Public Involvement Needed on MeadSuperfund Site Contamination p. 6

What’s HOT in Global Warming p. 7

Rep. Kucinich IntroducesImpeachment Resolutions p. 8

Review of The Battle for Whiteclay p. 9

Speaking Our Peace p. 12

Congress Approves More War Funds—So What’s This All Gonna Cost Us? p. 3

Preventing an Arms Race in Outer SpaceThe UN PAROS Resolution p. 5

Military Pollution ThreatensOmaha’s Water p. 6

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Congress Approves More War Funds

So What’s This All Gonna Cost Us?

continued on page 4

by Hendrik van den BergUNL Professor of Economics

Congress has just agreed to fund our occu-pations of Iraq and Afghanistan through nextyear. This guarantees that our longest for-eign conflict will become longer yet. Whilesome pundits point out that the stated $150billion annual cost of our Iraq venture is justa little more than 1 percent of national in-come, several estimates suggest a muchhigher cost. For example, a well-known studyby Nancy Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz (2006)and my own analysis in the January, 2008NFP Nebraska Report show that our inva-sion and occupation of Iraq will cost theU.S. more than $3 trillion. That cost will bespread over many years as we replace themilitary’s worn-out equipment, pay for themedical care of our many injured and dis-abled soldiers, and pay the interest and prin-cipal on the government’s debt incurred topursue a war without raising taxes. We areeffectively looking at a cost of 1 percent peryear for many years into the future. Yet, theultimate cost of the Iraq venture may be muchgreater yet.

We tend to forget that when the $3 tril-lion-plus bill for our government’s Iraq ad-venture comes due, we will be saddled withother (and even bigger) debts—ones we’rerefusing to face by retreating into the samesort of self-denial we exhibited about therisks of invading Iraq. Among other things,our country has been borrowing massivelyfrom foreigners, we have been ignoring theenvironmental damage we are causing, weare preventing increasing numbers of peoplefrom contributing to our society, we con-tinue to allow our failing healthcare systemto take more of our income, and we permitour politicians to sharply increase our over-all defense expenditures to confront un-specified and undefined threats. How wecan continue to ignore these ‘debts’ is hardto understand—particularly when we see the‘costs’ virtually every day.

Our Country’s Debt to ForeignersWe are currently consuming goods and

services equal to 106 percent of what weactually produce in our country. We accom-plish this seemingly impossible feat by im-porting much more than we export. To payfor these net imports, we must borrow fromforeigners an amount equal to 6 percent ofour national product each year. Specifically,

American consumers, firms, financial insti-tutions and government agencies have beenselling hundreds of billions of dollars worthof stock, bonds, bank accounts, factories,condominiums, and all other types of assetsto foreign investors to pay for our imports.Even Budweiser has now become a foreign-owned brand! These foreign investors areusually firms, banks and individuals, but theyare also often foreign governments.

Basic accounting principles require usto accurately state future obligations. Even-tually, private foreign investors and foreigngovernments will stop lending us so much.They may even begin selling the assets theyhold or simply not roll over their U.S. assetswhen their bonds or loans mature. In thiscase, the U.S. would have to begin consum-ing at least 6 percent below the current trendand sell more of the U.S.-produced goodsand services to foreigners instead. Or, putanother way, our long-run real income isabout 6 percent less than our current levelof spending may have led us to believe.

The Destruction of Our NaturalEnvironment

We have also not been paying the fullcost of the environmental damage causedby the growth of our consumption—suchas our coal-fired power plants, our cars, oururban sprawl, our large homes and our air-plane trips. Under the motto ‘the evidenceis not yet in,’ we have largely ignored thedamage global warming is likely to bring.Similarly, we ignore the thousand-fold in-crease in the rate of extinction of living spe-cies and our rapid depletion of our non-re-newable resources. The IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change, which shared theNobel Prize with Al Gore last year, estimatesthat we must spend about 1 percent of totalworld income over the next 25 years to bringabout the new technologies, alternative en-ergy sources, and changes in lifestyles nec-essary to stop global warming. Because theU.S. has disproportionately contributed toglobal warming, fairness mandates that webear a cost that is at least proportional toour share of economic wealth. Therefore, our

implicit bill for mitigating global warming isat least 1 percent of our national income.The price of $4-dollar gas pales in compari-son.

Our Oppressive IncarcerationRate

Our economy also suffers from the op-pression of large segments of our popula-tion. For example, the U.S. incarceration rateis about seven times the world average, andit is highly skewed by race and income.About 2.3 million Americans, mostly poorand minorities, are currently incarcerated.The direct cost of housing, feeding, andguarding these 2.3 million prisoners is about$70 billion per year. Since increased incar-ceration has not been shown to reduce crime,much of these direct costs are wasted. Ofcourse, dealing humanely with the addic-tions, the mental illness and the anti-socialbehavior that is now so cruelly addressedby oppression through incarceration willprobably cost as much as our direct costs ofincarceration, perhaps more. But unless webear this cost, we will continue to lose sev-eral percent of our potential national prod-uct due to the indirect costs of incarcera-tion.

Preventing 2.3 million adults—or about1.5 percent of our total adult labor force—from carrying out productive work cuts ournational product by about 1 percent, giventhat the majority of people in prison are lessproductive than the average worker. The highincarceration rate also implies there arenearly six million ex-felons, and there is ampleevidence that, all other things equal, ex-fel-ons remain less productive than people whohave never been incarcerated. This lowerproductivity stems in large part from the factthat years in jail translate into less job expe-rience. But, we also maintain many restric-tions on what jobs ex-felons can hold, andemployers routinely discriminate against ex-felons. This loss of productivity steals per-haps another 0.5 to 1 percent of nationalincome.

In addition to our oppressive incarcera-tion, we also oppress our Native Americanpopulation on reservations, our inner cityyouth in sub-par schools, and millions ofundocumented immigrant workers who are

$3.9

As of August 2008, the Iraq War had cost Nebraskans

www.nationalpriorities.org

Billion

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.4

WWWWWar Costs,ar Costs,ar Costs,ar Costs,ar Costs, continued continued continued continued continued

August 6 - Wednesday8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Vigil at Kenny Gate,StratCom/Offutt AFB(http://dodlodging.net/VT_Offutt_Map.htm)7:00 p.m. Movie: The Day After Trinity: JRobert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb(http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/74400/The-Day-After-Trinity-Oppenheimer-the-Atomic-Bomb/overview)McFoster’s Natural Kind Café, 302 S. 38th St. – between Harney(one-way going East) and Farnam (one-way going West)(http://www.mcfosters.com/index.html)

August 7 - Thursday8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Vigil at Kenny Gate,StratCom/Offutt AFB6:00 p.m. Mass and Potluck at OmahaCatholic Worker Contact Jerry Ebner, Omaha CW,cwomaha@gmail.com, 402-502-5887

August 8 - Friday8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Vigil at Kenny Gate,StratCom/Offutt AFB7:00 p.m. PowerPoint Slide Show “The Story ofStratCom at Offutt: Its New Mission and Our Resistance to It” by FrankCordaro. Basement of St. John’s Church at Creighton University.

