tom_thinks

Some more actions for all you do-gooders out there.
Stop Indefinite Detentions People are being held without charges, without lawyers and incommunicado from the outside world. We cannot stand for this. Join the ACLU's call for abandoning this policy here.
More Mercury Madness by Bush's EPA: Join the League of Conservation Voters in calling for the EPA to uphold the Clean Air Act

The Environmental Protection Agency published its proposed regulation of mercury emissions from power plants on January 30, 2004; comments are being accepted until June 29, 2004. Previously EPA estimated that a 90% cut in electric utility mercury air emissions was achievable by 2008, the level the Clean Air Act requires. The January rule falls far short of this, requiring only a 50%-70% reduction by 2018. That’s more pollution, for a longer time.

Take action here.
Tired of tax loopholes for special interests? Me too and so is the Florida PIRG (Public Interest Research Group)

Florida relies on sales tax, which should bring in enough money to pay for the things we need as a state. But over the years, special interest lobbyists in Tallahassee have carved out 440 sales tax exemptions for their clients. You have to pay sales tax on your football tickets, but the guy up in the skybox does not. You have to pay sales tax on dog food, but the people who buy food for racing dogs don't. You have to pay sales tax on pool cleaning supplies, but people who hire a pool cleaning service do not.

They need 488,000 signatures on this petition, which is availible here. Unfortunately its on paper and you have to mail it in. Florida residents only.
The EFF needs help defeating the PIRATE ACT Watch out File Sharers, They're coming to get you.

The PIRATE Act (S.2237) is yet another attempt to make taxpayers fund
the misguided war on file sharing, and it's moving fast. The bill would allow the government to file civil copyright lawsuits in addition to criminal prosecutions, dramatically lowering the burden of proof and adding to the thousands of suits already filed by record companies. It would also force the American public to pay the legal bills of foreign record companies like Bertelsmann, Vivendi Universal, EMI, and Sony. Meanwhile, not a penny from the lawsuits goes to the artists. Don't let the record industry use your hard-earned dollars to pursue this fruitless war; tell Congress to sink the PIRATE Act!

Make your voice heard

Here's two interesting articles on blogging. Is blogging unleashing the democratic possibilities of the internet?

Linked Out
Every day, millions of ordinary people all over the world broadcast their thoughts, concerns, and feelings in personal and collective blogs. Once the exclusive territory of traditional media, broadcasting is possible for anyone with access to the technology. For many bloggers, this is evidence that digital democracy is already a reality.

I'd like to believe that article, but then again there's this one from the nytimes

For Some, the Blogging Never StopsSometimes, too, the realization that no one is reading sets in. A few blogs have thousands of readers, but never have so many people written so much to be read by so few. By Jupiter Research's estimate, only 4 percent of online users read blogs.
Indeed, if a blog is likened to a conversation between a writer and readers, bloggers like Mr. Wiggins are having conversations largely with themselves.

Hmmm. Mr. Wiggins is also a blogspot user(wigblog.blogspot.com) This article would have you believe the Wigman has a real addiction to blogging, even posting on his wedding anniversary while on the toilet. I'm sure he's gotta love all the attention a nytimes article like this can bring to his blog, but he isn't saying too much recently (4 posts this month). Maybe his wife staged an intervention.

Al Gore gave a rousing speech to the MoveOn.org PAC yesterday. The whole thing is worth reading, but here's my favorite parts.

(referring to the Bush Administration) More disturbing still was their frequent use of the word 'dominance' to describe their strategic goal, because an American policy of dominance is as repugnant to the rest of the world as the ugly dominance of the helpless, naked Iraqi prisoners has been to the American people. Dominance is as dominance does.
Dominance is not really a strategic policy or political philosophy at all. It is a seductive illusion that tempts the powerful to satiate their hunger for more power still by striking a Faustian bargain. And as always happens - sooner or later - to those who shake hands with the devil, they find out too late that what they have given up in the bargain is their soul.
One of the clearest indications of the impending loss of intimacy with one's soul is the failure to recognize the existence of a soul in those over whom power is exercised, especially if the helpless come to be treated as animals, and degraded. We also know - and not just from De Sade and Freud - the psychological proximity between sexual depravity and other people's pain. It has been especially shocking and awful to see these paired evils perpetrated so crudely and cruelly in the name of America.

