WikiLeaks

John Rule, Carl Barnwell, and I (and I hope some of you and your friends) will be at Farmer's Market Saturdays. One of our petitions supports WikiLeaks. Dick



Tom Hayden has initiated an online petition supporting WikiLeaks at http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38165.html. The preamble says, “We believe that WikiLeaks and those whistleblowers who declassify documents in a time of secret war should be welcomed as defenders of democracy, not demonized as criminals. We support their First Amendment rights and welcome their continued disobedience in response to a long train of official deception.”

Sign Petitions on Torture, Kidnapping, Murder

US LEADERS STAND TRIAL?
The military dictatorship in Argentina (murders, kidnappings, torture, rapes, abductions and sale of infant, coverups) went unpunished for 30 years, until Argentina’s Supreme Court overturned amnesty laws. Finally in 2006 trials began and high-ranking officials have been sentenced to prison. The families of the victims at last can discover the truth of their deaths, but they also hope to make sure it never happens again to others, and to use the trials to educate Argentine society about state terrorism, especially young people who do not remember the dictatorship. The defendants (from generals to policemen) claimed, following the Nazi defense at Nuremberg, they acted in a time of war and under orders.
Similarly, US leaders ordered and planned kidnapping, torture, murder, and coverup, and they have never been prosecuted. For this reason, OMNI this summer of 2010 is tabling at the Farmer’s Market with petitions denouncing torture, assassinations, and the drones used for murder. Come help us educate our public about these crimes by our officials, who of course claim they are acting in a time of war, though President Bush and V-P Cheney cannot pass the buck.

OMNI needs more volunteers to man the table speaking out against PERMANENT WAR

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE and display wider view of poet John Rule talking about OMNI Center's message of peace to visitors to the Farmer's Market in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on August 21, 2010.

OMNI is tabling against WARS and WARMING Saturdays at the Farmer's Market.   Join us, help us make OMNI a presence there, speaking to the official aggression and public acceptance and silence.   Wear your OMNI shirt if you have one.   What follows is one strong voice against US foreign aggression:  Cindy Sheehan. 
Dick Bennett
My blog:
http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/
jbennet@uark.edu
(479) 442-4600
2582 Jimmie Ave.
Fayetteville, AR 72703
 

cindyssoapbox@gmail.com
Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Newsletter August 29, 2010

Greetings!

Hate War? Me too, and I have been fighting against the illegal and immoral wars of the US Empire since my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004.

Now, the Empire is telling us the war in Iraq has "ended" after dozens were killed in many separate instances of violence in Iraq over the past week.

It's time to work harder and smarter--not back down.

Love & Peace, Cindy

In This Issue 
WE HATE WAR 
WAR NOT OVER 
WE HAVE A DREAM 
WINNING, LOSING AND WAR 
REVOLUTION, A LOVE STORY 
CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX RADIO SHOW

 Today on Cindy's Soapbox, we play an interview that Cindy did with Scott Horton of Antiwar Radio.

The show will be available at the web site at 2pm (PST).
www.CindySheehansSoapbox.com
Listen to this fabulous interview, or any in the archives!

 
DOZENS DEAD

IS THE IRAQ WAR REALLY OVER?

WE HAVE A DREAM

CLICK ON IMAGE TO VIEW SPEECH

 
Winning, Losing and War in NY Times

CLICK IMAGE TO READ REST OF ARTICLE

FROM AUGUST 29TH ARTICLE BY PETER BAKER:

And for those who have suffered deep loss, like the relatives of the 4,400 Americans or the many more Iraqis who died, the notion of victory or defeat can feel remote. "Well, first of all, my family lost in a big way," said Cindy Sheehan, who became perhaps the nation's most prominent antiwar activist after her son died in Iraq. "We had one of our cherished members, Casey, murdered by the U.S. empire in Iraq." 
In her view, "the only winners have been Halliburton, KBR, CACI, Xe, Unocal, BP, Standard Oil, Boeing" and other corporations that profited from the war. "People here in the U.S. who don't know that they lost have lost big time," she said.

"We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children." (MLK JR, I Have a Dream Speech)

I, too, have a dream that people will come together to make Peace a Reality in our time.

Love & Peace

Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Featured Article
REVOLUTION, A LOVE STORY

Revolution, A Love Story is a documentary by Cindy Sheehan and Joshua Smith that strives to dispel the demonization of Hugo Chavez and Venezuela by telling the inspiring story of the People's Revolution in Venezuela.

