January 2009

How Did Perriello Beat Goode?

Leave a Comment /

By David Swanson

How did a Democratic challenger defeat a Republican incumbent in an enormous rural district in southern Virginia? A Democratic group in Charlottesville called Left of Center organized a forum on that topic Monday night. Speakers included three staffers on Tom Perriello’s victorious campaign: Brian Bills, his personal assistant; Kelli Palmer, who registered African American voters in the southern most part of Virginia’s read more

How Did Perriello Beat Goode? Read More »

Cheney Previews Legal Defense

Leave a Comment /

Dick Cheney today previewed a likely argument defense attorneys will employ when he and Bush and their subordinates are tried, an argument that some of us have been predicting for years: If we weren’t impeached and it was “war time” anything we did must have been legal. But, of course, none of the many arguments against impeachment that were frequently employed by the Democrats in Congress read more

Cheney Previews Legal Defense Read More »

Bush Special Prosecutor Is Top Question for Obama

Leave a Comment /

After five days of citizen voting at President-elect Obama's Change.gov website, the top-ranked question seeks a non-partisan Special Prosecutor to investigate the crimes of the Bush Administration:

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor – ideally Patrick Fitzgerald – to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?" -Bob Fertik, New York City

The second round of questions began on December read more

Bush Special Prosecutor Is Top Question for Obama Read More »

March of the Dead to Greet Congress on Tuesday

Leave a Comment /

WHAT: A long column of figures dressed all in black with white death masks and bearing the names of those killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. The march will be followed by a dramatic nonviolent action intended to awaken Congress to the need to end the wars.

WHEN: March from noon to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. Additional dramatic action 2:15 p.m.

WHERE: The march will approach the U.S. Capitol on Pennsylvania Ave. SE and turn north on 1st Street to pass between the Capitol read more

March of the Dead to Greet Congress on Tuesday Read More »

Ruth Marcus Supports Torture

Leave a Comment /

By David Swanson

“It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.”
— Albert Camus

Washington Post editorial writer Ruth Marcus has joined the side of the executioners and provided a clear example of how that is respectably done in our time and place.

Her recent column begins:

“Should Bush administration officials be put on trial for crimes such as authorizing torture?”

Assuming that we intend to live in what John Adams called a nation of laws, read more

Ruth Marcus Supports Torture Read More »

Epiphany

Leave a Comment /

By David Swanson

Congress will be greeted on day 1 this year by a march of war dead on Capitol Hill.

The word epiphany comes from a Greek word meaning to manifest or to show. In Christian tradition the Feast of Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th, marking the day when the three wise men from three foreign lands visited the baby Jesus, the last of the 12 days of Christmas. Epiphany is also used to mean a sudden realization, comprehension, or inspiration.

This January 6th may be the 12th day of read more

Epiphany Read More »