STAR WARS TEST SET FOR MONDAY

The Pentagon is set to test a satellite on Monday that is part of a program being run by the "Missile Defense Agency". The launch will take place from the NASA Wallops Island Facility in Virginia.

Official news releases say, "The Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) mission involves launching a four-stage Minotaur I rocket carrying a satellite to collect scientific data that will be used to help with the development of future missile defense technology efforts."

First off we have to always remember that "missile defense" is a ruse. The Pentagon sticks the word "defense" on their Star Wars program so the American people, when they might hear the words in between reality TV shows, do not get alarmed. "Oh," the people will say, "I don't need to worry about this because they are protecting us from the bad guys. Honey hand me another bag of chips."

All of these programs are now basically testing space technologies that ultimately will allow the Pentagon to locate targets in space, to hone in on the targets, and then to develop the ability to close on targets and destroy them. Sold as defense, the ultimate goal is offense.

All we need to do is recall the words from the Air Force Space Command's Strategic Master Plan: FY06 and Beyond. In the document the military says, "The ability to gain space superiority (the ability to exploit space while selectively disallowing it to adversaries) is critically important and maintaining space superiority is an essential prerequisite for success in modern warfare."

The document goes on to state, "Simply, we must be able to quickly subjugate any space capability any adversary can field while maintaining our own. This includes the infrastructure and enablers as well as the 'pointy end of the spear.'"

The bottom line is this NFIRE test is one more important step in testing the technology that will some day allow the U.S. military to place offensive "spears" in space. Thus preemptive attack on other nation's space assets will become a high priority for the Pentagon as they seek to "control and dominate space."

The Pentagon has long bragged that Star Wars will be the largest industrial project in the history of the planet Earth. Virtually every Pentagon Star Wars space project is now many times over budget. Massive expenditures are needed to continue the research and development program for space weaponization.

Where will the funds come from? Medicare, Medicaid, education, public transit, environmental clean-up, and the like will all have to be cut back in the years ahead to pay for Star Wars.

The days of the Pentagon getting a free ride on "missile defense" programs must end.

Will you help us expand the consciousness of the public to call for an end to Star Wars research and development funding?

A VERY DIFFERENT KOREAN DIES

This morning I received an email from Global Network member Sung-Hee Choi who lives in New York. She tells the story and reveals the suffering of another Korean man who has just died. His death will not make headlines in the U.S. media.


Recent days are very hard for many Koreans. Needless to say, the violence by a South Korean student in the United States, that sacrificed many precious lives is already unbearably sad.

But for me, today's Korean news of the death of a taxi driver, Heo Se-Wook, 53, who self- immolated himself as a protest against unjust FTA and US base expansion in Korea, on April 1 during the mass protest of Anti US-SK Free Trade Agreement in Seoul just makes me mute. I can hardly express this feeling. He just wakes up many Koreans including me.

He was a SPARK (Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea) member. An introspective, calm but with the most integral personality, he was one of the rare examples of the organic intellectuals whose origin was desperately poor working class. Never having the chance of high education, he was always poor and desperate for making living.

His life was changed in 1994 when he saw a woman activist beaten by police during the protest for the poor in Korea. Since then, he began to study himself on social justice, knocking the doors of the activist organizations, always in agony for what he could do best for the people whom he loved.

The news of his death was known today. All the SPARK activists who were so loved by him and loved him so much are in deep unspeakable sorrow.

I tried to find a English summary of it in their website but quite understandably, they had no spare for it. I can only guess how his act and death was shock and sorrow for them . I feel it is my responsibility to let you know the news even if this is a humble summary.

You can see his photo and Korean web video (click on link in headline above). His name was Heo Se- Wook, born in 1953. He was the person who never abandoned his integrity. He will live forever in many Korean's heart.

Thanks very much.

Sung-Hee

POWER, FAME, WAR AND CONVERSION

The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), a bloc of 72 members of Congress led by California Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee, have once again introduced their annual alternative budget that will get virtually no coverage in the mainstream media.

The CPC budget calls for an $86 billion cut in military spending and also calls for U.S. troops to be brought home from Iraq which would save us over $200 billion during the next two years.

Since we just had tax day in the U.S. we know the latest figures show that 51% of every tax dollar goes to the military (past and current Pentagon expenses). Human resources take 32%, general government costs 12%, and physical resources 5%.

Here in Maine our statewide share of the Iraq occupation is now $1.2 billion. That same amount of money could have provided 322,153 people in our state with health care. Quite a difference I'd say. (If you click on the link in the headline above you will be able to calculate your state's share of the war cost and get budget trade-off information from the National Priorities Project.) The peace movement needs to do more talking about how the money for militarism is leading to the disintegration of the human and physical infrastructure of America. People's programs are being defunded, roads and bridges are falling apart, community water systems are collapsing, etc...

I believe the plan is to dramatically lower the standard of living for the people in the U.S. We are not needed anymore except for "security export." We have superfluous populations today.

Cars and other products will be made in China. India will do certain things for the big corporations. On the story goes. So the last thing corporate globalization wants and needs is to have a well educated American people watching their nation collapse. Thus public education is being destroyed. Illiteracy in growing throughout the nation and a dumbed down public makes less demands on the corporate dominated government.

The top 1% of Americans, those with incomes in 2005 greater than $348,000, received the largest share of our nations income since 1928.

New figures reveal that the 300,000 Americans at the top of the pyramid now hold as much income as the 150 million Americans at the bottom. That is an oligarchy [a government which is in the hands of a few].

And when this is the case what jobs are their for working class kids? The military. Fighting endless war on behalf of corporate globalization.

In January I saw a story in USA Today called "The goal: Wealth and fame" about young people in America. The story said that 81% of 18-25 year-olds surveyed in a Pew Research Center poll said getting rich is their generation's most important or second-most-important life goal; 51% said the same about being famous.

The power of TV and other corporate media.

Robert Thompson, a professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, says "The way to distinguish ourselves is by our stuff. In some cultures, you're born into a caste. Here, you have to carve out your identity, and one of the most obvious ways to do that is to climb the ladder."

I've become aware that the "reality shows" on TV are all about teaching scarcity. Last one on the island wins. A whole lot of folks have got the clear message that it's every dog for themselves out there and you'd better grab all you can before the next person does. The idea of a cooperative sharing society is being killed in the minds and hearts of the people. And if you want to climb the ladder you'd better keep your nose clean and stay out of trouble. Thus participation in politics is drying up as people internalize the message. Corporate media has colonized the minds of the public.

As I see it we have basically one way out from this. That is to wake up from our militaristic slumbers and begin to take Dwight Eisenhower's 1961 warning to us seriously. Beware of the power of the military-industrial-congressional complex. That's where the money is and if we don't reorder things soon our society is going down the tubes fast.

The peace movement needs to quickly find a soft spot in their hearts, and on their agendas, for talking about the need to convert the military industrial complex. We need to begin talking more about the long-term military strategy of the Pentagon and their weapons corporation bosses which calls for endless war to grab the world's diminishing resources. We need to begin finding ways to help the public understand that disinvestment in America's infrastructure will lead to a collapsed economy and a desperate people. The third-worldization of America.

We have to create a debate in this country that surfaces the concept of coming scarcity and the growing economic divide. Working class people understand this as they lose their jobs and find it harder to pay rent and put food on the table. Right now they are left with TV entertainment to give them and their kids vapid dreams of wealth and power. We need to bring the truth home to the people that only the rich are benefiting today and that the children of the working/middle class have little to look forward except a tour in Iraq with the Army. We have to demythologize the warrior culture.

