U.S. MOVING TO MANAGE CHINA

Japanese peace activists protest U.S. deployment of Aegis destroyers (outfitted with Theatre Missile Defense systems) the last Sunday of every month. The U.S. is now in the process of deploying 10 Aegis destroyers (built at Bath Iron Works in Maine) at the huge Yokosuka navy base. The ships will be used to surround and provoke China.

Because China's economic growth will challenge the U.S.'s status as world "big dog," the Pentagon is now moving to double military operations in the Asian-Pacific region. This military encirclement of China, with Aegis destroyers along the Chinese coast based in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and new U.S. bases in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and others), will provoke a new arms race with China. China today has 20 nuclear missiles capable of hitting the west coast of the U.S. The U.S. nuclear arsenal now has about 7,500 nuclear weapons. Is China likely to attack the U.S. with 20 nuclear missiles? Is China likely to want to go to war with the U.S. at the very time that virtually every product in U.S. stores is made in China?

Why then does the U.S. feel it necessary to militarily encircle China? Could it be about oil? Could it be that a growing economy in China will need more of the world's declining supplies of oil (peak oil)? Could it be that if the U.S. controls the oil in the Middle East (which is not used in great quantity by the U.S. but is relied on by the emerging markets in the Asian-Pacific) then it holds the keys to the Chinese economic engine? Roughly 80% of China's energy imports pass through the waters adjacent to Taiwan. Could it be that by dramatically expanding U.S. naval operations near Taiwan (supposed to protect them from China) that the U.S. is making a military move to check-mate China's ability to move oil to their expanding economy?

If a new arms race ensues with China who benefits? Would it be the military industrial complex? Would it be the oil corporations?

We've got to learn to watch the left hand as well as the right hand. The U.S. multi-national corporate shell game is underway. Watch what the U.S. is doing in the Asian-Pacific region. Our friends in the Japanese peace movement are trying to alert us to the dangers of the U.S. military build-up in their region. They are warning the U.S. not to drag the once fascist (and imperialist) Japan back into the great power game. Time to pay attention.

WHY WOULD SCOOTER LIE? TO COVER FOR CHENEY!

Dick Cheney's chief of staff Scooter Libby gets indicted on five counts and the Republicans are now saying, "There is no one suggesting that Bush has anything to do with this matter." Yesterday Bush and Cheney went out to rally their base, and as usual they had to go to the friendly confines of a military audience.

The key question relating to the Libby indictments is of course - how deeply was Cheney involved in all of this? Did Cheney's chief of staff lie under oath to protect Cheney and Bush? I think the answer is a clear YES!

Let's face it. They were covering up an illegal war and dramatic lies about WMD'S in Iraq. News commentators spent hours yesterday wondering why Libby - "such a brilliant lawyer, who went to Yale, had the best pedigree, why would he lie? Why would he risk such a bright career?" He lied to cover their ass. Simple as that. People with the right pedigree lie in order to cover their deceptions all the time. Welcome to the USA. Welcome to corporate dominated government.

Let's just hope that more of the liars will be brought to justice. It would only be right considering all the damage they have done.

WAR IS OVER - NOBODY WANTS IT

Yesterday peace groups all over the nation held vigils to remember the 2,000 GI's that have now been killed in the tragic war in Iraq and the 15,000 who have been seriously wounded. Also remembered were the 100,000 Iraqi people that have died in this needless and insane war.

In my town of Brunswick, where we hold regular Friday afternoon vigils at the town square, we had 40 people turn out. On a good day we normally get 15. The number of horn honks yesterday was quite revealing as we see growing numbers of the public turn against this war that has now cost the U.S. more than $300 billion.

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) has just announced that he will introduce legislation in the House of Representatives to cut off further funding for the war. This legislation deserves the strong support of all Americans who oppose the war. Please contact your congressional delegation and demand they support Rep. McGovern's effort.

Yesterday over 175 folks gathered in downtown Portland, Maine as well. One of our local peace group members, Dexter Kamilewicz of Orr's Island, was there and was featured in an article in the local paper this morning. Dexter said the tragic milestone shows a democracy in the breakdown lane.

