I arrived at the Correctional Reception Center (CRC) in Orient, Ohio, on October 26, 2004. CRC is the facility where male prisoners from central and southern Ohio are processed into the state prison system.

I was housed in cellblock A2. I heard the second shift guards, Conley and Rollins, announce to all the prisoners in the block that they would punish the entire cellblock if anyone talked in line on the way to and from the dining room. The one guard, Conley, went into detail and explained that we would not be allowed to take showers or use the telephones, nor allowed out of our cells. He further explained that he would inform all the other prisoners which man was responsible for the punishment, and that we would remain on restriction until someone (other prisoners) “beat down” the prisoner caught talking in line. In a boastful manner, Conley stated that the system was stacked in his favor, that he would have no problem lying and falsifying reports to cover up the incidents.

Within a couple of days, I saw two different prisoners attacked by other prisoners in an effort to appease Conley and Rollins.

VelvetRevolution.us is a new coalition/movement in America dedicated to coordinating the activities of scores of grassroots and progressive organizations under one umbrella to effect change on a national level. We will be powerful because we will lead millions of citizens, without fear, to save and protect our beloved democracy.

VelvetRevolution (VR) will be a social and political movement that is not afraid to inform the citizenry, and act against power grabs, media bias, fraud, disenfranchisement and injustice. We will be able to act on a dime and be prepared beforehand for predictable outcomes of those in power. All those who are founding members of VR have been involved in the post-election fight for electoral fairness. Two of VRs’s first calls to action will be electoral reform and a divestiture campaign against the four major vote machine companies which we will give 20 days to meet our demands or we will unleash the power of the economy on them through the sustained action of millions of citizens. Companies that do not support democracy do not deserve to stay in business in America.

Hundreds of people gathered in Columbus Ohio’s Short North Arts District on December 4, to protest Ohio’s passage of State Issue One, the so-called “Marriage Amendment.”

The march, which coincided with the area’s monthly “Gallery Hop,” was sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign in conjunction with Ohioans for Growth and Equality.

Participants gathered in the parking lot of the Donato’s Pizzeria at 970 N. High Street, who provided free pizza. Those who had registered online beforehand were provided with bright yellow sweatshirts emblazoned with “Ohio – The Heart of Discrimination” and “Issue One is Not Justice For All.”

As participants checked in, they were divided into groups and assigned one of three start-up locations nearby in which to form lines. The young and the old, mothers with children, people in groups and alone – all turned out to show their support.

The latest polls show that most Americans are critical of the war in Iraq. But the option of swiftly withdrawing all U.S. troops from that country gets little media attention.

So far this year, many news outlets have lapsed into conjecture on what George W. Bush has in mind for the Iraq war. At the end of a recent lengthy editorial, the New York Times noted that “there’s speculation about whether President Bush intends to use the arrival of a new elected government [in Baghdad] as an occasion to declare victory and begin pulling out American troops.”

Right now, that kind of speculation amounts to a smokescreen for a war-crazed administration. Its evident intention is for large numbers of U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for a long time.

Predictably, as Seymour Hersh reports in the Jan. 24 edition of the New Yorker, “Bush’s re-election is regarded within the administration as evidence of America’s support for his decision to go to war. It has reaffirmed the position of the neoconservatives in the Pentagon’s civilian leadership who advocated the invasion.” According to one of