We have to begin to talk about the good things that could be done with our tax dollars if we convert the military industrial complex.

WIND AND WATER AND THE PUDDING

We were supposed to do our sit-in today in Portland but this is a photo showing how the city looked yesterday. Here in Bath we did not see any flooding but our electricity was out for most of the day and night.

We heard that we had the equivalent of a category 1 hurricane here.

It would be hard to hand out leaflets on the street today, not that anyone would be walking around.

So we are going to have to reschedule. I'm sure Tom Allen's staff will be disappointed.

But don't worry folks, we'll be back to let the people of Portland know that our congressman continues to talk out of both sides of his mouth.

When the congressman says, "I voted against the invasion in 2002. I will vote now to end it by supporting the Iraq Accountability Act with its benchmarks and timetables for redeploying U.S. forces from Iraq."

He knows he is lying to the people. He knows this bill allows Bush to waive all the restrictions and timetables. Allen knows that he is voting to give Bush more money than he even requested for 2007. Allen knows full well that this occupation of Iraq is not going to end anytime soon.

My mother always told me, "The proof is in the pudding."

This pudding, that the Rep. Tom Allen is supporting, is a lie. We will continue to remind the public that our congressman says he is against the war but keeps enabling Bush. You can't have it both ways.

THIRD OFFICE SIT-IN PLANNED IN PORTLAND

In order to protest on-going funding for the U.S. occupation in Iraq, a third Congressional office sit-in is planned on Tuesday, April 17 at 2:00 pm in the Portland office of Rep. Tom Allen.

Rep. Allen maintains that he opposes the war in Iraq but has now voted eight straight times to support George W. Bush by giving him all the money that he has requested for the occupation. (Similar office sit-ins have also recently been held in the office of Sen. Susan Collins in Bangor.)

I will be one of those who will enter Tom Allen's office to sit-in. I will likely be arrested and intend to take my arrest to trial before a jury.

Rep. Allen, who is planning to announce that he will run against Maine's current Sen. Susan Collins (Republican), will be going around the state saying that he is against the war and that Sen. Collins must be taken out of office because she is in favor of the war and keeps giving Bush a blank check.

Rep. Allen's public posturing on this has been quite remarkable. I don't know how the man can sleep at night.

Here is what Tom Allen said in Congress when he voted for the 8th time to fund Bush's war. "Maine people expect us to say where we stand on the War in Iraq. By supporting the Iraq Accountability Act, I am voting to use the long-neglected powers of Congress to bring U.S. involvement in the Iraqi civil war to an end.”

Democratic party operatives are now setting up front group efforts in Maine who are posing as active peace people and who will be attacking Collins repeatedly on her support for the war. These operatives will be cynically saying that Tom Allen has always been against the war and if elected to the Senate he will help end the war.

The public is quite confused by all this posturing. While I strongly disagree with Sen. Collins on her war position at the very least she is somewhat honest in admitting that she supports Bush and the war.

Tom Allen though is doing something I cannot abide by. He is using anti-war rhetoric but at the same time enabling Bush. He and his party have no scruples when it comes to trying to achieve power. In many respects the Democrats have learned to model the deceptive character of the Bush administration.

It is my hope that there will be an Independent candidate to run against Collins and Allen in the 2008 Maine U.S. Senate race. The public needs and deserves to have an authentic anti-war voice in the race, someone who can cut through the bullshit and clearly articulate the need to cut the funding for the occupation of Iraq, using the $8.5 billion a month now being wasted there on programs here at home like national health care, education, public transit and the like.

THE NEW WORLD ODOR

My dear friend Dave Webb from Leeds, England has been visiting us the last few days. He is the chair of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and also serves as our web master.

Yesterday I interviewed Dave for my cable TV show This Issue. It was fun to have him on the show as I rarely get to interview anyone who knows much about space issues. We'll have the link to the show up on the Internet soon and you can watch it yourself.

Dave talked about what his group, Yorkshire CND, is doing to organize opposition to the two U.S. Star Wars bases at Menwith Hill and Fylingdales in his part of England. (Click on the link in the headline above to see the Yorkshire CND web site.)

Last night we had a pot luck supper for him here at our Addams-Melman House and then he spoke and answered questions. He talked about the serious disillusionment that progressives have in the UK with Tony Blair and the Labor Party over a whole series of issues. Obviously the Iraq occupation is one key concern but also the recent decision by the Labor Party to build a new generation of Trident nuclear submarine missiles, despite universal opposition in the country, has led to further outrage with the Labor Party. Blair is also offering to Bush that the UK would love to host U.S. "missile defense" bases.

As Dave said, here you have this supposedly Socialist Labor Party leader carrying water for this aggressive U.S. war making president Bush. He said British activists are in a state of disbelief over the whole thing.

I saw folks nodding their heads around the room as Dave spoke last night. It's clear that we in the U.S. are feeling the same things about the Democrats.

So there is a lesson to be learned here I think.

Most of the governments around the world have been taken over by corporations as part of globalization. Democracy is being set aside to the interests of the international oligarchy.

Under corporate globalization the Pentagon has said every country will have a different role. China will make things, Iraq will give up their oil, England will be Bush's lap dog, and the U.S. will do "security export."

Thus the U.S. Space Command becomes the military arm of corporate globalization. The U.S. Star Wars bases in Dave's back yard in Yorkshire, along with many others sprinkled around the world, will help create the ability for the military to see everything on the Earth, hear everything on the Earth, and ultimately target everyone and every place on Earth. Full spectrum dominance they call it. And all to the benefit of corporate globalization.

Anyone who dares stand against the oligarchy will be taken out in a preemptive strike.

Welcome to the new world order. Or should I say, welcome to the new world odor?

ON THE STREETS

They say tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens took to the streets today calling on the U.S. to "quit" the country. That expression was the one that Gandhi used in India during the campaign to have the British "quit" their colonization. In the end Gandhi was successful. In the end the Iraqi's will drive the U.S. out of their country. The only question that remains is how many more must die and how much more money must be wasted until the inevitable happens.

I read with interest a quote from some U.S. military brass in Iraq about the protest. He said that the protest goes to prove that the U.S. has brought democracy to Iraq. They couldn't do this four years ago he maintained. Ugh.

Today I went to Portland to offer support for a group called Maine Lawyers for Democracy as they held a news conference to call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. The group, made up of 65 lawyers across the state, did a good job of articulating the strong legal case to support impeachment. They called on the Maine legislature to pass a resolution supporting impeachment and they requested Maine's congressmen also support impeachment in the House of Representatives.

After the news conference some of us went out on the street to gather signatures on an impeachment petition that will be presented to Maine politicians. The goal is 10,000 signatures and so far over 6,000 have been gathered. (See the web site linked in the headline above.)

While I was on the street I ran into Jon Hinck who was just elected to the Maine State House of Representatives in the last election. I had interviewed him a couple of years ago on my cable TV show. At that time he was working at the Natural Resources Council and I interviewed him about environmental issues.

Hinck defeated the only Green Party member in the Maine legislature after the Portland newspaper did an extended trashing campaign to get the Green member, John Eder, ousted.

I asked Hinck, a Democrat, to sign the petition and he refused and then we had an intense 15 minute discussion about impeachment and the occupation of Iraq. His basic position was that our "strategy" was all wrong and that we needed to back off, stay quiet, and let Bush just collapse on his own weight. He said organizing against the war and calling for impeachment was a mistake because it only gave "right-wing radio" the ammunition to organize against us.

When I asked him if he meant that the Democrats were just intending to lay back and use the anger against Bush to take the White House in 2008 he said yes. He told me "you people are nuts" to criticize the Democrats around the war and impeachment.

