CHECKING IN

I did my first talk last night at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge. This afternoon Dave Webb and I take the train to London for the Star Wars confab on Saturday. Long time resister Helen John was there last night. She and Sylvia Boyes go on trial soon for walking onto the U.S. spy base at Menwith Hill in violation of the new "anti-terrorism" law. They face one year in jail.

I'm still waiting for my big bag containing all my literature and books. It was not on the plane when I arrived in the UK - it's amazing that one bag gets on the plane but not the other. Might have been because it weighed ten tons and they decided the extra weight would make the plane crash.

Dave and his wife Lesley took me for a great walk yesterday afternoon through a beautiful wooded park nearby their home in Leeds. I rarely get to go on such walks when I travel so it was much appreciated.

The poster above is advertising one of my talks in Wales. If you read the caption, it pretty much sums up what my speeches are about. It's amazing what you can say in just a few words. (Click on it to read it.)

People here are wondering if Bush is going to attack Iran. They are also wondering how their new Prime Minister Gordon Brown is going to come down on all these issues - will be maintain the recent tradition of being the lap dog of the American empire?

When I talk about how the Democrats are refusing to really take on Bush they nod and say their Labor party is just the same. Further evidence of corporate takeover of virtually all governments around the world. You hear the same story no matter where you travel these days. Time for global democracy movement to step it up.......

LEAVING FOR UK TRIP

I take a bus this morning to Boston and then hop on my flight to Manchester in the UK. I will do nine talks in England, Wales, and Scotland over the course of 10 days. On Sept 1 I will speak at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) national conference in London called U.S. Missile Defense - towards a new Cold War?

This conference follows on from the 150-strong Prague Conference in May which saw delegates from 14 organisations spanning 9 European countries come together to formulate strategies and joint campaigns to oppose US plans for National Missile Defence, or so-called ‘Son of Star Wars’, bases in Europe.

With speakers and delegates expected from the U.S., France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the conference will discuss why we should oppose the latest aggressive project by the U.S. and how we can work together in building opposition.

Already the U.S. is upgrading Star Wars facilities at bases in the UK like Menwith Hill (pictured above) and Fylingdales. These bases use space technology to help direct surveillance, reconnaissance, and ultimately targeting of weapons. In addition, the U.S. has talked about putting missile defense interceptors in England and is now moving to put them in Poland and new Star Wars radars in the Czech Republic.

European activists rightly understand that these moves by the U.S. are really about the Pentagon developing a global "first-strike" military capability. And as these systems are used to surround Russia (as the ones in Poland and Czech Republic are) then we are in fact creating the conditions for a widening arms race between Russia and the U.S. For Europe that means danger as they end up being right back in the middle of the fight.

Besides speaking, one thing I will be doing is trying to bring home the stories and energy from this rapidly expanding European movement on space issues. Here in the U.S. activists are still not fully making the connections between U.S. empire building and the role that space technology plays in that military expansion.

My last talk is at Faslane in Scotland. Faslane is the Trident nuclear submarine base where a huge campaign has been going on this year called Faslane 365. It has been the goal of UK activists to have civil disobedience at the Faslane base every day - 365 days - this year. The purpose of Faslane 365 is twofold: to bring people to witness and impede the nuclear base where Britain's nuclear weapons are deployed, and enable them to demonstrate the range of serious concerns - from human rights to climate change - that people in the real world consider to be the vital challenges for the 21st century.

It will be an honor to hold Global Network banners at the front gate along with GN chair Dave Webb (Leeds, England) and others. (See my recent cable TV interview with Dave when he visited Maine by clicking on the link in his name.)

Will try to make a post to the blog while gone.

MORE PHOTOS FROM K-PORT PROTEST

If you click on the link in the headline above you will find quite a few more photos from the Saturday protest in Kennebunkport.

Cynthia McKinney, in the photo above, is rumored to be running for the Green Party nomination for president. I think she'd be outstanding. Hope it works out.

I watched a video tape by IVAW from the march and at the end they zoomed in on folks standing behind the bushes at the Bush family compound at Walker Point. One person, watching us with his binoculars, looked much like King George I. It illustrated for me that they do pay very close attention to these events. I bet they worry that at some point we are going to come onto their compound and roust them out.

Just heard Alberto Gonzales has resigned - probably so he could go home and spend more time with his family.

Col. Ann Wright was at the demonstration this weekend. I asked her if she'd like to speak at the Global Network's April 11-13, 2008 annual space organizing conference and protest at StratCom headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. She said yes. This event is going to turn out to be quite exciting. Put it on your calendar now. StratCom is the base now preparing for the U.S. preemptive attack on Iran. They also run all the NSA electronic spying on us. So we can save them some time and money and just show up at their front gate and they can hear from all of us at once!

GREAT EVENT IN KENNEBUNKPORT

It was a great demonstration in Kennebunkport yesterday. The police said there were 4,000 people there which is just what the lead organizer Jamilla El-Shafei was predicting.

