David Swanson is a longtime peace and justice activist and author of War Is a Lie and Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union.
"We Did Not Choose This War" and Other Hypocrisies
By Leah Bolger and David Swanson "We did not choose this war. This war came to us on 9/11. We don't go looking for a fight. But when we see our homeland violated, when we see our fellow citizens killed, then we understand what we have to do." These are ...
Sibel Edmonds' new book, "Classified Woman," is like an FBI file on the FBI, only without the incompetence. The experiences she recounts resemble K.'s trip to the castle, as told by Franz Kafka, only without the pleasantness and humanity. I've read a million reviews of nonfiction books about our government ...
What a Real Peace Candidate Looks Like
I recently wrote about a conversation I'd had with a fairly typical Democratic candidate for Congress (O.K. perhaps he was below average) -- a former military officer who claims to be for peace, but whose every solution involves war. I asked him to make commitments on what sort of things ...
Veteran Disrupts CNN's War Mongering
Scott Camil, a veteran of the second-longest U.S. war in history, that on Vietnam, radically changed a discussion of the longest war in U.S. history, that on Afghanistan, on CNN on Sunday. CNN's Don Lemon tried repeatedly to explain troops posing with body parts as an inscrutable result of war, ...
Is Peace Getting in the Way of Our War Plans?
What a bizarre circumstance this is. The irrational Iranians are behaving too reasonably. The unmovable Iranians seem to be compromising too readily. This past weekend, the United States and other major nations finally spoke with Iran. In 10 hours of talks (or 5 with translations), minus a lunch break, Iran ...
As We Ruin Our Kids' Planet, They Take Us to Court
Here in the land of the free lunch and the home of the instant gratification, most people make a huge deal out of children's rights or fetuses' rights, or occasionally both. Which is extremely bizarre -- crazier perhaps than bombing houses in Afghanistan to protect the rights of the women ...
The Statues in Our Public Spaces Lie
There are lies of omission as well as commission, and the statues in Charlottesville, Va. -- typical of other towns -- do both. We have statues of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, a generic Confederate soldier, George Rogers Clark, Lewis and Clark (with Sacagawea kneeling like their dog), and on ...
Robots Kill, But the Blood Is on Our Hands
In her spare time, between nonstop peace activism and leading international exchanges, Medea Benjamin has somehow managed to write the best book yet on the most inhuman form of war yet. The book is called "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control." The foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich and a form to ...
Remarks at Left Forum Last night in New York City, by my unscientific estimate, two-thirds of the people on the streets had alcohol in them. A young man celebrating his wedding engagement was stabbed to death. A party a third floor apartment to collapse into the second floor. And the ...
Hunger-Striking Students Finally See Some Progress for University of Virginia Workers
Crossposted from AlternetA living-wage campaign at the University of Virginia has been pressing the university's six-figure-salary administrators to treat its workers better for the past 14 years, sometimes winning higher wages, but always watching them be wiped out by the soaring cost of living in Charlottesville. The workers, lacking a ...
The Peace Movement Needs Kucinich, With or Without Congress
If Congressman Dennis Kucinich becomes simply Dennis Kucinich sans the "Congressman" his value to the peace movement need not diminish. I admit it's been nice having someone in Congress who would say and do what he would. There have been and remain other relatively strong voices for peace, but none ...
Un-Cheating Justice: Two Years Left to Prosecute Bush
Elizabeth Holtzman knows something about struggles for justice in the U.S. government. She was a member of Congress and of the House Judiciary Committee that voted for articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon in 1973. She proposed the bill that in 1973 required that "state secrets" claims be evaluated ...
Why Students Are Hunger Striking in Virginia
Twelve students at the University of Virginia on Saturday began a hunger strike for a living wage policy for university employees. They've taken this step after having exhausted just about every other possible approach over a period of 14 years. I was part of the campaign way back when it ...
An Election We Should Be Following
For progressives and populists around the country who take an interest in Congressional races there are always a few good challengers we might hope to send to Washington. Incumbents, we assume, can take care of themselves. But in Northern Ohio, redistricting has thrown two incumbents into one district. It's a ...
A Crazy Republican Attack That Obama Himself Agrees With
Imagine if a bunch of the craziest war-hungry Republicans in the House filmed themselves in a nutty bat-guano video packed with lies addressed to the President of the United States. And then imagine President Barack Obama almost immediately agreeing with them. I can think of two ways in which such ...
Panetta: Military Spending Is Going Up
On Thursday, Leon Panetta held a press conference announcing what he called "cuts" to military spending. The first question following his remarks pointed out that the "cuts" are to dream budgets, while the actual spending will be increased over Panetta's 10-year plan. Is there any year, the reporter asked, out ...
The State of Obama's 2008 Promises
Presidential candidate Barack Obama won the Democratic primary last time around largely on the strength of his extremely limited and inconsistent opposition to the war on Iraq. Then he chose as his running mate Senator Joe Biden, a man who had led efforts in the U.S. Senate to support the ...
Constitutional Amendment to Create Public Financing Introduced by Kucinich
I recently recommened a comprehensive Constitutional amendment addressing the corruption of our elections. The largest piece of it, largely inspired by an amendment drafted by Russell Simmons, had not been introduced in Congress . . . until now. Congressman Dennis Kucinich has just introduced HJRes100 which proposes this Constitutional Amendment: ...
Charlottesville, Va., City Council Passes Resolution Opposing War on Iran
The City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and the University of Virginia, passed on Tuesday evening, January 17, 2012, a resolution believed to be a first in the country, opposing the launching of a war on Iran, as well as calling for an end to ...
Corporate Personhood Cannot Withstand Organized Persons
There are many schemes now for undoing the doctrines under which corporations claim constitutional rights and bribery is deemed constitutionally protected "speech." Every single one of these schemes depends on a massive movement of public pressure all across the homeland formerly known as the United States of America. With such ...
Corporate Personhood Worse, Ending It Easier, Than You Think
Don't take it from me. Take it from the book being published today that will mainstream the movement to end corporate personhood: "Corporations Are Not People: Why They Have More Rights Than You Do, And What You Can Do About It," by Jeff Clements with foreword by Bill Moyers. Clements ...
The push to attack Iran has been on for so long that entire categories of arguments for it (such as that the Iranians are fueling the Iraqi resistance) have come and gone. At DontAttackIran.org we've been collecting the arguments for and against attacking Iran for years. We've campaigned against an ...
Obama Crowned Himself on New Year's Eve
These were among the complaints registered the last time this nation had a king: "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good."He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent ...
1. Toilet Paper. Instead of hoarding toilet paper for the coming disaster and anarchy that should never be out of your mind if you want to remain easily manipulable by cynical demagogues, invest in providing clean and accessible bathrooms for the homeless. This will radically improve the lives of millions ...
This time of year is ideal for reflecting on the miracle of Christmas 1914, that famous temporary truce and friendship between opposing sides in the midst of a war. Here was a new type of slaughter confronted with a new type of humanism, the leading edges of two opposing trends. ...
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May 2nd, 2012
"We Did Not Choose This War" and Other Hypocrisies
By Leah Bolger and David Swanson "We did not choose this war. This war came to us on 9/11. We don't go looking for a ...
April 30th, 2012
Sibel Edmonds' new book, "Classified Woman," is like an FBI file on the FBI, only without the incompetence. The experiences she recounts resemble K.'s trip ...
April 25th, 2012
What a Real Peace Candidate Looks Like
I recently wrote about a conversation I'd had with a fairly typical Democratic candidate for Congress (O.K. perhaps he was below average) -- a former ...
April 22nd, 2012
Veteran Disrupts CNN's War Mongering
Scott Camil, a veteran of the second-longest U.S. war in history, that on Vietnam, radically changed a discussion of the longest war in U.S. history, ...
April 19th, 2012
Is Peace Getting in the Way of Our War Plans?
What a bizarre circumstance this is. The irrational Iranians are behaving too reasonably. The unmovable Iranians seem to be compromising too readily. This past weekend, ...
April 10th, 2012
As We Ruin Our Kids' Planet, They Take Us to Court
Here in the land of the free lunch and the home of the instant gratification, most people make a huge deal out of children's rights ...
March 29th, 2012
The Statues in Our Public Spaces Lie
There are lies of omission as well as commission, and the statues in Charlottesville, Va. -- typical of other towns -- do both. We have ...
February 9th, 2011
Nonviolent Activism Is Middle Eastern
Muslims can look back to the classic nonviolent struggle against British empire waged by the Pashtuns from 1930-1934 in what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan. ...
May 19th, 2011
'Support Killing People or Lose Your Job'
"Ban the bombers are afraid of a fight "Peace hurts business and that ain't right "How do I know? I read it in the Daily ...
June 24th, 2011
Fifty years ago, freedom riders traveled by bus into the U.S. South. Now American freedom riders are joining their allies from around the world on ...
September 2nd, 2011
No, not 29 million job offers. I'm no better at applying for jobs than you are, and my town offers nothing but dead-end McJobs or ...
July 1st, 2011
How We Really Get Rid of Clarence Thomas
Am I the only one who noticed that ex-Nixon lawyer John Dean's article "John Dean Knows How to Get Rid of Clarence Thomas" concludes thus: ...
May 2nd, 2011
The plane I was on landed in Washington, D.C., Sunday night, and the pilot came on the intercom to tell everyone to celebrate: our government ...
October 8th, 2011
I've been coughing and vomiting, and my head aches from pepper spray. Video from what happened is below. We intended to hold signs and sing inside ...
'The Rich & the Rest of Us' by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West and 'Drift' by Rachel Maddow
Mike, was the triple overtime Outback Bowl come-from-behind win the greatest Spartans game ever?
Yes -- or at least it will be until their appearance in next year's Rose Bowl, a game which... Continue Reading
Michael Moore on MSNBC, Super Tuesday, 3/6/12
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Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 2/27/12
Michael Moore on the Rachel Maddow Show, 2/20/12
Michael Moore on Conan, 12/8/11
