Below is a letter I sent on March 4, I invite to share your sentiments with him as well; and/or to join us Mon. March 8 from 5-6pm outside of downtown Milwaukee's Pfister Hotel. A.H.

Dear Scott Walker:

I am writing to you to ask that you publicly dissassociate yourself and your campaign from former Gov. Jeb Bush's open record of supporting terrorists.

Please see some of the research below. While in law school, at the Columbus School of Law as part of Catholic University, I had the opportunity to meet one of the victims of such terrorism, who was then teaching at American University, the former Foreign Mininster of Chile, Orlando Letelier. The following year, in 1976, a car bomb assassinated him and a U.S. policy analyst Ronnie Moffit, right in our nation's capital. As you will see from the attached, based primarily on U.S. intelligence sources, which can be researched generally but in most detail at the National Security Archives, housed at George Washington Univerity, Orlando Bosch boasted of his role in this assassination, shortly before blowing up a civilian airliner coming from South America to Cuba. That was the first terrorist bombing of a civilan airliner in the Western Hemisphere, and it killed all 73 people on board.

I have met some of their relatives. They cannot understand how the masterminds of this outrageous act of terrorism can be walking freely in Miami today. But Jeb Bush can, because he is considered the person most responsible for providing them with safe haven in Florida, particularly Orlando Bosch. Some of those survivors live in Cuba, relatives of the pilot, the crew, the fencing team which was returning to Cuba having won five gold medals. Some live in the U.S., relatives of a young outstanding student from Guyana, who was flying to Cuba to receive free medical education. They have never gotten over the loss of their son and brother. Others live in South America, whose sons or daughters were also planning to become doctors to serve humanity.

I suspect you may never have heard of these facts. But, respectfully, once you have invited Jeb Bush to come to Milwaukee, and praised him as a model for you, you can no longer remain safely ignorant. I beg you to review this sad history, and declare openly that such support for terrorists can no longer be justified.

I thank you for your kind consideration.

Art Heitzer, Attorney at Law, Milwaukee   Read More »

Hi - A group of us are currently starting planning for a Netroots Wisconsin event, in cooperation with Netroots Nation. This will be a regional conference along the lines of Netroots Nation, and we are currently aiming at September 2010 in Madison. We are looking for people to help with:

Planning the conferenceLooking for sponsorsany other kind of help (including moral)

If you're interested in this, please contact me at shanson@uppitywis.org, or come visit the Netroots Wisconsin web site to keep up - http://netrootswisconsin.org

 

 

 

 

Meet the Corporation

I had always heard of these faceless corporations so I thought it wouldn’t be very much fun to meet one. But now that the Supreme Court has officially made them persons (sorta like they did with George Bush) I thought maybe I’d do what I’d wanted to for a long time – punch one in the face. So off I went to my local hated corporation.
   Read More »

Across the country, and in Wisconsin, there's a movement quietly taking shape to reclaim November 11 as a day of peace.

What is now called Veterans Day was originally designated in the US as Armistice Day, the day that World War I ended at 11 a.m.  on 11/11.  In the UK and elsewhere, it is also known as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day.

President Woodrow Wilson declared Armistice Day:

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

and Congress adopted a resolution endorsing Armistice Day which said:

...it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations...  

But somewhere along the line, after World War II,  those sentiments were replaced with flag-waving, fly-overs and military-style parades that seemed to celebrrate war more than peace, in the name of honoring American veterans.  The day was changed to Veterans Day.

This year, from Bellingham, WA to St. Augustine FL, from Burlington, VT to San Diego, Veterans for Peace and others are sponsoring events to reclaim the day as a time to celebrate peace, while honoring those who helped win and keep the peace. Here's a full list.

It is in the spirit of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, with its motto of "Honor the Warrior, Not the War."

Others are participating in official Veterans Day events, like the Santa Fe parade, which has welcomed Vetersns for Peace members for four years.  Some VFP chapters reportedly get the most applause of any group in the official parades.  In Milwaukee, where I live, we are still barred from the parade as being "political," while pro-war groups and non-veteran politicians are welcome to march.