August 9 - Saturday8:00 – 11:00 a.m. Vigil at Kenny Gate,StratCom/Offutt AFB, with closing ceremony and prayer(and line crossing if anyone is up to it).6:00 p.m. ‘Peace Seekers and Pizza’7:00 p.m. (discussion, reflection andleadership support) at 4924 Chicago Street.Contact: Jo Peterson at 350-3019.

Contact people for more information:Jerry Ebner, cwomaha@gmail.com (402-502-5887)Frank Cordaro, frank.cordaro@gmail.com (515-282-4781)Elaine Wells, mmwells1@cox.net (402-573-1702)

Annual Hiroshima/NagasakiProtest at StratCom

Co-Sponsored by:

Des Moines Catholic Workerwww.desmoinescatholicworker.org

Omaha Catholic Worker www.no-nukes.org/cwomahaNebraskans for Peace www.nebraskansforpeace.org

conclusion on page 10

easily exploited and mistreated be-cause they have no legal recourse.It will take a wholesale reform ofour social policies to reverse thediscrimination, the incarceration,the neglect the unequal educa-tional opportunities and the sec-ond-class status of immigrants

which all suppress our long-runnational product. Unfortunately,Americans are not yet willing toeven recognize this oppression.

Our Underperforming &Overpriced HealthcareSystem

Americans endure an exces-sively high cost of healthcare.Other developed countries providehealthcare to their entire popula-tions at costs that range from one-half to two-thirds of what Ameri-cans now pay. We spend close to15 percent of our national producton healthcare, but other advancedcountries spend only between 7and 10 percent. And they achieveconsistently longer life expectan-cies, lower infant mortality ratesand superior preventive care. Weeffectively overspend onhealthcare by at least 5 percent ofnational product. Despite this hugecost, the mere mention of ‘social-ized medicine’ seems to be enoughto shut off debate on reform.

Obviously, we already havequite a bit of ‘socialized medicine’in the form of Medicare, Medicaid,the Veterans Health system and theuniversal coverage provided tomembers of Congress. Our govern-ment also implicitly subsidizes

healthcare by exempting contribu-tions to health insurance from in-come tax. In all, the conservativeweekly magazine The Economistestimates that the U.S. governmentis already paying or subsidizingabout 60 percent of U.S. healthcareexpenditures. Coincidentally, that

60 percent would fully pay for aEuropean-style universal single-payer healthcare system. Thus, weeffectively waste at least 5 percentof our national product on over-priced drugs, overpaid private hos-pitals, private insurance companiesorganized to deny payments, andoveremphasis on major operationsrather than preventive care.

The Full Bill for OurMilitary

Finally, we greatly overpay fornational security. The combineddefense and security budgets thatcover national defense, security,surveillance, intelligence gatheringand military assistance to foreignallies sum to well over $1 trillionper year, or about 7 percent of na-tional income. Our Congress sug-gests that we must endure thisburden in order to protect our-selves from terrorism and to fighttyranny abroad. Critics of defenseexpenditures have used these num-bers to quantify what they refer toas the ‘cost of American imperial-ism.’ I would argue that regardlessof whether we are fighting terror-ists, promoting democracy or colo-nizing the world, the true cost ofaccomplishing these goals isclearly much higher than 7 percent

of our national product. We havenot been terribly successful at anyof these tasks by devoting 7 per-cent of our national product tothem. Instead, we have pretty muchdestroyed our military capabilitiesafter just two indecisive wars insmall countries, and there is stillplenty of conflict and terrorism.

While 7 percent of nationalincome is apparently too little toaccomplish our military goals, it istoo much to achieve a peacefulcoexistence with the rest of theworld. Seven percent of our na-tional product accounts for overhalf of the world’s total military ex-penditures. This level of expendi-ture is so threatening that, insteadof making other countries lessthreatening, it has set off an inter-national arms race that, in the end,gives no one except the military-industrial complex any advantage.

Hence, the 7 percent of ournational product spent on the mili-tary and national security is largelywasted. A much smaller percentagecould effectively combat interna-tional crimes if it is channeled to acooperative global security effortthat discourages senseless armsraces that leave no one better off.Given that Japan manages to pro-tect itself very well devoting littlemore than 1 percent of its nationalproduct to its military, U.S. defenseand security expenditures equal to2 percent of national productshould be more than enough toprovide for our security and pro-tect the world’s shipping lanesfrom piracy.

The Total Cost of OurDenial

In summary: (1) our militaris-tic approach to world affairs, there-fore, implies a waste of perhaps asmuch as 5 percent of national prod-uct; (2) because we have for yearsbeen borrowing from foreigners, inthe future we will have to repay wellover 5 percent of national incometo foreigners in interest, profits,rents and principal; (3) it will costus at least 1 percent of nationalproduct (and more if we wait muchlonger) to deal with global warm-ing, plus more for other forms ofenvironmental destruction ourpast and present production andconsumption cause; (4) incarcera-tion and other forms of oppression

We tend to forget that when

the $3 trillion-plus bill for our

government’s Iraq adventure

comes due, we will be saddled

with other (and even bigger)

debts—ones we’re refusing to

face by retreating into the same

sort of self-denial we exhibited

about the risks of invading Iraq.

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.5

Demilitarize and Prevent the Weaponization of Space!

Militarization of Outer Space:Militarization of Outer Space:Militarization of Outer Space:Militarization of Outer Space:Militarization of Outer Space: Militaries all over the world rely on satellites for com-mand and control, communication, monitoring, early warning, and navigation withthe Global Positioning System. Satellites are used to direct bombing raids or to or-chestrate prompt global strike capability, which is the ability to control any situationor defeat any adversary across the range of military operations. The 1999 bombingof Kosovo and the 2003 shock and awe assault on Iraq both involved the use ofsatellite-guided armaments.

Weaponization of Outer Space:Weaponization of Outer Space:Weaponization of Outer Space:Weaponization of Outer Space:Weaponization of Outer Space: While there are currently no weapons deployedin orbit, the United States is developing space weapon technologies, which can in-clude ground-based systems designed or used to attack space-based assets, suchas satellites, and weapons that travel through space in order to reach their targets.This includes elements of the US ballistic missile defense system which, asThis includes elements of the US ballistic missile defense system which, asThis includes elements of the US ballistic missile defense system which, asThis includes elements of the US ballistic missile defense system which, asThis includes elements of the US ballistic missile defense system which, asthe February 2008 shoot-down of a falling satellite proved, can be deployedthe February 2008 shoot-down of a falling satellite proved, can be deployedthe February 2008 shoot-down of a falling satellite proved, can be deployedthe February 2008 shoot-down of a falling satellite proved, can be deployedthe February 2008 shoot-down of a falling satellite proved, can be deployedas an anti-satellite weapon.as an anti-satellite weapon.as an anti-satellite weapon.as an anti-satellite weapon.as an anti-satellite weapon.

We are campaigning and demonstrating to prevent the weaponization and re-duce the militarization of outer space. The whole world must bring pressure to bearon the United States to join with other nations to negotiate a treaty to keep spacefor peace. No one country must ever be permitted to dominate and control theplanet from on high.

Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space!

