The people of Darfur need you!

"Don't be distracted
Don't turn away
Don't be overwhelmed
Don't be too busy
Don't delay...
Darfur can't wait."

Those are the powerful words of actress Meryl Streep, in a short video on Darfur.


Please click here Video to watch the video, and then sign a petition to US Special Envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, urging him to support the work of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Sudan and neighboring Chad.

Since 2003, violence, war, and disease have killed in excess of 200,000 people. Another 2 million – mostly women and children - have been forced to flee their homes.

In eastern Chad the UN Refugee Agency is providing more than 220,000 refugees with protection, shelter, medical care, and other basic assistance. But the dire humanitarian crisis is growing worse.

Bush's four anti-terror successes all fictional

President Bush claimed in his State of the Union speech to have prevented four terrorist plots.  Phew!  It's a good thing to know that we tossed out our Bill of Rights for some actual REASON – I mean other than turning Iraq into a training ground for terrorism. 

Except that we didn't.

1.-"We stopped an al Qaeda plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the tallest building on the West Coast."

An October 8, 2005, LA Times story, headlined "Scope of Plots Bush Says Were Foiled Is Questioned," cited "several counter-terrorism officials" as saying that "the plot never progressed past the planning stages.... 'To take that and make it into a disrupted plot is just ludicrous,' said one senior FBI official….At most it was a plan that was stopped in its initial stages and was not an operational plot that had been disrupted by authorities."

First criminal convictions from Ohio's stolen 2004 election confirm recount was rigged

The first felony convictions of two Cleveland poll workers stemming from Ohio's stolen 2004 election confirm that the official recount in that contested vote was, in the words of county prosecutors, "rigged."  The question now is whether further prosecutions will reach higher up in the ranks of officials who may have been involved in illegalities throughout the rest of the state. 

The convictions have come down in Cuyahoga County, where Democratic candidates traditionally run up huge majorities.  Suspicious vote counts and other irregularities cut deeply into John Kerry's margins in 2004.  Official vote counts gave the state---and thus the presidency---to George W. Bush by about 118,000 votes out of 5.5 million counted.  

A statewide recount, paid for by the Green and Libertarian Parties, was marred in 87 of the state's 88 counties by the types of illegalities that led to this week's convictions. Only in Coshocton County was a full, manual recount performed. 

Don't let Dick Cheney get me!

This country has learned to be afraid… of Dick Cheney.  The number one reason a significant minority of Americans still hesitates to get behind impeachment of Bush is fear of Dick Cheney.  This will remain the case even should Cheney die, I am convinced.  Certainly it remains the case no matter how many times I explain the following six reasons why it's INSANE, but I'm going to try one more time.

Peace is Possible – Peace is Imperative

January 27, 2007 – Washington, D.C.

America is a fundamentally good and great nation. As it evolves toward fulfilling its promise. It is better than our presidential leadership. The American people, nor the Congress, ever agreed to the global calamity and disaster.

Today we march for the soul of our nation, to preserve our nation’s honor. We march in protest against our government’s policy, mass action to change the course of our nation. The war in Iraq is causing a war on the poor at home. Money needed for the working poor, the aged and the young, are being sacrificed for this mis-adventure.

I was with Dr. King on his last birthday, January 15, 1968: his actions and agenda that day are instructive for us. He spent his morning sharing breakfast with his family. About 10am he came to church, dressed casually, building a multicultural coalition: Appalachian whites, Native Americans and Latinos from the Chavez group, Al Lowenstein and some Jewish allies from New York, Blacks from the Deep South and labor leaders…the focus was to end the War in Vietnam and End Poverty in America.

The State of the Union

Heaven waited

I'm still waiting for Art Buchwald's next column.

If I had any decent sources in heaven I'd ask them to get me an interview with him, just to check in, see how the first week went and find out when he's going to start writing again. But he was the one with all the great sources - at the White House, the CIA, the Kremlin, wherever.

The official story is that Art died on Jan. 17 at age 81, of kidney failure. The unofficial story is that he was supposed to die a year ago but didn't, and became, in his own modest estimation, "the man who wouldn't die." In early 2006 he'd had a leg amputated following serious infection, and was suffering from acute kidney disease. The doctors recommended dialysis - for the rest of his life. Art said no way and checked into a hospice instead. There, something went horribly wrong.

Election attorneys amplify importance of convictions for recount rigging in Ohio 2004 presidential race

Even in Democratic County, They Rigged To Avoid The Extra Work and Embarrassment that Finding Discrepancies Would Bring

THE BASIC NEWS:

The verdict is in on whether the November 2004 presidential election recount in Ohio was "illegally rigged {by election officials} in what was supposed to be a random sample recount in {order} to avoid a time-consuming hand count of all votes." http://wcpo.com/news/2007/local/01/23/oh_elections.html

Verdict: Two officials found Guilty of felony level negligent misconduct in elections. The lowest level manager of the three officials charged was acquitted on all counts.

The two convicted Election officials face terms of 6 to 18 months in prison. A third assistant manager was acquitted on all counts. http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/165362...

Global leadership

Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

At this stage of history, the world seems to be moving from bad to worse. This is due to a variety of sources. Above all, it is revealed in a conspicuous lack of global leadership both in the spiritual and political sphere. Those who want to provide global leadership must do so by demonstrating genuine love, respect and concern for all people across every continent without exception.

Evaluation of Political Leaders

Global food supply near the breaking point

BROOKLIN, Canada, January 24, 2007 (IPS) - The world is now eating more food than farmers grow, pushing global grain stocks to their lowest level in 30 years.

Rising population, water shortages, climate change, and the growing costs of fossil fuel-based fertilisers point to a calamitous shortfall in the world's grain supplies in the near future, according to Canada's National Farmers Union (NFU).

Thirty years ago, the oceans were teeming with fish, but today more people rely on farmers to produce their food than ever before, says Stewart Wells, NFU's president.

In five of the last six years, global population ate significantly more grains than farmers produced.

And with the world's farmers unable to increase food production, policymakers must address the "massive challenges to the ability of humanity to continue to feed its growing numbers", Wells said in a statement.

There isn't much land left on the planet that can be converted into new food-producing areas, notes Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington-based non-governmental organisation.

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