LAWRENCE S. WITTNER -“World military spending reached a record $1,738 billion in 2011 — an increase of $138 billion over the previous year. The United States accounted for 41 percent of that, or $711 billion.”
Category: April 2012
Drone Activist Denied Visa
SHAHZAD AKBAR – The drone campaign, which continues to be conducted without oversight and accountability, is documented to have taken a horrendous toll on the civilian population of these regions, the magnitude of which has only come to light through the efforts of grassroots activists such as Akbar.
Backward Glance and Some Advice for Dick Cheney
CRAIG CLINE – Former Vice President Dick Cheney is the fortunate beneficiary of a heart transplant. I hope his new heart has more compassion than his old one did.
Victory Against ALEC – Objectionable Task Force Ends
NANCY SCOLA – Public Safety and Elections was not quite a rogue unit, it was a distraction. Today’s release from ALEC was titled ‘ALEC Sharpens Focus,’ and the theme continued in its body, which said the group was recommitting to its ‘efforts on the economic front, a priority that has been the hallmark of out organization for decades.’
Tax Time and Time to Re-Imagine Our Broken Food System
DR. WILL TUTTLE – “organic foods are not only not subsidized, but organic growers are actually penalized by being forced to pay large amounts of money to have their products certified as organic”
The Tyranny of Freedom
WILLIAM DERESIEWICZ – Freedom has become the be-all and the end-all of our political expectation, the full meaning of the American experiment. Justice is gone, and even more conspicuously banished is that term of terms for movements from abolitionism to feminism, for Lincoln and King: equality.
Vermont Senate Votes to Amend Ending Corporate Personhood
MOVE TO AMEND – Vermont is poised to become the first state to call for an amendment to abolish the doctrine known as “Corporate Personhood†which gives corporations constitutional rights meant to protect people.
Lawsuit Challenges Steens Mtn. Wind Project
PUBLIC NEWS SERVICE – The project would dissect land protected by Congress in 2000. Brent Fenty, executive director of the Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA), says going to court was a last resort.
Thinking the Unthinkable on Iran
EDITOR’S NOTE – This article adds to the peace movement’s usual analysis, which views control of oil supplies as the driving force behind U.S. policy toward Iran, the notion that nuclear nonproliferation might actually be the prime objective. Whether or not you believe that nonproliferation is the most important aspect, it is reasonable to believe that it does play an important role, as author Jonathan Schell maintains.
Why the 99% Spring?
GEORGE GOEHL – We live in an America where more than 46 million Americans live below the poverty level. This is the highest poverty rate since the Census Bureau began publishing such figures.
Is New Bill a Clampdown on Protest?
RUSS BAKER – Is the president being asked to pound yet another nail into the coffin of democratic expression? So say alarmist scenarios concerning HR 347 (the Federal Restricted Buildings and Grounds Improvement Act of 2011), now on the president’s desk.
Occupy Wall Street May Be Changing Wall Street Firms
KHADEEJA SAFDAR – The majority of marketing and communications executives at financial services firms said that Occupy Wall Street has impacted their business, according to a study…
Congress Needs to Hear No Iran War Message NOW
REBECCA GRIFFIN – Tell your representative and senators to oppose bills that bring us closer to war with Iran, and to support diplomacy.
No Justice Without Peace
BY DAVID SWANSON – We’ve done something worse than get our priorities wrong when we’ve moved resources to harming people rather than helping people.
Everyone Matters
BY KEN BUTIGAN – Larry taught me that everyone matters, and it was this primal lesson that consciously and unconsciously fueled a longing within for a world whose policies, structures and conditions reflected this most basic fact.