The overwhelming majority of United Nations member states are concerned thatthe weaponization of outer space will lead to an arms race. They insist that a multi-lateral treaty is the only way to prevent such an arms race. Each year in the GeneralAssembly, member states adopt a resolution on the PrPrPrPrPrevention of an Arevention of an Arevention of an Arevention of an Arevention of an Arms Racems Racems Racems Racems Racein Outer Space (Pin Outer Space (Pin Outer Space (Pin Outer Space (Pin Outer Space (PAROS)AROS)AROS)AROS)AROS) by an overwhelming majority. In fact, every country in theworld votes in favor of negotiating a treaty on PAROS except for the US, which hasvoted for the past three years, and Israel, which has abstained. A PAROS treaty wouldcomplement the 1967 Outer Space Treaty for peaceful uses of outer space if it pre-vented space weaponization and programs, such as so-called “missile defense,” sat-ellite-guided weapons launched from earth, and spy satellites collecting and usingdata for aggressive military purposes.

In the Conference on Disarmament (CD), the official body where UN disarma-ment treaties are negotiated, the United States has prevented any progress on PAROSnegotiations. In 2008, Russia and China, which have always been strong promotersof the PAROS vote in the UN General Assembly, submitted a draft treaty to the CD onbanning the weaponization of space. The US dismissed the proposal out-of hand,characterizing the offer to make peace in space as “a diplomatic ploy by the twonations to gain a military advantage.

We disagree.We disagree.We disagree.We disagree.We disagree. The purpose of negotiations is to prevent any nation from gaininga military advantage. It is critical that the US support PAROS and take up this urgentoffer to start negotiations to keep space for peace We must never permit the tragicexpansion of the terror of war into a new frontier in space.

This fact sheet was produced by the Reaching Critical Will project of the WomenInternational League for Peace and Freedom. For more information gowww.reachingcriticalwill.org.

KKKKKeepeepeepeepeepSpaceSpaceSpaceSpaceSpace

ffffforororororPeacePeacePeacePeacePeace

Prevent an Arms Race in Outer Space

Especially in the heavensEspecially in the heavensEspecially in the heavensEspecially in the heavensEspecially in the heavenswar is hell.war is hell.war is hell.war is hell.war is hell.

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.6

Military Pollution Threatens Omaha’s Waterby State Senator Don Preister, District 5

The following “Midlands Voices” guesteditorial was originally published in theJune 10, 2008 Omaha World-Herald underthe title, “It’s too risky to start using newwell field.”

Omaha cannot afford a risk to itswater supply. Safe water is critical to thehealth, recreation and economic well-beingof our state’s largest population center.But with the Metropolitan UtilitiesDistrict’s new well field located adjacent toa Superfund site, the future safety ofOmaha’s water is not guaranteed.

Military chemicals contaminategroundwater and surface water at theformer Nebraska Ordnance Plant nearMead in Saunders County—just two milessouthwest of MUD’s new well field.

The site has been on the EPASuperfund list since 1990 and remainscontaminated with volatile organiccompounds, including trichloroethylene(TCE), and explosives, including RDX.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineersalso has primary responsibility for cleanupat the sites of the Cornhusker ArmyAmmunition Plant in Hall County and theHastings Naval Ammunition Depot.Although both were designatedSuperfund sites in the mid-1980s, theyremain contaminated.

RDX is a possible human carcino-gen. TCE can cause impaired heartfunction, liver damage and cancer throughinhalation, skin contact and drinking. In2001, a draft EPA risk assessment foundthat TCE is up to 40 times more carcino-genic than previously thought. TheNational Research Council found in 2006

that “the evidence on carcinogenic riskand other health hazards from exposure totrichloroethylene has strengthened since2001.”

The NRC urged federal agencies tofinalize their risk assessment to enableexpeditious risk management decisions,such as tightening regulatory standards.The dangers are real.

It is not clear why these chemicalsare still in the groundwater. Nebraska statepolicy calls for accomplishing cleanup in20 years or less. However, the Corps ofEngineers, which has primary cleanupresponsibility at the Mead site, hasselected cleanup strategies that will take atleast 130 years to complete. The corps didnot consider a 20-year strategy at Mead,and its current cleanup plans for the GrandIsland and Hastings sites estimate thatcleanup there will not be completed foranother 40 to 50 years.

Scientific evidence of the waterproblems at the Mead site has beenmounting since contamination was

uncovered in a private well in 1989.Although TCE above the regulatory actionlevel appeared in other local groundwatersamples, initial groundwater remediationdid not begin until 2001—12 years later. Sixresidences in Saunders County currentlyuse alternate water supplies; four usecarbon treatment systems.

Despite the Mead site’s 17-year-old

Superfund status, we do not fully knowthe nature and extent of toxins contaminat-ing it. In August 2007, the Corps ofEngineers said it was surprised to learnthat the contamination was not containedin three areas and that its cleanup strate-gies were not as effective as previouslybelieved.

In October 2007, the corps admittedthat it was caught off guard by thediscovery of TCE in groundwater contami-nation plumes previously thought tocontain only explosives.

All of this poses serious health risksto Nebraskans. And the slow, frequentlyineffective cleanup and the ongoing

discoveries of spreading contaminationmake risky any imminent startup of MUD’snew Platte West well field.

Neither MUD nor the corps hasestablished definitively that site contami-nants will not pollute Omaha’s watersupply. Indeed, MUD’s 404 permit, issuedby the corps, acknowledgesthatMUD’snewpumping may causecontamination to move, interfere with thecorps’ cleanup and contaminate drinkingwater.

Long before the corps acknowl-edged its faulty containment system, itexpected that MUD’s pumping wouldcause movement of the plume farther east.Now that it is clear that the contaminationis not contained near MUD’s new wellfield, we need to ask additional questions:

• How far east and south from the Meadsite does the contamination go?

• Are the corps’ and MUD’s monitoringwells properly placed and numerousenough to detect movement ofcontamination from MUD’s newpumping when it occurs?

• Is the corps’ response plan adequate totell us as soon as elevated toxins aredetected?

• What is MUD’s contingency plan iftoxins are pumped into Omaha’s watersystem?

Local public officials should ask thesecritical questions and demand responsesbefore it is too late. Our state’s watersupply and Nebraska’s residents deserveprotection.

Military chemicals contaminategroundwater and surface water at

the former Nebraska OrdnancePlant near Mead in Saunders

County—just two miles south-west of Omaha’s Metropolitan

Utility District’s new well field.— State Senator Don Preister

Public Involvement Needed on Mead Superfund Site Contaminationby Steve Larrick, DirectorLower Platte South Natural Resources Dist.

Under the U.S. Constitution, our military is le-gally obligated to defend our country and itscitizens. But in stunning defiance of both itsconstitutional duties and federal regulations,the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has abruptlycut off public meetings with a local advisoryboard just as a new well field may begin pull-ing toxins toward Omaha’s water supply.

The Omaha Metropolitan Utilities Districtplans to soon begin Corps-approved pump-ing from its new Platte West well field, locatedjust two miles from the contaminated ground-water plumes at the Mead Superfund site.

In August 2007, however, the Corps admit-ted that a carcinogenic brew of toxins underlyingeleven square miles at the Superfund site inSaunders County (a few miles upstream of Lincoln’smunicipal well field) is not contained. At that time,the Corps said it was surprised that its cleanupefforts were not functioning effectively. In additionto polluting wells of Saunders County residentswho are currently forced to rely upon alternatewater supplies, the Corps acknowledged thatMUD’s new high-powered wells may move thecontamination, polluting more wells and threaten-ing the safety of Omaha’s water.

