DISGUSTING ODDS & ENDS

Aegis destroyer firing a "missile defense" interceptor

Sea diving women in Gangjeong village on Jeju Island in South Korea. This area will soon be dredged in order to make it possible to bring U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers into the base that is presently being built.

• I had an email from peace movement legend Frances Crowe last night. She was writing about the upcoming Global Network space organizing conference in June. Frances lives in Northampton, Massachusetts and said this: "Have I mentioned to you that Raytheon pays no taxes in Mass. as there is a law that war contractors pay no state tax. Their cheapest missile that they are sending over Libya cost at least $100,000. I talked with the state senator Eldridge today from Middlesex and Worcester districts who said the Progressive Caucus is trying to address this." The corporations get tax breaks at every level - local, state, and federal. It's disgusting. They hold us hostage and take our tax money and declare that they shouldn't have to pay anything. After all they give us endless war and some jobs. What more should we expect?


• Speaking of Libya and war profiteers..... Another friend sent me word of this one: "The Pentagon is estimating that the military intervention in Libya cost an extra $608 million in the first weeks of the operation, a figure higher than originally projected..... through April 4, or for 17 days of the mission." This coming just after the agreement to cut $40 billion more from the hide of social programs because the country is in fiscal crisis. But there is always $$$ available for more war. Equally disgusting!


• There was a large anti-nuclear protest in Tokyo yesterday just as the Japanese government is expanding the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear plant. Journalism professor Karl Grossman, who teaches at State University of New York/College at Old Westbury and has focused on investigative reporting on energy and environmental issues for more than 40 years, has a piece today at Counterpunch called "The Atomic Breeding Grounds". He incorporates the recent statement by the Global Network into the article - particularly our call to shut down the nuclear labs around the nation. Grossman was a founding member of the Global Network and prior to that worked closely with the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and helped report our opposition to the 1989 launch of the Galileo space probe by NASA that carried a large payload of highly radioactive plutonium-238 on-board.


• Underscoring the growing presence of "missile defense" (MD) systems on-board U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers, Reuters reports the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency has announced a planned sea-based test this month that will pit a Lockheed Martin Aegis shipboard combat system and a Raytheon missile interceptor against their first intermediate-range ballistic missile target. The "window" for the Aegis shoot down attempt runs to April 30. The Aegis-equipped ship used in the test will be in the south central Pacific and the ballistic missile target will be launched from Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific. Obama has moved the Aegis MD program to the top of his deployment list and will use the system to surround Russia and China.