Dexter, whose son Ben is serving in Iraq with the Vermont Army National Guard, said he met several parents of active-duty military personnel at the recent September 24 antiwar protest in Washington.

He said they told him that they were disillusioned by an apparent lack of progress in Iraq and what they view as indifference to their concerns by those in power.

"Our members of Congress just sit by in silence without questioning, and approve the continuing slaughter and waste of money," Kamilewicz said. "We're just going to continue to pay a huge, huge price if we don't stop this war."

The time has come for the American people to step-up our protest of this war for oil. If we don't it won't be long before we gather to vigil in rememberance of the 4,000th GI killed in Iraq. Speak up, speak out now!

NEW YORK TIMES MUST MAKE AMENDS FOR WAR PROMOTION AND COVERUP

The New York Times is reeling from the revelation that reporter Judith Miller (on left in photo above) not only lied about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but was involved in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Not yet fired by the Times, Miller has now acknowledged that she was involved in discussions with Vice President Cheney's chief aid Scotter Libby about Plame even before the Bush team disclosed that Plame was a CIA agent. This fact shows that Miller was not only involved in the selling of the illegal war in Iraq but was also involved in the coverup.

For the New York Times to have a reporter involved in the selling and coverup of a war is a massive betrayal of the public trust by a media outlet. The Times should immediately fire Miller and should do a front-page apology to the American people and the rest of the world for their crucial role (as America's newspaper of record) in creating justification for the war. In addition, the Times must call for an immediate withdrawal from the war and must call for the legal prosecution of all those implicated in the selling and coverup of the war. And that includes Judith Miller and anyone else at the Times that played any role in the scandal. How can anyone ever believe anything the Times ever prints again unless they purge themselves from the outrageous relationship their paper has forged with the war-making machine of the Bush Pentagon?

I urge you to join me in writing a letter to the New York Times calling on them to take these steps to make good to the public.

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!

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.

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?

MOTHERS OF GI'S JOIN READING OF NAMES

We had over 40 people join us yesterday in Biddeford for our reading of the names of the Iraqi war dead in the office of Sen. Olympia Snowe. It took 6 1/2 hours. We asked her staff what they will do when it soon will take us 8 hours or more to read the names. Will you stay with us as we run into the night we asked? Why won't the senator, who was elected to represent the people, agree to a town hall meeting on the Iraq war? This is not supposed to be a country ruled by kings and queens and lords and ladies we said....we are supposed to have a democracy where the people make decisions about how our tax dollars should be spent and when we go to war. The staff director of the office tried to pretend that they were thrilled we had stopped in....but in fact we were a pain in the ass all day long as we spread our Iraqi war cloth out across their floor and they were climbing over bodies all day long trying to get to the copy machine....at least for one day this office felt the war had come home to them. Two mothers of GI's were with us - one who has a son now in Iraq and the other who has a son soon to go. A third parent in our group had a son return from Iraq a couple of months ago. We are determined to continue reading the names. We all must find ways to stretch ourselves a bit - doing something that is beyond our normal political boundaries.

SIXTH READING OF NAMES PLANNED IN MAINE

On Friday I will be organizing our sixth occupation of a congressional office in Maine where we read the names of the Iraq war dead. This time we will enter the Biddeford office of Sen. Olympia Snowe and read the names of dead American GI's and an equal number of innocent Iraqi civilians. We expect the reading to take just over six hours. We will have folks coming from throughout the state, from many different peace groups, to participate in the action. As we read each name an X will be marked on a large banner representing each person. We will also read a statement to the staff of the senator demanding a public town hall meeting on Iraq. So far our two Republican senators refuse to face the public on this issue. The U.S. is now spending $6 billion a month on the Iraq war. As of today, 1,965 GI's have lost their lives during the war to control Iraq's oil.

