Make a tax-deductible online contribution to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF for humanitarian aid to Iraqi women and children.

The Miami Herald: Patriot Act II - the sequel

Bloggers spearhead offscreen opposition

From Ha'aretz: The good, the bad and the propaganda:

Don't the Iraqis have a right to resist aggressive invasion? Is it really only the fear of Saddam Hussein that drives the Iraqi resistance, or is it a legitimate uprising against a foreign invader, mixed with deep and perhaps justified anti-American sentiments?

From forwarded email:

Against all odds, there were enough signatures, e-mails telegrams and phone calls within the last 24 hours to Congressman Dennis J.Kucinich of Ohio to persuade him to introduce before the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. a little known resolution that deprives the President of his authority to wage war.

However, we must now persuade Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that there is a growing consensus if not a plurality to mandate the resolution for a House ballot.

Therefore, please take a moment to e-mail Speaker Hastert by simply saying, "I am in favor of introducing HJ Resolution 20 for a vote."

Speaker Hastert's e-mail:
Speaker@mail.house.gov

How to watch Iraqi TV on the Web

Alternet.org: "Metaphor and War, Again", by George Lakoff

Greenpeace: Write to the Foreign Ministers of Cuba, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Switzerland, Fiji, Mexico, Chile, Germany, Russia, and France, and ask them to support 'Uniting for Peace':

We call upon you to support the move by the Arab League to call for an Emergency Session of the UN General Assembly, following the debate on 26 March in the Security Council.

It is clear that the Security Council has failed in its primary duty to maintain international peace and security. The UN’s most democratic body, the General Assembly, should debate and pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in this illegal, preventive war being waged by the US, the UK and their allies.

The war on Iraq is in direct contravention of Article 2.4 of the United Nations Charter, and we ask you to stand up for the integrity of the United Nations, the institution upon which so much of the world depends.

Cool and Strange Music Magazine Compilation -- "31 of what we feel are some of the most wacked-out obscure recordings we've ever heard!"

Boycott the War

People For the American Way: Tell Your Senators to Vote 'NO' on Senate Budget Resolution

Tell the UN: Don't Let Sudan Off the Hook

Tell your senators to stop Bush's reckless wartime budget

Iraq Body Count Database -- an independent and comprehensive public database of civilian deaths in Iraq resulting directly from military actions by the USA and its allies in 2003.

DONATE TO OXFAM

Amnesty International USA: Tell President Bush to refrain from using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, cluster bombs, or anti-personnel landmines, which are likely to result in civilian casualties and deaths.

Greenpeace: tell your U.N. Ambassador to invoke the "Uniting for Peace" resolution (resolution 377A):

I am writing to request that you support invoking General Assembly resolution 377A, Uniting for Peace, to end the war on Iraq.

We are in precisely the situation that this resolution was designed to address. The Security Council is deadlocked: there is a "lack of unanimity of the permanent members" of the Security Council. An illegal breach of the peace and an act of aggression have now occurred, which will claim the lives of untold thousands of innocent victims.

I ask you to live up to the mandate upon which the United Nations was founded. I ask you to join the voices calling for an emergency session of the General Assembly to be convened to condemn this act of aggression and recommend collective measures to "maintain and restore international peace and security" by halting this war.

The future of our world, and of the United Nations, hang in the balance. Please take action now.

Robert Fisk reporting from Baghdad

When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History, by Thom Hartmann

5 Ways You Can Oppose War

From NY Times: A Tyrant 40 Years in the Making:

Forty years ago, the Central Intelligence Agency, under President John F. Kennedy, conducted its own regime change in Baghdad, carried out in collaboration with Saddam Hussein.

Tell your members of congress to co-sponsor S. J. RES. 9 and H. J. RES. 24, which would require President Bush to submit a report to Congress on the critical outstanding questions concerning both pre-conflict and post-conflict matters regarding the President's policy on Iraq.

UnionVoice.org: Tell your representatives: Nobody should go without health care

From How Kofi Annan Can Stop the War:

According to recent reports, the United States may be about to warn the U.N. inspectors and reporters to leave Iraq within three days. The purpose of this warning will be to protect the inspectors and reporters from harm when U.S. forces attack Iraq, perhaps late next week. The situation provides an interesting opportunity for U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. If the U.S. issues the expected warning, he can and should announce that the U.S. has no authority to evict the inspectors, who are United Nations employees. Furthermore, Annan can say that he will not withdraw the inspectors from Iraq unless he is ordered to do so by the U.N. Security Council or the inspectors report that they are not being allowed to do their job.

Letter of Resignation by John H. Brown, Foreign Service Officer

Missouri GOP Chairman's Resignation Letter

ActForChange: Indict Saddam Hussein for War Crimes

RefugeesInternational.org: U.S. Unprepared for Humanitarian Obligations of Iraq Occupation

Bush Senior warns Junior about the cost of unilateral action

From Patriot Act's Big Brother:

[The Domestic Security Enhancement Act (DSEA)] would actually turn citizens associated with "terrorist" groups into aliens.

