http://bit.ly/alndYP

What was so grievously missing from Obama’s address was any feeling for what has happened to our country during the seven-and-a-half-year war whose “end” he was marking. That legacy of anger and grief is what “Freedom” mainlines to its readers. In chronicling one Midwestern family as it migrates from St. Paul to Washington during the 9/11 decade, Franzen does for our traumatic time what Tom Wolfe’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities” did for the cartoonish go-go 1980s. Or perhaps, more pertinently, what “The Great Gatsby” did for the ominous boom of the 1920s. The heady intoxication of freedom is everywhere in “Freedom,” from extramarital sexual couplings to the consumer nirvana of the iPod to Operation Iraqi Freedom itself. Yet most everyone, regardless of age or calling or politics, is at war — not with terrorists, but with depression, with their consciences and with one another.

This mood has not lifted and may be thickening as we trudge toward Year 10 in Afghanistan. But Obama only paid it lip service. It’s a mystery why a candidate so attuned to the nation’s pulse, most especially on the matter of war, has grown tone deaf in office. On Tuesday, Obama asked the country to turn the page on Iraq as if that were as easy as, say, voting for him in 2008. His brief rhetorical pivot from the war to the economy only raised the question of why the crisis of joblessness has not merited a prime-time Oval Office speech of its own.

That Obama did consider Iraq worthy of that distinction — one heretofore shared only by the BP oil spill — was hardly justified by his tepid pronouncements of progress (“credible elections that drew a strong turnout”) or his tidy homilies about the war’s impact. “Our unity at home was tested,” he said, as if all those bygones were now bygones and all the toxins unleashed by this fiasco had miraculously evaporated once we drew down to 50,000 theoretically non-combat troops.

Americans are less forgiving. In recent polls, 60 percent of those surveyed thought the war in Iraq was a mistake, 70 percent thought it wasn’t worth American lives, and only a quarter believed it made us safer from terrorism. This sour judgment is entirely reality-based. The war failed in all its stated missions except the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

While we were distracted searching for Iraq’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, Iran began revving up its actual nuclear program and Osama bin Laden and his fanatics ran free to regroup in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We handed Al Qaeda a propaganda coup by sacrificing America’s signature values on the waterboard. We disseminated untold billions of taxpayers’ dollars from Baghdad’s Green Zone, much of it cycled corruptly through well-connected American companies on no-bid contracts, yet Iraq still doesn’t have reliable electricity or trustworthy security. Iraq’s “example of freedom,” as President Bush referred to his project in nation building and democracy promotion, did not inspire other states in the Middle East to emulate it. It only perpetuated the Israeli-Palestinian logjam it was supposed to help relieve.

For this sad record, more than 4,400 Americans and some 100,000 Iraqis (a conservative estimate) paid with their lives.

[Editor’s Note: Readers should know that a September 2007 survey by ORB — Opinion Research Business — published by Great Britain’s respected Lancet Medical Journal, found that 1.2 million Iraqis were killed violently since the U.S. invasion.]

Some 32,000 Americans were wounded, and at least two million Iraqis, representing much of the nation’s most valuable human capital, went into exile. The war’s official cost to U.S. taxpayers is now at $750 billion.

Of all the commentators on the debacle, few speak with more eloquence or credibility than Andrew Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University who as a West Point-trained officer served in Vietnam and the first gulf war and whose son, also an Army officer, was killed in Iraq in 2007. Writing in The New Republic after Obama’s speech, he decimated many of the war’s lingering myths, starting with the fallacy, reignited by the hawks taking a preposterous victory lap last week, that “the surge” did anything other than stanch the bleeding from the catastrophic American blundering that preceded it. As Bacevich concluded: “The surge, now remembered as an epic feat of arms, functions chiefly as a smokescreen, obscuring a vast panorama of recklessness, miscalculation and waste that politicians, generals, and sundry warmongers are keen to forget.”

Bacevich also wrote that “common decency demands that we reflect on all that has occurred in bringing us to this moment.” Americans’ common future demands it too. The war’s corrosive effect on the home front is no less egregious than its undermining of our image and national security interests abroad. As the Pentagon rebrands Operation Iraqi Freedom as Operation New Dawn — a “name suggesting a skin cream or dishwashing liquid,” Bacevich aptly writes — the whitewashing of our recent history is well under way. The price will be to keep repeating it.

We can’t afford to forget now that the single biggest legacy of the Iraq war at home was to codify the illusion that Americans can have it all at no cost. We willed ourselves to believe Paul Wolfowitz when he made the absurd prediction that Iraq’s oil wealth would foot America’s post-invasion bills. We were delighted to accept tax cuts, borrow other countries’ money, and run up the federal deficit long after the lure of a self-financing war was unmasked as a hoax. The cultural synergy between the heedless irresponsibility we practiced in Iraq and our economic collapse at home could not be more naked. The housing bubble, inflated by no-money-down mortgage holders on Main Street and high-risk gamblers on Wall Street, was fueled by the same greedy disregard for the laws of fiscal gravity that governed the fight-now-pay-later war.

• We Wanted Eden and We Built A Desert •
— To read the rest click HERE! —

http://bit.ly/dxSMYk

• An Injury to One is an Injury to All •


• UPDATE •

• The Nation Demands Medicare for ALL •

NJ One Plan One Nation Citizen Leaders:

First, thanks to all who came out to our meeting on July 24th. We now have committees up and running, and we are moving forward with our work plan for 2010-2011. If you haven't yet signed up for one of the committees, please learn what they are and what they will be doing by contacting Paula Friedman at njhcnow@gmail.com.

Our next two state-wide leadership New Jersey One Plan meetings are Saturday, September 11th and Saturday, October 9th. Both will be at 10 AM at the UAW Hall, 56 Vineyard Road in Edison. Click DIRECTIONS. To register click RSVP.

We ask all committees to meet before September 11th, to prepare to report on their plans and progress. We have made arrangements for the UAW Hall to open at 9:30 AM on September 11 so that committees can meet in person prior to the state-wide meeting at 10 AM.

Second, we have firmed up mailing and telephone in formation for the new NJ One Plan, One Nation office in Newark. The address is:

Third, we need your help tabling at the Rutherford Fair on Labor Day, September 6th. Please contact Ray Stever at rayiuc@aol.com if you can give a little time to help spread the word on Medicare for All. One web site refers to the Rutherford Labor Day Street Fair as the “mother of all street fairs, ...with 200+ vendors ...”

Fourth, we want to give recognition to one of our members, Lynn Petrovich, who is getting some attention for her work on Medicare for All. Healthcare-NOW helped Lynn get an interview with OpEdNews on August 24th, 2010. To read the interview click http://bit.ly/b46OXk.

Lynn is also using her CPA skills to review financial reports that non-profit hospitals must file with the federal government. She is uncovering very disconcerting information that we will learn about soon.

Looking forward to seeing all of you on the 11th, if not before!

Solidarity,
Ray Stever, President

• The War Money Can Pay All the Costs of Medicare for All • And Many Other Programs Too •

The main agenda item are to review a draft work program for the coming year that outlines tasks, sets benchmarks, and distributes responsibility for the work necessary to implement the strategy decisions we made on June 12th. We need YOU to get involved. We need all hands on deck to advance the very ambitious work program we have chosen for ourselves.

New Jersey One Plan One Nation had its first state-wide strategy conference on June 12th, 2010 at the UAW Union Hall in Edison, NJ. Our challenge: we are dissatisfied with the new healthcare bill, so what do we do now?

