busy signal

I spent the weekend running around Manhattan gathering signatures for a nominating petition for "dark horse" U.S. Senate candidate Jonathan Tasini. It was hard work, but fun. The frustrating part is that there are fifteen signatures on a page and you know that a couple of them are going to be challenged and probably thrown out.

Meanwhile, a Reuters article today, entitled, Global Military Spending Hits 1.12 trillion, related the key findings by The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)in their 2006 yearbook. The news was bad. There was an overall increase of about 3.5 percent in global military spending over last year.

The USA is responsible for 48 percent of the world total, distantly followed by the UK, France, Japan and China with 4 to 5 percent each," the Swedish government-funded institute added.

It said U.S. spending was behind about 80 percent of the gain in 2005.

It so happens that the AP just published an article with the benign title, Clinton, Pataki attend ceremony in N.Y. What the title doesn't say is that

Democrat Clinton and Republican Pataki, two White House hopefuls, were among the dignitaries for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Lockheed Martin's $37.4 million presidential helicopter facility in Owego, N.Y. The facility, just north of the New York-Pennsylvania border, will be the main outpost for building the new "Marine One" helicopter.

So, I've been trying all afternoon to call Senator Clinton's office to demand that she vote against the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 S.2766. She should support John Kerry's amendment for the withdrawal of all combat troops by the end of the year, but she must vote against the bill because the provision prohibiting expenditures on permanent bases has been stricken.

I can't get through. Her line is too busy.