Disclosure Laws Needed to Inform the Willfully Ignorant

By David Swanson

While new disclosure laws on corporate political spending are not needed to see the forest, they may be required for seeing the trees. Knowing which corporations funded what won’t, on its own, end or reduce the corruption. And the big picture of corporate spending cannot easily be hidden. Already, pre-Citizens United, it dominated Washington. And the threat alone of massively increased spending is corrupting Washington further already. But those who, for various reasons, read more

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Senators Versus Students

By David Swanson

As long as we’re going to dump most of our money into wars and the military and Wall Street and health insurance bailouts, students are going to have to go into debt to afford college. But it would cost the students less and the government less, if private companies were not permitted to act as middlemen profiting off public loans to students.

One of the companies so profiting, Sallie Mae, is based here in Virginia and funnels millions of dollars from its profits into lobbying read more

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I ain't gonna buy mandated health insurance

To the tune of Maggie’s Farm

I ain’t gonna buy mandated health insurance
No, I aint gonna buy mandated health insurance
Well, I wake up and I’m coughing
Feel my sides and moan in pain
I got declined for operations
And it’s drivin’ me insane
It’s a shame the way we treat the working poor
I ain’t gonna be insured no more.

I ain’t gonna buy mandated health insurance
No, I aint gonna buy mandated health insurance
Well, it hands you a nickel
read more

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Get Your Deck of War Criminal Playing Cards

Click below to check ’em out and order a deck or two.  These are beautiful playing cards, a full deck of 52 plus a joker, information cards, and a box with directions for making a citizen’s arrest inside.  You can play any card game and, at the same time, learn a little about the top 53 U.S. war criminals (and what you can do to hold them accountable). Click here:

https://codepink.myshopify.com/products/war-criminal-playing-cards

This project originated 22 months ago when read more

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Congressman Obey's Path to Peace

By David Swanson

Congressman David Obey (D., Wis.) is the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He’s in charge of spending our money. For years he spent it on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without any resistance.  Until last October, Obey maintained that spending hundreds of billions of our dollars on wars was something he just had no choice about.

Three years ago, 180,000 people watched this Youtube video, read more

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Every Soldier Has a Story You Don't Want to Hear

By David Swanson

Would the United States military lie about how four Marines were killed? Would abuse continue at Abu Ghraib after the scandal exploded? Any soldier you talk to has a story you may not want to hear. I recently had occasion to speak with two that were particularly troubling.

Part I: Snipers Dead in Ramadi:

Here’s a military report from August 2006 on how four Marines died in Iraq in 2004. Christian Lowe, a Marine Corps Times staff writer, tells us:

“It was supposed read more

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Why Hayden's Wrong, Why Pelosi's Lying

By David Swanson

Tom Hayden wants peace, but he’s sincerely mistaken about how to get it. He claims that Wednesday’s unsuccessful vote to end the war in Afghanistan makes ending the war less likely, and that the way to end the war is to pass a bill that would then have to pass the Senate and the President, a bill requiring an exit strategy, any exit strategy — it could be “redeployment” to Iran in 2038 or anything else.

I’m not against moving bills forward, even read more

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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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