After a welcome and overview of the current healthcare situation, by NJOPON Chair, Ray Stever, everyone heard a 5 minute recording Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made especially for this event. Re. Kucinich’s address can be viewed on our web site at (link). Our first presenter, Dr. William Thar (PNHP-NJ), discussed the deficiencies in the reform legislation passed in March, and changes necessary to improve the healthcare system. A Q&A session follow-up lasted until lunch.

After lunch, Tom Knoche, coordinator of Healthcare-NOW’s Win-Win campaign, gave brief overviews of the various state-wide campaigns, discussed NJ Single Payer Resolutions, and Healthcare-Now’s Win-Win Campaign. He introduced each panelist, each one to address one of the four strategy options that were under consideration.

• Universal Medicare for All •

Ray was the final speaker, and he spoke about the Assembly/Senate passage of the Single Payer Resolutions. A Q&A followed these speakers. After which there were break out sessions to share ideas with everyone. What follows are group suggestions on where we go from here:

1. Concentrate on passing Single Payer at the state level via Win-Win Campaign.
2. Replace use of “Single Payer” with “Medicare for All”
3. Economic Impact Study of “Medicare for All.” (see VT and PA)
4. Market Win-Win Campaign to State organizations: NJ Taxpayer Association and League of Municipalities
5. Expand outreach to nurses, unions, healthcare professionals via rank & file, and also grassroots.
6. Reach out to HCAN
7. Build on Trenton Rally
8. Press Releases re health coverage issues
9. card given to everyone with benefit details

• A Healthy Nation Provides Health Care for All •
• It’s the American Way •

http://bit.ly/dtMVx8

The notion of surreptitiously taking over our country is not new; it goes back to the to the 1880s, when the fabled robber barons started believing that bullying politicians wasn’t enough, and the solution for them was to control everything and to simply “buy” the whole country. The notion grew more sophisticated during Theodore Roosevelt’s “trust-busting” period, and by the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency, as he faced the greatest economic crisis in history, worse than the depression of 1897, and he proposed greater regulations on banks plus massive public works programs, the oligarchs, determined the time was right to impose their brand of radical discipline on America by effectively staging a coup to get rid of Roosevelt and to overthrow the United States, replacing it with an American model of Naziism. The videos here are very informative about this Plot to Take the White House. Pay particular attention to the information about the Liberty League, for it was its time’s version of today’s Tea Party. It’s a supreme irony that in the end, FDR saved private enterprise capitalism, yet the oligarchs don’t understand this fact even now.

In a manner eerily similar to the novel “It Can’t Happen Here,” by Sinclair Lewis, which predicted the rise of fascism in the USA way back in 1936, and to Jack London’s prophetic “The Iron Heel,” published in 1908, no less, we see the growth of the Tea Party as the Fifth Column front for this “project for a new American Century.”

• It’s not dark yet • But it’s getting there •

We believe all people should watch out when flimflam hucksters come along slapping Jesus and the flag together, and that’s exactly where the Tea Party’s being led. We know there are good-hearted souls trying in their confused way to figure things out, make sense of things, and find some stability and reassurance in their lives — and isn’t that true of us all? But none of this changes the fact that in the main Tea Partyers are intentionally misled and manipulated by the very same people with the really big bucks who aim to enslave them and us all.

• And Parasites Do Lead Them •
• Copyright © 29 August 2010 Barry Blitt/New York Times Company •

What’s to be done? The only hope is to organize ourselves to extend ourselves to others, all the people in your neighborhood and town you don’t know. Talk by all means, but also act. When you hear somebody’s hurting, can’t afford to fix the plumbing, try to find a person who can help for no money. If you learn of somebody homeless or without food, get some people to go with her to the county or city agency and demand the woman gets what she’s entitled to as a human being. Get with the Green parties and learn what’s up with them and join the effort to put principled, honest people into positions of power.

Just think about it. It takes your commitment and time, and probably some of your money too. Your country’s worth it. There are powerful enemies of America among us, a Fifth Column, and we must put them down for the world’s sake. It’s gonna take more than demonstrations, it requires creativity and a perpetual lust for justice. The future of our land and our earth is on the line.]

• Can Americans be Persuaded to Elect Fascism to Power? •

Vive la révolution!

There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the “death panel” warm-up acts of last summer. Three heavy hitters rule. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans. But even those carrying the Kochs’ banner may not know who these brothers are.

Their self-interested and at times radical agendas, like Murdoch’s, go well beyond, and sometimes counter to, the interests of those who serve as spear carriers in the political pageants hawked on Fox News. The country will be in for quite a ride should these potentates gain power, and given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy, they might.

• David Koch in 1996 •
• David and his Brother Charles: Two Major League Fascists •

Last week the Kochs were shoved unwillingly into the spotlight by the most comprehensive journalistic portrait of them yet, written by Jane Mayer of The New Yorker. Her article caused a stir among those in Manhattan’s liberal elite who didn’t know that David Koch, widely celebrated for his cultural philanthropy, is not merely another rich conservative Republican but the founder of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, which, as Mayer writes with some understatement, “has worked closely with the Tea Party since the movement’s inception.” To New Yorkers who associate the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center with the New York City Ballet, it’s startling to learn that the Texas branch of that foundation’s political arm, known simply as Americans for Prosperity, gave its Blogger of the Year Award to an activist who had called President Obama “cokehead in chief.”

• The 1930s FreedomWorks and Tea Party Rolled Up into One •

Original post 2009-12-30
Updated 2010-08-07

Many antiwar groups and people who claim they are for peace lose their minds during election season thinking that the razor-thin difference between the Democrat and Republican is enough to go ape-shit crazy in working for the Democrat. Just take the last two Democratic candidates, for example. Kerry and Obama both supported more war. An “antiwar” movement de-legitimizes itself when it works hard for a candidate who does not promise total and rapid withdrawal of troops from wherever they happen to be at the time AND does not promise to end war as an imperial tool of corporate conquest.

The majority of the so-called antiwar movement, in fact, voted for a candidate that PROMISED to contract one war only to be able to profoundly EXPAND another. Obama all along said that he is not against all war, just “dumb wars.” If there existed an antiwar movement that had integrity — it would have said that “all wars are dumb,” and we withhold our support for just another dyed-in-the-wool warmonger

• Cindy Sheehan • True Progressive • True Leader • True Patriot •

First of all, I would like to commend the Central Florida chapter for its integrity and vision for peace that this resolution exhibits. In my own experience, it’s not even popular to criticize the Dalai Bama, let alone call for his removal from office. Kudos!

Second, even though Chapter 136 uses the EXACT SAME references and charges that National VFP used for its resolution to impeach Bush and Cheney, I have little hope that National VFP will pass a similar resolution at its national convention. It’s unfortunate that standards are rarely applied equally across the board. I “hope” I am wrong.

In 2005, National VFP called for impeaching the Bush criminals even before it was en vogue to be against the regime. I remember being severely and thoroughly attacked by the left, right and in between for riding to Crawford in a bus driven by VFP members that had “IMPEACH BUSH” written across the sides in huge letters. On November 5th, 2004, I was myself in the avant-garde of calling for Bush’s impeachment just a day after his “re-election” to a second term.

