Walter Brasch

The chairman of the Republican National Committee may have begun an irreversible descent into a future as a fear-bound paranoid victim of functional amnesia, possibly caused by a hysterical post-traumatic event such as the overwhelming victory of Democrats in the 2008 election and the nation's repudiation of Republican policies.

In a two-page vitriol-loaded letter dated "Friday morning"--he apparently was unable to remember the exact date--Robert M. (Mike) Duncan, RNC chairman, told Americans that the Democrats plan to "impose their radical leftist agenda on America," and that Republicans "must work vigilantly to guard our country's freedoms from the inevitable assault [by Democrats] they will face." He didn't mention that not one of Barack Obama's proposed cabinet members nor any of the members of the current Congress is a "radical leftist."

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Michael Abraha

The Eritrean people are quietly hurting. Hunger is painful. The food ration consists of one piece of white bread per person per day. All, including men and women in their 80s, are required to wait in line to receive their meager ration. This ‘favor’ from the authorities is accompanied with a stern warning of retribution if a citizen grumbles about being malnourished. The question of bread is a sensitive political issue in Eritrea as cholera is in Mugabes’ Zimbabwe today

There are at least 2.5 million Eritreans who are said to urgently need external relief aid but the government is refusing to receive it on behalf of its hungry citizens. Receipt of food assistance would mean admission of agricultural policy failures. To make life more miserable, Eritreans are deprived of free speech. Criticism of the authorities can get an individual or groups imprisoned, tortured or killed.

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Len Hart

George W. Bush's war of naked aggression against Iraq --a war crime --has not only bankrupted the US, it has brought the entire world the brink of economic ruin. It is also an ignominious defeat and may one day be compared to Valens' loss to barbarians at Adrianople. One wonders: what sound is made by collapsing empires? Do they go boom or 'suck'?

As the most dominant empire since Roman times, America has helped to bring great wealth and prosperity to the world..

--Pat Robertson

Amid Robertson's 'celebration' of American empire, his death threats against Hugo Chavez or Americans daring to oppose his idiocy, Robertson forgot the rest of the story: Rome fell.

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Andrew Hughes

One could not help but notice the constant emphasis, during and since the Obama campaign, on Climate Change and Green energy programs. The world has a real need to develop more oil independent energy sources and halt the wholesale rape of Mother Earth. However, hearing these pleas from Washington to London from the highest offices in the land only demand more thorough investigation. When one remembers that these same high offices have been responsible for the Iraq War, The Afghanistan War and the destruction of the economy, taking anything at face value is a precarious enterprise.

As in all schemes brought to life by Government office, the first question that begs to be asked is Qui Bono? When a Carbon Tax or a Carbon Cap and Share program is announced the one thing that can be assumed is that it will be designed to make money for those who usually make the money all along. To believe that Washington or London have developed a more altruistic nature and suddenly want to save the world, is to deny decades of Political and economic history. The road to discovering the real truth behind the plan is to follow the money, the players and the science.

On the Change.gov website there was a news release about the Bi-partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, California. Among the attendees were Governors Rod Blagojevich (IL) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (CA). (The Terminator and The Auctioneer were playing their part in the birthing of the new "impending disaster" just as much as Condi Rice, Bush and Rumsfeld played their part in creating the "Mushroom Cloud" scenario with Iraq). Mr. Obama had prepared a speech to address the conference via video. From the speech:

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Chris Floyd

1. Justice is for Suckers
Dick Cheney's recent admission on national television that he approved the waterboarding of a Terror War captive is, of course, the most prominent salvo in an on-going campaign to secure presidential pardons for the war criminals of the Bush Regime before the War Criminal-in-Chief leaves office next month. As many others have noted, Cheney's declaration that he -- and by implication, everyone else at the top level of government -- approved a torture technique that is a flagrant violation of United States law is aimed at making it impossible for George W. Bush not to issue pardons for his minions who set up and maintained the literally murderous gulag constructed, with his own full knowledge and approval, during his term in office.

So here's a prediction: at some point shortly before he waddles off the national stage, Bush will issue a weasle-worded blanket pardon for all those involved in his torture and murder program. This will be presented as a measure to protect those "on the front lines of the War on Terror" -- the interrogators of the military and the various security agencies -- from "politically motivated prosecutions." But its true aim will be to absolve those responsible for this Hitlerian-Stalinist war crime: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, Feith, Yoo, and many others, including, of course, the jabbering putz in the Oval Office himself.

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eileen fleming

The Times They Are a'Changin'- FREE Vanunu Mordechai! Now! Began on Face book on November 15, 2008 by an Italian with a vision for a Global V Day with his message to VMJC: Vanunu Mordechai John Crossman:

"For the little I can, [I will] try to move the conscience of the largest number of people possible, to try and break the chain of hatred that choke you and all the people of the area. Keep struggling. One day soon you will come to Rome to wipe away the ghosts of the past…" [1]

Excerpted from the Groups Description introduction by VANUNU MORDECHAI JC:

"…a man of peace, a symbol. KIDNAPPED IN ROME SEP' 30 th.1986…AFTER 18 YEARS IN ISRAEL PRISON… still a prisoner of fear and revenge. VANUNU…is waiting in East Jerusalem to leave;…be really free-to live…group objective is to help VANUNU… to enjoy in full his human right and to promote confrontation and a new mental approach toward the Palestine tragedy. Open your minds, stop hate.

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Kirsten Anderberg

I was riding the bus today, lost in thought, when the bus pulled up to a stop and I looked out the window I was leaning against to see several women, with their baggage and small children, sitting on the pavement in a parking lot, looking weary and forlorn. I was immediately overcome with a familiarity; it reminded me horribly of my mom and me, when I was a child. I immediately realized this was a pick up spot for homeless shelters. As my bus rolled on, I saw the next block was lined with women, young and old, carrying their bags, hovering around, looking agitated, anxious, hot, worn out, and desperate, waiting outside the YWCA in downtown Seattle, to see if they will have shelter tonight (as local shelters cannot accommodate all of the women who need shelter nightly). By the time we had rolled past that block, I was in tears. I looked around me on the bus. It seemed no one even noticed what was outside our windows for the full length of the previous block.

"Once you have been homeless, you can never go back," I scribbled on a piece of scrap paper in my backpack. It occurred to me that perhaps many of the people on the bus around me did not understand what was going on out there on the street around the YWCA. It occurred to me that many, if not most, of those on the bus around me, had never been homeless and thus would not recognize that snippet of street reality that just was in our windows, for the painful scene of suffering it was. The way that scene got my attention was something outside the window triggered a very strong feeling in me, a bad feeling, a feeling of discomfort and anxiety, yet a familiar feeling, and I looked out. What I saw was me as a child, and my mom, fretting in worry, as we waited to figure out where we would sleep that night. I remember that feeling so much that I am still shaken hours later after feeling it again.

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