BACK FROM GREAT BRITAIN

Just got back yesterday afternoon from a wonderful trip to Great Britain. The nine-city (town) trip was arranged by GN member Dave Knight who drove me over 1,500 miles from Leeds to London and then on to Glasgow in Scotland and then back to Yorkshire. In all I spoke to a couple hundred people, did interviews on radio (including BBC), and saw wonderful rolling green countryside lined with stone walls and stone homes built hundreds of years ago. The picture above is of the U.S. space spy satellite base at Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire where I spoke in the rain last Saturday at a protest organized in conjunction with Keep Space for Peace Week. Then the next day, Sunday, Dave took me out to the moors where we joined a tree planting within earshot of the Fylingdales U.S. radar system that is being upgraded for Star Wars. A weekend peace camp was set up just outside the gate at Fylingdales and I was asked to plant the tree in memory of an American jazz musician who had moved to the area years ago and had recently died. He was a long-time supporter of the many peace camps and demonstrations at Fylingdales.

While on the trip, during the Q & A following my talks, I was always asked why the American people allow the U.S. to go around the world doing preemptive military invasions, and now sit back and watch plans for domination of space. How do the American people respond to your message I was asked over and over again? What are they doing to stop this "nonsense?" How can they let Bush get away with this? Why does the U.S. think they have the right to destroy the U.N.? Why don't Americans speak out more about corporate globalization?


I had answers for each of these questions, as you can imagine. But how would you answer them if you had been in my shoes? What would you tell a room of questioning Brits? How would you respond when asked why Americans let the corporations take over our democracy?

SINGING ALONG WITH RAY DAVIES

Am on my way to Coventry for a talk this evening. After arriving early Saturday morning in Manchester, on an overnight flight from Boston, I made it just on time to a one-day Keep Space for Peace conference being held at the Leeds Metropolitan University. Was a good event, with great discussion, and it is refreshing to see a strong regional group of people who understand the space issue and stay committed to it. With the U.S. space bases, Menwith Hill and Fylingdales, up here in Yorkshire there is much to keep people busy.

Last night my friends took me two-hours north to see my favorite musician Ray Davies perform in Newcastle. Ray, the singer/songwriter extraordinare of The Kinks fame, started the show with the song "I'm Not Like Everybody Else." Mixing old hits and new songs (from a soon to be released new album) it was a wonderful night inside the Victorian Journal Tyne Theatre. I ended my new book, Come Together Right Now, with two of Ray's songs. I had only seen him perform once before...probably 15 years ago inside an arena in Lakeland, Florida. So last night was up-close and personal and quite wonderful. I'll be singing for days to come.

SPACE SPEAKING TOUR THROUGH UNITED KINGDOM

I leave on Sept 30 for a speaking trip to the United Kingdom during Keep Space for Peace Week. I will be gone until Oct 11 and the trip will take me all over England and to Scotland and Wales. While there I will meet with members of parliament in London and with members of the Welsh assembly in Cardiff. The tour is being organized by the UK's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). CND has made Star Wars one of their top issue priorities and former CND chair (and current Global Network advisory committee chair) Dave Knight will accompany me on the trip. While in Yorkshire we will attend demonstrations at two key U.S. Star Wars bases - the top-secret spy satellite base at Menwith Hill that intercepts all phone, fax, and e-mail communication from throughout Europe and the Fylingdales radar facility that sits on the moors. Both bases are now being upgraded for participation in Star Wars. While on the trip I might not get to make many posts on the blog but will do what I can.

ETAN THOMAS SLAMS IT IN DC

The Speech Everyone Is Talking About: Etan Thomas
Etan Thomas Electrifies Anti-War Washington

by Dave Zirin

Every generation the wide world of corporate sports produces an athlete with the iron resolve and moral urgency to step off their pedestal and join the fight for social justice. A century ago, it was boxer Jack Johnson, flaunting, as WEB DuBois put it, "his unforgivable blackness." In the 1930s, "the Brown Bomber" Joe Louis and track star Jesse Owens took turns spitting in Hitler's eyes, and Mildred Babe Didrikson continued to show that a woman could be the equal - if not superior - of any man. In the 1940s and 50s, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and the Brooklyn Dodgers advanced the cause of civil rights through the transgressive act of the multi-racial double play. In the 1960s, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, David Meggyesy, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos showed how mass struggle could ricochet into the world of sports with electric results. In the 1970s, Billie Jean King used a wicked forehand, and took to the streets, to demand equal rights for women, and Curt Flood showed the labor movement - and the bosses - how to go from crumbs to a bigger piece of the pie. In the 1980's Martina Navratilova came out of the closet and onto center court, with her girlfriend on her sinewy arm in plain view of all.

