DPP's blog

DPP Update - September 3, 2010

Monday, September 13: Monthly DPP Meeting, 7-9 pm, Vietnamese American Community Center, 42 Charles St., Fields Corner. Meeting agenda – Discussion of DPP’s anti-war work and the 25% Coalition (other items to be announced)

Wheelchair accessible. Please call us a week in advance if you need translation, childcare, a ride, or have other needs: 617-282-3783.

Monday, September 6

Labor Day March and Rally

Join us and promote "25%" at the Labor Day March and Rally, noon at Boston Common Monday, September 6!

We'll be joining a large contingent from CAP/CSJ, the 25% organization in southeastern Mass. Meet us at Park Street Station at noon and look for the "Fund Our Communities/Cut Military Spending 25%" banner. We'll be handing out "jobs not war" stickers, 25% leaflets and brochures.

The rally, led by SEIU 615, will call for jobs, government programs, immigration rights, and restoring taxes on the rich. Marchers will carry signs outlining their vision for the country’s recovery, like “Construction workers repairing our bridges,” “Teachers inspiring our sons and daughters,” “Nurses caring for our elder parents,” “Customers with spending money,” “Aspiring home owners ready to buy,” and “Healthy grand-dads playing with grandkids.” We're saying, "... we can pay for all that by ending wars and cutting military spending."

For info contact Mike at 617-282-3783 or mikeprokosch@verizon.net.

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SAVE THE DATE!

Saturday, October 2: Get on the Bus! “ONE NATION WORKING TOGETHER” Rally in DC

(One Nation info here; more on this further down in this email!)

Reserve place now on SEIU bus to DC for Oct. 2 Jobs Rally!

Becky Pierce writes:

“Hi, DPP friends---Joanie Parker of SEIU 1199 (and the 25% Coalition) has asked me to get a count of how many people from DPP want seats on the SEIU buses to the big Oct. 2 "One Nation" jobs rally in DC, Sat. Oct. 2.

They need to know soon, to reserve enough buses, so I said I'd poll people and get back to her in a week, which is next Wed. Sept. 1. So please let me know by then if you can. She said over 3000 people have already signed up, and people who don't reserve soon may not get seats.

(There may still be a chance to get on the SEIU bus later, but that is not assured.)

This is a good deal. SEIU is essentially paying for the buses. They are asking people to pay $10 or whatever they can afford.

Buses leave Boston Fri. Oct. 1, 10 PM, and leave DC Sat. at 5 PM, returning to Boston around 2 AM Sunday Oct. 3.

So far Mike and I are going and riding the SEIU bus. Hope you can join us. Let me know (617-282-3783).

Thanks! ---Becky

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Starve the Wars, Not the Nation!

The struggle to cut Pentagon spending has reached an important juncture.
Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul are circulating a letter to members of Congress (attached) that calls for serious cuts in US military spending. Now is the time to get your Congressional delegation to support the Frank/Paul effort and co-sign their letter. The deadline for signers is September 22.

Addressed to the Deficit Reduction Commission (the one that'll probably try to slash Medicare and Social Security), the letter says:
•    we must scale back Washington's "vast range of global commitments on all continents and oceans."
•    ... including "our nuclear umbrella and the troops stationed in our overseas military bases."
•    "any deficit reduction package must contain significant cuts to the military budget."

Please call your Congressperson at 202-224-3121. Urge your Congressperson to sign on to Congressmen Frank’s and Paul’s Dear Colleague letter, telling the Deficit Reduction Commission that any report they release for Congressional consideration should include significant military spending cuts

The current list of signers includes US Representatives Mike Quigley, John Lewis, Michael Capuano, Sam Farr, Peter Welch, Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Raul Grijalva, Earl Blumenauer, Ed Markey, Jim McGovern, John Tierney, John Olver (but NOT Stephen Lynch). We will be posting a list of signers at http://www.25percentsolution.com. Let’s thank those who have signed on!

IN THE NEWS
The New York Times endorsed the Frank/Paul efforts and wrote, “Since the 9/11 attacks, Congress has given the Pentagon pretty much everything it has requested, with few questions asked. So it is good news that some members are now looking more critically at the Pentagon budget.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/15/opinion/15sun1.html?_r=1&pagewanted=p

While we'd like even bigger cuts with commitments to spend more on our communities, even this moderate challenge to the Pentagon budget is provoking serious backlash. An "independent" commission of old Cold Warriors is saying we need to spend more on the military. Unopposed, they might succeed, and we'd be even deeper in the hole. This shows how crucial it is to be doing what we are doing.
For more on the old Cold Warrior report see http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/07/29/independent_panel_declare or, for the whole 158-page report, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/files/fp_uploaded_documents/100728_QDR%20Ind.%20Review%20Rept.%207.27.10.pdf).

We have an opportunity to move on this vital issue forward. Now it is time to contact your Congressperson and ask them to sign on to the Frank/Paul letter!
You can link to Rep. Barney Frank's website for additional information at http://www.house.gov/frank/pressreleases/2010/05-27-10-military-spending-press-conference.html. At the bottom of the page are links to the full report. At http://www.25percentsolution.com is a link to the video of the joint press conference.

Please distribute this to your groups and friends.

Thank you for your work!

Fund Our Communities, Reduce Military Spending 25%
2161 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02140
http://www.25percentsolution.com/
25percentsolution@gmail.com

COST OF WARS Including Recent Supplemental Bill through September 30, 2010

$749.9 billion for Iraq

$337.8 billion for Afghanistan

$1.09 trillion total spending

With the passage of a supplemental spending bill last week (H.R. 4899), Congress has appropriated an additional $36.2 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the 2010 fiscal year. The bulk of this money was directed to Afghanistan accounting for $33.9 billion. National Priorities Project estimates that total spending for this fiscal year is now $65.1 billion for Iraq and $106.6 billion for Afghanistan. For more information: www.nationalpriorities.org.

A Speech for Endless War

With his Aug. 31 speech, Obama became explicit about the relationship between reduced troop levels in Iraq and escalation in Afghanistan. “We will disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda, while preventing Afghanistan from again serving as a base for terrorists,” he said. “And because of our drawdown in Iraq, we are now able to apply the resources necessary to go on offense.” This is the approach of endless war. While Obama was declaring that “our most urgent task is to restore our economy and put the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs back to work,” I went to a National Priorities Project webpage and looked at cost-of-war counters spinning like odometers in manic overdrive. The figures for the “Cost of War in Afghanistan” -- already above $329 billion -- are now spinning much faster than the ones for war in Iraq. More

The National Priorities Project is offering a “webinar” -- Federal Budget 101, a 30-minute presentation that will introduce people to the federal budgeting process and some of NPP's other resources. It offers a unique tool for organizers, activists, local and state officials and policy analysts interested in learning about the federal budget process and how to become involved in shaping it. Participants will be able to download the presentation slides and talking points for community meetings, meetings with their congressional representatives, or to facilitate their own Federal Budget 101 presentation. Sign-up Now! https://civicrm.nationalpriorities.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=29

August 17, 11am; August 26, 3pm; September 14, 3pm; September 20, 11am

How Our Vast Empire Saps Our Strength

But my argument is, roughly since the 1960s and very much so since 9/11, expansionism has an opposite effect. We’re not enhancing our power; we’re squandering it. We’re not building our prosperity; we’re going bankrupt… The reorientation toward what I might say is a more modest and less militarized policy would be something that would happen over time in increments, where you would in a sense pull back, if that’s what you want to call it, from those areas where pulling back poses the least risk. The classic example is Western Europe. Why the hell do we have to have forces in Germany? We can pull out of Germany. The Europeans can defend themselves. More

BACEVICH: Unequal Sacrifice

By the time of Iraq, the Pentagon relied entirely on volunteers. In the interim, the Army had waged limited war with a mix of volunteers and draftees. The trend away from conscription benefited the haves more than the have-nots… The way to activate a democratic brake is to ensure that all Americans bear the brunt of war. Promoting awareness of the casualty gap won't do that. Hitting Americans where it hurts—in the pocketbook—just might. Contemplate, for example, the political implications of funding war on a pay-as-you-go basis. After 9/11, the Bush administration employed tax cuts to purchase popular acquiescence in its plan for open-ended global war, freeing the present generation from any obligation to cover the financial costs incurred. Revoke that arrangement and the public's willingness to indulge in further military adventurism will evaporate.

Consider the following back-of-the-envelope calculations. Since 9/11, the Pentagon budget has more than doubled to approximately $700 billion per year. Let's peg current war costs at $400 billion annually (almost certainly a lowball estimate). There are approximately 150 million single or jointly filing taxpayers in this country. Reduce that number by the 30 million veterans who have already given at the office, as it were, and the per capita cost of ongoing US wars comes to more than $3,300 per annum. Add that as a surcharge to every American's tax bill (or subtract that amount from the annual payout to Social Security recipients), and the "democratic brake" will bring American wars to a screeching halt. More

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PROGRESSIVE / ANTI-WAR CANDIDATES CHALLENGE LYNCH IN 9^TH CD

Tuesday, September 14: MASS Primary Day

Tuesday, November 2: Election Day

DPP doesn’t normally endorse candidates for office, but many members and supporters will be interested to know that incumbent Congressman Stephen Lynch – he voted for the Iraq War in 2002 and has supported on-going unrestricted financing for the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan -- is being challenged by two candidates with anti-war and pro-worker platforms. Lynch, who represents South Boston and parts of Dorchester, as well as communities extending south from the City as far as Brockton and Bridgewater, also originally opposed the Healthcare Reform bill, against the wishes of his many union supporters.

