In the spring of 2000, my oldest son, Casey Sheehan, was at a crossroads. He was completing his third year at a community college and he had finished all of his lower division requirements. Casey earned an AA in Theatre Arts and was hoping to transfer to Sacramento State and get his teaching degree to teach elementary school. However, working full time and going to college was taking its toll on Casey.

Somehow, an Army recruiter got hold of him at the right time and he was beguiled by the promises of instant wealth (a $20,000 signing bonus that somehow metamorphosed into $4,500 when he finished basic training); a specialty that was attractive to him (Chaplain's assistant) that was transformed into being a humvee mechanic when he reached basic; and promises of education that never, ever materialized. After Casey was KIA in Iraq, we got a check for $1,200; his educational benefit that was taken out of HIS pay for the first year he was in the Army: One hundred dollars a month for twelve months. Not even one penny of interest for the entire time that the government had his money.

In 2002, Andy, my youngest son, graduated from high school. Uncle Sam allowed Casey to come out on leave to attend his brother's graduation and the pictures of my four children together at that time break my heart. This was after the tragedy of 9-11, but before the insane invasion of Iraq. Andy was not much of a student and did not do as well as Casey when he tried to take classes at Solano Community College. Not every person is designed to take an academic route, so that was okay, but I worried how was Andy going to support himself without an education? One day, almost miraculously, an apprenticeship job with Operating Engineers, Local 3, fell into Andy's lap. He was hired to be a land surveyor's apprentice at age 19 and now at age 24, he is a journeyman in a great union with great pay and benefits. These great opportunities, however, are few and far between for our young people today.

Andy's union bent over backwards to help him make up his apprenticeship classes after Casey was killed, and Andy is getting a quality education while he is getting on the job training. I thank Andy's lucky stars everyday that he was saved from joining the military: a fate worse than death, for sure.

Any day now, my daughter's son, Jonah, will make his appearance into this world. Because of his Uncle Casey's sacrifice, our family will do everything in our power to make sure Jonah does not become cannon fodder or a paid assassin for the Military Industrial Complex. There will be no more naïve, but well-intentioned mistakes in the Sheehan family! Even more important than this, however, the tale of three sons should be instructive to the US population as a whole.

A recent AP article lamented the Democrat's "politically painful" choice of funding BushCo's occupation of Iraq for another year. Of course, what the Democrats really mean is that they have to fund Iraq and Afghanistan past the November elections because the leadership is counting on the fact that we Americans have short-term memory when it comes to their callous political expediency. However, now, with the economy in virtual free-fall and the mess in the Middle East worsening by the day, we are all beginning to feel the sting of the personal cost of this occupation.

As a political candidate against the number one Bush enabler, Nancy Pelosi, I have felt the immense personal pain of her politically "painful" decisions and I have a plan that would help our country (and the world, especially Iraq) recover from eight years of the Bush Horror and prevent more Caseys and promote more Andys and Jonahs.

First, as an emergency measure, we need to start bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. We are borrowing from Jonah's future to fund these occupations at 16 billion a month. We will need to use some of that money as reparations to these countries and to help our veterans reintegrate wholly into society. It has recently been estimated that 18 vets per day commit suicide (6-7 Iraq vets) and 250 more per week try, but are not successful.

Secondly, instead of using this money to fund death and destruction, we immediately institute, or re-institute jobs programs that put our unemployed neighbors back to work repairing bridges, levees, roads, schools and other infrastructure that has been crumbling for the last few decades.

Such barriers to fair trade, as NAFTA and other "free" trade agreements need to be repealed and we need to rebuild our trade unions to be the bargaining force that they once were. We need a place for our young Andys to go to learn positive trades with decent pay and benefits.

Finally, to prevent more Caseys, we need to reduce our Pentagon budget to a rational and moral one that would be strong on defense, but not strong enough to be able to staff almost one thousand bases world-wide, nor to be able to embark on illegal wars of aggression. Our "defense" budget has now surpassed an obscene one trillion dollars a year (not counting the twin disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan) and the nation that spends the second most is, with over triple the US population, China, at 65 billion. Adjusting for the fact that we can be the "mightiest" nation on earth, I propose a DOD budget of 70 billion dollars.

