BUSH SEEKS FUNDS FOR ASAT TEST

For many years the U.S. military has been seeking permission to test and deploy anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons in space. For many years they were blocked by the Congress from taking that next dangerous and destabilizing step. Now the Bush administration is moving to break down all walls that have prevented the Pentagon from successfully moving weapons into the heavens.

Bush's fiscal year 2007 proposed budget contains a request for $5.7 million to test fire a ground-based laser into space to try to hit a satellite. If this is allowed the barrier to weapons in space will have been broken.

The Space Command was given the job years ago to make it possible for the U.S. to "control and dominate" space. In military document after document since 1987, Space Command officials have stated that in order to carry out the mission of space dominance they would need weapons in space to perform the mission. Now it looks as though Bush intends to give them the green light.

In a Congress that is dominated by the military industrial complex it is likely that the $5.7 million for this ASAT test will be approved unless there is a massive global expression of outrage. Unfortunately the media will likely do little to help spread the word about this development. We will have to depend on the public.

If you click on the link in the headline above you will be taken to a website run by WAND that has a Congressional letter writing system for this issue. Please go to it and write a letter to Congress. Tell them no money for ASAT testing or deployment.

We don't need a new arms race in space. Use our tax dollars for education, health care, environmental clean-up, public mass transit and the like.

WE NEED MASS TRANSIT

Price of gas now over $3 per gallon in the U.S. We've not seen anything yet. It's $6 a gallon in Europe. At least in Europe and Japan and other parts of the world they have a real public mass transit system. We need mass transit right now! We've got to start demanding it.

Begin to imagine if we converted the military production process all across the U.S. to build a high-tech rail system connecting every corner of America. Imagine the jobs created in the U.S. building rail cars, refurbishing rail lines, building rail stations....why can't we in the peace movement, environmental movement and labor movements make this a common theme of our work?

In yesterday's Portland, Maine newspaper there were two letters to the editor talking about the need for public mass transit system. People are ready for it, they know we need it. We just need to make the demand public and begin to offer the vision of conversion of the military industrial complex so that our tax dollars can be used for production of rail systems, solar power and wind energy.

But notice the corporate masters on TV. What is their solution to higher gas prices? Ethanol.....gasoline made from corn. They don't want to end the car dependent culture....we've got to respond to that with strong and persistent calls for mass transit.

IT'S OUR WAR NOW

Our Iraq/Iran war town hall meeting last Friday night was wonderful. We had over 400 people turn out and many of them lined up at the two microphones in the aisles to share their feelings about the war. None of our Maine congressional delegation or the governor showed up. No shock there. Surprisingly the Portland newspaper covered the event with a decent story that ran on the front page. None of the TV stations covered the event though. Most likely a fire or car crash kept them from filming people from all over the state speaking out about the # 1 issue on the voters mind - the costly and immoral war we are now in.

Person after person expressed outrage that the politicians were not there. Progressive candidates for governor, U.S. Senate and House seats were there and were given wildly affirmative responses from the audience.

We ended up with 45 peace groups, church committees and town political committees (Democratic party and Green) sponsoring the event. Many people worked very hard passing out flyers (one local activist handed out 1,000 of them around Portland) and helping to spread the word. Maine Veterans for Peace spent $500 and purchased radio adverts during the first half of April that promoted the event. It was a perfect example of what happens when many different groups work together. Hard work, determination, and a good spirit works every time.

The next step for us is that we will have a meeting on May 6 to evaluate the town hall meeting and then do some brainstorming what our next step will be. I don't think we want to create a "new" organization, I just think we want to explore how we can keep supporting each other and work toward building, slowly but surely, a larger regional anti-war movement in mid-coast and southern Maine that stays connected to the larger movement in the state. As we do that each of our groups will benefit from the process and we will help mobilize a public that cares deeply about this issue but has lost all faith in the political process. We learned Friday night though that events like our town hall meeting serve to inspire people and give them the hope and the energy to keep fighting for what is right.

The war must end. We must bring the troops home now. We must cut the war funding in order to stop the war. It is our war now. Our $$$ is being used to fund it. We have to stop it.

THE YOUTH WANT A FUTURE

Native Americans used to say, “Put your ear to the railroad tracks and hear the train a-coming.” The recent student riots in France are such a warning sign to me.

In many parts of France student unemployment is now 50% or higher. This is the highest youth unemployment rate in all of Europe. And France is the country of liberty, fraternity, and equality.

The students call themselves the “dispossessed generation,” sick of a society run by a permanent elite in which so many people have no place. People feel they are being left out in the cold. One slogan the students have been chanting during their recent street protests is, “We are disposable pieces of shit!”

One young woman described life in France today as, “The government has done nothing to address the hell of life in the poor suburbs – no jobs, prison, broken homes.”

As I look at income distribution in the U.S. I can’t help but hear the train coming. Millionaires and the middle-class in America now pay taxes at almost the same rates. The redistribution of wealth, upward, is reducing the governments ability to provide basic human services like health care, education, job training, clean drinking water, public transit – all things that help to stabilize and form a “more perfect union.”

When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Congress boosted the tax rate for the very rich to 77%. During WW II, the top rate hit a record high of 94%. As recently as 1980, the maximum rate on investment income was 70%, although the top rate on wages was 50%.

Today the basic tax rate for the rich in America is 22%. The rich are getting richer and the poor and middle class in the U.S. are sinking into endless debt and poverty. Today the income pyramid in America looks like this: At the top of the wealth pyramid are 29,000 Americans who own the equivalent wealth of 96 million Americans at the bottom.

You can’t have a democracy in a place like that. You have an oligarchy.

When this happens what kind of future can we expect for our children? When the rich increasing control massive portions of wealth what kind of education will our children have? Will they be able to find jobs other than flipping burgers for minimum wages? Will they ever have health care?

Years ago I read Kurt Vonnegut’s book called Piano Player. It was set in a time in the future where the young people had no jobs. They were superfluous because machines, computers, robots had taken over the essential work functions in the society. The young people had no place in society, no role. They had no stake in the present and saw no future for themselves. By the end of the book the students tore the society apart. They tore up the machines and torn down the social structures as if they were beginning a rebuilding of the society in hopes of creating a new order.

