Author name: davidswanson

Whistleblowers on Tape

By David Swanson

While they may not be in Congress, there are members of our government willing to risk their careers and more to blow the whistle on the criminal takeover of our former democracy. One of them is Sam Provance.

I’ve just posted an amazing video of Sam Provance telling his story, along with videos of others telling theirs, including: Dan Ellsberg, Ann Wright, Larry Johnson, Coleen Rowley, Bob Parry, Akbar Ahmed, Peter Kuznick, Edward Mortimer, Max Friedman, and Ray McGovern: read more

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Observing Our Government Through Blackwater

By David Swanson

Jeremy Scahill, author of a terrific book on the Blackwater mercenary army, spoke in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Tuesday to a packed hall. He took questions at the end, and one man asked something to the effect of “Why does the government want to privatize the military? We taxpayers have been paying for the Army.” I wished Scahill had pointed out that it’s the tax payers who are now paying the private corporations, but the answer Scahill gave was critical. read more

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Peace and Hillary Clinton

By David Swanson

This past Sunday, crime thriller author John Grisham hosted a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in my town. I talked with a lot of the people attending. Some said they supported Clinton because they wanted to keep troops in Iraq. But most were there because they opposed Bush and Cheney’s policies on Iraq. Who was confused, and who was not? Or could they both be right?

Among the protest posters at the event: “You and Rupert Murdoch are raising $ for the same candidate.” read more

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We The People, Concert for the Constitution

By Andrea Miller, Inform Progressive Virginia


David Swanson, Laura Flanders, Norman Solomon

It has been a very bizarre week for the American government (and a pretty terrible one for the American people). The Senate refused to pass legislation that would give the troops as much time at home as they spent in combat, and officially condemned an organization that supports free speech for pointing out an obvious lie. I found it interesting that they didn’t exactly deny the charges, the Senate read more

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We Have Nothing But Fear Itself

By David Swanson

A Roseland, Indiana, city council member orders police to remove a fellow city council member. The police escort him out, shove him down on his face and pound his head. Onlookers either cheer, do nothing, joke, behave as if all were normal, or yell at others to let the police do their jobs. Not a single person protests. Only the one victim is hauled off in the police car. No one jumps in and shouts “Before this becomes Nazi Germany, arrest me too!”

A University read more

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Flyering for Hillary

Here’s a flyer in Word that can be used at events featuring Senator Hillary Clinton.

Here’s the text:

Hillary Clinton = More War

Whether or not you are committed to voting for whatever candidate the Democratic Party nominates, we are now in the primaries, the purpose of which is to make sure that nominee is the best candidate possible. Hillary Clinton is not. Apart from being a candidate, she is a Senator whose positions conflict with those of most Americans.

Ted Koppel reported on NPR read more

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Telling the Truth

By David Swanson

Sam Provance exposed the torture in Abu Ghraib and as thanks had his career ruined, was threatened with prison, has had his wife leave him, and is now barely scraping by. He said Thursday evening that on a personal level his choice to speak out was not worth it. “But,” he said, “this is not about me.” And everyone in the auditorium where he was speaking knew exactly what he meant, because we had just heard Dan Ellsberg, Ann Wright, Larry Johnson, Coleen read more

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Corpse's Point of View

By David Swanson

From the point of view of a corpse, Thursday’s die-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol was overwhelming and diminishing. I was one of twenty some corpses lying dead in a river of blood in front of police and tourists and a color guard of Iraq veterans. I was one of a pile of corpses. You could have added or taken away a corpse or two, and nobody would have noticed. Thirty or forty other corpses were picked up inside the Capitol and taken to jail, and nobody noticed. read more

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Kerry's Sense of Timing

By David Swanson

As police officers were torturing a University of Florida student with a taser in the back of a lecture hall as punishment for asking inconvenient questions of Senator John Kerry, the Senator chose not to order them to stop. Rather he calmly mumbled his non-answers to the questions and even joked about the young man’s inability to come up on stage. Later, Kerry posted a statement on his website in which he chose not to answer the student’s questions in a serious way, read more

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