Just as these threats to our water supplyloom—at the very moment when the public most

deserves to know key facts—the Corps is severelycutting back on information available to the publicabout the contaminated groundwater plumes atthe Superfund site and their movement toward ourdrinking water supplies.

Instead of modifying MUD’s permit to delaythe start-up of the new well field until the contami-nation is contained, the Corps has suddenly dis-continued its participation in quarterly public meet-ings of the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB)—abody comprised of area citizens affected by theDepartment of Defense’s Superfund site cleanupactivities. Moreover, in defiance of its own regula-tions, the Corps has informed community RABmembers that it will not hold public meetings withthem unless they agree to new restrictions.

Besides violating federal regulations, the

Corps-demanded strictures dramatically cutback access to crucial information and removethe public’s ability to participate meaningfully inmeetings. They limit participation far more thanany procedures used since the RAB’s incep-tion in 1997. Thus, at a time when it’s criticallyimportant that citizens exercise their right toknow essential facts about the water cominginto their homes and interact meaningfully withgovernment officials, the Corps is unlawfullyseeking to limit access to factual information andto the responsible officials.

The purpose of a RAB, according to fed-eral regulations, is to provide a community fo-rum for exchanging information about DoDcleanups and an opportunity to dialogue with

conclusion on page 11JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.6

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.7

Right-Wing Punditry & Green Cheese Science

Bruce E. Johansen is theFrederick W. Kayser Professorof Communication at theUniversity of Nebraska-Omaha.

CORRECTIONCORRECTIONCORRECTIONCORRECTIONCORRECTIONJim Hansen of NASA’s GoddardInstitute for Space Studies sent acorrection to my last column:

“Bruce, I note that in the article yousent to me that you thought I saidwe had to get back to 350 ppm in10 years—no way that could bedone… We show how a coalphase-out by 2030 would allow usto get back to 350 in the secondhalf of the century. Jim.”

I alternately envy and pity regularop-ed columnists whose punditryis syndicated by the millions ofcopies in U.S. daily newspapers.On one hand, imagine all that won-derful news space and all thosewilling eyes. On the other hand,imagine the angst of coming upwith faux wisdom several times aweek and trying to make it soundfresh and profound.

Every day I try to read a fewpundits who are guaranteed to dis-agree with me. As a long-time devo-tee of Thomas Jefferson, I believethat to have an honest debate, wemust suffer the opinions of thosewho disagree with us. We even (oc-casionally) may learn something.

Of late, I have been readingright-wing pundits on global warm-ing, finding reason once again toremind myself that carbon dioxideand methane have no politics. CO2and methane don’t care if we be-lieve in the importance of globalwarming or not. They are not hav-ing a debate with us. All they do ishold heat in the atmosphere. Andwhile it’s true (weather beingweather) that other influences docome into play with regards to glo-bal warming, injecting more green-house gases into the atmospherewill increase temperatures.

The New CommiesThe basic science of global

warming intrudes only rarely in theop-ed debates. If we get any sci-ence at all, it’s the moon-is-made-of-green-cheese variety. Morelikely I will run into the John BirchSociety’s signature nightmare fromthe 1950s that stars the UnitedNations in a plot to enslave thepeople of the United States, up-dated with the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change cast asthe New Commies. Or, as George F.

Will put it so succinctly: “Today’s‘green left’ is yesterday’s ‘red left,’revised,” using pessimism aboutthe future as an unjustified excusefor government curtailment of in-dividual freedom to exploit andpollute. Carbon dioxide is thus ex-onerated by facile (and rather sim-plistic) historical irony, without theslightest bow to geophysics. Ifcarbon dioxide had a sense of hu-mor, it would get a belly laugh outof this. Will strikes me as a reason-ably intelligent fellow, a wonderfulword-spinner, but his global-warm-ing science is strictly greencheese.

Right-wing pundit Cal Thomasargues that global warmingamounts to nothing more than a“cult” that “ignores evidence,” anexcuse for liberals to expand thereach of government into peoples’lives. “Growing numbers of atmo-spheric scientists and others withrelated expertise are emerging fromthe global-warming cult and testi-fying to their conversions. Theyare mostly ignored by the pressand politicians who have embracedthe cultists’ doctrines,” he argues.The carbon dioxide is chuckling,Cal! No ‘thermal inertia’ for him, no‘feedback loops’—just hard-rightideology. And he thinks someoneelse is displaying allegiance to acult.

Dissing Carbon TaxesThe columnist Robert

Samuelson, who specializes in eco-nomics, argues, a “cap-and-trade”scheme will amount to a tax on fos-sil-fuel energy as a market deviceto reduce its use. Just call It “cap-and-tax,” he moans. And who, af-ter all, wants to pay taxes? In a per-fect world, the streets would pavethemselves.

If Samuelson is worried about

a tax running around under theguise of a futures market in carbon,we could institute a straight-upcarbon-dioxide tax. Such things aredone in Europe. But I doubt thewise-guy pundits would like that,either. Tax favors for oil companiesare more their style.

Samuelson makes the use oftaxation to reward or penalize cer-tain types of human behaviorsounds like an evil new idea. Andyet what, dear writer, is an oil-depletion allowance? What is a taxdeduction for charitable contribu-tions? Of course cap-and-trade isa tax, and its stated purpose is toreduce our production of carbondioxide. It is far better to tax some-thing we do not want (greenhousegases) than activity we wouldrather encourage, such as humanlabor. Samuelson misses the ex-ample of Sweden, which has re-placed a large proportion of its in-come tax with energy taxes.

Rapidly rising prices for fossilfuels—from coal-fired power togasoline—already are altering the

market in favor of alternative en-ergy sources such as wind and so-lar power. Wind power is alreadyless expensive than fossil-fuelsources under some conditions.Cap-and-trade will encourage thisnecessary trend, by requiring pay-ment to pollute, and raising theprice over time.

The Special-Interest DanceAs soon as the United States

Congress began to seriously con-sider taxing carbon emissions, vari-ous industries involved in the Cli-mate Action Partnership (CAP)began to jockey in favor of theirinterests. While major industriessupported curbs in principle, spe-cifics varied widely. The raw truthis that dealing with global warm-ing will reward some industries andpenalize others. Get used to it.

In January 2007, the CAP en-dorsed reduction in carbon diox-ide emissions by 60 to 80 percentby 2050, supporting climate scien-tists’ views at that time. Thesedays, the favored scientific figurefor carbon emissions in 2050 iszero. That was the easy part. Nextcame the particulars—practice ver-sus theory. Consensus proved elu-sive. Should carbon allowances begiven away to companies that emitcarbon dioxide, such as utilities, orauctioned at a price from the be-ginning? This and other debateshave stymied negotiations overpolicy and regulations. In Europe,permission to emit a ton of CO2 al-ready was selling for about $26 in2008; at that level, the carbon diox-ide emitted in the United Stateswould be worth about $220 billiona year.

By 2008, trade groups werereadying ad campaigns against

cap-and-trade. One ad, producedby the United States Chamber ofCommerce, was described in theWashington Post as showing “aman cooking breakfast overcandles in a cold, darkened house,then jogging to work on emptyhighways, asking: ‘Is this reallyhow Americans want to live?’”

