Capitol
Hill Update, October 2006
 |
It’s
looking like Congress will
return for a one-week session
Nov. 13-17; and then little
happens until the 110th
Congress starts.
Take
action here.
Try it! Really. Go ahead. |
|
|
NOVEMBER
7, 2006: YOU! YOU THERE!
GET OUT THE VOTE.
- Please
do all you can to make
sure you, and your friends,
and your family, are registered
and ready to vote on November
7, 2006.
Click here to register
online!
- Vote.
Find out more about the
candidates and the races
in your area, and vote.
Pollworkers
for Democracy
 |
Our
allies at Working Assets
have created the Pollworkers
for Democracy project
to recruit and train
a new generation of
activists to work at
the polls and make sure
elections run smoothly
and voters' rights are
protected. If you do
not already have a commitment
on November 7, please
sign up! |
Nationwide,
counties are experiencing
a shortage of people who
are willing and able to
work as election judges
and assist voters on Election
Day.
|
 |
SMART
Security is better security.
Act
today! Representatives are
going fast!
We’ve seen that the
traditional military
only solution is not
working in Iraq.SMART Security
offers other ways to resolve
our differences with other
nations. Ask
your Representative to co-sponsor
vital legislation. |
 |
Why
is this man smiling?
He's
remaking the federal budget
-- one dollar at a time.
Click
here to
take action!
|
|
 |
Notes
from
the
WAND
News
Bulletin
editor
We're
getting
new
estimates
on
the
cost
of
war.
Way
more
than
they
predicted;
or
even
we
predicted.
|
|
A
report
from
the
Congressional
Research
Service
estimates
it
could
top
$500
billion;
could
reach
$808
billion
by
2016.
Michael
Scheuer,
who
served
in
the
CIA
for
22
years
before
he
got
fed
up
and
resigned
in
2004,
believes
that
part
of
the
Al
Quaeda
strategy
to
harm
the
U.S.
is
to
cripple
our
economy.
The
way
to
do
this
is
to
engage
the
military
in
conflicts
in
many
parts
of
the
world
--
thereby
sucking
loads
of
money
from
the
federal
budget
and
hobbling
the
military.
Now,
billions
upon
billions
of
dollars
later,
comes
the
word:
the
military
is
hurting,
the
money
isn't
enough.
The
counter's
putting
it
at
$334
billion
this
afternoon.
Not
really
possible
to
put
that
number
in
your
brain
and
make
any
sense
of
it.
But
it
is
possible
to
add
up
what
we
could
have
bought
with
that
money
instead.
Here's
what
our
friends
at
National
Priorities
Project
are
saying:
The
Opportunity
Cost
Of
War
Dr.
Anita
Dancs
|
September
28,
2006
...that
amount
of
money
could
have
provided
health
care
coverage
for
all
uninsured
children
for
as
long
as
the
Iraq
War
has
lasted;
provided
four-year
scholarships
(tuition
and
fees)
to
a
public
university
for
all
of
this
year’s
graduating
seniors;
built
half
a
million
affordable
housing
units;
fully-funded
the
amount
the
Coast
Guard
estimated
is
needed
for
port
security;
tripled
the
energy
conservation
budget
in
the
U.S.
Department
of
Energy;
and
still
enough
would
be
left
over
to
reduce
this
year’s
budget
deficit
by
one-third.
|
|
|
|
The
Cost of Iraq,
Afghanistan,
and Other Global
War on Terror
Operations Since
9/11
Click
here
to read the
report.
Congressional
Research Service
report: War
Costs Top $500
billion; Could
Reach $808 billion
by 2016
According
to a Congressional
Research Service
(CRS) report
released September
22, when the
Fiscal Year
2007 Defense
Appropriations
Bill is adopted
this week, total
war appropriations
for Iraq, Afghanistan
and the Global
War on Terrorism
will reach around
$507 billion.
The
report estimates
that when all
funding is completed
for fiscal year
2007, the total
costs of the
wars will reach
$549 billion.
Monthly
costs for the
war in Iraq
are about $6.4
billion while
the war in Afghanistan
costs $1.3 billion
a month.
The
Pentagon's annual
war funding
rose from about
$73 billion
in fiscal year
2004 to $102
billion in fiscal
year 2005, $118
billion in fiscal
year 2006, but
is projected
by the Office
of Management
and Budget to
drop to $110
billion in fiscal
year 2007.
