One Bold Step

Everyone talks a great game about changing the world, or even just their lives, but courage, while free, comes with one price: action. I want to share my bold step with you, and, if you write to me with your bold step, and it's timely, I'll post it on my site every couple of weeks, if not more often.


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Location: Phoenix, Arizona, United States

Director of Research for MyBillOfRights.org (aka: The Foundation Foundation). Formerly with Air America Radio Phoenix ("Froggy Went A Marchin..."). Sang the National Anthem at a rally in Phoenix with Cindy Sheehan. Loves: chocolate, flowers, perfume (my grandmother), great music, politics, and a whole-hearted appreciation of the truth (Are there really "conspiracy theories" or do we need more FOIAs?). Seeker of justice and agent for change.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

How Many Hours Straight??

The Young Turks have been broadcasting now for almost 80 hours straight! It's the "Filibuster for The Filibuster." If you don't want to give up your right to vote for who is President of this nation altogether, and you've read 1984, then go listen in and, while you're at it, go to The Alito 48 page at http://www.democrats.com/ to let your senators know you want them to vote no and support the filibuster.

Cheers,

Your humble blogger

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Finally!

Dear Readers,

Dissent is not being "obstructionist." It never was, and it never is. If you think this is the case, then you have not read The Bill of Rights, nor have you ever read Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, or The Constitution. I don't mean to be blunt, but these are the times which try men's souls, so please do go and read them all. It's our duty as American citizens to know our birthrights.

Speaking of which, kudos go to Senator John Kerry for finally showing that the Dems still have a spine in them somewhere as the opposition party rightly should. When the opposition party stops unifying around some form of dissent there is good reason to worry.

My Blog is not one of the large ones, yet, but I believe in supporting everyone worthy of such an honor anyway. Go to http://www.democrats.com/alito-48 and help the 70% of Americans against Alito keep him off of our Supreme Court. Say no to the "unitary executive," otherwise known as a dictator or a king, and help keep this nation free.

Respectfully yours,

Rachel Gluck
Concerned Citizen
of The Republic

Friday, January 27, 2006

On Calling Israelis "Terrorists"

Dear Readers,

I have heard enough of well-meaning, sorely misguided people calling Israelis "terrorists." As I respond to these people, please bear with me. Reuters News Service reported yesterday that Israel had tried to kill Osama bin Laden in 1996 -- two years before American embassies were bombed by Al Qaida in east Africa and four years before the bombing of the U. S. S. Cole. If Israelis really wanted to do so, they could easily cut off diplomatic ties with the United States and Great Britain. Neither nation helped Israel become independent in 1948. Britain actually helped the Arabs by supplying weapons to them and fighting along side the Arab Legion to keep "order" in the region. The U. S. supported the Arabs, too, by staying "neutral" in the Palestinian Jews' fight to make Israel their homeland. And, before you can think to mention it, while The United States does give financial assistance to Israel, they also support The Palestinians, along with many other Arab nations, and have done so for quite a while. This action has not really been much of a gesture of friendship in the larger scheme of things; merely a token payment. Lastly, before you can think up this one, as well, just because Jews have lived in this country for just over 350 years does not make the U. S. Government our official "ally of allies." Anyone who thinks Jews should have set up Israel in the Australian outback has about as much information on Jewish history as the British seem to care to remember (especially if Prince Harry's Halloween costume is any indication of how things still are in the good ol' G. B.). These very same British, at the time, still considered Australia a Commonwealth of The Crown. Given the current scheme of things, and our past fortunes, unfortunately, I think Jews in this nation have good reason to think about their own survival. As Yitzhak Rabin once said, "Israelis are responsible for the protection of Israel."

If you're thinking that the Arabs have never fought the Jews fairly, you're right. The history goes back to The Crusades when Romans wanted to keep "order" in that region. Sound familiar? If, by the mid-1960s, The Catholic Church can strike out of its own holy books that Jews killed Jesus (and how much fuel does this untruth still add to the fire?), then other Christians ought to follow in re-examining the history, too, since, whether they like it or not, Rome is the heart of Christian development in the western world.