Samuelson seems to be some-thing of a climatic fatalist, who be-lieves that reducing carbon emis-sions by penalizing its production“promises to be hard and perhapsfutile.” He seems not to mind leav-ing our children a hot, miserableworld. Or, perhaps, he thinks it is ahoax or a cult. Or that we can con-tinue to add to the atmosphere’sgreenhouse-gas overload withoutcausing any real environmentalproblems—‘green-cheese’ sci-ence.

It’s a dangerous tack theseright-wing pundits are advising.Conducting business as usual willensure a climate out of control.

Of course cap-and-trade is a tax, andits stated purposeis to reduce our

production of carbondioxide. It is far

better to taxsomething we do not

want (greenhousegases) than activity

we would ratherencourage, such as

human labor.

What’s HOT in Global Warming?What’s HOT in Global Warming?by Professor Bruce E. Johansen

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.8

R R R R Repepepepep..... K K K K Kucinich Iucinich Iucinich Iucinich Iucinich IntrntrntrntrntroducesoducesoducesoducesoducesIIIIImpeachment Rmpeachment Rmpeachment Rmpeachment Rmpeachment ResolutionsesolutionsesolutionsesolutionsesolutionsFour years ago this summer (and fourmonths before President George W. Bushwas elected to a second term), Nebraskansfor Peace publicly called for the impeach-ment of both he and Vice-President DickCheney—and were roundly ridiculed forour action.

This past June, exactly four years later,Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 ar-ticles of impeachment against Bush intoCongress (H. Res. 1258), with the warningthat if the House Judiciary Committee failedto hold hearings within the next 30 days,he would be back with yet another resolu-tion to impeach. Good as his word, on July10, Kucinich introduced a follow-up reso-lution, and this time his tenacity appearsto have paid off. In an about-face, Speakerof the House Nancy Pelosi told the mediathat she now expected the Judiciary Com-mittee and its chair, Rep. John Conyers, toconsider the matter.

Reprinted here are both Kucinich’sJuly 10 media statement about the secondimpeachment resolution, and the full 35 ar-ticles from his original June 9 document.

July 10 Media StatementYesterday in the House, we had a mo-

ment of silence for the troops. Today it istime to speak out on behalf of those troopswho will be in Iraq for at least another year,courageously representing our nation whiletheir Commander in Chief sent them on amission that was based on falsehoods aboutthe threat of WMDs from Iraq.

Throughout the summer and fall of 2002,the Congress, the media and the Americanpeople heard the terrifying drumbeat of fearfrom the Bush White House in the form ofloud, well-advertised and orchestratedchanting by the President and his Adminis-tration about “Weapons of Mass Destruc-tion,” “Nuclear Threats,” “Biological Weap-ons,” “Chemical Weapons,” “Threats ofImminent Attack,” all calculated to gain me-dia attention, public support and Congres-sional support for a war against Iraq.

This afternoon I will introduce a singleArticle of Impeachment of the President.

The Article is entitled: “Deceiving Con-gress with Fabricated Threats of Iraq WMDsto Fraudulently Obtain Support for an Au-thorization of the Use of Military ForceAgainst Iraq.” The Impeachment resolutionfocuses narrowly on what the President pre-

sented to Congress in the Authorization ofthe Use of Military Force. It does not ad-dress the voluminous evidence of orches-trated deceptions which have been welldocumented by various governmental, non-governmental and media sources.

I understand that many members ofCongress voted in good faith to authorizethe use of force against Iraq. And I under-stand that many in the media supported thataction. When the President of the UnitedStates makes representations on matters oflife and death, we all want to believe him andgive him the benefit of the doubt. Trust isthe glue which holds the fabric of our nationtogether.

Those in Congress and in the media whoacted on the President’s representations ofthe threat of Iraq WMDs did so trusting thatthose representations were honest. Unfor-tunately, they were not. We all know theconsequences of the war, the loss of livesand injury to our troops, the deaths of inno-cent Iraqis, the cost to the American taxpay-ers. There has been another consequence:Great damage to our Constitution throughan unnecessary, illegal war and the destruc-tion of the superior role of Congress in thelife of this nation.

Congress must, in the name of theAmerican people, use the one remedy whichthe Founders provided for an Executive whogravely abused his power: Impeachment.Congress must reassert itself as a co-equalbranch of government; bring this Presidentto an accounting, and in doing so reestab-lish the people’s trust in Congress and inour American system of government. Wemust not let this President’s conduct go un-challenged and thereby create a precedentwhich undermines the Constitution.

In the final analysis this is about ourConstitution and whether a President canbe held accountable for his actions and hisdeceptions, especially when the effects ofthose actions have been so calamitous forAmerica, Iraq and the world. Unless Con-gress reasserts itself as the power branch ofgovernment which the Founders intended,our experiment with a republican form ofGovernment may be nearing an end. Butwhen Congress acts to hold this Presidentaccountable it will be redeeming the faiththat the Founders had in the power of a sys-tem of checks and balances which preservesour republic.

Article I: Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.Article II: Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With

Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.Article III: Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons

of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.Article IV: Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent

Threat to the United States.Article V: Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.Article VI: Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.Article VII: Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.Article VIII: Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.Article IX: Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor.Article X: Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes.Article XI: Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq.Article XII: Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources.Article XIIII: Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and

Other Countries.Article XIV: Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice

in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.Article XV: Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq.Article XVI: Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US

Contractors.Article XVII: Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and

Foreign Captives.Article XVIII: Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghani-

stan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy.Article XIX: Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in

Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture.Article XX: Imprisoning Children.Article XXI: Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist

Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government.Article XXII: Creating Secret Laws.Article XXIII: Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.Article XXIV: Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the

Fourth Amendment.Article XXV: Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of

the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens.Article XXVI: Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements.Article XXVII: Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to

Comply.Article XXVIII: Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice.Article XXIX: Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.Article XXX: Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare.Article XXXI: Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a

Civil Emergency.Article XXXII: Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Ad-

dress Global Climate Change.Article XXXIII: Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned

Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.Article XXXIV: Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001.Article XXXV: Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders.

Thirty-five Articles of Impeachment(House Resolution 1258)

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.9

Review of The Battle for WhiteclayA Glass Onion film directed and produced by Mark Vasina

Cover art for the DVD of Nebraska filmmakerMark Vasina’s Whiteclay documentary

Artwork by Justin Kemerling

Reviewed by Fran KayeUNL Professor of English

The day after I received my review copy of The Battle forWhiteclay, my brother told me that our friend Jamie YellowHorse was dead. Funny, irrepressible Jamie, who a year agohad stood with us outside the governor’s mansion to pro-test against the scheduled execution of Carey Dean Moore.Jamie, who always insisted on tuning the car radio awayfrom my sacred NPR to Country-Western. Jamie, who movedback to Pine Ridge last fall, concerned that he would notsurvive another winter on the streets of Lincoln. Jamie Yel-low Horse, who survived the winter but not the spring, drink-ing on the streets of Whiteclay.

The Battle for Whiteclay is a two-hour-long documen-tary film, produced and directed by Mark Vasina, about howfour off-sale stores in the tiny hamlet of Whiteclay, Ne-braska sell millions of cans of beer every year to people likeJamie—vulnerable adults who come from the officially dryPine Ridge Reservation a few feet across the South Dakotastate line to enlist a few beers (particularly the fortified maltliquors like “Hurricane” and “Colt 45” that allow a man or awoman to get drunk quicker) in a fruitless attempt to forgetunemployment, disappointment, and more than a centuryof cultural genocide.

