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While playing on Facebook Facecrack tonight, I noticed all the groups, pages, and causes on my page. The accumulated weight of mouse clicks shocked me, not only because of these groups’ sheer purposelessness (i.e., the various Farmville hate groups), but also because joining typically leads to nothing fruitful even when the groups are actually meaningful (i.e., Southern Poverty Law Center). Now, we could rationalize this by saying that Facebook allows us to construct ourselves in a very strange hybrid space of reality and virtual reality. So I want all these groups/pages/causes in my profile. They are little hyperlinks to represent me, and all my connectionsRead More →

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War is hell for everyone involved. For women, this hell can be especially deep. Recruiters don’t tell those who enlist that 30% of military women will be sexually assaulted while serving. Women who work as contract employees in Iraq face similar dangers. Jamie Leigh Jones, a former Halliburton/KBR employee in Iraq, recently testified at a Congressional hearing that she was drugged and brutally gang-raped by her co-workers in 2005. Three years later, KBR and the military have failed to punish the perpetrators or provide redress for Jamie Leigh. We met Jamie Leigh in Washington and we were moved by her courage-under tremendous pressure-to speak outRead More →

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From Code Pink’s talking points about dogging Hillary re: the war in Iraq: Question: Are you doing this because she’s a woman? Are you holding her to a higher standard because she’s a woman? As women, are you going after her because she’s a woman? Answer: No. No. No. Our campaign has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman. It is about her enormous power and influence within the Democratic Party. It is about her hawk-like record. We don’t want to end up with another Lyndon Johnson—of whatever gender. Pressuring Hillary to change her stance on the war—and not just herRead More →

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Counterpunch has an article today on how much money Cheney and other war profiteers have made off the Iraq war. It’s so appalling; I can’t believe that this sort of thing doesn’t make headlines in the mainstream news. For instance, In addition, Cheney’s son-in-law, Philip Perry, Cummings says, was appointed to serve as general counsel to the Department of Homeland Security, and he had been a registered lobbyist for Lockheed who had worked for a law firm representing Lockheed with the Department of Homeland Security. According to Cummings, less than a month after 9/11, in October of 2001, the Pentagon announced a $20 billion contractRead More →

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The True Majority is a progressive, activist organization. They are part of the Mandate for Peace along with Code Pink. One of the groups supporting the Mandate for Peace is the Iraq Veterans Against the War. Anyway, given my early childhood history with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, I am interested to learn about the IVAW. The IVAW seems to be small right now, but hopefully since it’s now permissible to disapprove of the war, the group will grow. They have a great list of reasons to be against the war: http://www.ivaw.org/faq. They also provide a rationale for immediate withdrawal. It’s an interesting read.