Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Investigative journalist remembered in OMNI newsletter
US VALOR: JOURNALISTS
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/17/09 11:56 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
George SELDES Born November 16, 1890
By 1940 George Seldes was already a famous investigative journalist, but his fame continued to grow. In that year he published Witch Hunt, an account of the persecution of people with left-wing political views in America. From 1940 to 1950, Seldes published a political newsletter, In Fact, which at the height of its popularity had a circulation of 176,000. One of the first articles published in the newsletter concerned the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. As well as writing his newsletter, Seldes continued to publish books. These included Facts and Fascism (1943), 1000 Americans (1947), an account of the people who controlled America, and The People Don't Know (1949) on the origins of the Cold War. In the early 1950s, Seldes came under attack from Joseph McCarthy, who accused him of being a communist. Seldes was blacklisted and found it difficult to publish his work. However, he continued to write books, including Witness to a Century (1987). In 1981, Seldes appeared in Warren Beatty's Reds, a film about the life of journalist John Reed. Seldes died in 1995 at age 104.
Dick Bennett
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/17/09 11:56 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
George SELDES Born November 16, 1890
By 1940 George Seldes was already a famous investigative journalist, but his fame continued to grow. In that year he published Witch Hunt, an account of the persecution of people with left-wing political views in America. From 1940 to 1950, Seldes published a political newsletter, In Fact, which at the height of its popularity had a circulation of 176,000. One of the first articles published in the newsletter concerned the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. As well as writing his newsletter, Seldes continued to publish books. These included Facts and Fascism (1943), 1000 Americans (1947), an account of the people who controlled America, and The People Don't Know (1949) on the origins of the Cold War. In the early 1950s, Seldes came under attack from Joseph McCarthy, who accused him of being a communist. Seldes was blacklisted and found it difficult to publish his work. However, he continued to write books, including Witness to a Century (1987). In 1981, Seldes appeared in Warren Beatty's Reds, a film about the life of journalist John Reed. Seldes died in 1995 at age 104.
Dick Bennett
Sunday, November 15, 2009
World leaders persist in ignoring climate-change problems
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November 15, 2009
Leaders Agree to Delay a Deal on Climate Change
By HELENE COOPER
SINGAPORE — President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the difficult task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month, agreeing instead to make it the mission of the Copenhagen conference to reach a less specific “politically binding” agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future.
At a hastily arranged breakfast on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting on Sunday morning, the leaders, including Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark and the chairman of the climate conference, agreed that in order to salvage Copenhagen they would have to push a fully binding legal agreement down the road, possibly to a second summit meeting in Mexico City later on.
“There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally, legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen, which starts in 22 days,” said Michael Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. “I don’t think the negotiations have proceeded in such a way that any of the leaders thought it was likely that we were going to achieve a final agreement in Copenhagen, and yet thought that it was important that Copenhagen be an important step forward, including with operational impact.”
With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it has, for several months, appeared increasingly unlikely that the climate change negotiations in Denmark would produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming, as its organizers had intended.
The agreement on Sunday codifies what negotiators had already accepted as all but inevitable: that representatives of the 192 nations in the talks would not resolve the outstanding issues in time. The gulf between rich and poor countries, and even among the wealthiest nations, was just too wide.
Among the chief barriers to a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen was Congress’s inability to enact climate and energy legislation that sets binding targets on greenhouse gases in the United States. Without such a commitment, other nations are loath to make their own pledges.
Administration officials and Congressional leaders have said that final legislative action on a climate bill would not occur before the first half of next year.
After his breakfast meeting in Singapore, Mr. Obama was scheduled to meet with Asian leaders and to hold a number of one-on-one sessions, including one with the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev.
After his meeting with Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Obama will attend a symbolically important regional meeting of Southeast Asian nations, in which representatives of Myanmar’s government will also be present. Mr. Obama, who has made a point of his willingness to engage with adversaries, noted that for the first time an American president would be at the table with Myanmar’s military junta. But he has also called on the government to release the leader of the country’s beleaguered democracy movement, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
APEC summit meetings are not known for accomplishing much that is substantive. The most memorable moments often involve the photo opportunities, in which leaders wear colorful matching shirts. And often communiqués issued on dismantling trade barriers are undermined by the attending countries almost as soon as they are signed.
Speaking to world leaders at the APEC summit meeting Sunday morning, Mr. Obama said he would hold the 2011 gathering in Hawaii.
“The United States was there at the first meeting of APEC at Blake Island when President Clinton started the tradition of having leaders wear outfits picked out by the host nation,” Mr. Obama said. “And when America hosts APEC in a few years, I look forward to seeing you all decked out in flowered shirts and grass skirts because today I am announcing that my home state of Hawaii will be hosting this forum in 2011.”
This year’s meeting promises more of the same, complete with charges and countercharges of protectionism.
President Felipe Calderón of Mexico got things going early Saturday when he lashed out at what he called politically driven protectionism in the United States. He complained that Congressional coddling of the Teamsters had prevented the United States from opening its borders to Mexican trucks, which it was supposed to do years ago after it signed Nafta.
“Protectionism is killing North American companies,” Mr. Calderón said in Singapore. “The American government is facing political pressure that has not been counteracted.”
Mr. Obama is facing high expectations, which may be difficult to meet. For instance, while he has spoken about reducing trade barriers, he also talked during his speech in Tokyo on Saturday of making sure that the United States and Asia did not return to a cycle — which he termed “imbalanced” — in which American consumerism caused Asians to look at the United States as mainly an export market.
There are also high hopes among American companies and some Asian countries that the United States will commit to joining a regional trading group called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Although Mr. Obama did open the door during his speech in Tokyo on Asia policy, he did not explicitly say that the United States would join the pact. A formal announcement that the United States is beginning negotiations would undoubtedly kick off criticism from free-trade opponents in the United States and pushback from Congress.
Mr. Obama spoke, instead, of “engaging the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based membership and the high standards worthy of a 21st-century trade agreement.”
That line left many trade envoys already in Singapore scratching their heads: did Mr. Obama mean that the United States would begin formal talks to join the regional trade pact, which presently includes Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand, and could later include Vietnam — an addition that could lead to more Congressional pressure at home?