Click on the Image to pre-order the documentary.

(The movie should be ready by the end of September and will premiere at the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland on September 29)

 
 

WAR IS A RACKET BY MAJ. GEN. SMEDLEY BUTLER

ORDER YOUR COPY OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION OF WAR IS A RACKET BY MAJOR GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER WITH NEW FOREWORD BY CINDY SHEEHAN (SIGNED BY CINDY)

This booklet is a re-print of a famous speech and treatise given by the most highly decorated Marine warrior of his time as he reflected on being a "strongman" for the corporations.

This booklet needs to get into the hands of every parent and teen/young adult in this country. You can help make that happen for only $10 (includes shipping and handling).

We have discounts for bulk orders, teachers, and students. Please contact: josh@peaceoftheaction.org for more info on discounts.

Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox and Peace of the Action are also reserving 535 copied to deliver to the 112th Congress when it convenes on January 3rd, 2011 (more info on that soon) and your order will help us get there!

Aug9 aubrey.asf

SIGN WIKILEAKS PETITION

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38165.html

One-Sky grass-roots organizers in Fayetteville on Saturday: Please check out this wonderful opportunity to learn new ways of fighting global climate change

What: 1Sky Arkansas Grassroots Summit 

Where: Omni Center, 3274 North Lee Avenue 
           Fayetteville, AR 72703-3834 
When: Saturday, August 21st, 9am - 1pm

Born and Raised Inside the Pentagon

OMNI COSTS OF WARS PROJECT

DICK’S LTE WRITTEN AUGUST 17, 2010


Born and Raised inside the Pentagon.

Mayor Jordan remarked at a Ward meeting, “We have to be frugal with our money.” On almost the same day, the public schools were also saving pennies, and Governor Beebe ordered all state agencies to find “ways to save money” with the state’s vehicles. I’m sure we’re all for frugality in municipal and state affairs. And we are well served by our competent officials who operate with auditable, accountable discipline. They can tell citizens what a project will cost, what it will actually do, and when it truly might arrive.

Yet they seem blind or subservient in pinching pennies at home without making a single complaint about our government spending trillions of dollars in foreign wars without the fiscal discipline demanded at home.

Here’s why we must pinch pennies at home: The Pentagon budget in 2001 when George W. Bush became president amounted to $305 billion (not including nuclear weapons or interest on the debt and many other billions in related costs). By the time he left office it was $600 billion and the national debt $10.6 trillion. Under President Obama Pentagon budget, deficit, and debt continue to rise. Why is this?

Example one:
You have a part of the F-35 in your backyard. The Pentagon plans to buy 43 F-35 fighter aircraft under the 2011 budget at a cost of $201 million per F-35. The Pentagon intends to procure 2,443 of these fighters. Besides the question of the need for so many, or even the need for the fighter at all, other problems include its share of Pentagon administrative overhead, estimated to be 40%.

Example two: You have a part of the super-secret militarization of the heavens outside of international agreements and boundaries in your garage.
The Pentagon’s $26 billion per year space program, which exceeds NASA’s budget of $18 billion, is increasing. It includes the multi-billion-dollar National Reconnaissance Office with its spy satellites and the rockets that lift them into space.

Example three: Pentagon chaos pervades your yard, garage, and entire house. The Pentagon cannot pass an audit. As the Director of the Straus Military Reform Project of the Center for Defense Information writes: “the Pentagon’s comprehension of its own material resources is a deep, dark void. It can’t track its own money; it cooks its own books to make them appear in balance, and then it makes new spending decisions based on the phony data. Nor can it accurately track its own property, even supplies to the troops fighting in Afghanistan.”

Pentagon, wars, deficit, and debt. This bloated war machine produces enormous deficit. The federal budget deficit is the difference between what the government takes in from taxes and other sources and what it spends annually. Imagine you made $60,000 in a year but had $70,000 in expenses. You would have a $10,000 deficit. You would need to borrow $10,000 to make up the difference. The national debt can be thought of as the accumulated amount the government owes from years of borrowing money to pay off the annual deficits. Pinch all the pennies you can locally, the U.S. budget deficit has grown to $1.17 trillion in the first ten months of 2010. The national debt in 2010 is $13 trillion. Of that, some $350 billion goes to pay the interest on the debt held by banks in China, Japan, and individuals. Thanks to the F-35 and the spy satellite you have welcomed to your bank account, and the books cooking in your kitchen.

