A 900-acre mercenary training compound has been proposed for Shenandoah County, and a citizen group has formed in opposition: RockDem.
Is Michelle Bachman the new Virgil Goode?
Or is Tom Perriello the new Virgil Goode? He once told me he’d cosponsor EFCA, had his staff correct that to say he’d “support” it, and he now says he’s
War and Injustice News from Virginia Read More »
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.
Give Everyone Healthcare By Shutting Insurance Companies Read More »
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
An Even Worse Bybee Memo Read More »
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,
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,
The Wrong Torture Question Read More »
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
Torture Is Foreplay for War Read More »
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).
The International Criminal Court and a Rogue Empire Read More »
By David Swanson
Philip Zelikow may be best known as the guy who oversaw the 9-11 Commission’s utter failure to investigate George W. Bush’s criminal negligence in the lead up to September 11, 2001. He also directed the Carter-Baker commission on elections that led to the Help America Vote Act, which in turn led to the most high-tech but least credible system of elections yet devised and the dubious and disastrous outcome of the 2004 presidential contest.
Zelikow served on Bush’s
Zelikow Has Got to Go Read More »