The Congressional
Budget Offices
also indicated,
however, that
there could
be an additional
$371 billion
in war costs
between fiscal
years 2007 and
2016. Adding
these additional
funds, total
funding for
the wars could
reach $808 billion
by 2016.
|
|
Defense
Contractors
Gone Wild
By
Matt Taibbi,
RollingStone.com.
September 19,
2006. Full article,
click
here.
The
ongoing bureaucratic
drama surrounding
procurement for
this project is
a kind of fairy
tale for the system
of legalized corruption
in this country,
in which taxpayer
money is basically
stolen and shot
into space by
an open conspiracy
of legislators,
defense contractors
and Pentagon officials,
colloquially known
as the "Iron
Triangle."
The F-22
project is particularly
offensive since
its cost -- $65
billion -- mirrors
very closely the
$50 billion in
"emergency"
cuts to social
programs congress
made last year,
ostensibly to
help pay for Katrina
reconstruction.
Many
of those post--Katrina
cuts are just
beginning to
hit communities
around the country
now. The state
of Texas, for
instance, recently
announced that
it may have
to lay off as
many as 1,700
employees because
of federal budget
cuts for various
social programs.
I was in congress
last year when
both the House
and the Senate
voted to slash
funding for
child support
collection in
response to
the Katrina
disaster; a
year later,
a state like
Texas will be
laying off as
many as two--thirds
of the employees
in its child--support
division.
So
what programs
was congress
protecting,
when it decided
last year to
take money away
from single
mothers, teachers,
Medicaid and
student loans?
Ladies and gentlemen,
we give you
the Raptor.
The
F-22 is a symbol
of everything
that is wrong
and stupid and
corrupt about
the United States
government.
Often called
"the Maserati
of fighter planes,"
the successor
aircraft to
the F--15 is
a defense contractor's
wet dream, a
preposterously
expensive and
extravagantly
useless hunk
of hi-tech metal
rigged with
every conceivable
luxury bell
and whistle,
a plane whose
brochure comes
riddled with
the kind of
hot and steamy
selling points
that pitches
tents in industrial
parks all over
the country
-- Mach 2 cruising
speed, stealth
skin, the most
advanced avionics
and software
package ever
invented.
But
there are three
basic problems
with the F-22...
|
|
Halliburton
Hearts Congress
Do partisanship and
cronyism trump congressional
oversight and corporate accountability?
By Frida Berrigan | In These
Times | Full article, click
here.
...Why doesn’t
Congress do more? Part of the
answer lies in the political
weight Halliburton throws around
Washington, doling out hundreds
of thousands in campaign contributions
and accumulating more than $1
million in lobbying bills in
the past few years. Since 2000,
the company has contributed
more than $645,000 to congressional
campaign coffers, with more
than 90 percent going to Republicans.
Their lobbying expenditures
are also sky-high. After spending
more than $1 million on the
services of firms like Baker
Botts LLP (as in Bush Senior’s
Secretary of State James Baker
III) and Vinson & Elkins
in 2004, Halliburton spent another
$372,000 in 2005.
Vice President
Dick Cheney’s relationship
to the company is widely known:
Despite almost no corporate
experience, Cheney was hired
to head the oil services company
in 1995, just a few years after
completing his tenure as Secretary
of Defense under President George
H.W. Bush. When Cheney took
the helm, the company was 73rd
on the list of the Pentagon’s
top contractors, bringing in
about $1 billion in defense
contracts a year. In part because
of the contacts Cheney brought
to the company, Halliburton
now stands at number 6, with
$5.8 billion in Pentagon contracts
in 2005...
Nonetheless,
the idea of a Truman-style investigation
into war profiteering is catching
on and gaining traction.
|
|
Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
Wow!
Poor women as the way
toward peace! How cool
is that?
I've been watching all
those Nobel Prizes go
to American white men
(medicine, economics),
not thinking much about
it.
|
But
then, the delightful
shock of the Nobel Peace
Prize going to someone
who values poor, rural
women, and sees them
as the way to ensure
lasting peace. Hey.
So cool.
From
the Washington
Post:
Yunus
was something of a
surprise winner in
a large field of nominees
that included diplomats
who brokered peace
deals in hotspots
like Indonesia's troubled
Aceh Province and
global celebrities
like U2 lead singer
and development advocate
Bono.
