Texas Railroads people to death row

clipped from www.miamiherald.com A Saint on Death Row is an angry condemnation of the Texas criminal justice system. At the urging of a Chicago friend, Cahill stopped to visit Dominique Green on Texas' Death Row in December 2003 while on a book-tour stop in Houston. That visit sparked Cahill's outrage and colored his dark understanding of what can pass for justice in Texas. No one escapes Cahill's wrath. The police, the state prosecutors, court-appointed lawyers, judges, juries, criminal evidence labs, politicians, the prison system and the U.S. appellate courts all played a role in the October 2004 execution of Green, who was 30.

Most Afghan Taliban want Peace

Interesting reactions to new moves in Afghanistan.

clipped from www.reuters.com 1 of 1Full Size By Jonathon Burch MUSA QALA, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Most Afghan Taliban are willing to lay down their arms, a former insurgent commander said, but are afraid they will be killed for defecting because the government cannot ensure their safety.

Good News Finally! We Hope!

US and Iran - not so quietly - talking and about how violence in Afghanistan might be ended.

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk From The Sunday Times March 29, 2009 US and Iran open Afghanistan peace talks As Obama unveiled his new strategy on Afghanistan, his officials attended a historic meeting with an old ene

Jeremy Deller's It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq

Bringing together the multifaceted perspectives of a diverse group of people from places that are geographically, economically, and politically distanced is a task that is well suited to the environment of an art gallery. One of the most basic challenges of contemporary art practice is to forge a connection between art and what is going on around us every day, but while few people would deny that art comes out of life, there is still great skepticism surrounding the relevance of art to how we actually live.

Peace and Understanding is Possible

The choir burst into songs for peace, bringing surprised smiles from the audience. But the event had another twist: Most of the Holocaust survivors did not know the youths were Palestinians from the West Bank, a rare sight in Israel these days. And the youths had no idea they were performing for people who lived through Nazi genocide _ or even what the Holocaust was.

clipped from dailyme.com

Drugs, Guns, A Reality Check

First, though, let's be honest with ourselves. This whole disruptive, destabilizing enterprise has one purpose, which is to supply the U.S. market with illegal drugs. As long as the demand exists, entrepreneurs will find a way to meet it. The obvious demand-side solution -- legalization -- would do more harm than good with some drugs, but maybe not with others. We need to examine all options. It's time to put everything on the table, because all we've accomplished so far is to bring the terrible violence of the drug trade ever closer to home.

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at TecMilenio University in Monterrey, Mexico, yesterday. (Alexandre Meneghini - AP)

Food crisis hits children the hardest

"A significant part of last year's food price fluctuations were the result of excessive speculation in the commodities markets by the very hedge funds and investment banks that helped create the current economic meltdown," reads the letter, signed by 183 social justice and civil society groups. Speculation in commodity markets occurs when business entities -- such as hedge funds and investment banks -- take financial risks while buying or selling raw or primary products in international markets in hope of making profits down the road.

clipped from us.oneworld.net 6.5 million Afghans are among those suffering worst from the global food and hunger crisis. © Parwin Arzo/IRIN

President Obama's Exit Plan for Afghanistan

Good analysis fro the Independent in the UK. My hope is that Obama keeps his people on their toes and that if what they say will work does not - he will tell us it did not work and try something new. What I suggest is that he - grin - rent an old Peter Sellers movie called "The Mouse That Roared." Then announce that the Afghan war is won and withdraw as quickly as possible with the caveat - "If Osama bin Ladin shows up here again, so will we!

clipped from www.independent.co.uk Getty Images American soldiers lower the US flag at Bagram air base in Afghanistan

Stand up for Dream Act 2009

Kids whose parents brought them here 10-20 years ago, graduate from high school and college and now are eligible now just for deportation or living in limbo because no country wants them!

clipped from americasvoiceonline.org Each year about 65,000 U.S.-raised students, who would qualify for a status-adjustment under the DREAM Act, graduate from high school with zero prospects for the future.

Deena and Auntie Zeinab Schwen

A wonderful rendition of Take me back to Cairo by Auntie Zeinab at a local Palestinian event in Cincinnati!

