Capitol
Hill Update, August 2007
 |
Congress
has headed home for the
rest of the summer. The
“Summer District Work
Period” is August
6 - September 3. It's
actually a great time to
set up a visit with your
Members of Congress. |
|
 |
Meeting
with Congress back home
Home office meetings
are very effective. You are
more likely to be able to
talk with the Member of Congress
in a district or state meeting
and their staff are often
very well informed (especially
in Senators' state offices).
To
read more: click
here. |
If
you do set up a meeting, be sure
to urge your Senators to cut funding
for the reliable replacement warhead
(aka RRW, aka New Nukes).
|
What
can we expect when they return in September?
A lotta heat and noise...
Hill,
White House Draw Battle Lines
Post-Recess Fights on Key Issues
Are Brewing
By
Michael Abramowitz and Jonathan Weisman
Washington
Post | August 3, 2007
As
lawmakers head for a month-long recess
tomorrow, Congress and the White
House are embroiled in confrontations
on multiple fronts, signaling the potential
for widespread gridlock when they return
in September on the war, the budget
and issues such as health care and education.
Despite
promises of bipartisanship, both sides
are drawing sharp lines over big bills
involving farm policy, energy and domestic
spending. Last night, the Senate, with
bipartisan support, approved a $35 billion
expansion of the State Children's Health
Insurance Program, shrugging aside a
veto threat from President Bush. With
18 Republicans voting against the president,
the 68 to 31 vote provided a veto-proof
majority. On an 83 to 14 vote, the Senate
also sent Bush a new ethics bill that
is tough on lobbyists but weaker on
one of the president's top priorities,
exposing pork-barrel spending...
...Democratic
leaders have clearly staked out their
ground on Iraq in preparation for their
return to the debate on that issue next
month. "The confrontation is going
to be historic in September," said
Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), who plans
to put binding troop withdrawal language
on a military spending bill.
 |
Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
The
headliner in this section
this month? A
bridge in Minneapolis.
A bridge that
just fell down. In the
middle of the day, in
the middle of the city,
in the middle of a war
that's sucking up... our
tax dollars, our young
people, our energies and
hope for the future. |
|
WAND
public policy director
Marie Rietmann says it
this way: "The thing
that makes me crazy about
this is that we can spend
$12 billion a month on
the ill-conceived and
disastrous Iraq war but
we can’t spend the
$9.4 billion a year for
20 years that civil engineers
estimate it would cost
to fix deficient bridges
like the 35W in Minneapolis."
|
|
Minn.
Bridge Collapse Reveals Brittle
America: Expert Op-Ed
Popular
Mechanics | Stephen Flynn
| August 2, 2007
Yesterday's
tragedy makes it clear that
the U.S. has been squandering
its infrastructure legacy by
turning a reckless blind eye
to critical upgrades, says a
national security expert, former
Coast Guard officer and senior
fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations.
The
fact is that Americans
have been squandering the infrastructure
legacy bequeathed to us by earlier
generations. Like the spoiled
offspring of well-off parents,
we behave as though we have
no idea what is required to
sustain the quality of our daily
lives. Our electricity
comes to us via a decades-old
system of power generators,
transformers and transmission
lines—a system that has
utility executives holding their
collective breath on every hot
day in July and August. We once
had a transportation system
that was the envy of the world.
Now we are better known for
our congested highways, second-rate
ports, third-rate passenger
trains and a primitive air traffic
control system. Many of the
great public works projects
of the 20th century—dams
and canal locks, bridges and
tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts,
and even the Eisenhower interstate
highway system—are at
or beyond their designed life
span...
|
|
A
Catastrophic Failure
By
Eugene Robinson | Washington
Post | August 3, 2007
How
can such things happen? How
can it be possible that one
minute you're driving home from
work, or riding in a school
bus with your friends or heading
to a baseball game, and the
next minute you're plummeting
toward the Mississippi River
as the bridge you're crossing
suddenly collapses?...
The
engineers' most recent survey
in 2005 gave the country an
overall grade of D -- and the
reason for the low mark, as
always, was that we don't spend
nearly what we should on maintenance
and repair.
Bridges
were actually deemed to be in
better shape than dams, roads
or the power grid. But the civil
engineers estimated that it
would cost $9.4 billion a year
for 20 years "to eliminate
all bridge deficiencies."
That's
not a lot of money in the context
of a $13 trillion economy. But
does anyone think we're going
to make infrastructure a national
crusade? Have the presidential
candidates been falling over
themselves to stake out their
positions on the oh-so-sexy
infrastructure issue?
Of
course not. Infrastructure is
boring.
Anyone who has ever owned a
house knows that every once
in a while you have to replace
the gutters, buy a new furnace,
waterproof the basement or insulate
the attic. But the tendency
is to spend your money on a
new flat-panel TV and let the
infrastructure slide -- until
something breaks, floods or
falls down. At that point, of
course, the repair will cost
twice as much as it would have
if you'd done it sooner.
In
the case of a deficient bridge
or dam, the added cost may come
in human lives. But given the
restraints that entitlements
and debt service impose on government
spending, given the astronomical
cost of the war in Iraq and
given the urgency of problems
such as health care and education,
it's inevitable that technically
deficient structures will go
longer than they should without
being repaired or replaced.
There
are more than 160,000 "structurally
deficient or functionally obsolete"
bridges in the United States,
according to the civil engineers'
2005 report. Of those deficient
or obsolete bridges, 43,189
are in urban areas. There is
no reason to think any particular
one is about to collapse the
way the bridge in Minneapolis
did. But now we know that the
theoretical possibility of sudden,
catastrophic failure is real.
|
Whole
Hog
JOHN FEFFER | August 6, 2007 |
Foreign
Policy in Focus
Early Sunday morning after a marathon
session, Congress put a blue ribbon
on the immense hog known as the
defense budget and declared it
a winner. Just before
going on their August vacation,
the House approved the 2008 defense
appropriations bill of $459 billion.
The vote was 395 to 13. With the
nearly full support of the Democrats,
the Bush administration is on
the verge of pushing through a
$40 billion increase in military
spending for next year.
Much
was made of the battle between
Congress and the administration
over this bill. After all, the
administration's request was
actually a few billion dollars
more, and the White House has
opposed many of the congressional
changes. In reality, the House
sliced off only the smallest
amount of pork -- less than
1 percent of the total -- and
redirected it to social programs...
Over
$450 billion: that's some big
pig. But wait, as the old TV
ads liked to say, that's not
all! The appropriations
bill doesn't include another
nearly $50 billion in defense
spending on the Department of
Energy's nuclear programs and
a few other items. And, of course,
there's the almost $150 billion
in supplemental spending on
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,
which will generate considerable
debate when Congress returns
in September.
At
$650 billion, U.S. military
spending is the highest since
World War II, outstrips what
the rest of the world combined
spends on defense, and outpaces
our putative adversaries by
at least 5 to 1.
|
 |
WiLL
at NCSL, August 2007
Georgia State Senator Nan Grogan
Orrock, WiLL President, greets
Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the National
Council of State Legislatures
Annual Meeting in Boston. Pelosi
highlighted the important work
of state policymakers, and noted
that 271 Members of Congress first
served as state legislators. Over
23% of currently seated state
legislators in the U.S. are women;
numbers have grown to 1733 of
7382 state lawmakers. |
WAND
marks the anniversary of the bombings
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
August
6 and August 9, 1945
“Polls
show that over one-third of U.S. citizens
don’t know that Hiroshima was the
site of the first atomic attack, with
the numbers rising to well over 40
percent among those aged 18-29."
- taken from Peter Kuznick's article "The Decision
to Risk the Future"
 |
This
August, the WAND family across
the country held commemorative events to mark the 62nd anniversaries
of the bombings of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
Thousands gathered to mourn the victims who died in mushroom clouds
of war; to reenact an ancient Japanese
ritual where paper lanterns
are released on rivers to honor
the dead and guide their spirits
home; to sing and listen to
poetry readings; and to unite
communities of peace who are
working to build a world free
of nuclear weapons.
Atlanta
WAND gathered for a vigil in
the Carter Center Rose Garden
on August 6, 2007.
|
 |
Seeds
of Peace Video
Poets, musicians, and dancing
flowers contributed to
a moving and lovely vigil
on August 6 in Atlanta. |
|
Susan
Cundiff, of Oregon WAND and
the national WAND board of directors,
is a creative and tireless activist
-- and a published author as
well!! The Oregon Register
Guard published a piece by her
recently. Here's a bit, follow
the link.
