By David Swanson

Congressman David Obey (D., Wis.) is the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He's in charge of spending our money. For years he spent it on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq without any resistance.  Until last October, Obey maintained that spending hundreds of billions of our dollars on wars was something he just had no choice about.

Three years ago, 180,000 people watched this Youtube video, which was also shown on tv news shows, of Obey screaming at a military mother and denouncing "idiot liberals" for suggesting that Congress use the power of the purse to end wars. Liberals debated other liberals on the question of whether we really were idiots. Now Obey has taken several steps in the direction of joining us.

By David Swanson

Would the United States military lie about how four Marines were killed? Would abuse continue at Abu Ghraib after the scandal exploded? Any soldier you talk to has a story you may not want to hear. I recently had occasion to speak with two that were particularly troubling.

Part I: Snipers Dead in Ramadi:

Here's a military report from August 2006 on how four Marines died in Iraq in 2004. Christian Lowe, a Marine Corps Times staff writer, tells us:

"It was supposed to be a mission like many they had done in Iraq. Ride the Humvees to a position at a building abutting a busy street in Ramadi. Relieve the four Marines on the roof there. . . .

We are very excited to bring you an exclusive online live video chat with Michael Moore as part of the DVD and Blue-ray release of ‘Capitalism: A Love Story'.

The 30 minute session will be on Tuesday, March 16th at 3:00 pm EST at Brave New Films site:
http://bravenewfilms.org/michaelmoore

Tom Hayden wants peace, but he's sincerely mistaken about how to get it. He claims that Wednesday's unsuccessful vote to end the war in Afghanistan makes ending the war less likely, and that the way to end the war is to pass a bill that would then have to pass the Senate and the President, a bill requiring an exit strategy, any exit strategy -- it could be "redeployment" to Iran in 2038 or anything else.

I'm not against moving bills forward, even meaningless bills if they send a helpful message. I'm not against ending the war in a way that leaves the president in charge of Congress, if that proves the fastest way to end the war -- even though it leaves us in a state in which more wars are inevitable. I don't think we're especially likely to force the House to cut off the funding next month.

Kramer at Harvard: Student coalition pushing back - What, Harvard students don't support genocide?  But what will they do about it?

Republican Makes Deal With Dodd To Protect Predatory Payday Lenders -- Hey, at least they're protecting somebody!

Do You Eat Meat? -- And you want human life to continue on Earth??

Kucinich on Truthdig.  Kucinich on Democracy Now.

Kucinich is so unusually good and decent that "markos" wants to primary him, but there's One Flaw in the Brilliant Plan.

Democracy Now on Granny D.

FDL Launches “Students, Not Banks” Campaign

The day after the Senate Progressive Media Summit: Durbin and Reid Whipping Against Public Option

John Conyers' wife gets 3 years in prison for bribery.  How much has concern for her fate restrained Conyers from doing his job?  Hard to know.

Polly Want a Crack Lawyer?: Bank of America Again Forecloses on Wrong House and Then Takes Woman’s Parrot

The 3% of America - Privately Run - Public Option Will Not Die: Bernie Sanders: I’m Prepared To Introduce Public Option Amendment

I do love a good debunking of Democracy Corps Corporatism:

Carville/Greenberg strategists and national security -- If only because it makes it a bit less likely their wisdom will be promoted at the next America's Future Yesterday conference, or whatever they end up calling it.

Iran is prosecuting its torturers: Compare and contrast.

http://lawsnotmen.org/node/23

The Robert Jackson Steering Committee, a group of lawyers and journalists founded to uphold the principles of the Nuremberg Trials, is urging the Department of Justice to proceed with trying Khalil Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and other suspected 9/11 terrorists in federal criminal court, and not in military commissions.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, the Committee enumerates several substantial problems with military commissions: