davidswanson's blog

Nobody wins this debate, and Greenwald fails to point out Kagan's right-wing tendencies, but Greenwald rightly points out, and Raskin agrees, that we just don't know much about her. This wouldn't be a problem if Congress could be expected to compel her to tell.

By David Swanson

Chris Hedges is one of the best, one of the most morally useful, writers we have. He's free of loyalty to political party or dogma. He knows war first hand and describes it without flinching. He's an almost ideal gadfly to our corporatocracy. But he has a hangup on religion that holds him back.

Hedges will tell you that he has no use for fantasies about life after death. He'll profess no interest in gods or prayer or a divine plan or anything of the sort. He's perfectly aware of what lies on the negative side of the balance sheet for religion (or what he would call institutional religion), how it trains blind obedience, how it diminishes the value of life before death, how it shifts responsibility from people to imaginary beings, how it divides groups of people who kill in its name. But when you ask what, then, lies on the positive side of the account for religion that justifies supporting it, Hedges' answers range from slim to silly.

"US Army UAS Road Map 2010-2035" (PDF).

Brown Bag Lunch Vigil for Peace -- May 19, 2010

VA's 5th District One of Over 100 to Hold Vigils Against War Funding at Congressional Offices on May 19th

WHAT: A mid-day vigil against funding an escalation in Afghanistan, bring your brown-bag lunch
WHERE: Tom Perriello’s Congressional Office 313 2nd Street, SE, Charlottesville, Va.
WHEN: Noon on Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Sponsored by: Progressive Democrats of America, WarIsACrime.org, Democrats.com, Socialist Party of Central Virginia, Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice, Food Not Bombs, Priority for Community Transportation, Joyful Dissent, Amnesty International, May Day RVA, Virginia Defenders of Freedom, Justice, and Equality

Print Flyer.

Join this event on FaceBook

That's the latest. So, do you think Congress will take that to mean it should FUND AN ESCALATION? Ask your rep!

By David Swanson

Tad Daley writes, in his new book, "Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World," that he would like his book to have the impact of "Common Sense," "Uncle Tom's Cabin," or "The Jungle." Yeah, buddy, what author wouldn't? But Daley has a unique argument for the moral necessity of sharing his goal and promoting either his book or others like it: our only alternative is the annihilation of all life on earth.

By the time you've read this book, you will in fact be persuaded that if others do not grasp its central points, not just tyranny or slavery or unsafe workplaces will continue, but all trace of humanity and every other life form in the world will be eliminated.

The New York Times recently reported that “some academics” assert that the Senate financial reform bill now under consideration is misguided, while others disagree. We strongly dispute the article’s central premise: that we don’t know enough about the causes of the crisis.

Many observers anticipated the calamitous effects of radical deregulation as it was occurring. Their warnings only rarely made it into the Times and other major newspapers. We and others warned that deregulation would lead to a fragile, highly-leveraged system of interconnected banks and shadow banks that lacked external checks either in the market or in the government.

That is why we are prepared to support an amended version of the financial reform bill under consideration now in the Senate. Contrary to the assertions in the article, the bill in the Senate, which currently has some effective features, can readily be amended to address key causes of the financial crisis. Here are some specifics:

http://www.worldcantwait.net

Email and calls are coming in today. Thanks to Anthony: "i don't know if i say this enough but ... World Can't Wait ROCKS!!!!!!!" and to Gene: "The ad arrived in my mailbox. It looks awesome and reads awesome... It's a great piece of work. Let's do some more!"

The statement, Crimes Are Crimes - No Matter Who Does Them, for which you donated almost $12,000, began appearing in mailboxes in The New York Review of Books on Wednesday. We will be posting comments from people whose names appear in the ad:

“It’d be easier to launch a Hellfire missile at a non-citizen than a citizen”

“Pattern of Life” Drone Strikes

"Senator Lieberman's Latest Constititonal Buffoonery," by Shayana Kadidal

D.C. District Council Today Unanimously Introduces Legislation to Limit Police-ICE Partnerships

It's not about "secret holds." It's about the filibuster.