Many regional officials have been waiting for the United States to join the initiative as a demonstration that Washington will play a more active role in the region. But the Obama administration has yet to establish a firm trade policy, as it is still reviewing its options.
White House officials were not much clearer on what Mr. Obama meant when they were pressed on this after the speech. Mr. Froman, the deputy national security adviser, said that what Mr. Obama meant was that he would engage with the initiative “to see if this is something that could prove to be an important platform going further.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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November 15, 2009
Leaders Agree to Delay a Deal on Climate Change
By HELENE COOPER
SINGAPORE — President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the difficult task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month, agreeing instead to make it the mission of the Copenhagen conference to reach a less specific “politically binding” agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future.
At a hastily arranged breakfast on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting on Sunday morning, the leaders, including Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark and the chairman of the climate conference, agreed that in order to salvage Copenhagen they would have to push a fully binding legal agreement down the road, possibly to a second summit meeting in Mexico City later on.
“There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally, legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen, which starts in 22 days,” said Michael Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. “I don’t think the negotiations have proceeded in such a way that any of the leaders thought it was likely that we were going to achieve a final agreement in Copenhagen, and yet thought that it was important that Copenhagen be an important step forward, including with operational impact.”
With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it has, for several months, appeared increasingly unlikely that the climate change negotiations in Denmark would produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming, as its organizers had intended.
The agreement on Sunday codifies what negotiators had already accepted as all but inevitable: that representatives of the 192 nations in the talks would not resolve the outstanding issues in time. The gulf between rich and poor countries, and even among the wealthiest nations, was just too wide.
Among the chief barriers to a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen was Congress’s inability to enact climate and energy legislation that sets binding targets on greenhouse gases in the United States. Without such a commitment, other nations are loath to make their own pledges.
Administration officials and Congressional leaders have said that final legislative action on a climate bill would not occur before the first half of next year.
After his breakfast meeting in Singapore, Mr. Obama was scheduled to meet with Asian leaders and to hold a number of one-on-one sessions, including one with the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev.
After his meeting with Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Obama will attend a symbolically important regional meeting of Southeast Asian nations, in which representatives of Myanmar’s government will also be present. Mr. Obama, who has made a point of his willingness to engage with adversaries, noted that for the first time an American president would be at the table with Myanmar’s military junta. But he has also called on the government to release the leader of the country’s beleaguered democracy movement, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
APEC summit meetings are not known for accomplishing much that is substantive. The most memorable moments often involve the photo opportunities, in which leaders wear colorful matching shirts. And often communiqués issued on dismantling trade barriers are undermined by the attending countries almost as soon as they are signed.
Speaking to world leaders at the APEC summit meeting Sunday morning, Mr. Obama said he would hold the 2011 gathering in Hawaii.
“The United States was there at the first meeting of APEC at Blake Island when President Clinton started the tradition of having leaders wear outfits picked out by the host nation,” Mr. Obama said. “And when America hosts APEC in a few years, I look forward to seeing you all decked out in flowered shirts and grass skirts because today I am announcing that my home state of Hawaii will be hosting this forum in 2011.”
This year’s meeting promises more of the same, complete with charges and countercharges of protectionism.
President Felipe Calderón of Mexico got things going early Saturday when he lashed out at what he called politically driven protectionism in the United States. He complained that Congressional coddling of the Teamsters had prevented the United States from opening its borders to Mexican trucks, which it was supposed to do years ago after it signed Nafta.
“Protectionism is killing North American companies,” Mr. Calderón said in Singapore. “The American government is facing political pressure that has not been counteracted.”
Mr. Obama is facing high expectations, which may be difficult to meet. For instance, while he has spoken about reducing trade barriers, he also talked during his speech in Tokyo on Saturday of making sure that the United States and Asia did not return to a cycle — which he termed “imbalanced” — in which American consumerism caused Asians to look at the United States as mainly an export market.
There are also high hopes among American companies and some Asian countries that the United States will commit to joining a regional trading group called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Although Mr. Obama did open the door during his speech in Tokyo on Asia policy, he did not explicitly say that the United States would join the pact. A formal announcement that the United States is beginning negotiations would undoubtedly kick off criticism from free-trade opponents in the United States and pushback from Congress.
Mr. Obama spoke, instead, of “engaging the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based membership and the high standards worthy of a 21st-century trade agreement.”
That line left many trade envoys already in Singapore scratching their heads: did Mr. Obama mean that the United States would begin formal talks to join the regional trade pact, which presently includes Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand, and could later include Vietnam — an addition that could lead to more Congressional pressure at home?
Many regional officials have been waiting for the United States to join the initiative as a demonstration that Washington will play a more active role in the region. But the Obama administration has yet to establish a firm trade policy, as it is still reviewing its options.
White House officials were not much clearer on what Mr. Obama meant when they were pressed on this after the speech. Mr. Froman, the deputy national security adviser, said that what Mr. Obama meant was that he would engage with the initiative “to see if this is something that could prove to be an important platform going further.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
Afghanistan war perspective
AFGHANISTAN WAR
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Sat 11/14/09 10:59 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
From Afghanistan to the White House
|Kevin Martin, Peace Action to jbennet
Peaceact@mail.democracyinaction.org
Dear James,
Peace Action brings the peace perspective from Afghanistan to the White House
Peace Action's Policy and Organizing Director Paul Kawika Martin visited Afghanistan as part of a citizen peace delegation, and upon return to the US went directly to the White House, where national Peace Action staff, board members, and local Peace Action members were participating in civil disobedience to draw President Obama's attention to ongoing opposition to the war. Click here to read the full article.
Urge your Representatives to end the war in Afghanistan
The US is at a turning point on Afghanistan. President Obama continues to deliberate on sending more troops, giving us more time to pressure him to end the escalation and bring the troops home. Contact your Representatives today, letting them know you want to see an end to the war
Kevin M. Martin Executive Director Peace Action
TO: SENATORS LINCOLN AND PRIOR AND REPRESENTATIVE BOOZMAN.
