WRAPPED IN A FLAG OF DECEPTION

Hillary Clinton wants to be president so badly that she is now wrapping herself in the flag. It was reported this week that she will now be co-sponsoring a bill in the Senate with Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), who is one of the very worst right-wing reactionary folks in Congress. The bill would make it a crime to desecrate the flag. Hillary is doing this to try to win conservative voters to her side. The move shows just how much contempt she has for people. Does Hillary think that conservatives are so stupid that they will rally to her side just because she makes this blatantly political move?

Hillary is also saying it would be "a big mistake" for the U.S. to end the occupation of Iraq. She has told the American people to relax and be patient, we will be in Iraq for a long time. We've been in Korea for 50 years she said last February on Faze the Nation....I heard her with my own ears.

So these are the Democrats....the opposition party......Joseph Biden, John Kerry, Joe Lieberman (who is now considering becoming Bush's next Secretary of War after Rumsfeld resigns after the first of the new year), and many "leading" Dems are saying they would do a better job of running the war in Iraq. And they want my vote? Forget it.

Hillary and the rest of the reactionary Dems think people like me are so desperate that we will settle for anything but Bush....but I don't see much difference. I've spent my entire adult life working to end war....what makes them think that I will just roll over and vote for another version of the same thing?

People in the progressive movement should not fall for this slight of hand by the Dems. We should have more self respect. We need to think long-term right now and demand real change in America. We need to withdraw our support from a political party that ignores the truth and is ultimately a partner in this whole deception.

We should put our energies behind local and statewide candidates that will tell the truth....whether they are good Dems, Greens or Independents. Don't worry if they win or lose. We win by going out and organizing people and showing that there are people out there who will speak the truth. That will give people hope. We need to rebuild this thing from the ground up and quit thinking that electing a compromised president will change things. We've got hard work ahead of us. There is no magic bullet or easy way out of this.

GETTING COMFORTABLE IN IRAQ

We ain't coming home Bush says. We've got to build democracy throughout the Middle East he says.

The December 15 "elections" in Iraq will be a joke. The U.S. and England have a favorite candidate...Iyad Allawi, the secular Shiite who served until this spring as Iraq's interim Prime Minister. Tony Blair has a team of operatives now helping Allawi with his campaign. It will be a rigged deal.

The idea is that if Allawi wins, he'd then ask the U.S. to leave, making Bush the hero back home. But under the rug the U.S. would keep Space Forces operations going inside Iraq, stationed behind the walls of the permanent bases we are now building there. And the Air Force would increase the numbers of bombing runs that will end up killing more innocent civilians. That will help swell the ranks of the insurgency. In the end, the war goes on.

On December 15 I will head north to Bangor to join a rally outside the office of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) who supports the war and refuses to hold a town hall meeting in the state on the war issue. She fears hearing directly from the people she supposedly represents. Count Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) in the same boat.

There is a very exciting growing movement across Maine that is calling on our senators to hold town hall meetings. It is coming up in letters to the editor, visits to their various offices across the state, on cable TV shows, and in other ways as well. This mounting pressure, especially in 2006 when Sen. Snowe must stand for reelection, should be interesting to follow. If you live in Maine give us a hand by calling on our senators to meet with the public. If you live outside of Maine, call on your own Congressional delegation to hold town hall meetings.

Call this toll-free number in Washington to reach your Congressional representatives: 1-888-355-3588

RESISTANCE SPREADS

My friend Bob Anderson in New Mexico sent me this photo this morning. A new billboard, just put up in Farmington, N.M., carries the name of Bob's peace group in Albuquerque. STOP THE WAR MACHINE.

All over America there is growing resistance to endless war. There are new layers of people joining the peace movement. Folks who have never before been actively engaged in anti-war activity now are seeing their loved ones sent to Iraq, they are seeing the maddening amount of money being wasted on war....money that could provide health care and education for their families back home. New middle class, professionals who have wanted to "keep their nose clean," are coming out of the woodwork because they can't stand the lies and deception any longer.

Last week our Maine chapter of Veterans for Peace (VfP) had our monthly meeting. We spent a lot of time discussing the war and the recent Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) call for a withdrawal of U.S. troops into Kuwait. Rep. Murtha feels the troops are worn out and need to be removed from direct contact with the growing native insurgency in Iraq. Rep. Murtha's plan though would keep the U.S. heavily involved in the war by using more air power to bomb Iraqi targets and special opeations troops to run counter-insurgency missions. Our VfP chapter was clear that the peace movement needs to stay away from getting into the whole debate about a timed or phased withdrawal. Our members were strong in saying that we need to stick with the "bring them home now" message.

The U.S. military and economic empire is on a mission. That mission is about controlling the resources of the world (oil and water) and by doing that the U.S. empire will control (or manage) the development of countries like China. This means that the U.S. will never want to come home from Iraq or Afghanistan where new permanent bases are being built. Long-term control of the oil in the Middle East and Central Asia will mean a state of endless war for the American people. The Pentagon is even talking these days about fighting in Africa 20 years from now for their oil. Not a pretty picture for sure.

