In Washington, DC, the day before the 2012 election, an Occupy action by dozens of protestors blocked the entrance to the law firm McKenna Long and Aldridge, a major law firm with the oldest government contract practice in the United States.  The firm also represents the Canadian corporation TransCanada, which is seeking U.S. government permission to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast. 

Organizers  called this demonstration a “Tar Sands Solidarity Action,” in support of  the Tar Sands Blockade of the Keystone XL pipeline now under construction in East Texas.   Police arrested four people for refusing to move from in front of TransCanada’s lobbyist’s front door.  Increased non-violent direct action seems to be a harbinger of mounting pressure by environmentalists across the country to persuade President Obama to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline altogether for the sake of the health of the ...

On October 3, 2012, the first presidential debate will be held in Denver, Colorado and a people's dialogue will be held at the same time to provide broader perspectives. The live-streamed event (details below) will provide an opportunity for the public to discuss how to solve the pressing challenges of the nation.

The presidential debate is being produced, as it has since the mid-1980’s, by the corporate and partisan Commission for Presidential Debates (CPD) and only the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates will be permitted to debate. George Farah, Executive Director of Open Debates, said, "The Commission on Presidential Debates undermines our democracy. Because of the Commission's subservience to the Republican and Democratic campaigns, the presidential debates are structured to accommodate the wishes of risk-averse candidates, not voters."

Occupy the Debates is concerned about the anti-democratic restrictive nature of the debates and about the lack of ...

Though my politics are radical, my approach to vexing moral questions is cautious; I try to be aware not only of my limits but of human limits to understand ourselves in a complex world.

That’s why I call myself a radically cautious vegetarian. Here’s how it worked out:

I grew up in a typical meat-eating household in the 1960 and ‘70s, where vegetarianism was something to be mocked, not explored. In my early 20s, I started to ponder the question, and at the age of 26 I ate my last piece of animal flesh, a lobster at a waterfront restaurant in Washington, DC. My soon-to-be brother-in-law, a relatively affluent lawyer, was buying, and I ordered something expensive. As I ate it, I realized it would be the last time. Like many people who grew up eating off large platters of meat at the family dinner table, I had always said, “I could never be a vegetarian.” But then I was.

But I didn’t become an animal-rights advocate, and I don’t proselytize on the subject. I don’t cook meat for others, but when people bring meat dishes to a potluck I help serve it and don’t hesitate to pull the leftover meat off chicken bones when I clean up. I don’t use chicken stock at home, but I don’t quiz waiters at restaurants about whether there is chicken stock in the soup broth. Some of my best friends eat meat. I don’t.

When I first decided to stop eating meat, I hadn’t worked out a complete philosophy on the matter but just knew it felt wrong to me. As in much of life, I have been making it up as I go along. Here’s how that came together:

We struggle with countless ...

Today, CODEPINK, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Reprieve hosted the International Drone Summit in Washington, DC. The Summit consisted of multiple panels dealing with issues ranging from the expanding use of surveillance drones to the Obama administration’s targeted killing program. Participants had the opportunity to listen to the personal stories of Pakistanis who had survived drone strikes or had their loved ones killed in them.

“We’re dragging this secretive drone program out of the shadows and into the light of day,” said Medea Benjamin, one of the Summit organizers and author of the new book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. “It’s time for the American public to know the true extent—and consequences—of the killing and spying being done in our name.”

Lawyers representing Pakistani drone-strike victims and journalists investigating the attacks shared their experiences of these events in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. New footage of interviews with victims was aired.

U.S. drone strikes have killed an estimated 3,000 people, including hundreds of civilians, in covert drone missions in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. While drones were primarily used by the U.S. military and CIA for surveillance prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks, in the last ten years drones have become routinely used to launch missiles against human beings in countries where the United States is not at war, including Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.

“As the Obama Administration expands its use of killer drones around the world, so must we increase our demands for transparency and accountability” said Maria LaHood, a Senior Staff Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who spoke at the Drone Summit and who has litigated against the Obama administration’s targeted ...

The National Occupation of Washington, DC which begins on March 30th and ends on April 30th will include protests, music and art but its anchor is education of the movement.

The major educational activities begin on April 2nd with the "Control the Corporation" conference at the Carnegie Institute of Washington.  The conference organized by the Center for the Study of Responsive Law was designed for the Occupy and will include how people can work toward controlling corporations impact on elections, slow privatization, create better paying jobs and mobilize for the future.  The full schedule is here. Please register in advance at http://csrl.org to help planning for food and space.

Over two weeks the NOW DC Social Forum will hold more than 70 sessions where members of the Occupy and their allies will examine the first six months of the movement and discuss what worked, and what did not work.  Also discussed will be how labor and Occupy can work together more effectively, what strategy and tactics are most effective, how the Occupy can work with the media, as well as create its own media.  A range of economic issues including job creation, co-operatives, sustainable and local economies, health care, energy, biodiversity and food production will be examined as will issues of war and empire.  Goals, strategies and tactics of the Occupy will be examined in multiple sessions.  The full schedule can be seen here.

"We want occupiers to share information, network and learn so they can bring new information and skills back to their Occupation.  This is an opportunity to lift the Occupy to a new level of strategy, activity and cohesion," said Margaret Flowers, MD, one of the organizers of NOW DC and one of the original organizers of the