At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, lawmakers who opposed African American voting rights desperately considered ways to remove large numbers of blacks from their state’s electorates without appearing to violate their constitutional rights. In the 1960s, many southern and some western states figured out how to accomplish this: by passing state constitutional provisions, or state laws, barring individuals convicted of a felony from voting for the remainder of their lives. Since African Americans were disproportionately prosecuted and convicted of felonies in most state courts, the loss of voting rights would hit blacks hardest.

Ohio's Bob "Ballots for Bush" Bennett, an essential player in putting George W. Bush back in the White House in 2004, is no long chair of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. His milestone resignation leaves a legacy of scandal, recrimination, massive voter purges, felony convictions and a pivotal role in a stolen presidential election.

Bennett has quit in a signature cloud of graceless accusations and cheap shots at Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's newly elected Secretary of State, who asked him to resign along with the rest of the Cleveland election authority. His forced departure marks the biggest landmark yet in the unraveling theft of the presidential elections in Ohio 2004.

Bennett remains chair of the Ohio Republican Party. In 2004 he was apparently asked by White House consigliere Karl Rove to stay on at the Cuyahoga BOE to help guarantee Bush's second term. Cleveland is Ohio's biggest and most Democratic urban center. A massive sweep there by John Kerry was widely expected to have given him the White House. It was Bennett's job to mute that margin, and apparently that's exactly what he did.

Brooklyn, NY - Post offices, federal buildings, and IRS offices will be the site of leafleting and vigils during the last days to file 2006 taxes on April 16 and 17. Demonstrators will declare "YES" to funding for human needs and "NO" to continued funding for war. Anger among taxpayers is rising as Congress approves billions more dollars for the wars and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan, even as polls show 70% of Americans disapprove of the war in Iraq.

In more than a dozen towns and cities across Maine taxpayers will be handed flyers declaring, "Schools or tanks? Health Care or Bombs? Which Will You Pay For?" In Fort Collins, Colorado, postal patrons will be greeted with "Take Back the Pie" signs and handed a piece of pie and a pie chart flyer showing how half of income taxes pay for past, present, and future wars. The "YES!" demonstration at the Federal Building in Philadelphia will demand a shift from war funding to other programs including universal health care; housing; ending hunger; programs for youth, immigrants, and seniors; stopping global warming and restoring the environment.

The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC)

If you or someone you know is suffering from a debilitating condition or if you are a medical professional, a member of law enforcement, or a public official, your presence during the lobby day could be tremendously influential. Please remember to dress and act professionally; we want to engage legislators, not alienate them.

If you are unable to come to the Statehouse on April 26, you can still take action by sending a letter to your legislators urging them to sponsor medical marijuana legislation this year Website

We've provided sample letters to get you started, but a personally crafted letter is much more effective than a form letter. Please take a moment to personalize the letter before sending it to your legislator.

Please take action now.

Last session, Senator Robert Hagan (D-Youngstown) sponsored legislation that would permit the medical use of marijuana by patients with qualified medical conditions under a doctor's supervision. This legislation would have protected patients, their caregivers, and their doctors from the threat of arrest and

As the media fills with whimsical good-byes to one of America's greatest writers, lets not forget one of the great engines driving this wonderful man---he HATED war. Including this one in Iraq. And he had utter contempt for the men who brought it about.

Kurt Vonnegut was a divine spark of liberating genius for an entire generation. His brilliant, beautiful, loving and utterly unfettered novels helped us redefine ourselves in leaving the corporate America in the 1950s and the Vietnam war that followed.

Having seen the worst of World War II from a meatlocker in fire-bombed Dresden, Kurt's Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, cut us the intellectual and spiritual slack to seek out a new reality. It took a breathtaking psychic freedom to merge the interstellar worlds he created from whole cloth with the social imperatives of a changing age. It was that combination of talent, heart and liberation that gave Vonnegut a cutting edge he never lost.