from the Marijuana Policy Project
PROVIDENCE, March 29, 2013 — Possession of small amounts of marijuana will no longer carry criminal penalties in Rhode Island when a law adopted last year officially takes effect on Monday, April 1.
from Earthjustice
WASHINGTON DC, March 26, 2013 — Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency released an extensive survey reporting that more than half of our nation’s stream and river miles are severely polluted, or listed as “impaired” or in “poor condition.” This is the most dire in a string of water assessments over the last 20 years that have reported high percentages of water impairment and pollution in the United States.
by Emily Schwartz Greco and William A Collins
These days, the news cycle rotates between the deficit, bouts of extreme weather, horrific crimes, taxation, immigration, gun control (or the lack thereof), and a few other regularly reported crises. Lost in this shuffle is any heated discussion of the biggest threat to America’s well-being: the military-industrial complex.
A generation into the nation’s lonely status as the world’s sole superpower, and a decade after the start of the tragic and pointless Iraq War, the Pentagon continues to be several times the size we need for security’s sake. But there seems little we can do about the more than $500 billion a year our government spends on “defense.”
There’s no national security threat that warrants spending these vast sums. Even if we decide that we must keep on ruling the world, we can figure out a way to do it for much less.
If you want to know why that sum rivals the military spending of the entire rest of the world combined, you could ponder the way arms producers currently invest big bucks in legions of lobbyists who patrol the halls of Congress.
Or consider the way military contractors have artfully placed factories in every congressional district to generate overwhelming grassroots political support. This is a smart move because lawmakers fear challenging even the most futile weapons when it constitutes political suicide.
There’s no national security threat that warrants spending these vast sums. Even if we decide that we must keep on ruling the world, we can figure out a way to do it for much less.
After all, how many jumbo or “super” aircraft carriers does it take to hold the globe at bay when no one else bothers with them anymore? How many of the latest generation of drones are required to patrol empty skies? How many nuclear warheads are enough when no one dares use any? We have about 5,000.
Maintaining these stockpiles wastes money at a time when our safety net is being threatened with major cuts. We could readily steer this surplus spending into higher priorities like education or our crumbling infrastructure, but we don’t.
How often do you hear of our 800 overseas military bases or the impact of our troops stationed in 150 foreign lands? And why is it so hard for Democrats and Republicans alike to accept the need to reduce the scale and scope of the bases we have stateside, which were built to accommodate far more troops than now belong to our armed forces?
There’s no better symbol of what’s wrong with US military priorities than the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an astronomic turkey that has cost taxpayers $400 billion so far.
There’s no better symbol of what’s wrong with US military priorities than the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, an astronomic turkey that has cost taxpayers $400 billion so far. Equipped with that boatload of cash, Lockheed Martin has produced 99 prototypes of the nuclear-capable weapon, none of which has been deemed fit to confront common aviation challenges such as rain, lightning, and the dark.
There are countless better ways to spend those tax dollars. Consider this: One billion dollars spent on the Pentagon covers about 11,000 workers. If that money were funneled into education instead, it would generate more than 26,000 jobs.
This cherry blossom season, Uncle Sam should roll up his sleeves and do some serious spring cleaning at the Pentagon.
from Tar Sands Blockade
WASHINGTON DC, March 20, 2013 — One month after the largest climate rally in US history urged President Obama to deny the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline’s northern segment, protesters in dozens of cities throughout the U.S. are confronting KXL's corporate backers directly. Thirty-seven have been arrested over the last ten days for disrupting business as usual at TransCanada and their investors' offices, with more are planned before the week is over.
The March 16-23 Week of Action to Stop Tar Sands Profiteers, in solidarity with Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance's Direct Action Camp in Ponca City, Oklahoma, is endorsed by more than 50 grassroots environmental organizations around the country. Organizers seek to expose green-washed corporations like TD Bank, a top shareholder in TransCanada, and force them to divest from the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
“It's encouraging to see people around the country taking action to stop tar sands profiteers,” said Ron Seifert, spokesperson for Tar Sands Blockade. “No longer will we allow them to build KXL and invest in toxic projects that endanger the health of low-income and communities of color. We will not allow “business as usual” to continue.”
Here are a few highlights from the Week of Action so far:
Check tarsandsblockade.org for live updates from actions around the country. At least 18 more actions are planned between now and Saturday, March 23rd, including six more actions against TD Bank in New York City, Washington DC, Montpellier, VT, Newark, DE, New Haven, CT, and Asheville, NC.
by David Wheeler
“Thomas Jefferson described our inalienable rights as life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness — the rights with which we are endowed, for the protection of which we have instituted governments. I do not think the composition of that foundational phrase was an accident. I do not think the order of those important words was haphazard or casual. The liberty of any person to own a military-style assault weapon and a high-capacity magazine, and keep them in their home, is second to the right of my son to his life — to his life; to the right to live of all of those children and those teachers, to the right to the lives of your children, of you, of all of us — all of our lives — it is second. Let’s honor the founding documents and get our priorities straight. Thank you.”
