January 2011

The Art of Demonization

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One of the oldest excuses for war is that the enemy is irredeemably evil. He worships the wrong god, has the wrong skin and language, commits atrocities, and cannot be reasoned with. The long-standing tradition of making war on foreigners and converting those not killed to the proper religion “for their own good” is similar to the current practice of killing hated foreigners for the stated reason that their governments ignore women’s rights. From among the rights of women encompassed read more

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60 Minutes: Putting the BS in CBS

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The reason people in Tunisia, Egypt, and other parts of the world have been influenced to some extent by the work of Wikileaks is that they have read or heard about the material that Wikileaks has helped to make public. The CBS program “60 Minutes” has just published video of an interview with Wikileaks’ Julian Assange — with the video focused, of course, on Assange himself, with almost no substantive content related to the massive crimes and abuses that have made news read more

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Audio: David Swanson on Egypt with Coy Barefoot

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Charlottesville–Right Now: David Swanson joins Coy Barefoot

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1.28.11 Best-selling non-fiction author David Swanson joins Coy to discuss the revolution taking place in Egypt. Cairo is literally burning, and today’s conversation discusses the political state which lead to this uprising and exactly what is going on. Swanson describes the protests as “inspiring,” but also is not convinced of the need for these heavy doses of violence.

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EPA vs. military: Rep. Hurt should look closely at costs

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By David Swanson | Charlottesville
Published: January 26, 2011, DailyProgress

Congressman Robert Hurt is outraged because the cost of the Environmental Protection Agency “has gone wild” (“New job, fresh focus,” The Daily Progress, Jan. 22).

We spend $10 billion per year protecting an environment in serious danger of collapse. In contrast, we spend $700 billion per year on a military that could be cut by 85 percent and still be the largest in the world.

I’m confused: Is the congressman representing read more

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Code Pink Wins the Future

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By David Swanson

The future will be here in April and Code Pink: Women for Peace has already won it (thus answering President Obama’s State of the Union call to “win the future”). The color coded threat warnings our government has been bombarding us with since shortly after September 11, 2001, will be gone. The fear-mongering tactic that Code Pink was named in mockery of will have been mocked right out of existence.

To listen to the corporate media, Code Pink cannot be taken read more

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150 Leading Activists Oppose Obama for Democratic Nomination

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Over 150 prominent activists, authors, and academics have launched a petition with a statement that begins:

“We the undersigned share with nearly two-thirds of our fellow Americans the conviction that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended and that overall military spending should be dramatically reduced.  This has been our position for years and will continue to be, and we take it seriously.  We vow not to support President Barack Obama for read more

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He Didn't Leave Government Service, It Left Him

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Whistleblowing takes many forms but almost always involves the disillusionment of an insider with the nature of what he or she is inside. Leaking secret documents exposing dramatic crimes and abuses is one way to blow a whistle. Another, equally valuable approach, is to publish a lengthy analysis of your experiences in government service. This is what Chas Freeman has done with his new book “America’s Misadventures in the Middle East,” which he will discuss read more

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Punishing Bradley Manning for the Crimes of Others

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Bradley Manning, alleged U.S. Army whistleblower, is in two ways — one likely, the other certain — being punished for the crimes of others.

On Monday a crowd that I was part of staged a protest at Quantico, where Manning has been imprisoned for several months with no trial. At the last minute, the military denied us permission to hold a rally on the base, so we held it in the street blocking the entrance to the base. This visibly read more

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