We can use the money we save every year to truly reduce taxes on the middle and working classes and invest in institutions and programs that truly make a nation strong: health care, education, jobs, and sustainable forms of energy and farming.

The vampire of US fascist militarism is sucking this country and world dry. To ensure a healthy world for Jonah and all of our children, the monster needs to be stopped!

To invest in the future of our children and grandchildren, please go to: CindyforCongress.org.

On October 11th, 2002, the U.S. Senate was faced with a choice: Vote YES to start George's War or vote NO to stop the war before it started. The following 23 Senators were not duped by George W. Bush and his administration:

Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Robert Byrd (D-WV)
Lincoln Chafee (R-RI)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
John Corzine (D-NJ)
Mark Dayton (D-MN)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Bob Graham (D-FL)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Jim Jeffords (I-VT)
Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Paul Sarbanes (D-MD)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Paul Wellstone (D-MN)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

SOURCE: Senate.gov

THREE DAYS BEFORE the vote, on October 2nd, 2002, Illinois State Senator Barack Obama delivered the following speech, pleading with the Senate to not make the disastrous decision of letting George W. Bush go to war with Iraq (unfortunately, Sen. Hillary Clinton didn't heed his warning):

Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq

Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that although this has been billed as an anti-war rally, I stand before you as someone who is not opposed to war in all circumstances. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest in history, and yet it was only through the crucible of the sword, the sacrifice of multitudes, that we could begin to perfect this union, and drive the scourge of slavery from our soil. I don't oppose all wars.

My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton's army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain. I don't oppose all wars.

After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again. I don't oppose all wars. And I know that in this crowd today, there is no shortage of patriots, or of patriotism.

What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income - to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression. That's what I'm opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics. Now let me be clear - I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.

But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors, that the Iraqi economy is in shambles, that the Iraqi military a fraction of its former strength, and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

So for those of us who seek a more just and secure world for our children, let us send a clear message to the President today. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. You want a fight, President Bush?

Let's fight to make sure that the UN inspectors can do their work, and that we vigorously enforce a non-proliferation treaty, and that former enemies and current allies like Russia safeguard and ultimately eliminate their stores of nuclear material, and that nations like Pakistan and India never use the terrible weapons already in their possession, and that the arms merchants in our own country stop feeding the countless wars that rage across the globe. You want a fight, President Bush?

Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil, through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil. Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair.

The consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not -- we will not -- travel down that hellish path blindly. Nor should we allow those who would march off and pay the ultimate sacrifice, who would prove the full measure of devotion with their blood, to make such an awful sacrifice in vain.

SOURCE: BarackObama.com]]>http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=1006http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=10062008-05-01-05:00Monday, April 28th, 2008
INSIDE AMERICAN ROYALTY'S SECURITY BUBBLE ...BY MIKE FERNER

Washington, D.C. — The First Family Security Bubble was nearly pried open for a moment last Friday; but in the end Disneyland remained blessedly undisturbed.

On a particularly warm spring evening, Laura and Jenna Bush alighted from a squadron of black SUVs at the Borders book store in downtown Washington, D.C., right on schedule at 7:00 pm. Flanked by Secret Service agents, they went inside to an area set up for authors to sign books – yes, sign books. The two Bush women have co-authored a 32-page children's book, "Read All About It," the story of Tyrone, a youngster who is good at everything in school but reading.

In line to have her copy signed, and more importantly, to get a moment to deliver a letter to the authors, waited Gilda Carbonaro, the mother of a U.S. Marine Sergeant who died a quite terrible death in Iraq.

After nearly an hour wait, Gilda approached the table to proffer her book for a signature. "So that they wouldn't see me as threatening, I made sure to introduce myself as a grade school teacher, like Jenna," she said.

The moment she got her signed book back, she took her letter out from within the pages of the book and extended it to Laura and Jenna. Not 500 words long, it was laminated so it would clearly not be in something as suspicious-looking as an envelope.

"At that moment, swooping down out of absolutely nowhere, a Secret Service agent grabbed it out of my hand," Gilda explained. But before she was hustled away, she extracted a promise from the younger Bush to read it.

