• KUDOS to Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and John Warner (R-VA) for “arguing that the president’s proposal [on the treatment of detainees] would effectively gut the nearly 60-year-old Geneva Conventions, sending a dark signal to the rest of the world and leaving United States military without adequate protection against torture and mistreatment.â€? As discussed in a recent post here, any change in federal or international law that would permit cruel and unusual treatment of detainees is immoral and misguided. more…
• KUDOS to Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) for eloquently and rightly taking task with her fear-mongering Republican colleagues on the Senate floor. She said, “America is not tired of fighting terrorism. America is tired of the wrongheaded and boneheaded leadership of the Republican party that has sent six and a half billion dollars a month to Iraq when the front line was Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. That led this country to attack Saddam Hussein, when we were attacked by Osama bin Laden. Who captured a man that did not attack the country and let loose a man that did.â€? For the full text of her comments and a video clip, follow the link. more…
• KUDOS to Earl E. Devaney, the inspector general of the Interior Department, for appearing before a House committee on Wednesday and criticizing top officials of his agency for “tolerating widespread ethical failures, from cronyism to cover-ups of incompetence.â€? As reported in the New York Times, “the blistering attack was part of Mr. Devaney’s report on what he called the Interior Department’s ‘bureaucratic bungling’ of oil and gas leases signed in the late 1990’s, mistakes that are now expected to cost the government billions of dollars but were covered up for six years.â€? more…
• KUDOS to actor George Clooney for continuing to raise awareness about the genocide and suffering in Darfur. Yesterday, he appeared before the United Nations Security Council and “warned the U.N.’s most powerful body…that if it did not send peacekeepers to Sudan’s Darfur region, millions would die in the first genocide of the 21st century….The mandate of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur expires at the end of the month and the Sudanese government has rejected their replacement by a U.N. force. If U.N. forces are not sent to replace them, George Clooney warned…all aid workers would leave and the 2.5 million refugees who depend on them would die.â€? more…
Kmareka.com 
Day 105 24/7 DC VIGIL for DARFUR; Day 35 HUNGER STRIKE (54 days so far this summer, with breaks); ARRESTED Sept 9th at White House with 29 others from Africa Action; http://wwww.standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com
THE ONLY HOPE FOR DARFUR: WE-THE-WORLD’S-PEOPLE. Duh.
It is said that the mark of truly being “crazy� is expecting different results from doing the same thing over and over and…. Ok, we needed to try some new approaches, hoping we could find a new formula for mass social change (stopping Genocide has NEVER been done); looking for an approach that would be comfortable, convenient, safe, executed from our computer terminal / phone / TV or office in some combination. The variations we’ve tried are: * Blame (Bush, UN, EU…) , * Emails, letters, postcards…,* Letting the Nonprofits do it, * Divestment. And the results are in. WE ARE NOT, STOPPING THE GENOCIDE!
You mean that the answer for Darfur is the same answer we found for…* Ending the Vietnam War, * Gaining Civil Rights in the US, * Gaining Women the right to Vote in the US, * Ending apartheid in South Africa, * Throwing off the British oppression at our start….?
Yup. No one else, nothing else can stop it, can save 4,000,000 in Concentration Camps in Sudan and Chad. The buck stops with WE-THE-WORLD’S-PEOPLE. Let’s stop talking and start – marching, demonstrating, sitting-in, hunger striking….
The next step is September 17th (SaveDarfur.org; DayForDarfur.org). BUT, then we need to be ready on SEPTEMBER 18th, 19th… AS LONG AS IT TAKES, WHATEVER IT TAKES.
Jay McGinley, jymcginley@cs.com