Interview I Did With John Whitehead
Undoing the Imperial Presidency:
An Interview with David Swanson
By John W. Whitehead
June 24, 2010
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Democrats Forced to Cheat to Fund War
By David Swanson
The Democratic leadership in the House had to resort to an unusual and underhanded tactic to pass war funding Thursday night.
Congress has long tended to pass unrelated measures in combination with war bills, and usually some of these measures, such as funding schools, jobs, veterans care, or disaster relief, provide excuses for some “anti-war” Democrats to vote for the war funding. But including good things with war bills can lead the Republicans to vote No. When
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Tonight They Try to Escalate the War
Tonight the House of Representatives will try to vote over $30 Billion to escalate the war in Afganistan. Here’s how it’s expected to go down (thanks to Peace Action for some of this):
First they’ll vote on unemployment insurance as a stand-alone bill.
Then, following some unrelated votes, they’ll debate and vote on the Rule for the Supplemental. Rules are procedural votes that caucuses of congress members serious about blocking something
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The Nonbinding Resolution of Independence
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 2010
The unanimous Declaration of the fifty united States of America, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, Guantanamo Bay, Assorted Offshore Oil Rigs, and the U.S. Servicemen and Women serving the Homeland in 177 nations around the globe, as drafted by the President
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to bomb the bejesus out of another people and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and hegemonic station to which the Laws
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War Opposition Grows
By David Swanson
Among the many national organizations opposing further war funding are these: AfterDowningStreet / WarIsACrime.org, Alternet, The American Friends Service Committee, American Homeless Society, The Backbone Campaign, Brave New Films / Rethink Afghanistan, BuzzFlash, Calitics, Campaign Corner: A Home for Progressive Populist Candidates, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, CODE PINK, Consumers for Peace, Democrats.com, The Democratic Activist, Down With Tyranny, End US Wars, FireDogLake,
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War Escalation Funding Slated for This Week in House
It’s still not clear how they’ll try to do it, but it is clear that our pressure is being felt.
The House majority whip asked Democrats how they would vote on the war escalation funding alone and on it in combination with useful, sane legislation. It appears likely that more than 40 Democrats said they would vote No in either case. If so, that’s an accomplishment to take into consideration and build on, even if the Democratic leadership manages
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War Escalation Funding Fight This Week
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who will openly tell you he does whatever President Obama and Speaker Pelosi instruct, can bring the war escalation funding to the House floor despite the opposition of Appropriations Chairman David Obey. This is because the House passed the bill without the war escalation funding and sent it to the Senate, which has now sent it back to the House.
The current plan is to pass a single bill that includes both the war money and some lipstick (disaster relief, etc.).
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Bruce Fein Schools Henry Kissinger
By David Swanson
Bruce Fein concludes his new book, “American Empire: Before the Fall,” by demolishing the worldview of Henry Kissinger as expressed in a Washington Post column last year. Of course it’s also the worldview of the Washington Post and most of its readers. We must continue wars to save face. We must imagine we can win wars because facing defeat is too painful. We
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End Vietghanistan This Week
End Vietghanistan This Week
Little known secret: if the U.S. House of Representatives stops funding a war, or any other crime, neither the Senate nor the President nor the military can continue the killing. The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, David Obey, can single-handedly block funding to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and currently he is doing so by refusing to advance it unless schools and jobs are funded. Call him every
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Video from USSF: Who Decides About War?
Who Decides About War?
WhoDecidesAboutWar.org
National Conference on War Powers, Law, and Democracy
October 2-3, 2009
Washington D.C.
Who decides about war and peace? Congress? The President? The Courts? The People?
What kind of national defense should the U.S. have? What type of military?
"Who Decides About War" will be a national conference confronting essential questions raised by the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These questions are timely,
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The Crime of Our Time: Congress Still Debating Whether to Slightly Regulate Financial Felons
I just read Danny Schechter’s latest, “The Crime of Our Time,” which ads to his latest film, “Plunder,” and a series of related books.
It’s useful to remember that Congress and the presidents bailed out with our money people who appear guilty of serious crimes, and is now debating whether to slightly regulate their ongoing crimes, but criminal prosecutions are still not flowing down like waters into Wall Street.
Schechter’s
$5 Friday: Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
Want to end killing by militaries or resisters or terrorists or robbers or angry spouses or disgruntled former employees and former home owners?
Want to use something other than killing people to solve our problems?
Then we have to join the civilized world, which has ceased to publicly teach that killing is good by doing it through government (except when aiding in our wars).
Support VAPD. I just gave them $5. Can you?
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Grayson With Ratigan: Best Interview Ever
By David Swanson
The video embeded at the bottom of this article and posted on the frontpage of http://congressmanwithguts.com may be the best corporate television interview ever. Not the funniest or most entertaining, but the most willing to directly and clearly expose the most forbidden topics and insist on the most needed changes in perspective.
The CongressmanWithGuts website is Congressman Alan Grayson’s public and participatory demonstration of a simple fact that should be made
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Teachers or Wars, We Can’t Fund Both
The National Education Association Peace and Justice Caucus has joined 110 other organizations and congressional candidates in opposing any more funding of foreign wars. While the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has stalled further war escalation funding until Congress funds teachers, teachers themselves do not want the war escalation funded at all, and certainly not with school funding used as pretty packaging on the same piece of legislation.
Eighty-four congressional candidates
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Hoyer Can't Handle Questions
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer spoke Tuesday morning in a large private room (the Columbus Room) at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and took questions. He had no answers for the questions I put to him.
Hoyer’s topic was fiscal responsibility, and he said that his proposals — which were all pure vagueness — would be appropriate to enact “as soon as the economy is fully recovered.” Don’t hold your breath.
Hoyer, as is the custom, bragged about cutting and trying
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Repeal DADT or AUMF?
By David Swanson
Over the past half century we’ve made tremendous progress while sliding backwards quite destructively. The progress has come in our domestic relations. We do unbelievably better (not perfectly by any means, but radically better than 50 years ago) at treating people decently even if they aren’t white, male, Protestant, educated, handsome, or even heterosexual (there’s still particularly room for improvement on that last one). This progress has drastically improved
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An Easy Way to Dramatically Change Congress
By David Swanson
There are lots of ways to change Congress that falsely appear easy, that would alter the rules and patterns of behavior if only Congress were already fixed and willing to make the changes, or if we owned the television networks, or if people could suddenly hear what they’re paid good money never to hear. But I’ve got a way to change Congress that is actually easy.
Congress lacks leadership. There is a progressive caucus, but it has never fought for anything. It doesn’t
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Pre-Oil Pelicans
By David Swanson
Way back in January, the ocean was still ocean, oil still oil, and combining the two had not yet occurred to us. The Conch Republic, the Florida Keys, was — in retrospect — a secure and pristine paradise.
The danger was of sunburn, not of crude oil on your skin or toxic chemicals in the air you breathed.
While I was there with my family, we enjoyed the sand, sun, and sea. But we wanted to see more pelicans. We wanted to see lots of pelicans.
So we
We Need ACORN
By David Swanson
Much of this country believes that ACORN, the now defunct Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, supported prostitution, engaged in voter fraud, and caused the subprime lending crisis. Some people are aware that these lies have been more solidly disproven than Saddam Hussein’s friendship with Al Qaeda. The Government Accountability Office has now joined a former Massachusetts attorney general, a federal court ruling, and the Congressional Research Service