I have tried talking with Christians about their uses of terms such as "Judas" and "I was Jewed." I have even heard, privately, of course, openly "decent" people say to me that Osama bin Laden isn't even the problem. While the former is troublesome, the latter is clearly a falsehood. Osama and his followers are the problem. We have been appeasing them ever since we never went to war with Iran in 1980 and, perhaps, long before then in our seemingly never-ending quest for oil. Remember when Iran held some of our soldiers hostage? We already "fought" them "over there" during the Iran-Iraq War by propping up Saddam Hussein (Google the picture of his handshake with Donald Rumsfeld if you don't believe me), and we now know how far this got us. Now, our own young men and women, barely adults, and many older, are over in that region fighting the wrong group of Arabs in place of essentially the same type of people. For lack of a better way of saying this, Al Qaida, and others like them, are the Arab equivalent of the Japanese kamikaze (Google them, too, and you'll see what I mean.).

Now, you can go ahead all you want to and call Israelis terrorists, but remember this fact: Israel was only supported at all as more than just a passing idea after Adolph Hitler built a myriad of ovens and gas showers designed to kill millions of people, primarily Jews, in his "Final Solution" plan, and followed through with it. Let's face it: we have reached many of the technological heights that we are ever going to face in the world. Can you honestly imagine an Israel without at least a few nuclear weapons? Can you honestly tell me that you would rather not have the Israelis try to get the bad guy before he's even on our radar screen long enough to kill over three thousand of our citizens, especially when, and I don't like saying this, President Reagan dropped the ball by "avoiding" an open conflict with the Iranians, and probably others in the Middle-East? (I thought Republicans didn't "negotiate" with terrorists? I don't like saying this, either, but I have to ask you this question. Surely, you understand.)

People call themselves "pacifists," but I suspect that the belief in so-called "pacifism" really doesn't exist except in the most naive among us. After all, I think even the most "pacifistic" Americans would hardly have complained if President Bush had gone after the real target. I doubt these same people would have protested much, if at all, had Mr. bin Laden been hung, or otherwise executed, for his crimes.

We have to face, as a people, a sad notion that was first formally introduced to us by Dante Alighiery: "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." The Swiss, whether they ever admit it, or not, know what I'm talking about. Their banks still hold the wealth built on the backs of many a Nazi "sympathizer," even if great portions of the money, gold teeth, and works of art have been returned to their rightful owners.

I ask you, dear Readers, do you really want to support bin Laden and lose the backing of a nation that has no spectacularly good reason to be friendly to you? I ask you, also, to consider this: most of our cures for diseases, computer advances, and agricultural miracles do come from, and will continue to come from, Israel. Is it really right to pick fights with Israel when Jews have proven themselves able to use their money, and resources, wisely? Wouldn't it be better if the British and Americans, and other white, European folks, simply left the Jews and Arabs alone once and for all, and openly said as much? Maybe the two peoples would be able to work things out on their own, even eventually like good adults do....

By the way, after pondering what I've written for several moments, and perhaps even doing some of your own research, are Israelis still "terrorists"?

Respectfully yours,

Rachel Gluck
Concerned Citizen
of The Republic

Thursday, January 26, 2006

The Problem With Legislators At Every Level Of Our Government

Dear Legislators Across The Nation,

I have beef with many of you. I, and my fellow citizens, elected you so that we wouldn't always have to call you in the middle of a crisis. These days, I am bombarded by e-mails, petitions, calls to get on the phone and let you people know just what I think. I feel like I need to call many of you in for a session, or a few, with Dr. Phil. Frankly, you should know what I think when you take your oaths of office. "Defend and protect The Constitution of The United States," comes to mind. Your hands are on your holy books for that purpose, above all others. If there have to be masses of us, who are busy scrambling in our own lives every day, many of us with our own battles to fight, calling you, doesn't this tell you something? For the sake of the common good and our national welfare, think about this for more than a moment.

If you are having trouble deciding what to do and the polls are getting too frenzied to keep up with them all, check your own consciences first. If your parents didn't give you them, check with a member of the clergy or a counsellor, or, heck, even an attorney. These folks are sworn to secrecy unless you prove, yourselves, to be dangerous to people around you, or yourselves.

The bottom line is that you are not off the hook for the ways in which you've done your jobs. It is up to the common citizens, with the help of the press, to inform you of problems that you couldn't possibly know of on your own. However, it is also your job to investigate and be ready when the opportunities arise to finally make your battles with the executive branches at all levels of government in this country public. We elected you so that we would not have to feel like we had to be activists every single day of our lives. We think you're smart enough to do it for us. Do we need to wonder about this now?