This is what I see happening in France. The elites have gotten so greedy that they no longer care about the rest of us. They build more jails and create endless wars knowing that our children will have to join the military if they want a job or money for education.

This is what the reintroduction of feudalism looks like.

TAX DAY AND TORTURE

It's tax day in America. Tax day and torture. How does that sound to you? According to the War Resisters League (see link above) 49 cents out of every tax dollar now goes to the Pentagon. That means of course there is increasingly no money for other priorities. No money for health care as 46 million Americans now have no health insurance. No money for education as local schools face teacher lay-offs and other budget cuts. College students face cutbacks in tuition assistance and end up with thousands of dollars of debt upon graduation. On and on the story goes.

But there is lots of money for war....for permanent bases in Iraq.....for torture chambers around the world....for new hugely expensive weapons systems....for an arms race in space......for new expensive Navy destroyers.....for bombing Iran.....

The Repubs and the Dems vote for this madness. They blame each other for the condition of things but both parties hold hands and keep appropriating more money for the endless war cycle we are now in.....$8 billion a month in Iraq and no end in site.

You can claim you don't support the war but in fact you do. Taxes and torture. What are we to do about this? This war is our war now. We are paying for it.....it is in our name.....Iran could be next....how long must it go on before we stand up and resist this insanity?

Tax day and torture.

TOWN HALL MEETING ON IRAQ-IRAN

A week from today there will be an important event in Portland. Everyone who can attend should do so. The groups listed below are hosting a Town Hall Meeting on the Iraq war. The event will be held on Friday, April 21 beginning at 6:30 pm at the Hannaford Lecture Hall on the campus of the University of Southern Maine (USM) in Portland.

We’ve invited our entire Congressional delegation and the Governor of Maine (who sends the National Guard to Iraq) to come to this event. We think the time has come for them all to come together to listen to the people. Polls show that the Iraq war is the top issue on the minds of the voters. With growing talk of U.S. bombing Iran, the need for such a public gathering of concerned citizens could not be more timely.

Just this week six retired Pentagon generals have called for Donald Rumsfeld to resign as Secretary of War. One of them, I heard on the news today, said the U.S. should not have invaded Iraq in the first place. What is so amazing to me is how silent the politicians are as these generals speak out. We hear nothing from our Senators about this…..and we hear nothing from our Congressmen about this incredible new development. It is like they are all hiding together in a fox hole with their hands covering their heads.

It is unlikely that our Maine Congressional Delegation will come listen to the people. Why? They won’t come because they fear the growing wrath of the public. They’d rather side-step the issue as best as they can for as long as they can.

Another top issue for the voter today in the U.S. is health care. Over 46 million Americans do not have any kind of health insurance. Many, like me, pay enormous amounts for policies that have very high deductibles (mine is $15,000). We have been told for years that there is no money for a national healthcare plan. But the fact that Republicans and Democrats alike keep voting for war spending, now over $8 billion a month, shows that they somehow feel we have money for that insanity.

We expect a great turnout for the April 21 Town Hall Meeting at USM in Portland. We are going to give every person who comes, whether they support the war or not, three-minutes at the microphone to say how they feel about the war. We will video tape the event and send copies of our Congressional Delegation and to the Governor.

It’s sad when the “elected” officials fear the public. In this case it is obvious why. They don’t want to be held directly responsible for their votes that continue an illegal and immoral war. They don’t want to have educated, informed, passionate, involved people standing in front of hundreds of their fellow citizens speaking the truth about how our nation has been hijacked. Democracy is a frightening thing to people who don’t really believe in it.

April 21 Town Hall Sponsors:

· NAACP Portland Branch
· Maine Veterans for Peace
· Peace Action Maine
· Forest Ecology Network
· Maine Women's International League for Peace & Freedom
· Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks
· Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
· Midcoast Peace & Justice Group
· People Organizing to Win Economic Rights - POWER
· Witness for Peace
· Portland Women in Black
· Pax Christi Maine
· Sociology Student Association-USM
· Asian American Association-USM
· Philosophy Symposium-USM
· Maine Council of Churches
· AFSC Maine Program on Youth & Militarism
· Resources for Organizing & Social Change
· Maine People's Alliance
· USM College Democrats
· Bridges for Peace
· Citizens Offering New Alternatives
· York County Progressives
· Biddeford City Democratic Committee
· Social Action Committee of the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church
· Maine Campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace & Nonviolence
· League of Pissed off Voters
· Kennebunkport Democratic Committee
· Kennebunk Democratic Committee
· York County Green Independent Party Committee
· Waldo County Peace & Justice Group
· Maine Coalition for Peace & Justice
· The Eleuthero Community
· Clean Maine Coalition
· Maine Progressive Caucus
· Radio Free Maine
· Let Cuba Live
· Green Horizon Foundation
· Southern Maine Labor Council
· Social Justice Committee First Parish UUC of Kennebunk
· Faith in Action Committee of the NE District Unitarian Universalist Association
· Cumberland County Democratic Committee
· Social Justice Committee of the UUC of Belfast
· Physicians for Social Responsibility Maine

PRIVATIZING FOR PROFIT

While recently on the road I picked up a copy of the Washington Post and read an article in the business section that got my attention. The headline read “Infrastructure: A Road to Riches?” It is a story about how big corporations are now buying up the roads, bridges, water systems, and other public infrastructure in the U.S.

For the next 75 years, more than 150 miles of Interstate 80 running through Indiana, will be run by Spanish and Australian corporations that will collect the tolls, operate the pit stops, do highway repairs, and make a profit.

Near Washington DC, the Dulles Greenway was bought for $533 million by the same two foreign firms. They also have taken over the Chicago Skyway.

The Carlyle Group, known as a Bush family controlled entity that specializes in weapons and war, recently created an entity to get into roads, bridges and the like. They are using their excess profits from war making to begin to buy up the everything else.

Goldman Sachs & Co, which made $9 million advising Chicago on the Skyway sale, will collect $20 million in fees for engineering the Indiana Toll Road sale. Wall Street knows there is money to be made by getting into infrastructure. Stock and bond investors who put up the capital will make profits too. Who will lose on these deals?

The public will. Privatized toll road workers and maintenance crews will make less money than public employees doing similar work. Private managers though will likely draw higher salaries than government managers would get. Prices on toll roads will increase and there will be little political leverage to keep these private corporations from fleecing us.

