So far, 2011 has been a strange year. And this week might just win the weirdness award.
Let’s recap… Keith Olbermann suddenly departs MSNBC (on the first anniversary of the end of Air America and the Supreme Court ruling overturning 100 years of law in the Citizens United v FEC case); the President adopts GOP themes in his State of the Union address, including tort reform and lowering corporate taxes; cross-aisle dates for the SOTU; and the strangest of strange: Dennis Kucinich sues the House cafeteria over an olive pit in his veggie wrap.
That’s all not to mention the freedom protests and turmoi across the planet: Egypt, Tunisia, even Yemen!
Strange Days, indeed…
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Obama addressed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but didn’t come out and proclaim that he’ll end those wars and bring the troops – and the money – home. Not good enough for me and at least 150 peace activists, authors and academics. We’ve all signed on to a petition circulated by my favorite activist and author of War Is A Lie, David Swanson, which opens with:
“We the undersigned share with nearly two-thirds of our fellow Americans the conviction that our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended and that overall military spending should be dramatically reduced. This has been our position for years and will continue to be, and we take it seriously. We vow not to support President Barack Obama for renomination for another term in office, and to actively seek to impede his war policies unless and until he reverses them.”
David will join me this morning from Snowmageddon land to talk about the statement, signed by
Among the signers are:
Elliott Adams, president, Veterans For Peace
Nellie Hester Bailey, Harlem Tenants Council & Black Agenda Report
Medea Benjamin, cofounder, Code Pink*
Frida Berrigan, War Resisters League*
William Blum, author of books on U.S. foreign policy
Jean Hay Bright, Maine’s 2006 Democratic US Senate candidate
Patty Casazza, 9/11 widow, former 9/11 Commission Family Steering Committee Member
Jeff Cohen, author/media critic
Sibel Edmonds, founder & director, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
Roy Eidelson, past president, Psychologists for Social Responsibility
Daniel Ellsberg, former State and Defense Dept. official, whistleblower of Pentagon Papers
Lisa Fithian, convenor, United for Peace and Justice
Chris Hedges, author, Death of the Liberal Class
Steve Hendricks, author, A Kidnapping in Milan: The CIA on Trial
Dahr Jamail, journalist/author
Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence*
Howie Klein, publisher, DownWithTyranny.com
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun/Network of Spiritual Progressives
David MacMichael, Ph.D., former CIA analyst
Ethan McCord, IVAW, VFP, former army specialist from “collateral murder” video
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst
Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy*
Bruce Nestor, past president, National Lawyers Guild
Gareth Porter, author and journalist
Bill Quigley, Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law, Loyola University New Orleans*
Jesselyn Radack, former Department of Justice legal adviser
Garett Reppenhagen, chair of the board of directors, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent, one of TIME’s 2002 Persons of the Year
Michael Steven Smith, Law and Disorder Radio; board member, Center for Constitutional Rights*
John Stockwell, former intelligence officer, author
Elizabeth De La Vega, former assistant U.S. attorney, author
Marcy Winograd, former Democratic congressional candidate
Ann Wright, US Army Reserve Colonel and former US diplomatand others (including me)
*for identification only
The full statement (and full list of initial signers) is available with a petition at http://warisacrime.org/primary
Since it’s Thursday, and my last show of the week, we’ll end with a fun week-end wrap up with comedian John Fugelsang.
**Update** During the show, I invited 99er Paladinette to come on and talk about her rebuttal to the State of the Union address… see it here:
And Happy Birthday Keith Olbermann #FOK.