Capitol
Hill Update, July 2008
 |
Something
to celebrate! No new nukes!
We
urged Congress not to fund
the Reliable Replacment
Warhead (RRW).
They heard us!
|
 |
This
is a significant victory.
Thank you!
On
July 10, the Senate Appropriations
Committee passed an annual
spending bill rejecting all
funding for the new weapon.
Read
more here.
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|
 |
Tell
the Senate to ban cluster
bombs
Cluster bombs kill and harm
civilians -- over 98% victims
are civilians. This is inhumane
and unnecessary.You can
help move U.S. policy in
the right direction by urging
your senators to cosponsor
the Cluster Munitions Civilian
Protection Act (S.594).
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|
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Tanker
Bidding To Be Reopened
Dana
Hedgpeth | Washington
Post | July 10, 2008
"Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates said
yesterday that the Pentagon will
hold a new, fast-tracked competition
to replace the Air Force's aging
fleet of aerial refueling tankers,
a move that overturns the previous
award of the contract to Northrop
Grumman."
|
| It
Takes a School, Not Missiles
Nicholas D. Kristof |
New York Times | July
13, 2008
“Mr.
Mortenson, a frumpy, genial man
from Montana, takes a diametrically
opposite approach, and he has
spent less than one-ten-thousandth
as much as the Bush administration.
He builds schools in isolated
parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan,
working closely with Muslim clerics
and even praying with them at
times.
"The
only thing that Mr. Mortenson
blows up are boulders that fall
onto remote roads and block access
to his schools." |
Time
To End Waste At the Pentagon
William D. Hartung with Sen. Bernie
Sanders | The
Politico | June 24, 2008
The
Pentagon’s procurement and
budgeting processes are rife with
problems. For example, the Government
Accountability Office has identified
$295 billion in cost overruns
on 72 major weapons systems, even
as the Pentagon can’t balance
its books or keep track of its
vast inventory. These problems
can lead to bizarre results, such
as the fact that the Pentagon
has hundreds of millions of dollars
in spare parts now on order that
are already marked for disposal.
Despite huge cost overruns, major
contractors have received $8 billion
in performance bonuses that have
been paid out regardless of the
results of their work. These abuses
of the public trust -- and the
public purse -- are simply unacceptable.
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|
Great
American Pie Campaign
visits Independence, MO!
Last
month, Bobbie Wrenn made
a trip to Independence,
MO and presented a 90-minute
workshop that focused
on the GAPC budget message
to thirty women at the
Church Women United “Ecumenical
Women’s Gathering
‘08”. Each
participant received a
set of our Faith Seeking
Peace curriculum;
we hope they will spread
the word to the community
on WAND's top issues.
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|
WAND
of Northern Indiana nurtures
authors! Who have produced
three new books
Jackie
Smith, Doloris Cogan and
David Cortright have all
written powerful books
that show us the way to
peace and justice. Please
order through these links,
and WAND will get a percentage
of your purchase.
|
| Michelle
Obama and Gov. Jennifer Granholm
event labeled as"girlie
show"
Media
Matters | July 14, 2008
In a July 14 Washington Times
article, staff writer Andrea
Billups characterized the tone
of a Michigan campaign event
featuring Sen. Barack Obama's
wife, Michelle Obama, as "as
much estrogenfest as it was
campaign rally" and later
wrote: "Even Michigan Gov.
Jennifer M. Granholm got in
on the girlie show as they campaigned
together." Describing the
event with Obama and Granholm,
Billups wrote: "[T]he economic
bantering did not begin until
after the two-term Democratic
governor offered a gal-pal fashion
compliment, telling the cheering
crowd of mainly black women
that while she and Mrs. Obama
had something in common as Harvard
Law School graduates, she would
not bare her arms in public."
Read the Media
Matters blog or
visit the Washington
Post to read Billups' article.
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|
Swearing
in the two newest WAND/WiLL
Women: Jackie Speier (D-CA)
and Donna Edwards (D-MD)
WAND
welcomes Jackie Speier and Donna
Edwards to the ranks of Congresswomen
endorsed by WAND!
As a state legislator in CA,
Jackie Speier authored groundbreaking
legislation in privacy and consumer
protection, child welfare, and
healthcare. Many of her bills
have become templates for other
state and national legislation.
We gave Jackie an award at the
WAND/WiLL conference years ago.
Watch her swearing in ceremony
on Youtube.
The Republicans booed Ms. Speier
when she said we should get
out of Iraq, and then Nancy
Pelosi asked them to leave.
Donna Edwards was officially
sworn in on June 19, becoming
the first African American woman
to represent Maryland in the
United States Congress. She
will be running for a full term
in November 2008, along with
the rest of the House of Representatives.
WAND got to know Donna when
she ran the ARCA Foundation;
we know she will be a wonderful
public servant. Watch Donna's
swearing in at Youtube.com.
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Voices
Too Often Missing In Op-Ed Land:
Women’s
Carol Jenkins | Christian
Science Monitor | July 16,
2008
As
long as editors can look in
their inboxes and see that the
men are writing and submitting
at a higher rate than women,
they can avoid tackling the
institutional imbalances that
perpetuate at the highest levels
of media. Women have a responsibility
to write and submit to the op-ed
pages, to be a part of the national
political debate.
Need
WAND's advice on writing and
publishing your own op-ed?
The National
Women's Editorial Forum
helps women get their voices,
stories and perspectives, on
all key policy issues of the
day, get read, get heard and
get seen. Contact them at forum@mediaforum.org
and tell them WAND sent you!
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|
Atlanta
WAND president voices her opinion
on health care for all!
Unions,
Groups Coalesce for Universal
Health Care
Jonathan Springston and Matthew
Cardinale | Atlanta
Press News | July 14, 2008
Krista Brewer, president
of the Atlanta
chapter of Women's Action
for New Directions, said the
money spent on the U.S. invasion
of Iraq could be better spent
on health care for all U.S.
citizens.
"A secure America…are
things like an educated work
force, bridges and levees that
don't collapse, and perhaps
most important… a healthy
population," Brewer said.
"Our system of health care
delivery is broken and needs
fixing." |
UN:
Finally, a Step Toward Confronting
Rape in War
Security Council
Takes Action to Identify and Help
End Sexual Violence
HUMAN
RIGHTS WATCH | June 19, 2008
The UN Security Council’s
new resolution on sexual violence
is a historic achievement for
a body that has all too often
ignored the plight of women
and girls in conflict, Human
Rights Watch said today. Human
Rights Watch applauds the council
for setting out in the resolution
a clear path to systematic information-gathering
on sexual violence. Until now,
the Security Council has asked
for information on such violence
only in selected cases.
“By finally recognizing
that it needs to gather detailed
information, the Security Council
took a major step toward confronting
the grim reality of sexual violence
in conflict,” said Marianne
Mollmann, women’s rights
advocate at Human Rights Watch.
“And that reality means
that every day many women and
girls will be raped.”
|
Jackie
Smith is a member of WAND of
Northern Indiana; her op ed
recently appeared in Voice of
the People
Maybe
Constitution is due for a review
Jackie Smith | VOICE OF THE
PEOPLE | July 12, 2008
The
recent U.S. Supreme Court decision
on the regulation of handgun
ownership suggests we may need
a new Constitution.
The
U.S. Constitution is the oldest
in the world. Most other countries
have updated their constitutions
to account for changes in technology,
government and international
law. Has our Constitution persisted
because of exceptional foresight
on the part of our nation's
founders, or because of inertia?
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|
Doloris
Cogan is a member of WAND of
Northern Indiana
Yearning
for democracy
South Bend Tribune | HOWARD
DUKES | July 6, 2008
Doloris Coulter Cogan didn't
go to Guam until 1951. Yet she
played a role in the island
moving from being controlled
by the United States Navy to
civilian rule.
