Arbor Update

Kerry Selects Edwards, Former Rival, for VP

Posted by Ari Paul on 6. July 2004

John Kerry has made the rumors official, John Edwards, the junior Senator from North Carolina will be the Democratic running mate.

Here’s a column by yours truely from several months ago, endorsing Edwards for the nomination during the primaries: “Edwards is the only candidate adequately focusing on this growing gap between rich and poor America. He is also the only candidate with a realistic chance of success who has actually lived through the American nightmare of working-class isolation.”

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Campus

Student production looking for actors

Posted by Matt Hollerbach on 5. July 2004

The student-led production of “The Glue Factory” has sent out a casting call for the Ann Arbor area. The student-written play was originally performed in March 2004 as a Basement Arts production in the Frieze Building. Since then, the cast and directors have secured a spot at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Theatre Festival Festival.

In preparation for the trip, the company is attempting to raise money with benefit performances in the end of July and needs to begin rehearsing immediately. Unfortunately, two actors from the original cast are unable to travel to Scotland with the show, so the directors are looking for actors to fill the roles.

Interested actors should contact hmaples (at) umich.edu. Actors need to be between the ages of 17 and 25 – students and non-students welcome. Please note that only male roles are being cast at this time.

Links:
[ March 25 entry on lostdialogue.com ]
[ 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival Official Website ]

please note that the author of this entry is a member of the company that is producing “The Glue Factory”

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Politics

Contest from weblogger Feministe

Posted by dilleym on 4. July 2004

9/11, Like, Changed Everything, Officer

”...results of an interactive contest I came up with where Bush Administration quotes are altered to provide somebody a defense if they’re ever pulled over by a cop with a glove compartment full of weed…”

Politics

Register to Vote Tuesday to Vote in Primary

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 4. July 2004

On this most patriotic of days, a reminder regarding one of America’s core democratic foundations: if you want to vote in the August primary elections, you MUST register by Tuesday, July 6th.

For more information on registering to vote in Ann Arbor, you can call the City Clerk’s office at 994-2725. You can register at any Secretary of State office. A great resource if you have questions is the Michigan Secretary of State’s site at publius.org: sospublius.org . Find out how to register, if you’re already registered and other helpful information.

Culture

Detroit Taste Fest

Posted by Dumi Lewis on 4. July 2004

If you haven’t already made it to Detroit to enjoy the annual Taste Fest, you should. Chicago is internationally known for their “Taste of Chicago” but for those located in Michigan, Detroit’s Taste Fest offers some of the same great attractions: food, marketplace, and musical acts (on a smaller scale). I had a chance to head to the New Center area of the D to enjoy the offerings today and I was not dissappointed. The Taste Fest goes on until Monday the 5th.

Ypsi Woman Urges Community to Fight Gay Rights

Posted by Ari Paul on 3. July 2004

Cathy Leach of Ypsilanti Township shows her rage against those fighting for equal rights of homosexuals in an op-ed in the Ann Arbor News.

I support traditional marriage and I am writing to encourage you to speak up now to support this institution and to take action to prevent judicial activists from redefining its foundational tenets. Those of us who believe society is best served when marriage remains as a long term, monogamous relationship between one man and one woman need to make our voices heard. Call, write, and/or email your congressman and senators and ask them to support a federal marriage amendment, an amendment to our national Constitution defining marriage as between a man and a woman, husband and wife. Sign and help circulate a petition to place a referendum to amend the Michigan state Constitution on the statewide November ballot. If the majority remains silent on this issue, the moral values of a small minority will be endorsed by law, and public expression of an opposing viewpoint may soon be prosecuted as hate speech.

It is perhaps this widespread mindset in that area that prompted Ypsilanti to propose anti-gay rights laws.

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Israeli Military in Iraq?

Posted by Ari Paul on 3. July 2004

A U.S. general says it is. The Israeli foreign minister says it isn’t. The BBC reports on the possiblity of Israeli involvement at coalition prisons in occupied Iraq.

The US officer at the heart of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal says she has evidence that Israelis helped to interrogate Iraqis at another facility.
Brig Gen Janis Karpinski told the BBC she met an Israeli working as an interrogator at a secret intelligence centre in Baghdad.

A BBC reporter says it is the first time a senior US officer has suggested Israelis worked with the coalition.

The Israeli foreign ministry said the reports were completely untrue.

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Local

Fourth of July parade

Posted by Brian Kerr on 3. July 2004

Ann Arbor’s Jaycee-sponsored Fourth of July parade starts at 11AM tomorrow. The parade goes in a loop from William to State, State to Liberty, Liberty to Main, and then back down William.

The Ann Arbor Committee for Peace and the Kestenbaum campaign will be in the parade along with god knows what else.

(An exercise to the reader: consider the ways in which couch ban awareness might be raised in this event.)

Politics

Fight the Couch Ban

Posted by Scott Trudeau on 3. July 2004

Local blogger Murph has issued a call to Mobilize for full couch ban resistance! July 19!

He posted The Old Fourth Ward Association’s email advocating the couch ban, including a note of support from city councilman Leigh Greden. And Murph concludes:

And, as long as you’re at it, remind everybody you know to vote against Greden in November—we don’t need anything else like this brought onto the agenda, and sacking a few anti-student councilmembers will send a message.

[If anyone is acting against this City Council action and wants to incoporate a relatively “disposable” couch in the activities, I have one available (scott at gmail dot com).]

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“Because that’s where we kill Americans.”

Posted by Ari Paul on 2. July 2004

University alum and former columnist and reporter for the Michigan Daily, David Enders, is keeping it real, reporting live from Baghdad.

Enders is currently reporting for the South China Morning Post, and has freelanced and strung in the past for the Guardian, the Independent, the New York Times, and, um, High Times. He was also the editor of Iraq’s first English language newspaper, the Baghdad Bulletin.

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