But
in awarding the $1.36
million prize to the
Vanderbilt University-trained
economist, the committee
said his work showed
that "even the
poorest of the poor
can work to bring
about their own development."
"Lasting
peace cannot be achieved
unless large population
groups find ways in
which to break out
of poverty. Micro-credit
is one such means,"
Ole Danbolt
Mjoes, director of
the Nobel committee,
said in making the
announcement at Nobel
headquarters in Oslo.
"Development
from below serves
to advance democracy
and human rights."
Our
WAND Executive Director
is delighted. She views
this as validating what
we've been saying for
years: women need a
say; people need economic
security; security is
more than a big military,
it's knowing you can
eat tomorrow and send
your kids to school
and survive a rainstorm.
Me,
I spent a lot of time
with poor women in third
world countries, and
I think it rocks. These
women face ridiculous
hurdles -- infant mortality
rates, hunger, lack
of education, repressive
regimes, domestic violence
-- I mean, it's real.
It lurks in dank rooms,
in bowls of watery soup,
in cloth diapers washed
by hand, in cheap plastic
shoes that hurt.
But
they endure, and they
triumph. They feed their
kids, learn to read,
sing together, sew lovely
clothes.
That
someone believes in
their majesty, their
intelligence, their
fortitude, and is working
to support them, is
wicked pissah.
And
yep, a damn good path
to peace. |
|
Celebrating women in Congress!
and supporting those on the run!
 |
In
Memoriam: State Rep.
Deborah Blumer (MA)
Deborah
D. Blumer, 64, Framingham
state representative,
died October 13, 2006
in Massachusetts. She
was a lifelong activist
who took great pride in
advocating for women,
children, peace, and social
justice. WAND and WiLL
will miss her spirit,
generosity, and courage.
Click
here to read the obituary
as printed in the Boston
Globe. |
 |
UN
Report: October 2006
Click
here to read full report.
by Sayre Sheldon, WAND representative
on the NGO Working Group
for Women, Peace and Security |
|
...The
U.S. seems to be working
hard to get Security Council
approval for sanctions
against North Korea. It
is striking that after
so much criticism of the
U.N., Bush and Bolton
are showing that they
need the U.N. now that
we are too tied down in
Iraq to take any unilateral
actions against North
Korea... |
|
Arkansas
WAND raising money for
Beacon of Peace and Hope
Little Rock, AR
- Lilly's Dim Sum and
then Some donated 10%
of the gross for the day
of Oct. 9 to Ark WAND
for the Beacon of Peace
and Hope. WAND held a
silent auction in front
of the restaurant all
day; you can see the auction
items here.
The
chapter made $2500 (possibly
more as a vacation house
stay was in such demand
that a third weekend was
offered). Attendance at
dinner was not as high
as expected, but the chapter
reports that a silent
auction (with quality
products!) is an easy
way to raise money. |
|
A
Gender Insurgency In Politics
By
David S. Broder | Washington
Post
October 15, 2006 | Full
article, click
here.
Dennis
Simon, a Southern Methodist
University political scientist
who has studied female
candidates for Congress,
has issued his statistics
describing filings for
2006.
He
reported last week that
women made up 16 percent
of the candidates running
in this year's congressional
primaries, an all-time
high and the ninth consecutive
election cycle in which
that proportion has increased.
The
total of 136 women nominated
for House seats this year
is only one fewer than
the record set in 2004.
And odds are good, Simon
says, that the number
of women elected will
be higher this year than
the 67 in the last Congress.
|
|
A
Political Opportunity for
Women
Advocates Predict Gains
in Congress and Push for
More Participation
By
Anushka Asthana | Washington
Post
October 7, 2006 | Full article,
click
here.
...In
fact, this year may prove
to be a major breakthrough
for women in Congress, according
to experts at the university.
Sabato's Crystal Ball, a
Web page that provides analysis
of House and Senate races
around the country, is predicting
that 2006 could be the best
year for women in 14 years.
In
a conservative scenario,
according to the Crystal
Ball, female candidates
would gain nine seats in
the House -- the largest
rise since the Year of the
Woman in 1992, when the
number of women in Congress
jumped from 32 to 54.
|
Longing
for the promise of spring
By Ellen Goodman | The Boston
Globe | October 13, 2006 | Full
article, click
here.
