Remarks at "Plan B for Baghdad" Event, Denver, Col., October 15, 2005
By David Swanson

I wrote these remarks down on Thursday, when a Washington Post columnist was pleading with Patrick Fitzgerald to please just go away, and a New York Times news article was claiming that if Lewis Libby leaked anything, he did so with the best of intentions. Meanwhile virtually no voices in the corporate media were asking why Joe Wilson had to be attacked, who had made the false claims that Wilson had debunked, and who had forged the documents that the Bush Administration had used to claim that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons

Can we end the war in Iraq from Denver this Saturday? I don't know. I've never been to Denver before. But we can try to do our bit. Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio will be the keynote speaker.

By David Swanson

I recommend the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck," which is named with the line with which Ed Murrow ended his news broadcasts on CBS News, back when CBS did news. It's a well-made movie and ought to be heartening, except that it gives you an intense pain in your stomach when you realize that the corporate pressures Murrow was under have completely taken over, that we haven't just lost the literacy and the cigarettes, that we've lost the ability of news reporters to report that official assertions conflict with facts. Murrow's recent integrity-free illiterate successor at CBS, Dan Rather, was booted for less than anyone could make a movie out of. Here's a take on that pathetic episode from a forthcoming book by a producer at CBS.

By David Swanson

PHOTO: Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee this morning

A growing list of Congress Members are not just speaking out about Bill Bennett's recent racist remarks on his radio show. Some of them are pressuring the network that airs his show, Salem Radio Network, and asking the sponsors that fund it to withdraw their support. One already has. Other Congress Members are asking the Federal Communications Commission to censure, suspend, and fine Bennett.

Can't buy you votes, votes
Can't buy you votes

You can forget my vote, my friend, if you support this war
I'll laugh at your ads, my friend, if you support this war
'Cause all you care about is money, but money can't buy you votes

If the other guy is for the war, how can you be for it too?
I don't vote for corporate whores, and I sure won't vote for you
So go ahead and spend your money, money can't buy you votes

Can't buy you votes, everybody tells me so
Can't buy you votes, no mo do, ho

Say you'll oppose this evil war, and I'll be by your side
I'll help you find a million votes that money just can't buy
Just stop caring so much for money, money can't buy you votes
More Songs

In Support of Weakness on National Security
By David Swanson

A senior staff person for one of the most progressive and courageous members of Congress recently advised a room full of peace activists that they won't be able to persuade Democrats to oppose the war simply by showing them polls finding that a majority of Americans oppose the war. Rather they must assuage the Democrats' fears of being called "weak on national security."

The Relevance of Marching
By David Swanson

David Corn, www.davidcorn.com, published an article today on his site and on www.tompaine.com arguing that last weekend's march on Washington to end the war was a waste of time and money and energy and won't help end the war. I disagree, but think Corn makes some useful points.

By David Swanson

Imagine you could take years and years to carefully study political history, that you could read numerous sources of political news from around the world, that you could do your own research into declassified government documents and little known areas of information, and that you could travel extensively so that you might compare various societies and governments in the current day.

Civil Resistance at the White House
By David Swanson

PHOTO GALLERY

I got to the White House around noon and found hundreds of people gathered awaiting the arrival of marchers who planned to get themselves arrested protesting the war.

PDA Communications
By David Swanson

Tim has asked me to help with developing a national network for PDA communications, meaning a group of people at the national level, and others at the state and local levels, working together to make our voices heard. I'm hoping that this discussion today will produce some ideas for this and some volunteers to help with it.