He told me that criticizing our local congressman Tom Allen, because he keeps voting to fund the war, was a mistake. He said that Rep. Allen is against the war. When I asked him to explain how Allen's votes to fund the war were different from our Republican senators Snowe and Collins he maintained it was different though he never gave me any solid reasoning as to how they were different.

This very emotional, but restrained, conversion between us was a real wake up call for me. It confirmed that the Democrats have absolutely no intention of ending the war. And probably most importantly, it told me that the Democrats have absolute contempt for the peace movement as we push them on this war. They think we are nuts.

They think we are nuts because they believe that we are their minions. They think we should blindly vote for them because they are the Democrats and we have no other choice. They think we are nuts because we publicly criticize their deception. They think we are nuts because they could never imagine themselves standing up in public to take a moral stand on the Iraq occupation.

For them it is a purely political equation. No heart and no morality is involved.

To me this is confirmation that the Democratic Party is a bankrupt political institution.

SUBMERGED DEMOCRACY

The theme for today is submerged democracy.

What this means is that despite the raging opposition to Bush and his illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq the Democrats keep enabling the mess to continue.

For example, Nancy Pelosi says that impeachment is off the table. In response (see the photo above) citizens turned out by the thousands in her district on a San Francisco beach to call for impeachment hearings.

Pelosi, supposedly the liberal who was going to change things once the Dems took power, had this to say yesterday in the New York Times: "There is no division in policy between us and President Bush -- be it on Israel, Palestine or Syria," Pelosi told reporters at the Damascus Airport after concluding her meetings with Syria's president.

One can only assume she refers to Iraq too as we watched her recently lead the $124 billion war supplemental through the House. Many arms were twisted to make sure that funding for Bush's war continues. (Fortunately for us in Maine Rep. Mike Michaud from the 2nd district was one of the few with enough courage to vote against the war funding bill.)

Here in Maine, in today's Portland Press Herald, we see the leader of a liberal social justice group criticizing Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for voting against the Democratic party war funding bill in the Senate.

Jessie Graham, executive director of the Maine People's Alliance, was unhappy with the senator's vote.

"We were disappointed last week that Senator Collins, when given the opportunity to vote for legislation that provided funding for the troops in Iraq as well as a plan for withdrawal, voted nay," Graham said.

The Maine People's Alliance (MPA) has not been involved in anti-war work in Maine during the past four years that I have been here. But just recently the group has been holding news conferences around the state to support the Democratic Party position on the supplemental bill that just passed. They've taken out TV ads to blast Sen. Collins (who is a total war supporter) for not voting with the Dems.

But the truth is that the MPA's champion, Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) who is planning to announce next month that he will be running against Collins for her senate seat, has his hands deep in the pasta.

Rep. Allen just voted to fund the $124 billion Iraq occupation supplemental. In fact he's voted eight straight times to fund Bush's war. So he is doing the very same thing that he, and the Democratic Party controlled MPA, criticize Sen. Collins for doing - supporting the war. The truth is that both Collins and Allen are wrong!

This is how the public has become so cynical. Real discussion, real debate, real democracy, real differences have been submerged. Political integrity has been drowned. You have organizations like MPA that say they are against the war now undercutting the peace movement in Maine by going out and supporting politicians who keep voting to fund the war. And they do it because they want the Dems to take power. That's all that matters.

So the truth gets submerged. It gets destroyed in the process. And groups like MPA become agents of politicians and give up their roles as representatives of the people. Maybe they do it because they get extra funding to support the Dems. Maybe they do it because they think they will have a "special relationship" with the Dems.

Either way, in the end, what happens is that the movements to end war become fragmented and the public becomes very confused about what is going on. And few want to publicly speak about the confusion for fear they will be accused of being disloyal to the Democrats.

Howard Zinn said it very well last week after MoveOn sold out the peace movement by coming to the aid of the Democrats just before the vote on the $124 billion supplemental. Zinn wrote, "When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them. We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress. Timetables for withdrawal are not only morally reprehensible in the case of a brutal occupation (would you give a thug who invaded your house, smashed everything in sight, and terrorized your children a timetable for withdrawal?) but logically nonsensical. If our troops are preventing civil war, helping people, controlling violence, then why withdraw at all? If they are in fact doing the opposite—provoking civil war, hurting people, perpetuating violence—they should withdraw as quickly as ships and planes can carry them home."

The Democrats, MoveOn, and MPA say withdraw sometime in late 2008. But in fact, at this very moment, the Democrats in Congress are working on the fiscal year 2008 supplemental for Iraq and they want to provide Bush with $145 billion.

The occupation of Iraq will not end until the truth can surface in Maine and around the nation. A submerged democracy is a dead democracy.

EUCOM AND AFRICOM

During my recent trip to Germany for the Global Network conference I arrived early and went for a quick visit to meet with activists in Southern Germany who have for years protested at the headquarters of the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) in Stuttgart. Global Network leaders Bill Sulzman and Loring Wirbel (in photo above) also went along for this visit.

After a meeting with the Deputy Mayor of Stuttgart (who is a Green Party member) the German activists took us out to EUCOM for a walk around the perimeter of the base to show us the new security measures that have been taken. For years the activists have cut holes in the fence and walked onto the base to protest EUCOM's role as coordinator of all U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe.

EUCOM has also recently been involved in creating the new U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, which will be in charge of organizing U.S. plans to start a war there during the next 20 years so the U.S. can control the oil in Nigeria and other vital resources on the continent. (See the article from the EUCOM website linked in the headline above that announces the AFRICOM mission.)

While we were walking around the EUCOM base I had the idea that the three of us American activists should approach the front-gate and make a statement. So Bill, Loring, and I walked up to the gate and the only American we could find was the woman dressed in combat fatigues you see in the photo. All the rest of the gate guards were Germans from a private security corporation. The woman told us she was in the Ohio National Guard and her whole unit was in charge of doing security on the base because all U.S. military police from this base had been sent to Iraq. She too, once finished at this base, would be going to Iraq next she said. We gave her a leaflet prepared by the German activists which calls for all American soldiers to honor Nuremberg Principles that maintains it is the duty of soldiers to resist illegal and immoral orders. She read the whole leaflet right in front of us.

We also told her that we wanted to make a statement to her superiors so she got on the phone and the base Provost Marshall came out and we told him we were American activists and had come to support our German friends who wanted this base shut down. We said that the presence of U.S. weapons of mass destruction in Europe violated international law, as determined by a ruling of the World Court, and needed to be removed pronto. We also said that the U.S. occupation of Iraq was illegal and immoral and U.S. troops must be returned home. We ended by saying that we knew AFRICOM had just been created out of Stuttgart and was intended to direct endless war on the African continent.

The Provost, the man in the photo dressed in black, at first was quite hostile when I began making our statement. He tried to interrupt me but I told him to relax and to give me a chance to speak. As I went along he became more docile as he listened to the strong indictment of U.S. policy. In the end he took the leaflet we had given to the woman soldier and said he'd pass on our statement to his commander. The woman had folded the leaflet up and appeared reluctant to give it to the Provost. We were glad she had read it before he arrived.

In the end we shook their hands and left. I felt the young woman was quite impressed by the whole episode and I think she will long remember the day the three American activists approached the gate and told the U.S. military to close the base down.

I was glad I was wearing my Veterans for Peace button at the time.

SOLDIERS WANT TO COME HOME

Click on the cartoon to get a larger version that you can read.

