Global

Coalition Insists that  Windmills Outrank Missiles

   The Vandenberg Action Coalition in cooperation with the Global Network Against Weapons in Space is preparing to demonstrate at the Vandenberg Gate on Saturday, October 11th, at 2:00 pm. This is the first demonstration to demand the conversion of Vandenberg to a center for the improvement and use of sustainable energy technologies.

       October 4-11 is Keep Space for Peace Week: International Days of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space.  Vandenberg is not only the main test site for the  Missile Defense System, it is a major center for directing weapons to their targets around the world  and has the announced goal of the complete domination of space.

   Many billions of taxpayer dollars have not produced a workable system. In fact,  all of the proposed systems are behind schedule and and in trouble. Yet the Bush administration has requested over $9 billion for FY'04 to start building this unproved system.

NEW YORK CITY -- Are you confused yet? Two weeks ago, President Bush said, "There's no question that Saddam Hussein had Al Qaeda ties." In September 2002, he said, "You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam." But Bush also said two weeks ago, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11."

            That helpful clarification came after Vice President Dick Cheney was asked on "Meet the Press" why he thought 70 percent of Americans believe Saddam was behind Sept. 11. "It's not surprising that people make that connection," said the veep. Back in 2001, Cheney had said it was "pretty well confirmed" that Iraq and the Sept. 11 hijackers had coordinated. But most recently he said, "I don't know" if Saddam was connected to Sept. 11.

I haven't spoken to a progressive, a liberal,  yet who has not told me that he or she loves Kucinich, that Dennis is hands down the first democratic candidate choice. But then I hear the story-- "he doesn't have a chance.." "there's no hope..."

My reply is: "That's what they all said about Dean six months ago."

I can live with Dean. He's a good guy. But I am not ready to give up on Dennis Kucinich. On issue after issue, Kucinich has the right policies, the right answers and perhaps most important, the right history.

He'll take the US out of the World Trade Organization as soon as he's elected. He'll cancel the tax breaks Bush handed over to the wealthy. He'll cancel NAFTA. He'll start a department of peace.

Now the right wingers laugh at the idea of a department of peace. But then there's Maslow's widely cited saying,

"If you all you have is a hammer, then everything is a nail."

Vote for President Bush and Republican Senators and Congressmen if:  

You think $900/month ($10,800/year) is a fair price for a health insurance policy.

*  You believe drug companies should prevent you from buying Canadian drugs at half price.

*   You are a senior citizen and you think you are about to receive all your medication for free because President Bush has passed the “prescription drugs for seniors under Medicare” legislation.

*   You think large tax breaks for CEO’s making over $50 million are good, but your own CEO may have to cut the company budget and eliminate your position.

*   You never work or get paid for overtime so you don’t care about the recent Bush bill that will eliminate overtime pay for 8 million workers. You don’t know any of the 9 million unemployed U.S. and don’t know anyone in Iraq.

*   Your state has a budget deficit of $2 billion but we should spend $600 billion in Iraq.

*   You know Iraq has more oil than any other country in the world, but no one knows where it ends up after it comes out of the ground or who got the money for it.

Remember the hullabaloo about The End of History? There were many of us who scoffed then at its hubris, the sheer arrogance of thinking we were “it.” Now, of course, even the adherents of such triumphalism are back in the trenches, forecasting their own gloom-and-obscene-profit version of Permanent War. It’s as if the Cold War never ended—and just in the nick of time for them, too. This gives the right the opportunity to revive that most heinous of Cold War anachronisms, the Loyal Opposition. Now the LO can be permanently kept toothless by the ever-present threat of the New Cold War (remember: they have actually used these words). Some have even promised World War IV.

Citing the "clear and present danger" of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arianna Huffington has sounded the alarm on the Republican threat to what remains of democracy in California. By withdrawing her own candidacy to work against the gubernatorial recall, she's done it with class and savvy.

Gone are the days when activists can dismiss a Hollywood macho man as a mere side show. That lesson has been driven home by the "compassionate conservatism" of the "Texas lightweight" now in the White House.

In 2000, the United States was an apparently stable democracy. The government was fiscally sound. The Bill of Rights was still in tact. Eight years of relative peace and prosperity lulled much of the nation, including the left, into complacency. After all, it had removed Nixon and survived Reagan/Bush I, albeit at great cost. But there had been light at the end of the tunnel.

Strong critics of U.S. foreign policy often encounter charges of “anti-Americanism.” Even though vast numbers of people in the United States disagree with Washington’s assumptions and military actions, some pundits can’t resist grabbing onto a timeworn handle of pseudo-patriotic demagoguery.

In a typical outburst before the war on Iraq last spring, Rush Limbaugh told his radio audience: “I want to say something about these anti-war demonstrators. No, let’s not mince words, let’s call them what they are -- anti-American demonstrators.”

Weeks later, former Congressman Joe Scarborough, a Republican now rising through the ranks of talking heads, said on MSNBC: “These leftist stooges for anti-American causes are always given a free pass. Isn’t it time to make them stand up and be counted for their views, which could hurt American troop morale?”

New York City -- The voices of spoken word artists, musicians and former political prisoners resounded over a room packed with people at the Brecht Forum last Saturday night. RECLAIM: (Re)Affirming Our Culture of Resistance, organized by the Justice Not War in the Philippines Campaign, drew over 200 people to an evening that was a fundraiser, party, performance and lesson on the Filipino people's continued struggle for justice.

The ad in the airline magazine shows a young boy on a swing, the backdrop for an interactive pager being held by a man's hands. "Maybe you don't have to send an e-mail right now," says BellSouth's ad for their interactive paging service. "But isn't it cool that you can?" The ad, with its headline of work@lifespeed, celebrates a world where our jobs engulf our every waking moment.

It's not just our workplaces. Our lives in general seem faster, more complicated, more at the mercy of distant powers and principalities. We have less time for our families, and less room to ask where we want to go as a society and as a planet. The very pace of environmental crises, global economic shifts and the threats of war and terrorism make it harder to address them. If we're to act effectively as engaged citizens, we're going to have to slow down our lives, our culture, and a world that seems to be careening out of control.

As we head into our own experiment with regime change, gay issues will be pushed yet again towards the forefront of American political debate. But this will not be a rehashing of the '92 cycle, with a potential president making lofty promises to the gay community only to break them when a conservative wind blows his way. Instead, candidates will rush to assure the American voter that they will oppose any attempt to legalize homosexual unions or support a codified definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Unfortunately, with the conservative Republican party entrenched against them and the more moderate Democratic party having abandoned them, gays and lesbians can be assured that this promise will remain inviolate.