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Articles by David Swanson

David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush" published by Feral House and available at Amazon.com. Swanson holds a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. He has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Swanson is Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, creator of ConvictBushCheney.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com, a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, the Backbone Campaign, and Voters for Peace, and a member of the legislative working group of United for Peace and Justice.

When Woolsey Met Harman
Monday, 18 Jan, 2010 – 6:00 | One Comment
When Woolsey Met Harman

David Swanson: Fortunately, I get the impression that a great many Angelenos and Americans are principled, decent, and sophisticated enough to support Woolsey when she does right and oppose her when she does wrong, and to overwhelm her misplaced advocacy with our support, donations, and volunteer time for the woman who will be the leader of the fight for the people’s views against the corporate agenda in the 112th Congress, Marcy Winograd.

Resolved
Friday, 1 Jan, 2010 – 6:00 | 4 Comments
Resolved

David Swanson: I resolve never to expect elections alone to change anything, and to understand that my activist work begins the day after an election.

An AVATAR Awakening
Wednesday, 30 Dec, 2009 – 6:00 | 4 Comments
An AVATAR Awakening

David Swanson: Let’s face it, if James Cameron had made a movie with the Iraqi resistance as the heroes and the U.S. military as the enemies, and had set it in Iraq or anywhere else on planet earth, the packed theaters viewing “Avatar” would have been replaced by a screening in a living room for eight people and a dog.

How to End Wars
Monday, 9 Nov, 2009 – 8:54 | One Comment
How to End Wars

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said that he’d like to see another $50 billion passed in another supplemental war spending bill in the next few months. This is money to fund an escalation that we are supposed to believe has not been decided upon yet. This must be stopped.

Dangerous People Needed
Tuesday, 3 Nov, 2009 – 9:03 | 2 Comments
Dangerous People Needed

Ellsberg risked life in prison to expose the lies that had taken this nation into war in Vietnam, lies from Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. And Nixon believed that Ellsberg had incriminating documents on his own lies, which led Henry Kissinger to call Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America.”

Fox Is Indeed a News Outlet, One of the Worst
Wednesday, 28 Oct, 2009 – 16:00 | 2 Comments
Fox Is Indeed a News Outlet, One of the Worst

ox is owned by a nut job. MSNBC is owned by a weapons company. Where are our priorities? Do not support CNN or MSNBC. Support Alternet instead.

Bush Tortured
Monday, 31 Aug, 2009 – 14:28 | 2 Comments
Bush Tortured

It seems almost trivial to accuse someone who launched an illegal war that has killed over a million people of torture. But if we are going to prosecute the lowest ranked torturers, it makes sense to look up the chain of command.

Truckfuls of Bodies
Friday, 21 Aug, 2009 – 15:51 | No Comment
Truckfuls of Bodies

The ultimate step in avoiding periodic wars, which are inevitable in a system of international lawlessness, is to make statesmen responsible to law.

Two Ways to Pay as You Go
Thursday, 9 Jul, 2009 – 7:10 | No Comment
Two Ways to Pay as You Go

We need to move at least a fraction of the wasteful money in the bloated pigged-out Pentagon to programs that serve useful purposes. This is a progressive and a majority position.

Top Torture Lawyers Still in Government
Tuesday, 30 Jun, 2009 – 13:29 | No Comment
Top Torture Lawyers Still in Government

We’ve heard of John Yoo and Alberto Gonzales , and maybe even Jay Bybee. Some of us recall John Ashcroft , Michael Mukasey , and even David Addington. Michael Haynes, Stephen Bradbury, and Douglas …

U.S. Government Threatens to Prosecute Waterboarding
Monday, 22 Jun, 2009 – 6:49 | No Comment
U.S. Government Threatens to Prosecute Waterboarding

We’ve been lobbying the Department of Justice all these months without realizing that the key to justice lay in the Department of the Interior, and specifically in the National Park Service, which has told activist …

In Congress: 32 Heroes, 21 Frauds
Wednesday, 17 Jun, 2009 – 18:41 | No Comment
In Congress: 32 Heroes, 21 Frauds

The congressional elections of 2006 and 2008 were almost universally understood as shaped by public desire to end the war in Iraq. Last month, when a war supplemental spending bill (another $97 billion for …