China beats up on South Africa over Dalai Lama

It's sad that China is dumb enough to pressure South Africa and double sad that South Africa feels it has to kowtow to China because of its economic clout in South Africa.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk Beijing opposed the planned visit of the Dalai Lama to South Africa

Bus driver delivers free home-cooked meals

Every day, unemployed men gather under the elevated 7 train in Jackson Heights, Queens. Many of them are homeless. All of them are hungry. Jorge Munoz serves up home-cooked meals to them all, on his own dime.

read more | digg story

SC Gov Sanford lies about Rivlin comment on stimulus bill

St. Pete Times' PolitiFact busts Governor's anti-stimulus claims: To bolster his claim that the economic stimulus bill won't work, SC Gov. Sanford said the bill had drawn bipartisan criticism and named Alice Rivlin, CBO founder and Clinton budget director, as a prominent Democrat who said the bill would not help...We examined her full testimony.

read more | digg story

Archbishop Tutu: We Stand with Tibet!

clipped from www.thecommunity.com

2011 is not soon enough to bring troops home

"We want to make sure that Obama will fulfill his campaign promise. He said he would withdraw the troops in 16 months," Tsou said, adding that she was still hopeful that Obama would listen to people if they tell him what they want. "We are the people who can stop this. We are the people who can make President Obama do the right thing. It's very important for us to be here."

clipped from lohud.com Cindy Arone of Airmont participates in a protest of the Iraq War yesterday on Route 59 in Nanuet. (Peter Carr/The Journal News)

Have a bit of Appalachia in your tea, Cincinnati

Yech! Totally destroying mountains to get at coal on the cheap is horrendous in terms of what it does to the local ecology but when it all washes down river to cities that get their drinking water from the Ohio and don't carbon filter their water as Cincinnati does and you have a recipe for more colon cancer, birth defects and lousy tea!

clipped from www.citybeat.com

Maryland bill to limit use of Capital Punishment Advances

clipped from florida-issues.blogspot.com

"Intelligence," Too often a way to even scores or kill tribal competitors

When you depend on locals giving you intelligence on where your enemy is, past history shows that too often the military is used for private gain or settle feuds.

clipped from www.commondreams.org Afghans gather around the body of a man killed in what the U.S. military called an overnight raid in Bati Kot district in Nangarhar province, 140 km (90 miles) east of the capital Kabul March 19, 2009. Foreign and Afghan troops killed two militants in the raid against al Qaeda bomb-makers, the U.S. military said on Thursday, but angry protesters said the dead were civilians. (REUTERS/Rafiq Shirzad)

Text of President Obama at Costa Mesa, California

Good on you, Mr. President for taking DC to CA

clipped from latimesblogs.latimes.com

Florida Crusader for Peace Receives U.S. Marine Corps League's Distinguished Citizens Award

Florida Crusader for Peace Receives U.S. Marine Corps League's Distinguished Citizens Award

Majority of Americans Ready for a Progressive America

Good News! By 62 percent to 35 percent, the public opted for a larger and stronger government. Evidently, the big government is bad meme promoted by conservatives just doesn’t pack the same punch it once did.

clipped from www.tcf.org It’s a “New Progressive America” out there. The nation has a new demography, a new geography and a new agenda, as I argue in a Center for American Progress report released earlier this week.

Saying Grace Around the World

That pause before the meal inspires us across cultures. Artist Nikki McClure adds her touch to our collection of mealtime prayers from around the world.

clipped from www.yesmagazine.org

How we helped create the Afghan crisis - The Boston Globe

How we helped create the Afghan crisis - The Boston Globe

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Law of Occupation

Interesting video from Social TV in Israel of progressive Israeli's talking about how they believe Israel is abusing the human rights of Palestinians and Israeli's who protest their government's action in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Letter to the President: US Youth on Immigration Reform - LA Detention Center 3-10-09

Intolerable that we are allowing leftover Bush-immigrant-hating ICE employees crush and split up families! And make payoffs to contributors to Bush and Republicans from the private jail businesses that get $140 a day for housing non-criminal detainees with criminals.

It's the Money Honey - Cities and Counties Getting Cash for Detaintees

$140 a day for most detainees that we could keep track of until they leave by spending $18 a day for renting an electronic bracelet. 75% of detainees do not have any criminal record. So, was the last administration pumping up those in jail to "buy" support and look as if they were "doing something" about keeping us safe when most of the cash was being used to subsidize private jails who had many Republicans on their Boards of Directors. A billion spent last year here instead of many other good uses, or just give us back $1 billion!

clipped from www.latimes.com

Florida Issues: Man crusades against death penalty

Florida Issues: Man crusades against death penalty: "At the time, Melendez did not speak English and did not have an interpreter to help him understand his own trial. But he knew he was in a bind when the prosecutors showed the jury pictures from the crime scene."

Many detainees spend months or years in U.S. detention centers

An official Immigration and Customs Enforcement database, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed a U.S. detainee population of exactly 32,000 on the evening of Jan. 25.

The data show that 18,690 immigrants had no criminal conviction, not even for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing. More than 400 of those with no criminal record had been incarcerated for at least a year. A dozen had been held for three years or more; one man from China had been locked up for more than five years.

clipped from www.msnbc.msn.com

Raymond Soeoth stands outside the federal government compound in Los Angeles' San Pedro district, where he was held for over two years at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.