SUMMER FUN STARTS TODAY

Ok I admit it. I have a diversion from the madness of the world. Baseball season begins today and my Baltimore Orioles, that I have followed all my life, will now commence to put me through another season of pain and agony.

The O's, once a great team, have had losing seasons nine years in a row and this year is expected to be the tenth. But a loyal fan sticks with the O's - through thick and thin. Mostly thin.

I have extravagantly ordered the Major League Baseball web-TV package for $80 and I can watch all the games live via the Internet. So on many evenings this summer I will be found sitting at my desk agonizing as the O's drop another game. Mary Beth will come into my study and ask, "How are the boys doing?" though we both know that in truth she doesn't really care. What she really wants to know is "what kind of mood are you going to be in when this game is over?" Sadly to say, the mood is often sour.

I don't yell as much as I used to. I've grown used to the team taking it on the chin. Now I just moan, groan, and grouse a lot.

I also spend time on the Baltimore Sun fan chat room reading the posts of other long-suffering fans. Two years ago I got tired of the complaining and began sending posts suggesting the fans organize and complain that the owner was not spending enough of the millions in profit the team was accruing from it's loyal fan base. Much to my delight, at the beginning of the 2006 season, the fans did get organized and purchased a large billboard calling for the owner to sell the team. I donated to that cause. The Baltimore Sun ended up giving the billboard campaign front-page coverage on the first day of the season last year.

Later in the season, again much to my delight, a local radio sports talk show host got the fans to do a march to the stadium dressed in black. Hundreds joined the march, bought tickets and went inside and sat in the same section. The cheered wildly for the team, and then at the appointed moment filed out of the stadium in single file in protest of the rich owner who has destroyed the beloved Orioles.

This past winter, after many years of empty promises, the owner did make some worthwhile moves to improve the team. The lessons for the fans, and for the Baltimore community, is that organizing and making demands can have an impact.

I know some would say what a waste it is for fans of a sports team to spend time organizing. But I come from the old school that says go to the people where they are and get them working together. Let them learn to organize collectively, to have some success, and to feel proud in that effort. The truth is that baseball fans have to spend a lot of money these days to take their families to the games. Let the rich owners feel some heat from the fans who want a return on their dollar. I am in favor of class struggle, even if it manifests itself in baseball.

And for this fan, maybe the O's might win a couple more games this year. I know Mary Beth will like me better if the boys pick up a few more in 2007.

Go O's.

THE PRINCE TURNS

We interrupt this broadcast
to bring you a special message
from the president of the U.S.

My fellow Americans.
It is with great humility
that I come to you tonight
with a message that weighs
heavily on my heart.

As you know, I come from a long line
of men who have served this great country.
My grandfather served in the U.S. Senate
and my father, as you remember,
served the nation as president.
It is in our blood to do everything
possible to further our cause around the world.

I know not everyone is happy with the job
I have done on behalf of the American people.
It is true that the gap between rich and poor
is widening.

It is also true that our nation is now engaged
in endless war.
I have long warned that you needed to be prepared
for a long, long war.
That warning has now come true.

Some say I have no heart, feelings,
or conscience.
Some say that I am ruthless and a pirate.
Some maintain that I have made decisions
solely to benefit the wealthy and powerful.

Some even have said that I am a captive
of the religious right.
They have said I am trying to create
Armageddon so that Christ will return.

To all these charges I have only one thing to say.
They are all true.

You must know that since a child
I have been programmed to take over this nation
on behalf of those who profit from hunger,
poverty, drug addiction, violence, and endless war.

My own family is an agent of these powerful forces.
You might recall that President Eisenhower
warned us about the unbridled power
of the military industrial complex
when he left office in 1961.

He knew better than to speak those words earlier,
as he would have been killed.
Shot down like others have been who dared
cross those who run this country.

I know I am now a marked man for saying
these things to you.
Expect that I will die an early death
in the days to come.
But I have decided that I cannot live with
myself any longer if I maintain silence.
I must speak up.

I used to believe the constitution
was just a piece of paper.
But then I went on my recent tour
of Latin America,
where there were major protests
at every stop.

While at a Mayan ruin,
you might have heard,
a spiritual leader
purified the site after I left.
Little do they know that as a result
of that purification
I have had an epiphany.

I have come to ask forgiveness
of you, the American people.
I have come to offer my resignation
as president of the U.S.
I shall leave office immediately
and turn myself in to the local authorities,
to stand trial for my crimes against humanity.

I do not ask for your sympathy.
I know full well what I have done.
I only ask you for your prayers.

And let me ask of you,
one more thing.

I ask that you take back your country,
from my family,
and from those other deceivers
who have corrupted this democracy
and led this once great nation to ruin.

Please don’t hesitate another day
to seriously question anyone
who tells you that U.S. foreign policy
is about protecting “our interests.”
Please learn to define the word “our”
as meaning the interests of the pirate class.

Please make this nation what it should be.
Please take back control of the helm of state now,
before it is too late.


“Bruce, wake up. You fell asleep at your desk!”

WHAT IS IRAQ STRATEGY FOR PEACE MOVEMENT NOW?

So the question on people's minds is "what do we do now to stop the occupation of Iraq?"

After the House Democrats passed their very weak bill last Friday, and the Senate just passed an even weaker one, should the peace movement continue to press the Democrats? What is the alternative strategy? Give up and move onto some other issue?

Phyllis Bennis from the Institute for Policy Studies has just done an analysis of the House bill. Here are some key points she makes:

• Congress is not the peace movement. So the peace movement must stay unified on our principles and our demands, in the face of congressional waffling and "realistic" pragmatism, unfortunately promoted by one influential part of our movement [MoveOn]. Whatever they do, we must stay consistent on demanding an end to the U.S. occupation: de-funding (not re-funding) the war, and bringing home (not redeploying) all (not just some) of the troops (including the mercenaries). The longstanding AFSC slogan has it right: "Not one more death, not one more dollar." That means STOP funding the war. STOP allowing Bush to send more U.S. troops to kill more Iraqis and be killed in the process. Just stop.

• The Democratic leadership in the House claims the $125 billion supplemental is the way to end the war. Something passed in the Senate may include some of the same claims. Aside from setting a date for bringing home troops, the House version included a number of items many in the peace movement would ordinarily support -- veterans' health benefits, Katrina survivors' assistance, children's health insurance ...So if there's a time line, what's the problem with the supplemental? Why shouldn't peace activists support it? Because it gives President Bush another $100 billion to continue the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it doesn't end the occupation or prevent expansion of the war to Iran.

• WHAT IT DOES: It calls for pulling out some troops from Iraq by August 2008.

BUT: It exempts whole categories of troops from the withdrawal ...Troops "training the Iraqi military" can stay -- currently 6,000, perhaps as many as 20,000 (no limit in the supplemental). Troops engaged in "special operations" can stay -- the Marines say they want 20,000 for Anbar Province alone, perhaps as many as 40,000 for the whole country (no limit in the supplemental). Troops "protecting diplomatic enclaves" like the huge Green Zone and the US Embassy, the largest in the world, and maybe including the numerous US bases established in Iraq, can stay -- 20,000 is a conservative number (no limit in the supplemental). That means Bush could keep unlimited numbers, perhaps 60,000-80,000 troops, permanently in Iraq -- and still be in compliance with the bill. And the bill does not require that the troops withdrawn from Iraq be sent home; they can be immediately deployed to Afghanistan, or to bases in surrounding Arab countries, or to ships in the Persian Gulf -- or be used to attack Iran.

• WHAT IT DOES: It imposes restrictions on Pentagon deployments, prohibiting the deployment of troops not fully trained, not adequately equipped, and not adequately rested between deployments.

