By David Swanson

Pretending to end a war and occupation, while stationing 50,000 soldiers, 18,000 mercenaries, and 84,000 support contractors in massive and permanent military bases in Iraq is a far cry from what candidate Barack Obama described as ending "the mind-set that got us into war in the first place." It fits better with Nobel Peace laureate Obama's description of war as "not only necessary but morally justified."

Gas was the lowest since it had been in June of 2004 on mid-July reports the Energy Information. The combination of a soft economy and better fuel efficiency is contributing to a lower demand. Gas prices are going up because of the lower demand.

Dropping gas demands

By David Swanson

On Tuesday evening, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill already passed by the Senate that funds a $33 billion, 30,000-troop escalation in Afghanistan. The vote was 308 to 114. What could the good news possibly be?

By David Swanson

By David Swanson

By David Swanson

On Wednesday U.S. senators from both political parties asked the president's representative to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke what in the world the goal could be for the ongoing war. He had no answer.

Senator Russ Feingold pointed out that our ambassador, Karl Eikenberry, opposed the escalation (at least until he agreed to oppose his own views). Holbrooke had no response.

By David Swanson, special to the International Labor Communications Association

On July 12th I received an Email from the American Federation of Teachers with a soft pink headline and an image of a heart. It said: "Pink Hearts. Not Pink Slips." That sounded nice. The text continued:

May jobs report fails to meet expectations

The number of available jobs rising is something many people have been hoping for. The May jobs report is not the dramatic good news that's been hoped for. That isn't to say it was bad, but it was not as good as many were hoping, which caused a disturbance in the stock markets. Fewer than 50,000 non-farming private sector jobs were added, and the biggest job growth over the last couple of months seems to be for the US Census.

The peace movement has made significant progress in the United States since its low point of late 2008, and just about everything anyone in it has done has been a contribution. If everyone keeps doing what they're doing, and more of it, we might just end some wars, eventually. But I think some techniques are working better than others, and that pursuing the most strategic approaches would make victory likelier sooner and longer-lasting when it comes.

Tonight the House of Representatives will try to vote over $30 Billion to escalate the war in Afganistan.  Here's how it's expected to go down (thanks to Peace Action for some of this):First they'll vote on unemployment insurance as a stand-alone bill.