In 2007, I announced my electoral challenge to Speaker of the House, Nancy “Impeachment off the Table” Pelosi because I felt so strongly in this Constitutional remedy to a criminal executive. Did I believe I would win? Just about as much as I believe that Nancy will impeach someone from her own party if she wouldn’t impeach a scoundrel like Bush.

But like VFP’s resolution says:

Whereas the illegal U.S. invasion, bombing and occupation of Iraq initiated by the Bush administration continues under the Obama administration; and,

Whereas the U.S. government is currently engaged in illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and Obama has pledged to increase the number of military personnel and the amount of tax dollars spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan; and,

Whereas the U.S. military has used and continues to use depleted uranium munitions, cluster bombs and white phosphorous in densely populated areas in violation of U.S. and international laws and treaties prohibiting the indiscriminate killing of civilians; and,

Whereas the Geneva Conventions specifically prohibit the use of especially injurious weapons and materials that cause unnecessary harm by remaining active and deadly after a battle and over large areas of land; and,

Whereas a large number of babies born in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from illness and deformity like Down’s syndrome, weak hearts, severe disfigurement and brain damage that doctors believe are caused by the U.S. military’s massive and widespread use of toxic and radioactive materials; and,

Whereas millions upon millions of Iraqi, Afghani and Pakistani civilians have been killed, maimed, poisoned and displaced from their homes as a direct result of the U.S.’s ongoing, illegal acts of war; and,

Whereas illegal, immoral and counterproductive detainee torture and brutalization at the hands of the U.S. military’s Immediate Reaction Force continue at Guantanamo under the Obama administration; and,

Whereas President Obama is an accessory after the fact for obstructing justice by not initiating an investigation into numerous and blatant U.S. war crimes committed by the Bush administration for which it is manifestly accountable under the rule of law; and,

Whereas Veterans For Peace supported the impeachment of Bush/Cheney for the same war crimes that are now being committed by Obama in violation of the U.S. Constitution, U.S. federal laws, the United Nations Charter, the Hague Convention, the Geneva Conventions, The United Nations Convention Against Torture and the Nuremberg Tribunal Charter; and,

Whereas Veterans For Peace is committed to its stated mission to restrain our government from intervening, overtly or covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations, to seek justice for veterans and victims of war, to increase public awareness of the costs of war, and to abolish war as an instrument of national policy; and,

Therefore be it resolved that Veterans For Peace calls on the U.S. House of Representatives to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Barack H. Obama for failure to uphold his sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies foreign and domestic, and for his commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, obstruction of justice and the violation of numerous national and international laws, treaties and conventions.

Note: This resolution to call for the Impeachment of President Barack H. Obama for War Crimes was debated, voted on, and approved by the members of the Central Florida chapter of Veterans For Peace on 7 July 2009.

I endorse this call, as does my organization, Peace of the Action.

If you would like to individually endorse, or as a group:

Endorsed by:

___________________________________________________________

On this _______ day of ___________________________________, 2010

Please return mail or fax to:
Central Florida Veterans For Peace
P.O. Box 9012
Daytona Beach, FL 32120-9012

Phone/Fax: (386) 788-2918

Text Copyright © 21 July 2010 Independent Political Report

• Swing into ACTION •

• The President’s lost my support •
• If he doesn’t end the wars, I will work to impeach him •
• UPDATE: Learn, Educate, Organize for Peace! •

Peace of the Action — by POTA — 26 May 2010
• SIZZLIN’ SUMMER PROTEST FROM PEACE OF THE ACTION •

Start Summer off with a Bang!

Rethink Tyranny

— CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST! —
PLUS read the text and hear the audio
of Mario Savio’s famous 1964 speech!

http://bit.ly/c1UmRP
Originally posted 2010-08-11
• How is waging an illegal war where civilians are intentionally killed ‘patriotic,’ but exposing it is ‘illegal?’ •

• Give some money, click Bradley Manning Defense Fund •
Updated Labor Day, 6 September 2010
• UPDATE •
• Support for Brad Snowballing throughout the USA •
• Growing Number of Citizens Want Brad Free and Want the Wars on Trial •

• It Takes Real Courage to Stand Up to the Powers that be •
• None can do it Alone •

• Putting Our Judicial System in Order •

A personal friend of Bradley’s verified the selection of legal counsel during a recent visit with him at the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Virginia. Bradley was said to have appeared to be in good health and good spirits, considering the situation.

• Support’s Spreading Like A Prairie Fire •

According to CNN, Mr. Coombs explained that the leaked “Afghanistan War Diaries” didn't really reveal anything damaging to the U.S. occupation. Mr. Coombs acknowledged that the leaked documents named a few Afghans who were cooperating with U.S. forces, but he explained that because the names were spelled phonetically, the insurgents would have a very difficult time tracking them down — even if they were still in the same area years later.

Mr. Coombs also noted that statements from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates about Bradley Manning were hurting his chances for a fair trial.

Bradley’s turmoil leading up to arrest confirmed
“The AP ran a story stating that I questioned the sanity of my client, PFC Bradley Manning. This statement is inaccurate,” explained David Coombs on his blog Wednesday. In fact, Mr. Coombs was simply explaining the process and basis for an upcoming mental health evaluation hearing that Bradley will undergo before the Army proceeds to an expected Article 32 pre-trial hearing.

On his blog, Mr. Coombs noted:
“PFC Manning's unit documented a steady decline in his mental stability from early on in their deployment starting around December of 2009 to May of 2010. Consistent in this documentation was the behavior that they were concerned about intensified during the deployment. Due to this behavior and a concern about his personal safety, the command made the decision to remove the bolt from PFC Manning’s weapon. For several weeks, he apparently walked around Forward Operating Base Hammer with his assigned weapon that was incapable of being used. During this time, however, he was still expected to perform his duties as an intelligence analyst.”

Courage to Resist project director Jeff Paterson adds:
“Many accounts have indicated that Bradley was showing outward signs of turmoil in the months leading up to his arrest. If he is indeed the whistle-blower in question, then of course he was going through significant mental anguish regarding the information he may have come across. As someone who deals with conscientious objectors in the military, I can say that most are considered “crazy” for no longer wanting to kill for a living. Bradley’s situation may have been not too different.”

Legal defense about half funded
“From our first communications with Bradley, back when he was still jailed in Kuwait, we pledged to support and fund his choice of civilian legal representation,” said Jeff Paterson, “We’re happy to begin fulfilling that promise by transferring funds raised to Mr. Coombs for his retainer and initial legal fees.” So far, about 850 generous individuals have already donated $51,000 towards Bradley Manning's defense — of which about $38,000 will go towards legal fees.

In addition to our tax-deductible defense fund, supporters now have the option of making a non-deductible contribution directly to Bradley’s IOLTA legal trust account, which is managed by Mr. Coombs under regulation of the American Bar Association. Our tax-deductible defense fund currently allocates about 20% of funds for public education and related administrative expenses. However, 100% of IOLTA legal trust account contributions offset Bradley’s legal expenses — estimated to eventually total $100,000.

Before donating $5,000 yesterday to Bradley's legal trust account, filmmaker Michael Moore noted to The Hill, “He did a courageous thing and he did a patriotic thing.”

To make a non-deductible contribution to the new legal trust account, donate online here, or make checks payable to “IOLTA / Manning” and mail to: Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610.