---------

What happened at the prison, it is now clear, was not the result of random acts by "a few bad apples," it was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy that has dismantled those wise constraints and has made war on America's checks and balances.
The abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration's march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th.
There was then, there is now and there would have been regardless of what Bush did, a threat of terrorism that we would have to deal with. But instead of making it better, he has made it infinitely worse. We are less safe because of his policies. He has created more anger and righteous indignation against us as Americans than any leader of our country in the 228 years of our existence as a nation -- because of his attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation who disagrees with him.
He has exposed Americans abroad and Americans in every U.S. town and city to a greater danger of attack by terrorists because of his arrogance, willfulness, and bungling at stirring up hornet's nests that pose no threat whatsoever to us. And by then insulting the religion and culture and tradition of people in other countries. And by pursuing policies that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women and children, all of it done in our name.

---------

George Bush promised to change the tone in Washington. And indeed he did. As many as 37 prisoners may have been murdered while in captivity, though the numbers are difficult to rely upon because in many cases involving violent death, there were no autopsies.
How dare they blame their misdeeds on enlisted personnel from a Reserve unit in upstate New York. President Bush owes more than one apology. On the list of those he let down are the young soldiers who are themselves apparently culpable, but who were clearly put into a moral cesspool. The perpetrators as well as the victims were both placed in their relationship to one another by the policies of George W. Bush.
How dare the incompetent and willful members of this Bush/Cheney Administration humiliate our nation and our people in the eyes of the world and in the conscience of our own people. How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace. How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein's torture prison.

---------

One of the strengths of democracy is the ability of the people to regularly demand changes in leadership and to fire a failing leader and hire a new one with the promise of hopeful change. That is the real solution to America's quagmire in Iraq. But, I am keenly aware that we have seven months and twenty five days remaining in this president's current term of office and that represents a time of dangerous vulnerability for our country because of the demonstrated incompetence and recklessness of the current administration.
It is therefore essential that even as we focus on the fateful choice, the voters must make this November that we simultaneously search for ways to sharply reduce the extraordinary danger that we face with the current leadership team in place. It is for that reason that I am calling today for Republicans as well as Democrats to join me in asking for the immediate resignations of those immediately below George Bush and Dick Cheney who are most responsible for creating the catastrophe that we are facing in Iraq.
We desperately need a national security team with at least minimal competence because the current team is making things worse with each passing day. They are endangering the lives of our soldiers, and sharply increasing the danger faced by American citizens everywhere in the world, including here at home. They are enraging hundreds of millions of people and embittering an entire generation of anti-Americans whose rage is already near the boiling point.
We simply cannot afford to further increase the risk to our country with more blunders by this team. Donald Rumsfeld, as the chief architect of the war plan, should resign today. His deputies Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and his intelligence chief Stephen Cambone should also resign. The nation is especially at risk every single day that Rumsfeld remains as Secretary of Defense.
Condoleeza Rice, who has badly mishandled the coordination of national security policy, should also resign immediately.
George Tenet should also resign. I want to offer a special word about George Tenet, because he is a personal friend and I know him to be a good and decent man. It is especially painful to call for his resignation, but I have regretfully concluded that it is extremely important that our country have new leadership at the CIA immediately.

-----------

These horrors were the predictable consequence of policy choices that flowed directly from this administration's contempt for the rule of law. And the dominance they have been seeking is truly not simply unworthy of America - it is also an illusory goal in its own right.
Our world is unconquerable because the human spirit is unconquerable, and any national strategy based on pursuing the goal of domination is doomed to fail because it generates its own opposition, and in the process, creates enemies for the would-be dominator.
A policy based on domination of the rest of the world not only creates enemies for the United States and creates recruits for Al Qaeda, it also undermines the international cooperation that is essential to defeating the efforts of terrorists who wish harm and intimidate Americans.

----------
Where was this Gore in 2000? Better late than never.