Today we may just have a figure to join their ranks in the NBA's Etan Thomas. Regular readers of this column will know that I have interviewed the Washington Wizards' Power Forward on numerous occasions and highlighted his views on everything from the death penalty to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. He is also the author of a book of poems called More Than An Athlete.

But this past weekend, Etan made a play for pantheon status. Etan took it to that Ali level, by delivering a blistering poetical speech as part of the weekend's antiwar demonstrations in Washington DC. His contribution, which was played in its entirety on Democracy Now!, is being hailed as "the best of the day" in various nooks and crannies of the blogosphere.

Here is the transcript. Read and pass it along - it has the power to topple tyrants.

"Giving all honor, thanks and praises to God for courage and wisdom, this is a very important rally. I'd like to thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts, feelings and concerns regarding a tremendous problem that we are currently facing. This problem is universal, transcending race, economic background, religion, and culture, and this problem is none other than the current administration which has set up shop in the White House.

In fact, I'd like to take some of these cats on a field trip. I want to get big yellow buses with no air conditioner and no seatbelts and round up Bill O'Reilly, Pat Buchanan, Trent Lott, Sean Hannity, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Bush Jr. and Bush Sr., John Ashcroft, Giuliani, Ed Gillespie, Katherine Harris, that little bow-tied Tucker Carlson and any other right-wing conservative Republicans I can think of, and take them all on a trip to the 'hood. Not to do no 30-minute documentary. I mean, I want to drop them off and leave them there, let them become one with the other side of the tracks, get them four mouths to feed and no welfare, have scare tactics run through them like a laxative, criticizing them for needing assistance.

I'd show them working families that make too much to receive welfare but not enough to make ends meet. I'd employ them with jobs with little security, let them know how it feels to be an employee at will, able to be fired at the drop of a hat. I'd take away their opportunities, then try their children as adults, sending their 13-year-old babies to life in prison. I'd sell them dreams of hopelessness while spoon-feeding their young with a daily dose of inferior education. I'd tell them no child shall be left behind, then take more money out of their schools, tell them to show and prove themselves on standardized exams testing their knowledge on things that they haven't been taught, and then I'd call them inferior.

I'd soak into their interior notions of endless possibilities. I'd paint pictures of assisted productivity if they only agreed to be all they can be, dress them up with fatigues and boots with promises of pots of gold at the end of rainbows, free education to waste terrain on those who finish their bid. Then I'd close the lid on that barrel of fool's gold by starting a war, sending their children into the midst of a hostile situation, and while they're worried about their babies being murdered and slain in foreign lands, I'd grace them with the pain of being sick and unable to get medicine.

Give them health benefits that barely cover the common cold. John Q. would become their reality as HMOs introduce them to the world of inferior care, filling their lungs with inadequate air, penny pinching at the expense of patients, doctors practicing medicine in an intricate web of rationing and regulations. Patients wander the maze of managed bureaucracy, costs rise and quality quickly deteriorates, but they say that managed care is cheaper. They'll say that free choice in medicine will defeat the overall productivity, and as co-payments are steadily rising, I'll make their grandparents have to choose between buying their medicine and paying their rent.

Then I'd feed them hypocritical lines of being pro-life as the only Christian way to be. Then very contradictingly, I'd fight for the spread of the death penalty, as if thou shall not kill applies to babies but not to criminals.