We
must resist the nuclear resurgence
By Susan Cundiff | Published:
Monday, August 6, 2007
...Deception
is present in the very naming
of the Reliable Replacement
Warhead. The term implies that
the current nuclear arsenal
is unreliable. Because our tax
dollars have been paying for
stewardship of our nuclear stockpile
and it is regularly certified
as reliable, it is hard to understand
why it needs to be replaced.
The Department of Energy wants
to simplify the design of current
nuclear warheads to make them
more efficient. The result would
be another class of nuclear
weapon that the department claims
it can replace without testing.
Will the U.S. military accept
such an untested weapon? Not
likely.
The
very act of researching and
developing a new generation
of nuclear weapons undermines
arms control and nonproliferation
efforts. |
Support
Basic Rights for All Women:
Urge the U.S. to Ratify CEDAW
From Amnesty International:
The Treaty for the Rights of
Women, officially known as the
United Nations Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) is the most complete
international agreement on basic
rights for women. As of April
2007, the Treaty has been ratified
by 185 countries.The United
States played an important role
in drafting this treaty but
now is only one in eight countries
that has yet to ratify it. Take
action here.
|
|
Notes
from the WAND News Bulletin
editor
Since
August marks the anniversary
of the bombings on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, it's appropriate
that this bulletin features
loads of news about nuclear. |
|
Of
course, it's also somewhat
painful. At a time when
we remember those bombings,
we also relive what actually
happened. And it is horrifying.
Not just the images; but
the realization that countries,
including our own,
are still building more
and more "usable"
nuclear weapons.
When
will we learn? From a memoir
about Hiroshima...
...I
felt the city of Hiroshima
had disappeared all of
a sudden. Then I looked
at myself and found my
clothes had turned into
rags due to the heat.
I was probably burned
at the back of the head,
on my back, on both arms
and both legs. My skin
was peeling and hanging
like this. Automatically
I began to walk heading
west because that was
the direction of my home.
After a while, I noticed
somebody calling my name.
I looked around and found
a friend of mine who lived
in my town and was studying
at the same school. His
name was Yamamoto. He
was badly burnt just like
myself. We walked toward
the river. And on the
way we saw many victims.
I saw a man whose skin
was completely peeled
off the upper half of
his body and a woman whose
eye balls were sticking
out. Her whole baby was
bleeding. A mother and
her baby were lying with
a skin completely peeled
off. We desperately made
a way crawling. And finally
we reached the river bank.
At the same moment, a
fire broke out. We made
a narrow escape from the
fire. If we had been slower
by even one second, we
would have been killed
by the fire....
|
|
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Hiroshima
Peace Culture Foundation offers
art display
 |
Knowing
too well the devastating
consequences of nuclear
weapons, the people of Hiroshima
want the people of the U.S.
to understand that nuclear
weapons must be abolished
and never used again. To
this end, the Hiroshima
Peace Culture Foundation
is planning to hold as many
atomic bomb exhibitions
as possible between now
and the end of next year.
The
entire exhibition, a set
of 30 posters, can be installed
in a single mid-sized classroom
or along a corridor. |
No
special equipment or security
is required, and we will cover
the cost of sending the posters
to the locations at which they
will be used. For more information
about the posters, click
here.
If
you are willing to hold a forum
in connection with the exhibition,
we will do our best to send an
A-bomb survivor (hibakusha) to
attend and tell his or her story;
we will pay the travel and accommodation
expenses arising from the visit.
For more detailed information
about this project, click
here.
|
 |
White
Light, Black Rain: The Destruction
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The survivors, called "hibakusha"--people
exposed to the bomb--are highlighted
in this new documentary by Oscar®
award-winning filmmaker Steven Okazaki.
In August and September on HBO. |
|
The
Soul of the Destroying Nation
Nora Gallagher | August 6, 2007
| Washington
Post
One
hundred and fifty scientists who
worked on the project signed petitions
that summer to President Truman
to try to stop him from dropping
the bomb on Hiroshima. They called
atomic bombs "a means for
the ruthless annihilation of cities
" and continued, “Our
use of atomic bombs in this war
would carry the world a long way
further on this path of ruthlessness."