Bush has nominated William Haynes to a lifetime seat on the 4th Circuit Court
of Appeals. And guess what? He sucks and here's why:

As General Counsel to the Department of Defense, Haynes:
* Was responsible for ensuring U.S. military compliance with
the laws of war, the Geneva Convention, and federal law.[1]
* Dismissed and scolded human rights groups raising allegations
of prisoner abuse in February 2003.[2]
* Helped make it harder for the officers with the military's
own Judge Advocate General Corps to observe interrogations.
Haynes' actions were so alarming that some JAG officers
warned of "a disaster waiting to happen" and sought outside
intervention.[3]
* Haynes misled a U.S. Senator who had specifically asked about
policies for detention and treatment of prisoners.[4]
* He has signed off on the legality of withholding Geneva
Conventions protections from hundreds of persons detained at
Guantanamo, defined as prisoners of war.[5]
* He helped develop the Defense Department's military tribunal
plan, which has been condemned by human rights organizations
and our nation's closest allies.[6]
* He supports the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens by the
Executive Branch without legal counsel or meaningful judicial
review.[6]
* Mr. Haynes has been nominated to one of the most influential
appellate courts in the country, but he has almost no
in-court trial experience, and no direct appellate experience
at all.[7]
Sign the statement against the nomination now:
http://www.pfaw.org/go/haynes/

No rest for the online activist.

Its great that more people in Washington are tired of Chalabi's crap, but is it too late?

After years of giving Chalabi power, money and influence, he reigns over a web of control "that stretches from the oil industry to the banking system to the purges of former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party."
Analysts say that "unless the Bush administration moves to dismantle his empire, Chalabi will continue controlling much of Iraq's politics from behind the scenes, and he could seriously disrupt American plans for turning over nominal sovereignty to a new Iraqi government on June 30." --'How the Mighty have Fallen'

Given the fact that the Bush Administration hasn't got its shit together in the slightest, Chalabi is a major problem. He's now turned on his masters and is speaking out against the US occupation. That's a pretty popular move with most Iraqis. But he hasn't limited his spin tactics to Iraq, this Sunday he hit the news/talk shows in the US

Asked on "Fox News Sunday" why Habib was on the run if he is innocent, Chalabi said, "In Iraq there is no justice. There is Abu Ghraib prison ... We don't want anybody to be subjected to Abu Ghraib."
Newsday, quoting intelligence sources, reported last week that the administration believes that Chalabi's top security aide, Aras Karim Habib, is an Iranian agent. An arrest warrant was issued for Habib when Iraqi police, reportedly accompanied by FBI agents, raided Chalabi's home and offices last week. He is currently a fugitive.-Newsday Article

There is of course another major issue with this story; who gave this guy the classified intelligence he's accused of giving to Iran? Hmmm. Could it have been one of that fabulous group of war makers, the NeoCons?

Perhaps Ahmad Chalabi's largest backer was senior Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, a major advocate of going to war with Iraq. Instead of admitting the egregious error in handing this power-mad exile so much money and power, Perle defended him to the end, even taking a swipe at the United States. Yesterday, Perle said, "The CIA despises Chalabi; the State Department despises him. They did everything they could to put him out of business. Now there is a deliberate effort to marginalize him." Perle added, "He has devoted his life to freeing his country...He is a man of enormous intelligence, and I believe the effort to marginalize him will fail. They will end up looking ridiculous." -'How the Mighty have Fallen'

Knowing the Bush Administration's deep commitment to ethical behavior, I'm sure they'll conduct a vigorous investigation to find out who is responsible, right after they get done with that Valerie Plame investigation, the Abu Ghraib investigation, the Medicare scandal and right after they find those missing stockpiles of WMD.
After originally posting this, I came across this editorial from William Rivers Pitt at truthout.org

Iran's motives are crystal clear. Iraq has been a mortal enemy of Iran for decades. The process engineered by Chalabi has destroyed that enemy, and opened the way to a Shia-controlled Iraq that would be a natural ally of Shia-controlled Iran. In the process, Iran has come into possession of national security secrets so important that only a select few American officials were cleared for them. As a side benefit, Iran has watched the United States flail like a beached whale in Iraq, squandering billions of dollars and thousands of lives while shattering its reputation around the world.