Mac D'Alessandro (http://mac4congress2010.com/) is running against Stephen Lynch in the September Democratic primary. He is a progressive labor candidate with strong anti-war and pro-funding communities positions. Mac has been endorsed by the anti-war on-line network MoveOn. You can reach his campaign at 617-259-0377. They are asking for help in making calls at

Mac D'Allesandro 's headquarters is at 150 Mt Vernon Street, near the Boston Teachers Union, JFK T stop. Every night from 5pm-8pm they have phone banks at their headquarters at 150 Mt. Vernon St. in Dorchester (that’s the SEIU building), as well as downtown. Every day, they are out canvassing across the district, and every weekend there are have big canvasses. People might be able to make calls from their homes. They welcome any help they can get.

DPP’s Jane Taylor (janetaylor11@gmail.com) has 5 D’Alessandro house signs, please contact her to pick one up, if you want one. She can replenish them as need be. Store or window signs are available. Another good way to talk about cutting the military budget by 25% !

Ben Chesler (bchesler2916@gmail.com) writes from the D;Alessandro Campaign:

“Mac is running in the Democratic Primary in Massachusetts’ 9th congressional district against Stephen Lynch, who, as I’m sure you know, has continuously been the only member of the Massachusetts delegation to vote for anti-peace, pro-war policies. Lynch sided with Republicans to support wars that are hurting our country. In 2002, he stood with President Bush by voting to authorize the Iraq War. In 2006, even after it was clear that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and that the war was about nothing more than pride and oil, Lynch voted to continue the war. He again supported President Bush’s war plans, rejecting a timetable, and voting that “it is not in the U.S. national interest to set a…withdrawal or redeployment date for U.S. Armed Forces from Iraq” (H Res 861). Just three weeks ago, Lynch was the only Congressman from Massachusetts to vote to continue funding the War in Afghanistan, even as communities across Massachusetts are laying off teachers, policeman, and firefighters.

Since he entered Congress, Lynch’s bad votes on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost Massachusetts taxpayers 29.6 billion dollars, and have cost the 9th Congressional district alone 3.4 billion dollars. That money could have provided our state with over 40,000 teachers for 10 years. We have nine good anti-war Congressmen in Massachusetts, it’s time that we work on getting ten!

As a congressman, Mac will always vote for funding for our schools and communities, and for assistance to working families over funding unnecessary wars overseas. He is a strong proponent of dramatically reducing military spending and re-directing the money to our communities. In these tough economic times, we need the money back home in our towns. Mac would NEVER side with pro-war Republicans. He would NEVER vote to authorize wars that he knows our country doesn’t need. He will vote to increase funding for our local communities. Mac understands that until we stop blindly funding these wars, we can’t begin to have a conversation about how to responsibly end them, and that’s a conversation we NEED to have.

I’d love to talk with you about having Dorchester People for Peace support Mac in the fight to elect a 10^th Congressman from Massachusetts who is pro-peace, and who is willing to stand up against war. Mac would love for you to organize a meet-and-greet with your members or give us some help with the campaign. We need all the help we can get in this uphill battle. Please give me a call at 617-259-0377, or visit our website at www.mac4congress2010.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Mac D'Alessandro for Congress
617-259-0377

www.mac4congress2010.com

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Phil Dunkelbarger, anti-war activist and friend of DPP (who was given one of our first peacemaker awards), has also announced that he is running against Lynch as an independent in the November general election. More information on his campaign: http://www.dunk2010.com/

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Volunteer with BWA's Voter Turnout Campaign
BWA is launching a major voter turnout campaign, focusing on Roxbury and Dorchester neighborhoods in Grove Hall.
BWA will be knocking on over 3,000 doors and phone banking thousands of voters to participate in this years election. The effort will continue from now until November 2nd!
If you are interested in volunteering with BWA - please email vote@bostonworkersalliance.org with your name, email, phone number today!

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DPP’S 'TABLING' CONTINUES

We have letters to the President and Congress demanding a reduction in military spending to fund real needs in our communities. People who are tabling say it is a very good experience and people were generally responsive.

We decided that Farmers’ Markets would be a great place to collect signatures and talk to people in July. We have an okay from Codman Square and are talking with the other sites. Please call or email Sharon at sgbilodeau@gmail.com or 617-265-5677 if you can help.

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Help DPP distribute opt-out fliers and postcards to youth & community groups
DPP is again making fliers and postcard available to community organizations that make it easy for high school youth to take their names OFF the list the school department must send to military recruiters each fall, with names, addresses, and phone numbers for all its high school students.

A lot of you signed up at Monday's (8/9) DPP meeting to deliver packet's to groups during August or possibly early Sept. But some groups still need deliveries done, and a few others need to be called to find out whether they want them again this year and how many, and then have the delivery done. Please let Becky know, 617-282-3783, beckyp44@verizon.net if you can help.

Also, please pick up some of these mini-packets from the front porch at 41 Brent St. (Codman Square) and take them to teenagers, libraries, stores, churches, etc. that you go to and ask if you can leave some for people to take.

The "mini-packet" includes an explanatory flier that notes that this requirement is part of the "No Child Left Behind" Act. and that students and parents have the right to take a student's name off the list, if either the sudent or the parent signs a written request and mails it or turns it in to the school department by September 30th. Stapled to the flier is a postcard that the student can fill out and send in.

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GET A DPP LAWN SIGN. . .
Help Organize to FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT WAR!

We have on hand another batch of lawn signs after the first printing was sold out!
They are on sturdy corrugated, plastic-coated cardboard and come with easy set up metal stakes. If you want one (or several to distribute), please contact Hayat imamhayat@hotmail.com to arrange for pickup or drop off. We are asking that people/organizations who are able to pay the cost of the signs: $5-10.

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Are You Ready To Hit The Streets Again?

This One is Going To Be Big!

Saturday, October 2: One Nation Working Together in DC

The last 18 months have been tough for the anti-war/peace movement. Progressive activism has been muffled and the hundreds of thousands we were able to turn out in the past have stayed home. All of that is about to change!

The rise of the Tea Party movement and profound disappointment with the slow pace of real change has slapped many people in the face. They are waking up from a post election daze to the realization that it takes a movement to make change happen. In this context, a new initiative called One Nation Working Together has emerged.

The NAACP, 1199 SEIU, the National Council of La Raza, Green for All, Center for Community Change and the United States Student Association initiated this campaign, and more than 150 other national and local groups have already signed on. The growing list of participating organizations includes United for Peace and Justice, Veterans For Peace, Peace Action, US Labor Against the War, Code Pink, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Progressive Democrats of America, United National Antiwar Committee, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance and other peace groups. Labor participation includes the AFL-CIO, AFT, SEIU, CWA, Transport Workers Union, Unite/HERE, UFCW and others. Some of the other national organizations that are part of this effort are: USAction, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Campaign for America's Future, National Action Network, Center for American Progress, Jewish Funds for Justice. More

Buses leaving from across MA
On Evening of Friday Oct. 1st
Return Morning of Oct. 3rd
Click here to sign up for the Bus!

(See info on cheap SEIU-organized bus tickets to DC near the top of this email)

Saturday, September 11, UJP Strategy Conference March for Jobs, Peace and Justice

Cambridge Friends Meeting Center • 5 Longfellow Park • off Brattle St. near Harvard Sq T • Cambridge

The UJP community will gather for a strategy conference Saturday, Sept. 11. The conference will discuss the economic crisis and the One Nation Working Together mobilization which will rally progressive movements in Washington, DC on October 2. Jose Perez, Massachusetts organizer of One Nation, will address the conference. He will explain the importance of the project, describe the organizing being done in Massachusetts, and talk about how peace groups can get involved. Perez is a staff organizer with SEIU 1199.

The US military consumes over 50% of our national budget. With more than 700 bases girdling the globe, the U.S. foreign policy of endless war has wreaked havoc on people around the world as we see today in the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and U.S. support for the occupation of Palestine. To maintain a nuclear umbrella of intimidation, war makers continue to build new generations of expensive weapons that risk nuclear annihilation. Chronic war or threat of war ensures that ruling elites benefit while ensuring that succeeding generations of the world's people are impoverished. We must stop this madness!

The peace and anti-war movements cannot stop it alone. UJP is working with labor, civil rights, immigrant rights and other groups across the nation to take action to build a peoples' movement. The NAACP, SEIU 1199, Green for All, National Council of La Raza, US Student Association, and the Center for Community Change have called on the progressive movement to unite and join them on October 2 in Washington DC.

United for Justice and Peace calls on the peace movement to join this mobilization.

The conference will also hear and discuss work reports from the Afghanistan/Pakistan, Palestine, Nuclear Abolition and Fund our Communities/Cut the Military Budget 25% Task Forces.

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NYC “Ground Zero” MOSQUE MADNESS (continued!)

It’s actually an Islamic Cultural Center and it’s not at “Ground Zero”–but why let facts get in the way of bigotry?

Anti-mosque sentiment rages far from Ground Zero

One of the most under-reported political stories is the increasingly vehement, nationwide movement -- far from Ground Zero -- to oppose new mosques and Islamic community centers. These ugly campaigns are found across the country, in every region, and extend far beyond the warped extremists who are doing things such as sponsoring "Burn a Quran Day." And now, from CBS News last night, we have this: Fire at Tenn. Mosque Building Site Ruled Arson - Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb. More

Mosque site burning smacks of Klan action

The Ku Klux Klan mind-set appears to be alive and well in Rutherford County in 2010. The apparent burning of construction equipment at the site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road is the same type of intimidation the KKK used against black people, Jews and other targets throughout the 20th century. Earth-moving equipment was burned in the early-morning hours of Saturday, and other equipment was doused with some sort of accelerant, but apparently the culprits were spooked and couldn’t finish the job, mosque officials believe. Law enforcement investigators haven’t said much yet. More

A Specious Compromise on Cordoba

Imagine a middle-class black couple trying to move into a mostly white apartment building. The co-op board demands the couple denounce some “fellow blacks” who were convicted of some robberies there. The bewildered pair agrees. Some white residents remain unsatisfied and rail against inclusion; many back racial profiling and police raids in black neighborhoods. In a gesture of “compromise,” the board’s leading lights draft a letter advising the couple that they should exercise their civil rights – just not here: “Your presence may be intended as a bridge or gesture at integration, but it will not be perceived that way unless a real dialogue happens. As part of that dialogue, please move to the other side of town.” Why has the compromise crowd embraced this perverse take on dialogue? They likely do not share conservatives’ hatred for Islam – but they may share their fondness for denial. Insisting that America’s Muslims apologize for something they did not do preempts an honest look at what America has done and continues to do. More

FCNL: “We Stand with American Muslims”

The Friends Committee on National Legislation wrote: “. . .we’ve been sick at heart and concerned at the hate speech, confusion, and misinformation about American Muslims that has spread across the country in the last month. Many of you have told us that you share our concern. The controversy is not over yet. Between today and the September 11 anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, we at FCNL expect another outpouring of bigotry and misplaced anger at the proposal to build an Islamic cultural center in downtown New York City. “

Take Action! Please start by signing this petition supporting American Muslims and the proposal to exercise their religious freedom to build an Islamic cultural center in downtown Manhattan. Ask 5 friends to sign it as well. We’ll add the names of those who sign to the bottom of the petition to show the support that’s out there.

· Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper supporting the Islamic Cultural Center.

· Find out if the American Muslim community in your area might welcome a public or private opportunity to get to know your own local church, meeting or community group;

· On Friday, September 10, many local American Muslim communities around our country organize public celebrations of Eid ul-Fitr -- the end of the holy period of Ramadan. Find out if Muslims in your area might welcome the participation of people of other faiths.

· Write your senators to ask them to speak out in support of the Islamic Cultural Center.

Follow-up to Jeff Klein’s look back at the Boston anti-Mosque campaign:

CAMERA doth protest too much re its role in Boston anti-mosque campaign

CAMERA apparently didn’t like being mentioned in my piece on the anti-Mosque campaign in Boston. However, their complaint is a good example of their regular method of obfuscation and misdirection. CAMERA responds to something I did not write and proceeds to pick a couple of nits that have no bearing on the thrust (and truth) of the piece.. More

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and the WARS GRIND ON. . .

HAS THE AMERICAN COMBAT MISSION IN IRAQ “ENDED”?

…the ultimate irony, is the fact that more than seven years later, we‘ve now gotten down to the 50,000 troops that they thought they could get down to within three months of the invasion. . . . . [T]hose 50,000 men and women include special forces who will be going out on counter-terrorism missions with Iraqi forces… The fact that this phrase -- "the end of America‘s Iraq combat mission" -- is more propagandistic than anything gave no pause. The withdrawal of 100,000 troops from that country since Obama's inauguration is not insignificant, and it's a good thing that he's adhered to the withdrawal schedule. But, as Landay explained, 50,000 troops is a huge number -- it's what Rumsfeld originally envisioned as the occupying force to be used three months after the invasion -- and it's inevitable that they will be in combat. More

U.S. Occupation of Iraq More Than Doubles Poverty, Sickness -- Leaves Country a Total Disaster

Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq… Almost intentionally hidden in these statistics is one shocking fact about urban Iraqi populations. For the past few decades, prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the percentage of the urban population living in slums in Iraq hovered just below 20 percent. Today, that percentage has risen to 53 percent: 11 million of the 19 million total urban dwellers. In the past decade, most countries have made progress toward reducing slum dwellers. But Iraq has gone rapidly and dangerously in the opposite direction. More

Lawsuit challenges Obama's power to kill US citizens without due process

Just how perverse is the Obama administration's assassination program is reflected in the rights Awlaki is forced to assert. He alleges -- as the Complaint puts it -- that the Government is violating his "Fifth Amendment Right Not to be Deprived of Life Without Due Process." Just re-read that and contemplate that in Barack Obama's America, that right even needs to be contested. The Complaint also alleges that using lethal force against a U.S. citizen in these circumstances violates the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizure, and also violates the Alien Tort Statute, which bars "extrajudicial killings." Reading Awlaki's Brief in support of his request for injunctive relief is almost surreal, as one witnesses an American citizen try to convince a federal court to stop the Government from trying -- far away from a battlefield and without any violence used to resist apprehension -- to murder him without due process… More

Afghanistan War Weekly - August 29, 2010

The controversy over President Obama’s July 2011 date for the beginning of a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan masks a more important fight about whether the Pentagon or the White House is going to run the war. While Obama’s main goal in Afghanistan may be political success at home, the US military is digging in its heels against a “withdrawal without victory” endgame. This is illustrated by some news articles linked below, where the military planners are shown to be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in air bases that will not be ready to use before 2012, and where the training of Afghanistan troops is not scheduled to deliver a minimally competent army anytime soon. Afghanistan President Karzai has now joined the chorus claiming that the July 2011 date – only a weak political ploy to begin with – is giving the Taliban reasons to keep fighting, while discouraging cooperation with government institutions. Will US public opinion tolerate a war declared to be open-ended? More - and links to many articles here

Collapse of Kabul Bank Points to Fatal Corruption of Karzai Government

The house of cards that is the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul may be falling before our eyes, as vast, globe-spanning webs of corruption, formerly hidden in shadows, have suddenly had a spotlight thrown on them. The crisis raises the severest questions about whether the Obama administration can plausibly hope to stand up a stable government in Afghanistan before US troops depart. The Karzai government is corrupt and rotten to the core. Not a single US soldier should die to prop it up. The lie that we are fighting “al-Qaeda” in Afghanistan needs to be exposed. The US and NATO are fighting four or five groups of Pashtun insurgents, some of them until fairly recently US allies. The goal of the fighting is to keep the Karzai government from falling to the guerrillas and to train up an army and police force that could go on defending Kabul. The Afghanistan National Army from all accounts has poor morale. No wonder. What Afghan soldier or policeman would die for a ponzi scheme? More

We Owe the Troops an Exit

In addition to the terrible physical toll, the ultimate economic costs of these two wars, as the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and his colleague Linda Bilmes have pointed out, will run to more than $3 trillion. I get a headache when I hear supporters of this endless warfare complaining about the federal budget deficits. They’re like arsonists complaining about the smell of smoke in the neighborhood. There is no silver lining to this nearly decade-old war in Afghanistan. Poll after poll has shown that it no longer has the support of most Americans. And yet we fight on, feeding troops into the meat-grinder year after tragic year — to what end? More

VIDEOS: “Rethinking Afghanistan”

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ISRAEL / PALESTINE

DIRECT TALKS RESUME: Many Reasons for Skepticism

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (a coalition that DPP has joined):

On August 20, the Obama Administration announced that it will reconvene under its auspices direct Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations beginning on September 2. While the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation fully supports a just and lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace and hopes that the Obama Administration is successful in these efforts, it nevertheless has profound reasons to be skeptical about the likelihood of success for the following reasons… More

Take Action:

President Obama: Negotiate on the Basis of Human Rights, International Law, and UN Resolution - Petition here

Direct talks will fail – is that what the US is planning on?

As inept as the Obama administration has been in its dealings with Mr Netanyahu, it cannot be naive enough to imagine that direct talks will produce an agreement. So, the real question is what it will do in the probable event of failure. There has also been talk of the US putting “bridging proposals” on the table if the two sides are near agreement but unable to bridge the gap. But saving the two-state solution from oblivion today could require a lot more – a readiness by the US to impose a deal based on the international consensus. Washington has never had any compunction about making uncomfortable demands of the Palestinians, but imposing a two-state solution would require Mr Obama to take the domestic political consequences of a showdown with Israel. His record so far suggests that is unlikely. More

PALESTINIAN LEGISLATOR: Pressing Netanyahu is the key to success in Mideast peace talks

…no Palestinian negotiator I know of will bow before the Israeli demand — put forward only recently, but increasingly adamantly — that Israel be recognized as an exclusively Jewish state. This is an unreasonable demand, as it requires Palestinian negotiators to relegate more than 1 million Palestinian citizens of Israel to an inferior standing. Already, there are more than 30 Israeli laws that serve to discriminate against Palestinians. Abbas cannot be expected to sign off on such an injustice. Not only would he be consigning Palestinian citizens of Israel to second-class citizenship, he would be stripping away the right of return from Palestinian refugees who long to return to homes and farms stolen from them 62 years ago. The only way out of the impasse is for Jews to recognize Palestinians as their equals and negotiate with them on that basis. A fair two-state solution requires the abrogation of all laws, both in Israel and the occupied territories, that raise Jews above Palestinians. More

Israel and Palestine: A true one-state solution

"Where is the Palestinian Mandela?" pundits occasionally ask. But after these latest Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington fail -- as they inevitably will -- the more pressing question may be: "Where is the Israeli de Klerk?" Will an Israeli leader emerge with the former South African president's moral courage and foresight to dismantle a discriminatory regime and foster democracy based on equal rights? …A de facto one-state reality has emerged, with Israel effectively ruling virtually all of the former Palestine. Yet only Jews enjoy full rights in this functionally unitary political system. In contrast, Palestinian citizens of Israel endure more than 35 laws that explicitly privilege Jews as well as policies that deliberately marginalize them. West Bank Palestinians cannot drive on roads built for Israeli settlers, while Palestinians in Gaza watch as their children's intellectual and physical growth are stunted by an Israeli siege that has limited educational opportunities and deepened poverty to acute levels. More

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Bomb, Bomb, Bomb IRAN?