Dems will be better off if Harry Reid loses

DOD Kicks Out Gitmo Reporters for Reporting Publicly Available Information

‘The Monster’ Testifies at Gitmo Hearing

Bernie Sanders Helps Obama Shield Fed and TBTF Banks From Scrutiny

Obama Administration Exempted BP From Environmenal Impact Statement

Number of Soldiers Seeking Opiate Abuse Treatment Skyrockets

Don’t Tell Me the Afghanistan War Makes Me Safer

Interrogator: I used false rape claim on detainee Omar Khadr
An interrogator at the Guantánamo Bay hearing for detainee Omar Khadr said he told Khadr about a false rape scenario.
BY CAROL ROSENBERG, Miami Herald
crosenberg@MiamiHerald.com

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- To get teen terror suspect Omar Khadr to cooperate, a former U.S. Army interrogator testified Thursday, he told the wounded Canadian a "fictitious" tale of an Afghan youth who was gang-raped in an American prison and died.

"We'd tell him about this Afghan who gets sent to an American prison and there's a bunch of big black guys and big Nazis," said the former interrogator, who was since convicted of detainee abuse and was identified in court only as Interrogator No. 1.

I realize it's not quite Friday yet, but I went ahead and gave my $5 Fridays five dollars to Woodstock International.  Why?  For producing the best newspaper I've seen in . . . well, ever.

You know the financial failures. Here come the increased drone crimes, now to kill unknown people in Pakistan in -- get this -- "self defense":

Al Jazeera English:

US to Expand Pakistan Drone Strikes

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been granted approval by the US government to expand drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions in a move to step up military operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, officials have said.

Federal lawyers backed the measures on grounds of self-defence to counter threats the fighters pose to US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan and the United States as a whole, according to authorities.

The US announced on Wednesday that targets will now include low-level combatants, even if their identities are not known.

Barack Obama, the US president, had previously said drone strikes were necessary to "take out high-level terrorist targets". . . .

Congressman David Obey
2314 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515-4907
(202) 225-3365

Dear Congressman Obey,

In recent years you've expressed your opposition to war spending. I'd like to encourage you to cap off your congressional career by actually refusing to provide the funding for the current escalation in Afghanistan, and by simultaneously introducing a bill to spend $33 billion on green energy jobs, including for former soldiers.

You know better than I do that the power to begin, end, oversee, and control the escalation of wars lies in Congress. That the president has gone ahead with the escalation unfunded cannot legitimate it, and those troops can certainly be turned around and be brought immediately home.

I just got 100 of these new stickers in exchange for linking to the place that makes them (see link in left column). So ask me for one when you see me. If there's a big demand, we'll figure out how to sell them or give them away. Feel free to take the graphic and make your own signs, decals, whatever.

Click to enlarge.

What good will THIS do?

NAACP Legal Defense Fund to hold
Annual Spring Luncheon & Conversation;
Solicitor General Elena Kagan will be the speaker

Washington, D.C., April 20, 2010 – The annual NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Spring Luncheon & Conversation will be held at the National Press Club on May 12, 2010, at noon.

Elena Kagan, Solicitor General of the United States, will be the featured speaker at the luncheon, which will also celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of LDF in 1940.

“Ms. Kagan has had an outstanding and exemplary career as a litigator, a scholar and an adviser to presidents, and we are honored to have her as our guest,” says John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of LDF.

Here is how low turnout is for Democratic primaries. I don't know if I can prove that it's because the Democrats HAVEN'T TRIED TO CHANGE A DAMN THING, but that's my leading theory.

Afghan & international youth peace volunteers say that
“Love is How We'll Ask for Peace.”

With love, we ask the 2009 Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama to answer the Afghan youth peace message ‘Reconciliation of Civil Hearts’

We are a group of Afghan youth and college students who, together with international volunteers, wish to recover humanity’s smile.
In the midst of war, we wish for non-violence and ordinary peace and and end to violence.
To live.
As ordinary, dignified human beings.
To recover trust and hope. And smile.

Learn more.