In the photo above is Carlos Arredondo holding a photo of his son Alex who was killed in Iraq two years ago yesterday. Carlos, and his wife Melida, now spend their lives traveling around the country trying to end this insane occupation of Iraq.

My favorite speaker at the rally was former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney from Atlanta, Georgia. The Democratic party ran her out of the Congress because she kept standing up and asking the hard questions. She was the first to enter a Bush impeachment resolution into the House of Representatives. There is some talk now that she might run for President on the Green Party ticket or for her old House seat as a Green. Either way she is staying in the middle of things.

Our march went well considering we had the 40 or so Gathering of Eagles and other Bush supporters to contend with. As we passed by them during the march they had about a dozen guys on motorcycles revving up their engines and making lots of noise. They were taunting us, screaming in our faces, trying to provoke folks but our peacekeepers got between us and them and we had no problems. I saw the "Eagles" go hardest after women who were members of Military Families Speak Out. They were calling them vulgar names and saying very hurtful things to them.

The Portland newspaper this morning had two large articles and quite a few photos. Look at here at this link: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/

Our next big demo in Maine is the September 15 protest in Brunswick of the Blue Angels air show at the Navy Base. I am coordinating the event for Maine Veterans for Peace and we hope you will come out and march with us then.

If anyone doubts that those running this Iraq occupation scheme don't intend to bring the troops home take a look at this Washington Post story that acknowledges that the powers that be are planning at least a 10-year occupation - I'd suggest they intend for it to last til the oil is all gone.

AN ACTIVIST IN INDIA

This man's name is J. Narayana Rao and he lives in Nagpur, India. He works with a group called All-India Peace and Solidarity Organization. He is a retired railway worker and union activist. He and his wife live on a very tiny pension each month and they share a small apartment with his son's family. He rides around Nagpur on a small scooter.

Rao has been on the mailing list of the Global Network (GN) for many years but it was not until last year, when he organized the India speaking tour for Mary Beth and I, that we first met. Almost immediately he handed me several copies of a newsletter he had put out over several years, at his own expense, where he took space issues articles and reports that he had received from the GN and reprinted them and distributed them to his fellow activists.

We were able to help Rao come to Germany last spring for our annual GN space organizing conference. We've also added him to our Board of Directors.

Just yesterday I received an email from Rao saying that during the up-coming Oct 4-13 Keep Space for Peace Week he has organized an India tour for himself that will take him to six cities during the week. He has scheduled 2-4 talks per day with students at colleges, meeting with peace groups, union organizations, and women's groups. He even has a couple of talks set up with Lions Clubs in a couple of cities.

The U.S. is now trying to drag India into the Star Wars game. While there last October I noticed an article in a local newspaper saying the U.S. was encouraging India to form a Space Command. The U.S. knows that Star Wars will be so expensive that even after they cut social programs in our country they still can't pay for the whole program - thus they need to bring India, and other allies, into the scheme to help pay for it. India, with 300 million poor people, hardly needs to be spending its money on Star Wars. But logic never prevails with the military industrial complex.

So we are incredibly blessed to have a man like Rao helping us spread the word about the dangers of the weaponization of space throughout India. It reminds us that there are good people everywhere doing the work of the angels.

PEACEKEEPERS NEEDED

Saturday, August 25 will be another demonstration in Kennebunkport, Maine protesting the Bush plan for endless war. This will likely be the biggest protest ever in K-port with buses of activists coming from all over the region and individuals coming from across the nation.

I am coordinating the four-mile march and police have informed us that two different sets of counter-protesters are expected. One group (the so-called "Gathering of Eagles") and another group of people - likely the local Republican committee who want to defend Bush.

My job will be to try to keep the march moving together, with over 4,000 people expected, and to keep our folks focused on a positive message when we pass the "counters" who want to get us yelling and screaming at them which they then hope makes the evening news. Their goal is to show that peace activists are not truly peaceful. Often, sadly, there are always a couple of people willing to accommodate the right-wingers and join in the verbal fist-a-cuffs with them.

We are asking experienced and peaceful types who would like to help as a peacekeeper to wear black shirts and meet with me at 10:00 am on Saturday next to the stage at the rally site. There we will have a peacekeeper briefing and give out march assignments to people.

If you are interested in helping, but have questions, contact me at 207-443-9502 or email me at globalnet@mindspring.com

If you need more info on the protest logistics just go to this site: http://www.kportprotest.org/

Hope to see you there.

(Read the Portland Press Herald story on the up-coming protest.)

WHAT WOULD THE EAGLES REALLY SAY?

There is a right-wing group out there called the Gathering of Eagles. They have been put together to pursue and harass anti-war protests across the country, particularly those held in Washington DC. The logo above is from their web site. They maintain that those now opposing the occupation of Iraq are threats to order and the American way of life.

These "eagles" have been holding rallies in Washington in recent years and top level Pentagon brass come and fire them up. Lacking a strong and active citizen base of support for the Iraq war the Republicans and the military industrial complex have needed to create their own appearance of grassroots support for the war. The photo at the top, also from their web site, shows one of these war supporters holding a sign with a photo of Cindy Sheehan's son. To say they are crude is putting it mildly. They like to call peace activists "moonbats". Their goal is to taunt peace activists into arguing and ultimating fighting with them.