The number one industrial product of America today is weapons. When weapons are your #1 industrial export, what is your global marketing strategy? We here at home have to call for an end to the war machine.

IT'S SNOWING

It is snowing outside. It's a steady, swirling small-flaked kind of snow. The ground is pretty well frozen after several days of real cold. This snow is likely to stick for awhile. We had snow on Thanksgiving weekend but it all melted within a couple days.

I love the snow in the trees and on rooftops. Life seems to slow down a bit when it snows. Years ago, while living in Florida, I met a guy from Maine who had moved to Miami. We were talking about the differences between the two states. I'll always remember how he described life in Maine. He said when it snows life slows down a bit. It becomes more human. People were not meant to go at full-speed 12 months out of the year, he said. In Florida, with air-conditioning, he felt life there was full-out warp speed year round. I think his observation was profound.

I know it happens to me. I get going at a certain pace and I go mindless. I keep moving, can't sit down for long, have to be checking the e-mails again....have to do some laundry....have to get dinner going before Mary Beth gets home from work...got to check the e-mails again after dinner.....seven days a week.....keep going. Run and check the mail at the post office box. There is a war going on...got to push harder....got to do more to stop the war.

But now it is snowing. I find myself wanting to stand by the window and watch the flakes take their time falling to the ground. They are in no hurry. They don't particularly care where they land. They seem to be enjoying their brief moment of flight through this life. The snow knows nothing about a war and a Bush presidency.

I look out the window and the road has changed from black top to white. It is amazing the power of nature. It can change the color of a road in minutes. But the humans will soon run the noisy gas-hogging snow plows through trying to change the color of the road back to black. For a little while the world slows down, almost stops. I don't want to miss that moment. Let me run back to the window.

A PLAN FOR ENDLESS CHAOS

George W. Bush announced this week that he has a plan to end the war in Iraq. But it was really just more of the same...be patient he told the country, this kind of endless war on terror takes time. We've heard it all before.

The Bush team might play the shell game with us in 2006 by bringing home a few troops but in the end the permanent bases will remain and so will active U.S. engagement for control of Iraq. According to the "strategy plan" document Bush released after his speech this week at the Naval Academy, while the U.S. military presence "may become less visible, it will remain lethal and decisive, able to confront the enemy whereever it may organize."

It was disclosed yesterday that the Pentagon has given a Bush supporter a $100 million contract to plant stories in the Iraq media that have been written by the U.S. military. The Washington-based public relations firm, called the Lincoln Group, is working with the Pentagon's "Special Operations Command" to place favorable stories about the war and rebuilding in the Iraqi media as a way to turn the growing opposition to U.S. occupation around. I guess the hope is that they can do like they do in the U.S. -- influence the public with a compliant and subservient media. So if they have to spend some taxpayer $$$ to pull it off, well why not. It's all for freedom and democracy.

As I was watching the NBC news report on this story last night they concluded the spot by interviewing a journalism professor from a major U.S. university. He commented that if the U.S. wanted freedom and democracy in Iraq, then this program of planting stories and deceiving the people would fundamentally UNDERMINE their development of a truly free media and would UNDERMINE the development of real democracy.

I think the phony media stories though clearly reveal the real U.S. intentions for Iraq. It is not about democracy and freedom. It is about control and domination of the people so the U.S. can extract their oil and water - their primary national resources.

Bush is repeating his lies over and over again in hopes that people will just be worn down and give up - both in Iraq and here at home. We can not, and will not, allow this to happen. Our opposition must grow as the Bush lie machine cranks out even more of its garbage. Now is the time to step on the anti-war pedal and push even harder.

DEMS LOSING GROUND

All across America there are reports that key local activists are losing faith in the Democratic party. (As I travel and speak this topic is one of the top issues that always comes up during the question and answer period.) Folks are joining the Green party or they, like me, become an independent. People have lost faith that the Democrats will stand up against the war in Iraq, against the destruction of social progress, or will fight to keep the right-wing from controlling the Supreme Court. (Among many other issues.)

At the statewide level here in Maine the debate about the future of the Democratic party is intense. On November 28 State Rep. Joanne Twomey of Biddeford resigned from the Democratic party and became an independent. The Democratic majority in the state house is now down to one slim vote. Rep. Twomey has been described as the "heart" of Maine's Democratic party.....so when she pulls out it is a big deal. In her public statement Rep. Twomey said, "I don't know what being a Democrat means anymore. I call myself a Democrat in exile. I have to stand up and tell the people that our party has lost its roots."

Rep. Twomey is known as one person who always stands with the poor and working people in Maine. At a time when corporations have gained greater influence within the Democratic party across the country, Rep. Twomey has been one who has resisted going along to get along.

The Democrats in Maine have not appreciated Rep. Twomey's efforts to keep the party close to its origins. Nor have the Democrats in Maine appreciated those who work as grassroots activists and organize people in the state to keep the party from drifting to the right. As a result the "party of the people" is abandoning the public. As this happens key activists, and now even leaders within the party, are leaving.

