Please forward. Boston Globe. Shadow conventions! Drug reform! The article is also posted at CannabisNews.com at: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread6286.shtml *Uncle Sam banners! USA has 2 million of the world's 8 million prisoners. USA has only 5% of the world's population, yet has 25% of the world's inmates. Drug war banners for free! 2 million prisoners in the USA gulags. Paste these free banners into webpages worldwide. Land of the Free? Only for corporate greed, and the prison industrial complex. http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/wantout.htm ---------------------------------- ---------------------------------- Activists Plan To Counter The Conventions Wits, reformers target traditional party fare Source: Boston Globe It's an unconventional approach to presidential politics, but that's the idea. Dismayed that the Republican and Democratic national conventions have become ''coronations,'' a loose coalition of political activists, religious leaders, and social satirists has decided to hold its own. In Philadelphia and again in Los Angeles, the plan is to talk issues during the day and party into the night, to make Americans think hard about certain issues and then make them laugh out loud. The Shadow Conventions will feature mothers barely making ends meet, real people with real problems, mixed in with multimedia presentations intended to inform and amuse. US Senator John McCain is slated to speak on the East Coast, ''Politically Incorrect'' host Bill Maher on the West. Academy Award winner and presidential tease Warren Beatty is also expected to put in an appearance. Celebrities aside, the emphasis will be on what convention planners view as the government's failed drug policy, the growing gap between rich and poor, and the need for serious campaign finance reform, as well as the possibility of taking the nation public by selling stock in America. The nonpartisan hosts plan to carry the shadow conventions live on the Internet, enabling anyone with a computer to participate in the discussions and possibly allowing them to vote, via ''bozometer,'' on the usually long-winded speeches at the major party conventions. ''We are saying that the other conventions are going to be scripted events addressing themselves to a shrinking audience, a shrinking voting public, a shrinking engaged public,'' said political columnist Arianna Huffington, who helped galvanize the shadow conventions. ''Ours are going to be substantive, not satire driven. Celebrities are only going to be included if they have a real position on our issues. But we're also going to have fun.'' Part politics, part performance art, the shadow conventions will run in August on the same days as the traditional conventions. But the upstarts hope to get a jump on the nation. Their substantive sessions will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., before the major parties get going and, organizers hope, before national ennui sets in. Delegates to the Republican and Democratic conventions are invited to attend the shadow events, which will be held nearby. ''Our aim is that in the morning we'll put on some of our headliners and have some new people speaking out and that in the evening we'll focus much more on providing entertainment,'' said Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy institute and another of the conveners. Between the comedy and concerts, of course, the conveners have some points to make. Charging that the major parties are too timid or too political even to address issues of concern to many Americans, organizers promised that they will not shy from tough discussion. Instead, funded by foundation grants, the shadow conventions are intended to hark back to the days when national conventions were about debating issues and setting agendas. While the major party conventions feature success stories, shadow convention organizers say theirs will emphasize the people left out of the economic recovery, among them former welfare mothers now working for minimum wage and small business owners struggling to meet their payrolls. According to high-tech wizard Peter Hirshberg, who conceived the shadow conventions with Huffington at a California technology conference, impoverished youngsters and other children will be invited to tell their stories, as vans carrying the latest in video equipment roll out across the country. ''The conventions will highlight people who have done well; we'll have the people who haven't done so well,'' said Jim Wallis, editor in chief of Sojourner magazine and head of Call to Renewal, a faith-based coalition that has made the elimination of poverty a priority. ''Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore want the support of our members. We're saying, `If you want us at the table, you have to put poverty on the agenda.''' Another emphasis at the shadow conventions will be the disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics serving lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, as well as the failure of the nation's drug policy as a whole. The third focus will be the campaign finance reform that conveners said neither Republicans nor Democrats have shown any real interest in bringing about. One day will be devoted to each of the three issues. ''The conventions today are glorified money drives and showcases for coronations,'' said Scott Harshbarger, the former Massachusetts attorney general who is now president of Common Cause, a national organization that advocates for campaign finance reform and is a convener of the Shadow Conventions. ''It's obvious that they're working very hard not to deal in any way with issues that are controversial,'' Harshbarger said. ''We'll provide a stark alternative, not liberal or conservative, left or right, just willing to do what conventions used to do, and that's to be a forum for debate, discussion, and also for proposing solutions.'' Conveners said they realize that they first have to grab the nation's attention, in an era when even the major television networks see no reason for gavel-to-gavel coverage of the conventions and barely half