David Wheeler's 6-year-old son was shot to death in his elementary school.
by Bill Quigley
“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values… when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr, April 4, 1967
While the US celebrates the re-election of its first African American President and the successes of numerous African Americans in all walks of life, there remain troubling challenges. While remembering how far this nation has come since Dr. King was alive, we cannot forget how far we have still to go to combat the oppressions of racism, materialism and militarism.
Racism
Whites have 22 times more wealth than blacks and 15 times more wealth than Latinos. Median household net worth for whites was $110,000 versus $4,900 for blacks versus $7,424 for Latinos, according to CNN Money and the Census Bureau.
The latest Census analysis (pdf) shows 9 percent of white families below the US poverty level and 23 percent of Black and Hispanic families below the same levels.
African Americans are 12.3 percent of the population but 4.7 percent of attorneys.
Latinos are 15.8 percent of the population but only 2.8 percent of attorneys.
African American students face harsher discipline, have less access to rigorous high school classes and are more likely to be taught by less experienced and lower paid teachers according to a government sponsored national survey of 72,000 schools.
Thirteen percent of whites, 21 percent of blacks and 32 percent of Hispanics lack health insurance, according to a Kaiser Foundation study (pdf).
The latest Census analysis (pdf) shows 9 percent of white families below the US poverty level and 23 percent of Black and Hispanic families below the same levels.
Materialism
The chairman of Goldman Sachs was awarded $21 million in total pay for 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal.
From 1978 to 2011, compensation for workers grew by 5.7 percent. During the same time, CEO compensation grew by 725 percent. In 1965 CEO earned about 20 times the typical worker. In 2011, the typical CEO “earned” over 200 times the typical worker.
The top 1 percent of earners took home 93 percent of the growth in incomes in 2010, while middle income household have lower incomes than they did in 1996, according to Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
People in the US spent $52 billion on pets in 2012, according to the American Pet Products Association. The latest figures from the Census Bureau indicate the US spends less than $50 billion per year in non-military foreign aid.
Student loan debt is now higher than total credit card debt and total auto loan debt.
Student loan debt is now higher than total credit card debt and total auto loan debt.
Over 2.8 million children in the US live in homes of extreme poverty, less than $2 per person per day before government benefits. This is double what it was 15 years ago.
Nearly one in six people in the US live in poverty according to the Census. One in five children live in poverty. Latest information shows 17 percent of white children in poverty, 32 percent of Hispanic children and 35 percent of black children (pdf).
Militarism
The US spends more (pdf) on its military than any country in the world. The US spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined! More than China, Russia, UK, France, Japan, Indian, Saudi Arabia, German and Brazil together.
The 2013 military budget authorizes spending $633 billion on our military defense, not including money for the Veterans Administration. The VA budget submission for 2013 is $140 billion. To compare, total federal spending on Social Security for 2012 was about $773 billion.
The US has 737 military bases outside the US around the world and over 2 million military personnel, including Defense Department and local hires.
The US leads the world in the sale of weapons in the global arms market. In 2011 the US tripled sales to $66 billion making up three-quarters of the global market. Russia was second with less than $5 billion in sales.
Forty-five percent of the 1.6 million veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeking disability benefits from physical and mental injuries suffered while in the service.
Forty-five percent of the 1.6 million veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are seeking disability benefits from physical and mental injuries suffered while in the service.
Suicides in active US military, 349 in 2012, exceeded the 295 total combat deaths in Afghanistan in 2012, according to the Associated Press.
Conclusion
These are challenges we should face with the hope and courage Dr King and so many others have taught us as we celebrate his accomplishment and his inspiration.
by Don Terry
At this point, it’s far from certain whether the massacre of 20 Connecticut first-graders and six educators by a madman armed with an assault rifle in December will lead to meaningful gun control.
by Denise Frisino
Whether they realize it or not, residents of Colorado and Washington have traveled back in time — 80 years, to be exact.
The first two states to decriminalize recreational marijuana are sharing in the national experience of 1933: the end of Prohibition. And the similarities are uncanny, says Prohibition-era researcher and author Denise Frisino.
by George Lakoff
Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?
– Barack Obama, Newtown Address, December 16, 2012
That sentence, uttered by President Obama in his Newtown Address, may turn out to be a turning point in American history. The president, in one sentence, turned the beautiful faces of the 20 first-grade children murdered brutally by assault weapons into the moral measure of our nation.
Dear President Obama:
Good luck on your journeys overseas this week, and congratulations on decisively winning your second term as our president! The first time you won four years ago, most of us couldn't contain our joy and found ourselves literally in tears over your victory.
This time, it was more like breathing a huge sigh of relief.
