Organizing Notes

Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....

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Location: Brunswick, ME, United States

The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. @BruceKGagnon

Friday, October 21, 2005

IS THIS AMERICA'S BEST?


Would you trust this woman, Harriet Miers, with the crucial swing vote on the U.S. Supreme Court? Many conservatives are saying they oppose her nomination and Democrats, as usual, aren't saying much of anything. So far she has been a total bust as she meets with senators to try to gain their support for her nomination. In fact, things have gone so poorly that the White House has cancelled any further meetings. She had to call one Republican senator back after their meeting because she had so severely blown the answer to a question - a real embarrassment. A Judiciary committee form that she was given was so poorly filled out that Republican Sen. Arlen Specter sent it back to her to fill out again! Is this the best that America has to offer? Miers once told Bush "you are the best governor Texas has ever had". Hello, is anyone being fooled here? This has nothing to do with her being a woman. This has to do with her being absolutely and totally incompetant. The Miers nomination should be pulled. Time for plan - B........Mr. Bush.

The White House is completely unraveling these days. With the Karl Rove scandal, the Libby/Cheney scandal, the Tom Delay scandal, the Iraq war lie scandal, the U.S. troops in Afghanistan burning Taliban bodies scandal, the fiscal crisis scandal, the Pentagon cost overruns scandal, the hurricane Katrina scandal, the lack of attention to global warming scandal, and more, Bush is quickly declining in the polls and looking more inept every day. The question now is, will Bush finish his term or will he be forced to resign? Will Cheney finish the term? Can the sad-sack Democrats find a backbone and run with the football that has been handed them?

Stay tuned fans!

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING


Yes big brother is watching and we should be careful what we say!

While I was recently in Wichita, Kansas an op-ed of mine on the Pentagon's plans for weapons in space was published in the local paper. Wichita is a company town. Boeing has major operations there and has been developing the Airborne Laser at that location.

Not long after my op-ed was published, the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency did a response to my piece in the local paper. They challenged my "contention" that there are now plans to put weapons in space.

Now maybe I have missed something. Maybe I've been teleported to another planet or have been seeing all this in my dreams. Maybe my 20 years of work on this issue never happened. Maybe my subscriptions to Aviation Week & Space Technology and Space News, which I thought regularly report on Pentagon efforts to produce weapons for warfare in the heavens, never arrived at my door. Could it be that the Space Command's Vision for 2020, Strategic Master Plan, Joint Doctrine for Space Operations, U.S. Air Force Doctrine: Counterspace Operations (all of which are available in full on the home page of the Global Network's web site) actually do not make the case for U.S. "control and domination" of space and the need to "deny" other countries access to space?

It is nice, I guess, to know that the Missile Defense Agency feels that it must respond to one of my lonely op-ed's. I suppose it is reassuring to know that with all those hundreds of billions of our tax $$$$$ they actually do something inside the Pentagon. But why deny to the citizens of Wichita that they are working on space weapons? What is the Pentagon, and aerospace corporations like Boeing, trying to hide by saying they are not working on offensive systems for space control and domination. And why do they want to deny they are working on systems like Rods from God and the military space plane that would give them the capability to hit targets on Earth from space?

Could it be that they only want the people to think this whole Star Wars program is only about 'DEFENSE'? And do they fear that if people learned the truth, that Star Wars is really about offense, then people might not support the massive waste of their tax $$$$$$ for offensive warfare in space?

Big brother has a lot of $$$$$ riding on keeping the people ignorant about Star Wars. Big brother wants us to keep our traps shut!!!!! I should remember that a whole bunch of people are making big $$$$$ from the plans to put weapons in space. People like me, and others in the Global Network, stand in the way of their fancy cars, fancy homes, fancy vacations and country club memberships.

Big brother is a frightened little boy.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

PENTAGON'S CREDIT CARD BINGE MUST END!


The Pentagon is acknowledging that they are going to have to cut some big ticket items from their budget. The fiscal crisis is beginning to hit home and even the military industrial complex is going to be affected. The nation's debt is bigger than ever, its been growing like a drunken tourist in Las Vegas slapping down their credit card and purchasing anything that moves. May I suggest a few more items for the Pentagon to consider dumping while they are at it? How about the various weapons in space technologies that are now several times over budget? Systems like the SBIRS satellite; Rods from God; the military space plane; the Airborne laser; ground-based laser; the Aegis Theatre Missile Defense system; Space-based radar; Space-base laser development project; the nuclear rocket; and the whole moon-Mars series of missions. If these programs were cut then maybe the government would not have to cut health care and food stamps for the poor.

Yesterday it was announced that General Motors and the United Autoworkers Union had reached agreement to seriously cut health care benefits for the workers. This will start a serious freefall of health care benefits for all American workers. Wouldn't this be a good time to pass national health care - a single-payer program that guarantees coverage for everyone? By cutting out these wasteful Pentagon space projects Congress could go a long way in balancing the budget and offering real health security to the nation. I am more worried about my ability to get health care than being attacked by terrorists. Isn't it terrorism of our own people when social spending gets cut and the bloated military budget exists?