Peace and War

Wednesday night, please listen to these two wonderful programs:

The Mike Malloy Show airs from 9 p.m. – 12 midnight ET and will be guest hosted by Brad Friedman. I’ll be on with him live at 10:30 p.m. ET. Call in!

The Nicole Sandler Show on Air America airs from 11 p.m. – 1 a.m. (More about Nicole). I taped an interview with her this afternoon that will probably air at 11:30 or 12 midnight ET.

Both of these interviews are about rallies read more

By David Swanson

In May 2005 we launched AfterDowningStreet.org to publicize the Downing Street Minutes. By June we’d had great, if fleeting, success. During the following months and years, mountains of new memos and statements emerged on the Iraq War lies, many of them more damaging than the Downing Street documents. But increasingly nobody cared, because evidence of crimes was less interesting read more

WHAT: Four of the people featured in this report by Bill Moyers’ Journal in January ( http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01092009/watch3.html ) face prosecution for disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly.

WHEN: Monday, June 22, 2009, 9:00 a.m. ET.

WHERE: Before Judge Richard H. Ringell in the Superior Court of The District of Columbia Criminal Division, Courtroom 120.

BACKGROUND: On January 6, 2009, the first day of the 111th Congress, seventy people came to Washington D.C. from all over read more

By David Swanson

The congressional elections of 2006 and 2008 were almost universally understood as shaped by public desire to end the war in Iraq. Last month, when a war supplemental spending bill (another $97 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) was expected to easily pass in the House with bipartisan support, 51 Democrats sought to please their constituents by voting No. Tuesday evening, when the same bill stood a good chance of failing, 20 of those same Congress members voted Yes and read more

By David Swanson

If George Orwell could see this he’d probably curse himself for not having thought of it. We are apparently about to see wars perpetuated by an exit strategy. How is this possible?

Well, the way Congress actually ends wars, the “exit strategy” that forces the troops and mercenaries to exit, is this one: you stop funding the wars. That’s what works. That’s what the Constitution foresaw. But nowadays we talk about crafting “exit strategies” read more

By David Swanson

I just spoke with Keith Stern, communications director for Congressman Jim McGovern and asked him whether the report in Congress Now yesterday was true, that McGovern, who has been one of the most reliable members of Congress in opposing wars, would now be voting Yes on the war money.

Stern said: “That is absolutely untrue. We are trying to correct it. He is a No vote. We are asbsolutely livid about that. It could not be further from the truth. Frankly, the reporter just read more

By David Swanson

The executive director of something called the National Security Network, named Heather Hurlburt, offers — I kid you not, and that’s really her name, so try not to hurl — Six Reasons to Love the Supplemental and Celebrate Progressives in Government.

Hurlburt begins with her own warning not to vomit:

“Usually, there are lots of reasons for progressives not to love supplemental spending bills. And I won’t argue that this one is perfect. But before you read more

War And Peace

The majority in Congress in the past two elections has been elected to end wars. If you elect me I will put your money where my mouth is. I will vote against funding to support the continuation of foreign occupations. I will oppose any new wars of aggression.

I will vote No on every procedural vote to advance unnecessary wars and occupations. I will work toward the closure of US military bases around the world that are hurting our relations with other nations at great financial expense read more

To: True Majority, Moveon.org, Open Left, David Sirota, TPM, Campaign for America’s Future, the Center for American Progress, and Daily Kos

The following groups and individuals are working very hard to block a war supplemental bill in Congress that would fund the continued war and occupation of Iraq and an escalated war and occupation in Afghanistan: After Downing Street, American Friends Service Committee, Nick Baumann, Brave New Films, Jennifer Brunner, Brendan Calling, Buzz Flash, Cindy read more

By David Swanson

And now abideth funders, broadcasters, and party bosses, these three; but the greatest of these is the party bosses.

Everyone’s familiar with the corrupting influence on Congress of “campaign contributors.” Our system of legal bribery allows senators to openly tell us that single-payer healthcare is not “feasible” for people who want to get reelected, people whose campaigns are paid for by health insurance companies.

Most people are familiar with the read more

By David Swanson

Congress members know they were elected to end the war and that their constituents want them to follow through. Fifty-one Democrats recently voted against a war supplemental funding bill, knowing that the bill would easily pass. Now (because an IMF bailout scam opposed by all Republicans has been added to the bill) only about 40 Democrats need to vote No to block the war money. However, voting No when it could actually matter is very different from voting No for show only. We are read more

By David Swanson

On Tuesday President Obama proposed that any increases in federal spending on anything useful, such as healthcare or retirement security, must be balanced by cuts and savings to something else useful, such as healthcare or retirement security.

“The pay-as-you-go rule is very simple,” Obama said. “Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.” Except that it’s not so simple. Obama would make an exception to allow Bush’s tax read more

By David Swanson

The greatest war fraud is the funding of war by individuals who claim to oppose it and who vote against funding it whenever a bill is guaranteed to pass. On May 14, 2009, 60 congress members voted against $85 billion to continue the war in Iraq and escalate the war in Afghanistan, plus $12 billion more to buy the Pentagon airplanes it doesn’t want and related extravagances. Of those 60, 51 were Democrats. Some of read more

By David Swanson, http://afterdowningstreet.org

How many years have we pleaded and prodded and pushed and protested to try to find just one senator who would threaten to filibuster war funding for a war that many of them said they “opposed”? And now suddenly we have two senators threatening just that!  We may, in fact, see a filibuster of war money, proving that such a thing is physically possible.

And how many years have we demanded that the House vote down bills to fund wars that read more

By David Swanson

Illustrated by Michael Parenti

Kevin Ovenden contacted me. He works with British MP George Galloway — yes, this hero. Ovenden is currently in the United States helping to put together a convoy of, hopefully, hundreds of vehicles and people to bring medical aid to the besieged people of Gaza.

Americans are invited to take part. The cost of a plane ticket, a hotel for two nights in Egypt, and other expenses is required. I told Ovenden I’d like to go if I can raise the read more

The House is about to vote on another supplemental spending bill for continued and escalated wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re not accustomed to winning in our efforts to block war money, but the Democratic leadership has delayed the vote out of concern that we will.

Here are three reasons to join with the peace movement in asking your representative to vote No: This bill funds illegal read more

By David Swanson

President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo probably did a world of good. It was packed with truth telling and noble sentiments. But imagine how much more good would be done if all the best parts of it corresponded to reality.

If we treated people around the world with “respect,” would we continue occupying their nations against their adamant desires? If we truly “seek no military bases” in Afghanistan, why are we building them on such massive scale? And read more