What comes next? How can truly progressive people find their way in this political wilderness? The answer I think is that we have to gather ourselves. Those who are Greens, independents, and Dems of good heart must come together and find ways to work together and to promote our core issues. Now is the time for principled people to stand together. The storm is coming that will shake the very roots of democracy in America. We need to stand with people of good will - - back to back.

PLUTONIUM LAUNCH WORKERS STILL ON STRIKE

Boeing Corporation workers at the Florida space center are still on strike over health care and retirement benefit issues. They've been on strike since November 2.

What makes this story important is that these are the very same workers who are normally supposed to be preparing the Atlas launch rocket that is scheduled to lift-off on/after January 11, 2006 with the New Horizons plutonium probe to Pluto. The mission will carry 24 pounds of deadly toxic material on board.

The striking workers have been replaced by management employees and the Florida Today newspaper has reported that the union is concerned that the replacement workers might not have the skills to ensure a successful launch. Already there have been incidents that required investigation by NASA and the Air Force after union workers claimed that Boeing managers were in over their head.

Even in ideal conditions rockets have about a 10% failure rate at the space center. Add radioactive plutonium into the equation and you are asking for trouble.

Protests are now being planned at the space center prior to the launch. Florida residents who are concerned about what could happen after a launch accident are now organizing the planned protest. The NASA Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the New Horizons mission says that there is a 1 in 300 chance of an accident leading to the release of plutonium.

The nuclear industry views space as a new market. Unfortunately, we know that space technology can and does fail from time to time. NASA intends to expand the numbers of nuclear launches in coming years in order to put nuclear-powered bases on the moon and send nuclear rockets to Mars. The military wants nuclear reactors in space to provide power for weapons in the heavens. Would you feel safe with all these nuclear missions being launched from the space center if you lived near it?

Doesn't it make more sense to demand that NASA fund the development of alternative space power sources? Shouldn’t taxpayers demand that NASA not play Russian roulette with the lives of the people?

One serious space nuclear accident would kill the space program and destroy the Central Florida economy and environment. The time has come for the public to intervene on behalf of the future generations.

SHOP TIL THEY DROP

I was watching CNN news last night and they were covering the day after Thanksgiving national shopping craze. They showed folks lined up outside WAL-MART at about 5:00 am and how they rushed the doors once the store opened. In the rush to get in people fell to the floor, were trampled on, and then once inside they began literally fighting with each other over various "sale" items.

Now is it just me or is this not insanity? Is it not absolutely crazy to first of all spend the night outside some store so you can be first in line? Is it not insane to trample others who have dropped to the ground as the crowd makes the mad rush for the door? Is it not totally stupid to get into a fight with other people over the "latest" toy or other such gizmo? Are we not a nation out of control?

At the end of the segment on CNN one young man shopper was quoted as saying that in the end he did not think he "saved as much money as he expected." Hello, don't you know the mega-stores use these tactics of a few sales items to get folks into their stores so they can then take you to the cleaners on the other items!

This is capitalism at its worst. This whole "holiday" shopping thing is a societal sickness. Consuming is the god of our day. Materialism is a symptom of a much deeper sickness in the hearts and minds of the American people. We are a people without a soul. Shopping and consumerism is a band-aid on our aching national psyche.

Boycott the big box stores.....shop at your local mom and pop stores....don't buy junk just to pass on presents because you think it will show people how much you love them....be real and save your money.

SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED

Oh, gee let's go explore Pluto and put bases on the moon. That sounds like fun. I can't wait until we land people on Mars....let's find the origins of life!

CANCEL NEW HORIZONS PLUTONIUM MISSION

NASA plans to launch 24 pounds of highly toxic plutonium (pu-238 & pu-239) on a New Horizons mission to the planet Pluto. The launch is set to lift-off on/after January 11, 2006 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The plutonium will be used in a Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) to convert the heat from the radioactive decay of the plutonium into on board electricity.

We are urging the public (in the U.S. and worldwide) to contact NASA, Congress, and send a Letter to the Editor of your local newspaper stating your opposition to this launch. See contact information below and also key questions to raise. Please help us spread the word to others in your community. NASA and Congress must hear that the public does not support launching more nuclear materials into space.

Write to:

Michael Griffin
NASA Administrator
300 E. Street SW
Washington DC 20546
(202) 358-0000
mgriffin@mail.hq.nasa.gov

U.S. Congressional Switchboard: (Toll-free number) 1-888-355-3588

Important Questions:

1) NASA acknowledges in their Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the New Horizons mission that there is a 1 in 300 chance of an accident resulting in release of the plutonium. In the event of such an accident the EIS states that the deadly plutonium could be carried by winds for a 60-mile radius throughout Central Florida. Clean-up costs for a plutonium accident would range from $241 million to $1.3 billion per square mile.

2) NASA is moving toward a dramatic escalation in the numbers of nuclear launches in the coming years. Everything from nuclear powered bases on the moon to nuclear reactors on rockets to Mars. The Department of Energy (DoE) is now doing a $300 million laboratory expansion in Idaho to produce plutonium for future space missions.