I Still Love this VIDEO: “Peacetrain / IRAN” http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

U.S.-Iran-Israel: The Fateful Triangle

No sooner had the ink dried on the new U.S. Iran sanctions bill—a bill said to be necessary to avoid war with Iran—than the media campaign for war with Iran began… It’s also likely that the campaign for war with Iran is not entirely about Iran. David Kay, the former UN and U.S. Iraq weapons inspector (and an Iraq hawk who supported the 2003 U.S. invasion), argues that Israel… is “engaged in psychological warfare with the Obama administration. …In these circumstances the first priority should be to defeat the Iran war campaign in the media and in Congress, and avoid marching into another disastrous war on trumped-up charges, as the U.S. did in Iraq. Beyond avoiding war, the Obama administration needs to be pressed to renew diplomatic efforts to persuade Iran to accept even more stringent international safeguards for its nuclear program than those already in place. Actually, the more accurate way to put it is to say that the administration needs to be pressed to accept diplomatic efforts to resolve concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. More

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OTHER EVENTS

Saturday, September 11: United for Justice with Peace Strategy Meeting, 1 to 5 pm at the Friends Meeting House, Longfellow Park, Cambridge. Focus will include fall mobilizations including the October 2 “One Nation Working Together” march in Washington.

Thursday, September 16: F*%# the Tea Party, This is the Real Party! 6-9pm, Bella Luna, 264 Amory St. JP. Jobs with Justice “Get on the Bus” Fundraiser! Help us raise Funds to Organize for 10-2-10 March in Washington! ...$10 Suggested Donation

Saturday, October 2: “ONE-NATION” Demo in Washington, DC, The NAACP, SEIU 1199, La Raza and Green Jobs for All have called upon the peace and justice movement to join a mass mobilization in Washington DC, October 2. This is a large national protest demonstration for jobs, justice and progressive change, and to counter the right wing. It will be the largest progressive mobilization in years. Nationally this action has been endorsed by peace groups as well as the AFL-CIO and other unions. There will be a large peace contingent marching with signs and banners. A massive rally and march will be a big plus for continuing to rebuild momentum in the peace movement and for progressives overall. NAACP and 1199 say it's time to hit the streets -- we must be there with them! Stay tuned for information on buses, etc.

Friday, September 24: Virtual Brown Bag Event with Andrew Bacevich and Stephen Kinzer, 3:30pm Eastern (2:30pm Central, 12:30pm Pacific), join us for the second in our series of FREE interactive video chats with foreign policy experts. Our first brown bag event featured former New York Times foreign correspondent and author Stephen Kinzer. This time, we'll be chatting with retired US Army Colonel, military historian and New York Times bestselling author Andrew Bacevich. You can participate in the event from anywhere as long as you have a computer and an internet connection. Mr. Bacevich's new book, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War hits stores this week. It's our hope that Virtual Brown Bag attendees will be able to read the book before the event, thus allowing participants to take part in a lively discussion of its arguments and their repercussions for US foreign policy.

Finally, while this event is free of charge, we do very much welcome voluntary contributions. Your donation will help us continue the Virtual Brown Bag program.

Friday, September 24, Dorchester Historical Society Fundraiser: SAVE OUR BARN! 6:30, DHH 195 Boston St., You are all invited to the uncorking of our pear wine at the Society’s Save Our Barn Gala on September 24^th. For tickets go to www.dorchesterhistoricalsociety.org Guests will enjoy a sip of the wine with dessert and may take home a bottle for a donation of $20.

Saturday, September 25: Green Neighbors Energy Fair for 2010! 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the Second Church in Dorchester, 600 Washington Street in Codman Square. section of Dorchester. The Second Church (big white church) is across the street from Bank of America and McDonalds in Codman Square. Setup will begin at 9:00AM and the Energy Fair will run from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. We have enlisted ten community groups and organizations as co-sponsors and anticipate a turnout of well over several hundred people.

Saturday, September 25: An Evening with Tina!!! Louis D. Brown Peace Institute Fundraiser, 7pm, First Parish Church, 10 Parish St. (Meetinghouse Hill). Simply The Best 50th Birthday Fundraiser - In Honor of Tina Chery turning 50 years old! Proceeds to benefit the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute. For Tickets & Event Information: Rachel Fazzino 617-825-1917 or rachel@ldbpeaceinstitute.org

SAVE THE DATES!

Friday-Sunday, October 8-10: FIFTH ANNUAL HONK! FESTIVAL, Davis Square, Somerville & Harvard Square, Cambridge. STREETS BURGEONING WITH
STREET BAND ACTIVISM, local and national bands making a ruckus. As often as bands congregate to HONK in protest, they also perform to celebrate the causes and institutions they support: multicultural festivals, peace conferences, social forums, artists’ collectives, community gardens, block parties, neighborhood fundraisers, relief benefits and homeless shelters. In every case, the HONKers’ ultimate goal is to have fun, to relish the art of making fun as a form of individual and collective transcendence, and to encourage others to see and do the same. FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

Saturday, October 16, Annual AFAB Fundraiser Dinner, 6:30, First Parish Church (Parish House -- Meeting House Hill, Dorchester) Dinner and raffle to benefit DPP partner organization Association of Haitian Women in Boston (AFAB). Tickets $30; children $20. Info: 617-287-0096

SAVE THE DATE!

Monday, September 13:

(the 2^nd Monday, not the usual 1^st!)

Monthly DPP Meeting, 7-9 pm, Vietnamese American Community Center, 42 Charles St., Fields Corner. Meeting agenda – Discussion of DPP’s anti-war work and the 25% Coalition (other items to be announced)

Wheelchair accessible. Please call us a week in advance if you need translation, childcare, a ride, or have other needs: 617-282-3783.

Wednesday, September 1: DPP Anti- War Committee Meeting - at Alison's (asgottlieb1@gmail.com) in JP - Potluck dinner and meeting start at 6:30

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NYC “Ground Zero” MOSQUE MADNESS -- Islamophobia, Neocons and Pro-Israel Extremists

Haven’t we seen this movie before? Yes, in Boston, and with nearly the same cast of characters. The fight against the Roxbury Mosque and Cultural Center planned by the Islamic Society of Boston was framed as a battle against “Muslim extremists” and “terror supporters.” In reality (as court documents showed) the campaign was organized by activists with the far-right pro-Israel David Project and CAMERA, spearheaded by founder Charles Jacobs, who now heads a front group with the Orwellian name “Americans for Peace and Tolerance.” Later, the story was picked up and promoted by the Murdoch-owned Boston Herald and the local Fox TV affiliate. When the ISB eventually sued its attackers for defamation, the defendants were represented by an attorney who was also a New England director of AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee).

Likewise, the New York Islamic Community Center project in lower Manhattan was uncontroversial until it began to be labelled falsely as “The Ground Zero Mosque” and vilified by right-wing bloggers with a pro-Israel agenda. Although the media has reported on the way the Right has used anti-Muslim bigotry to stir up racist outrage at the Islamic Center, there has been little notice of the Israel connection. Jihad Watch founder Robert Spencer and Atlas Shrugged blogger Pamela Geller, who led the charge, are active in the same circles as the pro-Israel extremists in Boston. Geller is a regular commentator on the far-right Israeli radio network Arutz Sheva. Together they created a front-group to promote the anti-Muslim crusade called Stop Islamization of America. The campaign of slander against the “Ground Zero Mosque” was first mainstreamed in the Murdoch-owned New York Post and has been trumpeted relentlessly by Fox News as well as by Neocon operatives like Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney.

Why? Because promoting a “culture-clash” between the “West” and Islam is seen as a way to bolster support for Israel and to sustain a permanent US “War on Terror.”

As early as September 12, 2001, “Israeli leaders, who have chafed at occasional American criticism of their measures against Palestinians, said the day's attacks would awaken the United States to the threat of global terrorism. Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ''It's very good.'' Then he edited himself: ''Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.'' He predicted that the attack would ''strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we've experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.'' In an appearance late tonight, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeatedly placed Israel on the same ground as the United States, calling the assault an attack on ''our common values'' and declaring, ''I believe together we can defeat these forces of evil.'' (story here)

When the Roxbury Mosque was under attack in Boston, DPP took a stand in its defense and organized a well-attended program on the topic. Since then, we have worked closely with our local Muslim friends – many of whom are US-born African-Americans with deep ties to our communities. Although the current furor is over a proposed Mosque in New York, the issues are much the same. Islamophobia continues to be a racist tool of the war-promoting Right. As an anti-war and anti-racist organization, DPP cannot remain indifferent.

(Jeff Klein)

[SEE NEWS AND RESOURCES ON THIS ISSUE BELOW]

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DPP’S 'TABLING' CONTINUES

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GET A DPP LAWN SIGN. . .
Help Organize to FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT WAR!

cid:part1.09050604.03030206@verizon.net

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PROGRESSIVE / ANTI-WAR CANDIDATES TO CHALLENGE LYNCH IN 9^TH CD

Members of the organization MoveOn voted to endorse Mac D'Alessandro (http://mac4congress2010.com/) in the September Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives. The organization writes: “Mac has spoken out against ‘a culture in Washington that has allowed giant corporations, big banks, and Wall Street lobbyists to control the agenda,’ and now he needs our help to win. Why are people supporting Mac? As Stephen M. from Needham put it, ‘Steve Lynch is the most conservative representative in Massachusetts. He voted for the invasion of Iraq and continues to vote for funding for the Afghanistan war. He voted against the health care bill and has been consistently anti-choice.’ In contrast, MoveOn member Brian C. told us, ‘Mac is a true progressive—I have personally worked with him on labor issues and electing progressive candidates to our state legislature. He's also a great campaigner!’”

