VANDENBERG FOR CONGRESS UPCOMING EVENTS: 

Wednesday, October 11, 2006 7pm:
VANDENBERG FOR CONGRESS appearance. Louis Vandenberg, Democratic Nominee for United States Congress, 44th Congressional District, will participate in a forum on Iraq, which seeks to examine, with depth and clarity, the reality of the Iraq fiasco and the catastrophic consequences Bush's misadventure has produced for our nation.  With civil war looming, insurgency on the rise, suicide bombings every day, the collapse of the rebuilding effort and recent polls showing overwhelming Iraqi sentiment against continued American presence in Iraq, the way out is unclear, and with no good options.  Vandenberg will join panelists Dr. Mark LeVine, author of "Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil," Dr. Jean Rosenfeld of UCLA's Center for the Study of Religion and a specialist on religion and violence,  UCR's Dr. Christopher Chase-Dunn and UCR's Dr. Thomas Payne in a significant and riveting indictment of a strategy born in lies and executed with abject incompetence.  The panel is moderated by KPFK's highly acclaimed host Ian Masters.  Sponsored by UC Riverside's College Democrats, UCR's Chicano Student Programs and Democracy for Riverside.   Campaign site: www.vandenbergforcongress.com , phone 951-784-5002.    Life Sciences 1500 is number 316a on the UCR Campus map: http://www.campusmap.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/mapit.cgi  See kiosk for parking.  Event at the University of California Riverside's Life Sciences 1500 at  7pm. Phone 951-827-3821 or UCR Dems President Oswin Chan at 626-679-3875 for more information. 

Thursday, October 12, 2006 6:30pm:
VANDENBERG FOR CONGRESS Fundraiser.  Meet acclaimed KPFK 90.7fm/Pacifica Radio Network broadcaster Ian Masters in a relaxed, comfortable and conversational setting at the beautiful Richard and Jane Block residence.    Meet Ian at 6:30pm.  At 7pm, Louis Vandenberg and Ian Masters will discuss the state of the nation in a variety of critical areas and a lively exchange with the audience is expected. Ian is the long-time host of Ian Masters' Background Briefing and Live From the Left Coast, which are the most popular programs on KPFK 90.7FM public radio in Los Angeles. His show has been described in the LA Weekly as "simply the finest public affairs program in the United States."  Besides his broadcast work, Ian is a  BBC-trained, award-winning documentarian, filmmaker and screenwriter.  His writing appears in The Huffington Post and elsewhere.  Louis Vandenberg is not only a candidate for US Congress, but Ian's longtime collaborator.  Award-winning journalists and authors James Moore and Wayne Slater acknowledged Louis and Ian in their critically praised new book, "The Architect: Karl Rove and the Master Plan for Absolute Power," thusly: "Ian Masters and Louis Vandenberg of KPFK radio in Los Angeles are always way ahead of almost every journalist on the issues driving U.S. foreign policy and domestic polictics."   A donation to the Vandenberg for Congress campaign is respectfully requested.  Donors of $50 or more, will receive a personally autographed "Best of Ian Masters 2-CD set."   www.vandenbergforcongress.com .  RSVP to Candidate@vandenbergforcongress.com , or call 951.784.5002.  Event at the home of Richard and Jane Block, 424 Two Trees, Riverside, Ca 92507.  Phone 683-0304.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Oswin Chan 626-679-3875
ochan003@ucr.edu

KPFK’s Ian Masters to moderate

Iraq War Forum at UC Riverside

Forum to present expert panel focusing on status and solutions

 

WHEN: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 7pm.  Doors open 6:30pm.

WHAT: A forum on the Iraq war “No Exit: Finding a Way out of the War in Iraq.”

WHERE: UCR’s Life Sciences 1500.  Parking: ask at campus information kiosk.

WHO: Free and open to the public.

RIVERSIDE—Los Angeles public radio station KPFK 90.7fm’s acclaimed talk show host Ian Masters will hold a forum on the Iraq war at the University of California, Riverside, on Wednesday October 11, 2006 at 7pm in the campus’ Life Sciences 1500 auditorium.  This event, co-sponsored by the UCR College Democrats and UCR’s Chicano Student Programs, is the first major event of its kind on the Iraq war to be held in the Inland Empire region.  Produced in cooperation with Democracy for Riverside, Democrats of Greater Riverside and the Women’s Democratic Club, it features noted policy experts, political analysts and commentators who will take a hard look into the facts of Iraq, how we got there, what the on-the-ground reality is and how the United States can extricate itself from what US General William Odom calls “the worst strategic disaster in American history”.

