Council delays vote on Iran resolution
By Rex W. Huppke | Chicago Tribune

The Chicago City Council, leaping broadly outside its normal purview, tried to stop the United States from invading Iraq 5 years ago. The nation's third-largest city aimed a strongly worded anti-war resolution right at President Bush, and yet he went ahead and toppled Saddam Hussein anyway.

Undeterred, local politicians have decided to take another shot at repressing international conflict: They're considering whether to oppose a U.S. invasion of Iran.

"We're just out there!" South Side Ald. Freddrenna Lyle (6th) exclaimed Tuesday in the City Council chambers, shortly after dubbing the current administration "war-mongering imperialists."

By Raed Jarrar, Erik Leaver, http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/390

Congress should stop blaming the Iraqi government for our economic woes.

Congress should stop blaming the Iraqi government for our economic woes. As our economy sputters to a halt and Congress is set to spend an additional $160 billion on the war, U.S. lawmakers are openly criticizing the Iraqi government for not paying the bills.

New legislation for funding the Iraq War includes language demanding Iraqis pay for half of future reconstruction and provide subsidies for fuel purchased by the U.S. military.

Such calls by lawmakers ignore the fact that the financial hardship our nation is suffering has much more to do with our own housing mess and with the high costs of the war than with the Iraqis not paying their way. And as a matter of fact, a recent audit by the inspector general for Iraq found that Iraq has spent more than the United States on reconstruction.

Watch for it!

ALSO: IVAW's Jason Lemieux might be on Lehrer News on PBS tomorrow - Watch for that too!

On Wednesday, May 14th, from 8-9 p.m. ET, I'll have the pleasure of interviewing, with your help, one of the most powerful leaders the peace movement has seen, Cindy Sheehan. Cindy is now a candidate for Congress in California's 8th District, going up against Nancy Pelosi. Go to: http://thepeoplespeakradio.net to learn more. Go to http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/listen-live to listen live. You'll find instructions there to enter a paltalk chat room where you can post questions, which I will ask Cindy. You can also phone in and ask Cindy your questions on the air. Call in tollfree from anywhere in the United States or Canada at 888-228-4494 or anywhere else in the world at 877-489-6350. Following the show, the audio file will be posted at http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/audio/2008 and you can find there now the recordings of numerous shows with amazing guests. To support The People Speak Radio please donate at http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/donate

By BILL WICKERSHAM
Bill Wickersham is an adjunct professor of Peace Studies at MU, a member of Veterans for Peace and a member of the national steering committee of Global Action to Prevent War.

In June 2004, the Bush Administration issued a statement that detailed its rationale and legal stance for denying terror suspects the protection of international humanitarian law. The statement included hundreds of pages of White House communications intended to counter widespread criticism that George W. Bush had personally endorsed the plans used to justify the interrogation abuses of U.S. prisoners held in Iraq, Guantanamo Bay and other worldwide locations. At that time Bush said, “I have never ordered torture.” Ordered or not, it is now clear from recent reports that Bush was well aware of, and approved plans for, the questioning of known and alleged al-Qaida prisoners being held by the CIA.

By John Aravosis, America Blog

IT'S NOT CLOSE. YOU FREAKING LOST THE NOMINATION, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Pretty PLEEEEEAAASE. Think about it for another week. We'll be NIIIIIIICE to you.

By Robert C. Koehler, Tribune Media Services

Well, why shouldn’t the Pentagon put its four-stars on the tube to ladle out patriotic talking points to the American public like mess hall stew?

There’s a straightforward quasi-honesty to government-managed news, which only has a weird feel because the Penta-pundits had to pose as impartial analysts and play along with the image the networks wanted to project: seriousness, independence, etc. How demeaning that their meetings with the Secretary of Defense had to be secret — an embarrassment awaiting ultimate exposure by the New York Times.

By David Swanson

John Edwards just endorsed Barack Obama. If Edwards' 19 delegates take his advice and vote for Obama, then Obama now has 1,620 pledged delegates to Clinton's 1,441. There are 189 delegates left to be pledged in remaining states. Clinton needs to win 184 of them (or 97 percent) in order to win, whereas Obama only needs 6 more delegates to put him over the top. To be clear, these are the numbers for pledged delegates, not including super delegates. Obama leads in that category as well, but I don't think anyone will or should stand for super delegates deciding an election.

There are, of course, states that have not yet voted. I'd love it if they could have a say in this thing. If it were up to me I would put every primary on one day in late October. It's not my fault that this particular race is over. It's not over in the way races are for candidates whom the corporate media hounds out of the race following one or two states. This one really is over.

By UPI

WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- An increasing number of Senate Republicans may
break from U.S. President George W. Bush on an emergency war-spending
bill, GOP consultant say.

