Using a series of congressional slight-of-hand maneuvers, Pelosi’s plan consists of scrapping the contents of a bill that has already passed, and in its place, voting on three separate new amendments: one on funding the war, a second on a set of provisions including a non-binding “goal” of redeploying combat troops from Iraq within 18 months, and a third for funding a set of domestic economic priorities.  read more »

By Aaron Glantz
Foreign Policy in Focus
Friday 09 May 2008

Eighteen American war veterans kill themselves every day. One thousand former soldiers receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs attempt suicide every month. More veterans are committing suicide than are dying in combat overseas.

These are statistics that most Americans don’t know, because the Bush administration has refused to tell them. Since the start of the Iraq War, the government has tried to present it as a war without casualties.  read more »

Hey everyone,

I wanted to get in touch with everyone about the cyclone in Burma. A number of you have called or emailed me to ask what you can do to help. I have been reading reports from inside Burma constantly over the past few days and I have been in touch with aid workers. There is a lot the popular press has not picked up on yet. I am going to give you all a quick news update and then let you know what you can do to help.  read more »

Here’s What You Can Do

Dear Friends,

The news is staggering and in many ways unfathomable. Yesterday, Shari Villarosa, the leading US diplomat in Burma said that 100,000 may have died and 95% of the buildings in the affected areas could be wiped out. The death tolls could increase as water born diseases such as cholera are beginning to spread, and in these worst hit areas aid has not to arrive.  read more »

Thanks so much for inviting me and for making me feel so welcome. I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I was going to say this evening.

Frankly, it is a tall order to stand up in front of a group of people who have just eaten and be expected to say anything that can compete with the natural digestive process. And it is tough to fly from New York and assume that what I would prepare to say would automatically be relevant or interesting to this Maine community as you come together to celebrate and honor a few of your own.  read more »

Bloomberg.com - May 05, 2008

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&si...

May 5 (Bloomberg) — The number of suicides among veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the combat death toll because of inadequate mental health care, the U.S. government’s top psychiatric researcher said.

Community mental health centers, hobbled by financial limits, haven’t provided enough scientifically sound care, especially in rural areas, said Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health in  read more »

Throughout the world, May 1 is celebrated as May Day - the international workers’ day. The only exception is the United States. The irony is that May Day is celebrated in memory of an American event - the Haymarket Riot in Chicago. On May 1, 1886, in many U.S. cities workers engaged in a general strike in support of an eight-hour day. In Chicago, 80,000 workers marched down Michigan Avenue. On the fourth day of the demonstrations, at the very end of a rally in Haymarket Square, violence broke out. Its origin is contested to this day, but some policemen were killed.  read more »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BANGOR, ME- Today, jurors in the Case of the ‘Bangor Six’, the veterans for peace anti-war protestors arrested in the Margaret Chase Federal Building in protest of Senator Susan Collins for her refusal to end the war funding and occupation, brought back a decisive verdict of ‘not guilty’. Speaking as a juror, Derek Gordon said that the jurors felt that this case was “a good thing, that it got the message across peacefully.”  read more »