Why Funding Wars Is Good for Babies and Your Garden
Wednesday, 17 Jun, 2009 – 11:33 | No Comment
Why Funding Wars Is Good for Babies and Your Garden

The executive director of something called the National Security Network, named Heather Hurlburt, offers — I kid you not, and that’s really her name, so try not to hurl — Six Reasons to Love the …

A Worse Bybee Memo
Tuesday, 5 May, 2009 – 11:26 | No Comment
A Worse Bybee Memo

Jay Bybee wrote another memo that nobody has noticed, one purporting to authorize crimes far worse than torture, the same crimes the torture was itself intended to create false justifications for. On October 23, 2002, …

One Step Forward, Two Steps Toward Monarchy
Thursday, 12 Mar, 2009 – 10:29 | No Comment
One Step Forward, Two Steps Toward Monarchy

It has become almost commonplace, since the release last week of seven “legal” opinions written in 2001 and 2002 by the Justice Department, to remark that unbeknownst to us we came within an inch of …

Building a Bush Memorial
Friday, 13 Feb, 2009 – 12:57 | No Comment
Building a Bush Memorial

A letter to the editor in my local newspaper, the Charlottesville Daily Progress, has persuaded me to rethink the truly remarkable accomplishments of President George W. Bush and inspired me to join the movement to …

Abandoning Torture But What About War?
Tuesday, 10 Feb, 2009 – 9:42 | No Comment
Abandoning Torture But What About War?

If we can move beyond torture, do we not have a responsibility also to think for a moment about the obvious fact that torture is not the cruelest thing we do? Torture offends us, …

Eliminate Filibuster and With It the Need to Debate Republicans
Monday, 9 Feb, 2009 – 12:25 | One Comment
Eliminate Filibuster and With It the Need to Debate Republicans

From the pains Democrats take to out-argue and/or to compromise with the fringe minority party called the Republicans you’d think no other course of action was available, specifically you’d have to assume that the filibuster …

Film: “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder”
Thursday, 5 Feb, 2009 – 12:49 | 2 Comments
Film: “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder”

Anyone following attempts to hold George W. Bush and gang accountable knows about Vince Bugliosi’s best-selling book, which has finally just been mailed to all district prosecutors. Everything you can do to make a prosecution …

Against Truth, Reconciliation, and Commissions
Thursday, 15 Jan, 2009 – 13:00 | No Comment
Against Truth, Reconciliation, and Commissions

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has introduced a bill, H.R. 104, that would create a commission to spend a year and a half looking at the various crimes of Bush and Cheney. While this …

Speaking of Blanket Pardons
Saturday, 10 Jan, 2009 – 8:44 | No Comment
Speaking of Blanket Pardons

There’s a blanket pardon I want President Bush to issue and one I want him not to. Both would involve preemptively pardoning people before they’re charged with any crime, much less convicted, and doing so …

Unlawful Assembly
Thursday, 8 Jan, 2009 – 13:00 | One Comment
Unlawful Assembly

As the 111th Congress was being sworn in on Tuesday, a seemingly endless line of figures dressed all in black with stark white masks slowly marched single-file around Capitol Hill. Each wore a placard bearing …

Did George Bush Sr. Kill Kennedy and Frame Nixon?
Monday, 29 Dec, 2008 – 6:00 | 4 Comments
Did George Bush Sr. Kill Kennedy and Frame Nixon?

by David Swanson
Russ Baker’s new book presents an account of the U.S. government that is both remarkably new and extensively documented. According to this account, George H. W. Bush, the father of the current president, …

2009: Year of the Filibuster
Saturday, 27 Dec, 2008 – 6:00 | 2 Comments
2009: Year of the Filibuster

by David Swanson –
Trying to squeeze any sort of peace on earth out of our government in Washington has been a steep uphill climb for years. For the most part we no longer have representatives …

The Purloined Constitution: Or How to Look Only Forward and Still Look Like an Ass
Wednesday, 24 Dec, 2008 – 6:00 | No Comment
The Purloined Constitution: Or How to Look Only Forward and Still Look Like an Ass

by David Swanson –
The wonderful thing about big lies is their kettle logic. The term, of course, derives from the story of the man who offered several mutually incompatible excuses for returning his friend’s kettle …

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