Peace and War

By David Swanson

The latest hardcopy newsletter from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities opens with an article about poetry about war, which opens with this line: “Many of my favorite poets are soldiers.” The author begins with a poet who “has served in the current war in Iraq.” Served what we are not told. Then she jumps to Virgil and declares:

“Neither Virgil nor Turner gives us answers to war: they know the questions are more important, and likely answerable read more

By David Swanson

The U.S. corporate media pronounces our nation a “democracy” so frequently that sometimes its spokespeople stumble. They can’t be unaware that virtually every act of Congress diverges significantly from what the majority of Americans favor. Yet the assumption that somehow the government must follow public opinion creeps in, creating this sort of comedy:

“The only way [war] funding will continue much longer is if Republicans take control of Congress this read more

Podcast: Play in new window

Source

I know it’s not still Friday. In fact, it’s Monday. I admit that. But Thursday night they funded a war escalation, and Friday was devoted to unsuccessful efforts to point that out to people. The weekend was needed for reviewing what we should have done differently and should next time. So, here it is Monday, and the only logical thing to do is to turn to states, and away from Washington. So, here’s one of the best state-level campaigns, reproducable in almost any state:

read more

By David Swanson

The peace movement has made significant progress in the United States since its low point of late 2008, and just about everything anyone in it has done has been a contribution. If everyone keeps doing what they’re doing, and more of it, we might just end some wars, eventually. But I think some techniques are working better than others, and that pursuing the most strategic approaches would make victory likelier sooner and longer-lasting when it comes.

I think the peace movement read more

By David Swanson

The Democratic leadership in the House had to resort to an unusual and underhanded tactic to pass war funding Thursday night.

Congress has long tended to pass unrelated measures in combination with war bills, and usually some of these measures, such as funding schools, jobs, veterans care, or disaster relief, provide excuses for some “anti-war” Democrats to vote for the war funding. But including good things with war bills can lead the Republicans to vote No. When read more

Tonight the House of Representatives will try to vote over $30 Billion to escalate the war in Afganistan.  Here’s how it’s expected to go down (thanks to Peace Action for some of this):

First they’ll vote on unemployment insurance as a stand-alone bill.

Then, following some unrelated votes, they’ll debate and vote on the Rule for the Supplemental.  Rules are procedural votes that caucuses of congress members serious about blocking something read more

By David Swanson

Among the many national organizations opposing further war funding are these: AfterDowningStreet / WarIsACrime.org, Alternet, The American Friends Service Committee, American Homeless Society, The Backbone Campaign, Brave New Films / Rethink Afghanistan, BuzzFlash, Calitics, Campaign Corner: A Home for Progressive Populist Candidates, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, CODE PINK, Consumers for Peace, Democrats.com, The Democratic Activist, Down With Tyranny, End US Wars, FireDogLake, read more

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who will openly tell you he does whatever President Obama and Speaker Pelosi instruct, can bring the war escalation funding to the House floor despite the opposition of Appropriations Chairman David Obey. This is because the House passed the bill without the war escalation funding and sent it to the Senate, which has now sent it back to the House.

The current plan is to pass a single bill that includes both the war money and some lipstick (disaster relief, etc.). read more

WarIsACrime.org

End Vietghanistan This Week

Little known secret: if the U.S. House of Representatives stops funding a war, or any other crime, neither the Senate nor the President nor the military can continue the killing.  The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, David Obey, can single-handedly block funding to escalate the war in Afghanistan, and currently he is doing so by refusing to advance it unless schools and jobs are funded.  Call him every read more

Who Decides About War?
WhoDecidesAboutWar.org

National Conference on War Powers, Law, and Democracy
October 2-3, 2009
Washington D.C.

Who decides about war and peace? Congress? The President? The Courts? The People?

What kind of national defense should the U.S. have? What type of military?

REGISTER NOW

"Who Decides About War" will be a national conference confronting essential questions raised by the U.S. invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These questions are timely, read more

By David Swanson

The video embeded at the bottom of this article and posted on the frontpage of http://congressmanwithguts.com may be the best corporate television interview ever. Not the funniest or most entertaining, but the most willing to directly and clearly expose the most forbidden topics and insist on the most needed changes in perspective.

The CongressmanWithGuts website is Congressman Alan Grayson’s public and participatory demonstration of a simple fact that should be made read more