...I have lived
my whole life with the fearful
possibility of nuclear catastrophe.
I ducked and covered, held my
breath during the Cuban missile
crisis, felt the chill of the
Cold War, and the danger as the
nuclear ``club" counted up
to eight. We have dodged that
catastrophic bullet for so long.
Can we dodge it forever? To pay
appropriate attention to this
apocalyptic danger is to be paralyzed
in a nuclear freeze. To ignore
it is to whistle in the gathering
dark.
In
this autumn, this fall, I watch
my mother failing and watch
my grandchildren growing. They
are becoming joyful, caring
children in a world that is
rich with possibility and rife
with danger. How does every
generation hold danger in one
hand and joy in the other? Death
over there, life over here?...
|
|
Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
The
dawn of a new nuclear age?
May be.
|
|
However
you look at it, it's not
good news that North Korea
built and tested a brand
spankin' new nuclear bomb.
Odds are that it will spark
a new nuclear arms race.
So, are we back in the shadow
of the mushroom cloud?
This
map is from the New York
Times; click
through to their piece,
and to see the map in greater
detail.
|
 |
|
Restraints
Fray and Risks Grow as Nuclear
Club Gains Members
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID
E. SANGER | New York Times
Published: October 15, 2006 |
Full article, click
here.
The
declaration last Monday by North
Korea that it had conducted a
successful atomic test brought
to nine the number of nations
believed to have nuclear arms.
But atomic officials estimate
that as many as 40 more countries
have the technical skill, and
in some cases the required material,
to build a bomb.
That
ability, coupled with new nuclear
threats in Asia and the Middle East,
risks a second nuclear age, officials
and arms control specialists say,
in which nations are more likely
to abandon the old restraints against
atomic weapons.
The
spread of nuclear technology is
expected to accelerate as nations
redouble their reliance on atomic
power. That will give more countries
the ability to make reactor fuel,
or, with the same equipment and
a little more effort, bomb fuel
— the hardest part of the
arms equation.
Signs
of activity abound. Hundreds of
companies are now prospecting
for uranium where dozens did a
few years ago. |
|
Dear
Leaders by Molly
Ivins
Published on October 13, 2006
by Truthdig | Full article, click
here.
... I
know next to nothing about North
Korea, but I know how to find
out. People who do know the weird
country have been worrying about
it in print for six years now.
(See articles in The New York
Review of Books.) Eric Alterman
picked this bit up in “The
Book on Bush”:
“The
tone of [Colin] Powell’s
tenure was set early in the administration,
when he announced that he planned
‘to pick up where the Clinton
administration had left off’
in trying to secure the peace
between North and South Korea,
while negotiating with the North
to prevent its acquisition of
nuclear weaponry. The president
not only repudiated his secretary
of state in public, announcing,
‘We’re not certain
as to whether or not they’re
keeping all terms of all agreements,’
he did so during a joint appearance
with South Korean President (and
Nobel laureate for peace for his
own efforts with the North) Kim
Dae-Jung, thereby humiliating
his honored guest, as well.
“A
day later, Powell backpedaled.
‘The president forcefully
made the point that we are undertaking
a full review of our relationship
with North Korea,’ Powell
said. ‘There was some suggestion
that imminent negotiations are
about to begin—that is not
the case.’ ”...
Remember
Bush’s diplomatic interview
with Bob Woodward in which he
said, “I loathe Kim Jong
Il!” Waving his finger,
he added, “I’ve got
a visceral reaction to this guy
because he is starving his people.”
Bush also said he wanted to “topple
him” and called him a “pygmy.”
How
old were you when you learned
not to antagonize and infuriate
the local crazy bully?
Always
a top diplomat. But I warn you,
when Bush makes reference of this,
as in “my gut tells me,”
we are in big trouble. By any
measure, North Korea continued
to be more dangerous than Iraq...
|
|
Bush
Sets Defense As Space Priority
U.S. Says Shift Is Not
A Step Toward Arms; Experts Say
It Could Be
By
Marc Kaufman | Washington Post
| October 18, 2006 | Full article,
click
here.
