April 30 is the anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the official end of the U.S. war in Vietnam. Massive amounts of deadly cluster munitions remain in SE Asia indiscriminately killing and maiming civilians 33 years later. Take 5 minutes from your day and call Senator Collins and ask her to cosponsor the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act (S. 594). read more »
Blogs
PAM Peace Supper, April 26, 2008
Join us for food, presentations on our 2008 programs, speakers and our Annual Peacemaker Awards
Keynote Speaker: Frida Berrigan
Frida Berrigan is Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Previously, she served for eight years as Deputy Director and Senior Research Associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York City. She has also worked as a researcher at The Nation magazine. read more »
Expending Diplomacy: How Much of the Pentagon Budget Goes to Foreign Militaries?
Posted on July 1, 2008, Printed on July 3, 2008 http://www.alternet.org/story/90015/
As most media outlets picked apart or defended the Department of Defense’s $518.3 billion 2009 budget request, paying particular attention toward the top heavy and tangible weaponry portion, they overlooked a comparatively miniscule $750 million allocated to training foreign troops. But the significance of this line in the DoD budget lies not in the dollar amount, but what it means for foreign policy. read more »
Repeal REAL ID Petition Drive Gears Up for Fourth of July Final Push
Sets Signature Return Deadline of Next Week
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 1, 2008 Contact Shenna Bellows or Brianna Twofoot 774-5444
PORTLAND - Leaders of the drive to Repeal REAL ID announced Wednesday they will be “Defending the Fourth on the Fourth,” by mobilizing hundreds of volunteers for a final push for signatures to repeal the state’s REAL ID law, which violates the privacy rights guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. read more »
Preparing the Battlefield: The Bush Administration Steps up its Secret Moves Against Iran
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fafacthersh read more »
Has Maine Set a Precedent on Anti-War Protests?
A unanimous verdict that freed six protesters of trespassing charges may show respect for dissent.
by Leigh Donaldson
In late April, six peace activists stood victorious in front of Maine’s Penobscot County Superior Court.
A jury had acquitted them on criminal trespass charges for failing to obey a police request that they end their sit-in protest at the closing of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ office in the Margaret Chase Smith Federal Building. read more »
MORE CIRCULATORS AND SIGNATURES NEEDED TO REPEAL REAL ID!!!
As many of you know, on April 29th, Peace Action Maine, the Maine Civil Liberties Union and a host of other concerned individuals and organizations filed a petition to repeal LD 2309, a recent state law that complies with parts of a federal law, the Real ID Act of 2005. In order for our people’s veto to get on the ballot in November, we need to collect 60,000 signatures by July 17th. That’s 1000 people collecting 60 signatures. read more »
Arrests for War Resistance Increase Again
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/06/arrests-for-...
We can never forget that everything that Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal,’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did was ‘illegal.’ It was ‘illegal’ to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany, but I am sure that if I lived in Germany during that time I would have comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal… we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. read more »
