CA: Obama's Endless War Policy Drives Lifelong Dems to Greens

A letter to the editor of the Napa Valley Register:

I have been a registered Democrat all of my life (the first time I voted in 1960 was for JFK) but today I went down to the county offices and re-registered for the Green Party.

The latest decision of the White House to reduce the almost 100,000 troops in Afghanistan by a mere 10,000 is the final blow that has been weakening my faith in the present regime.

Exactly one year before he died, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke out against the Vietnam War at the Riverside Church in New York City and alienated some of his supporters who thought he should concentrate mainly on the Civil Rights movement.

He said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursue this self defeating path of hate.” . . .

Thousands Protest the Democrat-Republican Global Warfare State

On April 9th, thousands of anti-war protesters gathered in New York City to protest the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya supported by the Democratic and Republican parties.  Numerous third party and independent political organizations participated in the events.  Among the speakers were Howie Hawkins of the Green Party, Charles Barron of the Freedom Party and Cindy Sheehan, who challenged Nancy Pelosi as a third party candidate in the 2008 elections.  Video of their remarks can be found below.

Howie Hawkins:



Charles Barron:




Cindy Sheehan

NYT: Department of Defense has "a Relatively Small Annual Budget"

Via Memeorandum comes a link to this article in the New York Times reporting on an interview with outgoing Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson.  The article recounts Grayson's standard critique of the GOP but emphasizes that in the conversation "he repeatedly aimed his artillery in an unexpected direction: toward his own party." Perhaps most surprisingly, however, the article states that the Department of Defense has a "relatively small annual budget."  Excerpt:

He even gave his legislation provocative names, like the “The War Is Making You Poor Act,” which sought to reduce taxes by requiring the Defense Department to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan within its relatively small annual budget. (It did not pass.) [Emphasis added.]

The annual budget for the Department of Defense is now over $700 billion.  

War Crimes, Naked Aggression and the Bipartisan Contempt for the Ideals of the Nation

From a commentary by Darrell Castle at the Constitution Party of Tennessee:

Perhaps the most obvious and most damaging example of the contempt in which our leaders hold our cherished ideals is the government’s wars of naked aggression and constant violations of the sovereignty of other nations. The pointless slaughters conducted in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are but the most obvious examples. Our leaders have been militarily intervening in the affairs of other nations for about 100 years now. Just about every nation in Central and South America has been invaded at one time or another.
In addition to the disregard for human life and human suffering which has been inflicted on a mass scale, our leaders have admitted to war crimes and crimes against humanity – as defined by the Nuremberg standard, which was created by the United States post-WWII.

The former President George W. Bush admitted to torture and said he was proud of it and that he would “do it again.” Torture, and specifically waterboarding allied prisoners, was one of the war crimes for which Hideki Tojo, premier of Japan, was hanged as a war criminal on December 23, 1948. His other listed crimes had to do with waging aggressive war against the various allied powers. Mr. Tojo probably was a war criminal, but it’s a bit hypocritical to exempt our own leaders from his crimes, don’t you think?

There is only One Party in Washington D.C.: the Pro-War Party and the Anti-War Vote

From WAMM Today:

If most of the apocalyptic prognostications are realized, the GOP/Tea Party coalition is going to win big next month. And, typically, those of a progressive, liberal, anti-war Democratic persuasion are saying, “We can avoid the tsunami of Tea Party crazies by sticking with the Democrats. The Dems may be bad, but the Tea Partiers are even worse!”

And I ask you, how does voting fearfully, ignorantly, and irresponsibly (sticking with the Democrats, voting for the lesser of two evils, voting against someone) advance the Anti-war agenda? And that is what we are concerned about isn’t it? Advancing the Anti-war agenda?  Like you, I’ve already heard the arguments, variations on a theme of fear, ignorance, and irresponsibility . . .

Minnesota Greens Outraged at FBI Raids of Activists' Homes

From Green Party Watch:

Green Party of Minnesota Supports Peace Activists Raided by FBI
News that five homes of well-known peace activists in Minneapolis had been raided and searched by FBI agents yesterday morning brought expressions of outrage from members of the Green Party´s state coordinating committee. They voiced support for the Anti War Committee and other local groups with which the activists are associated. They believe that accusations of material aid to terrorism are intended to intimidate all who protest.

Anti-war movement and TEA party must hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separately

The warfare state and the welfare state are inevitably linked, two sides of the same coin. The elites who run both of these scams have convinced many of those protesting against one to support the other through a false choice between the left and right sides of the same pyramid scheme - with them at the top and most of us at the bottom. As long as our struggles are limited to working to elevate left above right or right above left, the pyramid remains balanced on our backs, ensuring their comfort.

Some people get it: Matt Gonzalez, Ron Paul to Appear Together at Anti-War Rally in San Francisco

Luke Thomas at the Fog-City Journal reports:

Former Board of Supervisors President and (Nader's) Vice Presidential Candidate Matt Gonzalez, Congressman and former Presidential Candidate Ron Paul, and 8th Congressional District candidate John Dennis (GOP), are scheduled to speak during a non-partisan, antiwar, anti-Washington and anti-incumbency free speech rally, September 4 in San Francisco.