Events and rallies have already been confirmed for New York City NY, Oakland CA, San Diego CA, Minneapolis MN, San Francisco CA, Houston TX, London UK, Fort Lewis WA — Seattle area, Columbus OH, and Quantico VA — near the Marine brig where Bradley is being is now held in pre-trial confinement. It’s not too late to organize something in your community!

Letters to Bradley
Hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals have sent mail to Bradley at Quantico, and to Kuwait before that. Due to a strict interpretation of confinement facility regulations, Bradley has not received a single letter, and most letters have been returned to sender. This effort has not been in vain as Bradley is heartened by the mountain of support – even if he is not been allowed to open the letters.

To send a message to Bradley, please send letters and postcards to Bradley Manning, c/o Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610. Letters will be opened, “contraband” discarded and the letters then mailed in a weekly package to Bradley via an individual currently on his approved brig correspondence list.

Email support to bradleymanning.org.

To Rate the Video click HERE!
• Great Patriots Bring Support to Brad •

Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime!
Free Bradley Manning!
• Give YOUR Support to Brad and to ALL WAR RESISTERS •

MANNING IS THE COURAGEOUS ARMY INTELLIGENCE ANALYST turned whistleblower, who admitted leaking:
• “260,000 classified United States diplomatic cables and video of a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan that killed 97 civilians last year,” and
• an “explosive (39 minute) video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad that left 12 people dead, including two employees of the Reuters news agency” — “collateral murder” he felt obligated to expose.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the leak “potentially dramatic and grievously harmful....The battlefield consequences of the release of these documents are potentially severe and dangerous for our troops, our allies and Afghan partners, and may well damage our relationships and reputation in that part of the world. Intelligence sources and methods, as well as military tactics, techniques and procedures, will become known to our adversaries.”

Unmentioned is the following:
• our attack, invasion and occupation are illegal under US and international law;
• war crimes, including murder, torture, and targeted assassinations happen daily;
• civilian men, women, and children are willfully targeted;
• since October 2001, millions of Afghans have been killed, injured or displaced, their country perhaps the most hellish anyway, devastated by decades of war, deep poverty, depravation, and unimaginable human suffering, mostly caused by America;
• the same holds for Iraq, Pakistan, and nations where Washington wages proxy wars; and
• our presence and imperial aims cause harm, not Manning or WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, exposing truths the public has a right and need to know.

They deserve praise [in the above context], not prosecutions, compliments, not condemnation, and accolades, not accusations. They are heroes, risking personal harm to disclose disturbing truths, what government and media reports suppress, sanitize and distort, letting warlords plunder lawlessly so war profiteers can cash in, Americans the worse off for it.

• Brad Manning Acts in the Heroic Tradition of Dan Ellsberg •

On July 28, 2010, Obama lied again, saying:
“the region from which the 9/11 attacks were waged and other attacks against the United States and our friends and allies have been planned.”

Rubbish according to Blum, saying:
“Never mind that out of the tens of thousands of people the United States and its NATO front have killed in Afghanistan not one has been identified as having had anything to do with the events of September 11, 2001.”

“The only ‘war of necessity’ that draws the United States to Afghanistan is the need for protected oil and gas pipelines from the Caspian Sea area, (and) establishment of military bases (there), making it easier to watch and pressure next-door Iran (besides being a land-based aircraft carrier to target Russia and China). What more could any respectable imperialist nation desire? Oh, did I mention that the military-industrial-security-intelligence complex and its shareholders” will profit handsomely?

http://bit.ly/bmvfYW

• Ex-Army Sergeant Matthis Chiroux •
• Organizing Ft. Hood Soldiers to Resist Deployment •

• Soldier Gets Fed Up •
Ft. Hood Disobeys — by Hutch — 26 August 2010 — A strong movement at our country’s largest military base to help enlisted men refuse to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan is growing fast. As we get more details we’ll pass them along. In the meantime, see the video below. The effort, initiated by Ft. Hood’s legendary Pro-Soldier Anti-War Under the Hood Café, works to provide support and assistance to all the soldiers the military brass doesn’t want anyone to know about. It’s a movement to Free the Army from the shackles the business owners of the elite put on it, and to return the entire military to its rightful place of citizen soldiers serving the needs of the American people.

• Like Thieves, the Buses Depart Ft. Hood Under Cover of Night •

• Message to the Man with No Plan •

• BLOCKADE THAT BUS! •

• Some Leaders of the Resistance at Ft. Hood •



• More Soldiers Hear the Message •

• FREE THE ARMY! • DISOBEY TODAY! •

• A MOTHER LAYS DOWN THE LAW •

• JOIN THE RESISTANCE • HELP BRING THE REBIRTH OF CITIZEN SOLDIERS •

IMPEACH BEACH
Updated 4 September 2010 - http://bit.ly/bl24GX

• • • • • Bush Lied, Thousands Died: On March 19th, 2003, BUSH INVADED IRAQ. Obama continues the crime. • • • •
Obama “withdraws last combat troops from Iraq,” but leaves over 50,000 military personnel behind. Anyone care to make a bet that U.S. troops will be ordered into combat in Iraq again sometime soon?

AS OF 4 SEPTEMBER 2010, according to the reliable Iraq Coalition Casualties web site: 5,690 U.S. military people DEAD. 1,274 U.S. military DEAD in Afghanistan, 4,416 DEAD in Iraq. We mourn the death of Army Specialist Pedro Meletiche, 20, of the 4th Infantry Division. From Elizabeth, he was killed 22 August in the Arghandab River Valley in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated.

The totals include 102 DEAD from New Jersey. We mourn them all.

New York Times — by Elisabeth Bumiller — 29 July 2010 — It’s fair to say in some instances it would be a soldier that’s possibly married, couple of kids, lost his job, no health care insurance, possibly a single parent, a soldier is coming in the Army to start all over again, and we see this high rate of suicide.

WASHINGTON — AT A TIME OF RECORD-HIGH MILITARY SUICIDES, COMMANDERS ARE IGNORING the mental health problems of American soldiers and not winnowing out enough of those with records of substance abuse and crime, a United States Army report has concluded.

The report, released Thursday at the Pentagon, found that it was not only the stress of repeated deployments over nearly a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan that has driven the Army suicide rate above the civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War. Significantly, the report said that 79 percent of the soldiers who committed suicide had had only one deployment, or had not deployed at all.

“For us to blame this thing just on the war would be wrong,” Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the Army, said at a news conference about the report. “That’s not what we’re trying to do here.”

Nonetheless, General Chiarelli said that he believed — but could not prove statistically — that the overall Army suicide rate had been driven up by the 21 percent of suicides committed by soldiers with multiple deployments. “That has just always been my concern, that they may be it, that may be the reason,” he said. “But I don’t have any data that I can tie that to.”

There were a record 160 active-duty Army suicides in the year from Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30, 2009.

The report said that if the Army added in accidental deaths, which it said are often the result of high-risk behavior involving drinking and drugs, “less young men and women die in combat than die by their own actions.” It concluded: “We are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy.”

According to the Army, roughly 20 out of 100,000 soldiers have killed themselves, compared with a rate of roughly 19 out of 100,000 for the civilian population.

The report put a large part of the blame on commanders who either failed to recognize or disregarded high-risk behavior among their troops. “There are instances where a leader’s lack of soldier accountability resulted in suicide victims not being found until they had been dead for three or four weeks,” the report said.

