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Mission Accomplished, May 1, Three Years On

May 1 marks three years since George W. Bush staged his “Mission Accomplished” aircraft landing in San Diego Harbor and “delivered good news to the men and women who fought in the cause of freedom: their mission is complete and major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”

As of April 27, at 3:15 p.m. EST – 2,393 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq according to Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

The count of US wounded is around seven times that number, and Iraqi civilian read more

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Pacifica Radio to Air Congressional Iraq Forum Live

By David Swanson

I’ll be co-hosting with Verna Avery-Brown of Pacifica Radio a live broadcast on Pacifica from 8:30-11 a.m. ET on Thursday, April 27, of a forum on Capitol Hill hosted by Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee.
http://www.pacifica.org/stations

The forum will take place in 2325 Rayburn House Office Building (with an overflow room planned for anyone wanting to attend who can’t fit in). The two Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are continuing to do read more

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California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment

By David Swanson

Joining Illinois, California has become the second state in which a proposal to impeach President Bush has been introduced in the state legislature. And this one includes Cheney as well.

California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los Angeles (where the LA Times has now called for Cheney’s resignation) has submitted amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution No. 39, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney. The amendments reference read more

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A Living Wage Revolution

By David Swanson

April 22, 2006 — The first sentence of the top article in the only daily newspaper in Charlottesville, Virginia, today contains a remarkable analysis of the living wage movement: “The president of the University of Virginia on Friday acknowledged that students fighting for better pay for university workers have a valid case for change, calling the debate “revolutionary” in its shifting of the poverty burden from government to the private sector.”
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Congressional Hearing on Iraq Planned

By David Swanson

Congresswomen Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee will host a hearing on the Iraq War next Thursday, April 27, 8:30-11 a.m., in 2325 Rayburn House Office Building (with an overflow room planned for anyone wanting to attend who can’t fit in). The two Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are continuing to do what the “leadership” of both parties does not, respond to the demands of the majority of Americans, who disapprove of current policy.

Woolsey and Lee read more

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Iranian Irony

By David Swanson

“When it came to pinning the terrorist label on the Saddam Government,” Dilip Hiro wrote in 2004 (“Secrets and Lies,” p. 381), “all the Bush administration had to do was point a finger at the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO, People’s Mujahedin). An anticlerical Iranian group opposed to the regime in Tehran, the MKO, placed on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations in 1997, had located its headquarters in Baghdad since read more

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Iran Through the Media

By David Swanson

An AP article on Tuesday begins: “President Bush bats away talk of bombing Iran’s disputed nuclear sites as ‘wild speculation.’ But plodding diplomacy hasn’t borne fruit so far, and the administration is facing a hard truth: There may be no way to stop Iran from getting the bomb.”

Here we have encapsulated the most warmongering position to be found in the U.S. media. The reporter who wrote this, Anne Gearan, believes that Bush is lying when he read more

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Impeach John Casteen

By David Swanson

Presidents and Prime Ministers who most deserve to be ridden out of office on a rail: George W. Bush, Tony Blair, and John Casteen.

John Who?

John Casteen is the President of the University of Virginia. For years now, he’s been sitting on over a billion dollars while paying employees poverty wages. This past weekend he had 17 students arrested and hauled off to jail for sitting in to protest this injustice and to demand a living wage for workers at the University.

Rather read more

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May Day, Memo Day, Mission Accomplished Day

By David Swanson

The first of May is May Day, the real labor day, the commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre and the fight for an 8-hour day in Chicago – an American holiday celebrated everywhere except America. But the first of May is two other things as well in more recent but already fading history.

This May first will be the three-year anniversary of a flight-suited George W. Bush waddling across an aircraft carrier in San Diego harbor and declaring “Mission Accomplished” in read more

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How to Talk About Iran

By David Swanson

John Aravosis suggests some talking points on Iran, but I’d like to suggest some changes in bold.

George Bush has decided to use Iran as a foil to help his sagging poll numbers and to help Republicans in the fall congressional elections. I’m going to discuss why this is true, and what the Dems should do about it.

Iran is ten years away from developing nukes.

I’ll say it again, TEN YEARS away. And that’s not according to some peacenik liberal, it’s according read more

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