The “alternative” weekly newspaper formerly known as Columbus Alive seems to have abandoned the activist community in Columbus by eliminating listings of community meetings. Both the Central Ohio Sierra Club and Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio (DSCO) noticed that announcements of their monthly meetings were left out of recent issues. Alive, as it is now known, also moved the Tom Tomorrow cartoon to its back pages and made it very small, also a blow to progressive activists, who used to enjoy its commentary without using a magnifying glass. For the record, DSCO meets every third Thursday at Northwood Community Building, 2231 High Street at Northwood and call 614-470-2792 or visit ohio.sierraclub.org/central to find out when the Central Ohio Sierre Club meets. Central Ohio Sierra Club monthly programs are held on the second Wednesdays of most months, 7:30pm at the OSU Museum of Biological Diversity, 1315 Kinnear Rd. The Alive does offer the most extensive calendar of bar-hopping events.

Thirty-three million people - including 13 million children - live in households that are hungry or at risk of hunger. They cannot wait. Letters to congress are needed immediately to urge them to improve and strengthen the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, commonly known as welfare, so it better meets the needs of low-income families. Bread for the World supports the WORK Act (Work Opportunities and Responsibility for Kids Act) and considers it a far better TANF reauthorization plan than the bill passed by the house. It has not, however, reached the full Senate floor for a vote. Tell Senator DeWine and Senator Voinovich to make reauthorization of TANF a priority. Call the capital switchboard at 220-224-3121, ask to be transferred to the Senators’ offices and make the following points:

Reauthorizing TANF is the most important decision that Congress will make for hungry and poor people in the U.S. this year, and it is critical that it gets done now.

I urge you to support the bipartisan WORK Act passed by the Finance Committee.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Did you hear the Bush administration finally found a connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda? They both have the letter Q. The evil, evil Q. (Not original with me, making the rounds.)

Some days, I'd just as soon whack myself in the head with the newspaper as read it. Remember the time the stock market tanked, lost $6.65 trillion, 38 percent of its total value? That would be the last two years.

Silly us, we thought the Bushies were actually going to do something -- not much, but something -- about why it happened. Congress stepped nobly to the plate in the summer of aught-two -- as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, etc. came crashing down around us -- and passed a Reform Bill. Yes, they did. Not a dissenting vote against it, even in the Republican House.

President Bush fought it right up to the final week, then turned around and not only signed it, but claimed credit for it. So we were all off on the rosy road to reform, led by none other than Harvey Pitt, Bush's man at the Securities and Exchange Commission, who spent his entire career as a

To: Washington's most powerful people

OK, let's review the main points.

A basic PR problem remains. While you're in a hurry to launch an all-out war on Iraq, the main obstacle is that a large majority of Americans don't feel the rush. Uncle Sam's usual carrots and sticks have a long way to go at the U.N. Security Council. The big disappointment of January is that some key allies haven't caved yet.

No need to belabor the recent polling numbers. Newsweek did a national sampling of opinion midway through the month, and you went into a funk when you read the Associated Press summary: "Most Americans want the United States to take more time seeking a peaceful solution in Iraq rather than moving quickly into a military confrontation."

The next sentence was even more cautionary: "By 60 percent to 35 percent, people in the Newsweek poll ... said they would prefer that the Bush administration allow more time to find an alternative to war." And, what's more, "a majority would be opposed should this country act without the support of the United Nations and had no more than one or two allies."

GOOD MORNING.... We are gathered here in joy to celebrate the technologies of peace. The road to peace, to justice, to prosperity leads through the sun and the wind. Never has the contrast been so great.

In tragedy and fear, we are looking down the barrel of the gun of a war for oil.

A war for the technologies of the past.

A war for global warming and dead oceans.

A war to kill pollution control and to drill in Alaska.

A war about ending affirmative action and burying the Bill of Rights.

A war to make abortion illegal and imprison those who need medical marijuana.

The Republican party has become the Al Queida of the environment.

The Bush Administration has chosen economic ruin over peace and prosperity.

We are here to reverse that choice.

We are in the bright sunshine, looking at the path of peace.

Cars that are nonviolent.

Solar panels that worship nature.

Wind mills that embrace what's holy.

We are living proof that throughout history, peace has prevailed and tyrants have fallen.