With the Republican Party sustaining unexpected losses in recent special
congressional elections, and the popularity of both the president and the
Iraq War waning, Republicans seem prepared to look ahead to the next
administration rather than continue supporting Bush, The Hill reported
Wednesday.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is preparing to take up the
administration's request for a supplemental spending bill for Iraq. Bush
has insisted he will veto the measure if Congress adds to the $169 billion
funding request or includes domestic spending in the bill.

Republicans expect the measure may be the only spending bill passed before
the November elections, and many GOP senators say they would support
adding billions of dollars in domestic spending, the Capitol Hill

By National Journal

House Majority Leader Hoyer indicated today a further delay is likely on
the Iraq and Afghanistan war supplemental spending bill, arguing that
Congress has until about mid-June before the Pentagon begins to run short
of money. The deadline is "probably about the15th of June or somewhere in
that area," Hoyer said. Memorial Day is the deadline for passage set by
the Bush administration. The House will consider the $183.6 billion bill
Thursday, while the Senate is expected to take the measure up next week.
Hoyer said Democratic leaders would like to pass the bill by Memorial Day,
especially since furlough notices would have to go out if the funding were
not in place. But he insisted that Congress would pass the bill soon
enough that U.S. troops and Defense Department workers would continue to
be paid. "They are not going to lay off anybody; we are going to pass

By David Swanson

Whistle blowing (exposing secret wrong-doing), in the military, in civilian public service, or in the private sector appears to be about as safe as lying down on a railroad track.

This week is the No Fear Institute's Whistleblowers Week ( http://w3conference.org ) in Washington, D.C. I attended Wednesday's hearings held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building and opened by Senator Chuck Grassley. Grassley spoke of whistleblower protection laws he sponsored over the past 20 years, and suggested that what's needed to protect whistleblowers from retaliation is updated legislation. (As the result of a Supreme Court decision, whistleblowers are required, for example, to file claims of retaliation in a period of time that may end before the retaliation has even occurred). New legislation like that promoted by the No Fear Institute would help even more, of course, if we had a president who was required to obey laws.

By Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON - Pressed by the demands of the “global war on terrorism”, the United States is violating an international protocol that forbids the recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service, according to a new report released Tuesday by a major civil rights group that charged that recruitment practices target children as young as 11 years old.0514 01 1

The 46-page report, “Soldiers of Misfortune“, which was prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, also found that the U.S. military disproportionately targets poor and minority public school students.

By Dennis Loo

If you were buying a car and the auto salesman told you "This car’s great, there’s only one problem: you can only steer it every four years, in between it's out of your control," what would you think?

Wouldn’t you look at the salesman and think he was crazy? Wouldn’t you go looking for another form of transportation?

The car that we’re in right now – the Bush and Cheney mobile - is a death trap.

Many people are checking out the new models, hoping they can trade in Bush and Cheney for a better car: the Obama, the McCain or the Clinton. They’re kicking the tires, checking out the interior, looking under the hood. The car lot is full of balloons and banners, promising all kinds of things.

The problem is: these new models are also not subject to being steered but every four years.

From Sue Udry:

Have you ever been arrested while protesting at the White House or in Congress? The next time you're arrested,* the Justice Department wants federal police to harvest your DNA, and add it to their massive DNA database.* This outrageous proposal would add the genetic information of thousands of peaceful activists to the government database, which already contains over 6 million DNA profiles. Every profile added increases the chances of a false match, misuse of data and the power of big brother. That adds an unacceptable risk to our right to protest using civil disobedience.

Speak out now against the latest Bush Administration assault on our privacy. The deadline for comments is May 19 at 4 p.m. eastern.

The Justice Department is making this proposal as part of a rule for implementing the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005. The new rule would require federal agencies to:

Info here.

By NINA BERNSTEIN, New York Times

He was a carefree Italian with a recent law degree from a Roman university.
She was "a totally Virginia girl," as she puts it, raised across the road from
George Washington's home. Their romance, sparked by a 2006 meeting in
a supermarket in Rome, soon brought the Italian, Domenico Salerno, on
frequent visits to Alexandria, Va., where he was welcomed like a favorite
son by the parents and neighbors of his girlfriend, Caitlin Cooper.

But on April 29, when Mr. Salerno, 35, presented his passport at
Washington Dulles International Airport, a Customs and Border Protection
agent refused to let him into the United States. And after hours of
questioning, agents would not let him travel back to Rome, either; over his
protests in fractured English, he said, they insisted that he had expressed a
fear of returning to Italy and had asked for asylum.

Uncounted's David Earnhardt on Voice of the Voters

* Wednesday, May 14, 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT, Voice of the Voters