Peace and War

I was quite happy to receive the following Email from UFPJ’s new legislative action coordinator John Bruhns:

Here is a draft of proposed legislative asks for meetings:

WHAT WE WANT U.S. REPRESENTATIVES TO DO

1. Commit to publicly and privately urging House leadership not to bring up any more bills to fund the occupation of Iraq.
2. Commit publicly to voting No on any bill that funds the occupation of Iraq through a public statement or signing the bi-partisan letter initiated by Reps. read more

By David Swanson

Is it possible to convict a group of people of the highest possible crime simply by editing together public statements that they made while planning it?

If so, the best attempt at doing so that I imagine I’ll ever see is found in a new 72-minute film available for viewing free online or by purchasing a DVD at http://www.leadingtowar.com

“Leading to War” begins and ends with a very few words of text on the screen. The rest is almost entirely clips of public statements read more

By David Swanson

On Wednesday, February 27th, from 8 to 9 p.m. ET I’ll be interviewing live another female Halliburton employee who was subjected to an environment of constant sexual harassment in Iraq. Tracy Barker was sexually assaulted by Halliburton employees and – in one instance – by a U.S. State Department employee in Basra, Iraq. The State Department employee has confessed to part of what Barker alleges, but remains at the State Department, and has never been charged read more

By David Swanson

Congress is taking up one more bill to further fund the Bush-Cheney wars, but Congress does not have to.

What are we asking of our elected officials?

Representatives: Publicly commit to voting No on any bill that funds the occupation of Iraq, and to voting No on any procedural votes to bring such funding up for a vote. Point to example of House standing up against telecom immunity.

Senators: Publicly commit to filibustering (voting No on cloture) any bill that funds the occupation read more

By David Swanson

Senator Russ Feingold (D., Wisc.) is preparing to give the Republicans in the Senate two more opportunities next week to grandstand and filibuster in favor of the occupation of Iraq. They will, of course, do so; and they will, of course, win.

Feingold cannot possibly have any doubt of that as he introduces his bills. As far as I know, he’s not even trying to get the House to pass the same things, since they’re guaranteed not to pass the Senate.

One of Feingold’s read more

http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/2008/dave-meserve/

Showtime: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 – 8:00pm-9:00pm Eastern
Listen Live on BBSRadio or you may also join us live in our virtual auditorium!

Dave Meserve lives and works in Arcata, California where he served as a city council member from 2002 to 2006, after running on the platform that “The federal government has gone stark, raving mad. Therefore, we must organize locally to protect our civil liberties, defend the Constitution, and read more

By David Swanson

Two weeks ago an article in the Cville Weekly by Josh Levy ( http://tinyurl.com/3ckznf ) told us that the “surge” was going to win the “war” in Iraq. “Victory has not yet arrived,” he cautioned, “and it may be years before we can mark its arrival with confidence, but we can reasonably hope to see it.”

Somehow, I can’t. First I would need someone to tell me what it would look like. There is no “war” in Iraq in the read more