If England is any example, we can expect more costs for the average person and less service. When Maggie Thatcher privatized the once revered British rail system it was broken into bits and sold out to various companies. Service got worse and maintenance of the system declined. Profits increased for the corporations and railway fares increased for the public.

This is just one more sign that we are returning the industrial world to a form of feudalism – the 21st century variety. Government’s role is being reshaped to ensure that the rich will be protected by government rather than the other way around. This will sour the public on government, meaning less people will participate in the electoral system making it even easier for the rich to control the levers of power. With that control in place we will see greater use of tax dollars to create a militarized society where the power of the “state” is used to suppress opposition to feudal control. The military will grow in power and influence as it will be used to keep the boot on the necks of people worldwide as the corporations grab resources like oil and water and extract even more concessions from labor.

I had an e-mail from a woman who works with a Global Network affiliated group in Australia this morning. She described this same situation to me as it is happening in her country. She said, “We are right back in the early 20th century as far as human rights, industrial rights, involvement in war, weapons production, eagerness to set up nuclear power stations, eagerness to open more uranium mines and sell it, willy-nilly - to anyone who'll buy it . . . Makes me weep when I think of how my grandfather, my mother, and so many of their and my generations gave their whole lives to gradually making things a little better and a little better -- and it's all swept away by this bastard government we've got.”

The reality of our times is corporate consolidation globally. We have two choices. We can go along with it or we can resist it. In order to resist it we must expand our working relationships with groups around the planet. We now have to connect our local issues with the larger international picture. We have to see ourselves as part of a larger international anti-corporate movement.

We have to clearly see that the governing political parties in our countries are now under the control of the multi-national corporations. We have to quit thinking that we can “influence” the Dems or the Repubs in the U.S. or their facsimiles around the world. The time has come for “independence day” from these corporate powers.

A SURPRISING HISTORY OF JAPANESE/U.S. BIO-WARFARE

I just finished reading an amazing book called “A Plague Upon Humanity” by Daniel Barenblatt. It tells the story of the hidden history of Japan’s biological warfare program before and during WW II.

Barenblatt begins by revealing how Japan created a phony pretext in order to start the Manchurian war. In September 1931 Japanese army engineers secretly blew up the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railway near Shenyang. The Japanese government then immediately blamed the explosion upon Chinese soldiers garrisoned nearby. Japan then attacked the Chinese troops, sleeping in their barracks at the time. A war was underway.

Early on Japan set up a biological warfare (BW) unit led by Shiro Ishii. BW units were established throughout Manchuria and China in Japanese army occupied territory. At these locations Chinese freedom fighters and civilians were used as lab rats and were given lethal doses of bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox, typhus and typhoid. Bodies of infected prisoners were cut open, often while people still lived, to study the effects of the biological contamination. Japan’s BW program used infected rats and fleas, dropped from airplanes, to spread the deadly diseases killing entire Chinese villages. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Chinese civilians were killed by Japan.

As WW II widened throughout the Pacific, Japan took their BW campaign to Japanese occupied islands. Japan also sent disease laden animals into Russia in hopes of spreading disease into that country. American prisoners of war were experimented on in Japanese labs as well.

Following Japanese surrender at the end of WW II one would have thought that these crimes against humanity would have been exposed and punished, similar to Nazi war crimes at the Nuremberg trials. But this was not the case. General Douglas MacArthur made a deal with Japan’s chief BW expert, Shiro Ishii, protecting him from prosecution by literally covering up the entire BW story. Ishii and his BW team gave their expertise to the U.S. According to Barenblatt, “Not only did they escape war crimes proceedings and public scrutiny by virtue of their cooperation with the U.S. occupation authorities, they also became prominent public health officials and respected academic figures in Japanese university and government circles. A few became quite wealthy as executives of pharmaceutical companies.”

The Soviet Union knew about Japan’s BW program and in late 1949 called for Ishii to be apprehended and tried by the U.S. occupation forces in Japan as the ringleader of the secret Japanese program. In response, Gen. MacArthur’s office in Tokyo denounced the Soviet charges of Japanese biological warfare and a U.S. cover-up as evidence of communist propaganda.

In fact on March 13, 1948 the U.S. War Department cabled instructions to Gen. MacArthur in Japan to give “immunity” to Japanese BW operatives. “Information retained from Ishii and associates may be retained in intelligence channels,” the instructions concluded.

There were war crimes trials in Japan after WW II. B.V.A. Roling, the last surviving judge from the Tokyo trials, who represented the Netherlands on the international tribunal, learned of this American deception many years later. “As one of the judges in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, it is a bitter experience for me to be informed now that centrally ordered Japanese war criminality of the most disgusting kind was kept secret from the Court by the U.S. government,” Roling wrote. The U.S. should be “ashamed because of the fact they withheld information from the Court with respect to the biological experiments of the Japanese in Manchuria on Chinese and American prisoners of war,” he said.

In the 1950’s Ishii was secretly taken to the U.S. to lecture at Fort Detrick, MD on how to best conduct germ warfare. And as the Korean War heated up, Ishii was used by the U.S. to advise on how to spread deadly disease in that war against North Korean and Chinese forces. North Korea, China and the Soviet Union all claimed in 1951-52 that the U.S. Pentagon was using germ warfare on a large scale in the Korean War.

The Chinese showed footage and photographs of metallic U.S. shells that snapped open upon hitting the ground, releasing a swarming cargo of insects that unleashed bubonic plague, smallpox, and anthrax. This method of delivery had been a favorite of Japan’s BW program.

Barenblatt notes that an international scientific investigating team, headed by a highly noted British biochemist from Cambridge University, did research in Korea and issued a report saying that sudden appearances of insects and spiders, of species not normally known in the region, in winter, and in association with the dropping of strange containers and objects by U.S. military planes were evidence of bio-warfare. Lab tests performed on fleas discovered in such unusual circumstances, positively showed the presence of bubonic plague bacteria.

In some cases, U.S. military jets, usually F-86 fighters, had flown over Korea dropping masses of fowl feathers tainted with anthrax.

