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Security Spending Primer:Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget
How do people influence federal spending decisions and stop fighting over smaller and smaller “slices of the budgetary pie”? What will make our nation more secure? National Priorities Project is proud to release the Security Spending Primer: Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget. (PDF Document) This Primer is a is a “one-stop-shopping” resource and has two main goals: ~ to provide comprehensive, easy-to-understand information on the complexity of the federal budget process; and ~ to help build the capacity of people across the United States who want their voices and their priorities to be heard in the debate over federal spending in general and military spending in particular. Even though federal spending and policy priorities have an enormous impact on individual lives, the budgeting and policy-making process remains mysterious to most Americans. NPP believes that good, concrete information strengthens social change work. In order to make our federal government more accountable, people – especially those most affected by social inequities – must play a central role in identifying the changes essential to creating better lives for themselves and future generations. They must have access to accurate information that supports effective strategies. The Primer answers the most frequently asked questions about, and supplies the most commonly requested information on, the Pentagon budget and U.S. military spending and is based on decades of experience in military budget analysis. It contains 16 two-page fact sheets on topics ranging from nuclear weapons to the employment impact of U.S. military and domestic spending choices to the military cost of securing energy. We designed these fact sheets to be read separately or as a group. We have also included a host of resources: organizational contact lists, sample NPP tools, resources lists, a glossary and more. Key findings in the primer include: ~ Total spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will exceed $1 trillion February/March 2010. From FY 2001 to FY 2008, federal grants to state and local governments increased 0.57% for every 1% increase in total federal budget authority. Yet, during the same period, federal military expenditures increased 1.47% for every 1% in total federal budget authority. In other words, as the “budgetary pie” increased, the defense slice got bigger and fatter and the “grants to the states” slice of the pie got smaller. ~ Even without including current war allocations, U.S. military spending is at its highest level since World War II. This takes into account the war-time budgets of Vietnam and Korea. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the Obama Administration is not cutting defense. In fact, the Pentagon budget is projected to grow25% over the next decade. ~ This is an unprecedented period in our nation’s history. Two wars, staggering national debt, the economic crisis and an impending climate crisis make these extremely challenging times. At the same time, President Obama endeavors to respond to the sweeping mandate for change. NPP is indebted to our collaborators in this project: Frida Berrigan, Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation Ruth Flower, Associate Executive Secretary for Legislative Programs at Friends Committee on National Legislation ( FCNL) Miriam Pemberton, Peace and Security Editor of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies ( IPS) Heidi Garrett-Peltier, Research Assistant at the Political Economy Research Institute ( PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Robert Pollin, Professor of Economics and founding Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute ( PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Susan Shaer, Executive Director of Women’s Action for New Directions ( WAND) For more information: Jo Comerford, Executive Director (jo@nationalpriorities.org, 413.559.1649) Chris Hellman, Director of Research (chris@nationalpriorities.org) National Priorities Project www.nationalpriorities.org
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Maurice Sendak's Arbuthnot lecture, Descent into Limbo, in the Summer/Fall 2003 issue of ALA's Children & Libraries ??
I'd really appreciate it. I'm slowly transcribing the video http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/65 but a) I keep getting caught up in the lecture and missing my place and b) I can't listen well at work, because 'my' lad is sleeping so no turning up the sound or earphones (the one might disturb him, the other I might miss something, a change in his breathing, for intstance).
Thank you in advance. .doc, .rtf, .pdf- they all work for me. And please let me know if I need to pay you for costs, copying, postage, anything like that.
Pass the word for me? I can really use this transcript for some articles I'm writing for An Ounce of Prevention. Thank you so very very much.
(I'm also looking for an article by Patricia Moccia, RN, from American Journal of Nursing ca 1992, titled "Are We Dying for Nuclear Weapons?" I have a paper copy someplace, but not handy, and not enough time/money to go through ordering it online/uni library. Just in case someone here can access it "free" (your time/trouble will be reimbursed in some way- fic, postcards from Europe, some other research I can do for you) I'm asking. Thanks!)
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Come, join my Cause, and get invitation credit (not to mention thanks!) when you invite your friends.
Yeah, ok, it's Facebook. It's the school-yard, the soda fountain, the village well, the back fence, the water cooler, the bar, it's where people gather and shoot the breeze and come together to work and party down afterwards, and it's where I'm trying to raise a little money to support making Nuclear Guardianship something we just do, like buckling seat belts and picking up trash and not hitting kids and taking care of the elders. I'm supporting the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons because I believe these weapons to be the single largest, most weighty, least acknowledged threat to the public health, and I have a life-long dream of reducing, removing, this threat to my community.
So, if you're in Facebook, or your kids are, wander on by. Join, donate, invite. I promise it's not a RickRoll.
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| 2009-05-07 18:53 |
| Despair-work, Peace-work, Hope |
| Public |
| despair work, ethics, facebook, friends, hope, networking, peace work, twitter, wordpress |
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If you've followed along for any length of time, you know that I'm a big fan of what Joanna Macy calls 'despair-work'. Interestingly, this is not work in which one admits despair and then gives up. This is work in which one admits to despair being present, then uses the energy gained by that admission to generate new energy: to create hope, in one way or another.
I've joined the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War in their ican project, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. I'm inviting you to join me, by donating, by spreading the word, by believing this can be accomplished across the lines of nations and over the objections of corporations and armies, through the work of concerned, dedicated, connected individuals- a fellowship of the many, if you will.
The secondary cost of maintaining nuclear weapons stockpiles is part of what the GreenhamCommonWomen worked to make apparent, what Eric and David Thiermann, in their difficult but beautiful film The Last Epidemic demonstrate in clear and personal way, what Joanna Macy Rogers from her practice of Engaged Buddhism names Nuclear Guardianship. The thing is done, it cannot be undone, but it can be put into balance: not the balance of bomb for bomb, because that is no balance, but the balance of action and care.
I'm inviting you to join me, and bring your friends, family and co-workers. Invite your government, corporations, churches, synagogues, mosques. There is room for everyone to do this work, and many hands make light work.
As Aragorn said: There is always hope.
Today, I bring this sliver of it and hold it alight. Please, join me in carrying the fire.
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Table of contents for Despair-Work, an essay by Joanna Macy on the weight of the Nuclear Age on each/all of us, whether we are consciously aware of it or not, and some ideas of what can be done for/by each of us to ease that burden.
Part one: Introduction, Ingredients of Despair, Symptoms and Suppressions
Part two: Validation,
Part three: Feeling, Imaging, Waiting
Part four: Community
Citations and references page [external links]
This essay became her book Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age.
And some related links: Deep Ecology, Nuclear Guardianship, Non-Violent Peace Force, Yes! Magazine and Critical Will: Force for Nuclear Disarmament.
ETA: I've been asked why I'm keeping this at the top of my page?
Because it's relevant. Because this essay saved my life when I first read it in 1982. Because it's thoughtful writing. And because now, instead of two countries with [relatively] stable nuclear warhead programs, there are [actually, do we even know how many?] at least 6 with nuclear warhead capability. / (ETA- am letting it slide down a ways for now- doesn't mean I won't relink it at the top at some point.)
I don't know about you, but that weighs on me something terrible. I'm so grateful to have ways to relieve that burden which are practical and do-able.
ETA to add Rebecca Solnit's Library of Hope (including hope in the dark) from Tom Engelhart's Tomdispatch, courtesy of Perceval Press.
ETA 4.16.08 to add Waging Peace and the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.
Thank you, you who read, ponder, come back, read again. If ever you'd like to talk about this with me, I'm available. Just drop me a note here.
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