The Milwaukee parade was last Saturday, so Veterans for Peace members, barred from marching, wore VFP vests and walked the parade route with cans to collect donations for the chapter's Homeless Veterans Initiative, to find homeless veterans and help them get veterans benefits, food, clothing, medical care, transportation. and eventually housing and jobs.  The response from parade-goers was remarkably positive, and donations were plentiful, with some 10s and 20s as well as many, many one dollar bills.

We encountered no hostility.  One utilities-clad member of Vietnam Veterans of America broke ranks to come and shake our hands and thank us for being there before rejoining the parade.  The only hostility comes from the parade committee, made up of more traditional veterans organizations.  We will keep working on them.

In the meantime, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Vietnam Veterans Against the War will sponsor a Veterans Day observance in the rotunda of Milwaukee City Hall at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11.  The bell atop Milwaukee's City Hall will toll for peace on Veteran's Day as part of the ceremony.  Madison and Janesville will hold Veterans Day vigils, and many will join at 11 a.m. in observing the traditional two minutes of silence in honor of those killed in warfare, miilitary and civilians, and pray or express their hopes for peace,

 

Press release from Wisconsin anti-war activists:

Disappointed with President Obama’s unwillingness to significantly change course from the Bush Administration, and his talk of troop increases in Afghanistan, a coalition of national anti-war groups will be joining together on October 5th in a day of nonviolent direct action at the White House.  Members of the coalition include National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Peace Action, the War Resister’s League, Code Pink, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Vets for Peace, World Can’t Wait, and others.

They have sent a letter to President Obama, and will be at the White House at 11:45 am on Monday Oct. 5 to deliver a strong message of peace, requesting a meeting with the president.  In the event that the meeting is refused, dozens of peace and justice activists, including Joy First, Monona, WI, and Phil Runkel, Waukesha, WI, will be prepared to risk arrest in the spirit of nonviolence in order to persuade the commander-in-chief to meet their demands.   Jennifer First, Madison, WI, and Mary Krolikowski, Milwaukee, WI, will also be at the White House in solidarity and support.

   Read More »

On Sunday, August 30th, 2009, Campaign Against Violence (CAV) will cap off its summer initiative with their 5th annual 'Put the Guns Down Festival', at Washington Park starting at 11am.

The non-profit group known for its leadership development and civic engagement efforts will keep things on a lighter note with this gathering.  The festival will be a family friendly event, aimed at bringing together and empowering community members.   Read More »

It is Iraq Moratorium weekend again, Friday-Sunday, with lots of Wisconsin events to call for an end to the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.   I'll be at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer Friday morning for Pancakes for Peace, sponsored by the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ), of which I am co-chair.  Join us if you can.  Info at www.wnpj.org 

If you can't eat pancakes for peace, there are plenty of other activities in Wisconsin this weekend.  Here's a list.  http://iraqmoratoriumwis.blogspot.com

    Read More »

In case you missed it, Gov. Jim Doyle signed a bill earlier this week allowing the state to take over Scott Walker's failing public assistance programs in Milwaukee County.

This ends an irregular but long-running turf battle Walker had been waging with the state amidst the worst recession in decades. Walker's lack of leadership has meant that the county's poorest were effectively locked out of public assistance funds when they needed help the most. The state's takeover occurred after a series of warnings that the program was being mismanaged.

At times, Walker seemed to be fighting with himself over the issue. He urged the State to take over the agency in a letter Jan. 27. Days later the state announced it would take over the county's public assistance programs. And yet the very same day the state agreed to Walker's request, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the county was considering challenging the plan, which he called "The worst of all scenarios."

The results of Walker's dithering, on the other hand, were crystal clear. Under Scott Walker's leadership, only 5 percent of the hundreds of thousands of phone calls to the county's public assistance call center every month were answered, according to a state report.

Too bad for Walker that the Joint Finance Committee was equally clear, voting 16-0 to request that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen investigate whether administrative fraud has occurred on Walker's watch.

At least you can't fault Walker for his unintentional honesty: Failing so badly that the state had to come in and clean up his mess was indeed the worst of all scenarios.

Doyle, in understanding the spirit of the W-2 law, has seen that in several key ways it is falling short of its purpose. The program was designed to help families, having severe economic difficulties, to get back on there feet through financial, training, and educational assistance. It is absolutely vital, then, that these families be allowed to stay in the program until it has helped them.   Read More »

Hi Audience and welcome to the new "torture reality show!"-OK I DID IT!!