The question then is: Why are our government officials, who are so sincerely trying to find money for the services we desire, utterly zipped about why the money is so short? You would think Lioneld, Connie, and our other officials who struggle so valiantly with too little money would be, if not furious, at least willing to explain why they cannot do what we wish. But they are silent.

A few years ago I asked the members of OMNI to suggest why the public is silent about the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, and US permanent war. In response I received over 30 different explanations. All together (busy, fear for job) they composed a comprehensive explanation. Yet one explanation, and I think the best, was not mentioned. I have been describing it. Our officials also have a war machine occupying their property, and a book cooker now watching TV in their living room, and they have been there so long nobody notices them, even when paying for their exorbitant upkeep!

How that ruinous situation occurred for the people of the US is a complicated story, of course, but fortunately many books explain it (Carroll’s House of War one of the best), and it is summarized in a book published just this August 2010: Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War by Andrew Bacevich.

The basic creed and myth of the US was expressed as early as 1941, by Henry R. Luce in his essay, “The American Century.” The purpose of the US was to liberate and transform the world. Read this carefully: “The people of the United States should ‘accept wholeheartedly our duty to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit.’” Within a decade after Luce’s pronouncement, the Pentagon was a Leviathan and the US was the most powerful National Security State in world history.

You know the official story; it seems almost organic to the US brain. The US was compelled by enemies—Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Hirohito—to become a global power. From WWII to the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Pakistan, no choice ever existed for us. Overwhelming US power was necessary to guarantee not only our safety, prosperity, and freedom, but also that of our allies. The view was so fundamental to our educational conditioning system, so taken for granted, that it was invisible.

The Cold War sustained that black and white, Manichean worldview so thoroughly that it became the national orthodoxy with its dogmas to which every president since Roosevelt adhered and continues today with President Obama. The Vietnam War forced some of the population to question the dogmas—for example, that US power was essentially benign--, but the orthodoxy successfully led the majority through some 40 to 50 illegal invasions and interventions following WWII. The next great shock to the web of national security assumptions and myths embraced by US Christian, Jew, and Muslim was Bush II’s invasion of Iraq and radical extension of the security orthodoxy to a “global war on terror” via preventive war. Yet the orthodoxy held and still holds, as the Obama/Pentagon apparatus repeats the same slogans of the Bush II/Pentagon, the same as with Panama, Grenada, Nicaragua, as we remember backwards the orthodoxy in action through Bush I, Reagan, Carter, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, and Truman, where the US National Security State began in 1947. That so many generations were successfully indoctrinated to accept these beliefs as unimpeachable is as truly astonishing as the almost complete collapse of independent, critical thinking during those years.

Is it any wonder, then, that US military spending dwarfs that of Russia, China and in fact equals the combined military budgets of the next 15 countries behind us? We have been thinking inside the Pentagon for seventy years, so long we don’t see it. The assault on universal Medicare as ruinously expensive, for example, was out of self-interest on the part of some, but compassionate medical care for all was also attacked by intellectuals like George Will and by members of the general public for whom the service was intended. Seventy years of national security public relations, of fear and secrecy, had convinced them that the Pentagon, a standing army, and global armed coercion, never mind the truly ruinous expense and the waste, were necessary.


References:
Bacevich, Andrew. Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. Metropolitan/Holt, 2010.
Blum, William. Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II. Common Courage, 1995. Rogue State: A Guide to the Wokrld’s Only Superpower. Common Courage, 2000.
Carroll, James. House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
“Close Look at Cars Needed Everywhere.” NAT (8-14-10).
Crutsinger, Martin. “July U.S. Deficit at $165 Billion.” ADG (8-12-10).
Fort, Caleb. “Schools Trying to Save Energy.” NAT (8-15-10).
Hennigan, W. J. (L. A. Times). “New Day for Space Brain Trust?” ADG (8-16-10).
Holland, Matt. “There’s a Tank in Your Backyard.” Northwest Arkansas Times (10-23-09).
Jordan, Lioneld. Remarks at Ward 3 Meeting in City Plans and Budget (8-16-10).
“Obama Signs $26 Billion bill to Curb Layoffs.” ADG (8-11-10).
Wheeler, Winslow. ”How Much Will Each F-35 Cost?” and “Nightmare Budget Scenarios at the Pentagon.” The Defense Monitor (April/May/June 2010).
Will, George. “Health Care Costs Could Ruin U.S.” The Morning New (1-1-09).

Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth
Building the People's World Movement for Mother Earth


DRAFT UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MOTHER EARTH
February 7, 2010 in 03. Mother Earth Rights, Working Groups

Preamble

We, the peoples of Earth:

gratefully acknowledging that Mother Earth gives us life, nourishes and teaches us and provides us with all that we need to live well;

recognizing that Mother Earth is an indivisible community of diverse and interdependent beings with whom we share a common destiny and to whom we must relate in ways that benefit Mother Earth;acknowledging that by attempting to dominate and exploit Mother Earth and other beings, humans have caused severe destruction, degradation and disruption of the life-sustaining communities, processes and balances of Mother Earth which now threatens the wellbeing and existence of many beings;

conscious that this destruction is also harmful to our inner wellbeing and is offensive to the many faiths, wisdom traditions and indigenous cultures for whom Mother Earth is sacred;

acutely conscious of the critical importance and urgency of taking decisive, collective action to prevent humans causing climate change and other impacts on Mother Earth that threaten the wellbeing and survival of humans and other beings;

accepting our responsibility to one another, future generations and Mother Earth to heal the damage caused by humans and to pass on to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the flourishing of Mother Earth;

convinced that in order for communities of humans and other beings to flourish we must establish systems for governing human behavior that recognize the inalienable rights of Mother Earth and of all beings that are part of her;

convinced that the fundamental freedoms and rights of Mother Earth and of all beings should be protected by the rule of law, and that the corresponding duties of human beings to respect and defend these rights and freedoms should be enforced by law;

proclaim this Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth to complement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to serve as a common standard by which the conduct of all human beings, organizations, and cultures can be guided and assessed; and

pledge ourselves to cooperate with other human communities, public and private organizations, governments, and the United Nations, to secure the universal and effective recognition and observance of the fundamental freedoms, rights and duties enshrined in this Declaration, among all the peoples, cultures and states of Earth.

Article 1. Fundamental rights, freedoms and duties

(1) Mother Earth is an indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings each of whom is defined by its relationships within this community and with the Universe as a whole. Fundamental aspects of these relationships are expressed in this Declaration as inalienable rights, freedoms and duties.

(2) These fundamental rights, freedoms and duties arise from the same source as existence and are inherent to all beings, consequently they are inalienable, cannot be abolished by law, and are not affected by the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory within which a being exists.

(3) All beings are entitled to all the fundamental rights and freedoms recognized in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic, living beings and inorganic, non-living beings, or on the basis of sentience, kind, species, use to humans, or other status.

(4) Just as human beings have human rights, other beings may also have additional rights, freedoms and duties that are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.

(5) The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings to the extent necessary to maintain the integrity, balance and health of the communities within which it exists.

Article 2. Fundamental rights of Mother Earth

Mother Earth has the right to exist, to persist and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all beings.

Article 3. Fundamental rights and freedoms of all beings

Every being has:

(a) the right to exist;

(b) the right to habitat or a place to be;

(c) the right to participate in accordance with its nature in the ever-renewing processes of Mother Earth;

(d) the right to maintain its identity and integrity as a distinct, self-regulating being;

(e) the right to be free from pollution, genetic contamination and human modifications of its structure or functioning that threaten its integrity or healthy functioning; and

(f) the freedom to relate to other beings and to participate in communities of beings in accordance with its nature.

Article 4. Freedom of animals from torture and cruelty

Every animal has the right to live free from torture, cruel treatment or punishment by human beings.

Article 5. Freedom of animals from confinement and removal from habitat

(1) No human being has the right to confine another animal or to remove it from its habitat unless doing so is justifiable with reference to the respective rights, duties and freedoms of both the human and other animal concerned.

(2) Any human being that confines or keeps another animal must ensure that it is free to express normal patterns of behavior, has adequate nourishment and is protected from injury, disease, suffering and unreasonable fear, pain, distress or discomfort.

Article 6. Fundamental duties of human beings

Human beings have a special responsibility to avoid acting in violation of this Declaration and must urgently establish values, cultures, and legal, political, economic and social systems consistent with this Declaration that:

(a) promote the full recognition, application and enforcement of the freedoms, rights and duties set out in this Declaration;

(b) ensure that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Mother Earth, now and in the future;

(c) prevent humans from causing harmful disruptions of vital ecological cycles, processes and balances, and from compromising the genetic viability and continued survival of other species;

(d) ensure that the damage caused by human violations of the freedoms, rights and duties in this Declaration is rectified where possible and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and healthy functioning of affected communities; and

(e) enable people to defend the rights of Mother Earth and of all beings.

