By Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis
In this age of austerity, all the politicians are talking about the need for spending cuts. But when it comes to shared burdens and slashed budgets, don't expect the Pentagon to start holding bake sales, despite what you may have heard about reductions to its obscenely bloated funding[...]
When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Greece, she praised the Greek government’s austerity measures to reduce deficits and cut spending. The U.S. and Greece face a common challenge of dealing with soaring deficits, but they also face something else in common: a refusal to deal with out-of-control military spending. And given that the United States is a major arms seller to Greece, Hillary Clinton will encourage the Greeks to slash workers’ wages and pensions, but not its enormous military appetite[...]
Written by CODEPINK Maine Coordinator Lisa Savage Sometimes we activists ask ourselves: how many times do we need to contact our elected representatives to let them know how we feel about out of control spending on the military? When we call their offices, are they even listening? The staffers who answer their office phones are [...]
Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) quoted from the mayors’ resolution Calling On Congress to Redirect Military Spending to Domestic Priorities during House debate of the annual defense spending bill. She noted that the people of the United States, and our mayors, are calling for a swift withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan and bring the war dollars [...]
The Metro Economies Policy Committee passed the War Dollars Home Resolution unanimously. As Jackie Cabasso of Mayors for Peace explained, #USCM2011 Metro Econ Cmmttee used consent calendar-type process to adopt 13 resolutions simultaneously. Noone pulled Bring Our $$ Home!! Unpacking that tweet: business is done at the US Conference of Mayors by consent. A member [...]
By Medea Benjamin
Senate Armed Services Chair Carl Levin—a Democrat from Michigan--had just put down the gavel, marking the end of the confirmation hearing for Leon Panetta to be the next Secretary of Defense, when Detroit-born CODEPINK activist Tighe Barry jumped up. “Shame on you, Senator Levin, for supporting endless wars while Detroit is dying,” he shouted. “Your constituents are eating cat food while you’re funding a champagne war.” Levin shook his head in disgust, dismissing Barry as some kind of kook, and walked out of the room[...]
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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