In addition, the report said that the pace of constant deployments in two wars had forced a lowering of recruiting and retention standards. Many new recruits were granted waivers, it said, for behavior that would have kept them out of the service in earlier years. Of 80,403 waivers granted since 2004, the report found that 47,478 were granted to people with a history of drug or alcohol abuse, misdemeanor crime or “serious misconduct,” which it defined as felony.

At the same time, the report found that there was a decrease in soldiers forced to leave the Army for misconduct. “This has likely resulted in the retention of over 25,283 soldiers who would have otherwise been separated in previous years,” the report said.

General Chiarelli said that the majority of Army suicides — 60 percent — are committed during a soldier’s first enlistment, typically four years, and that the most dangerous year is the first. “We see more suicides in that first year than any other year,” General Chiarelli said.

Most new recruits are 18 to 20 years old, a statistically high-risk group for suicide because of their age. But General Chiarelli said the suicide rate for soldiers who first entered the Army in their late 20s was three times higher than for those in the younger group.

General Chiarelli said he did not want to typecast, “but I think it’s fair to say in some instances it would be a soldier that’s possibly married, couple of kids, lost his job, no health care insurance, possibly a single parent.” Such a soldier, General Chiarelli said, “is coming in the Army to start all over again, and we see this high rate of suicide.”

Among the solutions, some of which have already been put in place, the report recommended tightened enlistment standards, expanded mental health screening, a confidential alcohol treatment program and better coordination between primary care physicians and mental health counselors.

Over all, General Chiarelli said, “The United States Army is a fully capable force comprised of 1.1 million men and women,” and “we are in fact expending much, much effort on a very, very small portion of this population.”
Text Copyright © 29 July 2010 New York Times Company

See Highest troop levels EVER.
Includes 208 who died from self-inflicted wounds as of August 2008. As of 14 November, the official military tally of “non-hostile suicides” in the field — NOT accounting for suicides after returning home from the war — is 12 suicides in Iraq, and 2 suicides in Afganistan..

National Priorities “Cost of War” — 31 July 2010 — To date, $1.05 trillion dollars have been allocated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.These appropriations do not include funds to support the “surge” of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan announced by the Obama administration on December 1, 2009. Conservative estimates suggest the surge will cost approximately $30 billion and we anticipate supplemental appropriations for this later in the year.

In addition to this approved amount, the FY2010 budget shows a $130 billion request for more war spending. This would bring total war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan to more than $1 trillion. When all FY2010 war-related amounts are approved, we will adjust our counter so that it reaches the new total at the end of FY2010.

• COST OF WAR • NationalPriorities.org•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
The total cost of war allocated by Congress is
$1.05 trillion, with $747.3 billion to Iraq
and $299 billion to Afghanistan.

Now we confirm more tragic news:
18 Vets kill themselves every day. There are now over one million Iraqis dead due to our war. As of now, the U.S. War On Iraq Costs over $915,000,000,000, give or take a billion. OUR WAR COST IS OVER ONE TRILLION DOLLARS, on the way to a total cost of OVER THREE TRILLION DOLLARS! See National Priorities.

AFGHANISTAN

920 Americans were killed in Afghanistan since Bush took office January 2001, including 13 New Jersey people.

• Suicides Increase Among Troops •
Bloomberg News — 13 November 2009 — There have been 133 suspected suicides among active-duty Army troops this year, putting the service within reach of a new annual high.
The suicides, between January and October and including the National Guard and Reserves, compared with 115 in the same period in 2008. That year the service recorded 140 by year’s end, an annual record, the Army said. The rate of suicide within the Army last year was 20.2 per 100,000 personnel, exceeding for the first time the age-adjusted rate in the civilian population, which was 19.2, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
See The Alarming Increase In Suicides and September Suicide Data — U.S. Labor Against War

— Now the tragic truth comes out: — New York Times — 9 November 2008 — by Associated Press — Army Will Investigate Recruiters’ Suicides — SAN ANTONIO — SEVENTEEN ARMY RECRUITERS NATIONWIDE HAVE COMMITTED SUICIDE SINCE 2001... There are 38 recruiting battalions nationwide, with 8,400 soldiers. The Army’s suicide rate has been climbing as the war in Iraq has increased deployments. Read New York Times — Suicide Rate for Soldiers Rose in ’07 — 30 May 2008 — by Associated Press —The 208 confirmed suicides among active-duty soldiers and National Guard and Reserve troops who had been activated amounted to a rate of 18.8 per 100,000 troops — the highest since the Army began keeping records in 1980. — WASHINGTON DC — At least 208 soldiers killed themselves in 2007-08 [and the rate of suicide among soldiers is rising], up from 102 the previous year, the Army said Thursday. Nearly one-third of them died at the battlefront, 32 in Iraq and 4 in Afghanistan. But 26 percent had never been sent to either conflict.

Read WASHINGTON — 28 May 2008 — New York Times — Nearly 40,000 military personnel have been given diagnoses of post-tramatic stress disorder since 2003.

Read 126 War Vets Commit Suicide Every Week.
Read Suicide rate among soldiers in '06 was a record — Baltimore Sun.

And Veterans for Common Sense — CBS News — 13 November 2007 — by Laura Strickler, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Armen Keteyian and Katie Couric — Between 1995 and 2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year alone. But these numbers included only “active duty” soldiers. One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000. — Veterans for Common Sense was featured on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. On November 13, Armen Keteyian, the top CBS investigative reporter, reveals an enormous epidemic of suicides among our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

CBS News has three excellent videos: The CBS Evening News Broadcast, An Interview with Common Sense Vet Paul Sullivan, and Interviews with Veterans' Families. The Veteran Suicide Epidemic NEW YORK — CBS News — THEY ARE THE CASUALTIES OF WAR YOU DON'T OFTEN HEAR ABOUT — SOLDIERS WHO DIE OF SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS. Little is known about the true scope of suicides among those who have served in the military. A five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports exclusively. “I just felt like this silent scream inside of me,” said Jessica Harrell, the sister of a soldier who took his own life.

— To read the rest click HERE!

http://bit.ly/ddBATE

• Our meet May 8th was exceptionally special. It was, and it was actually fantastic.

We enjoyed the company of 3 profoundly excellent people. Sensational — authoritative speakers — Oskar Castro, director of the Youth & Militarism Project for the American Friends Service Committee, based in Philadelphia. Oskar’s also involved with Youth4Peace.org and is expert on the legal aspects and the rights of students and their families with armed forces recruiters.

• OSKAR CASTRO •

I said when we violated the U.N. Charter to invade Iraq and Afghanistan, when we systematically defy the international laws of war to wage occupation, we violate U.S. Law and the Constitution, and that it is all Soldiers’ responsibility to resist the crimes of our Government we are ultimately responsible for...

The Army found me guilty of misconduct for refusing to deploy to Iraq, but recommended I only be discharged from the reserves with a general discharge under honorable conditions.”

• Honorable Matthis Chiroux •

• Ken Dalton •

We invited reps from armed forces recruiting and the American Legion. None showed. Why should they?

Rev. Anna Benedetto, leader of Lakeland Unitarian’s Peace Site Recruitment Education Campaign, gave our welcome to everyone. We enjoyed real discussions between the participants, and everyone who wanted to took part in the discussions.

We had a magnificent supper and afterward we continued the talk between our speakers and all the citizens. We expected to end the event about 7pm, but interest was so high that we didn't break up til after 10pm, when still some people wanted to continue!

Imagine 6 hours for “a public meeting.” That’s some kind of record these days!

