Norman Solomon Articles Selected articles by our own Progressive Caucus member, Norman Solomon   Norman is the author of a dozen books including "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death", which has been adapted into a documentary film of the same name featuring Sean Penn. He's a member of the CDP State Central Committee and a national co-chair of the Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign launched by Progressive Democrats of America. Norman was an elected Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention from the 6th Congressional District (Marin and Sonoma counties). For more background, go to: www.normansolomon.com

8 Aug 2010    Nuke U: How the University of California is Helping to Blow up the World On my way to the Los Alamos National Laboratory a few years ago, I found it listed in a New Mexico phone book—under "University of California."   31 Jul 2010    State of Denial: After the Big Leak, Spinning for War Washington’s spin machine is in overdrive to counter the massive leak of documents on Afghanistan. Much of the counterattack revolves around the theme that the documents aren’t particularly relevant to this year’s new-and-improved war effort.   7 Jul 2010    Unanimous Conformity in the Senate For the warfare state, it doesn’t get any better than 99 to 0. Every living senator voted Wednesday to approve Gen. David Petraeus as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Call it the unanimity of lemmings -- except the senators and their families aren’t the ones who’ll keep plunging into the sea...   23 Jun 2010    From Great Man to Great Screwup: Behind the McChrystal Uproar When the wheels are coming off, it doesn’t do much good to change the driver. Whatever the name of the commanding general in Afghanistan, the U.S. war effort will continue its carnage and futility.   1 Jun 2010    Israel and Harman in Tandem: From High Seas to Airwaves When Israel attacked the Gaza aid flotilla, Congresswoman Jane Harman was engaged in a parallel assault. Israel’s government relied on the efficacy of violence; Harman’s campaign was counting on the power of paid media. In both cases, the targets were advocates of human rights for Palestinian people.   10 May 2010    Kagan in Context: Shafting Progressive Values If President Obama has his way, Elena Kagan will replace John Paul Stevens -- and the Supreme Court will move rightward. The nomination is very disturbing, especially because it’s part of a pattern.   21 Apr 2010    Who Let the Blue Dogs Out? Right now, Congresswoman Jane Harman is facing a serious primary challenge from a genuine progressive, Marcy Winograd, in Southern California’s 36th congressional district. Last Saturday afternoon (April 17), I sat on stage with both candidates and other panelists at a forum during the California Democratic Party convention in Los Angeles. The room was filled with several hundred progressive delegates...   23 Mar 2010    A Bomber Jacket Doesn’t Cover the Blood President Obama has taken a further plunge into the kind of war abyss that consumed predecessors named Johnson, Nixon and Bush.   18 Mar 2010    Zero Public Option + One Mandate = Disaster Not long ago, the most prominent supporters of the public option were touting it as essential for healthcare reform. Now, suddenly, it’s incidental. In fact, many who were lauding a public option as the key to a better healthcare future are now condemning just about anyone who insists that the absence of a public option makes the current bill unworthy of support.   11 Mar 2010    War in a Box The event on the House floor Wednesday (March 10) was monumental -- the first major congressional debate about U.S. military operations in Afghanistan since lawmakers authorized the invasion of that country in autumn 2001. But, as Rep. Patrick Kennedy noted with disgust on Wednesday, the House press gallery was nearly empty. He concluded: “It’s despicable, the national press corps right now.”   24 Feb 2010    War Politics: Numb and Number Playwright Lillian Hellman said: “I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions.” The statement was in a letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee. The year was 1952. We tell ourselves that the McCarthy era was vastly different than our own -- but what about the political fashions of 2010? This year’s fashions cut mean figures on Washington’s runways. Conformities lie, and people die.   15 Feb 2010    Dollars for Death, Pennies for Life When the U.S. military began a major offensive in southern Afghanistan over the weekend, the killing of children and other civilians was predictable. Lofty rhetoric aside, such deaths come with the territory of war and occupation.   2 Feb 2010    Don’t Call It a “Defense” Budget This isn’t “defense.” The new budget from the White House will push U.S. military spending well above $2 billion a day. Foreclosing the future of our country should not be confused with defending it.   25 Jan 2010    The Progressive Imperative, More Than Ever Last week, with the Tea Bagger triumph in Massachusetts and the corporate triumph in the U.S. Supreme Court, an apt soundtrack would have been the Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Bad Moon Rising”:   20 Jan 2010    Democratic Centrism Boosting Right-Wing Populism In his triumphant speech on election night, the next senator from Massachusetts should have thanked top Democrats in Washington for all they did to make his victory possible.   