BUT: It includes a waiver for President Bush to simply state his intention to override those restrictions, allowing him to send in as many untrained, badly equipped and exhausted troops as he wishes.

• WHAT IT DOES: Prohibit construction of new permanent bases in Iraq.

BUT: It does nothing to close the existing permanent bases the U.S. has built across Iraq and includes billions for "military construction" presumably for those existing bases.

• WHAT IT DOES: Require Iraq's government to pass a new oil law.

BUT: The law being debated in the parliament abandons Iraq's long history of maintaining control of its oil resources in favor of allowing international (especially U.S.) oil companies to take control of large sectors of the vital oil industry.

• WHAT IT DOES: Cut 10% of the funding for private military contractors.

BUT: It allows 90% of the 100,000 or so mercenaries who fight alongside the U.S. military to remain in Iraq.

• WHAT IT DOESN'T DO: The supplemental does not prohibit an unprovoked attack on Iran. The supplemental does not end the occupation of Iraq.

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So I can only come to the conclusion that the job of the peace movement in Maine and beyond remains the following:

• Continue to escalate non-violent public protests calling on Bush and the Congress to bring the troops home now and to cut all funding for the occupation.
• Continue to organize Congressional office occupations of Republicans and Democrats who keep voting to fund the war.
• Keep writing letters to the newspapers and name those politicians (from both parties) that keep funding the occupation.
• Understand that creating positive non-violent conflict in our communities over this issue is just what we need to do. When "liberals" start publicly complaining that the peace movement needs to stop "picking on" our local Democratic congressman, who says he is against the war but keeps voting for the funding, that means we are driving the necessary debate in our community. That is a good thing and should be continued.

I am preparing to reenter my congressman's office in coming weeks to once again do a sit-in. His vote last week to fund another $100 billion for the Iraq occupation is unacceptable. And now we learn that the Democrats in Congress are preparing legislation to fund the occupation by $150 billion for 2008 and another $50 billion in 2009. So I have no doubt that the Democrats are planning to continue the occupation even after George W. Bush is out of office!

I maintain that it is wrong for peace activists to be loyal first to a political party - and thus do the bidding of the Democrats. Real peace activists are loyal to the grassroots struggle to end the war, cut the funding, and utilize the $8.5 billion a month that is now wasted in Iraq for social spending and job creation back here at home.

ARE YOU A SUPPORTER OF LAWFARE?

The banner in the photo above was brought to Darmstadt, Germany by our friends from the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition who organize to oppose a U.S. space radar spy base called Pine Gap in the outback of their country.

On the right side of the photo, in the distance just above the banner, you see five round gray big golf ball looking radars. During our conference last weekend in Darmstadt we held a vigil on the outskirts of town at a US spy station, which is part of the global Echelon surveillance system. (While we were protesting at this facility a reporter from the U.S. military newspaper Stars & Stripes took photos and interviewed several of our folks. Click on the link in the headline above for the article.)

These U.S. space radar facilities are now scattered all over the planet and are being upgraded for participation in the Star Wars program. The radar facilities will communicate directly with military war fighting satellites and direct U.S. attack around the world. Much of the growth in membership of our Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space is coming from communities around the world where these installations are built.

During our conference we learned more about how these military space networks, now called Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), are being set up to expand U.S. ability to launch preemptive attack around the world.

We also talked extensively how the U.S. program of expanding Star Wars facilities into Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary is part of a strategy to surround Russia. One of our members told us about a Rand Corporation plan now in circulation to break Russia into three separate countries so the oil corporations can better control their resources. (This is the same strategy taken to bust up the former Yugoslavia and which is today underway in Iraq.)

One of our major aims coming out of the conference is to expand our contacts with emerging peace movements in Eastern Europe that are opposing construction of U.S. and NATO Star Wars facilities in their countries - under the guise of "missile defense."

One last thing of interest from our conference. Tim Rinne, Coordinator of Nebraskans for Peace, reported on how the Strategic Command (StratCom) HQ in Omaha is now making efforts to get the University of Nebraska to become a major center for the creation of new space law. Tim recently attended a conference at the university, sponsored by StratCom, and reported how Pentagon officials told the assembled that those who try to use international law to prevent an arms race in space were practicing a new form of warfare. The Pentagon spokesman termed it "lawfare."

So there you have it. Anyone who wants to use the "rule of law" to create global stability is akin to a terrorist. Remember that one - lawfare.

EUROPE IS JOINING THE SPACE ARMS RACE

Got home from Germany on Sunday evening and was waiting for a photo to arrive before I posted something here on the blog.

Our annual Global Network space organizing conference, and two protests, were a wonderful success. The photo above is from an early morning vigil at the gates of the European Space Agency Operations Center in Darmstadt. We handed out quite a few leaflets to people as they arrived to work. It was cold and raining while we were there but it was an effective protest that got covered the next day in the local newspaper.

In the photo you might notice a few people with white canes and black patches on one of their eyes. (Click on the photo and you will get a larger version of it.) The leaflet we handed out was called The Military Use of Space: Take off the blinders! The European Union is now developing a civilian reconnaissance satellite system called Galileo that is going to also have military applications. The European Space Agency (ESA), just like NASA, was created as a civilian space agency and was not to be dragged into military space. But also like NASA, the ESA is now going "dual use", meaning space technologies are being developed for both civilian and military purposes.

What this ultimately means is that the aerospace industries are pushing their governments all over Europe to increase funding for space militarization. At our space organizing conference we heard that in Sweden, for example, their government is rapidly funding growing efforts to pull the country into military space technologies. Same story all across Europe. And in each case they are cutting social spending to pay for the development of space warfare technology.

During the time in Darmstadt I was on a panel that was live on a local German community radio station talking about ESA and the militarization of space. A representative from the ESA was on the panel and maintained that ESA was against the militarization of space but he said several times that "Europe must defend itself." This ultimately translates to 'We can't let the U.S. control and dominate space. We must respond and if that means ESA develops military space technologies then so be it.'

I'll write more in coming days about the conference and post some more photos from the events. But despite the bad news from Europe, something we've known about for years, the fact is that opposition is growing in Europe as our contacts expand and more peace activists begin to understand the issue and do more work on it. One activist from Sweden asked me to do a speaking tour of Norway, Denmark and Sweden next year so this is evidence that folks are paying attention and taking action.

We met in Germany in hopes that we could give energy to European grassroots activists around the space issue. I think that happened.

At our conference we also decided that next year our meeting will be held in Omaha, Nebraska in order to shine an international light on the Pentagon's Strategic Command (StratCom) that is now in charge of Star Wars, satellite surveillance and reconnaissance, nuclear weapons, and planning for global preemptive war.

We hope you will join us at a future Global Network event and become a part of this effort to keep space for peace.

ROUGH SLEDDING AHEAD

I leave on Monday for our annual GN space organizing conference in Germany. Will be back on March 26 and not likely to do any updating of this blog during that time.

Yesterday 100 local vigils were planned here in Maine as part of the national/international protest to stop the occupation of Iraq. We had a snow storm Friday night and Saturday it turned into a cold rain but here in Bath eleven of us still went out onto the steps of city hall for an hour-long vigil at noon. We got cold and wet and invited folks back to our house for soup afterward. We had our wood stove going which was a nice way to warm our hearts and cold fingers and toes.

