For the past few weeks, the world’s attention has been fixed on Iran, where there has been much public unrest about the contested presidential elections. It now seems fairly clear that Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad will be sworn in as the next president of Iran with the full backing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. President Barack Obama has been under considerable pressure, primarily from conservative forces within the United States, to take a “tougher” position on the Iranian election.  read more »

June 30, 2009

Now that the House has finished its version of the climate bill, it’s time to turn our attention back to the Senate-and to the White House.

President Obama issued a statement praising passage of the House bill that said, in part, “The energy bill that passed the House will finally create a set of incentives that will spark a clean energy transformation in our economy. It will spur the development of low carbon sources of energy — everything from wind, solar, and geothermal power to safer nuclear energy and cleaner coal.”  read more »

On May 6, 2009, the Governor of Maine signed the law ending discrimination in marriage for same-sex couples, but it is already being threatened.

Our fight to protect civil rights through marriage equality is just beginning.

Almost immediately, national opponents of equality declared they wanted to turn back the clock and are working tirelessly to place a measure on this November’s ballot –- modeled after California’s Prop 8 –- to take away the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry in Maine.

Find out what you can do to protect marriage equality in Maine today.  read more »

The crackdown and blackout on Iran’s streets and internet is silencing the voices of protesters. Iranians urgently need internet access to communicate with each other and world - let’s fund simple, cheap tools to help them freely access the internet:

TAKE ACTION NOW!

The brutal crackdown on Iran’s streets is succeeding. Lethal shooting, beatings and mass arrests have driven millions off the streets, and a communications blackout is preventing them from communicating with each other and the world.(1)  read more »

by Norman Solomon, t r u t h o u t | Perspective
June 18, 2009

Days ago, a warning shot from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue landed with a thud on Capitol Hill near some recent arrivals in the House. The political salvo was carefully aimed and expertly fired. But in the long run, it could boomerang.  read more »

What is being played out on Iran’s streets is an internal power struggle – and the US must avoid getting involved

The several days of mass, peaceful protests in Iran’s cities, towns and even villages, by millions of Iranians who believe their votes were not counted fairly in last weekend’s presidential election, have prompted various politicians in Washington to ponder whether the US should provide verbal or other support for those protesters -– and even condemn the incidents of violence that have left at least seven dead in Tehran and one in the southwestern city of Shiraz.  read more »

“Very much of the peace existing in the world is carried on the shoulders of women. That capacity should benefit humanity at all levels, micro-personal, meso-social, macro-states, mega-regions….More important than negotiation tables would actually be myriads of women, and men, capable of holism, dialectics, empathy, compassion, nonviolence, dialogue, handling conflict, building peace, creatively.”

By Johan Galtung

European Commission Speech — Making the Difference: Strengthening the Capacities to Respond to Crises and Security Threats; Brussels, 03/May/09  read more »

Commentary No. 259, June 15, 2009

by Immanuel Wallerstein  read more »