Cogan,
a Nebraska native who now lives
in Elkhart, tells the story
of Guam's peaceful struggle
for civilian governance in the
book "We Fought the Navy
and Won: Guam's Quest for Democracy."
Cogan
believes the general public
and policymakers can learn a
valuable lesson from the way
the people of Guam worked to
end military rule on the island.
That's
why Cogan is trying to make
sure politicians get a copy
of the book. She presented copies
to Chelsea Clinton when she
came to Michiana to campaign
for Sen. Hillary Clinton during
the Democratic presidential
primary.
Cogan
also gave a copy of the book
to Sen. Barack Obama, the party's
presumptive presidential nominee.
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|
Thinking
the Unthinkable: A World Without
Nuclear Weapons
By
CARLA ANNE ROBBINS | New
York Times | June 30, 2008
Two decades later,
a who’s who of the national
security establishment —
George Shultz, Henry Kissinger,
William Perry and Sam Nunn —
is calling on the United States
to lead a global campaign to devalue
and eventually rid the world of
nuclear weapons.
None of these
men (two former secretaries of
state, a former secretary of defense
and a former chairman of the Senate
Armed Services Committee) are
given to casual utopianism —
or anything casual. They are trying
to shock sensibilities...
It is a measure
of how blasé Americans
have grown about such things that
the Shultz & Co. initiative
has gotten so little popular attention.
But the proposal has grabbed the
attention of the national security
establishment here and abroad.
An additional 14 former secretaries
of state and defense and national
security advisers have endorsed
the call (Mr. Schlesinger is not
on the list). The Norwegian government
hosted a conference to help develop
their ideas.
|
If
poison gas can go, why not nukes?
James Carroll | Boston
Globe | June 30, 2008
NUCLEAR ABOLITION
is for dreamers. That is the "realist"
assessment of the ever-slowing
movement to eliminate nuclear
weapons from the planet. Despite
treaty obligations to the contrary,
US planners take for granted the
permanent legitimacy of the nuclear
arsenal, and, therefore, the necessity
of enhancing it with next-generation
weapons. This assumption undergirds
the determination of other nations
either to maintain their nukes,
or, if they have none, to acquire
them. Here is what keeps the Iran
crisis simmering, and ignites
future crises with other nuclear
wannabes. Only a restoration of
the goal of universal nuclear
abolition as an achievable program
of realpolitik will avert coming
catastrophe.
A
model for such restoration is
right in front of us - the success
of the century-old movement to
eliminate chemical weapons. That
project has evolved so slowly
that it is hardly noticed. Yet,
with the full abolition of chemical
weapons in sight, it should be
celebrated as an astonishing triumph
of the dream over "realism." |
An
Uncomfortable Conversation about
Nukes
Conn Hallinan | Foreign
Policy in Focus | July 17, 2008
Why are Henry Kissinger, George
Shultz, William Perry, and Sam Nunn
writing opinion pieces in the Wall
Street Journal calling for the abolition
of nuclear weapons? Keep in mind,
these four people are not just major
defense hawks. People like Kissinger
and Nunn helped push through the
single most dangerous and destabilizing
innovation in nuclear weaponry,
the arming of missiles with multiple
warheads. All four have supported
every conflict the United States
has engaged in since World War II,
all have enthusiastically supported
nuclear weapons, and none has suddenly
gone kumbaya on us. |
Bush
fails to appoint a nuclear terror
czar
By Bryan Bender | Boston
Globe | June 22, 2008
...This
time, however, the White House
seems to be ignoring the nuclear
terrorism coordinator requirement
not for constitutional reasons
but simply because the administration
thinks it is a bad idea. It is
a stance some legal scholars called
an even more blatant disregard
of the checks and balances on
presidential power.
"It is one
thing when the president claims
it infringes on his constitutional
authority," said Phillip
J. Cooper, a Portland State University
law professor who specializes
in separation of powers issues.
"It is something else altogether
when no such argument is made."
|
|
Senator
Barack Obama: A New Strategy for
a New World
Washington, D.C. | July 15, 2008
"It's
time to send a clear message to
the world: America seeks a world
with no nuclear weapons,"
the White House hopeful said.