President
Bush has signed a new National
Space Policy that rejects future
arms-control agreements that might
limit U.S. flexibility in space
and asserts a right to deny access
to space to anyone "hostile
to U.S. interests."
The
document, the first full revision
of overall space policy in 10
years, emphasizes security issues,
encourages private enterprise
in space, and characterizes the
role of U.S. space diplomacy largely
in terms of persuading other nations
to support U.S. policy...
...Nevertheless,
Michael Krepon, co-founder of
the Henry L. Stimson Center, a
nonpartisan think tank that follows
the space-weaponry issue, said
the policy changes will reinforce
international suspicions that
the United States may seek to
develop, test and deploy space
weapons. The concerns are amplified,
he said, by the administration's
refusal to enter negotiations
or even less formal discussions
on the subject.
Theresa
Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan
Center for Defense Information
in Washington, said that the new
policy "kicks the door a
little more open to a space-war
fighting strategy" and has
a "very unilateral tone to
it."...
A
number of nations have pushed
for talks to ban space weapons,
and the United States has long
been one of a handful of nations
opposed to the idea.
Although it had abstained in the
past when proposals to ban space
weapons came up in the United
Nations, last October the United
States voted for the first time
against a call for negotiations
-- the only "no" against
160 "yes" votes.
The
U.S. position flows in part from
the fact that so many key weapons
systems are now dependent on information
and communications from orbiting
satellites, analysts said. The
U.S. military has developed and
deployed far more space-based
technology than any other nation,
giving it great strategic advantages.
But with the superior technology
has come a perceived vulnerability
to attacks on essential satellites.
|
|
Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
So the evidence is mounting
that the Iraq war is just
a big mess. No WMD. No flowers
in the street. No link to
9/11. Instead, increasing
risk of terrorism. Violent
and growing insurgency.
Billions of dollars, thousands
of lives.
|
|
And
it's not just stalwart opponents
of the war who are saying
this. It's pretty much coming
from across the political
spectrum (save the White
House, where, increasingly,
we're to believe that the
State of Denial is going
strong).
In
September, the Republican-controlled
House Intelligence Committee
released an ominous report
about the terrorist threat.
Now
add to the chorus of voices
raised against the way the
war is going: Major General
John R.S. Batiste. A general,
a lifelong Republican --
you know, the kinda fella
you can't say, "ah,
he's just unpatriotic."
Here
are some things he had to
say while testifying in
front of Congress (for the
video and the transcript,
click
here).
Bottom
line, our nation is in
peril, our Department
of Defense's leadership
is extraordinarily bad,
and our Congress is only
today, more than five
years into this war, beginning
to exercise its oversight
responsibilities...
Donald
Rumsfeld is not a competent
wartime leader. He knows
everything, except "how
to win." He surrounds
himself with like-minded
and compliant subordinates
who do not grasp the importance
of the principles of war,
the complexities of Iraq,
or the human dimension
of warfare. Secretary
Rumsfeld ignored 12 years
of U.S. Central Command
deliberate planning and
strategy, dismissed honest
dissent, and browbeat
subordinates to build
"his plan,"
which did not address
the hard work to crush
the insurgency, secure
a post-Saddam Iraq, build
the peace, and set Iraq
up for self-reliance.
He refused to acknowledge
and even ignored the potential
for the insurgency, which
was an absolute certainty.
Bottom line, his plan
allowed the insurgency
to take root and metastasize
to where it is today...
Secretary
Rumsfeld's dismal strategic
decisions resulted in
the unnecessary deaths
of American servicemen
and women, our allies,
and the good people of
Iraq. He was responsible
for America and her allies
going to war with the
wrong plan and a strategy
that did not address the
realities of fighting
an insurgency. He violated
fundamental principles
of war, dismissed deliberate
military planning, ignored
the hard work to build
the peace after the fall
of Saddam Hussein, set
the conditions for Abu
Ghraib and other atrocities
that further ignited the
insurgency, disbanded
Iraqi security force institutions
when we needed them most,
constrained our commanders
with an overly restrictive
de-Ba'athification policy,
and failed to seriously
resource the training
and equipping of the Iraqi
security forces as our
main effort. He does not
comprehend the human dimension
of warfare...
The
critical issue is leadership.