Then I'd introduce them to those sworn to protect and serve, creating a curb in their trust in the law. I'd show them the nightsticks and plungers, the pepper spray and stun guns, the mace and magnums that they'd soon become acquainted with, the shakedowns and illegal search and seizures, the planted evidence, being stopped for no reason. Harassment ain't even the half of it. Forty-one shots to two raised hands, cell phones and wallets that are confused with illegal contrabands. I'd introduce them to pigs who love making their guns click like wine glasses. Everlasting targets surrounded by bullets, making them a walking bull's eye, a living piñata, held at the mercy of police brutality, and then we'll see if they finally weren't aware of the truth, if their eyes weren't finally open like a box of Pandora.

I'd show them how the other side of the tracks carries the weight of the world on our shoulders and how society seems to be holding us down with the force of a boulder. The bird of democracy flew the coop back in Florida. See, for some, and justice comes in packs like wolves in sheep's clothing. T.K.O.'d by the right hooks of life, many are left staggering under the weight of the day, leaning against the ropes of hope. When your dreams have fallen on barren ground, it becomes difficult to keep pushing yourself forward like a train, administering pain like a doctor with a needle, their sequels continue more lethal than injections.

They keep telling us all is equal. I'd tell them that instead of giving tax breaks to the rich, financing corporate mergers and leading us into unnecessary wars and under-table dealings with Enron and Halliburton, maybe they can work on making society more peaceful. Instead, they take more and more money out of inner city schools, give up on the idea of rehabilitation and build more prisons for poor people. With unemployment continuing to rise like a deficit, it's no wonder why so many think that crime pays.

Maybe this trip will make them see the error of their ways. Or maybe next time, we'll just all get out and vote. And as far as their stay in the White House, tell them that numbered are their days."

POX AMERICANA - ON BOTH YOUR PARTIES!

George W. Bush hid out in Colorado this past weekend from another hurricane and from a huge anti-war protest in Washington DC. He tried to look engaged, on top of things this time. The nation though is crumbling at the edges as Rome burns. The political-class in DC, both Republicans and Democrats, avoid the people these days. Only two Democratic elected officials (Rep. Cynthia McKinney from Georgia and Rep. John Conyers from Michigan) appeared at the protest in DC. Both parties are complicit in the war and the on-going draining of the federal budget by the military industrial complex. Sure Bush and the neo-cons are leading the pack. But the truth is that both corporate-controlled parties believe in Pax Americana. Both parties believe in American primacy in the world. Both parties support the U.S. military and economic empire. The peace movement must be cautious. It must stay at arms length from the Democratic party because the Democrats, as the momentum for peace grows in the U.S., will try to smother the peace movement and capture the energy from an angry population to benefit them in the next election. Even if the Democrats took power after the next election they would still say "We can't cut and run from Iraq." Even though Hillary Clinton met with anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan last week, Hillary still maintains that the American people have to be patient in Iraq. Hillary maintains that we must remain in Iraq until the job is done. So imagine a herd of horse riders just behind Bush and company in this picture. See the leaders of the Democratic party right behind Bush and his war making team. The time has come for the peace movement to get independent in American politics. Put pressure on all the politicians...they are in this war together!

INT'L WEEK OF LOCAL EVENTS TO KEEP SPACE FOR PEACE

TRIP REPORT - MISSOURI & KANSAS

This report covers the period of September 11-18 as I traveled to Missouri and Kansas for a speaking tour.

My first stop was in St. Louis, MO where I was hosted by the Peace Economy Project, a long-time Global Network (GN) affiliate. Catherine Marquis-Homeyer took me straight from the airport to a 9/11 River Cruise for Peace down the Mississippi River. As I arrived about 150 folks were boarding the riverboat having just finished a peace walk, from the local courthouse, where the famous Dred Scott slavery case was first heard, to the Mississippi River. (In 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed suit for their freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. This suit began an eleven-year legal fight that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a landmark decision declaring that the Scott's remain slaves. This decision contributed to rising tensions between the free and slave states just before the American Civil War.)

During the cruise I was among a couple of people who spoke to those on the boat. A violin quartet performed alongside a theatrical performance of Mark Twain's famous "War Prayer," that was a scathing indictment of the Spanish-American war. A black man, columnist from the local newspaper, spoke about the immediate despair resulting from the St. Louis Circuit Court decision to reject the Dred and Harriet Scott case, but then reminded us that history reveals ultimate victory to those who remain steadfast in their determination for justice. A good lesson at this moment as the peace movement sees only darkness coming from the illegal and immoral war in Iraq.