Not all of the "eagles" are veterans. I read a message on their web site from one of their supporters who talked about how he was thrilled to join their counter protest recently in Washington. As he stood on a bridge he said, holding a sign with the wind blowing in his face, he claimed he came to realize the suffering a soldier must go through in Iraq protecting the U.S. from the evils of the insurgency. The wind-blown warrior wanna-be was quite good at romantic embellishment of his "big moment" in time.

Some would say these "eagles" are harmless. I feel otherwise. I fear they are the first volley in the current effort to pit American against American as the corporate globalists move us into this cycle of endless war. The goal of the militarists is to make peace activists afraid to assemble and march in the streets. Maybe even more importantly, the militarists want to create enough tension and fear that the general public might too become afraid to join the protest movement. The chilling of a growing movement is their hope.

One of the saddest things is to see how the "patriotic eagles" treat anti-war veterans like those that belong to organizations like Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans against the War. Even these vets, who have served and know the truth about war, are vilified by the "eagles" as dupes or terrorist sympathizers.

You know that the military industrial complex is desperate when they have to create groups like the "eagles" to defend a war and an occupation that is now opposed by over 70% of the public. But there is a lot of profit at stake in this Iraq debacle - profits from weapons and major profits from the control of Iraq's oil. These multi-national corporations will stop at nothing to keep their dirty hands on these profit making schemes.

Some years ago I was invited to a different kind of Gathering of Eagles in the Black Hills of South Dakota. There Native American elders decided to invite white people of good will to come and hear their prophetic warnings about how we were killing the Mother Earth with our way of life. The white man's cars, houses, consumerism, and wars are draining the Earth of its life blood they told those of us that assembled in the sacred land of the Lakota. Go home and tell the people that we must change the way we are living or else there will be nothing left for the future generations they told us.

BREAD, PUPPETS, FAMILY AND KIDNEYS

Mary Beth (MB) and I won't be having a long vacation together this summer. We just returned from a two-day visit with an old Florida friend whose family has had a cabin for several generations on a beautiful lake south of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Our friend Smitty Hooper, who lives most of the year in Cocoa Beach near Cape Canaveral, was one of the few locals in that "space community" who helped us organize the many protests at the space center over many years. Smitty comes to the Vermont lake cabin each summer and invited us to make the four-hour drive over for a visit. Due to our extremely busy schedules we could only go for the past two days.

The lake is quite beautiful and we went canoeing to the far end of the lake after we arrived. We heard loons making their wondrous calls.

Yesterday we went for a long walk around part of the lake and then in the afternoon the three of us drove an hour north to Glover, Vermont and went to the Bread & Puppet Theatre museum. I'd been there once before, about 10 years ago, and wanted MB to see it. The museum, in an old worn out barn, is just striking in the beauty and creativity of the puppets that have been used by the troupe to do their political street theatre over many years time. We picked up a couple very nice posters they had made and left a good donation on the way out. There is no admission charge at the museum.

This morning MB and I had to get up at 6:00 am so we could get on the road early to get back home. The road was covered in fog and the sun was barely visible as the fog surrounded the rising orb.

MB's brother from Boston, and his partner, were coming up to visit today and on Friday they will drive us back to Boston for a wedding of one of their favorite cousins. MB has been asked to do the wedding ceremony and the family had to get special permission from the state to allow her to legally do the officiating of the wedding.

On Sunday MB will head out to Tucson, Arizona to visit her other brother and sister-in-law who live in the southern border town of Bisbee. Her "sister" Ana has been struggling with cancer for several years and is very close to MB. I will take the train back to Maine and return to work.

MB will stay in Arizona for a week and miraculously then fly to Florida where she will take a full-blown battery of medical tests to see if she can donate her kidney to my sister Laura. I had tried to see if I could donate a kidney but was the wrong blood type. As it turned out MB is the compatible blood type. So if not completely worn out by all that travel MB will hopefully be able to save Laura from the whole kidney dialysis treatment scene.

It looks like I won't then see MB until after Sept 10 because I leave for the UK on August 28 for a speaking tour and the September 1 space conference in London. So we just had our mini-summer vacation together!

CALL FOR SPACE WEEK ACTIONS

Each year in October the Global Network (with co-sponsorship from Women's International League for Peace & Freedom) organizes Keep Space for Peace Week.

In 2007 the week of worldwide local events will be held during the period of October 4-13.

During this time we are encouraging local groups to hold protests, educational events, teach-ins, video showings, religious services, Congressional office visits, and the like in order to expand the level of debate and consciousness world wide about U.S. plans for "control and domination" of space.

The current effort by the U.S. to deploy "missile defense" systems in Poland and the Czech Republic and recent announcements about upgrade of U.S. space technology bases in the UK have only added more importance to the actions this year.