It's really worth reading the full text

With the new-global-warming-on-steroids movie coming out this weekend (the day after tomorrow). I thought it best to start with an action on climate change so visit undoit.org, a project of environmental defense. There you can sign a petition urging our elected officials to support the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship act. The bill failed once, but did achieve 44 votes in the senate. Its an uphill battle, but they only need 7 more votes to pass this time, so get on it. Also you can sign up to pass out fliers at your local movie theater this weekend explaining global warming facts and fictions. But there's still more on global warming, Get coupon for a free Ben & Jerry's Ice cream cone by writing your representatives in congress to support the Climate Stewardship act by clicking here
Moving On to MoveOnPAC, this is MoveOn.org's Political Action Committee. (They had to create this separate entity to comply with elections law.) This isn't so much an action, but they will send you a FREE anti-Bush bumper sticker. Check it out at https://www.moveonpac.org/stickers
With Howard Dean so unfortunately out of the race for president, he has a lot of time on his hands. Fortunately he's putting it to good use. He's formed Democracy For America to harness the energy of his grass-roots supporters. They are raising money, recruiting volunteers, and raising awareness about important issues. I've joined up locally with this group, and actually going to a house party tomorrow night. But, whether you join up or not please visit their site to sign the petition calling for a voter verifiable paper trail on electronic voting machines. (We can't really call it democracy, if we can't verify the vote, right?) Call it intuition or maybe I'm just remembering a certain stolen presidential election, but without a paper trail I'm betting the republicans will be using every trick they can think of this election. For more info on electronic voting visit www.blackboxvoting.com

The Union of Concerned Scientists is campaigning to stop Starwars aka the missile defense shield. This is a dangerous program that aims to put weapons in space, is untested, very very expensive and could quite possibly trigger another arms race. They also feature a bunch of other actions on their site. (They're one of my favorite online action groups.) If you sign up for their email action alerts, you can simply hit "reply" and "send" and you've taken the action. Great stuff.www.ucsaction.org/action

And finally if that's not enough online activism for you then check out Grist Magazine's Do Good page. They are an online environmental magazine with some great articles, but this listing of eco-friendly actions is amazing. Even I haven't done them all, but its a great site to visit when you've got some spare time and want to do something good for the earth. So bookmark it.

As promised here's the list of most and least contaminated fruits and vegetables. This information comes from the Environmental Working Group. They also have a website specifically dedicated to this, foodnews.org where they have a wallet sized card you can print out and keep handy for when you're at the grocery store. Obviously this list is incomplete, they didn't test every possible vegetable, but there are a few more listed on the web site.
12 Most Contaminated
Buy These Organic(when possible)
Apples,Bell Peppers, Celery.Cherries,Imported Grapes, Nectarines, Peaches, Pears, Potatoes, Red Raspberries, Spinach, Strawberries,
12 Least Contaminated
Asparagus, Avocados, Bananas, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Corn (sweet), Kiwi, Mangos, Onions, Papaya, Pineapples, Peas (sweet)

Check out thisnytimes article

Visitors arriving at checkpoints, including those at the Mexican and Canadian borders, will face "real-time identification" — instantaneous authentication to confirm that they are who they say they are. American officials will, at least in theory, be able to track them inside the United States and determine if they leave the country on time.
Officials say they will be able, for instance, to determine whether a visitor who overstays a visa has come in contact with the police, but privacy advocates say they worry that the new system could give the federal government far broader power to monitor the whereabouts of visitors by tapping into credit card information or similar databases. The system would tie together about 20 federal databases with information on the more than 300 million foreign visitors each year.

Why worry about that?

Whoever wins the contract will be asked to develop a standard for identifying visitors using a variety of possible tools — from photographs and fingerprints, already used at some airports on a limited basis since January, to techniques like iris scanning, facial recognition and radio-frequency chips for reading passports or identifying vehicles.

How long will it be until these types of measures are used on American citizens? Another terrorist attack might speed up the timeline and of course having Bush in the white house another four years seems likely to accelerate the process. Once again it seems that us 'freedom-loving' people in the United States are willing to put aside those freedoms in hopes that the 'freedom-haters' will be prevented from hurting us. The government is investing billions of dollars in programs like this one, the MATRIX and Capps II, but still seems to be ignoring the root causes of terrorism (global poverty, imperial invasions, growing disparity between rich and poor, dependance on oil, incredibly lopsided consumption of resources, etc). It seems like they're saying, "It's ok that there are all these problems that cause people to hate us, because we'll be able to watch, catch and kill all the terrorists by spying on everyone with our awesome computers and bombing the countries with people who might become terrorists." If this bugs you out visit aclu.org to see what you can do about it.