The film focuses on the activism of those who havecalled on the State of Nebraska to enforce its own liquorlaws so that Whiteclay is no longer an attractive nuisanceto the people in Pine Ridge. Since the establishments are alloff-sale and since the reservation is dry, there is no legalplace for most of the purchasers to drink their beers. Jamieand his friends, like much of the clientele, were drinking inpublic, which is illegal in Nebraska. In addition, as the videomakes clear through footage almost accidentally shot by aNebraska state trooper, establishments continue to sell topatrons who are intoxicated—also illegal in Nebraska. In-vestigator Byron Peterson has repeatedly heard allegationsthat that at least some of the dealers have been known tosell on credit, sell to minors, sell for sexual favors and tradebeer for services, such as the shakedown of other patronswho have defaulted on credit agreements. Jamie and hisfriends chose to drink in Whiteclay. But they have the rightto the context of protection from their own addictions thatother Nebraskans have, and they did not and do not receiveit.

In addition, Whiteclay is in a section of Nebraska thatwas originally set up as a buffer zone for the Pine Ridgereservation. President Theodore Roosevelt unilaterally ab-rogated this agreement more than 100 years ago, but thelegality of that action is in question, and it may be that theliquor stores are illegal under properly understood federallaw.

The documentary shows scenes of drinking inWhiteclay and gives a background glimpse of the Pine RidgeOglala Lakota Reservation, but most of it focuses on thevarious processes that opponents have taken to close downthe beer stores. Thus we see a teach-in and march in Lin-coln, marches and blockades in Whiteclay, and hearings atthe county board, the state liquor commission and the statelegislature dealing with various licensing questions. Mostof the decisions favor the beer stores. After all, those mil-

lions of cans of beer constitute considerable profit for thosewho sell them, as well as generating sales and excise taxrevenue for the State of Nebraska and the federal govern-ment. We see and hear the people who drink (mostly Lakota),the people who regulate the drinking (mostly white), andthe people concerned with closing down illegal beer salesin Whiteclay (Lakota, white, and other Indian activists suchas former AIM leader Russell Means, Oglala Lakota memberDuane Martin, Sr., and Frank LaMere of the WinnebagoTribe of Nebraska).

I watched the video with students in my summer Na-tive American Literature class at UNL. Most of them were‘ordinary’ middle class students, uninformed aboutWhiteclay or Native issues in general. They found the videoeye-opening and informative. A few had received minor al-cohol-related citations and were amazed at the volume ofpublic impairment that was tolerated in Whiteclay. Peopledie in Whiteclay and nothing happens, but if a UNL studentwere to die drunk on the streets of Lincoln there woulddefinitely be a public outcry. Lincoln is also well served byCornhusker Place, a detox center, which offers protection tofolk like Jamie Yellow Horse who pass out or are otherwisepublicly impaired in the city and county.

While the students found the shots of various boardhearings boring, they also found them informative, and onestudent—who had been thinking to herself that this hadnothing to do with her—changed her mind when she sawher state senator on the screen. This did concern her, and asa voter, she had a say in who sits on the legislative commit-tees governing Whiteclay. Although the video talks aboutthe astronomically high rate of poverty and unemploymenton Pine Ridge and the complete lack of alcohol treatmentfacilities in the region, the students said that they wouldhave liked to see more emphasis on how shutting downWhiteclay could be part of sustained economic and socialdevelopment on both Pine Ridge and in northwest Nebraska.They certainly agreed that the beer stores made Whiteclaya death trap for people caught in the vicious circle of de-spair and drinking, and that checking the illegal and preda-tory sales was important. But they also agreed that thisopen sore was primarily a symptom of the underlying dys-functions on the reservation.

Closing down Whiteclay would not mean that every-one was safe and happy on Pine Ridge. Any huge socialproblem can only be solved one piece at a time. Stoppingthe sale of beer for illegal consumption in Whiteclay is onetangible part of a solution—one that could be achieved ifNebraska were willing to enforce its own laws and to takeseriously its obligations to regulate liquor sales. What thestudents applauded most in the film was the portrayal of thePine Ridge activists, the young men, the mothers, the grand-mothers, who maintained their sobriety and pride in the midstof the despair, who did not give in to drinking, and whowere voting with their feet in the marches, their heads in theblockades and their hearts against the excessive beer sales.These activists, like community activists in any ill-favoredcommunity, will have to be the core for change on PineRidge and in Whiteclay. But they deserve all the help theycan get from Frank LaMere, Russell Means, Byron Peterson,Mark Vasina, Nebraskans for Peace and everyone else.

DVD copies ofThe Battle for Whiteclaywill be available in late

August through the NFPoffice for a suggested

donation of $10 to NFP.

Send requests to:

Whiteclay DVDc/o Nebraskans for Peace941 ‘O’ Street, Ste. 1026Lincoln, NE 68508

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.10

WWWWWar Costs,ar Costs,ar Costs,ar Costs,ar Costs, conclusion conclusion conclusion conclusion conclusionPoliticianContactsThe White HouseWashington, DC 20500Comment Line: 202-456-1111202-456-1414202-456-2993 (FAX)president@whitehouse.gov

Sen. Chuck Hagel248 Russell Senate Office Bldg.Washington, DC 20510202-224-4224202-224-5213 (FAX)402-476-1400 (Lincoln)402-758-8981 (Omaha)308-632-6032 (Scottsbluff)hagel.senate.gov

Sen. Ben Nelson720 Hart Senate Office Bldg.Washington, D.C. 20510202-224-6551202-228-0012 (FAX)402-391-3411 (Omaha)402-441-4600 (Lincoln)bennelson.senate.gov

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, District 11517 Longworth House Office Bldg.Washington, D.C. 20515202-225-4806402-438-1598 (Lincoln)house.gov/fortenberry

Rep. Lee Terry, District 21524 Longworth HOBWashington, DC 20515202-225-4155202-226-5452 (FAX)402-397-9944 (Omaha)leeterry.house.gov

Rep. Adrian Smith, District 3503 Cannon House Office Bldg.Washington, DC 20515202-225-6435202-225-0207 (FAX)888-ADRIAN7 (Toll Free)adriansmith.house.gov

Capitol Hill Switchboard202-224-3121

State Capitol Switchboard402-471-2311

State Senator, District #State CapitolPO Box 94604Lincoln, NE 68509-4604

Governor Dave HeinemanPO Box 94848Lincoln, NE 68509-4848402-471-2244402-471-6031 (FAX)gov.state.ne.us

Your Foundation Speaksby Loyal Park, President, Nebraska Peace Foundation

Today, we see a wide difference in the presidential candidates.One is going after the big donors—at SAC Museum a $1000/plate dinner with a $50,000 donation giving you a chance foryour picture with the candidate.

The other candidate is pushing for $5 (or maybe $10 or $25)donations but is building the largest donor base ever for a presidentialcandidate.

Nebraska Peace Foundation applauds the big donors that have helped keep Nebraskans forPeace afloat for years, but also is very appreciative of many smaller donations. As with one ofthe presidential candidates, we can do well if we have a large donor base even though feware large givers. Please consider giving a tax-exempt donation to Nebraska Peace Foundation.

