Well, it has been a while, but here is another update. I must say I'm more pessimistic than ever about the way events are unfolding. What will it take for the US to get that you don't make things cool by turning up the heat? Sigh... Well, here are five things for you tonight...

A quote:

Our military establishment today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime ... We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions ... Three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all corporations. This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence economic, political, even spiritual is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the federal government. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process. - President Dwight D. Eisenhower, farewell address, 17 Jan 1961

An opinion with a lack of statistics:

So how many people have we killed so far? Estimates of civilian casualties run into the thousands. The Washington Post reports 150 last weekend alone:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58555-2001Dec4.html

And those are the people we are NOT trying to kill. What of those we are targeting? The number of dead Taliban--people who had little or nothing to do with 11 September--must run to many, many thousands. Such an accounting is extremely hard to find.

A speech:

Ralph Nader in Boston, 10 November -- in three mp3 files...
http://www.democracyrising.org/multimedia/boston/ralph_nader_boston_part1.mp3
http://www.democracyrising.org/multimedia/boston/ralph_nader_boston_part2.mp3
http://www.democracyrising.org/multimedia/boston/ralph_nader_boston_part3.mp3

A fun site with yet more quotes and links:

http://www.countryjoe.com/crisis.htm (Don't miss the rebuilt WTC picture)

A relevant bit of theatre, for those local to Berkeley:

http://www.shotgunplayers.org/current/curr.htm

Until next time, peace be upon you all.

Andy