Oil Wars Come Home to Roost: Looking for the Moral Equivalent of a President, Still CounterPunch / DissidentVoice By Greg Moses Even the birds are pissed. Whether it’s the Mockingbird who guards the footpath down by the bus stop. Or the Blue Jay who cusses across my back deck. Or even the frigging Grackle who [...]
Pausing to Reflect on Jesus and Eggs CounterPunch / DissidentVoice / TheRagBlog by Greg Moses This year–for the second time–the sad anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. falls on Easter, a day that according to Google Trends brings annual peaks of interest in the search terms Jesus and eggs. Easter is a [...]
Operation Tiny Tim by April Z. Fool April 1 — A new association of retired military generals plans today to announce “Operation Tiny Tim” to secure the dignity of affordable health care for all children, not only in the USA but in all countries where US bases are located. “Whether we have to open up [...]
by Gene Stoltzfus From his Peace Probe Blog March 3, 2010, 11:52 am In April 2004 the world was awakened to a horrible scene in Fallujah, Iraq. Insurgents had ambushed a vehicle carrying civilian U. S. Government mercenary contractors and killed them. Two of the burned corpses were hung from a bridge in downtown Fallujah [...]
Open letter to President Obama, You have been struggling with a dreadful task: deciding what the US should do with the war you inherited in Afghanistan. You are properly taking your time and analyzing anew what our country’s goals should be and how to accomplish them. You are being strongly pressured by military officials who [...]
By Greg Moses CounterPunch / BobDylan.Com / TheRagBlog CORPUS CHRISTI—The Bob Dylan Show this summer reaches its south-most destination at 27 degrees 48 minutes north latitude, half past four degrees into the Tropic of Cancer where fat velocities of rotation spin hysterical contradictions between centrifugal ups and centripetal downs. Or if it’s not about cosmic [...]
Common Dreams by Susan Van Haitsma On Earth Day, I contemplated the pre-dawn sky, looking for shooting stars. The evening prior, my partner and I had scouted out a viewing spot adjoining a vacant lot just a few blocks from home. Though we live in a central neighborhood, the clear air and waning moon offered [...]
By Greg Moses Dissident Voice / The Rag Blog / CounterPunch Austin TX — In the stone-walled sanctuary of Central Presbyterian Church, three hundred faithful settle into pews as the dean of Austin peace activism, Fran Hanlon, previews how the rest of the weekend schedule has been planned for this Winter Soldier event. Fran’s partner [...]
By Susan Van Haitsma An editorial published recently by the Austin American-Statesman admonished readers to view a trial in Minnesota as a “cautionary tale for activists.” Two men from Austin were charged with making explosives intended for use during the Republican National Convention last September. Cautionary tales are important, and it’s fortunate that [...]
by Susan Van Haitsma, also posted at the makingpeace blog On the eve of Veterans Day, four veterans of the Iraq war spoke on a panel at the University of Texas to offer a reality check to the jingoism surrounding most November 11th commemorations. Organized by the student group, CAMEO (Campus Antiwar Movement to End [...]
by Susan Van Haitsma also posted at makingpeace When Camilo Mejia walked into the auditorium of UT’s Garrison Hall where he was to speak last Thursday night, his first reaction was to shake his head at the large book-cover images of himself that were projected onto screens in front. He’s a humble guy, and self-promotion [...]
by Susan Van Haitsma, also posted at makingpeace When I attended the presentation at UT on Tuesday evening by Daniel Ellsberg, the concept of freedom of conscience was already on my mind. A few days prior, I had gone to a special commemoration of Gandhi’s birthday, where conscience was posed as a religious freedom issue [...]
By Susan Van Haitsma September 21 is International Day of Peace, a day established by the General Assembly of the United Nations for “commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace within and among all nations and people.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged all combatants to honor the day by standing down from battle. “I [...]
by Susan Van Haitsma (reposted from the makingpeace blog) It was good to talk yesterday with our local CodePink folks who were just back in Austin from St. Paul. They described the full week of activities that took place surrounding the RNC, the barricaded ‘police state’ that made navigating the city a real challenge, the police (and [...]
I haven’t watched this much television since I was in grade school. I became glued to the DNC coverage this week, both televised and on the net. Of course, commentary about the proceedings abounded, from convention pundits and participants to bloggers on the scene and those watching from a distance. I enjoyed the opportunity to [...]
by Susan Van Haitsma (cross-posted at her makingpeace blog at the Austin American-Statesman) Today marks the 45th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the greatest events in US history. The anniversary, remembered mostly for King’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered to a quarter of a million people gathered in front of [...]
By Greg Moses Somewhere down in their guts, and despite the bravado of Barack Obama’s campaign rhetoric, the people who yearn for “change” in America are asking for leadership that will not turn its back on the wisdom of peace makers like Saul Alinsky. But last week’s killings in South Ossetia seemed to grin back [...]
by Greg Moses OpEdNews However we might assess recent anti-war statements by Russian human rights activists, Anna Arutunyan assures us that they are not to be confused with the “real” opposition in Russia. For the more popular alternative party, Arutunyan suggests that we look to the The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). “After [...]
by Greg Moses OpEdNews / Red State Rebels / Dissident Voice First they called on Georgia to stop the military assault on South Ossetia, then they denounced Russian aggression in Georgia. Human rights activists in Russia are speaking up for peace and justice in the Caucasus region. Writing for the August 11 edition of the [...]
By Greg Moses OpEdNews / Dissident Voice On Sunday Michel Chossudovsky reasoned that the US-backed attack on the capital of South Ossetia was designed to produce a humanitarian crisis. On Wednesday, President Bush declared that the US military would spearhead a humanitarian mission to Georgia, which the Russians had better not bother. Now Chossudovsky is [...]