Duty to Warn

Wow, the weapons heavies had to cut and run. A sense of enlightened self-interest - the same stuff that legendary community organizer Saul Alinsky was preaching in Chicago's Back-of-the-Yards neighborhood six decades ago - enabled a bunch of little guys out West to stare down the future of nuclear warfare, and win.

This unprecedented development must be savored. Divine Strake, the simulated nuclear blast the Defense Threat Reduction Agency was initially planning to set off nine months ago at the Nevada Test Site near Las Vegas - which would have raised a 10,000-foot mushroom cloud of god-knows-what - has been scrapped for good. After several postponements and a round of power-point presentations at various locations downwind of the test site that did nothing but fuel people's outrage, it ain't gonna happen.

Vermont, like too many other places with nuke reactors, was recently disgraced by an industry-sponsored visit from Patrick Moore, who claims to be a "founder" of Greenpeace, and who is out selling nuclear power as a "green" technology.

The two claims are roughly equal in the baldness of their falsehood.

But the impacts of the lies about Vermont Yankee---like so many other reactors---are far more serious. Vermont is now at a crossroads in its energy and environmental future. The reactor is old and infirm. Every day it operates heightens the odds on a major accident.

In a world beset by terror, there is no more vulnerable target than an aged reactor like Vermont Yankee. Its core is laden with builtup radiation accumulated over the decades. Its environs are stacked with supremely radioactive spent fuel. Its elderly core and containment are among the most fragile that exist.

On February 11th, the corporate media woke up to the fact that many Democrats have a big problem with Senator Clinton. That was the day after some New Hampshire Democrats criticized her continued denial of her worst failure as a US senator - voting to allow Bush to have his war.

The topic continues with corporate media either missing the point or compliantly repeating Clinton's Fifth Amendment defense - ”I'd rather not talk about it.”

CBSnews.com, ever following the conventional wisdom, or perhaps creating it, published “Why Should Hillary Apologize for Iraq?” on February 22nd. It was an opinion piece written by Senior Political Editor Vaughn Ververs which was disguised as a story under the Politics header. It scolded Democratic activists to stop insisting on “purity” in the candidates and worry more about appearing “strong” on national security. The really absurd part was his suggestion that when Democrats say the war was a mistake they lose the respect of middle America. Like they have a lot already.

On the occasion of Karl Rove coming to speak at the Texas State University campus on Tuesday, Feb. 27, the citizens of Travis, Blanco and Hays County are planning a peaceful protest in his "honor" in front of the Evans Liberal Arts Bldg. in the designated Free Expression Area.  Mr. Rove will speak from 11 am to noon.

Mr. Rove has been and continues to be part and parcel of the misbegotten policies of the Bush Administration that have led us into, among other follies, the War in Iraq.  His advice and counsel have helped the Bush Administration erode civil liberties at home and inflame anti-American sentiments abroad.  Mr. Rove's lies and dirty tricks have been destructive to American values and our standing among the nations of the world. 

written by Victoria Parks & Paddy Shaffer, Free Press guest contributors

The Squire v. Geer case is more than just a mere election challenge lawsuit; the reliability of electronic voting was on trial last week in a small courtroom in Franklin County, Ohio. Voting rights activists see the issues before the court as going to the heart of democracy itself and whether or not election results obtained through the computerized voting machines can be trusted.

Former Franklin County Judge Carol Squire is contesting the victory of her opponent, Chris Geer in a challenge that has shed new light on the problems with e-voting machines.

Peace activist and gold star mother Cindy Sheehan and spokesman for a war-based oligarchy George Will both published columns this weekend arguing that non-Americans are human beings.  Sheehan's column was written in response to an Associated Press article that provided evidence that Americans disagree with this claim.  Will's column, meanwhile, adds to this evidence by demonstrating a failure to understand the very point he's arguing for.

I had a conversation this weekend with someone who believes that Bush and Cheney lied us into an aggressive war and will never end it, but who opposes impeachment because it's antagonistic, "violent," and "will leave blood on the floor."  I submit this as further evidence that Americans do not believe non-Americans are human beings.  If congressional hearings and potential hurt feelings are too violent, what would the ongoing slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis be… if they were humans?

Democrats have usually won the war of ideas but not always the war of words with our opponents, the Republican Spin Machine. Our opposition has far too often been successful in spinning us into some kind of parody of who were really are in the eyes of far too many voters. We have been less than effective in connecting emotionally with the language in which we present our ideas, programs and candidates. We have not built the kind of organized Spin Machine found on the Corporate Republican Right. Politically, we have failed to block the media concentration fostered by the largest corporations with active assistance of the Republican Right that makes it difficult for Democrats to reach the public with our message.

A growing network of organizations and individuals has launched a new campaign to pursue the immediate impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney through widespread public protest, creative dissent, media activism, education, and coordinated lobbying. Members of the Impeach07 campaign believe that Bush and Cheney have committed high crimes and misdemeanors, including - among many others - misleading the nation into an aggressive war, spying in open violation of the law, and sanctioning the use of torture.  The campaign is demanding that Congress Members hold Cheney and Bush accountable through the Constitutional remedy of impeachment.

Impeach07 exists to organize people throughout the U.S. to demand that Congress impeach.  Newsweek reported in October that a majority of Americans favor impeachment, and in January that 58% said they wished the Bush administration were over. Impeach07 will draw on this energy to mobilize people from all walks of life.  As Howard Zinn, noted historian, has said, "Only a great popular upheaval can push both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will."

It's an honor to be speaking with these panelists and it's great to be back in New York.  But I want to ask you one thing about New York, because there's something I heard Senator Hillary Clinton say and I want to know if it's true.  Is it true that if you live in New York you have to support this war?  Can you live in New York and work for peace?

That's what I thought.

I got up at 2 a.m. this morning in Charlottesville, Va., my town and the town of Thomas Jefferson, the man whose greatest fear for our republic was of elected despotism.  Jefferson and Madison and Mason and the others who drafted the most influential Constitution the world has seen, created a system of elections, but devoted much more attention and many more words to creating a system for maintaining our democracy in between elections.  They gave this essential power to the House of Representatives, as the branch most subject to popular control, and they called this power impeachment. 

"I thought about what death is, what a loss is. A sharp pain that lessens with time, but can never quite heal over. A scar." - Maya Lin, speaking of her initial vision of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

The most frequently visited and heart-tearing monument in Washington D.C. is nearing its 25th birthday, its place at the core of American life growing stronger with each passing year. This fact belies the early critics, who called it communist- (or Jane Fonda)-inspired, a black gash of shame, a public urinal, and howled in outrage that it was designed by . . . well, an Asian-American woman (but of course the term many people used was left over from the war, and much uglier).

More importantly, however, the Wall, which was meant to heal a national wound, not glorify a military adventure, signaled - as the critics instinctively understood - a new public attitude toward war, or perhaps more accurately, a public manifestation, at long last, of an ancient yearning for peace.