The proposed 2010 War Budget contains approximately $128 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars through September 2010. But there is no exit plan for Afghanistan, while General McChrystal calls for tens of thousands of additional U. S. troops and a long-term commitment.
We need a different policy in Afghanistan, one that emphasizes diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. And we need an exit plan.
We urge you to support Congressman James McGovern’s H. R. 2404 that requires President Obama to provide an exit plan no later than December 2009.
LINCOLN AND PRYOR CONTACTS
LINCOLN
http://lincoln.senate.gov
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Fax (202) 228-1371
912 West Fourth St.
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 375-2993
Fax (501) 375-7064
Toll Free 1-800-352-9364
Fay office = John Hicks
Community Affairs Specialist
tel 251-1224
fax 251-1410
john_hicks@lincoln.senate.gov
PRYOR CONTACTS
http://pryor.senate.gov/contact
Little Rock Office
The River Market
500 Clinton Ave
Suite 401
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336
Fax: (501) 324-5320
Toll Free from AR:
(877) 259-9602
Washington, D.C. Office
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Fax: (202) 228-0908
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Sat 11/14/09 10:59 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
From Afghanistan to the White House
|Kevin Martin, Peace Action to jbennet
Peaceact@mail.democracyinaction.org
Dear James,
Peace Action brings the peace perspective from Afghanistan to the White House
Peace Action's Policy and Organizing Director Paul Kawika Martin visited Afghanistan as part of a citizen peace delegation, and upon return to the US went directly to the White House, where national Peace Action staff, board members, and local Peace Action members were participating in civil disobedience to draw President Obama's attention to ongoing opposition to the war. Click here to read the full article.
Urge your Representatives to end the war in Afghanistan
The US is at a turning point on Afghanistan. President Obama continues to deliberate on sending more troops, giving us more time to pressure him to end the escalation and bring the troops home. Contact your Representatives today, letting them know you want to see an end to the war
Kevin M. Martin Executive Director Peace Action
TO: SENATORS LINCOLN AND PRIOR AND REPRESENTATIVE BOOZMAN.
The proposed 2010 War Budget contains approximately $128 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars through September 2010. But there is no exit plan for Afghanistan, while General McChrystal calls for tens of thousands of additional U. S. troops and a long-term commitment.
We need a different policy in Afghanistan, one that emphasizes diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. And we need an exit plan.
We urge you to support Congressman James McGovern’s H. R. 2404 that requires President Obama to provide an exit plan no later than December 2009.
LINCOLN AND PRYOR CONTACTS
LINCOLN
http://lincoln.senate.gov
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Fax (202) 228-1371
912 West Fourth St.
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 375-2993
Fax (501) 375-7064
Toll Free 1-800-352-9364
Fay office = John Hicks
Community Affairs Specialist
tel 251-1224
fax 251-1410
john_hicks@lincoln.senate.gov
PRYOR CONTACTS
http://pryor.senate.gov/contact
Little Rock Office
The River Market
500 Clinton Ave
Suite 401
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336
Fax: (501) 324-5320
Toll Free from AR:
(877) 259-9602
Washington, D.C. Office
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Fax: (202) 228-0908
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Veterans Day November 11, 2009, newsletter from OMNI founder, Dick Bennett
e subscribed to this mailing list. Unsubscribe
VETERANS' DAY 2009
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Wed 11/11/09 6:47 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI ARMISTICE/VETERANS' DAY NEWSLETTER #2, NOVEMBER 11, 2009, WE, THE PEOPLE BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE, Compiled by Dick Bennett
NEWSLETTER #1, Nov. 11, 2008
CONTENTS
Honoring the Troops
Armistice Day
Veterans for Peace
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Veterans Against the Iraq War
Gold Star Families for Peace
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Rabbi Waskow, Temple Shalom
Bucheit’s American Wars and Other Books
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380; www.lincoln.senate.gov; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/index.cfm; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
SENATOR Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908. www.pryor.senate.gov ; http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
Nov. 11, 2009, CONTENTS
OMNI in Veterans’ Day Parade 2009
Message from Veterans for Peace
Greenwald Message on Afghanistan
Peace Action Message on Afghanistan
Support the Troops: Vets’ Health Care
Valor
Military Refusers
Zinn on Nationalism and War, Will Phillips on the Pledge
Recent Books on US Empire from OMNI Bibliographies
OMNI VETS IN EUREKA SPRINGS
Lyell Thompson (WWII), Carl Barnwell (Vietnam War), and Dick Bennett (Korean) represented Veterans for Peace and OMNI in the Veterans’ Day Parade in Eureka Springs 11-11-09. We and our large banner were cordially welcomed by the parade organizer who invited us, by all in the parade who voiced their feelings, and by many along the parade route. Nobody vocally objected to our being there; many thanked us strongly for it. One woman in the restaurant afterward came to our table to say we were the voice of sanity. The majority of our citizens oppose US permanent war.
In addition to Fayetteville, OMNI has created activities in Bentonville/ NWACC, Springdale, and Greenland. I spoke to the librarians in the ES library about a possible event at their library, to maintain our connection with ES. Dick
Veterans For Peace Statement for Armistice/Veterans' Day 2009
Veterans' Day began as "Armistice" Day, to celebrate November 11, 1918 when the guns of World War One finally stopped - and what cause for celebration there was!
From August 1914 until November 1918, 30 million soldiers were killed or wounded and another 7 million were taken captive. Never before had people witnessed such industrialized slaughter. A hint of the wreckage can be glimpsed by visiting a Great War memorial in any European town and invariably seeing a list of names long enough to include every young man who lived there at the time - hence the "lost generation."
Today we can hardly imagine the horror of the trenches where rats provided a real service by eating away at the corpses hanging on the barbed wire, in shell holes and half-buried in the walls of the dugouts.
The reality of the battlefield permeated the consciousness back home; so much so that even in America, whose troops arrived in Europe only in the closing months of the war, Congress responded to a universal hope that such a war would never happen again. It passed a resolution calling for "exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding...inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples." Later, Congress added that November 11 was to be "a day dedicated to the cause of world peace."