Our dear friend Ken Dalton, our treasure, and his partner Joanne, were a tremendous gift to us, and we thank them and always look forward to seeing and working with them, anytime they want.

Oskar Castro and Matthis Chiroux are two of the finest speakers in the USA today. Beyond the important factor that both these men really know the facts in every respect concerning not only recruitment education, but the whole immense panoply of issues regarding the problem of world wide greed and what’s to be done about it before single selfishness and compulsive greed consumes all life on earth and kills our planet. Yes, it’s our earth, and if we’re ever going to achieve truth, justice, dignity, democracy and liberation of all the people of our earth, we must re-dedicate ourselves to the great work of a real revolution in all respects, political, social, and the all-important rebirth of wonder in peoples’ lives.

This is what it takes, these are the stakes, raising the consciousness of all people will bring that day of victory in our lifetimes. It will be done because it must be done.

Mssrs. Chiroux and Castro need to be heard and seen everywhere, and part of our job is to connect these people to all groups — not only progressive groups, but to the bourgeois organizations, churches & synagogues, and yes, even civic groups like Rotary, Kiwanis, Elks, Masons, Sertoma, all of them — we must begin now to break those “barriers of Babbitry” — they must be liberated too.

The secret to their powerful effectiveness is they both possess tremendous charisma. The charisma is derived from more than personal shaping factors of living. It comes from their passionate commitment to do good, to take on the powers that be, to stop that renegade obsession of the power elite.

Matthis Chiroux and Oskar Castro are real leaders, ready, willing and able. They need support and they must have backing. Think of what can become when there’s money enough to put people like them — and others — on the road with enough flash to draw not dozens, but thousands of people yearning to breathe free.

It’s do-able. So let’s do it! What’s stopping us? Money? C’mon!
WANNA HELP? YOU CAN VOLUNTEER TO HELP!
Give us a ring at 862.226.6939 . . . and thanks!

• A Vigilant Citizen Prevents Enslavement •
Click DIRECTIONS and read more details below.

Prosecute Them In Brief — Make Justice Happen — PROSECUTE THEM NOW!
Here’s what we’re dedicated to — also see our Mission Statement at the top of this page —

• It’s also documented that President Obama continues the tragic policies of the Bush regime even more aggressively than Bush-Cheney themselves.

• President Obama’s administration is guilty of war crimes too, and his actions force our nation to call for his impeachment. We endorse the Impeachment of President Barack Obama.

• Does democracy exist anywhere any more? Or do we suffer an oligarchy? We do. From our country to the the countries of Georgia, to Mexico, Iran and Afghanistan, the will of the people is ignored and elections are stolen. We work for a Voters’ Bill of Rights which protects democracy with a national standard of hand-counted paper balloting only. All electric voting machines can be manipulated and rigged. We must not permit their use.

• Two jet planes did not bring down 3 buildings in New York City on 11 September 2001. Thousands of engineers and architects have testified to that. All right, then what really happened and why? Those specifics have never come to light. It’s our right to complete, real investigations, and the prosecutions all who were responsible for 9-ll. We’re pleased to work with 9-11 Citizens' Campaign in this great work for truth and justice.

• Recruitment Education: Dealing with military indoctrination and the poverty draft in our public schools. See U.S. MILITARY RECRUITS KIDS and PENTAGON INVADES OUR SCHOOLS and read our “OPT OUT BROCHURE” PLUS our Spanish-English form we’re distributing to families throughout our region.

Our meeting is in partnership with the Lakeland Unitarian Peace Site’s campaign on Recruitment Education, an effort to teach parents of junior high and high school age public school students about their right to deny our armed forces access to their children for recruitment purposes.

This is long overdue, and here you can see the brochure that was composed to give students and their families, called the Opt Out brochure PLUS the Spanish-English form.

We want to connect to all progressive teachers in Junior and Senior high schools. Our view must be heard so children don't get the lopsided surreal nonsense the armed forces recruiters bring.

They’re like the urban mythology of the guy hanging around the school in his raincoat offering candy to children so he can get one to go into the bushes where he opens his coat to offer his shortcomings.

Pssst! "Hey kids, you wanna get free season tickets to the Yankees? We’ll pay you $100,000.00 to sign up!" The Lakeland Unitarian minister Anna Benedetto actually heard a recruiter say these words to a couple of teens at Willowbrook mall. Imagine what else they might tell a kid: "C’mere, we can teach you to be a brain surgeon, and you get to travel to exotic places and kill people, and it’s so totally cool like a vid game!!!"

R.E. starts each meeting, and Prosecute Them Now follows immediately. We keep our meetings short and focused and aim to be done before or by 9pm or so! See below

1. Our recruitment education campaign is moving along. We sent letters to a number of churches so we can affiliate with people in communities who will join us in approaching public high school principals and superintendents.

2. We continue to follow up and make contacts where we can. We decided to make phone call contact with schools to alert them we’re sending our formal letter regarding recruitment education, and telling them we’ll follow up with phone calls a week after they get our letter.

3. We’re going to approve a script for our people to use when contacting schools and hope to approve it at this meeting.

4. We’re going to assign jobs for all so we can move into high gear.

We will also feature veterans from the Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We are inviting Armed Forces recruiters and other “pro-military” people to participate.

Over the last eight years later we suffered the tragedy of 11 September 2001, we were lied to war, our constitution was shredded, the great writ of habeas corpus and posse comitatus were dissolved, as the criminals who stole our country gave over our treasury to their corporate criminal pals. They engaged in withholding the truth from our people and in spying on all Americans.

We supported President Obama as much as we were able. But the plain fact is, the president back-tracked on many of his campaign pledges around the effort to restore justice, protect our constitution, and prosecute all who violated our laws. This is not limited to Republicans.

And speaking of promises made then thrown away, be sure to check out what’s now a famous 15 second video of candidate Obama making a promise concerning Afghanistan that ends with him saying, “And you can take that to the bank.”

Despite “the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq” — a blatant lie, as 50,000 American troops remain there, and supplemented by another 100,000 private mercenaries (Hessians, anyone?) — President Obama continues the George W. Bush policies with a vengeance, even outdoing the shrub in his lapdog’s obedience to the power elite. This is not the man you voted for.

We have particular strategies aimed at digging out the whole truth of what happened. With your help we can prosecute the people responsible for the collapses of the three buildings in New York. See 9-11 Citizens' Campaign.

There was more to admire in Obama’s performance as well. He did not retreat into the bite-size initiatives — V-chips, school uniforms — embraced by an emasculated Bill Clinton after his midterm pummeling of 1994. The president’s big original goals — health care, economic recovery, financial reform — remained nominally intact, as did his sense of humor. In a rhetorical touch William Safire would have relished, Obama had the wit to rush the ritualistic “our union is strong” so it would not prompt the usual jingoistic ovation.

Good thing, too, since our union is not strong. It is paralyzed. Many Americans were more eagerly anticipating Steve Jobs’s address in San Francisco on Wednesday morning than the president’s that night because they have far more confidence in Apple than Washington to produce concrete change. One year into Obama’s term we still don’t know whether he has what it takes to get American governance functioning again. But we do know that no speech can do the job. The president must act. Only body blows to the legislative branch can move the country forward.

The historian Alan Brinkley has observed that we will soon enter the fourth decade in which Congress — and therefore government as a whole — has failed to deal with any major national problem, from infrastructure to education. The gridlock isn’t only a function of polarized politics and special interests. There’s also been a gaping leadership deficit.

