Title Description Date
The Wheel Turns Several times on Saturday, July 12th, the day Cynthia McKinney became the Green Party’s 2008 Presidential candidate, I found myself thinking: I wonder how this compares to the national nominating conventions of the third parties that immediately preceded the Republican Party of the 19th Century....... July 14, 2008
Prioritizing Climate Dr. James Hansen is a, if not the, leading climate scientist in the USA and probably the world. When he says, as he did a week ago before a Congressional hearing in Washington, that avoiding catastrophic climate change “requires a transformative change of direction in Washington in the next year,” people really need to take notice...... June 29, 2008
Only Renewable Energy by 2030 In 1992, Bill Clinton put the call for universal health care at the center of his program. But, once president, his closeness to Wall Street and his intellectual dependence on Robert Rubin of Wall Street made him leery of antagonizing the insurance industry. It was President Clinton's unwillingness to confront the insurance companies that led to his failure to honor his commitment to work toward a universal health care program. . . His administration's top priorities were reduction of the federal deficit. . . May 30, 2008
Obama and Wright: Different World Views “We did not have to go through any of the violent upheavals that Europe was forced to endure as it shed its feudal past. Our passage from an agricultural to an industrial society was eased by the sheer size of the continent, vast tracts of land and abundant resources that allowed new immigrants to continually remake themselves.” Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope, p. 55...... May 4, 2008
Martin Luther King, Presente! Had he [Dr. King] lived and been confronted with the abject failure of liberal democracy to alleviate the suffering and deprivation of its teeming masses, his formidable conscience might well have required him to advocate root and branch reconstruction of the government of his native land, as, in fact, was urged by Mr. [Thomas] Jefferson as the responsibility of each new generation.” William F. Pepper, in “An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King”.... Apr 29, 2008
Let’s Intensify Spring Anti-War Actions! March 19th was an historic first for the Iraq peace and justice movement. Over 1,000 activists, intergenerational but with many dedicated and energetic young people, took part in non-permitted, edgy, stepping it up type actions in Washington, D.C. If the Metropolitan D.C. cops had been arresting people, many hundreds would have been arrested for blocking major streets in downtown D.C..... Mar 24, 2008
Non-Electoral Activism in a Presidential Election Year Just about a year ago a leading activist in the climate movement made a comment that I took note of at the time and haven’t forgotten: Presidential politics overshadows all other politics during a Presidential election period..... Feb 18, 2008
Hitting Back, Nonviolently This Tuesday morning, around 10 a.m., on the 99th day of my climate emergency fast, I’m going to the Senate office on Capitol Hill of Mitch McConnell, the top-ranking Republican in the Senate. And I’m going to stay there for a while, attempting to draw attention to the anger that a lot of us feel about this latest outrage by Republican leaders in Washington out of touch with even their own rank and file. According to a recent Zogby poll, 77% of Republicans agree that utilities should be required to produce some of their energy from clean sources such as wind and solar..... Dec 9, 2007
Cindy Sheehan and Keeping the Faith

“It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.”      

I was relieved to hear Cindy Sheehan say this morning on Democracy Now that she does not plan to retire from the struggle for peace and justice. Instead, she will be taking a well-deserved and needed break to reconnect with her family, deal with serious economic and health issues and figure out how she can best utilize her skills and talents going forward.

 May 30, 2007