27 Dec 2009    Vast Change Is Essential AN AILING ECONOMY and a warming climate have caused many people to become more skeptical of business as usual in such matters as food, energy, housing, water and the environment. The virtues of self-reliance are compelling - and in Marin County, more than ever, the hunt is on for local solutions.   22 Dec 2009    Flares in the Political Dark The winter solstice of 2009 arrived as a grim metaphor for the current politics of healthcare, war and a lot more. “In a dark time,” wrote the poet Theodore Roethke, “the eye begins to see.”   10 Dec 2009    Mr. President, War Is Not Peace As President Obama neared the close of his Nobel address, he called for “the continued expansion of our moral imagination.” Yet his speech was tightly circumscribed by the policies that his oratory labored to justify.   30 Nov 2009    The Hollow Politics of Escalation An underlying conceit of the new spin about benchmarks and timetables for Afghanistan is the notion that pivotal events there can be choreographed from Washington. So, a day ahead of the president's Tuesday night speech, the New York Times quotes an unnamed top administration official saying: "He wants to give a clear sense of both the time frame for action and how the war will eventually wind down."   16 Nov 2009    Biggest State Party to Obama: Get Out of Afghanistan There's a significant new straw in the political wind for President Obama to consider. The California Democratic Party has just sent him a formal and clear message: Stop making war in Afghanistan.   12 Nov 2009    The War Stampede Disputes are raging within the Obama administration over how to continue the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. A new leak tells us that Washington’s ambassador in Kabul, former four-star general Karl Eikenberry, has cautioned against adding more troops while President Hamid Karzai keeps disappointing American policymakers. This is the extent of the current debate within the warfare state.   6 Nov 2009    One Year Later: Unrest within the Obama Base On election night a year ago, celebrations across the North Bay included dancing in the streets. The voters had spoken — loudly — for Barack Obama, who won 74 percent of ballots in Sonoma County and 78 percent in Marin. Spirits were sky high, and so were expectations.   5 Nov 2009    The Next Phase of Healthcare Apartheid In Washington, “healthcare reform” has degenerated into a sick joke. At this point, only spinners who’ve succumbed to their own vertigo could use the word “robust” to describe the public option in the healthcare bill that the House Democratic leadership has sent to the floor.   5 Nov 2009    The Next Phase of Healthcare Apartheid In Washington, “healthcare reform” has degenerated into a sick joke. At this point, only spinners who’ve succumbed to their own vertigo could use the word “robust” to describe the public option in the healthcare bill that the House Democratic leadership has sent to the floor.   21 Oct 2009    Uncle Sam in Afghanistan: Good Help Is Hard to Find Almost eight years after choosing Hamid Karzai to head the Afghan government, Uncle Sam would like to give him a pink slip. But it’s not easy. And the grim fiasco of Afghanistan’s last election is shadowing the next.   1 Oct 2009    Starting Another Year of War in Afghanistan October 2009 has begun with the New York Times reporting that “the president, vice president and an array of cabinet secretaries, intelligence chiefs, generals, diplomats and advisers gathered in a windowless basement room of the White House for three hours on Wednesday to chart a new course in Afghanistan.”   23 Sep 2009    Afghanistan Needs Your Help It takes a long time to fly from Kabul to Washington--but the real distances between the two capitals have little to do with miles.   8 Sep 2009    Men with Guns, in Kabul and Washington For those who believe in making war, Kabul is a notable work product. After 30 years, the results are in: a devastated city.   1 Sep 2009    The View from Afghanistan I'm about 7,400 miles from home, but that's the least of the distances between the pleasures of Marin and the agonies of war here in Kabul.   1 Sep 2009    A Little Girl in Kabul Yesterday, I met a little girl named Guljumma. She's seven years old, and she lives in Kabul at a place called Helmand Refugee Camp District 5.   26 Aug 2009    The Afghanistan Gap: Press vs. Public This month, a lot of media stories have compared President Johnson's war in Vietnam and President Obama's war in Afghanistan. The comparisons are often valid, but a key parallel rarely gets mentioned: the media's insistent support for the war even after most of the public has turned against it.   23 Aug 2009    Spinning Health Care: A Bad Case of Vertigo "I want to cover everybody," President Obama said at his news conference Wednesday night. "Now, the truth is that unless you have a - what's called a single-payer system, in which everybody's automatically covered, then you're probably not going to reach every single individual ..."   5 Aug 2009    The Incredible Shrinking Health Care Reform Like soap in a rainstorm, "health care reform" is wasting away. As this week began, a leading follower of conventional wisdom, journalist Cokie Roberts, told NPR listeners, "This is evolving legislation. And the administration is now talking about a glide path towards universal coverage, rather than immediate universal coverage.” ...   2 Feb 2009    Why Are We Still at War? The United States began its war in Afghanistan 88 months ago. "The war on terror" has no sunset clause. As a perpetual emotion machine, it offers to avenge what can never heal and to fix grief that is irreparable.