Just send your check to the NFP office, payable to Nebraska Peace Foundation.

cost us as much as 2 percent of nationalproduct; and (5) our publicly subsidized butprivately operated healthcare system costsus at least 5 percent of national product toomuch. Hence, the many debts that we havebeen building up will leave our children withan economy that may be 20 percent poorerthan the one most Americans think they areleaving them.

There are obvious signs that we are, infact, already living in an economy that is 20percent smaller than we like to think. Declin-ing real wages, lagging adjustments in theminimum wage, actual declines in life expect-ancy in nearly one third of U.S. counties,the dismantling of our government-providedsocial safety net, increased work hours, morefamily members working, the collapsinghousehold saving rate, and the falling valueof the dollar are all signs of fundamental eco-nomic weakness. Our environmental, socialand healthcare debts also show up in theerosion of our public education system, largetuition increases at universities and colleges,growing income inequalities, collapsinglevees and poor public transportation. And,even more discreetly, we are increasinglypaying these debts in the form of rising util-ity rates, road tolls, explicit service fees anddeteriorating services because desperatestate and local governments increasinglyresort to privatization schemes to meetshort-run budgetary gaps caused by lag-ging tax revenues.

What Now?Fortunately, we have the wealth to deal

with the debts described above. Yes, ourenvironmental destruction will cost us 1 or 2percent of national product to reverse, andforeigners will, sooner or later, want to berepaid the trillions we have borrowed. Thoseare real costs we must pay for by reducingour own consumption. Our huge militaryexpenditures, on the other hand, can be re-versed however by simply cutting the spend-ing. Also, if we can overcome the resistanceof the special interests, a government-funded single-payer universal healthcaresystem can begin reducing health costs andimproving coverage as soon as it comes online. Dealing with these debts will not slowdown economic growth or cause unemploy-ment to rise either, because American laborand capital freed from producing bombs,training soldiers or producing Hummers canbe used to build public transportation, de-sign alternative energy systems, educateand inspire our youth, and produce the hugevolume of exports with which to repay ourforeign lenders. The problem, of course, isthat special interests are well-entrenched inour political system, and it will take time to

carry out these changes. Until we make them,the costs will accumulate.

It is encouraging to see poll resultsshowing that 80 percent of Americans thinkthe U.S. is moving in the wrong direction.Apparently, many people are, to some de-gree, aware of the huge debts we will haveto pay off in the future. Recent polls alsoreveal, however, that Americans favor JohnMcCain, the more pro-war candidate, when

it comes to foreign policy. This is not en-couraging. If Americans opt to supportwasteful militarism and the continued occu-pation of Iraq, our government will continueto borrow more, our real incomes will stag-nate and individuals will not save, foreign-ers will continue to buy more of our assetsand lay claim to more of our future income,and social expenditures will likely be cut

even further, leaving our children even lessprepared to pay the debts our militarismpasses on to them. In short, we may verywell end up in a vicious downward economiccycle from which we cannot recover. Thepostponement in dealing with our foreign,social and environmental debts, and a long-term decline of the U.S. economy, could thenbecome the real legacy of our invasion andoccupation of Iraq.

In closing, it may have occurred to youthat the efforts of Nebraskans for Peace topromote peace between nations, peacewithin our society, and peace with our natu-ral environment very nicely address our mostpressing economic problems.

Peace, it turns out, is good economicpolicy.

The many debts that wehave been building upwill leave our childrenwith an economy that

may be 20 percentpoorer than the one

most Americans thinkthey are leaving them.Hank van den Berg

JULY/AUGUST 2008 NEBRASKA REPORT, P.11

Speaking Our Peace,conclusion

Public Involvement, conclusion

living standards in many Asian, African andMiddle Eastern nations.” It will further erode“…conditions in already fragile areas… asfood production declines,” increase dis-eases, destroy clean water sources, and forcelarge populations to move in search of re-sources. (Oxfam case studies point to risingrivers and severe storms jeopardizing cropsin Bangladesh, and longer droughts makingsubsistence more difficult in West Africancountries like Mali and Burkina Faso.) Theadmirals and generals who endorsed the re-port argue that “the national security con-sequences of climate change be fully inte-grated into national security and nationaldefense strategies” and that the U.S. “com-mit to a stronger national and internationalrole to help stabilize climate change.” Weshould, they say, “commit to global partner-ships… to better manage climate impacts”and find better energy alternatives. The con-

sequences of failure will be terrorism, weak-ened and failed governments or authoritar-ian ones, a U.S. drawn into a larger role inAfrica, and possibly a further nuclearizationof international tensions. Last month themilitary released another study essentiallyrepeating these findings.

We do have alternatives to military so-lutions in which StratCom will likely be ourhammer to keep the starving at home, intimi-date non-cooperative governments, destroyterrorist targets, wall up borders and keepdown nuclear threats. There is another way,and the military half recognizes it. That wayis to stop our emissions post haste, negoti-ate a new and better Kyoto accord, createrelief and conflict resolution tools to answerhunger and refugee problems, and rely onnegotiation among members of the worldcommunity to keep us part of the web of life.

The world need not end in fire. Or ice.

www.theross.org

COMING SOON

decision makers. The federal regulations empowercommunity RAB members to decide how meetingsare run. In April, the community members officiallyadopted operating procedures which codify manyof the existing practices.

Consistent with the RAB’s purpose and cur-rent practices, members adopted procedures al-lowing ample opportunity for all meeting attendeesto ask questions and provide comments—neces-sary to verify the accuracy and completeness ofCorps statements and to explore evasions. Mem-bers also codified a procedure used since 2005requiring preparation of meeting transcripts—torecord the public statements of Corps personnelwho frequently turn over and suffer from recurrent“memory loss”.

In response to operating procedures lawfullyadopted by community RAB members, the Corpsstated its intention to impose totalitarian-like mea-sures, defying both federal regulations and theadopted operating procedures. These measuresinclude muzzling the public during most of the meet-

ing, not preparing meeting transcripts, and cuttingin half the number of meetings annually. In es-sence, the public process the Corps now desiresis as contaminated as the site.

Rather than seeking to control and containinformation reaching the public about theuncontained contamination and potential effects ofMUD’s pumping on water supply safety, the Corpsshould respect federal regulations and the author-ity they provide to community members to holdgovernment officials accountable. Starting immedi-ately, the Corps should resume public meetingsconsistent with RAB operating procedures andcooperate in providing complete, factual informa-tion.

Meaningful citizen participation in governmen-tal processes greatly improves decision makingand strengthens our society. In contrast, the Corps’decision to flout regulatory requirements is not onlyundermining public safeguards envisioned in fed-eral environmental laws. It is perverting what theframers of the Constitution intended.