Please let us know as soon as possible what local actions you are planning. Give us the date of your action, the location of the event, and contact information that we can include in the list we will develop and share worldwide.

Let us know if you need space week posters, other literature, or copies of our space videos.

Please check our web site for an on-line source of our space videos as well.

SETTING UP ATTACK ON IRAN

Anyone paying the slightest bit of attention these days knows that Bush is setting things up for the attack on Iran. He, and his minions, are daily putting out that Iran is providing weapons to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The media, slavishly once again, are printing every lie and distortion coming out of his pirate mouth. And the opposition party in Washington? Not hardly a mumbling word from any Democrat.

Every time I hear or read something about Bush's accusations about Iran my mind immediately flashes to Afghanistan during the Carter and Reagan administrations when the U.S. was providing weapons to the Taliban who were trying to drive the former Soviet Union out of their country. My blood starts to boil when I think about how the U.S. arms insurgent groups around the world all the time - spreading more chaos and mayhem.

Maybe Iran is providing some weapons to insurgents in Iraq. After all it is a neighboring country and they do have some real stake in that neck of the woods. Iran also clearly understands that the more the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq the harder it is for Bush to launch an attack on them.

Imagine if some country invaded Canada or Mexico. Then imagine the native population in either of those countries rising up to resist the occupying force. Would the U.S. idly sit by and not provide assistance to the Canadian or Mexican insurgents?

Bush is determined to create massive chaos in the Middle East before he leaves office. He is determined to spread the war in the region in order to ensure that U.S. permanent bases in Iraq will have ample "justification" to remain in place. And he wants to do what he can to destabilize, and if possible, to topple the Iranian government before he is gone. Then when Hillary becomes president she will have no other "choice" but to continue on with the status quo in the region. Remember what Hillary said on "Faze the Nation" awhile back - "The American people need to relax. We've been in Korea for 50 years. We're going to be in Iraq a long time."

Watch this Fox News bit showing how they are pushing the attack on Iran.

FULL REPORT ON NEW YORK CITY TRIP

This trip report covers the period of August 4-8 as I traveled to New York City for speaking events in Manhattan, Great Neck (photo above), and Staten Island.

I took the train from Portland, Maine to New York and stayed at the home of Global Network member Alice Slater in Manhattan. Alice has been a leader in the anti-nuclear movement and Abolition 2000 for years.

The trip was ably coordinated by Anne Gibbons (Code Pink NYC) and Sally Jones (Peace Action). They had heard me speak to a small meeting in NYC several months ago and arranged for me to come back and speak at Hiroshima & Nagasaki remembrance events planned in the area.

On August 5 I spoke at the All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan. The topic was 62 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A Vision for Peace or Endless War? In the talk I outlined current U.S. provocative plans to deploy "missile defense" in Eastern Europe, and the growing concern by Russia as it now threatens to pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). The INF Treaty came about after massive European protests in the early 1980's due to the Reagan administration deployment of the nuclear tipped Pershing II and Cruise missiles in Germany, Italy, and England in October, 1983. I concluded the talk, as I so often do these days, suggesting that we will never successfully end war until the peace movement creates a positive transformational demand calling for the conversion of the military industrial complex to sustainable technology development.

Following the talk several of us went to a local alternative movie theater to see the new Iraq war film called No End in Sight. The movie advertisement in The New York Times had many positive statements about it. The essence of the documentary was interviews with key insiders (military and civilian) who were involved in the period directly after the 2003 U.S. invasion. The basic story line was that the Bush administration did a poor job of "managing" the resulting occupation. After the film was over several of us had a lively and critical discussion on the sidewalk outside the theatre about how the film seemed to be trying to say that it could have been a "successful" occupation if Bush and his crew had just done things right. In many respects that is the "official" Democratic Party line and we could not help but wonder if the film was created in order to promote the idea that the Democrats, if in control of the White House, would do a better job of managing the occupation in the future. The film also took two very hard warlike swipes at Iran and never once mentioned U.S. permanent bases now being built in Iraq. It was in many respects a propaganda film.

On August 6, Hiroshima Day, it was arranged for me to take the train to nearby Great Neck to speak at an event organized by Great Neck SANE/Peace Action which has been led for many years by Stan and Shirley Romaine. The event drew about 150 people and began with a wonderful song done by Japanese kids who are part of the Lotus Blossom Youth Music Group. Several people spoke before I did, including a local town official, a State Assemblywoman, a Rabbi, the president of the local Islamic Center, a reverend from a local church, a high school presidential scholar, and a member of Code Pink. When the Rabbi spoke he stated that the controversial bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 was the "best choice of many bad choices" and one man yelled out in anger from the audience at this remark.

Historian Gar Alperovitz has written extensively about this question of the "necessity" of the U.S. dropping the bomb. In his book, The Decision to Use the Bomb, he writes, "In his memoirs Admiral William D. Leahy, the President's [Truman] Chief of Staff -- and the top official who presided over meetings of both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Combined U.S.-U.K. Chiefs of Staff -- minced few words:

[T]he use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. . . .