Armistice Day was more than a time for department store midnight madness sales. It meant more than military color guards marching in parades featuring the cleaned-up machinery of war. It was a reminder of the insane, horrific cost of war paid by soldiers at the front, those who ministered to the dead and wounded, and their families back home. It was a day to reflect on that memory and vow to learn to live in a world without war.
These days, when some still give all, but very few give some, it's easy for most of us to go on with our lives of work, shopping and family as if that's all there was. It's easy to overlook the tremendous pain and pressures caused by the multiple deployments needed for a "volunteer" military - unless someone in your family is directly involved in the fighting or is cut down by war's wide blade of "collateral damage" that can strike an Army base in Texas as well as a village in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Some truths are indeed universal. Veterans For Peace abides by two very simple ones: Wars are easy to start and hard to stop; and the innocent on all sides always suffer most.
The doughboys of WWI, shivering in the soggy, rotten trenches of Europe in November 1918, would have nodded wearily in agreement.
Mike Ferner, President Veterans For Peace
A Veterans Day Message from Vets to the President:
Do Not Escalate in Afghanistan info@bravenewfoundation.org
President Obama may send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan… 1 soldier = $1 million/year…Quagmire in its ninth year…
Watch the Video | Sign the Petition | Email a Friend
Dear Dick,
News reports indicate that in the next few weeks, President Obama plans to announce his decision to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
If he does so, he will be making the biggest mistake of his presidency.
Sign our petition to send a clear message to President Obama: Do not send more soldiers into this quagmire. [Dick: My software did not reproduce this signing capability. Greenwald’s email is the best I can do here.]
Yours, Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation team
info@bravenewfoundation.org
MESSAGE ON AFGHANISTAN FROM PEACE ACTION
Dear James,
In 1954, President Eisenhower declared that Veterans Day would be a national holiday where "all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose" of peace. In honor of all the veterans who have lost their lives in war, it is time to put war behind us. Ask your Representative to support HR 3699 to prevent funds for more troops to Afghanistan.
This Veteran's Day we must reflect on the steps forward and backwards we have made in this pursuit. Today will be a day to mourn for all those who have lost their lives because of war. Not only American veterans, but the people who have lost their lives needlessly in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Peace Action would urge all people to honor our troops this Veteran's Day by e-mailing your Representative in Congress and asking her or him to keep our troops safe by keeping them home. E-mail your Representative here and tell her or him to support HR 3699.
Sincerely, Paul Kawika Martin, Political Director, Peace Action
SUPPORT THE TROOPS: VETERANS’ HEALTH CARE INSURANCE
Contact: Mark Almberg, Physicians for a National Health Program, (312) 782-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996, mark@pnhp.org
*Over 2,200 veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance*
*Harvard researchers say 1.46 million working-age vets lacked health
coverage last year, increasing their death rate*
A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military
veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health
insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than
14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in
Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of
Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.
The researchers, who released their analysis today, pointedly say the
health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not
significantly affect this grim picture.
The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2009
Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their
insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans
between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only
classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor
received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals
or clinics………
CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
Take a moment on this Veterans / Armistice Day to call your Congressperson at (202) 224-3121 and tell them you need them to stop funding the wars and occupations.
PHYSICAL VALOR, PATRIOTISM, PERMANENT WAR, MEDIA
Beginning November 8, the Morning News and the NWA Times began a series, “to last through year’s end,” about 50 men and women “who have received top commendations for bravery and valor.” Nothing in my recollection of local or national newspapers equals this exhibition of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. The newspapers declare: “Since 2001, more than 1.9 million Americans have been deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, displaying the highest form of service to country.” The statistic and claim of “service” are equally shocking. Our editors consider the risk and waste of our youth in illegal and useless foreign wars to be “the highest form of service”? What have they served? Sometimes you hear the soldiers and the public say: they defended US freedom? But how was our freedom threatened by Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan (or by Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua)? Instead, we have witnessed the waste of the lives of our soldiers, their civilians, and trillions of dollars urgently needed for the sustenance of millions of people and a planet threatened. “War is tragic and frightening.” Then should our youth be thrust into tragedy and fear to fight for lies and delusions resulting in torture and killing of innocents and chaos? (Read Chomsky’s summary history of torture:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/19-7}
We need a national teach-in on the so-called war against “terrorism” as the defense of U. S. freedom, and the valor alleged to have defended it. We need a national teach-in on better ways to defend freedom than by violence and endless wars.
MILITARY REFUSERS AND MORAL VALOR
And we need a national education on the distinction between physical and moral and intellectual courage. Why have not the Morning News and the NWA Times praised those troops who have refused to violate international laws and kill civilians? Democracy Now interviewed (August 5, 2009) Spc. Victor Agosto, court-martialed August 5, 2009 for refusing to redeploy to Afghanistan on moral grounds after having served in Iraq. And Camilo Mejia, who refused redeployment and was imprisoned in 2003(?) to protest torture and other war crimes committed by US. He is appealing his conviction on international law grounds. Both have been designated Soldiers of Conscience by Amnesty International.. Mejia is now Chair of Iraqi Veterans Against the War.
And we need to dig at the roots of why our leaders will send 1.9 million of our youth to our two latest brutal wars and most of our youth are willing to go. Howard Zinn here zeroes in on nationalism.
Zinn, Howard on Nationalism. “Put Away the Flags” in We Who Dared to Say No to War
Published on Sunday, July 1, 2007 by The Progressive
“Put Away the Flags”
“…. we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed. Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? …..”
A boy in West Fork shows us a way: West Fork’s Will Phillips Refuses the Pledge: http://arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021
RECENT BOOKS ON US MILITARISM AND EMPIRE (from OMNI Biblio 35)
IMPERIALISM (see: Iran, Iraq, Nationalism, Patriotism, Terrorism, War)
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Times Books/Holt, 2006. “The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not an isolated episode. It was the culmination of a 110-year period during which AmericAns overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons….No nation in modern history has done this so often, in so many places so far from it own shores.”