I hope not, but there is always the ballot box, or at least the black box.

Respectfully yours,

Rachel Gluck
Concerned Citizen

Monday, January 23, 2006

A Call To Duty

Dear Citizens,

What troubles me now is a leadership and a general state of mind across our great nation, so far removed from intellect that our country seesaws on the brink of irreversible destruction. I see only dark clouds in the likes of our appointed President Bush and his shadows Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rice, Secretary Rumsfeld, and nominee to The Supreme Court Samuel Alito. Mr. Bush is Jeffersonian in his fancy ways of igniting democracy, yet we forget so easily that he has neither Jefferson’s eloquence in a foreign language, or his Revolutionary experience. I do see a very disturbing time ahead if such people as The President are continued to be espoused as Leaders. The thought leaves me wishing for the likes of The Alien and Sedition Acts proposed under Adams, who also reminds me of Mister Bush in his eventual turn against a free press, but who differs from Bush in his senses of necessity and sacrifice, not to mention a certain learned capacity which Bush seems to have drunk into the abyss of our six year hell. Even these two men, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, would not have stooped, for all their humanly blunders, to the low point of directly spying within the homes of their own citizens. Brutal though paying off the press is, vile though going to war is, neither buying a seditionist’s services nor warring with Napoleon would be so deep a breech of trust, not to mention a blatant display of arrogance, even for a young, flowering nation such as ours in the late 1700s.
It would do The Fourth Estate well to remember Adams’ acts against the seditionists. They seem to cower in fear at the thought of losing coveted access to a man no more powerful than you or I. A pitiful sight is The White House these days. The fact of the matter is that the only thing a free press didn’t do was stop Adams from retaining peace with the French; this at a time when the high seas were the only thing standing between a man and his reelection. How stupid it would have been if Jefferson’s ilk had had its way and gone to war with a revolutionary Napoleon. He was no Adams, no Washington, and even no Jefferson. And here America stands, on the brink of permanent war with the likes of a modern-day Napoleon Bonaparte. The French deposed Napoleon. Should not one day the Muslim world and the common Saudis do the same of Osama bin Laden and his followers, whether they family or mere friends? What nerve our dear President has to suggest that they will never be capable of doing so! For all their struggles, today both America and France enjoy greater freedoms than either nation could ever have expected; the British, too. Curse you, Mr President. Curse you for your ignorance and foolishness. Did you drink us into the underworld Hades?
And as to you, my dear fellow Americans, Dare you fall asleep? I am not the only poor soul who wonders where all of our pride has gone. We posses documents that inspire modern revolutions in nations where no such thought would have previously occurred. Yet, at the first signs of betrayal by our leaders in The Government, a great group of us stands by silent? It does not take memories of The Holocaust to make our Revolutionary Fathers and Mothers restless in their graves. All they have to do, from their heavenly respites, is look at the living ghosts of King George III.
I call those of you, now, who have foolishly chosen to continue following the Napoleon upon our own soil to repent before your people. I urge you currently to admit your grave mistake. Blame it on the same human fear that the rest of us shared with you on The Eleventh of September, of The Great Year Two Thousand and One, if you must, but do it at once! Never has our Republic so dearly needed your return to the laws of the heart, as well as of the logical mind. See with your minds’ eyes into the core of our depleted Treasury and the concern of our spent Military. Envision the sad spirits in a foreign land filled with outlandish names like “Iraq” and “Iran.” View the great disservice you have done to their futures, as well as your own. Deliver us from the abomination you call your duty, and return to duty’s side as her true companions.
The will of our people is thin, but not gone. As long as we have breath in us, we are free to rebel, if we must. On the testimony of men, and women, who have risen up against tyranny and won, I submit my deepest beliefs in this nation, and I urge restraint on all sides, lest we need our energies for greater causes.

Respectfully yours,


Rachel Gluck
Proud Citizen of The Republic

Friday, January 20, 2006

Child at Heart? An Editor Asks You to Go Deeply Into the Questions of Living

Dear Readers,

I am also Editor of "The Feminism Page" at
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/. On this web site you will find up to the minute news and information that is "reigniting the flames of freedom in Arizona." Here, you will also find my latest editorial: "Child at Heart?" I ask you, my friends, to consider the questions raised in this editorial and find some boldness in this area. Where can you make change? Let me know, and I'll post, as always, the best answers on my page.

