A Rainbow of Actions

I'm going to start something new. I get a lot of emails requesting me to write or petition someone for this or that reason, and I wanted to share some of them with you. There is one for each color of the rainbow. Ish.

Red: Last Tuesday, women's rights activists distributed roses outside of Zimbabwe's Parliament in a Valentine's-themed demonstration. This being Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, many were arrested. So Amnesty International wants you to write Valentines for Mugabe. Or you can email Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice and Ambassador and urge the release of Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, the founders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise. The two were arrested on October 16 for "disturbing the peace" and their bail hearing has been postponed a total of three times. The court is "very busy."

Orange: The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, the first time a sitting head of state has been indicted by the ICC. Save Darfur is worried that Bashir will lash out and wants you to email President Obama and have him name a "point man" on Darfur.

Yellow: Implore your Senators to investigate how the United States began to torture. (From Amnesty International.)

Green: For those affiliated with the University of Michigan, undersign this letter to President Mary Sue Coleman, urging her to reduce the university's environmental impact and encourage the research and promotion of sustainability. (From the Student Sustainability Initiative.)

Blue: MoveOn.org wants you to sign this petition to counter conservative flak and convince President Obama to appoint a progressive Secretary of Health & Human Services who can reform the United States' health care system. (MoveOn is particularly worried about Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen who made a fortune running an HMO and cut TennCare.)

Indigo: Amnesty International wants you to email Secretary of State Clinton, urging her to create an upper-level position dedicated to gender equality.

Violet:

Ken Starr, yes that Ken Starr, has filed a legal brief seeking to forcibly divorce gay California couples who married before the passage of Prop 8. Sign this petition to do something about it. (From the Courage Campaign.)

Take action!

Changing Climate, Stagnant Politics

So, we haven't posted in a while, which of course means that nothing important happened in the past nine days.

Except the brief life of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. The act, which I first heard about on Monday, would have (1) created a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases--in my opinion, the best way to limit such pollution--and (2) allowed states to have tougher environmental regulations than the federal government, which California tried to do, but the Bush Administration's EPA denied California this right last December.

And now the bill has been filibustered to death. The supporters of the bill were 12 votes shy of the 60 necessary to invoke cloture and end debate. (Both Sens. Levin and Stabenow voted for cloture.) Senators will now wait until next year, when they will have a more supportive president and hopefully a more favorable legislature, until they try again.

Also on the climate change front, the NASA inspector general released a report stating that "political appointees in the space agency's public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers' findings about climate change for at least two years." Shock.

On a lighter note, there's a wolverine in Michigan's thumb!

The '01E Wolverine, North Campus, U-M, munching on the head of an Easter Bunny. (4/5/08)

Headlines: 20 May 2008 (and Older)

• 'W,' Oliver Stone's Bush Biopic
  

  A little crass.
  

• Klein on Obama:
  

  A general-election campaign between John McCain and Barack Obama doesn't need any hype. It won't be boring. The question is whether we, politicians and press alike, will grant this election — and electorate — the respect that it deserves.
  

• Make wearing a flag pin the 28th Amendment
  

  And the award for Best Use of Sarcasm goes to...
  

• The Fall of Conservatism
  

  The pendulum swings left? Long, but interesting.
  

• Obama and
  Ahma-gonna-kill-myself-if-the-primary-season-doesn't-end-soon-ijad
  

  Obama said that he would meet with the leadership of Iran, but he never said he'd meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. So why does McCain and everyone on the Right say he did? And when is that McCain-Obama foreign policy debate going to be?
  

• Underplayed Story of the Day
  

  Remember when the EPA denied the state of California to legislate its own fuel-efficiency standards? Well, it turns out that, like everything else in the Bush Administration, the decision was based on sound science, and not politics.
  

• Obama Is Expected to Hit a Milestone in Today's Votes
  

  After primaries in Kentucky & Oregon, Obama will have the majority of pledged delegates, which will hopefully trigger a superdelegate-slide in his direction.