3) The Pentagon has long stated that they will require nuclear reactors to provide power for space-based weapons. NASA says that each of its space missions will now be dual use, meaning military and civilian at the same time. The obvious next question is what is the military application for nuclear power in space?

4) At a time of major fiscal crisis in the U.S. why is NASA using public tax dollars to put the lives of the people on Earth at risk?

5) Why does NASA not invest in development of alternative space power technologies and move away from the use of deadly plutonium?

Thank you for your support.

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell phone)
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org

LATEST TOY FOR CROWD CONTROL

Scientists at Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, N.M. have invented a directed energy weapon that can vaporize water in the human skin. A full-blast wave hitting a body would be unbearable and could be used for crowd control. The weapon is being tested in Iraq and Afghanistan. The program is called "Project Sheriff." Stay tuned for its use in the USA as our job losses grow and people begin to hit the streets demanding health care, jobs and a future. The powers that be, as Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld likes to say, "are planning ahead."

FEAR OF WITHDRAWAL - LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE

Late last night I watched the House of Representatives debate the war and then vote on an "immediate withdrawal" resolution that was disingenously introduced by the Republican leadership. Having been stung by the Rep. John Murtha call for a planned withdrawal, the Repubs thought they'd go one step better and challenge the Dems to vote on an immediate withdrawal. In the end the vote was 403-3 to defeat the resolution, as both Repubs and Dems alike spoke out against it. The three Dems who did vote for an immediate withdrawal should be remembered - Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), and Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA).

Some of the key things that came out during the debate were that there is a growing number of troops, both in Iraq and in the military hospitals in the U.S. after being wounded, that are speaking out about the war. Another is the growing talk about the military falling apart as they are stretched beyond the breaking point. And finally, even with all the massive amount of money the Pentagon has been receiving for the war, they are now saying it is not enough money and that they will need a huge amount more to replace equipment that is falling apart as a result of the war. Where will the money come from?

The Dems are slowly creeping up, and I stress the word slowly, on supporting a planned withdrawal. But even Murtha's plan just calls for a pullout of troops into Kuwait so they can quickly be redeployed if things don't go well after we left Iraq. In addition the Murtha plan calls for a rapid-deployment force to do quick preemptive strikes back into Iraq whenever necessary so in the end the war would continue - the difference being that we'd do it from a bit of a distance. No real solution. The peace movement should not grab onto this sinking ship of a plan.

Rep. Murtha said during the debate last night that his phone calls were coming in at a rate of 4-1 in favor of a withdrawal. He said the American people are ahead of the politicians. About that he is right. Unfortunately only 3 members of the House reflected that in their vote last night on the withdrawal resolution.

CHENEY - DISHONEST & REPREHENSIBLE

Dick Cheney has joined the campaign to attack, attack, attack any critics of the administration's war policy. In recent days he has been calling any criticism of the war "dishonest and reprehensible."

Just yesterday long-time war hawk, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) called the war unwinnable and concluded that "we have become a catalyst for violence." Some years ago, on a anti-Star Wars lobbying trip to Washington, I met with Rep. Murtha's staff in his DC office. All over the walls he had photos of weapons systems, model planes and ships on all the desks...the man is a real drummer for the military industrial complex. I heard a few of his remarks on TV last night and he talked about how the war was tearing the military apart. My guess is that there is a simmering mutiny in the ranks of the military and that he is giving voice to it. He mentioned that many troops are now on their third assignment to Iraq. This is what is forcing many GI's to want out and my guess is that Murtha's loyalty to the military is such that he feels he must speak out about Iraq or face having the military services internally torn to shreds.

The Bush crew is showing that they are going to play out their hand. They have gone this far, staked their careers on this occupation for oil in Iraq, and are determined not to back down. And they will keep slinging hash at any of their critics that dare speak up. One Bush supporter, Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), yesterday accused the Dems of making "shameful statements" and said the Dems have "cooperated with our enemies and are emboldening our enemies."

The Bush bunch are trying to rally their ever-shrinking base but this strategy is doomed to failure. The country is onto their game now and in time the opposition is only going to grow. The peace movement must step on the gas now - escalate our anti-war activity like never before.

All of the Dems are not to be trusted. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) said on the news last night that he disagreed with Rep. Murtha on the question of pulling out of Iraq. Retired Gen. Wesley Clark (a Democratic party presidential candidate in the last election) agreed with Sen. Kerry saying "you have to still work the problem." Translation - the U.S. can't cut and run from Iraq. Not much different from the Bush program.

The South Korean government has announced that they will bring 1/3 of their present troops in Iraq home in the near future. They made this announcement while Bush was in their country. This is an obvious testament to how unpopular Bush is in South Korea.

In the end the peace movement must press to cut all funding for the war. It is one thing to say bring the troops home and then vote for the funding to wage the war. The determining factor, just like with the Vietnam War, is that wars end when Congress cuts the money. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) has introduced legislation to prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to deploy U.S. troops to Iraq. We must build awareness and support for this legislation. And we need to force the Dems to have to choose between guns and butter. We can't have both.