After her brief encounter with American royalty, the member of Gold Star Families Speak Out said, "If I had the chance, I would've liked to ask Laura Bush, ‘What would you consider enough of a real emergency to urge your kids to enlist? If New Jersey was invaded? Your husband constantly tells us that all hangs in the balance in this war. Just what would it take for your family to really risk something?"

You may be interested to read what Gilda Carbonaro wrote to Laura and Jenna Bush. Heaven knows they're not likely to, inside the bubble.

Laura and Jenna Bush
c/o Borders Books
14th and F Streets NW
Washington, D.C.

April 25, 2008

Dear Laura and Jenna Bush,

As you promote your new children's book, "Read All About It," and advocate for literacy tonight I hope you will take but a few moments to read these heartfelt lines.

I write to you as one of thousands of parents and family members whose loved ones have been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan; whose child, parent or spouse has returned blinded or deaf, armless or legless, or unable to ever move their limbs again; or perhaps have returned apparently unharmed, but with nightmares and a ticking timebomb in their minds.

You may think this a grim postscript to an evening's chat about a book for children, but when someone you love has been taken from you forever, or returned so terribly damaged you barely know them, it becomes foremost in your thoughts every waking moment. You then begin to understand what is truly grim. And, I must add, there are those among us who still carry such unspeakable pain and anger they've become all but exhausted.

But many of us have felt exhaustion be replaced by an energy and a clarity of purpose we have never experienced before. One thing that has become clear to us is an answer to the question, "How could anyone send the youth of its nation to invade Iraq?" We see now how differently someone would answer that question if they suffered the anguish of a family member being killed as the result.

Your children, Mrs. Bush, are safe and I am glad for you. But I wonder, have you ever urged them to enlist in this heroic adventure? Your husband has told us many times how important this cause is. Your children appear well qualified, and as part of the First Family you've no doubt taught them the value of demonstrating leadership for the nation.

Why, then, has the price for this war been paid only by people like my son, Marine Corps Sgt. Alessandro Carbonaro, who died May 10, 2006, eight days after being horrifically burned in an IED blast in Al Anbar Province, Iraq?

Can you not see the simple, basic unfairness of asking others to do what you yourself are unwilling to do? Have you drifted so far from an understanding of fundamental justice that you cannot see the contradictions apparent to so many of us?

These are not rhetorical questions. They are as real as the knot in our stomachs and the ache in our hearts. It is time – and past time – that you face these questions without blinking or dodging and give us a satisfactory answer.

Most Sincerely,

Gilda Carbonaro
Bethesda, Maryland

###

Mike Ferner is a member of Veterans For Peace and works part-time for DemocracyRising.US.

PELOSI: I don't even think about it much. You know, I have a day job. We're here trying to...
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi on Larry King Live
April 24, 2008

I arrived home from Oakland where I had just been doing my day/night job and I turned on my TV in time to see the end of the Larry King interview with my Congressional opponent, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca). I sat on my couch, switched on the TV, and there she was. I watched for a few seconds while she blamed George Bush for taking the billions of dollars that she gives him every six months (like clockwork) to continue the explicitly illegal and infinitely immoral occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then, out of the clear blue, Larry asked her about my candidacy. This was the first time, to my knowledge that she has been publicly confronted about me. I have never seen her without her mask on and last night was no exception. She talked about my candidacy reflecting the dissatisfaction of the American public with the war and when he asked her if she was surprised that I had chosen her to run against, she condescendingly said the above.

First of all, I hope she makes the most out of her "day job" for the next eight months or so, because the people of San Francisco are going to remove her and hire me in November. The current issue of San Francisco Magazine asks this compelling question on the cover: "Has Speaker Pelosi been a failure?" The article then pretty much allows the Speaker, in interview style, to come to her own conclusion that she has not been a failure, but if that were true, our troops would be out of Iraq, BushCo would be out of the White House and our country would not be in a devastating recession as we speak.

Nancy Pelosi counts as two of her major "accomplishments" things that most people consider weak at best and pandering at most. In her 100 hours agenda, she did get an increase in the Federal minimum wage to $7.25 by next summer. The New York Times called it a "major victory" for low-income workers. By next summer, with the weekly increase of $84.00, low-income workers may be able to fill their gas tanks and buy a bag of groceries. In 2003, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated in a report called "2003 Poverty Guidelines" that a living wage for a family of four was $8.85 an hour. The "generous" increase in the minimum wage level doesn't even bring workers up to 2003 poverty levels when the cost of living is becoming prohibitive for nearly everyone except the wealthy who profit from federal tax cuts to compensate for having to pay their employees a higher, but still near-slave wage.

