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Friends,

Students for a Democratic Society (sds) is back!

Finally, and not a moment (or a few decades) too soon, we have the re-emergence of a national and international nonsectarian umbrella anti-imperialist movement based in the US.   This is one of the most crucial struggles on the Left going on anywhere today, and has met with amazing growth, although the specifics are fuzzy:  over 200 chapters forming or in formation, over 1000 nationally registered, and active campaigns across the country, all within the first year since Martin Luther King day 2006.

Dear Molly,

It just came on the news,you have passed away.That phrase doesn't do you justice. You were a fighter,a screamer,a true believer of doing things right. I would expect no less of you when facing death.

You gave it a good fight,sleep well,old friend.

We never met but you were with me often. My morning coffee won't taste the same without your column,my lap will be empty without a dictionary to look up some of your words,the ones you didn't make up to fool me. My witty repartee will be diminished because I can no longer quote you,and most of all, your validation of my thoughts helped me believe in myself.thank you,old friend.

Your last columns were about stopping Bush's war.I'll work on it from this side,you do it from up there.
Molly Ivins is gone, and her words will never grace these pages again -- for this, we will mourn. But Molly wasn't the type of woman who would want us to grieve. More likely, she'd say something like, "Hang in there, keep fightin' for freedom, raise more hell, and don't forget to laugh, too."

If there was one thing Molly wanted us to understand, it's that the world of politics is absurd. Since we can't cry, we might as well laugh. And in case we ever forgot, Molly would remind us, several times a week, in her own unique style.

Shortly after becoming editor of Molly Ivins' syndicated column, I learned one of my most important jobs was to tell her newspaper clients that, yes, Molly meant to write it that way. We called her linguistic peculiarities "Molly-isms." Administration officials were "Bushies," government was in fact spelled "guvment," business was "bidness." And if someone was "madder than a peach orchard boar," well, he was quite mad indeed.

Molly Ivins, the liberal Texas columnist best known for her down-home humor and biting wit, passed away on Jan. 31, 2007. We at Creators Syndicate are deeply saddened by this loss to us individually and to newspaper readers around the world.

When Molly Ivins began her journalism career at the Houston Chronicle in the late '60s, no one, including her, realized the tremendous impact her political writings would have on our nation. Her friendly, approachable style changed the tone of newspaper column writing, and she fast became a reader favorite.

Richard S. Newcombe, president of Creators Syndicate, said he was personally saddened by the great loss.

"When Molly joined Creators Syndicate in 1992, she brought excitement and levity," he said. "I had admired her columns in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, especially the way she infused political issues with color and personality. She was an incredibly charismatic talent in her own right."

Know any progressive business owners? Dentists, travel agents or service organizations who might be interested in advertising during Progressive Talk radio shows?

Our group, OhioMajorityRadio, is approaching Central Ohio radio broadcasters to propose that they include Progressive Talk in their programming. We would like to show local broadcasters that there is support for Progressive Talk in the Central Ohio business community.

Could you please write a brief letter indicating to local radio broadcasters that you would be interested in buying commercial time during Progressive Talk programming?

For example, the letter could simply state:

"I would like to advertise my business during Progressive Talk radio programs. Broadcasters should contact me when they have Progressive Talk programming on their station."---signed, on your company or agency's letterhead.

After you've written this non-binding "letter of interest", please mail it to:

OhioMajorityRadio.com
P.O. Box 14117
Columbus, OH 43214

We would appreciate replies within the next week.

Best Regards,
A new front in the “global war on terror” has emerged with its center in war-torn Somalia. The target of the new front, the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), both brought back normalcy to seemingly untamable southern Somalia and anxiously legislated morality to the point of social suffocation. According to the U.S. State Department, its greatest sin was its purported link to al-Qaida.

The military action to crush these “Islamic extremists” is already underway. Washington-supported Ethiopian troops carried out a preemptive attack against Somalia at the end of December. Ethiopian tanks roared all the way to the capital Mogadishu and then on to Kismayo near the Kenyan border. The invasion proved easier than expected. The comparatively more powerful Ethiopian army teamed up with a militia loyal to the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to achieve their objective of regime change with an ease ominously reminiscent of the entry into Baghdad of the “coalition of the willing.”

On Saturday, I was thrilled to join hundreds of thousands of protesters in Washington, D.C., including my good friends at Progressive Democrats of America and Code Pink, in protesting the Iraq War and demanding a cut-off in funds to the immoral war in Iraq.  As one who has been part of the civil rights and anti-Vietnam war movements in the 60’s, I can say that the energy and enthusiasm I saw today is entirely comparable.

At the Rally

"George Bush has a habit of firing military leaders who tell him the Iraq war is failing," [Conyers] said, looking out at the masses. "He can't fire you." Referring to Congress, the Michigan Democrat added: "He can't fire us." 
- Associated Press

One of the points I made in my speech was that "George Bush has a habit of firing military leaders who tell him the Iraq war is failing."  The White House wasted no time in responding, with spokesman Trey Bohn claiming that that Conyers "needs to learn the difference between fact and fable, between a soundbite and a slur, [Conyers'] assertion that the president fires generals with whom he disagrees is flat wrong."

Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

In spite of its manifold problems, the United States remains a good country to live in. The greatest asset of this nation lies in its people who came from all over the world. There is hardly a major culture and language which is not found in the USA. This explains why President John F. Kennedy referred to this country as a “conglomeration of nations.” With the exception of a tiny minority of Native Americans, all citizens are immigrants or their descendants. This explains why we have Irish or Italian or Korean Americans and so on.

Capitalistic System in Perspective

A few months ago I began receiving emails with a subject line “Submission For Linking” from Jason Miller. I’m not sure how he discovered me or my website, but as began reading the barrage of articles that Jason sent me for linking, I became increasingly impressed with his blogspot and with the person managing it. Upon noticing that Jason occasionally interviewed other progressive bloggers, I requested that he interview me, and the results have been extraordinary, in part, because of the nature of the questions that Jason asks. As a result, I asked Jason if I could interview him, not only to return a favor, but because I am genuinely curious about who this man is and what drives his passion to maintain and manage Thomas Paine’s Corner, aka, Civil Libertarian Blogspot.

Jason, I take it that you are not the actor, Jason Miller, who played the Father Damien Karras in “The Exorcist.” So having established that, I have some questions for you:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have taken impeachment "off the table," but House Judiciary Chair John Conyers (D-MI) is about to put it back on the menu.

Conyers may have been blocked by a timid Pelosi from initiating impeachment hearings immediately into President Bush's crimes against the Constitution, but he's taken the first step anyway, with the anouncement of plans to hold hearings into what is surely the President's gravest abuse of power.

The congressman, a veteran of the Nixon impeachment hearings who recently published a book on Bush's crimes, today announced plans to have his Judiciary Committee hold hearings on Bush's rampant use of so-called "signing statements." These are the documents the president has claimed give him the power, as a commander-in-chief, to ignore laws duly passed by the Congress.

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