Several
days after the bomb was dropped,
reporters asked Gandhi what he
thought. He said the atom bomb
“resulted for the time being
in destroying the soul of Japan.
What has happened to the soul
of the destroying nation is yet
too early to see.” That
question is what I have been turning
over in my mind since completing
this novel.
What
has happened to the soul of the
destroying nation?
What
happened to us as a nation on
August 6, 1945? Did the use of
a weapon designed to ruthlessly
annihilate whole cities contribute
to where we find ourselves today?
How did Hiroshima erode our sense
of morality, what we permit ourselves
as a nation to do? How did it
affect our fragile sense of what
is permissible for one human being
to do to another? Finally, what
is the connection between Hiroshima
and Guantanamo, Hiroshima and
Abu Ghraib?
|
Pontiff
Wants Peaceful Use of Nuclear
Energy
Calls Disarmament an Urgent Task
Zenit
| JULY 29, 2007
Benedict
XVI urged nuclear disarmament,
suggesting that resources thus
saved could be used to help the
poor...
...Benedict
XVI continued, "The epochal
changes of the last 50 years are
evidence of how, in the difficult
crossroads at which humanity finds
itself, the commitment to encourage
the nonproliferation of nuclear
arms, to promote a progressive
and agreed-upon nuclear disarmament,
and to favor the peaceful and
safe use of nuclear technology
for authentic development -- respectful
of the environment and always
attentive to the most disadvantaged
populations -- is always relevant
and urgent."
The
Bishop of Rome desired "the
success of the efforts of those
who work to pursue the three objectives
with determination and the intention
to make things such that the resources
which would be saved could then
be employed in projects of development
capable of benefiting all their
people, especially the poor."
|
Anger
in India Over Nuclear Accord
By SOMINI SENGUPTA | New
York Times | August 13, 2007
NEW DELHI— Simmering distrust
of the United States in the Indian
parliament broke into full-throated
protest today, as politicians
from both the right and the left
pounced on the government for its
landmark nuclear accord with Washington.
The prime minister, Manmohan Singh,
defended the accord as good for
India’s strategic and economic
interests.
The
accord, known as the 123 agreement,
would allow India to buy nuclear
fuel and technology on the world
market for its civilian nuclear
power plants. India would retain
the right to reprocess atomic
fuel and to continue to test its
nuclear weapons, two points on
which the government in New Delhi
bargained hard. In exchange, India
has agreed to use its existing
reactors strictly for civilian
purposes, to open them up to international
inspections, and to build a new
facility under international safeguards
for the reprocessing...
...The
accord has also drawn fire in
the United States, where critics
have said it carves out too permissive
an exception to the international
nuclear rules. They say
that under it, India could keep
advancing its nuclear arsenal
while refusing to sign the global
nonproliferation treaty.
|
|
Sen.
Dianne Feinstein introduces Legislation
to Cut Funding Of Reliable Replacement
Warhead Program and Require Administration
Review of U.S. Nuclear Weapons
Policy and Posture
From
her press
release of August 2, 2007:
“It
is clear to me that the Bush Administration
is trying to reopen the nuclear
door by attempting to speed research
into this new warhead. A thorough
and detailed analysis of nuclear
weapons policy and posture is
needed before Congress can decide
whether to move forward with this
program.”
“The
Administration’s white paper
does not change the fact that
in each of the past 11 years,
the Secretaries of Energy and
Defense have certified that America’s
nuclear stockpile is safe and
reliable. Nor does it change the
fact there is no new military
requirement to replace existing,
well-tested warheads – or
the fact the National Laboratories
found that plutonium pits have
life spans of at least 85 years.
The bottom line: This
Administration is pushing too
hard, too early for a program
with too many red flags.”
|
|
Council
for a Livable World Hails House
Anti-Missile Defense Vote
August 6, 2007 |
CLW
The
House rejected 161 - 249 an amendment
by Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) to
the Defense Appropriations Bill
to restore $97 million that the
House Committee on Appropriations
had cut from the National Missile
Defense program (ground-based
mid-course system).
Thirty-eight
Republicans joined 211 Democrats
voting against the amendment and
against more missile defense funds.