BUSH FLYS THE COOP

The Senate debated a bill yesterday to establish a time-table to end the war. Since Republicans control the Congress it did not pass though a weakened Republican drafted version, calling on Bush to begin to do more frequent reporting to Congress on the war, indicates that even the war-thumping Repubs are beginning to fear the next election.

Bush has just flown the coop again and is doing an extended tour of the Asian-Pacific region. He knows he has to get out of the country in order to try to repair his sagging poll numbers. Support for the war is at an all time low. The more he opens his mouth, the worse his numbers get. Maybe being on the other side of the world, looking presidential, will help his advisors must figure.

The war is not going well. As of today 2,069 U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq with 15,568 GI's wounded in action. The war has now cost U.S. taxpayers $300 billion - money that will not be now available for home heating assistance this winter, health care, hurricane relief, education, and the like.

Increasing numbers of U.S. troops, and their families, are speaking out against the war. Many GI's have become disillusioned as they witness first-hand that the rhetoric about "freedom" in Iraq does not match up with the reality of U.S. torture and killing of legions of innocent civilians.

This was supposed to be a high-tech war from a distance. A computer terminal kind of war where the U.S. military did not have to get their "hands dirty". But the reality of the occupation has been a different story. The Iraqi's, not ready to hand over the country to an occupation for oil, increasingly fight back just as Americans would do if a foreign power had attacked and occupied our nation.

Bush's war to control the oil of the Middle East is not going as expected. Or maybe it is. Maybe when Bush warned the American people to "Be patient...it is going to be a long, long war" - maybe he meant it. Maybe Bush knew that the only way he could justify creating permanent bases in Iraq was if the entire country was a mess, in chaos. Then he could make the case that we can't "cut and run" because if the U.S. military was to leave there would be a bloody civil war.

Well now we have a bloody civil war and our troops are right in the middle of the mess. Many of the GI's have been there two or even three times. The odds of them getting home safe and sound dimish with each IED or mortar attack.

The time has come for the Congress to demand that the troops come home. Let Bush and Cheney and the rest of their Congressional team go take up arms in Iraq if they want to. My guess is that they'd fly the coop pretty fast if they had to serve there.

BUSH THROWS MUD

Back home in Maine after a wonderfully successful trip to Florida. My last talk in Deland at the DaVinci Caffe was really fun and the place was packed with veteran activists, church folks, and students and faculty from nearby Stetson University. Very well received.

While in Florida it became clear that the Bush bunch had decided that they need to fight back to try to stop the downward fall of their poll numbers. So they decided to deceive some more by saying that they did not cheat and lie their way into a war. This won't help them a bit but will just reveal to even more people what an out-of-control pack of scoundrels they really are.....the administration's freefall will likely continue.

Bush's best hope now is another terrorist attack in the U.S. to draw focus away from his own evil doings. Many people are now predicting that the Bush team will create some kind of internal event in the U.S. that will allow them to declare martial law. Do you think such a desperate bunch would be capable of pulling another 9-11? It is hard to swallow but not hard to imagine that the immoral bunch of crooks in the White House would do something like that. What else are they to do? Do you think Bush would admit he lied about the war, fire Cheney (the real boss), fire Karl Rove, and most of the rest of his cabal?

I saw one very funny e-mail the other day that said they had a sure way to get rid of Bush. Someone, the e-mail pleaded, just give Bush a blow job!

MOM HAS IT RIGHT

I am visiting my mom in Titusville, Florida and when I arrived last night one of the first things she did after I walked in the door was comment on the oil corporation executives being called before Congress yesterday. Mom, not one who follows politics closely but has always had to struggle to stretch a dollar, was clearly showing joy about the fact that big oil was having to explain themselves to the public. She said, "They even interrupted regular shows on the TV to tell the story." As I was driving up to Titusville from south Florida I heard on the radio that the oil execs were given $3-$4 million bonuses in recent times to reward them for the massive profits they have brought in. I heard one oil boss say on the car radio that they "have to be responsible to their investors." Yeah, right.

Then this morning, after looking at the front page of the local newspaper, mom freaked about the headline announcing a 19% increase in electricty approved by the state for the Florida Power & Light Corporation who wants to pass on their increased fuel costs. When we walked down the street so she could pay her monthly $174 electric bill she complained the whole way and when she took me across the street to visit with neighbors she brought up the increase to them as well. "How am I going to afford this?," she asked. Her husband died recently and she struggles to make it on a meager $11,000 a year social security income.

This is the reality for a growing number of people these days. Prices of virtually everything going up and people are wondering how they are going to make it. What are the politicians doing now to help them? More tax cuts for the super rich? Won't help mom.....more give-a-ways to the multi-national corporations who are moving jobs out of the country? Won't help mom..... Price of health care and medicine going up? Won't help mom who is a heart patient and reliant on expensive drugs.

