Almost a month has passed since the Senate Foreign Relations committee approved Harold Koh to serve as Legal Advisor (head lawyer) at the State Department. As Dean of Yale Law School and an expert in international law with a long track record of human rights work, he is the perfect person to help our nation move forward with international legal affairs.
However, despite strong support from fair-minded lawyers all across the political spectrum (including lawyers he opposed in his inspirational work to help Haitian refugees in the early 1990s - see
Yale Alumni Magazine
Koh's nomination is bottled up and needs your help.
Senators Collins, Snowe and Voinovich are Republican senators whose support is needed to bring a vote on Koh's nomination.
Would you mind taking 5 minutes right now to help Harold? Here is a phone script you can use:
Phone script

Here is contact info:
* Collins:

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Burma's military regime wants the world's most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, to confess why she allegedly broke the law to shelter an American Mormon who "had a vision," sneaked into her mildewing villa, and made a video.

Burma's military, which seized power in a 1962 coup, regards Mrs. Suu Kyi as a repeat offender who allegedly provided illegal hospitality to the same American, John Yettaw, five months ago without her being punished.

The current trial of Mrs. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, hinges on her association with Mr. Yettaw, 53, from Falcon, Missouri.

Police said Mrs. Suu Kyi and her two female aides, who live in her two-story villa, fed Mr. Yettaw after he emerged, dripping wet, at her door at 11 p.m. on May 3 from his swim across Inya Lake which laps her spacious garden.

Voluntarily allowing Mr. Yettaw to then spend two nights at her home would defy Burma's law against permitting any foreigner to remain unregistered at any address overnight.

Her lawyers reportedly said she asked him to leave soon after he arrived.

Last week, President Obama sent his FY2010 budget request to Congress and, as expected, included in it $2.775 billion in military aid for Israel, an increase of $225 million from this year's budget. The budget request now goes to the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs for hearings and "mark-ups".This request for an increase in military aid to Israel comes despite the fact that Israel consistently misuses U.S. weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts. During the Bush Administration, Israel killed more than 3,000 Palestinian civilians who took no part in hostilities, including more than 1,000 children.During its December-January war on the Gaza Strip alone, Israel killed nearly 1,200 Palestinian non-combatants. Especially during this acute economic crisis, is this how you want Congress to spend your taxes? If not, then take action below.

TAKE ACTION 1. Send a personalized letter to the Members of Congress on the Appropriations Subcommittee.

In sacred remembrance of all those we have killed, and are continuing to kill . . .

The flag waves, the heart stirs, the music rends the air. Memorial Day 2009. I stood at a bubbling fountain in downtown Chicago and listened to speakers from Vietnam Veterans Against the War — speakers with hard-earned and grown-up attitudes about war — apologize for the wars still going on today and plead for awareness that they must stop, that we must learn how little they solve and how long they linger, and that only in committing ourselves to the end of all wars can we honor the dead. Then, toward the end of the small, solemn gathering, the passing of Zak Wachtendonk was mourned.

“Zak’s name will never be on the memorial, but he died in Vietnam just as surely as my nephew did,” said Barry Romo, who earlier had talked about the death of his relative.

Romo’s comment opens up the select world of this day’s honorees in a way that has left me disturbed in wave after wave of overwhelming remorse.