"As long as nuclear weapons
exist, we'll retain a strong deterrent.
But we'll make the goal of eliminating
all nuclear weapons a central
element in our nuclear policy."
Read the full speech
text or watch
the clip.
|
No
rush, please
New
York Times editorial | July
5, 2008
Three
years ago, President Bush offered
India a far-too-generous nuclear
deal. India’s illicit pursuit
of nuclear weapons would effectively
be forgiven. And for the first
time in 30 years, it would be
allowed to buy nuclear fuel and
equipment for its civilian energy
program from the United States
and other nations...
Mr.
Bush may be running out of time,
but Congress, the International
Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (the 45 nations
that set the rules for nuclear
trade) will need plenty of it
to review the agreement before
deciding whether to grant their
respective approvals. At a minimum,
they must insist that international
suppliers halt nuclear trade if
India tests another nuclear weapon,
as it last did in 1998. And they
must insist that India accept
the fullest possible monitoring
of its civilian nuclear facilities
by I.A.E.A. inspectors.
|
| Don’t
Drink the Nuclear Kool-Aid
Amy Goodman |Truthdig.com
| July 16, 2008
Sen. John McCain has called for
100 new nuclear power plants.
Sen. Barack Obama, in a July 2007
Democratic candidate debate, answered
a pro-nuclear power audience member,
“I actually think that we
should explore nuclear power as
part of the energy mix.”
Among Obama’s top contributors
are executives of Exelon Corp.,
a leading nuclear power operator
in the nation. Just this week,
Exelon released a new plan, called
“Exelon 2020: A Low-Carbon
Roadmap.” The nuclear power
industry sees global warming as
a golden opportunity to sell its
insanely expensive and dangerous
power plants. |
|
The
Iraq War Was About Oil, All Along
Alternet
| By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
| July 5, 2008
No wonder American
troops only guarded the Ministries
of Oil and the Interior in Baghdad,
even as looters pillaged museums
of their priceless antiquities.
They were making sure no one could
get at the oil except ... guess
who?
Here's a recent
headline in The New York Times:
"Deals With Iraq Are Set
to Bring Oil Giants Back."
Read on: "Four western companies
are in the final stages of negotiations
this month on contracts that will
return them to Iraq, 36 years
after losing their oil concession
to nationalization as Saddam Hussein
rose to power."
There
you have it. After a long
exile, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total
and BP are back in Iraq. And on
the wings of no-bid contracts
-- that's right, sweetheart deals
like those given Halliburton,
KBR and Blackwater. The kind of
deals you get only if you have
friends in high places. And these
war profiteers have friends in
very high places.
|
|
Gates
Warns of Militarized Policy
Defense Secretary
Stresses Civilian Aspects of U.S.
Engagement
Ann Scott Tyson
| Washington
Post | July 16, 2008
"We cannot kill or capture
our way to victory" in the
long-term campaign against terrorism,
Gates said, arguing that military
action should be subordinate to
political and economic efforts
to undermine extremism.
|
|
An
Army That Learns
By David Ignatius | Washington
Post | July 13, 2008
The
U.S. Army has done something remarkable
in its new history of the disastrous
first 18 months of the American
occupation of Iraq: It has conducted
a rigorous self-critique of how
bad decisions were made, so that
the Army won't make them again...
This
study illustrates what's most
admirable about the Army. It has
maintained a tradition of intellectual
rigor and self-criticism...
Politicians
repeat, ad nauseam, the maxim
that "those who cannot learn
from history are doomed to repeat
it." The U.S. Army is that
rare institution in American life
that is actually putting this
precept into practice.
|
|
Preparing
the Battlefield
Seymour
M. Hersh | New
Yorker | July 7, 2008
Late last year, Congress
agreed to a request from President
Bush to fund a major escalation
of covert operations against Iran,
according to current and former
military, intelligence, and congressional
sources. These operations,
for which the President sought
up to four hundred million dollars,
were described in a Presidential
Finding signed by Bush, and are
designed to destabilize the country’s
religious leadership. The covert
activities involve support of
the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi
groups and other dissident organizations.