All of the suggestions
I have made will not be
carried out unless the
leadership believes it
needs to be done. Given
the fact that the Secretary
of Defense has not acknowledged
the numerous, serious
mistakes made to date,
I do not believe it is
possible for him to provide
the leadership necessary
to succeed in Iraq. It
is time for him to provide
the nation the last in
a long series of services,
and step down.
|
|
|
Bush
Makes Public Parts of Report on
Terrorism
By BRIAN KNOWLTON | New York Times
Published: September 26, 2006
| Full article, click
here.
WASHINGTON, Sept.
26 — The war in Iraq has
become a “cause célèbre”
for Islamic militants, “breeding
a deep resentment” of the
United States in the Muslim world,
according to declassified excerpts
from a major intelligence report
that were released late this afternoon...
The excerpts from
the intelligence report pointed
to a spread of terrorist activity
globally for at least the next
five years and said terrorists
were adapting to the tactics used
against them. “If this trend
continues, threats to U.S. interests
at home and abroad will become
more diverse, leading to increasing
attacks worldwide,” they
said...
“The
Iraq conflict has become the ‘cause
célèbre’ for
jihadists, breeding a deep resentment
of U.S. involvement in the Muslim
world and cultivating supporters
for the global jihadist movement,”
the declassified document said.
“Should jihadists leaving
Iraq perceive themselves, and
be perceived, to have failed,
we judge fewer fighters will be
inspired to carry on the fight.”
From
The New York Times:
A
stark assessment of terrorism
trends by American intelligence
agencies has found that the American
invasion and occupation of Iraq
has helped spawn a new generation
of Islamic radicalism and that
the overall terrorist threat has
grown since the Sept. 11 attacks...
On
Wednesday, the Republican-controlled
House Intelligence Committee released
a more ominous report about the
terrorist threat. That assessment,
based entirely on unclassified
documents, details a growing jihad
movement and says, “Al Qaeda
leaders wait patiently for the
right opportunity to attack.”
The
estimate concludes that the radical
Islamic movement has expanded
from a core of Qaeda operatives
and affiliated groups to include
a new class of “self-generating”
cells inspired by Al Qaeda’s
leadership but without any direct
connection to Osama bin Laden
or his top lieutenants.
It
also examines how the Internet
has helped spread jihadist ideology,
and how cyberspace has become
a haven for terrorist operatives
who no longer have geographical
refuges in countries like Afghanistan...
In
early 2005, the National Intelligence
Council released a study concluding
that Iraq had become the primary
training ground for the next generation
of terrorists, and that veterans
of the Iraq war might ultimately
overtake Al Qaeda’s current
leadership in the constellation
of the global jihad leadership...
More
recently, the Council on Global
Terrorism, an independent research
group of respected terrorism experts,
assigned a grade of “D+”
to United States efforts over
the past five years to combat
Islamic extremism. The council
concluded that “there is
every sign that radicalization
in the Muslim world is spreading
rather than shrinking.”
|
| From
The New York Times September
27, 2006:
The
invasion of Iraq was a cataclysmic
disaster. The current situation
will get worse if American forces
leave. Unfortunately, neither
the report nor the president provide
even a glimmer of a suggestion
about how to avoid that inevitable
disaster...
[The
report] said Iraq has become “the
cause célèbre for
jihadists, breeding a deep resentment
of U.S. involvement in the Muslim
world and cultivating supporters
for the global jihadist movement.”
It listed the war in Iraq as the
second most important factor in
the spread of terrorism —
after “entrenched grievances
such as corruption, injustice
and fear of Western domination.”
|
|
Counting
The Iraqi Dead
By
Eugene Robinson | Washington Post
October 13, 2006 | Full article,
click
here.
The
Johns Hopkins team reports being
95 percent certain that the true
figure lies between about 400,000
and about 900,000 -- a large range
of uncertainty that some critics
have seized upon as discrediting
the whole project.
But
the exact number is not the point.
Rather, it's the scope and scale
of the carnage.
Late
last year President Bush gave
an off-the-cuff estimate of 30,000
Iraqi civilian deaths -- this
after the administration had steadfastly
refused to acknowledge even trying
to count the Iraqi dead. Now the
administration is willing to allow
that perhaps 50,000 civilians
have died. It is unclear whether
any science at all has gone into
these estimates or whether they
were essentially pulled out of
a hat.
