Politics leaves its boot-print on almost every aspect of our lives. From our schools to health care, jobs and the environment, it seems we can never win when up against the powers that be. Casting our votes for the evil of two lessers, as dutifully citizens do every election cycle, surely leaves us with a lesser by the end of the day. So you would think "hope" should be brushed to the waste side as naïve optimism, clamored to by only the most stubborn of idealists.

If this is how you feel, you have yet to pick up the latest book by environmental writer Jeffrey St. Clair, Been Brown So Long it Looked Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature, where St. Clair masterfully shatters the myth that all hope should be abandoned. Perhaps the most clairvoyant writer of our times, St. Clair understands the environmentalist plight like no other living writer. He recognizes that neither major political body in the US sides with those that seek to protect our diminishing natural landscapes. He dutifully dissects the "Big Green" cabal, which claims to be the voice of nature, but instead drools at the feet of their foundation

Think of corporate influence peddlers and you might envision distant figures working the halls of Congress and state capitols. But more and more, they roam city halls, municipal offices and even local shopping malls attempting to snuff the growing trend of communities setting limits on corporate activities. But regardless of location, the goal of the corporate lawyers and lobbyists remains the same: to use the enormous wealth of their employers to get what they want -- even if it means trampling democracy.

California evidenced this trend with last Tuesday's elections, in which three different communities faced corporate attempts to spend their way to victory on ballot initiatives.

Dear Mr. Wasserman,

Appreciate your articles very much. However, I would like to point to your recent piece where you refer to Bush as an "AWOL president." Respectfully, I believe Michael Moore was technically correct when he used the term "deserter.," which carries far more sinister implications. From an article by Maureen Griswald at www.commondreams.org/views03/1011-01.htm I paste the following distinction.

 "Note: 'AWOL' - 'absent without leave' and desertion' (defined as 'AWOL' beyond 30 days), are actual crimes - crimes with NO STATUTES OF LIMITATION. This Action Figure is 30 years overdue his court-martial."

AUSTIN, Texas -- So the Democrats have a candidate at last, and he is about bent over double with gravitas. I think that means he doesn't a have humorous bone in his body. It's a good thing there's at least one serious person in this race -- the Bushies are getting sillier and sillier.  

            Just when you thought no one could top Rod Paige calling the teacher's union "a terrorist organization," along comes Veep Cheney with this gem, "If Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two-to-three years, the kind of tax increases both Kerry and Edwards are talking about, we would not have had the kind of job growth that we've had."  

            Uh, in the first place, Kerry and Edwards are not talking about tax increases at all, but about repealing part of Bush's tax cuts -- so we would have had no tax cuts, not tax increases. And in the second place, if losing 2.3 million jobs is "job growth," Dick Cheney is a laugh riot.

As you may know, FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Oak Harbor, Ohio has been shutdown for over two years because a football-sized hole was discovered by workers during routine maintenance.  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is deciding any day now whether or not to allow FirstEnergy to restart Davis-Besse, perhaps the nation's most poorly managed, and therefore most dangerous, nuclear reactor.

We need Ohio's leaders to stand up for the health and safety of all Ohioans by opposing attempts to restart Davis-Besse.

Please take a moment to ask Governor Taft and his Director of Public Safety to speak out against restarting Davis-Besse. Then, ask your friends and family to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click on this link or paste it into your web browser: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=595&id4=OHFreep

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