All my best,

Rachel Gluck

Monday, January 16, 2006

The Best Bipartisan Speech Your Media Hasn't Shown You

Today, our media, except for C-Span, ignored another important event: former Vice President Al Gore's MLK Speech. It was a call to arms to fight our Constitutional crisis, a barnburner in the traditional sense of the term. It's long, but well worth the watch and the read. Truly, it is not Republican nor Democrat. It is for us all. The applause toward the end said it all. If anyone else is reading this in our government, it's time for y'all to take a lesson from one of the best.

For video highlights, visit: http://www.crooksandliars.com. For the full transcript, go to: http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Text_of_Gore_speech_0116.html_.

If you really care about this country, this is for you. Time to put your eyes and mind where your mouths are.

Kudos to Al Gore for finally giving the speech of a lifetime!

Friday, January 13, 2006

One Big Step for Law Enforcement, One Giant Leap for Humankind

Preamble of The Constitution of the United States of America (1787):

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Perhaps the ultimate realization of this dream is now coming together. A survivor of domestic violence is putting together a web site that will help women make it from the beginning to the end of their custody battles against abusive partners. This will include a "Profiles of Abusers List." The list will include people who have been convicted of domestic violence.

Given the call for an "ownership society" by President Bush and this statement's direct contradiction with the definition of "domestic tranquility" at its heart, as described by Lundy Bancroft in his book: Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, the timing is perfect. With the knowledge now that innocent Americans are being spied upon in their own meetings and phone calls within our borders, we are reminded that "domestic tranquility," "providing for the common defense," and "promoting the general welfare" starts right at home. At great cost to our nation, the most insidious version of this infraction is, unfortunately, alive and well in many homes across America. It is high time that a new program, like the one described here that includes the "Profiles of Abusers List" is undertaken in this great country of ours.

The Court Watch site is set to lauch some time in February. For more information, and an early look at the site, visit: http://www.courtwatchaz.org/ and http://www.courtwatchaz.com.

Kudos for the boldness of the heart!

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Standing Up For Our Right To Vote - An OBS Exclusive

At a rally with Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer this past Thursday, where she was plugging Diebold and voting machines, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horn, insinuated that Fred and Steve McChesney, from "The M & M Show", were attempting to block Ms. Brewer from speaking. In fact, he did one better by calling the McChesneys "fascists." All the McChesneys did was hold up a sign saying that Diebold steals votes and chant: "All we want is our vote to count." Mr. Horn was brave enough to go on "The M & M Show", today, to defend himself, and he got hammered. Steve started off by getting Tom on tape saying that he would not bring any legal action against him for speaking out about Tom's action toward him. After this was on tape (very brilliant), Fred went on to ask Mr. Horn what his definition of Freedom of Speech was, and instead of giving a straight answer, Horn spent over half an hour going around in circles to avoid giving a direct answer. In fact, Mr. Horn had the audacity, in response to me telling him that he was setting a very bad example for his teachers, to use his dead family members as an excuse for calling the McChesneys fascists. Now, I am not an attorney, as Mr. Horn is, but I know that intent is the most difficult thing for an attorney to prove. If Mr. Horn wants to prove the McChesneys' intent, that's fine, but he should do it in court, where he can take weeks, if not months, to build a solid case against them. Otherwise, Mr. Horn is full of hot air. Kudos to the McChesney brothers for having me on and being bold enough to fight back on the air!

Friday, January 06, 2006

The Dean, The Journalists And The Cloak Of The Easy Way Out


At a time when many Americans are distrustful of their
government and the common person is the nation’s best
journalist, there is one man whose work has been swept
under the rug of time: Robert St. John. St. John covered
Europe during World War II. While on a train in
Rumania, he was shot by Nazis. When WWII ended, he
covered what was then “Palestine,” the Roman-named
territory wholly owned by the British, and its return to
Jewish and Arab rule. While stationed in Palestine, he


witnessed the work of, and interviewed, people who did more to free the Middle-East with less of everything than our current leader could dream of in his waking hours. At his death, he was revered by both Jews and Arabs, alike. For decades, St. John was “The Dean” of Middle-East journalism. Now, he is someone whose best work deserves a second look in the light of day.

