After Sgt. Marshall Thompson returned from a tour of duty in Iraq, two things were clear to him - the war is wrong and he needed to do something to stop it.  He set out on a 500 mile walk across his native conservative state of Utah to get people talking about the war and the need for peace.

 

            Featuring Martin Sheen, Cindy Sheehan, and Ron Kovic, A Soldier's Peace documents Sgt. Thompson's 27 day journey in protest of the war and his call for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. 

 

              It has been 5 long years since the start of the Iraq War.  On March 20^th at 7:00 PM at Angelika Film Center of Plano (7205 Bishop Road), peace activists will come together to watch A Soldier's Peace and stand up once again in protest of this war.  

           

            This film has only been seen in film festivals and has not yet come to theatres.  It has been released to Texas Democratic Women of Collin County (TDWCC) for the DFW Premier.  TDWCC is dedicated to electing a President who will make Sgt. Thompson's dream of peace a reality.

 

This event is open to the public.  For more information, to RSVP, or to make a donation in support of this event, go to www.tdwcc.org.  Space is limited - reserve your seats now.   

     

Sometime there is an important cluster of articles that are important to read. I think making a convincing argument connecting these costs and national debt to the present economic outlook may not only be the best way to end the war but it may be the best way for Democrats to win the White House.(ngc)

 

JOSEPH STIGLITZ AND LINDA BILMES discuss The $3 Trillion War

Democracy Now - Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes of Harvard University say the Bush administration has repeatedly low-balled the cost of the Iraq war-and even kept a second set of records hidden from the American public.

Read and watch on Democrcay Now

 

The $2 Trillion Nightmare

NYT by BOB HERBERT

We've been hearing a lot about "Saturday Night Live" and the fun it has been having with the presidential race. But hardly a whisper has been heard about a Congressional hearing in Washington last week on a topic that could have been drawn, in all its tragic monstrosity, from the theater of the absurd.

The war in Iraq will ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers not hundreds of billions of dollars, but an astonishing $2 trillion, and perhaps more. There has been very little in the way of public conversation, even in the presidential campaigns, about the consequences of these costs, which are like a cancer inside the American economy.

Read on

 

The $3 Trillion War Is A Domestic Issue  

by Arianna Huffington
As our seemingly endless primary process reaches the homestretch and the focus shifts to the general election, we need to pull the plug on the media's disturbing habit of acting as if foreign policy and domestic policy are completely separate entities - a pair of high-stakes board games that can only be taken off the shelf and played one at a time. To hear the media tell it, combining the two would make about as much sense as using your Monopoly pieces to play Risk.

But while there is almost nothing about the Iraq war that can be labeled a success, we can declare that it has been exceedingly successful in showing how intertwined foreign and domestic policy actually are. In the book "The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict," Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, along with co-author Linda Bilmes, argue that, even using "conservative assumptions," the Iraq war will cost at least $3 trillion, and likely as much as $5 trillion.

Read on

 

Iraq war 'caused slowdown in the US'

Peter Wilson, Europe correspondent

THE Iraq war has cost the US 50-60 times more than the Bush administration predicted and was a central cause of the sub-prime banking crisis threatening the world economy, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.

The former World Bank vice-president yesterday said the war had, so far, cost the US something like $US3trillion ($3.3 trillion) compared with the $US50-$US60-billion predicted in 2003.

Australia also faced a real bill much greater than the $2.2billion in military spending reported last week by Australian Defence Force chief Angus Houston, Professor Stiglitz said, pointing to higher oil prices and other indirect costs of the wars.

Professor Stiglitz told the Chatham House think tank in London that the Bush White House was currently estimating the cost of the war at about $US500 billion, but that figure massively understated things such as the medical and welfare costs of US military servicemen.

Read on

By Howard Zinn

 

 

 

Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war.

 

Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens.
 

Read on

 

** in my case it was an unbelievable amount of money to Ron Paul- arghhh !

Mike Malloy - Speaking truth to power!

Mike Malloy brings extreme passion, fearless, honesty, and addictive humor to the political news of the day.
It is not difficult to pigeon-hole Malloy politically. Generally speaking, he is a traditional democrat working to return the democratic party to it's historical liberal roots.
Malloy's radio experience includes WSB-AM in Atlanta, and WLS-AM in Chicago. Mike's nationally-syndicated program can be heard weeknights on affiliates of the Air America Radio Network and on XM Satellite Radio.
In addition to writing for CNN (1984-87) and CNN International (2000,) his professional experience included newspaper columnist and editor, writer, rock concert producer, and actor.
 

Great new tool to call congressional committee members

CommitteeCaller.comis a site that allows one person to target an entire congressional committee over the phone. The web application utilizes the open source Asterisk PBXsystem to connect you to every senator or house member on a particular committee. No more digging around the 'net entering zip-codes to retrieve phone numbers of representatives -- CommitteeCaller.com automates the tedium of repetitively dialing your favorite politicians.

Select a committee and enter in your phone number and click "Put me in touch with democracy!" and you'll be called by our system and sequentially patched through to the front office of each member on that committee. You can even rate how each call went --

 

Jeremy Scahill & Ann Wright on  Bill Maher HBO

video link

 

Big Oil Company Boycott

Dallas video

 

Stephen Colbert on AT&Treason

Video

 

Whose side are you on?
Jim Hightower looks at the election results and says people are tired of getting the "shaft"

Interview

 

The Great Texas Dildo Wars of 2008
One should never underestimate the lengths to which wingnuts will go to control female sexuality (**This is NOT for work and not for around kids - but it is an excellent video interview with the wonderful Molly Ivins and very funny)

 

McLaughlin Group Immortalized In Andrew W.K.'s Rock Song

little cats' feet

 

Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?
"Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock sets off to do what the CIA, FBI and countless bounty hunters have failed to do.

 

Inter faith Service of Lament and Repentance.

 

3:30 p.m., Sunday, March 16, 2008, Cathedral of Hope, Dallas, Texas.

Many faith traditions join their spirits in prayers of Gratitude to the creator,

Grief for suffering and loss in conflict, Repentance for our refusal to serve one

another, and Healing for humanity in reconciling "peace that passes understanding."  

 

Peace Rally

 

4-6 PM Wed Mar 19 Dealey Plaza.

 

Just a few months ago it was widely believed that

the Iraq war would be the central issue in the 2008

election. It is shocking how swiftly, the defining issue

of our times, has been set aside by our leaders in Washington and

an obsequious media. The 5 th anniversary of the invasion

of Iraq Mar 19 might present an opportunity to put the Iraq war

back on the table to be discussed and debated.

For more info contact: Hadi Jawad  SHADIJAWAD@aol.com

 

 Author of
A Letter to America
 

Where's the Outrage?
Blog Podcast
 

 Listen to the Errington Thompson Show
Saturdays - 9am EST

Air America - Asheville, NC

880 the Revolution

 

More info