In a current ad campaign, Nancy sits on a love-seat with Newt Gingrich yammering about working together to create a better ecology, however her Congress passed another, too-little/too-late bill to benefit corporations while harming our environment and future. By 2017 all autos sold in the US must have a minimum of 35 mile per gallon standard. This is her one piece of environmental legislation that is a success for automakers, but again, we the people suffer. Wars for oil are literally sucking the life out of our communities while the pollution is choking the air we breathe. I bet everyone who owns a car right now wishes they could get 35 miles per gallon, at least, and many do! The technology is there and if we must drive and it seems like most of us must, it's time to give some kind of credit, maybe in the form of down payment assistance, or lower interest rates on loans for "gas guzzler" exchanges. BushCo did the same for people who wanted to buy SUVs…let's have a reverse exchange and conserve our resources for once!

Ms. Pelosi's most abject failure of her "day job" besides having an open Gucci purse (fund the war contrary to American opinion or common sense), policy is her disappointing and traitorous act of taking impeachment "off the table."

On May 1st, 2006, long before she picked up the Speaker's gavel, she made the pronouncement that would negatively impact history and give BushCo carte blanche to commit their high crimes and misdemeanors and crimes against humanity. Moreover, it was in 2002, as reported by the Washington Post (December 8, 2007) that in performance of her "day job" duties, Ms. Pelosi was briefed on torture and did not object to the inhumane and ineffectual path that our nation was stepping off on. She has not called for the restoration of habeas corpus, Kyoto or FISA and has not called for the repeal of the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, Protect America Act or the authorization for BushCo to unilaterally attack any country that they unilaterally perceive as a threat to, not Americans, but American interests abroad.

There are probably many "day jobs" that Nancy Pelosi qualifies for, but representing the people of San Francisco is not one of them. She opposes universal, single-payer health care and has promoted and voted for "free" trade agreements that are the major contributing factors to environmental degradation, job loss, or job insufficiency, and to the food riots happening all over the globe today: coming next to a community near you.

81% of Americans think this nation is on the wrong track and the 19% who don't, belong to the country clubs and board rooms with people that have the last names of Pelosi, Bush and Cheney---and the rest see this as a "hallelujah" moment for the second coming of Jesus---Nancy Pelosi's day job is to co-pilot the USA to destruction with George Bush as the pilot.

All I can say is, don't spend your "economic stimulus" all in one place and while the "bread" of the Romanesque empire is hitting your mailbox you can entertain yourself with the circus of American Idol.

It's time we hire new pilots for our ship of state: obviously the old ones have lost OUR course. I hope Nancy keeps underestimating and dismissing the people's campaign to eject her out of the co-pilot seat. Maybe her mask will finally drop when our dose of reality kicks in!

Go to www.CindyforCongress.org to comment on this blog or donate to defeat the status quo.

Tom Morello’s “Justice Tour” celebrates social change in Boston with rally for universal healthcare at Boston Common

WHAT: Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave, The Nightwatchman) joins Healthcare-NOW for a rally in support of universal healthcare at Boston Common. Earlier in the day, Healthcare-NOW will hold a "truth hearing," where people will share their stories about healthcare in the US. There will also be a teach-in about insurance mandates and a showing of Michael Moore’s health system documentary, 'SiCKO,' at the Masssachusetts State House, which state legistators have been invited to attend.

Media are invited to the rally, where Tom will perform several songs. Tom will also be available for interviews.

WHEN: Monday, April 28, 4:00 PM

WHERE: Boston Common’s Parkman Bandstand (The Google)

Boston Common is bound by Tremont, Beacon, Charles and Boylston Streets

WHO: Tom Morello is the groundbreaking electric guitarist for Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave who performs acoustic folk as The Nightwatchman.

HealthCare-Now is a national grassroots organization dedicated to the passage of universal, single-payer health care for all. The group is based in New York City and has chapters and membership throughout the US.

