pundit, our proud representative, our champion.

What’s most heartening to me is that Rachel will be questioning and challenging Obama and other Democrats from the left as his administration works with Congress to begin to set this country right. She’ll do so without all the mean-spirited dramatics that is the typical cable news fare, but rather with deep knowledge of history, keen insight and careful research. And she’ll demonstrate how an oppositional press is supposed to work.

All in all, Rachel Maddow is the most exciting and unexpected gift to the progressive movement in years. She’s made smart sexy and fun again.

And she’s just getting started!

Rachel Maddow links:
Rachel Maddow official site
MSNBC show web page
Air American show web page
Rachel’s Twitter (she hasn’t posted for a few weeks)
Facebook page for The Rachel Maddow Show
Fan site

All around the country Monday night, Americans will be coming together to discuss the coming changes to our health care system, and how we want to influence the degree and outcome of those changes. Thanks to the work of those who worked on the Obama campaign here, those in and near Oklahoma City will be participating in the national dialog.

The events are being planned and coordinated through the new site change.gov. Obama’s nominee for the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, who will oversee health care reform for the administration, has made this video introducing the project.

Here are the details for the local event:

Oklahoma Health Care Community Discussion (Meeting)
A moderated change.gov requested discussion with friends and neighbors about health care reform. We will draft a group submission with your findings and conclusions. This will help the Transition Health Policy Team flesh out key issues around health care and give the Team fresh ideas about the best ways to promote the President-elect and Vice President-elect vision of quality, affordable health care for all Americans. Sneak Peak: http://change.gov/participantguide

Monday the 29th, 5:30-7pm
Mayflower Congregational Church (Oklahoma City, OK)
3901 NW 63rd St. [map]
Oklahoma City, OK 73116

If you plan to attend, check out this participant guide.

It will be interesting to see, after all this “grassroots discussion” if the people really get listened to, and what they say they want comes to fruition, or if the insurance companies again get to call the shots. I suggest showing up, calling, writing and demonstrating to make sure it’s the former and not the latter.

Woo hoo! My little blog is now on the blogroll of The Lost Ogle, the funniest blog in Oklahoma — of those actually trying to be funny.

I expect to see lots more incoming traffic now, because (it can be revealed, now that my evil plot has been realized) those boys are really radical pinko activists I smuggled in to turn Oklahoma blue.

People for the American Way

… the sad truth is that this decision further elevates someone who has in recent weeks actively promoted legalized discrimination and denigrated the lives and relationships of millions of Americans.

Rick Warren gets plenty of attention through his books and media appearances. He doesn’t need or deserve this position of honor. There is no shortage of religious leaders who reflect the values on which President-elect Obama campaigned and who are working to advance the common good.

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

President-elect Obama campaigned on a theme of inclusiveness, yet the selection of Rick Warren to give the invocation is a direct affront to that very principle.

Human Rights Campaign

by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table

Right Wing Watch

… (Warren’s) media-driven reputation as some sort of “moderate” evangelical preacher continues to win out …

John Aravosis (guest posting at Huffington Post)

(in Obama’s voice) … devastating my own supporters on what was supposed to be a day of celebration and national rebirth …

Melissa McEwan

… a sharp stick in the eye to progressive women and GBTQ men, and all their allies …

Andrew Sullivan

… More evidence that a civil rights movement needs to realize that no politician can deliver for us what we have to deliver on our own.

John Amato (Crooks and Liars)

… Obama’s decision on this one is highly insulting.

Booman

… Obama will be roundly and loudly criticized for this decision, and rightly so. He should listen to what so many of his supporters will be saying about this. Obama says he values those with the ability to listen. If he hears, he will reverse this decision and apologize for hurting good people for no good reason.

Ann at Feministing

I can’t even handle the irony that Warren’s appearance will be immediately followed by Aretha singing “Respect” and “Someday We’ll All Be Free.”

And, as previously noted, Atrios dubbed Obama Wanker of the Day.

Well, that was a brief hiatus, when I didn’t feel like crying or screaming every time I heard about the latest political news.

The inauguration hasn’t even taken place yet, and already, folks like me have been slapped in the face. At least with Clinton, it came after he was in office a few days.

So here’s my first complaint letter to Obama (yes, I let the selection of Emmanuel go - figuring I’d trust the guy to know what he was doing - Ha!).

Rather than choose one of many religious figures who could have
embodied the “post-partisan” atmosphere that President-elect Obama
says he wants to promote, a divisive and hurtful one has been given a
very meaningful role. It is a grave insult to many, many people who
worked hard to elect Obama.

Rick Warren and his fanatic followers may like to think of themselves
as moderate Christians, but they are no such thing. They would like to
keep gays and lesbians as second class citizens, deny women the right
to control their own bodies, keep torture as an American value(stet — see Update 2 below) promote assassination, and
foster some more illegal wars around the world. These are public
positions that they don’t try to hide. So I can only assume that Obama
now means to embrace them too, in the name of “unity”– while
millions of Americans who believed words about “change” can now feel
used and discarded.