Article 7. Protection of the law

Every being has –

(a) the right to be recognised everywhere as a subject before the law;

(b) the right to the protection of the law and to an effective remedy in respect of human violations or attacks on the rights and freedoms recognized in this Declaration;

(c) the right to equal protection of the law; and

(d) the right to equal protection against any discrimination by humans in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8. Human education

(1) Every human being has the right to be educated about Mother Earth and how to live in accordance with this Declaration.

(2) Human education must develop the full potential of human beings in a way that promotes a love of Mother Earth, compassion, understanding, tolerance and affection among all humans and between humans and other beings, and the observance of the fundamental freedoms, rights and duties in this Declaration.

Article 9. Interpretation

(1) The term “being” refers to natural beings which exist as part of Mother Earth and includes a community of other beings and all human beings regardless of whether or not they act as a corporate body, state or other legal person.

(2) Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms in it.

(3) Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as restricting the recognition of other fundamental rights, freedoms or duties of all or specified beings.

OMNI LATIN AMERICA WATCH

NEW ALLIANCE OF LATIN PRESIDENTS OPPOSED TO US DOMINATION
Amy Goodman interviewed Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali 6-21-10 about their new film on 7 South American presidents who have allied as an alternative to US domination: South of the Border. Latin America and especially South America are changing. Only Peru and especially Colombia continue as US client states in S. America. Brazil supports Iran. Wealth in these countries is being significantly redirected to the poor. Question asked: why the invasion of Iraq and coup of Chavez? Answer: oil. Stone said his film humanized the presidents, all of whom are demonized by US administrations and mainstream media (whereas the US supported dictatorships before, now the US opposes democratically elected presidents). The most striking statement was by Pres. Kirchner--that Pres. Bush told him that the best way for the US to grow its economy was through war.
You can see the interview online. And maybe we can show the film soon. Btw, Stone Wallstreet II; Money Never Sleeps is coming out soon. Dick

TEXACO/CHEVRON DEPREDATIONS IN EQUADOR
Democracy Now 8-16-10 recounted the struggle of Texaco (now Chevron) to undermine Equador’s $3 billion lawsuit over Texaco’s massive contamination of forests and streams 1964-1992. Amazon Watch, Han Shan.

On Democracy Now: Amy is a significant source of cutting edge information through her interviews of authors of new books and creators of new films. I am glad to report on her reports. Google Democracy Now for her programs.

Refugees

Joanna and Nathan, OMNI's CCTF: You'll find Amy Goodman's programs today Tuesday 8-17 on Pakistani and Haitian refugees informative. Head of UN refugee agency recognized combination of natural and anthropogenic causes of extreme weather. In N. Pakistan more rain in one day than it had ever received in an entire month. And econ: both countries overwhelmed financially. In Haiti rich taking government land. And rape increasing. Dick

Costs of Wars

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, leaders of the US military complex called Afghans fighting the Soviets “freedom fighters” and now call many of the same people fighting us “terrorists.” After the collapse of the US/SR, the US chose to imitate and exceed the Soviets in militarization, imperial expansion, deficit, and debt Now the US suffers from over 100 military bases around the world and financial crisis. All accompanied by enormous waste of lives and resources without producing “national security.”


This history is bipartisan. When George W. Bush became president in 2001, the Pentagon budget amounted to $305 billion and the national debt stood at $5.7 trillion. By 2007 the Pentagon received $440 billion. By the time Bush left office, the national debt had reached $10.6 trillion. Under the Obama administration, Pentagon spending has continued to rise, as have deficit spending and debt. The 2010 Pentagon budget was $533.8 billion. The present budget is $693 billion, dwarfing the Russian and Chinese military budgets, and in fact equals the combined military budgets of the next 15 countries behind us. And this does not include the hundreds of billions of dollars supplemental appropriations for the wars, or the costs of the nuclear weapons programs under the Energy Department, and other costs. A recent study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office of Obama administration spending forecast trillion-dollar deficits for the next decade, suggesting a national debt surpassing $20 trillion by 2019, exceeding the nation’s GDP.