SHOW: On April 27, the Justice Tour comes to Boston’s Berklee Performance Center. Performers include Tom Morello, the Nightwatchman; State Radio; Boots Riley of The Coup; Wayne Kramer of MC5

BACKGROUND: Tom Morello’s Justice Tour is traveling the country to celebrate those making real social change happen, on the ground, every day, in actual people’s lives. The tour launched in Los Angeles April 14 and stops in New York, New Orleans, Asheville, NC, Washington, DC and Boston before concluding on May Day in Chicago. Each stop of the Justice Tour includes a day of activism to focus on a sphere of social justice in America. In Boston, the issue is affordable healthcare. Issues highlighted in other cities include homelessness; safe and affordable housing; a living wage; peace and veterans care; and labor organizing.

The following remarks were delivered by screenwriter Walter Bernstein on the occasion of receiving the WGA East's Evelyn F. Burkey Award award at the Hudson Theater in New York City on Saturday, February 9th, 2008. Bernstein, 87, was blacklisted by the House Un-American Committee in 1951.

I'll be brief.

If I've had anything to do with bringing honor and respect to writers, I apologize.

I think the last thing writers need is honor and respect.

What they need is money.

Too much respect and you could end up writing Jane Austen movies for the BBC.

And you can't count the number of crimes committed in the name of honor.

A writer should be disrespectful - even from time to time dishonorable. We're all thieves, stealing from the human heart, hoping we don't get caught. We're liars, telling lies like truth as somebody once said. We exist to be disreputable.

That said, I feel honored to get this award - mainly because it comes from writers who've stood together in a kind of pride and solidarity I've never seen in all the years I've been in the Guild.

So, if there should be honor and respect, it's what we brought to and by ourselves. Nobody gave it to us. And I'm lucky and very proud to be part of it.

Thank you.

Charges Especially Contentious as Walkout Was Widely Reported as Peaceful with Police Pleased

New Brunswick, NJ – Tuesday April 22, 2008 – Three Rutgers students, Erik Straub, a Rutgers College junior and member of Tent State University/Students for a Democratic Society, Suzan Sanal, a Douglass College junior and member of Rutgers Against the War, and Arwa Ibrahim, a Rutgers College senior, have been issued summons for activities that took place during the March 27, 2008 Rutgers Walk Out Against the War. These three students will be issuing a statement at a press conference immediately preceding their first trial date this coming Wednesday, April 23rd at 11:00AM during the Tent State University event located on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers in New Brunswick, NJ. The press conference will take place at the Vietnam War Memorial on Voorhees Mall.

The Walkout brought together about 600 Rutgers students and supporters, who walked out on their daily routine and rallied in protest of the war in Iraq. The Walkout culminated in a march, with an estimated 300 participants, that took a path through the streets of downtown New Brunswick and onto nearby highway Route 18.

Despite the fact that the action involved hundreds of students, police singled out only three for prosecution. Furthermore, while for the second year in a row the protest yielded no injuries, no arrests, and no incidents of vandalism or property damage, the New Brunswick Police Department is charging the three students with 'recklessly creating … a hazardous or physically dangerous condition by an act which serves no legitimate purpose.'

"91 Rutgers students will be shipped to Iraq beginning this month; Rutgers students are significantly more likely to be put into harm's way due to the criminally negligent actions of President Bush than they ever will be attending a protest in New Brunswick," replied Jean Pierre Mestanza, a member of the Walkout Coalition "The only hazardous and dangerous situation that has been created has been the result of the decision by the US government to invade Iraq." Mestanza went on to cite a recent report by the National Institute for Strategic Studies, a respected Defense Department research center, which referred to the Iraq war as "a major debacle."

Reactions among organizers of the Walkout have been mixed.

"I called my parents as soon as I found out," said a participant at the Walkout who wishes to remain anonymous. "I was worried when I heard they were prosecuting students because I was helping to organize during the march that day too. My job was mainly to walk around and make sure nothing got out of hand. One officer even thanked me after the event; I'm not sure if he opposed the war too or if he was just glad for the assistance we were providing by circulating through the crowd and keeping the situation calm and under control."

Other students took a different view.