This morning I've been surfing the Internet looking at some of the coverage of the DC demo. It is striking to see the attention given to the counter-protesters who reportedly turned out in "large" numbers to "protect" the Vietnam war memorial from anyone wanting to "deface" it. A rumor went out over the Internet that anti-war people were going to trash the memorial so these motorcycle guys all came down to defend it. If this isn't part of the Rove-Bush plan then I don't know what is. The war machine knows that their support nationwide is rapidly sliding so they are now working vigorously to round up all the help them can muster by creating false issues like this. As I watched video of these counter-protesters screaming at the anti-war marchers I couldn't help but think of the chaos in Baghdad.

In Baghdad the Bush team has successfully turned Shiite against Sunni to the point they are killing each other like crazy. I fear that Bush, if left to his own devices, would do the same in this country. Turn American against American as a way to maintain control.

I am utterly convinced that the corporate globalization pirates, that Bush ultimately works for, are out to turn the world into a 21st century feudal order. While preparing for the GN space conference in Germany I read several stories from space industry publications calling on European countries to cut funding for social programs so that they can join the U.S. in building a "missile defense" system throughout Europe to protect themselves from Iran. Iran today has zero nuclear weapons. And why would Iran fire nuclear weapons at Europe?

The corporate militarists are out to defund social progress globally, to maximize their profits internationally, and are out to militarize the entire planet. Why?

Resource wars.

With oil and water (and other important resources) diminishing on our strained planet, those who have the biggest guns will control access to these resources. And it will be expensive to have endless mobilization for war and fund social progress at the same time. Something has to give.

A friend of mine here in Maine said it well to me the other day. He said the Democrats have an ideology that says capitalism and economic growth will create a system where all boats are lifted - meaning that if fairly administered the capitalist system can provide for everyone. But that philosophy, he says, requires constant access to raw materials that ensure an ever growing economy. Thus the Dems, he says, must support resource extraction wars like the occupation of Iraq. In other words, empire is supported by both parties. Maybe each party articulates their reasons a bit differently, but in the end they both support empire and endless war.

I was watching Democracy Now via the Internet and I heard the mother of a dead soldier tell the story about how peace folks began lining up at 6:00 am the other day so they could get into the House Appropriations Committee hearing where they voted to give Bush $124 billion for Iraq - fiscal year 2007. (If you click on the link in the headline above you will see an excellent analysis from Military Families Speak Out on the bill that was passed.) She said the Democratic Party politicians came by and saw them standing there and the next thing she knew a large number of congressional staffers showed up to take the seats in the hearing room. That meant many of the citizens in the hall way could not get in. Usually the staffers do not attend these meetings in large numbers and if they do they sit behind their bosses on the dais. This story shows me what the Dems think of the peace movement.

We are in for a period of rough sledding ahead. The sooner we end our illusions about our political system the better off we will be. As I have said so many times on this blog - we have to run peace movement folks for office as Independents or Greens so that we can challenge these two corporate controlled war parties. Please have a meeting locally to discuss this. We must give the public a real alternative. Use the campaigns in 2008 to offer another vision of our future while we still have a chance.

As the Native Americans used to say, put your ear to the railroad tracks and hear the train coming.

BUDGETS CONTINUE TO FAVOR ENDLESS WAR

The Democratic Party controlled House Appropriations Committee voted yesterday to recommend $124 billion for the Iraq occupation for fiscal year 2007 (recall that Bush only asked for $93 billion). It goes to the full House next week for approval.

While Congress is hashing out 2007 Iraq money, the Bush team of pirates have also submitted their 2008 budget request to Congress.

• Bush has requested $622 billion for military spending in the 2008 budget. This is an increase of $40 billion over the previous year.
• Pentagon spending has increased 48% during the Bush reign.
• Bush is asking Congress to approve $145 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan for 2008.
• The Pentagon requests $16 billion in 2008 for Star Wars research and development

To pay for these major increases in military spending and more tax cuts for the rich, Bush proposes more severe cuts in human needs programs in 2008.

• Cut Medicare by $66 billion over the next five years.
• Cut Medicaid by $11 billion over the next five years.
• Cut other domestic programs by $114 billion over the next five years. These programs would be head start for kids, veteran's health care, environmental protection, scientific research, low-income housing and health assistance.

Now is it just obvious to me that you can't have guns and butter at the same time? The Democrats claim that you can. Some real hard choices have to be made here and at this point it is quite apparent what is getting cut and what is not.

The Dems just handed Bush more than he wanted for Iraq in 2007. What makes us think they will suddenly change course in 2008?

Those who believe we will see change just because the Dems have taken control of Congress are fooling themselves. You are riding a sinking ship. The sooner you get off and start swimming the better chance we have of saving lives before we all drown.

THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY IRAQ STRATEGY

The word has just come down from Washington.
The Dems have got a bold new strategy.
It was to be called “head ‘em off at the pass”.

The idea was to outflank Bush and his team,
To come up with a plan to get out of Iraq.
To end this nightmare once and for all.
To bring the troops home
and stop wasting our national treasury
on a senseless and illegal occupation.

Reward the loyal voters from the last election.

But somehow the wires got crossed.
Somewhere between Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid
things got turned around.
No one knows for sure how or why.

Maybe it was a young intern who messed up,
or maybe a lobbyist from the war machine
intercepted the transmission and changed the message.
Possibly it was complicity and slavishness.

A news conference was organized,
all the cameras and microphones were turned on,
lights shining brightly on Pelosi’s make-up,
Uncle Harry was punching the imaginary shadows again.

The intros were made.

Ladies and gentlemen,
we welcome you to this important
Democratic Party news conference
where we will now unveil our new strategy
to deal with the president’s surge.

First, we passed the non-binding resolution.
Then we considered for just a second
cutting the occupation funds,
but that is a radical idea and
we have to take care of the troops,
and our corporate donors,
so that was ruled out.
Impeachment is also off the table.

So we are doing the next best thing.
We will do what we do best,
what we are known for here in Washington.

We are pleased to announce that
our new strategy will be,
not to stick our necks out
as the public requests,
but instead to stick our heads
up our collective small “d” ass.

Remember us in 2008.

We are the opposition party.

INTERNATIONAL PEACE IN SPACE CONFERENCE TO BE HELD IN GERMANY

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space will be holding its 15th annual space organizing conference in Darmstadt, Germany on March 23-24. The group is made up of over 140 peace groups around the world who are working to oppose the introduction of weapons and nuclear power into space. The theme for the annual meeting will be The Role of the European Union in the Militarization of Space.

The Darmstädter Friedensforum, the International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation (INESAP), and the Pressehütte Mutlangen will cosponsor the annual space conference.

Activists will come to Germany from as far away as the U.S., India, Australia, England, Romania, Hungary, Sweden, and other European countries. Of particular interest this year will be discussions about Bush administration attempts to put “missile defense” systems in Poland and the Czech Republic in spite of massive public opposition in those countries to the deployments. Russia is particularly alarmed as they see the U.S. continually expanding military outposts eastward and has promised to respond in kind to U.S. military moves.

According to conference organizer Regina Hagen of INESAP, "Militarization of space is a vicious circle. The more one country depends on military use of satellites, the more others do the same as can currently be seen with the European Union’s development of the Galileo reconnaissance system. And when the military depends on space systems, the next logical step is to protect these systems with weapons. This brings war to space. This must be stopped."

Global Network Coordinator Bruce Gagnon stated, “One key obstacle to international disarmament is U.S. determination to move the arms race into space. With U.S. efforts to create full spectrum dominance other nations are saying that they must maintain their existing nuclear forces, or develop new nuclear arsenals and military space systems, as a deterrent to U.S. plans for control and domination via space technology.”