I got an email about this today, apparently they're a bit worried about massive protests at the upcoming G-8 summit.

Six coastal Georgia counties affected by the G-8 summit on Sea Island next month will be under a state of emergency order beginning Monday.
No, Gov. Sonny Perdue, who issued the order, doesn't know something about the weather coastal residents don't. And I-16 won't automatically become one-way west, as it does in hurricane evacuations.
Citing, among other reasons, the "potential danger to the persons and property of this state from unlawful assemblages, threats of violence and otherwise," the executive order creates a unified public safety command for the summit.

SaveOurCivilLiberties.org
The've got some other interesting and important stories on their site too. Also some actions to be taken, like this one.

Public Citizen | Faxing System: "Join outraged members of the community, people of faith, representatives of civil liberties, global justice and labor organizations in demanding that State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Mayors Manny Diaz and Alex Penelas drop the charges against the remaining 50 people facing illegitimate charges stemming from the Miami demonstrations against the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) in November 2003.
Of the 283 people arrested, NOT ONE has been convicted and dozens have been forced to take day after day off from work or school and to pay for transportation to attend court only to have their cases dismissed or thrown out! Nearly six months after brutal arrests and harsh jail time, with 50 cases left and not a single conviction, it's time to drop the rest of these bogus charges."

I just talked to someone the other day about the protests in Miami, where it did, of course turn very ugly(thanks again officers). I've seen some of the pictures and those rubber bullets really mess people up. So anybody want to go to Sea Island?

I just saw this on Talkingpointsmemo and couldn't resist posting it right now. Fighting global poverty and Aids should be job one for the United States, if we really do want to make the earth a peaceful and pleasant place to live. So get on it.

TheOneCampaign.org

Not to increase the notoriety of Michael Savage, but I just read this article and found out that he and his son own RockStar, which is a Red Bull-like crack-yourself-out beverage. While I've been known to have a Red Bull every now and then, I know some off you might be looking for some thing a bit more potent, but stay away from RockStar, don't give these guys your money. Plus I've actually tried it and guess what; it tastes like shit.

Salon.com News | America's laziest fascist: "Savage's son, Russ Weiner, kicked off the show. With his spiky, dyed-orange hair and calculated scruffiness, he was reminiscent of Dr. Evil's son Scott from the Austin Powers movies. The resemblance was confirmed when Weiner proclaimed, 'I'm proud to be the son of Savage!' The 30-something Weiner is the founder of RockStar, an energy drink that he developed with his dad, drawing on Savage's previous career as a Marin County herbalist and ethnobotanist named Michael Weiner. RockStar's herbal liver-cleansing formula is supposed to enable drinkers to 'party like a rock star,' which presumably means drinking and doping."

Once again the Bush administration is covertly destroying another environmental standard. This time they are trying to undermine the organic labeling standards at the USDA.

A showdown is taking shape over the nation's organic food standards, triggered by a spate of recent rule changes that some producers and activists say are setting a pattern that could eventually render the organic label meaningless.
The changes in the National Organic Program standards, made in April, expand the use of antibiotics and hormones in organic dairy cows, allow more pesticides in the organic arsenal and for the first time let organic livestock eat potentially contaminated fishmeal.
Program administrators also reversed themselves and said seafood, pet food and body care products can use "organic" on their labels without meeting any standards at all.

Read the article to learn more.
I also did a little web searching and found a place to take action, The Organic Consumers Association.
Actually they have several letter writing campaigns going on, so check them out.
Organic farming is the fastest growing segment of the food industry. People are really responding to the opportunity for healthy, envirionmentally friendly food. I'm always trying to buy organic, when I can afford it. But there are certain vegetables that contain higher amounts of pesticides that should be bought organic whenever possible. Look for the list to be posted here soon.

I wrote this last week or so, before I started this blog, as a letter to the editor. I haven't sent it, my local paper will only allow me one letter a month at most. So I'm posting it here.

President Bush has done much to frame the military actions since 9/11 or the ‘war on terror’ as it is often referred to, as a battle between the forces of good and evil. Bush has made it clear that God is not neutral in this conflict, but is on the side of ‘freedom’ and America. Despite the fact that Bush’s initial justifications for invading Iraq (WMD & Al-Qaeda ties) have been proven false, Bush and his cabinet have maintained that our cause is still morally superior to that of our ‘enemy’ in Iraq.

