Remarks in front of White House, May 17, 2006.

Some weeks back, Cindy Sheehan asked me to start a petition opposing an attack on Iran. We posted it at www.dontattackiran.org

It's wonderful that so many people are here as we deliver the petition to the White House. It would be nice if President Bush were here, but I understand he's run for the border in search of his lost 30 percent approval rating.

The other people who should be here, but who are here in spirit, are the 43,000 people who signed the petition on the website. We've brought with us to deliver to the men and women guarding our occupied but temporarily abandoned house all 43,000 names. These stacks and stacks of names are printed double-sided and include people's cities and states, so that our President can be sure he's listening in on the right people's phone calls.

Glenn Greenwald's new book "How Would a PATRIOT ACT? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok," lays out a powerful, concise, and well-researched argument that President Bush is a threat to our government's system of checks and balances and to our individual liberties. 

Greenwald makes a point of saying that he used to be a supporter of Bush and trusted him as long as he was able.  The voices Greenwald quotes are those of conservatives, the group to which he is clearly trying to appeal.  He focuses very heavily on Bush's illegal unwarranted spying, but also addresses the use of detention without charge and torture, and touches on Bush's habit of adding signing statements to bills indicating his unwillingness to obey the acts he is signing into law.

Dave Lindorff has argued that a focus on this blatant refusal to obey new laws (and the threat of having a Democratic president behave the same way) is the most effective way to help Bush supporters recognize the threat their leader is to representative democracy.  On the other hand, many conservative Americans don't seem to care about the spying. 

BERLIN: Can there be a more vivid panorama of the arc of the Communist movement than the view from the foundations where once stood the Nazi SS headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 8? Before one's eyes are photographs of men like German Communist leader Ernst Thalmann. He was arrested on March 3, 1933, a few weeks after Hitler came to power, taken to Albrecht-Strasse 8 and tortured. Never released, never formally tried, he was murdered in Buchenwald on August 18, 1944.

Looking at the big photo of Thalmann -- one of scores posted along that block of German Communists and Socialists -- one can honor courage but also remember epic failures: the blunders of the Third Period, the defeat of the Popular Front in Spain where the German volunteers in the 11th Brigade of the International Brigades named their unit for Thalmann when it was formed in 1936.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Last week, Bush visited Yuma, Ariz., to tour a portion of the U.S.-Mexico Border by Border Patrol buggy. Maybe Jorge was doing a little measuring for the $3.2-million-a-mile fence the Senate recently approved, which I guarantee will be really helpful.

Are they insane? As Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano observes, "Show me a 50-foot wall, and I'll show you a 51-foot ladder."

Meanwhile, Republicans in the Senate have constructively declared English the national language. That'll fix everything. Every foreigner at our borders will stop and say: "Gosh, ma foi! English is the national language here. Good thing to know. I'll begin speaking it immediately."

Yes sir, you want a solution, call a Republican.

Of course, I am enchanted to discover that the entire project will be turned over to Raytheon, General Dynamics and other military contractors -- think Halliburton with noncompetitive bids, anyone? Because this outsourcing stuff is just working like a charm. Another Republican solution.

"What if 'the greatest story ever told' is a lie?"

Given the immense reactionary power of today's Church, and the violent intolerance of its fundamentalist minions, what more radical question could be asked?

No film has ever been in position to give a more penetrating answer than THE DAVINCI CODE. And…praise the Goddess!…it largely delivers.

It will be easy to fault this flick, and many will, for all sorts of reasons, including its often ponderous tone and mournful pace.

But whatever their pitfalls, this movie is a strong companion to a book that embodies a healing challenge to the virulent virus of reactionary "Christian" fundamentalism.

With a staggering 45 million copies in print, Dan Brown's DAVINCI is a force of nature. It's a solid murder thriller, full of twists and gadgetry, hidden riddles and secret codas.

But that alone cannot begin to explain the story's huge appeal. As they say in New Age circles, "there must be a reason."