someone who knows what peace and anti-war mean

Brilliant article and video.

What is it about people that they just can't read this, smack their foreheads, and finally understand what's going on in the world.

congratulations, mike gravel

Congratulations for recognizing that the Republican and Democratic parties are the same and for joining a party that believes in peace and letting people have the power to solve their own problems and the problems of others.

The choice quote from his release:

"The fact is, the Democratic Party today is no longer the party of FDR. It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism -- all of which I find anathema to my views."

why clinton or mccain are good for america

Before the primaries began, I predicted to a friend of mine in Australia that Giuliani would be the Republican nominee and Clinton would be the Democratic nominee – and Giuliani would win.

Even though it's looking increasingly likely that McCain has a real shot, I'm going to explain why I think a President Clinton or a President McCain would be good for this country. Personally, I despise pretty much everything they believe in, but Americans need for things to get significantly worse before they get off their asses and start voting for quality people that THEY like and stop listening to who the media tells them they should like. I believe we need another 4 years of short-term pain in the interest of the long-term benefit of our country.

We have poor choices every four years because people are too afraid of 'wasting their vote' or 'helping someone else win'. Look around the world for countries (try South America for starters) where dramatic victories were won by people that were written off by the media of the world. When things get much worse, which they will, especially under McCain, perhaps it will be enough to finally wake people up to vote their conscience and to think about their choices and not let others do the thinking for them.

So that's why I'm happy to see a Clinton-McCain match-up in November, with McCain likely to win. I will vote for neither of them because I only vote for people I believe in. A vote is never wasted and a vote never causes someone else to win.

missing from the bill of rights

Here's something missing from the Bill of Rights. We just moved into a new house in Mountain View, California and we couldn't be happier.

But in less than a week, two different groups of people have rung our doorbell or knocked on our door. One was from a charity that I later found out was fraudulent and the other was the Jehovah's Witnesses, who knocked on our door three times while talking very loudly on our porch while we were still in bed sleeping.

So, what's missing from the Bill of Rights is the right that everything should be opt-in. If I want to give money to charity (which I do), I'll find the charity myself. If I want to find God, I'll find him myself.

It's amazing that even the Supreme Court has upheld the right for people to walk onto the property of people they don't know and disturb their peace. Someday I hope to find a country to live where I get to decide who can wander on my property and annoy the shit out of me.

all they want is to win

No article does a better job of encapsulating Clinton and Obama than this one. All they want is to win. All McCain wants is perpetual war and proving the USA has the biggest cock in the world.

America, you blew it in the primaries. Both the Democrats and the Republicans had progressive, principled candidates that you could have voted for and you could have had two great candidates to choose from in November (when has that happened in anyone you know's lifetime?). Now, we're choosing once again between people that only care about winning.

I can already hear people say "but if you can't win", you can't effect change in the world. That's looking at everything backwards. Here are some examples of things that are often looked at backwards:

• Peace is not the goal, it's the solution (rather than "we must spread peace around the world, by force and intervention")
  
• Do what you love and the money will follow (rather than "make a lot of money" then you can give to charity)
  

The way you truly win is by being honest, decent, principled, and mature. You don't win by rhetoric and promises and petty semantic battles. You may win the election, but you have not won.

what anti-war means today

I ran across this incredible article that talks about the parallels between the 1968 election and today:

Beware of Politicians Co-opting Your Movement

Which got me to thinking about what anti-war means today. What it means to most of my friends is that we should withdraw from Iraq, but very carefully, so that it doesn't descend into chaos, keeping 'non-combat' troops there to occupy the country and 'fix' the mess. There is no mention of the dozens of other countries where we have military bases and troops around the world and where we interfere with the installation of leaders favorable to our government and our corporations.

That's not what anti-war means. Anti-war means never using weapons, military or economic, against any people in any country in the world. Anti-war means peacefully resisting violence of any kind. Anti-war means forming friendships with all leaders and people in the world, regardless of whether we disagree with their policies or governments. Anti-war means creating a country that is a shining beacon to the world, an economic and social powerhouse that others will want to emulate. Anti-war means never intentionally killing another human being.

Life is full of suffering and you can certainly argue that there are cases where people will suffer if we don't kill people to help them. But I think history offers compelling proof that more suffering is caused by war and violence than is caused by peacefully resisting war and violence. Also, helping nations and peoples that ASK for our help does NOT require that we provide troops and weapons of war.