They would then be subject to the deportation power, which the DSEA would expand to give the Attorney General the authority to deport any noncitizen whose presence he deems a threat to our "national defense, foreign policy or economic interests." One federal court of appeals has already ruled that this standard is not susceptible to judicial review. So this provision would give the Attorney General unreviewable authority to deport any noncitizen he chooses, with no need to prove that the person has engaged in any criminal or harmful conduct.

A US citizen stripped of his citizenship and ordered deported would presumably have nowhere to go. But another provision authorizes the Attorney General to deport persons "to any country or region regardless of whether the country or region has a government." And failing deportation to Somalia (or a similar place), the Justice Department has issued a regulation empowering it to detain indefinitely suspected terrorists who are ordered deported but cannot be removed because they are stateless or their country of origin refuses to take them back.

Tell your Representative to support and co-sponsor House Joint Resolution 20, written by Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Ron Paul (R-TX), which would repeal last October's "Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002", in order to require President Bush to return to Congress to seek authority to launch a pre-emptive attack on Iraq.

peace-action.org: Urge U.N. Security Council Members to Stand Against War in Iraq, and be sure to Cc president@whitehouse.gov and vice.president@whitehouse.gov

Tell the European Union to devote more resources to stopping sex slavery in Bosnia-Herzegovina

American Civil Liberties Union:

• Tell your U.S. senators and representative to oppose the so-called "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003" (S 3/HR 760), the latest attack on women's reproductive rights
• Tell your senators to oppose S. 272, the "Charity Aid, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Act", which would allow religious organizations that take federal funds to discriminate against job applicants on the basis of religion, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, HIV status or any other characteristic that a religious organization finds objectionable.

From What Can the World Do if the US Attacks Iraq?, by Jeremy Brecher:

[U.N.] Resolution 377 provides that, if there is a "threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and the permanent members of the Security Council do not agree on action, the General Assembly can meet immediately and recommend collective measures to U.N. members to "maintain or restore international peace and security."
[...]
Lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights (www.ccr-ny.org) have drafted a proposed "Uniting for Peace" resolution that governments can submit to the General Assembly. It declares that military action without a Security Council resolution authorizing such action is contrary to the UN Charter and international law.
[...]
Countries opposed to such a war can be asked to state now that, if there is a Security Council deadlock and a US attack on Iraq is imminent or under way, they will convene the General Assembly on an emergency basis to condemn the attack and order the US to cease fire and withdraw.

EqualMarriage.org: Ask Your [Massachusetts] Elected Officials to Support Equal Marriage Rights for Same-Sex Couples

From America admits suspects died in interrogations:

The men's death certificates, made public earlier this week, showed that one captive, known only as Dilawar, 22, from the Khost region, died from "blunt force injuries to lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease" while another captive, Mullah Habibullah, 30, suffered from blood clot in the lung that was exacerbated by a "blunt force injury".

From forwarded email:

---- Original Message ----
Dear friends,

Every now and then someone comes up with something so simple and different it's breathtaking. Dr. Helen Caldicott (who, as you may know, founded Physicians for Social Responsibility) had the idea of asking the Pope to travel to Baghdad and use his physical presence there to prevent the attack on Iraq. Wow! The Pope has already spoken out vigorously and repeatedly against the war. He has sent envoys to both Iraq and the US to try and work for a peaceful resolution. In other words, this is an issue on which he feels strongly.

A campaign of messages to the Pope has now begun.

Dr. Helen Caldicott asks everyone to write Pope John Paul II at accreditamenti@pressva.va

Please consider sending a message of your own. You do not need to be a Catholic to do this (I am not), you just have to care about humanity. More information, followed by a sample letter based on Dr. Caldicott's letter, is below. Of course you can write your own letter if you prefer.

--------
Subject: An Appeal from Dr. Helen Caldicott to you... and to the Pope

Dear Friends,
I write this appeal for your help as a pediatrician, a mother, and a grandmother -- and I am writing about the lives of tens of thousands of children.

Although the current administration has demonstrated it has no reservations about slaughtering up to 500,000 innocents in Iraq, there is one person whose life they absolutely will not risk. That person is Pope John Paul II. While the Pope has already formally denounced the proposed war, calling it a defeat for humanity, as well as sent his top spokesperson to meet with Saddam Hussein, he now must take a historically unprecedented action of his own and travel to Baghdad. The Pope's physical presence in Iraq will act as the ultimate human shield, during which time leaders of the world's nations can commit themselves to identifying and implementing a peaceful solution to this war that the world's majority clearly does not support.

To persuade the Holy Father to take this unusual but potent action, he must hear from you and millions of others around the world who have already been inspired to stand up and speak out for peace. A mountain of surface mail, email, faxes, and phone calls are our devices to inspire him. Please understand that you taking just a few minutes right now to communicate with him may ultimately spare the lives of thousands of innocent people who at this moment live in complete terror from the threat of an imminent U.S.-lead military strike on their homeland.

