Wednesday, December 28, 2011

War Funding Rolls On -- What To Do About It

source: USA Today Obamas greet military families in Hawaii
Please join me in considering some New Year's Resolutions: Get the word out about war spending vs. budget cuts. Blog, tweet, get in your local paper, write letters to the editor, reprint other people's op-eds -- like this beauty from Betsy Crites, North Carolina Peace Action Director, which ran with the title "Bring the war dollars home" in the Durham Herald-Sun (thanks to Jacqui Deveneau for sharing).

Ok, that's a partial action list for 2012. But right now, still 2011, President Obama has neither signed nor vetoed $600+ billion for continued military expansion in the coming year, and the gravest attacks on civil liberties since the McCarthy era, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It's not too late!
Call the White House 9am-5pm EST Switchboard: 202-456-1414
24 hour automated comments recording: 202-456-1111
Other things I plan to do in 2012:
  • Keep reading (while we still have the Internet). Here's a good article I started yesterday: "Economic Downturn Took a Detour at Capital Hill" by Eric Lichtblau in the NYT via Common Dreams. It's about how banks got bailed out, we got sold out -- and our "representatives" in Congress got wealthy in the process.
  • Help wage a vigorous campaign against impending Internet censorship (SOPA is the House version of the bill, PIPA is the Senate version).
  • Join a planning meeting for the statewide Bring Our War $$ Home campaign on Sat. Jan 14 at noon in Augusta.
  • Lend CODEPINK Maine support to the Union of Maine Visual Artists celebrating a creative response to the Occupy movement that has swept the planet, and is still rolling on gathering momentum. Sat. Jan 21 (snow day Sun. Jan 22) Draw-a-Thon at Harlow Gallery in Hallowell. Are you an artist? No need to wait until Jan. 21. Start creating now!
  • Join a statewide meeting to assess the Occupy movement in Maine, and to consider which paths look productive and likely for the near future. Sat Jan. 28, 9am-4:30pm (snow date: Jan 29)  Randall Student Center, U/Maine, Augusta. FMI  rosc@psouth.net Larry Dansinger, (207) 525-7776.

2 comments:

chrisrushlau said...

Quite frankly, Lisa, I don't see what any of this has to do with Israel.
The second round of Egyptian voting for Parliament has confirmed the two-thirds majority victory for Islamic parties (half for the Muslim Brotherhood, twenty percent for Salafists). I also don't see what that has to do with Israel. In my opinion, nothing has anything to do with Israel. It's not the Tom Robinson Rule, "Ignore your problems and they'll go away." It's that Israel has reached a rendezvous with destiny from which there is no exit road. It's like Governor George Wallace. One day he just quit fighting. Resentment is just too much damn trouble. Peace is bad for war.

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