In 1956 American journalist John Powell was charged with 13 counts of sedition for trying to expose the U.S. BW campaign in Korea. In 1953 former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover brought Powell before congressional committees charging him with “un-American activities.” Years later, in the 1980’s, Powell’s story was finally aired in an article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

So as we today hear China warning about the re-arming of Japan, with full support and encouragement of the U.S., can we not see some historical precedent for their worry? Both Japan and the U.S. have shown, since WW II, that they will use extreme measures to subdue Korea and China in the quest for control and domination of the Asian Pacific. As the U.S. today doubles its military presence in the Asian-Pacific region, can there be any doubt that China and Korea have not forgotten the stories of the past? Stories that to most Americans are unknown and long covered up.

REPORT ON COLORADO TRIP

This trip began on April 2 with a very early morning drive to Portland so I could catch the bus from there to the Boston airport. After a three-hour wait in Boston I flew to Chicago where I ended up with a seven-hour delay due to major thunderstorms throughout the Midwest. I finally arrived in Colorado Springs at 12:30 a.m. and gratefully Bill Sulzman still came to the airport to pick me up.

Bill Sulzman was one of the founding members of the Global Network when it was created in 1992. At that time I was the state coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice. Bill's group, the Colorado Springs-based Citizens for Peace in Space, had been working with us in Florida since the 80's. For some time the two groups were really the only local organizations in the country doing on-going space organizing. It became clear to us by 1992 that we needed to grow this movement, and with the help of journalist Karl Grossman, we created the Global Network to do just that.

This year marked the 22nd annual meeting of the Space Symposium, an event put on by the aerospace industry. It was reported that this year almost 8,000 military personnel, aerospace industry executives and technologists were in attendance. In addition the Space Symposium brought in hundreds of students from elementary, middle schools and high schools as a way to recruit them to work in the industry.

This event draws a protest each year by Citizens for Peace in Space. The symposium is located at the very posh Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. I was told that a membership to the Broadmoor Golf & Country Club has a $100,000 entry fee and there is a waiting list to join. The setting for the protest could not be more ideal. We were able to stand with banners on the sidewalk directly in front of the main symposium auditorium thus every person entering the event passed directly by us.

The theme of the protest this year was "Only You Can Prevent Truth Decay" and T-shirts were made with that message on the front and the schedule of protest events for the week was listed on the back similar to a rock-and-roll concert tour. The sub-theme was "Blow the Whistle on Crime and Corruption!"

The theme could not have been more timely as the New York Times reported in its April 2 edition that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington has been covering up a scientific fraud among builders of the expensive "missile defense" system. The Times reported that the GAO ignored evidence that the two main contractors for the program (Boeing and TRW) had doctored data, shewed test results and made false statements in a 2002 report.

Our first protest at the symposium began at 5:00 p.m. on April 3, just as the confab was to begin with a banquet. Our group of about 25 folks blew whistles and handed out leaflets urging the vast assemblage entering the building to "blow the whistle on the deception that is rampant in the military space program." We even handed out baloney sandwiches to those willing to take one, suggesting our baloney was better than the baloney being passed out inside the space symposium.

On April 4 we got to the symposium at 7:30 a.m. just as the crowd arrived. I held a banner that read "Beware of the power of the military industrial complex. - Dwight Eisenhower" and would routinely ask military officers passing by if they would like to take a turn holding it for awhile. I got no takers.

From the space symposium that morning we drove north to Aurora, Colorado where Buckley Air Force Spy & Space War Base is located. We held a vigil outside the main gate with the huge white golfball looking "radoms" in view. Loring Wirbel explained how these systems "suck in" all phone, fax and e-mail communications from throughout the entire world as part of the U.S. program called Echelon. I told the story about how Global Network affiliated groups in Australia, Germany, England and the like continually protest at U.S. "downlink facilities" that collect this information regionally and then send it via satellite in "real time" to Buckley AFB for final processing.

We were met at the Buckley vigil by the three Dominican Nuns, Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson who were found guilty in 2003 for having symbolically "disarmed" a Minuteman nuclear missile silo in northeastern Colorado. Their action, called Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares, put them in jail for a considerable amount of time and Ardeth was the last to get out just a couple of months ago. This was the first time they had been back in Colorado since their trial. Following the vigil at Buckley we made the two hour drive further north to Weld County where the sisters had done their act of disarmament at the N-8 missile silo.

When we arrived we decorated the missile silo gate with yellow crime scene tape and hung an eviction notice, signed by all who were there, on the gate. A team of reporters from several newspaper and radio outlets listened to the sisters make a statement about what motivated them to do the action in 2002. They spoke about their Dominican order being one of preachers who were obligated to tell the truth. The non-violent Jesus called on them to publicly witness against weapons of mass destruction. Their mission at the N-8 silo in 2002 was to open the gates so the world could see that the U.S. had WMD's as Bush lectured the rest of the world about the evils of nuclear weapons. Having worked with the poor all their lives, the sisters insisted that the funding of WMD's was a theft from the poor.

Next we drove back to the nearby town of Greeley where the sisters had been taken to jail following their 2002 action. On this April 4 evening we were to show the new documentary video called "Conviction" that told the story about the nuns and their peace witness at N-8. The only place that would host the event in Greeley was a Mexican restaurant - and fortunately they had a wonderful buffet. Following dinner the filmmaker introduced the film and a good crowd of local people, in addition to those on the protest caravan, watched the documentary. The film not only featured the sisters but also included extensive interviews with the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals who is based in Colorado Springs. During the film Haggard explains how U.S. military technology keeps the world free and called the disarmament action by the nuns misguided and criticized their theological interpretations.

On April 5 we were back out to the Broadmoor Hotel for a lunch time vigil. Bill Sulzman remarked that he had never seen so many military personnel as this year. Many generals (one star, two stars, three stars, four stars) walked past us. Former Republican Congressman Robert Walker, a 20-year veteran of the House of Representatives, where he served as Chairman of the House Science Committee, passed by us on three different occasions. While in Congress he was a big critic of "liberal big spending" so each time he walked by I would ask him why we were not reading any quotes from him in the newspaper about the "big spending" Bush administration. He groaned and gruffed as he slinked by. At one point I also noticed former Sen. Chuck Robb (D-VA) enter the symposium. Robb, a former Marine, became the first senator ever to simultaneously serve on the Senate Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Intelligence Committees. All these politicians are now working as consultants and lobbyists for the military industrial complex. I also noted their business suits were cut from very expensive cloth these days.

