Press Action ::: C-SPAN Steps 'Outside the Ballot Box'

Saturday, October 23, 2004

C-SPAN Steps 'Outside the Ballot Box'

Leave Saturday afternoon open on your calendar because that’s when C-SPAN 2’s Book-TV airs Press Action’s “Outside the Ballot Box: Election 2004 and Beyond.” The television event of this election season features authors Elaine Cassel, Mark Andersen and Mickey Z. discussing our two-party political system, the war on our civil liberties, the power of state propaganda and the meaning of “revolution.”

Date: Saturday, October 23, 2004
Time: 4:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Eastern time*
Channel: C-SPAN 2

The event, filmed last Saturday at the Lyon Park Community Center in Arlington, Va., comes in two parts: an opening session featuring the speakers offering their perspectives on the state of affairs in the United States; and a second part involving a question-and-answer session with the audience.

Mark, Elaine and Mickey

Here’s a look at the panelists:

ELAINE CASSEL is a law professor, practicing D.C.-area attorney and author of The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights and Criminal Behavior. Cassel is a popular legal commentator, who writes regularly for online publications, including CounterPunch and her own website, Civil Liberties Watch.

MARK ANDERSEN is a prominent Washington, D.C. political and social activist and author of the new book, All the Power: Revolution Without Illusion. Andersen also is co-author of Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital and co-founder of the Positive Force music and activist collective in the D.C. area. He is outreach coordinator for Emmaus Services for the Aging, an advocacy group that assists inner-city seniors in Washington, D.C.

MICKEY Z. is a New York City-based writer of books, essays and poetry and astute observer of the American political and social scene. Mickey is the author of four books, including his latest, The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda and A Gigantic Mistake: Articles and Essays for Your Intellectual Self-Defense. Mickey is a martial artist and former martial arts film actor. He has a website at MickeyZ.net.

Mark Andersen

I want to thank Elaine, Mark and Mickey for their stimulating presentations. I also want to thank Nancy whose organizational savvy and determination made this event possible. Special thanks go to Marybeth, Michelle and Michele for their hard work, patience and kindness as well as Favio for his generosity. I also want to acknowledge Nikhil at C-SPAN for making the television coverage a reality.

For their DVD donations, I want to thank: AK Press, producer and distributor of Arundhati Roy’s Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy; Blue Moose Films, producer of Liberty Bound; and Post Carbon Institute, distributor of The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who attended the event last Saturday, helping to make it a great success. –Mark Hand

*Start times obviously differ across the country. For those of you in the Central time zone, the program has a 3:30 p.m. start time, followed by a 2:30 p.m. start in the Mountain zone and a 1:30 p.m. start along the West Coast.

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