Our first contestants have been carefully selected after a painstaking search through documents going back to 2002. We've given our contestants special monikers to avoid undue embarrassment should the tortures result in unseemly (knowing glance to the audience) results. Let's give them a warm torture welcome!
(loud applause)
On my left are Little Rumdum and the Big C
(wild applause)
On my right stand Wild Rice and Little Al
(female WOOOwoooo's and applause)

The masks are to hide their true identities since we did not select the audience based on political beliefs.

Now contestants and audience, here's how the game works. We have chosen this week's torture and someone here will be selected to undergo it for the next week. You will all pick a "Not This Week" card and if it has the right quote on it, you can exercise your veto of the torture should you be chosen. Here are the vetoes:
· We'll do memos legalizing everything!
· We always knew what we didn't know, when we didn't know it
· Was that a mushroom cloud?
· You'll damn well give us the intelligence we want , when we want it!

OK - we all have selected a card. Let's go.

Now - who'd like to go first??
(Silence- audience titters)
People, this is a reality show! Someone has to go first! Audience, how about a little help selecting our first "torture survivor"! (wild applause!) (As the moderator, who is wearing a black mask with eye, nose and mouth holes, holds his hand over each of the contestants heads, the audience howls for each with enthusiasm).

Big C! You have clearly won the audience's approval to go first. This week's torture is Waterboarding! We're going to ask you to lie down here with your head tilted back slightly. We'll ask you a few questions and you will try to resist our inquiries, OK? Wave your hands when you want to answer. After the first application, you can play your veto card. Are you ready? Who authored these torture memos?

Uummph, glug, ARRRRGHHHH! (after 2 seconds, hands waving frantically! gluuugh, sputter! It was Carter! I mean Clinton!

Really? We may have to ask that question again (possibly 182 times)

Now - would you like to play your veto card?
YES - PLEASE! STOP!
And your veto card says: "We always knew what we didn't know…"
Sorry Big C - that card can only be used by Little Rumdum! Back on the bench…
ARRggggh,STOP, IT WAS REAGAN! I SWEAR IT! I WAS THERE YOU KNOW! No stop mummmph.

I'm sorry, Big C - I'm afraid you get the old waterboarding all week- Head back now, please (hey can someone over there help me hold him down……)

(Audience squeals with delight…) Waterboarding begins again…

Thank you so much folks- you've been a great audience. We'll see you back here next week for the next episode of OK, I DID IT! And a new torture for a new contestant. Tune in at the top of the hour for TARPLESS, a great new hour, as failing bank CEO's compete against their Automotive counterparts for the Socialist of the Week Award! See you next week!

It now appears that the highest levels of the Bush administration, which "tortured" their own combat troops into prisons and disrepute for using torture, actually sanctioned the entire mess from the beginning. It is sometimes difficult to imagine the depths of degradation to our morals and our constitutional form of government to which these people sank. So the justification has changed from "it was a few bad apples", to "it wasn't really torture" to "hey it works so what are you complaining about? We kept you safe." The proof is in the classified documents that we said previously you shouldn't release because it makes us look like a banana republic.

Huh?

So releasing any documents that show the truth of the Bush Administration's mendacity, up to and including Rice, Cheney, the Attorney General, probably John Ashcroft etc., is an outrage, jeopardizes our safety, is politically motivated, and makes us a Banana Republic, but releasing far more secret classified documents is OK. Why would this illogical approach hold? Because they know they can use Fox, CNN, Rush, Billo and Hannity to damn you if you do and damn you if you don't.

Release them and they'll find a scrap or two of intel they got for their hundreds of waterboardings of just a couple of guys. Later, they'll attack the Obama administration for releasing the original memos and the follow-ups because if the Obama administration hadn't released memos showing that this renegade, lawless bunch did whatever they wanted, constitution be damned, they wouldn't have had to demand the follow-ups. Get it?

All of this, of course, swirls around but avoids the debate we should be having but never seem to get from the mainstream media: Is torture, which we prohibit by law, and which we have agreed to never do by international law, ok when a U. S. administration wants to do it? Is it OK when we can prove in retrospect that it might have worked to get us a little info? Is it OK for an administration to unilaterally violate our Constitution and International Treaties because they think they are right? This is the real question.