Following this mid-day vigil I was invited to speak to a Philosophy class at Pikes Peak Community College. The class, I was warned, had a couple of recent Iraq war veterans in it and some wives of soldiers at nearby Fort Carson, an Army base that regularly sends troops to the war in Iraq. About 20 students were in the class and I was asked to speak about Ethics and the Military Industrial Complex. My talk went quite well with no real opposition expressed during our lively question and answer period. It was clear to me that this working class group of students clearly understood that the rich were getting richer in today's America and that the war in Iraq was a war for control of oil that would only benefit the big corporations. It gave me confidence that the public increasingly has figured out the big picture.

The primary question posed by one student was, "What do we do now?" I answered by saying that as I walked from the parking lot to the main building on campus, I was nearly blown over by the powerful wind. Why, I asked, can't you have some windmills here providing power for this college? Think of the money and energy saved, the oil not needed, and the jobs that could be created in America building windmills. Why not solar too with so much abundant sun in Colorado? Why not a public transit system, here in Colorado and across the U.S., giving you an option other than your expensive car? Why can't we build these sustainable technologies instead of weapons and endless war? And why can't the peace movement, the environmental movement, and the labor movements create a unified campaign and political demand around this issue? The students got it.

My trip to Colorado ended with another early morning vigil at the Broodmor Hotel on April 6 as the symposium was wrapping up "business." On my first day in Colorado Springs the local newspaper had carried an article about the event and one space symposium organizer was quoted as saying the whole event was about "business." He said the aerospace industry sponsors would be cutting business deals during the week. There is huge money to be made moving the arms race into space and the rats are gathering around the cheese. In order to pay for, what the weapons industry calls the "largest industrial project in the history of the planet Earth," the aerospace industry has targeted the "entitlement programs" for defunding. The space business community wants Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and what is left of the Welfare Program, to be defunded with the money moved into the new space arms race.

The open question is how will the American people respond? If my talk to the Philosophy class was any indication they are not eager to see the dismantling of social progress. But first they must learn about the issue. The week-long protest at the 22nd Annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs was an important contribution to this much needed public debate. I'll be back next year for more. I hope more of you will join us.

WHISTLEBLOWING IN COLORADO

Had a great time in Colorado. Each day we spent some time protesting out in front of the space symposium where we had very close contact with the legions of military personnel and aerospace corporate executives who were attending the space war confab. We handed out leaflets asking them to be whistleblowers and Bill Sulzman kept inviting the people entering the event to stop and “give their testimonies” about graft and corruption inside the Pentagon. We also blew whistles and invited the military officers to hold a banner with us for awhile. None did.

Saw the new film called “Conviction” twice that tells the story about the Dominican nuns (Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson) who spent 2-3 years in jail for their symbolic act of disarmament at a nuclear silo in northeastern Colorado. The nuns were with us and on Tuesday we all made the long trek out to the N-8 nuclear silo – returning to the scene of the crime – where they did their plowshares action. I love these women and they bring tears to my eyes each time they speak about the need for people to stretch themselves and do just a bit more to help end the senseless insanity of the USA’s foreign and military policy.

The nuns base much of their disarmament work around their interpretation of the non-violent Jesus. They also remind us that we can’t feed the poor and the military industrial complex at the same time.

I also spoke to a Philosophy class at Pikes Peak Community College. There were two former Army soldiers who were stationed in Iraq and several wives of GI’s in the class. I talked about Ethics and the Military Industrial Complex. My message was well received by the class and I enjoyed the time with them.

I will write more about the trip once I recover from the travel.

IT'S ALL ABOUT BUSINESS!

Bill Sulzman (above) picked me up at the Colorado Springs airport last night at 12:30. I had sat in the Chicago airport for 7 hours due to a huge storm that hit the midwest. By the time I got to sleep it was 2 am so you could say it was a long day for me.

Bill said that 300 people had turned out in Denver last night to see the premier of the new documentary about the three nums (Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson) who have all just recently gotten out of jail for their disarmament action a couple years ago. I should see them tonight when they come to Colorado Springs for a second showing of the film. Don't know the name of the film yet.

So the fight truth decay tour is underway. The local paper reported this morning that "thousands" are expected for the National Space Symposium that begins today. Display booths in the arms bazaar will be going for $5,200 each and the registration fee is $1,200 each. You know the taxpayer will be covering those fees as all this money flowing into the aerospace industry is your tax dollar at work.

According to Steve Eisenhart, a senior V-P of the Space Foundation, "It is where the industry comes together. It is all about business."

Yeah well said Mr. Eisenhart. It is about business alright. The business of moving the arms race into the heavens. The business of profiting off a new arms race in space. The business of destroying social progress in American so our tax dollars can be moved into the coffers of the military industrial complex. It's all about business. The business of control and domination.

FIGHT TRUTH DECAY

I'm heading to Colorado Springs on Sunday to participate in protests outside the 22nd National Space Symposium. As you can see by clicking the link in the title above, the event is a who's who of the Pentagon and aerospace industry. Last year over 6,000 military and weapons industry personnel were there.

Our Global Network affiliate group, called Citizens for Peace in Space, is once again organizing the protest outside the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. They are calling it the "Only You Can Prevent Truth Decay" protest. The protests will also be taken out into the larger community through a public forum at Colorado College and a visit to the Buckley Air Force Spy & Space War Base in nearby Aurora, Colorado. We will also take folks out to see the several local space command sites in an action that will be called "2006 Space Expose 'Um."

Citizens for Peace in Space (CPIS), particularly its coordinator Bill Sulzman, is a founding member of the Global Network. In a leaflet CPIS says, "We expose this propaganda offering for what it is, an arms bazaar for fat cats and war lords who run the U.S. space program. The official story is full of half truths, coverups, and outright lies. Exposing that is a tall order but someone has to do it."

It should be fun as CPIS is one of the more creative groups around. They always use street theater to get their message out to a wider audience. I am looking forward to the trip and will try to put some short reports from the action on the blog while in Colorado.

WHO VALUES LIFE THE MOST?

I sometimes hear people say that people in Iraq do not value life the way we do in the U.S. I find that an arrogant statement. Do the people of Iraq love their families any less than Americans do? People in the U.S. have learned to use statements like this to justify our unending empire building that results in legions of dead people that resist U.S. control and domination.

