Global Network board member Sung-Hee Choi spoke at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea yesterday in support of the six reunification activists who have been arrested by their right-wing government. Sung-Hee told about GN efforts to gather signatures of support from around the world for the jailed peace workers.- Last call for signatures on the petition in support of Korean reunification activists. It's become a huge issue in South Korea with hundreds of progressive organizations extending their support to the six targeted people. I've already collected petition signatures from all over the world and throughout the US. Send me an email today at globalnet@mindspring.com if you want your name/organization/city/state/country added to the list. You can see some great photos from the Seoul news conference here.
- Word came out yesterday from Washington that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was not going to allow a vote on Rep. Jim McGovern's (D-MA) resolution calling on Obama to give a timeline for leaving Afghanistan. Pelosi does not want to "embarrass" the president by having such a resolution considered even though it only had 50 co-sponsors and was not going to pass anyway. The House Progressive Caucus also has decided not to stand against the $94 billion war supplemental for Iraq-Afghanistan-Pakistan. The go-along-to-get-along crowd has taken control of Congress.
- I was supposed to tape the next edition of my cable TV show today but my guest, Jerry Call from Rockland, Maine, got himself arrested yesterday in Washington DC. Jerry is a leader in the single-payer health care movement here in our state and felt moved to head to DC for the second hearing by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) who chairs the Senate Finance Committee which is holding a series of public hearings on Obama's health care plan. Sen. Baucus has so far refused to allow anyone representing the single-payer idea (supported by a majority of American citizens) to testify in his hearings. Yesterday 20 nurses stood and turned their backs on Baucus as he began the hearing and then five people stood and made statements and were arrested - including Jerry. This was the second hearing where Baucus had a string of health insurance corporate executives testify but no one was allowed to represent the other side of the tracks. One more hearing is scheduled.
- In my personal Gen. Jones Watch: Obama's head of the National Security Council, former NATO Commander Gen. James Jones told ABC News the other day that air strikes will continue in Afghanistan, "“We can’t fight with one hand tied behind our back....We’re going to take a look at trying to make sure that we correct those things we can correct, but certainly to tie the hands of our commanders and say we’re not going to conduct air strikes, it would be imprudent,” he said. At least 95 kids were killed by the US in the recent bombing that killed over 140 people in Afghanistan. Their hands are now dead.
Just for your edification: Imprudent is defined as "lacking discretion, marked by contemptuous boldness or disregard for others"..............................
- The Pentagon's secret "Black budget" has now grown to more than $50 billion a year - the largest ever. That is more than Russia spends on its total military operation each year. Much of the black budget goes for developing new space warfare and spying and surveillance technologies. A few years ago a journalist who writes for Janes Defense Weekly wrote a book on the US's black budget. He wanted to discover its origins. He traced it back to Hitler's Nazi operatives who were doing secret weapons technology work during WW II. Fifteen hundred of these Nazi's were brought to the US after the war under the program called "Operation Paperclip" and brought the architecture for the black budget with them.
- Security Watch reports that, "Top secret details of America’s missile defence system were found last week on the hard drive of a computer purchased on eBay. Information on the hard drive included a document outlining test launch procedures, blueprints of government facilities, and photographs of employees together with their personal details, including social security numbers. Lockheed Martin, who make the missile defense system in question, declined to comment on leaked hard drive."
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