Jun 25 2008
A film by Neil Young
Due in theaters July 25
The Trailer
The war in Iraq is the backdrop as the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young “Freedom of Speech Tour” crisscrosses North America. Echoes of Vietnam-era anti-war sentiment abound as the band connects with today’s audiences.
Jun 25 2008
This report from Judy Miner of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice (WNPJ):
WNPJ and People for Peace in Waupaca promoted the Iraq Moratorium at their PANCAKES for PEACE breakfast June 20 in Custer, WI. Black Iraq Moratorium ribbons were handed out to 350 exhibitors and visitors to the largest Renewable Energy Fair in the country, as they came through the pancake line and visited the WNPJ table in the exhibition hall. That's Louise Pease of People for Peace in Waupaca pictured, greeting people and offering Iraq Moratorium ribbons at the pancake breakfast.
Deb from Wausau had never heard of the Iraq Moratorium – and was thrilled to put on her black ribbon – asking then for 10 extra ribbons and information sheets about the Moratorium to take back to her workplace in Wausau. [Note to Deb: If you read this, please email [email protected] your contact information so we can help with your efforts.]
So many of the 20,000 participants at the MREA Fair understand the message that “War is NOT the Answer” and that “The Answer….is Blowing in the Wind”….and how the use of clean, renewable solar and wind energy promotes peace by ending wars for oil. And they are taking this path to peace, putting up their own wind turbines – solar panels – living off the grid – insulating – conserving……
The first dozen reports from last Friday's actions, including some from Milwaukee and Hayward, are now on the Iraq Moratorium website. Some are inspirational. Check it out.
Jun 20 2008
Another cave-in by Congressional Democrats. Another deal to keep the war going, in exchange for a few crumbs.
Today is Iraq Moratorium day. Do something to let them know what you think.
It’s true that 151 Democrats voted against the war funding. So, if you want to thank them, go ahead — but don’t thank them too much, David Swanson says. Here’s the roll call.
“Not a single one of them did a damned thing more than vote no,” Swanson (left), of Democrats.com, ImpeachCheney.org and , AfterDowningStreet.org said in a Milwaukee appearance Thursday night. They didn’t issue public statements to the media, write their colleagues, or do anything to press to defeat the bill. “They voted no, knowing it would pass.”
That’s not why Americans elected a new Congressional majority in 2006, Swanson said. We elected them to end the war in Iraq. Instead, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Dems like David Obey are happy to have negotiated a bill that the Republicans would vote for and pass. “They are hiding behind the troops,” Swanson said, when a majority of Americans in a Democrats.com poll said they would stop funding the war and bring the troops home within six months.
Democrats say we have to keep funding the occupation because it’s dangerous “to do what the majority wants” in an election year, Swanson said. They want us to elect them again so that they can do what they didn’t do last time we elected them. But by spring, it will be only 18 months until the next election, so it will be dangerous again to vote to end the war, he said.
The fact that the House also voted for money for new veterans benefits, for unemployment benefits, and for flood relief is no consolation for funding the war.
Who wouldn’t support those items if they came up as separate bills, Swanson asked.
Instead, the veterans benefits are attached as an amendment to a bill that will result in many more deaths, physical and psychological injuries to American troops and Iraqis, and damage the US economy.
Jun 18 2008
This Friday, June 20th, marks the Summer Solstice, the longest day in the year.
Unfortunately, it will be just one more grueling day in what is already the third longest war in US history.
June 20th is also the tenth monthly observance of the Iraq Moratorium, held on the Third Friday of each and every month until this horrific war is over.
“It’s got to stop! We’ve got to stop it!” has been the watchword of the Iraq Moratorium from Day One. The majority of this country’s people want this war over, pronto. But the politicians keep hedging, media coverage keeps shrinking, and US troops and Iraq men, women and children keep dying.
It really will take all of us, acting together, to force an end to the tragedy. On Friday, please break your daily routine and take some step to end the war. You can act with others-there are around 100 scheduled events taking place from coast to coast listed for Moratorium Day #10 at the Iraq Moratorium website website. You can act on your own – there’s a list of things you might want to do linked from the home page as well. Or use your imagination, but do something.
Jun 17 2008
I've been skeptical of the calls to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, fearful that acting this late in their terms will create a circus that overshadows the question of who will succeed them in January.
David Swanson, of Democrats.com, ImpeachCheney.org, and AfterDowningStreet.org, will surely disagree when he speaks in Milwaukee Thursday, sponsored by Iraq Moratorium and others. His topic is, "Peace, Impeachment and Election Day: Which Comes First." Swanson's own writings make a strong case for impeachment.
Dennis Kucinich, who read his 35 articles of impeachment against Bush into the record on C-Span the other night, clearly thinks there are more than enough grounds to impeach.
But the person who may convince me that it's time to act is a conservative Bush backer, a Marquette University professor and blogger named John McAdams.
McAdams lives in fear that a Barack Obama administration might prosecute Bush or others for crimes they may have committed while in office, based on this statement from Obama:
What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued. I can’t prejudge that because we don’t have access to all the material right now. I think that you are right, if crimes have been committed, they should be investigated. You’re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve.