As I dust off the shelf of current notables like Rather, Moyers, Woodward, Koppel, Brokaw, and Jennings, there is nothing about their work that relishes of finger-licking good universality quite like St. John’s book: Shalom Means Peace. While the former tell tales of their work that only reach the borders of our nation, and Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation is a terrific example; Shalom Means Peace has world-wide implications. With all due respect to today’s journalists, if about forty percent of the world’s population is invested in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and won’t be at peace with each other until the peace process currently going on in Israel and The West Bank is resolved, then books such as Generation, and even the Watergate scandal, are mere specs on the political planet. One need only read Sleeping With The Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul For Saudi Crude, written by former CIA Agent Robert Baer, to understand this and realize that Nixon had the same people around him that surround our current president, today.

What ignoring Robert St. John does is smack of journalistic arrogance, not to mention ignorance, and corporate malfeasance. If I was to suddenly uncover lost Watergate tapes and claim that they exonerated former President Nixon, I would be laughed off the face of the Earth, and Bob Woodward would probably have my head on “Larry King Live.” Now, while Larry King might be interviewing people on the scale of a walleye’s spawn in Lake Superior these days, the point is noted. So, now, I ask all the great journalists of our time: How can you claim to be reporting honestly on the Middle-East if you disregard its finest journalist’s discoveries? Some of them were the following:

*It was difficult to understand how so few could stand up to so many. Seven hundred thousand Jews against forty million Arabs who encircled them. And the Arabs had access to the munitions of the 100,000,000 people of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Seven hundred thousand Jews with friends scattered all over the globe, but with no official ally, and with the United States, from whom help had been expected, aiding the enemy by playing theoretically neutral with its arms embargo.
It was difficult to understand how an army of only seventy thousand men and women, and even children, ill-equipped and with little training, could stand up against the British-organized Arab Legion and the combined military forces of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Iraq, plus irregulars from Saudi Arabia and other countries.

*...[Gershon] Agronsky said that the reason several hundred thousand Arabs fled from what is now Israel was because they thought they had all of Arabia to run to. The Jews stood firm because they had nowhere to go but into the sea. He told how the Arabs who had remained in the New City were now being fed with Jewish rations and housed in Jewish-owned homes. He said the Arab could thank his gods that, unlike the Jews of Europe, here he had never been resented, cursed, and despised.

*One night Hacohen repeated to me some of the conversation he had had with Count Bernadotte. It had been mostly about the mediator’s contention that there could be no peace in Palestine unless the State of Israel immediately took back the 300,000 Arabs who had fled.
“I told him there could be no peace if we did. We would be glad to have most of them return. But if just five terrorists came back with each 50,000 respectable Arabs, it would create a new tension that might lead to a new explosion and we’d have war all over again. We would have to sit constantly with our guns in our hands. And besides, I told him, who will feed and house these 300,000 refugees? The State of Israel, exhausted financially by the burdens of war, is in no condition to do it. It would mean that the average family in Israel would have to finance two Arabs, for we have just about 150,000 families here. The income of the average family here just about keeps that family going. We are all going to have to pull in our belts to pay for what the war [of Independence] has cost us, and for our own reconstruction. The average family simply cannot bear the financial burden at this time of supporting a couple of Arabs.”

*The 1,300 Arabs [surrounding Mishmar Haemek], at any time they wished, might have been able to destroy the kibbutz, with a population which never went over 600. But, instead, they came trooping into Mishmar Haemek every time they had a toothache or a cut finger. The doctors of the kibbutz took care of the Arabs without charge. And Jewish agricultural experts showed the Arabs how to get larger and better crops from their land.

*At this point Monty pointed to a village laying against a brown hillside not many rods away. It was easy to tell it was an Arab village because the houses were painted sky blue to keep away the devil.
“That place may look deserted to you. It may look like a lot of other Arab places you’ve seen that are deserted because the people fled to Egypt or Transjordan. But this village is deserted because the Arabs who live there have all been at the front fighting on our side. They’re still at the front, just in case war breaks out again. There are good Arabs and bad Arabs. I know! There are ones who got panicky and ones who didn’t. But the Arabs in that little village are rare. They fought beside us, and bravely, against their own people!”

Today’s journalists can debate the legitimacy of Israel, its place in the Middle-East, and its actions defending itself against the millions more Arabs -- with plenty of land, not to mention
oil -- that surround them, all they want to, but they cannot debate the fact that the man who announced to the world the end of World War II on NBC Radio did his homework. Robert St. John’s work is meticulous. It would be difficult to remake into a movie. While this might put some people off, it is the stuff a real article is made of.