Matt Gonzalez also ran for Mayor of San Francisco as a Green Party nominee. Readers at IPR will also remember Ron Paul was the 1988 Libertarian presidential nominee.

Other speakers are also slated to appear, although they have not yet been named. The event appears to be hosted by Campaign for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty, both organizations that originated from Paul’s 2008 Republican campaign for President.

Others do not get it at all:

NY: Green Party Candidate for US Senate Blasts Gillibrand's Voting Record on War

From News Channel 34, a press release from Cecile Lawrence for US Senate:

New York State peace and social justice activist Cecile Lawrence and Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate remembers being amazed at former President Bush's advice to Americans after planes hit the towers at the bottom of Manhattan that we all should go shopping.

Less than two years later, the U.S. attacked Iraq in an invasion dubbed "Shock and Awe." Major cities in Iraq were later bombed into the Middle Ages, as at least one commentator put it.

Dr. Lawrence, running for the seat to which Kisten Gillibrand was appointed by Governor Paterson last year, is aghast at the likelihood that the Obama administration is playing with words by announcing that he's ending the war in Iraq with the departure from that country of the last full Army combat brigade. With 50,000 members of the U.S. military to remain in Iraq, Lawrence is convinced that the war continues but just under a new label.

Lawrence added that every since Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed Senator, she has regularly voted for more funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

TX Libertarian Party Chair Compares Tea Party and Anti-War Movements

Austin Dixon concludes in an article for the Austin Statesman:

What is yet to be determined is whether the tea party will have the same impact as the war protests. My observation is that the war protests don't appear to have had any significant effect on policy.

Therefore, it is hard to predict how the tea party will influence the November elections. It will depend on whether supporters of the tea party are committed to the Libertarian origin of the movement. If so, votes will go toward those with a Libertarian (socially tolerant, fiscally conservative) platform which challenges incumbent politicians. If not, incumbent politicians will continue imposing anti-free market and socially intolerant policies on us and future generations.

If that happens, the party is over and it won't matter who lays claim to it. I, for one, won't want any part of it.

CT: Green Calls Out Congressional Democrat for War Hawking

From The Day:

Scott Deshefy, the Green Party candidate running for Congress in the 2nd District, issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing the district's representative, Democrat Joe Courtney, for voting against a resolution to pull American troops out of Pakistan.


The Green Party had urged Congress to pass House Resolution 301, introduced by Reps. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Ron Paul, R-Texas, which said President Barack Obama's plan to increase the number of U.S. military personnel in Pakistan would violate the 1973 War Powers Act. The bill was defeated by a vote of 372-38 in the House on Tuesday.

Anti-War: Billy Wharton Interviews Cindy Sheehan

From the Socialist Webzine:

Cindy Sheehan is the most recognizable anti-war activist in the US today. Since her son Casey's death in Iraq in 2004, she has thrown herself into anti-war organizing. One high point of her protests came in 2005 as she set up a Camp Casey across from the vacation ranch of then President George W. Bush to demand an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following the election of Barack Obama the anti-war movement has gone into a tailspin, unable to mount serious national marches, stem the tide of military recruits or hold Obama to his deadlines. On the eve of a major Anti-war Conference in Albany, NY, Cindy Sheehan shares her thoughts on the future of the movement, the Democratic Party and the need for principled opposition to the war.

NY: Peace Group Endorses Green Party Slate

From News Channel 34, Binghampton NY:

Following a presentation by Cecile Lawrence, Green Party candidate for U.S, Senate, Broome County Peace Action voted to endorse her candidacy and that of Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for NYS Governor. It also urged its members to sign a petition being circulated which, if sufficient signatures are gained, would put the Green Party on the ballot in November. During her presentation, Dr. Lawrence stressed the following:

Top four issues of concern:

End foreign wars; end fossil fuel subsidies and extraction, especially hydrofracturing
Advocates universal single payer; end for-profit health insurance. Reform Wall Street; end corporate person-hood.  End large corn, wheat and soy subsidies, CAFOs, GM seeds, plants, fish, fowl, cattle.  She said that “We need to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan now and return the troops home in early 2011…….. Corporations must be stripped of the artificial personhood granted them by an accident of the U.S. Supreme Court, resulting not in human personhood but in god-like status, since they never get sick, and can never die. Reform Wall Street, getting rid of the practices that led to the idea of ‘too big to fail.”

VA: Independent Green Party Joins Anti-War Coalition

From After Downing Street:

The Independent Green Party of Virginia has joined a coalition that includes 88 congressional candidates from every major party and 29 national organizations opposed to any further spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The Independent Greens is the first political party to join the Coalition Against War Spending.  Other national and state political parties are encouraged to sign on.