The Global Network contends that the administration of George W. Bush has taken international cooperation off its foreign policy agenda. “Current U.S. nuclear forces have essentially become an arsenal of hypocrisy as Bush lectures the rest of the world about the evils of weapons of mass destruction while the Pentagon builds more nukes, space weapons programs, and plans for preemptive attack on Iran,” Gagnon said.

Full conference details are available at the Global Network’s website www.space4peace.org

WHO ARE YOU TO CHALLENGE ME?

I heard a story the other day
about a Bangor Daily News (BDN) media official
telling peaceniks they had not covered their recent protest
because it was old news.
Redundant....old hat.....
stuff like that.

One peacenik thought about it
and wrote the guy back
and wondered if the BDN
was going to judge car crash stories
and murders and fires
by the same journalistic standards.

I'm certain the BDN scribe was insulted by such audacity.
How dare you say such things to me he must have thought.
I am the creator of the community reality
I am the maker of fortunes and careers
I am the breaker of hearts and lives
I am the one who does as his corporate bosses tell him
I am the chief lackey around here.
Who are you to challenge me?

I remember many years ago
a media gate keeper telling a friend and me
not to worry our pretty little heads
about informing the public on a particular concern.
The newspaper, the Orlando Sentinel, had a plan.
They were on the case and had it under control.

The media was the message
the media is the god.
A democratic debate was not needed
activism was not needed
the public was not needed
agitation was not needed
ideas from the great unwashed were not needed
the media boys were on the case.......
Go home and find something useful to do
with your otherwise wasted lives.

And so it goes today
from Iraq to Bangor.
The pages are filled with all the news that is fit to be printed.
Whole sections of the paper are left blank for me now
as I rustle though the daily rag
passing the big adverts,
the color pictures of men in orange suits
in handcuffs
on their way to trial
for another sensational murder
or driving under the influence
of a crazy society.

Pages of stories about oranges looking like grapefruit
and birds singing in winter
while Baghdad blows up again
and people cry invisible tears
and Washington burns our health care money
as politicians tell us they are almost there.

The news is twisted
and turned
and flattened out
and squeezed
and bled
and contorted
and changed
and shortened
to fit the tiny spaces
between the ads for women's underwear
and cars
and SUVs
and hummers
and big stories about violent video games
and returning heroes from a war far away.

A letter here and an announcement there
keep alive the illusion
that all is well here at home.
That democracy and the old ways are sound.

But the truth lies with the rusty scissors
as fewer pages are clipped
and stored
in our scrapbooks
where the stories of our lives
used to be collected
to pass on to our children
so we could teach them
about the good work that was done
to keep the fires alive.

Somehow the spirit rages on.
The Russians learned to read between the lines
of Pravda
and today we turn the Times upside down
trying to learn the same lesson
so we can be free again.

THE OCCUPATION CONTINUES - IN IRAQ AND HERE AT HOME

It was a very cold day in Bangor, Maine two days ago when our friends in the peace movement walked from their Congressman Mike Michaud's office, to Sen. Olympia Snowe's office, and then finally on to the office of Sen. Susan Collins. They went as part of the occupation project, the third such action in Maine in the last couple of weeks.

Rep. Mike Michaud has voted against the occupation funding the last two times and says he will do so again. The two Republican senators, Snowe and Collins, continue to vote for all things military - in spite of their finely crafted and deceptive national reputation as moderates. Susan Collins has steadfastly refused to meet with anyone from the peace movement, particularly in a public meeting, saying she does not like big crowds. (Then why is she in politics you ask?)

Once the folks got to the federal building that hosts Sen. Collins office, only six people were allowed up to her inner sanctum. They went up and stayed. Come 5:00 pm they were arrested for not leaving. Six more, sitting in the lobby downstairs, were also arrested for refusing to leave at the appointed hour. All 12 were taken to jail where they paid a bail and were released. (Click on the link in the headline above for excellent photos from the action.)

Last night in the Washington Post I read that the Democrats in Washington have crafted a "compromise" that says they would agree to leave the troops in Iraq til August of 2008. So the earlier talk of bring the troops home by the end of 2007 has now shifted to 2008. And with the election coming in November of 2008, don't hold your breath waiting for anything to happen before then.

I hate to say it, but I think the Dems want to just sit back and watch the Iraq quagmire fester til 2008. There are 21 Republican senators up for reelection in '08 so the Dems strategy appears to be - "just hold on, sit tight, let it get worse and the voters will have no where else to go except to vote for us".

This is a cynical and ugly reality and people should now begin talking in their local communities about lining up Independent or Green Party candidates to run against both these two mainstream war parties in 2008.

How much longer will you support this good cop - bad cop game they play in Washington? Time to break free of this electoral slave system the corporate parties have created.

Wake up and be free!!!!!!!!!

ANNUAL DUES REMINDER

This is the time of year we remind our friends and supporters to pay their annual membership dues in the Global Network. Your donations help keep us doing our peace work. Without you we would not be able to do what we do.

Instead we'd be out hauling wood in the Maine countryside or washing dishes at a local joint. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It's honest work but I'd rather be organizing.

We ask individuals and organizations to pay what they can best afford within the sliding scale of $10 - $100. That way we try to make it fair for everyone - spread the burden around evenly.

We like to think we get more out of a dollar than most organizations do. It's pretty amazing that we can run an effective and highly visible international network on about $75,000 a year. But somehow we manage. Thank the gods for the Internet!

The Global Network is a non-profit organization and your donations are tax deductible. You can send a check in the mail to Global Network, PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011 or you can use the red Donate Now! button in the column to the left - just scroll down - to make a credit card donation on-line.

Either way we deeply appreciate your support. And if you need any wood hauled, you know who to call.

Thanks.

THE PERSECUTION OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Mr. Gonzales:

We are writing out of complete frustration and embarrassment about how our nation is treating Dr. Sami Al-Arian.

We have been following his case for many years and were quite surprised to find that after he was essentially found innocent by a jury in Florida, our government continues to pursue and prosecute him. We've read that he is now being taken from jail to jail, often under horrible conditions, and is being made to endure even more prison time.

It appears to us that the U.S. justice system has become a mean spirited and vindictive system. Rather than recognizing the ruling of the Florida jury and letting Al-Arian go free as should happen, he is being whipsawed by continual judicial harassment. This is un-American and must stop.

We have sent word about his current treatment to everyone we know and have contact with because we think that people in this country, and around the world, should know that justice in America is a thing of the past.

We hope that you will prove us wrong. We hope that you will find the courage to stop this never-ending persecution of a man who has been tried and found innocent in a U.S. court of law.

Bring justice back to America now. Give us a reason to believe that America is in fact different from other repressive totalitarian regimes around the world that ignore the rule of law.

Stop using Dr. Al-Arian as a tool to increase hatred and fear of Muslim people.

We eagerly await your reply.

Sincerely,

Bruce K. Gagnon
Mary Beth Sullivan
Bath, ME

(Click on the link in the headline above for the full sad story.)

WE ARE IN DISTRESS

Congress is now preparing to vote in the next few days on Bush's request for $93 billion more for Iraq occupation for fiscal year 2007. It will pass and the Democrats are saying, instead of cutting the request, that they want to raise it by $5 billion.

But what is even more mind blowing to me is that at this very same time Congress is also starting to work on the fiscal year 2008 Iraq occupation request. Bush is requesting $142 billion for 2008. North Dakota Democrat, Sen. Kent Conrad who is the Senate Budget Committee Chairman, just said that "Our caucus feels strongly that we should go with the president's numbers" on 2008 war costs. "We are going to provide actually more funding, because we think the president's budget has understated the war costs over the five-year period," Conrad told the media.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) told reporters that cutting the Iraq occupation funding was "nothing that any of us are considering."

