davidswanson's blog

And here's a new review:

"Prophecy itself, despite the theatrical legacy, is as explosive as this week’s headlines—literally. This is because, besides Iraq, the play has the temerity to give voice to a pro-Palestinian stance—and we know what happens to people who take such positions: They’re reviled and drummed out of the press corps, as veteran reporter Helen Thomas was, after a crotchety answer to an on-the-spot question, which no one needed a Ph.D. to realize wasn't going to work. But, besides Helen’s senior moment, being sympathetic to Palestinians also gets booed at the Academy Awards; in 1978, Vanessa Redgrave had her career marked by the affiliation, and, unless they do them themselves, playwrights don't get their plays involving the subject produced in America—Malpede’s fate."

By David Swanson

Last June, Congressman Tom Perriello wanted to vote against war funding, because -- much as he loves wars -- he opposed the IMF bailout attached to it. So, the White House and the Democratic Party gave him a choice. He could vote No and be cut out of the family, "dead to us." Or he could vote Yes and nice things would happen. Perriello voted yes, and the Party bought radio ads to promote him. Van Jones, then a White House employee, came down to Charlottesville to do a press event with Perriello announcing nothing at all. Steny Hoyer, then and now Majority Leader in the House, came down to do a press event with Perriello to announce nothing at all.

Karzai, non-puppet puppet governor of a corner of Afghanistan, is fed up with the United States and turning to Pakistan or the Taliban, or something.  Will Congress vote another $33.5 billion for a war whose puppet admits it can't be won, just as our ambassador and National Security Advisor and other experts admit?  While DailyKos would never dare oppose such funding, here's a blog that makes the case against it.  And if Congress needs somewhere to spend the $33 billion, just ask.

By David Swanson

The U.S. military budget, and the add-on war budget, and the total of the two have all been headed upwards for years and have been headed upwards for the past year and a half. Yes, I know, all you hear about is the one airplane that the so-called Secretary of Defense doesn't want but that Congress insists on giving him anyway. But he and the President have twice asked for a larger overall budget and twice been given it. And almost none of it has anything to do with defense.

After about a year, probably more, my congressman wrote me back today in response to a letter I'd forgotten sending him. Here's what he wrote back:

______________blah______blah blah.

That's the gist of it. Here's the long version:

June 10, 2010

Dear Mr. Swanson,

Thank you for contacting me with regard to initiating an inquiry into the policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration and any possible criminal infractions. I appreciate hearing from you and value your input in developing sound policies that benefit the citizens of Virginia's 5th district and our nation.

By David Swanson

During the past five years since I moved back to Charlottesville, Virginia, I had yet to observe the slightest violent incident, prior to the recent spree of horrific mass murders. There was crime, but I hadn't ever seen it. I had only heard about it in the local media. First there was a young woman picked up hitch hiking and murdered. That was many months ago now. Then there was a man from Charlottesville attacked out of the blue up in the mountains, not actually in Charlottesville. Most recently, a University of Virginia student was alleged to have killed his girlfriend; this made national news, apparently because they were both Lacrosse players.

That was the situation before the blood started flowing. Charlottesville was the kind of town where murder was so rare that any occurrence of it was publicly discussed and mourned in detail. Everyone felt for the victims, whether they knew them or not. All of that has changed.

The livestream is supposed to start now here.

Live blog:

By David Swanson

David Segal is a candidate for Congress from Providence, R.I. who is not only running as a real person, but running against permitting corporations to claim the rights of persons.  Recently the Providence Journal reported:

"Segal said he just introduced a resolution calling for a federal Constitutional Convention to address the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which held that the government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections. 'Our democracy belongs to the people, not to corporate interests,' he said."
 

Kris Cheatum was described in this article:

Granny the Terrorist.

By David Swanson

In 2008 Joe Allen published "Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost," which provides a terrific and concise history of the United States' involvement in Vietnam, from beginning to end. Doing this in 200 pages results in a limited history, but the basic points all seem right.

Allen concludes that Vietnam was ended by three forces: the resistance of the Vietnamese, the peace movement in the United States, and the resistance of soldiers in the U.S. military. Because he was writing in 2008 or earlier, Allen compares the Vietnam War only to the Iraq War, not Afghanistan. But many points he makes are, or may prove to be, relevant to both of those current quagmires. He finds the Iraqis, the Americans, and the American soldiers all coming up short in comparison with the three groups that ended the Vietnam War. The same can almost certainly be said with regard to Afghanistan.

Earlier in the book, Allen discusses a moment that has some similarities to our own:

Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes
Changes?

By David Swanson

On Saturday, June 5, I took part in an event organized by Jeff Nall of Humanists for Peace, together with Nall, Armineh Noravian, and Debra Sweet. Nall had organized a panel at the national conference of the American Humanist Association to talk about the need to work for peace. And the room was packed.

