Gerald R. Lotierzo, Peace Action of CNY
Let’s face facts! The plutocracy rules and they will never cede any control to the rest of us. They run the government, the corporations, the media, the military, and they have bought our politicians lock, stock and barrel. What did citizens who lost their houses or jobs get? Nothing!
The middle class lifestyle is now a thing of the past. One in five Americans is unemployed, underemployed or just plain out of work. One in nine families can't make the minimum payment on their credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure. One in eight Americans is on food stamps. More than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has left family balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street. Yet Wall Street can receive billions in bonus money because they have self described brilliant people running hedge funds and investment firms. Five Wall Street Banks own 75% of all Bank Deposits in America.
The top 5 percent have more wealth than the remaining 95 percent of the population, collectively. If we object then the pundits, paid by the oligarchs, scream on radio and TV about the socialists who want to take your freedom away and people believe them. The sheep fall in line all the while being fleeced out of their middle class lifestyle. The top 1 percent of households’ average wealth is more than $12.5 million and if that is not a significant concentration of wealth then I don’t know what will convince people.
We need millions to march on Washington and demand from our government good paying jobs, universal health care, elimination of political campaigns being financed by special interests, and an end to government by the rich. The Republicans and Democrats have abandoned us and we in turn should abandoned them and usher in a new political order. Find out what other third party candidates are saying.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
The Nuclear Priesthood Has Other Ideas
January 22, 2010
The Obama administration planned to submit its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) to Congress February 1, but has delayed the review’s release until March 1. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Obama stated: “We will complete a Nuclear Posture Review that opens the door to deeper cuts and reduces the role of nuclear weapons.”
There is, however, a Nuclear Priesthood that has other ideas. The nuclear weapons laboratories, contractors and the nuclear bureaucracies in the Pentagon and Energy Department – where the $60 billion in funding for nuclear weapons resides – all have a vested interest in keeping the nuclear weapons policy status-quo. Moreover, they would like to expand the nuclear weapons production complex. Their multi-billion dollar plan would increase US production capacity from 20 nuclear warheads a year to 80.
In December, all the Senate Republicans and one independent (Sen. Lieberman) sent a letter to the President. The message was clear – fund Bombplex or face a major defeat on the eve of a Global Nuclear Security Summit President Obama will host in April and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review at the United Nations in May.
The delay in the release of the NPR gives us time to effect the President’s decision. U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) and U.S. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) have written to the president to encourage him to adopt forward-leaning policies in the NPR including taking US nuclear weapons off high-alert status as a safety measure, and adopting a No First Use policy for our nuclear arsenal. So, President Obama is faced with two clear choices. The US will either take a step forward on the difficult path to the abolition of nuclear weapons, or call out to the world its intention to sustain our nuclear weapons arsenal indefinitely.
President Obama has made some impressive speeches in favor of nuclear weapons disarmament, but of course the international community will not take seriously the President’s vision of a Nuclear Weapons-Free world if it is based solely on speeches.
Contact your Senators and Representatives today and request that they write to the President recommending an NPR that reflects Obama’s vision of a nuclear weapon-free future by taking concrete steps to dismantle our stockpile and reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national and global security policy. Future generations may well look back on these few months as a critical moment when the United States committed itself to the bold pledge of its Nobel Laureate President to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
The Obama administration planned to submit its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) to Congress February 1, but has delayed the review’s release until March 1. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Obama stated: “We will complete a Nuclear Posture Review that opens the door to deeper cuts and reduces the role of nuclear weapons.”
There is, however, a Nuclear Priesthood that has other ideas. The nuclear weapons laboratories, contractors and the nuclear bureaucracies in the Pentagon and Energy Department – where the $60 billion in funding for nuclear weapons resides – all have a vested interest in keeping the nuclear weapons policy status-quo. Moreover, they would like to expand the nuclear weapons production complex. Their multi-billion dollar plan would increase US production capacity from 20 nuclear warheads a year to 80.
In December, all the Senate Republicans and one independent (Sen. Lieberman) sent a letter to the President. The message was clear – fund Bombplex or face a major defeat on the eve of a Global Nuclear Security Summit President Obama will host in April and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review at the United Nations in May.
The delay in the release of the NPR gives us time to effect the President’s decision. U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA) and U.S. Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) have written to the president to encourage him to adopt forward-leaning policies in the NPR including taking US nuclear weapons off high-alert status as a safety measure, and adopting a No First Use policy for our nuclear arsenal. So, President Obama is faced with two clear choices. The US will either take a step forward on the difficult path to the abolition of nuclear weapons, or call out to the world its intention to sustain our nuclear weapons arsenal indefinitely.
President Obama has made some impressive speeches in favor of nuclear weapons disarmament, but of course the international community will not take seriously the President’s vision of a Nuclear Weapons-Free world if it is based solely on speeches.
Contact your Senators and Representatives today and request that they write to the President recommending an NPR that reflects Obama’s vision of a nuclear weapon-free future by taking concrete steps to dismantle our stockpile and reduce the role of nuclear weapons in national and global security policy. Future generations may well look back on these few months as a critical moment when the United States committed itself to the bold pledge of its Nobel Laureate President to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
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