--Ensign, Tod. America’s Military Today: Challenges for the Armed Forces in a Time of War. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Bacevich, Andrew. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Smith, Tony. A Pact with the Devil: Washington’s Bid for World Supremacy and the Betrayal of the American Promise.
Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Leffler, Melvyn, and Jeffrey Legro, eds. To Lead the World: American Strategy aTfer the Bush Doctrine. Brigham,
Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Klare, Michael. Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Rashid, Ahmed. Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afganistan, and Central Asia. Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Greider, William. Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of our Country. Rodale, 2009. “The U.S. military…has itself become the gravest threat to our peace and security….Our risks and vulnerabilities around the world are magnified and multiplied because the American military has shifted from providing national defense to taking the offensive worldwide, from being a vigilant defender to being an adventurous aggressor in search of enemies.”
--Jolin, Michele. Change for America. Basic Books, 2009.
--Bass, Alison. Side Effects. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.
· --
· "Alliances in a Unipolar World," World Politics, Volume 61, no. 1 (January 2009)
From OMNI Biblio 34
IMPERIALISM (see: CIA, Cold War, Cuba, Debt, Exceptionalism, Foreign Policy, Gulf War, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Intolerance, Iran, Islam, Mexico, Middle East, Patriotism, Refugees, Victims)
--Murphy, Cullen. Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Rev. NYT Book Review (May 13, 2007): both nations were afflicted by “a sense of exceptionalism”; both became obsessed with security.
--Lutz, Catherine. Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts. A quarter of a million U.S. troops are massed in over seven hundred major official overseas airbases around the world. In the past decade, the Pentagon has formulated and enacted a plan to realign, or reconfigure, its bases in keeping with new doctrines of pre-emption and intensified concern with strategic resource control, all with seemingly little concern for the surrounding geography and its inhabitants.
The contributors in The Bases of Empire trace the political, environmental, and economic impact of these bases on their surrounding communities across the globe, including Latin America, Europe, and Asia, where opposition to the United States’ presence has been longstanding and widespread, and is growing rapidly.
Through sharp analysis and critique, The Bases of Empire illuminates the vigorous campaigns to hold the United States accountable for the damage its bases cause in allied countries as well as in war zones, and offers ways to reorient security policies in other, more humane, and truly secure directions.
"These fascinating case studies provide a powerful assessment of the worldwide network of U.S. military bases and the burgeoning anti-base campaign, and analyze the changing nature of empire building and the re-mapping of the sociopolitical terrain within the context of the 'global war on terror.' “ Kimberly Theidon, Harvard University
Also by Lutz: Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century
Related article: Holmes, Amy. "The Bases of Empire: The Impact of US Military Installations on Germany and Turkey" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA,, Aug 14, 2004. 2009-03-04
--Higgs, Robert. RESURGENCE OF THE WARFARE STATE: The Crisis Since 9/11.
Immediately after 9/11, government officials and commentators claimed that the terrorist attacks had “changed everything.” In contrast, economist and historian Robert Higgs warned that history would likely repeat itself in one key respect: the government’s hasty reactions would resemble its responses to previous crises, providing little more than opportunities for special interests to feather their nests and for the government itself to expand its powers at the expense of the public’s wealth and civil liberties.
Resurgence of the Warfare State is Robert Higgs’s real-time analysis of the U.S. government’s tragic but predictable response: the quick enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act, the federal takeover of airport security, the massive increase in defense and other government spending, and the carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq wrought by leaders unaccountable for their costly and deadly mistakes.
Governmental responses to crises have been—and will likely continue to be—a bonanza for political, corporate, and even religious opportunists who seek power and financial gain by exploiting the fears of the American public.
END OF VETERANS’ DAY NEWSLETTER #2, 2009
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
VETERANS' DAY 2009
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Wed 11/11/09 6:47 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI ARMISTICE/VETERANS' DAY NEWSLETTER #2, NOVEMBER 11, 2009, WE, THE PEOPLE BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE, Compiled by Dick Bennett
NEWSLETTER #1, Nov. 11, 2008
CONTENTS
Honoring the Troops
Armistice Day
Veterans for Peace
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Veterans Against the Iraq War
Gold Star Families for Peace
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Rabbi Waskow, Temple Shalom
Bucheit’s American Wars and Other Books
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380; www.lincoln.senate.gov; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/index.cfm; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
SENATOR Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908. www.pryor.senate.gov ; http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
Nov. 11, 2009, CONTENTS
OMNI in Veterans’ Day Parade 2009
Message from Veterans for Peace
Greenwald Message on Afghanistan
Peace Action Message on Afghanistan
Support the Troops: Vets’ Health Care
Valor
Military Refusers
Zinn on Nationalism and War, Will Phillips on the Pledge
Recent Books on US Empire from OMNI Bibliographies
OMNI VETS IN EUREKA SPRINGS
Lyell Thompson (WWII), Carl Barnwell (Vietnam War), and Dick Bennett (Korean) represented Veterans for Peace and OMNI in the Veterans’ Day Parade in Eureka Springs 11-11-09. We and our large banner were cordially welcomed by the parade organizer who invited us, by all in the parade who voiced their feelings, and by many along the parade route. Nobody vocally objected to our being there; many thanked us strongly for it. One woman in the restaurant afterward came to our table to say we were the voice of sanity. The majority of our citizens oppose US permanent war.
In addition to Fayetteville, OMNI has created activities in Bentonville/ NWACC, Springdale, and Greenland. I spoke to the librarians in the ES library about a possible event at their library, to maintain our connection with ES. Dick
Veterans For Peace Statement for Armistice/Veterans' Day 2009
Veterans' Day began as "Armistice" Day, to celebrate November 11, 1918 when the guns of World War One finally stopped - and what cause for celebration there was!
From August 1914 until November 1918, 30 million soldiers were killed or wounded and another 7 million were taken captive. Never before had people witnessed such industrialized slaughter. A hint of the wreckage can be glimpsed by visiting a Great War memorial in any European town and invariably seeing a list of names long enough to include every young man who lived there at the time - hence the "lost generation."