The real answer is simple. It is NO. We are a nation of laws. What that means is that individuals can't decide, no matter their level of authority, what to obey and what not. It goes historically back to the Kings who could do whatever they wanted (and did) and to the British who were pretty much doing so, as far as the American colonies were concerned (not to mention Ireland and 10's of other places in the world) at the time we held a little revolution to ensure we could live freely. The idea of a Constitutional government is to ensure the Rule of Kings cannot prevail. Rulers are elected and limited. Checks and balances are built into the system. Oversight is absolutely necessary and exists to protect the people from governmental excesses.

While consistently railing against big government excesses, this right wing and republican bunch have themselves managed to erode the rights of speech, privacy, assembly, counsel (by under-funding it everywhere in the country) and against unreasonable searches and seizures, over the last 35 years and would now have us abandon our stand against the cruelties of torture, on their say-so. I say NO- Never.

And let me resurrect one of the sayings of the past of which they were so fond: Love it or leave it! If you don't love our Constitutional form of government, get out. Some of us think we have more going on here than an episode of "24". If you think when you're in power, all the laws to protect our liberties can be sacrificed on the altar of fear, we can point you to some countries that operate that way. I'll contribute to your air fare (though I think you should go on a water board). This is the way the Communist Chinese and Russian governments operate. This is the way of Fascism. I'm sure they'd love to have you in their governments. They too are experts at graft, corruption and dictatorship.

On the other hand, if you choose to stay and do whatever you like, we have a legal system where you have to pay the piper. You know all those people in jail for using and selling marijuana?? Remember when you rebuffed the argument that it is basically harmless with "yeah but it's illegal and they chose to do it?" You remember that? Yeah, well so do we.

Best wishes on a very large cellmate,
The Patriot

On Saturday I penned this op-ed which never ran in my local paper about GI Resistance, my planned trip to St. Louis for Matthis Chiroux’s discharge hearing and why war resisters of an illegal war should be supported instead of punished. (For more on Matthis and his refusal of an Inactive Ready Reserve call-up see his website)   Read More »

On Saturday I penned this op-ed which never ran in my local paper about GI Resistance, my planned trip to St. Louis for Matthis Chiroux’s discharge hearing and why war resisters of an illegal war should be supported instead of punished. (For more on Matthis and his refusal of an Inactive Ready Reserve call-up see his website)   Read More »

On Saturday I penned this op-ed which never ran in my local paper about GI Resistance, my planned trip to St. Louis for Matthis Chiroux’s discharge hearing and why war resisters of an illegal war should be supported instead of punished. (For more on Matthis and his refusal of an Inactive Ready Reserve call-up see his website)   Read More »

On Saturday I penned this op-ed which never ran in my local paper about GI Resistance, my planned trip to St. Louis for Matthis Chiroux’s discharge hearing and why war resisters of an illegal war should be supported instead of punished. (For more on Matthis and his refusal of an Inactive Ready Reserve call-up see his website)   Read More »

Yesterday our NRA-backed Attorney General, JB Van Hollen, claimed that openly carrying a firearm should not result in a disorderly conduct charge in a memorandum issued to Wisconsin’s district attorneys.

Yesterday was also April 20, 2009—ten years to the day after the Columbine Massacre in Colorado: the most infamous school shooting in U.S. history sparked a nationwide debate on tolerance, firearms, schools, the media, and violence.   Read More »

Her name was Marjorie, but everyone called her Midge.

Midge Miller, the quintessential West Side Madison liberal and tireless activist for peace and progressive causes, has left us at age 86.

The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice website has links to moving tributes from John Nichols, Stu Levitan and Paul Soglin.

A memorial service is being planned for Mothers Day, her family said. That's appropriate. She was, among many other things, the mother of the nuclear weapons freeze campaign in Wisconsin.

Midge wasn't a legislator who played it safe or hesitated to introduce things that might be controversial or fail to pass. If she was convinced the cause was righteous, she'd plunge ahead.

I was working at Nukewatch in 1982 when a student, recently transplanted from New York, called to say he'd heard about this idea, a nuclear weapons freeze, that had been passed at some town meetings on the East Coast. He thought maybe Wisconsin could pass something, but didn't know how to get started, or even who his state legislators were.