So here is what you can do to be a part of this powerful final action to stop the march to war in Iraq.

1. Do not forward the letter below. Its power depends upon your sending it directly, as a personal communication to the Pope.
2. Simply cut and paste the letter below into a new email. Also cut and paste the Vatican email address we have provided.
3. At the close of the letter, type in your name, city and state--no need to include your address.
4. Either email accreditamenti@pressva.va, FAX ([from USA] 011-39-06698-85378 --from other countries drop the 011 prefix -- or send a hard copy of this letter to the addresses in the letter below. DO NOT put "Italy" anywhere on the envelope, as this will send your mail into the Italian mail system which is separate and independent of the Vatican system. Should you wish to phone the Vatican directly, (from USA) dial 011-39-06-69-82--all other countries must use their appropriate international prefix.
5. Pass this original email on to as many people you can so as to assure a critical mass is reached in this action.
6. Note that as you and others begin sending your letters, faxes and emails, there will be a simultaneous effort to alert the media of this action, so as to be sure it is publicly known throughout the world.

Thank you for participating in this formal request of the Pope. We just may stop this war in Iraq -- and save these childrens' lives.

Dr. Helen Caldicott

----------------------------------------------------------------------
(Sample letter)

His Holiness John Paul II Apostolic Palace 00120 Vatican City State Europe

Your Holiness,

I write to you today out of a sense of great urgency. As you know, the United States of America is on the verge of launching what may be one of the most cataclysmic wars in history using weapons of mass destruction upon the Iraqi people, fifty percent of whom are less than 15 years of age. Conservative estimates are that such a war will result in the death of 500,000 Iraqis.

I am very grateful that you have already spoken out clearly against this war. Thank you. Leaders of many other churches have also spoken clearly in opposition to the war. So have millions of people around the world. All of those voices matter. But you are in a unique position to actually stop the war. Indeed, your physical presence in Baghdad will prevent the impending slaughter of hundreds of thousands of human beings, and force the international community of nations to identify and implement a truly peaceful resolution to this unprecedented, preemptive aggression.

I implore you to travel to Baghdad and to remain there until a peaceful solution to this crisis has been implemented. The lives of the people of Iraq rest in your hands - as does the fate of the world.

With hope,
(Your name, Your City, State, Country)

Sign the Ovarian Cancer Awareness Postage Stamp Petition, which requests that the U. S. Postal Service Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee approve an Ovarian Cancer Awareness Stamp, to promote early diagnosis.

Wait a minute -- I thought that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (currently being "questioned" by Pakistani and US intelligence officers) was supposed to have been killed in Karachi, Pakistan, in a joint operation of FBI and Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) on Sept. 11, 2002.

MoveOn.org: Emergency Appeal to the U.N.: "The U.N. Security Council should back tough inspections, not war" -- sign the petition.

Tired: Big Crunch, Big Chill -- Wired: Big Rip. See also: Phantom Energy and Cosmic Doomsday:

Here, we explore the consequences that follow if the dark energy is phantom energy, in which the sum of the pressure and energy density is negative. The positive phantom-energy density becomes infinite in finite time, overcoming all other forms of matter, such that the gravitational repulsion rapidly brings our brief epoch of cosmic structure to a close. The phantom energy rips apart the Milky Way, solar system, Earth, and ultimately the molecules, atoms, nuclei, and nucleons of which we are composed, before the death of the Universe in a ``Big Rip''.

From The Guardian (Australia): Battle of the currencies -- The real reasons for the war on Iraq, by William Clark:

The [US] Federal Reserve's greatest nightmare is that OPEC will switch its international transactions from a dollar standard to a euro standard. Iraq actually made this switch in Nov. 2000 (when the euro was worth around 80 cents), and has actually made off like a bandit considering the dollar's steady depreciation against the euro.

Saddam sealed his fate when he decided to switch to the euro in late 2000 (and later converted his $10 billion reserve fund at the UN to euros) — at that point, another manufactured Gulf War became inevitable under Bush II.

[...]

What would happen if OPEC made a sudden switch to euros, as opposed to a gradual transition?

The effect of an OPEC switch to the euro would be that oil-consuming nations would have to flush dollars out of their (central bank) reserve funds and replace these with euros.

The dollar would crash anywhere from 20-40% in value and the consequences would be those one could expect from any currency collapse and massive inflation (think Argentina currency crisis, for example).

You'd have foreign funds stream out of the US stock markets and dollar denominated assets, there'd surely be a run on the banks much like the 1930s, the current account deficit would become unserviceable, the budget deficit would go into default, and so on. Your basic third world economic crisis scenario.

NYC Indymedia: Major Anti-War Events Planned Throughout March

Boston Globe: Antiwar activists plan nonviolent blockades

Save Live Music on Broadway! Sign the petition!