"There's a fine line that I hope will not be blurred between micromanaging the war and assuring accountability," said Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D-South Dakota). "I don't think we should be overreacting to public opinion polls."

Reading this really burns me up. The Democrats are actually getting worse as time drags on. Hard as it is to believe that they could get worse, they are now doing Bush's bidding for him. And they are basically saying, hey let's not get too wrapped up listening to the public!

All of this comes at the very time that new statistics are showing major growth in the numbers of American people moving into deep poverty.

Any anti-poverty, human services organizations, worth their weight in salt should be screaming about this utter waste of our tax dollars on the occupation of Iraq. Where are those voices today?

LETTER TO REP. ALLEN

March 4, 2007

Representative Tom Allen
57 Exchange Street, Suite 302
Portland, Maine 04101

Dear Congressman Allen:

We, the undersigned, are thirteen citizens who were arrested on February 21st, 2007, while conducting a peaceful demonstration at your constituent office in Portland. At the time of our arrest, we all received “Criminal Trespass Notices” from the Portland Police Department, indicating that a request had been made to the Department – ostensibly from you or your staff – for an order barring us indefinitely from the premises of your Portland office. The primary purpose of this letter is to inquire whether it is indeed your position that we are no longer welcome at your Portland office.

We thirteen are people of conscience. We share an abiding love of our country, and a deep concern for humanity. The peaceful action that we undertook on February 21st was both considered and deliberate, and we have no cause for regret. Our attempt to get through to you on that day, to move you in mind and heart, was our way of honoring those who have suffered and died in Iraq and at home as the result of ongoing U.S. aggression and occupation.

The views we have vigorously attempted to communicate to you about U.S. involvement in Iraq, through every peaceful means available to citizens in a free society, are a matter of unwavering conviction. We recognize that you do not currently share such views, particularly as they relate to the moral urgency demanding an immediate end to all funding for the Iraq War and Occupation. However, we expect that you do share our devotion to the constitutionally guaranteed rights of speech, assembly, and petition for redress of greivances which are designed to breathe strength and vitality into American democracy.

Consequently, we thirteen are both puzzled and disturbed by the order your office has requested from the Portland Police, banning us from the premises of your “constituent” office at any time for any reason. For better or worse, we live in a representative democracy, and you are the individual who has been duly elected to represent us in Congress. When you cast your vote time and again to finance this immoral and illegal war and occupation, you do so on behalf of the citizens of the First District of Maine. For that reason, we consider our rights of speech, with you as the audience, to be fundamental and indispensable. The order you have requested from the Portland Police Department, which has been issued to each of us in writing, is an unconstitutional restriction on our First Amendment rights of speech and assembly. For that reason, we request that you contact the Portland Police Department immediately, asking that the orders be rescinded. We also ask that you formally respond to this letter, confirming in writing whether we thirteen are, or are not, welcome at your Portland office.

We thank you and urgently await your reply.


Sincerely,

Bath-Brunswick Occupation Project Affinity Group

Susan Andersen
Portland

Stephen Carroll
Portland

Kathe Chipman
Harpswell

Carolyn Coe
Blue Hill

Christine A. DeTroy
Brunswick

Mary Donnelly
Peaks Island

Bruce K. Gagnon
Bath

Mair Honan
Portland

Dexter Kamilewicz
Orr's Island

Natasha Mayers
Whitefield

Mary Beth Sullivan
Bath

Karen Wainberg
Bath

Rhonda Wilson
Portland


cc: Maine media outlets
Maine anti-war activists

EUROPE SPACE CONFERENCE COMES AT IMPORTANT TIME

The Global Network's annual space organizing conference for 2007 will be held in Darmstadt, Germany. It is being coordinated by GN board member Regina Hagen (pictured above) who lives in Darmstadt. Regina has been one of our most loyal and active leaders on the space issue for many years now and was able to find full-time work as the director of the International Network of Engineers & Scientists Against Proliferation.

Having our meeting this year in Europe could not have been better timed as the U.S. moves to encircle Russia with so-called missile defense systems by establishing new bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. (Tony Blair has joined the club by requesting that the U.S. also consider putting these son of Star Wars systems in the UK as well.)

We've always maintained that "missile defense" is a Trojan horse. These systems have never been intended to serve as a defensive shield because any honest review of them indicates that they could easily be overwhelmed or tricked in a real world situation. But they would have value in two other significant ways.

One, by claiming to be defensive shields, they help bring massive amounts of research and development dollars into a program that is really about creating offensive space weapons technologies. Thus, the Trojan horse claim.

Secondly, if used as part of a first-strike attack scenario, then these systems would not have to worry about picking off every missile that comes toward it because their job at that point would be to offer the threat of only having to take out a couple lone missiles that might get launched in retaliation after a U.S. attack.

Now some might find it hard to believe that the U.S. would launch such a first-strike attack on another sovereign nation. That would be against international law you say. But international law does not seem to stop the U.S. militarists and recent history shows the U.S. quite willing to invade Panama, Grenada, and Iraq without provocation. The Pentagon now annually wargames a U.S. first-strike attack on China - set in the year 2016.

One goal of our March 23-24 conference in Germany is to help make contact and offer support to those in Poland and the Czech Republic who are organizing opposition to the U.S. plan for Star Wars bases in their country. In that regard we've just heard from Dave Webb, the convener of the GN's board of directors, that he has made contact with a Green Party leader in the Czech Republic and has invited him to come to Darmstadt for the conference. Dave, who lives and teaches in Leeds, England, has been doing extensive work like this throughout Europe in hopes of expanding outreach to those not yet connected to our growing international network of communities that are resisting Star Wars.

EMBARRASSED

I spent nearly 8 cold hours on the street yesterday from 2pm til 10pm in downtown Portland holding a sign and handing out literature just outside the office of our congressman Tom Allen. There were over 30 of us on the street.

Inside the office sat six of our friends who were risking arrest while calling on Allen to vote against Bush's $100 billion request. They entered the office at 3pm and when we left at 10pm they had still not been arrested. We found out this morning that the police arrived at midnight and took them away. They paid $40 and were released from jail around 3am.

The reason Allen's staff waited til midnight to arrest them was because Channel 13 in Portland was sitting outside the office from 6pm till 11pm waiting to film the arrest. They did live broadcasts out on the street at 6pm, 10pm, and then again at 11pm. On their 11pm broadcast the office occupation was their lead story and then they followed it with a wonderful piece showing in detail just how much money has been spent on the Iraq war each year since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

The news yesterday reported that the Democrats, now in control of Congress, have come up with a brand new strategy to end the Iraq fiasco. No, they don't want to cut the funding. No, they are not calling for the troops to immediately come home. It is something bigger, bolder, more effective! The Democrats are going to embarrass George W. Bush. They are going to shame him into ending the war!

Brilliant! Fantastic! Incredible you say? So amazingly astute. They are going to embarrass Bush!

Just exactly how this embarrassment of Bush is going to end the war they have not yet spelled out. It reminds me of Richard Nixon's secret plan to end the Vietnam war. But don't laugh, the Democrats have come up with a whopper I am certain.

The Democrats have stumbled onto something none of the rest of us realize. They have figured out that George W. Bush has a conscience. Bush can be shamed. Bush can be made to change course because he cares what the people of the world think of him.

This is the most absurd, idiotic notion I have heard yet. It just goes to show that the spineless Democrats have nothing left in their hearts and souls to offer the nation. They have no desire to end this war. They don't have the guts to stand up on behalf of the people. This is so sad and so childish that there is only one word to describe this new Democratic plan.

It is simply embarrassing.