Author name: davidswanson

Beyond Belief: Another Way to Rethink Afghanistan

By David Swanson

This is not from the Rethink Afghanistan project, which has been producing so many great clips about Afghanistan (including their latest, Part 5, about women). This is a full length film from 2006 about two American women whose husbands were killed on 9-11-2001 who raise money for and visit Afghanistan women whose husbands were killed by American bombs. This movie is probably more relevant now than it was in 2006. It is extremely well done. It’s called Beyond Belief.

The read more

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Two Ways to Pay As You Go

By David Swanson

The day after ramming through nearly $100 billion more for wars and $100 billion in loans to European banks through the IMF, the majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, introduced a “PayGo” bill, requiring that any spending be paid for with cuts in other spending. But having this law on the books would not have stopped the previous day’s legislation. War “supplemental” bills are deemed “emergencies” and an exception read more

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Reading the Rules of Disengagement

By David Swanson

Should soldiers follow illegal orders? Should they take part in illegal wars and occupations? And if they don’t want to do so, what choices do they have? And what can we do to help them? These are some of the questions addressed in a new book by Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd called “Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent.”


From: http://www.gregmooreart.com/portraits.html

This book addresses these topics as well as any I’ve read more

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Biden: SC Serial Killer Has Right to Kill

Dissociated Press — Vice President Joe Biden signaled that the Obama administration would not stand in the way if a suspected serial killer in South Carolina chose to attack his neighbors’ children, even as the top U.S. child services officer said any attack on those children would be destabilizing.

“Look, this murderer can determine for himself — he’s a sovereign individual — what’s in his interest and what he decides to do relative to those children and read more

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March on Congress or President?

By David Swanson

What if you had to choose your top priority for an activist campaign to change a government policy? Would you tell everyone to call and Email and write and try to meet with and protest the president? Would all your marches be to the White House, all your petitions addressed to the president, all your talk be about what the president should do? Or would you focus on Congress instead? Or would you just generally make noise, march around on Saturdays, and hope that both the Congress read more

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Cookout With Cindy Sheehan

Charlottesville, VA
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Cindy Sheehan is deservedly the best known peace activist in the United States. Having lost her own son in Iraq, she has worked for the past five years to save others — and she’s not about to let up in her efforts to end our foreign wars and create justice around the world and here at home. More about Cindy:
http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com

Please join Cindy for lunch at noon on Saturday, July, 18, 2009, rain or shine, at 707 Gillespie read more

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Remove the Filibuster from the Senate Rules

By David Swanson

Trying to squeeze any sort of peace on earth out of our government in Washington has been a steep uphill climb for years. For the most part we no longer have representatives in Congress, because of the corruption of money, the weakness of the media, and the strength of parties. There are not 535 opinions on Capitol Hill on truly important matters, but 2. Our supposed representatives work for their party leaders, not for us. Luckily, one of the two parties claims to want to read more

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Waking from Madison's Nightmare

By David Swanson

The book I just read is in the running, in my estimation, for second-best text on how to undo the imperial presidency. (Can’t be first, of course.) It’s called “Madison’s Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy,” by Peter M. Shane, and it’s much more about what the problem is than how to solve it, but the two things are not really separable, and the analysis of the problem here is invaluable.

This is a detailed and extensively read more

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A Plan to End the Wars

By David Swanson

There are a million and one things that people can do to try to end the U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and to prevent new ones in Iran and elsewhere, as well as to close U.S. military bases in dozens of other nations around the world. Certain people are skilled at or interested in particular approaches, and nobody should be discouraged from contributing to the effort in their preferred ways. Far too often proposals to work for peace are needlessly framed as attacks read more

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