Oak Harbor, Ohio --- Digging out from this winter's intense snow storms has proven challenging enough for area residents and municipalities. But imagine the chaos of evacuating the entire region if a catastrophic radioactivity release were to occur at the aged and degraded Davis-Besse nuclear power plant on the Lake Erie shore east of Toledo. Unthinkable as it is, evacuation preparedness -- as well as post-accident cleanup lines of authority and funding sources -- are sorely lacking at best, or entirely non-existent. Notification is not necessarily required in such an event, not even for Canadians living within just 50 miles of the problem-plagued atomic reactor. These hypothetical, yet all too real, risks are at the heart of contentions being raised by citizen groups opposing the 20 year license extension of Davis-Besse.

The crowds keep swelling, as though awareness, determination – humanity itself – were rising up from the earth. Einstein observed that we can never solve problems at the same level of thinking that created them. I hear the resonance of a new moral intelligence asserting itself, on the streets of the Middle East, in the United States and around the world.

“You can kill a man,” said Medgar Evers, “but you can’t kill an idea.”

But oh, they try, they try. Hundreds were killed and wounded across the Middle East in recent weeks. “In the southern city of Aden,” AP reports, “Yemeni security forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators after Friday’s Muslim prayers, wounding at least 19 people.”

Our whole approach to security is built around the assumption that you can kill an idea. Guns, brutality, coercion: This is the common wisdom. It’s sustained by a moral numbness that permeates mainstream culture and is carried along by the corporate media, which perpetuate a facile misunderstanding of the world with the throwaway certitudes embedded in their reportage.

Send a letter to Attorney General Holder: 'Prosecute Bush for torture'

George W. Bush has publicly admitted that he authorized torture. He must be held accountable. We are part of a worldwide movement to make sure this happens.

With open torture investigations in Spain, Italy, Australia, Canada, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom, Bush and his cronies have fewer places to hide.

For our movement, this is just the beginning. The American people have a special obligation to make sure Bush is prosecuted for his crimes right here in the United States. Can this happen? You bet. The people and laws of the world are on our side.

Click here to send a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding the prosecution of Bush for torture. After sending your letter, help us spread the word using the Email, Facebook and Twitter buttons at the top of this email.

A BURGESS BULLETIN- 2/23/11
With polls showing 61% of Americans supporting public employees’ right to bargain collectively, the Rev. Jesse Jackson showed up Wednesday morning at the Local 413 Teamsters Hall to help the crowd of union members and community leaders shout and chant their agreement, and their opposition to Republican attempts to take away those rights. It was vintage Jackson —excellent insights into the workings of our economic and political systems, punctuated with slogans, some brilliant, all irresistible:

I know you’re tired, “One day more! One day more!”
“ Egypt learned from us…They were disciplined and peaceful.”
“Collective bargaining, not collective begging! Collective bargaining, not collective begging!”
“It’s not just about bargaining. It’s not just about Democrats. It’s about democracy!”
On the “misadventures” in Iraq and Afghanistan : “We love the soldiers, but not the veterans.”
“Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!”