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By Editor, on September 9th, 2011%
By David Swanson
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, like Jeanette Rankin before her, bravely stood alone in Congress against a vote for war, the vote in 2001 for the so-called Authorization to Use Military Force, a Constitutionally dubious passing of the war decision buck to President Bush and his successors. A majority of Americans now believes that the Afghanistan War that followed that authorization never should have been begun and should, in fact, be ended. So, the Congresswoman, along with initial cosponsors Jones, Woolsey, Grijalva, Conyers, and Honda, is offering us a second chance, a chance to get our response to 9-11 right, to restore war powers to the Congress, and to impose the will of the people on that body. Continue reading Congresswoman Lee Introduces Bill to Repeal the Authorization to Use Military Force
By Editor, on September 3rd, 2011%
By David Swanson
No, not 29 million job offers. I’m no better at applying for jobs than you are, and my town offers nothing but dead-end McJobs or positions in the military industrial complex, just like yours. I mean I just spotted an easy way to create 29 million jobs, one for every unemployed or underemployed U.S. worker.
No, I’m not about to say “Just raise taxes on gazillionaires and hire people to build stuff.” I’m all in favor of that, for lots of reasons, including the political corruption created by a concentration of wealth. We might have to disempower gazillionaires before we can enact any sensible policies, including the one I’m about to propose, but it can itself be done without raising a dime in revenue. This means that the President, who has broad, albeit unconstitutional, powers to move funding around from one program to another could do this himself. Or Congress could. Continue reading I Just Found 29 Million Jobs
By Editor, on September 3rd, 2011%
By David Swanson
If you can think back all the way to January 2009, back when wars were ending, Guantanamo was closing, the Pentagon was getting oversight, employees were going to have free choice, the rich would start paying taxes, the air would be getting cleaner, and so forth, you’ll recall that the Obama transition team was acting super populist and high-tech.
They had questions from ordinary people for the President Elect submitted on their website and voted up or down. The top question at the end of the voting had come from Bob Fertik of Democrats.com and it was this: Continue reading Insider Tells Why Obama Chose Not to Prosecute Torture
By Editor, on September 3rd, 2011%
By David Swanson
Last year I reviewed a book called “Apocalypse Never” that made a powerful case for our options being limited to two: either we get rid of nuclear weapons or humanity will be destroyed. I noted then a deep flaw in the case: the author accepted nuclear energy as something we could survive, focusing his opposition purely on nuclear weaponry.
A new film makes the additional case I was looking for. “Knocking on the Devil’s Door: Our Deadly Nuclear Legacy” by Gary Null could not come at a better time. Not far from where I write this, a nuclear plant at Lake Anna was damaged in a recent earthquake. Whether the damage was severe or not — this time — is unclear. Continue reading Knock Knock Knocking on the Devil’s Door
By Editor, on September 1st, 2011%
By David Swanson
It is difficult to watch this video without both crying and being inspired. Ashley Joppa-Hagemann recounts her husband’s struggles before he killed himself to avoid an eighth or ninth tour in the Iraq-Afghanistan Wars. Ashley confronted Donald Rumsfeld last week over the lies that led her husband to enlist. This led to . . . → Read More: Can Coffee Prevent Military Suicides?
By Editor, on August 25th, 2011%
By David Swanson
That sounds like a crazy question, doesn’t it? Why would President Obama denounce Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Well, the reason I ask is that he’s done it before.
Really? But surely he wouldn’t do it on such a solemn occasion?
Well, the time he did it before was in a Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. Continue reading Will Obama Denounce MLK as Memorial Dedicated?
By Editor, on August 17th, 2011%
By David Swanson
Former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-Terrorism Richard Clarke suggests that former CIA Director George Tenet blocked the sharing of information within the government on two members of al Qaeda in the United States, information that Clarke believes could have prevented 911. The CIA admits it knew about the two future hijackers but claims the Director was not informed.
“In early 2000, a number of more junior personnel (including FBI agents on detail to CIA) did see travel information on individuals who later became hijackers but the significance of the data was not adequately recognized at the time.” Continue reading Richard Clarke Is Being Too Nice to George Tenet
By Editor, on August 12th, 2011%
By David Swanson
Two blocks from my house in a nondescript little building on the edge of our residential neighborhood is an office with a small sign reading “DVBIC of Charlottesville” which turns out to mean “Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center.”
Now, I’m in favor of caring for people with brain injuries. Heck, I wish we had universal comprehensive health coverage like other countries do. But it disturbs me how difficult it is in this country to get any distance away from the military. It’s almost certainly closer to you than your relatives’ homes. Continue reading The Military: Closer to You Than Your Family
By Editor, on August 11th, 2011%
By David Swanson
The Satan Sandwich budget deal seems to have been left lying on the table in some television green rooms. Dylan Ratigan has begun cursing both political parties, even while still fantasizing about the President saving us. Keith Olbermann and Al Gore want a Tahrir Square in Washington, even while . . . → Read More: The Divided Left
By Editor, on August 5th, 2011%
By David Swanson
On August 6, 1945, President Harry S Truman announced: “Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima, an important Japanese Army base. That bomb had more power than 20,000 tons of T.N.T. It had more than two thousand times the blast power of the British ‘Grand Slam’ which is the largest bomb ever yet used in the history of warfare.” Continue reading Truman Lied, Hundreds of Thousands Died
By Editor, on August 3rd, 2011%
By David Swanson
“The Democratic Party is running away from its traditional role of protecting the poor, the elderly, and the working class,” writes Congressman Dennis Kucinich. “To whom do these groups now turn?” Continue reading To Whom Do We Now Turn?
