Today, April 15th, is the Global Day of Action to cut military spending. It is important that today we contact our Federal Representatives and tell them that it is time to cut the out of control Pentagon spending. Click HERE to find the contact information for your Nebraska Representative.
Join millions of people around the world today to focus public, political, and media attention on the waste, fraud and abuse of military spending and the need for new spending priorities. Carved into the stone of the IRS building is the Oliver Wendell Holmes quote, "Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society." Yet, the U.S. leads the world in military spending, spending more on weapons and war than the next ten nations combined, almost surpassing the rest of the world. After more than a decade of war and unprecedented increases in war spending, the U.S. economy is nearly stalled, the nation is in deep debt, and millions of people are out of work with no job prospects in sight.
A telling and sad statistic provided by the Census Bureau reports that in 2011, 46.2 million or 1 out of 7 people live in poverty with almost 1 out of 16 people living in deep poverty. The Census defines deep poverty as income 50% below the poverty line. Census figures show that in 2011, 6.6 percent of all people, or 20.4 million people, lived in deep poverty.
Read morePosted In: Anti-War & International Law
by Paul Olson, NFP President Emeritus
Let me thank the members of NFP who offered me compassion and love on the death of Fran, my second wife. One cannot ask for more than two beautiful and intelligent wives who cared deeply about peace and justice.
Read morePosted In: Speaking Our Peace
April 07, 2013
By James Hansen
Lincoln Journal Star
In March, the State Department gave the president cover to open a big spigot that will hitch our country to one of the dirtiest fuels on Earth for 40 years or more. The draft environmental review of the Keystone XL pipeline acknowledges tar sands are nasty stuff for the environment, but concludes that the project is OK because this oil will get to market anyway -- with or without a pipeline.
A public comment period is underway through April 22, after which the department will prepare a final statement to help the administration decide whether the pipeline is in the “national interest.” If the conclusion is yes, a Canadian company, TransCanada, gets a permit to build a pipeline to transport toxic tar sands through our heartland, connecting to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, for likely export to China.
Read morePosted In: Environment
America’s New High-Tech Means of Global Dominance
by Hendrik Van den Berg
UNL Professor of Economics
Even though the U.S. military and the CIA have been using drones for surveillance and bombing for over a decade, the issue of drone assassinations became front-page news this year. In early March of 2013, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was called to testify before Congress about targeting U.S. citizens within our borders with drone strikes. Documentation was acquired by various news media suggesting that not only does the U.S. government claim to have a right to launch drone strikes against foreigners on foreign territory, but President Obama has legal memos that justify using drones to kill Americans in an “extraordinary circumstance.” The precise definition of “extraordinary” was classified information, however.
Read morePosted In: Anti-War & International Law
March 20, 2013
Lincoln Journal Star
by Robert Haller and John Krejci
The following OpEd, written by Nebraskans for Peace members Bob Haller and John Krejci, appeared in last Wednesday's Lincoln Journal Star.
The members of the United Nations Association in Nebraska, like most Americans, are concerned for the security and leadership standing of our country. They see our mounting debt, and the huge military outlays contributing to that debt, as major long-term contributors to U.S. insecurity.
Read morePosted In: Anti-War & International Law