Today we can hardly imagine the horror of the trenches where rats provided a real service by eating away at the corpses hanging on the barbed wire, in shell holes and half-buried in the walls of the dugouts.
The reality of the battlefield permeated the consciousness back home; so much so that even in America, whose troops arrived in Europe only in the closing months of the war, Congress responded to a universal hope that such a war would never happen again. It passed a resolution calling for "exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding...inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples." Later, Congress added that November 11 was to be "a day dedicated to the cause of world peace."
Armistice Day was more than a time for department store midnight madness sales. It meant more than military color guards marching in parades featuring the cleaned-up machinery of war. It was a reminder of the insane, horrific cost of war paid by soldiers at the front, those who ministered to the dead and wounded, and their families back home. It was a day to reflect on that memory and vow to learn to live in a world without war.
These days, when some still give all, but very few give some, it's easy for most of us to go on with our lives of work, shopping and family as if that's all there was. It's easy to overlook the tremendous pain and pressures caused by the multiple deployments needed for a "volunteer" military - unless someone in your family is directly involved in the fighting or is cut down by war's wide blade of "collateral damage" that can strike an Army base in Texas as well as a village in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Some truths are indeed universal. Veterans For Peace abides by two very simple ones: Wars are easy to start and hard to stop; and the innocent on all sides always suffer most.
The doughboys of WWI, shivering in the soggy, rotten trenches of Europe in November 1918, would have nodded wearily in agreement.
Mike Ferner, President Veterans For Peace
A Veterans Day Message from Vets to the President:
Do Not Escalate in Afghanistan info@bravenewfoundation.org
President Obama may send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan… 1 soldier = $1 million/year…Quagmire in its ninth year…
Watch the Video | Sign the Petition | Email a Friend
Dear Dick,
News reports indicate that in the next few weeks, President Obama plans to announce his decision to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
If he does so, he will be making the biggest mistake of his presidency.
Sign our petition to send a clear message to President Obama: Do not send more soldiers into this quagmire. [Dick: My software did not reproduce this signing capability. Greenwald’s email is the best I can do here.]
Yours, Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation team
info@bravenewfoundation.org
MESSAGE ON AFGHANISTAN FROM PEACE ACTION
Dear James,
In 1954, President Eisenhower declared that Veterans Day would be a national holiday where "all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose" of peace. In honor of all the veterans who have lost their lives in war, it is time to put war behind us. Ask your Representative to support HR 3699 to prevent funds for more troops to Afghanistan.
This Veteran's Day we must reflect on the steps forward and backwards we have made in this pursuit. Today will be a day to mourn for all those who have lost their lives because of war. Not only American veterans, but the people who have lost their lives needlessly in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Peace Action would urge all people to honor our troops this Veteran's Day by e-mailing your Representative in Congress and asking her or him to keep our troops safe by keeping them home. E-mail your Representative here and tell her or him to support HR 3699.
Sincerely, Paul Kawika Martin, Political Director, Peace Action
SUPPORT THE TROOPS: VETERANS’ HEALTH CARE INSURANCE
Contact: Mark Almberg, Physicians for a National Health Program, (312) 782-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996, mark@pnhp.org
*Over 2,200 veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance*
*Harvard researchers say 1.46 million working-age vets lacked health
coverage last year, increasing their death rate*
A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military
veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health
insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than
14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in
Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of
Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.
The researchers, who released their analysis today, pointedly say the
health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not
significantly affect this grim picture.
The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2009
Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their
insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans
between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only
classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor
received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals
or clinics………
CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
Take a moment on this Veterans / Armistice Day to call your Congressperson at (202) 224-3121 and tell them you need them to stop funding the wars and occupations.
PHYSICAL VALOR, PATRIOTISM, PERMANENT WAR, MEDIA
Beginning November 8, the Morning News and the NWA Times began a series, “to last through year’s end,” about 50 men and women “who have received top commendations for bravery and valor.” Nothing in my recollection of local or national newspapers equals this exhibition of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. The newspapers declare: “Since 2001, more than 1.9 million Americans have been deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, displaying the highest form of service to country.” The statistic and claim of “service” are equally shocking. Our editors consider the risk and waste of our youth in illegal and useless foreign wars to be “the highest form of service”? What have they served? Sometimes you hear the soldiers and the public say: they defended US freedom? But how was our freedom threatened by Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan (or by Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua)? Instead, we have witnessed the waste of the lives of our soldiers, their civilians, and trillions of dollars urgently needed for the sustenance of millions of people and a planet threatened. “War is tragic and frightening.” Then should our youth be thrust into tragedy and fear to fight for lies and delusions resulting in torture and killing of innocents and chaos? (Read Chomsky’s summary history of torture:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/19-7}
We need a national teach-in on the so-called war against “terrorism” as the defense of U. S. freedom, and the valor alleged to have defended it. We need a national teach-in on better ways to defend freedom than by violence and endless wars.
MILITARY REFUSERS AND MORAL VALOR
And we need a national education on the distinction between physical and moral and intellectual courage. Why have not the Morning News and the NWA Times praised those troops who have refused to violate international laws and kill civilians? Democracy Now interviewed (August 5, 2009) Spc. Victor Agosto, court-martialed August 5, 2009 for refusing to redeploy to Afghanistan on moral grounds after having served in Iraq. And Camilo Mejia, who refused redeployment and was imprisoned in 2003(?) to protest torture and other war crimes committed by US. He is appealing his conviction on international law grounds. Both have been designated Soldiers of Conscience by Amnesty International.. Mejia is now Chair of Iraqi Veterans Against the War.
And we need to dig at the roots of why our leaders will send 1.9 million of our youth to our two latest brutal wars and most of our youth are willing to go. Howard Zinn here zeroes in on nationalism.
Zinn, Howard on Nationalism. “Put Away the Flags” in We Who Dared to Say No to War
Published on Sunday, July 1, 2007 by The Progressive
“Put Away the Flags”
“…. we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed. Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? …..”