[I]n being the first to use it, we . . . adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children."

On August 7 Alice Slater and I were invited by David Occhiuto, Co-producer of Eco-logic, to appear on his radio show on WBAI in NYC for a one-hour interview. David did a fabulous job in preparing for the interview and the Global Network office received several phone calls and many web site hits due to the show. You can listen to the interview by going to WBAI's archive page at http://archive.wbai.org/ and clicking on August 7 Eco-logic. (WBAI is part of the progressive national Pacifica radio network.)

That evening Sally Jones took me on the ferry to Staten Island where we met her husband David for dinner at a Middle East restaurant. I am a huge lover of Middle Eastern food and told the owner that I have a hard time finding such food in Maine.

During dinner Sally and David gave me a fascinating tutorial about the conservative politics of Staten Island. This was my first visit to the island and they talked quite a bit about the inability to get their Congressman Vito Fossella to even meet with them to talk about Iraq or any other peace issue. Fossella is the only Republican in the entire New York City congressional delegation so the group works hard to find ways to get the residents of Staten Island engaged. I was most impressed when Sally told me how they often leaflet people as they come off the island ferry in droves. She said that on a good day they can pass out a couple thousand leaflets. Not to bad.

Following dinner we went to the "Everything Goes Book Cafe" where my talk was to be held. Following my speech, during the question and answer period we had a lively discussion about how peace activists should react to the "arterial blockage" we are now finding in Congress with the Democratic Party. I suggested that the peace movement should not be in bed with any particular party, that we need to be able to be critical of all politicians that enable Bush's occupation of Iraq and endless war.

One Global Network member, Sung-Hee Choi from South Korea, lives in New York where she teaches art at a local Korean center. Sung-Hee has come to the last four Global Network annual international space organizing conferences and came to each of the talks I did in NYC. She filmed each talk and will put them up on YouTube. She gave me the latest peace magazine of the South Korean group called SPARK and in it I found that she had translated my report from our 2007 space organizing conference in Germany last spring. Sung-Hee also recently got SPARK to join the Global Network as an affiliate and is now working to convince them to send a representative to our important 2008 space conference that will be held April 11-13 in Omaha, Nebraska where the Strategic Command (StratCom) is headquartered. StratCom is now responsible for "full-spectrum global strike" (staging offensive, preemptive attacks); combating weapons of mass destruction; space and computer warfare; ballistic missile defense; and surveillance and reconnaissance (the "warrant-less wiretaps" conducted by the National Security Agency).

I need to give great thanks to Alice Slater whose wonderful hospitality during my stay in New York was unsurpassed. We had great organizing discussions in the evenings after I'd return from my various speaking events. It was Alice who told me about a steam pipe bursting in Midtown in Manhattan on July 19, killing one person and wounding 26 others as the ruptured pipe sent thick plumes of smoke and ash into the air. This of course happened just days before the bridge collapsed in Minnesota revealing how the infrastructure of the U.S. is falling apart because of government disinvestment as we sink so many of our precious resources into endless war. We concluded that both parties in our country don't want to give up the empire and that it will take extraordinary effort on everyone's part to pull us back from this dangerous period we are now in.

Lastly, my thanks go out to all those who hosted me during this very good trip to NYC. Once again I am so lucky to meet the good people who are working hard in their local communities to make the needed changes. Keep at it!

JUST BACK FROM NYC

Just back from New York and had a great trip. Will write up a report soon about it but in the meantime wanted to say howdy to my loyal blog readers.

One of the readers of this blog is Anne Gibbons from Code Pink NYC. She, and Sally Jones from Peace Action, did a great job coordinating my talks in Manhattan, Great Neck and last night in Staten Island. Also yesterday Anne arranged for Alice Slater and I to do a one-hour radio interview on WBAI in the city. It's the Pacifica radio station and I was quite happy about being there. I've done phone interviews with various programs on WBAI over the years but had never been to the studio.

The photo above was taken last night at a book cafe in Staten Island where I spoke and we had a great discussion following my talk. Much of the discussion focused on the Democrats and how much, or how little, support they truly deserve these days from the progressive community following their abysmal record on Iraq and other issues. No matter where you go these days that is the topic folks are debating and I think it is a very healthy thing for us to be kicking it around.

Don't be timid about having a discussion in your community about this question. Our future depends on us ending our slavish servitude to a party that takes us completely for granted.

OFF TO NEW YORK CITY FOR STAR WARS TALKS

I take the train to New York City in the morning for several days of talks in Manhattan, Great Neck, and Staten Island. While there I will also be interviewed on WBAI (Pacifica) radio. Should be an exciting trip.

One of the key issues I'll be talking about is Bush's extremely controversial plan to deploy Star Wars radars and interceptors in Europe. First it was Poland and the Czech Republic. Now they are pressing Britain to come onside. Who will be next?

Angry members of the British parliament (MPs) are pressuring the new Prime Minister Gordon Brown to uphold his promise that the Parliament will be involved in these kinds of major decisions. But Brown just met with Bush, got his marching orders, and returned to the UK to show that he, like Tony Blair before him, will be a lapdog (poodle) for the U.S. administration.