By David Swanson

I'm at the American Humanists Assoc. conference in San Jose at which Annie Laurie Gaylor is recounting how her Freedom from Religion Foundation won a court order requiring the president to end the National Day of Prayer.

I'm here to speak about peace and humanism. We'll see how it goes. Apparently peace is a majority but not universal value among "humanists".

Gaylor is here to receive an award as a Humanist Heroine, which I think is well deserved.

The case began with a complaint from an individual in Wisconsin about state funds being used to promote a prayer event with a state supreme court justice. When FFRF looked into it, they decided that the people to sue were President George W Bush and his press secretary and Shirley Dobson.

By David Swanson

When I think about secession, my first thought is of the Conch Republic (motto: "We Seceded Where Others Failed"), the briefly lived independent nation of Key West, Florida, now reduced to a joke and a tourist attraction. But would it necessarily be a joke to have an independent nation with some conchs, if you know what I mean, holding BP to higher standards than BO is willing to?

By David Swanson

The Afghanistan war has now lasted longer than the Vietnam war or any other US war, be it one of those overwhelmingly seen as criminal or "misguided" or one of those people still try to justify. Regardless, they've all been shorter than this one.

Of course, the United States had been criminally and forcefully harming both Vietnam and Afghanistan for many years before the official start of the wars. Here's how the USA Today does the calculation:

By David Swanson

I wrote a review of Karen Malpede's new play "Prophecy" when I had only read but not yet seen it. Karen read the review and invited me to lead the first in a series of talk-back discussions following performances in New York, and I did so on Wednesday. For that incredible privilege I'm glad I wrote that early review, but I'm sorry it was so insufficient as an attempt to convey the intensity of the phenomenon that is "Prophecy."

For the past year and a half we've watched the White House announce the end of torture and immunity for torturers, two policies that appear incompatible and have proven to be so.  We've seen the White House claim the right to torture, and seen that greeted with silence and an averted gaze by those pretending torture is over.  We've seen report after report of ongoing torture greeted with silence from the same pretenders, among whom we must include Congress.  And we've seen civil liberties and human rights groups that refused to support the impeachment of Bush advocate for prosecutions for a while, but continue to back the wars that create the torture.  The ACLU is supporting the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell despite its combination with a war-funding bill.  And as the evidence of ongoing torture begins to sink in, we will see anti-torture advocates begin to understand that prosecutions would have to include prosecutions of Democrat

By David Swanson

I received this by Email from someone who asked to remain anonymous. I've only tweaked it slightly and think it deserves to be read:

FACT: people in Palestine suffer tremendously under the terror of occupation from Israel
FACT: people in Palestine are treated as animals and die on a daily basis due to Israeli blockade of any supplies coming to Palestine
FACT: people in Palestine have no food, no water, no medical supplies and have no chances whatsoever to live a normal human life

THEREFORE:

People from our planet try to help these civilians. We show our solidarity by sending them food, water sanitation systems, medical supplies, medicine, and many other things that enable them to survive the horrors of Israeli Apartheid and occupation.

The Israeli government chooses to:
- ignore international law
- ignore countless UN resolutions
- ignore international calls for ending the blockade of Gaza

By David Swanson

Muntadhar al-Zaidi famously threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in December 2008, kicking off a stream of shoe-throwing protests around Iraq and the world. He then spent nine months in jail. TheRealNews.com has now posted a four-part video interview in which al-Zaidi reveals, to the certain bewilderment of many Americans, that he has absolutely no notion of "hating us for our freedoms." In fact, al-Zaidi lists completely unrelated grievances not unlike those listed by every other individual ever alleged to have hated us for out freedoms. It's enough to make you almost suspect there was a pattern, if you didn't know better.

By David Swanson

If a person could approach you on the street, gently caress your cheek, and walk away leaving you with the feeling of having been violently slapped and dowsed with a bucket of ice water, they would approximate Tom Engelhardt's writing, including that in his newest book "The American Way of War: How Bush's Wars Became Obama's."

Let me stipulate from the start that at least three-quarters of the book has nothing to do with Obama, but deals purely with Bush's wars. However, those wars -- which always were and still are our wars and our Congress's wars, and the wars of our grandchildren who will pay for them financially and probably in more serious ways -- have not been fundamentally changed by applying the name of a different emperor to them. What Engelhardt has written over the past several years and collected here on the subject of war needed to be said and will continued to need to be said more loudly with each passing day.

Calling such a group "Israeli Defense Forces" makes as much sense as calling the occupiers of Iraq and Afghanistan the "Department of Defense". What the hell are any of these people DEFENDING?

Press TV says two dead. Palestine Note says two dead. World Bulletin says two dead.

