Washington Post reported Aug. 21 that "US defense contractors are riding high these days, buoyed by rising Pentagon spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the high cost of homeland security in the US-declared war on terror.

The fiscal 2006 defense budget is set to climb to $441 billion, an increase of $21 billion over this year, with an additional $50 billion slated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress looks set to approve $79 billion for weapons systems procurement and about $69 billion for military research and development.

Subcomandante Marcos, spokesman for the Zapatista rebels in Mexico's southern state of Chiapas, clarified that the group's new political proposal does not support any candidate for the presidency in the 2006 elections, but neither does it encourage abstention.

The masked leader spoke at the opening ceremony of the third of six meetings with Mexican social organizations the Zapatistas are hosting in their jungle territory, seeking to unite a broad left front. The meeting is being held in the community of Dolores Hidalgo, on lands that had been a finca (plantation) before the 1994 uprising, and are now in the hands of pro-Zapatista Tzeltal Maya Indians.

This one is so blatantly appalling that even the New York Times is aghast. What a sickening display we have to look forward to, and what an offense this political manipulation is to the victims of the attacks. Via TruthOut:

Walking the Wrong Way

New York Times Editorial

Sunday 21 August 2005

The Bush administration has announced plans for a Freedom Walk on Sept. 11, which will start at the Pentagon and end at the National Mall, and include a country music concert. The event is an ill-considered attempt to link the Iraq war to the terrorist attacks of 2001, and misguided in almost every conceivable way. It also badly misreads the public's mood. The American people are becoming increasingly skeptical about the war. They want answers to hard questions, not pageantry.

Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan called her mother's stroke a "devastating blow" that has forced her to leave "Camp Casey" temporarily. She left Crawford, TX, Aug. 18 to be by her mother's side at a Los Angeles hospital. In a message posted on Michael Moore's website, Sheehan said her fellow protesters will "keep up the pressure on the president to meet with us and answer questions about the war."

With the following pithy statement, the two monoliths of the anti-war movement in the US have agreed to cooperate on a joint demonstration in Washington next month:

The two major antiwar coalitions that have initiated and organized for a massive anti-war March on Washington for September 24 have agreed to organize a joint rally followed by a joint march. Both coalitions will organize under their own banners, slogans, and with their own literature for the September 24 demonstration. The joint rally will begin at 11:30 am at the Ellipse in the front of the White House. We urge everyone around the country to unite and come out for the largest possible anti-war demonstration on September 24.

Mexico's Social Development Secretary Josefina Vazquez Mota announced Aug. 19 that the country has lived through a "lost decade" and that poverty levels are slightly worse today than in 1994. In a speech at the National Congress to Combat Poverty 2006-2012, Vazquez Mota, an appointee of President Vicente Fox, talked at length on the depth of the nation's poverty. Many of her comments were contrary to the optimistic reports recently given by the presidential office.

1980s nostalgia fans should enjoy the political battle which is heating up in Nicaragua, even if the sides are more confused this time around. Hopefully, the situation will not come to armed conflict this time, but echoes of the war that rocked the country 20 years ago are being raised.

After 12 days camping out with supporters on the roadside near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, TX, Cindy Sheehan announced Aug. 18 she was leaving because her mother in Southern California just suffered a stroke. "I'll be back as soon as possible if it's possible," she said. After hugging some of her supporters, Sheehan and her sister, Deedee Miller, departed for the Waco airport.