Let’s bring these figures home. Compare the Pentagon’s $693 billion to the $59 billion to be spent on education, $50 billion on children’s health insurance, and $8 billion on the Environmental Protection Agency. By 2019, expenditures required to service the national debt could be the equivalent of the interest on your monthly credit card statement exceeding the size of your mortgage payment. The average U. S. family spends monthly $1,100 on housing, $600 on transportation, $450 on food, and $200 on health care. Imagine that on top of these expenses you’re paying $1,400 a year to maintain the Army tank you keep in your back yard.

Regardless of the president or party, the basic edifice of the U.S. National Security State has remained unchanged: 1) a worldwide military presence; 2) armed forces not for defense but for dominance; and 3) intervention in other nations from influencing elections to military invasion. From Harry Truman to Barack Obama, these 3 principles have remained sacrosanct. The result has been over 60 years of war. What is most extraordinary is that the consensus has existed so long despite a record of recurring failure the consequences of which have been disastrous to the U.S. and to the world, especially when one considers how U.S. resources and money might have been used for jobs, alternative energy, health, education, water, food, shelter.

A new national security policy is possible--that rejects militarism, aggression, waste, and slaughter and embraces the great universal principle of the golden rule and stewardship of mother earth.

References:
--Bacevich, Andrew. Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. Metropolitan, 2010.
--Blum, William. Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II. Common Courage P, 1995. Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower. Common Courage P, 2000.
--Engelhardt, Tom. The American Way of War: How Bush’s War Became Obama’s. Haymarket, 2010.
--Holland, Matt. “There’s a Tank in Your Backyard.” Northwest Arkansas Times (October 23, 2009).
--Johnson, Chalmers. Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. Holt, 2000. The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic. Holt, 2004. Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Holt, 2006.
--Wheeeler, Winslow. “How Much will Each F-35 Cost?” The Defense Monitor (April-May-June 2010).

2007 - see article - pslweb
http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?JServSessionIdr006=2i9qtevrb1.app5b&page=NewsArticle&id=5751&news_iv_ctrl=1261

2010 see article - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

DSCN1223taps.AVI

Women say PULL OUT now!

August 13, 2010 Dear Dick, At our rally for Wikileaks whistleblower Bradley Manning last weekend, journalist and activist Phyllis Bennis said "Wars need secrets. Illegal wars need illegal secrets…Democracy needs whistleblowers." Democracy also needs us to continue to raise our voices to end illegal occupations. August 31st marks the drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq to 50,000. While this is a step in the right direction--no doubt inspired by the tireless push of the peace movement--Iraqis will continue to suffer from the presence of 50,000 U.S. troops and 75,000 private contractors in their country. Many of our troops may be redeployed to Afghanistan.  CODEPINK members across the country are taking action to call for a full withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan and to bring our war dollars home to rebuild America! Join us by signing our Iraq Debacle petition to Obama and Congress!  Some folks are also hosting film screenings/house parties; others are taking to the streets for peace gatherings and vigils. Use our action ideas page for more inspiration! CODEPINK is partnering with Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace and many peace groups to make sure the true cost of the Iraq War is told. What will your community do to bring our troops and our war dollars home and hold those who led us into war accountable? Let's raise the whistle of peace and justice to our lips and blow loud enough for decision makers to hear,Bonnie, Dana, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Joan, Jodie, Medea, Nancy, Rae, Victoria and Valerie

Michelle Halsell updates OMNI potluck regulars on several important issues Wednesday evening

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Michelle Halsell at OMNI Ceneter on August 11, 2010.

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE and widen view.

Veggie Potluck
Wednesday August 11, 6:00 pm
OMNI Center

We'd all like to do what we can to make our world more sustainable. EcoLogical Fayetteville is a tool to help us do it. We are so lucky to live in a town like this, where knowledgeable people are putting good thought into ways to make sustainability easier... like EcoLogical Fayetteville.

If you'd like to hear the whole story, join us for Veggie Potluck Wednesday evening. Michele Halsell will be there show us how this plan can benefit us, and make Fayetteville even more surprisingly green.

You don't need to be vegetarian to attend. Just open to trying new things and enjoying the company of other OMNI folks.

Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology

"OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology actively educates, empowers and connects to build a nonviolent, sustainable, and just world"

www.omnicenter.org
3274 No. Lee Ave, Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-935-4422 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com

A CIA Advocate for Nuclear Abolition

Valerie Plame Wilson | The Power of Zero
Valerie Plame Wilson, Newsweek
"After spending years trying to thwart the nuclear black market, a former CIA spy says the only way to prevent terrorists from getting the bomb is to eliminate all of the world's nukes."