In Obama’s speech, he kept circling back to a Senate where both parties are dysfunctional. The obstructionist Republicans, he observed, will say no to every single bill “just because they can.” But no less culpable are the Democrats, who maintain “the largest majority in decades” even after losing Teddy Kennedy’s seat — and yet would rather “run for the hills” than accomplish anything.

What does strong Senate leadership look like? That would be L.B.J. in the pre-Kennedy era. Operating with the narrowest of majorities and under an opposition president, he was able to transform a sleepy, seniority-hobbled, regionally polarized debating society into an often-progressive legislative factory. As Robert Caro tells the story in his book “Master of the Senate,” this Senate leader had determination, “a gift for grand strategy,” and a sixth sense for grabbing opportunities for action before they vanished for good. He could recognize “the key that might suddenly unlock votes that had seemed locked forever away” and turn it quickly. The horse trading with recalcitrant senators was often crude and cynical, but the job got done. L.B.J. knew how to reward — and how to punish.

We keep hearing that they just don’t make legislative giants like that anymore. In truth, the long drought has led us to forget what they look like and to define senatorial leadership down. L.B.J.’s current successor, Harry Reid, could be found yawning on camera Wednesday night. He might as well have just taken the whole nap. Here was this leader’s pronouncement last week on the future of the president and his party’s No. 1 priority: “We’re not on health care now. We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.” Yes, a lot of talk — a year’s worth, in fact — with nothing to show for it. [Editor’s Note: See also Here, Here, and Here.]

— We must Attack Power with Truth and put our adversaries on the defensive. This is the only way any battle is won; whether nonviolent or violent. —

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOVING FROM “9/11 TRUTH” TO 9/11 JUSTICE cannot be overestimated.

The illegal wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have bankrupted this nation and moved us on a path to becoming a third world nation. The unconstitutional USA Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act have been approved by our congressional idiot representatives of corporate power whereby the predictions of George Orwell in 1984 have become true to life in today’s Amerika, a nation that I no longer pledge allegiance to.

The many groups that want to achieve peace, justice and the nonviolent overthrow of every level of the present government are being asked to join forces to present a united front to our common enemy: Our common goal should be my goal as National Leader of the Citizen’s Campaign for a 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation in 2010 — read the undeniable “evidence of treason” contained in the 9/11 Truth Proclamation and the two laws: USC 18 par. 2382 Misprision of Treason that must be obeyed by every U.S. citizen, and the New York State law on “Obstruction of Justice.”

Read the three “template” letters to: Andrew Cuomo, New York State Attorney General, your state’s Attorney General and your local Mayor/municipal court judge.

The key to achieving our common goal is to prove that the collapse of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 on 9/11/01 was an “act of treason” based on the use of nano thermite, a military controlled explosive not available in the caves of Afghanistan, and demanding that the Manhattan District Attorney convene a Grand Jury to determine whether “9/11 was an Inside Job.”

It’s time to unite by taking the following actions:

• Send our letters to Tom Wornam, Director, Special Prosecutions Bureau of the
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
• Be sure to insert your name and organization
• E-mail your letters to all parties listed.
• Copy and fax to 212.335.8914 or mail to:
Tom Wornam, Director
Special Prosecutions Bureau
Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
One Hogan Place
New York, NY 10013

• Phone Tom Wornam’s Secretary, Vicki 212.335.8922
to verify he received your letter.
• Phone as often as necessary until he is forced to obey the two laws and recommend
that the Manhattan Attorney General convene a Grand Jury as soon as possible.

For a printable text of this article, click To All Patriots Who Want to Restore America
For a printable text of the 911 Citizens for Truth Proclamation,
which you can sign to register your support for a Grand Jury,
Click HERE!


• Art Transforms Sorrow to Pity — The Poetry’s in the Pity •
Photo Copyright © 12 September 2001 by Thomas Franklin/Bergen Record

FAX TO: Tom Wornam, Director, Special Prosecutors Bureau, New York County District Attorney’s Office — Fax 212.335.8914 — Phone Secretary Vicki 212.335.8922

June is NYCCAN’s 1000 Letters Per Week Campaign during the month of June 2010 to “urge the Manhattan District Attorney to investigate the destruction of World Trade Center Building 7.”

Originally posted 2010-01-23

USMilitary.com — 24 October 2009 — “This is much to the amazement and pleasure of the US military, especially the Army and the Marine Corps.”

— THIS HAS BEEN QUITE THE ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR THE MILITARY, which has seen a decline in enrollments in the last few years, since the beginning of the current Iraqi war. The Army alone recruited close to 5,000 people in the month of October, which was over two percent of their originated goal. For the Marine Corps, there were close to 3,000 people recruited that were eager to sign up to join the military. This amount for the Marine Corps was well a little over one percent of their target as well.

The figures for meeting the military quota have been highly pleasurable for all companies that are involved, as they eagerly await the new troops from the registered enrollment. The numbers do not lie — there is now a higher interest for the joining the military’s forces from the civilian end. This is much to the amazement and pleasure of the US military, especially the Army and the Marine Corps, who both saw substantial numbers increase in their recruiting. Many of the civilians that are signing up are high school graduates that have preferred to enroll in the military to proudly serve our country. There is a great number of these recruitments that have claimed that they will continue their education while in the military, which is often paid for.

Nor did he give the recruiters his email address, Social Security number, or details about his ethnicity, shopping habits, or college plans. Yet they probably knew all that, too. In the past few years, the military has mounted a virtual invasion into the lives of young Americans. Using data mining, stealth websites, career tests, and sophisticated marketing software, the Pentagon is harvesting and analyzing information on everything from high school students’ GPAs and SAT scores to which video games they play. Before an Army recruiter even picks up the phone to call a prospect like Travers, the soldier may know more about the kid’s habits than do his own parents.

The military has long struggled to find more effective ways to reach potential enlistees; for every new GI it signed up last year, the Army spent $24,500 on recruitment. (In contrast, four-year colleges spend an average of $2,000 per incoming student.) Recruiters hit pay dirt in 2002, when then-Rep. (now Sen.) David Vitter (R-La.) slipped a provision into the No Child Left Behind Act that requires high schools to give recruiters the names and contact details of all juniors and seniors. Schools that fail to comply risk losing their NCLB funding. This little-known regulation effectively transformed President George W. Bush’s signature education bill into the most aggressive military recruitment tool since the draft. Students may sign an opt-out form — but not all school districts let them know about it.

Yet NCLB is just the tip of the data iceberg. In 2005, privacy advocates discovered that the Pentagon had spent the past two years quietly amassing records from Selective Service, state DMVs, and data brokers to create a database of tens of millions of young adults and teens, some as young as 15. The massive data-mining project is overseen by the Joint Advertising Market Research & Studies program, whose website has described the database, which now holds 34 million names, as “arguably the largest repository of 16-25-year-old youth data in the country.” The JAMRS database is in turn run by Equifax, the credit reporting giant.

Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says the Pentagon’s initial failure to disclose the collection of the information likely violated the Privacy Act. In 2007, the Pentagon settled a lawsuit (filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union) by agreeing to stop collecting the names and Social Security numbers of anyone younger than 17 and promising not to share its database records with other government agencies. Students may opt out of having their JAMRS database information sent to recruiters, but only 8,700 have invoked this obscure safeguard.