Following the riverboat cruise the participants were invited to a wonderful dinner at a local venue. I was able to do a full speech to them afterward. My topic throughout this trip was the "Battle for America's Soul" where I laid out some of the history of military-industrial complex corruption, the use of space technology in current plans for military transformation, and the need to admit our national addiction to militarism and war. The way out, I suggested, was a national campaign calling for conversion of the war industry to alternative sustainable technology development (wind, solar, rail).

While in St. Louis I did two radio interviews. One was an hour-long spot on the regional National Public Radio (NPR) station. The next morning following I received an e-mail from a man who was driving past St. Louis on the interstate highway and heard the interview on the radio. He asked to be added to the GN e-mail list. The second interview, with a popular local talk show host, was very special for me. The host, a fiery black woman, had been doing a series of interviews with poor black folks who had fled New Orleans just before hurricane Katrina. One large family of 40 had come to St. Louis and were all staying in the home of a relative. They had no money, no jobs, and had not yet been offered any assistance by the government. As I sat in the radio station waiting room I could see the weariness on the faces of the family members and the sadness as they faced an unknown future. The talk show host and I explored the connections between Star Wars, the war in Iraq, and the impending cost of hurricane relief. How could our government afford to help the people of New Orleans when they were spending nearly $6 billion a month in Iraq and $10 billion a year on Star Wars research and development? The callers that phoned into the station easily got the connections and I was filled with hope as I heard people make the right analysis of our current situation.

My next visit was to Columbia, MO where I was hosted by retired peace studies professor Bill Wickersham. Bill did an incredible job of arranging four presentations for me at the University of Missouri, a progressive oasis in the middle of a conservative "red" state. My first talk was before 50 graduate students at the Nuclear Science & Engineering Institute. I rarely get the opportunity to speak to nuclear engineering students and it went over better than I had expected. During the course of two days at the university I spoke to over 300 students. In addition, Bill arranged for me to do a one-hour radio interview on the local progressive radio station. I was interviewed by Mark Haim, the director of the Mid-Missouri Peace Works group. A pot luck with local activists and a dinner with virtually the entire sociology department at the university topped off one of the best organized visits to any university that I have ever had.

From Missouri I went to another "red" state - Kansas. Here I was hosted by Dr. Manfred Menking, from Physicians for Social Responsibility, in Wichita. Manfred, originally from Germany, is suffering today as he watches the United States do preemptive military attacks on other countries and restrict civil liberties at home - things that frightfully remind him of Nazi Germany. Manfred arranged for me to speak to 80 students at nearby Friends University in Wichita, and then the next day to a good crowd of local peace and justice activists. He also scheduled me to do a cable TV interview with Horace Santry, director of the Peace & Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas. Manfred also was able to get an op-ed I wrote about Bush's plans for offensive space weapons into his local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, while I was there. Wichita is loaded with aerospace industry facilities, including Boeing's work on the Airborne Laser for Theatre Missile Defense (TMD).

My last stop was due north to Salina, Kansas where I was hosted by 91-year-old Veterans for Peace activist Vernon Stevens. Vernon, still very active and looking much younger than his age, had recently been featured with a big story and photo in the Salina Journal after local activists held a solidarity vigil in mid-August on behalf of Cindy Sheehan. Vernon had me come to a morning planning meeting of their local peace group, where we had a good organizing strategy discussion. Later that evening I spoke to a larger group at the local college. Musicians Marty Bates and Janie Stein (Janie's mom had come to Florida in 1987 and was arrested for doing civil disobedience at a protest I organized at Cape Canaveral) sang before I spoke and I stayed at their home later that evening. Once back at their house Marty and I played guitar together, doing an old blues tune, and Janie sang along.