Phil Dunkelbarger, anti-war activist and friend of DPP (who was given one of our first peacemaker awards), has also announced that he is running against Lynch as an independent in the November general election. More information on his campaign: http://www.dunk2010.com/

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NYC MOSQUE -- Resources

How the "ground zero mosque" fear mongering began

In a story last week, the New York Times, which framed the project in a largely positive, noncontroversial light last December, argued that it was cursed from the start by "public relations missteps." But this isn't accurate. To a remarkable extent, a Salon review of the origins of the story found, the controversy was kicked up and driven by Pamela Geller, a right-wing, viciously anti-Muslim, conspiracy-mongering blogger, whose sinister portrayal of the project was embraced by Rupert Murdoch's New York Post. More

Mosque Mania -- Anti-Muslim Fears and the Far Right
There is a distinct creepiness to the controversy now raging around a proposed Islamic cultural center in Lower Manhattan. The angry “debate” over whether the building should exist has a kind of glitch-in-the-Matrix feel to it, leaving in its wake an aura of something-very-bad-about-to-happen. It’s not just that opposition to the building has coalesced around a phony “Mosque at Ground Zero” shorthand (with its echoes of dust, death, and evildoers). Many have pointed out -- futilely -- that the complex will be more than two blocks from the former World Trade Center, around a corner on Park Place, and will feature an auditorium, spa, basketball court, swimming pool, classrooms, exhibition space, community meeting space, 9/11 memorial, and, yes, a prayer space for Muslims. The shorthand still sticks. More

Israel & The Anti-Muslim Blow-Up

This hate is buttressed by the hatred of Muslims and Arabs that has been routinely uttered (or shouted from the rooftops) in the name of defending Israel for decades Just watch what goes on in Congress, where liberals from New York, Florida, California and elsewhere never miss an opportunity to explain that no matter what Israel does, it is right, and no matter what Muslims do, they are wrong… And here the liberals are worse than the conservatives because liberals exempt Muslims and Arabs (and now Turks) from the humanitarian instincts that inform their views of all other groups. Conservatives combine their Arab-bashing with a general xenophobia, as is evidenced by their views on immigration. Liberals, on the other hand, single out Muslims for contempt. They do it actively — i.e., by defending every single Israeli action against Arabs with vehement enthusiasm. And they do it passively, by refusing to evince an iota of sympathy for Muslims who suffer and die at the hands of Israelis — like the 432 Palestinian children killed in the 2008 Gaza war. More

Mosque Controversy Shows “Bin Laden’s Rising Influence In America”

American leaders are always trying to assess Osama bin Laden’s level of influence over Muslims. They should look at his influence over their own countrymen. The aversion to a proposed Muslim center near Ground Zero shows that it is Americans, not Muslims, whose thinking the terrorist leader has most successfully recast to his advantage. The detractors strengthen and draw strength from bin Laden; their hot prejudice bolsters his assertion that America despises Islam and betrays an acceptance of his claim that he embodies the faith. More

“Why America Needs More Muslims”

“These are the people whom Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney smeared as ‘connected to terrorism’ and having ‘dubious ties to radical Islamist organizations,’ whom National Review falsely portrayed as unwilling to give a ‘full throated denunciation of terrorism’ and Newt Gingrich, with his faulty understanding of history, accused of ‘Islamist triumphalism.’" Last week, Bryan Fischer of the right-wing Christian group, American Family Association, wrote that the U.S should have "no more mosques, period." "This is for one simple reason," he explained: "Each Islamic mosque is dedicated to the overthrow of the American government." It's a belief that has gained dangerous traction, especially but not exclusively on the Right. If 3 or 4 percent of the population were Muslim -- if more people saw Muslims living and working in their communities -- the public would react to such deeply un-American sentiments with revulsion. But at just over a half of 1 percent of the population, Muslim Americans remain, tragically, a ripe target for demagoguery by fear-mongers and small-minded bigots. More

DEMOCRACY NOW VIDEO On the NYC Mosque here

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Starve the Wars, Not the Nation!

COST OF WARS Including Recent Supplemental Bill through September 30, 2010

$749.9 billion for Iraq

$337.8 billion for Afghanistan

$1.09 trillion total spending

August 17, 11am; August 26, 3pm; September 14, 3pm; September 20, 11am

America's Runaway Military Spending

… with $549 billion requested for basic military expenditures and another $159 billion requested for U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—the record $708 billion military spending called for by the Obama administration for fiscal 2011 will be nearly equivalent to the military spending of all other nations in the world combined. When it comes to military appropriations, the U.S. government already spends about seven times as much as China, thirteen times as much as Russia, and seventy-three times as much as Iran… Where does this vast outlay of U.S. tax dollars—the greatest military appropriations in U.S. history—go? One place is to overseas U.S. military bases. According to Chalmers Johnson, a political scientist and former CIA consultant, as much as $250 billion per year is used to maintain some 865 U.S. military facilities in more than forty countries and overseas U.S. territories… it is hard to deny that there is a heavy price being paid for making military power the nation's top priority. With more than half of U.S. government discretionary spending going to feed the Pentagon, we should not be surprised that—in America, at least—it is no longer considered feasible to use public resources to feed the hungry, heal the sick, or house the homeless. We would do well to recall an observation by one of the great prophets of our time, Martin Luther King, Jr.: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." More

Where's Our Money?

… the Obama administration refuses to put the largest source of discretionary spending - the military - on the chopping block. Robert Gibbs accused the "professional left" of not being happy until the Pentagon is abolished. Actually, if he would simply read our latest Unified Security Budget, he would see that we are calling for a sensible reduction in military spending. It's not an all-or-nothing proposition. We call for $75 billion in reductions in military spending and redirecting those funds to diplomacy and economic development abroad, short-term investments into education and infrastructure improvements at home, and long-term deficit reduction.
Where's our money - that's not a question just from the "professional left." The American public's number one concern is the economy, and the vast majority of citizens have become pessimistic about the war in Afghanistan. Shifting money out of the Pentagon and into human needs, out of Afghanistan and into job creation at home, is a popular position. "Where's our money" is the cry of a new populism that, unfortunately, is represented at the moment by the "professional right," the organizations that are funding and framing the tea-party rage, the birthers, the anti-gun-control crowd, the Palinites, and all the other fringe elements that see government as an elite conspiracy against the little guy. More

IVAW VIDEO: “Crises of Capitalism” – 11-minutes on War, Racism and Empire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0

KRUGMAN: US unemployment -- Don't let the elite pass the buck

Growth is slowing and the odds are that unemployment will rise, not fall, in the months ahead. That's bad. But what's worse is the growing evidence that our governing elite just doesn't care – that a once-unthinkable level of economic distress is becoming the norm… But the fear-mongers are unmoved: fighting deficits, they insist, must take priority over everything – everything, that is, except tax cuts for the rich, which must be extended, no matter how much red ink they create. The point is that a large part of Congress, large enough to block any action on jobs, cares a lot about taxes on the richest 1% of the population, but very little about the plight of Americans who can't find work. More

America’s Biggest Jobs Program — the U.S. Military

America’s biggest — and only major — jobs program is the U.S. military. Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with everything from weapons to utensils. (I’m not even including all the foreign contractors employing non-US citizens.)… This isn’t an argument for more military spending. Just the opposite. Having a giant undercover military jobs program is an insane way to keep Americans employed. It creates jobs we don’t need but we keep anyway because there’s no honest alternative. We don’t have an overt jobs program based on what’s really needed. More

Green Activists Need Allies in Anti-War Movement

Failing to include the impact of war and the bloated military budget (not to mention fossil fuel consumption by the military and its ancillary industries) in any discussion about "climate change" is like talking about water without mentioning Big Agriculture. As long as mainstream environmental groups refuse to talk about the ways in which war and military spending (to control access to the fuel that powers our oil-based economy) impact the very changes they claim to seek, those changes will remain elusive. More

UJP 25% TASK FORCE. See www.justicewithpeace.org/25-percent-solution and www.25percentsolution.org

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and the WARS GRIND ON. . .

Last U.S. Combat Brigade Leaves Iraq, but War Is Not Over

Fifty thousand armed U.S. military personnel are deployed in Iraq today, having waved goodbye to the last U.S. "combat'' brigade, the 4^th Stryker Brigade, 2^nd Infantry Division, which rolled south and crossed into Kuwait on Thursday morning… U.S. special operations teams are working with Iraqi commandos on high-risk operations to target and snatch or kill "high value targets'' -- not just the foot-soldiers of insurgent groups but the organizers, financiers, operations and logistics planners and the top charismatic leaders. Thousands of U.S. military are operating at the street level with Iraqi army and police units as trainers and advisers. More

Civilian “Contractors” to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq

As the United States military prepares to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors, to fill the void. By October 2011, the State Department will assume responsibility for training the Iraqi police, a task that will largely be carried out by contractors… To protect the civilians in a country that is still home to insurgents with Al Qaeda and Iranian-backed militias, the State Department is planning to more than double its private security guards, up to as many as 7,000, according to administration officials who disclosed new details of the plan. Defending five fortified compounds across the country, the security contractors would operate radars to warn of enemy rocket attacks, search for roadside bombs, fly reconnaissance drones and even staff quick reaction forces to aid civilians in distress, the officials said… The startup cost of building and sustaining two embassy branch offices — one in Kirkuk and the other in Mosul — and of hiring security contractors, buying new equipment and setting up two consulates in Basra and Erbil is about $1 billion. It will cost another $500 million or so to make the two consulates permanent. And getting the police training program under way will cost about $800 million. More

Gen. Petraeus Goes to Media War

Let’s be clear about what’s happening here. The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, with the evident approval of the White House, has launched a fierce media blitz to cripple the policy option of any significant military withdrawal a year from now. Riding high in what is supposed to be a civilian-run military, Petraeus is engaging in strategic media operations to manipulate what should be a democratic process on matters of war and peace… The immediate problem is one of political acquiescence. Right now, it’s time to speak up against the efforts by a top general to stampede this country into more war. No matter who is willing to go along with the madness of militarism, we must not. More

Why Petraeus Can't Make The Sale
As Gen. David Petraeus kicks off an extended media blitz intended to make Americans feel better about the war in Afghanistan -- or at least give him some more time to fight it -- he faces a foe more implacable than al Qaeda, or even the Taliban: Reality. That reality, increasingly obvious to national security experts and the general public alike, is that no amount of good intentions or firepower is going to advance our fundamental interests in Afghanistan -- and that as much as Petraeus might be able to achieve in the next six months, or a year, little to none of it is sustainable and most of it is, even worse, counterproductive. More