My mom, the lifelong Republican, is against the Iraq war. She literally hates Bush....she is fed up with the politicians....she believes both parties are corrupt. Who is she to turn to for relief? Who supports her and other working class and poor people?

Mom has it right....the Repubs and Dems are selling her out to the big corporations.

DOWN IN HURRICANE ALLEY

I am in South Florida on a short speaking tour and witnessing the aftermath of a harsh hurricane. I spoke today in Delray Beach at the county civic center and it was not certain until just a couple days ago that the building would be open and available to the public. The air conditioner was not working so the place was cooled by huge, and very loud, industrial fans. I spoke to the Citizens for Social Responsibility, the one group in the entire world that I have spoken to more times than anyone else. During my 15 years working with the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice they had me speak to them nearly every year and since I left there in 1998 they still have me back quite often. Today I learned that my dear friend Nap Kaplan, one of the founders of the group, had recently died, not long after his beloved wife Grace had passed on.

I flew down last night from Pease, N.H. into Sanford, Florida on a $135 round-trip flight on Alliant airlines. I can see why it was so cheap as the toilet would not flush on the plane, the seats were jammed together closer than most airlines, and they even were charging $2 for a bottle of water - which I skipped. I then rented a car and drove as far south as I could before I got too tired to keep going. I made it to Vero Beach and got to bed at 1:00 am.

From the Delray Beach talk I speak on Wednesday in West Palm Beach and then head up to visit my mom in Titusville before speaking at Daytona Beach Community College on Friday and in Deland on Saturday.

At each stop I will be sure to mention NASA's planned launch of plutonium from the space center next January. The New Horizons mission to Pluto will once again be using the controversial and dangerous nuclear generators on-board.

On Sunday, just before flying back to Maine I will have the great pleasure of meeting Will Park for BBQ in the Orlando area. Will is the artist who illustrated my book and has done political art for my work for the past 20 years or more. Can't remember when we started working together but it seems like we've been collaborating forever. Before leaving Maine yesterday I dropped the Global Network's latest Space Alert! newsletter off at the mailing house and the front page cartoon is one done by Will. Our tradition, when I used to live in Orlando, was to meet for a BBQ lunch fairly often where we'd discuss the state of political affairs in the U.S. Will told me today he'd discovered a new BBQ joint with a buffet that he wants me to check out - fried okra, collard greens, the works he said. Can't wait.

People here say that folks are still stunned from the never ending cycle of hurricanes that have hit Florida hard the past couple of years. Those who recognize the impact of global warming are preparing for more of them in the years to come. Trees are down all over the place and piles of trash are set up by the road in front of many homes. Furniture, stoves, and other such things are included in the trash piles so it is clear that there was severe interior damage to many places.

It is now estimated that more than 27,000 housing units are uninhabitable in South Florda. Particularly hard hit are migrant farmworkers who have lost as much as $50 million in wages due to hurricane Wilma. The storm has affected up to 100,000 farmworkers. Hundreds of farmworkers homes, destroyed in last year's four-storm season, were never rebuilt. They are surviving by cramming 20 people into one trailer.

WHAT'S A TV WORTH?

We are told that the people own the airwaves. We are told that the vehicle of TV, used by the corporations as an instrument of social control and a fantastic merchandising mechanism, must fairly and honestly be used to the benefit of all the people.

Sadly though, like so much else in our land, TV has been used and abused to sell not only products to the public, but in more recent times we've seen how TV can be used to sell wars and the expensive weapons that go with them.

Then after the lies are told to create a war, the TV must be used to cover up the lies. So more lies are heaped on top of the original sins and on we go. The people, knowing that they are being lied to begin to trust no one and give up hope that their government can ever be changed. People, whose very own lives are increasingly controlled on some level by multi-national corporations, begin to fear the powers that be as much as the feudal peasant feared the noblemen inside their castles, protected by moats and well-equipped armies.

As my mother often says, "You can't beat city hall." This was learned by years of witnessing the smashing of idealism in the body politic to the point where people now see expressions of democracy and justice as quaint and meaningless.

The lies are so frequent and so blatant that people's ability to feel outrage at those who decieve us are almost gone. The hardened heart becomes protection - don't expect justice, don't expect truth, don't expect real democracy and you won't have your heart broken again. Don't bother with politics, it's a dirty game and a waste of time we tell each other.

In the old Soviet Union the joke was that if you wanted to move up the ladder you had to join the party. Party membership increased the chances for better apartments, more food, a better job. Go along to get along.

In the United States of America the fact is that people have learned a similar lesson. If you want success, if you want to climb the corporate ladder, you have to learn to look away. You have to learn to kill the feelings of outrage. Keep your mouth shut when your president lies and drags your country into a war. Turn the other way when your government drains the federal treasury to enrich the big corporations, enriches the weapons makers, puts people in jail without trail, tortures the innocent in hidden detention centers around the world. Learn to look away (mumble angry things if you must, go vote for tweedle-dum every election day)but do look away. If you want to be liked by your neighbors then you must learn to kill the rage inside.

