It's National Nancy Off the Table Day

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By David Swanson

That’s right, children, it’s national Nancy Day, honoring the occasion on May 7, 2006, when Nancy Pelosi first allowed Tim Russert to badger her into agreeing that she wouldn’t permit the impeachment of Saint George or Father Dick, not even if they barbequed children on the White House lawn.

The right honorable Republican National Committee had just sent out a press release reading, roughly, as follows: “Skin me, Miss Nancy, snatch out my eyeballs, t’ar read more

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An Even Worse Bybee Memo

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Jay Bybee wrote another memo that nobody has noticed, one purporting to authorize crimes far worse than torture, the same crimes the torture was itself intended to create false justifications for. On October 23, 2002, Assistant Attorney General Bybee signed a 48-page memo to the “counsel to the president” (Alberto Gonzales) titled “Authority of the President Under Domestic and International Law to Use Military read more

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Give Everyone Healthcare By Shutting Insurance Companies

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By David Swanson

Our nation has more money than any other, more weapons than all the others combined, and a majority of its citizens believing it is, in some undefined sense, superior. But the people who live in the United States trail many other nations in basic measures of health and well-being. Almost uniquely among wealthy nations, we leave tens of millions of our citizens without health coverage, and many times that number with insufficient — albeit expensive — health insurance. read more

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Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union by David Swanson

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Book Can Now Be Ordered, Book Tour Being Planned

You can now pre-order my book at Amazon.com at http://tinyurl.com/daybreakbook

It’s a thick book containing everything I know – and then some – for $10 (pre-order discount price).  And you can support a good cause by pre-ordering it now.

You can also call or visit your local bookstore right now and ask them to be sure to stock the book.

If you’re in California, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Mexico, read more

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The Wrong Torture Question

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By David Swanson

When Americans get “ethical” these days they ponder the great moral mysteries, like “Is public health coverage fair to insurance companies?” or “If we increase the military budget but reduce one section of it, can the whole world still be safe?” or “Would you still oppose torture if it worked?”

Let me suggest a few reasons why I think that last question is the wrong one.

First, torture DID work. It forced false agreement with war lies, read more

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The International Criminal Court and a Rogue Empire

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By David Swanson

One of the best books published in Canada last year is one of the best books published in the United States thus far this year: “The Sun Climbs Slow: The International Criminal Court and the Struggle for Justice,” by Erna Paris.

It’s appropriate for this story to come to us from our northern neighbor. This is largely a history of the development of international law, culminating in the surprising success of the creation of an international criminal court (ICC). read more

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Torture Is Foreplay for War

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By David Swanson

When did recent U.S. torture begin on a major scale? When September 11, 2001, provided a weak excuse to attack Iraq, an excuse that would need some bolstering. When did Bybee send the CIA a recipe for torturing Abu Zubaydah? A week after the Downing Street meeting. When did our government waterboard Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times? The same month the bombs destroyed Baghdad. When did the intense torturing of key figures stop, although the routine torturing of thousands of read more

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