A boy in West Fork shows us a way: West Fork’s Will Phillips Refuses the Pledge: http://arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021
RECENT BOOKS ON US MILITARISM AND EMPIRE (from OMNI Biblio 35)
IMPERIALISM (see: Iran, Iraq, Nationalism, Patriotism, Terrorism, War)
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Times Books/Holt, 2006. “The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not an isolated episode. It was the culmination of a 110-year period during which AmericAns overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons….No nation in modern history has done this so often, in so many places so far from it own shores.”
--Ensign, Tod. America’s Military Today: Challenges for the Armed Forces in a Time of War. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Bacevich, Andrew. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Smith, Tony. A Pact with the Devil: Washington’s Bid for World Supremacy and the Betrayal of the American Promise.
Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Leffler, Melvyn, and Jeffrey Legro, eds. To Lead the World: American Strategy aTfer the Bush Doctrine. Brigham,
Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Klare, Michael. Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Rashid, Ahmed. Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afganistan, and Central Asia. Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Greider, William. Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of our Country. Rodale, 2009. “The U.S. military…has itself become the gravest threat to our peace and security….Our risks and vulnerabilities around the world are magnified and multiplied because the American military has shifted from providing national defense to taking the offensive worldwide, from being a vigilant defender to being an adventurous aggressor in search of enemies.”
--Jolin, Michele. Change for America. Basic Books, 2009.
--Bass, Alison. Side Effects. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.
· --
· "Alliances in a Unipolar World," World Politics, Volume 61, no. 1 (January 2009)
From OMNI Biblio 34
IMPERIALISM (see: CIA, Cold War, Cuba, Debt, Exceptionalism, Foreign Policy, Gulf War, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Intolerance, Iran, Islam, Mexico, Middle East, Patriotism, Refugees, Victims)
--Murphy, Cullen. Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Rev. NYT Book Review (May 13, 2007): both nations were afflicted by “a sense of exceptionalism”; both became obsessed with security.
--Lutz, Catherine. Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts. A quarter of a million U.S. troops are massed in over seven hundred major official overseas airbases around the world. In the past decade, the Pentagon has formulated and enacted a plan to realign, or reconfigure, its bases in keeping with new doctrines of pre-emption and intensified concern with strategic resource control, all with seemingly little concern for the surrounding geography and its inhabitants.
The contributors in The Bases of Empire trace the political, environmental, and economic impact of these bases on their surrounding communities across the globe, including Latin America, Europe, and Asia, where opposition to the United States’ presence has been longstanding and widespread, and is growing rapidly.
Through sharp analysis and critique, The Bases of Empire illuminates the vigorous campaigns to hold the United States accountable for the damage its bases cause in allied countries as well as in war zones, and offers ways to reorient security policies in other, more humane, and truly secure directions.
"These fascinating case studies provide a powerful assessment of the worldwide network of U.S. military bases and the burgeoning anti-base campaign, and analyze the changing nature of empire building and the re-mapping of the sociopolitical terrain within the context of the 'global war on terror.' “ Kimberly Theidon, Harvard University
Also by Lutz: Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century
Related article: Holmes, Amy. "The Bases of Empire: The Impact of US Military Installations on Germany and Turkey" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA,, Aug 14, 2004. 2009-03-04
--Higgs, Robert. RESURGENCE OF THE WARFARE STATE: The Crisis Since 9/11.
Immediately after 9/11, government officials and commentators claimed that the terrorist attacks had “changed everything.” In contrast, economist and historian Robert Higgs warned that history would likely repeat itself in one key respect: the government’s hasty reactions would resemble its responses to previous crises, providing little more than opportunities for special interests to feather their nests and for the government itself to expand its powers at the expense of the public’s wealth and civil liberties.
Resurgence of the Warfare State is Robert Higgs’s real-time analysis of the U.S. government’s tragic but predictable response: the quick enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act, the federal takeover of airport security, the massive increase in defense and other government spending, and the carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq wrought by leaders unaccountable for their costly and deadly mistakes.
Governmental responses to crises have been—and will likely continue to be—a bonanza for political, corporate, and even religious opportunists who seek power and financial gain by exploiting the fears of the American public.
END OF VETERANS’ DAY NEWSLETTER #2, 2009
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Dorothy Day's birthday a day to remember her heroics in the fight for women's rights, workers' right and against war
1897-1980 "The biggest mistake sometimes is to play things very safe in this life and end up being moral failures."
Dorothy Day combined her political passion for justice and equality with her religious commitment for serving the destitute. She took a vow of poverty and lived a life of service to the poor in the hospitality houses and the newspaper The Catholic Worker she developed with Peter Maurin-- the Catholic Worker Movement. She worked tirelessly and was arrested often in the struggles for women's rights, workers' rights, and against war. Bio: Jim Forest, Love is the Measure.
Dorothy Day combined her political passion for justice and equality with her religious commitment for serving the destitute. She took a vow of poverty and lived a life of service to the poor in the hospitality houses and the newspaper The Catholic Worker she developed with Peter Maurin-- the Catholic Worker Movement. She worked tirelessly and was arrested often in the struggles for women's rights, workers' rights, and against war. Bio: Jim Forest, Love is the Measure.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Carbon Caps Task Force to meet at 1:30 p.m. Sunday November 8 at 3274 Lee Avenue in Fayetteville Arkansas
Asking Ourselves: What’s My Role in the CCTF?
Objectives:
1. Define and discuss expansion of the CCTF mission.
2. Ensure members are up to date on CCTF tasks and gain their input and commitment.
3. Introduce Joanna as the CCTF Facilitator
Attendees:
Will be filled in as Joanna is notified and sent out with reminder
e-mail one day before the meeting.
Date, Time and Duration:
Sunday 11/8/09 from 1-2:30pm
At The New Omni House on 3274 Lee Avenue
Items:
• Introductions and any announcements members have…(3 minutes)
• CCTF Mission: Raising Climate Change Consciousness- Education and Beyond…Joanna Pollock (8 minutes).
• Art with Social Purpose, Speaking to Copenhagen…Adam Campbell (10 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Reaching out to Farmers and the American Farm Bureau Hypocrisy…Joanna Pollock (5 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Addressing Anti-Climate Change Legislation Propaganda…Dick Bennett (10 minutes or less)
• Population and Climate Change Book Forum…Joanna Pollock (10 minutes or less).
