Delegates include mother of current prisoner, former Guantanamo detainee, and high-level US peace activists

On January 9-13, a first-ever international delegation of former prisoners, families of current prisoners, US lawyers and human rights activists will travel to Guantanamo, Cuba to hold a conference on prison abuses and march to the Cuban-side security gate of the US Naval Base to call for the closure of the illegal prison. The protest in Cuba is part of the January 11 International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo, the day that marks the 5-year anniversary of the first prisoners being sent to Guantanamo.

"I am traveling all the way from Dubai because by heart is overflowing with grief over the abuse and ongoing detention of my son," says Zohra Zewawi, who claims her son has been tortured and blinded in one eye during his detention, and has never been charged or tried. Her son was imprisoned in September 2002 and is still a prisoner in Guantanamo.  Asif Iqbal, a former detainee who was freed on no charges after years of abuse, is coming to show his support for the basic rights of detainees.

Protest Clear Channel's dropping Air America!
Come out on Monday 1/8 during the Stephanie Miller show FOR A PUBLIC SHOW OF SUPPORT to Stephanie Miller for two years of progressive talk in Columbus, 11AM-Noon, on the sidewalk in front of the Ohio statehouse.

Clear Channel is dropping 1230am's progressive format and will be taking a hard right turn. WTPG (We're Talking Progressive) will change it's call letters to WYTS and will abandon voices like Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, and Al Franken in favor of Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham. Sign the petition to help save progressive radio: Save Progressive Radio

In a recent Columbus Dispatch article, it is claimed that "The progressive-talk format, in place at WTPG since September 2004, never took off here despite live broadcasts in Columbus by Franken, Miller and Schultz." What it doesn't tell you is that WTPG TRIPLED its ratings since switching to a progressive format 2 years ago, and moved the former WCOL frequency into the top 25 stations for the first time in years.

Is Santa real? What about God? Or Mr. Stranger Danger? A 5-year-old's curiosity is a wonder to behold - more than a wonder if you haven't had your coffee yet, or if you're trying to get last-minute Christmas shopping done at Target and your son says he wants to die right now so he can meet God.

To be a parent is to feel the force of this curiosity like a live spring uncoiling with unpredictable energy against the day's agenda and the furthest reaches of the known universe, pushing you into a possible future not yet imagined.

"When did people first realize there was a God?"

This is my great-nephew Jackson, doing curiosity handsprings across the academic discipline of theology and squeezing an open-mouthed pause from his mom, Carmen, my niece - with whom I had a lively chat over the holidays about such matters when she had a moment to relax. This was a conversation of puzzlement and gold, and I've been thinking ever since about childhood and the precious possible.

At no previous moment in world history has the gap between the rich and poor been as wide as today. As an important, newly-released report reveals, this growing class divide exists in virtually every nation on earth.

A 2006 study by the World Institute for Development Economic Research of the United Nations University, establishes that as of 2000, the upper 1 percent of the globe’s adult population, approximately 37 million people, who average about $515,000 in net worth per person, and collectively control roughly 40 percent of the world’s entire wealth. By contrast, the bottom one-half of the planet’s adult population, 1.85 billion people, most of whom are black and brown, own only 1.1 percent of the world’s total wealth. There is tremendous inequality of wealth between nations, the U.N. report notes.

Throughout 2006, Tamil people made a constant and consistent appeal for permanent peace in the island. They hoped that through the full implementation of the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) this can and will be achieved. Mirroring their hopes, LTTE too repeatedly appealed for the full implementation of the same.

On October 28 in his opening speech at the Geneva talks Tamilselvan said, "We request the international community, the Co-Chairs and the Norwegian facilitators to act to ensure one hundred percent the implementation of the CFA and the strengthening the role of the SLMM. We are confident that such actions will bring normalcy in the lives of our people, and help in taking forward the peace process towards a satisfactory conclusion".

On 22 December following a meeting with Norwegian Special Envoy, Jan Hansen Bauer, LTTE again appealed in a press statement, "If permanent peace is the desired outcome, the CFA signed by both parties and backed by the Norwegians, and the international community must be implemented 100%".