A few of the speakers at the Town of Brunswick and MRRA public hearing the other night.
Especially moving was the last speaker of the night, a woman we did not know who came from the Brunswick community. She told a heart breaking story about a father in Afghanistan holding his small daughter who had been killed by a drone, and concluded her words with a special surprise statement.
By Loring Wirbel and Bill Sulzman, Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado Springs/Global Network board members
The proposed new "Eco-Friendly" Navy base at Jeju Island in South Korea
The brilliant coral reefs Jeju residents want to protect
Last night nearly 30 peaceniks attended the joint meeting of the Brunswick Town Council and the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA). The MRRA has been tasked by the state with the responsibility to plan for what will happen at the local Naval Air Station after it closes in 2011.
At the beginning of the meeting one town councillor said she had never seen so many people at one of their meetings since she began serving on the council. Most of those in the packed audience had come because of the flurry of news articles and letters to the editor in the local paper about using the base as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Flight Test Center.
One of the first things that was stated by the leadership of the MRRA was that the town council would have no authority over any decisions made by the redevelopment agency. The members of the MRRA are all appointed by the governor and as one member told the audience, "We are appointed for four-year terms and have no constituency."
Yeah, right.
Again the MRRA, sensing that there was deep concern in the audience about the drone issue, launched a preemptive strike when one member declared, "UAV's are consistent with our aviation feasibility study" that recommends "aviation and aerospace" as potential uses of the closing base.
In my words to the town council and MRRA I shared conclusions from a recent study by three UAV experts to the Welsh government where they suggest that drones testing is not safe.
I said: Airworthiness standards are insufficiently mature to allow their use over populated areas; the need for segregated airspace for drone testing will impact civilian air operations; they will invade our privacy because they are outfitted with surveillance cameras and there will be no real controls over who gets the information; they will pollute and make unwanted noise; AND PROBABLY MOST IMPORTANTLY because of intermittent communication and loss of contact arising from terrain shielding and the absence of on-board pilots to deal with emergency situations they will not be immune to crashes – it would be like your cell phone temporarily being out of reception range, drones fly by receiving radio signals from satellites; termination of flights will not be controllable.
In the last month two UAV's crashed in Iraq and one crashed in Wales.
Several other strong presentations were also made that appealed to these two government bodies to create a positive sustainable presence at the closing base. One speaker, reminding the MRRA that they had just said the redevelopment plans included a world-class resort hotel and two different college facilities, questioned the logic of having drones buzzing around these heavily populated institutions. That one drew a hearty laugh from the assembled.
After a while the council chair tired of hearing from the great unwashed in the audience and determined that no one else wanting to talk about drones (at this advertised public hearing) could speak. Only local residents with something else to say (and obviously more important) should address the be-knighted, she concluded. That didn't work out well as still a couple more anti-droners took to the podium.
We got a spirited lecture from John Richardson, former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives who now sits on the MRRA board. He was appointed by the governor as his Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development. Mr. Richardson did a long bloviation about how he opposed the war in Iraq and led the effort to have the Maine House pass a resolution against it. Very commendable.
But then Mr. Richardson, and MRRA Executive Director Steve Levesque, launched their final strike against us by saying that at this time there was really no issue about drones. There was no need for concern, they warned. At this time there were "no proposals" to use the base as a drone flight test center.
Of course these guys think we just fell off the back of the pumpkin delivery truck. It was like listening to Bill Clinton give a definition of what "is" is.
My reaction to all this? Why, if there would ultimately be no plans for drone testing in Brunswick, did Mr. Richardson feel the slightest need to tell the local newspaper on September 1, "There are many adaptive uses of UAVs that could be very helpful to the nation and then the world. I wouldn't cast out of hand UAV research or testing, because of the potential benefits to the nation in the areas of search and rescue, air and water quality, homeland security and even forest fire prevention."
Some people will do and say anything to make a buck.
Tonight I drive south to Portland to attend a meeting of the Maine State Rail Plan Technical Advisory Committee. In my early years as an organizer I co-founded a group called the Peoples Transit Organization in Orlando, Florida that fought against more and wider road building and instead pushed for bus expansion and construction of light rail in the community. One of our first acts was to suggest to the City Council of Orlando that they put a free trolley line in the downtown area. They laughed us out the door. Last time I visited Orlando I saw a free trolley line carrying folks from one end of downtown to the other.
