April 2011

Lockheed Loved Obama's Speech. Did You?

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On Wednesday, President Obama gave a speech about the greatest danger facing us.  Wars?  Environmental collapse?  Joblessness?  Homelessness?  No, the federal deficit.  With two years left on the job, Obama proposed a 12-year plan to fix the deficit that won’t fix the deficit.  And how did he propose to fail at this misbegotten task?  The President proposed to end no wars, make no serious cuts to the military, tax no estates or investments, raise no read more

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David Swanson just back from Afghanistan at Random Row, Next Wednesday, April 20th at 7 PM

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David Swanson recently visited Afghanistan with Voices for Creative Non-violence. He will be speaking at Random Row on Wednesday April 20th at 7 p.m.

Random Row Books is a used bookstore at 315 W. Main St. in Charlottesville, VA. It also contains a collective of other businesses including Splintered Light Bookstore (New Books), The Pomp Print Shop, and BA21 Web Design. The main space in which the bookstore resides is a capacious industrial space which is also used as a general event space. read more

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A Twelve Year Plan From a Guy With Two Left

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Obama’s speech on the deficit on Wednesday was a flop. He proposed to end no wars, make no serious cuts to the military, REDUCE corporate taxes, tax no estates or investments, raise no taxes on any billionaires, and give an unelected commission the power to slash Medicare.

Obama began by blaming tax cuts, wars, and healthcare:

“[A]fter Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed. We increased spending dramatically read more

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Justice Department Asks Spain Not to Prosecute U.S. Torturers

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Spain is pursuing a case against former top U.S. officials who authorized the use of torture, including David Addington, Jay Bybee, Douglas Feith, William Haynes, John Yoo, and Alberto Gonzales. U.S. activist groups have been encouraging Spain in this endeavor.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Office of International Affairs, has sent a 7-page letter to the Spanish court (PDF) in response to Judge read more

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Why Am I a Peace Activist? Why Aren't You?

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Written for the forthcoming collection, “Why Peace?”

More than any other description, except for perhaps husband and father, I have been for the past six years a peace activist. Yet, I hesitate on the question of how to tell my personal story of experience with war. I recently visited Afghanistan briefly, in order to speak with people who have experienced war. I’ve spoken with many U.S. soldiers and non-U.S. victims of war. But I have no experience of war. Being in Washington, read more

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Lies About the U.S. Civil War 150 Years Later

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Tuesday marks 150 years since the start of the U.S. Civil War. Newspapers everywhere are proclaiming it the deadliest war in U.S. history, the costliest U.S. war in terms of the loss of human life. That claim, like most things we say about the Civil War, is false.

Most humans, it will surprise our newspapers to learn, are not U.S. citizens. World War II killed 100 times as many people as the U.S. Civil War, with World War I not far behind. U.S. wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq are among those read more

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Lesser-Evil Math Doesn't Compute: Freedom Plaza Has the Same Name as Tahrir Square

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In an electoral system corrupted by money, media, and parties, the U.S. people are offered a choice every four years between two hideously awful candidates for an office that increasingly resembles an imperial throne. And increasingly the primary motivation of voters is to oppose the candidate they believe is the greater evil.

Thus, we chose Obama over McCain in 2008. But Obama in 2008, as the lesser of the two evil candidates, was arguably a greater evil than George W. Bush had been four or read more

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An Afghan Peace Movement, Not a US Peace Jirga

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By David Swanson, Truthout

Kabul, Afghanistan – The United States, on the verge of shutting down its own government for lack of funds, just forked over another $50 million for a peace jirga (or council) to negotiate peace in Afghanistan or at least sponsor an upcoming conference in the United Arab Emirates and – perhaps more so – bribe Taliban fighters to temporarily stop fighting.

Talking is always preferable to bombing, and anything with the name peace in it has at least that read more

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