UCR College Democrat’s President Oswin Chan explains, “this forum is not about presenting all political sides on the war.  We already know what the Republicans say about Iraq.  It’s repeated every day in the media and we’ve all heard it a thousand times.  It is simply “stay the course,” at apparently any cost of life, treasure or America’s reputation around the world. This forum is something different--a panel from the other side, including Democrats and Progressives who will present their alternative assessment of the Iraq war and their original policy vision.”  The forum poses the counter-question: what “course,” to where, and at what cost?  And participants will go further to recommend solutions.  With the Iraq situation as it is, there really is no perfect answer.  The panelists will be tasked to seek an exit strategy, which attempts a best-case outcome for the United States, the people of Iraq and the region.  UCR Democrats President Chan continues, “in order to do that, we as Americans must go beyond clichés, rhetoric and spin, towards something real and true.  This is a necessary dialog, which is absent in the American media.  Formulating a workable answer to the Iraq conundrum has got to begin somewhere.  It might as well be here at UCR. That’s what the panel is about. We have a number of very interesting and authoritative guests.  We all hope to learn something and to stimulate ideas to lead towards a more hopeful and positive place than the one we are now in.”

Doors open at 6:30pm.  The program starts at 7pm.  The event is free and open to the public.  Life Sciences 1500 is number 316a on the UCR Campus map: http://www.campusmap.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/mapit.cgi    LS1500 is wheelchair accessible.   For more information, call co-sponsor UCR Chicano Student Programs at 951-827-3821 or UCR College Democrats at 626-679-3875.  Produced in cooperation with Democracy for Riverside, Democrats of Greater Riverside and the Women’s Democratic Club.

Iraq War Panel participants:

Moderator:  Ian Masters is the long-time and highly regarded host of KPFK 90.7fm’s radio programs Background Briefing and Live From the Left Coast, which were described in the LA Weekly as, “simply the finest public affairs radio programs in the United States.”  Mr. Masters was trained by the BBC as a broadcast journalist and is, in addition, a writer, documentary filmmaker and commentator.  He was formerly a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Affairs, based at UCLA, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Relations, also at UCLA.  Also, he served as a Consultant to the Center for National Security Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 

Panelist: Dr. Mark LeVine is Professor of modern Middle Eastern history, culture and Islamic Studies at UC Irvine. He is the author and editor of half a dozen books, including: Why They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, the Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Chicago Sun Times, and numerous other publications, including as contributing editor at Tikkun magazine. LeVine has traveled widely across the Middle East and North Africa, including regular trips to Israel/Paletine, Lebanon and Iraq. As a Grammy-Award winning musician he has worked with Mick Jagger, Dr. John, Johnny Copeland, Moroccan gnawa/world music artist Hassan Hakmoun, Lebanese rock band The Kordz, Tunisian rai-hiphop artist, MC Rai, and on the Grammy-award winning album Street Signs by Ozomatli.

Panelist: Dr. Christopher Chase-Dunn is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California-Riverside. Chase-Dunn is the founder and co-editor of the electronic Journal of World-Systems Research.  In 2001 he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2002 he was elected President of the Research Committee on Economy and Society of the International Sociological Association.

Panelist: Dr. Thomas Payne is the Chairman UC Riverside’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering, where he also is a faculty member.  He received his PhD in mathematics at the University of Notre Dame in 1967, and commenced his career at UC Riverside that same year.  In addition to many accomplishments in the field of computer science, he is also a political analyst who is an active Congressional campaign consultant, specializing in a wide variety of policy issues, both domestic and foreign.

Panelist: Dr. Jean Rosenfeld is a specialist in the study Religion and Violence and the application of that study to the understanding of conflict situations and their resolution.  Based at the Center for the Study of Religion at UCLA, she is currently  a Lecturer in Religious Studies at UC Riverside, as well as an author, commentator and consultant.  Her thesis is that religion is playing the major role in the insurgent violence in Iraq.  She asserts that to understand the situation and to develop a best-case outcome strategy, we must understand the religious dimensions, their origins and processes. 

Panelist: Louis Vandenberg is the Democratic nominee for United States Congress, running in California's 44th congressional district, which spans Riverside and Orange counties.  He has twice previously been the Democratic nominee, losing the previous races to the incumbent Republican.  He is a member of the Democratic State Central Committee and Central Committees of Riverside and Orange counties. He is a long-time administrator during the week and is also a long-time southern California public radio broadcaster.  He produces a top-rated radio program in Los Angeles on weekends on the largest public radio station west of the Mississippi river.  Recent guests on this program include, Senator Byron Dorgan, John Dean, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Nuremberg prosecutor Benjamin Ferencz, the most honored foreign correspondent in the Middle East Robert Fisk, dean of the White House press corps Helen Thomas, Pulitzer Prize winners Ron Suskind and Thomas Ricks, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and many more.  Mr. Vandenberg has consulted with many of the top experts across the country, including some of those named here, in the formulation of his positions on a wide spectrum of issues.  He was born, raised and educated in Southern California and has lived in Riverside for over two decades.  Some of his recent writing is available at www.dailykos.com . www.vandenbergforcongress.com