Greenpeace wants to bring our ship, the Esperanza, to the Port of Miami for supplies and to bring people from the Miami area on board to discuss our efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest.

But the Port of Miami is refusing us entry because John Ashcroft's Justice Department is prosecuting Greenpeace for a protest action last year. The New York Times has reported that this prosecution is "unusual and questionable." We intend to be exonerated.

Don't let the Port of Miami keep Greenpeace out and silence our voices. Contact the authorities in Miami and tell them that they should allow the Esperanza to dock in Miami!

Take action now:

www.greenpeaceusa.org/bin/view.fpl/10048/action_id/196.html

If you are in the Miami area and would like to get more involved in this issue, please email Ginger Cassady at Ginger.Cassady@wdc.greenpeace.org for more information.

You can read more about the Bush administration's attempts to shut us down here:

SEATTLE -- What a gully-washer. What a frog-strangler. You ain't seen rain until you've seen record rain in Seattle. My wetness awareness has shot up thanks to this town. But next day, the sun came out -- and you could hardly tell the deluge had occurred.

            And so it is in our public life -- the finger of fate writes, and having writ, moves on, leaving today's horrendous scandal back there with the snows of yesteryear, while we all focus on The Latest.

            But there is one deception that will not go away. What happened to the weapons of mass destruction? "The intolerable reality is that they blatantly twisted intelligence information to fit preconceived policies," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "They lied to promote public relations, from the Jessica Lynch ordeal to the president's campaign landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln --- and about what war would cost our country."

            "Before the war, week after week after week, we were told lie after lie after lie," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Across the U.S., thousands of industrial facilities use and store hazardous chemicals in large quantities that pose great, and often unnecessary, risks to the general public. For example, 50 oil refineries across the country use hydrofluoric acid, putting over 15 million Americans at risk of injury or death from an accident or terrorist attack, even though safer alternatives exist that would eliminate the threat.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is debating legislation supported by the chemical industry that would make security guidelines at chemical facilities voluntary and could exempt parts of the industry from any regulation.

Please take a moment to ask your senators to oppose the industry-supported Senate Bill 994 and support amendments that would increase public accountability and close industry loopholes. Then, ask your family and friends to help by forwarding this e-mail to them.

To take action, click here or paste this link into your web browser: pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=456&id4=OHFreep

*This article was written with Jeffrey St. Clair.

"It's agricultural asbestos!" That ripe phrase is how one British farmer described the menu of genetically modified (GM) crops being offered by Monsanto, a food biotechnology company in the United Kingdom. It became a rallying cry for farmers and environmentalists across Britain seeking to keep GM seeds out of English soil. For its part, Monsanto, and the Blair government, dismissed such charges as the ravings of Luddites. But now, a three-year study by British scientists, commissioned by Blair's own environment minister, Michael Meacher, reveals that the environmental risks of GM crops may be even greater than previously believed.

Jackson Browne is a class act that keeps getting classier.

From "Running on Empty" and "Doctor My Eyes" to "For Everyman," "The Pretender" and "Late for the Sky," Jackson has been a mainstay of the rock scene for thirty years. He's also been a pillar of strength for the movements for social justice and environmental sanity. His countless benefits have helped grassroots organizations work for peace in Latin America, fight nuclear power, and much more.

Now he's on that riskiest and most demanding of musical ventures, a solo acoustic tour.

How many rock icons could sit on a stage alone and truly hold an audience for a full concert? A loud band armed with riffs and theatrics, amps and antics, can roll over a lack of real talent. Rock is an industry built on hype, short-term profits and one-hit wonders.

But with more than a dozen albums, Jackson is still writing and recording songs that resonate emotionally, politically and spiritually. He can also perform them acoustic, on a bare stage, with warmth and genius.

By way of disclaimer, I've known Jackson since 1978, when he peformed with