dswanson's blog

By David Swanson, FreeSpeechForPeople

The damage from the Supreme Court's decision in "Citizens United v. FEC" continues to spread as feared. Newly emboldened corporations are suing to overturn state laws that restrict corporate spending on politics:

"A pro-natural resource development group [how's that for spin?] and a Bozeman painting company asked a Helena District Court on Monday to strike down Montana’s 1912 ban on corporate donations and expenditures to political campaigns to comply with a January U.S. Supreme Court ruling."

By David Swanson

I haven't read Karl Rove's book and don't plan to, but this is what I gather from those who have.

Despite serving on the White House Iraq Group and lying about the war, Rove claims everyone was careful not to overstate or exaggerate.

Despite having routinely told Fox News what the news would be, Rove now blames himself for not being aggressive enough in pushing his lies into the media.

Despite having pushed WMD lies after settling on that as the best approach to creating an already determined war, Rove now pretends that without the WMDs (or belief in them) even Bush wouldn't have wanted to go to war.

Despite exposure of lies tying Iraq to 9-11, Rove is still claiming Iraq-Al Qaeda ties in the book.

By the way, how would you like to give $5 to RealNews.com without having to, you know, give up $5. In fact you can give somebody else's $5 to the Real News by texting the word 'news' to 85944. Try it!

By David Swanson

The tea and coffee parties have cornered the market on vacuous meanness and niceness, respectively.  But brownbagging is where the substance and sustenance are.  Every third Wednesday of the month, those who want war defunded and everything useful funded are bringing brown bag lunches to vigil at their congress member's local office.  This month that means March 17th, St. Patrick's Day.  And that means more than food: Kicking off the Green Beer Party.

By David Swanson
http://afterdowningstreet.org/letstatesdoit

The health insurance bill currently under consideration in Congress would forbid states from providing their residents with healthcare. An amendment correcting that problem was passed in committee last July and then quietly removed. A new campaign is asking the Democrats who voted for that amendment to withhold their votes on the bill until it is reinstated.

By David Swanson

David Cole of Georgetown University and formerly of the Center for Constitutional Rights has been doing some good writing, not only on our failure to enforce laws against powerful people, but also on our out-of-control epidemic of incarceration which has struck those too unimportant to gain immunity.

By David Swanson

At the first of the year, a story hit the news about US-led troops executing 8 handcuffed kids in Afghanistan. I blogged about it. The outrage was tremendous. How dare I comment on such atrocious reporting? Didn't I know the president was now a Democrat and wars were tools of peace? Surely I was just making it all up.

So, I blogged again, citing all the sources of information. Of course, I couldn't know what happened, but the grounds for an investigation were overwhelming. Now Dave Lindorff reports on his efforts to investigate further. And you know how many of those outraged liberals who wanted to better verify the facts have lifted their little finger to look into the matter at all? How many investigations have been conducted or reports produced? How many individuals subpoenaed or prosecuted?

The answer is a measure of what's left of our national decency: ZERO.

By David Swanson

As John Yoo's visit to Mr. Jefferson's university here in Charlottesville approaches, one is tempted to ask the same question people around here ask about everything: WWJD? What would Jefferson do?

Of course, it's almost taboo among the most serious peace and justice advocates to cite positive precedents from Jefferson, because he was a slave owner. But Jefferson's views on the structure of a government don't actually become less admirable (or more) when we remember the horrors he inflicted on the people at Monticello.

http://twitter.com/davidcnswanson

Kathlyn Stone has done what I should have done and collected my recent postings on state level single-payer healthcare on her blog.

The question isn’t if a state will enact true health care reform before Congress, but which state and when.

By David Swanson

Tomorrow, Thursday, March 4, Congressman Dennis Kucinich plans to introduce a privileged resolution to end the Afghan War. The resolution requires that the House debate, within the next week, the continuing war in Afghanistan, now the second longest war in American history.

Harry Hanbury has a story that any videographer or blogger would love. He created a video of Congresswoman Donna Edwards taking steps to amend the Constitution to restore our democracy following assault by the Supreme Court. A woman you've never heard of named Jessica Sharp saw the video and decided to take action herself. She had never organized a rally or even attended many, but she put together an event at the state capitol of Maryland that inspired every interested activist group and state legislator to join in. Jessica has sparked a movement in Maryland that is inspiring others around the country. So, Harry made a new video, about Jessica:

By David Swanson

California keeps passing bills for state single-payer healthcare, but Ahhhnold won't sign em, and Jerry Brown who wants to be governor doesn't seem to want it badly enough to make a commitment on healthcare. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania is encouraged that their current governor has said he probably will sign a single-payer healthcare bill, and the legislature just might pass one. But Minnesota has an angle neither of these other states can claim: a serious candidate for governor who is the state's leading advocate for single-payer.

By David Swanson

I've been writing about various states just beginning campaigns for single-payer healthcare. Pennsylvania is on the cusp of completing one.

They claim to have the best legislation, which will provide everyone with healthcare, pay for it, and in fact save people and businesses money, as well as getting around the federal restrictions Congressman Dennis Kucinich has attempted unsuccessfully thus far to waive for states. In Pennsylvania they have Democratic and Republican cosponsors. Imagine that in Washington, D.C.! And they have a governor ready to sign the bill into law.

By David Swanson

Maryland's state senate has scheduled a hearing on a single-payer healthcare bill for March 10th. California's legislature has passed a single-payer bill three times. Single-payer healthcare bills are advancing in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and New Mexico. I recently wrote about two state legislator candidates, Marcus Brandon in North Carolina and Byron DeLear in Missouri, who plan to introduce state single-payer bills immediately upon being elected.

Now, let me tell you about Colorado. Mark Mehringer is a candidate for the Colorado State House from District 7 (Denver). His website at http://votemark2010.com has an issues page and a video on the home page that both put a Medicare-for-All healthcare solution at the top of his agenda.