THE SECRET KILLERS: Assassination in Afghanistan and Task Force 373

Details of some of the missions of Task Force 373 first became public as a result of more than 76,000 incident reports leaked to the public by Wikileaks, a whistleblower website, together with analyses of those documents in Der Spiegel, the Guardian, and the New York Times… The Wikileaks data suggests that as many as 2,058 people on a secret hit list called the “Joint Prioritized Effects List” (JPEL) were considered “capture/kill” targets in Afghanistan. A total of 757 prisoners -- most likely from this list -- were being held at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility (BTIF), a U.S.-run prison on Bagram Air Base as of the end of December 2009. More

Western wars vs. Muslim women

Western media is awash with reports about Taliban mistreatment of women in Afghanistan and Pakistan that feature countless voices in support of the war to secure a 'brighter future for women's rights'. This week's Time magazine cover story is a case in point. If Western wars 'liberate' Eastern women, Muslim women would be - after centuries of Western military interventions - the most 'liberated' in the world… Western man's long-held fantasy of 'rescuing' veiled women from their repressive captors is being exploited to promote the idea that war can free women from the wrath of the 'bearded terrorists', as it 'liberates America' from their terrorism… A century after English poet Rudyard Kipling first invoked the 'White Man's Burden' to explain the US' invasion and occupation of the Philippines, Washington and London continue to justify their military interventions, and occupation, on more of the same debunked falsehoods. More

Afghan Women Have Already Been Abandoned

The Taliban do terrible things. Yet the problem with demonizing them is that it diverts attention away from other, equally unpleasant and threatening facts. Let's not make the common mistake of thinking that the devil we see is the only one.Consider the creeping Talibanization of Afghan life under the Karzai government. Restrictions on women's freedom of movement, access to work and rights within the family have steadily tightened as the result of a confluence of factors, including the neglect of legal and judicial reform and the obligations of international human rights conventions; legislation typified by the infamous Shia Personal Status Law (SPSL), gazetted in 2009 by President Karzai himself despite women's protests and international furor; intimidation; and violence… What's taking place in Afghanistan is commonly depicted, as it is on the Time cover, as a battle of the forces of freedom, democracy and women's rights (that is, the United States and the Karzai government) against the demon Taliban. But the real struggle is between progressive Afghan women and men, many of them young, and a phalanx of regressive forces. For the United States, the problem is this: the regressive forces militating against women's rights and a democratic future for Afghanistan are headed by the demon Taliban, to be sure, but they also include the fundamentalist (and fundamentally misogynist) Karzai government, and us. More

Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan...

A photo gallery of social life in Afghanistan before the US-supported Mujahidin came to power – where (urban women, at least) were immeasurably freer than they are now under the US-backed Karzai government. [Before it was overthrown with US-Saudi money and arms, the Leftist Afghan government of the 1980’s had instituted compulsory universal education for girls and overthrew many of the traditional norms that kept women subordinated. Like Al-Qaida, the Taliban were ultimately “Made in USA” See much more background information by The Revolutionary Association of Afghan Women (RAWA), which opposes both the Taliban AND the US Occupation.] More

Dismembering Afghanistan

So does one calculate the arithmetic of defeat. But "defeat" does not mean the war is over. Indeed, the moment when it becomes obvious that victory is no longer an option can be the most dangerous time in a conflict's history. The losers may double down, as the French and the United States did in Vietnam. They may lash out in a frenzy of destruction, as the United States did in Laos and Cambodia. Or they may poison the well for generations to come by dividing people on the basis of ethnicity, religion and tribe, as the British did when their empire began to disintegrate. Faced with rising opposition at home, increased casualties on the battlefield, and growing isolation from its allies, the United States is casting about for a way to salvage the Afghan disaster, and coming up with schemes that may end up destabilizing not only Afghanistan, but much of Central and South Asia. More

No ‘Graceful Exit’

Look around at the economy, the public school system, the federal budget deficits, the fiscal conditions plaguing America’s state and local governments. We are giving short shrift to all of these problems and more while pouring staggering amounts of money (the rate is now scores of billions of dollars a year) into a treacherous, unforgiving and hopelessly corrupt sinkhole in Afghanistan. (I stand in awe of the heights of hypocrisy scaled by conservative politicians and strategists who demand that budget deficits be brought under control while cheering the escalation in Afghanistan and calling for ever more tax cuts here at home.) …We are never going to build a stable, flourishing society in Afghanistan. What we desperately need is a campaign of nation-building to counteract the growing instability and deterioration in the United States. More

VIDEOS: “Rethinking Afghanistan”

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Bomb, Bomb, Bomb IRAN?

I Still Love this VIDEO: “Peacetrain / IRAN” http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

Israeli Government Minister "demands US ultimatum for Iran"

The US should issue a strict ultimatum to Iran, warning that the possibility of a military strike will turn into reality within weeks should Tehran fail to curb its nuclear program, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Thursday… "It’s time for the whole world, under US leadership, to issue Iran a clear ultimatum that if it does not change its ways in a clear and verifiable manner, it can expect an American attack, or at least a naval blockade," he said. More

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EVENTS

Friday-Saturday, August 20-21: BOSTON GREENFEST, 10am-10pm, City Hall Plaza. Gubernatorial Green Debate! Sat. Aug 21st 4 pm.
Talk to the Candidates! 20,000 Seats! Boston GreenFest is organized by the Foundation for a Green Future, Inc. As the region's largest multicultural environmental festival, Boston GreenFest celebrates the many ways we can create a better world by greening our lives and our communities. Info http://www.bostongreenfest.org/

Sunday, August 22: Sacco and Vanzetti Remembered in Boston, 2pm, Copley Sq. On Sunday, August 22nd, in Boston, the 83rd anniversary of the execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti will be remembered. They were two Italian immigrants and committed anarchists whose trial is regarded as one of the great miscarriages of justice in American history. Calling attention to the continued repression of immigrants and radicals, the Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society (SVCS) invites all to attend and participate in the fifth annual march and rally. We will begin by gathering in Copley Square at 2PM, followed by a march to the North End at 3PM, and conclude with a rally at 4PM at the Paul Revere Mall at 416 Hanover Street featuring a number of speakers, including Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, environmental activist Klare Allen, Laila Murad from the Tarek Mehanna Defense Committee, Pasqualino Colombaro, labor activist, Dorotea Manuela from the Boston May Day Committee and Jake Carman, from the Boston Anti-Authoritarian Movement.

Contact: Sergio Reyes, 617-290-561; Email: info@saccoandvanzetti.org Web: www.saccoandvanzetti.org

SAVE THE DATES!

Finally, while this event is free of charge, we do very much welcome voluntary contributions. Your donation will help us continue the Virtual Brown Bag program.

Starve the War, Not the Nation!

RALLY TO REVERSE SCHOOL BUDGET CUTS

Wednesday, March 24, 5pm, 26 Court St.The Boston School Committee is preparing to vote (Mar. 24, 6 PM) on a budget that even more severely underfunds the public schools. Parents' groups are organizing a rally to demand that the school committee reject the mayor's proposed budget, and adopt a budget that fully funds children's needs.The Coalition for Equal Quality Education is organizing the rally announced above, and is also trying to pack the meeting with concerned parents and community members. And they are leafletting today (Friday3/12) and Saturday, and again Fri., Sat. next weekend, to publicize the issue and the rally.

DORCHESTER PEOPLE FOR PEACE will be leafleting during the rally, to demand adequate funding of schools, as well as jobs and other needs, funded by a 25% cut in military spending. Sandra McIntosh, of the Coalition for Equal Quality Education, was delighted to hear about the 25% campaign, and said their leaflet also says, stop the wars, put the money into schools. Rosemary K. is coordinating the DPP leafleting. Let her know if you can come. rosemarykean@yahoo.com

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED on the following dates:Today, Fri. 3/12: 1:30 and 4 PM: leaflet at Forest Hills T station (to reach high school students and people coming home from work) Sat/ 313: time and place TBA. Call the coalition, 617-756-3657Fri. 3/19: " " " " " "Sat. 3/20 " " " " " " (Becky should have updated info soon, 617-282-3783.) Wed. Mar. 24, 5 PM: rally outside the BPS headquarters, 26 Court St. Downtown 5:15: help DPP leaflet, at the rally; 6:00: stay if you are able to, for the School Committee meeting

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COALITION CALLS RALLY FOR JOBS AND CUTS IN MILITARY SPENDING Thursday, April 22

The Coalition to Fund Our Communities---Cut Military Spending 25% is organizing a rally at Roxbury Crossing T station, for Thurs. April 22, 4:30-6:30 PM. The rally will demand jobs for the unemployed, to be funded by a 25% cut in military spending. Coalition people will also be leafletting unemployment offices/Career Centers for several weeks before the rally to publicize the rally and the 25% demand. If you can help leaflet in April (4/5-4/22, weekdays), call Becky, 617-282-3783.

The Coalition is also scheduling a meeting with Congressman Michael Capuano, who represents nearly all of central Boston, to thank him for co-sponsoring the Congressional Black Caucus's bills to deny funding for the Afghanistan troop increase and to provide millions of jobs for the long-term unemployed; to push him to do more to get the jobs bill's provisions into a combined bill being written now in committee; and to ask him to support big cuts in military spending, in order to fund the jobs bill and other community needs. We will take him a big pile of the Coalition petition letters that groups including DPP have been gathering signatures on since late summer, as well as a copy of Mayor Menino's letter supporting the Coalition's demand.