By Editor, on July 28th, 2011%
By David Swanson
Comparing the brain sizes of migratory birds and U.S. presidents may not help explain this one. Birds have been avoiding Afghanistan for some years now. Afghans with higher educations have been leaving for decades. War profiteers, and occupation profiteers, and “reconstruction” profiteers seem to know their way out. But imperial rulers, whether British or Soviet or U.S., seem utterly incapable of withdrawing other people’s kids from Afghan wars until no other option remains. Continue reading Even Birds Have Withdrawn From Afghanistan
By Editor, on July 23rd, 2011%
By David Swanson
I recently sat down for 90 minutes to speak with six Afghan judges, all of them women, and an English-Dari interpreter, a man. They spoke to me as individuals. They aren’t preparing any investigations or indictments. The relevance of their being judges is that they know the law. They’ve studied international law, and they were visiting the United States to learn about our legal and political systems. They believe the United States is guilty of war crimes. Continue reading Afghan Judges Accuse U.S. of War Crimes
By Editor, on July 20th, 2011%
By David Swanson
The wealthiest nation on earth is not actually obliged to starve our senior citizens. We don’t need a military 670% more expensive than the next largest one on earth. We don’t need to fund health insurance corporations instead of healthcare. And we don’t need tax breaks for billionaires. In fact, we don’t need billionaires. That’s the message RootsAction is taking to Congress.
Forbes magazine has been listing the 400 wealthiest Americans every year since 1982. Thirteen billionaires appeared on the original Forbes list. Now all 400 rate billionaire status. These 400, collectively, possess more wealth than the poorer half of America’s population put together. Sam Pizzigati explains how we got here. Continue reading Balance the Budget on the Backs of Billionaires
By Editor, on July 19th, 2011%
By David Swanson
Imagine how radically different the current debate over the Giant Debt Ceiling Monster would look if we moved it to one of those nations we’re bombing into a democracy. Imagine us all still U.S. residents with the same views we have now, but imagine that our representatives in Washington, D.C., were obliged to give a damn what we thought.
Back on January 3rd, Americans expressed their first choice of action. While 3% chose to cut Social Security and 4% to cut Medicare, 20% said cut the military, and 61% said tax the rich. On January 14th, 52% said they would approve of cutting the military. Another poll, conducted January 15th to 19th, found 55% choosing to cut the military as their first choice (taxing the rich was not offered), while 21% said cut Medicare and 13% said cut Social Security. Continue reading Move the Budget Debate to One of Those Democracies We’re Bombing into Place
By Editor, on July 19th, 2011%
By David Swanson
Prisoners risking death by refusing food in the Pelican Bay supermax, and those hunger striking in solidarity in prisons around California are a judgment of our sickness. “The degree of civilization in a society,” said Dostoyevsky, “can be judged by entering its prisons.”
Civilization is something we no longer seem to aspire to. The United States locks up more people and a greater percentage of its people than anyone else. We lock them in training centers for anger and violence. We subject them to rape, assault, humiliation, and isolation. We throw the innocent in with the guilty, the young with the old, the nonviolent with the violent, the hopeful with those who’ve lost all interest in life. Continue reading Prisoners Have Nothing to Gain By Eating
By Editor, on July 16th, 2011%
By David Swanson
Nailing Rupert Murdoch for his employees’ phone tapping or bribery would be a little like bringing down Al Capone for tax fraud, or George W. Bush for torture. I’d be glad to see it happen but there’d still be something perverse about it.
I remember how outraged Americans were in 2005 learning about our government’s warrantless spying, or for that matter how furious some of my compatriots become when a census form expects them to reveal how many bathrooms are in their home. Continue reading Murdoch Has Blood on His Hands
By Editor, on July 16th, 2011%
By David Swanson
How often have we been told that we can’t have a serious nonviolent movement resisting our government’s destructive path as long as the Democrats are better than the Republicans?
How often have we been told that we can’t back third-party candidates as long as the Democrats are better than the Republicans?
This week has seen an inordinate number of realizations that the Democrats are as bad as or worse than the Republicans. And what has the response been? Continue reading Going Neutral on Obama? Not on a Moving Train!
By Editor, on July 16th, 2011%
By David Swanson
The House of Representatives would be better off speaking Arabic. See if you can make heads or tails of this.
The House voted down a bill to end the Libya War.
At the same time, it passed a nonbinding House-only resolution that said the President “shall not” use ground troops in Libya, the war is unauthorized, and Congress could defund the war if it wanted to. The resolution requested that all kinds of information be reported to Congress by the President, much of which has not been reported by the specified deadline. Continue reading Congresspeak: The Language of Impotence
By Editor, on July 4th, 2011%
By David Swanson
On Friday I read in the New York Times that President Obama would be happy to cut $200 billion out of Medicare in order to inflict pain on his Democratic base, part of an imagined tradeoff in which the two parties inflict pain on their imagined bases in order to reduce the deficit without imposing sensible taxes on billionaires or shrinking military spending to sane levels. Also on Friday I got an Email from True Majority asking me to celebrate Obama’s defense of Medicare.
We’ve progressed from “I feel your pain” to “I inflict your pain,” and we’re being told to like it. Continue reading Imagine a MoveOn That Doesn’t Answer to Democrats
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