VIGIL FOR WAR RESISTER ROBIN LONG

Posted on July 24, 2008
Filed Under Dynamic Peacemaking | Leave a Comment

 Please join members and supporters of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission from 5:00-7:00 p.m. on Friday, July 25th in Alamo Square Park (downtown at Vermijo and Nevada, on the grounds of the Pioneer Museum) for a nonviolent vigil in support of war resister Robin Long. 

Long is the first U.S. war resister to be deported from Canada to the U.S. since the Vietnam era.  He arrived in Colorado Springs on Friday, July 18th and is currently in the El Paso County Jail awaiting court marshal for charges related to his refusal to report to the 2nd Brigade 2nd Infantry Division in 2005. 

 We will be joined by Lee Zaslofsky, National Coordinator of the War Resisters Support Campaign of Canada, and by James Branum, Long’s attorney.  We encourage all people of conscience to come show their support for Long and for all soldiers who have the courage to refuse to fight.

For more information about the vigil, please contact Pete Haney at (719) 632-6189 or dynamic@ppjpc.org .  You may also visit our website and Courage to Resist, a national organization that works on behalf of U.S. war resisters, for more information about how to help Robin Long.  

Register soon for Peace Camp 2008

Posted on June 26, 2008
Filed Under Peace Camp | 2 Comments

peaceearth2.jpg

Session I: Ages 6 - 9, July 14 - 19 at Sacred Heart Church in Old Colorado City.
Monday thru Friday, 9 am - 3 pm with Friday night campout at Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp. Pick up will be Saturday at noon.

Session II: Ages 10 -12, July 21 - 26 at Sacred Heart Church in Old Colorado City.
Monday thru Friday, 9 am - 3 pm with Friday night campout TBD. Pick up Saturday at noon.

Cost: Early bird special $100 before June 21st. After June 21st $125.
Spaces limited
Scholarships available.

Please download and mail in this registration form: peace-camp-registration.pdf

What is the US role in Mexico’s bloodshed?

Posted on June 25, 2008
Filed Under Destroying national security, Latin America, Mexico, Militarizing America | Leave a Comment

According to the Mexican daily El Universal, this Monday was the deadliest day in the country’s drug war this year, with 38 drug-related murders, almost half of those in Ciudad Juarez directly across from El Paso. Dozens dead in 4-day Mexico border killing spree

What is the US role in all this bloodshed? Is our government part to blame for this, too? Is the US ‘drug war’ destroying other countries’ security? (posted by Tony Abdo)

George Carlin on War

Posted on June 24, 2008
Filed Under Dynamic Peacemaking, Iraq War | Leave a Comment

George Carlin was an antiwar activist and a most effective one, too, with his potent comedy. George Carlin- We Like War Listen to his comments about The War Against Iraq courtesy of youtube. …(posted by Tony Abdo)

Confessions of a Patriotic American general

Posted on June 21, 2008
Filed Under Destroying national security, Torture | Leave a Comment

“The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account,” Taguba wrote. “The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture.” excerpted from Gen. Taguba Knew Scandal Went to the Top …(posted by Tony Abdo)

AFRI(OIL)COM

Posted on June 18, 2008
Filed Under Africa, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

‘The number of Americans who believe that the war in Iraq was a mistake has surpassed the number who felt the same way about Vietnam during that war. At the same time, a much quieter U.S. military build-up is underway on another continent. The ultimate objective of the two efforts is the same: securing Big Oil’s access to the regions’ oil. The impact in Africa will likely be the same as in Iraq: perpetual occupation, instability, and growing anti-Americanism.’ Excerpt from article at Foreign Policy in Focus

The recent Pentagon expansion of military operations in Africa is deeply disturbing. Much of it is camouflaged, well hidden away, and little commented on, like with the case of the US-Ethiopian occupation of Somalia. Yet as the article mentions, much worse may soon be under way. It is time to begin to raise our voices against AFRICOM. (posted by Tony Abdo)

The US Army Corps of Engineers allow yet more levees to fail

Posted on June 18, 2008
Filed Under Destroying national security, Environment | Leave a Comment

by Tony Abdo

“Those levees were designed for a storm not the size that that has hit for now,” U.S. Army Corps Brigadier General Michael Walsh told NBC’s “Today” show. See Mississippi River levees break, more at risk

Yes, the US Army Corps of Engineers has failed to adequately build and maintain yet another group of levees as the US government has apparently learned nothing since Katrina flooded New Orleans. Trillions of dollars have been spent to invade and occupy multiple foreign countries, yet the US Army’s Corp of Engineers is not given the funds to maintain levees that Americans depend on to keep from being flooded out of their communities and homes!

Why is there so little commentary connecting this colossal waste of Pentagon money in the Middle East with the heightened national insecurity along the Mississippi River and other high risk flood areas. Once again, the Army Corps of Engineers and the US federal government have failed big time to protect Americans from natural disasters. Americans deserve better than this.

Murder by insurance

Posted on June 17, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

by Tony Abdo

Why do Americans allow the insurance companies to control, manage, and dominate our health care? Hundreds of thousands of us each year are maimed, injured, and YES murdered by these insurance companies that control the system.