Did the U.S. show how much we valued life when we virtually exterminated the Native Americans? Did the U.S. show its reverence for life when it created the institution of slavery - selling human beings on the auction block in cities throughout the country? Do we value human life today when 46 million of our citizens have no access to health care - the only industrialized nation in the world without a national health care system?

Politicians like to talk about values a lot these days. So do many right-wing conservative groups who consider themselves "right with the Lord." But how do they feel about the war in Iraq, or national health care, or the death penalty? All values issues for sure.

This kind of arrogance, that we in the U.S. are the "exceptional" nation, is a major reason why America is so hated and mistrusted around the world. Until the American people begin to deal with our arrogance, we will remain the laughing stock of the world.

WHITEY ON THE MOON

The Washington Post ran a story yesterday called "U.S. Planning Base on Moon to Prepare for Trip to Mars." The story said that NASA is now planning for a permanent moon base by 2020. The problem - money. Over 40% of NASA's budget is now being spent on the troubled and expensive Int'l Space Station. We were told the space station was originally going to cost tax payers $10 billion but it ended up costing us $100 billion and it is still not completed...probably never will be.

Imagine the cost of a permanent moon base. Do you understand why the Congress keeps talking about the need for "entitlement programs reform"? What are the entitlement programs they want to reform to free up money for the aerospace industry? Try Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and what is left of the welfare program.

Why the big rush to get to the moon? "The new thing is China, and they've announced they're going to the moon. The Europeans want to go; the Russians want to go; and if we don't go, maybe they'll go with the Chinese," Mars Institute Chairman Pascal Lee says. "Could we bypass the moon and go to Mars while India and China are going to the moon? I don't think so."

So what is the big deal on the moon that everyone wants to get a hold of? It's called helium-3. Scientists say helium-3 could be used to provide power for fusion reactors here on Earth, making the profits of the oil corporations look like nothing. So the race is on. Who pays for the technological race to the moon? Right, you the taxpayer. Who would profit? Right again, the big aerospace industry corporations. You the taxpayers get left in the dark - without your "entitlement programs."

"Power is the big challenge," says Larry Toups at NASA. NASA and the Department of Energy want nuclear reactors on the moon so they are now laying the groundwork to convince the nation that multiple launches of nuclear reactors heading to the moon will be acceptable. Hold onto your hats folks.

Then add to all that the expensive military space weapons technology that would be needed to ensure that the U.S. "controlled and dominated" the pathway between the Earth and the moon and you've got a whole new arms race. Mucho gravy for the weapons industry.

Someone sent me the words to a Gil Scott-Heron song about the moon. Here it is.

Whitey on the Moon
by Gil Scott-Heron

A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face and arms began to swell.
(and Whitey's on the moon)
I can't pay no doctor bill.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Ten years from now I'll be payin' still.
(while Whitey's on the moon)
The man jus' upped my rent las' night.
('cause Whitey's on the moon)
No hot water, no toilets, no lights.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
I wonder why he's uppin' me?
('cause Whitey's on the moon?)
I wuz already payin' 'im fifty a week.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Taxes takin' my whole damn check,
Junkies makin' me a nervous wreck,
The price of food is goin' up,
An' as if all that shit wuzn't enough:
A rat done bit my sister Nell.
(with Whitey on the moon)
Her face an' arm began to swell.
(but Whitey's on the moon)
Was all that money I made las' year
(for Whitey on the moon?)
How come there ain't no money here?
(Hmm! Whitey's on the moon)
Y'know I jus' 'bout had my fill
(of Whitey on the moon)
I think I'll sen' these doctor bills,
Airmail special
(to Whitey on the moon)

CAN'T TURN YOUR BACK ON THE WAR

Yesterday I went north to the University of Maine - Orono to be part of a peace witness during a speech by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). The senator was invited to talk about “The Ethics of Conscience: Continuing the Legacy of Margaret Chase Smith” by the school and 60 peace activists, dressed in black, sat in the auditorium wearing the number 2,319 on their backs - the numbers of dead GI's killed in Iraq so far. The auditorium seats 515 and was nearly full.

The senator made a mundane speech talking about her support for lobbyist reform, her dissatisfaction with former FEMA director Michael Brown and his poor handling of the Katrina hurricane and her great respect for Margaret Chase Smith, the much acclaimed former senator from Maine during the 1950's who publicly challenged the red-baiting tactics of then right-wing Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Sen. Collins is considered a moderate but keeps voting with the Bush administration on all the big issues. The question and answer period was highly regulated with the university staff taking written questions before the event began. A graduate student then read about 4-5 of them to Sen. Collins. The first one was "When can we leave Iraq?" Sen. Collins responded that we don't want to stay any longer than necessary, it will all depend on how quickly the U.S. can train a new Iraqi police force. The basic Bush line if you will.

When it was announced that there would only be one more question the 60 peace people in the audience, spread out throughout the hall, stood up and Robert Shetterly began to raise a question to the senator. Someone yelled out "Sit down" then someone else quickly yelled out, "No...let him speak". There was a pregnant pause and Robert kept going by asking Sen. Collins how she could support this Bush war policy. I could not hear it all from where I was sitting but the scene was more important than the question anyway. As he concluded his question, an applause broke out in the hall, not just coming from the people dressed in black. People whistled as well and the applause was a long one... the senator stood there glaring at Robert but she said nothing.

Finally, after what seemed like a longer applause than she got when she was introduced, Sen. Collins said to the university student handling the questions, "Next question." And before we knew it the whole thing was finished. Our 60 folks in black quickly made their way out into the lobby and opened banners that said things like "What are the ethics of Guantanamo?" and "What are the ethics of tax cuts for the rich?" and so on. The media came out and interviewed some of the protest leaders and one alternative radio station, WERU, did live interviews with several folks over the phone.

Sen. Collins has been refusing to hold a town hall meeting on Iraq for the past year. A town hall meeting on the war has now been set for Friday, April 21 at USM in Portland and we are inviting the entire Maine Congressional delegation to come and listen to the people about the war.

The senator was not going to talk about Iraq yesterday. The war, now shown in the polls as the number one concern of the American people, was going to be ignored by the senator. But as much as they would like to ignore the topic the peace movement in Maine is forcing the political elite to have to respond to it.