Pacific Free Press has a report of possibly three dead. Gaza Freedom March says three dead and 30 wounded. Haaretz has this headline: "Report: Several casualties in clash between Gaza aid flotilla, Israel Navy" but if it related to anything in the article, that part of the article has been censored.

Witness Gaza has Tweets that include:

Report from IHH boat..two killed, 31 wounded. No verification but medical emergency can be seen from ship

Israeli soldiers shooting at people, all over the Turkish boat. Watch IHH streaming video

Israeli soldiers shooting unarmed civilians.

Live images from the IHH ship, wounded civilians: http://www.livestream.com/insaniyardim

Several casualties in clash between Gaza aid #flotilla, Israel Navy: http://bit.ly/9ArSa0

By David Swanson

I'd guess roughly 3% of the Americans who watch the new Disney movie Prince of Persia have any idea that Persia and Iran are the same place. A similar number are probably aware of Iranians' demonstrations of sympathy following 9-11 and of Iran's assistance to the United States in Afghanistan in 2001. But surely an even smaller percentage of Americans know that Iran, Turkey, and our own country all fought revolutions against British colonialism, and developed democracies, our own serving as an inspiration for the others, our nation serving as a friend and ally to them. And you could probably fit into one football stadium every American who knows that Turkey's democratic advance succeeded where Iran's failed, principally because Teddy Roosevelt's grandson, working for the CIA, overthrew Iran's elected leader and installed a dictator, whom the United States proceeded to support and arm for decades.

Below is an AP article claiming the two parties are in trouble but presenting precious little evidence. The biggest setback either has suffered, according to the article, is either the disgrace of competitive primaries (democracy is aparently healthy for countries but deadly for parties?) or a small third-party effort tipping the balance to one party or the other. (The horror!) The structural changes that Liz Sidoti suggests may weaken parties, such as the Citizens United ruling, promise no improvements on the corruption of our government, but there is also -- thus far -- not a scrap of evidence of any consequent weakening of the two parties. That a lot of people hate the parties is the strongest potential factor mentioned, but it isn't new. Is it growing? If so, how much?

By David Swanson

The "supplemental spending bill" in the House has peace groups against it because it funds the escalation of a war in Afghanistan that a majority of Americans oppose, makes us less safe, and kills human beings. It also has environmentalists against it because it subsidizes nuclear power, the industry that cannot compete in a free market except in the arena of catastrophes, where it may out-do BP some day. But the peace groups and environmental groups are not exactly coordinating together as they could be.

Then there's the teachers who support the bill because it could fund teachers, and the labor movement which supports the bill because it would fund jobs, and the victims and those concerned for the victims of all variety of disasters who support the bill because it contains aid.

Sixty-six congressional candidates and 24 national organizations are opposing any more funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, no matter what unrelated measures are packaged into the same bill, and no matter whether the bill appears likely to pass or not. This position contrasts strongly with that of most incumbent congress members who "oppose" and "criticize" the wars. The new Coalition Against War Spending is inviting more candidates, including all incumbents, and national organizations to join. The 66 candidates who have already signed on are from 25 different states, and include 22 Greens, 19 Democrats, 19 Libertarians, 3 Independents, 1 Republican, 1 Socialist, and 1 Peace and Freedom Party member (and more may be added to the website by the time you read this). Fifty-six are candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives, and 10 for the Senate.

For $5 Friday I just gave $5 to http://savethewildup.org

As my friend (and book editor) Crystal Yakacki explains (like many websites, this worthy group's website does not explain itself to newcomers and just gives the latest developments):

"The UP is the upper peninsula of Michigan, one of the most beautiful places in the world. The native people there, and local neighborhoods, have been trying to protect a sacred site from a mine by Kennecott Eagle that will not only destroy the sacred site, but pollute the river, kill the fish, and possibly impact the Lake Superior shoreline.

So, the Senate has passed $33.5 billion to escalate war in Afghanistan, but left out the school money that House Appropriations Chairman David Obey was going to use to shield his eyes from the blood and gore.  Of course, the House always obeys the Senate, and Obey always obeys the Democratic Party.  But he does have an alternative to passing the war escalation funding without the education money.

These senators voted No, at least 26 out of the 28 because the war was not bad enough:

Apparently the United Nations is going to ask the United States to please stop using a secret agency to murder numerous people with drones. What the United States might say in response is found in the new National Security Strategy which, like all things hopey and changey, is pretty much like the old National Security Strategy, and which declares:

"Military force, at times, may be necessary to defend our country . . . "

and which could have stopped there, stayed legal, and left well enough alone, but which goes on to announce the familiar non-defensive and illegal justifications for war making:

. . . and allies or to preserve broader peace and security, including by protecting civilians facing a grave humanitarian crisis. . . . The United States must reserve the right to act unilaterally if necessary to defend our nation and our interests, yet we will also seek to adhere to standards that govern the use of force."