GETTING READY TO HIT THE ROAD

• I head to Washington DC in the morning for a talk at the Dorothy Day Catholic Workers house in the evening. Long-time Global Network supporter Art Laffin lives there and is a leading peace activist in the city. Years ago when we held the big protest actions at Cape Canaveral in Florida against plutonium space launches he would come down and help us with non-violence coordination of those risking arrest doing civil disobedience. Art organizes weekly vigils at the Pentagon and White House these days and has probably been arrested hundreds of times over the years for his resistance work against war and nuclear weapons.

• On October 2, as I have previously written, I will take part in the One Nation protest in DC. My earlier analysis of this event seems to be holding true as any promotion that I have seen of it by unions or NAACP never mentions the words war or peace. It is only the peace movement that is talking about that part of the equation. The call is for jobs but one must keep asking where the $$ will come from to create these jobs unless we cut military spending. Peace folks will meet at 10:30 am on Saturday at 14th Street & Constitution Avenue NW in DC for an anti-war feeder march into the larger protest rally. I will be there carrying our Bring Our War $$ Home banner from Maine. I will fly home that evening and get ready for the next leg of my trip.

• On Monday morning I head to Andover, Massachusetts to speak that evening at Merrimack College. The Raytheon aerospace corporation has a production facility in Andover where they work on an assortment of "missile offense" programs. My talk will cover what Raytheon is doing globally to help create the new arms race in space that they are also profiting from in a big way. Their sales in 2009 were $25 billion - they are the federal governments 4th largest contractor.

William J. Lynn III is Obama’s Deputy Secretary of Defense. Mr. Lynn served for six years on the staff of Senator Edward Kennedy as liaison to the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also served as senior vice president of Government Operations and Strategy at Raytheon Company, proof that “good Democrats” can find a comfortable home in the Military Industrial Complex - it’s a bi-partisan endless war system.

• On Tuesday I leave for India where I will be on a tour until October 21. As usual I will do my best to blog while away but it might not always be possible to get Internet service as I move around the country. I'm sure I will be able to do some posting from airports though so I should have some access from time to time. I'll be able to make some observations about the Oct 2 DC protest events before I leave so check in later for that.