pfaw.org: Tell your senators to demand that Senator Rick Santorum resign his leadership post:

In an interview on April 7, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, argued that the U.S. Supreme Court should uphold Texas' so-called "Homosexual Conduct" law, telling a reporter:

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." Later in the same interview, Santorum said, "It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesnt exist, in my opinion, in the United States Constitution..."

Support UN Leadership in Reconstructing Iraq. Tell your Representative to support Rep. Tauscher's resolution (H. Con. Res. 122 ) urging the United Nations to put in place broad United Nations Security Council authority to help the people of Iraq.

People For the American Way: Urge Your Senators to Stop the Confirmation of Jeffrey Sutton and Priscilla Owen

NARAL: EMERGENCY: Save Family Planning in Massachusetts!:

The MA House budget ELIMINATED family planning funding by cutting $4.4 million from confidential comprehensive family planning services. Tell your Representative to support the Toomey Amendment -- House Amendment 840 -- restoring family planning funding now!

American Civil Liberties Union: Stop the New Patriot Act

From ABC News Online: Children held at Camp Xray, US admits:

The commander of the joint task force at Guantanamo, Major General Geoffrey Miller, says more than one child under the age of 16 is at the detention centre. [...] The children are still being interrogated and will continue to be held at Guantanamo.

Call your congresspeople and demand an investigation!
Congressional Switchboard Number: 1-202-224-3121 or 1-800-839-5276

American Civil Liberties Union : Stop Congress from Rolling Back Key Civil Rights Protections -- the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act (HR 1261) jeopardizes civil rights and religious freedom because it would roll back protection against discrimination or misuse of government funds by religious organizations.

Dissertation abstract: Chastity, Heroism, and Allure: Women in the Opera of Seventeenth-Century Venice, by Wendy Heller, Brandeis University, 1995.

American Enterprise Institute: Transforming the State Department, by Newt Gingrich. Newt calls for a purge at the State Dept. Sounds to me like Newt wants Colin Powell's job, if not Dubya's.

It's baaaaack.... Tell your Massachusetts elected officials to oppose the "DOMAplus" constitutional amendment, H 3190, which would prevent civil marriage rights and Civil Unions for same-sex couples, and could prevent almost any legal recognition of same-sex couples.

A hearing on H 3190 has been scheduled for Monday, April 28th, at the State House in Boston. It is open to the public.

voice4change.org: No Sanctions Against Syria! -- Please call your Senators and your Congressional Representatives and tell them you want them to oppose BOTH U.S. military action against Syria and legislation introduced in the House April 12 to enact economic and other sanctions against Syria. This legislation, H.R. 1828, is entitled Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003.

Congressional Switchboard Number: 1-202-224-3121 or 1-800--839-5276

eff.org: Tell your MA State legislators to Stop the Massachusetts "Super-DMCA" -- House Bill 2743, titled "AN ACT TO IMPROVE BROADBAND AND INTERNET SECURITY."

From Technology Review: Software Sorts Tunes:

This work taps a universal similarity metric the researchers previously used to construct evolutionary trees of animal species and Eurasian languages, and to detect plagiarism in student programming assignments.

The latest application shows that the method could be used to automatically categorize music, and to determine the true origin of music authorship.

The method measures how easily one file can be compressed using the information contained in a second file, then uses a parallel, hill-climbing algorithm to organize differences among files into a branching tree. Hill-climbing algorithms improve a solution at each step. To speed the process the researchers' algorithm examines many files in parallel.

I wonder how badly it would be confused by Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis of a Theme by Weber, Vaughn Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Brahms' Haydn Variations (whose theme is now considered not to have been written by Haydn), Stravinksy's Pulchinella (based on music that he thought was by Pergolesi), etc.

From thenation.com: Privatization in Disguise, by Naomi Klein:

Who cares which multinationals get the best deals in Iraq's post-Saddam, pre-democracy liquidation sale? What does it matter if the privatizing is done unilaterally by Washington or multilaterally by the United States, Europe, Russia and China?

Entirely absent from this debate are the Iraqi people, who might--who knows?--want to hold on to a few of their assets. Iraq will be owed massive reparations after the bombing stops, but without any real democratic process, what is being planned is not reparations, reconstruction or rehabilitation. It is robbery: mass theft disguised as charity; privatization without representation.

Santa Cruz Indymedia: Art and Revolution Helps Residents File Their Taxes

From BBC NEWS: Software secrets revealed:

In Diablo II, for example, by combining the correct items it was possible to enter a secret cow level, take on heavily armed farm animals and go up against the Cow King.
[...]
On the Spider-Man DVD there are up to seven Easter eggs that unlock clips of out-takes, special effects shots from the film and contributors talking about some aspects of the movie.
[...]
Sample Egg sites:

• www.eeggs.com
• www.eggheaven2000.com
• www.eggscentral.com
• www.dvdeastereggs.com

GuerillaNews.com: "The Real War - On American Democracy", by Thom Hartmann

expatica.com: US Allied Forces Commander, General Tommy Franks, and a second, unnamed party, could face trial in Belgium for war crimes under the country's amended genocide law after four Belgian doctors lodged a complaint in Brussels.

Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities - Steps to Successful Advocacy

TheConnection.org : The Music Of A Nation - host Dick Gordon interviews members of the Iraqi National Symphony

When the rush from your morning shot of Inferno Pepper Pot Vodka just isn't enough any more, it's time to step up to a wasabi martini.

Amnesty International: Urge Your Representative to Help Free Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly

From email:

Drive more online activists to People For The American Way's Web site by helping pfaw.org win a Webby Award.

1. Go to the People's Voice Awards
2. Register, and receive your password through your email.
3. Using your email address and the password, login to the People's Voice Site
4. Click the "Activism" link
5. Write "People For The American Way" (without the quotes) in the Site Name Box
6. Write http://www.pfaw.org in the Site URL Box
7. Click the button beside "Vote" and then click "Cast your vote now."

The visualized costs of [O]peration [I]raqi [L]iberation

TheNation.com: Should U.S. Pay for [Iraqi] Civilian Casualties?, by David Corn

American Civil Liberties Union: Urge Congress to reject the popular Amber Alert legislation unless the unrelated anti-rave and judicial discretions measures are removed.

Amid Allied jubilation, a child lies in agony, clothes soaked in blood

TrueMajority.com: Tell your U.S. Rep to reduce the Pentagon budget by 15%

Fellowship of Reconciliation: ask the International Criminal Court to indict Bush for war crimes:

we, citizens of the United States of America, respectfully request that consideration be given to indicting our own President, George W. Bush, as a war criminal, for unleashing a basically unprovoked war upon a populace that has already suffered immeasurably from over a decade of economic sanctions. We do not make this request lightly, or unmindful of possible consequences, but out of deep, though varied, spiritual faiths, we believe it is time for people and organizational entities of conscience to take the strongest possible stand against easy resort to imposing the horrors of modern warfare upon innocent people.

thenation.com: The Reason Why, by George McGovern

From BookCrossing.com - FREE YOUR BOOKS!:

The "3 Rs" of BookCrossing...

• Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
• Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
• Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

Boston Globe: `Columbine' kept from classroom:

The principal of Lynn English High School stopped a teacher from showing the Oscar-winning documentary "Bowling for Columbine,'' saying it was inappropriate because it contains antiwar messages. English teacher Jeremy McKeen showed 17- and 18-year-old students the movie, which was directed and produced by Michael Moore and released well before the war in Iraq began. The movie has a strong antigun and antiviolence theme. While accepting this year's Oscar for Best Documentary, Moore expressed his disdain for President Bush and the war with Iraq. Principal Andrew Fila said the documentary sent the wrong message while troops are fighting overseas. English department head Jane Balesta said McKeen began showing the movie to open up dialogue among his students.

From Mirror.co.uk: THE WAR FOR TRUTH:

We had a great day," said Sgt Eric Schrumpf of the US Marines last Saturday. "We killed a lot of people."

He added: "We dropped a few civilians, but what do you do?" He said there were women standing near an Iraqi soldier, and one of them fell when he and other Marines opened fire. "I'm sorry," said Sgt Schrumpf, "but the chick was in the way".

TrueMajority: Tell your U.S. rep: Heal Iraq in Partnership with UN

StopTheDrugWar.org: Stop the DEA's War on Medical Marijuana Patients

Environmental Defense: Thank Kinko's for using recycled paper. See also:

• Leading Companies Step Up Recycling Efforts
• www.kinkos.com/green

NARAL: Sign the Freedom of Choice Act Petition!

Mmmm... ikura...

Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC): Sign on to EPIC's Emergency Humanitarian Campaign

From Scoop.co.nz: United States tries to block UN peace-bid:

In a communication obtained by Greenpeace, the United States urges countries to vote against or abstain from supporting a General Assembly meeting to discuss the war, adding it would be considered "unhelpful and directed against the United States." They further threaten that invoking the Uniting for Peace resolution will be "harmful to the UN".

From telegraph.co.uk: US reveals new shoot to kill rule:

"All Iraqis are to be treated as hostile until proven otherwise," said Capt. Dennis Carletta, a combat lawyer with the Judge Advocate Generals Corps, the US army's legal branch.

Take the MSNBC America at War Survey -- "How do you feel about Bush, protests, and the Iraq conflict?"

American Civil Liberties Union: Tell your senators to support S. 436, which would require congressional oversight of the secret FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) Court.

Amnesty International USA: Tell your Representative to support HR 1415, the Clean Diamond Trade Act, to end the trade in conflict diamonds.

Amnesty International USA: Tell Congress to Increase Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq and Other Crises Regions

From guardian.co.uk: 'I never want to hear that sound again':

Chemical warfare suits had to be worn [by British troops] because of the threat from the depleted uranium used in the American weapons.

guardian.co.uk: Donor's guide to aid for Iraq. There is a list of links to aid agencies at the end of the article.

From The New Yorker: "OFFENSE AND DEFENSE: The battle between Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon", by SEYMOUR M. HERSH:

“This is tragic,” one senior planner said bitterly. “American lives are being lost.” The former intelligence official told me, “They all said, ‘We can do it with air power.’ They believed their own propaganda.”