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A stinging rebuke to the disgraceful level of journalism

AUSTIN, Texas -- I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would lead to the peace from hell, but I'd rather not see my prediction come true and I don't think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. If this thing turns into Vietnam simply because that man is too vain and arrogant to admit that Gen. Eric Shinseki was right when he said we would need "several hundred thousand soldiers" over there, I hope Rumsfeld rots in a hell worse than the one he's making.

            Now is not the time to stand back timidly hoping it will work out well in the end. The population of Baghdad is broiling through the 115-degree summer without electricity or water for much of the time. Given the background poverty and generally hideous conditions, the place is a major riot waiting to happen.

            As we have known ever since the Kerner Commission Report, all it takes is a couple of bad policing incidents to set one off. It is more than painfully apparent that the Pentagon did somewhere between inadequate to zero planning for the occupation, despite the equally apparent fact that

Help 'Take Back The Media' Stop Rush Limbaugh

Haven't we had enough of this bellicose burden on the American airwaves? Are you sick and tired of the hateful chortling and guffawing - while smearing everything that most decent people consider the very freedoms our ancestors and founding fathers died to protect and honor?

There is something we can do about it. We can complain directly to the companies that sell advertising on his show. We can also boycott the same products and institutions he promotes with his hateful, abhorrent speech and behavior. Take Back The Media has made a list of the companies that advertise on his show. Their contact information is available, for your convenience, at: takebackthemedia.com/rushbusted.html

Please write to each and every one of these companies. Tell them why you are no longer purchasing their wares, foods, or products. Tell them that you won't support people like Limbaugh who insult honest working Americans of all races, creeds and sexual orientation - or his advertisers. Tell them you'll change the station. Tell them you will turn the channel off.

Petition opposing the Floridation of the 2004 election

Today, there is a new and real threat to voters, this time coming from touchscreen voting machines with no paper trails and the computerized purges of voter rolls. Please join Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King III and investigative reporter Greg Palast in signing a petition protesting the Floridation of the 2004 election.

See www.workingforchange.com/activism/petition.cfm?itemid=14993 for additional information.

Defeat Bush and the Republicans in 2004

MoveOn.org is organizing a campaign to defeat Bush and the Republicans in 2004. The Republicans are already well under way in their re-election effort, we need to get started too. Read the MoveOn.org campaign letter and consider signing on to the campaign.

To sign up, click here: www.moveon.org/pac/newpres/

MoveOn will keep you updated when opportunities for action come up.

Reject Nomination of Bush and Blair for Nobel Prize

Harald T. Nesvik, a Right-wing Norwegian Member of Parliament, has nominated U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and (court-appointed) U.S. President George W. Bush for the Nobel Peace Prize for their "decisive action against terrorism". Sign the following petition if you agree that Bush and Blair should NOT receive a Nobel Prize Nomination: www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/302184339

Urge Governor Taft to Use Ohio's Tobacco Money for Tobacco Prevention, Not the Deficit

Years of litigation between the states and tobacco companies resulted in a $200 billion payment to prevent people from smoking and cut health care costs associated with tobacco use.

Yet, many states have already spent a large portion of the tobacco pie, and not on tobacco prevention -- it's being spent to fill the state budget deficit!! Between 2000 and 2002, over the $21 billion of money was released, but only 5% ($1.5 billion) was spent on anti-smoking efforts.

The funny thing is, studies keep showing that smoking programs cut state costs AND tobacco use.

Regardless, governors across the country continue to dip into tobacco funds and close anti-smoking programs down. To keep tobacco money where it belongs, sign this petition: www.care2.com/go/z/6145

Volunteers Needed for Refugees in Columbus Area

Community Refugee & Immigration Services (CRIS) has had a large influx of refugees of many faiths and nations to the Columbus area in May and June and are in urgent need of the following:
  a.. faith groups or service organizations to work alongside a family their first few months in America, assisting them to navigate the services here and providing their initial material needs
  b.. volunteers (with trucks or vans) to move donations to newly arrived families
  c.. material donations in GOOD condition only: of critical need are kitchen or dining tables & chairs, beds, lamps, dressers, laundry detergent. Also needed are kitchen wares, bathroom toiletries, linens, bedding (especially pillows-only new), TV's, fans
  d.. office assistance to handle client's phone calls, appointments, and some filing If you are able to help in any of these area, please contact Kimberley Kreeft, CRIS, 1110 Morse Road, Suite 216, (614) 840-9634, kk_cris@yahoo.ca

Donate to the Sewers Campaign

Your donation will be matched!

The Central Ohio Sierra Club has a generous donor who will match all donations up to $2500 for the lawsuit about the city's sewers. Legal and expert fees are expensive. Benefits from the litigation are exponential compared to the cost. Columbus has agreed to spend half a billion dollars because of the Sierra Club's work. The Sierra Club needs your support to make sure this money is not misspent! Their lawsuits can redirect the spending of billions. Make your generous, tax-deductible check out to: The Sierra Club Foundation, and mail to: Ken Johnsen, COG Treasurer, 6760 Hayhurst St., Worthington, OH 43085. Thank you!

Tenet Fell on His Sword for 9-11 Too

Last night before I went to bed I heard the news that CIA Director George Tenet had taken the fall for the Niger uranium debacle. I figured it was coming since Bush and Condoleeza Rice had proclaimed earlier in the day that Tenet had cleared the State of the Union Address which absolved Bush from all blame from making the case that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa.

      At around 2:30 AM this morning, I awoke drenched in a cold sweat from one of my dreaded premonition fever dreams and it all began to make sense. The Niger story was simply a dry run by the White House that set the stage for Bush to wiggle his way out of taking any responsibility for the tragedy that occurred on 9-11!

      Hear me out here.

      If Bush can get away from taking responsibility for the words he spoke in his State of the Union Address because the CIA didn't tell him they were bogus, just think how this precedent will play itself out down the line when the public finds out about the intelligence briefings Bush received prior to 9-11.especially the August 6, 2001 briefing that took place in Crawford, Texas?

Button Collection Reflects an Era Freedoms of Speech and Assembly

It has been over thirty-five years since Al Feldstein was a political science major at the University of Maryland. It was then, in 1967, he picked up his first protest button. He was attracted to the bright colors, the graphics of the period, and the contemporary history the button represented. Al went back to his dorm room and pinned the button on the strap of his arrow quiver for decoration. Other buttons followed. He did not know these would be the first of thousands of political cause, protest, social movement, and campaign buttons he would amass through the years. His collection now holds more than 8,000 buttons and is a visible portrayal of modern American history.

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