• Climate Scientist and CAT-TV Forum…Dick Bennett (3 minutes)
• Talking to Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor…Art Hobson.
• Coal Coalition…Joanna Pollock (3 minutes) (A Clean Air Arkansas Collaboration)
• Future Plans and New Ideas…Open to All (10 minutes).
Objectives:
1. Define and discuss expansion of the CCTF mission.
2. Ensure members are up to date on CCTF tasks and gain their input and commitment.
3. Introduce Joanna as the CCTF Facilitator
Attendees:
Will be filled in as Joanna is notified and sent out with reminder
e-mail one day before the meeting.
Date, Time and Duration:
Sunday 11/8/09 from 1-2:30pm
At The New Omni House on 3274 Lee Avenue
Items:
• Introductions and any announcements members have…(3 minutes)
• CCTF Mission: Raising Climate Change Consciousness- Education and Beyond…Joanna Pollock (8 minutes).
• Art with Social Purpose, Speaking to Copenhagen…Adam Campbell (10 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Reaching out to Farmers and the American Farm Bureau Hypocrisy…Joanna Pollock (5 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Addressing Anti-Climate Change Legislation Propaganda…Dick Bennett (10 minutes or less)
• Population and Climate Change Book Forum…Joanna Pollock (10 minutes or less).
• Climate Scientist and CAT-TV Forum…Dick Bennett (3 minutes)
• Talking to Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor…Art Hobson.
• Coal Coalition…Joanna Pollock (3 minutes) (A Clean Air Arkansas Collaboration)
• Future Plans and New Ideas…Open to All (10 minutes).
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Film date reset to later in the month: November 19 likely date
FILM CANCELED
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/03/09 12:16 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
WATCH FOR IT IN TWO WEEKS
NEW FILM, RETHINK AFGHANISTAN.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009, 6p.m. LIKELY new date
UA KIMPEL HALL 105.
Contact Jonathan Biggs 655-2427
Kimpel is located between two parking garages, which are free at nights to visitors.
This outstanding film by the notable documentarian, Robert Greenwald (Director of Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Iraq for Sale) shatters the deceptions and myths that started and sustain our nation’s longest war. Segments: Troops, Pakistan, Cost of War, Women in Afghanistan, Civilian Casualties, Security, Solutions. For more information and to get engaged contact OMNI members producing the Book Forum, and : www.rethinkafghanistan.com and Facebook.com/rethinkafghanistan
ACQUIRE AND SHOW THIS FILM. SPEAK OUT AGAINST THESE WARS.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/03/09 12:16 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
WATCH FOR IT IN TWO WEEKS
NEW FILM, RETHINK AFGHANISTAN.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009, 6p.m. LIKELY new date
UA KIMPEL HALL 105.
Contact Jonathan Biggs 655-2427
Kimpel is located between two parking garages, which are free at nights to visitors.
This outstanding film by the notable documentarian, Robert Greenwald (Director of Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Iraq for Sale) shatters the deceptions and myths that started and sustain our nation’s longest war. Segments: Troops, Pakistan, Cost of War, Women in Afghanistan, Civilian Casualties, Security, Solutions. For more information and to get engaged contact OMNI members producing the Book Forum, and : www.rethinkafghanistan.com and Facebook.com/rethinkafghanistan
ACQUIRE AND SHOW THIS FILM. SPEAK OUT AGAINST THESE WARS.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
Patriot Act needs revision NOW to protect the rights of honest citizens of the U.S.
Please help get the UnPATRIOTic Act amended to regain our constitutional rights. Please go to the link below and send a letter urging our members of congress to support legislation coming before them SOON.
The letter says:
I write as a concerned constituent. Government surveillance of the communications and activities of innocent Americans has increased exponentially since the events of September 11, 2001. I urge you to support investigations of, and amendments to, the Patriot Act and other surveillance laws that have fundamentally diminished the rights of Americans. This is the best chance to rein in the out-of-control government powers embedded in the Patriot Act since it was enacted.
H.R. 3845, The USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009, protects constitutional speech and privacy rights by:
*Amending the national security letter statute to ensure that the government obtains financial, communication and credit records only of people believed to be terrorists or spies;
*Requiring the government to convince a court that a national security gag order is necessary;
*Ensuring that the so-called "library records provision" does not authorize collection of library and bookstore records if they contain information on the patron.
As you can imagine, the bill is not perfect. It leaves the Patriot Act's so-called "material support" provision intact, permitting prosecution of those who work with or for charities that give humanitarian aid in good faith to war-torn countries. Please support adding a provision that would limit prosecution to those who actually intend to support terrorist-oriented actions.
I urge you to co-sponsor the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009. It's time that our government stop violating the rights of everyday people who have nothing to do with terrorism.
I look forward to your response on this important matter.
(https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=1781&page=UserAction),
And please pass it on!
The letter says:
I write as a concerned constituent. Government surveillance of the communications and activities of innocent Americans has increased exponentially since the events of September 11, 2001. I urge you to support investigations of, and amendments to, the Patriot Act and other surveillance laws that have fundamentally diminished the rights of Americans. This is the best chance to rein in the out-of-control government powers embedded in the Patriot Act since it was enacted.
H.R. 3845, The USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009, protects constitutional speech and privacy rights by:
*Amending the national security letter statute to ensure that the government obtains financial, communication and credit records only of people believed to be terrorists or spies;
*Requiring the government to convince a court that a national security gag order is necessary;
*Ensuring that the so-called "library records provision" does not authorize collection of library and bookstore records if they contain information on the patron.
As you can imagine, the bill is not perfect. It leaves the Patriot Act's so-called "material support" provision intact, permitting prosecution of those who work with or for charities that give humanitarian aid in good faith to war-torn countries. Please support adding a provision that would limit prosecution to those who actually intend to support terrorist-oriented actions.
I urge you to co-sponsor the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009. It's time that our government stop violating the rights of everyday people who have nothing to do with terrorism.
I look forward to your response on this important matter.
(https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=1781&page=UserAction),
And please pass it on!
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