"This is quite clearly selective political prosecution with the intent to intimidate organizers and prevent future protests from happening," said Adriel Bernal, a Walkout participant and member of Tent State University/Students for a Democratic Society. "They don't want us protesting against the war even if we're being peaceful and nonviolent. If we can't even protest peacefully in our own city, it's clear that our voices will never be strong enough to reach those in power elsewhere."

"While they're busy putting students on trial, they should be arresting the real criminals: the architects of the war," Bernal concluded.

The Walkout Coalition has issued the following demands in regards to the charges against Arwa, Suzan, and Erik, which they hope will be echoed and supported by the residents of New Brunswick, the Rutgers community, and peace and justice advocates across the United States and beyond:

To the New Brunswick Prosecutor's Office: Drop all charges against the Rutgers students being prosecuted in relation to the 2008 Walkout Against the War.

To the City of New Brunswick: Students are being prosecuted for peacefully opposing the war. It is obvious that the voice of students is not being considered in City Hall. Therefore, we demand student seats on the New Brunswick City Council to represent our student neighborhoods. Student representation for our student wards! (www.empowernb.com)

As for Erik Straub, one of the students being prosecuted, he is trying to take everything in stride. "We all want our sisters and brothers in the military to come home," Straub explained. "While I don't relish the idea of spending any time in a jail cell, countless others have sacrificed even more in this unjust war. I am convinced we will defeat these unjust charges, but whatever happens, I believe I have a moral imperative to do whatever is required from me in the nonviolent pursuit of freedom from occupation for the Iraqi people and an end to the war."

###

“The reason I am doing this,” said former Marine Jon Turner, “is not only for myself and for the rest of society to hear, but it’s for all those who can’t be here to talk about the things we went through and the things we did.” He pointed a finger vaguely up into the air, and his voice was shaking. “I just want to say that I am sorry for the hate and destruction that I have inflicted on an innocent people, and I’m sorry for the hate and destruction that others have inflicted on innocent people. At one point, it was okay, but reality has shown that it is not, and that this is happening, and that until people hear what is going on with this war it will continue to happen and people will continue to die. I’m sorry for the things that I did. I am no longer the monster that I once was.”

A former machinegunner with Kilo Company, Third Battalion, 8th Marines, who had served two tours in Iraq, Jon Turner did not look like a monster. He was a little above average height, good-looking, with a thick thatch of blond hair, and gentle manners. If not for the small blue-dot earring in his left ear—and the tattoos he later exposed—he could easily pass for what used to be called “the all-American boy.” But the stories he related, and the videos and slides he showed to back them up, during the four days of hearings called “Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan” (March 13-16, 2008) just outside of Washington, D.C., were a million miles away from Norman Rockwell America. The hearings were staged by a group called Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Several hundred veterans of the war in Iraq attended the event at the National Labor College; and 55 of them, including Turner, gave personal testimony of what they had seen and done in Iraq.

Turner, whose unit had lost 18 soldiers in Iraq, reported routinely firing rounds into mosques just out of anger, “kicking in doors and terrorizing families,” the mistaken firing of rounds into cars filled with civilians, whose drivers were simply confused or didn’t understand the English commands to stop, and dozens of other brutalities carried out daily against the population of Iraq. Other veterans at Winter Soldier testified to similar incidents, and almost all recalled using the derogatory term “hajji” (pronounced hodgie) for Iraqis—the equivalent of the word gook in Vietnam. Turner’s slides and videos were perhaps a bit more graphic—an image, for example, of the brains of a civilian scattered on pavement by a .50 caliber machinegun slug. But two of his stories were among the heaviest we heard in those four days.

The first was of Turner’s “first kill”—a “fat man” on foot whom he shot for refusing a command to halt. The “fat man” did not die from the first bullet Turner put in his neck, so while he screamed and looked pleadingly into Turner’s eyes, Turner deliberately dispatched him with a shot at close range. The second story was even worse. He and his men were having a bad day—and bad days are apparently not hard to have in Iraq, where a large percentage of the population feels hostility toward the American military presence. The CBS reporter who’d been following them switched over to the other squad in his platoon. Left unwatched, Turner and two fellow soldiers “took out some individuals” who were doing them no harm. Turner shot a man going by on a bike, then threw the body behind a wall and tossed his bike on top of it.

