March 2010

War Is Over (If They Mean It)

By David Swanson

Sixty-five congress members, including 60 Democrats and 5 Republicans, voted to end the occupation of Afghanistan on Wednesday. But 356 congress members, including 189 Democrats and 167 Republicans voted to keep the war going. The vote followed three hours of debate created by Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s introduction of a privileged resolution.

The debate featured three leaders from three groups of congress members: the war opponents (almost all Democrats), the pro-war read more

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Citizens United Disaster Spreads, Resistance Builds

By David Swanson, FreeSpeechForPeople

The damage from the Supreme Court’s decision in “Citizens United v. FEC” continues to spread as feared. Newly emboldened corporations are suing to overturn state laws that restrict corporate spending on politics:

“A pro-natural resource development group [how’s that for spin?] and a Bozeman painting company asked a Helena District Court on Monday to strike down Montana’s 1912 ban on corporate donations and expenditures to political read more

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Rove's Ruminations and Revisions

By David Swanson

I haven’t read Karl Rove’s book and don’t plan to, but this is what I gather from those who have.

Despite serving on the White House Iraq Group and lying about the war, Rove claims everyone was careful not to overstate or exaggerate.

Despite having routinely told Fox News what the news would be, Rove now blames himself for not being aggressive enough in pushing his lies into the media.

Despite having pushed WMD lies after settling on that as the best approach to read more

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Will Health Bill Allow States to Do Better?

By David Swanson
http://afterdowningstreet.org/letstatesdoit

The health insurance bill currently under consideration in Congress would forbid states from providing their residents with healthcare. An amendment correcting that problem was passed in committee last July and then quietly removed. A new campaign is asking the Democrats who voted for that amendment to withhold their votes on the bill until it is reinstated.

Several states’ legislatures are close read more

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States Begin to Fix Our Prison System

By David Swanson

David Cole of Georgetown University and formerly of the Center for Constitutional Rights has been doing some good writing, not only on our failure to enforce laws against powerful people, but also on our out-of-control epidemic of incarceration which has struck those too unimportant to gain immunity.

Cole argues persuasively that we lock up a dramatically higher percentage of our people than any other nation because it is mostly poor African-American communities that get hit. He read more

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