Libertarian Party Provides 10 Reasons to End the Wars Now

From the Libertarian Party blog:

The long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been back in the news recently, and we just had the bizarre spectacle of the Republican National Committee Chairman saying he didn't like Obama's war in Afghanistan, while the DNC chastised him for failing to support the troops.
Here are ten reasons to end the wars now. I hope you'll take a look at some of the links.
1. American military and contractor casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2. Iraqi and Afghanistan civilian and military casualties.
3. These wars are a tremendous waste of taxpayer money in a time of extreme deficits, high unemployment and a falling stock market.
4. Invading and occupying Afghanistan and Iraq feeds terrorism.
5. Osama Bin Laden and his co-conspirators who attacked the World Trade Center were Saudi Arabian.
6. As Congressman Ron Paul recently said: "In Afghanistan, we are fighting the Taliban, those dangerous people with guns defending their homeland. Once they were called the Mujahideen, our old allies, along with bin Laden, in the fight to oust the Soviets from Afghanistan in the 1980s."
7. Most Republicans in Congress now admit Iraq was a mistake.
8. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele's comments show that even the hawkish Republican Party can't support this war with a straight face.
9. As James Madison said, "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." (Witness the PATRIOT Act.)
10. The U.S. military has been in Iraq over seven years, and in Afghanistan almost nine years. It's time to give peace a chance.

Cindy Sheehan Makes the Case for Third Party and Independent Political Activism

Some excerpts from a lengthy interview with Cindy Sheehan published at the Socialist Alternative:

What was your personal experience with Democratic Party leaders when you emerged as a key figure in the antiwar movement in 2005? How did they respond to your demand to end the Iraq war after they took control of Congress in 2006?

I met with dozens of Democratic Senators (Obama, Clinton, Levin, Reid, Kerry, etc.) and House Reps (Pelosi, etc.), and they all told me: “Cindy, if you help us regain the majority in Congress, we will help you end the wars.” 

Well, after August of 2005 when anti-war sentiment and anti-Bush sentiment was at its peak, the Democrats used that energy precisely to regain slim majorities in both Houses. But what did they do with those majorities? Funded the wars, refused to hold the Bush crime syndicate accountable, passed the FISA Modernization Act and bankster bailouts, among other things.

After the first war supplemental was passed in May of 2007 (with organizations such as MoveOn.org cheerleading for the bill’s passage), I left the party for good.

To answer your question about how the Democratic Party responded to demands to end the wars—well, the wars are still raging, and now there is a Democratic Tyranny in the House, Senate, and Executive Branch.

You ran against Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in 2008, beating the Republican, and winning an impressive 16% of the vote. Can you tell us about your experience as an independent antiwar candidate?

This answer to this question could fill a book, but it comes down to a few things: The federal electoral system, the way it is, cannot be beaten at its own game. The rules and regulations make it practically impossible for a third party/independent candidate to even get on the ballot, let alone run.

A candidate cannot get paid by the campaign unless he/she is an official candidate, and one can’t run for office and have a day job. So I went for about 10 months with very little income, and my one credit card got charged up to the max and is now in collection.

I thought that running against Pelosi would be a great way to expose the issues and the corruption of the “two” party system, but the media totally shut me out. It was one of the worst experiences of my life, but people around the country really stepped up to the plate and donated money and time, and we had a really honest, dedicated, principled campaign. I certainly can hold my head up high.

Do you think it’s time to build a political party independent from the Republicans and Democrats? Would you consider running for President to provide an independent left-wing, pro-worker alternative in the 2012 election?

I thought it was time long ago, but the mood of the country really seems anti-establishment now, but I see most of that energy being stolen by the right wing. Yes, if I am promised a professional campaign staff, and we get started immediately.

Read the whole thing.

MA: Independent Candidate for Congress Urges Opposition to War Supplemental

Via After Downing Street:

Libertarian Party to Obama: End the War

From Liberty for All:

WASHINGTON - After President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan over the weekend, Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict issued the following statement today:
“President Obama just called the Afghanistan War ‘absolutely essential.’ Nothing could be further from the truth. The U.S. armed forces are being used for nation-building. The president, as commander-in-chief, has the power to end this war, and he should begin doing so immediately.
“The cost of this war, in both lives and money, is staggering, and it will become more so if the president maintains his current course. Forcing current and future American taxpayers to turn over hundreds of billions of dollars for this counterproductive effort is deeply unjust.
“Even worse, the American effort in Afghanistan is propping up a hopelessly corrupt government, which is alienating the Afghan people and causing them to blame the United States even more for their problems.
“There is zero chance that American military power will create a stable and honest government in Afghanistan. But even if that were possible, it would still lie completely outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. government.
“The Libertarian Party recognizes that United States faces some threat of terrorism, but we think that fighting foreign wars is one of the worst possible ways to deal with that threat.
“Disturbingly, President Obama is demonstrating a complete faith in government power in almost every aspect of American policy. From foreign wars, to the economy, to health care, the president thinks that government power is always the solution. Libertarians disagree: we believe that government power, which is always coercively enforced, is usually the problem.

Green Party to Join Marches Against War, for Immigration Reform

From GPW:

Many Greens are planning to march against US wars in Washington DC on 3/20/10, but not all may be aware that a march for immigration reform is planned for the very next day in DC. Participants in Sunday’s March for America will be marching for “Immigration reform for new American families and economic justice for all American families”.