The worst lie of all is that the American people are the best people in the world. That America is an exceptional nation. This lie, stacked on top of all the horrid other lies, gives the people the internal justification they need to continue on each day with business as usual. "Well, there is no place better than this. This is the best country in the world, so my notions about democracy and justice are just naive and foolish. This is the way the world is and I'd just better make the best of it." Oh well, we say to ourselves.....life goes on.

This is the power of the TV. This is what you will find on the TV if you look behind the layers...look behind the illusions....

What is a TV worth? It is worth an entire empire.

NASA PLAYS NUCLEAR RUSSIAN ROULETTE AGAIN

NASA is now preparing to launch another plutonium-powered space probe from the space center in Florida.

Called New Horizons, the spacecraft is scheduled to be launched sometime between January 11 - February 14, 2006. The mission will carry a nuclear generator on-board that will provide power and heat for the instruments as it travels to Pluto.

Striking workers at Boeing were supposed to now be preparing the Atlas 5 rocket to carry the New Horizons probe into space, but replacement workers have taken over the job.

As usual, controversy surrounds the launching of deadly plutonium into space. NASA has in the past acknowledged that if there was a launch pad accident, and a release of the plutonium, winds could carry the highly-toxic substance for a 60 mile radius. Contamination would be found, NASA has admitted, as far west as Orlando and Disney World and as far north as Daytona Beach and south to Vero Beach. In past Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for plutonium missions, NASA has said that such an accident would require permanent evacuation of the population, removal of all buildings, vegetation, animals, and the top 1/2 inch of soil. A nuclear wasteland would have been created.

NASA plays with their accident probability numbers by creating computer programs that limit the possibilities of accidents. They do this as a way to reassure the public that there is no need for concern.

Before the 1997 launch of the controversial Cassini nuclear space mission, the Cape Canaveral City Council invited me to come speak to them about the launch. Cassini, which carried 72 pounds of plutonium-238 on-board, was going to the be "last nuclear launch" the city council had been told the week before by space center officials. So don't worry they were told. I handed city council members a list of NASA nuclear missions that they had on the agenda at that time and told them there were more coming. I suggested they might want to invite space center representatives back to go over the list with them.

NASA, working with the Department of Energy and the Pentagon, are eager to move nuclear power into space. Project Prometheus, the nuclear rocket, is one technology that the military is especially excited about as they will need nuclear reactors to power weapons in space like the space-based laser. NASA and the military are also anxious to put nuclear-powered bases on the moon in order to have the U.S. establish a permanent outpost there in hopes of controlling eventual mining operations for helium-3 and water.

The public must demand an end to the launching of nuclear power in space. Just one accident will make the damage from a hurricane look like nothing.

A SIGN OF LIFE - A SLAP HAPPY DAY

Yesterday, for the first time in what seems like years, we saw a slight sign of life from the Senate Democrats. Led by their leader Harry Reid (D-NV), the Dems invoked a rarely used tactic that allowed them to hold a closed-door session in the senate and for 3 1/2 hours they had at the Repubs, non-violently I presume, demanding a real investigation into the Bush administration's handling of pre-war intelligence.

The Republicans expressed outrage, as could be expected. They claimed to have been blind-sided by the tactic. Republican majority leader, Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) claimed that he would not trust Harry Reid for the "next year and one-half." Wow,
the truth is I won't trust the Repubs for the rest of my life.....

The Republicans are outraged that the Dems stood up for themselves and the country. Like any victim of domestic abuse, the Dems are supposed to just lie there and take the beating. Like any abuser, the Repubs are astonished when the abused stands up and says, "Hold it, stop this.!" Using the abuser/abused image himself, Sen. Harry Reid told the media that, "It's a slap in the face to the American people that this investigation has been stymied." In fact, the slappers even accused the slapees of doing the slapping. Sen. Frist, turning the tables, said he felt "slapped in the face" by Reid.

Truth is both parties need a good smack across their behinds by the American people. Both corrupt parties need a good whack, a shaking up, and a shaking down. But that might be just too much to expect from a populace distracted by the abortion buzz this week.

The Republicans want to ride the abortion issue as long as they can. By appointing Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, a clear "pro-life right-winger," George W. Bush was hoping he could knock the Iraq war and Scooter Libby legal indictments off the front page. There is nothing like a good abortion fight to distract the American people from a war, a massive budget crisis, growing job losses, and more. Now don't get me wrong, I think Judge Alito will be a disaster for all of us. Our constitutional privacy protections will be destroyed with him on the court. But can we get as outraged about the premature "abortion" of over 100,000 Iraqi lives (mostly innocent civilians) from this illegal and immoral war?

Now the question for me is, was yesterday's slap happy event just a one-slap deal or is this a sign the Dems are getting real. I have my doubts. I'd like to be wrong.

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.