You know, I often get questions about impeachment at town hall meetings and I’ve said that is not something I think would be fruitful to pursue because I think that impeachment is something that should be reserved for exceptional circumstances. Now, if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law — and I think that’s roughly how I would look at it.
That seems pretty straightforward. If someone "knowingly, consciously broke existing laws" they should be prosecuted. You'd think a law and order Republican would have no trouble with that concept.
Jun 16 2008
They’ll be flipping pancakes for peace Friday at the Midwest Renewable Energy Expo in Wisconsin.
They’ll hold a teach-in on torture on the train to San Jose, where a picket and vigil will target a Boeing subsidiary accused of providing logistics for those “extraordinary rendition” flights.
Church bells will ring in Massachusetts. Activists will leaflet commuters in San Francisco Bay area, Brooklyn, and Takoma Park MD. Street corner vigils are planned in dozens of communities across the country, large and small.
It’s all part of the Iraq Moratorium , a monthly event that asks people to break their daily routines and do something to show that they want to Iraq war and occupation to end.
Nearly 100 events in 82 communities are listed on the Moratorium website, bringing the total to more than 1000 since the Moratorium began last September.
The Iraq Moratorium does not believe that one size fits all. It asks people to act, but in whatever way they choose.
The whole idea is to do something — anything — to show your opposition to the war, whether it’s wearing an armband or writing your members of Congress or donating to a peace group working to end the war and occupation. All it takes to have an action is two people and a sign.
Friday’s the day. Please do something.
Jun 14 2008
Must be a sign of the apocalypse. The MSM catches up to Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, a former senior official in the US Department of Commerce, who wrote The Three Trillion Dollar War.
Jun 09 2008
Common sense has prevailed, at least momentarily, in Madison, Wisconsin’s municipal court.
Trespassing charges were dropped today against three peace activists who had entered an Army recruiting station to discuss the Iraq war with recruiters.
The Army apparently decided to cut its public relations losses. When the officer who was to testify on the Army’s behalf failed to show up (was AWOL, in other words), the judge dismissed the charges against the trio.
They were arrested on March 19, the fifth anniversary of the war. Bonnie Block, David Nordstrom, and Joy First went in to talk to recruiters while other activists outside the recruiting station were reading names of the war dead. They were arrested and charged with trespassing, which carried a $424 fine.
They were to appear Monday before Judge Dan Koval in Madison Municipal Court on the charge, which carried a possible $424 fine.
The activists said they were ready to argue that a recruiting station is a government office and therefore public property paid for by taxpayers. As their press release put it:
The activists were engaging the recruiters in a dialogue that made the recruiters very uncomfortable, but the activists were not disruptive and they planned to argue that they had every right to be there.
Nordstrom noted, “In the 5 years of American occupation, about 1 million Iraqi men, women, and children have died. That’s a death rate of about 1 per 25 people. Much of the country’s infrastructure is destroyed. The occupation has spawned an armed resistance which has attracted foreign fighters from several countries.”
Block used the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to justify her actions, stating, “I am a dissenter and claim that right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 states: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.’ Even if that frontier is a military recruiter’s office.”
First said that they will return to the military recruiting station in the future, explaining, “As long as we have a war criminal in the White House, it is the responsibility of concerned citizens to speak out in resistance as our government breaks the law. We must continue to take action to try to do everything we can to stop the unbelievable carnage and suffering that is taking place in Iraq – that we feel deeply compelled to follow our conscience in this matter.”
The action was organized by Madison Pledge of Resistance, a member group of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance.
Jun 07 2008
Are you coming to Cleveland June 27-28 for the National Assembly of antiwar activists, to talk strategy to end this senseless slaughter?
It looks like a lot of people are. There are 482 endorsers of the session,including many of the nation’s most active peace groups.
The Iraq Moratorium, with which I’m affiliated, will have a number of people there to take part in the discussions, present a workshop, and, we hope, make some personal connections with people from around the country who participate in the monthly Iraq Moratorium or would like to know more about it.
If that describes you, we’d like to hear from you in advance so we can look you up in Cleveland or plan to get together while we’re there.
Iraq Moratorium #10 is on Friday, June 20, and already some 55 events are listed, with more being added every day for the next two weeks. Check the listings for one near you, or add your own if it’s not already listed.
There have already been more than 1,000 actions under the Moratorium umbrella, ranging from street corner vigils to direct action against warmakers.
That’s one of the unique things about the Moratorium. It’s not “one size fits all.” People and groups are free to do their own thing. All the Moratorium asks is that they all do it on the Third Friday of every month, so coordinated action can have a bigger impact.
The focus in Cleveland is likely to be on building big national or regional protests, and we need to do that.
But the Moratorium, mobilizing people every month, can help to build the kind of network that will turn people out for bigger actions later. The Moratorium’s goal is to get many more of the vast majority of Americans who oppose the war to act — to get the silent majority to speak up.
But I digress.
If you’re going to be in Cleveland and would like to get together with some of the national core group working on the Moratorium, please e-mail us and let us know.
In the meantime, do something on June 20 to end the war and occupation.