Plans are underway in Britain to upgrade the U.S. spy base Menwith Hill in Yorkshire so that it can become a key link in the Star Wars gambit. The facility would help direct warfare in space by having new radomes come online that would be directly connected to new military satellites.

There is also a proposal floating around that would have Menwith Hill become a deployment site for "missile defense" interceptors.

By now you'd think the U.S. would figure out that plunking down these systems in Europe will drive a massive new peace movement throughout the continent. But the U.S. is desperate to get these deployments going before the 2008 elections so they will be hard to remove by either party.

Probably as important is the issue of cost. These space technology systems are so expensive that even the U.S. can't afford them - that's right, even after they drain the social programs they still won't have enough money to pay for them. So they need to drag the allies into the plan in order to get them to help put up the funds to pay for this new space warfare technology program.

So look for cuts in national health service in the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and other countries as we drag them into this deadly game.

The timing could not have been more perfect as the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is planning to hold an international conference on September 1 called US Missile Defence- towards a new Cold War? I will be traveling to London to speak at the event and will also do a nine-city speaking tour around England, Wales and Scotland.

The September 1 conference follows on from the 150-strong Prague Conference in May which saw delegates from 14 organisations spanning 9 European countries come together to formulate strategies and joint campaigns to oppose US plans for National Missile Defence, or so-called ‘Son of Star Wars’, bases in Europe.

PRAYING FOR THE END TIMES

You must watch this video.

Christians United for Israel met with Congress members last week as part of the second annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Summit. Led by Pastor John Hagee, the group called on Congress to support pre-emptive military action on Iran and to oppose a two-state solution for the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

The video, produced by Max Blumenthal, is a hair-raising wake up call for all of us. Pastor Hagee, and his minions in the pews and in Congress, are praying for nuclear war as the "final solution" to bring on the reign of Christ.

If you think Israel and the end-timers aren't running U.S. foreign policy today then you'd better take another look.

These folks are plain and simple crazy and extremely dangerous. They are working to bring on the end of the world. You wanna talk about terrorism? Here it is in flesh and blood.

People need to know about this. Pass it on.

LET US COUNT THE WAYS

Let's just see if we can come up with a few reasons to give the Democrats for locking Bush-Cheney up behind bars.

1. They have repeatedly lied to the public, to Congress and the media.
2. Torture.
3. Destroying the planet with an energy policy (if you could call it that) which benefits big oil, automobile, nuclear and coal corporations.
4. Doing nothing about health care while 48 million Americans go without coverage.
5. Gave corporate polluters control of the EPA.
6. Plans an attack on Iran and endless war in the region.
7. Is planning to move the arms race into space.
8. Trying to militarily surround Russia and China. This will ensure a new arms race and another 40 years of heavy weapons production.
9. Illegal wiretapping of American citizens.
10. Detaining Americans without charges or counsel.
11. CIA detentions of foreign nationals without charges or access to counsel.
12. Lying some more about all of the above and more.
13. Their role in 9-11 (either an inside job or by standing back and letting it happen.)
14. Picking bad judges on the Supreme Court.
15. Pushing nuclear weapons to India while condemning Iran for developing nuclear technology.
16. Ignoring and enabling Israel as they treat the Palestinian people like animals.
17. Subverting elected governments around the world that refuse to play with the corporate globalization pirate crew.
18. Lying some more about things not even on this list.
19. Planning to declare martial law and suspend the 2008 elections.
20. Being all around jerks.
21. New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.
22. Tax cuts for the rich and the richest.
23. Appointing very bad people to the cabinet.
24. Making very stupid comments while holding high office.
25. Working for the international bankers, weapons industry, drug industry, agribusiness, big pharma and insurance industry rather than the people.
26. Lots and lots of lies..........
27. Using his Crawford, Texas ranch and pick-up truck as props to show he is one of the "boys".
28. Cheney shooting a man in the face.
29. Letting Scooter Libby off the hook.
30. Cheating on elections.
31. Many more things I've not thought of at this time.

Please let the Democrats know that these items should help give them enough grounds to impeach Bush-Cheney.

WHEN WILL WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH?

Debbie Atwood and I have letters to the editor in the Portland Press Herald today challenging the "anti-war" credentials of our "liberal" Democrat Congressman Tom Allen. He's been enabling Bush's war by voting for all but one of the funding bills since the occupation began. He's now running for the Senate seat in Maine against Republican Susan Collins who also supports Bush.

Many Democrats in Maine will be angry with the two letters in the paper today. They will say, "Hey, you need to support Tom Allen so that the Democrats can take stronger control of the Senate. Then things will change. You should not criticize a Democrat."

I've heard that tune many times before. Sadly the changes never come. Just remember when Bill Clinton was president and for a time had a Democrat controlled Congress. The cutbacks in social spending did not stop. The bombing of Iraq did not end. The support for NAFTA did not end. The on-going military build-up did not appreciably slow down.

