Fantastic Opportunity for Students/Young Professionals
Mar 18, 2010

Fantastic opportunity for fellow young professionals to get involved in nuclear security work and travel the country, from our friends at Global Zero.

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GLOBAL ZERO:  A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Now through May, we have an opportunity to dramatically expand the Global Zero movement - by bringing a critically acclaimed new film, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO, to campuses, churches, conferences, and camps around the United States.  To do this, we need your help.  Actually, we need you.

APPLY TO BE A GLOBAL ZERO ROADIE NOW

We have filled several of these positions, but are still seeking Roadies!  Applications are now being accepted on a rolling basis until all 12 positions are filled.

WHAT WE'RE DOING

Bringing celebrities, young people, world leaders, and community members to watch a critically acclaimed new film called COUNTDOWN TO ZERO - and join the Global Zero movement.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

12 highly motivated, intelligent volunteers who are willing to be at the forefront of a growing global movement.  You must be at least 18 years of age and have attained your high school diploma. Possession of a valid driver's license and clean record is preferred.

Read the details here.

Go to the application..

Grayson Goes on Offense
Mar 15, 2010

Ever the diplomat...

Florida Rep. Alan Grayson (Council-endorsee 2008) usually holds little back when it comes to his opposition, but his recent newsletter response to a visit by Sarah Palin goes beyond even those standards. A few highlights:

Palin, the former half-term Governor, current-nothing and future-even-less, charmed the all-Republican audience with her folksy folksiness and her homespun homespunnery. Atypically, Palin was wearing clothes that she had paid for herself. At the end of the event, she shared her recipe for mooseface pie.

In response to Palin's attack on Rep Grayson, Grayson actually complimented Palin. Grayson praised Palin for having a hand large enough to fit Grayson's entire name on it. He thanked Palin for alleviating the growing shortage of platitudes in Central Florida. Grayson added that Palin deserved credit for getting through the entire hour-long program without quitting. Grayson also said that Palin really had mastered Palin's imitation of Tina Fey imitating Palin. Grayson observed that Palin is the most-intelligent leader that the Republican Party has produced since George W. Bush.

Click here to read the rest.

Military Influence in the US
Mar 11, 2010

In this period of American military dominance, generals and admirals have acquired influence well beyond the battlefield. Four-Star General David Petraeus, chief of the US Central Command, oversees US military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the rest of the greater Middle East. He is the likely choice to become the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he will again be in the public spotlight. His recent lower profile was suggested by the Obama White House.

His extensive wartime experience and proven ability to negotiate on Capitol Hill have made General Petraeus a formidable political personality should he choose that venue after retirement. He regularly denies interest in becoming president of the United States, sometimes without being asked. He invokes the famous remark of William Tecumseh Sherman, the Civil War general who made the stunningly clear response to presidential ambition: "If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve." Other notable generals found the call irresistible: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight David Eisenhower, so far.

Remembering John Murtha
Mar 11, 2010

In my tradition it is customary to memorialize a dead person 30 days after one's death. I want to follow that tradition for John Murtha.

I am struck by the irony that on the 30th day after John Murtha's death, the House Democratic leadership banned budget earmarks to private for profit corporations. That ended the practise of billions of dollars of no bid contracts being awarded to earmark beneficiaries. That practise, now ended, led to all sorts of excesses--and that's an understatement.

Added to the irony is that at John Murtha's funeral, a eulogizer who is a priest, used Ecclesiastes to say; There is a time for legislation and a time for not legislating; there is a time for earmarks--and the attendees roared with laughter.

John Murtha deserves to be remembered very differently. Murtha regularly visited veterans at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Center --those with physical, emotional and  mental wounds-- without fanfare or publicity. Murtha cared about those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and earlier in Vietnam. House members have told me that when Murtha spoke  in the caucus he voiced the same caring he reflected in his visits. He was a powerful influence on his colleagues. It helped them remember and respond to the needs of those who served.

I worked with Murtha on end the war Iraq legislation in opposition to the Bush polcies. I was no intimate. But Murtha was a serious legislator who listened to my reports, and those of others, on House members. He shared his observations with me as well. I was a supplier of intelligence on Members' thinking and he gave me added clues in our pursuit of creating majority votes of no confidence of the Bush Iraq policies.

When Murtha, the fomer Marine combat officer, opposed the Iraq policy he was refecting the views of the captains, major and colonels who fought the battles. Even more important he was influenced by what the enlisted men and women were reporting. Murtha listened. He acted on what he heard.

He used his power and influence as the Subcommittee Chair on Defense Appropriations to lift the authentic voices in the armed services so that they will be heard--voices that are too often neglected.

Murtha also reminds us that in politics there are no permanent adversaries or allies. Along with many others I worked against Murtha's efforts to support our disastorous El Salvador and Nicaragua policies in the 1980s. His views on House ethics policies, and his opposition to lobbying disclosure--one of a handul of legislators when it came time to vote-- shows that he was willing to stand for what he believed even as distasteful as his views were.

The Murtha story follows a different path. Murtha's lasting memory will always be the difference he made in opposing the Iraq war. His moral actions will always be those continuing and non-public unannounced visits to the wounded who fought our unnecessary wars of choice.

Troubles in U.S.-Russian land
Mar 10, 2010

Good  New York Times article today about the difficulties in the “reset” in U.S.-Russian relations.

People may have thought it just like getting back on a bicycle, but it isn’t.

There are too many grievances over the last 20 years – or is it 80 years – between the U.S. and Russia to make buddy-buddy easily again.

Most experts thought that the New START nuclear reductions treaty negotiations would go rapidly and smoothly.

Unfortunately, not so.

The most important deadline was the December 5, 2009 expiration of the START I agreement, and the two countries breezed past that three-month-old deadline.

The U.S. nurses grievances over Russian trade with Iran and Moscow’s harsh response in last year’s Russia vs. Georgia conflict. And their crackdown on dissidents.

The Russians nurse grievances about how we treated the former Soviet Union when it was down (before petro-dollars shot up) and our persistence in placing missile defense in former Soviet dependencies. And our tendency to tell them how to run their country.

Both countries could probably extend their list of grievances as long as their arms (either connected to their bodies or their weapons).

We have heard predictions that the New START agreement is 95% done and will be concluded in a matter of weeks.

But we have heard those predictions before.

The new treaty will be worth the wait and will be positive for American national security and yes, even for improved U.S.-Russian relations, but it has been a wait.

The Times article suggests: “The American officials said the answer might be persistence and patience,” and they are correct.

Persistence. Patience.  Say in over and over again.