By living amongst both Arabs and Jews for over a decade from the start of WWII to late in 1948 when he left to write Shalom Means Peace, he dedicated more of his time, energy, and resources to finding out the real “story behind the story” than most working journalists sadly, today, do. Many journalists, now, just swallow the spin of their governments or sit in the same bed of oil and lace that surrounded Nixon, and now surrounds President Bush.

In the age of the Internet, the satellite phone, and gigabytes of memory in laptop computers, it is much easier to find references to the work of St. John, and even his out of print books (note to Doubleday: please republish). There is no excuse for sloppy coverage of either side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is too much at stake, including for the current journalists involved, no matter how “objective” they claim to be.

Thursday, January 05, 2006

The Boldest Americans, The Most Shamefully Forgotten Americans

Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, is little known for being "the first American explicator of religious tolerance and secular government," as described by Reason Magazine. Given the times in which we live, filled with fatwas, terrorism, walls, and competing wills, Williams, more than perhaps any other early American, maybe even more than any of our "Founding Fathers," deserves recognition as the man who gave birth to the dream of our freedom.

Along with Williams, Anne Hutchinson, the famous Massachusetts exile under Governor John Winthrop, and one of our first feminists, provided the most stirring, public example of the early struggle for religious tolerance and secular government in our history. As her web site notes:

"When Anne and her family were still living in England, she had hoped that once in America, she could discuss her faith, and would not need to hide her personal beliefs from other Puritans; but telling others that God had given her the power of clairvoyance, and that she had known in advance of the exact day of their arrival to the colony was a mistake, and this caused John Cotton to question the inclusion of Anne's family into his congregation.
In order to gain acceptance within Cotton's flock, Anne had to confess to being 'guilty of wrong thinking', even though she did not really believe it. Anne and her family were allowed into the congregation, but these troubles over her freely expressing her faith made her realize that the oppressed had now become the oppressors, having already forgotten how they had once been treated in their native England by both the Catholics and the Protestant Church."


Today, the best way we can honor our legacy as Americans, is to take a second look at these people, perhaps our true "Founding Father" and "Founding Mother." This may be the boldest move we could ever make, and, in the end, the safest check mate of our nation.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Honest Reporting's Bold Steps

Honest Reporting's "Dishonest Reporter Award 2005" is posted. This is their fifth annual recognition of the most skewed and biased coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They're fair to both sides and deserve kudos for being bold enough to discover the truth. If you're not normally into foreign policy or the Middle-East, this web site might just peak your interest.

Monday, January 02, 2006

Remember The Fallen Heroes

Scott Cameron, disabled Vietnam veteran and campaign volunteer for Minnesota Senator Steve Kelley, has placed a sign showing the numbers of dead Iraq veterans in the window of Kelley's Duluth, Minnesota, office. Scott went on "The Ed Schultz Show" today to talk about this. Kelley's office is located next to a military recruiting center. Iraq veterans have been overwhelmingly supportive of Cameron, much to the chagrin of the military recruiters. For Mr. Cameron's action to be considered bold by our military is very disappointing. However, Mr. Cameron receives his place on this site because he is soldiering on. Kudos.

Six Degrees To The Ballot Box

Mike May has a challenge for you: take six friends to the ballot box next November. At the very least, if they have their own cars and can drive themselves or walk, just convince them to vote. I say, add to this that each of the six people (think "six degrees of separation" -- genius) ask who is counting his or her vote, and our elections will be spectacular. Bold, necessary, very American. Keep up the good work, Mike!

Randi's Bold Step

Air America Radio talk show host Randi Rhodes has started a new charity: Change For Change. As broadcast on her radio show earlier today, Randi said that Change will act as a big "piggybank" with the goal of raising at least $50,000.00 in six months to build a house in conjunction with either Habitat For Humanity, Oprah Winfrey's Angel Network, or both.

Randi talked about how the Bush administration is not rebuilding communities in the wake of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, including her own. She wants people to search their cars, their couches, and their wallets for their spare change and bring it all to local Air America affiliates. At the end of the six month time period, June 2nd, Randi will travel to as many AAR affiliates as she can to collect the money.