And the Coalition is continuing to collect responses from community groups to its Community Budget Survey, which is gathering information to be used in compiling a budget showing what people in Boston neighborhoods think our city's share of a 25% cut in military spending should be used for. If you know a community group that you can get to respond to the on-line survey (this could take as little as 15 minutes), please get it them. The link ishttp://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FCLFPJQ

“LOCAL JOBS FOR AMERICA ACT” in House Representative George Miller (D., Calif.), filed legislation, which would keep more teachers in classrooms, more police officers on the beat, and make other investments in local communities around the country… Miller's Local Jobs for America Act recognizes the importance of investing in schools, creating public service jobs, and providing fiscal relief to state and local governments to preserve existing jobs and create new ones. The Local Jobs for America Act was introduced amid new signs that aggressive policy action is needed to address the persistent jobs crisis. More

JOB MARKET STUCK ON "PAUSE"This morning's Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report showed 36,000 payroll jobs lost in February, though a portion of that decline may have been due to the record snowstorms along the east coast. The data in the household survey, used to calculate the unemployment rate, was likely less affected by the storms, and thus showed conditions in the labor market holding steady in February, with the unemployment remaining at 9.7%. However, the underemployment rate (which includes not just the officially unemployed, but also jobless workers who have given up looking for work and part-time workers who want full time jobs) rose from 16.5% to 16.8%, offsetting some of the gains made in January, as the number of involuntary part-timers increased by nearly half a million workers

* In February, unemployment was 18.5% among workers age 16-24, 8.6% among workers age 25-54, and 7.1% among    workers age 55+ (increases of 6.7, 4.5, and 3.9   percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession).

* Unemployment was 15.8% among black workers, 12.4% among Hispanic workers, and 8.8% among white workers    (increases of 6.8, 6.1, and 4.4 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession).

* Unemployment was 10.7% for men, compared to 8.6% for    women (increases of 5.6 and 3.7 percentage points since    the start of the recession).

* For workers age 25 or older, unemployment reached 10.5% for high school educated workers and 5% for those with a college degree (increases of 5.8 and 2.9 percentage points, respectively, since the start of the recession).   More

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Coalition to FUND OUR COMMUNITIES---CUT MILITARY SPENDING 25%

The Coalition to Fund Our Communities---Cut Military Spending 25% formed last July at a meeting called by DPP and a dozen other community groups from Dorchester, Roxbury, and surrounding neighborhoods. An ad hoc steering committee has been meeting monthly since then, holding some lively strategy discussions and planning and carrying out some actions. So far over 20 community groups and agencies, big and small, are participating.

UJP 25% task force. See www.justicewithpeace.org/25-percent-solution and www.25percentsolution.org
Congressman Barney Frank is drafting a "dear colleague" letter that will urge President Obama to shift money from military to domestic spending and jobs. Once he's done, he and peace groups will convince other congresspeople to sign the letter. UJP's 25% task force is working with Frank on the letter, timing, and work plan. The task force is also talking with national peace groups to find out who wants to work on the military budget this year. Along the way it is looking for grassroots groups and networks to get a "bring our money home" campaign going across the country. Locally, more peace groups in eastern Massachusetts are taking up the campaign and linking up with people who are upset about cuts in schools, libraries, etc.

MAINE CAMPAIGN TO BRING OUR WAR $$ HOMETwo stations in Maine will run this one-minute ads for Bring Our War $$ Home in March. 17 Maine legislators have signed on to a letter asking their congresspeople to stop funding wars and use the money for education, etc, and a school board in North Anson voted to send a letter to same to redirect money from military spending to education.--Maine can't afford to fix its bridges or pave its roads, layoffs are happening throughout the state, and businesses are closing.--45 states across our nation are now in fiscal crisis. They, too, are closing schools and slashing programs for those in need. --Where will recovery come from when corporations are sending jobs off-shore in order to maximize profits? Maine’s share of the cost of wars overseas is now over $2.5 billion. Studies show that military spending creates far fewer jobs than if our tax dollars were invested in health care, home weatherization, or building rail systems. Imagine how $2.5 billion could have been used in our state creating good jobs doing things we need. The time has come to call on our elected officials to publicly say: Bring Our War Dollars Home. For more information visit www.BringOurWarDollarsHome.org

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and the WARS GRIND ON. . .

9^th Congressional District Peace Activists Met with Rep. Lynch

Members of the 9th CD Peace and Justice Coalition (in which DPP participates) – at the initiative of UJP’s Cole Harrison --had a meeting with Congressman Lynch on March 5 to press him on the issues of the Wars, the Military budget, and Israel/Palestine.

Lynch, whose anti-war position has improved since his initial vote for the Iraq invasion, refused to pledge support for a speedy withdrawal from AFGHANISTAN. [and he was one of only two votes from Mass against the recent Kucinich resolution]. Lynch claimed to back President Obama’s desire to “finish up” our involvement there as soon as feasible, noting the “timeline” for the beginning of withdrawal – but not a stated “zero” troops end-point date. Lynch claimed we were in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban and uphold the “rights of Afghan women”. . .

On the MILITARY BUDGET, Lynch responded that there is a lot of waste abuse and fraud and possibly too many US foreign military bases, but failed to make any specific commitment.

Lynch was more forthcoming on the issue of ISRAEL/PALESTINE, speaking forcefully for a more even-handed policy, with less unquestioning support for Israeli policies, which, he argued, was neither in the interests of Israel, nor the Palestinians. Lynch recounted his several visits to Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, where he saw the devastation first-hand and took issue with current Israeli policies. Lynch says met on Israel/Palestine with Biden, US envoy James Jones, and also Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Brian Baird (D-WA), and Donna Edwards (D-MD) to push for new initiatives. [Lynch was also a signer -- along with Michael Capuano, William Delahunt, Jim McGovern, John Tierney, John Olver Reps from Mass – of a letter to their colleagues asking the for an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza]. Lynch seems to have a genuine and personal commitment on this issue and the group urged him to speak out forcefully and take a leadership role in the House.

HOUSE REJECTS PLAN TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN BY YEAR’S ENDIn a strong bipartisan endorsement of the Obama administration’s policy in Afghanistan, the House of Representatives on Wednesday soundly rejected a call to withdraw American troops by the end of the year. After a three-hour debate held to allow antiwar Democrats to air their dissent, the House voted 356 to 65 to reject the withdrawal proposal. Five Republicans joined 60 Democrats in support of pulling out; 189 Democrats and 167 Republicans were opposed. More

H. CON. RES. 248: “Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan.”

Roll call here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll098.xml All but Lynch and Delahunt voted in favor from Mass

Fiction of Marjah as City Was US MisinformationFor weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marjah was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centers in Helmand. It turns out, however, that the picture of Marjah presented by military officials and obediently reported by major news media is one of the clearest and most dramatic pieces of misinformation of the entire war, apparently aimed at hyping the offensive as a historic turning point in the conflict. More

Washington’s Cult of Narcissism and IraqWe’ve now been at war with, or in, Iraq for almost 20 years, and intermittently at war in Afghanistan for 30 years. Think of it as nearly half a century of experience, all bad. And what is it that Washington seems to have concluded? In Afghanistan, where one disaster after another has occurred, that we Americans can finally do more of the same, somewhat differently calibrated, and so much better. In Iraq, where we had, it seemed, decided that enough was enough and we should simply depart, the calls from a familiar crew for us to stay are growing louder by the week. The Iraqis, so the argument goes, need us. After all, who would leave them alone, trusting them not to do what they’ve done best in recent years: cut one another’s throats? More

Official dogma: Iraq War a success It was only a matter of time before American elites abandoned their faux regret over Iraq. For tribalists and nationalists, America can err in its execution but never in its motives. There's no question… that it's now official dogma that this was the right thing to do, or at least that we produced something great and wonderful for that country, as was our intent all along (leaving aside the what is actually happening in Iraq). It's nothing short of nauseating to watch those responsible glorify what they did without weighing -- or, in Friedman's case, affirmatively dismissing as irrelevant -- the extreme amounts of death and suffering that they caused, all based on false pretenses. More

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COST of WAR . . .

TAKE ACTION! Ask your members of Congress to reject the president's proposal to increase Pentagon spending. Ask them to find ways to reduce the military budget so that the government has money to spend to provide real security for people in the United States. Tell your Congressional representative to vote against war funding. Call 202-224-3121.

A Titanic Budget in an Ocean of IcebergsWithin the context of the total budget, then, so-called non-security discretionary spending represents a mere 11% of proposed 2011 spending. In other words, Obama’s present plans to chip away at the debt involve leaving 89% of the budget untouched. Only the $370 billion going to myriad domestic social programs will be on the chopping block. What's in that $370 billion? Well, for starters, programs that focus on the environment, energy, and science. In the 2011 budget, these categories combined are projected to receive $79 billion or 6% of total domestic discretionary spending… aggregated increases in military spending over the next decade will exceed $500 billion, drowning twice-over the projected $250 billion in non-security discretionary savings from the president’s cuts over the same time period… aggregated increases in military spending over the next decade will exceed $500 billion, drowning twice-over the projected $250 billion in non-security discretionary savings from the president’s cuts over the same time period. More

Hill To Weigh War Supplemental Next Month [Defense Daily, March 2, 2010]
Congress is expected to start considering in mid-April President Barack Obama’s $33 billion request for supplemental war funding for the current fiscal year, which is expected to be approved without any major skirmishes. Though Obama pledged to end the Bush administration practice of funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through such emergency appropriations bills, he has requested the $33 billion FY ’10 supplemental to fund a buildup of troops in Afghanistan. More

There is a detailed report from the Project On Defense Alternatives, which publishes lots of useful material on military spending and “defense” issues at their web site

The National Priorities Project analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent. Their web site here

. . . and COST of EMPIRE

HOW MANY US MILITARY BASES?

Every year the Department of Defense publishes its “Base Structure Report” – a kind of inventory and real estate guide to US military facilities in the US and around the world. You can find the latest one (for fiscal year 2008) here.

5,429 “sites” -- of which 761 are “foreign” and 104 are on “US territories” (such as Guam, Puerto Rico). (These don’t include “temporary” bases in Iraq or Afghanistan.)