They also include gathering intelligence
about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons
program.
Clandestine operations against
Iran are not new. Read
more at the New Yorker.
|
Americans
Say No to War with Iran: Will Washington
Listen?
Sarah van Gelde |Yes
Magazine | July 16, 2008
Two weeks ago, I was alarmed to
learn that congressional Democrats
were sponsoring Resolution 362,
which encourages what amounts to
an act of war against Iran. Today,
there are more than 230 co-sponsors
of the House resolution, but there
is also growing mobilization to
stop passage of Res. 362. |
| Gulf
Action-Reaction Cycle Could Spin
to War
Joe Cirincione | Huffington
Post | July 9, 2008
On
July 9 Iran launches its missiles.
It is no secret why. They tell
us. "We warn the enemies
who intend to threaten us with
military exercises and empty psychological
operations that our hand will
always be on the trigger and our
missiles will always be ready
to launch," said IRGC air
force commander Brigadier General
Hussein Salami...
Here
is the risk. If this cycle is
not broken, it escalates. With
Pyongyang, the U.S. ratcheted
up its rhetoric and sanctions
efforts after the missile tests.
Did North Korea back down? No,
it detonated a nuclear weapon
in October 2006. Only when the
U.S. began direct talks with the
Koreans did the tensions ease.
Now, the North Koreans are blowing
up their nuclear reactor instead
of nuclear bombs.
If
direct talks (open or secret)
do not begin soon, if all sides
continue to respond only to that
latest action of the other as
if it had no precipitant, than
the cycle will continue and could
spin into a war no side truly
wants. |
Look
for WiLL at NCSL in New Orleans, July
22-26, 2008 | Info
here.
 |
Faith
in Action July 4, 2008:
The Story Behind the Story
On
the 4th of July, in the
swirl of children dripping
with watermelon juice,
as the day's sweaty fever
breaks into a thousand
sparks in the evening
sky, I often find myself
caught somewhere between
celebration and dissent.
|
At WAND we have been working hard to create a new resource for people
of faith that helps them to
discern the roles that congregations
can play in legal, non-partisan
election activities.
We are pleased to announce that "In Times of Great Decision:
How Congregations Can Take Part
in Legal, Non-Partisan Election
Activities" is
now available for use in your
community of faith. Click
here to check it out.
|
 |
Think
Outside the Bomb
National Student and Young Professionals
Conference on Nuclear Abolition
| Boston, MA, August 14-17,
2008
Travel Stipends available! | Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Join nuclear abolitionists, peace
activists, ecologists, and other
advocates of social justice and
a livable planet. |
IDEAS,
VISIONS, RESOURCES FOR
A BETTER WORLD |
 |
Task
Force for a Responsible Withdrawal
from Iraq Report
here | New
York Times editorial here
A report from our friends at
Commonwealth Institute.
We need to leave; but how do we
do so without creating a huge mess?
As the NYT says: "two
new reports... are asking those
far more complicated questions.
They have differences, especially
on the timing of withdrawal, but
they point the debate in the right
direction." |
 |
WAND
Education Fund participates
in some great online shopping/giving
options. We
encourage you to participate!
-
Click
here for amazon.com. (You
won't even see it happen.)
-
Click
here for iGive.com. (You'll
need to specify WAND Education
Fund as your cause.)
-
Click
here for GoodShop. (You'll
need to specify WAND Education
Fund as your cause.)
And
it's not just books! Oh,
no. It's toys, groceries, DVDs,
magazines, and even gift certificates!
It's all good. |
 |
Be
part of a powerful community
of women and men leading our
country to a secure future!
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To
join using a credit
card online,
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|
Click
here and you'll find out
more.
Click
here and you'll find
out all about what our chapters
and partners are planning for this
month.
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©
2008 WAND. |