Tom Allen recently told some Maine leaders of the impeachment movement in our state that George W. Bush had committed impeachable offenses. But Allen now refuses to sign onto the impeachment bill in the House because it would be "divisive". He is taking his marching orders from the corporate Democrats who now control that party. Nancy Pelosi, once known as a strong progressive, has been brought into line and today helps put the muzzle on other progressives in Congress.

The Dems have sent into Maine this summer a group of college kids to beat up on Sen. Susan Collins and claim that Tom Allen is an "anti-war hero." These well-meaning students, working for a Democratic Party front group called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, have been going around the state trying to bring Maine's long time peace groups into their one-sided Allen campaign effort. Few have joined them. Some, who don't know any better, have fallen into the trap.

Peace groups in Maine for the last several years have been critical of both Republican and Democrat politicians on the Iraq issue. And now the same is happening on the impeachment issue. We are holding both parties feet to the fire.

The public has long assumed that the peace movement works for the Democrats. That is why many people, particularly independents, don't pay much attention to the peace movement because they think we are partisan hacks.

By standing up and showing how both parties are complicit in funding the Iraq occupation, allow torture to continue, and allow our rights to free speech and assembly to be weakened, the peace movement can gain support from the larger community. Then it might be possible to see our numbers grow in our local groups and at our protest events.

But as long as the peace movement allows itself to be marginalized as a one-party front group then we will never grow. And if the peace movement does not grow the occupation of Iraq will continue and the impeachment of Bush will never happen.

When will we have had enough?

DYSFUNCTION AT NASA

NASA spokespeople have acknowledged in the last few days that astronauts have been drunk while flying on space shuttle missions. That should be reassuring to everyone.

It was also reported this past week that a NASA employee had intentionally sabotaged equipment for an up-coming shuttle mission.

All this comes at a time when NASA and the Department of Energy are talking about expanding plans to launch nuclear powered payloads into space for their Moon and Mars missions that will ultimately be used to establish permanent mining colonies on these planetary bodies.

NASA tells us not to worry - all of their missions carrying nuclear power into space are safe. Forget sabotaged equipment and drunken astronauts.

All is well at NASA.

Should we continue to pour our precious tax dollars down the dysfunctional NASA rat hole?

SERVING CHARGES OF IMPEACHMENT TO MAINE'S CONGRESSMEN

Last night the Maine Campaign to Impeach decided to organize two very important events on September 25 (Portland) and 26 (Bangor).

Because the House of Representatives has responsibility for investigating impeachment it was decided to ask impeachment supporters around Maine to join us in a citizen Serving Charges of Impeachment to our Maine Congressmen.

Because both of our two Democratic Congressmen in Maine are now refusing to support impeachment of Bush and Cheney the Maine Campaign to Impeach intends to expand our efforts, working with the growing national movement, to increase pressure on our members of Congress.

Our plan to Serve Charges of Impeachment against Bush-Cheney will include these points:

- Lying to Congress to start a war without legitimate reasons
- Illegal torture throughout the world
- Detaining Americans without charges or counsel
- Illegal wiretapping of Americans

Our action plan is as follows:

Tuesday, September 25 (Portland)

- We will gather at noon in Tommy's Park in downtown Portland right next to Rep. Tom Allen's office
- From noon to 1:00 pm we will spread out throughout downtown Portland and hand out leaflets explaining to the public why we are Serving Charges of Impeachment of Bush-Cheney to Rep. Allen
- At 1:00 pm we will hold a rally at Tommy's Park with speakers outlining the charges against Bush-Cheney and our outrage at Rep. Allen for refusing to consider impeachment even though he has acknowledged to leaders of the Maine campaign that Bush has committed "impeachable offenses."
- At 1:30 pm we will enter Rep. Allen's office as a group and present the Charges of Impeachment
- We will remain in the office until we hear from the Congressman that he will support impeachment of Bush-Cheney
- If Rep. Allen calls the police and we are told to leave the office we are inviting people to remain in the office and risk arrest. (Civil disobedience is a matter of personal conscience and it would be quite acceptable for anyone not wishing to risk arrest to leave at that point.)
- Contact Bruce Gagnon at 443-9502 or globalnet@mindspring.com for more information.

Wednesday, September 26 (Bangor)

- We will repeat the same basic plan outlined above at the Bangor office (23 Water St) of Rep. Mike Michaud. Location of leafleting and rally are yet to be determined. Times will be similar to those outlined above.
- Contact Jimmy Freeman at 469-2552 or packrats@mainisms.com

It is important for us to remember that the impeachment of Richard Nixon helped considerably to end the Vietnam war. At first the Congress refused to consider Nixon's impeachment but due to enormous public pressure it became inevitable.

Today we hear Bush-Cheney say that they will not end the occupation of Iraq as long as they are in office. Congress refuses to cut funding to end the war. Demanding that Bush-Cheney be held accountable for their crimes protects the Constitution and helps to end the illegal and immoral Iraq debacle.