of all eligible voters bother to cast a ballot in presidential elections. So after the Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks, after the workshops conducted by academics, policymakers, and political activists, after, in a sense, the medicine goes down, the poetry readings and cultural events will begin. Anyone can participate. They can even run for president themselves, complete with campaign commercials and offers to sell out for big bucks. The idea for the shadow conventions came about at a breakfast where Hirshberg had just unveiled an Internet game that pokes fun at the political process. Called Ipocracy, and expected to launch shortly before the Republican National Convention, the game involves a mock public stock offering in the US government, with the proceeds used to help pay down the national debt. Would-be candidates have to pick their political affiliation, from Nikita S. Khrushchev on the far left to Regis Philbin in the middle to Benito Mussolini on the far right. ''Ipocracy just got us talking about the reform movement that McCain kicked off,'' Hirshberg said. ''We were talking about how the energy would be lost soon and how the conventions would be same old, same old. ... It occurred to us that there had to be an alternative.'' In both Philadelphia and Los Angeles, the alternatives get underway the night before the traditional conventions open. But the greater the success, the less likely there will be a second set of shadow conventions in four years. As Huffingon explained, conveners hope that their unconventional conventions will force the major parties to rethink their own conventions next time around. ''We hope to make ourselves unnecessary very quickly,'' she asid. ''If the two parties address our issues seriously, we'd be happy to be rendered redundant.'' By Lynda Gorov, Globe Staff Los Angeles, California Published: July 3, 2000 ) Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company. Related Article & Web Site: Shadow Conventions http://www.shadowconventions.com/ Arianna Online http://www.ariannaonline.com/ Overthrow The Government http://www.overthrowthegov.com/ The Lindesmith Center http://www.lindesmith.org/ Common Cause http://www.commoncause.org/ Unconventional Politics http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6275.shtml CannabisNews Justice Archives: http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml -------------------------------- POLITICS 101. Harm reduction is a "big-tent" philosophy. "The only difference between Bush and Gore is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock at the door." --Ralph Nader (Green Party presidential candidate) *Greens and the Drug War. Worldwide. Green Party candidates, positions, platforms, etc.. Concerning the Drug War, cannabis, marijuana, etc.. http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm *Yahoo! Government. Politics. Elections. Electoral Systems. How GREENS get power! Worldwide. (GREENS and some other political parties are more progressive concerning cannabis, hemp, and drug reform). Voting systems. Proportional representation, plurality. http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/Politics/Elections/Electoral_Systems/ *Critiques Of Libertarianism. Anti-Libertarian Party 101! Even the parts I disagree with are funny! Libertarian Party = No Public Health Harm Reduction drug policy, since NO safety net. "What goes around comes around!" http://world.std.com/~mhuben/onelesson.html *U.S. Rightist Republican (GOP) Drug War. Huge LINKS list! Revised edition. GOP's holy war. Drug war supporters: rabid right, hate radio, hate television, NRA (National Rifle Association), religious right, (snortin') George Bush the hypocrite, etc.. Amnesty 2000. http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/gop.htm *GOT COKE? Banners. George W. Bush, drug-free since 1974. Hypocrisy with bravado. Republican drug warrior extraordinaire. PHOTOS and BANNERS! Free! For your webpages! http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/gotcoke.htm *Presidential Candidate Pat Buchanan - The Dark Side. Pat Buchanan's Skeleton Closet. Vastly detailed. With many references at the end. http://www.realchange.org/buchanan.htm *The American Liberal Party. Drug war views. "nowhere in this 'war' is found any program to deal with the root causes of the drug use in the United States: poverty, lack of opportunity, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness. ... We support ending this 'war' and decriminalizing voluntary, recreational drug use." http://cann.com/b1/messages/26/26150.shtml *Year-round, and especially during the election "silly season," Drug Warriors spin their lies. [Ideology, Idiot-ology, political parties, and the Drug War. Several tables. And healthcare.]| http://www.drugtext.org/articles/Ideology.htm Harm reduction is a "big-tent" drug reform philosophy that includes the whole range of drug reform options. All the way from complete "hard-drug-in-the-candy-aisle" legalizers, to forced-treatment decriminalizers. All these drug reform options cause less harm than the Rightist-Republican-led, all-out, U.S. drug war. *Scorecard Home. "Just enter your zip code and find out what pollutants are being released into your communities - and who is responsible." Harm Reduction at the planetary level. http://www.scorecard.org/ "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." --Mussolini ------------------------------------------- ******************************************************* ARE YOU NORML? http://www.NORML.org SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL N.O.R.M.L. CHAPTER http://www.PdxNORML.org JOIN PORTLAND OREGON NORML To become a card-carrying member and get our monthly newsletter send $20 to: PdxNORML 3125 SE Belmont St. Portland, OR 97214 503/777-9088 Meets every 3rd Wednesday, 7pm July 19th: Phantom Gallery, 3125 SE Belmont St * FREE "GRASS" JOIN BEFORE JULY 6 SEE THE MOVIE FOR FREE! You also get 1 yr trial membership in National NORML! ******************************************************** "Bush and Gore make me want to Ralph." Heard on the floor at US GREEN Convention, 2000