We determined he lived in Midge Miller's Assembly district and suggested he contact her, thinking that would be the last we'd hear of it.

In short order, Midge had introduced a nuclear freeze resolution in the legislature that put the question to a statewide advisory referendum in September 1982. She worked closely with a coalition of peace groups to get it through the legislature, and then to get it passed by the voters.

Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to pass a statewide nuclear freeze referendum, and by a 3 to 1 margin, thanks to Midge's efforts. And it all started with a phone call from a constituent who had never voted for her and didn't even know her name.

It somehow seems appropriate that after not having seen her for years, I last ran into her in September -- at Fighting Bob Fest, of course. To the end, she was a vital part of Wisconsin's progressive community.

I hope she's resting in peace. She certainly earned it.

I've been trying to determine the causes of this mess in our country because, listening to the wise men and women on CNBC and CNN and the other mainstream outlets, I've really gotten confused. See, I thought that our problems were the result of serious greed, lack of adequate regulation, unrestricted lobbying of our government representatives (I use that term lightly), corporate irresponsibility and downright criminal behavior, a war that spends billions every week, with no end in sight while the terrorists who attacked our country run free in a country we abandoned (again) and a lock-step political party that prevented any change to those problems. I thought the trillion dollars in debt had something to do with this!! I thought the impending depression was traceable to the behavior above!

Apparently, I missed the boat by a mile. According to a conservative friend of mine, this mess we're in, is attributable to liberal lawyers and their liberal biased interpretations and manipulation of the Constitution. Now see, this train of analysis had eluded me so I thought I'd go research it. Since I know a bunch of these scoundrels, I decided to call them up and confront them. No pussyfootin' around when my country is in dire straits. .


-"Hello".
-"Hi, Bill, this is Tom. We worked together on those cases where the cops beat those confessions out of those kids? Well, I was just told that you are responsible for this mess that we're in in this country. What are you gonna do about it?"
-Huh?!?
-Listen, I've heard you've been manipulating the Constitution! I'm guessing it resulted in derivatives that were worthless. What have you got to say for yourself?"
-"Tom, have you been smoking something funny? And what the hell is a derivative? It's like, Latin, isn't it?
-"Never mind." Click.

-"Hello"
-"Hi, Fred, this is Tom. Remember we worked together on those cases that forced those corporations to reimburse those kids for their scrambled brains from the toxic substances?"
-"Oh Yeah - Hi Tom."
-"Well, while we've been out of touch, apparently you've been working to bring this country down into the mess it's in. Have you been working secretly for the banks?"
-"Uh, no. What are you talking about?"
-"Very clever,but you're stonewalling! I have it on good information from a friend that liberal lawyers have gotten us in this mess. And you're one of the really liberal ones. Did you find some liberal interpretation of the Constitution that allowed for lenders to loan mortgage money to people who couldn't pay and then package it in ways that could be sold to the rest of the world as something of value? And how about those billions of dollars of bonuses - did you screw around with the Commerce Clause too?"
-"Tom - I'm gonna hang up now. I know a really good therapist…".click.

-"Hello"
-"Hi Jim. This is Tom. We worked on a …umm…you know, a case to help….".
-"Sure, I remember, Tom. The long-term isolation of those mental pat…"
-"SSssshhhh! Someone may be recording this so speak generally, OK?"
-"Recording it?"
-"Yeah - listen- I've been pursuing some inside information about how liberal lawyers have put this country on the brink of collapse and I was wondering what you know about that?"
-"Huh?"
-"Well you remember when we worked on that research for the professor who was trying to ascertain the legality of declaring war on and invading a foreign country because some lunatic fringe element thought they might harm us in 3003?"
-"Uh hunh."
-"Well apparently that research was so liberal it's been used to bring the nation to the brink of collapse, destroy the economy, free all the prisoners, and totally undercut our ability to willy-nilly invade those commies in Canada. I've been questioning liberal lawyers to see if I can get to the bottom of this."
-"I see. Tom have you gone off your medication?"
-"Hmmmm - you too….."
-"Well, I've got to run. I have a client coming in."
-"Does this client need a liberal interpretation of the constitution by any chance? I suppose this doesn't have anything to do with fixing the health system through some nutty interpretation …" click.