BUSY IN COLUMBIA

I began the day in St. Louis doing a wonderful radio talk show interview with a dynamic black woman who is known as a real voice of the community. We tied the hurricane relief fiasco and the growing cost of Star Wars together, showing how wasteful military spending was bleeding our hopes for social progress in the U.S. Yesterday I taped a one-hour radio spot on the NPR station in St Louis. This morning I got a nice e-mail from a man who heard the show while driving to Hannibal, Missouri. It's nice to see such fast results from a radio show. I am now in Columbia, Missouri and was the speaker at a nuclear engineering seminar today at the University of Missouri and followed that with another one-hour radio interview on a community radio station. In the morning I do two classes at the university (political science and peace studies) and then speak at a community event in the evening. The peace community here in Columbia appears to be quite large and active and folks held a pot luck supper in my honor this evening. At the end of the dinner they sang some songs and then my host, peace studies professor Bill Wickersham, made a pitch for folks to buy my book and I sold quite a few of them. All in all a wonderful day.

ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI IN ST LOUIS

I arrived in St Louis Sunday after an early flight out from Portland. After organizing the demonstration Sat. in Brunswick, which was a smashing success with over 300 folks in attendance, I had to get to bed early Sat. night to rest up for this trip. I am doing a week-long speaking tour that began in St Louis on the Mississippi River with a 9/11 Cruise for Peace. We took a riverboat trip two hours long up and down the river. I kept thinking about the folks at the southern tip of the river in New Orleans and how they are suffering these days. I was one of a couple folks who spoke to the large group on the triple-decker riverboat. Then this evening people moved back into the city for a nice dinner together and after that I spoke to them in more detail. I told folks about our protest Sat. in Brunswick and how we had challenged the notion that the Hell's Angels flight team was "family entertainment." I told them about Dexter Kamilewicz who spoke at the rally about his son who has been in Iraq for just two months and has already narrowly missed being killed. Dexter told us, his son Ben, is describing the conditions of the Iraq people as being similar to conditions in New Orleans. Little water, sewage in the streets, little electricity, and growing hatred for the American occupation of their land. Ben tells his parents to keep protesting and bring the troops home. After St. Louis I head on to Columbia and Kansas City, Missouri and then on to Wichita and Salina in Kansas. Will try to send some updates as I move along. Best wishes to all.

AIR SHOW GIVING US THE BLUES

The Hell's Angels are flying over our heads right now, getting ready for this weekend's "show" here in Brunswick. Our protest plans have been front page in the local papers several times during the past week. The Maine Veterans for Peace protest claims that the airshow is not "clean family entertainment" as it is sold to the public. Instead we claim it is a recruiting gimmick to attract young people into the military at a time they are having more difficulty with enlistment levels. Even the local paper here in Brunswick acknowledged this yesterday when they printed that the Navy flight team was created in 1946 by Adm. Chester Nimitz, then chief of Naval Operations, as a "flashy recruiting tool, particularly in the nation's heartland." Many people are wondering about the massive waste of fuel at the air show, just following the pronouncement by G.W. Bush that we should not "fill our tanks unless we really have to." At this time of imposed austerity, following the tragic hurricane, shouldn't the "Great State of Maine Airshow" be cancelled? The Hell's Angels should be grounded. The Sept 10 protest begins at 9:00 am with a march from the downtown Brunswick gazebo out to the Navy base main gate where a rally will follow.

THE NATURAL GUARD

Experts predict more and harsher natural disasters in coming years - in part because of global warming. Instead of spending over $500 billion a year on endless war to benefit corporate globalization, wouldn't it make more sense to transform our offensive military into "The Natural Guard"? Their job would be to intervene quickly in natural disasters, helping to save folks from calamities like the New Orleans hurricane. Don't you think the troops would feel better about that mission, rather than killing innocent civilians in Iraq on behalf of Haliburton and the oil corporations? As the nation begins to debate "what went wrong" in New Orleans, maybe we should also introduce the notion of The Natural Guard.

TESTING THE NUCLEAR ROCKET?

NASA and the Department of Energy (DoE) are moving forward with plans to develop the nuclear rocket (Project Prometheus). DoE has three sites in mind to field test the nuclear engines - White Sands Missile Base, N.M.; the Nevada Test Site, and the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. The obvious problem is that radioactive exhaust could be released into the atmosphere after testing. The whole plutonium production process at DoE labs is also problematic. DoE has a horrible track record in this regard. Then finally there is the possibility of a launch failure that could see the nuclear rocket falling back to Earth similar to the Russian Mars '96 mission that never achieved proper orbit and fell back to Earth burning up on reentry. The spacecraft spread deadly plutonium over the mountains of Chile and Bolivia at the time. We say NO to the nuclear rocket!

COMFORTABLE WITH A HORSE'S REAR-END

The three thieves at work - what does Bill Clinton get in return for his endorsement of the Bush hurricane follies?........ It has come to the public's attention, via NBC news last night, that FEMA director Mr. Brown's previous employment was as director of the Arabian horse association. He was quoted on the evening news a couple of days ago saying he knew nothing about the thousands stranded at the New Orleans convention center. No wonder Bush picked him to run the nation's emergency management agency. He's comfortable with a horse's ass.