John
Isaacs, executive director for
Council for a Livable World, commented:
"National missile defense
has become less of a sacred cow
for the Bush Administration and
for Congress."
|
Administration
Urges Full Warhead Funding
Old Weapons May Need Testing, It
Warns
By
Walter Pincus | Washington
Post | July 26, 2007
The
Bush administration has told Congress
that delays in funding for a new
generation of nuclear weapons
may require a return to underground
testing to ensure that older warheads
remain reliable...
...Stephen
Young, a senior analyst with the
Union of Concerned Scientists,
described the secretaries' statement
as "an almost desperate plea
for support for the program, which
provides nothing that would justify
Congress funding it."
|
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Strategic
Reset
Report
| Reclaiming Control of U.S.
Security in the Middle East
By Brian Katulis, Lawrence
J. Korb, Peter Juul | June 25,
2007
The
Center for American Progress’s
national security experts have
developed a comprehensive plan,
“Strategic Reset,”
that provides the policy framework
needed to restore U.S. power and
prestige in the Middle East and
reset our national security priorities
on the real terrorist threats
to our country. Clearly,
it's time for a strategic reset
in Iraq:
Casualties
– and costs – are
increasing
- 3,644:
U.S. troops killed
- 26,953:
U.S. troops wounded
- $463
billion: Cost of the war as
of 2007
- $633
billion: Estimated cost of the
war by 2008, including escalation
- 160,000:
Number of U.S. troops in Iraq
The
situation on the ground is deteriorating
- 19:
Average number of daily attacks
by insurgents, June 2004
- 178:
Average number of daily attacks
by insurgents, June 2007
Americans
are less safe
- 1:
Iraq’s current ranking
among all nations as a training
ground for terrorists
- 83:
Percentage of Americans who
don’t think our presence
in Iraq is eliminating terrorists
who might attack the United
States
- 21:
Percentage of the 2007 U.S.
national security budget to
be spent on Iraq
- 8:
Percentage of the budget to
be spent on homeland security
|
|
“The
Septemberists”
GOP
Senators Are “Waiting for
Petraeus”
Available
online: Democratic
majorities in the House and Senate,
much of the American public, and
a handful of prominent Republicans
now oppose continued American
military involvement in Iraq.
As
support for the war evaporates,
casualties mount, and benchmarks
go unfulfilled, GOP senators continue
to cling to this single talking
point:
- General
David Petraeus is issuing a
progress report in September
and no decision can be made
until then.
In
order to hold GOP senators’
feet to the fire - to test whether
they are hiding behind words or
they are genuinely willing to
endorse a new strategy for Iraq
- Council for a Livable World
has compiled a record of The Septemberists’
positions on “Waiting for
Petraeus.” |
|
Analysis
says war could cost $1 trillion
Budget office sees effect on taxpayers
for decade
By Bryan Bender, Boston
Globe | August 1, 2007
WASHINGTON
-- The war in Iraq could ultimately
cost well over a trillion dollars
-- at least double what has already
been spent -- including the long-term
costs of replacing damaged equipment,
caring for wounded troops, and
aiding the Iraqi government, according
to a new government analysis.
The United States
has already allocated more than
$500 billion on the day-to-day
combat operations of what are
now 190,000 troops and a variety
of reconstruction efforts.
In
a report to lawmakers yesterday,
the nonpartisan Congressional
Budget Office estimated that even
under the rosiest scenario --
an immediate and substantial reduction
of troops -- American taxpayers
will feel the financial consequences
of the war for at least a decade..
|
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After
Reporting in Iraq, America Feels
Like a Bizarre Disneyland
By
Dahr Jamail, Tomdispatch.com.
Posted July 20, 2007.
After
years of witnessing the apocalyptic
violence in Iraq first hand, life
in America is "nothing short
of a schizophrenic experience"
for veteran reporter Dahr Jamail.
Recently,
the World Health Organization
announced that 70% of Iraqis do
not have access to clean water
and 80% "lack effective sanitation."
In
the United States I step away
from my desk, walk into the kitchen,
turn on the tap, and watch as
clear, cool water fills my glass.
I drink it without once thinking
about whether it contains a waterborne
disease or will cause kidney stones,
diarrhea, cholera, or nausea...
I
open my pantry and then my refrigerator
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