There you go. The cover-up is obviously well under way. But I'm on it. I know it must be true because it was in my e-mail. Stay tuned.

The Patriot

Dan Kenney has a message for Blackwater, the controversial private security firm that just changed its name to try to escape its bloody past:

"Blackwater's new name is Xe, the symbol for an odorless, colorless gas. But the smell from its actions won't go away, and the company will never be invisible," said Kenney, who will speak in Milwaukee on Friday, Feb. 20.

Kenney is the director of Clearwater, a DeKalb, Illinois-based organization opposing Blackwater's operations and the privatization of US security.

Blackwater announced last week that it was changing its name and logo from Blackwater to Xe (Pronounced "z") in hopes of escaping from its bloody past.


"The renaming of Blackwater's 26 companies under the Xe banner is part of their rebranding campaign launched a year and a half ago when Blackwater contractors were involved in the shooting of 17 innocent Iraqi citizens in a busy Baghdad square. As it was then that they first changed their name from Blackwater USA to Blackwater Worldwide, now to Xe," Kenney said.

The Associated press reported that Blackwater officials acknowledged the need for the company to shake its past in Iraq. "Its not a direct result of a loss of contract, but certainly that is an aspect of our work we feel we were defined by," said spokesperson Anne Tyrrell.

Several times since September of 2007 Erik Prince, Blackwater's owner, has said that security is one part of their business; they hope to become a "one stop shop" for the Pentagon. They are still involved in Mexican Border patrol, their intelligence division is still providing CIA type services to Fortune 500 corporations, and they are seeking contracts to provide security to ships against so called "pirates." They are also heavily involved in training both military and civilian personnel, such as municipal police

In the periodic table of the elements, Xe represents an odorless, colorless gas. So, it's a perfect name for a group that is trying to hide from public scrutiny. But Blackwater cannot hide their odor and their crimes from an awakened citizenry. Clearwater will follow Blackwater and the Prince private army, maritime division, air force, and CIA wherever they go, no matter how many names they try to use. Because no matter what they call themselves they will continue to be a threat to democracy everywhere they go. They may take the name Xe, but they will never be invisible.

Kenney will speak at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20, in Room 001, Cudahy Hall, 1313 W Wisconsin Ave., on the Marquette University campus.

His talk is sponsored by Veterans for Peace, Iraq Moratorium, Peace Action-Wisconsin, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Progressive Students of Milwaukee, U.S. Labor Against the War, and the Marquette Center for Peacemaking. The event is free and open to the public.

The Alliance for Animals (www.allanimals.org) is having a fundraiser on Sat. Feb 14th with featured guest Karen Dawn, author of, "Thanking the Monkey - Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals." This book was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the best books of 2008.

Karen's book has been widely acclaimed, earning her rave reviews from a broad array of influential people including Gloria Steinem, Bill Maher and JM Coetzee, among many, many others. Karen has made appearances on MTV, Access Hollywood and national news network affiliates across the country and has hosted her own radio shows. Her opinion pieces have appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, New York's Newsday and the UK Guardian.

Bill Lueders recently wrote a column about the book, in the Isthmus, which does an excellent job in combating the stereotype that animal activists are all extremists. He writes, "Now and then, a writer comes along who confounds people's ability to maintain popular stereotypes about animal advocates, " and "Thanking the Monkey is thoughtful and measured. For instance, while Dawn exposes the folly of some forms of animal testing, she affirms that some level of speciesism is inevitable and appropriate. Yes, she thinks it's wrong to put rabbits in stocks and dump chemicals into their eyes to test cosmetics, subjecting them to pain so excruciating that some break their necks trying to escape, when there are alternative methods that happen to be more reliable. But Dawn believes that using animals for nonlethal medical research could be seen as morally acceptable if it is indeed essential -- admittedly, in her view, a big if."

To read the article: http://www.thedailypage.com/isthmus/article.php?article=25019

For more information on the book: http://www.thankingthemonkey.com/

Meet author Karen Dawn by attending the Alliance for Animals fundraiser:
Saturday, February 14, 2009 6:00 to 10:30 p.m.
West Side Club 437 County Road M.
Madison Tickets: $30

or catch her for a book reading and signing at:

A Room of One's Own
307 W. Johnson St.
Madison, WI 53703
Sunday, February 15th 2pm