It would be great if tonight, instead of driving to Portland, I could take a light-rail line just like the one in the video above now being used in San Diego, California. It could be built at Bath Iron Works or at a new facility on the grounds of the closing Brunswick Naval Air Station. Research shows that more jobs would be created for local workers than we will get from testing drones or building Aegis destroyers in our community.
But sadly these ideas were not very welcome last night. The MRRA and their courtiers have their own plans afoot - and remember, they are beholden to no one.
There is a secret nuclear facility in the Middle East producing plutonium which has the capacity to make 10 nuclear warheads a year.
It is Israel's ongoing nuclear weapons production that drives the nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Saddam wanted a bomb because Israel had one. The Iranians were then worried both about an Iraqi and an Israeli bomb. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others are annoyed at their geostrategic helplessness in the face of Israeli nukes.
Isn't it more than interesting that no one in the US political class ever talks about the nukes in Israel. And Israel refuses to sign the UN's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Please note that no American politicians are suggesting that Israel should allow international inspections of their nuclear facilities or that they should be bombed for remaining secret.
Why is this double-standard at work?
In Pittsburgh last week a G 20 protester was snatched by the cops (or was it the military?). One might call it a kidnapping. Was this done to send a message to the protest movement in the US? Was it a sign of things to come?
One should remember that this happened during the Obama administration. If it had happened under the Bush regime all holy hell would be sounded.
The Washington Post reported: Obama brushed off demonstrations in the city. He said they were mild compared with some in the past at international gatherings.
"I fundamentally disagree with their view that the free market is the source of all ills," he said. "Many of the protests are just directed generically at capitalism. ... One of the great things about the United States is you can speak your mind."
Yeah Mr. Obama, we sure do have the right to speak our mind in the US. Just tell that to the guy that got dragged into the car........what happened to him anyway? Did he get released? Was he a government agent and was this whole thing a set-up just to create fear? What's the story Mr. President? You believe in democracy, don't you?
John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods has argued that American workers do not deserve a health care system. We believe that health care should be affordable for everyone, not just rich people. So Mr. Mackey, this video is for you!
This action was organized in Oakland, California.
I had a wonderful day yesterday at the Common Ground Fair just outside of Unity, Maine. The weather was a perfect fall day, sunny and cool, and the crowds were enormous - 26,000 in fact.
The Guardian in the UK reports, "Only a few hundreds protesters took to the streets of Pittsburgh to mark the opening day of the G20 summit of world leaders, but the police were taking no chances.
Sonic weapons or long-range acoustic devices have been used by the US military overseas, notably against Somali pirates and Iraqi insurgents.
But US security forces turned the piercing sound on their own citizens yesterday to widespread outrage. Pittsburgh officials told the New York Times that it was the first time "sound cannon" had been used publicly."
Our government has declared open war on our citizens - at least those of us who disagree with official policy. Peaceful protest in the US is now seen as a declaration of war by the corporate controlled government. They are telling us to submit to their authority......
As the anti-coup resistance approaches 90 consecutive days of civil disobedience the current illegal Honduran government has increased repression in the neighborhoods of the capital city, forcing the poor to fight or starve.
The Obama administration continues to sit on the sidelines and watch (and in many ways encourage) the whole sordid affair.
Something fishy is going on here in Brunswick, Maine.
Author Woody Tasch clearly explains how current models of economic growth depend upon destructive and unsustainable living practices which do not support well being.
We need new economic models and a new consciousness about what kind of spending, job creation, and production would be good for our economy and for the survivability of the future generations.
In other words bold new thinking and the guts to publicly stand up for it.
* Our garden is beginning to fade as fall approaches. The sunflowers are always majestic but the various kinds of squash are my favorite now after we had to pull up all of our tomatoes which were destroyed by the blight.
Mike Papantonio gives a great historical perspective on the current racist right-wing surge to defend the health insurance corporate interests.
While I don't share Papantonio's optimism about Obama, I think he is right-on with the rest of his piece. Worth watching.