Jun 05 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
Today’s New York Times features “Peter Rabbit Must Die”, a compendium of stories of gardeners killing animals which had the unmitigated gall– can you imagine the nerve?– to eat their tomatoes and other plants. The bottom line? In the collision between gardeners and wildlife of all kinds, the animals are killed. Nothing, it’s claimed, is as effective as clubbing, drowning, shooting. And, of course, most of these folks claim that they don’t even feel the slightest twinge of guilt afterwards.
What disgraceful nonsense. Give me a break.
I’ve been gardening for more than 20 years in Columbia County, New York. Sure the deer have eaten the Swiss Chard and the sunflower sprouts. Of course the ground hogs have eaten the cucumbers. It’s sad when that happens. I get angry, too. But let’s get a grip. This garden isn’t necessary to feed me or the people in the Village of Chatham. It’s not the difference between living and dying, between health and starvation, between prosperity and economic ruin. It’s a hobby. It’s something I enjoy. Yes, I love my lettuce and tomatoes and kale. So, in fact, do the animals. But does this give me authority to get a shot gun and blast them away when they browse the arugula? I don’t think so.
These animals were here long before I was. They were here long before my 160 year old farm house. They were eating crops here before Lincoln was president. They were eating spinach and kale when it was grown by Dutch colonists in the 17th century. So at the very most, I can take non-violent steps to discourage them. Urinating on the garden’s boundaries sometimes works. Letting the dog out sometimes works. Letting the cats wander sometimes works. Spraying with cayenne works to a degree. Being present works. Weeding works. Leaving your scent in the garden works. If I left for a week or 10 days and didn’t weed, the garden would be eaten in broad daylight because it would appear to have been abandoned.
There have always been collisions between humans and wildlife. I believe in non-violence. And peace. And equanimity. I don’t want to think while I’m eating my tomatoes of the dozen ground hogs I murdered to get the vegetables on the table. I don’t want to pass the lettuce and think about rabbits I garroted. I don’t want to eat stuffed zucchini and think about how I got a NY State permit to shoot the deer. I can live very nicely without those thoughts.
There’s a bird family living in the kitchen vent in the side of my house. I hear the chicks tweeting for food at sunrise. I see the mother and father bird bringing food and nesting materials into the vent. I get off the porch if they are frightened of my being there and won’t go to their chicks. I would never reach in and throw them, their nest and their babies out and stomp them.
How can we expect anything as grandiose as world peace when we cannot find a way to coexist with groundhogs? Can’t we live and let live?
Jun 05 2008
A hearty and sincere congratulations to Barack Obama and all of his supporters. The only other thing I have to say about that is to ask you to please reach out to our brothers and sisters in the HRC camp, many of whom have been abused in this process. We are all Democrats, we are all progressives, and we all have a lot of work to do in fixing our sadly and badly broken country.
Jun 05 2008
This may sound a tad familiar if you’re a regular here, but for once it’s not me saying it.
This article by Julie Byrnes Enslow, director of Peace Action-Wisconsin, is featured on the front page of the June issue of The Mobilizer, Peace Action-Wisconsin's newsletter.
Iraq Moratorium – Friday, June 20
What Have YOU Done Lately to Stop the War?
By Julie Byrnes Enslow
Sometimes we need a good push to get off our duffs and act. The Iraq Moratorium Day on the third Friday of each month gives us the challenge and the opportunity to take creative actions to end the US occupation in Iraq.
Friday, June 20, will be the tenth Iraq Moratorium. What are YOU going to do? People in small towns and cities across the country are taking action together every third Friday. For many it may be an individual act such as a call to their Congressperson, wearing a black armband or peace button to work, writing a letter to the editor of their local paper, flying a peace flag or talking to a neighbor about the war. Others organize a small group of people to act together – a vigil on a street corner, a visit to their Congressperson's office, a prayer service for peace in their church, synagogue or mosque.
In one town the church bells toll for peace each Moratorium Day. In another, women in black sit in folding chairs outside their Congressperson's office for the day with signs and leaflet people going by. Other folks vigil outside military recruitment centers. High school students have joined the Iraq Moratorium by giving out black armbands at school or staging die-ins near the cafeteria at lunchtime.
Wisconsin is a leader in national moratorium events, exceeded only by California. In May, over 12 towns and cities had officially organized vigils, walks, prayer services and events, from Hayward and Woodruff in the far north to Dodgeville and Viroqua in the southwest. The little town of Hayward continues month after month to have the biggest turnout per capita in the United States. They routinely turn out 70-80 people in a town of 2,100. If every town and city in the US matched Hayward's performance, more than 12 million people would be in the streets protesting the war each month!
People in the Milwaukee area can join the Iraq Moratorium Vigil at 5pm on the corner of Water and Wisconsin, the city's busiest central intersection. For people in other areas of the state, check out the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice website for a listing of events at www.wnpj.org. (And if you don’t live in Wisconsin, look here. )
If you have been participating in the Moratorium, let me challenge you to do one additional thing on June 20. If you have never taken an action on a third Friday this is your chance to join with people in your community and around the country on that day. Start a vigil in your own town. Be creative – be bold.
Silence will not stop the occupation of Iraq.