When seen through this frame, do not the ends justify the means? If God is truly on our side, then isn’t anything we have to do to win sanctioned by God? It is through this frame of good vs. evil, that the greatest atrocities have been performed by mankind. The terrorists that caused 9/11 also claimed God was on their side. In every war, every side believes God to be their ally. This is both the folly and the horror of war.

That this moral superiority has again become the justification for abuse and humiliation should not come as a surprise. Why then does it come as such a shock to Americans that this abuse is occurring in Iraq? The answer I believe is that Americans have largely bought into Bush’s rationalization for this war. There still persists a belief that this war was right and just, that this was a war of liberation from tyranny and oppression, that this war was somehow different from the horrors of the past. Americans largely believe themselves and their countrymen to be immune to the corrupting forces of war.

But that belief is false. We cannot sterilize these horrors. War is not clean, neat and humane. It is the manifestation of the darkest parts of our nature and should always be avoided. We shudder in revulsion when seeing these pictures, terrified that such abuse is going on in our name. We are appalled; yet we’ve known from the beginning our government doesn’t even keep track of how many civilians have been killed.

So who is responsible? In the military, the chain of command goes directly up to the President, but this war and the horrors that have occurred would not have been possible without the support from the citizens of this country. Too long have we allowed ourselves to be deceived about the realities of this war. While the bulk of the responsibility lies with those who committed these acts and those that ordered them to be carried out, we all have a responsibility to stop the horrors of this war and the only way to do it is to stop the war itself. Apathy towards the voting process or ‘I didn’t vote for him’ arguments are no excuse.

The response by the administration on this issue has been of course a cover up. Last night I think the Daily show summed up the administration's approach

"Remember, it's not important that we did torture these people. What's important is that we are not the kind of people who would torture these people."

Reading The Nation today, I came across a great piece by Eric Alterman. In it he writes,

Excuse me, but just what was so hard to understand about this bunch? We knew they were dishonest. We knew they were fanatical. We knew they were purposely ignorant and bragged about not reading newspapers. We knew they were vindictive. We knew they were lawless. We knew they were obsessively secretive. We knew they had no time or patience for those who raised difficult questions. We knew they were driven by fantasies of religious warfare, personal vengeance and ideological triumph. We knew they had no respect for civil liberties. And we knew they took no responsibility for the consequences of their incompetence. Just what is surprising about the manner in which they've conducted the war?

Hopefully these events will be a wake up call to American voters this November, but then again Rush Limbaugh has called these acts, "letting off steam." I wonder how many people agree?

I first heard about this idea about 2 weeks ago. What if Ralph Nader nominated the very same electors to the electoral college as John Kerry? Well, the idea is that the electors would vote for whoever they got the most votes from, most likely Kerry. Sounds like a great idea to me. It could even jumpstart Instant Run-off Voting. I don't know if this is probable or even legal, but I hope so. Read Bruce Ackerman's Nytimes editorial, 2-for-1 Voting (I've linked it to commondreams' archive, because nytimes wants you to pay 2.95 for this 2 week old article)
Also here's a letter from Granny D that discusses the issue.

Just what you've been waiting for! A centralized place to find out how you can make a difference with just a few clicks. This will be a regular feature of this blog, because who isn't starting to get tired of all those 'tell a friend' emails? (not me, but I'd guess most everyone else) So go on then send a letter or sign a petition or two.

From Environmental Defense
*Too Slick: Stop ExxonMobil's Global Warming Misinformation
Campaign*
ExxonMobil has spent millions of dollars to spread doubt about
global warming with a stealth PR campaign. Funding lobbyists to
misinform politicians about the science of climate change is
part of the strategy. This misinformation campaign must stop.
Send ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond an e-mail asking his company to
stop misleading the public about global warming.

Take Action:
http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/exxonmobil/

From MoveOn.org (one of the best online activist groups)
In order to safeguard Florida's coastline, President Bush must establish a permanent moratorium on drilling off of Florida’s coasts. We're also asking the President to veto any bill that calls for “inventories” designed to pave the way for more drilling, or that restricts Florida's ability to protect its coastal zones.

By bringing public scrutiny now to the Bush Administration’s environmental record in Florida, we can win more protection for the coast, while ensuring that President Bush doesn’t get away with his plan to hoodwink Florida’s voters.