MOTHER JONES ran a series of articles on US bases around the world, of which this is one. An index to the series, “Mission Creep,” is here: http://motherjones.com/special-reports/2008/08/mission-creep

PACIFIC PUSHBACK: Has the U.S. Empire of Bases Reached Its High-Water Mark? For a country with a pacifist constitution, Japan is bristling with weaponry. Indeed, that Asian land has long functioned as a huge aircraft carrier and naval base for U.S. military power. We couldn’t have fought the Korean and Vietnam Wars without the nearly 90 military bases scattered around the islands of our major Pacific ally. Even today, Japan remains the anchor of what’s left of America’s Cold War containment policy when it comes to China and North Korea. From the Yokota and Kadena air bases, the United States can dispatch troops and bombers across Asia, while the Yokosuka base near Tokyo is the largest American naval installation outside the United States. You’d think that, with so many Japanese bases, the United States wouldn’t make a big fuss about closing one of them. Think again. More

This web site monitors the World-Wide Resistance Movement to US Military BasesInternational Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases

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Bomb, Bomb, Bomb IRAN?

Déjà Vu: War Propaganda Works. . .

CNN POLL: AMERICANS BELIEVE IRAN HAS NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Seven in 10 Americans believe that Iran currently has nuclear weapons, according to a new national poll. Friday's release of the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey comes just hours after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Islamic Republic isn't seeking and doesn't believe in pursuing nuclear weapons. Khamenei was responding to a draft United Nations report that said that Iran may be working to develop a nuclear weapon. The poll indicates that 71 percent of the public says Iran has nuclear weapons, with just over one in four disagreeing. More than six in ten think the U.S. should take economic and diplomatic efforts to get Iran to shut down their nuclear program, with only a quarter calling for immediate military action. More

AN APPEAL To Anti-War Organizations & Activists To Oppose The Increasing Threats Against Iran
Around the world, anti-war activists are preparing for major protests this spring to oppose the continuing U.S.-led occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a storm of developments is dramatically increasing tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. In response, the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) is issuing this appeal to the anti-war movements in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries to raise the demands of “No war, no sanctions, no internal interference in Iran!” More

* * * *

ISRAEL / PALESTINE

Rebuke On New Housing Comes As Israel Seeks To Reaffirm U.S. RelationsTwo years ago, Israel announced plans to build new homes in east Jerusalem just as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was preparing to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, prompting Rice's spokesman to characterize the move as "not helpful." Put in a similar predicament Tuesday after Israel's announcement of 1,600 new housing units in east Jerusalem, Vice President Biden swiftly decided to condemn the move in the harshest terms. More

Biden to Netanyahu behind closed doors: "This is starting to get dangerous for us" Publicly, Vice President Joe Biden tried to keep up a positive tone in his good will visit to Israel this week. But privately, the Israeli press reports, he had sharper words for Israeli decisions Biden said jeopardize the peace process and U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq, fight insurgents and stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan, and strengthen an international and regional alliance to pressure Iran… People who heard what Biden said were stunned. “This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden castigated his interlocutors. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.” The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism. More

JStreet PETITION: Tell Obama: Time for Strong Action on Two States, Not More TalkSign our petition to the President right now. It'll only take a moment. We'll deliver your signatures in person to the White House on Monday. Here's the petition text: http://action.jstreet.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1374

ISRAEL PLANNING 50,000 HOUSING UNITS IN EAST JERUSALEM Some 50,000 new housing units in Jerusalem neighborhoods beyond the Green Line are in various stages of planning and approval, planning officials told Haaretz. They said Jerusalem's construction plans for the next few years, even decades, are expected to focus on East Jerusalem… The state - in the form of the Israel Lands Administration and the Housing and Construction Ministry - is the main force behind these projects. Private businesses and political organizations - including settlers groups, which are building in the midst of Palestinian neighborhoods - are also advancing the projects. More

7 Years After Killing, Corrie Family Law Suit against Israel Rachel Corrie, a twenty-three-year-old student from Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago as she stood before a Palestinian home facing demolition. Today, a trial opens in Israel in a lawsuit brought by Corrie’s family against the Israeli government. The eyewitness testimony is expected to challenge Israel’s version of events with evidence that she was clearly visible to the soldiers, standing before the bulldozer in her florescent orange jacket. We spend the hour with Rachel Corrie’s family: her father Craig, her mother Cindy, and her sister Sarah. More

Poll: Half of Israeli high schoolers oppose equal rights for Arabs Nearly half of Israel's high school students do not believe that Israeli-Arabs are entitled to the same rights as Jews in Israel, according to the results of a new survey released yesterday. The same poll revealed that more than half the students would deny Arabs the right to be elected to the Knesset… In response to the question of whether Arab citizens should be granted rights equal to that of Jews, 49.5 percent answered in the negative. The issue highlighted the deep fault lines separating religious and secular youths, with 82 percent of religious students saying they opposed equal rights for Arabs while just 39 percent of secular students echoed that sentiment. More

HOW MUCH MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL?Have you ever wondered how much your state or county provides in military aid to Israel? Have you ever asked yourself how those tax dollars could be used instead in your community to fund unmet social needs? We were curious as well, which is why we are excited to launch today "How Much Aid to Israel?"--a new project of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. More

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OTHER EVENTS

Saturday, March 13, GREEN WEEK: March 8-15 - Did You Know About The Green Wave In Boston? 10am-1pm, Great Hall, Codman Square. An educational call to action on the protection of climate change. Have you ever thought about the health impact in our communities as it relates to pollution in our neighborhoods? Did you ever think about how paying high utility bills can affect not only your pockets but the community health and our environment? Did you ever think about the connection to repairing our homes and how this relates to utility bills, jobs and improving our quality of life? Join the Green Fight for Our Communities. We Will Be Giving out FREE Energy Efficient Light Bulbs and Sign Ups for FREE Shower Heads and Water Fixtures to get you started on greening your homes and our neighborhoods! YOU MUST RSVP for the event and call in if you want to take advantage of our FREE Light Bulbs Call us at 617-265-7100! GET INVOLVED! New England United 4 Justice 617-905-9939

Monday, March 15, at the Roxbury Center for the Arts at the Hibernian Hall. 182-186A Dudley Street Boston, MA 02119 from 4:30 - 8:00pm - Rides are available to local members We are meeting at the office at 4:pm to attend. From 4:30 - 5:30 there will be food, registration and then we begin

Sunday, March 14, Film: "JUST MARRIED" (Israel, 2005), 7pm, First Parish in Cambridge Unitarian Universalist Church3 Church St • Cambridge. A documentary film about Israel's apartheid marriage laws that discriminate against Arabs and Palestinians. Israel's 2003 "Citizenship Law" states that residents of the Palestinian territories may not enter the Jewish state, even if married to an Israeli. So what happens when a Palestinian falls in love with another Arab -- who happens to live in Israel? Suggested donation $5.00. Sponsored by United for Justice with Peace Palestine Task Force, Justice in the Middle East Task Force at First Parish Cambridge, Code Pink Greater Boston and Jewish Voice for Peace, Boston Chapter, Israeli Apartheid Week March 1-14film showing will be followed by a discussion of Israel’s apartheid practices

Thursday March 25, NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: "This Time We Went Too Far" Truth and consequences of the Gaza invasion, 7:15-8:15, Harvard Law School, Langdell South (map) Moderated by Professor Duncan Kennedy

Submitted by DPP on March 13, 2010 - 7:21pm.

'Pragmatism' Is Prolonging the War

“On Capitol Hill, most Democrats seem to have settled on a tactical approach of simultaneously ratifying and deploring the continuation of the war. The approach may or may not be savvy politics in a narrow sense of gaining temporary partisan political advantage. But it is ultimately destructive to refuse to do the one thing that the Constitution empowers Congress to do to halt a U.S. war – stop appropriating taxpayer money for it." Read more.

Submitted by DPP on March 19, 2007 - 11:50am.

Congress

Ban Cluster Bomb Weapons!

There is growing interest and action in banning cluster bombs following revelations of their horrible effects during Israel’s war against Lebanon. Jewish Voice for Peace, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Amer. Task Force for Lebanon are among the growing number of groups issuing statements, organizing petitions, distributing information. To learn more and sign a petition to ban these weapons here.

On February 9, Senators Feinstein and Leahy introduced Senate bill 594, the "Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2007" to restrict the use, sale or transfer of cluster bombs where 1% or higher of the bomblets fail to detonate on contact. Their bill would also ensure that the risk of civilian exposure to these weapons is minimized. See also their press release. Sen. Kennedy (but not Kerry) is one of the co-sponsors.

Submitted by DPP on March 18, 2007 - 9:07am.

350 Are Held In Immigration Raid

Hundreds of immigration officers and police descended on a New Bedford leather goods factory yesterday , charged top officials with employing illegal immigrants, and rounded up 350 workers who could not prove they were in the country legally. The waterfront company, Michael Bianco Inc., was using the illegal immigrants to produce safety vests and backpacks for the US military, officials said.

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DPP Update - September 3, 2010

Saturday, September 11, UJP Strategy Conference March for Jobs, Peace and Justice

Anti-mosque sentiment rages far from Ground Zero

Mosque site burning smacks of Klan action

FCNL: “We Stand with American Muslims”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOP2V_np2c0

KRUGMAN: US unemployment -- Don't let the elite pass the buck

America’s Biggest Jobs Program — the U.S. Military

Green Activists Need Allies in Anti-War Movement

Civilian “Contractors” to Take U.S. Lead After Military Leaves Iraq

Western wars vs. Muslim women

Afghan Women Have Already Been Abandoned

Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan...

Dismembering Afghanistan

No ‘Graceful Exit’

'Pragmatism' Is Prolonging the War

Ban Cluster Bomb Weapons!

350 Are Held In Immigration Raid