Carlton B. Paine, Ph.D.Clinical Psychologist

5625 ‘O’ Street, Suite 7 Lincoln, NE 68510Phone: 402-489-8484

7.25 - 7.31 ROMAN DE GARE - 1WK ONLY!True to its title, ROMAN DE GARE finds famed Frenchdirector Claude Lelouch jumping between time andloyalties in this suspenseful mystery about fate andfatal secrets.8.1 - 8.7 HOW THE GARCIA GIRLS SPENT THEIRSUMMER - 1 WK ONLY!In a tender comic, Georgina Garcia Riedel lovinglyexplores the terrain of longing, loneliness, and self-realization among three generations of single womenin a Mexican American family as they grapple withromantic drought.8.1 - 8.14 THE WACKNESSThe Wackness plays like the luscious rush offirst love, discovering great new music, meetingamazing personalities who impart the meaning oflife, and realizing what you’re made of.8.8 - 8.14 SAVAGE GRACE - 1 WK ONLY!Like his landmark debut SWOON, Tom Kalin's long-awaited follow-up is based on a shocking true story.Aronson as his source material in order to revisit oneof the 20th century's most notorious family tragedies.8.15 - 8.28 THE FALLLos Angeles, circa 1920‘s, a little immigrant girl findsherself in a hospital. She strikes up a friendship witha bedridden man who captivates her with a whimsicalstory that removes her far from the hospital doldrumsinto the exotic landscapes of her imagination.8.15 - 8.21 BLINDSIGHT - 1 WK ONLY! BLINDSIGHT follows the gripping adventure of sixTibetan teenagers who set out to climb the 23,000 footLhakpa Ri on the north side of Mount Everest.8.22 - 8.28 UP THE YANGTZE - 1 WEEK ONLY!Upon completion, China’s mammoth Three GorgesDam on the Yangtze River will be the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. Progress, though,comes at a price: the dam will displace more than amillion residents and destroy numerous cultural andarchaeological sites, upending a way of life.

The World Will End in Fire

by Paul Olson, NFP President

August 6-9 Annual Hiroshima/Nagasaki Protest at StratCom (See detailson page 4.)

August 9 Hiroshima Lantern Float at Holmes Lake in Lincoln.

October 7-9 StratCom Protest at the “Strategic Space and Defense 2008Conference” in Omaha.

October 18 2008 Annual Peace Conference in Lincoln. University of NewMexico Associate Professor of Accounting, Michele Chwastiak,will speak on the economic costs of the Iraq War.

November 4 General Election Day (the clock is ticking)

To list an event, submit in writing by the tenth of the month preceding the event to:NFP, 941 ‘O’ Street, #1026, Lincoln, NE 68508, or email: NeReport@neb.rr.com.

NFP State Office Hours in Lincoln, 9:00 – 2:00 weekdays.

conclusion on page 11

2008 Hiroshima-NagasakiCommemorative Lantern Float

Saturday, August 9, 6:30-9:30 p.m.North Side of Holmes Lake in Lincoln

Poor old Robert Frost. He thought the di-lemma of whether the world would end infire or ice concerned whether passion orhatred would destroy the world:

Some say the world will end in fire;Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire. . . .

But “ice”—hatred—constitutedFrost’s alternate destruction of choice.

But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice.

Of course, like Frost, we know thatboth desire and hatred will enter into ourdestruction. But can we ‘be more specific,’as my teachers in high school would say?My father thought that some kind of firefrom God would end the world (the “ele-ments will melt with fervent heat” he usedto say). And when the bombs fell onHiroshima and Nagasaki, he thought heknew specifically how it would happen.

Another kind of ‘fire’ though may bemore likely. As UNO Professor BruceJohansen said at a recent NFP-OxfamAmerica forum in Omaha this past June,for this fire to come, we don’t have to doanything—other than keep on keeping on.The presentations by Johansen, MarilHazlett of the Land Institute, and Jim

French of Oxfam were powerful statementsabout how global warming will not stopfor decades even if we do everything wecan. ‘Thermal inertia’ (the ‘lag effect’ ofcarbon in the atmosphere) and feedbackloops (that act to accelerate the warmingprocess) will keep it going. They threespeakers told how here in Nebraska, wherewe have excellent wind and sun, our legis-lators have failed to provide incentives forwind and solar and energy-saving devicesto cut our losses. They told how—perperson—Americans put 16 times as manywarming pollutants into the air as do de-veloping world citizens. They told howpeople are already starving and movingabout as hunger refugees in Africa andAsia because of our global warming wasteand greed. Peace is up for grabs.

Nebraskans for Peace has taken onthe ‘environment’ as a priority not becausewe wish to duplicate what the Sierra Club,the Audubon Society, the Nebraska Wild-life Federation, Oxfam, or the Center forRural Affairs are doing. They do goodwork. We have adopted militarism and theenvironment as a priority because we be-lieve that the U.S. military does do notbelieve what Chief Seattle and his peoplebelieved:

Every part of this earth is sacred…Every shining pine needle, every sandyshore, every mist in the dark woods, everyclearing, and every humming insect is holy

in the memory and experience of mypeople. The sap that courses through thetrees carries the memories of the redman… This we know: All things are con-nected. Whatever befalls the earth befallsthe sons of the earth. Man did not weavethe web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does tohimself.

The implicit assumption of militarism,however, is that land can be seized andowned, that life is not a web, and that whatbefalls some of us need not befall all. Own-ership can be secured by guns.

Did the military believe as Chief Se-attle did, they would not have left carcino-gens in the aquifers near Mead, York, GrandIsland and Hastings. They would not beclaiming that they do not have to obey theEPA and clean up the carcinogenic TCEfound in military sites all over the country.They would not have waited decades be-fore starting to clean up TCE near Mead,and decades more before cleaning it upcompletely, even when the poisons aremigrating near the Omaha water supply.They would respect the web. The land thebombs of WWII supposedly secured forus, military carelessness has lost to de-cent human use at Mead.

Despite this, the military knows itsinterest in global warming. While the Bush/Cheney Administration was dismissingglobal warming as a ‘myth,’ the military

issued two reports—a 2003 study by PeterSchwartz and Doug Randall, An AbruptClimate Change Scenario and Its Impli-cations for United States National Secu-rity and a 2007 study endorsed by manygenerals and admirals entitled, NationalSecurity and the Threat of ClimateChange. The former offers a scenario whereheat and fresh water from glaciers collapsesthe Gulf Stream and other like currents thatpresently bring warm water toward thepoles. The collapse would make Europe andNorth America colder and drier, leading toextreme drought in the breadbasket areasof North America and Europe. Such climatechange would create reductions in theglobe’s useable food, water and energysupplies, consequent vast refugee andborder management problems that would,in turn, create heavy-duty nationalism anda ‘fortress mentality’ worldwide. In specificareas, Northern European populationsmight push southward, and the Middle Eastwould host vast conflicts over water andenergy resources. You can visualize thewars.

The second study projects a worldcharacterized by “extreme weather events,drought, flooding, sea-level rise, retreatingglaciers, habitat shifts, and the increasedspread of life-threatening diseases.” Thewarming will “exacerbate already marginal

Lantern floats in Japan are used to guide the souls of the dead to their rest. In recenttimes they have been used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to commemorate the people killedby the first atomic bombs. This annual memorial, which is sponsored by Lincoln churchesand Peace & Justice groups, reminds us of what happened to these Japanese cities, in thehope that such events never again occur — particularly now, when we are hearing fromour governmental leaders that the ‘nuclear option’ is still on the table.

Materials for the lanterns and plans for making them will be provided at the site,or see how to make a shade and base at www.progressiveportal.org/lanterns/shademaking.html.

BULLETIN BOBULLETIN BOARDARD

SpeakingOur Peace