Please sign the petition to protect Florida’s coast at:

http://www.moveonpac.org/drilling/

From America Coming Together
Today I’ve taken action to protect the vote in Ohio, where electronic voting machines are set to be in place in 31 counties without a paper trail verification of each votes. The 2004 election is going to be very close - and could come down to just a handful of votes in this key state.

Please join me in signing the “Paper Trail Petition” today and pass it on to everyone you know.

http://actforvictory.org/act.php/home/petitions/diebold_ohio

--From NARAL Pro-Choice America
There is still one nominee to watch - and he's one of the worst
of Bush's bunch. James Leon Holmes has written that the role of
"the wife is to subordinate herself to her husband." He has
compared pro-choice activists to "Nazis," said that rape victims
don't get pregnant, and compared abortion to slavery.

We must stop this out-of-step nominee from winning a lifetime
appointment that will give him the power to make decisions about
women's rights for the rest of his life. Help us reach our goal
of sending 50,000 letters to the Senate this week by taking
action today - click here: http://prochoiceaction.org/campaign/holmes_sen_052004/


From Care2.com
Care2's new campaign to fight domestic
violence, rape, war and other crimes against women and
girls. Our partnership with Amnesty International will
enable you to fight for millions of women worldwide
suffering from crimes like these:
* In the US, a woman is raped every 6 minutes;
a woman is battered every 15 seconds.
* In North Africa, 6,000 women are genitally
mutilated each day.
* More than 7,000 women in India will be murdered by
their families and in-laws in disputes over dowries.
Join our new Race to Stop Violence Against Women!
http://stopviolence.care2.com

Another from Care2.com
Help End Poverty and AIDS Worldwide
Take a moment to add your voice to a growing chorus of
people calling for a real response to the crisis of
extreme poverty and AIDS in Africa and around the world.
Sign this petition to help: http://www.care2.com/go/z/14441

Here is the crisis we face:

* 6,300 people in Africa die each day of AIDS.
* Each day one in four Africans goes without enough
food to eat.
* Each day more than one in three Africans goes
without access to clean water.
* Every seven seconds, one child in Africa dies of
preventable disease.

So what's the deal now? Ahmed Chalabi's residence and headquarters were raided in Baghdad today. It's about time. This guy is just as responsible as Bush and Cheney for the invasion of Iraq. Facing 22 years of prison time in Jordan from his previous embezzling, he came to the United States determined to convince the government to attack Iraq and install him and his buddies in the Iraqi National Congress as rulers of Iraq. Chalabi seems to be upset about the recent proclamation by the U.N. envoy that he'd be excluded from the new government of Iraq.

"Why did the Bush administration turn against its former favorite Iraqi? Almost certainly because it realized that Chalabi, maddened by the realization that he was being excluded from the post-June 30 hand-over arrangements, was putting together a sectarian Shiite faction to destabilize and destroy the new Iraqi government. "This all started since [U.N. envoy Lakhdar] Brahimi announced that Chalabi would be kept out of the new arrangement," says an Iraqi political observer who is not only long familiar with Chalabi himself but also in close touch with key actors, including U.S. officials at the CPA and Iraqi politicians. " -'Ahmed Chalabi's failed coup' by Andrew Cockburn

Chalabi has been accused of giving detailed information about US operations in Iraq to the Iranian government. Which should really come as no suprise considering his ties to Iran.

Chalabi who considers himself 'a hero in error' is largely responsible for feeding US intelligence wildly innaccurate information on Iraq's WMD program. He has been the darling of NeoCons like Richard Perle. After the initial invasion, Chalabi arrived in Iraq with his own private militia, largely financed by money from the US government. Only recently was his 340,000 monthly allowance ended.

Some reports I've been hearing indicate that it was an Iraqi court that ordered the raid on Chalabi's headquarters and not the US government. That seems to be beside the point considering that 100 US troops were involved in the raid. However, Rumsfeld claimed to have no advance knowledge of the raid.

Will this be the end of Chalabi? Who knows, but I certainly hope so.

For more in depth reading on Chalabi's history: 'How Ahmed Chalabi Conned the NeoCons'

Setup is complete. tom_thinks is a go. I bet you can't wait to read more, but too bad I'm going to bed.