After the event the senator told the Bangor Daily News that she meets with peace groups all the time. That is a lie and especially troubling from one who claims the mantle of ethics and the legacy of Margaret Chase Smith.

PROTEST AT THE PENTAGON

On Sunday, March 19 I attended an anti-war protest in downtown Portland that drew a good crowd. From there I went to the airport and flew to Washington DC. I was invited to speak at Monday's march on the Pentagon called From Mourning to Resistance: 3 Years Too Many - Stop the War! The event was organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance which is led by Gordon Clark and Max Obuszewski.

When I arrived in Washington I went directly to the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House where my old friend Art Laffin lives. Art is a long time war resister and I've stayed at the Catholic Worker house many times over the years when in DC. Art has been a loyal supporter of our resistance efforts to keep the arms race from moving into space. He, and others from the Catholic Worker community, each year organize protests at the White House and/or NASA headquarters when the Global Network puts out a call for actions during Keep Space for Peace Week or at other times.

Art woke me up before 6:00 am on Monday, March 20 and we made our way to an entrance that has been designated a "protest zone" at the Pentagon. We were joined by 20 others for an hour long vigil as Pentagon employees arrived. Holding my simple sign, "Stop the war," I was amazed at the sheer numbers of people entering the Pentagon. Art told me 20,000 work there and each Monday he and others hold their vigil at the same spot. Art has been arrested more times than he can count at the various entrances of the Pentagon over the last 20 years.

Few of the military or civilian Pentagon employees made eye contact as they passed us. I counted positive responses from about 1 out of every 50. One woman, an Air Force officer, gave me a courageous "thumps-up" as she passed by. Another woman in civilian dress said, "You people are making progress" as she hurried by. I was struck by the large numbers of black and Hispanic civilian employees entering but most of them too would not make contact. I thought it sad that so many people must work inside this "shrine of domination" to feed their families. It made the conversion message resonant even more for me.

Next we moved to the assembly point for the 9:00 am rally and march to the Pentagon. Located near the Vietnam war memorial, over 200 people and tons of media from all over the world gathered. It was here that I stood on a plastic milk crate and made my speech. I talked about how in Maine, the day before, anti-war protests were held on bridges all over our state. I shared how we have for the past year been organizing occupations of Congressional offices in our state and how we must cut funding for the war if we hope to ever end it. I also said that we must prevent the next round of the arms race from moving into space if we hoped to have social progress in America. We can't afford guns and butter. We must, I concluded, develop and promote a transformative vision that calls for production of sustainable technologies with our tax dollars or we will never end our nation's addiction to war.

Following all the speakers, including Cindy Sheehan and Michael Berg (whose son was also killed in Iraq), we marched the final steps to the Pentagon where we were met by a large continent of police. Most of the cops were African-American and they stood on the other side of a closed gate blocking our entrance onto Pentagon grounds. Art Laffin led us in singing protest songs like We Shall Overcome as 51 people slowly climbed their way over the fence into the waiting arms of the police. The large contingent of media filmed the entire exciting scene. I knew that sadly few of these images would broadcast on the TV news in the U.S. though.

It was a very long walk back to the center of DC. I made my way to the White House where I wanted to stop and say hello to a woman who has held here vigil there since 1981. Day and night for 20 years, Concepcion Picciotto has occupied a small slab of pavement across from the White House, braving the wind, rain, and police harassment. Connie has been keeping an around-the-clock vigil for world peace and nuclear disarmament since Ronald Reagan first entered the White House as president. She says that many people stop and talk but she wonders when the American people will rise up to resist our current move toward fascism.

Every time I go to a big city I always wonder how our seemly small efforts for peace can reach the millions of people who rush around their city leading their busy lives. On the flight home I sat next to a man returning from a winter vacation in Florida. I asked him how he feels about the war. I discovered he works at Bath Iron Works in Maine where the Navy's Aegis destroyer is built. The Aegis is now being used by the U.S. to surround China with Theater Missile Defense (TMD) systems on-board. I talked to him a long time about the need for conversion of the military industrial complex. He listened intently and when he discovered that I am an organizer of protests in our local community he laughed and shook my hand. At one point he said, "People like me need to get more involved or nothing will change." I took that as a good sign.

Maybe people are listening more than we know. Maybe as the woman said at the Pentagon, "You people are making progress." We just need to keep believing in ourselves and our message for peace....and conversion of the military industrial complex.

CONVERT THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

I went north yesterday to Farmington, Maine to attend an event called "Sustainable Maine Conference: Turning Toward Peace Through Jobs and a Clean Environment." It was organized by Peace Action Maine and the Global Network was a co-sponsor. I facilitated a workshop called "Corporate Takeover & Military Transformation."

It was held at the University of Maine at Farmington and my good friend Doug Rawlings, president of Maine Veterans for Peace, who teaches there was the host. He turned out a great number of students for the event...and peace and environmental activists came from all over the state.

The whole idea of the conference was to introduce the idea that we need to convert the military industrial complex to peaceful production. Why can't we build mass transit systems or windmills at Bath Iron Works here in Maine instead of Aegis destroyers that will be used to surround and provoke China?

I notice that when you ask that question, some folks who would otherwise agree, just roll their eyes. They say, "Well, the politicians will never agree to that." I tend to respond, "Well, if we don't make a political demand on them they never will." I thought that was our job as activists, to create an alternative vision and then go out and organize support for it. How else can we ever stop this endless war cycle unless we demand an alternative? Of course it is going to be hard - but what meaningful change has ever come easy? How long did it take to end slavery? Imagine when abolitionists started saying, "You know we should end slavery." And the response was, "Yeah sure, the entire country's economy is hostage to the institution to slavery and you want to change that. Can't we work on something easier?" But in the end the moral outrage won out and slavery was ended. It was a long bitter struggle though that ended with civil war.

So today our country’s economy is hostage to the institution called military production and endless war. The more wars we have the more weapons we need. The more weapons we need the more jobs we have in local communities producing them. And please, don't close our bases and military production facilities, our local leaders say!!!!!!

So our job today is to make a political demand. We want our tax dollars used for peaceful production of sustainable technologies that give our children a future on this Earth. We know that building solar, windmills, mass transit systems and the like will provide more jobs than military production does - because the military industrial complex is capital intensive. That means that per million dollars we get less jobs building weapons than we would by spending the same amount of money on any other kind of production.

