May 2010

Apocalypse Never: Read This Book or Die

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By David Swanson

Tad Daley writes, in his new book, “Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World,” that he would like his book to have the impact of “Common Sense,” “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” or “The Jungle.” Yeah, buddy, what author wouldn’t? But Daley has a unique argument for the moral necessity of sharing his goal and promoting either his book or others like it: our only alternative is the annihilation of all life on read more

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Dear Congressman Obey, Don't Leave Us the Bill

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Congressman David Obey
2314 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4907
(202) 225-3365

Dear Congressman Obey,

In recent years you’ve expressed your opposition to war spending. I’d like to encourage you to cap off your congressional career by actually refusing to provide the funding for the current escalation in Afghanistan, and by simultaneously introducing a bill to spend $33 billion on green energy jobs, including for former soldiers.

You know better than I do that the read more

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Single-Payer Candidate Wins NC Primary

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By David Swanson

North Carolina house candidate Marcus Brandon defeated a 30-year incumbent tonight, by 60% to 40%, to become the Democratic nominee in an overwhelmingly Democratic district in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Brandon has pledged to introduce a bill to create single-payer healthcare in North Carolina, and now he’ll be able to do it.

Brandon has promised that the first piece of legislation he will introduce will be the “North Carolina Healthcare Act” which will provide read more

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Gooey Black Corporate Greed

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By David Swanson

Corporate persons aren’t like you and I. They have eternal life and legal immunity. No death, no taxes, no joy or pain or moral feeling. No sweat and no tears. When they move their mouths, out come dollars, and we call those dollars speech. But when they stub their toe and bleed, out comes thick black goo in a gusher that could turn the ocean into a dead black pit, and we call that goo petroleum.

Candidate Obama said he would free us from “the tyranny of oil.” read more

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33 Billion Dishonest Excuses for War

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By David Swanson

If you were to call your congress member’s office at 202-224-3121 and ask them to vote against spending $33 billion to escalate the war in Afghanistan, they would give you one of several common excuses.

If they refuse to tell you what they plan to do, you can let them know that they work for you and that you are going to vote against them in November unless they commit to opposing the funding of this escalation now.  Sure, their opponent could be worse, but not much, read more

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Liz Holtzman for New York Attorney General (And Watch Out Wall Street)

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Wall Street’s gone wild and Congress seems disinclined to rein it in. The Justice Department may stray slightly from the president’s goal of “looking forward, not backward.” But there’s a weakness in the master plan for Goldman Sachs’ domination of the world: Wall Street is in New York State, and the leading candidate for New York State Attorney General is Elizabeth Holtzman.

If Liz runs on a campaign to clean up Wall Street, regulate it, and deter crimes by read more

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Dear Fiscal Conservative War Supporter

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By David Swanson

Is it that you don’t know what war costs, or that you don’t know that it makes us less safe?

We’ve spent $268 billion on making war on Afghanistan, and using Linda Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz’ analysis of Iraq we need to multiply that by four or five to get a realistic cost including debt, veterans care, energy prices, and lost opportunities. Public investment in most other industries or in tax cuts produces more jobs than investment in military. In fact, read more

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Panelists on Peace Asked About Religious Support for War

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Josh Stieber described his experience in war of being trained and ordered to do evil things, and having religious authorities advise him to just trust the military. Ray McGovern asked him to speak more about this, and Chris Hedges and David Swanson offered their thoughts as well. This was during a Thursday, April 29, 2010, “Teach-In on Capitol Hill,” held in Room 2168 of the Rayburn House Building, in Washington, D.C., dealing with the question of what the U.S. Congress must do to read more

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