By David McReynolds

What a difference money makes. Today, Saturday the 28th of 2010, Glenn Beck rallied on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with all the majesty of Fox News behind him. Day after day Fox News had trumpeted the event, organizing for it, and if Beck doesn’t get a crowd it will be no fault of those who own Fox News and fund Glenn Beck. (Fox News is one very good reason for an estate tax which would guarantee that no one could buy and own networks, newspapers, and control the media, the way Rupert Murdoch has done).  read more »

The Bangor Daily News added its support for the New START Treaty last week with a persuasive editorial asking the Senate to support its ratification this year. It concluded:”The treaty is also supported by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and many other top military and diplomatic leaders. It should be supported by the U.S. Senate, too.” Read the entire editorial at http://tinyurl.com/32v2fuj.  read more »

Forty seven percent of the voters believe the Federal budget deficit is primarily due to the wars while joblessness continues to climb. The number one concern for a majority of people is the economy. It is the perfect storm for new organizing efforts to end the wars, cut military spending and rebuild our communities.

Peace Action is helping to organize a national march on Washington, October 2, One Nation Working Together. We are calling on the Obama administration and Congress to create jobs and “move the money” from wars and weapons to our communities.  read more »

Latin America has been the success story of the world left in the first decade of the twenty-first century. This is true in two senses. The first and most widely-noticed way is that left or left-of-center parties have won a remarkable series of elections during the decade. And collectively, Latin American governments have taken for the first time a significant degree of distance from the United States. Latin America has become a relatively autonomous geopolitical force on the world scene.  read more »

Reading newspapers can be a startling experience. On July 26 this year, U.S. papers ran two quite contradictory stories. In the first news article, USA Today reported on its quarterly forecast of economists. The headline read: “Economists’ optimism wanes.” It seems that the combination of “turmoil in Europe, lackluster job growth, a weak housing market and a slowdown in factory output” make it very unlikely that the United States can recover the lost 8.5 million jobs “at a more-than-glacial pace.” In addition, they fear “global financial instability.”  read more »

25,000 Jews live in Iran. It’s the largest Jewish population in the Middle East outside of Israel. Iranian Jews are not persecuted or abused by the state, in fact, they are protected under Iran’s constitution. They are free to practice their religion and to vote in elections. They are not stopped and searched at checkpoints, they are not brutalized by an occupying army, and they are not herded into a densely-populated penal colony (Gaza) where they are deprived of the basic means of survival. Iranian Jews live in dignity and enjoy the benefits of citizenship.  read more »

http://tinyurl.com/2c846us

By Courage to Resist. July 14, 2010
http://www.counterpunch.org/beattie08132010.html
Weekend Edition
August 13 - 15, 2010

Replace the Fallen and Keep Your Mouth Shut

Needing You

By MISSY BEATTIE

Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs believe that more than 6000 veterans will commit suicide in 2010.

According to an article in Foreign Policy, an average of one soldier a day committed suicide in June.  read more »

August 6, 2010
By MARTIN FACKLER
http://tinyurl.com/2dj8hjc

HIROSHIMA, Japan — With the mournful gong of a Buddhist temple bell and the release of a flock of doves, a crowd of 55,000 on Friday solemnly marked the moment 65 years ago when the world’s first atomic attack incinerated this city under a towering mushroom cloud.

For first time, a representative of the United States, Ambassador John V. Roos, participated in the annual ceremony, raising hopes here of a visit soon by a more prominent guest, President Obama, who is scheduled to be in Japan in November.  read more »