Papantonio has a show called Ring of Fire on Air America radio.
Swift Engineering is developing the Killer Bee unmanned aerial vehicle and produced this video animation of the UAV on a mission.
This is the future of warfare.....cheap, "sanitized," and fewer casualties for the "good guys". They need more testing areas for these systems and places like Brunswick, Maine are high on their list.
The signs say "Release the political prisoners"
Three of the South Korean reunification activists remain in prison
Today the newspaper in Brunswick, Maine reported that efforts to turn the closing local Naval Air Station (set to shut down in 2011) into an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight test training center are moving ahead. The local director of the base redevelopment agency told the paper, “We’re certainly going to look at that,” he said. “They’re looking at that right now, and in an area like this, where it’s much more rural, it makes some more sense for us.”
The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict "will likely result in failure," according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.
By Chris Hedges
The X Factor is a television music talent show franchise originating in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for Pop Idol. The competitions, now held in various countries, are contested by aspiring pop singers, and talent filled aspiring performers drawn from public auditions. The "X Factor" of the title refers to the undefinable "something" that makes for star quality. The prize is usually a recording contract (in addition to the publicity that appearance in the later stages of the show itself generates, not only for the winner but also for other highly ranked contestants). The format creator is Simon Cowell who also judges and mentors on the UK series.
Yesterday we witnessed a flurry of emails and articles proclaiming victory after President Obama's announcement that he was going to scrap George W. Bush's plans to deploy missile defense interceptors in Poland and a Star Wars radar in the Czech Republic. There is no doubt that our peace activist friends in those two countries do indeed have reason to celebrate after their hard and determined work to stop those deployments. We also need to recognize and thank the many people around the world who acted in solidarity with them during these past couple years of intensive campaigning.
Click on photo of mural for a larger view
My sister Joan is arriving for a visit tonight and in the morning Mary Beth and I will join her for a six-hour car ride north to Quebec City in Canada. We've never been there and are excited about the trip which will give us a chance to explore a bit of our French-Canadian roots.
* Support for the "Left," the only mainstream political party in Germany that is demanding an immediate withdrawal of Germany's 4,200 soldiers in Afghanistan, rose four points to 14% in the latest poll. The campaign signs for Germany's Left party send a clear message: "Out of Afghanistan!" It's a sentiment widely held by many Germans and has increased since a German commander in Afghanistan ordered an air strike on two fuel tankers, hijacked by the Taliban last week, that left scores of people dead, including civilians.
Actor Charlie Sheen has done a remarkable job of creating a list of fundamental questions about 9-11 that have yet to be answered.
He is addressing these questions to President Obama asking for a new investigation. The questions are included in his letter called "20 Minutes with the President." See it here
I used these same questions on Wednesday evening during the radio show that Peter Woodruff and I do on a nearby Brunswick station. We had Stephen Shaw from Maine 9-11 Truth on the show to discuss the topic. For two hours we played 9-11 music and weaved Stephen's responses to the questions onto the air. He did a fantastic job and we felt good about helping to bring a bit more attention to this still unresolved matter.
9-11 opened the door to endless war for oil and control of pipeline routes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly few in the peace movement will publicly talk about 9-11 even though privately they have strong feelings about the case. For two years after 9-11, in every speech I gave, grassroots activists would always raise the issue during the question and answer sessions after my talks. But the leadership of their organizations would almost always shut down discussions of 9-11 not wanting to be "branded" as conspiracy theorists. The only conspiracy at work was their own silence.
There is no doubt in my mind that this was an inside job. The pancake collapse of the two towers, and then the fall of Building 7 which was not even hit by an airplane, should be enough evidence to convince even the most skeptical. Never in the history of steel framed buildings had there ever been such a collapse because of fires. They were obviously built to withstand fires. They were obviously brought down in a controlled demolition.
On and on the story goes......
We should not let this case die. It was the biggest crime perpetrated against the American people in our nation's history. The criminals are still in power. The criminals are not hiding out in caves in Afghanistan, they are inside the halls of our own government, they are inside our military-oil-congressional-media industrial complex.
Democracy only works when the public has the information and the motivation to demand that truth and justice prevail. It's never too late to start.