I was impressed by the local activists I met in Missouri and Kansas. Many people wonder what has happened to folks living in the "red" states in America today. What are they thinking? How can they keep voting Republican? Is anyone organizing there these days? I can assure you that there are some very fine folks working extra hard in these two red states today. They are doing all they can to keep things stirred up and get people talking. We must all do what we can to reach out to our friends in the rural and conservative communities across the nation and support their efforts. I was honored to visit with them and contribute a tiny bit to their local peace work.

KANSAS - SAUDIA ARABIA OF WIND

Just got back from Kansas last night after talking in Wichita and Salina. Whole trip went well. While there I learned that Kansas is called the "Saudia Arabia of wind." Folks say the state has huge wind capacity and the funny thing is that it is other countries that are making the big moves to put up wind generators in Kansas. While there I read about a corporation from Spain applying to put up a wind farm in an area just north of Wichita. It's amazing that while the U.S. is off fighting endless war and building Star Wars, it is Japan and Germany that are leading the world in solar. Several European countries (with Denmark in the lead) are showing the way with wind power. Just makes no sense. Why is the U.S. not investing in wind generation in our own country? Why aren't we investing our tax dollars in solar development? Why aren't we building public mass transit that would rival any system in the world?

ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL?

Military operations through the streets of New Orleans look like a war zone. George W. Bush is now saying he feels the pain of the poor and dislocated in the city. He says he will rebuild. But I can't help but wonder - how in the world is Bush going to pay to rebuild New Orleans? Last I heard the U.S. federal budget was in massive debt. We are spending nearly $6 billion a month on the war in Iraq. Halliburton and Bechtel are getting rich off the Iraq war. Now Bush says he wants Halliburton to rebuild New Orleans. Where will the money come from? Does this mean, as my mother always used to say, we are going to rob Peter to pay Paul? Will we cut Medicare and Medicaid, cut education funding, finish off the welfare programs, cut food stamps, and the like? At the same time Bush is talking about totally killing the estate tax on the rich and making the previous tax cuts, that largely benefited the rich, permanent. How can Bush do that and rebuild New Orleans at the same time? Something has to give. Someone has to give. Is Bush going to raise taxes on the rich or bring the troops home from Iraq? Is all this talk about rebuilding New Orleans just more political posturing?

CAN'T EAT THE FISH

Environmentalists in Maine today are releasing a new report that tells the public not to eat several types of fish because of increasing levels of mercury contamination. In their report they say, "Because of mercury contamination, the State of Maine, advises women of childbearing age and young children to avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish, and limit consumption of canned tuna to one 6 oz. can of “white” tuna or two 6 oz. cans of “light” tuna per week. FDA and EPA have similar warnings. The FDA has found that 30-50% of women of child bearing age are not aware of mercury exposure risks."

"Mercury attacks the developing brain of children. It is a dangerous neurotoxin that has been linked to learning disabilities and developmental delays in children, as well as damage to the heart, nervous system and kidneys in adults. Mercury enters the environment from pollution from coal-fired power plants, chlorine production facilities, waste disposal and other sources."

The swordfish and tuna steaks from Maine supermarkets contained the most mercury contamination of similar fish tested in 22 states.

The mercury is coming from oil spewing power generation plants in the mid-west that is carried by winds east to Maine. Add to that the pollution from cars and we find a toxic soup swirling over the nation.

The answer is to move quickly to new sustainable technologies development. Solar, wind power and mass public transit are keys to developing a sustainable future. When we can't eat the fish we should take notice. Time to wake up people...time to come alive....what legacy are we leaving our children?

POSING ON BEHALF OF CORPORATE ELITES

It's interesting to hear that George W. has admitted some kind of responsibility for the chaos in New Orleans. One must wonder if the man will ever take responsibility for his declaration of war in Iraq under false pretenses. Some people say Bush is not really in charge. Some say he is just a figurehead president that is handed a script and performs like an actor. They claim that, as Ralph Nadar often said, that those in power today are multi-national corporations posing as politicians and political parties. I agree with this assesment. Nothing happens in America anymore that is not by and for the corporate elites. What is good for the American people does not matter anymore. It's all about corporate power. Bush is posing as a president when in fact he is a corporate entity.