The Pentagon also spends about $600,000 a year on commercial data brokers, notably the Student Marketing Group and the American Student List, which boasts that it has records for 8 million high school students. Both companies have been accused of using deceptive practices to gather information: In 2002, New York’s attorney general sued SMG for telling high schools it was surveying students for scholarship and financial aid opportunities yet selling the info to telemarketers; the Federal Trade Commission charged ASL with similar tactics. Both companies eventually settled.

The Pentagon is also gathering data from unsuspecting Web surfers. This year, the Army spent $1.2 million on the website March2Success.com, which provides free standardized test-taking tips devised by prep firms such as Peterson's, Kaplan, and Princeton Review. The only indications that the Army runs the site, which registers an average of 17,000 new users each month, are a tiny tagline and a small logo that links to the main recruitment website, GoArmy.com. Yet visitors’ contact information can be sent to recruiters unless they opt out, and students also have the option of having a recruiter monitor their practice test scores. Terry Backstrom, who runs March2Success.com for the US Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, insists that it is about “good will,” not recruiting. “We are providing a great service to schools that normally would cost them.”

Recruiters are also data mining the classroom. More than 12,000 high schools administer the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a three-hour multiple-choice test originally created in 1968 to match conscripts with military assignments. Rebranded in the mid-1990s as the “ASVAB Career Exploration Program,” the test has a cheerful home page that makes no reference to its military applications, instead declaring that it “is designed to help students learn more about themselves and the world of work”" A student who takes the test is asked to divulge his or her Social Security number, GPA, ethnicity, and career interests — all of which is then logged into the JAMRS database. In 2008, more than 641,000 high school students took the ASVAB; 90 percent had their scores sent to recruiters. Tony Castillo of the Army’s Houston Recruiting Battalion says that ASVAB is “much more than a test to join the military. It is really a gift to public education.”

Child As Flag

To put all its data to use, the military has enlisted the help of Nielsen Claritas, a research and marketing firm whose clients include BMW, AOL, and Starbucks. Last year, it rolled out a “custom segmentation” program that allows a recruiter armed with the address, age, race, and gender of a potential “lead” to call up a wealth of information about young people in the immediate area, including recreation and consumption patterns. The program even suggests pitches that might work while cold-calling teenagers. “It’s just a foot in the door for a recruiter to start a relevant conversation with a young person,” says Donna Dorminey of the US Army Center for Accessions Research.

Still, no amount of data slicing can fix the challenge of recruiting during wartime. Last year, a JAMRS survey identified recruiters’ single biggest obstacle: Only 5 percent of parents would recommend military service to their kids, a situation blamed on “a constant barrage of negative media coverage on the War in Iraq.” Not surprisingly, more and more kids are opting out of having their information shared with recruiters under No Child Left Behind; in New York City, the number of students opting out has doubled in the past five years, to 45,000 in 2008. At some schools, 90 percent of students have opted out. In 2007, JAMRS awarded a $50 million contract to Mullen Advertising to continue its marketing campaign to target “influencers” such as parents, coaches, and guidance counselors. The result: print ads that declare, “Your son wants to join the military. The question isn’t whether he’s prepared enough, but whether you are.”

Not far from the mall in Maryland, I asked 21-year-old Marcelo Salazar, who'd been a cadet in his high school’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, why he decided not to enlist after graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 2005. Now a community college student, he replied that his mother was firmly against it.

Then, as if on cue, his cell phone chirped: It was a recruiter who called him constantly. He ignored it. “War is cool,” he said, flipping on his aviator sunglasses. “But if you're dying, it's not.”

Bring your books to class. Come for extra help if you need it. And wear your uniform with pride.

“Young men, you think you can get a haircut and say I'm done for two or three weeks. WRONG,” Sgt. Major Thomas Smith Jr. intones.

“Young ladies. There's been no problem with your uniforms but there is a problem with your ties. Again, I will go through it again. Wear your ties when you come to my class.”

One in 10 public high school students in Chicago wears a military uniform to school and takes classes — including how to shoot a gun properly — from retired veterans.

That number is expected to rise as junior military reserve programs expand across the country now that a congressional cap of 3,500 units has been lifted from the nearly century-old scheme.

Proponents of the junior reserve programs say they provide stability and a sense of purpose for troubled youth and help to instill values such as leadership and responsibility.

But opponents say the programs divert critical resources from crumbling public schools and lead to a militarization of US society.

“To call these young people child soldiers might be technically inaccurate, but it does reveal the truth of it,” said Oscar Castro, a spokesman for the National Youth and Militarism Program, an advocacy group.

Military recruiters already have the right to give presentations in public schools and to access databases with the contact information of all public school students whose parents do not remove their children from the list.

But they don’t have nearly the same impact as daily interaction with teachers and students in uniform, Castro said.

While military officials say the junior reserve programs are not used as recruiting tools, about 30 to 50 percent of cadets eventually enlist, according to congressional testimony by the chiefs of staff of the various armed services in February 2000.

This is particularly troubling given that the programs are concentrated in low-income and minority neighborhoods, said Sheena Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the Chicago branch of the American Friends Service Committee which lobbies against the programs.

Originally posted 2009-12-29

In 1944 Douglas led the Saskatchewan CCF to a massive victory, winning 47 of 53 seats and achieving the first democratic socialist government elected in North America.

Tommy Douglas introduced universal hospitalization in Saskatchewan in 1949 and a Medicare plan for Saskatchewan in 1959.

The video is from a CBC Television production, “Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story.” In the dark times today, this brings much needed cheer over what we can achieve in the face of the insatiable greed that infects our country. CFC stands for Co-operative Commonwealth Federation; the organization became the New Democratic Party. Have a look and feel a warm smile for our future.

Posted Orginally 2010-09-01 — http://bit.ly/c6gzpn

• A John Heuer Report •
• Swing into Action — Let’s End the Wars •

• Stand Up for Our Soldiers • Bring ‘Em ALL Home •

• Carry It On •

• Bull Pie • Nothing But Build to Destroy •

• Starve the Poor •
• Get Soldiers Killed •
• Make Lotsa Money •
• Gotta Problem with That, Sucker? •

• It all boils down to this •

• Marine, America’s Greatest General •
• He Exposed the Racketeers Who Made Bucks Off Soldiers Being Killed •

• Say it Loud • Say it Clear •

At our ’09 Convention in Maryland, our NC Triangle VFP Resolution “Jobs for Afghans” designed by Ralph Lopez and co-sponsored by Northern Virginia VFP, had gone down to defeat. I was dismayed by the defeat of the “Jobs for Aghans” resolution in 2009. I took a different tack here in Portland, and offered an opportunity to endsorse, during the 12:15-1:30 Speak Out opportunity. Here are my remarks to the members of VFP, after I returned to the convention:

• Bring 'em Home, Bring 'em Home •

Millions of Americans felt a wave of revulsion when Seymour Hersch broke the My Lai story during the Viet Nam war. The My Lai massacre shattered the illusion that the US war against Viet Nam was a good and noble cause.

• Release the Dove and Let It Fly Free •

Dear Friends,
Perhaps this time the illusion of the good and noble war will be shattered for good.
Tonight we’ll speak the names of our fallen comrades. For all those we have lost, from every land, I invite you to signify your support for Bradley Manning, Ethan McCord and the bold truth by standing and raising your fist with a resounding presente!

When this call was made, the members present stood, raised their fists, and shouted a resounding “Presente!” A proud moment.