But
quite a lot of science went into
the Johns Hopkins study.
|
 |
Don't
miss a new project called Lie
by Lie, at the Mother
Jones web site. A cleverly cross-referenced
time-line, it is in the process
of cataloguing all the lies and
manipulations of the Bush administration
on the way to war and thereafter. |
|
Running
With Honor
By
Emily Pegues | Washington Post
October 13, 2006 Full article,
click
here.
...There
is something inherently moving
about athletics because of the
courage required to be an athlete.
For me, this is also true of the
military. The daily commitment
and struggle that an athlete endures,
whether for the cause of a team
or simply to surpass one's personal
best, requires bravery and determination
as exemplified in the best traits
of the military ethos. A race
sponsored by the Army takes on
even greater meaning during a
war of murky beginnings whose
end is even more obscure.
I
wish with all my heart that everyone
in America, including President
Bush and all the elected officials
who called for war, could have
seen the soldiers and Gold Star
families I saw last Sunday. Perhaps
then they would have felt what
I did: awe for their courage,
heartbreak for their loss, and
gratitude for their willingness
to sacrifice everything they have
for our country and its citizens.
And utter moral outrage that they
have been called upon to do so.
When
you run alongside someone who
has lost a husband or a child
or a limb to the war, you are
confronted with their courage
and it literally takes your breath
away.
|
|
Retired
Officers Criticize Rumsfeld
By
DAVID ESPO | The Associated Press
September 25, 2006| Full article,
click
here.
WASHINGTON
-- Retired military officers on
Monday bluntly accused Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld of
bungling the war in Iraq, saying
U.S. troops were sent to fight
without the best equipment and
that critical facts were hidden
from the public.
"I
believe that Secretary Rumsfeld
and others in the administration
did not tell the American people
the truth for fear of losing support
for the war in Iraq," retired
Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste said
in remarks prepared for a forum
conducted by Senate Democrats.
|
|
Hidden
victims of a brutal conflict:
Iraq's women
Abduction,
rape and murder are the punishments
for any woman who dares to hold
a professional job. A month-long
investigation by The Observer
reveals the terrible reality of
life after Saddam
Peter
Beaumont in Baghdad
Sunday October 8, 2006 Full article,
click
here.
...Iraq's
women are living with a fear that
is increasing in line with the
numbers dying violently every
month. They die for being a member
of the wrong sect and for helping
their fellow women. They die for
doing jobs that the militants
have decreed that they cannot
do: for working in hospitals and
ministries and universities. They
are murdered, too, because they
are the softest targets for Iraq's
criminal gangs.
Iraq's
women live in terror of speaking
their opinions; of going out to
work; or defying the strict new
prohibitions on dress and behaviour
applied across Iraq by Islamist
militants, both Sunni and Shia.
They live in fear of their husbands,
too, as women's rights have been
undermined by the country's postwar
constitution that has taken power
from the family courts and given
it to clerics...
...After
a month-long investigation, The
Observer has established that
in almost every major area of
human rights, women are being
seriously discriminated against,
in some cases seeing their conditions
return to those of females in
the Middle Ages. In areas such
as the Shia militia stronghold
of Sadr City in east Baghdad,
women have been beaten for not
wearing socks. Even the headscarf
and juba - the ankle-length, flared
coat that buttons to the collar
- are not enough for the zealots.
Some women have been threatened
with death unless they wear the
full abbaya, the black, all-encompassing
veil.
|
|
Does
Bush Think War with Iran Is Preordained?
By
Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted
October 10, 2006.
War with Iran --
a war that would unleash an apocalyptic
scenario in the Middle East -- is
probable by the end of the Bush
administration. It could begin in
as little as three weeks. This administration,
claiming to be anointed by a Christian
God to reshape the world, and especially
the Middle East, defined three states
at the start of its reign as "the
Axis of Evil." They were Iraq,
now occupied; North Korea, which,
because it has nuclear weapons,
is untouchable; and Iran. Those
who do not take this apocalyptic
rhetoric seriously have ignored
the twisted pathology of men like
Elliott Abrams, who helped orchestrate
the disastrous and illegal contra
war in Nicaragua, and who now handles
the Middle East for the National
Security Council. He knew nothing
about Central America. He knows
nothing about the Middle East. He
sees the world through the childish,
binary lens of good and evil, us
and them, the forces of darkness
and the forces of light. And it
is this strange, twilight mentality
that now grips most of the civilian
planners who are barreling us towards
a crisis of epic proportions. |
WiLL
around the country!