Putting Warren on that stage is no less than a loud “F*** you” to ALL
gay and lesbian Americans and their allies, pro-choice folks, civil
rights and antiwar activists. Obama obviously has no use for them
anymore, and will cast his lot with those who hate, divide and
discriminate. Good luck with that in 2012.

What a huge disappointment.

There are other reactions, and an email address for your own letter, at Pam’s House Blend, Americablog and Daily Kos.

Updated to fix error: Apparently Rick Warren supports assassination, not torture. My bad.

Update 2: Ah, I remembered correctly reading about his willingness to allow torture, so stet on that, just add assassination cheerleading to the original list. What a man of God, eh?

Taking a cue from Time magazine, which today made news with the surprising choice of Barack Obama as its ‘Person of the Year,’ this site will be announcing a “Progressive Person of the Year.”

Our selection will be just as much of a huge shocker as Time’s. In other words, to make any other choice would land one in the museum of cosmic doofusry. This is the person who has contributed most to the advancement of progressive ideas and positions into the public sphere during the past year.

So, who is it? Guess in comments.

Needless hint: It’s an American.

While in Crawford, I was introduced to an amazing musical duo, Pat Humphries and Sandy O, otherwise known as Emma’s Revolution. Their music is totally amazing, a blend of folk, pop, roots rock. The best way I can think to describe them is a mix of Pete Seeger and Sweet Honey and the Rock.

They seem to make it to every meaningful activist event, to offer their political support and musical contribution, which can raise the level of emotion and commitment to untold levels. I could go on, but you can read about them and all the events and projects they’ve been affiliated with, and all the accolades they’ve received, at their web site.

Because of their travels, their newsletter is a compendium of all the latest progressive political insider news. The latest issue is no exception. They just got back from the annual School of the Americas Watch demo at Ft. Benning, GA and here’s some of what they shared about the 19th (and hopefully last) SOA protest and its founder, Father Roy Bourgeois:

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we and 20,000 other folks gathered again outside the gates of Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA for the vigil to shut down the School of the Americas. Or, as activists call it, “The School of the Assassins.”

The SOA is a torture-training school-right here on US soil and funded by our tax dollars-where Latin America soldiers are taught counterinsurgency tactics, psychological warfare and Abu-Ghraib-style torture techniques. The School of the Americas Watch, a grassroots organization dedicated to closing the SOA and changing oppressive US foreign policy, has been holding these vigils for the past 18 years, the first one, with only 10 people. We wrote our song, “One by One” for this demonstration, which features spoken testimony from torture survivors, family members whose loved ones were killed by SOA graduates, the sole survivor of a massacre, elected officials, actors, and activists from around the world, all interspersed with the most music, spoken word and visual arts we’ve ever seen at a demonstration. (Thanks to Al Viola for this photo of the musicians’ collective at the 2007 Vigil!)

Sign the Petition to President- Elect Obama to End Torture and Close the SOA, and come next November!

Now, for the Pope part.

The Friday of this year’s vigil was also the day that SOAW founder, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, was to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Not for standing up to the military or to the US government, for that matter, but for participating in a Mass to ordain a woman priest.

Fr. Roy delivered the homily at that ceremony in August, saying:

“Sexism is a sin. . . The hierarchy will say, ‘It is the tradition of the church not to ordain women.’ I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and often heard, ‘It is the tradition of the South to have segregated schools.’ It was also ‘the tradition’ in our Catholic church to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church. No matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always wrong and immoral.”

In October, the church hierarchy sent Fr. Roy a letter demanding he recant his position or be excommunicated. But, Fr. Roy didn’t back down. He wrote a letter in response and he and others have pointed out the disturbing fact that, while it took the Vatican twelve years to begin to respond to the sexual abuse of nearly 5,000 children by US priests (with none of the priests, nor the bishops who remained silent about the abuse, being excommunicated) it took only three months for the Vatican to respond to Fr. Roy’s support of women’s ordination with the threat of excommunication.

(Did you know you can email the Pope? ) and the petitions are having an effect. We think the slogan of the Women’s Ordination Conference’s petition in support of Fr. Roy says it best:

“Break the Silence. Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling.”

Emma’s Revolution will be playing at the Innaugural Peace Ball in DC on Jan. 20. But don’t plan on attending it unless you are one of the lucky 1000 who got tickets before it sold out in one day!

Their new album is called Roots, Rock, Revolution and you can listen and buy on the site. I’m ordering it and listening to their earlier album One while I wait for it to arrive.

Please be sure to sign the petition asking Obama to close the SOA using the linked image below.

Oh, and I’ll try to find my photos of Pat and Sandy from Crawford to add to this post.