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Peace in the Pentagon

Would you march against a war if it might ruin your own or a loved one's career? To stretch the definition of war-maker a little, would you take a job with Lockheed-Martin if you oppose war?

(WASHINGTON, DC) - I'm a huge fan of peace studies as an academic discipline that should be spread into every corner of what we call, with sometimes unclear justification, our education system.

But often peace studies, like other disciplines, manages to study only those far from home, and to study them with a certain bias.

Privatize Your Mother!

Expect a very hot Mexican political scene in 2014.

(LAS CRUCES , NM) - In a week of unforgettable confrontations, soaring speeches, political showdowns and fisticuffs, Mexican Senator Layda Sansores San Roman of Campeche perhaps gets the prize.

Striding to the floor of the Mexican Senate, the woman senator from the Citizen Movement party posed an unusual challenge to supporters of the Pena Nieto administration’s initiative to reform articles 25, 27 and 28 of the Mexican Constitution...

APN Commends Congress for Giving Iran Diplomacy a Chance to Work; Applauds Activists for their Engagement

Americans for Peace Now is the sister organization of Shalom Achshav, Israel's preeminent peace movement.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Americans for Peace Now (APN) today issued the following statement:

“As Congress goes into its winter recess, we commend those members of Congress who stood firm and rejected efforts, both in the House and Senate, to pursue legislative initiatives that would undermine the interim agreement with Iran and threaten the chances of reaching a permanent agreement with Iran – an agreement that offers the best chance to resolve U.S. and international concerns about Iran’s nuclear program and nuclear ambitions..."

US Energy Department Announces it Still Plans to Use Hanford as a National Radioactive Waste Dump

Decision to be issued in Federal Register on Friday December 13th also includes "covering up, instead of cleaning up" leaks and discharges from High-Level Nuclear Waste Tanks

(SEATTLE) - The U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) will issue a formal "Record of Decision" in the Federal Register on Friday, December 13th stating that USDOE will plan to resume using Hanford as a national radioactive and chemical waste dump for waste from other USDOE weapons and nuclear facilities.

The region's largest citizen Hanford Clean-Up watchdog group, Heart of America Northwest, vowed to take "all legal, lobbying and organizing efforts necessary to continue to stop use of Hanford as a national radioactive chemical waste dump," said Gerry Pollet, the 16,000 member group's Executive Director.

99 Years Ago: A Pause in the War on Christmas

It did not lessen our ardour or determination; but just put a little human punctuation mark in our lives of cold and humid hate.

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Frank Richards recalled:

"On Christmas morning we stuck up a board with 'A Merry Christmas' on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. Platoons would sometimes go out for twenty-four hours' rest -- it was a day at least out of the trench and relieved the monotony a bit -- and my platoon had gone out in this way the night before, but a few of us stayed behind to see what would happen...

There Are No Bad Bears

"Stop!" roared Steven at his own bear nation. "Who are you coming to kill?"

(WASHINGTON, DC) - When he was a tiny little bear cub, Nelson would scamper over to be close to his mother when he heard any loud noise. When he got a little bigger, if something scared him he would growl.

Bigger still, and he would stand up on his hind legs, growl, and wave his paws about. And when he got even bigger than that -- when he began to look like a full-grown bear -- if Nelson heard something that might be dangerous, he would stand calmly still and listen harder.

Opinion: A Not-So-Good Year for Rajapakasa and his Coterie

The Opposition in Britain does not want to give any breathing space to the Rajapaksa regime. The British labor party has already warned Sri Lanka that 2014 would be a crucial year for accountability.

(COLOMBO The Weekend Leader) - The noose is tightening around President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his racist regime that conducted a genocidal war against the Tamils in 2009. Developments in the last couple of years, especially in recent months, do not bode well for Rajapaksa and his coterie of evil men.

When justice finally catches up with Rajapakasa, history will record these moments for posterity to trace the downfall of the tyrant.

Bangladesh Hangs Jamaat Leader for War Crimes

UN Human Rights chief Navi Pillay wrote to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina seeking a stay of the execution, saying the trial did not meet stringent international standards for the death penalty.

(DHAKA Burma Times) - Bangladesh on Thursday hanged Abdul Quader Molla, a top Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader known as the “Butcher of Mirpur,” making him the first person to be put to death for massacres committed during the country’s bloody 1971 war of independence.

Deputy law minister Quamrul Islam announced the execution, saying Abdul Quader Molla, 65, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged by the neck at 10.01 pm (1601 GMT) in a jail in the capital Dhaka.

Kevin Annett: Pope Bergoglio flaunts UN Deadline on Child Trafficking as 30 Child Skeletons Discovered at B.C. Native School

Children's remains were just discovered in a mass grave on the grounds of a United Church residential school for native children in Port Alberni, B.C.

(VANCOUVER B.C.) - In an interview today with Alfred Lambremont Webre, Kevin Annett, field secretary of the International Tribunal for Crimes of Church and State discusses how Pope Bergoglio is using the basic methods recommended by Machiavelli in flaunting a UN-imposed deadline for revealing Vatican-controlled data on child trafficking.

They have also been tightening up rules covering up child abuse in the Catholic Church.

Oregon Governor has Bad Intel on Corporate Tax Breaks

Public disclosure of corporate tax payments (PDF) remains a terrific, if largely unfulfilled, step toward reform.

(PORTLAND, OR) - State tax giveaways for business are reaching a fever pitch in the Pacific Northwest. Washington lawmakers last month enacted an $8.7 billion “mega-deal” package of state and local tax breaks designed to keep the state’s aerospace industry, dominated by Boeing, in the state.

The sheer scale of the package, which is designed to last until 2040, has prompted some to wonder whether the time has finally come to end the tax-incentive arms race between the states.