(here, in Ohio)
 |
Laura
Boyd and Christina Cernansky
just returned from an exciting
WiLL media/message training in
Ohio. Many thanks for support
with logistics go to Rep.
Catherine Barrett and to Rep.
Edna Brown, Ohio State
Director.
WiLL Field staff are proud to
announce that we now have WiLL
members in all 50 states! Additionally,
our field organization plan of
State Directors in every state,
one from the House, the Senate,
and one Trailblazer, is 70% completed!
On September 7th, we conducted
the first national conference
call of State Directors and on
September 25th we launched a new
webpage for State Directors only.
WiLL is excited to announce that
WiLL President, Senator-Elect
Nan Grogan Orrock will
provide a plenary session at the
upcoming annual conference of
the Center for Policy Alternatives
to be held at the Capitol Hilton,
December 8-10, in Washington,
D.C. The focus of the plenary
will be the Common Sense Budget
Act, filed by Congresswoman Woolsey
in March of this year and currently
coauthored by 38 Congressional
colleagues thus far!
|
| 
|
Breaking
the Silence: Talking with Iran
"Though
the unjust judge was not swayed
by moral arguments, he eventually
tired of his stubborn ways. Why? Because the voice of the widow buzzed in his
ear incessantly, like a bothersome
mosquito. And
he realized it just wasn't in
his best interest to stay his
present course. Our
nation's course of action is even
less sustainable."
Click
here for more. |
| 
|
Words,
NOT WAR, with Iran: Religious
Leaders Speak Out
"While we
agree Iran should not obtain nuclear
weapons or support terrorism,
we come together as religious
leaders to urge that the U.S.
engage in direct negotiations
with Iran as an alternative to
military action inresolving the
crisis." Click
here for more. |
 |
GRANNY
D GOES TO WASHINGTON
to show on PBS stations nationwide
in October
For
a broadcast schedule: click here.
What
happens when an 89-year-old decides
to walk across the country to
demand that lawmakers clean up
their act? This movie profiles
the cross-country trek of political
activist Doris Haddock, known
as Granny D. |
 |
Think
Outside the Bomb Conference
in Santa Barbara, CA
October 20-22 - Apply
Now!
Think Outside the Bomb
Conference in New York City, NY
November 4-5 Announced! |
 |
"Iraq
for Sale"
"The story of what happens
to everyday Americans when corporations
go to war."
If you've ever suspected that
the Iraq war is about more than
liberty and apple pie... this
is the movie for you.
*More
about the movie | *Worldwide
screening week |
 |
"The
Ground Truth"
THE GROUND TRUTH stunned filmgoers
at the 2006 Sundance and Nantucket
Film Festivals. Hailed as "powerful"
and "quietly unflinching,"
Patricia Foulkrod's searing documentary
feature includes exclusive footage
that will stir audiences. The
filmmaker's subjects are patriotic
young Americans - ordinary men
and women who heeded the call
for military service in Iraq -
as they experience recruitment
and training, combat, homecoming,
and the struggle to reintegrate
with families and communities.
|
 |
"My
Country, My Country"
SHOWING
ON PBS Wednesday, October 25th,
at 9 pm EST
"...the definitive nonfiction
film about the U.S. occupation
of Iraq... it is indispensable,
heartbreaking, and ferociously
wise." -- Michael Atkinson,
Village Voice - March
22, 2006
|
IDEAS,
VISIONS, RESOURCES FOR
A BETTER WORLD |
 |
Sheroes
Calendar 2007
A calendar of womyn from all continents
and ages who have challenged exploitation
and oppression in their communities
and the world. |
 |
Working
Assets: first, if you're
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gonna have a credit card anyway,
so you might as well do some good
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Second, if you are a customer
already, please take a moment to
vote for WAND! on their customer
ballot. Thanks! |
 |
Be
part of a powerful community
of women and men leading our
country to a secure future!
*
To
join using a credit
card online,
click
here.
|
Don't
worry, we just moved it to a separate
page.
Click
here and you'll find out
more.
Don't
worry, we just moved it to a separate
page.
Click
here and you'll find
out all about what our chapters
and partners are planning for this
month.
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