Our job in the peace movement is to advance an alternative vision that unites the peace movement, the environmental movement and the labor movement. Think of the good jobs that could be created by converting the military industrial complex. Think what happens when weapons are no longer the number one industrial export of our nation. We could be proud of our country again. We can reduce the need for oil. We can slow global warming. Let's make this change, now, before it is too late.

CORN FOR FOOD NOT CARS!

In a rare moment of honesty, George W. Bush recently admitted the U.S. was "addicted to oil." I don't think he made the statement out of any genuine concern for our future. Instead I think he made the statement in order to convince the American people that we need to expand the use of nuclear power and turn to biofuels like corn and soybeans to provide fuel for our auto addicted culture.

Lots of people these days are talking about ethanol production as a key cure to our oil woes. With fossil fuels running out, and becoming more expensive, the idea of fuel from organic products seems to make sense. Right?

Well not so fast. According to David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell University, "There is just no energy benefit to using plant biomass for liquid fuel." For every gallon that an ethanol manufacturing plant produces, it uses the equivalent of almost two-fifths of a gallon of fuel (usually natural gas), and that does not count the fuel needed to make fertilizer for the corn, run the farm machinery or truck the ethanol to market. Although Pimentel advocates the use of burning biomass to produce thermal energy (to heat homes, for example), he deplores the use of biomass for liquid fuel.

In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production the facts are that:

- Corn requires 29% more fossil energy than the fuel it produced...
- Switch grass (a favorite of George W. Bush) requires 45% more fossil energy than the fuel produced....
- wood biomass requires 57% more fossil energy than the fuel produced...
- soybean plants requires 27% more fossil energy than the fuel produced...
- sunflower plants requires 118% more fossil energy than the fuel produced....

With this said then, why is everyone talking about ethanol as our savior? You've seen the new Ford truck commercials on TV where these young environmental activists are standing in a corn field, next to the huge new model Ford pick-up truck. They have an ear of corn in their hands saying, "This is it folks...we've got it...the solution to our problems...nature's corn...keep driving and don't worry about it."

The agri-business corporations that control corn and soybean production these days in the Midwest are also behind this new scam. Archer Daniels Midland Co. Chairman and CEO G. Allen Andreas told analysts in February that rising demand for American-grown corn will push corn prices through the roof. Microsoft Corp.'s Bill Gates has invested $84 million in ethanol production plant expansion.

And the American people, with their big gas hungry trucks and SUV's, love the idea that a new fuel has been found just in time as oil prices keep rising. And it is environmentally pure!!!!!!!

One more thing to think about. As fossil fuels decline in availability, Peak Oil it's called, the cost of farming goes up thus the price of food dramatically rises. The entire agriculture industry is totally dependent on fossil fuels - tilling the soil, planting and harvesting are all oil dependent....trucking products to market also is oil dependent. We won't be able to afford to fly Kiwi fruit in from New Zealand, tomatoes from Mexico, or even avocados from south Florida. We are going to have to grow our food locally.

But there is a problem. I am told by Maine farmer and engineer John Howe who wrote the book called "The End of Fossil Energy," that it will take virtually all available agriculture land in the U.S. to grow enough corn and soybeans to provide the needed ethanol to replace the oil we now use in our cars. And that assumes you can even do it efficiently, which I think I've shown is not possible.

Howe says that we are going to need this available farming land to produce our food because food production, without the heavy use of fossil fuels will become more labor intensive. That means we will need more land and more humans working in the fields just to feed ourselves. If we have the fields committed to growing fuel for cars then we will starve to death.

So once again our very human desire for the easy answer, the magic bullet, proves to be a pipe dream. We are going to have to turn to public mass transit, bicycles, walking and solar cars if we are going to make it. Instead of putting corn in the tank, we are going to need to eat it.

MINING THE TAXPAYERS POCKETBOOK FOR SPACE

Two important developments concerning space this week. First NASA announced that their Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had safely reached the red planet and is now one of four functioning spacecraft in orbit there. The $720 million mission will survey the planet to identify minerals on the Martian surface. Looking for the origins of life you ask? Well no, not really. In fact NASA, doing the bidding for the aerospace industry that hopes to one day mine Mars, is setting up the infrastructure to make it possible in the future to have the industry go in and reap major profit from mining operations. The Halliburton Corporation is today creating a drilling mechanism to do Mars mining. Once NASA has successfully created the ability the mine the skies the entire operation will be privatized. And you know who is paying for it. Understand?

The other big story is Star Wars and the Pentagon. The military is asking Congress for hundreds of millions of extra tax $$$$$ to test weapons in space. According to a story in the Boston Globe today, "The DoD's budget proposal for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 includes money for a variety of tests on offensive and defensive weapons, including a missile launched at a small satellite in orbit, testing a small space vehicle that could disperse weapons while traveling at 20 times the speed of sound, and determining whether high-powered ground-based lasers can effectively destroy enemy satellites."

So here we go. The veil is off the bride. The Bush team has broken down the door. They are now on record that they intend to move forward with offensive weapons in space. Pentagon spokesman Rick Lerner told the Globe, "We just want to do some experiments" on weapons technology in space. Yeah, just experiments...that's all.

If they were just experiments, why did the Bush administration vote last fall to block a United Nations resolution calling for a ban on weapons in space? Every country in the world (except the U.S. and Israel) are ready to sign an international treaty banning weapons in space. But the U.S. knows that if the Pentagon can put weapons in space, thus dominating space, they can militarily control the Earth on behalf of corporate globalization. No one would be able to stand against the U.S. in times of hostility because all warfare today on the Earth is directed by space technology.

The Pentagon budget for this year is $450 billion. They not only want to control the Earth but now they are moving to control Mars and soon Bush intends to put bases on the Moon. And as you set up mining operations on the planetary bodies the aerospace industry will seek funding to create new military technologies to "protect their assets" on those bodies from other space-faring nations. Imagine the costs involved in this inter-planetary warfare system they are now setting in motion?

It is easy to understand why the corporate elite have made the determination that Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, welfare programs, public transit, environmental clean-up, and the like all have to be cut. The enormous fiscal appetite of the Pentagon for space control and domination technology development is going to overwhelm everything else in the national budget.

What do you think? Should we go along with this madness? Is this how you want your tax dollars spent?