My friend Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead and a former Marine himself, who was there to cover the event, as was I, leaned over to me and said, “I think Turner just confessed to murder.” But putting that remark in perspective, Swofford would also tell me later, “The thing that got me the most, is I know that for every guy up there testifying today, there are probably a thousand others out there keeping silent.”

Some of the right-wing protesters outside, including the group Eagles Up!, claimed these testifiers weren’t real vets, but they had all been thoroughly checked out by an IVAW verification team. Moreover, nobody—unless they’d done a few years at the Actors Studio—could fake the emotions these vets were clearly feeling as they testified: voices choking up and cracking, tears spontaneously welling.

Although the horror stories kept coming for four days, not all of them involved personal malice. Just as powerful and moving as Turner’s was the testimony of slender, dark-haired Marine gunner James Gilligan, who resembled a young version of actor Bob Denver. He told how in Afghanistan in 2004 he was the only member of his team to see the artillery flash from enemy soldiers who had fired on their humvee from a hill about 6 kilometers away. The American troops set up a mortar to take out the Taliban attackers, and Gilligan’s commander asked him to provide the azimuth of the enemy position, using a compass that he was unfamiliar with. Gilligan started sobbing as he spoke, and was only able to continue when fellow veteran Garret Reppenhagen seated beside him put an arm around his shoulder. Gilligan had placed the compass too close to a machinegun barrel, causing it to give a false azimuth. Instead of taking out the Taliban artillery, they did grave damage to, and caused extensive civilian casualties in, a nearby Afghani village.

A wide array of men, women, and even families gave testimony, including Joyce and Kevin Lucey, who described the slow and inexorable breakdown of their son, Marine Cpl. Jeffrey Lucey, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) upon his return from the war. When Kevin Lucey described taking his son’s body down from the rafters where he’d hung himself, half of the 500 people in the room were in tears or close to it.

The psychiatric diagnosis of PTSD actually developed from the study of Vietnam veterans, so it was apt that the name Winter Soldier was taken from a similar series of hearings held by Vietnam Veterans Against the War in Detroit in 1971. The term originally derived from Revolutionary War patriot Thomas Paine’s description of Washington’s soldiers at Valley Forge, who withstood a terrible winter on starvation rations in order to come back and fight for their nation one more time—and eventually win. Clearly these Iraq vets, just like their Vietnam vet counterparts, saw themselves as still fighting for their country in trying to bring the truth they experienced into a public forum.

They spoke with no discernible hostility or partisan bias, and less anger than one would have expected. The names Bush, Cheney, and Petraeus were seldom mentioned. Most expressed their reason for being there along the same lines as former Marine scout Sergio Kochergin, who said he was expecting his testimony to be heard by Congress and to help bring a rapid end to the war.

Most of the vets I talked to said they felt good about the testimony they gave, and it seemed to be the start of a slow healing for some. But there was a heavy price to be paid too—not least in the access of PTSD in many. One of the vets had to check into the Brooklyn VA immediately afterward, and was hospitalized for more than 2 weeks.

One thing is certain: the issues and problems that were talked of at Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan were all things that should have been discussed and debated by the Congress, the press, and the American people long before we entered this war.

Gerald Nicosia is author of "Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement."

New TV Ad to Air around Presidential Debate to Pressure Politicians to Join Call for Rice's Resignation

WASHINGTON — TrueMajority.org, Brave New Films, and Democracy for America are launching CondiMustGo.com and a new television ad campaign calling for the resignation of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This week Americans were outraged by the news that Condoleezza Rice personally oversaw meetings where top Bush administration officials selected specific torture techniques.

The new site CondiMustGo.com will feature a petition demanding Secretary Rice's resignation and a new video by Brave New Films documenting her involvement in torture and how she lied to Congress and the nation. The petition reads, "America will not stand for a Secretary of State who approved torture and then misled Congress. We call on the Presidential candidates to ask Secretary of State Rice to resign."

TrueMajority.org, Brave New Films, and Democracy for America announced the next step in the grassroots pressure campaign: a television ad to air Wednesday night in Pennsylvania around the presidential debate. The ad, produced by Brave New Films and paid for by TrueMajority.org members outraged by Rice's role in authorizing torture, seeks to force discussion of this issue to the top of the public agenda.