We ask you to share this information with others in your community. We ask you to join the Maine Campaign to Impeach at both of these events on September 25 & 26 by participating in any part of the actions that you are comfortable with.

Help Maine join the growing calls around the nation to bring Bush-Cheney to justice. Help us restore democracy and the rule of law in America.

http://www.maineimpeach.org/

(Check out the video linked in the headline above)

CONYERS SELLS SOUL FOR COMMITTEE CHAIRMANSHIP

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) was fully encouraging and supporting impeachment efforts prior to the 2006 election. Then after the Dems took control of the House of Representatives the new speaker, Nancy Pelosi, sent him a public warning. If you want to remain chair of the House Judiciary Committee then you have to back off the impeachment talk. "Impeachment is off the table," Pelosi said. Conyers dutifully complied.

Here is a report by Bob Fertik on the march to the House office of Rep. Conyers today in DC:

Cindy Sheehan led 200-300 impeachment activists on a march from Arlington Cemetery to the Congressional office of Rep. John Conyers, whose job as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee puts him in charge of impeachment.

"Impeachment is not a fringe movement, it is mandated in our Constitution; Nancy Pelosi had no authority to take it off the table," Sheehan told her group of orange-clad activists Monday. "If Nancy Pelosi doesn't do her constitutionally mandated job by midnight ... I will announce that I'm going to run against her."

I just got a live report from David Swanson, who says Conyers is nowhere to be found - but Sheehan, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, and former CIA presidential briefer Ray McGovern are inside his office holding a press conference!

In fact, there are so many reporters with Cindy that they are taking turns going into the packed office to ask questions. At least 300 activists are lining the halls outside the office, both the marchers and those who went directly to the Capitol.

Update 1:30 EST: Conyers staff is negotiating with activists to move the protest to a larger room. In Detroit, 50 people went to Conyers' district office, but they only let 5 people in and wouldn't let them keep their cellphones so we're not getting any reports.

Update 1:35 EST: Conyers just arrived!! As he walked down the hall, activists shouted IMPEACH so loud the whole floor echoed. Conyers and his staff took Cindy, Rev., and Ray into a private office without the media. Stay tuned!

Update 2:55 EST: After an 80-minute meeting, Cindy emerged and told the activists that Conyers said "our only recourse is elections," and the activists groaned. Cindy announced she will run against Pelosi because she and Conyers haven't "stepped up," and the activists cheered. Rev. Yearwood is giving a fired-up speech and activists are crowding in to Conyers' office for the sit-in.

Update 3:43 EST: Capitol Police arrested Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern, Rev. Yearwood, David Swanson, and 20 other activists and put them on a police bus.

But all is not grim - Cindy is calling it her "campaign bus."

WHAT MORE CAN WE EACH DO TO STOP FASCISM?

A debate is happening on Common Dreams about this peace festival in Portland, Maine on July 14 that made a huge peace sign with the bodies of those present.

Some are questioning the effectiveness of the action. As one person remarked, "It’s like pissing your pants in a dark suit; feels so good for a few seconds and no one notices certainly not the politicians. As [Alexander] Haig used to say, 'Let them march all they want to so long as they pay their taxes.' Getting together and holding hands ain’t a threat to anyone in DC."

The debate is a healthy one and for me the answer lies in the comment that everything we do is important. We should be making calls to Congress, writing letters to the editor, calling for impeachment, holding public rallies, and sitting in the offices of the politicians and going to jail if that is what it takes to get folks to wake up. We can't afford to half-step these days. Each of us must step forward and do more than we have in the past.

Ultimately for me it is about standing in resistance to the insanity now being perpetrated in our name.

Just this morning I sent around an article by Paul Craig Roberts to my email list called Impeach Now Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy. In the article Roberts says, "Too much is going wrong for the Bush administration: the failure of its Middle East wars, Republican senators jumping ship, Turkish troops massed on northern Iraq's border poised for an invasion to deal with Kurds, and a majority of Americans favoring the impeachment of Cheney and a near-majority favoring Bush's impeachment. The Bush administration desperately needs dramatic events to scare the American people and the Congress back in line with the militarist-police state that Bush and Cheney have fostered."

Roberts fears that the Bush-Cheney pirate team will pull another 9-11 on us and declare martial law, suspend the constitution and even the 2008 elections. Full bore fascism right on our door step.

Roberts says, "Ask yourself: Would a government that has lied us into two wars and is working to lie us into an attack on Iran shrink from staging 'terrorist' attacks in order to remove opposition to its agenda?"

I think if we are honest with ourselves the answer to his question is a definite yes.

We've never quite been in such a moment in American history before. We are today right at the tipping point. It could go either way. What each of us does, or does not do, will be crucial in determining our future.

Let's not get stuck in a debate about which tactics are the "most" important. The most important thing we can do now is escalate our non-violent resistance to fascism in the USA.

Take a minute and think about the future. Think about what it would be like to live under martial law in the U.S. Then go out and do what you will have wished you had done while we still had time to prevent it from happening.

Our future depends on it.