Health care should be a right and not a commodity to be rationed and sold per one’s income level, employment status, or age. Health care can only be delivered adequately when there is access to preventive medicine, public health planning, and community distribution. It must be holistic and not sold by the ounce or pound to work.

Many of us have been taught that insurance is a preventive measure that provides security, but the reality is quite different in the American medical field. Who can really say that the private medical insurance firms are actually delivering a system of medical care that makes any of us feel all that secure? We all feel about as secure as betting in a casino with our lives, as we are forced to examine incomprehensible forms, wait hours in ER rooms for care that we really needed yesterday, and as they shuffle us around from room to room to street to who knows where?… simply based on paper forms and ‘payment plans’.

We have politicians that have created a multi-billion dollar agency called ‘Homeland Security’, yet refuse to create homeland medical security by getting the insurance companies off our backs. You and I are much more likely to be injured by the people in all those insurance buildings and offices, than by any member of a terrorist group. It is all a lie this ‘Homeland Security’ jive. The politicians don’t simply don’t support that for us in the general public. They push homeland insecurity paid for by our blood, the blood of our friends, neighbors, and family members.

I would like to think that a change in this situation is just around the corner, but where are the signs that this might be actually true? All our politicians are committed to continuing the genocide of our insurance companies. Yes, we live in a country where murder by insurance is now a routine. We live in a country where we have become so demobilized, that we allow this genocidal murder of the elderly and sick that goes on a daily basis, without hardly a bleep of protest from our population.

The solution to the problem is simple. All we have to do is demand that the insurance companies be defeated and forced out of our health care system. We have to demand the end to their blood sucking. We have to demand that they no longer be permitted to make our nation more and more infirm and ill.

We live now in a country that has a rising wave of epidemics of asthma, diabetes, and cardio-vascular disease. The insurance companies are murdering us. The insurance companies are an impediment to the delivery of public health. The insurance companies are a deathly antithesis to health. They must be stopped., but to do that will take much more action on our part.

PCEOC “Save Our State” Town Hall Meeting, 2:00 p.m., Saturday, May 10 in La Junta

Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under Economy, Environment, Events, Pinon Canyon | 1 Comment

Communities of southestern Colorado know the fight is far from over. Join them to discuss the future opposition plans to stop the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site expansion.

Facing what could be the largest military land grab in U.S. history, the communities of Southeastern Colorado will come together Saturday, May 10 at Otero Junior College in La Junta, to discuss the proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. Speakers will include directors of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition and Not 1 More Acre!, elected officials, and students who have grown up in the area but fear their future is threatened.

What: A Town Hall Discussion on the proposed military Expansion

Where: Humanities Center, Otero Junior College, La Junta, Colorado

When: Saturday, May 10, 2 pm

The Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, or PCEOC, is a broad-based coalition representing communities across Southern Colorado in their opposition to the proposed military expansion. PCEOC members include business owners, teachers, students, elected officials, ranchers, environmentalists and many others. The coalition is united in its opposition to any expansion of PCMS. No funding, no expansion.

For more information: Lon Robertson, 719-980-5114 or Jody Berger 303-748-9657

ACTION ALERT-Call Congress to Oppose Funding for the Occupation

Posted on May 6, 2008
Filed Under Action Alerts, Dynamic Peacemaking, Iraq War, Legislative Updates | 1 Comment

For a couple of weeks now, UFPJ has been calling for member groups to generate phone calls to Congress to vote against continued funding for the occupation of Iraq. Now, this week, Congress is set to vote on a gigantic bill that would fund the occupation through the beginning of 2009. It

Democrats controlling the House plan to pass legislation this week funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan into next year. Their concession to the 68% of Americans who want a prompt end to the occupation? The International Herald-Tribune has the answer.

The plan would give anti-war lawmakers a vote on nonbinding language setting the goal of withdrawing most combat troops by December 2009, said a senior House Democratic aide, though Senate Republicans have the votes to filibuster the move.

The $178 billion (€115.14 billion) -plus measure will also carry legislation costing $16 billion (€10.35 billion) over two years to extend by up to six months unemployment insurance coverage for jobless people whose benefits have run out. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan would begin to receive a big boost in college aid.

Barring any unexpected developments, it would be the last war funding bill passed during President George W. Bush’s tenure in office. It would bring the amount approved by Congress since Sept. 11, 2001, to fight terrorism and conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to about $875 billion (€565.98 billion).

IHT also makes clear the legislative slight of hand involved.

The idea is to allow anti-war Democrats to vote against the war funding — which Republicans will provide the votes to pass — while still ensuring the money goes out to support troops overseas. Democrats get to vote for restrictions on sending ill-trained troops to Iraq and banning practices they say are torture, but the provisions would never make it through the Senate to face a veto.

Find your representative here and call to urge them to stop this fiasco and bring the troops home now.

UPDATE:  David Swanson of afterdowningstreet.org has a useful analysis of the situation here and a critique of the New York Times’ coverage of it here.

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