"Condoleezza Rice helped decide how to torture people, that's the bottom line," said TrueMajority.org Online Director Matt Holland. "As Secretary of State, she is our country's face to the world, and now that the world knows that she spends her time in closed rooms personally planning the abuse of prisoners, we can't show our face."

"Secretary Rice's direct involvement is an embarrassment to our nation," said Jim Dean, Chair of Democracy for America. "Her shameful tenure as Secretary of State must come to an end."

"The very idea of a so-called Secretary of State planning torture gives Orwell a bad name. It is time to end this shameless and un-American abuse of power," said Robert Greenwald, President of Brave New Films.

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On April 14, close to 500 legislators and citizens packed the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord NH and sat through more than three hours of words and music making the case for the N.H. House to send an impeachment investigation resolution to the U.S. Congress. The vote will take place in the state capital on March 16.

Speaking on behalf of representative Betty Hall's HR 24 was a plethora of informed and passionate advocates; Daniel Ellsberg, John Nichols, Granny D, Phil Burk, Bob Bowman, and Paul Noel Stookey joined Hall and other regional activists in making the case that not only is it not too late to impeach, but that the danger of not impeaching would bode ill for the last months remaining of the Bush administration as well as being a severe disservice to the future of the nation.

Speakers reminded listeners that keeping the constitutional republic that was given to us by the nation's founders requires an active citizenship. Clearly, today's "leaders" in the executive, legislative and judicial branches have fallen down on the job and have turned into craven and unimaginative enablers of a perverted status quo. While we may not yet need an armed citizenry to take action, we certainly need an informed, energized and active one if we are to have any chance to succeed in reclaiming the nation from the corporate/war mongering powers that currently run the show.

Perhaps the most significant nugget to be gleaned from the event was a point made by Ellsberg, as he explained what led him to honor his oath to the Constitution, in violation of the several secrecy agreements that he had signed on to as a working member of a Presidential team, and release the Pentagon papers to the press, which ultimately led to the end of the nightmare of the Vietnam war. He did not come to this decision through a series of high-level meetings, or by sitting at the feet of some "great man" sharing wisdom. No, it was the conscientious action of an insignificant citizen, Randy Kehler, now of Colraine, MA, who had decided to publicly refuse to be drafted into that immoral war.

Kehler took that action not because he thought it would change the course of events in the nation, but because it was what he had to do as a good citizen. His most realistic expectation at the time would have been that he would probably be going to jail for his action, where he would sit forgotten until his release. Any sober reckoning should have convinced him that his personal gesture, while necessary for him, would be a cry in the wilderness, a waste of productivity, and a cost to the society that would be paying for his upkeep in jail. What he did not reckon upon was that Ellsberg, who was concurrently undergoing a crisis of conscience about being part of the big lie that was the official government propaganda of the day, would hear his words as he explained why he would go to jail rather than fight an illegal war. But Ellsberg did hear him, and Kehler's words proved to be the catharsis that Ellsberg needed to realize that it was worth risking jail in order to expose the truth. Not only did the Pentagon Papers start the unraveling of Congressional and public support for the war, but Nixon's attempts to retaliate against Ellsberg proved to be the very actions that led to his near impeachment and resignation from office.

Today, there are deflated conversations among impeachment advocates, bemoaning that the wind is no longer filling our sails, that the press and public are too fully occupied with elections and gas prices to care about an criminal, immoral war or a shredded Constitution. Many have become dispirited that their vigils, marches or speeches are simply self-absorbed exercises in futility. It would be well for all of us to think about Ellsberg's example. Just as he found himself in hearing distance of words that changed his life and the course of a nation, there are many in positions of power today, be they legislators, or staffers working in the belly of the beast itself, who are sick of the lies and crimes, and are near their own tipping point, where they might turn the tables and once more give law and justice a chance to remedy some of the symptoms of the deep sickness that inflicts the governance of our nation. Rather than give in to the cynics and skeptics, let us rather continue to search for the words that will reach into the halls of power and change the course of our own futures.

Dan DeWalt is a woodworker and selectboard member in the town of Newfane, Vermont, and the author of a successful town resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush.